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.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Good morning everybody. Good morning, welcome back to the Parsha Review Podcast. It's so wonderful to be here with all y'all this beautiful, wet and rainy Tuesday morning in Houston, texas. We are in the Parsasha of Yisro. Yisro, as we know, is the father-in-law of Moshe. Moshe, the leader of the Jewish people, who has thus far brought the Jewish people out of Egypt, had the sea split. With his hand outstretched, hashem says you raise your hand and the sea will split. You put it down and the water will come back together. On the Egyptians, of course. And so it happens, the Jewish people are now in the desert. They're in the desert for 40 days, for really 49 days, and now they're at the point they're about to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai.

01:08
There's going to be a revelation, a revelation that is going to be a public revelation which, as we know, the nations of the world, all the other religions, all relate their Bible to being a privately delivered document. Someone had a dream, and that brought about the Quran which, before he died, muhammad, there were over 400 different versions of the Quran. Muhammad, there were over 400 different versions of the Quran. In Christianity, it was an individual's prophecy that, so to speak, was being revealed. In Judaism there's no such thing. Moshe has no privileges that each one of us here in the room don't have. He was the leader of the Jewish people, that's true. He had greater responsibilities, but no special privileges, and the revelation that was given to Moshe with our Torah is the same revelation that was given to every single Jewish person standing around Mount Sinai.

02:21
The Jewish people are now traveling together and now the verse says in chapter 19, verse number two. So we'll start from verse number one. It was the third month. It was on the third month, which is the month of Sivan. The first is Nisan, iyar, sivan. The third month, which is the month of Sivan. The first is Nisan, the third month From the exodus of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt. On this day they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai Verse number two. They journeyed from Rafidim by Yavoh, midbar, sinai, and now they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped by Midbar in the wilderness and in camp. There did Israel, opposite the mountain, the Jewish people arrived at Mount Sinai. They're all standing around Mount Sinai.

03:32
What does Rashi say? The famous words of Rashi. Rashi says and they camped, the Jewish people camped opposite the mountain, says Rashi Like one man, like one heart. Rashi says an amazing thing here avoshar kolach, hanayus b'tarum, esu b'machlokes. In all the other encampments, because the Jewish people, as we know, camped 42 times between leaving Egypt and getting into the land of Israel with Joshua. 40 years later, imagine set up, break down, set up, break down, setting up your tents and taking them down. 42 times. They encamped All the way, all the way till they get to, all the way till they get to the land of Israel when they cross in through the Jordan River with Joshua. An amazing thing In all of those encampments there were struggles, there was battles, there was these little fights that they had with one another.

04:55
They come to Mount Sinai. They're one man, one unit, one heart. There was unity, absolute unity. It was unity, absolute unity. It's an amazing thing, absolute unity.

05:15
Our sages tell us, whatever power we have in the portion of that week, that same power is in our lives today, in our world today, 2025, in February, we have the ability to have the same unity as the Jewish people had at Mount Sinai. In the portion that we're going to read this week. This is the Zohar. So, whatever we read in this week's Torah portion, we're able to pull out that same power. It's tangible, it's accessible for us to have that same level of peace. It's an amazing thing that, till the Jewish people were at Mount Sinai, they didn't have that oneness. They were still struggling.

06:18
Oh, you're from that camp, you're from that tribe. Everyone had their identity and everyone had their passion and everyone was sure that theirs is the right way. What they found at Mount Sinai is that they're all unique and they're all special. You see, everybody on planet earth has a singular desire to be valued. Everybody wants to be important.

06:50
If I say to Mark, mark, it is so special to see you today. But then I go to Carlos and I say, carlos, it's so special to see you too, it's not as special, it's not as special. You know why? Because you added me onto him. He was the one that was really special. You felt bad, so you just said it to me too. So you have to say something unique. It's awesome to see you, but you understand that every person wants to feel special. You can see this more precisely with children. Children want to feel unique, and if you compliment one of the children, the other child's ear suddenly raises up. You know where's my compliment, where's my. You have to, and parents have to be very sensitive to ensure that every child feels special, because if a child doesn't feel special, then they start having issues with you. Know, maybe I'm not great, maybe I'm not special, maybe I'm not valued.

08:03
The Jewish people got to a point where they realized, one second, we've taken this too far. It's all about my tribe versus your tribe and it's competitive because everyone wants to be the most special. When they realized that there's one unifying element and that is Hashem, oh, now we're all children of Hashem. It doesn't make a difference who's bigger, who's better, stronger, who's wiser, who's wealthier. It's all insignificant because there's one Hashem and we're all here to serve him. And the minute we realize that Hashem is the one who controls this world, so between us it's like it's insignificant, it's irrelevant.

