Thoughts on President Trump's 12pm Deadline
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)
All right, before we go live, my dear friends, on our Thinking Talmudist podcast, I just wanted to take a few minutes to address what is now the number one news item in the world and the number one news item, definitely, in Israel. As many of you may have heard, the president of the United States this week announced that there's an ultimatum with Hamas because Hamas was becoming resistant to the agreement, to this part of the agreement, and basically what he was saying was is that if they don't release all of the hostages by 12 pm on Saturday, then all hell will break loose. Now he did say that Bibi has the right to override it and the Israeli people will choose what's best, but basically he's giving Israel the green light to do what they want. Israel has not really taken on that same tone, that same trope. Not really taken on that same tone, that same trope and for, I think, the right reason where basically they're saying we have an agreement and as long as Hamas keeps the agreement which they very clearly said that they will, they already announced to the three people that will be released. Don't get me wrong. I don't think Hamas is good people, okay, but I think that they are afraid to mess with this, but the reason why I wanted to address this is not to talk about politics. The reason I wanted to address this is because I've seen a lot of articles and I've heard and watched videos of different personalities talking about the potential blessing that could come to Israel from this.
02:13
But what alarmed me in all of that was that the people who were talking about it were talking about it as if Trump, our president, was the Messiah and they're putting all of their like in God. We trust no, no, no in Trump we trust type of attitude, and I felt that not only is it important for me to say this to myself and to remind myself, but I think that every person out there should know, whether you like him or don't, whether you think that every person out there should know, whether you like him or don't, whether you think that what he is doing is great or not. I think it's very, very. We have to be very cautious about putting our faith in human beings and to be very, very cautious about, you know, even referring to someone who does good for the Jewish people, almost like a Messiah or a God, where you know we're giving, we're showering praise and thank God. Oh, we have Trump, we have Trump and now all the solutions are going to be solved for the Jewish people.
03:17
I think we need to take a step back and realize that we are a piece of history right now, every single one of us. We're part of history and it definitely is an amazing time to be alive to see the things that are going on. And while we're all fed up with all of the nonsense and the double talk that we see from our enemies, still and we're happy that there's finally a president who's being very clear and decisive in support of israel still we need to be very, very cautious about putting our faith and trust in a human being, no matter who that human being is. We don't see that the jewish people ever served moshe. We don't see who's the redeemer of the jewish people right, but we still don't see he was the redeemer of the Jewish people right, but we still don't see that we, that people either bow down to Moshe or that people see that people rebelled against Moshe, that people were calling him names and people were being a very, very you know they were worked up against Moshe.
04:21
Now we do find in history, for example, if you look at the name Alexander. Alexander is a name that was adopted by the Jewish people because of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great did so many amazing things for the Jewish people that, as a token of appreciation and gratitude, the Jewish people named their sons Alexander and that became a Jewish name. It became a Jewish name because that's what the Jewish people undertook to be a name, but until that point, no Jewish person named their child Alexander. It was a non-Jewish name. But as a sign of appreciation and I think that you know, the Trump 1.0 did amazing things for Israel and in fact also back then, trump offered things to Israel that Israel couldn't handle, like Judea and Samaria, and they were like it's premature, we can't accept that gift yet. Maybe now they would, I don't know, but we see that not only moving the embassy, but the giving them the, the support that they needed, giving them the Golan Heights um, which is essentially undisputed to begin with. So what would be the problem anyway? But now, with Trump 2.0, with him giving them the backing, the military wherewithal and the arms and the military power to be able to defend themselves.
05:58
We have to remember that our success, both militarily, politically and otherwise, is all from Hashem, and bombs don't explode because the United States gave it to us. Politically and otherwise is all from Hashem. And bombs don't explode because the United States gave it to us. Bombs explode because Hashem decided that that's what should happen. And we need to refresh ourselves and remind ourselves constantly that we're here not to have a personal devotion to an individual human being, but we're here to serve Hashem, and Hashem is showing us through his messengers that God decides who his messengers are. Excuse me, god is giving us an opportunity to connect with him and this is another way for us to connect to Hashem and to God. Forbid not get carried away. Opportunity to connect with him and this is another way for us to connect to Hashem and to God. Forbid not get carried away with whether or not this is our candidate or not our candidate, to not get carried away by a human being being our savior. It's only Hashem who is our savior.
07:05
We say every morning Hashem who is our Savior. We say every morning Adon olam asher malach beterem kol yitzir nivra. We praise Hashem. He is the master who created this world. He is the master who runs this world from beginning to end. We recite in the Shema four times a day, twice in our prayer, once in the morning, once in the evening, once before our morning prayer, as we will shortly see in our prayer, once in the morning, once in the evening, once before our morning prayer, as we will shortly see in our prayer podcast. And during our bedtime we have the bedtime Shema. These four Shemas that are recited twice are biblical commandments and twice are rabbinic commandment. What we're doing is we're saying Hashem is our God. Hashem is the one that we're devoted to, not to any other power, not to any other force, not to any other being.
07:54
And just a little reminder I wanted before we approach our Talmud class and get into today's topic of prayer. I thought maybe it's worthwhile to just give a short, brief reminder that we are in a different existence, one that is dedicated to recognizing that miracles that we experience are from Hashem and not from man. So hopefully we'll all be blessed in recognizing that and seeing that every single day of our lives. It says the hearts and decisions that are made by world leaders are the hand of Hashem, and Hashem is using us and his people, wherever they are, as little pawns in the world in the global picture of what's going on, and hopefully we will always merit to see the hand of Hashem in everything that goes on around the world and recognize that it's the hand of Hashem and not otherwise, put our faith in a human being Right. So Hashem should bless us all and wish us with, hopefully, a good Shabbos to all of us. And now we begin, my dear friends, our Thinking Talmudist podcast.
09:19 - Intro (Announcement)
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