Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. It is so wonderful to be here. It is a tremendous honor and a privilege to spend this Sunday morning, this beautiful Sunday morning, with all y'all. I want to learn with you something you know. Typically we do. Our everyday Judaism class focused on halacha, on a specific chapter of the Kitzesh Shulchan Aruch, the abridged code of Jewish law. Today, I want to do something a little bit different, because I think it's important for us to realize the full scope of what it is that we're doing. We're not robots God doesn't want robots and we don't just learn halacha to know what to do. We do it for a very specific reason. Why do we fulfill the mitzvahs of the Torah? There's only one answer to this.

00:58
Only one answer? It's a very easy answer. We spoke about this in our Parsha review podcast just last week.

01:06
It's a very easy answer. We spoke about this in our Parsha review podcast just last week. We do the mitzvahs because Hashem commanded us to do it. That's why that's the only reason we do it because Hashem commanded us to do it. But sometimes it'll add extra energy, excitement, flavor to our performance of the mitzvah. When we understand what's really going on, why does God really want? And a lot of what we talk about. We talk about we try to give some meaning behind it so that we connect to it and it adds more passion to the performance of the mitzvah. So, for example, shabbos yeah, you can perform the laws of Shabbos and completely fulfill the exact commands of Shabbos. We don't do the 39 prohibitions on Shabbos. We don't do anything that we shouldn't do. We only do the things that is appropriate on Shabbos. But if I don't understand the broader picture of it, it might become robotic. But when I understand. And now we've talked about the beauty of spending time with family. But that's not the reason we do it. We do it because Hashem commanded us. We talked about what it means to take time for yourself, to take time to invest in your relationships. To take time to invest in your relationships, to take time to spend with your family, to take time and spend time with your community, to take time and spend quality time in your relationship with God. It's all great reasons to be disconnected from the world, to be disconnected from your television, to be disconnected from your phone, to be disconnected from technology. These are great benefits of Shabbos, but that's not why we keep Shabbos. We keep Shabbos because Hashem commanded us. These are all added flavors to entice us to do this with more fervor and with more anticipation and with more excitement. But we can never forget the reason behind which we perform the mitzvahs. We perform the mitzvahs because this is Hashem's command. Okay, got this, Okay Now. But there is meaning behind the mitzvahs, there are reasons behind it, and the more you learn about the reasons, the more it's electrifying, it's invigorating. But notwithstanding that, we perform the mitzvahs because of our intellect, not because of our emotion. That means, if there's a command to give charity, do I give charity because I enjoy giving charity, or give charity because this is what God commands? Because this is what God commands. So, even if I don't enjoy it, you see, if we only do the mitzvahs because we enjoy doing them, then when there's no joy in doing this performing the mitzvahs because we enjoy doing them, then when there's no joy in doing those performing the mitzvahs, we won't perform them. But if we do it, because this is what Hashem commanded me to do, even if I don't enjoy it, I'll do it. And it's a very important thing for us to have this understanding that our mind, our knowing what the right thing to do and doing it is more important than doing it because it feels good, because it feels right. Okay, are we clear? Any questions? No, do you understand? Do you understand what we're saying, anna? Okay, good, also.

04:48
Ein Yisroel Mevak Shentam BeMitzvos K'deil HaKayimon. The Jewish people don't ask for the reasons of mitzvos in order to perform them. Day Elohem BeMasha Gozer HaBorah K'deil HaKayim L'Kabel Aleim. To the Jewish people, it's enough that God commanded us to do it, that we accept upon ourselves the burden to perform them with our complete heart. Why? Because God said so. And if our sages shared with us the hints to the mitzvahs, to the reasons, to the meaning, to the flavor behind the mitzvahs, to the reasons, to the meaning, to the flavor behind the mitzvahs, I raise him up. Okay, so sometimes you'll see in the Talmud many, many times a meaning, an explanation behind the mitzvah. Oh, it adds a whole new delight to the mitzvah, and part of fulfilling that mitzvah will be having that proper focus and intention.

