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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.
00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
So we look in this week's portion, this week's Torah portion, is Parsha Shelach. We send in the spies to go look at the land, to survey the land, to tell us what's going on. And the question our sages ask is what in the world is going on with our spies? The spies go into the land of Israel, they come back and they have a negative report on the land of Israel. By the way, if you complain about the weather in Israel, it's considered that you've given Lashon Hara about the land of Israel. You complain about anything in Israel, it's debas haaretz. You're not allowed to. This is what the spies.
00:56
That same sin could apply to any one of us. We talk about anything negative about Hashem's blessed land. It's really devastating. You've got to be very, very careful. So what does the verse say?
01:10
The verse says Shlach l'cha anoshim v'yosur aseretz kanan. Send people, not only people, distinguished people. These were the heads of the tribes, these were the representatives of the people. These were the representatives of the people. These were righteous people and they should go and investigate the land. Ashar, I need no sin Livnei Yisrael that I'm going to give to the Jewish people. Another one of the hundred sources in the Torah that tell us that Hashem is going to give the land to the Jewish people. You know why the land of Israel is ours, not because it's our team and we win. It's an amazing thing. I'm always amazed how you can have in baseball, you have a base runner who's running to second base, slides into second base and two sides of the stadium see two different things. The side who's on the team of the runner says he's safe and the side who's on the team of the defense says he's out. How could they have both seen the same exact thing and see two opposite sides of it? Why? Because we always go for our side. It's our side.
02:30
You know, when I went to the Hamas rally in Austin, there was a whole article that was written about it. I sent it to you. Anybody who still wants it. You can read it in the AMI magazine, you can read it online, amimagazinecom. Whatever it is, either way, I went with the reporter Shlemi Zients, a friend of mine, and we went to the Hamas rally. We were undercover, we were dressed like Arabs and with a kafia, with a head covering the whole thing, and I remember that I was looking at these people's eyes and you hear them yelling from the river to the sea. You know all of these things, all of these slogans, and they believe it. They believe it. And here I am. I believe that I'm right.
03:16
So is it just like two sides of the stadium that everyone believes they're right and that's it? Everyone sees their side and that's it. But there's an umpire, there's an umpire. And here Hashem, in his Torah, tells us I'm going to give the land to you. It's your land. That's why we're right. We're not right because I'm Jewish and I think that I'm right. No, we're right because Hashem says we're right Because Hashem, the creator of heaven and earth, said this land is for you.
03:53
If Hashem would have given it to the French, it would be the French's, and if Hashem would have given it to the Germans, it would be the Germans. If Hashem would give it to the British, it would be the British. But Hashem gave it to us. It's our land and we're proud of it and we're not going to back down from it. So why are they fighting us if they know it's our land?
04:13
Again, like we mentioned previously, the nations of the world. Their job is to whip us into shape and to get us on track. That's their job, and when we follow the way of Hashem, they have no power. When we don't, hashem says now your job, get up and make sure the Jewish people get back into shape. So that fierce fight that they have, it's because they know that they have a responsibility too, to get us into shape. It doesn't make them righteous. By the way, don't think for a second that, oh, so the Germans. Well, if that was decreed by the Almighty? So they just fulfilled the will of Hashem? No, there's a decree from heaven. But they were the ones who said oh, we want to kill the Jews, we're volunteering. It could have happened by a plague, it could have happened by many other ways. The Germans said no, no, no, no, no, we're going to jump, we want to do this, we got this, god, we got this, we'll handle it for you. That's cruelty and that's why they're going to burn. So now, so now, the Torah tells us here the righteous of each tribe, the leader of each tribe, anoshim, distinguished people, they're going to go and they're going to investigate the land. One man per tribe. Okay, the verse tells us that you're sending the leaders of each tribe per tribe. Le'mateh avosav tishlochu kol nesibohem. Okay, the verse tells us that you're sending the leaders of each tribe.
05:50
The Rashi says Rashi asks a question. You always have to look at Rashi. Rashi is the great commentator. What does Rashi say? He says whoa, whoa, whoa.
