Thinking Talmudist Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

0:00:01 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Thinking Talmudist Podcast.

Alright, welcome back everybody to the Thinking Talmudist Podcast. As we discussed previously, we learned the Gomorrah in Taanis (20a), told us an amazing story. The story was about Rabbi Elazar Ben Rav Shimon. We know Rabbi Elazar is the son of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who was traveling on a donkey coming back from his Rabbi's house and he sees an exceedingly ugly, ugly man. So the man says to Rabbi Lazar Shalom Alecha Rebbi, peace be upon you. Shalom Aleichem, how are you? And he says to him ... he doesn't answer him. Lo Hechzer Lo, Omar lo Oreika -- empty one, Kamah Mechuar Oiso Ish -- how ugly is that man? Shemo Kol Bnei Ircha Mechuarim Kamoscha, perhaps all the people in your city are ugly as you. And then the Gemara continues and he says why do you say this? Go talk to my craftsman who made me, and have my craftsman deal with the issues of my ugliness, basically. And then he realizes that he made a mistake and he tells him please forgive me. I want you to please forgive me for me misspeaking. So he says no, don't apologize to me. He asks him for forgiveness. He says I'm not going to forgive you till you go to the craftsman who made me and tell him how ugly is his vessel that he created. Okay, so now the Gemara continues. Okay, so we took a couple of lessons out of this yesterday, and that was that it's so important for us to realize yesterday meaning last week that it's so important for us to ensure that the words that we say, the words that we use, are not offensive and are harmful to other people. Every person is different. Every single human being is different and, notwithstanding our differences, every person is also unique. Every person is special and we need to do everything we can to see the virtue in other people, to see the qualities of other people. Okay, so now the Gemara continues.

And the Gemara says Haya Metayel Acharov Ad She'higia Le'Iro -- Rebo Elazar traveled behind this man that he was seeking forgiveness from until he reached the city, Yotzu Bnei Ir Likraso -- When they arrived, the people of the city came out to greet Rebbi Elazar who was a very, very holy man. He's the son of Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai. And they said to him Shalom Alecha Rebi Rebi Mori Mori -- Peace be upon you. Teacher, teacher, master, master, Amar Lahem -- The ugly man said to them Lemi Atem Korin Rebi Rebi -- to whom are you calling teacher teacher Amar Lahem Lozeh Shemitayel Acharecha -- They're addressing the man who is walking right behind you, Amar Lahem -- Upon hearing this, what did this man say? What did he say To all of the people from this, from the city, Im Zeh Rebbi Al Yirbu Kemoso B'yisrael -- If this person you are greeting is a teacher, may there not be more like him in Israel. They shouldn't have more people like him in Israel. Omru Lo -- they said to him, Mipnei Ma -- why are you saying this? Omar Lahem, he said to them Kach V'kach Assa Li -- He did such and such to me. Omru Lo -- they said to this person, who's Elijah the prophet, Af Al Pi Chen Mechol Lo She'adam Gadol Betorah Hu -- forgive him nevertheless because he is a man of great Torah and Great wisdom and therefore please forgive him. So, Omar Lohem -- he said Bishvilchem Hareini Mochel Lo -- For your sakes, I forgive him. Ubilvad SHelo Yehei Ragil Laasos Kein -- provided that he does not make a habit out of doing this. Miyad Nichnas Rabbi Elazar Ben Rav Shimon V'dorash -- After gaining forgiveness, Rebbi Elazar, the son of a Shimon, immediately entered the house of study and expounded L'olam Yihei Adam Rach Kakoneh, V'al Yehei Koshe K'erez -- he gave the lecture saying A person should always be soft like a read, and flexible and complimentary and Not hard like a cedar, as he had been with this ugly man ... Lefikach Zacha Kaneh Litoil Kulmus Lichtov Sefer Torah, Tefillin U'mezuzos -- He says, and it was for this reason that the read merited To be the pen drawn on the Torah scroll, on the to fill in and the m'uzos why? Because it's flexible. So if we look at this Talmud, it's an unbelievable teaching here. It's an unbelievable teaching the idea first still. Firstly, the fact that Eliyahu HaNavi, here, is teaching him a lesson. They're teaching the teaching Rebbi Elazar Ben Rabi Shimon a lesson. What's the lesson that they're teaching? He's teaching him, he's teaching him.