05:59
What am I about to do here, for example? To do here, for example, before we put on the talis or the tzitzis in the morning, we have a whole paragraph of preparation, preparing ourselves that by completely surrounding ourselves by our talis, our talit, our talit. What are we doing? It's like we're asking Hashem to enwrap us completely with his presence. It's a great concept, it's a beautiful idea. And why do we do it? Because God commands us a four-cornered garment. It should have tzitzit, we should wear it, but we want to connect to it. So we understand that there's a much deeper level to this. There's a much deeper level in that, just like in the heavens the angels wrap us with our mitzvahs, so too we're asking in this world, here, that we should be wrapped with Hashem's presence. How, with all of the mitzvahs? That's a little flavor to putting on talis. Right, it adds a little flavor to it. We're symbolizing something and that's just touching on it. There's very, very. There's books and books and books explaining each one of the mitzvahs and giving the meaning and giving the flavor behind it.

07:18
The Shabbos candles we talked about it, shabbos candles, where a woman lights the Shabbos candles to welcome in the Shabbos. What are we demonstrating here, specifically with fire. We light the candles because fire is the spiritual connector between the physical and the spiritual world. What's physical here? This is physical here. This is physical. I'm holding it in my hand. It's physical. What happens when I leave go of it. It drops, it falls. We have gravity. And how do I know that it's real? Because I feel it, I know it's here.

08:02
What's fire, Fire? I can feel it because it's burning my hand. I know it's here. What's fire, fire? I can feel it because it's burning my hand. I know it's there, but can I hold it? There's nothing there. It's spiritual but it's physical. It's a blend of the two and it defies gravity. It goes up. Fire goes up. Everything else goes down. So why do we start Shabbos with lighting candles? I'll give you just one of the many, many multitude of reasons. Because what we're doing is our whole week is physical. We take our entire week and we say now we're elevating our physical world and going into a spiritual realm. So we have that fire. That fire defies gravity. Everything that we've done physically the entire week is now. We're elevating it, we're taking it up and we're living now in a spiritual realm where we don't need to work on Shabbos. We don't need to provide for our family on Shabbos. Everything is ready, everything is taken care of. Hashem't need to provide for our family on Shabbos.

09:04
Everything is ready, everything is taken care of Hashem is going to provide for us everything we need so that we have what it takes for Shabbos. Do we, our sages, teach us levu, aleva ni porea For Shabbos? If someone doesn't have food for Shabbos, you can borrow money for the expenditures of Shabbos. Hashem says I'll pay it back. I'll pay it back, it's on me. It's like a child who wants to go visit their parents. Parents want their child to come visit. Parents say just come, I'll take care of it, it's my expense, you're my child, I want you to come visit me too. It's my expense expense. You're my child, I want you to come visit me too. It's my expense. Hashem wants that unification with us on Shabbos. He says I'll cover those expenses. How do we start our Shabbos by?

09:54
lighting a candle Right With a fire, it goes up. We take the entire physical world and elevate it. We go to a whole new realm. Now, once those Shabbos candles are lit, we're in a new world. We're in a new existence.

10:09
Does that add flavor to our lighting candles? Definitely, but is that why we light them? No, we don't light it because of the flavor. We don't light it because this is the mitzvah the mitzvah to light candles. Okay, the command.

10:26
Okay, shekeshem sha'alev tzoruch li'yos sholim ba'avodas Hashem. Just like the heart needs to be fulfilled with its service in Hashem Kach tzrichim kol sha'ar, kochasa'odom u'v'kol koach, sikhlo ba'avonoso Li'yos shleimim ba'avodaso yach. So, just like our heart is committed, our intellect needs to be committed as well. So how do we fulfill the intellect? Knowledge, okay, meaning the heart, we reversed it before. But just so we understand, the heart is action, but the heart is also emotion. Emotion, the mind is the intellect, the knowledge, understanding, when we fulfill a mitzvah, knowing what it is that we're doing. So now we're combining the two, the action and the knowledge together. We're bringing them together.

11:23
And where there is no explanation given, דא ילכח השיחל שבאודם שישתעבד, שישתעבד, sorry, למיצו, על ידי העדיה שכל מיצו. התורה, חוכמה סבורי יש בהן ורחוקת מבינת אנוש ואין לכל שיע. What do I do with the red heifer? I don't understand the red heifer. What do we do with any mitzvah that we don't understand? We do it. Why do we do it? Why do we fulfill those mitzvahs? Why do we perform those commands? Because I know Hashem is not wasting my time. He's not playing a game with me here. I'm just going to throw in a little riddle. Here I'm going to give you a mitzvah, I'm not going to give you a reason for it and I'm just going to waste your time. You think God wants to waste our time? Nothing better to do than to play a practical joke on us. Here I'm going to give you a mitzvah, I'm not going to give you a reason for it.

