Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

Welcome everybody. Good morning. Welcome back to the Parsha Review Podcast. This week's Parsha is Parsha Shamos. We start a new Chumash. We just finished the book of Genesis, the book of Bereshit. The book of Genesis talks about the family of Israel. Now we are changing to the nation of Israel. We spoke about the family, which was, we talked about Adam and Eve. We talked about Noah.
We talked about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the tribes, Joseph. And now we're talking about the nation of Israel. It says, V'yirbu v'y'atzmu b'm'od m'm'od. So in this week's Parsha, the first verse tells us everything we need to know. V'elishmos b'nei Yisroel. And these are the names of the children of Israel, Habayim Yitzrameh, that came to Mitzrayim. Es Yaakov ish ubey suboh. Yaakov and his family, and his children, each one came to Israel. And we list them all.
For Uvayim Shemalev Yehudi, Yisrochah Zvilun, Uvayim Yamin, Don Avtali, God Osher. Doesn't say Yosef. Why? Because Yosef was already there. V'yihikol nefesh yotzei yerech Yaakov shivim nefesh. And there was a total of 70 souls that came down to Egypt. V'yosef hayeb b'mitzrayim. And Yosef was already in Mitzrayim. V'yamosmos Yosef, as we know from the end of last week's Torah portion, the end of the Chumash. V'yosef, v'cholechah v'choladarahu. And Yosef died, and all of his brothers, and that entire generation, Uvnei Yisrael, listen
to this. Uvnei Yisrael, paru v'yishritzu, the children of Israel were fruitful, teemed, increased, and became strong, very strong, paru v'yishritzu v'yaru v'yaatzmu b'meod meod, v'atimole ha'aretz ha'sam. And the land was filled with them. Okay, so the Jewish people are now mighty, they're strong, they're big, v'yaatzmu b'meod meod. Comes the next verse and tells us something, v'yakom melech hodesh, and there was a new king in Egypt, al-Mitzrayim, asher lo yadosh Yosef, who doesn't know anything about Yosef,
v'yomer elamo, and he says to his nation, hine am b'nei Yisroel av'atz mimenu, they're bigger than us, they're stronger than us, they're mightier than us, hov v'nishak molo, let's get smart. Pen yirbe, maybe he's going to overcome us, v'hayekis yikreinu melchama, and a war will break out, v'nosaf kamu losanenu, and he may join our enemy's list, v'nil b'cha bano v'alimena ha'aretz, and he will wage war against us, and go up from the land, meaning take us over. So we have to strategize. What do we do?
Now, let's ask the obvious question. The obvious question is, why didn't the Jewish people do something? They were so great. We said they were very, very numerous, they were strong, b'meod meod, very, very strong. So like, why do you just let them take you over? Why do you just let them enslave you? Why do you let them just ride right over you? Do something! Do something! What is the Jewish problem? And if you look at current events, you'll see the same exact mistake happening.
It's really, it's mind-boggling. What is going on with the Jewish people here in Egypt? Why do they allow the Egyptians to enslave them? Why do they allow themselves to be overrun and overcome by Pharaoh? Our sages tell us something very important. That is, look at the verse, Vayamas Yosef Echol Echav, Joseph died, and all of his brothers, Echol Adorahu, and that whole generation, the generation of warriors, the generation of those who were strong in their mind, in their pride, they were gone.
So the next generation that was left was those who were like, well, I don't know, we have a nice heritage. It's like today, you have all these people who are saying, I'm so proud to be Jewish. I'm so proud. But what does that mean? What does that even mean to be proud of our Judaism? And what's very interesting is that the story that begins here in the beginning of Exodus doesn't finish till four books down the road, till the end of, we go through the book of
Exodus, the book of Leviticus, the book of Numbers, the book of Deuteronomy, and only then the Jewish people actually finish this 120 year saga. That's more than 120 years. It's 120 years from Moses taking the leadership during this week's parasha. What is the, what's going on here? Why does it take such a long time to get out of our slavery? Because the Torah is teaching us what to be proud of. What are you proud of?
I'm a big Astros fan, I'm a Texans fan, I'm a Rockets fan. I'm, whoa, Houston, yeah, go Houston. What does that mean? It's the emptiest type of pride. Sports fans. Oh, my team did better. My team did worse. My player did better. What significance does that have with you? What the entire coming four books of the Torah are teaching us is what we should be proud of. The Torah is gonna give us every single reason to be proud.
Oh, not because I'm wearing a Star of David. Not because I'm wearing a necklace that has the shape of the state of Israel. Not because I have a picture of the IDF. That's not, what is that? That's what we're proud of. That's what we are, a culture of people who are just proud to be Jews because we have a culture. There's so much more than that. That's such a shallow thing for a Jew to feel like, that's my pride.
