Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

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

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Good, beautiful morning everybody. Beautiful Tuesday morning here in Houston, texas. It is so wonderful to be here.

00:19
Parsha's Kisetzi this week's Parsha is Kisetzi. Kisetzi, this week's parasha is when you will go out to the war against your enemies and deliver him, will Hashem, your God, into your hand and you will capture captives from it. The Torah tells us something. So important is that whenever we read a Torah is that whenever we read a Torah portion, whenever we read a Torah portion, we have to always remember that the Torah portion isn't a coincidence as to when it is read. It always relates to current events. It always relates to what's going on in the world and we see this. We see so many great sages in our generation who will find in the Haftorah, in the Torah reading. It always connects. There's always something my grandfather would say from his rabbi, rabbi Rocham that if you can't connect current events to what's going on in the parasha, you're missing something. You're not understanding the parasha.

01:23
Well, ki seitz selam alchama is always read in the portion in the month of El. This portion is always read in the month of preceding the month preceding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Rosh Hashanah being the day of judgment, yom Kippur being the day of atonement, the day of forgiveness. It's always in these 30 days that we read Kisetz. Why? Because what's the Molchama? What's the real struggle? What's the real war? The real battle is not the battle of arms, of munitions. The real struggle is the struggle of the Yetzahara. You want to know who the real enemy is. The real enemy is the Yetzahara. And when we are able to teitzei la milchama, you go out in war against the Yetzahara, hashem is going to bring you victory. That's a guarantee. Hashem always says. It says it in the Torah here Hashem is going to give you victory, but you have to go out and fight the war. You have to go and make an effort to beat your enemy. So it's an amazing thing because when we look in next week's Torah portion, we see something which really explains how we do Teshuvah and why we need to do Teshuvah. So what does it say in chapter 28, verse number 47? As retribution for you not having served Hashem, your God, with gladness, with happiness, with joy and with the goodness of heart. From an abundance of everything. See what happens is drove coal. From an abundance of everything. See what happens is what we have in our generation is not much different.

03:31
We think, oh, now we're living in a generation of materialism, but 100 years ago, nah, they didn't know what materialism is. No, they knew exactly what materialism is. It was different than it is today, definitely, but they also had it. They had the same exact challenge of the Yetzhahara throwing them riches, throwing them materialism, throwing them non-stop desires, temptations. That doesn't change. But you know what is? The reason we fall is because we don't serve Hashem with joy. With joy, you have so much, you're busy with this, and then you start worrying about your, your leaky pipe, and you're worried about the air conditioner, and you're worried about the air conditioner, and you're worried about the car and the flat tire and you're worried and worried, and worried and worried. You're so busy you don't have a chance to serve Hashem out of joy.

04:35
Sages tell us that someone who repents. There's two different ways that one can repent. There is teshuva me'ahava, repentance out of love, and there's teshuva me'yira and there's repentance out of fear. What's the difference? Teshuva, repentance out of fear, is I'm afraid of retribution. Hashem is going to In other religions they talk about purgatory or you're going to burn in hell if you don't accept our Lord and Savior In Judaism.

05:08
It's not the same. But there is retribution, there is a punishment. If God gives us potential and we don't maximize that potential, there's a punishment. There's something we'll have to pay for it. That's not to say that we're in trouble, but it's a different type of repentance. When you're afraid of punishment, you're afraid of retribution. Uh-oh, uh-oh, god's gonna, he's going to fix this account. And it may not be pleasant, it may not be that pleasant.

05:39
But then you have another type of repentance and that's repentance out of love, where when you love, when you have love for someone, you want that relationship to be built stronger and stronger and stronger. It's not out of fear, it's out of love. You know you don't buy hopefully you don't buy flowers for your spouse because you're afraid. You buy flowers because you're in love, because there's joy, because there's happiness and you want that to continue. How do we do Teshuvah? Do we do Teshuvah out of fear or do we do Teshuvah out of joy? Our sages tell us.

06:22
The Talmud says that someone who repents out of fear, then their sins turn into mistakes. However, says the Talmud in Yoma, if someone repents out of joy, out of love, their sins turn into mitzvahs. Imagine someone sins and now their sins turn into a mitzvah. You know, there was a an elderly man who was on his deathbed and he came from a difficult background where he didn't grow up observant of Torah and mitzvahs but later became observant, became a great, great, righteous scholar. And when he was on his deathbed one of the great rabbis came to visit him and he saw that he was disturbed. So he said you're probably disturbed because of your past. She says God forbid. He says my past because he repented out of love. He says that made me the great person I was, because all of the negative turned into positive. Because if you repent out of love, all of the negative that was done becomes positive. So how does this work?

