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A refreshing and clear review of each Parsha in the Torah presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe
00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody to the Parsha Review Podcast. This is our fourth year in a row. Beratious start all over again. The first year we did the review of each Torah portion with some nuggets of inspiration, and then we did two more cycles of the entire Torah and now we're starting our fourth cycle of learning something special from every week's Torah portion. Now it's very easy to just put your finger on any verse in this week's Parsha. Easy to just put your finger on any verse in this week's Parsha Bereshit and come up with an entire lecture for two hours, three hours, twelve hours. I can keep you here till Shabbos. Okay, I can keep you here for a very long time Talking about any single one of the verses in this week's Parsha. You know it's an amazing thing, because what's this week's Parsha Bereshit? The beginning of the Torah, creation of heaven and earth. And you know what's really remarkable?
01:08
There's a rabbi who wrote a book about the seven days of creation, six days of creation on Shabbos, and he spent 25 years writing this book. And he came to Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, to the son of Rabbi Lachonon Wasserman, who was the head of the Yeshiva Baranovich. He was murdered in the 9th fort in Kovna. In the Kovna ghetto, he was taken from my grandmother's house. They knew that they were coming. The Germans were coming to take them. They told him to give a class, his last class he ever gave to his students. All the students were there was on Kiddush Hashem, on sanctifying God's name, and as they were taken from my grandmother's home, they were singing on imamen I believe in the coming of Messiah walking through the streets of the ghetto and they were taken to the 9th fort and murdered brutally by the Nazis. His son lived in Jerusalem, later, rabbi Simcha Wasserman. He lived in LA and then he lived in Jerusalem. He had a yeshiva called Oral Hanon.
02:16
I learned in that yeshiva, which was named after his father, and this individual who wrote this book spent 25 years writing about the seven days of creation and he asked for an approbation. He said please, can you write? You know a haskama, write an approbation for my book. And the rabbi's like I can't. He says why not? He says 25 years to talk about creation. It's nothing, creation. You could talk about creation, the creation, the seven days of creation, the first chapter of the book of Genesis, an entire lifetime, 10 lifetimes, and it's not enough. You won't even touch. The hidden secrets that are here are just unbelievable, which is leading me to tell you something really incredible that I heard from my father. May he live and be well. My father, we were once.
03:09
He used to come a lot for you know, we just finished our 21st Sukkot in Houston and my parents have come many, many times for Sukkot and it's an interesting thing that we never have a full week to learn the portion of Bereshit, the book of Noah, the parasha of Noah. We have an entire week, lech Lecha, an entire week. But here we have the holiday. We read, we just read on Wednesday, we read V'zos HaBaracha Thursday, friday, shabbos boom, you don't have a full week. You will never have a full week to learn the book, the portion of Bereshish. So my father and I were discussing this and he said because there are so many secrets in the portion of Genesis, hashem doesn't want us dealing with that, just like it's enough to get the superficial story of Hashem created the world in six days. What did he create in each day? Okay, and now move on. Move on, don't dig into the, because there's so many incredible and we have so many incredible books here in our magnificent Don Leavitt family library that it is. It's incredible how much Torah, how much wisdom there is, how many secrets there are in our Torah. Secrets there are in our Torah. So let's pick something, let's pick a verse that we can elaborate on and pull out a single pearl to hopefully inspire us for this Shabbos. So if we open up to chapter number one, verse number 25, we're in the middle of the sixth day of creation.
04:48
Vayas Elohim es, chayas ha'aretz and Hashem. God made the beast of the earth, limino, according to its kind, ve'es ha'be'im, a limino, and the animal according to its kind. Ve'es kol remes, ha'adam and the animal according to its kind, and every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind. And it was good. And then the next verse, just because some people have confusion about this Vayomer Elohim Naseh, odom B'tzalmenu. God said let us make man in our image. Next verse Vayivre Elohim Ese, odom B'tzalmo, b'tzelem, elohim Boro, oso and Hashem created. God created man in his image, in the image of God, he created him.
05:47
Zachar u'nekeva, bara osa. Very politically incorrect, okay. God created two genders, that's it, not unspecified, not gender, non-binary. It's either Zachar or nekeva. God created male and female. That's it. Hashem created, okay, so I don't want to get into the second part. That was just to make sure everyone understands that there are two genders. Okay, great, doctor, you agree, right, you're with me 100%? Okay, great. So now let's see what's going on. Just a beautiful pearl, so that we understand what's going on over here.
06:26
We have to understand that Hashem built into the nature of every single creature its own uniqueness, its own uniqueness. Every single animal has its own character. Do you know that they did a study? They locked up a cat for a long time, a very, very long time, and when they released it from it, it was a hostage, right. And when it released it, you know what it went to it was only together with cats. How does he know? How does he know to be with cats? Because he knows, let me know, he knows its kind. We all know our kind. Every single animal, every single species on planet earth knows its kind.
