Pirkei Avot - Don't Settle for Just a Piece: Go for the Whole Prize! by Rabbi Moshe Snow

good morning everybody Welcome all we we we got up to uh a bit through Mish giml and per Alf inas we're going in order and we're we're trying to Crunch each and every passage in the Mna in order to get a deeper understanding of number one who the personalities were who said the ious M inos how their very history and nature relates to everything that is brought down in the mishna and also to be able to understand in depth what exactly the mishna was trying to say we begin as we do each and every week with the statement that the mishna of p m begins with all of the Jewish people collect ly and individually have a share in the world to come and of course when we say collectively it means because it's impossible as we have mentioned in the past for any one individual to do all 613 Mitzvah you can't be a Coen a Ley and a Israel all at once you can't be a male and a female all at once although today I don't know but but generally generally speaking it can't be can't be done and and therefore it's when a Coen and a in Israel joined together when a person is we're able to collectively do all 613 mitz and that's why all the Jewish people have a share in the world to come and it's very important as we go through peros to keep that thought in our heads because it's something that we have to walk around with on a regular basis there's so much negativism available in the World At Large that the Jewish people when we start or think about what our purpose is in life and we have the concept of so you can say to yourself he made me part of cloud Israel you know the gamar says that a person is supposed to supposed to walk around with the concept of the world was created because of I I wouldn't recommend going out on P kenig and standing there and saying everybody pay attention please I want you to know I don't recommend doing that it's not the kind of thing we want to go publicize but we have to think to ourselves who made this world for me and he's giving me the opportunity as a Ben to have a in and we have to keep that in mind especially in the mission that we're learning today so all of sh in the world as the says your entire nation is righteous they shall forever inherit the land they are the branch of my planting they are the work of my hand says hem that I may be glorified we're in Mish giml and we're going to start once again from the beginning just to recapitulate a little bit some of what we said and to Crunch it to the rest of it anos anos the man of we remarked and we're not going to go through that in depth now but we remarked that antigos had a non-jewish name his name was antigos and if you remember who did we we relate that to there was one other individual that had a non-jewish name that ultimately became a famous Jewish name of course Alexander right Alexander the Great because Alexander the Great preceded anos is and the children of the Jewish people that are named sender or Alexander are named after Alexander the Great as we learned from the gar Yuma that was spoken about with Shimon when he met Alexander and Alexander wanted to go into the kodes kadash and Alexander said I can't let you do that but this year any males that are born are going to be Nam named after you Alexander the Great and sure enough that's what happened the Jewish people named their children Alexander and that's how Jews got the name sander or Alexander so he was the one onos he was also a popular name because of some good things that were done by a non-jew named annos and he was in the city of he he received the tradition uh we have a concept of the M being passed down from one generation to the next and great he received it and then the Mr tells us what was his common phrase he was want to say this on a regular basis who are your do not be like servants who serve the master Al don't serve Hashem on condition or under the understanding or circumstances that you're going to get a reward do not serve for the purpose of getting a reward but rather serve Hashem not on the condition of getting a reward not assuming that you're going to get any reward now there are two gears there are two different expressions in order to be able to explain this Mna one is the one we just read Al and there is another gear which says the other gear is not with the hope of any reward and we'll discuss that a little bit more but he ends off with the statement keep the fear of God constantly upon you we we had started to discuss this concept of Shalo Al not on the condition of receiving any reward now if we if we asked the average well read Jew who knows a little bit about the words of the Torah are there places in the Torah that tell us that you're guaranteed to get reward yes name Give an example okay right at the end of the second paragraph you're gonna have long long life okay any other places right right in the Ten Commandments 100% next week's is unbelievable the whole beginning of left and right promises promises promises so what's this business of saying how can he come and say that that was the major question that we started this particular Mission with and started to answer some of that question so first we have to keep in mind that Al has a very specific translation how would you translate the word Pras what's it Rel to do we find that in in at all the word PR at all related P it certainly is a it comes up about a press okay uh ausa a prusa is a piece like a piece of bread right when it comes to the mat you have to eat you know you have to eat at least a prusa but a prusa is not the whole thing ausa is just a piece of the whole thing so maybe what anos is saying and if you'll ask but doesn't the Torah promise reward left and right yes the Torah promises the Torah promises you're going to get reward but don't do a Mitzvah on condition that you're only going to get a price of a reward it turns the whole mishna upside down don't do a Mitzvah on condition