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.

00:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back to the thinking Talmudist Podcast. We are here, coming to you live from passaic, new jersey, but on with our dear friends on Zoom and live on Facebook, youtube, twitter and all the other incredible social media platforms that allow us to share Torah with our world. So the gemaras we discussed previously we're talking about the things, the gifts that the Almighty has given us that are only acquired through affliction. There are things we mentioned this last week. We talked about the land of Israel, the Torah Olam Haba, the world to come. What does that mean? That they're acquired only with affliction.

00:58
It means to say our sages tell us like this is that we all know that in order to acquire something good, it's not always going to be easy. It's not always going to be easy. For example, we know that to run a marathon for most people it's not just going to be an easy thing. Just get on the track or on the road and start running your 26.2 miles. It's going to be a lot of hard work. It's going to be very difficult. Now, it's not always difficult for everyone. Some people have it easier, Some people have it a little bit. You know, it's more of a gift to them. But there are three things that nobody has it easy Nobody. There's no shortcuts and that is the Torah, the land of Israel and the world to come. These three always have challenges associated with them. Right, the land, the Torah. We know it's not easy for someone to just acquire Torah. In fact, most of the people that you see who are tremendous Torah scholars are not just Torah scholars from birth. They're Torah scholars who work through many, many struggles to become people who are righteous and pious and scholarly. It's not just an intellectual. You know, I'll just sit down, I'll focus, I'll read a little bit and I'll get it all. You know, like that it's not the way it works. The way it really works is, in order for one to study torah, you have to immerse yourself in it, completely, completely immerse yourself in it, and you know the they.

02:42
There's an entire group of people that say that these books that they come out with about rabbis are really not are not fear. They're not fear. It means you have all of these in our magnificent Torch Library. We have a whole shelf dedicated to books about the righteous, about tzaddikim, and the truth is that many of those books are I mean all of those books are amazing books and anytime you'll open any of those books you'll be like fascinated, like wow, this is incredible. But the truth is that there are many people who are opposed to those books, and the reason they're opposed to it is because they don't always share and most times they don't. They don't share the struggles, they don't share how much challenge these great sages had to endure in order to become great, and that is something that is usually left out, because you know they're so holy, they're so righteous.

03:43
I'll give you an example. Okay, you think Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who I love saying stories from Rabbi Feinstein you think one day he just rubbed his eyes and said, okay, I'm going to be a great Torah scholar? Definitely not. It took a tremendous amount of work. It took a tremendous amount of struggle, success and failure, and each time, building up again and again, standing up again and again Torah doesn't come easy to anyone. In fact, most of the Torah scholars that they write books about are really not people who are out of the ordinary in the sense that they had greater potential at birth than anyone else. But what they did is they maximized every single weapon, every single tool that was given to them to overcome the Yetzirah, to overcome their challenges and applied it all to their study of Torah, and that's how they succeeded. So we see that not a single person is able to acquire Torah just because it's a given, because I'm intrigued by it, it's going to come with a lot of challenge, okay, so that's one.

04:58
The second we spoke last week about the land of Israel, and again I want to give a tremendous thanks to the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. On some of the different multimedia platforms, some of the viewers of my videos were getting worked up. They're like yeah, that's what happens. Of course, it's difficult to acquire the land of Israel because you stole it Free Palestine. So I need to just give a disclaimer here to those of you who are going to be writing comments in the social media posts that we make about any of our topics, but particularly the land of Israel, is that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings, okay, because who does all the land of the world belong to? It belongs to God, god, who created heaven and earth. He decides who gets what.

05:56
And if you believe and understand the words of the Torah and the prophets and the writings, where it's reviewed again and again and again and repeated multiple times, we see the promise that the Torah is given to the children of Jacob, the children of Isaac, the children of Abraham. In fact, the verse that talks about this says specifically the name of Yaakov. Why doesn't it say the name of Abraham? Because Abraham had two sons, yishmael and Yitzchak. It goes to Yitzchak, and then Yitzchak had two children. He had Yaakov and Esau. Well, it went to Yaakov.

