Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A refreshing and clear review of each Parsha in the Torah presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
Good morning, everybody. It's so wonderful to be here. It's so wonderful to learn this morning about this week's Torah portion, Parsha's Yisro. What is Parsha's Yisro? Yisro, we know, is an incredible character. He's Moshe, Moshe's father-in-law, and he was the minister of Midian. In fact, he was a spiritual leader in many different faiths. And we learned something very, very special. We mentioned this previously on different Parsha
episodes, that there's no portion named for Moshe. There's no portion in the Torah named for Aaron. There's no portion in the Torah named for Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, or Joseph. But there is for someone who at that point wasn't even a Jew. Yisro, converted to Judaism, and there's an entire portion dedicated to Yisro. It's a remarkable thing. How is it possible? So what I want to focus on today is I want to focus on the practical application of the Torah.
The Torah is not about telling us stories. The Torah is not about just teaching us laws and rules. It's practical application. Every single verse has to be practical. So we know, we mentioned this previously, that Yisro taught us something that is unique and special, that it says, Rashi says, Va'yishma Yisro? Ma sh'mo ha'shamah u'ba? What did he hear that caused him to come? He heard about the exodus from Egypt. He heard about all of the miracles that God performed for the Jewish people in the desert,
and Yisro says, this is incredible. Now imagine how many people open up a newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, or any other paper, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily News, who cares, any paper, and you see a story about something that's going on in Rwanda. So what do most people do? Most people say, hmm, that's interesting, and turn the page. Let's see the sports section. Right, and that's it, and they move on. It has no impact.
There's no application from what I saw to my life. It's an interesting story, and I move on. But what did Yisro do? He's reading the Egypt Times, and he opens up the Egypt Times, and it says all about the miracles that God performed for the Jewish people, all of the plagues that befell the Egyptians, the miracle of the splitting of the sea that the Jewish people walk through on dry land.
Wink wink. They walk on dry land. They go to the other side, and now what are they gonna be fed in the desert? The manna. So everybody sees the same story. It's written in all the newspapers, and what does Yisro do? Yisro doesn't just continue looking at the sports section, just turn the page. He says, this I have to be part of. He closes the paper and goes to track down the Jewish people. He comes there. He says, hey, hey, who's the leader here?
They say Moses. He says, that's my son-in-law. I want to talk to him, and Moses comes and greets him, and you read the verses here. It's incredible honor that Moshe bestows upon his father-in-law. He has gratitude. He has appreciation for him. He married his daughter. And what happens? He says, I want to join the Jewish people. Why? I want to, so there are a couple of things here that I want to point out. The first is, we mentioned so many times about that we don't talk about emunah.
We don't talk about faith, a leap of faith, belief. We talk about knowledge. When we talk about having faith in God, what we really mean is not the Christian concept of faith. We just take a leap of faith. Hope it's true. Hope I'm not wrong here. I'm just going to take a leap of faith here and trust. No. We have knowledge. And what do we see? That Moshe teaches. He talks to Yisro, his father-in-law, and tells him all the details. And what does it say?
Now I know. I have knowledge. Not faith. Knowledge is much stronger than faith. When you know something, and we qualify this, we said this previously, that when we talk, when we start reading the Ten Commandments, what happens in chapter 20 of Exodus, what do we say? We don't say, I am Hashem your God, period. No, we qualify it because you have to attach it and make it personal so that nobody can ever doubt,
that nobody can ever question, that when someone comes over to you, Gary, and says, do you believe in God? You're like, yes. You're like, do you have proof that God exists? You're like, yes. And he's gonna say, okay, what's your proof? Me. I'm your proof. Because I've seen God. I've experienced God. I know that God exists. It's much more powerful than just, yeah, I have faith. I took a leap of faith. No, we don't have leaps of faith.
It's got to be knowledge. It's got to be firm. So what does the Torah tell us? Anokhi Hashem Elokecha. I am Hashem your God. But how do I know that? How do I quantify that? Asher tzitzicha me'eretz mitzrayim b'beis avodim. Because I am the God that took you out of Egypt from the house of slavery. It's not just we believe in God. We know in God. We know that He exists. We've seen His hand. We've seen His miracles. And which is why,
connecting it to our class that we discussed yesterday, Hine Elokeinu Zeh, you're able to point and say, here is God. Wherever we are today in this world, everybody here have a cell phone? You can point to your smartphone and say, here is God. These miracles that we hold in our hand, that we're able to, with a plastic lens, able to see across the globe. That we're able to, with this machine, talk to people all around the universe. That this machine is able to communicate with outer space.
