Shaar HaBitachon Lesson 37 with Rabbi Shais Taub

all right welcome back we are tasha i'm gonna finish chapter four tonight looking back what have we been discussing the seven areas of life in which one needs to have betaken in hashem we've gone through the matters of this world for this world starting with matters of health one's own personal uh physical condition then we spoke about arnosso making a living then we spoke about interpersonal relationships then we graduated to the spiritual things the things of this world for the sake of the world to come that's we started with the mitzvahs that only affect oneself then we spoke about mitzvahs that affect others okay and then we graduated to matters of the world to come for the world to come purely spiritual things and we spoke about the nature of reward in the world to come and uh that's that that covers six out of the seven areas okay so first was our personal health and the second was our livelihood the third was interpersonal relationships okay and those are all matters of this world for this world then we had mitzvahs that only affect us and then we had mitzvahs that affect others those are matters of this world for the world to come meaning a combination of this world and the next then we had matters of the world to come for the world to come meaning the spiritual reward in the world to come that is based on our service of hashem and now what's left we have one more category the seventh category which is the reward of the world to come that is beyond our service and as we as we learn about this category you'll see how it's different than than the previous category we spoke about in the last class about how hashem's reward is is beyond his gratuitous his grace way beyond whatever is uh is deserved in fact we're not entitled to anything but uh where are we gonna go from there i mean this is even higher this is an even higher level what's an even higher level so just hold on a second and uh you're gonna see how we're gonna what we're gonna be describing tonight is is basically the loftiest level all right so let's take a look inside the text avalpiro the explanation of the seventh category of this is the grace bestowed by hashem and his chosen and treasured ones in the world to come a great bounty of indescribable good we're talking about something that's not regular judaism before we're talking about doing the mitzvahs learning toyota doing mitzvahs doing the regular stuff you're supposed to do and even with that by the way we mentioned uh you have to affect others remember that we spoke about that even with that it's not enough to do it for yourself you have to influence others to help them to do it as well now we're going to go even beyond beyond beyond off nay first you have to employ the means that will help and attain the high degree of the pious who are worthy of this divine grace all right so we're going to describe now an extra level of divine service beyond doing everything that you're supposed to do and beyond even influencing others and helping them to do what they're supposed to do this is beyond beyond what is it what is it let's find out this is acting in accordance with the qualities of the ascetics who shunned this world and to banish the love and preference for this world from one's heart the yamaza and then to exchange that not just get rid of it but to exchange that be awesome for love of the creator he mastered a love and to give oneself over to him to surrender to him delighting in him yes and to feel lonely in the world among its inhabitants these and conduct oneself according to the conduct of the prophets and pious ones and then one should have trust in hashem that he will bestow grace upon him as he hashem bestowed grace upon them the prophets and the pious ones in the world to come what do we just read what do we just read here again i said the sixth area was already reward for regular judaism and even regular judaism was more than what we normally think of because like we said last time it's not enough to do everything that you've got to do you also have to influence others and that's that's part of judaism so then and this is beyond what's beyond that beyond that is true selflessness true selflessness um he and he describes it in a few ways first of all he he calls it precious i don't know if we would use the word precious after the vermin remember rebecca is writing uh 500 years 600 years before the the balshamptiv and we have a little bit different view today of prishus we spoke about the the prussian about the ascetics back in uh was that back in chapter three um the whole long story about that town of ascetics was that was that in chapter four no that was in chapter four yeah wow such a long chapter um you know there's there's a story about well it's a well-known story about the madame rottenberg who was kidnapped and held ransom i won't tell the whole story but the maram uh tried to uh make it to eretz israel and i think he was passing through italy and there was an apostate who identified him and informed on him and then they sent him back he was extradited back to germany where he came from and then he was put in a tower and they they held him ransom and they wanted an exorbitant ransom for him and he told the community don't don't pay it because then you're going