Growth is necessary even for a Tzaddik - Skwerer Rebbe as a boy - Rabbi Chaim Dalfin

so good morning we're learning um the but we're in the introduction called which is the second line uh on the ti on the page on page 150 and um this is a very important introduction not only because it has also the title page on it which are the first four lines on page 150 as I explained at length yesterday but also because of the theme Here the theme Here can be extrapolated to the general idea of Education mark means education now the verse that he quotes here as he opens up his introduction is a a a verse in Proverbs it's called in Hebrew mishle written by King salom schom where he says educate the youth the lad Al based on what that style and form needs a child needs one type of education a teenager is another one you know and then he says if you do that if you educate the lad the the the Nar of the result will be gasin when he gets to be an old man and can barely move he won't vacate the education that he got as a child which we know in education is very true it's one of my um main principles in in in in much in in much of what I write of written about is that a person is who they are in their youth youth I mean childhood teenage years but oh starting from childhood in other words what you get from the womb to the education the home as a child to the young years in school really that's who you are are everything else later is general I'm making a generalization is an add-on it's an adjunct you know a little you polish it a little bit this way you spin it a little this way but who are you you are the way you were educated as a Young Man a child and we have a saying to support that the G says which means cabbages cabbages when they begin to grow you could see what they'll be later on that's that's a a talmudic saying how the tal knows that I don't know but if the talud said it I'm sure they checked with agriculturists and and and and and others who who um who knew this and the principal idea is that we are we are primarily who we were when When We Were Young now this is in as far as education is concerned y here talks about it as in in regard to service of God service of Hashem and says there are different levels of feelings that people have as they grow and we've been discussing that in the first chapter of Tanya at Great length various levels of awe for God VAR levels of of of of love for God right if you recall in chapter 43 Dr Rebus taught us about a love that's called AA abundant love and the Al said abundant love is a gift given to to a person and who is this person usually a sadic for you know for scoring high on the list by coming to a point through hard work and labor spiritually not just slapping boxes or you know studying at NYU but hard work and labor spiritually on oneself to refine on to reduce ego to eliminate ego to see God and everything it's a lot of hard work it's not easy it changes it's not static it's fluid right one day you see something great in your life in your family life in your in the community and you say I love you God the next day God forbid you see something really bad something terrible happens and you say where are you God most people are normal and normal people are impacted by their environment and by what happens so one day they're in love with God and the other way day they're upset with God that and that's the norm see when you learn Tanya you understand from Tanya that that's the norm not that that's not the norm that's the norm so says the AL but if you come to a point where kind of you can accept all of God every time and you develop yourself you get rid of ego of evil inclination everything we've been learning all those terms on and on and on you know you're in the ballpark of sikim you know the special club for sikim it's not just just those that play golf down in Palm Springs but the the the the club is a sadim Club okay what type of Love do the sikim have they get a gift they get a reward a reward what's the reward they get it's like a flame fire that ascends upward automatically when we light a candle right the flame goes up by itself no one has to say flame flame go up now flame stay put no it doesn't work that way it's automatic the love in aik's heart andik is it it it it go it ascends to God automatically that's not the average that's not the usual that's not the B so D sees this type of love as the adultlike love okay now again we are adults and we don't have that love but in the scenario here here in the introduction where he he talks it makes a comparison between one love and the other for God the first one is the sikim and the love of sikim is adult like meaning for the mature ones theik who come to that level of maturity what does it say in Proverbs educate a child based on what they need when they're young so that even when they get old it won't V that love won't vacate them what does that mean that even theik somehow need to have the love that they got when they weren't sikim the love of the youth what is the love of the youth I'm going to learn today we learned it in chapter 46 but he's going to repeat it now again which is the love of struggle chapter 46 delb says says think for a moment Hashem took us out of Egypt we were in the dung we were in junk we were in garbage we were messed up and Hashem says I love you people and I'm taking you out you'll shape up and clean up afterwards but come along with me right why did has do that for only one reason cuz he loves us says you have to do the same thing with your own soul say to your own soul I have this this diamond called Nish soul and this diamond this n is temporarily in a goof in a body in a corporeal body in