Bitachon 39 - Path to Spiritual Greatness

you're listening to the 39th edition of the talking podcast we're continuing in the 12th chapter of the altar of the verdict a person who it's enough for that person when it comes to service of hashem all he cares about is fulfilling all of the superficial obligations even if he thinks that this is the main part of his service of hashem person thinks as we've spoken about previously that it's important it's supernally important to be seen as someone good to be seen as someone who's doing what's right to be doing things that are for the breasts what people around them say is good the truth is that such a person is like a blind person who's never seen any any light in his days because this person the their conception their concept of hashem service of god is very limited he's very he's weighed down heavily by what people say when people think about him he's chained he's shackled in his choice doesn't realize that every single choice that he makes every move that he does every every step it's all just being guided by what the general populace does what everyone else is doing while surveillance is truly shackled never uses his power of choice what makes us uniquely human is our ability to choose not just to go along to go with the flow what everyone else around me is doing even if what they're doing is correct but i can't just i can't it can't be enough for me i can't suffice with that okay he doesn't use his his free will to choose anything new to to go off the beaten track at all he can't believe that there are people who actually live on a high spiritual level really have been taken who really are the shema who really are sadiq and they're not affected at all by the the way everyone around them thinks the way of thinking of the general populace rasha shiva rabbi pere loves to tell a story a particular person who called him asking about the certain family that he was familiar with who was they were in a vertical and base yosef and he said who is the father is he a rosh shiva is he sheer is he somebody who's you know cooking and shaking you see what does he do there in the issue but what's his role and he said he's a he's a banter he's a ben aliyah he's somebody who's there he's learning he's studying but he's not a russian shiva he's not a he's not something that you would you know find to be outstanding so the person says to them what is he there is there's nothing there's nothing about him that you can say you know i'll tell you what i can say i can tell you that he's somebody who doesn't care what other people think about him he's somebody who will not care what you think about him the person paused the moment and he said you mean there really are such people he couldn't believe it this is somebody doesn't care what others think about him but that's one of the tenants foundations of of nevartic in the verdict they did things to practice being able willing and able to do things despite what others around them would say that's why they would walk into a bakery and ask for a box of nails they'd walk into a hardware store and ask for a loaf of bread why because they were practicing having that inner ability that inner fortitude to be able to do what's right no matter what everyone around is saying and those people became incredible people they may not have had their names in lights some of them did they were this is stippler and there was and there was gresham liebman these are names of people who accomplished tremendous things begoli but even within that they would do things in order to to be self-effacing to make sure that they didn't get sold on the covet on the honor on the foolish things of caring about what other people thought about them famous story also minority shiva says about regarding libman gershon liberman was a rosh yeshiva it was the talmud of nevadic he survived the war in a concentration camp came to france after the war and he started over 10 institutions there called uh also the name joseph after abhis of yazoharo it's the altar of nevada and he would get up to speak there was a story where he got up to speak and this is in america and he spoke beautifully and after he finished speaking he saw the island was very excited they were very excited and he came down from the podium and he lied down on the floor in front of everyone he lied down on the floor why did he do that he wanted to do something unusual in order to limit the feeling of that high feeling i did a great job that high feeling that desire for acknowledgement that comes he wanted to be free of that he wanted to be able to do what's right because it's right be able to give a good schmooze the shame shamayim the shema the safe safe says the altar in the end kasha your pakistan so the person who is who cares about what other thing people think about who who is concerned about what's going to be in this world doesn't have that proper bitah and isn't doing things to shemo so what's going to be so when it gets to the thicket i don't know if you could see around me but there's all kinds of thickets it's easy to get entangled in the thicket of the questions of life how like this how like that how will i succeed how will it work out so he'll end up being a person with shannon he's someone who's learned and separated himself from the entire entire life a true entire life actually because he didn't accustomed himself to the strength the azus the the power of ta'alien that you have to battle you have to fight for what's right it's not enough to just coast to do what everyone else is doing because comes along a little challenge or a big challenge and it throws him off he's gone he's lost because he was just going with the flow of everyone else when push comes to shove he's in trouble sorry because what happened at the beginning he's already leaning away from the things that are so important which he said again is the shema