Ten Minutes of Meaning (Part 152): Kavod Ha'Torah - Mesillas Yesharim

Good morning, Boca welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning. Please help yourself to some coffee and donuts. Our 10 minutes of meaning series is generously sponsored by Jeffrey Gelb in memory of Michelle and David Shaindel bas David and Abner ben Avraham we are still in the Sha'ar Hamitzvah. The great Moshe Chaim Luzzatto is walking us through the formula from the Gemara how to be the very best version of ourselves. One does not have to complete one step in order to be able to go to the next step but it is a process that is a journey that we are moving along from Zihirus, mindfulness, cautiousness, consciousness to Zerizus, alacrity and zeal and all the other qualities leading us up to the midah of Chasidus. We have been studying what it means to be a Chassid. To be a Chassid is not what we wear, it's who we are and how we behave. And if you have to reduce what it means to be a Chassid to its core, the Ramchal says being a Chassid is not being satisfied with good but striving for great. Not doing good enough but really wanting to excel, wanting to succeed, wanting to achieve great. And he's given us several examples. Ben Adam l'chaveiro, interpersonally not getting away with the bare minimum but rather going above and beyond. Under promise and over deliver. Don't over promise and under deliver. Ben Adam l'atzmo, our relationship with ourselves and our relationship with Hashem. Don't get away with the bare minimum. I told you people last, do I have to buy the expensive mezuzah? Do I have to buy the expensive tefillin? And I always say, tell me what kind of car you drive. Tell me a little bit about the clothing you're wearing or let me see your watch. Depends what our attitude is in other areas of life. Are we satisfied with the bare minimum or do we go above and beyond? Jewelry. Above and beyond. They are. V'inyan lomdei Torah, so we're up to Ramchal says one of the ways that we express Chasidus, to be a Chassid, to be pious and righteous, to strive for great and not be satisfied with good, one of the areas is lomdei Torah. In a mikra kodesh, the pasuk says in parshas Kedoshim, "They say ba'al takum ba'al dar to pnei zaken." Person has to stand up for the venerable, "Ba'al dar to pnei zaken" and give respect to a zaken. It's an amazing phenomenon today. You saw this recently, I don't know who began it. There's only one place in life that people actually fulfill this mitzvah. Where is that? It's not even on a bus. Where is it? It's a recent phenomenon. You go to a chuppah, everyone stands up, you think the chassan's walking down. It's the grandparents, the great grandparents, the other grandparents, the same person at the shmorg, you elbow the zaida in the face to get to the sushi faster than him. But now he's walking down the aisle, somebody instituted the minhag that let's all fulfill "Ba'al dar to pnei zaken." The same guy at the kiddush at the yom tov, you barreled him over on the way to the schnapps. But now he's walking down the aisle, everybody stands up. All of a sudden we're fulfilling the mitzvah of "Ba'al dar to pnei zaken." I guess it's a good thing. We should just also fulfill it elsewhere as well. So the pasuk says that we rise, we show kavod talmidei chachamim, we show kavod for people who've reached the ripe old age. Zaken, Chazal says stands for zakan achamah, an individual has a certain life experience and they are worthy of our admiration, they're worthy of our respect. The Gemara extrapolates from this pasuk that the talmid chacham of all ages, so we spoke about this in the afternoon call several years ago. What is the criteria? How do you fulfill? What obligates us in the "Ba'al dar to pnei zaken"? If you're a zaken but you're not a talmid chacham, if you're a talmid chacham but you're not a zaken, so pasuk in Tehillim pasuk in Tehillim Gemara Sukkah quotes, "One who honors those who fear Hashem." Zeh yo shochen malchei ha'aretz talmid chacham. We have an institution, we have a notion of honoring those who represent, stand for and live Torah. If we stand for a sefer Torah, do we not stand for, says the Gemara, a gavra rabba, somebody who is a living sefer Torah? That doesn't mean that we believe our leaders are infallible. People make mistakes, they have shortcomings, they have failures. We believe that people are fallible. However, who they are, what they stand for, what they've dedicated their life towards, how they're moser nefesh, what they exhibit is worthy of our respect. Why should we show kavod to a talmid chacham? Why? Last night when Rabbi Bamberger spoke, every time we have a visiting Rosh Yeshiva, I always introduce them and I end with the words, "Everyone please rise and join me in welcoming so and so forth." Why? For them their kavod, whoa, they came here. The kavod, they need kavod, that's a kavod? So Rabbi Bamberger last sit, sit, sit. He'd rather you sit, want to get going, they want to speak, they don't need the kavod. That's not what