Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

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

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right. That's a great question Whether or not we read both Haftorahs. When we have these special parashas of Shkolim, zochor, parah and Achodesh, do we also read the regular weekly Haftorah? The answer is no. You only read one Haftorah per week, so the Haftorah is always going on the last Aliyah, the last Maftir that was read. So if the Maftir was Shkolim, that is the Haftorah that is appropriate to read. And on Parshah Zohar, the appropriate is the one that correlates to Zohar. And same with Parah, same with HaKodesh. Now if by mistake, the Rosh Chodesh fell in on the same week of Shkalim or HaKodesh and by mistake you read the Shkalim or the HaKodesh before the regular Rosh Chodesh reading, which should go first? Why should it go first? There's a known rule, a known principle in Judaism Tadir v'she'eno, tadir tadir kodem. The regular ordinary goes before the irregular, unordinary or inordinary one. For example, when you have Shabbos and you have Rosh Chodesh, which addition to the grace after meals, to the birkas ha-mazon, do you recite first? Well, which one is more regular? Shabbos is more regular, so the Shabbos will go, and then you add the Rosh Chodesh part. Okay, it always goes like that. The more regular something is, the more steady, the more prominent of a role it takes. Therefore, you always read Rosh Chodesh before you read Parshat Shkolim. Rosh Cholim comes once a year. Rosh Chodesh comes 12 times a year, right? So therefore, you always do what's more regular first. What is even more regular than that the weekly Torah reading. You'll read the weekly Torah reading, then Rosh Chodesh, then the parasha of either Shekolim Zoch or Parah and a Chodesh. I hope that's not confusing. Thank you, did I answer your question? Okay, great, all right. Next question oh great, oh great, all right. Next question oh great, oh love, what a terrific question.

02:31
We just mentioned that the first month of the year of the Jewish calendar is Nisan. Rabbi says Anna, isn't Rosh Hashanah the beginning of the Jewish calendar? The answer is yes. Yes to what? To which one? Yeah, okay, okay. So here's the thing the beginning of the Jewish year is Rosh Hashanah. The beginning of the Jewish months is Nisan. The beginning, because we have four Rosh Hashanahs in the Jewish calendar. For example, tu B'Shvat. What is Tu B'Shvat? Have four Rosh Hashanahs in the Jewish calendar. For example Tubashvat. What is Tubashvat? It's Rosh Hashanah for the trees. Right, we have Shavuos, which is called Rosh Hashanah for the Torah. That's when the Torah was given. So there are different Rosh Hashanahs.

03:19
It's a special mitzvah to count the months from Nisan. We don't count the years from nisan, we count the months. The first month of the year is nisan. Why? Because that's when the jewish people got well, because the torah says so. That's why, but it also happens to be that that is when the jewish people were redeemed from egypt. That's when we had our, our, our um exodus. That's when we had our exodus. That's when we had the revelation of God splitting the sea for us and all of the incredible miracles that we experienced. That is the beginning of us as a people really starting to act as a nation, as a Jewish nation.

03:57
Now, we didn't receive the Torah until Sivan, which is the third month of the Jewish calendar, which is when we celebrate Shavuot. Shavuot is the day the Jewish people became a people. It's like you ask a couple so how long are you married? They don't tell you how long it is since they decided they're going to get married, or from when they got engaged, or from when they first met. They tell you when their wedding was. Our wedding was on the sixth day of the month of Sivan. That's when we got our Torah. That's when we got our ketubah, so to speak. Our Torah is like a ketubah. So that's a great question. The first of the months is the month of Nisan, the beginning of the year. The years we count from Rosh Hashanah. An excellent, terrific, poignant question.

04:53
Yes, where in the Torah are we commanded to pray? That's a very good question, because there is no commandment that says pray to me, right, but we learn it from Abraham, abraham by Yashkem Avram Baboka. Abraham rose up in the morning to pray to Hashem and Isaac in the afternoon and Jacob in the evening, continuing on their parents tradition. So Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer after he already was praying the morning prayer, based on his father's teaching. Jacob instituted the evening prayer after his father and grandfather's tradition of morning and afternoon prayers, and from here we have the morning, afternoon and evening prayers.

