Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Ask Away series on the Everyday Judaism podcast. To have your questions answered on future episodes, please email askaway at torchweb.org. Now ask away.

Good almost afternoon, everybody. Welcome back to Ask Away number 31 of the Everyday Judaism podcast. It is time that we turn the floor to you, to your questions, to our viewers online. Please share your questions with us. We'd love to address them in our upcoming sessions, our upcoming classes.
You can email us at askaway at torchweb.org. Ask away at t-o-r-c-h-w-e-b dot o-r-g. I look forward to hearing and hopefully responding to your questions. And now we begin with Marilyn. Go ahead. Good morning. My question is about the movie Fiddler on the Roof. Why do you think Fiddler on the Roof is a bad movie for the Jews? And what do you think the title Fiddler on the Roof means? Okay, very good question.
So you've heard me say here in this class before that the worst thing that ever happened to American Judaism is Fiddler on the Roof. Why do I say that? That's a great question. The reason I say that is because Fiddler on the Roof, although it gave a certain pride to Jewish people and gave them a feeling of like we're part of some type of group that's really awesome, the answers that he gives are just awful. Okay? To say everything is just tradition, that's not true.
We don't do things because of tradition. We don't do anything because of tradition. We do things because God told us to. In fact, if you look, our sages teach us that a person should only do mitzvahs for one reason. Not because it's I like the mitzvah. Not because it's my tradition. This is what my grandmother taught me. It's because this is what God teaches us in the Torah. Now, once you have that established, you can add your own flavor to it.
And this is our tradition of why we do it like this or why we do it like that. The reasons we do things is not because of tradition. We do things because it's deeply rooted in our Torah. Everything we have, every custom that you have, and every question that's being asked, it shouldn't be like, well, I don't know why, but it's a tradition. That's not appropriate. It's not real. It's not truth. We do it because this is a command in the Torah.
Now, so what comes from it is that all that we're giving over to our children is do it because I said so. Do it because this is tradition. Do it because that's not real, that's not truthful, and it's not appropriate. What really is the reason is because this is what God commanded us. And God commanded us, and that's why we're going to observe this. So it's a much more concrete, because when you have your reasoning based on logic, then it doesn't waver.
If your reasoning is based on emotion, well, if I'm not in the mood, I'm just not going to do it. So let's pick a quick one, an easy one. Well, all Jewish mothers tell their kids, you're only marrying a Jewish girl. You're only going to marry Jewish. And then he comes home with a nice Catholic girl, and she's wearing a cross, and you're saying, what's wrong with you? Why are you bringing home this Christian girl?
I told you only, well, I fell in love with her, and love is love, and leave me alone. And mom, you don't know what I'm talking about, because you're an old timer, and you don't get it. But if it's founded on not because mom told you, and giving our children the values of Judaism, and giving them an appreciation for the Judaism, that's not up for negotiation by a child or a parent. That means we have to give ourselves a proper foundation to our Judaism.
Tradition is not a good foundation. Tradition is, I'm going to do whatever whims and whatever mood I'm in. And if I'm not in the mood, I'll marry whoever I want to marry. But if I know and I understand that my parents have instilled within me a passion for Judaism because it's based on a truthful Torah, and the Torah says I can't do it, I can't do it. You can pay, you know, I'll ask you a question.
Is there any money in the world that you can pay anybody who's Shomer Shabbos, and tell them, listen, I'll give you a billion dollars, desecrate the Shabbos? They'll say no. Why? Because it's not based on an emotion. This is just, we're just locked in to a commitment to the Almighty, and the Almighty says, don't do this on Shabbos. I'm not going to do it. Here, I'll give you a free cyber truck. Go drive on Shabbos. Nobody will say yes. Not one.
Because the commitment is locked in. Because this is what God commanded. Now if it's because of tradition, say, you know, tradition says it's, don't be silly. And tradition says, and then I can just, you know, everything can become loosey-goosey. You know, there was a discussion a few years ago, one of the movements in Judaism was deliberating whether or not they'll accept certain type of lifestyle choices in their congregation, and whether they would officiate marriages of certain type of lifestyle choices.
And it was a whole debate, back and forth and back and forth in that movement. Again, not founded on Torah principles, true, false, MS, or Sheker, there's no in-between. It's a foundation, it's solid. So because it was built on that concept of tradition, so one of the rabbis of one of the congregations wrote an article. I read the article, interesting article. He says, look, I used to be a lawyer, and there's a concept in law called black letter
law, which is like, it's irrefutable and you can't ask any questions because it's so clear cut that you can't interpret it in any other way. He says when the Torah talks about these different lifestyle choices, the Torah is giving us black letter law. This is prohibited, do not do it. But then the rabbi says, but, and here comes the tradition part, well, we're a new generation, maybe God 3,300 years ago didn't know about how we would be today, and he doesn't understand,
and therefore we can change and do whatever we want. And that was the conclusion. You're all nodding your head saying, what's wrong with this guy? But that's because we bought into this tradition, and it's not okay. It's not okay. And that's why it's done so much damage to our fiber as American Jews, to who we are, because it's not, tradition just says that it's, this is what our family's custom was, but it's not because this is what we're deeply rooted.
The only way we survived 3,300 years of the most horrific tragedies and pogroms and annihilations and book burnings and synagogue burnings and expulsions and pogroms and Holocaust, the only way is because we were deeply rooted in a truth of Torah, not tradition. It's nice to have tradition. It's yummy to have traditional foods, right? We have matzo balls, and my mother used to make it like this, and my grandmother used to make it like that. That's all tradition. That's great. That's not Judaism.
