Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

But now my dear friends, we're at day 124 in the Treasure for Life edition of the Orcha Tzadikim and the Ways of the Righteous in middle of page 706. Ve'ez ha-dover nikra krias emes and what is meant when we say calling upon God in truth like we said previously that korov ha-shem l'chol korov, it says in Psalm 145
God is close to all who call him, but to all who call upon him in truth. So what does it mean to be in truth? Ze'oh ha-mefana li'vim mekol dover she'ba olam u'miskorev al ha-kadosh boruch u'levad b'sikh lo holech u'mizchazek li'hidabek ba'or ho'elyon. He says what's meant is freeing one's heart of everything in the world and drawing near to Hashem alone So that one's intellect grows stronger and is cleaving to Hashem's presence and One's mind yearns constantly for Hashem
Ve'yosei machshavto b'chishko ta'mit. So when a person is dealing with a crisis, what's the first thought that goes through their mind? Hashem, I need your help. To be in a relationship with Hashem Where the only thing you're thinking is am I aligned with the Almighty? I'm living in a physical world, but this physical world is represented with my relationship with G-d Where G-d is sending me all these messages from the world
Around us from everything that's going on to teach me something. Am I living in a world that's real or am I living in a world That's materialistic and running away from that real-ness Ve'zei o'inyon yaseh g'odam kishu hu mizboded b'chadro He says how does a person get to this level where he's living a real truthful life the author tells us He says you know how you attain this you need to seclude yourself a little bit from society a little bit
Has to be obviously you don't run away into a forest and live in a forest alone No you have to be married and you have to be in a Relationship with with with your children and you need to have a healthy life with society But you have to have some quiet time as well without your phone Without your computer without your radio without your television without your internet With that just you and G-d where you can seclude yourself from the world
We talked about this a long time ago about having hizbo de dut which means to be alone in solitude Just you and G-d Now solitude solitary confinement Where it's for an extended period of time is not either healthy because you have to communicate with other human beings It's a devastating punishment but for a person to have 10 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes a day of The enormous 24-hour gift that we get every single day of life
To have a few minutes to just zero in in our relationship with God, which by the way is prayer That's what prayer is prayer means. I turn off the world and I'm just communicating with God I'm thinking my grandfather says the most important part of prayer is the first 60 seconds The first 60 seconds. What's the first 60 seconds? just sit quietly and Contemplate what you're about to do the most important part of prayer
Before you're gonna recite all the words every word carefully understanding what you're saying Asking all of the requests that you need health and and Livelihood and you want a job and you want to find your marriage partner all of the great things you want more important than that is sitting quietly for 60 seconds and Understanding you're about to speak face to face with the Creator of heaven and earth He's gonna be right there
You know, it's an amazing thing in the halacha that we studied in our everyday Judaism podcast We talked about the halacha that God that when a person prays a person should pray in the same place every day all of his prayers and it says That a person every time you go to synagogue Be in the same seat have your set spot Even if you pray at home Should have a set place where you pray This is my davening corner. This is my prayer corner
Why why is it so important the halacha says because God waits for you Where you're going to pray God waits for me God loves Communicating with you God loves talk. He loves when we pray He waits for us with anticipation. Ah My son my daughter they're coming to speak to me God waits That's why we should be in a set location Just it's an amazing thing To understand how much God loves the relationship with us V'zeh o'in yon yasi kishu hu mizbodet bechadro
When a person has that seclusion Mi p'nei zeh yar bechol choset lehi poyed v'lehi izbodet v'lo lehi izchabim b'nei odom rak letzorach godol He says a person should who's pious should find a way to separate and seclude themselves at times To have that ability to just connect with God avalim yisbal beha noas sefasa v'ufano v'lakosel v'mechashev b'in yon yitzrochav v'yikra v'loshono v'libo b'in yon beisoh o sheyachshev lehiska abed heich koloh orev k'dei lim tzochin b'ini b'nei odom lakabol mehem shevach oz ein avodos o'emes
He says what's if you're sitting there in synagogue And you're praying and all you're talking about in your conversation with God is Hashem Give me this Hashem. Give me that Hashem. I want this Hashem I need this Hashem this give me this give me that Help my son help my daughter help my friend help my neighbor help my cousin help me, you know All you're doing you're not you're not talking in and communicating with God or he says You want everybody to say? Ooh, what a cousin we have