a gargant body in a in in in a lustful body and it wants all kinds of stupidity and nonsense unhealthy issues right but it's my soul it's myish soem says I want you to think just like Hashem took took you out for no reason just because he loves you you take out your own soul from that dong and that schutz and all of your narish all your nonsense and your stuff mosha mosha please please um mute yourself thank you take it out why because you love God and the soul is pristine and as much schutz as you put on the soul polish it up take it away and the Soul comes out every Jews the sh I don't care if he doesn't fast you g God forbid eats Bread on PES he has a brilliant Diamond Soul there just a matter of polishing up now that's work this is an AA this type of Love is work this isn't a reward love where it ascends upward automatically here this type of love is hard work and if you don't do it you don't create it of course we have a soul of course we have a but if we want our Nish to feel that it vacates the Goof and the materialism and the indulgences and all that you have to work on it what is the work that the T and Al suggest his BOS his buness means meditation reflection not just Clapping Your Hands and dancing and shouting in kab it don't work that way inab you have to meditate through ideas meditate on ideas that are brought in Torah and how did God create the world why did he create the world with what did he create the world and in his creation if he's here how can I exist and if I exist how does he exist and all these things which we're going to learn about in the next section coming up very soon hopefully next week the reconciliation between God and the universe right that's that's all part of what we call the his bonness and when you reflect and you meditate on this and you take time and it doesn't come when you know if you have to make a a car poool or if you have to make a meeting you can't really meditate unless you come an hour before ding to Sho or shabas like I've said many times to to you guys and to others shabus and there's no phones and there's no cars and it ain't anywhere to go you got all the Time in the World to meditate just put your Talis over your head and think about Hashem think about your soul there's nowhere to go and if anyone wants you to eat more CH and run to the Kish say I'll be there soon my job is to meditate again unless you m is a gab if he has to be there he has to be there so mha got to get up earlier that's that's his lot his G you know a rabbi who has to be with the congregation and the sh and has to you know participate in The KES like I told you rabal the sh that I've been talking about how they stole and demolished it which I don't want to go into right now um right the rabbi would come half an hour to an hour before so he can meditate and then start and then when they got to sh he was up to the congregation right but I want to get back to the point the point being this is the AA that's called the the youth AA and it's this AA for God that the AL says here in T will help the sadic for the sadic to maintain their level of flame love and Flame for God they require the youth AA which is a powerful powerful thought in other words what you get as a child what you get as a young meditator it it's the um the the essence of the relationship later on everything is a an adjunct an add-on in other words been at this way had a little color this way but the N the essence of the relationship begins in the youth who a great of the he has an explanation on this section of of the of the introduction and I'm sharing things that I heard from and in the name of with you and and I'm I'm sh explaining it in English that that the idea is that the the creativity of the love comes in the youth the the love that comes to the sadic as fascinating and galic as it is is is not in this detail in this detail is not equivalent to the creative love that you create in your youth and from that perspective it's even more important so again to say that the result of having this this selflove of a sadic is is is not the greatest it is the greatest but it's the greatest as far as Elation is concerned right but you didn't earn it you didn't work for it you didn't meditate on it so that part you don't have what where do you have the meditation and the hard work in the youth so remember a sadic also had a youthful time right we talk about oh he was born holy or from when he was a child he he he displayed sadic like qualities that could be true and it is possible but nevertheless it doesn't negate the fact that in the youth they worked hard I I remind myself someone who I interviewed this summer about the old Square rebob yose tski who came from CH the the Chernobyl region came over to Williamsburg burrow Park went back and then started new Square in Upstate New York in Rockland County right so and they're known today as the square so I interviewed someone who knew the the present Reba who's been Reba since 1968 when his father passed on he knew him as a child they and they play together so I asked them what did you to play he says we used to open up aish and like play games in the Kish finding words and he said to me I could tell you that this boy from his very youth was like a a holy boy you know he the one I interviewed you know do some of the Italians on the Block and they would play stickball Mark can relate to it the good Jewish boy from Newark so so you know a regular boy Brooklyn Newark you know Chicago what wherever Detroit wherever you are you know you have neighbors you're a boy you play You're religious you're not religious that's when you're playing a secondary we're playing we're having fun well