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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!
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH, Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
Right, so the thing is, okay, so your question is whether or not a person can serve idolatry all year long, come on Yom Kippur and say, Hashem, Hashem, please forgive me, then next year do it again, and then Hashem, Hashem, please forgive me on Yom Kippur again. And so here's the thing. You know the difference between human beings and God
is that we somewhat can see and get an impression of how a person is. We have the doctor here, our dedicated in-house psychiatrist. So the doctor, when he sees a patient, I'm assuming, I don't know, maybe we should meet, I'll be your patient, I'll be able to learn. Right, doctor? So one of the things that the doctor will do is he'll see facial expressions. He'll see the eyes twitching. Am I correct, doctor? You'll see the fingers are going like this
the entire time he says, oh, this guy's ADHD, right? Just, there are things that are telling, they're moving around, and they're cheer, they're hypervigilant, they're constantly looking around. There are things that are identifiers that we can see as human beings. Do you know what the doctor cannot see? Even the greatest doctor, Dr. Rosenstock, even Dr. Rosenstock can't see. He can't see your thoughts. He can't see your intentions. He can't see what's in your heart. Hashem can. You can fool everybody.
You can be a fabulous actor and fool everybody, but you can't fool Hashem. And this is an important thing for us to realize that every day of the year, we're walking around, giving off an impression to people, giving off, oh, this is who I am, and you carry yourself around. You wear the nice fancy bags, and wear the nice clothes, and you shop only in the best, best stores, and you drive only the finest cars, drink only the best wine.
You can fool everybody. You cannot fool Hashem. Bochein kloyos v'lev. Hashem doesn't look on the outside. Hashem looks on the inside. Hashem sees what's going on inside. What are our thoughts? What were our intentions? Yes, it's true. Hashem wants rachmona liba b'oi. Hashem wants the heart. Hashem desires and craves for our heart, but that's not the only thing. A person shouldn't say, I'll give you an example. Well, Hashem wants me to put on tefillin,
so it doesn't make a difference if I do it right or wrong, as long as I have a good intention. That's true, but not true. Hashem wants our attention, and Hashem appreciates and loves, and yes, that's a part of our communication with Hashem, is our desire to connect to Him, but there's a proper channel to do that. I'll give you an example to that proper channel. Imagine that you're trying to communicate with your, we all know that someone who's in the finance business,
there are certain words that you use that define things. There's rates, there are terms, there are many words. Now, let's say I come into this business, and I'm like, I don't relate to that word. I'm not gonna use that word. Instead of using the word rate, I'm gonna use face, and no one's gonna know what I'm talking about, but I'm talking about the same thing you're talking about. No, but there's a certain understanding of certain words that are used.
The idea is that Hashem understands what's going on, but if you wanna properly channel those words and get them into the right place, we have an assigned prayer. We have an assigned prayer. You know, there was the time of the Baal Shem Tov. It's told that a peasant came into the synagogue on Yom Kippur, and he sees everyone crying. He sees everyone singing, talking to Hashem. This guy doesn't know about singing. He doesn't know about crying.
He knows about roosters, so he starts crowing like a rooster. Baal Shem Tov told everyone, don't stop him. Imagine, you're in synagogue, and someone's, coo, coo, coo, right, in middle of synagogue, on Yom Kippur, making mockery of our prayers. Baal Shem Tov said, leave him. His prayer is probably more heartfelt and more loved and desired by the Almighty than all of our prayers combined, because it's with all of his heart. He doesn't know what to say. He's not trained.
He's not skilled in reading the words in Hebrew, but his heart is pouring out. He wants to connect to the Almighty. So while, yes, it's important to have, let's call it protocols, to have the proper way of how we pray and how we stand and how we recite the words and enunciate the words, the heart is the most important thing. Hashem reads the hearts. It's all about being there, present, and connected with Hashem. So my dear friends, but I think the number one takeaway
that we need to get from this Rosh Hashanah, from this Yom Kippur, we have now a full 30 days to prepare, a full 40 days for Yom Kippur, 30 till Rosh Hashanah, 40 till Yom Kippur, is to take every moment of this 40 days and talk to Hashem. You're making your coffee. Just take a, Hashem, thank you. Thank you, Hashem. You're enjoying your food. Instead of devouring that food, stop for a second. Say, Hashem, thank you. Feel a connection to Hashem.
Talk in your own words. Talk to Hashem. Realize that this is a real relationship that we're working on. It's not some fantasy, not some out there, you know, hee-gee-bee-gee thing. It's a real deal. Talk to Hashem. Hashem wants our closeness. Hashem wants us to communicate with him. Hashem doesn't need it. Don't make that mistake. Hashem does not need our prayers. Hashem is not sitting there waiting and crying, how come you didn't call me back? But Hashem loves our prayers.
He loves our communication with him. He loves when we take the time to thank and to appreciate. This is what it's about. So if we're able to take every day, let's not try to get all the repentance in and learn all the prayers and all of the chauffeur blowings one step at a time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you every day to Hashem. Realize it's real. It's real. My dear friends, have a remarkable Elul,
a remarkable 40 days leading up to Yom Kippur. Remarkable 30 days leading up to Rosh Hashanah. And God willing, next year won't be a good year. It'll be a great year. It'll be a fabulous year, the best year we've ever had in our health, in our success, in our prosperity, in our goodness, in our kindness, in our character, in our fulfillment. Hashem should bless our every way. Amen.
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