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)
Welcome back, my dear friends, to the weekly Parsha Review. We are in Parsha's Ha'azinu. Ha'azinu is the second-to-last portion of the Torah, not only the second-to-last portion of Deuteronomy. It is really amazing to learn through these portions. I say this every week. I urge you, I beg you, take out the Chumash, read it. It's yours, it's your gift from Hashem, it's our gift from Hashem, and the more we learn it, the more we will appreciate and feel happy and proud and excited, jubilant, that we got the greatest gift in the world.

00:57
Read chapter 32, verse number 1. Listen, o heavens, and I will speak, and may the earth hear the utterances of my mouth. So there is the age-old question Hashem is about to tell us what's going to be if we follow His ordinances and what's going to be if we, god forbid, do not. What does Rashi say? What does Rashi, the great commentator, rashi, what does Rashi say? I'm warning the Jewish people, I'm letting them know, I'm making it clear, transparent, and you, the earth and the heavens, you're going to be the witnesses that this is what I said. Why does God need the heavens and the earth to be witnesses? Because Moshe says I'm just a flesh of blood. Tomorrow I'm going to die, literally tomorrow. Moshe, this was his last day of his life. If the Jewish people ever say, oh, we never made such a treaty with God, we never had such an agreement made, who's going to counter that? Ever say, oh, we never made such a treaty with God, we never had such an agreement made, who's going to counter that? The only one who can counter that is not Moshe, not someone of flesh and blood who's here today and gone tomorrow. But the heavens and the earth. Lefik ached b'hem sh'mayim v'artz. Therefore, the heaven and the earth are the witnesses. Eidim sheheim kayamim lo'olam. The are the witnesses. Eidim sheheim kayamim lo'olam, the witnesses that are here forever. Fe'od she'im yizku yavo ha'edim vi'itnus choram. And even more. Because if the Jewish people merit to follow this agreement, you know who's going to pay the rewards. These same witnesses the heaven and the earth will bestow. The heaven and the earth will bestow the goodness on the people. Hagef and Titen period. The grapes will grow from the vineyards Ve'aretz, titen Yevulo, and the earth will give its produce. Ve'ashamayim yitnu talom, and the dew will come from the heavens, ve'im yischaivu. But if, god forbid, the treaty is not kept, then those same witnesses are going to come and hurt those who made the treaty with Hashem, and God will stop the rains, and it's not going to be, and the earth will not bring its produce, and then you will fall to the nations, as we say in the second chapter of the Shema.

04:04
You see, there was once a man who came to a rabbi, a great rabbi. He says, rabbi, I need blessing, I need blessing, I need blessing, just give me a blessing. Everyone runs to rabbis for blessings. I can tell you, on one of my last trips to Israel, I went with a friend of mine. We went maybe to like 25 rabbis to get blessings. That's what we went for. We went to the tombs, to the grave sites of holy, righteous people. For what? For blessings.

04:36
You know what the rabbi said the greatest blessing in the world is studying Torah, more than anybody's blessing. And you know what's amazing? You don't need to be a rabbi to study Torah. You don't need to be a scholar to study Torah. This Torah is yours. The Torah belongs to each and every one of us. It's our inheritance, which is in this week's parasha. The Torah tells us that it's our inheritance, which is in this week's parasha. The Torah tells us that it is our inheritance. It's a gift that keeps on giving any goodness that we want in our life, in our world. The only thing we need to do is learn Torah, because what is Torah? Torah is a communication with God. God communicates to us through the words of his Torah.

05:37
I was once in a synagogue here in Houston, congregation Torah Vachesed Rabbi Jacobian stands up in the middle of the reading of the Torah Shabbos morning. We know it gets long. Sometimes Some portions could be like 167 verses. It's a lot. It can take a long time to read through all the eight people that are called up to the Torah. It takes some time. People get a little restless. Hey, how was your week? How you doing? Going on vacation? How's business? How's your family? People schmooze. The rabbi stood up and he said I want to ask you a question. What are we doing now? What are we doing now?

06:20
We're quote reading from the Torah says no, hashem is communicating with us. The words in the Torah are a message for us. Today. Hashem is talking to us through his Torah. A timeless, a timeless gift from Hashem. It has no expiration date. It's the blueprint for creation. You want to know how this world is going to play out. Look at Hashem's Torah. It's pretty clear. Hashem tells us exactly what's going to happen. Follow my ordinances, I'll give you all the good in the world. You don't. We know what happens. It's all in the Torah. But you know how the Torah goes from being a an ancient document, from being just a piece of parchment in the sanctuary of our temples. You know how it becomes a living document when we learn it. When we learn Torah, we absorb the words of Hashem, we communicate with Hashem. There's no greater blessing in the world than studying Hashem's Torah.

