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Within תורה there are many areas.
There's the area of משנה גמרא,
there's the area of הלכה,
there's the area of מוסר.
We need to explain what the goal of מוסר is in order to learn
it well.
There are people who learn throughout all of מסילת ישרים and they know what
it says.
They've learned many מוסר ספרים and they're able to quote it to you.
They're also able to give a שיעור and quote it in different שיעורים.
And it could be that the words of the מוסר didn't actually affect them
in a deep way.
The words remained knowledge but didn't become part of who they are.
The goal of מוסר isn't so much about the information that's being said.
The goal of מוסר is a transformation of self where a person enables himself
to become an open כלי that when he hears the words of the מוסר
or even he hears words that aren't מוסר,
but because he's got a mentality,
a mindset of someone who's growth-orientated,
he becomes someone who's coming close to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
He becomes someone who's refining himself.
So we're not looking so much for מוסר information,
we're looking for a מוסר personality.
A transformation in the way that a person thinks.
So if we take two extremes of people,
on the one hand you would have a לץ,
someone who ridicules and makes fun of things.
So he,
that person,
even if he would hear a מוסר idea,
he would hear an idea which calls for growth and calls for becoming a
greater person,
a more noble person,
a more spiritually orientated person,
but he would hear that,
he would make fun of it.
And because of his mentality of making fun of it,
then it wouldn't have any effect on him,
it wouldn't have any transformation on him at all.
That's on the one extreme.
And the other extreme would be a person is someone who has developed a
מוסר mindset,
where not only is he not ridiculing the ideas,
but he's looking how to imbue the ideas into transforming who he is.
He takes the ideas seriously and he's contemplating inwards.
So those are the two extremes.
So our goal in learning מסילת ישרים or any other מוסר ספר is not
so much the information that it says here as opposed to a different מוסר
ספר.
It's to transform one's way of looking at not just מוסר,
but at the world and anything that he learns,
to be a personality of someone who's looking to grow and looking to imbue
the ideas that he hears to transform himself.
There's a story that someone was traveling and they were in a Jewish hotel
and the walls weren't so thick and they heard someone in the room next
to them saying,
it's אלול already,
it's אלול already,
it's אלול already.
And they got really worked up by that and they said,
it is אלול already and I have to do תשובה and they were in
the room,
they started thinking about הרהורי תשובה.
And in the morning they went down,
they said,
who was in the room next to me?
And the one running the hotel said,
simple guy,
no one special.
And he says,
no,
I'm telling you,
he's a hidden צדיק,
you have to point out who he was.
So he's left already,
but I'll tell you he's the guy over there.
He goes to him,
he says to him,
I heard you last night,
you're a hidden צדיק,
tell me,
what's your secret?
How do you know how to be so close to השם?
So he says to him,
I don't know what you're talking about.
He says,
I heard you saying,
it's אלול,
it's אלול.
He says,
you're right I was saying it's אלול already.
Usually by אלול the mosquitoes have gone,
it's not so hot anymore and the mosquitoes were biting me through the night
and it was still אלול.
Sometimes you have a person who's a מוסר personality,
that they hear a phrase which wasn't even said with the goal of helping
a person come close to הקדוש ברוך הוא,
but their mentality is so in tune with הקדוש ברוך הוא,
that whatever phrase they hear,
even if it's a phrase that's said דרך אגב,
by the way,
they take it and imbue it within themselves that they're going to know how
to grow from this.
So we're going to read through this ספר,
but it's going to be,
excuse me for saying it,
but it's going to be a waste of time,
because he says he's not saying anything new.
So that puts you off right there on the first line.
If he's not saying anything new,
then why are we reading?
He's not saying anything new.
But that's why I want to differentiate between two types of wisdom.
There's a type of wisdom which is an external wisdom.
Two and two is four is an external objective wisdom.
There's another type of wisdom which is a wisdom which you understand yourself deeper,
you understand your calling deeper,
you realize about yourself who you are,
you realize about the world what the world is asking from you,
and it's a totally different type of wisdom.
If we call the first one חכמה and we call the last one דעת,
just to give a name.
There's a type of wisdom,
there's one in the middle called בינה also,
but I'm just working with the two extremes.
So the one type of wisdom is a wisdom of information,
it's facts.
So this fact is this fact.
Okay,
doesn't transform me,
it's just a piece of information.
But there's another type of wisdom which you look at yourself in a different
way,
you understand the world with a new perspective because it's transformed you.
