Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome everybody to the Parsha review. We're attempting to do a weekly Parsha review every week where we can get a summary of each Parsha, concise, clear, so we know what happens in every Torah portion. So this week's Parsha is the first week of the Torah, the Parsha of Beraeus. It's the first part of the Torah. There are 146 verses, 1,930 words, 7,235 letters. Why is it important for us to know how many letters, how many words and how many verses? That is because the Torah, which is a godly document given by Hashem through the hand of Moshe, where everything was transcribed. Not an extra letter was added by Moshe, not a letter was removed by Moshe. Every single letter, exactly as God dictated, was written in the Torah. There is nothing extra, there is nothing missing. Whatever wisdom there is in the world, you can find it in the Torah. Anything that's not in the Torah, you just haven't looked well enough. It's all there. In fact, the introduction that our sages say to the entire creation of the world was the Torah. The Torah is the blueprint. Before a builder builds a house, he needs to have a blueprint to know where the beams go, where the pipes go, where the electrical wires go. You need to know where everything goes. Hashem looked at the Torah and created the world by the Torah. So if you wonder, you're like, hey, that's such a coincidence that the Torah opinion on something like the lunar cycle matches with science. What a coincidence. It's not a coincidence. Hashem created the world. The Torah is perfect. The Torah is God's document. It's the manual through which God created the world. Just to give you a very basic analogy, If you were to buy a brand new car, let's say you drove a Toyota Corolla your entire life and now you got the raise. You were working in a company and you did such a great job. They decided to promote you. You now became vice president and now you go to buy your first luxury car. You go to the BMW dealership and you know like how much is that? No problem, I got it. And you buy the car. You leave the dealership the first time and you're like the ultimate driving experience. Wow, what a car. You smell that new leather smell and it's terrific. You get what's the first time you open up that manual? The first time you open up the manual is when you pull up at the gas station for the very first time. Till now you had your Toyota Corolla. You just put in the cheapest gas. But now you're driving a luxury car. What type of gas do I put in? So you look at it and Mr BMW tells you in the manual says to maximize the driving experience, to have the ultimate driving experience, only put in premium unleaded. And you're like what? You look at the price, it's an extra 60 cents. Are you crazy, Mr BMW? Who are you to tell me what to put into my car? And what will Mr BMW tell you? He says no, no, no, no. You can put whatever you want, you can put water, but if you want to have the maximum experience, then these. I created this engine, I created this car. I'm telling you how to maximize the experience. Hashem created this world. Hashem created a manual, and that's the Torah, in which Hashem says you want to maximize the experience. These are the rules.

03:28
And people complain what kosher meat is more expensive? You know, the greatest gift to the kosher market is Whole Foods. Because now there's no excuse to overpay. Because when you have a $26 box of cereal because some doctor said that organic is better and the New York Times has 120 research studies that not a single one proved that organic food is healthier, they couldn't find a single benefit to organic food. But a doctor said but when God says that eat kosher because this is the best thing for you, then we're like well, I don't really know. It's the rabbi tax. You know, all I need is a rabbi to bless it.

04:09
Either way, the Torah is the manual for living. If you had a board game in front of you a game of any game and you try to figure it out without reading the rules, most likely you won't figure it out properly. You know, you take out a game of Monopoly and you have the board and you have the card, these cards, the yellow cards, the orange cards, the house cards, you have the houses and the hotels and you have the little pieces that move around the dice. You have so many. Such a complicated game. If you don't read the instructions, If you try to make up the rules, most likely you're not going to get it right. Life is a very complicated game, but there's a manual and the manual tells you exactly how to live life and that's what the Torah is about.

04:57
The Torah is not a set of rules. The Torah is a document that shows us and guides us the proper way to live life. That's why we have quote stories. They're not stories. They're teaching us right from wrong. We're going to see that, although we're going to go through the storyline of the Torah, we're going to have other things that we're going to pull out of each Torah portion. You know a few pointers so we can learn practical lessons of why the Torah even tells us these stories.

