Prayer Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:00 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe from TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Prayer Podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody to the Prayer Podcast. It is so wonderful to be here Today. We are going to discuss the blessing on the Torah, birchas HaTorah. In our worksheet that you can find with a link in our description, you will see that we have three different parts of the blessings in the Torah. We have a blessing, la'asok B'divrei Sora, then we have Ve'ha'arevna and then we have the third blessing of Asher Bar Chabonu. We're going to explain each and every one of them and, my dear friends, buckle up, because we have a lot to talk about. So first we're going to read it out in Hebrew, in English, and then we're going to explain every word Shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, Shalom, shalom. Nassan lonu es toira, soy baruch ato adoynoy noisen ha-toira.

01:47
Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to engross ourselves in the words of Torah. Please, hashem, our God, sweeten the words of your Torah in our mouth and in the mouths of your people, israel. May we and our offspring and the offspring of your people, the house of Israel, all of us, know your name and study your Torah for its own sake. Blessed are you, hashem, who teaches Torah to his people, israel. Blessed are you, hashem, our God, king of the Universe, who chose us from among all the peoples and gave us his Torah. Blessed are you, hashem, giver of the Torah. My dear friends, open your hearts for these incredible, incredible blessings. For those of you who are following along in the Arts grow, we are on page 16 and 17. It's the the top two paragraphs on those pages.

02:54
What is the Torah? What is the Torah that we're making a blessing for? We start our day every morning and we recite these holy, powerful, beautiful blessings on the Torah. What are we doing so? The first is we need to understand that Torah means the instructions, the manual for humanity. We were gifted as the Jewish people, as we will see in more details Jewish people, as we will see in more details forthcoming that we were gifted with the commandments. We were gifted with the guides, with the manual of how to live life, and we're thanking Hashem for that. Now there are three blessings, as we mentioned previously, there are three blessings over the Torah and Torah study. Number one is saying thank you, hashem, for choosing us to learn the Torah and Torah study. Number one is saying thank you, hashem, for choosing us to learn the Torah, that we have a special commandment to learn the Torah. Number two we ask Hashem that the Torah be sweet in our mouths. And number three, the third blessing is we thank Hashem for giving us, for choosing us to be his people and to giving and giving us the Torah. So what does it mean? If we look into the verse, we say la'asok b'divrei sora, that to be immersed, to be engrossed in the study of Torah.

04:23
Our sages tell us that the only blessing that you can recite before daybreak. You see, it's a problem because certain things are commandments, like tzitzis, talus, tefillin. They're commandments for during the day, during daylight. So if you wake up before the crack of dawn, you can't recite those blessings. Yet Many of those blessings don't apply till daybreak. But the blessing for Torah you can recite it anytime. Why? Because we're always obligated to study Torah. If someone goes to sleep and they wake up and now they want to study Torah at two in the morning, recite the blessing on the Torah and boom, you go and immerse. Two in the morning, recite the blessing on the Torah and boom, you go and immerse yourself in the study of Torah.

05:10
But we know that that's not really the proper way to recite a bracha, to engross yourself, to immerse yourself in Torah. We know that we can't immerse ourselves in Torah. We have to sleep, we have to eat, we have to drink, we have to take care of our bodily functions. So how can we be immersed in Torah? And our sages composed a blessing that seemingly should be to learn Torah, learn Torah, learn Torah. Okay, 12 hours a day I can learn Torah. So I'll make a blessing on learning Torah, torah. Why did they choose the word to engross, to immerse ourselves in Torah?

05:51
I say, just tell us, because we don't only learn Torah and observe Torah when we're sitting and learning, when we're sitting in front of a book, when we're sitting at a lecture, when we're sitting at a lecture, when we're sitting at a class. That's not the only time we study Torah. We can observe the Torah when we eat and when we sleep and when we drink and when we take care of our bodily functions. We can be immersed in Torah in all of those areas. How Halacha tells us how to eat like a Jew, how drink like a jew, how to talk and walk like a jew, how to take care of all of your worldly needs as a jew how to do business properly like a jew. Oh, I'm done, I'm just right. Now I'm not studying in the study hall, I'm not at the Torch Center, I'm now. I'm at work. So now I'm not involved in, I'm not immersed in, the study of Torah. Well, when you conduct your business according to how the Torah tells us, that's being immersed in Torah.

