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Life is Like a Grape (Parshas Shlach)
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Why do we have to know that the mission of the Spies took place "in the days of the ripening of the grapes"? What eternal lesson is there for us? How is life like a grape? Why are the Spies described as "men"? What does this teach us about the differences between men and women in terms of their approach to integrating spirituality with the material world? Also, how did Kaleiv know that the spies could no longer be trusted just because they answered Moshe's questions out of order? Based on Hisva'aduyos 5750 vol 3, pp. 342-3.
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
there was uh
a german a frenchman and a jew uh were
uh cap captured by the uh
bad guys cannibals uh whatever just
just a joke no no don't worry they
weren't really captured it's just a joke
and so they were brought before the
firing squad
and they were given the request for
their last meal you know
last meal so they asked the german
what's what's your last meal
and he said i would like some uh
bratwurst and beer
so they got him brought worse than beer
and they shot him
and then they asked the french what's
your last meal he says
i would like a baguette and uh red wine
they got him a baguette and red wine and
they shot him and they asked the jew
what's your last meal he says
strawberries they said strawberry
strawberries aren't in season right now
the jew says
no i'll wait okay
okay an interesting thing
impartial regarding the setting
of the story
we know where it takes place takes place
in the wilderness
and uh the jews are going into the land
or at least representatives of the jews
the spies are going into the land
to check it out and then they come back
to the wilderness and they report
that's where it takes place when does it
take place
well takes place when the jews are in
the wilderness right
but uh more specifically if you can
pinpoint it
to a time and by the way timewise we do
know they came back on tisha buff
right okay um and it was a 40 day
trip so we can work out
through different clues approximately
what time of year it was but that's not
how
the toyota describes it toyota tells us
when it wants to set the scene you know
every story has to
have a setting but it wants to set the
scene what does it tell us
it tells us in those days
those days were the days of the ripening
of the grapes
in other words those were the days when
the grapes are in season
okay why is it important for us to know
that this story takes place when the
grapes are in season
first of all first of all
when maisha rabbenu sent them
he told them
take from the fruit of the land meaning
any kind a few different kinds so it
wasn't specifically grapes that they
had to bring back and in fact you see
they brought back various different
species
and and and and this is the second of
all the second of all is apparently from
the fact that they brought back various
different species those pieces were in
season as well
so it wasn't just the ripening of the
grapes apparently
other fruits were ripe at the same time
so why does the
toyota emphasize that the setting of the
story is
in the specifically the days of the
ripening of the
grapes okay fine
so uh i i don't know what's your
patience level you want to hear the
answer at the end or you want to hear
right away
i'm going to come back to it or you want
to hear it right now what
no you don't want to forget the question
so you just want to hear right away
okay fine no problems a democracy here
we'll do whatever
whatever the people want so i'll give
you the answer right up front
a a grape is an interesting fruit
it has a very thin skin
very thin skin translucent skin
you can see through the grape skin
and that's different than many other
fruits i mean picture
uh well think of some of the other
fruits that the
the spies brought back like a
pomegranate you can't see through a
pomegranate it's a very opaque
and thick uh shell of course
very uh not able to see through it or
uh or a fig can't see through a fig
but not really yeah i mean we should
have brought a light board
you know like the cautious people with
the
romaine lettuce with the bugs on the
light board should have brought a light
board
but a grape if you hold the grape
up to the light you can see the seed
inside
you know i did this once actually for a
group of kids
and i went out i was such a good teacher
i went out and i bought grapes at the
store you know what's gonna happen
you know what you see you see what's
coming i went out and i bought grapes
uh they were seedless grapes so i
couldn't illustrate the point
but the point would have been if they
would have had seeds like normal grapes
is that if you hold a grape up to the
light you can see the seed inside
what's the point the point is that
you know there's something in kabbalah
called clipa
clipa is a byword for negativity
and kalipa literally means shall or peel
so why is negativity called a shell or
