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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.
0:03 You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
0:11 Welcome back, my dear friends, to day number four in the study of the Shara Bitochon. So we left off that we had ten ways that someone who has Bitochon in Hashem supersedes the alchemist. Who's the alchemist? He can create money.
0:28 He can take the material and create money. The first of the advantages of Bitochan over the alchemist is He says the alchemist needs tools to work, such as tools and additives without which he cannot accomplish anything. If he doesn't have his tools, whether it be the fire, the tin, the silver, he needs something.
1:03 And he cannot be assured that he will find it at all times and in all places. So his profession cannot guarantee him provisions at all times. By contrast, one who trusts in Hashem is guaranteed to receive his provisions at all times since Hashem can provide for him
1:32 Hashem can provide the most remarkable miracles for a person. They have no idea. You know, there's a famous story told. I'm saying it's famous because I heard it multiple times.
1:44 But it could be that it's not famous. So let me share with you. This guy comes to his rabbi and he says, Rabbi, I want to meet Elijah the prophet. He says, Elijah the prophet, let me tell you exactly.
1:56 He says, I want you to go into the forest. Walk all the way far, far, far. There's a cabin there. Before you go, it's going to be Rosh Hashanah this week, he says.
2:07 I want you to go and make sure you bring all your food with you. Everything that you'll need to feed three more people. Okay, very interesting. And then I'll be able to see Elijah.
2:19 Then you'll see Elijah the prophet. So he goes, he goes into the forest, he goes deep, deep, deep and actually sees this cabin. He knocks on the door and he sees there's a woman, a widow with two children. So they say, how can we help you?
2:33 He says, I came here to be here with you. And he brings them food and they have food for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Like it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.
2:45 This guy came out of no place and he's, you know, treating them so nicely and making sure they're all taken care of. Okay. And after Rosh Hashanah, he's like, okay, I got to go. He goes back to the rabbi. And there he says to the rabbi, he says,
2:59 rabbi, I went there and it was a widow and two children and I didn't meet Elijah the prophet. I don't know what you're talking about. So he says, you know, it's going to be the holiday of Sukkot. to go back with food.
3:17 But before you walk in the door, stand by the door and wait a little bit. And then you'll see Elijah the prophet. So the kids, the mother, are having that conversation. He gets to the door and he overhears the conversation.
3:36 The kids are saying, Mommy, Mommy, we're hungry. When is Elijah the prophet going to come back to feed us? And then he realized. Each one of us, we are that Elijah the prophet.
3:48 God sends every single creation the resources they need. We have no idea how, in what way, what we do has an impact on somebody else where it fits perfectly that puzzle for them to get what they need. You say something to somebody else. You have no idea that that person just needed that compliment at that time.
4:10 You're like, I just told them to have a nice sweater. Look, what's the big deal? It's like, it was a nice sweater, so I said it. They needed that.
4:18 Hashem sent you to say that. Every one of God's creations, it says, Talmud asks, what is God busy doing now? What's God busy doing right now? You know what the Talmud says?
4:30 God is making matches, bringing husband and wives together. That's what he's doing. It's not such a big deal. We have J-Date.
4:39 We have J-Swipe. We have all of these apps for dating. It's not a big deal. God can be busy with other more important things.
4:46 Like I was sitting with someone today. He says, you know, God has bigger things than your issues to handle today. You know, he's dealing with a war in this world. That's a big mistake.
4:58 God is dealing with every single one of our issues. So how does that play into God making matches? Because to make a match, how many things need to work just perfectly for you to meet your soulmate? I said the story previously.
5:18 There's a woman I know. She is from Moscow. And her husband is from South America.
5:28 Do you know? How many things needed to work right for them to get to the party that they both met at in New York City? He needed to bounce around the whole world to get to New York. She needed to bounce around the whole world to get to New York to be in the same room at the same time to meet and for their eyes to lock and for them to, quote, fall in love and get married.
5:54 You know how many things needed to work right? A billion different details had to work right for that intersection to work. That's why. It's not that God is doing everything that leads up to all of those things.
6:08 It's a whole worldview. It's a whole big plan to bring it all together. God is taking care of us every single day. Every one of our needs.
6:19 So he says someone who has trust in Hashem is guaranteed to receive his provisions at all times. Since Hashem can provide for him from any of the world's resources.
6:40 As the verse states in Deuteronomy, He fed you the manna, God fed us the manna, right? In order to make you know that not by bread alone does man live, rather by everything that emanates from the mouth of Hashem does man live. We live because God decrees it.
