Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:00 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe from TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Prayer Podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Good morning, my dear friends, welcome back, welcome back to the Prayer Podcast. Today we are going to begin the 15 blessings of gratitude that we recite every single morning, of gratitude that we recite every single morning. Now, each one of these blessings are a different stage of rising up each morning. The Talmud talks a lot about this and we're going to get into it a little bit later, but the objective of all of these blessings is to be filled with joy every single day.

00:48
If you want to know why there's a world today that is challenged and plagued with happiness, when we're a world that has so much, so much material, so much success, so much abundance, and yet people are miserable. It's not like they don't have a house to sleep in. It's not like they don't have food. They don't have clothes. You go into people's closets and they say I have nothing to wear today. Really, you open up their closet, there are thousands of outfits. What's the problem? Why are people so miserable? Why are people so unhappy? Because we're not being grateful enough. We're not being thankful, and in Judaism, we recognize that the key to happiness is gratitude. If you're grateful for the things that you have, it is impossible to not be happy. So let's begin with our first of the blessings, but we have to recognize that first we thanked Hashem for our body. Remember, the blessing that we talked about a few episodes ago was Asher Yotzar. Asher Yotzar is thanking Hashem for our functioning body. Then what did we do? We thanked Hashem for our neshama, for our soul. We said Elokei neshama, our holy, pure soul that you've imbued within us, and then we thank Hashem for all of our functions, for all of the other features. Now there's an interesting theme. We spoke about three different blessings. We say the blessing for washing our hands, for after using the bathroom. We thank Hashem for our functioning body and then for our soul, and now we're going to talk about another 15. Now we know there are other blessings that we've talked about the blessings for the Torah.

02:38
That's separate. It's not considered the morning blessings per se, that's thanking Hashem for the Torah, but the morning blessings per se. That's thanking Hashem for the Torah, but the morning blessings. There are 18 of them. Our sages tell us we say Melech chai v'kayam, god is a living king. Chai, we know, is the number 18. We thank Hashem. This number 18 is a theme throughout our prayers. We need to bring that. Hashem is Chai Olamim, god is living, eternal Chai. The number 18, is a very Jewish number. We have it in our morning blessings. There are 18 blessings, our sages tell us. We see also that in Yehi Chavod, which is in the Sukkot of Zimra, in our verses blessings there are 18 blessings, our sages tell us. We see also that in Yehichavod, which is in the Psuket, zimra, in our verses of song there's 18 times the name of Hashem in that one chapter of Yehichavod. Then we have in the Shema. We have 18 times the name of Hashem and then we have in the Amidah. The Amidah is also called the Shemona Esrei. The 18 blessings Still is called 18 blessings, even though our sages added a 19th blessing, but we call it Shemona Esrei. Shemona Esrei is 18.

04:01
Melech Chai V'kayom is what we say in the beginning. We say I'm grateful before you, hashem, melech Chai V'kayom, living and eternal king. Now, if we were to talk about the seven wonders of the world, what would we say are the seven wonders of the world? And you can go around the world and look around and you say, wow, this is one of the seven wonders, that's one of the seven. And you can go around the world and look around and you say, wow, this is one of the seven wonders. That's one of the seven wonders. The truth is, is that to see, to hear, to touch, to taste, to feel, to laugh and to love are the seven wonders. The seven wonders that we give thanks for, the light that we give thanks for every morning, to have a mind that is able to function.

04:54
Adam, one of our psalms that we have in the book of Psalms by King David, is actually a psalm that was written by Adam, and this was on the first morning after there was darkness the night before. So this was Sunday morning. What did he say? To give praise to you in the morning. Give thanks, it's a new day, it's a new opportunity. We're fresh, a fresh beginning.

05:31
Why did Hashem create our need to sleep? Why do we need to sleep? Why can't we just be operating without a need to sleep? Hashem couldn't figure that out. Is it too difficult for us to just be operating without sleep?

05:51
So the first our sages tell us is because new beginnings, a new beginning from yesterday's horror. Yesterday might have been a difficult day. Yesterday might have been a day of bad news. Today, today is a new day. Today is a new day. Yesterday might have been a day of bad news. Today, today is a new day. Today is a new beginning. But also, our sages tell us every morning chadashim, libekarim. Every morning is a new perspective, is a new freshness for appreciation. Additionally, for us to know that every day that we're alive, hashem believes in us. Hashem believes that we can accomplish great things. Hashem believes that we can do great things, that our life should not be limited to our own constraints. We can do great things, rabbi Munasech. Hashem believes in us.