05:25
You think of the generation of the flood, which we're going to talk about next week. You talk about the generation of the dispersion. They try to build a tower to rebel against God. What's going on? Why does the Torah even need to tell us? There's a lot of lessons that we can learn. Everything that's in the Torah is there for a reason. Everything that's not in the Torah is there for a reason as well. There's a reason why every single thing was put in the Torah and that's why it's important for us every single week, at the beginning of this review, to mention how many words, how many letters, how many verses, because there's not an extra one.

05:59
There's one mitzvah given in this portion, in the imparious voracious, the first Torah portion, and that is to be fruitful and multiply. There's no prohibitions in this week's parasha. It's a performative mitzvah, not a prohibition. So in this week's parasha we're talking about creation, we're talking about the first ten generations, from Adam to Noah. So let's roll right in.

06:21
We have the six days of creation. Day one God creates the heaven, the earth. Light is separated between the light and the dark. We have day two, we have Hashem fixes the skies, the firmaments, the upper and lower waters. And day three, we have the trees, the grass, the vegetation. Day four, we have the constellations, the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the galaxies. Day five, we have the fish, the sea creatures, and we have the birds, the flying creatures. Day number six, we have the animals, and then Adam and Eve, Yom Hashishi.

06:56
It says you know, it's like it says THE sixth day. It doesn't say that about it. It says day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, and then it says THE sixth day. Why does it say THE sixth day? Because of what was the purpose of all creation? The purpose of all creation was mankind. God created the world for Adam and Eve, for mankind, and therefore, that's the last thing you know.

07:24
You don't invite your guests. They come to your house and then start setting the tables. You first set the table and then your guests come and you make sure that everything is ready for them. The last thing to arrive is the most important part. It's not about the food, it's not about the set, the table setting. It's about the people. And Adam and Eve were the last creation and they were the purpose of all creation.

07:57
So that should make us feel proud, but it sure doesn't make us feel responsible. It should make us feel responsible. All of this creation, every single tree that you see, every single blade of grass that you see, was created for you, for each and every one of us. Now we have to go do our job. God put us in this world for a task, and that is to emulate Hashem. Adam is called Adam because he was from the Adamah, from the earth, but also our sages teach us, because of Adamah, to emulate God. We are here to be a representation of God in this world. What did God create on the seventh day? Nothing. Hashem rested on the seventh day, and so, too, we pronounce this every single week, that God rested, and we demonstrate that God is the creator of the world by us resting and copying, emulating God, bringing godliness into this world on a whole new level every Shabbos, by our rest. So now we have the creation of Adam and Eve. Adam and Chava were the human peer. They're placed in the Garden of Eden.

09:09
They can eat from everything except the Tree of Knowledge. Except from the Tree of Knowledge. It's a big mistake that people make is that they always look at what you're not allowed to do. Oh, I'm restricted. No, no, no, no. The Torah says you can eat from everything except for one thing, and Sometimes we can make a. You can have someone say oh, you can't do anything on Shabbos. The Torah prohibits that's not true. You can do everything except for certain things. Creative labor is an example. We don't do creative labor on Shabbos. It doesn't say you're not allowed to work. It says you can't do creative labor. Writing is creative labor. Flicking on a light switch is creative labor. Working, moving around furniture, setting your table that's not creative labor, it's work. Work is not a prohibition.

10:06
The proper state of mankind is to be married. The Torah tells us he lo tov heyos haodim levado. It's not good for a man to be alone. Why? Because you don't have any conflict, you don't have any perspective that's different than yours. For a man to just live on his own. We're talking about mankind, For a man to live on their own. You don't have any contrast to your opinion. You just do what you want to do. You throw your laundry on the floor and no one's going to yell at you.

10:37
When you get married, suddenly someone's there to whip you into shape. The idea is that when you have the opposing view a man and a woman, when they have that opposing view what happens is is now it will necessitate a change in your habits. It will necessitate. It's not conflict, it's an ezerkenegdo. It's someone who's there to help you, to assist you, to change you Opposite you, meaning someone who can be a contrast to you. And then it's not a conflict where they're butting heads, hopefully, but rather where they learned new things.

