Thinking Talmudist Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

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

00:14 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody to the Thinking Talmudist Podcast. It's so wonderful to be here this beautiful Friday afternoon to a full classroom. Thank you, chef Ed, for the delicious lunch. We're so excited about this. All right, we are going to actually study a piece of Talmud that we studied a long time ago, but not the same part of the page. We did the top part. Now we're going to do the bottom part of the page. We did this. I remembered somewhere in the back of my, the recesses of my brain, that there was something that we studied on page 5A in Tractate Brachot, and I was right. We did, but we did the top of the page. Now we're going to go down to the bottom of the page, and the Talmud now is talking about the different rewards that one can get for studying Torah and the different challenges that come with one studying Torah, and it's great to see you. So we're going to go to the almost middle of the page. Amar Rabzera v'itema. Rabchanina Bar Papa Rabzera, and some said this was actually a quote from Rabchanina Bar Papa. Now, again, it's very interesting.

01:26
We say this so many times in our Thinking Talmudist series. Why do we need to know all of the different possibilities of who this is being quoted from. Why is it so important? Who cares? I mean, if you take all of the quotes that it's quoted in the name of all, just the names. You can fill up the name of all, just the names. You can fill up almost a third of all the Talmud. Just the names, just the names. It was this person, some say it was this person, some say it was this person. In the name of that, it's like what's really going on here. We are on a relentless pursuit of truth. We want to know who said what. This is not the New York Times and this is not the Washington Post, where we can just have anonymous sources for stories. We need to know who said what because we want to track it down to its source. And it's very important when the Talmud begins here and the Talmud says that this was Rav Zehra and some say that it was actually a quote from Rav Hanina Bar Papa. It's important because we want to know the source. Who said what?

02:37
Okay, bo'orei shalokimidash ha'kodesh baruch hum midas baseradam. Come and see how the ways in the characteristics of Hashem, the Holy One, is very different of the characteristics of flesh and blood. Midas basavadam odom mocher hafeitz l'chavero. The characteristics of human beings of flesh and blood is that when someone sells a cherished object to their fellow, mochar atzuf v'lokeach sameach, the seller is sad and the person who just purchased this is very happy. The purchaser is happy, right? Imagine someone has their collector's car. They have something really valuable, you know, a precious gem that was handed down from generation to generation. Imagine someone has their collector's car. They have something really valuable, you know, a precious gem that was handed down from generation to generation. But they need it to pay rent. They need, so they're selling it. They're very sad that they're letting go of their precious gem and the one who bought it is very happy. Look what I just got.

03:44
Avla Kadesh Boruchu Einochein, the Almighty is not like that. What happens? Nos Elohim Torah LeYisro V'Sameach? Hashem gave His most treasured item, which is the Torah, and Hashem is delighted. Hashem is delighted that we have that Torah. Shememar Shem says For I have given you a good gift, a good doctrine. Do not abandon my Torah. Hashem says. I gave you something so precious, so so valuable, and I'm not sad about it, I am delighted about it. Don't forsake it, don't abandon it.

04:33
So the Gemara records another teaching that links what was discussed earlier about suffering regarding neglect of Torah study, and some say that Rav Chizda Rav, and some say that Rav Chizda said the following Imroa, adam Shiusur and Barna Love, if a person sees that afflictions are befalling him, he should investigate his deeds to determine which sin he may have committed that would cause such suffering Unbelievable. The Talmud tells us if you see afflictions coming upon you immediately, the first thing you do introspect. Think internally what did I do? Our sages, the great Muslim masters, say that if you stub your toe, perhaps you did something with your toe. You went, you ran to do a sin, you were excited about going to a place you shouldn't have gone to. If you hurt your head, maybe you were thinking wrong. Thoughts, right, that God gives us. In fact, we're going to do something which is long awaited, long awaited. Doctor is going to be so excited about this. Okay, doctor is going to be so excited.

05:51
In on the hebrew, the hebrew bookshelf of musa one. Yeah, the black book. There's a black one on that shelf, yeah, perfect. Oh, beautiful doctor, you ready for this? This, this is a treat for you. This is a treat for you. Okay. So here's the.

