Thinking Talmudist Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Thinking Talmudist Podcast.

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Good afternoon. It's so wonderful to be here this beautiful Friday afternoon here in Houston, texas. Welcome back to the Thinking Talmudist. We're going to now continue the Talmud.

00:26
If you remember, from a few weeks ago, we talked about Rebbe Lazar, the son of Rebbe Shimon. He was a marshal and he found someone guilty and he had to execute him. So, despite this, the Talmud says, rebbe Lazar, the son of Rebbe Shimon, did not wish to rely upon his own reasoning to absolve him of any guilt. Meaning despite, you know. Imagine the following Imagine you follow the law, you did what you needed to do, but it doesn't mean you're not a human and have a feeling. Meaning a police officer. They have laws, they have rules. He needs to follow them. He does and he needs to like, for example, if someone and this happens in real life, sadly but if someone does execution by cop, right. So they tell him put down the weapon, put down the weapon, put down the weapon. And he still comes at the police, right, they have to shoot him and then they kill him. He did the right thing, right, the cop did the right thing, but does that mean he could sleep at night? No, he deals with a lot of PTSD. Right, doctor, they come to you. Right? He deals with a lot of psychiatric issues because even though he did the right thing, just because he did the right thing doesn't mean that you're absolved of all emotion and perhaps of all guilt. Maybe, maybe there is a little bit of guilt and here, in this case, rabbi Loza, the son of Rabbi Shimon, felt that maybe his own reasoning wasn't sufficient to absolve himself of any guilt. Thus he accepted upon himself suffering physical suffering.

02:13
Reb Elazer, the son of Rebbe Shimon, was stricken severely with illness. The Gemara details the effects of his illness and its treatment, of his illness and its treatment. Be'urta havi mayechei leh. At night he would fold beneath him shisin namti, 60 layers of felt l'tzafra nagdi mitusei, and in the morning he would draw from under him shisin mishiklei dama v'chiba, 60 basins full of blood and pus. The next day his wife prepared for him 60 kinds of lifta it's a food made of figs and he ate them and was recovered. I don't know what illness he had, but whatever illness he had, apparently he was dripping blood the entire night. Then his wife gave him this potion of figs and he was healed. He recovered. V'lohavis shofko leh debisu.

03:32
Also, his wife would not permit him, lemeifak lebeimid rasha, to go out to the house of study, ki heichid iloi leit chikuhu rabbonon, so that the rabbis would not press him. Each night, reb Eliezer, the son of Reb Shimon, would address them, talking to his aches and pains, and he would say Boyu, my brothers and friends come and afflict me, b'tzafra, amar Lahu. In the mornings he would tell them Zilu mitnei bitotar, go away. You afflictions, you pain, you aches. Go away because of the disruption of Torah study that you're causing me. Meaning, he would have this conversation with his aches and pains, with his afflictions, and tell him you have to go away now because you're causing me, you're disrupting my Torah study. One day his wife heard him invite his afflictions and Amrele. She said to him you are bringing them upon yourself. What's wrong with you? Why are you bringing this pain upon yourself? You have squandered the money of my father's house. You have squandered the money of my father's house. She rebelled, leaving the home. She was so upset and she went to her father's house.

05:20
Afterwards, a certain group of 60 sailors came up from the sea and came to Rebbe Lazar, the son of Reb Shimon's home. They brought him 60 slaves from the sea and came to Rebbe Lazar, the son of Reb Shimon's home, aylu le shisin avdeh. They brought him 60 slaves, kinokiti shisin arniki who were holding 60 pouches of money, 60 money bags, ve'avdu le shisin, mine lifto, and they were preparing for him 60 kinds of lifto. You remember lifto was the food that she served him, of the fig potion that healed him, and he ate them. One day his wife said to her daughter Go find out about your father, go inquire what's happening with him, what's been going on with him, how's he doing today? She came to her father. He said to her Go tell your mother, ours is greater than theirs. What was that? Referring to Our wealth that we have exceeds the wealth of your father. Okay, the husband and wife right. She left because she felt that he was squandering her father's money. He says we have more money than your father has, don't worry about it. Anach shalonu gadol mishalahem, ours is greater than theirs. Kari a nafshei.

