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, welcome back, my dear friends, to the Everyday Judaism podcast. We are an ask away question and answers number 11. Wow, how did we get here so fast? You're amazing questions Keep me awake at night and I'm so delighted to be here today, this beautiful Sunday morning here in Houston, texas, to hear your wonderful questions and hopefully have an answer or two. So first question Mark, go ahead.

00:39 - Marc (Host)
Thanks for sharing, for sharing. Um, just to confirm. Uh, you mentioned the if. Let's see, you have a limited time. I've heard you know both, both arguments the one where you say if you only have 30 minutes, 30 muser, and then you'll realize you have more uh time, uh, but in terms of you being the rabbi that I study with, if I have five minutes, your recommendation is to study Chumash first.

01:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, great question. So in our previous episode to those who don't know what Mark is talking about we previously discussed in chapter 26 or 27 of the Kitzush Chokhan Aruch in our Everyday Judaism podcast, we talked about the importance of studying Torah every single day, and if a person has a very limited time, where should he start with? So the first is you start with the Torah.

01:35
Yes, you always start with get a verse. Get a verse, understand the verse, the light it says Osios Machkimos. The letters themselves make you bright. The letters themselves make you bright. The letters themselves make you intelligent. Just the letters, just looking at it. Which is why when they lift up the Torah in synagogue, everybody looks at it. You don't look just at the scroll, you look at the letters. You're supposed to look at the letters because the letters themselves elevate you. They take you up a few rungs in your own spiritual growth.

02:05
So, yes, if a person has just a minute, learn something that's inspiring. I'll tell you, today we have unbelievable resources. Unbelievable resources If you find a rabbi that you enjoy listening to their Torah, download their podcast, listen to it when you're jogging, listen to it when you're in your car. We can learn so much more than we give ourselves credit for. We're like, oh, listen to Joe Rogan, that's three hours that you'll never get back. But a person who and I'm not saying anything negative about anybody's if a person has clean language, if a person has positive messages great, learn great things from everyone. But if a person can study Torah and Torch is the number one supplier of Torah content on the interwebs, right, you have not only on video, on shorts, on TikTok, on you name it. Torch has also podcasts, thousands of episodes, thousands of episodes, so that it can be readily available. And we have things, we have classes that are as short as four minutes to as long as I think last week we did a 93-minute episode. I mean, we want every person to have an opportunity to study Torah for as much time as you have, and they're all divided up on YouTube and in smaller sections, bigger sections, so that, like you know, if you only have 20 minutes, you can find something which is 20 minutes long. That's that. The idea is to make it attainable for every person. Whatever time you have, utilize it. That's really the essence of it all. But a person.

03:44
Notwithstanding that, mark, great question notwithstanding that, you should have a set time to learn. So let's say you take the magnificent book of the Chafetz Chaim where it talks about. It's a short little read. It's every day as a short little read. I'm going to do that every night at nine o'clock, before I start winding down for bed. Nine o'clock is my time. Set an alarm clock. Nine o'clock this is my set time to learn. That means wherever you are in the world at nine o'clock at night. That's my set time to study Torah. Try to find it's better to do it in the morning so you start your day with that inspiration, with that influence, and like this, it puts your day into a structure, but it's important to have it. It's more important for it to be regular than for it to be longer. Okay, so if you're able to have every day at a specific time and it's better again, better for it to be shorter than for it to be irregular, which is the great.

04:46
You know, there's a great gift that was brought down to this world about a hundred years ago by Rabbi Meir Shapiro. And we have a man who's very, very great in our classroom right here who did the entire Talmud in the schedule that Rabbi Meir Shapiro designated over a hundred years ago. He had a brilliant idea. He said imagine someone who's traveling to another country. He's on the sea and he gets to the other country. What is he going to learn? Where is he going to learn? He says, if we set up something called the Dafyomi, the daily folio of Talmud study, then wherever a person is, they can always plug themselves in to Torah study.

