What brings success? | Parsha with the Chief: Balak

There is more to achieving success than intelligence, strategy, charisma, or hard work. Pirkei Avot and this week’s parsha, Balak, reveal a three-part formula for holistic success in family, career, happiness, and legacy. A powerful mishna offers a striking contrast between two individuals: Bilam, brilliant but broken, and Avraham, humble and lasting. Through Pirkei Avot, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein explores how character, not just competence, determines our ability to thrive. We unpack three core traits that shape who we become: generosity vs. jealousy, humility vs. arrogance, and restraint vs. desire. Success, the Torah teaches, isn’t about building status. It’s about building self. When our values align with timeless truth, we flourish — in this world, and the next.

One of the most defining aspects of being human is death. It happens to everyone. How do we relate to it? How do we understand it? How does it shape the way we think and live? Because how we approach death is, in truth, how we approach life itself. In this week’s parsha, Chukat, we read about Miriam and Aaron passing away. The Torah also introduces the laws of Parah Adumah — the purifying ritual for those who encounter death. These events confront us with the reality of mortality and invite us to think deeply about what our time in this world really means. Pirkei Avot teaches that death is not simply an end, but a transition — a return of the soul to its Creator. This perspective changes everything: it gives our days urgency, fills them with purpose, and reminds us that every choice echoes beyond this world. In this shiur, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein explores how facing death with wisdom can transform the way we live, love, and grow. Because understanding death helps us live a life that truly matters.

It’s not easy to confront the quiet pull of ego. But when our motivations reach beyond self, something changes in us — we are strengthened, not drained. We can access the love, respect and meaning we need to hold our family, community and society together. In Parshat Korach, we find a rebellion that sounds like a call for equality — but beneath the surface lies a deeper lesson. One about the motivation of those who seek power, and what happens when personal ambition disguises itself as higher principle. In this shiur, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein explores the tension between ambition and meaning, personal gain and higher purpose. Drawing from Pirkei Avot and the story of Korach, he reveals how our deepest motivations shape not only our own lives, but the strength and stability of the communities around us. Because motivation isn’t just a private force. It’s what holds — or breaks — families, friendships, leadership, and society itself.  

We all like to believe we think for ourselves. But Parshat Shelach tells a deeper story — a cautionary tale about the power of influence.  Twelve spies enter the Land of Israel. Ten return filled with fear, persuading the nation to turn back. Two remain strong — but lose the battle for public opinion. The people are blinded by influence.  Pirkei Avot teaches that influence shapes everything: who we listen to, who we trust, and who we allow to shape our thinking. But it also challenges us to lead with integrity — to stand firm even when the crowd pulls us elsewhere.  This shiur explores the balance between humility and leadership, independence and openness. How we guard ourselves from destructive influence — and how we become a source of strength for others.  Because influence isn’t only what we absorb. It’s who we become. #PowerOfInfluence #PersonalGrowth #LeadershipAndIntegrity #JewishWisdom #PirkeiAvot #ParshaInsights #IndependentThinking #TorahForLife

Israel’s war on Iran is an historic moment for the Jewish state and the free world. The stakes could not be higher. Iran was weeks away from building nuclear weapons. That’s not a theory. It’s a fact — confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to recent IAEA reports, Iran had accumulated enough 60% enriched uranium to build up to 10 nuclear bombs — and had already begun implosion tests used to detonate nuclear weapons. The Institute for Science and International Security called it a “1-minute-to-midnight” scenario. And so, Israel struck. To prevent genocide. To protect the Jewish people. To stop another Holocaust. In this urgent message, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein explains: How close Iran was to building nuclear weapons What makes Israel’s strike not only justified, but necessary  Why world leaders failed to act — and how Israel acted alone  How South Africa’s government has given cover to Iran’s nuclear program  Why the world owes Israel a debt of gratitude  From biblical prophecy to current geopolitics — this is one of the most important moments in Jewish history. Listen now and share this message widely.

