Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review podcast.

Welcome back to the Parsha Review. Now, this week's Parsha is Parsha's Bo, the third portion in the book of Shemot, of Exodus. And I wanted to share with you a very, very powerful thought that I learned this week, and I think it's just like, it hits home so powerfully. So what human being had the greatest revelations of miracles on earth in all of history?
There's no one who's seen more open miracles than Pharaoh. There's no one who's seen more miracles than Pharaoh. Every miracle was displayed in front of him. Moses and Aaron, we see all the plagues that are befalling the Egyptians. Everything was shown like a magician standing in front of Pharaoh. He saw it all, and yet nothing changed. Nothing changed in his perspective. How is that possible? We see that there's a hardening of his heart once and twice and three times, many, many times,
each time where he declines to allow the Jewish people to leave. What's wrong with this guy? What is wrong that he sees these miracles and still doesn't have any impact on him? So I'd like to share with you a beautiful thought that I saw by my grandfather. He says that Pharaoh is a type of personality. It's a type of personality that we have, each and every one of us have inside us, where at times we can see the writing on the wall.
We can, it can be right in front of our face, but we're stubborn and we don't make changes. We don't make any changes. We don't allow for those proofs, for those, that clear vision that we see to have any influence on us. He says, this is a Pharaoh syndrome. Doctor, you didn't even know we had such a syndrome. It didn't impact him. It's a mentality that the messages are coming in, but are not being listened to. In this week's Parsha, we see something else
where it says that it's an amazing thing. The miracles are happening. The miracles are still unfolding. And God says the following verse, chapter 10, verse two. So don't forget, right now they're in the middle of the plagues. The plagues are not over yet. God says as follows. Uleman tesaper, and in order that you relate beoz nevincho, into the ears of your sons, uvenvincho, and to the grandsons, eis asheri salalti b'mitzrayim, that which I made mockery of the Egyptians,
ves oso sayesher samtibam, and my signs that I placed among them, vi yadatem ki ani hashem. And you shall know that I am Hashem. You shall know that I am Hashem. What's going on here? All of the plagues are unfolding. Pharaoh's being told about each and every one of them in advance, where Moses and Aaron are relating to Pharaoh, let my people go, or else you'll see these unbelievable plagues before you. And one after another, after another, they come.
But what does God say before these plagues are over? He says, God says, you know why I'm doing this? God didn't need to make this whole magic show. So why did God do it? Why did God do it? If he doesn't need to make these magic, he could just get the Jewish people out. So why is God doing these miracles? God is bringing these miracles about so that, so that we have the material to learn our amunah,
to learn our amunah, so that we have the ability, the yadatah, it should be a knowledge, not just a faith. Oh, a leap of faith. Faith is not a Jewish value. Knowledge is a Jewish value. Where God commands us to have knowledge of his existence, knowledge of his miracles, knowledge of his sovereignty over the world. Where God gives us a commandment here, in order, v'yadatem ki ani Hashem, that you shall know that I am Hashem. Knowledge is very different than faith.
Faith, I take a leap of faith. We know religions that are built on this. It's a leap of faith. Do I know? I don't have knowledge, but I'll just, I'll jump into it and hopefully I'm right. There's no such thing in Judaism. V'yadatah hayom, v'hashivot el levavecha. You should have knowledge and bring that knowledge into your heart. Our sages tell us, you know how you do that. The secret is in this verse. How do we bring the knowledge of God into our lives?
You know how. Laman tesaper ba'aznei bincha. You have to talk about it. You have to verbalize. You have to speak it out. You know what we do in order to instill within ourselves, emunah, to instill within ourselves the knowledge of God's existence? We talk the words. We speak of it. Because what does that do? That makes it real in our lives. That's what makes it real. It's an amazing thing. You want to fall in love with someone.
You want to be able to start expressing your love. When you start expressing that love, that love grows. You know, there's a couple came to a therapist once. Doctor, this may be you. Couple came to a therapist and the wife says to the doctor, my husband doesn't love me anymore. So the therapist turns to the husband, is that true that you don't love your wife anymore? He says, what are you talking about? Of course I love.
So she says, you haven't said I love you in 15 years. He's like, I told you when we got married, I love you. And if anything changes, I'll let you know. We all know that that doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't work for it to be autopilot. You have to express and the more you express that love, the more you express it, the more it becomes real. The more that love grows. When we talk about the greatness of Hashem,
when we talk about the miracles, it's not a concept of Emunah. It's living. It has to be something which is alive within us. It's an important thing. Particularly, we're talking about marriage. We bring that example. So there's an individual walking in the street and he sees the city workers on the boulevard. One guy is digging and the other guy is pushing the dirt back into the ground. One guy's digging it out and the other one's pushing it back in.
It's like, these people crazy? What's going on? What's going on? How is it possible? One guy's digging, the other guy's throwing the dirt right back in. See, he inquires, what's going on here? He finds out that really it's a three-man team. One person digs the hole, one person plants the tree, and the other person fills it back in. But the middle guy wasn't feeling well. He didn't show up that day. So the first guy knows he needs to dig.
The second guy knows he needs to push it back, shovel it back in. But the guy, the main guy who makes it happen, who plants the tree, didn't show up. It's like us trying to figure out life, a husband and wife. You know, there's three partners to mankind. The Father, the Mother, and the Almighty. If we keep God out of our lives, it's like we're digging and then pushing, shoveling it back in. Digging, shoveling it back in.
We're not allowing God to flourish within us. That would be insanity. This is the gift that we see in the second verse in this week's parasha. That when we talk things out, you have a miracle in your life. We have miracles every day. Talk them out, speak them out, verbalize them, because when we verbalize them, that's when the emunah, that's when the knowledge of Hashem becomes real in our lives. It's not dormant. It's not a concept. It's not a theory.
It becomes living within us. And that's the commandment. The commandment is not to have faith. Oh, somewhere out there I believe. No, no, no, no, no. That it's alive within us. That we breathe emunah. That's the commandment in this week's parasha. So my dear friends, it's such a powerful thought. Let's not be a pharaoh who sees miracles and it has no impact. There are many pharaohs out there, and there's many a pharaoh within ourselves
where things just happen and we don't take the message. Recognize Hashem is right here with us in our day-to-day lives. Every single moment we can experience the miracles if we open up our eyes to see them. Hashem should give us the privilege and the opportunity to build our relationship with Him deeper and deeper every day, that we should not only see the miracles, but feel the miracles in our bones by speaking them out, sharing the wisdom of Hashem every day with the world,
and the miracles that we experience should continue to grow and the revelation grow further and further. Amen. Have a remarkable Shabbos, my dear friends.

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