It is a mark of Torah ignorance to be content with the degree of Torah study that you have. It is broader than the land and deeper than the sea. Torah is effectively infinite. To have a swelled heart – to feel supremely confident in your knowledge – is both foolish and counterproductive. – – […]
Honor is a funny thing. It yields no tangible, discernible, sensory benefit to the recipient, yet it is so highly coveted and desired. We all want respect. We all want others to look up to us and to admire us. Our standing in the eyes of others matters greatly to us. In way to wisdom […]
No one likes criticism. To receive criticism is painful. To be told what we did wrong stings. We bristle at the notion that we are flawed and imperfect. The mere knowledge of the existence of our shortcomings causes us discomfort. But receiving criticism is actually highly productive. It’s a good thing. It is very beneficial […]
Straightness is a virtue. Straightness means to be proper and upstanding in all of your conduct. It means doing what’s proper and just and good. It also references thinking. Straight, sensible, logical, clear, cogent thinking is better than crooked thinking. Way number 33 to wisdom is about this virtue. – – – – – – […]
Charity is a big element of religious life. Our Sages tell us that the mitzvah of charity equals all the mitzvos of the Torah combined. But monetary charity is only one type of charity. There are many different types of charity, in the love of charities is a means to acquire higher levels of wisdom. […]
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TORCH Fundraiser — support the Ethics Podcast Our organization, TORCH, does only one fundraiser a year, and that is happening right now at giveTORCH.org. This is a matching campaign and every donation will be DOUBLED. Please support the Ethics Podcast right now at giveTORCH.org The website for the Fundraiser is giveTORCH.org Click and donate to support the Ethics Podcast […]
Torah was not given to angels. Torah was given to humans. One way to expand our ability to acquire Torah is by enhancing our humanity. The more human we are, the more we are a worthy receptacle of Torah. But what does it mean to be a human? – – – – – – – […]
We love Torah. Torah study is our national pastime and obsession. It is enjoyable; it is fun; it is interesting — but to acquire it – we have to now that it is imperative: It is as indispensable as water, oxygen and bread. – – – – – – – – – – – – […]
Humans are fallible. We are imperfect, yet we are tasked with being the stewards and the guardians of the perfect. We hold the Almighty’s Torah in our hands. We are tasked with perpetuating it from generation to generation and with rendering rulings in line with the will of God. The only way that we can […]
There is an unequal distribution of talents, gifts, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Everyone is different. Everyone is their own world. This applies both in the spiritual domain and in the material/physical domain. A believer who understands that the Almighty gives everyone exactly what they need must be joyous with their lot. Your lot is exactly […]
The greatest pedagogues of history – the Sages of the Mishnah – codified “knowing your place” as a means to acquire Torah, to acquire wisdom. What exactly is intended with knowing your place? In this Ethics Podcast we share three life-changing approaches. – – – – – – – – – – – – – […]
Life is full of nuisances. For many – maybe all – life inevitably contains some pain, suffering, and affliction. How we approach these situations is a central element of our religion and theology. Our Sages revealed to us that accepting affliction is a means to achieve wisdom. It is one of the 48 ways to […]
Our primary responsibility as humans and as Jews is to develop and deepen our faith in the Creator. Can we have faith in man? Can we have faith in a mortal? In the 24th way to achieve and acquire wisdom, we learn about the concept of having faith in our Sages. What does it mean […]
Although the study of Torah is ostensibly a cognitive pursuit, there are many qualities that are not cognitive nature that facilitate and enable the study of Torah. In this way to acquire wisdom, way #23, we learn about what it means to have a good heart , and how that serves as a means to […]
Anger is part of the human experience. When things agitate us, we get frustrated and have a tendency to lash out, to berate, to say things that we may regret. In this ethics podcast, we learn about the virtue of being slow to anger and how it can help supercharge our pursuit of wisdom. – […]
Life is serious. Pursuit of wisdom is the pursuit of truth. Pursuit of wisdom is the pursuit of understanding the Divine (to the best of our abilities). To access wisdom, we have to be very serious. But a little bit of levity – when done properly and in the right context – can be helpful. […]
We are speaking beings. In fact, the central differentiation between humanity and animals is the capacity of verbal communication. The judgment that we face in Heaven is largely about how we deployed our superpower, our speech. The greatest mitzvos are performed with speech and some of the most grievous transgressions are also a product of […]
We all need to sleep. All humans, irrespective of their intelligence, their physical prowess, their wealth, must lay down in a comatose state for several hours a day and sleep. Sleep is also enjoyable. There’s something seductively delicious about sleep. What is the Torah’s attitude on sleep? Why did the Almighty design us that we […]
Pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain are hardwired impulses . We all want to feel good and to avoid feeling bad. Perhaps surprisingly, the Torah fully embraces this principle. The reason why we were created, we are told, is so that we can become receptacles of pleasure. Our only disagreement with other philosophies is […]
Our resources are finite. We must engage in trade-offs, deciding what pursuits to prioritize over others. This, of course, is all well known. But it’s more complicated: by design, we feel drawn to seek out and pursue goals that are potentially harmful and that can overtake your life. Balance is key. – – – – […]
The central conflict of our lives orients around our relationship with the physical world in which we currently inhabit: the Torah teaches us that the objective of life is to optimize for the benefit and betterment of the soul, and to prepare for Olam Haba. The Yetzer Hara is engineered to make us believe that […]
The oral Torah is vast, comprehensive, and multi-layered. One of its layers is known as Mishnah. What is Mishnah, how was it organized and codified, and why does it prepare us for wisdom? In this Ethics Podcast we learn all about Mishnah and it’s indispensability and power. – – – – – – – – […]
Our works of Scripture are all prophetic, each written with varying degrees of prophecy. When we study Scripture we are encountering the word of God. But what is the objective of the study of Scripture? Why does Scripture pave the way to wisdom? In this Ethics Podcast we discover what Scripture is, how it ought […]
Humans are not monolithic. Each one of us is unique and have a unique take on every life situation. The truth is even more granular: even within a single person, there is not uniformity. We are all internally conflicted, sometimes thinking like this and sometimes like that, sometimes feeling like this and sometimes feeling like […]
One of the most rewarding things a person can do is to teach others. But beyond the feeling of gratification that comes with teaching, When you are able to educate and enlighten other people with your knowledge, you learn a lot from the process. Teaching others is a fantastic way to study yourself. – – […]
Humans are not perfect. Only God is. We are fallible. We are mistake-prone. Yet our mission and mandate is to discover truth. That is achieved, chiefly, via the study of Torah. The Almighty embedded truth and understanding of God in the Torah that He gave to us. But even our pursuit of Torah must be […]
Our glorious tradition was perpetuated from generation to generation, from teacher to student, from parent to child, for thousands of years. One of the ways to acquire wisdom is by studying under the tutelage of a great Sage. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – […]
Our sages tell us that one of the ways to acquire wisdom is with purity. What exactly is purity and why would it be a means through which we can acquire wisdom? In this Ethics Podcast we explore the subject of purity with profound depth. – – – – – – – – – – […]
Joy is an underappreciated aspect of the life of a Jew. One can imagine that you can fulfill all of your religious and spiritual obligations without living joyously. Upon examination of the sources we discover that Jewish life is inextricably linked with joy. It is critical and indispensable. In our Mishnah we also learned that […]
