Prayer Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Prayer Podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Welcome back to the Parsha Review Podcast. This week's Parsha is Parshas Ki Sisa, and we talk about the devastating story of the sin of the Golden Calf. It really is shocking that the Jewish people, who, just three portions ago, were at the height of their spiritual endeavors. Ever in history, there's never been a time where the Jewish people were on such a high level, where they were able to hear from the Almighty Himself the Revelation at Mount Sinai, to hear the Ten Commandments, to hear Anokhi Hashem l'l'kach Ha'ayam Hashem, your God, where they had such clarity, where they had such a vision, where they had absolutely no barriers. And here they are, just 40 days later, and they're sinning with the sin of the Golden Calf, and we all ask ourselves what's wrong with them? Right? What is wrong with those people? How can they have fallen from such a high level to the level of putting together a Golden Calf, to bowing down to an idol? What's wrong with them? And this is a question that has plagued the Jewish people 3,300 years, since the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. This has been something that we need to correct. It's been something on our mind ever since. How do we deal with this? How do we deal with this challenge of the Jewish people's sin of the Golden Calf?

01:50
If you look at the verse, moshe goes to the Almighty, so to speak. He talks to Hashem and says you have to forgive my people. Verse over here says here we go. Vayyosh of Moshe El Hashem, chapter 32, verse 31. And Moshe returned to Hashem, the Yommer onochotah haomazeh. He says to Hashem I beg of you, the people have sinned khatah g'dolo, a grievous sin. Vayyasulahem al-okeyzav, and they made for themselves a God of gold Verse 32. Ve'atah imtisah khatah sum. And now, if you forgive their sin, ve'imayin mechayinina mesifr chohashakoshafta, and if you don't forgive them, erase me from your book that you have written Famous words, very powerful words, where Moshe is basically putting himself on the line for the Jewish people. True leadership. We mentioned this last week.

02:57
Moshe is going all out. He says listen, this is the last line of defense for the Jewish people. If you forgive them, great. If you don't take me out because I can't Verse 33.

03:12
Vayomarashelmah, moshe and Hashem said to Moshe mi'ashchokotoli emchhenu mesifri, the one who has sinned against me. I shall erase him from my book. Not you, moshe, you didn't sin, it was the people, those people that did, those I'm going to erase. Now listen to this verse Ve'atah le'ichnichay esaam. And now you, moshe, go, lead the people El-ashher dibartilach to the place of which I have spoken to you. Heenei ma'alach ye'elich le'fanecha, indeed, my angel shall go before you. Ubiyom pakti ufakadati alehem hatosam, and on the day that I make an accounting, I shall bring to account against them their sin. The Yigo, fashem, esaam and Hashem struck with a plague the people al-ashher osu asaaygal, for the reason that they have made the golden calf ashher osu aron that Aaron has made.

04:15
I want to focus here on verse 34, where we say and I shall bring an account against them for their sin. Our sages tell us this is not only asking for forgiveness for that sin of the golden calf, but rather Moshe here is praying for all of the sins of the Jewish people. Now let me ask you a question has there ever been a sin that has been as serious as the sin of the golden calf? The worst sin impossible ever to know and to mankind has been the sin of the golden calf, no-transcript. So now, moshe, you're not only praying for the sin of the golden calf, you're asking for forgiveness for all the sins. Where are your priorities? It's like a husband coming to his wife and saying I'm sorry for everything. What do you mean? I'm sorry for everything. Let me hear the details. What are you sorry for? Give me the details. No, no, no. Moshe is coming. Asher Chotosem, all of their sins, all of their sins that they have sinned. What's going on here? So let's understand what is a sin.

05:30
A sin, our sages tell us, a sin is when we turn away from Hashem. A sin is putting a barrier between us and the Almighty. When we put a barrier between us and the Almighty, that is a sin. A person needs to recognize that the sin of the golden calf is just a representative of all sins that we conduct in our lives. We don't need to be a nation in the desert who just saw the Revelation amount Sinai, that bring a golden calf to be committing a sin of the golden calf. We can sin equally in our own lives. Every single day. When we do things, when we act in certain ways, we are acting in a way that is equivalent to the sin of the golden calf. That means what Moshe Rabbenu, what Moshe, our Master, our Teacher, is telling us here in this verse, is that every single one of us, when we commit a sin against Hashem. It's our own little golden calf, it's our own rebellion, it's our own little thing that we're saying I don't want to recognize God right now. I want me, I want my things.