07:54
If you look in the Talmud, the Talmud says that the house, the walls of someone's house, give testimony on the person A person's going to come to heaven standing in front of the heavenly tribunal. They say so, what did you do with your life? He says well, I did a lot of things with my life. I did this, I did that, I did this, I did that. You know what God says. Okay, thank you very much. House, four walls. Do you agree with this testimony? Is this indeed the way he acted in his house? Did he act with modesty? Did he act with kindness? Did he act with generosity? Did he act with modesty? Did he act with kindness? Did he act with generosity. Did he act with patience? Did he act with love? He claims that he was God's gift to the world, which he was, but did he actualize it?

08:54
There's a story that's told that one of the great women from the Talmud maybe not from the Talmud, yeah, the great women from the Talmud. Maybe not from the Talmud, yeah, maybe it was from. I think it is from the Talmud that the walls of her house never saw her here. She was so careful about her modesty that the wall what does the walls of the house have to do with it Meaning that even the walls of her home can testify to her modesty. That doesn't mean that they never saw you. She never showered, she never bathed, she did. But even the walls of your home can give testimony to the level of modesty that you walked around with, to the level of truthfulness.

09:43
In one's home, a person is comfortable. They can say things that outside perhaps they wouldn't. In their home, they can act in a certain way that outside they wouldn't. I don't want my neighbors to know that this is the way I talk to my children. Ooh, the door's open, let's be quiet. Let's not yell at the kids. Now the neighbors are here. Let's everyone just be on your best behavior. The walls of your home here, everything.

10:06
But you know who can give testimony, even greater than the walls of your home? The heaven and the earth. The heavens and the earth from the moment that we're born. We're living in their confines, so to speak, and they can give testimony to the way we acted, to the way we behaved, to the way we treated others, to the godliness that we carried ourselves with. My dear friends, this is the parting words of the torah. Almost it's the second to last portion. Hashem is giving us the details here. Here you go. This is the prescription you want to have all the blessing in the world, this is it. I'm giving you, the tools I'm giving you. It's in your hands and I think the most important message, if there's anything that we learned from today, is that it's in your hands, it's in our hands. Nothing is stopping us from going home today, after listening to this podcast, watching this video, be participating in this class, opening up a book of torah and reading it and learning it and investigating it and asking questions.

11:36
There's a woman, a fine lady, who frequents in our class and she has a whole notebook. She calls ask Wolby that while she's at home learning. She writes down her questions. She's not calling me 24 hours a day, but she's learning all the time and she has questions, so she writes down the questions. When she comes to class she 24 hours a day, but she's learning all the time and she has questions, so she writes down the questions. When she comes to class, she opens up her book and she starts pounding me with questions. That's the way we should learn. That's the way we should learn.

12:09
You know, I've been learning with my rabbi for over 20 years and every week I have the great privilege of spending 15 minutes. He's in Israel, he has thousands of students, I have 15 minutes and I have thousands of questions that I've asked him. And every week, as things come up, I open up my file, type in the question. My wife asks me a question. I don't have an answer or something that we're discussing and we have a dilemma about whether it be the education of our children, whether it be the direction of our life, whether it be something simple in halacha. I want to get a second opinion, get guidance in how to deal with this challenge or that challenge. I write it down over there and I ask we need to do that every day. Let it not be just like well. Did anybody ever read a novel and then write the author? I have a question. On page 96. You wrote this and that and I just want to get some clarity.

13:24
No it's a story whatever. So he left out a detail, or he didn't. It's not consequential In the Torah, it is. It's extremely important. It's extremely important. We have the greatest gift in the world. It's the Torah, it's the manuscript, it's the manual for living, it's the blueprint of this world. We have it. It was gifted to us. By the way, you want to know why the nations of the world hate us? It's for that reason alone.

13:56
I've shared this before. If I had a lottery ticket for $595 million now I don't know that it's the winning ticket, I have to wait till Wednesday night but I bought the ticket. I say, hey, what's going on? How are you? I know it's almost your birthday. Here's a birthday gift. He says, yeah, rabbi, thank you very much, I appreciate it. I really, rabbi, thank you very much, I appreciate it. I really, really, really appreciate it. It means so much to me that you thought about me.

14:27
But you know, nobody really wins tickets. It's some guy out in Tennessee that wins it, it's never someone here in Houston. So, very nice, I'm going to pass it on. He gives it on to Ed and Ed's like. You know, thank you very much. I've got my retirement all worked out. I'm gonna pass it on and he gives it on to Ed and Ed's like. You know, thank you very much, I've got my retirement all worked out. I'm passing it on to Gary and Gary passes it on to Anna, anna passes it on to Eliana and and you know it's like it goes to Sandy and to Nancy and it goes to everyone's passing it on. It's like because everyone's like it's a nice gesture, it feels good. I have a lottery ticket, but we all know we're not going to win.

