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A refreshing and clear review of each Parsha in the Torah presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody to the weekly Parsha Review. This week's Parsha is Parsha's Devorim, or New Book, the Book of Deuteronomy. And our sages refer to this Parsha, to this book of the Torah, as Mishneh Torah, the review of the Torah. But if you look at the first verse in this week's parasha, eile ha-devorim. These are the words. The words Asher diber, moshe al-Kobani, yisroel, that Moshe spoke to the children of Israel, be'eva, ayardin. Where were they? It says exactly where they were. Rashi jumps on that word that he says these are the words. These are the words. What's the words? These are the things. These are the things he spoke. No, no, no. The Torah says very exact. We know that principle.
01:01
The Torah doesn't just use random words. When it says something, it's saying it for a reason, rashi points out. It's saying these are the words. They were words of musr, they were words of retribution, or not retribution, of criticism, giving them guidance, giving them direction.
01:33
Because what happened in the previous book, the last seven, eight portions of the book of Numbers? The Jewish people ran into some troubles. They were complaining we had the spies, we had Korach, the rebellion, we had a bunch of issues. A lot of things went on over there. Moshe's got a word or two to give to the Jewish people.
02:07
So we have to understand that the Torah was given in four different layers, four different layers. The most simple layer is what, like Rashi, invests his entire commentary on the Torah in what's called Pshat. Now the four layers are Pardes. Pay for Pshat, for just basic understanding, just understand translation. That's what Rashi dedicates his entire commentary of the Torah is just to understand. What are the words Like, what does it mean? Just basic, no, deep, philosophical, no.
02:49
Then we have resh, which is remez, which is hints to different things. So the Torah doesn't say it directly, but it's hinting to something. It's another level. Then it has drush, which is things that you can learn from it A deeper understanding. And then there's sod, which is things that you can learn from it a deeper understanding. And then there's sod, which is completely hidden, like the Zohar Kabbalah completely hidden.
03:15
You have to have someone to unravel it for you to be able to see that hidden world embedded in the Torah, the story that's told about the Gaon of Vilna. The Gaon of Vilna when he was older, you know, just so you understand. The Gaon of Vilna knew the entire Torah inside out when he was four years old. Talk about the five books of the Torah, the prophets, the writings, everything. When he was 10, he already finished all of the Talmud inside out. Imagine all of the Talmud, 2,711 pages of Talmud, knew it all by heart. Unbelievable Scholar wisdom, purity, dedicated to the study of Torah. And then he went into the depths of Kabbalah. He went into all of those four layers, but when he was older he only studied the five books of the Torah.
04:11
No commentaries. Why? Because once you get to such a deep layer of understanding, then when you read the words, it just pops out at you all of the depths and all of the hidden secrets. It just pops out at you all of the depths and all of the hidden secrets. Just by the way, there's this whole fad that goes on in Los Angeles where people are walking around with red strings and going to the Kabbalah center and doing all of this. You know heezy-beezy stuff. So the truth is is that it cannot be authentic. Well, I'm not here to say anything negative about you know any Kabbalah study, but it's not authentic. Why isn't it authentic? Because it's like what would happen if someone took a helicopter ride to the top of Mount Everest you would die because you wouldn't be able to breathe the air properly. The air at such an altitude is so thin your body won't be able. So what do you have to do? You got to take the steps to go all the way up, and every step of the way you adjust, you adjust, you adjust, you adjust. It's hard work until you're able to get to the top of Mount Everest, and then you can't stay there for a long time, go up and then put your flag right and then come back down.
05:34
When we study Torah, what we're trying to do is we start. We all start, by the way, at the exact same place. We all start on the bottom floor. Imagine, I remember the World Trade Center right the Twin Towers, and we'd drive by and we'd look, try to see, all the way to the top. A couple of times I went all the way to the top. I took the elevator to this floor and then switch, go to the next elevator, go up the next, you know all the way to get to the top and it's like wow, it's amazing. But it only takes like five minutes to get to the top. It's not a big deal, but imagine if you had to climb every single step to get there. Imagine if there was a secret on the top floor that only after struggling to take every step that secret could be revealed. So in our generation we don't like hard work, so I'll just take a helicopter, land on the top of the World Trade Center and I'm there. I arrived. I can get my secret. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have to go through the struggle, go through each floor, sweat tears up, up, up, fall a few times on the way, so tired, gonna have to rest. It's a lot.
