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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 of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
And now my friends, welcome back to day number 178. We're on page 931 in the middle of the Gate of Torah. ומתוך שאדם עוסק בתורה לשמה And once a person is studying Torah for its own sake ותורך ויאגל לשם שמיים And he does this and he exerts himself for the sake of heaven אז נעשו שתי קלויוסוב כשתי מאיינוס Then both of his kidneys become like two springs ומוצאים בהלכוס מעצמו
And now he produces reasons and halachos himself מה שלא לומד מעולם ומה שלא ניתן אפילו ללמוד שמסיני What he had never learned and what had not even been given to Moses at Sinai As we find with respect to Avraham of blessed memory Abraham, our patriarch of blessed memory, what happened? שלא לומד מעולם בפני שמו אדם He never learned Torah with anyone אך מעצמו הוא יושב ומחשב אחר המצאות But he, with his brilliance, sat and said
If I was creator, what would I make as the laws of the Torah? And Abraham was able to reveal the secrets of the Torah from his own Why? Because all he wanted was to connect to G-d's divine spirit To the divine inspiration of G-d שלא לומד מעולם בפני שמו אדם He never learned in a yeshiva He never learned with a study partner אך מעצמו הוא יושב ומחשב אחר המצאות He would think about each mitzvah that was a possibility That G-d would give us in the Torah
Which is how we know that Abraham observed the laws of kosher Because we see that when he had the three guests He first gave them the milk and the butter And then he gave them the meat Just as we would do He didn't give them the meat first and then the cheese We know that you need to separate between the two Abraham knew that שלא לומד מעולם בפני שמו אדם Where did Abraham learn Torah from? From himself, from within The verse itself says
Where the verse in Genesis 26 Verse number 5 says That he kept my ordinances, my mitzvahs, my statutes and my laws And our sages of blessed memory said That he even knew the rabbinical decrees of Aruv Tavshilin And our sages additionally said about Abraham He learned 400 chapters in tractate Avodah Zarah When was Avodah Zarah written? 2,000 years later 1,500 years later the Talmud was written So how in the world did Abraham study the Talmud? But because he wanted closeness with Hashem
He wanted a divine closeness Not for his own personal benefit But to be a vessel for which Hashem's light can come out to the world Then what happened is two kidneys Became like two springs From which there flowed to him wisdom and Torah And the same thing we see with respect to Rabi Eleazar the Great Our rabbis of blessed memory testified about him That because of his great involvement in Torah study It was revealed to him What was not revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai
The greater secrets than what was revealed to Moses And our sages of blessed memory did as follows All of these From Moses to Joshua To the elders to the prophets To the men of the great assembly To the Tanaic sages to the Amorim To the Gaonim And to all the sages of all the generations They labored in Torah And gave their lives for it And to them was revealed the mysteries of Torah And the secrets of wisdom
Which one cannot deduce by himself We cannot unless we completely devote ourselves To the word of Hashem And as we know Our sages already listed the 48 virtues The 48 qualities With which the Torah is acquired We spent a long time studying the 48 ways Based on the Mishnah of chapter 6 Mishnah 6 in ethics of our fathers Where the Mishnah enumerates What I call the 48 tools for success If you want the tools for success
The Mishnah enumerates them there for us And these are the tools that one is required If one wants to really succeed in attaining Torah Anybody who wants to grow in the path of Torah When a person exerts himself To acquire these 48 traits Then he will achieve all good things But one who studies Torah Must be eager and watchful in his learning The study of Torah is very different Than all other occupations My grandfather was very careful in his writings
That heaven forbid we should never compare Mathematics, geography All the other topics that we learn to Torah study Torah is very different for us Because Torah we say in our prayer every evening Every morning It is our life's blood It's our very essence Who are we and what are we? Our Torah The essence of our life is our Torah study Someone learns a different trade You learn plumbing You learn how to become an electrician You learn stock trading
Five years later you come back to it It's like it never left you You pick it right up You learn how to ride a bicycle You pick it right up Any bicycle even if you haven't ridden a bicycle 20 years It's very easy to pick it up again Get right back to work You may be a little rusty But you've got it But someone who studies Torah And doesn't review his Torah You forget it immediately How many times have I learned something
