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We're in the first פרק.
We had the opening sentence yesterday:
יסוד החסידות ושרש העבודה התמימה,
שיתברר ויתאמת אצל האדם מה חובתו בעולמו.
We spoke about the word חוב.
I was at a wedding last night,
and that was the speech at the חופה.
The difference between זכיות and חובות.
That was exactly what we were talking about.
ולמה צריך שישים מבטו ומגמתו בכל אשר הוא עמל כל ימי חייו.
We finished off with,
what's the difference between a מבט and a מגמה?
So,
a מבט is where someone is standing in a certain place,
and they're looking out.
They have a vision.
They have a bigger vision.
Who do I want to be?
What's my long-term plan?
Where do I see myself in the future?
A מגמה is what am I doing right now?
How am I going to get there?
This is the מגמה that I'm taking in order to get to my bigger
vision.
You need both.
We're going back to the topic of עשרת ימי תשובה.
משל למה הדבר דומה.
We'll give a משל,
and we'll go back to this.
A person is getting ready for ימים נוראים.
He wants to do תשובה.
So,
part of his doing תשובה is looking at where he's holding,
who he is right now,
how he needs to fix himself.
He's taking a חשבון נפש,
trying to understand himself.
But he doesn't know exactly what he needs to do.
There's a lot of complications,
there's a lot of things he needs to work on.
So,
what does he do?
He's wise,
he's intelligent.
He feels like he's lost a little bit,
so he goes up to a very high place in the middle of the
forest,
where he can see very clearly what the path is.
When he's in the forest and there's trees in every direction,
he has no idea which direction to take.
He could start walking in any random place and get lost going around the
trees again and again and again.
But if he's intelligent,
you have to have a high spot where you can see above the trees.
So,
he does that.
He climbs up a small hill,
he's standing on top,
and now he can see very clearly:
there's the town I need to get to.
Let's call it ירושלים.
There's ירושלים.
I want to get to ירושלים.
I can see very clearly now.
I'm here,
there's ירושלים,
I can see the direction.
So,
he says to himself,
"Well,
you know what?
If I go down inside the forest again,
I'm going to lose sight of where ירושלים is.
So,
I'll stay here.
Then I know exactly where I need to get to." That's the most foolish
thing in the world!
You can see exactly where you need to get to,
but you're not going anywhere!
It's not enough that you can see where the long-term vision is.
You have to be taking action.
"Yeah,
but if I start taking action,
then it's going to be dangerous.
I'm going to get lost again.
Taking action means taking risks.
It means trial and error.
It means I'm going to have to work on myself,
change things.
It's going to be difficult.
So,
I'm going to go down into the forest again." "Yeah,
but then you'll get lost again." "So,
what are you going to do?" So,
here's the solution:
You first go on the hill,
you see where ירושלים is,
you create the vision of where you want to head.
Then you go down to the forest,
and you know that as long as you're walking in the forest and you
look back and you can see the hill,
and the hill is behind you,
and you're walking straight with the hill behind you,
you're just walking straight,
straight,
straight,
straight,
even though right now you can't see ירושלים,
but you know you're taking steps towards ירושלים.
Even though you can't see it right now,
but you know when you had clarity and you could see where ירושלים was,
and you're moving in this direction,
you know you're headed in the right direction.
משל למה הדבר דומה.
That was the משל,
what's the נמשל?
When we're working during עשרת ימי תשובה,
then we create a vision of who we want to be.
And we have moments of clarity during עשרת ימי תשובה because we're putting other
things aside and focusing on what are my strengths,
what are my goals,
where am I headed.
I see myself in a few years from now.
Who do I want to be?
Then,
עשרת ימי תשובה ends,
and it's בין הזמנים.
And suddenly,
during בין הזמנים,
I'm going to the שוק,
and I'm going out,
and I'm going to the beach,
and I'm around different places,
and then I lose sight of what's my plan.
I'm just in I'm going to a קומזיץ,
and I'm going to שמחת בית השואבה,
and I'm having a good time.
You lose sight.
You're in the forest.
You're just getting involved in day-to-day things that are happening,
and not seeing.
But it's not that you shouldn't do those things.
You should do those things.
But always remembering that I have the hill behind me,
I have the vision of what I'm trying to work on.
And I'm asking myself the same question again and again and again:
Is this taking me,
my next step,
towards where I need to get to?
If you stay on the hill,
and you're always learning about the vision and what the vision is,
but you're not working on it,
then you're not getting anywhere.