7:00 We live because God gives us those gifts. On top of page 15, the precedent that the manna... teaches us that Hashem will sustain those who rely on Him in all circumstances. Chavaz Avovah cites numerous examples from later times in which Hashem actually did this.
7:21 Ki Asibos Eino Niftzaros Mimeno Bechol Eisu Bechomokom For resources are never inaccessible to Hashem. Not at any time and not at any place. As we know from the episode of Elijah the prophet with the raven and with the widow, in which Elijah was miraculously supplied the food while he was hiding during a period of famine. During the time of Elijah, if you look at the bottom number 29, they give us the history here.
7:56 A large part of the Jewish people led by the wicked king Ahav worshipped the idol Baal. In order to inspire them to repent, Elijah announced in the name of Hashem that there would be a famine in the land. Hashem then told Elijah to hide from Ahav near a brook so that he would have water to drink. And Hashem promised to send ravens that would supply him with food.
8:24 Ironically, the ravens brought Elijah meat from the butchery of Ahav, the very man from whom he was hiding. After a year passed with no rain, the brook dried up and Hashem sent Elijah to reside with a widow who had no more than a handful of flour and a bit of oil. She fed Elijah as well as herself and her son.
8:50 With that flour and oil for an entire year, for the container of flour and flask of oil did not run out as long as she was feeding Elijah. So, are there miracles? You know what they say about, just recently was the yard site of, it was a great, a great, a great tzaddik, a great sage. I don't know why it's slipping my mind right now, but he was a person who was known for giving and giving,
9:20 humanity. Anybody. Even, you know, Jews who came from far and near. Non-Jews who came from far and near. They say that he would go out and give bread to poor people.
9:30 Shailah. Repshailah of Kerestir. Very good. Repshailah of Kerestir. Right? Repshailah was known, was known.
9:36 Both Jews and Gentiles. He gave everybody. He would leave his house on Friday with challahs. And he would go to poor people.
9:43 And he would go with 20, 30, 50 challahs. And he gave out hundreds of challahs as they're possible. He only left with 50. say that a miracle transpired where his basket never ran out he kept on putting his hand in and giving and giving and giving they're like he's gonna run out soon he didn't he kept on giving kept on giving
10:01 why because that's the way the miracle of from hashem comes when someone does on such a level it god has no limits i'll tell you personally I've experienced a miracle or two in my life. I was a number of times where I was running out of gas in my car. I was running to class.
10:20 This is back when I used to drive out to Sugar Land. And it was about 15 miles I needed to drive. And I was like, I'm empty, empty, empty. But I'm like, I can't stop now for gas because I have class.
10:35 I'm going to be late for class. I can't be late for class. You know, I'm very meticulous about being on time. So what happened?
10:43 I was like, should I stop? Should I not stop? And I said, well, you know what? Hashem
10:46 wants me to teach the class, so I'll just keep,
10:48 I'll have enough gas. It already ran out of time on the odometer telling me, fill up because you only have 20 miles left, you have 10 miles left, zero miles left, fill up, fill up, fill up. That has passed a long time before. I don't know why I didn't, for whatever reason I didn't, okay?
11:04 So, okay, fine, shame on me. But Hashem provided here this miracle. I was like, it is impossible that I'll make it there with enough gas. And behold, I did.
11:14 Oh, yeah. Every single time. Okay. This is the gift.
11:18 I'm telling you, it's a miracle. Unbelievable. Me and Rip Shaila. Okay. With the never running out of gas. Okay. The precedent.
11:23 I still had to fill up, you know, since then. So we see that there are miracles that Hashem performs.
11:34 And from the incident of the angel, which an angel brought, Elijah, a coal-baked cake and a jug of water. And you can also learn this from the episode of Ovadia. With the hundred prophets of Hashem, during the same famine, King Ahav sought to kill the prophets of Hashem. And they went into hiding into caves.
11:59 Since food and water were very scarce, and the prophets were unable to emerge from hiding, they could not have survived through ordinary means.
12:21 However, Hashem gave Avadia the means to provide for them. As he said to Elijah, I hid a hundred men of the prophets of Hashem, 50 men in each cave, and sustained them with the food and water. So there is, Hashem has no limit in resources.
12:41 We know that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who we celebrate his passing tonight, we know that he was in a cave for 12 years with his son and sustained himself on water and... Caribs. That's it. Twelve years.