Number one is that there's no room, particularly for someone who's a leader. We see that he forgave him because he was a leader. Particularly for someone who's a leader, you have to be able to see with softness, with a gentleness, every person that's around you. You have to see the goodness in them, you have to see the kindness in them and that's what it seems from the story. He's questioning, he says who's this guy? I said what do you mean? He's our Rebbe, he's your Rebbe.

He shouldn't be in the habit of talking like this meaning it's important for a person not to be Judgmental harsh, particularly if a person is going to lead people. You're gonna lead people. You need to show a kindness, you need to show a pleasantness, you need to be, show you know, have, find favor in people, find the goodness in people. I think it's an overall quality that Eliyahu HaNavi is teaching us here, that each and every one of us in our lives have many people who depend on our kindness, like our children, our spouse, our Community. They're looking for our kindness. They want us to Say nice things to them. They want us to be kind to them. They want us to compliment them. They want us to do things for them that are going to uplift them. I think that that's the underlying piece here is that Rebbe la Sibirah of shimon his job as a leader Particularly someone who's teaching Torah his job is to always find the goodness in the people that he's with you. Meet someone on the street, find the nice thing to say to them. It's something which is so incredibly important for each and every one of us.

But then there's something even more, and that is that the Talmud continue finishes here. It ends with a statement. It says and for this reason, we write the Torah scroll, we write the Tefillin, we write the Mezuzah with a read which is soft, which is flexible, meaning when we're laying down the foundations of a Torah, which is actually writing it, describe, uses, specifically something which is flexible, because the Torah we have to understand. There's a big distinction that needs to be made between the Torah being flexible and the Torah being changeable, and I think that this is a big mistake that was made over the last 200 years in the Jewish community. Number one is that it needs to be flexible in the sense that the halacha, the word halacha, which means Jewish law, the word halacha comes from the word halicha, the way in which you walk, because halacha is applied differently depending on a person, depending on where they're from, depending on who they are, depending on their community, depending on the circumstances, depending on their background. There's a lot of variables. When I was in rabbinic school and we were learning different halachos, a lot of what we were learning, a lot of what we were taught, was about understanding who is asking the question. That doesn't mean that we change the Torah, but there are certain leniencies that could apply depending on a person's background. So, if a person is not able to observe certain laws. If a person is not from the background where they understand or where they're capable of grasping what's going on, so then you can make certain modifications for them. But that doesn't mean that we change the law. We don't change the Torah. That doesn't mean that anybody, or any movement for that matter, has a right to change Torah law. We don't change Torah law. But certain applications could be different, can be varied.

That's something that is very important to understand when we are teaching Torah. It needs to be with a sensitivity, it needs to be with a kindness, it needs to be with a gentleness. It says the rocher o darche noam, the ways of the Torah is the ways of pleasantness. It has to be with pleasant words. We see this in our previous Talmuds that we did in previous weeks. We talked about Hillel. Hillel was always coming with a pleasantness to the people. He was always talking to them with a kindness.

A guy comes in and says I want to convert on condition that I be the Kohen Gadol, the high priest. Now we all know that that's not possible. It'll never be possible. So what did he do and what did he teach us? What Hillel taught us was that we need to find a gentle, pleasant way to present the Torah, which means that what did he do? Instead of saying, hey, listen, this is not for you, go, you'll never be a Kohen Gadol, goodbye.

Or he didn't even answer the question. What did he say? He said no. He said come, let's learn Torah, come, let's understand that before someone becomes a king, they should understand the ways of kingship, the ways of the ceremonies that you do for the king. You have to learn that first. Once we learn that, then we can talk, which is basically understanding. And this is another part of this. I don't think we pointed this out.