06:08
This is from a writing you know, just yesterday we commemorated Yom HaShoah. Yom HaShoah is Holocaust Remembrance Day. I think it's much more than just that. It's something that we need to understand is how terrible humanity can be yet how amazing humanity can be. You see the lowest of the low in people going and mutilating and murdering and butchering other human beings, and then, on the other hand, you see how people who suffered so much persevered. And I just want to say something myself.

06:55
I'm a grandchild of three Holocaust survivors. I have three grandparents. My paternal grandmother was in the Kovne ghetto and my maternal grandparents. Both of them were in Auschwitz. In fact, they met in Auschwitz and got married in the DP camps immediately after the liberation, and I never heard my grandparents talk about the Holocaust because it was so painful that it was in such a tragic event that they lost the majority of their families. My grandmother was one of 11 children, of which only four survived. Her father was burnt to life.

07:52
This is the author of this book that we're going to study, because you know what we do. We can get angry. How can they have done this? Where was this and where was that? How can they murder? But where was this and where was that? How can they murder? How can they? But look what we're doing now. We're sitting now, 80 years later, and I'm not only one great grandchild of the author of Avram Gorjinsky, who's the spiritual leader of the Slobotki Yeshiva, I'm one of about almost a thousand great-grandchildren. And you know what? We don't sit and cry and moan about the tragedies that befell us and say we want reparations and we want this. No, no, no. Let's just start all over again and renew the Torah that was taught and that was burnt in Europe and rebuild it all over again, so that we have now the Slobotki Yeshiva of Houston right here in the Torch Center where we're able to study what he, the lectures that my great grandfather taught in Yeshiva. We can resume them right here in our classroom. And I'll tell you something During the war, my great-grandfather got a visit, and it was a visit of Reb Hanon Wasserman.

09:23
Reb Hanon Wasserman was one of the greatest Torah giants of that generation. In fact, reb Hanan Wasserman was already in the United States when the war was beginning. He was in the United States raising money for his yeshiva. There are stories we can talk about how he raised money and he was unbelievably successful in raising money for the yeshiva, not only his yeshiva, but for many Jewish institutions back in Europe. And they said don't go back, there's the war. He says I have a yeshiva, I have students, they're waiting for me. I have a responsibility. He didn't think about himself, he didn't think about they had to leave where they were, where the yeshiva was. And they came to my great-grandfather's house and they knew that the Germans were coming to gather them. So he gave his final lecture to all of his students In my great-grandfather's house. My grandmother was there when he gave this famous, very famous lecture. Father's house, my grandmother was there when he gave this famous, very famous lecture, and the lecture was about Kiddush Hashem, sanctifying God's name.

10:42
Why are they killing us? We just celebrated Passover. What did we say at our Pesach Seder? In every single generation they're trying to eradicate us. In every generation they're trying to destroy us. We see it today. Look what's going on in Yale University the disgraced Yale University. In the disgraced Columbia University, in the disgraced Harvard University, in the disgraced Harvard University. Look what's going on. I saw a video myself of them throwing things at the Jewish students. We're not talking about harassment, we're talking about violence. It's not something. Oh, 80 years ago in Germany, you had a Nazi regime and they did terrible. We have this today in the United States of America.

11:44
I want to share with you something so beautiful that someone just mentioned to me. I know this class is an ADHD class. The doctor can medicate me for this, okay, but I have to share with you something. So what do we do? What do we do to teach Torah? Listen to this amazing, amazing thing. I'll tell you an amazing story first. Okay. So now we're like five steps away from where we were. You'll have to bring me back in doctor, okay. So let me tell you an amazing story. It's a story that's told about the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov was traveling. He set on a journey to go to Israel. He was going to.

