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)
Welcome back, my dear friends, to Orchos Tzadikkim, the Ways of the Righteous Day, number 66. We're on page 391. Ve'aboteach b'shem yisborach mi dotov agdo lahim yot, someone who puts his trust in Hashem. He says you know what Hashem? It's going to look in this world like I'm giving up on everything, I'm giving up on my pleasures in this world. But you know what I'm doing. Really, I'm investing Hashem in our relationship. I'm going to give up on the parties I'm going to give up on.

00:40
I will tell you something very amazing, an incredible story. I'm reminded of Rav Shlomo Zalman Arbach, who was the leading Torah scholar in Jerusalem back in the 80s and the 90s. He passed away in the early 90s. He was about 100 years old, leader of the Jewish people, and what was unique about him is that he loved every single Jew and every single Jew loved him. I merited to be in the Holy Land of Israel when he passed away His funeral. The entire city of Jerusalem closed down and he had over 250,000 people at his funeral. You can check this up on Wikipedia Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.

01:22
And the story was told about him that when he was a young boy learning in yeshiva, his family lived in Jerusalem and they were very, very poor. It was very difficult for people to earn a livelihood, and even those who earned a livelihood, it was very difficult to secure food, so people were living off of scraps. One day he was sitting in the study hall and learning Torah. One day he was sitting in the study hall and learning Torah and his brother comes to him and tells him you know, mama prepared some potatoes, which is a special delicacy. He says, okay, I'm learning. You can have my potatoes, you can have my potatoes, my Torah is my potatoes, my Torah is my delicacy.

02:04
But one of his friends once said to him you know, there's a wedding. One of the students in the yeshiva, one of our fellow friends, is getting married. Maybe come to the wedding? He says why should I come to the wedding? He says what do you mean? It's a great mitzvah to make a bride and groom happy at their wedding, to dance in front of them. See, he said, listen, if I go to this guy's wedding, I'll be there. For how long? I'll be there for four or five hours. What's the likelihood that I merit to fulfill the mitzvah in the Torah to make the bride and groom happy? What's the likelihood? Maybe, if I'm lucky, the groom will get a glimpse and see one of his classmates and he'll be happy that I was there. Maybe he says but you know what's a guarantee If I sit and learn these four or five hours instead of going to the wedding, then when this friend of ours marries off his child and I come to that wedding as a Torah scholar, I'll only need to be there for 30 seconds and I'm guaranteed to fulfill that mitzvah. Why?

03:16
And this is exactly what happened when Rav Shlomo Zalman Arbach was in his 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s. He was world-renowned for his clarity in understanding of all of the Torah and the Mishnah and the Talmud and Halacha and the Shulchan, aruch and the Rambam and every single Midrash. He knew everything and he studied with a sweetness, with a smile. I merited to see him one day. I met him. My father went and I said I want to come with you, I want to see the great face of a tzaddik. So people would invite him to a wedding. Do you know what would happen when he arrived at that wedding, any wedding? It was like the splitting of the sea. Oh, the rabbi is here, Wow, wow. People couldn't believe it He'd come. Oh, the rabbi is here. Wow, wow, people gonna believe it. He'd come. He would give an embrace to the, to the groom and to the groom's father and to the father-in-law, and he would dance for a minute and a half and he would leave and they were in seventh heaven. Can you believe who came to the wedding? The great sage of the generation came to our wedding two minutes. Generation came to our wedding Two minutes.

04:29
So was it worth it or not worth it? I think it was a pretty smart investment, investing in a long-term pleasure. You know what? It's not going to be easy for anybody, anybody who's in the process of growth in their Judaism. It's not going to be easy to keep Shabbos and it's not going to be easy to put on tefillin every day. And it's not going to be easy to keep kosher and it's not going to be easy to give tzedakah and to give a tithe for all of our earnings. And it's not going to be easy to dress modestly and it's not going to be easy to go always in the ways of Hashem. It's going to be challenges, but you got to think long term. Do you know what it means to have the pleasure of Shabbos?