That's a nice flavor for it. It's like the salt and pepper is not the steak. It's the flavoring for the steak. So if you invest everything in the salt and pepper, but you don't have the steak, what's it worth? You have to have the actual meat. What's the meat? That's the Torah. The flavoring for it, that every person can do their own flavoring, what they like. All right? I hope that answered your question, Marilyn. Question number two.
Oh, I asked what do you think the title meant, Fiddler on the Roof? Well, I don't know. I don't really know. Tradition is shaky, because that's what happened in the movie. Because he's on the roof, and it's not stable, so he's like, yeah, that could be, again, that subliminal message that's going on in that movie of like, well, it is what you make of it, or it is what you decide it'll be, and that's not really true. Yeah, Fiddler on the Roof is an interesting title.
I didn't think about it like that, but yeah. It's not the safest place to be. By the way, you want to know a mitzvah in the Torah? A mitzvah in the Torah is that you should not have any roof that doesn't have a fence around it. Maybe that's the lesson, is that maybe you're a fiddler on that roof, but you better make a fence around it, because you'll fall right off. Without that fence. What is that fence? The fence is the laws of the Torah.
Okay? So I think maybe there we got something. Thank you, Marilyn. That's a very insightful question. I really like that. But yeah, perhaps, perhaps that's the idea. Fiddler on the Roof is about the instability of being on the roof, but the Torah gives us guardrails to protect us, that we don't fall off the roof. And that's the law of ma'akeh. Any accessible roof must have a fence around it, according to the Torah.
Now your rooftop of your home doesn't need to have, because there's no access way, nobody's going up there to just dance. But if you were to have a flat roof that people can go up and dance, right, Eric? Then put a fence around it, because people will fall. And you cannot leave a situation of danger. But that the Torah is teaching us that you have to have boundaries in all of your places.
If you know that there is a place near your home where there's a cliff, I guarantee you, you'll put together a commission of people who are going to build a fence that people don't drive off a cliff, and people don't jump off a cliff. Because it's dangerous, people don't know. So what do we do? We make sure we build protective barriers so that people don't harm themselves. This is important. All right. Excellent. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Go for it.
Pull the mic. Friday night, during his sermon, Rabbi mentioned that there were two guys, I don't remember their names, who didn't notice the miracle of the splitting of the sea, because they were too busy looking at their muddy feet. So after the services, I asked the rabbi, I said, Rabbi, I've always been taught that the sea was perfectly dry when they were crossing it. How is that possible? He says, it depends which midrash you're looking at. What? So I want to... What?
So my question is... What? My question is, what is your source? Very good. I like that. My source is Exodus. I'm going to bring you the verse, and you'll be able to go back to the rabbi. I'm going to go back Friday night and tell him. And tell the rabbi that it's not a midrash. This is actual Torah. It says it twice in the last week's Torah portion, twice.
It says here, I'm going to give you the exact source, so you're not going to say I just made up something. This is great. This is chapter 14, verse number 29. And the Jewish people went on dry land in the midst of the sea. The water was a wall for them on their right and on their left. Again, chapter 14, verse number 29. That's Exodus chapter 14, verse 29. That's correct, in Exodus.
And then we go towards the end of the whole Az-Yashir, and chapter 15, verse number 19. It says, When Pharaoh's cavalry came with his chariots and horsemen into the sea, and Hashem turned back the waters of the sea upon them, the children of Israel walked on the dry land amid the sea. This is chapter 15, verse number 19 in Exodus. So I'm sure your rabbi's a great man, but tell him I recommend that he reads the portion. Thank you. I knew you had to have a source.
Yes. I would never, ever teach you something without a source, right? So I saw it with tremendous respect for your rabbi. I want him to know that the Torah is not midrash. The Torah is actual. But I can finally teach him something. There you go. There you go. All right. No, but make sure you have all the respect for him. No, no, no. He's still a good rabbi. I'm sure he's a great rabbi. He probably overlooked it. All right.
Any other questions? Rabbi, thank you so much for your lecture this morning, Shkoyach. Thank you. Thank you. I know we were talking on the subject of kosher food. And first of all, in my opinion, I think in terms of learning from you, rabbi, I think you're a very rare rabbi, but your lectures are well done. Oh, look at that. So thank you. You see that bun? So thank you for that. You see? Rare, well done? Okay.
He's a rare mensch, but his words are well done and kosher. Thank you. I had two quick questions. Eric is always with the puns. Eric is always with the puns. Thank you. Love you, rabbi. Quick question for you, rabbi. Number one, what does Judaism say about cooking kosher food at home on different temperatures? Does it say anything about cooking it rare, medium rare, or well done? Is there any difference in terms of cooking?
If I recall correctly, the halacha only says not to eat raw food. It should be cooked. If you like it to be rare, then enjoy it rare. If you like it well done, like I do, then you can eat it well done. I like it actually medium well with a little crust, but I don't like talking about food. So yeah, I do like it seared, right, yeah. But yeah, so the Torah doesn't say anything about how your food should be cooked.
Everyone has their own style, which is an amazing thing that Hashem has given us so many different flavors and types of ways in which you can eat your food. Every person can have their own preference and their own specification, i.e. if you go to Starbucks, you can see how many different specifications people have and the orders they make. Oh my goodness, I want to have two pumps of this and a pump of that and a half of this
and a half of that, and I want it to be medium, not hot, not too cold, not too this, not too that, in a taller cup, in a shorter cup. It's amazing how unique humanity is, how everybody finds their own flavor. The Torah does warn us of eating things that are raw, because that could be very unhealthy for us. Now, I don't know what regarding carpaccio and things like that that are actual raw, I don't know. Speak to someone who likes that kind of food.
