Hechaltzu chptr 13a- Virtue of Serving G-d w Discipline, Serve G-d not yourself - RC Dalfin

So, welcome back. We're learning this. It's all about loving another person with real and how to deal with inner strife and conflict that causes uh ill feelings towards others. That's very briefly what the mimemer is about. In particular, we're we're at chapter 13. And here the rashab will give us another method to do what he calls a hashem means service of god. How do you serve god? So in chapter 12 he explained the idea of that SERVICE REQUIRES JOY. IF YOU DON'T enjoy doing something you're not happy about it. This service isn't real service. It's forced service. It's fame service. It's wife service. It's kids service. It's rabbi service. But if you really enjoy and like doing something, you really do it without anyone telling you, without anyone forcing you. So that was the we call. Now in this chapter d the rashab explains the second mode which is just as important but it's the mode that uses what we call meridos frustration discipline gora. It it it's not rosy. It's not so happy in the sense of, you know, um it's joyful, but you come to appreciate it because you realize who you're dealing with. And and when you realize you're dealing with God Almighty and that you are able and have an opportunity to serve him, he gives you an an opportunity, you you run, but you run out of reverence, not out of sim. So let's see how he develops this idea. You give is the second manner. It's a service that requires and is predicated on humility and is predicated on your frustration realizing how far and distant you are from God. This means when you are a master of accounting, you're an accountant in what you're making an accounting of all details of your thoughts, of your speech and your action, which are not for God. You know exactly what you went to sleep with last night and what you thought about during the day. saying you know it all because we're thinking all day, right? And he even if you you didn't do anything that's terrible violating God's will, right? You ate a little too much and it wasn't for the sake of God. You got into that uh delicious steak a little beyond the norm. You eat have steak for supper. Who says you have to have gravy on top of it and on top of the gravy you have to have this and that? In other words, the pleasuring yourself beyond reason beyond justification just for the sake of pleasure. And this is this by the way is a main theme in all cif muser all books of ethical teachings and a common a common denominator is this idea in the kabad it's very much emphasized where we come up with the term and idea of iskafia in yeshiva we were taught and we would we were asked do you do escafia What does that mean? Scafia is Arabic for to subjugate yourself, to control yourself. Right? So here I was coming home, I remember or on the way Kaneka going to visit schools in Livingston, New Jersey, near the old stomping grounds of Manasha and Mark and whoever else. And I was very hungry. And we were all, this is when we were in the yeshiva Mars down. We were 18, 17, 18, 19, 18, 19. You come. Now you have a choice. You can eat potato chips, Coca-Cola, candy, or you could eat a piece of pizza. Piece of pizza. Now, every person has to say to themselves, which of these foods causes me greater pleasure because I want to indulge? And that's the food you shouldn't eat. Which of these foods will give me strength to exist? Cuz I I'm exhausted as I running around making, putting up manurs, giving out monoras, helping people, and now I'm starving. I want to eat something. So you can't say LIKE FOR ONE PERSON A PIECE OF pizza is is like is a normal is a normal dinner and normal food. It's no not no extra indulgence for the other person. Could be pizza is an indulgence for them. So there's no rules TO TELL YOU THIS FOOD is indulgence. This food isn't. Although the the the teachers in Kabad what we call the mashim today we would use the word the influencers of the students in the yeshiva uh they would say dessert is a no no you ate a full meal. What do you need dessert for? Oh because everyone has dessert BUT YOU DON'T NEED IT. YOU'RE STUFFED. Shabas Friday night my wife gives dessert something. WHAT DO I NEED DESSERT FOR? I'm not talking about you know fancy desserts. We had a baked apple this Friday night. Now, a baked apple, I don't think anyone will get excited about a baked apple. BUT IF YOU DON'T NEED THAT BAKED apple for your existence, that's called an indulgence. You hear that? And you know, it's like sometimes you say, "Is God really care about such a silly little thing? Whether I eat a baked apple or not?" The answer is you have to care. And if you care, God cares. IF YOU DON'T CARE, GOD DOESN'T CARE. NOW, why should I care? Because