The goal of מוסר is to take חכמה and turn it into דעת.
It's to take information that you may already have known,
you may have already understood it,
but you start applying it to yourself and saying,
I'm now a changed person.
I don't mean changed like 180 degree turn,
I mean but that you have a deeper insight.
And I must tell you one story about this.
I was a מדריך on a קירוב program once,
and then it was תשעה באב,
which is really awkward to be a מדריך on a קירוב program on תשעה
באב,
because you can't be that same friendly and lively self that you normally are
because you have to respect the הלכות of the day.
So the מדריכים,
we went and we said איכה.
And at the end of איכה,
the head מדריך who was leading the group,
he said to us the הלכתי guidelines of how to relate to the participants
on the program that day.
He said,
you can't break the הלכה.
You can't say שלום.
You can't greet them.
But at the same time,
you have to remain relatable and normal and speak,
and he gave us the clear guidelines on what to do,
what not to do.
And my personality,
I'm very excitable.
I get very excited,
I get very enthusiastic.
And when I was in that role as a מדריך on a קירוב program,
I was in my element.
I was having the time of my life,
I was enjoying it so much.
So my nature always,
but especially in that case,
was to be very,
very enthusiastic and outgoing and I heard every word the head מדריך said.
I understood exactly what he said.
We walked out of the room where the איכה was being read and I
saw David Bernstein,
that's the name of one of the guys who was on the program.
I saw David Bernstein and I was excited to see him,
I hadn't seen him for about two hours.
So I said,
David,
how's it going?
And I gave him this big slap on the back.
And then the head מדריך came to me and he put his hand on
my shoulder and he said,
צבי,
what we just said?
I said,
oh.
At that moment the חכמה became דעת.
I,
if he would have asked me to repeat back to him what he said
in the room,
I could have repeated it back.
But I didn't apply it to myself.
I didn't know what that meant,
I mean I did,
but it hadn't entered a deeper place within myself,
my inner knowledge to be able to now apply that,
not wisdom,
חכמה,
I want to keep with the Hebrew words,
I don't want to get caught,
apply that חכמה and turn it into דעת.
דעת is an inner knowledge.
It's a knowledge which is an intimate knowledge.
It's where it's transformed the way you behave and the way you perceive.
It's going to be a waste of time for us to learn מסילת ישרים,
and you don't need a רבי to read it with if you're reading it
on the level of חכמה.
You can just like read through,
okay,
that word means that,
translate it,
good,
that means that,
that means that,
very good.
Afterwards,
you can take a test if you want.
Okay,
there are three types of this,
there are four types of that.
You can get it all in.
But what happened?
How did it change you?
It didn't change you?
So it remained חכמה.
That wasn't the goal of his writing this book.
We have plenty of machines that have all the wisdom uploaded onto them already.
You're not contributing much by reading through the book.
The machine already knows it and you're acting just like a machine just by
imbuing the knowledge on the level of חכמה.
Our goal in learning מוסר is to,
in his words,
but also as a way of training,
train ourselves to learn how to read words and also to view the world
in a way where we're looking at the world through דעת.
We're learning how to develop a mindset of applying the knowledge to ourselves and
transforming the way that we view everything that we view.
And then it becomes alive,
it becomes real,
it becomes part of who we are.
חז״ל speak about תורה having the ability to overcome the יצר הרע.
Someone who learns תורה has a greater ability to overcome the יצר הרע.
But חז״ל use an interesting word.
They call it a תבלין.
Now,
a תבלין means a spice.
That's a funny word to use if you're talking about תורה having the ability
to overcome the יצר הרע.
So I would call it a hammer,
I don't know,
that's a better word to use,
like smashes the יצר הרע.
But a תבלין is the total wrong word to use.
תבלין is something which makes it sweeter,
you know,
it makes it more tasty.
Why is that the word that חז״ל used?
But the truth is that the wisdom on the level of חכמה,
it won't help you at all to overcome the יצר הרע.
The fact that you have recorded in your mind more information but it hasn't
affected yourself,
that's not going to help when the emotions of the יצר הרע come and
they try and knock you down,
when desire comes and desire is tempting you to do certain things,
the fact that you can quote the thirty-nine מלאכות בעל פה is not going
to help you anything.
But if you've learned תורה in a way that it's imbued within your very
self,
that it's transformed the way that you view the world,
that's the new perspective that you've gained,
then you've taken the emotions and the desire itself.