12:25
Israel. It was the day before Pesach and he ended up in Istanbul, in Turkey. He can't continue to travel. He had two people with him. He had his daughter and he had his advisor, his then advisor, his caretaker. So the Baal Shem Tov, who was a very, very powerful personality, a very holy man, a very pious, special, godly, human being. So he tells his daughter we're going to stay at an inn, I'm going to stay at an inn. The daughter says you know, they were very, very poor. They didn't have the Baal Shem Tov. Wherever he went, people were like this is the holy master. He didn't have the Baal Shem Tov. Wherever he went, people were like this is the holy master. He didn't let people give him money. People were like you know, come, stay in my house, we'll give you tons of money. You know, you're the big rabbi we're going to. You know, we're going to help you wherever you need to go. He only took what he needed to survive that week. That was it. Like the Chavetz Chaim we've said this story the Chavetz Chaim would close the shop as soon as he had enough food. Until Shabbos. He had enough food for Shabbos, the store was closed. Go, support my competitor. People would line up waiting for the Chavetz Chaim to open the store because everybody wanted to purchase the great Chavetz Chaim. By the way, the Chavetz Chaim was only alive 100 years ago. Amazing, amazing thing.

14:01
So the Baal Shem Tov is in Istanbul and he goes to the inn. What can he afford? He can't afford the luxury suites up at the presidential suites on the 29th floor. He goes into the basement what's the cheapest room? And his daughter says Daddy, it's the morning before Pesach, we don't have matzah, we don't have wine, we don't have anything. What are we going to do? He says what are you worried about? Hashem takes care of everything you don't have anything to worry about about. Hashem takes care of everything you don't have anything to worry about. Hashem will take care of everything.

14:41
This is a true story. What happens? The Baal Shem Tov says okay, before Pesach, the halacha says before the three festivals and Rosh Hashanah, yom Kippur, it is proper for a man, every man, to go to the mikvah. Where are you going to go to the mikvah? Where are you going to go to the mikvah? Go to the ocean, you go to the port, you go find a quiet place and you go to the mikvah. They're all going, trying to find their way.

15:13
Meanwhile, there was another story going on simultaneously. What was the other story Is that? I don't want to get too carried away, but there was a couple that was barren. They weren't able to have children. Both the husband and the wife were not able to have children. They were extremely, extremely wealthy and they had heard that if they get a blessing from the Baal Shem Tov, whatever the blessing is for will be fulfilled. And they go to the Baal Shem Tov's house and they say sorry, the Baal Shem Tov left. Where did he go to? He went to Israel Tov's house. And they say sorry, the Baal Shem Tov left. Where did he go to? He went to Israel. He's on his way to Israel.

15:58
So they start traveling and they're trying to run after. And every place they reach they say oh, the Baal Shem Tov was just here two days ago. He's heading to Israel. He went. The next stop is Istanbul. They get to Istanbul and now it's Erev Pesach. They know for sure that the Baal Shem Tov is not traveling on Yontif, right? He's not going to travel on a holiday, so he's probably in Istanbul. He has to ask around. They don't know where anybody is. They meet this young woman by the pier. They say do you by any chance know? She's dressed modestly. They figure she's probably a Jewish woman. Do you know if the Baal Shem Tov is in Istanbul? She says Baal Shem Tov is my father. I said really, he's your father. She brings them back to the hotel. It turns out that they're staying on the 29th floor of the presidential suite. And where do you think the Baal Shem Tov had his Pesach Seder Right All taken care of Either way after Pesach, not even at the end of Pesach, in the intermediary days of Pesach, the Baal Shem Tov says we need to continue to go to the land of Israel.

17:09
And they continued their journey and it was obstructed and they ended up. There was terrible storms and they ended up on some island and at that island there were some really terrible people there and the powers of Tumah, of impurity, were so strong. The Baal Shem Tov forgot his Torah. Prior to this, he told his daughter and the caretaker. He said if you want to go to Israel, I can tell you a verse in the Torah, certain letters of the Aleph Bet that you'll go on this. You know a flying carpet, imagine, and you will go straight to Israel. No, but you can't stop thinking about this verse for a second. At first his daughter was thinking maybe she's like no, no, no, I can't do it, I can't focus, you know, I can't do it.

18:06
And we know all of the secrets of creation, all the secrets of Torah. Everything is in the letters of the Alephbet. And now they're on this island and the great Baal Shem Tov doesn't remember anything, any of his Torah. Because the forces of evil, of Tumah, of impurity, were so powerful in this island. There were cannibals there. It was really terrible. They wanted to get out of there but they couldn't because the Baal Shem Tov was handicapped, because he didn't remember any of his Torah. So he's like I can't do anything, like I don't even know what to do. So his assistant tells him I remember something. What does he remember? He says I remember Aleph. He says, oh, teach me Aleph. He says Bet, teach me Bet. He says I remember Gimel, teach me Gimel.