05:21
You can't just hop into a Shabbos and get into the zone it's Shabbos after Shabbos, after Shabbos of investing, of investing, and what our friends might say oh, holier than thou, now, huh. So you can't come to the family getaway, you can't come to the weekend retreat, you, you can't come to the weekend retreat, you can't be there with us for grandma's birthday because there's non-kosher food and it's a very difficult challenge. It's a very difficult challenge. But who enjoys the pleasure of running the marathon? Who enjoys the pleasure of running the marathon?

06:06
The person who struggled and struggled and struggled and struggled, and after practicing and getting to six miles, they're like, oh, I can't do this. And they go home and they're crying because their legs are aching. And the next day they get back on the track and they do seven miles. And then the next day they do eight miles and they're struggling and it's painful and it's difficult and they're crying tears of pain. Finally, they get to a point where it's now a year of practicing, a year of doing the stretches and running, and running. Finally, they do the 26.2 mile marathon and when they pass through that finish line, the joy, the excitement, ah, it was worth all of those tears. It was worth that challenge, because nothing good comes easy. You don't become a scholar by one day deciding I'm going to be a scholar. It's going to take a lot of hard work.

07:15
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein didn't wake up one morning, rub his eyes and say that's it, I'm going to be a scholar. The Chafetz Chaim didn't wake up one day and say I'm never going to speak Lashon Hara again. He struggled and that struggle is what made him great, which is why many people say that reading books about the holy, righteous sages of the generation is not a good thing. Why? Because they paint the picture as if this tzaddik, this righteous person, this sage, never faced a challenge Like he didn't struggle. That's not fear. It's not fear to them, it's not fear to the reader. Because they struggled and it's only because they got up from that struggle that they became great.

08:18
Greatness doesn't come easy In anything. By the way, you think someone just happened to become a billionaire? No, they had to work really, really hard. Of of course, they needed a lot of assistance from the almighty. But you don't just succeed in any area of life just by happenstance. It's committing day after day after day, and never letting up and never, ever saying I can't do it anymore, or maybe saying it, but still getting up again, not giving in and being a little bit stubborn. We know stubborn is not a good trait, but in such a way it is a very good trait. We know every good trait has a negative and every bad it is a very good trait. We know every good trait has a negative and every bad trait has a positive. This kind of stubborn is good.

09:14
You say I'm not going to give up, I'm going to keep on trying and I'm going to keep on trying. You want to write a song? It's like I can't do it. I keep trying, I fail, I fail, I fail. Eventually you'll succeed, you got. I keep trying, I fail, I fail, I fail. Eventually you'll succeed. You got to keep trying.

09:31
Do you know that the Kentucky Fried Chicken tried to sell his idea to 215 banks? Imagine continuing to ask the same request 215 times. I was listening over the summer. I was listening to a podcast of mr howard schultz, the founder of starbucks, the ceo of starbucks, and he talked about his young resilience, where he called to try to make sales of coffee to different vendors hundreds of times and people just hung up the phone on him Hundreds of times. Do you know what that means To not stop again and again. Another person hangs up the phone on you, another person says no to you, another person says no and you don't stop, and then you have the largest coffee company in the world. It takes a lot of hard work.

10:42
So putting our trust in Hashem means that we know that Hashem will take care of us. V'aboteach v'shem yisbarach mida tova gedola hi me'od. Putting our trust in Hashem is such a fabulous trait. V'itzarich ha'odim tikun gadol terim sh'yaval omek ha'bitachon. However, self-improvement is required before one can attain a deeper level of trust in Hashem. Someone who trusts in Hashem is preparing himself to receive the loving kindness from Hashem, as it is written In Psalms 32.10,. King David teaches us that one who trusts in Hashem will be surrounded by loving kindness. Why does it say that he will be surrounded by it, surrounded by kindness?

12:13
We know that someone who really puts their trust in Hashem is not going to be very popular, not in the community, not with family. People are going to ridicule you, people are going to shame you. You're going to have to give up on a lot trusting in Hashem. By the way, we just talked about people working hard, but the truth is is that it's a sliding scale. It's a sliding scale. How much effort do we need to put forward? Like because you're going to say, right, lauren, you're going to say, well, you do have to get a job, you have to put forward an effort. I say, just tell us, well, you do have to get a job, you have to put forward an effort. I say, just tell us that it's a sliding scale.