06:35
And this is the promise that's given in the Torah time and again, a promise that the land of Israel and we're unapologetic, I'm sorry, I'm sorry if it hurts people's feelings it belongs to the Jewish people, the children of Abraham, isaac and Jacob. If you don't have all three of those, it's not your land Abraham, isaac and Jacob. So therefore, yeah, I understand that people are a little worked up. That's fine. People could be worked up, but we can't let go of the facts. You know, it's an interesting thing.

07:13
The the torah begins and, by the way, what's interesting about the torah is that both christians and muslims agree that the torah was given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. And the Quran only the Muslims think that it's divine, and the New Testament. Only the Christians think that it's divine. But the Torah, everybody agrees is divine, everybody In that same Torah. How does the Torah begin? The Torah begins with an incredible tale of how the Almighty created the world In the beginning, before everything existed, before anything existed, god created the heaven and the earth. And it goes on to talk about the six days of creation and how God rested on the seventh. So the commentators all ask why is this important? Who cares what happened back then? Don't we have a Torah? We have 613 commandments, 248 performative commandments, 365 prohibitions.

08:24
What do we need to get into the whole history of how the world was created? Oh, says Rashi, the great commentator. Rashi says because there's going to be a land which is going to be disputed. When did Rashi write this? A thousand years ago. There's going to be a land that's going to be disputed and people are going to say it's not your land. And you know what. They'll look at the Torah and they'll see. You know the creator of heaven and earth. He gets to decide who gets what and he decided it goes to the Jewish people. I'm sorry if that hurts you, I'm sorry if that offends you, but that's the reality.

09:03
The reality is is that the world was created by God, and God decides who he gives what to, just like God decides who he gives intelligence to and who he gives talent to, and who he gives wealth to and who he gives children to, and who he gives successful marriages to and who he gives successful marriages to and who he gives successful lives to. These are all things that are a God-given gift. Obviously, a man needs to contribute to it. A man needs to work hard in order to attain these things. It doesn't just come. Even if God gives someone intelligence, it does not mean that that intelligence will be used effectively. Right, doctor, our in-house doctor is here. It's so wonderful to see everyone, it's so special. All right, so now we're going to continue.

09:56
In the Talmud, the Gemara cites the Brisa. We're going to skip a little bit of the pieces here that are going to go back and forth in proving certain things, because there are many verses that are going to be listed by the Talmud here. But the Talmud says Rabbi Shimon ben Uchai said the Almighty gave three fabulous gifts to the Jewish people. Almighty gave three fabulous gifts to the Jewish people וְחְולָן לֹנְשְׁנָן אַלָהִי דִיִשְׁרְם. And all of them he gave them. Only through suffering. The acquisition is attained. It comes about only through pain and affliction. וְאֵלוֹהֵן.

10:41
What are those three things? Torah, yisrael and the rest of it. Torah, the study of Torah, the acquisition of Torah, the land of Israel and the world to come. Oh, so the third one that we didn't elaborate on was the world to come. So, just so we understand the world to come. What does that mean? It means we all come to this world. We come here, we're on a mission. The almighty puts us in this world with challenges. He puts us in here with certain skills into this world, and he gives us certain tools. Throughout our lifetime we're going to have to figure out how to maximize our potential in this world, how to maximize with the tools that god gave.

11:24
A person should never look at the other person hey, why am I not like that person? Why am I not like that person? A person has to always think why am I not me, the greatest version of me? And this is our responsibility. Our purpose in this world Is to make the best of me. Okay, that's the world to come. The world to come is the reward that we get for fulfilling all of our purpose. Okay, so now the Talmud is going to bring several verses to back this up.

11:57
So now the Breisik continues to discuss afflictions of love. Tana Tana, tana, tani, tana Kameid, rabi Yochanan, a braisah was taught in front of Rabi Yochanan. Kola, osik, betoru, b'gminas chosadem, whoever engages in the study of Torah and bestowing kindness to others, which is chesed. We talked about this, about, you know, doing acts of loving kindness. Now we're turning to 5B in Tractate Brachot, on top V'kover es b'anov. And this same person who does these acts of Torah, study and bestowing acts of loving kindness, and that same person kover es b'anov and buries their sons, mochen, lo'akala b'nosov.

