Rav Kook: Mussar & Your Best Self | Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider | June 4th 2025

And uh wonderful to see everyone this morning. Thank you for being here this morning. And we have a uh a great topic in RV cook something that is uh pertains to all of us and to our lives and to our growth as Jews. And the topic that we're going to look at this morning is the topic of midot and the topic of mus of muser in the thought of a cook. So uh when we think about Muser, when we think about uh improving our character, uh becoming better people, I think we have to look back to the founder of the Muser movement and that is Rabbi Salaul Salanter. Rabbi Salanter, who we'll see in a moment was a very important figure in the life of Rav Cook. Even though he never met Ravuk, they never met one another. He was 18 years old. Ravuk was 18 years old when Rav Yel Salanter passed away. Oh, the sponsor. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think there's one sponsor and but thank you for reminding me. Thank you very much. Yes, Rabbi Goldshider is sponsored for the 2025 academic year. Leo Nishbasto. Thank you. So um Rufuk was uh influenced very much influenced by the teachings of Ravi Salanter. So let's begin let's begin there with Ravi Salanter. He is the founder of the Muser movement. Now what does it mean the Muser movement? What does it mean Muser? What does it mean to study that area of uh of Torah? So essentially Rabi Santer came along and said the following. He said you know what people are learning Torah. people are learning a lot of Torah. But his sense was that they were learning Torah in a way that it wasn't necessarily impacting who they were as people. They were sitting many hours and learning learning daft gumar learning dapara. But somehow that didn't change people's character. They weren't more sensitive. They weren't more compassionate. Their didn't seem to improve after learning for hours and hours for weeks and weeks and years and years. And he said that's part of what it means to there are many different definitions of what toma is but to according to Ra Sal must include the following and that is that after we sit right now for 45 minutes an hour and we're learning and we walk out of this class that it's not only the intellectual not only the knowledge that we've gained but somehow that we're better that we think about this learning in a personal way and that's what Salat came along and he um made that great contribution to Jewish life the importance of studying Muser and he felt that it's something that really should be included in everybody's practice on a regular basis in yeshiva that yeshiva students should set aside a half hour an hour a day to study Muser along with their studies and in general he felt that people should be studying the sharimos other works of muser and we'll see actually the cookook writes two works of muser himself in his lifetime when I think about my days in yeshiva I think about yeshiva university. I would say for the most part it was not part of our not part of the curriculum, not part of our learning. The Brisker world, the world of Rabbi Salvetic and the Bris tradition was that we don't really need Muser. We if you do it right, if you're learning Gamarra and you're keeping the mitzvot and you're a healthy Jew, you don't really need that dose of Muser. That was the that was the Rabbi Salvich the brisk approach. And the truth is in the schedule of Wu we didn't really have I mean maybe you know here and there and people would have a little seder of Muslim but it wasn't part of the wasn't part of the uh the curriculum of the yeshiva it wasn't seen to be an ideal in the yeshiva. So just a few more words about Rabisel Salanter. So a famous story of Ravis Salante is one evening when he's coming back to uh to his home he passes by the uh the shoe store or the fellow in those years it was somebody who was fixing shoes and it was already late into the evening and he walked into the store and he said you know what maybe it's time for you to go home go home to your family go home to your wife and the man said salant you know as long as there's a little bit of light that the candle still flickering I can still fix Jews. So Rabi Salanter walked out of the store and he said that is that's a lesson that's a life lesson as long as the nama is flickering right we can fix and we should be working on fixing ourselves and improving ourselves and building our character. So that's a a classic rais salant story. Um he would say that changing one mida to try to change one character trait that one kind of struggles with. He says that's harder than finishing all of shas. Easier to go to the bookshelf and go through all the volumes, the thousands of pages than to change one mida. That's not not an easy thing to do. He gave the following example as well. He says there's ala and this is true for us as well. If you're making hamotzi on a uh on a piece of bread and you have two pieces of bread on the table, let's say you have a whole kala, let's say a little roll or you have a very large kala, but that large kala is a broken piece. So which one should you make a bra on? So is you should make a bra on the whole one on the whole kala even though you have a much larger piece but that's a broken piece. So he says that's true also in life or in the world of muser the wholeness of that little piece even though it's a little piece somebody's so who's whole in midot in menite in their so that is something that is uh that's great you could have a lot it could be very very big but if it's broken if you don't have the midot if you don't have if your character traits have not been uh if you haven't mastered them excelled in that area so that's uh that's not as great as as somebody who has excelled in mastering their midot and one other one other story of rais salant and um you know when he came up with this idea of the of bringing muser into the curriculum so as I just mentioned it wasn't wasn't accepted by all and today it still is is a debated topic right how