Everyday Judaism · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, director of TORCH, The Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

00:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
So welcome back everybody, welcome back to the Musseh Masterclass. It's so wonderful to see everyone, so I just want to give a short introduction before we start learning what we're learning, and tell you why we're learning what it is that we're learning. So during the weeks between Pesach, passover and Shavuot, we were focusing on the laws of good character, the laws of good Meadows, and then we continued with those laws in the Kitzr Shchonaruch and the Abridged Shchonaruch and we learned the next chapter, which is chapter 30, which talks about proper speech. Now we're going to continue to learn the laws in chapter 32, which talk about good health, taking care of our bodies. Now, why is this fall into the category of the Musseh Masterclass?

01:07
All of these things have a lot to do with Musseh, with the Musseh study, and that is, for a person to function properly spiritually, they also have to function properly physically. You can't separate the two. You can't say well, now I'm taking care of my body and now I'm taking care of my soul. You don't take care of your body, you don't take care of your soul, you don't take care of your soul, you're not taking care of your body. So it's like they go together in Judaism. But we do know and this is a small introduction to working on a healthy way of living that there are those who make their body everything in their life. It's all about how they look, it's all about their body and their health. That's good, but not onto its own end game. That's not the purpose of it all. That's not the purpose of life. The Greek Empire was all about physique how they looked and they had to be muscular and they had to be strong, but there was nothing spiritual connected to it. So, just as a short introduction, it's important for us to remember that throughout the entire process, our goal is not to be bodybuilders and to be obsessed with our physique. That's not the goal. The goal is to be healthy and, like everything else we've talked about till now, there must be balance. Too much diet is not good. No diet at all is not either good. A person has to be careful with what they eat. Doing exercise all day is not good. Doing no exercise at all is not either good. So there has to be a balance.

02:51
Just so that you know, I once went to see one of my rabbis and a meeting with him and during the meeting he said okay, meeting is over, I need to go now. I said, okay, I'll just walk out. He said, no, no, no, my trainer is here. And his trainer would come in. And I said, if you don't mind, I just want to take a look. And the trainer was telling him, okay, you have to do these reps and these reps, and they have to do that, you have to do this. And he was in his late sixties, early seventies. It has to work out. You've got to work out. You have to work your body. So if someone doesn't want to do weights and someone doesn't, okay, so go jog on the bayou. But a person needs to be healthy. That's our responsibility. God gives us one body and you have to be careful. We have to ensure that we maintain a good health.

03:48
So with that little short introduction, we're now going to begin chapter 32. In the kids, the church, in the abridged, along with the God given gift of the Lord, the Lord of the Rings, the Lord of the Rings, the Lord of the Rings, the Lord of the Rings, the Lord of the Rings, the Lord of the Rings, the Lord of the Rings. The Lord of which Adam fell in love, the Lord of the Rings. Both now share it. Personal hygiene and sleep habits are also addressed in this SEMIN, in this chapter, as they too, play an important role in one's overall well-being. So if a person eats well but doesn't sleep well, if a person sleeps well but doesn't have good mental health, all of it, they all have to work in synchronization with one another.

04:58
The medical advice here is consistent with accepted medical opinions of the 19th century and 20th century, when this work was authored. Clearly, nowadays, one should follow contemporary medical opinion when deciding on dietary and other issues regarding health and physical well-being. So we are going to see that there are a lot of things here that are going to be addressed that hopefully, will be able to give a little bit of focus on our own bodies, on our own health, to ensure that we hopefully live a very long, beautiful life filled with good health. How will the Yos HaGov Bore Vesheolim? Since maintaining a healthy and fit body is an attribute of godliness, for it is impossible to properly understand or gain any knowledge of the Creator if one is ill, if someone is sick in bed. They're not going to be able to face their challenges, they're not going to be able to face life properly. Therefore, it is incumbent upon every person to distance himself from anything that can cause harm to the body and to accustom himself to things that strengthen and restore health to the body. So just laying the groundwork, the obligation to maintain good health. This concept is reflected in the verse that states in Deuteronomy, chapter 4, verse 15. Be nishmartim le-od l'enafshosechim, you shall greatly beware of your soul. You should take good care to ensure your continued physical health and survival. This is our obligation. I don't think anybody needs to be convinced about good health. I think we all understand that.

