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A refreshing and clear review of each Parsha in the Torah presented by 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.
00:11 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
We're back, my dear friends. We're back. Welcome back, my dear friends. We have a bunch of catch-up to do.
00:18
If you remember, just a few weeks ago, a few short weeks ago, we started reading the Torah from the beginning and the first portion of the Torah. We all know Bereshit. It's the portion which is the most important because it's the foundation, but it gets the least attention because we never have a full week to prepare for the portion of Bereshit. Because you always have Simchas Torah, where we conclude the Torah, and it's always sometime in the portion of Bereshit. Because you always have Simchas Torah, where we conclude the Torah, and it's always sometime in the middle of the week, and we never get a chance, a full week to review the parasha. And if you look very carefully, I want to share with you such a fundamental, beautiful principle that our sages tell us the entire Torah is truth.
01:10
King David in Psalm says Rosh Devarcha Emes. The beginning of your words is truth. What's the beginning? The Torah? The Torah is before creation, it's the blueprint, everything in it is truth. Say, just tell us. What King David is telling us is not only the Torah, but if you look at the words, the beginning of all the words and the ends of all the words all have truth in it. What are we talking about? So, if you look, bereshish Bara, elohim, the last letters of those three words, the first three words in the Torah. In the beginning God created. It ends with a Taf. It ends with an Aleph and a Mem, which is Emes, which means truth. That's the beginning, the first three words of the Torah. You look at the end of the creation and what is it over there? It concludes with Asher bara, elo kim la'asos, alef, mem, taf, again, emes. The name of Hashem is Emes, hashem's name is Emes. We say this in the Shema, the end of Shema Hashem Elokeichem Emes. And we know the fundamental principle that letters have a defining design and the Aleph has two legs, the Mem has two legs and the Aleph has two legs, the Mem has two legs and the Toph has two legs. Sheker, on the other hand, which is falsehood all have one leg because eventually they fall, eventually they disappear.
03:00
And it's very, very interesting that Rabbeinu Bachia, one of the great commentators on the Torah, says that all of the vowels of the Hebrew alphabet all appear in the first verse of the Torah, except for one, one vowel that does not appear in the. The one vowel that does not appear in the first verse of the Torah is the vowel of shuruk. Why shuruk? Our sages tell us? Because shuruk is the same letters as sheker Sheker is falsehood Shin, kuf, resh. And therefore it is not included in the first verse of the Torah. Because everything, the fundamental of everything that exists in our world, cannot exist without truth. Truth is the essence of it all, but that's not it. If you want, I will show you something even greater, that the written Torah and the oral Torah also have these three letters of Aleph, mem and Toph Anokhi. Hashem HaLukah is the first letter. Aleph is the first letter of the Ten Commandments. What is the first letter of the Oral Torah? The Mishnah Mem, me-e-mo-sai-korin. What's the first letter of the Talmud? You guessed it Taf. Aleph Mem. Taf, the Gaon of Vilna says a brilliant idea Rashi.
04:49
Rashi, in his commentary, is very particular in the exact words he uses to define things. Rashi is giving us basic explanation for things Now when it talks about the slithering animals that go on their belly. So there's a proper way to translate that. You can write it as stomach. You can write it as gachon also a different term for belly or me'ayim, which means the innards. But Rashi, in the beginning of the Torah, when that word gachon is used with a snake, he doesn't translate it, but in the middle of the Torah, which is actually the middle verse of the entire Torah, he uses a term me'ayim, which means innards. So the first Rashi begins the commentary for the Torah with Amar Rebbe Yitzchak, which is Aleph, the middle word. He's specifically the middle verse of the entire Torah. In the Torah and in Rashi's commentary uses the letter Mem and then at the end of the Torah he says where God says to Moshe you did a good job by that that you broke the tablets, you did the appropriate thing, and it concludes with the letter Taf. So also Rashi in his commentary starts with Aleph in the middle of the Torah. The middle verse of the Torah is with a mem in his commentary and all the way at the end of the Torah it concludes with the letter Taf.
06:33
What does this have to do with each and every one of us? You know, sometimes I I say this many times in the name of my rabbi, of blessed memory of beryl eisenstein grew up in chicago, went to the yeshiva of mir in jerusalem and he was dedicated to one thing and one thing only, and that was truth. Sometimes there's what they call an inconvenient truth. Why do they call it the inconvenient truth? Because it's not comfortable.
07:08
You know, at the end of the prayer every morning of the Shema, the prayer every morning of the Shema, the end of the Shema, we say an incredible 15 different praises of Hashem. 15 different praises of Hashem. We say emes that God is truth. And then we go on to say 14 more praises. What are they? God is true, certain, established, enduring, fear, faithful, beloved, cherished, delighted, pleasant, awesome, powerful, correct, accepted, good and beautiful. Fifteen different praises. So my Rebbe would always ask. He says I don't understand.
08:02
It starts off with emes, with truth. How does it end off with? It ends off with and it's beautiful. What's the obvious question? What's the obvious question? Why do you separate truth and beauty? You put them on the polar opposites. You put them on the opposite ends. You should have truth, and beauty one next to the other.
