Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

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

Now my dear friends, we resume Day 146 on the top of page 808 in the Treasure for Life edition of the Or Chasidikim, The Ways of the Righteous, in the Gate of Repentance. Hasheni, what is the second thing that we mentioned? Why a person should not delay repentance? You should do it when he's young, when he's vibrant. In the Acher Teshuvah, so he says,
At she yechnos v'yosef hon az yachmod v'yichsof yoser kemoshen amru ra b'seinu zachon alavrocha ein odam yotze min ha'olam bechatzit ha'avoso v'yodo. He says, don't say that you'll repent when you acquire and you accumulate because then you'll have desire and yearn for more. You're never going to be pleased, you know. Oh, when I have a million dollars, then I'm good. But then when you have a million, you say, you know what, I should probably invest it
because then I'll have two million and then I'll be able to give more. And the Yetzirah plays with us and says, you know what, two million, I should probably invest it so I can have four million and then eight million. And you know what I can do with eight million? I'll be able to give so much charity, but why should I give it now? I'm gonna invest it so I can make sixteen million. And what happens is,
is that they never get the privilege to give because we don't have that many opportunities. Time flies and sometimes we lose it. We lose the opportunities. Zachon alavrocha, our Sages said, ein odam yotze min ha'olam bechatzit ha'avoso v'yodo. A person doesn't die with half of his desires attained. A person desires, oh, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. A person dies and not even half. Yesh bo'mona mis'avola asos mosayim. A person has a hundred, he wants two hundred.
He sige yodo mosayim, now he has two hundred, mis'avola asos har bameyos, he wants four hundred. Bechein ha'kosev ohev kesev la'iz bakesev, as it says in Ecclesiastes, he who desires money will never be satiated with money. You'll never be satiated, you'll never be satisfied with enough. Lochein al yidche ha'odam ha'tshuva b'shumov, and therefore a person should not delay repentance. Ha'shlishi, what's the third reason not to delay? Hazman mismayet ve'amoloch ha'merubah, because time is short and the work is a lot.
Meleches ha'toro ve'tikun ha'nefesh ve'asagas ha'malos, kemo ha'avo ve'ayir ve'adveikos, kemo ha'amoro ve'ayim kotzev ve'amoloch ha'merubah. He says because time grows short and there is too much work. There's a lot of work to do. So if you're gonna delay, you're just burning time, you're killing time. What are you gonna do that's better than repentance? What is repentance? We mentioned this previously. What is repentance? Repentance means I have an absolute clarity of my relationship with God, and I say, oh my goodness, I want to share with you a story.
When I was in high school, ninth grade, some of the kids really were misbehaving. They were pulling a lot of shenanigans. Now in our classroom, we had two doors to get into the room. We had the front door and the back door and most of the class sat in the front and didn't even pay attention to anything was going in the back of the class because it was empty. It was just empty space.
One time, because there was so much shenanigans going on, the principal slipped in the back door and stood by the back wall and was watching as everything was transpiring in class. And he saw the kids throwing spitballs, and he saw the kids that were misbehaving like this and misbehaving like that, and then at one moment, he took something and he dropped it on the floor. And everyone turned around there, this boom on the floor, and they turned around.
They saw that all this time the principal was right there in the back of the classroom, and he saw everything. He saw everything. The shenanigans stopped really fast because he knew exactly who the perpetrators were. He knew who he needed to threaten. He knew who he needed to punish. He knew who he needed to warn. He knew exactly who the players were. Imagine this. Why does a person sin? Because they don't realize there's a camera following them at all times. What's that camera?
It's the eye of Hashem, where Hashem hears, Hashem sees, Hashem knows everything that we're doing. But we don't realize that the camera's there. Suddenly we have Rosh Hashanah, and Hashem drops that mic and says, oh, I was here all along. I saw everything. And then we realize, oy, you mean he, oh my goodness, that means that he saw when I ate and I didn't recite a blessing.
He saw when I finished my meal and I forgot to recite the thank you, and he saw when I had an opportunity to go daven and shul, and I didn't. And he saw when I got carried away by playing a game instead of learning. And he saw when I was doing this and doing that. And he saw when I looked at something inappropriate. And he saw when I spoke to someone in a disrespectful way. And he saw all of those things Hashem saw.
Oh, Hashem, I'm so sorry. I'm so embarrassed. And we have that wake-up moment. That wake-up moment is tshuva. It's the moment of clarity. We have that like epiphany. I don't believe it. He was there all along. He saw everything I did. I thought that I was in the blind spot and he wouldn't notice me. He saw everything. And he knows what my intentions are, too. He knows what my intentions are. And this is really scary. That person realizes, wow,
the Almighty knows exactly what's transpiring. He sees everything. And I didn't even know he was right there the whole time. You see, right there. There used to be an advertisement. It was for one of these banks. It was like, or for life insurance or some type of thing. I don't remember what it was. It was like, Jerry, this is your conscience speaking. And it was this whole thing that was like, I was talking to him about how we should have life insurance and how we should
have this insurance, whatever it was. And it was like, I remember those advertisements on the radio. Imagine you have this little angel sitting on your shoulder who sees everything that transpires. And you say, well, you know why I didn't pray in synagogue is because I was really... He says, yeah, I saw what you were doing. Don't try to trick me. I saw, right? Now again, Hashem doesn't play like a child with us. Hashem treats us like adults. And Hashem says, you know what?
