Ten Minutes of Meaning (Part 207): Belief in Sin - Mesillas Yesharim

thank you good morning welcome back to 10 minutes of meeting the last 10 minutes of meeting of the year please help yourself to coffee and donuts we're grateful to our generous series sponsor for the year our Nana sponsor sponsored in memory of alter Ben Pincus we're very very grateful too and we are beginning the 24th chapter of Mrs and we've moved on from on from anivos from humility not because we've mastered it but because the formula of repinkas banyama continues incrementally even before we've mastered One Step otherwise we'd be in the opening chapter we'd never move on it's an overview of the whole formula and simultaneously in parallel we're working on all these steps and all these phases and seeking to grow in each one of these ways on our way so the 24th chapter is we're now talking about the concept the notion of having fear or awe of hate of sinus points out you look at this thick book called 24th chapter is towards the end we're almost done and only now do we get to this parrot this topic this theme of living with a healthy mindfulness consciousness of a fear of sin of IRAs you remember how he started it was several years ago you remember mindfulness cautiousness conscientiousness that a person shouldn't just go through life and using the golf metaphor grip it and rip it you have to be conscious and mindful where's the water where's the Sand where's the out of bounds where's the wind what do I need to know how do I live my life person shouldn't just let momentum carry them be present and thoughtful in everything that we do then how began why is that important why is mindfulness why is consciousness conscientiousness why is all that important so that we don't we don't make mistakes we don't miss opportunities we don't sabotage our success our happiness our Holiness so at the very beginning he said the purpose of it all is to get to a place of living a life and here he doesn't get back to it for 24 chapters it doesn't come until the end and RAM Khan himself tells us why because it's so difficult it's so challenging it's so hard to live with that that we needed to go through all the other steps of zurisas and Nikia santahara and all the other steps that came in between anivos and Nava humility and only when we grow in those ways are we now in a position to be able to work on this this really goal this aim the purpose of it all which is to live with a way that we're not making mistakes we want to eliminate the mistakes I'm sorry to come back to the sports metaphor sorry I'm not sorry but you want to eliminate the mistakes you know any tennis fans just appreciated the US Open one of the most important statistics is unforced errors you want to eliminate the mistakes the person who win doesn't necessarily have the most winners but they have the fewest unforced errors are the unforced errors of life in business in relation on it's not when you lose your cool and you scream at someone you love it's an unforced error when your judgment is clouded because you're envious you're arrogant you're angry so you make a bad business decision you lose money or you lose a investment opportunity it's an unforced error and when you neglect the Mitzvah when you sleep in or you talk during davening you come later you leave early when a person doesn't learn Torah the way that we can when we gossip when we slander when we look at things we shouldn't be looking at those are unforced errors those are hate those are hate and the goal the purpose is to get to a place of yuraskhe to realize wow that contaminates that corrupts that compromises I wouldn't put poison in my system in my body why nobody chooses to eat or consume poison because if you either consume poison it ends your life it shortens your life well the spiritual poisons that are out there in armidos arrogance Envy anger those are spiritual poisons looking at the wrong images saying the wrong things those are spiritual poisons talking during dominant is a lethal spiritual poison we have to eliminate them but first we have to appreciate and realize that they are poisonous that they contaminate that they'll absolutely compromise if you don't believe that there's no start revolves the Great has in his own a wonderful safer he has an entire essay called he has a whole essay on the concept of faith in sin I hate the word sin you know that by now sin is a Christian word it's not a Jewish word means a missed opportunity it doesn't mean sin I don't even know what the word sin means says there's so many people who live life and they say Hashem is good and he's forgiving and he loves me and these are just a list of suggestions like nice ideas they're suggestions but he's if I mess up if I come up short if I don't do it if I don't want to do it if it doesn't make me happy if it doesn't conform with the life I want to live doesn't really matter does God care about the minutia and the details do these things really matter will I ever be accountable come on it really begins with realizing you have to have a Muna you have to believe in God there's such a thing as faith in God there's faith in ourselves there's faith and free will but there's also faith in the idea that he has expectations of us and if we don't meet then there's an accountability he does love us he's a father but parents also have expectations of children and parents hold children accountable when those expectations are not met they do it out of love and with love but if they're good parents they still hold accountable and Hashem holds us accountable and it takes a certain amuna a person has to believe that these things matter that he cares that