07:56
We've talked about this in the past, but I want to share with you one of the sources about Teshuvah. It's one of my favorite sources about Teshuvah. In the Orch HaSaddikim, right in the beginning of the Gate of Repentance, he says as follows Omer Rebbe Levi, rebbe Levi, this is the tractate in Yoma 86, which is the same one we were talking about before, but it's a different piece of that Talmud. He says G'dol u'teshuvah sh'megas atkisi ha'akavot. Teshuvah is so great that it reaches the holy throne of glory, why it brings a verse sh'nem ha'shuvah, yisrael ha'desh, sh'mel kech Brings a verse. We know that in Judaism we don't just say things, we back it up with a verse. It says in Hosea, chapter 14, verse number 2. Return, o Israel, until Hashem, your God. That means when we return, when we repent, it's till the seat of glory of God's holy throne. Teshuvah gets us all the way there. Now. The Talmud says as follows Rabbi Seder said when Moshe ascended to the first firmament, he found classes of angels.

09:25
They opened in front of him the book of the Torah and they read the first day of creation. And then they paused and they started praising the Torah. Oh, what else would you praise? They read the first day of creation, creation, and then they started praising the Torah. Moshe goes up to the next firmament. He ascended to the second firmament and found clusters, not classes, clusters of angels who read the second day of creation. And then they paused. They started praising Torah and the Jewish people, jewish people, allelashlishi. Moshe ascended to the third firmament. Moshe ascended to the third firmament and found angels and troops who read about the third day of creation. They paused and then what? They started? Praising Jerusalem. He went up to the next firmament, to the fourth firmament, and he found mighty angels, even higher level angels, and they were reading the fourth day of creation. And then they paused and they started praising Mashiach. We have to understand what each of these mean. We'll talk about this in a minute. And they started praising Mashiach. We have to understand what each of these mean. We'll talk about this in a minute.

11:18
O Lachamishi, moshe Rabbeinu ascended to the fifth firmament U'motza machanos, machanos, korim b'masiyom chamishi. He found camps upon camps reading the fifth day of creation, hupaskhu, and then they paused and they started speaking about the praise of the anguish of Gehenna, olo l'shishi. Moshe sent it to the sixth firmament and he found over there angels, even higher ranking angels, and they were reading the sixth day of creation from the Torah. And they paused and began speaking about the praise of the Garden of Eden. And then they implored upon the Almighty that he place the portion of the Jews in Gan Eden.

12:17
We know that Moshe went up to the seventh heaven. He went up to the highest firmament, to the seventh firmament. What did he see there? In the seventh firmament, he found angels of mercy, angels of kindness and charity, angels of shuddering and trembling, whereupon Moshe grasped the throne of honor. The throne of honor.

12:49
מייד אה חזמושה בקיסי העקבות היתחילו לקרו במס היום שביעי ואיכולו. They began to read the seventh day of creation. What was the seventh day? The seventh day was ואיכולו השמיים, and God ceased to create. ופוסקו ויתחילו לספר בשפחו של תשובה.

13:09
And then they paused. And then they started to speak of the praise of repentance. This is to teach you that Shuvah reaches the heavenly throne. As the verse says return, o Israel, until Hashem, your God. So we see an amazing thing.

13:35
Moshe goes up firmament after firmament after firmament.

13:39
Each one has higher ranking angels.

13:41
The first, they're reading day one. The seventh, they're reading day seven of creation. And it keeps on ascending in greatness, ascending in the great gift that God gave us. The lowest level is Torah. Second level is Torah and Israel. The third level is Jerusalem, then Mashiach, then purgatory hell, then Gan Eden, and then Teshuvah purgatory hell, then Gan Eden, and then Teshuvah. Teshuvah is so great. Why is Teshuvah so great? That it's the highest level gift that God gave the world. Teshuvah repentance, the gift to start all over again.

14:28
So what is repentance? In order to understand why someone who repents is at the throne of glory, he's at the highest place. What is repentance? Repentance really means that we have a moment of clarity where we realize we went down the wrong path. Imagine someone is cheating in their business and they suddenly realize you know what you're going to be held accountable.

15:01
The Talmud says that for even a penny, a pruta, you come back to this world. They have to repay it. You have to come back to this world to have to repay it. You have to come back through nine months of pregnancy, through birth, through childhood, through all the difficulties of being possibly bullied, being in school and the challenges of testing and this and that everything just so that you return that penny to that person. And then God takes you out. He says you fulfilled your task. Person realizes he says oh, you fulfilled your task. Person realizes he says oh, yes, shem, I didn't realize that you're watching everything. I didn't realize that you have everything monitored. By the way, just so that you understand the, the everyday, we say asalm at the end of our prayers. It's fascinating. It's fascinating. And you look at day number four, day number four on Wednesday. You look at the psalm and it says as follows Uch Silin this is chapter 94 in Psalms U'ch'silim masaytaskilu Bores Fools.

16:26
When will you have some wisdom? When will you gain understanding? Ha'nota ozen, ha'lo yishama.