Because your desire becomes,
"I want this,
I'm interested in this,
I want to apply this." The way that you learn becomes something where you're
taking the desire of the יצר הרע and you're adding a תבלין.
You're making it sweet.
You're making it sweet by channeling it towards תורה.
So it says by learning תורה it makes the יצר הרע on your side,
that the desire that you have to do bad things,
now by learning תורה you can channel that desire and you can use it
towards עבודת השם.
But that only works if it's on the level of דעת.
It doesn't work if it's on the level of חכמה.
So by way of introduction,
that's our goal in learning מוסר.
So how do you do that differently?
How do you learn תורה on the level of חכמה and how do you
learn on the level of דעת?
What's the difference?
How do you do it differently?
So the main way of doing it is by being מדייק in the words
and trying to understand on a deeper level what it's saying.
Then it's,
does that make sense to me?
Is that how I would have learned it?
How does that apply in my life?
Where's that relevant to me in my real world?
And then it's to give real-life examples,
either from your history or from stories of רבנים or גדולים or even random
stories that took place,
and then you see the application.
Because too many times we hear דברי תורה where the תורה is a beautiful
lofty idea and you say,
"Wow,
I'm inspired by that," but you have no idea how to make that relevant
to your life.
And then it's worthless.
It's not worthless,
let me retract what I just said.
It does have an effect on a level which is called an אור מקיף.
The idea of an אור מקיף is where you have a light that surrounds
you,
which means you have ideas that are like floating around you,
meaning you know the ideas,
but it's still מקיף,
it's still just surrounding.
So it's not relevant to you yet.
There'll be a time when you'll realize,
"Oh,
I get what that means and I can now apply it." Then it was
worthwhile learning תורה even on the level of חכמה,
even...
it's worthwhile reading all the books even on the level of חכמה,
because it at least puts it into your mind that when you do open
your heart and you want to apply the knowledge that you have,
you're able to now bring it in.
And then it goes from being an אור מקיף to being an אור פנימי.
So I retract what I said.
I said beforehand that reading מסילת ישרים on a level of חכמה is a
waste of time.
I retract that.
It's not.
It's not.
If you read it on the level of חכמה,
it will be worthwhile just to have the knowledge that when you do open
your heart and you can open your heart and you're able to imbue the
ideas,
at least you then have what to draw on.
You can bring in the ideas that you knew.
It's not exactly the same but it's a little bit like,
I don't know if any of you have read the book "אם הבנים שמחה".
So he writes there in the הקדמה that he was educated in a very
specific educational philosophy with a particular השקפה,
which was in line with the סאטמאר philosophy.
And he was very,
very knowledgeable,
so he learned all the מדרשי חז"ל,
and he learned them all and he read them all,
but because of his education that he was raised with,
so he,
in his words,
he tainted them by saying that he was giving less significance to the Land
of Israel because it didn't fit into the educational philosophy he was being raised
with.
So he knew all those sources,
but he didn't give them significance.
And then when the Holocaust happened and he was in Hungary in the ghetto,
he was in Budapest,
and then suddenly he was asking himself big questions about why is this happening
and what's going on and what does הקדוש ברוך הוא want from us?
Then he suddenly came to this inner recognition that ארץ ישראל is calling us
to return home.
And he writes there in his הקדמה,
he said,
"I knew all the sources.
I knew them all.
But I never realized what weight to give them." And now I'm writing a
book which he wrote בעל פה.
An unbelievable,
unbelievable feat of knowledge that he was able to write בעל פה by heart
all the sources where he brought together a new educational philosophy which fits much
more in line with the opposite of סאטמאר.
But he came to that of his own accord,
just from the original תורה sources.
So I'm just giving that as an example that it could be that a
person learns on the level of חכמה initially,
and it enters him on the אור מקיף,
but then he suddenly has an awakening where he says,
"I want to apply to myself the knowledge that I have," and it becomes
an אור פנימי.
I would even go so far as to say that it was a missed
opportunity to be in ישיבה if you learn גמרא and הלכה and מוסר,
but you exit the same person you came in on an עבודת השם level
and on a מידות level.
You've missed the whole goal.
Because the whole goal of תורה isn't to be more knowledge.
You could go to a university and study Talmudic law for that.
The goal of ישיבה is in order to imbue and learn how to imbue
that knowledge in a way that it transforms yourself,
not in a way which just you change the way you dress,
not in a way...
but in a way that you have a sensitivity and a subtlety towards עבודת
השם from within,
from within you’re able to identify what הקדוש ברוך הוא is asking from you
and you dedicate your life to עבודת השם and that’s not something which you
can just program someone.
