What to Listen to While You Cook

Cooking marathon ahead? Listen to shiurim while you cook and the time will be so enjoyable.

On Sukkot, on the night of Hoshanah Rabah, while the men were up all night learning, I was up all night cooking. But I didn’t feel so left out. TorahAnytime.com had a live video feed of shiurim, and it really made the cooking so much more enjoyable. I find that I’m also able to absorb a shiur better when I’m doing something with my hands. Do you feel that way too? I find it hard to sit and concentrate if I’m not doing something else simultaneously…but if I’m cooking or driving I can listen and concentrate for hours and be so happy.

And it feels really good to be productive in two ways during each hour.

So, while I don’t have unique thoughts of my own to inspire your Shavuot, all I can do is share links to what I’ve been enjoying lately. So…if we’re learning while we’re cooking before Shavuot, then perhaps we’ll feel perfectly fine (and not guilty) when we get into our comfy beds on the first night of Shavuot.

Of course, find your own favorites on TorahAnytime.com or LearnTorah.com. I play the shiurim either on my laptop or on my phone. TorahAnytime also has an app.

This is just a couple of picks from what I’ve been enjoying lately, but of course, there’s hundreds of speakers on both websites to choose from, and different styles and topics appeal to different people.

When my kids are up and in the kitchen with me, they only let me listen to Rabbi Duvi Bensoussan. That’s because his stories are so exciting. I can be cooking in the kitchen and all of a sudden, I’ll see kids gathered around, listening attentively to a story. If you want a couple picks to get started, try this one about Ma’arat HaMachpelah or this one about True Chesed. But really, you can just go down the list. 

Recently, I also enjoyed the Tomer Devorah series by Rabbi David Sutton. This one from a couple weeks ago was very interesting (What is the Torah’s opinion on Mother’s Day?), along with the next one in the series. You need to concentrate a bit more (those who attend the class have sheets with sources on them), but I appreciate that.

Do you want more picks? Do you have some picks for me? Post links below.