Rabbi Yuhanan Mesilat Yesharim 1.27

good afternoon today we are learning miss lady sharim we are on page 117 of Republic demiller's book and we're in chapter 1.27 we said that this world has two functions number one on one hand we're trying to come close to Hashem on the other hand we have uh obstacles that are testing us and preventing us and the world around us acts as a mask to hide Hashem on the other hand the world around us um if we look deeper reveals Hashem and tells us wonderful things and uh power of Hashem now we said that everything in the world can either be taken to support a person's negative beliefs or to support his positive beliefs Hashem made the world so complicated that both the atheist and a religious person will see what they want to see and if a person looks at the world without any bias then he will be able to see the truth he will be able to see God just like avraham was able to figure out that God exists without knowing without knowing that there is such a such an entity as the Creator he figured it out from the world so on the bottom of page 117 he says it is important to clarify this matter and be convinced that it is so the book of kohalet starts out basically means everything is futility everything is heavily heavel means it is nothing at all empty that's what coherit says everything is nothing he goes through a list of things from the beginning to the end many things pass before our eyes in review he points out that it's all nothing our sages in the mission I ask a fundamental question regarding this Hashem at the beginning of the Torah contradicts was written by Melech King Solomon so King Solomon says that the whole world is nothing and in Torah we say Hashem saw everything that he did and it is very good so what is it is it empty nothingness vanity or is it very good if the Creator praises the world who has the right to disparage and say negative things about the world the answer is that kohelet is teaching us that everything has two sides Hashem said it's good the intention of Hashem and creating the world was that we should use the world for a good purpose to see God the world is good because it's showing God but at the same time Kohala said the world can be misused everything we find in creation can be very good or it can be heavily in a different form this idea is expressed by the verse Hashem the ways of God are all straight will walk on those ways they will make progress in the right direction foreign the disloyal Ones Will stumble on those ways that same road that is made to lead you to success is the same road that can cause you to stumble and fall and not by accident it's made for that purpose as we said a person has freedom to choose freedom of will you can choose what to do with the information with every situation you can use it for good or you can use it for bad and at sadik will choose to use everything in his life for good and a Porsche someone who sins on purpose will use it on purpose for bad as uh just yesterday we were learning and we were learning about the fall of the walls of Jericho and we've decided to check it out have there been archaeological digs of the site did they find any uh walls in that City that would show us that the story that is written in the book of Yeshua is exactly what we find there now and we were surprised by seeing two opposing accounts both the atheists and the religious people on both Jewish and Christian side base themselves on the same archaeological digs but whereas atheists say you see the archaeological dig proves conclusively that everything that's written in the Book of Joshua is nonsense it's all not true it's all made up on the other hand you have the religious people both Jewish and Christians who say you see that same archaeological dig proves conclusively that everything written in the Book of Joshua is true to the minutest detail how's it possible they're using the same uh scientific archaeological discovery same fact same artifacts artifacts and one comes closer to Hashem and one is convinced that his path of atheism is correct what did they find there already that it causes such confusion and the answer is the Hashem on purpose doesn't give us clear answer if we would find underground [Music] a proof that God exists no one can argue then we would lose our freedom to choose this way Hashem gives us something and we have a choice are we going to interpret it positively or negatively are we going to say wow look at this it's a collapsed wall it shows the the the story is true or you're gonna say oh you see we do the carbon dating and yes the world collapsed but it happened 8 000 years ago so it must be the story is not true or they claim since there was no weapons found must be there was no war and there was no war must be there was no Conquest must be it was just a natural uh earthquake no no war happened while missing the point that in the Book of Joshua it says that the Israelites did not have to fight the war collapsed by itself they didn't have to Ram it with any uh equipment and there was no war that the people of yerijo were so scared they just gave up uh so again you take the same information the same path you walk on one person goes on that path and ends up in Canada and another person goes on that same path and ends up in so the same phenomena the same Arrangements that could lead you to the great success can also cause you to go down the path of