12:28
We talked about this previously, but parents need to discipline their children, not because the children will understand what they're doing. I'll give you an example. This example was given. I think we spoke about this last week.

12:49
So my daughter wants a lollipop. I say no, you can't have a lollipop, can't have a lollipop. Now Gotta eat your dinner. And she doesn't understand why I'm saying no. So she needs to understand. No, she doesn't need to understand.

13:12
Daddy said no and that's why and it's important, by the way as parents, we don't need to explain everything to our children. Yes, there are times our child needs to understand. We need to explain to them, but they don't have to do everything just because they understand. Even if they don't understand, they need to fulfill what the parents say. Honor your father and mother doesn't mean when I'm interested or when it makes sense to me, then I'll honor my father and mother, even if you don't understand, even if it doesn't make sense.

13:44
And the same thing is true with us and the Almighty. Do we fulfill a mitzvah only because I understand the meaning behind the mitzvah, or do I fulfill a mitzvah because this is what God commanded? Even if I don't understand, I fulfill the mitzvah. Okay, so, even so, we learned the laws we're learning in the middle of the laws of prayer we're talking about. We did the laws of washing our hands, but I don't understand, so maybe I shouldn't do it. We do it because this is a command we try to add and I, you know, with this individual I was meeting with yesterday and I mentioned before we went live, and you know I explained that when I was a 16-year-old boy, a young teenager, I remember I felt and, baruch Hashem, I put on tefillin every single day, every single day, but I felt a little bit robotic about it Because I put it on since I'm 13 years, since a month before I was 13 years old, I put on tefillin and I don't really understand all the deep meanings behind it.

14:54
I don't understand all of the you know, deep spiritual connections of what it does and how this is a. You know my connection, my relationship with Hashem and how it's. I don't understand it. So should I just stop doing it till I understand it? No, you continue. But invest time, open up the books. There's a command to put on tefillin every day. Let's learn it up. Where does it come from? Start to connect, start to learn the Talmud about it and start to enrich the experiencemud about it and start to enrich the experience so it's not just robotic in the same, so you add quality to the action. So it now becomes something which I'm doing it now.

15:43
I love putting on tefillin because it has much deeper meaning and we can talk about tefillin for days and days and days and not even scratch the surface of it. I just want to share with you one beautiful ben ischai. The. Ben ischai says tefillin, being worn by a person every single day, has a tremendous power to protect someone from purgatory Tremendous power. Person does a sin. What do we know? We have to get a cleansing. You know what protects you from that Tefillin? Why? Ben Ishchai says the most incredible thing. He says what is fire? Fire is Eish Aleph Shin. 301 is the numerical value. How many days a year does a person put on tefillin? 301. Because if you take out Shabbos we don't wear tefillin on Shabbos you take out the holidays, you take out all of those special days that you do not wear tefillin you're left with 301 days of wearing tefillin. The 301 days protects you from the 301 of fire. Is that a meaning? Is that the reason we do it? No, but it gives us a little bit of a like wow, this is something really special, this is tremendous power. Perhaps tomorrow I'll put on tefillin with a little bit more vigor, with more excitement, like, wow, this is a protector.

17:13
We can hear a story of you know. There was a man who decided he was going to put on tefillin. He put on tzitzit, a weird tzitzit. It's a special garment. It has four corners and you have fringes at the ends of them, turns out. A few days later he was on a bus in Jerusalem this is back in the 90s. They were blowing up these buses tragic and this guy was on one of those buses and the shrapnel went and was a millimeter from his heart, centimeter from his heart. The doctor said that pair of tzitzits that he was wearing, that extra layer, saved his life. Is that a reason to put on tzitzits? No, but it makes you feel good. The Arizal says that tzitzits is like body armor it protects you physically and spiritually. Is that the reason to wear tzitzit? No, but it makes you feel good.

18:21 - Intro (Announcement)
We put on tzitzit because this is a command that Hashem commanded us.