08:27
And my Rebbe said usually what's beautiful is not true and what's true is not beautiful. You know, you can compliment someone and say the nicest things and you turn around and you're like, yeah, what can I do? I just wanted them to feel good. Or there are people who say beautiful words but, you know, not a word is like politicians. You remember there was a politician who once said if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. That was very truthful, right, no, it was beautiful words but not truth. Great orators don't necessarily. They say beautiful words but not necessarily truthful. But then when you have someone who's very truthful, oh, that's not nice, it's not beautiful.
09:17
You have to understand that we, as a people you know, rabbi Ken Spear, yesterday said something so profound To those of you who are online the video is going to be posted shortly. He said as Jews, we have the hardware, but we have to make sure we have the proper software. The software is the Torah. We have to make sure that we act in a way that is appropriate, and that is the key of that software is truth. We must make sure that our number one pursuit is not about what feels good, it just feels right. That's not true. What is truth may not feel right to you, but that's because you're not aligned and each and every one of us are faced with this challenge. We're all faced with a challenge, especially in our culture, where people everything is about feelings, everything is about emotion, everything is about just wanting everything to just be nice. That's not necessarily truth. We have to invest in God's language. God's language is truth, his Torah is truth and everything that we have the beginning, the middle and the end of the Aleph Bet is Aleph, mem and Toph, which is truth, telling us that what begins the beginning of the world, what ends the beginning of the world, what ends the end of the world and everything in between, only stands by truth. Truth is eternal.
11:02
You don't have to think a second time about your story, whether or not it's accurate, if it's truthful. It was once a story that a woman came to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein to say she was upset that her son became a scholar and she wanted to ruin his life a little. So she comes to Rabbi Feinstein and she says to Rabbi Feinstein, you know, he's really not my child. He is my child, but I gave birth to him, but it's not from the man I was married to. I had an affair and this is the child from that affair. So she's trying to make him into a momzer, which is a pretty big blemish. So Rabbi Feinstein says, okay, so let me hear that story again. And he asks her again let me hear that story again. She's like what? Exactly the way I told you. And every time the story changed. And every time the story changed. And then he realized he says she's just. You know, it's a fake story. He was able to in interrogation. They do this as well. They'll ask you a question and they'll ask you the same question again and again and every time they give a different answer. So one second.
12:16
There's contradictions going on here. But when you say the truth, you don't need to think twice about it, because it's the truth. Hashem gives us a Torah. The Torah is called Torah's Emes V'chaye olam nota b'sachinu. Hashem gave us an eternal world within us. Why is it eternal? Because if its foundation is truth, it's eternal, it's forever. There's nothing more important in our lives than investing in truth. And you know what? It's not a contradiction.
13:00
I've had many people tell me Rabbi, I can't wear a kippah because sometimes I don't eat kosher, or I can't keep Shabbos because sometimes I don't wear a kippah. Or I can't eat kosher because sometimes I don't keep Shabbos, because sometimes I don't wear a kippah, or I can't eat kosher because sometimes I don't keep Shabbos. So there's a contradiction. It's like. That's a big mistake. It's a big mistake.
13:24
Judaism is not about all or nothing. You take one authentic, truthful step. That's your step. What your next step is, don't worry about your next step. Yet One small step, and then another small step, and then another small step. That is the key. It doesn't have to all fit in perfectly for us to be able to live a certain way.
13:54
But what's the problem? There are people who say, instead of me slowly taking the steps, let me just break down the whole system. So Shabbos not for me, kosher not for me, this not for me, that not for me. And they start changing the Torah, modifying it so that it fits my way of life, instead of us modifying ourselves to the Torah. And that's what the Torah is saying. This is a true document. The Torah is a true document. We need to invest in connecting ourselves with it, not trying to change it and modify it so that it fits with us. That means that if I'm not 100% in in my observance of the Torah, that doesn't make you a bad person. That doesn't make you a bad person.
15:03
Don't change the Torah. It means even you know, golda Meir used to say that the synagogue that I don't go to is orthodox. She didn't go to synagogue, she was not a religious woman. But don't change what our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, the way they observed. That means if a person doesn't observe it, that's their choice, that's fine, that's their relationship with Hashem. But don't start changing the Torah now to fit your way of life. I still want to get there. I'm not there yet. God is patient, god is loving. But don't change the Torah, because then we're on a path on our own and that's a very dangerous place to be.
16:04
We need to hold on to truth, even when it's uncomfortable, when it's inconvenient. Take our small step, but it should be a truthful step, one where we're there, we're up to it. Make it real. Don't do it because your neighbor's telling you to do it, not because your friends are telling you to do it. Do it because it's something that you are firm about. This is what my relationship, this is where my relationship, is at. It's like imagine you're dating a girl and everybody tells you you should tell her I love you, you should propose you should get married. Well, if you're not there, you're not there yet. Nobody should tell you where your relationship with God should be. But don't tear down the Torah that God himself has given to us. My dear friends, let's take everything we have, this round of the Torah, and make it ours. It's our document, it's our Torah, it belongs to. Each and every one of us have an amazing Shabbos.
17:21 - 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.