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A new learning series with Rav Shlomo Katz on the sefer יין ישן by Rav Nissan.
Rav Shlomo returns to the inner foundations of Jewish life through a sefer that brings the world of Chassidus into clear, living language.
These shiurim are about the basics in the deepest sense: Emunah, closeness to Hashem, the Jewish soul, and the foundations that help a person live with more depth, simplicity, and truth.
בוקר טוב, חודש חשוון. Sponsors of the חודש חשוון is by Tina Tobin for a complete רפואה שלמה מלכה עליזה בת מזל, by the Finns for a רפואה שלמה יהודית בת שרה, and anonymously for a זיווג הגון אסתר בת רחל, נחמה מרים בת צינה פערל, יעלה רוויה בת חנה דבורה, גליה בת יהודית. We have pages here. We're starting a new פרק today in יין ישן.
Whoever needs, דף ט"ו.
דף ט"ו, we have a beautiful new פרק, a short פרק we're going to be seeing today. To remind us all where we were last time, the last thing we began was a פרק in עבודת השם, how to know השם, דעת of השם. We had a lot of amazing things coming up in that פרק, a lot of quotes from the זיידע of the מחבר, ר' שלמה טברסקי זכר צדיק קדוש לברכה.
Today, what we're going to be seeing is something that's more, I would say, mapped out. Mapped out. There's something to you could map this out very clearly based on the רמח"ל, based on the מסילת ישרים. We all want סדר in our lives, I think.
I'm under the impression we want סדר in our lives. I don't know. What do you say, boys? For sure on פסח. I'll be here all day.
I'll be here all day. You got started. Usually he waits, I don't know, today was זריזין מקדימין. Today we want today we want a little bit of סדר, want to make a little bit of order in things.
There's something מיישב את הדעת when I can put things into place to get the to get the מערבולת, the complete state of of frantic משוגעס that's usually going on in our minds with all the things we have to do. Think about all the things you have to do just today. When it comes to עבודת השם, where does it start? Where do you begin? Let's try to get it מיוסד. Let's try to get a סדר today.
There's all these different parts of עבודת השם. A lot of things fall under עבודת השם. So let's look.
כתב במסילת ישרים בהקדמתו, this is the beginning of מסילת ישרים, in the intro to מסילת ישרים.
The רמח"ל writes like this: שעבודת השם יתברך נחלקת בדרך כלל לחמישה חלקים. Usually serving השם is divided into five different parts.
והמה מפורטים על ידי משה רבינו עליו השלום בפסוק, "מה השם אלוקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה". So this is divided, we see this through the פסוק that משה רבינו tells us in ספר דברים.
Five different things.
והם: א', שמירת כל המצוות, keeping all the מצוות. You thought he was going to start off easy. He's starting off right at the top: שמירת כל המצוות, הן בסור מרע והן בעשה טוב.
The ones I have to the things in life I have to stay away from, and the things in life I have to do good.
ובכלל זה, included in this is the מצווה of תלמוד תורה. That's א', keeping all the מצוות.
ב', אהבת השם יתברך, loving השם.
ג', יראת השם יתברך, having יראה. The fourth thing, שלמות הלב. What does that mean, שלמות הלב?
רצה לומר שתהא עבודה בלב שלם ובלי פניות וגם לא יהא כפוסח על שתי סעיפים, that when you're doing something, you're fully in. You're all in.
Just like right now in שיעור, you're either all in or you're not.
דאווענען, you're either all in or you're not.
שבת, you're either all in or you're not. Sammy's here, so I'm trying not to get like really triggered, but ארץ ישראל, you're either all in or you're not, right? Either all in or you're not.
That's what it means שלמות הלב. My heart is fully in it, fully. I'm in a program, I'm the חבר'ה from the מכון, I'm either fully in or I'm not.
שלמות הלב.
שנייה?
וגם לא יהא כפוסח על שתי סעיפים, he ends off here. He's saying, you know what פוסח על שתי סעיפים means, right? You're not jumping, you're not holding in two places at once. What's that? Trying to multitask. Yeah, I thought I thought Yehuda, it's anti-multitasking, באמת.
We're always trying to do two things at once or three things at once. Like, you know, דף יומי, קדושה, and making sure the guy next Like, you know, a bunch of things together at once. It's like the most incredible thing is שלמות הלב, that I'm fully, my heart's fully in, I'm שלם with it.
ה', that was four, ה', the fifth thing, תיקון המידות, fixing our מידות.
cleansing ourselves from the things that we know we have to cleanse. I want to give a quick recap. What are the five parts of עבודת השם? First of all, keeping all the תורה and מצות. Second of all, loving God.
