Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

00:10 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Welcome to the Parsha Review Podcast, this week's Parsha Parshas Beha'aloscha. This is a command where Hashem tells Moshe tell your brother Aaron, the high priest, that when he goes up to the menorah, when he elevates himself up to the menorah and, as you know, moshe is being commanded about how to craft the menorah V'zeh ma'aseh menorah, and this is the crafting of the menorah. Mikshah Zahav hammered out gold. Ad Yirecha to its base, ad Pircha to its flower. Miksha Hi hammered out. Is it Kimare, asher, heroh? Hashem is Moshe. Kein Osos HaMenorah, according to the vision that Hashem showed Moshe. So did he make the menorah? What is going on over here? Hashem is telling Moshe exactly how the menorah needs to be built, and Rashi says that Hashem shows him exactly like with a finger pointing. This is how you should do it, this is he goes, you know, showing him exactly. This is how you should craft the menorah.

01:35
The Midrash says Ro'isi, I saw meaning referring to Moshe v'hi ne minora zov kula. The entire menorah was one solid piece of gold. One solid piece of gold. What is that? Says the Midrash? This is the Jewish people. The Jewish people, the Jewish people are represented by the menorah One piece of solid gold. So the menorah tells us about the greatness of the Jewish people. The menorah tells us that the Jewish people, as a nation number one, are mikshah achas. They're one unified piece.

02:34
If you look at the menorah, you know one of the complications that happened in crafting the menorah. God chose Moshe. This is how the menorah should be crafted hammered out, meaning out of one solid piece of gold. You can't see the way they make today. If you go and buy a candelabra, you buy a menorah, so it's made out of separate pieces. What they do is they make, you know, this part and they melt it together with the base, and then they take this part and then they take another one and slowly they have the menorah assembled, but it's not one solid piece of silver or gold.

03:13
So Moshe tried, couldn't do it. Moshe tried again, couldn't do it. He says, god, I don't know how to do this. I think this is something you need to handle. You need to. You know, craft this menorah. So God says take the entire piece of gold, throw it into the fire and I will craft it. And the menorah, indeed, was crafted. When Moshe threw the menorah, threw the gold into the fire, it became one big menorah, one beautiful menorah out of one solid piece of gold. So the Arizal says that that gold represents all of the souls of the Jewish people. All you know something very, very amazing, something I love to say Hanukkah time.

04:07
You know, we have many different types of Jews In this room. We have many different types of Jews Online. We have many different types In our communities. We have many, many different types of Jews. There are many. Everyone has their thing. Oh, I'm a member of this congregation. I'm a member of that congregation.

04:23
People like to put labels on different things. So let's assume that all of the different types of jews that we know are all represented in the menorah. On the different. You know, I almost imagine it like this we have 12 tribes, so you put two tribes per stem of the menorah, so now you have all 12 tribes represented. But remember there was one middle part which was elevated a little bit above the others. That's representing the Almighty Meaning.

04:55
By the way, in the laws of Hanukkah you're not allowed to have a menorah with staggering heights. It has to be that they're all leveled, because if the menorah represents the entire Jewish people, there's no one elevated above the other. We're all exactly the same. You have to be at the same exact height. You can't have one. I remember once, you know, I saw this menorah and it was a really beautiful menorah, very artistic, but all the menorahs were on different heights and that is forbidden, according to halacha, because that would represent a Jew being higher than another Jew. That doesn't qualify as a menorah, not a kosher menorah.

05:41
Otherwise, any menorah you can light from a plastic menorah, you can light a metal menorah, you can light a gold, a silver, you name it, no problem. You can light them all, any of them, but they have to be all in the same height, except for one, the shamash. What's the shamash? That represents the Almighty. We have to always remember that the Almighty is in the middle. All the lights were facing towards the middle of the menorah. You have to recognize that, although you have your way of doing things, you're on one strand. They have a different way of doing things, they're another strand, but the main focus is towards God. It doesn't make a difference.

06:22
You know, you have many, many different customs, many different customs. You have the Sephardic, you have the Eastern European, you have the Western European, you have the German Jews, you have the Hasidic Jews, you have the Russian Jews, you have Jews from all over Customs, you name that. I have a book which is just on different customs. You know how people wash their hands, hands. Some people wash twice on the right, twice on the left. Some people write one, two, three, four, five, six. Everyone has different ways of how they wash their hands. They're all beautiful, pure customs, depending on where they come from it, depending on what type of you know industries they were in. Some people were involved with. You know, a blacksmith right Washed his hands a little bit more carefully. A shoemaker, right. They're different everyone, different backgrounds.

