Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:00 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
We are back in the Torch Center. We're back for another festival roundtable. I'm with the great luminaries and geniuses, the wonderful colleagues of mine here at Torch. We have, of course, rabbi Ari Wolbe, the executive director of Torch, fresh off launching a new podcast, trying to catch up, I guess, to me in number of podcasts. Good luck with that. And then we also have the board president here, dan Coleman, of course, of Shema Podcast fame. The wonderful leadership that we have over here is we're really fortunate to have him on our team the average rabbi not so average, above average, certainly in respect to intelligence and, uh, humor and looks and looks yeah, of course, and uh, humility and

00:52 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
humility as well.

00:54 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Um, of course, Rabbi Bosco. Uh, he is the uh, the chief maestro of Torchwood as well. Uh, torchwood is the next gen Jewish community that Rabbi Bosco and his uh wife title are building here in Houston. But he's also the podcaster behind the what is Judaism podcast, which is highly, highly recommended. Give it a listen. And then you have me, yaakov Wolbe. It's great to be here. We're in the Torch Center. Rabbi Nagel was not able to make it here, unfortunately, he had a last-minute thing to get to. But we're here and we're talking about Purim. Purim's in a week from today or so like a week, depending on when we release this, but it'll be around the week.

01:35 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
It's next week, right, we'll have to release it tomorrow.

01:36 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Now to make sure it's a week, okay. So it's a wonderful festival, of course that we all know. We get dressed up and we celebrate, and Rabbi Buster was going to get so stone drunk. Of course I'm Jewish. Yes, to follow the rules, but we're going to read the Megillah, the story of Esther. We're going to give gifts to the poor, monetary gifts to the poor, food gifts to our friends. Rabbi Wolbe is going to make his immortal line I'll see you on the other side, which he says every Purim before he launches into a Guilty as charged.

02:11
Swilling from the alcohol, and so we're looking forward to it. It's every child's favorite festival, the wives maybe less favorite, but of course we know the festivals are all replete with meaning and with deep insight. Of course this is the historical event that happened many centuries ago that we relive and revisit. It's a wonderful festival with all sorts of angels and dimensions to it and, like we've done in the past, we get together here and everyone shares an idea. Of course, we don't share notes, so it's possible that we all prepare the same did say, even though I doubt it, but there's so many angels and so many different elements of this festival, and we're going to celebrate it here at the Torch Center on this Purim Roundtable. So let's begin.

03:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
Let's turn the attention to Rabbi Wolbe. He's going to share with us some wonderful wisdom on the festival of Purim. So I'm not a big drinker, but I love Purim, and it's not because of the drinking. Our sages tell us that Purim is the holiday of the hidden, of the concealed. You know the name Purim comes from Shehipilpur.

03:29
There was a lottery that was taken, and I think that that's part of the hint of what's really going on here is that people think that everything just is happenstance. Oh, haman just threw a lottery and it fell out on that day and it fell out. You know that the Jewish people are going to be decimated on that day, they're going to be annihilated, but that's not the true story. The true story is is that there's something behind the mask. There's something that's going on beyond the surface that our eyes don't necessarily see unless we look deeply. And that's the beauty of the holiday seeing children getting dressed up. Most don't even know why they're getting dressed up, but that's fine.

04:13
Just as one of my pet peeves Halloween, is not the Gentile Purim. Okay, that's a pagan holiday and Jews should be celebrating Purim. They should not be celebrating Halloween. But Purim is such a special time to connect with the Almighty on such a deep level, on such a high level, to unleash all of the hidden aspects of our connection with God, to unleash all of the yearning and connection I've seen myself personally and for many of my students over the years, the greatest growth of the entire year was on the day of Purim. They're able to rocket ship their spiritual connection with God on Purim like they don't do the rest of the year and to me it's a very special holiday.

05:01
I find it that people who have roadblocks you know it's difficult for me to keep Shabbos put on fill in every day. You know, keeping kosher, these are things that are beyond my reach, rabbi, it's not for me, but Purim, for some reason, I've seen so many of my students get the energy and the strength and the courage to make steps, to make moves that they typically wouldn't feel comfortable doing. And Purim is just the most special, unique holiday. It's one of the rabbinic holidays but still it has a power in it that's just beyond comprehension.

05:41 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
I'm surprised to hear you say that that you've seen students make such great strides. Not because it's not possible in Purim that's what the energy is all about but it's because Purim is such a downplayed holiday. I mean, it fits in what you were saying, that it's the essence of it is hidden. It's almost like the holiday itself is hidden. I didn't grow up religious. We did Passover, we did Hanukkah, we did Rosh Hashanah, yom Kippur, purim I never even heard of until I was an adult, and so, and here in the community, when I've tried to make Purim events and try to get people, people don't consider it as something important that they should take time off of, to take off work and celebrate it, and so it's. It's really this hidden treasure and I'm I guess I'm I'm not surprised that people have been successful in growing so much. The Purim festival festive meal by my parents, as was I, many of my friends, but this secular guy, never met him before, no idea who he was.

06:58 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
He was there. We had a nice time together. Have no recollection of that Purim. It was done in the books Great, great party.

