Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

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

00:14 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Okay, welcome back everybody. Welcome back, good Friday afternoon to everyone. Welcome back to the Thinking Talmudist Podcast. It's so wonderful to be here on this frigid, frigid Friday afternoon. We're in the middle of Sotah.

00:31
Hey, amal Aleph 5a Intractate Sotah. And we were talking previously about the dangers and the harm of arrogance. Now we're going to talk about the benefits of humility. Amar Hezekiah. Hezekiah said Ein tefilosa shel odom nishmas ela imkein meisim libo kebasar.

00:57
A person's prayers are not heard unless he makes his heart soft like flesh. In Nehmer v'hoyo midei chodesh b'chot sho yavo kol basar li'shtach flesh, as it is stated in the verse in Isaiah 66, and it shall be that at every new moon, all flesh shall come to prostrate themselves before me, says Hashem. Meaning if you didn't have a heart of flesh, of humility, then you won't have your prayers heard. You want your prayers to be heard. You need to be humble. This is the foundation of all of our prayer is humility. We bow the beginning, first two blessings of the Amidah, and then we bow on the final two blessings of the Amidah, and what we're doing is we're showing our humility. We're showing now we mentioned this about five or six weeks ago that a king who can the arrogance can get to his head, a king remains bowing the entire Amidah. Why? Because you need a little bit more of a reminder, a little bit more of humility, to be in the right place, to be in the right frame of mind, and that's why it's very important for every person to recognize if we are arrogant, we're limiting ourselves from having our prayers heard.

02:36
Now a related teaching. Amr Avzeira said v'nirpa, apropos of the word flesh, it is also written and it will have healed. Adam lo ksivbe v'nirpa. But the word Adam is not written and it will have healed. So there's extra healing that comes to a person who's humble. But now let's talk a little bit about these words that we just said.

03:15
Rabbi Yochanan says the Hebrew word adam, man, is the acronym for the following words Eifer, which means dust Dam, which is the acronym for the following words Eifer, which means dust Dam, which means blood, and Marah, which means bile. What is basar? What is flesh? It is the following words the acronym for the following words Busha, which means shame, struha, which means foul, strucha, which means foul, and rima, which means worms. So let's see what our commentaries here say about this.

03:59
Man is called Adam. Right, we know we're called Adam, adam mankind. Why the Torah tells us, because he was taken from the Adama, and we've said many, many times in our Mussar classes that Adam is also from the word Adameh, not only from Adama, but from Adameh. Adameh means to emulate, to be-like, to try to emulate God in every area of our lives. That's our goal in this world is to be God-like, to be kind and to be merciful. Why do we work on our traits and try to become a better person? Because we want to be God-like.

04:42
I was just talking to someone yesterday and he was saying to me he says, boy Hashem, he was commenting about the fires. He felt this person, this individual, felt that it was a punishment that Hashem was giving the people. Of that I said, first, is that's not our place to cast judgment of what Hashem is doing or that people you know deserve or don't deserve certain punishments. That's not our place to talk or to judge. But the person made a comment. He said boy Hashem is so patient. I said yes, in fact, one of the attributes of Hashem is slow to anger. It's a long time we think someone does something. We slap them right upside their head and finished, it's done. No, no, no, no, no. Hashem is very, very, very patient, very slow when that punishment comes. That means that Hashem has exhausted all patience, meaning he's given you all the opportunities to return.

05:50
And now someone else commented to me just recently. He said I have no sympathy for those people of Los Angeles because they're the ones who said go for Hamas, that Hamas was doing the right thing and therefore I have no mercy. If you mess with the Jewish people, you mess with God. It may or may not be true, but either way, I don't think that that's the appropriate thing for a person to say. I don't think that that's the right place for us to start being the judges of what is right and what is wrong.

06:22
I think that that's very insensitive and mildly inappropriate for someone to start saying that someone else. On the contrary, the Torah always teaches us that when someone else is in pain, is in trouble, that we need to feel that pain. In fact, noah on the ark was not allowed to have marital relations with his wife, neither were his children able to. To why the whole world is getting destroyed and you're vacationing on your yacht. That's inappropriate. That means there's an element of feeling the pain of another. Imagine what we would, our lives would be like if, god forbid, our homes were burnt down and you see some of the devastation. It's just like it's heart-wrenching. It's heart-wrenching that people had homes, that the chimney is the only thing that stands. Let's not try to play God, let's try to be human With human. They flesh heart that feels, that has sympathy, that has empathy and that is concerned and that feels the pain of others. So the Gemara presents a slightly different version. Oh, so what someone is saying over here?

