Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi

00:53:53

WHO IS HOLDING THE STRING? Three Years After October...

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/10/06

In our Tuesday morning Safra Class, three years after October 7, we stepback from the individual headlines and ask a larger question: What happenswhen we stop looking at each event separately and begin looking at the pattern?From the extraordinary turns in Israel’s war to Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon’s idea ofthe “Divine puzzle,” we explore a world in which every individual event mayhave a perfectly reasonable natural explanation—and yet, when the pieces areplaced beside one another, we are left asking: Who

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00:12:19

BERESHIT — THE LIGHT HIDDEN IN THE DARKNESS

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/10/06

This morning atBreakfast & Class, we went back to the very beginning—to the first twoverses of the Torah. God creates heaven and earth, and yet almost immediatelywe encounter tohu vavohu:chaos and emptiness, darkness and an unfathomable abyss. Why would a perfectCreator begin His world this way? Our Sages reveal something remarkable: hiddenwithin these words is not only the story of Creation, but the entire story ofJewish history—our exiles, our darkness, and ultimately our redemption.BERESHIT

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00:13:34

Taking the Fire Home - Esh Dat Lamo - simchat torah

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/10/02

What does itreally mean when the Torah describes itself as “Esh Dat Lamo” — a Torah of fire?As we reach the final words of the Torah on Simḥat Torah, we discover aremarkable tradition surrounding the Baal Shem Tov and the name of hisdaughter, Adele—a name connected to the very letters of Esh Dat Lamo.From Ḥanokh the shoemaker to a pair of torn shoes that changed a family’sfuture, an unexpected thread begins to emerge: Torah is not meant simply to bestudied or even held. It is meant to become a fire

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00:20:08

BRING IT BACK TO THE HEART The Secret of the Lulav,...

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/10/01

BRING IT BACK TO THE HEARTThe Secret of the Lulav, the Circle, and Hoshana Rabbah What would a stranger think walking into synagogue on Sukkot morning? A room full of intelligent, serious people holding palm branches and a strange yellow fruit, moving them in every direction—and then marching in circles around the Torah crying הוֹשַׁע נָא — “Please save us!”We have performed these rituals since childhood, but perhaps familiarity hascaused us to stop seeing just how extraordinary they really are. In

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00:34:57

FIFTEEN STEPS TO JOY - The Secret of the Water, the...

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/29

Why did the greatest sages of Israel dance through the night over a pitcher of ordinary water? Why were there fifteen steps in the Beit HaMikdash, fifteen Shir HaMa’alot, and five days between Yom Kippur—the tenth of Tishrei—and Sukkot on the fifteenth? And why does the Mishnah make the astonishing claim that someone who never witnessed Simḥat Beit HaSho’evah “never saw joy in his life”?This holiday Breakfast & Class became much more personal than I expected. Wejourney from the waters that

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00:18:32

Step Into the Cloud - Sukkot

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/25

Step Into the CloudWhatexactly are we entering when we walk into the sukkah? The Torah tells us toremember the Ananei HaKavod,the Clouds of Glory—but why commemorate the clouds rather than the manna thatfed us or the miraculous water that sustained us? Perhaps because the mannasaid, “HaShem feeds us,” and the well said, “HaShem sustains us,” but the cloudsaid something entirely different: HaShem is here. And according tothe Vilna Gaon, Sukkot does not merely celebrate the cloud that protected us

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00:12:42

A Kabbalah and the Silver Dollar

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/20

Everyone in thetavern thought Yankel was the town fool. Night after night, they offered him achoice: a twenty-dollar bill, a ten, a five, or one shiny silver dollar. Andevery night, to their enormous amusement, Yankel chose the silver dollar. Untilone day the bartender pulled him aside and begged him to take the twenty.Yankel smiled. “If I take the twenty once, the game is over. As long as I takethe dollar, they keep coming back.” Perhaps Yankel understood something that wedesperately need to

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00:14:59

The Prayer That Reopened the Case

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/20

Can a judgment that has already been made be reconsidered? Rosh Hashanah has passed. The books have been opened. Yom Kippur is approaching. And perhaps we wonder: if the judgment has already been written, what can another prayer, another tear, another act of teshuvah possibly accomplish? An extraordinary story in the Zohar, set in the ancient Galilean village of Peki’in, gives us a remarkable answer. A little boy stands before HaShem with nothing but Torah, tears, and a prayer — and somehow, the

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00:17:08

The Door Yom Kippur Cannot Open

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/16

We spent RoshHashanah in Givot Eden, and what was supposed to be a short two-day tripthrough northern Israel somehow became a journey filled with enough stories forweeks. Most of that was because of my wife Chantelle, who has a wonderful habitof making me stop when I am ready to keep driving. One of those stops broughtus to the extraordinary Tunisian synagogue in Akko, a building covered fromfloor to ceiling with millions of tiny mosaic stones. And because Chantelleinsisted that we stay, we found

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00:17:39

When the Excuses Run Out - Ha’azinu, Rabbi Elazar ben...

