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In this opening shiur on Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah, Rav Dov Ber Cohen introduces the foundational vision of Rabbi Alexander Ziskind, an eighteenth-century Lithuanian master whose sefer bridges the dept
The Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Podcast explores Jewish mindfulness, emotional mastery, relationships, and real inner avodah.
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Okay, shalom aleichem. We're learning Yesod VeShoresh HaAvodah, a key, important book of Kabbalah-based mussar, written by Rabbi Alexander Ziskind in about the year 1785-ish, those days. He was from Lithuania, Lithuania, and was a big rav. And the story goes that he went to meet Rabbi Elimelech, heilige Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, because Rabbi Elimelech's students wanted him to become a chassid. So he went to meet him, and Rabbi Elimelech didn't say anything interesting at all for the whole Shabbat. Nothing good. And his talmidim were saying, \"Look, this is a huge, amazing talmid chacham. He knows the whole Zohar, all Kabbalah, Kisvei Arizal, he's a gadol. Let's He was mekarev him to chassidus.\" But they didn't they didn't he didn't say anything and he left. And they all his chassidim were very upset. And Rabbi Elimelech explained, he said that the Lithuanian world needs him. So if he becomes a chassid, they're not going to listen to him. He's going to write a book one day and it's going to be an unbelievable book. If he becomes a chassid, they won't read it, so they needed him. So it was not fair for that whole world that Hashem So, you know, but that's how big he was, and very, very important. You know, some people think there's chassidus, which is loving and sweet and Hashem loves you and it's all about ahavah and simchah, and then there's mussar, and mussar is angry and bad and like, \"You're bad, and this is how you be good\", and it's not like that. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter was the sweetest, kindest, the most amazing human. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter really set up the mussar movement. A few stories. Firstly, the whole mussar movement started when there was there was a poor tailor, I think, there was a tailor and a shoemaker and they were very poor, they were in a village, and they were good, close friends, and then somehow the tailor become became very rich. And he was having a wedding for his daughter, and he invited lots of people and the shoemaker was very, very jealous of him. So at the wedding at the chuppah the the, oh, it's the other way round, the shoemaker became very rich, so at the wedding the tailor came up to the shoemaker with an old pair of shoes, and said, \"Can you fix these shoes for me?\" and threw them at him. And the tailor was so embarrassed by that that he just like It ruined the wedding. And Rabbi Yisrael Salanter heard this story, and he said, \"If this is how people behave, then we've got a big problem with character traits.\" And everyone said to him, \"Yeah, it was disgusting of the tailor to do that.\" And Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said, \"No, it's the other way. Why would someone be so upset and so embarrassed by having shoes thrown at him that that would ruin his daughter's wedding?\" Shalom aleichem. Aleichem shalom. So he So that's why he started the mussar movement as a way to to become a very refined human being. So I think people get the wrong impression of mussar. And also, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, they said to him, \"What's your kavana when you put on your tallit?\" So you put on your tallit and then you throw it over your shoulder three times. So he said He said, \"What's your kavana?\" and he thought there was going to be some big kabbalistic thing, and he said, \"My kavana is not to hit the person behind me in the face with my tzitzit.\" I think more people need that. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter as well, he used to use a very little bit of water for נטילת ידים, and it says that really נטילת ידים you've got to use a lot of water, there's got to be shefa. He used a little bit of water, the left the least amount. And they were like, \"What are you doing? You're meant to use a lot.\" And he goes, \"Yeah, but have you seen the old man who has to schlepp the water up the mountain to bring it to us? So okay, I want to do all my chumrot and be amazing, but if it's going to affect other people, not okay.\" So you've got to be an emotionally healthy person to learn Mussar properly, because if you start learning Mesillat Yesharim, for example, but you're not a healthy person, then it's going to be too much and you're going to get resentful. In general, you shouldn't take on chumrot unless you can do them b'simcha. You've got It's all עבדו את השם בשמחה. For me, personally, if it's not going to affect my shalom bayit, or my simcha, or my bank account too much, then I don't see any reason not to do a chumra. I want to do as many chumrot as I could. My Rabbi, Rav Kahana, used to call it, \"You've got to be a לכתחילה ייד.\" People say, \"Oh, well, b'diavad it's okay.\" And, \"Yeah, maybe, but I don't want to Yeah, I want to be a לכתחילה ייד. I want to do it the best possible way, unless it's going to make me arrogant, unless it's going to make me resentful of Judaism, unless it's going to make me whatever it is. So you want to be a לכתחילה ייד. Rabbi Alexander Ziskind, who wrote this sefer, you'll see it all the time. He's like, \"אחי ורעי, my brother, my beloved ones.\" He's like, and you'll see his k- he's like, \"גבורת השם, we can do this.\" So this is, there really needs to be a person of avodah. We want to be בעלי עבודה and בני עליה. בעל עבודה is someone who's always asking, \"How can I grow? What's the best way to do this?