06:59
Torah isn't something that is separate from us. I have math, so when I need to use my arithmetic, then I'm involved with that, but now I'm not. When I have science, then I'm involved with it when I'm studying it or when I'm practicing it, but otherwise I'm not. That's not Torah. Torah is not another subject. Torah is life, whether we're sitting and studying it actively or living it.

07:33
Our sages didn't only compose a blessing for when we learn Torah, but living our lives as Torah Jews, we are immersing ourselves in the ways of the Torah. So when we sleep, there's a proper way to sleep that the halacha describes for us, proscribes for us. And when we eat, there's a proper way to eat as the Torah proscribes for us, to eat as the Torah prescribes for us. And every area of Jewish life, from birth to earth. There is a way that the Torah says that one should immerse themselves in the ways of the Torah. And that's why, if you look at the mitzvah of Lulav all of the mitzvahs it said we have al mitzvah of Lulav, the mitzvah, all of the mitzvahs. They said we have al mitzvahs. We'd say a blessing on the mitzvah of, or we have. It should be maybe al limud ha-Torah on the learning of Torah.

08:36
No, our sages, in their brilliance and divine wisdom, la'asok b'divrei sora the Chovetz Chaim, says a very amazing thing. He says that someone who has a business, as long as the sign is up at the front of the business, they're busy with that business. Even if on the door it says closed, they're going. So they left for lunch. They're thinking. While they're eating their lunch they're thinking maybe I should put that item on sale, maybe I should feature this item, maybe this should be at the end cap. Maybe this I should speak to the manufacturers and negotiate a better deal, constantly busy with it, because they're immersed in their business. Asek means business Torah, business. Asek means business Torah. Our sages use the same word as business.

09:30
You're always immersed in your Torah, just like your business. You're completely immersed in so too, you're thinking. Even if you're a teacher, you're thinking maybe I should teach it like this, maybe I should talk to that student. You're completely immersed in it. So, too, a life of Torah. We need to be immersed in our study of Torah. It's not a study. Oh, now I'm sitting with my study partner, now I'm listening to my class, so now I'm busy with my Torah, but otherwise I'm done. No, we have to be immersed in our entire life, 360 degrees of our lives, with Torah around us, and that includes, by the way, the way we travel. It says when Yaakov left, yaakov took his Torah with him. He didn't say oh, now I'm in Vegas, so nobody knows what I do here. Now I'm in Mexico, so nobody knows what I do here.

10:29
A person doesn't change, shouldn't at least? And the Torah prescribes that we do not change who we are because we're in a different place. Take your goodness with you, take your Torah with you, with you, take your Torah with you. Our sages tell us and we know this, we see this in reality that departing from Torah is departing from our lifeline. When one leaves Torah, they say you know what? It's not relevant to me anymore, I'm just going to live my life, just be a good person, save the whales and I'm good to go. Just be nice, be kind, and that's it. When someone departs from Torah, they depart from their lifeline.

11:09
We say in our prayers Ki hem chayenu ve'orech yomenu, it's our life, it's our life's blood. We say Im b'chukosai teylechu, just in last week's Torah portion, that we should be amelen baTor, that we should be amelim bat Torah. We should be immersed, we should be constantly toiling in our Torah. It's not just a subject and it's something again important for us to remember. Torah is not just an activity, it's not a pastime, it's our life.

11:49
Now it says a very interesting thing. If you look at the verse, we say please sweeten the words of your Torah in our mouth. What we're saying is our sages tell us is that every person has their own measure of Torah. Let's understand this for a second. You know Hashem has unbelievable energy. You know lightning comes from the heavens. If a lightning bolt hits you, very likely that one cannot live any longer right, because it's such a powerful energy that we're shocked and goodbye.

12:55
You know the electrical grid is amazing because it has so much. That's why you don't do high voltage, high voltage, caution, do not enter. Why because those big transformers are sending out very high voltage out, but then they we keep shrinking it. You see those things hanging on the top of those electrical poles. They're condensing it smaller and smaller and smaller. So you have only 220 volts and that way it doesn't burn all of your electron electronics, it doesn't burn all of your. You know. Your light fixtures don't burn out and your tape recorder doesn't burn out, right, because it keeps on lowering that voltage to make it usable for us. Then we have things that are even lower voltage.

