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The Everyday Judaism Podcast (formerly Living Jewishly Podcast) is dedicated to learning and understanding the laws and basic how-to of daily Jewish living. Presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in a simple and concise manner, easy for anyone to understand and connect.
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by Marshall & Doreen Lerner.
Intro 00:01
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Ask Away series on the Everyday Judaism podcast. To have your questions answered on future episodes, please email askaway at torchweb.org. Now ask away.
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 00:20
All right, welcome back everybody to the Ask Away series in the Everyday Judaism podcast. It is so wonderful to be here this beautiful Sunday morning. And we are opening the floor to your questions. Before we begin, I have a few questions from our online listeners. And for those of you who are listening and watching online, you can ask your questions as well. Askaway at torchweb.org. You can send your questions in email and we will address it in upcoming episodes. Again, askaway at torchweb.org. So let's begin with the first question from Shlomi. Shlomi Ben Naim asks the following question. He says, is it wrong to leave a negative Google review for a restaurant? This review will be public and for people to see online. So what is the question that Shlomi is asking? It's an excellent question. The question he's asking is, are you allowed, you go to a restaurant, you have a terrible experience. The food wasn't good, whatever it was. And you leave a Google review that's going to inform people that this is really not a good place. What's the problem with doing that? It could be a possibility of lashon hara. Are you allowed to share a negative review publicly? So here's the thing. It really depends. If there's something which is a one-off experience that you had, you had an experience, one-off experience, it wasn't great, so then you're not allowed to share that. But if there's something that is really bad about this place and you want to help other people avoid this terrible experience all the time, then that's something that you can inform people of. So let's just quantify this. Let's say you go to a restaurant. I had a guy who told me, he said, I don't understand this. I ordered from a restaurant a basket of fried chicken or something, he said, and it only came with drumsticks. He says, what's wrong with them? So I asked him, I said, did you order this before? He said, yes. And did it come only with drumsticks? He said, no. So it was a one-time experience. Maybe they didn't have the other ones. I don't know exactly what happened, but it was a one-off experience. And he was telling me, I'm ready to leave a bad review. So in such a case, it's probably not a good idea to leave a negative for a single experience. Now if you go and you're there, you're walking in and you see that there are rats in the kitchen and there's bugs all over and it's unclean, that's something that's probably a good thing to inform others of. And that, by the way, there's another point here, is that every person who opens up a restaurant knows that people will review their quality of the food, the experience, the ambiance, the service, people will review it. So they're taking that into consideration in how they treat their customers. If they don't care, then they have a problem. So we have to understand that if it's a restaurant that is always serving you well, they're courteous, it's a nice place, the good food, one time you had a bad experience, that's not a, even if it's once, I go there every week and it was terrible, sometimes that one negative experience people think, oh, it's the worst thing in the world. It's not appropriate for one to leave a negative review for a one-off experience. So that, I hope, Shlomi, I hope that that is sufficient for your question and I look forward, if you have any follow-up questions, I look forward to hearing it from you, Shlomi. Thank you very, very much for sharing that with us. One more question from a online viewer. Elizabeth asks the following question. Do converts say Kaddish for their biological parents? Remember previously we discussed the power of Kaddish and this was in our prayer podcast. We discussed Kaddish, we had two episodes where we talked about the power of Kaddish and how it uplifts and elevates the soul. So Elizabeth is asking, what would someone do if they are a convert and now their non-Jewish parents have passed away, do they recite Kaddish for them? So I didn't know the answer to this question and I told you that if I don't know the answer to the question, I will tell you so. So I did not know the answer to this question and I asked my rabbi, he said, there's no place in Halacha that it says that it's forbidden. But I don't know what it's going to do for their soul. Now let's quantify this, okay? Abraham, who was his father? Terach. Terach was not a great guy. Terach was an idol worshipper. Terach was not put into the Garden of Eden, I can guarantee you that, for the way he lived his life. It says that Abraham succeeded in pulling him out of Gehennam and bringing him into Ulama Ba, okay? Even though his father was not Jewish, he wasn't a