Essence of Chasidus #3- Change Your Nature is fundamental teaching of Baal Shem Tov

so good morning good afternoon we're learning the mimer the countries uh in your national terrace i see this on the essence of hasidis and we're on page 23. the um third yeah the point number three of why it was necessary at the time when the balsham to have introduced hasidis to study citizens i did want to mention regarding the second reason that we learned yesterday and should i be so bold and ask you to tell me what the second reason is without looking at without looking inside what is the second reason for the necessity to learn considers to work on yourself to change your nature of your character no that's the third reason which we're going to learn today i'm asking reason number two the second was for for the rectification of the world that the world also needed the facilities yes okay but you that's correct but you missed one one key one key word one key idea that it left name assurance that what yeah right the purpose of which is with latakian islam but the emphasis on the second reason is the idea of lifting mushrooms at the end i just want to add to that um the gemara says hosset sarfun sabik i just want to make you know give you the quote the gemara says a husset burns the nails the pairings of the nails that it right and a sadiq buries berries then from the word caver covering what do we understand from this that if you're if you're at sadiq what does the word savage mean righteous what is wrong but what in what way are you righteous the normal path of being righteous so righteousness requires according to the gemara bearing the pairings the nail pairings hosid the commodity says but someone who is a horseseed is surf now and so you know really i mean like what what what would come first question according to according to like simple gemara and halakha sadik should be greater than khasit but but the gemara is saying no and that and that's why this khabak siddhis understands it that way what the mother is saying no in this case the title hosid is greater than asadi and why is that because the person is completely selfless that he goes and does something that he himself doesn't really need but he doesn't someone else okay i just wanted to clarify that so let's go now when we see that when we see the term means within the letter of the law no and listening it's beyond no no no who told you that and i'm trying to no it's gonna i'm no good okay let's name and left nay uh as far as i know are the same it's the same idea all right it's the same idea got it okay yeah you know there is din or sometimes they had the word shurat hadin the path of din which you know and lifting means beyond not within what they would be is then beyond beyond then greater than din transcending din which means lifting the shoulders at the end to do something you're not obligated to do required to do but yet you you feel motivated to do it because this really goes beyond it shows that your commitment is not just legalistic there's a lot of legalistic judaism blah blah citizen you know you got to get up in the morning and you have to go to the midfield you have to wear your beard you know and on and on and on and that stuff that's definitely a a nice beginning and a great thing it's not it's not small change but as you learn and grow and avoid this hashem you come to a point where you realize that's it's dry it's dry i'm not talking now about lit facts versus sit i'm talking itself in hasidis itself you know in in khabad there is a colloquialism that i think is worth knowing did you ever hear that term a hasidic bundle what does a bendal mean a bengal is a yiddish word which comes from the word which means bone the bones of a person obeying in yiddish not in hebrew today if you say bane in hebrew in many circles you know what they think it is drinking before um before cup uh minha of shabbos did you have a pain yet you never heard you guys are a little old do you have white beards already but just uh i'm surprised that the carol bashold no one's into bane but in many places uh they they begin with a bane i i must admit that when we had our shabbaton at the oil a few months ago um i thought it would be a good idea to get the guys a little moving you know the the aks so um i suggest that we we we sit before we begin shabbos and we speak about what the shop is about and say look i am a little bit you know but uh there are some people that take it to um to make a religion out of it you got to drink a half a cup or a cup of scotch or vodka before you begin and then you start uh jumping around and then dancing for a couple of shabbas which of course reminds me of the experience we had in marin county in 1980 in the 80s a flying person today lives near tisroe um that person with a few friends told me that they begin their shabbos by getting high and getting high meaning to celebrate shabbos you know i was just new out of yeshiva this wasn't in my wavelength and my this wasn't something i related to but i you know i thought it was totally sugar you want to celebrate shoppers so what do you need to do you need to get high before shopping well do you want to get high get high okay okay no this was a religion we're getting high for the purpose of dancing with a couple of shabbos well we have that today in this concept of bane pain by the way referring to bain hash muscles bana smushes twilight time skia time so they don't say the whole word hashmasters they say bane but that's all hebrew bain means between of course right benzel between but in yiddish the word bain means a bone bando is the diminutive you know how you say abandon hayabul maisha is the ramore moisture so those are right [Applause] okay when you talk to a little child you many times will say how's your fisa le it's like a cutesy way of saying it but really the word there's no fisa le there's no yiddish word fisa it's become a play on words that is used the word is fis okay so there is a hasidic saying in khabad and probably as far as i know it's unique to khabad at