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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 Ravi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
I've said this many times, diets are very similar to our spiritual growth. A diet, you're trying to lose some weight. What do we always say? I'm going to start my diet tomorrow. You can't start a diet tomorrow. You have to start a diet today. You know why we push it off to tomorrow? Because right now it's very comfortable eating what I want to eat.
Tomorrow it's going to be less comfortable. We have this imagination that tomorrow it's going to be more comfortable. Tomorrow it's going to be easier. Tomorrow we're going to have the strength. Tomorrow we're going to have the self-control. Tomorrow we're going to work out. What happened to today? You know what they say, today is the tomorrow you spoke about yesterday. Right now, we need to pull out a piece of paper and start writing down. What are we going to do differently next year?
What is going to change next year? You know how it's going to change next year? Because I started today. You don't suddenly become disciplined with your eating. You don't become suddenly disciplined with your spirituality. Today is the day we take control and we say that's it. I'm going full throttle, bringing change into my life today. This is the day, the beginning of your actions. This is in the prayers on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it's referring to Hashem's creation.
But I think it's a hint to us. Today is the day that you begin your change, your actions. Don't wait for another day. Don't wait for another day to transform and say, oh, then I'm going to change. If you don't do it today, you're not going to do it tomorrow. If you wait to start your diet tomorrow, it's never going to happen. We're on a journey. Every single one of us are on a journey. We may not always feel that way.
We're like, oh, we're dealing with our careers, we're dealing with our lives, with our family, with our children, with our parents, with our health. We're dealing with many different things and we get busy being busy. This is the time, the beginning of the month of Elul is the best time on earth to say, it's not going to be someday. It's going to be today. Zehayom, tehillat maasecha. This is the day that we begin action and we start putting together a to-do list of the
things we want to change, to the things we hope to change, the things we need to pray for to desire to change. There was a man who came once to his Hasidic Rebbe and he says, Rebbe, my heart is a heart of stone. It's a heart of stone. I don't feel anything. I'm trying to get to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, feel something, I feel nothing. Heart is a heart of stone. It just doesn't mean anything to me. So Rebbe says, I can't help you.
So he starts pleading with the Rebbe, he says, please, please do something for me. Do something. Break my, take a hammer and break my heart. Do something. Wake me up. I can't help you. So the man starts pleading and pleading. He says, please just awaken my soul. Do something to wake me up. And he starts crying, please, please make me feel something. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. The desire to want to make change is the first step.
The desire to have a heart that's feeling, that's connected, that's something we can pray for too. It's not that one day we're just feeling this feeling of connection. No, no, no. We ask Hashem, Hashem, I want to feel connected. Hashem, I want to pray. You know what we say at the beginning of the Amidah? Every time we open up our mouths to pray, we say, Hashem, sefatai teftach ufi yagit tihilatecha. Hashem, open my lips that my mouth may declare your praise.
I don't understand this, this verse. It's a verse in Psalms. I don't understand this verse. And why do we say it at the beginning of our Amidah? Here we are, we're coming to pray and we're saying, Hashem, open my mouth so I can pray. What do you think I'm doing right now? I'm praying. I'm here, I'm in synagogue, I'm praying. And I'm saying, Hashem, please open my lips so that I can pray. Because what our sages are teaching us here is that you want to pray?
Ask Hashem for help. I'm praying. No, no, no, no, Hashem, I want to really feel connected in my prayer. I don't want to just say words. Open my lips. I want to feel that connection. I want to talk to you, Hashem. I need your help. That it doesn't just become a routine where I'm saying words, where I don't feel a connection. You know something, you want to feel an emotion, ask for it.
When I learned about Hanukkah last year, it was 30 days before Hanukkah, I opened up a book talking about how to get ourselves ready for Hanukkah. Hanukkah, we're bringing unbelievable light into the world. Not only the light of the menorah, but that's metaphoric of the light we're bringing into the world. So the book I was learning with my study partner said the most fascinating thing. You want to feel the light of Hanukkah? You want to feel the connection? Ask for it.
Say, Hashem, I don't want this to just be another Hanukkah menorah lighting. I don't want to just stand there like every year I stand there and I light my menorah and I light my menorah one day after another and we sing the same songs and goodbye. I want to feel a connection with you, Hashem. So you know what he says to do. Ask Hashem for that connection. Hashem, I want to feel it. That's part of our preparation for the High Holidays, asking Hashem, Hashem, put me in
the zone. I want to be in the zone. I'm not there yet. So we don't say, I'm not there yet, maybe next year. Hashem, no, I want to feel it. We see King David, he asked for the closeness to Hashem throughout Psalms. You see, he's playing with Hashem, Hashem, I want to be close to you. What do you mean you want to be close to me? So be close to me. No, Hashem, I don't even know where to start. I don't know where to start.
I need your help. Guide me, guide me, direct me, give me the inspiration, put me in the right place, put in front of me the right podcast, the right classes so that I can be inspired. The power of talking to Hashem about the things that are important to us and the answer will most likely be yes. You know why? It will be yes, because Hashem loves us. That doesn't mean that 100% of the time it's yes. Sometimes Hashem says, no, it's not the right time for you.
It's not the right place for you. King David says, ואני קרבאס אלו קים לי טוב, where King David says, I recognize that being close to Hashem is what's good for me. Hashem, I want to be close to you. We always need to remember that our journey of connection to Hashem is a partnership between us and our request from Hashem for us to succeed. It's not enough for us to say, I tried, it didn't work, now I'm going home. That's not the way it works.
I tried, it didn't work, I'm going to try again. I try, it didn't work, I'm going to try again. But you know what you can add to that? Ask Hashem. Say, Hashem, I want to be close to you. I need your help. I can't do it on my own. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know where I'm going. I need you. Remove the blinders for me. Give me the inspiration. Give me the guidance.
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