In a world that constantly reminds us of what we lack — where happiness is confused with consumption — how do we find a sense of abundance and contentment? In this week’s parsha, Beha’alotcha, we uncover one of the Torah’s most powerful insights into the psychology of discontent — and how to overcome it. Drawing from Pirkei Avot, this shiur explores the difference between gratitude and complaining, scarcity and abundance — and how that difference shapes our entire experience of life. The Jewish people complain about the manna in the desert. They say they miss the food in Egypt. It’s one of the most striking moments of ingratitude in the Torah. But this shiur goes deeper than moral judgment — it explores the root cause. Pirkei Avot teaches us that contentment and gratitude begin with ayin tovah — a good eye. A mindset that sees abundance. The result is a life shaped by generosity. We explore how prayer and kindness build this mindset. How ambition and discontent must be held in balance. And how faith in Hashem’s provision can transform how we see the world. This is the root of gratitude. And it changes everything. #TorahForLife #SpiritualStrength #InnerGrowth #ParshaWisdom #AyinTovah

There is beauty in finding the balance between ambition and humility, freedom and responsibility, physical and spiritual. This week’s parsha explores one of the deepest ideas in Pirkei Avot — that a life of beauty comes from learning how to hold opposites together. It’s not about compromise and neutrality. It’s about synthesis and harmony. What does it mean to live a life of balance? In the parsha of Nasso, we are introduced to the Nazir — someone who separates from physical pleasure to become holier. But while the Torah allows for this path, the Gemara calls it a sin. Why? Because balance — not extremism — is the ideal. This shiur explores a powerful idea from Pirkei Avot: that true holiness is not about rejecting the world, but elevating it. That the Torah is a framework for integration — between body and soul, passion and discipline, humility and strength. The goal is not perfection — it’s tiferet: a life of dynamic beauty, dignity, and harmony. Watch now and discover how balance is not a compromise. It’s the ultimate strength.  #SpiritualStrength #InnerHarmony #ParshaWisdom #TorahForLife #ParshaWithTheChief

On Shavuot, we receive the power to create ourselves. Pirkei Avot reveals something life-changing: Torah is the tool that God used to create the world. And it is the tool that He gives us to create ourselves. It is not just a set of laws. It is a framework for becoming. A sacred blueprint for shaping character, building values, and growing into the person we are meant to be. Discover the Torah not only as a book of rules, but as the blueprint for a life of meaning, purpose, and creativity. #Shavuot #BornToCreate #TorahWisdom #SpiritualGrowth #PersonalGrowth #JewishLearning #SelfCreation

The Oval Office confrontation between President Ramaphosa and President Trump served to highlight the appalling failures of South Africa’s ruling elite. In this powerful and painful video, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein confronts the full moral weight of what that moment revealed — not just about political failure, but about human suffering. The murder epidemic in South Africa is not a white genocide, nor a black genocide. It is a human genocide. And it has unfolded, for three decades, under the leadership of a government that has failed in its most basic duty: to protect its people. With courage and clarity, the Chief Rabbi calls out the moral collapse of South Africa’s ruling elite, the shocking Constitutional Court ruling on hate speech, the spiralling vigilantism and private security, and the haunting spiritual symmetry between Ramaphosa’s global humiliation and the ANC’s slander against Israel. This is not just a political video. It is a moral reckoning. #SouthAfrica #ChiefRabbiGoldstein #Ramaphosa #TrumpRamaphosa #WhiteHouse #KillTheBoer #SouthAfricaCrime #Genocide #Justice #HumanRights #MiddaKenegedMidda #Israel #TruthToPower

What does the fleeting nature of life teach us about gratitude, loss, and the search for purpose? This week’s parsha, Behar-Bechukotai, contains a prophecy of exile and return. But beneath that national story lies a personal one. The story of the soul. Drawing on Pirkei Avot, the laws of shemittah and yovel, and powerful Torah insights, we explore a deeper understanding of exile — not just as historical punishment, but as a spiritual framework for human growth. Because we’re not here forever. We are strangers and sojourners. But that doesn’t make life meaningless. It makes it urgent, sacred, and full of potential. Listen now for a Torah perspective on struggle, impermanence, and redemption. #ParshaWithTheChief #ExileAndRedemption #TorahWisdom #JewishThought #SpiritualGrowth #Shemittah #PirkeiAvot #BeharBechukotai #LifePurpose #Teshuvah