06:55
Drinking too much of anything, too much beer, too much whiskey or bourbon or the like I think I mentioned this recently. A friend of mine owns a winery in Israel. So I asked him. I said do you like wine? He gave me the most beautiful answer. He said I like tasting wine. Most people think wine is about drinking wine. It's not about drinking wine, it's about tasting wine. You want to get that taste, because if you drink too much of it, what happens? You become drunk and irrelevant. The taste doesn't make a difference. You want to taste it, enjoy the taste and now continue with your day, not get drunk. So now the kids are proceeds to explain the function of food and how it is processed by the body.

07:44
Haborre boru hu baruch shamo the Creator. Blessed us, he, and blessed us His name, boru, as Adam created the human being and all living creatures and instilled in Him the natural heat, vizahu chayus shel ha'adam. And this is the source of life for every person, for if the natural fire were to be extinguished, his life would immediately cease. The sustenance of this heat is achieved through the food. So temperature, temperature of your body, we know this person can have hypothermia and die. Their body isn't warm enough. So what does the body do? The body needs food. It burns. The food generates this heat that is required for our survival. This is achieved through the food that a person consumes. This can be compared to the fire that continuously burns. Unless wood is constantly added, it will be completely extinguished. Cane or Adam Likewise, a human being, a person, if he does not eat, his inner fire will be extinguished and he will die.

09:04
When a person eats, the food is first ground between the teeth and mixes with saliva, and then broken down, partially digested to form a semi-liquid mess. So there's a very important thing we're going to see this soon that the halacha tells us that one should not swallow the saliva that comes when you smell food. You smell food and your mouth gets all watered up. That's the beginning of your digestive system. The beginning of your digestive system starts with that saliva, because that saliva gets onto the food and then it helps it get processed better in the body. From the mouth it descends to the stomach, where it is ground further and mixed with the fluids of the stomach and the gallbladder Bile. As the process continues, the food is broken down further and cooked by the heat and the gastric fluids and begins to be digested by the body, haborushabong. During digestion a portion of the food is selected and from that portion all the bodily organs receive their nourishment and sustain a person's life. The waste, the psolus, shihiamo soros, which is the excess portion of the food, is excreted from the body.

10:41
So this is basic things that we learn. We learn this in grade school. We have to understand something amazing. It is so easy for us to forget the miracle we live by every single moment. You realize if one of those vessels, one of those pipes, one of those organs has a malfunction, one, just one of them, hundreds in our body that have to work right, if just one doesn't work, the whole system is out. What an amazing gift that we have every single moment of our day to have a functioning body. This is the blessing that we pray every time we leave the restroom Asher Yotsar et Ha'adam bechokhma that God created mankind with incredible brilliance, uvarovonikavim nikavim.

11:41
And God created hollows, halulim halum and organs that are filled like the liver. It's not hollow, galuiv yadel, if nechis yechavidech, it is known. It is clear, before your holy throne, sh'im yeh patach echad mehem. If one of them will be opened, o'isatem ochad mehem, or one will be clogged, e'h epshar litkayem. We cannot sustain ourselves, we cannot exist. Apilush echad, not even one moment. Baruch hata ashem, rofechob asarm aflutas. Praise the U'ashem that heals all flesh and does wonders in our lives. What a beautiful blessing that every time we leave the restroom we don't take it for granted the incredible gift of a healthy body. And Ram Bam and the sh'ochonoruch here are giving us the basic reminder ununderstanding.