appeal
because essentially everything is godly
and everything is good because
everything was created
by hashem for a purpose it's just a
matter of
revelation and concealment some things
they're very obvious how they are
giving glory to hashem and those things
have no covering no peel so to speak we
call that kedusha we call that holiness
then there are other things where you
look at it like why does this even exist
in god's world
where the covering meaning the form in
which it exists in this world is very
opaque
so you can't even see that it's god's
creation maybe it even looks like
something that's rebelling against
god's plan which is really impossible
because if god made it it's
part of his plan but the point is that
we call that a clipper
and um sometimes we in kabbalah we talk
about the chalice clippers at tomas the
three
utterly impure clippers uh which
are by the way correspond to the
different if you've ever seen a walnut
growing from a tree
i don't know if you've ever seen them
but they look like uh tennis balls
they're green
yeah yeah i don't know if you ever saw
walnut from a tree but the shell that
we're used to seeing
is already uh second shell
well the the outer shell that we
identify as the shell that's like the
that's really the second shell not the
first shell
there are really three shells that are
inedible and then there's a
thin little membrane which is edible
that's like the clipas noiga
clipas noiga means the translucent or
the shiny clipper
um you know the planet venus is called
noiga because it shines
yeah so uh neighbor means to shine uh so
there are
chalice clips of tomase three utterly
irredeemable clippers
uh which you can see when you look at a
a walnut you know has
three levels that are inedible
irredeemable you can't use them
uh and then there's the thin membrane
which is it's not the
it's not the the the not itself but it's
an edible
membrane that's like clipped clipper
snug is the neutral category
uh and it's called klupasniga because
you can sort of i mean metaphorically
see the spark of godliness in it the
spark of godliness
is an open and uh like like in in
something that's kedusha something
that's holy
you look at it you look at a seifer
toyota and you don't have to
you have a lot of imagination to see how
this is useful for the service of hashem
something that an object that is kuddish
that is holy you look at it you say in
the form that it's in right now it is
very obvious
how this is in service of hashem
then there are things that you look at
and they're so covered over with the
form in which they exist in this world
you say how could that ever be
for the service of hashem and though by
the way those things how do we use them
to serve hashem because if everything is
created for hashem's glory then
has to also have a role yeah what's
what's the role of something like that
avoiding it avoiding it leaving it alone
right
so uh and then there's the the the the
vast majority of the physical world is
clippers
the neutral stuff so you know you look
at the cup of coffee
it's not holy meaning it's not overtly
like oh this is a holy object like you
know we
have to treat it with reverence like
there's nothing holy about it on the
other hand it's not prohibited
no no one put anything in my coffee
right okay so then it's not prohibited
okay which would mean the only
relationship i could have with it would
be to
avoid it stay away from it it's just
sort of neutral it's cleopas nega
which means that if you have vision if
you're creative you can sort of look at
it
and you can think oh i see i can take
this ordinary mundane
thing that's not holy or profane it's
just sort of spiritually neutral
and i can drink it
and i can use the energy or the caffeine
there that's making my brain work faster
and i can teach some torah and elevate
the energy there
so that's called clipas noiga now
if you remember the whole story of the
miragum
was really on a spiritual level a story
of coming of age
for our people where we had to make the
transition from a
purely theoretical judaism to a
practical judaism
and uh that was a difficult transition
because
many of uh the the elite many of the
most
spiritually evolved people
wanted judaism to remain theoretical
and they were happy to remain in the
midbar not only they're happy to the
preferred they prefer to remain in the
midbrain because
their they had the torah already torah
had already been given at sinai
so they can just study torah they can
contemplate on its truths
and uh what are they going to gain by
entering the land what mitzvos myceas
practical implementation of mitzvos what
do we need that for you know what kind
of headache that brings
and all the type all the types of you
know
city building and infrastructure and
agriculture and what do we need it for
right now we're in yeshiva
you know where we're fed by mon
the rains upon us we have the water from
the very shell miriam
so why should we enter the land and get
caught up in all types of mundane stuff