Destruction God forbid when someone utilizes the natural resources of his mind and chooses according to the dictates of virtue which are naturally in him and he listens to the Council of the yetzer tov so you have to use your mind and you have to use good inclination yeserto and you have to apply proper character traits not be swayed by improper desires then this man will succeed in utilizing this world to become great and successful in his quest of trying to achieve closeness to Hashem now um we find this everywhere Hashem gives us challenges whether it is that he gives us delicious food any food you want a a person who is in control of his desires will use the food to praise Hashem to thank Hashem to enjoy it to enjoy the world and uh push him to become a better person as a thank you to Hashem who gives him so much good or a person can choose to eat the same food but it's going to destroy him because he is choosing to indulge in it he's overeating he is eating things that may be harmful to his body and he's not stopping at a little bit he eats too much of not healthy and he's forgetting to thank Hashem to make a blessing and then that same food will destroy him physically and spiritually now we go to page 177 to read the note at the end of the chapter from the one of his lectures Rabbi Aveda Miller says one of the most fundamental principles stated in emphasize even more Invisalign is that our lives in olamide in this world are for the purpose of being tested that's the language of everything in this world is a test everything is literal means every object at every event every process everything that is put into this world in our lives is for the purpose of testing us he makes no exception that's how we have to understand the words of our sages they thought before they spoke and therefore if they chose to use a certain expression they meant it literally literally and to the fullest extent so if if he says everything in this world is a test it must be everything yes everything now the talmud says whenever the enemies of the truth of the Torah seek to find support in the words of the Tanakh the answer is found nearby in the Tanakh itself which means very often whether it is Christians whether it is atheists whether it is Bible critics they try to challenge us from the words of the Torah of the Tanakh the five books of Moses of the prophets or the the writings they focus on a statement they take it out of the context and the talmud tells us if you want to answer their claim just go a little bit before or a little bit after if you take a a few more sentences you look at the bigger picture you look at the context you will see that what they're saying is false wherever our enemies quote versus if you look into the Tanakh you will find immediately nearby a refutation so you can say truly that Hashem put their refutation into the Tanakh it was intended for us to be able to refute their claims and that's true Hashem knows the future he knows that words of Torah can be misinterpreted and therefore he put nearby and ends for any potential claim however if you don't know any Tanakh if you're not familiar with Torah the prophets or the writings then be careful not to dispute with those people because they will probably come prepared and they'll tell you what you say about this and they will misquote mis-translate misinterpret take out of context and you not knowing you'll say oh I don't know I never knew this is such a verse I have to think about I don't know however those who know Tanakh they will quickly see how false their claims are however there is one more thing we learn Ed that the opportunity for them to make the claims was put in the Tanakh in the first place both the claim of the yetzarara and the answer to give it were put in the Tanakh which means if you learn superficially you will see questions and if you don't bother to research it you'll just stay with the question and you'll think that your question is valid and there is no answer but if you search for the truth you will go further and you will ask you will find the answer for sure Hashem included in the pursue Kim certain forms of expression which would mislead the non-jews and the atheists and he made it as a test for us which means for us it's a test that if we pass we get a reward for atheists and the non-jews it's a stumbling block for us it's an opportunity to grow for them it's a path to gainon for example atheists or the non-jews may say look it says in the Torah Elohim which means the word elokim God is plural oh they say that's interesting doesn't it mean that there is more than one God they have a question the question seems very strong and it seems to support the Idol worshipers who say there is more than one Idol and it seems to support the atheists who say oh once there are many Powers it means they were invented by people and in that they're right and they say look even in the Torah you have mention of many gods you have Elohim which is plural and you have Hashem another God and you have a shakai and you have Kel and you have uh this one and this one must be Jews also believed in many gods and as much as you will tell them no I'm Jewish I'm telling you what I believe in don't tell me what I what I should believe in we don't believe in multiple gods we don't believe in Idols we only believe in one God so they say why uh is it plural and we say because Hashem wanted to lead you astray