05:38
Now there are actual biblical verses that I can show you. I don't have them in front of me because this is not a pre-planned class of questions. I don't know what questions are going to come up but, god willing, if you remind me, next week I will try to pull up the exact verses in the Torah that teach us about the obligation, the biblical obligation, to pray, but I want to quantify this. The biblical obligation to pray but I want to quantify this that is, the prayer that we do and are obligated for every single day is not per se the prayer from the prayer book. The prayer from the prayer book is what our sages designated for us so that we can properly channel our requests, that we can properly touch all of the different notes of heaven.

06:31
The obligation for prayer is not that. The biblical obligation, the biblical obligation for prayer is to talk to Hashem. Use your own words. You don't need to be reading from a prayer book, you do not need to be standing in a synagogue and you do not need to have any particular words. You need to talk with your heart to God every day. That is a biblical obligation. What we have in our prayer books are beautiful, beautiful liturgy. It is what the rabbis prescribed for us to ensure that we properly designate our prayers in a right way. But that doesn't mean that someone who just talks out of their heart to the Almighty, that that's not authentic prayer. That is the most authentic prayer. That's our obligation. Our obligation is to do everything we can on a daily basis to communicate and talk to Hashem. You want to take a step.

07:37
There's appropriate steps, like reciting the Shema and taking one after another, learning them, understanding them, reciting them appropriately and, if a person, just a clarity, because I think there's maybe some misunderstanding about this in previous episodes of Asking Away, and that is that the most appropriate form of prayer is prayer that you understand. So if you don't understand it in Hebrew, don't say it in Hebrew. If you don't understand it in the language that is written in the prayer book, say it in the English. I think it's very, very important for every person to have a prayer book that has a great translation, like the Art Scroll prayer book, so you can read it in English. There's only one part of prayer which we are obligated to recite in Hebrew as well, and that is the Shema. The Shema, we say it in Hebrew and you can say it in English as well, because it's very important for us to know what it is that we're saying. But if a person doesn't understand the Asherah, say it in English as well, because it's very important for us to know what it is that we're saying. But if a person doesn't understand the asherah, say it in English. And, by the way, this doesn't only apply to someone who's new to reading. Someone who doesn't speak fluently in Hebrew probably doesn't either understand what they're saying, even though they can read it. The obligation is to know what you're saying, even though they can read it, the obligation is to know what you're saying and therefore it's worthwhile investing in a good translation of the prayers that we can talk to Hashem and, like I've said so many times, when someone prays word for word, beginning to end, every morning, it is impossible, it is impossible to not dance for joy all day long. You will be so grateful, so thankful for all the incredible gifts that Hashem has bestowed upon you. You're like in ecstasy. It's amazing. Such a great expression of love, of thanks, that it takes you to a whole new level. All right, next question Okay, so this is an excellent question that I think deserves some of our attention. So what is maftir and what is appropriate for a bar mitzvah boy? You're saying that only 12 years ago, when you were bar mitzvah, that you got your portion of maftir that you needed to read for your bar mitzvah, and today you see that some of the bar mitzvah boys are reading the entire portion. So let me tell you like this Firstly, there is no obligation for a boy becoming bar mitzvah to read anything.

10:35
Okay, it is a custom. Only for a bar mitzvah boy to read from the Torah. You're not obligated to read from the Torah, by the way, you're not even obligated to receive an aliyah. It's a custom. It's a nice custom, which now signifies that this child is no longer a child, they're now an adult. They could be called up to the Torah.

10:57
There is no obligation, and I think it's criminal sometimes that parents force their children to do the entire portion. For some kids, they can't read it. Why are you forcing them to do it? And for some children, they don't know the cantillations. Some people don't know the trup. Okay, it's a nice thing for them to learn. My children, I told them, it's up to them. Do what you want. You want to read the whole portion? Read the whole portion. You want to read the whole portion? Read the whole portion. You want to read part of it? You're not doing me a favor, it's up to you. Okay, there's no obligation for a bar mitzvah boy to read the entire portion and some portions are very, very long. Right, my brother, my oldest brother, had a very long parasha, like over 100 verses, and my other brother. My second brother had a very short portion like 32 verses. He had one of the shortest portions and I had. In between I have my Bar Mitzvah.

12:01
Parsha was Parsha, tzav. Tzav is two letters, tzadik and Vav vav, which is 96, and that's also how many verses there are in that portion. One of the only that the name of the portion is also the numerical value of how many verses there are in that parsha. I think it's maybe the only one, but I read for my bar mitzvah on my own. I decided the week before that I was going to do it, so I sat down and started hustling that week to learn it. I did, I think the first four and the last one, maybe two, and that was it. You know that's what I was interested in doing, so I did.