05:57
What did we finish with last week's Torah portion? We finished with Miriam. What happened with Miriam? Miriam said slanderous things about her brother and then she was put in solitude. She was in quarantine for seven days. The entire nation waited because it was in her merit that they received the water Bear, miriam, right, okay, so now what? They resume their travels and now the Jewish people want to investigate the land of Israel.
06:34
Question Rashi says why does this portion of Shalach of sending the spies immediately precede the story of Miriam? So Rashi says why did she get punished Because she spoke slanderously about her brother? These wicked people didn't take a lesson and they went. They didn't learn Musser, they didn't study, they didn't introspect, they didn't realize one second. I see something going on here. I should take it. Take it into my heart. It should have an impact on me, it should transform me. No, oh, that's an interesting story. Great, now, let me just do my thing. Great now, let me just do my thing.
07:47
Our sages tell us the importance that every single day. I'll read you a quote from one of the. I don't even know where it's being brought down from, but he says Sh'adam man, every man, every human being, mekabel mi deyom biyomo gets every single day. Every single day, we get multiple reminders from Hashem, guiding us, giving us focus on things that need to be focused on Ubekach lehisorim terdemas hazman, not to allow us to fall asleep, so to speak. We could be the, you know, sleepwalking all day, not realizing that Hashem is sending us a message. My grandfather said that in the great Mir Yeshiva, the head of the Yeshiva, rabbi Rocham Levavitz, would give a discourse regularly about current events. You know, we talk about current events and everyone cringes. I don't want to talk about politics, I don't want to talk about the debate. I don't want to what.
09:07 - Intro (Announcement)
That's not it.
09:08 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
09:10
That's not the Jewish way. You know why you do talk about it. Not because it's a blood sport, not because no, you talk about it because there's something that we need to learn from current events. Rabbi Yeruchim would talk about pogroms, not pogroms, protests that were happening in other countries, and he would talk about it to his students so that they learn what the lesson is for us. Make it practical. Make it real in your own life. How are you going to change from this story? Things happen in the world. We see it, we watch the news. We're like huh, okay, keep on sipping on our coffee, but how is it going to change us? Why did Hashem make that story happen? And for you to see it, the Baal, shem Tov, tells us everything you see is a mirror reflecting back at you Everything.
10:07
I've given this example a hundred times. You're standing in the supermarket and you see a parent yelling at their child. Why did you need to see that? You could have been two aisles over and not seen it, not heard it, why you could be driving and you see road rage. People are fighting and arguing. Why did I need to see that? Why did Hashem put me right here right now so that I see this. When you're watching the news, you're listening to the news and you hear a story about a murder, about a theft, why did Hashem make it that I see that now? I could have been in the other room and not seen it. These are questions we need to ask ourselves every single day. Why did Hashem make it that I be right here right now so that I see that, so that I hear that, so that I experience that Hashem is sending me a message? What's that message? Because the more we question what's going on around us, the more we will wake up ourselves and awaken to the reality that Hashem is communicating with us every single day. Hashem is communicating with us on a regular basis. We think like, oh, every once in a while I'll have this aha moment. This is wow. This is Hashem talking to me. No, no, that's every day. This is Chazal. This is our sages of blessed memory, who tell us every single day, god is communicating with us on a regular basis, things that happen to us.
11:53
You know, I said this story a while back, but my daughter and I I used to teach in the girls' school. I used to be the first class in the morning. So I'd get up. I'd go run to Davin in shul. Come home, get the kids ready and my daughter like, get her out of bed. She's a teenager, come on, get out of bed, get out of bed. Finally she gets up. I'm like you know what? I gotta go teach now, let's go. So it'd be about three minutes, three and a half minute drive from my house and it's you know, we'd leave if we got all the lights, we'd be there on time. So I told my daughter we need to daven, we need to daven, we need to ask Hashem that he help us be on time. And I'm telling you it was almost on a regular basis as we'd get to the light green, as we get to the next light green, the next light green, the next light green.