05:27
And it was an amazing idea and in fact it was presented to the Chafetz Chaim at one of the great congress of Jewish rabbis back in the early 1900s. And it was presented to the Chafetz Chaim who was like the overarching Torah sage of the generation. Everybody recognized the Chavetz Chaim as being a saintly tzaddik, a saintly pious man, and if the Chavetz Chaim would approve it, everybody will accept it. And the young Rabbi Meir Shapiro presented this idea he was a very young rabbi I think he was 22 years old at the time Presented his novel idea to the Chavetz Chaim. The Chavetz Chaim loved it.

06:13
See, he asked the Chavetz Chaim you know when we go and speak in front of all the rabbis, can you present it? He said, no, you're going to present it, but I'm going to ask you to do me a favor. He says when the Congress starts, when the meeting starts, let's say at 10 o'clock in the morning, I want you to come a few minutes late. You walk in a few minutes late, a few minutes late, okay. So the young Rabbi Meir Shapiro walks in a few minutes late into the meeting and, of course, the Chavetz Chaim, the great Chavetz Chaim. As this young rabbi walks in, the Chavetz Chaim stands up for him. The Chavetz Chaim is standing up for this young rabbi. He says, my dear friends, a man of considerable greatness has walked into our midst and everyone's like, shocked. Like the Chavetz Chaim is standing. You know what it means that like you have the highest ranking rabbi of the generation who's standing up for this young rabbi.

07:10
He says he has an idea that we must all listen to very carefully and he asked him to present his idea and if this is the man the Chavetz Chaim respects, we all respect him. And, of course, everybody accepted his presentation. And today you have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people across the globe who study the daily folio of Talmud, and Gary went at least once you did the whole cycle. It's an amazing accomplishment to learn the Talmud, and they say more than it's a daf, it's a yomi, it's a consistency of every single day, nonstop, and that's the gift of consistency in Torah study. And this is what we learned, this is what the Torah teaches us. We need to have a consistency. So, yeah, you know what You're busy.

08:06
You're running a business, you have a lot of employees, you have a lot of responsibilities. That's great, it's fine. No one's taking that away from you. Have a set time to plug in with the Almighty, and it's not only prayers morning, afternoon, evening, it's also studying Torah so that you fill yourself up with Hashem's Right. And that's, I hope, a good answer to your question, mark. Thank you very, very much. I appreciate it. Okay, who's next? You have a follow-up Go for it.

08:37 - Marc (Host)
You mentioned that if we only have a couple of minutes, we're going to focus on just Torah. Now, does that necessarily mean that we should be focusing on this week's parasha? No, any piece of Torah from the five books. Any piece of Torah from the five books Exactly.

08:53 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Any piece of Torah has the power to transform your life forever. So it doesn't have to be this week's Torah portion, it can be any Torah portion. I mean, you look at last week's Torah portion, read it about the Kedoshim. Oh, my goodness, the entire portion is telling you how to be holy. Right, that doesn't take a day of the week, it doesn't take a day of the year, it's every day, it doesn't? You know? It's like it doesn't have to be. Oh, it's not this week's Torah portion. I shouldn't learn it. No, learn everything, because it's your Torah, it's Hashem giving you guidance in how to maximize your life. So it's the greatest gift in the world that we have that we can sit, the greatest privilege that we can sit and learn Torah. And you know what? There's amazing books out there. I highly recommend the Little Medrash Says on every Torah portion. You know what, if you can't read the Stone Edition, which goes, read the Stone. You can't do the Stone Edition with the English translation, beautiful English translation. Read the stone. You can't do the stone edition with the English translation beautiful English translation.

09:54
There's commentaries which explain every question you're going to have. Explain in the commentary Right on the bottom. It's all in simple English. There's no Hebrew phrases, there's no Hebrew terminology, all fully translated. You can't do that. You can open up the Little Medrash. It'll tell you the entire storyline of the weekly Torah portion. It will give you insights in some of the Midrashic background to the stories. It's really an eye opening. And if you know that already and you want to take the next step, you can learn.

10:21
The regular Midrash says you can learn the weekly Midrash. There's look, we have over here about a hundred different books explaining each Torah portion and giving us insight. Because and there's no limit, there's no limit I guarantee you you can listen to Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe's Parsha podcast and it's never enough. It's never enough. It's so incredible, it's so amazing, right? And you then, if you like, say, okay, nebuch, his brother has a Parsha review podcast. I'll give him some attention too. It's fine, you know, I guarantee you there's something unique you will learn from every class. There's something special that you will, by the way, make the Torah your own, Make it your own, think of your own ideas, and if it doesn't go to the rabbi, it could be whoever it may be and say you know, I was thinking about this week's Torah portion.

