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A refreshing and clear review of each Parsha in the Torah presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe
00:01 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
00:10 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody to the weekly Partia Review. This week, partias Partias Vayelachit is the ninth portion in the book of Deuteronomy, in the book of Devarim, the 52nd portion Since the beginning of the Torah. My dear friends, there are only two more portions till the completion of the Torah. There are 30 verses, only 30 verses, the shortest Partia in the Torah 553 words and 2,123 letters.
00:37
There are two performative mitzvahs in this week's Partia and the Partia continues to detail Moshe's guidance on his last day. As he bids farewell to his beloved people, moshe gives encouragement and guidance. Moshe emphasized Hashem's continued presence and protection, even though Moshe says I am 120 years old today and I will not cross the Jordan with you as Hashem spoke, but Hashem will vanquish your enemies and lead you victoriously into the land with Yehoshua, your new leader. Moshe tells the people be strong and courageous. Hashem will never forsake you. Moshe transfers power. Moshe transfers leadership powers to Yehoshua. In front of the entire nation, moshe blesses Yehoshua to be strong and courageous. Hashem will be with you. The Torah is written. Moshe writes the Torah and gives it to the Kohanim from the tribe of Levi who carry the ark, and they are going to place the Torah in the ark. Haqael, we are commanded with the mitzvah of Haqael, and that is Moshe commands the nation to gather every seven years in the temple during the holiday of Sukkot and this is on the first intermediary day of the holiday of Sukkot and we read the entire Torah, which means the Book of Deuteronomy, which is known as the review of the Torah and reaffirm our allegiance to Hashem. The men, the women, the small children, the converts they all need to be part of this. Try to fear Hashem and perform all the words of the Torah.
02:15
The year following Shemitah is called Haqael, when all the Jews gather together in the Holy Temple and the King reads from the Torah. Now Hashem transfers power from Moshe to Joshua, to Yehoshua. Hashem reminds Moshe that he is about to die and that he should summon Yehoshua to stand with him in the Mishkan in the 10th of meeting, where Hashem will teach Yehoshua. And then there's a warning Hashem tells Moshe and Yehoshua of what will happen if the Jewish people neglect the treaty with Hashem and His Torah and turn to idolatry. Instead of accepting responsibility for the consequences of their neglect of Hashem's commandments. They will blame Hashem's absence and neglect for the calamities and disasters that had befallen them. While Hashem will turn away and hide His face, the Jewish people will never the less endure and the Torah will never be completely gone. This is a promise in this week's parasha.
03:15
And then is the song Hashem instructs Moshe and Yehoshua to write the song what is the song? The Torah and place it in the mouth of the children of Israel to serve as a witness if they sin. Moshe transcribes the entire Torah to be placed by the Levites in the holy ark. Moshe spoke this is the final words of the parasha. Moshe spoke the words of the song Ha'azinu and into the ears of the entire congregation of Israel until their conclusion.
03:49
And this concludes, my dear friends, a very quick review of parashas Vayelach, a very short parashina, but the lessons are great. So, my dear friends, moshe passes away on the same day he was born. He doesn't pass away yet. We still have two more portions and it's seven verses before the end of the Torah is when Moshe passes away. He was born on the seventh of Adar and he passes away on the seventh of Adar, in year 2488. So we have to understand this is the last day of Moshe's earthly life.
04:26
We all live, like we mentioned in the last week's parasha, and it's of him. We all live temporarily in this world Because this is the world of the body, this is the world of the physical, and we need to influence our physical world with as much holiness and spirituality as possible. But this is not destination. You go to Hollywood, you go to all of these fancy shmancy places where people live as if they're never going to die. It's a big mistake. We're all going to die and Moshe here in the Torah, telling us of Moshe's soon to his imminent passing, is bringing us to a clarity and understanding that our day will all come, to each and every one of us. But it's not for this world that we're here. It's for the world to come that we're here. And if we invest, like Moshe did, that everything he did was for his investment in his relationship with Hashem there's nothing to worry about because that relationship continues. Oh, but I'm not going to be here physically. But we're not here to be physical. We're here to use the physical to elevate ourselves spiritually. It's a very important fundamental principle. We're not here for here. We're here for the world to come, to invest in our future.
05:55
Just like we have a 401k, people put away money in an IRA, a Roth IRA. What's the point? When I get old, I'll be old to finish, yeah, but you're not going to have the same energy you have like when you're 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 to work long days. You're not going to have an income if you don't put away for your retirement. So what do we do? We put away money now for our retirement. Our sages tell us every mitzvah person does gives them two rewards they get the principle in this world and they get the reward the interest in the world to come. The principle you get back here in this world, you get the joy, you get the fulfillment, you get the enrichment and you also get the interest in the world to come.