If you're just moving and moving like a rat race,
around and around and around,
without clarity of your vision,
you're not getting anywhere.
But if you do it in this way,
you have both a מבט and a מגמה,
where you create for yourself a vision:
Where do I want to be in a few years from now?
What's my ideal?
What are the values which I want to align myself with and work towards?
And in moments of clarity,
you can see,
this is how I want to be.
You might not get it perfect first time.
It could be you spend time working on your מבט,
and you develop it,
and the more you learn,
And then you adapt your מבט.
Like your vision of who you want to be in the future,
that can be adapted slightly.
You can refine it the more you learn,
but you still have clarity,
and this is where I'm headed to.
And then the one question that you ask always:
Is going to this place going to take me forward in my goals?
Is this the מגמה?
Is this where I need to get to?
And if you sense that,
no,
going on this trip or going with these friends,
or being in this environment,
that's not going to take me forward,
I'm going to get lost in the forest again.
It's not keeping the hill in sight.
If I'm going to go down that path,
I'm going to take a left in the forest,
then it's not going to help me.
I'll even look at the hill,
but I don't know if having the hill behind me now means going straight
is the right way,
because I've moved to the side.
So,
you always have to remember in anything that you do throughout the year,
I know the vision of who I want to be:
I want to be a בן תורה,
I want to be an עובד השם,
I want to have good מידות.
You're going to create the vision.
You have the vision,
that's the מבט,
I know where I want to get to,
I see in the clarity.
Every day,
every day you're asking:
Is this in line with my values?
And if it's not in line with that,
you don't do it.
If you don't have clarity in your values,
then you don't have any solid point of reference.
Should I do this?
Should I do that?
I don't know,
why not?
I'll do it.
You don't have a vision of who you want to be.
But if you have clarity of the vision,
this is who I want to be,
is this in line,
is this going to get me there?
If it's not going to get me there,
I'm not doing it.
משל למה הדבר דומה.
A person is working out,
physically working out,
he wants to be the best in his sport.
He wants to be the best.
He has the vision clear,
clear,
clear.
And someone offers him junk food.
He says,
"No,
I can't have it.
I can't have it." "No,
but it's special,
with the cream,
and with the chocolate,
and with the strawberry,
and with the..." Okay,
but I've got I'm working towards something,
I have a clear vision!
I'm working out,
I've got a vision,
I know who I want to be,
I know where I'm headed.
If a person has clarity in their vision of what their goal is,
where they're headed to,
then it tempts them,
but they are able to hold strong because they have an anchor.
It's not that it doesn't tempt them,
it does tempt them,
but they have an anchor:
I know who I am,
so it's not part of who I am.
I'm a man with a vision.
I'm working towards my vision.
Another משל which I've told here before,
but my brother-in-law,
he's a very,
very unique person in many ways,
but in one of the ways,
so when he started when he went into the working world initially,
so he it was when he was choosing a degree to do,
then he wasn't sure which degree to do and what to specialize in.
So,
what he did was,
he said,
"Let me go and interview people who are in the place that I want
to get to a number of years down the line." And he went on
a little מסע,
on a journey,
where he went around meeting people,
his father's friends,
people he'd heard of,
and he went around and he traveled to them and he said,
"Can I make an appointment with you?" And he sat with them.
And these are people who he envisioned himself being a few years down the
line,
and he sat with them and he asked them their story:
"How did you get to being who you are?" And he created for himself
a kind of a profile of who he wanted to be,
speaking to numerous different people in the realm of what he wanted to do.
And then he worked backwards,
and he says,
"Okay,
I know what my vision is,
what are the steps I need to take?" And then he began the process.
And it took him many years,
but now he got to the role that he wants to be in and
he's very,
very happy.
He could have done the other way around.
He could have said,
"I broadly I generally,
broadly know what I want to do,
I'll just do a degree which is kind of in the in the general
area." And three,
four years later realize that that's not actually going to help him,
because he needs something off to the side,
and then he did work experience in the area that he wanted to do,
he he had a vision:
מבט,
מגמה.
We're approaching עשרת ימי תשובה,
one of the most important things during עשרת ימי תשובה isn't getting caught up
on all the sins that you're doing:
"I did this wrong,
I did this wrong,
I did this wrong." It's also important within the right context,
but the bigger picture is:
What קידוש השם am I going to make in the world?
What's my role?
What are my strengths?
What am I going to do?
