Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

Welcome back everybody to the Parsha Review Podcast. I owe you from Tuesday I wasn't in town. So now we're going to talk a little bit about this week's Torah portion, Parsha Mishpatim. Parsha Mishpatim we know are laws. Laws need to make sense. Why do laws need to make sense? Because otherwise people may not fulfill them, right? We all know that it makes sense that we have speed limits.
There are laws that just make sense. But then there are laws we know in Parshas Chukas in the middle of the book of Numbers. We have an entire portion, not an entire portion, but almost at least the beginning of the portion dealing with the red heifer. And the red heifer is a chok. A chok is a law, is a command that has no reason. And we know that the Torah has many laws, Mishpatim, which is our Torah portion, which are laws and they make sense.
They make sense. And then you have a chok, which is a law that makes no sense to us. Obviously there's a reason. And it's an amazing parallel if you look at what a Mishpat is, what a law is when it makes sense versus a law that makes no sense. Why would you have a law that you don't have understanding of, right? King Solomon, and we refer in our Jewish Inspiration podcast, we many times bring quotes from the wisest of all men. Who's that? That's King Solomon.
The wisest of all men. He said, I seek wisdom, but it is so far from me. Why? When did he say that? Because he didn't understand the Red Heifer. He said, clearly I'm not wise. I'm not able to understand this law. That's how incredible wisdom is so important. So in our Torah portion, we have many, many practical laws. Last week in parashat Yisro, we got the Ten Commandments, ten laws, a few right after the Ten Commandments before the end of the portion.
But in this week's Torah portion, we have law after law after law after law. Really incredible, and they all mostly make sense to us. Yeah, it's pretty common sense. Makes sense, by the way. Most laws in most countries have their founding in this week's Torah portion. Really incredible. So how do we understand the balance between laws that make sense to us, that we understand, and laws that we have absolutely no understanding whatsoever?
And this leads us to something we've discussed in our Monday Lunch and Learn about the simplicity of why we fulfill mitzvahs. Why do we fulfill a mitzvah? For example, let's take a random mitzvah of mezuzah. So there's a command to put the chol she'arech on all of your doorways, you put a mezuzah. Right? We have certain qualifications in halacha, the entrance and exit to our home. Each room in our home should have a mezuzah except if it's going into a bathroom or a small closet.
A room that's smaller than eight foot by eight foot is not required to have a mezuzah. So like a little laundry room may not be required to have a mezuzah. But any normal hallway, if you have a doorway, you got to put a mezuzah on it. I remember moving into my home, we have seven doorways out to the pool area. That's seven mezuzahs, all right? Seven mezuzahs. And then you have the other doorways. Each one needs a mezuzah. And each bedroom needs a mezuzah.
And each hallway needs a mezuzah. It's a lot of mezuzahs. What is a mezuzah? Not just the casing. The mezuzah is the scroll. It's the scroll that's written by a scribe who's God-fearing and fulfills the laws of how a scroll is written. And you put a mezuzah, you have it properly rolled up, put into a casing, if you'd like. You don't need to have a casing. But the most important part of it is the scroll, not the casing. Many people have casings with no scroll.
I remember my story. I love to say this because I think it's something important for us to know. As a reminder, I was once at someone's home and my jacket got caught in the nail that was holding up the mezuzah case. And when I moved away from the doorpost, the nail came out and the mezuzah went crashing down on the floor. And it was a glass mezuzah that someone had bought this family that had all the chips of their glass from their chuppah in there.
And I felt so terrible. And I went into the kitchen. I told the wife, I'm like, I'm so sorry. Tell me what do I need to do to replace this? And the husband walks in a minute later, he says, thank you so much for what you just did. I'm like, why? I just broke your mezuzah. Your beautiful mezuzah with your glass from your wedding in there. He says, because we never bothered to check the scroll. The scroll was paper.
It was just paper rolled up. It was not even a mezuzah. He said, thank you for bringing it to our attention that we had a mezuzah that was not kosher. It was just a casing. So we have to, and we have a scribe in our community that checks the mezuzahs, that checks to fill in to ensure. But we have a mitzvah of mezuzah, one random mitzvah that we picked. Do we understand the meaning of it? Hashem says to put it on your doorstep, on your doorpost.
Do we understand why? No idea. But we can open up, we have a book called the Sefer Achenuch, which gives the reasons behind mitzvahs, the understanding, the meaning behind it. So now let's say, I'll give you an example, there's an idea that we can say about mezuzah. You know, there's very rarely in Judaism do you find a compromise in Jewish law. Very rarely do you find a compromise. For example, you know, there's a disagreement in the Talmud, how tall can a sukkah be?
How tall is the tallest it can be? One opinion is the height of 40 feet, not taller. Why? Because more than that, you won't know that you're sitting in a sukkah. It's just like a big room. You have no idea, because it's so far up, you're not going to even realize that you're in a sukkah. Another opinion says 20 feet. Okay, so what's the halakha? You'll never see a compromise in halakha, say, you know what?
