Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

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

And now my dear friends, we are back to day number 152 in the middle of the Gate of Repentance, page 830, 830, in the Treasure for Life edition of the Orcha Tzadik and the Ways of the Righteous. We're talking about the ninth step in Teshuvah, Shvira Satava, Breaking of the Desire. Someone's urges, someone's desires, spoils all of their deeds. V'yifrosh min ha-moseros, afil b'davar hamutoloh. A person should refrain and withdraw from
luxuries, even those that are permitted. Just because it's permitted doesn't mean you should. I'll give you a great example in a second. V'yisnayik b'darki ha-prishos, and a person should separate even from things that are permissible. V'lo yochal rakh la-sovah nafsho l'kaim gufo. A person should only eat so that he can satiate his soul and maintain his body. Not to eat just for gluttonous purposes and desires. I was just talking to a friend of mine over the weekend, over Shabbos, and we were talking about there are different cultures.
Even in the Jewish community, sadly, it happens a lot where, you know, you'll have people who want to drive really nice cars and have really fancy homes and things like that. And it's like, is that really what we're about? Is that really what we're about, to just show off the money that we've made? He said to me, he says, you know, when the Cybertruck was announced by Elon Musk, some people love it, some people hate it. I personally think it's the coolest car in the world.
My friend told me, he says, I saw it. I'm like, I'm getting that car. I'm getting that car. He put a deposit down, and then when they called him to say that if he wants to pick up his order he can, he says, you know, he wants to cancel his thing. I said, why? Why did you decide that? He said, the most amazing thing, which is what the principles are, he says, just because I can doesn't mean I should. And that's the truth.
And I told him that, you know, my children always tell me, oh, can you get a Cybertruck? I'm like, no, no, no. I said, if someone came over to me today and says, here, I'm giving you a gift. Here are the keys to my Rolls Royce for you. You think I'm going to drive it? I'm not going to drive it. It's free. It didn't cost you anything, right? I still can't drive it. I can't do it. I can't do it.
There has to be a certain value system that this is just, yeah, it's permitted. It doesn't mean you do everything that's permitted. Just because it's permitted, right? Just because it's permissible does not make it the right thing to be done. And this, in life in general, yeah, you can eat that fancy cut of meat. Yeah, I can afford. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. It's an important thing. וכן לעניין אישו, כי כל זמן שאדם הולך אחרא, תו ונמשך אחרא, תוד אחרא, תוד אוס הגוף ישרחק מדרך הנפש המשכאלס.
Same thing with all of a person's desires in his marital relations with his spouse. Even though it is permitted, it doesn't mean that a person should be regular with these things, because a person will draw closer and closer to allowing their evil inclination into their lives to overpower. ואז ישגה בייצר אולף כדי חשיב, וישמן ישורן ואיברת, as the verse states, and Yishurun, the Jewish people, became fat and kicked, kicked, rebelled against God. Means part of us becoming satiated in a world of luxury and desires and filling ourselves up.
What's the problem? I didn't steal. I paid my taxes. I did everything right. Yeah, but what happens when we become so sated by our food and we start rebelling? וקשיב פן אספה וכי חשתי ורמתי מהשם, And then a person can, God forbid, get to a point where he says, I'm full. Look at me. I've got the whole world. I can do whatever I want. I can afford anything. Who's Hashem, by the way? Who's that? מי השם? He's going to ask, who is Hashem?
This is a verse in Proverbs. A verse in Proverbs. King Solomon tells us that's what's going to happen when a person gets too comfortable. They blow against Hashem. The desire which is implanted in a man's heart is the root of all of his actions. Therefore, a person has to quickly, properly correct his desire. We spoke about this earlier. And breaking one's lock on physical desires and temptation, there's a great benefit. A person first will feel good that he's in control.
Like a friend of mine was telling me recently that he dreads Yom Kippur. He dreads Yom Kippur because he's addicted to coffee and he must have his coffee. I told him, you know, I understand that you like coffee, but you're addicted to coffee? You shouldn't be addicted to anything. A person needs to be in control. We should not be, you should be addicted to our love with Hashem. That's it. Our spouse. That's it. Torah. But to be addicted to a physical thing?