07:19
By the way, on Pesach, you know, the regular, classic Ashkenazic Jews do not eat rice. On Pesach, sephardic Jews do. Where they came from, there was no concern that it was made in the same factory of something which wasn't permissible. On Pesach, where the Jews lived in Europe, there was a concern. So there was that decree that we don't eat rice because it could have been mixed with flour, other things, and therefore you know they made that decree. So what one is eating kosher for Passover? One isn't. No, they have different customs and it's fine. See, we like to put everybody under one umbrella and that's not the way.

08:05
The menorah is. The menorah wasn't one light. It was many different lights, but they were all attached at the core. So now we have a very important question to ask why wasn't Moshe able to do it? Why wasn't Moshe able to make the menorah out of one solid piece of gold? Why not? He should be able to do it, just like God. Can Sages tell us something so amazing? You see, not every Jew has the same kind of neshama Not every Jew and, by the way, we're not the ones to judge. Which is why Moshe couldn't do it. Because in order to cleanse every neshama.

08:59
I used to use this parable a lot. Imagine, imagine you have a ring and you got that ring 30 years ago. You're all very young, so you probably got engaged what? 10 years ago, five years ago? Right, so right. But imagine after 30, 40, 50 years, you never cleaned that ring. You never cleaned that ring. You never cleaned that ring. Is that diamond going to sparkle? Is the diamond going to sparkle? We all know it's not. It's going to be filled with all of this dirt. It's going to be years and years of collecting dirt. Did you do something wrong with it? No, but you got to clean it. If you don't clean it, it's not going to sparkle. It's just not going to sparkle Right, it's just not going to sparkle.

09:47
Every neshama is different. Every neshama, by the way, is a piece of God. Our sages tell us. It's a chalik, alok ha-memal. That doesn't mean that God, you chop them up to pieces and he gives everyone a piece of God. That's not what it means. The idea is that we're all infused with godliness in our soul and everybody has a different task and everybody has a different mission and everybody comes from a different package, a different collection of experiences, and some people may neglect that soul, may neglect cleaning that gem, so it gets dirty. It doesn't mean that it's not a gem. It's a very expensive, very beautiful, sparkly diamond, but it's dirty. So you got to clean it. How do you clean it? There are many different ways to clean it. One of the ways you'd clean it you could throw it into a fire. And what does the fire do? It burns away all of the impurities. It burns away all of the impurities Moshe, as a human being, couldn't purify what was the symbol of the entire Jewish people, the menorah.

11:00
He says I can't purify the Jewish people, only God can purify the Jewish people. It's an amazing thing when we talk, we think about repentance in general. Who can actually achieve atonement? Only a person who goes directly to God. We don't have a confessional. We don't talk to a rabbi and say, rabbi, I must confess for I have sinned. No, no, there's no such thing. I once had that in one of my classes back in the old Torch Center. The woman says Rabbi, I need to confess. I said sorry, wrong religion. You don't do that here. You want to confess. You talk directly to Hashem, directly to Hashem, because Hashem is the only one who can cleanse any of us of our sin, of the dirt that we allowed.

11:54
Now why do we call it dirt? Let's just understand this for a second. Imagine if someone was gifted with the unbelievable talent of singing Great voice, great voice, great voice, beautiful singer. But they got busy with their business, they got busy with their livelihood, they got busy with this, they got busy with that. 20 years later, they're like you know, I've never used my voice for the gift that I have. You think it's going to be easy for them to just open up their vocal cords and start singing? Absolutely not. It's going to take a lot of work to cleanse it. You were given an unbelievable talent, yet you didn't use it.

12:37
A person who's able to write incredible things, but they don't practice writing. You think they can just one day whip out a pen and start writing? No, it's going to take time. They're going to have to retrain themselves. But they have the talent. That's true, but you allowed a lot of dirt to accumulate on top of it. You haven't mastered that skill perfectly yet and removed all of the confusion. Removed all of the confusion, removed all of the distraction. So what's our distraction? Our distraction is materialism. There's no generation in the world that has had the gift of materialism like we do.

13:26
Interesting side point you know, the Talmud tells us that Moshiach is going to come riding on a donkey. I ask you, my dear friends, we're living in the 20th in the real world. Okay, it's. We call this in our numbers Gregorian calendar year 2025, okay, that's the year we're in. You think there's something a little bit nicer that we can get for Messiah than a donkey? You think there's something a little bit more fashionable? We can get him a nice Tesla. Oh, we can get him. Forget it. Tesla's political today. Forget it. So we can get him a nice Bentley. We can get him a Rolls Royce. We can get him a stretched limo, we can get him a nice private jet. No, moshiach is going to come riding on a donkey. Give me a break.