06:45
Rebbe Lozer, the son of Rebbe Shimon, quoted the following verse about himself Ho Yisokah Ni Yisoychem Merchak Tov Ilachmo. She, the Torah, is like a merchant's ship. From afar she brings her sustenance. And that's a verse from Proverbs. We know we sing that every Friday night in E in Esh Eschael. So the Gemara now continues.

07:07
He ate, he drank and he gained back his strength. He went out one day to the study hall. He was healed and went back, since his wife was not there to restrain him from going. They brought before him 60 different samples of blood and he declared them all Tahar. Now what does it mean?

07:32
Regarding this, we know that a woman, when she menstruates, when a woman is married and she menstruates and she has her ordinary monthly cycle, so that's a time that a husband and wife cannot be together intimately. They're together in the same home. They sleep in separate beds. It's a whole different discussion we can get into another time. It's not the topic right here. But either way, if a woman has a during her seven clean days before she can return to her husband, she has to examine to ensure that there's no remnants of blood and if there is a doubt, she has to bring it to a rabbi who has training in this so that he can determine whether or not this blood her husband can bring it. There's ways to do it that nobody knows who's asking the question and there are many, many congregations that have a system so that the question is answered without there being any privacy issues for those wondering out there, but that cloth, the examination cloth, needs to be inspected.

08:39
I personally have been trained with this. Many years of training from my rabbi have seen thousands of samples of unknowing exactly what color is considered to be the color of blood that makes a woman Tame impure. In this sense and you have to know, it's a training it's a training, a training. It's a training. It's just like we said that there were things that Moses was taught by God at Mount Sinai. For example, regarding the offerings that were brought in the temple, adam and Moses should know exactly what animal, what's done with it, whether it's a peace offering, whether it's an Ola, whether it's a sin offering.

09:29
All of these different offerings had different ways in which they were brought as an offering and each one had a rectification, as we're going to see this week in our upcoming prayer podcast on Tuesday morning. We're going to see exactly how each one of the offerings that were brought was a correction for a certain connection that someone needed to correct in their relationship with God. What was a burnt offering, for example? The burnt offering, the whole entire offering was burnt. What was that? That was a person's complete devotion to God. I need full devotion. One was a physical elevation. I need to purify and holy make myself I like the word holify right To make yourself holy, your physical experience holy. And those are people who would eat from the offerings. Part of the offering was burnt, part of it was eaten and it had to be in absolute purity. They couldn't be impure in the least bit. They had to go to the mikvah first, the ritual bath. They had to be absolutely pure because you need to elevate the physical. This is all an incredible learning, incredible teaching.

10:41
But where do we get it from? We get it. Moses got it from Mount Sinai. This is something. If I tell you blue, how do you know blue? Because your teacher told you blue, red, green, you or your parents taught you blue, red, all the different colors. If someone doesn't tell you that you don't know that red is red, you think you look at the color red, you see blue. No, it's not blue, it's red. That means that's something that needs to go in what we call misora, which is a transmission, that's, parent to child or generation to generation.

11:11
How do we know what, the color of something that makes someone tame, someone impure this color. What do I tell you? Red? Well, what's red? You see so many things that are red. Is that the real red? Is that the color red? There's millions of shades of red.

11:27
How does someone know? That has to be taught and that was taught from God to Moses at Mount Sinai and Moses shared that all the way to me, learning it from my rabbi, who got it from his rabbi, got it from his rabbi, got it from his rabbi all the way 131 generations, of rabbi to student, rabbi to student Till us learning here at the Tor Center. So, either way, he was shown 60 samples and he declared them all to her. They were all permissible, they were all fine. That means that the woman can continue her seven clean days, hopefully reaching the end of the seven clean days, and then she can return to her husband after going to the mikvah. Havakha meranenei, rabbonin ve'amri.

12:13
The rabbis murmured against him and said salka daytoch. Do you really think that leis behuchat sofeg, that even one of these 60 examples was even a doubtful case? Are you so confident? And over here the commentary says that it would be highly unusual from a statistical standpoint that a hundred percent of them were okay. It was more likely.