Right and you lead the services and you give the beautiful solo there and you're singing so beautifully and you're Leading the congregation. So everybody have to pray says ooh Reb Harvey, what a beautiful job. You've done. Oh What a beautiful job. What a cousin. What a cousin Did I do that for God or did I do that for myself? Did I come to pray because I want to ask things for myself or did I do it to stop and recognize Who the Almighty is
Hakel, Haggadol, Hagibor, Hanorah going through all of the great attributes of the Almighty understanding God's greatness Person has to know what why they're doing this He says it could be if a person doesn't do it for the right reason. It's not truthful to begin with V'hu may osam shenem ar aleyim korov atah b'fiyem virochok mikil yosem We don't want to be like the verse in Jeremiah that says you are close in your mouths, but far in your innards
Meaning your mouth is close to God, but inside feeling that closeness Perhaps that's not that's not close enough L'chein anu misbal olim. What do we pray? What do we say every single day in our prayer? V'tahir libeinu le'ovdocho be'emes God purify our hearts So that we serve you in truth Not just that we serve you, but we want to do truthfully Sheh na'aseh kol ha'avadoseinu ba'amitus that all of the service all of our divine service should be truthful
V'na'amin b'leif shalomu b'nefesh hafeitzeh v'lo me'pnei anoshim v'lo avur mamon o ramus ruach We should do it not because we want people to give us Accolades and people to compliment us and people to recognize us and we shouldn't do it for money and we shouldn't do it For any other cause, not for honor For no other reason. V'zehu sh'nemer im'to shuv'ad sh'adei t'ibone This is what the verse says. If you return to the Almighty you will be rebuilt Parish, what does that mean? That is im'to shuv'ad sh'adei
She'ein shumach sh'av ha'chotzetz b'n'chol u'v'ein sh'adei if you turn to God and you have no foreign thoughts Separating between you and God Then you will be rebuilt mightily in the radiance of the shekhinah. Oz t'ibone b'binion chazak b'zor ha'shekhinah You want to really connect to God you have to have a clear. It's like what we mentioned earlier. What is spirituality? Spirituality is Elevating the physical experience with a real closeness to God
That I'm not just doing things. I'm not on the side of prayer, but also on the side of action That Shabbos is not just Shabbos that putting tefillin on every day lighting Shabbos candles kissing the mezuzah Placing a mezuzah on the door. It's not just a physical act, but rather I have a soul Connected to it. I have a spirituality connected to it. I'm Elevating the physical experience to something which is real and Connecting it with God with my source L'chein omar dovin and so said King David
Hashem mi yogur ba'olecho mi yishkon b'har kodshecho holech tamu muforot tzedek v'dover emes bilvavo King David said Oh Hashem who lives in your tent Who dwells on your holy mountain? He walks perfectly and performs righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart Meaning not only in his words. He speaks the truth, but also it's in his heart the truth Sometimes we can say one thing, but we don't really mean it. I Said what I needed to say, but I didn't really feel it
No, no, no also in your heart you got to feel it Consider these words says the author. He's boni b'masha omar v'dover emes bilvavo What does King David say here and speak the truth in his heart? He doesn't say speak the truth in his mouth Speak the truth in his heart v'dover emes bilvavo V'lo omar v'dover emes b'fiv. Rather it means to say ala ratzoloma. What does it mean to say? She tia emes tkua v'kvua b'leva odam That the truth must be implanted and fixed into man's heart
It needs to be completely Solidified into our heart therefore L'chein ha'chassid ha'marishanim kish ha'yo lehem mekkach ha'yo nosden oso lakone k'fiya skamas l'vava In the early the early pious sages when they made a sale they would sell the object to the buyer for the price that they had decided upon in their hearts and Even if the buyer was to prepare to give them more they refused to take more than they had agreed upon in their hearts
The Talmud says a story. I don't know if he's gonna bring the story here, but the Talmud says that one of the great sages Put an item up for sale. He put it posted it on eBay and he said, okay, it's gonna be $10 for this item Someone came to him Obviously, it wasn't online. It was in person. Someone came and said, you know, I'm ready to pay $10 But the person who came didn't realize that the great sage was a middle of praying
They realize his middle praying he's standing there in the forest and he's talking to God and the person thought he was just ignoring him She says, you know what forget $10. I'll give you $15 and he's still ignoring him. He says, okay $20 $30 $40 $50 he's ready to pay tenfold the original price. He's ready to pay for it finally, the rabbi takes three steps back and concludes his prayer and
