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)
Good morning everybody. Welcome back to the Prayer Podcast. We are on Episode 7 of explaining the prayers of our morning blessings. Last week we learned, through the prayers of the Torah, the blessings of the Torah. There were three blessings and our sages say that this represents the three different times the Jewish people were together, united, to receive the Torah. There were three different stages in that and that's why we have the three different blessings. But we know that every mitzvah that we recite a blessing for we need to fulfill the mitzvah immediately after reciting the blessing. So when we talk about learning God's Torah, we bless the opportunity that we have to learn Torah. La'asok b'divrei, sora, no sein ha-Torah. These blessings.

01:01
Now what are we going to do? We're just going to say the blessings. No, we're actually going to go right away and learn the Torah. So what do we do? We recite special verses from the Torah, from the Mishnah and from the Talmud. Like we said just previously in our Parsha podcast, that Torah, the written Torah, cannot be understood without the oral Torah, that Torah, the written Torah cannot be understood without the oral Torah. They go hand in hand. It's the handbook that explains the Torah, the written Torah. So that's why we recite also verses from the Torah, also verses from the Mishnah and also verses from the Talmud Okay, verses from the Talmud, okay. So in order not to have any type of separation between the blessing on the Torah and the learning of the Torah, we go right into it and we say the following blessings Now, those of you who are listening on podcast in the description we have a link to these sheets, these worksheets that have it all translated and transliterated so that you can read along with us.

02:11
We're in the middle of page 16 and 17 in the Wasserman edition of the Art Scroll Sitter and we're going to read it along together Now, just so that you understand. There are various different customs of how, ashkenaz, sephard, etc. What verses they recite. So in the version that I printed here I printed in smaller, I printed the version that the Sephard or the Sephardic communities read, even though the Ashkenaz read fewer verses. So we're going to start, we're going to read it all and then you'll see where I continue here. I'm going to note where I continue.

03:51
Children of Israel will say tell you. And now, in English, hashem spoke to Moshe, telling him to speak to Aaron and his sons, saying this is how you must bless the children of Israel Say to them May Hashem bless you and guard you. May Hashem shine His countenance upon you and be gracious unto you. May Hashem turn His countenance towards you and grant you peace, and they shall set my name upon the children of Israel and I shall bless them. Set my name upon the children of Israel and I shall bless them.

04:27
These are the precepts for which no fixed limit is prescribed Leaving the corners of one's field for the poor to harvest, bringing the first fruit offerings, appearing at the temple during festivals, performing acts of kindness and studying Torah. These are precepts, the fruits, the dividends a person enjoys in this world, but whose principle, the capital, remains intact for him in the world to come. They are the following Honoring one's father and mother, performing acts of kindness, arriving early at the house of study, morning and evening, welcoming guests, visiting the sick, providing a wedding dowry, escorting the dead, devotion in prayer and making peace between our fellow men and between husband and wife. And study of Torah is equal to or outweighs all of them together. So, my dear friends, that is the morning prayer of the priestly blessings and the learning of Torah. So we go right into the learning of Torah. So let's try to understand a little bit about these incredible, incredible verses that we just read. So the first is that the priestly blessings is from Numbers, chapter 6, verse 25 through 27. The Mishnah that we read, the first part of the Mishnah, is from Tractate Peah, the first Mishnah, and then Elu Devarim. The second part that we read was from the Tractate Shabbat, page 127b.

06:21
So what does it mean here when we say to the Kohen Va'ani Yavarachim, bless the Jewish people. But God is saying I'm going to bless them. You put my name on them. What do you need the Kohen? Cut out the middle man. We're all about cutting out the middle man. Why do we need the Kohen? To intercede between God giving the blessing to the people the Kohen doesn't give, between God giving the blessing to the people the Kohen doesn't give the blessing. It's explicit in the same verse. It says V'samu t'shmi'al b'nei Yisrael. The Kohen should put my name, hashem's name, on the Jewish people, v'ani avaruchim, and God will bless them. So why do you need the Kohen? Why do we have the middleman? So our s, why do we have the middle man? So I say, just tell us.

