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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!
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
00:08 - RAW (Host)
All right, Good morning everybody, Welcome back. Welcome back to the Parsha Review Podcast.
We're going to do a little partial focus on this week's Parsha, Parshas Toldos, Toldos. We know we talk about the two children that Isaac and Rebecca had, Jacob and Asaf. And behold, we probably have a million Jews in Washington DC today because of precisely this argument that happened 3,000 years ago with Jacob and his brother. But I want to focus on one specific part of this week's Parsha and that is the episode that happens when Yaakov and Asaf meet when they're 15 years old, and Yaakov, Jacob, is stewing some soup, preparing some food, some lentils, and Asaf comes from the field and he's all hungry. And let's go to chapter 25, verse number 29. Jacob stewed a stew by Yavvoh Asaf Minasadev, and Asaf came in from the field and he was exhausted. And Yommer Asaf says to Yaakov Hallitaynina, minah odom, haodom, hazeh, pour into me now some of the very red stuff, Ki ayifanayi, for I'm exhausted. Al-kayin k'arashamo Adam. Because of this he called his name Adam Yom, which means red, but it also means the idea of materialistic Vayomir Yaakov, mikro hayom es bichorah oscholih.
01:58
Jacob said sell as this day your birthright to me, Vayomir Asaf, hinia nochi holih lamus. And Asaf said indeed, I am about to die, villamazeli bichorah. So what used to me is my birthright. But when needed for Vayomir Yaakov, he shavali. Jacob said swear to me kayom as this day Vayishavalo. And he swore to him Vayimkor es bichorah soh li Yaakov. And so he sold his birthright to Jacob, Viyakov nosan leesav lechem. And Jacob gave to Asaf bread, Minasidev dashim and a stew of lentils Vayochavayesh, and he ate and he drank Vayokam Vayelach and he got up and he left Vayivaz esav esa bichorah. And thus Asaf spurned the birthright.
02:57
So here we have six verses describing the sale of the birthright and, by the way, everything that follows, with Jacob tricking Isaac to getting the blessing. It wasn't a trickery, I mean, he needed to do that in order for Isaac to give him the blessings, but it was rightfully his. So it wasn't like he cheated, it wasn't like he was deceitful, even it was true. I am your firstborn son and therefore it was warranted for him to receive that blessing. But let's step back a second.
03:31
What is the birthright that Asaf sold? The birthright is a spiritual concept, it's a spiritual idea. You see this later on, when you have a Freiman Menasha, where Manasha was older than Ephraim and yet Jacob identifies Ephraim as being superior to his brother, so he gives him the blessing. First Firstborn right is a spiritual concept. It's a spiritual level of holiness, of status. But you know what? It's more than just birthright, it's more than just bragging rights of like I'm the firstborn. That's not what it's about. It's about what are you ready to give up to be holy?
04:28
You know there's a midrash that says I'm gonna simplify this midrash. But the midrash says why and how were all the firstborn in Egypt killed at the strike of midnight? What happened? What happened at midnight? That suddenly they all died? Well, obviously, God can turn the power off for anybody at any given moment, but what naturally happened? Well, it wasn't natural, it was supernatural. What happened? The Jewish people were at the lowest state of spirituality and God pushed the gears all the way up into the highest gear of spirituality. It says that the Jewish people went from the 49th level of impurity, one level away from being in eternal impurity, never, ever being able to receive the Torah, because we were so close, so close to despair the spiritual vacancy we're almost giving up. And God pushed the throttle all the way up to the 49th level of holiness For the firstborn, who are so spiritually sensitive. It was too much for them and they died.
05:45
Firstborn means a spiritual connection with God, but here we see something very special. We see what are your values? What do you truly value? What does Asa value? What does Yaakov value? Yaakov values an eternal connection with God. Asa values momentary, fleeting, physical pleasures. That's it.
06:22
This is the argument. One says eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die. And one says invest every moment you have in doing good things, because we have eternity to live. One is focused on here and now and one is focused on forever. It's the equivalent of people who invest in a 401k, people who put away money for retirement, people who invest for the future. So what do they do? They say you know what? I may not be able to go on all those vacations now. I may not be able to enjoy all of that that I earn now, but I'm putting it away for a later date when things might be more difficult, when I'm not able to work, when I'm not able to hustle, when I'm not able to provide an income. I'll put it aside for then.
07:22
Well, in our world. We have a spiritual 401k, where every mitzvah that we perform in this world puts a storage away, a fund for the future. What's that future? It's when we retire from this world, when we close shop here in this world and we come to the world to come. Well, what did we put away in our spiritual 401k? Did we invest in that future? Or did we just say each drink and be merry, for tomorrow you'll die and let's just get as much pleasure in this world and then we have nothing for eternity?
08:07
Asav demonstrated how the only thing that was important to him was right now. Right now I am hungry, Right now I am tired. Nothing else is worth anything. What does Yaakov say? He says whoa, whoa, whoa. I have an opportunity here. For me, my investment is the future. For Asav, his investment is now. This is a great swap. Let me just swap out my merit of this current pleasure, this immediate pleasure. Let me swap it out for my eternal opportunity.
