Transform Your Rosh Hashanah: Rebbe Nachman’s Ladder From Ego to Emunah - Rabbi Lazer Brody

Amuna, [music and singing] my Lord. Amuna, it's [music] from you, my Lord. [music] It's all good, my Lord. Oh [music] Lord, >> good evening from the south of Israel. This is Laser Brody with Amuna Hour number 253. Tonight's lesson is entitled the four healing lights and bazat in thinking what can be the possible most meaningful lesson that we could prepare ourselves before rashash shana wanted to look at what the source of all sin is all transgression rashan day of judgment and we're preparing ourselves in chuva in atonement asking forgiveness for all our transgressions we get judged and of course when we do chuva on we're forgiven but we have to go to the source. We go to the source. If a person tries to remember every single little detail, get bogged down. Unless takes Rabi's advice and does soulsearching every day, does personal secluded prayer every single day and does it's not advice and from way back then when a person before it goes to sleep at night does self assessment. What did I do all day long? Did I do good things? Did I do the wrong things? And if I did the wrong things, what are they? And to ask forgiveness for Hashem that way. Every day a person is in Shuva. Every day a personal maintains the hygiene of the soul keeps the soul lily white. But yet right before rash shana maybe we haven't done that every single day. So now what do we do? We lift our hands in despair. No, we don't lift our hands in despair. That's tonight's amuna hour. Tonight's amuna hour. We are going to go to the root of all transgression and go to the root of all healing. So tonight's lesson is entitled the four healing lights. What are we talking about? The root of all transgression is arrogance. Every sing we could trace every single transgression of Torah to arrogance. That's what person arrogant. The person forgot about Hashem. How how can someone forget about Hashem? You forget about your heartbeat. Forget her lungs. That means for forgot about Hashem and the Torah juxtaposes forgetting about Hashem and pride and your heart was hotty and you forgot Hashem. So we're going to learn all about arrogance. I want to learn about the types the absence of arrogance as humility. Just as arrogance is the source of all sin, the source of all transgression, humility is the source of all cure. Now this is based on a Torah for Rabbi Nman discourse Rabbi Nman from Moran 14 and not only that but on discourse 4 also in discourse 14 Reb talks about the four types of arrogance how to fix them and discourse 4 he talks about another type which is the prerequisite of all types if a person doesn't learn a certain type of humility then he can't learn the other types of humility we're going to cover all that put this all together and bazat and this should be a preparation a good preparation for all of us. I certainly at least for me personally just preparing this lesson it was [snorts] it was like cleansing my soul. It felt so good. I just want to share it with you. This is what teacher we're sharing together. So let me give a little preface. During the time of the holy temple we were all on a very high spiritual level because we had the divine presence in our midst. Now when the divine presence was in our midst there was a period of immense blessings but there was tremendous obligations. So if a person the time when the divine presence is in our midst. If a person dared transgress the Torah, it would immediately invoke stir judgments and this would be manifest manif. For example, if a person spoke slander almost instantly the person would get would become a leper would get inflicted tremendous infections. Lep leprosy even though we don't have leprosy today back then leprosy was a spiritual punishment. There was spiritually it came to physical was a physical affliction of the body but it was brought on by spiritual. Now really things haven't changed that our sins the gammor and tractate Shabbat tells us at page 55A that there is no tribulation without prior transgression. So most of our most of our sicknesses they're either soul corrections from former goarounds or they could be traced to something we've done today. For example, people look there, there are still direct things and there's certain uh when when a person transgresses uh debauchery, there's certain diseases that go along with debauchery and even they discover penicellin that penicellin may cure some of it then comes up something new and that doesn't you can't outsmart Hashem. So the transgressor back in the time ly temple would be affected immediately. So with the blessing of divine divine presence or mist the children of Israel they would always be healthy and therefore when they would sick they wouldn't seek to seek a help of a doctor they'd seek the help of a coin one of the priests and the priest would instruct them on what they need to rectify. The priest had special spiritual vision and he would see what they had. You would know how you would know what they did wrong. And the solution was chuva and a ritual sacrifice. And the chuva for the individuals and they did that was at the time of the holy temple. So now we don't have the holy temple anymore. We don't have our kohani. We don't have the high priest. We don't have ritual sacrifices. The daily ritual sacrifices would atone for everyone. It would have been healthy. There was no there was no sickness because we had the holy temple. Shem was in our midst. And a person can't have the divine presence. When you have the divine presence in your midst, you're healthy. You've got plenty of parnosa. You've got plenty of income. You've got no problem. No problem at all. But after the destruction of the holy temple that the divine presence went into exile because of our sins. So along with the daily ritual sacrifices and the priests that atone for our sins, uh we have we lack atonement for individual sins. So what's the result? The