11:16
What do you think? Is it MS or not? Is it truth or not? He says no, no, it's nonsense. Like my rabbi told me, you have to have a source for it. So maybe I have to look further, find a source, or maybe align my way of thinking with the way the Torah thinks. But make the Torah yours. It is yours, own it, and that's the encouragement of our sages. Don't let it just sit on a shelf and collect dust. All right, great question, mark. Next question Carlos. Go for it.

11:49 - Anna (Host)
Completely changing subjects. Good.

11:51 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Go for it, completely changing subjects.

11:52 - Anna (Host)
Good, go for it. What's the shortest? Or number guard, I can cut my pace.

12:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Oh, very good. Okay, so let's give some background. The Torah tells us that a Jewish person, a Jewish man, is not allowed to cut the corners of their hair. Okay, there's two different laws about this. Number one is the corners and the second is you're not allowed to cut on the five bones of the face. So the chin, these two bones and these two bones cannot be, you cannot cut those with a razor. That's a different law. Here the law is about cutting the corners of your face. You can't cut it shorter than you can grab the hair. So if it's a buzz cut and you can't grab the hair, it's too short. You have to be able to at least hold on to the hair. The halacha says that you can't cut it. Now, you see, many Hasidic people will have the long, curly hair. You'll have people like myself.

12:58
I have my payas. It's not long and curly, but this is what I grew up with, this is my custom. So this to me is very important Part of my. Actually, one time I went to my regular barber. My barber knows I'm like I'm fanatic about this. Okay, don't cut my payas, don't cut it. The regular barber. He knows, you know, not Jewish, but he knows Right. So since then I went to I go, only go to a Jewish barber. But but I, you know, I I tell the guy don't cut the side. The side curls, whatever they call it, okay, no problem. Side curls, whatever they call it, okay, no problem.

13:30
One week I go to the barber and I forgot to mention it and I just went on with my day. I shower after I get ready for Shabbos. I usually get my haircut on Friday and I shower and get myself ready for Shabbos and I am Friday night. They asked me to be the chazen in shul and for some reason, in the middle of me being the chazen, I was thinking about the barber and that I forgot to tell him not to cut my pace and I slowly feel he cut them off and I was like almost had a heart attack there. I'm not kidding, I almost fainted at, you know, leading the services I was. So it's heart attack there. I'm not kidding, I almost fainted at leading the services I was. So it's the first time in my life that I don't have my.

14:17
Now, does that mean I did anything wrong? No, because I still have the corners of my. You understand, you want to add something? Add, that's fine. But that doesn't make it that if you don't have it, oh, you didn't fulfill the mitzvah, no, don't have it. Oh, you didn't fulfill the mitzvah, no, the basic premise of the mitzvah is do not cut the corners of your face, okay. So you don't cut the corners, okay. So, okay, fine, it has to be sizable here that you can touch it, you can hold it, that's it and that's till the edge of your ear, till this, all right, it would be the edge. Till this, where this hole. Okay, so that's why you have sideburns. That's the Jewish sideburns, that's what it is okay.

15:00
Now, if someone wants to grow a beard, grow a beard. There's no halacha that says you have to grow a beard. There's no halacha that says that Now, there are some people who want to be extra stringent says you shouldn't cut it with a razor, right, so then I'm not going to cut it at all, that's fine, you can do that. But it doesn't mean that if someone does cut it, they're doing something wrong. You could do it with not with a razor, right. You can use a shaver and you can cut it with a shaver, not a razor, not a razor. You cannot put razor on your skin, okay. Razor on your skin. Okay, a man is not allowed to put halachically. You're allowed to do the mustache with a razor.

15:35
But some people say I don't want to touch any blade on my face. I don't want any blade. Okay, fine, why? Because we don't want to get like you know, it's like you don't want to get too close to you know. Okay, a person has to be very, very careful about that.

