Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

0:03 You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

0:11 Welcome back, my dear friends, to day number 14 on the top of page 58 in the Art Scroll edition of the Shar HaBitachon by the Chobas Alvaros. So we previously mentioned the seven conditions. If you want to trust and rely on some other being or another person, whoever that may be, they need to have these seven criteria. But who actually has it?
0:41 virtues, these seven criteria. When we seek out these seven criteria, we do not find them at all in human beings.
1:00 And on the other hand, we find all of them in the Creator, exalted be He. Logic therefore dictates that one should place his trust in Hashem only, not in any other human being or creation. Chavez al-Vovus cites verses that show that Hashem possesses each of these seven qualities. And in some cases, that man does not possess them.
1:27 The first, how do we know that Hashem is compassionate and has compassion and pity for his creations? As the verse states in Psalms, merciful and gracious is Hashem. And as we find that Hashem said to the prophet Jonah,
1:58 So we see that Hashem is merciful. This, by the way, also shows to those who follow and those who don't follow in the ways of Hashem, which is, I believe, criteria number five. The second quality. This, by the way, let's stop for a second here.
2:14 What did we say so many times? We said so many times that in order to be a believer in the Torah, in order to follow Hashem and His mitzvos, we have to understand that everything must be sourced. Rabbeinu Bachya made seven major declarations here. Where did he come up with this?
2:39 At a thin air? The rabbis made up some rules? No. Everything must be sourced in the Torah. Everything must be sourced in the Tanakh, the Torah.
2:51 five books of Moses, or the books of the prophets or the writings. Everything must be sourced there because that is the essence of our truth. It must be sourced back there. And that's why Rabbeinu Bachia, the author of the Chobos Halvavos, is bringing these verses so that we understand that everything he's saying is not just a nice idea that he thought of or checked up on AI, but rather these are Founded in the Torah.
3:23 The second quality. We also know that Hashem never diverts his attention from people's needs. As the verse states, As the verse states in Psalms 121, the beautiful Psalms, it says, So here we have another verse telling us
3:56 nor sleeps the third and fourth qualities we know as well that Hashem is wise and has the most acute insight into people's needs thus possessing the fourth quality and that he is all powerful and cannot and his will cannot be foiled by anyone which is the third quality Kemoshe Kosov, as the verse states, He is wise of heart and immensely strong. Whoever stubbornly opposed him and remained whole.
4:40 Additionally, the verse states,
4:51 grants it to him, meaning Hashem grants it to him. As it states, yours Hashem is the greatness, the strength, the splendor, the triumph, and the glory.
5:03 And Hashem utilizes his boundless power for the benefit of others. As it is written, Hashem your God is in your midst, the mighty one who will save. So we see that through criteria number four, We have verses that back up these qualities that Hashem possesses and no human being has this. No other force on planet Earth.
5:33 You know, it reminds me of the Midrash that says that Abraham... told his father to go to Vegas. Abraham told his father, go to Vegas. They're having a big expo there of all of the idols.
5:47 So he says, and I'll watch over it. I'll watch over it. And what did he do? He took a baseball bat and he smashed up all the idols that Abraham's father had in his storage, in his storage unit, in his manufacturing plant.
6:04 And what happened? His father comes back. And he says, what happened here? Who broke all these idols?
6:10 He said, you know, it was very interesting. But they got into an argument. And they were fighting with one another saying, I'm God. And the other one says, he's God.
6:19 So one guy took a bat and started beating everybody up. And that was it. We all know that they don't have power. What power?
6:28 What power do they have? They don't have any ability. So we have to understand this. We have to recognize that the only power.
6:37 that contains all of these virtues, is Hashem, creator of heaven and earth, who took us out of Egypt, on dry land. Okay? The fifth quality, We know also that Hashem is the one who alone has managed Has management of a person's affairs throughout his life. From the beginning of his existence.
7:04 And the onset of his development in the womb. As the verse states in Deuteronomy. He is your father. Is he not your father?
7:19 Your master? Has he not created you and formed you?