13:36
You constantly have to, right, take God's light is so bright we cannot survive even one moment of God's light. It gets condensed and condensed and condensed and, through the words of the Torah, gets to us and we're able to get our own portion of Hashem's light. When Hashem created the world, he minimized His greatness to the ability, to the capacity that we can handle, otherwise known as Tzimtzum. God is so infinite and so incredibly powerful. How can we relate to something so great? It's too far removed from us. God keeps on condensing it for us and that's why in the Torah we have letters and we have words and we have verses and we have chapters and we have portions. It keeps on getting condensed and condensed and condensed, you can take even one letter, one letter. Osios Machkimos, our sages tell us, the letters make you smart. Just looking at the letters, when they lift up the Torah, it's a mitzvah. To look at the letters of the Torah, just to look at it, you purify your eyes. From that it's a lower voltage. But in connecting us to the infinite, that's the Torah that we have.

15:08
Torah doesn't only refer to the five books of Moses. Infinite, that's the Torah that we have. Torah doesn't only refer to the five books of Moses. It refers to the 24 books known as the written Torah and all of the teachings in the oral Torah, which is the Mishnah and the Talmud and the Midrash and the Kabbalah, all of the oral transmissions that were given to Moses at Mount Sinai and that Moses transmitted to the elders, to the sages, to the leaders of the tribes that later distributed it further down to the people. Again, you see this massive, massive God that has no limit, giving the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, revealing it to Moshe, moshe sharing it on and on and on and on all the way to us here, learning today, june 4th, 2024. Condensing it and condensing it and condensing it, getting it and we all have our part in the Torah. Now you need to understand.

16:12
I'm going to share with you a piece of Talmud, a story, an incredible story. You know Rabbi Akiva. We know that he started learning. He started his exploration of Torah at the age of 40. And our sages tell us that his father-in-law was so angry that he was marrying Rachel, his daughter. He was my daughter is going to marry this lowlife, this 40-year-old ignoramus, akiva. No, he was a very wealthy man and he said to his daughter if you marry this boy, this Akiva, I'm making a vow that you will never benefit and never take pleasure and never enjoy from my money. And the Talmud records that, after 24 years of Rabbi Akiva studying Torah and becoming this righteous scholar, his father-in-law welcomed him to his house. Come in, please, we'll feed you, we'll, you know, making a feast for him. So the Talmud asks did he nullify his vow? You make a vow, you have to keep your vow. Did he ever nullify it? So listen to the words of our commentaries on this. Talmud says as follows Lo Chashiv Nolad, he wasn't considered to be born yet he made a vow on something that didn't exist yet. Why Kiva? On shahol achle lebe? Why, because Rabbi Kiva went to study Torah.

17:57
The way things work in the world, when someone goes to learn Torah, he becomes a new person and therefore the vow that his father-in-law made from him to never benefit from his wealth didn't apply to the Akiva of today. Why? Because Torah transforms who you are. Torah changes you like nothing else in the world. Will you go into law school as an angry person? You know. When you leave law school and you graduate, you leave as an angry lawyer. You go to medical school and you're a stingy person. When you leave medical school, you leave as a stingy doctor. Nothing changes. You've gained wisdom, but it doesn't change who you are. Go into Torah as an arrogant person. You leave as a new, humble person. Torah is not just wisdom. It transforms who you are. That's the blessing that we have here, la'asok. I want to be consumed by your Torah. I want to be transformed by your Torah, and that's what we praise Hashem for.

19:23
We say in our prayer later on in the morning prayers give us our portion in your Torah. We say in our prayer later on in the morning prayers V'SEIN, chelkenu, b'soras, secho, give us our portion in your Torah. Our sages tell us that every neshama has its own portion in the Torah, the Torah that we merit to listen, to imagine. There are billions and billions of pieces of Torah that we can consume. Hashem sends each and every one of us our piece of Torah. Everyone has their unique portion of Torah. There's your style, there's the things that you like, things that speak to you. Our sages described that what happened at Mount Sinai was shishim ribo panim la Torah. Our sages described that what happened at Mount Sinai was shishim ribo panim la Torah.

