Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

00:10 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Good morning everybody, welcome back. Welcome back to the Parsha Podcast. Today, parsha Smishpatim talks about. This week's Parsha talks about many of the laws that the Jewish people, after receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, moshe taught the Jewish people how to conduct themselves, how to live as Jews, not only to be Jews. We accepted the Torah, but now we have to take it to the next level and we have to act that way not just be, but to exercise our daily activities as Jews. So I want to teach you a halacha that the Torah tells us a law.

00:56
The Torah says that if someone stole and doesn't have money to pay back for the theft, he's sold as a slave. Okay, and then he serves his time as a slave and then that way, the money that was sold, that was paid for for his service, now is used to pay back for his theft. So if someone stole a $10,000 watch, so we sell him as a slave, find someone who's going to pay $10,000 for him to be his servant, and then that $10,000 goes to the person he stole the watch from. Okay, what happens if after six years? Because after six years comes the sabbatical year. Sabbatical year sets everyone free. It's a reset. So after six years. He's set free. But he says you know, I like it here. My master is so nice. I'm already part of the family, I know all the children. I really like it here. It's really nice. I'd love to stay, I'd love to be your servant further. What do you do?

02:24
Chapter number 21, verse number 6. V'higisho Adonav el ho, elohim, v'higisho la delas o Elam Azuzo v'rotsa Adonav es ozno bamartzea. Ve'avodo la'olam. They bring him, the master, brings him to the court, to the bezden, and he shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and bore through shall his master, his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. Okay, crazy thing, you pierce a hole through his ear, you drill a hole through his ear. We're by the doorpost. What does Rashi say? Rashi says an amazing thing. Actually, he brings the Talmud. The Talmud says why the ear? Because this ear that heard ma ro'ozen lihi rotza, mikol shari, varim shebeguf, why don't you just drill a hole through his pinky? Drill a hole through something else. No, specifically the ear. Why, omer Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakeh, ozen Zos sheshama al har sinai, this same ear that heard at Mount Sinai, lo Tignov, don't steal. And this guy went to steal. Here's a hole through his ear and if he was sold the same ear that heard that you should be servants to Hashem? Now he found himself a new master.

04:18
Another question is why, by the doorpost, drill his ear any place, go on the kitchen counter and drill it? Why, by the doorpost? You can drill his ear anyplace. You go on the kitchen counter and drill it. Why? Why by the doorpost? The door and the mezuzah. They were witnesses in Egypt. We know that in the Jewish people, when they were about to leave Egypt, what did they do with the blood from their offerings? They put it on the doorpost. That same doorpost is a witness to the miracles that Hashem has done. That same doorpost gives testimony. I was there. I saw the whole thing. Hashem took care of you. Hashem took you out of Egypt. Hashem took you out of Egypt. Hashem split the sea for you. That same doorpost is where you go.

05:09
That same doorpost heard that for me, specifically to Hashem, only to Hashem, exclusively to Hashem. We should be servants and slaves, not to another man. So this is an obvious question. What's the question? So, only for someone who wants to stay as a servant heard at Mount Sinai that you should be a servant to Hashem. I can tell you 364 other prohibitions in the Torah. There's 365 prohibitions in the Torah. There's 365 prohibitions in the Torah. Any prohibition that a person violates is something that we heard at Mount Sinai. Don't do so. If for any sin, we should be drilled in the air, why specifically this one, this one command of the Torah? Oh, you heard, you should know better, you should be more cautious. I don't get it. What's going on over here? Why is this the requirement? Specifically for this mitzvah, specifically here? Your ear heard, you shouldn't be. How about stealing? We don't see that. Someone who steals gets. Oh, we caught you stealing. Let's take you to the doorpost, let's drill a hole in your ear. We don't see that. You know, in Iran you only steal once. You know why Iran, you only steal once. You know why? Because they cut off your hand. Now you have no more hands to steal One time. Torah's not like that. We see only here, by this one instance, someone says I want to be a servant forever to my master. Take him, drill a hole in the ear and then he serves his master forever. Unbelievable. It should be for every sin. It should be for every prohibition that we violate. So why specifically this.

07:18
Our sages tell us something very, very, very brilliant and beautiful the fact that someone made a mistake and they stole. They can have regret. They can have regret, okay, but you got to pay it back. Also, you got to be practical. You got to pay it back. You stole, pay it back, which is, by the way, an amazing thing. We like to see retribution. You know what the retribution of the Torah is. You stole, pay it back. Okay, you were overcome by temptation. You saw something. You wanted it. You couldn't overcome your desire. You came back later like what did I do? What did I do? How am I going to fix this? How am I going to fix this? Pay it back, give it back. Pay it back. Ve'heishavitz, l'gzeil, ha'ashar, gazel. Return the theft that you have stolen. Okay, by the way, you know there's a punishment that they stole.

