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)
Welcome back everybody. We are at our weekly Parsha review. It's so wonderful to be here.

00:17
This week's Parsha is Parsha's Shamos. It is the first Parsha in the book of Exodus and the 13th Parsha since the beginning of the Torah. There are 124 verses, 1763 words and 6,762 letters. There are no mitzvahs, no commandments in this week's Parsha, and the Parsha begins with the evil decrees that begin to befall the Jewish people. The book of Beraeus, genesis, ends with the death of Yosef.

00:55
The book of Shamos, exodus, begins with listing the descendants of Yaakov, the nation of Israel. A new Pharaoh rises who doesn't know Yosef. Pharaoh fears the powerful, growing Jewish population and enslaves them ruthlessly with backbreaking labor. When the Jewish birth rate continues to increase, he instructs the Jewish midwives, shifrin Pua, to kill the male babies. When they don't listen, the decree worsens that the male babies must be thrown into the Nile River, and then Moshe is born. Yechavid gives birth to Moshe and hides him in the reeds by the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter finds and names Moshe, takes him home and raises him as her son. Miriam, moshe's sister, secures a nursemaid for Moshe and arranges for his mother, yechavid, to nurse him.

01:53
Moshe, a born leader, sees the hardships of his people. Moshe leaves the palace and witnesses the hardships. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and he kills the Egyptian. When Moshe realizes that his life is in danger, he flees to Midyan where he rescues Zipporah, whose father, yisro, approves of their marriage, and Moshe shepherds his father-in-law's flock, the burning bush, where Moshe gets his mission. While Moshe is shepherding the flock at Khorev, which is Mount Sinai. So you just tell us, one sheep runs away, leading Moshe to witness a burning bush that is not becoming consumed by the flames. Hashem's voice instructs him I've heard the cries of my people go, lead them from Egypt to the Promised Land of Milk and Honey.

02:46
Moshe is concerned that the people won't believe him and that he had this revelation privately. And he's given three signs for Moshe. Number one his staff will turn into a snake. And when it gets cast to the ground it will turn to a snake and it will reverse back into a stick when he grabs its tail. Leprosy, like scales, come onto Moshe's hand. Moshe just tells us, because he slandered the Jewish people, because he said oh, they're not going to listen to me. And then and we know that. Later on we see in Parshash Mitzorah that Leprosy is the punishment for one who speaks Lashon Haram. And then the water from the Nile, when spilled on the land, will turn into blood. And those three signs will be a sign for the Jewish people that, yeah, this Moshe is real and indeed when he gives a prophecy that something will happen, indeed it happens. And then they'll say, wow, this Moshe is for real. And then the end of the exile is near. The end is near. Moshe insists that he's not a man of words and persuasion. Hashem appoints Aaron as his spokesman. Moshe returns and the people believe him and they are very happy. They're very encouraged On Moshe's request to Pharaoh let my people go. Pharaoh declares even harsher decrees on the people to produce the same quota of bricks as before, but without giving them adequate supplies. The people become dispirited and the Egyptian taskmasters beatings, and Moshe turns to Hashem confused and is reassured that he will force Pharaoh to let the people go. So let's look now into some of the important lessons from this week's portion.

04:38
Number one is that the tribes are constantly counted Throughout the Torah. We see it right here in the beginning of the book of Genesis, the book of Exodus, but you'll see multiple times throughout the book of Exodus, throughout the book of Leviticus, throughout the book of Numbers, in Numbers. That's why the book is called the Book of Numbers, because that many times the Jewish people are constantly being counted. Why is it so important for the Jewish people to be counted? Again and again and again? They just tell us when you have something precious, you keep counting it. When you're traveling with your children, you're always counting, making sure that your children are there right, because they're precious to you. When someone has money, a lot of money, they're constantly counting their money or checking their bank account to ensure that their precious commodity is still there. Hashem's most precious and most valued asset on this world is his people and therefore, hashem is always counting his people. There's another thing is that every single individual is valuable. We don't say, oh well, there's about an average amount. No, no, no. Every single, to the last digit, to the last individual, they're counted. They're not a number, they're an incredible world onto their own, and that's why they're counted. They're numbered because they're valued, and we have to know that each of us, we are all valued in the eyes of Hashem. Okay, then we talk about these two midwives, shifra and Pua, incredibly courageous women, righteous women. Our sages tell us that Shifra is Yochavet, Moshe's mother, and Pua is Miriam, moshe's sister.