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/08

When the Excuses Run OutWe all have explanations for why we are the way we are. It was our parents. It wasthe home we grew up in. It was our environment, our circumstances, our personality, perhaps even our DNA. And sometimes those explanations areabsolutely true. But somewhere between understanding where we came from anddeciding where we are going, explanation can quietly become excuse. In thismorning’s Breakfast and a Class, as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah through theopening words of Ha’azinu, we

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00:20:19

Why Some Don’t Dip the Apple in Honey

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/06

Ask almost any Jewish child what we eat on Rosh Hashanah and the answer comes immediately: apples and honey. It is one of the most beloved and recognizable customs of the year. But not every Jewish community followed that tradition. In Baghdad, in Aleppo, in Damsacas and throughout the near east, following the custom recorded by the Ben Ish Chai, the apple was cooked in sugar rather than dipped in honey. In our own family, we never used honey at the Rosh Hashanah table; even after coming to America,

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00:16:16

Closer Than We Think — What Torah Is Trying to Make...

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/04

As we approachRosh Hashanah, we naturally begin thinking about what needs fixing. Themistakes we need to correct. The habits we need to break. The parts ofourselves that still need work. But what if that is only half the story? Whatif Torah was not given merely to make us less bad, but to help usdiscover how much greater we are capable of becoming?Inthis morning’s Breakfast & Class,we explore a remarkable teaching of Rabbi Frand built around the words לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא — “It is not

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00:20:38

Open the Gates — The Secret of the Tehilim of...

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/09/01

Open the Gates — The Secret of thePsalm of ParnassahWhydid לְדָוִדמִזְמוֹר, לַה׳ הָאָרֶץ וּמְלוֹאָהּ become one of ourgreat prayers for parnassah?We say it every Sunday as we begin a new week. In Moroccan communities it isrecited as Shabbat departs and we return to the working world. And on RoshHashanah, in the Syrian community, people will bid extraordinary sums for theprivilege of opening the Heikhal as we recite this Psalm and pray for financialblessing for the coming year. But there is

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00:18:14

When the Rebel Says Amen - Can the Yetzer Hara...

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/08/31

When the Rebel Says Amen Can the Yetzer Hara Become the Yetzer Tov? Every morning, we wrap the tefillin shel-yad around our arm and then place the tefillin shel-rosh upon our head. We have done it thousands of times. But what if hidden inside that simple order is an entire philosophy of how we are supposed to fight—and ultimately transform—the yetzer hara? In this morning’s Breakfast & Class, based on a beautiful teaching of Rabbi Pinḥas Friedman, we discover the Ḥatam Sofer’s remarkable

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00:06:30

When You Can’t See the Runway

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/08/26

When You Can’t See the RunwayWhat happens when we find ourselves flying through the clouds — unable to see what lies ahead, frightened by the turbulence, and unsure whether we are even heading in the right direction? A remarkable story told by Rabbi Shlomo Landau about two young men trapped in a small airplane with an unconscious pilot gives us a powerful way to understand one of the great challenges of life: learning to listen to the Voice that knows exactly where we are and exactly where we need

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00:21:01

Why Does Amalek Never Go Away?

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/08/26

Inthis morning’s Breakfast & Class,we confront one of the Torah’s most difficult questions: Why does Amalek never go away?Why does the Torah command us not simply to remember what Amalek did, but לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח — never to forget?And why, after thousands of years, does the hatred represented by Amalekcontinue to reappear in different countries, different generations, and underentirely different disguises?Drawing on the insights of Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l, and RabbiAdin

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00:23:25

The Sound of Emunah - Ki Tavo

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/08/23

This morning’s Breakfast & Class begins with a few simple words from Parashat Ki Tavo: וְהָיָה אִם־שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמַע בְּקוֹל ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ — “If we will surely listen to the voice of HaShem.” Before the Torah promises all of its extraordinary blessings, it gives us a strategy for everything that follows: begin with emunah. There is a God. He is our God. There is no other. And perhaps every time we answer one small word — אָמֵן — we are practicing that faith all over again.From a remarkable

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00:14:03

Two Wars — And Who Is Left Behind? Ki Tesse

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/08/20

This morning’s Breakfast & Class on Parashat Ki Tetze began with a curious question: Why does the Torah introduce two different sections, almost back-to-back, with virtually the identical words — “Ki tetze la-milchamah al oyevekha”,“When you go out to war against your enemies”? And why does the mysteriousepisode of Eglah Arufah, the unidentified murdered traveler, stand between them?We discovered that the Torah may actually be describing two wars and one great responsibility: the war against

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00:23:06

Can Something Small Really Make a Difference?

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/08/19

What can one small mitzvah possibly accomplish? We say Tehillim for a refuah, give tzedakah in someone’s zechut, dedicate Torah learning to someone who is ill—and yet the question remains: how can something so small affect something so large? This class begins with the Zera Shimshon on Shiluach HaKen, who teaches that the problem may be in the question itself. What looks small to us may carry enormous weight in Shamayim.From the mother bird of Parashat Ki Tetzei, we move to the metzora, Rachel

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00:18:13

The Sin Was the Strategy - Ki Tesse

Parsha with Rabbi David Bibi ·

2026/08/18

The Sin Was the Strategy This morning’s Breakfast & Class begins with a troubling question in Parashat KiTetze. Why does the Torah judge Ammon and Moav so harshly? Their crime was not simply that they failed to offer bread and water, nor even that they hiredBilaam. Rabbi Yissocher Frand, drawing on the Dubno Maggid, the Kli Yakar andthe Tolner Rebbe, points us toward something deeper: they strategized.They studied our vulnerabilities, created the circumstances in which we mightfall, and

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