07:07
A couple weeks later was my brother's wedding and I meet this guy. He comes over to me. He says hey, what's going on? How are you? Like we're best friends. I had no idea who he was. He says what are you? I'm like do I know you? Did we meet before? He says are you kidding me? He says you promised me that when you come to learn in Lakewood, yeshiva, if I put on tefillin every day, you'll be my study partner and learn with me every day. I had no such recollection and he told me. He says I've been putting on tefillin every single day and I'm counting that when you move down to Lakewood you're gonna start learning with me. So I called up my rabbi. I'm like I don't understand. There's more power on the day of Purim than the rest of the year. We should have Purim every day. So it was really a transformative experience that I felt for myself and for many of my friends and students.

08:05 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
What an interesting theme, that Purim formative experience that I felt for myself and for many of my friends and students. What an interesting theme that Purim it's. The day is hidden, but even the existence of the day is hidden. But what about the mechanism? It's a day with very obvious revelry. Right, we're celebrating Some people like to drink it's a miss to drink or this feast and reading the Medilla story, the story of Esther. But what exactly is in Purim that gives it its transformative power? What is the power of the day that contributes towards this ability to have this great transformation?

08:42 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
So you know what, someone this week from our community reached out to me with a question a seemingly random question that came from the Gemara, from the Talmud in the Tractate of Megillah, which discusses everything about the story of Esther, and one of the things that's mentioned over there is that when there was a plot against King Ahasuerus' life, there was an attempted assassination, and Mordecai, the hero of the story, became aware of this plot and thwarted it. But it seemed like it wasn't direct. He didn't directly tell the king because he didn't have that kind of access, but he went through Esther, who was the queen at the time. So the Megillah records that Esther told Achashverosh, the king, about this plot and she said it in the name of Mordecai, and the Megillah is very specific about that, that she quoted Mordecai when she said that and the Talmud derives from there that whoever says something in the name of the one who said it first brings redemption to the world, brings geula to the world. So what's the deeper meaning behind that? So he asked me this question and I didn't know offhand. So I did a little bit of research and I found the ma'aral explains something that's really cool.

09:56
The redemption that occurs on Purim is a very different kind of redemption than anything else the Jews have ever experienced. In fact, this the morale doesn't say, but just to bring out that point, there there's a collection of Psalms that we sing on holidays, called Hallel, and there almost every holiday we sing these songs during our prayer services, and on Purim we don't. And the Talmud explains in a different Talmud in the tractate of Erichon explains that we don't say it on how we don't say halal on Purim, because we started off as servants subjugated to the Persian kingdom, to Achishverish, and we ended up in the same spot, like nothing really changed, and so therefore the miracle was great, but it was. It's not something that's overt and blatant and therefore it does not warrant halal. But that's really the point is, because this redemption, you can't even see it. Nothing really changed all that much. I mean there was a bit of a political shift in the feelings toward the Jews, mordecai got a little bit more power, but ultimately we were still subjugated, we didn't gain our freedom from the Persian kingdom or anything like that.

11:08
So the morale says that it's a hidden redemption and therefore Esther, from the fact that she was able, she could have taken credit for thwarting the plot herself and she could have gained a lot of favor with the king. This is a big opportunity for her right. She's trying to ingratiate herself and she could have taken the credit for herself, not for any selfish reasons, but to try to gain favor with the king and then put herself in a better political position. But she didn't. She said it in the name of Mordecai and what happens is that when Hashem sees that something can you can attribute wisdom or good things to another person you don't take the credit for it yourself.

11:49
You're the kind of person that can attribute hidden redemptions to God and that brings about a new level of revelation of God in the world that is not normally accessible. That is not normally accessible is someone that's able to transfer these political happenings and trace it back to the source. That this is really Hashem. So I think that the power of Purim, and why it's so transformative, is that there is no overt, blatant miracle that has to break nature, which is difficult. It's a power, it's an ability where you can transform yourself in a very hidden way and attribute it back to God and become deeply, deeply connected to God in a way that doesn't shake the boat.

12:39 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
But does that mean that the only way for us to really tap into the power of Purim is through this exercise of trying to kind of reverse engineer everything that's happening back to God and to see his hidden hand in everything in our life? If you do that, then you suddenly gain access to the great powers of Purim.

12:58 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
Extensibly.

13:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
You know it's interesting that Esther's real name was not Esther. Esther's real name was Hadassah. But why is she called Esther? And that's also because of the same root. Esther is Nister. It's hidden. The whole idea, the whole story here, is that there's a hidden element. I love the story of Esther, I love the book of Esther, one of the 24 books of Tanakh. One of the 24 books of Tanakh, and every year it's like amazing, again anew, how the story gets unfolded in such an incredible way. We know what's going to happen, we know the Jewish people are going to be saved, but when you see how one thing triggers the next thing triggers the next thing, that's the story of each and every one of our lives. Our lives have the same exact thing, but we need to recognize that it's all unfolding in the way that Hashem wants it to unfold. You'd think you know, shouldn't Haman get the hint? Should he understand? Don't the Jewish people? Why don't they wake up? Why do they need a threat, a knife on their throat, so to speak, for them to wake up?

14:10 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
this is the story of our lives so when we read the book of esther and we see behind the curtain, so to speak, and we see the almighty orchestrating everything that's happening in a way that, on the surface, none of these events are surprising or are nature defined. When put together, when organized like this, we see the Almighty orchestrating everything that's happening in a way that, on the surface, none of these events are surprising or are nature-defined. When put together, when organized like this, we see the Almighty's hidden hand. As it's been well-documented, we know that the book of Esther does not contain the name of God even once. Right, right, it doesn't contain it in an overt fashion, but in many places you know, in four successive words, the first letter, if you put them together, the name of God. Four successive words, the last letter of all those words have the name of God. So it's like God is behind the scenes and our objective over Purim is to see in the story of Esther the Almighty manipulating, coordinating, orchestrating things by the scenes. But then take that to ourselves and to see how, like our lives. You know, we too have been guided.