11:18
I'll give you one very, very insignificant example, but just so that you understand this concept when I married my wife the most amazing woman in the world I did not appreciate or like spicy food. Somebody was like spicy, like why? Who needs spicy? You know? And then my wife, who loved spicy food. We get married and she starts introducing me to new foods and I'm like, why does it need? Why does it need to be spicy? And then you know, so it's something which is totally insignificant, right, but it's just an example of how we created a perfect blend, of how now we have things that we love together, because I was able to learn new things. She was able to learn things. We both like different types of music, very different types of music. Today we have a blend, a perfect blend of what we enjoy together, because it's not her being her and me being me and that's just the way we're going to coexist, but rather we created something new that we love together. So I like a little bit of her music, she likes a little bit of my music, I like a little bit of her type of food and she likes some of right.

12:31
The idea is that you learn to blend what your habits are. You come into marriage after 20 years or 25 years of living your way of life and now you have someone who has in their mind it's completely foreign and it's. Every marriage is like that, but that's the purpose of life. The purpose of life is not to just stay you. The purpose of life is to become the better you and you need a contrast in order for that to happen. So the Torah tells us that. The Torah tells us that right in the beginning Lotova yoso adum levado. It's not good for mankind to be alone. Have someone, have a companion, have someone there who's going to be opposite you and challenge you to become a better person. So when people come and they say I've had couples come to me and they complain that they're having some conflict, I'm like that's a good thing, Okay, you're, you're. You know, it's not a good thing to fight. It's a good thing to have opposing opinions, it's a good thing to have opposing perspectives. You have to learn how to work through that so that it becomes a growing experience and not, God forbid, a painful experience.

13:41
Adam names all the animals based on their nature. We're going to see this next week as well, in Parshashnaach, when the names mean something, Every name means something. That's why the Talmud says you're not allowed to give a nickname to someone. Hey, shorty, you're not allowed to do that. Why? Because there is a very powerful spiritual force that goes with someone's name. What Adam did is he spent time learning the nature of each animal and gave them a name that was suitable for that nature. For example, we know everybody loves dogs not everybody, but many people love dogs. Why A dog is a is all heart. Well, that's in its name. Adam gave it the name of Kalev, which is Kalev, all heart. I'll give you an example. Okay, so it's all emotion. Dogs are all emotion.

14:39
So what happens? Someone comes home from work and they had a tough day and they say to their dog bad dog, Wait a minute. Okay, I'm waiting in front of this shop. It's open. There is going to be a coffee sign on the ground Okay, Found the Instagram account. Okay, Found the Instagram account. Look, where is it? I'm mean, but it's very, very, very. The owner has. But anyway, I kind of mind luck get stop it. Then the dog is so excited, they're jumping on them. It's like as they walk in the door and bad dog stop it. So the dog goes aside and then a minute later it comes back whacking its tail.

15:00
Now imagine who's more emotional, Men or women? We know women are. Imagine this new bride so excited. Her husband is coming home from work the first day after they get married, First day he goes back to work and she's so excited. She greets him at the door. She's all makeuped, she has, you know, all her cute clothes on, and now what happens? He's like I had a rough day, I need to watch my sports. Leave me alone. She gonna come back excited five minutes later. I don't think so. Why not? Because it was a painful experience.

15:32
We have intellect. We're human beings. We are not completely controlled by our emotion. We have intellect. We know how those something. It's painful. We don't want to do it again.

15:42
A dog doesn't. It also has intellect, but it's not controlled by its intellect at all. It's cold Lev. It's all emotion. That's a dog. That's one name, one animal.

