Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, director of TORCH, The Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Good evening everybody. It is so wonderful to be back here at the Torch Center Mussel Mondays and last. We are back at Missilaat Shahrim and we are actually in the fifth paragraph on page 27 in the Art School edition of the Missilaat Shahrim. Last week we spoke about that. We know that there are first class pleasures. The ultimate pleasure is a absolute connection with Hashem. How do we get there? That's what the Mitzvahs are there for. Every Mitzvah is a tool to connect us with the Almighty. We use the Mitzvahs properly, we connect to Hashem. We do a sin. We're breaking away our relationship from God. Actually, I want to connect it in a way to marriage.

00:58
So one of the principles that our sages teach us is that in order to build the bond in a relationship, there needs to be complementary words that go from one to the other. Particularly, it's a man's responsibility in a relationship to pay attention and to notice. Notice if his wife wears something special. Notice if his wife does something unique or special for them, cook something, whatever it is that the wife does. It is the job of the husband to pay attention, to notice and to make mention of it and compliment. And the more a person does that, the stronger, that relationship will grow because that sense of satisfaction, of feeling that she was recognized, will now bring upon more goodness, hopefully that she will shower him with. But it's his job to get that bowl rolling. Now what happens if that's not the case? What happens if she does all her kind deeds for her spouse and he doesn't even notice it? So eventually she'll say why am I doing this? He doesn't even notice. I go out of my way.

02:11
I remember one time when I got home I hope my wife doesn't listen to this, but I remember one time, right after I got married, I was out from like 8 in the morning, 9 in the morning. I went to Yeshiva to study. He says we lived in Jerusalem. I get back but I spoke to my wife several times during the day, but newlywed, we're like married a month or two, you know. It's like married forever, right. And I come home at about 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock, and I'm like nothing changed the entire day. I'm like what in the world is going on here? It's like nothing. I'm trying to figure out. What did she do the whole day? It turns out, through heavy investigation, that she was spending a large part of the day speaking to her friends trying to figure out what would I like for dinner. Now, I don't know about you, but as a man I probably will not be spending that much time trying to figure it out. Let's try some new words. No, but it means a lot to her to try to please her husband. Now, what happens if I don't pay attention? I come home after that day, she serves dinner. Thank you, bye.

03:15
Next, right, Without giving any special notice, without giving any special emphasis, without special recognition, what happens? There's sort of like a distance, there's a distance, right. So the next time, you can imagine it may not be that special, even less, even less and less, because there's no notice anyway. I could be wearing my wedding gown and he won't even notice. So what does it make a difference? So why should I do it?

03:41
And what happens is many times in relationships it's sort of think of it as like if you neglect the relationship, it will be neglected and the distance between the man and the woman will become greater and greater. But if a person starts recognizing their capacity, starts complimenting, starts noticing, so then again it inspires a desire to try to please and to make things special in that relationship. Our relationship with God is very similar, and we're the ones to begin. God is a constant giver. God gives us ear to breathe, he gives us food to eat, he gives us our good health, he gives us our good looks, he gives us whatever it is that we have. But if we don't stop and acknowledge and appreciate and verbalize all of that kind and acknowledge it, what happens is we create a distance, we think everything is just coming to me, and then, when things go wrong, we're like where was God?

04:42
Well, the question isn't where's God after that event? Where was God before that event? You know, there are people who came out of the Holocaust tremendous believers, and there are, sadly, people who came out of the Holocaust tremendous deniers of the Almighty. Well, the question is not where they came out after. The question is where were they before? And those who were believers in the Almighty before saw the hand of Hashem throughout, and those who were not believers before didn't see the hand of Hashem throughout. It's a reflection of how we look at things.

05:17
So when a person does a mitzvah, essentially what they're doing is they're building that bond with God, they're building that relationship with God. Every mitzvah brings us closer to God. Every sin distances us from the Almighty. So that's essentially what we're trying to go for in our lives, and it says that we do mitzvahs. What does that mean? To do a mitzvah? It means to acknowledge the relationship and build a bond between us and God. That's what we spoke about last week. Now we're going to move on to something very, very special and unique. And how many people don't understand that we have incredible powers that are sometimes left on the table? All right, and let's see this.