Hebrew, he was able to successfully pull him out and bring him into the world to come. So there is a power, again, I don't know, we don't understand the full dimensions of this, but there is merit that can be brought to one's parents who are not Jewish. If one converted, okay, I think it's an excellent question and thank you Elizabeth for listening to our podcast and for your beautiful question. Just in general, the power of Kaddish is something which is so exceptional. When we talk about Kaddish we have to realize that what is Kaddish? Kaddish means sanctify. We're sanctifying the name of God throughout the world. We're sanctifying the name of God through this world and all of the worlds. Yehei shemei rabba mevarach leolam u'lolmei olmayah, in the world of worlds. We're asking, we're declaring that Hashem's name should be everywhere. It's not only in the words that we say in the Kaddish, it's in the way we act. When we act in the way that God wants us to act, as prescribed in his Torah, we have brought already merit to this world, we're bringing godliness into this world, and the people who brought us into this world I'm sure will benefit from that as well. If someone decides they want to recite Kaddish for that, they can do that as well. One more question from a listener, and this, I don't know who this is, they signed off as anonymous, and their email does not say their name, it just says incognito burrito 613, so that's a good email, right? Incognito, right, so they asked the following question. I remember learning that smicha was an unbroken chain, and that that was where rabbinic authority came from. I relatively recently learned that smicha was broken at some time during the Talmudic era. From where does rabbinic authority now stem? How does it differ? Is modern rabbinic ordination substantively different from, say, passing a CPA licensing exam? What challenges does this raise? And in light of this, why does Orthodox Judaism still say that the rabbi's word should always be followed? Okay, so this is a great question. So let me give you the answer as I've discussed it with my rabbi, okay? We have to know that there's two different types of smichas. There was the smicha that was given by the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the high court that presided in the Temple. When the Temple was destroyed and the Sanhedrin was disbanded, there was no longer, and this is at the end of the Second Temple, there was no longer a way for the Sanhedrin smicha to continue to be given. So that ended then. However, there was never a time where the rabbi Talmud, which is called Netilas or Shus, accepting permission or smichas moreinu, meaning giving rabbinic authority from generation to generation, that never stopped. That never stopped. What we call the smicha of the Sanhedrin, that did, and that we don't have today. But the rabbi student, and we have this here in our document here that we keep very handy, we have all the way from Moses at Mount Sinai, all the way to us sitting here in this classroom, 131 generations of rabbi to student. Rabbi to student is very different than the Sanhedrin smicha. Yes, the Sanhedrin smicha ended with the Second Temple, but the rabbi student did not ever stop. And that's the smicha that we have today, the smicha that I was privileged to receive from my rabbis. I got it from the chief rabbi of Israel. I got it from Rabbi Yitzhak Berkowitz, my rabbi who I learned so much from and continue to learn from, and from Reb Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg. So these are big, big, big scholars, and they test you on big areas of Jewish law, and anybody can become a rabbi. You have to learn the sufficient curriculum. And get tested on it. And it's just like becoming a doctor, and just like becoming a lawyer, right? You need to qualify to get that title, okay? Now, so this is why, answering Incognito Burrito's question, this is why today we say that the rabbis today are certified as rabbis. Again, but here's the thing, though, it's very, the challenge is as follows. Is that we have to know what is the masorah. What is the, what does masorah mean? The tradition that's coming down from generation to generation. And today, unfortunately, there have been many who have just like, well, I'm a rabbi, and I'm going to ordain whoever I want. And they just go around making it very, very cheap for one to be called a rabbi, okay? Very, very cheap. There's a system to this, there's a process to how this should be done. And it should be with kovid rosh, with the seriousness of, to be a, someone who is able to share Torah with the next generation, right? It's very, very important for that, as a rabbi, for that to be done properly, and to be, to have the right considerations in that. Okay, so that concludes our online listeners. Thank you so much to all of our viewers who shared their questions. And now we're going to open the floor to our participants here in the classroom. Please pass the microphone. It looks like Ed the Kohane.
Ed S. 11:37
I actually have an opinion on the previous question. Let's go, go for it. It says in the Ten Commandments, honor thy father and thy mother. Yeah. And the Ten Commandments is observed not only by Jews, but by other religions too. So I think it does require you to say Kaddish for non-Jewish parents.