And I'm like this is the most novel idea And then I see that I actually learned this I learned it 5 years ago Or 10 years ago Or 20 years ago But I forgot that I even learned it Because they didn't review it And that's the challenge When one studies Torah You can't study Torah and not review it How many times do you review it? At least 4 times At least 4 times I'll tell you the amazing story about Moshe Feinstein
You know I love saying stories about Moshe Feinstein Because he was such a unique Unbelievable Torah sage He once called his nephew And told his nephew You know I get a mazel tov Nephew says what's the mazel tov this time I wonder So his uncle says Well I finished Talmud for the 4th time The whole Talmud He says what are you talking about? He says 15 years ago You called me and you told me That you finished the Talmud 101 times
How is it possible that now you finished it 4 times? He says yeah it's my 4th time Finishing the Talmud 101 times Because the Talmud says That someone who learned something 100 times And someone who learned something 101 times Is not the same They're not the same Because someone who learns it 101 Has an even better grasp Imagine you read the book of Harry Potter Wahavdil, Elif, Alfie, Avdolos Never to compare between holy and unholy
But if someone were to read the book of Harry Potter 100 times You'd think they know that book pretty cold If they read it 101 times Not a big deal Not with Torah It's very different And therefore the goal is always to learn it At least 101 times Okay now we don't have to jump to 101 If we just learned it 4 times If we just learned our Torah We learned something tonight together After we should review it 4 times
Because it takes time for it to become Internalized If we learn something 4 times Then it becomes internalized So Rav Moshe Feinstein Imagine that 4 times studying He finished the Talmud of Shabbat Okay tractate Shabbat Every Shabbat The entire tractate He learned Mesech HaShabbos The entire Talmud of Shabbat Every Shabbat So now people ask Oh Rav Moshe he was just a genius No he wasn't a genius He just reviewed and reviewed and reviewed And reviewed
You know what happens when you review so much You remember You know what else is amazing My Rabbi I asked him What his schedule is He has a very rigorous schedule He only sleeps 2.5 hours a night 2.5 hours a night I said Rabbi how is that possible You know sometimes he would be This is an amazing thing He would sit in the middle of class Teaching a group of young Budding Rabbis We're all taking our tests
And becoming Rabbis And sometimes in the middle of his words He would fall asleep And then he would suddenly wake up And continue exactly where he left off Exactly where he left off So one time I said Rabbi I said Rabbi when are you going to sleep Like you have to sleep He says don't worry When I die I'll sleep enough Right when I die then I'll have time to sleep But right now I don't have time to sleep
So I asked him what do you do Like you know I learned about his schedule That he wakes up at 1.30 in the morning Every single morning I said why He says because that's the only time I can study Torah without interruptions He says people aren't calling me Asking me a lot of questions At 1.30 in the morning See he sits from 1.30 in the morning Till 6.30 in the morning For 5 hours And he reviews the Talmud
And he reviews the Mishneh And he reviews the Halacha The Shulchan Aruch And he reviews the Rambam And he reviews all of the Unbelievable Torah that he knows He keeps on reviewing it So then he was once in a car with someone I know who he was with And the person says to him Rabbi Berkowitz well it's not fair Not everyone has a memory like you And he said well that's not either fair Because
I don't have a good memory at all But I just work very hard Reviewing and reviewing and reviewing You know it's very easy for us to say Oh they have such a great memory And that's how they know all this Torah No The Gaon of Vilna wasn't just a brilliant Child prodigy He reviewed and reviewed and reviewed And I guarantee you You know I'll tell you When I was in 5th grade There was a visitor who came to town
And he had a theory That if you learn If you teach children how to learn in this way They will remember Their Torah that they learn Forever They will remember it I still remember that Mishnah I still remember the Mishnah that they taught In that class in 5th grade In 1988 I can tell you that Mishnah by heart It's an unbelievable Because what do they do? We reviewed it and reviewed it And reviewed it and reviewed it