which is going to distract us from from
spirituality and that's why they feared
it
that's why they feared it they didn't
fear military
defeat because they already knew that
from experience that they could have a
miraculous victory
they feared the greatest
enemy that they feared at this point was
not a military foe
it was the very nature of the physical
world to consume us
in fact that's what they described it as
they said that the land and
it devours its inhabitants
they didn't mean the land so much as the
earthliness the worldliness devours its
inhabitants
so um they didn't want any of that they
didn't they didn't want
to become pulled away from the spiritual
truths and so that's why they came back
and they said it's not a good idea
skip it and uh
maishrobeno basically told him you guys
missed the whole point of judaism
because the whole point
is to practice tayag mitzvah
613 commandments souls in bodies
in this world making use of physical
objects
thereby refining the physical world
elevating the clipas noiga into kedusha
every time we use
resources around us whether it's the
money that we spend
on procuring the objects for a mitzvah
or it's the objects themselves it's the
lulu of an esser that we shake or it's
the
cowhide that we use for a mezuzah or
it's the bricks you use to build a
yeshiva
all these physical objects when they're
enlisted in the performance of a mitzvah
so they get
upgraded they get elevated from their
default setting which
is the mundane klipas noiga to kedusha
and then they become overtly see the
interesting thing is they remain
physical
and yet they reveal that they are part
of hashem's plan
if the only way things became holy was
to ship them up to heaven you know
what's the point they're beaming up
scotty right you have to get rid of the
the physical stuff in order for it to be
holy no the whole point is
that in the physical world remaining
physical
these things can be um converted into
holiness
by being put to use in in the proper way
and that's really that's what yiddish
kite is about it's about entering the
land
leaving the the the comfy mid bar and
going
into the land and getting involved in
all types of
day-to-day mundane stuff now
i'll mention um
that this is one of the difference
between men and women
that men tend to think of religious life
as purely spiritual almost like an
escape from day-to-day life you know run
to the shul and go be spiritual
and of course i'm over generalizing
because that's what a generalization is
but women uh tend to have a certain
innate sensitivity to the fact that real
uh
religious life is everywhere all times
whatever you're doing you don't have to
go to a special place
you don't have to be in a special mode
you just
everything you do even if it's like
cooking and cleaning
and taking care of kids even mundane
stuff that
you know it's not thrilling and not
glorious stuff you know it's a lot more
glorious to go to school and be the
cousin or to you know
to get nalia these things are you know
very glorious and they feel very
spiritual
but that's not the limit of what
religious life is for a jew
religious life is in all manners
of of being everything that we do and uh
and so at any rate one of the
differences between men and women
is that men tend to be the cabal
explains it
as the difference between za and malchus
that
men tend to seek
spiritual escapism and
women tend to see
how godliness can be
integrated into day-to-day life the
srina is an embodiment
of divine femininity and the shrine has
that same property of
shrines from shaykh indwelling it comes
down
into the world it doesn't fly off into
heaven and escape
it wants to be in the world in a
nurturing capacity taking care of
the creation so those are two very
different
you know like one's
going up one's going down now the truth
is when they get married they both have
to take u-turns in order to meet each
other in the middle
uh that's why accosson is malaysian
let's go down a drop
and kalos expiration going up
so they have to like sort of turn the
turn from their normal directions
and meet each other but um
femininity has an anchoring effect on
masculinity
at any rate i'm saying all this as a as
a preface to something very interesting
um that
the the the toyota tells us regard it
lists the names of
all of these uh spies it
lists them all elish macehan
these are the names of the men that um
hashem sent or had maisha
sent and uh
yeah so in possible
it says
they were all men heads of the
jewish people they were heads of tribes
what does it mean you were all men
so rashford says that kulamanashim
is allah kulaman should be
lost
it says that they were men means they
were men you know they were mentioned
you know that means prominent people
respectable people because at that point
before they
chickened out they were shadym they were
kasha they were
proper people but the altaraba
in lakutitera says something uh
when i saw it the first time it just
blew me away
uh kulamanashim they were such men