least that's you know hearing it in khabar i never heard in other cultures like vishnuts or other bells and boston and whatever and that is you're a hasidic you're a hasidish what does that mean that means that you have in your blood bones you have hasidism running through your bones so although outwardly you might look and feel and taste and sound so far from but in your dna let's use that word in your dna in your bones and you're a hasidic bengal and that's the that's the story that i told you several times that the guy doesn't put on filling and yet he won't eat certain foods and and pays off because that's the way his father raised it in other words the religion and mechanics of judaism of yiddish guide he doesn't care for at least at that at that point in his life right so philly and mezuzis and castrus and tara are out the window for now but not but but he using uh in the oil processed oil i will not eat food it makes no sense but that's a that's an example of someone who it's in their bloodstream their dna a hasidic bundle and it should not be discounted because it could actually get a person to return to their roots and to wake up from their dream and nonsense so why am i telling you all this i'm telling you all this is because when we when we talk about hasidis and why the need for hasidis what i told you now is not really openly included in this two reasons we learned yesterday and whatever we're going to learn today but it it's it's it's an important the kuda it's an important kuda and if if our children and grandchildren and families get this in their youth it goes a long way it goes a very long way and you never know when it will come out but it goes a very very long way you know it could be 40 50 years later and they're elsewhere and they wake up one morning they say who am i where am i what am i doing with my life you know i just was talking to someone i just was talking to someone who said to me he said to me yeah he said oh i remember when i was a young boy the way my my grandparents behaved my grandfather and the you know although i went a different direction you know it it felt it felt and feels very warm so that's that's that's a very important thing to and to create and by the way how do you create that shabbos you sing the good name at the table even if no one's singing with you and even if people are talking you do what you know is right and you continue and you continue and you continue and i'm telling you it makes an impression and you're not doing it because you want to oppress the as anyone you're doing because it's the right thing right or it comes uh to a time when custody and you can get together and you're tired and you're exhausted and you push yourself the extra mile and and your kid your child asks you or your grandchild asks you why are you doing this you know why don't you go into a bed and go to sleep or you know all of that and that's when you you tell them you know that this is a it's it's a special time and and we get together and we get together yamtiv shabbos whatever these examples are things that go into the banner that's what i'm getting at it goes into the bones you want yiddish guy to be in the kishkis if in this in the gishkis it's going to stay there you know i'm researching now my family which comes from romania my paternal side and um you know it's 200 years we have a very very large family it's it's not that known you know but uh as i research it's amazing there must be thousands of dolphins and dolphin related um and great chil offspring that are not named dolphin and uh and what i find in what i'm finding is a commonality amongst them whether they were hasidic uh orthodox or not religious you know often including you know today's and you know from america and canada we have a large family in canada and artists role there is a certain and yet this is another word i like which is in english engraved i see that it's engraved i see that it's engraved whether the woman someone wouldn't cover the hair they didn't cover the hair but you know they start they go into yiddish i'm talking to relatives all over the world right now you know whatsapp to get information as i write and and they're going to hear this like you know you look at them like this what's going on but they heard from their bobby and zadie who came from romania and you know had a certain dialect and so this idea of the a hasidic bengal is is a very very important thing and there are people that will marry families from custody and painless even if they're missing some of the other um more uh apparent and important things like you know learning and davening and entire knowledge see this is just just i'm sorry i'm going off on a tangent here but it's important i believe it's like 180 degree reversed thinking than the literature world or maybe even the christian world in in chabad a hasidic bengal is like the ultimate of what you're looking for when you look for a shidduches do they have that hasidism in their bones do they have their hasidism in in in their connection to a rebel in their bones and that's true for other khasi them too i'm not going to say just of course not but this idea like drives them to choose a buck or a girl not from panama or lakewood but from the face chabin or or or khabad or or above or bells you know why why is that because this is a value this is a very important value naturally the person has to be a mention about me this and all that you know what i mean but they're not looking for how much pain does the gamora does you know how many how many years is how much how lucky there's no how much considers does he know it's not at all in the in the true true chabad in a true approach this this this is not calcul this is not you know again this exceptions to every rule and and and and and our world judaism including there's so many variations today you know that so we have brisker who've become khabad we've had literatures of we have other so and they become so each one brings their [Music] family orientation and culture into the hasidis and and trust me