I want to serve God. Misha, you want to serve God, THEN DO WHAT GOD WANTS, NOT WHAT YOU WANT. SO YOU WANT NOW THE BAKED APPLE. GOD SAYS, "YOU JUST FILLED YOURSELF UP. WHAT DO YOU NEED A BAKED APPLE FOR?" So then you're serving yourself. You're not serving God. Then you know that it's not for you. That's the difference is between Hashem and not an Hashem. An Hashem, a servant of God is always thinking about what what does Hashem want and therefore THAT SHOULD BECOME WHAT I SHOULD WHAT I SHOULD WANT. Now there are so many gradations and variations and shades of this activity that again it's impossible to say it must be this way right but overall we know that certain things are indulgences they're just extra indulgences I was reading a c a safer this past weekend I forget which And it might be from the Rambani talks about the two areas of indulgences which are usually the areas where we get caught up in is in food and sexuality. That's what he says. And I was thinking about it. It's so true because the on one hand the says you should eat. The said you should you should be intimate. You know you should procreate. But at the same time the indulgence right now I was reading Rashi today. Rashi says in in today's portion that she ca came she was hit hid she hid in a box because the Egyptians were animals in in you KNOW THEY WOULD GRAB BEAUTIFUL WOMEN and they would live with them and and you know THEN GIVE THEM BACK OR WHATEVER THE CASE. SO MEANWHILE they they indulged, right? So she didn't want the beauty she'd be seen. So she hides in a box. And I was thinking about that on one hand on one hand prettiness beauty that God gives to a person to a woman is a gift from Hashem. And we see in Tanakh, if we read Tanakh, you you see you see this constantly. And just in paras in the book of Deuteronomy where it talks about when you go to war and you capture a pretty beautiful woman you know so it says kind of you should shear her hair because the Jewish men shouldn't indulge in her right what's going on over here how do you reconcile the two we're not a barbaric excuse me we're not a barbaric um Buddhist like uh celibate religion. I always say if you want to see the difference between Judaism and Buddhism or many other religions of Christian Christianity whatever look at the priest look at the THE TOP MAN HE PRETENDS TO BE celibate maybe is celibate right what do we find in the garra about the the sages of the of the garra THAT THE STUDENTS TRIED HIDING in the room when they were being intimate WITH THEIR WIVES. WHICH SOUNDS REALLY CORNY, RIGHT? Really disgusting like you're a you're a voyer or whatever, right? What's the what? Well, the garra says that you've learned the garra or not. That's a garam. So, what does that mean? The answer is the and and and rash and other explains over there. THEY REALLY WANTED TO KNOW HOW TO sanctify the mitzvah of intimacy that when you when you're together with your wife and it should be in a holy way. And they didn't know cuz they were students and they were soon going to marry and so they WANTED TO LEARN HOW. AND guess what? THIS IS 2,000 YEARS AGO when I was a I spoke to older from Russia about similar things. They didn't tell me much. They said, "First get married AND THEN WE'LL REVEAL SOME secrets to you." But but they did tell me a little bit. In other words, there's a tradition in in the community how to make, you know, relationships and intimacy of kosher nature, not to be like an animal, not to indulge. So it's those two areas of of intimacy, relationships and food where we get stuck, we overindulge. Sois and muser spend a lot of time on this. But Muser spends a lot of time in it in the way of muser, you know, kind of more of the, you know, if you do it, YOU'LL BURN AND you know, and and and and paying yourself. Comes about it by illuminating the soul. You know who you are. You're a soul. You're a godly man. You know what I'm saying? You realize who you are. So when YOU REALIZE WHO YOU ARE, you say, "I don't want to be that way because that's not who I am. I'm really not that. I'm not an animal. An animal's an animal. I'm a human being. I'm a ye." So it's a whole different perspective. So that over here is tackling these ideas. So that's why he says going back to the text that even if things are not forbidden but all but neutral right it's food it's kosher IT HAS 65 FROM THE BAD TO THE DAT TO THE DATA ALL THE IN the world you got it in FRONT OF YOU IT'S kosher the question is how do you eat it do you eat it says let's continue when you don't indulge indulge. I'm sorry. When you don't eat it for the sake of God, it's also bad. Now, here a note is required. A thought is required briefly. It's based on chapter 6 in Tanya. Before the alterba, you could say the whole idea of good and bad is very