Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

00:11 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Day 103, my dear friends, on page 607. In the middle of the page, the Gate of Remembrance and the Treasure for Life, edition of the Orchis Siddiqim, the Ways of the Righteous Hashmidesh. The eighth think to remember the ways of the righteous Hashmides. The eighth thing to remember Shiyizkor kol avdeh ha-melech eichem z'vizim v'mshtadlim b'avadossim. Recognize that all the servants of a king, you know what they do. They don't just do their task, they do it quickly Because the king asked me. The king asked me. I'm going to do it very, very quickly. V'im avdeh hamelech yasu maaseh. Hamelech dovor sheh tzori chochmo ve'eitzo hu yifano libam. Mikol dover v'yasi mikol makhshavosam v'chochmosam lasos inyen. Hamelech v'tvuno v'chochmon v'kivon k'chol ashe yuch. He says that when the king gives you a task that needs a lot of thought, that needs a lot of focus, what are you going to do? You're going to stop everything in the world. You'll turn off your phone, you'll turn off your computer, you turn off your emails, you turn off everything, all the notifications, everything off, lock your door and just hunker down and focus. You'll focus, You'll put all your attention to solve the matter that the king needs assistance with and you'll do it quickly. He says if someone has gratitude to the king. What would they do? They wouldn't just say, okay, thank you God, thanksgiving dinner, we're good to go, we had our turkey right. No, they'll find the nicest way to express their gratitude to the king. They'll prepare their speech. They'll be eloquent, they'll be meticulous with every word to ensure that they indeed convey their appreciation to the king. He says even more so for us that we, when we give praise to the Almighty because we're thankful for everything that they do, that Hashem does for us that a person put all of his focus and intention in his service of Hashem. To do everything that we do, like we mentioned previously in this series, to do it with grace, to do it with diligence, to do it.

02:53
Put yourself out for the mitzvah in the greatest way possible. It means I'm not going to just light a menorah, I'm going to light the nicest menorah I can possibly get my hands on. I'm not going to just buy tefillin or mezuzah to put on my door. I'm going to get the nicest mezuzah I can get and I'll spend money on the case too. Right, the case is secondary or tertiary to the actual scroll. The scroll is what's important. Why? Because I love Hashem and I want to express my love for Hashem.

03:27
And how do I express the love to Hashem In my performance of a mitzvah? So that's the expression. It's like no man will go into a flower shop say, just give me any flowers, I don't care, just give me any flowers. My wife is upset at me, or I want to express my love to her, just give me any flowers. I'm going to bring her flowers and she'll know that I love her. No-transcript. And he was picking out each flower, each rose, each. It's like pick out that flower, that one flower, and he put together the whole bouquet. Why? Because the flowers express your love. So you want to make sure that expression is the finest expression possible. A lot of like whatever I found. Someone was selling it on the street. I just grabbed it and paid him five bucks, and I don't care what it looks like because I, you know, you get the point, I love you, right? So they don't know. It's an expression of my love for you. I want to make sure that I'm meticulous with it.

04:32
When we perform a mitzvah, what we're doing is we're expressing our love to the Almighty. So I was just like my God. I gave the charity. Now stop bothering me. No, I gave it in the most beautiful way possible. I gave it with humility, I gave it generously, I gave it lovingly, with my heart. Not just do it and throw it. No, it's like saying to your wife like here's your flowers, hon, right, and you throw the flowers. That's not a way to express your love, for the love of your life, particularly not for the Almighty who gives us everything we have. You'll find the most proper way to do it. You put all of your focus, all of your intention. You know you do it properly and you do it in the most beautiful way possible.

05:28
Everything that a person does in a mitzvah can fall into three categories. Number one is which is the duty of the heart alone okay. Which is the duty of the heart alone, okay. So you do it only for the sake of Hashem, without any interruption, without any interference. You don't do it for any ulterior motives. I'm doing this to serve Hashem. That's the proper way to do a mitzvah. I'm doing this, hashem. You know why I'm putting tefillin on today, hashem. You know why I'm observing Shabbos? Because I'm fulfilling your will. That's number one. Remove all other, not because I love this mitzvah. It's very special to me, it means a lot. Or I've heard someone say he says if I didn't observe this mitzvah, my father would turn over in his grave. That's not a reason to perform the mitzvah. You perform the mitzvah because you're in love for Hashem, because Hashem commanded me and I love Hashem and therefore I'm going to fulfill His command. I'm doing it with all my heart. That's path number one. Path number two that is required.

