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.

00:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Good morning, it's so wonderful to be here. Welcome to the parsha review podcast, it is. It is incredible to have the weekly learning together. And the second portion in the book of Genesis is the portion of Noach. What happened at the end of the first portion of Bereshit? God says you know, mankind has become so evil, they've done so many immoral things, they've done so many things wrong. I need to wipe them all out. And God says to Noah, who was righteous in his generation, the righteous one. He says take your wife, get a pair of each of the non-kosher animal, get seven of the kosher animals, men and seven peers, and bring them into the teva, into the ark.

01:07
The ark was. The Torah defines exactly the size, the length, the width, the height, three floors, garbage on the bottom, animals in the middle and the mankind up on the top floor. And now the Torah says, towards the end of this whole story, and God blotted out all of existence. And he blotted out all of existence that was on the face of the earth. Everybody, from man to animal, to the creeping things and to the birds of the heaven, they were all blotted out from the earth. What remained, the only survivors that were left was Noach and those who were with him in the ark. So this is obvious, right? We know that he was in the ark. We know that. What is going on here? Why does it need to spell out that Noah was the remaining survivor? So what do we do whenever we have a question like that? We look at Rashi, the great commentator. What does Rashi say? Rashi says something incredible. He says that Noah was late to feeding the lion and he bit him. And we see that he was. This was his payment. He was late to feeding the lion. Now let me ask you a question, just so we can get some understanding here. For one year, they were in the ark.

02:53
It says the Talmud says that the children of Noah and Noah himself were on rotation, that all the 12 months that they were in the ark, we did not sleep. We couldn't sleep. We had to learn what each animal needed. And those who needed to eat by night, we fed them at night. Those who needed to eat by day we fed them by day. Those that needed meat we gave them meat. Those who needed seeds we gave them seeds. Those who needed this everything they needed. They were busy the entire time making sure that they weren't zoologists. They had to go and work hard and feed every single one of the animals and he's late one time to feeding the lion and he gets bitten. It's almost like what's going on here.

03:52
The Talmud says that the lion was sick. The Talmud says in Sanhedrin that the lion got sick. So Noah saw that he wasn't sick. He doesn't have an appetite. He says okay, I'll get back to him right away. He wasn't even late. He was there on time on schedule. You don't have an appetite? Okay, I'll come back soon. I'll feed you. Meanwhile he goes to feed the other animals.

04:15
Noah doesn't realize that the lion got his appetite back. And Noach comes late and he bites him Just when he went to feed the other animals. The lion got hungry and he got angry and he bit him. He got angry and he bit him. So the Talmud says in Shabbat, track day, shabbat, it says that an animal cannot have any impact on a human unless he loses the image of godliness, the human being. We're an image of God, we're an image of God. We're an image of God. Unless we lose that godly image, an animal cannot have any impact.

05:06
I remember walking with my grandfather of blessed memory. We were walking. We grew up in Brooklyn until I was 10 years old and we'd walk. We had the neighbor's dogs. They would always run after us. They would chase us. Sometimes they would you know, sometimes they were nice and they would just smell us. Sometimes they, would you know, jump on us. They'd be aggressive sometimes. When my grandfather came, I remember I walked with him to synagogue. The dogs looked and they turned away and walked away. They just walked away. These are dogs that all of us, the entire neighbor. They always were super aggressive. They saw something which was godly, they saw something which was great. They turned around and walked away.

05:53
The Talmud says An animal has no impact on a human, a negative impact unless he loses his godly image. It's frightening. How do we understand this? How do we understand this? Regarding Noach Talking about Noach, who was so great? Noach was righteous, noah was righteous.

06:19
Our sages tell us that when someone does something for the public, they should do it. They should do it for the sake of heaven. You don't do it for your own accolades. You don't want people to. You don't want to do it because, oh, I want everyone to know how great I am, so I'm going to do this action. I'm going to do this deed. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm everyone to know how great I am, so I'm going to do this action. I'm going to do this deed. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to volunteer here so they put my name, they honor me. I'm going to make my donations so I get a big plaque.

06:46
No, do it, l'shem sh'mayim, do it for the sake of heaven, and a person has to really, really be cautious and is for the sake of heaven, not for my own benefit. I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it because this is the will of Hashem. And what happens if you're not able to fulfill your job and do what you wanted to do properly? It means you wanted to give that donation, but now people found out about it and everyone's making whoa, david, you know what David did? David made this massive donation to the synagogue and now it's like everyone's giving you the credit. God says you intended to do it for the right reason. God ma le'ani aleichem. I consider it as if you've done it with the fullest of godly intentions. Okay, and if you desire to do something and you're not able to do it, it's as if you did it. You know, it's just an amazing side thing.