Again and again and again Torah is not just a novel idea Whoa that's so brilliant Do you know I'll tell you something really interesting You know I've been thank God I've been very very blessed To learn a lot of Torah And to teach a lot of Torah here In our magnificent Torah center Do you know how many times people are in the class And they say Wow that's unbelievable It's unbelievable I'm blown away That's the most fantastic thing I've ever heard
I said the same thing 2 weeks earlier They heard it 2 weeks earlier And they were equally blown away 2 weeks earlier But because they didn't review it They heard it again And now are blown away again But the truth is We should always be blown away by the Torah we study But it should be reviewed And reviewed So that it's not Every time like the first time I've heard it Well the truth is that when we learn Torah
We'll see this is a little bit of a confusing idea But the Torah says Our Mishnah teaches us That when you learn Torah it should be like the first time you've ever studied With such excitement But we should also be able to remember what it is that we studied So these 48 tools For success are key And are essential For our success in Torah study Other trades, other occupations Other subjects One studies They can leave it for 5-10 years
They go right back to that welder And they know exactly what they're doing The DJ knows exactly how to get back onto his machine And be a great DJ But if someone studies Torah And doesn't review it He forgets it immediately If someone learns something 100 times And then they Stop studying Torah They cease to learn Torah They'll eventually forget it As our sages teach us That all of the Trades in the world
You don't need to put your heart into it Except when you learn it in the beginning You're learning a new technology You're learning how to use it You just gotta pay attention one time and then you got it But in your daily routine You just do it by habit One time after another time You become a bookkeeper You just make sure the numbers do it right And that's it, you just do it It goes by habit At which time
He can do his work And think of other things He can be busy daydreaming He's just doing it autopilot But studying Torah is not the same When a person is studying Torah They need to be focused, zeroed in On Torah study And not to daydream and not to think about other things And not to travel to Mexico While we're learning Torah You know what it says The verse in Psalms Says something incredible I'm gonna give it to you in basic translation
And this is Psalm number 20 It says amazing, at the end Some with chariots and some with horses Meaning Our sages tell us Some, how do they travel the world? They have to go with chariots, they have to travel with horses And they travel the world He says, but we, do you know how we travel the world? In the name of Hashem our God we call out And then we're all over the place Where do you want to go, to France?
Just start praying, you'll be in France Just start praying, imaginations begin to attack us Right? You ever wonder what the geysers in Yellowstone look like? Just start praying, you'll see it in your vision You'll have a vision of it Because the Yetzirah is so strong He doesn't want us to learn Torah He doesn't want us to be involved in our godly pursuits That As soon as we start He attacks us with all of those thoughts He attacks us with all of those
I wonder what it would be like to be in Mexico I wonder what it would be like to be in Puerto Rico I wonder what it would be like to be in Cancun Or in Costa Rica Or wherever it may be Suddenly we're dreaming I saw that the Olympics are in Italy Maybe one day I should go to Italy Not a bad idea Suddenly you're dreaming, because what did you do? You gave the Yetzirah An opportunity What's the opportunity? Open a Torah
You open the Book of Torah You study a Mishnah You study what we're learning here in the Gate of Torah He tells you, this is the weapon of the Yetzirah You have to be zeroed in and focused And don't let your Yetzirah attack you Don't let your Yetzirah Because the minute you let your Yetzirah attack you Before you know it, you're like Oh my gosh, this is where I started off I was learning Torah But what happens? Your imagination takes over
Your Yetzirah so much doesn't want you to learn That he does everything he can And then one who is able to Remove himself From all of the thoughts From all of the interruptions Sorry, I skipped a page Someone who Has Allowed his mind to idle He immediately forgets What he has labored for all his days And our sages of blessed memory said So here's the question that the author is asking Why in the world with every other trade