My pride is that I am a Jewish person and we have a land in Israel that I don't even live in. What's that pride? Pride is when you invest in something, when we invest in our Judaism, when we invest in what it means to be Jewish, what all the Torah that the Torah gives us here. That's what we're proud of. And what they didn't have here is they didn't have a Torah yet. So they didn't have what to be proud of. I don't know why we're Jewish.
I know, but we don't have Joseph. We don't have his brothers. We don't have the warriors. We don't have the protectors. So they felt small about themselves. And this is a pattern that we see multiple times in the Torah. The Jewish people after the 10 commandments, they also had this low self-esteem of themselves. Oh, we don't have a leader. What are we going to do? We have to build a golden calf.
And then we go to Parsha Shlach and we have the story of the spies. They sent in spies to look at the land. And what did they come back with? They come back, וְשָׁמְרְעִינוּ אֲשָׁה נְפִּילְם בְּנְי אֲנֹּק מִנְה נְפִּילְם בְּנְי הִיא בְּנְנוּ כְּךַגֹבִים וְחִּיִנוּ אִיִינוּ בְּנֵיהָם There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of the giant, from among the Nephilim. We were like grasshoppers in our eyes and so were we in their eyes. What does the verse say?
We were grasshoppers in our eyes and so were we in their eyes. Do you know why the bully picks on that kid? Because he sees them as feeble, as weak. no self-confidence. The minute he stands up with self-confidence, they back down. He didn't even do anything yet. He didn't fight back, he didn't punch back. But he immediately feel, they feel, oh, we can't. Half the fight is just how you present yourself. It's the pride that you have, the self-confidence that you have.
But what is a Jew self-confident about if they don't have Judaism? What is a Jew proud of if they don't have Judaism? Just being part of a party, being part of a clique? One second, yeah, one second. This is the challenge of our generation. It's not only the time of the Egyptians way back when, the Jews who lived in Egypt, meaning. It's not only their problem, it's our problem today, where you see Jews have no sense of what to be proud of.
What should I be proud of, I have no idea. I'm proud to be Jewish, I'm proud of Israel. I'm Israel, hi, okay, great, now what? Why are we proud? Because we're a chosen nation, but why are we a chosen nation? What does that mean to be a chosen nation? That means we have responsibilities. That means we need to be an example. But example of what? That's what we have a Torah for. The Torah gives us the prescription
of exactly what we need to do. The Torah tells us exactly how we need to conduct ourselves and what the definition of being Jewish means. Everyone has free will, and everyone can choose to do whatever they want, but it will taint and it will affect the pride that they feel. When someone learns and studies Torah, they are the proudest Jew in the world, because they don't just feel a connection with being the chosen nation. They are the connection. They are my observance,
my knowledge is my connection with my Judaism. It's to me the most shocking thing, the most powerful religion in the state of New York by far are the Jews. And look, you have a democratic socialist he calls himself, basically a communist, who's now mayor. And you wonder, why would people vote for such a guy? Because they don't have pride. They talk about pride, yeah, I'm Yisrael Chai, but they don't know what it means. They don't know what it means to be a proud Jew.
So what do we grab onto? If I'm not proud of my Judaism, so we create new religions. One of those new religions is liberalism, where it's all in the name of acts of kindness, social justice, give whatever nice name you want for it. That's not Torah, none of it is Torah. Find me one source for it in the Torah, there is none. It's a new religion because I wanna feel part of something. Why are we trying to rewrite the Torah?
We have it right here in our Torah. In the book of Exodus itself, chapter 20, verse number one, we have the 10 commandments. Just 20 chapters away from here. The Torah tells us exactly what it is and how it is we should conduct our lives. Torah tells us what it means to have one God. That means that I don't have another God. My God is not money, my God is not fame, my God is not me, my God is not my materialism,
my possessions, my belongings. My God isn't my land. What is my God? Asher ha'tzusicha me'eretz mitzrayim, mibei savodim. I am Hashem, your God, who took you out of Egypt from the house of slavery. You're free, you have free will. I took you out of Egypt. I took you out of bondage. lo yiyal ha'alakim ha'acherim ma'al panay. You should not have another God before me. lo sis ha'shem ha'shem ha'alakech ha'alashav. You should not say Hashem's name in vain.
Zochar siyom ha'shabas ha'katcha, remember the Shabbos. Watch the Shabbos, protect the Shabbos. Honor your father and mother. Kabir ha'savich ha'vesimecha. These are the values. These are the values the Torah is telling us exactly. What, you wanna be proud? Here, I'll give you the 613 tools of pride. Each one of these mitzvahs, in our observance of them, enriches us and makes us connected with our own heritage, with our own relationship with God. So while someone can have national pride,
people from Denmark are very proud of Denmark, and people from Switzerland, oh, the greatest place on earth, and people from Germany have their national pride, and people from Texas have their pride. Every person, and people from South Carolina will tell you it's the greatest place on earth, and people from Florida think that's God's gift to the world. Everyone feels a pride, but it's so thin. It's so vain. There's nothing there. What is it, really? Oh, Texas pride. What does that mean?