to create a new business for them they're going to rant some rabbis anyways he uh he died in captivity when he passed on they wouldn't even give up his body for a jewish burial so at one point this is years after the madame's passing there was this uh wealthy jew um i think his name was alexander vinfin i think was the name and he paid to get the the body of the madame released and and to provide a jewish burial anyways after he did that he in a dream he saw a vision of the madame said to him because of what you did for me i want to reward you and i can give you what's behind door number one or what's behind door number two behind the door number one you told him what it is he said here are your options of your prizes uh either um say you can be in my compartment in gunaden uh but you have to come tomorrow like you can get up and tell your wife and kids goodbye and you know write a will but you know then you're coming with me tomorrow um or uh not but all the money you spent you spent you know a huge amount of money on the on the ransom he says uh all the money you meant you will you'll be made whole you'll make back that money and and much more and you and your descendants will be wealthy for for many generations so uh alexander told the the maaram in the dream he says i'll go with you i'll take the the spiritual the light i'll go for the the ilam haba the ghanaian anyway so he woke up he told his wife and kids what the decision he made i don't know if they were supportive of it or not that's not not really told in the story but at any rate he and he passed away so the mashbiya uh hillel used to tell this story rebecca just to tell this story and uh then he would ask the sedum so no which one would you take and uh you know a lot of people would say oh yeah i would take the spiritual you know why take the money you know take the take the spiritual reward and uh because you know that they think that's the right answer they think that's the holy answer and then the pillow will tell them no because the ghanaian is only helping you but if you take the money think about how much more pidden shivolim how much more ransoming captives and how much tzedakah and charity and kindness how much you can do to help others so you know the idea of prishos of being an ascetic you know this sort of changed our outlook on it but it's not essentially so different maybe the form that it takes is different but essentially it's still a value and and the idea is you know explains a lot in tanya that love of mundane things for their own sake even if that's a permissible thing is complete evil okay and tanya uses the term ragamur it sounds so extreme right so intense for something that's kosher something that's permitted but he did it for the sake for its own sake meaning just for the sake a physical thing a mundane thing just for its own sake ragamur complete evil and and what does it mean there in tanya what it means is you know explains in perigov of tanya what what's kedusha what's holiness kedusha is a state of bitter of surrender anything that's ego driven ego edging god out you're not allowing hashem in in order to allow hashem in you have to be surrendered you have to be in a state of bitter so anytime we pursue something other than the agenda that is hashem's agenda okay anytime we have our own agenda even if it's of an innocent nature it's not nefarious it's not diabolical evil it's just selfish animalistic you know that's why we call it the animal soul it's not plotting scheming you know demonic evil it's just it's just animalistic it's just selfish and and crafts and immature and short-sighted and that's what it is but that's called ra that's called evil i don't like the word evil because it implies like it's plotting scheming it's not it's just selfish but if it's selfish the problem is now it's not a conduit for for hashem's power so the idea is in order to really allow hashem in a person can't have interests other than hashem even innocent things that are not prohibited it's just it's a contradiction you can't pursue selfishness even of a fairly uh you know innocuous nature and and at the same time be fully surrendered to hashem and allow that power of kedusha of holiness in your life it doesn't work it just it's it's an inherent contradiction so most of us aren't going to reach that level i mean i'm giving a whole time to class now but um without giving the whole tanya class most of us are not going to reach that level on an emotional level okay because emotionally we we are going to be selfish and we are going to have proclivities and and attractions and desires that are selfish and the best we can hope for is at least on a behavioral level that when it comes to doing something we choose to do the selfless thing even though on an emotional level we're conflicted we have both the selfish and the selfless but at least on a behavioral level when it comes down to you know push comes to shove the behavior we choose hopefully will be a selfless behavior and that that's called a banini somebody who does that consistently who always chooses the selfless behavior even though internally he's very much conflicted and he has selfish drives as well that's that's that's called a venue um but but the point is this idea of reading oneself of of personal agenda ridding oneself