06:35
Shifra, who beautified the babies, was rewarded a dynasty. The Torah says that they were given houses Vajaslehem, batim. They were rewarded with houses. What are those houses? The house of priesthood, the house of the Levites, that, what did they do? She beautified the babies. So the Kohen and the Levi, what is their job? They made the life of the Jewish people beautiful. Someone sinned. They were able to bring an offering. Who did they bring the offering? Through? A Kohen who brought that offering for them. They beautified people's lives. What did the Levites do? The Levites sang beautiful songs. They made it peaceful. They made it an incredible experience for people. They beautified the lives of the Jewish people as an eye for an eye, so to speak, reward for their incredible work.

07:28
Shifra was rewarded. Yochavet was rewarded by beauty. She was given the house of priesthood. The house of the Levites was given to Shifra, to Yochavet. Pua, who was Miriam, who strengthened the babies, she was rewarded a dynasty of kingship. King David came from Miriam, king Salman came from Miriam, and the kings strengthened their people. So, just like she strengthened the baby and gave them the ability to cope with the world. So to her descendants, king David and King Salman gave the Jewish people strength and hope and gave them the ability to cope with the world in the same way that their ancestor, pua Miriam, did that as well for the babies.

08:18
So we see there's always an eye for an eye and a negative, but also a positive. A Meda can negate Meda and act for an act. Hashem rewards us for our actions. Don't ever think well, nobody saw, nobody acknowledged, so I guess I'm not going to get rewarded. No, no, no. The almighty King, creator of heaven and earth, he sees every single action that we do and every single intention. Even if you intend to do a mitzvah and don't do the mitzvah, it's as if you did it. And I'll give you an example. I had a.

08:52
I got a call on Tuesday morning that there was someone who used to live here in Houston and was a student of torch who had passed away in Louisiana and his non-Jewish wife wanted to cremate him and under the urging of a rabbi a special rabbi in Louisiana the wife agreed to give him a Jewish burial. Now, part of a Jewish burial would be to have a proper ritual cleansing of the body, to which I got a phone call, frantic, tuesday morning, call me urgent, urgent, urgent because I need you to arrange this for this deceased Jewish individual. So I got a team together and coordinated. We're gonna go out to Louisiana, we're gonna drive two and a half hours and do the ritual process of cleansing the deceased with dignity, with love, and prepare them for their ultimate day of judgment in front of the Almighty, so that they can be buried. They know it was like Charles was like we had to use a non-Jewish funeral home who was very kind and gracious to assist us. And here we are, we're ready to go and we're about to set out on our way and I get a phone call like it was a mistake, it was a misunderstanding between the rabbi in Louisiana and the funeral home and they're not available for us to come on Tuesday, they're only available for us to come on Wednesday. So now I have to go back to my team and I'm like guys, anybody available Wednesday? And one guy's like no, I'm not available, I'm not available, I'm not available, right.

10:35
So we put together a new team and then and other a group, a different group, went. Sorry, this was Monday and Tuesday. So I wasn't able to go on Tuesday because I had my class here on Tuesday and it was such an incredible privilege to teach Torah. But if I was able to get another group, I would send that group. So what happens to the group who is ready to go? The first day? They didn't end up doing the mitzvah. They wanted to, but they didn't go ready to give up six, seven hours of their day to go assist a deceased person and prepare him properly with the most dignified preparation, and they didn't merit to that mitzvah.

11:16
So the answer is the Torah teaches us that if you have the intention to do the mitzvah, it says if you did it, it's 100% as if you did it. If you have the intention to go help someone and then someone else runs in front of you and helps them out, guess what it says if you did it, why? Because your desire, your intention, was to do it and therefore you get fully rewarded. So it's not only the actions that you do, even if nobody realizes that you did it that you get rewarded for it, but also the actions that you don't do, that you wanted to do, that someone was able to do. An example you remember when there was the, the devastating storm that hit Haiti. So everyone was like what can we do? What can we do? You know what you can do. You can be here in Houston, texas, and you can cry for them, you can think about them. You can think about the challenge that people turn around and they, their home, is no longer there. So, even from afar, you can't do anything, but you can feel their pain. That, too is rewarded, that you're able to go out of your own selfish self and be there with someone else, even though you're not there, to hold them and to build their homes again anew. Still, you get rewarded for that. So we see that shifra and pua, who went and assisted the Jewish babies and beautified them and strengthened them, were rewarded duly for their incredible commitment and dedication.