12:48
You think it's not Hashem communicating 100%, it's Hashem communicating. When that happens to me, by the way, on a regular basis, wherever I'm going, I drive and boom turns green from. Like, hashem, love you. Hashem's communicating with us constantly, and it's not only with green lights, it's with every interaction you have with a person. Someone says something nice to you, someone says something kind to you. Hashem gives you an opportunity to help someone. Hashem is communicating with us. The problem is if we, god forbid, become the wicked spies who don't learn lessons. It's like okay, sorry, miriam, you're a misfortune, sorry that it didn't work out for you. Nothing to do with me. Me, I'm a righteous guy. No, it's not me. That's not the way of the Torah. The way of the Torah, we see that Moshe takes a lesson from everything that goes on. Aaron takes a lesson from everything that goes on. What was Aaron's response when he found out that his two sons died? Vayidom Aaron, he stood still, remained silent. Why, our sages say, he took a moment to contemplate this is the hand of Hashem.
14:19
Is Hashem talking to me? Is Hashem perhaps punishing me? We see that Aaron was later called into the temple. He was called into the tabernacle. Why? Because he felt if Hashem just punished me, he's upset at me. Hashem says no, you're welcome in, come in. Hashem is communicating. Hashem is communicating with us all the time and this is, I think, the most important lesson we need to learn constantly in everything that we see in the Torah the communication that Hashem has with His creations, and if we can wire ourselves to understand that Hashem is not hidden.
15:03
A year and a half ago, I had the magnificent privilege of traveling to Israel and spending a week with my rabbi traveling the land of Israel. I have a picture with my rabbi with binoculars, looking into Syria from one of the bunkers. You know it's like it was amazing traveling the land of Israel with my rabbi and hearing. So I remember one of the questions that the guys asked is how do we teach someone to see Hashem? How do you teach someone to see Hashem? He says what do you mean? He says you don't need to teach, it's everywhere, hashem is everywhere. Hashem is communicating with us all day. Hashem is communicating. We need to just open. This is unity to TD. It's everywhere, hashem is everywhere. Hashem is communicating with us all day. Hashem is communicating. We need to just open up our eyes to it, our sensitivity to it, to see the hand of Hashem everywhere. And the more we feel that closeness and the more we desire that closeness, because it's a reflection, kemayim, panim, opanim just like your face reflects in a mirror or in water, the closer you get to it, the closer it gets to you. The closer we get to the Almighty, the closer the Almighty gets to us. It's like any relationship a husband and wife. If they don't talk, if they don't spend time together, they're going to distance from each other. They get closer. They talk, they spend time together, they play games together, they have fun together. They get closer and closer with one another. With the Almighty, our relationship is no different, although we're not playing a game of checkers with God or a game of chess, but it's a regular communication. That's why we pray three times a day morning, afternoon and evening. We have a prayer.
16:57
By the way, the obligation for prayer is not only for men. The obligation for prayer is for every human being to talk to Hashem. It's not necessarily to open up the prayer book and to go through all of the prayers. That's not necessarily what it is. The biblical obligation is to talk to God every day. Our sages crafted a magnificent prayer for us so that we touch every note. So we pull every string.
17:29
At times we forget things. Oh, I wanted to pray about that, but I forgot about it. I didn't remember their name. You can pray, you can talk. Gamara says that if you're praying for a friend, you don't even need to say their name. You don't need to know their Hebrew name, their mother's name for healing, for recovery. Hashem heal my friend. So, and so I don't know their Hebrew name. Hashem knows who your friends are.
18:01
We're living in a world of communication. We have cell phones. We communicate. We have telephones, if anyone still uses those. We have emails, we have ways to communicate. That is unbelievable and in a way it cheapens. It cheapens our value to communication.
18:26
You know I'm very, very our value to communication. You know I'm very, very stubborn. I'm very stubborn not to write anything, any text, in shorthand, right or like my children do. I don't. I write back in full, with capital where it needs to be capital, with commas, with question marks, with exclamation marks, with periods with everything that's necessary in a proper structure sentence. Why? Because it's a form of communication, it's expressing me. I don't say you know, are you right? That's not the way we communicate. We talk things out, we use words. So I'm stubborn about this. I will only you know. It's like okay, but I think that when we talk and realize that Hashem is communicating, hashem is texting us, so to speak, on a regular basis. It may have somebody else's name on the top, but Hashem is sending us a message here. We have this all day, but what we need to learn is that we have to learn is how to interpret those things and bring them into our lives. Now. It's an amazing thing. We mentioned this last night in our class, but that episode won't be released for a while.