06:53
What does the day represent? The day represents good times light, clarity. That's the day. What does the night represent? The night represents difficult times, darkness, a lack of clarity. Life is always going to have day and night. Life is always going to have times where it's so clear, it's so lit, it is so, you know, filled with good times, like ah, amazing. And then there are times where it's not so lit.

07:34
You know the world is round. Why is it round? Because everything goes up and down. Up and down. Sometimes you're at the top, sometimes you're at the bottom. You know what you need to remember. Down, sometimes you're at the top, sometimes you're at the bottom. You know what you need to remember Every single time you're at the bottom, you're on your way up to the top. And every time you're at the top, you have to remember you're not going to be at the top forever. One day you might be at the bottom again. We have to recognize this. You have that solid job. Oh, it's a guarantee for life. A life? No, there's no guarantee. Things can happen in an instant. There's morning, there's night that follows it, there's night, there's day that follows it. We're on a constant changing world.

08:29
We have to use the day and the morning to get close to Hashem. It's very interesting we're going to talk about this when we get to the after Shema. It's very interesting that in the morning we say V'yatzev, v'nachon. Yatzev means firm. Right after the Shema we say we're firm. At night.

08:51
What do we say after the Shema? We say v'emuna. We have faith, we have trust in Hashem. You know why we say during the day v'yatzev? Because in the day, day when it's light and everything is bright for us and everything has clarity, then we're very certain, we're very sure of our oh Hashem, thank you. But when it's dark, what happens? We're uncertain. You need to hold on to your emunah. We're uncertain. Be'amuna, be'amuna, shabalel. So you need to hold on to your emunah Lahagid ba'boker chazdecha.

09:33
When it's good, when it's clear, talk about lahagid ba'boker chazdecha. Talk about thank Hashem for all the goodness that he gives you, because there's going to come a night time. That night time you're going to come a nighttime. That nighttime you're going to have to hold on to all of those praises, all of those thanks that you gave to Hashem. There's going to be a time where you're going to be uncertain, where it's going to be difficult, where you're going to be down and possibly even depressed. Oh my goodness, how am I going to get out of this? Think of it as a bank account.

10:08
We learned this from Yosef. Yosef says there's going to be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. So let's have a good time when it's years of plenty and then, when there's a famine, what are we going to do? We'll die? No, put some aside. Prepare, have a savings account so when it comes the time of famine, you can ride it, that you don't disappear into the abyss. When we have challenges, we have to have been prepared for it. I said this at my son and daughter-in-law's, sheva Brachas Every relationship has times that are incredible.

10:52
They're bliss, and every relationship has times that it's difficult. But if, on the time that there's bliss, you praise and you appreciate and you compliment, and you appreciate and you compliment and you thank and you honor and you respect and you shower the other spouse with your love, then you'll be able to ride through the difficult times when you have clarity. Every morning we wake up renewed, refreshed. It's a new opportunity, it's a new day, it's a new life, a new beginning. Pack it in because, don't forget, there's going to be a night. There's going to be a night where you may be in despair. You're going to be a night where you may be in despair. You're going to need to have the strength. You know what rides you through that difficult time when you utilize your day being thankful to Hashem, when you recognize that there are incredible gifts and you're thankful for those gifts. It propels you, it gives you the energy to override the difficult times.

12:10
So, before we begin explaining each of the blessings, let's read through them. We're going to read them in Hebrew and then we will translate them in English. You have handouts here those of you in the room, those of you who are online, those of you who are online, those of you who are online, you can download them. In the description of the video there is a link, or in the podcast there is a link and you can download this document. My dear friends, let's begin. It's going to be 15 blessings and then a hiratzum, so it's going to be a little bit of reading here. That I will do, and I'm going to use the Ashkenazic dialect. There are other dialects that hopefully will be available on our podcast so you can listen to the Sephardic, the Hasidic, we're going to be working on getting a Mizrahi dialect as well. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam dialect as well.

13:08
Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who imbues the heart with understanding to distinguish between night, between day and night. Blessed are you, hashem, between day and night. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam, shaloi osani goi. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the universe, who has not made me a Gentile. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam, shaloi osani oved. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the universe, who has not made me a slave. The following two blessings one is for men and one is for women, so I'll recite both of them Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam, shaloi osani. Isha sh'osani kirtzono. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who has not made me a woman, and the women say who has made me according to His will.

14:15
Baruch Ato Adaynoi Eleiheinu Melech Ho'Eilom Peikei HaChivrim. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who gives sight to the blind? Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who clothes the naked? Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who releases the bound? Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who straightens the bent, straightens the bent. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam. Ro'ika ha'oretz al ha'moim. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who spreads out the earth upon the waters Page 15.