I don't like raw. Well, in Judaism, it says that people who aspire to greater things are supposed to follow people that they admire and they consider leaders, which I consider you one. So in terms of keeping kosher, which I'm doing my best at at home, in terms of kosher chicken and kosher meat, I know there's a couple different variations, like there's Shorhabor brand, there's Aaron's. You have a preference. I always pick the cheaper one. The cheaper one. Keeping with my Jewish tradition, whatever is cheapest.
So going back to the filler on the roof tradition isn't bad, then? It's not, no. Again, after we know that it's kosher, it doesn't make a difference. Once you're filling in the proper parameters of what is right and what is not, then you can have a feel that if you want to spend more money and get something which is uber expensive just because, go for it. I mean, the Torah says not to waste money. That is, Torah says not to waste your resources.
But yeah, a person should, I typically don't like to spend money that I don't need to. So that applies also in the food choices that we, you know, to me, it really doesn't make a difference. The type, the company, I don't even, I don't even really care much which company, as long as it's a certified kosher. And I know that there's rabbi, a bona fide rabbi who overlooked the process of the slaughtering and all of the things that were done, I'm perfectly fine with that.
My very last quick question for you, rabbi, thank you, is on a whole nother subject. The Super Bowl football is next week, Patriots and Seahawks, both owned and managed by members of the tribe, Jews. Do you have a preference on who you'd like to see win and why? So no, it's not in the Torah, definitely not. So do I have a preference? I do not. I might, I would have preferred the Texans being there because it would have made my children very, very happy.
You know what they say, if you are an aspiring football player, you have more likelihood as a Jew to own a team than to play on a team, right? Because I think the majority of the owners are Jewish. But I think like this, it's New England versus Los Angeles, right? Seattle. Seattle. Oh, sorry. That's right. The Rams are out. So the Seattle, I don't know that, I don't like either place. So I mean, Seattle does host Costco and Boeing and Amazon and Starbucks.
But Boston, I don't know. It's a great question. I don't know. I don't know. Robert Kraft, yeah? He's donated like half a billion dollars to Israel. That's correct. He's been very, very charitable to Israel. So yeah. But I don't know. You know what? Whoever will do best with the earnings and whatever they make out of it, whoever will do the best, I guess, for humanity and for the Jewish people.
But I tell you what, it's a big responsibility to be someone of that caliber of wealth. It's an enormous responsibility because imagine the requests that come to their door every single day that they need to decide and they need to choose who to give their charity and their philanthropy to. It's an enormous responsibility. I heard recently an episode with a very big Shomer Shabbos, Torah observant, philanthropist, very, very, very wealthy.
And he says, you have no idea how much work me and my team put into deciding where we give our charity to. They give and they give at least 10%. And it's an enormous amount, but they're very meticulous into choosing worthy causes, not just throwing their money around, making sure they investigate every single cause. And they investigate to ensure. It's hard-earned money. You don't want that money going just to any place. And most of these, by the way, of these high caliber, don't want their name anywhere.
They don't want it to be known. They want to do it because it's God gave us so that we can give. So then let's give to the best cause, not that we take a tax write-off for it for our name. I'm not talking about the tax of taxes with the IRS. I'm talking about just the extra side benefit that we get by having our name. Now, there are other people who see that as a tool to influence their children.
In fact, if you go to Jerusalem, you'll find that there is the Joan Faye Tenenbaum building on dozens of buildings. The Joan Faye Tenenbaum, very, very big philanthropists from Toronto. And someone once asked them, like, they would give charity to institutions in Israel all the time and they would pay for buildings. They did that a lot. It's their passion. Someone asked them, like, why? Why are you doing this? They said, because, you know, it's a challenging world out there.
And we don't know if our children are going to stay true to Jewish traditions. But one thing we do know, they'll come visit Israel. And when they come on that trip to Israel and they see that their grandparents were invested in such causes in the land of Israel, that'll hopefully keep them connected. So it was with the intention of we're going to do something good with this for our future generations. There are others who want their names on buildings so that it inspires other people to give.
Other people say, you know what, if he was able to give that large sum of money, maybe I can do that, too. Maybe I can stretch. Maybe I can be a little uncomfortable and do something like that. And these are very, very, again, we don't know what's going on in people's minds. We don't know what their intention is. And it's not our business to know what their intention is. We have to know about our own intention.
And our own intention needs to be righteous and it needs to be holy. And in everything that we do, we should try, you know, we dedicated 2026 to the year of intentional Judaism. Do things with the right intention. I'm doing this. And by the way, when you go and buy your chicken, your previous question, you go buy your chicken and say, Hashem, I'm doing this because I'm observing your Torah. And your Torah says not to eat things that are not slaughtered properly, not to eat from
animals that are not kosher. And therefore, I'm committing right here, I'm fulfilling a biblical commandment to eat kosher food. All right. That's the do it with intention. I'm not just doing it because this is my new habit. It's my new New Year's resolution. No, no, no. I'm doing this because this is your will, Hashem. It's much stronger than just doing it because of tradition. All right. Excellent questions, Eric. All right. Pass the microphone, please, to David.
