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's, parsha's Emor, almost Shabbos. We got to get going. We have a debt to pay here to our community of listeners, to our community of followers, to talk a little bit about this parasha. So we see, we talk about the lighting of the menorah towards the end of the parasha, chapter 24.

00:32
Chapter 24, verse 4, talks about El Menorah HaTahor Yaroches, haneros Lifnei, hashem Tamit On the menorah. That is pure. He shall arrange the lamps before Hashem continually. I say, just teach us that there's a focus here, an emphasis on the word tamid. Tamid means steady, continually.

00:54
What were the laws regarding this? The laws our sages tell us we learn from that? That it says tamid is that the menorah needed to be lit, not at all times, but it needed to be on a steady basis. Every evening it would be lit. It would be lit every single evening, including Shabbos, including holidays, including even when the Kohen was in a state of impurity. The light on the menorah needs to be lit. The light of the menorah needs to be lit. The light of the menorah needs to be lit. There's something about being steady that we learn from this.

01:31
A person must have a steady schedule. What does that mean? It means that you know our sages tell us that we need to study Torah every morning and evening. We talked about this in one of our previous episodes. We need to study Torah every single day. Does that mean that we need to study all day? Well, if someone is able to, that's great, but at the very minimum it needs to be a set schedule, a steady schedule, where it's uninterrupted. You know why. You know we have prayers. Prayer has to be on a set schedule, a steady schedule. We pray the morning prayer. We pray every morning a certain time frame within which we need to have our morning prayer. We have the afternoon prayer. There's a certain time period within which we need to have our morning prayer. We have the afternoon prayer. There's a certain time period within which we need to pray our afternoon prayer. Then we have the evening prayer and there's a certain time frame within which the evening prayer needs to be. There's a steadiness to it our daily lives. We have time we have to go to work. We have time that we have to eat.

02:44
Does it ever happen that a person says you today, I'm just not going to eat? What do you mean? I'm not going to eat. Of course I'm hungry, I want to eat. We don't just push it off. It's steady, steady. I have to eat morning, afternoon, evening.

02:57
If someone's on a diet, only two meals, sometimes one meal, okay fine, but it's steady. That we need to eat, that's a given. It's a given to us. We understand Also, because it tastes good and we enjoy it. But do you know what else Torah is?

03:17
Food as well? It's food for our soul, it's food for our neshama and therefore our sages teach us that that fuel that we need for our soul, we can't neglect feeding our soul. We have to feed that soul every single morning, every single evening. It's not about the quantity, it's about the quality, it's about the consistency. Quantity it's about the quality, it's about the consistency that every day there be a consistency of Torah study in our lives, where we do not allow anything to interrupt it. We see about the menorah, el ha-menorah, ha-tohori, yaruch, ha-sanerest, lefnei Hashem, that should be enough, tamid. It has to be with a continuity, a regularity, a consistency, a steadiness that every single day this happens. Today this happens.

04:21
I think, if we can find a way to find that, to be a steady Yeti when it comes to the study of Torah to be regular, with our study of Torah on a daily day. Daily meaning, day and night schedule every day oh, it's light outside Let me learn some Torah, and to get it on a schedule, you know what, at 9 o'clock to 9.05. At the afternoon, you know what? Right before I eat lunch. I don't forget to eat lunch. So maybe before I eat lunch I'll learn some Torah. That'll be my reminder. So I connect it with something you know.

05:02
Our Seder is actually a magnificent book. I would highly recommend it. It's called Atomic Habits, great book by James Clear. He talks about a lot of Jewish, a lot of Torah ideas of how to build good habits Really incredible. And he says the number one thing is to find a way to connect your new good habit with an existing habit, so you attach it to something that's already right. So, for example, eating we don't need a reminder to eat. Oh, I can't. I always forget to eat. No, no, no, we know what we have to eat, but if we can attach a good habit to it. For example, I remember when we were in Yeshiva, one of the things that the rabbis would try to encourage us is to learn a certain study of whatever it was at the time. So they'd say connect it with a prayer. You're going to synagogue, you're going to pray anyway. So just after prayer, sit for two minutes to learn, because it's steady that you go to pray. If you can add another steady habit to it, then you build a good habit on a good habit. But the most important thing is for us to realize the power of consistency. The power of consistency.

06:20
Someone told me that during COVID their uncle lost 95 pounds. It's a lot of weight. How did they do that? Every day they walked, every day, consistency. They didn't change their diet one bit, but they said you know, I'm going to sit at home all day. So they walked. I don't remember how much they walked. They didn't change their diet one bit, but they said you know, I'm going to sit at home all day. So they walked. I don't remember how much they walked. It wasn't that much that they walked, but every single day and slowly but surely, after a year, after two years, they lost an enormous amount of weight. Because that good habit builds other good habits, but it in itself really helps a person transform who they are.

07:08
We sometimes think that the way to change is oh, cold turkey. I'm going to change my habits overnight. It's not going to happen. I can tell you that. All of the great sages which is why we have to be careful with the books that we read about our tzaddikim, about our righteous holy sages, our pious leaders, to be very careful. Sometimes books like to dramatize how great the sages were, in a way of like they were just like a godly creature from birth. It's not fear. It's not fear to them, because no sage just woke up on morning. Oh, that's it. I'm deciding today to be no.

07:54
They went through many struggles. For example, the Chavetz Chaim. The Chavetz Chaim was a very talkative person. I can guarantee you that the Chavetz Chaim, the Chavetz Chaim, was a very talkative person. I can guarantee you that the Chavetz Chaim had many, many, many challenges in overcoming Lashon Hara. To make it as if the Chavetz Chaim didn't ever have that challenge is dehumanizing him. He's taking away the greatness of his accomplishment. No, I guarantee you that the Chavetz Chaim had many times dehumanizing him. He's taking away the greatness of his accomplishment. No, I guarantee you that the Chavetz Chaim had many times he needed to overcome and face that challenge of his desire, his urge to say something, which was Lashon Hara and that was his greatness, is that he overcame it, and I'm sure there were times that he wasn't able to and he worked hard to overcome that, but and to chart a new course and to start over again.

08:48
Sheva yipot tzaddik v'kam. It says that the righteous, the tzaddikim, they fall Seven times. What is seven? Seven is the number of nature, meaning the nature of a tzaddik is you're going to fall. You know what happens, v'kam he gets up again. You'll fall, you're right. He gets up again. You'll fall, you're right, you'll fall, but you'll get up again. That's the virtue. The virtue of the righteous is not that they fell, it's that they get up. They come, they get up again.

09:26
Consistent, persistent movement forward is our key. Hashem should bless us all to have an amazing Shabbos. We're able to take the time to figure out how we're going to make sure that every day, every night, we have a consistency of Torah study, so that that fire which is the consistency of Torah study, so that that fire which is the fire of Torah never extinguishes, where it's not only a continuity that every single day we have Torah study and every single night we have Torah study, but that makes it that then it's a constant fire burning at all times. Hopefully we should merit to have that in our bones every day. We should have that merit that the Torah study be constant in our lives. Amen. Have a great Shabbos, my dear friends.

10:20 - Intro (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.