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.

00:11 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody. Welcome back to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. We are in the middle of Orchid Siddiquim Ways of the Righteous in the Treasure for Life edition, on page 495. The Treasure for Life edition, on page 495, the gate of envy, jealousy, jealousy, envy. Are they the same? We'll see in a few moments. But what I would like to clarify is that when we talk about envy, when we talk about jealousy, what's really happening when we talk about jealousy. Jealousy is when I'm not pleased with what I have. I look at what someone else has and I want what they have. So in the very foundation, the very core of it, I'm not in agreement with what the Almighty decided. He decided that they should have a nicer watch, a nicer car, different children, different spouse than me, and I am jealous because I want that, I want that. So I am sort of in a disagreement with the Almighty about what I should be getting. That's really the core of it. So now we're in the 14th gate. So envy, envy.

01:30
Hakinohi anaf min hakas is an offshoot. Envy is an offshoot of anger. Ve'ein adam nimlat mimena. And there's no one who escapes from this negative trait. Ki anachnu royim, for we see with our eyes asher kol b'nei adam nimshach.

01:49
Negative trait, for we see with our eyes that people follow the trends of what their friends do. We are pulled, we are attracted to what others are doing, whether it is that we see someone else acquiring worldly acquisitions a nice car, whatever it may be, nice clothes, whether it be food, whether it be a new house, whether it be money, whatever it is, then every person desires. And if you think about it, what is all of fashion? What is all of fashion? Fashion, what is fashion? Think, how many times do you see something and you're like that is the craziest thing in the world. I can't believe anybody would walk around dressed like that and then three months later, we see ourselves wearing it. Why? Because that same jealousy kicks in. For whatever reason, we fall into that same trap ourselves, and this is something we need to be very careful about, and this is what we're going to be elaborating on tonight. He endeavors to do likewise, thinking. My friend has this, I want it also.

03:09
This was intimated by Shlomo HaMelech. This is something that King Salchaveiro, yishlozeh Gamli, iye Kach V'dovizeh Ramaz, shlomo HaMelech, and this is what King Solomon hinted to V'ro'isi ani es kol omol, v'es kol kishroin ha'maseh. King Solomon hinted to King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes the following and I saw that all toil and all excellence of workmanship was one man's envy of another. So this problem of jealousy is not a new generational thing. V'ra'isi ani es kol omon, v'es kol kishoroin ha'maseh ki hi kinas ishme re'eyo מי שעמידה הזוי מסכברסלוב.

03:59
One who is overpowered by this trait is extremely despicable, because envy brings one to lust. ומגון מאוד. כי הקיר מביא לידי חימוד, כי כשאדם אינו נוסן אל ליבו מה שיש בידי אחרים, אז אינו חומד. When a person does not take to heart what others have, he doesn't lust. But the moment that his heart is drawn towards what his friend has, and he's jealous and he covets and desires what other people have, and he's jealous and he covets and desires what other people have, then he becomes envious of what other people have. As we know, the Torah, the Big Ten Ten Commandments, tells us do not covet your neighbor's wife and all that belongs to your neighbor. So this is a big problem if a person is trapped in this world of jealousy. And again, jealousy comes from our eyes. We look and we see what someone else has and then we desire it. When someone else has something, we think, hey, I want it too, and that becomes a big, big problem. And when he covets he steals, and they coveted fields and they stole them. So this is a pattern that happens, I remember.

05:40
I'm going to share with you a story that I've shared before about my brother's bar mitzvah. My father at the time may he live and be well, but my father at the time was doing pretty well in business and my brother, my oldest brother, was going to have his bar mitzvah a few months later. They went to a cousin's, a relative's, bar mitzvah and it was a very, very simple bar mitzvah. My brother, on the way out of the bar mitzvah, says to my father he says my bar mitzvah is going to be a lot nicer than that, won't it? You can afford a much nicer bar mitzvah. So my father said no, actually you're going to have something very similar. He says why I mean you can afford something so much nicer than that. I mean this is like this was like the simplest bar mitzvah ever. My father said I might be able to afford it, but can all the kids in your class afford it? They're going to go home after we have a real fancy bar mitzvah and they're going to say to their father I want a bar mitzvah like Wolby had. And what's the father going to do? He says my son is only going to be bar mitzvah once in his lifetime. I've got to give him what he wants. Father's going to go cheat and steal and borrow money that he can't return just so that he can live up to the joneses, live up to the freedmen's right. It's a terrible, terrible thing. This is something that I think we need to be very conscious of, because it's not something, it's just a simple thing. Our children pick up on it if we aren't cognizant.