when he went into this ry's house to and and and right away he told me that the rebba RAB yob ysep asked him if he could befriend his son cuz his son was like he he he was removed and the father didn't like really want him to play with the others for whatever reason that so he became his one friend and what do they play and they play games in the Kish they're not playing stickball they're not playing handball they're not wrestling you know they're not watching the mov movies or going to the store and shoers when they used to have the TVs through the window right you know right y you can relate to what I'm saying the World Series is on and you want to see who's winning the Dodgers or the Yankees in the 60s the 50s what do you do you go to if if you're keeping shabas you don't turn on the television so um a lunet or a bar or another store that has a TV in the window you go and you stand there you watch it I've seen it seen it right and you know that's that's that was the fun of many Orthodox boys who enjoyed sports but they kept Choppers and they didn't turn the TV on or they didn't have TV right but he didn't do that this boy this current re he was homeost of the time so this this person I interviewed became his friend now why am I saying that so here it is someone who became AIC Reb a sadic a person who's really a holy person who leads a community and all of that right but when he was youthful he played games in his own way and and and that type of games that he played which means he he studied well to know the Kish and he played that game with with this person who I interviewed right that became for him a prelude for what'll be later in 20 30 40 years so the AL this is the Al's Point here that the the of Youth the the education of Youth both in the literal sense and also in the in the love for God sense through meditation and work is so valuable that it keeps the current level of whatever you're at going and you shouldn't fall I'm just saying orally what we're going to learn soon inside so that's why I'm taking some time one second m one second so so there is a concept that's brought the concept thead has seven ascends and Seven Falls now what does that mean what does that mean that means that that the sadic within his his himself being a sadic he also has his challenges his challenges are sadic like so you rise and you fall you rise and you fall what keeps you going while you're in the fall State the youthful ab and I and I'm thinking I'm still thinking about this as I prepare this year and teach this year it's a powerful thought in other words you need to constantly be on the rise you can't stand on the same rung of the ladder you either go up or you go down this idea uh oh I'm doing I'm doing everything fine and I'm you know it doesn't work that way even if someone is a type two personality right type c whatever they call them not type A and not hyper someone is very leveled and calm and and even keeled and all of that yes nevertheless within the eles they have these issues as our one of our new students Bak here the way I see his name uh sent me yesterday a long article about aidic rebi also from the Chernobyl Dynasty who married one of the beler re's uh uh daughters and he wrote a letter to aasil to enlightened scholar a Jewish one and he he Bears a soul and he says he has great questions about God and about any any kind of challenges and he says you know I'm I'm I'm here you know with Rees around me him around me and he was a great talent scholar great talent but inside he's plagued right now so I read parts of it and I want to tell you that the youth what you get when you're you young the the the meditation and the work that you put into something will help a person overcome all kinds of issues later in life even when they've reached a certain plateau and they turned back and they said what did I do for the last 40 years of my life I wasted my life I fooled myself I'm not this person a lot of people say that I did it for the show I did it for my wife I Did It For My Rabbi I did it for my kids in order to successfully deal with those thoughts and their real thoughts for every one of us in different ways that youthful meditation and work that you do that AA that comes through his bonness through meditation will get you to get through and and go up the ladder and not fall because when when when you engage in this activity of his buness that we've been we talk about in extensively it's it's it's an ongoing activity and it doesn't let you rest and it it moves you it shakes you it gets you to think it get you understand again do we have all the answers no of course we don't have the answers do we we don't have the answers but what we knew is the what we know is the process the approach are we going up are we going down am I working towards with or I'm working with depression and and and you know Melancholy and and things like that that become real at time how do I slept myself out from a a Melancholy state from a depressive State okay the Reber rights to people with depression get out do volunteer work stuff envelopes for other people walk the street I told you this over and over go into a Sho see peopleo chat laugh cry be around people go into a grocery store you know look out your balcony and enjoy the the the beautiful sights of people walking around with Y the shinder and and and and everything else you know and sometimes it's too hard to get out from that depressive State a friend who knows that you're in that depressive State should come up to you and slept you out say come you're coming with me and usually they will go and if it's you know beyond that you know there's medicine and Psychiatry and