07:48
You know people say when I win the lottery, then I'm going to give charity. When I make all this money, then I'm going to give. You know, the rule is if you don't give already, now, you're not going to give it later. If you don't give when you don't have, you're not going to give it later. If you don't give when you don't have, you're not going to give when you do have, because that muscle is not suddenly going to show up. That muscle is not suddenly going to appear. You need to exercise that muscle. When you don't have, you give a dollar, you give two dollars, you give twenty dollars, you give fifty dollars, whatever it is you can give.

08:17
And, by the way, there's someone who sends me almost daily a donation online like for $1.47, $2.52. I'm not kidding you. Okay, why. He has some calculation. I don't even know. I never really asked why, but he has some calculation of how much money he made the previous day and then he gives, whether it's 1%, maybe it's 10%, maybe it's 20. I have no idea. I know he gives to other people also in interesting numbers, right, but the idea is that he's giving every day and when you give every day, you're exercising that muscle. So when he wins that $100 million, he'll also give. It's not going to suddenly be a new exercise for him to give. So tell me who gives. Who was a greater giver than Noach? Noach spent an entire year giving and giving, and giving and giving to each of these animals, and this is his reward, this is his punishment Is that he has to walk out of the ark after a year of feeding these animals limping because he got bitten by the lion, because he was late and it wasn't even his fault. The lion was sick. So our sages tell us an amazing thing.

09:45
In the Talmud Omer of Yehuda Amarav, rabbi Yehuda says in the name of Rav Kol mashas osa avram avinu l'malache asheras be'atzmo osa ha'kodesh boruchu levonav be'atzmo. Whatever Abraham, whatever Abraham did himself for the angels that came to his house, he did it himself. God himself provided that same action for the Jewish people, for the Jewish people וְאַקֹל מָשְׁעַאָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָהָ. We'll see this in two weeks. Torah portion. We'll see that Abraham ran to the animals to go slaughter an animal. What happened later on?

10:46
In the book of Numbers we see V'ruach nosa me'eis Hashem ve'yogos salvim minayam. God himself fed the Jewish people. We see that Abraham fed the angels himself. God fed the Jewish people himself. We see that in Genesis we see that when Abraham fed the angels, he fed them himself the milk and the butter. God does the same. It says God feeds them the bread. Which butter is placed on the bread? God feeds the bread himself in Exodus, and he stood with them under the tree. These angels that came to visit Abraham. God says I am going to stand there with you by the rock. And later we see, and Abraham goes and sends them off and God in Exodus says God travels with them. So everything that Abraham did for the angels himself, god does himself for the Jewish people.

12:11
But what does it say regarding the water? Abraham sends his son. He sends it by his son. So what happens when the Jewish people need water? How do they get the water in the desert? They get the water through, through the stone. They're going to need Moses to hit the stone. The stone later was to talk to the stone. They're not. They're not getting it directly from god. So now you have a couple of really important questions, really important questions.

12:43
We see all of the incredible things that Abraham did. We see everything that he did. It goes all the way to his great-grandchildren. That's the impact. The impact is all the way to his great-grandchildren, his great-great-great-great-grandchildren. We have Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, to the tribe of Levi, and then Levi was the great-grandfather of Moses. So you're talking about seven generations from Abraham all the way to Moses, and that's the impact that it has.

13:21
Can we assume that the actions that we have will affect seven generations from us? That's a pretty powerful impact. And then if a person has one little flaw, one little mistake, it has such an impact, such a massive impact. It really is an amazing thing. How is that possible?

13:51
So we have to understand that, particularly with our ancestors, with our patriarchs and our matriarchs, abraham Isaac and Jacob, sarah, rebecca, rachel and Leah. It says Rachel and Leah. It says Maaseh, avot, siman, libanim. Their actions is a sign for us Meaning we can find within ourselves a way to connect to their actions. We can find within ourselves the blessings of their actions, and also those that were inactions are also found within ourselves. But it's a sign for us to see. If you think you can't attain greatness, you're making a mistake. You know why? Because you're a descendant of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, sarah, rebecca, rachel and Leah. They had greatness, so you have greatness too.

14:40
Just by the way, current events, they were promised the land of Israel, abraham Isaac and Jacob and the tribes of Israel, and Moses and Aaron and Joshua. It didn't stop by the second generation. I know this because I posted on. We have a TikTok for Torch and one of the videos that I posted. I get all these free Palestine, free Palestine comments. Okay, fine, ignore them, but on one of them we talked about the promise that I posted. I get all these free Palestine, free Palestine comments. Okay, fine, ignore them, but on one of them. We talked about the promise that Hashem made to Abraham, isaac and Jacob and the tribes and Moses and Aaron and Joshua, and further, further. You go further through the lineage of the Jewish people and we see that that promise was made time and again and again, and again. So the guy says, yeah, but Yishmael First. There's no such promise to Yishmael. It was a promise to the sons of, to the son of Abraham. So they're saying it was Yishmael, but it was also made to Isaac and it was also made to Isaac and it was also made to Jacob and it was also made to Jacob's children. That's very different. Okay, so that's just a side note.

