Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast. Welcome back everybody to the Parsha Review Podcast. This week's Parsha is Parsha Specialach. It is the fourth Parsha in the book of Exodus. It is the sixteenth Parsha since the beginning of the Torah. There are 116 verses, 1681 words and 6423 letters. We repeat this every week because there is not an extra word in the Torah, not an extra letter in the Torah. There is one prohibition in this week's Parsha there are no performative mitzvahs in this week's Parsha. This Parsha is also known this week. This Shabbos is also known as Shabbos Shira. Why is it Shabbos Shira? Because we sing the song. Shira means a song. We sing the song of Az Yashir in this week's Parsha and every Shabbos we also call this Shabbos Shabbos Shira. It's a special time when the Jewish people had an outburst of song of gratitude for the Almighty. They are like suddenly you realize, wow, what an incredible moment this is of the splitting of the sea. When they get to the other side, they say one second, we just have to stop and say thank you and sing Hashem's praise. So that's why this Shabbos is also called Shabbos Shira. Okay, in this week's Parsha, paro Faro finally relents and sends B'nai Yisrael. He sends the Jewish people out of Egypt. Hashem guides the Jews towards Eretz Yisrael, avoiding the lands of the Philistines. The Jews left Egypt armed and also with the bones of Yosaph, as promised. Hashem guides the Jews with a steady pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire for the night. Hashem hardens Pharaoh's heart and he regrets letting the Jews out and pursues them with his army. The Jews are frightened. They fear the sea in front of them and the Egyptians as they draw close behind them. And there are no good options. So they complaint the Moshe are there no graves in Egypt that you brought us to be buried here in the desert? Hashem commands Moshe to raise his staff and Hashem splits the sea. The Jews cross on dry land. When Hashem hardens Pharaoh's heart once again, they pursue the Jews into the sea, where upon the sea crashes down upon the Egyptian army. When the Jews come to the other side, moshe and Miriam lead the men and women respectively in a song of thanks to Hashem. The Jews then travel three days in the desert and are worried about food and water. What are we going to do? They complain, when the waters in Mara are bitter. In fact, the place is called Mara because Mara means bitter. So Moshe hits the tree that Hashem shows him and a fountain of fresh water begins to flow In Mara. They also receive certain mitzvahs and we're going to see shortly in the additional amended sheet. We're going to go through exactly what parts of the Torah, what of the commandments were given at what point. And for those of you who are listening on podcast and watching on video, you can look in the description of this video and you will be able to see these notes. It is parashas b'shalach and download it and print it so you can follow along with us as well. When the people complain about food, hashem sends quail for meat and provides mana. Mana was miraculous bread that fell daily from heaven, except on Shabbos. On Friday, a double portion descends to supply the Shabbos needs and this is why we make the Hamotzi. We recite the Hamotzi on two breads every Shabbos. We recite on two breads because the Jewish people in the desert received the mana. They received a double portion of mana. On Friday, the daily monoportion lasted one day. If left over, it would become moldy and wormed. Some mona is saved as a memorial for future generations and later placed in the ark in the holy of holies. The Jews complain again about the lack of water and Hashem commands to hit the rock. In front of the entire people, god says gather together the people, gather the elders, gather the scholars. Get everyone to see this miraculous event where water miraculously begins to flow from the rock. When the Jews arrive in Raffaetim, the nation of Amalek attacks. Moshe, appoints Yahushua Joshua to lead the battle. While Moshe prays and holds his hands up, as the Torah tells us, if his hands were up, they would win the battle. If his hands were down, they would lose. Hashem helps Yahushua win the battle. Hashem yelachem lachem ve'atem tacharishun, hashem fights our battles. For us, all we need to do is continue to our devotion to Hashem and he will fight the struggles for us. Hashem is angry at Amalek and asks Moshe to write. I shall surely erase the memory of Amalek. That is what's written at the end of this week's parasha, where Hashem tells Moshe transcribe as follows so some important lessons on this week's parasha. Hashem protects us with clouds. Hashem always protects us. Sometimes it's with clouds, sometimes it's with other things. Hashem is always there to protect us and the clouds were miraculous clouds because