07:47
Man is called Adam. Why? He is an amalgam of these three insignificant substances. Hence he has no cause for arrogance. Adam is alef, dalet mem, you are dust, you are blood and you are bile. What right do you have, as someone who is just dust, blood and bile? What right do you have to be arrogant? You're nothing. And basar is busha. What are you? Your flesh is shame, foul and worms, which is what happens after we are no longer living with the opportunity to do the will of Hashem. What happens? We return to the earth. We eat my worms, right? Barah refers to the bile secreted by the liver. Its impact on a person depends on various factors, such as the seasons and the food consumed, and it is the cause of many diseases.

09:01
The word basar, which means meat or flesh, serves to remind a person of the disgrace and degradation that can await him at death the shame of being judged a sinner before God, the stench of corpse that his corpse will emit and the worms that will consume his own remains. With this in mind, he will eschew arrogance and pursue goodness for God, his fellows and himself. So you understand that this is just a quick reminder that the Talmud is giving us. Don't get so high on your horse that you're so. You know you're so incredible, know you're so incredible and you're so. Keep it in context. There is still we're flesh and as such we are called adam, we're called basar. Adam, again, is dust, blood and bile, and then flesh is basar, which is busha, sturucha and rima. We are destined at the end of our lives for busha, for embarrassment, for shame. Sturucha is that the corpse, the body, has a terrible odor, it's foul and rima, we're eaten by worms, and these are things that one needs to be extremely, extremely concerned about. Therefore, someone realizes that we are so temporary. What am I arrogant about? What have I accomplished? What have I done?

10:38
The Gemara presents a slightly different version of the latter statement ikad amrishmo. There are some who say that the middle letter of the acronym should not be based on surucha foul, but rather shaol means the grave. Yixiv b'shin, not with a sin. Basar is written with the letter shin, whereas surucha is written with a samach, which is a different letter. So therefore it's saying that don't say that it's surucha just because they sound alike. Now they are interchangeable at times the shin and the sin. No, sorry, the samach and the sin or shin. But here, here, the talmud is saying there's another opinion that you should not be interchanging them, because there's a fine one to stick with a shin, which is sheol, which means our grave.

11:37
Okay, not trying to get morbid here. The idea is we're living a great life, a beautiful life. But put things into perspective. Why do we wear a yarmulke? Yori Malka, fear of heaven. Fear of heaven. The idea is to have that presence on our mind at all times.

11:56
Okay, more about the wages of haughtiness. Amar Rav, asher, rav Asher said Kol Adom, sheishma, gasus, haruach. Any person who possesses a haughtiness. Amar Rav, asher, rav Asher said Kol Adom, sheish Bar, gassus Ruach. Any person who possesses a haughtiness of spirit. Anybody who's arrogant, lesof Nifchas, will ultimately be diminished in stature and become the lowliest of men, someone who's arrogant. You'll be put down and become the lowliest of all men.

12:28
Shemamah, as the verse states and we're moving now to 5b on top, u'lese'es, u'lesapachas, this is the law of every tzaras affliction. You remember the tzaras that we spoke about in Leviticus, the leprosy-aras affliction? You remember the tzaras that we spoke about in Leviticus, the leprosy-like affliction? What about it? And of the se'es and the sapachas, and we know that the word se'es is nothing other than the language of raised, being raised, elevated, it is stated. And upon all the high mountains and upon all the raised up, hanisaos, hanisaos, on the hills, ve'ein, sapachas, elotzfilo, and sapachas is nothing other than the language of subsidiary. Lower than she. Nemra, sefacheni, no, al-achas, ha-kuhunos, le'echo, paslechem. Attach me, sefacheni, please, attach me, please, attach me please, to one of the priestly divisions to eat a morsel of bread.

