Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

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

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
So, day number 93, we're on the top of page 548 in the Treasure for Life edition of the Orch HaSiddikim, the Ways of the Righteous. We're in the middle of the chapter of laziness. Ha'otzel hu rach le'evav be'einu gole l'makam Torah. A lazy person is soft-hearted and will not exile himself to a place of Torah. All of Omar, king Solomon says further about such a man Shiva dvorim. Seven things about a lazy man. Seven things that you need to know. What are they? Keitzad, omerim lo'otzel, rabcho ba. Seven things that you need to know. What are they, keitzad? They tell the lazy person you know, your teacher came from far, really far. He came to town. He's in town. Why don't you go learn from him? What does he say? I don't know if I can make it, because you know there are lions that roam the streets. There are animals, wild animals. He starts coming up with all of these excuses Omer Mlos. What do they tell him? Rabcha besocha, medino Amod veleichetzlo. Right, he's not inside the city, he's inside the province. He's not inside the city, he's inside the province, he's inside the neighborhood. Go and greet him In Nehmer, ari Ben-Arochovos, see, he says I'm afraid that there are still lions in the streets, because you know, ari Ben-Arochovos, there are lions in the streets, as it says over there in Proverbs. He's in your very home, but the lion is right outside. I'm terrified. I'll be murdered, I'll be slaughtered by this lion. He's in your house. He says but yeah, what happens if I find that the door is locked? Then I'm going to have to go find the rabbi. I'm going to have to.

02:16
He comes up with excuses. I can tell you the excuses that people have told me why they can't come to class, why they can't come for a Shabbos dinner, why they can't come to an event, why they can't come for a Shabbos dinner, why they can't come to an event. I've heard the most magnificent excuses. You know what it's called? It's called laziness. Laziness People who give excuses, don't give excuses. Try, make an effort, go for it. There's a very high percentage that people can be in an accident in. You know, just in Washington DC there was a plane that crashed in midair. See, I'm terrified. I'm not going to travel for a good cause, because you know that can happen. You know, or I'm not going to drive someplace, or I'm not going to ride my bicycle, I'm not going to walk, because you know there are accidents all the time. Right, these are all excuses that are nonsensical, but the lazy person buys into it and keeps on excusing his lack of action by giving excuses.

03:21
He still doesn't get up. He says he still doesn't get up. He says the door is swinging on its hinges, meaning the door is wide open. You can go and you can get it, you can accomplish, but you know what? He's still lying in bed. He's still lying in bed.

03:48
He says what does he say? He says I don't care if the door is open, if the door is closed, if the rabbi's here, if the rabbi's there. Just give me a minute to sleep. I just want some rest. I just want to relax a little bit, and that's the big mistake that someone who starts being lazy gets lazier. Someone who starts getting active gets more active. It's a cycle that follows itself. We manifest our will and when we want to accomplish, we suddenly are able to accomplish. We set out a good vibe out there in the world that allows it to happen. I just want to sleep a little more, as the verse says. How long will you sleep, you lazy man? When will you rise from your sleep? From your sleep Omed Mishnoso no sunul afon of le'echo v'hu mis'at selos el siyado l'tochpiv. When he gets out of bed, they give him something to eat, but he's too lazy to put his mouth into his hand, into his mouth to eat. As it is written toman otzel yado v'talochas nil el hashivo elpiv. There's a verse as well in Proverbs the lazy man buries his hand in the dish, but he is too weary to return it to his mouth. You already have it. The idea is that this is a metaphor, not for the food, but for life.

05:24
How many times we have the opportunity, we have the ability? I'll give you an example. How many times in the history of mankind were people limited from studying Torah? Because they didn't have access to Torah? They didn't have access because they didn't have books. There wasn't a printing press like we have today. They didn't have access. So you know what we have in the 21st century. We have access, we have a lot of access.

05:48
You go on artscrollcom. You can go, but you know what? You don't need to buy it. I can't afford it. I can't afford it. Don't buy it. You can get everything free online today. You can go. There are dozens of websites that offer you can see Torah pages, the Dafyomi, for example. There are hundreds and hundreds of websites where you can see the teachings of the Dafyomi. You can watch the video on YouTube. You can watch the video on. You know the AllDAF app. They have apps for it, you have.

06:23
So what's the excuse now? No, I can't. It's like you know, it used to be you had to travel to your rabbi. It used to be you had to learn it from a book. There was maybe one in a town. It used to be you had to buy the book. It used to be you had to log online and pay for it. Now we have none of those excuses. You don't have to pay. It's all free. We have over 5,000 titles of Torch videos online. You know that on YouTube 5,000 titles. You have podcasts today. It's all free.

