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The Everyday Judaism Podcast (formerly Living Jewishly Podcast) is dedicated to learning and understanding the laws and basic how-to of daily Jewish living. Presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in a simple and concise manner, easy for anyone to understand and connect.
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by Marshall & Doreen Lerner.
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Ask Away series on the Everyday Judaism podcast. To have your questions answered on future episodes, please email askaway at torchweborg. Now ask away.
00:21 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Welcome back to the Ask Away number 18. We're so excited to be here this Sunday morning and to ask any question. Don't forget that if I don't know the answer, I will say so. Okay, if I do know the answer, I will try my best to articulate it properly. But, ladies and gentlemen, without any further ado, we ask Bruce, please enlighten us with your question. You said that the numerical value of I thought you said very intriguing comment.
01:01 - Bruce S. (Caller)
If I heard it correctly, was that the numerical value of bread.
01:03 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Lechem was evil.
01:04 - Bruce S. (Caller)
No, no no, no, it's wisdom.
01:05 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
No, no, no. So let me explain.
01:06 - Bruce S. (Caller)
What.
01:06 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
I said was is that the whole process of making bread, the whole reason we make bread, is really a curse. Originally, bread was during the time of Adam and Eve. We just take it off the tree. It wasn't an apple tree, it was a bread tree. What was the curse? That you're going to have to? By the sweat of your brow, you will make bread, you will eat bread. That means you're going to have an entire process.
01:34
If you look at the process, there's an 11-step process to making bread. 11, as we know, is the power of evil, meaning that the bread that we eat is countering that power of evil. We're using 11-step process. What's the 11-step process? Plowing, planting, harvesting, gathering, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading and baking. Okay, the 11-step process is called Sidur de Pas, which is the order of making bread.
02:08
One of the important things of the 39 laws of prohibitions on Shabbat, 11 of them are these steps of making bread. All of these parts are prohibited on Shabbat. So now, by observing these 11, which is why we have the in the morning prayer, we bring the incense there were 11 special ingredients that were brought to counter the forces of negativity, to counter the forces of evil. 10 is the number of holiness. We have the 10 commandments, we have the 10 utterances, we have many things having to do with 10. We're establishing holiness. The numbers on both sides 9 and 11, were the numbers of a negative force and that's what we counter. We counter it with other things that we do with the number 11. For example, one of the examples we brought when we talked about the incense in our prayer podcast was the 11 Amos.
03:07
Very interesting that the Torah tells us that. How deep did the ark go into the ground, into the water? It was in the water 11 Amos, specifically 11. Because what was really happening in that water? All of the evil was getting destroyed. When you have the number of evil, it's always counted with the number 11. Okay, I hope that answers your question. So it wasn't that. Bread is the numerical value. It's that the steps required to making bread is 11. Okay.
03:38
Thank you for clarifying that removing the negative forces of the bread that was eaten inappropriately in the Garden of Eden.
03:52 - Bruce S. (Caller)
Thank you. My second question was isn't there a Gomorrah somewhere that says that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the cinnamon tree? Because Eve saw that, only because Eve saw that it was, the tree was good to eat, and that's the only tree that you can eat. The tree itself that's good is the bark of the cinnamon tree. Well, that's today.
04:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
It used to be. It used to be that every tree was edible. It used to be. That was part of the curse is that the trees were no longer edible. It used to be. You could just walk over to any tree and just bite off the branch. It was like yum, delicious. Right, try to do that with a pine tree. Right, try it. No, it was not delicious. It was not delicious. It wouldn't be delicious for us. But it used to be that every tree was edible. It says was edible. It says Eitz pri ose pri. I'll bring the actual verse from Genesis where the tree itself was edible. It says Ki tov ha'etz l'machal. The tree itself was edible. It was eitz pri ose pri. It was a fruit tree that made fruits, meaning the tree itself was edible. It was eits pre osse pri. It was a fruit tree that made fruits, meaning the tree itself was edible. Okay, this is in Genesis, chapter one and two. Okay, I hope I answered your question.
05:16 - Bruce S. (Caller)
You did, and thank you so much for correcting my misunderstanding. Let's pass the microphone to Gary.
05:20 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
My dear friends, we have another incredible question, I'm sure cooking up. Ask away. My dear friends, we have another incredible question, I'm sure cooking up. Ask away my dear friend ask.
05:28 - Gary N. (Caller)
What if a person was born on the 11th day of the Gregorian month? Does that 11 count or not?