14:15
We're supposed to think that Moshiach is so archaic, arcane, irrelevant, something that we can't even connect. I know, I saw a donkey just last week. I was in Israel and I saw it down. We were driving with my daughter and my son-in-law and we saw donkeys on the side of the road right. Yeah, it was in a little village, but still that's not exactly the most glamorous of transportation. Okay, even going on Houston City Metro would be more classy than going on a donkey.

14:47
So why does the Talmud say that Moshiach is going to come riding on a donkey? So we have to know that in Hebrew every word has multiple meanings. If you take the word of chamor, which means donkey, and you just change the order of the letters from chamor to chomer, chomer is materialism. Our sages tell us. The Maral tells us that when it says that Mashiach is going to come riding on a donkey, it's not referring to a physical donkey.

15:22
What does a donkey represent? A donkey represents materialism. It doesn't have to a physical donkey. What does a donkey represent. A donkey represents materialism. It doesn't have character like other animals. A horse gallops. It's regal. It's a sus it comes from the word sas, which is happy, it's joyous. Every animal has a name that represents something. What's a donkey Material? When you want to say someone's not very smart, there's a term they can use with the word donkey, that really defines someone who's not that smart, because they're just a glob of meat, they're just physical, they're just materialistic. There's no character. A donkey represents physicality, materialism.

16:09
How did we say Moshiach is going to come? He's going to come riding on materialism, not materialism controlling him, him controlling the materialism. You see, we're in a world where we're getting we're getting infused all day through our materialism. You see, we're in a world where we're getting infused all day through our materialism, whether that be our phones, whether that be our homes, whether that be our cars, our fashion, our vacations all materialism. Who's in control of who? Who's in control of who? Is it in control of me or am I in control of who? Who's in control of who? Is it in control of me or am I in control of it? Well, moshiach is going to come and show us what it means to be in control of the materialism, and there's no generation that's more materialistic than ours. It makes perfect sense. Now, excuse me, when the Talmud says that Moshiach is going to come riding on a donkey, he's going to come riding controlling materialism.

17:13
This is so fascinating that when we don't allow ourselves to shine like that diamond, what we're doing is we're allowing dirt to collect, to accumulate on top of us, and that's why every Jew needs to know, and every Jew needs to remember that they are so precious. They're pure gold. Zahav Tahor, you are pure, solid gold, and you know what Hashem does? He throws us that gold into the fire to purify us. So now, collectively, as a people, we're a pure people, and every I'm telling you, I've never met, I've never met someone who didn't have that gold heart. I've never met.

18:04
Everybody wants to do something good, everyone wants to accomplish, and even those who are mistaken. And instead of focusing on the right kind of compassion, on the right kind of mercy we've mentioned this before you know, you have all of these like holy, holy, holy Jews who are just misguided that, instead of having the proper compassion in the right place, have the compassion, very, very beautiful compassion, but it goes to save the whales and save the turtles and it's like you see, all of the ladies who run these, all Jews, all Jews, every single one is an Esther Greenbaum and he's like, it's amazing, they're solid gold, okay, but it's misguided and that's not our job to correct things, that's not our job. Our job is to look at ourselves and make sure that we are not misguided guided. The virtue of every Jew is that the Zohar says the Torah, God and the Jewish people are one. We're all one. We have. That's why our sages tell us that if you push away another Jew, you're pushing away God, you're pushing away the Torah, because they're all one. They're all one. We cannot push away another Jew. We have to embrace every Jew.

19:48
I reached out to a friend of mine recently and I told him I didn't see you in a while. What's going on? He says you know I'm not so keen on going to this and that congregation anymore. I said why not? He says I walk in there. Nobody says hello, nobody welcomes me, no one asks me how I'm doing. And he's 100% right. That's not the way we should be. We should be the most welcoming people. We should be the most loving, the most non-judgmental Not in our politics in real life, in real life, to be there for one another.

20:26
Because we're a chadhu, we're one, the Torah, god, the Jewish people, we're one. If we represent God, if we represent the Torah, we represent the Jewish people. We have to realize that's a big responsibility and we have to also understand. You know we say a blessing every morning Sholeh Asanigoi. Thank you, god, for not creating me a Gentile. Why? Why do we say that?