You say 20 feet, you say 40 feet, let it just be 30 feet and call it a day. No such thing. In halakha, there's never compromise. It's either one way or another way. It's either this opinion or that opinion. But not in between. You see, compromise is never truth, right? If I tell Carlos, Carlos, I don't owe you $10, I know I borrowed $10 from you, but I don't owe you that money anymore, I paid you back.
And Carlos says to me, no, no, you didn't pay it back. So we're going back and forth here. So we say, you know, we're going to go to a court of Jewish law, and we're going to resolve it there. So we go to the court, and the court says, okay, let's do a compromise, pay him $5, and we're good to go. Is $5 true? No. It's either 10 or zero. It's not five. But that's how compromise works.
You're willing to forego the truth so that you're able to resolve this. Okay? It's either 10 or zero. We're willing to do five so that we just have peace. We see that God says, I'm willing to erase my name for peace. And that's regarding a sotah, a woman who is accused of having an adulterous affair. God says, erase my name, compromise my name, just for there to be peace between a husband and wife. It's a fascinating idea.
So with the laws of mezuzah is the only time you'll see a compromise in halacha. How do we put the mezuzah on the door? We all know, on a slant. But the halacha, there are two opinions. Either you put it completely vertical or completely horizontal. So we do it on a slant. Why do we do it on a slant? That's the craziest thing. Either one way or the other way, you don't see compromise in halacha. Say just tell us.
Every time you come into your house and you see the mezuzah on a slant, it'll remind you that in order to have peace in your home, you need compromise. It'll be a constant reminder. So that feels good. Oh, that's so beautiful. I want to put a mezuzah on my door just because of that. Just so that I can remember that foundational principle. Is that why we put up a mezuzah? Because a guy will say, you know, I'm single. I'm not fighting with anybody.
I don't need a mezuzah. You see, there's many ways, once you start rationalizing a mitzvah, when that rationality is not there anymore, you can just get rid of the mitzvah. Because I have no need. I'm not fighting with anyone. I'm just living alone. But that's not why you do the mitzvah. The reason why you have a mezuzah on your door is, what's the reason? Because God commanded us. Because God commanded us. That's the reason we do a mitzvah.
So the difference between a chok and a mishpat, chok is one you have no idea of the reasoning. Do you perform the mitzvah? Yes, you do. But how about those that I do understand? Do we perform them? Yes. Even though I understand them, even if the rationale or the reason doesn't apply to me right now, it doesn't make a difference, because it's a command from God. So a very interesting Hasidic idea that I want to share.
It really has nothing to do with this, but people say like, oh, that feels so good. Okay, let me explain. In chapter 24, which is the last chapter of this Torah portion, we have something unique. In all 18 verses in chapter 24, every single verse begins with the letter Vav. Every single verse in the entire chapter begins with the letter Vav. What is the letter Vav? The letter Vav is the letter of connection. It's the juxtaposition. It's like saying and.
And I told you, and this, I'm connecting it to the previous statements. Everything that you see in the entire chapter of chapter 24, the 18 verses in chapter 24 in the book of Exodus, all the verses all begin with the letter Vav. Why? Why? So what's 18? 18 verses times six. You know, that's math. That's 108. 108. Right? 18 times six. We know we donate and shul 18, 36, 54, right? 72, 90, and 108.
That's how they sell the aliyahs in increments of 18. Six times chai, 108. What is 108? 108 is the numerical value of the word chok, which is law with no reason. Our sages tell us that's why the portion ends with these 18 Vavs. Vav is the sixth letter of the alphabet. You have 18 verses that all begin with the letter Vav, a total of 108, which is equal to chok. Chok is a law that has no reason.
Our sages tell us that every mishpat, every law that you do have a reason, don't do it because you know the reason. Do it because it's a command of God. Do so because I said so. You know, it's very important in parenting to sometimes instruct your child to do something without a reason. If children only listen to their parents because their parents said so and I understand the reason why, so then they're limited in their fulfillment of that.
They're limited because then when I don't understand, I'm not going to do it. A child needs to know sometimes you listen to your parents just because they said so. I don't need to give you a reason. It's important for a child to have something to sometimes just so that there is a mitzvah you do without any reason whatsoever. Why? Because that shows total commitment to God. We do it because God told us so. Not because it means so much to me.
Not because, oh, this is my favorite mitzvah. I love this mitzvah. It talks to me, this mitzvah. No. Sometimes you just need to do it because God said so. The truth is with all of our mitzvahs, yes, we should infuse the mitzvah with meaning. We should infuse the mitzvah with joy. We should infuse the mitzvah with a connection, but that's not why we do it. We do the mitzvah because it's a command from God, and it's so vital that we remember this.
It's vital for us to remember that we fulfill the mitzvahs because it's a command from God and not because we understand it. Even when you do understand it. So for example, Hanukkah. Hanukkah is such a meaningful mitzvah. Such a beautiful mitzvah. And I've heard many, many people tell me, you know, Rabbi, that's my favorite mitzvah. I just love the candles. I love looking at them. I love seeing all of the colorful, you know, wax candles. They're so beautiful.