i always see it i can point out to you i can't i'm not bragging but i can point out to you almost all the time certain familiar behavior in someone who's been in about 50 years but the family you go back 100 years etc when they uh you could see that element and it's not a bad element but that's what it is so for example we have a we have a a a group uh a chat between us bucker and when we us in los angeles and and and there's there's some that are always common very disciplined very rigid knowing knowing where it comes from i understand it in other words his background family for 100 years this was the approach my background for 100 years and we're not and we aren't from khabad we're from vishnuts and from romania from that part of the region has a whole different orientation a warmer orientation whatever more sincere orientation both are good but it's two different worlds yes my like i was going to answer your video maybe to give give us like a little more of an example what what you mean like what you just said the difference between let's say a person who's been let's see okay okay okay okay multiple generations okay okay so i told you i was going to share it with you but i forgot i'll do it another day i told you about this video of tur and turvadas where eighth grade boys are celebrating uh uh there's an event for them and they highlight that they got their teacher who's been teaching there i think 25 years at tervadas to put on film he never wanted to put until a jewish teacher and you look at him and he's he's so nice and a boy made with him a deal he he gave them a challenge uh in in english studies this is not hebrew studies they challenged them with something and the boy said okay i'm gonna do the challenge teacher but if you put on film and the teacher said for the first time okay if you can do this i'm going to um i'm going to put on film and he did and it became a whole thing and you got to see the sims of the kids it's it's it's really tremendous i i was in tears you know it's because we had a teacher like that in la babachi yeshiva when i was growing up and we always tried getting to put on film then we found out he was putting on film every day because he had a son who was blind he became blind and our principal took him to the river the rapper gave him a break under ever said put on filling he put on filling this the blindness went away i i know it's an actual story we know the person not above myself so it was it was very sentimental to to see this right okay so i decided i'm gonna share this with my friends because i was so moved and touched by this clip so one friend of mine who is also a borough parker and comes from a galician background and he says aha he says this is the impact of the rebels work of of getting jews to put onto him okay and and he writes it with such zest and excitement and then another friend writes he starts in a nice way throwing the cold water and he says really kids in the cliffs there's nothing they know it's a mitzvah to put on film they know their teacher is jewish but not religious and doesn't put on villain they wanted to put on film what does it have to do with the rabbit and i'm telling you maisha that the response of each of my friends has to do with their culture and background is that a good example that's it yeah yeah okay now let's go to the text because i think we we do have to learn some qasimas let's go 23. the virtue of hasidis the third reason is that one's natural faculties talents kokos nasim should become or become they become through the study of hasidis kokos elokim godly cocos let me finish the paragraph and then we'll talk okay as the altarebus says [Applause] is to change the nature of one's character one's middles and he and and and lorac has did not come just to change the natural middles elegant but also the nature of the needles so we have two things covered okay listen clear carefully we have teva hamidos and we have middlestivian midostivian means you know whatever whatever meat is natural for you do we need the stuf hasidis of the balshemtov to teach us how important it is to change natural middles which might be unhealthy and all that no learn muscle learn to pierce the others and you'll do a fine job see this came along your innocence and tells you that even if you have nice meadows but if they're natural lizard you have to step up and elevate them to go beyond nature so as the gemara says we'll use the term nikoi listen to this rule keep it close to you whatever is natural is not godly whatever is godly transcends nature so even if you're a wonderful agnostic and a wonderful compassion and wonderful bound meet us you don't get angry but if it's all nate natural to you right that's the way you were born that's the way you were raised that's the way you are you take everything easy you don't get upset you don't get angry and someone else flips out and gets very upset because that's the way they were born or raised and that's their middles so you think oh you deserve credit because you're not getting angry guess what you don't deserve any credit you know why because otherwise god wouldn't put you here you'd be back back in a box if you're on earth you're here for a reason and you're not here for a reason to do things that are just easy and comfortable for you so what are you here for says the bashante and the altar explained it says you're here to go beyond what's comfortable this idea is expressed in these two ideas teva me daisof or medestivium me the stivium is your nature you know this is who you are this is how you behave this is what makes you tick says khasit is for that you don't need qasidas that you can learn and you want to be more foreign taught that within the middle's typhus you have to change the teva of the medos now let's look at note number six and read it together i think it will help this is the boring of the previous rabbit rabbi mendel once asked his grandfather although what is the ultimate point of hasidis [Music] and the altareb replied the entire point of hasidis is that one should