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I'm going to go back from the beginning and just get the רצף.
אמר המחבר החיבור הזה לא כתבתי לא חיברתי ללמד לבני האדם את אשר לא
ידעו.
My goal here,
you may learn new things but that wasn't my goal.
My goal was to review things that you already know.
And we spoke yesterday about the idea that people have inner knowledge,
they already know what their עבודת השם needs to be.
אלא להזכירם את הידוע להם כבר.
What I'm coming to do is to remind you of what you already know.
ומפורסמת פרסום גדול.
Truth is not that you know it,
but you know it so well that it's something which is known and obvious
to every people.
This is not something which is a חידוש.
כי לא תמצא ברוב דברי אלה דברים שרוב בני אדם יודעים אותם ולא מסתפקים
בהם כלל.
Most of what I have to say here is not new.
Most of what I say,
it's not even something that I need to prove.
It's things that you don't even have a doubt about.
It's things that are obvious and clear.
אלא,
but here's the issue.
שכפי רוב פרסומם,
the very fact that they're so well-known.
וכנגד מה שאמיתתם גלויה לכל,
the fact that they're some sort of universal truth that everyone is aware of.
כך ההעלם מצוי מאוד והשכחה רבה.
We said that the מסילת ישרים doesn't repeat words for no reason,
there's דיוקים.
What's the difference between העלם and שכחה?
העלם is where a person purposely ignores something.
העלם,
I'm ignoring it.
שכחה is where a person forgets it.
Meaning,
עבודת השם is something which you inherently know.
If you're not acting on עבודת השם,
why's that happening?
There are two reasons why.
One reason is העלם,
that a person has some sort of reason why he has a benefit to
ignore it.
Have to think about that for a second.
And the second reason why is that he forgets.
Now the second one I understand.
People forget lots of things.
You're working on a particular project,
it's important to you,
but you get involved in other things,
you forgot that you had that project.
The one of forgetting I understand.
But what is the one of העלם that you ignore it intentionally?
Why would you do that?
Are we not talking here about people with יראת שמים who want to work
on themselves and want to grow?
But there's an idea which we're going to need to be honest with ourselves
to clarify within,
which is called,
let's call it side benefits.
Let's call it side benefits.
In Hebrew it's called רווח משני,
secondary benefit.
Sometimes a person wants to grow in עבודת השם.
He wants to take on new projects.
He wants to be a better person than he is currently.
But if he does that,
he's going to lose out in some other way.
I'm going to tell you a very extreme story going back,
I don't usually tell stories about this era in my life,
but two out of two,
about that time when I was a מדריך on that program.
But I'm going to tell you a story which is a very extreme example
of it,
but I think it's going to make it real and then we'll try and
bring it back to ourselves in more relevant ways.
We were in a seminar,
a קירוב seminar.
And it was a full,
it was in a hotel in ירושלים.
It was a full day of שיעורים proving יידישקייט,
תורה מסיני,
a full day.
And I noticed that one of the kids was sitting at the back of
the room with big headphones on.
So I pointed it out to one of the older מדריכים.
I said look,
this guy here,
he's not involved.
So there was the head of the entire program was a rabbi who was
accompanying us and he said okay,
good,
I'll speak to him.
So the head of the program,
Rabbi Jamie,
he called out this guy and they spoke outside throughout the entire seminar and
the rest of the kids were listening to the שיעורים.
Afterwards I asked him what happened,
what was going on there?
So what turned out,
the kid,
I asked the kid.
So the kid said what turned out was this was a kid from a
non-religious home in a non-Jewish school,
had no connection to יידישקייט.
He had a little spark of interest that caused him to want to come
and learn about his and when he was sitting in that seminar he suddenly
realized that יידישקייט is true.
And then he made the next step,
that means that I have to become פרום.
And then he made the next step which means that he has to leave
his non-Jewish girlfriend.
He was in a non-Jewish school,
he was probably the only Jew that he knew and those were his חברה
and he suddenly realized that this is going to have an effect on his
life.
It's true but it can't be true,
headphones.
He'd rather ignore the truth.
So what the rabbi did was just sat outside with him and just said
where are your priorities?
Let's think it through.
What's really important to you in life?
What's your נשמה calling for?
What's long term?
And kind of set him straight.
And then he was on board,
on board.
I mean he didn't go to ישיבה unfortunately,
but he did make a great commitment to יידישקייט and we were in touch
when he went straight to university after high school.