15:48
So there's really two different pieces here, and one is not to cut with a razor, and the second thing is not to cut the corners, and that's if you want to see, I can show you a diagram later of exactly the exact area. But the amount is it has to be at least something that you can grab, that you can hold on to. That's the very minimum. So that's an excellent question, and it seems like from your beard that you're not having any plans of cutting off your. I don't know, I'm not judging. It seems like it's very fashionable Beards are very fashionable today which is like this is my hostage beard. So please don't judge me. God willing, be'ezos, hashem, hostages, come home. I'll have to make a new decision. My wife started liking it now, so it's a different issue. All right, I hope I answered your question. Okay, great, great.

16:40 - Anna (Host)
Next question. So I have problems reading and so, historically, I've left multiple books open simultaneously, because the easiest read for me is to read a couple of sentences and then move on, and then read a couple of sentences and then move on, and then read a couple of sentences and then circle back. So I'm not covering holy books. And, um, when have all my letters gone? Can I get them back? And of course, I'll start covering so beautiful question.

17:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
I love the purity of the question and I think like this Ultimately, we can't be too overly superstitious about this. Okay, I try, I do my best. I always try to take a piece of paper and, if I'm able to, if I'm stepping away from my desk for my study, I'll just cover it Because I don't want to lose my place. I want to come back, so I just cover it. If it's possible for a person to do that, great. It's just a clever idea so that we don't want our Torah to disappear. The idea is behind it. What's the idea behind it Is that it would show a lack of respect to the Torah we're trying to attain that. We just leave it sitting there. It's like the book is just open and it's not. It's not, we're not, we're not. We're letting it just sit around. It's like you wouldn't do that with your dinner, right? You don't just leave your dinner. Once you're not serving dinner anymore, you close it up, put it in the refrigerator. The idea is you don't just leave it open and it be like sort of neglected. So what do we do to repair it? We show our caution, moving forward, say Hashem, talk to Hashem. There's no middleman here. It's direct. So talk to Hashem and say Hashem, if I may have lost anything before knowing this law, can I get it back? Can you give me back this man? Now this is to those of you who are listening.

18:35
Previously in the Everyday Judaism podcast, we discussed that the halacha says that one should not leave their books open because that would bring to forgetting our Torah that we study, and we don't want to forget our Torah. So, anna, you're asking a beautiful question. If that has happened in the past, how do we get it back? Only with the request from Hashem? Hashem, please, we don't want to lose out because of our previous mistakes. Please forgive us and give us back that Torah that we may have forgotten. But, moving forward, if there's a way for a person to protect from those letters disappearing into the abyss, then that's a beautiful thing for us to be cautious and to follow this halacha of not allowing our books to be uncovered unnecessarily All right. Next question our books to be uncovered unnecessarily All right. Next question Okay.

19:25 - Anna (Host)
The next question is we're only supposed to say Kaddish for 11 months, but how long can we do something in the merit of someone who's already passed on? Is it the same ruling?

19:37 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Okay, so we can do something in the merit of someone who's passed on for as long as we live, right, and every year during the Yahrzeit, which is the day in which someone passed and people dedicate buildings in memory of someone, so every good trait that's done. We have the Don Levitt Zecharna Levracha family library, right, we have so every time we study from books in this library. It's a merit to the deceased right and people do that and it's a very beautiful thing to do because it really does add up to their points in the heavenly realm, because over here they can't do any more mitzvahs here, but we can do for them and if we're able to do something in someone else's merit, someone who's passed on, it's a very, very special thing. I'll tell you, people have a custom that on the day of the yard site after someone passes away some people do it on the day they were born as well on their birthday they'll bring some schnapps, some alcohol to synagogue. They'll bring some cookies, they'll bring something and people will sit down after prayer and they'll recite blessings.

20:45
What's the idea of that? The idea is that now you recited a blessing in the memory of that person, so you brought godliness into this world. That blessing brings godliness into this world. In whose merit? In that person's merit. So now you just added points to their account. That's the idea, the whole idea. It's not that we're eating, so now you just added points to their account. That's the idea, the whole idea. It's not that we're eating. What does the food do? No, it's that we cited a blessing. So now we elevated this world, we elevated our food, we elevated our lives, our experience, by bringing that godliness into this world in the merit of the deceased. It's a very, very powerful thing.