Third of all, being in awe of השם. Fourth of all, being all in. Five, consciously working on my מידות. Yeah, נפתלי, what were you going to say? No, I was just going to say it's awesome the way he lays it out because, like, first of all, first do everything you're supposed to do before you get to how you feel about doing it.
למה, בדיוק, why did he say that? Because, like, to say, "No, I don't This doesn't feel real. I don't want to do this. I don't connect with this." First do what you're That's what everyone says today, "No, I want to you know, I grew up, everyone told me I have to do this, do that. Now, I want to feel.
I want to feel it. And then, I'll do it." Can you imagine that if we would have said נשמע ונעשה, we would not have gotten the תורה. Like, we got the תורה because of what נפתלי just brought up. We got the תורה because we didn't say, "I'm not going to wait till I feel.
I'm I'm all in. First, I'm keeping everything. I have to keep everything." That's that's how it starts. This, according to the רמח״ל, is חמשת חלקי עבודת השם, the five parts of עבודת השם.
Okay.
ומבואר שם, second פרק. Any other questions so far? Yeah, I'm not a 100% sure, but the פסוק פסוקים that he's referring to, I could be wrong, but I think it's in reverse orders. We're just talking about how the order mattered.
I think it mentions the מצות after. It mentions יראה first, yeah.
מה השם אלקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה אותו, it's true. He brings it here in his in this own סדר, it's true.
I think because the פסוק saying where we would ultimately want to get. We ultimately want to get to a place of יראה and אהבה, like the way to get there isn't by saying, "I want" It's not by saying by saying, "I want to be at that emotion first and then I'll do it." First do the work, and you'll get to that place that that השם wants us to get to. That's true, but what what Sami is saying is also true, meaning the order is is not is reversed over here. It is.
That's the חידוש of the מחבר, yeah, 100%. By משה רבינו, it says it like that. Okay, maybe he'll explain it a little bit clearer why he why he does it like this, but I think that what you said is already sheds a lot of light on this whole matter.
ומבואר שם, meaning שם in the in the רמח״ל, in the מסילת ישרים, it's explained there דכל חלק מחמישה חלקים אלו צריך עבודה ועמל ותחבולות לקנותו.
Okay, now this is why we're here. Every piece over here, every piece of this puzzle needs, you got to put in the work.
אין מה לעשות, you got to put in the work in order to be קונה it, in order for it to make a קנין on it. Now, like for instance, a lot of people go to שיעורים, but their phone's on their lap or in their pocket half the time, then they're wondering, "I don't know, I don't know, לא יודע, I don't really feel it.
I don't really remember what's going Like, that's exactly what the what the ענין is. It's like it's got to be You got to be fully in, otherwise, it won't You won't make a Put it like this, you won't make a קנין on it. You may be able to to to say a ווארט, but we want to make קנינים on what we learn. You want to make a קנין on You want to make a קנין on שחרית right now.
You want to make a קנין on these things. Now, he uses a word here that the פיאסצנא uses all over בני מחשבה טובה and throughout the ספרים. And that what Did anyone Did anyone see the word we just said?
תחבולות, very good. What's תחבולות? Hacks, tricks.
You got to come up What's that? Counsel, advice. Right, but in a in a בתחבולות תעשה לך מלחמה, meaning in a in a in a tricky way. Like, each of us have our own hacks. Like, I have friends that they they only their wives know the password to unlock the security wifi, for instance, like that, you know what I mean? Like, only their wives have the have the code that you could put in in order to access certain websites that you need, like, in times of, like, transfers, banks, לא יודע מה.
Other than that, it's fully locked it's fully locked up. That's a תחבולה. That's a little bit That's like That's like a trick. So, each person needs a trick, a hack in order to make sure that they could stay in a realm of, "I'm making קנינים on my עבודת השם.
I want to own it. I want to own it. I want to make a קנין on it." ולא יב- And and it's it's only going to happen through putting in the work. It doesn't work any other way.
Someone that's sitting back and just saying, "השם, have רחמנות on me, just like may it drop from שמים." You know what? Sometimes people, they do say like they got a מתנת חינם, but it's only because they were involved in the work, and then they feel like it's a מתנת חינם. Even people that work so hard that work so hard on things, if it's for real, when they get that taste of making a קנין in עבודת השם, the last thing they do is attribute it to themselves and their hard work, cuz even that they say that's also a gift. A person that puts in the work in marriage, in שלום בית, and it happens. What happens? The flow is there.