13:53
The Leviticus verse is thus understood as saying that one who conducts himself in a high and mighty manner will ultimately be reduced to insignificance. We've seen this many, many times in our history. And mighty manner will ultimately be reduced to insignificance. We've seen this many, many times in our history, where people who felt that they were, you know, or expressed themselves, acted in a way that was immodest. They learned the hard way and were ultimately brought down to their knees.

14:26
There is a story, though, that it reminds me that no one should ever. You have to be very careful with the words you say and definitely not to be too arrogant. There is a story that's told, a legend that's told, about one of the Rothschilds that was so wealthy, incredibly wealthy, and he said I will never die of hunger, never die of hunger. And sadly, he ended up dying of hunger because he was locked in his safe. Locked in his safe, nobody knew he was there, couldn't get out. He wrote with his blood on the wall I am the same Rothschild that said I would never die of hunger. Tragic.

15:24
A person has to be very, very careful. Stay humble. A person has to be very, very careful. Stay humble. A person has to be very careful with the words we use in general Be very careful and very cautious.

15:32
Okay, the Gemara now speaks about the rewards of humility. There's tremendous reward. Someone who's arrogant is a punishment, but someone who's humble, there's a reward. Amr Rabbi Shorban Levi. Rabbi Shorban Levi said Go'er E come humble. There's a reward. Rabbi Shorban Levi said Come and see. Come and see. Let us see how great are the lowly of spirit before the Holy One. Blessed is he. For.

15:59
When the Holy Temple was standing, a person would bring an elevation offering, an Ola offering, and he received credit for having brought an Ola. If he brought a Mincha offering, he received credit for having brought a Mincha. However, in the case where one whose attitude is humble, scripture regards such a person as though he has brought all the various offerings. What offering did he bring? None Himself. He was humble.

16:44
As it is stated, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. When someone broken doesn't mean that you're depressed. It doesn't mean that you're, you put yourself down. It's that you recognize at every moment of your life that everything is from Hashem. Think of Moshe for a second, who is called the most humble of all men Moshe. The Torah itself says that that Moshe was writing that he was the humblest of men. That's very humble.

17:22
Most people would interpret that to be the exact opposite of humility. That's not what humble people do. Humble people don't write about themselves that they're humble. That's not true. If we know what true humility means, what does true humility mean? True humility means, I reckon, that everything is from Hashem. That does not mean that I don't recognize my wealth. It doesn't mean that I don't recognize my health. It doesn't mean that I don't recognize my success. I recognize all that, but I don't attribute it to myself, to my own doing. I attribute it to the gift that Hashem has blessed me with.

18:15
So if someone brings a Ola offering, he gets a reward for bringing an Ola offering. Someone brings a Mincha offering, he gets a reward for bringing a Mincha offering. If someone is humble, he gets the reward for bringing an offering. Someone brings a mincha offering, he gets a reward for bringing a mincha offering. If someone is humble, he gets the reward of all of the offerings.

18:32
Shnemar, as the verse states zivchei lakim ruach nishpar. Okay, now the gemara continues V'lo'ot elo she'en tfilosinim eses. And not only that, but one who is humble. His prayer is not despised by God, it's not turned away by God. In Amar, as the verse states A broken and crushed heart, o God, you will not despise. Okay, so there is a very, very so.

19:00
Most people will look at shattered vessels and see them as useless, but our commentaries here say that God does not despise broken vessels, for he accepts the prayer of the broken and repenting heart. God sees a broken vessel in the most complete way. There was a great sage who was once approached by one of his followers and he says I'm so broken I can't even pray. I can't even pray, I'm just so broken. Whatever tragedy befell this person, the rabbi said the famous words there's nothing more whole than a broken heart. It's an incredibly powerful statement. God loves that a person is able to recognize their limitations. Seems like what's his name might be here.

20:07
Okay, another Hamaletic teaching from Rabbi Yashua ben Levi. Rabbi Yashua ben Levi also said Kol Ha, hashem or Chosa, whoever appraises his ways in this world, meaning he evaluates his, calculates his actions, will merit to witness the salvation of the Holy One. Blessed is he In Ammar and one who sets the way. I will show him the salvation of God. Rather no, but Don't call it v'sham and he who has put or he has said but v'sham, then the person who evaluates his ways, such a person, it, will merit to witness the salvation of the Holy One. What is that? What is witnessing the salvation of the Holy One? So this, our sages tell us, is referring to the coming of the Messiah. Because what is?

