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Pay attention to this.
It's not automatic that you'll see it.
But if you start paying attention,
that's the real calling of the מסילת ישרים to start paying attention.
You'll see if you pay attention בהווה ברוב העולם what happens in most of
the world.
There are exceptional people,
but what happens mostly in the world,
כי ברוב אנשי השכל המהיר והפיקחים החריפים ישימו רוב התבוננם והסתכלותם בדקות החכמות ועומק
העיונים.
The majority of people who are intelligent,
they're quick,
they're insightful,
they're sharp,
they place the majority of their עיון thinking and their paying attention to what's
going on in the world to matters which are very refined and have a
lot of depth.
איש איש כפי נטיית שכלו וחשקו הטבעי.
Every person follows his mind and his inner desire.
Just in brackets,
in parentheses,
you see here that there's a concept of wherever a person's heart is,
that's where he should follow.
חז"ל tell us that אין אדם לומד תורה אלא במקום שלבו חפץ.
A person learns Torah in the place where his heart desires.
Now,
you can try and force a child,
a תלמיד,
to learn in an area which he doesn't resound with,
but it's not going to last long-term.
He'll feel uncomfortable,
he'll feel out of place,
he'll feel not happy.
Eventually,
a person will either break out of that and find what he does want
to learn,
or he'll break up that and stop learning.
But you can't long-term force people to learn a way that's not natural to
them.
חשקו הטבעי.
ויש שיתרחו מאוד במחקר הבריאה.
There are some people who are interested in science,
they look into the world,
טבע,
the way the world works.
אחרים יתנו כל עיונם לתכונה והנדסה.
Some people,
they're more interested in engineering,
building.
ואחרים למלאכות.
Some people are more hands-on,
they like the more practical aspect of the world.
אחרים יכנסו יותר על הקודש.
And some people,
they enter the holy wisdoms,
לימוד תורה קדושה.
And even within Torah,
it's not that you have to be an expert in every area.
Even here,
a person has areas which he's naturally inclined towards.
And a person finds a calling for הלכה,
פלפול הלכה.
Other person finds a calling for מדרש.
Another person finds a calling for פסק הלכה.
And those are all valid,
different options that a person will naturally as he grows in Torah and as
he develops himself,
he'll find himself having more of an interest in and a calling for.
אך מעטים יהיו מן הזן הזה.
But there are very few people of the type אשר יקבעו עיון ולימוד who
investigate and learn about ענייני שלמות העבודה.
Now he uses the word שלמות בדוקא because there are many people who learn
about עבודה.
There are many people who will take out time for a מוסר סדר.
There are many people who will learn the commentary of the רמב"ם as they're
going through the עיקרי אמונה.
There are many people who hear שיעורים by rabbis who are talking about what
you need to improve in.
So talking about אמונה,
עבודה,
there are many people who do that.
But שלמות העבודה,
which means that it's a constant growth of being the best that you could
be in all areas of closeness to השם,
in a way of שלמות.
There are very,
very few people who even contemplate that matter.
Most people who care about עבודה,
they're satisfied with the fact they're doing something which is worthwhile.
And then I'll say something more.
Many people are satisfied with the fact they thought about doing something more.
The way it works is like this.
It's a sad occurrence,
but it's what often happens.
A person says,
עבודת השם is important to me.
I want to do more than I'm doing now.
I'm going to listen to a שיעור of a רבי who's talking about עבודת
השם on a higher level.
And they do.
They listen to the שיעור.
And in the שיעור,
the רבי is saying how to take your עבודת השם to a higher level.
And they say,
oh,
I listened to the שיעור.
I did it.
I did it.
I took that step.
I said it's important to me,
and I listened to the שיעור that the רבי spoke about taking yourself to
a higher level.
And they answered that need.
That need of pushing an עבודת השם and reaching a higher level.
They answered just by the fact that they've learned a bit more about it,
heard about the idea.
