Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

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)
All right, good morning everybody. Welcome, welcome back. It is so wonderful to be here. We know that in a couple of weeks, a couple of short weeks, we're going to be celebrating the new year, the Jewish new year of Rosh Hashanah. And the first question is where does this Rosh Hashanah thing come from? Where does it come from? Where does it originate from? So we have to know that in Judaism, everything has a moment in time where it gets renewed every year at that same time. For example, we know that Yom Kippur is commemorating the day that the Jewish people received atonement when God said Vayomer Hashem Salach dikid varecha.

00:52
Moses was up at the mountain for the second time for 40 days and he's pleading. After he went the first time, he came back and he was a golden calf. He went up a second time. He went up on the first day of Elul. 40 days later is Yom Kippur, on that 40th day after him, pleading and pleading for forgiveness. God says you asked and I forgive. Forever that day is a day of atonement, Forever that day is a day of forgiveness. It's not just because that's the date on the calendar. It's embedded into that time of the year. Is God's forgiveness, god's mercy.

01:33
On Rosh Hashanah. What happened the first year of creation, the first year God created the world? Our sages tell us the sixth day of creation was Rosh Hashanah. Sixth day of creation was what we celebrate as Rosh Hashanah. It was one long day, which is why Rosh Hashanah is always two days, no matter where you are. It's not something. Oh, in the diaspora they keep a two-day holiday, but in Israel it's one day. No, it's two days everywhere. Why? It's just an interesting side fact that we know.

02:13
We recite Havdalah every single Saturday night At the end of Shabbos, we recite Havdalah. Why do we light a candle? What's going on with the candle? So our sages tell us that Adam and Eve did not have a sunset on Friday night. God created Adam and Eve, that descendant of the eating from the forbidden fruit. Okay, all that, and then goes Shabbat, but there was no sunset on Friday night. Adam and Eve did not experience darkness till Saturday night. It's called Yoma Arichta. One long day. Saturday night, they finally experienced darkness, and that darkness they would be afraid of. What's going on here? We only experienced light in this short lifespan that they've had thus far. God teaches them that there's something called fire, and the fire. They can have light even at night, and that's why Saturday night we light the candle, every single Saturday night, to memorialize the light that was revealed to Adam and Eve on the same Saturday night. Okay, so Rosh Hashanah is the sixth day of creation and the seventh day, which was Shabbos, a day of rest.

03:33
We know that Rosh Hashanah, although it's a day of judgment, it's also a day of tremendous celebration. Why celebration? God says. It's a day where I'm going to display my love for you. It's a day, typically a day of judgment.

03:48
Someone's going to court, even if it's just for a little speeding ticket. We're all nervous. What am I going to tell the judge? What am I going to tell? How am I going to get out of this? Is it going to be points on my license? Are they going to take away my driver's license? What's going here? We know that God wants to give us good. God created us to give us good. He created this whole world to do good for His creations. God wants to. We just need to come prepared.

04:19
So we look at the Mishnah in Rosh Hashanah, in tractate Rosh Hashanah, and the Mishnah says a fascinating thing. The world is judged at four different periods of time the Pesach, on Pesach, the holiday of Passover, for the success of the grain crops, because Pesach is a time when the grain begins to ripen. And it is judged on Shavuot, on the fruits of the tree, because that is when fruits begin to ripen, not the grains, the fruits. On Rosh Hashanah, all those who have entered the world, all human beings, all human beings pass before God like lambs before their shepherd, and he judges them for life or death based on their deeds, because, it states in Psalms, the Creator sees their hearts together and understands all of their deeds. And then the fourth holiday of fourth type of Rosh Hashanah, when there is judgment, that is Bachag, that's the festival of Sukkot, nidon and Alamayim or one of those other types of water-related events. That's all judged on Sukkot. The rainy season begins thereafter Sukkot and therefore that's the time of judgment. So let's focus on our Rosh Hashanah, our day of judgment.