19:03
In our Haggadah we say something very, very special. We say that there's four sons, four children, four types of children. One of the statements that we read is at ptah lo. At is a female term. She should open for him meaning. My grandfather would say that this is referring to the mother's sensitivity, the mother's nurturing nature. She can open up the child to ask questions. She can open up the child, the child can develop with the mother's closeness. But the word at is also the first letter of the aleph bet, the aleph and tef, the last letter of the aleph. Bet you want to know your journey, someone who doesn't know anything about Judaism, that we are all, each one of those four children, when we don't know, you know what you need to do. Focus on the Aleph to the Taf, just the letters of the Alephbet.

20:05
They say the great Hasidic masters say that there was someone who came to the Rebbe and he says I don't know how to pray, I don't know how to pray, I don't know how to pray. He says what do you know? He says I know the letters of the alphabet. He says that's perfect. Just say that. Let's go back to what we're talking about here, the only thing we need to know. When we have the hatred of the nations of the world V'hi She'amda lavoseinu velanu. What is V'? When we have the hatred of the nations of the world V'hi she'amda lavoseinu v'lanu. What is V'hi? We say it's the promise of the Almighty. Say just tell us, v'hi is the numerical value of 22. It's Vav, he, which is 11, 6 and 5, yud and Aleph. It's 11, right and 5, yud and Aleph. It's 11, right. So that's 22. How many letters are there in the Aleph Bet 22.

21:02
Sages tell us you want to know what preserves the Jewish people. You want to know what protects the Jewish people. The letters of the Aleph Bet, that's our Torah. We don't have to be big scholars, we don't have to know everything. We have to dedicate ourselves to never-ending study of Torah. I know Aleph. Let me study Aleph. Let me review it. Let me review Bet.

21:29
A young man told me yesterday. He said that he was learning in a yeshiva in Jerusalem and this elderly man is 83 years old, walked in. He had never studied any Judaism whatsoever. He was on a trip to Israel. He ended up somehow in this yeshiva library. He says come, let's learn together. He says what are you going to teach me? I don't know. I'm not a scholar, I'm not a rabbi, I'm a young. He's a young, 18-year-old boy. What does he know? He says you know what I can teach you? I can teach you the Aleph Bet.

22:03
And they opened up and they started identifying the letter Aleph, the letter Bet, the letter Gimel. And this person starts crying 83 letter bet, the letter gimel. And this person starts crying 83-year-old man, what are you crying about? He says this is the most incredible teachings I've ever learned. It's the letters. It's like A, b, c, like that. It's an inspirational, it's a spiritual experience. Yes, because our sages tell us and this is an amazing thing when we raise up the Torah in our synagogue, the proper thing the halacha says is to look at the letters.

22:39
Look at the letters because, osios machkimos, the letters themselves make you smart, the letters of the aleph. Just looking at the letters of the Torah. By the way, we once spent some time, many years ago, looking at the letters of the Torah. By the way, we once spent some time, many years ago, talking about the different letters of the Aleph Beth and their spiritual meanings. But just to give you an example, we'll start with the first letter Aleph.

23:06
Anybody know the numerical value system. Every letter has a number, right? Aleph is one. Beth is two it's a giveaway, right? Gemph is one. Beth is two it's a giveaway, right? Gimel is three. Dalet is four. Yud is ten it's the tenth letter of the Aleph Beth. So if you take the letters of Hashem's name, the Yud, the he and the Vav and the he, it's 26. 26, a very powerful number. You see, in Judaism, a lot having to do with the letter, with the number 26, very powerful, so lost my train of thought. Doctor, doctor, you need to put me on those meds. Okay, we'll go now to my Saba 5B.

23:52
We slowly get back to Bracha. I guess that's the only way Hashem gets me back. He's just like you're done Too far. Yes, they did. That old couple did, and the Baal Shem Tov never made it to Israel. He never made it to Israel. He ended up going back.