much muser do we need to study if you go to the mirror today it's not a central part of the of the study I'm not sure if they're setting aside an hour a day that people are studying that seriously so in his day he went to yeshivot and he was uh trying to you know kind of bring this idea to the students and and to the yeshiva. So he came to a particular yeshiva to teach about this idea of muser. But before he would teach muser, he would first give a regular shir. I mean he first had to kind of prove that he was a first class first rate which he was. He was an absolute g the Torah. So uh that's what he would do. He would first come he would give a regular shir in gamarra for 45 minutes an hour and then at the end he would you know add the 10 minutes about muser and to try to teach the importance of studying muser. So in this yeshiva, they knew that Rabi Salanter was coming. They had the Makoros, they received the Makor from him like we have right now, these pages of of sources and these two fellows in yeshiva say, "You know what we're going to do? We're going to change all the sources on the page so that when he comes and he gets up and we're going to hand him the source, he he won't be able to give a proper shear and we'll embarrass him and the people will see that he's not why would they?" because they they were against this idea of bringing muser into the yeshiva and they wanted to throw raviolant off. So that's what they did. They put they put the and they needed the muser. That's right. They put the they put the sore sheet in front of Ravi Salanter and he looked down at the source sheet. He looked he took about 30 seconds maybe a minute and he gave the most fabulous shear putting together every one of those sources in the most brilliant presentation. And afterwards a student spoke to him about that and uh about what he did his students and he said the following. He said it took me 30 seconds about a minute not to prepare the shear but I was thinking about if I should really do this because maybe the word will get out what happened and that will be gao that'll be a kind of arrogance on my part that I was able to give a shear on the spot like that. So he says that was my that's what took me 30 seconds before I started the shir just thinking through is it appropriate for me to do this or is this really arrogance that I'm giving a shir in this way. So uh but he decided that it's it may be a little bit of arrogance but more important is that he wanted to teach the importance of muser and he had to get to that. So that was his that was his. Okay. So the uh the the the the shar that we are that we are sharing this morning is really about Rufk and as I mentioned a moment ago Rufk was very much influenced by Rabis Salanter. He never met him. But the idea of the importance of Muser and the importance of studying material that's going to enhance our character traits and especially Adamu that's raisant that was one of again one of his great contributions. He said that everybody's careful about you know the they all know you know shabas and yantiff and kash but when it comes to people are not his mockpit and that's an area that raisant felt was very very important to emphasize and rufuk picks up on this idea and uh the day that raisant passed away so ruf cook he tore ka he sat on the floor and he felt that he was he was his rebi he felt that he was certainly the great gua and what he brought to to the Jewish world and he felt that it was necessary to uh to mourn for Ravis Salanter. But what's interesting about RV cook is that Ravi Salanter's approach is not the approach that Ruf cook accepted because in Ravi Salanter's approach there are many different pathways of the Muser movement after Ravi Salanter but Rabi Salanter gave a kind of muser which was a heavier kind of muser which which is called like abone hesh one needs to make a bone every day right when you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror right not only to fix your hair and to fix your tie, but also to look in the mirror and to see all of your faults and to see what needs to be corrected, what needs a tikun. That's part of the the idea of muser. And I think for many people when they hear that word muser, it is it comes with that like connotation that there is there's kind of a a heaviness maybe even a negativity and there was that and that and that did and that worked and worked for Avis Salanter and he felt that it has to be with a with a strong hand and people need to make a very uh honest assessment about their lives and that's the only way that people are going to change and people need to do that not only you know as Sarah Chuva but to do it on a regular basis maybe on a daily basis right he fed an hour, half hour, hour of muser every single day. But um before Rafuk, Rafuk believed that that was not a that that was not the kind of muser that is going to be effective in our generation in this generation and we need the kind of we do need Muser and again Ruk himself writes two Muser works which we'll talk about we need Muser but it must be it has to be a very uplifting kind of muser. So I want to share with you two sources um from the Gamarra where Rukkook talks about the idea of Muser and these are really two passages that are Muser passages in the Gamarra itself and the first one that we're going to see and this is on page one is a uh it's a source that the Muser movement would often quote and it's a garra that's found in Brahos Daf Daled. So if you want to take a look at that with me this is the Gumra itself. So this is davalid first per of says the following al should always and the question is what does the word yaris mean? But it means to kind of work like roguez. You know the word roz how do what? Yeah, it's yeah, it it could mean anger, but it means to kind of work up, right? It like you have an anger also kind of like you're you're worked up. We say that but interesting the Garra says and this points out is not that you are to vanquish the not that you are to destroy the but what does it say? You should