TORAH 101 - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

TORAH 101 - With Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe

TORAH 101 is aptly described as “An Intellectual’s Introduction to Torah”. If you are a person who wants to understand the foundations of Torah in a logical and cogent fashion, if you don’t want to subsist with the juvenile perception of Torah of your youth, if you want to wrestle with the deeper questions of theology, eschatology, theodicy, and Jewish philosophy, TORAH 101 is the podcast for you. We will delve into the weighty topics in Jewish philosophy: the divinity of Torah: the interrelationship of Written and Oral Torah, the multidimensionality of Torah, a critical examination of Bible criticism, Torah and Science, why bad things happen to good people, and we will thoroughly explore Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith. Please email all questions, comments, and feedback to rabbiwolbe@gmail.com

Episodes

#111: Reflecting Cherubs

August 10, 2026 • 57 mins
Cherubs made many appearances in the Tabernacle and the Temple. Hewn onto the Cover of the Ark off the Covenant were two golden cherubs facing each other. But there were more cherubs. Of the Tabernacle’s multiple fabric covers was one called the “Mishkan” upon which two cherubs were embroidered. In the partition that separated the […]
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#110: Man As Microcosm

July 19, 2026 • 46 mins
How exactly can man influence all the worlds, all the spheres, all the dimensions, and all the realms? Our Sages compare the human to the soul of the world. We have the levers that determine what happens to all of created existence. But what is the mechanism of that? How precisely does man actualize his […]
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#109: The Sanctuary of the Heart

April 20, 2026 • 46 mins
The more important someone is the greater the impact of their actions. The maneuver of a general changes the course of a campaign; a mistake of the general can imperil the entire army; a brilliant stroke of the general can achieve unexpected victory. A simple foot soldier has a much smaller impact. Adam was created in […]
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#108: The Power of Pre-Sin Adam

March 22, 2026 • 50 mins
Adam was created in the image of God. He was given vast influence over God’s creations. What is the mechanism of this power? What is the mechanism of Adam’s ability to influence God’s creations? How is Adam able to move worlds? The answer gets to some of the deepest secrets of them all. Not all […]
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#107: Created in the Image of God

March 18, 2026 • 41 mins
“And God made man in His image. In the image of God (Elokim) He made him.” The majority of the secrets of the Kabbalistic esoterica are hidden in these cryptic words, but the magisterial work, Nefesh HaChaim, authored by Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, begins by explaining a profound understanding of these words. There is indeed […]
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#106: Mishnah Commentary, Heuristics, and Appendices

March 15, 2026 • 45 mins
As a very young man, Rambam wrote a commentary on the entire Mishnah. He prefaces his commentary with a sprawling and magisterial introduction which covers vast subjects related to Torah, oral and written, the history of the transmission, and the mechanism of Mishnah and Talmud. He ends his introduction with an explanation of the rationale […]
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#105: Post-Mishnaic Development of Oral Torah

March 8, 2026 • 48 mins
The Mishnah was at the end of the canonization of the Oral Torah. The Tosefta, the Sifra and Sifri soon followed. 300 years after Rabbi Judah the Prince canonized the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud was canonized. In this penultimate episode on Rambam’s magisterial introduction to Mishnah, we learn all about the Talmud: how it was […]
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#104: Sixth Order of Mishnah (Purity)

February 15, 2026 • 45 mins
The Order of Purity is the longest of the Six Orders of Mishnah and by far the most foreign to us. The overwhelming majority of the laws of this order of Mishnah are only applicable in Temple times. different sources of impurity although our overview will be very brief, we will learn about the various […]
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#103: Fifth Order of Mishnah (Sacrifices)

February 8, 2026 • 43 mins
Unfortunately, none of us have ever witnessed or participated in a sacrifice. Ever since the Temple was destroyed more than 1,950 years ago, our nation has been bereft of a central component of our religious life. Our nation, and truly the whole world, can only be in an optimal state when the presence of God […]
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#102: Fourth Order of Mishnah (Damages)