It’s something which comes from learning מוסר and applying the מוסר.
So I wanted to give that הקדמה to what our goal is.
We’re gonna try and do it at our best way.
We’ll try and do it together as a group through מסילת ישרים.
But hopefully this will just be an example that you’ll go through every מוסר
ספר and every life experience with this mentality of not leaving it on the
level of חכמה but allowing it to go into the level of דעת.
אמר המחבר.
The way that we learn together is I’m gonna read the Hebrew,
I’m gonna translate,
I’m gonna try and make as many דיוקים as we can to the Hebrew
and this in the way,
I must tell you that I got very emotional just now when I picked
up the ספר from my מקום.
It had dust on it.
I’m very embarrassed to say because it’s been a year since I’ve last opened
מסילת ישרים.
I’ve referenced it but I haven’t learned it inside the ספר.
And we learned last year חובות הלבבות and חובות הלבבות has tremendous tremendous insights
but one fault,
lacking point of חובות הלבבות is that it’s not the original Hebrew.
It was written in Arabic and it was translated into Hebrew.
So you can be מדייק but not fully because it wasn’t the actual words
that he used.
But I’m very,
very excited to return to מסילת ישרים because these are his words and his
words are מדויק שבמדויק.
So we’ll try to notice and pick up the דיוקים as we go along
and see.
We’re only making דיוק because there’s a relevance to עבודת השם.
The only reason he wrote them was because there’s nuances to make.
We’ll try and pick them as we go along.
And then I’ll try like I just did now to give stories and examples
to make it relevant and show us how to apply it to our lives.
אמר המחבר.
החיבור הזה לא חיברתי ללמד לבני האדם את אשר לא ידעו אלא להזכירם את
הידוע להם כבר.
So he’s saying the מסילת ישרים,
the רמח"ל is saying,
I didn’t write this book with the goal of teaching new information,
rather to remind people what they already know.
Now,
it’s not that we won’t learn any new things.
We will learn many,
many,
many new things along the way.
But that wasn’t his goal.
His goal wasn’t teaching new information.
I mean his goal really is that I’m assuming you know all of this
already and if you don’t then read it once just to have חכמה.
Read it once just to get the information.
But that’s not the goal that we’re writing over here this book for.
The goal isn’t to remain on the level of חכמה as opposed to a
halachic ספר,
just to make it clear.
A halachic ספר the goal is חכמה.
The goal of a halachic ספר is you didn’t know this הלכה,
here read,
that’s the הלכה.
Okay now I know,
now I’ll do it.
But it doesn’t and you imbue it in the fact that you keep the
הלכה,
right?
But it doesn’t necessarily transform your perspective or transform who you are as a
person.
But here the goal is not to have more information.
So if you’ve read קיצור שולחן ערוך and you know everything it says there,
you don’t need to read קיצור שולחן ערוך again and again and again unless
you’re concerned that you’ll forget the הלכות.
But if you know it,
you know it.
Just in brackets,
an אברך went a couple of years ago to רב שרף.
רב שרף quotes פסוקים from all over תנ"ך and the מפרשים on the פסוקים
from תנ"ך בעל פה.
And so this אברך went to רב שרף and he said,
Rav,
I’m trying to like balance my time and it’s difficult to have a schedule
and I need to learn תנ"ך so like,
and I see that the Rav knows תנ"ך so well,
when does the Rav like fit תנ"ך into his schedule?
רב שרף said,
I read it when I was in high school.
That was it.
Okay.
We’re not all זוכה to have a photographic memory.
But you can go through תנ"ך once and you remember what all the מפרשים
say.
Just pay attention when he’s giving שיעור on Friday night or in שיעור כללי,
you’ll notice that he quotes and it’s just fun to do,
just as an exercise,
fun to do,
when he’s quoting another גמרא quickly open it up and notice how he’s saying
it בעל פה and he’s saying it word for word.
It’s just a fun exercise to notice.
And he’s going to the רש"י and he’s quoting the רש"י word for word.
Just a fun exercise to do.
Not that it’s relevant to us,
but it’s just like to see גדלות בתורה.
It’s an exercise in גדלות בתורה and gives שאיפות.
But that’s an example,
רב שרף on תנ"ך or someone who’s learned a ספר,
you don’t need to go back,
the Rav was telling him,
learn it once and that’s it.
