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.

00:14 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back, everybody, welcome. Welcome to the Parsha in Focus.
This week's Parsha is the beginning of the book of Leviticus. What an exceptional Parsha, like every Parsha in the Torah. But it's a new book of the Torah. Leviticus talks about the spirituality of the Jewish people. If you remember, we talked about Genesis is the family of Israel, exodus is the nation of Israel. But Leviticus is very different. Leviticus is talking about the trials, the tribulations, the preserving of our holy state, keeping ourselves holy.

00:47
So how does the book of Vayikra begin? It begins Vayikra, which is a five-letter word, vav, yud, kuf, resh, alef. But the alef is a tiny little alef. It's a small alef. If you look in the Torah scroll, you'll see Vayikra with a small alef at the end. You look in the Chumesh here, you'll see it as well, with a small alef. It's not the regular size of all the letters and the obvious question that everybody asks is why, why, why is there a small letter alef? We know that there's nothing in the Torah that's there without a reason. It's there for us to learn something from it. So today we're going to focus on that letter alef, on why it is a small alef. But if you look at the whole verse as a whole, it doesn't either make sense.

01:43
Look at the verse and let's read it together Vayikra Shem el Mosheh and Hashem. Or it says actually and he called to Mosheh, vayidabar Hashem elov, and Hashem spoke to him may ol moed lemur from the tent of meeting sing. Now, I don't know about you, but the way I would say this is that An Hashem called Mosheh from the tent of meeting sing, but instead that's not what it says. And he called to Mosheh and Hashem spoke to him from the tent of meeting sing. We know there's not an extra word. So what is really going on over here? And then we have that small little alef. So we know that Mosheh wrote the Torah. Mosheh wrote it by the dictation from Hashem.

02:34
Hashem told Mosheh what to write and that's what Mosheh wrote. So Mosheh hears what Hashem is telling him and he says Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa by Yikra Hashem el Mosheh. And Hashem called to Mosheh. He says that would seem like it's arrogant, but who am I, mosheh, a little Mosheh to be called summoned by Hashem? I'm a nobody, nobody else is summoned by Hashem called by Hashem. So Mosheh says you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to change that word, not change the actual word, but I'm going to make a small alef, so it'll look by Yikar.

03:16
By Yikar means it happened to be. They bumped into each other. It just was a coincidence. It was a coincidence by Yikar. It's like Mikre, it just happened to be happenstance. I happened to be at the right place at the right time. Mosheh was so humble, he didn't want it to look as if being the one dictating what Hashem is writing that he's like oh, with pride. Yeah, hashem called on me, of course, because I'm such a great hero, I'm a great leader of the Jewish people, the greatest prophet to ever live. No, mosheh says no, mosheh was so humble by Yikar. It happened to be. It happened. We happened to bump into each other at the tent of meeting.

03:59
And then, if you read it, this is by Yikar el Mosheh. It happened to be that they bumped into Mosheh and then, it makes sense Vayedab Hashem. I love him. Hashem spoke to him. It makes more sense. It makes much more sense.

04:15
What are we supposed to learn from this? Arsai? Just tell us something fundamental. We haven't spoken about this enough. There's something called Hashkahah Pratit, which means divine providence. There is divine providence where God is engaged with every single detail of our life, every single detail, nothing too big, nothing too small for Hashem. There's nothing. Oh, hashem doesn't really care about that, and we're going to talk about this more in our prayer podcast later today.

04:55
This is exactly. We see the hand of Hashem in every little detail. There's no happenstance. There is no such thing as it just happened to be. It was a coincidence. There ain't no coincidence. There's no such thing as coincidence in Judaism. In Judaism, it's there. God placed it there. God placed you there in a specific situation, exactly for a reason that you may not understand, that you may not know that, you may not even realize now, that you may not ever appreciate. You may not appreciate it forever, not realizing why Hashem put you in a specific situation. So what's the obligation for us? To open our eyes and see the hand of Hashem? You didn't just by mistake meet somebody in the supermarket. You didn't by mistake just have a dream about a friend and someone you didn't think about since 1973. There's a reason for it. There's no such thing as happenstance and if you want to look, we're in middle of discussing.

06:18
In our Jewish Inspiration Podcast, we're doing the complete Bible Crash Course and we just introduced Book of Esther Part 1. Last week tonight, god willing, we'll continue the Book of Esther, part 2, and we see how every single detail was handcrafted by the Almighty Exactly so that, as we'll see in chapters 6 through 10, how it all comes together perfectly to weave a fabric of redemption for the Jewish people. You see, each little thread on its own doesn't really do much. Each little thread on its own doesn't do much, but if you take a bunch of threads and weave it together, then first says you can't just tear it like a single thread, but also it becomes something beautiful together. They all become one unit. When you put together the thread of how Hashem needles through our life, every detail, suddenly we see a whole tapestry which is gorgeous, which is a perfect picture, which is designed, handcrafted for us, handcrafted for us.

