Thought for the Week Parshas Tetzaveh Purim Habits of Highly Spiritual People, R' Yaakov Winner

How are you? I hope everyone is today's and this past week was the day the arrived in America 86 years ago. And this coming week is and is so what is the connection between all the first we'll start as usual with we bring now now we're going to start with a from which is directly related to what we're going to speak about today and that's a p in kuf We say this before our coffers during one of the in any case we translate this is who's praying for the B mikdash the building of the B mikdash didn't see in his time, but he longed for it. He for it. So he says he's waiting for the day when let your priest dawn righteousness goes devout ones. Sing joyously that goes under. So is praying that the should be able to come to the day where we see the dressed They're dressed in righteousness and the the are singing. So from here we see that the clothes of the were called righteousness. In other words, even though in this week's par it says that the clothes were which is for glory and beauty, but what they represent is a level of superior spiritual quality, special people. So the coim represented garments and these garments all of the garments have an inner spiritual significance and they symbolize something very very deep and profound in the service of Hashem. In other words, and this is before we start bringing out the point I just want to start with the casher a very obvious question. Last week everyone we spoke about the which says that Hashem said make me a dwelling place and I will uh and I will dwell in them. And in this everyone knows the famous saying it doesn't say I will dwell in it in the building but in them. So in other words, the PK is teaching us that when we say that Hashem says build me a home, the house, it's not the main point is not so much that he's dwelling in this house in the building so to speak, but in the sanctuary, but it represents that it's a witness and a testimony that Hashem is with the Eden and in a deeper level and every single person is a mini sanctuary, I think, as we spoke last week. But what's interesting is in this week's in this week's there's a in where it says so why do we have to always make this when it comes to the that was said that it means in them and not in it in the building. We have another which is clear and it says that resides in the in this week's para. So the answer is simple and obvious and this tells us the difference between this week's para and last week's para. Last week's para the discussion is about the utensils the minra the misbe and the crush the beams and the coverings. So it's about the it's about the the objects. So therefore when the Tory is talking about the objects we have to be told that it's not about the objects but it's about the people and even all those objects represent also aspects of serving Hashem. But over here even though we're talking about garments but really the whole discussion of the garments is that they're a garment on a person. In other words, every single one of these garments represents a different spiritual talent, a different spiritual ability, a different sign of spiritual perfection. So therefore, in this week's para, in other words, the stress is on the it's on the person. And the person has these garments and the and and all these garments represent a different level of serving Hashem and in a way you could say you know they have the famous book it's called the seven habits of highly effective people. I think this week's para we could talk about the habits of spiritual people and since the says the entire Jewish nation is really to a certain extent. So that means the significance in our serving hashem has to be that we understand that we look at all these garments and from the garments and understanding what each garment represents. It's another checklist of spiritual development and growth that we have to focus on this area and this area and another area. But in today's sh we're not going to speak about the particular garments and what each one represents. Instead, we'll start talking about another garment. And from that garment, I'm not sure if I ever spoke about this rashi or not. To me, this is one of the most unbelievable revelations of godliness rashi. And I'm taking part of what I'm going to speak today where it's about the and it's on the rashi that I'm going to mention and it's alf and the rebes is the raam and rashi what is the definition the big is it more or more which we're not going to get into it now but first let's talk about the rashi and from this I'm going to take a general lesson not about the aphid but about we might be able to call it I don't know the first habit but a primary habit of a spiritual person is what's going on in his head space in his brain space in his p perspective it's all in the What does Rashi say about the something phenomenal which you don't find anywhere else such a thing? Rashi says what was the aid? The aphid was a ro like garment that was one of the big kahuna and the gold wore it. And it says says that I have not found I have not heard nor have I found an explanation of his design. But my heart tells me that his belted around his back, the part of the apron truly covers that was hanging on his back. It lies on him from behind. And then he says like an apron. And then he says with which noble women g themselves when they ride the horses. That's what Rashi says. So over here there's many questions. What does it mean? What does that mean? How do we understand that? I had a dream. What does it mean? Based on what? Usually if you have a pir it's it's not based just on there's got to be something more to it. My heart tells me you know if somebody gave an an explanation something and someone say what's the evidence based on what? What do you mean? What do you think? Anyways, so here I'm going to read to you what the Reb brings down as I mentioned before page 198 and he says as follows it's known the story that teachers usually goes on teachers in like primary school elementary and there's no number on yua very interesting like it's so universal we don't even have to quote a source it's known the story of the kinder tell children learning this rashi about the aphoid and he says that it's like these noble women riding when they're riding horses and the Reb says even though most students never saw such a But what's the explanation as a moashi gain rashi was strolling walking in the street via a noble woman was riding a horse and she was wearing this sort of apron like garment which was covering from the