result is that there's no instant retribution for heaven. No, no double whammy, no leprosy for speaking lash. But the instant atonement when the instant atonement of the holy temple was there, then was the instant punishment. So since we live in spiritual darkness, we live in spiritual insensitivity as well. A person Rabbi Nakman says that a person has to feel the pain of when a person speaks slander has to feel a tremendous toothache a mount something an affliction of the mouth. When a person threatens someone he has to feel feel a pain in his arm. When any part of the body that does a transgression has a real physical pain, but we don't feel it because we're spiritually insensitive and a person can speak lies and slander all day long and he won't feel any burning or chafing in their skin like like in the leprosy and they won't feel any deep pains in their muscles but the soul pays the price. It doesn't go people think that because they don't feel a physical punishment hem doesn't see Hashem forgot. Hashem forgives all types of different things and business as usual and they keep on going they keep on with the bad behavior. The Gomorrah says that if a person does transgression the same transgression twice in a row becomes used to it then becomes easy for the person to to becomes a pattern of behavior. The third is already an established pattern. So what happens in the meanwhile is this is bad news before Rashashana. The transgression inflicts the soul and it creates a spiritual barrier that blocks divine light. So here we go. We're going to rush. We want Hashem to hear our prayers. But there's a spiritual barrier which you going to give your prayers against an iron curtain bounce right back at you. We got to get rid of that barrier. That's what we're doing tonight. Have to get rid of that barrier because this is the lack of divine light. That's the key to all emotional ailments. People are sad, people depressed, people what's the pro the problem? The problem is the lack of divine light because that's what there's a yes in Israel called or the happy light. When Hashem's light is refle Hashem illuminates his light on someone and someone's soul, it's it's happiness. That's instant happiness. So we say that depression is a darkness of the soul and happiness is an illumination of the soul. So if a person uh doesn't do serious chuva then his or her sins will push them away from hashem and not only that what does it mean to be pushed away she going to be robbed of your happiness in life like the viva be robbed of that and of emotional stability okay so why we have back then in the time of temple we had leprosy so today we have arrogance and rabbi learns this from play on words negim naim means afflict And the gimm is also the the the type of affliction that's brought on the different types of leprosy that's bought brought on by the different types of slander. So leprosy is the result of evil speech and it's no longer a phenomenon in this generation. So we see that evil speech is more rampant than ever with with the social media and you press one button you could slander a person in front of a million people and in the old days how much how much effort would it take to tell slander gossip to 50 people person would have to work hard and what the chuva is the the correction for that sin is to go to every single person and say that there wasn't proper speech and you said something that was either a lie or not true or you didn't check it out and shouldn't stand. If it's true, you have to ask for forgiveness. All the more so if it's a lie. So instead of leprosy, says Rabbi Nakman, there's arrogance. When you see a person who is arrogant, forget about it. You can know that that person is a wagging tongue, speaks evil about other people, and it's usually an arrogant person. That's an arrogant person. What he wants to do is to build himself or herself up on someone else's account, and they speak bad about other people. So arrogance is not merely a character flaw. It's a spiritual disease. Put this into think about it. It's a spiritual disease and it severely contracts a spiritual intellect. It takes a spiritual intellect. In other words, a person's dot the person's spiritual awareness awareness of Hashem is able to see Hashem in every creation. And we see the the epitome of this was King David in the song of creation. King David had such spiritual awareness that he could see Hashem in every creation. He could hear every creation praising Hashem. The person where is Hashem? What are you asking for? Napa poop. It's right there. Who's beating your heart? You're connected to any source of external power. No. And they said they're all typ people are so spiritually in insensitive. It's it's crazy. And Hashem declares in Gomorrah several places particularly in the Gomorrah tract soda page five. He says, he says, "Me and the arrogant person can't dwell in the same universe." Well, if Hashem and the arrogant person can't dwell in the same universe, I promise you, Hashem is not going anywhere. That means that the arrogant person somewhere is going to get really on go into a serious spiritual exile. And we don't even talk about where the spiritual exile is. Maybe won't feel this, but on the other side certainly will. So what does it mean when a person has spiritual exile? No desire to make a blessing, no desire to pray, no desire to learn Torah, no desire to learn amuna, no desire to talk to Hashem, no desire for spirituality at all. They'd give him his his potato chips and his beer and his computer game and a play box or whatever and they do Netflix whatever it said. No desire for spirituality and it won't won't have any any connection to holiness to a muna and no spiritual perception. The person spiritually will be an imbecile a spiritual imbecile and arrogance only fuse people ego. And the more person is arrogant, the more person is goes away from Hashem. So Rebi Nakman draws this clear connection between today's arrogance