07:45
I want to give you two examples. Number one is the Book of Esther. There's one detail which I think is probably the most insignificant detail if you look at the Megillah, but turns out to be the most miraculous one, and that is that Mordechai discovers the two people, the two guards of Achashverosh, the king, who want to assassinate him, and he overhears them speaking in a foreign language. Now, how did he know that language? He knew that language because he was a member of the Sanhedrin, and as a member of the Sanhedrin, you had to speak all 70 languages. They spoke the language of Tarshish, which was a very odd, obscure language, which he understood because he was a member of the Sanhedrin. And he reports it to the king's people and they foil the attack, they hang these two collaborators, these two traders, and it's written in the book of Chronicles for Achashverosh and that's it. The story ends.

08:59
And the story continues with Haman and da-da-da, with his whole plot to kill the Jews. Okay, great, but that little. It's probably only one verse which says that little detail. And he reported Bixan and Suresh, who were trying to plot against the king. Little, microscopic detail. But why is it there in the Megillah? Because that same story is what saves the Jewish people. Yes, it was also Esther.

09:30
Yes, but that one piece is later, when Achashverosh has a hard time sleeping and they read his book of Chronicles and they say the story about Mordechai, which, by the way, the guards who were reading the Chronicles to Achashverosh, the Midrash tells us, saw the story and they're like, oh, let's go to the next story. And it says that the angel came and turned the book back to that story and they tried pushing it away again. And it goes back and one time after another time, after another time, after another time. He keeps turning away and what happens? The angels turn it back and King Achashverosh is getting frustrated. He's saying what's going on over here? Just read the story. Open up the book and read the story. They're like, yeah, but the pages keep turning. He says just read what's in front of you. And they read the story of Mordechai that saves the king's life. And Mordechai.

10:28
And the king asks what's the reward that Mordechai got? It should be written in the book of Chronicles. They said actually nothing. They said what do you mean? Nothing. We always give a reward for someone who helps the king. He says yeah, he asked for nothing. He asked for nothing, that was his request, so we gave him nothing. He says, yeah, but that's not proper.

10:50
So what happens? A minute later, haman comes in. Haman comes to give this new plan of how we're going to get rid of Mordechai and the Jewish people and we're going to hang him on this tall gallows that we prepared. He doesn't even get a chance to open his mouth. And what happens?

11:08
Achverche says oh, my top advisor, let me ask you a question. What should I do for someone who's really precious to me? And he's saying Mordechai says in his mind, and this is what's written in the Megillah. Haman says in his mind and again yes, this is written in our Megillah, every word of this. He says who can the king want to honor more than me? Nobody. So he starts thinking of all of the grandeur and all of the greatness and all of the magnificent honor that's going to be bestowed upon him. And he goes on. Imagine if the president says listen, for the goodness that you've done, for everything that you've done, I want to award you with anything that you dream. Like you'd start, okay, like, where do we start? I want my vacation home, right? I want the new cyber truck. And you start thinking and imagining all of the great things that you want. Because it's an open account.

12:10
Haman does that, but it's not going to him. He doesn't realize that it's going to his nemesis, to Mordechai. It's all going to go to Mordechai. Everything that he wanted for himself. No, no, no, no. But I'll topple it over. And don't omit one thing, achashverosh says. The king says give all of that to Mordechai. He says Mordechai, what are you talking about? Mordechai doesn't like this stuff. He's a godly, a godly person. He doesn't want the physical, materialistic stuff. He says do everything as you said, without omitting a single thing, and that's the beginning of the downfall of Haman.

12:50
It's a little fact, it's a little piece of information, but so incredibly vital to the story of the redemption of the Jewish people. Because otherwise his suggestion that evening would have been let's hang Mordechai and the Jews and then it's all over, the party's over. But there's going to be a distraction here, the distraction that was handcrafted by the Almighty, placed in perfect place, in perfect position, perfect timing. But you know who that story happens to every single day, each and every one of us. We have that little story every single day. You remember why you left your car keys there? I had no idea, but then I realized that I left something on the oven when I went back to get my keys. And it's like Hashem puts things in a perfect place for us in our lives. There's divine providence every single day and it's up to us whether we're going to open our eyes and recognize it, whether we're going to see it, whether we're going to identify it.

14:05
I'll give you one more example the greatest story ever told in Jewish history, and that's the splitting of the sea. Splitting of the sea. What happened in the splitting of the sea? So we know that there were three different types of Egyptians. There were the really, really wicked ones, there were those who were in between and those who were a little bit more righteous. But everyone was evil, but they were at different levels. Now, they all got punished, the same punishment, but the way in which that punishment was needed out to them was a little bit different, depending on their righteousness or lack thereof. And if you look the verses that we recite every day in our prayer, in our verses of song, at the end of it we say the verses from Exodus that talk about the Jewish people and the splitting of the sea and the song that they sang to the Almighty.