21:33
I was just learning with my daughter last night, the introduction of the Rambam to the laws of idolatry. What is idolatry? Says what happened from the beginning of creation. People were trying to glorify Hashem. What do they do? They said look, hashem was the one who created the planets. Hashem created all of the stars, sun, the moon, everything. Hashem created everything. So if Hashem created them and placed them so high up, doesn't that mean that Hashem loves that? And if Hashem loves that, shouldn't we praise that Hashem loves that? And if Hashem loves that, shouldn't we praise what Hashem loves? So this led an entire generation, and then another generation, and then another generation, all the way till Noach, to become idolaters.

22:37
Because what happens when you start going off course? Then you become all off course. What happens? Eventually? They start praising only the sun and the moon. Then they say the sun and the moon. We have to have an image that represents that so we can have that consciousness on our mind at all times. The people made images of the sun and the moon. They made images of other things, of other gods. Then they started serving it and bringing offerings and idolatry. Uh, grew and grew and grew.

23:15
Then the rambam rights came, abraham, and abraham started discovering God himself and people would talk to him and he's like they're like what are you talking about? The stone? He says the world is spinning. He says who's spinning the world? It doesn't spin on its own. It doesn't spin on its own axis by itself. Imagine you see someone with a, a basketball, spinning on their finger. You've seen that before, right, I'm sure you've seen that before. What do you know? Someone has been spinning it. That doesn't just spin on its own. He says the world is going to spin on its own. That doesn't make any sense.

23:57
And avram avinu started to explore more and more until he came to the conclusion there is a Hashem, a creator of heaven and earth, and everything else is idolatry. And you need to destroy idolatry, because idolatry is a slap in the face to the creator. Imagine Mark invites me to his house for dinner and opens up a beautiful table, gives us wines and dines us with delicious kosher food the finest. And I go over to Ed and I say Ed, thank you so much for having us, ed. It was so terrific. The food was scrumptious, everything smelled delicious, everything looked delicious, everything tasted perfect. How would Mark feel? Excuse me, it's obvious. It's obvious that this is crazy, right? Hashem creates a world and the people are serving idols.

25:09
What does the Torah tell us about idolatry? Spoke about this three weeks ago. Asherah tree you remove it completely from you. Don't only burn it down, you burn the roots, everything, all the way down to the roots. That's what happened with Noah and his generation and that's what happened time and again.

25:39
Trying to eradicate the evil from this world, what's the evil Things that steer you away from God? Even if that image is just representing what God should be, if heaven forbid someone were to say, hey, we know there's a creator of heaven and earth, but he's too lofty of an idea for us. We need to speak to our leader instead. We need to pray to our leader or we need to have an intermediary. We can't pray to God. God is too busy dealing with the big things in this world. He doesn't have time for my little nonsense. It's not true. Hashem has time for each and every one of us, Hashem loves each and every one of us and Hashem is a direct God for each and every one of us, to the point where Hashem is now in exile.

26:40
Why is Hashem in exile? Because what do we say at the end of our prayer every day? By Yom HaHu Yiyah. Hashem Echad, ushmo Echad. On that day, the day that the whole world will know Hashem Echad, ushmo Echad, that Hashem is one and His name is one, that there's no other God, no other idol. That is the essence.

27:10
We understand where idolatry comes from. It's anything that diverts our focus and attention. Money is an idolatry too. By the way, there are plenty of religions that have outright idolatry. Be very careful. Okay, we're going to pause here for a minute and I just I'm going to try to bring out a certain point here. What happened with Moshe? I said, did I say this story recently? We had Rabbi Rabbi Mizrahi. Rabbi Yosef Mizrahi was here at Torch many years ago, probably 10 years ago, maybe more 12 years ago, and he talked about why Jews don't believe in Jesus years ago. And he talked about why jews don't believe in uh, jesus, why they don't believe in jc, and he went on to explain.

28:10
This is a very long lecture, but a beautiful, beautiful lecture has hundreds of thousands of views and um, it was very well received. I've gotten a lot of hate from it, but also a lot of people that love it. But what was very interesting was that I got a letter from one of the community rabbis. I think I still have that letter. I saved it. So what? There you go. Thank you so much.