05:35 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
So 11 is not an evil day, don't get me wrong. 11 is not an evil number. I know some people are very superstitious about the number 13. If you go into most elevators they don't have a number 13. I was born on the 13th of April. Don't worry, it's a great month, it's a great day. Okay, yeah, don't worry about it. People get very superstitious. I just want to share with you a very interesting thing about about this Okay, in the laws of lighting candles for a deceased relative so we know it's a special thing you light a candle on the day of Y because the neshama should elevate like a flame.
06:18
It should go up to the next level. Very, very interestingly, when people bring a candle to synagogue because it used to be that whoever had a yartzeh would bring a candle to the synagogue and they'd give it to the gabai, to the guy in charge, and he would light everyone's candles. And the halacha says that when you give your candle, the gabai should mix up all the candles. He should mix up all the candles so that nobody knows which candle was theirs, because sometimes a candle gets, gets extinguished and it gets, and people get very superstitious about it, like, oh my, that was a candle that I lit for my father or for my mother, or for a relative, or for this. It must be a terrible thing. He says just mix them all up so they don't know whose is whose, and that way nobody gets all superstitious about it. People get very, very, it's okay. If you're born on the 11th of the 11th, it's fine, don't worry. I have three magnificent children born in the 11th month of the Gregorian calendar. Don't worry about it, it's fine, okay, whew, okay, good, no, okay, okay, good, no, no, no. So we don't need to get into superstition, we don't need to get worried about all of these different omens and things we try on Rosh Hashanah. Actually, we try to put out only positivity, which is why we dip the apple in the honey, representing a sweet new year.
07:40
We eat the pomegranates, which is filled with seeds that we should be filled with mitzvahs, just like the pomegranate is filled with seeds. Allegedly, there's 613 seeds in every pomegranate, allegedly. You can count them, get busy, make sure you wear an apron, because your shirt is going to get all. It is very difficult to take out a pomegranate stain, but I don't think it necessarily means that we'll be filled with 613 mitzvahs because there's nobody on planet Earth who can fulfill all 613. Because if you're not a Kohen, you're missing out the Kohen's mitzvahs. If you're not a Levi, you're missing out the Levi's mitzvahs. If you're not an Israelite, you're missing out on the Israel.
08:19
And there are mitzvahs that are applicable to only certain situations. Thank God, if someone is happily married, they'll never fulfill the mitzvah of giving a get to their wife. So if someone isn't married, they didn't fulfill certain mitzvahs. There's so many different things so it's impossible for anyone. But that's not the point. The point is that we want to be jammed in with mitzvahs. We want to be filled in completely that there's no space. If you look and you open up the pomegranate, there's no extra space there. Every square inch is another seed, there's another mitzvah, and what we want is symbolic, that we want to make sure that our year is jam-packed with mitzvahs.
08:58
You know one of the beautiful prayers that we recite, I think it's 23. Psalm number 23. We say that only good and kindness should run after me, should seek me my entire life. What does that mean? Sages explain You're going to be busy your whole life anyway. Wouldn't you want it to just be good and kindness, right?
09:32
People say, oh my gosh, another organization's asking me to volunteer. That's a good thing because, heaven forbid, you want terrible things chased. You're going to be chased your whole life. We're all going to be chased. Just ask Gary, gary, we're all going to be chased, right? Whether it's the water district, whether it's this. It's that we're all going to be busy with many different things and Gary's a very busy, very accomplished individual. But we want it to always be good and we want it to be kindness, right. So if we're able to help, we're able to volunteer, we're able to be involved with good things, that's the good. That's we're asking. We're going to be busy anyway. Let's be busy with good things, let's be busy with blessing, let's be busy with acts of kindness. Excellent question, gary. I hope I answered One more question. Grab the microphone, please 613 commandments.
10:23 - Gary N. (Caller)
No human being can ever achieve fulfilling all those 613. To me that is a good thing, Because to reach 613, would not that be reaching perfection? And there is only one perfection in the entire universe.
10:42 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
And that's Hashem. That's right, okay. So here's the thing. Perfection in the entire universe, and that's Hashem. That's right, okay. So here's the thing. Very interesting is that 365 of those commandments are negative commandments, which means do not do this. So by sitting at home like this with your hands, okay, doing nothing, you're right now fulfilling 365 commandments. Okay, prohibitions, because I'm not eating something which isn't kosher, I'm not doing a prohibition, even on Shabbos, right, you have 39 prohibitions. So, sitting at your table and not doing anything, you're fulfilling 39 prohibitions that you're not performing. So I'm saying it's a pretty good deal that by just sitting idly, you go to the beach and you close your eyes Of course, you don't look at things that are prohibited and you just think about Hashem. You're fulfilling mitzvahs galore, right? So it's not only performative mitzvahs. There's 248 performative commandments, of which not all of them are applicable today.
