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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!
Welcome back, everybody. We're way number 37. Way number 37 is, V'lo meigis libo b'talmuddo, don't... The first, gasurach is someone who's arrogant of nature, but it's talking here about a number of different things. Number one is, if you merited to learn a lot of Torah, don't become arrogant. Don't be all haughty about what you've accomplished in your Torah study, number one.
Number two is that don't be complacent either. Don't become bored from the Torah that you study. They say that the greatest Torah sages of our generation weren't gifted from the womb. They weren't forever righteous, or Moshe Feinstein didn't wake up one morning and know all of Talmud inside out. He worked very, very, very, very hard on learning the Torah, on reviewing it, and reviewing it again. My rabbi, may he live and be well, Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz, was once in a car ride with someone,
and the person said, you know, it's not fair, because you know everything, and you just remember everything. He said back then, that's not fair. I spend hours and hours every day reviewing, and that's why I know it. I don't just remember it. And in Torah, we can never be complacent with how much Torah we know. There's always a need and requirement, it doesn't say, well, if you know the whole Torah, you don't need to learn more. No, no, no.
V'higi sabba yomon valayla, you should study the Torah, this is in the beginning of Joshua, you should study Torah all day and night. It shouldn't be like, oh, I know enough Torah, now I'm good to go. Our sages teach us also that a metaphor to Jewish life is the metaphor of the ramp in the temple, the ramp that led to the altar. The ramp that led to the altar, why wasn't it a staircase? Staircase would be much simpler, much easier, instead you have a ramp.
And it was prominently displayed in the temple. To teach you, on a staircase you can stagnate, on a ramp you can't, you're either going up or you're going down. Another thing we learn is that a staircase is pre-engineered growth, while a ramp, each one grows, takes a step according to their ability. A step from one to the next is whatever the engineer decided. So whether you're a child or a senior citizen or a young teenager, you have to take the same size step.
Someone who goes up a ramp can take their own size step, they can take a bigger step, they can take a smaller step. And that's what we learn about Jewish growth. In Judaism, you take your own size step, but also you can never stagnate. One of my favorite things I share many times is that in TORCH, we believe that there are two types of Jews. There are growing Jews and stagnant Jews. And in every label of Judaism, whether you're Reform, Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist,
you can find people who are growing and you can also find people who are stagnant. And our goal is to be ourselves growing Jews at all times. When someone goes rock climbing, the most important thing is the next peg that you're putting in. Don't put it in too far. You put it in that peg too far from you, you'll fall all the way down. So take one small peg, one small step, one small step, but you can't stop.
Just like the pulse that we have, the pulse of a human being, whether your pulse is a rapid pulse, tachycardic, or your bradycardic, and it's a slow pulse, you've got to have a pulse at every moment. So to the study of Torah, we should always have constant growth, constant taking another step. What's my next step? What's my next step? And there's no vacation from our personal growth. Be busy doing something always. Don't take life for granted. Life doesn't last forever.
We mentioned in a previous podcast that time is not money. Time is life. Time is life. People think money is the most valuable thing. It's not true. Money is not the most valuable thing. And a person needs to utilize, we all need to utilize every moment we have and maximize life. Don't give up on yourself, keep trying and you'll make it. The Talmud says that the way in which a person desires to go, they will be guided there. The heavens will guide you.
open up the doors for you and suddenly you'll be there. You try to put forward an effort, yes, it's important, but never give up on yourself. Because if you really desire something, you'll get it. Don't be duped by the next product that says new and improved. New design, same grade, right? In Judaism, we always need to improve and excel and take a step forward, get out of our comfort zone. The incredible thing about our yearly cycle in Judaism is that every year we have a Rosh
Hashanah, we have a Yom Kippur, we have a Sukkot, and a Simchas Torah, and a Hanukkah, and a Tu B'Shvat, and a Purim, and a Pesach, and a Shavuot, and a Lag B'Omer, and all the fast days. Every year we have it. But you know what? Every year, are we the same person? No, we're not the same person. Every year we need to learn it again and every year it needs to be on a higher level. Challenge ourselves. You know what?
I'm not going to look at my notes of last year. I'm going to create new notes this year. Challenge yourself to be a new and improved every year. Utilize Pesach. This Pesach, I'm not going to say over the same things I said last year, Pesach. I'm going to learn it with a fresh perspective. You know why? Because I'm different. I've grown this year. Now the Torah that I learn and teach should be on a higher level as well.