28:40
So the rabbi writes me a letter. He says I watched the entire presentation. He says I loved every single word of his lecture. You know it's about to get bad, right. He's not just writing, however, however Okay.

29:02
However, I think it was completely disrespectful that the entire lecture he didn't say anything other than JC. When referring to what other people serve as an idol, he says I don't understand. That's totally disrespectful. How is it possible that he does not say that name? So good question, right Disrespectful. He says even more. He says how would you feel if the nations of the world referred to our leader, moshe, as MR instead of Moshe Rabbeinu, rather MR? So it's a great question.

30:02
So I wrote back to the rabbi and I said listen, you are a senior rabbi in one of the congregations, one of the big congregations, not an Orthodox congregation, and not so he says to me. I said I'm going to come to your office, I want to talk to you in person, I don't want to write this to you. So we did, we met and we talked, and it was quite an interesting meeting. We talked about a lot of things. Firstly, his. I'm not going to get into too many details, I don't want to give away who it is, but either way, I said to him I'll tell you why he didn't say the name, and that is because it's a verse in the Torah. It's a verse in the Torah.

30:52
The Torah says that one should not utter the name of an idol. He shouldn't even say the name. By the way, it also says that one should not say the name of a woman who has inappropriate relations with people. Think of a singer, an actress who does things that are inappropriate. You're not even supposed to utter their names. It's foul. But here the Torah says and let me find the verse, give me a second should not even be uttered on your lips. It should not. With your lips, you shouldn't even say those words. Here we go, ready. Ubechol is his chapter 23, verse 13,. In Exodus, ubechol, asher amarti.

31:59
Regarding everything that I have said to you, aleichem t said to you הליכם תשמרו, תשמרו, be careful. Now listen to this ושם אלוהים אחרים לא סזכירו. The name of the gods of others you shall not mention. לא ישמה על פיך, nor shall it be heard through your mouth. What does that mean. What does that mean? That means it's a biblical prohibition for one to say out the word JC. It's a biblical prohibition. It's an unbelievable thing you shall not mention.

32:52
Idol worship is so serious that one is forbidden even to speak of idols or be the cause of others mentioning them. A Jew may not say I will meet you near the idol, whatever the idol is. Nor may he go into partnership with a non-Jew on the understanding that in case of a dispute, the Gentile will be required to swear by the name of his idol. Unbelievable thing. That's how careful we need to be of idolatry. Why is idolatry such a serious thing? Because that is turning us away from Hashem. That's what it is At the end of the day. What does it do? Each one is self-serving, each idol is self-serving and what it does is all of the.

33:48
I wish I had a copy of the rambam here to go through it with you. That what I, what I studied with my daughter last night. It's just such an incredible piece of wisdom. You know, we might have a copy of it. The last, the first shelf, not the bottom, the first, all the way at the end, there's all these little books. Yeah, right over there, those little books. Bring them all here, please. It might have it, but I think it's so fundamental that we yeah, that's what we're looking for those little ones. For those little ones, those little ones, hard covered little ones. Bring them all. Yeah, perfect, let's see if we can find. Oh, perfect, thank you. Thank you, they are chocolates. The Torah is chocolate. The Torah is absolutely chocolate. Here we go. The laws of idol worship. Here you go, thank you. Thank you, hashem, ready for this.

34:45
In the days of Enosh, adam's grandson, mankind made a grave mistake and the wise men of the generation offered senseless advice. Enosh himself was one of those that went wrong. This was the mistake they made. They reasoned. God created stars and spheres with which to control the world. He placed them on high and granted them honor, making them servants that minister before him. Therefore, the stars deserve to be praised and glorified and to be treated with respect. The people mistakenly thought that God wanted them to exalt and honor those that he exalts and honors, just as the king wants the servant who ministers to him to be honored. In fact, by honoring his servants, one honors the king.