06:01
Let me explain that one must exert effort to perform mitzvahs in order to become attached to Hashem, like we just mentioned. Ramchal now expands upon the nature of that effort. Vehinei Samoa, kodosh Baruchul A'adam Be Makom, shirabim Bo HaMar, chikim Otom Be Menu Yud Barach. God placed us and he sent men in a place where there are many factors that can distance men from the Almighty. There are many things that can distract us Veheim, hama, taavot, hahumriot and these are specifically the physical desires that are ever present in this world. We have in our world things that are called materialism, whether it be a car, whether it be clothes and fashion, whether it be homes and furniture, whether it be vacations and cruises, all of these things that are materialistic have tremendous gravity of moving a person far away from their connection to Hashem. That's their nature. Their nature is just as the nature. You take something physical, you drop it. It will fall. There's gravity that pulls it down. Note to this the nature of spirituality that it gets removed the more physical we become. Now there's a very, very fundamental principle we're going to learn now, and it's the laws of spiritual gravity. Spirituality and physicality cannot reside together. It's either spirituality goes up and automatically physicality will go down or it's the opposite. Spirituality goes up and spirituality goes down. They cannot coexist in an equal level. It's one or the other, and a person who wants to grow spiritually will have to limit their amount of physical. It's not that you can't drive a car, it's not that you can't live a decent life. You can't have any type of joy and pleasure from physical, but it will mean less to you. I'll give you a few examples in a minute. But the idea here is that we have to understand. You know, there's a phrase that's added to our amida prayer during the wintertime and there's a phrase that's changed in the summertime and it's in the second blessing of the amida. When it's the summertime we say Moreed Hatal, the dew descends. And the other is Mashi'v Haruach, umorid HaGashem, that God brings the winds and brings the rains that descend upon us. But if you take a look at those two words of Ruach and Geshem, ruach is the same word, it's also wind, but it's also spirituality. And Geshem is rain, but it's also Gashmute, which is materialism. So, mashi'v Haruach, if one elevates themselves with spirituality, you know what happens, mauryd HaGashem, immediately it lowers the physicality, the materialism. It's the automatic, it's like a seesaw. It's very hard to stay balanced on a seesaw. You either going up or you're going down, up, down, up, down. Guess what? If we elevate ourselves spiritually, we're going to lower ourselves physically and materialistically. If we're going to be wanting to elevate ourselves higher, on the rung of physicality, of materialism, then you know what expense it's going to be the expense of spirituality. Here's the thing. The catch Is that Judaism is not anti-materialism. You see, christianity took this idea from Judaism and said okay, never get married. Physical, bad, no, that's not Judaism. Jerusalem says no, no, no, enjoy the materialism, but don't let it control you Is a very big difference with having materialism and it controlling you and having materialism and you being in control. It's very interesting.

10:22
It says the Talmud says that Mashiach, the Messiah, is going to come riding on a donkey. Now I ask you, you hear this and you say okay, okay, I got it Two thousand years ago when they wrote the Talmud right, they didn't have cars, they didn't have trains, they didn't have, you know, all of these great luxuries. So Mashiach coming on a donkey makes sense. But come on, rabbi, get with the program. It's 2018. 2019, I don't think Messiah is coming on a donkey and if he does, probably nobody will listen to him Coming on a donkey. So if you look at what the Talmud says very carefully, it says something incredible. It says Mashiach is going to come riding on a donkey. On a donkey what happens when someone's on a donkey? Who's in control? The donkey or the person on?

11:16
top the person on top is in control of that donkey. What does the word Chamoor interchange with? Chamoor means a donkey and it also means Chomer, which means materialism. And what Mashiach is telling us, what the Talmud is telling us. Mashiach is going to come at a time where we are so materialistic. Mashiach is going to come riding on top of the materialism. He's going to be in control of materialism. Think of the world we're living in today.

11:53
There's this meme that went out right before New Year's of this man saying I took a New Year's resolution that my children should not see me on my smartphone this coming year. So it's going to be really painful, but I don't think I'll be seeing my children much. But you know what the problem is. Think about it. People today are so obsessed with the technology. People are so obsessed they can't put it down. You know I was sitting here in this room today, sitting with my dear friend here, and do you know how many people came to this door to try to open it, this door? You know why? Because they were trying to go next door to the kosher restaurant right next door. But they're so busy on their phones they just want after the other. You know why People are so materialistically consumed.

12:50
Who's in control? Who's in control? Are we in control or is our materialism in control? There's nothing wrong with having those phones, but who's in control? That is the problem and that's the question that we all need to ask ourselves. One second when it comes to my favorite show, am I in control? Can I pause it? No, no, no, no. You can't pause it. Get out of the way. I'm watching Super Bowl. I'm watching my Saints, right, hey, I can't stop. I don't want to hear anything. Don't disturb me, Don't call me, Don't text me, Don't nothing? I texted you, right.

13:22
In the middle of the game, it's my Saints right?