But that's not why we light it. Oh, it means so much to history. That's not why we light it. The Jewish people bringing light to the world. That's not either why we light it. These are all reasons. These are all meanings. We do it because it's a command. And the benefit of that is because sometimes you're not going to be in the mood of anything. Sometimes you're just not going to be in the mood.
How many times do people say, oh, I love this, or I love this person? By the way, this is an important foundation in marriage, right? Don't buy your wife flowers because you like buying her flowers, okay? You must nurture your relationship. That's a must. That's a chok. You must nurture your relationship. Whether or not you like flowers or not is irrelevant. It doesn't have to be flowers, actual physical flowers. There are other ways you can give flowers. Being kind, writing a nice card.
But if a person says, well, I'm just not in the mood, what's going to happen to that relationship? I'm just not in the mood, it starts going downhill. The benefit of having a chok is that even when you're not in the mood, even when your emotion is out of whack, the intellect takes control and says, we need to do this anyway. So you have two components here. The chok is intellect. God says this is the way it is.
And then you have the mishpat, which can sometimes be the heart because it has so much meaning to me. But when that meaning is gone, what's going to happen? That's why we're obligated to learn Torah every single day. You have to learn Torah every single day. Even when you're not in the mood. So learn for a minute. We have to put on tefillin every single day. What's if I'm not in the mood? Still put it on. You understand?
We're not Jews and observant of our commands from Hashem because we're in the mood. Even if we're not in the mood. My dear friends, Hashem should grant us that we should have the joy in fulfilling the mitzvahs that we don't understand, just like the mitzvahs we do understand. And those that we do understand, we should elevate our meaning and our purpose in those mitzvahs. Because it's not always so simple. It's not always, I'm telling you, you look in, there are so many incredible books of,
by the way, there's an amazing book called Tamei HaMinhagim, The Reasons for the Minhagim. What is a minhag? A minhag is beyond the law. Now we have a custom of how we fulfill that. For example, in prayer, we're supposed to pray every day. What's prayer? We talked about this. What is prayer? Talk to God. You don't have to forget the prayer book, forget the going to shul, talking to God every single day. You fulfill a biblical command of communicating with God.
Hashem, I love you. That's it. Thank you, Hashem. You fulfill the biblical command. That's it. You go to shul, and you pray, and you have no idea that you're talking to God, you did not fulfill any mitzvah. You have to know you're standing in front of God. So now, there's a custom that people have. The halacha says a very interesting thing. You have to have a separation between heart and lower organs when you pray. So you have a belt that's fulfilled, that's a separation.
Some people have an elastic undergarment. It's enough of a separation. But there are some people who have a special gartel, which is a special belt that they wear, special for prayer. That's a custom. Is that an obligation? No, that's not an obligation. What's the obligation? We mentioned what the halacha says. The obligation is to separate between heart and lower organs. The halacha does not say that it needs to be its own belt, that it needs to be something
special that you wear only for prayer. It doesn't say that. It says you need to have a separation. That's it. As long as a person does that, that's fine, all right? So when a person prays, now that's a custom that people have, a special thing. Does everybody need to fulfill that custom? No. Certain people have that custom. But you can't forget what the halacha is. You know, I always tell my children, I say this a lot, like, what's the difference between
being from, being religious, and being yeshivish? Okay, there's two different things. So I'll give you an example, okay? Halacha says that one should be very careful about praying in the right time, the right time frame. Morning should be prayed within the first four hours of the day, afternoon prayer from midday to sunset, and evening prayer from sunset till midnight. So there's a proper time where each prayer should be recited. So what happens if it's almost sunset? I'm talking about it's like a minute before sunset.
You can either pray with a minion, or you forgot to wear your hat, which, by the way, the halacha says you should wear a head covering. It doesn't say it has to be a hat, it should just be a head covering when you pray. But I need my hat because I'm a yeshiva guy, right, so I need my hat. So which one goes first? One is a custom, one is a law, right? You should follow what the law says before the custom, and some people get so carried
away by the custom because there are millions of different customs, and they forget about the law, about the essential. The way we need to look at every mishpat, every law that we understand its meaning, we understand its reason, is exactly the same as a chok. Just as if you don't understand it, it should be the same. It should be with the same fervor, it should be with the same excitement, with the same energy, notwithstanding the meaning behind it. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos.
One second, let me ask you a question, one second, one second, one second. If you drive, and you're driving, it's a 35 speed limit, okay, and you're driving 55, the cop pulls you over, he says, sir, why are you speeding, you say, listen, my min hug is that if I don't understand the law, I don't obey it. I don't understand why it needs to be 35, I'm driving 55, and if you can't, you don't like it, call Rabbi Wolbe, right, that doesn't work, okay, the judge doesn't care if you understand the law or don't understand the law for you to obey it.

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