there were such men when they had an
opportunity to integrate judaism
into day-to-day mundane life they were
like
i'll pass they were such men they didn't
get
that if you can't integrate
judaism into mundane day-to-day life
you're missing the boat
they thought that they could have a
purely spiritual judaism
learning ideas philosophy
and that they didn't have to deal with
you know the nitty-gritty the boring
stuff the very non-glamorous stuff
kulamanashim they were such men
so uh what does it have to do with
grapes
what has to do with grapes is
that the fear of the spies
and and ultimately what they succumbed
to and why they failed their mission
was that it was
not possible to live
as loyal jews
while also dealing with the physical
world that was there i mean they were
dead wrong but and it was a debacle and
it was a tragedy of behela diodes it
caused
a a whaling for the ages
but
what was the message to them before they
left
the message was before they even left
maisha is setting it up
and he's letting them know listen
you're going to go on you're going to
scout the land that's your mission
scouting the land doesn't just mean
in that immediate context of spy scout
and when scotland is speaking to each
one of us
you know this is this is toyota's
directive to every individual at all
times
you look around you scout out the land
you look at the physical world
and you're trying to decide you know is
there
is there place in this world for
a for a loyal jew
you know and some people come to the
conclusion well no and therefore i'm
gonna sequester myself
and i'm gonna avoid the world and
i don't i don't care what happens around
me i'll just build my
uh my own ghetto walls higher and
thicker and
you know let the world be damned because
it's it's irredeemable that's one
attitude
another attitude is the exact opposite
extreme also unhealthy
if you can't beat them join them okay
fine so let me go into the world and let
me forget about my
my my duties as an ashama and let me
just
live it up try to succeed have a nice
life
you know become a materialist and those
are both dead wrong the spiritualist and
the materialists are both wrong
the jewish mission
is the integration of both
that's uh i mean that's really what
matero was the revelation
at harsinai was what the madish calls
bitter exeter
that there had been a decree since the
time of creation that the spiritual and
the material could not
integrate with each other they could not
blend and when toyota was given it gave
us the ability
to blend it to how through mitzvos
myself
physical performance of mitzvos not
meditations not ideas
not spiritual truths but physical
actions
which embody these spiritual truths
and that's why turtle was given in this
world not in heaven that's why torah was
given to souls and bodies
not to angels the angels wanted the
torah hashem said it's not going to work
so the
the the jews at that time as well as the
jews today we're looking around we're
scouting out the land we're
we're trying to uh we're coming trying
to come to a decision whether it is
viable
to be jewish in this world
and you know it's very easy to make one
of two
extreme mistakes you know one is just to
renounce the world and avoid the world
and try to hide from the world the other
is just
throw yourself into the world become
part of the world
become influenced by the world and in
fact you know when jews
join the world you always you see what
always happens any time
when jews become like everybody else
they're never just like everybody else
when the jews try to show that they're
like everybody else
they become the most extreme most
intense version
of that so when a jew throws himself
into the material world oh
he does it with a extra oomph
right so we're looking around the world
and we're trying to assess
what are the what's the viability here
you know how how
uh how realistic is it to be jewish in
the world
and we say stop before you even leave
before you even begin to gather
uh the data we want to just
cue you in on something
the grapes are in season what the grapes
are in season yeah
these are the days of the ripening of
the grapes
what does it mean these are the days of
the ripening of the grapes look around
the world
the whole world is a grape
the grape with the thin translucent skin
where if you hold it up to the light
you can see the seed inside that's a
metaphor
for this entire world that if you look
at the world
yeah it's covered over with a clipper
it's got a skin over it
so you look at the world you don't
overtly immediately see kedusha
holiness but you should know it's not
gamma clip it's a timaeus it's not
opaque clipper it's not irredeemable
clipper
it's a thin little grape skin clipper
that's translucent so that if you have
imagination
and you look for more than a second
and you try to see through the facade
you try to see through the veneer you
will perceive
there's a spark of godliness in
everything
and that's the spark that allows it to
be used for the service of hashem
so it's just like the grape where you