It happens, the flow happens. There's a קנין made on שלום בית. Any real person with an ounce of a קאפ would say, "And that also is a מתנת חינם," and they wouldn't attribute it to their own עבודה. But he's saying, based on the name of the רמח״ל, anything here is all based on עבודה, work, עבודת השם.
You know what turned me on so much to the early ספרים, to the first few ספרים I would learn about the older ברסלבר צדיקים, is that every few every few, at the risk of sounding like Joey Newcomb for a few minutes, every few minutes they would talk about the עבודה, the עובדים, the עבודה. You think these guys are carpenters, shoemakers, like what עבודה they talking For them, what they took on was עבודה. What they took on, they looked at like work, like you would take seriously something that you get paid by a boss for work. They took עבודת השם like it was ממש עבודה, literally like that.
You read these ספרים about like I don't I mention I haven't mentioned his name in a while. I have a חשק to mention his name: רב שמואל שפירא.
רב שמואל שפירא from ברסלב, רב אברהם שטרנהרץ of כוכבי לב, רבי רוזנפלד צדיק, right?
רבי רוזנפלד. All these בן ציון אפטר, all these all these גדולים from back in the generation, they they they referred to their daily life as עבודות, עבודות, עבודות, cuz for them, this is what they wanted to make a קנין on.
A person wants to feel like an established human being by bringing home a paycheck to his wife and children, and they'll do anything, hopefully, to make sure that happens. Imagine if that's how our תפיסה of עבודת השם would be. We'd be we'd be all in, and we're getting there. We'd be all in.
Whatever it is I take upon myself, I'd be all in. Again, I want to start the second paragraph: מבואר שם דכל חלק מחמשה חלקים אלו צריך עבודה ועמל ותחבולות לקנותו ולא יבא מאליו בלי השתדלות להשיגו. Don't just expect things to just show up.
ודלא כמו שחושבים הרבה, and not like many people think, שדי להם בעשיית המצוות, it's enough if I just do מצוות, וחושבים ששאר המעלות יבאו מאליהן לפי כישרון מעשיהם.
And all those other מעלות of אהבה and יראה and תיקון המדות, they'll just show up. I'll just make sure I keep שבת, and I don't eat טריף. I keep כשר. We have In our house, we're very מקפיד טהרת המשפחה.
The מחבר says, don't think the other things that we're speaking about, the מעלות over here, are just going to show up. Everything is work.
ואינו כן אלא בלי השתדלות לא יושגו. It will not be accomplished without the work.
וכמו שכתב בחובת התלמידים, ברוך שכווננו. He brings the פיאסעצנא today. So so far we have the רמח״ל, it's good company, רב משה חיים לוצאטו, and רב קלונימוס קלמיש שפירא as our צדיקים that are leading us through today's learning. So he's quoting the חובת התלמידים, שבלא יגיעה, without work, אי אפשר להגיע לשום דבר.
You can't reach anything. A lot of חבר'ה come to שול: "I don't know, I don't feel it. I don't feel it." Yeah, what are you what are you working on? What What part of work was part of "I don't feel it"? Doesn't work like that.
זה לא עובד ככה.
Marriage, שנה ראשונה: "I didn't know." Then you're like שנה שמונים: "I don't feel it." No, everything is הכל הכל תלוי לפי העבודה.
הכל לפי ההשתדלות.
בלא יגיעה אי אפשר להגיע לשום דבר.
חבר'ה come, move to ארץ ישראל: "I made the מצוה, עליה, מצות ישוב הארץ.
Don't feel it. It's not there. I don't feel it." What? What? What about the work? "What do you mean, the work? I made עליה. I left I left Bergenfield.
Are you crazy? I left Thornhill. I should feel it." No, no, no. You did a מצוה.
שכוייח! You did a מצוה.
Feel it? Feel it only comes through יגיעה.
קנין? Only through יגיעה.
יגיעה is the toil.
בלא יגיעה אי אפשר להגיע לשום דבר, וביגיעה אפשר להגיע אל הכל.
But with toiling, the רמח״ל says you could reach anything and everything.
עד כאן דבריו הקדושים. I want you to remember that ראשי תיבות, cuz it shows up all the time.
עד כאן דבריו הקדושים.
ולכן, therefore, על האדם לחפש ולהשתדל להגביר האהבה והיראה אליו יתברך. What should a person be looking for? To try and turn on the volume on love and awe. But I don't feel it! You actively turn it on. How? Be conscious and be aware of everything that you're doing.