kind of enliven, you should kind of bring life to the Yates of Aler. In other words, that you bring all of your goodness and with that that's how you now control or take control of the Yates says the Garit. If you are victorious by putting more emphasis and bringing out that if you're victorious, if that's effective, that's a good thing and that has worked. But if that's not working and you feel this pressure of the you should turn try to turn to Torah as soon as you can. And Rafuk points out and others say as well it doesn't just mean any Torah but it means Torah of Muser in other words the kind of Torah that's going to help you overcome this that you're that you're challenged with. So the Gar says if that works good. So if that doesn't work you're learning Torah but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick. So you should turn to saying the schma and Rafuk's comment here is that really is not learning per se but that's inspiration. In other words, to say the schma is a moment of that's that's more of an emotional experience and hopefully a moment of inspiration, feeling feeling presence of God, feeling the the the idea of the generations who have said the schma before me like Yakov, like the children of Yakov to to recognize and and to be cognizant that we're part of a great people, a great tradition. And hopefully that will help you overcome the Yates. Now there's one more step and that is ail that works good. But if that's not effective again here you have like stage by stage this process then you should think about the day that you're going to die the day that you're going to leave this world. There's going to be you're going to have to stand before God and uh you're going to have to make an assessment answer for all of your actions. And here I want to just bring one comment of Rkook. It's actually at the very end. Well, let actually let's begin here. Let's begin with the first few lines of Rook in his comment on this and he says the powers the strength that man has the good aspect of man and those things that are negative. You should use all of it in a positive way. And that's this idea of even the negative even negative traits that you can use them positively. Even these sort of negative traits, negative powers, you should not try to weaken them totally or diminish them totally. And by the way, the Muser movement was really classically means to conquer the to overcome the to wipe out the Yates to conquer the the Yates. Rufuk says that's not what we do. Somebody who where there's Yates, maybe there's good in that as well. How do we take that child who's wild in class, right? He's not behaving in class and we say, "Well, look at you and look at your misbehavior and get out of here and go to the principal and eventually he's thrown out of school." Or you could say, "Well, look at the energy, right, that you have and how to take that energy and to use it in a positive way." That's what R Cook is suggesting here as well. You have to be very very careful, right, to identify is it a bad trait, right? What is is it a bad trait? Is it really bad or does it have an element of good as well and to use that in a positive way? So that's what he writes. It's actually not a good idea just to to destroy it to vanquish it. There's going to be a time there is an aspect of your character even though again you have to be careful and very precise in defining what is good and what is bad. But what we might right off the bat say is bad is not necessarily bad and to see the positive in that as well. And I think we're we're very sensitive to that today. This I think was a a relatively new idea like a novel approach to think about Yates of the positives that one how to use the Yates Sahara in a positive sense. And let me just one last point. I see a hands up. We'll I'll I'll take your question in a moment. But at the very end, so you have this process here that one should study Torah, one should say, and at the very end that one should think about the day of their death. So let's just go to the very end of this piece of Rifkook's comment. Second column, four lines up, he says, but rather let's try to use the positive. Study Torah, say creaturma, right? Do the things that are going to inspire you, that are going to bring you to, you know, to a closeness with Hashem, to Judaism, to overcome the is. Let's not go there. That's the very last resort to go to that get that kind of morbid kind of thinking, right? That very, you know, dark kind of thinking of the only way I can overcome this is thinking about the day of death, the day that I'm going to die and I'm going to stand before Hashem on the yomadin. He says that's not we don't want to we don't want to use that on a regular basis. That is the very very last resort. By the way, that's that's somewhat unique again in the Muser movement, the classic movement. So some of those ideas that's part of the on a regular basis says let's stay away from that unless you know unless we need to go there. Let's just back to the text. Better the positive and not about weakening these uh sort of the negative traits. Whenever you kind of knock out a part of your personality, what you might consider a negative part, it's going to weaken your personality overall. And again there are parts there the R if Cook says are positive and how to use that positively. Okay there I saw there was a hand or two. Yes with Ramb's uh statement uh I believe that he says when you want to change something and when you want to get rid of something or whatever yeah go to the other right and and really very far away from Yes. That's true. That's true. Or so you have to go to the to the other extreme. Okay. I mean, I think uh I think the two can work together. You can go to the other extreme, but it doesn't mean that you you see all of that as uh you see all of that as negative to be able to to appreciate the the potential or the positivity even in that. But you're right, maybe there maybe there is a different a different approach there. Uh, Rafuk says the following and this is in