495 episodes listed below
Source-heavy Torah for lived Jewish questions.
Rabbi Yakov Bronsteyn - Parsha Classes presents extended Torah lectures built from Gemara, Midrash, Maharal, Rambam, and practical examples. The pace is brisk and cumulative, with each class turning textual detail into ethical pressure and spiritual application.
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Rabbi Yakov Bronsteyn - Parsha Classes is built around sustained, source-rich Torah teaching. The recordings feel close to the room where the class happened. There are greetings, thanks to hosts, occasional asides, and the rhythm of a speaker developing an idea in real time. The structure is usually simple: begin with an occasion, ask a textual question, then let rabbinic sources create the path forward. Purim opens into Haman’s gallows, Mordechai’s spiritual height, Esther, and the meaning of above and below. Chanukah becomes a study of Torah as song, the menorah, and Jewish endurance through learning. Lech Lecha turns into a reflection on human metamorphosis, life stages, mission, aging, death, and closeness to Hashem. A Kashrut question about kosher fish and Anasakis worms becomes a way to discuss holiness, discipline, and the ethical frame of eating. Celebration talks are treated with the same seriousness. Sheva Brachos classes move from Gemara and parable into blessings for marriage, Torah homes, education, love, and connection. A birthday address turns Esther’s age and beauty into a meditation on spiritual achievement. The show’s energy comes from abundance. It repeats, reframes, and circles back until the lesson gains force. Hebrew and Aramaic terms are left in the fabric of the teaching, but ordinary comparisons keep the arguments from becoming abstract. It suits listeners who want traditional Jewish learning that is rigorous, communal, and morally pointed. The classes do not rush toward a neat takeaway. They let the sources press on the listener until the practical demand emerges.
Made for: Best for listeners comfortable with traditional Jewish texts, Hebrew and Aramaic terms, and extended lecture-style learning. It especially suits those interested in parsha, holidays, Kashrut, mussar, and practical spiritual reflection.
What sets it apart: The show keeps the full texture of a live class: detailed citations, conversational detours, repetition, and communal occasion all remain intact. Its strength is the way legal, narrative, and ethical sources are stacked until an everyday act carries spiritual weight.
Rabbi Bronsteyn is the West Coast Kashrus Administrator for the world renowned Star-K Kosher Certification. Rabbi Bronsteyn is one of the four "Founding Fathers” of the Phoenix Community Kollel. He was raised in Lawrence, New York. While studying in both the US & Israel, he earned a Bachelors in Economics from Queens College & was ordained at Yeshiva Mercaz Hatorah in Jerusalem. As a well seasoned senior lecturer, he offers popular public classes in the community & other venues in the greater Phoenix area.Questions or comments? Email Rabbi Bronsteyn at [email protected]
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Rabbi Bronsteyn turns close Torah and Talmud study into practical reasoning about Jewish law, moral responsibility, and spiritual life.
Rabbi Bronsteyn teaches by building a chain of sources, questions, and applications. A discussion of parasites in kosher fish begins with Re'eh and turns to Chullin, rabbinic disagreement, and the limits of scientific evidence.
A fish parasite sends your kosher dinner question straight to Chulun 67b.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A towering gallows becomes a study in how physical height can point to spiritual standing.
Haman's gallows begins as a darkly comic problem of scale, with the class pausing over the absurdity of an execution structure so high. That odd image opens into a more serious reading of vertical space: Mordechai flying over Haman's house is treated as more than a dream detail,…
A Jewish lesson on how sincere effort can echo through a family.
The episode frames a familiar religious idea in direct, accessible terms: a small, sincere mitzvah may matter far beyond the moment it is performed.
A Chanukah class on the menorah, hidden Torah meaning, and the endurance of a people shaped by Torah study.
Chanukah is framed here as a lesson in Torah's endurance, beginning with the Greek effort to halt learning and mitzvah observance before moving to the impurity of the menorah's oils.
A Torah class on meeting each life stage as a divine mission.
The episode frames the parashah as a meditation on the stages a person enters without choosing them: conception, birth, life, and death. From there, it turns to response and responsibility, drawing on Tractate Nida and Ethics of Our Fathers to connect physical adulthood with a…
A Torah class on how one sincere mitzvah can carry farther than its maker ever sees.
This single-episode review presents the class as a thoughtful argument for the lasting force of small religious acts. It begins with the Gemara in Shabbos 31a on setting aside time to learn, then moves to Sanhedrin 96a and the possibility that a person's success may carry the…
A kashrut controversy becomes a measured study of sources, visibility, and evidence.
A focused kashrut question, whether Anasakis worms in otherwise kosher fish prohibit the fish, opens into a careful look at how Jewish law frames a dispute.
Daily halacha, case by case.
Parsha questions carried into serious Torah argument.
A story about a rich visitor on Shabbos who gets into a bidding war for the Maftir aliyah on his father's yahrtzeit, with the Gabay driving up the price.
A discussion of a Talmudic dispute about a mistaken sale of a goring ox, framed as 'real Torah' leading into 'Purim Torah' for the holiday of Purim.
Rabbi Yakov Bronsteyn explores how small acts can have monumental historical impacts, starting with Nebuchadnezzar's three steps to honor God, which led to his kingship and the destruction of the Temple.
Rabbi Yakov Bronsteyn addresses the contentious issue of whether fish containing Anasakis worms are kosher, a debate dividing rabbinic authorities.
The Mishnah in Sukkah says a child who knows how to shake a lulav must be given one, and the Nitziv asks why, since shaking is not part of the mitzvah.
A discussion about the symbolism and meaning behind Haman's 50-amah high gallows in the Purim story.
A lecture exploring how small acts of kindness or religious observance can have profound historical impacts, as illustrated by Talmudic stories.
A speech at a Sheva Brachos event in Phoenix discussing the mitzvah to make the bride beloved to the groom and praising the bride as a daughter of a Torah scholar.
A speaker discusses the Maharal's question on how Esther could be 75 years old yet considered one of the most beautiful women, using Talmudic sources to explain her timeless beauty.
A speaker at a Sheva Brachos event shares a Gemara story about Rabbi Yitzchak and Rabbi Nachman discussing blessings, using a parable of a tree to illustrate the power of a bracha.
Rabbi Yakov Bronsteyn's Chanukah class ties the Greeks' attack on the menorah in Shabbos 21b to Torah as a source of wisdom.
Rabbi Yakov Bronsteyn uses Pirkei Avos, Tractate Nida 30b, and a teaching of the Maral to map life as a sequence of stages from birth to 120.
Rabbi Yakov Bronsteyn examines the Mishapara curse in Parshas Noach through a business deal involving money, fruit, and a broken promise.
This episode discusses the controversy over whether kosher fish containing Anasakis worms are still kosher, relating it to the Torah portion Re'eh.
A discussion of Jacob's Ladder from the Torah portion Vayeitzei, focusing on interpretations by the Rambam and other commentators.
A short Torah lesson on Yom Kippur using Samson's prayer to discuss altruistic mitzvah performance.