can see the seed inside
when you hold it up to the light so too
when you hold up this world to the light
of torah
you can see the seed meaning the spark
inside the godly
the the hashem is what we call it the
the spark of
of divine speech which is mahava which
enlivens
and and gives existence to that thing
and you can perceive
how this thing you know the the computer
that we're using right now to
to talk to people uh who aren't
physically here and the chairs that
you're sitting on
and and the bricks of the walls around
us and and the aforementioned coffee
all this is mundane stuff that we're
enlisting that we're
bringing into serving hashem so these
are all grapes
these are all grapes because a person
who doesn't look
deeply would just look at it and say
well it's not holy
it's not holy let me run away from it
but a person who has a deeper view
looks at it and says that's a great
that's a grape that's a grape that's you
know
look hold it up to the light the light
of torah and perceive
you can see the core you can see that
there's a spark inside
that that is that is useful and can be
and can be enlisted in the service of
hashem so this is what we have to know
that when we go out to scout out the
land each one of us our own
personal mission in this world
we have to we have to know that uh
your soul entered the world
at what time at the time when the grapes
are in season
the grapes are always in season the
proverbial
grapes what do you say always in season
that's a good title we'll call it that
always in season yeah
so uh take advantage when when when
hashem
through hashtag pratis leads you to a
certain opportunity in this physical
world
to make use of certain resources or to
have a a certain possession or
a certain wealth or whatever it is um
it's not like we have to justify these
things and say well i'm i'm entitled to
a little comfort i'm
i'm entitled to a little you know uh
they call it creature comfort
now that that's that's we're not
entitled to anything we're not entitled
to anything
rather look at it in a different way
that when i have
physical resources i can serve hashem
with these resources i can use them
as caleb lelocus i can turn them into
vessels
for godliness because after all innately
they already are sort of primed for that
purpose
they're like grapes you just have to
look deeper and see how there's already
a godly spark you just have to be
slightly creative
to see how to how to use it i'll tell
you one
quick thing there was a hassett in sh
glove
named the pinchus and uh
rampinhus was a big uh hosset of the
altareb
the balatanya and he had the biggest
house
in shklov and he hated it he hated
because he was a husset he didn't want a
big house
he didn't care about a big house and by
the way i don't know what a big house in
shklov meant
200 years ago i'm sure we wouldn't be
that impressed but
for that time in that place it was
considered a mansion so he once he told
the altar
he said i can't stand this big house i
got to get rid of this house
and the altar ever told him pinchas you
have to have a big house
he says why do i have to have a big
house he says because
um your house is the nicest house in sh
glove
and then when they need to make meetings
like when they get together and they're
going to hire a new mulamid or they're
going to hire a new sheikh
they always make the meeting in your
house you know the parlor meeting
they always they always make it at your
house because you have the nicest house
and since it's in your house then they
end up taking
a shaykhit who has your shema allamah
we're taking the right guys so
the fact that all the meetings are in
your house it ends up it's affecting
the community in such a positive way so
who are you to say you don't want to
have a nice house when it has so much
benefit
to so many other people so you're going
to have to live with it you know you're
gonna have to
plug your nose and just deal with having
a big house
that's it we should all have lots of
nice material things and use them for
the proper things and
have the vision and the creativity to
see past the
very thin translucent skin that's
covering these things and
see to the core to the seed the godly
spark and
know how to use it in the right way
i had a whole other thing i want to tell
you but i i realize i don't have time
for that
you don't have time i'll do it i'll tell
you
one other thing i'll tell you one other
thing
there's an interesting thing here about
when did cauliff start arguing with the
spies
um it sort of
seems out of place
um yeah
possible ahmed yas
of silenced the nation regarding
we will surely go up
esau and we will inherit the land
because we can do it
they hadn't yet said they can't do it
at this at this point um
so why was he protesting
why was he objecting
they only say in the next passage
we can't do it because the
people that are stronger than us or
stronger than hashem depends how you
read it
so he's arguing with them before they
started arguing
and yet he was right so how did he know
