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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 of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
And now welcome back my dear friends to day number 190 We're on page 986 in the treasure for life edition of the Orchid Siddiqui and Ways of the Righteous Gam la behemo yesh nefesh v'ruach and also an animal has a nefesh and a ruach which desire Things. Ki a behemo mis'aveh v'koeses kema'odam. It also gets angry. It also has Temptations. Aval ha'odam yesh lo neshama yis'er, but a human being has an elevated neshama
Which is hamida beres, which is able to talk and that talking is able to inquire and it's able to bring about intellect and develop things and and develop thoughts and you're able to Challenge and become smarter. Someone came over to me today after class and he said, you know I'm sorry that I asked so many questions in class and thank you for responding. So patiently He says I kind of need to be challenged
Which is why I ask questions and then you answer me and then you challenge me and that's where I need to be So I said to him that's like two knives. You can't sharpen one knife by itself You need another knife and then together they both get sharpened. So I said, it's not only you me I also benefit from your questions because you're my other knife That is able to sharpen Sharpen my understanding and my
My wisdom hopefully. Aval ha'odam yesh lo neshama yis'er, hamida beres, fama keres ben emes l'shakar. What is truth and falsehood? Truth and falsehood get clearer for a person when he's able to talk. When you talk you're able to Discern what's truth and what's not Because when the body dies os tamos nefesh atava, v'nefesh aruach, then the the spirit of Desire and the spirit of and the and the the nefesh of desire and the nefesh of urges, v'nisheres tzuras ha'nesham al yona, and then the neshama
They they cease to exist But then the neshama is able to be elevated because you spent time during your lifetime Elevating like we mentioned in that day 189 Ha chachma, what is the wisdom she'eino meso b'mis ha'sagov? The wisdom that was acquired by this neshama Doesn't end with the death of the body. Ma shenem ava ruach toshu v'al ha'olahim Asher nesano. And the ruach will return to God who gave it Ze ruach ha'chochmah, this is the spirit the ruach of Wisdom, kish'adom chote meso nishmas nafsho v'nishmas rucho
Kedekhsiv ha'nefesh ha'chotes hi tamos. When a person sins, they're killing their neshama They're killing their neshama. V'amar Moshe Rabbeinu And it is a verse from from Ezekiel That says the sinning nefesh will die V'amar Moshe Rabbeinu olav ha'shalom, ish ha'elohim, v'ha'avadati es ha'nefesh ha'hi mi'kerev ha'mah Moshe our teacher taught us and I will cause that Nefesh to be cut away from the midst of its people. Shema mino, what we see from this, korei nefesh oseshi hi meso Nefesh is something which can be killed
V'la'achar mos ha'rosho, ha'nishama ha'chochmah Yikle'eno b'kaf ha'kela, mi'pnei she'shama l'ruach un'nefesh He says then the neshama suffers after death because it listened and it acquiesced To the will of the ruach and the nefesh. V'la'achar she'yamos ha'tzadik And after a righteous person dies, ha'sha' neshama el yon ha'chochmah Hischaz kol ruach un'nefesh And then that soul of a righteous person that was able to overcome the Desires and temptations that is elevated higher and higher
To the holy throne of Hashem. V'ak'sil she'shama l'ruach un'nefesh and the dummy who listened to The desires and temptations of the ruach and the nefesh. Nishmoso he koreis tikoreis. He's pulling himself away From his essence V'ak'chochm she'shama l'neshama el yon ha'nufcha lo mi'kisi ha'kaved nishmoso tiske le'rov tov ha'tzofum So he's saying here that Basically, we have two paths. We have the path which is invested in Desires, in physical, in pleasures, in materialism
And we have the other that the neshama that wants only holy things. I want to tell you something really incredible I've shared this example before but I'll share it again Imagine What is the neshama? The neshama is like a vacuum cleaner. You ever see a vacuum cleaner? It's an amazing thing. The vacuum cleaner you turn it on and the Suction it just give it anything. It'll suck it. So what it grabs on to your your pants