08:22
There's witnesses who take this guy and say we saw him steal. We saw it with our own eyes. We warned him about stealing, don't steal it. He stole it. Bring him to court. Now he's going to have to pay two watches. He stole one. He has to pay back two, unless he admits. Unless he admits, if he's there in the court and they say did you steal? He says no, okay, two witnesses come in. They say we saw your steal, we warned you, remember? We were standing over here and over there he says okay, I stole, he only has to pay one. He admits he only has to pay one. If he doesn't admit he has to pay two. It's a punishment To pay kefil, double punishment. But he admits Okay, only one, only one. It's an amazing thing just how powerful admitting our wrongdoing is. That's already as if you paid your price Give it back, apologize and goodbye, move on.

09:26
The Torah understands that we can all make mistakes. We correct those mistakes. So why, over here, do we say that specifically for this violation, he goes in for another six years, he goes in forever. We drill his ear and he becomes a servant forever. Our sages tell us, because here this guy was a slave for six years. You'd think that he already has regrets. He already thought this through. You'd think that he now realizes. You know what I got caught up in myself. I stole, I did something I shouldn't have done. I realized there's a God. I realized I was serving my own interests, not God's interests. I got carried away and therefore he had time he had six years to plan this out. Now he says no, no, no, no, I'm still committed to myself. I'm still after six years. No longer do I want to serve Hashem. I'm happy, I'm comfortable with being me in my own place, in my own home. I'm part of this family, beautiful family. Leave me alone. I don't want to be free anymore. I want to just stay here, be a servant to Hashem's servant. You know there's a.

10:53
The Shari Truva, which is the gateways to repentance, brings a very incredible parable. He says you know, there were a bunch of thieves. They were caught and they were thrown into the prison. They were thrown into the prison and all of them together quietly dug a hole and had the great escape. They all ran away, except for one guy. The guard comes and says to him what are you doing here? He says what do you mean? What am I doing here? He says I'm a good guy. He says I'm showing you that I'm demonstrating that I'm a good guy. He says you idiot, you had a whole duck for you, for you to run away, and you stayed here. You're not of sound mind. And he starts beating him. He beats him. He says what's wrong with you? The door was open for you to run away and you didn't run away.

11:55
The Shari Truva says Shem opens the door for us and says you can run away from your sins. Like no, no, no, I'm fine, I'm comfortable here, I'm good, I'm good, I'm just going to be, I'm going to serve my time, I'm good. The door was open for you to run away. Get out. Get out while you can free. I'm going to be a righteous person, just going to do my thing.

12:25
It's frowned upon. You have an opportunity to break away, you have an opportunity to be free and serve Hashem and you say no, no, no, I'm happy, I'm happy with being, you know, shackled by my master, to serve my master and not serve Hashem. It's a tragic mistake in perspective for a person not to have the clarity to understand I'm here to serve God, I'm not here to serve me. And had he had this clarity, he wouldn't have got drilled in the ear. The only reason we drill someone in the ear is not because they made a mistake once. It's because they're making the mistake multiple times and they're unwilling to change their ways. We give him the drill in the ear not because he stole, but because he stole, but because he's not willing to correct himself. After that, he's happy, he's content with serving the servant. Get out. You have the opportunity to be free. Just be free. No, this is a mistake. This is a huge mistake.

13:47
This is something that I think each of us in our own lives have the opportunity to break away from things. We have to be willing to let go and not be shackled by our habits, by the things we're comfortable with. There is an incredible gift of forgiveness that we find in Judaism that Hashem talks to us directly and we talk to Hashem directly Without any intermediary, without anybody being our conduit. We don't have to confess in front of anybody. We have our own private time to talk to Hashem. Every day, no matter where we are, we have the opportunity to talk to God and to ask Hashem. Hashem, guide me, hashem. I'm about to have an interview for my job. Give me success If this is the right thing for me. Make it successful, hashem. I'm nervous about something. Take away my nerves from this. Give me calmness. Give me the success I need Talking to Hashem.

15:13
Also, when we did something wrong, hashem, I realized that I got carried away. I was caring too much about myself, not caring about you, not realizing that you're the master of the world. You're the master and creator of heaven and earth. I got carried away. Please forgive me. I'm going to try to do better. So simple to have that conversation with God. We just have to be willing to do it, because what happens? We're close to ourselves and we love ourselves and we don't want to be vulnerable and we don't want to open ourselves up, but it's our Father in heaven. He says hey, I got a little door open there for you. Just come, come into my embrace, I'm here. I'm here to take you in. I want you close to me.