12:40
It's not. I see sometimes children you know they read the first aliyah very well and then the second, third, fourth is a real painful experience for the congregation because they're very slow, they're not well prepared. Now again, it's very praiseworthy. If a child wants to take on that challenge and read the whole portion, great. But I don't believe there's any halacha that requires such a thing. In fact we see the opposite.

13:08
You know, very interesting custom we don't let a bridegroom, a groom, okay, a chasen, we don't let him say a dvar Torah at his own celebration of his marriage. They always sing him down at his own celebration of his marriage. They always sing him down Every single celebration of the seven days after marriage. The groom gets up to say an idea, a dvartora, a drash, and they sing him down. You know why? Bar Mitzvah boys too. They don't let him say his thing, because what's about the kid who can't? You don't want to embarrass that kid who can't. So the custom is that you sing everybody down and the kid who insists to say it, he can insist to say it. But the kid who doesn't, who can't oh, they sung me down, so I can't, they don't. Let me say my. You know it's like. So everyone is covered.

14:11
You know the sensitivity that we need Every person not everyone is able to give, to have the confidence to stand up in front of 10, 20, 50, 100,. Some people have stage fright, some people don't have what to say, so, in concern for that, there's no obligation for them to do so and we sing them down. Even the groom he's going to be standing there in front of his bride. His bride wants to hear how he's going to say something special and he doesn't know what to say. He's not so scholarly, he doesn't know how to present properly. His thoughts aren't all worked out. They sing him down. He looks at his bride. They don't let me speak. They don't let me speak. He doesn't have what to say. That's good. We don't want to embarrass him, especially not in front of his new bride. Now, a groom who does have what to say and can speak. So he says okay, guys, guys, guys, okay, I got it. I got it. He sang me down, but let me just share a few words. Okay, and then he can say it. But like this you've made cover for the groom and bar mitzvah boy who cannot.

15:30
And I think the same thing applies with the Torah reading. There should not be an obligation. There are some congregations that do not allow a bar mitzvah boy to read more than the last maftir of the Torah portion, which is always about three, four verses. That's it. That's it why Because you're going to have that kid who's going to now feel pressure to read the whole portion and he can't do it. And also it could be a very, very challenging thing for the congregation, because the congregation is sitting there, people are tired, people are hungry on Shabbos morning and this kid is struggling to read through a verse. That's not fear to the congregation either. It's not fear to the child. It's definitely not fear to his parents.

16:11
I think my, if I ran a congregation, I would say that if a child wants to, you can read the last maftir of the Torah portion and that's it. No need for a child to work so hard to then struggle through it. Now again, if a child is very, very, very talented and he picks it up and he is able to do it great Kabbalah HaBrocha, let him be blessed with the privilege of doing so. But it should definitely not become the congregation's custom that every child reads the entire portion. I think it's undue stress for those little children.

16:59
Again, not that I think for a second that it's not good to push your children a little bit, sometimes beyond what they think is possible, sometimes very important for a child. Oh, I can't do it. And suddenly they see, yes, you can, you're more capable than you give yourself credit for. That's also sometimes the case that I'm concerned that there are many children who don't come to synagogue because they don't want to be in that pressure and that's what I prefer. Everybody come and everyone feel you know what? I did a little bit, I did something and you know again, there's no mitzvah for it. There's no mitzvah for it. I know it's called a bar mitzvah. Sometimes it's more bar than mitzvah, right, but let's make it a mitzvah so that the child feels elevated and uplifted in the process. All right, yes, okay, very good question. I want to talk about this, all right. So this is something that a great question.

17:53
And kneeling, prostrating, bowing, all of that in Judaism. So the first thing is like this is that I grew up in a very, very. The first eight years of my schooling was in a Hasidic school. I'm not a Hasidic Jew by any stretch of the imagination. I try to just be a God-fearing Jew. That's it, okay, no other labels.

18:23
But one of the things that they instilled in us is that you never kneel on your knees, ever. Why? That's not the Jewish way. We don't go on our knees, even if in a medical emergency sometimes you'll see medical professionals they'll get on their knees to be at the high One knee, not both knees. Right, that's not the way A Jew doesn't go on his knees. That's the pagan ways.

