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)
All right, welcome back everybody, welcome back to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. It is wonderful to be here today, this beautiful Friday afternoon. I think that before we begin our regular Talmudist programming, I think it's important to address current events the tragic murder of a young man, a father, a 31-year-old father and husband. And it's just tragic's tragic, it's absolutely, it's unspeakable, it's just to me, it put a shudder through my spine of, like, the culture that's become. It's just, it's just sad, it's just sad. Now we may think that this is something new, but unfortunately it's not new at all.

01:13
And if we look in the Torah the first two beings ever to be born, cain and Abel what happens? They had a little bit of a difference. Who was Cain? It says this is chapter 4, verse 2 in Genesis. What was he? He was a man of the field. What was Cain? What was Cain?

01:43
Cain was a man of words. He was a man of the field. What was Cain? What was Cain? Cain was a man of words. He was a man of words. Sorry, that was Cain. Hevel was Abel was a man of words. It says Hevel pihem, shel tinokos, shel beis rabon, the words that he used. And what did Cain do? Cain murdered him. Cain murdered him.

02:09
And what did God say? God says where's your brother? He says am I my brother's keeper? See? He says listen to what God tells Cain. Vayomer Hashem al-Kain, ehevel achicha. And where is your brother, abel? He says I don't know. Is it the guardian of my brother that I am? What have you done? God said the voice of the blood of your brother are crying out to me from the ground. You can never silence an opposing voice. You can never silence an opposing voice. You think you're shutting it down here. Cain thought he was silencing Abel. God says I hear the voice from the ground. It's not going to stop.

03:12
We see another tragic incident in Genesis. You go to Genesis 37. And what do we have? The brothers of the tribes, the tribes and the brothers of Joseph. He had another dream and he told it to his brothers, spoke words and they continued even more to hate him. What happens? He has another dream and what happens? You think you're going to dominate, you're going to be the ruler over us. And they increased even more to hate him Because of his dreams and because of his words. So they wanted to kill him.

04:04
What did Judah, representing the Jewish people, what did Judah suggest. He says we don't kill him, we don't kill. You want to move him away. You want to put him into the pit? You can put him in the pit, but you don't kill somebody.

04:22
You want to not listen. You want to silence it. You want to de-platform. You want to not listen. You want to silence it. You want to de-platform. You want to do that. I'm not getting into whether it's right or wrong to de-platform. I'm not getting into that. You don't want to listen. Don't turn it on. Don't listen. No one forces you to listen. It's shocking to all of us.

04:43
We mentioned this just a few weeks ago. We were talking about Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is upon us in just a week and a half Already. This Saturday night, we begin with Slichot, we start asking for forgiveness, we start asking for atonement for all of our sins, for all of our mistakes. But what else is judged on Rosh Hashanah? Who will live and who will not live? Who will live and who will not live? Every single person who dies this year till Rosh Hashanah was already assigned.

05:26
So last Rosh Hashanah, this Rosh Hashanah, whoever is still alive, hopefully we all live healthy, good lives and hopefully, in this Rosh Hashanah, we'll all be judged for another year of life, because it's not a guarantee. It's not a guarantee that we live forever. No one lives forever. But what is a guarantee is that if we come to the Almighty and we ask and we talk to God and we recognize that God is creator of heaven and earth, what is guaranteed is we can have a relationship with God, and that's the most important part To live. That's one thing. We can do. Mitzvahs we can do good deeds. That's the most important part To live. That's one thing. We can do. Mitzvahs we can do good deeds, and we need to maximize, we need to pack it in as much as possible with good deeds, because once we're checked out, we're done. We cannot do no more good deeds.

06:26
So now I want to talk to you a little bit about the good deeds that Charlie did in his life, because I don't know anybody. I don't know anybody who, at the age of 31, has governments, has prime ministers, has presidents, has world leaders talking about them. World leaders talking about them? I mean, unfortunately, you can name some people in Congress, in the Senate, and we won't even know who they are. You can name their names, nobody will know who they are, but here is somebody who, at the age of 31, just about everybody knows who that is. Whether you like him or you hate him, everybody knows of this person. He's packed it in.