18:26 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
So we can't. We have to be very careful not to conflate the reason of why we put it on. Why do we put it on? Because Hashem commanded us with the reason that gives me a good feeling that I'm doing the right thing, or because I understand how it connects. And I don't think it's even possible for us to get down to the depths of real, real, deep understanding, the real underlying reason why Hashem gave us the commands. Yeah, if you look at the global picture of mitzvahs, such a beautiful life it gives you, it takes care of everything. But that's not why we do it. We do it because this is what Hashem commands us and that's the highest level of performance, which is what we call lishma. Lishma is. I'm doing this altruistically. I'm doing this because Hashem commanded me, for no other reason. It happens to be that if a person is able to infuse flavor into it, hashem commanded me for no other reason. It happens to be that if a person is able to infuse flavor into it, then perhaps it'll add vigor, it'll add excitement, it'll add energy, so that I don't just dove in and come to Shul and like schleppy, you know, or I go running because I know what I'm doing here, and it's important to fuse the two together but not to get them confused.

19:56
Moshol l'shnei b'ni adam. There are two people this is an example, a parable Echot shokhen b'midbar. One lives in the desert, rochok miyishuv b'ni adam, far from humanity, far from civilization. See, he lives far from civilization, doesn't have any internet, doesn't have any wise people to tell him how to live life, but according to his understanding, he does what he thinks is most healthy. Ve'asheni shochim b'chevas b'nei adam. The second guy lives in a community. He has friends and neighbors.

20:35
Umakeh b'chochmosim, and he knows the wisdom. Shel tuveh ha'melumadim, he knows all of the intellectual geniuses. He understands the wisdom. Ha'menusim b'nisonayim. Shel kol ha'kodmeyim Ve he understands the wisdom. They have life's experience, they've done trial and error, and here one is exposed to all of the wisdom of the world and one is on his own figuring it out himself. So this guy who lives among people has all the trial and error, has all the wisdom, has all the research, all the data. He knows what to do for the health of his body, based on his sources, even if he doesn't know all of the reasons behind it.

21:46
Who has more confidence that they're doing the right thing? The guy who lives among the people, who has all these doctors and wise people and all of these researchers and people who are developing new medications and people who are doing studies, all these testing trials. He's more confident in the wisdom he has from them than the guy out there in the desert who has no idea. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't work. I'm going to give it a shot. Feel a little better, don't feel a little better, I don't know. Just you know, shot in the dark. Harei sikhlu vedat t'shlemim. He is confident, whereas the person living out in the desert not necessarily Harishon kol yom of b'sveikos, the guy in the desert is living in doubt. I hope I'm doing the right thing. No idea, nothing to rely on, but my own intuitions. Shema nito maybe I'm making a mistake Shema nison. Yakrish hisharuso Ilu asheni yodea gam besichlo shakol masov. Nachonim afim einu yodea tamam klal. Even if he doesn't know the reasons.

23:04
The second guy, the guy who lives in the community, amongst civilization, even if he doesn't know the reasons behind it. He hasn't read all the research studies, he hasn't done all of the trials, he hasn't been active on the ground, but he knows. This is what they say to do. I do it, even if I don't understand how it works, he says. He says, even if we don't understand the reasons for every mitzvah, to understand that the source of which we're getting all of our knowledge is like. We see here thousands of books in our beautiful Levitt Family Library, here in the Torch Center. We have an unbelievable resource of verification and even if we don't study each and every source, we know with confidence that we're not being sold false goods. Okay, so definitely, even if we don't trust the rabbis which is a mitzvah? To trust our rabbis, as we've seen in our 48 ways way number 10, to have a teacher, to rely on our teacher, to learn from our teachers. But even if you don't, you can definitely trust the creator of heaven and earth. Creator of heaven and earth is not going to fool us, he's not going to trick us. He's not going to trick us. He's not going to do a number on us that will hurt us.

25:03
Notwithstanding this, our sages went out of their way to author and to research the reasons and the deep meanings behind the mitzvahs. Why? So that we, the simple people, can understand and connect with it, so that we should have a flavor to it. Ve'od sheyod hachamim l'softatim shokalabrios. Our sages understood basic psychology also, you know. I'll just give you one quick example and I know this might some people online because we're, we put everything on Facebook, youtube, twitter, twitch, my favorite Amazon gaming platform. We're there too, right, the podcasting, you know, I've heard. I can't even tell you. I'm now in Houston 20 years and there's probably the one thing that people bother me the most about out there when I'm out and about is the mechitza.

