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This Jewish Inspiration Podcast is dedicated to learning, understanding and enhancing our relationship with Hashem by working on improving our G-d given soul traits and aspiring to reflect His holy name each and every day. The goal is for each listener to hear something inspirational with each episode that will enhance their life.
Our sages tell us that between Pesach, the holiday of Passover, and Shavuot, the day where the Jewish people receive the Torah, the 50 days that are between Pesach and Shavuot are auspicious times for us to grow spiritually and to take a step-by-step approach to our own spirituality and our own personal growth. There's a Mishnah in the sixth chapter of the sixth Mishnah in Ethics of Our Fathers that discusses a 48 step-by-step growth process. And I wanted to explore those, hopefully, every day throughout the counting of the Omer. As we know, we count each day leading up to the 50th day where the Jewish people receive the Torah after leaving Egypt. And hopefully, together, we'll be able to grow and connect. And we'll begin today with the first of the 48 ways. The Mishnah says, Betalmud, with study. The first value we have to understand to maximize life is to value wisdom. Wisdom gives us the ability to discern right from wrong.
Wisdom gives us the ability to do things and accomplish great things. Life is about learning. And when a Jew stops learning, he stops living. And we need to understand this first value, an appreciation that every day needs to be filled with learning new things. The most important, most precious thing in life is the ability to learn. There's a story that's told that someone was once sitting on a bus and he sees the guy in front of him stand up,
open the window of the bus while the bus was driving, and throw a dollar bill out the window. That's odd. And then a minute later, he stands up again, opens the window, and throws another dollar bill out. And he keeps on doing this. And then the people approach him and ask him, what are you doing? Why are you throwing money out the window? And he very simply explains, what are you doing? What are you doing? You're just sitting and wasting your time.
What's worth more, time or money? If you saw someone throwing money out of the bus window, you'd think they're crazy. How about someone who's wasting their time? Every minute in life can be filled with learning, with education. My grandfather was once together with a group of his students, and it was a big conference they had. And he asked the students, of all the things that you learned in the time that you were learning in the yeshiva, what did you benefit?
Then everyone gave their idea. I learned from the great rabbis how to maximize my life. I learned how to maximize my time, and I learned how to do acts of kindness, and to think about other people. My grandfather was very disappointed with all the answers he got from the students. Because he said the number one thing he wanted his students to learn, that everything in life should be learned from. Every experience you have, learn from it. Grow from it.
Don't let an opportunity pass you by. Don't let a story, an incident, pass you by without learning from it. And it's called, Betalmud, is to learn with study, but also Lehit Lamed, to learn from every situation that passes us by. The Baal Shem Tov, the great Hasidic master, the founder of the Hasidic movement, says that everything one sees is a reflection to show you a personal message. The example I've given many times, you see someone acting a certain way.
That's a message from the Almighty telling you, look at yourself. This is you. And I know sometimes it can be hard for us to absorb such a message, because why did I need to see a story about a theft on TV? Why did I need to see a story about a murder on TV? Well, that each person needs to reflect onto themselves as to what was the message God wanted me to learn. Maybe I'm not a murderer, I don't kill people
with a gun or with a knife or with some other means of throwing people off buildings, but maybe I am not careful enough with the words I use. Maybe that's the kind of murder that God wants me to be cautious of. Maybe if I'm not exact on my taxes, is that cheating? Is that lying? It may not be the biggest theft in the world, but even $1 is not honest, and that could be the message. A person needs to look at every situation in life
and learn from it. Every part of Judaism is about learning and taking those messages and internalizing them. Learn from every experience. Ask yourself, you have an incident, your flight is delayed, and you get all frustrated. It's never pleasant. What can I learn from this experience? The Mishnah in Ethics of Our Fathers, chapter four, Mishnah one says, do you want to know who a wise person is? Someone who learns from everyone. Not only from everyone, but really from everything. Every experience, every experience.