21:26
Now some of the very righteous people say I'm not righteous like my grandfather. My grandfather, in his will, said I want my family to recite Kaddish for me for 12 months because I'm not righteous. You know, only the righteous people can say that right. Everybody else is like you. Better not say it for 12 months. But my grandfather asked and my father, may he live and be well asked the great Halachic master, the rebel Yashiv, should he fulfill my grandfather's wish, because people are going to see. Well, this is the way he respects his father. He's going to recite the Kaddish for 12 months when his father asked him. When the person in the synagogue may not know that his father asked for that specifically. So Rabbi Yashav said to do it and to fulfill his wish, because anybody who knew my grandfather would know that that was his request. Anybody who knew would understand. Also, I don't know that anybody knows exactly how long the 11 months, 12 months, but still, yes, it's very, very important to be cautious of that. But in general, we have to understand what is Kaddish. What is Kaddish? Kaddish means sanctify, to make holy. When we say Kaddish, the words of Kaddish are so incredibly powerful, so incredibly powerful. I'll just translate it for you. You see, it's amazing. May his great name grow exalted and sanctified. Amen. It's an amazing, right. It's a declaration, declaration. May Hashem's great name grow exalted and sanctified In the world that he created as he willed. May he give reign to his kingship in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetimes of our, of our entire family, of israel, swiftly and soon. Now respond amain. And that's. Everybody answers amain. What are we saying here? That hashem's name should be glorified in the world, that everybody should recognize hashem. That everybody should recognize that he's the creator of heaven and earth, that everybody should recognize not only that, we'll see you get to to the. And then we say blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, mighty, upraised and lauded be the name of the Holy One. Blessed is he. And everybody says amain. Right, it's amazing. May his great name be blessed forever and ever. Amazing. May his great name be blessed forever and ever, beyond any blessing and song, praise and consolation that are uttered in the world. Now respond amen. It's an amazing.

24:16
Go through the entire Kaddish and you say like, what are we saying? What are these words? We're saying in essence, hashem, bring your clarity to this world. Bring the consciousness of your existence into our lives so that when we live our daily lives, we should live with godliness, that we should live with a clarity and with the understanding that Hashem is the king of the universe and that everything that happens is through Hashem's power and the world doesn't have any ability to survive and exist without Hashem's. Imagine bringing that consciousness into the world and everybody, the entire congregation, says Amen, yes, indeed, the world and everybody, the entire congregation, says Amen, yes, indeed, we agree, we acknowledge, we accept what a merit that is to the deceased.

25:14
Because why does someone do a sin, why does any human being do a sin? Because they want to, no, because they for a moment forgot their relationship with Hashem. It wasn't right there in front of them. So now we're going to bring that consciousness into our lives. So we're going to do a tikkun, we're going to do a repair for what the deceased perhaps was being punished for Got it. That's the power of Kaddish. And there's some people like oh, kaddish, I have Kaddish to say for my, for my, a parent, for, you know, a grandparent. I have to recite the Kaddish. Very special, it's only recited either by someone who leads the congregation or by someone whose parent has passed on, and this is an unbelievably powerful prayer that is part of our daily synagogue experience, and you only recite it with a minion. Okay, next question.

26:14 - Anna (Host)
So you know how? God will only show us his back, not his face. So I was thinking about that, and should we really concern ourselves with Messiah?

26:26 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Okay, very good question. So we mentioned previously that I just have to give our listeners a background right to what we're talking about. So we mentioned previously that Moshe said Hashem, I want to see your glory, I want to see your face. God says my face cannot be seen, but you can only see my back. And God showed him the back of his head, so to speak, and he saw the tefillin, the knot of his tefillin. And we wonder, sitting there, like what in the world is going on here? And we explained this numerous times that the face means the future. Hashem says you'll never understand the future, Moshe, you'll never understand, you'll never be able to see the face, you'll never be able to understand the future. But you know what you can see. You can't see my back, you can't see the history. Look back and you'll be able to see, you'll be able to understand.

27:16
This is one of the commentaries, one of the explanations. And what does it mean? The tefillin? You'll see how everything interlocks, you'll see how it locks in, how everything fits perfectly right. You look back and you see, wow, I went there and I met that person who introduced me to, that person who brought me here, who brought me there. Everything fits as a perfect picture in the rear view. It's an amazing thing.

