Both these videos focus on this week’s upcoming Torah parashah (in Eretz Yisroel) of Korach. They both explain the details of how after all the witnessed miracles and the level of righteousness of the people involved can an actual rebellion take place. The journey from that to this is almost unbelievable and the details involved that help make sense of this is quite interesting.
There were so many good videos recently so posting them all at once. Please watch and share what seems interesting and leave the rest that don’t. Short summaries follow here:
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Sanctifying the Physical World Short summary of the most recent weekly Torah parashah.
The Book of Numbers – Parshat Sh’lach Short summary of the most recent weekly Torah parashah.
Finding What You’re Looking For I Rabbi David Yisrael Kalmus Further discussion of the story of the Lost Princess and how to find meaning in everyday life.
Who do you turn to when in need of advice? – Parashat Shelach – Rabbi Alon Anava Discussion of the importance of doing your part and not relying on others to do it for you.
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz – Interesting take on when did the Jewish people really receive the Torah and why it’s not necessarily accurate that we received it specifically on Shavuot like we typically celebrate. Most important however is how and why G-d gave us the Torah to help in forming the Laws instead of just telling us exactly what to do.
The Period of the Omer and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself – Rabbi Breitowitz shares how the current Omer counting period has both a positive and negative perspective. The positive is the joyous period between leaving slavery (Pesach) and receiving the Torah (Shavuot). The negative is 24,000 students of the great sage, Rabbi Akiva, dies during this period of time – which makes the Omer a time of mourning. The ultimate goal of this mourning is to rectify the character trait of not giving kavod to others (“love your neighbor as yourself”). Watch the video to get filled in on all the details in between.
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz – Shares a balanced approach about the modern State of Israel Independence’s holiday celebration and the various perspectives both positive and negative. The most important message of the lecture was the concept of gratitude and it’s very foundation in the Jewish people’s name (Yehudim). The focus on the glass being half full (positive orientation) results in a postive orientation reflected back on oneself.
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz – Shares about the Omer period of time that we are in between Pesach and Shavuot and explains some very interesting disagreements between Jews of the past and present on when actually to start counting the Omer. The Rabbi made some very clear distinctions about the difference between Shabbat and the Jewish Holidays and our relationship as Jews to each one (a fascinating discussion).
After several days without video posts – here are plenty of good videos about various topics including of course the upcoming Pesach holiday. Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz mentioned in one of the videos below that Jews tend to (overly/obsessively) focus on cleaning for Pesach to find every last crumb of chametz in a physical sense. However, that’s only half the battle – it’s also important for Jews to uncover and clean the “spiritual” chametz inside of us to help us come to Pesach spiritually clean from our yetzer harah (our inclincation towards evil thoughts and actions).
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Haggadah – The Plan to Achieving Spiritual Liberation
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Ask the Rabbi: Modern Orthodoxy & Modesty Rules, Pesach Cleaning, Does God Regret & More
Rabbi David Yisrael Kalmus: This Could Change Your Life
Rabbi Mendel Kessin: Weekly Hashkafa Shiur #91 | The Tikun Process of Passover – Part 1 [AUDIO]
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz – Information packed class on the upcoming weekly parasha (Tazria) that we read this Shabbat. The depth the Torah goes to explain the main topic of this parasha (tzaarat – loosely translated as leprosy) is unlike any other topic in the whole Torah. Rabbi Breitowitz points out that our perception is the Torah focuses more effort on explaining Shabbat or other common topics than the topic of tzaarat, but in truth the details of this topic are much more explained. The Rabbi explains why in the video (and it somewhat is somewhat being portrayed in parallel in current times with how we are dealing with Corona). Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz – Purim class on why the Jews were worthy of being destroyed and the elixir that saved the Jews from Haman Harasha (the hated) and Amalek.
