Rabbi Shais Taub on "The Need for Speed"—Ben Ish Chai on Parshas Lech Lecha

Fine. All right. So, there's night choland. The rules are it's chol. We eat real chol. And it's a ch because we learned something different every night. Last week, remember what we learned last week. So, now we're going to travel. We're going to get on our plane. We're going to fly from Ukraine. We're going to go to Iraq. We're going to go to Baghdad. Except this is before it was Iraq. We're going to go to Baghdad. We're going to go to the Benishai. Yeah. And that's why also I made the Jacun. I couldn't find out an Iraqi Jewish dish. So Jacn is Yemenite. So I figured the best I could do. The best I could. So any that's Michael. Anyways, I hope it's not cultural appropriation. I'm just doing my best over here. Just doing my best. Okay. Anyhow, um yeah, so Benishkai Beneskai was a big Pik Rav and uh he was actually he was not he didn't have the position of Rav in town in Baghdad. In fact, he didn't even have a shul, but he was known for um codifying hala and he gave dashes on hala but also spark, you know, like sprinkled in with a lot of with a lot of hamletics and he was famous for his shim. So the safer benishai is uh are his basically these are his uh his sermons. So he he passed away 1909. Not that long ago. Yeah, it's not that long ago. I think 1835 to 1909. And uh yeah, and he was he was a he was the communal leader in Baghdad. Um it's actually I'll tell you before we get started, there's an interesting story about the Benishai. Um he writes about it Shabas I think when it talks about uh eating hot food on Shabas. Anyways, the story is that there was a Jew in the Baghdad community who wanted to went to he wanted to uh leave Yiddish kite not for any ideological reasons but simply because he felt it would be advantageous if he become a Muslim so just you know he'd get into the right country clubs or whatever it is. So they had a rule the Muslims in in Baghdad at that time. I don't know how widespread the rule is or not but because I'm not you know I'm not so studied in these things but apparently there they had a rule very similar to Gatus where they try to talk you out of it by the Eden and they try to talk you out of it. So they used to have a rule that in Baghdad at least if you tried to someone not Muslim tried to become Muslim, they had to have someone from your own religion come and try to talk you out of it to make sure you're sincere. So I guess the story itself is a proof that somebody would do it not being sincere, you know, because it was economically uh favorable. So anyways, they brought in the Benishai that he should be the one to try to talk him out of it. Benghai was he was a big ortor and just a a marvelous scholar. could pull from all different Torah sources. And he, you know, imagine this, you know, you have this guy's spiritual life on the line. You got to pull together the greatest speech you could ever come up with. And he said, "I did it." And I I tried to really really move. If you have ever had to move a crowd, you know, this is where the stakes are really high. And I and I give him this whole long talk about you can't do this. You can't you can't uh sever the golden chain. And the guy hears the whole speech from Benesh Khai and he's like, "Nah, like I hear you, but I I got to do what I got to do." So the Beneshai was like, "You know what? It's not working. It's not I want to call in uh backup." So they found a guy who was friends with this guy since they were kids. And he was a posh. It was a simple guy. He was not an ortor. He was not a scholar, but he was just a guy who knew this guy growing up. So they brought him in. And the Benesh says, "You talk him out of it." So the guy says, "Okay, I'll let you know, Rabbi, you did a good, you took a good try, but I'm going to keep it real simple." He says to his friend, he says, "You know the ham that we eat in Shabbat, you know the farther, right? The Shabbat, you know, the egg in the ham, you know, you eat it on Shabbat. Okay, if you become a Muslim, you're never going to have that egg again." The guy's like, "I can't do it. I can't do it." So, that was it. That was the winning argument. The the egg in the Shabbat, can't do it. Can't do it. Okay. So, at any rate, that's probably also why I serve the ch before the sh because what's more compelling, you know, the sh the don't answer that. Okay. Anyways, all right. So we're going to learn benesai on par not the whole thing not the whole par I think I saw his used to take five hours I think that's what I saw anyways uh we're going to do part of the and I gave you the copies this I'm sorry it's small print but just to save ink sorry I haven't inkjet I got somebody foots the bill for the kinkos or whatever it is maybe next We will have a better print. I give myself a better print. I'm sorry. Okay. Anyways, looks fine to me. Looks okay. All right. All right. That's the P. And before he was he was laden was heavy. Literally heavy but means laden or loaded with cattle with silver with gold. When is this talking about? after they went down to Mitraim and Pare tried to kidnap or he did kidnap Sor and then he found out who she was and he had to pay off Ara and he got that whole big uh payoff how much I don't know there was a non-disclosure agreement so we don't know exactly what the payoff was can't discuss the exact terms but