But you don’t need to go and read it again because once you know
it,
you know it,
if it’s on the level of חכמה.
But something like מסילת ישרים,
his goal is not to be חכמה,
that’s not the goal.
The goal is to be דעת.
The goal is to be that you imbue these ideas in your practice and
that’s why it’s so exciting to read this because when you read this book
last year you were in one stage in your life.
The topics that were relevant to you were relevant at that time.
The מידות that you needed to work on were relevant at that time.
And you read it again now,
you’re a totally different person.
Your applications of מסילת ישרים are totally different.
And that’s why מסילת ישרים is eternal.
There are some books that are not eternal.
I’m not going to say the names of any books.
There are some books that you read and you can sense that they’re written
for a particular era and the issues that they’re addressing are addressing issues that
existed in that era or mentalities of people that had in that era.
And you read,
there’s a lot to take still,
there’s still a lot to take,
but the examples that are given are difficult and not what you would say
and you have to make up your own examples.
מסילת ישרים hundreds of years later is as relevant as poignant as if he
was sitting next to us right now and saying this is exactly what you
need to hear.
Genius.
Genius and the wisdom of how he is able to bring that.
It is a book of דעת.
It is a book not of new information,
it is a book of applying that information and applying and I think every
time I read it I think to myself like this is exactly what I
need to hear right now,
again and again and again at every stage of my life.
I want to just say one more point.
There is something else behind these words which is a critical point.
You often have the answer within you already.
You often have the answer within you already.
There is external knowledge which you don't have the answer within you already.
You don't have the code,
you don't have the answer of the code within you.
Just go to the guy,
ask him what the code is,
he will tell you,
you will put the code in.
That is not inner knowledge,
that is external knowledge.
You need to know that from someone else.
But inner knowledge,
which we're referring here to your relationship with הקדוש ברוך הוא,
how to work on your מדות,
how to come closer to הקדוש ברוך הוא and to do your תפקיד,
your unique role that you were put in the world for,
that you already know.
It is concealed by many many many layers and you're going to have to
learn a lot of תורה and then apply that תורה to yourself to bring
out that ultimately you already know it.
I'll give you an example of what I mean.
You're not sure of a big life decision,
something big,
which ישיבה to go to,
who to marry,
which profession to take.
Where is the answer?
The answer is already in you.
It doesn't mean you can access it.
You can't always access it.
So you speak to this person,
you speak to that person,
they say to you,
"You know what you should do?
I'll tell you,
you should do this and this and this," and you say,
"It's not it,
it doesn't resound with me." So it was good that you asked that person,
not to take their advice,
but by hearing their advice you can sense is that right or is it
wrong.
You speak to someone else and they ask you a question and you say,
"It doesn't resound with me." And then you go to someone else and they
say something and you say,
"That's it!" Not because they told you,
not because they told you,
but because you knew the answer all along,
similar to פרעה in his dreams if you know the רש"י there.
You know the answer all along.
You have the knowledge already within you.
Sometimes you need a book like מסילת ישרים to trigger it by asking the
right questions and showing you the right תורה sources.
He'll remind you of what you already know.
You don't you can't always access it.
It's true,
you sometimes need external people to bounce off ideas,
to hear ideas,
but ultimately no one else can tell you how to serve השם.
No one else can tell you how to fix your מדות in the way
that you uniquely need to.
Only you know.
And part of our עבודה here is not only knowledge of הקדוש ברוך הוא,
it is knowledge of ourselves.
Other people can give you guidelines on how to work on מדות,
other people can tell you how they came closer to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
It may or may not be the right path for you,
but what it will be will be giving you the thought to be able
to identify where you are.
You'll hear someone else how they worked on the מדה,
it may be your way,
take it on.
It may not be your way,
but by bouncing off the ideas from how they did it,
you'll say,
"I want to do it slightly differently," but I hear the model of what
they're doing,
I'm going to take that in my own way and do it differently.
So underlying what מסילת ישרים is saying here is:
"I'm not coming to teach you new information,
if our goal is עבודת השם and עבודת המדות,
you already know how to do that,
you already have it within you,
the knowledge is within,
all I'm coming to do is to discuss ideas which talk about עבודת השם
with the goal of you bringing out that which you already have,
you have already got it within you,
it's already there." הרב קוק writes in his commentary on the סידור that הנשמה
תמיד מתפללת.
The נשמה is always דאוונינג.
