Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

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

Good morning. Welcome back everybody. Welcome to the Parsha Review Podcast. This week's Parsha is Parsha's Vayakhel Pekudeh. It is a combined portion. We take the last two portions of the book of Exodus and together the 10th and the 11th portion are read this week and we will conclude the book of Exodus this week and we will of course say chazak chazak v'nitchazek that hopefully God gives us strength to return to this book again
next year and to continue to observe all of its laws every single day. In the end of Parsha's Vayakhel chapter 38 verse number 8, we have one verse talking about the washbasin, the laver that was in the temple. What was it made out of? It was made out of copper, says the pasuk, the verse tells us, He made the washbasin, the laver, nechoshes of copper, v'eskano and its base, nechoshes, of copper, b'maros hatzovos, from the mirrors of the legions,
ashertzavu pesachol hamaod, who massed at the entrance of the tent of meeting. You hear this Mark? What happened? They donated, when the day that they were donating for the temple, all the women brought their mirrors, their copper mirrors that they would beautify themselves with and they brought it to the temple. So, we all know, we've all heard this before, is that they took the mirrors that they beautified themselves with to entice their husbands to be with them. They brought those mirrors to the
temple, that it should be part of the temple. So, I'm going to learn with you a Rashi. Let's see what Rashi says here and let's understand the brilliance of what's really going on behind the scenes here. Rashi says, b'nos yisrol hoyu b'yodin maroz, sheroz behen kishehin miskashtos, that the Jewish women, this is in Egypt, the Jewish women in Egypt, had mirrors and they would beautify themselves with those mirrors. Ve'af oson lo ikvum ulohovi l'nidva samishkan, and even those mirrors that they used to beautify themselves,
they brought to donate to the temple. Ve'hoyo mo'eis moshe bohen mi'pnei she'asuyin liyeit sehorah, and Moshe was disgusted by it. Moshe was repulsed by it. He says, you're bringing to me, to the temple, what you use to entice your husbands, the yet sehorah, so to speak. That's what you're bringing to donate to the temple. I don't want to take it. I don't want to accept it for the temple. But Moshe is not in charge. God is in charge.
So this is what we know, that they used these mirrors to beautify themselves. Their husbands would come back from labor in the fields in Egypt, their slavery, they'd be all worn out. They're like, I don't want anything right now. I'm so tired. They were so diffused of all excitement and energy, and the force of living was taken from them. The wives would beautify themselves, entice their husbands so that they'd be with them, so that they have more children, because the women understood
the future of the Jewish people needs to continue. The future of the Jewish people, we need to continue to have children. What does Hashem say to all this? So now let's understand. They take those same mirrors, instead of keeping it for themselves now to continue to beautify themselves, what do they do? They donate it to the temple. Moshe says, I don't like this at all. I don't like this one bit.
This is what they're using to bring desire to their husbands. I don't like that this be used in the temple. What does Hashem say? Hashem says, kabel, accept it. Not only that. These donations are more precious to me than any other donation. The donation of money, the donation of gold, of silver, of copper, of everything else. Great, but these donations are more precious to me than anything. Sh'al y'dein he'emidu hanoshim tzov os rabos b'mitzrayim.
Tzva os rabos b'mitzrayim. All the future of the Jewish people came because the women enticed their husband with these mirrors, and now we have Jewish people because of them. Kisha hoyu ba'aleim yigeim ba'avod as parekh. When their husbands were working in slave labor in Egypt, their wives, when they came home, would feed them, would give them something to drink. They would feed them, and they would take the mirrors. The women would take the mirrors then. And she would look at the mirror with her husband.
She would look in the mirror, and she would say, I am more beautiful than you. And like this, she would bring her husband to be enticed to her, to be desiring her. And then they would be together. They would get pregnant, they would have babies. They bring a verse from Shir Hashirim. With the mirrors of the legions. And the labor was made specifically from these mirrors. Because these mirrors created peace between man and woman.
And therefore, this is the construct of the wash basin would be from these mirrors. So let me ask you a question. How does this make any sense? How does this make any sense that the mirror wasn't used for them to beautify themselves, but rather for them to tell their husbands, you know, I'm more beautiful than you. And then they would, I mean, does that make sense of how to bring desire? I'm better than you. What were they trying to do here? What were they trying to do?