07:12
They tried to do. They had once a contest not a contest, a dispute with the Rambam, whether or not you can change the nature of an animal. They said, yeah, we can change the Rambam, whether or not you can change the nature of an animal. They said yeah, we can change the Rambam said you can't. So they said okay, so let's have a little show, we're going to prove it to you. We're going to prove to you that you can. And they had cats who were trained to be waiters and waitresses. Okay, they were trained, trained and they brought the Rambam.
07:45
Allegedly this is the story that they brought the Rambam in to see how the cats are going to serve them the food. And the cats are able to walk on two and bring them their food. So the Rambam was a little bit more clever. And the Rambam brought a little pouch. He said in this pouch is the disproof of what you're saying. And he released the mouse. What happened? All of the trays went flying and the cats went running.
08:13
Because you can't change. You can teach it new skills, but you can't change its nature. The nature of an animal is the nature of the beast. It is what it is. You can train a dog to have new habits, but you cannot change its essence.
08:33
So why is it important for us to discuss this, particularly in Parshas Bereshis? Because the Talmud says something unbelievable. The Talmud says what would happen if a Torah was not given to the Jewish people. We know the Torah right before we went live. Someone said the most important thing, right, mark, the most important thing is to study Torah. So what's if we didn't get a Torah? What's if we did not get a Torah? How would we know how to conduct our lives?
09:06
We know some things from common sense, but we also know that the Torah does not teach us common sense. The Torah teaches us beyond common sense. The Torah doesn't tell us do not murder. The Torah doesn't tell us do not steal. The Torah doesn't tell us do not steal. Oh rabbi says in Exodus 20 and the Ten Commandments it's, I think. It says not, do not murder. So what are you telling me? Nope, torah doesn't tell us do not murder. If you look at the explanation of what that means in all of the commentaries, do not murder does not mean don't take a knife and stab somebody to death. That's not what it means. That's common sense. Everybody knows that. It doesn't mean don't take a gun and shoot someone. Everybody knows that. It's common sense. The Torah doesn't tell us common sense. It means don't embarrass someone in public. That is not so common sense that we need a Torah to teach us. The Torah needs to teach us something that's beyond common sense. That's why it's interesting. You can ask next week's Torah portions Parshas, noach.
10:17
And what were the people of the generation of the flood? What were they punished for? For stealing, for murder, for incest, for all these terrible things? But they weren't warned. The Torah wasn't given. Yet how are they supposed to know that this is something that's indecent, it's something improper? Why are you punishing someone who hasn't been warned? Because the Torah does not need to tell you something which is common sense. You don't need a warning for that. You need a Torah to tell you do not murder and do not steal. When it talks about stealing, it's talking about something different and we can talk about that when we get to that in Exodus 20.
10:59
So where would we know Torah from? The Talmud says we would learn Torah from the animals, from the animals. We would learn Torah from the animals. We would learn what it means to be self-sufficient. Gemilut chassadim. You know the amazing, amazing thing. What is gemilut chassadim? Acts of loving, kindness. That's not what it means. The word gemilut it comes from the word gamal, which means a camel. What do we learn from a camel? What is the one defining characteristic of a camel? A camel doesn't like to ask for help. It wants to be self-sufficient. What's its defining feature? The humps, the humps on its back. What are those? It's a big jug filling it up with water. So when he travels on a long journey in the desert, he doesn't have to go to his own and say, ah, I'm thirsty, parched, I need some more water. He's got plenty of water to go. He's independent, he's on his own. You know to go, he's independent, he's on his own. You know what gmailut khasadi means? Helping someone be on their own two feet. Ah, that's a little lesson we can learn from what it means. We look at a camel now. It's an interesting and amazing thing.
12:16
Adam gave names. What is the name of the animal? The essence of the animal, the essence it says. Some people say that he actually lived in a romantic relationship with each animal. That's heresy. It's not true. He did not. What he did was he lived to understand the essence of the animal.
12:41
What is the main characteristic that got embedded into a cat? Modesty. You know where we would learn modesty from if we didn't have a Torah? We'd look at the cat and we would see how it digs its little thing. It goes privately and it does what it needs to do, and then it covers it up why it's called a chatul. That's what a cat is called. Melashon chitul. Chitul is a diaper when it's covered up. It's modest. What do we learn from a dog? It's called a kelev. Kelev is kol lev, it's all heart. It is so forgiving. You see people they say bad dog, stop. It Comes back a minute later it's wagging its tail. It's all excited. Well, I just yelled at you, shouldn't you be offended? Sometimes you have to learn to be, to be forgiving and foregoing.
13:35 - Intro (Announcement)
Yes, you take the dog and your. You have to learn to be forgiving and foregoing.
13:41 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Yes, that's right. We have to realize that Hashem gave us and we need to learn animals. We have to study animals. Animals are the. If we didn't have a Torah, says the Talmud. The Talmud is in tractate Eruvin 100b. The Talmud says if we did not have a Torah to teach us how to live life, we would learn it from the animals. King Solomon teaches us Leich el nemola, otzel ra'ei, dracheo v'chacham.
