Ki Sisa - Receiving the 7th in the 6th

Why is the concept of Shabbos the introduction to the story of the Golden Calf? Why does Moshe study the Torah for forty days diligently, only to forget it and then receive it as a gift in the end? Why do the Jewish people use the Manna in their idolatrous worship of the Golden Calf? Why do they create the calf at the very moment Hashem is preparing the tablets of the law? What is the concept of extending the Sabbath - the 7th day - into Friday - the 6th? What is the concept of the number forty as it relates to six and seven weeks?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running time: 28:15

Chukas - Transcendent Statute

Why is the concept of the Red Heifer referred to as a statute? What is the paradox of this commandment? Why were only Moshe and R' Akiva privy to an understanding of it? Why did R' Akiva have more of an understanding than Moshe? What is the idea of a chok-statute? How and why does the concept of seven times seven play a role in the concept of the Red Heifer?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running Time: 25:25

Tetzaveh - Do We Have Free Will?

If God is all-knowing, how do we have free will? What is the significance of the miracle of the western candle of the menorah that always stayed lit? Why did the kohen gadol start lighting and end lighting there? What is the significance of the fact that Moshe could not succeed in forming the menorah? What is the relationship between the number seven - as represented by the seven-armed menorah - and the numbers eight and fifty?

Find out in this week's parsha podcast.

Running time: 21:54

Shmini - Accessing the Transcendent

What is the depth of the idea of the loss of the students of R' Akiva between Pesach and Shavuos? Why do Nadav and Avihu die during the great joy of the dedication of the Mishkan? What was the significance of the fact that they did not ask Moshe and Aharon for advice? What is the aspect of the eighth day? And the count to fifty? What is the secret aspect of humility that nullifies everything and allows one access to the realm of fifty, the realm of eight, the world of Beriyah, the world of the throne, a world beyond time, a world of love and perfection?

Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 22:14

Gut Yontiff!

Today is the sixth of Kislev, which corresponds to the sixth of Sivan - Shavuos. It is exactly fifty days since the second day of Succos. As per the midrash, it would have been a holiday today, but Hashem instead placed Shmini Atzeres at the end of Succos.

Gut Yontiff!

Tzav and Purim - secret of seventy

What is the concept of seventy and seven? What is the significance of the seventy years between the two temples? Why is the gematria of wine (יין) and secret (סוד) both seventy? What is the depth of the idea of the seventy nations and the seventy offspring of Yakov? Why does the story climax with the fifty cubit high gallows of Haman? Why are there seven days of the Santuary's inauguration, and why are they in Adar?

Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.

Running time: 19:06