Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Alright, welcome back everybody. It's so wonderful to see everyone here. It is a great privilege to spend this beautiful Tuesday morning with everyone. This week's Parsha is parasha's kisavo. Kisavo, when you come to the land, hashem gives us directives of exactly how we need to separate our tithes, how we need to give the gifts to the Kohen, to the Levi, to the poor people. And then, in verse number 11, chapter 26, verse number 11 in the beautiful book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, v'esomachto b'chol ha'tov, asher nosan l'cho, hashem Elokecha, you shall rejoice with all the goodness that he has given to you. Hashem Elokecha, hashem, your God u'levei secha he has given to you. Hashem Elokei, hashem, your God u'luvei secha. Ata to you and to your household, ata ve'alevi ve'ager, asher beker becha, and to the Levite and to the proselyte, to the convert, asher beker becha, who is in your midst. Our sages tell us that what is this referring to? This is referring to the Torah. I want to share with you the beautiful words of the Arachaim HaKadosh. The Arachaim HaKadosh says an amazing thing. Actually, there are many people who who have composed songs on this because of the sweet, beautiful words of the orachayim. Listen to what the orachayim says. He says what is tov and all the good that hashem has given to you? Oh see, he says like this it's referring to the torah. Oh see, he says like this it's referring to the Torah. The Tov is referring to the Torah. Why? Because it says Tov li, torah spicha, tov li, torah spicha. It's good for me, the Torah, good the Torah that you have spoken to us, the instruction that you have spoken to us. So good is Torah. See, he says we know this already. There's nothing that's called Tov, that's not Torah. When it says Tov, it says good, it's referring to the Torah. If anyone, any human being, felt or tasted the sweetness and deliciousness of the Torah, they would go crazy, they would go nuts and they would run after the Torah. And all of the riches of the world, the gold and the silver, won't be is worthless to them. Why? Because they have the greatest, most delicious thing in the world, the Torah. Because the Torah has all of the goodness of the world in it. All of the goodness of the world is in the Torah has all of the goodness of the world in it. All of the goodness of the world is in the Torah. Imagine this the sweetness of the Torah. You know people say oh, I'm crazy about you. Where does that term come from? What does crazy? What do you mean? I'm nuts about you. It comes from right here, the Arachai Makadosh. He says ho you mishtagim. They go crazy over the Torah. It's an amazing thing. The world is going crazy for other silly things. If people realized the sweetness and the beauty, the delight of the Torah, they would go crazy. Imagine we have. Unfortunately we have a limited number of people here in the classroom, but if people really understood the sweetness of the Torah, it'd be lines out the door, around the block, waiting to come in to learn Torah. Why? Because the Torah is such a delight, the Torah is so special, that when someone goes in to learn Torah they go crazy. This is the best thing in the world.

04:25
I remember, you know, when I was 15 years old I moved to Israel on my own and I went to Yeshiva and I really didn't know how to learn not Torah, not Mishnah, not Talmud. And I remember the first time I was breaking my teeth just reading the words of the Talmud. And I remember the first time I was breaking my teeth just reading the words of the Talmud. And I remember the first time I got it. The first time I understood a Mishnah, a Gemara, a Tosafot, one of the commentaries on. I remember I literally I jumped out of my seat from excitement. I was so excited and I said to my study partner who I was learning with I jumped out of my seat from excitement, I was so excited and I said to my study partner who I was learning with. I said get excited. This is amazing. And you know what he told me is the saddest words he said well, he says I've been learning since I was, you know, in sixth grade and seventh grade and eighth grade.

05:23
The truth is, in Israel they begin learning Talmud even at an earlier age. In the United States it's typically sixth grade, seventh grade. They start getting introduced to the Talmud. Here I was already in 10th, 11th grade, the equivalent of 11th grade and I finally understood my first piece. I was going nuts, I could not believe it.

05:43
It is so sweet, it is so beautiful. It is so beautiful, it is so delicious. Like where was I all this time? It's funny because our sages tell us that when you learn Torah and something new is revealed to you, you feel like you were sleeping until now, like it was right there in front of me. How did I not notice this? How did I not see it? Because it's like a whole world opens up. It's like I didn't even know that world existed.