What Hillel was really telling him is that we are serving Hashem. Hashem is the king of the universe, hashem is the king of all kings, hashem is the creator of heaven and earth, and we need to learn the proper way to serve Hashem. You can't be serving Hashem if you don't understand what Hashem is. So what we're trying to do here is we're trying to gain an appreciation and an understanding that every act that we do is our way of serving Hashem, and the way we serve Hashem has to always be with pleasantness. The way we serve Hashem has to always be with a love and a sensitivity to every person. So, while we do need to have a flexibility, we do need to have a kindness. We need to have a pleasantness. We also need to never, ever, ever chop down what it is that, the principles of the Torah. We have to just find a nice way to do it so someone can say well, we have to make it easier for them. We don't find that we need to make it easier. The Torah is given in a very, very beautiful way and every person can elevate themselves to it. But the way in which we present it doesn't need to be with harshness, and I think that's the underlying principle here. We need to find a pleasant way to present the Torah to every single Jew.

So, when the Talmud here concludes with the idea that every Torah scroll is written with a soft read, where every Mzuzah and every Tefillin, what is the objective of these things? The Torah, so that we learn it in our minds, that we can get the ideas and learn Hashem's wisdom, learn Hashem's language. What is the idea of Tefillin? The idea of Tefillin is that we make our bodies holy. We put Tefillin on our mind, by our head, between our eyes, opposite our brain. So we should commit our mind, our thoughts, to Hashem. We put Tefillin on our arm, opposite our heart. So what does that do that commits our heart, our actions, to the service of Hashem. And then, lastly, the Mezuzah is where we make our homes holy. We make a room every room that we're in has a Mezuzah to make the place holy for us, where we bring the presence of Hashem into our lives. All of these have a scroll inside it.

So I highly recommend, just as a public service announcement, torah scrolls need to be verified. They need to be looked over by a certified scribe who's God-fearing, who ensures that every letter that's written in that Torah is kosher. They look over it. It's a very arduous process where they work hard, looking through every single letter of the Torah to ensure that it was written properly, that no letters are connected, that they're all the way they should be written properly.

I once got a Torah scroll from someone. It was refurbished from the Holocaust and I brought it to the scribe. We have a scribe in Houston a God-fearing Jew and I brought it to him to look it over and he says to me look, was it once a kosher scroll? Definitely was once a kosher scroll, he says, but the ink is fading from it and you'll have to redo almost every single letter. It'll cost you more than buying and having a brand new one written for you. It'll cost you more. So it just wasn't worth the expense of repairing it. And the letters were already faded and instead of being black, the letters were red from the years and years of being sitting and being transported from place to place, different climates, different temperature, exposure, and then so you have the actual Torah scroll. It needs to be checked and every synagogue needs to be responsible to ensure that if someone is reciting a blessing on the Torah that it's from a kosher Torah scroll.

Then we have our Tefillin. Our Tefillin have scrolls in them as well, and it's not just a black box in An airplane, they have the black box. It's not actually black, by the way, but it's called the black box and that records everything we have and Judaism. We have our own black boxes and it's the filling we place on our head and the film we place on our arms, and the objective here is to make our body holy where we commit ourselves to God. What's in those black boxes? There are four portions of the Torah and In the head Compartments there are four different compartments.

Each one has a scroll inside it. The hand has one scroll that has all four portions written on it and they need to be checked regularly, every Six or seven years. They need. If they're worn regularly, daily, they should be checked Every six or seven years. If they're just sitting dormant they shouldn't, but they should be checked more frequently. Person to that. We have a mitzvah to wear to fill in every day except for Shabbos. So in there is the scrolls. Those scrolls are written with an ink and a quill and that quill is made out of reeds. And Then we have we have the Mezuzah and the Mezuzah, this is something which is very, very common.