It's okay. You don't have to, you don't have to... What do we say in the Avinu Malkeinu? We say in the Avinu Malkeinu, there are too many sins. We can't list them. There are too many sins. I can't list them. You know why we can't list them? Because it's too embarrassing. Hashem says, it's okay. If you're really sorry, don't list them. You don't need to, you don't need to humiliate yourself. Keep your dignity, but don't do it again.
Ki rabim heim, v'i ef sher lafartam. There are too many and I can't, I can't proclaim them all. I can't delineate them all. Yeah, it's, it's, it's embarrassing. So, Hashem says, v'yom har Hashem, salachti kedvorecho. You ask, you ask for forgiveness. I forgive you. But that's it. We have to really understand. Our, our part of this is a zman katsa, the time is running short and there's a lot of work to do. A revi, ki shei achar letakin nafsho, when a person already
perfects his soul, meaning he does teshuva, az hayetzer holochum izgaber, what happens now? The evil inclination says, I got to get him now because he repented. He's got a clean slate. I got to work harder now to get him and to trip him up. Az hayetzer holochum izgaber, u'mizkasher aleiv u'kvara herger ba'averos. He said, what does he say? He says, look, the evil inclination grows progressively stronger and hardens his heart and because he will have habituated himself to transgressions, he will come to regard all of them as permissible.
This is what happens is that sometimes someone's, someone does something wrong and because he's done it and it's become comfortable for him, now he finds an excuse of why it's a mitzvah. You know why I'm not giving that person charity? You know why? Let me tell you a story. And they give you this whole baba maysa. They tell you this whole tale of why to justify their own desire not to give charity. You understand? Now it's even a mitzvah. I'm doing them a favor by not helping them out.
Okay, because you know, and whatever the, whatever the excuses may be. B'chol ha'averos hein be'einav keheter. And then it becomes that he regards all sins as permissible. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Lo yuchal etair etzmon. Such a person will find it very difficult to purify his soul. Number five. Ha'chamishi, the fifth reason that people, that a person should repent without delay. Mi she'einu yirotzel ahaktim lo shuv, ula lo yarich yamim v'yomus terim yoshuv. What's if heaven forbids we don't live as long as we plan to live?
You know, I heard two very tragic things today. Two very tragic things. The first, there was a terrible terrorist attack in Israel today. Six beautiful, innocent Jews were taken. Some of them were young, 23 years old, 21 years old, 30 years old, a father with little children. We don't know how long we have. That was the first tragic story that I read. The second tragic story, a young married man. Young married, I know that, I know his wife, now the widow, was in Puerto Rico. Swimming.
Beautiful young couple. He drowned, drowned. The most tragic story you can imagine, right? And we all say that that's not me, and I'm fine. I know how to swim. So did he, he swam every single day. Every single day he went swimming. Ula lo yarich yamim, we don't know how long we will live. We all hope and we all assume when I'm gonna be old, when I'm gonna be, what am I gonna do when I retire?
What am I gonna do when I'm 80, when I'm 90, when I'm 100, when I'm 120, then I'll say, okay, God, you got me. Okay, I'm done, right? But what do we, we have to realize that we're not, not necessarily that we're all gonna make it that far. So what are we gonna do? We're gonna wait? What are we waiting for? Ula lo yarich yamim, v'yam musterem yashuv, and what's if heaven forbid, we pass on to the next world without that repentance? Alkein hizir, bechol eis yub, godechol levanim, therefore,
Ecclesiastes tells us, at all times your clothes should be white. What does that mean, white? White is clean. Clean means innocent. Clean, white means clean of all sin, of all blemish. That's why on Yom Kippur we wear white garments. We say we're cleaning ourselves from all of, we're ridding ourselves of all of those negative acts that we have done. We're disowning them. Hashishi, the sixth reason why a person should repent quickly, Kishia chalosh ruvyu avonosav, yishonim v'yishkach yagonam, v'lo yidag lohem kasha batchila.
You know why you should repent sooner rather than later? Because the old sins you'll forget about. Do you remember the things that you said that hurt someone else's feeling in third grade, in 10th grade, in college? Do you remember the people you insulted? Do you remember the time you were nasty to that person? Remember when you cut the line at the bank? Do you remember all of those things? You may not remember it later. Therefore, it's worthwhile for a person to repent earlier rather than later,
because you don't want to forget the mistakes that you made in the past and then be with an accounting. And you're like, where did this come from? Oh, my goodness. I never knew that it was there. How did all this debt of sins pile up? Ha'shvi, the seventh reason a person should not delay, is kishu hu yavo b'yamim v'yekh la'sh kohach ha'yetzar. Because let's say now the guy is going to be an older person. He's 60, 70, 80 years old. And now his inclination, his evil inclination is weak.