The most remarkable miracles. If we don't stop and appreciate it, then we're missing the point. The Chavetz Chaim told his granddaughter, he says, technology is coming to this world. And again, we mentioned this. He passed away in 1934, before all of the advent of modern technology. He says, because people will gain emunah from technology. Because people will say, if this device can see, you think Hashem can't see? If this device can hear, don't you think Hashem can hear? If this device can record,
don't you think Hashem can record? If this device can memorize? Do you know that you can, you can bring me your phone and I can tell you every place you went to in the last year. Every single place. Do you know that it tracks your entire location history? Wherever you've gone, where you've gone, the time of day, how long it took you to get from here to there. You went to the grocery and then you went to the synagogue and then you went
back home and then you went to a friend's house and then you went back to the grocery. Every single step is recorded. And God doesn't record. He doesn't know. Heaven forbid. These are tools of emunah. These are tools of knowledge of Hashem. If this device can record it, Hashem can certainly record it. But I want to talk to you about something totally different. A different part of practical application and that is the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments, we just read the first first mitzvah of the Ten Commandments and that is Anochi Hashem l'kecha, I am Hashem your God. How do we qualify that? Asher etzitzichah, hoetzitichah, me'eretz mitzrayim mi'beyt avadim. I took you out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery. What is the last of the Ten Commandments? The last of the Ten Commandments. Lotach mod eshet re'achah, va'avado, va'amaso, v'shoro, v'chamoro, v'chol asher l're'achah. You shall not covet your fellow's wife, his maidservant, his manservant, his ox, his donkey,
nor anything that belongs to your fellow. So we're students of Torah, right? And what did we learn as a fundamental principle in our teaching of the Torah? There's nothing random. There's nothing in the Torah that's random. Why do you have the first of the Ten Commandments, I am Hashem your God, and the last of the Ten Commandments? Is don't covet. Don't be jealous. I mean, doesn't every child learn in school from their home?
Don't be jealous of your friend's snacks. Don't be jealous of your friend's toys. Don't be jealous. What is jealousy? Jealousy is the opposite of knowledge of Hashem. The first mitzvah is knowledge of Hashem. We have to have knowledge that Hashem created us, put us in this world for a purpose, and gives us every single thing that we need. And what's the last commandment of the Ten Commandments? Practical application. You see, every person at every stage of life can be jealous.
The baby could be jealous of their friend's toys. A teenager could be jealous of their friend's clothes, of their backpack. They could be jealous of the vacations their family went on. When you're older, you're jealous of someone's job, of someone's livelihood. When you're even older, you're jealous of someone's health. You're jealous of someone's family. You're jealous of someone else's life, someone else's legacy, someone else's accomplishments. We can live our entire lives not realizing
Anochi Hashem Elokecha. I am Hashem your God. I gave you everything that you need to be the best. You looking and comparing and being jealous of someone else is not recognizing that Hashem is the one who controls the world. If you want to have a practical application of the Anochi Hashem Elokecha, that I am Hashem your God, you want to have a practical application of that, you have to not be jealous. Because jealousy means you don't see a big picture that is controlled by the Almighty.
Jealousy means I don't understand that the hand of Hashem guided with precision everything that I have, the spouse that you were supposed to marry, the children that you were supposed to or not supposed to have, every single part of your life was organized and structured by God in a way for you to be the best you. But we're not taught that. Well, you know what we're taught growing up? Money. Money is the key.
How good of a career are you gonna have? How much money are you gonna make? And everything is, why does this person get more than me? Why does that that person get more than me? And we're always looking and comparing because that's the most important rating system. But the truth is that the way we should rate ourselves is not by other people. We should rate ourselves by ourselves. What is my capability? What are the talents? What are the skills that God has given me?
Am I maximizing them? To not look outside and compare ourselves to other people. Well, I finished first in the race. I'm good. No. Did I do the best I could do? I could have done it better. I could have done it faster. We have to be living in a world where we don't have time to look at other people. We don't have time to compare ourselves. Us versus them. It has to be me versus me.
If I have 10 pounds of ability and I only utilize 2 pounds of ability, I'm falling short of my responsibilities. What is Lotach Mod? Don't be jealous. Don't covet. Your fellow's wife, your fellow's house, your fellow's servants, your fellow's animals, their cars, their belongings, their possessions. You're not realizing that really everything you have is exactly perfect for you. You're living in a world that is absolutely designed for you. It's perfect for you.
And that's the gift of this Torah portion where we see in a very pragmatic way how we actualize the I am Hashem your God. You actualize it by looking inside. Recognizing the godliness that you have within. Recognizing the gifts that God has given you. I think that this is a very worthwhile exercise for us to all examine within ourselves. What are my skills? What am I capable of? Am I fulfilling those skills and gifts that God has given me?