12:54
If you have 100 percent trust in hashem, 100 trust in hashem, you need zero effort, zero 50% trust, 50% effort, 0% trust, 100% effort. Now, who wants to put 100% effort? I'd prefer putting 100% trust, zero effort. It's a lot of work to put that trust, because Hashem will challenge it, it'll be tested. You know, one of the great Hasidic masters once gave such a discourse and told the students exactly what we just discussed that if you have 100% trust in Hashem, no effort required.

13:40
You know what the guy did the next day? He sold his donkey. Sold his donkey and sat and learned in the study hall. That's what he did. So someone else came to the rabbi and said you know, I also have trust in Hashem, but Hashem didn't succeed my way the way he succeeded his way. So the rabbi tells him. You trust Hashem. Did you sell your donkey? Did you get rid of it? No, you kept it just in case, safety net, financial security, just as a backup plan no, no, that's not trusting in Hashem. Trusting in Hashem means I give up everything.

14:33
There's a story that's told in the Talmud that someone who had trust in Hashem also got rid of his work animal and sat in the study hall and learned Torah. He sold his animal to a non-Jew and one day, two day, three day no income, sitting in the study hall and his wife says to him you know what's going on, Yankala, you can't continue like this. I know you want to be all righteous and everything and have trust in Hashem, but I got to feed the kids and what we have left over is it's all gone. So what's the plan here? If I trust in Hashem, hashem will take care of everything. Another day, another day, another day.

15:31
And one day, one day, he comes outside of his house and he sees that his animal that he had sold to this non-Jew is standing right in front of his house. He looks around Where's the guy? Where's the guy? He's gone. What happened? This non-Jew was using the animal to get precious gems out of the earth and he would go into caves and he would mine to get gems, precious gems. But what did he do before he did that? He took off his jewelry, put it around the animals neck, took off his diamond rings, put it around the animals neck and went into the cave and the cave collapsed on him. The animal is waiting and waiting, and waiting. What does he know? He knows his old master's house. So he goes to his old master's house and there the old master gets all of those jewels, everything for having proper trust in Hashem.

16:46
By the way, this is tried and true. I personally have tried it. Put your trust in Hashem on something, even inconsequential. Don't give up your job, Don't give up your livelihood, but try it on something. Have full, 100% trust in Hashem and you'll see that. You'll see miracles happen to you.

17:14
As the author continues to say here, you're going to have to let go of many of your busynesses. Your busynesses, you'll have to get busy studying Torah. You need a lot of trust in Hashem if you're going to sit and learn Torah. And from this we learn from the verse chesed kindness will encircle a person will be completely surrounded by kindness. You can't have, you can't have trust in Hashem if you don't believe in Hashem. It's like belief in Hashem is the bachelors, is the masters, right? You can't get your masters before you have the bachelors. B'tochan is the masters, right? You can't get your masters before you have your bachelors.

18:11
D'chsiv v'yivtichu b'cha yodei shemekha, those who know your name will trust in you. Only people who have v'yivtichu b'cha is yodei shemekha, because they know who you are. They know who you are. There's no such thing in Judaism. We've said this many times. There's no emunad.

18:33
People think means faith. That's Christian. They have a leap of faith. We don't have a leap of faith. We have knowledge of Hashem. V'yodata yom v'ashevo se of Hashem, and you will know today and you will bring it into heart. What are you knowing? You know that Hashem is there, not. Oh, yeah, I believe. No, no, that's not knowing. Yeah, I have faith. No, no, that's not knowing. Knowledge is the obligation, and over here we see it in the verse King David tells us you know who's going to have trust in you those who know your name. They have knowledge of Hashem we mentioned this morning. There will come a time where the nations of the world will know Hashem. It'll be so clear Only the people who know Hashem and invest in their relationship with Hashem are those who are able to go to the next level, the master's level, and have trust in Hashem B'tachon.