12:46
We knew this thing, you know, we know how this works. But to really get down to the depths of understanding it, when I took my EMT course a little bit over three years ago, when I started practicing, I remember being blown away and literally tears when I was learning about how the respiratory system works and how the heart and the lungs work so beautifully together to get the oxygen throughout the body to have perfusion. And you know, there's something called the alveoli where there's an exchange of the deoxygenated blood with oxygenated blood. With the blood comes there deoxygenated, that's the blue veins we see that's deoxygenated and it exchanges the deoxygenated with oxygenated blood and that's the ear we breathe in and out is the oxygen that's going to go into our bloodstream. And it's just an amazing thing. But how does that happen? How does that switch happen between the oxygenation and deoxygenation of the blood? And the person doing the narration of the book says we don't understand how this works. But it works.

14:17
Ma'fli la'asot, the wonders of God. Now we can give a hundred explanations, the wonders of how Hashem created our bodies so perfectly. It should not be taken for granted, not even for a moment. To live a life where we feel gratitude, where we feel appreciation for every single breath that we take, is living a rich life, is living the happiest, most beautiful life on earth. But, if heaven forbid, it's the opposite. Where we're living with a lack of recognition of these gifts, we're living in oblivion. It's a mindless life, it's a meaningless life because we have free. Free the opportunity to be ecstatic every day If all we did was take a minute to recognize the gifts that we have. But it's not only a gift, it's an obligation. It's an obligation once we realize how delicate our bodies are. We have to maintain a healthy body. That's our job and that's why it's brought down on the Halacha. Halacha is guiding us of what our obligations are, what we need to do and what we need to not do. And here the Halacha is guiding us what to do.

15:49
Another point that highlights the danger of overheating. A wise man stated Ha'ochel dover, muat midvarmam mazikim. One who eats even a small amount of harmful food does not cause as much damage to himself as one who eats too much healthy food. So let's say you eat something which is not really not healthy Jelly beans, jelly beans not healthy, but you know what? A little jelly beans wouldn't kill you. You know what would kill you? Eating too much of healthy food, over eating. A person who overeats, overflowing their system, is doing terrible damage to their body. So a person has to know to eat enough, and that's it. What are you talking about? It's organic. It's healthy. I pay twenty six dollars for this cereal in whole foods it's healthy. Eating too much of it it's not good. It's worse than eating those jelly beans. So this is a very important reminder. I'm sorry I skipped a paragraph here.

17:07
Ve'alzeo n'uomir bebirchas ashe yotsar. It is in reference to this set of purposes that we say the blessing of ashe yotsar. Lefeirush e'chod according to one interpretation, umafli la'asos and acts wondrously sh'nas an'akodesh borchu eshateva be'odom. In this blessing we are giving thanks to Hashem, who gave the natural ability to every person liver eshatov amachol, to allow his body to select the good portion of the food that he eats and remove the bad portions of the food, the bad parts. Ve'chol ev'r mosech elav mezonoharodley. Additionally, we are endowed with a wondrous system in which every organ can draw to itself its appropriate nourishment. Every organ gets exactly what it needs. One needs vitamin B and this. One needs vitamin E and this. One needs vitamin D and this one needs this and this one needs that. Every single part of the body gets the distribution of exactly what it needs. Ve'chol ev'r mosech elav mezonoharodley.

18:18
Ve'apsolos nitchalachuts, and the waste is excreted out of the body. Sh'im nisharapsolos besochoh. The function is particularly crucial to one's survival, for if any of the waste product remains inside the body, yis'apesh. It would rot ve'yavirde cho'olom and it will bring a person to great illness. Rachmanulitz'lam God forbid.

18:46
Therefore, it is evident that most of one's physical strength or weakness is dependent on the digestive process. If the food is digested easily and efficiently, then the person will remain healthy. However, if the digestive process is impaired, then the person's body will be weakened and he can come to grave danger God forbid. So if we eat the proper foods and we eat the proper quantities which we'll see in the next paragraph, we jumped and we eat the proper quantity, then a person has a chance of being healthy. If we eat the wrong quantities and the wrong foods, we're in great danger. Having stressed the importance of smooth digestive process, kitzer now explains how this is accomplished. Ha'ikul hatovhu.