13:00 How do you survive? It's a miracle. Chovetzel Avavo cites two additional verses which show that Hashem always provides for those who place their reliance on Hashem.
13:14 It's a verse he brought last week where he says, It is further stated, young lions may want and hunger, but those who seek out Hashem will not lack any good. As it also states in Psalms, There's no lacking.
13:50 This question. I said, Rabbi, he was an author. This is Rabbi Shlomo Ariely.
13:58 He was my rabbi 30 years ago. He would take a cab everywhere. He would go from the yeshiva to his house with a cab. From his house back to yeshiva with a cab.
14:15 Cabs are expensive in Israel. So I asked him, I said, as a concerned student, and I was very close with him, I said, Rabbi, how do you afford life? I mean, you have a family, you have children, you're writing books, which are not being sold at a profit. You know, it's like publishing and publishing and publishing.
14:36 And you take a cab everywhere. I said, how is that possible? So he gave me two answers. He says, the first thing is, those who seek Hashem will lack nothing.
14:50 You will not lack any good. That was the verse he said to me. He says, I'm seeking Hashem my whole life. This is it I do.
15:00 I learn Torah, teach Torah. That's it I do. And therefore I lack nothing good. It's a promise from King David.
15:06 And then he brought me a Rambam. The Rambam says that There's a promise. At the end of the, in the laws of Shemitah, we know the Torah promises that one who rests his crops on the sixth year, in the seventh year, is guaranteed a triple crop on the sixth year. The sixth, the seventh, and the eighth.
15:30 Because you have to get everything started over again. Now the whole eighth year you're busy just reestablishing your field. You're covered. It's a promise in the Torah, which, by the way, is one of the proofs that the Torah is a godly document because a human being can't make such a promise.
15:46 And if you go to Israel on the sixth year, you ask the farmers, and even secular farmers now started observing the laws of Shemitah, they will tell you it's a miracle, an absolute miracle. They leave their crops on the seventh year, they had a triple crop on the sixth year. Guaranteed. Exactly how the Torah describes it.
16:08 The Rambam says in the end of the laws of Shemitah, one who dedicates their life to Torah is promised a bumper crop every year. Now, you don't have a field. Hashem will take care of you. It's his problem.
16:23 My rabbi, a different rabbi, had 13 children. He passed away at a young age at 53 years old. And I was very, very, very close with him. And I asked him, he had lung cancer, and he was an anti-smoker.
16:37 And I was like, not only he didn't smoke, he was an anti, you know, very, like, that was the one thing. You could do anything in his yeshiva, he wouldn't throw you out. You smoked one cigarette, you're done. There was no tolerance, zero tolerance.
16:51 He's an American, he grew up in Chicago. We have Beryl Eisenstein, what an amazing man. I was so close with him. He's like a second father to me.
17:00 And I asked him once, I said, Rebbe, you have 13 children. How in the world? In Israel, when you marry off a child, you got to provide them an apartment, right? You pay rent, you buy them an apartment for the daughters.
17:13 And he had most of his kids' daughters, of course. I said to him, how do you do it? And his response was the most remarkable response. I write a check.
17:22 I said, and how do you cover that check?
17:24 He
17:25 says, that's Hashem's problem. And the check never bounced. Well, yeah, get some distant uncle from Florida who passed away and left him. I don't know what it is.
17:38 Because there's no limit to Hashem's goodness. It's the biggest challenge. People don't understand how people live in Israel. Now, it happens to be that Israel is a booming economy.
17:50 Their GDP is the best in the entire world right now. Their trade of the shekel versus the dollar is the best it's ever been. It's awful for Americans because it's a bloodbath. It used to be four shekel for a dollar.
18:05 Now it's less than three. The first time ever. It's less than three. It's like 2.9.
18:10 It's a disaster. It's unbelievable. Israel's doing very well economically. But those who are sitting and learning Torah...
18:19 They're sitting and learning Torah. They're not earning a living on the stock market. They're not earning a living with real estate. They're sitting and studying Torah.
18:28 That's it they have. And yet the blessing that God bestows upon them. is just literally miraculous. It's miraculous.
18:39 It's nothing short of miracles. And I ask this when I'm in Israel, I ask people, how do you sustain your family? How do you pay your mortgage? How do you pay your electric bill?
18:50 Like, how does it happen? And you know what everybody's answer is? It's a miracle every month. I have no idea.