12:42
Such a person is forgiven of all their sins, all of their sins. So if someone's child dies in their lifetime, this is one of the indications of a person's sins being completely forgiven. It's such a painful experience, such an affliction. This is removal of all one's sins. By the way, our sages tell us that even if the person didn't do tshuva, meaning if the person didn't repent, you imagine a serious thing happens to a person and they really take life into a serious focus. Like you know, I have to correct my ways. I have to do this better. I have to improve, prove, even if they didn't do that the fact that they experienced such an affliction, such a pain, is already forgiving of their sins. And now Rabbi Yochanan questions this. He brings many different sources for and against. At the end the Talmud concludes, as we stated in the beginning, that these are tools that the Almighty sends us to correct any sin we may have done.

13:55
The Talmud brings a few other types of suffering, other types of afflictions, like leprosy, a leprosy-like tzaras type of affliction. Is it an affliction of love? Is it an affliction of atonement? And the Talmud goes into this a lot. I want to just move forward to the Talmud a little bit further. That talks about stories of different sages who experienced pain and affliction. So this is 5b in the middle of the page. In tractate brachot.

14:32
The Gemara records several incidents in which sages were afflicted with suffering Rabchia bar Abba, cholash. Rabchia bar Abba became very ill. Ol gabay, rabi Yochanan. Rabi Yochanan went to visit him and he said to him Are these afflictions dear to you? Do you enjoy, are you appreciating these afflictions? Not the afflictions and not the reward. None of them, I don't appreciate any of them. This pain, this affliction, is so severe that I don't appreciate any of it. Not the pain and not the reward for the pain. Rabbi Yochanan said to him Give me your hand, rabbi Chiavar. Abba gave Rabbi Yochanan his hand and Rabbi Yoohanan revived him and removed all of his illness. A similar incident Rebbe Yohanan was ill. Rebbe Yohanan came to visit him.

15:39
As we know, there's a mitzvah in the Torah to visit the sick. Where do we learn this from? We learn this from God. God came to visit Abraham. Abraham was sick after the circumcision and who came to visit him? Knock, knock. It's God. It's an amazing thing. God came to visit Abraham to help him get healed from his pain, from his procedure that he had just undergone. And this is one of the sources that it is a great mitzvah.

16:12
The Torah commands us to visit those who are sick. So Rabbi Yochanan was sick. Rabbi Hanina came to visit him. He says to him Chaviv and Oleicha Yisroom, are these afflictions dear to you, omele? Rabbi Yochanan was sick. Rabbi Hanina came to visit him. He says to him Chaviv and Oleicha Yisroom, are these afflictions dear to you, amalei? Rabbi Yochanan said to him lo hein velo scharon. Neither these afflictions nor their reward, excuse me, neither of them are appreciated, amalei. Rabbi Hanina says to him hav liyadach, give me your hand. Yo evle yadeh veukme. Rabbi Yochanan gave him his hand and Rabbi Hanina revived him. He healed all of the illness from him.

16:55
So the Gemara asks Amai, why did Rabbi Yochanan need Rabbi Hanina's help? Lokem, rabbi Yochanan l'nafshe Let Rabbi Yochanan revive himself. The Gemara did not ask this in the first story. Why not? Because in connection with Rebbe Chiavar Abba's sickness, because it's possible that Rebbe Chiavar Abba was unaware that a person who is so ill has the capacity to recover. Rebbe Yochanan, however, was certainly aware of this, for it was he who helped Rabbi Chia Bar Abba to rise from the sickbed. So he was the one who helped revive Rabbi Chia Bar Abba. He should know how to help himself become healed. So why did he not revive himself?

17:48
The Gemara says Amri, a captive cannot release himself from prison. That means he needs the help from someone else outside to release him. This is a very, very important idea here is that, yes, a person has great abilities, a person has great talents. I'll give you an example. Maybe the doctor will be able to shed some light on this. But they say that even the therapists need therapists. Right, even the therapists. Why? Why does the therapist?