19:46
The digestive process is most efficient if the amount of food eaten is not too great and it is easily digestible. So if you eat too much, the body is over. It's clogging up the system. It can't process that much. For if a person eats too much and the stomach is full, then the digestion is difficult. The reason for this difficulty is that, since the stomach is completely full, it cannot expand and contract in its normal fashion to grind up the food properly. There's too much food, vikamoa, eish. And just as the fire which, if it has too much wood added, it, will not burn well, so too excessive food in the stomach cannot be digested well. They're overflowing the system. It's going to burn it out. Be careful, b'lochayn, therefore.

20:48
Ha'odam asher rotz, al-ishmar, bryas aguf, a person who wishes to protect his physical health needs to be vigilant, to eat only a moderate amount. This amount can vary depending on one's metabolism, and it should not be too little, nor should one be completely satiated. So a person has to know the right balance of how much they, as an individual, needs to eat. Person eats too much, they're overflowing their system. Their body's not going to have room to expand properly and contrast properly, as necessary to grind up that food, because it's just overflowing with too much. Too much food. B'lochayn, therefore, a person who wishes to protect his physical health needs to be vigilant.

21:41
So this we said most illnesses that afflict man are caused only by consumption of harmful foods or because he fills his stomach and eats excessive amounts. The latter form of behavior is harmful even if one consumes food that are good for the body. Who shes shlomo amr bechach maso? This is what King Salman says in his great wisdom Shomar piv uleshonu, shomar mitzara snavshon. One who guards his mouth and tongue guards his soul from troubles, kolomar. This means to say, one who guards his mouth from eating something harmful, o melisba, or from eating until he is satiated Lleshonu melidaber, elo bechachov and guards his tongue from speaking more than necessary, refers to protecting his soul and ensures his survival. Another point which we mentioned previously, when we skipped. A wise man stated that one who eats a small amount of harmful food does not cause as much damage to himself as one who eats too much healthy food. So this again, as we previously mentioned a balance in what we eat and a balance in how much we eat.

23:05
Different people have different dietary needs and the needs vary depending upon their age. A person in his youth has a strong digestive system. Therefore, he requires food on a regular basis. Tell you about my daughter. She needs to eat constantly. I have strong digestive systems. They need to eat regularly. They need to be regularly fed on a regular basis, more than a middle-aged person requires. And the elderly person, due to his waning strength, requires light food in small quantities but high in quality nutritional value in order to strengthen him. So, depending on the person's age, on the person's strength strength of their body is how much and what they should eat.

23:58
Those of you who are familiar with Rabbi Laser Brody, so he's also a fitness coach and he's also a nutritional coach and he was at my house we celebrated his 74th birthday here at the Torch Center a few weeks ago and when he was at my house he did 100 push-ups my kids were watching of which many of them were done with one foot and one hand while the other hand was up in the air, and he did them in perfect form. And it's amazing because he has learned the perfect science of what his body needs. And when we were eating lunch, he says I need a cracker and a half. That's what he needed extra. That's it. Now he knows exactly that his body had enough. Before he flew, he knew exactly which food he needs. It's an amazing thing. Really is amazing to understand. He's a great Torah scholar but to understand the body to a point that he knows exactly what he needs to satiate himself enough to sustain himself properly and to be in good health.

25:25
Biyomachom nachloshim kliaikul minachom. During the warmer season, the digestive organs are weakened due to the heat. It's very interesting. When I was in Ukraine, we had come back from sports activities into the lunchroom. Now in the United States, when you come back from sports, they give you a cold drink. Not in the former Soviet Union. They give you warm tea. I was like this is the weirdest thing in the world. What are you giving us Warm tea? When it's a hot day and we're all sweating Because your body is hot, you drink cold. You'll be shocking your body. I never thought of that, but that's the truth, ve'alkenroi. Therefore, it is proper.