27:37
From the front, looking forward like nothing makes sense. How is this going to work out? How's that going to work out? How is this going to work out? How is that going to work out? Look at what's going on in the world right now. It's the craziest place. It plays craziest time to be alive. You have a war here and a war there, and a war there and a war there, and they're shooting rockets here and they're shooting rockets there. It's like what is going on. It's very difficult to understand how it's all going to figure itself out moving forward. But look back. Look how Hashem has a master plan of how everything fits in so perfectly. So when we talk about Messiah going to your question Messiah is going to be a time where there's going to be absolute clarity in the world, Because right now we're in a fog.

28:31
We know what the Torah commands us to do, and yet the nations of the world hate us. No matter what we do, no matter what it is, no matter what our social status was throughout history, we're always hated. If we made money, they hated us. They said you stole our money. If we didn't make money. You're leeches. If we were contributing to society in one way, they complained about it. If we contributed in another way, if we didn't contribute, they complained. Whatever it is we do, they're going to hate us for it.

29:00
So our focus is not the nations of the world. We're not trying to get the nations of the world to hate us for it. So our focus is not the nations of the world. We're not trying to get the nations of the world to like us. And I think the biggest mistake is for us to think that assimilation is going to change anything. Oh, if we just assimilate and become one of them, and what? Disappear as a people? The reform movement tried that 100 years ago. That did not work. Well, oh well, just, you know a nice Jewish boy goes to university, comes back Hi, this is Christina. You know a nice Christian name and you know she's a mensch. She's a nice person. As long as love is love, whatever excuse people will give to it, that is not going to further the Jewish nation. It ends right there.

29:42
So to try to be accepted by the nations is not the solution. It's to add to our fervor, to add to our connection, to add to our mission as a people is to serve Hashem, is to serve God. We're not here to control the world. We're not here to tell any nation what and who they should be. That's not our job. We don't proselytize, we don't missionize. We're the only religion that does not have a missionary wing. We don't have a missionary wing. We don't have anybody going out there saying, oh, evangelizing, oh, you should accept the Lord and Savior, hashem. Right, you should accept. No, we don't have such a thing. People come and they want to learn. They're welcome to come and learn, but we don't say, oh, you know, you should convert to Judaism, or else we don't have that. You have them in Islam, you have them in Christianity, you have them in every other religion. You don't have that in Judaism, because we're not about numbers either. Our goal is to have what we have quality, and that making sure that every person is introduced to their relationship with Hashem.

30:49
That being said, what is Moshiach? Moshiach is going to be a time when all of the nations are able to see the truth, where there is no fog, where there is no lack of clarity, where everyone is able to see. Ah, that's the oh Right by Yom Ahu Yeh, hashem Echad, Ushma Echad. And that day, hashem will be clear to everyone. Everyone will know one name, one God. He's only one master of the universe. There's no, he doesn't have any partners and he doesn't have any associates and he doesn't have any helpers. It's one, hashem, who's in charge, who created the world, and Hashem Achad, ushma Achad. He is one and his name is one.

31:27
That's what's going to happen in the time of Messiah, where it's going to be absolute clarity. The nations of the world are suddenly going to see wow, kind of missed the ball. And those who say we love the Jewish people and we're going to help them and they're ready today, have that clarity. They're going to be rewarded for that greatly, and those who do not will have to learn. It's not a threat, by the way. By the way, gentiles have a place in the world to come to. They get a reward for their good deeds. It's not in other religions. If you don't accept our no, no, no, that's not the way it works. In Judaism, there's plenty of reward for non-Jews. You don't have to be Jewish to get reward. I hope I answered your question. Okay, not so much, why not?

32:18 - Anna (Host)
Because the looking forward aspect of you told us one time that you got in a taxi and there were all these new roads, and even the taxi driver was like we're making roads, so Messiah can have a way to come right. So really, should we be that forward looking, or should we try to be today, right now?