a rot chuva where where he really echoes a uh this this same idea and a rotiva which is his classic work about chuva also deals um with this topic of of mousar and about how to improve and how to improve our midot and he says the following when a person is engaged in doing chuva one has to be very precise to differentiate to know exactly what is to and what is rah and make sure that you're not uprooting what you might think as a rah kind of personality trait that there's positive in that as well right the fact that you are regretting or that you want to make this change al make sure that it's a very very there's precision there that you are just uprooting that which is raat and not anything that is good within you. the audio and even more. And again, this I think is is a of and to see within that you need to be very precise and to parse out that which is good even in that area that classically one would see as in the same way that you run from Rah, right? Make sure that even with within that rah if there's positive positive attributes to highlight that as well to ensure that the kind of chuva that you're doing is a positive chuva that it's that it's uh that you're taking the right path in your personality development and this is what it means to turn over all sin to good. Okay. So that is one idea of RVuk in terms of of uh improving midot. We have to be very precise in terms of what we might consider rah just at first glance we say that's a bad trait but that's not always the case to see the positive in that and to to extract that which is positive even in the rah. Okay. One other gamar that I want to share with you that Rivkuk speaks about in terms of uh midot improvement and this is an example where the gamarra says that somebody has attained a certain level of commitment of devotion and then they drop and then they fall off right they fall off a bit so look at what the gamarra says and here's the example of the gamarrail somebody who comes on a regular basis to And one day the person does not come does not uh arrive in shul in the way that they've done the holy one blessed be hebo that god asks about you that's the garra that's the statement the gra somebody who comes on a regular basis to shul and you're not there that morning you're not there that chabas somebody that comes regularly to a shir and you don't come to the shar somebody who regularly comes comes and does in a certain place in a certain time and is not there. So, Hashem is Mash. Hashem asks where where are you like where why are you not here today? Okay. So, here Rkook says the following and I'd like to share this like to read this together with you in the uh in the language in the writing of Rifuk and here he brings out a very a very beautiful lesson I think a very important lesson about about midot and improving our midot. So he says says so this idea that is uh that is being presented here in the garra it's it's inclusive it's inclusive of really all areas where a person wants to uh complete themselves that they want to raise themselves they want to grow as a Jew and a midbunal basis or on an individual basis Once a person has lifted themselves to a higher level of wholeness or perfection um ethically or in their religious observance. So you have to be once you've reached a higher level one has to be very careful about dropping dropping down a notch. Once you've reached a higher level to try to maintain that that's lesson number one from the gamarra if you come on a regular basis to shul if you're diving daily if you're learning daily to be very careful about not allowing yourself to uh to drop off right you have acquired a very beautiful right a very beautiful place a very beautiful place in your observance in your dedication in your commitment you don't want to drop from that, right? Once you've attained that, you want to maintain that and you want to grow from that. Anything that you have um successfully attained in terms of your wholeness and your perfection, if you go back and you fall from that place, you're actually fall to a lower place. And why is it that you fall into a lower place? It could be because once you've fallen, you now feel less about yourself. In other words, you know, that's what I used to do. That was my commitment. And maybe that affects other areas of your observance. He says, "This is the foundation. If a person has a good minhug, if they have adopted a minhug that you need, in other words, once you've done that, you can't just stop doing it. Allah says you have to go in front of a bezden and you have to say well I've been doing this for many years I've made this commitment and to stop doing that you can't just stop in you're not allowed to stop you have to go and you have to receive permission from a bezden that allows you to do that so you see how serious that is that once you've attained a certain level of commitment observance that beautiful that beautiful level so that's something that's very serious and he said when it comes to a community that takes on a certain um uh minhag that's something that is very in other words this isn't just an individual if a community together has a certain minog so that's something that one should be very careful about about uh about maintaining there's a lot of discussion in Israel today Ashkanaz Jew should we still do kit right we have I heard just the end this year of sparardom and so so many sparardom in Israel why you know maybe we should all just all get together and let's let's all Kitno together. A lot of rabbis are talking about that. But here, at least according to this uh this statement of cook, if you have a beautiful minhug that you have had as a community for so many years, that's something that's very very special. That's ara it is ara, right? Not to eat bean, not to have rice, that we can't have sushi for all of Pes, right? That's ara. So, but that's ara that we've attained that level. We should be very, very careful, very concerned that we don't drop from that. So when it comes to this acquisition which is a a higher level an ethical