15:05
The money has been making me. It's a day cover. He's been preparing the footsteps of our lives and every year of our lives bring us to the point that we are today. He's been preparing the way, clearing away those obstacles and through that, if I'm understanding y'all correctly yeah, I came in here ignorant, but if I'm sending, you're connecting correctly what you're saying is that through that experience, you're actually able to to broaden'm saying it correctly? What you're saying is that through that experience, you're actually able to broaden, so to speak, your path forward and to move away those obstacles. Once you realize that the Almighty is kind of guiding you, all those obstacles really are, you know, it's all smoke and mirrors. You realize that and it clears the path for you.

15:41 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
Right. And then why did Hashem even orchestrate the events in the first place? To put them in that place of distress? Because Hashem's just really wanting us to always be using things as a mechanism to do teshuvah and come closer to him. And I think, when you know, being in my 50s, now I have enough runway to look back on. I can see like every moment where there was anguish. You know my past. Now look back at it and I would never trade those moments, because those are the moments that set the chain of events in place that led to the greatest blessings in my life, and that's what Hashim wants us to, I think, to internalize.

16:17 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
When you realize that those obstacles were just there to help propel you forward. You see that all the other obstacles in your life are also there to help propel you forward. You see that all the other obstacles in your life are also there to help propel you forward. What a nice idea. What a nice idea. You see, this is why we do the round table. This is not like, this is not scripted. We just walk in here and this is a very nice idea. When you realize that all the obstacles of your past were just the Almighty nudging you and directing you and guiding you and balancing things so that way you can move forward, then you realize that all the current obstacles are just like that as well.

16:51 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
Wow, so logically when you hit those points in your life that are challenging. As Rabbi Ari's always said, if your EKG is not going up and down, that's not a good thing. Our lives are always going up and down. Really, I think what Hashem wants us to internalize is get excited. Do yeshuvah, get excited, because I'm orchestrating this in your benefit.

17:14 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
In the end, I know you have the Megillah. There's four main mitzvahs to pour them. Probably the one that people know the most is the mitzvah to read the Megillah to hear the Megillah from someone else that's reading it. We do it twice. We do it at night and we do it the next time during the day. But there's a common theme with Purim that all of the mitzvahs occurred during the daytime and it seems like the Megillah is kind of the odd one out that we're also doing it at night. I haven't I don't think I've seen this once. It seems like that we have to read the Megillah at night only so that we can read the Megillah again during the next day with a totally different experience. Have you ever seen a movie with a twist ending? One of my favorite movies all the time growing up was it's called the Usual Suspects Right. Have you seen that one? Of course, yeah, of course. So it's a fantastic movie and it has this great twist ending. Average rabbi approved movie.

18:08 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
No, I didn't say that.

18:10 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
But I enjoyed it. Then, two thumbs up. Yeah, I'm not telling people they should go out and watch it, but there is a concept of having a twist ending for a movie. The following is not an endorsement.

18:22 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
Right.

18:35 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
But the experience of watching a movie with a twist ending is you watch the movie the following is not an endorsement different time after you already know the twist ending, and then you look at all the things that you missed once you already know what the twist ending is, and you see the movie again and you see all the hints that it was setting up for. This is my theory. We only have to read the mcgill at night so that we can watch the movie with the twist ending before, just so that we know what the twist ending will be, so that when we really do the mitzvah during the day, we we can experience the whole thing like oh, I see what's happening. I see it Because that's the whole point.

19:07 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Right, we have to be able to see in our current lives, pick up all the hints along the way, the things that seem to be just random. Once you see the bigger picture, then you see how all those are contributing towards the ultimate redemption. Redemption I remember hearing that sometimes you have to be drunk to do this exercise, because our minds, those inhibitions, those blockades, those stumbling blocks, all those obstacles, they seem so immovable, it seems so permanent, they seem so fixed. You have to just be a little, you have to kind of remove your uh thinking cap, so to speak stop trying to process everything exactly, exactly.

19:49 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
You realize that you're just uh, you know you're in the hands of the almighty I think the way we should greet each other on purim is like what's your megillah, oh man we all have a megillah, but do I have to tell you?

20:04 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
oh, he's drunk enough he won't remember, right? Wow, what an interesting way to get started, wow, okay. So, rabbi Bosto, what did you prepare?

20:17 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
So this is one that's accessible to the women. A lot of the day really focuses on the meal and that getting drunk is a big thing, and the women aren't really part of that. So this is something that every Jew can connect to. Women are equally obligated in all of the main mitzvahs of Purim, and so here's the following idea. Let's back up a second, give a little bit of context. There is a semi-well-known saying from the Ari HaKadosh, the great Kabbalist, the Ari, who said that Yom Kippurim, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, if you can read it, Yom Kippurim, it's a day like. Ki means like Purim, Meaning there's some connection between Yom Kippur and Purim, and also the connotation of this is that Yom Kippur is just it's like Purim. The Purim is even higher. One idea of that, just offhand, is that on Yom Kippur there's a simcha that's lacking. There's no simcha on Yom Kippur because we don't eat.