08:43
Almost it's interesting that our sages tell us the Talmud says Dorosh Rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Yehuda said an amazing phrase in the Talmud, a statement in the Talmud the time to come, when that time will be, the Almighty will bring the, our evil inclination. The Almighty will bring the Yetzahara. Our evil inclination. V'shochatol bifnei. Atzadikim v'arishoyim Hashem will slaughter the Yetzahara in front of the eyes of the righteous and the wicked. Atzadikim, nidmeh, elohem, kihar, gavoah.

09:26
To the tzadikim, to the righteous they look at this Yetzahara, it looks like an enormous mountain, like an enormous mountain. But the wicked, they look at the Yetzahara. It was like a little thread. A little thread. The righteous start crying and the wicked start crying. Why do the righteous cry? They say how did we overcome such a great mountain? It's such an enormous mountain. How are we able to overcome this mountain? And the wicked cry. They say how did we not overcome this? It's only thin like a thread. We could have just sliced him. So easy, it's so easy. How did we not overcome him?

10:33
Sages tell us this was the unity that the Jewish people found. They were able to garner the strength they needed to overcome their own individual yetzerah. Sages tell us that the most important thing for each individual person to recognize is that they are unique. Why is it important for you to know that you're unique? Because if you realize that you're unique and that everybody around you is unique, so who am I to judge them? Who am I to cast judgment on someone else when they have unique circumstances that I maybe cannot relate to? I'm assuming that everyone's like me, but that's not true. I'm assuming that everyone has my circumstances. But that's not true, which is why, my dear friends, open your heart for a second, for one moment.

11:33
How do we start our prayer every morning? Our sages tell us, when we begin our prayers in the morning, we should recite the following words Hareini mikabel al-atmi mitzvah saseh. I am accepting upon myself the positive, performative commandment of what we learn in Leviticus 19. And that is V'ahavto l'reiach hakomocha. I should love my fellow like myself. Why is that important? Why do we start?

12:11
Our sages tell us this is a great secret from the great Kabbalist. Start your day saying I accept upon myself to love every individual like myself. You know why that's important? That's important because I don't like being judged negatively. I don't like when someone doesn't give me the benefit of the doubt. I don't like when someone doesn't give me a second chance. I don't like when people just cast me aside oh, one second. I don't like when that's done to me. I can't do that to someone else. So what does that bring about? That brings about a unity amongst our people. That brings us to be in a place where we are now one. Ah, we're one. Now we can come pray. Now we can come talk to Hashem.

13:05
We mentioned in our prayer podcast just last week the importance of unity in our prayer. We don't pray just Hashem, give me success. Hashem, give me the ability to have wisdom. We don't say that, hashem, heal me. Hashem, give me success in my livelihood. Right, mark Hashem, give me a good job. Give me success in my livelihood. Right, mark, hashem, give me a good job. No, we don't ask for that In all of our prayers. You won't find that. You know what we do have in our prayers Hashem, give us wisdom. Hashem, forgive us. Hashem, give us healing. You hear that, howard, it's us, we're united. Give us healing. You hear that, howard, it's us, we're united, we're all united. It's an unbelievable power, because when we come alone, hashem has a difficult time. Just you.

14:05
Let me look at this, let me evaluate. You know how lawyers come to the judge. They don't go with one speeding ticket, they go with 100 speeding tickets. They're going to look at each one. They say 100. Okay, let's just settle it. Each one pays $150 fee. It's no more moving violation. You know, we got some money for the county, we got some money for the city, okay, goodbye. And they throw out the cases. They don't go with one ticket, one ticket. They're going to say, okay, let's evaluate what happened here. How old was the driver, what's his record, what's his? This they evaluate each one. They come 100, just like, let's just settle this, we're not going to go through 100 of them.

14:46
When we come and pray in front of the Almighty if we come alone, when we come and pray in front of the Almighty if we come alone we mentioned this in our Thinking Talmudist on Friday about praying in a synagogue, praying with a quorum, having a minion, because when one person prays alone, hashem says let me see this case. When you got 10 cases together like, okay, pass, pass, you guys, guys got this, how do we get to such a point? We start off our day saying I accept upon myself to love every human being, like I love myself and like we've said numerous times, there's a whole lot of love there. We love ourselves very, very much. It means a whole lot to us to have this love in our life. But you want to succeed, you have to have unity, you must have unity, you must have unity. It's a very tragic life when someone lives in isolation, when it's just me, when I'm so great. It's a tragic marriage. It's a tragic family. It's a tragic upbringing when you live with people who are narcissistic, when it's all about me, me, me, me. I'm the only one who exists In Judaism. We're the exact opposite. We see that our only success came about when we were unified, when we had absolute unity. You know what that led to Interesting Rabbi Chaim Vital in the Sharak Dusha says an amazing thing.