and yestery year's leprosy. Our sages explicitly teach that leprosy is a physical manifestation of a spiritual stain caused by arrogance. So we can understand that a leper is cast out of the holy camp. A leper is spiritually impure and can't be in the in an encampment with everyone. Can't be in the congregation. No, he's got to be out by himself in some isolated place in the wilderness until he gets better. And just as the leper is spiritually isolated because Hashem's presence can't coexist with the leper, it can't coexist with the arrogant person. So what it really means on Shana Yamipper, the high holidays, we're going into to pour our hearts out to Hashem. pour out the hearts out to Hashem, a leper. I don't know what you would do. Go to the zoo, go to the beach, do something. He's not going to feel anything. He's just going to be looking. Even if he does go to a a place of worship, he look at his clock all day long. There are people that are looking at their watch all day long. When's it going to be over? Because for him, it's suffering. It's suffering. For a person who loves Hashem, it doesn't even feel you look on Yam Kipper when fasting all the day of atonement. It's such a happy day that the Gmorra and trackani says there it's the happiest day of the year that and love day on the 15th of the two happiest days of the year. Say with love day that's what people get married and people find their soulmates and it's romantic and everything and and yom kipper. Yeah because that's a day of romance with Hashem when Hashem forgives us. And what greater sign of love is it when you forgive forgive someone you love. Okay. So what is the antidote to all this arrogance to prevent we got to prevent this loss of connection urgently because rash shana is in another another two weeks okay so we need to h damage every one of us everyone this is something for everyone because everyone there's nobody could say unless Moses unless a person is Moses that they're completely clean of arrogance so once again this is the contemporary spiritual substitute for leprosy so says that we have to learn humility on four different levels. And once again, I take today's lesson from LI Moran discourse 14 in section one. He says, "A person," and I'm quoting Rabbi Nakman, "one must destroy arrogance by learning humility on four levels. The first level, he must be humbled in the face of people greater than him. Number two, he must be humble in front of his peers, people on his equal level. Number three, he must be humble on people who are seemingly below his level. Person thinks maybe someone's below level that already could be as danger of being arrogant. But if a person looks like he's a person is a is a can't read, it can't write their person very poor person or a beggar a hobo and person perceived to be on a lower level still have to be can't be arrogant and and visit this person. Uh and four, a person must be humble in relation to himself. What does it mean humble be relation to himself? We would elaborate on this, but it means that we have to perceive that we're on a lower spiritual rung than we actually are. This keeps us from arrogance. Okay. So what is our goal? Our goal is to see to achieve total humility. Total humility that's be completely nullify our ego to Hashem. And that way we become a worthy vessel for divine light because it they take a fine when Hashem is pouring fine wine. Okay, somebody take my very best crystal goblet and clean it and make it shine and it's going to be super clear. You're Hashem pouring the wine. Okay, but if I come with a a muddy glass or with old wine, some cheap wine in the in the bottom and doesn't want to put that for vine wine. We need to get the fine wine. Hashem's divine illumination. We have to clean our souls. Our souls have to be worthy v vessels. Now what happens once our souls are worthy vessels? Then our prayers are capable of mitigating harsh decrees even converting the strict judgments into mercy. This is not my where's the gmora track page 86. Gmor track say this. person who makes chuva out of love out of love of hashem not of fear of punishment for even if a person makes chuva out of fear of punishment then it's enough to take a a purposeful and a willing sin and turn into an accidental sin but if a person makes chuva bhava makes chuva out of love of hashem that I'm so sorry that I distanced myself from hash hem what do I love nothing greater than hashem then a person takes his or her sins and turns them into merits. You can imagine and you learn this in mathematics and ab there's a concept of absolute numbers. If you take -100 multiplied by negative100, you have positive10,000. What does that mean? Suppose a person owes $100 and then someone gives him 10 promisory notes of $100 and turns that in forgiven. Now go in the bank and cash them and the bank will give you positive money for that. You get $10,000. And this the same thing if a person has the demerits of sin and then becomes a complete baluva a complete penitant then they're considered merits. So this is our most maybe our most important spiritual job all year long in preparing ourselves especially in preparing ourselves for rashana is to get rid of arrogance. Really should work this all year long. If we haven't been working on this all year long, then right now is the time. Instead, this is taken for we would take it could take a any one of we speak about lashenhara or speak about gh speak about something that taking something unauthorized with touching something that doesn't belong to us taking something short changing in business. We take of individual sins but by arrogance correcting arrogance and training to humility we uproot all these sins. all these things because they all they all have a root in arrogance. Take any any transgression and commercial transgression and business dealing and a person thinks he's above Torah. The Torah can't limit me. I need more money than mem thinks I I need. Okay? So, he takes