18:25
There's a couple of reasons we can talk about why, first, is they're dealing with everybody else's challenges? How can they not have an impact on you? You're impacted by the stories, especially if you have compassion, if you have a heart that's as great as our doctor's heart, right, dr Rosenstock? So you feel the pain of your people, and if you feel their pain, how can it not have an impact on you? Of course, it's going to have an impact on you in a way that can sometimes be harmful. Therefore, it's important for you to have someone. Even though you're able to help others, to help yourself, you need to talk it out with someone else. But we also we see this.

19:09
We see that someone who is stuck with an illness. When someone else comes to visit you, what they're doing is pulling you out of your you know, it's very easy. Someone can be sick and they get all depressed, they get sad, they get down on themselves. I can't believe this. Look at me, I'm getting so old. Someone else comes to them and says it's okay. You know, I have the same thing. I have a little bit of this pain. I have a little bit of that pain. I'm totally with you. I feel your pain. I know what it's like. But let's go for a jog together. Let's go do this together, let's go out for lunch together, like this. It lightens up the person's feeling of, you know, feeling down about their situation. It lightens them up and it's an amazing thing, an amazing power that we have for us to influence and assist other people who are in challenge. They need someone else to be there with them. It's a very incredible thing.

20:11
So another story is told here in the Talmud about illness, about suffering. Rabbi Lazar Cholas. Rabbi Lazar was ill. Rabbi Yochanan came to visit him. Rabbi Yochanan is the same one who healed Rabbi Chiavar Abba, and he's also the one who was sick himself and needed someone else to Reb Hanina to heal him.

20:37
Choza dehava kogoni bebeis afel. He saw that Reb Elazer was lying in a dark room. Okay, we know a dark room can sometimes be very depressing. Open up the lights, open up the window shades. You know it could be a little bit challenging. Galyei lidare v'nafal nahayro. Reb Yochanan exposed his arm and light fell in the room. The skin of Reb Yochanan was so radiant, as stated in the Talmud in Bava Mitzia 84a, that his skin itself brought light. It illuminated the room.

21:18
Chazed Ahava Kabachi, rebbe Lazar. He saw that Rebbe Lazar was crying. Now that there's light in the room, he saw that Rebbe Lazar, who he came to visit, who was ill, was crying, amar Le. He said to him Amai Kabachis, what are you crying? Imi shum ta'er, doloi afshat was crying, amar Le. He said to him Amai Kabachis, what are you crying If it's because of the Torah that you haven't been able to learn and study?

21:44
Shaninu, didn't we learn in the Mishnah with, regarding to sacrifices, echad ha-mah-bev, echad ha-mah-mit u'bevat, j'icha ben libu v'shamayim, both, both one who gives much and both and someone who gives a little, are equally pleasing to God, meaning if a person learns a lot or learns a little. It's, by the way, it's the same thing that applies in halacha regarding prayer. A person prays a lot, a person prays a little. They're equally pleasing to the Almighty, provided that one directs their heart to heaven. Meaning even though a person doesn't learn much or doesn't pray much, if your intentions are pure, then it's loved by the Almighty.

22:37
So why are you crying? What are you crying? And if you are crying because of the lack of food, your dire financial situation, that too is no reason to cry, because not everyone merits the two tables. Meaning not everyone merits to both worlds. What's both worlds, this world and that world. The world to come Means you're going to be so successful in the world to come because of all of your good deeds, because of your good actions. Does that mean you're also going to get it good in this world? Also, it could be two worlds of the world, of financial success and spiritual success. Usually they come at the expense of one or the other.

23:22
In fact, in the Mesiel Sisharim, in the ways of the upright the Ramchal, writes, he says that physical success and spiritual success are a sliding scale. That means if you are fully invested in the physical world, in the physical realm, it's automatically going to decline your spiritual realm, your spiritual world, and vice versa. If a person elevates himself spiritually, the physical world doesn't mean anything. The more a person is invested physically, the less they're invested spiritually. The more someone is invested spiritually, the less they'll be invested physically. It's an automatic reaction. They'll be invested physically. It's an automatic reaction.

