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This Jewish Inspiration Podcast is dedicated to learning, understanding and enhancing our relationship with Hashem by working on improving our G-d given soul traits and aspiring to reflect His holy name each and every day. The goal is for each listener to hear something inspirational with each episode that will enhance their life.
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
And day 110 continues on page 635 in the Yor HaSedikim and the Treasure for Life edition, the Gate of Remembrance, and here we're about to conclude this magnificent chapter that we've been studying now for four weeks. We just talked about 30 things that one should constantly remember. And we just gave you the headlines, says the author. He says, I didn't even elaborate much.
I didn't even elaborate. There's so much more to each one of these. I just gave you the headlines. And every person has to think about this and every person has to elaborate and expand on it more and more, on each one of these things. And every person has to get to a place of great character, great qualities. And a person will attain such greatness the more they invest in this. And this will soften your soul. It will cleanse your soul.
Every soul has the ability to be a bright light or to be a dark place. And every soul has the ability to fall to that darkness very easily. But with light, you remove all the darkness. He says we need to light up our soul to remove all that darkness. If you will be alacritous and you'll run to remember these things, Hashem will bless you with renewed vigor and energy that you never knew existed. A person needs these remembrances at every moment of life.
And if a person is capable of it, every breath we take, we should have these 30 remembrances. So that a person doesn't separate from the fear of Hashem, from the embarrassment of our shortcomings in front of Hashem. Hashem has the spotlight on you at every moment. Ever wonder like, oh, no, nobody sees me, right? Nobody sees me. Okay, I'm safe. Oh, I forgot. He's there all times. He sees everything. He sees everything. I can be in the dungeon. I can be in the cellar.
I can be in a bunker in Gaza. Hashem sees. Hashem sees everything. Look at what the Torah warns a king, a Jewish king. This is in Deuteronomy. King. Jews had kings. Write for him a Mishnah Torah. It should be a scroll and it should be given in front of the Kohanim and the Levites. In front of the priests and the Levites. Got a coin right here in the house. It should be with him. A king, a Jewish king, always had to hold a Torah scroll.
You know what happens when you're holding a Torah scroll? You're a little humbled. Like this is the document of God. I shouldn't really be talking stupidity. I shouldn't be saying anything. I shouldn't be. Who am I to show off? Who am I to be arrogant that I'm the king holding a Torah scroll? Right? It's humbling. It's humbling. And that's the obligation. The Torah says a king must always have a Torah scroll with him. Every moment of his life.
And he has to read it at all times. And then what does it say later in Joshua? And the Torah should not stop from being on your lips at any moment, day or night. And these words that I proclaim before you should be on your heart. And you shall teach them to your children and speak about them. Where? When? When you're sitting at home. When you're traveling on the way. When you go to sleep. When you wake up.
That means 24 hours a day we have to be immersed in our Torah study. Never forget every day when you put on tefillin and you tie those phylacteries on your arm. When they're on your mind. Remember, subject your actions, subject your thoughts to the will of Hashem. And write them as mezuzah scrolls on your doorposts. Unbelievable. Never forget. And further, it tells us about tzitzis to have on us. We should wear a four-cornered garment. You should have tzitzis. Put fringes on your four-cornered garment.
And see them and look at them. And you'll remember all the mitzvot of Hashem, all the commandments that Hashem gives you. Not only remember them, do them. So that you remember and you always perform Hashem's mitzvot. And like this, a person will always be in a clear remembrance of Hashem, your Creator. And it says a person should always have white clothes on. Why white clothes? It's symbolic of shrouds. I'm about to die. I'm about to give that soul back.
What do I have time to waste now on vacations? I have time to waste on cruises. We don't have time for this. We have work to do. We got mitzvot to fulfill. It's a big thing. Continues here, the last couple paragraphs of this chapter. See how powerful this trait of remembrance. Remember, remember who you are. How beloved this trait is in front of the Almighty. Remember who you are. Remember. We have a memorial day coming up, right? A memorial day. What are we memorializing?
That there were soldiers who fought a great battle so that we can have our freedoms. But you know what? Every day is a remembrance day. What do we say in the Shema? To remember, to remember, to remember. What are we remembering? The mitzvot that were commanded. Ah. Ah, the beautiful Torah that Hashem gave us. The beautiful commandments that Hashem gave us as a gift. You know who the Torah belongs to? The Torah belongs not to the rabbis.
Not to the sages, the elders, the scholars. The Torah belongs to each and every one of us. It's Hashem's manual for living. And Hashem gave that gift to each and every one of us to enjoy. Hashem says this is yours and don't forget that it's yours. And don't only remember it. Observe it. Very powerful thing to remember this every single day. When the Jewish people served the golden calf and they were all warranting a death penalty. The Amor, Moshe's Chol Avram. What did Moshe say?
