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 morning everybody. Welcome back to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. Today I want to address the most incredible modern-day splitting of the Red Sea we have ever seen since the exodus from Egypt. We're now going into the days of Pesach. We're already in the month of redemption, we're already in the month of Geula and we hope that Moshiach will be here this month and we pray so hard during these days that we should see the coming of Messiah. But it's very rare that we get a glimpse of history in front of our eyes, and that's what I want to talk about today.

01:07
You know we're going to be sitting at our Pesach Seders in less than a week and we're going to be telling the story of the Jewish people that it's not only in those generations, in those years, in those days where the Jewish people experienced miracles, but also in our days, and we know that every year we say to ourselves yeah, really, what kind of miracles do we have, like the splitting of the sea? What kind of miracles do we have Like the wars that the Almighty won for the Jewish people with the Amalekites and with the? You know, you think of every miracle that the Jewish people experienced and we go through with great details. They saw the 10 plagues, which, according to our sages, was 250 plagues. Imagine for a second that that happened in our generation. What would we say? Of course, everybody sees. There's a miracle. Everybody sees it's the hand of God. Well, not everyone saw it was the hand of God. Not everyone saw that this was the hand of Hashem protecting them. So let's turn ourselves to modern day current events. Saturday night, 350 rockets, ballistic missiles, scud missiles, suicide drones are all flying to Israel. To what? To murder the Jewish nation and the common theme that I'm hearing from all over the place. Thank God for the Iron Dome, thank God for David's sling, thank God for the IDF, thank God for the Israeli Air Force, thank God for the American allies and the European allies. But I want you to open your hearts and imagine that we were the people going out of Egypt, and how easy it is for us to not realize that this was an open miracle by the Almighty and the same exact challenge that they had back then of recognizing ki hi ne elokeinu zeh. This is our God performing miracles for us.

03:31
They also blamed it on nature. They blamed it on a good defense system. They said it was. We had some things happen for us. You see, for every miracle, the miracle is never going to be 100, nothing. It's never going to be to the point where it's like miracle 100, nature zero. It's never going to happen like that. It's always going to be a 50-50. So you can always say you know what? It really wasn't a miracle, it was just. We have great, smart people in Israel that created some technology we could always hang it on the hook of. It wasn't really a miracle. This isn't a miracle, but something else is really a miracle. You know, if I saw them just falling out of the sky, then I would know that it was a miracle. We have to know that Hashem always embeds miracles in a way that we can say it was good technology, it was a good invention.

04:38
I read a report this morning from a scientist, from a scientist. He analyzes the data of the likelihood for 99.9% of the rockets being shot down. He says the likelihood is zero. Not only that, he says that even the inventor of the Iron Dome, even the inventor of David's sling, says that he cannot guarantee More than 90% success rate. You know what 90% success rate means With 350 rockets? That means 35 of these ballistic missiles with 60 ton of explosives land in Israel. Do you know what that means? That 35 of these ballistic missiles hit the land of Israel. Catastrophic nightmare can befall the Jewish people and one lands in an air force base and makes some cosmetic damage which was fixed in about an hour.

06:01
Is that not a miracle? It's Hashem sitting there with a little pinky and flicking these little missiles. We think and we give the. We attribute everything to ah, the IDF, the Air Force, israeli intelligence. Oh, we got it all figured out.

06:23
Hashem, with a little flick of a finger, is throwing them away and saying you can't touch my people. And this is what we are going to be declaring at our Pesach Seder. It's that promise that God says the nations of the world will never be able to eradicate the Jewish people. Yes, pharaoh and Haman and Hitler and Ayatollah, none of them can eliminate the Jewish people. None of them can touch the Jewish people. Yes, can they hurt us to some degree? They can to some degree. They can hurt us. But it really depends on us whether or not we're going to understand that it's really the hand of Hashem that's protecting us. 300. You know that some of these Iranian missiles were just sent about six months ago to a few American bases in Iraq and they obliterated those bases. Terrible damage, many deaths, not a single death. In all of Israel, 350 ballistic missiles.

07:47
Do you understand what a miracle we have seen in front of our eyes? Sages, tell us something very, very important. God made a promise because he knew that we will remain true to him. The Torah study that we are studying here today, the Torah study that we experience throughout our days, we're listening you're talking about your podcast that you listen to all day. It keeps you alive. Today we have no excuses. We have the ability to learn like we never had in previous generations, and we have to recognize that the Torah that we study is our connection with God. It's our commitment with God.

08:36
Where the term V'hi She'am Dar? Sages, tell us, you know what stands to protect the Jewish people? I'll just read to you this one little paragraph. It is that promise to Abraham that protects our fathers and us, because more than one nation has tried to destroy us. In every generation they tried to destroy us, but God always saves us from them. So what's that promise? V'hi? Listen to this.