It'll pull it. It grabs on to a skirt pulls it. It grabs on to the drapes It pulls it. It grabs on to the tablecloth pulls it. We've all experienced this, right? We know we know what we're talking about That's the neshama But what happens if you don't feed the neshama with those pieces of pretzels? You don't give it that yummy sound that goes through the nozzle, right? Of those delicious crumbs that you're picking up
What happens? It goes wild. That's our neshama. Our neshama is always on always sucking in what? Looking for holiness we see no, no, no, it's okay. It's okay. Take a Barbie doll Take a car. This is we tell our little babies. It's okay. Take take a little toy, you know, take some food Well, what's gonna make them happy? Take take a little bit of alcohol. Take some bourbon Take some scotch take some this take some vacations. Take some cars. Take some houses. Take some furnitures
Take some materialism. Take some watches. Take whatever whatever the person desires and We're trying to quiet the urge of the neshama with all of these things The neshama only wants to be quenched by one thing holiness Closeness with Hashem. That's the only thing that gives pleasure to the neshama Yeah, don't forget the ruach, the nefesh, they're perfectly fine getting all of those yummy treats It's perfectly satiated with all that but not the neshama. It's not its language. It's not its voltage
You're giving it the wrong voltage and the more that happens the more if you ever wonder by the way Why all of the extremists in the entire world are always Jewish Karl Marx Houdini in every area Einstein You think of all of these characters like they're all Jews. Why are all the people at and even by the way What's his name Madoff? You know, mr. Mr. Ponzi has no idea What an innocent thing he did by only doing it for 30 million dollars. That was a Ponzi scheme
You think I was a Ponzi scheme? Look at what he did. Look what the Jewish guy did, right? 60 billion dollars Ponzi scheme that's a Ponzi scheme. They should call it a Madoff scheme. Why? Because when you have an elevated neshama that is always on and you don't feed it What's gonna happen? It's gonna go crazy till it grabs a tablecloth sucks it in crime magic Communism you name it. Whatever it is. It becomes completely obsessed with it. If you look at all of those
Save the whales save the turtles save those there always some Esther Greenstein who runs it Okay, some Jewish lady really lovely lady Because again, if if the neshama is not being fed with holiness It's gonna find something else and it's these are not bad causes, but that's not what fills the fills the neshama okay, it's not what fills the neshama and That's what we need to invest in. We need to find a way to fill our neshama. What do we do? We learn Torah Torah is a primary way
Fulfilling a mitzvah doing it properly doing acts of kindness You ever help someone out you see an old lady walking and you like you help her cross the street, right? You know, you know that feeling of like you're on top of you get mark, you know what I'm talking about It's such a great feeling. That is the feeling of holiness That is the feeling of greatness You save someone's life. Ah What a feeling that joy you were there to bring someone their chicken soup. Ah
They were sick and you went out of your way and you thought about them and you did something for them selflessly That feeling when you leave you feel like you're like walking on the clouds, right? That's a feeling of holiness But it has to be rooted into proper things. It's almost say well, that's your truth. My truth is okay saving the whales Okay. Yes Way above the neshama is way above
Way above it. We said the neshama is in the mind the nefesh the ruach neshama. The ruach is in the in the in the heart All right. I believe that's what we said, right? We said that previous ruach baleif. Yes, the ruach is in the heart V'hachokham sheshama le neshama le yonah v'nufchah lo mikisei ha-kavod nishmosot tizke le rov tuv ha-tsafon The neshama the person who has the neshama that says, you know, I'm not gonna get carried away with all that stuff
I'm not gonna go after the food. I'm not gonna go after the women I'm not gonna go after the desires. I'm not gonna go after the fame. I'm not gonna go after the money I'm not gonna go after all those things. I'm gonna stay in the study hall and learn Torah I'm gonna stay and be righteous. I'm gonna stay and be pious. I'm gonna stay and do acts of kindness I'm not gonna run and party away