Ask השם every single moment to turn on the love and the fear.
והאמונה ובטחון בו יתברך, faith and trust in הקדוש ברוך הוא, שהם בכלל שלימות הלב, which fall under the category of being all in, ולתקן מדותיו, and to fix our מדות.
ובלעדי העבודה בדברים אלו ישאר ריק מהם. Without the work in these matters, you will feel, which is the worst thing in the world, you're going to feel empty of a life of תורה and מצות.
Isn't that the- that's the worst thing in the world. It's worse than having a life without תורה and מצות for a person inside. To have a life where you're keeping everything, but you don't feel any of it, and you didn't make a קנין on any of it, and makes you feel ריק inside messes us up like like it's no one's business, ממש messes us in our core.
ואף אם יקיים המצות כפי יכלתו, אין בידו רק חלק אחד מחמשה ממה ששואל מעמו השם יתברך.
And let's say you kept all the מצות, you only kept really one out of the five things that השם says He's waiting for us to do.
והשאר אין בו, the rest you don't have.
ולכן צריך לשום לב לכולם להשתדל לקנותם. And that's why a person has to pay attention, I would say they have to, Yudi, cuz he just says over here ולכן צריך לשים לב, right, לכולם להשתדל לקנותם.
My עבודת השם has to be one that I'm consciously putting in an effort to make a קנין on something.
כל חלק כפי האמצעים הנצרכים להשיגו, whatever I need for each חלק, ולהלן נאריך באיזה בהם בפרטות, we'll go into detail later. But I want us to think about this outside the text for a second.
כמעט every person in this in this room has done at least one קנין in their life.
Which one?
קנין סודר, כתובה, right? That's a קנין. And what do you have to do? I had this amazing experience last night. I married off this amazing couple, this artsy couple, this like very artistic couple. He's from Australia, she's I believe from Germany, was out in יפו, יפו העתיקה, and I was trying to, and it's not a חבר'ה that really, you know, is like a שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום חבר'ה, you know what I mean? So I was like trying to find the words to explain why he's going to lift up his pen and make a קנין on how do you make an acquisition.
Also you've got to be very careful. 2026, you have to find the right words to explain that what he's doing right now with making an acquisition on this קנין of a of a כתובה. I was trying to find the words for it. I think what came down was that right now what the חתן is basically attempting to do in front of his future father-in-law is that he's just taking ערבות.
He's taking responsibility. He's making himself a guarantor that he's going to do whatever he can in order to show appreciation for the infinitely infinitely געוואלד gift called a soulmate. That was like the closest I could get to like to say it in a לשון hopefully that could be מתקבל על הבריות, you know what I mean? So if everyone in this room has made a קנין, hopefully, בעזרת השם, everyone whoever needs to make another קנין should make another קנין, whoever needs to make their first קנין should find that first person to make the קנין with, but we've made a קנין on something. Now let me ask you a question.
When you made a קנין on a כתובה, right, hopefully the רב went over the כתובה with you, what did it feel like when you made a קנין, when you lifted up that we made a קנין, what's called a קנין סודר, where you lift up an object and in front of עדים you're making a קנין on that כתובה? What did that feel like? Responsibility. What else? What else, more than responsibility? Technical. Technical. It was also a שטיקל technical.
It's a technical thing. That's very good. What else? What other emotion, maybe? Protocol. Protocol, right.
So those things are כאילו not not a Not emotional, right? That's what I'm trying to get to. If we're just looking to be emotional over every, you know, ענין of עבודת השם, we will fall on our faces before we even start. It's not just this emotional business.
קנין.
Making a קנין on something is responsibility. It's protocol, yes. But the thing is is that that is the בסיס, that's the כלי for all the אור of emotions and feelings to have a home in. And they're dependent on each other.
And it's a it's a wonderful thing. So he's gonna Now he's gonna he's gonna explain like talking about like רוחניות and everything. It it only really starts once the responsibility is there. So again, once these five things that the רמח״ל is saying משה רבינו is explaining to us that השם is asking of us, only once those five things are set in place, not that I've done קנינים on all of it, but that I mapped it out and I said, "I want to be that person that considers himself to be an עובד השם, an עבד השם or an עובד השם (depends how you טייטש it based on the אלטר רבי, right?).
And I'm part of עובדי השם. I'm currently consciously in the act of serving God." What does that mean? It means that maybe I'm not in שול right now, maybe right now there's not a מצוה מעשית that I have to keep right now, but I'm still in this program called תיקון המדות, asking for love and awe and having שלמות הלב and being all in. All in, it's the greatest privilege in the world. And yeah, it's awesome and it's full of responsibility.