He says I'm only gonna sell it for $10. That was the price that I what the guy was ready to pay a hundred That was the price that I had asked for that's the only amount I will take That's the only amount I will take this is what the the the author here is bringing us to the understanding that We cannot that means it has to be truth. Not only in words in the heart
I feel if they want to add more money to it. No, I'm not accepting it Only what they had agreed upon in their hearts is what they would accept He says a distinguished person a Honorable person who follows this course to speak the truth in his heart if he has taken it upon himself in his thoughts to do Something he should write that thought down Lest he forget it and violate his thought So that his thoughts do not get pushed aside to have that truth
This is the truth. And this is what I'm willing to do and I'm not gonna change it because you changed your offer This is what it is. A person has to remain truthful to that And if a person can't resist can't resist the opportunity the guy offered me a hundred thousand dollars And if a person can't resist can't resist the opportunity the guy offered me a million dollars And if a person can't resist can't resist the opportunity the guy offered me a million dollars
I only wanted a hundred thousand. He gave you he was ready to give me a million, right? I can't withstand it It's such a it's such a temptation He says go to a sage to absolve yourself from what you your heart was thinking You're not lying, but in your heart in your heart you wanted a different amount You have to absolve that as well. Yeah, the yateh lomach shavosav shegomer b'libo Afo pishloh hotz me pif. I never said it. I never said that I want a hundred
The guy came to me and now he offered me a million dollars. I have to I have to remove Have to nullify the thought That's how truthful we need to be It's an amazing an amazing thing that Torah teaches us How cautious we need to be about truthfulness We need to be cautious about truthfulness to the let to the last letter To the last digit This and only this you know, I
Share this story before but I think it's it's just so it's so important to understand this Especially when we talk about truth I one of One of the students one of the torch students once Reached out to me and said that they had ordered something from one of the big-box stores and they have this this This feature that you can buy and pick it up at the store So it was a specific item
I think they're probably looking for shoes or something and they went online and it wasn't available But it was available in the local big store. I don't know was a Macy's or Neiman Marcus one of those big-box retailers So they ordered it to have it picked up at the store And that way it was reserved and they knew they had their size and everything. Okay, great They tell them just gonna pick a random date Thursday 12 o'clock. We're holding it till then
1230 we're putting it back on the shelves. Anybody can buy it till 1230. You can come pick it up comes 1130 and They they suddenly realize. Oh, I forgot to pick it up. I gotta go. So they hurry to the Store takes them some time. There's some traffic. It's a little drive and on the way, they get a Notification that due to lack of pickup They're getting Refunded and the item is being put it back on the shelf
Okay, they said, you know what I'm almost by the store I'm just gonna go they go to the store and they quickly rush to the desk and they say Oh, my name is whatever, you know Greenstein and they say, oh, yeah, we go. We got got your order They give them the order. Okay. Goodbye. Have a great day and they And they go home They get home and they get another notification from that same store due to lack of pickup We credited back your account
Here they already had the item they're giving them their refund So they called me up and they said what what what am I supposed to do? So it's a very good question so I Called a rabbi to ask what to do and the rabbi said this follows. He said according to the letter of the law letter of the law They're allowed to keep it. It's their mistake. It's the stores mistake He said but it by the spirit of the law
You will never have blessing from something that comes through to your hand with a lack of truthfulness You will never have blessing When something comes to your hand with a lack of truthfulness so you might think I beat the system and Suddenly you have a leaky pipe. That'll cost you more than those shoes Meaning Don't try to trick the system God it's God's world He knows exactly what you're supposed to get and you're not gonna get any drop less than it But there's something more to it
Do you want to have something in your life? That's that came through a lack of truthfulness? Do you want something in your life if we are trying our whole lives to be congruent with God? We're trying to be aligned with godliness Do we want to have something in our lives That's a contradiction to that. It's sort of like an infection that's sticking to our body We don't want it on our body. You want to get rid of it?