24:19
The reality of the world is you can't be in both worlds fully involved, fully engaged. People say, well, how do I stay right there in the middle? So I have both the best of both worlds. I'll be also spiritually connected and physically, financially as well. It's very, very impossible. Okay, it's unlikely. Either way. See, he says don't you understand that you can't be in both worlds? I understand that you have your dire financial situation, but you also understand that you can't be dancing at both weddings at the same time. You can't be also at the party of spiritual success and also at the party of physical success.

25:00
And if you cry because of your children who died, this is the bone of the tenth son that I lost. He says Amr Leir, reb Loza said to Reb Yochanan. He says I am crying on account of the beauty, the beauty of Reb Yochanan, meaning you who are coming to visit me, that will rot in the earth when you die. Meaning it was known that Reb Yochanan was a really, really handsome man, really really beautiful man. In fact, he was so beautiful. People would look at him when they would women, when they would leave the mikvah before they would be with their husbands. They would look at Reb Yochanan because it would be an omen, a blessing for them to have beautiful children, because they saw Rabbi Yochanan, who was such a beautiful person, such incredible beauty, that this would give them healthy, beautiful children. Amaralei, rabbi Yochanan said to him For this you should certainly cry, and they both cried. You should cry for this.

26:20
Now, what is it? You think it's talking about his physical beauty? I don't think it's talking about physical beauty. I don't think it's talking about physical beauty at all, because physical beauty is something which comes and goes. It's a very great blessing if one does have physical beauty is something which comes and goes. It's a very great blessing if one does have physical beauty.

26:37
But that's not the essence of life. The essence of life is not physical beauty. The essence, what does it really mean here? It's the beauty of one's actions, the beauty of the way a person conducts their lives. You see that we only have a chance to do when we're living. Once we're six feet under, we have no opportunity to do more beautiful deeds. Those actions can no longer be done, which is the most important thing. We need to get them done.

27:08
So here they're crying, talking about the physical, external beauty, but really what it's referring to is the beauty of their actions, where he's saying Rebbe Yochanan, you are so beautiful in the way you conduct your life, in the way you act. When you're dead, the world will be a sad place because your beautiful actions are no longer here, so they both cried. It means that it was an awakening moment to remember you know what. We're all temporary. This is a guarantee. The only thing that's certain is that we all die one day and we all hope. Why are we in trepidation of death? Why are people fearful of death? Because what's if I didn't fulfill my mission? That's indeed something to be afraid of, that's indeed something to be concerned about. But if a person is fully invested in their actions, being the right thing, doing the right thing, doing the will of Hashem, so what's there to be afraid of that? We die. Adah hochi v'hochi amole.

28:13
In the meantime, rabbi Yochanan asked him Are these afflictions dear to you? Amalei, reb Lozer said to him Neither they, nor their reward. Not the pain, not the affliction that I'm experiencing, not the reward or the atonement that they bring. I'm not pleased with any of it. Amalei. Reb Yochanan said to him Hav li'adach, give me your hand. Yav li'yadeh v'okmeh. Reb Lozer gave him his hand and Rabbi Yochanan revived him. So here we see another story of how you know, even though we have the Talmud teaching us the Torah, showing us examples of how affliction and pain is an atonement. It does good for a person, it cleanses a person, it removes away sin, it removes away distraction, it gets you zoned right into your reality. Still, it's not beloved by most of us.

29:16
Okay, an incident that involved affliction of financial nature. Rev Huna had 400 barrels of wine that soured. They turned it to vinegar. Now that's really that's a great loss. Imagine you had the fine wine, you had the great you know. You had these great bottles of Israeli wine or French wine, whatever wine is your favorite, and imagine that they all turned into vinegar. They all became spoiled. All the Gaber, rebbe Yehuda, achua, durav Salah Hasidah and Rabbanon, rebbe Yehuda, the brother of Salah Hasidah, as well as other sages, went up to visit him. Rav Hunah was dealing with a lot 400 barrels. 400 barrels of wine. I mean, each barrel is like more than 100 bottles of wine. That's a lot of wine that went sour than 100 bottles of wine. That's a lot of wine that went sour For Amrullah, rav Adab Bar, ava, rav Abonan, and some say that it wasn't Rav Yehuda, the brother of Rav Salah Chassidah, who went with sages.

