Halacha woven through the parsha
Rabbi Dovid Sharfman zt"l had a distinctive way of teaching: he used the weekly parsha as a doorway into practical halacha. In Parashat Bo he took up the halachos of tefillin, asking who counts as left-handed for where the tefillin is worn; in Beshalach he taught hiddur mitzvah; in Yitro he explained kiddush bemakom seudah; in Tetzaveh he addressed the honor due to kohanim. Each week's reading became an occasion to clarify a live halachic question.
This method gave his shiurim a double value. A listener following the parsha received not only insight into the narrative but a concrete piece of halacha tied to it, easy to remember because it was anchored to the week. It reflected a teacher who saw Torah and practice as one fabric, and who wanted his listeners to come away able to act.
Belief, behavior, and hard questions
Sharfman zt"l did not shy from the harder questions of hashkafa and halacha. A shiur like 'Believing Lashon Hara' examined the subtle prohibition of accepting negative speech as true, and 'Can We Build the Beit Hamikdash Now?' engaged a weighty halachic and philosophical question directly. He was willing to take listeners into subjects that demand careful thought rather than settling for the comfortable.
This reflected the breadth the record shows — halacha, machshava, the chagim, and the rhythms of rosh chodesh all appear in his teaching. He moved between the technical and the reflective, holding both to the same standard of clarity, so that a listener met the reasoning behind a halacha as much as its conclusion.
A teacher remembered
The corpus Rabbi Sharfman zt"l left behind — over two hundred recorded shiurim — continues to teach after him. His clarity in breaking down a halachic topic, and his habit of tying it to the parsha, make his classes as usable now as when he gave them. For a learner, they remain a dependable guide to the practical questions of Jewish life.
For a family, his shiurim are especially well suited to the Shabbos table and to preparing for the week ahead. A parsha thought that carries a real halacha within it is exactly the kind of Torah that a household can learn together and then put into practice. His teaching endures as a quiet, ongoing legacy in the homes that still learn from it.
Finding kosher Torah video for your family
FilteredTube is a kosher video service built for Jewish families — every single video is approved against one written standard before it can appear, with no open feed, no comments, and no surprises. It is a calm, safe place to look for the Torah and Jewish music you love.
If your family enjoys teachers like Rabbi Dovid Sharfman zt"l, search FilteredTube for the speakers and topics that matter most to you. With a daf yomi shelf, a weekly parsha shelf, topic shelves, audio-only listening for the car, and a kids mode with a PIN, kosher Jewish video is easy to reach — and the approved catalog keeps growing every day.
At a glance
Key takeaways
- Rabbi Dovid Sharfman zt"l taught practical halacha through the lens of the weekly parsha.
- His shiurim covered the laws of tefillin, hiddur mitzvah, and kiddush bemakom seudah.
- He engaged hard questions directly, from 'Believing Lashon Hara' to building the Beit Hamikdash.
- His corpus of over two hundred shiurim continues to guide learners after his passing.
- Search FilteredTube for kosher, approved Torah video — the catalog grows every day.