if someone tried to shoot arrows, like the Egyptians tried and like the Amalekites tried, the arrows would miraculously be shot back. It would like rebound back and hit the person who shot the arrow, which many times you see that the people who try to harm you end up getting harmed by their own doing, and this is a sign for generations. What we see in the Torah is not just a tale of the past. It is a tale of what is going to be also in the future, where the nations who try to harm us fall apart. You look at every single nation that tried to expel the Jews, that tried to hurt the Jews. Each one of them fell from their prominence, they fell from their royalty, they fell from their kingships respectively. Each one you mess with the Jews, you lose. Hashem tells Moshe enough prayer, now it's showtime. Have some faith. So we have to know like this yes, we see that Moshe is excessive in prayer. We see later on that when Moshe prays to go into the land of Israel, in Parshis Ve Eshanon, he prays 52 times. How many times did we pray 52 times for anything in our lives? 52 times he prays to enter the land of Israel. That Hashem should turn around his decree, that Moshe cannot enter the land of Israel. But here Moshe is praying and praying Hashem. What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? We have the sea in front of us. We have the Egyptians behind us. Hashem says stop Enough prayer, now it's time to get in, take action, do something and rely on Hashem. Nachshon Ben Aminadov is the hero of this splitting of the sea, because he's the first to listen to Moshe and enter the sea. And everyone is wondering what do you mean, moshe going to the sea? Moshe is telling us to just walk into the sea and it'll split. And Hashem says Moshe said so, we do it. There's a very important attribute that we can learn from this, and that is a say lo harav, have a teacher. I tell my rabbi that he's in a very serious, dangerous situation with me, because if he tells me to jump, I ask how high you need to have someone that's a teacher. That you follow their ordinances, you follow their rules, you follow their teachings, and when they say something, it means the world to you. When Nachshon hears from Moshe go into the water, it doesn't make sense. He says to do it, you do it. He says to do it, you do it. And that's the important thing we learned from Yehuda. Yehuda who Nachshon comes from the tribe of Yehuda, which is the tribe of royalty, which is the tribe of kingship, because a leader also needs to follow the rules. You need to be guided. A king had to have a Sefer Torah with him at all times. Why you have to know the rules to follow At all times. A king had to have a Sefer Torah with him. Follow the rules that Hashem guides you. Moshe hear, the representative, so to speak, of the Almighty, is telling us go into the sea, but it doesn't make any sense. Forget the sense. He tells you to do it, you do it, and that's why Nachshon is rewarded so greatly because he did it. He went in, followed what Moshe said and that caused the sea to split. Now, very, very interestingly, there's such an emphasis that when the Jewish people enter into Yamsuf, into the sea, they enter on dry land Besoch, hayam, bayabosha. And this is to push away all of the naysayers that there was no splitting of the sea. In fact, there's a comedian that someone forwarded me a little clip where he says oh, that people say they claim that there was only five inches of water really in the sea and it wasn't such a big deal that Jewish people were able to walk through. He says but you know what is a big deal? That the entire Egyptian army was drowning five inches of water. But there was a lot more than five inches of water, it was a big sea. And Hashem made a miraculous event occur, and that is that when the Jewish people go in, what is the seabed? The seabed, you know. You put your foot in, you go. We've all gone to the beach, you put your feet in and your feet sink in to the sand, into the seabed, but not when the Jews went in. When the Jews went in, it wasn't soft, it was a hard surface by Abash, it was dry land. And they just go in with their chariots, they go in with their donkeys, they go in with their children, with their strollers, they go in with everything. The wheels don't get stuck. Well, the scientists want to say that, oh, there was a wind that blew like this and blew like that, and if you do that, it can split any waters. That may be true, but it can't make the land dry, it can't make the seabed dry, and that's why there's an emphasis Multiple times in this week's parasha, that the Jews crossed on dry land. That wind can't do and it definitely cannot do it instantaneously. So the Jews pass on dry land. The Egyptians come behind and they're welcomed with a softened seabed, making it difficult for the horses and chariots. The entire Egyptian army, every last horse