21:26 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Define simcha for me.

21:28 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
Simcha is the physical engagement in things that gladden the heart. Joy, I think. Joy, yeah Right, joy. But specifically what facilitates that joy is things that go through the body, like eating a great meal and drinking wine and having that physical pleasure. That's something that Yom Kippur misses and Purim takes over, so it complements Yom Kippur, like that. But here's this great idea that I heard from the Rav of Mishul back in Jerusalem, Hatzkel Weinfeld.

22:00
In this week's parashah, the parashah of Tetzaveh, the Torah discusses the garments of the Kohanim and specifically the Kohen Gadol, and one of the things that he wore it's called the mi'il was this great coat, and at the bottom of the coat were bells and also these ornaments. It's a dispute Rashi says they were ornaments next to the bells and they alternated, and Ramban says that really were ornaments next to the bells and they alternated, and Ramban says that really the bells were inside the ornaments. But either way, the Kohen Gadol wore this coat with bells on it. Now the next verse that the Torah says is that the reason why he wore it is in order that its voice, its noise, should be heard as he enters and exits before the king, so that he should not die. And the Ramban draws the parallel to Esther, the story of Esther when she refused to go into the king without permission. The Ramban says this is what this is about the bells have to make noise. It's as if the Kohen Gadol is announcing his arrival and his exit, as if to ask permission to enter into the innermost chambers of God, of the king. Now, the thing is, he wore this in general when he would go into the Hekha, which is the main sanctuary in the temple in the Besa Mektosh, but he didn't even go into the Holy of Holies. He only did that once a year, on Yom Kippur. And what's fascinating with that is that he did not wear that coat on Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur he wore only the white garments and he didn't have this coat that made the bells and he didn't have this coat that made the bells.

23:40
So it comes out that on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, seemingly the Kohen Gadol, the holiest person of the Jewish people, was able to walk the Fnav Lefnim in the innermost chambers of God, even without asking permission. Now, what happened on Purim is that Esther established something great that, even though that's an opportunity that's only relegated to the Kohen Gadol, the highest, the holiest of all Jews and only on the holiest day of the year, on Purim, Esther established not only for the Kohen Gadol but for all Jews to be able to walk into the throne room. Right? She was concerned about this. She said just walk in without permission and you get killed. Mordecai urged her to do it. She said this is your moment and she walked into the throne room and made a request of the king without permission and it was granted and that established for the generations that this is an access and a power that every Jew has.

24:39
The power of prayer on Purim is so great and unimaginable that it's even greater seemingly even greater than the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, because every single Jew can walk into the innermost chamber of the king and ask for whatever you want, and it will be granted without permission. Just walk straight in. Do not neglect your prayer on Yom Kippur. It's very easy on Purim, sorry. It's very easy to get swept up in the festivities of the day and to rush through the prayers. That's part of the hiddenness, right, the hidden power. It's always where it's going to get lost and looked over On Purim, please pay very special attention to your prayer on Purim and take advantage of this awesome opportunity to walk right into the throne room without permission. Ask for whatever you want.

25:24 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Wow, what a powerful insight that the power of our prayer on Yom Kippur rivals and even surpasses the power of the high priest. The high priest does it, but it's only one person here. Every single Jew, thanks to the establishment of Esther, can walk into the Holy of Holies, so to speak, unannounced, without permission, so to speak, and our prayer gets a receptive ear by the Almighty. Wow. So how do we?

25:55 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
deploy that. What do we do with that? This is what we train all year, for Every time we step into the Shemona Esrei and we make all these requests, we're implicitly training ourselves what we should want, what we should be asking for. What should you ask for? You should ask for whatever you want. Now, whatever you want is going to depend on who you are. Now, that's the goal of the training throughout the year is to constantly elevate what it is that we want, because, ultimately, what you want defines who you are. So, what should you ask for? You ask for what you want. What should you want? That's something else that you have to train for and elevate ourselves throughout the year.

26:32 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Wow, what a fantastic angle, because you don't typically think of Purim as a time of prayer, the prayer we do, the same daily prayers that we do every day, the prayers don't seem to really capture a large part of the focus of the day. But if this is a day that we can march in, so to speak, to the holy of holies, to the inner syncthoms of the temple, so to speak, and even though we're not allowed, we're not invited in, so to speak, we don't have permission, so to speak if we could go in there and we could ask for whatever we want, it's a very powerful day and it's a very powerful opportunity that we should not neglect Wow what an interesting aspect of the day.

27:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
The Hasidic masters talk a lot about the power of prayer on Purim and implore upon us to maximize the day for prayer where that's the essence of the day. The essence of the day of purim is to maximize our prayer, and all heavens are open. It's a time of unbelievable connection. Hashem should bless us all that our prayers should be, uh, spill overflowing from our hearts and, god willing, accepted by the almighty with love.

27:41 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Amen, wow, what a beautiful, beautiful angle.

27:43 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
The conflict, though, is that you have this day where our prayers are, the opportunity for them to be heard and acted on by the Almighty is higher. At the same time, it's also a mitzvah to get intoxicated, and it's forbidden to pray when you're intoxicated.

28:00 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Davon mitzvah beforehand.

28:01 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
Right, that is the halacha. Ideally, you should daven mincha earlier in the day and then start the meal after but I was talking about that and the intoxication.