level other words if you drop from it there is a fear there is the potential that even they say the slippery slope right once you kind of fall in one area or a little bit you've fallen a little bit from the from the mountain so maybe you're going to drop another level as well another step as well. One second. So and not only that and also he quotes the famous line of the gam and that is that we should always be looking to grow in other words we don't want to fall but what's the the Jewish approach is there always malikaducha like we say hil says about the the lighting of the kaneka candles not only true kanaka but for all of us every day that we always want to attain a higher level alain Therefore, a person who has attained a higher level of service of God should be very very careful says not to ever fall from that. And here's the here's the key that I want to share with you because the gamarra says if you're not in shul hashem asks where you were. Now what does that mean hashem asked where you were? Okay, simply it means that Hashem I don't know somehow symbolically that if you're not there like a friend would ask where were you today you didn't come to sheir so God is saying that as well adds to that he says but if somehow you hit a weak you know weak moment where you're not you know keeping up with your commitment says something very interesting here he says that the hand of God will do something there'll be a sign from heaven maybe you have to look for this that Hashem is going to awaken you to the fact that you have that you've dropped that you've dropped the level that Hashem is going to bring something some kind of mus something is going to happen and maybe again maybe we need to look for that or maybe it'll be obvious that Hashem is giving you a sign there's going to be a sign from Shmayim you didn't come to shul you didn't come to the shar today and you'll see when you were home and you were in the shar you dropped you know you dropped a glass and and you broke a us and Hashem's giving you a Hashem is giving you a sign and to look for that sign. Um, why is that? Those that Hashem loves, God gives to God gives gives you a little nudge. God God gives you a little push. Hashem is going to give you a little sign if you've dropped a level. until you return to your that strength, right, to that commitment that you had. And one more line, there's great there's great providence that Hashem wants you to be successful in becoming more shale. That's the very essence of creation that God has created us to become better and better people. Marakoden. So this I think is a very beautiful idea of RVuk. Ravkuk says when you're not there in Shir when you're not there at the class, not there in shul not there and you missed out. Hashem asking for you that's not an asking that a go that God is reprimanding you. It's not God is angry. Where were you today? Why weren't you there? That's not the way that Rkook reads the gar. You could read the Gamarra that way, right? When you don't show up, Hashem asks, he takes out the attendance book and now you get a a demerit, right? or whatever it is. That's not how to read the Garra. Mash means Hashem is asking, wants to know where you were and how can I help you come back and Hashem saysuk, Hashem is going to give you some sign. There's going to be a little nudge, something from heaven is going to happen and going to help you. Again, you have to see that. You need to respond to that, but as a way to invite you back and to and to achieve that level where you were at. When I read this, I was thinking about something that uh Rabbi Dr. Abraham Turski speaks about. So he, as you know, he's he was zerala uh an expert in addiction. He had an addiction center in Pittsburgh. And he talks about the 12step program of Alcoholic Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous. And uh he says that that program, even though it was founded by Christians, he says that it's a program that works. And the ideas in that program he believes are very much based in Judaism. Not surprising that we would share similar ideas. And he says that we should be using them. He also suggests that it should be in shulles as well that should open their doors to this program as well. And he says about Musar and he says when it comes to Muser and how to improve. So we can look at that as well. We can look at that 12 steps and think about those 12 steps. And so the first two and I just uh you know checked it out on Google. So the first step of in Alcoholics Anonymous is we admitted that we are powerless over alcohol that our lives have become unmanageable. So that's step number one. Step number one is to recognize that you have a problem. Right? You have to to to to uh enunciate that to verbalize that. It has to be in your heart as well. That's true. Is that true in muser? It's true in muser. In other words, you have to it's easy to go through life and never, you know, never to recognize, well, you know, I have this issue and I I get angry too quickly or my relationship. So, the first step is recognizing that and recognizing that needs to be changed. But the second step, and this is where kind of it connects very beautifully with this Gamar, the second step of the 12step Alcoholics Anonymous program is that I came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. A power greater than ourselves. That there's a power in our case that's Hashem. That's God. That I turn to Hashem to help me in that in this challenge. I have Hashem on my side. In other words, whatever it is that I'm struggling with, whatever it is that I want to change, that I'm not doing it myself, that it's not me alone. Because me alone trying to overcome it can sometimes be overwhelming. But if you believe that Hashem is with you, that he's partnering with you, that he's an ally in helping you grow and to perfect. So now that's a very different way of looking at things. And that's the way the cookook reads his kamarra. If you miss a day in shul, if you miss a day in the year, Hashem is there to help you come