um IS VERY CLEAR. GOOD AND BAD. What about something that is not good and bad? It's neutral, right? So the way Judaism Tyra looked at it is it's it's okay for it to be neutral. Alter in chapter 6 in Tanya brings a zohar and based on that he teaches us that bad doesn't mean just bad, evil, wrong. He says bad means not godly. Do you hear the definition? Not godly. If it's not godly, it's bad. Now, what does it mean it's not godly? Yes, sir. If it's not USED FOR SOMETHING FOR GOD, THEN IT'S NOT GODLY. That means it's neutral. It's kosher. BUT IT HASN'T BEEN USED FOR GOD. SO, IT'S NOT GODLY. THAT'S BAD. and something that is used for God, although it inherently is just neutral, right? Your car many times gives me a lift from the airport when I get come to Florida. So, he's taking the car. The car is neutral. The car is not kosher. THE CAR IS NOT NOT KOSHER. When he picks up, he does a favor. He picks someone up, right, that's doing a mitzvah with the car. The neutral car is now in the domain of holiness. Now explain this later in Tanya as well. Right? So what we understand from this that the definition of of bad of ra isn't bad the way we you know in in according to the English dictionary bad means non-godly not godly. And so too when you take something that's neutral and you use it for A GOOD PURPOSE, YOU'VE MADE neutrality good. Why is it good? It's good because it becomes godly because you've made it you've used it now for a godly purpose. But all this I want to make it very clear is when something inherently is not violating God's will. You can't say I'm going to eat the shrimp sandwich. I'm going to EAT THE SHRIMP FOR GOD. IT DON'T WORK THAT WAY. THAT DOESN'T work that way. WHY? BECAUSE IF SHRIMP is a fish that they Hashem says in the Torah IS NOT KOSHER, IT'S NOT KOSHER AND YOU CAN JUMP up and down, make some salts, it's not becoming kosher, right? So, we're not talking about something that is that is inherently against God's will. We're talking about neutrality. And that's what says here. Let's continue. I mean, DO YOU GUYS FOLLOW WHAT I'M SAYING? You're looking at me and I'm looking at you. But is it clear? IF NOT, ASK ME. I want to make sure you understand because this is a central tenant. >> Clear. Okay. It's a central tenant inism. Very, very important. So too, when it comes to doing good in doing mitzvah, it's not the way it should be. The whole every mitzvah has a particular idea that singles out the service of God. Let's see what he says. For example, fillin. Okay, we put fill on in the morning. Why do we put fill on? Why? Because it says in the shma, you shall put on fill in the morning. But there is also a kavana proit a specific intent and focus that's a sidekick in a way a perk that's important and when you put on and that is it's to dedicate the heart and the mind to God. SO OF COURSE PUT ON FILM IN THE TITLE PUT ON FILM. WHAT'S WHAT'S THE QUESTION? Is there any more to it? WHAT DOES HASHEM WANT WITH THESE CHILDREN? THE ANSWER IS PUT THEM first on your hand, then put them on your heart. I'm dedicating all of my activity which is symbolized by the hand and all of my activity which is through the mind that is I'm binding myself and my head to God. That's the the specific focus of filling that the mind and the heart should be only for Hashem. Another example meaning we're coming from sukusal meaning the four species of the lul they areas we put them together right we don't TAKE A LULAF HERE AND A THERE AND WE walk around like this we make the brea we put them together AND WE GIVE A shake unity willow myrtle palm branch and citroron four species, bring them together when you make the blessing. IF YOU MAKE THE BLESSING SEPARATELY, YOU DIDN'T DO IT RIGHT. Cuz the purpose of the four species is to show unity amongst the Jewish people. Each one rep is represented by another of one of the four species. The esrog take the itself, the citroron rash. It's an acronym alenu regel ga. There's a verse till do not bring me to the footsteps of eagle. Alf gimble if you it comes out spells the word the first four letters srogue. So another one like this yo you go TO A STORE THEY HAVE THE THE SHOOK. I'M SURE IN bet they have a big shook for the right and everyone's looking for the nicest esrog. You get your esrog you come to shul you at the cut with your dancing and sing and it's very nice. What else is the about? Now is this what if someone doesn't have this in mind? WHAT IF SOMEONE doesn't know this? Did he not do the mitzvah? For sure he did the mitzvah. He has an essrich but he's missing the spirit. He's missing the intent of this particular not a lemon but a esrog citron which is represented by the word esrogue has the specific kavana kavanais as he calls it here. Don't bring me to the footsteps OF EGO AWAY. I DON'T WANT