15:17
Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam. She'oso li kol tzorki. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who has provided me my every need. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olom. Ha'meichin mitz'adei gover. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who prepares man's footsteps. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olom, who prepares man's footsteps. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who crowns Israel with splendor Shalom.

16:37
And now I'm going to recite the following two prayers that conclude with a blessing and indeed, if someone is responsive and answering amain to these blessings. After the blessing that we just recited, you would not recite amain till we finish with this blessing. I'll say it all in Hebrew and then in English Shabbat Shalom. And in every way we must serve you and we ask you, today and every day, for good and mercy and mercy in your eyes, and in your eyes we see and see good things. Blessed are you, lord, who gives good things to the people of Israel.

17:43
Yehi rotzon mufonecho adayinoi lehai ve'lehai v'say shetatzileinu hayom u'bechol yon me'azay ponim u'me'azus ponim me'odom ro'u me'chovei ro'u u'me'shochin ro'u u'me'pega ro'u u'me'sotan ha'mashchis u'me'din koshe u'me'bal din koshe bein shuh Ben-Huris.

18:03
Blessed are you, hashem.

18:05
So this is from the previous.

18:07
Let's start with the Hirotson.

18:09
May it be your will, hashem, our God and God of our forefathers, that you accustom us to study your Torah and attach us to your commandments. Do not bring us into the power of error, nor into the power of transgression and sin. Nor into the power of error, nor into the power of transgression and sin, nor into the power of challenge, nor into the power of scorn. Let not the evil inclination dominate us, distance us from an evil person and an evil companion. Attach us to the good inclination and to good deeds, and force our evil inclination to be subservient to you. Grant us, today and every day, grace, kindness and mercy in your eyes and in the eyes of all who see us, and bestow beneficent kindnesses upon us. Blessed are you, hashem, who bestows beneficent kindnesses upon his. Blessed are you, hashem, who bestows beneficent kindnesses upon his people, israel.

19:10
May it be your will, Hashem, our God, my God and the God of my forefathers, that you rescue me, today and every day, from insolent men and from insolence, from an evil man, an evil companion. I don't know about you or whether he is not a member of the covenant, and to that we recite Amen. I don't know about you, but I think this is the most incredible way to start a day that not only we give thanks for all of these things, but we say Hashem, guide us. You see these words at the end Don't bring us to a place of sin, don't bring us to a challenge, don't bring us to embarrassment, to humiliation. We're saying this at the forefront of our day, at the beginning. We're about to embark on a new day. Hashem, protect me from negative influences. Hashem, don't put me next to an arrogant person or arrogance. An evil person, an evil companion, an evil neighbor. We talk so much about this and having negative influences around us. We pray for this. Not just in the back of our mind do we hope for such a thing. We pray for this every single day. What a way to start our morning. So today we're not going to go through all 15 of these blessings, because we need more than just the time allotted. So we're going to start with the first one and we'll see how far we can go. The first is Asher, nosan, laseh v'vina, lehavchin, ben yom, uvein loila, and we'll see how far we can go. The first is God.

21:11
Thank you for imbuing the heart with understanding to distinguish between day and night. So what is sehvi? Our sages tell us that sehvi is translated as heart. Sehvi means a heart, but also can be translated as a rooster. What does a rooster have to do with this? Because we have a lot to learn from a rooster. A rooster knows the exact moment that the light begins to shine in the world. Every morning, dark, it's dark, it's dark at night, and suddenly, boom, there's the first drop of light. Oh, the rooster got it. He's able to distinguish between that little sliver of darkness and the little sliver of light, but we need to do the same for our heart. Our heart needs to be able to distinguish between things. We need to learn the difference between day and night.

22:11
You know, if you remember way way back when we were studying the Breakneck Through the Bible series and we were going through each verse of the Torah, we discussed way back then that the first thing that God created in Genesis, in the creation of the world, the first thing that God created was the heaven and the earth. Heaven and earth. Why is that the first thing? Hashem created Heaven and earth. Why is that the first thing? Hashem created heaven and earth? What is heaven and earth? Have we been in heaven? Do we have any relation to heaven? Why is that the first thing that God creates heaven and earth?

23:08
Our sages teach us heaven refers to spiritual pursuits, earth refers to physical pursuits. Hashem created this struggle. This is the struggle of our lives. We have the heavens, the spiritual, and we have the earth, the physical, and this is going to be the challenge of mankind from the beginning of creation till the end. This is always going to be our challenge.

