Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

00:10 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back, my dear friends, to the weekly Parsha Review. Last week's Parsha was Parsha's Terumah and I wasn't here, I wasn't in town, so we have catch-up to do, and then shortly we will do Parsha's Etzaveh, which is this week's Parsha. So we know that the beginning of the Torah portion says Dabar el b'nei, yisrael Hashem tells Moshe speak to the Jewish people v'yikhu li turuma, and they shall take for me a turuma, an offering, me'ez kol isha shi yitven el libo, from any person who his heart desires to do so. Now the question that we've discussed many times on this podcast and talking about this parashah is there's a very word, phraseology used here, very weird term of take for me. It should be give to me. What is the take for me? So everyone says the known answer is that because when you give, you actually receive. The recipient receives more. Sorry, the giver gets more, receives more than the recipient. We have to understand what that means and then we're going to see, we're going to offer a different idea. So what does that mean? That the giver is the greater recipient? Because you have to understand something that in the world of charity, of tzedakah, the destitute, those who are in need, will get what they need to survive. They'll get it.

01:49
The question is whether or not you are going to merit to be the giver. They're going to receive it, but the blessing from God are you going to be the vessel through which that blessing is going to come to the person in need? Okay, you understand that. So that means that it's not a we think it's a matter of dollars and cents. I have the dollars and I'm going to give you the dollar. No, that's not the way it works. What's going to happen is this person is going to have what they need, but the question is whether or not you are going to merit to be the giver. So, now that you are the person who merits to be the giver, what happens? You're the recipient of that blessing that you had the privilege to be the messenger of the Almighty. So that's the first thing that, again, you look in all the commentaries, they'll all share the same idea is that the Torah is teaching us is that the giver is the true recipient. They receive the privilege, they receive the merit and, by the way, they receive the satisfaction. They receive the satisfaction where their gift was sort of like the Almighty decreed that this person should receive this charity and you were the messenger that the Almighty sent, through which this gift should be brought to this individual.

03:23
But I want to share a different idea. Our sages tell us that v'yik chulit ruma and you shall take from me this gift. It should have been written as v'yitnu and they shall give not, they shall take from me a gift, they shall give a gift. He says a different idea, a different idea, a different idea. You see, when God wanted the temple to be built, people were donating gold, they were donating silver. That needed to be done with the pureness of heart. Ashi yudven elibo.

04:09
It doesn't have to be so when you're giving charity. When you're giving charity, you don't have to give with your entire heart, but when you give to the temple, it has to be with the entire heart. You know, there's a known statement. It says that every person Talmud says this that every person based on the heart with which they gave to the temple, and the purity of heart that came along with it was how it was allocated. You know, nobody wants to give for the electric. No one wants to pay for the electricity. Who wants to pay for it? To upkeep the electricity? Nobody wants to pay for that overhead, but based on the purity of heart was how high I want to give to the gold for the altar. I want to give for the copper of the laver right, I want to give for the important things. How do you know if yours is going to be for the important things? Well, based on your purity of heart. The based on the purity of heart is how dignified your gift was allocated to.

05:29
So our sages tell us something very, very important Is that when you give to the temple, you have to remove all of your own personal agendas. When you give to charity to a poor person, it doesn't have to be with the purity of heart. It can even be that you gave it out of guilt, you gave it because you were uncomfortable. They pressured you. You're uncomfortable, you still get the mitzvah. You still get the full mitzvah of giving charity. Of course we know that there's many levels in our charity giving. It's how we give it Smile, that we give it with the care, with the concern. But even if you don't, even if you don't, you still get rewarded. You still get rewarded for the mitzvah of charity that you performed.

06:19
But when you give to the temple, when you're giving to the offering to the trumasi, to the turuma, to the gift of the tabernacle, that has to be with a purity of heart, and the purity with which a person gave his gift is how important that gift was. You know, the verse states If a person's heart becomes arrogant and they forget God, the person is very wealthy, they succeeded in business and they amassed an enormous wealth. You can start getting convinced that you are so high and holy You're high on the hog, as we say in Texas. Right, you feel like you. You made it. Be very, very careful.