26:10
Sh'iyiash'i ura'akhi li b'yomai hachom, the amount of food that one eats in the warmer season should be less than in the colder season. Vishi'aru hachme'arofim. And in the opinion of the medical experts, in the summer a person should eat just two-thirds of what they would eat in the winter. So in the wintertime you should eat a third more than you eat in the summer. In the summer, a third less. K'al g'oddo bedakirufo'i.

26:46
A fundamental principle in the field of medicine is to precede a meal by exercise, through walking or other forms of physical labor. Achi ischameim gufo, until his body temperature rises, then afterward he should eat. Regarding this, it is written in the Torah vizayas apecha tochalechem. By the sweat of your brow, shall you eat bread? Why are you sweating? Because you warmed up your body. Now, tochalechem, now you can eat. Your body temperature is at the proper level. At the proper level, shinne'e'e'ne'emar.

27:24
Additionally, scripture states in Proverbs velechem atzlosloslochel, and one does not eat the bread of laziness, meaning if you didn't work out first, then you shouldn't eat. Before eating, one should loosen one's belt to allow for expansion of the stomach. So he brings a mnemonic here, a mnemonic device to remember this rule. It says ve'ekchah, pas lechem can be found in the verse in Genesis. It says I will fetch a morsel of bread. The word ekchah is a reverse acronym of haterchagura kodem akhila. Loosen the belt before eating. Pas lechem, rashiteves. And the words pas lechem, which means the morsel of bread, is the acronym of pen tavol, lidei chole me'ayim, lest you be afflicted of gastric illness. So before a person eats, they should loosen their belt a little bit so their stomach can expand.

28:30
Bu bishah sa'akhilo ye'she bimakomo. While eating, one should remain seated in his place or lean on his left side. Ve'achar'akhilo lo yisno'ehaharbe. After eating one should not be very active. Ki al'idei ze'yere'hamaachal mene'it stomka because this type of movement will cause the food to descend from the stomach Terim shisakil, before it is properly digested, ve'yaziklo, and it will cause him harm. Rather, he should walk a short distance and then rest. Additionally, one should not go on a long walk, nor should one exert himself after a meal. So after a meal you should relax your body, take a little walk, a little stroll, and then relax. Ve'lo, yishan'achar'akhilo, achteh shawse. And one should not go to sleep after a meal until two hours have passed, so that the vapors from the digesting food does not rise to the brain and harm him.

29:40
Ever knew that? That's why we have alakhah. This is Torah. Similarly, attending the bathhouse, letting blood and engaging marital relations should be avoided immediately after a meal, which is when they are detrimental to one's health. So we see that there is more than just making sure that our digestive system works properly. There's a lot that goes on in our body.

30:08
My rabbi once told me that he heard unbelievable noises coming from his stomach. So he went to a doctor. So I don't know what this is. I hear these unbelievable sounds. It sounds like a compactor. He says what is this? So he went to ask his rabbi. His rabbi said did you ever hear the noise of a compactor smashing garbage and things like that. He says that's what your body is doing, because usually we can't hear it. But Hashem is giving you a clue into what's really going on in your body and take an opportunity to appreciate the amazing wonders of our body. Bnei adham anam, shavim bimizgam.

30:58
Another factor to consider when choosing foods is that no two people share the same constitution. Every person is different. Every person is unique. There are those who have a warm constitution and there are others who have a cold constitution. Sometimes you feel people's hands. They have warm hands. Sometimes people's hands are very cold. Sometimes people have dry hands. Sometimes people have very damp and sweaty hands Yeishmi shemizgomimutsa. And there are others who have moderate constitution. Ba'amaaholim gamken meshunim.

31:37
Just as the people are not the same, foods also differ. It is important that each individual choose a diet that creates a balance between his body and the food he eats. It's not one size fits all with food and, by the way, it's not one size fits all spiritually. You shouldn't say no one should ever tell you oh well, they're going to synagogue every day. Why aren't you going to synagogue every day? Everyone has to take their own size step. Everyone has to grow. Everyone has to make sure they're on the ladder of growth. But just because it's right for someone else at this time in their life doesn't mean it's right for someone else at this time of their life.