of you know the most basic uh impulse for self-perpetuation which really it's what's so awful about it right what's so terrible it's it's not it's not it's not deliberately sinful it's just it's just selfish and in in its you know it's instinctive selfishness we're hardwired this way you know there's that animalistic part of us that's just wired to be that way and and yet to really really really be a tadic in the terms of tanya we have to let go of that too so when rebecca baha'i describes uses the word precious and again you know we're living in a world after the baal champtov so i wouldn't use the word precious but his description is very much in line with with siddhis when he says they are mayas they are disgusted by elohim what have we discussed about how could we discuss it hashems eventually is hashem a dwelling place in this world bossy lagani i've come into my garden is hashem's garden yeah that's when it's hashem's garden that's when it's hashem's dira okay so when it serves as a vehicle for hashem's will then yeah of course then it's holy it's more than holy it's it's godly what we're talking about being repulsed by this world we mean this world has an end unto itself that's what it means as an end unto itself so being into things of this world even of an innocent permissible nature but just for their own sake and not as a means of gratifying hashem that to the tsadik is disgusting he's repulsed by that so hamaya simba isa they're repulsed by the idea that you would do something just because you want to do it just because you like it just because it feels good yuck who would do that you would only want to do something that feels good to hashem that that brings you hashem it brings you closer to hashem right you wouldn't do something just for its own sake so that that that we can you know hamaya symbalum has a if you understand what we're describing at this very very very lofty level it means they have no interest in just enjoying this world for the sake of enjoying this world they'll use this world and very much you know that's why it's not precious that's why it's not asceticism they'll be involved in this world sure the sadiq will be involved in this world very much so if he can use this world for the glory of hashem for sure okay but just to be involved in the world just you know for the sake of it because it's interesting because it's fun it's interesting it's uh it's pleasurable no way no way no way okay and then he continues and he says and then to take out take out of his heart his love and his preference for the world because that's the default that's what you're born with why does have to take it out because it's there that's how you're born you're born as as you know animalistic as as being interested in concrete things physical things bodily things okay and get rid of that the yamaha and to replace it with love of hashem okay i said at the very beginning of this class we're talking about a very very high level right now this is not a regular level in tanya it's called sadiq in fact in tanya it's called atta gomer because there's two levels of sadiq what did this sadik do this complete side because higher level tithe where it's called said the gum or it's the play of life not only he got rid of the desire for mundane things worldly things no he transformed it at sadiq is like someone with two yates or types with one yetzer toy that's a regular it's a type and another one that say it's a harder that turned that was repurposed and turned into a into a second yeah which is actually a more powerful year to play but that's another discussion for another time um he literally transformed he didn't just nullify the natural predilection for worldly things he transformed it so whatever desire he would have for worldly things he made it he turned it into something godly um it's very hard to describe that and i feel like the challenge is whenever you do describe it sometimes it alienates people and they think it's strange they think it's weird and i would never want to describe something so beautiful and so holy in any way that would make people turned off but i think it is something that when you hear it at first it does sound weird it's like what's wrong with these people can't they just enjoy normal things and and the answer is well you know who says who says you should still be playing legos right you're not still playing legos you liked legos when you were six but you grew out of it right well maybe the stuff that we're into now even the stuff that we think is really important in life maybe if we had another few hundred years of life to mature and become more evolved we would see the stuff that we think is really super important right now is just legos maybe there's bigger things better things so again i don't i don't like to get too specific about it because it it often weirds people out but just imagine somebody who he's he's he's not he he's not not talking someone who's puritanical and his pr who's pretending to to to reject this world so he could you know feel holier than thou we're talking about somebody who genuinely has taken his desires for everything else that people care for in this world even the things we care for most deeply and he's turned it over he's given it all to hashem so everything has become love of hashem and you