07:24
We had a big window in the front of our house, but you know what else was on that window? Shades. We didn't look out. We didn't look out to what the neighbor has. Oh, they got a new car. Oh, they got a new. You know they're building a new house, they painted, they got a new roof, they got a. This or that Didn't make a difference to us. We looked inside. Our job is to look inside, not to look outside. That's something my father was very conscious of, very, extremely conscious, to ensure that it was very, very, very clear to us that we had everything we needed and we were going to try to do everything we can to serve Hashem with exactly what he gave us. So, my dear friends, let's continue here.

08:21
And one whom lust mounts to close, that someone is overcome with lust is very close to transgressing the Ten Commandments. But there was once a man who had a wicked neighbor. They had a gate separating, a wall separating between the two properties, and this wicked man lost it after his neighbor's wife and some of his possessions lusted after his neighbor's wife and some of his possessions. Yom Echad Erev, shabbos. One Friday he heard his neighbor telling his wife I want to go away for the day on business. And he did so.

09:18
What did the wicked person do? He knocked down the wall between their two houses. What did he do? Prohibition of demolition on Shabbos. And he went and he violated the woman, which is what Committed adultery. What's that? That's he committed. It says, which is one of the Ten Commandments. He did that. Then he started stealing their money, stealing their riches. When he started stealing, the woman started then yelling. What happened? He killed her. Now he didn't only do break the Shabbos, started then yelling. What happened? He killed her.

10:20
Hare Ovar Eloi Siutzach. Now he didn't only do break the Shabbos, he also did thou shalt not commit adultery. He also did thou shalt not steal. He also did thou shalt not murder because she goes over. Gone over Masha Chomad Hare Ovar, eloi Signev, eloi Sachmod. And then he also violated you shall not covet your neighbor's home. The next day his parents started yelling at him and screaming at him, reprimanding him for what he had done. So he hit them. Says that you should honor your father and mother, one of the Ten Commandments. He violated that as well by hitting them.

11:06
V'charka huva lefan of be'izdin. And then he was brought to the bezdin, to the court Ve'heid hu im chaveir v'bliyal she'elu achafot z'ma shalokach mashkon shalohayu. He lied to the president, to the court, that these objects he was just taking back what was his, because this was collateral that he gave them. And what happened? He just went back to get his own, what he had given them as a collateral, and they couldn't take what he stole out of his hands. He says entrusted to that, this object that he had stolen, he said was entrusted by them. He had been able to reclaim it until now that the robbers had broken the wall and killed his wife.

12:24
And hearing of it, he too has gone in and taken his pledge, thus transgressing Do not testify falsely Okay, and every place that he went, okay and every place that he went. And then he would swear up and down, right and left, wherever he went, that he did not do anything. And because of the embarrassment of people accusing him that he did these terrible acts, he went and betrayed God, left religion and then betrayed the first commandment of the Ten Commandments, which is I am Hashem, your God. And then he became an idol worshiper and he bowed down and he served the idols, thus transgressing the second commandment you shall not have any other gods besides me and do not bow down to them and do not serve them which he also transgressed. And all of this came about how?

13:44
By jealousy. Nimtso shahachomeit koroiv lav harakol ha-Torah. We see from here that when someone is jealous, they can transgress the entire Torah. The entire Torah falls apart. All 613 mitzvahs essentially, can be devoid of a person who goes against the one commandment of not being jealous. This is a very, very important thing. We need to remember this every single day of our lives. This concludes day number 83.

14:28 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.