and chariot are drowned and shooken up with one wave. The wave comes together and they're all now in the air. Interestingly that, the Torah says something which is very unique. And the Torah says that the chariots are still under the sea till today. Till today. And researchers went there and they found chariots. And in fact there's a museum in New York called the Jewish Museum that has a chariot. They spent over a million dollars acquiring the wheel of one of the Egyptian buggies that came after the Jews and they were able to preserve it and you can go in New York and see it in the museum. It is remarkable to see the actual statement of the Torah where the Torah says it is there till today and you go under, you go with the divers and you will find more and more and more. The entire Egyptian army. Not one was saved. As the Torah tells us, pharaoh is punished and saved so he can repent. It says ad-e-chad, they were all destroyed but one. Or say, just tell us again, there's not an extra word in the Torah. We prefaced every class. There's not an extra word in the Torah. Why does it say but one, they were all destroyed but one. So sometimes you can use that as a term of phrase that you know not even one. I say, just tell us. No one was saved, and that was Pharaoh. Pharaoh was saved. He later became the king of Ninve and we say this on Yom Kippur, right with Jonah and the whale and he comes to tell them the prophecy that they're all going to be destroyed if they don't repent. And sure enough, they repent. Who is the king of Ninve? The king of Ninve was Pharaoh, the same Pharaoh, and he repents. Why did he deserve the privilege to repent, such an evil guy? Why? Because don't forget that equal to the revelation that he saw was the hardened heart that God gave him. So there were supernatural events going on here and God, in his ultimate, endless, brilliant wisdom, decided that Pharaoh deserves an opportunity to repent, to do teshuvah, and that's that one individual that was saved from the splitting of the sea, from the Egyptians being all decimated when the sea returned. Now you can take the Jews out of Egypt, but now we need to take Egypt out of the Jews. This is a very important task. It's not enough for a person to leave Egypt the idea of slavery, don't forget 210 years. The Jews are slaves, they're slaves and what happens? They get a slave mentality. They become slaves in their minds. They don't know what it means to now be free people. It's like someone who's released from prison. They have to have a halfway house so that they can get normalized. They can get the desert for 40 years was our halfway house, and God is teaching us what it means to be free people, to serve Hashem and not to serve anyone else. This is critically important that the Jewish people be trained, that the Jewish people learn what it means to be free people. And then the Jewish people are inspired to sing the song of praise of az-yashir to Hashem Az-yashir. I recommend you look in the Torah, look in the Art Scrolls stone edition, khumish or the Schottenstein edition with interlinear translation, and it's written as a song. It's so beautiful. Read the words in English of how the Jewish people thanked Hashem for the miracles, and we can learn so much by how we can talk to Hashem, detailing Hashem. Thank you for this and thank you for that, thank you for this and thank you for that. And there's endless. There's endless lessons that we can learn in our conversation with Hashem, how we can talk to Hashem as Yashir. Then they sang. When was that? As soon as they got out of the sea, they started singing to Hashem. There was an outburst of joy, of song, and that special outburst. If someone has a moment of clarity, they have a moment of inspiration. Don't push it aside. I tell my children, even if they cry for little things, they cry. They did this. You know, someone took away a toy. I say you're crying already. Ask Hashem for something special. Tears have a great power. The Jewish people are sitting there. They're like what just happened? We just saw 10 plagues come down against the Egyptians, exactly how Moshe predicted them. Then we're let go of Egypt. We go into the sea. The sea splits for us On dry land. We go through. I mean it's endless miracles, and wait, you'll see more. There's the miracles of the manna. There's the miracles of the food. There's the miracles of the water. There's the miracles. That's endless. Hashem's protection of the Jewish people. By the way, we had also a cloud that was beneath us. You ever walk on the desert sand. You burn your feet. You burn your feet. The Jewish people were through the desert for 40 years. They didn't burn their feet. Why? Because the cloud protected us from all six sides. The Jewish people were in the middle. Comparable to the Shabbos, if you take a box, a square, a square has six sides