12:48
Moshe is born and the most incredible leadership quality that any class will ever teach you, any. You go one one of those weekend retreats on leadership where you go to one of those Tony Robbins. You've got this, you can do this right. Leadership. The Torah says in one simple word, two simple words Moses went out by Yair Bessie of Lossom. He saw their pain. I say just tell us. That is the virtue of leadership. You want to know the quality of a leader, one who sees the pain, who connects with the pain of his people. People are suffering, people are in pain, people are afflicted, people are homeless, people are jobless. That's what a leader needs to be to. I can't sleep at night because my constituents are not doing well. That's leadership quality. Moshe says I can't handle this, my people are suffering. That is the quality of leadership. You want to know a leader. Find someone who can see the pain of another person, who can see the plight. There's a story I must share with you.

14:04
A rabbi once came to the leading Torah authority in Israel and he says I want to know about a student in my school. He's misbehaving. We've given him every chance, every opportunity and he's still not doing his job properly. He's not fulfilling his tasks as a student in the school. I want to know if I can throw him out. And he asked the rabbi for approval to throw the student out of school. So the rabbi says what's his mother's name? So the principal's like I have no idea what his mother's name. How should I know what his mother's name is? He says you mean to tell me you don't pray for him. You mean to tell me that you have a student who's struggling in your school and you don't pray for him and your first reaction is to throw him out? A true leader needs to know how to feel the pain. Cry for them, pray for them. If you don't pray for them, you're not doing your job. That's a job of a teacher. That's a job of a leader Is to not just I have a job and I'm going to tell everybody what to do. I'm going to boss people around. No, feel their pain and they're dealing with struggles. That's your struggle. That's a leader. That's what Moshe Rabbeinu was. Moshe Rabbeinu was a born leader. He feels the plight of the people.

15:41
Another thing that we see is that every single human being is born with certain gifts, certain qualities, and it is your job and your responsibility to identify those qualities, to identify those gifts and use them. They're yours as a gift, on loan, on a lease that could one day very quickly expire, given to you. Utilize it. You're not or you're allowed to. You're obligated. God requires us to maximize our virtues and our gifts, our qualities that are gifted to us, and a person should never say, well, I'd be showing off. No, it's an obligation. You can't hide from it, you cannot run away from it. That's your destiny, that's what God wants from you. God puts you in this world to maximize that virtue. Neglecting it would be a dereliction of duty. Neglecting that virtue would be wasting the gift that God gives us and will be held accountable for it. So if someone is gifted with great wealth, your obligation is to give and to share and to distribute the gifts that God gave you. If someone is given the gift of a voice, a beautiful voice, guess what? They're obligated to share that voice.

17:16
In fact, the Midrash tells us that there was a family that was gifted with the unbelievable gift of song and they were asked by people Newt, tell us, tell us, sing to us. How do you sing so beautifully? Come to our Simchan, sing for us. Like no, no, we want to just keep it to ourselves and keep it for our family, for our own self. They were punished, a devastating punishment. You were given a gift and you're not using it, you're not sharing it. On the other hand, the Midrash tells us that there was a family that used to bake the showbread for the temple, and it was an art to bake that showbread, and people asked them how to do it and they shared the recipe. Here you go. No problem, no problem People are sometimes hesitant to sharing their recipes. No problem, why. We were given a gift, sheer the gift and they were rewarded greatly for it.

18:16
And the Midrash contrasts the two One had certain qualities and sheared it. Another had certain qualities and didn't Kept it to themselves. Our obligation you have a quality, you have a virtue, share it with the world. That's why you were given it. So we see that Moshe goes to Mount Chorev, where his flock go out to pasture. Mount Chorev, say, just tell us, is Mount Sinai. And God says to him take off your shoes, shal nalchama'al raglecha. Take the shoes off your feet. Why? Because you're in a holy place. There are certain places that are destined to be holy, the holy land of Israel, which I had the great privilege.

19:04
And I got emotional when I got to Israel because it suddenly occurred to me again this is the land that our ancestors cried day and night. They want to go to their homeland. Our grandparents, our great grandparents, what was the only thing they desired? Take me to my homeland, take me to the land of Israel. And here we just get on a flight and go and it's like no big deal. It's like, oh, we're worried about our baggage and we're worried about Hello, you have the great privilege of being in the holy land of Israel, the land of flowing milk and honey. It's such an incredible privilege. We should be overwhelmed with emotion when we get to the land of Israel. It's like we're here, this is the Promised Land, and then to go and to see the beautiful people and to see the beautiful, beautiful country, the terrain, I mean it is magnificent, breathtaking the sunsets, the hills, the valleys, the stories. Such an incredible gift. The blessing was there already.

20:16
Moshe didn't necessarily realize that God tells him guess what? Mount Sinai, which is not in the land of Israel. It was already given that holiness, because it's going to be the place where the Torah is going to be given. Such a place was already given its status of holiness.