30:20
Rather, it was Rav Adab Bar, ava and the sages who visited him, amrullah. They Let the master, let Rav Hune, examine his affairs to determine the cause of this loss. Now, this is something we discussed previously. It's important for us to realize that when affliction comes upon a person, it's not random. It's not random.

30:46
God wasn't bored one day and said you know what, boom, I'm going to afflict this person with this pain. It is all predestined from the almighty, with. The almighty knows what each person is doing or not doing, what they're fulfilling, what they're not fulfilling, how they're acting, how they're not acting. And Hashem says okay, this is what this person needs, and this is what this person needs. And every person gets exactly what they need to awaken them, to do the right thing and to correct their ways, hopefully.

31:16
So they asked Rav Una, did you examine your ways to determine the cause of this loss? Because this is a pretty big thing? Am, I suspect in your eyes? The Ravuna says you're suspecting me that I do terrible things, that I do something that deserves such a terrible punishment? Amulei, they said to him, is the Holy One, the Almighty God, blessed. Is he? Is he suspect of punishing without justice? Are you suspecting that the Almighty would punish you for no reason? Amulei, he said to them, if there's anyone who heard something about me that I must rectify, please speak up. If there's anybody who has a comment to say, please let me know. They responded to him.

32:23
There's actually something that we heard about you. There's actually something that we heard about you, diloy yohiv mar shabishola ariseh, that you did not give branches to your shear cropper. So what would be is that one person would work the crops, work the fields, and one person would pay a fixed portion for the crop, while taking the rest for himself. If he works in a vineyard, besides the wine which is sheared between the shear cropper and the owner, the branches pruned off the vines must also be divided between them. And here they heard that Rav Huna did not properly give the branches to the shear cropper Amr Lahu. He said to them, to the shear cropper Amr lehu, he said to them mi kashavik li midi mine. Did he leave me any of them? Hakogoniv le kule? He stole all of them from me. What are you talking about? Right? He took far more than what was rightfully his shear the shear cropper. Right, amr leh? They said to him hainu da amri inchi. This is an example. What does this mean? To steal from a thief is also regarded as stealing.

33:45
Although Rav Huna harbored a legitimate claim against the shear cropper, he was nevertheless not entitled to withhold from him his due shear of the branches. So what they're saying is Rav Huna's punishment matched his crime in accordance with the rule of Mida K'neged Mida, measure for measure. Since he wrongfully withheld vine branches from his sharecropper, he too was deprived of the product of the vine and lost 400 barrels of wine. So it was a midah k'neged midah. It was an act for an act, amr Elohu. He said to them I accept upon myself to give him his share of the remaining branches. Okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going to give him the remaining, I'm going to give it to him. I'm going to do it, meaning he accepted what they said. He accepted what they said. Rav Hun accepted. He said okay, you gave me my critique, you gave me my reprimand, I got the punishment of the 400 barrels that were lost, and now I'm going to correct my ways.

34:55
Some say that thereupon a miracle occurred and the vinegar reverted to wine, and others say that the price of vinegar shot up and his vinegar sold at the price of wine. So we see very amazing things to learn from this. Firstly is that there's no such thing as a punishment that is unwarranted, as a punishment that is unwarranted. If someone gets a punishment, the punishment is a conversation that God is, who loves you, is giving you a conversation. God is talking to you Now. Nobody asks for Yisurim, no one asks for affliction Because it's not pleasant. We're physical beings who enjoy the life we live and therefore we don't want pain, we don't want affliction. We ask in our prayers not to have Yisurim, not to have afflictions. We don't want to have afflictions, but if we do, we need to know that it's a message where God is talking to us, where God is telling us exactly what we need to hear. God is conversing with us.

36:15
Hear this story with Raphunah, where Raphunah lost 400 barrels of wine. He's probably beside himself sitting there thinking do you know how much loss this is? What's vinegar versus wine? You get a nice bottle of wine can cost you $30, $40, $50, $100 if it's an expensive, if it's a Rav Huna bottle of wine, right, probably $200 a bottle. What's vinegar? Vinegar is what? 59 cents. You buy yourself a bottle the same size as the bottle of wine. Vinegar is inferior. It's a devastating loss, devastating loss. So what? What do we do?