Like my brother-in-law,
look at people in the community,
look at people that you know,
or you've heard of,
who are people who you say like that for me is an ideal.
That's what something like a few years down the line,
that for me is a well-balanced individual who both is supporting,
and he's learning,
and he's growing in יראת שמים,
and you could go and interview them,
or you could just have them as a,
like,
a vision:
this is what I want to work towards.
Now what do I need to do to that?
How many hours a day do I need to learn?
How do I need to use my breaks?
How am I going to work on my מידות?
How am I going to work on my תפילה?
What's my connections with different friends going to be?
But you have a point of reference!
You have a vision of what you're working towards.
מבטו is that vision,
מגמתו is,
now that I've gone into the woods,
is this taking me towards my vision,
to the goal that I'm working towards?
בכל אשר הוא עמל,
in everything that he's putting effort into,
כל ימי חייו.
My wife was once in a ועד,
a women's ועד for מידות,
and the rabbi who was running the ועד name will come to me,
Rabbi Aryeh Nivin.
That was the name of the rabbi who was running the ועד,
Rabbi Aryeh Nivin,
heard of him?
No?
Rabbi Aryeh Nivin.
So he so he was giving them,
he was basically doing this עבודה,
and like helping giving them the kind of guided questions that they needed in
order to make their vision statement for themselves,
their mission statement for themselves,
in their עבודת השם and taking that next step.
It was great being the husband of,
because then I didn't have to do the work,
but I could see like how the process works.
It was win-win,
like it was interesting,
but I didn't have to work.
Then my wife said,
"You have to do this as well,
like listen,
I'm in the ועד,
but like this is every Jew has to do this." And she got me.
So what he said in that ועד was that you write,
you get to a point where you write it yourself,
like what you,
your mission statement is for your own עבודת השם.
And then you read it.
So one of the women in the in the thing says,
"How often do you read it?" She said,
"Every day." Said,
"Every day?" She said,
"Twice a day,
once in the morning,
once in the evening." Said,
"Every day,
twice a day?" He says,
"That's what you do with שמע.
With שמע,
you're aligning yourself with Hashem every morning and every evening.
That's clearly the will of Hashem,
that if something is important to you,
that you have a vision of what you're working towards,
and you're aligning yourself with,
you have to remind yourself every morning and every evening.
So also your own self-development,
you're working on מידות,
you're aligning yourself as an עבד השם,
has to be something you're aligning yourself with day in,
day out,
morning and evening.
You create a vision.
Now again,
you're not going to get it right the first time.
It could be that through the years,
you'll adapt it and adapt it.
And of course you'll adapt it,
because you're going to become wiser as the years go on.
You're going to have more life experience,
you're going to have met more people,
read more ספרים.
You're going to adapt it,
but it won't be totally different.
It'll be refined and refined.
You'll have clarity in who you want to be.
You'll start with very generic things,
and then as you learn who you are and what your strengths are,
you'll narrow it down and you'll get more clarity in,
this is what I recognize my life statement,
my mission to be,
in עבודת השם.
כל ימי חייו.
כל ימי חייו.
It's not a one-time עבודה that you do.
It's an עמלות כל ימי חייו.
He's talking about creating a vision:
יתברר ויתאמת חובתו.
Isn't that enough that I do that once when I was 18,
and that's it,
I got it for life?
No,
כל ימי חייו.
This is a vision that you create,
and then you're checking in with every single day.
Oh,
that sounds intense.
Okay,
that's that's life.
That's what הקדוש ברוך הוא put us all here for.
If you're still alive,
you still have work to do.
And life is going to be עמלות.
Either way,
it's going to be עמלות.
Either you're going to be putting in efforts in other areas,
or you're going to be putting efforts in עבודת השם.
The גמרא says that there's a certain amount of money a person has to
spend.
And if they spend it for good things,
good,
and if not,
it's going to go up to paying taxes to the government,
which don't need to be spent,
ones that the government's taking unnecessarily.
Like there's a certain determined amount of effort that a person needs to put
in,
it's going to be put in either way.
Either way,
you're going to put in that effort.
If you choose to put in that effort for עבודת השם,
that's where it'll be.
And if you choose not to,
then you'll still be putting in that same amount of effort,
it'll just be in other,
futile areas,
because to fulfill your חוב of עמלות.
You're going to be עמל either way.
It's going to be כל ימיו either way,
let it be עבודת השם.
והנה,
מה שהורונו חז״ל שהאדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על השם.