07:22
The Torah warns us Ve'amarta b'levavcha, and you'll say in your heart kochi ve'otsem yod di'oseli yisachayel hazeh, my strength, my wisdom, my talents, that's what brought me this success. Ve'zochartas yashem l'kecho ki hu anusen l'cho ko achlast yisachayel. Remember that all of your success comes from Hashem. It is our obligation to recognize, to bring this thought into our consciousness, that everything is from Hashem and therefore, now, all of my success, all of my wealth, all of my ability, not mine, it's His, because everything is from Him. And then that leads us to do the things that we do with purity of heart, because I realize that I'm just a messenger of the Almighty. It's not me making this decision. Oh, I'm going to decide. Now I will decide, but for a different reason, not because it's me. I'm deciding because I'm a messenger of Hashem and I'm realizing that everything that the Almighty has given me, he has given me as a gift so that I can properly allocate it with responsibility, with ensuring that it's going for a good cause, with ensuring that it's properly used.

08:57
When the Almighty wanted us to build a temple, a tabernacle, when the Almighty wanted us to build a temple, a tabernacle, god wanted it to come from people who their hearts were giving because they knew that it all came from the Almighty. So what happens here? The Almighty gives the money to the person and the person gives it back to the Almighty. You understand how that works. It goes right back. But what do we do with it? Do we use it to purify us? So we receive it, it comes into our possession and now we let go of it. We give it away. With what purity of heart was it given away? And that's what the Torah is talking about in the portion of Terumah Tikru est Terumah.

09:50
Si you are getting the gift from the Almighty with purity, are you also giving it with purity, or are you giving it with disdain? Are you giving it with lackluster excitement? Nah, I really don't want to. I'm being pressured to do this. In what way are you giving it the same way you received it? How many times has someone prayed? I've seen this many times where people pray for something and they get it, but then they don't attribute it to the blessing from the Almighty. They attribute it you know, I happen to be very smart in business and I negotiated a good agreement and I got the raise because I proved my value to the company. No, hashem made it happen, but now you're taking credit for it. Is that the purity of heart? But imagine, from the Almighty's side, you're taking credit for it. You did nothing. I put this will into the HR department's heart. I put this and you're taking credit for it. No, no, no.

11:03
God says I want him to feel good, I want him to feel like he did it. But now, when we give it away, we have to be God-like and give the person who's receiving that good feeling the same way. We got that good feeling and we were got that good feeling and we were convinced that it was all our doing. You see, because here's the problem if a person receives the money, receives the wealth, receives the gift and is convinced that it's for me, and then, when they give the gift, they they're convinced it's my money and I'm doing them the favor. They're keeping it all for themselves. That's not the ikhulit Ruma, that's not that you shall give to me. You shall take for me. Eh, terumah, be God-like.

11:58
God gives us always in a way that is we say in our benching, in our grace, after meals, every single time we eat Bechein, bechesed, uverachamim. God gives it to us with grace, god gives it to us with kindness. God gives it to us in a way that it's like, it's so beautiful, the way in which Hashem gives us everything that we have in a way that we feel, oh feel good about it, like I did it, not really us. If we're honest, we realize that it's not us when we give. We need to give with the same attitude. We need to give no, no, no. It's all you. I'm giving because you are so special and I have a privilege to give you because you're doing valuable things, because you are a special person. I want to you understand, to be able to be God-like in our giving.

13:01
This is something which is, I think, so essential and our success, our success, is not dependent on our doings. Our success isn't because, oh, I'm so talented, I'm so gifted. I can list off many, many people who are not the brightest, who are very, very, very successful in their businesses Very, not gifted, very, not bright, and yet they're very, very successful in their business. How does that work? And I can tell you many, many people who are brilliant and cannot put food on the table. King Solomon tells us this and he reminds us all the time In Proverbs it's not the wise that have bread. It's not because people think I'm successful, because I'm very smart. One has nothing to do with the other. There's no correlation. I can show you people who are very, very unintelligent, very unsmart, who are increasingly successful financially. One has nothing to do with the other.

14:24
Our Torah portion talks about this and explains to us I'm giving you a gift. Hashem is giving us a gift. Don't take credit for it. You're a vessel through which God is giving you the opportunity to give. I want you to know something there's a very, very successful businessman who lives out in LA and he's a tremendously charitable person and he gives an enormous amount of charity. Well, more than 10%, well, more than 20%, and when you have that kind of money. It's an enormous sum of money that he's giving. He gives to Torah study, he gives to yeshivas, he gives to poor people, he gives to orphans, to widows, you name it. He's giving to those causes.

