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)
Good morning everybody. My dear friends, it's so wonderful to be here this beautiful Tuesday morning. Those of you who are here live in the Torch Center in Meyerland, those of you on Zoom, those of you who will be watching on all of the social media networks and those listening on podcast good morning, thank you so much for joining us. We are about to do a little bit of Parsha discussion on the new book of the Torah that we are beginning this week and that is the book of Shamos. We're starting the book of Exodus and we start with.

00:45
The Jewish people are now already in Egypt. They're being enslaved by Pharaoh and there is, as the Torah tells us in this week's parasha, a new king. There is a new king and this new king does not know Joseph. He doesn't know Joseph. What's the problem with this king who doesn't know Joseph? He's a classic politician. When he needs him, he knows him very well, but when he doesn't need him, he won his election. Now, suddenly, who are you? I'm sorry, I don't know who you are. Either way, it is time now for the redeemer of the Jewish people to come into the picture. Who's?

01:23
that redeemer Moses. Now the astrologers, they all see a vision and they tell Pharaoh there's going to be a redeemer born among the Jewish people. You have to be very careful. He's going to take the Jewish people out of Egypt. What does King Pharaoh demand? He makes a decree that all Jewish boys be thrown into the Nile. Throw them in. Now. What happens as a result of that?

01:53
The midwives the Jewish midwives recognize that they have an opportunity to serve Hashem and to be God-fearing, and they save the Jewish children. How do they save them? There's a whole plot of how they, and then Pharaoh comes to him and says I told you to throw them into the water. Why are you saving them? They say listen, these Jewish women. They know how to deliver babies so quickly and so discreetly that by the time we get there, the kids are already three months old.

02:23
What happens with Moshe? Moshe, by the way. One of the things they did is that the Egyptians brought Egyptian babies to cry in the Jewish communities. What happens when a baby hears crying? They cry too. So it was to try to instigate, but that didn't help. It didn't help.

02:48
Moshe is born and his mother very carefully puts him into a basket and puts him into the Nile. Okay, and that's why his name is Moshe. Because he was taken, he was drawn from the water. That's why his name is Moshe. And then what happens? Because he was taken, he was drawn from the water, that's why his name is Moshe. And then what happens? He's found by the daughter of Pharaoh. She's bathing by the Nile. She sees this basket. She opens up the basket. She sees this baby. She's like, okay, I'm going to adopt this baby. The little baby needs to eat. So she brings him to the wet nurses in Egypt and this baby doesn't eat from anybody. So Miriam, the sister of Moshe, says maybe I'll suggest a Jewish wet nurse that would be his mother. And then Moshe eats and nurses from the Jewish wet nurse.

03:51
What does Rashi say here? The verse here first, chapter 2, verse number 7. V'atomer achosa, his sister, said Elbas Paro to the daughter of Pharaoh Ha'elech v'korosi loch isho meinekes b'neivrios, shall I go and call for you a woman who can nurse from the Hebrews Va'teinek lo'aseyelet, so that she will nurse for you the boy. And that's what happened. It's an amazing, an amazing tale of Moshe's greatness.

04:29
Our sages tell us that Moshe was born with a sensitivity to spirituality, where Moshe, even though he was just three months old at the time when Moshe, even though he was just three months old at the time, was spiritually sensitive that he could not nurse from a non-Jewish woman, because he said, a mouth that's going to speak to the Almighty directly can't nurse from a non-Jewish woman. It's an amazing thing. So how did he have this sensitivity? How did Moshe attain such a high level of Kedusha, of holiness, to be so sensitive? So our sages tell us that Rav Pinchas ben Yair, one of the great Hanayik sages, his donkey, wouldn't eat from food that wasn't tithed. If the food wasn't tithed, the donkey wouldn't eat. Why the donkey? The donkey of Rav Pinchas ben Yair? It's an unbelievable thing. Why? Because his master was on such a high spiritual level. His animals were influenced by his holiness, by his spirituality.