06:03
What is really going on and why does the term Kivnei Maron, why is Kivnei Maron the terminology used? The Talmud talks about this and the Talmud says there's three different translations to those words. Number one is Imrana. Imrana means Mar is Imrana, imrana means Maron. Imrana, imrana means the speech. The way in which you talk, how you speak is judged. Everything that we said the entire year, god judges. We know that the most important thing for the Almighty, what's God's name Emet? Truth. Did we speak truth? Did we make promises we couldn't deliver on? Did we say things that were false? Did we give bad advice, et cetera, et cetera. Did we say good? Did we say bad? Did we say good? Did we say bad?

07:05
It says another one of the options of what Kivnei Maron means. One of the translations to what that means is that it was Ma'alot Bnei Maron. It's that each one of the sheep, when someone owns a flock, so they would need to give a tithe, so they would pass them through a very narrow space and every 10th sheep they would mark it with a red and that would go be a tithe that would be given away and it would be through a very narrow area. There was a mountaintop where you could see that the animals would go and you could only go single file. We'll see what that means in a second. And the other understanding of the Talmud. The other option of the Talmud was like the soldiers of King David, the soldiers of King David. What were the soldiers of King David? They would go out to war, one at a time, one at a time.

08:12
So we see there is an individualistic pattern here of what is really happening in our judgment. But let's go and talk about this a little bit more. Imrana, we said, is the way we speak? The way we speak, do we speak truth, Do we speak falsehood? That's something we're going to be held accountable for on Rosh Hashanah. The second is we go through this narrow passageway, the mountaintop passageway, because we're individuals, we're going to have unique judgment as an individual, as an individual. What does that mean? As an individual, as an individual, we see, we like to think that there's, you know, we have this idealistic way of thinking that we're all on the same boat. It's okay, it's okay, we're all together. We're all in this together. But that's not really true If someone is given extremely gifted talents.

09:20
Think of someone like an Elon Musk in our generation Unbelievable talents. He's running six, seven, eight, ten companies. Each are Fortune 500 companies, each producing at the top of their field. It's unbelievable. Imagine that he decided he's just going to be an ordinary businessman, regular stockbroker, he'll be an insurance guy. He'll be like you know and he's like I don't need to shine. He's going to be held accountable. Why is he going to be held accountable? I gave you so much talent, I gave you so much skill and all you were is an ordinary guy. God looks at us in judgment as an individual, not what you did with everybody else, not how you were just one of the flock. As an individual, god will look at us and say, ah, I gave you special talents, I gave you special abilities and this is what you produced. I expected better. This is very important for us to internalize.

10:34
There's a story, a very famous story I've shared this before about the Netziv. The Netziv wrote a book commentary on the Torah, the Hamek Dover, and when he finished his authorship, when he finished his publication of this commentary on the entire Torah, he made a very, very extraordinarily big party. Everyone was wondering what's such a big party? And he said that there was one night that he was, you know, typical ADHD boy.

11:09
Today, you know, given a difficult time to his teacher in school and the parents are like, why are we wasting our money? He's not going to be a scholar anyway. Like, let's just send him to trade school. He'll become a tradesman. He'll be a good shoemaker. He'll be a good, you know, he'll be a good travel agent. He'll do something with his life Like what are we sending him to yeshiva for? And he got horrified. He got horrified that one day perhaps God will bring him back to the heavens and say where's your book, me book. I'm just a shoemaker. Well, I'm not a skilled guy. He realized that maybe God wanted more from him. See, he begged his parents. Please don't stop sending me. I'm going to start learning seriously. And he says this is the book that in the heavens they would be demanding of me. This is the book. They brought me down to this world not to be a shoemaker. They brought me down to this world to publish this book.

12:16
Each one of us have an ability that's probably beyond what we thought is possible, or maybe beyond what our parents thought was possible, maybe beyond what our teachers thought was possible. I remember the great football player. Today being the opening day of the Houston Texans season, so one of our favorite football players here was JJ Watt. And JJ Watt, when he won best defensive player of the year, he got up with his award and he said this is to my 10th grade coach, who said I'll never be anything. And he said this is to my 10th grade coach who said I'll never be anything. You see, sometimes a person himself can say I do have greatness. And even though other people don't believe in me, I believe in myself. God believes in me. God is the one who gave me these talents, these abilities. I'm going to be held accountable if I don't produce what God expects of me, and this is our responsibility for Rosh Hashanah as well.