And then once the need has been met,
it's like if you're very,
very hungry,
so you eat something.
So maybe you ate junk food just because that was what was most easily
accessible.
Your body hasn't got the nutrients that it needs.
It's not fully satiating in a healthy way,
but you feel satisfied.
You've had the junk food,
now so you don't go and eat the healthy food.
But that wasn't really answering the call.
ולהבדיל,
different example.
If a person has a calling for רוחניות and he's being called by הקדוש
ברוך הוא,
there's a קריאה קדושה,
he's being called to be a better עבד השם.
And he answers it by watching a movie.
Now not a non-frum movie,
a frum movie.
But he watches a movie,
and in that movie,
there's a story of someone who was חוזר בתשובה.
It's a great story,
the type that you spend all day watching תשעה באב.
It's a story about someone who was חוזר בתשובה,
and he feels like,
wow,
that person,
he came close to השם.
amazing,
and then he feels his need was met.
Like I heard a story about someone who was חוזר בתשובה,
wow.
But it's not answering your need.
Your need is the inner נשמה calling for שלמות עבודה.
So the מסילת ישרים is saying that even people who do learn a little
bit about מוסר ועבודת השם,
but there's a different לימוד that we're asking for.
We're asking for a לימוד that you see it all the way through to
the end,
that it actually makes a difference in your life and your עבודת השם that
you're taking to a step of שלמות,
where you come to be an עבד השם in the full way which never
ends.
Because every time,
we were on a טיול last year,
הר שלמה.
You were on הר שלמה?
It was intense,
right?
Now,
the הר שלמה,
the way it works is that from the beginning you can see the end.
That's the end,
you can see it there.
So you're like okay,
just from here till there,
I can see the end.
So you're walking and walking and it's tiring and you're sweating and it's hot
and then you get to the end,
oh,
we've got it.
As you get to the top,
there's a new higher point.
Oh my gosh,
that was,
I thought this was the high point.
But okay,
it's still within sight,
I can handle it.
So okay,
it's just till there,
I can manage it.
But that's the end,
good,
that's the end,
good.
The tour guide's way ahead,
you know,
we're here.
So you're walking and you're walking and walking and walking,
you're finally sweating and hot and tiring but you get to the top.
I've got the top and then that's also not the end.
There were at least five times on הר שלמה where we thought we'd got
to the end and we'd reached the highest point and as we got there,
you couldn't see it from the beginning,
but there's another high point.
עבודת השם,
it's not enough that you say I've set myself some target and I'm going
to work towards that and then I've reached my plateau and for the rest
of my life that's my level.
And I'm sad to say this but that often happens in ישיבה.
A person in ישיבה is building and he's working and he's learning הלכה and
he's taking on things and maybe it lasts a little bit after ישיבה,
for a little period of time where you're still inspired.
But then he gets to a certain place where he says,
not consciously,
but he says,
this is my level,
I've arrived,
I've arrived.
And you see the בעלי בתים who they have certain הנהגות which are good
הנהגות which they picked up when they were 20 years old.
But what what's changed in their development in עבודת השם between age let's say
25 and 65?
Like what's changed?
So as far as דאוונינג they keep דאוונינג,
and as far as putting on תפילין and as far as learning they keep
on going and learning,
but how have they grown in עבודת השם in the sense of like they've
taken on new things,
they've understood new עבודת השם points they want to take,
their יראת שמים to a higher level?
I'm sorry to say this but there are many people who don't do that.
There are people who do,
חס ושלום.
אלול is a time to be a סניגור,
to be a defense lawyer on behalf of עם ישראל and follow the way
of רב לוי יצחק,
but I'm giving it as just a warning for us.
In fact,
Rabbi Saied he said this,
he said this last night,
the Rabbi who was singing last night,
he said that what you build in ישיבה,
that becomes your starting point for the rest of your life.
And that's often what happens.
That you push and push but if you don't have these words of the
מסילת ישרים in mind,
that there's שלמות העבודה,
that you never stop.