back. Hashem, that's what it means. He's mash. He's asking about you and he's going to find a way to help you to help you um return to the level that you were at. So I think that's a very very very beautiful idea when we think about midot and this is what Ruk and Rabski speaks about as well that we need to also again I think often we think about God is not necessarily on our side. He's just, you know, Hashem is uh he's punishing for punishing you for what you did wrong. Okay, you get reward. But is Hashem there to help you? And that says the Gamarra, that's the way the Rifkook reads his Gamarra. Did you did there was a hand up? Did you want to make a point? Okay. So, Rufuk writes the following and along these same same lines in a rot this is per Zion. Um the piece is Vav. We'll just look at the just look at the opening of this piece. Ravkuk writes that we have to believe in a very deep way that we can do it that we can make that change. That's part that's what it means. But here you see the positivity of Hashem is helping you and look at it in in a very positive light. You can make the changes that you want to make in life and you can be 50 years old, 60 years old, 70 years. It's never too late. You can make those changes. Believe in chuva. Believe that you can make those changes. And you should be sure. And here this is classic. The moment that you start even thinking about wanting to make a change. You've already made a major change. You haven't done anything yet. But you're sitting here and just beginning to think about this is what I want different in my life. This is a mida that I want to correct. this is a flaw that I have that I wish I could you know I could do better in this area. The moment that you think that says RV cook you've already made a change. You've already made a significant change in who you are and the world around you. So that is uh that's RV cook the positivity of his muser the style of RV's muser. Okay, we now turn to uh the next page and Rook writes a book of Musar. It's not printed till later in life. He writes this when he's younger. I believe he's in his 20s when he's writing this book of Muser. It's called Musar Aikha. Musar Aikha. We're in the middle of page three. And by the way, that name was actually given by his son. His son had uh manuscripts of uh of his father of this book that he wrote again it was not printed in his day but after passed away so uh his son the cook published the safair called Musarika by the way Mousar that's the name of the book Aikha is a acronym for Abraham the olive bed is Abraham and the is and the isen aken cook so that is a little bit of a hint which sometimes s authors do that they put the name he didn't do it himself his son used that so mus I want to just the very opening line this this is how the book opens on mus and he writes the following just one sentence we're going to read it seems to me that is impossible that one cannot fulfill the obligation of the meaning what it is that one is to feel in their heart, what one is thinking in their mind. In other words, the muser also relates to your inner your inner world, your faith in God, your relationship with others, right? So, so in order to correct that you cannot fulfill your obligation in that area. He says that everybody Well, let me ask you this way. Which Muser safer should we use? We're going to walk out of here today after this year. Everybody's going to run to the bookstore because they want to buy a Muser safer. They want to work on ourselves. So, which Muser safer does Rafuk suggest that you go and buy that you purchase in Pomerance this afternoon? That's right. He says don't buy any books. Save money. But he says write your own book of Muser. Begin to write what it is that you need to improve. Right. You you write, he says, write your own. That's how he opens his book of muser. It's called cult journalism. He says, that's right. He says, begin to write your own muser book, right? Find those statements in kazal that speak to you. Write them down. Write the things that you need to work on. He says everybody needs to write their own safer mus. Which is really interesting. I don't know if people I've never done this. I don't know people that have done this, but this is maybe you do know people that have done this, but this is RVuk's advice. Rafuk's advice is that's his first piece of advice. Don't buy a book. Write your book. Write your own book of Mousar. Everybody write that and go back to that. By the way, interesting they say about he's he wrote a book or rotach that he wrote in his lifetime and that was all about chuva, all about self-improvement. And he every lol you would see that he would come back to his own book and he would read it that he was studying it in yeshiva. So yes, he wrote a book. It was for others but he wrote it for himself as well. Um there's a ha which is not that familiar to all of us because we don't have this today which is called mser sheni mser sheni means that you bring your own fruits to your shalim in the time of the beta mikdash it was in year 1 year two the fourth year and the fifth year of the schmita cycle you would bring your own fruits and the is you would bring your fruits and you would eat it in yushalim and by the way if you couldn't bring all your fruits to yushalime you would redeem Meaning you would that cost whatever that was $1,000 $2,000 and you would come to your shim and you would eat the fruit in your shim. Now we're familiar with mser that you give it to the ley. We're familiar with truma that you give it to the coen. But you have a of mser sheni that you yourself you and your family that you come with your fruits and the is that you have to eat in yushim or you have to take that money and you have to spend it and enjoy food of yushim. Ruk asked the following question. He said, "I never I never heard of this idea before. I thought Meister is only and truma is always about giving it to the ley and giving it to the coin. What is this idea of a messer that you give to yourself that you are to eat it that you are to