\" בן עליה also means a person, I'm g- I'm growing, but in a very kind, sweet way. Some people are very, very hard on themselves. Some people are very soft on themselves. So we're we're in the middle. We're very motivated. We want to be the best husband and father we can be. We want to be the best עבד השם. We want to be the... But we also got to be compassionate and... So, I think there's something called like Chassidic Mussar. People seem to say they're separate: Chassidut, Chassidut and Mussar. But we're like Chassidic Mussar. So it it's Mussar, which means I want to do it the best possible way I can. I want to be the best me. But with Chassidut, with sweetness. And he's really got this mix. I think you should buy this book just because, and it's not expensive, because it's a very important book to have on your bookshelf. And he goes through everything. Morning, we're going to go through berachot, morning berachot, tefillah, all the... Baruch She'amar, I obviously like a lot. See? And then he goes through all the chagim, the best way to prepare for the chagim, how to have kavana. This is a multi... Is it a multi-volume set? Just two. There's This this is א, we got ב. This is א, we got ב. There's two. תפילה בציבור, ביחיד... So we're only going We're going to try and do five minutes a day, but we've already done six minutes. יחוד היראה והאהבה שהעבודה הבאה ממנה היא עיקר כוונת הבורא. יחוד היראה. Living with yirah. You... The foundation of everything we're doing, we're going to see right now, is yirah. What does yirah mean? Reverence? Ugh! That's just because I learned that from you. Yeah. He said reverence, and I was like, \"Wow!\" And he was like, \"Yeah, that's just because I learned that from you.\" I always said I always said awe, though. Awe is good, I like awe. So יראה, יראת הרוממות. Yirah really means, comes from the word ראה, which means to see. I see, a, I see Hashem in everything, but b, I see through Hashem's eyes. I'm looking at the world through the right eyes. יחוד היראה והאהבה שהעבודה הבאה ממנה, and the love of avodah that comes from it. So you think yirah creates fear, פחד, and then I'm doing my avodah, so I'm putting on my tefillin, and I'm davening late, and I'm doing that, but I'm like... But he says, no, what come what's the outcropping of yirah? אהבת העבודה. I love doing the avodah then. I want I love the avodah, not like I have to do the avodah, it's a burden. It's like because I have yirah, because I have awe and reverence. If you've got a master who you look up to, like my Rosh Yeshiva. My Rosh Yeshiva, I'm not scared of him. I have yirah. I love him. So if he says, \"Rabbi Dov Ber, can you do this for me?\" I'm like, \"Yes! I want to! Could you walk Could you carry that? Could you do this? Could...\" He asks me questions sometimes. He asks me things when he gets questions from people about, you know, \"My mom's got a little Buddha statue. Can I keep it?\" So he'll ask me because he wants to because I lived in Asia for six years and Buddhism. And he's so humble and nice. So that what comes out of yirah is ahavah. Now, I'm very shocked that he didn't bring the pasuk in the Torah, דברים י' י\"ב, where it says, \"עתה ישראל, מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך?\" Now, Jewish people, what does השם ask from you? \"כי אם,\" only this, \"ליראה את ה' אלקיך,\" to have yirah. That's what Hashem says in that pasuk. And then out of yirah comes four other things: \"ללכת בכל דרכיו,\" to go in all His ways, which really means to become godly, which means תיקון המדות, fix your character traits; \"ולאהבה אותו,\" to love Him, but that comes from yirah. Everything's coming out of yirah. Correcting your character traits, why do you correct your character traits? Because of yirah. Why do you have love? Because of yirah. \"לעבוד את ה' אלקיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך,\" to serve Hashem. And serving Hashem really means to do things with the right motivation. Two meanings of to serve Hashem: one is to do it do everything with the right motivation, which ultimately we're going to see isn't selfish, not really about you, so I get Olam Haba or I become a tzadik. I'm serving Hashem because He's the Master. I'm serving Him, it's not for me. And to do mitzvot. So, but that all comes out of here. כי עיקר כוונת הבורא יתברך שמו ויתעלה, that's the main intention and the main direction. kavana means direction, obviously, comes from the word כיוון. And direction, kavana, כיוון has two parts. One is where are you coming from, i.e., what's your motivation, and where are you going to, what's your goal. My kavana when I'm doing this berachah is I'm coming to this because Hashem told me to, and my goal in doing this is to give nachat to Hashem or to to bring yirah into my life. בבריאת האדם, ויהיה האדם עובד אותו יתברך, ועבודתו יגיע נחת רוח להבורא יתברך ויתעלה. And through our avodah, you put on your tefillin this morning, the main kavana, and he's got a whole chapter on it, so I won't talk about it too much, but we should say the same thing every day, which I do actually, in all of my classes I just say the same thing. Firstly, because I don't know so much, but secondly, because you've got to hear it many, many times. So, when I put on my tefillin this morning, my main kavana was, Hashem, I love you, and therefore I want to put on my tefillin because I know it makes you happy, it gives you nachat ruach. Nachat ruach means pride, but it also means to settle the spirit. לנוח means to settle, and ruach is spirit, so it means I'm bringing Hashem into the world. Whenever I give Hashem nachat ruach, I'm making Him land, and when the plane lands, that's nachat. So, every time I do a mitzvah, I bring Hashem into the world. You know, reveal Hashem into the world. Okay, I've got to go. Good, we managed to do one line. And we're going to make a siyum, Be'ezrat Hashem, in about eight years. It's going to be a חזק סיום. Your kids will be here. Be'ezrat Hashem, we'll do a big siyum with your wife. Be'ezrat Hashem.