A teacher of the Jewish year
Rabbi Yonah Carlebach's collection runs to 71 recorded classes, and its center of gravity is the Jewish calendar. Titles like "Purim: Why Is Every Celebration Always With Food" and a "Purim Tish at Kollel Ari'zal" sit alongside a run of Pesach shiurim, so the moadim get sustained attention rather than a passing mention. Holidays, the weekly parsha, and broader Torah thought are the recurring threads across his videos.
Storytelling is his other signature. A class titled "Parshas Vayakhel: Unbelievable Story of Eliyahu Hanavi and the Tailor" and another on "Story and Parshas Zachor" show a teacher who reaches for narrative to carry an idea. The effect is that even weighty material arrives through a story you can picture and remember, which is part of why the classes travel well across ages.
Purim and Pesach at the center
The Purim material is a good window into his approach. One shiur asks why every Jewish celebration seems to revolve around food; another captures the atmosphere of a Purim tish. These are not dry topic lectures — they take a familiar day and turn it over to find the idea underneath the custom, the kind of question a listener keeps thinking about long after the video ends.
Pesach gets deeper, more mystical treatment. His two-part "Pesach: Arizal Kavanos" walks through the kavanos — the mystical intentions — that the Arizal taught for the seder. That is advanced ground, and offering it in a paced, two-part format signals a teacher comfortable taking listeners past the surface of the Haggadah into its inner layers.
A mystical, story-rich approach
The Arizal thread points to a Kabbalistic sensibility, and the "Philosophy" tag on his catalog fits that. Rather than presenting Kabbalah as abstract theory, he tends to anchor it in the calendar and in story, so the deeper material has somewhere concrete to land. It is depth offered without intimidation.
His range also reaches Shabbos and parenting, which keeps the collection close to daily family life. Between the holiday cycle, the parsha, and these practical threads, a listener can follow him across a whole year of Jewish living — learning that is warm and vivid without losing its roots in classical sources.
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 Yonah Carlebach, 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
- 71 recorded shiurim spanning holidays, parsha, philosophy, Shabbos, and parenting.
- Strong focus on the Jewish calendar — Purim and Pesach feature prominently.
- A Kabbalistic thread, including classes on the Arizal's kavanos for the seder.
- A storytelling teacher — narratives like Eliyahu Hanavi and the tailor carry the lessons.
- Search FilteredTube for kosher, approved Torah video — the catalog grows every day.