15:17
But he has a close relationship to many rabbis and he's been asking those rabbis the same question. The question is the Torah promises that those who give charity faithfully and give a minimum of 10%, which really doesn't belong to us. But if you're really, the Torah gives us a double terminology about giving a tithe which really doesn't belong to us. But if you're really aser, hidei, shetit, asher, the Torah gives us a double terminology about giving a tithe, tithe. So tithe, you shall tithe. Why? Because the same word aser is the word asher, which is to become wealthy. When you give your tithe, it's a promise that you'll become wealthy. So this individual says asks the rabbis, he says I don't understand.

16:04
I know so many people who were very, very careful. They were scrupulous about every penny that they earned to give, to make sure that they didn't go below the 10%. They gave very diligently and yet they were not successful. How is it possible that they were not successful? There's a promise. There's a promise that they will be successful. And he answered, to which many of the rabbis agreed with his analogy. Imagine that you, okay, carlos, I assign you to be the person to give out the charity for my foundation. I have a billion dollars in my foundation. I'm asking you, give the things that these are my values, these are my priorities, for you to give them out. Okay, we'll have a meeting next week, next month. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. We'll go over it. Suddenly, I realize that he's not giving to the things that are important to me.

17:07
Giving the things that are important to him. He wants to get his child into a school, so he gives them a special donation. He wants to get honored by his synagogue, so he gives a special donation. He wants to get recognized, you know, with his name on the building he gives. How am I going to feel? I have a meeting with him. I'm like what is this? What is that? Oh, you're not giving to what my causes are. You're giving to what your causes are. You're fired, gone, goodbye. He said.

17:37
Many of those people perhaps were giving to their pet projects. They're giving to their children's schools, they're giving to their synagogue, to the things they benefit from, to the things they enjoy. What's about the things that God sent your way? God sent that orphan and that widow. I know it didn't talk to you. Perhaps, perhaps it wasn't what your values are. You got an organization that doesn't exactly align with every one of your values. You didn't give them. Oh, now you're picking and choosing on Hashem's money. That's not a loyal distributor of your funds. That's not someone who is. Perhaps that means that means that whenever someone comes to us, we are obligated to give. It doesn't have to be a lot, but you have to give.

18:41
Next week is Purim and we learn from Purim, the mitzvah of giving charity. Anybody who puts out their hand for charity, you give them. You don't leave them empty-handed. That's what we learn in the Torah. You never let someone walk away from you empty-handed. That's what we learn in the Torah. You never let someone walk away from you empty-handed.

19:04
It doesn't mean it has to be a large gift. It doesn't mean that it has to be what to you is a meaningful gift. But you have to give something. That's the Jewish way. Give something, give a penny. That's the Jewish way. Give something, give a penny, give a dime, give a nickel, give a dollar, give $10, $20, whatever it is. For you that is a token gift. Give because nobody walks away with nothing. God sent an opportunity your way for you to give and you're sending them away empty-handed.

19:40
Oh, you're saying no, no, no. I'm not a real distributor of the almighty's money. It's my money and I decide. Perhaps you need to decide where the big money goes to, where the big percentage of your, the bulk of your charity goes to. But everybody who puts out their hand needs to get Because they're all messengers of Hashem to show and to test how we give, what we give and how we give.

20:11
Now again, you will fulfill the commandment of giving charity, even if you give it in an ugly way, but not to the temple. To the temple, it needs to be pure. Zahav Tahor, it was pure gold, pure silver, pure copper, because everyone who gave didn't give because they had to. That you have your charity, that you have to. When you give to the temple, it needs to be pure. That is an amazing level.

20:47
If we are able to attain that level, to be at the place where all our giving is pure, where all our giving is from our heart, hashem should bless us all that we should merit to represent Him in our heart. Hashem should bless us all that we should merit to represent Him in our giving. That we should merit that the giving that we perform should be one that's with a full heart, even if we fulfill the mitzvah without it. Yeah, we ended up doing, we did the right thing. At the end of the day, it doesn't make a difference how we got there. No, we should merit that the giving that we do give should be with a pure and whole heart. My dear friends, have a magnificent, amazing Shabbos, an amazing week ahead. We're going to do another broadcast in a minute for Parshas Tetzaveh, which is this week's portion. We're now finishing up our debt from last week. Parshas Terumah Hashem should bless us all with an incredible week, amen.

21:48 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.