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Prism of Torah

Prism of Torah

Prism of Torah 222 Episodes Sep 17, 2026

Prism of Torah illuminates the depths of Jewish wisdom through a weekly exploration of the parasha and Jewish holidays. Reb Asaf Aharon Prisman masterfully blends profound insights with practical guidance, unlocking the layers of meaning in each Torah portion through the four main aspects: Pshat, Remez, Drash, and Sod. Cultivate your connection with Hashem and apply timeless wisdom to your daily life.

Episodes

The Prison Sentence That Saved His Life • Parshas Haazinu • Ep. 452
The Prison Sentence That Saved His Life • Parshas Haazinu • Ep. 452 Sep 17, 2026 00:13:23 Why does Hashem say "I" twice in Haazinu? What is the sin of "timhon levav" that we confess every Yom Kippur? And why would the seforim call the holiest day of the year "a day like Purim"? In this week's episode, Rabbi Asaf Prisman follows the Kli Yakar and Rav Gedaliah Schorr into a concept that is basic to these days of Aseres Yemei Teshuva, as we prepare for Yo
The Worst Thing You Can Do to a Picasso • Rosh Hashana • Ep. 451
The Worst Thing You Can Do to a Picasso • Rosh Hashana • Ep. 451 Sep 10, 2026 00:11:49 What is the single worst thing you could do to a priceless Picasso? Slashing the canvas ruins the picture, but it doesn't destroy the value. In this Rosh Hashana episode, Rabbi Asaf Prisman uncovers why our calendar seems completely backwards. Rosh Hashana is the Day of Judgment and Yom Kippur is the Day of Forgiveness, so why are we judged before we are cleansed? Should we not come into the D
The Inheritance You Cannot Fake • Parshas Nitzavim • Ep. 450
The Inheritance You Cannot Fake • Parshas Nitzavim • Ep. 450 Sep 3, 2026 00:13:47 Why does the Torah tell us to choose life so that both we and our children will live? Why should a parent's choice determine what the next generation wants? Rav Moshe Feinstein finds a startling warning in the wording: a person can keep every mitzvah and still fail to pass Torah on. A father preparing for his son's bar mitzvah faced five stranded yeshiva students and made a choice that tur
Are You Chasing It, or Is It Chasing You? • Parshas Ki Savo • Ep. 449
Are You Chasing It, or Is It Chasing You? • Parshas Ki Savo • Ep. 449 Aug 27, 2026 00:12:54 Ki Savo promises that the blessings will chase you down and overtake you. But who runs away from a bracha in the first place? And what does it even mean that a bracha has to catch you, if Hashem already promised you would get it?Hold that question, and listen to this. A young father in kollel dies, and his nine-and-a-half-year-old son shuts down completely. The specialist's diagnosis runs seve
Is It Your Nature, or Just Your Opinion? · Parshas Ki Seitzei · Ep. 448
Is It Your Nature, or Just Your Opinion? · Parshas Ki Seitzei · Ep. 448 Aug 20, 2026 00:12:16 Ammon and Moav did not come out to meet us with bread and water. Amalek attacked us in cold blood, and we are commanded to erase their memory. So why does the Torah bar a convert from Moav from marrying into Klal Yisrael forever, while a sincere convert from Amalek may marry right in, and the descendants of Haman himself learned Torah in Bnei Brak?The answer turns on where a nation's failing a
The Soldier Who Was Sent Home • Parshas Shoftim • Ep. 447
The Soldier Who Was Sent Home • Parshas Shoftim • Ep. 447 Aug 13, 2026 00:14:42 Why does the Torah send a soldier home from the front line — not for cowardice, but for having spoken between his tefillin shel yad and his tefillin shel rosh? Of every aveirah in the Torah, why is that the one that disqualifies him? This week we bring the Tolner Rebbe's approach: the arm-tefillin is a man's own strength, the head-tefillin is his awareness of Who gives him that strength, a
Don't Waste Your Tears • Parshas Re'eh • Ep. 446
Don't Waste Your Tears • Parshas Re'eh • Ep. 446 Aug 6, 2026 00:13:32 A woman locks herself in her house for months after losing a child, furious at anyone still laughing, still living. Dragged to a wedding against her will, she escapes into an old pay phone just to scream and cry without being watched — and an elderly woman selling nothing but a dollar's worth of tzedaka walks over and tells her she's "wasting her tears." Then that old woman revea
Who Is Flying Your Plane? • Parshas Eikev • Ep. 445
Who Is Flying Your Plane? • Parshas Eikev • Ep. 445 Jul 30, 2026 00:10:00 Hashem asks only one thing of you. Then the pasuk lists four more. So which is it? In Parshas Eikev, Rabbi Prisman opens a question that sits in plain sight in Devarim, and finds the same puzzle again in L'Dovid Hashem Ori, where Dovid HaMelech asks for one thing and then names several. The answer reframes what yirah actually is: not dread of punishment, but awe -- the same letters as re'i
The Man Who Stayed Silent — and Lost the Temple • Tisha B'Av • Ep. 444
The Man Who Stayed Silent — and Lost the Temple • Tisha B'Av • Ep. 444 Jul 21, 2026 00:13:29 A man gets blamed by the Gemara for destroying Jerusalem — and he didn't do anything. He wasn't invited to the party. He didn't start the fight. He just stood there and watched someone get humiliated and thrown out, and said nothing. That silence, Rabbi Prisman argues, is the real story of the Churban — not hatred, just people who stopped noticing each other. This Tisha B'Av, that&
The Grudge That Was Blocking a Marriage • Parshas Dvarim • Ep. 443
The Grudge That Was Blocking a Marriage • Parshas Dvarim • Ep. 443 Jul 16, 2026 00:15:33 A family did everything to find their daughter a match — every segulah, every school, every tzedakah — and nothing worked. Then a Rav asked one question that had nothing to do with shidduchim: is theresomeone you're holding a grudge against? What they uncovered, and what happened the very next year in their own backyard, is one of the most quietly stunning stories about what's actually blo
The Sacred Vessel That Made a Promise Come True • Parshas Matos Massei • Ep. 442
The Sacred Vessel That Made a Promise Come True • Parshas Matos Massei • Ep. 442 Jul 9, 2026 00:13:31 A chassidish performer made a joking promise to an 18-year-old boy dying of cancer: "Hashem will dance at your wedding." The boy just smiled and said, "maybe in another life." Years later, an invitation arrived from a wedding he didn't recognize — and what happened on that dance floor is why Rabbi Asaf Aharon Prisman says your mouth might be the most powerful thing you own.
When Cutting Someone Off Is the Peaceful Thing to Do • Parshas Pinchas • Ep. 441
When Cutting Someone Off Is the Peaceful Thing to Do • Parshas Pinchas • Ep. 441 Jul 2, 2026 00:14:24 Why does a violent act earn the title “covenant of peace”? And why, in the Sefer Torah, is the very word Shalom in that covenant written with a broken letter — with a gap in the center? Pinchas stopped a plague that had already killed 24,000 people, and Hashem's reward wasn't subtle — it was peace itself. This week we trace that reward back through a strange detail in Maaseh Bereishis, a s

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