Our נשמה within us is calling out to הקדוש ברוך הוא constantly.
We don't always hear it because we're so distracted by all of the things
that are taking place in our lives.
The food that we're eating,
the חברותות that we're learning with,
the obligations that we have,
sometimes even religious obligations,
where I'm going to buy my אתרוג,
how I'm going to do my חזרה,
and our mind gets so occupied in חכמה that we don't hear the דעת
of the נשמה calling out to הקדוש ברוך הוא.
Sometimes we make space for it,
ימים נוראים,
or something is going wrong in our lives,
and then we hear the נשמה calling out to השם.
But the way that הרב קוק puts it is,
the truth is the נשמה is always calling out to השם,
just sometimes there's layers of confusion,
distraction,
that prevent us from hearing it.
So that's the underlying words of the מסילת ישרים:
להזכירם מה שידוע להם כבר.
I'm reminding you not of new,
I'm not teaching you new things,
I'm just reminding you of what you know already and עבודת השם and מדות
you know already.
This will trigger it,
bring it out,
but you know it already.
ומפורסם אצלם פרסום גדול.
There are some ideas that are very well known.
There's a מצווה of אהבת השם.
Everyone knows there's a מצווה of אהבת השם.
We say it every day in שמע.
ואהבת את השם אלקיך.
Everyone knows it.
So you ask someone who knows the מצווה of אהבת השם,
what have you done today in order to fulfill the מצווה of אהבת השם?
And they don't even understand the question.
What do you mean?
It's a מצווה.
Yeah,
I know it's a מצווה.
That means that you're מצווה,
right?
So what have you done today to fulfill the מצווה of אהבת השם?
So they say,
I said שמע.
So they say,
you said שמע,
that's the מצווה of saying שמע.
And in שמע it says you have to fulfill the מצווה of אהבת השם.
That's what you said in שמע.
You said ואהבת את השם אלקיך,
and I will love השם.
So all you told me was that you declared that you will fulfill the
מצווה of loving השם.
So I ask you again,
what did you do today to fulfill the מצווה of אהבת השם?
And they say,
I never thought about that question.
Isn't it just a מצווה that and they get stuck on that point.
So it's a מצווה of just פרסום גדול.
It's the most well-known מצווה right at the beginning of the רמב"ם listing the
מצוות.
Right there at the beginning,
you can't miss it.
We say it every day in the most important and critical prayer that we
have.
And everyone's saying it every day and you ask the most simple question:
how are you fulfilling the מצווה of אהבת השם?
And people are stumped by the question,
never mind the answer,
just the question.
Like,
what do you mean how do I?
I'm I'm Jewish,
I'm loving השם,
that's what I'm doing.
They can't process it,
how they're doing it,
and they probably they may be doing it within,
they probably are doing it within,
but they're not able to verbalize it.
They're not able to be eloquent and explain it,
and therefore they're not focusing on it and they're not doing it with כוונה
and they're probably not doing it as well as they could.
So part of our goal is to take things that we already know,
but give them clearer definitions and put them in the forefront of our mind
that they're going to be something that are an active עבודה.
The difference between an עבד השם and someone who's not עבד השם,
you can't always tell externally.
It could be externally that everyone in this בית מדרש is all serving הקדוש
ברוך הוא and they're all serving השם externally,
they all look the same.
But you could have some person whose mind is empty,
empty,
empty of עבודת השם,
empty.
He's דאוונען and he's not thinking what he's דאוונען.
He's learning and he's thinking through the learning in an intellectual way but it's
all on the level of חכמה.
He's doing all the מצוות because השם said,
but he hasn't thought about השם in any way.
And he's a גוף בלי נשמה.
He's doing going through the motions but he's not there.
He's actually not there.
His inner self is not there.
And we're developing a personality here of an עבד השם,
someone who's conscious of his inner world.
He's conscious of his עבודת השם and his whole world is richer,
his whole world is more alive because he's a מוסר throughout the day.
Not a מוסר ספר that he'll quote the מוסר,
but he's living that מוסר all day.
So these are the ideas that we're hoping to build together.
We only read a few lines here.
I know I do it intentionally.
My goal isn't to finish the book as quickly as possible because then it
would be חכמה.
The goal is to understand the ideas and learn how to imbue them with
דעת.
אשרינו מה טוב חלקנו that we're learning מסילת ישרים together.
We should go from the darkness to the light and imbue עבודת השם with
deepness.
יישר כח.
By the way Aaron,
that was turned off.