enjoy it?" So he says the following in his parish he says because that is to remind you that you are a cohen as well that you are a ley as well that you are holy that you should think about yourself in that holy way. And this is part of the muser of this is his muser. This is the way that he saw muser, right? To build up a person to see the qualities and your good qualities and the potential that you have and that Hashem is with you. Hashem is at your side, right? Hashem is going to help you. You put in the effort and Hashem is going to take your hand and you're going to be able to perfect uh your mito. That that is the uh the belief of of uh of Rafuk and the kind of muser that he gave. Okay. One last source that I want to that I'd like to share with you. speaking about muser and speaking about the muser of so uh these are days we just completed actually there's the minug of uh of learning pure kavos from pes until shàuote those six proim they added one more per actually there's the six shabbat so that you would study one a week some people have that mach if you look at the cover of Torah tibbitz it always has the the vote of the week this coming week so the custom is many of the muk that you file follow through the summer as well. So right after shabu is you start again 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 until rashana. Many many people have this min. It goes back to the time of the gonim. It's a very very early mug. A beautiful thing to do on Shabas afternoon right after you had your meal 12 1:00 you slept for another hour or two. It's now 3:00. Shabas isn't over till 8:30. What are you going to do now for the next 6 hours? Shabas afternoon. What do you do? You do pavo. That's what you're supposed to do. So that's uh that's what the rabbis had in mind on these long shabbat then it's summertime and it's beautiful what are you going to do so at least take some time to learn and they wanted us to learn ethical teachings ethical teachings right teachings that are going to be inspiring so this I would say this is this coming week this coming shabas the minis the first parak and I'm going to highlight one uh one Mishna which I would say is maybe one of the most famous or it's a well-known Mishna and uh it says says the following we have they receive the following tradition and now we we have hill statement everyone should be a student of Aaron everyone should be a student of and who was shalom shalom he loved peace he pursued peace he loved what's bot people he loved every all people not just Jews he loved all people carvalra he brought them closer to Torah. Yeah. So, let's let's stop there. So, that is the uh that's a very very beautiful very famous statement. So, actually I brought in I think it was last week I brought in they just translated the Rambam's perouch art scroll for the very first time uh that we have art scroll translated. There's an old translation of the Rambam and Perky Evos. So, um you know there are a lot of commentaries on Perky Evos. You have modern-day rabbis, middle ages. It's it's one of the most popular swarm to have commentary. But when we look at the Rambam and think about what the Rambam had to say going back to the Rambam 850 years ago and the classic teachings of the Rambam to see his perouch, what was what did he add, right? What was his explanation of these Mishnay and Perkyos? It really is awesome. I mean, just to think that this is what the Rambam had to say on these Mishna. Look at the following. This is the Rambam what he added his teaching on this Mishna on this teaching of Hillel and to be like a student of Aaron. So he quotes the following. I'm going to read to you the Hebrew and with the translation it says the following. So this is the Rambam Shalom. It was said about Aron, the great Aon Cohen whenever he would feel or if he heard about a certain person, he heard about somebody who is acting I mean literally on the inside his inner character was evil and he heard about a person that a person transgressed in a sin. So what did Auron do when he heard about a sinner? somebody in the community that was acting inappropriately, somebody who was transgressing, transgressing. What was Aaron's reaction? Shalom. He would make sure to go over to that person and say hello to that person. He would bring him closer and he would and he would speak with him. He would make a point of having a conversation with him. And why is that says this is the continuation the Rambam I'm quoting from the and that person felt a bit embarrassed in other words here we have the great Aon who's coming over who's smoozing with me spending time with me the oil and that person would say I can't believe this is what's happening right now yada if if Aron actually knew to if he knew who I really was if he knew what I did, how I acted, he wouldn't even look at me, how embarrassed I am. Here you have the great aon, right? This great sadic who's coming over to me and that's how the person would feel. Would he spend time speaking with me? And then the person would say to himself, it must be that he thinks that I'm righteous. If he's coming over to me and speaking to me in this loving way, it must he must think I'm righteous. If that's true, if that's true, I will justify his opinion. And that person would then do chuva. He felt the warmth of Aon. And he said to himself, "If Aon only knew my sins, he would never have done this. And I'm embarrassed that that's how I act in the presence of somebody and somebody who's so kind. And I'm going to change. I'm going to do chuva. I want to be like Aon. I want to be in the presence of Aon. And I want to live up to the way that he sees me. And he does chuva. So that's that's what the Rambam amazing. That's what the Rambam adds to this Mishna and what it means to be like Aon. And by the way, what does the Mishna say? Hillel says be like Aon. So what does it mean to be like Aon? Says the Ramb. means act this way. Go over to people that aren't necessarily the biggest sadikim and spend time with them and uplift them and bring them