24:07
He says Hashem doesn't want me to go. The waters were rough, the this, the that, it was too much going on. He says Hashem clearly doesn't want me to go. I'm forgetting all my Torah, right, and that was it, and that was it. So you know he had all right. So I'll probably look at this recording or this video and say, like, what was going on? Why did you forget where you were holding it? Either way, let's talk for a second Introspecting, right. So we said introspecting is so important to look inside, right, if suffering happens. So here we go. So my grandfather, my great-grandfather, has an amazing chapter. It's called Nevuah V'Yisurim. Okay, prophecy and affliction, pain. Okay. So listen to what he says here.

25:22
Scholars in the times of the prophets, they knew the Torah inside out, even the sages of the Talmud and of the Mishnah didn't have the clarity that the prophets had. They didn't have the understanding, the grasp. And we know the Talmud is unbelievable. The prophets were even greater than that. Brurim hoyu Kol ha'alochas ve'pirtayim ve'pirtay, pirtayim ke'moshin nitnu mesinai. They knew every single detail of Torah, exactly the way it was given at Mount Sinai to Moses. I mean unbelievable clarity. B'litzad She'elav HaSofik. They had no doubts, they had no questions, they understood exactly how Moshe explained it. That's the way they had it. And we know, we know the first mission and ethics of our fathers Moshe Kibbutz, torah Maseenu. Moshe accepted, received the Torah at Sinai and he passed it to Joshua Yeshua was the Canaanite and Joshua to the elders and the elders gave it to the prophets. That's what we're talking about.

26:34
The prophets knew the Torah inside out. They knew without any disputes. Without any disputes, they knew clarity of Torah, of the written Torah, the oral Torah, the biblical, the rabbinic. They knew it all. Hamakhloka serishon nahosa be'inyon smicha b'yamtof. Okay, so he talks about the first time there was a dispute that's brought down in the Talmud between Yossi ben Yoezer, who was a Nasi, and Yossi ben Yochanan, who was the Avbezdin. Okay, the Gemara brings all of that Either way.

27:16
So why was there prophecy? What do we need prophecy for? Okay, he says, because you weren't allowed to use your prophecy for anything that wasn't revealed to you. So it's not like nothing new is coming here, it's just to reveal the things. I guess we're going to skip a little bit here.

27:37
He talks about all of the process of what would happen when people had pain, when people had illness. You know what they would do, okay. So what do we know? We know that prophecy doesn't exist anymore for us. We're not at the level to attain that level of clarity. So what do we do now that we are 2,000, 2,500 years from when the prophets were alive? We've been declining and declining and declining in our Torah. What do we have left? What do we have? We don't have the same prophecy they had.

28:20
Then he says there was a little bit of a problem. That happened. Then there was a problem. What happened? So someone got sick. God forbid. We should all be healthy, we should all be happy, we should be successful, without any pain, without any affliction. But what happened? If someone got sick, they had an ailment. They would go to the prophet. The prophet would say oh, I had had the revelation. I know exactly why. He would tell him what he needed to fix and boom, the person was healed. Another person would come in and eventually people didn't care about what the prophet said. They just cared about the cure. I don't care about, you know I okay, just give me the cure, tell me what to do. And that finished. They didn't take it seriously anymore. So what happened?

29:13
Chiskeo HaMelech, king of the Jewish people at the time, hid the book of medicine. He hid the book of prophecy. The prophets were already being phased out. And what happened? Prophecy was given to every single person. Prophecy was given. He says over here the whole idea of prophecy, nebuah, the whole idea of prophecy, it would be to reveal to a person or to a community the sins that they've done. So the person goes, a person veers off the path. The prophecy would tell them you went off the path, get back on. Our sages tell us and it's very long and I don't want to belabor you with reading the Hebrew words and translating it, I'm summarizing it Is that Hashem made each and every one of us a prophet. Hashem made each and every one of us a prophet.

30:28
How Pain, when we experience pain, we have the ability. I'll tell you a true story. This happened to me about 10 years ago. You can look this up because it's a video online. I talked about pain and suffering, how to accept pain and suffering, how to accept pain and suffering, how to accept affliction.