15:54
Adam saw that. Adam gave it a name that was appropriate. Every single animal. Adam went through learning from its character and gave it a suitable name Human beings as well. We see that in the Torah. Whenever there's a name that's given, there's a reason why the name was given and the Torah gives you that reason. So we have to remember that names define the essence of something. It's not a simple thing. It says that parents give their children a name by prophecy. When you have a child, what are you going to name the child? Well, parents have a special influence from heaven the right name to give. What do you know from the child? I don't know the nature of the child. There's a special name that's given for each child. I'm sure you've seen, sometimes you see it, that person's a David kind of personality, that kind of like there are certain people who carry their name gives them certain qualities and certain definitions, so it's a very powerful thing.

17:00
The Garden of Eden in the Sinchava, Eve is enticed by the serpent to eat from the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and in turn gives the fruit to Adam. By absorbing sin into themselves, Adam and Eve render themselves incapable of remaining in the spiritual paradise of Eden and are banished. Death and hard work are introduced to the world, both physical and spiritual. They enter the world and together, pain of childbirth is introduced into the world. Now begins the struggle to correct the sin of Adam and Eve, which will be the subject of the history of the world. The entire world is dealing with that.

17:44
The bottom line lesson that we need to learn from this is don't add on what God commanded. God said don't eat from the tree. He didn't say don't touch the tree. The serpent comes to try to entice Eve and she says well, God said we can't touch the tree. So the serpent pushes her against the tree and nothing happens. You see, nothing happened. You can eat from the tree. Don't add. God gives a commandment, Follow the commandment. Don't make it. Don't make your own rules. It's something we have to be very cautious about.

18:18
So Cain and Abel now the first two children were born to Adam and Eve. This is the first time that there was human beings born to human beings. Adam and Eve were both created by God. Adam was created from the dust of the earth and Eve was taken from Adam. Cain and Abel the first two that came from mankind, so to speak. They both bring offerings to Hashem and then jealousy ensues that Abel's offering was beloved more than Cain's, and Cain kills him. Cain is condemned to wander the earth and is protected for seven generations. He was afraid whoever sees me is going to kill me. So you know and these are obviously his descendants that are going to do that to him we did our father go. You know Abel's children are going to say we did our father go and Hashem said I'll protect him.

19:17
Ten generations passed till Noah, Adam, and you have over here in the sheet all of the ten generations that lead all the way till Noah, Adam and Osh, Cain and Mehalel and Osh Now, and Osh has a question mark there, you don't see how long he lived, because the Torah doesn't tell us. If the Torah just says Vein enu, he's no longer there, what happened, Say? Just tell us. He was one of the three people who were taken out of this world alive. He was taken to heaven as is in his physical, being Just plucked out, Never died, never buried. And then you have mythus, salah lemach, and then you have noach. The wickedness and sin fills the land and Hashem decides to flood the world, and then the portion ends with noach finds favor in the eyes of Hashem.

20:14
So what are some of the important principles that we learned from this week's Torah portion? Number one is that we know the Jewish calendar. We're right now in year 5783. 5783, one second. Wasn't the world 15 billion years old or something the scientists will tell you? Well, we count the world from Adam and Eve. We start our calendar from that Friday, the sixth day of creation. That is day one. Why? Because the world was created for Adam and Eve. We start counting from then, not from the beginning of creation. Another important point is that we only have the constellations of the sun, the moon, the daily cycle starting at the end of the fourth day. So how long was the day number one and day number two and day number three. They could be a billion years. There's no time yet. So it's not a contradiction to Judaism when you see these history channel shows and the world 15 billion years ago. That is not a contradiction to Judaism Because you've got to take into consideration that till day number four, there was no 24 hour cycle of time.

21:23
Next is Shabbos. Shabbos is the essence of everything. Ki hi mekor habrochah, it is the source of all blessing. I was once sitting with a Hasidic master and a woman comes in. She was asking for a blessing from this holy, righteous man and she says I have a store in Tel Aviv and I want a blessing that it should be successful. So the rabbi asks her is it open on Shabbos? So she says yes. She says the Torah tells us Ki hi mekor habrochah, the source of all blessing is Shabbos. If you're open on Shabbos, you're contradicting that blessing. I can't give you a blessing to succeed when you're contradicting it with your own actions. So she closed her store on Shabbos and she has tremendous success. The key to success is Shabbos. That Ki hi mekor habrochah is the source of all blessing.