20:00
Our sages bring down that over here. In this verse they're referred to as Anashim. The spies are referred to as distinguished people, but later on they're not referred to as anything. Almost they're not referred to as distinguished people. So why, over here, does the Torah say it as distinguished? Because right now they didn't do sin. Right now they were people who were holy and distinguished. But what are they going to do? We know what they're going to do. That's irrelevant right now. They're righteous people.
20:38
So, my dear friends, I can't say this enough if you have the opportunity to open up the Parsha of this week, just read the words. You will smile and say like, wow, I'm telling you. It's like you know, there are people who spend. I know some of my children. They read Harry Potter. They're reading it for the seventh, eighth, ninth time. These books are this thick.
21:05
Open up a Chumash, read the Torah. It's much more interesting. It's much more helpful. It's much more helpful. It's much more valuable. It's much more enriching. It's the most incredible book. We should take our own Torah. The reason the nations of the world come after us is because of this Torah. Let's be proud of it. Let's know what's in it. You will find gems that are just unfathomable, like I can't believe. I never knew this before. I have this every week, by the way. I have this every week. Look through the Parsha again and again and listen to the Torah reading and it's like this is amazing. This is our Torah. Let's own it. Let's make it ours.
21:51
My dear friends have an amazing Shabbos, so the first thing we need to start with is think of our physical body. Can this. See this can't see. Why not? What's missing? Well, it doesn't have an eye, right, it doesn't have eyes, that's number one. But it doesn't have an engine behind it.
22:16
If I went to you while you were sleeping and I opened up your eyes, would you see me? If you woke up, you'd see me, but if you were sleeping you wouldn't see me. But your eyes are there. Your eyes are there, but you won't see me. Why not? What's missing? What's missing your soul, because when you sleep, a sixtieth of your soul is taken and God restores it. When we awake, awaken, awaken. The first gift you have every single day, where Hashem is communicating with you, is that Hashem restores your soul. You open up your eyes. You're like Hashem believes in me. One more day, hashem gave me another day. That's a communication, but that's a communication. Hashem is saying today, the world needs you, the world cannot survive without you. Hashem says I'm imbuing this holy, dignified, pure, beautiful soul into you. Oh, that's communication number one. We're able to pick up our hands. We're able to. It's like the amazing gifts we have every single day. But then the things people say, the things we see.
23:37
I remember a very memorable story I was in. We were on vacation and in the hotel we were staying in they had a very, very big grounds of you know you can go bike riding on all these paths. It was very, very nice. I was riding with one of my younger children and my child tells me he says I really want to see a deer. I heard that there were deer on the property. I want to see a deer Three o'clock in the afternoon. Deer don't typically hang out at three o'clock in the afternoon, they come at night, they come in the afternoon. They come at night, they come in the morning. It's like that's not exactly the time.
24:10
So I stopped my bicycle and I stood next to him and I said to my son I said do you know who can make a deer appear right now? Hashem. Hashem created everything. Hashem can make a deer appear right now in front of us. Why don't you ask Hashem? So he did, he closed his eyes. He says Hashem, I really want to see a deer. Can you please make a deer appear in front of us now? So we continue writing after that little prayer and behold a deer, these little things that we communicate, we could see.
24:52
What could the skeptic say? You think Hashem made the deer appear. The deer was there all along, you just didn't see it. Okay, so now you saw it. Okay, so it's like you know it's coincidence that it happened to work out like that. No, if you want to live in a world with a relationship with God, then you have to see God's hand, and you're not going to see it always open in front of your eyes. It's not always going to be there in front of you saying hey, this is me, I'm Hashem. I brought you your deer to see right here. I took a picture of that deer so we can remember this. But I took a picture of that dear, so we can remember this, but people don't understand.