18:47
They go on their knees, they bow on their knees, except there's one exception Rosh Hashanah, yom Kippur, on our high holidays, on our high holidays, we prostrate, we get on our knees and then we bow with our heads not touching the ground. We have something separating between us and and you'll go to the synagogue, by the way, and in the synagogue they'll give out paper towels that your knees aren't directly on the floor and your head doesn't directly touch the floor. But that's the way it was done in the temple. Today we don't have a temple, we don't have the service of the temple, so we kneel like we do, but the only time we do that is the high holidays For Shoshana. We do it once, each of the days, and on Yom Kippur we do it, I believe, four or five times on Yom Kippur. So that's about kneeling.

19:35
But every day when we pray, we bow, we bend our knees and we bow in the Amidah four times the beginning and the end of the first blessing. When you say Baruch, you bow, you bend your knee. Atah, you bow Hashem, you're upright. When you say the name of Hashem Again. When you Atah, you bow Hashem, you're upright. When you say the name of Hashem Again. When you say Baruch, you bend your knee, knees. When you say Atah, you bow, and before you say the name of Hashem, you stand upright. The beginning and end of the first blessing. Then by Modim, which is the second to last prayer, the second to last blessing of the Amidah, the beginning and end. We also bow. Okay, we bend our knees and bow, and that's giving thanks to Hashem. So that's the only form of bowing that we have. We don't again.

20:38
We don't kneel right, because that was a practice that was taken from the way we serve Hashem in our temple, taken by many other religions. It was taken by the Catholics, it was taken by the Muslims, it was taken. All of this is the way we do it and because it was taken by the other religions, we don't act in that way. Part of our Torah is to be distinguished from the nation and we act differently. If they kneel, we don't kneel.

21:10
By the way, the halacha says we studied this before in our Everyday Judaism podcast, I think maybe it was Simeon 1 or 3 or 4, that if they have white shoes, we go with black shoes. They have black shoes, we go with white shoes. They have white shoestrings, we have black ones, we have different. We have to be distinguished, our job and that's a message for us, not to stick it to them. It's for us to remember that we're we're always held to a different standard, and part of the thing that's very inconvenient and many Jews don't like to hear this is that anti-Semitism is us. We need to be reminded sometimes by the nations of the world that we're different. Look why are they treating us differently? Because we are different and we need to remember that we're different.

22:15
And the more we try to assimilate and become like the nations of the world, the more they hate us. Why? But we're doing everything the way we're, like everybody else. We just want to be like you. We'll change our names like you. We'll wear our clothes like you.

22:31
By the way, the Jewish people, what did we do when we were in Egypt? We didn't change our names, we didn't change our language. We didn't change our clothes. That kept us distinguished. That's what preserved us.

22:47
When we try to be like them, they spit us out further and there's more hatred, and it really is tragic when you see these stories in the news Today, 2025, what are we in March? And you see protesters that are Jews that are fighting for our enemies. It's like what's wrong with these people, because they're trying, deep, deep down in their subconscious they're saying the more we are like the nations of the world, the more they're going to love us. And that worked how many times in our history? Zero.

23:29
The more we are like them, the less they want us, the more we represent the values of the Torah and we say, no, we're distinguished, we're different. It doesn't mean that we're going to point fingers at them and say, oh, look at you, look at you, we're so great. No, we're more obligated as a nation. We're more obligated to act in a way that is more dignified. Yeah, we're going to have to be more accurate with our finances and the way we do business. We're going to need to be more appropriate in the way we act, in the way we conduct ourselves. This is the basics of our, the way we need to act.

24:17
We're supposed to be distinguished, we're supposed to be a mamleches kohanim v'goy kadosh, a nation of priests that is holy. You know, a priest dresses in a different garment than the regular people that come to their church. Why? Because they're different. You know where it says that In our Torah. Our Torah tells us, all of us, the Jewish people, we're all like priests and therefore we need to wear clothes that distinguish us. We're different. We're in this world, in this generation of this equality and plurality, and we all are the same. That's not true. We're not all the same. We're uniquely different. That doesn't make you better, it doesn't make them worse, it doesn't make us higher and them lower. We're different, Like we said so many times apples and oranges, they are just different.