People don't forget anything But when it comes to Torah, people forget Why is it that people forget Specifically when it comes to the study of Torah He says, you know why? Because if you didn't forget your Torah You know what you would do? You'd sit for two months Learn all of the Torah And then ciao, I'm out Okay, I learned all of the Chumash I learned all of the Rashi, all of the commentaries I learned all of the Mishna
I learned all of the Talmud, I'll never forget it, right? And now I can just live my life The way I want to live my life He says that's the, therefore There is a gezerah of Shekecha A gezerah, the Talmud says this It is a decree that one forget Because then If one were to not forget They would get busy with other things And then they'd become bored And when you're bored, you do haveres V'lekach nigzerah gezerah Shekecha
Therefore, in order for a person to always Be toiling and always be busy You're going on a You're going down On an upward escalator You're always going to have to be in motion We talked about this That there are only two types of Jews, growing Jews And stagnant Jews Growing Jews and stagnant Jews You stagnate, you keep on going down You keep on going down You don't stagnate You're growing You slowly ascend Up to the top
So a person studies Torah His whole life And when someone is busy Busy studying, busy reviewing His Torah study Then he doesn't He doesn't fall into sin And the Torah brings a person to merits And to good deeds And the Torah brings a person to merits Because when one is learning Torah And he learns about the punishments of sins And the reward of mitzvahs The reward and punishment concept Which is the very basic of Genesis
Then a person says, you know what? Here are the options What happened to Cain and Abel? What happened to the generation of the flood of Noah? What happened to the Tower of Babel? What happened to all of these? To Ishmael? And what happened to Esau? And what happened to Abraham? And to Isaac and to Jacob? You see those who did the will of Hashem And those who did not do the will of Hashem What happened?
So now I have free will, I can choose To either be among those who do the righteous Or do, God forbid, the opposite So then a person will inspire himself to do good When someone is sitting and studying Torah He forgets And removes himself From any trap of sin But someone who is bored What comes upon a person who is bored? Sin And it removes him All the way to the lowest levels To the lowest pits Of society
Therefore a person Should do all he can to study Torah Day and night And even when one is traveling Or someone is laying in bed Even when someone is traveling What do we say in our Shema every single morning and evening? When I lie down and when I arise Meaning even when I'm lying in bed We should think thoughts of Torah By the way you can listen to a Torah podcast when you go to sleep It's a good thing
Put it on sleep mode So that after 15-20 minutes you're already sleeping I don't know if this is creepy or not But I had someone tell me I love your voice, it's so soothing Rabbi I love falling asleep to your voice I don't know I thought my words of Torah would hopefully wake them up But everyone to each their own Either way Then a person is fulfilling the verse in Joshua Which teaches us You shall study Torah
You shall toil in Torah day and night It doesn't say you shall talk You shall speak about it day and night But rather you shall toil in it It should be a constant toil of studying Torah Toil takes place in the heart And this is what we say in the Shema When you sit in your home And when you walk on the way And when you lie down And when you arise So even when you travel you should be studying Torah
Listen in your car Today it's the easiest thing to study Torah We have literally thousands of episodes For people to listen to I think it's over 3000 episodes For people to listen to Of authentic Torah study It's unbelievable It's the most incredible thing On YouTube we have thousands and thousands of videos It's unbelievable We can learn all day all night For a thousand lifetimes Last year On YouTube alone Not on Facebook Not on Twitter Not on LinkedIn
Not on all of them Not on Rumble Just on YouTube If you sat and listened to Torch Podcasts For three years straight That's how much time was listened to 24 hours a day 365 days a year For three years straight That's how much people were learning Torah From our YouTube page That's I think an unbelievable number I think it was over 15,000 hours Just from our No more Whatever it is I did the math
Forward it to a friend That's right This is what our sages Were praised for They did not travel even four feet Without the study of Torah They were either Speaking out their Torah Out loud or they were thinking About their ideas Or they were Concentrating On their learning That is the ideal level for a person to be In their study for Torah And now this concludes day number 178.
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.