16:08
It's guaranteed that when we pray, our prayers are answered. The Talmud says there is no prayer that returns empty-handed. You pray for something. You'll get an answer. The answer may be no if to be willing to accept that too. God, I want to win the lottery. Please help me win the lottery.

16:32
Hashem might say that's not a good thing for you. I'm not going to give it to you, but I asked and the answer was no. You got an answer. But the most devastating thing is, if we don't ask, we have to ask. We have to be in a reality, in an existence where we have a relationship with Hashem. That's real that we talk and we confide in Hashem. Hashem, I'm worried, hashem, I'm concerned. Hashem, I don't know what to do. I need your guidance. I don't know where to turn. Not 10% of them, 100% of the time, hashem responds, and with the most miraculous messages. Suddenly you'll hear somebody say something like what? That was a message from Hashem. It wasn't a happenstance, it just so happened to be Coincidence. No such thing.

17:34
Hashem guides us every minute of our day. So we all know the incredible importance of following the mitzvahs. Because what is a mitzvah? A mitzvah is a relationship builder between us and God. What is a sin? It's a relationship blocker between us and God. When we repent, what we're doing is we're moving away those blockages. When we perform a mitzvah, we're opening up our hearts and connecting to Hashem on a greater level. What we ask for every day is Hashem, bring us close to you, remove those barriers, because we want to be close. And when we do a mitzvah, there are levels and levels and levels to the performance of a mitzvah. There's doing the mitzvah, and then there's the thought of the mitzvah, the intention of the mitzvah, the intention of the mitzvah. We can do it robotically. We can perform a mitzvah out of habit, or we can perform a mitzvah with intention.

18:58
I'm not just reciting a blessing because it's a commandment. I'm supposed to recite a blessing before I eat. Citing a blessing because it's a commandment. I'm supposed to recite a blessing before I eat. I'm thinking about how much goodness is in this food that God has prepared before me. I'm about to thank Hashem for giving me everything that I have. I'm about to perform a mitzvah of putting tefillin on my arm and on my head, to be conscious, with godliness in my heart, in my actions and in my thought. Hashem, I want to be tied with you, connected with you. I'm not just lighting candles. I'm removing the world of doing and I'm entering into a world of being. Whole week, we're running Shabbos candles. Oh, like the fire gets elevated. Fire goes up, defies gravity. Our material world gets elevated. That's it. We're on a new plane, new existence. Yeah, we can live as small people or we can be great people.

20:17
Don't just do things. Do it. The first step is to do it. We should be doing things, but don't let it just suffice that we do things. Take it to the next level. Up the game, up the ante, take it up a notch. We should learn about the mitzvahs that we're performing, that we do them with greater passion Because a mitzvah is a relationship builder between us and God.

20:43
It's a parallel to a husband and wife. The husband comes home and brings his wife flowers. She's like you bought me flowers, why are you buying me flowers? He says that's what the rabbi told me to do. That's what I'm doing. That doesn't display love. It's a commandment, so I'm doing it. I'm doing it because I have a love for you, because I have a passion, because you're dear to me, and I'm expressing that with this.

21:13
The different way to do a mitzvah. You do a mitzvah because this is God. You told me to do this. I'll do this, okay, fine, that's what you want. You want me to sit in this took. I'll just sit in a stucco. It's fine. I'm sweating, fine.

21:27
Or we can realize what it means to leave our homes to be surrounded by the clouds of glory. It's like I'm entering into God land here. It's a different way of experiencing it for ourselves, but a different way of expressing it with the Almighty. So it takes the same action. You're giving the same flowers, but it's a different intention. The motivation behind it is different, and that's where we can learn a lot studying these Torah portions and help us so much, not only in what to do, but the way in which we build our relationship with God.

22:12
We don't just have commandments so that you'll be a civilized society. We have it so that you can become close to Hashem. The mitzvahs are a gift to get to the closest level we can. We have 613 ways of bonding our relationship with God. Nations of the world only have seven. We have 613 weapons to our disposal of how we can bond our relationship, build our relationship with Hashem. Hashem should bless us all that we should merit to be free people, truly free people to serve Hashem. To serve Hashem not out of robotics, not out of habit, but out of passion, out of love and out of connection every single day. Amen. Have an amazing Shabbos, my dear friends.

23:09 - Intro (Announcement)
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