Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

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

All right, good evening everybody, my dear friends. It's so wonderful to be back here at Muster Masterclass, Muster Mondays. It is so wonderful to resume the study of the Orchestra Dikim, The Ways of the Righteous, in the Treasure for Life edition. We are now beginning a new chapter, Chapter 23, The Gate of Truth, on page 703. We just finished talking about truth in our Parsha Review Podcast of Parsha's Matos,
talking about how a person who speaks every word we say should be fulfilled. A person should be very careful with the words they use. Now, it's no coincidence that we begin the chapter of The Gate of Truth. Ha'emes, the truth. Ha'nishomo nivreis mimkom ruach ha'kodesh, the soul is created from the place of the Holy Spirit. She'nemar v'yipach ba'apo v'nishmaschaim, as the Torah tells us in Genesis Chapter 2, verse number 7. And God breathed into his nostrils a living soul.
My dear friends, we are all a living soul. Where does that soul come from? It's a God-given soul. Imagine, now God doesn't have pieces, but we have a part of God within us. Imagine, you blow, you blow a breath. That's God blows that breath. That's our soul, our living soul. We have godliness within us. V'nechceves mimkom toharo sh'nivreis mizor ha'elyon mikisi ha'kavot. Where is that soul from? It is formed from a place of purity. And created from the celestial radiance
from the throne of glory. That's talking about Hashem. V'ein l'mala bimkom kodshe ha'kodesh im'sheker, ella ha'kol emes. In that realm there is no falsehood. There is no falsehood above. In the place of the Holy of Holies there is no falsehood. There is only truth as it is written, v'hashem elokim emes. It says in Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 10, And Hashem, God, is truth. And that's where our verse that's recited in our Shema, Hashem elokichem emes. Hashem, your God, is truth. The essence of God is truth.
Matzosik, the author says, I found it written It says, I will be what I will be. We know that this is when Moshe said, God, this is an exodus, the people aren't going to believe me. He says, tell them that told you this. Who's Ehyeh? What's that? He says Ehyeh asher Ehyeh. What is this referring to? v'kisiv v'hashem elokim emes hu elokim chayim umelech olam. It says in Jeremiah, and Hashem, God, is truth.
He is the living God and the eternal God. v'ata yesh lehod yach. He says, now I need to explain to you. I need you to understand. Sha'kodesh boruch hu elokim emes. That the Almighty God creator of heaven and earth is truth. Ki timtzo chof alef pa'amim Ehyeh. He says, you will find the word Ehyeh, whose numerical value is 21. It's found 21 times. 21 multiplied by 21 is 441 and that is the numerical value of truth. The word Ehyeh is 21. It's found 21 times and that
21 times equals truth and the gematria of the word Ehyeh itself is 21. Therefore Ehyeh asher Ehyeh could be understood as a compounding of Ehyeh. Meaning Ehyeh asher Ehyeh. Meaning 21 times 21 will equal what? Emes. Truth. If you want to know what God is, God is truth. In essence, God is truth. Hu aleim oso es ha-emes li yos yashar. Hashem made man es ha-adam li yos yashar. God made man to be straight, to be truthful.
V'chosamo shalak kodesh borcho emes. And as the Talmud teaches us in Tractate Shabbat, the seal of God, the name of God is truth. V'ksiv do v'yishkorom lo yikol enegadeinai. As the King David teaches us in Psalms, the speaker of falsehood will not be established before my eyes. The Almighty cannot have those who speak falsehood near him. Because it's a contradiction to the existence of God. V'kish ha-odam oseg be-emes, oz eina sheker dovik lo emes. When one occupies himself with truth,
falsehood cannot attach himself to the truth. V'kish yish emes kavi yochol, mikhon shivto bashamayim kineged menei odam. He says when one occupies himself with truth, we said falsehood cannot attach itself to it. And where there is truth, it is as if his throne in heaven is suspended over the person. Where a person is being truthful, sort of the throne of heaven is right above a person, protecting the person. Oz modim she'asa shamayim v'oretz v'hayam v'kola asher bam. For when there is truth in people,