25:34
Our job as Jewish people, our job, is to be distinguished from the nations of the world, and that's our responsibility. So when they kneel, we don't, until we have the temple and we're able to restore it, and at that time all the nations of the world will see ki Hashem ulu'kim. On that day, all the nations will see that Hashem is one and his name is one, and we're longing for that day, very special, that people should be able to look at us as a people and be able to say that's a Jew. Yes, so I do want to correct something that I said that we bow four times in our prayer, three times a day. I need to add correctly thank you for pointing this out in our Aleinu, which is the end of our prayer we say for they bow to vanity and emptiness and pray to a God which cannot save, but we bend our knees, bow and acknowledge our thanks before the king who reigns over kings, the Holy One. Blessed is he. So that's when we do as well. So it is five times, three times a day. So in the Amidah it's four, and then at the end of the prayer, of each of our three prayers daily. But again, it's not kneeling, it's just bowing and making sure we give appropriate thanks to Hashem. So that's a very good point. Thank you for bringing that up Right? So maybe because you're kings, it says that the king, that a king should bow at the beginning, at the end of every, every, every. Actually, a king stays bowing the entire Amidah. Why? Why does a king stay bowing? Let's bring this up.

27:34
When we're already talking about bowing, I think it's worth it to mention that it says that a king should be bowing the entire Amidah. Why? It's very easy for a king to become arrogant. Look at me, look at me. So wealthy People pay their taxes to me, everyone honors and respects me. It can get to their head.

27:57
A Jewish king had to always walk around with a Torah scroll. He had to always be holding a Torah and when he prayed three times a day he bowed the entire Amidah. Right, he was in. The entire Amidah was bowing. Why? Remember who is the king of all kings? You're a king of flesh and blood, but you go like that. Hashem is the king of all kings. Hashem created heaven and earth and that was a constant reminder to a king to know, don't let it get to your head, you're not all that great. Yes, sir.

28:40
So we? Well, the proper form of Oseh Shalom is you bow, you take three steps back. But that's also when we leave a synagogue, we also bow. But it's a different form of bowing. It's not like when you're saying the name of Hashem, you know, in the prayer, the prayer of L'chad Odi Ooh, what a holy prayer. Right, by Bo'e v'Shalom. Okay. So there are a couple of other instances here, okay. So there are a couple of other instances where we do bow that's correct by Oseh Shalom, when we take the three steps back at the end of those three prayers morning, afternoon and evening we take. When we say we take three steps back, bowing, then we bow to the left. We say Oseh Shalom, b'mamav. We bow to the right Huya, oseh Shalom Aleinu. And then we bow forward. I'll call Yisrael B'mur, amen, right, oseh Shalom Aleinu, ose. And then you stand upright. So those are the three bowings. We also bow when we leave synagogue, that's correct. And then we also, when we accept the Shabbos, we say Bo'i v'shalom, bo'i v'shalom by the way also someone who gets an aliyah by the Torah. So they say Baruch Hu et Hashem Havorach, they also bow the Torah. So they say Baruch Hu et Hashem Havorach, they also bow. And then when they say Baruch Hashem Havorach, they also bow. So there are other times that we bow as well.

30:06
But you asked about L'chad Odi, so let's talk a little bit about the introductory prayer to Shabbos, the whole Kabbalah Shabbat, not only L'Chadodi. It's very interesting that this is an addition to our prayer that was not instituted by the men of the Great Assembly, which is why in most congregations the Chazen does not stand by the Amud, which is where the Chazen usually stands. They stand by the Bima, where the chazen usually stands. They stand by the bima To distinguish between an ordinary prayer that was constructed by the men of the Great Assembly versus a prayer that was added later on. And because this is a prayer, an introductory prayer, which is a beautiful prayer. It's all verses from Psalms, different chapters from Psalms, and then we have the special song of L'Chadodi, and we'll get into this when we get into the prayer podcast. When we get all that far, probably in 17 years from now no, it'll be quicker.

31:09
But L'Chadodi, which was written by Rav, no, rabbi Shlomo El-Kabetz. Rabbi Shlomo Al-Kabetz was a great Kabbalist. He wrote that prayer and the words are just magnificent. And to understand the words of each of those stanzas, it's really incredible. And now we sing those. Traditionally we sing the L'chad Odi, but at the end of the L'chad Odi we say Boi v'shalom ateres bala, and we say Boi chala, boi chala, shabbat malchita, say come my bride, come my bride, my Shabbos queen, and at that point we bow as well. We're facing the back.