You didn't see that coming,
did you?
Unless you've learned this book before.
But you didn't think that the next page was going to be חוב and
עמל,
and like it sounds it's going to be intense and more intense.
You turn the page,
or you read on the next phrase,
well with me,
because there's a lot of footnotes.
So you turn the page,
and what does it say?
להתענג!
ליהנות!
It's a good life!
Having pleasure,
having a good time,
enjoying yourself!
מזיו שכינתו שזהו התענוג האמיתי והעידון הגדול מכל העידונים שיכולים להימצא.
Should I I must tell you a story.
I heard this story from Rabbi Blumenthal,
who you'll meet more in the next few days.
Rabbi Blumenthal said that when he was interviewed for כרם ביבנה,
then his mother was scared that כרם ביבנה was going to be too intense,
because she had heard rumors it's an intense place.
So she asked רב Bleichman,
who was visiting,
"Rabbi,
is it going to be fun?
Is my son going to have fun in ישיבה?" So you know,
that's the wrong person to ask.
So you get him to say,
he says it a lot better than me,
because he heard it himself,
but the the the vibe of what רב Bleichman answered was:
"He's going to have pain.
Intellectual pain.
He's going to be stressed day in,
day out in understanding truth and critical thinking.
He's going to love every minute of it,
and you're going to see that he'll be a lot more satisfied than if
he was chasing after fun." It's a brilliant answer.
It's a brilliant answer.
The חזון איש said,
"What they call fun,
we call כרת." We have different definitions!
We have different definitions of what fun is.
But here you see the goal of life is to have pleasure.
That is the goal.
But here the question is,
what are you defining as pleasure?
Is pleasure easy?
Is pleasure relaxed?
Is pleasure ice cream?
Is pleasure just like,
let other people do the work for me?
We live in a generation where there's AI,
and there's robots being built that are going to do everything on your behalf,
and you could just be the king!
You could be the king.
I know Hashem's supposed to be the king,
but you could be the king!
And you can have all the work done for you,
and take it,
take a,
take it easy,
kick back.
Is that the goal?
That's pleasurable on some level,
but not deeply satisfying,
not deeply rewarding.
It's not going to give a person a sense of having fulfilled their mission
in life.
It's a good thing to do,
to take it easy,
to relax when you are doing your mission very,
very well,
and you pushed yourself too hard,
and you need balance.
So then there's room for it.
It's important.
A person needs to be balanced in life.
But it's not an end goal.
Relaxing is not the end goal.
But pleasure is the end goal.
And this is a big חידוש.
האדם לא נברא אלא,
I was sure the next word was going to be לעבוד את השם.
לעמל?
That would be the natural next word.
But he says להתענג על השם ולהנות מזיו שכינתו.
Now,
there's a double phrase,
right?
There's להתענג על השם ולהנות מזיו שכינתו.
So why is there a double phrase?
If it's pleasure,
it's pleasure.
Why does it say it twice?
But you see from here that there's not only the next world is going
to be pleasure,
but even this world is supposed to be pleasurable.
I once went to see a רבי,
a חסידישע רבי,
and I sat with him,
and we were talking,
and it was a very interesting conversation.
Like he saw me with this כיפה,
so he decided to use it as a chance just to understand the world
of דתי לאומי.
He asked me what do I do,
I told him what I do,
so it became just like kind of a dialogue.
I came to ask advice,
but it became more of a dialogue of like different שיטות,
not so much of like the State of Israel,
but more שיטות of חינוך.
So he said things that to me were like clearly not beneficial in a
חינוך way,
and he asked me like,
"This is what we do.
It's not working so well.
What do you do in your ישיבות?" And then I said things which he
didn't agree with.
It was very,
very interesting,
it was fascinating,
it was a really interesting dialogue.
So one of the things that he said תוך כדי,
during the conversation,
was that he doesn't understand how הקדוש ברוך הוא makes it hard for people
to learn,
where the central focus is to be successful in יידישקייט is you have to
be a good learner.
And then the people are in the ישיבה,
and they're trying to learn,
and they're not successful because they're doing their best,
but they're not successful.
And then they don't have pleasure in this world,
and הקדוש ברוך הוא made this world for pleasure,
and they're trying their best to be learning תורה,
השם's תורה,
and they're not successful in it.
And he said,
"And they don't have גן עדן,
and they don't have עולם הז...
they don't have עולם הזה,
and they don't have עולם הבא." So why don't they have עולם הבא?