gives them kavod. So why? Why do we have a mitzvah to stand? It's not for them, it's not their kavod, it's for ourselves. When we condition ourselves, when we accustom ourselves, when we stand and we rise, you know, l'havdil elef havdalos, I was once in an airport and I saw all these people crowding around somebody and I didn't know standing and posing and taking selfies and pictures. So you know, your natural inclination is what? Wonder who that is. I wonder if I want to go meet him. I wonder if I want a picture with him. That was some star from the cooking channel, did nothing for me. So I didn't even get up from my seat. But you saw the whole terminal was uh First of all, how big a star if he's already flying commercial in the airport, waiting online, wearing a mask? I wasn't getting up for. So but you see, so everyone runs over, you see what a person shows kavod for. What's exciting? Who is the commodity you want a picture with? Says everything about you. You want a picture with the athlete, the politician, celebrity or the talmid chacham? Who do you want to be connected with, associated with? Who do you, for whom do you stand? Says everything about you. Does that mean we think they're infallible, they're perfect? No. Is it for their ego? Chas v'shalom. It's for ourselves. This is how we express Chasidus, to be a Chassid in the realm of kavod ha'Torah. When when the great Rabbi Zeira, the Gemara Berachos When the great Rabbi Zeira was weak, when he was ill, he positioned himself, he sat outside the Beis Medrash so k'sheyakum talmidei chachamim, so that he could stand before talmidei chachamim. He said, "I don't have the koach to learn, I can't immerse myself right now in Torah but I can still show kavod ha'Torah if I stand at the opening of the people come in and they leave, I can stand each time." Again, why? Cuz they need it? I can't learn Torah but I can inflate the egos of those who learn Torah? No, chas v'shalom. I can't learn Torah but I can grow by nevertheless showing kavod ha'Torah. Hashem has appointed these individuals his ambassadors. Talmidei chachamim d'Rabbanan are his mouthpiece in every generation. Yiftach b'doro k'doro, in every generation, whoever has risen to the level of talmidei chachamim d'Rabbanan, leaders of the generation, are Hashem's ambassadors, they are spokespeople, they are his mouthpiece. Hashem handed it over and he said, lo sasur Hashem said, "Listen to them." So when we rise, when we respect, when we acknowledge, when we go out of our way to be melaveh, to escort, to show kavod, again, it's not for them. A real righteous talmid chacham themself has no interest and runs away from the kavod. But we have to chase them giving the kavod. Not for them cuz what does it do? It reflects our love of Hashem, our love of his Torah and what our priorities are in life. Are you running after the celebrity? Are you running to get the autograph of the ball player? Are you running after the politician? Are you running after the talmid chacham? With whom do we connect? Who do we admire? Who is our social currency? Who is our social currency? Beis Medrash, she ain't come to Rosh, she ain't come in more than what's our attitude towards holy places? Is there still such a thing as a holy place or are we casual about every place in our life? Is the shul an extension of our living room or when you walk through the threshold of a shul of a Beis Medrash, you feel I'm in a different place? I dress differently, my posture is different, I'm not casual, my conversation is different. Oh, I have to talk about whatever it is, let's step out of the shul, let's step out of the Beis Medrash. Yeah, but there's no one else here, why can't we talk about it here? The walls need kavod? The tables, the chairs need kavod? No, we need to give kavod. We say everything about who we are, our priorities. We condition ourselves, we sensitize ourselves based on the attitude that we bring to the space that we're in. Kick off your shoes and you put your feet up, you dress casually, you have casual conversation, then we are not in fact bringing within ourselves an attitude towards that holy place. We will continue next week. The Ramchal says we now break down, we go deeper into ahava. How do you become a Chassid? How do you strive to not only be good but to be great in the realm of loving Hashem? Three ways which we will continue with next week, simcha, d'veikus and kinah. Joy, joyful life is simchas hachaim, d'veikus to cling to God, to cleave to God and kinah which is not jealousy here but zealousness, to be a kanai, a zealousness in the most positive sense. We'll pick up next week. 8:45 Living with Emunah tonight, 9:00 we go behind the Bima with Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein to be able to understand who are the missionaries we should drive from the neighborhood, who are the people we can partner and work with to advance good causes. He's the director of interfaith for the Wiesenthal Center, an expert in this area. 9:00 tonight, you don't want