15:00
And then Nancy's holding on to this ticket and Nancy wins the $595 million lottery. What are we all going to feel? All of us in the room. I'm going to say you know, bruce, I didn't really mean to give it to you to begin with. It wasn't really the intention, it was just a joke, it was a gesture. I wanted you to feel good. I saw you had a rough day. And he says the same to Ed. And it keeps on going around. And we all turn to Nancy. We say, nancy, you know that what would be the nice thing to do is to divide it between all of us. You know, we should all get a piece of this pie because it's not really fear. You know what I'm saying. And Sandy says I didn't mean to give it to you. I just don't want you to feel bad that you're the last one in the room that didn't get a ticket to hold it. You know what Nancy says I'm so sorry, folks, but it's your loss. You had the opportunity. You gave it away. You can come beg, knock on my door, maybe I'll let you in. Nancy's very nice, she would you know. But that's the truth.

16:17
Think about it. The nations of the world were given an opportunity to take the Torah. God, the Midrash, tells us, informed all of the prophets. Every nation had a prophet. God informs all of them. I'm about to give my Torah. Whichever lucky nation wants it gets it.

16:37
So what happens? Every nation asks what's in it? Thou shalt not murder. Not for us, say the Germans. Thou shalt not steal. Not for us, say the Arabs. Thou shalt not commit adultery. French say out, we're out. No, not for us.

16:55
And every nation, every nation, hears a little bit of the Torah. They're like no, no, no, not for us. The Jewish people say how much is it? Moses says it's free. They're like we'll take 10 of them. Right. But in all truth, the nations of the world are hurting. They are hurting. So we can sit here and laugh and we can say, oh, that's really cute, we got the Torah and they didn't.

17:28
But what does the Torah really mean to us If we don't study it? What does the Torah really mean to us if we don't invest time In gaining more knowledge? You know, thank God, we have a nice crowd here today, but you know what? We don't have the other 69,950, 9,500 people in Houston that need to be learning Torah. Where are those 69,500 people? They should be coming to learn Torah.

18:14
I'm judging them favorably. I'm not judging. But if I were to judge them, I'm judging them favorably that they're going to better classes than mine. But if I were to judge them, I'm judging them favorably that they're going to better classes than mine. But we have to invest in our own connection with Hashem, because there's a testimony here, there is a witness. The heavens and the earth are the witness. They say listen, listen to what God is telling you. You want blessing. This is the blessing. Study and fulfill his Torah. It's in our hands.

18:46
You know we mentioned this previously that the nations of the world sorry King Balak hired a very, very powerful prophet to curse the Jewish people. And we know that Balaam was very, very smart and wise. He knew exactly how to decipher the moment of God's anger. And we all think about this. We hear this story. We're like God gets angry. I thought God was perfect.

19:12
Why does God get angry? Says the Talmud that we recently learned. The Talmud says that the kings of the east don their crowns every morning and bow down to idols. And God looks at that and gets angry at the Jewish people. Why does God get angry at us? That they're bowing down to idolatry? That's their problem. What does that have to do with us?

19:47
Hashem says why did I give you a Torah, oh Jewish people? Why did I give you the Torah? Not for it to just stay for you. Share it with the world. The world should know that there's a God. The world should know that I am the creator of heaven and earth. And by you not sharing that information, by you not fulfilling your responsibilities, that's what God's upset about. God doesn't just get angry. Oh, don't mess with God now, he's in a bad mood. No, that's not the way it works. God says one second, my children have a responsibility. Bring that light to the world. That's your job, that's our job. To bring that light to the world.

20:41
My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos. Take the time, take the opportunity. You have a few minutes before the end of the year. That's it Tomorrow night. It's a new year already. Let's finish it off with learning Torah. Let's finish it off with investing time next year to learn Torah.

21:03
To study Torah, it doesn't need to be at a class, it doesn't need to be with a rabbi. You can open up a book of the Torah by yourself. I'll show you this magnificent stone edition, a Schattenstein edition, interlinear chumash. You know how amazing this is. You have the translation beneath every word, under each line in Hebrew. You have the translation. You can learn the entire Torah. You don't need any rabbi or assistants. Invest in a good book. It's your Torah.

21:40
Make a commitment, not a big one. Torah, make a commitment, not a big one. Make a commitment. It could be five minutes a day, every day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, 10 in the morning, 11 o'clock at night. Whatever does it for you. Make a commitment to learn uninterrupted. No phone calls, no debates, no elections. Nothing interrupts this steady study of Torah. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos. Have an amazing, beautiful new year. It should be a year filled with blessing, a year filled with success, a year filled with good health, a year filled with all of the blessings that we so much desire. There should be peace in Israel, we should have all our hostages back, and the entire world and us should know the name of Hashem that is before us every single day.