23:42
The rooster wakes us every morning. Whether we live on a farm that has a rooster wakes us every morning. Whether we live on a farm that has a rooster or not, the concept wakes us up to purpose, to meaning, to opportunity, to maximize the day. The rooster is saying guys, there's a fresh, new beginning ahead, invest, invest your day in good things, spend time inquiring, learning, growing, connecting. Just as the rooster can differentiate between night and day, so too we should use our intellect to discern, to distinguish between truth and false, between spiritual and material, between good and evil, and we thank Hashem every morning for this. Hashem, thank you for giving me the ability to discern between good and evil, because I'm on my way, I just started my day, but thanks to you, I can discern between truth and false, between good and evil. That's the gift that we thank Hashem for every single morning.

25:05
The greatest gift of life is awareness. You know, there's a terrible, terrible plague in this world. That plague is called numbness, people who want to be numb to this world. You can call it drugs, you can call it alcohol, you can call it any type of addiction, but those addictions serve to run away from awareness, to run away from awareness, to run away from consciousness, to run away from living life. That is the greatest challenge People are running away from being aware and awake. Every morning, we resolve with this blessing thank you for giving me a heart to discern between good and evil. Thank you for giving me a heart to be conscious, to be aware and awake. Not to sleep through life, not to run away and be numb and smoke something that'll make me just feel like everything is bliss, and smoke something that'll make me just feel like everything is bliss and I run away from existence. That's not discerning between good and evil, that's not discerning between good, day and night. That's running away. That's saying I don't want to be in an existence where I have a choice.

26:44
In Deuteronomy, the Torah tells us See, behold, I've placed before you life and death. Good Chaim v'tov, ma v'sverah. I gave you life and good, death and evil. Living a life that has choice, living a life that has options, is living life. We can choose to be awake or we can choose to live life asleep. In this blessing, we're choosing to be alive, we're choosing to make choices. And you know what, even if you make bad choices, we have night and then we have another day to start all over again. You have a miserable day. Okay, ride it out. Tomorrow's another day, but we don't want to be in an existence where we're numb. That's a terrible, terrible state to live in.

28:04
You know we talked in our Jewish Inspiration podcast. We talked a lot about what it means to be warned in the Torah. You know the Torah doesn't tell you common sense things, because you can ask the question. We know there's a fundamental principle in life you cannot punish unless you are warned. If there's no speed limit sign, you are not going to get stopped for speeding. That's why there's a speed limit sign To warn you that if you exceed the speed limit, you can and most likely will be stopped and ticketed. And you go in front of a judge and the judge will say well, you were warned. You say no, there wasn't a speed limit sign and by law there has to be every few thousand feet. There needs to be a reminder. There's a punishment, there's a limit.

29:09
If that's the case, then how come the Torah which was given in year 2448 from the creation of Adam and Eve? It was given to Moses at Mount Sinai. One second, 2,448 years of this world happened before then. How were they punished? How was the generation of Noah punished? How was Cain and Abel? Cain killed his brother. How was he punished? Adam and Eve? How was he punished, adam and Eve? How were they punished? Well, they were actually warned. But Noah and his generation? They weren't warned. You see, the generation of the Tower of Babel. How were they warned? There was no Torah.

30:01
The Torah tells you 613 commandments. This is how you should abide your life. This is the things you should do. This is the things you should not do. Okay, where's their warning? Where's their warning? Do this, don't do this. They didn't have it. Torah wasn't given yet Say just tell us.

30:22
The Torah does not teach you common sense. Common sense you have a great gift called the mind, and your mind can discern between good and bad, between good and evil. Your mind can discern the basic things. The Torah tells you things that your mind cannot understand, perhaps, on its own. The Torah doesn't tell you thou shall not murder. The Torah doesn't tell you thou shall not steal. Rabbi.

30:58
Last I looked in Exodus. We have the Ten Commandments, and the Ten Commandments says that you shall not murder. Look at the commentaries. What do they explain? What does not murder mean? It doesn't mean don't take a gun and shoot somebody, or don't take a knife and stab someone. That's not what it means that we have common sense to tell us that. We don't need the Torah to tell you that. So what does it mean? It means not to embarrass someone publicly. That's like spilling their blood. That's murder. The Torah doesn't need to tell you common sense. This is the gift of having a mind, of having intellect. We have a tremendous power of intellect that we want to recommit ourselves to every single day.

31:51
We begin our day thanking Hashem, hashem. This is the day that I'm going to utilize my mind to discern between day and night, between right and wrong, between right and wrong, between good and evil. That's within me. I have the ability to discern that. It's interesting that the heart doesn't look anything like this heart. You know the commonplace heart, but this heart actually is not a bad symbol. There are two parts to it.

