PODCAST · religion
Deeper Look At The Parsha
by Rabbi Pini Dunner
In the late 1990s Rabbi Dunner presented his own daily 2-hour radio show on London’s multiethnic station, Spectrum Radio. Tens of thousands of listeners – Jews and non-Jews alike – tuned in every day to hear Rabbi Dunner’s take on current events. In 2011 Rabbi Dunner relocated to the US and became the senior Rabbi at Beverly Hills Synagogue. Weekly the Rabbi holds a parsha shiur that delves deeper into the Parsha of the week.
Episodes
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BEYOND THE STARS
Robert Williams risked Hubble telescope time by pointing it at an empty patch of sky. But what appeared to contain nothing revealed thousands of galaxies. Rabbi Dunner connects that discovery to Abraham’s encounter with the stars, and to a powerful Jewish idea: expert predictions matter, but they...
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FINDING NOAH'S ARK
In 1982, astronaut James Irwin climbed Mount Ararat searching for Noah’s Ark and found something far less impressive: a pair of abandoned skis. Yet the ancient flood stories uncovered in Mesopotamia reveal a more important discovery. Rabbi Dunner compares them with the Torah’s account of Noach…
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TWO QUESTIONS
Parshat Bereishit begins with creation, but its deepest questions are strikingly personal. God asks Adam, “Where are you?” and Cain, “Where is your brother?” Rabbi Dunner traces these questions through creation, responsibility, failure, repentance, loneliness, Shabbat, and the value of every…
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THE KEEPERS
For twenty-six years, Brazil’s “Man of the Hole” lived alone in the Amazon, the last survivor of a destroyed people, while strangers quietly protected him from afar. His story makes Cain’s question — “Am I my brother’s keeper?” — painfully literal. Rabbi Dunner explores responsibility, isolation,...
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THROWING STONES
Ancient idol worship sometimes turned desecration itself into ritual: stones were thrown, and degradation became devotion. Watching the latest UN General Assembly, Rabbi Dunner sees an unsettling parallel. From Javier Milei’s blistering attack to António Guterres’s rhetoric and the walkout during...
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THE FESTIVAL OF THE TEMPORARY HOUSE
Sukkot begins with a flimsy hut and ends with dancing around a Torah scroll. In between come the four species, Kohelet, Hoshana Rabba, Shemini Atzeret, and a series of rituals that seem oddly disconnected. Rabbi Dunner shows how they form one argument: life is temporary, joy is deliberate,...
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THE MAN WITH THE UMBRELLA
Jonas Hanway became famous in eighteenth-century London for carrying an umbrella when respectable Englishmen considered them ridiculous. Sukkot asks us to do something almost opposite: leave our solid homes and sit beneath a deliberately incomplete roof. Rabbi Dunner explores security,...
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WRITTEN IN BLOOD
Can a Jew ever be too far gone? In 1917, more than four centuries after Portugal forced its Jews into hiding, Polish Jew Samuel Schwarz found a community still guarding fragments of Judaism in secret. From the anusim and Dona Gracia Nasi to Menashe ben Israel and modern genetics, Rabbi Dunner...
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DON'T GO OVERBOARD
Barney Barnato rose from London’s East End to become one of the richest men in the British Empire, only to die at forty-six after going overboard in the Atlantic. His extraordinary life reads almost like all of the contrasts in Unetaneh Tokef. Rabbi Dunner explores uncertainty, reversal, despair,...
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A DAY OF JUDGEMENT AND JOY
Yom Kippur can feel like a day to endure: fasting, confession, white garments, and hours in shul. But beneath the solemnity lies one of Judaism’s most radical promises — that people can truly change. From the shattered second tablets to Kol Nidrei, forgiveness, apology, and Neilah, Rabbi Dunner...
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LEARNING SOMETHING NEW
The Rosh Hashana machzor has 100’s of pages and the davening is really long. You already know about the shofar, the apple, the honey, and about Unesaneh Tokef. But you don’t know everything. In this shiur, Rabbi Dunner helps you notice the messages behind what you know, because what Rosh Hashana...