13:27
Are they going to the Super Bowl, you think. But you know what? The problem is? That we all have our deficiencies. We have to learn that if we want to grow spiritually, we're going to have to let go a little bit of our materialistic pursuits that they control us. You're going to have to let go to let the spirituality in. There's another thing Every single animal on planet Earth got a name. Who gave him its name? Adam? Adam, right, the first man. God brought all of the animals to Adam. He took a look at them. He spent some time getting to know these animals. He saw their nature. Boom gave them a name. The name defines its essence. The name defines its character. The name defines the lesson we learn from the animal.

14:17
The Talmud says that if we didn't have the Torah to teach us the proper way to conduct our lives with good Midoot, with good character traits, you know where we would learn it from. We'd learn it from the animals. How Well we would learn modesty from a cat. You know why a cat is called a Khatul. You know there's something that a cat does in private it takes care of its needs in private. You don't see a cat like a dog. It just looks for a phyohydrant and it does whatever it needs to do. A cat. It goes into the bushes. It finds a quiet place, it digs a little hole, it does what it needs to do, covers it up and goes. The word Khatul is the same word as the word Khitul, which means a diaper. It keeps its modesty. It's in the name, is the essence, is the lesson you can learn.

15:03
You learn modesty from a cat. Do you know what you learn from a? We can go, we can spend hours and hours on all the different animals, but you know, will dedicate a class to it sometime. Will dedicate. It's very, very interesting. But every animal has a character. I'll give you one more a nimala.

15:24
Anybody know what a nimala is? It's a little ant. Those little ants Never stop working. They never stop working. You never see a cat. You know what? Gonna get my New York Times a. Sit back on my beach chair, read the paper, relax. No, they're busy. They got to get their crumbs from one place to the other, back to the other, they're just so busy.

15:48
The Gona Vilma says improvise On his commentary, improv ribs. He says in the verse that says lechelnimola, outside, lazy one, go to the, to the ant and see Reaed or a chevach, a ham. See its ways and you'll become wise. It doesn't stop working. So the Gona Vilma says you know something a Ant needs one kernel for its entire lifespan.

16:14
For its entire lifetime. It needs one kernel to survive. But because its nature is he can't stop working. He collects in his lifetime over a thousand kernels, a Thousand kernels. Imagine they schlep.

16:29
Give a see these ants. They put this big, huge boulder on their head. It's one little crumb, one right. Take a boulder which is six or seven times its weight, fix it up and he starts crawling all the way back to his little cave, puts it down. Next he's got to go back and get more. What are you schlepping so much?

16:47
But that's the nature of an enimola. Is the word a male? A male is to toil. I may loot is the act of toiling. That is ingrained in its nature. You have no, it can't help itself. That's the way God created it. We learn.

17:05
If you're lazy, go look at the end. It doesn't stop working. He doesn't stop. A person needs to be busy. I tell people, if you're considering retirement, don't Maybe take a retirement from your career that you invested the past 30, 40 years. Get a new career, get a career in Torah study, get a career in something else, but don't stop working, because the minute you stop working, all systems shut down slowly, one after another after another. You got to keep yourself busy. Keep yourself, you know, vibrant, keep yourself moving.

17:41
And I think we have some great examples right here in our class of people who are mature of age and Keep on going to classes and keep on coming and keep on going. Look, we have an individual who comes here, sits right here to my left every single week, but he's not here because he's right now, I think, in LA. He goes to concerts and he goes to To parties and he goes to events and he goes to, and he comes seven times a week to torch, right, yes. And he goes to Genesis for lunch and learn and he goes to the. He goes all over the place. Why? Because he realizes he got to be active. He goes with his walker and he sets it up with Metro, everything that needs to be done. That's a very good example of how we need to stay active.

18:26
What is the character of a horse? What anybody know? What the word for horse is in Jesus, our say? Just teach us that the letters Samach and the letter sin are Interchangeable, of similar sound, and therefore they're interchangeable. The word of Anybody know what the word sason is. Sason is is joy. It's great joy. If you look at a horse, the way it gallops is like joyous. It's like all excited and happy right. It gives a certain, a certain sense of joy, of happiness, and it is we can talk about it a lot of why it's called that and what it teaches us about happiness. And it's a short-term happiness. It can't do that for a long time. It's a whole. It's a whole. There's short-term happiness. Like you hear, someone got engaged.

19:15
Wow right.

19:16
Okay, next now what, right, right. But then there's other types of Joys that are. There are real deep, long joys and we can. We can get into that another time again when we talk about all those animals. We'll get into a longest, longer discussion about that.