it makes a difference how we live in the choices that we make but it's really hard and that's why first you have to live and learn mindfulness and you have to live this enthusiasm and alacrity and tahara had a purge and purify ourselves from our impulse and compulsive behavior and you have to learn humility we have to go through all those other steps to get to a place where we're able to live with a healthy says that there are two primary types of fear and they fall into three categories the first is relatively easy to acquire come out the second was harder and the second part of the second is the hardest and what are they here they are you ready the first the lowest level and into a degree the easiest it is to live to live regularly with a fear of punishment the fear of punishment it's a very low level it's a very very base level it's a very low level it's a very unsophisticated level it's not the level that we want and by the way just apply our analogy either the parenting word of marriage we don't want our children to respond to our values and to our rules because they fear that your devices will be taken away they'll be putting time out they they can't get the Air Jordans that every other kid the class has I'm at that stage well they'll be they'll be uh we don't want our children to do what we hope and what we wish and what we dream of what we try to model and teach them because they're afraid fear of sin because fear of punishment we'll start with that which that's better than they're not listening and then they're not following the rules then they're not doing the things we hope they do that's okay it's the first level do it because otherwise you're in timeout otherwise until you're losing your device otherwise you can't go out with your friends if that's what it takes to motivate to incentivize well take it let's learn our ultimate hope and dream our ultimate open dream is that our children say you know I embrace those values I want to follow that lead that model I understand with awe that that's the life worth living you know in marriage you don't want if you don't take out the garbage if you go play God if you don't get that done if you don't answer if you don't do it then that's not a healthy marriage that there's a consequence that there's a punishment there's a response the ishiras aroma was the second level is IRAs it's fear of hashem's exaltedness wow I have such awe and admiration I recoil with a sense of of humility and fear that he is everything and I am nothing he is the source and Creator and I'm the Creator that he's in control he's in charge and I work for him and now I respond not in a fear of punishment and consequence but out of yuras Aroma but now out of an awe and a fear because of his awesomeness and exaltedness and then within that you have fear of I don't want to disappoint him if there's someone you truly admire maybe you have a parent or a grandparent maybe it was a boss maybe it was a Community member maybe there's somebody who's upstairs standing in their field maybe a great Rabbi a great rabbit son and they take you under their wing and they teach you and they guide you and they say could could you get this thing done for me could you lead this project could you go take care of this thing for that person your fear of failure is not because of your assaones you're not worried you'll be punished but you have such awe and admiration for that person who they are what they've accomplished what they do their stature their position their profile and and you have such awe that you don't want to come up short you don't want to disappoint you don't want to not deliver and that's the second part of the second level that the ram Khal says that's the higher level the harder level that's where we want to get not that we do the right thing because we're afraid fear of punishment we do the right thing because of admiration and love for Hashem that we are in awe of him but we don't want to disappoint we don't want to come short we have a mission we have a purpose there's a reason that we're here we have things to get done and we don't want to come up shortly will now continue by elaborating by explaining these components what is fear what is fear of punishment what is IRAs aromas's exaltedness and where does hate fall in within that but this couldn't come at a better time of Rosh Hashanah will continue next week as seriously made chuva and this is exactly what we're meant to be working on we're not just going through some motions the end of hello it's a time of year we pretend we're on our best behavior we check a bunch of boxes push ourselves to get up with the salichos and hopefully we'll be signed and seal for a good year this is a relationship we're working on it's the whole basis of this book it's the whole basis of the book it's the whole basis of Torah we are in a relationship with Hashem and relationships need they need nurturing and they need growth and they need time and they need communication and they need giving and they need love and the way we work on this relationship with Hashem is to continue to learn about him so that we can have all an admiration of him to not want to disappoint to minimally not want to suffer the consequences of disappointing but also to want to not want to disappoint it because we love him we continue 845 living with the moon at tonight we're going behind the with rabbits mother of 12 children who was the chief of staff of the 10th President of Israel the major mover and Shaker in Israeli politics that is tonight pushing everyone the last 10 minutes of the year we'll pick up next year which is otherwise known as next week until then stay happy stay healthy