the law in his own hands and that's why it arrogance leads to it. So before we introduce the four levels of humidity of a of humility, we have a prerequisite level that Rebi Nakman speaks about somewhere else. He speaks about very fleetingly in first chapter Moran discourse 4. That's humility toward Hashem. If a person isn't humble toward Hashem, we just say a person thinks he's great, he can take the the law in his own hands, then he can't even begin to work on humility and opposite with other people. So this is going to prepare this lesson before we learn Rabbi Aman's four levels of humility with other people. Let's learn the prerequisite level humility toward Hashem. Arrogance is the cause of all types of emotional disorders. Rabbi Nakman said and people don't like that the psychiatrist is psych they do not like that that arrogance is all sorts of disorder person has arrogance and and they're out of a job. Okay. So really what they need to do is uh teach people how to be humble and then they'll be happy. So this stems from man's first sin feeling that he could be like a sheab had feel that maybe he could be could be like a shim. So the root of arrogance entered his heart with an array of lusts and bodily appetites and negative emotions such as anger and jealousy. Now we see jealousy this right away the next generation with Cain and Abel. So the arrogance led to a denial of Hashem and heresy that Cain could say how could Cain you see Hashem everything Cain look at Hashem in the face and say no am I my brother's keeper I didn't touch him. How can you do that? How can you say that? This is arrogance. This is Kane's arrogance. So this is a and that Zora calls this shawish kind. This is the a root of the sin that comes way back from Kane. When we correct arrogance, we correct some of the original sin. So once we understand that arrogance is the root of all emotional ills, we realize that the opposite, the antidote, humility, that is the cure and the root of the solution and of all emotional well-being. So if arrogance is the root of all emotional sickness, then humility is the root to emotional health. So as we mentioned first, the first step of humility, the prerequisite is being humble toward Hashem. Remembering that we're creations, not the creator. [laughter] And all our powers and abilities come from him alone. That's the first principle of muna. He alone did, does, and will do everything. So a person daily must remind himself of the passage that we learned in Deuteronomy 8:1 18. And you shall remember Hashem your God for he has given you the strength to succeed. That is exact opposite what it says a few passages later that the person the person if a person forgets Hashem and his heart becomes hardy. And we say this three times in the Alenu prayer you should know this day and take to your heart internalize in your heart that Hashem is God in the heavens and on the earth beneath and there is no other. That's also in Deuteronomy but in chapter 4. These passages are meant as reminders that there's no one but he no one but hem. That's our three words of amuna. Don't ever forget them. And we have to turn to Hashem for everything. When we turn to Hashem for everything, when we thank Hashem for everything, make a blessing about everything. We know that we didn't bring the water. We didn't vent the water. We didn't we we think the Yates the clinician wants to tell us that we put the food in the refrigerator. No, we didn't do that. Hashem gave us the the food all comes from Hashem. And this is level of humility of being humble toward Hashem. This is accessible for most people because it's relatively easy to understand how small we are in relation to the creator. And people remember this when they're sick. Why are you sick? Maybe some tiny little virus, some amoeba, the one cell that and it's enough to neutralize a person completely. So when even compared with other creations greater than us such as the angels and the galaxies and creations in nature the vast creation of natures were tiny they even we before we even look at Hashem look at the creation creates around us the vast creations and we're so small yet uh the prerequisit this prerequisite in the realm of humility is knowing about our nothingness that's the key to humility and being humble in relation to Hashem so once we can truly nullify our egos submit to Hashem. Now we're capable of doing his will with joy. So let's go on to the four levels of humility. Humility which will cure our souls and give us not only this make it better all the way around more charisma people like us better shall bite but more marital happiness better with all your interpersonal relationships. This is humility first of all toward people greater than us. It's our spiritual guides that we have real respect for. Okay. The first level of humility on the humility ladder is our willingness and readiness to set aside our ego in the presence of those greater than us. This requires us to acknowledge the presence of flesh and blood creations who know more than we do. Have to acknowledge there are those that know more than we do and more righteous than we are. And that's the important to be have a connection with a righteous spiritual guide. Someone who's truly righteous. And I sit next to him even even let's suppose heaven forbid that I would be overcome with arrogance all I have to do is sit for five minutes and learn with the military ribbit learn my ribbit and become the tinier maybe a little bit tinier 2 millimeter 1 millimeter disappear nothing you see unbelievable wisdom unbelie where he sees things learn Gamora together or learn a track take the what the Reb sees and where am I if I feel like a a monkey give throw me a banana this is what feel like like a monkey in his presence not even like a donkey or the donkey knows his creator Isaiah the prophet says an ox knows his creator don't feel and this is this if you have someone who is a a wise a wise scholar and an upright