19:31
But what is the character of a donkey? Seemingly, when you say someone is dumb, someone is not Skilled in the mind department, you call them I'm not gonna say the word, but you call something that rhymes with okay. Now you call them something Another name of for a donkey. Why? Because a donkey is there for one reason to schlep. Right, he's just a glob of meat and he schleps. He takes things from one place and goes to another place and that's it. He doesn't really have a character. All he uses materialism. It's a bunch of bones and a bunch of meat put together and you go schlep. It's not a character. So when you want to call somebody dumb without character, without personality, without any special feature, that's why people call him that that is materialism, that is materialism and that's why Mashiach, when he comes, he's going to be riding on on top of materialism. So let's see what Ramchal teaches us here. He says the hey, ma'am, a ta'avot, you want to know what distance is us from our spiritual pursuits, the hey ma'am, a ta'avot, the khamriot, that is, specifically the physical desires that are ever present in this world. I should be Mashiach, a charehem whose nature is such that if someone becomes drawn after them, he may whom it rachek. We'll let me not have a meeting. He will become steadily more distant from the true good which, as we have explained, is bonding to Hashem. Right, so you're gonna be more distant. The name tsa shuhu musam be'emet, betoha, milchama hazaka. It emerges that them that, then, that man has truly been placed in the middle of a more of a most intense Battle. He call in and a Olam Ben letov, ben limuta, for all the circumstances of this world, whether favorable or otherwise, he may hemnis. You know, it's not Adam. They are all All tests and challenges for a person to overcome.

21:41
Every single Incident that happens to a person. Is God throwing you another pitch? Are you gonna hit a home run? Are you gonna strike out? Are you gonna hit a home run? Are you gonna strike out? Are you gonna hit a home run? You have an annoying driver in front of you. He's not an annoying driver. It's God throwing you a pitch, saying are you gonna strike out? Are you gonna hit a home run? Are you gonna be patient or are you gonna lose it? You have an annoying person in front of you at the cash register, right? If they're on the quick lane and they get to the counter, they can't find their credit card. They take out their whole purse to this to that right, like you getting so frustrated because you're in a rush. You have it. Doesn't it say business only for commercial customers on this lane at the bank? That doesn't look like a commercial customer, right? So we? It's a. It's a pitch that God is throwing to us. Are we gonna strike out or are we going to hit a home run?

22:34
Every single challenge if it's your spouse who says something that's annoying and irritating to you, never happens to me. I have no idea what I'm talking about, right? But these are all tests. Every single one of these things are a test that is shamed, carefully designed for us, each of us individually, that we being tested with day of our lives. There's no such thing as a person getting off scot-free. No human being is faced with is no. No human being has a life of its easy, easygoing one person. It's from From an outside source. Some people from inside. They have certain conflicts inside. Some people it's about how they're gonna deal with their neighbors. Some people it's gonna be about how they deal with their anger. Some it's gonna be how they deal with their kindness. Some how they deal with their patience. Somehow they deal with their jealousy. Everyone is faced with a different challenge. Don't ever think, oh, I wish I was in their shoes because they've got such a good life right.

23:38
You know that story about the lady with the ring, this lady sitting first class. You know she was bumped up to first class so she's like, okay, I'm gonna make some friends here. I said she goes to the lady next to she says wrong, it looks like a pretty impressive ring. She says, yes, actually, you know it's an eight-carat diamond. Look at that. You know it's like she says but I wouldn't be jealous if I were you, because it comes with the mister right. It always sees the diamond with. They look whoa right, be careful what you're jealous of, okay. So Every single circumstance in this world, whether favorable or adverse, he may him this.

24:18
You know glad I'm the in reality are tests for a person to overcome. How? Only it's a different, there are some. It's a different wealth on one side and poverty on the other side. So everyone says, oh, I Much prefer being. God should only test me with being wealthy. Right, god, make me with the lottery and everything will work out right. That's not true. The wealthy person has their challenge. The poor person has their challenge. Every person is faced with their own challenge.

24:53
Both of these can pose challenges to a person. Can you show me a slo-mo in the manner that King Solomon said, stated in Proverbs 39? Pen Espa v Kichash D Ve' Amarty, mia Shen, penny v Arest Regan. After give me neither poverty nor wealth, king Solomon says but a lot me, my daily bread, lest I be sated. I'll be wealthy and deny you Hashem and say who is Hashem? Something which would say a person who has great wealth can say you know, it's all me, I'm smart, I do business. Hashem, who's that? I don't know, that is, I never met him. And less they person becoming impoverished and steel and take the name of Hashem in vain. So a person who's poor has a different challenge. They, they want to steal so that they can. They can have what they need or what they want. So it's a double-edged sword here. Everyone has their challenge. Everyone has their challenge.