back. Rashi was pained by this, troubled by this. It was something that's seemingly not modest. And it's known that a woman riding a horse is not considered modest as we know from other places afterwards. Afterwards when Rashi was writing his pish on concerning the he consoled himself. He became calm. He learned a lesson in his serving hem an explanation and what were the dimensions what the aid looked like is now he understood why the should encounter such a vision but my savior so you should understand better what the looked like. Okay. Anyways, and then learns from this and he says what is means the essence of his soul. Rashi was on a higher level and when he looked at something from the world even though initially he was bothered by it but then he saw through it his soul is the PICKED UP WHAT THE REAL MESSAGE was and the Reb when he said this by the way first he said Rashi isn't sty which means if something happens He first you feel guilty about it. It bothers you. Not that you're going to go look for something which is not allowed prohibited and then say I'm I'm different. I could hear go music or I could hear see images the opposite of protecting my eyes because I could see how to learn a lesson from item like Rashi did. God forbid someone should walk away from this thinking like that. What are we speaking about? We're talking about putting on a new pair of glasses, seeing the world through the lens of the Tory. So if we're talking about the habits of spiritually highly effective people a high spiritual level of holiness like it means the first thing is before we talk about the details of which garments begin having a hash. You want to be a spiritual person and you want to navigate the world, you have to and I believe this is one of the main main main job description of the Reb that he wanted to inculcate us all the time. every single Shabas, every single Shabas throughout the years and every single maybe you could say that one of the Reb's job description was to try to make us live a life whereos when we walked down in the street and we saw all the dots are connected and it's all really the similar to the story with the loved this story that when he was in business and he made a of when he was making a summation of his figures and he made the line ACROSS IT THAT WAS HIS natural mindset that he sees spirituality in everything and there's so many stories about where the same point is brought home they lived a different life it's not a life where sometimes they turn on the spirituality quotent and it becomes the majority and sometimes not. No, they're living their life. They're living a life. They're in a different place. They're in a different space. They're in a different planet. They share the same space. They're here, but they're not here in a positive way. They see everything spiritual. The world is not a cover up. And as we see from this rashi, Wow. Wow. Wow. I can't get over it. Rashi takes an immodest tier that he encountered a French noble woman riding a horse and what does he see? He doesn't see a French woman riding a horse. He sees one of the co inim. He sees the highest of the highest of the highest of the highest levels of spirituality. So not only it's not an it's transformed AND IT'S OF THE HIGHEST order of the highest rank of the highest grade and this is the lesson that we have to take about life in general everything everything like the said just to give you another example there's many stories I could mention that we mentioned before but I don't know if I ever mentioned this story. There was a famous and I think it was don't quote me on this but anyways there was a story where spoke publicly that he got a letter from a woman some lady wrote the Reb a letter and said that she had received a letter a chain letter that said you better continue to send on this letter to other people or else you'll be cursed and who knows thought now this is these sort of black magic the black arts I don't know what you call it kish curses this will happen to you that will happen to you so this lady wrote to the rebba that she received such a letter and she's scared so the rebba told her nothing has a power over you there's nothing that could cause you any damage it's only is the only one that has the power. But what the Reb did after that was so amazing. The Reb said that he wondered why was he exposed to find out about such a thing. And the conclusion is that we have to make a chain letter in kadusha. And the Reb out of this story that a lady wrote to him that she'd received such a letter with a threat and curses, the Reb transformed it completely around and said and he gave the instruction after this that every single person should send a chain letter 10 letters to 10 people with the sources in Tyra that say that you have to ask from Mashiach. Hashem wants us to ask for Mashiach. And when you send that chain letter to 10 people and you include the quotes of the holy that say that we have to ask for Mashiach, ask those 10, each one of those 10 to pass it on to another 10. So here the Reb took something which is the lowest of the low and he transformed it into the highest of the high and he saw it. What does this mean? Godliness is the def facto position. The default position. Sorry. The fact that there's a world that's like unnatural. That's what it means when we say you see straight away the godly dimension, the divinity in something. That means that goes without saying. the fact that we're living in a physical world that's like that's like unnatural even though it's happening but but that's not that's not that's secondary that's not primary. So here the Reb took a story of a mish means a mish a craziness some mish some foolishness some craziness and the transform formed it around into something of holiness of the highest level we're going to make an unbelievable campaign that's now going to influence hundreds of thousands of people about the importance of asking for msiah and where did it start from some sugar that's connected to kip that put a curse on someone and the reb learned from this how we have to use chain letters for kadusha. So that's another example similar to the story of Rashi that he saw a woman riding on a horse which seems to be something negative connected to kip and from that he understood what the god is wearing. It's big. It's the highest level of kadush and holiness. And this is the connection first of all to the day ever came to America. We all know that before World War II, most of the lived in villages and towns, not in cosmopolitan cities. Of course, there were always some that lived in