30:51
I was koshering my kitchen for Pesach and I had this steaming hot pot of water. I was koshering the counter and I slipped. The floor was wet and the whole pot of water went on my hand and I burnt my hand. It was terrible. So what did I do? I quickly ran to the bathtub. I turned on my bathtub and I put my hand under flowing water, you know.

31:15
And while I'm sitting there in excruciating pain with my hand inside the flowing water and I'm thinking to myself Hashem, why did you do this to me? Why did you do this to me? Right, because it only happens at the hand of Hashem. Hashem could have made it that I not slip, right. Hashem could have made it that the floor not be wet, but it was Hashem wanted this to happen. What's Hashem telling me? And I was thinking and thinking and thinking and I suddenly had a moment of prophecy. We can call it an epiphany. Ah, I got it. I got it. You know what happened. It's almost miraculously.

31:59
The burning pain subsided almost instantaneously as soon as I got that message and it's like, okay, message received, I got it. You're right, I made a mistake, I did something I shouldn't have done. Whatever, I don't even remember what it was anymore, but as soon as the pain subsided, that was still a burn. I still had to deal with it and in fact the next day when I spoke about it because it was right before Pesach I said maybe I should just cancel the class. I have bandages. It was a mess. It was a mess for a while. So I started talking about it and then in the middle of class, someone showed up. A woman showed up. She says I was listening to your class live on Facebook. I have this very special cream. You should put this on your burn. It'll feel much better. And she came to class with the burn medicine and it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. So I have tremendous Hakkarat HaTov appreciation for this woman's kindness. She left her house. She was watching the class. She saw me talking about this. She's like you got a burn. She quickly ran to her cabinet, got the medicine, came to the Torch Center to bring it. This is really special.

33:16
But either way, when a person sees affliction, when a person sees pain, it's Hashem communicating with the person, the recipient of that pain, of that suffering, communicating a message. And this is what the Talmud says, not me, okay. The Talmud says if a person sees that afflictions are befalling him, he should investigate his deeds to determine which sin he may have committed that would cause such suffering. Now I want to share with you another story. I heard this story yesterday. There was a woman. This is a something phenomenal that you have to see just to appreciate the different cultures. You have to see just to appreciate the different cultures. The Sephardic culture has a very, very powerful emunah pshuta, a very simple, very, very simple belief in Hashem, very, very simple belief in Hashem In a way that typical Ashkenazic Jews can't even fathom, can't even understand.

34:35
Let me tell you an amazing story about a Sephardic woman who lived in the distant mountains of Morocco. She wasn't near the Jewish community, but their Jewish family committed with deep, simple faith, very simple, simple people. It was an earthquake of some sort and her husband and all of her children died in a second, in a moment, and now she's a widow, all her children are deceased and she's a widow. All her children are deceased and she's broken. She says I need to speak to a rabbi. So she gets on her donkey and she's traveling days and days and weeks to get to the main city of Morocco where the rabbi is. She goes and she asks where's the rabbi? They say they're down the block. That's where the rabbi's house is.

35:31
Comes to the rabbi's house and the Rebetzin, the wife of the rabbi, she opens the door. She says yes, this woman says I need to speak to the rabbi. Where's the rabbi? The rabbi's right now studying. You can't be interrupted. She says listen, okay, my husband, my children all died. I just came a week's journey on my donkey to get I need to speak to the rabbi. Wife sees that this is a serious situation. She goes to her husband and says this is an important matter. I know you're in the middle of studying. The doors are closed, we don't interrupt. You got to see this woman. She sits in by the rabbi and she pours her heart out. She's like rabbi, what's going on over here? My husband, my children? The rabbi says don't worry, hashem doesn't make mistakes, hashem knows what he's doing. It's a very painful thing to hear. Right. She says thank you, rabbi. That's it. She left everything perfect. Everything's normal.

36:41
She just wanted to make sure there know something in the file that was corrupted. You said that God knows what he's doing. I accept it. It's something that many of us would say. What do you mean? Where was God? People can ask this, by the way, about the Holocaust when was God? I'll tell you, my grandmother didn't have that question. My grandmother never had both. My grandmothers never had that question. They saw God. Yeah, it's a tragedy. It's a terrible tragedy.