25:55
Hashalvah bitzahdehahad, ve'isur mitzahdehad. Similarly, there is tranquility on one side and suffering on the other side. People think like I just don't want to suffer, yeah. But you see that people who do have certain types of suffering have much greater clarity of Hashem. And, on the other hand, when people have a peaceful life and everything is going well, they're living in a world of oblivion, of Hashem. That's a dead person. The goal in our life is to take those challenges and grow from them. Take those challenges and become bigger and to become better from them, not to run away from them. It's think of that matrix. You can take the red pill, you can take the blue pill. You take one, you'll live an oblivion for the rest of your life. Nothing will ever bother you again. You take the other, you're going to be faced with challenges. You take the other one, you'll suddenly have doubts and you'll suddenly have Well, that's.

27:41
I have seen many, many, many people in our wonderful community here in Houston who have chosen to join the Jewish faith. The first question I ask them if they need a psychiatrist, it's a lot cheaper. Why would you go into this new commandment of following the Torah? Of 613 commandments, you can get away with seven. What's wrong with the seven commandments of the sons of Noah? And that's it. Seven Noahide laws and you're good to go. You need 613. For what? Okay, so they decide they want to go for it.

28:24
Well, they're going to be faced with a lot of challenges and it's not going to be easy. There are going to be a lot of temptations. There are going to be a lot of regrets. Maybe I shouldn't have, maybe I should have. Maybe I should have done it later. Maybe I should have done it earlier. I could have done it. There's always going to be that challenge and that challenge begins as soon as they go to that mikvah. They're stamped Jewish and now the challenges begin. Now that journey of trials and tribulations begins.

28:55
It's not that people in our Jewish don't have challenges. There are plenty of challenges but it's in a very different way. Every person on planet earth has a different purpose, and the purpose of a Jew is different than the purpose of a non-Jew. One is here to fulfill the mitzvah of Hashem and one is here for other purposes. If you want to get into that, there are many, many recordings you can find online that distinguish between the responsibility of Jews and non-Jews. I don't want to get into that here. It's not in the scope of our class tonight.

29:25
From how it concludes, if man will be valiant and be victorious of the battle on all sides, he will become the perfect man. Ashe Yiskeli Dabek Bevoroh will merit to be attached to his Creator in this world. Remember we said what's the ultimate pleasure In the world to come. You can have that world to come here. It's not going to take away your world to come and the world to come, but you can have that experience of living in a world to come like pleasure here in this world.

30:07
V.8.c. Minaprozdor Hazevi Khanesatraklan. And who will then be able to leave this vestibule, this world of preparation, and enter into the reception room of the world to come, the place of the ultimate good. So we can have that world to come experience right here in this world. You know there's a song that we sing on Shabbat which is called Me'en olam haba. Me'en olam haba is like the world to come. The Shabbat is likened to the world to come. You know why? Many reasons why, but one of them is because you have six days to prepare for Shabbat and the moment the clock strikes and it's candle lighting time that's it.

30:55
Time is up, no more prep. It's like imagine now I don't want to God forbid compare between holy and unholy. I'm not sure which one people compare to holy, but imagine the Super Bowl. So you have the pre-season, where they're working out, they do their training and then training camp, and then they have the pre-season games and then they have the season and every game they're perfecting their rate. But then comes the post-season, and then they have the divisional finals and then each one, and then finally they're in the Super Bowl.

31:30
Guess what? If you didn't prepare, you can't say you know what? Super Bowl begins in three hours. I think we've got some time to prepare now. No, you had all this time to prepare till now.

31:44
We can't come ten minutes before Shabbat say, oh, I'm ready to prepare for Shabbat. So you have the six days and as soon as Shabbat begins, there's no more cooking, there's no more setting up lights, there's no. Whatever's on is on, whatever's off is off, whatever's cooked is cooked and whatever's not is not, and that's it. And now it is what it is. This world is compared to those six days Over here. We can make mistakes, we can fix them, we can steal and return the money, and we're not supposed to. The Torah tells us not to. But if you do, the Hezhevah's Exhaled, go return it. You can fix things here. But as soon as checkout comes and God says I want the file back, you know what happens. You can't say I'm sorry, you can't ask forgiveness, you can't pay back, you can't do anything, it's all over. Shabbat has taken on. It's time. The world to come is compared to Shabbat. Shabbat is compared to the world to come. They have a very similar. The differences is that we have every week, thank God, in many, many, many weeks that we've all been granted to practice that same theme. You can do things during the week, but guess what, as soon as Shabbat comes, it's all over. And we should practice doing this every week. Excuse me, if you've heard someone's feelings during the week, find time before Shabbat, call them and apologize. Do something special for other people because, guess what, you can't go deliver flowers on Shabbat. You could go deliver flowers on Friday. The Torah says on Shabbat, they don't want you to do any labor. Shabbat, it's done. What's done is done and that's it.