32:41 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Okay, yeah, so we have to have. You know, we have to. You know it's interesting, we, we, we have. When we drive a car, we have to be looking forward to make sure we don't crash the car, but we also have a rear view mirror. So it's important to look forward and to oh, every day we have to look forward, you have to look forward. That doesn't mean you understand the future. We're not trying to understand the future, we're always looking forward. We're looking forward that today Mashiach will come, but if he doesn't come today, he'll come tomorrow. If he doesn't come the next day, yeah, we're always within anticipation to what's going to come and hoping and praying that what comes is good it always is good but that we understand and perceive it as being good. There's no evil in this world that Hashem creates. Hashem does not create evil. Our Yetzirah pushes us to sometimes do things that are not good, but Hashem only does good things. And even if someone hurts us, hashem sent us a message and sometimes it's difficult for us to hear that, but that's a whole different topic, a whole different discussion. But we're supposed to every single day anticipate the coming of Moshiach, anticipate that today will be the day that clarity will be brought to the world.

33:52
You're asking a very good question. When we say the study of Torah should be day and night, does that mean early morning? Does it mean early night, late night? What does it mean? So the first thing is it should be daytime and nighttime. Okay, the general idea should be every day and every night. So when it's light I should study Torah, when it's dark I should study Torah. That doesn't mean at the first second of crack of dawn.

34:16
If a person is on a very high level, you know the Arizal talks about, you know, at the crack of midnight, to usher in the beginning of the new day should be already with prayer and with you know, praise of Hashem. Okay, not everyone's like that and, by the way, that has to be after sleep already. So you already slept and you wake up at the crack of midnight, not the crack of dawn, midnight, and then from that point on right. So again, we're not talking about that level, we're just saying on a very basic, very basic level, every day and every evening, light, during the daytime and during the nighttime. That's on the very basic level.

34:55
And again, if a person is able to have a steady time, that steady time is so powerful. It's such a protector for a person it keeps them grounded to have a set time. This is my time that is uninterrupted. Nothing interrupts, not a phone call, not a doctor's appointment. I can make my doctor appointment earlier. I can make my doctor appointment later. I can make my meetings earlier, I can make them later. At this time it's locked down and that's very, very, very powerful and if a person can keep to it, you will see unbelievable blessing come from this set time of study. Okay, so keep it up. Keep it up.

35:37
All right, joshua, you've been baking for a question here. Okay. So, joshua, your question. Just to repeat, if I understand it correctly, the Talmud talks about that the sages knew the exact amount of letters that they knew exactly the beginning, the end, the middle of the Torah, exactly where it begins. We actually have a Thinking Talmudist episode on this tractate that you mentioned. I think it's the Kedushin 38a or b, where it talks about that the sages knew exactly where the midpoint of the Torah was. And your question is does that contradict that there's no change that's going to be in the Torah at any point? No, it's not a contradiction at all. To answer your question, not a contradiction whatsoever. What do I mean? I mean as follows your learning of the Torah needs to bring you to an unbelievable clarity, hopefully, hopefully, we merit to that clarity that we know every part of it and understand every part of it. Nothing that we're doing is changing it. Okay, that means the fact that I know things only helps me gain more clarity and understanding. Okay, and that's the objective. The objective of our study of Torah is to connect to Hashem. Okay, the fact that I can deduce things and bring proofs from one place to another place, like we see in the Talmud happening, is part of the study of Torah. Okay, next question that's a very good question, anna.

37:14
All right, so you had a visitor to your home who's not Jewish and they saw your Chumash, your Bible, the Jewish Bible, and they wanted to. They wanted a copy of it. You wanted to know can you give it to them? So why not? There's no problem. They can go on Amazoncom and buy a stone edition Chumash and enjoy it. Why not? You know we don't go out and giving out free Bibles to try to convert people. That's not. I understand why you felt that you don't want to feel like you're trying to proselytize or trying to convert them. You know You're not trying to do any of that, which is fine. If someone wants to own a copy of the Torah, they can do what they want to do and I don't think it's a I don't know I have to get back to you whether or not it's a sin to give it to them. I don't think. I can't imagine that it's a sin to give it to them.

38:04
But the Torah was given to the Jewish people. It's our document. It's our document, it's ours. I don't know if someone is on a journey of growth and they want to learn and they want to convert and they want to pursue more study of Torah, I don't know why that should be limited from them. Again, the Torah again was given to the Jewish people. We have to remember that it's given to the Jewish people and sometimes it's even sad.