07:00
So what's the excuse for people to be ignorant in their Judaism? There's really no excuse. But we're living in a lazy world. Living in a lazy world where King Solomon is saying his hand is on the food, but he's too lazy to put it into his mouth. What is that? We have our phones. We have our devices. You can have Torah scrolling on your phone all day. You can have classes listening with your earbuds while you jog. I love that one of our students always keeps on telling me. He says Rabbi, do you know where we were today? Today, we were on the bayou walking and we went shopping together and we walked the dog together and we defolded the laundry together. Me, what do you mean? I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't do any of those things. No, no, no, I was listening to your class while I was doing those things. That's a maximizing of our time, maximizing of our life.

07:56
Here, the author is telling us that it's so easy if someone is lazy, they have their hand with their food in their hand. They're just too lazy to put it into their mouth. We have the device, we can just click, play, and we're just not putting it into our mouth, we're not consuming it. This is a real big challenge, and so these are seven different layers that we've discussed.

08:20
V'ezu ush ashvi, shenemar mi'chorif otzel lo yacharosh, the lazy person will not plow in the winter. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says Omer. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, zeh shalol lo ma'atorah b'n'ura. V'rotzel l'ilmod b'zeknusa v'ein. He says this is referring to someone who didn't study in their youth and will not be able to study in their old age. They're not able to. All of this is the reprimand of King Solomon of the lazy men.

08:58
Moses, our leader, said the following Omar Dovar, god don't make cool him. He said something so incredible Shnemar ki korod yilecha dover, mi'od b'ficha u'bilvavcha la'asoso, our leader, moses, what did he tell us? For this thing, referring to the Torah is extremely close to you, in your mouth and in your heart. To accomplish it, just let it out of your mouth. Just let it out. Just let it out. He's not even ready to speak it out. Just talk it out. There's no laziness that is greater than this, than that of failing to emit the words from one's mouth. Just speak them out.

09:55
It's such an incredible responsibility that we have, particularly in our generation, our generation where we have so much and yet we're the most medicated generation in the history of the world. We have so much. Children today have the most incredible wealth, the most incredible opportunity. You can get a master's, you can get a doctorate from YouTube. It's free. You have classes on anything you could possibly imagine.

10:31
My wife was telling me that one of the ice maker in the refrigerator wasn't working. How am I supposed to know how to do that? Well, I searched up on YouTube. I used the first principle of the ways of the 48 ways, which is B'talmud, to study, learn something, learn something new. Every day. I go onto YouTube, I put in the model number of this unit, this refrigerator, and boom, you have 55,000 videos about how to fix all the different ice makers in every type of refrigerator system. It's like you become a scientist when you're done with this thing. It's unbelievable. You learn one after another and then this thing can be replaced and that could be replaced, and you and try that and this error message and that error message. It's unbelievable.

11:20
The wisdom that's free, it's available, it's right there for each and every one of us. It's there, it's right by our fingertips, literally by our fingertips, like like king solomon tells us. Are we willing to just take it from our fingertips and actualize it? And Moses, our great leader. He says Befichol blavav chalasos, anything you want to accomplish, you need two components mouth, heart, okay, desire and action. Just do it. You know how to become a great scholar. You think it's to go to a great seminary, to go to a great yeshiva. That's how I'm going to become a Torah scholar. No, and how do you become a great Torah scholar? Just sit and learn. Just sit and learn. You become a great scholar. That's how you become a great scholar. Youtube can help, but that's it. You just sit down and learn. Open up a book, take a book, take a chumash, take any book. Open it up and just start learning. That's it. It's nothing more complicated.

12:27
I remember in yeshiva they used to say this Guys had this desire to be the greatest scholar in the world, to be the greatest, you know, the leader of the Jewish people. Everybody, every child, grows up with some dreams. Some kids in the United States grew up back in my days. They grew up. They woke up every morning dreaming that they're going to be the next Michael Jordan. The problem is, the nice Jewish boy is only five foot four. That's not going to help, right. But everybody has a dream.

12:51
I remember when I was in yeshiva in Israel. I was young, young boys 13, 14, 15, 16 year olds. I want to be a great Torah scholar. You know what the rabbi used to say. You know how you become a great Torah scholar. You think it's lineage. No, you think it is getting blessings from rabbis. No, you think it's going and getting these, these amulets and these great Kabbalistic. None of that is going to help Sit and learn. I remember this.

13:22
My grandfather would field questions all the time. People would come to the house and ask questions. I remember as clear as day that people would knock when I was there for lunch with my grandfather. Many, many times People would knock on the door and I would go open the door. Yes, I can help you. Is the rabbi available? What do you need? Well, my son is here His bar mitzvah today. I want him to get a blessing. I had to go to my grandfather into the kitchen while he's eating. If someone's here for a blessing their son has a bar mitzvah tonight my grandfather would come to the door he'd get up.