closer. That's Hillil's teaching. That's the way the Rambam understands Hillil's teaching. So that's the talking about Muser. This is really how do you give Muser to somebody, right? One is like personally Muser, but we also talk about what's the right way to to kind of up uplift somebody or somebody who's got what we say has gone off the der a bit. How do you how do you uplift that uplift that person? So this is the this is the way the hill suggests this is the way that a suggests this is the way the Rambam suggests that we do this in a loving way in an uplifting way. And I'll end with the following. It says or and this is from a a saver called Moaya Moshera who is a student of RVuk and you can see this today in betar. I'm not sure how many people have been to Ravk's house. Much of the house is there the same exact way it was 100 years ago when Rivk Cookook was there. You can go into his office, the same books, his glasses, his inkwell, everything is still there. Quite amazing to see. And in the main room, you can also see where he would host the shallow where he would have when people would gather like his main the main hall. And he has a few things on the wall. One thing on the wall which is very interesting is you have two pictures right next to one another which is the balhatana the the founder of Kabad right next to the grub right next to the vilone the picture of the vnagon and the balatana. Why is that so significant that the two of them are next to one another? Because they were the greatest of enemies with one another because one put the other inum. the build and put so takes these two pictures and he puts them next to one another and he says I love both of them and I love the deraf of both of them. So that's one thing and you can see that today it's still there in that room. One other thing that's in the in on his wall and I'll read it to you. You can look at it together with me. And there on the wall in the main room of his home there you had posted on the wall and it's still there today the statement of hil. And what does it say shalom shalom? That's on this Mishna is what he chose of everything that Rkook chose. Now, by the way, Ravkuk is a Cohen. He is a descendant of Arona and he this for him is this is this is who he was as it says right now says not only was it on the wall, it was on the wall of his heart. It was inside it was the it was the it's what made up the the the walls of the heart of Rafuk Zuint. This was his life's calling raenuhim. This was what Rufuk was all about. And I'll just end with the following story, little anecdote which I heard this week. Uh there's a rabbi um Rabbi Y Jacobson. You've heard that name. One of the great teachers of Torah in the world in the world today. He lives in Muny, New York. We're going to invite him to come to Shalim. He should move from my bring all of his people with him. But for now, he's in Muny, New York. And I just listened to a shar he gave about Rufk and I was like once I I saw that whoa he's giving shoram in my this kabad rabbi about Rufk. So it's a long shar but he tells one story that I never never heard the story before. So I was excited to hear it. So there were really two rabbis two main rabbis in Shalim in the early 1900s. Rabim Zaninfeld. Um he was the rabbi of the of the adahedes of that community. And then you had Rifkuk. The two of them were the main were the chief rabbis of Shalim. And there was certainly some tension between the two of them. They disagreed even though they had great respect for one another. The famous Masachuva when they go up to the north, he comes along with RV cook. They had great respect even though they disagreed very very strongly on many issues. So somebody once came to Revzenfeld and they said well who is the rabbi of Y shalim. You have Rzanfeld and you have Ravk. So he said the following. He said I am the Porum rabbi of Y Shalim. Now what does that mean? He explained the following. He said in communities in the old days where everybody would get drunk in a town there was one rabbi that was set aside the designated rabbi who would not get drunk. He was known as the Porum rabbi because if you had a Shila that day and all the rabbis are drunk and you could have serious Shilas that you have to deal with. You have to have one rabbi that can answer. You're not allowed to answer when you're drunk. So that's what's called the Porum rabbi, the one that's set aside. So he said, "I'm the Porm rabbi in Shalime because it's a drunk rabbi in Shalime. He is drunk with love for the Jewish people." And that's Rkook. He's drunk with love for Amy Israel. So I don't know if that was negative or that was No, I think it's I think I I think he said it positively but he said we're different. We're different. So um this he recognized he recognized he disagreed but he recognized the uh the greatness of RV cook. So this is the Ysef Zenfeld adis the head of the adahedes. Um and you still have you still have that split the sort of a division within you shalim the communities of shalim going all the way back to that time. So this is the uh this is the muser this is the midot of uh of ravk the kind of muser that he believed it comes from rais saler the importance of muser of learning muser of becoming a sadic that's cook everything that he did in life he did so much he was a leader he was a lambd he was a philosopher he was a mystic but you know what he was he was at sadic he was a person who was at sadic and he believed that everybody could be at sadic everyone could be at sadkas and to work towards that hashem wants us to achieve that sus. So this is a lesson of of mus. We should all be z to continue to to work on ourselves and to grow become sadikimos and we should all be well. Wish everyone a wonderful day and a couple of people told me they're traveling this coming week. I guess the summer is hitting you as well. Three, four people. So everybody who's traveling should have a safe trip. We'll miss you over the next few weeks and look forward to seeing everyone as they come back and see everyone next week.