Our sages always learned from the young. They went to the children to ask them with their wisdom. You know, it's an interesting thing. Fish, you ever wonder why fish, when it rains, they all come to the surface to get the new raindrops. I mean, come on, they're in the lake or the river or the ocean. They have endless water, and yet it starts raining, and they come up to the surface to grab another fresh drop of water. It's because our sages tell us
we are supposed to be thirsty like a fish. A fish always craves more water. It's living in water, it still craves more water. We, no matter how wise we are, should always be craving another piece of information, another nugget of wisdom, another idea that can bring clarity to our life. The brain is like a muscle. You either use it or you lose it, and constant brain challenge strengthens that muscle. We need to really utilize every moment in our lives
to strengthen that muscle known as our brain. Start to enjoy learning new things. You know what? You may not be interested in understanding how the automobile works or how the space shuttle flies out to outer space. Well, why not read up about it? Why not watch a video about it? Today we have this unbelievably educational platform known as YouTube, and you can learn a lot of good things. Now, it can also be a terrible waste of time,
and we have to use caution with that, but it's also a great avenue for studying and learning the wisdom of this world, of this incredible life that we have. Our sages teach us to always ask questions. If you look in the Talmud, there's not a page that doesn't have questions on questions and questions, because when we're seeking more wisdom, when we're seeking knowledge, when we're seeking truth, we never stop asking questions. Ask why, and encourage your children to ask questions.
Jews are known as people of the book. No wonder why we are the envy of the world. The foundation of Judaism is wisdom. We say, v'lomadatem otam et b'neichem, you should teach. This is in the mission statement of the Jewish people, in the Shema that we recite three times a day. We say, v'lomadatem otam et b'neichem, you should teach your children. There should be wisdom being transferred from parent to child, from adult to youngster. V'dibartobam, always talk about the Torah, about wisdom.
We call a scholar in Judaism, we call them a talmid chacham, and that literally means a student of wisdom, because there are no graduates to wisdom. You don't ever get to a point where you're like, I know everything, and now I just don't need to learn anymore, because one who's thirsty for knowledge is a student of knowledge, and will never want to let go of an opportunity to learn more. We even pray for knowledge. We say, la'asok b'diveri Torah, to be immersed,
to make it our occupation to study Torah, like a trade, to completely occupy ourselves all the time. Man cannot be properly occupied with two trades at once. You can't run, you know, there are very few Elon Musks in the world, you know, between his recent purchase of Twitter, and running the Boring Company, and SpaceX, and Tesla, and all his other endeavors. It really is superhuman, almost, for someone to be so successful in so many different areas. Most people are not like that,
and that's a special talent and a special gift. Most of us need to focus on one thing at a time, and if a person wants to really grow in Torah knowledge, you have to make it your business, make it your number one priority. But we ask, Hashem, make it sweet for us, so that we can learn more, and we can be more engaged through the study of Torah. One needs to learn new things constantly. Ask someone to teach you something
that you never knew before. Everyone is filled with information, everyone is filled with knowledge, every human being has different life experience. Learn something new from someone else. Learn about yourself. You're likely the most interesting person you've ever met. It's sometimes scary for someone to get to know themselves, but it's actually a very rewarding and a very powerful experience to learn about yourself. And even if it entails asking someone else to give you a little piece of criticism
and to be an adult about it, and to take it as an opportunity to learn about yourself and to grow from it areas in which you can improve and areas that you can become better at. There's a difference between learning Torah and acquiring Torah. We can always go through the internet and just browse here and there on different articles of Jewish wisdom, but acquiring Torah necessitates immersing ourselves in Torah study. Now, I remember when I was in yeshiva, we had special time,
which was uninterrupted learning for many hours. Because typically you can learn for 10, 15 minutes and you get your coffee, you take another 20 minutes, a half hour, and you go out for a drink of water, you can have different interruptions. This was time that was dedicated to just learn, just learn without any interruption. Turn off the phones, turn off the radio, turn off the TV, turn off the computer, turn off everything and just be immersed completely in Torah study.
And that has a great power to really transform a person into something much, much greater than we ever believed possible. In a world with never ending technology and advancements in technology, we need to always innovate. You always need to innovate in your own learning. Find new ways to learn. You know, today, you may be listening to this through a podcast or a YouTube video or some other means of technological miracle. And there's no telling to when it is
that you will be listening to this podcast. But we always need to use new innovation to learn. And if a person is motivated to learn while they're walking and doing their exercise, then put the podcast on while you're walking and learning and jogging and doing your exercise. Or maybe while you're driving. But to never let an opportunity go by where you could have learned something and could have enhanced your own wisdom about life, about Judaism, and let it slip by your hands.
A person should ask, get in the habit of asking what, why, how, when, and not just what, and never be pleased with someone just saying, well, that's the way it is. A person should push themselves to ask more and demand more wisdom. Just because the rabbi said so doesn't mean anything. Gain a deep understanding of things. Don't suffice with shallow answers and pay attention to things going on around you and learn. In Judaism, there are no graduates.
You go to yeshiva, you go to kola, wherever a person learns all day learning, it never ends. So my dear friends, I look forward to the continuation of this journey of learning together and hopefully growing day by day on our journey to Shavuot. Thank you for listening.