16:39
He says that we find the same idea by a groom, by someone on the day of their inauguration, whether it be to any office, to presidency, to someone becoming a governor, someone becoming a mayor, there is a special gift that's given to someone on that day a bride and groom. On that day, they're forgiven of all their sins. Reb Chaim Vital asks what's so special? You're getting married and you're forgiven of all their sins. Reb Chaim Vital asks what's so special? You're getting married and you're forgiven of all your sins. You become a president, a mayor, a governor, and you're forgiven of all your sins. Reb Chaim Vital says yes, because what happens now that you're responsible for other people, a man for his wife and a wife for her husband, a governor for his state, a mayor for his city, a president for his country? You know what now your obligation is you have to care for your constituents. When you go beyond yourself and you care for someone else, that level of selflessness, you're forgiven of all your sins. It's a special gift which we see this as a little bit of an encouragement. A little bit of an encouragement Take responsibility for others, be a leader, because when you have leadership, you become selfless. When you're selfless, you do for others, you live for others. Of course you have to maintain your own health, both as a mother, as a father, as a leader in the community. You have to be responsible for your own health. Make sure that you eat healthy and that you exercise and you maintain yourself. Otherwise, if you're not there for yourself, you're not going to be there for others either. But undertaking that responsibility to care for other people, that's already a special level. That's an incredible level of selflessness that we're willing to go beyond ourselves.

19:04
It's an amazing thing that we see in next week's Parsha. The Jewish people declare Naaseh B'Nishma God gives us the commandments. And the Jewish people declare Na'aseh v'nishma God gives us the commandments. And now the Jewish people are like whoa, whoa, that's a lot of stuff there. That's tremendous. What do they say? Na'aseh, we are going to do Not, e'eseh, I will do, no, no, no, we, we're a collective unit, we're all united. Now, na'aseh ve'nishma, we, together, we're going to do and we will listen. We're going to hear you out. Unity is the key to it all. Sometimes people get carried away. It's an amazing thing. Just one quick thing. I'm seeing here, an amazing.

19:58
You know, we know that there were 600,000 men between the age of 20 and 60 who were at Mount Sinai. So if you take the words yesh shishim ribo osios, latoro, mount Sinai, so if you take the words Yesh Shishim Ribbo Osios La Torah, there are 600,000 letters in the Torah as well. There were also Shishim Ribbo Jews at Mount Sinai, 600,000 Jews at Mount Sinai. Yesh Shishim Ribbo Osiosios la Torah is Yisrael, the Jewish people. Every single letter of the Torah corresponds to every one of the souls of the Jewish people. Every single letter. You're part of it. One book of the Torah, one unit. We're all part of that unit. This is the key to our success as a people.

21:01
You know there's been a lot of talk in our community lately about a particular restaurant and whether or not its kosher status is valid or not valid, and there's an agency in our community that does great work that ensures that the food that we eat is kosher and it's led by competent rabbis and they make an evaluation whether or not something is kosher. And we've been blessed that we have restaurant after restaurant in Houston that have been extremely, extremely blessed to serve the Jewish community and every single business. Just like someone who makes a cake for their orders, someone calls up and said I need a birthday cake, they'll make a cake. If it's against their values, they won't make the cake. They can decide who they do business with, and a cautious agency, like all others, can decide who they do business with and who they don't. And we've mentioned here we've discussed this privately, but I decided it's important for us to address this publicly. A cautious agency can decide who they do business with. They can decide what the parameters are in which they're willing to work, which they're willing to work, and if they decide that they do not want to give a certification for a restaurant, that's their choice. If they decide that a certain product doesn't fit the standards that they're comfortable with, that's perfectly fine. They can decide to do business with whoever they want. That's their choice. Decide to do business with whoever they want, that's their choice. But there's one thing that cannot be overlooked and that is love your fellow. Like yourself, when someone goes out and gets another certification, we have to be so careful to ensure that there's no personal animus against the vendor, against the other agency. We're a people that are supposed to be united. We're a people that are not supposed to say a negative thing about another person.

23:49
To me I don't know. I don't understand. You know, there's a rabbi who's visiting in town town and this rabbi is focused on one thing and one thing only Ahavas Yisrael, loving every Jew. He has a very interesting story. I interviewed him on one of my podcasts. They did not publish it yet because it is. It is in Hebrew and it's difficult to do the translation. I might just publish it anyway, so those who do understand understand.