06:10
The Torah is so incredibly sweet. We mentioned this just recently. What is Torah? Torah is sweet like honey. Sweet like honey. Why like honey? Because honey is such a powerful substance that it transforms whatever is in it into honey. The halacha says that if something non-kosher is put into honey for an extended period of time, it becomes honey and you can take it out and eat it. Why? Because it extracts everything that's in it and makes it honey. The Torah is the same. If we come in to learn Torah and we come in with bad traits. We come in with arrogance, we come in with jealousy, we come in with anger, we come in with pettiness. The Torah elevates, the Torah transforms my grandmother.

07:08
I interviewed her several years before she passed away and I asked her what was the environment like in the home that she grew up in? She grew up, her father was the spiritual leader of his town in Slobotka, at a very, very prominent yeshiva, and unfortunately he was murdered by the Nazis. When they came into his ghetto, they took him. They saw that he was handicapped. So they said oh, you have to go to a hospital. They took him to a hospital. His students came to visit him. He said do me a favor, can you please push my bed away from the wall? Because he knew what they were going to do they were going to burn the hospital. He wanted a few extra seconds to live, so he'll be away from the wall. It'll take another few seconds for his body, for his bed, to be ablaze. He valued every second. He valued every moment of life. He was completely immersed in Torah.

08:07
And I asked my grandmother what was the environment like in your house? She said it was a house of greatness. There was no pettiness. There was no pettiness. You know what it means to live a life with no pettiness. It's just like sure. You know sometimes, kids, this is mine, this is yours why do you touch mine? The kids get that's petty. No pettiness, it was only about greatness, only about big. How to be an awesome person, how to be a great person. That's really what the Torah teaches us. The Torah teaches us to be great, to be big, to be an awesome person, how to be a great person. That's really what the Torah teaches us. The Torah teaches us to be great, to be big, to be sweet. You know what it means to be immersed in Torah, completely immersed in Torah. I'll tell you an amazing story.

09:01
The stipler the stipler was in Russia. The stipler the stipler was in Russia. The stipler is Reb Chaim Kanievsky's father. Right, he was named as the stipler because of the book that he that he published. Everyone got their names from, like the Chazonish. That wasn't his name. His name was Reb Ravam Yeshua Karelitz, but he got the name because of the book that he published, which was called Chazonish. That wasn't his name. His name was Reb Ravam Yeshua Karelitz, but he got the name because of the book that he published, which was called Chazonish. The Chafetz Chaim published the book Chafetz Chaim. His name was Reisrael Meir Kagan, but he got the name from his book.

09:36
The stipler was in the Russian army and they had a shift that they had to secure their base and you know how cold Russia, siberia, is and he had the shift one time from 12 midnight to 7 am on Shabbos. No problem, he had the shift on Shabbos. No problem, he had the shift on Shabbos. So he goes outside and he sees that the.

10:12
The guard previous to his taking the shift the previous shift took the coat they only had one big fur coat so that they don't freeze, and he hung it onto the tree. There's a problem on Shabbos you can't take it off the tree, can't take it off the tree. On Shabbos Something which is mounted on a tree on Shabbos you're not allowed to take it off. So the stifler comes outside and he needs the coat and he looks, he sees the coat is hanging. He can't take it off on Shabbos. So the stifler did what he always did he immersed his mind in Torah study. Seven hours later, the next guard comes and says Are you crazy? He says the coat is right there. Why didn't you wear the coat? Obviously we know why Because of Shabbos, he didn't take the coat off. But he said oh, I didn't realize that it was there. So how did he survive it? His mind was completely consumed by Torah, completely consumed by Torah.

11:31
The Chazonish once went for a walk in Bnei Brak. As the doctor told him when he was getting older you need to walk every day. It's important for you to walk. So he'd go for a walk with his attendant. The attendant wouldn't dare interrupt the Chazanish in the middle of his thoughts. He was thinking Torah. So they're just walking wherever the Chazanish goes and he's just walking along with them. Make sure he doesn't fall, make sure he was already an elderly man. Suddenly they're two communities away from Bnei Brak and the chazanish suddenly gets out of his trance of Torah study and he says where are we? He says we are two communities away. He says what? It was such a short tosafot that I was learning in my mind. It was such a short. You know a few, a little passage. How did we get so far already? But when you're completely consumed by Torah, the sweetness of the Torah.