28:08 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
So you see, intoxication to many people can be the wild, undignified manner of a jew. But my grandfather would always say that Rabbi Sroll Salanta, the great, famed founder of the Musa movement, when he was drunk on Purim, the only words that came out of his mouth were holiness. He would be lying on the floor drunk, repeating line after line from the Talmud, line after line from the Mishnah. He was what we call stone drunk and the only thing that came out of his mouth was words of Torah. And I think that you know.

28:50
The Talmud tells us that when wine comes in, secrets, go out. You want to know the real person. You want to know the real measure of a person. See them when they're drunk. You'll see what their dedication is. You'll see what their commitment is. You'll see what's important to them. You'll see their holiness and spirituality. If they have that Versus a drunkenness of just letting go and going free and doing nonsense and doing silly things. That's not a dignified side of a Jewish person. What we're doing is we're taking what's inside and bringing it out, and the contributor to that is that wine that we drink.

29:31 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
And through my last two years of experiencing porn in the community. There's just happy drunks Like you never see, no fights, there's no fights. Or someone who says like I don't know, there's some like build-up of joy in combination with the drinking. That just creates, uh, a lot of love. Like the first year I was there, I was just everyone's come out and hugging me.

29:54 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
I didn't know who anyone was but I will just put as a side note, my grandfather wasn't all that enthralled with drunk people. Purim was a very serious day for my grandfather and I actually have a picture of me drunk, giving my grandfather a kiss and you can see he's not exactly excited about it. But to remember it's like there has to be an element of seriousness to it. Where it really is, like the Kohen on Yom Kippur, it's a serious, heavy day of joy.

30:29 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
So no, frivolity, no frivolity. There could be elevation via the drinking, but if it descends into chaos, into uncontrolled stupor, people acting inappropriately, that's not the intention.

30:46 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
Well, as long as it's L'shem Shemaim, right? Why are we getting drunk? We're doing it in order to serve Hashem. If it gets to a point where we're just having fun and partying, so then it's not a service of Hashem anymore. But it can, when we talk about like it has to be, you know, take it very seriously and no frivolity, it's true, but it sounds like no fun, right?

31:10
There should be a tremendous joy, Lots of you know a lot of excitement, a lot of joy, but it's to serve God, and the moment that you see that it's starting to sway from there, then that's where you stop.

31:27 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Fantastic. Dan you're up.

31:31 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
All right. So a couple of things I was contemplating just for myself. One is that you go sort of back to the beginning, before Haman enters the picture and you have, you know, this chain of souls that started with Avraham and he has Yitzchak and Ishmael, and Yitzchak becomes sort of the choice Branson. Ishmael gets sort of pushed out but he ends up doing teshuva in there. So there's a essence of holiness to him that he does teshuva. And then yitzchak has yokov and esau, and esau even he understands torah, he has reverence for the almighty. He just doesn't want to incorporate it into his body, into his emotions, into the way he lives his life, which is why only his head is buried in the tomb of the patriarchs.

32:24
But you see, sort of this, what hashim is doing with sort of separating out these, these different souls. And on esau's side you have this, his grandson, amalek, which the torah tells us is just pure evil, like there's no redemption qualities at all with Amalek. And we were given this mitzvah to hate Amalek, which is so bizarre. You don't hear that much Cause. So you know, tour is really about loving your neighbors yourself, only seeing the positive qualities. It's so much about love. But with this one little branch of souls is one group. Hashem says it's a mitzvah to hate Amalek.

33:03 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
Can I make a quick comment on that? Sure, when we hear the word hate in English, it has a very specific connotation that I don't think is necessarily intended by the Torah. Okay, hatred sounds like it's very violent and aggressive and just like filled with venom, and that's the core meaning of sinah, the Hebrew word for hatred. What it really means is discordance. You are not compatible with me. I recognize that we don't fit together. I'm not interested in making a relationship with you so to to so nay. To hate something in the ancient Hebrew language doesn't necessarily mean that there's a lot of hostility towards it necessarily, okay but it does mean that there's to create dissonance, to block a real life.

33:54 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
I'm not a part of that. Right. So you're concerned about a bunch of Jews running out in the streets tonight, like we heard Dan Coleman, where's Amalek?

34:02 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
It wasn't going there. We don't have to have venom in our hearts.

34:05 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
It doesn't say to hate them. It says to eliminate them, right To erase them.

34:09 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
I thought I was reading to hate and eliminate, eradicate them.

34:13 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Yes, mochai timche. Timche means to erase, no.

34:19 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
So yeah, I was reading that like this it's actually a mitzvah but, however, to the.

34:29
You know we were supposed to eradicate them. They attacked us in the wilderness. They emerged as hayman. They emerged again as the nazis in germany, and you know it was where I was thinking about this. But really, when it comes down to us, the way we should be looking at it because who knows who is a descendant of Amalek is looking at it within ourselves and focusing on how we can eliminate remnants of this idea of this rebellion against God from within us. I was thinking about this, moti Shabbos.

35:03
I was scrolling through the news headlines and you guys may cut this out, but I was just scrolling through the news headlines and I saw I didn't read the article, but it said that a group of people were starting National Hate Day on the 3rd of Adar. I was like this is great, this is what the Jewish people need. They need to remember. Remember right before we go into Purim to hate Amalek and distance ourself and get rid of it in ourselves. So I am a big fan of the National Hate Day, national Hate Amalek Day. I think we should use that as a time to focus on removing that within ourselves and distancing ourselves from the part of us that rebels against Hashem. So Hashem will step in and remove it from the world once and for all.