15:58
The Torah is a document for us to learn from. It's for us to learn from the greatness of what we can accomplish. The Torah is not just a book of stories. It's not a history book. If it is, it's a very miserable one. It's not written well as a storybook or as a history book. It's a book of guidance. The Almighty is guiding us in how to live life and we have to take everything we can from the stories of the Torah to learn and to infuse our lives with those inspirations.

16:49
You know it says that when a child starts to talk, his father needs to teach him Torah. What is Torah? Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe. You have to teach him the verse Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe, that Moshe commanded us the Torah. That's what you need to teach your child. Why? Because the essence of who we are is formed by our early years. Gius et Yankus are sages. Teach us. The early years have such an impact, which is why it's so vital, so important for us to ensure that when we have little children, that we don't just push them off here. Go watch Sesame Street, go watch this, go watch that. If you want to know why there's indoctrination in some of the school systems around the country, particularly to young children, because they're very influenceable, they're very impressionable.

17:55
At a young age, when a child begins to speak, the first thing you do is you infuse emunah, teach them Torah. What does it say about Rabbi Yeshua Ben Hanania? He was such a great sage. It says what does it say about Rabbi Yeshua ben Hananiah? He was such a great sage. It says Ashrei Yoladotot, praise is the one who birthed him. Meaning from a young age already. From a young age, they already instilled this emunah. They say about the Gaon of Vilna, the Gaon of Vilna, who lived what 200 years ago, the Gaon of Vilna you's talking about. At the age of eight he finished the entire talmud. He was already dealing with kabbalah. You know, when he was 10 years old he was dealing with, he knew everything in in torah. They say that his mother would put him when he was a little baby, in the study hall while he was sleeping so that subconsciously he would intake and internalize the words of Torah. Study People were sitting in the study hall learning Torah all day, all night. She'd put him so that he'd adhere to be an intake of Torah. And that has an influence, that has a tremendous power.

19:16
We know that the beginnings are so critical, we know that it is so vital the first years of a child's life, the early years, but also the beginning of a marriage. We know that the emphasis the Torah makes on a young couple in their first year of marriage. He's not supposed to be away from her one night, even one night, the first year of marriage. Our sages today, modern day rabbis my grandfather included among them say that today it's more than a year, it's three years, seven years even. Some say In the beginning of marriage you're laying down the foundations for your future. It needs to be firm, it needs to be solid, it needs to be unquestionable. It needs to create a foundation of strength. The beginnings are the most critical time.

20:12
We also see that the beginnings are always difficult as well. Kolos holos koshos. All beginnings are difficult. You're going to start a new regimen at your workout. It's not going to be easy in the beginning. You're going to start a new habit. It's not going to be easy in the beginning. It's always going to be difficult. It's always going to be easy in the beginning. You're going to start a new habit. It's not going to be easy in the beginning. It's always going to be difficult. It's always going to have challenge.

20:41
We're planting seeds. We're planting seeds not only for our future. We're planting seeds for our children, for our grandchildren, for our great-grandchildren. In the blessings that we recite in our prayer, our blessing for Torah, a blessing on the Torah, what do we say? Ve'ha'arev no'ashe'ma, lo'keinu Hashem, please make it sweet for us the words of your Torah. Ve'ni'anachnu v'tsetso'enu, v'tsetso'et setso'enu. That it should be for us, for our descendants and our descendants' descendants. It should be sweet in their mouth and they should come close to you through your Torah. What's that prayer? We're not only praying for ourselves. We're laying down the foundations. We're laying down the foundations for our future and this is something which is so, so, critically important for us to recognize and to realize.

21:41
Noah was laying down the foundations for the future of mankind. He was laying down the foundation for the future of all animals, for the whole animal kingdom. Who's the king of all animals? For the whole animal kingdom? Who's the king of all animals? It was the lion. There's a future that's at stake here.

22:00
We have to be so careful with that future. That doesn't mean that we have to live in trepidation, we have to live in fear, but, on the contrary, we have to take it as an opportunity. We have to take it as an opportunity. We have to take it as an opportunity. We're laying down solid foundations for the future. We're laying down solid foundations for the future. My dear friends, we should learn from Noah Lay down solid foundations. We should learn it from Abraham, isaac and Jacob and from all of our ancestors, our matriarchs, our patriarchs, sarah, rebecca, rachel and Leah. The impact that we have from them is unimaginable. How greatly impacted we are from them. Let's embrace it, let's take it and expand on it and let's give it over to our children as well. Hashem shud bless us all. Have an amazing Shabbos.

22:58 - 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.