20:57
We spoke about this in our prayer class. Why do we say that? What are we saying? It's because we're think about this. By the way, the Jewish people have been persecuted more than any other people on planet Earth. In the history of mankind, there's never been a people more persecuted than the Jewish people. And what's the blessing that we recite? Thank you, hashem, for not making me a gentle. What do you mean? I would like to not be persecuted. It would be pleasant to be someplace. That would be really, really special. The Jewish people recite that blessing.

21:35
Why? To remember that we're a chosen people. You have different responsibilities, different tasks. We have different obligations than the nations of the world. We're not here to say we're better than you. No, we're saying we need to be more responsible, we need to be more accountable because we are a chosen people. It's not for us to say you know what assimilation? Meaning we're assimilating with everybody, meaning we want to be equal with everyone. That's not true. It's not true. It's not because we're better. We're not better, we're more responsible, we're more obligated. Saying that we're equal would abdicate that responsibility, would say I don't want to take responsibility, I don't want to be held accountable, I just want to be like everybody else. You know, the Jewish people were the only ones who celebrate the undertaking of responsibility.

22:31
What's a bar mitzvah when it's more mitzvah than bar? What's the bar mitzvah? The bar mitzvah is a celebration that now this young boy and girl are undertaking the responsibility in their relationship with God. That's what it is. That's what it is. Now they're obligated to mitzvahs. Now they're obligated to perform in the way god wants us to perform. Yeah, 12 years is it for a girl? 13 years for a boy to prepare for this day. We're celebrating that here. A young child is becoming a young man and undertaking responsibility. It's not like what people do before they get married. They have one last bash of like I'm free, I'm free before I get locked up in my prison of marriage. Right, they have the. What do they do? They did the, you know, before the wedding. They have this. We don't need to get into it. That's not an undertaking of responsibility. It's almost running away from that responsibility, celebrating the lack of responsibility.

23:47
So there's a story that's told about one of the great sages of Jerusalem. He comes to synagogue early in the morning, like he normally does, and the previous night was the US election. This is talking about 50 years ago at least, the US election for president and he walks around synagogue instead of starting to daven, instead of starting to pray. He says anybody know who won the election last night in the US elections? Anybody know. And he's walking around and people are like what is wrong with this rabbi? I mean, he's the leading rabbi of our congregation and all he cares about before starting to pray is who won the election in America. See, he explained. He said who's the most you think about? The highest level, the highest level Gentile, the President of the United States. He says I'm about to say the blessing, shalah Sanigoi. I want to know who to have in mind, that even the highest level Gentile. Thank you, hashem, for making me a Jew. Thank you, hashem. I have to know who I'm.

25:05
What's the contrast here? That means there's something which is so fundamentally important here For us to internalize our responsibility, our responsibility to ourselves. That means we have a responsibility that God gave me skills, god gave me abilities, god gave me talents. I'm going to be held accountable if I don't accomplish In God's world. It's not D-E-. Accomplish In God's world, it's not DEI. All right In God's world. I gave you skills. Did you maximize those skills? You're not going to get a free pass because I just did what everyone did. I would just, you know. No, you have special talents. You need to produce special results. You're a wise person. You can write books.

26:00
There's a story told about one of the great sages in Europe. When he wrote his first book, he made a very, very big party. Like an extraordinarily big party, and people are like a little overdoing it. People write books and they don like an extraordinarily big party and people are, like you know, a little overdoing it. You know, people write books and they don't like make such a big bash, it's not such a big party. Like, what are you doing? So he says let me tell you why I'm writing this book, why I'm making this party.

26:25
He says when I was a young boy I was a little rambunctious, maybe a little ADHD, maybe, maybe not. I was a little rambunctious, maybe a little ADHD, maybe maybe not. So he says I overheard my parents were talking that I wasn't cut out for Torah study. Maybe he's just not cut out for it. Let's send him to the shoemaker and let him at least be a good shoemaker. Let him at least be a good shoemaker and let him at least be a good shoemaker. Let him at least be a good shoemaker, she said. And then I had a frightening dream, frightening dream that one day I come in front of the heavenly courts and in front of the heavenly courts they're going to say oh, here comes the great scholar. Where are your books that you wrote Me book? What are you talking about? I'm just a shoemaker. I made shoes for people.