13:23
And then the third is K'chelos Shel David, like the Shel Beis David, like the soldiers of King David. Let me ask you a question. Soldiers of King David, they'd go out one at a time. Each one would finish their training. I don't know that they had much training. They had to be righteous, they had to be scholars, they had to be fearless. Knowing what does it mean fearless? Where does fear come from? Fear comes because I don't believe that Hashem is going to protect me. I don't believe that Hashem is going to help me out. But if I believe that everything is from Hashem, no fear at all. In last week's Torah portion we just spoke about this in Parshas Kisetz.

14:01
If you go out to war, you know who goes out to war. If you have any fear at all, you're not fit for it. You're lacking a little bit in your emunah. It you're lacking a little bit in your emunah, it's flawed a little bit. You can't go to war. Why? Because Hashem is the one who fights our battles and he's the one who succeeds our ways and therefore, if you don't see that, don't go out to war. That's not who we need. We don't need somebody who's going to be well, I don't know what's going to be. I'm afraid. You're afraid. You're going to everyone's going to. Everyone's going to be negatively influenced by your lack of confidence. Imagine if a little soldier declines to follow orders. He's a little soldier, so he'll get a little punishment. Imagine if the commanding officer rebels against his superior. He's going to get a big punishment. Why? Because that's going to affect many more people.

15:17
Sages, tell us, maybe your rebellion, each one of us, maybe our rebellion of I'm not going to go to synagogue or I'm not going to eat that which is what God wants me to eat. I'm going to eat something which is like cheaper. I'm not going to eat that which is what God wants me to eat. I'm going to eat something which is like cheaper. I'm just going to. What type of effect does that have on other people? Other people look and they say, oh, if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me. I'm influencing other people. The influence that you have on other people is what's judged as well. So we have three things.

15:55
Number one is our speech, the things that you promised, the things that you praise. King Solomon tells us Ish kefi mahalolo. You want to know a person. See what they praise. What are they busy talking about all day? They're busy talking about fantasy sports. They're busy talking about cars, luxuries, materialism, or they're talking about becoming a better person, about improving relationships, about being a better parent, being a better child, being a better servant of God. What are they talking about? What's their occupation? By what they speak, not by how they earn a livelihood. What keeps them busy? Look at how a person speaks and you'll know everything about them. God takes the recordings of everything that we said during the year and he says let's see. Let's see if you're being, if you're living by what you say. Let's see if you fulfill your, if you're living by what you say. Let's see if you fulfill your commitments. That's step one.

16:56
Second you're an individual. You're an individual. Are you fulfilling your purpose? Not, I'm just part of the, I'm just part of the gang. I just do what everybody else does. If you have unique talents you're. You hear this, mark? I'm just part of the gang. I just do what everybody else does. If you have unique talents you hear this, mark If you have unique talents, you have obligation from the Almighty to produce unique results or at least to put in unique effort, because we're not the masters of results, we're the masters of effort.

17:34
If we sell ourselves short and we say you know, I'm just a simple guy, leave me alone. So what happens then? Heaven forbid. We're missing the mark, we're not allowing ourselves to bring our full capacity to fruition. That's a big thing. That's a big problem. We have to be very, very careful to ensure that we're not selling ourselves cheap.

18:07
Oh, I can't do it. You know what my father always said when we said I can't. I can't means I don't want to Someone who wants to do something. There's no such word I can't. I can't means I don't want to Someone who wants to do something. There's no such word as can't. I can't means I don't want to. We can do anything that we set our minds to.