05:57
They say that Rabbi Rucham L'Vavitz, my grandfather's teacher, when he was towards the end of his life, the doctor said he needs to eat meat that was unsalted. Now we know that kosher meat. In order for it to become kosher, it needs to be a kosher animal. It needs to be slaughtered properly. It needs to be checked after to ensure that all of its organs were intact internally. All of its limbs were intact internally. All of its limbs were intact properly. Once that's checked, then they have to soak it, they have to salt it, they have to rinse it. There's a whole process Unsalted meat that the blood was not extracted from it. So they brought such meat to Rabbi Rucham and Rabbi Rucham put it next to his mouth and said oh, I can't, I can't eat it, it's not Jewish meat, I can't eat it. He was sick. You have to eat it, you can't, you can't.

07:06
So spiritually sensitive. We have to understand that. Being spiritually sensitive, the first thing is is that we need to recognize that we are influenced by our environment and when we are surrounded by holiness, then we become holier. When we're surrounded by a lack of holiness, by impurity, by tumma, what happens? We're influenced by that. We are very spiritually sensitive preachers. We are very spiritually sensitive preachers and as such, because we are spiritually sensitive, we can on both sides of the coin. If we're on the holy side, we can be very spiritually sensitive.

07:59
They said that the Chavetz Chaim when he would go visit around Europe, he would go to different communities to sell his books. They would go around telling people don't, if you had a talking about the men, if you had a secretion by night, don't go to the Chavetz Chaim. He was so spiritually sensitive he would detect that impurity in a moment, in an instant. These are not things that are, you know, distant from us, like, oh, the sages, they were spiritually sensitive, but we, we're numb to it. No, we're not numb to it at all.

08:48
We need to learn and teach ourselves to have spiritual sensitivity, to have a sixth sense almost develop within us, to discern holiness and impurity, truth and falsehood. Today we're living in a world where we say it's okay that they're lying holiness and impurity, truth and falsehood. Today we're living in a world where we say it's okay that they're lying to me, every person has their truth. No, every person does not have their truth. Truth is not flexible. You can't bend truth, they say.

09:29
They say that the only way a person can lie to you is if you allow them to lie to you. I remember years ago I saw a TED Talks about this where a professional said that we all can tell when someone is lying to us, but we decide to ignore it or we decide to not hold them accountable. But we can sense it, but we allow it. So what happens? We become desensitized by it and then the truth falls doesn't make a difference. It's okay, everyone has their truth. It's not true.

10:07
We're unwilling and we'll see this today in our prayer class, in our prayer podcast day, in our prayer class, in our prayer podcast we are unwilling to set boundaries of this is day and this is night, this is good and this is evil, this is right and this is wrong. It's just one blend. Interesting that the first of the morning blessings is, and interesting that the first of the morning blessings is that sehvi is either heart or it's rooster. But the rooster knows the exact moment boom, the exact moment of dawn. As soon as there's the first touch of light, it's crowing already. How does it know? It knows Now it's day, so now it's night, now it's day. It's not a fuzzy, you know, I don't know. Is it day, is it night? No, no, no. It's very clear. It's defined, something that sometimes in our culture we're uncomfortable putting lines in the sand. We're uncomfortable defining things, and this is our challenge, our challenge to be sensitive, to differentiate between things, to discern what is holiness In the world of the lack of spirituality.

11:46
You know, they say that Rav Baruch Ber, who was one of the great, great, great sages in Europe. He came to America once this is before the Holocaust. He came to. He cameages in Europe. He came to America once this is before the Holocaust. He came to raise money for his yeshiva back in Europe and they were driving him. They were driving him from community to community and one of the places that they ended up driving him to was Manhattan. There were many wealthy Jews in Manhattan and he was like in an unrest. He was in an unrest. They're like what's going on? He says where are we? I feel that there's a lack of holiness here. He felt it. In fact, he ended up meeting the mayor of New York and the mayor of New York said when he met Rav Baruch Ber, he said I used to believe that man came from evolution, from the apes.

12:45
He says, after seeing such a human being, I know that man was created by God. He says it was so clear and apparent the godliness, the holiness that was present on him. We can go on. I can tell you hundreds of stories of sages who had spiritual sensitivity, but it's not only the sages, each and every one of us. This is something that we can attain. We can be the Moshe, but we need to develop it. We need to develop a spiritual sensitivity, a holiness, so that the things around us if we think that the things that we see don't have an impact, they do. When we look at things, when we're either on the internet or on television or things, and we allow our eyes to see things, when we're either on the internet or on television or things, and we allow our eyes to see things, we're burning our spiritual nodes, our spiritual nerves are getting burnt and we become insensitive. Naturally we're born.