35:44
After dreaming up this idea, they began to build temples to the stars and offer sacrifices to them. They would praise and glorify them and bow down to them, wrongly assuming that thereby they were fulfilling God's will. This was the doctrine believed by those who worshiped idols. They never said that there is no God except for this or that star. Hear me, the prophet had this in mind when he said who would not revere you, king of the nations, for kingship befits you, since among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdoms, it is known that there is none like you. Everyone knows, but they are both foolish and stupid. Their senseless doctrine tells them to worship a piece of wood. In other words, everyone knows that you alone are God. Their foolish error is believing that this nonsense is your will. You got this Powerful. So what happened many years later?

37:07
False prophets told the people that god spoke to them and commanded them. These are false prophets that god spoke to them and told them, command them to worship this particular star or all the stars, offer sacrifices and libations to it, build a temple for it and make an image of it so that all people, including the women and the children and the masses, will bow down to it. The false prophets would fashion an image telling the masses that this was the replica of a certain star as revealed to him in a prophetic vision rhombom. By the way, it's not not me, okay, it's not a story story time. This is the rhombom imitating him, the people began to make images and temples under trees and on mountains, on hills. I showed my daughter, after we were talking about this and learning this rhombom, I showed her, her that there are in Brazil, for example, there's a mountain that on top of the mountain there's a big, big, big idol standing. This is what it's talking about. This is exactly what Rambam's talking about.

38:19
They gathered and bowed down to them, since false prophets said that this image brings good luck or harm. Serve it or fear it. Their priests would add by performing this service, you will multiply and be successful. Do this or that, don't do this or that. And they made up rules as they went on. Later, other charlatans claimed that the stars, spheres or angel itself spoke to them and commanded them serve me in such and such manner. He would then describe a ceremony telling them do this and don't do this. He made up a whole thing, a whole shtick, okay. Thus these practices spread throughout the world.

39:10
People worshipped images with bizarre rites, bizarre rituals, one more weird than the next, offering sacrifices to them and bowing down to them. As the years passed, all mankind forgot God's glorious and awesome name, to the point that people did not even recognize it. As a result, the common folk and the women and the children knew only the image of wooden stone and the temples of stone that they had been trained to bow down to worship and swear by since childhood. To bow down, to worship and swear by. Since childhood, the wise men among them thought there was no God other than the stars and spheres that were symbolized by the images they had made. That's what they knew. This is what they were told, this is what they were taught. No one knew God, the eternal rock, except for a few individuals such as Hanuch, mishushalach, noach, shes and Eber.

40:17
The world continued to plot along aimlessly like this until the pillar of the world, the patriarch Abraham, was born. If the after Abraham was weaned, he began to contemplate men and the world. Although still a child, he pondered day and night, wondering how can it be that the sphere continually revolves. So we, we just said this right, the sphere of this world continues to revolve without anyone propelling it. Who is making it go around. It is certainly not rotating by itself.

40:56
Living in or caused him among foolish idol worshipers. He had no teacher or mentor. His parents, like all the others, were idolaters, and Avram used to worship with them. But his mind searched and reflected. Finally, he discovered the truth of the existence of God and figured out by himself the path of righteousness. He recognized that there is one God who guides the universe, who created everything, and that no other God exists. He concluded that the entire world was in error, was in error and that by worshiping the stars and images, they had lost sight of the truth. Abraham was 40 years old at the time when he became aware of his creator. Once he recognized and knew him, he began to counter the arguments of the people of Orkastim. He debated the issues with them, telling them that their ideology was false. He broke their idols and began teaching people to worship the true God of the world. They should bow down sacrifice and offer libations to him alone so that all future generations would recognize him. He explained to them that they should obliterate all images so that people will not again make the mistake of thinking that these images are the real God.

42:24
After Avram, abraham, our patriarch, our forefather convinced people through his arguments. The king, familiar King Nimrod, tried to kill him. He was saved through a miracle and went to Haran. There he proclaimed that there is only one God in the entire world, and to him alone should one worship. He spread the word in city after city and country after country, until he came to the land of Canaan, heralding the message of God's existence. And it says there he proclaimed the name of Hashem, the everlasting God. The people flocked around him, asking him questions and then explained his message to each other according to his each, according to his level of understanding, until he won them over with the truth.