That person will attain unbelievable levels in the world to come one that is hidden only for those who are absolutely of The best V'atahate az nachah v'tavin v'teideh. He says now listen, turn your ears and listen He says. Sheh neshama hi shkhuna b'leiv. He says the neshama resides in the heart This seems to contradict what he stated earlier that the neshama resides in the mind See, he says that perhaps the explanation is as follows one man chooses correctly once man chooses correctly, he is placing as
It were his neshama in his heart. Ah So what is he doing? He's taking the neshama from his mind Putting it in his heart to overcome What was in his heart beforehand? It means he's putting his neshama in his heart now understand Because you had trouble a troublemaker there now you kick the troublemaker out now you reside in the heart Because the heart is the bed of our actions when someone desires something in his heart. Oh, I really want that right? That's that's the actions comes from the heart
But if a person is able to put his mind over his heart, then he controls what he desires He's controls what he's tempted by. See he says like this V'hu moshav hayira ki misham tozoos hamachshava V'hamachshava mishromemes hu mizgaberes bechadri ha-leiv ka asher yisromu galei ha-yom Haneshama doreshes v'chokeres hu mizbonenes bechol ha-masim v'ha-leiv mishoteit bechokhmoso u meirochok v'tsofe beriyoso inyonim rabim b'rega koton b'rega echod mechashev hino v'hino v'rot v'shov me'inu le'inin He says the same power that the heart can be for the negative
Now that you infuse your heart with your neshama, it's gonna use the same power for the positive Okay, it's an amazing thing imagine if these terrorists in Iran used their intellect for civilization not for destruction Imagine if these people in Gaza instead of using pipes that were meant for For plumbing for you know for the sewage system if they used it to build the city instead of building rockets
Imagine how much good could have but that same heart that desired to do bad could do good Which is why even though it's not exactly how the heart looks But we know we we refer to this as being the heart shape, right? This is the heart shape But really what we need to see is that there are two parts of the heart is the yetzer tov is the yetzera We say this every day in our shema b'chol le'va v'cha
Plural two hearts the heart that desires to do good and the heart desires to do bad The same heart can go one way or the other. It's your choice That's why we say it in the shema to remind us of our choice that we choose how we use our heart So someone can't say well So look at me, I'm just I'm very into these things I had one someone told me he says I'm very into the into things a things of immodesty who's busy with he said
I just this is my nature. I'm just into these things like no you're just giving into it And that's why you're into it if you cleanse yourself, which he did a few years later if you cleanse yourself You won't be into it. But if you feed that part of your heart That's the one that will be dominant you feed the holiness part of your heart that will be dominant and this is so so essential ha'odam mankind hechkim v'hiskil oso tzur olamim v'lim edoso chokhmah v'das
Hashem gave us unbelievable wisdom knowledge Hashem taught us wisdom and knowledge v'zo'u v'zose chokhmah zokher ha'odam kol ha'averus v'roah kol hanoldos Person can see all of his past and a person can see what is to come All right. What does it say about a wise person? What's a wise person? Haro es anolat someone is able to see what hasn't been born yet. What's going to come? How can you see what's gonna come? I don't know what's gonna happen
well, you're able to see action reaction meaning a person sees Look at the Torah. The Torah is a perfect example of this where you see how so many people invested in good and got good people invested in bad and Got bad. So you start looking at the world. You're like one second. There's two worlds. I'm seeing here if people who Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses Aaron
Miriam see people who did good got good people who did no good got no good and you look at those examples as well So we we see that we see that with our own eyes, that's our choice which one we choose To follow. U'bezos ha'chokh ma'osa galgalim v'reichayim litchon b'li amol He says with this wisdom. He makes wheels and mills to grind without his toil there It's autopilot U'bezos ha'chokh ma'osa tzvos u'mamit chayolim u'mizariz chalutzim u'matzliach b'malchus u'manik b'memshalto v'shofeit amol U'bezos ha'chokh ma'poreis rishatot