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OUT OF PROPORTION
In 1544, a Flemish mapmaker sat in a castle dungeon on a charge of heresy. Twenty-five years later he published the map that still hangs in every classroom, and still makes Greenland look the size of Africa. Like him, we are all guilty of distorting proportion - but Rosh Hashana forces us to…
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THE MAN WHO SOLD THE EIFFEL TOWER
In 1925, master conman Victor Lustig managed to “sell” the Eiffel Tower to a respectable Paris scrap dealer. The scam was outrageous, but its success exposed something deeply human: we are often easiest to fool when we desperately want a story to be true. Rabbi Dunner finds an unsettling echo of...
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WHEN EVERYTHING ISN'T ENOUGH
Why can a person have everything and still feel empty? Parshat Ki Tavo offers a startling answer: fulfillment depends not on what we possess, but on how we receive it. From John Stuart Mill to Bikkurim, Holocaust survivors, and modern psychology, Rabbi Dunner explores how gratitude transforms...
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WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
In 1897, New York’s wealthiest families spent a fortune dressing as European royalty at the spectacular Bradley-Martin Ball. Parshat Ki Tavo opens with another elaborate ceremony of success—but with a very different script. Rabbi Dunner explores ancestry, ambition, memory, and the strange...
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IT IS MY PROBLEM
Patti Lyle Collins could decipher addresses everyone else considered hopeless, rescuing thousands of letters from Washington’s Dead Letter Office. Her remarkable gift offers a striking lens on Parshat Ki Teitzei’s command not to ignore what others have lost. The Torah asks more than helpfulness…
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AN EMPEROR WITHOUT AN EMPIRE
Joshua Norton lost his fortune, declared himself Emperor of the United States, and somehow became one of San Francisco’s most beloved characters. His strange story offers a surprisingly sharp lens on Parshat Shoftim’s vision of royal leadership: titles may confer authority, but they never make…
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WHAT TIME IS IT NOW?
The railway revolution transformed Britain, but it also exposed an unexpected problem: every town kept its own time. What followed offers a striking lesson for Parshat Re’eh. Diversity is a blessing, but only when it rests on a common foundation. Without a shared center, even strength, talent and...
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WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?
We imagine that seeing is automatic, but Parshat Re’eh insists otherwise. From Harvard’s invisible gorilla to the Torah’s blessing and curse, this shiur explores how easily we miss what matters most. True vision means recognizing where a road leads, seeing the people beside us, and discovering…
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THE LONG WAY HOME
Christopher Nolan’s new Odyssey has revived the world’s fascination with the oldest homecoming story in Western literature. But why does the journey of Odysseus still resonate so deeply—and what can it teach us about Parshat Eikev, Jewish history, and the meaning of coming home? The answer lies…
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THEY ARE CHAPTERS. WE ARE THE BOOK.
Tisha B’Av asks us to sit with the darkest moments in Jewish history: destruction, exile, massacre and loss. But what are we meant to carry with us when the fast ends and we rise from the floor? Is the lesson that Jews have suffered? The Shabbat that follows, Shabbat Nachamu, offers an answer—and...
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THESE ARE THE WORDS
The Church of England just voted to "hear" a document accusing Israel of genocide thirty times over. Meanwhile, as Rabbi Dunner learns from Archbishop Joseph D'Souza of Hyderabad, his Anglican flock in India is persecuted, and the Church of England couldn't care less. Why do they platform a libel...
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THE STORY WE CHOOSE TO TELL
During a recent journey through Poland, one unexpected stop transformed Rabbi Dunner's understanding of Parshat Devarim. Standing in a place where the past had seemingly been erased, he discovered why Moshe's final words are not a history lesson at all, but a timeless guide to Jewish fortitude,...
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AN EARLY WARNING FROM BELGIUM
Belgium’s prosecution of Antwerp mohalim is more than a local legal dispute. As the Three Weeks approach, it offers an early warning about how Jewish life is eroded: not always through violence, but through regulations that redefine sacred practice as criminal conduct. History shows where such...
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WHEN OLD ANSWERS STOP WORKING
Parshat Chukkat unfolds amid death, transition, failed leadership, poisonous speech, and unanswered questions. Rabbi Dunner explores why Moshe’s old methods no longer worked, how grief disguises itself as anger, why blessings become invisible, and how sacred symbols can become idols. The message…
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MEMORANDUM OF MISUNDERSTANDING
The U.S.–Iran MoU arrived wrapped in the soothing language of peace, restraint, and understanding. But Parshat Korach is a warning that beautiful words can conceal ugly intentions. Korach spoke of holiness while seeking power; hostile regimes speak of diplomacy while buying time. The Torah’s…
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SPIRITUALITY IS NOT AN EXCUSE
Haredi opponents of military service argue that army life threatens the spiritual refinement of Torah students. But the spies in Parshat Shlach made the same mistake: treating withdrawal from the world as the only way forward. Their story teaches that when Jewish survival requires responsibility...