37:19
We can talk about the Holocaust. It's a very, very challenging topic to talk about because we're all very emotional about it. We're very wound up about it. Something that's recent, current events, almost it's only 80 years ago. It's not like it's. You know, we have 200 years to look back. Oh, look at the picture. And no, we don't understand it. We don't attempt to understand it.

37:42
But one thing we do know Shem knows what he's doing. Shem knows what he's doing. Shem knows what he's doing. It happens to be that today there's more Torah study going on today in the world than there ever has been in the history of the world. Would that have happened without a Holocaust? Probably not. Would we have had our land of Israel? Probably not how this world would look. We have had our land of Israel? Probably not how this world would look. We have no idea. We don't know the full picture. We only see a little. We have a little glimpse. What do we understand? One thing Hashem doesn't make mistakes. Hashem knows exactly what he's doing and that should comfort us that we know and we have solid not faith knowledge that Hashem does everything correctly. We have knowledge.

38:38
This is our emunah, not that there is a Hashem, but that Hashem is involved in my life, in my personal life, and I can communicate with Hashem. And you know what. There are going to be things that are painful. There are going to be things that are not, but you know what. As a parent every parent knows this. Not everything we do for our children is what they think is ideal.

39:04
My daughter was really unhappy yesterday when I said she couldn't have a lollipop Right To her. This is a catastrophe. What do you mean? You love me. If you loved me, you'd give me a lollipop. No, that's how babies talk. That's how babies talk. Someone who's a little bit more mature understands. My father loves me, and when he says no, it's probably the best thing for me, even though I don't like to hear that answer. It's not on my to-do list to get a no today. Hashem is our loving, loving father in heaven. But this is an amazing thing. Hashem communicates with us. You understand this. This is huge. Yeah, we bang our heads on an open cabinet and it's like, ahhh.

40:01
The first thought we should be thinking is like, what did I do? What is Hashem trying to teach me? You know, it's like I hurt my leg. Was I excited to do something I shouldn't have done? I was, you know, and I wasn't excited to go to pray. I wasn't excited to go to learn. I was excited about other things. Maybe Hashem is telling me that Again, nobody can say, oh, let me tell you, I can tell you the reason why that happened.

40:30
No, no, no. I'll tell you an amazing thing. My aunt of blessed memory, very, very fond memories of her, is my father's sister. She was very, very ill and my father at that time was also. He had triple bypass. He had other other things. Baruch Hashem, he's doing a lot better, but they had a brother sister visit.

41:01
My father came to visit his sister, his oldest sister, and they're sitting there and they're talking about their illnesses. She's talking about her thing, he's talking about his thing. And it's an amazing thing how two children who grew up in a house of Musa, of their father, my grandfather, rabbi Shlomo Wolpe, how they immediately the conversation turned and my aunt asked my father and did you figure out the reason why Hashem gave you your illness? My father says, yeah, I've internalized that message. And he said to her did you? She says, yeah, I know why Hashem gave you my illness and it's such a powerful lesson.

41:50
We're not fighting. We're not fighting Hashem. Hashem's communicating with us. He's talking with us. Yeah, we all want to live perfect lives and be all strong and healthy and look, when we're at a ripe young age, like Gary, look at him. Look at him young, vibrant. We all want to look like that. When we're in our 80s and our 90s, it's like we want to look good.

42:15
Hashem sometimes says you know what? You have to go through a different journey You're going to have to. You know you loved me through health. Maybe now you need to learn to love me through pain. Again, we're asking. We ask you need to learn to love me through pain. Again, we're not, we're asking. We ask Hashem every day to protect us and shield us from all pain, from all suffering, from all illness, and we pray that for ourselves and for the entire world. But it's an amazing thing that the moment we have an experience of pain, the first thing we should be asking what did I do? What did I do? So to those of you who are watching online and you experienced my moment of insanity here, I apologize, but I'm telling you. I'm going to look and look at and listen to this podcast. It was like it was right there. You should have. It was on the edge of your lips. You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced I was like it was right there.

43:06 - Intro (Announcement)
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