I want to share with you a story, a true story. I've shared this here before. I have a friend of mine who is now recovering from substance abuse. For he's clean now for I think 33 years, maybe a few more years than that. 33 years. So I asked him, I said to him, if you don't mind me asking, what stopped you? Like what triggered it that you said, okay, that's it. I'm done with all the
substance. I'm done with all of these external influences, and I'm going to take control of my life. And this is what he said. He said, one time by mistake, I looked in the mirror. I looked in the mirror. One time by mistake, I looked in the mirror and that changed my life. I looked in the mirror and I saw this is not who you are. You're much better than that. And it changed everything. The alcohol, all the other drugs, everything out, done.
What the women did is they looked in the mirror and told their husbands, this is not you. You are so much better. You think you're a slave and now everything is terrible. And I, my life is not life. And you know what she did? She did utilized, she utilized the power of the woman, which is to bring the mirror in front of her husband and say, you are so much better than
this. You are so great. And if you want to know the job of a woman is to not fight with her husband, is to bring the light to her husband, to show him that this is what you can be. This is how great you are. This is what your potential can become. This is what you can make out of yourself. Children, they have the same exact need to be told and to be reinforced and to be reinvigorated and to be encouraged by their
mothers, particularly by their father as well, but particularly by their mother, because the mother knows their true potential. Look in the mirror. Look how great you can be. Look how awesome you can become. I firmly believe that when a guy and a girl date, you see, they say that when a woman marries a man, she hopes he changes and he doesn't. And when a man marries a woman, he hopes she doesn't change and she does.
But the truth is, is that it's exactly, it should be the opposite. Our sages teach us that the woman, so to speak, is on the top of the ladder and her job is to put her hand down and lift him up. The man is down in the gutter. The man is down in the street. He's dealing with the challenges of life. Her job is to stay pristine, to stay holy, to stay dignified and pull him up. You see,
we're in a world today where this can fall completely on deaf ears because the world is so confused today. If you look outside and you look in the world, you look in the media, you look in the all the false claims that are being made. I don't even know for what purpose. Oh, equality. What's the equality? I don't get it. We're different. We're never going to be the same. And that itself, people hearing that can say like, this is ridiculous. He's so arcane.
You still think that men and women are different? What? But that's the reality. And now to be logical is not fashionable. To state the obvious is not fashionable. What we all understand, what we all know, what every single child understands, we have a Supreme Court justice who can't even define what a female is. It's not politically correct. This is a destruction of our culture. It's a destruction of our society, of our generation, where if we can't make basic definitions of what a man and
a woman is, how can we do things that are even greater than that? It's really a remarkable world that we're living in today. But what does the woman do? The woman, she doesn't reprimand her husband. That's not her job per se. Her job is to put the mirror in front of him and to say, I know your capabilities. I know what you're capable of. You're so much better than that. You're so much better than that. You're so much loftier.
You're so much greater. I find that most guys who go out on a date don't even have a clue of who they met. They don't know anything about them. They know how they look. They know how they look. I have a friend of mine, when he would go out on a date, when he would go out on a date, he would, his mother would, when he talked to his mother after the date, he would say to her,
she would say to him, what color eyes did she have? And he'd be like, I have no idea. I have no idea. What do you mean you have no idea? You just spent three, four, five hours with this girl talking face to face. You have no idea what color her eyes are. Don't pay attention. Oh, you got to pay attention. Start paying attention. I guarantee you that 99.9% of girls know everything about the guy they meet. They know their strengths. They
know their weaknesses. They know their talents. They know their capabilities. They can sense it. They can feel it. They have that deep, innate wisdom that men don't naturally have. She knows what she's getting herself into because she sees the potential. She sees the potential. She sees what he's capable of. And guys sometimes don't like that. Guys don't like having a mirror. Don't tell me what I'm capable of. I want to do what I want to
do. Don't put that mirror in front of me and make me see what I'm actually capable of. What was this mirror used for? God says this mirror is used to bring peace between man and his wife. What was the water used for in this labor? It was used to clean the hands of the Kohen before his service. But also the water that was used, Remember in the book of numbers we talk about the adulterous woman.
Where God is willing to have his name erased with this water. This is the same water. Why? Because this is the water that brings peace between a man and his wife. They were actually mirrors. So what is this copper? You know our sages teach us that there are three different parts of the night. There's the first third, the second third, and the last third of the night. How are they defined? One is when the dogs are still barking, one is when the donkeys bray, and the third is
when a woman talks with her husband and when she feeds her child together. Our sages tell us that this is referring to the three exiles. The dogs barking are the nations of the world giving us noise and confusing us with values. The donkeys as well, busy with work, confusing us with luxuries, confusing us with materialism. But what's the last one? That's the end, almost the end of the night. That's when women will talk with their husbands and feed their
children. What is that? They will talk to them using appeasing words, not only for there to be a physical relationship between them, but for them to realize their potential. She's talking with her husband, she's feeding her child, what is she doing? She's placing that mirror in front of them so that they understand and they know what they're truly capable of. That's the time that we're in right now, where we need to turn towards the Almighty and see what we're truly capable of.