He was in university and I was in ישיבה,
but we were in touch with each other,
and he said his best thing that he does is he goes to the
rabbi's house on Friday night and he argues with him all the questions that
he has,
and he became the defender and aggressor of אידישקייט,
but that was his main topic that he was into,
and he left that girlfriend.
So there's a concept called a side benefit,
where you want something which is true,
you want עבודת השם,
you want it,
but there's something in your life which is going to be harder.
It might be an extra five minutes with the pillow,
which is hard,
right?
It's hard to give that up.
It might be relaxing and easy time,
it might be some other connection.
Sometimes it's a mistake that a person makes,
a mistake.
Sometimes that person thinks that if I get more into אידישקייט I have to
give up my joy,
my מנוחת הנפש,
things,
my pleasure,
and I'm going to become this depressed and צדיק,
צדיק.
And if that's what I have to become,
צדיק,
I don't want it.
So then they stay not growing in עבודת השם because they have this false
image of what a really פרום person looks like and they don't like that.
They don't like that false image that they have,
so it holds them back.
So as long as we have these ulterior motives,
these side benefits which make it not worthwhile for me to continue the path
of עבודת השם,
so I'm going to ignore things that I know to be true.
That kid was an extreme example,
but we have small examples like that too.
Give you one other example which happened to me at the beginning of שנה
א'.
I started שולחן ערוך from the beginning,
started learning משנה ברורה and it was the first time I was ever seriously
learning הלכה when I came to ישיבה.
And I got to סימן ד',
and there it speaks about how to behave in the bathroom.
I was like,
God,
enough is enough.
You want to tell me how to keep שבת,
that's okay,
you want to tell me how to keep ברכות,
that's okay,
but give me a break.
There are certain areas which I don't want the הלכה to be getting involved
in.
And it was something that I had to overcome.
I had to say,
הקדוש ברוך הוא is in every area of my life.
הקדוש ברוך הוא is with me in every,
every area of my life.
There's no area which it's enough.
But that was hard for me.
That was something which I had to overcome in my mind of that yes,
yes,
עבודת השם is conquering my entire self.
My entire self is now going to be dedicated to עבודת השם.
But I had that initial sense of give me a break,
I need my space,
where a person chooses to ignore a הלכה because it doesn't fit his mentality,
doesn't fit his השקפה,
it doesn't fit his social setting.
So sometimes it's שכחה and sometimes it's העלם.
Sometimes you ignore it purposely because it doesn't suit you,
it doesn't fit in.
You have your way of how you want אידישקייט to be and that says
that's the הלכה but it's a bit too פרום for me,
so it's for the מחמירים.
I always find that word interesting,
the word מחמיר.
When is something considered מחמיר and when is something considered a הלכה?
This is roughly how it goes:
where I am is normative.
Anything below me are people who are מקל and anything above me people who
are super מחמיר.
That's how it works.
And someone came to me recently and they said to me,
why are you doing that?
You don't have to be so מחמיר.
I said to them,
what's the other option?
And they said this.
And I said,
but maybe what I'm doing is normative הלכה and what you're doing is a
קולא.
So they said,
you can always look at it that way.
I said,
yeah,
but let's look in the הלכה and see what it says.
And I showed them that what I was doing was שולחן ערוך and what
they were saying was בשעת הדחק you can do this.
I said,
it's clear over here that what you're calling normative הלכה.
They said,
doesn't it work?
This was someone in ישיבה.
He said,
doesn't it work that whatever the most lenient opinion is,
so that's the basic הלכה and anything above that is a חומרה?
That's how that was the way that they formed it.
So I said,
so according to that,
any lenient,
lenient person,
they determine what the הלכה is and everyone else is stumbling מחמיר?
And they said,
yeah,
well if there's an opinion that says it's allowed,
then it's allowed.
What,
the rabbi's making a mistake?
I said,
I wouldn't say the rabbi is making a mistake,
but it could be a דעת יחיד and it could be only a בשעת
הדחק,
and that doesn't mean that it is normative הלכה.
So people are comfortable with where they're holding and they rule out everything above
that as super מחמיר.
You have to be honest.
It's not always good to take on all the חומרות,
that for sure,
but what's considered a חומרה and what's normative הלכה?
Someone who it's not comfortable for them,
it doesn't fit into their social setting right now,
it's not relevant to me.
העלם.
So you have to identify when are you being שוכח,
that's easier,
it's not intentional,
and when it just doesn't suit you so you intentionally forget it.