But those are the things in life that we want to be most proud of, the things that we decide that we're all in. Those are the things we're most proud of about in life. Not "I'm so proud that I waited and I finally had an emotion of דביקות." That that doesn't work.
זה לא הולך ככה.
Let us go weiter, bottom paragraph.
ומי שרוצה להתעלות ברוחניות, a person that wants to climb this ladder of spirituality, אין לו אלא לילך מחיל אל חיל בחמישה חלקי עבודה אלו, you have to go from strength to strength through these five things.
ומאד יש ליזהר, one must be very cautious, שיהיה עיקר עבודתו רק בהם, that what you're what you're what you're spending your time on, what you're putting your קישקעס into are these things.
ולא להניח עצמו לנטות ולהסתבך בדברים טפלים וחיצונים, and don't get yourself into this הסתבכות, this maze of being invested in דברים טפלים וחיצונים.
Now I want to ask you, tell me what you think. When he says here, "טפלים, דברים טפלים וחיצונים", what do you think he's referring to? Or put it like this: what don't you think he's referring to? That he's That he's not referring to that. Correct. I don't think either that he's referring over here to saying, "And don't get caught up in like watching dirty movies." If that's Then you're not in If you're learning this ספר, that's not exactly where where where the עיקר struggle.
What is he saying is, what does he mean here by טפלים וחיצונים? Huh? Golf. Golf? Hold on. Golf? See, ארי, it's in the air. Golf? What do you think? You think he refers You think golf? Could be.
Let's go even like מעלים בקודש, ah, פרנסה?
פרנסה, technicalities of life. So, פרנסה's one of them. For some, it's golf. Depends where you're holding in life, right?
טפלים No, no, this is very important.
טפלים וחיצונים can be things that are מלובש as if they're דברים שהכי קדושים שבעולם. They they are How do you say מלובש? They're in-clothed, they have garments of as if they appear to be the most important things in the world, even the holiest things in the world. So, how does a person find out what's עיקר and what's טפל in life? Ah, so this is already the מחבר is telling us, these five things have to be in front of you. If something doesn't fall into this category of the five things, rest assured it's טפל and it's חיצוני.
It's not that it's טמא. We're not talking about טמא'דיק things. We're just thinking about things that don't really, they they, I really connect most to how משה said it: the technicalities of life. 'Cause look what he says in the next page: כי הם טורדים את הלב מן העיקר.
Because those are the things טורד את הלב.
טורד את הלב, איי, we are always stuck in this, all of us.
טורדים את הלב. First of all, I want to give everyone a ברכה that we should have so much פרנסה in order to be the עבד, in order to have the the focus on being עבדי השם במלוא מובן המילה, בעזרת השם.
טורדים את הלב, yes, that they burden our hearts, they sit as burden on our hearts, and they remove us from being focused on the עיקר.
שעל ידי שמדגיש את הטפל אי אפשר להרגיש, אי אפשר להדגיש את העיקר כדבעי. When the טפל becomes emphasized, when technicalities of life are what I spend most of my day thinking about, then the עיקר of life gets so much less focus and spotlight, like the things that really really matter. Obviously, we always say this, how often people walk away from a funeral with all the epiphanies in the world? The epiphanies like all the מחשבות about what they need to do, when did they come to this realization? When they realized that they themselves are going to die one day.
It's not how we want to live. That's not That That's not the way That's not the way it goes. Now שלמה המלך obviously understood this, and that's why he says in קהלת that it's better to spend time by ניחום אבלים than it is by a סעודת מצוה, by a by a משתה, right? Why? Because by a משתה, that doesn't really bring out the עיקר of life. It's true that mortality does bring out the עיקר of life, but it's only temporary.
When a person invests in the עיקר of life, these five things all the time, you don't need funerals to remind you how precious it is to be an עבד השם. Life itself is a walking example of what you want it to be.
ולכן, and this I'm sure you are all going to love what he's going to say right now, ולכן יש למעט בחיפוש אחר הנהגות חיצוניות וחומרות שונות. This is very רב נחמנ'י also.