What does it mean, his evil inclination? His desires, his urges are weak. He doesn't desire to eat the things. He doesn't desire to look at the things that he looked at when he was younger. Lo yekabos chahal ha'tshuvah ki lo'as ha'tshuvah v'imei b'achrusa kishu hu b'choz ha'kocho. When a person is young and he repents and says, I'm going to stay away from these bad things, from going to bad places, then the tshuvah is a real t'shuvah. Then the repentance is real.
But if a person waits till he's already too old to enjoy that kind of stuff and he says, yeah, I'm going to stop now. Right. That's the thing you get. You'll get minimal reward for for repenting then. It's not a big deal for you to do that then, to stay away. But when you're in your years of passion, that's the time that a person needs to work on cleansing themselves from these things. B'avur eilu shivad varmim. And because of these seven reasons,
yagdim adam atzum l'takeh nafshol lefnei melech ilyun. A person should habituate himself to do t'shuvah before the Almighty as quickly as possible. V'achash yala b'leif ha'adom l'sas t'shuvah. And after a person is aroused in his heart to repent, lo yuchal l'sas t'shuvah shleimah im lo yassim alivo shivad varm. He says now, in order to attain proper t'shuvah. So you want to do it now. We're all motivated. We're excited. We're energized. We're going to do this. What's the process of t'shuvah?
And now we're going to learn about the process of t'shuvah. Arishon, the first thing, seven steps. Seven steps. She'yeda ha'shov esmasav vi'yizkireim kulam. A person needs to remember what he did. Don't write it off. Recognize this is my mistake, this is what I did wrong. Ki o'odom sh'lo herge lekayim ha'mitzvos min ha'urav, kol yamav yassav eras. A person who is not familiar with mitzvot could have been doing something wrong. And even someone who is learned in the practice of mitzvot
could be doing something wrong if we don't know exactly what to do or how to do, when to do. V'kam ha'bnei odom t'svurim she'en odom t'sar ha'khlas t'shuvah eleim kein ba'alei she'sis ha'goyah. Oy yotzal etar basra. But people think that, you know what really sins are? Sins are when I do really bad things. When I do really bad things. Come on, I cheated a little bit on my taxes, not the end of the world. I don't need to do t'shuvah for that. I just lied.
It's just a little white lie. It's not a big deal. You know, come on, I cheated a little here, I did a little there. It's just like, it's not the end of the world. You know what's a real big sin? I murder someone. If I'm with a married woman, then that maybe is considered, but I didn't do that. So I'm a good guy. I'm fine. A person doesn't know because he doesn't know what the Torah says, perhaps.
Maybe the Torah says that speaking falsehood is a pretty serious deal. Right? Not only, you know, having an affair. That's not the only thing. And not only murder. There's other things that are sins. We know that there are 365 prohibitions. You say, you know what? So I ate something that wasn't kosher, but it's like, I didn't eat pork. I didn't eat pork, heaven forbid. I didn't eat pork. It was like, yeah, so a person has to know. I'll give you an example.
In the priorities of sins, where does slander go in? Speaking negatively about another person. Well, you're saying it's murder. But most of us think that it's like, they didn't lose their job because of me. I just, I had a nice, I said a nice story about somebody on somebody else's account. We laughed about somebody. We had a good, a good chuckle. What's the big deal? What does the Chafetz Chaim teach us? 17 biblical prohibitions of speaking negatively about another person. 17 biblical prohibitions.
Imagine what's going on on Twitter today, where people write Lashon Hara about people, and they say, you know what? It's not even Lashon Hara. Lashon Hara is when it's true. How many times is it completely false? It's Motsi Shemra. It's total, total defamation. The difference between slander and defamation, slander is when it's true. Defamation is when it's not even true. It's unfounded. And people are writing whatever they want on the internet. 17 biblical prohibitions in the Torah.
So it's not that there are small sins. It's you don't know what the sins are, what they aren't. So how are we supposed to know? If you call my she's here, I've seen all lame talk, lush of, and any of the rabbinic prohibitions we have to be cautious of. The Yosef, Homer, David, Hohem, and we did a Torah call her over. He called her over. I'll give her a home. I'm kind of me.
So as the Torah set, Tara says that the rabbinic prohibitions are just as severe as the biblical prohibitions. We call Misha over. I'll give her a Torah. Oh, David, Hohem, I'm sorry. A close of an anybody who transgresses, whether it be a biblical or a rabbinic prohibition needs to repent my dear friends. There's so much more that we need to talk about. This concludes day number 146, and I look forward to resuming day 147 next
week with all y'all in good health, God willing, and with great, great, great repentance, Hashem should really accept our desire to do good, our desire to become whole and to cleanse ourselves from all of our mistakes, Hashem should guide us in the path of Teshuvah speedily, quickly today. Amen.

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