and doing things with pure motivation and doing things because i have complete faith in hashem that are going to be provided for my needs he already switched out of that being important to him he decided that the only way is to live a life of compromise listen i got to be part of everyone else i got to be like everybody else i can't can't be different yes they're like i have to take care of my you know i've got lots of needs i got to make sure that all of my needs are taken care of i have a wife i have kids if you are royal to me you can't also be missing anything from his honor his imaginary honor i think what the people are thinking about me i have to look good in their eyes that kind of silly approach to life even in the end it will become clear to him that he has distanced himself from the true point of truth the true the nikura's a code word for looking for the absolute truth not being not being fooled by all the imaginary truths that are out there all of the things that seem to be important but aren't really important once he already decided to live a life of compromise he had in mind he's doing it in order to sanctify god's name see people should see him entire and think oh this guy is clean he's he's neat everything is good about him what a great embarrassment it will be for him she will surely sign cotton because of a small he signed a small test that he underwent azakaya the so for that he left the way of the terror completely of anastasia parish became somebody who had learned but no longer does so somebody who was committed was abandoned was trying to grow was trying to be great but separated himself from it he was concerned the beginning about kiddush hashem that people shouldn't see him as something different and in the end he loses that commitment that deep desire to be someone great he loses that and he ends up being someone who is unfortunately not so great and he loses that connection and he loses that greatness and instead he causes hashem because he's there he gets worse and worse and he goes down because we're going to finish the 12th chapter now nevertheless since he wasn't careful originally not to steer away from the path of torah once he has left completely the torah should cost you like life rush it's very hard to leave his new way of life it's easy to leave the way of torah it's much harder to leave the the salt water the salt water you need more you become thirstier and thirstier and thirsty it's never enough the person is drawn after more and more when when a moment is you know he'll have a moment of clarity oh where am i you're talking around he wants to come back it was either way as like it'll be very difficult i remember one time i was learning in yeshiva and you shoot for aqua this goes back over 20 years and there was a guy who had gone out to college and he did college full-time he didn't he didn't come to learn he had been learning before and then he went to college and one time he comes back to the shiva and he says i'm so sick of that life i'm so sick of being involved in gashmias and physicality all the time he said i have to be here in the yeshiva and he came he was around for a few days and then he was gone once a person has decided that he cares about what other people think about him that he's concerned and that he's got to do things that look good for others he puts himself in a place of spiritual danger in a place where but this kind of person if he doesn't nip it in the body doesn't get it right at the beginning so his whole life will be filled with these thoughts of kharat of of regret right because i'll tell us that the russia the wicked person his life is full of regrets because he never gained control of himself he's always addicted to high motivational big hit feeling something in order for me to do it i got to feel something great he never got accustomed to doing things that have low motivation the shema the shema be talking if i do it myself if i make all if i pull out all the stops we're going to make it happen we're going to make it happen that feeling of me needing to do it and it might even be that i make a lot of money that way that feeling of me needing to do it is that big hit and he's the alder is telling us we've got to steer away from that kind of need the kind of feeling of being accepted by everybody and and having all of our needs met having all of our needs met as we think they need to be perhaps will provide us with all of our real needs the obligation is very great upon a person who truly seeks hashem is a person needs to be careful from the beginning not to allow himself to be caught in the thicket of this this foolish thing as we started this piece speaking about in this chapter speaking about how the yetzahara the the evil condition of the angel who fought with yaakov so he got him on his side he got him on his on his support and this is our support the support that the true support is these things support us having full faith in hashem knowing that he's going to provide us with our needs without needing for ourselves needing to be the one who does it being so concerned about how do people see me i love the master at melatonin to give himself over completely to tara if you lift me outside throw off the yoke of all of the many all the calculations all of the things that i think that i need by doing so by giving myself over completely to torah by having full be talking forgetting about what other people think having really shema that's how i become the holy of holies and this is the lesson of the rambam his portion and his inheritance forever once again i want to invite you and encourage you to join us in be part of a group of people trying to become greater waksha i'm trying to search out what does it mean to have real be talking what does it mean to serve hashem properly what does it mean to do things la shmoop thanks so much for listening see you again next time