it was it was a lot he was heavy with this payoff and uh so the says like this it seems to me with heavenly assistance In other words, this is his she's saying his own here. [Music] This this verse is coming to teach us a praise about regarding his good spiritual traits or personal traits to tell us. Even though you see about aus he had greatus elacrity elacrity. Where do we see had elacrity in this very para in this very para we explained the says regarding and went like hashem told him to do what are we talking means go leave your land. So when Hashem told him, "Leave your land," he didn't say, "Okay, you know what? I mean, the lease is paid until the end of the year and then after that we're going to move." No, he says, "Go." He went, "All right." That means immediately. And even though he was 75 years old, he didn't slow him down. Usually people get slow around 75 at least. He didn't slow him down. And also when the holy one told him that was an even bigger Hashem told him bigger test. Hashem told him go to the mount Mariah with your son who you love with Isaac talking about the the what what did what did Aram do? He got up early in the morning to do Hashem's will. So here's the deal. We know about Avon. He was quick. He would jump on things. He would not push them off. He had thatus. Okay. So therefore, what does this come to tell us? Do not think. Do not think he used out that attribute, that personality trait when it came to mundane things. to use that to use out that elacrity when it came to material and bodily things like it is not so in other words we see a dichotomy on one hand aim had great zusas so maybe you would think he had zus he had elacrity regarding everything so no that that that's the that's the when it came to spiritual stuff, he would jump on it. He would do it fast. But when it came to material stuff, he didn't have that elacrity. Watch what he says. Not only he didn't have the elacrity in material stuff, he had quite the opposite. He moved heavily like he was like it was a burden. And that is what the Torah tells us was very heavy. He was it was like a burden to him. He was very heavy. He act heavily when it came to and I think there's a little play on words here. Mna means cattle can also be to be can also mean to make acquisition that means when he would acquire when he would acquire silver and gold he wasn't so quick to run after them and to attain them. Now another great so says and I had to look it up by the way to see if they were contemporaneous in any fashion and they're not 100 years earlier uh from says uh in is one of the he says it's a mish in proverbs king Solomon's wisdom he says go King Solomon says, "Go to the ant lazy bones." I don't know how to trans translate utsil. Utsil is a is a noun is a person who's lazy. So go to the aunt, lazy bones. You know, aunt, not the aunt like your mother's sister. Who's your aunt in Chicago? They're both ants. I don't know how some people say aunt. We say ant. So how do you know which one it is? If you step on it, it's an ant. If she gives you an $18 check for your bar mitzvah, it's an ant. Okay. Anyways, see its ways, the ant's ways, and become wise. Okay, let me say the the whole verse again from from from Proverbs. Go to the ant, lazy bones, look at, watch, observe her ways, the ant's ways, and become wise. So the says like this that what does this mean? Learn elacrity from an ant. However, but use out that elacrity for spiritual and religious things. Use that attribute of wisdom. That's what it means. Don't use out that elacrity for things that are vanity, for things that are worthless. You and Sham, you should look over there more carefully. In other words, go look at the ant doesn't mean go imitate the lifestyle of an ant. Okay, I've been watching this ant. taking some uh lessons. Apparently, you're supposed to go to a lot of picnics and you march back and forth all day with a crumb that weighs 10 times as much as you. Okay, I got it. I'm going to be King Solomon says be like the ant. No, King Solomon says learn the elacrity from the ant and then apply that. Go apply that attribute to spiritual things. Okay. So too says whereas in the longest translation is I hastened and I did not terry. I did not doawle. Those are two popular words everyone uses in regular conversation. Right? Terry or doawle or I did not delay. Okay. I hurried. I did not delay to observe your mitzvah. So the says, hold on. It sounds like a little little repetitive here. Since he says, I hurried what does he have to say? I did not delay. If you're not if you're hurrying, you're not delaying. It seems to me again with divine assistance says he got divine assistance for his. It's coming to praise the elacrity of which was extreme to the utmost. Let's say a scenario is a person is going to somebody else's house. He he has business to do there. He has to go get something and he's in a hurry. So he's running. He's running over there. But when he gets to the streets where there's pedestrians, there are onlookers, there are people who see him. So when he's running in the countryside, he's running through a field. So he's running. He's bolting. But when he's walking down the street, he doesn't want to look like a mishug. So then he can't run in front of them. So then he just goes casual until he gets into that house. Since he was running after all he was running. He was