06:58
I'll give you an easy example La Shonhara speaking negatively against another person, which is a biblical prohibition Multiple times, by the way, in the Torah, where the Torah says not to speak negatively about another person. But people are going to look at me and they're going to say, oh, he knows the inside scoop. Always They'll be able to tell me about that person. They will share with me information that nobody else will share. Nobody else knows I'm going to become popular among my friends. Everyone's going to laugh when I laugh at that person. I'm going to get recognition, I'm going to get acknowledgement. So it's about me.

07:44
But the Torah says not to do that. Well, it's about me, not about Hashem. That's the sin of the golden calf right there. If I am about to eat something and I don't give thanks to Hashem prior to eating, why don't they give the thanks? Because I want it. I want it now. I'm coming before Hashem. That's the sin of the golden calf If I realize it's late at night and I forgot to pray my evening prayers. I don't want to slap out of bed now. Oh, it's because of me. I'm tired, I want to sleep, I want to rest. It comes. It takes precedence over my commitment to the Almighty. That's a little sin of the golden calf right there, and this is what our sages are telling us is what we can learn from this Torah portion. It's not about the golden calf, it's about every sin that is represented as a little golden calf.

08:55
We try to understand. We're like what's wrong with these people? Well, what's wrong with us? What's wrong with us? Why are we so free with our lips in speaking certain ways, saying something which is false?

09:12
The Torah says not to lie, to distance yourself from something which is false, eh well, it's just a white lie, it's exaggeration. Something which is 97% truth is 100% false. It doesn't make a difference. A person thinks that. Well, most of it is true. I don't need to say all the details. Someone once came to the rabbi and asked how do you deal with exaggeration? You like to exaggerate? Oh, there were a thousand people there. He says that's a lie. It's 100% lie. Exaggeration is not accurate. It's a lie.

09:59
We need to understand. Hashem tells us. I'm truth. I'm truth, my Torah is truth. Hashem Erkekhem emet. When we say something which is false, we're contradicting the Almighty. So it's not only that the people back then had the sin of the golden calf. Each and every one of us could potentially be committing that same sin of the golden calf. So what does Moshe do? We can maybe connect this with our prayer podcast. Moshe prays, and Moshe doesn't only pray for this sin alone. Moshe prays for all sins. Moshe talks to Hashem and asks for forgiveness. You see, the Torah commands us to pray, to talk to Hashem. It doesn't say what you need to say. You need to communicate with Hashem every day. You need to talk to Hashem, say good morning, hashem. Thank you so much for giving me life, thank you so much for giving me opportunity, thank you so much for giving me potential, for giving me talents and skills and abilities, for giving me eyesight, for giving me the ability to hear incredible gifts.

11:28
We're obligated in the Torah to communicate with God. What we communicate, that was assigned by the sages, by the men of the Great Assembly, so that we don't leave anything out, but that we need to communicate. That's a commandment in the Torah. When one sins, we also need to communicate. Torah tells us repentance is done two ways Beficha or Bilvavcha With your mouth and with your heart. That's what prayer is. Prayer is with your mouth and with your heart.

12:06
When we communicate with the Almighty, what we're doing is we're saying we have something locked up in our heart and we need to let it out. How do we let it out? We talk, we communicate using our words, and we talk to Hashem and we ask Hashem for forgiveness. Well, we ask Hashem for the things that we're looking for, things that we're hoping for, our hopes, our dreams. Talk to Hashem. It's the only one who can help make it happen. This is what we're learning from this week's parasha.

12:42
What we're learning here is that the sin of the golden calf represents every sin that mankind has ever performed. It represents a distancing of us from our Creator and if we utilize the opportunities that come our way when we recognize that we've done something wrong, that could be Yom Kippur, which is a day of eternal atonement, where Hashem says that anytime you come and ask me on Yom Kippur for forgiveness, I will grant you your forgiveness. That's a special day, but that's once a year. We have the opportunity every single day to ask for a moment. Every day has that opportunity where Hashem longs for our prayers, where Hashem longs for our communication, where Hashem says ah, you made a mistake. Just like the golden calf, ask for forgiveness. You get forgiveness.