18:25
I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and he said something phenomenal. He says you know, I'm the type of person that anything I put my mind to, I get it done. So I asked him about something specific which I thought and I still think is something that he really wants to. He says it's true, I really do want to, I want to accomplish that, but I've never set my mind to it. He says the minute I set my mind to it it'll be done.

18:54
And the truth is that's the way we all are. We have things that we're passionate about, and those things that we're passionate about, in no time it's taken care of, In no time we're able to do those things. It's the things that we're not so passionate about that we let it delay, we let it linger on, we procrastinate and we don't get it done. But if God gave us a special talent and we can produce unbelievable things and we just sell ourselves, okay, I can't, you don't want to. God put you in a position to do great things. And now you're saying God, I'm sorry, I'm not playing your game, we'll be held accountable for that.

19:41
It's like imagine someone was given because money speaks to everybody, right? Imagine, mark, god gave you a billion dollars. You won that lottery last night 1.75 billion, wow. So what do you do? Gave you a billion dollars. You won that lottery last night. 1.75 billion, wow. So what do you do? You go to Vegas and you start gambling and you start right. What's God going to be upset at you about? Why did you do something good with it? I gave you the tools. Do something good with it.

20:08
It's that people waste their talents. Forget the money. They waste their talents. They waste their money too, but they waste their talents. Forget the money, they waste their talents. They waste their money too, but they waste their talents. They waste their life not bringing out the best product that they can bring of themselves.

20:25
God will hold us accountable and as parents and it doesn't make a difference what age our children are, by the way we have to always remind our children that we believe in them. We have to remind them what they are capable of, because it's very easy, for sometimes people have challenges in life and they just want the easy way out. As parents, that's our responsibility to remind our children. You can do so much better. I know what you're capable of. Don't let this stand in your way. And if we do that, we're helping our children. We're helping our children become the best they can become, especially if you have little children.

21:08
I know you could do it. I know you can do better on that test. Don't beat them up about it. Why didn't you do well? Don't focus on the negative. I know you can do it. I know you can do better on that test. Don't beat them up about it. Why didn't you do well? Don't focus on the negative. I know you can do better. You're so brilliant. What happened? Let me help you. Let's do this, because I know you can do better. I believe in you. And when you say that they'll live up to it, where you set the bar is how high they'll go, and if you set the highest bar possible, that's what they'll live up to.

21:37
You know the great story about Thomas Edison. He came home from school. I said this recently. He came home from school one day, first grade, and his teacher sent him a note. He didn't know how to read yet, so he gave his mother the note and his mother started crying. He says Mama, what's going on? Your teacher said that you're too brilliant for school. You can't go back to school. You're too brilliant. He became the great inventor. He did amazing things with his life and after his mom passed away he found that note. And on that note it said Little Tommy is too dumb, don't send him back here. Don't send him back here, he can't be in our school. But what did the mother do? She built him up and she told him how great he is and how capable he is. And that's what he became. He told him how great he is and how capable he is, and that's what he became.

22:35
When we set the bar high for ourselves, god sets the bar for us. He says listen, I'm going to give you a thousand pounds of talent and we just use three pounds. It's enough. So now I can do three pounds. That's good. I'm comfortable there. We have so much more potential, potential. That's what will be held accountable.

22:55
Item number two. Item number three is the influence we have on others. The influence when other people look at us. What do they say? I want to be like them, or I'll get away with it like them, or I'm going to be accountable like them. We have a responsibility. We're living in a social world, in a society where everybody looks at everybody, especially today. You look online, everybody comments, everybody writes, everybody does things. What influence do we have on other people. Is it a positive influence or is it a negative influence? Is it one that uplifts or is it one that puts people down? Does it give encouragement or, heaven forbid, it gives people a depressing eh, you can't do anything with your life anyway. Just give up. No, we're responsible. We're responsible.