sprinting before. Before he was sprinting since he was sprinting before. He's very tired from his sprinting since he was running. Now after he stops running, he can't run so much anymore. So what does he do? He can't run anymore. He can't jog with big steps. Rather, he goes very, you know, slow. It's like resting up now. He was sprinting when no one was watching. Now people are watching. Now he's, you know, sauntering, walking slowly, catching his breath, catching his wind. However, someone who has a lot of elacrity, even after he stops running, he's still going with elacrity. What does that mean? You know, like the ladies at the mall, like the old ladies at 5:00 a.m. at the mall. You know what I'm talking You know what I'm talking about. Fast walking. You know what I'm talking about. Okay. You don't know what I'm talking about. Okay. My grandmother used to go to the mall. You walk fast. Like 5 in the morning. That's why they open up the mall. Five in the morning. The old ladies, they go there to walk fast. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, he he doesn't walk. I'm going to act it out. Doesn't walk like this sauntering. walks like this. Walk the mall. Yeah, mall walkers. People on on on YouTube, Google the mall walking. I don't know. Maybe it's a thing in the '9s. But anyways, go like this cuz in the winter it's cold out. So you walk in the mall. Okay. Fast walking like this. All right. So Okay. Anyways, he's going to explain over here. This is what King David peace be upon him used to do. When he used to go out to do a mitzvah first he would run. It's saying literally he would physically run. He would run. He would bolt out of the palace. I guess after he would have to slow down because it's not, you know, befitting for the king to run. But even when he had to slow down, he didn't slow down like zaing. He would do the fast walk. That's what it means. I hurried at first. I ran full sprint. Also, I didn't delay. I didn't terry. I didn't linger. Even at the end, I didn't give myself a rest. Even when I had to slow down, I was still walking as quickly as I can. And all of this elacrity, what did I use it for? That's the end of the of the verse. To guide your mitzvah. In other words, it wasn't just he was a fast guy. He liked to do things quickly. No, he it was specific. It was deliberate. It was focused on doing mitzvah. So what we're saying here is and apparently also Malik that you would see an incredible Zizus to the point where you could just think well that's just his style. You know it's one of these guys you know what is they they say what's the smallest unit of time measurable by science the amount of time between it turning the light turning green and a New Yorker honking at you. So, you know, it's not that just so excited to do mitzvah, you know, it's just New Yorkers, right? They're in a hurry. But I used to live in Pittsburgh. You want to know something? I'll tell you. Andy Herz is not here. We sometimes we technically we talk about Pittsburgh stuff, but in Pittsburgh, you could uh not if the light would turn green, you could just sit there and not go and miss a whole turn of the light. No one would care. They would honk at you. They would know. No one. Okay, I guess we're missing the light. Wait, you know, you read a whole book and just hold on almost to the end. Okay. Okay. All right. Anyhow, so even though they displayed and incredible elacrity in many famous cases, do not think that that was just their temperament that they just like to do everything quickly. It was deliberate. It was to do mitzvah. They did things quickly but uh that was a that was a a deliberate it was a deliberate application of the midazus and in fact when a raino became wealthy it's described as being covered it was heavy for him the talks about the the says that uh [Music] right you should eat from the toil of your hands and you'll be fortunate in it and it'll be good for you. I'll say means in in this world be good for you in in the world to come material and spiritually explains what does it mean you get kapa the toil of your hands it means you have to have a manual labor job like you have to work with your hands noap hands means external capacities hands as opposed to what le your mind and your So when it comes to when it comes to material stuff, what are we told? You want to be you want to have a good life in this world and the next world. So make sure that when it comes to your relationship with the material stuff that you you got to do it. You your soul came into the world, you're in a body, you got to make a living, you got to feed your family and there's no shame in being poor. You know, even have nice things. Of course, why not? In fact, the Reb once said it's a it's a close preparation for Mashia. When Mashia comes, the Rambam says the are going to be that the delicacies are going to be abundant like like dust. So, it's a it's a preparation for Mashia that you should be affluent. You should have comfort. There's nothing wrong with it. Okay? There's nothing wrong with having it. Question is your relationship with it. are you like really into it to the point where you're using your mind and your heart to you know obsess on amassing this stuff. So then that's the problem. It's not a problem to have it. If you have it that's beautiful. It's a blessing to have it. The problem when you immerse your mind and