You were talking earlier about the meal and then if some friends called you to go for dessert and with the grace. So do we not consider dessert part of the meal? If you're at your own Shabbat house, doing your own Shabbat, do you say the grace after dessert or do you say the grace before and is dessert considered separate than the meal? That's an excellent question. Dessert is part of the meal. However, it's not part of the meal. What does that mean?
It's the end part of the meal but for the purpose of blessings, when you have dessert, dessert is not satiating. You don't eat the watermelon. You don't eat the cake. You don't eat the little treats that you have for dessert, the ice cream, to satiate. It's just a pleasant, delicious gift from Hashem. So everything that you eat as part of the meal to satiate your hunger is part of the meal. But this is not.
Okay, so it's considered part of the meal regarding the grace after meals but regarding the blessings, we're going to get to it soon in our halacha regarding whether or not you recite separate blessings for the foods you eat during dessert because dessert is not there to satiate. Dessert is just to know that Hashem loves you so much and He gives you extra credit, extra things to enjoy in this world. I would have liked to remain anonymous for my question but not everybody knows my name. Forget it.
We're not going to tell you. Guys, we're not saying who's asking this question. Like nobody knows your voice. Yeah, exactly. We studied on Monday, Monday Muser, Orchot Tzadikim, and we talked about evil speech and we also mentioned about the spies being punished and the people being punished for evil speech against the land. So this is a few, I have a few questions, but should they have lied? Should they have lied?
If that's what they saw, if they saw, if they had a bad report to give, should they have? So you're referring to the example we brought of the spies. The spies went to inspect the land of Israel and they came back, 10 out of 12 of them came back with a negative report. What does the Torah tell us about that? You're saying should they have just lied? Should they have said something good about it? And said good things even though they didn't think that.
So our sages learned from the words of the Torah, from the verses in the Torah. We were like grasshoppers in our eyes and also in their eyes. Our sages tell us because they didn't see themselves in a good light, they didn't think that other people will see them in a good light. So our sages tell us the sin that they had was not that they spoke negative about the land of Israel. It's that they didn't see the positive in themselves.
So if they didn't see the positive in themselves, how should everybody else see positive in themselves? It's a great psychology here. That means if you don't see, and this is a very important thing, we mentioned this previously. I brought this from the Tzitka Satzedek, from Sadeq Cohen. He says an amazing thing. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I had to look at it in the source. I made a photocopy.
I shared it with some of the guys here in the class after I mentioned it. He says just like there is a mitzvah to believe in God, there's a mitzvah to believe in yourself. Because if you don't believe in yourself, your relationships are going to be challenged because you're going to think that nobody believes in you and it all stems from you not believing in yourself. If a person doesn't have a healthy self-esteem, that doesn't mean you walk around arrogant.
It doesn't mean you think I'm the greatest creation ever brought to this world. No, that's not what it means. It means that Hashem is taking care of me, Hashem believes in me, Hashem loves me, Hashem wants me here, Hashem wants me to succeed, Hashem wants me to enjoy life. If a person feels that way, they're healthy. They don't have to rush and always need everyone to justify them and they don't need everybody to always validate them. They have a healthy internal organism that keeps them going.
When a person doesn't have the proper feeling about themselves, then everything they look at is flawed because they think everything is a reflection and everybody's looking at me negatively. No, it's just you looking at yourself negatively so you think everybody's looking at you negatively. And the spies who went to the land of Israel, they saw themselves like grasshoppers. We're so small. They're giants. Look at us. We're nothing. So that was the way they saw the land. It's insurmountable.
We'll never be able to accomplish anything there. There is so much bigger than us. There's so much stronger than us because they didn't believe in themselves. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else is going to believe in you. You have to believe in yourself. I believe, and I said this in my parenting class this week, our children get their belief in themselves from us and that's our responsibility to build up our children and tell them how amazing they are.
Tell them how much we believe in them because we're their anchor, we're their parents. And if we don't give that, if we don't impress upon them their greatness, their awesomeness, they may grow up without having that feeling that they're worth something. It's our job as parents, it's to imbue that into their consciousness, into their subconscious to get that you are awesome and you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. And when a child has that from their parents, they grow up with a healthy self-esteem, with
a healthy awareness of themselves hopefully, and hopefully do many great things. So regarding the spies, that was their sin. Their sin was they didn't believe in themselves. And when you don't believe in yourself, there's no way others will. Okay. I hope I answered that. Yes. Okay. That reluctant yes. I recall a Talmud, and I'm sure you know the reference, the exact reference and exact source, but obviously we're not supposed to lie.
But is it okay to maybe lay dumb or play like as if we don't know as much Torah as we do? Yes. So that's actually one of the reasons, one of the situations, scenarios that a person is allowed to lie. Now you have to be careful about lying versus not giving all the information. And that is about how much Torah you know. So there was one of the great scholars, they would ask him, so how much of the Talmud have you learned? He said, only half.
They said, which half? He says, whichever half you want. But the idea of being modest with your Torah knowledge and Torah study is an important thing. A person can undervalue the amount in front of other people, but a person should always be on a trajectory of growth and a person should always be pushing themselves to learn more, to grow more, and to enhance their learning as much as possible. All right, and I have an easier, probably a cooler question. What are your thoughts about the movie Schindler's List?