15:04
There were three different types of punishments. They all drowned, but there was a different type of drowning. All right, it says there were some who were Salaluco-Ferris. Salaluco-ferris means that they sank like lead in water. What happens when you put lead in water? It drops right down to the bottom. Those are the righteous ones.

15:35
There were those who were punished by Yochlemo K'akash, which is they were like wheat, like straw. They were consumed like straw. What happens if you put straw in water? Washes from side to side because it's so light. It gets blown back and forth and back and forth. And then there were others that were co-oven. They were like a stone. So you have three different types of punishments for three different categories of Egyptians. They're all getting the same punishment at the end. They're all dead in the water, literally, but a different type of dead in the water. One is going to get shook up like straw in water, can't find its place. It gets blown back and forth by the waves. It goes here, goes there, goes everywhere. Imagine that's people Some that drop like lead, boom done, and others that are like a rock. You know why? Because even in punishment there's divine providence.

16:48
Hashem has a score with each and every individual. Why don't I get like that person? Why don't I get like this person? We're all asking oh, look at them, they married up. Look at them, they married down. Look at them. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

17:06
Everybody has an account. Everybody has an account. We have to recognize this, each and every one of us. We have an account with the Almighty, and Hashem gives us exactly what we deserve, to the good and to the not so good, each and every one of us. And that's when we realize this. What does it lead us to? Or say, just tell us. It leads us to truva. It leads us to repentance and we realize that everything that we do, that everything that we do, is a response from the Almighty to how we conduct our lives.

17:46
So what happens? Ah, I realized one second. I did something wrong. I got something wrong. Now I got to correct my ways. I got to correct my ways and go in the right path.

18:01
You know, my great grandfather would say that today we don't have prophecy. So what do we have? We have pain. Pain is the most potent prophet ever. It tells you a message. My great grandfather, in his book, writes that when someone hits their head, they stub their toe. The thought should be what did I do wrong with my head? What did I do wrong with my toe? What did I hurt my finger? Well, what did I not do right with my finger? I hurt my leg. What did I not do right with my leg. It's a message Hashem is sending us a message. If we live in a world of oblivion, if we live in a world where well things just happen, bad luck. No such thing. There's no such thing In Judaism.

18:56
We believe that there's Hashgah, there's divine providence for every single thing that occurs in our lives and therefore it's important for us to look into what happens every single day and see the hand of Hashem, because when you see the hand of Hashem, we will aspire constantly to have a greater relationship with Hashem. Moshe recognized this. He wrote Vayikro Hashem al Moshe. Hashem called to Moshe. He wanted it to be that it was just like it happened to be, because he didn't want to be arrogant, but it still says the right thing that called him. You can make believe all day that it's a happenstance, but it's not. Hashem puts you there in that place at that moment, at that time, because you're the one God wants there for you.

19:59
My dear friends, I think this is such a vital lesson for every single day of our lives to talk about this with ourselves, with our spouses, with our children, with our grandchildren, to remind ourselves every single day that Hashem is active in everything that goes on. Hashem doesn't sleep, hashem doesn't slumber, Hashem doesn't take a vacation. Hashem is active, just like the sun rises every day. The sun does. And you imagine what would happen, the chaos that would happen in the world, if the sun one morning decided you know what time is sunrise today, 6.53. I'm going to be a few minutes late because I'm on a coffee break, then I have lunch break and I'm just going to be 7.25. I'm going to decide the rise. That doesn't work. Hashem's world is order. Hashem's world is just, is structured. Hashem's world is kind. My dear friends have an amazing Shabbos and always know that Hashem is with us every single minute of the day. Good Shabbos.

21:15
Just to clarify, what's the difference between? That's a great question. What's the difference between a stone and lead? So if you look at the verse, the verse says kimmo, even bimayim azim, like a stone into turbulent water. The stone doesn't go down like lead, lead boom, direct, direct hit. It drops right down to the bottom of the water. Stone can be pushed away, especially when it's turbulent water. And then, of course, we have the third category, which is the straw, which gets blown around, and each one of these represent again the different levels of wickedness that the Egyptians were getting repaid for by the Almighty.

22:00
By the way, if you go down to the bottom of the Sea of Reeds, you know what you'll see there. You'll see the chariots. It's still there because the verse says the verse says it will be there till this very day and divers have gone down. And there's a museum. The Jewish Heritage Museum in New York has an actual chariot that paid over a million dollars for the wheel. That was brought from the Dead Sea, not from the Dead Sea, from the Sea of Reeds, where the sea was split. They had divers go down there and they took out one of those chariots. It's an incredible, incredible thing to have an actual proof of the truth, the authenticity of the Torah. It's amazing, great question.