25:33
You've heard this story before the guy who was driving around New York City trying to find a parking spot. He's about to close a big business deal, he can't be late. He says God, god, please, I'm going to give 10% of my profits. I'm going to give it right away. Just find me a parking spot. God, he's circling the block, cannot find a parking spot. God, 20%. Then, right in front of him, a car pulls out. He says God, never mind, I got it myself.
26:01
Okay, Hashem is communicating with us every day. Hashem loves us. He's giving us life. He's giving us life. He's giving us life. He loves us. He wants a relationship with us, with each and every one of us. All we need to do is reciprocate in that relationship and talk, and you know what we can do, as Hashem doesn't need chocolate bars and Hashem doesn't need gifts, right? That's not the way we. The currency that we work with, are the mitzvahs. The way in which we perform a mitzvah you want to give Hashem a gift the way you perform a mitzvah, the joy that you have when you light the Shabbos candles, the joy that you have when you pray. When you talk to Hashem, it's not just that I'm oh, oh, I have a mitzvah. I better do my mitzvah, otherwise Hashem will smite me, right? No, that's not the way. It's not about a fear. It's about a joy and a love.
26:55
By the way, we're going to talk about this when we do our next episode. Where's the prayer book? Oh, here it is, right in front of my eyes. I want to read to you the introduction to the prayer of to the blessing on Sitsis. This is on page number four in the Wasserman edition of the Art Scroll Sitter. Okay, so I'm going to read it on page five, here on the top left For the sake of the unification of the Holy One, blessed is he and His presence in fear and love, to unify the name, the name of Hashem, yud-k and Vav-K, in perfect unity, in the name of all Israel. So what we're doing is, first thing we're doing is we're saying we're about to say the name of Hashem. I want you to know that this is I'm putting it all in.
27:50
Okay, but now let's read this, the following prayer. We're going to do this again when we talk about the prayer of tzitzit appropriately next week in the prayer podcast. I am ready to wrap my body in tzitzit, so may my soul, my 248 organs and my 365 sinews be wrapped in the illumination of tzitzis, which is the numerical value of 613. Just as I cover myself with a talus in this world, so may I merit the rabbinical garb and a beautiful cloak in the world to come in the Garden of Eden and a beautiful cloak in the world to come in the Garden of Eden. Through the commandments of Tzitzis, may my life force, my spirit, my soul and my prayer be rescued from the external forces. May the talus spread its wings over them and rescue them like an eagle awaking its nest, fluttering over its young. May the commandment of Tzitzis be worthy before the Holy One. Blessed is he as if I fulfilled all of its details, implications and intentions, as well as the 613 commandments that are dependent upon it. Amain selah, imagine putting on our talus after saying such a prayer. It's elevated on a whole level and we didn't even explain what this means. Like Garden of Eden wrapping eagle. What's going on over here? That's what we're going to talk about in our prayer podcast.
29:29
Understand that there's such a precious relationship that we're trying to build with the Almighty through his mitzvahs, through the commandments of the Torah. To us it's like, well, it's a four-corner garment put on the strings and here we go. It's so much more than that. It's so much more. It's a whole analogy of this world. It's every mitzvah in the Torah is combined in this mitzvah. It's equivalent. There are seven mitzvahs that are equivalent to all the mitzvahs of the Torah. Tzitzit is one of them and we have the great privilege to wear that. We're the luckiest people on earth because every moment that we have a mitzvah that we not only we're, but we're able to connect with on a minute-to-minute basis, we're feeling that closeness with Hashem.
30:22
Now again, because it's a mitzvah which is dependent on time. It's a time-bound mitzvah. Women are not obligated to this mitzvah because women have an inborn relationship with God which is far deeper and greater. They don't need the physical tie-down to a mitzvah, they don't need to wear the talit, they don't need to wear the tefillin, they don't need to perform any mitzvah which is time-bound. My dear friends, let's have an amazing week, an amazing Shabbos. I look forward to an amazing, safe, healthy summer.
30:58 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. We need you, we need partners. 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.