09:10
It's four letters Vav, hei yud, aleph. The vav is numerical value of six. It's the sixth letter, aleph bet Gimel Dalet. He Vav, the sixth letter. Our sages tell us that represents the Mishnah that we study. There are six orders of Mishnah. The Vav is the Mishnah that we study and the Talmud that explains that Mishnah. And we have the Thinking Talmudist podcast right. Then we have the hey. What's the hey? Hey is the fifth letter, aleph Bet Gimel Dalet. Hey, say, just tell us that's the five books of the Torah. Yud is the tenth letter, which is equivalent to ten. Say, just tell us that's the ten commandments. And Aleph. Aleph is.

10:01
Hashem is one, hashem is one. These four foundations are what protect us. When we are committed to Hashem is one, we're committed to His commandments. We're committed to studying His Torah and we're committed to studying the oral Torah, which is the Mishnah. That's the promise Hashem says. When you study, when you connect to me, when you realize that I am your creator, when I'm your defender, I'm your protector. I'm taking care of all of your needs. Nobody has a hand on us.

10:43
Not ballistic missiles, not terroristic drones, suicide drones. By the way, these drones are massive. They're massive. You know what they're carrying Explosives, that's it. Straight, direct flight to Tel Aviv. Explosives. You know what damage that can cause.

11:06
But who protects us? Hashem alone protects us, only Hashem. When we sit at our Pesach Seder this year, Monday night and Tuesday night, you know what we're going to do. We're going to sing the praise of Hashem that he protected us back then and that he protects us today, each and every one of us.

11:35
You saw the footage, by the way, you know how big these missiles are Massive, they're massive. It's not like these little rockets. You look at these little pebble rockets that they're sending from Gaza. It's a little rocket. Okay, it's a six foot You're talking about. These things are like four stories long. Like it's just unbelievable the amount of explosives these things are carrying. Like it's just unbelievable the amount of explosives these things are carrying. By the way, these ballistic missiles go a thousand miles in two hours. Do the math of how fast that is? It's unbelievable.

12:16
And who protects us?

12:18
Hashem alone protects us. You know why? Because Hashem loves us. Hashem why? Because Hashem loves us. Hashem loves each and every one of us. Hashem says I am your defender, I am your protector, I'm there for you. And we need to use this on display. This is for the whole world to see, but more than the whole world for us to see, for each and every one of us to internalize the direct relationship that we have with hashem. Each and every one of us, we're gifted with a sign of clarity, with a miracle that we don't have to go back to Egypt to understand the hand of Hashem. You know, the question that we get many times here is like how can the Jewish people perform the sin of the golden calf? I mean how they just saw the greatest miracles? And yet I listen to Israeli news that day, sunday, all the news anchors, they were all talking about the power of the IDF, the power of David's sling, the power of the defense systems. Give me a break the power of Hashem.

13:42
God warns us about saying Be very careful. Hashem cautions us about saying that it's your strength who brought you this greatness, your strength who brought you this victory. Be very careful about that. Don't take Hashem out of the picture. We cannot ever take Hashem out, because you know what the result was of taking Hashem out the golden calf. That's the result if we take Hashem out of the picture.

14:19
Hashem wants our closeness, which is why he does these miracles for us. It's not always visible, we don't always see them, they're not always clear to us. But this one is clear, it's as clear as day. And when does it come to us? Right at the doorstep of the holiday of redemption. Right at the doorstep of the holiday of redemption, right at the doorstep of Passover, where God literally passed over the Jewish people and the land of Israel, where the rockets didn't touch us. It's amazing. This is a modern day, exodus from Egypt, where Hashem is telling us I love you. This is unbelievable. What a time to live, what a time to be alive and witness such incredible miracles in front of our eyes. And we need to reinvigorate, reinstill within ourselves this emunah, this knowledge that Hashem is there protecting us every day. Yeah, the IDF is great. They're only messengers from Hashem.

15:35
99.9% success rate Is that unbelievable To me? That's unbelievable. With the thank Hashem, pour our hearts to Hashem and give him thanks. It's Hashem. We're devoting ourselves to your oneness. We're devoting ourselves to your Ten Commandments and your mitzvahs in your Torah, to the study of your Torah, the five books of the Torah and the six books of the Mishnah and the Talmud. That explains it. We're committed to all of it because that's our relationship with Hashem. My dear friends, this should be the most remarkable Pesach ever. Our sages tell us that in the month of Nisan, the month of redemption, is when Moshiach will appear, and we pray that this is the time for us to be set free, where the nations of the world will understand Ki Hashem O'olokim, that Hashem is our God. But that will only happen when we internalize Ki Hashem O'olokim, that Hashem is our God. But that will only happen when we internalize that Hashem is our God.

16:46 - Intro (Announcement)
My dear friends, have an amazing Pesach enables more Torah learning around the globe. To find more lessons offered by TORCH, please visit torchpodcasts.com.