Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

00:08 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Day number 104 in the Orchos Tzaddikim, the ways of the righteous, in the treasure for life edition. We're on the top of page 611 in the gate of remembrance, the Ha'asiris, the tenth thing to remember daily of the gifts that Hashem gives us and how we can maximize every single day of our lives. She yizkor mehoyu komasav ad ha'yom hazeh Im osak be'avodas yitzro o yitzro, yotzro o yitzro. Remember or calculate what? Did you follow? Your yetzahara or your yotzer or Yitzro? Remember or calculate what? Did you follow, your Yetzahara or your Yotzer, your creator? Did you follow your creator or did you follow your negative inclination? V'chein tzorach, sh'yizkor v'chol yom.

01:00
A person needs to recall every day V'meh osa avodas Hashem. Yisborach v'meh morad negdo. And a person needs to recall every day In what ways did he serve Hashem? In what way did he give in to his evil inclination? This is Yetzir Hara. A person should always be careful to always do more for Hashem than you do for yourself. Do more for Hashem than you do for yourself. And if a person did not serve Hashem all the days of his life, at least from here, from today, from right now, he should put all of his efforts. At least, from here, from today, from right now he should put all of his efforts to serve Hashem in the greatest way possible.

02:02
And the 11th remembrance, number 11. How eager and quick one runs to earn money. Oh, early in the morning I'm going to go and I'm going to get more. Make more business, make more money. Run, run, run, run run. And how does he think of this, day and night, his business? He's thinking about it all the time and consider a friend to be only one who can assist him in acquiring silver and gold through his efforts, though his efforts may be entirely in vain.

02:43
Right, I remember there was a guy, a very big philanthropist, and he was in the tri-state area. This was at least 20 years ago, 20 years ago, and I never went back to him, but you'll understand why in a minute. So he said that we asked him to help us in our early years here at Torch, you know, in Houston he can help us. He gave us a nice donation, nothing crazy. But he said if you want real money from me, you got to start bringing me business. And I was like I was taken aback. I remember I was with somebody. I was taken aback.

03:28
I'm a rabbi, I'm not in business. If I was in business? I'd be in business, but I'm not in business. I'm a rabbi. Like, what do you want? Like, what am I supposed to do? Like that's the way you'll give me charity to my organization. I said I'll give you money, bring me business, bring me business, I'll give you money. Everything's an exchange and I don't think that that's the appropriate way for someone to give their charity. I'll give you charity if you bring me money. To me, it doesn't compute.

04:08
He says a person works so hard to earn a living. A person is running here, running there, doing this, doing that, and what's if you lose it? How many people made so much and lost it? How many people saw that the money caused them more damage than it did good for them? They thought when I have money, when I become the next Jeff Bezos, I'm going to be a happily married man. Sadly, it doesn't work out that way. Right, because the money caused more damage than it did good to some potentially Okay, I'm not bringing anyone as a specific example, but I shouldn't at, but there is.

04:47
Sometimes it causes more damage than it does good. We think it's only gonna be. Oh, then when I make all that money, then everything is gonna be great and then relationships fall apart and then other things, terrible things, happen. Oh, shem Yom HaZor, a person dies. So you worked all this time and then you didn't even end up enjoying it, you died. We don't know. We hope that we all live a very long, healthy life. Amen, we'll have 120 years, right, but what do we know?

05:18
So where are we investing our time? We're investing so much effort, and all of this is to fulfill the physical needs of our lives. What are we ready to do for our soul? This is to fulfill the physical needs of our lives. Im kein ma'ayas alinishmasa. What are we ready to do for our soul? Are we ready to invest the same way? Wake up early, work, work, work, work, work, just for our soul to be enriched, not for our physical, materialistic lives to be enriched. And, by the way, that soul isn't temporary, that soul is for eternity, it lives for all eternity.

06:14
And another he says he talks more about the contrast between a spiritual life versus a physical life, a life of Shemayim, of heaven, spirituality and Arez earth, which is materialistic and physical. He says how much are we ready to invest in the physical, which is temporary it has an expiration date versus the spiritual, which is for all eternity, it has no expiration date. And how much you look at the world, how much are people investing in their physical versus their spiritual? This is something to remember every day. And we're going to finish with way number 12, hashtem esre, the 12th thing to remember every day. And we're going to finish with way number 12, the 12th thing to remember every day. Hashem knows your heart. Hashem knows everything that you think and that you intend.

07:11
Person beautifies himself really nicely. He's going to stay in the front of a king. He's going to present. Someone told me they were about to not speak to the president, they were about to speak to the Supreme Court. Oh days, he couldn't sleep. He was preparing every word he was going to say. Standing in front of the Supreme Court, what's about the court of the Almighty, the heavenly tribunal, the heavenly court? Are we preparing for that? Do we prepare for that? That person beautifies themselves. They're going to stand in front of a king.