You say you know it, but learn it again and you'll see how much there is yet to discover. I've mentioned this previously, that there are times that I learn something and I feel like I know this inside out. I know every source, I know every idea in this concept, even in these 48 ways. And suddenly I hear a lecture from a rabbi, I learn a Ramban, I learn from someplace else and I'm like, oh my goodness, how come I never even thought of that?
It opens up an entire new avenue of thinking where I feel like I was sleeping until now. The more we learn, the more we review, the more our depth of knowledge will grow and our clarity will grow from it as well. The Talmud says that someone who learned something a hundred times versus someone who learned something a hundred and one times is two different things. You learn it a hundred and one times, you know it much better than you did when you knew it a hundred times.
I'll tell you a quick story about Rav Moshe Feinstein. He once called his nephew, Rav Michal Feinstein, and he told him he gets a mazel tov. He says, what are you talking about? He said, I get a mazel tov, I finish the Talmud four times. He said, you finish the Talmud four times, what are you talking about? He says, a few years ago, 15 years ago or so, you called me and you told me that you finished the Talmud a hundred and one times.
He says, yeah, it's my fourth time finishing it a hundred and one times. Our sages knew and know the Torah inside out. Rav Chaim Kuniewski passed away on Purim this year. He had a schedule, a rigorous schedule, a daily schedule of what he learned. He'd wake up at the crack of dawn and he would study 10 chapters of Rambam, 10 pages of Talmud, 10, I mean, the unbelievable, and he was always sitting and learning.
You can't find a single picture with him, not with a Talmud open in front of him, a Midrash, a Yerushalmi. Someone once walked over to him and gave him a quote. He wanted to know, is there any place in the Torah where it says this and that? He says, on second, it's not in the Torah, it's not in the prophets, not in the writing, it's not in the Babylonian Talmud, it's not in the Jerusalem Talmud. Ah, there's a Midrash that says that. You know what I'm saying?
He went through everything that he was learning. He can tell you, the great sages, you know the way they used to test their students? They used to learn the entire Talmud. They would review it and review it and review it and review it. They knew it so well that the questions weren't like, what's his opinion? What's that? They would ask them to the degree, how many times is Rebbe Kiva's name mentioned in this entire Mesechta, in this entire tractate?
My uncle is a very brilliant man and my brother-in-laws, right when I got married to my wife, I told them that my uncle has what's called needlepoint knowledge of the Torah. And you know what needlepoint is, is you take a book of the Talmud and you point like this on page 72 on iron bays, Ahmed Aleph on the first, what does it say? So we pulled that and he can tell you. So we pulled out a Talmud and we said, oh, tractate Menachot.
He says, okay, you gave me the answer. You already told me about tractate. What you can do is you just open up the book, read one line of the Talmud and tell him where is it. I tested him. I did this. And he can tell you, I'll tell you, oh, that line is brought three times. It's brought in tractate this and this on this line. It's brought in tractate this and this and this line. Exactly. Why?
It's because Torah is not just an accessory item. It's not a subject that we just learned. It's life. It's life. And that's the goal is to not only to learn it, but to live it and for it to be our everyday guide to how to live life. In order to be great, we must wake up from complacency. Don't be complacent is the bottom line. When it comes to Torah knowledge, when it comes to Judaism, does anybody who loves sports ever be complacent?
I don't need to watch any more games of baseball. I've watched enough games. No such thing. Someone who loves baseball wants to watch another game, wants to watch another football game, another basketball game. It's a World Series. I don't need to watch it. I've seen enough. No. Because someone whose desire, someone whose desire is to learn that, to be inspired, so to speak, by it is never satiated. Our desire for Torah should be no different.
If you don't think life is fantastic, try missing one day. I actually saw a quote from me in someone else's status. I don't know if he took it from me. But I said, God is the biggest believer in you. The fact that you're around today is the sign that God believes in you. Every morning we say, Rabbah imunatecha. God's faith in us is so great that he gives us another opportunity. He gives us another chance.
He says, I believe, Dr. Rosenstock, I believe in you so much, I'm going to give you another chance. I'm going to give you another day because I know you can produce great things. Try missing one day. Life is fantastic. If you have proper kavana, proper intention, when we recite a blessing, you will never be complacent. The power of one, the blessing is so reviving, is so exhilarating. So my dear friends, that concludes way number 37. V'lo meigis li'bava tamu do. Don't be complacent.
Don't be bored with your learning. Don't be arrogant either. With what you know, it's time to open it up again, learn the same Talmud again, and never stop growing from your learning.