scholar and a whole scholar that you you never see never hear a negative word. You never hear a single not even a whisper of any type of speech that's not 100% holy that the actions and a person is dedicated to other people helping other people and dedicated to Hashem and dedicated to his Torah and doesn't waste a single minute. They can account for every single minute. This is but this it's it's so healthy to have relationship with that that is why the importance everyone we're commanded that everyone should have a spiritual guide that someone should be on a higher level than they are. Okay. So this is this acknowledging that there are people that know more than we do whether vocal mind. This is for example uh a lot of people saying we hear from the the rabbis the leaders of generations they say this rebel vadia would say something no if they do this they shouldn't do that they don't listen to rebel vodia rebuadia talked about one politician who sold himself up that is a is a religious politician he called himself he called himself that that the home for people of the muna rebad said don't vote for this guy. The guy's a fake. And then they voted person came into power and rebel va says why didn't you listen to me? Why didn't you listen? People think they're smarter than the than the rebel vod. See rebel vodka. It was unbelievable. I had the privilege of sitting with rebel one afternoon when I first wrote my my commentary on Torah and I came to him for approbation and he said sit down next to me. He said sit down next to him and study. And he had two Torah scholars that were wheeling books. One was wheeling books to Rebu and one was wheeling books to put them back. He had on the volumes on his wall 58,000 volumes. And he had a stack of letters and he was answering letters answering letters. What? Like like a like like a machine. And he was answering questions. And he said this book, this book, this book, this book exactly what was was that book. So he'd fill up the wagon. One would go to the wagon, one would take back the wagon. Wow. I I was persspiring just watching it. could not believe it. Could not believe it. And then we went to we we went this was in his house. He has this study hall in the basement of his house and the synagogue was in the the top floor his apartment Harnov and he said we're going to pray Mina and then he took the manuscript and the manuscript was 550 pages long between Mina and my he finished the manuscript. I couldn't believe it. I can't do that. And then he said well after my review we came back to his office and he wrote me an appribation and he said I especially enjoyed what was in paras mitra something in par at the middle of the I can't believe it it you you see something like this it's not natural this was like seeing Moses to see rebel was like seeing Moses in this generation so how can a person just be arrogant just mention the word that the the lived in our generation even that even now the people that are alive today alive today they could tell all types of stories about blessings from the military that David will allow me to mention it's mentioned David son Ysef you should see David's son Yoseseph David's son Ysef is a commando and one of the most important units in the Israeli army in the IDF and he's a mountain man that little baby was not expected to live and all the doctors said that this it's a big problem. It was a you were deathly ill as a little baby and that was David made his first contact. We were just got to know each other. Dave David made his first contact. I sent him put him together said you need meliser and he got in melisbe told him what to do and how to do and well fast forward 21 years and and look look where you can see what it is. You you can see these things. The people that have the privilege to see these things, they know is there. So all we have to do is we say to one another, if we think we're we're big shots, we're highbrows, all we have to say to each other, melatonin, and that's it. Boom. We are our our arrogance gets inflamed. That is the the the importance of having a relationship with the great of the great spiritual guides. Okay. So Rebi Nakman says only a fool doesn't listen to a wise wise person because if he did he'd be cured instantly. Exactly. He says reb you listen to what he says even if it's illogical going to be cured right away. So for most individuals submissiveness to a greater individual that's a tremendous trial. People don't easily surrender their outlook or their opinions even when they're greater and wiser individuals think differently. Sometimes a person knows that unless he or she casts their own opinions aside and takes the advice of a wiser individual, they won't be able to benefit from all that advice and help. But in spite of it all, they stay stubbornly entrenched in their own views. It's like the doctor telling them you need an urgent medicine. No, I don't need the medicine. I'm going without it. person has to acknowledge the truth that there are individuals that are greater than us that are wiser than us that have stronger spiritual vision than we do. Just because we can't see doesn't mean it doesn't exist because we could certainly couldn't see what King David could see. We certainly couldn't see what Isaiah the prophet could see and certainly could not see what Moses could see. But this is why we have to submit ourselves to people on on a higher level. So once again this is the rung of humility that begins bring a person's emotional health. Okay. So at this stage a person has to be truthful to themselves. What happens and while we're doing while we're learning these stages of humility when being humble we have to be truthful to ourselves. So what does it mean truthful to ourselves? I wait a second when I do when I do my my own personal soulsearching. Okay. You you think you're a big shot? Where are you? Where's the meliter? And how does he learn? How does he pray? And how do you learn how do you