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 we continue with day number 145. Avur shiva dvaram yakdim ha'odam la shuv b'vach ruso keshuhu b'chozek kocho. Therefore, because of these seven reasons, because of these seven creations, because of these seven gifts, a person should ensure that they repent before they get old. When they still have a fiery passion. Why? Because once a person is so old and
they don't have the drive, they don't have the allure, the attraction to physical things, whether it be things that are immodest or whether it's things that are of financial desires, materialistic desires. At a certain age, it's like, you know what, I really don't care about this stuff anymore. It's like, you know, you have a guy like, what's his name, Warren Buffett, right? He still drives his 1982 Honda Civic. He doesn't care for it, right? And he's in his 90s. It's like, no,
it doesn't, you think he can't buy another car? He can buy it. He can buy the dealership. He can buy the, he can buy the whole car factory, right? It's not a problem. He doesn't have that drive for it. The young people, you see, they make their first dollar. They're already buying their BMW. They're buying their fancy car, right? Because there's a drive, there's a passion when one is younger. So therefore, the tshuva needs to come. Not when it's, when you're already like, like checked out. It's
when you're checked in. That's when you need to make that change. Because the things that we are obligated to in the Torah are many. As the verse states, its measure, the Torah's measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. As the Mishnah states, and the day is short and the work is plenty. The work is endless. This world is a very short moment. It's like the shadow of our day upon the earth. Imagine the shadow. You want to be in the shade.
The sun, yeah, but then the shade moves and then the shade moves and then the shade moves. Why? Because the sun, before you know it, it's sunset. It's not sunny forever. The sun sets. Life is the same. And I remember 20 years ago, 30 years ago, people telling me, maximize life because life moves very fast. And I was like, what are you talking about? Every day is like forever. And suddenly you get older and you see like, wow, time really does fly. I just celebrated. My wife and I
moved to Houston just over 20 years ago, right? We moved here 20 years ago, the beginning, at the end of August. And it's like, boom, 20 years later. 20 years. Boom. It's like, it's like a fleeting shadow. It just, it's here now and it's gone in a minute. We have to realize that. Therefore, a person shouldn't say, you know what, later I'll repent. Then, well, you may not have later. Life moves so fast. You're not going to be able to get it then. Get it now. My mother
used to have a caricature on the fridge. It said, it had a person like shaking, like terrified. And it said, do teshuvah now. Do repentance now. Avoid the Elul rush, right? Avoid the Rosh Hashanah rush, the Yom Kippur rush, right? And it's like, then everybody's trying to get the deal. Just do the deal now. Just get to get the repentance taken care of. You have an amends to make with someone, do it now. Don't wait till a minute before Yom Kippur. As a shadow are our days upon the earth.
Concerning which our rabbis of blessed memory have said, not as the shadow of a wall or as a shadow of a tree, but as a shadow of a bird flying overhead. How fast does that shadow of the bird move? It's in an instant. It's gone. It flew. And what else does the Mishnah tell us? And the workers are lazy. That's us. We're lazy. We don't want, just tired. I had a long day. Come on, right? This is man. A person has laziness. Consider the following. Contemplate this.
Imagine the following. A person has to travel 10 miles. 10 miles. Imagine. Just 10 miles. But you have to go 10 miles. You know that you have to jog those 10 miles. You can't use a car. You can't use a train. You can't use the metro. You can't use an Uber. You got to walk there. You have to walk there. But you know there's some construction on that road and there's a big ditch over there that wasn't
closed up. So it's going to take you more time. What are you going to do? You're going to wait till the last minute to leave your house? No, no, no. You'll leave a few hours early to make sure that you will not be stuck on the way. That you won't be limited by the challenges that are on your way. Life is the same thing. Life, we have construction here and we have pits there and we have challenges here and challenges there. There's so many things that get in our way.
Who says you'll have time? The earlier you do it the better. You got to go do it anyway. Do it quickly. Do it with alacrity. The earlier the better. Therefore we have to wake up early to serve Hashem. And even if a person gives all of his effort, a person who says, you know what, I'm committed to changing everything in my life. I'm going to make so much change. How much do we really succeed?
A little, a little. You know what, but if we don't put that effort, even that little won't happen. We have to put in as much effort as we can because sometimes we'll surprise ourselves by how much we'll accomplish with small, small change. Atomic habits. So just as our rabbi said, Hashem knows our temptations. Hashem knows our yetzer, our inclinations. It's just like a king who has entrusted a field to his servants.
He says to his servants, I want you to toil. I want you to turn this earth. I want you to plant things. I want you to produce 30 measures of grain per year. 30 measures. Okay? I'm about to say 30 bundles. And they worked hard and they worked hard. And they instead of bringing 30 measures, they ended up bringing only five measures. The king says, what did you do? The field that you gave me, it was a junky field. It was terrible. We couldn't plant anything there.
We worked and worked and worked as much as we can. This is it we were able to do. We tried, but this is all we were able to produce. Our sages tell us, this is man. So too with man. Even when we work with all of our might, at the end, our goal is to reach those 30 cores of the 30 measures of repentance. You know what we produce at the end? Five measures. And if a person says,
what's if a person says, you know what? Let me wait till I have some time available. Let me wait till I have enough money in the bank. Then I'll get busy cleaning up my mess. Sages in the Mishnah tell us in ethics of our fathers, don't ever say when I have free time, then I'll get it done. Because you may not ever have that free time. It's a realistic approach that our sages tell us. Be very careful by procrastinating and pushing
things off. Because most likely you won't have that privilege to get things done then. Because who knows when that then is? Who knows if we'll have the opportunity to do those things then? When is then? I have many people I know who have made decisions that at a certain point, when they get to a certain point in how much money they make, then they'll give charity. Or when they're at a certain financial state, then they'll have children. And you know what
happens? By that time, it's too late. Also, then you lost out on so many years. You know what? I'm only going to give charity when I have this amount of money in the bank. And you missed so many opportunities to give, even if it's a small amount. As we mentioned previously in our gate of charity, I think it was we spoke of the gate of giving. Giving is a muscle. It's not about an amount. People think it's an amount. It has nothing to do with an amount. It's a giving of
a muscle. I spoke to a dear, dear student of mine. He told me that there's a point in prayer where we give tzedakah, where we put tzedakah in the poshka, in the charity box. Every day. He says he does it three times a day, $3 every single prayer. He says that costs him $9 a day. $9 a day he gives to charity. And you know what I told him? You're probably one of the strongest people I've met
because you're exercising the muscle of giving so much. It's not about the amount. You're the wealthiest person I know. The wealthiest. Why? Because he's exercising that muscle every single day. Not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, nine times. $9 that he gives every single day. It's not a fortune of money, but it's nine times that you're practicing that exercise. You become very strong and have the power of giving. So this concludes day number 145.

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