Yeah, I enjoy two cups of coffee every day. I can live without it perfectly. It's a great luxury to have. It's a great gift from Hashem. But to make it like, I can't have my coffee. I can't fast on Yom Kippur because I need my coffee. We can't allow the physical world to take control over us. A person will reveal in breaking his desires and temptations, he will demonstrate that his heart is good and just. And that a person will realize that he despises the physical nature,
which caused him to sin. So that when a person gets more involved in the physical realm, he becomes over overdriven by it. Our sages teach us, we learned this in the Messias Yasharim, in the ways of the righteous. No, not ways of the righteous. We're learning now the ways of the righteous, right? Path of the just. Messias Yasharim, he writes in the first or second chapter, he says that the balance of influence between spirituality and physicality, they can't be both at their max.
Something's coming at the expense of the other. If you want to invest in your physical world, you're going to give up on your spiritual world. And if you want to invest in your spiritual world, you're going to give up on your physical world. The problem is that we're convinced in our country, in our culture, that we can be full tank on both. It doesn't work. One is coming at the expense of the other, right? You want to be spiritually immersed in your relationship with Hashem?
It's going to come at the expense of your physical immersion in this world. Now, there's a balance, and that's what Torah is all about. The Torah is the gift of balance. The Torah teaches us how we balance the two, and there's a right time for everything. You know what? Anyone here like wine? Who doesn't like wine? Wine is delicious. It's so beautiful. It's majestic. It's regal. It's delicious. I like wine. There's a time where there's a mitzvah to drink wine.
Not on a regular Tuesday, but on Shabbos, on Yom Tov, on holiday, special time to drink wine. Who likes meat? Well, guess what? I don't know that anybody can afford meat every single day of the week, but there's a special time in the week when we're celebrated. We celebrate our relationship with Hashem with meat. That's Shabbos. That's Yom Tov. That's the holidays. There's a right time for everything. There's a balance. If a person drinks wine every day, they'll be a drunkard.
They'll be on the side of the road drunk. That's a terrible thing. So there's a balance to things. You like candies? Great. So you can have a candy every once in a while. You eat candies all day. You'll have cavities. You'll eat up your teeth. It's not good. Anything in extreme is not good. And that's the gift of Torah. The gift of Torah is the lesson of balance. If a person realizes that he's in control for things that are permissible,
then he's also going to be in control for things that are not permissible. I'll just tell you one side benefit of keeping kosher. If you ever go to the checkout counter in any supermarket, you go to HEB or Randall's of blessed memory, and you go with your shopping cart, you have your baby or your child in the cart, and at the checkout counter they always have these temptation buys, right? So like these chocolates or cookies or candies or chocolate bars, whatever it may be.
Now, the kids, why do they put it there? Because they know the kids being in the wagon are going to say, oh, mommy, I want that chocolate. I'm like, okay, I don't want my kid to throw a tantrum here. Here, I'll buy you the chocolate. So it's very interesting that if the product is not kosher and I tell my child, I'm sorry, I would love to buy you that, but it's not kosher, conversation ends. It's over. The conversation's over. Why?
Because I can't. I'm not allowed to. The Torah prohibits me from eating that. So the conversation is over. What does a child learn that there are certain things that are just no? I think it would be a lot of help for our generation if kids learned that there are certain things that are just no. Why? Because there's a higher power that dictates for us what we can and cannot do. And the benefits way outweigh the loss.
Yes, every once in a while you'll be in a place, you're like, you know what, there's not really much kosher food here. I can't really eat that much. Okay, so that'll happen once, twice a year, maybe. You'll be on a plane, they don't have kosher food on the plane. Okay, so I won't eat until I land. Okay. Not the end of the world. But the benefit of being able to learn to have that self-control that when it's a no, it's a no, because it's not kosher, finished.
So now the child learned that there are just certain things that are just no. It's a very good thing for a person to learn and for a person to train themselves with. HaAsiri, the 10th piece of repentance. Correcting one's deeds with the object of his abuse. What does that mean? How does that work? If a person gazed, looked at something that was immodest, a person should learn purity of eyes. He should use his words in words of Torah.
With any part of his body that a person may have sinned, a person sins with his hand, he should do a mitzvah with his hand, meaning the same limb with which you did the sin, do the correction for that sin with a mitzvah. And so our sages tell him, the same limb with which they did a sin, the righteous, with whichever limb they did the sin, they also do the repair for that sin with the same limb. And our sages said even further,
if you made bundles of transgressions, do bundles of mitzvahs. You used your feet to run to do sin, you should use the same feet to run to do a mitzvah. A mouth that spoke falsehood, a person should use the same lips, the same mouth to speak truths, to learn wisdom and speak out the Torah there. Your hands were used for something negative, use the same hands to give charity. We use trickery of the eyes, you hinted to somebody, did that motion with the eyes?