33:39
Shabbat is a time to spend a special time with the Almighty. We're busy the whole week. We're busy running after our jobs, after our career, earning a living, doing everything we need to do. Shabbat is a time that we just enjoy everything that we've accomplished. Now, if we haven't accomplished during the week, it's a problem, because then it's very difficult to enjoy on Shabbat it's the labor we didn't do during the week. Our life is exactly the same.

34:06
I saw once a bumper sticker. It had a picture of grass. I've shared this before. It had a picture of grass in the middle of the bumper sticker. On the top of it it said good, and beneath the grass it said no good. As long as we're above the grass, we're good. When we're beneath the grass, no good.

34:26
As long as we have time, as long as we still have the ability to breathe, we have the ability to find our perfection, we have the ability to make amends, we have ability to become great, spiritual, complete people. That we have the opportunity here in this world, and that in this world is considered like a vestibule preparing us for the reception room. You go in that walkway before you get into the big hall To be illuminated, or to be illuminated in the light of life, the radiance of the Shchina and to the extent that he has conquered his evil inclination and his physical desires in this world. So the more a person was able to overcome those challenges, the more he was able to overcome those temptations in this world, the physical ones, and distances himself from those things. He distances himself from those things that would distance him from the true good and that can be the obsession with materialism, that obsession with culture, that obsession with whatever it is that a person could potentially be distracted with and has instead endeavored to attach himself to our Shem by avoiding sin and observing the mitzvos. To that extent will he achieve that attachment and rejoice with him. This is an unbelievable, unbelievable teaching that Ramchal is sharing with us here, and that is that to the extent that a person is able to remove himself from his physical limitations and allowing his spiritual capacities to reach the max, the greater ability a person to, the greatest capacity upon which a person does that, the greater their reward will be. The more they're distancing themselves, they're pushing themselves away from that world of challenge. We have to understand something very, very important, and we're gonna see this in the next few paragraphs the world follows our leadership. We are the leaders of our own world. We are the leaders of our own world.

37:06
It says, regarding Abraham Abraham acquired the field from Ephraim. It said that he wanted money. Christy said no, you can have it as a gift. We know the whole exchange that happened at the Parashashchai Sarah when Abraham wanted to bury his wife Sarah. What turns out is that Abraham offers money and they accept that money at the end because all they wanted really was materialism and money. It's fine. Abraham wants this holy piece of land. He's willing to give all the money that he has for this spiritual pursuit of this land. This land was a very special place. Abraham wanted it and Abraham is ready to give that money he does. Now Abraham acquires it becomes his From the lowly Hittite. It becomes now an Abrahamic domain. You know what the Torah tells us.

38:05
After that, vayachkam stay-afron and the field of Ephron got elevated. This is the Torah. This is not some commentary, this is not some you know. You know later year commentator. You know. This is the Torah itself tells us the word of Hashem, that the field was elevated. What happened? What changed from what the field was ten minutes ago to what it is now? It's very simple. Now it became Abraham's and the minute it became Abraham's it reflects his spirituality. So it got elevated. Our physical objects reflect our own spirituality. It's an incredible idea.

39:02
I'll share with you something about this week's parasha that I heard in the name of my grandfather. I didn't see this inside, so forgive me if I'm wrong and if there's any errors or omissions in what my grandfather says it's due to my ignorance, not my grandfather's, god forbid, who was a great man. And he says that you know we've seen this week's parasha, this past week that when the Jewish people went out, the dogs didn't bark. Okay, so what? What's the big deal? So dogs didn't bark. I've been to many people's homes who had dogs and they didn't bark. So what? Gonna write a book about that? Gonna write that in the Torah. The Jewish people have teach it and the dogs didn't bark.

39:44
So my grandfather goes on to explain that what is the most powerful sense we have? The most spiritual sense we have is the sense of smell. You know why we smell the Bessamim. We smell the special sense after Shabbat is because our elevated soul. We get an elevated soul that gets infused within us on Shabbat. When that elevated soul departs from us after Shabbat, we have this void, this emptiness. The only way to fill that void is we take the most spiritual sense we have, which is the smell sense of smell, and we smell and that sort of fills the void of that elevated soul that just departed our body. We get an elevated soul.

40:35
It's interesting that we have a fourth meal. There are three meals on Shabbat and there's a fourth meal that's added after Shabbat. We have the Friday night, we have the Shabbat morning, we have Shabbat afternoon pre-sunset, and then Shabbat goes out and then we have another meal after Shabbat. What is that meal? Called Malava Malka. What is Malava Malka mean? Is the escorting of the queen. The queen came in at Shabbat. We welcome the angels that escorted the queen. Right, we remember all that, and now, when Shabbat leaves, we escort the queen out. What left Our elevated soul left? How do we end Shabbat? With the smelling of the fragrance, and that's supposed to appease our soul that's now feeling a void.