12:32
So someone once came, a professor from one of the universities in Israel once reached out to Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky and he says to him I want to come and ask you questions, I have questions I need to get some clarity about. He says no problem. So he came to the yeshiva and they walked to Rabbi Galinsky's office and on the way they passed by the study hall and he sees the yeshiva students are sitting and learning Torah. They're sitting and learning Torah out loud and they're sitting and learning Torah, you know, completely immersed in their studies. When they're done their meeting, the professor says okay, thank you very much, you've answered my questions, you've given me the guidance I needed. On his way out he's walking by the study hall with Rabbi Galinsky and he sees the yeshiva students are still sitting and doing the same thing learning Torah, uninterrupted. They're just sitting and immersed in Torah study. So he turns to Rabbi Galinsky and he says I don't understand, how do they sit there for 13, 14 hours a day, study Torah and go back and forth like this? And in their prayers they're doing the same. They're back and forth, you know. He says don't they get a backache? Doesn't it hurt them? Aren't they in pain? Don't they need to go see a chiropractor for an adjustment?

13:58
So Bogolinsky was thinking about it. He said okay, let me think about it. He says I'll tell you. He says I was once traveling on the train and this guy sitting opposite him on the train. It was a several-hour train ride. He said the entire time this guy was eating, he was munching, he was snacking, eating, eating, eating. He sees his mouth go open, close, open, close, open, close, open, close, nonstop. See, he says I was wondering, doesn't it hurt his jaw to just keep on eating? It hurts his jaw. He's going up and down and up and down. It's hurting him, he says. But you know why it doesn't hurt him? Because he enjoys it, because the food is delicious, and when the food is delicious, you enjoy the food, so it doesn't hurt you. The exercise of chewing, he says, when the Torah is so sweet and your love and your delight in the study of Torah is so great, it doesn't pain your back when you are moving back and forth.

15:05
I'll just tell you that Ramosha Feinstein, of blessed memory, would only study with a table. There are people who use the podiums. They lean back with the podium. If you've seen it in yeshivas, you see many times. They'll have podiums. They'll have it's called a shtender, which is a standing podium, not a tabletop podium, and you can lean back.

15:28
And Rav Moshe was in his yeshiva. They only had tables. He said don't bring the Torah to you. You go to the Torah or the Torah leaning to you. Why should the Torah lean to me? I should lean to the Torah.

15:44
But to understand the sweetness of what it means to be immersed, consumed by Torah, I'll tell you. I mentioned Moshe Feinstein. You know Moshe Feinstein finished the entire tractate of Shabbat every Shabbat. He studied the entire tractate Shabbat, every Shabbat, completely consumed and immersed by Torah. You want to know something else. This is documented in the book about Reb Moshe Feinstein's life published by Arts Girl. I recommend it. It's called Reb Moshe. We have one here in the magnificent Torch Library. Recommend it's called the reb moshe. We have one here in the magnificent torch library. The light right above his seat. At the moment that he passed away in the hospital, the light flickered and turned off. The people sitting there were wondering what's going on. Is the clock or something? They noted the time there was the exact moment that ramosha passed away.

16:55
You know we have a power over the world around us. The torah that we study, the inspiration that we bring to the world, has an impact. The physical things around us are influenced by our spirituality, by our Torah. The world that exists around us is a facade that we know. If we're immersed in Torah study, the world around us is just like you could be glazed, you know, eyes totally not seeing what's going on in the world around us. That's an ideal place to be, by the way, why? Because if internally I'm immersed in Torah, then externally I don't see those things.

17:43
My grandfather would always talk about how someone who studies Torah needs to be concerned to preserve the Torah that you study. You don't go out to a mixed beach and start looking at things that may be immodest. Why? Because if it's important to you to preserve your Torah, you have to protect your eyes from influence, from negativity, from things that could could bring about urges and desires and temptation. So what happens? What happens is my grandfather says we go out to the street, we're on a bus, we're in the supermarket and there could be a temptation. You could be looking at something, at someone. How do you preserve yourself? How do you ensure that you don't get carried away by that? Says my grandfather? You need to have Torah inside you. You need to. He says, before you leave the house, open up a, open up a chumash.

18:45
This week's Torah portion. Read a verse, start thinking about it, ask questions about it. We saw in the Talmud that we studied this week that Rishlakish and Rebbe Yochanan. What would happen? Rebbe Yochanan would teach something and Rishlakish would ask 24 questions about it. And what would Rebbe Yochanan do? Answer 24 questions. And they would get a much deeper understanding. If we took a verse and asked three questions about the verse and gave three answers, imagine what that would do to us, our mind suddenly. You know it's like.

