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)
I actually had a little drash on the whole Trump assassination attempt. I'm still not finished working it through, but where did he get shot? He got shot in the ear. Weird, as it tells us in the, he got shot in the ear. Where does it tell us in the Torah about puncturing the ear? Oh, very good.

00:31
It says that if someone becomes a slave and why? They couldn't pay back a debt, so you sell them to a Jewish owner, a Jewish slave owner, and he pays back that debt. Now he owns the slave for how long? Six years, up till the Shemitah, till the sabbatical year. So it's a maximum of six years. So what happens? If he really likes it there, they give him a wife, he gets married, has some children.

01:01
It's a nice life. He's working for his master. It's very nice. He's married, has some children. It's a nice life. You know, he's working for his master. It's very nice. He's like, it's comfortable here, like they take care of me, they give me food. You know, when they only have one steak, I get it, because that's what the Torah says. When they only have one pillow, I get it. It's like it's a good deal. I like my master. I want to stay here. I want to stay here, even though the Torah says I go out by the sabbatical year. I want to stay here.

01:27
So what does the Torah say? Take him to the doorpost and puncture a hole in his ear so that he remembers that the ear that heard at Mount Sinai be a servant to me, God. And this person says I want to be a servant to someone else. This person needs to always remember I am Hashem, god. And this person says I want to be a servant to someone else. This person needs to always remember I am Hashem, your God, and that's why we puncture Azir. So I was thinking maybe, maybe, maybe it's possible that people are making themselves servants or idolizing an individual, a human, instead of idolizing the Almighty. And in front of the entire world, hashem is saying puncture that ear so that you remember be a servant to the Almighty, don't be a servant to my servant. You can vote however you want to vote. That's not the point here.

02:27
I think that we're getting carried away in this world that we're in right now, that we're putting all of our trust, all of our faith in our government when it's like oh, if my candidate. Look on both sides, people are like my candidate is the only one who can save this country and we're forgetting to look up. Hashem runs the world way before there was a United States. Hashem runs the world way after there was a United States. Hashem takes care of everything that goes on in this world, but we're putting our trust and our faith in a human. There's no question we have to do what we can do to save this country, because this country as Jews, by the way, I believe it's our obligation, because this country has given us opportunity, like no other country in the history of the world, to be able to study Torah with freedom, to raise our children as Jews, to walk around with a yarmulke without fear to have tzitzit hanging out. You can walk. It's amazing the freedoms that we have here to serve the Almighty.

03:41
And not only that the assistance that they give to the nation of Israel, to the people of Israel, to the land of Israel, in the tune of $4 billion a year. That's on the record. There's plenty off the record, joint research that they do so. A lot of great things that they do for the world. There's almost not a nation in the world that hasn't benefited from the United States, and our modern sages have called the United States, the kingdom of kindness, which is its merit for existence. It's its merit for existence, but we can't put our faith in mankind. We have to put our faith in the Almighty.

04:33
And I believe that this was a definite sign from Hashem saying to each and every individual it's great, you want to follow a candidate, follow your candidate, support your candidate, put the lawn sign in front of your house Great, be passionate, but don't put your faith. Support your candidate, put the lawn sign in front of your house Great, be passionate, but don't put your faith in a human being. And it's a great thing that we have the ability to vote and I urge everybody to vote on Election Day or before Election Day. You want to vote early? Great, but to vote early great. But to vote, be part of it, but don't put your faith in mankind, put your faith only in the almighty. Yes, that's correct.

05:27
I have, I have noticed, I have noticed and it really is. I hope, I hope that it's genuine, I hope that it's real, I hope that it brings about, because it's an amazing thing. I don't think there's a person who's more well-known than he is on planet Earth. All right, I don't think there's a single human being alive today that is as famous maybe Elon Musk, but I think he may be even more famous than Elon Musk. And what's really amazing is, I think Hashem is showing the entire world how fragile we are as human beings, using him as an example. It was just a statement. It was a statement. It was using him as an example for all of us to learn something.

06:09
Hashem doesn't do things randomly, and if it is for him to, you know, people can say about him that he's arrogant, which I personally don't think so, but people can say, from the way he talks and the way he is, that it's you know what. On a public stage in front of the entire world, hashem showed him what it means to be humble, to recognize what we all need to recognize that everything we have is from Hashem. I did note that and I thank you for pointing it out that the first words he said after that, publicly, was that I'm only here by the grace of God. I owe it all to him, and that's a very profound thing for someone who's so public, so vocal, to say and declare in front of the entire world a recognition that there's a creator, a recognition that there's a higher power, and I think perhaps we can take a lesson from this. Whether we like him or not, it's irrelevant. It's something you know I mentioned this in the past that Rabbi Yerucham L'Vavitz, the great, great sage of the Mir Yeshiva back in Poland, would talk about current events in his lectures.

07:27
There was a rebellion in a country, he would talk about it. There was a demonstration in a different country? He would talk about it. There was a demonstration in a different country? He would talk about it. There was an uprising he would talk about it. What are you mixing in politics? What are you mixing in current events? With yeshiva, these righteous students are studying the word of Hashem. No, no, no, no.

07:46
You have to understand that the things that are happening around us need to wake us up. They need to wake us up. God doesn't make us see something if not for us to be inspired and changed by it. I don't believe for a second that this was happenstance. This is the hand of Hashem, showing us all how delicate we are and how precious we are, and that he is in control of everything. And you've all seen the image of the one turn of the head. We saw a miracle in front of our eyes that a human being, a human being, was saved by a turn of a head, by a millisecond. These are things we need to take to heart and, hopefully, grow from the experience, because we were all witnessing. It's like we always say oh, if I can see a miracle in front of my eyes, then I'll change.

08:56
No, no, no, no, no. We saw a miracle in front of our eyes. What greater hand of Hashem can you see? We just saw in April, april 15th. We saw the hand of Hashem with 300 ballistic missiles were just like flies, just being flicked out of the air, out of the skies. It was amazing. We're like was that a miracle? Israel has David's sling and they have all of this technology. No, no, no. That's a miracle in front of our eyes that 99.7% were shot down. That's amazing. That's a miracle in front of our eyes.

09:39
So what changes in our life? Well, current events Okay, turn the page. We have to be like Yisro. Yisro saw something. He saw a miracle. He said whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop it. I got to go investigate, I got to go change my life. And this is the second major miracle that we saw in front of our eyes. Shem should bless us all that we should learn the lessons, wherever we get them from, and grow and inspire ourselves to become better people because of it, to change, to do something special, to declare that Hashem is one for us, whether it be for our family, for ourselves, to do something to hopefully influence change in the world. Just a little side note our family, for ourselves, to do something to hopefully influence change in the world.

10:32 - Intro (Announcement)
Just a little side note, you've been listening to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast, a TORCH production. Become a supporter at torchweborg, because your assistance enables more Torah learning around the globe. To find more lessons offered by Torch, please visit torchpodcast.com.