14:15
Go look at an ant, little ant, and look at how he doesn't stop for a second. He's busy all the time. You're lazy. Go look at an ant and see how he's busy. Be busy at all times. We would learn how not to be lazy. We would learn alacrity from an ant. What an amazing gift do we have? We have, so we look at this verse now again.
14:40
Let's see what God is teaching us here in this verse Vayas Elohim es chayasa aretz God created. That's the first thing. Is God created? Okay, it didn't just evolve. Okay, god created the beast of the earth according to its kind, meaning. Every beast has its dynamic, unique feature. Ve'es habe'im ha'limina. And the animal according to its kind Ve'es kol remes ha'adam ha'limineu. And every creeping thing on the ground according to its kind.
15:14
There's something we can learn from every animal. It says about King David. King David knew the purpose of every single animal, except for the spider. He couldn't figure out the purpose of the spider. It was like what was that created for? I mean, houston people wonder what cockroaches are for Like, why, why? Why did you create it, spider? When he was running away from Saul and he ran into a cave, what happened? The spider came and made a web right away to teach him what to say. His life was saved because Saul looked and he sees what? There's a web there. It can't be that King David's in there. The web of the spider saved King David's life. It's an unbelievable thing. It's an unbelievable thing we can learn from every single animal. Vayyar al-Lukim Kitov and God said it's good Meaning. There's something for you to learn from every single animal you look at. It could be not the most delightful animal to your eyes. It might not be that pleasant looking sometimes. There's a reason for it.
16:24
Hashem gives every animal. There's a book there's many books actually that you can find that have the safety of the animal. Every animal has a predator that attacks it and every animal has a defense to protect it. And it's an amazing thing. You can see there is actually a butterfly that on its wings it has these two circles. That looks, it makes it look like a what's that the owl. And when a bird wants to come and it sees the butterfly, so it's running after the butterfly to eat it. But then the butterfly settles his wings and it sees, oh, it's an owl, let me get away from here, let me run away, right, let me not it. But then the butterfly settles his wings and it sees, oh, it's an owl, let me get away from here, let me run away, right, let me not bother. Mess with the owl. But it's not an owl, it's camouflaged like an owl. Every animal is given. It's an amazing thing If you look at the National Geographic and you see all of these animals, how this animal falls prey to that animal and that animal falls prey to that animal.
17:38
And we sing this every single Pesach at our Seder, where we still we talk about each of the. You know the, the. The cat is, is eats, the right eats, each one, each one is, is, has had God, yeah, exactly, the cat eats, cat eats the sheep or the goat. And then there's the. The dog gets the cat and each one has its own, but we have to remember that our number one, the only thing we have to be afraid of, is not any animal. We have to be afraid of the Almighty Because, at the end of the day, that's our. We have to answer. Afraid of the Almighty Because, at the end of the day, that's our, we have to answer up to the Almighty. And I think if there's one lesson we can take in this beautiful new journey throughout the Torah is to take a lesson from everything we see. Learn something. We should be creatures who learn from every situation.
18:36
I'll share one more story. My grandfather used to get all of his students together. Every time he came to the United States he would bring all of his students. They would have like a weekend retreat where they would have some special event for all of his students. He had hundreds of students who would get together. One time my grandfather was very disheartened because he asked all of his students. He said go around.
18:57
What's the one thing you learned from being in the yeshiva, somewhere in the yeshiva for a year, somewhere there for 10 years? What's the one thing you learned in the yeshiva? And the one answer he wanted wasn't offered and he went through. He listened to what each one said. This one said this and this one said that. Everyone said their thing, he said.
19:20
The one thing I wanted my students to learn is to always learn from every situation. That's what it means to be a growing Jew. To be a growing Jew means I learn from every situation. Every situation is a message from God. Everything we see is a message from God. Everything we see is a message from God. God is communicating with us. There's no random, there's no happenstance. There's nothing that just happens by coincidence. There's no such thing. It happens because God puts you exactly where you need to be to get that message. You could be in the supermarket and you see a parent yelling at their child. You know like why did I need to be here? To see that I could have been two aisles over what God wanted you to see? Perhaps you need to change your parenting. Perhaps you need to see an image of what you look like when you talk to your children. God put you there exactly where you needed to be, to learn your lesson. If you didn't need that lesson, he would have made sure you were two aisles over. Everything we see is a reflection, a message that God is sending our way.
20:27
Hashem should bless us all to have an amazing Shabbos, to have an amazing journey through the Torah. It's the beginning. Please, my dear friends I tell you this all the time I urge you, open up the Chumash, open up the Pentateuch, whatever you want to call it, the Bible, the Old Testament. Take a copy, the Stone Edition Chumash by Art School I think is the best translation and just read the English. You don't have to read the Hebrew, just read it. You have any questions? Look at the commentaries on the bottom. I guarantee you it'll address your question. It will change your life. It will change your life. Read, just read it. Read the stories. It's exceptional. It's our guidance from the Almighty. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos. Thank you so much and I look forward to the journey throughout the entire Torah.
21:18 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.