06:49
When we study Torah in our lifetime, we all start at the same place, on the bottom floor. Nobody gets a pre-downloaded Torah in their brain. We're all tapped on our lips when we're born and we forget all of the Torah that we learned with the angels and it starts from scratch. It's a blank sheet of paper and we start learning a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, the Aleph Bet, the ABCs, and hopefully adding layers and layers and layers to that wisdom. There's no shortcuts. You can't just go to the Kabbalah and hopefully adding layers and layers and layers to that wisdom. There's no shortcuts. You can't just go to the Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles and just download it all. Okay, now I know the secrets of the world. No, no, that's not how it works. You have to learn Torah. You have to learn all 24 books of Tanakh, the five books of the Torah, the books of Tanakh, the five books of the Torah, the books of the writings, the books of the prophets. Learn all of Mishnah. Learn all of Talmud, learn all of Midrash, learn all of Halacha, learn the books of the Rambam. When you get all the way, when you've done all of that, then maybe you're ready to start studying the secrets we're. All the entire world is in. The entire Jewish world is dealing from today.
08:15
Today being the first day of the month of Av, we're all entering in a nine-day period of mourning. Mourning for what? Mourning for the destruction of our temples we mentioned previously. Aaron passed away on this day, the first day of the month of Av, rosh Chodesh, av. The Jewish people mourned the whole 30 days. We know that the spies we mentioned previously revealed the false testimony on the land of Israel. They gave a negative report. It was on the 9th of Av. The Jewish people cried. God says you cried in vain. I'll give you something to cry about, and that's the destruction of our two temples.
09:00
But it's very interesting that we mourn something that happened 2,000 years ago. Why are we crying something that happened 2,000 years ago? I want to share with you a Yerushalmi, the Talmud in the Yerushalmi in the Jerusalem. Talmud says Kol Dor Shalom Nivne Beisamigdash B'Yamav In any generation in which the Temple was not rebuilt, ki'ilamigdash B'yamav in any generation in which the temple was not rebuilt, ki Ilu Nehrav B'yamav. It's as if it was destroyed in that generation. So we're not mourning, actually, something that happened 2,000 years ago. We're actually mourning something that happened now. We're mourning now that we don't have a temple. But what happened in the second temple? The Talmud says Migdash Sheini, the second temple, oskin Batoru V'mitzvot G'milos Hasad temple.
10:01
The Jewish people were very invested in the study of Torah, in the practice of mitzvahs, in doing acts of loving, kindness. So I mean they were doing good things. The Jewish people were doing. Everything is fine. So why was it destroyed?
10:18
The Talmud says mipnei shehoysa bo sinas chinam. There was baseless hatred, baseless hatred, baseless hatred. Our sages tell us that baseless hatred is compared to the three cardinal sins that the first temple was destroyed, from which is avodah zara, idolatry, gila arayis, immorality and shvichas domim murder. When we have baseless hatred. It is the equivalent of those three cardinal sins. By the way, these are the three cardinal sins.
11:03
Why do we call it that? Because if someone comes to you with a gun to your head and says, serve idolatry or I kill you, you say I'm willing to take a bullet to my head, I'm not going to turn against my God, I'm not going to bow down to the idol, and you take a bullet in the head and you have the Garden of Eden. You have all the Abraham, isaac and Jacob. Our patriarchs, our matriarchs will all line up by the red carpet to greet you because you gave your life for Hashem. If someone says, sleep with this woman who's married, it's forbidden for one to do immoral acts with someone they're not married to or I kill you. You're supposed to take a bullet to your head and not betray your relationship with Hashem. And lastly, if someone says kill them or I kill you, you have to be willing to forego your life, not to kill someone else. All of those are equal to baseless hatred. If you have hatred for someone unfounded we should say even founded, but let's say unfounded Hatred it's equivalent to committing those three terrible cardinal sins.
12:35
Moshe is talking to the Jewish people here at Mount Sinai. They're traveling, but Moshe is doing a review. He's giving them a rebuke. What is he telling them? Why do we have hatred? We have hatred because we don't have a positive eye. We don't have a positive eye because we're too quick to judge people. We're too quick.