pray? Okay. Have to deflate our ego, put the pin in, release the valve, and let the hot air go out like a balloon and realize that we can't succeed in our own if we don't take the advice and guidance of someone greater. I shudder to think where I would be and what I would be without taking the ribba's advice. So, this can vary from area to area. For example, a brain surgeon needs a mechanic's advice when the mechanic gives advice about what to do in the on the on the car in a carburetor. But uh the mechanic certainly needs the neurologist advice when it come when he's got a tumor in his head. He can't look in his uh owner's manual of his Mitsubishi. That not going to work. So in like manner, we have to humble ourselves before those who know better than we do. And this is basic humility. So don't think that by simply accepting the yoke of the righteous spiritual leaders from previous generation a person says oh yeah I recognize I recognize that Rabbi was great is not around anymore yeah he left all his his writings he's not around anymore to give us instruction is not around anymore when the chereba told the Israeli government do not give one inch of land and they didn't listen to him and what how many wars and Oslo and schmoslo and everything that's gone on ever since then if they'd only listened to love only listen to him everything he said was true no they want to listen to him don't okay so they think though oh yeah but now a person can say okay I'm I'm listening to him but he's not not here anymore listen to the those books that nobody read the books so when clearly someone is greater than we are certainly have to accept their greatness and that's a first stage of humility that humility toward people They're greater than us. And the Gomorrah tells us, in fact, don't say, "Well, wait a second. We don't have enough rebel voda in this this generation that the head rabbi in this generation is not on his level." Ah, okay. A lot of people say that. But if we look at the Gomorrah and trackate Rashashana page 25B, the Gomorrah says like this that Yifak Yak the prophet he he the judge he was just like Samuel in his generation. Now everyone knows that Yif he Yak was a a rough guy. Yiftak was a Rambo and he was a a military leader and he became judge because of those victories. He was on the level of Samuel the prophet. Samuel the prophet. He wrote Samuel one, Samuel 2 that that he wrote the book of the book of Ruth. Samuel the prophet that that and his prophecies and his level never wrote anyone's talking about that. Yif in the book of judges. Yifak wasn't on Samuel's level. But yet was the judge in his generation. His generation can't say no you're not the level of Samuel the prophet. we're not going to listen to you. They're required to listen to him. And Rabbi therefore concludes that it's crucial for a person to connect and submit himself to a righteous individual of the generation because this is a giant step toward genuine humility. Now, if you don't have direct connection to this righteous individual, then you could be connected to one of his students or to one of his students students there. It's like a ladder. This is Jacob's ladder that goes up. Not anybody could could be connected to the to the righteous individual. But that for example the BMPto had many students who grace with Magna Meszich Magnamezich the first he had many many students and each one of the the Mid students had many many students but they connected to them. We go all go right back to the Mi to the Balshto connection to the BMTO. So the Jewish people's troubles and this is a a little bit of a confession. Throughout the generations, it stemmed from our stubborn refusal to listen to the prophets and the spiritual leaders. Well, why the generations didn't listen to the prophets and the spiritual leaders? They failed to realize recognize their nothingness in regard to Hashem. And by that arrogance that very quickly led to idolatry, to debauchery, to bloodshed, to the worst sins that a person can't can't atone for. Well, only death atones for them. So in their arrogance, they refused to listen to the prophets which ultimately led to national comm calamity and that was destruction of both temples. And this is so by correcting this, we are actually correcting the reason for exile. the reason instructionally simple. That's the first level of humility toward those greater than us. Now we go on to the second level of humility. Humility to those on our level, let's call it our peers. So a person who has already started listening to those greater than him now opens the door to being able to listen to his peers and those on let's say on our own intellectual and spiritual level. And this every single person have to understand has a special quality. For Hashem created a person, each person has a special quality. So one of the keys to being humble in front of someone who is seemingly equal is to know that that person has a quality that I don't have certain. So a person is willing to listen to others then he or she deres benefit from the other person's quality. This is a secret of learning partners. We learn in partner we learn with the learning part and what we call a kava and the up other person sees the gamorrah sees the learning where we're learning together sees it in a different light than I do because of the root of his soul and I benefit by listening to him and by hearing his interpretation I benefit from a look at it a vantage point that I don't have of my own and this widens my own vistas my own spiritual vistas and the same thing with him this goes together so if If you have good synergism between learning partners, they could go really high together. And this depends on their success in learning together is their humility toward one another, their respect toward one another, the willingness to listen to one another. When before I started working in an outreach, and I was the head of a rabbitical coil, a rabbitical seminary, and I would see