7:30 in Psalms. I relied on you from the womb. You withdrew me from the innards of my mother. Hashem, you're the one who's done everything from beginning to the end.
7:41 Further it says,
7:50 Behold, you poured me out like milk and curdled me like cheese. And as elaborate in the rest of the passage, which states, you clothed me with skin and flesh. You covered me with bones and sinews. You granted me life and were kind to me.
8:06 And your ordinance protected my spirit. You know, when I think of this, you wonder. We're in a world today where we have so much. Trust and reliance in doctors and medicine.
8:21 And it's like, doctor, just tell me I'm going to be okay. Doctor, doctor, tell me. What? Doctors don't have the power to heal. Doctors don't.
8:30 You know what doctors do? They practice. They practice. Imagine someone, it's like you put your life in someone's hand and they're saying, I'm just practicing.
8:41 And I may go right, may not. It's a practice. It's, you know, that's not, no. I want you to do what you know how to do. We don't know how to do.
8:49 We don't know what we're doing. I've asked so many doctors, friends, dear friends of mine, I'm saying like, you know, specialist or they're a nephrologist or they're a rheumatologist or a, what's with the thyroid, what is it called? Endocrinologist. So many different doctors that I've spoken to over the years, I say, I want to be honest with me.
9:15 Like, okay, it's just me and you and the four walls here. How much do you really know about what you're talking about? Okay. How much do you really know? And most of them say, I only know what works and what doesn't work from my experience.
9:29 Someone else can have totally different set of results. How does medicine work? Medicine is trial and error. They try it.
9:38 They see it works. It helps most of the people. Put it on the market. And that's why we have side effects for everything.
9:47 Because if we knew what medicine really was, there wouldn't be any side effects. But every medicine that you look at, risk of suicide, risk of depression, risk of cancer, risk of high blood pressure, risk of this, risk of that. It's like endless risk. Why? It should be perfect.
10:07 Because we are just practicing.
10:13 heals all flesh i can tell you thousands of stories of people who the doctor said you have two days to live two years to live two weeks to live two months to live and 20 years later they're still in perfect shape ah the kidney's
10:28 not working their heart is whatever it
10:31 is because when you look and you see that everything is the hand of hashem literally every bone in our body every sinew every every morse every tissue every Adam is a function of Hashem's giving to us endlessly. Then we know Hashem can do anything. And there's no limitation. Yes, and the doctor says, it will work.
10:56 It won't work. I've never seen it. What do they know? I heard, personally, I heard a story of someone who went, they got imaging.
11:06 The doctor says, this looks very serious. We're going to send you to another lab. They went to another lab. They had CT scans.
11:12 They had this, that, that, all of these things taken.
11:21 may not even help to remove this. It's so advanced they maybe have two weeks. This person went back to synagogue and he asked all the members of the synagogue to make a commitment that they will not talk in synagogue. They will not talk in synagogue in the merit of this person's healing.
11:44 A few weeks later they went back for testing and They asked them, who sent you here? They said, so-and-so. They said that she only has a few weeks to live. They said, I don't know what you're talking about.
11:59 This is a joke. There's nothing here. Nothing. Nothing here. You know, we sometimes think that like, you know,
12:10 in the world out there, in the world of medicine, in the world, everything has to make sense according to out. No, it doesn't. One plus one equals whatever Hashem wants it to be. Whatever Hashem wants it to be.
12:26 I know it's not our topic per se, but I think it's very important for us to understand the responsibility that we have in investigating the goodness of Hashem. Understanding that Hashem has the power of anything. We think, oh, no such exception was ever made. No one can do this.
12:52 No one has the ability. You know what? Hashem has the ability to do whatever He wants to do. It's His world.
13:01 The world is His oyster. Oyster is not kosher. But the world is Hashem's playground. Hashem can do whatever He wants.
13:13 Matt, one second. We're up to the sixth quality, right? The sixth quality. What's the sixth quality?
13:25 And also know that one's benefit and one's harm are not under the control of man at all. But solely in the hand of the Creator exalted be He. The verse states, As it's stated in Ecclesiastes, it says as follows,
13:56 was ever fulfilled if Hashem did not ordain it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that misfortune and good emanate? Everything only comes from the will of Hashem.
