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The Thinking Talmudist Podcast shares select teachings of Talmud in a fresh, insightful and meaningful way. Many claim that they cannot learn Talmud because it is in ancient Aramaic or the concepts are too difficult. Well, no more excuses. In this podcast you will experience the refreshing and eye-opening teachings while gaining an amazing appreciation for the divine wisdom of the Torah and the depths of the Talmud.
Every week a new, deep, and inspiring piece of brilliance will be selected from the Talmud for discussion by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH (Houston, Texas).
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by David & Susan Marbin
00:00 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Thinking Talmudist Podcast.
00:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody. Welcome back to the Thinking Talmudist Podcast. It is so wonderful to be here with everyone. We are on page 30A in Tractate Brachot in the Tractate talking about blessings and prayers, and the Talmud we left off last week mentioned about facing Jerusalem when we pray. So now the Talmud is going to expand on this a little bit more.
00:37
The Talmud says the rabbis taught on a brayt, a blind person and one who is unable to discern direction or the cardinal points. Where is Jerusalem? Jerusalem is eastward from where we are right now. So you don't know what direction is Jerusalem. I have no idea. I've lost my sense of direction and I don't know You're supposed to face towards Jerusalem when you pray. I don't know what direction is Jerusalem. I have no idea. I've lost my sense of direction and I don't know You're supposed to face towards Jerusalem when you pray. I don't know. I don't know where Jerusalem is.
01:10
So the most important thing is to focus that you're talking to Hashem. You're talking to Hashem. You should direct his heart towards his Father in Heaven, as it says in Kings 1, and they will pray to Hashem, and that is referring to us. Our job is to pray towards Hashem, pray towards Hashem. Now we'll see in a second, the Talmud's going to give us the exact description of what that focus should be. When we talk about towards the land of Israel, what does that mean? Okay, what's about the people in Israel? What's about the people in Jerusalem? Where do they like they're there? So where do they direct their attention, to direct their focus to? Okay, if one is standing outside of the land of Israel, he should direct his heart towards the land of Israel, towards Eretz Yisrael, and they will pray to you by way of their land. So and that is a verse also in Kings 1, where we are guided to face towards Jerusalem when we pray what's about someone who is standing inside the land of Israel, in the Golan Heights or in Be'er Sheva? Be'er Sheva is in the south, the Golan Heights is north.
02:37
So what should someone do when they're in the land of Israel? He should focus his heart towards Jerusalem and they should pray to Hashem by way of the city that you have chosen. So, when you are in the land of Israel, towards Jerusalem. But one who's standing in the city of Jerusalem, where should he direct his heart towards? He should focus towards, he should direct himself towards the temple mount, and they will pray towards this house. But someone who's at the temple, where should he face? What direction should he face towards? He should focus his direction. He should direct his heart towards the chamber of the holy of holies, the Nehmer, as the verse states, and they will pray towards this holy place. And if he was standing inside the chamber of the Holy of Holies, he should direct his heart towards the chamber of the Ark cover. And if one was standing behind the chamber of the Ark cover, he should turn to face this chamber and should envision himself as if he is standing before the Ark cover.
04:19
It emerges that if one is standing in the east, he should turn his face towards the west, and if one is standing in the east, he should turn his face towards the west. And if one is standing towards the west, he should face towards. If he's standing in the west, he should face towards the east. If someone is in the south, he should face north, towards Israel, and if someone is in the north, he should face south.
04:47
We see from here that all the Jewish people are directing their heart, directing their focus and their attention and their direction of where they're praying to to the same place. Everyone is facing towards Israel. So we are almost on a perfect line line, straight line from texas to jerusalem, right on the on the uh equator. Uh, if you right, we're almost parallel to where jerusalem is. New york is a little bit north of that, so they're facing a little bit southeast, but we're almost due east, directly towards Jerusalem. Yeah, exactly. But now what's about people who are in Russia or people who are in China, which is more east of Israel? They're facing southwest, and those who are in England are facing southeast and those who are in england are facing southeast and those who are in south africa are facing north. Really is incredible that everyone and if you go, there are many apps uh, the sitter app, the smart sitter app, the art scroll sitter app there are many apps that will have a uh, a compass, a digital compass that will tell you what direction is Jerusalem, because sometimes you're on the highway, not everyone has a built-in GPS in their brain and you're like, oh, which direction am I heading in? How do I face towards Jerusalem? You stop on the side of the road to pray. Where are you going to? What direction are you going to pray to? It's very interesting that you'll find many synagogues that are facing towards, like I don't know, maybe they're trying to go the other way around the globe, but they're facing the wrong direction. They're not facing towards Jerusalem, which is very problematic.