Why would we want something which is a lack of truthfulness, which is the infection? That pushes away against God Person has to think about that. It has to be so we have to be so cautious about this So he says you should go to a sage go to a rabbi to nullify your thought even though you didn't speak it He says a person has to be has to therefore one should stipulate to himself that his thoughts
Should not be binding as long as he's does not utter them with his mouth Call Hadover MS Bilbovo Call Hadover MS Bilbovo One who speaks the truth in his heart and does not want to think falsehood He says if one speaks the truth in his heart and does not want to think falsehood even without intending to act upon it All of his words and his thoughts will be fulfilled as it is written
She never the sigs are Omer the yokom law and you will decree a word and he will be fulfilled for you Says Job 22 verse 28 you decree it if you're truthful You decree it You say it the truthfulness Hashem will fulfill it for you. Now. We understand why people go to blessings by holy righteousness sages What is what's the what's that going to do? Because if someone who's holy someone who seeks only the truth and nothing but the truth
And doesn't at all divert from that truth when they give a blessing god says i'm going to fulfill that blessing The sigs are Omer by yocum law you decree it and I will fulfill it for you That's the reward for someone who speaks the truth And one who speaks the truth in all of his business dealings Whether it be in business, whether it be in lending borrowing returning Returning He says what he should do he says one
Who is a man of truth in all of his dealings both in business and in lending? Will always state his final figure At the very beginning so that all those dealing with him will know That he will not change it and he will not go up and he will not go down Everyone knows Everyone knows This person is honest This is his number. He said this is the percentage he's going to give I know what he's going to give
It's money in the bank and we all know those people That is a pleasure to work with because we know that their word is a word When they say that this is what it's going to be they shook on it The handshake is worth more valuable than anything than more than any contract more than any promise Right they get meaning more than You put it on on the document and you signed it and how many people? Go against what they signed
Someone who's truly truthful, you know, their word is a word and they'll fulfill it to the fullest extent This is what our aim this is what our goal is So my dear friends this concludes day number 124 I look forward to God willing next week Resuming with day number 125 in the chapter the gate of truth in the orcha siddiquim My dear friends till then have a magnificent week Oh, thank you. Thank you
Yeah, and Muna when we say amen in synagogue for a kaddish for a blessing that anyone recites What we're saying is I affirm I affirm the truthfulness of this praise of Hashem And we're attaching ourselves to it Right. So no every every human being has a soul, but some people cover that soul with so much junk And generally it's about the self It's the self that gets in the way So if a person allows themselves their own wills their own desires their own
Desires their own, you know urges and they can't they don't control it then they become me me me person and then it's all about me Uh, everything is serves as a means to those ends Everything is serving to me So I can do whatever I want. I can hurt you. It doesn't make a difference as long as I am Taking care of what I want to take care of And that's a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing
Again, like it's funny the only religion on earth that doesn't murder people Is jewish the jewish people the only religion? We never went out on a slaughter to go kill people The muslims do the christians did Right the jewish people never Never the only time is when we were attacked. So we we killed back We're not expecting everyone to be at that standard. We're definitely not but I think it's important for us to to Reconsider this every time we look at the news
We're different than the nations of the world we're different than the nations of the world We're meant to be different. We're meant to be distinguished Right. Yeah, are there evil people? Yes, there are evil people out there in the world We see this back in the time of noah We see the what the first two creations were cain and abel one killed the other. Oh my goodness. How is that possible? God just started this whole thing, right? He started this whole world
And he couldn't see his brother his offering be accepted his not he killed his brother Jealousy the self got in the way The me got in the way Then you have the same thing with noah and his generation And you have it with ishmael and you have it with asav and you have it with amalek These are all people that the torah says they are wicked people. Yeah, there are going to be wicked people Our job is to distinguish ourselves from that
Well that again look we're not going to be able to change the whole world. The only thing that we can Influence change is within ourselves Maybe if we try hard enough, but that's it. We can't change the world. We can change ourselves Hashem should bless us. We should merit to do that All right My dear friends have a magnificent evening. This is such a treat on a beautiful monday night To learn together with everyone is really special

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