Lenningrad, some lived in Moscow. But generally speaking, there was Neville, there was Kimchuk, there was uh Clovich, the list goes on and on of smaller cities, smaller towns. The headquarters were in labage and invigrad fine. But generally speaking, like my mother, they came from Minkach. She came from Minkach before she went to the concentration camp Awan. She would describe how she had gardens with fruits and vegetables and goats and things like that. So the Jewish life in general was more secluded from the cosmopolitan cities of secularism and modernism etc etc. Where did it really start? the idea of a Jew living in a city with all the problems that are in a city etc etc after World War II. So this lesson that we take that we're in the belly of the beast so to speak in men are really really surrounded by gashmas and things that could be a major cover up similar to the idea of the French women riding on the horses which today a person could be exposed to things similar to that much more often. them before World War II and this is the idea of representative of coming to America after World War II and so now the message of having your brain space filled with in general the right pair of glasses mindset. Now that lesson and the importance of that lesson is greater than ever before. That's number one. That's the connection with the connection to is an amazing connection. Listen to this in in the page 328. The Reb says as following. We know that was the literal translation is he encountered you. He attacked you on the way and usually this explains he brings you a coldness an indifference an apathy and he says don't get excited about holiness calm down doubts all that but here the Reb adds something else that the word Mikra means things just happen by itself. It's not divinely ordained. It's not connected to Hashem. And the Reb connects to And listen to the words that he says. Part of a mullik's job is to conceal, cover up, deny divine providence. In particular, a mullik is there to you for you to try that you should deny is divine providence. So this is exactly what we're talking about. The opposite of that is the story and the story of the opposite of that means that whatever happens to you number one there's a message there's a message to you it has relevance to you and it has relevance to you in particular and it was divinely ordained by that you should get this message and connected toem and mull public is over there trying to tell you not I don't see the connection you know it's very easy to look at the world and say nature rules god forbid etc you could deny and this is the connection to purim pim again is the antidote opposite what's the uniqueness of the miracle of purim the uniqueness of the miracle of purim is that it was a miracle in clothed in nature There was nothing supernatural. That's one of the reasons why we wear a mask. That's one of the connections to the name Esther. Esther means concealment. It comes from the words. But nevertheless, what happened by it's a miracle. And that's why we say we make that because there we say it was an obvious miracle. Why? Because all the details followed one after the other. So many coincidences which we realize and we believe we don't believe in coincidences. So over there the kdush is that even though it was completely natural but still what came out in an obvious manner in a demonstrative manner was that it was a divine revelation. It was a nest. It was a miracle that was enclosed in nature and over there the accomplishment is that nature becomes uplifted. Imagine nature sheds its concealment, its cover up and nature in nature pierced through the divine hand. And that's the because usually we say the word is means that it's sunk in, it's drowned. The hand of God is not obvious. By a miracle, the hand of hem is obvious. But the the hand of Hashem is not obvious. So this is the of the even though it was which usually means a concealment where the hand of Hashem is not obvious over here it's like the entire natural order became uplifted that the divinity the miraculous the fact that it's became revealed and this is the lesson that we have to take from purim which is the opposite have a moik that says no it's not connected to hashem it just happened to be like this denying hashem's existence now we understand the connection of all these things tess coming to America where we first have to work on this talent this trait of being able to to to not fall for the facade and to see through the the veil of nature of the world starting from tess So the idea of coming to America and then we have the idea of the aphoid what Rashi taught us we learned what the aphoid was because of an encounter of what happened in the streets of wherever he lived and this is the first message which I'm taking from that in general to be a proper first thing we have to start working on is our mind if our mind will be in the right place the rest will follow everything. But that comes through learning that comes through training. You know, people don't naturally have a you could say because by many people it's the opposite of it's actually they see the natural dimension which is seemingly more obvious to be able to go against the current and to peel away the layer and that the divinity, the godliness should pierce. That's because you have to work on yourself to get the 2020 vision the real vision and it's only somebody who's steeped into immersed in and works on himself to develop that sort of eyesight which comes through many years of exercise and work constantly and that's the lesson of Purim we have to look at the nature differently just like in the story of Purim we saw in an obvious manner how was yadashem so the should that we should work on ourselves in this area which my friends your whole life will be different every single day. I promise you, you don't understand how liberating it will be, how uplifting it is when you live your life in such a way there's a centrality. Everything's connected. You're in a relationship with Hashem no matter what's going on. So if we work in this way, we we bring about the which then will be in by we'll see eye to eye with just like now obviously the true vision is that Spirituality is primary and eternal and what really counts. So too we will see it as the Aisha sees it and that's will be the ultimate when Mashiah comes that of course we'll be totally immersed in a physical world but at the same time we'll see how the total absolute spirituality is in the physical itself and the physical itself does not cause a barrier whatsoever. Posting from my home, your man in Melbourne.