Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Thinking Talmudist podcast.

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Welcome to the Thinking Talmudist. We are coming live from the TORCH Center here in Houston, texas. Today we are going to finally continue the Talmud on 5A in Tractate Barachot the Gemara talks about three amazing gifts that God gave us. Tanya. It was taught in Abraisa, rabbi Shimon ben Yochai. Rabbi Shimon, the son of Yochai, said Sholosh matanos, tovos, nasan haKadosh, baruch uli, yisroel, the Holy One blessed is. He gave three great gifts to the Jewish people and he gave all of them only through affliction and suffering. What are those things? And these are those three gifts. What are they? Torah, that they Torah, that's the Torah. Yisrael, the land of Israel, and Olam Haba. Olam Haba is the world to come. These three things are only acquired through challenge.

01:22
So now it's very apropos If you think about it, like why in the world did the Jewish people have to endure the War of Independence 1948? Oh, by the way, being out of their land for 2,000 years, might I add, right, and then being in total exile. They finally come to the land to have the War of Independence. They have 1967, the Six-Day War, where they have the War of Independence. They have 1967, the Six-Day War, where they have nations from all sides attacking them. They had from Egypt, from Jordan, from Syria, from Lebanon. They had other proxies that were coming against them Unbelievable. And then Yom Kippur War, the surprise attack, and then we have the Intifada I, intifada II, we have all of the Gulf War. It's unbelievable the challenge that the Jewish people need to face. For what? Being in the land of Israel, to acquire the land of Israel? It's never going to be easy. It's never going to be easy, it's going to be painful, it's going to be difficult, but the blessing of the land of Israel is what everyone wants. The blessing of the land of Israel is so amazing and so incredible. Everybody wants a piece of it.

02:39
The most disputed land in the history of the world. How many wars were there? Fighting over the Congo, like? How many wars were there over New Jersey, for example? Right, you could have New Jersey. Right, take it. No, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. My in-laws are from New Jersey. They're great. I love New Jersey, it's fine. Okay, garden State, right. But I'm just saying, like you imagine, like, how many people like Wyomingoming, whatever, take it, fine, you know it's like, it's beautiful. Yeah, you have yellowstone, grand teton, you have a, you know really great things.

03:13
But like it's not really disputed, like israel, every square inch of israel, every square inch of israel, and it's not that much that's right. But it is eric's katzvi actually. The talmud says it's a land that keeps on Israel and it's not that much that's right. But it is Eretz Katzvi actually. The Talmud says it's a land that keeps on expanding. You know it's like what's Eretz Katzvi? It's land like a deer. What's a deer? The hide of a deer, like the hide of most animals. But the deer is even extreme is that you can never, ever put the hide back on the deer. The only way the hide, the skin around the deer, actually fits is when it's growing from inside. You understand, once you cut off the hide, it's impossible. It shrinks right. The land of Israel is like the hide of a deer the more people you put in, there'll always be enough room. There'll always be enough room. It's an amazing, amazing thing. When they first were in the land of Israel, back when my father grew up my father was born in 1953. So you know how many people lived there you had a few million people, not even Today what you have 11 million people living there, 9 million people living there and keep on building and just keep on living there and keep on building and keep on growing and the roads keep on expanding. It's like, how do they fit? How do they fit and they keep on growing and they keep on growing. That's the most incredible, beautiful thing about the land of Israel.

04:36
But the Talmud now will give us the sources to these afflictions. How do we know this? So, torah minayim, how do we know that the Torah is only acquired through suffering? And we know this. We know that when you study Torah we've talked about this many, many times that the study of Torah comes with many, many challenges. What are the challenges?

04:59
Distraction, yetzhara. He doesn't want you learning the manual for life. He doesn't want you understanding the purpose and meaning of life. He'll send you so many distractions. You'll suddenly, as soon as you sit down to learn, you get a phone call. As soon as you sit down to learn, your wife says oh, I need you for a second, I'm just giving a hypothetical. But as soon as you sit down to learn, you know, suddenly there's an alarm, there's a fly flying around you like, oh, I'm going to get you. It's like the distractions. The Yetzirah doesn't want us to sit and learn. He's always going to find a way.

05:40
So what's the verse that proves this? Sh'nei amar, as ashe hagebeh hashethu yasenu yo u'mit taroscha selam denu Fortunate, is the man whom God afflicts and whom you teach from your Torah. We see there's an affliction that comes with the study of Torah Psalms 94, verse 12. Physical pleasures lead to the neglect of Torah study, as implied by the Mishnah. This is the way of Torah Eat bread with salt, drink water in small measure. That's the Mishnah in Ethics of Our Fathers, right Chapter 6, mishnah 4. The Mishnah over there states that Torah is not going to come with luxury. Torah is not going to come with glory, with fame. Torah is going to come.