February 3, 2026 • 58 mins
Human interactions can often times get messy. There are myriads of circumstances that require courts and judgements. The Fourth Order of Mishnah contains the books of law and judgement and, surprisingly, the authoritative work on ethics: Chapters of the Fathers (Pirkei Avos). This podcast will help you gain a brief overview on the Books of […]
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#101: Third Order of Mishnah (Women)

August 31, 2025 • 60 mins
A great corpus of Torah law governs the relationships between men and women. The Second Order of Mishnah contains books on the initiation of marriage, on marital responsibilities, on the annulment of marriage via divorce, on the suspected adulteress, and on levirate marriages. The Order also contains two seemingly unrelated books: a book on vows […]
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#100: Second Order of Mishnah (Festivals)

August 10, 2025 • 65 mins
The Jewish calendar is studded with days of great importance. Each week we relive Genesis by celebrating the holy Shabbos. At half-year intervals are the mega festivals of Sukkos and Pesach (Passover). There’s also Shavuos, Rosh Hashanah, and the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The second Order of Mishnah orients around all these days of […]
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#99: First Order of Mishnah (Planting)

July 20, 2025 • 45 mins
The Mishnah is a massive, sprawling, and utterly comprehensive canon of Torah law. Spanning 60+ books over 6 Orders, the Mishnah includes all the laws of the Torah. To study it all would take a very long time. To know it all, takes a lifetime. In this podcast, we try to gain an appreciation for […]
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#98: Components of Oral Torah

July 6, 2025 • 63 mins
What makes up Oral Torah? What are the different types of information included in the Mishnah? In part 3 of the authoritative, magisterial, and comprehensive introduction to Mishnah offered by Rambam, we learn about the five different components of oral Torah, two that come all the way back from the times of Moshe, and three […]
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#97: Real and Fraudulent Prophecy

June 15, 2025 • 59 mins
The veracity of prophecy is a critical component of our philosophy. But how do we know if a prophecy claimant is legit? How do we differentiate between real prophets and fraudulent ones? In our second installment on Rambam’s introduction to his commentary on Mishnah, we explore the four different categories of prophecy, the limitations of […]
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#96: Origins of Oral Torah

June 8, 2025 • 47 mins
The Torah was given to us by God with absolute perfection. A unique feature of that is the dual formats of Torah: written and oral. In this interesting and informative podcast, we begin the study of Maimonides’ magisterial introduction to his commentary on Mishnah. He begins by tracing the history of oral Torah all the […]
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#95: Venues of Reward and Punishment

May 13, 2025 • 41 mins
Spiritual pleasure is vastly, infinitely greater than physical pleasures, and are completely imperceivable by bodies. Only if you work assiduously to develop a sensory connection with your soul, can you begin to taste it. The ultimate venue of spiritual pleasure is known as Olam Haba, the world to come. What about other venues of reward? […]
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#94: The (Near Total) Inaccessibility of Spiritual Pleasure

May 6, 2025 • 42 mins
There is great confusion about what the ultimate reward for righteousness and the ultimate punishment for wickedness are. Rambam’s magisterial essay is designed to provide clarity in these lofty matters of eschatology. In part 2, we learn all about the concept of spiritual pleasure. Our bodies are very finely attuned to experiences of pain and […]
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#93: Ultimate Reward and Punishment: Rambam’s Magisterial Essay Part 1

March 18, 2025 • 46 mins
In his commentary to Mishnah, Rambam (Maimonides) offers a fascinating overview of the subjects of the Afterlife, Resurrection, Messiah, Paradise, and Olam Haba (the world to come). This is arguably the single greatest essay on these exotic, esoteric, and arcane subjects. In this podcast, we address the first section of this magisterial essay. We read […]
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#92: World of Souls

March 10, 2025 • 44 mins
Why do bad things happen to good people? What role does Oral Torah play in Jewish life? Why did the Almighty create two worlds, the world of the bodies and the world of the souls? What is the difference between today and the days of Messiah? These are just some of the questions that are […]
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