transform the nature of his character traits the middle all character traits from the best of the best it should be noted that this question was that the question was what is the ultimate point of hasidis and not what is hasidis right he didn't ask him what qasid says abraham what's the point of khasits let's continue that knew what qasidus is and that is a divine level of wisdom the inner dimension of titan that's khasiddus his question was what is the ultimate point of hasidis and it was to this question that the altarebe answered that quote the entire point of considers is that one should transform the nature of the middles now everyone understands with absolute clarity the difference between his natural amidos and the nature of his needles that much requires no explanation i see this demands of everyone one who studies its teachings that he should transform the nature of his middles hasidis is the is not only a school master who teaches one how to transform the nature of his middles but a discipline that demands concrete action in other words like this you might think let me explain the last point this sir you might think okay the point of hasidis is to change the nature of your middles in philosophy the last point is no not a philosophy practically of course philosophically too but practically in my said there has to be a change in the character of the middles [Music] do you all understand this nakuda i know you probably want me to give you more examples i want you to give me an example anyone a concrete example to discern between middlestevian and leshana is teva hamidos don't be bashful now i could see i can see it's easier for a person who has a bad meter to transform it for example a person has a normal tendency to be accused of doctor because just the just uh zack the mouth he's a little bit miserable he has to change the problem with not only that he gives more on that level but he wants to give more i'm saying he he wants to give more sadaka not just because it's the right thing to do because it makes him he has more compassion for another person his whole nature changed it's not about me anymore it's about you what you need not what i mean okay so so in other words you started saying you know it's bad media not even a bad meeting even a good meet of giving to dhaka your example supports the point here not a bad meter a good meter he's giving he's already giving but you're saying that that the giving should be in a way that's uh totally selfless and and and and he's thinking about the other person completely is that what you're saying that's what i'm saying yes okay i can accept it anybody anybody else have anything they want to say about this yeah i remember i grew up being a very wealthy environment and my father and mother gave me whatever i wanted and i i had pleasure to share anything because i had more than what i needed so so that's the way things were me when i came to kabul i realized that it's good to be kind but you have to have a motive behind it to try to bring somebody close to you to started using the kindness so for example we show every morning i carry a lot of shekels with me and i i give them to people to give the doctor and i tried to use this element of kindness that i was brought up it's abundant good and you know to channel it into into a good way to to to make people aware that they should give today right so in other words what what you're saying is that that not only you know you you're using the the the way you were raised to to give because what hashem you had you're using it not just to give you're using it to teach others to give and and and and that's not like an obligation that's that's not that's not you know you don't need to do that you know there's no but but you're taking the idea of giving to another level which we call lachaness terami daiso to do that now i i i wanna i wanna we had one more nakuda and then we'll finish with today let's say someone and that's let's say you know someone or you yourself are more in the cave of other you go about your life your own life your family life your community with ava with love with kind you know what i'm saying you you're not like someone who's not standing up at your penis for you you have a sweetness and you really have a an oven now what if not what if when you when this person whose nature is ava needs to needs to display yera can they do it and you know the answer is the answer is normally they can't in behavior you can that's behavior right and behave and there's something to say about behavior behavior modification bottom line i understand but we're talking now now about in nephesha adam inside ourselves it's very hard to to be a disciplinarian if you don't have any dna i see this all the whole time you know i i want to give you an example from my regular bjor khan who was you know the genius and then and the hosted he never took attendance in yeshiva because that wasn't him he never told a bucker why'd you come late he he and and and and and the people who hired him knew this about him they knew that you're talking to a wall that's not who he is that's not what he's about he's about teaching citizens talking about hashem and and and from that you get inspired you say i'd like to be like that but ask that same person to mark a test or to write down whether you're if you're late it ain't going to happen because that particular meta is not who the person is and this is true for each and every one of us i see it you know with children and grandchildren how they raise their families you know it's easy for me to look now i'm on the outside you know because i brought raised my kids so i look at some of my kids and i could see based on who they are with the character which you know we raised my wife and i and all that and we created you see that you see the difference how they how they raise their kids and some with more gavura and start with more or say let's take away the word gevorah discipline versus you know organized an organized house or a little messy house and i see it in myself and