It's הר שלמה forever,
forever and ever.
That you always think you've reached the highest point and then there's a new
highest point you're working towards.
It's a sad day when a person at the end of ישיבה or a
couple of years later says I've arrived.
And then they just keep repeating what they're doing again and again and again
for the rest of their lives.
Tell you one more story on that on that point.
It was פורים in קרית יואל and the בדחן approached the רבי and he
said,
רבי,
in the spirit of פורים,
can I copy the רבי?
It's not making fun of the רבי,
it's just emulating the רבי.
And the רבי said,
yes,
go ahead in the spirit of פורים.
And the בדחן started דאוונינג,
pretending to דאוון,
in the way that the רבי of סאטמר would דאוון.
And he started shaking and שוקלינג and swaying and apparently the סאטמר רבי had
a very unique way of moving during שמונה עשרה.
And the בדחן he got it perfect,
he had it exactly right.
At the beginning,
the רבי was laughing,
smiling,
and then the רבי started crying,
crying and crying.
And the בדחן didn't notice,
he carried on with all the show and then someone stopped him,
stop him,
the רבי's crying,
stop.
So he went over to the רבי,
he said,
רבי,
מחילה please,
I ask for forgiveness,
what I asked permission,
is it okay?
And the רבי said,
no,
I'm not crying,
you did a very good thing and I owe you a big טובה,
I owe you הכרת הטוב,
you taught me.
Said,
what רבי,
what happened?
Said,
at the beginning,
I was watching you and I thought that's exactly how I דאוון.
And then I said,
you're able to copy me exactly how I דאוון.
And then it hit me,
I'm copying myself from how I דאוונט from many years ago.
That from the רבי's perspective,
I'm sure this is not true,
but the way that he saw it was that he'd reached a certain level
of עבודת השם and then he was happy with it and then he carried
on doing that עבודת השם again and again and again and again because it
was good.
Good,
why not carry on?
My grandfather עליו השלום used to say,
if you've got a formula that works,
do it again and again,
which that works in business,
but that's not good for עבודת השם.
עבודת השם,
you have to be constantly growing and reaching new and new heights.
So there are many people who are עובדי השם on the level of like
thinking about the topic,
reading about the topic,
hearing שיעור about the topic,
but when it comes time for taking action and where does that apply to
me and taking my next step,
there they're satisfied with the fact that they're around people who are doing that.
There's a book,
not a Jewish book,
but interesting insights in it,
it's called The Artist's Way.
That's the name of the book.
And and it teaches people who are artistic to like bring out their artistic
creativity.
So it speaks there about people who are authentically artistic and people who are
wanna-be artistic.
And it says the wanna-be artistic people what they what they are is that
they they desire to be artistic,
that's what they really want,
so what they'll always do is they'll always be around people who are artistic.
So they'll they'll be a secretary of someone who's an artist.
Or they'll be a producer of someone who's an artist.
They'll always be like they like the artistic,
they like the creativity,
so they'll always be surrounding someone who's artistic.
Everyone okay?
I don't know if I said something was inappropriate,
but forgive me and we'll move back to where the intention was.
But there we've moved on from that point in a mature way and we're
back.
So there's idea of someone who's really authentically artistic and someone who's surrounding themselves
with artistic people.
In עבודת השם it's the same.
There are people who are authentically artistic in עבודת השם,
they're growing,
they're building,
they're moving forward.
There are people who are not authentically עובדי השם,
I mean they're surrounding themselves by עובדי השם.
They're surrounding themselves,
they're talking about the topic,
they're listening to שיעורים about it,
but it's not שלמות.
They're satisfied with the level they've reached.
There's a calling here for something greater.
אהבת השם,
יראת השם,
דבקות with השם,
and כל שאר חלקי החסידות.
Now it's interesting that he calls it חסידות.
He's calling these topics חסידות.