43:18
Ultimately, tens of thousands of people came to hear him. These are the men, that men of Abraham's household. He instilled in their hearts this fundamental doctrine and he wrote books about it we know there's the Sefer HaYitzira, which is the book written by Abraham, our patriarch, and taught it to his son, yitzchak, who continued on his way of teaching and instructing. Yitzchak, in turn, taught Yaakov and appointed him as a teacher. He, in turn, taught others and bolstered the faith of his followers. Yaakov, our father, our patriarch, taught all of his children and selected Levi, the tribe of Levi, as their leader, appointing him as the Rosh Yeshiva, the head of the Yeshiva, to teach the tribe of Levi as their leader. Appointing him as the Rosh Yeshiva, the head of the Yeshiva, to teach the way of God and observing and how to observe the mitzvahs of Avraham, yaakov commanded meaning not Abraham's mitzvahs, but the mitzvahs that Abraham taught us to perform appropriately in following the ways of Hashem. Yaakov commanded his sons to always appoint a descendant of Levi as their leader, so that the teachings would be never forgotten again. The belief in one God took hold and flourished among the descendants of Yaakov and those who had joined them, until a nation that knew God came into being. The Jewish people became a nation that followed Hashem, and then we have the tragic story of the Jewish people in Egypt.

44:59
This is very, very short. This finishes the introduction of the Rambam. It just wants to give us an idea of what's going on here. What is this idolatry? After a prolonged stay in Egypt, the Jews assimilated and adopted Egyptian idol worship. They were done. They were at the 49th level of spiritual void. 49th level of spiritual void Tragic.

45:27
The exception was the tribe of Levi, who remained true to the mitzvahs of their father. The tribe of Levi never served false idols. You're a Kohen, that's you. That's you. That's why we honor and respect the Kohanim and the Levites, because they never got involved with idolatry. They never got involved with the ways of the Egyptians.

45:50
It was not long before the doctrine that everything that Avraham instilled in his offspring was uprooted. The descendants of Yaakov were on the brink of lapsing into the errors of the world and their corrupt ways, but because God loves us and upheld the oath that he gave to our father Abraham, he brought forth Moshe, our teacher, the master of all prophets, and sent him to redeem the children of Israel. After Moshe prophesied and God chose Israel his inheritance, he crowned them with mitzvos and let them know the way to serve him, teaching them the judgment imposed on idol worship and all those who stray after it. So, as a conclusion, the Rambam here says that the biggest problem they had was that they didn't have a Torah. It wasn't black on white, but we do. We do have a Torah. Not only that, we have a black and white. We have the 21st century. We have the greatest publication company in the world in the history of the Jewish people, artsgrow, where they produce the most magnificent work with translation and alliteration, elucidation, you name it.

47:10
You can learn the entire Talmud without having read a single word in Hebrew or Aramaic. Everything is translated. The Mishnah translated. There's almost no excuses anymore. It's terrifying. We should hate Art Scroll Now. Until now, we had an excuse. Hey, I don't speak Hebrew. The Mishnah translated. There's almost no excuses anymore. Terrifying. We should hate art scroll now. Till now, we had an excuse. Hey, I don't speak Hebrew. Hey, there's no more excuses. Look at these books, look at these, look at thousands of books here.

47:35
You want to know Halacha? This is this. That's all translated. You want to the Midrash? It's translated.

47:41
You want to know about each Mitzvah, the Sefer Achenuch, the Minchash Achench, done, all translated. It's amazing. Look at this Rashi. You want to know the commentary. It's all translated, elucidated. It's amazing. You have it in Spanish and you have it in French. It's all being translated. There's no more excuses. It's an amazing thing. That's right. That's right. Both patriarchs, both two's right. Both patriarchs, both right. Two of the three patriarchs, yitzchak and Avraham. That's amazing.

48:11
Alright, my dear friends, have a magnificent Shabbos. Thank you so much. Let us commit and dedicate ourselves to recognizing, spending time every single day, investing in our relationship with Hashem, not only through prayer, but through actions, through thought, talking to Hashem, but understanding that we're living in a world that we need to gain consciousness. That's our job. On that day, hashem's name will be one known to all, no one will have any doubts. But most of all, this leads us to humility. When we know that everything is from Hashem, what are we high and mighty about? We know that everything is from Hashem. Alright, my dear friends, have a great Shabbos. Thank you so much. It was an absolute, absolute privilege, thank you.

49:12 - Intro (Announcement)
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