Episodes

  • #101: Third Order of Mishnah (Women)

    #101: Third Order of Mishnah (Women)
    Sep 1 2025
    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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    1 hr
  • #100: Second Order of Mishnah (Festivals)

    #100: Second Order of Mishnah (Festivals)
    Aug 11 2025
    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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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • #99: First Order of Mishnah (Planting)

    #99: First Order of Mishnah (Planting)
    Jul 21 2025
    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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    46 mins
  • #98: Components of Oral Torah

    #98: Components of Oral Torah
    Jul 7 2025
    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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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • #97: Real and Fraudulent Prophecy

    #97: Real and Fraudulent Prophecy
    Jun 16 2025
    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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    1 hr
  • #96: Origins of Oral Torah

    #96: Origins of Oral Torah
    Jun 8 2025
    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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    48 mins
  • #95: Venues of Reward and Punishment

    #95: Venues of Reward and Punishment
    May 14 2025
    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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    42 mins
  • #94: The (Near Total) Inaccessibility of Spiritual Pleasure

    #94: The (Near Total) Inaccessibility of Spiritual Pleasure
    May 7 2025
    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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    43 mins