your heart in it should be your external qualities. So um this is what we're saying that that when it came to he was rich he had gold he had silver but when it came to the gold and silver it was covered. He did it like you know like like slowly like somebody who's when I get around to it. Grandfather used to have a little wooden coin said to it on it and when people used to say to him yeah I'll do it when I get around to it. He here's a round to it. A little round coin said to T ui T. You just give it here's a round to Okay. [Music] Let's keep going. Another thing that's understood, anything that's difficult for old people, if you get used to it when you're young, it'll be it'll be easy for you when you're old. See, there are things that are hard for old people, but not if the old person did it when they were young, then it won't be hard for them when they're old. Habit makes something nature second nature even if the thing itself is difficult by all rights it should be difficult for you but you got used to it so it's not difficult for you okay we find talking about the sages King Solomon addressed the lazy person seven times in Mish in the book of Proverbs. There's seven different places. A few of them are all in one place, but they they're spread out in different chapters of the of the book that uh King Solomon addressed the lazy person seven times in the book of Proverbs. That's what the mus says. And what Moses said this this medish is in paritim where it says which is really taken from the title page of Tanya. You know that the Pikot was taken from the title page of Tanya. Okay. Um Misha learned Tanya apparently. Okay. Um, and that which Moses said was bigger than meaning a bigger rebuke than anything that that Solomon said. Okay. How so? Tell me. Okay. Break it down for me. So, here's like a hypothetical scenario. They say to the what? To the lazy guy. Hey lazy guy, your teacher, your rabbi is in town. Uncle Mish is in town. I actually I looked up the medish. Isn't that a song is in town or coming to town? Is that a song? Santa Claus. What? Santa Claus? I don't know. This is a the I looked up the medisha actually. Um the Ysef was one of the mafam on the medish. He actually says to change the order a little bit here because it actually makes more logical sense. So I'm going to read the medish the way that the uh he also says to read it. At first they tell him your rabbi is in the Medina. He's in the state. So like you're in five towns and they say your rabbi is in where you go burrow park. Okay. So this last week stolen a right. Okay. So you're in five towns and you have to go to Burough Park. That's in the Medina. That's in the state the same region. Okay. So they tell your rabbi is in the same state as your same region. That's how we're going to read it. Um yeah, go and learn from him. Go learn from him. But he answers them. He says to them, I can't. I'm afraid of the lion in the way. Hold on a second. I think I skipped I didn't skip because I'm trying to flip the order like the it's says to flip it. Where do we see this? Like it says sh is like a lion cub. He says there's a lion cub like between five towns and burough park. I have to go on the Belt Parkway and I'm afraid there's going to maybe on the Belt Parkway there's going to be a lion cup so it's probably better that I don't go even though my rabbi is so close you know he's five zip codes away but I don't want to I don't want to go I don't want to risk it okay fine they tell him so again like says at this point they say he's in the city they say to him no he's in he's in Cedarhurst he's in the same town as you get up go to him he says Even if he's in the same town as me, I'm afraid that when I'm walking in the street, I'm going to walk down Central Avenue and there's going to be a a lion shm like it says. This is another PK from Mishi, a verse from from Proverbs. There's a lion in the streets. Not because the circus train broke down, the lion escaped. He says, "There's a lion in the streets. I'm sorry. Even if my rabbi's in the same town, I'm not going." So they tell him he's living next door to you. He's your neighbor. Just walk outside and and walk into the next house next door. Says, "No, there's a lion right outside my door." That's another verse from from the the lazy person said, "There's a lion outside. I can't go. Even if my rabbi is right next door, they say they say to him, "Besai Habias, he's in your house." The phone call, "Get out of the house. The phone call is coming from in the house." We're going to light a campfire afterwards. I'm going to tell you ghost stories. That's the punch line. You know, you know that ghost story? No. Get out of the house. The phone call is coming. People on YouTube, Google that. It's a famous ghost story. Get out of the house. The phone call is coming from inside the house. Okay. You look it up later. All right. So he says he's in the house. So he answers them. Maybe I'll go to him. I walk down the hall. I go to his room, but his door will be closed. I go back and then I'm going to have to go all the way back to my room and then I go back to his room. Too much work. So they say to him, but his door is open. Where do you find this? Shane, like it says in in the verse. a delis. The the door is swinging on its hinges. The alto and the lazy guy is lying in bed. His rabbi is down the hall from him and he won't