Now we're going to see later on that חסידות means a higher level than
the standard level.
That means that we're not talking here about the standard level.
And that's already interesting that he's already here talking about an expectation that he
has from us to be reaching חסידות.
חסידות means that it's beyond the level of expectation,
but you're expected to try.
שולחן ערוך is the standard level that everyone needs to do.
Working on one's מידות and קרבת השם,
השם can't obligate a standard level from everyone.
He can't obligate it because everyone's designed differently and has got different כוחות.
So שולחן ערוך השם can say across the board everyone is expected.
But יראת שמים,
אהבת השם,
דבקות with השם,
it's very individual.
Everyone's going to apply it in a different way and be able to reach
different heights according to the כוחות that הקדוש ברוך הוא gave them.
So he calls it חסידות.
That doesn't exempt you from working on it,
but it's something which you'll never really end.
You can never be a צדיק and say צדקתי את הדין,
I did what I need to do.
A צדיק is someone who has a checklist.
What is the obligation on me?
I'll check it off,
I did everything I need to do.
I'm a צדיק.
A חסיד is someone who he never can finish checking it off.
There's always more that he could do.
He's doing חסד,
he's going beyond the call of duty.
These areas of יראה,
אהבה,
and דבקות,
there's never a point where you can say I've fulfilled my obligation.
With לולב ואתרוג,
you can shake your לולב ואתרוג,
you can say I've fulfilled my obligation for today.
There'll be no obligation tomorrow.
I did it.
Even with תלמוד תורה,
there's a minimum obligation,
a minimum amount of יומם ולילה that you can say I've fulfilled the—everyone can
do a lot more and everyone's expected to do a lot more—but at least
you can say there's a minimum obligation.
With אהבה,
יראה,
דבקות,
there's no like you can say I did it.
Where's the beginning?
Where's the end?
It's a constant,
constant,
constant growth of coming closer and closer to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
And that's a calling of שלמות that already from the beginning in the הקדמה,
the מסילת ישרים is expecting us already to be aware of that and working
towards it.
ולא מפני שאין דברים אלה עיקריים אצלם.
Now,
why aren't people working on it?
Why aren't we having a ישיבה with not just a half an hour a
day where we're learning about מוסר,
but where actually we've got a proper סדר where people are themselves investigating,
what's my next step in יראת שמים?
What's my next step in אהבת השם?
We don't even have once a year necessarily a discussion at the ישיבה about
how you work on יראת השם.
I was last year,
I went to visit the חיילים,
the soldiers who are now a year in,
a year plus in,
and I went to the army base for שבת.
And they said to give a שיעור,
so I prepared a שיעור on אהבת השם.
And someone came up to me and he said,
you know,
I never in my whole time in ישיבה heard like what is the גדר,
like how is a person supposed to work on אהבת השם?
It's just something which is like expected,
we all know what that is,
we're all doing it,
and suddenly you hear a שיעור about like these are the way of doing
it and this is חז"ל what they say to do and there's like very
like clear guidelines בעזרת השם.
How could it be that so...
How could it be that so much time has passed and I haven't heard
this?
It should be that the day of your בר מצוה,
this is the first thing you're learning,
אהבת השם.
You're saying שמע ישראל,
fulfilling a מצוה דאורייתא of ואהבת את ה׳
אלקיך.
How do you do that?
So you ask people,
so why aren't you researching it?
Why aren't you learning it?
לא מפני שאין דברים אלה עיקרים אצלם.
Not because these things aren't important.
כי אם תשאל להם.
If you go and ask any such person who cares about עבודת השם,
כל אחד everyone,
before he said רוב,
now he's saying everyone,
everyone will agree,
everyone across the board will agree,
שהוא העיקר הגדול.
He doesn't say עיקר גדול.
העיקר הגדול.
This is what it's all about.
Everyone across the spectrum,
every branch of Judaism would agree that the connection with הקדוש ברוך הוא and
developing your connection with השם,
דביקות,
יראת שמים,
אהבת השם,
that's what it's all about.