Well, the more I invest in something, the more it has value. The more we, we wanna be proud Jews, what does that even mean? It means that I'm investing in my Judaism. It means that my Judaism means something to me, because it's me. I am part of it. It's not, Judaism as a concept is a great thing, and that's what I'm proud of. No, me, I'm part of it. Don't be an onlooker from the stadium bleachers. Be part of the game.
Invest in it. And that, I think, is the goal of the Torah, giving us this journey of the Jewish people. Say, yeah, you can have ups and downs, but we need to be strong in our connection, in our resolve, in our observance of the Torah, and to make it as solid in our life, with vibrancy, in action, every single day. So it's not just a concept. Jewish pride is not just a concept. Jewish pride needs to be a reality.
And we need to feel that the only way to have true pride in our relationship with our Judaism is when we invest in it. And when it means more than just acts of kindness, when it means more than just acts of habit, when it's living within us. Ki heim chayenu, the Torah is our life. We say this every single evening in our prayer. Ki heim chayenu v'orech yomenu. It's our life. Our life is our connection to the Torah. The Torah guides us.
The Torah tells us exactly how we need to conduct ourselves. It tells us how to deal with money. It tells us how to deal with relationships. It tells us how to raise children. We look in the Torah, we see everything. That's what we're proud of. We are proud that we have the manual for living. We can be proud all we want of the Mossad and the IDF and the Israeli Air Force and Israeli espionage and intelligence and everything. Great, what is that?
That's not me, that's them. Great, I'm proud of them. It's the same thing with our children. If we don't invest in our children, we won't have pride in their success. If I estrange my child and he becomes very successful, notwithstanding my estrangement, what pride do I take in that? But when I invest in my child and I do everything I can, when they succeed, that's my pride because I'm invested in it. We need to find a way every single day
to invest more in our relationship with our Judaism. And this I think is the number one message that we can take from Parshat Shmos. What's our name? Call Israel, I'm Israel. We're part of the Jewish nation, part of the Jewish people. What's my contribution to it? A podcast talking about Jewish ideas and gefilte fish? No, it's about our real vibrant connection with our own Judaism. And this gives us a sense of pride. The Jewish people when they were in Egypt
did not have Torah yet. Hashem is gonna take you through the journey and bring you out and give you that Torah so that forever and ever and ever, we will never be in a slavery situation again. And every time throughout history, and that's why we have the prophets and the writings telling a story after story after story after story of the Jewish people doing well in their observance and connection. And when they rebelled against Hashem, they went down and back up and back down.
You see this constant challenge. It's a constant struggle of the Jewish people. A constant struggle. How are we going to be people who are infused completely with that pride when we're invested? When we're invested in our Judaism, not as a cultural thing, not as something which is superficial, not in something which is empty, but something which is real. Where when I put on tefillin every day, I'm binding upon myself my relationship with God. And we need to have that idea in mind.
Hashem took us out of Egypt and gave us this commandment. To bind it upon ourselves so that our heart, our actions, our mind, our thoughts are committed to Hashem. It's a daily activity. When we recite blessings over the food that we eat, what are we doing? We're bringing God consciousness into our lives. When we recite a blessing after we eat, we're bringing God consciousness into our lives. When we have a mezuzah on our door and we recognize that the mezuzah is there,
we're bringing God consciousness into our homes. God is right here with us. We're not isolated out someplace on an island. And every single mitzvah that we have is bringing that God consciousness into our existence every day. And if we can hopefully grow and connect from this and take parashat Shamos and see it as part of our manual for living, it is Hashem guiding us and telling us the reason we see these stories is so that it fill us up with anger.
What's wrong with you? You know, one of the things that people asked about the Holocaust, how is it there was only one German soldier and there were 5,000 Jews being led through a field. Through a field by one soldier. I mean, by sheer numbers. He'll run out of bullets after the first 20. Okay, so now what? They can stampede him, but they just had nothing of pride. Their dignity was gone. They had nothing left in them. And that's a terrible thing.
It's a terrible thing. It's tragic. I know my grandmother told me about this thing. I don't understand, just run them over. Like just all the people just go and stampede him and he's done. Okay, so I'll shoot three people. Big deal. You have 5,000 people. Didn't feel value anymore. And this is hopefully something that we wake up to and we realize how precious our Jewish connection is. How precious our Jewish, our Torah is. How precious our Judaism is
that we should excel every day in our performance as Jews. Not to live as a non-Jew and call ourselves Jewish with the Star of David, but to live as a Jew and to observe as a Jew. And I think that it's, if we invest in it, we will succeed in it and we'll have true Jewish pride. And I'm guaranteeing as the Torah does that we'll have tremendous nachas from all of our children and grandchildren. Have an amazing Shabbos, everybody.
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