all kinds of things but Thea is to keep on meditating to keep on working M I finished with my dialogue it's your turn monologue my monologue sorry yeah I just want to say unfortunate because sometimes my dear my good friend is does that to me in he schleps me out of where wherever I am so unfortunate I just want to put that out there but I'm so happy to hear that what else I I wanted to ask a question earlier which was more of a technical question but I that um it's interesting when we were learning the quote that the AL Begins the quote from Mish this quote yeah about um yeah when we were learning back some time ago the the previous re so the re R also started with that and in addition in addition it's interesting that ises you know from he when he wrote his yes with that yeah because it's a classic it's the it's the classic from t t one of the 24 holies for him Mish that is the the youth the the Jewish approach the Torah approach to Jewish Education so the so he wrote How should students behave so he cites that the previous re for educators that we learned at Great length he also uses that the AL here and I want to make this clear he's not talking here about technically educ educating children okay this is not a tretis you going to see from chapter 1 through 12 he's talking about God and reconciling God and is there a world is there no world it's a different Trea it's a different uh issue we're going to handle nevertheless he calls calls the the the meditation that's gener through the the love that's generated for Hashem through meditation he calls that I added by you know kind of my own thought that it's we can also understand it from a perspective but technically he's not talking about here I want to make that very clear because we shouldn't walk away saying Reb here is going to talk about educating children he he doesn't he's talking about even if you're a do and even if you're a sad and you're you you you have this a this abundant love for hem that you were gifted God gives a gift you should remember that what you got in your youth I.E the lower level of meditation in a way has one up on the higher one and that is the idea of struggle and work that that's that's the here let's go inside now I want to a few lines at least today so on the second column page 150 seven lines from the top of that second column the the line Begins the second type of Love is a love that every person can reach and can have when when he will meditate well from the depth in the depth of his heart meditating on issues that arouse one's heart hasem to have a feeling for God call you slin the heart of everyone right if you're meditating on ice cream and and and and GF and business you ain't getting a love for God you got to meditate on the right things and that also happens sometimes that we meditate but we're meditating on the wrong things and for that you need a mashia you need a teacher what should I be meditating on that was part of it's part of the system inab where will guide a student what that student is is to meaning what what where he's at in his life and based on that suggest to him the right type of thoughts at that time yes yes sir yes sir sorry I had trouble with my buttons you brought up a point that I just wanted to say was very important to have a m i I know somebody personally who was learning he was growing at a certain point he was holding out with the and they uh they they told him that he should stop with sweets and ice cream and that's narish kit it's for kids and what's what's about got to do with you know the gmas and it bothered him he went to BOS rabi and the BOS he said to him he said you know they're right but in the in the past people held at certain at a certain level that they didn't need such things but today who can serve a KES bar without an ice cream meaning that he saw for this guy there was a level too high for him his friends were pushing him but he but he was like take it back inash so what you're saying here that you need a mashia you need somebody to guide you because people can go off the cliff and that's very bad when they they go beyond where they're supposed to be right that stage right and and the mashia that you choose needs to have the smarts of a mashia like they they they say something one a few times people came to the Reb the Reb said when he spoke about everyone should have a rabbi he said it like AIA right so people came by said my Mia said this and this different times at dollars and the re said find yourself another Masia I I'm just saying and guess what is sometimes you have a mashpia for one issue and you have a Masia for another issue not all masim are experts in every part of uh character and personality and you know so so again to but but when you choose a MH in a certain area you you know don't give up stick with them even if it's uncomfortable and you have to always make sure that the Mas has time for you you know so so like people ask me and I say this is what I can do as far as you know how much time I can a lot and help you with I I won't be able to do more if you want extensive conversations I I just don't have the time for that find someone else but if if you're you know willing to you know communicate mostly with whatsapps and texts and emails you know that's a lot easier and from time to time we talk I'm just give you an example so it it you know when you talk about AIA you're very right and I could tell you as some of the one through the laich Yeshiva system and the kabad system which which we're talking about here the the Masia issue is an eer it's it's primary it's not ancillary it's not t it's an ior in the development of a of a b of a of a girl of of a young