13:54
We say Elokei, neshama, shenasatebi, tahorahi the neshama, the soul that you've imbued within me is tahorah, is pure, pure. Our job is to maintain that purity and, if there are impurities, to remove them. How do we remove them? With the study of Torah, with the performance of mitzvahs. That's what purifies the soul. The more diligent we are with every mitzvah, the more purity and sensitivity we're instilling within our soul. That's why we have the mitzvah. It's to take this soul that we have to brush it up and clean it up to the greatest of its perfection possible.

14:43
Moshe was so spiritually sensitive, understanding that his body is just a vessel for a soul, and I need to preserve the holiness of that soul. And what do we do in order to preserve the holiness of that soul that is lofty, that is spiritual, that is godly? We need to protect our eyes, we need to protect our ears. That's why, if you look at the words of our sages, not only to watch what we to be careful what we see, be careful what we listen to. When we hear things that are foul, we begin speaking foul. When we smell things that are foul, we can't. It gives us a we're discontent, we're uncomfortable, we're displaced. That same feeling is the feeling that our soul feels when we allow it to be influenced by negative forces. Oh, it's a putrid smell for the soul. That's the way it is when we see something that's impure, when we hear something that is impure, and if we go to a place that's not appropriate. You've heard this before.

16:08
I said I was just talking to somebody just this week. We were talking about Las Vegas. I told them my opinion of that. Any place that calls itself Sin City, I don't want to be in. I don't want to be in. Like, would you take a tour to Sodom, to Sodom and Gomorrah? Just take a tour, a nice tour to see the community. No, a place that is filled with impurity. I want to be in such a place because what happens? It's an impurity that goes on my body. Now I become completely immersed in that impurity Place that's unclean.

16:45 - Intro (Announcement)
I want to go there.

16:47 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Would we take a sewer tour? Just go see the sewer. We'll wash ourselves off after no, it's filthy, it's disgusting. Who would want to be visiting in a sewer? There's a spiritual sewage and we need to protect ourselves from that. Same thing, by the way, for our children. Our children are very impressionable, but do you know? What the mistake is Is that we said the word children? Adults are also very impressionable. I don't understand this whole thing with ratings of movies.

17:24
This is for someone who's 13 and older, for 17 and older, for 20, whatever. What do you mean? Your soul is just as sensitive as a three-year-old child, just as sensitive. Your spiritual soul is just as lofty. It needs to be just as protected. Oh, we're older, so we're not going to go kill someone because we saw something. We're not going to become alcoholics and drug addicts because we saw it. Children may no, we may also. It has an influence and this is where we need to gain a sensitivity to our spirituality. We allow ourselves to be influenced. We will be influenced If we protect ourselves from influence. We'll only elevate ourselves in our holiness. That does not mean that we go to a monastery and lock ourselves up. That does not mean that we don't talk to people because, oh God forbid, someone's going to speak Lashon Hara, someone's going to speak slander. So I'm not going to talk to anybody, protect myself. You know what they say about the Chavetz Chaim. The Chavetz Chaim was a big schmoozer. He loved to talk. He loved to schmooze with people and grab conversation with people, but he was very cautious not to speak Lashon Hara, and everyone was very cautious not to say Lashon Hara to him.

18:57
In Judaism, we're not extremists. We need to be immersed in the world, we need to be involved with a modern day life, but protect ourselves, told you my rabbi. Told us his students were all rabbinic students. We're talking about hundreds of students who came in as married men to this institution to become rabbis. And he told us don't call me for advice, don't call me for anything if you don't have a protection on your phone, a filter or on your computer. Why? Why? Why? Because the Torah teaches us that someone who respects their soul will create protective fences, protective measures, so you don't fall off a cliff Spiritual cliff, just like we would ensure that we don't fall off a physical cliff. What are we doing to ensure that we don't fall off a spiritual cliff, just like we would ensure that we don't fall off a physical cliff. What are we doing to ensure that we don't fall off a spiritual cliff? By the way, a time-wasting cliff, your phone is a good idea. There's no internet, a phone. You need a phone. You need to be able to text. Okay, so it has that. That's the function. That's it.