11:47
Not all of them are applicable to an Israelite. Not all of them are applicable today. Not all of them are applicable to an Israelite. Not all of them are applicable to a Levite. Not all of them are applicable to a Kohen. For example, the mitzvah of Pidyon HaBen redeeming the firstborn it's not applicable to a Kohen. A Kohen can never fulfill that mitzvah. A Kohen can purchase the baby, so to speak, or purchase the redemption of the baby, but a Kohen himself can never perform that mitzvah on his own child. A Levite can never perform that mitzvah on their own child. And an Israelite who's married to a daughter of a Kohen or a daughter of a Levite can't either fulfill that mitzvah. It has to be an Israelite and an Israelite who are married and have their firstborn. My daughter is married to a Kohen. She can never fulfill that mitzvah, ever, ever. She's married to a Kohen, you understand. So there are mitzvahs that are just not applicable. Those that are applicable.
12:48
That's what we ask Hashem. Hashem, please give us the opportunity to be close to you. How do we attain that closeness? Through the performance of mitzvahs. When we perform a mitzvah, every mitzvah that we are able to perform is another opportunity of closeness between us and the Almighty, and that's what we aspire for in our entire life, our entire lifetime. Our goal, our mission is how do we take another step closer in our relationship with Hashem? All right, I hope I answered that question, gary. All right, okay, go ahead. Here we go.
13:22
Okay, for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, are we obligated to go to the mikvah. So the answer is like this there's only one today because we don't have a temple. When there was a temple, there were different laws that applied, but today there's only one person who's obligated to go to the mikvah and that's a woman who wants to be with her husband Prior after having her menstrual cycle. She needs to go to the mikvah before being with her husband. That's after seven clean days. We don't have to get into the details of all that. We've discussed that in other episodes.
13:53
However, there is the halacha that says the halacha says that a man, before Rosh Hashanah, yom Kippur and the three festivals, should go to the mikvah. Is it a biblical obligation? No, it's a rabbinic at most. Now some women want to do that as well. They're welcome to. There's no obligation to okay. Additionally is that a man is not obligated. Because he's not obligated to go to the mikvah, he doesn't need to go to a kosher mikvah like a woman does To a woman. It needs to be absolutely pristine, it needs to be perfect For a man. They can jump into a swimming pool and they fulfill the mitzvah of going to the mikveh. Again, there's no obligation to begin with. No biblical obligation. Again, there are many people.
14:36
I have a very, very close friend. He goes to the mikveh every day Because he feels it, because if mikveh is something which makes the impure pure, then he says me on a daily basis. I'm impure, I want to become pure. So he says, why not? Why can't I have another? That's very great and very righteous. There's no such obligation. If you want to do that great, you want to be stringent on yourself and go to the mikveh, no problem, go. But there's definitely no obligation for a person to do that. A person doesn't have to feel obligated to do it.
15:09
Now, it's a special thing. I go to the mikvah. I try to go to the mikvah before Rosh Hashanah, before Yom Kippur, before each of the three festivals, and try to dip in and just again remove the barriers of unholiness and bring myself to a place of holiness. That's a very special thing. Now there's a special mikvah that I need to tell you all about, and the mikvah is the Arizal's mikvah. It's in Tzfat and it's a natural mikvah that the Arizal used to go to himself. The Kabbalist, the great Arizal, the Kabbalist.
15:43
And it is so cold, it is so freezing cold. So I went there and I took my children and my children said no, it's too cold, we're not gonna go. I said I'll give you 50 bucks. 50 bucks, just go in. So I went in and it was another European individual there with his son, and his son didn't either wanna go. Like they're a little wimpy today, this generation, they're a little wimpy, these kids. So this generation, they're a little wimpy, these kids. So he says to his son I'll give you 50 euro. You heard he's giving 50 dollars, I'll give you 50 euro. And the kid went in. I said to my kids look, look, you should learn from him. Either way, they didn't want to go in. But when I went in the first time there was a man standing there waiting for me to get out so he can go in.