06:47
So Moshe Rabbein was unable. What does it say? He wasn't able to. The mantle of leadership was taken from him and given to Yeshua. We have to understand this. You can only be a leader if God decides you'll be the leader. It got to a point where Moshe says I can't anymore. Why couldn't he? Because Hashem already took it from him. Moshe was relieved of his duties. Hashem took it and gave it to Yahushuah.
07:20
It says that the heart, the decisions, the things that world leaders do are not in their own hands. They're in the hands of Hashem. It's an incredible thing. So one second in that case. Why does my favorite president or your favorite president, why do we give them any kudos? Why do we give them any adulation? Why do we give them any recognition? It's not even their decision. Hashem is the one who's controlling things. So I say just explain that you have to desire to do it. Hashem sends blessing to those who are blessed. Hashem sends curse to those who are cursed. Melgalgal and Shchusahideh Zakkai, if we give money to charity, do you know what that choice was? Not whether or not they're going to get it or not. They're going to get it anyway because Hashem wants them to get it. The question is whether you are going to merit to be the one to get it to them. Hashem gives merit to those who are meritorious. We hope and pray that we're always going to be meritorious.
08:32
Moshe was a prophet of unparalleled greatness. There is no one who ever was or will be like Moshe. It says that Moshe was the greatest of all prophets, and anybody who denies that is denying Hashem's control of the world. It's one of the 13 principles of faith that there was, never was and never will be a prophet like Moshe, and it's important for us to recognize that. Moshe was not just an ordinary leader. Moshe was the greatest leader. Hashem is always with you always. This is what Moshe is telling the Jewish people. Hashem is always with you, no matter where you are. You think when you're in Europe, hashem doesn't have a connection with you. No, no, no. Everywhere You're in South America, you're stuck online at wherever it is to get your benefits, to get your passport, like, hashem is right there with us.
09:33
Now it says that the Jewish people are going to come to Jerusalem to be close to Hashem. Let me ask you a question. If you were a good thief, when would you choose to steal from all the Jewish homes? When all the Jewish people go up to Jerusalem? All the Jewish people are going up to Jerusalem. Everybody knows the Jewish people go on the first day of Sukkot, the first day of the intermediary days. They're going to go up to Jerusalem on the eighth year. It's a great time to break into their homes. It's a great time. Who's going to watch over their homes If everybody the men, the women, the children. The Torah promises us previously in Leviticus, hashem will watch over our homes. This is another proof that the Torah was not written by Moshe out of his own doing. It has to be a godly document. Only Hashem can make such a promise that he will protect our homes when we go up to Jerusalem. Okay, I just thought it was interesting that if we're mentioning it that we're going up to Jerusalem, we should also mention this piece Now.
10:48
Last week we talked about the Holocaust and where the Holocaust is mentioned in the Torah, we also have to look at this week's parasha and it says the following it will seem that the Jewish people are at the mercy of fate and that they will be hunted by all. If you turn away from me, I will hide my face from you. That's a verse, chapter 31, verse 17 and 18. Many of the inmates in the concentration camps questioned and debated the existence of God. There was something called the God-Sajram where people said where is God? How can God let such a thing happen? Where is he? This is predicted in our parasha this week, where God says you will hide from me, I will turn away from you and I will hide from you. This is very tragic. We know there's never been such a tragedy befalling the Jewish people like we had 80 years ago in the Holocaust.
11:52
As a grandchild of three survivors, I can tell you they did not have an easy life. But those who stayed close to Hashem saw the greatness of Hashem, and those who distanced themselves from Hashem, they distanced themselves even more. Hashem reflects our relationship with him. It's like a mirror you come closer to the mirror, objects in the mirror get closer as well. Okay, the Torah is placed in the ark. It doesn't change and should never be tampered with.
12:27
So it reminds me of city hall, the clock at city hall. You ever wonder why the clock at city hall is all the way at the top of the building. Why don't they put it right at eye level so that everybody can see? Instead, you have to look up to the top of the building in order to see the clock. So this question was asked to one of the great Hasidic masters and he says I'll tell you why. He says because if the clock was right here at eye level, every person would come and say no, it's not the right time, and they'll adjust it. The next guy comes and he says no, no, no, it's not the right time and it'll adjust it the other way. Adjust it, adjust it, adjust it. Everyone will toy with it. They put the clock up there and everyone has to adjust their clock to it.