07:47
Moshe Kosov ki ein lovel shara melech b'levusak. As Esther said just recently in our Megillah that we read you can't come to the king wearing sackcloth and ashes. Ve'kasha tiru b'Yosef atzadik. And we see by Joseph alavashalom, a blessed memory. Ve'yishlach paro ve'yikra es Yose.

08:12
What happened when Joseph was in the dungeon and the king Pharaoh calls him up as the one to interpret the dreams? What does he do? Gets a haircut, he changes clothes, why? He's about to present in front of the king, just like a mensch in front of the king. He says how about us, when we stand in front of the Almighty and we're not just at times Someone goes to the king. He's not stand in front of the Almighty and we're not just at times Someone goes to the king. He's not standing in front of the king all day. He'll go in, he gets his three minutes and he's out, but we're standing in front of the Almighty 24-7, 365, for 120 years. That's a lot, even more so. And that's, by the way, in private, in public, even when you're in your room under your blanket, you're in front of the Almighty. And when you're in your back porch and you have nobody peeking at you, hashem also sees you there.

09:22
Hashem knows exactly where and what and everything. So a person's relationship with God is everywhere. There's no limits, there's no time frame, there's no way of there's no time frame, there's no way of running away from God. He can be in a bunker, by the way, the hostages, many of whom were secular, their entire life. One of the hostages came out and the reporter asked so what did you do when you were there? He said well, I started praying every day. I said Shema every single day. And she said to him did you ever say Shema before? And he said never in my life, because a Jew is a believer through and through.

10:06
And even though he's 60 meters underground in a bunker, held hostage in absolute darkness with limited oxygen, still still he felt a closeness to Hashem, a closeness to Hashem Bechomacham. Wherever you are, you can feel that closeness to Hashem, even more, so that we can feel that way to prepare our thoughts in front of the Almighty, to dress appropriately, to carry ourselves with dignity in front of the Almighty, to think about how we can serve Hashem, to think about how we can make our experience in the things that we do for Hashem more beautiful, more satisfying to Hashem. My dear friends, this concludes day number 104. And for today, my dear friends, we're going to sign off. Have a magnificent week ahead. I hope everyone has a blessed and amazing journey in attaining at least these 12 remembrances every single day. Amen.

11:21
It's an amazing question that you're asking David, every person. Yes, yes, it's indeed true. You can ask me how I'm getting home. I'll tell you one way. You can ask him how I'm getting home and he'll tell you a different way. And they're both true and they're both accurate. And you can ask everybody around here and they'll tell you a different truth. And that's perfectly fine In Torah, we're not afraid of there being another truth.

11:42
But there is only one way that you observe the halacha, meaning. There's one way at the end of the day, the way in which we. Okay, right. So, although there can be different opinions, that doesn't mean we follow all of those opinions. But we still say and we learned this Talmud recently in our Thinking Talmudist podcast Elu ve'elu divre'elu kim chayim, they're both true, they're both the word of God. Yet we only side like one of them Okay, that doesn't mean that it's not true, it doesn't mean that it's not correct, it's just. That's not the way we follow. It doesn't make it wrong. You see, we live in a society where we think it's I'm right, you're wrong, and that's the fact. Okay, and that's it. No, you could be right too. You could be right too.

12:35
A husband and wife who are fighting. Is there a side that's right and a side that's wrong? Yes, yes, yes, that's a bad example. Okay, her side is always right. Okay, no, but here's the thing they can both be right, they can both be right. But you know what else is true? Everyone is seeing it from their perspective. Everyone is seeing it from their set of eyes, from their set of eyes. So it doesn't have to be a right or wrong me against you. It's different, and that's what a husband and wife need to learn to blend the two and come up with their own. This is you, this is me, but this is us, and this is us Parenting.

13:19
Two parents can have a totally different perspective on how to raise their child. This parent says do this, and this parent says do that. You know what? You can create a third option, which is a blend of the two. So does that mean that I was wrong and she was right? Does that mean she was right and I was wrong, or vice versa? No, it doesn't mean that you can both be right. You have to find the right way.

13:47
A that's for the child, because that's what King Solomon teaches us Even though the father has one way, the mother has another way. The child might have a third way. That is the absolute truth of what they need, and a person has to be very careful. Parents have to be very careful about that. That's what it says Hanokh l'nar pidarko educate the child according to the child's way, because every child is unique. Every child is special. You don't have the same. No parent should have the same expectations of two children when their capabilities may not be the same, when their skills, when their talents, when their athleticism are different. Everyone's given different gifts. You can't have the same expectations. It's unfair. It doesn't mean that one is better than the other. They're different.

14:46
By the way, my grandfather, when he would see the Chazonish 50 years earlier, when he saw someone who was mentally ill, or if he saw someone who was down syndrome, or if he saw someone, he would stand up for them. He was there at a much higher level of perfection. Much higher level of perfection Because Hashem took away their ability, because they were already perfect in certain areas. They did not need to have those abilities. Hashem took it away from them, but now they have other perfection that they need to accomplish in this world. It's an unbelievable thing. All right, my dear friends. This concludes tonight's program.

15:30 - 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.