07:06
This is to remind the Jewish people that all blessings are from Hashem and to instill emunah, to instill a faith, a knowledge of Hashem, that all blessings come from Hashem. Because who is the Kohen? The Kohen was the icon of the Jewish people. The Kohen was the. He had to be perfect in his character, in his physical appearance. He had to be perfect in every aspect of life. Do you know that if a Kohen is in a quarrel with his neighbor, he cannot recite the blessing of the Kohen? Cannot recite the blessing of the Kohen? Because if you're not at peace with everyone around you, you can't put the blessing of God in other people. You have to be perfect.

07:55
And yet those perfect people, the Kohanim, giving the blessings to the Jewish people, what are they telling them? It's not from us, it's from Hashem. What they were doing is serving as reminders to the people. Remember that everything is from Hashem. That's their job. Remind the people constantly that everything is from Hashem. And we see Yevarechecha, hashem. You know who's going to bless you, hashem? Will you know who's going to light up the world for you? Hashem. Hashem will carry you, he'll help you through everything. Who is it going to be Hashem Pun of? We see that there's a constant reminder. Remember that everything is from Hashem. Now imagine this.

08:47
Let's put things into perspective here. When are we saying this? We're saying this about 10 minutes after we wake up in the morning. We wake up, we say moda'ani, we give thanks to Hashem, we go to the restroom, we wash our hands, we say the blessings aval neti el sidaim av. We say, and then we say the blessing on the Torah. So how soon after we wake up is this happening? Pretty soon. And what are we instilling into our consciousness? The faith in Hashem, the knowledge that everything comes from Hashem. We're re-instilling as we wake up. We're re-instilling that faith, that knowledge that Hashem is in charge of everything.

09:42
What do we say in Yivarech HaKa? It's interesting that this whole blessing is in charge of everything. What do we say in Yivarechecha? It's interesting that this whole blessing is in a singular term, as an individual. Yivarechecha. It doesn't say Yivarechechem, god will bless all of you. No, no, no, god will bless you as a single, in a singular term. Why? Because blessings only come when there's unity.

10:07
The Jewish people received the Torah. We read this just last week in Shavuot, the holiday of Shavuot, the Jewish people encamped in a singular term by the foot of the mountain. They encamped one person, not they. He encamped. That's really the term of how the Torah calls it. The Torah says that as an individual he camped there. Why he? Because the nation was one nation, one soul. Ki ishe chod b'leiv echot. They were united. The only time we have blessing is when we have unity, and this is a reminder in the morning, you start your day.

10:56
Focus on unity, focus on peace. How does the blessing, the Kohanik, blessing the priestly, blessing? How does it conclude? V'yasem l'cha shalom, and there shall be peace At the end of the Mishnah. What do we say? That there should be peace between man and his fellow. V'hava shalom, ben adam l'chavero. There should be peace among mankind.

11:30
Peace is a central feature in Judaism. We talked about this last night with the teachings of the Orchos Tzaddikim. Orchos Tzaddikim tells us you know how you avoid all kinds of trouble. Have peace. Peace is the essential ingredient for success in life. So we're asking every day, we're repeating the blessings of the Kohen. And what are we asking for? Unity. Watch over us, Protect us. We only receive blessing when we're united as one, when we have peace.

12:21
Yo'er Hashem. What is Yo'er Hashem? Our sages tell us this is referring to the light of Torah, ki Torah, or Ki ner mitzvah ve-Torah, or Our sages tell us this is referring to the light of Torah. Ki Torah or ki ner mitzvah v'torah, or Torah is light. You know what's incredible about light? Light doesn't get extinguished when you share it. If you have a candle and I light your candle, it doesn't diminish my candle that I lit yours. Now we both have light. When you shear Torah, what happens is it just multiplies. And now your Torah is now sheared with another person, and now their world is lit up with Torah.