32:19
It says we say this in the Shema. There are two parts to it. It says Al-Livavecha, we say this in the Shema. We have two hearts the Yetzer Tov and the Yetzer Ha, and that's what we need to distinguish between the two. Are we going to live in the world of the Yetzer Ha and let him control, or are we going to live in the world of the Yetzer Ha, the evil inclination, the positive inclination or the evil inclination. Which one are we going to allow to have control over us? Which one are we going to choose? That's what we pray for every morning.

32:52
We thank Hashem for giving us the ability to make a choice. The greatest gift is awareness To be alive, awake and not sleeping. So why do we say who gave and not no saying who gives in an active way? Our sages tell us, because this comes from a verse in Job 38, verse 36. It says God imbued within us this intellect, our ability to be maximized. It's a gift that's embedded within us. It's not that we have.

33:39
Today, I'm going to get a new file. Today, I'm going to get a new file. Today, I'm going to get a new definition. No, no, no, we already have it. It's inborn when you were born. You were born with the common sense. You were born with a mind, with a thinking mind. We need to utilize it. We need to be thankful. Actually, you're wondering why, at the beginning of today's class, I installed a new clock in this room.

34:02
Our sages tell us that part of this blessing is to thank Hashem for giving us time, for giving us a clock. This is not a joke. There's the Olas Tamid, one of the commentaries that I use to prepare this clock. He says it's to thank Hashem every day that we have a clock that can tell time. Imagine if you didn't have such a concept of being able to tell time, to know when I'm running overtime on class. Imagine we'd sit here for hours and hours and hours. You'd be like, rabbi, I'm late to lunch, rabbi, I'm late to dinner. We have a clock To thank Hashem that we have a watch To tell time. An amazing commentary, hashem.

34:53
God gave us imbued within us intellect. God gave us the ability to understand and to distinguish. That in itself. Forget between day and night, just to be able to distinguish between things to discern. But then, day and light, day and night.

35:19
What's day and night? Is it so difficult to distinguish between day and light, day and night? What's day and night? Is it so difficult to distinguish between day and night? Night you can't see, day you can see. What's so difficult? The entire world falls into those two categories. Everything should be as clear to us like day and night. We know day, it's light outside, we can see. But how about do we understand the truth and the falsehood. That's blurry gray, I don't know that's like in between, no, no, no, it should be light and day, or night and dark. It shouldn't be fuzzy, it shouldn't be fuzzy, it shouldn't be in between. We should understand that the world we live in is two polar opposites. We can live a life of day or a life of night. We can live a life like the verse in the Torah, the first verse God created heaven and earth. The verse in the Torah, the first verse God created heaven and earth.

36:24
It's either a pursuit of spiritual pursuits or physical pursuits, spiritually satisfying or physically satisfying. Now, that doesn't mean that we lock ourselves up and become spiritual seekers and we disregard our physical needs. No, on the contrary, we take the physical to elevate the spiritual. If you don't eat, you won't be healthy. If you don't sleep, you won't be healthy.

36:55
In Judaism, you need to be married. It's part of your function as a human. Don't disregard and say I'm going to live in a monastery and not be married, be celibate. No, that's not the Jewish way. You take the physical and elevate it. You make what could be darkness and make it light, elevate it. Take your food, don't just eat it. Decide a blessing. So now the food becomes holy. The food becomes spiritual. What could be darkness, running after food all day, gluttonous desire for food and delicacies not a good thing. Recite a proper blessing for it and now you've elevated it and made it spiritual food Totally different experience.

37:56
So now the next three blessings are blessings acknowledging our status as a human, and there's many, many, many, many ways to misunderstand this and for it to be taken out of context. So that's why I have my aides here. I brought several books with me today so that you don't think that I am a chauvinist or I am being a little silly in my interpretation of what these blessings are, and you know that I dislike more than anything in the world. I hate the word interpretation. I don't like the word interpretation, but I want you to understand what these blessings are. So the first of these three, and what I mean by three, it's really three of four. Okay, it's Shalom asani goy. Shalom asani oved. Shalom asani isha.

38:55
Thank you, god, that you did not make me a Gentile, you did not make me a slave and you did not make me a Gentile. You did not make me a slave and you did not make me a woman. And then for a woman. A woman says thank you for making me according to your will. Okay, let's understand what these blessings are. What is the blessing? Thanking Hashem for not making us a Gentile by choosing us and giving us the Torah. You chose us and gave us the Torah. We're grateful that we have the Torah. We're grateful that we are commanded to follow your ordinances, to follow your rules, to follow your dictates. We are thankful, notwithstanding the terrors of our history. For 3,000 years you imagine 3,000 years we have been persecuted. And every single morning, what do we say? Been persecuted? And every single morning, what do we say? Thank you, hashem, for giving us this incredible challenge of being persecuted. What thank you for not making me a Gentile and making me a Jew. And now I have in front of me this. This is, since this is just the common era, the last almost 2,000 years, just the last 2,000 years.