you're going to get a PR a piece of the reward why limit yourself why limit yourself to only doing a Mitzvah on condition of getting a small little piece of the reward when the Torah itself promises you and even for the small little press you're not supposed to do the mitzvah for the sake of getting the reward so there's two ways of looking at it don't serve hasem on condition that you're going to get a small little piece of reward don't limit yourself don't limit the possibility of Hashem promising the ultimate Great reward that is uring to every Jew don't do that not to get this little reward but hopefully to get the major piece of the reward but that presents a problem for the famous gor in kadushin where it says the gar says it openly over there there is no reward of any Mitzvah in this world you can't look upon a reward in any Mitzvah in this world when it says that you're going to get reward we're talking about Le to the day which is everything so we have to understand anos is's opening statement here in the sense we shouldn't number one limit the possibilities of getting reward and we shouldn't expect that the reward is coming definitely definitely in this world which words of anos is seem to imply that we're talking about definitely the gar makes a statement that Al anyone who says a statement of Al it's uh on Iron Bay where it says anyone who says the word Al Minas they're saying right here right now I want the reward right now I'll do the Mitzvah I'll so that I see right now that I get the reward because we find that the term alas implies an immediacy i want the reward and I want the reward right now that you can't do if you're willing to do the Mitzvah on the condition that at some point hashem's promise of getting reward is going to acre to you and that reward is not the reward of but it's the reward that ultimately comes in that's okay but not Al now why not Al why not get the reward immediately why not so coming along and telling us you know that that can be a very very dangerous operative Norm that you try to include in your life because we see in reality that there isn't the reward coming in at all some people seem to have it really really good and if you think that the reason they have it really good is because they're getting a reward for what they did in that's a figment of your imagination that reward is only a little bit of what ultimately occurs to them because the real not not not PR the real reward in this world does not exist you have wonderful wonderful people hundreds of thousands millions of Cl Israel that do so many good things and they themselves if you ask them how life was they would say but when you investigate you find that they have so many difficulties that life is so fruit with things that you'd say such a sadic should have such a problem such aad should go through so much internal emotional or physical pain it doesn't it doesn't jive even if you take a look at the OS if you take a look at our fathers it doesn't fit neither AB y or yob had it all good on the contrary they were faced with constant challenges continual challenges some of them the kinds of challenges none of us would want or think about would would would would Y and Rifka want the challenge of having a son named and acting like asov never not in a million years that that this what about all the the Loyalty Yakov Vu there was a major Civil War amongst his CH his children can you imagine a group of your children don't even think about it a group of kids gang up on one of the kids and they bring you his favorite suit covered in blood and they say a wild animal ate him up like they did to Yosef would you imagine T msov that the the Great bearer of Truth in the world should have such a problem so so this helps us understand that when we talk about now the end result of all this is that they came back together there was a positive ending of sorts but I think we would gladly trade it in maybe for a little yeses and that's what we want and so antigos is giving us a a little bit of an insight into this concept that there's no reward ultimately in this world okay now the the B the B by the way he was a he was a talid of the M of mesich in the the 18th century uh and uh he wrote his unbelievable Master work uh on the on the tal on the gor was onus Y and he was known as the B he comes up with a very interesting explanation over here in terms of sh okay now there's a there's another pish by the which also Dove tales with this particular idea and we're going to have to go to Theus to get an idea about that P excuse me okay there's a there's a famous p in in the per is a fascinating per in in the if you just read some of the things that are written over here in terms of the Jewish history that took place at the time and beyond that I'll read just a little bit so we get a flavor of what we're about to focus on the the per and Thoughts with the words all of the Mitzvah that I have uh commanded you today you should guard to do so that you will live and be multiplied and going to come and you're going to possess the land which swore to your forefathers the opening P talks about reward and it says and you should remember all the path that hem your God brought you on 40 years in the desert in order to flict you a little bit to test you to know what's in your heart tests are have different types of purposes we'll discuss in a moment all right will you guard his Commandments or not Mr Irving who wrote a very famous pish onos gives a muscle about tests he says you know sometimes you test something to see whether it's whole or not and sometimes you test something to improve it what's the muscle so you have a Potter a Potter who's making Pottery pots right so he's making Pottery pots out of clay right and you bake it and you want to make sure it's solid so you take a a little hammer and with intelligence you take the hammer and you hit the pot one spot and another spot because if the pot is not in good condition