16:33
You think God, who implanted ears, can't hear? If Hashem creates the eye, can he not see? You think God, who creates everything in this world, he Himself doesn't know what's going on? You think he doesn't record it, doesn't know what's going on? You think he doesn't record it? He's like oh, we, we're so wise, we know what cameras are, but God, he doesn't have imagery, he can't record anything, he doesn't have a DVD to record what we're doing. God doesn't have wisdom to understand and hear and know our thoughts in our mind. You know they have the polygraph. It can tell you if you're saying the truth, oh, but God can't know if we're saying truth or false.

17:32
A person thinks about that, a person realizes oh, my goodness, I've gone the wrong way, I've gone the wrong path. God does see everything, god does know everything, and yet God gives me life because he loves me. Ah, I love God. Now I have to return to God and say ah, hashem, those things were a mistake, but they're a vehicle to getting closer to God. Because they're a vehicle to getting closer to God, they're considered and they're transformed to not being sins, to being mitzvahs. They're now transformed. They're no longer sins, they have become mitzvahs. Why? Because they're a vessel through which we connected to God. They're a vehicle for correction. Ah, now I understand why. Someone who repents out of love, it turns into a mitzvah. Someone who repents out of fear, it turns into a mistake. But you're still responsible for mistakes. It's such an important perspective for us to have during these days of El we're about to approach Rosh Hashanah to understand the power of Teshuvah. You make a mistake, fine.

19:00
I was talking to somebody just last week and I said to them you know you should make the turn here. We weren't driving. But they're like, yeah, but I've already gone so far making this mistake. I can't. It was specifically regarding parenting.

19:20
I was giving a parenting class last week and the parents were saying parenting. I was giving a parenting class last week and the parents were saying they said their mind was spinning from the things we talked about, like how, unfortunately, not everybody understands, not everyone invests, not that they're not smart enough. I asked the group before we started the class. I said how many of you have gone to parenting classes? Not one. If children, you don't go to parent, how do you expect to just have a download of understanding how to deal with your child. Not one went to a parenting class.

19:55
So after we were talking they said how are we going to change how we raise our children now? I said you go to your child tomorrow and you say, just like you say to God, I made a mistake and I'm starting anew. There is nothing wrong with owning up to your mistake. You make a mistake, you correct the mistake. Hashem gives us the power to change on a dime. I had an epiphany. I realized I was going down the wrong path. I'm turning around and going the other way. This is the power of Teshuva. You make a mistake, you start all over again, and when you do the mistakes that you made because they are the reason you turned away from the bad they become good, they become a mitzvah. That's how loving Hashem is.

20:51
Now there's a story that I heard recently about someone who became a rabbi A rabbi in a school, a teacher, a rabbi and he was teaching young children and his father told him notice that when the children pray, it's the most joyful prayer. It's just so pleasant, it's so sweet. So he was wondering why. Why would it be that way? So some people would think that it's because the children have a sweet voice, they sing nicely. But then you see that even simple blessings, a small little blessing that they say, there's a certain yumminess to it, there's a certain innocence, there's a certain perfection to it. And that's because, with whatever they have they put into that prayer, with whatever they have they put into that sweet blessing, they put their soul into it. When we do Teshuvah, we need to go all in.

22:06
I mentioned here publicly I once, in the process of dealing with communal matters, I one time reacted in a way to another rabbi that maybe wasn't so respectful to the other rabbi, not that I thought I was wrong with what I said, but how I said it maybe could have been done a little bit better, but maybe he should apologize to me and that's what everyone thinks. No, I said you know what we talk about, teshuvah. I'm going to pick up a phone and I'm going to call him. And you're always nervous. I don't know what. If they're going to hang up the phone on me, what's if we have? The Yetzirah is always running after us trying to convince us not to do what's right. An amazing thing. I called and he was so appreciative and it ended up not being an awkward two-minute conversation, it ended up being an hour-long conversation.

23:06
We ended up growing the friendship so much greater that that point of friction now became the source for all the love you see in a relationship. Sometimes you know there are ups and downs, like all relationships. So sometimes people think, oh, we got into a fight, it's all over. No, if you use it properly, that becomes the source for all the greatness, because you learn to overcome those challenges. You learn to elevate the relationship beyond what you thought it was possible. It doesn't pull it down, it can elevate it.

23:46
This week's parasha, you're going out for a battle. We're all in a battle. Some are dealing with a battle of work. Some are dealing with a battle of livelihood. Some are dealing with a battle of health. Some are dealing with a battle of loneliness. Some are dealing. Everyone is dealing. Some is dealing with the battle of health. Some are dealing with the battle of loneliness. Some is dealing with the battle with nutrition. Some people are dealing with the battle with education of their children. Everybody is in a battle, everybody. There's nobody who's not in a battle. If we're able to connect with Hashem, we're able to talk to the Almighty, we're able to open up our hearts with love. What happens, as the parasha tells us right in the beginning of this week's parasha Hashem will give it to you in your hands. You will succeed. Go get Him, don't be afraid. Face your fears and you'll accomplish greatness. My dear friends, have a magnificent, beautiful Shabbos. Thank you so much.

24:56 - Intro (Announcement)
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