רב נחמן says this about פסח, and he says it בכלל. Don't try to be a person that's searching, and like their their their dream in life is to find extra strange חומרות, right? Anyone have any problem with that? Everyone Everyone's fine with that one, right? But then he adds over here, חוץ מאלו שקיבל מאבותיו ורבותיו לנהוג בהם. But, you know, what do you know, on פסח, געבראכטס. Don't, you know, if that For some people, right, they're very מקיל all year long a bunch of different things, comes פסח, געבראכטס, יהרג ואל יעבור, why? 'Cause there's something very precious, מנהג אבותינו בידינו, when you do carry a tradition that that came down from, it is beautiful.
It is It's a beautiful thing. But what the מחבר is saying: don't go out of your way to look for חומרות משונות, why? 'Cause those are things that are taking you away from the עיקר. It's It's It's taking you away from what really matters, what's the most important thing.
ובלשון הרב הקדוש הרבי ר' אלימלך מליז'ענסק, שהביא בנו הרב הקדוש, you know, it's interesting that the הייליגע נועם אלימלך had a son, his name was ר' אלעזר.
He was fire. But because he's the son of the נועם אלימלך, there's not such a דגש on him in his life enough. He'll probably I have this hunch that he's going to emerge in this like this next door people find out about צדיקים. I think, mark my words, here I did, predicting it right now.
Hopefully, I'm much more מדויק than the polls of the Israeli media, but you know, I think that ר' אלעזר, his son, is going to become one of the big big giants of the next generation. So, his son brought a a letter, במכתבו הנדפס בספר עשר צחצחות, וזה לשונו: And he brings a his son brings a letter of his father, that he writes like this: מי שהוא שואל אם לומר זמירות אלו או לזולתם, ואם לומר שיר השירים בעת הזאת או באחרת, ושאר שטותים כאלו, עיין שם, שאר דבריו הקדושים החוצבים להבות אש. The truth is we don't have to learn the rest of the letter, all only thing we have to know is what he what he said over here. What did What did his father say? Whoever's asking me, should they say that their שאלות, what they what's bothering them in life is should they say this זמירות on Friday night or that זמר on Friday night, or should they say שיר השירים here or there, or ask me other nonsense things like that, that's all we need to know.
of the letter. What was he saying? He's not belittling, חלילה, שיר השירים. He's not belittling קה רבון, צור משלו, אזמר בשבחין. What he's belittling is thinking, when a person thinks that his תיקון הנפש is dependent on these ענינים.
It's חזק stuff. Very, like, חזק today. Very yeah. No, I'm just saying, but isn't half of חז״ל about what shoe do I put on first, and what shoe lace do I tie first? What I'm saying, that all sounds like in the macro picture is, you know, it's also שטותים שטויות, but I'm saying, but that's half of, half of the שלחן ערוך is busy with these things.
How about we just No, no, no.
שלחן ערוך is not busy with what זמר you do and what you don't. How about we, like this, let's let's learn the שלחן ערוך, keep what's in there, and not add on anything else. I'm down to even do the קיצור שלחן ערוך.
Why? It's more passive work. You hear what I'm saying? When is it שטויות and when is it Listen, only a רבי like the נועם אלימלך could see such words, that a person that's asking about Friday night, which זמר to say, which not to say, is in the bigger picture of that person's life, שטות. Well, one's הלכה and one's מנהג. Right.
So, this is a little bit different. Like my you know, נחמן's asking me, it's very interesting.
נחמן, because we established he puts on the right shoe first, then the then the other shoe. Now he has now he has shoes with שרוכים, with with laces, right? So, then we we we started doing the left lace before the right lace.
And he's like, "No, אבא, we're supposed to" the the like it's good to have these things in the consciousness, but this is הלכה'דיק stuff. This is not מנהגים stuff. He's talking now about מנהגים. But but I'm telling you, I've seen this quite often with with חברה, that they get so caught up with the הנהגות, באמת, that it's like It could be it's the most beautiful הנהגה for someone that's like already mastered all the other things of the חמישה חלקים that משה רבינו tells us in דברים, according to the רמח״ל.
After that, זה כבר לא זה.
זה כבר לא זה.
זה לא הענין. Okay, let's finish off.
ועוד סכנה בדבר, what other danger is there?
כי יש לבחור בעל לבב שאיפות והתעוררות לאהבת ועבודת השם. Listen, ברוך השם, we all have these moments where I have such an aspiration to grow in my עבודת השם, to really, really seek the highest places that I can. We have these moments. And what happens?
והיצר הרע מטעהו להשביע שאיפות אלו.
How does the יצר הרע work with us? It doesn't it doesn't come and prevent us from doing it, but it comes and puts in front of us all these other things that make that are so much more, excuse me for saying this, sexier. It is. Much more enticing. It's much more enticing to do something very eclectic and ecstatic and colorful.