13:10
Where do we put our Torah? Do we put our Torah down here or do we raise it up? We need to raise the Torah up. Then we look at the Torah, we say that's the code, we need to live up to it, not pull it down and make it like that clock that you changed back and forth. Oh, today I'm in the mood of this, tomorrow I'm not in the mood of this. And rabbis have the audacity in the chutzpah to say ah, the verses, this, it's offensive to me. It's offensive. What's going on? And the rabbis not Torah observant rabbis decide from the pulpit that they're going to remove verses from reading of the Torah because it's because it's offensive to them.
13:53
What, my dear friends, I think, before any of those people or any of us, myself included, think to even change one letter of the Torah, I think what's incumbent on us is first to learn all of the Torah. Learn every word of the Torah. Understand every word. Look at the commentaries. Understand what it is. Learn the Mishnah. Learn the Talmud. Learn the Midrash. Don't just take a little thing. Oh, I read an article and therefore they think that they're great scholars and they know everything. Learn the Torah. It's your Torah. It's silliness, it's tragic. We have to understand.
14:39
The Torah is not to be tampered with Now. The Torah may only be written from an existing document. The Torah needs to be written from a Torah. You don't have an online scroll of oh, I'm up to you, know, you're writing a Torah, I'm doing it online. No, you have to take another safe Torah, another Torah scroll, and copy letter letter from the other Torah scroll. It's the only way, because that's the way you keep it authentic.
15:12
Now, the Kohanim were given the Torah. Now, later on, we see that the tribes complain and they say Kohanim, they get the Torah, we also want the Torah. Well, I said you're right, and he wrote 12 more copies of the Torah. So the tribe of Levi had theirs, the other 11 tribes had theirs and one was placed into the ark. But why was it given to the kohanim? Because the kohanim represent the continued presence of Hashem in the midst of the camp. As teachers and role models. They kept the nation focused on their national and individual missions.
15:47
We have to recognize the value of our teachers, of our rabbis, of our sages. Their job is to guide us and to give us direction. I've heard people tell me oh, I don't like this rabbi, I don't like that rabbi, why not Ask the question? Why don't you like them? Because they're telling you, maybe, what you need to hear, because they're telling you the things you need to change. That's the problem. The problem is that we get all proud and we want things to be my way. We have to be very careful of that. Okay, and lastly, the Torah is a song. The Torah is a song.
16:24
The transmission of the Torah was given our sages tell us at Mount Sinai to Moses, and from Moses to the elders, to the prophets, and it went all the way, on and on and on. And if you're here at the Torch Center or, for those of you online, you can reach out to me A wall B at torchweborg, a W O L B? E at Torch W? E B dot O R G. I'll put a link for this in our podcast notes and in our video notes. We have a very precious document here and this document is the exact transmission, the unbroken chain of the Torah all the way from Moses at Mount Sinai, all the way to each and every one of us here sitting at the Torch Center and learning from these recordings online Without a broken link, each and every rabbi to teacher. You can get a copy here. You can print it out on your computer at home.
17:25
But we have to know one other thing Is that we have the Torah was given at Mount Sinai. We have the tablets that were given at Mount Sinai in year 2448. 40 years later, moshe dies, 2488. And he leaves the Jewish people with the five books of the Torah. Thirteen copies of it are distributed among the tribes. And then we have, throughout the prophets, another 19 books are added to the Tanakh, the Torah, the Navi in the prophets and the two of them, the writings, total of 24 books of what we call the Tanakh, that's called the written law. Then we have the oral law. The oral law is the Midrash, the Kabbalah, the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud, and then we have the Halakh, the conclusions of all of those discussions, which is the Ram Bam, the Shulchanarok, the Mishnah-Burrah and hundreds of other sources of Jewish law.
18:30
We have to understand that the Torah that was written by Moshe is no less truth, no less authentic, no less important than the oral law that was written later, because what was transmitted by Moshe orally to the next generation was transmitted orally again to the next generation. Oral Torah doesn't mean made up by rabbis. Oral Torah is also sourced by Moshe. The Ram Bam writes that Moshe's handbook and Joshua's handbook and the elders' handbooks, respectively, were all passed down to generation to generation and then collected by Rabbeno Akkadosh or Yehuda Nassi, judah the Prince, and formulated into a Mishnah and then explained in the Talmud. There's not a word in the Talmud that isn't verified and sourced in the Torah. There isn't a word of the Mishnah that isn't verified and sourced in the Torah.
19:43
No rabbi has rights to make up rules. No rabbi has rights to make up laws. It needs to be sourced. My dear friends, we hold on to these truths. We have it. It's ours, it's our treasure and, as we'll see next week, mourosh HaKiHilas YaKov. It's an inheritance to the Jewish people. Let's do everything we can to preserve it and pass it on to the future generations. Amen, amen.