27:19
Fathers would come and say you know, I'm about to marry off my daughter. I need a really nice pair of shoes and I work diligently to make a beautiful pair of shoes for them. It's like, yeah, but that's not what we put you in this world for. We put you in this world for. We put you in this world to write that special book. Woke up the next morning he tells his parents you're not sending me to the shoemaker, you're sending me back to study Torah so that I can write that book. He says, holding up that book, he says this is the book that I came to this world for. Right now, imagine if the reverse happened.

27:59
Nothing wrong with being a shoemaker, don't get me wrong. There were many. By the way, if you look in the Talmud, yochanan HaSandler, rabbi Yochanan, he was a shoemaker. There's nothing wrong with being a shoemaker, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with being a shoemaker, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with being a tradesman you had. Many of our sages in the Talmud were craftsmen. This was a silversmith. They had many different trades and they were still scholars.

28:28
But we cannot abdicate our responsibilities. We can't run away from our responsibilities. God gives you a talent, he gives you a skill. Oh, you better maximize it. Don't say you know, I don't want to show off, I don't want to be a big shot, I don't want to, it's okay, I'll keep it to myself.

28:50
No, we see, in the Talmud there were two families that were given great gifts. One family was given the great talent of singing and they would sing in the temple and people were like, wow, how the family would sing together. The harmony was just unbelievable. The other one, another family, was extremely talented in baking the showbread. It was a very big skill. How to bake the showbread, it was a specific method. They were both asked.

29:27
Both families were asked by people. You know, can you sing for us, can you? No, we're not singing for you, no, we only sing. We only sing in the temple, we don't just sing for people. And the other family was asked can you share your recipe? How do you make the bread? And they diligently showed everybody here. This is what you do. You do like this, do like that. Share the recipe. They shared the gift that they had. One was tremendously blessed and one was terribly cursed.

29:59
You have a gift. You don't share it. I mean, oh, I don't want to be so arrogant and just sing for everyone. I want to just keep myself modest. No, no, no, that's not a modesty. That's not a modesty. That's not a modesty.

30:14
You have a responsibility to share your talents. You have a responsibility to maximize your skills. By the way, this is something we should be making sure that our children, that our children and our grandchildren, you see that they have a talent. You better make sure you maximize that talent as parents. You see they're skilled in a specific area. Make sure you hone in on it. Make sure you get them the special extracurricular teacher to bring out that talent. That's our responsibility as parents to guide, to mentor our children, give special skills. They're just like oh, it's another one, it's fine as long as he doesn't kill anyone, as long as he's not one of the protesters in LA, I'm fine, as long as you know. No, make something special. We have to realize that every single person is special.

31:13
Every mikshah achas, the menorah represented everyone those who were on top, those who were on bottom, those who were pristine and clean and perfect, and those who weren't were a mikshah achas made out of one solid piece of gold, and Hashem purifies everyone. Hashem gives everyone skill and opportunity. It's up to us. We need to A feel that responsibility. We need to feel unity with one another. We need to care for one another, not feel elevated above anyone else. We're all on the same line. This is so crucial. You know we have a gift.

31:58
Imagine this you buy a product from Ikea. What's the most important piece in that box? It's the instructions. There are so many different parts. There are so many different pieces. If you lose the instructions, it's highly doubtful you're going to be able to put that thing together properly without the instructions. That's the way it works. What's more complicated putting together a cabinet or living life? What's more complicated putting together a cabinet or living life, raising children, having a harmonious marriage, having great relationships? Which one is more difficult? We know who has that document, who got that manual. Imagine the following you drive a brand new car. You know until now you were driving a Toyota Corolla, so you know you buy the cheapest gas. It's fine, it gets you from place to place. But now you got a raise, you got bumped up in your company. Now you're a vice president. You can't drive your Toyota Corolla, it's not, you know, you know.

33:19
So you go and buy your beautiful BMW, drive out of the lot, the dealership, and you're like ah, this is a different driving experience. This is totally you know and that's what it's called right the driving experience. This is totally you know and that's what it's called right the driving experience. See, when is the first time you're thinking about opening up the glove compartment and taking out the manual, the owner's manual? I'll tell you the first time. The first time will be when you got to fill up gas, right, you go to the gas station and you're looking. One second. I remember, with my Toyota camera, I just got the cheapest stuff, but this is a luxury car. I don't know. What do I do? You open up the glove compartment, you open up the manual and you look. You're like fuel manufacturer's recommendation is to have the highest octane fuel for this car. Okay, no problem. You look at the. Oh, my goodness, are you crazy, mr BMW, I'm going to pay a dollar more for my gas. Who do you think you are to tell me what to put into my car? This is my car, I earned it. Right, I put it. You're going to tell me what to put in my and spend a dollar more per gallon. Are you crazy? We all know what is Mr BMW going to say. Do whatever you want, I don't care, put hay in there, but if you want to maximize this driving experience, I built the engine. I'm telling you this is what you got to do. If you want to maximize this experience, if you want to have the ultimate driving experience, as we advertise, then I recommend you put the highest octane. People complain kosher meat is more expensive. Do you want to have the highest octane? You want to have the ultimate living experience? Hashem says hey, you know not that it's more expensive, but this is what I'm telling you. You want to put junk food in your body, stuff that's not kosher. You want to get the shrimp and all of that stuff in your body. You're not going to have the ultimate living experience.