06:34
According to this piece of Talmud here, the Gemara now presents a scriptural source for this Amar Rabovin v'tema Rabi Avino. Rabovin said, and some say it was Rabbi Avina my, by the way, again, we have a line here in the Talmud that is telling us it was Rabbi Ovin and some say it was actually Rabbi Avina. Okay, who cares? One of the great sages said who cares if it was Ovin or Avina, two different Tanayic sages? Well, when our focus is truth, then it makes all the difference in the world. There's no, this is not the Washington Post. It's not the New York Times. There's no anonymous sources. We have actual sources. Some of our sages heard it in the name of Reb Avin and some heard it in the name of Reb Avina.
07:35
It's important to know who the source is. Okay, why? Because we're invested in one thing and one thing only Hashem, elokeichem, emes, hashem, our God, is truth. We want to connect to God, we have to connect to the truth. What is the truth? Okay, and that's why, if you collect all of the names from the Talmud. It'll probably take up half of the Talmud, just the names that we're quoting Rabbi Yossi, rabbi Yehuda, rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Rav, you have all of these names. Why? Because it's important for us to always go back. What is the source?
08:20
Some people like to say, oh, the rabbis made up all these. No, rabbis don't make up any rules. Everything is sourced and everything that we learn, as we're going to see here, reb Avvin or those who say it's Reb Avvina is going to bring a scriptural source. So if some rabbi were to tell you well, you can pray to any direction, it's fine. It's fine if you don't know, like the Talmud tells us here, but the rabbis didn't make up that rule. That's not a rabbinic make-up rule. The rabbis have no authority to make up rules. It's all in the Torah. Everything is sourced.
09:06
Micra, what is the neck built as a landmark? The word Talpiot is a combination of the words tail, which means a hill, or pios, which means the mouth, tail, shekol, pios, ponimbo, a hill, meaning the Temple Mount towards which all mouths turn. And this is the scriptural source telling us that when we pray, we should always be facing towards the Temple Mount Ah, what a beautiful source to this. So sometimes it is necessary to recite the prayers before the preferred time arrives, and this now the Talmud, is going to go into what happens if you're about to travel Right. So, before we move forward, let's just understand what's going on here.
09:57
What's happening here is that our sages are guiding us that we have to have a focus, are guiding us that we have to have a focus. The most important focus is to know that we're talking to Hashem. When we pray, we're talking to Hashem. There's a child, a children's song. When you're davening, you're talking to Hashem. That's what it is. That's the song. When you're davening, you're talking to Hashem. That's the only thing we need to really know and really remember. When you're davening, you're talking to Hashem.
10:29
What is the word daven? Anybody know what the word daven means? Many people think the word daven means a Yiddish word for pray. It's actually an Aramaic word, and the Aramaic word is deavuhon. Deavuhon. What does deavuhon mean Of your ancestors? An amazing thing. Deavuhon, you know what prayer really is. Prayer is the armory, prayer is the tool. Prayer is the weapon of our ancestors. You want to know what Abraham did? He prayed. You know what Isaac did? He prayed. You know what Sarah did? She prayed. You know what Rebecca did? She prayed. You know what Jacob, rachel, leah did? They prayed.
11:23
You want to connect with your ancestors? Prayer da'avuhon. We say it fast, da'avin, but that's really what it means. I'm going to da'avin, I'm going to practice the act that my ancestors did, the exact same thing they did we're going to do here and when we have the privilege to pray, and to pray in a shul, a minion with a quorum. Oh, what a merit. What's the benefit of praying with a minion? It's an amazing thing.
11:57
What happens when we pray with a minion. So when you know that if you need to persuade someone to do something, so I'm going to ask someone to volunteer, I'm going to ask someone to do something, let's say, nah, I'm not in the mood. What happens if three people come and ask that person the same request? Hard to say no to three people. Now, what's if 10 people come? Hey, no problem, I'll do it. Peer pressure, I have to. I can't say no to 10 people come. Hey, no problem, I'll do it. Peer pressure, I have to. I can't say no to 10 people.