08:48
And the question is what are we ready to forego in this world to attain our eternity? If I have the opportunity to invest in the greatest investment in the world, I'll give you an example. If someone told you right now, retroactively, that you can invest on the ground floor in an Apple stock or in a Tesla stock, or in a Google stock or in any of those unbelievable investments. What would you have said? He said, oh, I'll take a thousand shares. Guess what? Investing in our spiritual future, in our world to come, is far greater investment. I'm talking about, not in billions and trillions, far greater than that.
09:50
But what do we have to give up? We have to give up something. There's an exchange. In everything in this world there's an exchange. When you buy an Apple, you buy an Apple. There's an exchange. You give them money, they give you the Apple. Same thing with a car, same thing with a house. There is an exchange for everything that you acquire, for everything that you attain. There's an exchange.
10:19
By the way, even for the pleasure of running in the marathon, there's an exchange. There's hard work that is needed to be put in. There's hard investment of hours and time that is needed in order to have that pleasure of raising your arms at the finish line. If you have enough strength to do that, by the time you're done, you're 26.2 miles. It's a big investment, but you have to give up something for something. By the way, any type of pleasure. You want to have a good marriage. It's gonna take a lot of hard work. You want to have great skills in any specific area? It's gonna take a lot of training. It's gonna take a lot of practice.
11:14
Yaakov saw the big picture and he was ready to give up his today for tomorrow. He was ready to give up all of the physical for the spiritual. Asav lived on a different planet. In Asav's world, there was only one thing that had value today. I'll give up anything for today. And that really is the question for each and every one of us when we learn this parasha, what are our values? Am I ready to give up for my future? Everyone says I'm ready to do anything for my children. You know what it says. You know what your children are.
11:58
We say this in parasha's naach. It says aila toldos naach. These are the descendants of naach. What does it mean? Your descendants, your good deeds, what are our descendants? We're ready to give up anything for our children. Are we ready to give up anything for our descendants? Are we ready to give up Going to the parties talking la shonhara?
12:34
Sitting with our friends at Starbucks, talking and yammering about everybody, talking about our neighbors and our friends La shonhara. Are we ready to give up on that in order to get closer to God? Are we ready to give up on eating things that may be delicious but Hashem tells us don't eat it because it's going to clog your spiritual connectors? What are our values? What are we ready to give up in order to connect with God on a higher level? This is the real question of life. This is the real question that each and every one of us needs to ask ourselves. Have a conversation with our families, with our friends. What are our values? Where do we stand? Do we want to invest in the future or do we want to just invest in now? This is the entire story here.
13:45
The seven verses is teaching us this lesson Yaakov invested in the future, To the world, to come To the eternal world. Or are we investing in this physical world where we all know it's inevitable we're all going to die one day and I'm investing in that physical pleasure just for here and now? Now that doesn't mean that living a righteous life means we live a miserable life. Nowhere does it say that. In fact, if you look in the teachings of our sages, it says this world was created for pleasure, but there are different caliber pleasures.
14:29
There are pleasures that are first class pleasures and then there are, you know, when you fly in any airline. You can buy a first class ticket. You can buy a business class, you can buy, you can buy regular class, you know peasant level and sit there with me. Or you can even get worse. You can go with the baggage. You still get to the same location. But it's what class pleasure? What class travel are you going with? And if the goal is to just get from destination A to destination B, then fine, that's what most people invest in. Just the cheapest pleasure, the cheapest, Least commitment. It costs me the least. But we all know that we all desire to have top level, top tier pleasure.
15:26
The Torah tells us how to attain that Pleasure. That's not fleeting Pleasure. That's not the red slental soup that right now is in front of me and in a minute it's gone. That's fleeting, that does its job and goodbye. That's counterfeit pleasure. How bad if we had a pleasure that makes us happy forever, A pleasure like the great old sage I met in Jerusalem, who didn't have a penny to his name but was the happiest man I've ever seen, Unbelievable. Where do you buy that happiness. You buy it with Yaakov, where he's ready to give up his physical for his spiritual.
16:16
A person who lives with a closeness to God is the happiest person on planet earth. It's a person who's living with a confidence, with a knowledge, with a closeness with Hashem, who has no doubts that where his next meal is coming from, because he knows it's coming from Hashem. Who has no questions, no worries, because he knows Hashem only does what's best for me. And you know what. You look at every single battle the Jewish people fought. Right now, we have probably a million Jews descending on Washington DC for a rally to show support for Israel, to show support for our troops who are in Gaza. Hashem should bring them home safely and Hashem should bring home our hostages safely. But you know the confidence that soldiers have.
17:14
When you have a closeness with God, you can do anything. Look at King David, Look at King Solomon, Look at Moses. Look at all the battles that they had. The battles were about. To what degree, to what level am I connected with God? Hashem ye lachem, lachem ve atem taharishon. Hashem will fight the battles for you. Your job is to never stop connecting with God on a greater level. This is the struggle of Yaakov and Asav. This is the struggle of each and every one of us. Where are our values? What are we investing our lives in? My dear friends, Hashem should bless us all to have clarity, to be able to focus on what's truly important, what the real values of life are. And Hashem should protect all of our brothers and sisters, wherever they may be around the world. Have an amazing Shabbos.