Then be humble and lower your eyes. A heart that devises wicked thoughts, harbor words of Torah and thoughts of understanding in your heart. The 11th tool, a person should examine his ways, a person should search his ways. What does that mean? We say we should search, let us search and examine our ways and return to Hashem. A person should examine all of his deeds, all of his actions that he's performed in his entire life. There are three benefits from that.
First is by taking the time to evaluate your actions, you will see the mistakes, you'll notice the mistakes and you'll have remorse for it and you'll be able to confess the mistakes that you've made. But if you don't remember them, you won't be able to correct them. I'll share with you a quick story. I once came to my uncle, he's not a sinner, he's a big, big, very, very special righteous Jew, a big, big tzaddik.
I came to his house when my aunt was very, very ill and it was a Friday afternoon, we were in New York for Shabbos, we said, you know, I have to go visit my aunt, I know she's not doing well and I didn't realize that it would be the second to last time that I would be there before she passed away, sadly. And it was right at the changing of the guards, of the nurses, the new nurse was coming in right before Shabbos, the medications,
they were transferring over all the information, it was chaos. It was chaos because he had the doctor on the phone, the pharmacy, the this, the that, everything they needed to make sure that everything was taken care of before the next shift of nurses took over. And there comes the Wolbe family from Houston, we came to visit and say hi, not exactly great timing. So my uncle really didn't have the time and it was, you know, I understood,
I was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we came now, like, we'll see you another time. We came back like two weeks later, we were in New York again, we came back to see my aunt and to visit and that was the last time that I was, you know, fortunate to see her. And when we left the room that my aunt was in, she wasn't well already, really, really not well, I came out and my uncle had set up an entire table of delicacies,
of cookies and cakes and drinks and this and candies for the kids. I said, what's this? He said, I have terrible regret that last time you came, I wasn't able to give you the proper time of day, I wasn't able to sit down with you and talk and I was like thinking to myself, this guy had a thousand things going on there. He has the doctor on the phone, the nurse on the phone, the this on the phone, that on the phone,
the nurses, people coming, it was chaos. And the one thing, because he evaluated his actions, he said, you know something, I didn't give him the proper time. He came out of his way to come say hello and I didn't, who would think that way? Who would think that way? Only someone who evaluates his ways. I thought it was a great lesson to learn what it means to be a great tzaddik, a great person that you evaluate, you evaluate.
Think of your day to day from the morning, all the people that you met, did I hold the door open? Was I friendly? Did I say hello? Did I say thank you? Was I cautious for the honor of another person? Was I patient with another person? Did I give them the proper attention? Was I busy on my phone? Did I talk with respect? All of the things that transpired and maybe one or two things were not so great.
Okay, so maybe I'll give them a phone call and say, you know, sorry, I saw you today. I'm sorry that I was distracted with something else. I didn't properly say thank you. When I closed the door, it slammed by mistake. I'm sorry that it, whatever it may be, if we think about our day, which the halacha says that one should do daily before we go to sleep, we should contemplate about our day. We should think about our day.
It has tremendous power to guide us in the right direction. The second benefit. A person will realize suddenly all of his mistakes. He'll be more humble. That's the second benefit. Number three. Even though a person resolves to leave all sin, you still have to know what it is that you sinned. So to make barriers, if you know where you sinned, you know, you make yourself a conscious decision that next time I walk into the elevator, I'm going to say good morning.
Next time I see the janitor who cleans the floor in my building, I'm going to say thank you so much. Have a good evening. How's your family? It means you're making yourself a note. Okay, I have to correct this because I perhaps was not proper in that previously. Because a person needs greater protection from mitzvahs that he's regular with. Again, sins doesn't mean a sin, but any type of mistake, any type of misdeed. And again, like we started tonight,
there are mitzvahs that a person is in a habit of performing and those a person needs to be most careful of because it becomes like it's permissible. And then it's easy. The Yetz HaHara is an easy hand with us. We have to realize that we're like a sick person. And when a person is in the process of healing, that's not the time to go back out in the cold, right? We're getting healing from a flu. That's not a time to be outside
without a sweater and a coat and a scarf. Because you don't want to fall back into your illness. You don't want to get sick again. So you have to protect yourself. Someone who's ill of sin. When he starts repenting, when he starts coming back from his way, removing the barrier between us and the Almighty, at that point, a person needs to be very, very cautious not to allow other sins to just wash him away. My dear friends, this concludes day number 152.
Have a magnificent evening. Drive safely. I love you all. It was great learning together. Thank you so much. Have a great evening.

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