la'imke mitzul osyamun ahores lotzut dogim ha'yordim imke tahomos u'bezos ha'chokh ma'yotzad chayos u'midbarios u'ba yilkod ofos ha'maofifim b'gave shamayim He says basically that if a person is committed to this all of the blessings of this world All of the success everywhere he goes will dominate with this Part of his life that he chose to make part of his life It means if a person chooses holiness everything he sees everything around him will be holy if a person chooses The material then everything around it becomes material
U'bezos ha'chokh ma'yodea u'mevin yisodes ha'guf k'riruso v'chamimuso v'lachluchiso v'yabashto He says with this wisdom a person knows and understands the foundations of the body its state of cold and heat moistness and dryness u'ba yodea u'mevin tachluy ha'guf v'rifuoso v'levakesh sami ha'rifuos u'mavchin to'eles ha'samim v'nizkam u'makhshir shoroshim va'asovim u'mine ya'peros korim v'chamim lachim v'yeveshim u'ba yodea la'hashkoses ha'guf u'be mirkeche ha'rifuos la'hamid al chaskoso He says with it he knows and understands the body's ailments and its cures He seeks out drugs
He discriminates between the benefits and dangers of drugs He recognizes the healing properties of roots and herbs and types of fruits cold and hot, wet and dry And with it he knows how to administer drugs to the body to return it to its health Meaning we get a lot of wisdom You know it's an amazing midrash that tells us that Abraham observed the entire Torah Abraham observed the entire Torah What's the question you're going to ask? Why did he perform the bris at 99 years old?
If he performed the entire Torah he should have done that when he was eight days old Or when he learned it or when he understood it You wait till you're 99 years old that's when you do the bris? I thought you knew that I thought you observed the entire Torah If you observed the entire Torah you should have performed it already The answer our sages tell us is that Abraham understood that the bris is a covenant What is a covenant?
You have to have two parties to make a covenant Till God wasn't in the covenant with him he's got nothing to do a bris for When God says I'm ready to go into a covenant with you Now he can perform that mitzvah that day he did the bris You understand? So how did Abraham get to all this wisdom? Because when you understand that the mind The neshama which is in the mind Has the power to discern between right and wrong good and evil Holy and unholy
You understand the entire world Because everyone can look at materialism Here you see this little piece of materialism right? So what happens? It falls it's physical I feel it I see it But I have now a decision to make Is this good or is this bad? Does this bring me closer to God or not? We have this by the way and this is the dangerous slippery slope of technology Because technology has the most unbelievable power to do good Unbelievable power
Just if a person just stayed online to listen to torch podcasts right? Last year alone I know this the fundraiser we're still in the fundraiser season So just a little just so you understand 131,000 hours of Torah study Just on torch podcasts with Apple and Spotify 131,000 hours you know what that is? That's 5,477 days of non-stop Torah study No breaks, no bathroom, no intermission, no advertisements, nothing Just Torah study It's unbelievable Amount of Torah That's just last year
The amount of content that's out there We put out 1100 videos right? There's a tremendous amount of content So we see internet can be used for very good things Technology can be used for amazing things And then we know that technology can be used for the worst things on planet earth The worst things on planet earth Not only immodesty, immorality, things that children do that are dangerous So we see that internet could be used for great things And they could be used for absolute destruction
And this is going to be the challenge This is what he's referring to We have the neshama And the neshama can be taken to overcome the negative And we can use it for good things Or we can overcome the neshama When the neshama is just sitting there saying This guy's not listening to me I'm trying to inspire him to do holy things He's just not listening And then he laments that one day we will have to
Be standing in judgment in front of the Almighty And what are we going to answer? What are we going to answer? Okay, so this is the end of day number 190.
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