One, two, three, four, northeast, west, south and the top and the bottom. Those are the six days of the week. What does the six days of the week create? It creates a Shabbos. Shabbos is what's inside. All of what the six days are all about is about creating a Shabbos. That's what it's about Preparing for that Shabbos. Shabbos is what's inside it. The Jewish people are that Shabbos. They're protected by these clouds from all sides, from top and bottom as well, protecting them from the heat of the sun, protecting them beneath from the sand and from the snakes and scorpions that are prevalent, the wild animals that are prevalent in the desert. The Jewish people are safely inside. We're in that box, so to speak. Hashem wants to give Klay Israel the Torah. He wants to give us the Torah, because what is the Torah and we're going to talk about this more next week. The Torah is the love sign of God. It's like when you go on a vacation, you bring back a souvenir to remember that great vacation. That is what the Torah is. The Torah is the souvenir. It's not what it's all about. What it's all about is the relationship with Hashem. A person needs to have a relationship with Hashem and we have 613 ways to recall and freshen that relationship with Hashem. Every mitzvah is an opportunity to recall and bring back the revelation of Mount Sinai the public revelation of Mount Sinai, and it took 40 days to transform the Jewish people. Anytime you want to make a change, it's 40 days to really have an impactful change. The Jewish people, as soon as they got out of Egypt, which took about 10 days till the splitting of the sea, till they were on the other side now they needed 40 days till they received the revelation at Mount Sinai. Klay, israel is tested multiple times and you see this in this week's parasha that Hashem is constantly testing them. He's testing them with the water, he's testing them with the food. He's testing them because life is all about overcoming those tests, each and every one of us. If we're living on this side of the grass, we have tests when we're on the other side of the grass. There are no more tests, there's no more ups and downs, there's just a straight, flat line. That's what death is Death. There are no challenges. As long as we're living, we go up and down, and up and down, and up and down. That's the sign that you're alive. If a person you show me a person who has no challenges, I'll show you a person who has no life. As soon as a person is passed away, that's as soon as they have no more challenges. Yeah, they have no more bills, they have no more debts, they have no more. There's nothing, it's all over. We should be happy, we should be grateful that we have challenges, because challenges means you're alive. The Jewish people are being reminded already at the onset. You're always going to be tested and that's why the I could have made it that they already had a whole buffet ready for them sushi and Chinese food. Everything could have been ready waiting for them already in Mara. No, no, no, no, no. You're gonna have to go through the struggle. You're gonna have to face those challenges. How are you going to deal with those challenges? The Jews get the manna and learn the first blessing of Bikata Mazon. The first blessing of Bikata Mazon was composed by Moshe when the Jewish people started eating the manna the first time they're eating bread in a very long time and now they're becoming a people there's a special commandment to give thanks to Hashem after we eat bread, and that is the Bikata Mazon, the grace after meals. There are specific words. Every word that's in there was instituted by Moshe at this period of time when the Jewish people started eating the mana, and that's when they learned it. But there's something more important. We see that there were complainers and they learned it. They learned to complain from the Arab Arab, which was the mixed multitudes of people who joined the Jewish people. They're like wow, this is amazing, we have to be part of this. So they leave with the Jewish people. Some of them were Egyptians as well, but they were also complainers and they taught the Jews how to complain and apparently in modern day, the Jews really took on to that. The Jews loved to complain, but it's interesting that the complaints lead to bitter waters. It's a sign of something Don't be bitter, don't be a complainer, don't be a complainer. There's an element of bitterness in complaints. But there's something else that I want to talk about. It says that Moshe got upset, that they were complaining about the mana. What is he upset about? They were upset. What are they upset about? Okay, moshe was going on over here was like what is going on? You guys are living in a miracle, don't you see that mana descends to your house every day, to your doorstep. You don't have to work, you don't have to do anything, everything is taken care