all of the powers of the world acknowledge that Hashem made heaven and earth and Hashem made the seas and all that is in them. Meaning by speaking the truth, by living a life of truth, we're giving testimony, so to speak, to the existence and creation of God in this world. All of the heavenly realms recognize this as it is written. He makes heaven and earth the seas and all that is in them. Immediately followed by, He guards the truth forever. Right after the verse states
Oz shamayim v'oretz v'hayam v'kola asher bam, right after it says that, it says Hashomer emes le'olam. And this is in Psalms 146. God guards truth forever. V'kesh yesh b'gida v'sheker, Oz k'viyocho kimi she'ayim mechon shifto b'shamayim v'oretz. When one, heaven forbid, is in, is defiant and speaks words of falsehood, things that are not true, it is as if the throne of heaven is not in heaven and upon the earth. One who merits reflecting upon these things, upon the soul being formed
from the source of truth, will conduct all his affairs in truth and will not bring falsehood into the place of the holiness of truth. Okay, meaning, Mishu zokhali hisbonim b'dvarm eyleh, Eich ha-nishamos nechtsavos min b'kora emes, Yase kolin yano v'emes. If you realize that the source of your soul is truth, then you'll ensure that everything you do is truth because you want to be connected with the source of life. And you won't allow, because you are a piece of godliness, within you is godliness, God created you.
Speaking a word of truth, a word that's not truthful, would be a contradiction to the soul, the heavenly soul that's within us. So we see that there's a huge conflict in a person who speaks something which is not truthful, which is interesting. I wonder how the polygraph. So, but what's the idea? How is it possible that the machine can know if I'm not saying the truth? Because there's something that's incongruent with our existence when we lie.
Because our existence, being a heavenly soul that comes from God, that is a piece of God, it's incongruent with our existence when we speak something that's false. I remember once seeing a TED talk, and the speaker there said, when someone lies to you, they're lying to you because you let them lie to you. And everyone's like, what? Stunned. Said, yeah, you can see it on their face when they say something which is a lie. When someone speaks falsehood,
it's written all over them. You're ignoring that and allowing it to happen, and that's why they lie to you. And she goes on to give examples of how, you know, either people turn away their eyes or they shy away, you know, there's this something that they're uncomfortable with. What is that discomfort? It's because deep in their core, it's a conflict with who they are. It's a conflict with the essence of who, of the soul that's within them.
We are formed with a godly soul, and that godly soul is all truth. Therefore, if someone speaks falsehood, it's a complete contradiction to that godliness that's within. This is what the verse tells us in 145 in Psalms. Hashem is close to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. What does it mean in truth? That means that I can't live a world of lies over here and come to say, God, make believe that doesn't exist.
I'm gonna speak to you now, you know, off the record here. Let me just tell you. No, no, no. You have to come where outside and inside is the same thing. We're not living a bipolar life. We're living a unified life where the truth that is within our soul is what we speak as well. Ki ha-kodesh boruchu shu hu emes. Ki ha-kodesh boruchu shu hu emes. Miskorev l'mi she kor'o be'emes. God, who is truth, reacts and responds when He's called by someone who is truth as well.
That means if a person has falsehood in their life, if a person has something which is not exactly accurate, if it's not, like we mentioned before, 99% truth is 100% false. I just added one little fact that's not correct. Oh, it's 100% lie now. We have to be so cautious and so careful because it's not just the words. What does it make a difference? It's inconsequential, like we mentioned in the previous episodes about falsehood.
It's just, it's a white lie. It doesn't, it just makes my story sound a little bit better, but it's, it's inconsequential. We see over here that the problem is, is that it's incongruent with our soul. Our G-d-given soul is all truth. And when we speak the lie, we're, we're poisoning it. So G-d answers those who are truthful. Kor'o v'hashem l'chol kor'o. V'hashem is close to everyone who calls upon Him. L'chol asher yikruhu be'emes, but those who call upon Him in truth, with truth, meaning it's authentic, it's real.
So this concludes day number 123.

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