in my wife and that's and and then you see it 20 30 40 years later and your grandkids and how they raise their kids how they raise their grandchildren so the media and so if someone is about era rosh hashanah yom kippur comes they say about a certain family they were great the month of tishrei throughout the year they were this family that was like jerks you know very arrogant you know but tishrei came they were completely in off god it's like the the model of tishrei i took a particular russian kipper spoke to them crying fasting you know because that's that's who they are put them in a situation where hanukkah pesach when we were buckler in issa in in in los angeles and yeshiva has older in 1982-3 um we had there were a group of 10 of us so the the the deal was five gold to the rebel to back to brooklyn for a friend of keeper and five go for sukha simkastara and i tell you those five that shows this these holidays or that holidays it's because of who they are those that wanted to be when there ever blew the schaefer 5 000 people and it's intense chose that day those that wanted to be on sukkah sinclastura and dancing and then drinking and all that chose that day so what's the point teva ministivium natural middles is what holiday you choose comes hasidus and says you have to go beyond that and you have to make it that even though this is not the choice of your holiday you feel just as inspired because you know why you're connected to him not to yourself the oil that's the way the euro explained this paragraph really have two thoughts on this exactly please so one is there's midos and then there's who you are and so there's a term orthopraxy there's a person who goes through all of the outward observances but inside is empty and hopefully we hope that with observance with the practical observance it makes a change on the inside that would be a change of who you are that the medos the the giving of sadaka or the being of vatran those are the external um manifestations which can happen without an internal change but we want there to be an internal change so that becomes who you are that's one and the other thought i had was prompted by what you were just saying about yom tobin that the cycle of the antoni we have a tishb we have a sukkas we have a pesach we have and we may be drawn to one or more of the others there we are each one of us has a teva which is drawn in a certain direction but that's not a slamus a shlaimus is when you're drawn to all of it even the tish above even the thing that isn't in your nature to stay up all night and learn on the shivers but then you become complete and that's changing the nature the teva of who you are okay fine but the question is this sir you said it well fine question is how do you get there so go ahead you need a good teacher and you need to be real and you need to be honest a lot i think that we put up a lot of our own barriers in um you know plastic what we call plastic yiddish kite which is following what other people do without thinking deeply is this really ratson hashem is this really what hakurasu wants me to do there's so many stories we talked before i don't want to really open it up but right i was in so much so much pain after lag but omar and then what was happening in a certain casitas it just it hurt me so much how people can go so far from what the torah wants us to be and and and how we should act but they're going with the flow they're going with them right right right i understand so to summarize your nakuda is the way that the oil i didn't get a chance to summarize this third gimmu this little paragraph gimbal he said this is the difference between serving god or serving yourself serving yourself means choosing one yumpta over the other serving god you use the word slaymus i'm just serving god it's all the same and you and and you and you come to a point where 100 you said it well he quoted the balshemptav the first uh teaching in kashmtv equanimity and all that it's true it's true what what what we're learning today is that this is the idea of not and not in other words most most most like most people that they walk away satisfied to have good needles if i can have a good meter believe me i've accomplished so much if if this particular issue let's say hordiness guyva for me is difficult and i and i control it and i work on it and and i i i compress it whatever all that hey i'm a star i've done so much comes along develop please stop comes along the belgentive about tempting says you are a star but you're not a hasidic star you're a jewish star and and and believe me that's gabaldic but you don't need help you don't need balsham that's the point like we have to stay focused on this country and what he's teaching here and the message is what is the point of hasidis so yes you're a star if you can control yourself in this area there's there and and really it's kvaldic but that's you don't need to see this free you don't need to pull shelter for that the balchamp teaches in various ways and in the various systems through claudius and capacity some presidency this is everyone in their own way and we'll talk more about that as we continue because this is a countries of capacity and his teaching is teaching us that that's not a hasidic star that's a jewish star star is this what what israel mentioned earlier the shlaimus the slain is concept where we we're it's all hashem in other words you feel in it and therefore what your nature is is not relevant is it is who you are have become god and this is a big avoidance no one says it's an easy aveda it doesn't come just from like israel said you know doing what everyone else does i think you said it very well as it comes from really thinking about what's going on and learning and understanding understanding deeply the ideas and how it's relevant to yourself then you can make a a dent and and that it's really um you become a hasidic star you go beyond the comfort zone within the self and that's what it's about we'll learn hashem monday have a great shabbos everyone says take care bye-bye