32:27
I'll give you an example. You know, I was once talking to a rabbi about someone who had come asking a question, a newly married man. The rabbi said to me he says I'm not sure he understands that when you're newly wed and you have little children at home, you're sometimes going to have to forgo davening and truul Praying in synagogue. Take care of your children to help your wife. That's your number one priority. That's what Hashem wants you to do. He didn't think that this individual understood that. What? What are you talking about? We just learned in Halachah. We're learning this in our Living Jewishly podcast. We're learning about the importance of praying with a minion with a quorum of ten adults. What are you talking about? Telling him to pray at home? Well, there's a time and place for everything. At this time and place of his life, he needs to know that his obligation is to his family. So that's an example.

33:36
There's no cookie cutter and Judaism. There's no one size fits all. Our bodies are all unique and different and our spiritual capabilities are also unique and different and no two people are the same. Just because someone else is successful with a certain diet, doesn't mean that you will be. And don't feel depressed, and don't feel upset that hey, how come it's not working for me. It's working for them, for their body type, for their build, for their age, for their metabolism, for their multitude of other dimensions. It's right for them. For you, you need something different.

34:18
Perhaps Someone who has a moderate constitution should eat foods that are also of a moderate nature. However, one who does not have a moderate constitution should eat foods that are slightly opposed to his constitution. The proper balance is achieved as follows One who has a warm constitution should not eat hot or spicy foods that cause the body temperature to rise, such as spices and fragrant herbs. Rather, he should eat foods that have a cooling effect on the body, and some pickled foods as well. One who has a cold constitution should eat hot and spicy foods that have a warming effect on the body. You didn't think the rabbis were going to talk about this, did you no? Similarly, the food intake should be adjusted according to the season and one's location. During the summer, one should eat foods that have a cooling effect on the body, such as the meat of lambs, tender goats, young chickens and also some pickled foods. During the colder season, one should eat foods that warm the body. Similarly, in a cold land, one should eat foods that warm the body, and in a warm land one should consume foods that cool the body. So we're seeing here that it also depends on where a person is located. One needs to make sure that they are in balance.

36:03
Ha-ma-chol-ha-mem-mutsa, the most moderate food is bread made from wheat, but not from the highly refined flowers, because fine flour requires too much time for digestion. Rather, the flour should contain a small amount of bran, which facilitates digestion, and the bread should be moderately fermented. In addition, it should contain salt and be baked in an oven. So an interesting thing that we have whenever we eat bread. We're supposed to dip our bread in salt. Three times. We dip our khala in salt. Why do we dip it? So here we see it helps with the digestion. But there's another reason. Our sages tell us, on a Kabbalistic spiritual sense, that salt is a preservative, and what we're saying is that this food represents our relationship with God, and we want our relationship to forever be preserved with the Almighty. So we dip our bread into salt.

37:25
Any other foods that are wheat products are not good for the body, are not good for the body. There are certain types of meats that are good for the body. This includes meats of a lamb in its first year, suckling goats. However, any types of intestinal meat, as well as meat of the head, are not good for the body. How easy in Vahapara has Kena. Additionally, the meats of goats and cows in their later years and aged cheese are all heavy foods and are harmful to the body. Never do this. Any type of poultry is more easily digested than meat of an animal. However, the best type of poultry is the hen.

38:17
A final remark about unhealthy foods. Doctors say because the foods that one is accustomed to will not harm him, even if it is a harmful type of food, because habit eventually becomes one's nature. However, one is immune to the effects of such food only as long as he does not fill his stomach with it too much. So there is something I'm going to say now that's going to be quite controversial. It is funny, but nonetheless it's still. I don't endorse it. I myself don't endorse it.

39:02
My father smoked for 38 years and we, as children, drove him crazy to stop and finally he stopped After 38 years. I can't even tell you how many packs of cigarettes I crushed. I'd find my father's cigarettes and I'd crush the cigarettes and my father's like where are my cigarettes? I'm like you know, and my father would go buy another pack of cigarettes and it was a struggle. My father realized finally what we were doing and obviously we're concerned. Children want our father to be healthy. Finally, my father went to some treatment in Israel.