go because he's afraid even though the door's open. He said, "No, maybe it's closed." All right. By the end, he doesn't he doesn't he he ran out of excuses because now they told him he's down the hall from you and the and the door is open. So he says to them, Whether the door is open, whether the door is closed, I want to sleep a little more. I'm tired. Like it says again from lazy bones. How long you going to sleep? When are you going to get up from your sleep? No. You think it couldn't get any worse? Oh, it could get worse. We said had seven rebukes for the lazy guy. I think this is only the sixth one. gets up in the morning. Now this is the sixth one. They put food in front of him to eat. Want to hear the height of laziness? They put food in front of him to eat. He won't even put it in his mouth. Like like the verse again from from Mishi says the the lazy guy puts his he dips his hand into the plate. Nilo he gets tired. Nil is like Leia like Yakov's wife Leia gets tired. Nila he gets tired aliv to bring his hand back to his mouth. So he's got his hand in the cookie jar. He's like, "Oh, this is I'm sorry. I just don't have the K to bring. He's got food in his hand. Can't do I can't bring the food back to my mouth." That's how lazy is. Okay, that that was the sixth one. This What's the seventh one? That's what it says. Again, in the winter, the lazy person didn't plow. Then he goes and looks to harvest in the harvest time. The winter when he should have plowed, he didn't plow. Now he goes to look to harvest. In the harvest time, there's nothing there. What do you expect? If you didn't plow, there's nothing to reap. It's not talking about agricultural tips. You need Solomon for farming tips. That's not what it means. What does it mean? [Music] says, "This is a person who didn't learn when he was young and now he wants to learn when he's old. He can't. He doesn't know how. It's actually worse than he doesn't know how as he's as he's going to explain. He doesn't have the skill. He didn't develop the capacity for doing things that are that are that are hard. That's what he's saying. If he would have habituated himself to sitting and learning when he was young, then it wouldn't be hard for him to do it when he was old. But he never habituated himself to that when he was young. So now when he wants, now when he values it. By the way, they've done studies about when do people seek out their religion. Like usually, not to be morbid, but at a certain age, people start all of a sudden to get spiritual. Okay? So, it's just it's a known psychological uh phenomena. So, here's this guy all of a sudden he's like, you know, I'm kind of interested. I would kind of like to learn. And the problem is to learn you have to be able to actually put forth some effort. He's not accustomed to it. So, he's he doesn't it's very hard for him to put forth the effort. Okay. that that's what it means. He wants to go reap the harvest in the in the harvest time. There's nothing to harvest because he never habituated himself. The will explain a little bit more in a minute. Okay. So, those are the seven rebukes of remember we said that also rebuked the lazy person with an even bigger rebuke. But said was bigger than them all. Where does he say it? Where does it come from? Like it says This matter is very near to you in your mouth, in your heart that you may do it. So here's how the medish reads this here. Take it out of your mouth. It's in your mouth already. Just speak it. You know it already. So the mentioned before the Yosf and the Medish. So there's the the two big mushroom of the medish is the the Yosf and the Marazu. The mar says that was speaking to the generation that learned. He taught them. So they already knew the whole. So he's saying to them means just say it just repeat what I taught you. You already know. You don't even ha you don't even have to take the effort to go learn. Just repeat what you what you know. Repeat what you learn. That's the end of the medish. Go look there. Okay. Now what what what what what Denishkai says right now when I read it I felt like he was writing in 2021. It seemed very very contemporary seemed very very like appropriate for our day. He was speaking in the late 1800s early 1900s. But if you read what he's what he said in this part here, this seems like okay rebuked seven ways the lazy person. Why seven? to hint that this laziness is coming from a it's a it's a spiritual moral issue not it's not a biological issue. It's not that God forbid the guy's clinically depressed and therefore he can't learn. He can't learn. He can't brush his teeth. He can't get out of bed. So of course he can't learn. It's very interesting what the Benishai is saying here. If the guy potion has a problem all around he just he he's not motivated you know what does the doctor ask you to see if you're depressed did you lose interest in the things you like they don't say did you lose interest in the things you don't like I was never interested are you having a hard time enjoying things that you normally would enjoy it's very important question so if the person doesn't have any joy he's not excited about anything okay so that's a different problem that's not a moral issue that's not a moral losing. It's not a Russia. He's not doing anything wrong. He It's a different thing. It's a different thing. And he he needs help for that. But