35:45 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
A torch does not condone any violence of any type, where we don't encourage anyone who's listening to this to take up arms or to behave in any way that is in opposition to the local laws and jurisdictions. Thank you, okay.

36:04 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
All battles are internal for us. Oh, of course, right, they're all internal for us. The other thing that was interesting that I was contemplating is the idea of costumes. You know, like in the secular world and I did come across Palorma when I was a reform synagogue but was like, oh it's just, it's a costume party. You know, it's fun. Like my 40th birthday we had an 80s theme birthday party and it was hilarious because I had, like all my friends actually had like Van Halen concert shirts that they bought in high school, van Halen concert shirts that they bought in high school. But now they're wearing them with their 40 dad bods, you know. And some someone had some OP shorts that actually I was like where'd you get those? Like I just had them in my I don't know what those are.

36:51
They're like. They were like too short for shorts for guys that were Cotteroy. Anyway, it was a costume party, it was just fun to dress up, but that's you have to remember that Hashem's like we're doing something here for a purpose. There's deep meaning to it. We're not just doing nonsensical things.

37:09
And this idea of and the other thing that was not understood that I've been reading about the last couple of years is that the idea is to not dress up as a Jew. It's not to dress up as Esther or Mordecai. The dress up as a Jew it's not to dress up as Esther or Mordecai. The idea is to dress up as a non-Jew.

37:31
And the idea here that we can internalize when we do this is that there's times I'm not going to speak on behalf of you, holy rabbis, but there's times during the year you're engaging with the non-Jew and engaging the outside world that you find, especially when you came from, when I just acted like a goy all the time throughout most of my life up until recently but you find yourself doing things like the non-Jew, you know, and you find yourself maybe going after some of the things the non-Jew focusing on, like I control how much money I make. I control these things with business, all these things right. And I think by dressing up once a year, we can begin to remember that when we find ourselves acting like a non-Jew, it's just a costume. It's just a costume. Take it off and remember who we really are, which our life is about serving Hashem, learning a store, fulfilling a mitzvot that's what we're about. And just catch ourselves in those moments when we're acting like a goy and say oh yeah, that's just a costume.

38:34 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
And on a more granular level, we know that the body and the soul are akin to a person and their garment, because who you really are as a soul, the lasting part of you, is a soul. You recall, dan had a genius insight that I quoted you in the podcast. Dan said that apparently science agrees that every seven years you filter out all your cells. Right, your cells are constantly making replicas of themselves and the old ones are getting flushed out, they're getting recycled. So really your body is not the same body that it was yesterday, because there's hundreds of millions or billions of cells that are new, that didn't exist yesterday, and they're new and they're constantly. You know, new ones are being created and old ones are being discarded, but every seven years it's a whole different body. So Dan theorized that's why perhaps every seven years we have Shemitah and all the debts that were owed are annulled, because if seven years have elapsed, there's no part of your body, it's even the same part that it was then. So this body was owed to someone else. Some other body was owed this money and not you, and therefore that was Dan's insight and therefore you don't owe me any money because this was a transaction on a body level, but it's a wonderful thing to ruin it upon that really who we are as a soul and we're just masquerading really as bodies here and of course sometimes the costume is so convincing, it seems so real that we kind of really buy into that. So it's not necessarily Jew versus non-Jew, it's just who we are per se as a person. What are we? We think we're the body, but of course we know our higher intellect knows that the body is going to eventually stop working and do we cease to exist? No, that's actually when we remove the costume. That's when we remove the facade and who we really are gets to shine forth.

40:36
Our soul is kind of suffocating. You wear a costume, like a mask. It's like, ah, I can't breathe, right. It's kind of exactly what the soul is undergoing, right. It's like what's going on? Why did you put me in this place? I'm suffering every instant that I'm here. And if the soul is not suffering we have a problem, because the soul should be incompatible with the physical world, and only if the soul is corrupted and it became kind of so immersed in physicality and sin that now it's comfortable here, and if this world is hospitable for the soul, we have a problem. So really the soul should be under duress during its time here. But what an interesting idea that our life here, it's just there's a lot of fakeness. Our life here, it's just there's a lot of fakeness, there's a lot of masquerading. That we have to realize is it's not really who we are and we have to shed said costume. Can I share an idea that I thought of? Please so in my Torah.

41:34 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
I think we might be out of time.

41:35 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
That's fine.

41:37
Thank you, that's fine. Well, it's really nice to have all of y'all. I'll say it quickly How's that Okay? In my Torah 101 podcast channel I'm going through a series on Messiah now and one of the big questions that we're working through is the question of Messiah.

41:53
The descriptions are so dramatic A changed world, everyone's pursuing knowledge of God, wisdom is covering the land like the water covers the seabed, and everyone's into Torah, and people are just not interested in all the other nonsense that the world is currently obsessing over. Very dramatic, comprehensive changes that are described in the Messianic era, and the question we were trying to figure out is okay, well, what are the mechanisms, what are the triggers, what are the things that beget Messiah? That's a question that we're pondering and together with that insight is the understanding of the framework of Messiah. That Messiah is part of a pattern throughout history where we have exile followed by redemption. So we have the Jewish people descend to Egypt and then there's the Exodus and we're freed, but then we're free and we're allowed to kind of flourish until the Babylonians come and they destroy the temples, and then Jewish people the exile, et cetera, and then we are redeemed from that and then the Persians and the Medes come, and then we suffer under their thumb for a while and then Purim happens and Messiah is the final capstone of redemption, where the final redemption happens and the world can transition to the next phase of existence. Accordingly, the sages tell us that these exiles and redemptions, they follow a certain pattern. As exiles and redemptions, they follow a certain pattern. They follow a certain pattern and thus you could see in earlier stories of exile and redemption, you could see what the future exile and redemptions will be. And in our research we discovered that there are four different mechanisms that our sages tell us that trigger and that coincide with Messiah. A we have the elimination of evil.

