Living Torah Clip Inspires a Bochur to Start a Podcast

A 20-year-old bochur has launched Jewish Life 101, a podcast featuring short, accessible episodes that present Jewish and Chassidic ideas to people who may never have attended a traditional Torah class.

The podcast’s host, Zalman Brashevitzky, grew up on shlichus in Miami, Florida, where he began speaking at the Chabad House and regularly engaging with members of the community from a young age.

The idea began around Purim this past year, when an older friend suggested that he start giving an online shiur. Zalman wasn’t sure it was his place.

“I was a bochur in yeshiva, and I figured that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing,” he told Anash.org. “I did speak to my mashpia, who encouraged me to go ahead, but I wasn’t sure.”

That Motzaei Shabbos, Zalman wrote to the Rebbe about the idea. Shortly afterward, he watched that week’s Living Torah, which featured a sicha about a bochur who may feel, “I’m not the right person,” but still has a responsibility to go out of his way to spread Chassidus.

“It was very clear to me,” he said. “That was my answer, and I went forward with it.”

What started as a shiur grew into a podcast with a specific audience in mind. Much of the online content produced by rabbis and Torah personalities today speaks to people who already identify as frum or are actively looking for a rabbi.

“What about the person who says, ‘I’m not religious,’ but is still curious about Judaism?” Zalman told Anash.org. “Jewish Life 101 asks a different question. Not what the rabbi says, and not even what the Torah says, but what Yiddishkeit says.”

The episodes draw on Torah, with a particular focus on the Rebbe’s sichos and maamarim, and cover topics ranging from science and ethics to law, relationships, and how a person approaches daily life. Each episode focuses on a single topic and ends with a practical takeaway. Most run between seven and 17 minutes. For more foundational or complex subjects, guest contributors join to explore the ideas in greater depth.

“If technology can influence people, it can also be used to influence people for the good,” Zalman said. “The idea is to use it as a vehicle to spread Torah and Chassidus.”

Working on the series has been an eye-opener for him as well.

“We know that Yiddishkeit is emes and that Torah speaks to every part of life,” he said. “But it’s one thing to know that, and another to see how directly the Rebbe addresses both the big questions and the practical ones.”

Among the examples he cited are the Rebbe’s explanations of how bias works and why the world is fundamentally a good place, presented in terms that can be understood even by someone far removed from a frum lifestyle. A maamar on Purim can explain the nature of dreams, while a sicha about Moshe Rabbeinu can explore what humility really means and how to develop it.

Zalman hopes the series will help listeners see Yiddishkeit not as something practiced only in shul, but as a way of looking at the world.

The episodes are available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.