Oh God, God, God, God, God, God. Stop right there. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Remember Abraham. Your beloved child, Abraham. He's a good guy, right? Don't kill his children. Oh, the power of remembrance. Hashem reconsidered the evil that he had spoken to do to his people. Why? Because he remembered Abraham. See how powerful remembrance is. How expansive, how all-inclusive this trait is. Because all the good traits are remembered. What does it mean all the traits, the good traits, the positive traits?
We sometimes don't remember how valuable we are. We don't remember how great we are. We don't realize how precious we are. When we instill this remembrance every single day, remind ourselves again and again and again, we realize, ah, Hashem loves us. We are so precious before Hashem. Hashem, we're dear to Hashem. Hashem wants us close. Ah, now I'm not going to give up on myself. Now I'm going to be reassured. Now I'm going to be confident.
And now I won't escape from my perfect, beautiful traits that are within me. Therefore, he concludes. Strengthen this trait. Which is stronger than almost all the other traits. And this is a great tool to acquire all the great traits. Remember that Hashem believes in you. You'll be able to accomplish a lot more. We're like, oh, I can't. Oh, Hashem believes in me. Maybe I should try once more. Maybe I should give it another shot. He says, repeat this chapter all the time.
And then you'll remember some of your negative traits. And you'll repent. And remove yourself from them. He says, if you can't do it every day, at least once a week. Go through this chapter. So you can remember how great you are. He says, why is it important for you to remember? This trait of remembrance. Why is it important for you to remember? Because remembering leads to action. The verse just stated that we just brought. You'll remember, and then you'll do.
If you forget, you can't do. Because you don't remember what it is that you need to do. Remember, and then you'll do. He says, therefore, remember every mitzvah. And remember, more importantly, why are you doing that mitzvah? You're doing it for the Almighty. For you to build your relationship with God. Because this is a command that Hashem commanded you. Hashem is the one who gives you all the ability for life. You know, people sometimes, after someone passes away, they're like, what's the cause of death?
Because we need to have understanding about everything, right? What's the cause of death? When you go to a shiva house, someone's, you know, sitting shiva, they're in a house of mourning. After someone had passed away, they ask, oh, so how old was your mom? Like, it makes a difference? It's their mom. It's their mom. It doesn't make a difference that she was 98 years old. Oh, oh, so if she was 98, it's fine? Then she's not a mom anymore? She's not valuable anymore?
She's not precious? She's not missed? It's not sad? They're like, oh, she was 98, okay. It's fine. You're good. No. It doesn't make a difference, right? Why? Because opportunity ended. The opportunity that we have every single day that we're alive is the opportunity to make change. The tragedy of death is not because we miss our friends. We miss our family. We miss our loved ones. That's not the mourning. The mourning is that opportunity is over.
They can't do the mitzvah of tzedakah. They can't do the mitzvah of study Torah. They can't do the mitzvah of prayer. They can't do the mitzvah of Shabbos. They can't do the mitzvah of visiting the sick. That's what we're mourning, the opportunity. So what do we have in our own lives? Opportunity. Let's do it. Let's spring into action. He says, be very, very careful. Don't remember your friends' wrongdoings to you. Don't remember the bad stuff. It says,
Don't take revenge and don't hold a grudge. You know the difference between the two? Eric, you know the difference? Not to take revenge, we know. You hurt me, I'm going to hurt you. No, I'm not going to do that. You know what? Don't hold the grudges. Now when you come to ask me for a favor, when I asked you for a favor, you punched me in the face. You know what I'm going to do? I'm not going to be as bad as you.
How can I help you? I'm not going to be turning the knife. I'm going to be turning it with kindness. No, no, no, don't do that. No. Not only don't take revenge, don't hold a grudge. Don't say, well, you didn't loan me when I asked you. I'm not going to loan you now. Right? Or, you didn't loan me. I'm not going to be like you. I'm going to loan you. Right? Don't do that either. Remove from your heart all hatred.
And if you did wrong to your friend, you should remember your wrongdoings. You did something to harm somebody. You got to fix it. You can't forget about that. You can't expect them to just forgive you. You have to go and seek out their forgiveness. You heard nonsense about someone else? Ignore it. That, forget. Be like a sieve that retains the fine meal and emits the flour. Like the sifter. Sift out the good stuff. Not like a strainer that retains the sediment
and emits the wine. We shall discuss the remembrance of Torah when we discuss that later in the Gate of Torah. My dear friends, this concludes the chapter of the Gate of Remembrance. What a magnificent journey. I'm so blessed that I was able to learn this chapter and thanks to all of you, I'm able to learn it because that's my motivation is that I know that I have so many great study partners here in the room, on Zoom, on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter
and all of the social media networks that we can study together and we can learn and we can grow and that's such a special thing. My dear friends, thank you and I look forward next week we're going to learn about, if we remember, we forget. We're going to learn about the Gate of Forgetfulness. My dear friends, have a magnificent evening. Thank you so much. Don't worry about the rain. Just drive safely. Have a good night. Thank you so much.
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.