40:29
Expulsion, forced conversion, expulsion, book burnings, property confiscation, synagogue burnings we're talking about. We're not even yet at year 300. Forced conversion, massacre. This is in Isfahan right. Synagogue burning, synagogue burning, synagogue burning. Expulsion, expulsion, forced conversion. We're in year 500 now.

40:51
Expulsion, forced conversion, each one in different cities, different places. Spain forced conversion in year 681. In Toledo, jews enslaved In Byzantine in year 722, judaism outlawed In Italy. Expulsion incense. Expulsion In Orleans. Massacre In Rome Jews burned alive in year 1021, in Spain, a massacre in year 163, in Lorraine in year 1095, another massacre you go through I have.

41:36
How many do we have over here in the last 1800 years? Over 200 massacres, mob attacks, expulsions, holocausts, lynches, pogroms. Expulsions In Kiev in 1768, 3,000 Jews are slaughtered Again. Holocaust is just one of them. Holocaust is just one of them. In the USSR, you had the doctor's plot Jewish doctors accused of poisoning Soviet leaders. Hundreds of Jews were imprisoned or killed. We have the hijack of the Air France plane in 1976, the Entebbe. We have two synagogue bombings in Turkey and Istanbul 23 people killed, 260 wounded in 2003. We have the massacre of 2023. That happened just in the outskirts of Gaza. We're still dealing with that.

42:43
You look at what's going on in universities, burning Israeli flags, and this is what we're saying every single day. Thank you for not making me like them. Thank you for making me the way you made me Someone who is obligated in the Torah and mitzvahs, someone who isn't able to walk into any restaurant and eat food. No, we have the laws of kosher, can't just go wherever we want and do whatever we want. No, we have the constraints of the Torah that give us and guide us constantly. We are thankful, notwithstanding the terrors of our history of 3,000 years.

43:29
The term goi means nations, Nations. They didn't use the term nachri and they didn't use the term akum. Akum is those who are serving idolatry. Nachri is someone who's a stranger. They didn't use the term Akum. Akum is those who are serving idolatry, nohri is someone who's a stranger. They didn't use neither. They used the term which is used for nations who's called nations. A goy is not a derogatory statement. We're called a goy. The Jewish people are called a goy kadosh, a holy nation. Thank you for not making us like the other nations.

44:06
You could have said shalassani Yisrael, and there are those who use that terminology. It's not acceptable according to most customs. But I want to read to you, because the next blessing is shalasani Avot. Thank you for not making me a slave. A slave is limited in their freedom, limited in their observance of the mitzvos, and thank you for not making me a woman. A woman is not obligated to the same commandments that a man is, and we're thankful that we have the opportunity to perform those mitzvahs. So why don't you say it in a positive way? Say Shasani Ish, who made me a man. He didn't make me a woman. Why do we say Shaloh Sanigoi? That didn't make me a Gentile. Just say that made me a Jew. Why do you say that you didn't make me a slave, that you did make me free? Do it in the positive. Why does it need to be like this? So I want to read to you from a couple of sources here, so that you'll understand the way I understood these beautiful words written by our sages in our blessings.

45:30
These three blessings have caused quite a stir and much criticism. It sounds as if we are arrogantly expressing our superiority, that we are not non-Jews, slaves or women. This applies especially to a woman, since it smacks of male chauvinism, especially in our time. However, upon deeper reflection, we get a much clearer picture of what this means. Does Sholeh Asaniigai mean that Hashem did not make me like Mishushalach, the great righteous, from whom the flood was postponed for seven days because of him? Or like Noah, who was called a tzaddik? He wasn't a Jew. Does it mean, when I say shalah sanigah, that I'm not like him, whose merit, in whose merit all present day mankind exists. Or like Shem and Avar, who were the teachers of Yitzchak and Yaakov, our patriarchs. Or like Yisro, in whose honor the entire parasha is added and we have the 10 commandments given in his portion, because it wasn't even a Jew. Or like Job, who's called my servant, job, who was almost as great as Abraham. So is that what Shalah Sani Goi means? Is that what it's referring to? And then we say Shalah Sani Oved. Do you remember?

47:08
Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, Says that he was Moshe Bakol HaSholoh, that he was the ruler over everything. What does that mean? That he ruled his Yetz, everything? What does that mean? That he ruled his Yetzirah? Is that the kind of slave we don't want to be like? How about? He was called Damasek Eliezer. He watered the world with his teachings of his master, abraham, a tremendous Torah scholar.