So you know I'm not a movie guy, so I don't really know a lot of movies, but I did see Schindler's List. It was one year on Tisha B'Av. I believe it was one of the synagogues played it for their congregants. It's very, very sad. It's very sad because you see, you know, a person has to be careful about the modesty. That's always an issue when you're watching something. One of the reasons I don't like watching things is because you never know what they're deciding
your eyes should see and, you know, you have to be very careful about that. But a general disclaimer, I'm not a movie fan because I believe it's a tremendous waste of time. I'll give you just the background to why I don't like movies. I was about 10 or 11 years old and I was at a friend's house. It was a Sunday afternoon. We used to have school till one o'clock on Sunday. Regular school day till one o'clock.
I come home from school, what do you think I would do at one o'clock? That's when baseball starts. But for whatever reason, there was no baseball game that day and they were watching a movie or of some sort. And I was at their house, a friend's house, and I watched the movie with them. And I remember when the movie was over at about four o'clock in the afternoon, I didn't know where I was. I didn't know what day it was. I didn't know what time it was.
I was so disoriented because I was totally consumed by this movie. And suddenly the movie's over and I'm like, where am I? I realized I was by my friend and then I had to remember what day of the week it was. I had to remember what time, when did I even come here. Totally lost. It's a very unpleasant feeling and I don't like that feeling. I like to know where I'm at. I like to know what I'm doing. So I try my best.
That feeling has never given me a taste for movies and I'm very thankful to Hashem because it probably saves me many, many hundreds, maybe thousands of hours that I don't watch those things. And I don't think it adds anything to my life. If I were to, it would probably just harm me. So I'm better off without it. So I'm deeply grateful that my parents did not raise us with a television in the house or with movies in the house.
We did watch Home Alone as a child because that's like, you have to. I watched it at my friend's house probably 300 times, it's the only movie he had. So we'd watch that. So we would watch that. We knew all of the lines. We knew all of the things. I had another friend who only had the movie of the Six Day War. So I can tell you every single time a mortar shell was fired from a tank in Israel.
And it was all, it's very crusty views, like all shaky, the VHS videos. You know what I'm talking about. It looks like seltzer on your thing, the static. I guess it's come a long way. But either way, to answer your question about Schindler's List, I think what you see about Mr. Schindler at the end of his incredible regret that he didn't do more, he could have done more. Instead of having lavish dinners, instead of spending money left and right, he could
have saved another Jew, another person, and another person, another person. And I think that that's a wake-up call for each and every one of us, that who knows if at the end of our lives we won't be that Mr. Schindler saying, you know what, I could have done one more mitzvah, I could have learned one more page of Talmud, I could have listened to one more podcast, I could have done one more good deed. And that's something that's a terrible regret.
The worst thing in the world is regret, because that means I could have done it better. I say it's best to live without regret. Don't do things that will give you the opportunity to regret. Do it right the first time so you don't regret it. All right. Anna. The grace after the meals, that's not reserved only for Shabbos. No. Grace after the meals is reserved after any time we eat bread. Any time we eat bread, we have grace after meals.
Any time we eat pastries or wine or of the seven fruits of the land of Israel, we have the alamichah, which is a very abbreviated grace after meals. And then, otherwise known as me'en shalosh, it's like the three blessings of the grace after meals. And if someone eats anything which is from the ground or anything that is – that does not grow from the ground, like candies or chicken, meat, things like that, that was not with other things, you say a different blessing, which is even shorter, which is
b'orei nefeshot. And it's brought down in the Talmud. Each of the texts of all of these are brought down. In the grace after meals, the first blessing was composed by Moses. The second was composed by Joshua. The third was composed by King David and then edited by King Solomon to add about Jerusalem. And then the final one, the fourth blessing, which was added even later, was by the men of the Great Assembly after they buried the bodies of the massacre of Betar, which we
studied in our Thinking Talmud just recently. The bodies did not decompose and they all had proper burial. And after that, they were so grateful and thankful to the Almighty that they were able to properly bury their brothers and sisters that they added another blessing to our Bekat Hamazon, thanking God for the good and thanking God for the not so good. So we've been learning so many things about eating. And last week I had a realization, like literally how feral I was raised and, you know, not
putting things on the table food wise and different aspects like this. So I realize, especially yesterday, we had a get together and everybody was late. So what do you do if you're doing your best to stay within halacha and you want to start the meal? You gave everybody a start time and they're grossly tardy. Do you start the meal? So if you're the host, then you do what you want to do. It's your house. You may want to just give 10, 15 minutes, you know.
Sometimes we do that here with our classes. Sometimes we wait for people to settle down, to get their coffee, or sometimes you're waiting for me, right? But we try within reason. You know, I think we have the seven minute rule, right Ed? Seven minutes is the enough amount of time, 10 minutes sometimes, yeah. So we try to be reasonable. Like yesterday, we had a meal. We called it for one o'clock and for whatever reason, we were home earlier, the guests were able to come.
We started a little earlier. You find something that's reasonable for everyone. But definitely not, you don't need to wait two hours for everyone to show up. And definitely it's not worth it getting upset on Shabbat for that. So you start your meal. When people come, they come. That's fine. Don't let it ruin your rest. Don't let it ruin your equanimity, your minuch ha-sanafesh. That's definitely not worth it. All right? Excellent.
Rabbi, when we were crossing the sea, we said, this is my God and I will glorify him. Can the Rabbi tell me what that means? Okay. Very good. So first is, is that the Jewish people had such a clarity when they were leaving Egypt, they were able to point. They were saying, zeh, this, we see him, we see God. In our life today, I've shared this with you. My Rabbi, Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz, recently when I was on my trip, it was actually two
years ago in December, we had a trip to Israel. Many students of the Jerusalem Kolo. We went and I remember one of the questions came up, it's like, how do we today, how do we prove God's existence? The Rabbi was like, you don't need to. Just open your eyes. You see God everywhere. We should be able to point and say, zeh, zeh elivanveyu, this is my God, he's all over. You see him everywhere.