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 11:56
Okay. That's, I respect your opinion. Yes. So, yes, the Fifth Commandment in the tablets, in the Ten Commandments, is honor your father and mother. Yes. But we have to understand that when someone converts to Judaism, they're sort of in a spiritual way cutting the cord from their family, and also in a practical way, many times their parents and their siblings don't really like the fact that they convert to Judaism and they disown them. They're like, you know what? You're out. You're out of the will. Well, that's another story. All right. And this is something which there is a separation and a disconnection that happens when one converts and that's recognized. Now, Kaddish is dealing with the soul, and therefore the different souls that different people have, you know, can or cannot be influenced by the Kaddish. Okay. So we have to, we can get into this in another discussion, but there are different levels of souls and there are different functions that different people have, whether they're Jewish or not Jewish, they're, you know, everyone has their responsibility, which is why, by the way, in Judaism, we don't go out and convert people. Why don't we go out and convert people? Why don't we go out and proselytize? Why don't we go out and missionize? The reason we don't do it is because you don't have to be Jewish to get heaven. You don't have to make us feel good and join our group in order to be part of heaven. Every person, exactly the way they are, can follow the seven Noahide laws and get a perfect place in the world to come. There's no need for them to convert. They have seven laws, seven Noahide laws, and you're good to go. So why should we say to someone, don't take on seven, take 613 commandments, right? You got to be nuts, right? I once heard someone come to a rabbi, it's a true story, I was there, and they came to the rabbi and they said, rabbi, I think I want to convert. He said, you know, a psychiatrist is cheaper. You got to be crazy. All right, next question. You know the motto of Radio Shack used to be, you've got questions, we've got answers. No, no, no, I'm going to try. Go for it.
Eliana S. 14:28
Of the three blessings, how do you know which one to say?
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 14:32
Oh, okay. So we're going to talk about that in greater detail. If you want, I'll give you a very short primer on this, okay? On bread, you recite the full Birkat Hamazon, the grace after meals, okay? On wine and on pastries and on fruits of the seven, of the Shivat Haminim, of the seven species, you recite, so any of the five grains, the seven species and wine, you say the Alamechia. That's the abbreviated, that's the second one. And then on everything else, if you eat just the fruit, you eat just the vegetable, you eat just something which is Shachkol Niyeb Edvaro, any one of those, whether it be candy, it be chicken or meat, you recite Eboreh Nefeshot, okay? We good? We're good. Okay, next question. This is sort of related to Ellie's question and it's something that I am still trying to figure out exactly, and that is when you're dealing with something that may be not as it was in nature, for instance, pear juice, apple juice, pomegranate juice, it's not the fruit of the tree anymore. It's something a little different, celery. It's not a fruit. Lettuce, that's not a fruit, right? Do you default to Mizanot? Okay, no, okay, so here's a very good question. Very good question, and it's a confusing question for them. Let me ask you a question. Pringles. What is Pringles? It's a processed potato. It's no longer a potato. What they did was, they took the potato, they mashed it, and reformatted it into that shape of a Pringle. You do not recite a Borei Priha Adama as a vegetable, a potato, that you would, because now it's a new food. Mashed potatoes still has the same format, but, so mashed potatoes you would recite a Borei Priha Adama, Pringles you would recite a Shahakol Niyeh B'dvaro, okay? Now, apple juice, apples you'd make a Borei Priha Eitz. The juice is a Shahakol, okay? Once you change its original format, it now defaults to the lowest, except for wine. It goes up for the wine. You take the grape, the grape is Borei Priha Eitz. You squeeze the grape and you make wine out of it, it goes up in blessing, and now becomes a Borei Priha Agafon. Bread is always Hamotzi. So if you just have the grain, you have barley, you have any of those grains, wheat, then that would be, if you have, you make a oatmeal, right? You make oatmeal. Oatmeal is Mizonot. But once you make, you take that whole process, the 11-step process, it now becomes bread, and now you recite the Hamotzi. It gets elevated. What about pastries? Don't they have their own blessing on pastries because of Asher? Yes, so pastries you make a Mizonot. Pastries really should be a Hamotzi, but they're not because they're snacks. They're not eaten as a bread, as a meal. So because they're snacks, they have that different blessing of Mizonot. So all cakes and pastries is Borei Mine Mizonot, even though they're made from flour and water. Pretzels, the same. All of those types of food fall into the same category. Crackers that are also made out of flour and water are also falling into the category of, it's called Pas Haba B'Kisnim. We're going to talk about this soon in our halacha. Very, very interesting laws about it. It's probably the most confusing part of all of Jewish law is the laws of blessings. After blessings, desserts. Oh, wait till we get desserts. Forget it. You're not going to want to eat dessert from now on. You're not going to like, do I say a blessing? Do I not say a blessing? Was it baked? Was it cooked? Was it this? One that I have trouble with, and that is vegetable soup. It's all mixed together now, but it's all vegetables. Okay. So vegetable soup is very interesting. So the soup, you make a shahakol because that's the broth, the soup itself. But if you have full vegetables there, like you have a carrot in there, so the carrot separately is eaten with a Borei Prihadama. When it's in the soup, the shahakol is enough. Unless it's whole. If it's whole, then you can take it and make it a blessing.