you might say it's a cracked pot right if if the pot is not in good condition so when you hit it it's going to make a a funny noise and you're going to know right away oh this pot is not solid because it's vibrating there's something wrong so you give it a slight tap in order to see whether it's a whole pot or a crack pot you understand that that's one reason that you test the pot but there's another reason because when you take the hammer and you gently Hit The Clay Pot around what what else are you doing you're solidifying the pot to be stronger and stronger so that when you tap it gently in the right way the pot becomes stronger and better and less prone to breakage so there are two reasons for tests one is to see whether it's to begin with no good and the other is to improve the nature of the material of the pot so hasem gives us tests sometimes in life and the tests are to do both are you a crackpot or are you something that I can improve on with a little nudge here and there you get a little touch with the hammer and you say uh you know I got to be a little bit stronger than that I I got to withstand this test I got to become a little bit better so here Hashem is telling us this is going to be done in order to test you a little bit to know if you are following hashem's way or not and then it says a little bit more we're going to get to the main p in a minute and he Afflicted you and you even had hunger and then he fed you the the of course is is om right om the quality of of of an OM in the man count I mentioned that a I think it was almost two weeks ago you know in the you know you know the Lord right right if you don't know what day it is what do you do what was yesterday yes ask what was yesterday right so there was this very very from woman she she was like a real rabbitson and her husband you know came home from sh one day in the and he says to his wife he says uh you know what's for supper now she was very from so she says last night you had chicken you don't want to tell us okay so they they fed they fed them the M right they fed them the m at that time right and none of you knew about it and you should know and then it goes on and on talk about more and more I want to get to the main the main p and here it says like this now watch this it says I taught you I brought you to a land of flowing rivers and so on and so forth a land of Wheat and barley and Vine grapes and and figs and pomegranates flowing with honey uh with with with olive oil and Das honey of torum of dates by the way we're not going to go through it now but you should know that the order of the words in this particular p is the order in which bras have to be made the that I mentioned in this P give you an insight into which BR precedes which BR let's say for instance let's see if we can fig figure this out let's say you have wine in front of you right you have wheat and barley and wine and you have it in front of you right which BR comes first the the the MOs or the geffin which one comes first comes first of course because it's mentioned first in the p that's why we cover the excellent right right right because when you're making KES on shabas and you're making the over the wine because you have to cover up the MOs or the kala why do you have to cover it up not to embarr it not to embarrass it you're too sensitive marble cake imagine that they the marble cakes going to get embarrassed says so that the bread doesn't get embarrassed anybody make an embarrassing Kal so what's the what's theot so that the bread shouldn't get embarrassed what what do we what do we have to learn from this imagine inanimate objects a Jew has to be careful not to embarrass the BR what about a human being who has feelings oh imagine you come to KES and you have bread on the MOs on for the kiddish let's say and wine and you announce we are now going to cover the MOs so as not to embarrass the marble cake I don't know if you know this you know who the you know who the first one who ate marble cake Noah mble cake all right all right but anyway if you didn't live it's okay that's really bad this that's like okay but but but but the point is we're so careful about inanimate objects because there's there's something to every single object in this world that has a sense of divinity to it we we don't we don't often think about that I was just reading an article recently uh about about the uh about the uh uh the eclipse that took place a few weeks ago in in the Northern Western Hemisphere see you know you know how you know how unbelievable an eclipse is it's like and anybody said this in accent like unbelievable the the uh the Moon is 4 million times smaller than the Sun and it's 4 million or I don't even know 400 million miles away away from it and the only way it can ever have an eclipse is if it would both be exactly that distance with exactly that size otherwise it wouldn't make an eclipse at all because there would always be something showing through it's exactly in proportion that such a thing comes out there are no accidents in this world everything is planned and purposeful when everything is planned and purposeful plan and purpose leals yields Perfection and Perfection doesn't happen by accident the world wasn't created by accident the world was created with divine inspiration without himself creating it so if he gives marble cake a the sense of divinity that you can't insult it how much more so when it comes to humanity and that's all encapsulated in this little PK okay we're not going to go through that more we're going to go further and then it says like this a famous you will eat and you bless hem and so on and so forth now let's go a little bit further ahead and it says like this lest you eat and become satisfied and you build good houses and live in them and you're GNA have much success with your cattle you're going to get gold and silver you know a silver l and a golden name plate and a gold watch and the gold coughing and so on and so