Even people who put Torah as a center,
they'll say Torah's the center because it brings you closer to אהבת השם.
Even people who put helping other people,
helping other Jews,
they'll say helping other people is my main way of serving השם because I
love השם and this is what השם's calling for me.
Any different groups of people have different areas which they make as their central
path of עבודת השם.
But everyone agrees what's behind all of that is the connection to הקדוש ברוך
הוא.
So everyone agrees it's העיקר הגדול behind everything else.
There's one central path and there's many branches that come off the central path.
אהבת השם is the central path that everything else comes off.
ושלא ידמה חכם שיהיה חכם באמת שלא יתבררו אצלו כל הדברים האלה.
And everyone would also agree there's no way of having someone who's a חכם
that they would respect,
that they would want to learn from,
who's considered knowledgeable on the way of תורה in a truthful manner,
who hasn't clarified these matters and is living these matters.
There's no way.
I wouldn't want to learn תורה from,
everyone would say,
I wouldn't want to learn תורה from someone who doesn't have אהבת השם.
Everyone would say that.
So you say,
okay,
so that's central to you.
You recognize it as the most central value.
אך מה שלא ירבו לעיין עליו.
So why aren't people investigating,
understanding it?
מפני רוב פרסום הדברים.
It's too obvious,
it's too clear.
ופשיטותם אצלם.
It's so obvious and clear that people aren't bothering to learn about it.
שלא יראה להם צורך להוציא בעיונם זמן רב.
Why do I need to waste time learning about אהבת השם?
It's so clear,
it's so obvious that it just is as it is.
ולא ישאר לימוד הדברים האלה וקריאת ספרים מזה המין.
And what ends up happening is that the people who are learned don't learn
these topics.
So who learns them?
Who's learning about עבודת השם?
People who can't learn הלכה,
they don't have the mind for it.
People who can't learn עיון,
they don't have the mind for it.
People who can't be מדייק in מדרשים because they don't learn for it.
So what do they end up doing?
They end up saying תהלים.
And תהלים ends up being seen as something which women say and simple people
say.
But people who are thoughtful,
who are able to learn in depth,
they don't say תהלים.
It's a waste of time.
They said about Yehuda Katz that he would have a סדר תהלים every day
that he would say,
as well as the תיקון הכללי,
which is extra תהלים that he would say every day.
And it's not because he didn't know how to learn.
I saw those notebooks that he had in the library.
He was able to summarize and with understanding,
seemingly,
all the שיעורים that all the רבנים gave on the highest level.
So why was he wasting his time saying תהלים every day?
He could have been learning another רשב״א,
another קצות,
another נתיבות.
Why was he saying תהלים every day?
But apparently it was clear to Yehuda Katz that you're not an עבד השם
with שלמות if you're not constantly building your relationship with השם.
And if you're only learning עיון,
then whilst you're giving yourself a lot of כוחות,
the meat and potatoes of what it means to be a Jew,
but you're not doing that final step of connecting back to השם.
משל למה הדבר דומה.
Imagine a person is earning money and they're putting in savings and putting in
savings and putting in savings and putting in savings and putting in savings.
And then eventually,
eventually,
why would they put all these savings away?
Because they wanted to buy a house.
Eventually times comes to buy that house and they come and they say,
I lost the code.
I lost the code to the bank.
And they go to the bank and they can't pass security.
This is a real story.
A friend of my brother-in-law's,
he bought three of those coins,
those online coins,
Bitcoin.
He bought three of them when they cost 8,000 dollars each.
How much they cost today?
80,000?
Something like that.
80,000,
60,000,
whatever.
Big amount.
80,000 to 100,000.
So it's more than 10 times the amount that it was today.
And he lost the code.
He lost the code.
And he tried again and again and he got the old computer,
he paid a lot of money to take his old computer to someone who
could like get all the information that's been deleted from it.