The world of מוסר is going to keep you on track.
If you're learning מוסר on a constant basis,
and that's the goal of what we're coming to do here,
like I said,
not just learn מסילת ישרים but learn a mindset of מוסר,
then a person's not being מחמיר,
not being מקל,
just being honest,
just being mindful,
just being aware on a constant basis.
Am I ignoring things that are true because it doesn't suit me?
Or am I focused on what my obligations towards הקדוש ברוך הוא are?
Maybe I'll be מקל.
But it's thought through.
It's coming from a place of decision,
it's intentional,
because I'm learning מוסר.
I'm constantly thinking and I'm constantly aware in my עבודת השם.
על כן אין התועלת הנלקח מזה הספר יוצא מן הקריאה בפעם אחת.
You're not going to get much benefit from this book by reading it once,
or let me say that more accurately,
my goal in writing the book wasn't for the benefit that you'll get after
having read read it once.
There will be benefit,
but that wasn't the intention of the goal that you're going to get after
reading it once.
כי כבר אפשר שלא ימצא הקורא בשכלו חידושים אחר קריאתו.
So I just find that word amusing.
Why does he add the word בשכלו?
That's an extra word there,
right?
You don't need it.
It could have just said,
כי כבר אפשר שלא ימצא הקורא חידושים.
But he says בשכלו.
You might find in your opinion,
I mean there are many many many חידושים if someone's paying attention,
if you're looking carefully and being מדייק there are many חידושים to be made.
But בשכלו for a person that's not מוסר orientated,
you're not looking to see,
how does this speak to me and how is it relevant to me?
So it's possible that a person wouldn't find בשכלו,
in his opinion in the way that he's reading in his mind,
he wouldn't find many חידושים אחר קריאתו שלא היו בו לפני קריאתו אלא מעט.
Before he read it only a few things,
not much new over here.
So that wasn't the goal,
that wasn't the benefit of the new information.
אבל התועלת היוצא מן החזרה עליו והתמדה.
The real goal you're going to get is through reviewing it constantly.
Why reviewing it constantly?
Because if a person reviews something,
so he might think that the goal of review is that he just remembers
what it says in the book.
But that's not enough either.
The goal is the התמדה,
that you're doing on a constant basis.
If you're reviewing it once a year,
it's not going to be enough.
It has to be something which is constantly in your mind again and again
and again and again.
So you need a התמדה.
And not reviewing it once a year where you have your one מסילת ישרים
day.
חד יומא.
You have once a year where you say,
Today's my מסילת ישרים day from the morning to the end of the night,
I did my yearly חזרה,
that's not the goal.
The goal like the רמב״ם says,
the רמב״ם says if you have two choices,
choice number one to give a thousand dollars in one go,
choice number two to give a thousand dollars a dollar a day,
what's better?
So you might think in one go,
because then you can make a real difference,
like here you go you gave a big sum of money and made a
big difference.
And he says,
I'm not talking about the benefit of the receiver,
the recipient,
I'm talking about the benefit of the giver.
If you're training yourself to be a giver,
it doesn't make a difference how much you give,
it makes a difference how much you give,
how many times you've given.
The frequency of your giving is what's important.
So if you gave a thousand dollars once,
then you gave once.
You're a giver once.
If you gave a thousand dollars,
one dollar a day,
then you're a giver a thousand times.
The amount is irrelevant.
I'm just going to say this is in brackets,
don't listen to the recording.
You could save a lot of money in שלום בית with this idea of
the רמב״ם.
Between you and your wife,
it's important to make her feel that she's loved and cared for and treasured,
לפרגן,
make her feel loved.
How much do you have to spend on your wife to make her feel
that?
So some people think a lot of money,
only if you buy her something like very expensive and very,
it doesn't make a difference how much it costs,
because it's not about the item that you bought,
it's about the fact that you're showing her that she's important to you.
So if you give her something small but thoughtful on a daily basis or
a weekly basis but constantly,
constantly giving,
she'll feel more treasured and more loved than if you give a very expensive
present once a year on her birthday.
Because it's not so much,
so I just saved you a lot of money man,
right?
A lot of money.
One flower once a week is a lot cheaper than a diamond every week
every year.
So it's not about how big the gift is,
it's about the fact that you're constantly showing that you care and that you
love and that you're invested.