35:32
The Torah, the manual for living. God, tells us exactly what we need to put into our system. God tells us exactly how to live life. This is so important for us to really internalize this. If you look in every page of Talmud, it's guidance. Every page of Mishnah, it's guidance. Every page of the Tanakh, of the five books of Moses, the 19 books of prophets and writings, it's all guidance. Look at the Rambam Maimonides. It's all guidance in how to have the ultimate living experience. You want to maximize life, you want to be a connoisseur of life. That's what the Torah is.

36:24
The Torah is not there to tell us, oh, you're not allowed to do this, you're not allowed to do that. No, it's saying, yeah, it's probably not a good idea to drive your car off a cliff. Right, we all understand that. That's common sense. But we may not understand why it's important for us to put the higher octane fuel into our car. He says listen, it's going to drive better, it's going to be a better, it's going to be the ultimate driving experience.

36:52
Instead, this is the gift that we have. You want to know why the nations of the world hate us? This is why, because we have that document, we have the manual for living. We have it, it's ours. We need to treasure it, we need to embrace it.

37:13
And I urge you, please, my dear friends, don't jump. Take a small step, a teeny small step, something to learn. One verse a day, read one commentary a day. Don't jump in and say that's it. Okay. I'm going to read that manual cover to cover. Take it easy. Take it easy.

37:37
We have to be human too. Oh, I'm never going to drive on Shabbos ever again. One step at a time, one step. Don't make any grandiose commitments. Let's understand, let's enjoy, let's enjoy. It's an amazing experience. Life is a journey. We want to maximize our. We want to have the ultimate living experience. That should be the advertisement for Judaism.

38:09
Judaism, the ultimate living experience. That's really what it is. We have it. It's our what it is. We have it. It's our gift. We need to maximize it To know our value, to understand that we're not like the nations of the world. We're not putting them down. We're holding ourselves accountable to a higher level. We're accountable. This is our responsibility. This is our responsibility. This is our gift. This is our inheritance. It's an inheritance. It doesn't make a difference if you associate yourself with a membership of one congregation or another congregation. It's all irrelevant. We've said that hundreds of times here.

38:50
There's no such thing as a reformed Jew. There's no such thing as an Orthodox Jew. There's no such thing as a reformed Jew. There's no such thing as an Orthodox Jew. There's no such thing as a conservative Jew. There's no such thing as a Reconstructionist Jew. There's nothing unaffiliated Jew. There's no such thing. There's a growing Jew and there's a stagnant Jew, and our hope and our prayer is that each and every one of us merit to be a growing Jew.

39:17
My dear friends, have a magnificent Shabbos. Thank you, any questions? Okay, you asked an excellent question. How do we make the nations of the world not feel bad? So let me ask you a question. Walk into any company. Let's take Tesla. You walk into Elon Musk's SpaceX, okay.

39:39
So you have over there different people with different responsibilities. How does the guy who's drilling in the tires not feel bad that he's not the vice president in the office? That he's not the vice president in the office, right? And how does the guy who's designing the new design of the new car not feel bad that he's not the guy who's installing the lights? Well, we understand that everyone has a different task. There's a difference between understanding that everybody has a different role to play then knowing that we have a responsibility. That is more is more. We're going to be held accountable, more. Let me. Let me explain this, let me explain this the, this notion of our generation of equality is flawed. There is no equality. An apple will never be an orange, it will never be a banana, it will never be. It's different. It has different roles.

40:47
But do you know what's unique in Judaism? We're the only religion on earth that doesn't persecute people who don't become Jewish. You know what Christianity says? Catholicism, islam, hinduism. You name every religion. 70 nations out there, each one of them with one exception Judaism. If you don't believe in our faith, you're an infidel and we're going to wage jihad against you. We're going to kill you by the sword, like the Christians did to millions of Jews, if you don't convert to our faith. Jewish people never did that. Not only that. When someone comes to Judaism, what do we tell them? Not such a good idea, maybe don't do it. You realize how many responsibilities you have. It's not just 10 commandments, it's 613 fundamental principles with millions of different rules.