36:58
We start thinking and here's the amazing part of this, the amazing part of this whole thing is that he accepted the pain. He accepted what they told him was the reason, perhaps, for his thing. He accepted what they said. And then, what happened? He was rewarded for it. What happened?

37:23
Now that you got the message, I have no reason to pain you anymore. God says right, no reason to pain you. You got the message. I have no reason to pay you anymore. God says right, no reason to pay me. You got the message. So what does he do? The Almighty changes it. And now the 400 barrels of wine that turned into vinegar turn back into wine. Or, according to another opinion, what happened? Not that the miracle happened and the vinegar turned into wine, but rather the price of vinegar shot up, and now he made just as much money as he would have made with. It's an amazing thing. How many stories do we know of people I know so many stories of people you know purchased a certain commodity and suddenly you know things got shooken up in the market and it was the worst thing in the world, the worst. I'll tell you an amazing story.

38:18
I'll tell you an amazing story, the true story. So we know the incredible laws of Shemitah, the sabbatical year where the Torah tells us in the end of the book of Leviticus that we should work our field for six years and rest on the seventh, rest on the seventh. The land of Israel, the labor of the land shouldn't be done on the seventh year. And if someone does observe the land's rest on the seventh year, the sabbatical, the Torah says that I will reward you with a triple crop. You'll get on the sixth year, for the sixth year, for the seventh and for the eighth to get back into business. You get a triple crop.

39:08
There's a secular kibbutz in Israel, non-torah observant at the time, and they said you know what? Let's try, let's test God, let's see if he is indeed fulfilling of his promise. So what did they do? They decided last minute you know what? We're going to keep shmita. This year. They kept shmita and they used to have a very fine product that would grow in their fields, very, very, very special, very unique, uh, fruit or vegetable that they were. They were growing there. And comes the seventh year, they don't work the field. They don't work the field. They don't work the field. Nothing Comes the eighth year and the land is not as special as it used to be and they're only able to grow some inferior vegetable. And it was like, really, this is Zutair of Zuzchara, this is the Torah and this is its reward. The Torah promised us that if we observe the seventh year of Shemitah oh so much blessing you get a triple crop. What's going to be?

40:15
It turns out that year in Germany there was a massive shortage of this vegetable and they were willing to import this vegetable from anybody who had it. But it was one clause in this contract they had to have enough to provide from one source for the entire country. They searched around the world and the only place that had it was this kibbutz that observed the Shemitah. And they paid more money for that vegetable, that simple vegetable that grew in that field after Shemitah. They paid as much, or if not more, than they would have received from the other fruit that they were growing there all along. And they said that the entire kibbutz were working overtime packing these bags, packing these bags to ship them to Germany.

41:19
And this is a published story. It's an incredible story, but we see how sometimes we think Hashem is like oh, how can God do this to me. Didn't God promise that I'm going to have a reward? And then what we see? That it wasn't a punishment, it was actually a reward in disguise. That came later. They were able to realize, they were able to see the unique gift that the Almighty was sending them.

41:47
This, my dear friends, is an example of how sometimes we don't always see the blessing right away, but the Almighty has a perfect accounting of midah, k'neged midah, an act for an act, a measure for measure. When we do good, we will be rewarded measure for measure. And when we do no good, we will be rewarded measure for measure. And when we do no good, we'll be punished measure for measure. And we ask that, whatever affliction we have, you stub your toe. That should be an affliction that takes away some of the measure for measure for something I may have done wrong. I went to a place I shouldn't have gone. Hashem punished me with my foot. I hurt my arm. Maybe I signed the document with dishonesty. Maybe Hashem is now punishing my arm. It is exact, measure for measure.