מוסר doesn't work that you have once a year where you review the מוסר
and that,
I remember what it says there,
I remember this from the last time that I read it,
that's not the goal.
But like the רמב״ם said,
it's about your investment again and again and again.
You're only going to gain if there's not only חזרה,
that's a double phrase that he used,
that's why I was מדייק.
It's not only חזרה that you do,
that you've reviewed it to the point that you remember,
but the התמדה,
that you're doing it on a constant basis.
כי יזכרו לו הדברים האלה הנשכחים מבני אדם בטבע.
Like we're now repeating those two ideas that we said beforehand.
Why are people not עובדי השם on a constant basis?
Either because they forget,
just the nature of man is to forget,
or because they have that some side benefit where it's not convenient for them
to do עבודת השם like we spoke about,
so they choose to actively forget.
They won't say that,
it's not,
you know,
doesn't sound פרום,
right?
But they'll allow themselves to forget even though they know it's happening,
because it doesn't fit into their social order.
So now he's saying that's why you have to learn מוסר on a constant
basis.
Number one,
because that way you'll remember the things that people naturally forget,
it's not your fault,
it's just the way that השם made you,
but by learning מוסר on a constant basis you'll be mindful,
you'll constantly be remembering what you need to do,
that's point number one.
And number two is וישים אל לבו חובתו.
אשר הוא מתעלם ממנה and you won't be able to ignore it.
It'll be awkward for you.
You'll say like,
"Yeah,
I forgot that," but then you read it again the next day,
"Oh yeah,
I'm trying to forget that but there it is again." You're trying to forget...
Okay,
okay,
I can't ignore it three days in a row,
like this is for real.
Okay,
I realize that I have some side benefit here.
I'm going to be mature about this.
I'm putting my side benefit aside,
I'm going to do what I need to do.
And by learning מוסר on a constant basis,
you'll be able to be focused in your עבודת השם in the most way
possible.
How do we stop ourselves from becoming accustomed to it?
If we're doing it every day?
Like if we're learning every day like you do with your husband or with
your wife,
now doing it every day,
after a while you just get used to it.
Yeah,
so you're asking an excellent question.
If a person does something repeatedly,
let's give the example of שמונה עשרה for example,
right?
The first time a person takes דאווענינג seriously,
then he decides that he's going to learn שמונה עשרה,
what it's about,
what do the words mean,
what's the intention behind it,
and he's going to get into it.
So he learns the פירוש,
he takes one of the ספרים,
let's say Rabbi Schwalb on prayer,
and he reads through what the words mean and he understands it.
And now he's דאווענינג the first ברכה of שמונה עשרה with more intention.
That works well.
How long does it last for?
It lasts for a period of time,
a few days,
maybe a couple of weeks,
but then it gets into his rote.
Now,
going into rote is not a bad thing inherently.
When I learned to drive,
the first time I sat in the car,
I didn't know everything and they were teaching me things:
you have to look in the mirror and look in this mirror and look
in that mirror,
and there's three different pedals,
and then afterwards it became two pedals,
but at the beginning it was three pedals.
And then you have to figure it out,
and ברוך השם,
ברוך השם it became second nature for me.
Now I'm able to drive and talk on the phone and eat and crash,
all at the same time.
I can do many things at the same time.
But at the beginning I couldn't do it,
I had to do one at a time because I had to focus.
So the fact that things become rote for you,
that's a very,
very good thing in some areas.
In areas of things which you don't need to be actively thinking,
it's a great thing to do.
I told this story once last year,
I should tell it again.
I remember once when I was buttoning my shirt,
right?
So when I first buttoned my shirt,
so like I didn't always get it exactly right when I was very young,
right?
Like the top one and the second one,
which way it goes,
right?
And so I remember my mother,
עליה השלום,
she taught me:
so you start from the bottom,
put the two pieces of the shirt at the bottom together,
and then work your way up,
those two go together and then everything else will fall into place.
But if you start in the middle,
then you might get it wrong.
So ברוך השם I can take today,
today I don't need to do that anymore,
you know?
I can and now I just figure it out that I can start even
from the middle and I still get it right somehow.
So ברוך השם,
could you imagine if everything in my life I had to do like the
first time I did it,
with that level of focus that I had to put the two parts of
the shirt at the bottom together?
I wouldn't be able to function or move on.
So the idea that things become rote is a ברכה in some areas.
And you have to know which areas it becomes a ברכה in and you
allow that to take effect and you can focus on higher level things.