39:43
Some guy in his house had some stones, some stuff. He says to my father before he came he says you have to come with a full pack, an unopened pack of cigarettes. You have to come with I think it was mint gum or something. You have to come with a set of new clothes and a few other things. My father comes there and he says, okay, you're all ready. He's all ready. Where are the clothes? The clothes are over there. Okay, take it out of the room. He says, okay, take the gum, keep the gum there. He says you can go outside now and smoke your last cigarette.

40:24
My father goes outside and he says if you need 10, smoke 10. He says take it out of the room. He says, okay, close your eyes. He does some heat-gbg stuff with these stones and putting it in his hand, hold it like this, hold it like that. And suddenly my father's like what's that smell? It's a terrible smell. He starts smelling his clothes. It's a terrible smell. He starts taking off his clothes. That was it. Never smoked a cigarette.

40:53
After that, a few years after that, my father had his first open heart surgery and a few years after that he had his second open heart surgery. And whenever my father sees people smoking, he tells them don't stop smoking. He says my health went downhill when I stopped smoking. So I know it's not popular, but this is what. Perhaps what the whole lot is saying here is that your body sometimes gets used to it and can handle it and when you stop, the body now goes out of whack and it's not trained for that. He did not go back to smoking, but whenever he sees people smoking he says guys, enjoy it, Enjoy it, don't stop. So again, I'm not endorsing that. Not one bit of it. No one in my family smokes. We're nine children. Not a single one of us smoke or use any other types of external sources of nicotine or the like. But I think it's important for us to realize that the body is a very, very strong and powerful adapter and when, if the body is in a rhythm of how it lives its life and how it maintains itself, that could be the right thing for it.

42:20
Certain behaviors are mentioned in the Talmud as having the power to cause memory loss. Eating the following foods fall under this category. One should not eat the heart of an animal or bird, because it causes memory loss. Similarly, one should not eat any food from which a mouse or a cat has eaten. So if you have food, you open up a can of tuna and your cat nibbled on it, give it to the cat, let them eat the rest of it. Don't eat it, digam kain kaushalashikra, because this, too, causes memory loss. Now there are other things that cause memory loss that we have to be concerned about, like a man walking between two women or a woman walking between two men. The halacha says that a man should not walk between two women because it brings a person. It causes memory loss, and the same thing with the woman walking between two men. I don't know why, but this is what the Talmud says. You don't want to argue with the Talmud, because the Talmud is always right.

43:33
Zmanah khila, when do we eat? What's the proper time for eating? The proper time for eating is when one feels a true need to eat, lozara, not an artificial desire. If he's not really hungry, he shouldn't eat. I'll tell you that right now I'm in the middle of doing intermittent fasting, so I do 18 hours and 6 hours, 18 hours and 6 hours. So I'm already in my fast from 7 o'clock this evening until 1 o'clock tomorrow afternoon and I only drink black coffee or water in between. But that's it, and at first I thought it'd be impossible. And some days it's very, very easy, not a problem, and some days it's difficult a little bit. At the end it's just another 45 minutes, not a big deal, just get busy. And if one is busy then a mind doesn't need to. But there are some people who feel like they need to eat because it's just the hour of the day that they eat, but not because they're hungry.

44:41
The most important thing is like this the honest truth is I should not be eating at night ever, right? Well, it says within 2 hours. And the Talmud says, the Rambam says 4 hours. If you eat meat, you should not sleep within 4 hours of eating the meat. So, either way. Eating after 7 o'clock is not a good idea. So that's a good way for me to stop eating. But also, I really don't eat much in the morning. I usually don't eat till 1, 2.

45:09
Like this, I have a structure to my day and I know that at 1 o'clock that's when my eating time is. 1 o'clock to 7 o'clock, that's it. It's just to structure my day a little bit easierly and to make it more doable and to hopefully lose some weight as well and to be healthier, stronger. So that's really that. I'm not doing it because it's a hobby. No, but wait. I have a road trip in a few weeks to New York. We'll see how that works. I'll be driving throughout the night. I don't think I'm going to survive not munching on something, alright. So what's the proper time to eat?