41:23
Oh, so now, what happened to when the Jewish people left Egypt?

41:27
Right, the dogs didn't bark. What is the greatest sense? We said Smell. Why does a dog bark? A dog barks because he's sort of mocking humanity. He's saying you guys aren't spiritual. I have much greater spirituality than you because I can smell. The greatest sense that exists is a sense of smell. It's the most spiritual one. The dog says I've got it. You don't, you're not spiritual. I am Bark, bark, bark.

42:01
I'll show you what happened when the Jewish people left Egypt. They were on such a high spiritual level the dogs couldn't bark. Why couldn't they bark? Because the Jewish people are on a higher spiritual level. That's why the Torah mentions that the dogs couldn't bark, because the Jewish people are on a higher level than those dogs. They were elevated from a very, very low level. And if the Jews would have left in a low state of spirituality, a low state of connection to Hashem, the dogs would have barked away. But because the Jewish people left in an elevated state of spirituality, the dogs couldn't bark because they weren't greater than the Jews were at that time. So it's an interesting thing, because it wasn't only the Jews who left Egypt.

42:50
There were also what is known as the Erev Rav. I like to call them the troublemakers, the Egyptian troublemakers. What happened is that, the Egyptian troublemakers, they said you know what? We don't like Pharaoh because he's dumb. I mean, come on how you can see all of these miracles happen to Jews. And he doesn't. He doesn't acquiesce, he doesn't say you know that he doesn't say enough, or cake, just go. So they say, okay, when the Jews go, we're going with them. We believe in the Jewish God more than we believe in Pharaoh, but they still.

43:19
They were the ones who were doubting, the doubting the entire time. They were doubting, you know, moses, they were doubting Aaron, they were doubting God. They were constantly lowering the status of the Jewish people, which is a little bit of a sign. We always have that. You know that one person we say you know what I want to? I want to go to synagogue, fight in it. They're like oh, you're one of those, right, you'll always have that person who will doubt your desire for spirituality. For that we always have that era of wrath. We always have those who are condescending to our spiritual pursuits.

43:52
So what we find is that the more we grow spiritually, the less not that we become less physical the less the physical means anything to us. It's not that it's not there, it's there, it just doesn't mean anything to us and it, according to what our sages tell us, the more we invest in our physical state, the more it's eating up of our reward, potentially in the world to come. So, yeah, we can live the lavish lifestyle we can. We can invest more and more into our selves, but that could potentially be eating up on the mitzvahs we could have done with that. It could potentially be eating up the good deeds we could have been doing. Instead of picking out fancier drapes and picking out a nicer car and living in a nicer home and going on a finer vacation, we could have spent that time doing a mitzvah with that money. We could have spent that time doing good deeds. Again. Everybody says our member.

44:52
We had once a group of young adults when the when the lotto was, where was it at? I think it was like 600 million dollars, and we went around the Shabbos table and I said, okay, I want to like everyone to introduce themselves, what we do every Shabbos people. But but I would like you to also say if you Wanted 600 million dollars, what would you do with it? Everybody said, except for two people. Everybody said you know what I would do I Would give half the charity. I buy myself a home, I buy myself a car, buy myself a vacation home, but I give half the charity.

45:29
Everyone was being very, very gracious with the money they didn't win. And Then one individual said I would keep every single penny for myself. I keep every single penny for myself. And it was like oh, what a wicked person I, how low. And then the truth is is that they're the only ones who are honest.

45:49
Because to become a giver, you don't become a giver because you have money. You become a giver because you're a giver. It doesn't make it there Vince if you have, if you don't have, even if you don't have, you give because you're a giver. Giving is a muscle. You don't suddenly develop that muscle when you have money, you'll be. If you're stingy now with the money, the little money you have, guess what you're even stingy. Or when you have a lot of money, your problems just become bigger. Right, they don't get, don't get solved.

46:21
So a person who wants to grow in any specific area has to work on that area of their, of their spirituality, not to expect you know what? Donald, give me a miracle. What am I gonna do with all that money? I really know I'm gonna write out a plan. I, if you don't already do it now for every Dollar that a person makes, 10% should be going into a separate account For charity. It's God's account, it's God's account and God gave that extra 10% to us so that we can distribute it. We can keep it for ourselves, but God's gonna say you know what? I don't think you're such a very trustworthy Beer of my money. I am giving you this extra 10% for you to give it away, and you don't give it away on my behalf. I'm asking you to give it away. You're not giving it away, you keep it for yourself. So that's also a test.