20:00
Trust and emunah knowledge are partners. If you don't have knowledge of Hashem, if you don't have clarity of your relationship with Hashem, you can't have trust in Hashem. A child who's not sure if his father is going to be around tomorrow can't trust his father. But if he knows his father is my rock, I can trust him. Then I can get to the next level of trusting him. If there's no trust, there's also no knowledge. Emunah is the beginning of all Torah. You want to study Torah? You can't study Torah without having knowledge of Hashem.

20:38
Torah tells us In Exodus, 20. Ten commandments I am Hashem, your God. You should not have another God before me. If a person doesn't believe his Torah won't help him. When a person has the knowledge of Hashem and has his full trust that Hashem will fulfill everything that's in the Torah To give retribution and to give due punishment to those who sin against them and to give the proper reward to those who fulfill the word of Hashem. O Shomar Torah.

21:42
If you knew that by cheating or stealing even a dime, even a nickel. If you knew that that would cause you to be put to death, you wouldn't do it. You wouldn't do it, and it is the same for the sinner. Sorry, but all the thieves and the robbers trust in escaping forever and that is why they do what their heart desires, because they believe they're going to get away forever. If they believed that they were going to get caught, they wouldn't do it. If they believed that they were going to get caught, they wouldn't do it.

22:28
V'gam hachoteh, also the one who sins, im ha-yamamin b'vada'i al-god al-anshu, if he understood and had a clear understanding that Hashem will hold him accountable 100%, lo hayachoteh, he wouldn't sin. L'chein kol ha-Torah, kula, kula be'muna. Therefore, the entire Torah is dependent on one's knowledge of Hashem, as the verse states. A tzaddik lives in his emunah, lives through his emunah, through his knowledge of Hashem. Well, avraham Ne'ema, on Abraham, it is said, and he believed in Hashem and he viewed that trust as righteousness. God viewed that trust as righteousness On all the other great things that Abraham did. It doesn't say that he was viewed as righteous Only because he had the clear knowledge of Hashem that is considered righteous.

23:40
What does it say regarding Moshe? In all of my house. He is faithful, meaning everything he did was with the knowledge of Hashem. Hashem is right here and the Midrash tells us having knowledge of Hashem is greater than anything, because the merit, the reward for true emunah, the divine presence, the presence of Hashem rested upon them and they were able to sing the song by the sea. They believed in Hashem, they had total confidence, knowledge of Hashem. They had total confidence, knowledge of Hashem, trust in Hashem and in Moshe, his servant.

24:35
What does it say? Right after that, as the verse states, in Exodus, then sang Moshe and the children of Israel Reuvenne Yisrael. And in what merit do the Jewish people get redeemed from Egypt? Because of the emunah they had and the nation had knowledge of Hashem. They understood what was going on here.

25:12
As the Midrash states, anyone who accepts a mitzvah full-heartedly out of knowledge of Hashem, it is worthy that the Divine Presence rests upon this person, the Holy Spirit rests upon this person, and all of the exiles are ingathered in the merit of the proper belief in Hashem. As it says, and Hashem She-nemer, to-shuri, mi-rosh ha-mono, ve-omer, ve-i-rastich li-be-emuno, as it says, look from the summit of Ammono, which was referring to emuno. And then the verse states, and I shall betroth you to me through emuno, through belief. So having the proper knowledge and belief in Hashem Is the most essential part of life. The key to all of our success Is having that clarity. Because what do we say?

26:18
Before we do any mitzvah, you open up a prayer book. What do we do? We don't just put on A talit, we don't just put on tefill. We don't just put on a talit, we don't just put on tefillin, we don't just we prepare ourselves. We say Ah Hashem. I know that you're right here. I'm speaking before you. Please make it so that my heart and my mind combine with my physical body when I utter the words of your praise, that I feel that connection when I do that mitzvah. That my mind be in the right place, I not be distracted. That we take our things, that we do and elevate it. That it be filled with godliness. My dear friends, we're going to stop here tonight. I want to thank you very, very much. This concludes day number 66.

27:17 - Intro (Announcement)
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