22:26
And I know so many people who challenged God by saying, okay, I'm not going to work on Shabbos and let's see what happens. Everything good comes out of the work from Shabbos. You make an extra $5,000, guess what? You have a new plumbing grip here. You got to fix this and you got to fix that and you got a dent in your car from someone in the parking lot who just ran off. Right. There's not going to be blessing to it. Ki hi mekor habrochah.

22:53
The source of all blessing is Shabbos. It's all in the hands of Hashem, which is what we demonstrate by not working on Shabbos is that we're living in God's world. We have the sin of the tree of knowledge. The source of it was that there was a lack of appreciation, a lack of appreciation. Every moment of our lives has to be dedicated to saying thank you to Hashem. Sometimes we take things for granted. Sometimes we don't realize how good we have it until it's taken away. Adam and Eve didn't realize they're sitting in the Garden of Eden. They didn't appreciate how good it was for them, so they just took it for granted and then they're kicked out, and that's history. So appreciation, appreciation, appreciation. The last, the end of the whole prayer of every single amida is giving thank you and thank you and thank you and thank you, Tashem, For every breath that we have, for every moment In the morning day, after noon, the evening, always saying thank you.

24:01
There are two fundamental principles that we see in this Friksparsha. First is Bihira, which is free will. Every human being has free will. We're not coerced to do anything that we don't want to do. You don't want to do it, Don't do it. No lightning bolt is going to come and take you out because you didn't eat something that was appropriate. There's nothing that stops a person from choosing right and wrong. That's your own free will. You have that choice. That's the first gift that God gave us in this Friksparsha. The second is that there's reward and punishment. Now, the choices you make are going to result in certain things. That's a very important fundamental principle. We see that the generations go in a bad way and Hashem is about to punish them. In the next week's Torah portion we're going to see Hashem doesn't like the choice that they made. They had free will. They chose a bad will. They chose a negative way of living life. Hashem doesn't like that. Hashem is going to punish them. The next very important thing is the Torah.

25:08
We all know that we can't punish anyone without a warning. You can't get a speeding ticket if there isn't a sign that says the speed limit. That's why, every time you enter into the highway, there's a sign there, right when you go into the highway, telling you the speed limit. Because you're now joining this road, you have to know, you have to be forewarned. If there's no sign there, you can go to the court and you can tell them there's no speed limit sign. Therefore, they'll let you off if there isn't, but they'll make sure that there is one. We all understand that. That makes perfect sense. You can't punish someone. You can't punish a child for eating something that they weren't warned not to eat. Why did you take the candy? You never told me not to Well, you should know. No, you have to be warned.

25:57
The question is the Torah wasn't given until year 2448, from the creation of Adam to Moses at Mount Sinai, in front of the Jewish people. And here you have, at year about 1000, you have the flood. And these people weren't warned. They weren't warned about decency, they weren't warned about how to live the proper life. So how can they be punished? Don't we know that? It is basic, basic way of life. The basic function of life is you don't punish someone if they're not warned. So how does this work? Say, just tell us, the Torah doesn't need to teach you common sense. The Torah doesn't need to teach you common sense. The Torah, in fact, you're going to ask one second, what are you talking about, Rabbi?

26:47
In the Ten Commandments it says thou shall not murder. We know that that's common sense. Well, if you look at the commentaries on that, the commentaries don't say don't take a knife and stab someone. It doesn't say don't take a gun and shoot someone. What it means is don't embarrass someone in public. It's like murder, it's like spilling their blood. Oh, that's a different type of murder. I wouldn't have understood with common sense Not to kill someone. The Torah doesn't need to tell you that that's common sense. The Torah doesn't teach us common sense that you have a brain, for Hashem gifted every human being with a brain. We need to have common sense. Beyond that, we have a Torah. The Torah picks up after common sense. So, my dear friends, this concludes the partial review of the portion of Berajus and, God willing, next week we will cover Parshash Noach.