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WHEN THE MIGHTY FALL
The spies were righteous leaders, yet greatness offered no immunity from failure. Rabbi Dunner explores why Yehoshua needed Moshe’s prayer, why Kalev prayed at Chevron, and why humility is not weakness but spiritual protection. From leadership and groupthink to tzitzis and prayer, this shiur...
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THE GOOD OLD DAYS
A ruined castle that was never a castle. Memories that improve with age. Longing for places that never existed. In Parshat Beha'alotecha, the Israelites look back at Egypt and remember only the fish, forgetting the slavery. Rabbi Dunner explores nostalgia, memory, and why the greatest danger of...
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THE DETOX DELUSION
Modern society swings endlessly between indulgence and denial. One day we binge, the next we detox. But in Parshat Nasso, the Torah’s mysterious Nazir presents a far more nuanced vision of spirituality. While Judaism values discipline and restraint, it remains deeply suspicious of extremism,...
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DEFINING YOUR PURPOSE
In an age that worships freedom and personal autonomy, Rabbi Dunner argues that liberty without moral purpose eventually collapses into chaos. Drawing on psychology, history, and the deeper meaning of Shavuot, he explores why Sinai transformed the Jewish people from liberated slaves into a nation...
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THE MYSTERY OF RUTH
In this richly layered shiur on Megillat Ruth, Rabbi Dunner explores Ruth’s journey from Moabite outsider to matriarch of the Davidic dynasty. Through Chazal, Midrash, Gemara, and modern scholarship, he reveals how the the themes of chesed, gerut, legitimacy, and personal redemption quietly shape...
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BEYOND THE CHAOS
In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, military planners discovered that displaced people needed more than food and shelter — they needed structure and belonging. Rabbi Dunner shows how this insight lies at the heart of Parshat Bamidbar, where the Israelites are carefully counted, arranged…
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GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
At a sparsely attended funeral for a once-prominent philanthropist, an unexpected tenth man completed the minyan — and led the gathered mourners to another grave. There lay an unnamed Holocaust survivor, nearly erased from memory. Two funerals on one day revealed a haunting truth: in Jewish...
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WHAT REALLY COUNTS?
In a world driven by metrics—steps counted, sleep tracked, productivity measured—have we mistaken numbers for meaning? Drawing on a powerful personal ICU experience and the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer in Parshat Emor, Rabbi Dunner explores a deeper truth: life isn’t about accumulating totals, but...
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BEYOND BEING NICE
“Love your neighbor as yourself” sounds simple—until you try to live it. In this thought-provoking shiur, Rabbi Dunner explores why real love isn’t a feeling but a discipline, built through honesty, restraint, and responsibility. Moving beyond superficial niceness, he uncovers a demanding Torah...
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WHEN PROCESS ISN'T ENOUGH
Following the rules should be enough—or is it? In this sharp and timely reflection on Parshat Kedoshim, Rabbi Dunner explores how a modern political scandal exposes a timeless Torah truth: process alone cannot guarantee integrity. Drawing on Ramban’s powerful insight, he shows why real holiness...
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DON'T MISS THE BIRTH
What is tumah—and why does the Torah connect it to the moment of new birth? In this thought-provoking shiur, Rabbi Dunner challenges the common understanding of impurity, revealing a deeper perspective rooted in absence, potential, and transformation. Drawing on classic and Chassidic sources, he...
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DID YOU HEAR WHAT HAPPENED?
In an age of viral rumors, conspiracy chatter, and endless scrolling, gossip has become a powerful force shaping how we see the world—and each other. Drawing on Parshat Tazria–Metzora, Rabbi Dunner explores how harmful speech fractures trust, fuels polarization, and why the Torah’s ancient…
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THE ROAD TO HELL
Good intentions can inspire greatness—but they can also lead to disaster. In a gripping look at Parshat Shemini and the story of Rabbi Joseph Shapotshnick, Rabbi Dunner explores how ego can quietly corrupt even the noblest causes. When conviction overrides humility, the line between leadership…
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WHY IS SEDER NIGHT... LIKE YOM KIPPUR?