You see the miracles that came from Iran, those gifts of those ballistic missiles that just popped out of the air like that, gone. Not one did damage in Israel. It's unbelievable that you have all of these miracles, the miracle that all of our hostages are back home. What an incredible miracle, an incredible miracle. Every single hostage, there's not one hostage left in Gaza right now. That by the way, before October 7th, there were hostages. They were kidnapped soldiers. Everyone is out. What an amazing miracle.
That's zeh elivanveyu, this is my God. So what's vanveyu? And I will glorify him. That's to do the following. You know, we can fulfill the mitzvah, for example, of kiddush. Kiddush is to sanctify the day of Shabbat. How can we recite kiddush? We fill up a glass of wine. So you can do it on a plastic glass, plastic cup. You can do it on a glass. You can do it in a nice, beautiful, silver goblet. How do you want to fulfill the mitzvah?
Well it depends what I'm able to do. I'll start off with the plastic, but then if I can upgrade and make the mitzvah even more beautiful, I'll do the glass. And then if I can even afford something nicer, I'll get a silver. Because I want my presentation in front of the Almighty to be the greatest way possible. When I'm able to see God so openly like that, I want to dedicate myself back to Hashem and beautify the way I do it.
So now, the same applies with a talit. I wear a talit with four corners with the fringes. Am I going to get the cheapest one? Just like the cheapest one. Whatever it is, just give me the cheapest one. Or am I going to say, no, no, no, give me the nicest one you have. Because I want to beautify my dedication to God. I want to sanctify this relationship. You know, I'll give you an example.
In marriage, do you go to the florist and say, hey, give me your cheapest flowers. I'm going to tell my wife that I love her. Do you do that? Or do you say, you pick the nicest flowers. No, no, I want this, but a little shade of that. You know, it's like, why are we so cautious? Because this represents my love for my wife. So when I'm doing the same for the Almighty, I want it to be the absolute best.
Not just like, whatever is enough for me to fulfill my obligation. Give me the cheapest esrog. Give me the cheapest meat. Give me the, no, I want the finest. Because this represents my relationship with God. And when this is my representation of my expression of my love to the Almighty, I want it to be the best. So when we buy tefillin, I don't want just the cheapest ones. When we buy mezuzah, we don't go, we shouldn't go to the sofa and say, you know what, what
can I get for 100 bucks? Can I get three? Right? No, no, no, no. Say, I want the absolute best with the most beautiful writing on it. I want the absolute best. Why? Because this is a representation of my relationship with God. And just like you wouldn't be okay with just, give me the cheapest suit from the shelf, I want the nicest. So even if I can't afford it, I'll save up for it so I can have the nicest for my wedding
because it represents my love for my spouse. Right? You understand? That's vanvehu. I'm going to, I see my God. Now I'm going to glorify God. I'm going to make it the absolute best. I'm not going to go with the cheapest. It's an amazing thing that in our generation, you find people, I've been in people's cars and the amount of detail they put in that car. Rabbi, do you see that beautiful stitching around the car, the inside, the interior with the little red threads?
He said, I had it custom designed. I was able to tell them exactly what type of thread or what type of, do we do that about our challah cover? Do we do, we're just like, whatever it is, it's fine. No, this is my representation, not for myself. This is my representation of my love with the Almighty. I want it to be the absolute best. And that's what the Jewish people committed to in the sea. They said, z'e'e li vanvehu, this is my God.
I see him right here. They're able to point to God. They're able to say, I'm going to now do everything I can to glorify that relationship and to make it the absolute best it can possibly be. I'm not going to go away with the cheapest stuff. I'm going to go with the best, the best of the best. Okay, I hope I answered your question. Any other question? Tu B'shvat, oh, so the Mishna says that Tu B'shvat is one of the four Rosh Hashanahs.
We have Rosh Hashanah. We know Rosh Hashanah is the day that the new year begins for us. We ask Hashem for a good year ahead to give us a year of life. By the way, all of us that are alive today are because God said that we'll be alive today on Rosh Hashanah. Every penny that you make this year was already pre-designated by the Almighty on Rosh Hashanah. Every person who will make it to the end of this year of five, seven, eight, six is because
last year, Rosh Hashanah, God said, you're going to live this year. And anybody who, heaven forbid, doesn't make it to the end of the year is because on Rosh Hashanah, God said, I want you back. And God gives the exact date and it's over. That by the way, should take away a lot of fear. Oh, I don't know. Am I going to live another day? Well, it's pre-designated already from Rosh Hashanah. God decided. And God decides every year on Rosh Hashanah.
But there are different Rosh Hashanahs for different things. On Rosh Hashanah of Tu B'shvat is the Rosh Hashanah for all produce. It's the Rosh Hashanah for the trees. So your etrog that you're going to have for next Sukkot is already pre-designated by tomorrow. Tu B'shvat, which begins tonight, is already going to be in many, many of our sages would spend a lot of time on Tu B'shvat crying, Hashem, I want to, I want to have a beautiful etrog this year.
The citron that we use in our four species on Sukkot, I want it to be beautiful. It's going to start growing. It's going to be designated now on Tu B'shvat. It's a very powerful time. It's a powerful time also to pray for Torah study and for Zivug, of course, right? But for Torah study, why Torah study? Because it says, Eitz Chayim Hila Mahazikim Ba. The Torah is a tree of life. It's a tree of life. Our Torah is also judged on this day.