16:21
It's not a very big mik in once, dunked in once. He says again, again, 13 times. Why 13? Because the 13 attributes of God's mercy. So again, there's many, many, many customs to it.
16:38
It's not biblically obligated. You go in one time and that's enough. You want to fulfill a custom, you want to do 13, you want to do 75, do whatever you want. You can do as many as you want. It's not biblically obligated, but to go in one time for those who are obligated by the Torah to do so. Otherwise it's not necessary. There's no halacha that you're obligated to go. There's no halacha that you're obligated to go.
17:04
It is proper for men to go before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the three festivals. And again, there's some people who go every single Shabbat, before every single Shabbat. There's some people who go every single day. That's wonderful. When I was younger and I lived not far from a synagogue that had a mikvah, I would go very frequently. Yeah, okay, but it's like you know, people shower also every day. You have to go shower before you go into the mikveh, shower after if you feel like you want to do so. But again, on Shabbos you don't do that. But I don't want to confuse everyone here. I just want people to know that there is no obligation in the Torah to do so. There is a halachic requirement to do so today. If it's possible, you have another follow-up. Yes, like to do so?
17:47 - David (Caller)
today, if it's possible, you have another follow-up? Yes, like the pool, so men can just go to the pool and that's it.
17:51 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Yeah.
17:52 - David (Caller)
Yeah.
17:52 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
That's it. That's it, Men. Yes for men, If you want to do it at your house, you can do it.
17:57
Right.
17:57
So if someone has a pool in their home. By the way, there's a synagogue in our community that Shavuot, for example. Shavuot, we learn all night. So at the end of the night, right before sunrise, the entire congregation goes to a pool in the community and they all use it as a mikvah. People go in one at a time, everybody goes into the mikvah and they dip into a ritual bath Again.
18:23
For men it's fine, for women it's not okay. So I just want to make that disclaimer. A woman cannot. And I will tell you, though that great missirut nefesh, great dedication to the Torah and its mitzvahs.
18:36
I know that in the former Soviet Union, where I used to run a summer camp, there were a few married couples that were part of the camp, and the women that needed to go to the mikvah this is a biblical obligation had no mikvah to go to, so they went to the river. They went to the river, and it's very difficult in a river. It's cold, it's not pleasant and it's clean. It's clean enough, it's a river, right, but that's a natural mikvah and they had to go with another woman. Another woman has to always be there to ensure that they're fully submerged, that there's no here outside of the water that they're fully submerged in the water. And it has to be at night and it's dangerous at night as well. So it's with great, great commitment and dedication to the Torah that these women went to the mikvah when they needed to go and they would walk and it'd be. You know, it'd be a big commitment and a big dedication to do so Today.
19:37
Today, most mikvahs all around the world are heated, they're pleasant, they're clean, they're filtered. You can make chicken soup out of that water. I'm not kidding, it is sparkling clean water and that's the way it should be, okay. So thank you for the question. Very good question. I hope I answered it appropriately, David. Any question there?
19:57 - David (Caller)
Talking about earlier, with all the technology out there today and taking away from time spent, you know, praying and spending time in the Bible and reading. Why did God create all these different things, such as the LinkedIn's and the YouTube's and all this that's out there that you were discussing earlier? To take away from the time spent praying and spending time reading the Bible.
20:21 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
That's an excellent question, excellent question. So here you have to understand God creates all the good in the world and God allows for the evil to counterbalance it. If we were, if you were, okay, david if you were in a world that there was only candy, what would you eat? Only candy, right? You don't have a choice. That's what there is. Hashem puts us in a world where we have choice. You can choose to do good, you can choose to do not good. We have this choice.
20:51
Now the question of why Hashem created social media. I know why, hashem because all of our classes are on social media too. So, my dear friends on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, please like, share and expand the reach of Torah around the world. That's why Hashem created. If you think Hashem created it for all of the nonsense out there, you're wrong. Hashem created it so that we can reach Jews all across the globe with our Torah study. That's why we have right sitting here in this room. We have four things going on. We have a beautiful group of people sitting here in the room. We have our friends who are online joining us live on Zoom. We have the camera right here in front which is sharing with all of the social media networks and we have this delicious microphone here that is sharing it as a podcast with all the listeners on Spotify, on YouTube YouTube what do they call it YouTube Music, and on Apple Podcasts and all of the other platforms and to all of our listeners out there on the podcast world. Thank you so much for joining us. Please like and share. Leave a good review if you like it.