26:02
The barrier, not barrier, I don't want to call it a barrier, but the separation between the men and women in synagogue. Oh, it's total nonsense, rabbi, oh Rabbi, I just want to sit next to my wife or Rabbi, and I'll tell you what. When you see what goes on in the world today between the genders, whether it be abuse and I'm not talking everybody, of course, but it's sadly too frequent Just ask the last five governors of the state of New York that if there isn't a proper separation between men and women, things happen because there's nature. You see, our sages understood the nature of man. They understood the dangers, particularly not only in synagogue, but particularly in synagogue, where you're trying to connect spiritually. You ask any man does this make sense? They're like, yeah, kind of makes sense. Everybody understands that, Everybody in their right mind. It's not because they're second class, because they're second. No, because we're trying to be pragmatic in our connection with the Almighty. No, because we're trying to be pragmatic in our connection with the Almighty. It's not because we're being chauvinist, it's not because we're being no, it's because we realize the reality of humanity. And that's the reality. You can hide that reality. And it's so funny because when I look at these news stories, one after another after another after another, of women being violated in the workplace, women being violated in their political campaigns, and this, this, this wrong, that wrong, you wonder like don't people understand that there should be some type of you know, protection to ensure that such a thing doesn't happen? Well, in Judaism we have that A man and a woman who are not married to one another are not allowed to be alone in a room together. Oh, that's a little extreme. No, it's practical. Oh, that's a little extreme. No, it's practical.

28:24
The Torah understands, our sages understood the reality of how this world operates. They have a very easy solution Avoid situations that can cause it. Are you accusing me? You know what the Talmud says there's nobody who is trusted, nobody. It doesn't make a difference how holy you are, it doesn't make a difference how righteous you are. It doesn't make a difference how much Torah you studied. It doesn't make a difference how long your beard is, it doesn't make a difference. You are not trusted with the woman. No man is trusted with a woman alone that they're not married to. You're not married to that woman. You have no business being alone with her Not in the office, not in a private home, no place. And I think the world understands it. But the world is like you know. Let's see what we can get away with and hopefully I won't get caught.

29:28
There are protective measures that our sages put into the way we live life so that we don't fall in. On a practical level. Now we all understand it. Many times people say like, well, I would never suspect. Well, the Talmud says nobody's trusted, nobody. Yes, even that person, even the Pope, nobody is trusted, nobody.

29:53
Yeah, so if the biggest rabbi in the world is home and his wife leaves and it's just him and the cleaning lady, are you suspecting me? Yeah, yeah, talmud says yes, nobody's trusted. You know what you got to do get out of the house. You can't be alone. Right, there's no, there's no exception to the rule you don't see in the Talmud. Well, if you're really scholarly and you're really smart and you're really wise or you're really holy and you're really dignified and you're really this and you're really that and you have a lot to lose, then we don't suspect. No. Torah doesn't say that. The Talmud doesn't talk about that. Torah says nobody is trusted, there's no guarantor that can say that the person won't have be enticed, the person won't have a thought. So what do we do? We set a barrier, we have a protective measure so that person doesn't fall into a trap. I remember it's a sad story.

31:03
But I remember I was once at a conference and there was a young man, young rabbi, who was introducing me to some of his staff and he was very, very casual in his introduction with these young women that were volunteering for his program and I remember it struck me as being something was off. I didn't like it and what happened? We can all imagine what happened. There has to be a barrier. There has to be a barrier. You know, in our Torch Center, everything has windows. We have windows everywhere. You know, in our Torch Center, everything has windows. We have windows everywhere. You know why. There's no privacy, sorry, no privacy. If a woman wants to meet privately with the rabbi, you're going to have to have windows. People are going to have to be able to see in. There's no privacy. We have cameras everywhere. No privacy, sorry, why. It's too big of a risk, especially in this world that we're living in today. There's never being careful enough.

32:17 - Intro (Announcement)
Sorry, there's windows everywhere.