here, what we're saying is no, he doesn't have depression. His body doesn't have an issue. It's not a biochemical thing. It's not a biological thing. He's fine. And you know what the proof is that he's fine? The things he likes. He has a lot of a lot of pep. He's able to go run and do those things. So, you should know. Why is it punct those things that are spiritual things that are religious things all of a sudden all there you have pro you have a problem with with elacrity he's saying I'm telling you this is the har this is the very interesting very interesting uh distinction to be made here okay he says we see about the person when it comes to material things he's very asked. You call him up and you say, "I got this uh this big guy here wants to make a deal right now. He wants to sign right now. You make a lot of money. I'll be right there." How come for some weird reason it's only when it comes to Hey, we need a tenth for too far away. Okay. If the atslos is really an his nature or his means his chemistry his his uh composition his his constitution and that's why gives seven rebukes because he's talking with the which has seven aspects to it which are reflected by the seven names that the referred to. This is a staff. It says over there the there's seven names to the and there's different names attributed to different different sources different names that we call the uh the sahara. Anyways, the seven attributes of the Yates and so there's seven unique rebukes that Schlid gives to address the Zahara. In other words, he's not yelling at somebody who has a legitimate issue of lack of energy. That's not that's not what that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about someone who has selective energy when it comes to things he cares about. All of a sudden, he can have elacrity and he's being selective not to have that elacrity when it comes to That's why seven rebukes for the person who's lazy about to tell you this is a moral issue. It's a spiritual problem seven names. Now this is the part I I thought sounded like 2021. We should take seriously to heart. The sixth thing that that's the thing. Remember the I can't go to my rabbi's in another town. Ah, I'm afraid of the the lion on the belt park. Oh, he's in your town. Oh, I'm afraid of the lion's in the street. Oh, he's next door. I'm afraid of the lion outside. Oh, he's in your househ. Maybe the door is closed. All right, he we're putting food in front of you. You're holding on to the food. No, I can't leave. I can't bring my uh my hand to my mouth. Okay, so that was the sixth thing. I can't even bring my hand to my I'm holding food in my hand and I can't bring it to my mouth. I can't be bothered to bring it to my mouth. Watch what he says here. They put food in front of him and he can't even bring it. He can't even lift the spoon to his mouth. That's exactly our situation. Listen says, "We are all now in a situation where we are holding the food right in our hands and we won't even lift it to our mouths." You want to talk about historically when we were kids, we used to walk 10 miles each way in the snow uphill both ways to school, right? theim that doesn't mean like you know the meaning in the old days the old old days you know what I mean by the old days when you're talking about Jewish history the old days no the really old days talking about before the Mishna if you wanted to learn you had to know a guy I know a guy you know a guy know there was no book give me a book this you got to know a guy okay you'd have to go find you'd have to go find a guy to teach it to you. My father told me, father, he says one time, I think this is when he was in Korea or maybe on the boat, but over to Korea, he saw a guy doing knife tricks. Some tough guy was doing knife tricks and uh so he knew he was a knife fighter. So my father goes over to the guy, he's like, "Teach me how to knife fight." And he says, "You're lucky I don't do to you what the guy did to me who taught me how to knife fight." He's like, "What did the guy who taught you how to knife fight do?" Says, "I went over to him just like you came over to me." And I said, "Teach me how to knife fight." Pull out a knife. He slashed me in the forehead. He said, "Lesson number one, never ask a man how to knife fight." I'm I I'm just telling you the story that traumatized me as a child. I'm done. I'm traum traumatizing you. Okay. Anyways, so what are we talking about here? In the olden days, you want to learn how to knife. I mean, you want to learn about you had to find a guy who knows, oh, teach me, right? Okay. But after some time, it became permissible to write it because there was a an emergency measure. But you couldn't find. So it exists. You know, we're talking about now in the times at this point where wrote it down. So somewhere it exists somewhere. But who says you have access? Because manuscripts are very expensive. A guy has to sit down. He has to write that. How long does it take a guy to write to write the all of the Mishnayas? So it's very expensive. But then the printing press was invented. Gutenberg Bible. Then the printing press. What year was that? 1500 something. Somebody Google it. Okay. And then became meaning books. Printed books became common. [Music] But they were still expensive. It was still expensive to get a book. Not everybody could afford every book that he needed. we're doing like