But you're saying here a good point,
but we don't want this to become rote.
We don't want שמונה עשרה to become rote,
we want to be actively focused.
We don't want עבודת השם or מוסר learning to become rote.
That's why learning specifically a book like מסילת ישרים,
the goal isn't just the reading,
it's the application.
When you're reading this book,
the goal is that you divide your סדר מוסר into two parts.
In this forum we're only doing the first part,
but I'll try and do the second part a little bit,
but you have to do the second part yourself.
Part number one is where you read what it says here,
you think more deeply about what that means.
Part number two is you say,
"Well how does that apply to me right now in my life and where
is it relevant?" It's rote if you just say,
"I have a סדר מוסר,
I have to read the book," you read through it and now I'm moving
on with my life,
then it becomes rote.
But if you pause and you're saying,
"How does this apply to me right now?
How is it relevant to me right now?
And how am I going to apply the words right now?" Then it's always
fresh because you're going through your life on a constant basis.
Different things are happening to you throughout your life.
You have different modes of life,
you have different people that you're meeting,
you have different issues that you're going through,
challenges that you have,
ברכות that you have in your life.
And therefore the application of the words will constantly be different.
So it's not rote to say thank you to השם if you're thinking on
a daily basis what happened to me today that was new that I have
to say thank you for.
It's rote if you say,
"I have to say thank you to השם every day,
thank you השם." That's it.
If you just say the words "Thank you השם," then you're right,
it becomes rote,
and then a person's not thinking.
But if you're applying it every day and going back to the משל of
the wife that we said,
if a person just says,
"I'm going to buy flowers for my wife every week," then you gave it
to her,
there you finished.
But if,
and this is עבודה,
right?
This is being mindful,
but that's what the goal of מוסר is.
But if you think to yourself during that week,
what happened this week that was something special?
Something that she made for me,
something that she said,
something that was meaningful for me,
something that happened.
And then when you give her the flower that once a week you say,
"No,
I just want to mention that it meant a lot to me when you
said this or when you did this," and you mention something that uniquely happened
that week in the relationship,
then the relationship is alive and you're keeping it going.
So it's up to you.
It could become rote,
and we said there are some areas where it's important for things to become
rote,
that's a good thing.
But in the area of relationship with your wife and the relationship with הקדוש
ברוך הוא,
there it's up to you to keep it fresh.
Learning מוסר gives the setting of keeping it fresh.
It's up to you to do the second part of the מוסר,
which is then applying it back to yourself.
thinking how is my life different?
And I'm going to add that back to שמונה עשרה as well.
שמונה עשרה,
the point is that you're reading those same words but applying them to yourself
now in who you are today.
And that's a big challenge because giving a flower to your wife once a
week and thinking to yourself what's happened over the course of the week,
that's probably able to fine.
Something happened well over the week.
But from שמונה עשרה to שמונה עשרה,
especially in Kemp Avenue it's a bit easier because we have מנחה at 3:30
and מעריב only at 7:30 or 8:15.
But the people who דאוון מנחה מעריב back-to-back,
that's a big challenge.
But the ideal is supposed to be that between your שמונה עשרה until the
next שמונה עשרה,
you contemplate what happened in my life between now and then.
I was in a business deal,
I had a good חברותא,
I had a negative interaction with someone.
Something happened in your life.
And you're mindful,
you're thinking it through and you're saying הקדוש ברוך הוא,
what happened there?
You're noticing the יד ה׳
or you're turning to הקדוש ברוך הוא for help in understanding something and whatever
happened in those few hours in between שמונה עשרה to שמונה עשרה,
you bring that into your שמונה עשרה.
That's not going to help you with every single ברכה,
but it will help you with a mindset of you're turning to הקדוש ברוך
הוא from a new emotional state.
It doesn't happen if you're not mindful.
You're just blank in your mind about what happened and how to apply that
back to הקדוש ברוך הוא,
שמונה עשרה will become irrelevant,
just words that you say where you switch off the mind.
But if you're mindful and you're an איש מוסר,
you're an איש עבד ה׳
or a נפש יפה,
there's many words for it,
but someone who's focused in their עבודת ה׳,
then what will happen is that every שמונה עשרה will be a new opportunity
to apply everything that's just happened to you.
That's the end of what I want to say,
but I just want to say one more point.
My son,
he should live and be well,
he joined the army last week.
He used to phone us once a week,
sometimes once every other week,
when he was in ישיבה.
