Does Hashem Really Care?

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Hi, this is David Wolpe with that question and answer series, where in a few minutes we try to answer readers' questions. A young man from a firm home who went OTD off the derech confronted me with two complaints about halakha. The detailed halakhas of hashkamas haboker and hilchos beis hakisei. And he said, "Does Hashem really care?" So, this is a very important point. And uh it applies to every area of Judaism. One of my kids was making a brakha and I said, "When you make a brakha, you should really hold it in your right hand." There was a Jewish person there who didn't have a positive attitude and said, "What difference does it make? Who cares?" I said, "Because if there weren't any details, I wouldn't keep this. You know why? Because it's just make-believe. Either Judaism makes a difference or it doesn't make a difference. People say, "Oh, come on, on Pesach, does it really matter how much matzah I eat or how much wine I drink?" And the answer is, "Yes. Yes, it does. Because if you tell me I have a mitzvah to eat, then there has to be a definition of what eating is. Otherwise, it's nibbling. And when you say there's something that's called drinking, there's a difference between called drinking and called sipping. There has to be a difference. And if you don't have definitions, then it's just because the whole thing is just a joke and who cares?

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00Hi, this is David Wolpe with that question and answer series, where in a few minutes…
2. 0:30Judaism. One of my kids was making a brakha and I said, "When you make a…
3. 1:00matter how much matzah I eat or how much wine I drink?" And the answer is,…
4. 1:31Why should I keep anything? But if in fact Bereishit bara Elohim es hashamayim ve'es ha'aretz,…
5. 2:01And just like if you fall off of a building, you're going to die. And just…
6. 2:31than anything else, bother you. Every single law is the same thing. Either it's real or…
7. 3:02do when we get up in the morning that sets in motion our day has significance.…
8. 3:33So, a lot of people are going through uh the motions of spirituality without knowing exactly…

Every second of this shiur plays inside Lehallel — a filtered YouTube library of Torah, music and shiurim. No ads, no comments, no autoplay.