of. So they're complaining. They're complaining, but Moshe, in fact, what Moshe really got upset about at first, the complaining comes later. He got upset that people tried to save their mana for a second day, because God clearly says and Moshe repeats this to the people the mana will last 24 hours. That's it. After 24 hours it's going to get moldy, it's going to be infested with worms. Don't save it for another day. Finish what you have every day. And people try to test them. They try to test Hashem. So what's the difference between someone putting Hashem to the test and someone believing Hashem is real? Hashem is truthful, hashem is my God and he will do as he says. One is that you put your complete faith, so to speak, in Hashem. One is I tested God and I ate it raw and I saw I was punished. Which one has more faith? The one who tested God or the one who didn't test God? The one who didn't test God? Moshe was upset that now people knew that God was for real by testing him. It's a higher level for someone to be just trusting in Hashem. Hashem said so, and that's what we'll be. Your grandparents didn't go to Yeshiva and Beys Yaakov's, they didn't have the privilege of learning in Jewish day schools, but yet their emunah was firm. You ask them why they did so. What do you mean? Because that's what we need to do, because that's what God wants me to do. Why Didn't know? Why? It's what's known as emunah pshuta, a very simple faith, a simple knowledge of Hashem, and I don't need to ask all the questions. Suddenly, we start testing God, and that's when the challenges start within us, something we have to be very careful about. It's better to live a life of 100% faith. Now, judaism is not like other religions. We don't only allow questions, we encourage questions. Look at the Talmud. There's not a single line of Talmud that isn't a question on the verse, on the source, on the reasoning. We're all about questions, but you don't test God. And here they said oh, let's see what happens. Let's see what happens. Let's see if God actually will make this emunah become spoiled. Let's see. And they see that it indeed happens. So now they have no question about their faith because they see, indeed, what God promised is what happened. Moshe was upset about that because they could have been at a higher level in their relationship with Hashem. It's possible that they had that slavery mentality, that that's what caused them for it. But either way, moshe was upset that why are you getting to a point where you have to see that God's word is His word? You know that God's word is His word. Don't test them. Don't doubt God. Don't doubt God. You can question, you can ask, you can verify, you can even try to make sense of seeming contradictions. That's what the Talmud's about. The Talmud will constantly say well, what's your source? And we bring a verse to prove that source and then the Talmud says one second, how can you use that verse for that? We learned that verse for something else. That's normal. That's because we want to verify the truth. We're not doubting. And there's a higher level. There's a higher level of someone giving, trusting in Hashem. Then okay, so what a person needs to do is don't test Hashem. And then, lastly, who was the military of Yahushua? Moshe says get your military together. Now I'm asking you the Jews have trained soldiers at that time? No, do they even have like a nation of warriors? No. So who do we have? We have the righteous scholars. That's who Moshe picks. And in fact we see this later Keith Tatezah, la Mulchama, alevecher. Later, in Deuteronomy, it says oh, you know who went out to war for the Jewish people? The righteous scholars, not the young 18-year-old. You know strong, mighty, muscular individuals. It was the scholars. Why? Because one thing was very clear it's not the might of your hand that brings you success in battle, it's the might of your reliance on Hashem. You go out there, you shoot the guns. That's fine, but remember that Hashem is the one who succeeds your battles. Hashem Yulahem, lachem Vatem Tacharishun. It's not our job to win the wars, it's Hashem's job. And Hashem. It's repeated in this week's parasha, where Hashem tells us that Hashem tells us I will fight your battles for you. I am the one who is going to shoot those missiles on target. You can shoot them, I'll make sure they hit the right target. Remember not to throw Hashem out. We don't hold up our warriors? Who are our leaders? The righteous people? You look at Abraham, sarah, isaac and Rebecca, jacob, rachel Leia, the tribes they're not the warriors, they're not the fighters. Our value system is very different than the nations of the world. You look at the nations of the world. Who do they hold up as their idols, as their icons? It's the ones on the horses with the big swords, the ones on the tanks, the ones in the air force. General