13:04
Yo'er Hashem panav eylecha. We're asking for that light. We want that light in our day, that our day not be an ordinary day, it be an illuminated day, it be an exceptional day, an uplifted day. That Hashem should turn towards you, towards each and every one of us. There's a different way in which you can greet somebody. You can turn around and face them with a countenance and smile and say good morning, how are you? Or you can like over your shoulder, like hey, hey. Which one is more heartwarming, which one is more loving? Which one is more endearing? We're asking Hashem, turn your face, turn your countenance towards us. We should see your glow, we should see your shine, the amazing gift that we have every single day to recite these verses from the Torah and to hopefully be blessed with them. And then we conclude the Yasein L'cha Shalom. It should be peace. The bottom line is peace. Hashem owes la'mo yutein. Hashem yivarech es amo ba'shalom. God should give strength to his people. How, through peace. Our strength, our ability to do anything as a people, only comes through unity, and it's an amazing thing.

14:33
We all experienced a very, very traumatic event as a people only eight months ago, on Simchas Torah. We learned that it doesn't make a difference what party you vote for. It doesn't make a difference what type of kippah you wear or don't wear. It doesn't make a difference what yeshiva you learn in. It doesn't make a difference. Your personal lifestyle choices, nothing. It doesn't make any difference. We're one nation, one soul. They didn't walk around and say oh, you're Shomer Shabbos, we're not going to shoot you. That didn't happen. Oh, you're older, we're not going to shoot you, you're younger, we're not going to shoot you. No, we learned that day what we learned so well in the Holocaust, what we learned so well in the Holocaust.

15:30
There's a story about a man who walked into a cab in Jerusalem. The cab driver had a long hair, rough guy and the person who sat in the cab was a rabbi. See, he says Good morning my brother. See, he says Brother, what do you mean, brother? You're morning my brother. So he says brother, what do you mean, brother? You're not my brother. So the rabbi tells him. He says I had a very, very good teacher and that teacher told me that every Jew is my brother. He says really, who was that teacher? He says his name was Hitler. Hitler taught us that it doesn't make a difference how you look, every Jew is your brother. We're all united, we're all one. And it doesn't make a difference where our synagogue membership goes to and it doesn't make a difference what we quote, affiliate ourselves with.

16:30
You know, I've long said we don't believe in any of these movements. They're all nonsense. I'm not an Orthodox Jew, I'm not a Reform Jew or a Conservative Jew. I'm a Torah-observant Jew, hopefully a growing Jew. There are two types of Jews. There are growing Jews and stagnant Jews, and I can tell you people I know and I see on a regular basis who are from every stripe of what we call membership, reform, conservative, orthodox reconstructions or completely unaffiliated, that are growing Jews, that are taking a step every day in their relationship with God. And I can tell you people, of every single one of those memberships that are stagnant Jews.

17:15
Our goal is to be growing Jews, but even more than that, even if we have family members and friends and acquaintances who are stagnant, they're still our brothers and our job is to love every Jew, regardless of their affiliation, of their connection, of their inspiration. Every day we have the opportunity of having a Mount Sinai, of having the experience of ki'ish echad b'leiv echad. One nation, one soul. So now we learn the Mishnah. The Mishnah says eilu devarim, she'eilam shiru.

17:58
These are the precepts which no fixed limit is prescribed. That means there's no limit to how much you can observe in these areas, which is, for example, leaving the corner of one's field. It needs to be any size, but you can have your whole field. You can give to the poor to harvest the habikurim, giving the first fruits offerings, there's no limit, as much or as little as you want. And appearing at the temple, there's no limit. You can go a hundred times to the temple. There's no limit. Oh, only one time. No, no, no, unlimited.

18:39
And additionally, acts of kindness. You know, sometimes we can think I already did my act of kindness to that person. Enough, enough, I already did. I already went to that person. Enough, enough, I already did. I already went out of my way and assisted them how many times.

18:54
Guess what the Mishnah reminds us there's no limit to the acts of kindness and the study of Torah. Oh, I learned today. I'm good, no, there's no limit, no limit. I listened to a Torch podcast already. I'm good. No, there's no limit, there's no limit to our study of Torah. That's the Mishnah in Peah.