45:46
The way to distinguish between a true need to eat and an artificial craving is as follows. The first feeling that is mentioned above is called hunger, which is a result of an empty stomach. The latter, the one which we said is just an artificial desire for food, is identified by the urge to eat a specific food, and this is called a craving. There's a difference between hunger and a craving. Generally speaking, a strong and healthy person should eat a meal twice a day. However, those of a weaker constitution and the elderly should eat only a small amount at a time and they should eat several times a day to ensure that they are getting the nourishment they need, because excessive amounts of foods weakens the stomach. How many times do we say that? About five times already. An excessive amount of food only does damage One who wishes to protect his health. Low-yolkhal should not eat until his stomach has emptied itself from the food from the previous meal. So when your stomach is empty from the previous food, that's when you can start eating. In order to adhere to this suggestion, one must be aware of when his stomach is in fact empty.

47:10
The normal digestive process of healthy people who eat foods in a moderate nature and exercise moderately takes approximately six hours. It is recommended that one skip one meal a week so that the stomach may be given a respite from its activity and reinvigorate its digestive powers. It appears to this author that a good time to skip a meal would be on Erev Shabbos on Friday, why If you eat breakfast on Friday, you don't eat till Shabbos. You come into Shabbos with an appetite. That's a good meal to miss. So you come to Shabbos if you eat breakfast.

48:02
Tov lahargil asatsmo, one should accustom themselves lechol paspesachras to eat bread every morning. Pascheachras, this is a halacha, to eat bread every morning. Now it's very interesting that in Yeshiva they always have bread. In Yeshiva, in the morning, we always had bread. But no one wants to eat breakfast. For some reason. Yeshiva students will eat any time of the day except breakfast. I remember one said he says you know why? Because it's a mitzvah to eat. So you're Yetzahara pushes and says no, I don't want to eat. When there's a mitzvah to eat, don't come, I'm not hungry. When there's no mitzvah to eat, we're ready to eat any time, any place. So remember that it's a special mitzvah to eat bread every morning.

48:56
Another factor to consider during the meal is that certain foods should be eaten in specific sequence, and here the kitsar describes how this is achieved. One who wishes to eat a variety of foods should begin with a type of foods that loosen the bowels. However, these foods should not be eaten together with the rest of the meal. Rather, one should wait briefly between the two courses. Similarly, when eating different foods, one should always eat the lighter food first, because it is more easily digested than, for example, poultry, should proceed. The consumption of animal meat and the meat of small animals should precede the meat of large animals. Things that cause the intestines to exert themselves should be eaten right at the end of the meal, and one should not eat too much of these foods. I think that's bing number six. We have to do a bell.

49:58
How many times the halacha tells us not to eat too much, since the digestive process begins in the mouth when the teeth grind up the food and it is mixed with saliva? Therefore, one should not swallow any food without chewing it first, for if the food is not properly chewed, then the stomach is burdened with accomplishing all of the digestion itself. So it's important to make sure we eat slowly. First is you'll enjoy the food more when you eat slowly. Also one of the things Rabbi Brody told me when he was here. He said that the amount of time that it takes for our body to feel satiated and full is 20 minutes. So when you chew your food better, you'll end up eating less because you'll feel fuller sooner. Great piece of wisdom there.

51:01
All right, my dear friends, go eat. Don't eat too much and don't eat too late. That's too late to eat. Just another important thing. We'll learn this that the halacha says that one goes to sleep. They should sleep on their left side because that's where the digestion is and your body is still going to be digesting the food while you sleep and therefore you have to be careful to ensure that you maintain good health. I think the biggest problem I don't know about you, but I'll tell you what I was at Minute Maid Park last week and I can tell you America has a big problem with overeating, serious problem with overeating. It's not even funny.