43:48
The verse tells us in Exodus that so long as Amalek is present, then the throne of God is incomplete. The idea of Messiah is where now God is king over the whole world. The throne is complete. There's no room for heresy anymore. So part of Messiah is the elimination of evil. Part of Messiah, of course, is about the individual that's spearheading this movement, that's King Messiah, this incredible personality who's going to be on the level of Moshe to a certain extent, one notch below Moshe in prophecy, be even wiser than King Solomon. This person is really going to change the whole world and the verse tells us that there are miracles akin to the exodus that are going to happen in times of Messiah and there's also going to be a national outpouring of repentance and all these things are going to contribute and coincide with the Messianic revolution.

44:41
That was in the Torah 101 podcast and I realized it struck me that if you look at the Purim story, the Purim story it's a story of exile the nation's under the thumb of Haman and Ahasuerus and the Persians that want to destroy us, and they actually have a date and there's a date set in the calendar when the nation's going to be completely destroyed and a miracle happens and we know the story and a series of events that seem to be on their own, each one independently is not so dramatic, but put together, as is done in the Book of Esther, you see a marvelous story of the Imadi intervening and saving the nation. This story is a story of exile and redemption and the result of that is just this incredible day that we celebrate Purim. The Talmud tells us that this is also a day of a re-acceptance of Torah. The Talmud says that there were two times of the conveyance of the Torah. There was of course the Sinai revolution, the Sinai revelation, that is, and the Ten Commandments, etc. And then there was a second acceptance of the Torah. That happened at the time of Achashverosh, because the awakening, the transformation that happened with the Purim story was one that contributed towards the nation accepting the Torah anew. So it struck me that the descriptions that were told about of what Messiahs don't look like you can actually find them in the Purim story.

46:07
We know that there were miracles. Yes, as we mentioned, they were of the hidden variety, but they were miracles. The Talmud in fact says that the reason why they reached out to the Torah is because of the love of the miracle. Rashi tells us there in the book of Shabbos, on page 88 or 89. There were miracles that happened of one type, but part of the Purim story was one of miracles. Like we said, the name of God is not overtly found in the Mediola, but it's found in many places, many instances, in a hidden fashion. In fact, the whole story of the purim story happened over many years and the the, at the work of mordechai and esther and putting together the book, was to trace all the miracles and to organize them. You know we, you know we would miss the signal. For the noise, right, it's hard, sometimes hard to find the signal amidst the noise. Where exactly is the miracle? That's's what they did. So there were miracles with the Purim story, as there will be Messiah, of course.

47:08
Mordecai, his personality and his persona and his standing and his heroism as a person of indomitable faith and sterling character this too is part of the story. He's kind of like the Messiah of that story. He's, too, is part of the story. This is, he's kind of like the Messiah of that story. He's the one who leads the nation. He's the one who has this tenacious adherence to faith when no one else is willing to be that brave. And of course, that's an image of what the Torah is trying to build within us, this idea of the great individual and the power that they, that they have. That too, of course, is something we'll see in the times of Messiah. And there's no greater image of the elimination of evil and the mullet as Haman and his 10 sons hanging on a tree. We have this force of evil and it's eliminated before our eyes.

48:02
Not only that, the Talmud tells us that Haman's grandchildren converted, became Jews and taught Torah in Bnei Brak, which is the most religious city in the entire world today, and it was then. If you reach Bnei Brak, you've reached the absolute peak of religious fervor. His grandchildren studied Torah. Never heard that Bnei Brak. The Talmud tells us. What that means is that the evil was so completely and thoroughly eradicated that all that was left was good, and that's again a symbol of what we have to look forward to.

48:39
But how does it all start? It all starts with repentance. The nation repented when Ahasuerus took off his ring and he gave it. It all starts with repentance. The nation repented when Ahasuerus took off his ring and he gave it to Haman. The Talmud tells us this really unlocked all those forces that we have within us, all that pining that we have for God within us and that achieved more than anyone else could have achieved. You know the two evil ones, the two co-conspirators for this genocide. They got us to do things that we can never have done on our own, and they unlocked all this repentance.

49:12
The nation started fasting and mourning and atoning, and sackcloth and ashes were distributed, and that is what got this whole process started, and the result, of course, is a day of tremendous love and joy. Love and joy for everyone, with our fellow man, with our relationship with God. Even the sinner, my grandfather, the blessed memory, used to say it's a day of love. Yes, we love forever. And the poor people, they get gifts. The neighbors, they also get gifts of food. The Almighty, we have to love him too. We read the Megillah, we have a festive meal because your body also. You have to show some love for your body. And even the evil people even.

49:49 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
Haman, we have to love him.