Bruce S. 19:15
But if you're chopping everything up and you're putting it in.
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 19:17
If everything is minced together and made into one big broth, then it becomes a shahakol. Correct. Okay. Thank you. But if you have, for example, a barley soup, I love barley soup. So you have a barley soup. If you take a scoop of just the barley, that's a Mizonot. And then you take a carrot that's in there, you make a Hadama. And then you take some of the broth, and it's shahakol. You have three blessings in one soup. If you're taking it out of context and eating it by itself is what you're saying. Right. And that's usually the correct thing to do if it has one of the five grains, that it's proper to take that first. And there's a whole priority list. By the way, it's one of the big areas of halacha that people would test others on. If you want to know if someone's a scholar, they would put out in front of them a bunch of different foods and to see whether or not they knew the priorities of blessings. Because that's a very, very particular area of Jewish law that requires one to really know their beans, you know? Thank you. In a literal way. Know your beans. What about oat milk? Oat milk. OK. So that's always, again, that's all of these things that are changed from their format usually become a shahakol. Because it's no longer, it's a derivative really of the oats that's now been turned into a liquid and now falls into the category of a shahakol. Soy milk and almond milk. Soy milk and all of that. Almond milk. All of that.
Marc S. 20:45
Correct. OK. Go for it. Thank you, Rabbi. So let's say you finish your meal and then you say your blessing after the meal. And then you decide you want to eat some more. OK. So is that, like, are you not allowed to eat after you bless it?
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 20:58
No, you can eat. You're just going to have to recite another pre-blessing and another after-blessing. Oh, wow. OK. Which is fine. You can do that. Again, the idea here is we have to make sure that we give proper thanks to the Almighty. That's what we want to do. We want to give proper thanks to the Almighty. And thanks before and thanks after. And if you're able to put it into the big parenthesis of the hamotzi and the bekat hamazon, then great. Right? Otherwise, you have smaller ones that you can do outside of that. Any time. Now, here, I recited a shahakol before I started drinking my coffee. And then after I'm done, I recite a borin fashot after. And let's say you want to have another cup of coffee. So I can recite another shahakol later when I want to have another coffee.
Rosa 21:46
I don't know if this is a question or not, Rabbi, but what happens when you go back and forth, back and forth into losing faith, having it again? You know, sometimes you end up going to this shul and that shul and that shul and nothing
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 22:05
works. Okay, so let me introduce you to something very, very important. You have to know how much Hashem loves you.
Rosa 22:13
No, I know that.