two learning partners, and I'd see that they were arguing, but they weren't listening to one another. They each had his prepared speech. He didn't respond to the other person right away. Stop the learning right there. No, that's not the way to learn. You're not learning properly. This is arrogance. Get arrogance. As long as there's arrogance on that on that learning table we're learning together, there's not going to be any absorption of Torah. So, we got get rid of that. Often times that would really stop the learning right in the middle. Right in the middle and and and first let's let's do an anti-arrogant lesson. All right. It's a person of arrogant and unwilling to listen to what others. That's it. Could be a learning partner. Could be a spouse. It's often it's good. Be open before you argue. Listen to what your spouse has to say. How many people in marriage they argue with each other before they even know what the other person has to say. Listen. Open yours and listen. And then respond calmly. Agree. Disagree. If I agree, that's wonderful. If I disagree, why? And show my own standpoint, my own vantage point. And maybe a spouse will accept it. If a spouse said that why I'm wrong and why I may be wrong or why he or she disagrees. So tell me okay the person that doesn't want to listen is a person that thinks he knows everything. That's the arrogant person. So ultimately the arrogant person is an ignorant person. Why are arrogant people ignorant? Because they don't learn from anyone. So humble people they're good listeners and good listeners are good learners. So such a humble people they learn a lot because they listen to other people they listen to what they have they absorb a lot. Not only that but everybody likes them. Everybody likes a humble person. Everybody likes a good listener. So even if a humble person has a disagreement with someone that humble person knows that there's two sides to the story. So he or she considers the other side's perspective. That's why it's it's a paradise to be married to a humble person. So at this level of humility, he or she is capable of appreciating other people and their opinions. So without such humility, a person cannot fulfill the Torah's commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. A person won't be able to have marital peace. Certainly because a lot of marital difficulties, key to arrogance. Okay. So this is an unnatural commandment because human nature gravitates towards selfishness. When a baby comes into the world, comes in the whole world belongs to that baby. the baby's spoiled gets used to this. So if a person doesn't get out of the sense of entitlement that a baby has then he remains a baby could be a big person with a could weigh 200 lb and be six foot tall but still remain a spiritual baby. So our whole mission on earth is to refine human nature and polish our character and the traits most conducive to serving Hashem which you're learning tonight. The most important of which is humility. We now go on to our third level of humility. Humility toward those on a lower level than us. So once humility begins to penetrate a person's soul, person has learned humility to people greater than them, person learned humility with his peers, uh that a person's soul is is penetrated with humility. And this goes further. So when the more we're humble, the more we're able to observe the world around us because we have enhanced spiritual awareness because the ability and that what does the enhanced spiritual awareness enable us to do? Enable us to see our own shortcomings and to see another person's advantages. uh that we can see good in other people and particularly the unique quality of judging every person fairly and judging every person on on a good level. So people that may be disdained by all of society we can see the good in these particular people. If you look people disdain that they say maybe special needs children but look if you observe but a special needs child or even a special needs adult take a good look at them and there's one thing they have they don't have the regular choice like other people but they have one special quality they're really generous they're willing to help watch observe it needs a lot of spiritual witness but take a look and you could see a special quality that Hashem gave them gave them to correct other people. So even those who are seemingly on a lower intellectual level than us uh or lower spiritual level we are when the person who is humble is not preoccupied with correcting the outside world correcting other people's faults the humble person is preoccupied with correcting himself or himself and so therefore it's easy for them to see people on a lower level because they say wait a second I'm far from corrected now so they could see the good and other people and this is a third level of humility enabling that this enabled our sages to testify all this Gomorrah where sages testify just how much they learned from their pupils how much even though they they were on a higher level they knew on a higher level but they say their pupils they learned so much that they would say I learned from my students more than anyone and that's when a person could but he sees his own shortcomings and sees the good people. For example, an arrogant professor doesn't listen to anyone makes a comment. I mean, you see in university, I'm in university, the professors, they right away shoot people down. They don't listen because they're they're full of arrogance. He's got his PhD and his ameritus and this and that. Doesn't want to listen to anyone. So many physician where they call him professor already. So, doctor, I didn't professor. Oh, you can't tell this person what to do. No, no. Okay, that that's because they don't see their own shortcomings and it's really ugly. There's nothing more beautiful when you see a humble physician or a humble teacher that it's it's fantastic. They're rare. So humility once again, why why has they become