בטח. That's how the יצר הרע comes and works. It's not that it comes and tells us don't keep תורה and מצות. It just presents before us something that seems so much more נחשק.
How do you say נחשק? Desired. Desired, thank you. That's what it puts in front of our face.
היצר הרע מטעהו להשביע שאיפות אלו, so it comes and tricks us to satiate us with these aspirations בקבלת הנהגות חיצוניות, במקום שינוי ועליה פנימית.
Instead of true change and a real ascent, a real high. Can't know There there are so many examples that come to mind right now. I guess it was because maybe the חברה's that I I've been hanging out with for so many years and what drew me so much to to רב ויינברגר שליט״א is ממש like I I see like his light boom beaming out of this paragraph over here. It's like when I got there, when I got to him, this paragraph like came to light.
It was like ממש what I saw, that there's all these beautiful things that people do and and the additional these additional things, right? But then you see people that are so invested in like the colorful outside stuff, which are beautiful, then the inside stuff becomes a little bit less important. It's טבע האדם.
על ידי זה הוא מסתפק בהכי, and then what ends up happening is that you're okay with these new הנהגות that you took on, and what ends up happening?
ולעולם אינו עולה באמת.
בעבודת השם יתברך, רחמנא ליצלן.
But it's on the חשבון of actually really growing, of actually really, really going to the highest places in the world.
וסכנה זו מצויה הרבה, this danger is very commonly found, כי הנהגות חיצוניות וחומרות בהלכה הם יותר קלים לעשות מעלייה בדברים פנימיים. Taking on חומרות in הלכה and taking on other הנהגות, I see you, in one second, he says they're easier to do than to really, really start to really make the קניינים, to really make the acquisitions, to really feel that I'm I'm עולה in my עבודת השם בפנימיות. Like real my עבודת השם.
על כן טוב להתרחק מהם, therefore it's good to distance yourself from these things, ולשים כל כוחותיו ושאיפותיו בעבודה אמיתית, and to put all your כח and your aspirations in real work. There's a great example for this that everyone could relate to in their own ד' אמות. We think that what our wife wants is a lot of, like, the extras, the the like bonuses, huh? Flowers. The flowers.
And then we're sometimes we're so like we're so, don't look at, חבר'ה don't start looking at each other like כיתה א', כיתה ב' over here. All the שטויות over here. Everyone has Everyone has their own עניין. Whether it's flowers, whether it's the לא יודע מה, and then we get so צובראכן, like don't you see how much how much like extra I'm going for you? And she's sitting there and saying, I I just want the basics, the basic needs.
An orange peel. Huh? An orange peel. The orange peel, the trash. No, no, not even those things, like just the basic stuff, not not those things, right? So connection comes from the עיקר, not from the חיצוני.
That's what he's saying, being all in, giving over the sense of being all in, being in awe of the marriage, being in love with the marriage, and all the other things that he said over here. Yeah, שלום מרדכי. Is he saying not to go down that path? Meaning if you're passionate about something that's extra, something that you feel like ממש turn you on and and whatever, is he saying not to go down that road because of what it might prevent or Go down that road once the first five are like נחקק בך, are are engraved in you. Then if you want to go down that road, again, if it's קבלות you got from previous generations, it's one thing, but he's saying our דור today, that's not the עניין.
Right. No, but that's what I'm saying. So are you saying to make the conscious decision let's say not, like if a lot of times people come to ארץ ישראל and they're like that's it, I want to grow out my long פאות now and I'm gonna Ah, that's a very good That's very good. Meaning should they make the conscious decision like, no, I'm not gonna grow out my פאות now because I'm not there? A טפל shouldn't become the עיקר.
If it remains טפל, grow your פאות down to the floor. If that becomes your עיקר, do not grow your פאות, בטח. That's a great It's a good example. That's a very good example, because it's still, as holy and as הייליג as פאות are, for a certain person that could become חיצוני.
And then the focus becomes on something טפל versus the עיקר when it's on the חשבון of it, yeah. This is like the healthiest approach I've ever seen. Huh? You know, I was pinning it for years, and only דוד אהרן was the one that kept on looking at me like, come on, you know. He got it.
It's true. Beard is a תיקוני דיקנא, י"ג מדות, different story.
אבל באמת there's so many examples just like that, yes. We could think of a lot of them right now.
The thing is that I don't want to mention too many of them because we'll be shocked as to how many things we actually took on that are actually they're חיצוני. They're חיצוני. So I was waiting for someone to ask me, but I'll I'll ask it.
