Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

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

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Beautiful Sunday morning here from Houston, texas, the TORCH Center. I want to begin this week's classes with a special announcement. A special announcement. What's the special announcement?

00:27
So everybody's been glued to the news for the past two weeks since Israel started their preemptive attack on Iran, and there are amazing miracles, absolutely amazing miracles, that have occurred throughout these. I mean, there are miracles that we experience every single day, but there are sometimes miracles that are out in the open. It's like when the Jewish people were in the desert and they had the manna descend right at their doorstep. It's a different level of miracle than, yeah, I know that my, you know, my body functions in a miraculous way. It's like, yeah, one is a miracle and the other is a miracle. They're both miracles, but one is right out in the open. And when we're able to witness a miracle that's out in the open, like we've been experiencing the past two weeks, it just should give us a pause to acknowledge and to recognize what the Almighty is doing for us, right in front of our eyes. Yesterday was another miracle. It wasn't only a miracle that the Iranian nuclear program came to a halt. Iranian nuclear program came to a halt, but it was also that an ally stood up for Israel, stood up for the world in the United States, going out of their way to do something which was better for Israel and better for the world. And everyone is praising President Trump and everyone's praising Bibi and everyone's praising.

02:04
But I think there's something very important to notice in the speech that was given last night at 10 pm by the President of the United States, where he said we have to thank God. We have to thank God and in one of the great rabbis in Israel said yesterday says the Talmud says that when a miracle happens to a person, they should say the blessing of Shehekhianu, but when a miracle happens to a multitude of people, they have to recite a different blessing, the blessing of HaTov HaMemetiv, that god does good, god is good and he does good. And I want to do, I want to recite that blessing here today, because I think that it's important for us to to to stop. Yeah, you can be busy with your news and watch the news and enjoy the news, and but I think we have to recognize that the miracles don't come from our military. The miracles don't come from our rockets and our missiles and our air defense and our air force and our you know, brilliant, you know which is the internal security of it. That's not what it's about. What it's really about is that Hashem is watching over us and protecting us every single day. And when we have such incredible miracles as we are experiencing today, we have to stop and acknowledge. We have to stop and appreciate. So you know the blessing of HaTov HaHameitiv.

03:43
I want to recite with all of you Baruch HaTov HaDeinoi Elehinu Melech HaOlam HaTov HaHameitiv. I want to recite with all of you Baruch HaTov HaDainoi Eleheinu Melech HaOlam HaTov HaHameitiv. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the universe, who is good and does good. We have a special Psalm. We have a special Psalm by King David Mizmor L'toda, psalm 100.

04:06
Mizmor L'toda. What is Mizmor L'toda? A psalm of thanksgiving. Call out to Hashem everyone on earth. Serve Hashem with gladness, come before Him with joyous song. Know that Hashem, he is God. He made us and we are His, his people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, his courtyard with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name, for Hashem is good Kitov Hashem. His kindness endures forever and His faithfulness from generation to generation. My dear friends, there's no words to describe the appreciation and gratitude that we need to express to our Creator, to the one and only Hashem, and to recognize that we have seen a miracle in front of our eyes and we cannot let. And we said this way back last year, april 14th, when the Iranians shot 200 ballistic missiles at Israel and they were hit out of the sky by the Almighty. Remember we said God flicked them out of the sky. And then earlier this year they shot another round of 300 ballistic missiles at Israel and now they've shot over 500 ballistic missiles so far and sadly we lost 22 people and that's a lot. One is too many. But when you're talking about a ton of explosives that hits at five mach, six mach, it's crazy speeds that these things are flying at With so much explosives. It's. It's something that we need to realize is a miracle. It's a miracle every single minute of the day that we are, that we are able to witness this.

06:25
We must say thank you, non-stop thank you. You know the miracles that we've seen. You know the hospital being evacuated the day before it was hit and many other like. It's like. There was a family that was hit. Their home was a direct hit last night. They did not have a safe room and there was no alarm. For some odd reason, their alarm did not work in that area in Haifa, but they were under. They had some type of safety that they tried to unscathed. Their home was destroyed. To unscathed, their home is destroyed, family unscathed.

07:09
I mean, these are miracles. These are open miracles that we can see. We shouldn't just say like, wow, that's incredible. No, wow, thank you, hashem. It's a time to say thank you. It's a time to pour out our hearts and once we're already giving thanks to the open miracles that we see attached to it, the thanks for the miracles that we don't necessarily see, that we don't realize with our eyes every single moment of the day, that we have a functioning body, that we have a mind that operates, that we're able to get from place to place safely. These are miracles and we should not take them for granted. I think we need to.

07:53
The biggest challenge as a society, as a humanity, is that we get into a pattern of habit, habit and habit and habit, and then things just seem normal. It seems normal that we get into the car and we ignite the engine, and the air conditioner works and everything, the whole engine, everything. That's a great gift from Hashem too, and we cannot take that for granted. The key to all of our happiness is our gratitude and our appreciation. The more we are grateful, the happier we'll be, and this is, I think, an amazing day for us to start our week, filled with gratitude. Thank you, hashem. Thank you, hashem. These words should be on our lips all day. Thank you, hashem.

08:45
It's not like this miracle, by the way, is any greater of a miracle than any other miracle that we experience, but sometimes, when it's out there in the open, it's easier for us to start understanding that everything is a miracle. And this is the day Zayam yom asa Hashem nagiliv nesmech ha'bo. This is the day that God has created for us to wake up, and we should rejoice and we should celebrate, but we should do that every day, because we realize that these are open miracles in front of our eyes. The Jewish people in the desert experienced open miracles. We today are experiencing open miracles and we need to do everything we can to internalize it and to build our relationship with God. God does these miracles like a parent who wants to get their child to curry favor with their child. They do good things for their child. Their child says you know what? They're pretty nice, they're pretty good. Same with Hashem.

09:46
Hashem is trying to get our attention, for us to wake up, to do another mitzvah, to be inspired not to go back to our regular habit, to change, to influence change in our day-to-day lives. This is the key, this is the essence of all of these miracles. These miracles are here to teach us to be closer to Hashem. Hashem should bless us all that we should continue to see these open miracles. We should continue to appreciate and acknowledge them outwardly, vocally. Our sages tell us that when we speak things out, it inspires us internally. We shouldn't recite the blessings that we recite daily, our prayers. We shouldn't just recite them quietly. We should say them out loud, because when we say them out loud, they inspire us internally as well. To feel that way, to feel that inspiration, we can. We can inspire our entire community. We can transform our entire community, and that's what we need to do.

10:54
Go out out there and thank Hashem for the amazing, fabulous miracles that we've all witnessed and hopefully will continue to witness. It's a wake-up call where Hashem is telling us we need to connect to Him. Hashem is waiting for us with open arms. Let's do something. Let's solidify that relationship with Hashem by coming closer, by connecting more, by doing something more, and not just letting it just pass. It was great while it lasted and now let's just move on with regular life.

11:29
No, we can't be regular life. We have to be like Yisro. When Yisro saw the miracles the Jewish people experienced, he said, no, I'm not going to go and have my. We have to be like Yisro. When Yisro saw the miracles the Jewish people experienced, he said no, I'm not going to go and have my regular day like this. I'm going to change my life. It's a time for total change. My dear friends, hashem should bless us all. Hashem should bless us all with incredible inspiration, with incredible protection. That we always feel that closeness with Hashem and we never, ever, let an opportunity of a miracle pass us by without taking it to its fullest. My dear friends, have a magnificent week and Hashem should continue to shower us with unbelievable miracles. Amen, amen.

12:16 - Intro (Announcement)
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