TO HAVE ANY EGO WHATSOEVER. And some people come marching in with a big esrogue IN A SILVER BOX AND THEY SHOW IT HERE. It's cost me $2,000. Oh yeah. WOW. AND I'M GOING TO SHAKE IT FOR GOD. Shake it for Hashem. Get yourself the best. It, by the way, it says in the Zoresh in the holy Zora, it's a mitzvah to spend money on mitzvah. But who says you have to flaunt it like that and have to have EVERYONE EVERYONE KNOW THAT YOU HAVE THE NICEST IN THE SHOE. You know that ga that ego have the beautiful MOST BEAUTIFUL ASTRO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL SILVER BOX. BUT WHY DO YOU HAVE TO show it off to everybody? So that should be the intent behind the esrogue when you have an esrog. So what DO WE SEE? IT'S NOT ONLY THE FULFILLMENT of the actual mitzvah whether it be trillim the lul and the thought species and the esrogue but it's the kavana the purpose and focus behind it that's very important that's what he's saying more so then there is what we call a general intent of all mitzvah mitzvah show us that we have to Listen, Hashem says pair of fill have to be square, have to be black, have to be this, right? WHY? I WANT TO PUT ON fill that are round. I'LL GET A SCRIBE TO WRITE FOUR PORTIONS. Most of the sofa is NOT HERE. HE'LL WRITE FOUR PORTIONS, but I'll make the the the box, right, Mark? The the BOX IS USUALLY SQUARE. I WON'T MAKE IT SQUARE. I'LL make it round. and I'll put I'll insert THE PORTIONS INTO A AND I'LL PUT THEM ON AND I'LL MAKE A BRAHA. WELL, guess what? You're not allowed to. It's an INVALID BLESSING. AND GUESS WHAT? IT'S LIKE YOU DIDN'T PUT ON ANYTHING ON YOUR HEAD. But I have I have the four portions. But the rabbis based on the Torah taught us that it has to be square for whatever reason said that it's divine law, the Mosaic law. I'm not going into it now. So the point is that all of the mitzvah point the arrow points to an overall idea called accepting the yoke of heaven. ARE YOU READY TO FOLLOW? You're in an army. You're a soldier. I'M NOT ASKING FOR YOUR OPINIONS. YOU LISTEN HERE. YOU LISTEN. If not, get out of here. Don't you don't you're NOT PART OF THIS ARMY. IN THE ARMY, YOU GOT to listen. So that's what we're saying here that the kava clus of all mitzvah points to one thing. Have it God's way, not have it my way. That's that's what KABIL IS ABOUT. HASHEM'S WAY, not my way. Let's continue in chapter 41. These two ideas of the specific intent and the general intent. What if I do the mitzvah not in this previous mentioned way? I do it with apathy. You know, I've been dominating all my life. I can roll out of my bed, which I do most mornings, and I go right away. It's like it for me if that's the way that's that's all I know right is that the way it's like a habit habitual that's what we're call we're used to it that's apathy that's cold this means that my in SUCH A WAY THAT'S HABITUAL is not proper. You have to dive in. You have to do the mitzvah. But at the end of the day, if I want to be a servant of Hashem, I'm not a servant. I'm I'm just doing IT LIKE BY HABIT, BY ROOT. do now says specifically if you meditate on Hashem's greatness and his exaltedness based on Hashem's greatness and exaltedness. [Music] Oh, now the Rashad throw throws out the following meditation. You d you learn and you have in mind holy things and good things and you realize Hashem is so awesome. is so great that everything I've done is like nothing because Hashem is so go great for on the contrary. So this is a very important point that Rash makes in different discourses is considered like a sin. Now what does that mean? I'm doing the mitzvah. I'm doing the mitzvah. What do you mean like a sin? So the word is based on a um with over there with it says where were you today you were missing at the table. The word for missing there is hate. Right? So we know means not just a sin, a hardcore sin, transgression. Hate means lacking. And that's the idea here. This is a lack. This is lacking. Why is it lacking? Because if you com you compare your to what God is really and the EXALTEDNESS OF GOD, IT'S LACKING. AND THIS IS PART OF YOUR MEDITATION that prompts you and motivates you to do more because when you if you if you think that YOU ARE A FADED COMPLETE AND YOU'VE ALREADY COMPLETED AND YOU ARE ALREADY A MUSH we say in Hebrew a mushlam a wholesome you you're JUST THE OPPOSITE THEN YOU'RE YOU'RE REALLY MISSING YOU COMPARE YOURSELF TO THAT VOID Hashem to to God and what God wants of you. Okay, we will um I think we'll break here and tomorrow we will continue uh the paragraph. Any questions have a safe trip have a safe trip. If you're coming to Brooklyn if you're coming to Brooklyn, let me know. Any of you coming to Brooklyn, let me know. Maybe we can get together. Zazuk, >> have a great day. Shalom. Bye-bye. That kid.