18:57 It's a miracle every month. That is the, you understand that when you live with reliance on Hashem, it doesn't need to make sense. You know what they say? Two plus two equals whatever Hashem wants it to be.
19:10 We said on Sunday a different answer. But right now it's whatever Hashem wants it to be. And it doesn't make sense because we grow up in our American economy. Two plus two is very clearly four.
19:24 Unless you work for the government and then it's $14 billion in your account. Maybe through USAID. Okay, I'm not getting political here. I'm just kidding.
19:34 But we have to realize that when we're living in the hand of Hashem, anything, anything, absolutely anything is possible. Hashem can do anything. There's no limit to the goodness of Hashem.
19:53 So what is the second advantage of Bitochon over the alchemy? So the first we said is that the alchemist needs resources. He needs to have tools. He needs to have materials in order to create his dollars, in order to create his gold and silver.
20:08 While Hashem does not need someone who trusts in Hashem, Hashem can give you goodness out of thin air. The mana came out of nothing, right? Hashem had it descend at your doorstep. What's the second benefit?
20:22 We said there are 10.
20:24 V'asheni is that the one who trusts in Hashem is better off.
20:38 He says in order to succeed at his work, the alchemist needs to perform many difficult activities and tasks without which he cannot achieve his goal. He must work long hours mixing chemicals and heating metals in them in his effort to turn the metal into gold.
21:02 And he can even die from their fumes and the smoke of the burning chemicals. Due to his constant work and extended toil with these dangerous materials night and day. Hence, although the alchemist may be confident that he can earn a livelihood, His occupation causes him concerns about his health.
21:33 He says,
21:58 Hashem's providential care. When you put your hands in Hashem, you put your trust in Hashem, you put your life in Hashem, Hashem's embrace protects you from everything.
22:11 Anything that Hashem may bring upon your way, even if unfavorable, will be a source of joy and gladness for Him.
22:32 And his sustenance comes to him with tranquility, calm and serenity.
22:43 As King David says in Psalms,
22:51 In lush meadows, he lays me down. Beside tranquil waters, he leads me. The third advantage of bitachon over the alchemy is... The third thing.
23:12 The alchemist cannot trust anyone else with his secret out of fear for his life. Because they'll kill him and now I can make the gold. I don't need you. So he's afraid to share his secret.
23:24 By contrast, one who relies on Hashem and one whose reliance is on Hashem. We're on page 18. He's not afraid of anyone on account of his Bitochen. I have full trust in Hashem.
23:40 On the contrary, he's proud of it. He'll share it with everyone. King David says, Because of my trust in Hashem, I have no fear what man will do to me.
24:00 I have full trust in Hashem. I'm not worried about
24:02 anything. No one's going to kill me for it. No one's going to hurt me. No one's going to take anything away from me. I have full power over my circumstances because I'm in the hand of Hashem.
24:16 So you're not afraid. It's like the story we said last week. That baker who shears his secrets of the trade with his competition. He knows Hashem is going to take care of me.
24:27 I have nothing to worry about. He's not going to take away business from me. Because the business that was promised to me for this year, I will have. The income that I was supposed to get, I will have.
24:38 And no one can take anything away from you. Give away your secrets. No trade secrets. Nothing to worry about because I'm in the hand of Hashem.
24:46 Again, if a person puts themselves in that situation where they're completely reliant on Hashem, there's no greater confidence. There's no greater security. There's no greater worry-free, stress-free system in the world, anxiety-free system in the world than being in the hand of Hashem. Again, I've had so many experiences where you run a program, you run a dinner.
25:14 And I've spoken to people who've done this as well. And I asked them, I said, tell me, were you ever worried what's going to be? Because there's so many different pieces that need to come together perfectly to make the event successful. And you're worried, you're trying to put everything, you're trying to do everything.
25:29 Sometimes you just have to let go and it'll happen on its own. And just let Hashem do His thing. You don't have to force Hashem's hand. He loves you.
25:38 He'll take care of you. It'll come. Just relax, take it easy. Hashem, again, let's go back to the introduction here.
25:49 The introduction is Hashem loves each and every one of His creations. Hashem will take care of every one of His creations. It's we who pull ourselves away from God where we say, no, no, no, no. I need to have all hands on deck here. I need to make sure.
26:05 I need to ensure my success. I need to... Oh, it's too much you. Let go.
26:10 Let God. Okay? Okay, so this concludes day number four.
26:22 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. you