12:33
When we ask God to help us Hashem, help me with this and help me with that. Give me success, give me health, give me livelihood, Give me repentance. Give me livelihood, give me repentance, give me wisdom. Shem's like well, I don't know, I was thinking about this, but you know, right. But you know, when you come with 10 people, you come with a quorum of people, and that's what we do in a shul together, in unison. You know what happens. Shem's like whatever you want, write the check, just let it go, no problem. Whatever they want, whatever they ask for, that's the power. You know what it says.
13:15
It says an amazing thing. It says that the 10th person to show up at shul has the value, has the reward of all 10 people, the 10th person. It says that a person should be very, very cautious. We'll talk about this more when we get to this Talmud. But the Talmud stresses the importance of being among the first 10 in shul, the first 10 to show up. You have the imagine 200 people end up showing up. The first 10 are the foundation of the whole minion, the first 10. They're the foundation, and everybody else's prayer is a prayer with a minion because of the first 10 who showed up. So there's a benefit to being among the first 10. First 10, you're setting the tone of the entire shul's prayers. It's a very, very powerful thing. So you say the 10th person gets the benefit of all of them. Everyone's going to wait. I'm not going to be 6th, I'm not going to be 3rd or 1st, I'm going to be the 10th. I want to be the 10th man. So the idea is that it's not the 10th man, it's that all of those 10 who make the 10 a minion, who make it a quorum, those are the ones who make it possible now for this minion to move forward to recite Kaddish.
14:40
It was a special thing. I was here working one afternoon here at the brand new Torch Center, as you know, there's a shul. Two suites over there's the Meyerland Minion. They came here. They said we need a minion, we're down two people. So my brother and I, we ran over and we helped them. I usually go to my minion, I run back there. It's a little bit later than this one. So I was joining the minion at the Meyerland Minyan here and the rabbi, after davening, said I want to thank the Walbys. Because of you, four Kaddishes were able to be said, meaning four people who say Kaddish for their year of mourning for their parent or loved one. Four people were able to say Kaddish because we were there.
15:33
Imagine that merit, that each person who's there not only the last two wise guys who came over from Torch, I'm talking about every person who came and was there gets the merit of all of those Kaddish that were recited. It's such an amazing thing. Number 11 gets the reward of being part of a minion. He gets the reward of praying with a minion. He gets the reward of being in a shul, in a holy place. That's great, but to be the one who clinches it and makes it possible that now we can have a minyan, that's a very special thing. So my urge for each person here and each person listening online be among the first ten. Be among the first ten. To be a true. You get the reward.
16:32
Even if you can't focus, guess what Everybody else who can, it goes into your account. That's what the Talmud teaches us, but not only that, like we just learned here, to focus your direction towards Jerusalem. I'm talking to Hashem, but where is Hashem's throne, so to speak? What are we trying to? What's the idea of? To Israel, to Jerusalem, to the temple, to the Holy of Holies, to the curtain and to really to the curtain and really to the ark, because where that place is is the holiest place in the world. What's there? Nothing, in other words, there's nothing there. Just where the wings of the cherubs were was a vacant area. That's where the world originates from, the, the point of god's creation. That's from there. An amazing thing.
17:43
Say just tell us a secret, that that is the secret channel to the heavens. That means what we're doing is it's like you're directing, it's like sometimes you have to remote control. You have to face it towards your device right, so that it reads the infrared. We're facing towards Jerusalem because that's where all of our prayers elevate up to the heavens. Hashem hears our prayers, even if we're facing backwards.
18:09
But the idea is there's an added level of recognition. I'm standing in front of God when I'm facing towards its destination. Obviously, our prayers are untethered. They're not on a rope and we don't have to be attached to any. We just talk Hashem, tachin, libam, takshiv, aznecha, right.
18:33
If, when we have the verse in Psalm says when we have intention of our heart, when we have a focus of our heart, what happens as a result? Hashem listens. That could be anywhere. We can be in our car, like we mentioned last week. We can be in our car, we can be at the library, we can be at the bank and we can be in the supermarket, and we could be on a yacht and we can be on a cruise, we can be on an airplane, we can be wherever in the back of an Uber. Prayer. Hashem hears our prayers whenever we open our hearts. Hashem listens Every word. But there's added levels to this. And facing towards Jerusalem, facing towards the temple, facing towards the Holy of Holies, that's really what it's about.