21:58
But the idea is is that there's always a balance and a counterbalance to the good and evil in the world. You cannot be in a place that has only good, because then you have no choice. Then what good did you do? He had no choice. And if you're in a place that's all evil, you don't either have a choice. You have to put yourself in a place Hashem has to put us in a world where we have the ability to choose between right and wrong.
22:24
Do we want to waste time? You know I don't have any games on my phone. It's a choice. Why? Because a game is a time waster. I don't want to waste time.
22:32
I also deleted this week in honor of Rosh Hashanah, I deleted all news apps Nothing. I have no news on my phone. Why? Because I realized it's taking some of my time. I don't want to waste my time. We have a limited time on this earth. I don't want to be wasting the time, the precious time that we have on this earth, following news and playing games. It's a tool to do things with, to accomplish good things with, and I don't want to get carried away. That's a choice that each of us can make.
23:03
So with everything in life, we always have free will to choose right and wrong, and Hashem creates that balance for us so that we can decide which one we want to partake in. And that's our responsibility to ensure and to constantly reevaluate, because the good decision that you make today could be the wrong decision in two months, because you're at a next level already. So every person has to recognize where they stand, what their next goal is, what their next step in their growth is, and make the decision accordingly. And that's Hashem doesn't expect. Hashem doesn't expect any of us to be like, you know, reb Chaim Ozer or Reb Yaakov Kamenetzky, the Chazonish, or any of the great sages that we have magnificent books about over there. Hashem is not expecting us to be them. Hashem is expecting us to overcome our next challenge and our next challenge we're going to have oh, should I do this, should I do that?
24:02
For example, children are always going to be faced with the challenge of how to spend their time. Should they spend their time following sports or go out and sweat and play, or mow the lawn, volunteer and help? It's very easy to just sit back and just be there with a tablet or with television and just watch the game and let life pass you by. What's baseball called the American pastime? To me, that is. It's as painful to hear that as you can possibly imagine, because what do you mean? You're just passing time. That's what it is. It's passing time. Life is so precious. Why would you want to pass time? Now, if you go to a baseball game and you're there with your children and you're spending quality time with them, that's a totally different value and that's a great thing for us to spend quality time with our family, with our children, and that's admirable. But if a person is not doing that, they're just going just to pass time because otherwise I'd be bored at home on my phone which, by the way, most people at games are doing anyway. They're at the game to pass time and passing more time on their phone following the things online.
25:16
We have to recognize that life is a lease and that lease has an expiration date and we want to make sure that, by the time we're done, we have accomplished everything we needed to accomplish and fill up our days with the most effective and important things possible. So I invite you all to join me on this mission of spreading Torah to the world and share. Share the Torah that we learned together. Share it with other people. Put the reviews on the podcasts, podcast on the videos, because that helps the algorithms. Share Torah with more people. I want to learn with as many people as possible and I want that that merits a please for me. Do it, thank you. Thank you so much, david, and welcome again to our class. We're so honored that you're here with us. All right?
26:02 - Eliana S. (Caller)
next question continuing with the mikvah. What's the obligation for women in the mikvah going to the mikvah after menopause?
26:15 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Excellent question. I'll share a story with you. There was a woman who came to this class and she said to me I need to speak to you privately after class. What's going on? She says I'm already.
26:27
For a few years I've been reciting the Shema every day. And she says I feel like I'm going to die when I say Shema. I feel like my soul is departing my body. I don't know what to do. She says I lose my breath and I feel like I'm going to collapse when I recite the Shema. I was like wow.
26:46
I said look, this is beyond my pay grade. Let me go ask someone who's a Kabbalist, someone who knows something more than I do, a lot more than I do. And I went to a very, very special sage and I asked him what do I say to this woman? What do I tell her? He said to her tell her she needs to go to the mikvah. I was like what? I was like what? So I go back to the woman and I say to her did you go to the mikvah?
27:08
She said I never went to the mikvah in my life. She says but it doesn't mean anything because I'm already past menopause, so I don't need to go to the mikvah. So I said no, no, no, you have to go to the mikvah one time After menopause, one time. And it never happened again. It never happened again.