19:15
And now we go to the next part, which is, I believe, an elaboration of this in the Talmud tractate, shabbat 127b. These are the precepts, the fruits, the dividends that one enjoys in this world, and the capital, the principle, remains intact for the world to come. So let's understand what this means. There are mitzvahs that when you perform those mitzvahs, you get a reward in the world to come. But you also get the reward in this world, for example, honoring your father and mother. The Torah explicitly tells us that for honoring your parents you will have a long life. You call your parents to tell them good morning, to wish them a good afternoon, a good Shabbos. You make them happy, you bring them nachas. What you're doing is you're building up your eternity in the world to come, but also in this world, you're guaranteed a long life. There's two areas of reward the reward in this world and the reward in the world to come.

20:38
What are those mitzvahs that have this special merit? That you get the? Imagine this. You can also enjoy the principle and enjoy the dividends, the interest. You can enjoy them both. Usually you have to wait the principal compounded interest but you got to lock it up. You put away your 401k, you put away your Roth IRA Until you're 59 and a half. You can't touch it. Touch it earlier, you're going to have to pay all those taxes, but right now you can't enjoy it. Now it's locked away. Later you'll be able to enjoy it. No, no, no, no. That's not the way it works with mitzvahs you enjoy it now and you'll enjoy it later. So what are those special mitzvahs?

21:21
Kibbutz Avayim, honoring your father and mother. As we learned previously, what is the mitzvah of honoring your, your father and mother? That means, when they walk into the room, you stand up for them. That means that when they're getting dressed, you tie their shoes for them. You don't sit in their seat, you don't call them by their name.

21:44
There's an entire description of what this mitzvah is to honor your father and mother, u'gmilos chasadim, doing acts of loving, kindness for anybody, for any human being, to do something selfless for another person, and arriving early at the house of study morning and evening. It's like Ed Ed comes here. He's like Ed Ed comes here. He's here every day, every class. He comes early. That's a special beauty in that I'm not only studying. It's so important to me, I come early, and there's a special reward for people who endear the study of Torah so much that they come early morning and evening.

22:40
By the way, it's not only to study hall, it's also for the services. When we go to service, we don't just show up oh, show up right here. No, no, no, show up early. It says that the men of the early generations what would they do? They would be in shul for an hour before prayer and they would stay in shul an hour after prayer. Prayer is such a spiritual, lofty experience that you need to prepare yourself for it. You can't just rush into prayer and you can't just run out of prayer. Oh, oh, we're done. I got to go. I got a business meeting. I got to run here, run there. You're at such a high level. You got to descend down, get back to earth. We're not trying to run away.

23:25
V'achnos as-archim welcoming guests into our home. V'bikur cholim visiting the sick. V'achnas askala assisting a bride in marriage or providing a wedding dowry. U'luvayas hameis escorting the dead. I want to share with you an incredible story. You know, if you look over here in the verse it says uvikur cholim visiting the sick, assisting a bride in marriage and then escorting the dead. It seems like it's out of order.

24:01
My great uncle was told about him. He was a great, great rabbi. He was the chief rabbi of Antwerp, rabbi Chaim Kreisworth. He was once very ill when he was young. He was very ill and he went to a great sage and he asked the sage what do I do? I'm not well and doctors are unsure of my recovery. What do I do? So the rabbi pointed to this Mishnah that we recite every morning to this Talmud and he says it says I'm visiting the sick, which you are, and then it skips one. It doesn't go straight from illness to death. You know, escorting the dead. It puts in between it providing a wedding dowry, marrying off the bride. Why does it put that in between? It just doesn't. It seems like it's separating and distancing one from the other. The rabbi said to my great uncle he says if you invest your time and your effort in marrying off the brides, bringing them to Chuppah, helping them with getting to their canopy with dignity, what you'll do is you'll move the illness away from your death. That mitzvah is the barrier that protects between those two and indeed he invested his life in raising money to marry off brides Thousands of them and he died well into his 90s, lived a very, very, very long life Utilizing the mitzvah of marrying off the brides, helping. You know someone who's getting married, boom, he would assist in any way he could. He would raise money. He would travel around the world raising money for kalas, for brides to help them get married with dignity, and it helped him distance the illness from death. The Iyun Tefillah devotion in prayer, making peace between man and his fellow and between husband and wife. The incredible mitzvah.