42:37
But there's another thing which is important for us to remember. You know my father when he visited his sister before she passed away, which is my aunt and she had a terrible illness at the end of her life and they would get together. My father has had. He had twice. He had open heart surgery, once to do the bypass and once to replace all the parts. It was a whole thing. So they were brother and sister, they were visiting together and they had a conversation. They asked each other do you know why God did this to you? Just like the Talmud here asks a Rav Una, do you know why God did this to you? And then the other asked do you know why God did this to you? And it was like that's really the way a conversation should be conducted when someone is in a situation. Again, it has to be out of love, it has to be out of respect and it's not like oh you see, this is what happens to you when you're like no, it shouldn't be In a way that's productive, in a way that's healthy, in a way that's going to help influence change in a proper way.

43:48
This is so important. It's so important for us to realize that life is a gift, but life is a serious responsibility. God gives us life to accomplish, god gives us life to do things, and when God limits that ability because we're sick, because we have pain, because we have affliction, we have any illness. Why is God limiting us? Because he's trying to redirect us. I want you to go that path. I want you to change course.

44:22
This is so important for us to realize God is communicating with us. Of course we pray every day. We don't want illness, we don't want suffering, we don't want pain, we don't want challenge, we don't want embarrassment, but if we do have any of these things, we each as individuals, we need to consider that we are all prophets. God gives us a prophecy to help us understand and determine why did we deserve to get this? And when we're able to internalize this, we're able to understand why this happens. We're able to improve ourselves and become a better person and hopefully connect to God in a much more serious and much more intense way, because the whole purpose of our life is to be close to Hashem. The entire purpose of our existence is to cleave to Hashem, to be one with Hashem and to remove the barriers. Our sins are barriers. Our bad middot, our bad traits are barriers. Affliction and pain are a very potent message from the Almighty to remove those barriers. And God speaks to us in the language we need to hear. God speaks to us with the exact parts of our body, in the exact areas of our lives respectively, that are key to us correcting our ways.

46:02
So this concludes this piece of Talmud. God willing, next week we'll continue with another piece of Talmud. But till then, my we'll continue with another piece of Talmud. But till then, my dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos, have a magnificent week. Stay away from pain, stay away from illness, stay away from affliction, stay away and if we are able, on our own, to understand what the Almighty wants from us, we don't need that pain, we don't need that suffering. We don't need that suffering. We see, by the way, it doesn't say a terrible thing about us. Look at Rav Huna he was one of the Teneik sages. Look at Rav Yochanan. Look at these great sages, rav Chia, barabo I mean we're talking about these are unbelievable powerhouse Torah scholars.

46:43
But God communicates with those he loves. God communicates with us because he wants us close and when he feels that we turned away the wrong path, sometimes he needs to slap us upside our head to get us back on course, to get us back on the right path. My dear friends, have a magnificent Shabbos To those of you who are on Zoom, we're going to open the floor to any questions, so please go ahead. Okay, very good question. You're saying that when we talk to Hashem in our prayer and we ask Him, does he communicate with us directly or does he expect us to do the homework? It's both. It's both. God talks very direct. Now, he doesn't talk with words per se, because God doesn't stand there communicate with us like that, but God does talk to us through very exact actions. God is a very, very good communicator and he is able to get the message to us very, very appropriately, and we need to realize that it's an amazing communication.

47:52
Sometimes you may wonder why a person said something to you or why a person acted in a certain way to you. It's Hashem communicating. Hashem is using them as a messenger to send you the message, to talk to you, send you the message to talk to you, and it's all being constructed in a way that is custom-tailored for you. But a person has to have intellect. Now. It does not mean, by the way, it does not mean that Hashem doesn't talk in a language that we cannot understand. Hashem does not talk in a language that we cannot understand. Hashem does not talk in a language that we cannot understand. If Hashem is speaking to you, he's speaking to a language that you can understand and each person respectively is able to understand.

48:38
Okay, well, hopefully we don't make mistakes again. But, yes, definitely those sins that we have committed, that's an atonement Right no future, they didn't happen. God assumes that we're not going to do any sins. All right, that's the plan. The plan is that we don't do any more sins. It's only on the past. We do see in the Torah where God says it's better to take out somebody who's going to sin before they sin. We see that with the wayward child, with the wayward son. So in certain situations the Torah says it's better to do it to get rid of them or get them off the map before they commit the sin, because it's inevitable. He's going to have a fabulous, fabulous week everybody. Shabbat.

49:29 - Intro (Announcement)
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