47:11
And if someone has more money, that means they have a greater responsibility. It doesn't mean that they have the only responsibility. Every single individual has, for whatever they have has a responsibility. That includes someone who's brighter, someone who's smarter guess what? They're gonna be held accountable to produce what they are supposed to produce with their mind. And someone who's limited with their abilities in their mind Will have less expectations. God has less expectations from them.

47:47
How many times can we recall in our all of our think of your grade school? You had that one, one or two kids who are really, really smart. I any of them became an Einstein Many times not most times not. You know why Because they feel like you know I. All I need to be is up to par. I need to be like everyone else, I don't need to be better. That's not true. You're given a better set of tools. You better be better If you're giving a special set of tools, doesn't you know? People say I want is to get the same Passing grade like everybody else. You know my sister very, very bright and if she came home with a 97 my father would be very upset at her because she should have gotten a hundred. If I got a 67, my father would dance on the roof Right. So I'm serious, okay.

48:47
So, my father. My father might call in and said none of us. True, 67 is high, 52, we would dance now. But the truth is that everyone has to know what their abilities are and not to judge themselves by other people, to judge themselves by what they are capable of. And if we make that mistake, to think that we, just as long as I'm, I, just Want to blend in, I just want to blend in with everybody else, then we're limiting our ability to bring out our uniqueness. We must Challenge ourselves to be the best us. No one is gonna go to heaven. They're gonna say hey, ben, why weren't you like Howard? You know what you're gonna tell God. Guess what? You know why I'm not like Howard. Gave me different set of tools. God's not gonna say why weren't you like Howard? God's gonna say why weren't you like you? I Gave you these skills, these abilities, these talents, these capabilities, these opportunities, and you came out. You came out this way. You should have been. You should have been Ben.

49:54
I Remember this distinctly. My father, you know, there's a special holiday. Where it is that actually a mitzvah for one to be Um-hmm and he created it's called porum. Porum, right, for him is a very special holiday. It's a special, very, very holy. By the way, it's not about getting wild, it's not about getting getting crazy. It's a bad, it's, it's. It's a very spiritual holiday, one which also involves drinking and for other reasons we can get into it. For him time. But I remember this very, very distinctly when my father one year was drunk and my father, when he got drunk, would hold us accountable to To be the best we could be, and I remember this because I'm thank God he didn't pick on me, picked on my brother, right. And he said to my brother he says what's gonna be with you? What's gonna be with you? I'm like you get my father's totally drunk right, it just shows you. You can see the real. The Talmud tells us, if you want to know the real person is see them when they're drunk. You Get to see everything and none of you are invited.

51:06
When I'm drunk, hopefully, hopefully I'll be decent. All right, I'll be. Hopefully I'll be nice. I tried to be genuinely nice when I'm Sober, hopefully.

51:18
When I'm in it with an altered frame of mind, I'm also hopefully. But either way, my father says to my brother what's gonna be with you, my brother's, with the problem? Just a regular kid, I'm just like everybody else. My brother was about 17 years old at the time and my father, my father, said to him no, he says you don't understand. He says, when you come in front of the heavenly courts, you know what God's gonna ask you who are you?

51:47
What have you accomplished? And you're gonna turn around and you're gonna be looking for all of your classmates we like what? I mean? We all got passing grades right, we're all Guess what. Your friends are not gonna be there. It's gonna be you standing in front of the Almighty and You're going to have to give an answer About your accomplishments, about your shortcomings, about your failures, and you're not gonna be able to say well, everybody else also felt, everybody else also didn't do well, everybody.

52:19
Everybody else is not there, it's just you. We need to take responsibility of ourselves, to make ourselves the best we can possibly be, and not to rely on anybody else being our attorneys to protect us or to defend us. Only we for ourselves can answer about our qualities and our flaws, our accomplishments in our shortcomings. And If we had a trait that we were supposed to perfect and we didn't, will be held accountable If we had a mitzvah that we could have done and should have done and we were giving the given the abilities to accomplish and we didn't, will be held accountable. Hashem wants us to be the best we can be and that's what will be held accountable. We will not be held accountable.

53:12
Why weren't you as good as Joe? I'm not Joe why weren't you as good as you could be? That will be an answer that that'll be very difficult for us to answer. So that'll be a question will be difficult for us to answer. Either way, next week I'd willing will continue to study from house teachings and hopefully will continue to be inspired and grow and Bring out, hopefully, the greatest, the best version of ourselves we possibly can create. Thank you, and have a terrific evening drive safely. Look forward to seeing all y'all.

53:52 - Intro (Announcement)
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