the whole history in one paragraph. Then after that, they improved this uh what do you call it? This uh how would you call it? Not I don't want to say this work, but the the process they improved the printing process. It got better. I don't know what the improvements to the printing process were, but there were some improvements. But it became cheaper became cheaper to buy a book and there became it became very common to find books old books and new books meaning the books they're writing at the time and also the classics the classics it became very common to get be able to get books. But nevertheless, [Music] you still had to figure out where to find the subject you were looking for. So even now you have the books, but I'm not sure where to look up the thing that I'm looking for. But now in our day, Benishai is speaking late 1800s, early 1900s. It became common that we have a new kind of scholar. They are compilers. They compile. They call from various different sources and they organize in logical ways. How to find it? They give nice footnotes and sources citations everything small and big. You could find anything you need. Very easy without any hassle. By the way, himselfish himself. What was he involved in? He was involved in making accessible to the layman. The in many ways the benai is like the okay but also existed at that time. Okay. And existed and existed. So those far more I think Mishna is actually a little bit later could be contemporaneous to the the Benishai. The point is these kinds of books existed where you don't even have to now figure out where to find something. It's all organized for you and it has citations if you want to go look it up in the big books. Nimsa comes out. Here's the history of Jewish scholarship from before until the times of the Benishim our ancestors. They plowed var and planted and reaped and they refined and they mil and they winnowed and they kneaded and they baked and they cooked and then they set everything up. They plated it for you captain style. They played it. It's not family style. You have to go to the buffet. They plated it for you. It's all on the table in front of us and we're too tired to put it in our mouths. [Music] So, I'm thinking I'm reading this. I'm thinking what would the Benishai say today? Google. You can Google anything. You can go on I mean like right now this this year this is live on YouTube but later on it'll go up on on my side on words it'll go up on on Torah anytime like you go Torah anytime and you can start watching and even you watch it on double speed before you finish even if you don't watch everything that's old before you finish whatever is new there's going to be new classes posted you could never finish and it's all right there boom you just push a button so was saying how spoiled they were back then I mean think about how spoiled we Okay. Mashiach site really really is really is messianic stuff that we have such a a flood of accessible like never like not only like never before like never imaginable before. Okay. Fine. Now the seventh thing. The seventh thing. Remember the seventh thing. The sixth thing was you're you're holding the food. Put it in your mouth. Seventh thing was that that was the that was what say take it out of your mouth. The seventh thing that Schllay said was if you don't plow in the winter, you're going to go want to reap in the harvest time and there's nothing to harvest. So he says like this. He says, "If in your youth If we force ourselves, if we subjugate our our nature, we force ourselves proverballally to take the food from the set table and put it in our mouths. Put it in our mouths. You're going to be able to eat calmly without excessive toil when you are old. If you habituate yourself as young as possible to the discipline of learning, then it's not going to be hard to continue that through your life. He says, but this is precisely the problem. This is precisely the problem. We don't condition ourselves at a young age to eat from all the food that's available in front of us. Then when we have a desire, when we're older, now we want to serve ourselves from the the table that's set in front of us. It's hard for us. We didn't habituate ourselves at a young age. And this is what says in the someone who doesn't learn when he's young then he tries when he's old and he doesn't he's not able what's the reason but there's that word in order to learn you need a lacity You cannot learn if you want to take it easy and like the says got it from the 12im right got it from the got it from the if a person says I did not toil and yet I found I didn't work for it and I succeeded I'll don't believe him. It's not possible. I worked for it and I found I I I worked hard to learn and I understand the and I I acquired it time and you should believe that [Music] since requires hard work this is actually something that staves off old age. But but if if you don't habituate yourself, then it's very then you then you're not staving off old age and you're you're subject to the difficulties of old old age. Therefore, if you would have conditioned yourself at a young age, then the habituation becomes natural. since it became, you know, he's used to it. It's not going to be hard for you when you're old. Like we said very clearly at the beginning of our thing. Okay, there's one more little section here. Let's uh see if we can bust it