06:32
I'll tell you one quick story because we mentioned it previously on our Parsha episode. We mentioned the story from Rav Shlomo Zalman Arbach. I'm going to share with you another amazing story. When Rav Shlomo Zalman Orbach was a young yeshiva student, he had a predicament like every yeshiva student has. You have many friends who get married and you want to go to all the weddings because it's fun, because everyone goes to weddings and it's a lot of fun. So he decided that he wasn't going to go to the weddings of his friends. They're like that's not nice.

07:03
He says you know what, if I stay in the study hall and learn Torah now, it's a good investment for the future. He says because what's the why does everyone go to the wedding? Because it's a mitzvah. It's a mitzvah, you're going to go to the wedding, right, and you make the bride and groom happy. He says what's the likelihood that, as a yeshiva student, that I'm going to make the bride and groom happy? This is maybe this one percent chance that for one second, he'll be happy that I'm actually there dancing with him and he'll be like oh, thank you so much for coming right. This is so great, you made me happy. There's so many people there.

07:37
He says but if I sit and learn and I become a great righteous scholar, then it's guaranteed that when I show up to a wedding, hopefully they'll be thrilled that I showed up for a wedding for one minute. Oh, the great Rav, shlomo Zalman Arbach, showed up to my wedding. It's like wow. She says I'm investing in their children's weddings, right, so that way I can be a righteous scholar, right, and I can be a pious old man that everybody's going to want me to be there. I won't have to be there for a whole wedding for a one second mitzvah. I can be there for one second and make the whole wedding worthwhile for them.

08:14
Because I can tell you, I've heard from people who have had prominent sages come to their weddings and it was like, is he coming? He's coming, what he's coming? And he was, he's there for a minute. He comes, says mazal tov dances for a second, he's out and it's like, wow, I can't believe it. He made it to the wedding Just one minute. So it's where do you invest? On what end of it do you invest? He was ready to give up a lot of fun time with his friends going to weddings so that he can stay in the study hall and study and study, and study. And you know what? He probably at that time was not the most popular guy, right, probably not. But that's what it takes Sometimes. You're going to have to let go of a lot to invest in your own spirituality and your own growth. So that's the first Eretz Yisroel.

09:01
The land of Israel is acquired only through suffering. Well, we don't need a verse for that, right. We could just look at the land of Israel today or look at all the conflicts. Look at all the conflicts. You know how many of our sages over the years and generations and generations and generations tried to make it to the land of Israel and never made it. They say the Chafetz Chaim went on a journey to Israel, didn't make it. The Vilna Goan went on a journey to Israel, didn't make it. The Baal Shem Tov made a journey to Israel, didn't make it. For whatever reason, they kept on having barriers of entry that they eventually just like said just have to head back because God just doesn't want me to make it there. It's unbelievable.

09:48
The Talmud now continues as the verse states Just as a father will chastise his son, so Hashem, your God, chastises you, our sages. That's from the verse in Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 5. The Talmud Eretz Yisrael. The land of Israel was not given for the sake of partaking in its good fruits and indulging in its delights, for that can lead to rebellion against God. So God doesn't want us there to just sit on the fat of the land, enjoy the beautiful, delicious land of milk and honey. That's not what it's about. It's about it's a land of connection to Hashem V'ksiv basri.

10:43
What is said right after that verse? Ki Hashem Elokecha meviach ala eretz atova. For Hashem, your God is bringing you to a good land. What's that land? That's the land of Israel. Hashem is going to bring you there, but you're on notice. You're on notice that if you don't vatokia oritzosom, if you don't follow the will of Hashem, the land will spit you out. The land will spit you out. My grandfather I remember this during one of the entifadas when I was in Israel I think this was mid-90s my grandfather got very, very animated about many Americans who had children in yeshivas, called their kids and said get on a plane, get back home, I don't want you there. And my grandfather said that's the fulfillment of the verse that says those who don't believe the land will spit you out. You don't believe in Hashem. That Hashem will protect you. You have to get. Chase your kids out of yeshiva, send them back home. Fatakhi are to some. That's the land spitting you out. The land does not.

11:54
I was explaining this morning to a group of children. I was teaching a brief class. I was explaining to them that you know you go to West Texas. You know you go to West Texas. You know, will the land spit you out? No, it's fine, you do what you do, tumbleweed out in New Mexico.

12:07
It's like wherever a person is around the world, it's like the land is land, it is what it is, right. It's like the land of Israel is not the same. The land of Israel Eretz Einei Hashem Elokech Abba it's the land that Hashem's eyes are present on that land. So one of the children asked isn't God looking over everyone? I said yes, he said, but imagine, you have a hundred candies in front of you. So you're keeping an eye, making sure you're protecting all those candies. But there's one special one that you want to make sure nobody touches. Right? That's the apple of the eye of the Almighty, is the land of Israel. He looks over all the lands, but this land is a land of communication, a land of reality, and this land, if you fulfill the will of Hashem, it's a promise that the land will sustain you, the land will take care of you.