20:35
Now, moshe, like we mentioned previously, could not run away from his destiny. He was a chosen leader and he was given the task. And when you're given the task, step up to the plate and take control. That's what God wants you to do and what's going to happen. The people will listen, the people will follow. They're unbelievable. You can see this with school children, school children in day school. There are children who are leaders and there are children who are followers. But those leadership qualities you can't teach them, you can't learn them in a classroom. Some people have it and some people don't. It's a gift that's required to be managed and to be utilized. But Moshe doubts the people. It's like I don't know they're going to listen to me Now. This is a very important thing.

21:33
We talk about Judaism and we're very confident that Judaism is the truth. Everyone here is confident. We all know that Torah is MS, the Torah is 100% truth and that the Torah was given to us in Mount Sinai and it obligates us to fulfill the commandments that are in the Torah. That's why there are many people who today want to be in the category of atheists. They want to be in the category of atheists why? Because then I'm not obligated to anything. I can do whatever I want. I can live my life how I want. We're not running away from obligation. We're not running away from our commitment to the Almighty. So Moshe is concerned, like every other religion should be concerned. I'm having a private revelation with the Almighty. I see this burning bush. It's not being consumed.

22:23
A voice comes from there. It says Moshe, moshe, and he says Hineni, here I am. And then there's this conversation where Hashem tells him. This voice of Hashem tells him go back to Egypt, get the people out, bring them to the Promised Land. He's like me, who's going to believe me? But go, look at all the nations of the world.

22:45
All of Christianity is based on a revelation that a single individual claims to have had Islam. The same thing, muhammad had a dream. Go, prove him wrong. If you even think to say that you're an infidel and put to death it's like throwing up a building. This is craziness. Hashem realizes that, the Jewish people, in order for us to be firm in our faith, it's not enough for it to be an individual revelation, and that's why, in a few portions from now, parshah's Yisro, we're going to have a public revelation where Hashem speaks to each and every one of us, where our souls were all there at Mount Sinai, and we heard and we saw the awesomeness of Hashem, the lightning, the thundering, the words. We were able to hear the reverberations. The revelation was there at Mount Sinai. That's a public revelation. That cannot be refuted, that cannot be disputed by anyone, because a public revelation we have all yeah, exactly what's written in the book of Exodus is exactly what happened, because if it wasn't, you'd have all these books saying no, no, it's not exactly, no, it's not exactly. And who believes it also? The Christians believe it, and the Muslims believe it, and the Buddhists believe it, and everybody believes it. The only argument that they make to justify is that they say well, the Jewish people were sinned, so now they lost their privilege, says who? That's why it's important to have a public revelation of the Jewish people receiving the Torah.

24:39
Pharaoh decrees, harsher decrees on the Jewish people and we think you know there's a famous phrase in Yiddish a menshtracht und Gottlacht a man thinks and God laughs which you cannot outsmart, hashem, you cannot. You can try here. Pharaoh is trying. Oh, I'm going to be even smarter, I'm going to make harsher rules after Moshe asks to release the Jewish people. Doesn't help. You can try all you want to outsmart God. It's not going to work. And many times people try in various different ways in their own individual lives to outsmart God. It doesn't work. Don't try to do it. Don't try to be like Pharaoh. We'll see.

25:32
Next week the action begins, where there's already seven plagues that begin next week and they're difficult plagues that befall the Egyptians because of Pharaoh's stubbornness. And then the last important lesson for this week's parshah that we'll talk about is that the Jews become dispirited. And we need to learn from this that Bittachon trust in Hashem, even when it doesn't seem possible. You can never give up, the Talmud tells us. Even if a very sharp blade is on your neck, don't forsake the mercy of Hashem. Don't think that the mercy of Hashem is not able to save you. It looks. We're in despair. What's going to be? We have no idea. It doesn't make any sense. How can we ever get out of this?

26:42
If you think for a second about the terrible, terrible calamity that befell the Jewish people 80 years ago in the Holocaust, and people thought that's it, that's the end of the Jewish people. But look at us today, only 80 years later and you can look even earlier 70 years, 60 years, 50 years after the Holocaust and the Jewish people are thriving and the Jewish people are succeeding and the Jewish people are prospering in every corner of the globe. Look at us. That's when we thought it was the worst it could ever be. It only got better. It got better than we could ever have dreamed for. So this is sort of an encouragement that we should always understand, we should always know and always remember Hashem is there with us, hashem loves us, hashem will reward us and Hashem believes in us. So have a terrific Shabbos everybody. Thank you so much and I look forward to next week's weekly Parshah review.