man a young woman and and even later in life even later in life the re when he spoke about he was talking to us as adults he's talking to everybody but us as adults right you know how do you know that you see you have to also know I've I I've done this you got to go on in other words you stand still you fall you have to go on and sometimes even if you haven't mastered and and and completed one activity maybe temporarily you need another activity at that time to get you moving cuz you're stuck you're stuck in a rut right so smart picks up on that he says okay you know I always go back to an example when I came out to bin County onas in 1984 Northern California a group of wonderful people some were full Bas some were potential belas and interested and they wore Gart they wore garles okay that's a great thing you want to wear Gart right I should be happy I got several people wearing Gart well some of them came to to by car now I'm coming from cron Heights and I'm saying wait a second you're wearing a GLE and you drive to sh by car I mean come on a GLE is already a it's it's an additional thing so initially I I I was against it and a backfired and you know I was do on the job okay I didn't have this white beard in 40 years of experience I came out out of 770 right and number two what I saw is that they needed it ultim I saw they needed it because they were joining together as a club as a group and that later helped them become true shabas observers where they didn't come by car and they walked the Shool On and On Right the point is initially as a mash as the rabbi Mash I said what are you doing you know first keep shabas then put on a GLE you know what I'm saying but then I saw that they're coming from a different world and they're not there yet so this GLE and joining the fraternity the shabas fraternity or what they call in in in you know reform and and and conservative schs the Sunday um Brotherhood that's what anash is we use the word anash it's a Brotherhood AIC Brotherhood a lat Brotherhood But A brotherhood so they became part of the Brotherhood they become part of the Brotherhood everyone feels great and everyone then grows grows so a mashia since she brought it up I'm taking some time a mashia needs to think about all these things you know and it boils down to that famous vert what's the vert who's a good Rabbi someone has the fifth part of you can know all the books and all the four parts and you can be a a bad Rabbi a disaster Rabbi why cuz you don't have common sense common sense is book number five and it's not written it's here common sense so so so a mashia needs a strong sense of common sense when to go when to back off you know things like that as much as I wanted to learn more but um we're somehow going to have to uh we'll I don't know if we'll finish tomorrow but uh anyone want to say Mark you want to say something I Mo Rooker no it's it's you know it's okay you know it's it's great to listen you know because it doesn't need to be linear I mean education isn't linear right in that what we share together is education yes so it's a pleasure to L thank you thank you I I want I want to thank you thank you I want to introduce our new student uh K bakar I think he's a neighbor of mine here he lives here in borrow Park he might even live live on my block yeah a little down little close to 18000 he's on my block and he's learning a she online nebor and what now yeah how how did you enjoy the she was very nice but my phone looks like a little chabby very nice I really enjoy it okay you know maybe it' be better on a computer I don't know if you have one but uh you know whatever but uh here yeah welcome and uh and and by the way is a big big so we we love to you know we love to hear from interject something you know uh and and you know and if you need to correct me I'm open to that I'm not embarrassed you know so just uh get involved you know and you see the style of the sh it's a certain style you know what I'm saying we're not going to we're not going to nitpick every word in Tanya it's it's that's a different type she and and you see the this is this is a certain Dynamic what go ahead what I guess just to pick up when you said pick up one said said before yeah is that that person is not to kiss with a thing that he's with then he's not going to have it he has to be cous with theion person I ice cream or he he can't go so far he has to go to that part that he's able to get yeah I didn't I didn't use the word es scash sometimes we don't know where we sometimes we ourselves don't know where we're holding that's where the mashia comes in to tell us yes push yourself a little bit in this direction but that's too far or you're not pushing yourself enough right right I didn't I didn't use the word hcash and is didn't but I I understand the word I'm using the word that uses here in in in the his b his buness means activity a meditative activity me he should understand well doesn't mean like uh I'm going to say over a word 65 times I'm not talking about that we're talking about the idea what is what is every word has a meaning what the meaning means and then to let that seep in and when you do that it it it opens up a an approach of of growth an approach of growth and that's as as as as M said that is what we're we need we need this this education process of growing and I think that's what the ALB is getting to as well everyone have a great day a great shabas it's shabas shabas remember remember what remember learning tomorrow yes we are sorry I'm jumping I forgot we're learning tomorrow thank you y we can count to you take care byebye by bye byebye shalom shalom shalom byebye doesn't go off oh I know what sh