like he's sort of like preemptively
arguing like how did he know they were
going in that
that direction so i'll tell you
something very interesting i saw
you know and the previous thing about
the grape is also in the
circle but it's a different city um
how did he know what direction they were
already heading
if you look at maesha's request
malaysia's request when masha tells the
spies
what to go look for
masha says
mahi go see the land what it is there's
allah and the people who are sitting
there who are dwelling there
if they're if they're strong or weak
if they are few or they are many
so
he's talking about go find out what kind
of people live there
and then maisha says um
then find out what the nature of the
land is
if it's good or if it's bad um
what kind of uh what kind of cities do
they dwell in
are they in like open cities or walled
cities fortresses
so meisha first says go find out the
people then the land
now i know the first thing he says
audits go find the land but rashi
explains
audits here means the effect that the
audit has on the people there are lands
that
make people stronger and lands that make
people weaker so the first thing is the
first passage
is saying find out what kind of people
live there then the next plus a good
test
right she says find out what kind of
land it is okay
so take note first moisture says find
out what kind of people live there
then measure says find out what kind of
land it is now
when they report when they come back and
they report
they came back and they said
we sent we went to the land we've come
we're coming from the land
that you sent us to the games of this
holiday
it is flowing with milk and honey
then they start describing the people
but you should know the people there are
very strong
and uh they have big
cities and we saw giants there so you
see they flipped it
malaysia says find out the people
and then find out the land they report
i want to tell you about the land it's
flowing with milk and honey but the
people
are very tough you're not going to be
able to beat them as soon as that
happened
vyas khalid call of silence the nation
and he said hey guys we can do it how
did he know they didn't say yet we can't
do it they didn't say we can't do it
until
the next passage because
here's the lesson here's the lesson such
an important lesson
khalif already knew these guys were
going to chicken out
the minute that they mentioned the
land before the people
the land is talking about the bounty
what it is that you have to gain
it's flowing with milk and honey it's
such a nice land
the people is the obstacle you have to
go through to get
to that bounty
these are the people you're going to
have to go through
so it means the challenge or the
difficulties
when they put the goal meaning the
ultimate reward first
and then the challenges that you need to
go through in order to get to the
goal second he knew they were corrupted
already
maisha asked go find out two things for
me
the exact opposite order he said find
out
what kind of people are there meaning
who we're going to be dealing with who
do we have to fight
and then find out the
nature of the land is it bountiful you
know what kind of a kind of a land it is
so he said first the challenges you have
to go through and then
the end goal or and uh reward
let me explain something to you um
there's something called extrinsic
motivation there's something called
intrinsic motivation it's been studied
somebody who does a job
because he's being compensated for it
is relatively unmotivated and doesn't
matter how
sweet you make the reward or how painful
you make the punishment
it's an extrinsic motivation extrinsic
ex the latin root means outside of like
exit or exodus
so it means that the the the the reason
he's doing it is outside of the thing
itself
then there's intrinsic motivation
intrinsic i n in it means in
intrinsic motivation means that you
value the the task itself
so uh you know actually i was
interviewed about this
in ami magazine a couple weeks ago for
the schwarz edition i stopped writing my
column over there but from time to time
they come to me and they asked me a
different q a so they asked me about
telling kids about gehenna
and i and i knew i knew what the
conversation was going to turn into
should we talk about more oh inish or
more scar
and i realized that they're stuck in a
loop it's not like
more initial more scar how about neither
you understand
gahannam is the is the inish is the
punishment right and then there's
grenadine which is the scar but they're
both two sides of the same coin
you keep emphasizing scar and oins what
we call carrot and the stick
right so you're leading a mule and and
you use the carrot you know he wants the
sweet carrot
and you use that that's the positive and
then you have the stick you hit them you
know that's the negative right so you
have gonaden is the
is the carrot and gahannam is the is the
stick
but all of this is extrinsic motivation
he's not valuing the job itself