19:27
Now. I'll just share with you a side note and we'll end here because we're going over time on our schedule. So let me just share with you a quick idea, a quick thought. My grandfather of blessed memory didn't go to the Western Wall very frequently, even though he lived in Jerusalem the last 25 years of his life, he didn't go very frequently to the Western Wall and we actually asked him. I asked him Saba, will you come with us? We'll take you to the Kotel, we'll take you to the Western Wall. So he said, okay, but I need to prepare. And about four or five weeks later, we took my grandfather to the Western Wall. And about four or five weeks later we took my grandfather to the Western Wall. He needed to prepare to go to the Western Wall.
20:21
You see, many people think you know, I have miles, I have a free trip to Israel, I can afford a trip to Israel. Let me get on a plane, go to Israel, go to the Western Wall, meet some friends, say a prayer or two. The way our sages understood this. Think about this for a second. Someone recently was telling me oh, I'm going to Israel, I'm going to be there for a couple of days. And then I said, whoa, stop a second, you're going to be there for a couple of days. And then I'm going to say, whoa, stop a second, you're going to Israel. Do you know what Moses would have done to take your place? You're just saying you're like, whoa, going to Israel. It's like, do you understand the awesomeness of this Moses? All he wanted to do was to okay, let me at least see the land.
21:12
We have the unbelievable privilege to just get on a plane and go. We have to utilize that opportunity. There's a great sage who lives in Jerusalem, in the old city of Jerusalem, and his love for the land of Israel is almost like that comparable of Moses, and when he flies to Israel or from Israel, when he leaves Israel, he special orders the last seat on the plane and when he flies back to Israel, he reserves the first seat on the plane. Why? Because when he leaves he wants to be the last one out and when he comes back in he wants to be the first one in. To such a degree the love not just flippantly oh I'm going to Israel. Such a powerful thing.
22:09
We have the opportunity in our lifetime to just get on a plane and go. We have to go and if we can't afford it, save the money, save it up. This is something which is so essential. We have the opportunity in our generation. We don't have to go on a boat for weeks of travel to go from Galveston to get to there and to go to here and to go to there and to finally get into the Mediterranean Sea and finally make it to the port of Ashdod or the port of Haifa. That's our opportunity and our privilege to be here in this generation and to be able to go to Israel.
22:58
My grandfather prepared himself for weeks before just going to the Western Wall. I'm about to be in the holiest place available to us. I'm just going to walk in waltz right in. No, no, no, no. I have to prepare myself and this is something that, if we think about it, is such an amazing lesson for all of us. We're about to have the privilege to go to shul. We're about to have the privilege to learn Torah. We're about to have the privilege to talk to Hashem. Don't let it just pass you by. Prepare for it. I want to tell you in less than a month and we're going to start talking about this in our upcoming classes God willing, monday night we begin again. Musser Mondays, we're going to talk about this topic as well.
23:51
Preparing for Hanukkah, preparing for Hanukkah. Preparing for Hanukkah is a very big deal, not a simple task. We think, oh Hanukkah, we just show up, we take our menorah out, put it by our window or by our front doorstep, light the menorah and we're good to go. We want to feel a connection to the mitzvah. We want that light. It's an amazing thing.
24:16
One of the only holidays that's considered a regular weekday. It's not a festival like all the other holidays. It's not like Passover, it's not like Shavuot, it's not like Sukkot, it's not even like Purim. It's a regular, ordinary weekday. Why? Because a weekday is considered darkness, shabbos is considered light. You know what we do on a weekday of darkness we light our menorah.
24:41
The whole agenda, the whole objective of the menorah is to bring light to the world. So we don't make it into a festival holiday. We take the ordinary weekday of darkness and we bring light to it. But that doesn't happen. We don't prepare, we aren't able to connect to it. God willing, on Monday night at 7.30, right here at the Torch Center, we're going to be talking more about making Hanukkah into a festival of light within our lives, not just in the menorah. Bringing that light to the world. Shearing the light, light within our lives, not just in the menorah. Bringing that light to the world. Sharing the light from inside our homes, from inside our hearts, that's within us, and opening it up to the world. That's the agenda the coming weeks. Let's get Hanukkah. Make it an unbelievably elevating experience for us. Not just pull out the same old menorah, get those candlesticks and light them. No, it should be transformative. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos!
25:47 - Intro (Announcement)
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