49:50 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
So we have to drink to such a degree that we can't tell who's the guilty one. We don't even know. We can show even some love for Haman. That's the result Just complete, unalloyed, unrestricted love and a re-sentence of Torah, and that is a little bit symbolic of what we have to look forward to in the future. We say in Psalms that in the future we'll be so happy, we'll be so joyous, we'll be able to laugh and celebrate in a way that we can never do in this world. We can laugh today, we can go listen to some comedy, to be happy, to be joyous, but nothing will compare to the kind of joy and ecstasy and exultant celebration that's going to be in times of Messiah. And we have a little bit of that on Purim, but I think it does give us this is more of like a general idea on Purim in general, but it does give us, I think, a roadmap.

50:39
Purim we look back. We look back at the events that happened in Persia 2,500 years ago or so, but it's also an entire story that gives us a roadmap of what we need to do, how we need to behave now. With this information we have to figure out what we need to improve and everyone knows you know, it's well documented that there are areas that are. There's room for improvement, there's room for rectification, but we have a path forward and we look at the story of Purim and we see what they did and how it all started. It started with the restoration of their relationship with their creator, with the Almighty Repentance, tshuva coming back to God. That is what unlocked all those other successive events, the elimination of Haman. It did not happen on its own. It happened as a result of these series of events and in our lives, you know, thank God, I think you know we're happy, we're doing well, things are good. You know, we're in the torch center. After we're in the torch center, how fortunate are we? You know, thank God, we have families. We we're in the torch center. How fortunate are we? You know, thank God, we have families, we have a community, but the Jewish nation, you know it's not doing so well. We're in dire need of redemption. What do we need to do? What's the step that we need to take? What is the roadmap? How do we trigger, how do we kickstart this process of fixing the world, of fulfilling the mandate that Abraham gave to us? It starts with repentance and that can begin a series of miracles elimination of evil and so on and, please God, we can witness the great persona of Messiah in our times and to usher in the utopian and perfected world of Messiah.

52:21
The Talmud says the only way Messiah happens is with repentance. And there are two ways to repent. You can repent or you can wait to have a very, very good reason to repent. The Jewish nation they needed a Haman, unfortunately, to get them to repent. That's what they needed. And the Talmud says the Jews will repent. They will repent and they could choose if they want to repent on their own or if they want some him and light figure to force them to repent. But that's the only way to do it. And when we look at the poem story, we see it. We know that this is the pattern that reappears throughout our history and this is what's going to. This is the roadmap to bring about Messiah. May we all be so fortunate to witness his arrival speedily in our days.

53:04
Amen Repentance from love and joy also. Yeah, of course, because there are two types of repentance yeah, but that's what you're saying right.

53:12 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
Purim is all about love.

53:14 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
It's day of love maybe that would be the two types of repentance. If you repent out of love, that would be without a need for a crisis. Repentance out of fear it's also. It also works right. But maybe that would be the result of a Haman-like figure coming, which, of course, would be very, very terrifying, as we've seen throughout history, but an interesting way of framing it. Yes, that is the key. There is a repentance that we're trying to angle for on Purim, and doing that, you never know what it's going to bring. That was my observation. I appreciate you all for listening. Sorry, I went a little over time, rabbi Busto, but it was a lot of fun.

54:00 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
The Vilna Ghosn said that the option for advanced repentance bringing a Messiah that's off the table already. So on that note, happy Purim everyone. A little dose of optimism for you, well, one more thing to help bring about the redemption is.

54:18 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
I'll share something that I heard from Rabbi Nagel, since he cannot be here. From Rabbi Nagel, since he cannot be here it's a pretty amazing idea that whenever the Jewish people prepare for war or prepare for any type of situation, what do we do? We fast. Like the rest of the world, they're pumping themselves up with steroids, eating their wheaties, getting ready for battle. What do we do we fast? Why? Because we know that it's only Hashem that's going to allow us to be victorious in life. So we know that he's in control and we demonstrate that by just avoiding our body and fasting. From Rabbi Nagel.

54:56 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Wow, Thank you so much. This was fantastic. Any final comments? Anyone?

55:01 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
Just a blessing to everyone to have a fulfilling, uplifting, meaningful forum. Don't let it be a day of waste, don't let it be a day that you get trashed, but rather be a day that elevates each and every one of us I.

55:13 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
You know what I was telling my wife last night I'm not in the perm zone. Yet I'm not in the perm zone. Maybe I was too captured in the torch fundraiser at givetorch.org. I had to do that. Sorry, it's still active, givetorch.org. Thank God we reached our goal.

55:29 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Co-host)
And we thank each and every one of you for your contributions.

55:31 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Oh yes, we're now in bonus round, but I wasn't ready yet, but I feel like talking about it here with y'all it got me into it. I'm excited to celebrate. So I guess that's the point right of the roundtable where we discuss it and get in the mode Right. Happy Purim everyone. Yes, I love you. I love you too.

55:51 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
I was talking to our listeners, but also you.

55:53 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Oh, you're so sweet. I also listen sometimes. If you want to email any one of us, I'll give my email address rabbiwolbe@gmail.com. Email me any questions or comments. If it's too difficult, I'll just forward them to Rabbi Bosco or podcast@torchweb.org, that also works.

56:12 - Dan Kullman (Co-host)
President@torchweborg.

56:14 - Rabbi Chaim Bucsko (Co-host)
Theaveragerabbi@torchweb.org.

56:17 - Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe (Co-host)
Thank you so much and happy Purim everyone. Thank you, we'll see you, pesach.