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 22:15
Hashem loves you more than you can possibly imagine. And He doesn't care what synagogue you participate in. He doesn't care if you go to this synagogue or that synagogue. Do you know how much Hashem loves that you go to synagogue? No. Do you know how much He loves that you feel passion for your Judaism? So we need to feel encouraged, right? We need to feel encouraged in knowing that Hashem loves every single thing that we do. You know what? You came to a class. It's not your first class. You've been to many, many classes here. Many. Right? Do you know how much the Almighty loves that you're investing in your spiritual connection with Him? It's the greatest thing in the world. He's dancing on the rooftops of heaven saying, ah, look, she came to my class. She came to my class. Right? That's that. You have to appreciate that and realize that that is a massive, massive thing. Not to say, oh, you know what? I'm not a rabbi. I'm not a big scholar. I'm not. Every small step, every small step is such a huge leap in our connection with Hashem. Okay? So you have to know this. It's like we sometimes get carried away with like, I can't believe it. I made such a, think of the big picture, the big picture. We're going to synagogue. We're participating. We're learning. We're involved. Feel encouraged by that. That's an amazing thing. Don't beat yourself up. Don't beat yourself up. I can't believe I could have done better. I could have this. It's okay. Take the, zoom out a little bit. You know, when you're flying on a plane at 30,000 feet, you see all these homes. You see, wow, it's so beautiful. All of these fields. You see, it's amazing. You know what's going on down there in that field. They're like, oh, the fence, the fence is damaged. Just zoom out a little bit and see how beautiful it is. Okay? Zoom out and see, you have a house. Reb Nachman of Breslov, I recommend his books because he talks with such encouragement. You know, there's a book right behind you, which is called, Across the Narrow Bridge. Something like that. It's right over there on that last shelf. He writes over there, his first chapter is simplicity. First chapter about how Hashem communicates with us with simplicity, simple. We think everything is so complicated. I don't know. How am I going to say? I want to talk to God, but does God even hear me? Let me tell you a story, true story. I listened to my friend yesterday. My friend has been the whole Shabbos, he was walking, he told me he was walking on Shabbos back from synagogue. He said it was freezing cold and all he was doing was talking to God. He lives in the tri-state area. He says, all he was doing was talking to God. He said, God, I love you so much. I appreciate everything you're doing for me. Do you even hear me? God, do you even hear me? He says, God, I want to do for you. I want to do, I want to do, I want to be a giver. He says, Saturday night, tonight, this is yesterday it happened. I want you to send me somebody that I can give charity to. I want to give charity. Send me someone and that'll be my sign that you're listening. He called me last night and told me the story. So what does he do? He doesn't know. He goes, he goes here, goes there. Nobody's waiting for that phone call. He went to his son who's playing hockey in Long Island. He went to the hockey game after Shabbat and on his way back, he's like, you know what? I'm going to be passing by the Admor from Chabad, from the Lubavitcher Rebbe's grave. He's going to stop by, he's passing right by. He's going to go in for a prayer. He's there and he's praying, Hashem, please send me the message that you're hearing my prayers. Send me the blessing. Send me the message. I want to give charity to somebody, but somebody needs to walk over to me and ask so that I know that you're listening. Simple, very simple. The way we need to communicate with God is with simplicity. Don't try to be all complicated. Simple. God communicates in simple ways. He leaves the grave site. He walks inside and he sees somebody standing there. He's trying to fish for somebody to ask for it. He says to him, do you need anything? He's like, no, I'm just waiting for a ride. It didn't work. He's like, finally, somebody walks in, he says, I've never seen this person before. This person looks like he's confused and lost. He says to him, he sees him walking in, he says to him, is everything okay? He says, I don't know. Things are going crazy. I just need help. I just need someone. He says, here's the guy. Here's the guy. He sent him to me. He pulls out $1,000 and gives it to him. He says, you're the person I've been looking for all day. You're the person I've been looking for. I've been looking for the message from God that God is hearing my prayers. And he gave it to him. And he's telling me the story on the phone yesterday. And he was crying. He says, Hashem hears my words. Hashem hears everything that's going on. We can communicate with God in the most powerful way. And by the way, you don't need to be in synagogue for that. You can be anywhere. God hears your prayer when you're at the grocery store. And God hears your prayer when you're at the library. And God hears your prayer when you're in your car waiting for the red light. God hears your prayer wherever you are. Talk to God. Communicate with God. Just talk with your words, your lips. Hashem, open up my lips and my mouth will speak your praises. It's simple. Open your mouth and talk to God. That's what we're looking for. That's the whole thing. So don't get hard on yourself and like, ah, I can't believe it. It's okay. Just talk to God. God is right there waiting to hear your prayers. You know who didn't go to synagogue ever? Abraham. Isaac. They know you. Isaac. Rebecca comes on the camel. And where's Isaac? He's standing in the field and praying. He didn't have a synagogue to go to. He's talking to God. It's perfectly fine. Oh, he didn't have a binyon. It's okay. Talk to God wherever you are. Keep it simple. Keep it simple. Hashem loves everything. He loves that question because that question comes from inside of, I want to feel close. I want to feel connected. Excellent question. Thank you, Rosa.