this and general that, not in the Jewish people. By us, it's righteousness that we value and Yeshua looks to be on his team people who are righteous, because those who are righteous are not going to fall when there's a challenge in front of them. They're going to rely on the Almighty and on the Almighty alone. So, before we conclude this week's Parsha review, turn, please, to your next page, the timeline of the giving of the Torah. I think it's very important. For those of you again who are online, please look in the description. We have a link and you can download. This is Parsha's Beshalach 2.4. You can download these sheets and you can follow along with us the time period 15 days prior to Exodus, which was the first of Nisan. The Jewish people are still in Egypt and they were given the first mitzvah, the Jewish calendar, pesach, the mitzvah of Pesach for generations, the holidays, the laws dealing with the first born. That was all given on the first day of Nisan while the Jews were in Egypt. 10 days after leaving Egypt, which is the 25th day of Nisan, year 2448, they're in Mara. In Mara, like we mentioned, this week's Parsha, several mitzvahs were given. The laws of Shabbos were given, the Red Heifer, the laws of Red Heifer honoring our parents, and the laws of Mishpatim, which is going to be in two weeks' Torah, portion written out, transcribed by Moshe, by the word of Hashem, exactly how to have proper judgment and how to have laws and how to have courts. All of that is there. 40 days later is the holiday of Shavuot, the 6th of Sivan, and the Jewish people are standing at the foot of Mount Sinai. The 10 commandments are given in a public revelation. 40 days after Shavuot, the 17th of Tammuz is the 10th, sorry. The Jewish people are standing at Mount Sinai and then the first set of tablets are brought down. They are broken for the sin of the golden calf and the pieces of the broken tablet are placed in the holy ark. 80 days later, after Shavuot, which is the first day of Elul, again, the Jewish people are still at the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses reassends Mount Sinai to plea for forgiveness for the sin of the golden calf, and 180 days after Shavuot, which is the 10th of Tishrei, also known as Yom Kippur, the Jewish people are still at Mount Sinai and God forgives and gifts the second set of tablets. These are chiseled out by Moshe himself and the second set is placed in the holy ark, which is also in the holy of holies. The next 180 days, which is from the 10th of Tishrei till Pesach 2449, the Jewish people are still at Mount Sinai and the majority of the Mitzvot are taught orally by Moses. The Midrash tells us that one of the commandments that Moshe taught the people was the laws of kosher. What is a kosher animal? What's not a kosher animal? Now, how are the Jews supposed to know? They're in the desert? They don't see the animals. The Midrash tells us that all of the animals descended to one place four times in history. The first was when Adam named all the animals. The second was when Noah brought them into the ark. The third was when the animals attacked Egypt. And the fourth was when the Jewish people were learning about the laws of kosher, where he had to show them that this is split hooves. This is what split hooves means. This is how you slaughter an animal. This is what chewing its cud means. This is a bunny rabbit and this is a little piggy and this is a cow and this is a donkey. Each animal Moshe was in. He was no zoologist, but he was given the wisdom by the Almighty to teach this to the Jewish people, and they were taught it all in the desert at Mount Sinai. For the next 180 days, the majority of the Mitzvahs are given. Then the following years, still at Mount Sinai, up to halfway through the book of Exodus is written, and then over the next 40 years till year 2488, which is the year that Moshe dies. At Arvo Smolov the Torah is incrementally transcribed until completion, and that is the written Torah. There are 13 copies written and one for each tribe, which is 12, and then one copy that was placed into the holy ark. There are three things that we just mentioned that were placed into the holy ark. Four things, sorry. Number one was the pieces of the first tablet, the pieces of the second tablets, the whole second tablets, the full copy of the Torah and a portion of the manna was placed there so that for generations and soon, with the building of our third temple, we will be reunited again in Jerusalem We'll be able to serve Hashem in our holy temple without any confusion, and we will also be able to witness those artifacts that are in the ark the first tablets, the second tablets, the original writing of the Torah, the 13th scroll and the portion of fresh manna that's there for generations. My dear friends, this concludes this partial review. I wish you a beautiful Shabbos.