47:36
Is that, when we're saying not to be a servant, not to thank you, hashem, for not making me a slave, not a slave like that? Or does it mean that Hashem does not want us to be like Tevi, who was the servant to Rebbe Gamaliel, who, he said, was such a righteous scholar that he should get smicha? He should be a rabbinic, you know, ordinate. Would Rabbi Gamaliel call us a Torah scholar, like he called a servant, or maybe are we saying that it was like the handmaiden of the house of Yehudah, nasi, of Yehudah the prince, to whom the sages would come with their questions and ask her questions? Is that, are we being?

48:27
And what's about women? When we say shalah, asani, isha, does that mean that Hashem says don't be like the matriarch, sarah, rebecca, rachel and Leah, or don't be like Devorah the prophetess, or Esther the queen? It is therefore clear that these blessings do not represent the arrogant and eminent superiority of the Jewish male or over a non-Jew, a servant or a woman. Rather, they express thanks to the Almighty for the special opportunities of mitzvahs which a Jewish male was granted more than those assigned to a non-Jew who has the seven noachide laws, a servant who has the mitzvahs like a woman, even if he is like Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, or a woman who is obligated to all the mitzvahs, except for those that are time-bound mitzvahs, even if she's as great as Queen Esther or Devorah the prophetess. Even if these individuals voluntarily perform mitzvahs it's very important to understand this piece now. Even if these individuals voluntarily perform mitzvahs from which they are exempt, their reward is much less than one who is mandated to perform it. So a woman who performs a mitzvah that she's not obligated to, her reward is significantly less than someone who is obligated. And the Talmud goes in. We're going to hopefully do this in our Thinking Talmudist podcast. Is obligated and the Talmud goes in. We're going to hopefully do this in our Thinking Talmudist podcast. God don't mitzuvah ve'oseh, me misha'enu mitzuvah ve'oseh.

50:09
Someone who is commanded to perform gets a greater reward than someone who is not commanded. You know, if you ask your child to unload the groceries, they're going to have a more difficult time fulfilling your wish than the neighbor's kid who's hanging around there and you didn't ask them to do anything. They'll do it, no problem. They won't help their mother, but they'll help you. It's much easier when you're not commanded. When you're commanded, there's that you have suddenly that desire not to perform it. You have suddenly that desire not to perform it. This goes contrary to our simplistic notion that one should be entitled to a greater reward for volunteering to do a mitzvah than if he were commanded to do so. Our ego, our nature, prefers that we do things out of the goodness of our heart rather than because we are required to do so. However, as far as mitzvahs go, the opposite is true.

51:10
The bracha made by women that Hashem made me according to His will reflects the fact that the women are exempt from certain mitzvahs. The different natures of men and women require a difference in the mitzvahs needed to elevate them and bring them closer to the Almighty. As an example, if a man were to fail to put on tefillin if a man does not put on tefillin he'd be considered karkafta, delo manach tefillin and he'd be called a poshe Yisrael begufo. It's considered a sinner among the Jewish people someone who doesn't put on tefillin Very devastating statement. In the Talmud right, a head, a skull that doesn't put on tefillin is a very, very devastating statement. However, a woman is not only exempt from the mitzvah because it's a mitzvah that is time-bound it's only during the day, so it's not obligated, but would be frowned upon for putting on tefillin. A woman can have the same fear of heaven as a man without putting on tefillin. A man if you want to get closeness to Hashem, a man must put on tefillin. A man if you want to get closeness to Hashem, a man must put on tefillin. A woman is perfectly close to Hashem without it. She doesn't need that tool to connect to the Almighty.

52:41
The purpose of the fulfillment of all mitzvahs is to form a bond with the Almighty. The performance of mitzvahs with love creates this bond. This is meant. This is meant by what the verse says. We say this every day in our Shema. If you obey my mitzvahs, which I am commanding you today, to love Hashem, your God, how do you do that? Through the worship of our mitzvahs and to worship Him with all your hearts and your being.

53:23
The mitzvahs are a means to bringing a person close to God. If a man, having been commanded by God to put on talis and tefillin, does not do so, or if he fails to perform any other mitzvah which he is obligated to do, he lacks in his connection with his Creator, which these mitzvahs would bring about. Men, by their nature, require more mitzvahs to bring them close to God. Women, however, were created with an innate nature which is more in accordance with the will of the Almighty than men. They do not require the same corrections as men to do and to bring them close to God. Sha'asani kertzono, when it says in the prayer here that a woman says that God created me in accordance with his will, this means that women do not require all the mitzvahs which a man needs to in order to achieve la'ava es, hashem, alakecho, la'avdo, to love Hashem and worship him.