Pesach feels nothing like Yom Kippur—one is festive, the other solemn. Yet beneath the surface, they share the same transformative power. Rabbi Dunner reveals how the Seder night can achieve what Yom Kippur does—if we are truly present. The question is not whether the door is open, but whether we...
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ECHOES, RHYMES, AND REDEMPTION
As tensions rise in Israel and antisemitism surges across the globe, familiar patterns begin to emerge. As Rabbi Dunner notes, the Haggadah’s call to see ourselves as if we left Egypt is not abstract. Just as in the original Exodus, when things worsened before redemption, today’s chaos may be the...
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LIVING, NOT DYING
As Iran escalates its attacks across the Middle East, a troubling pattern emerges—one that blurs the line between strategy and sacrifice. But while some ideologies romanticize destruction in God’s name, Sefer Vayikra offers a radically different vision: true devotion is not found in dying for…
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GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Rabbi Dunner draws on a beautiful essay from the Rav Daniel Alter Haggadah to find the deeper meaning of freedom on Pesach. Moving beyond the physical Exodus, he explores a powerful message about the lingering mindset of slavery, challenging us to shed internal limitations and embrace a renewed...
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BUILDERS OF BUILDERS
From Socrates in ancient Athens to Moshe Rabbeinu in the wilderness, history’s greatest leaders share a common trait: they create other leaders. Vayakhel reveals how Moshe built more than a sanctuary; he built a generation of builders whose influence would shape the future of the Jewish people.
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NO MORE MOWING THE LAWN
For decades Israel “mowed the lawn,” responding to attacks without eradicating the source of the threat. October 7 changed everything. As Iran and its terror proxies face unprecedented blows, the story of the Golden Calf in Parshat Ki Tisa offers a striking parallel. Some crises cannot be...
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IN YOUR MIND'S EYE
A church that took 144 years to complete. A yeshiva built for students who had not yet arrived. A prophet describing a Temple that did not yet exist. In the Haftarah for Parshat Tetzaveh, we discover that redemption does not begin with miracles — it begins with vision, drawn carefully in the…
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NOT A SIMPLE STORY
At Sinai, the mountain hovered overhead and faith felt inevitable. In Shushan, God’s name disappeared and everything could be dismissed as coincidence. So when was Torah truly accepted — in the blaze of revelation or in the darkness of exile? In Rabbi Dunner’s dazzling Purim shiur, he uncovers…
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HOLINESS WITHOUT BORDERS
Empires self-identify by anchoring themselves to monuments and locations. The Aztecs had Tenochtitlan. The Incas had Cusco. Rome had its “eternal city.” When those centers fell, their worlds unraveled. The Jewish people lost Jerusalem twice — and endured. The secret was planted earlier, in the...
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SPREAD THE JOY
What does it mean to “increase joy” when life isn’t perfect? Rabbi Dunner’s uplifting Adar shiur explores the deeper meaning of Mishenichnas Adar Marbim b’Simcha, showing how the Megillah teaches us to find hidden goodness, laugh at life’s absurdities, and trust that our stories are still...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
In the late 1990s Rabbi Dunner presented his own daily 2-hour radio show on London’s multiethnic station, Spectrum Radio. Tens of thousands of listeners – Jews and non-Jews alike – tuned in every day to hear Rabbi Dunner’s take on current events. In 2011 Rabbi Dunner relocated to the US and became the senior Rabbi at Beverly Hills Synagogue. Weekly the Rabbi holds a parsha shiur that delves deeper into the Parsha of the week.
HOSTED BY
Rabbi Pini Dunner
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Deeper Look At The Parsha have?
Deeper Look At The Parsha currently has 500 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Deeper Look At The Parsha about?
In the late 1990s Rabbi Dunner presented his own daily 2-hour radio show on London’s multiethnic station, Spectrum Radio. Tens of thousands of listeners – Jews and non-Jews alike – tuned in every day to hear Rabbi Dunner’s take on current events. In 2011 Rabbi Dunner relocated to the US and became...
How often does Deeper Look At The Parsha release new episodes?
Deeper Look At The Parsha publishes regularly with 500 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to Deeper Look At The Parsha on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Deeper Look At The Parsha?
Deeper Look At The Parsha is created and hosted by Rabbi Pini Dunner.
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