27:33
I don't know why and I don't know how that rabbi knew that. The rabbi said she needed to go to the mikvah and that's why it was like sort of her body was limited with the holiness, with the kedushah that she was being infused with during the Shema, and it was like her neshama was struggling. So she went to the mikvah and that removed all the impurities and then it never happened again. So that's just a story to hopefully help bring. Now, if a person went to the mikvah for conversion and that was after the age, she doesn't need to go again. She's gone to the mikvah and now she's free to go, so to speak, throughout the rest of her life. Again, a mikvah is a very, very holy and spiritual body of water and it can definitely help for many, many different things. Again, you have to speak to your local Orthodox rabbi. You are my rabbi.
28:31
Okay, fine. We can talk about it. So yeah, From day one.
28:37
Can you yes, you can go to a mikveh, but I would we'll talk about it offline exactly the details. But yes, it's definitely something which is very, very holy, very, very special for a person to go to the mikveh to ensure that they remove all of the. You know, it's like you imagine, when you're trying to clean something that has impurities in it, you put it through a net, right. You need sifting flour, you put it through the sifter right to make sure that if there's any bugs or if there are any worms, that it catches it all. Sometimes we get a little dirt in us and we want to cleanse that and the mikvah does that. The mikvah cleanses it and removes those impurities from our neshama. Really, and before a person goes into the mikvah, a person should think about all of the imperfections and all the things that they want Hashem to cleanse them with in this going into the water, into this body of water that hopefully should purify their neshama in that way. Ask away.
29:42 - Eliana S. (Caller)
Second question is you had mentioned a Kohen can purchase a baby. What does?
29:49 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
that mean? Okay, one second. Sorry, I didn't clarify, so let me explain. A Kohen is a representative of God on a very high level. Hashem says your firstborn belong to me, but I want my baby right. So I go to the Kohen and I give him five silver coins and I say take these silver coins, give me my baby back. Okay, so the Kohen that's what we do in the celebration of a Pidgin Aben, of a redeeming of the firstborn. What do we do? We take the five coins the father does, and if there's no father, then someone from the community does it on the behalf of the father and they give the five silver coins to the Kohen and they say I'm purchasing my baby. It's a beautiful, beautiful ceremony and it's done again if the baby's father and mother are both Israelites and it's the opening of her womb, meaning it's her first child. No miscarriages, it has to be a natural birth and then they would qualify. This baby would qualify to be a baby that needs to be redeemed.
30:51
I was very, very fortunate to fulfill this mitzvah with my firstborn son and purchase him back from the coin, so to speak, and I gave him five silver coins, which is what the Torah tells us. We can learn it inside if you'd like. At some point we can learn about the laws of the firstborn. And I give him the five coins and he says, here, now you can have your baby. And that's as if I purchased him back from God, and then that five silver coins belongs to the coin. It's a real purchase. It's a real purchase. Go ahead, bruce.
31:27 - Bruce S. (Caller)
I hate to expose my ignorance, but I've never been to a mikveh. What do you wear when you go to a mikveh?
31:33 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Excellent question. You wear nothing, nothing. It's you, your physical body, the way God brought you to this world, and that's it inside this pool of water, all right. So, for example, if someone does go in a swimming pool, which is probably where you're heading to, right, you're like what A swimming pool. I wear my bathing suit. You take off your bathing suit, right, you do it privately. It should be, it should be again. There's there's, there's a. There's two things First is is a person of modesty, basic modesty, and second is human dignity, right, dignified.
32:05
A dignified person doesn't walk around, you know. So, yeah, there's tremendous, tremendous privacy and modesty and tremendous dignity that is infused into the mitzvah of the mikvah and it's not supposed to be something which is taken lightly. A person is not supposed to just casually feel comfortable being undressed in front of other people. A person should have tremendous modesty. In the women's mikvah it's almost impossible to ever see another person. I've never been there, but I know the way they're built, with private preparation rooms, and you know the attendant will let the person know that it's their turn and then they can come out. Then, when they go back into their room, the next person will come out.
32:53
On a typical night in a city like Houston or city like in Muncie, new York. In Muncie, where I grew up you're talking about, there's what? 350,000 people there, right? So if you divide it in half, so it's 175,000 women Of those women who are of age that need to go to the mikvah. It's a lot and if you put it on a daily basis, it's probably several thousand women. Now there's not only one mikvah, there's many, many mikvahs, but that's a lot of people. To get through the process, you have to schedule a time. You know everybody has to schedule a time and it could be, let's say, at eight o'clock, 8.15, 8.30, 8.45, and that's just one mikvah. And, by the way, these mikvahs are nicer than any spa you've ever gone to. They're stunning, they're gorgeous, they're clean, they're beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
33:43
So I recommend for every Jewish woman, before they're with their husband, or even if they were already, go to the mikveh. Go to the mikveh. It's a transformational experience. I also recommend learning more about it. There's an amazing book. There's an amazing book by Rabbi here in this whole collection here, rabbi Aryeh Kaplan has a magnificent, magnificent book called Waters of Eden. This is the book by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan and it's the mystery of the mikvah and it goes into all of the details of this, a magnificent book. I highly recommend it because it'll it'll change your whole perspective on everything having to do with the mikvah.