This is the kior. The kior, the laver, serve to wash away the thoughts of I'm not worthy, the thoughts of I can't do it, the thoughts of it's all me. The water that we wash our hands with is the water that washes away all of the negative thoughts, all of the thoughts of our limitations, all of the thoughts that I can't do it, I'm not capable. You can't because where does it all come from? Hashem gives us all strength. We talked about this yesterday. We're each gifted
with unbelievable talents, unique special talents, and those talents are not hidden. Hashem gives them to us, not so that they stay in the recesses of our consciousness, but that we utilize them. It's not arrogance to know your virtues, it's an obligation. I quoted recently from my grandfather. My grandfather would say from his rabbi, Reb Yerucham Levavitz, he would say that if someone doesn't know their flaws, it's not good. But if someone doesn't know their virtues,
it's tragedy. You have to know your virtues. You have to know what Hashem gifted you with. Hashem gifted each and every one of us with such unique incredible talents. For us to not acknowledge them is a crime. For us to not bring them and maximize them and utilize them, bring them to the fore of our consciousness, is a tragedy. It's an obligation. It's an obligation for us to stop and recognize, what are my gifts? What are the things that God
has given me that I can, with those talents, become the greatest version of myself? We limit ourselves. The world around us limits ourselves. Oh, you can never do that. So many people tried it. I'm going to bring my example that I think is the greatest living day example of what excellence and a real lack of acknowledgement, a healthy lack of acknowledgement of any limitations, Elon Musk. Elon Musk, alone with his team, has outdone what an entire department of the United States, NASA, the most well-funded aerospace
entity in the world. This guy, who 20 years ago, he says he knew nothing about aviation, he knew nothing about rockets, he knew nothing about space. They have over 11,000 satellites today making their rounds around Earth, providing internet with Starlink. It's the most unbelievable thing, 11,000 satellites, from a guy who 20 years ago didn't know anything about space. When NASA's stuck with their astronauts at the space station, let's give a phone call to SpaceX, to Elon Musk, let's see if he can save us. And he does. And
he does. And they're piggybacking on his rockets. Oh, but that's not it. He didn't either know anything about cars. The best-selling car in the world last year and the year before was the Tesla, the most remarkable thing. And that's not either it. He has other things. And this is a guy who I am sure, I'm confident people wrote off and said, eh. And I'm sure when he was buying the car company, they're like, you know how many people
tried to start their own? You're going to go against the big guys? You're going to go against Ford and Chevy? And you're going to go against Toyota? Give me a break. No chance. I'm sure he's heard it a thousand times. People telling him, don't try to take on NASA. Don't try to take on these big successful companies. It really is a fascinating lesson for us to look at a live example of what it means to never give up, to never stop trying for more.
I bet you, because he has a close relationship with his mother, I bet you his mother keeps on telling him you can do anything. And she saw that in him. But that's what our mothers need to be telling us. Our mothers need to be telling us how great our potential is and that if we don't give up, we will succeed. You know, the most fascinating part of watching the Superbowl every year is right before the Superbowl, they're interviewing all of the players and they zoom in with the camera
to the player and they ask him, what do you have to say? Finally, your dream, your goal in life, you've accomplished, you're here at the Superbowl. You know what they say? Nine out of ten. Mom, this is for you. It's the mother who believes in them. The mother who took extra jobs so that she can put them through school, so that she can put them through college. The mother who is dedicated endlessly to the potential of their
child, bringing out the goodness of their child. This cannot be understated. That this, Hashem says, I want in the Temple. The women brought those mirrors. You know what that mirror will serve as? As the laver to wash away your doubt, to wash away your impurities, your thoughts of limitation. I want the mirrors to be on the wash basin. Wash away all of the doubt. My dear friends, we have such unbelievable potential, each and every one of us. And when we look and we realize
that Hashem created us and gave us a life, we limit ourselves. I can't. Oh, nobody will listen to me. Nobody will do it. Hashem is the one who gives us the ability. And now we understand a little bit of, don't remove yourself from the teachings of your mom, because she's teaching you everything you need to know about yourself. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos. Wash away those thoughts of limitations, because if you only know, you have no limitations. We are capable of doing anything we set our minds on.
Have tremendous, tremendous success in all of your endeavors. Have an amazing Shabbos.

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