he's doing the job because of he loves
the reward or
or he hates the punishment so i said to
them
instead of asking you know should we
talk more about gehenna less about
gahannam
what's your alternative to oh let's
let's let's stress
the the the positive about the reward
how about
let's de-emphasize all reward and
punishment
not that it's not true of course it's
true but the mishna says
don't be like the servants to serve
their their master in order to receive a
reward doesn't say there isn't the
reward house which allah just says they
shouldn't be the motivation
don't have that be on your mind the al
trebba by the way says
pros means like a piece
of bread when you cut off a little piece
from the loaf so he says you should know
that even the biggest ganaden
is just a prusa it's just a piece it's
not the real reward the real reward is
for mitzvah the effect that the mitzvah
has on making the world
adidas that we transform this world into
a
into a place that's holier than any
heaven right but
your reward in the afterlife okay it's
nice but
it pales in comparison to the the
intrinsic value of the project itself
so anyways i was talking about this in
the the q
a and i told them you got to give kids
an intrinsic motivation you have to tell
them that their mitzvahs have an effect
instead of saying well how much will i
get paid if i do it or how much am i
going to get
can asked you know find if i don't do it
how about explain to me the importance
of of the job itself
no they don't do that okay so
it has to be done and and if it's not
done i want to tell you something
the limits of extrinsic motivation
always
will will will they will always surface
at some point
because at some point the job's just not
worth the reward
or at some point the punishment
is worth the pleasure of doing the sin
so it's never going to really ensure
any type of consistent performance
but when you teach somebody no the
mitzvah has
intrinsic value the mitzvah is
valuable unto itself the fact that
you're also rewarded for it that's a
bonus that's beautiful
but that's not the reason why we do it
so
cull of knew they were corrupted already
because they roll in they're like oh
first of all you should know it's a
gorgeous land it's flowing with milk and
honey
oh but the people there are very strong
they're very hard to defeat
color was like uh oh these guys were
corrupted already
they're talking about the reward first
and then what you have to go through in
order to get to the reward
there are they already lost the he i
don't even have to wait for them to say
let's forget it let's let's abort the
mission let's not do it because i
already know where they're headed
because once you put the reward first
then
sooner or later inevitably you will come
to a
point where you will say what i have to
go through in order to get it is not
worth the hassle
now i happen to be they came to that
point much sooner than later
right away but call of duty it's only a
matter of time now because once they're
putting the reward first
i know it's inevitable they will come to
a point where they will will make an
evaluation
and they'll say it's just too much
hassle it's not worth it
melisha sent them he did the exact
opposite he said
tell me about the people we're gonna
have to go through to get there then
tell me about the land that we're gonna
gain
after we've gotten there in other words
the process
and the result are an equal footing you
know
there's an expression it's not just the
destination it's also the journey
right so when the value the intrinsic
value of the work itself um
presents itself as something that's like
not just oh this is a necessary evil i
have to go through it in order to get
the thing that i really want but rather
the task itself has value the struggle
itself has value
then it that then it's a whole different
level of commitment
it's a whole different level because
then i i appreciate
not what am i going to get out of it and
then i'm making an evaluation well is it
really worth it
no no this itself is what i'm getting
out of it so
if i'm doing a mitzvah and i have to ask
myself well how good is the skyrim
ghanaian really going to be
you know what i already lost but if i'm
if i'm doing a mitzvah and i say
wow this is beautiful i'm doing a
mitzvah and even though it's hard and
even though there are challenges
but this this is what it's all about
this
oh and i'm also getting scar okay that's
nice but you don't even have to talk to
me about that right now it's going to
happen
anyway but the fact that i value the job
i value the work
i mean you could go a lot deeper than
this you can compare it to an
interpersonal relationship you know talk
about like
like spouses where like uh you know
it's very uh i don't know it's
almost crass to say it but you know they
think about like a husband and wife like
well you know if i if i'm nice to you
if i if i take you out for dinner if i
buy you a present
you know what am i going to get out of
it oh that's all yeah it's not worth it