אבוד.
It's gone.
He lost the code.
So imagine you have someone who's learning גמרא בעיון again and again and again,
he's doing שקלא וטריא and he's got everything.
He's earned all the money.
He has it all.
And what's it all for?
What's the reason why you're learning all of everything that you're learning in order
that you can then go and connect to...
הקדוש ברוך הוא.
And that’s the goal.
You’re learning תורה in order that you connect to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
But he lost the code.
He doesn’t know to bring it back to השם.
He’s not דאוונינג in a way that’s connecting to השם.
He’s not saying תהילים or thinking about—just saying תהילים also won’t help if you’re
saying it without the thought of connecting to הקדוש ברוך הוא—but he’s not doing
that final step of bringing all that תורה back to עבודת השם.
Another דבר תורה on that same matter.
רבי שמעון בר יוחאי and his son רבי אלעזר,
they were in a cave for twelve years.
Twelve years they ran away.
They were in a cave.
After twelve years they came out of the cave,
and what did they see?
They saw a Jew—before that,
they saw fields,
they saw people working in the fields.
And they were so upset:
"This is what people are doing in the world?
They should be learning זהר." So with Superman powers with the eyes,
they burnt the fields.
הקדוש ברוך הוא came to them and said to them,
"This is what you came to my world to do?
I’m never allowing you to learn תורה ever again!
If that’s what you do with your תורה,
you’re never allowed to learn תורה ever again!
Never!
Because you’re using תורה and you’re destroying the world!" That’s what you would think
it would say.
That’s what it should say.
That’s not what it says.
That would be the logical next line in the גמרא.
If you’re using תורה to destroy the world,
you can’t learn תורה again.
What does the גמרא say?
"That’s what you’re doing with the world?
Go back and learn תורה for another year!" How’s that going to solve anything?
That’s to make it much worse.
Now they’re going to learn תורה,
they’re going to be more destructive when they come out.
But lo and behold,
הקדוש ברוך הוא knew what he was doing,
as he always does.
And they came out a year later,
and at least רבי אלעזר was still burning,
but רבי שמעון בר יוחאי,
he was healing the world.
He came and he healed the world and he went up to a Jew
who was holding two הדסים,
and he says,
"What are they for?" And they said,
"שמור וזכור." And he says,
"I can use the physical world to bring קדושה into the world!" And he
was amazed,
and he was excited,
and he saw what a ברכה.
What happened?
Why wasn’t the end of the גמרא like we first presented it?
That would have made more sense,
no?
Much more sense it would have made.
For you see,
תורה,
תורה,
what effect does תורה have on you?
Does תורה always bring you back to השם or not?
לאו דווקא.
תורה can make you arrogant.
תורה can be a destructive force as well.
The כוח of תורה is like energy;
depending what you plug into the wall,
that’s what it’s going to produce.
If you plug into the wall a life-saving machine,
תורה’s going to be life-saving.
And if you plug into the wall an electric saw,
it can be destructive.
When רבי שמעון בר יוחאי and his son went into the cave the first
time,
they came into the cave with a mindset of disconnecting from the world,
running away.
That’s what the תורה’s effect had on them;
they ran away from the world,
they disconnected.
And when they came,
they couldn’t stand the world,
they couldn’t relate to it.
Then השם said,
"You can’t destroy my world.
That’s not the purpose of תורה.
The purpose of תורה is to connect to the world.
Go back in the cave another year,
learn תורה again,
but now you’re doing it with a different mindset." The mindset now is to
engage with the world and bring קדושה to the world.
So they went back,
and רבי שמעון בר יוחאי was successful.
He learned תורה with a new mindset.
Whatever mindset you have when you go in,
that’s what it brings out.
A person can learn in ישיבה for years and years and years and still
not feel close to הקדוש ברוך הוא,
and honestly still not be close to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
Because although he’s learned תורה,
he’s learned it with a disconnect from השם,
like רבי שמעון בר יוחאי was disconnecting from the world.