26:21
If you see that there are two people quarreling, there are two people in a fight. I recently was involved in a. There were two people in a particular synagogue that were in a big fight with each other. This one didn't want to talk to that one and he didn't want to talk to him and he didn't say I'm sorry, he didn't give me forgiveness, he didn't this. You know, everyone builds up this whole big thing. What was it at the end? It was a misunderstanding. That's what it was at the end.

26:48
I had an individual call me up a few years ago. He says to me someone came to me to borrow money. I lent him the money and not only he didn't repay me, he refuses to even acknowledge that he ever borrowed the money from me, and it was a large sum of money. It doesn't make a difference large or small, it's irrelevant, he says. But I see him every week in shul and I'm disgusted by him. I can't even look at him.

27:24
So in both of these cases I said one thing I urge you to do everything you can in your heart to make peace. Do everything you can to make peace. Right, wrong, it doesn't make a difference. Make peace. Peace is the key to all blessing, as the Talmud tells us. Key to everything to all blessing is peace. You want to have peace in your home. Husband and wife need to have peace. If you see a couple that's struggling, figure out how you can help them. Talk to them, give them encouragement, assist them. Encouragement, assist them, guide them. Share your words of wisdom. You're married for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, 60 years, 70 years. Have a lot of wisdom. Share that with others. Inspire them to have peace in their lives, to focus and invest in peace. And the final is V'salmo Torah K'neged Kulam, and that is that the Torah is equal to or outweighs all of those other mitzvahs that we mentioned.

28:43
Combined Torah study is learning God language. Torah study is giving us a glimpse into the world of God. You're learning God language. You want to understand God language. You want to understand the greatness of the world you're living in. That's the Torah. The Torah gives us the glimpse into the greatness of God's world and, by the way, there's no limit to it. You can learn as much Torah or as little Torah, but invest in having a steady schedule for studying of Torah. It's so important. It's so important. It's so important for us to understand the value of Torah. A few weeks ago, we talked about not interrupting someone who's studying Torah. It's so important. The study of Torah. The whole world stands on the Torah that we study. Interrupting someone from learning Torah is the worst thing possible. They're learning Torah To the degree where the Talmud says that if someone is in the middle of studying Torah and in the middle of learning Torah he says, oh, look, how beautiful that tree is Such a person is warranting the death penalty.

30:18
What, that's crazy. What do you mean? The Talmud asks. It says what do you mean? What is he doing? He's praising Hashem with the beautiful tree. He's praising Hashem. What do you mean? He said he's interrupting the study of Torah to praise Hashem and you're telling me that he warrants the death penalty.

30:35
Say, just tell us what happens if a king invites you in to his palace and says you've been such a great minister in my government, in my palace, you've done such amazing things. After years and years of dedication, I wanted to give you a great gift. Has a big party At the party calls you up. King calls you up and says here, here's a gift for you. Thank you for your service, thank you for your dedication. So you get up to the podium and you say Mr, mr King, your master, I've never seen such beautiful wrapping paper in my life, the most incredible wrapping paper ever. I mean, look at this, look at how it's wrapped. And you go on and on about the wrapping. What would you say to such a person? You'd say what are you talking about the wrapper? You have the gift. Why don't you talk about the gift? Open up the gift and look at the gift. Are you busy talking about the wrapping paper? The Torah is the gift. The tree is the wrapping paper.

31:54
When you stop instead of praising the Torah and continuing to learn Torah, and you stop and you praise the wrapping paper, you missed the boat. It's not that they're putting you to death, but the idea is that it's dead to you, the concept of how amazing your Torah is. That's our job. Our job is to be busy studying, investigating, researching the Torah, to never stop learning. It's not a job, it's not another subject, it's not a livelihood. Torah is life. There's no limit to it. We want more life. Give me a minute of life. Wow. Another minute, another minute. Torah is life. That's the essence of who we are. My dear friends, hashem should bless us all. That our prayers should be accepted and loved before Him always.

33:00 - Intro (Announcement)
And that we should merit to fulfill these special mitzvahs to their perfection every single day. Amen need you. We need partners. 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.