I was with a friend of mine in Israel and we went to a couple of to not a couple went to many, many rabbis. One of the rabbis we walked into pulls out a pen and paper. He says what's your name? He writes down the name, son of. We give the name of our parents and he looks at the name and he says to my friend he says you have a few non kosher Mezuzah's in your house. He says you need to fix that because that's it's blocking blessing, the flow of blessing into your life. So he went back home. When he came back to to To the United States, he checked his Mezuzahs, he said. Turned out that every single Mezuzah in his house was not kosher.

But we have these, these Mezuzah casings. That's not a Mezuzah, that's a casing. Inside there needs to be a scroll and the scroll needs to be written on parchment and it needs to be written properly. It needs to have all the letters of the portion that's in there. And if a person has a Mezuzah, it's a beautiful casing but it doesn't have the parchment behind it, it's worthless. Mezuzah means the parchment, not the casing. If a person doesn't have the casing that doesn't have the parchment, the casing is worthless. It's like having a beautiful Box For your watch, for your brand new Rolex. You have the beautiful box but there's no Rolex inside it. Right, what's the whole box for? The whole box is for the watch that's in it. If you don't have the watch, it's worthless. The Tefillin, the Mezuzah, need to have the parchment in it. The casing is is not as important as the actual parchment.

Making sure that the proper Writing, that the proper scroll, that the proper ink, the proper quill is used in the process of writing it. The objective is is to bring godliness into our life, and just having something on our door doesn't do the job when there is a parchment inside which reminds us that parchment, the words of the shema, the words of the after, to love our shem, bahayyem shema, that we should, uh, listen to our shem's commandment and be blessed with unbelievable blessings in the observance of those commandments. Powerful, powerful mission statement that we have as a jewish people. That mission statement is what's written in our Tefillin. That mission statement is written on our Mezuzah's and that come, all of those come from our Torah.

The Torah now tells us here in our Talmud be very careful To be soft, soft like a reed so that it can produce the results that we want. With our children, the same thing is true. We need to ensure that our children, we deal with them in a loving, kind, patient, gentle way. If we're harsh with our children, it doesn't always bring the best results. In fact, in our generation it never brings the best results. Correct, doctor, correct. We need to ensure that we're delivering the message of the Almighty from the Almighty in the most gentle and beautiful way, and that's the thing we learn here in our Talmud, what Reb Elazar, the son of Rebbi Shimon learned from Elijah the prophet. What humbled him. Is that a person.

It's not enough for you to be passionate about your Judaism and you want to impart that passion to everybody you meet. It has to be done in a soft way, it has to be done in a pleasant way, and I just want to thank you all who are here with us today for joining us, because it's not our ordinary. Usually we're live in the TORCH Center, the magnificent TORCH Center. I'm currently here at the magnificent, beautiful Partners in Torah Center in New Jersey and they gave me a little office here to set up. But so I'm deeply grateful, and those of you who don't have a partner in Torah, I recommend you go visit partnersintorahorg and get a Torah partner, get a Torah someone to a Torah mate to learn with you and to study with you one on one.

It's free, it's a great program and hopefully we'll all merit to learn the Torah, to understand the Torah, to appreciate the Torah, to impart the Torah with a gentle beautifulness, as Hashem wants us to do. Deracheha Darchei Noam, Vechol Nesivoseha Shalom, every word of Torah is accepted when it's delivered with pleasantness. Hashem should bless us all that we should be. We should merit to deliver Hashem's Torah, hashem's word, to the entire Jewish people with the pleasantness, with a straightforward attitude that Hashem has in His Torah, but with a loving kindness, with a gentleness, and, god willing, we'll all merit to greet that Elijah the Prophet speedily in our days. We should merit to have Mashiach come in our days speedily Amen. You see, one of the things that we learn here is that it's important, it's crucial for us to know Torah and to learn Torah, but it's also crucial for us to present it in a proper way, and that's, I think, it's vital for our success as Jews to always have the right attitude in how we present things. Have a great Shabbos, everybody, thank you.