A person can disconnect from השם and it only makes him more arrogant and
disconnects him from הקדוש ברוך הוא.
But if a person’s mindset,
like the מסילת ישרים is calling us to do,
is to not only learn תורה in a way of understanding תורה,
but to learn תורה in a way of understanding it’s רצון השם,
it’s the will of השם,
and applying that will of השם to your life.
And that includes also saying תהילים because you want to align yourself with דוד
המלך's natural connection to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
And you want to have those types of thoughts that דוד had as well.
What a ברכה that דוד המלך gave to us.
Could you imagine?
Take the person who was potentially the greatest עבד that השם will ever—ever existed—and
he wrote down his thoughts of עבודת השם.
Just his inner thoughts.
Could you imagine what we would pay for that today?
Today to tap into דוד המלך’s mind and know what he was thinking when
he had the desire to connect to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
His whole רצון was קרבת השם.
And he says,
"Don’t worry,
I’ll help you." He writes it all down so that we can relive those
thoughts that he had.
So when you’re saying תהילים,
it’s not an external obligation of saying תהילים,
another חוב on you,
but it’s the ability to tap in and align your thoughts with השם’s world,
with the רצון השם,
the same that דוד המלך had then.
So it’s a very sad day when you have the people who are knowledgeable
and understand the will of השם,
they’re not connecting to הקדוש ברוך הוא because to them it’s too obvious and
too simple,
and they missed the opportunity.
And you have the people who אין שכלם כל כך דק וקרוב להיות גס—of
people who don't know how to learn—so they just say תהילים,
saying תהילים,
saying תהילים.
שאלה תראה אותם שוקדים על זה,
and they just say תהילים the whole time without even understanding what רצון השם
is or how to apply the will of השם,
not even actually using the words of דוד המלך to connect to השם per
se.
They just say,
"I don't know how to do anything else,
I'll just say תהילים," and they're missing the opportunity.
I just want to be very,
very clear.
They get שכר for doing this.
There's inherent קדושה in the words of תהילים.
Someone who has the desire to do the will of השם and he's saying
תהילים with the desire to do the will of השם,
it has an effect.
It has because the words are inherently קודש.
It's not true for משנה but it is true for anything which is written
in the תנ"ך.
So he will have,
but it won't have the same effect as someone who understands what דוד המלך's
words mean and he has the desire to connect to הקדוש ברוך הוא through
what he was saying and he's learning the whole gamut of תורה and bringing
that back.
לפי המנהג הנהוג היום,
what happens today is if you see someone who's saying תהילים,
לא תוכל להימנע מלחשוד אותו לגס שכל.
Why is he saying תהילים?
Oh,
he's a נעבעך.
Oh,
he's a חמוד.
He's a nice,
simple guy.
He's saying תהילים,
probably can't learn משנה,
he probably can't learn גמרא.
איזה חמוד,
איזה מותק,
איזה מותק.
It's a nature,
it was in his time and it's true today.
If you see someone saying תהילים,
you probably,
you חס ושלום,
but you accuse him in your mind of being someone who probably can't learn
properly,
doesn't know how to learn.
If someone's learning a מוסר ספר,
ah,
a נעבעך,
a simple thing,
he doesn't know how to learn גמרא so he's just reading through a מוסר
ספר.
And that's a tragedy,
a tragedy,
a tragedy because the people who are learned aren't taking עבודת השם further and
the people who are not learned also not taking it further.
Them because they're not reading the right books or thinking in the right way,
and them because they don't have the ability to think in depth.
Our goal is to fix it.
We're going to בעזרת השם form a חבורה who are going to both learn
in עיון and learn שלמות עבודה בעיון.
And our goal through the course of the year is to develop a mindset
of serving הקדוש ברוך הוא in the full,
full sense of the word and to give הקדוש ברוך הוא נחת רוח.
יישר כוח.