20:09
There were 600,000 different perspectives to the Torah that was given to us at Mount Sinai. You know what that means. There were 600,000 people there Talking about men between the age of 20 and 60. You multiply that with the women. You're talking about 1.2 million. You add the children below the age of 20, boys and girls, the adults who are over the age of 60, men and women you're talking about, and then you add that a third of the Jewish people were the oncomers of the Egyptians, who said we're not sticking around with this Pharaoh, we're going with God and the Jewish people, and they converted to Judaism Approximately 3.2 million people.

20:55
That's how many different perspectives there are in the Torah, because every person is unique, every person is special and every person heard their Torah given to them, not like what people say today. Well, it's my truth. It means I can bend the truth and do whatever I want with it. No, there's a Torah. When someone heard at Mount Sinai Anochi Hashem Elokecha, I am Hashem, your God. It's to you and it's to you and it's to each and every one of us, an individual God. So too, the Torah is individual to each person. It's one Torah, but it connects to each person on an individual level.

21:45
Now it's important when we talk about Torah and the study of Torah, it's important to talk about Bittul Torah. Bittul talk about Torah and the study of Torah. It's important to talk about Bittul Torah. Bittul Torah is the disturbance of Torah. It is forbidden for a person to disturb someone who is learning Torah, Because when someone is learning Torah, it's like they're at Mount Sinai receiving the Torah from the Almighty. Who wants to interrupt that? You don't want to interrupt the study of Torah and we do everything we can to not interrupt someone who's studying Torah. You have a great sage. They're sitting and learning Torah, but I want a blessing. You don't interrupt them while they're learning, not while they're learning. They close their book and they're on their way walking to the classroom to give their lecture. You can catch them there On their way, not while they're studying Torah, because there's nothing more powerful in the world than someone who's learning Torah, and we don't interrupt that.

22:43
There's also something which is Ritzifus HaTorah To learn Torah consecutively. We learn this from Rebbe Akiva. Rebbe Akiva was 12 years. In the study hall he was on his way walking home with all of his students. He hears his wife say if I only had my way, I would send Akiva back to learn for 12 more years. What did he do? He didn't go inside and have a cup of coffee with her. He turned around and went back to learn for 12 more years. What did he do? He didn't go inside and have a cup of coffee with her. He turned around, went back to learn for another 12 years. Our sages tell us you know why Rabbi Akiva became so great? Because he didn't learn 12 years in 12 years he learned 24 years in a row. There's a difference between learning 12 in 12 versus learning 24. Straight.

23:25
Torah is a. It keeps it snowballs in its effect and the consistency of study of Torah is key to our growth. We also see that one should not waste their time, because wasting one's time we're not saying that no one should have any form of entertainment and any type of distraction. We can't all focus all day, every day, in our Torah studies. So we need to have a little respite, we need to have a little break. That's fine, but there's a difference between having a healthy break and completely wasting our time. Vacation could be a very powerful mitzvah. Vacation can also be a waste of time. If a person needs the vacation so they can re-energize themselves to continue their service of Hashem, to continue their Torah study, then it's a mitzvah. But if a person goes on vacation because oh, it's June, I'm going to lose my vacation days, I better take it off right, not because they need it, not because that could possibly fall into the category of wasting time.

24:41
We have an opportunity in our lifetime to study Torah. That's the blessing that we recite. We're thanking Hashem for giving us the opportunity to learn Torah. That's the blessing that we recite. We're thanking Hashem for giving us the opportunity to learn Torah. Now we know that there's the Ramah Hevarim, the 248 positive commandments, the 365 negative commandments. We also have corresponding to that, the bones and the sinews in our body that correspond to the mitzvahs, because everything in our world corresponds to the Torah we study. Every mitzvah we perform corrects a certain mitzvah and brings it to its perfection.