forth then you're gonna have a Hoy heart you're gonna forget who took you out because you become wealthy you'll become a I used to say millionaire but millionaires come a dime a dozen today so a billionaire okay good you become a billionaire right and you forget you forget took now here comes the crunch okay he took you through this awesome desert he took through desert there's thirst there's nothing to drink and he brought out water from the Flint Rock the driest Rock available he BR he gave you m again in order to test you and then it says and you're going to say in your heart when you got through all these trials and tribulations in life famous famous line you're gonna say my power and the strength of my bones that's what gave me all this I worked hard I was the one who stayed in the office late I was the one who took tremendous risks I was the one who put the money in the right stock I was the one who figured it all out the next p is the key you should remember Hashem your God this is the one we're going to focus on because he is the one who gives you the power to make Valor to make war all right you all hear abam fed singing in the background right he made a famous song out of this okay the ramban on this PK says something that we can really really take to heart in our day and age says the ran you should remember your God he is the one who gives you the power to make war says the ran your do it is known wow it is known said the ramban and the ramban said it you know it's true you should know that the Jews are valorous and Powerful in Waging War because they're compared to Lions the Jewish people are like lions says the like a like a wolf they're powerful now watch this and yet the kings of Canan who were weaker than the Jews were able to Vanquish them at points in history Alain Omar therefore it says if you're going to say it's my power and my strength which did this victory in war when you came out of Egypt you had no power you had no strength you were slaves bedraggled over hundreds of years of put down type of SL slavery and abuse and yet you vanquished Egypt you should the r is unbelievable here you had no power to be able to live there did all and provided all your needs if so also the Valor that you did with your strength how'd you get it from where'd you get that strength from it's Hashem who gives you the power to do this Ran's not finished and if you forget that hem is the one who helps you do this if you're going to forget and think that you are the one who did it and you're the one who does it you're going to lose it all you're going to lose it all because all those who forsake Hashem are ultimately destroyed so so when when the Jewish people are victorious in any way shape or form over millions stronger and larger surrounded by enemies at all times and somehow were able to be victorious the ramban is saying it's don't forget said don't be like someone who serves God on condition that you're going to get a benefit because if you do something and you're capable of serving him who gave you that power to serve him who gave you the ability to overcome the and to be able to do the MIT that comes your way when all around you they say what do you need this for what's this business with the shaking of the lul you crazy what what is this you can't eat a piece of bread for eight days come on it's not healthy what are you doing and you're going to fast for 25 hours and stand on your feet and fall on the ground wh what what all right a little bit a little coffee no not even a little a half a cup of coffee no unbelievable and who does this all of on a regular basis who so if you did a mitvah and you're what do you expect you expect that you deserve reward say you don't deserve reward he's the one who gave you the ability to do this so if he gave you that ability it's not you and if it's not you what right do you have to [Applause] claim what right do you have to claim that I should get reward you don't deserve any reward he's the one who gives you the power and the ran goes on a little bit more just and he says he brings another one and says m i want you to listen but that's in test you're gonna come in you little ragtag Jews who are going to cross over the yardan with yahushua and you're going to go and you're going to fight against the Seven canite Nations and you're going to walk around a city and you're going to blow the chauffeur and you know sing you know some you know some song of you know you know or whatever and the walls are going to come tumbling down right so it's not you and that's what the ran is bringing down here how are you going to win and beat them in war it's amazing how relevant this particular Rana on that PK is for us are you going to conquer them and the all the 30 yard Kings of the land of Canan are there and you're going to go and you're going to attack them you're going to hope to be victorious how are you going to do that blowing chauffers you're going to going to blow a chauffer and the walls are going to come T we were kids Josh foot the Battle of Jericho you know used to sing what do you mean he he sound the Chau and the walls came tumbling down what kind of business is this that at all so so this ran is is crucial to help explain what is saying says the B how how do you go around thinking to yourself that I'm going to be victorious in this particular you know engagement or war and it's my power that does it and the same thing with on a condition I I get the reward I want it I'm going to get it now the Cel PR and again when when we say PR remember the Press is only a piece of it and that's what the is coming along and saying that that you're limiting yourself because if you're going to say all I want is a little bit when in reality you have a right to the whole pie you have a right to the whole thing for the very simple reason that Hashem promised you that you're going to get all these promises and that was our original question how could he say that you should