41:52
You want to get yourself into that why? You can get a place in heaven without that. By the way, in Islam, you cannot have a place in what they call heaven if you're not a member of Islam. In Christianity, you cannot get a place in heaven if you're not a member of their religion. In Judaism, we don't say that. That's not true. You can have a perfect place in heaven. You fulfill your role.

42:21
It's very different than a Jew. You have seven Noahide laws, that's it. That's it seven Noahide laws, and you're perfect, you're good to go. You don't need to convert. Why do you need 613? You get a place, a very valuable place in heaven, just like the Jew gets, and you're perfect, you're good to go. You don't need to convert. Why do you need 613? You get a place, a very valuable place in heaven, just like the Jew gets. You fulfill your rules. There's no need to convert. Which is why we tell people there's no need. No, no, no. I want. I want, because I realize being Jewish is obligating myself more. I want my relationship with God to be on a higher level and therefore I want to be in it. Okay, no problem. I've heard a rabbi tell his people. He says you know, a psychiatrist is cheaper. It's cheaper than converting. Just let you know. You know how expensive matzah is and it doesn't take as long. Exactly the idea is that we're not better. That's not. That's not the the, the focus here. The focus is that you don't need to be jewish to fulfill your role. You don't need to be jewish to have a place in heaven. Judaism is the only religion in the entire world that ever was and ever will be that will have that tolerance and acceptance and that fact in our Torah. That's the reality of how Judaism works. So it's not that we're making them feel bad. No, you're good as you are. Whoa, whoa, oh, one second. June is pride month, my friend. Okay, people are proud of a lot of things. Does that make you feel bad? Look, one second. The fact that you are prideful and you're happy about something shouldn't negate someone else from being happy and proud. It doesn't take away from them. Does the apple feel bad that he's not an orange? No, we're different. No, no, no, no, you don't have to do that. You say listen, my religion forbids me from eating that, so you guys can eat it and enjoy it. There's no prohibition for you to not eat it. For me it's not. It makes them feel bad. I guarantee you, if you were wearing a Muslim garb, they'd be like oh, we respect that so much. Yeah, my entire life. Everything I've always seen is it's usually the Jews who themselves feel uncomfortable and they're like they're judging me or they're not. It's not. I haven't seen that. I haven't seen that. A friend of mine sent me a picture. He was on I don't remember what airline and they had in the back of the plane. They had an entire section for the Muslims to bow and to do their prayer. He says imagine if they did that in a Jewish. They'd be like oh, that's oppressive of other religions. You can't do that. You can't have a prayer section in the plane. That's against FAA violation. They'll give you all of these things. Muslims. Oh look, they have to pray. I think that if we demand to be treated like the nations of the world, we're going to be devastated every day. That's not the way it is. We always are looked at differently. We always are looked at differently, and it doesn't mean that we start slinging mud. That means that we hold ourselves to a higher standard. We need to hold ourselves and be more responsible. Yes, you know what you find the most respectful, most kind and loving way to say. You know what you guys, I hope you enjoy this, but I'm not permitted to eat this. I'm not permitted. My Torah, my God, god, doesn't allow me, as a Jew, doesn't allow me to eat it. You guys can enjoy it. You have no prohibition. Enjoy, and what? One second, one second, one second. Let me ask you, okay, what if you told them you were vegan? But I'm just saying I guarantee, if you told them you were vegan, I'm a vegan, oh, I'm so sorry. Well, probably Probably, but they won't. They'll suddenly be like oh, I'm so sorry that we're ordering meat right in front of your face. You know you're a vegan. What if I told them I was a Christian Right? You told them They'll believe me. And you tell you know, it's like Rabbi Mr Avi Shulman. He was traveling on a train and he looked like an ordinary Jew, the yarmulke, like you know, just the. So this guy sitting next to him says to him you filthy Jew. He says, excuse me. He says, yeah, you're a filthy Jew. Look at you, you filthy Jew. You know he starts harassing him. He says I have no problem with Jews, but I'm Amish. He asking him, he says I have no problem with Jews, but I'm Amish. He says, oh. He says I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to disrespect your culture, I didn't mean to. It's like suddenly, everything flipped in a second. You know it's like. Oh, amish. It's like. I love the way you guys are dressed.