24:27
But I asked him how did you get to where you are today? And he says you won't believe it, but I grew up in the ultra-extremist group called Naturikarta. You know the Naturikarta, the ones who stand with the iranians. They look like they're pious jews and they stand with the iranians, or they walk around with palestinian scarves and they have long payas and right. You're like what's wrong with those people? Right? He was one of them growing up and he learned a better way to live life and he went away from it and he said he dedicated his life. He's dedicating his life to one singular mitzvah Love every Jew, including those crazy people To love every Jew, including those crazy people, to love every Jew. I'm not here to reprimand rabbis. I'm not here to say who's right and wrong. I think that there's one message that needs to go from this, and that is is you cannot overlook loving your fellow Jew.

25:46
I want to share with you a story and we'll end with this story, in a yeshiva system. In a yeshiva system, the way it works in yeshiva. You go to Lakewood, the biggest yeshiva in the United States. You go to Mir Yeshiva, the largest yeshiva in the world, and the way it works is everybody studies with a single study partner. So I'm looking.

26:12
I come to the yeshiva, I'm looking for a study partner. The first thing is you're going to break it down to categories first, starting partners. The first thing is you're going to break it down to categories. What do you want to learn? Oh, I like to learn faster. I like to learn slower. I like to learn these track dates. I like to learn those track dates. Each one divides up into different categories. So then, once you're in the right category of what you're looking for, you'll find someone who has a thought process, perhaps that's like you or has an interest like you, and then you'll sit down and learn together. Okay, now, in the winter months it's a long semester, it's a six-month semester sometimes. Okay, so you have two days to figure out who you're going to learn with for the next six months. Okay, and that's it, and you're locked in, basically.

27:06
So someone once came to the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva, reb Chaim Shmulevitz, and he says to him I have a charusa. We were learning for a few days already. Not a good match. We were learning for a few days already. Not a good match, just not a good match. It's not a good match. I can't learn with him. He's not smart enough or he's too smart. He likes learning faster. I like learning slower.

27:30
Whatever it is, what should I do Now? What's the problem with the question? What's the problem? Why is he asking the question? He's asking because if he now finds a new study partner, that guy's going to be sitting alone for the next five and a half months. Where's your study partner? Oh, my study partner found someone else. He's going to be embarrassed, he's going to be hurt, he'll be insulted, humiliated. And now he's sitting alone. He doesn't have anyone to be embarrassed. He's going to be hurt. He'll be insulted, humiliated. And now he's sitting alone. He doesn't have who to learn with. So he asked Reb Chaim Shmulevitz what do I do?

28:07
Reb Chaim Shmulevitz said in a very, very sarcastic tone. He said oh, you have to learn Torah. Nothing comes, nothing's more important than you studying Torah. Nothing comes, nothing's more important than you studying Torah. Of course you have to get a new study partner. Get a new study partner. But just know one thing Bein adam lechavera, not having proper, delicate care for a fellow human being's feelings, livelihood, is playing with fire.

28:48
You're such a tzaddik you need to learn with a chavrusa. But bein adam l'chaviru is playing with fire Someone else's feelings, someone else's livelihood oh, I'm such a tzaddik. I'm such a tzaddik. Oh, I have to make sure that we're pristine and bury people along the way. I'm not getting into what is kosher, what isn't kosher. That's not my industry. I'm in the industry of trying to be a better Jew. I'm in the industry of trying to ensure that I don't hurt people, and I believe that's the industry that every Jew should be in.

29:43
The Jewish people were standing across the mountain. It was one thing that was important Unity Not stepping on that person's toe, not hurting that person's feelings, not holding a grudge and definitely not putting someone else down. Not holding a grudge and definitely not putting someone else down. There are many times that people feel that well, for the greater goods, we can do whatever we need to do because we're so righteous, we're so holy, we're for the right cause, we know better. Ben-odom L'chaver is playing with fire, and that's something that we have to be very, very, very considerate of. Even if you're doing the right thing, you sure better be careful how you're doing it.

30:38
Again, I'm not a maven in this. I'm not in the business of giving supervision to a kosher agent. As a kosher agency, we're here learning Torah. That's what we do, and I think that more caution needs to be taken in our community, both from the constituents everyone's talking and everyone is having their opinions and the rabbinic leadership. I think it's extremely vital that we be so careful about not humiliating another person. It doesn't make a difference what their religious status is. It doesn't make a difference what their religious status is. It doesn't make a difference if we like them or don't like them, if it's proven or not proven, it's irrelevant. We must ensure that every Jew feels that they're one with us. Yish Echad, belev Echad. We should all merit to succeed in really deeply, truly attaining this level, as the Jewish people had at Mount Sinai To be one man, one heart, amen.

32:20 - Announcement
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.