serve Shalom you don't want to get just a small piece you want thear not the pr and thear is Al as the gar says but rather you're going to get the whole piece when the time comes and you should know that when kazal say something it's going to be born out and happen it's exactly going to be that way I want to tell you a story that is that's printed up and I can testify that these things are true in that particular bookstein my rebi in in Yeshiva from the time I entered into was 17 years old and he was my first rebi in the yes in after I graduated high school I went to to learn and before I was able to get to the Russ we first were in I was there for two three years and then we moved up to the B Med and we were in the rash but ultimately became the rash and in fact for those who know or knew David even a little bit you knew that Moshe I wouldn't say defer to him but he but he definitely said if you want if you have a question you need to know something in Torah you talk to my son reav Eren he knows he knew everything so what happened one of the the Yesa went over to and said Reby you know we talk about reward in this world and and kazal say that if you're ever going to be a sandic at a bris then Sandos to be a siic is a is a you're gonna you're gonna become wealthy but look at all the people I know who were s at AIS and they didn't become wealthy what's this m kazal said you're going to become wealthy I know people who they they they they want to buy the sand cause for $10 $15 so that they can become wealthy you know so how could you say it's going to happen when it's not it may not ever happen we had the experience that when my grandson was born I asked Reid to to come and be the sandic and he came of course my students were there we danced with him and so on and whatever so answered this wasn't at this P but told him the following story he said I want to tell you something re did not have an office with a phone the phone was in the hallway it was a public phone right next to the soda machine that ROV used to fill and take care of because it's a Mitzvah to help the Yeshiva earn some funds from the soda machine anyway he was so humble one time they got a call on the public phone and uh they asked for Rabbi David Feinstein so was learning in the B medis they told him he has a phone call he went out to the hallway picked up the phone the woman on the other end said is this Rabbi David Feinstein the son of Rabbi Moses Feinstein she says yeah yes yes it's it's me she says I I need your help I have a daughter who unfortunately married out of the faith and she had a son now I know that the son is Jewish because he's born from a Jewish mother which is the right and I want the child to have a bris on the eighth day my my daughter and her husband are not interested at all but they said if you want to do it go right ahead have fun we won't stand in your way so I want you to know I'm hiring a glatco caterer and I'm going to have the BR I live out in Long Island and I want to honor Rabbi David Feinstein with the ability to be the sandic at the bris could you please do me a favor and be the sandic at the bris knew this woman not at all not at all so says okay I'll come when is it next Tuesday at this and this time I'll send a car for you and it'll pick you up and bring you and take you back he said okay I'll come sure enough the appointed the time he gets in the car he goes goes out they drive out an hour and a half out out to the island over there they get to the house the babies's there the moels there and the bris is made and there were some guests you know and uh he was the sandic at the bris after the V the woman served Theos sud she asked D to please stay and eat something of the sud he said okay he sat down and ate at the suda while it's at the suda the woman says Rabbi Feinstein will you honor us pleas by saying a word of Torah at the bris he says okay and I don't know if you know this RAV did not speak in public he did he was humble he he didn't he didn't speak but he said okay and he got up and he said the Torah and then he got back in the car and he went home end the story it seems years passed and she never heard from he never heard from the woman again the executive director runs into the B Med few years later and says Reb rebbi look at this I got a phone call just now from a famous lawyer in New York he wants to speak to you can you please come to the office and get on the phone those said okay he comes into the office this famous lawyer gets on the on the phone and he says is this Rabbi David Feinstein the son of Rabbi Moses Feinstein can you identify ify yourself and so on and so forth he says yes he says what what address can I send the check to he says he says what check he says uh this woman so and so and so so forth was a very wealthy woman and she left a million dollars to your name because you came out to the bris 10 12 13 years ago and she she wanted to give you this gift so was telling to I didn't keep it I gave it to Thea but don't ever say that ifal say something it's not going to happen it's going to happen it's guaranteed only it may not happen immediately and that's why when anos is so said Al and the words alas mean on condition that it happens right now as the in says when you say alas it's as if from this moment on and you should know that it's going to happen it may not happen immediately but it's going to happen and therefore was able to say if you're going to say don't say because it's not going to happen immediately it's not gonna happen immediately it's gonna happen sometime down the road but it's gonna happen because said something it's a guarantee that that is what's going to be right there's a lot more here this is this is only you might say the tip of iceberg in terms of next time when we continue next Tuesday will try to Crunch it a little bit more and see if we can't get to more of the essence of this particular Miss de so we'll see you next week have a good week