31:58
Now let me just back up a little bit what happens here. Very interesting that we know that when we go to a wedding, when the bride enters the room and she starts walking down the aisle, everybody stands up and faces the bride. That's our weekly tradition from Shabbos. When the Shabbos queen, which is our bride, you know that the Midrash tells us that every day of the week had a partner. And Shabbos came to God with a complaint. It's not fear, sunday is married to Monday. Tuesday is married to Wednesday. Thursday is married to Friday. Who's my mate? I'm Shabbos. I'm all alone. I don't have a mate. It's not fear, shem says. Don't worry, your mate is going to be the Jewish people. The Jewish people are going to get dressed in special clothes for you, they'll buy flowers for you, they will cook special food for you, they will treat you like a queen, and that's why we call it the Shabbos queen. We are married to Shabbos. So what happens?

32:57
When we go to synagogue Friday night and the sun is about to set and we're in our synagogue and now Shabbos, the Shabbos queen, is about to enter, what do we do? Like every bride, we stand up and we face the back of the synagogue, where the door opens and the queen walks in, the bride walks in and we welcome the bride. That's our bride. Now, we all know that brides have bridesmaids. What does that mean? That's the Shabbos angels who escort the bride. And it says that, from synagogue, those angels escort the bride to your home, and that's why we sing Shalom Aleichem.

33:37
What is the Shalom Aleichem that we're singing? It says that, from synagogue, those angels escort the bride to your home. And that's why we sing Shalom Aleichem. What is the Shalom Aleichem that we're singing? We're welcoming those angels into our home, but now that the Shabbos table is set and all the food is ready, now the angels are not concerned that the Shabbos queen is not going to be taken care of.

33:56
So what do we do? We say Tz'setchem l'shalom, you see that everything is good here. Boachem l'shalom, your coming should be with blessing. Baruch huni l'shalom, bless us that we continue to have peace in our home. But now that everything is good, tsetchem l'shalom, you can go on your own. And that's what we thank the angels for bringing the Shabbos Queen into our home.

34:17
And what do we do? Immediately after that? We sing chapter 31 from Proverbs, which is Eshet Chayil, which our sages tell us was written by Sarah, our matriarch, which is thanking the Queen of every home. Because, although we have the Shabbos queen, the mother, the woman of valor, who makes things happen, who makes things happen? The woman of the home. Men are great warriors, men are great. They accomplish unbelievable things, but don't forget they all came from a woman, every single one of them, and it's important for us to remember this, that the foundation of every home is the woman, and we don't forget it.

35:14
Every Shabbos we say that. We declare it again and again every Friday night as we begin the Shabbos meal. Before we even start, we declare everything that goes on in a home is from the woman. All right, so that's just to address that. Boi chalef, we bow, we welcome the Shabbos queen in, and now Shabbos is upon us. All right, so that's a great question. So we identified a few of the different bowings that we experience in our Jewish life on a regular basis. All right, any other questions? All right, yes, mark, go for it. All right, so your question is about how do we bring in Shabbos into our week. So, firstly, part of our prayer, at the end of our daily prayers in the morning, we say today in synagogue, we said today is the first dayon Shabbat. Today in synagogue, we said today is the first day to Shabbat. It's Sunday, right, we just finished Shabbat, but we're already excited for the coming Shabbat. So that's a daily reminder. We're one day closer to Shabbat. That's a daily reminder.

36:26
But also, you ever go to the supermarket, do like the great Tanayic sages. You see something special. Ah, I'm going to get this for Shabbat. I want this to be special for Shabbat. Get something special. I try when I go to shop if I do on Friday or Thursday I want to get something special for my children for Shabbat. Something, a treat, a something that they will enjoy, that they'll be excited because I want them to, I want to put it into their consciousness something special. So, mark, if there's something that you enjoy to eat, get it special for Shabbat. That's my Shabbos treat. You can get that on a Sunday and now your whole week is imbued with that excitement for Shabbat. This should be.

37:18
Everybody should have something which is special, including clothes. You know I wear a lot of ties, but I have ties that are designated for Shabbos. I have shirts that are designated for Shabbos. I have suits that are designated for Shabbos, things that are just for Shabbos. I have shirts that are designated for Shabbos. I have suits that are designated for Shabbos, things that are just for Shabbos. So if something, a special occasion, comes up during the week, so I can have nice clothes for it, but I don't want to use my Shabbos.