23:58
My grandfather says one of the tricks to a good judgment on Rosh Hashanah is be a valuable asset to your community. Be a valuable asset to your community. What does that mean? So our sages teach us that before anything happens to a person, everybody who is affected by it is also put under judgment. If you're going to, god forbid be harmed. Every person who's affected by that has to be judged. That they deserve that same punishment and they deserve that pain. You know, sometimes someone, you hear a story about somebody like oh right, that pain that you feel was judged from heaven, that you deserve to feel that pain. Now imagine if you have a thousand people who are dependent on you because you're volunteering at the school, you're volunteering at your synagogue, you're volunteering at the Meals on Wheels, you're volunteering at all of these things. Now, people are dependent on you. Now, all of those people need to also be judged. You're making the court much more difficult. It's making it much more the ruling, much more difficult for you to be negatively influenced. So if a person puts themselves out there and becomes a person of the community, we have a very good chance to be much more positively influenced in judgment. These are the three keys, very practical pieces to succeed in judgment, to ensure that the words we say.

25:40
By the way, I was just thinking this, I was praying and I'm praying and I'm saying and bring our salvation for your sake, for your name. And then I was thinking to myself what. I say this every day, three times a day. Do I really want Moshiach to come? Do I really desire it? Yeah, we say it. Do we say it? But do we really? Are we ready to just? Oh, moshiach is here, we're just packing our bags, going to the airport, flying to Israel. Or is it like it would be more convenient if it was next week, after I sold my house, it'll be more. You know what I mean. It's like. Do I really want it? If I really want it, then I need to pray for it. If I don't want it, then I'm not being honest. We have to really want it.

26:36
Our sages compose the prayer in a way to guide us of what we should want and where we should be in our lives. My dear friends, rosh Hashanah is upon us. It's just two weeks away. Two weeks away, we'll be getting prepared with the brisket for Rosh Hashanah. If you have brisket, some people have that custom. We don't.

27:00
But it's important for us to prepare a little bit and get ourselves ready before we step into this magnificent, beautiful holiday. It's a holiday. It's not like we said, not like other judgments. God wants us close. God says it's a festival. You drink fine wines, you eat fine foods, you bring out your finest clothes. We're making God king of the universe. We're saying God, I may have slipped away a little, I forgot that you were the king for a few minutes. I'm realigning myself, I'm getting myself together and I'm taking responsibility.

27:41
And then we prove that what we're saying on Rosh Hashanah is authentic with the 10 days of repentance till we get to Yom Kippur. And we say you know what? We really changed a little bit here. What I did last year, I'm disavowing it. What I did last year, those mistakes, that wasn't me. I'm a new person now, and that's how the process works.

28:05
And then we leave our homes and we have Sukkot, which is an incredible celebration of like. We're showing that we're changing the way we live our lives. We're getting out of our habits, we're getting out of our routines and we're starting a new path. Hashem should bless us all that we should merit to a very, very good judgment on Rosh Hashanah, and hopefully we'll continue to talk more about Rosh Hashanah and preparation for Rosh Hashanah. But we should have a clear and direct understanding of what those responsibilities are. Hashem should bless us for a phenomenal judgment, a phenomenal new year. All of the blessings that we're going to have next year are all already decreed on Rosh Hashanah who's going to live and who not Rosh Hashanah? Who's going to win that lottery and who not? Rosh Hashanah?

29:00
Rosh Hashanah is a very powerful day. Sometimes we forget the link. We're like we hear a. Imagine. Imagine, heaven forbid that the angel of death pulls up in a big bus. He says Mrs Goldberg, from 123 Main, get in the bus. Mr Feinstein, on 124 Main Street, get in the bus Right. Imagine the angel of death. But that's not the way it works. What happens, you know? Two months later, you hear oh, what happened, mrs Goldberg, she passed away. Oh, it's terrible. We don't realize everything was from Rosh Hashanah already. It's not like that. You understand. God gives it that. It should look like it's a natural thing, but everything was already decreed on Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is an important time for us to realize. It's a special time of connecting and realigning ourselves. God is our king, god is creator of heaven and earth and we crown God as our master, as our creator. And as long as we realize that and we come to a clear understanding of what our mission is, what our goal is, moving forward, we'll have a magnificent new year, amen. Amen.

30:22 - Intro (Announcement)
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