34:24
So I hope I answered your question. Yes, I hope I answered your question and yes, we go in so that there's no, by the way, we're not allowed to have a ring on, we're not allowed to have a, a rubber band in our here. We can't have a band-aid on. It's your body only. There's nothing, not even nail polish on the fingers, everything off, makeup off. You're going in just as your physical self, as you were born, and with nothing else on. So it's a very special thing, very special mitzvah. All right, next question we have two more, two more questions.
35:01 - Marc S. (Caller)
Mark, you have a question immense amount of gratitude to infinity and beyond. So we were talking about, you know, the Sephardic versus Ashkenaz tefillin, tefillin and the stringing. Now let's say you're faced with the dilemma of I gotta give in the only tefillin that I have that I've been pretty consistent with for a few years. Amazing, keep it up. And then you know, if I have to give that to somebody to restring, I'm assuming I'll be without tefillin for a day or two.
35:32 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
They have a loaner peer. So when you bring okay, so first let's step back a little bit, let's step back a little bit, let's step back, okay A person who has a period of tefillin. I recommend it. The halacha says that it should be checked twice every seven years. That means if a person has tefillin, you have to ensure that the tefillin are kosher. I don't want to be putting on tefillin that are not kosher, that has a word that's smudged, a letter that's smudged. It's not kosher, it's not kosher tefillin. It's like you're doing nothing, it's like you're putting a pencil on your arm for tefillin. It's not kosher, it's nothing. So a person has to ensure that the tefillin they're wearing are kosher. So you bring it to a scribe and the scribe will open it up and he'll check through each of the parchments to ensure that everything that it's sealed, the way it's painted, everything is perfect according to halachic procedures, that everything is done properly Now. So you're saying you give it to them First. It's not a very long process for them to check it. It doesn't take too long. But if it does take time, they will give you a loaner pier because that's common. People need to leave their tefillin. It'll take a day or two or three sometimes, and sometimes it'll take just a few hours. But you don't want to be a day without your tefillin. So what do you do? They have a loan repair which they give. They say when your tefillin are ready, bring them back. Bring back the loan repair and you have yours too.
36:51
Now, if I remember yours, we were talking about the Ashkenaz versus Sephard. Ashkenaz ties the knot closer to the heart, sefard tie it on the other way, the Ashkenaz go up to the heart and the sefard go down to the heart. Okay, one goes under the arm to the heart and one goes over the arm to the heart. And it's again. Both agree 100% in the commandment of putting on tefillin daily, but the way in which you do it is different according to the different customs. How you do the ties on the ends of the hand, of the left hand is different also. Ashkenaz does one way, sephard does the other way, the Sephardi, which is the Sephardic from Morocco or from any of the Arabic lands. They have a different custom of how they do it, which is fine. Everyone can have their own custom. At the end of the day, it's the same result of our connection with Hashem.
37:49
Another thing is that we ensure something that we discussed, mark offline is that when we do wrap the fingers on our fingers, there's a lot of symbolism which is very, very important that we do on our hands, and that is that we do a shin, a dalet and a yud, which is Hashem's name, and then on our hand we have the yud. On the back of our tefillin shalrosh we have a dalet and on the tefillin shalrosh we have a shin, which is again, so twice we have the name of Hashem upon us with our tefillin. Additionally, there are many, many different laws regarding tefillin and I don't want to get into all of them because we actually have an entire, several episodes on the laws of tefillin in our Everyday Judaism podcast, so I recommend that people listen to that. If you have any further questions to those who are listening online, you're welcome to send your questions to askaway at torchweborg.
38:46 - Bruce S. (Caller)
You have a question In the clever condition when you do it to her, they also also.
38:51 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Right. So that's another thing. Is that correct? When the burial society, when they prepare the deceased in shrouds, there's a very, very specific process of how everything is tied, and they tie it with the shin, they tie the belt on top of the shrouds in a very, very specific fashion to ensure that, again, there's a lot of symbolism, there's a lot of holy and dignified steps in the process of this purification of the deceased. And, yes, you're right, that's right, the tying the right over the left. These are things that are very, very Kabbalistic and very, very powerful. Alright, one last question. Go for it.