13:08
I want to share with you an amazing story. This was published in many, many, many different publications. There was a terrible situation that was going on with these terror tunnels coming from Gaza. This is way back, this is about 10 years ago and before they started blowing up all those tunnels that were coming into Israel. And this is way before October 7th, way before all of that. So you had people who were living in Gaza, terrorists many of them, and they would build these tunnels into a yeshuv, into a little settlement or into a kibbutz, and suddenly a few terrorists would just pop up in the middle of the night and start killing people from the tunnel and then they'd run back in the tunnel and nobody knew where they came from.

13:58
So one such tunnel was built, prepared and ready to be exposed. They just had the last little push that they needed to open up. It was in the middle of a wheat field, big stalks of wheat, and they're like this is perfect cover because no one can see us, because he had these big, tall stalk stalks and no one's going to. It's a great. What happened was is that that year they were concerned for rain and they cut the wheat for the flour for the matzah early. And what did they do? They asked, they looked around, they want, they wanted to get it from one specific uh, one specific uh uh parcel. They wanted to get all of it from one place, all of the flour from one place. So they finally found news, this piece of property. They cut all of it and they put it in a storehouse and when these terrorists came up, they were shocked that there was no longer any of those stalks. They were fully exposed and eliminated. But it was unbelievable. I think it was something to do with Shemitah as well, with the sabbatical year. They only wanted to take it from someone who observed the Shemitah. That's what it was, and there was only one field that observed the Shemitah. That's what it was, and there was only one field that observed the Shemitah in that vicinity that had the quantity that they wanted. That's what it was. The Shemitah ended up saving their lives. It was.

15:35
This is so incredible the protection that we see in the land of Israel. That is beyond the call of nature, it's beyond what we understand from ordinary land. That's not the way it works in the land of Israel, but there is an accountability and there is also a struggle that comes with attaining the land. I know people who can afford buying property in Israel, meaning buying homes, apartments. It comes with so much heartache, so much paperwork and red tape, but they couldn't figure it out. Israel is very highly technological. They can figure out these things. They can figure out how to overcome all of these challenges of you know, you go to the Ministry of Interior in Israel, you feel like the clock turned back 200 years and you're in communist Russia. Like what takes so long? Why is this so complicated? It's not that it's complicated. It's not that they can't figure it out. It's part of the acquisition of the land of Israel is always going to be difficult, Always. It's always going to be difficult. It's not. They're not trying to make it difficult, it is difficult, okay, okay.

16:44
And what's with Olam Abba? The world to come is acquired only through suffering. The verse states, as it is written Ki ner mitzvah, v'torah or v'derech haim toch achos musar, for the commandments are a candle and the Torah is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. And you know, proverbs teaches us that life. The word life is in reference to the world to come, which is the eternal life. Accordingly, the verse teaches that derechayim, the way of life, what leads us to that life of the world to come, the eternal life? We have to go through this world to get there. So this world is the world of affliction. In order to get your place in the eternal world, we need to go through the afflictions of this world. Why do we call it afflictions? Because we have disappointments, and disappointments when things don't go our way, like I was expecting for this to be easy and suddenly it's difficult, so I get disappointed. It's a challenge.

17:51
Hashem puts those challenges so that we earn our seat in the world to come, so that we earn our keep. And those challenges give us our little medals of honor. It gives us our badges of accomplishment every time we're able to overcome a challenge. You know, oh, I was tempted with that non-kosher food and I was able to overcome it one time. Wow, that's a badge of honor. I was able to overcome my desire to flip on that light on Shabbos. Ah, it's a badge of honor. That gives us another, you know, another status upgrade in our eternal world, the world to come. But it's in this world that we have those challenges.

18:34
Every person has different challenges. You can't compare one to one, because it's not one to one. To one person it's lightweight and to other person it's incredibly difficult. It's a big struggle, right? You see someone who's muscle building. For them to pick up 200 pounds, no big deal, but for me at least, it's very difficult. At 200 pounds, very heavy, it takes a lot of training. Every person has a different experience. So the person who picks up those 200 pounds is not going to build as much muscle as the person who starts with 5 pounds and then goes to 10 pounds, and then goes to 20 pounds and then goes to 3, right and works their way up.

19:16
Okay, so it's okay. Now the Talmud discusses afflictions of love. We are way over time. Okay, we're going to stop here for now and we are going to continue, god willing, next week. We are going to continue with the afflictions of love. Talmud, that's going to lead us right into 5B in Tractate Brachot. My dear friends online, thank you so much for joining us. Have a magnificent Shabbos, and those of you who are here will stay a few minutes to answer any questions.

19:47 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.