Marylin R. 29:09
My question is from what we discussed last week about Jewish people not being fighters, but yet they have the strongest army throughout the history of the Jews. You know, Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho, we're fighting right now. I don't understand why we're taught that Jews are not fighters.
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 29:33
Okay, it's an excellent question. So first is, we, our might and our strength, which we take great pride for, the Torah tells us don't. The Torah tells us don't take pride. Hashem yilachem lachem, v'atem tacharishun. If you speak to the soldiers who go into Gaza, and you speak to the Air Force pilots, and I have, I've spoken to them, they will tell you that the miracles that they experienced are supernatural. I spoke to a fighter pilot who was, during the Six-Day War, he was flying. He said, we shot over there, and the plane over there blew up. He said, we had no idea. He said, there was miracles. Miracles happened in front of their eyes. He says, we were shooting there, that, we didn't even see that plane, and it blew up. He said, all the time we saw miracles. I speak to, I have a friend of mine who's a commander in the IDF. He said, the miracles you cannot imagine. You cannot imagine. You want to hear a story? An amazing story? There was a group of soldiers. It's not from this war. It's the previous, the previous time they went into Gaza. The soldiers were going into a building, and the whole building was booby-trapped. They're going to go in. All of them would die. Certain death. An old lady came to them, and she said to them, so a lady, they had no idea who she was. She said to them, do not walk into that building. Do not walk into that building. That building will, it's full, it's all booby-trapped. Do not go in there. And they didn't go in. They sent in a robot, and the whole building exploded. And the lady suddenly disappeared, gone. And that happened time and time again, where this woman, they had no idea who this woman was. Now, some said, some said that they had the opportunity to ask her, who are you? She said, my name is Rachel. My name is Rachel. Perhaps it's our mother, our matriarch, Rachel, who protects us and takes care of us, right? So yes, we have an army, but do you think the success is coming? It's not, it doesn't, it's not natural for such a small country with such a small military to have such might. It's only because Hashem is behind us that we have this might. It doesn't make sense for our military to be the most unique and the most, it's not strong. The brilliance and the things that they come up with, the technology that they develop, you know that now they have this iron beam, not the iron dome, the iron beam, which is a laser, which costs them $3 to knock down a ballistic missile of $100,000. It costs them $3 to take it down. It's an unbelievable technology. It's an unbelievable gift. You know why? One of the reasons, in the 80s, Israel was developing an aircraft which was going to be more advanced than the stealth. It was called the Lavi. And the Lavi, they presented it to the Americans, the Americans said, no, you can't produce this, because they were going to need parts, they were going to need things from the United States. They said, you can't produce it. And that's when the partnership began with the United States that don't develop it, we'll give you our stuff. And they shared a lot of their technology with the United States. And you have this. More than Israel gets of their $3 or $4 billion in military aid from the United States, America gets $50 billion in technology, in advanced warfare technology. So it's a gift from Hashem, and that's what we have to always remember. Yeah, we feel mighty and we're like, oh, the Jewish people, the IDF, the this. Remember that there is a big, big God who's protecting us and who's defending us. And although we work hard to make these accomplishments, they're supernatural. And we have to be very, very cautious about taking pride, like we did something. We have to always remember that it's Hashem who's protecting us. So about being warriors, what happened with Jericho? They circled around the city and then they blew the shofar and the walls fell down. It's supernatural. You don't, I've blown the shofar by a wall and it didn't fall down many times, okay? So you have to understand that what's going on here is not natural victory. When we have the hand of Hashem near us and we are close with Hashem, Hashem says, I got you covered. Don't worry about it. You can make your airplanes and you can do whatever you want to do with your technology. I've got you covered. Okay? And when we have like the Six-Day War, where we were outnumbered by tanks, we were outnumbered by planes, we were outnumbered by soldiers, we were outnumbered by everything in the world, by money, everything, and you still had the USS Liberty spying for Egypt, right? There was a lot of things going on. Even your friends weren't your friends. And what? They still came out victorious. Not only they came