Don't do that,
call your parents more often.
But my son,
he was in the ישיבה,
it was going well,
he would phone once a week or once every other week.
Now,
he phones every night or every other night.
So for us him being in the army is great,
we have much more interaction with him and we hear from him much more
often.
But I can see what's happening,
right?
So he's in the army and it's a new experience and he wants to
share and he wants to share and we really want to hear what's going
on.
So when he was in ישיבה there wasn't much to say,
like you say,
I had a good חברותא today,
like it went well.
What do you share?
I remember one year we were learning סנהדרין and the סוגיות we were learning,
I don't know if you've learned the סוגיות of פלגינן דיבורא,
but they're very,
very difficult סוגיות to share back with your family.
Like they're very,
very difficult סוגיות,
a man was having relations with a man and he's testifying about the other
man that he did that but he himself did that,
you can't just like,
so what are you learning משה?
Oh yeah פלגינן דיבורא.
Oh yeah tell me what it's about,
like you just can't go into it.
So my son would say I had a great סדר,
okay,
but he wasn't going to start go into the סוגיות.
But now he's like phoning and he's sharing and on a daily basis it's
exciting as it's his first week,
right?
It's going to get boring later on when he's doing שמירות,
just standing at a base not doing much.
But now it's his first week,
he's learning many,
many new things.
So he's phoning every day and I did this today,
I did this today,
it's really exciting.
That same model of my son phoning home and like sharing what's going on,
that's the same model of you דאוונינג שמונה עשרה.
You had a few hours since the last time you checked in with ה׳.
A few things happened in your life.
They may be big and bombastic like what's happening to my son right now,
learning brand new things.
They may be subtle but because you're an איש מוסר you're aware of those
subtle things.
You have an intuition,
you have an understanding,
you're looking into who you are and what's going on.
You notice that that interaction you had with someone,
that brought out something in you that was interesting to you and you want
to talk to הקדוש ברוך הוא about it.
So in the same way as my son's waiting till the end of the
day to phone home and share what's going on,
between שמונה עשרה to שמונה עשרה it should be alive.
You're thinking before you start שמונה עשרה what insights have I had,
what understandings have I come to about myself,
about עם ישראל,
about the world,
about my תורה learning,
and then that you bring in as part of your שמונה עשרה and then
it's alive.
ותראה אם תתבונן בחובה ברוב העולם,
you're going to see if you look at the majority of the world,
כי רוב אנשי השכל המהיר והפקחים החריפים ישימו רוב התבוננותם והסתכלותם בדקות החכמות ועומק
העיונים.
Most people who are intelligent and sharp in the world,
actually I'm going to pause here.
I want to give this credit and we have two minutes left.
So I'll just pause and say the one last point which is going to
be an introduction to what we're going to say next.
There are two areas of wisdom.
We spoke about this already yesterday and I'm repeating it again now.
There's an area of wisdom which is inherently dry.
It's inherently dry.
Like math is inherently dry.
Just it is dry.
The information is not alive.
There's an area which is,
even math is dry.
There's an area which is alive.
The relationship with your life,
your wife is something which is alive.
A plant is alive.
If you don't water the plant on a constant basis the plant's going to
die.
If you don't learn two plus two is four,
it's not going to die.
It's a truth which is out there objectively.
It doesn't need you focusing on it to keep it alive.
It is there inherently.
The wisdom of your relationship with your friends,
with your parents,
the wisdom of growing a plant,
something which is alive,
needs constant investment.
The wisdom of objective truths,
like math,
like science,
like those things,
that you could learn them,
but they don't need you to learn them for them to keep going.
They exist inherently.
עבודת השם,
which category is it in?
Some people say it's in the category of an objective truth.
השם exists.
He exists,
He created the world,
it's an objective truth,
and that is true.
It is in that category.
But your relationship with הקדוש ברוך הוא is not in that category.
השם existing,
that's an objective truth.
Your relationship with Him is like a plant.
The more you water it,
the more it grows.
If you abandon it,
it wilts.
עבודת השם is not enough that you're learning גמרא.
That's saying השם exists.
But your relationship with Him is something which you have to be constantly,
constantly watering in order for it to be alive.
And only when you're learning מוסר or learning how to apply גמרא to you
and investing in that relationship,
then that becomes a relationship which is alive and thriving.
And that's what we're going to open up for about two different categories of
people בעזרת השם we will see tomorrow.
יישר כוח.