you can't like like come on like
whatever happened to just
bonding for the sake of bonding no no no
what am i going to get out of it or
conversely
you know and and if i don't take out the
garbage what's my wife going to do
divorce me
yeah so i won't take out the garbage and
and by the way i had somebody say this
to me
i'm not making this metaphor up because
a guy actually said this to me
he said and i'm not going to describe
who it was but somebody who should have
known better a religious person
somebody i considered to be learned at
least in certain areas
and uh and and he said to me
well if you don't emphasize scar varnish
why would anybody do anything
why would you do any mitzvahs if you're
not going to get punished for it for
doing invaders why would you do any
mitzvahs
and i said and if your wife wouldn't
divorce you
even if you're mean to her would you be
mean to her
and he's like well yeah that's why
you're not mean to your wife because she
would divorce you if you're not
like that hit me like a ton of bricks
i'm like oh my goodness
so this guy's basically saying you know
don't do evades because of gun aiden and
don't be mean to your wife because
you know she'll leave you like
it's it's hard to wrap your head around
that this is the way but i
i at the end of the day i can't really
fault this person because this is how he
was trained this is how he was taught
he was trained with extrinsic motivation
it's all extrinsic motivation
so at any rate let me put together these
two concepts i was telling you about
because actually they're one chapter of
tanya i told you they're two different
circus from from the rabbit but they're
really one chapter of tanya chapter 10
of tanya
it talks about the benealia yeah
um like even like let's say you're
watching the kids right
you think you're doing good for your
wife like she says please watch the kids
right
and you then you if you watch the kids
you could go out with your friends
tomorrow
right it's just not it doesn't even have
to be so clear
as that it could be like you're going to
get by you watching the kids you're
cleaning like you're giving you know i
don't know well
even that's an extrinsic motivation
because that's like tit-for-tat like i
i do you a favor you do me a favor
so even even that's an extrinsic
motivation how about
you watch the kids because first of all
men always say i'm babysitting
your babysitting your kids right right
how much you get paid for babysitting
at any rate yeah yeah
you just do it because it needs to be
done because it's the right thing to do
and you value doing the right thing it's
not what am i going to get out of it
it's not about barter
emotional barter
anyways uh the the first thing i was
talking about was that the
the world is a grape and the second
thing i was talking about is extrinsic
motivation
how it fails us or the value of
intrinsic motivation
so if you look in chapter 10 of tanya
talks about both these concepts
the same at the same time it says there
are people called benealia
very lofty people why they're called
benealia for two reasons
one is because they do what they do for
the sake of the most high
let's say like the shallow calls it
so they serve hashem for altruistic
motives like desire says
who is a closeted one who is kind to his
maker be kind to hashem
like be a mensch hashem wants you to do
this do it for him
just what am i going to get out of it
come on don't be so crass who cares what
you're going to get out of it hashem
asked for it do it for him
oh but i'll get some ghanaian from it
stop it already just do it for hashem
hamis khasid
be nice to hashem all right so they're
called benealia for that reason because
they do things for the sake of the
the most high they're also called
benealia because
everything they do is for the sake of
it's called in kabbalah hallows man
the raising up of the of the main
nukeven of the the feminine waters which
means the refinement of the physical
world
that everything they do is to cause a
uh hisabha of khasheikal in
to transform dark to light which means
taking mundane things and turning them
into spiritual things
through using neutral physical objects
and enlisting them in the service of
hashem so these are both
uh reasons why they're called benealia
and the alta there in chapter 10 says
that both of these explanations are the
same they're one of the same they're
synonymous
because at the end of the day what does
it mean to do something for hashem's
sake it means for the sake of dirt
so they're one of the same if you
realize the world is a grape the world
can be refined
the world is redeemable
and its redemption is in your hands
through the practical mixes that you
perform in this physical world
and at the same time you realize that
the purpose of of yiddish kite
is to serve hashem it's not to serve you
it's not a self-help program it's not
for your payoff it's for him
it's really one in the same concept what
does it mean to serve hashem that means
to give him
this world in its ultimate refined form