19:18
Sometimes I see this with my children. They love reading and I can call them. I'm standing right there. I had this yesterday. I call my son once, twice, three times. He doesn't hear me. Why? Because he's immersed in something. Because when you're immersed, when you're focused, the whole world doesn't exist.

19:38
When someone is in Torah, it's a whole different level of that. Because you're in the sweetest place in the world. You're studying Torah. You're in the sweetest place in the world. You're studying Torah. You're studying the teachings that Hashem has given to us as a gift to guide us. You know most books of Jewish law, of law, most books of law, read the Code of Law of the United States. It's the most boring book on planet Earth. Nobody sits there and says, oh, I'm going to have some light reading now and I'm just going to enjoy reading the US code. I guarantee you it's going to be a miserable, unenjoyable experience. Open up the Rambam, read the Rambam. You won't be able to put it down. It's riveting and it's transformative. And it's the sweetest thing in the world.

20:32
They say about the stipler that when he was in yeshiva he didn't want to get up First is he would miss meals all the time because he felt it as an inconvenience that he has to go eat. He's like I'm eating, torah. He felt it as an inconvenience that he has to go eat. He's like I'm eating, torah. What do I need to eat food? But okay, but you have to sustain your body. Yeah, you do have to sustain your body. You have to nourish yourself so that you can exist further, so you can continue another day. So what would they do? They would bring him the food to the study hall so that he can eat. And times that they would come and they see his food was still there hours later.

21:16
You're so immersed in Torah Didn't even realize the food was there. Sometimes people ask oh, can't wait Tomorrow night for dinner and Wednesday night't wait Tomorrow night for dinner and Wednesday night for dinner, thursday night for dinner. People are already planning out their meals. He didn't want to think about food. He only wanted to think about connecting to Hashem. That's what the Torah is, the Torah, the sweetness of the Torah. It's not because this is a big mistake that someone watching someone thinking here in the class that it's oh what the rabbi is referring to is most likely. What are we referring to? It's like any other subject. It's like any other topic. Yeah, I like science. The science will be riveting. For me It'll be exciting. I like arithmetic, I like arithmetic, so to me, a mathematical equation will be a delight. Torah is something which is totally different. It's a transformative teaching. From who? From Hashem.

22:20
My rabbi said something really insightful this week. He says there are some new people in our shul, in our synagogue, synagogue. He says they need to know what type of shul this is. He says this is a talking shul and people say talking, oh, my goodness, no. Says we talk to hashem and you know what we do when we read the torah. Hashem talks to us. Hashem talks to us through his torah. It's a talking shul. We talk to hashem in our prayer and hashem talks to us through His Torah. It's a talking shul. We talk to Hashem in our prayer and Hashem talks to us. And therefore, because Hashem is talking to us, god is talking. God is talking. What do we do? We're quiet, listen. Hashem is talking. We're reading Hashem's messages every single time we read from the Torah. Hashem is talking directly to us. He's giving us a direct message.

23:11
Our sages teach us that current events are always related to the Parsha. You look at the Parsha, you'll be able to see current events Always, because Hashem is communicating with us. Oh well, it's a document that was given to the Jewish people 3,300 years ago. So how is it relevant today? No, it's a Ki Heim Chayenu. It's a living document. It's Chayim Hi L'mach Azikim Ba those who hold and study the Torah it is a tree of life, it is living. Yes, if you don't study it, it's just a set of books on the shelf, but if you study it and you immerse yourself in it, it becomes a tree of life, it becomes a living book, which is why Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan wrote the translation of the Torah. He named it the Living Torah.

24:02
The Living Torah Because it's not just words, it's not just instructions, it's life. It gives us everything we need and that is the sweetness, the sweetness of the Torah, masikus Shabbat Torah. It will make you crazy. I'm crazy about you. He said that's a way of expressing love. That's what happens. It's like I don't think straight because I have this obsessive love for the Torah. The sweetness of the Torah. Hashem should bless us all that we merit to enjoy and to delve into the Torah and its sweetness, that when we study every single day, we shouldn't live life just like oh, this is interesting. No, no, no, get into the sweetness of it, get excited, get energized by it and, god willing, god willing, we'll grow and connect more and more every day of our lives. From the Torah that we study Amen.

25:10 - Intro (Announcement)
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