we're learning that this world is is multiple tests in making a choice between the truth and between error and Hashem has put into the world and into the Torah pitfalls and snares for those who wish to be deceived just like we said the verse says the ways of Hashem are righteous sadikin will walk on straight paths but the bad people will stumble on that same path and fall so the same thing if you just read another few words and you will see that God is singular is plural because it means force and we in our world see many forces of nature so we call them the forces but we say above all is one force and that is Hashem to our perspective we see the wind we see the sun we see uh gravity electricity we see many different forces but there is one unifying force behind all of them we say Hashem is the master of all forces that is why it's written in plural but right next to the word Elohim there is another word Bara para is singular so don't tell me that Elohim is plural because the word created the verb is singular must be the one that made the action is only one one God to us it seems like many so in the same verse already there is a question and there is an answer the question is for those who want to stumble and the answer is for those who want to pass the test the same phenomenon that guys sadiqi to give to to on the way of righteousness the very same phenomena was intended to give the bad people an opportunity to trip to fall down and be ruined now when you look at that statement Hashem the paths of Hashem are straight it includes everything in the world because Paths of Hashem means all the ways that Hashem interacts with the world it includes history it includes nature it includes psychology everything you can think of it includes it includes musar ethical teachings even the laws of Torah and the ethical teachings of Torah are opportunities for people who wish to deceive themselves to be tripped up and snared to fall down and ruin themselves by learning the ethical teachings and the laws in a wrong way or for selfish reason or learning how to trick others and therefore it was intended for that purpose everything in the world should be used that way and you have to be careful I have an opportunity I can use it or misuse it now we come back to page one 18. the last paragraph when the miss lady Sharif tells us that Hashem put man in a place made to deceive you to deceive us you have to realize that this is referring to people who do not bother to look but if one would use his eyes and think more deeply then the world is made to teach man like it says a wise man is one who has eyes in his head what does it mean eyes in your head means your eyes are high above your body they see far and they see above the immediate desire that you have what's gonna be further down the line I opened my eyes and I explore further not only I have played with delicious food in front of me let me dig in no but what's going to be later I might become not healthy because of so much unhealthy food so the world is created to deceive us if we choose to be deceived Hashem doesn't deceive Us by force and mislative continues on page 119 if a man allows himself to be drawn after these things like the population of the world does he goes further and further away from the true good it comes out if you study the situation he is actually put in the middle of a strong battle and now let's go back to the end of the chapter page 178 and we'll read one more paragraph and that is if one would use his eyes and think more deeply then he will realize that the world is made to teach men in the book single right you righteous writes for the ways of Hashem are right the righteous walk in them and the wicked stumble in them all the matters of the world are tests for men those who do not choose blindness are able to see the Creator's footsteps everywhere for all things I expressly planned to proclaim the Creator all your works praise you the glory of your kingdom they say and your might they speak to make known to the sons of man his mighty Deeds as we say in prayers every morning but those who choose blindness are intentionally given opportunity to be encouraged in their errors and they stumble and fall on the very road which leads the righteous towards the truth Hashem put the world into their hearts so that a man should not discover the work which God made this is you have a whole world to distract you and if you choose to go after the world distractions of the world yes you will you will not discover the work which God made and another verse you impose darkness and it becomes night says this refers to this world which is similar to night you impose Darkness you put a lot of cloudiness a lot of confusion and becomes night you don't see the truth for this is the world which is intentionally planned to allow men to deceive themselves but the verse says the heavens relayed the glory of God and the firmament tells of the works of his hands God made so that man should fear Him kohelet says which means everything in the world can bring you closer to fear of Hashem on the other hand we have a statement all the God created in the world was for the purpose that man should fear Him this is a midrash the universe demonstrates that although truth is purposefully concealed from those who seek to avoid it yet the truth is abundantly available for those who desire it and tomorrow presentation we're going to read