14:14 And not only... Does Hashem have exclusive control over the occurrence of all things, whether good or bad? But it is also He alone who can ensure that those things endure. As it says, Yishaya, grass withers and blossom fades, but the word of God shall stand forever.
14:43 And it says earlier in the passage, Indeed, the people is grass, meaning that man withers away and dies, at which point he has no control over anything at all.
15:04 This matter has already been sufficiently clarified in the third essay of this work in chapter 8 in a different section of this book. And what's finally the seventh quality? The seventh quality that helps us understand that Hashem is the one in power.
15:26 And finally, we know that Hashem's generosity and all-inclusive... You think it's one of those... No, no, no. It's one of those... What are those on the boats?
15:40 The people go... The cruise. All-inclusive cruise and vacations, right? No, no, no. Hashem's generosity is all-inclusive.
15:47 And His kindness is all-embracing, extended to all people people including the undeserving. Kemoshin Emer, as the verse states, In Psalms, King David tells us, Hashem is good to all. His mercies are on all his works. Additionally, it says, And this goodness and mercy towards all living things is expressed by actively providing for them.
16:21 As it states, gives nourishment to all flesh, for his kindness endures forever.
16:31 And not only does he provide for them with their basic needs, but he even generously fulfills their desires. As it says, you open your hand and satisfy the desire. of every living thing. Chavez Havovus remarks that these verses are not really needed to prove his point.
17:03 The truth is that the logic dictates that all these seven qualities all exist together in Hashem, our Creator, exalted be He, and not in any of His creations. It is obvious that only Hashem has unlimited mercy, attentiveness, power, and so forth.
17:24 Therefore, I cited these verses from Scripture merely for the purpose of remembering these qualities, God doesn't need our backing from the verses. It's obvious that Hashem has and possesses these qualities. Having established that Hashem alone possesses these seven qualities on which B'tochon is based, Chavos Halvavos describes the absolute trust one should therefore place in Hashem.
18:02 And he gains strong recognition. In the truth of the truth of the creator's unlimited kindness, he will place his trust in him. And submit himself to Hashem. And leave the management of his affairs to Hashem.
18:28 And leave the management of his fears to Hashem.
18:34 Also, if Hashem afflicts him, he will not suspect Hashem of unfairness in his judgment.
18:44 And if Hashem chooses to present him with challenges, he won't be angry over what he chose for him. for he will recognize that Hashem chose this for his good.
18:59 King David says, I will raise the cup of salvation and the name of Hashem I will invoke. And in the same psalm, he says, distress and grief I would find and the name of Hashem I will invoke. Meaning that whether Hashem should shower, him with goodness and salvation, or put him through distress and grief, David would call out to Hashem in thanks, secure in his knowledge that it is all to his benefit. My dear friends, this concludes chapter 2 and day number 14.
19:43 I think there's so much, so much incredible teaching here. I don't think that it's sufficient for us to learn this quickly like we did. think we need to review this several times so this is homework homework before next week let's review what we discussed it's all going to be on one episode on youtube and on facebook and twitter and all of those
20:06 but it's going to be three separate episodes on the podcast day 12 13 and 14 are all chapter two and we need to review this again and again to internalize that hashem has all the power in the world hashem is not limited by anything and no one can limit Hashem's power. And Hashem only does what's best for us, even though it sometimes doesn't make any sense to us. How can He do this to me? Hashem is always there to take care of us.
20:36 Hashem is always there. And the more we rely on Hashem, the more we will feel that closeness. We will understand that Hashem is all powerful. Hashem lacks no power whatsoever.
20:49 There's no one who can take away Hashem's decisions. we ultimately, the more we put our trust in Hashem, the more closeness we will feel, the more gifted our lives will be, because we will have total menuchas ha-nefesh, as the author here, Rabbi Nebuchadnezzar tells us, the greatest gift is that you have total calmness in your life. My dear friends, have a magnificent evening.

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