38:31
I meet people. I know a lot of people who are not Jewish who can quote more verses in the Torah than most Jews know even exist. And you know it's our Torah, we should know it. We should invest time in reading and learning and becoming more and more fluent with our Torah. And if we're not fluent, it's fine. Let's invest time in studying it as much as possible.

38:57
So again, I don't think there's a problem with them owning it. It's not a problem with them owning it. But again, I wouldn't stand on the street corners and giving out free Bibles. Yeah, yeah, that's what felt a little odd to you. Yeah, I know they can go onto Amazon. You can send them a link. If they want to buy it, they can buy it. Yeah, so when a Jew moves out of their home, if another Jew moves into that home, they're not allowed to take the mezuzahs away. They're not supposed to take the mezuzahs. If a non-Jew is going to move in, they should take the mezuzahs away. If a non-Jew, they should take the mezuzahs with them, because there's no purpose.

39:34
Now I remember in my office building when Torch used to be in an office building many years ago. So this woman passed by not Jewish at all and she passed by and she said to me hey, good afternoon. We were schmoozing and she said she saw on the door. She says, oh, what's that? I said and she was pointing at the mezuzah. I said, oh. I said that's our security system. She's like oh, wow, that's so incredible. I said yeah. I said God watches over our homes and our offices and protects us. And it's like, wow, how do I get one of those? So that's the. But that's a true story that actually happened. I told the woman. I said this is our alarm system. You know, it's our security system. This is where God reminds us every time before we walk into our home and leave our home, that Hashem is there with us at all times when we come and go. Hashem is always there with us, right? So we don't leave it for non-Jewish. I'll just tell you a quick story.

40:32
I get a phone call one day. I don't like to call a secular Jew, but it's definitely not a Torah observant young lady. She calls me up, she's probably 22 years old, israeli, and she's like Rabbi. She's like very, very high strung, like she's like worked up about something. I don't know what she's worked up about, but she's really worked up. So I said calm down, like what's going on here? She's like I'm moving into my apartment tonight and it doesn't fit the karma that I move into the house without a mezuzah. I said karma, I think you got the wrong religion. It's like she says doesn't fit the karma, I need a mezuzah. So I said fine. She says no, no, no, but I need it tonight. I said okay, okay, let's take it easy. In any event, she did not step foot into her new apartment till I placed that mezuzah on the door. I got there like 11 o'clock at night. She had all her friends there guys, girls, they were all there. They all recited the blessing together so that we can put the mezuzah on the door. Once we put the mezuzah on the door, she was like the happiest person, beaming that now she can go into her new apartment that she was just renting. But she could not. So after we finished the whole thing, I said it takes a minute. I said is the karma? Okay, now, like it's like to me. It was just so funny that she would use that phraseology, that terminology of like karma to mezuzah.

42:04
But what is the idea?

42:05
The idea of a Jewish home has a mezuzah that we recognize, before we come and before we go, that Hashem is there with us at all times.

42:15
Many people have a custom to kiss the mezuzah upon entry and exit. That's a proper thing. I've seen righteous people, very righteous people, who didn't kiss it, but rather put their hand on it and took a moment to internalize Hashem is here to protect me. Hashem is watching over me. Everything that happens in my life is from Hashem and you don't have to kiss it. Many people do, because it's something which is holy, and when you touch something which is holy for example we're going to mention this as well If a prayer book falls on the floor, if a holy book, a chumash, something, falls on the floor, you pick it up.

42:51
It's appropriate to give it a kiss, right, something which is holy. You should give it a kiss. Another important thing when we talk about the laws of holy objects, it's proper for the books to always be face up. So if you see this book is face up, that one should probably be turned face up at all times because of the holiness of the book, that's the proper way for it to be sitting. So just interesting halachas. There's interesting details in Jewish conduct. All right, my dear friends, this concludes our 11th edition of the Ask Away series. Anybody who has any questions that you'd like us to highlight in these classes, please share them with us at askaway at torchweborg. We look forward to hearing your questions. Thank you so much for joining us. My dear friends, have a magnificent week ahead.

43:41 - Intro (Announcement)
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