47:10
You know it's like it's ironic, right? So it's all a matter of how you do this and it's like we have to. You know, we can't get too serious about ourselves as Jews. We like to sometimes take ourselves overly seriously and we're just like, oh, anti-semites. I remember when I drove down to Houston for the first time this is 20 years ago so my mother-in-law said you know, she's like her father is a survivor from Germany and it's like there are anti-Semites in the South. Be very careful, okay, just be very careful. Like you know, I drove down.

47:42
I've never had a single, not one, not one. I mean 20 years B. I had a single, not one, not one. I mean 20 years. Without putting an evil eye on this, I haven't had not one single anti-Semitic experience since moving to Texas 20 years, and I think I look like a Jew. I don't think I'm hiding it. If I'm hiding it, I'm not doing a good job, okay, and I go around everywhere and there's no place that I don't feel like. I can't go there because I'm going to be judged because I'm Jewish, no problem.

48:12
On the contrary, how many times? There was one time I was walking it was Thursday night my wife says, oh, this is back when Walmart used to be 24 hours, and my wife's like I forgot to buy this, can you run out? I said no problem, it's like 1130 at night, 12 o'clock at night. I run to Walmart and I'm looking in the neighborhood store, I'm looking for my stuff and I suddenly see this big guy, big, big African-American guy, and he's like towering over me. This guy's big and I'm like I'm from Brooklyn, I'm afraid. And this guy says to me sir, you Jewish? I said yes, so in New York you'd probably come with a punch. It's like I was like I pray for you all the time. God bless the Jewish people. Right, I was like, I was like no eye contact. I was like he's like, but it's like. It's a totally different experience, it's a total yes.

49:12
As a Jewish people, we have to learn to stand up for ourselves. We have to learn to protect and defend ourselves and we have to do everything we can to not incite hatred. By the way, is a Jew allowed to give some of his money to non-Jewish causes? Why so? The halacha says as follows the halacha says that a Jew is required to give to non-Jewish causes. Why? Now, it shouldn't be a majority. It should be a minority of his money. But he should give. Why should he give? He should give so that the nations of the world don't hate us.

49:40
Go look at every single hospital, go look at every single museum, and it's one Jewish name after another Jewish name after another Jewish name. And what do they do? They hate us for it. Look at the Jewish people. They took over our museums, they took over our hospitals. It's like, it's an unbelievable. You can't win, but that's fine, that's. You have to take that with humor. That's the way it is. But the truth is just.

50:03
I have a not so crazy theory. If every Jew in Houston gave a tithe meaning 10% of their charity for one year, only to Jewish institutions, for one year, you will never need another fundraiser in the city again, never again. But the problem is that I sit with people, people I'm very close with, and they're so proud that, coming to their office and they're like Rabbi, you know what we just did. You know, my wife and I, we just decided to give $10 million to Methodist Hospital. You know what $10 million can do in the Jewish community, and we decided to give a few million dollars to University so-and-so and to university, so-and-so. I'm like like this is unbelievable. Imagine if any of the congregations got that money right. There's something we can't help ourselves. It's. You know, it's a beautiful thing that we're helping the world, but it's also a sad thing sometimes that we don't look at ourselves and say you know what? The rabbis in the congregations all and I know almost all the rabbis in the Reform, conservative, orthodox, reconstruction you name them all why do they have to be busy running after memberships? Imagine if they got that $10 million to that congregation and they don't have to do another building fund and they don't have to do another. It's like people don't think like that. They're like oh, I'll give the 10 million to Methodist Hospital because there's no Yetzirah for that, because the Yetzirah battles you. When it's going to be for good things, he battles you. He's like no, they'll figure it out, there are other wealthy people to give it. You know those people. They love their name on the building. You know those people. They love it. Let them do it. I'll give to Methodists.

51:47
There's a yetzahara when it's a good cause. It's a challenge. It's a big challenge. I had a rabbi visiting a town. He says to me let me tell you why it's going to be difficult for you to raise money for Torch. He said I can raise money for any cause in the world, but when it's to raise money for any cause in the world, but when it's to raise money for pure Torah, it's impossible. It's so difficult To raise money, for Torah is the most difficult thing on earth. Why? Because what does Torah do? It transforms us, it changes us, it improves us. Yet Zahara doesn't want that. He'll give you a million excuses why? Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invest the money so that later you can take all of the how, that fund that you secretly were going to give to a Torah institution. Now it's going to tenfold and then you have to give them a lot more. Yetzahara gives you all of these excuses of why you can do that?

53:03 - Intro (Announcement)
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