They have עולם הבא,
they're putting in עמילות!
He said,
"Yeah,
because then they get fed up with the system,
and they go off the דרך.
So they lose this world and the next world!" So that was his קושיא
on השם,
like why did השם make it that the main path in serving השם—I think
he was trying to say that it shouldn't be only לימוד תורה,
there should be other ways that people should be able to connect to הקדוש
ברוך הוא and not only through גמרא learning.
Which is interesting,
and there's definitely—we have to find,
you know,
ways that everyone,
which is what the חסידות movement came to do.
They came to say that לימוד תורה isn't the only path in connecting to
הקדוש ברוך הוא.
There are—connecting to הקדוש ברוך הוא is the is the goal,
and לימוד תורה is a primary way of doing that,
but not the sole way of doing that.
And if a person's built for that and he's successful in that,
then very good.
And if he's not,
then everyone will do their best in order to be successful in that area,
but we can't define success only in success in learning.
Otherwise,
you're ruling out a large portion of the עם ישראל,
and it can't be that that was הקדוש ברוך הוא's will.
So that was his קושיא on the ישיבה world,
like where learning תורה is given primary focus.
But you see from the מסילת ישרים,
the goal is להתענג על השם,
and that's already here in this world,
ולהנות מזיו שכינתו,
and that's in the next world.
So we're checking in with ourselves.
How do you know if you're doing עבודת השם right?
This is interesting,
right?
If you're working hard,
hard,
hard,
hard,
hard,
hard,
and you're not happy,
and you're not satisfied,
you're probably doing it wrong.
If you're working hard,
hard,
hard,
hard,
and you're satisfied,
you're probably doing it right.
יגעת ומצאת תאמין.
And if you're not working hard,
hard,
hard,
hard,
and you're satisfied,
you're probably also doing it wrong,
because then you're redefining what joy is,
but not in the תורה's way.
So the תורה's way is,
like he said on the last page,
עמל כל ימי חייו,
that's going to be the basis,
עמל כל ימי חייו,
but it's only true and in line if it's also להתענג על השם.
So if you're not עמל,
you're probably doing it wrong.
לא יגעתי ומצאתי אל תאמין.
If you're not עמל and you're—it's probably not true,
you're probably not finding what you're supposed to be finding.
If you are עמל and you're not finding,
you're probably doing it wrong.
But יגעתי ומצאתי,
if you're putting in efforts and finding הקדוש ברוך הוא,
that's the goal.
And that's a measure which you can always judge yourself by.
If things are too easy and you're just relaxing and taking it easy,
and you're having a good time,
you're probably not on the right track.
Partially on the right track,
but not fully.
You can invest more.
If you're putting in effort,
effort,
effort,
effort,
but it's making you depressed,
you're putting in effort,
effort,
effort,
it's demotivating for you,
you're not doing it right.
Change the way you're doing it.
Doesn't mean Stop learning.
It just means maybe learn a different way,
learn in a different environment.
There has to be a change.
It's not השם's will that we're suffering throughout our life,
that's not the purpose.
It says here explicitly:
האדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על השם.
Has to be through השם,
that the תענוג.
Can't be the תענוג is the breaks from השם.
You having a good time in ישיבה?
Yeah,
great time during the break.
I look forward to the break,
that's that's my salvation,
you know,
like when the סדר is over.
It's all worth it just for סדר finishing,
and now I can have a break.
So that's להתענג,
but not על השם.
Right.
So okay,
that's a process.
We're making our way.
At least you enjoy being in the environment of ישיבה for the breaks,
that's already a good start.
But the goal has to be that להתענג על השם,
that that עבודת השם aspect is is pleasurable.
שזהו התענוג האמיתי.
He's admitting there's other aspects which give pleasure,
that's not the real ones.
והעידון הגדול מכל העידונים שיכולים להימצא.
בעזרת השם,
we'll pick up from this paragraph next time.
I don't know when it's going to be.
It might only be next year after ראש השנה.
So hopefully there will be another chance between now and then,
but if there's not,
then I'm wishing everyone a חתימה טובה.
There's going to be a שיעור on Friday morning after breakfast,
probably 9:00 a.m.,
probably 9:00,
9:00 in the בית מדרש,
which is הכנה for ראש השנה,
just to give a perspective and practical tools about how to make ראש השנה
the day that it's supposed to be,
and in a productive manner.
So that will be in the בית מדרש 9:00 a.m.
on Friday morning.
יישר כוח.