25:21
So the second part of our blessing is Ve'ha'arev no'ha'shem, hashem, make it sweet for us. We're asking for the Torah to be sweet, hashem. Don't just teach us Torah, don't just give us the mitzvahs. We want it to be sweet, we want it to be pleasant, we want it to be enjoyable. And it's referring to all of its guidance, all of its understanding, all of its performance. It should be sweet. We're not only asking for it to be sweet for us and this is my favorite, even emotional, part of this prayer we're asking for our children, for our grandchildren, for our great-grandchildren, we're asking for generations. We're asking for the entire Jewish people. Chol Amcha B'Sisrol, for your entire nation.

26:15
For me, imagine, I started learning this prayer when I was maybe four years old in school, five years old, and we start saying it every single day. As a five-year-old, you're already praying for your descendants, for your offspring. You're praying that they should be immersed in Torah study Yod HaShem Echa, to know your name, to never be distanced from God. I want to share with you that when I was in camp in Ukraine as a mentor there for these precious Jewish children who had nothing, not only nothing physically, nothing financially, nothing spiritually, they had nothing. I'm talking nothing. They came with the shirt on their back and that was the same shirt they wore morning, afternoon, evening, every single day of camp. They didn't come with knapsacks and duffel bags, with different pairs of shoes and different shirts and different pants. They wore what was on their back. That's how they came to camp. They had nothing. Destitute, poor kids, beautiful kids. But they weren't poor physically, they were poor spiritually, with no connection.

27:30
And these boys, their neshamas, were lit up from camp. Most of them had the courage to have their bris during camp. Most of them decided to go to a Jewish day school. Most of them decided to go to a Jewish day school. Most of them decided to commit their lives to a Torah lifestyle. It was unbelievable. I remember one of the children was putting on tefillin for the first time and his mentor tells me do you know the story of this boy? No idea. He said this boy's name. He asked him. He said tell him your name. He tells me the name, the last name it's the name of one of the greatest Torah sages who lived 150 years ago. I'm talking about one of the greatest names and it hit me.

28:26
The prayers of that grandmother, of that grandfather that prayed that the Torah should never leave their descendants, was being fulfilled. The prayers of that grandmother, of that grandfather that prayed that the Torah should never leave their descendants, was being fulfilled. And we were putting tefillin on that boy Because the grandmother was crying. We're going to have many challenges that are going to face our people. Hashem, please preserve the Judaism of me, of my family, of my children, of my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, my great-great-great-great great-great-grandchildren. And that's a prayer that each and every one of us, that each and every one of us have the opportunity every single morning to make that prayer special, not only for us but for the entire Jewish people, for all of our children and grandchildren.

29:21
And we're not asking for casual knowledge of Hashem. We want a real, deep, meaningful connection with Hashem. We say we have the concept of studying Torah for its sake, not for a goal, not because I'm doing research on a specific topic and now I'm just learning this topic, because I want to fill up my basket of knowledge, but just to bask in the closeness with Hashem. I'm just learning this topic because I want to fill up my basket of knowledge, but just to bask in the closeness with Hashem. What are you learning? I'm learning closeness with Hashem. That's what I'm doing. Why are you going to that class? Because it brings me closer to Hashem. Not because, oh, I'm intrigued about this topic. Of course, what you know, of course we should learn what interests us. We should teach what interests us.

30:15
But the idea of lomdei sorasech al-ishma, to learn Torah for the sake of studying Torah, because these are the low voltage, so to speak, that Hashem is embedding into our lives through the study of Torah. And our sages tell us there are three virtues of studying Torah for its own sake. Number one, because Hashem commanded. That's why I'm studying Torah, because Hashem commanded it. Number two, to fulfill it properly. I want to know how to live my life. I studied with my study partner last night.

30:48
Yesterday afternoon, we studied the laws of eating how to sit and eat. We don't eat while we're standing. We don't eat while we're walking. We don't talk while we're eating. How to eat If to hold our food, if to eat with the utensil, how to eat in front of other people if other people are there. If you're allowed to even look at how other people are eating because it's undignified shouldn't stare at people while they're eating. How to drink, how to drink in public, how to drink wine, when to drink wine. The Torah tells us these things how to cut bread, how to give bread to others you don't throw it. You don't give it in their hand. The laws are magnificent. You don't give it in their hand. The laws are magnificent, but that's learning laws to know how to properly live our lives. It's unbelievable. How to properly fulfill. So that's another form of studying Torah. And then it's to increase our understanding. So number one is because Hashem commanded. That's the highest level, because Hashem commanded. Number two is to know how to fulfill it properly. And number three is to increase our understanding of Hashem and His laws.