beautiful? Because when they're humble, they're worthy receptacles of a divine light. And when they're arrogance, they have no divine light. So the guy can have a wall full of degrees, have his wallpaper with degrees, but they have a degree in arrogance. Okay, the PHA, okay, the doctor doctor of arrogance and that's we could see that we that's the person's going to be far away from Hashem and we're looking for the exact opposite. Look for proximity for Hashem. Let's go on to our fourth level of humility. This is humility in relation to ourselves. This is very important. So, a person has to consider himself or herself on a slightly lower spiritual level than they actually are. Where do we learn this concept? We learn this concept habitically from the Torah in the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus in chapter 16 says that when when it talks about the para, the mana, it says every person must sit beneath his place. You know, they're talking about Shabbat, we're not allowed to go out and search for the mana because it's not going to be on Shabbat. The mana was given six days and the sixth day was a double portion of preparation for Shabbat. Talking about the Shabbat, a person should sit below his place. Rabbi Akmed says in quotes our sages they say every s person should sit below his place. Your place is your spiritual rung, your current spiritual rung. So hold yourself a little bit lower than your spiritual rung. If you know that you're on a particular rung, no I'm not on that level. I'm a little bit lower than that. And you think I'm consider myself lower than what I am. Wow. That is a life insurance policy against arrogance. They when we're humble toward ourselves. So Rabbi Nakb says that we should sit on this slightly lower spiritual level than we actually are. Now this requires a golden medium. We don't tell ourselves how great we are. But we don't persecute ourselves either. Don't do this. And the sometimes the the evil inclination comes in. Oh yeah, you're really low. You're so messed up. You No, get out of here. No, that nobody invited you. Nobody invited you to the party. I'm talking to Hashem. I'm self assessment. Now, we know that uh a little bit lower, but you know, one thing I've got uh I can talk to Hashem because I have a soul that's a tiny part of Hashem. No matter what level I am, I'm part of Hashem. So, the fact that I have a soul that's a tiny microchip of Hashem, a spark of Hashem, I'm not going to do anything like a a beast of burden. Not only a human being, I'm the only creation in the universe that has the body of a mammal and the soul of an angel. So when I remember this and I do Hashem's will, my soul is higher than that of an angel because an angel doesn't have a mammal body to bring it down. Angel's just got to have soul and plus a mammal mammal doesn't have a and you get good inclination, evil inclination. It has an instinct to live. Animal does everything by instinct. It's got instinct, drinks by instinct, procreates by instinct, everything instinct. So this is keeps us on an even keel. But once again, we have to keep this in relationship. Don't let the evil inclination is not going to let this easy, not let this be easy. It's difficult and like we always say there's opposition on the field. So this key also is to liking ourselves when we consider ourselves a little lower than like ourselves. That's nice. Just like I judge other people fairly. I can judge the the down and outer and the hobo and I I could saw that this this person if the person would have the opportunities I had in life, maybe he'd be a lot better. And I can like myself and judge myself because we can like when a person can as humility to people greater than us that's relatively easy to our peers that's a little more difficult to people lower than us that's more difficult and to ourselves that's even more difficult. Talk about humility not arrogance. Humility when people are arrogant they hold themselves up but they don't really the arrogant person is in insecure builds himself up. A person who is secure knows yeah I know Hashem loves me but I'm not yet Moses I got a lot long way to go and I first I need before I become Moses I need to become laser okay so we know we've got work to do that's our work for Russashana okay so now knowing first we have our prerequisite level our prerequisite level is our humility toward Hashem and then our four levels that Rabbi brings are humility toward people greater than us humility toward our peers humility toward people on a seemingly lesser level. And fourth, the humility to ourselves. So we must always remember Hashem's greatness and our own insignificance. So once we do, we can absorb these four healing lights of humility. Every once we absorb these are actually lights. These are spiritual lights and they all cure part of our soul from this spiritual leprosy. This arrogance and we come into Russia shana. We come into the high holidays cleansed of arrogance. Oh, we feel so good. Feel so good. We have the we called the the desire then a desire to pray and we just want to get close to Hashem. Not beg forgive me because I'm going to get off the hot seat. No, I want to get close to Hashem. Now I have a couple of days, two days of rash shana work this and that and 10 days of of heightened spirituality and lower work level. We enjoy for spirituality take 10 days of 10 days of penitence that leads us to the day of atonement. Yom kipper and it's all a time to get closer to Hashem and this you know what the provocate from amuna is humility humility by learning humility this enables us to accomplish our lifelong mission of learning amuna and getting closer to Hashem and you know what happens we learn amuna and get closer to Hashem that have just get closer to be a little bit better than we were yesterday a little bit better than we were last year then that is enough to have us all inscribed and sealed for wonderful new year 5787. God bless. [music] >> [music]