13:55
It was a whole process, you know. He was an elderly man already and he would come to the door and he would look at them and give them a beautiful smile and say, yeah, mazel Tov, you know how can I help you. They're like. You know this young boy. He's turning 13. Tonight it's his bar mitzvah. He wants a blessing. So my grandfather would turn to the boy and say what would you like a blessing for? Just to be a real great scholar. You want to be a great scholar? Sit and learn, sit and learn. You want a blessing for that. There's no blessing for that. Blessing's not going to help.

14:23
You got to do action, action, action, action. You have to commit yourself to action, open up the book and start learning. That's how you become a scholar. And I'm telling you when you start learning and it's fresh to you, so it's like it's all green and you don't know what you're doing yet and you don't understand everything yet. But suddenly it could be a week or two or a month or two or a year or two. Suddenly you have an epiphany One second. I learned that there and I learned that there, and I learned that there. You start connecting all the pieces and suddenly it becomes from a one-dimensional to two-dimensional, to three-dimensional, to four-dimensional. Suddenly you're living in this world of Torah because you've continued to amass more and more and more knowledge.

15:11
I remember when I went to the former Soviet Union and I started. I was on a mission to learn to Soviet Union and I started. I was on a mission to learn to speak Russian. I remember when the plane landed in Boryspil Airport in Kiev, the first time I was there, I remember I turned to myself, I turned aside and I said okay, I speak three languages now Hebrew, english and Yiddish. I'm erasing them from my memory for the next month. For the next month, I'm not speaking any English, hebrew or Yiddish. I'm just going to speak Russian. Problem is, I don't know any words in Russian. So here's what I did. I went over to the guy sitting next to me. I said how do you say what is this? What is this? So he told me how to say it what is this? So I would go over to the kids and I would say what is this? And they would tell me what it is and I would write it down and I would say what is this? And I would like each thing and you're like what is this? And I would say, and I was like each thing. And you're like what is this, what is this, what is this?

16:20
I started collecting like 1500 words, 2000 words, and then I used the languages that I knew, like Yiddish, mostly matching Yiddish, and a little bit of Hebrew. You have a lot less consonants in those languages and I was able to put together sentences. And I was able to put together with proper grammar because it fits better than you would with English. Trying to go to Russian from English is more difficult than going to Russian from Hebrew or Yiddish. Either way, you have to put together a whole pile of words and now you can start making sense of them. The problem is, if you just take ten words, okay, so you see, I don't speak Russian, I'm out, goodbye, never going to work. You have to fill in that tank as much as possible.

17:15
When we're trying to accomplish in our study of Torah, learn more and more and more and more, and it will suddenly become from one dimension to two dimensions, three dimensions, four dimensions, and suddenly it's a really rich tapestry and we're suddenly living in a world of Torah. Ad kan gina lo shlomot. Okay, so this is what King Solomon said. So this is what Solomon said and this is what Moses teaches us. See how far the lazy man is from all the good traits and how completely unfit he is for any mission. Just as vinegar is unfit for teeth, as it is written as vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a lazy person to those who send him. A lazy person never gets things done. And Tavas Otzel. The verse also states Tavas Otzel, the desire of the lazy man will kill him and his hands refuse to do. The lazy man is wiser in his eyes than seven who answer sensibly. You want to understand how to understand this verse in Proverbs?

18:51
A king has many couriers and emissaries who all performed missions for the king and also submitted a report to him upon returning from their missions. It's almost like the federal government, right? They report the five things they accomplished last week. Ve'osu kulam shlichuso shel melech. They fulfilled their tasks. Ve'gam eishivu dvar hamelech kishichazu mishlichusim. They report on exactly what they accomplished.

19:22
And one of the king's servants was a lazy man. And he always says you know, I'm ill, I'm sick, no, I'm ill, I'm sick. And he rests and he eats from the king's table when he sees that his friends are coming back all tired from running and carrying out the king's decrees and carrying out the king's decrees. So he makes believe that he's wiser than all of them. But this is foolishness, for it is written. Have you seen a man quick in his work? He shall stand before kings. Here too, the king will reward those wise ones who did his bidding and will pay no attention to the lazy one. In summary, the lazy man is fit neither for this world nor for the next world.

20:35
Why? Because the wise one refuses to do good. The is the tragedy of laziness. A lazy person just doesn't get things done. And a person can train themselves to be unlazy, and a person can train themselves to be lazy. A person who's always relaxing and always this, eh, he doesn't want to get it done. I'll get it done tomorrow. I'll get it done next week. I'll be pushing it off, procrastinating. It's laziness, someone who trains themselves. Now work, let's go, get up, jump out of bed. Got a date day ahead, run to school, run back, do this, do that. This is really important for a person who really invest time and focus in unlazying ourselves and being proactive in getting work done. So this concludes day number 93.

21:48 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.