13:05
I got the story. I know what I saw and no one can tell me otherwise. I saw it with my own eyes. I want to share with you a story. I think it's very relevant to me a little, because I just made a couple of weddings with the thanks to Hashem. I thank Hashem so much for blessing us so incredibly.
13:28
But there's a story we've shared in the past. There was a man who lived in Ashdod and his daughter got engaged. He's going to have to have an expensive wedding's expensive wedding, I can tell you. The rabbi walks over to the man. He says you know how you plan to pay for this wedding. He says I actually have no idea. I may have to go out and collect money. You know, I'm not a, I'm not a rich man, I'm. I'm actually a poor. I'm trying to make ends meet and to marry off my daughter with dignity is going to be very difficult. So the rabbi's like let's see what we can do.
14:04
The rabbi goes to a few people in the shul. He says guys, we've got to help him out. He's a member of our synagogue, he's struggling to marry off his daughter. Let's put together a fund and they raise a nice sum of money to have a nice, modest wedding Nothing ostentatious, nothing fancy, to have a simple, basic wedding. So they put together the fund and they give it to this person. He's so grateful, he's so thankful and he goes.
14:30
He meets with the caterer and he says you know, I want to make a wedding for my daughter. He says okay, you know we have many different packages. He says I want the simplest package. Give me the simplest package. It's the only thing I can afford, especially it's charity money, right? So the guy says, okay, fill out this application. He fills out the application. We'll just pick a name Greenberg. Hey, your name is Greenberg. One second, where are you from? He says you don't know me.
14:55
My father comes from a little village out in Europe. He's a survivor. He says Greenberg. He says from what village? He tells him the name of the village. The man's jaw drops. It's the caterer. His jaw drops. He says are you serious? Is your father so-and-so, mr Greenberg? He says yes. He says my father. Before he passed away he told me such and such person, mr Greenberg, saved my life. I would not be alive, you wouldn't be alive today if not for that Mr Greenberg from that village and the son, the caterer, is saying my whole life I've been looking for a way to give back and show my gratitude and give my thanks for the family, for the Greenbergs. Okay, he says whatever you have, give me what you have, thank you.
15:54
Comes the wedding, and it's a nice wedding. Comes the wedding, and it's a nice wedding. The next day man marries off his daughter. He hopes the next day people come over to him in shul and say yo, mazel Tov, such a beautiful wedding, it's incredible. So happy to be there. Nobody says a word. Everyone's turning their back towards him. No one's saying a word. Everyone's ignoring him.
16:15
He goes over to people and says you know, a couple days later is Shabbos. Nobody wants to say good Shabbos to this guy. He's going. What did I do? So he goes to the rabbi. He says rabbi, what's going on? Why is everyone so upset at me? The rabbi's like what do you mean? That's the most disgusting thing ever. He says we raised money for you in the belief that you didn't have money to make a wedding. And that's the wedding you throw the fanciest wedding we've ever seen the fancy.
16:49
We walked in there and it was dripping the flowers and the food, the menu, everything. So the rabbi tells him the story and he says to him I too was embarrassed when I walked inbi tells him the story. And he says to him I too was embarrassed when I walked in. He says he tells him it's the caterer. I told him to give me the simple package, but this is the story. He wanted to show his gratitude. I didn't know what he was going to do. He says when I walked in, I was just as surprised as you were. See, sometimes we rush to judgment. I saw with my own eyes. He told me, and it's all. The facts are true, but you're missing a little piece of the story, a little piece of the story.
17:30
If we have baseless love and we believe in people 100%, he would never do something like that. We would never get into such a situation. And the rabbi publicly stood up from the podium and apologized and all the members of the congregation had terrible, terrible regret the day after his daughter's wedding. People have to shun him like that, right. But we're all culpable. We're all capable of falling into that trap if we don't work hard to fulfill what the Mishnah says.