07:00
He says the second part of performing a mitzvah is to include your entire body. What does it mean to include your entire body? You know, with regard to prayer is a good example. It says All of my bones should say Hashem, who is like you, and when a person prays, they shouldn't pray like they're a lump of wood. Okay, but why do people shuckle? Why do people do it? Because they're fulfilling this command that your entire body should be involved in a mitzvah, which is why a person the good thing to go shopping for Shabbos. Get your body out, get into your car, go to the grocery, buy. You can, yeah, you can order it on your phone, but then it's just your finger ordering it. Or you can go out and pick those fruits with your own, with your whole body. Get your body involved in the mitzvah.

07:54
The mitzvah of Sukkah, for example, is an example of how the whole body is consumed with the mitzvah, where the whole body is sitting in the sukkah. That's an example of how we have to get our whole body involved in the mitzvahs that we're performing. It shouldn't just be our fingers, it shouldn't just be our mind, but rather it should be all-encompassing of all of the aspects of our physical body. Funny, we brought up the topic of Sukkah because Sukkah is the next example he's going to give. He says the third channel is Ba'asosolulav.

08:29
When a person makes a lulav, or a Sukkah, or a tzitzis, a keyotzebelu, a mitzvahs, ha'i varem levad, which is a mitzvah of the, the prime element here is not intent, as it is with the case of prayer, but rather the limbs alone, meaning you shake the lulav, you go into the sukkah with your whole body, or tzitzis, you wear the tzitzis, which and their performance is an action, but not necessarily a thought, in the same way as prayer. He says below ha'lev afi l'hochi chodim sheyaseh mitzvah yisko l'shem mi yaseh. He says, although the performance of the mitzvah of tzitzit is that when you have a four cornered garment right, you put on tzitzit, you fulfill that mitzvah, you have the mitzvah of lulav, you have the four species, you take them and you shake them. He says, even though it's just a performative mitzvah of action, you should stop before you perform that mitzvah and focus, put your intention on the mitzvah that you're about to perform. You're about to do a physical act with a mitzvah. Make sure you have the right thought before you perform it. The Yaseb Hidr Mitzvah is at shlish, as the Talmud says Make sure you have the right thought before you perform it. The Yaseb Hidr Mitzvahs Ad Shlish, as the Talmud says La'adon Olamim.

10:06
The Talmud says that to fulfill a mitzvah to its highest level, you should expend up to a third of your resources. So imagine this if you are looking to buy an esrog esrog is the citron that we have for the four species on the holiday of Sukkot, and some of them can be very, very expensive you should spend up to a third of your net worth to fulfill that mitzvah perfectly. Now again, if you can get away with something much cheaper and get away with $30, $40, $50, great, you got away with it. But if the one you wanted, that perfect one, was $30,000 and you can afford that because that's a third of your net worth, fulfill that mitzvah. What You're telling me to spend so much money on a mitzvah?

10:57
What is your mitzvah? It's your representation of your love for God. You don't think that you'll be rewarded for that third that you spend. It's a promise that you'll be reimbursed because you're doing it to express your love for God. Now, if you're doing it to show off for your friends, that's a different problem. But if you're doing it to show your love, I guarantee you we mentioned this previously I guarantee every man that the signs of love that they display to their spouse will never be returned empty. It'll be returned enfold. Empty, it'll be returned tenfold. So imagine if that's between a husband and a wife. What's going to be the payback when it's the Almighty, when we show our love for the Almighty. You don't think it's going to be tenfold.

11:51
You went and you said you know what? That's a lot of money for me to spend on a mitzvah, really a lot. Hashem, I love you so much. I want to show you how much I love you. I'm ready to let go 30% of my resources. You know what? I think Hashem is going to say Wow, double his annual income, double it, triple it. Alright, this guy, I like this guy. We have a good relationship going here. Right? That's exactly the way Hashem will respond to it.

12:16
Okay, a person shouldn't do mitzvahs because of his love for people or the recognition from people, or he's afraid of what they're going to say, or I'll do this because it's good for business. They'll see, they'll send me clients and then you know it'll be win-win, right? Elo yesh lo liyachet kol masov lishma agod levad ve'lo yishat efim odover. But rather, a person should dedicate all of his deeds exclusively to the great name of Hashem and not have any ulterior motives. Nothing. I'm doing this because I love you. I do this because I'm dedicated in my relationship to you, and that's the only reason I'm doing it. My dear friends, this concludes day number 103.

13:09 - Intro (Announcement)
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