20:21
Minimalistic. Spend less time being distracted, more time infusing our soul with holiness, because the more we're able to balance our life, be involved in the world, but with measure. Be careful to protect that soul. Don't go to places that have negative influence. You know that there's a place where there's bad influence. Don't go. No one's forcing you to go. You don't have to go, you think, in order to get your raise, you have to go and be there with your boss at the bar. You know it might not be good for you. So why are you going? You have other motives.

21:12
Every person I'm not here to tell anyone what to do or how to do. The Torah tells us every person has their own barometer, that they need to measure their own actions, their own ways. This is, I think, such a sensitive, important lesson from this week's Parsha Be like Moshe, spiritually sensitive, spiritually sensitive to all the things around us. When we're spiritually sensitive to all the things around us. When we're spiritually sensitive, our mitos, our character is sensitive. We're sensitive that we may have said something to hurt someone. We're sensitive. We may have insulted someone. We may have disregarded someone. Heaven forbid Someone may have been we have made, may have disregarded someone. Heaven forbid someone may have been hurt by me. Be sensitive, be careful. The sensitivity is very, very important. That doesn't mean that doesn't mean that we, that we walk around apologizing to everyone and everything we do is a mistake and I feel so terrible and I feel so. No, no, that's not what it means. We don't need to live a life tiptoeing around other people. The Torah guides us. The Torah tells us the exact balance that's required, and one of those fundamentals is be cautious not to allow negative influence into your life.

22:45
Shabbos is the greatest gift. It's such a great gift because we get the opportunity to turn everything off. Turn off the phone and turn off the computer and turn off the internet. Turn off everything, internet, turn off everything. We're just an opportunity for us to connect with our family, with our children, with our neighbors, with our friends, with our community, with ourselves. Just to connect. That adds to our spiritual sensitivity as well. Hashem should bless us all that we should all be guided by the ways of Hashem and open up our hearts, open up our souls to the spiritual, to the physical sensitivities and to the characteristic, the character traits of what it means to be a God-fearing Jew. Hashem should bless us all. We should be successful, have an amazing Shabbos. Yes, postscript.

23:47
There's a story that I forgot to mention talking about spiritual sensitivity. The great Brisker Ruff, the great rabbi, the leader of Brisk, was a very prominent community God-fearing Torah scholars and one time they were walking home from synagogue and the rabbi, the head rabbi, the Briskarov, would walk with an entire entourage, walk with his children next to him, one of his sons particularly, but the community, you know. They would want to speak to their rabbi in Torah study Learning while they were walking and the rabbi saw from afar that there were some people at the corner, some thugs that were fighting. People were fighting and the rabbi saw it by the corner of his eye and quickly wanted to protect his son from seeing the violence that was going on, the fighting. The son said Father, I saw it already. I'd seen it Years and years and years later, this little boy became a very, very prominent rabbi himself.

25:10
He said there was a certain area of Torah study that he was trying time and again and again and again to understand and he couldn't understand it. And he said that vision that he saw of the people fighting is a blockage, a spiritual blockage that didn't allow him to understand this area of Torah. And he prayed and prayed Hashem, remove the barrier so that I can understand your Torah. You understand. The spiritual sensitivity is real. I'll tell you something even more is that the same rabbi, the same prominent Torah scholar, was trained. His father would train him. After he would study, he would learn with his father. His father would then have him stand by the window right in front of the marketplace and have him review the entire study that they learned together while looking at the marketplace.

26:21
Why? Because our mind operates in a very. How many times do you look at something and you're not even looking at it? You're thinking about something. Else Happens all the time. You're looking at a, let's say, a baseball game. You're watching a baseball game, but you're not even thinking about the baseball game. You have no idea what happened. You're busy thinking about something baseball game you have no idea what happened. You're busy thinking about something totally different, In a very positive way. You can train your mind to be fully occupied while your eyes are just wandering without even seeing. But it takes training, it takes training, but it takes training, it takes training.

27:04
And he was trained by his father to. Even though there's so much going on in the marketplace, his mind was busy the entire time that his eyes were just like glass, didn't even see it. He was busy, his mind was busy. When your mind is occupied, your eyes aren't influenced. My grandfather would say before you go into the marketplace, open up a book, read a chapter, read a verse and start thinking about it. When your brain is busy, your eyes aren't influenced. If it's vacant, then it takes in whatever it sees. And this is the challenge. God should protect us, amen.

27:51 - 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.