37:42
Shabbos is Shabbos. It's a whole different part of our life and the weekdays should build up to the Shabbos. Now, we mentioned previously about the L'chad Odi and the whole Kabbalah Shabbat. I will go back to Shabbos in a second. So we, particularly in most synagogues, the Chazan does not stand by the Amud, by the regular place where the Chazan stands, because that's not one of the regular prayers that was designated by the men of the great assembly, because it was added on later and is in addition to our regular prayer. It has different we. We pray from the chazan. The one leading the congregation leads it from a different place. He leads it from the bima, which is in the center of the synagogue, to distinguish between the regular morning, afternoon and evening prayers of Shachar's Benchamarev. So they'll start at the bima and then they'll go up For Mariv. They'll go to the Amod, to the regular place where they pray. Because again, there's a distinguished difference that needs to happen between things that were established by the men of the Great Assembly. Everything that they did was through prophecy. What was written, what was later constructed as part of the Kabbalah Shabbat, was also done through revelation, but on a different level. They weren't the men of the Great Assembly, they were Kabbalists, and every part of our prayer needs to be prescribed through Kabbalistic teachings through Kabbalistic revelations, but about Shabbos, to try to find a way.

39:20
I would even say, if there's something, one small thing that could be special, this is for Shabbos, even a drink. You know my children have special cereals that are just for Shabbos. It's a Shabbos, even a drink. You know my children have special cereals that are just for Shabbos. It's a Shabbos cereal, special for Shabbos. So they're excited for it To them. It gives them an excitement for Shabbos, even the cereal. A person has a special drink that they like, save it for Shabbos, and that way the entire week circles around that.

39:50
And I think we should all be blessed, god willing, with an incredible, incredible gift of Shabbos every week. That it shouldn't be just like it's that day that we don't work and that day that we miss out on what's going on in the world, and that day that we don't watch television and that day that we don't travel from place to place. No, it's the day of being and connecting with our true self and with the will of Hashem. All right, my dear friends, any other questions? All right.

40:20
This concludes Ask Away, segment number six. My dear friends, please send us your questions, askaway at torchweborg, and please like and share these videos and podcasts so that the algorithms can continue to spread them to other people, so that other people can hopefully learn and enjoy and join us in asking questions, because it's so important for us to ask all the time and to always know that the Torah has the answers for everything. I don't, but the Torah does you have one more question? Yeah, yes, yes, such a great point here that you're bringing up here. So here's the thing you know, when you go on that great vacation and it was really a refreshing vacation like it takes you like three days to hit back to reality. To get back to reality.

41:18
That's what Shabbos is supposed to be for us. Shabbos is like, I'm on such a high from Shabbos that, like Sunday, monday, tuesday is like is still, I still have the leftovers of Shabbos, right, I'm still carrying? Yeah, 100%, you're supposed to. Shabbos is supposed to carry us the whole week, right, that's for that week. And then suddenly, tuesday night, wednesday already, I'm so excited for the next Shabbos that's coming in and to always be. Shabbos is the center of our week. Shabbos is the delight of our week. Shabbos is the delight of our week.

41:51
Oh, yes, always high, but naturally high. Naturally high in our connection to Hashem. We don't need an external source to get high Person. You know, I've seen people who are in like a total ecstasy on Shabbos. They didn't smoke anything, they didn't snort anything. Okay, they areabbos. They didn't smoke anything, they didn't snort anything, okay, they are just high and they didn't drink anything. They are high on their relationship, on their closeness to Hashem and that's what we need to aspire to be On Shabbos, to aspire to be close to Hashem on such a high it's like a oneness with Hashem, a dveikos with Hashem, a cleaving to Hashem.

42:31
On such a high it's like a oneness with Hashem, a dveikos with Hashem, a cleaving to Hashem. Hashem can't let go, which is why there are there is the Amshen of a Rebbe, okay, the Amshen of which is a Hasidic dynasty. They're in Jerusalem and the Rebbe doesn't say Havdalah. He doesn't say the Havdalah, which separates between Shabbos and weekday, till Tuesday night. Till Tuesday night, because that's the last point, because he's so high on Shabbos he can't get out of it. He doesn't recite the Havdalah till Tuesday night. We should aspire to get to that point. But you know what? Let's make Shabbos holy. Let's take it one step at a time. Let's not try to be the Amshan of a Rebbe, right, let's just take it one step at a time. Make every day one day closer to Shabbos. Ah, one day closer to Shabbos, one day closer to Shabbos. We should all be blessed with a magnificent week. Thank you so much and have a fabulous, a marvelous, beautiful day today. Today is such beautiful weather. Enjoy it, enjoy it, take it all up and thank Hashem for it.

43:41 - Intro (Announcement)
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