54:37
A woman is much more spiritually sensitive and much more spiritually connected than a man will ever be without mitzvahs. A man needs to have the rigor of Torah study. A man needs to have the commitment to mitzvahs all day, all night. He's obligated again go to shul, go to shul, go to shul, put on tefillin, put weird tzitzis, weird that yarmulke. A man needs a constant reminder and even then the difficulty of feeling spiritually connected. A woman doesn't need that man. God needed the counsel of the angels and let us create man. God didn't need that counsel to create woman. The last thing the Almighty created on the sixth day of creation was woman.

55:44
The youngest child always says I'm the perfect child. Why Parents made the mistakes? They were a little extremist this way, a little extremist that way. You know back and forth the last child oh, this is what we intended. You look at God's creation. The perfection of God's creation was the woman.

56:11
In order for a man to recognize you have a different role, he says you did not make me a woman, you made me a man. You made me with obligations to Torah, observance to following the mitzvahs, the way in which a woman does not have an obligation. I am not a woman. Sometimes it's very difficult for people to be able to, particularly in our generation, to express that. It's very difficult. You have a, you know Someone who becomes a supreme court and is asked what's the definition of a woman, and they say I don't know. That's a very telling Statement for our generation. A man needs to be able to declare I'm not a woman. I am obligated to different obligations Than a woman. We're different. It's a different voltage.

57:09
It's not equality. There's no equality in Judaism between men and women. It's just like there's no equality between an apple and an orange. An apple will never be an orange and an orange will never be an apple, and the virtues of each of them their health benefits are going to be uniquely different. An orange will never be an apple and the virtues of each of them their health benefits are going to be uniquely different. An orange brings certain things to the table and an apple brings certain things to the table. A man and a woman are different. They will never be equal. They're different. You can't make things that are different, equal. They're unique in their own way. Both men and women are different.

57:49
So this is not exactly the typical prayer podcast content, but I think it's very important for us to define the differences, define who you are. This is what we start our day with. We say Hashem, you gave me intellect, you gave me a mind to discern differences. I'm starting to discern differences. I'm a Jew. I'm obligated to commandments. Thank you for not making me a non-Jew who's not obligated to so many mitzvahs. Thank you for not making me a non-Jew who's not obligated to so many mitzvahs. Thank you for not making me a slave. Thank you for not making me a woman. And for a woman, a woman says thank you for making me in your perfect way, because a woman was again the last of Hashem's creations on Friday.

58:44
Hashem, this is exactly what he had in mind. They're uniquely different. Notwithstanding, a man will never be a woman, a woman will never be a man. And I don't intend on this being a political statement. I intend it to be a biblical statement. God created Zohar and Nekeva, male and female, each with their own special uniqueness, and one is not derogatory of the other.

59:13
So, my dear friends, this concludes today's edition of the prayer podcast and, god willing, next week we will continue with thanking Hashem for our eyesight, for our clothes, for our ability to be free, to sit upright, to stand, to walk on this earth and to provide my every need and to prepare my footsteps and to give me the strength. I want to just share with you one thought before we leave. The last of these blessings, before we say the final one, is Hanosin L'Yo'ef Kayach that Hashem gives strength to the weary. This was not one of the 15 blessings it was added. Why was it added?

59:58
It was added because of what we mentioned before that we have so many times throughout our history that we were beaten by the nations. We were put down, we were humiliated, we were burnt, we were murdered, we were raped, we were expelled the Jewish people, every single morning. You know what they said. You give strength to the weary. We're so wiped out, we're so beaten. How much can we take? How much? At what point can a Jew say enough, enough, I'm done, I have no more strength to put up with this exile. Hashem gives us strength again.

01:00:55
I can tell you people who came to the United States with nothing they had families, they were married, they had children. Their wives, their children were murdered and they came to the United States. They had businesses. They came with nothing and not a shekel, and rebuilt their families and rebuilt their lives and rebuilt Torah, and rebuilt their wealth, starting from nothing. You know why? Because we have this blessing that we recite every day shem gives strength to the weary. They keep on beating us, they keep on putting us down, and you know what? Shem gives us strength to start all over again. Hashem should give each and every one of us the strength that we need to accomplish, to become great and to feel the closeness to Hashem every single day. Amen. Thank you so much, my dear friends. Thank you for coming, thank you for listening, thank you for joining, and I appreciate you being here. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Have a magnificent week everybody.

01:02:02 - Intro (Announcement)
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