18:10
What does the Mishnah tell us? Don't judge your fellow till. You're standing in his place. Let me tell you, you've never stand in anybody's place and no one's ever stood in your place, because to be standing in someone's place, there's an entire 360 that needs to come along with it. It's not just this specific incident that this, at this time, matches, identical somewhat with me. No, no, no. Do you know what's going on in their home? Do you know what's going on in their job? Do you know what's going on with their parents, with their children, with all of the stresses that they have? You may have a little piece that's identical, but are you actually standing in their shoes? Do you understand the challenge that they're facing right now, with all of the dynamics that are going on in their lives? Perhaps not. And therefore the Mishnah is telling us don't even try to judge if you're not standing in their place, because there's almost a contradiction in the Mishnah Over here.
19:21
The Mishnah says don't judge your fellow till you're standing in their place. But elsewhere it says, in the same ethics of our fathers in the Mishnah, it says judge your fellow favorably. Right. When you judge your fellow, judge them favorably Right. Hevidan es kol ha'odom l'kav z'chost. When you judge your fellow, judge them favorably. So is it telling me not to judge or is it telling me to judge? Well, they're both really saying the same thing, if you look carefully. And when it says to judge, it says judge the whole person favorably. Es kol ha'odom, the entire person favorably. Es kol ha'odam, the entire person favorably. Not just one incident. You see a little glimpse. You're like oh, it has to be.
20:09
You know, there was a guy who once came to the rabbi this is in Washington Heights. He says rabbi, you have someone, a member in your synagogue, who's not being honest with you, right? He's making believe that he's religious and observant. He's really not. I saw him with my own eyes going over to one of those shops on the side of the road in Manhattan and they're usually not kosher selling sausages and all these things. I saw him walk over there with his yarmulke on, buying the food and eating it. And we all know it's not kosher. It may be halal, but kosher it's not. He says in public. Still the rabbi's like it can't be. He says I saw it with my own eyes. He says yeah, but it can't be.
21:00
He says that Mishnah tells us that we're not allowed to judge unless we're standing in their place. He says if you ate like that, why would you do it? He says only if I had a medical condition, if I was a diabetic and it was, you know it's like, then you're obligated to. It's not a medical emergency, he says I bet you. That's the reason he says Rabbi, come on, he's not a diabetic, turns out he was. You don't know. The whole story First is we shouldn't be judging people.
21:34
Jewish people were in the business of loving, not judging. But if we are judging, you have to judge the whole person. If you don't know the whole person, you have no right to judge them. And when you think't know the whole person, you have no right to judge them. And when you think that you do, are you standing in their place?
21:49
What Moshe is telling retorting the Jewish people is that you have to love one another unconditionally. We have to have baseless love, my rabbi said last year it was a quote that was running all around the internet. He says you don't have to learn how to love people baselessly. It's easy. We're the Jewish people. We should see the favor in every Jew. It's not a hard work. Look at your fellow Jew, look how beautiful they are. Judge every person favorably, every person.
22:30
If we do this, we won't need the retort from Moshe. We won't need the patch that Moshe gives throughout the entire book of Deuteronomy, where Moshe says watch out, you messed up once. You might mess up again. Don't do it. Don't do it. Watch it. Remember the golden calf.
22:54
We all ask how's it possible? We see, it's not so easy for people to just change on a dime. It's a whole transformation that needs to happen. Just because you experienced the miracle at Mount Sinai doesn't mean you change overnight. We're like oh, you should have. No, no, no, no.
23:16
We saw a miracle, we said on April 15th. We saw where rockets, ballistic missiles were being shot at Israel and they're all like flies getting pushed away. It's a miracle, an open miracle. What changed in our lives? What changed? Or did we just go back to our old habits, like the golden calf? You saw a great miracle, the hand of Hashem.
23:43
It doesn't necessarily necessitate that one is going to change If we don't put an emphasis on that change. If we don't put a focus on that change, it's not going to happen on its own. Hashem should bless us all that in the journey of Deuteronomy, the journey of reviewing the Torah, we should all merit to change our perspective of how we look on people. We shouldn't judge them favorably because they're so negative, no, no, no. Judge them positively because they're so awesome that all we see is the good in people, that all we see is the sweetness of mankind. And Hashem should help that in the merit of doing so, in the merit of our efforts to see the positive in everyone else. God willing, everyone will see the positive in us as well, amen.
24:37 - Intro (Announcement)
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. We need you, we need partners. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.