39:35 - Carlos C. (Caller)
Um Kavod Rav. We are not supposed to, or we don't ask for personal things on Shabbos and Yom Tov, but can we, and if we can, ask for personal things on Rosh Hashanah and when?
39:52 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
That's a very good question. Okay, so we know we're not supposed to ask for personal things on Shabbat and Yom Tov. Okay, we're not supposed to ask for personal things on Shabbat and Yom Tov, we're not supposed to ask for personal things and on Rosh Hashanah. Why? Because we're beyond personal things when we are on such a high, lofty level of soul on Shabbos, we're on a very, very high level and therefore, what point is there to ask for healing when we're on such a close relationship with Hashem? Okay, so that's a great question. So we have to understand like this, that on Rosh Hashanah we're not really asking for things. You know, there's a story that's told that this guy comes to the king and the king has mercy on him. The king says to him listen, I'll grant you any one request that you have. Now, this person was poor, he didn't have any children and he was blind. So which one does he ask? He has three things to ask for. What is he going to ask for? I have only one request and whatever I ask, the king will grant it. So his request was I would like you to grant me to be able to see my grandchildren eating from golden plates Right, to see my grandchildren eating from golden plates. So he'll get his vision, he'll have children and they'll have great wealth. So that's all in one. So the problem is is, on Rosh Hashanah, sometimes we get carried away with asking for little things. Oh, hashem, hashem, you know, help me with my right arm so I can be a better pitcher. Hashem, teach me how to throw that curveball right. You're thinking too small. You're thinking too small, hashem, I want to be the greatest possible person I can be. You know what is included in that To be able to have food, to support our family, to be able to have good health, so I don't have to be busy running to doctors, that I can be scholarly. We're thinking too small and asking oh, hashem, help me close that business. Deal. Really, that's what you want. You want much more than that. Right To have the ultimate closeness to Hashem is really what we're asking for on Rosh Hashanah. So, yes, we include it in our prayer when we're saying Hashem, I want to be close to you. In that, yes, we say Hashem, I want all of those things because I need that. I can't be struggling financially if I want to serve you properly. I can't be struggling financially if I want to serve you properly. I can't be struggling with my health. If I want to serve you properly, hashem, I can't be struggling with my wisdom and my knowledge of your existence. You know what I'm saying. So all of these things are part of our prayer, where we say Hashem, you know what we want. More than anything, I want you. I want you In our relationships as men and women.
42:50
You're trying to court your wife. God willing, soon you'll be married. We'll look forward to dancing at your wedding. What do you say? Say I want to know how you're going to cook dinner on Wednesday night? No, who talks? Say I want to know how you're going to cook dinner on Wednesday night? No, who talks about that? Talk about that when you're dating. Who talks about that? Because I'm talking about love. I'm talking about something which is so much greater. Everything else, we'll figure it out. I want to know in 27 years, how are you going to pay the electric bill? What? Who talks about that? No, because what? Who talks about that? No, because I'm talking about building the greatest relationship in the world. Everything else, we'll figure out. That's what we're doing on Rosh Hashanah.
43:24
On Rosh Hashanah, we're saying Hashem, I want closeness with you and I know everything else will be figured out.
43:30
Because of that love, because when I have that relationship with you, I know you're our father, our king, our father, our king, our father, our king. You're going to take care of my bills. You'll take care of everything because you're the king and you love me like a father. You have the ability, like a king, you'll make sure everything is taken care of. So all we ask for in Rosh Hashanah, really we want the closeness. That's it we want.
43:56
All right, did I answer your question? Good, any other questions? My dear friends, this concludes episode number 18 of the Ask Away series of the Everyday Judaism podcast. My dear friends, have a magnificent Rosh Hashanah, have a magnificent new year, have a beautiful, beautiful year to come, filled with good health, god willing. I look forward next year at the end of the year, celebrating together that we had another amazing year of elevation, another amazing year of growth, with no barriers, with no limitation, with good health, with success in our livelihood and all of the other things that we pray for and want so much. Hashem should bless us all. Amen. Have Eish Hashanah Tov everybody.
44:41 - Bruce S. (Caller)
Hashanah Tov.
44:43 - Intro (Announcement)
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