32:20 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
No privacy, particularly for this reason. So now let's just finish the last piece over here. He says some people don't have the proper emunah but they cling to the mitzvah because of the reasons they connect with. It means they're not yet at the level where they do it because this is the will of Hashem and a person, by the way, the Talmud tells us. We learn that If you don't do it for the right reason, it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Don't stop wearing tefillin because you don't know the reason for it. Even it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Don't stop wearing tefillin because you don't know the reason for it. Even if you do it, shalol l'shma, even if you do it not for its sake, still fulfill a mitzvah, because that draw will eventually come. The emotional connection to the mitzvah, the passion for the mitzvah will come Ve'al derech zu. And in this way we have to understand that there are many, many mitzvahs 613 in the Torah and in the halachas that we learn every week in our everyday Judaism series of the how-to, the practical how-tos of Jewish law. There are millions of laws, millions and millions of laws. So if that's the case, should I not perform those mitzvahs Because I don't know all the reasons. No, we fulfill them. Do them, even if what we call robotically, slowly, with time, you'll gain a connection with those mitzvahs. You'll gain an understanding, you'll gain an appreciation for it, you'll feel a closeness. You don't say I hope no man says this I'm not going to buy my wife flowers until I feel the deep passion for the flowers, for the love, right? No, no, no, you buy those flowers and you'll learn to feel the proper expression of your love.

34:58
Perform the mitzvahs. But again, there's another danger. What's the other danger? The other danger is a person can't do it only because of the flavor. If I only do it because of the flavor, then when I don't have the flavor, I won't do it. So there's number one we do it because this is God's will. If we're able to add and infuse the mitzvahs that we perform, the commandments that we perform, if we're able to infuse them with a flavor and to invest time. Do some research. Take a single mitzvah, one. I'll give you one more beautiful idea and we'll end this episode with this. Again, this is not the reason for it, but it's just to give you a little perspective to the mitzvah. You know we have a command that we recite twice a day a biblical commandment to put a mezuzah on every door in our house. Obviously, there are exclusions to this, like a bathroom, small closet, they don't need to have a mezuzah. But every other room a bedroom, a playroom, a living room, a dining room if it has a doorway, you need to put a mezuzah.

36:16
It's very interesting that in halacha we never see a compromise. We never see a compromise. We never see a compromise. It's either one way or the other way. We know we learned this in our Talmud, our Thinking Talmudist series, also a podcast.

36:32
We see that there's arguments. It says you know, this one says the sukkah should be up to 20, ama. This one says it should be 10, ama, okay, let's compromise, do 15. No, there's never such a thing. It's either 10 or 20. There's no in between. There's no compromise, one or the other. There's one exception to that rule and that is mezuzah. There's one opinion that it should be completely vertical, the mezuzah on the door, and one opinion that it should be completely horizontal, facing in. And how do we know? We put the mezuzah. Everybody knows we put it on a slant. What's going on here? It's one or the other.

37:11
I thought sages tell us that a mezuzah is a reminder that Hashem is there at all times and you know what Hashem is there at all times and you know what Hashem wants. If you want to have success in that home, if you want to have success as you walk into your home, remember the mezuzah is on a slant, it's compromised. You want to have success in your home, you need to have compromise. The compromise, the omen, the positive omen for success in every relationship is compromise and that's why compromise is demonstrated at the entrance of every single home. So when you walk into your home, you'll remember ah, I want to succeed in my home, in my relationship, I need to demonstrate the same characteristic of compromise.

38:10
Why do we put a mezuzah on our door? Not to teach us compromise. We put a mezuzah on our door because God commanded us. The flavor to it is just an added benefit, but we don't do is just an added benefit, but we don't do it for that added benefit. Again, that's just one reason of a million reasons.

38:32
And the more we learn about it, the more we see beautiful ideas, books and books and books written on each of the mitzvahs, on each of the reasons behind the mitzvahs beautiful thoughts, beautiful ideas, beautiful connections. Hashem should bless us all. We should all merit to fulfill the mitzvahs with all of our hearts, with all of the love in the world, to bring Hashem into our lives, to feel a closeness, to feel a connection, without reason and then, hopefully, with reason. So we should have even more passion for the mitzvah. A guard in the king's palace doesn't fulfill the king's wishes because he understands what he's doing. He's doing it because he's committed to the king. Now, if he understands it also, see, he does it with even more passion. But if he has a tremendous love for the king, he doesn't need to do it. I don't care. This is what the king wants, this is what I do.

39:40
Okay, it's a tremendous gift that we have the ability in Judaism to ask questions. Why do I do this? In many other religions? Your head is chopped off for asking such questions. You don't ask. We do ask. We're supposed to ask. We're supposed to investigate. We're supposed to investigate. We're supposed to look for ideas, for ways to connect and to elevate the actions that we're doing. My dear friends, let's go get them. Have an amazing week.

40:13 - Intro (Announcement)
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