נו, what about התבודדות? What if התבודדות is on the חשבון of one of the five עיקרים? Real, like real talking to What's that? So when התבודדות is only crying about פרנסה, that could be considered חיצוני, טורדא דלבא, if the התבודדות is כדבעי, the way we're speaking about it, כמו שאנחנו רוצים, that it awakens and arouses within us אהבת השם, יראת השם, and the sense of being all in, it's gotta be done with that consciousness.
You can't wait to see if that's gonna be the result of the התבודדות. That it has to be the approach has to be like that. Yeah, very good. There are a lot...
You don't have anything to say today? I'm like waiting the whole שיעור. I have not turned my head once this way. I'm waiting for it. Yeah.
Speaking about the התבודדות thing, I thought of ניסן when when he came for שבת once, you know, with the whole whole family. And the guy says to me he needs a room for התבודדות, and then in the middle of, you know, שבת afternoon, and these guys, whatever, the swing is for the afters, and and and he's out for for for an hour by himself, you know, on on my... But he's special, meaning like it's legit. And I remember thinking like, hey, is it or isn't, like it's legit.
Yeah. What I've been You know there's a 12-step meeting in this שול? Today, 7:00 p.m. It's on Mondays at 7:00 p.m. And one of the core... I just want to say it's changed I get I get I get messages כמעט every week that it's ממש changed people's lives.
ממש.
Yeah. One of the core principles that comes up that I personally really do not appreciate from this from this they're they're right, I'm wrong, but I just know and I don't like it. And I heard it here, which is which is the like the being all in part, שלמות הלב, where they say, "Half measures avail us nothing." Hate that. Hate that.
Because I know 65 is passing. That's a passing grade. 51 is passing. Well, I mean, 51 is still more Today, right, you can make it like, okay, at least I'm on the I hear what you're saying.
I hear what you're saying. "Avail us nothing." I'm going ahead. But like if you really want to get to דביקות בהשם... you can't game this.
I mean, you just can't, you can't do it. And... That's פיקוח נפש. It is פיקוח נפש, so it has to be all in.
It has to be שלמות הלב. Yeah, but he but he's saying this but but he's saying it over here too. And this isn't פיקוח נפש necessarily.
נכון.
Right, there's no room. It's life in your life. But I think what the מחבר wants us to feel like he wants us to feel that our need for עבודה to be עבדי השם is is like פיקוח נפש. I think that's the goal.
That that we that all of us feel that unless I have my This is my lifeline. This is my lifeline, תורה ומצוות, קשר to השם, that that that the whole world to me is, and through the through the eyes of השם's dreams, is פיקוח נפש, you know? Listen, I I also I have an aversion to it. I do. Because I always want that like give me like one area where I could where I could not feel so guilty.
Right?
נכון? He does use the לשון "סכנה". He talks about סכנה about about, not about being all in. He talks about The סכנה he's speaking about over here is by making things that are טפל, עיקר. You said earlier, you don't want this awakening to come on your deathbed, חס ושלום, or after...
חס וחלילה.
חס ו- חס חס ושלום.
חס ושלום. Listen, later on, בעזרת השם, we'll see on Wednesday, and we'll see next week also, the way to to redefine aspirations is a very important piece of עבודת השם.
This will actually help, I think, really with what you're bringing up, because it is a very When When I look at עבודת השם and the aspirations as this like absolute, like 12-step מהלך, I'm not so sure I'm going to say נעשה ונשמע, right? I'm not so sure. Why? Fear of failure, fear of disappointment, וכולי. Hate to break it to you, you're in already, you know? Do you Do you Do you say that when you're about to have עדים see you do a קנין on a כתובה? Imagine we're standing by the כתובה and we're like, "No, no, I I don't want it to be that I'm forced to say that I'm fully in. I want it to be a thing that like really comes naturally all the time." Your future father-in-law is sitting next to you.
He's about to throw a glass at your head, right? How How could we do it then? Why do we do it then, when it comes to when it comes to קנין by a by by a כתובה? Why do we do it then? Why aren't we scared to do it then? Because we don't really know what we're getting into? You believe in the relationship. Because you believe in the relationship. Ah. It's interesting that the name of the ספר is יין שרף.
Yeah. Fine wine. Create good habits or stick to the old.
נכון.
I thought you were going to say the ספר should come to the מנין tonight. On that wondrous הייליגע note, we'll see you all Wednesday בעזרת השם.
רבי חנניא בן עקשיא אומר רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות שנאמר ה' חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר.