As Purim approaches, Parshat Zachor arrives first—an annual call not only to remember Amalek historically, but to recognize Amalek as a force that shows up while you’re already on the way.

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David explore “asher karcha baderech” as the place where momentum gets sabotaged: the moment someone begins real growth, a convincing inner voice appears in the name of “realism,” “compassion,” and “I’m just trying to protect you”—and tells them to stop before they disappoint themselves again. Drawing on Rebbe Nachman (as brought by Reb Shlomo Carlebach), the shiur reframes Amalek as the cynicism that blocks follow-through, often disguised as care, sometimes from others, sometimes from friends, and often from within.

The conversation expands from personal avodah (minyan, change, consistency, courage to finish) to the national story of starting strong and being stopped mid-journey, and ends with Purim’s deeper promise: not only that evil can be erased, but that it’s possible to live, if only for a day, inside a reality where the “it’ll never happen” voice is gone.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Personal Celebration and New Baby
02:22 Prelude to Purim: Parshat Zachor Importance
04:15 Challenge of Starting vs. Finishing
05:56 Amalek as Metaphor for Incompletion
08:42 Depth Behind Simple Hebrew Phrase
10:36 Rebbe Nachman on Wholehearted Service
13:27 Marriage Arrows: Cynical Chuppah Observers
21:31 Friends as Courage Boosters
23:02 Enemies Hidden Among Friends
24:04 Friends Discourage New Ideas
26:04 Friends as Greatest Enemies
28:15 Yossi’s Arabic-Script Picture Story
29:22 Amalek Among Decision Makers
31:02 Courage to Finish What You Start
33:30 Thoughts About People Reflect Thoughts About God
39:06 Purim as Erasing Amalek
42:17 Yom Kippur vs Purim Self-Reflection
47:43 Purim as the holiday of those who remember
49:21 ICC claims of Israeli genocide
50:48 Remembering Amalek's historical threat
52:01 Israel's solitary destiny prophecy
53:30 Call to march with confidence

In Parshas Terumah, the Torah details the measurements of the Mishkan — broken numbers, halves, small dimensions. Why?

In this powerful shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David uncover a radical truth from Reb Shlomo: holy light doesn’t overpower small light. It awakens us to it.

What’s the difference between holy money and unholy money? Between a big donation and a small one? Between psychedelic light and a tiny flashlight?

From the Kotel built from “pennies” to the קול דממה דקה hidden inside the shofar blast, this teaching reframes how we see value, contribution, community, and even ourselves.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
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Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn the shocking Midrash from Parshat Yitro that says Am Yisrael were sleeping the night before receiving the Torah.

But Reb Shlomo Carlebach reveals something much deeper: it wasn’t laziness. It was small anava. The feeling of “Who am I to stand by Har Sinai?”

And Moshe Rabbeinu comes tent-to-tent with one last message before Torah can be given:

If you still see yourself as limited — if you’re still living inside “Beit Avadim,” the mindset of measuring and calculating what you think you’re capable of — don’t bother coming to Sinai.

Freedom isn’t “I do what I want.” Freedom is: I stop measuring. I stop disqualifying myself. I learn to believe that if Hashem is asking it from me, He believes in me.

This is the Torah of the night before Sinai: the moment we become people who can say Naaseh v’Nishma — not because we’re naïve, but because we’re finally free.
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Chapters
00:00 Opening + sponsorships / setting the tone
02:40 Introducing Today’s Powerful Parshas Yisro Lesson
06:28 Analyzing the Key Word “Vayotze” in the Pasuk
08:40 Moshe’s Personal Mission: Visiting Every Tent
09:50 Alexander Rebbe on Becoming Moshe’s Students
13:04 Moshe’s First Argument with God over Leadership
16:16 Why Moshe No Longer Argues at Sinai
18:13 Identifying the First Sign of a Slave
23:05 Defining True Freedom versus Slavery
26:29 Doing It Even When You Doubt Your Ability
27:46 Marriage Prep: Overthinking Before the Commitment
29:33 From Beit Avadim to Freedom: First Pasuk Insight
30:58 Naaseh V’Nishma: Commitment Without…
34:34 Moshe’s Speech Impediment and the…
35:51 The Mitzvah to Tell Our Children About Exodus
39:29 Bas Mitzvah Story: Learning Through a Young Woman
41:05 Moshe’s Final Lesson Before Receiving the Torah

Parshas Bo is not just the story of leaving Egypt. It’s the inner blueprint of freedom.

Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David opens an Even Shlomo that sounds “insane” at first: why does the Torah say “וישאלו איש מאת רעהו” — “ask from your friend” — when it’s describing Egyptians who enslaved us? Why call them re’ehu at all?

Because the night of Yetzias Mitzrayim wasn’t only an exit from suffering. It was a flash of Mashiach reality: a moment where Hashem’s light was so clear that no human being could be anyone’s master. Not Pharoah over Egypt. Not fear over your heart. Not people, not pressure, not addiction, not the invisible “dominions” that run our moods and reactions.

From the Alter Rebbe fainting at his Seder table, to what freedom looked like in the tunnels of Gaza, to what it means to carry da’as Hashem until it spreads outward, this shiur reframes geulah as the deepest kind of relationship: Hashem shining into us, and us shining back.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
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Chapters
00:00 Intro and Sponsor Shoutouts
01:31 Choosing a Torah Topic for Parshas Bo
03:26 Who Is the “Re’ehu” in the Commandment?
04:40 Lenny Solomon Story and Cultural References
07:14 Flipping the Traditional Pshat
08:37 The Alter Rebbe’s Leil Seder
12:51 Modern Freedom and the Possibility of Geula
20:45 Egyptians’ View of the Night of Exodus
24:17 Moshiach and the Filling of Daas
25:59 Daas of Hashem Required for Global Peace
27:40 Egyptians Recognized Hashem as Their Master
28:42 Understanding “Re’ehu” — Asking an Equal
30:55 One Night of Moshiach-Like Equality
32:28 Breslover Chassid’s Tears and Dance
36:24 Filling Ourselves with Daas to Bring Redemption

This week in Even Shlomo on Parshat Va’era, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David go straight into the cry so many of us are holding: “Ribono Shel Olam… for what? Haven’t we been through enough?” Moshe Rabbeinu asks it too — and the answer isn’t a slogan, it’s a demand: Geulah is not “back to normal.”

Reb Shlomo teaches that the world’s “unnatural” situation can’t last forever — but the real question is what happens to us while we’re waiting. Do we settle for healthy, functional, status quo… or do we move into above nature: the place of an Eved Hashem, where Yiddishkeit isn’t routine, relationships aren’t “fine,” and a shul isn’t just a place to daven — it’s a center for dreaming Geulah.

Through a piercing story of Reb Shlomo saving a life, and then meeting a lifeguard who saved 26 and didn’t shine at all, we learn the difference between doing something because it’s your job… and doing it with your pnimiyus. And we end with the charge that builds everything: accountability, patience, chaverus, and a Ruach Se’arah — a stormy spirit inside keilim — to carry this community (and our lives) beyond “normal.”

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

Chapters

0:00 Opening dedication and sponsors
1:17 Why does suffering continue?
2:45 Moshe’s dialogue with Hashem
4:36 Maharal: the unnatural has a limit
7:43 Natural vs. normal (and “status quo”)
13:12 Eved vs. Oved Hashem (Tanya)
24:07 The nature of true revelation
25:16 Moshe’s imagined dialogue with Pharaoh
26:19 Moshe’s question: “For what?”
27:58 Imagining a miracle in Iran
29:09 Why continue suffering? Moshe’s inquiry
30:54 Moshe seeks the nature of future redemption
32:49 Call for deeper commitment
35:55 Lifeguard story: “26 lives saved”
37:00 Service as job vs. spiritual involvement
45:18 Understanding Avodah Zarah (the “zarah to you” definition)
46:34 Avoiding spiritual estrangement (not a stranger to God)
48:19 Taking responsibility + helping the hungry
49:29 Exodus vs. returning to Eretz Yisrael
50:50 House of Love & Prayer vision
52:39 Removing Avodah Zarah from our kehillah
54:17 Ruach Se’arah (Rav Weinberger)
55:36 Inner pulse of chevra for redemption

What happens when an enemy loses every shred of humanity?

In a deeply personal and vulnerable Shemot shiur on Reb Shlomo’s birthday, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David confront the painful reality of our generation. Drawing from the Izhbitzer Rebbe (Mei HaShiloach), we explore the verse "The King of Egypt died." We learn that this does not merely refer to a physical death, but to the death of humaneness itself—a state where the enemy is no longer capable of basic human feeling.

From the tunnels of Gaza to the hallways of the Knesset, we discuss the shattering of Western assumptions and the necessity of returning to the "Har Sinai Values" that define true morality. Rav Shlomo challenges us to look beyond the confusion of Western culture and "woke" terminology to ask the hard question: Have we actually woken up? We discuss the danger of falling back into the mindset of "it wasn't that bad" and the necessity of screaming out to Hashem. Featuring a powerful story from Rav Soloveitchik regarding the sanctity of life and insights from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin on the modern-day worship of Molech, this episode is a call to clear the fog, choose our side, and realize that true redemption begins when we stop tolerating the intolerable.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
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In Parashat Vayechi, Yaakov Avinu gathers his children for what feels like the ultimate “final download” — He’asfu… and I’ll tell you what will happen at the end of days.

And then… it disappears. Nistalka mimenu haShechinah.

In this shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a short but life-shaping Torah from Even Shlomo: sometimes the deepest clarity isn’t prophecy at all. It’s the holy not knowing that opens a person into yearning, into tefillah, into real closeness.

We speak about what a parent wants most for their children, why “knowing how it’ll all turn out” can quietly shut down the heart, and why the night, when you can’t see clearly, can bring out the deepest kind of sight: “וכל עין לך תצפה” — a life of yearning.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

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Parshat Vayigash is the moment the Ishbitzer says is the closest we can taste in this world to what it will feel like when Moshiach reveals himself.

Because “Ani Yosef” isn’t just a plot twist. It’s the revelation that everything that looked like hester panim… everything that felt like an enemy… everything that seemed like punishment… was actually part of the process that “squeezed” a deeper YOU out of you.

In this shiur, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David dive into the Even Shlomo which opens a daring question:

If not every Jew is always living on the level of kodesh… could it be that every Jew is still Kodesh Kodashim?

We explore:

• Why the Kodesh Kodashim is in Binyamin’s portion (not Yosef’s)
• The difference between being “holy” vs being Holy of Holies
• Why sinas chinam is uniquely incompatible with Kodesh Kodashim
• Reb Carlebach's radical lens: the Ba’al Teshuva doesn’t just need the Mikdash. He builds it
• What forgiveness looks like on the level of kodesh… versus kodesh kodashim, where the whole story dissolves

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t