13:47
And Yomur Hashem, which is in this week's parasha, by Yomur Hashem, salah ticad varecha Hashem says I'm going to forgive you. You know why? Because you asked. You know that if they would have killed Aaron, it would be an eternal. When you kill, you can't fix it. You can't fix that sin. When you sin with idolatry, that you can fix.

14:17
See, moshe comes and sees that Aaron was party to this whole idolatry. And he realized right away why Aaron did this. Because if Aaron would have been killed like Hor was prior to him someone who said no, what are you guys doing? Are you crazy? We just had the experience at Mount Sinai, we had the revelation, and now you're coming to bring this idol. What did they do? They killed him. Aaron was afraid that if they kill him, they will never have repentance. So therefore he says you know what? It's better for me to do a sin that I can repent for than a sin that can never be repented for, like murder.

15:02
So I think there's many things we can take away from this. The first is is that we should stay away from the golden calf, stay away from sin. Recognizing that sin means our objecting to the Almighty, objecting to the will of Hashem, where we're putting ourselves before Hashem. And the second thing is that, for everything that happens in our lives, we can pray. You can always pray and ask Hashem. Whether you're deserving of it or not, it's irrelevant. Hashem wants us close to him. Hashem wants our prayers. Hashem wants our closeness, because that's the vehicle through which we connect to Hashem and the way in which we can attain our closeness and our forgiveness for any sin we may have performed. So, my dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos, have a blessed and happy week and I'm looking forward, god willing, next week to continue our studies on the parasha and on prayer. Have an amazing Shabbos.

16:19
Yes, a very good question. We talked about the example here about Lashon Harah. Lashon Harah means speaking negatively about another person. So what's if you're looking into a marriage partner, you're looking into a shiduch and you need to find that information? How can someone share negative information about another person? Question one but what's about business?

16:43
If you're about to do a business, deal with someone you call up and you ask you say do you know so-and-so, are they honest? Will they cheat me? Will they be truthful in business? How do you answer them? So that you need to ask it in a very careful way. There's a way in which these questions need to be asked and if you ask it the right way, you'll get the right answers. The best way, by the way, to ask, the best way to ask, regarding a shiduch aside for asking technical things, you know, how is he with this and how is he with that, or she, the boy or the girl? There's another question you can ask If you had a son or daughter, would you want them to go out with this boy? And that's something which is completely objective or, sorry, subjective to the individual you're asking the question of.

17:45
This is their own personal thing. For example, you do research onto someone who's you're thinking of going into business with, you call their old business partner and their business partner says listen, he'll follow the agreement in the contract. He will, you know, be honest, he'll be straightforward. You don't have to be worried of them cheating you. Then you can ask the question would you go into business with him? With that, he can say no, I would not go into business with it. So you understand that there's a difference here of whether or not it's their own personal interest or personal desire to go into business with such a person and whether or not this is something which is a negative flaw in that person. Yeah, you can ask why. He says listen, I like to do business with people who are, who think the way. I think. I have my own. You know my own preference. You know I don't like people who are, you know, who are this way. I prefer, you know, working with someone who's that way. This is my own personal preference. I had that once.

18:55
I did research on a on a perspective Shedda, and I asked someone who did business with the girls father. I Did, they did the research and I asked the questions and and he said I asked him this question. I said would you allow your son to date his daughter? He said me no, not a chance in the world, I wouldn't Right. He says I did business with him. For me it would be. He says I would recommend anybody else but me. No, so right away it gave me a little bit of like, what's going on here? Right, they have no problem with anybody else but their own child. So I, I I pride them a little bit on it. I, I pride what's going on here. He said, look, I had, I had not a pleasant to experience with them. Me Personally it hurts. He could be he was right. He said it could be he was a hundred percent right.

19:50 - Intro (Announcement)
But me personally I wouldn't do it you've been listening to, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. We 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.