32:18
Torah isn't a download. Torah takes individual work. It's your Torah, you don't just download it. Oh, my father learned all the Torah, so it just downloaded to me. No, you have to earn it. You got to study it. It doesn't just go from generation to generation. Each individual scholar had to earn their own scholarship, their own knowledge, their own library of wisdom. It's an individual task for each person and that's why we refer to the Torah as our own personal Torah, because it's your own accomplishment and nobody can take it from you. Ha'melamei Torah, l'amei Yisroel, god himself teaches the Torah to us. Effort doesn't equal knowledge. Hashem gifts it to us. Effort doesn't equal knowledge, hashem gifts it to you.

33:15
Just because you sit and study Torah five hours, six hours, doesn't mean that you'll understand it. But you want to know something special. The reward is the reward for effort, not for results. Judaism is not about results, it's about effort. It's only about the effort. So if you sit and study seven hours, two hours, 25 minutes, you try to learn a law and when you're done you're like I have no idea what I just learned. I don't understand, it doesn't make any sense to me. I just can't absorb this. Are you going to be rewarded for that or not? Did you come out with any conclusion? No, do you understand what you learned? No, well, in a math that wouldn't be anything, but in Torah you get reward for every effort that you make. It's not about what you know, it's about what you put hard work, effort towards. And the more we put our effort towards in our study of Torah, the greater our reward and the more difficult it is for us to learn, the greater the reward.

34:36
The blessing of Jewish pride is the third blessing that we have on the Torah. Jewish pride, Asher bochar bonu. God chose us, don't shy away from it. Be proud, jewish pride. God chose us. We're not going to back down from it. We're not going to be apologetic about it.

35:05
You know the Midrash tells us the back-end story. If you want to know what really happened at Mount Sinai. All the nations of the world had prophets. We know Bilaam was a very powerful non-Jewish prophet. Our sages tell us he was even more powerful than Moses, a non-Jew. Every nation had a prophet. What was a prophet? A prophet was someone who was able to connect to God and have revelations of God's will.

35:34
They each opened up I'm going to do it in a modern-day example of. They each opened up their emails and they get an email from God and it's free for the taking. So you open it up. It's not a closet, it's not a cabinet for free. Just pick it up First come, first serve.

35:58
God says I have a Torah, I have an instruction manual, I had to live life. Who wants it? It's free. So every nation's like well. They reply back and they're like well, what does it have in it? And God says well, thou shall not perform adultery? Like forget it, not for us. And another nation comes and says what does it say in it? And God says, oh, you shall not steal? Like not for us. Another nation asks what does it say in it? And God says you shall not murder. Like forget, forget it, not for us. Another one is what you shall not cheat, not for us. Each nation asked, asked, they sent back with their, with their prophet go find out what's written in it. But it's free. Maybe we should take it. What's in it? Nah, it's not for us.

36:49
The Jewish people, you know. That's why they say Jewish people have long noses. Because ear is free, it's free. We were there, right, give me more ear, but just kidding. Just kidding. But why? The Jewish people say we will do, we'll listen later, we don't care why. Why did they do that? Because the Jewish people understood something that the nations of the world didn't the number one thing we want from the Torah is a relationship with God.

37:25
Everything else is commentary. Naseh, first, I'm committed, later Nishma, later we'll hear the details. It's like a couple that gets engaged you don't put a whole prenup before they get engaged. Right now I have such an endearment, such a love. Later on we buy the ring. Later on we can make. We'll find out what it entails. We don't know what it's going to entail, but we're committed. And what's if they get sick? We're committed. And what's if they lose their money? We're committed through thick and thin. We'll find out later. Number one commitment I'll marry you only if that's for Hollywood, that's not for real people. I marry you through thick and thin. I'm committed to you. I'm dedicated to you.