People would spend all day on Tu B'shvat learning Torah, investing in the roots that are the future of our generations, of our lineage, our children, our grandchildren. We're laying those roots now. And of course, building a home, we also need those roots, a Zivug. So if a person is able to pray on this day of Tu B'shvat, it's a very, very powerful, auspicious time for prayer, for all of the things that have to do with growth, our growth
in Torah, our growth in our produce, in our livelihood, in our homes, all of it. Hashem shall bless us all. Any other question? So it's not for me to have a take on it. We say it in our prayers. We say it in our prayers. What we want and the goal of the coming of Messiah is not that everyone says we're Jewish, but everyone says, hine elokeinu zeh, kivinu lo v'yoshienu. Here is our God, God, creator of heaven and earth.
The question is, you're asking, I'm just going to repeat your question. You heard this lecture about that the entire people need to be unified, there needs to be unity in the world. Well, Moshiach is going to bring about that unity. Moshiach is going to bring about where everyone is going to see suddenly, oh my goodness, I thought Hollywood was the heaven and the earth. It turns out it's not. It turns out there's a God in heaven. It's not money. It's not fame. It's not athletes.
It's all God, creator of heaven and earth. By the way, very, very interesting thing. I was having this conversation with my study partner on Wednesday night. I said, you know something? We say, in this week's Torah portion, in Yisro, we talk about, I am Hashem, your God and the Ten Commandments. But something very astonishing that you'll notice is that we don't have this concept of faith in Judaism. There's no concept of faith. There's only knowledge. Knowledge of Hashem.
So we don't have a command to believe in God. No, you have to know God. How do I know God? How will I ever know that there is a God who created heaven and earth? Listen to what the Torah tells us. Anochi Hashem Elokecha, I am Hashem your God. Asher etzuticha me'eretz mitzrayim mit beit avadim, who took you out of Egypt. Meaning God is quantifying your knowledge with an actual event. Don't just believe in me because I said so.
Believe in me because you've experienced my godliness. I've taken you out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. It's quantified. It's not just faith. It's knowledge. You can attribute it to something. I saw, you know how I believe in God? Because I know that he exists. I've seen him interact. I've seen his hand in my day to day life. That's how I know. If someone comes over to you, Eliana, and says to you, so do you believe in God?
You're like, I don't believe. I know in God. Okay, I'm a knower of God. How do I know? Well, what do you mean? I see him every day. Hashem talks to me and Hashem communicates with me and Hashem listens to my prayer and Hashem answers my prayers and Hashem takes care of me and Hashem feeds me every day. You know, one of the most amazing things that came to me in middle of Shabbos, I was learning about the manna. The manna.
Last week's Torah portion, the Jewish people leave Egypt and they're like, oh, oh, oh, how am I going to eat? I forgot about that. In Egypt, where they gave us food, they didn't give us a lot of it, but they gave us food. And the Jewish people start crying and they're saying to Moses, why are you taking us out? Isn't there enough cemeteries in Egypt? Why do I need to die at the sea? So what does Moshe answer? He's Yatzevu. He says, Al Tiro, don't fear.
Don't fear. He's Yatzevu. Be strong. Our sages tell us that Jewish people had anxiety. They had anxiety. What happens when you have worry? You can't think straight. You can't have proper knowledge of Hashem when you're worried. Moshe's response wasn't, have faith. You know, quit questioning God already. That's not what he said. He said, guys, he's Yatzevu. As soon as you calm down, you'll be able to see God. When you're busy with anxiety and stress and worry, you're not letting God.
Let go and let God. And then what happens? And immediately after they cross through the sea on dry land, tell that to the rabbi, they're immediately after they cross the sea, they're like, oh, we're hungry. We need to eat. So what happens? God says, I'm going to give them manna. But there's a condition to the manna. They have to finish everything today, and then they'll get a new thing tomorrow. Now what is the American way of thinking? The American way of thinking of financial security.
If I'm not going to save up, I'm not going to have it tomorrow. Because God can't take care of me tomorrow, just in case God forgets about me. God says, no, no, no, no. There are people who didn't believe in God properly. What did they do? They saved it up for the next day. And then what happened? It rotted. It got filled with worms. It got all moldy. A new batch came. Do you know where your livelihood comes from tomorrow?
Do you know where your livelihood comes from? It comes from Hashem. I believe firmly that every single person who has a job, it's God giving you a gift of dignity where he says, the money's coming from me anyway. I'm going to make you feel good. You're going to go get a job, a career, and you're going to think that it's your hard work that brings it to you, but it's not. We like to be in control. I'm going to get a job.
I'm going to be responsible. It's the manna. It's the same manna that the Jewish people received there. God will take care of you every single day and ensure that you have everything you need. And don't save it over from day to day. Tomorrow's a new day. Oh, what's it going to be? You know what? Tomorrow you're going to get fresh manna. And you know what's going to be the next day? You're going to get fresh manna again. And don't worry because Hashem has you.
Hashem has you taken care of. Hashem has you all covered. Don't worry about it. Your worry means your lack of belief in Hashem. Hashem li lo ira. When I have my trust in Hashem, I have nothing to fear. Oh, but what's it going to be? How am I going to pay for it? Hashem will take care of you. When you have Hashem, you have nothing to worry about. And this leads me back to something I love to repeat from our Maalikh Biderman.