Someone who's a great writer and doesn't spend time writing is committing a sin. Someone who's a great singer and doesn't sing is committing a grave sin. Someone who's a great lecturer, orator, and doesn't speak is doing a great sin. Why? I didn't do anything. Well, God gave you a gift and you haven't utilized it. When we realize that we are held responsible not why didn't we live up to someone else? The question God will ask us is why didn't live up to you?
To you. Don't look outside. Don't get confused by other people. Don't let other people set your priorities. Don't let other people set the standard. You know who breaks that standard every day? In the most remarkable, I was talking with a few people yesterday, last night, and we're talking about the marvel of Elon Musk. You see if he looked at other agencies and other companies he wouldn't do anything because everyone says it's impossible. So he has SpaceX that arguably has done considerably more than the
multi-billions and billions and billions of dollars that have been poured into NASA. And I know all of the NASA scientists are going to tell me what are you talking about? He's using our... Give me a break. How many things have been sent How many things have been sent to outer space in the past 10 years from NASA and how many from SpaceX? This guy's killing it. But that's not his only business. You have Tesla. The best-selling car in the world is no longer the Toyota Camry.
It's now the Tesla Model Y. The best-selling car in the world. Some little guy started a car company. In less than 10 years, the best-selling car in the world. I mean, do you realize that's just a second company? Oh, he has a bunch more. You see someone who doesn't say, I'm just going to be like the other guy. It's fine. He pushes it and pushes it and pushes it. How much more can I push myself?
And I think it's a, you know, we're a Torah class and we're bringing an example from Elon Musk. Well, we have to learn from everybody. And we have to learn from someone who in our generation is, I think, an icon of accomplishment. An icon of pushing ourselves beyond what anybody can ever expect. You know, it's an amazing thing. I'm a little bit amazed by Steve Jobs. I don't like his products. I'm not a fan of Apple devices.
I don't own an iPhone or a computer or iMac or whatever, any of those machines. But you know what he did? He went beyond and did something greater than anybody could have imagined. And by the way, since he passed away, nothing really creative has come from Apple. Nothing unique. Yeah, they continue. It's a great company. They provide good products. But nothing earth shattering. I remember his first, I think it was 2003, when he came out onto the stage and he pulls out this
iPad. You can have 3,000 songs right here on this device. And it was like, whoa, unbelievable. Today, it's like the world has changed in such a dramatic way. And our children can't imagine what it was to have a rotary phone, a fax machine. They don't know what these things are. Well, what's that wire that you used to have on your phones? You know those cords? They think it's so that we didn't lose the phone. Kids don't. It's a different world.
But what we need to impress upon ourselves and our children is don't let other people define for you what you're capable of. Hashem gives you infinite power to accomplish the best you you can be. Don't limit yourself because everybody said I'm going to fail. Because nobody wanted to hire me. I have a very dear friend of mine who writes for a very prominent magazine in the Jewish world. And when he started writing, he sent an article to their paper.
And he said, I would love to become a writer for your magazine. And they said, no, not interested. We have enough writers. We don't need you. Today, he's one of the most celebrated writers in that magazine. Because rejection didn't stop him. Just because someone says we don't want you doesn't mean they don't want you. They don't know how much they need you. You have to impress upon them. And I think for our children, this is an important message.
We have to instill in our children a relentlessness to pursuing their goals. Don't let anybody tell you you can't. It should motivate you even more that you can. My dear friends, there's so much to unpack in this Torah portion. Pashas Yisro is an incredible gift for each of us to really learn and to grow. To not give in to pressure from society. To define for ourselves what we are capable of. And to defy every single detractor. Because people are always going to tell you,
because they have this low sakhmod, because they have this jealousy. You're like, nah, you'll never succeed in that. And boom, I think he owns six or seven Fortune 500 companies, Elon. Maybe more. It's unbelievable. And by the way, he didn't know about cars. And he didn't know about space travel. And he didn't know about all these things just a few years ago. But he learned. He learned and he applied himself. And dreamt and worked hard and continues to work hard.
I think that this is an important lesson for us to apply. Yisro heard the message and he put it into action. And here the Torah tells us, put it into action. Don't say one day, one day. There is no one day. Today is that one day. And it doesn't mean that you have to do all of it today. But you take the first step. You take that first step and you say, you know what? This is my significant step towards another mitzvah.
Towards another change in my life. To not just be today the same person we were yesterday. But to find a way to change, to improve. To challenge ourselves. Because we will surprise ourselves. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos.
You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. 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.