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The Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection is the one-stop shop for the Torah inspiration shared by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in one simple feed. The Jewish Inspiration Podcast, Parsha Review Podcast, Thinking Talmudist Podcast, Living Jewishly Podcast and Unboxing Judaism Podcast all in one convenient place. Enjoy!
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
00:10 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody to the Parsha Review Podcast. We have some catch-up to do. Parsha's Matos-Masei, the last two portions in the book of Numbers of the book of Bamidbar, and I just want to share an idea from each of the portions. We know Maaseh. We talk about all the travelings. The Jewish people travel. They went here, they went there and we see also in Parshas Matos, we see the war that the Jewish people were going to wage with the kingdom of Midian and it's interesting that what does it say? It says Elephlamate, elephlamate. There's going to be a thousand from each tribe. Imagine you have the massive kingdoms, the massive kingdoms of Midian, there are four kings, maybe four or five kings, and you have big militaries, big armies, and what did the Jewish people have? We just have a thousand soldiers from each tribe, a thousand soldiers, and it's almost laughable, like we, yeah, prepare yourself for war.
01:15
And, by the way, who were these people? These were the righteous, the scholars, anybody who had fears, worries, concerns out. You can't come. You're newlywed out. You can't come. You got newlywed out. You can't come. You got to be with your wife. You have a new house, you have a new vineyard, all of the restrictions that we see in the book of Deuteronomy. If you had any doubts in your emunah, in your trust in Hashem couldn't either come. You have to be 100% confident. What happens?
01:43
12,000 is the entire military of the Jewish people and they're not exactly very trained. You know sharpshooters, snipers. They go out small nimble army and they go out and they fight Midian and they win. Not only they win, we see the loot. When they come back with the loot, you're talking about 450,000 sheep, massive, massive. What they conquered, it's just unbelievable. It's unfathomable. How can 12,? Not only that, not a single soldier died, not a single soldier died. So we have to know.
02:26
One very important first point here Is that it's not a numbers game. It's not a numbers game. When you have the hand of Hashem, you don't need numbers. When you don't have the hand of Hashem, numbers don't help, numbers don't need numbers. When you don't have the hand of Hashem, numbers don't help, numbers don't help. So when the Jewish people fought against these kingdoms and these are mighty kingdoms, yeah, their little 12,000 representatives, one from each tribe, was enough for them to come out victorious and to overwhelm them and to bring them to their knees and and to destroy them. It's amazing. It's amazing how we see the parallel. For us as jewish people today, we're the small little country of israel if you think about it. We're the small little country of Israel If you think about it.
03:31
One of my friends just gave an example. He says the amount of people you have in China is over a billion people in China. So if you want to know the exact number of how many people, it's like, the rounding error of number is the amount of people we have as Jews. About 15 million is the give or take, I don't know. 15 million more, 15 million less that's the exact number of the Jewish people, the rounding error of the Chinese.
03:53
We're not a very impressive size in numbers, but look at our impact. Look at our impact. The greatest impact of any nation on planet Earth is the Jewish people. Whether it's the devices we hold in our hands, the computers, whether it's medicine, whether it's science, whether it's agriculture you name it the Jewish people are on the front of the line in innovation. Why? Because it's not about the numbers. Your success does not rely on what we think is. It's not dependent on what we think is the key to success.
04:39
I think it's such an important lesson for each and every one of us to understand that you, as a single individual, you count so much, you're so valuable, you're so precious. And why is the book of Bamidbar called the book of numbers? Because we're counted time and time again. Why does Hashem count us so many times? Because to tell us that each and every one of us are precious. It's like you count. Every dollar is precious One, two, three. You count each and every one. Hashem. We're more precious than gold and silver, more precious than gemstones, more precious than anything in the world. Hashem loves us so much. So that's one thought on the parasha.
05:22
When we turn to the second portion, there are two portions together. It's an incredible, incredible verse. The second verse, chapter 33, verse 2. Vayichtov, moshe's moza'ehem lemas'ehem al pih. Hashem ve'e lemas'ehem lemoza'ehem.
05:38
Moses wrote their goings forth according to their journeys at the direction of Hashem. And these were the journeys according to their goings forth. Key words here are at the direction of Hashem. We have no idea why Hashem sends us one place, sends us another place. We come here, we go there. We get a job here. We get fired from the job. We get another job. We come here, we go there, we get a job here. We get fired from the job. We get another job there, and then we get a raise and we get a promotion, and then they suddenly fire us and we go to another city. We go traveling from place to place and we have no idea what in the world is going on over here. Jump along for the journey. This is Hashem doing what the Jewish people needed to go 42 different stops along the way. Al pi Hashem it's Hashem guiding us.
06:35
I want to share with you. I just you know, one of the challenges that I had this summer actually came because of a great blessing. The blessing is that I married off two children. This summer actually came because of a great blessing. The blessing is that I married off two children this summer. Baruch Hashem. I thank you, hashem. My daughter got married in May and my son got married just a couple of weeks ago, in July, and it's an incredible blessing. It's unbelievable, but what brings about for my son, out of a million girls, to pick a perfect wife for him, and my daughter to find the perfect boy for?
07:09
her the perfect husband. It's like all the different things you had to go one place to meet a person who introduces you to that person, who then suggests an idea, and then it's like all of the different pieces that need to come together. Al pi, hashem. Hashem guides us, hashem puts us here. Hashem is the puppeteer moving the strings here, moving the strings there, telling you come here, go there, go there, talk to this person. They interact with that person. It's unbelievable. You see the yad hashem. You see how hashem directs us and guides us and puts us exactly where we need to be.
07:45
And when we see these things, we need to stop and recognize Hashem. Thank you for guiding us, thank you for putting us in the exact place we needed to be, at the exact perfect time. It's such a gift. But we need to stop and recognize Moshe. What does he do? V'yichtov? Moshe es motze'em. Moshe writes it down.
08:08
Don't forget the places you went to. You think it's random. It's not random. I have no idea why I had to go there.
08:17
Well, write it down, figure it out, spend some time, investigate, see how the hand of Hashem is guiding you every single step of the way. My dear friends, the Torah is here to give us this guidance, to shine the light, so that we can always have the spotlight of understanding how Hashem is guiding us every single step of the way. Spotlight of understanding how Hashem is guiding us every single step of the way. It's a gift. When we're able to see it and it's open, bright in our eyes, we're able to see ah, right there, we see him, right here, we're able to see it in front of our eyes.
08:58
We need to open up our eyes. We need to see it. We need to see the love that Hashem shines upon us and how he guides us through our lives to meet the perfect people that we need to meet in our lives, to be inspired by the right things, hopefully Not to put our places in a place of challenge and limit that light. Hashem should bless each and every one of us to go forth in our lives to go on that journey, to understand that it's the hand of Hashem that guides us and hopefully, elevate everything that we interact with, every person we interact with, and elevate, more than anything, ourselves to see the hand of Hashem always in front of us. Amen, we should always go in great, healthy, successful ways. Have a magnificent week.
09:51 - 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.