He says that when Moshe asked God, I want to see your glory, I want to see your face. What did Hashem say? Hashem said, no, no, no, you can't see my face. You can see the back of my head. We know that Hashem doesn't have a front of his face to have the back of his head. What are we talking about? And what does it say? Hashem showed him the back of his head, the tefillin, the knot of the tefillin. I mean, this is so confusing.
What in the world is going on here? Sages teach us. The Maalikh says, he was looking, Moshe was asking not to see Hashem's face, but the face is referring to the future. Hashem says you'll never understand how the future plays out. Moshe was trying to understand, how does this play out all the way down the road? Hashem says, no. Look back. Look at my back. Look at the history. Look how it always worked out. How many times were you worried, Marilyn, in your life?
Many times you were worried, right? Did they all work out? Every single time it worked out. And not only it worked out, it worked out for the best. I know it did. It worked out for the best. You look back. When you look back, you're able to see things like, wow, Hashem always stepped in, he always took care of it. Last minute. Oh, it was a miracle. No, no, no. Hashem planted it. Hashem had it all work out for you.
Why the keshur of the tefillin? Why the not of the tefillin? Because what is a not? A not is where everything interlinks. We sometimes don't understand, why did I have to meet that person? Why did that person have to say something? They're all connected in one not, where everything interlinks. You know, the Talmud says, what does God keep himself busy with every day? What is God busy doing all day? It says, he's making peers. He's making couples meet.
This guy with this girl, put them together. This guy with this girl, but God doesn't know what's going on in his world. No, that's not what it means. You know, I was, I know a couple. He is from South America, from Chile. He's from Chile and she is from Russia. And they met in New York. How many things needed to happen for him to get from Chile all the way to New York and
for her to get from Russia all the way to New York and to coincidentally be at the same party and be introduced by someone, hey, you guys should meet each other? How many things needed to go right? A million different pieces needed to move just right for governments to allow people to leave and for the American government to allow them to come in and for this, for that, for all, all of the pieces, Shem is putting all, what's the point where all of the worlds combine and become one?
That's when a couple gets married. That's why Kodesh Boruch Hizmet Zavik Zivu, he's putting the whole world into position. So now when you ask your beautiful question, Eliana, about the coming of Messiah, the coming of Messiah is when the entire world will see, ah, now I get it. Now I see the full picture. And you know what? There are going to be many nations. They're going to be kicking themselves. Why didn't we love Israel? Why didn't we treasure God's people? Why did we fight them?
Why did we throw rockets against them? And then the whole world's going to be stunned and going to be unified under the cause of Hashem being one. There's only one Hashem and they're going to have regrets. Those who come in when it's not popular to become Jews and to convert appropriately, they're going to have regrets. Why didn't they do it? Why didn't they do it sooner? It's going to be chaos.
The doors, the people are going to be banging down our doors here at the Torch Center saying, please teach me Torah, please teach me Torah. At that time it's going to be too late. It's going to be too late because the whole world's going to see. It's going to be so clear. Every night and day people will be able to see with absolute clarity that Hashem is our God. And we have this at the end of our prayer every single day. Look at the translation.
Look at those words. It's unbelievable how it's talking. It's talking about the coming of Messiah. What's going to be? We're saying Hashem, therefore we put our hope in you Hashem our God, that we may soon see your splendorous might to remove detestable idolatry from the earth and false gods will be utterly cut off to perfect the universe through the almighty sovereignty. That's what it's going to be. We're living in a world of confusion. Coming of Messiah, it's going to be a world of clarity. Yes.
You have a follow-up? We'll take a microphone. You mentioned that in the coming of the Messiah, Jerusalem is going to be a house of prayer for all the nations. So let's say, following through with what you're saying, that you can no longer join the Jewish people, but Jerusalem will then be a place for everyone to pray. It'll be a place, a house of prayer for all the nations. Yes. Not every nation that's not Jewish is evil.
There are nations that cherish and love the Jewish people and they are righteous among the nations and they will be welcomed into Jerusalem, into the house of Hashem's prayer. There are those who have accepted the seven Noahide laws, which is what the Torah says, the nations of the world, they don't have to convert to Judaism. No one ever said that. We're the only religion that doesn't encourage conversion. We're the only religion that doesn't say you better or else. You have that in Islam.
You have that in Christianity. You have that in all other religions. It's us or you're dead. Judaism? No. Come to any rabbi, say I want to convert. They're like, why? Don't do it. Not worth it. You can just be a righteous Gentile with seven commandments that you observe instead of all 613. What do you need the headache for? Just do seven. You're good to go. And those are the righteous among the nations. All right. My dear friends, thank you.
Thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate and love these questions. Oh, we got a question here online. By the way, to our friends on YouTube, you can always share your questions and I do get the comments. They do pop up on my screen so I can read them out if you'd like. In future classes, we'll hopefully remember to include that. Till next week. Okay. We got another question. He's pulling me out of the dugout. He's like, let's go. Back.
Get back on the field. I need to feel this right in me that Mashiach comes, peace to Israel, the world is unified under the one God. Exactly. Love each other, peace on earth. Correct. The problem is... Are we on this? That's right. The reason why the world has war and battle is because the world is facing confusion. Everybody has a different priority. Everybody has a different system of values. As soon as everyone sees the clarity, there's no more questions anymore.
There's no more war. They will... Exactly. That's right. And that's what we pray for every single day, that everyone will be united. It'll be unbelievable. All right, my dear friends, thank you so much. Have a magnificent week. I look forward to continuing our studies throughout the week. I love you all. Thank you so much. Have an incredible week.

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