Rabbi Guy Matalon - Mesilat Yesharim: Chapter 13 - Part 3

foreign we are in chapter 13. actually we're almost we're done with chapter 13 where we discussed the Mida the moral virtue of pursuit meant we needed Alex but he went he had his English book Pursuit is when you were withdrawing from certain aspects just to clarify Pursuit says that we are going to create boundaries what does uh say in your Dimitri in your preparation separation yeah that's what I said sort of withdrawal separation there are two types there's a good Pursuit separation and bad Pursuit good Pursuit is when we make boundaries for things that we want the Torah says we can have them and so comes based on all sorts of gemaras and rabbinical statements hazal and says that although these things are allowed we should have boundaries right so the example that he gives that is very clear that I think the ramban brings this lots of people bring this example is having relations with your wife so technically as long as there's no issue of tahara of Nida you can be every day right but there's the gemara says a husband should not be like a rooster with his wife every day it's not good create a boundary even you say wait a minute we have two weak stairs this week that the point is the decreed boundaries in places where you are the Torah is material that the Torah says you could do it so the story says you could do it you can still you should create a boundary within that system okay same thing with drinking wine can you drink kosher wine but you should have about here that I'm not going to drink every night and if you bought a bottle of wine every night and drank it is there an issue probably there's an issue so the boundaries that we created in Pursuit are in things that we want that is the good Pursuit separating from things that we want the bad Pursuit is separation in things that we need that is separating and limiting our sleep limiting the you know Foods by starving ourselves or fasting those sort of things that he says these are bad we should not do it so that is really the difference between a good Pursuit and bad Pursuit and he says here as David mentioned the moral value of pursuit the characteristic is something that is not for everybody if you want to go beyond the level of italic exotic is a person who perfected the root the result and acute if you want to go higher than a tadiq then comes next so he says to us there are three parts in chapter 14 he tells us there are three parts to Pursuit three areas where we should exercise separation there is pursuit in enjoyment there is Allah and there is in minhaag Customs that we take on and he says each one is a little different separation with regard to Pleasures is what we discussed in the previous chapter okay so he talked about limiting we need to eat that's important but limit the that we have in the food you don't need to eat a shawarma every day so whatever that gives us Pleasures from our senses food sex and what we wear going on trips listening smelling tasting all the senses all the things that we get pleasure from our senses we should find ways to create boundaries you don't need to have four gallons of ice cream just Pine right two scoops you should wear and dress nicely but you don't have to dress with all silk you should have boundaries so anything that there is uh uh you should create boundaries okay with regard to dinim with regard to halacha this is a little difficult so just bear with me as we go through this he says separation with regard to halacha refers that we should be mahmir all the time if you have the position of a lenient position in a stringent position you should always take the stringent position okay so I have a friend that always takes the stringent position unless his wife says no for slumber he will not you know cause a fight but if there's no issue like she doesn't care he will always take the more mahmir position no matter what it is he would just what's the humra his wife says why are you doing that that's weird it's like does it bother you no but I just think it's weird then he's like okay well I'm doing and she says no it's going to ruin this okay then I won't do it is to always take the more stringent position so that in a sense when there is there is an argument among the rabbis on two positions one says this one says that then he says if his reasoning of the rabbi in the argument if his reasoning makes sense even if the Allah is not like him and there's one more condition the humra is not going to lead to akula that if you take on this kumrah it's not going to lead you to a lenient position down the line then you should always take if you have a suffix if you're not sure go this way or this way you go with Suffolk you go with the place where you can be make them that there's no problem taking the lenient position says that you should take home run why does he say that the idea is that the boundary that we put on is that we stop ourselves before we cross they never go back right once the launch code has been put in right and the launch button has been pressed there is no going back so you put a boundary that you don't get there you need two keys