out. All right. This is another remember before he said from we we said over there it means that first I ran full sprint and then even when I had to slow down I didn't doawle I you know I fast walk small walk okay so now we're going to have another of I I I I hurried and I didn't doawle bucket kashi. Now, even though I'm old, I'm still I'm moving. I'm I'm I'm moving fast. I'm moving quickly. Normally, old people don't move fast. No, but he's old and he's moving fast. Why? I'm using even though normally it's difficult for old people, but I'm able to do it. because I didn't daughter when I was young. So basically that's how you read it. I'm able to hurry even when I'm old because like I didn't when I was young [Music] I used which takes toil since I accustomed myself to it at a young age. it became natural since it's natural for me. So old age does not present a problem. But if you want to know why I did it, I didn't just do it for the fun of it or for a science experiment or because I wanted to be healthy just you know for the for its own sake. It was like the rest of the plus success. I'm able to hurry now as an old man. Why? Because I didn't daughter when I was young. In what respect? In what specific application? In doing things for Hashem. I didn't use my for material things, for mundane things. I use it exclusively for religious things. And you got to know something. It really is fitting. It really makes a lot of sense that David is the one who we're praising as being full of elacrity. Obviously, we're we're mentioning him because he says that he's the one who wrote. So he said, but really if you know story, if you know his biography, it really makes sense. Like it says in the that David was very very speedy. He didn't waste any time when it came to building the bdish but where do we learn about it in in base was that very nightm spoke to the prophet to so said to the prophet he was the prophet in the times of this guy I'm sending you meaning king David he works fast. He's a fast worker. Before he hires a crew, he's going to he's going to get contractors. He's going to go Home Depot. He's going to hire those guys. Go and tell him you're not going to build me that. I have a plan for it, but it's not going to be his son will buy the property for it, but he's not going to do the ribbon cutting ceremony. That's going to be Hashem says to I don't want David to complain to me that I told him this idea. Let's make a mikdash and he's going to turn around to go do it. I hired a crew. Uh not you, your son. So I don't want him to complain. So let him know slow down. Let him know it's okay to slow. The guy works so fast. You got to tell him to slow down. That's the And that's why we know when David says we can believe him because we know that's that's what he that's how he was. Okay. One more paragraph besides everyone likes a good right. So zorius a fast person or a quick person is bigatria it's 224 which is zer to good crown good crown why is z is good crown because it's very good it's in yiddish I don't know if the guy spoke yiddished I bet you we understood yedish anyways elacrity is a good crown for a that enables you to serve Hashem properly. And that is what says be swift like an eagle and fast like a deer and strong like a lion to do the will of your father says. I wrote elsewhere. There's a source for everything. See, there's a symptom and there's an underlying cause. Is actually an outer manifestation. So if you want to have Zizus, okay, I'm convinced. I I learned all this. I want to have Zizus. But zizus is actually the outgrowth of something deeper. Says I explained to you before there's a shish and a mocker of everything. You have to look at underlying causes and conditions. So if you want zus you have to know what zus comes from.us Jesus comes from and especially or specifically here if you want to have mitzvah you have to have that is just the way people are built that if you have you have anything that you are happy about you do it with elacrity you do it quickly you don't and if you're not happy about it. And especially if you're sad about it, you're going to do it lazily because I'm being forced being forced to do it. So you're not doing it quickly. So he advises us. So it comes out aimus. You know they say uh necessity is the mother of invention, right? Okay. Not Frank Zappa the mothers of invention but necessity is a mother of invention. So here said that sim is the mother ofus joy is the mother of elacrity. Got a new uh poster for you for the office. Right. Okay. There you go. gives birth to that's why they're interrelated they're good together now it's understood very well very well the saying of our sages there's a there's a on the word and it was the sages say anywhere The tra it's talking about something that's happy also the sages same sages say if the says it's talking about something that had to be done right away so the points out one relies on the other and that's why they're both implied by the same word they're so interrelated that the same word in implies both of them simultaneously. through both of them now a little. So through which is and which is then you have which is rearrangement of the letters of the word and it was so the main thing is the sim I guess after all that what do you need the theus for go get the sim and then automatically you have the cizus with the simka okay fine Yeah.