07:11
He's done things in the currency of accomplishment. Again, whether you like him or dislike him, it's irrelevant. He was a doer. He did things. He did things to inspire an entire generation. He did things that inspired young people across the world that they have a voice, that they can be heard and they should vote and they should get involved. He wasn't a politician. He just inspired people to talk. That's it. Talk, have a conversation. You know, there's something amazing Is that there's something called conflict. Why does conflict happen? Whether it be in a relationship, a husband and wife, parents and children, whether it's with nations that have discord between one another.

08:16
Usually, if you take the time to focus on our similarities, you'll find tremendous love. If you focus on our differences, you'll find tremendous love. If you focus on our differences, it can result in hate. We all have differences of opinion. Every person in this room has a different belief. Every person online has a different belief. One thinks like this about this topic and one thinks like that about that topic, and one person that about that topic and one person sees it like this, one person sees it like that. We all have a different set of eyes, we all have a different background, we all have a different history, we all have a different upbringing, and that's perfectly fine. But if we focus constantly on how we're different, we'll never have love. We have to find the commonality. We have to find how we are the same, and that happens through discussion.

09:18
We've talked about this numerous times how, if you want to work on patience, overcoming, overcoming anger, take out someone for coffee who disagrees with you 180 degrees on your politics and prepare yourself before you go. I'm not going to get angry. This person thinks abortions is the best thing. You think it's murder? Okay, have a conversation. Thinks abortions is the best thing? You think it's murder? Okay, have a conversation. What's gonna happen if you disagree? You can still love each other. You can still get along with one another, it's okay.

09:57
Every husband and wife have disagreements. Why? Because they see things differently. They're different. Every individual is different. Everyone sees things differently, so they have to hate each other? No, you focus on what you have in common. You focus on what you do see and enjoy together. You focus on the good things. If you're focusing on constantly pointing out the negative and this is the same thing with our children you focus on the negative things. If you're focusing on constantly pointing out the negative and this is the same thing with our children you focus on the negative. Oh, you're not doing this, you didn't do that. Why don't you do this and do that and correcting them? Focus on the good. Bring out the positive and your child and your relationship will be incredible. It'll flourish. You don't have to agree. You don't have to agree. You don't have to sing Kumbaya. Focus on the positive, focus on what we do have.

10:48
I'll tell you an amazing story, not related to this, but I was in the tube in London and I was heading to Heathrow Airport and my wife and I were there. We were there for a few hours, but we were just like we were being harassed by somebody over there on the platform waiting for the train to come. This guy was drunk at three in the afternoon and we were trying to like just avoid this person. We were just trying to have our own conversation. He kept on bothering us. As we walk onto the train, onto the tube, this burly guy with big boots, walks in right behind us and he says is this guy giving you some trouble? I'm like, where are you from? He says Houston, texas. I'm like what, lanzmann? Right, we're like we're back from the same moment. I said we're also from Houston Texas and we were like best friends instantaneously. But you know what's amazing? I don't know if that conversation and that friendship per se would have happened in Houston Texas.

12:06
But because we're in a foreign land, we find the commonality and we find the things we do have in common. Everybody's all Texans, everybody's cheering the Astros and everyone's cheering the Rockets. We're all like family outside. I don't know this guy. This guy's a total stranger. I've no idea they are. But we find the commonality and that's the beauty of it, that even though we're all different, that we're all going back to our separate homes, we're going to our own places of worship, we're going to do our own things, we, we all find something in common and that's a beautiful thing. God wants us to love one another, not to fight with one another, not to hate one another.

12:51
We can have different, robust opinions. That's the way it's supposed to be. You're supposed to see things differently. Hey, look at Mark. Mark is looking at me. He sees things behind me that I can't see, and I see things that are behind him that he can't see. We can use that as a negative force or we can use that as a positive force. I can guide him and tell him hey, watch out, there's a plank right behind you. You're going to bump your head, and he can do the same. He can say there's something you don't see behind you. That's a little bit dangerous. We can utilize the differences to stay separate or we can utilize the differences to build each other.

13:33
There's a couple of other things I just want to mention in this, and that is Charlie Kirk had a very strong message, a biblical message that he was sharing. He wasn't Jewish, his wife was Jewish, very devout Catholic, but I listened to his podcast one time and he was talking. I think it was on a Monday morning. He was talking about what an amazing weekend it was because of his observance of Shabbos, and I was wondering what in the world is going on here. This guy's keeping Shabbos. He would turn off his phone Friday night at sunset and turn it back on 25 hours later, and him and his wife on stage once spoke about the transformative power of turning everything off and just being family. You know whose divine wisdom? That is our torah. Our torah tells us you're going to be busy working six days a week. You're going to be working and working, and working. Take a day off.