out and they were able to, they got more land. They got Jerusalem back. So these are things that are supernatural. It doesn't make, it doesn't add up. And the only way to explain this is that it is Hashem yilechem lachem. But there is a verse in the Torah, Hashem fights our battles. Hashem fights our battles. Which is why it's very important for us to have also soldiers in the military and also soldiers in the study hall studying Torah, because that preserves our relationship. They're both equally important. Okay? My father served many years in the military, in the IDF. So I'm not opposed to serving the military, but one should do both if they can. Serve in the military and study the Torah. They both preserve the Jewish people. I saw a film of an interview of the Jordanian soldiers who were fighting against the Israeli, and you can hardly call them soldiers, in 1948. And they asked him, they said, they had six Israelis there defending that wall in Jerusalem. Why didn't you, you had hundreds of soldiers, why did you not overtake them and attack them? And to a man, the Jordanian soldiers said, there were flaming angels standing next to those six soldiers, and you think we're going to attack? So even our enemies recognize that God fights our battles for us. Yep. Yep. And this, these are things that I've heard time and time again. The miracles that were displayed is just unbelievable. We talked about it here in our class, about the open miracles of the ballistic missiles that were coming from Iran, and how many of them did damage in Israel? Two. Very few. They sent hundreds and hundreds of ballistic missiles, you know, ballistic missiles could take it all, a whole town. And what happened? Nothing. Two of them. It's the hand of God. God is flicking them out of the ear, just like he did with Amalek. Amalek was shooting arrows at the Jewish people, defenseless Jewish people, and God is just flicking them out of the air, sending them back at them. Right? That's what happened. We see this in front of our eyes, and we have to declare it as a miracle. We have to recognize it and appreciate it, and thank Hashem, and feel closer to God because of it.
Eliana S. 37:16
Earlier before class, I came across that list of way back when, and all the times that we've been persecuted and killed. And I thought to myself, it's a miracle that we're here, that we're sitting in this room.
Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe 37:31
That's right. It absolutely is. Which is why we have such an incredible appreciation. I see you wearing a USA cap over there, you have an American flag on your cap. We have to have an incredible appreciation and gratitude for the United States of America. It's the only country in the history of the world that did not persecute the Jews for their observance of the Torah. The British did, the Russians did, the French did, the Spanish did, the Romans did, the Greek did, you name the people, they persecuted us for our observance of Torah. We're about to observe Hanukkah in a week, we're lighting the menorah, why? Because the Greek came after us. The Greek, they said, do not learn Torah, do not perform the bris on your babies, do not observe the Shabbos. And what happened? The Jewish people persevered. Only nation that has not done that to us is the United States of America. We are able to sit here and learn the way Rabbi Kiva couldn't with his students. We're able to sit here and learn the way so many of our sages had to hide. They were hiding in caves, they were hiding in fields, they were hiding in forests to learn Torah. And here, openly, not only that we learn Torah, we share it online, we're on Zoom, we're on live broadcasts on all of these social media platforms, we're being produced on podcasts. Open to the world, anybody wants to learn Torah. What a gift we have. What an amazing gift that we're able to, and that list that you're referring to is right here, I have a five pages, this is a really small font, five pages, where the last 2,000 years, there hasn't been 10 years without the Jewish people having either an expulsion, a forced conversion, book burnings, property confiscation, synagogue burning, I'm reading off a list here, another expulsion, forced conversion, massacres, synagogue burning, synagogue burning, synagogue burning, expulsion, expulsion, you're talking about from France and you're talking about from Spain and you're talking about Jews enslaved in Toledo, Judaism outlawed in the Byzantium, Italy, expulsion, Orleans, massacre. I mean, you look through the list here, it's not 10 years. I have five pages, small font, all the way till 2023 in Israel, the massacre of the 1,200 Israelis with rapes and beheadings, and it's just, it's unfathomable. And what are we doing right now? We're sitting here with all pride and glory, studying Torah. We're not going to hide, and we're not going to cower, and we're not going to give up our passion and our relationship with Hashem. My dear friends, have an amazing week. Thank you so much.
Intro 40:31
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