12:38
The rabbis insinuated that Rebbe Lazar, the son of Rebbe Shimon, had erred to some extent. Maybe he made an error. Now, rebbe Lazar, the son of Rebbe Shimon, told them that the children resulting from his rulings should reflect the true halachic status of the blood samples, meaning if the samples were indeed all tahor, then only males, who can never become nidas, would be born. If, however, one of the samples was a doubtful case, as they claimed, then one of the samples was a doubtful case, as they claimed, then one of the children born would be a girl, who could potentially become a nida, because that would be the regular function of her body. So let's see what happened. Amr al-Lahu, see, he said you're doubting me. You're doubting me right. If I was correct, they'll all be boys, 60 boys If not. Whoever there'll be a girl, you'll know that I made a mistake. What happened? Rabbi Lozer, the son of Rabbi Shimon, said to them If the situation is as I say, let the women all conceive tonight and let their babies all be boys, ve'im lav, and if not, te'hein nekei v'achas b'nei hem, let there be one girl amongst them. What happened? Hayu kulam z'charem, they all conceived that night and all the babies were all boys, ve'asiku lehu. Reb Elazar alshmei, and they all named each of their children Reb Elazar after him. Okay, they all named their children after him, okay.

14:21
So we're going to stop here. We're going to continue next week. We're going to continue more about this conversation and this story of Rebbe Loza Bar-Ram Shimon, till next week. My dear friends, have a magnificent Shabbos. I look forward to continuing our learning for many, many, many more years, healthy years, fruitful, beautiful years, filled with good deeds, with good accomplishments, god willing, and in absolute good health. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos. Thank you so much. I'm just going to add my own personal story to this. Okay, when my wife and I found out you're asking, how was it that his prayers were answered that all of the 60 babies were boys.

15:04
So when my wife and I found out that she was pregnant with our first child, we went, we got into a cab and we went to the Western Wall. We were living in Jerusalem at the time and I said to Hashem I said first thank you so much. This is such an unbelievable blessing. I said there's one mitzvah that I can only observe one time in my life, and that's the mitzvah that I can only observe one time in my life, and that's the mitzvah of Pidyon HaBen, of redeeming the firstborn. Can you please give me the firstborn to be a boy so I can fulfill this mitzvah. And sure enough, nine months later, a baby boy was born. Ten months later, he was two and a half weeks overdue. He was born a baby boy. And I was so grateful and so thankful to Hashem that I was able to do this mitzvah of Pidyun HaBen. Then, when my wife was pregnant with our second child, we went back to the Western Wall and, of course, we thanked Hashem again for giving us this tremendous privilege of bringing another child into this world. And I said, hashem, last time you gave me the boy just like I asked. You can do whatever you want now Give me a boy, give me a girl, whatever you want your call, but I'm so grateful and he gave me a magnificent girl as well, so grateful.

16:21
But Hashem listens to 100% of our prayers. My daughter and I were having a conversation yesterday and she says how come people like to do this thing where they tell children God's gonna answer your prayers? As if God is going to answer your prayers exactly the way you want it. God does answer 100% of our prayers. That's true, but it's not always gonna be the way you expect it. You know, sometimes we think, oh, I'm going to ask for this job, I'm going to get that job, I'm going to ask for this deal, I'm going to get this deal. No, Hashem is going to give you what's best for you. And sometimes it's not what you ask for Sometimes. But Hashem answers 100% of your prayers. It says Ein Tfilason, choseres Recham.

17:08
There's not a single prayer that comes back empty. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes you ask God, god, I want to win the lottery. God says no, that's it no. God says no, this is not your time, this is not your place. Maybe another time, but this is no. That doesn't mean that God didn't answer your prayers. He answered, but you don't like the answer. Okay, that's fine. That means you have to know that the answer is always going. There's always an answer. And sometimes Hashem says just wait and see, I got you covered, don't worry, it's going to come out better. And if you look back at life, you see that the majority of times you see how good God made it, a thousand times better than you expected. So, my dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos. Thank you.

17:45 - Intro (Announcement)
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