38:30
What is the Torah? What is Hashem gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai, to each and every one of us. It was an individual revelation. Like we mentioned previously, the ability to connect directly with Hashem through His Torah is embedded into us. That we can open up a book of the Torah. His Torah is embedded into us. That we can open up a book of the Torah, any book of the Torah. That we can learn the weekly Torah portion.

38:57
And I urge you all take a stone edition of Chumash from Art Scroll and just read through the words of the Parsha. Your life will be changed. Any Parsha, every Parsha. Open up any page. Open up the Rambam. Read the book of the Rambam. It's like what? It's brilliant. It's not like you can anybody, for casual reading. Just open up the US law books. Just open up the books. You'll die from boredom. It's so boring.

39:30
But you read the Code of Jewish Law, the Book of Maimonides, the Mishnah Torah, you won't be able to put it down. It's mesmerizing. It's your Torah. It doesn't belong to the rabbis. It doesn't belong to the scholars, to the sages, to the pious. It belongs to each and every one of us Maorasha, kehilas, yaakov. And therefore, when the Torah says, when we say in our verse, in present tense, the giver of the Torah, hashem, gives us the Torah again today, anu, fresh. Hashem gives us every single day a Torah. Anu, you didn't succeed yesterday in understanding. Try again today. It's new today, right now, presently, hashem is giving it to you fresh Torah, fresh out of the oven.

40:28
We will always be different from the nations of the world. We will always be different from the nations of the world. We celebrate this. They hate us for this. We celebrate it. We're never going to give in. We're not allowed to try and appease the nations and say you know what we're not going to be as Jewish? Just don't hate us. No, our Jewish pride knows no limits.

41:03
I will bless those who bless you, says the Torah, the nations of the world, particularly in our generation, where there's so much hate. You go to college campuses and Jewish students need to hide, they need to tremble. This is tragic. Those who bless the Jewish people will be blessed and those who curse the Jewish people will be cursed. This is a promise in our Torah. This is their opportunity to cash in. This is the opportunity for every nation, for every world leader, to demonstrate their loyalty to Hashem and their loyalty to Hashem's people loyalty to Hashem and their loyalty to Hashem's people.

41:51
We are those people. In what way are we distinguished? We have to pronounce our distinction from the nations of the world. We're different. Wear it as a badge of honor. Don't try to assimilate. We're just like. Nobody should know. We're just going to be like everyone else. No, we're going to be different. We are different and we wear that as a badge of honor with pride.

42:17
So if we look back again at the verses that we just learned, the first one was to be engrossed and immersed in the words of Torah, and then we said V'ha'arevna Hashem. Please make the words of your Torah sweet in our mouths, not only for us, but for your people, for our descendants, for our offspring, the entire house of Israel. Kulanu yodei shemecha, we should all know your name and learn your Torah for its sake. The blessing is that God teaches the Torah to his people. You keep trying and Hashem will keep providing. You keep trying to understand, hashem will keep providing the wisdom and the knowledge.

43:13
And then the final blessing is Hashem chose us from all the nations. Every nation had the opportunity, but we it's a two-way street. We chose God, he chose us. It's not just a man chooses his wife, the wife chooses her husband. Hashem gave us His Torah. It's His manual, it's His manuscript, it's His blueprint for the world and we have the privilege to have it as our manual, as our guide. Baruch atah Hashem no sein ha-Torah. Blessed are you, hashem, the giver of the Torah. My dear friends, the privilege that we have to recite this blessing every morning, these three blessings every morning, is such an enormous gift that we can thank Hashem for giving us the instructions, not the limitations.

44:06
Torah is not about rules. Torah is not about laws. It's not about rules. Torah is not about laws. It's not about restrictions. Torah is about channels of connection with the Almighty every mitzvah. We perform every prohibition of the Torah that we limit ourselves from. We don't eat certain foods, we don't do certain things. What we're doing is we're opening up channels of connection with the Almighty. When we do performative actions, we're portraying our love for Hashem and we're building that relationship with Hashem proactively. My dear friends, hashem should bless us that we have our lives filled with meaning, filled with purpose, filled with Torah and the ways of Hashem, not only for us but for our offspring, from generation to generation to generation. Amen.

45:04 - Intro (Announcement)
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