14:47
Moses negotiated with Pharaoh. He says Pharaoh, you're not smart. What do you mean? I'm not smart. I'm the king of Egypt. He says yeah, you have all these free slaves, these Jewish people. They're working for you. You're going to work them to the bone. They're not going to be effective anymore. They're not going to be able to do anything for you. He says oh, I didn't think about that. He says you have to give them a break. She said what do you recommend? He says the proper equation is probably one every seven days. They should be off. He says says, that's my command.

15:21
And Moshe negotiated a Shabbos off for the Jewish people. And Moshe was elated that the day that was selected to be off was indeed the Shabbos, the Shabbos day, not a Tuesday. The 24-hour period was actually Shabbos. I think you know it doesn't make a difference what side of the aisle we're on. We have to take a lesson that even someone who's not part of our faith brings light to and brings attention to it. Someone was interviewing him. I just saw this clip because there are clips all around the internet. Someone interviewed him. What do you say to the Jewish students? He says watch over the Shabbos, exodus 22. Work six days, rest on the Shabbos, observe your Shabbos. More than we watch over the Shabbos, the Shabbos watches over us as a people.

16:18
He also had a very strong support for Israel, and this is something that we, as Jews, need to be just as, if not more, supportive of Israel publicly. Not to hide, not to shy away. Yes, I'm Jewish. I'm not going to hide my Judaism. I'm Zionist and I'm not going to hide my Judaism. I'm Zionist and I'm not going to hide my Zionism. We don't have to agree with what's going on in Gaza. We don't have to disagree, whatever it is. Everyone can have their own opinion, but we still have a connection to the land. As a people, we have a unified love for our Holy Land, the land that was given to us, by the way, by the Creator of Heaven and Earth. It's His Earth, it's His world, and he said this land is for you. We're going to be shy about it? We're going to hide from it? No, we're going to embrace it. I think these are two very, very important things for us to realize. It's crucial for us to step up and value the gifts that we have the gift of life, the gift of our relationship with Hashem.

17:39
And now one more thing I can't help but be sad at the desensitization that we are all experiencing when we're able to see murder happen in front of our eyes, and this is commonplace. It's become wholesale. Murder has become wholesale, whether it's on a train, whether it's in a public setting like that, and whether it's in. You know, everything is video.

18:18
Today we have to use a lot of caution for our own ishamah, caution for our own neshama, for our own soul, not to become desensitized about another human being's life. There's so much influence that that has on our neshama, the purity of our neshama. We say every day, every single morning Elokei God, neshama, shenasatabi tahorahi. The neshama that you have placed within me is pure, it's pure, it's holy. You know we've said so many times that all of these movie ratings oh, it's a rating for mature audience, or for 17 years old, parental guidance, 13 years old Is that only because we care about our kids' innocence? What's about our innocence? What's about protecting our neshama?

19:12
Someone sent me a video of the shooting. I'm like I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. I don't want to see the murder of another human being. It's like the most important thing in our existence is our life, that we can accomplish things, and to seeing the destruction of that, it desensitizes us. We lose a part of our neshama, of our purity. We have to be so careful to protect our neshama of our purity. We have to be so careful to protect our neshama.

19:46
I just want to end off with a blessing for each and every one of us that we should all merit to have long lives filled with accomplishment. We don't have to be famous and when our time to depart from this world, we don't need to have messages from prime ministers and presidents. That was him but we need to accomplish the maximum that we can accomplish and to not waste a day and not waste a minute. And if we have something, whether it be a game on our phone, whether there's an event that's wasting our time, cut it out.

20:27
Focus on things that are valuable, because life has a limit, life has an expiration date and we have to do everything we can accomplish before that expiration date comes, and I hope that we all include Charlie, who has influenced millions of people, and especially his wife, his widow and two little children, a three-year-old and a one-year-old. That's tragic that any child grows up without a parent. It's devastating. Hashem should bless us all. Hashem should protect us all, and I personally want to thank Charlie Kirk for the influence that he's had on so many people. My dear friends have an amazing Shabbos.

21:17 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.