know that means love of of life becomes a love of hashem love of family becomes a love of hashem love of all the things that people cherish that people hold dear even the loftiest ideals see i'm not talking about corn beef sandwiches now i'm saying even the loftiest ideals he traded that in for a love of hashem or or maybe i could even put it differently he turned it into a love of hashem you know there's a classic example yankovino didn't see he didn't see asaph for all those years and when they reunited so uh it says that the yankee was hugging ace if yes was the the yates was hugging yankee yankee wasn't hugging her back what was he doing so rashi says he was saying krishna who sings why is he saying all of a sudden like he he looked at the calendar and he saw says krishna he didn't plan for it and svasamis explains that no actually when he was reunited with his son he knew that that was the most powerful feeling that he was able to have and at that moment he channeled that love into saying into proclaiming god's oneness okay so that's that's the kind of transformation that we're talking about okay um but one who believes he's going to have that level of reward without also doing that level of surrender who axel pessi is a fool who demolishes about such a person it says in the gemaran saita he does the action of zimri and he wants the reward of pinchas little biblical reference there i'm going to continue uh describing here this level um among the marks of these ance hamila these uh lofty people shigeru avdeya beta elevators is that they guide hashem's servants to his service they are teachers they are not there for themselves they are there for others another thing is that they endure tribulation gracefully they know how to deal with difficult times vishy yaykol being am called over mitzvos and everything else becomes trivial to them compared to the value of doing mitzvahs can asia died like you know from the story hashem tested avraham everything everything and i mean everything became second in priority to doing hashem's will the indian khananyam or another example classic biblical example of khanani mishova zarya in the fiery furnace but the kneel because or like daniel in the lion's den vasara malchus or like the ten martyrs that we read about any kipper in the moose of prayer in the section of the aveda these were people who gave up everything they gave it up they gave they surrendered everything they surrendered everything for hashem so we're not talking about the previous category category number six where you just do everything you're supposed to do in yiddish kai plus you influence everybody else to do it too no we're talking about beyond beyond beyond total beetle total surrender by the way when i say total bittle i always think about one time i was speaking in a chabad house a shabbos somewhere and after i spoke this lady comes over to me she says be tool and you know with that pronounced pronunciation pronunciation be tool i say bitto with ashkenazic accent she said be tool i said oh yeah be tool she says no be tool i'm like yeah be tool right she's pronouncing what the the the dagesh and the second syllable and i would say be too i said yeah be too okay bitter will be two she says no be tool b2 will be a tool of hashem what is bittel be tool be a tool of hashem surrender to the extent you are nothing but an instrument in hashem's hands that's bitter okay um whoever chooses to die in the service of the creator rather than rebel against him the harishment of and whoever chooses poverty rather than wealth which is sometimes harder than choosing death over life not that we choose death god forbid but when forced to choose god or to give up one's life we choose god even if it means having our life taken away right we never choose death god forbid okay but we'll choose god a selfless person a truly soviet person will choose god even if it means losing losing your life god forbid god forbid uh and then also choosing poverty over wealth again we don't purposely choose poverty there's no like badge of honor for being poor but if it's a choice between doing what hashem wants and being poor or not doing what hashem wants and being wealthy for sure i'm going to do what hashem wants and that could be a greater test than giving up your life because you can only die once but being poor you can be poor a long time right or choosing sickness over health but sodom in a shalva in choosing pain over tranquility the nimtiladina beta varatsu big zetas say and he basically submits to hashem's will and desires hashem's decree and again this isn't going and looking for problems and glorifying having a life of pain and and any of that what it means is if that is the test that hashem chose for the person for whatever reason the person willingly accepts it because he's prioritized shouldn't keep saying he he or she has prioritized hashem far beyond any other priority to the to the extent where it's just not a choice it's not a i should i should it is a choice it's free choice it's not an option maybe your choice is not an option yeah i have an option to betray god god forbid and make my life easier no it's not an option not not not even on the table so somebody who lives on that degree of selflessness it is fitting that he received the kindness of hashem in the pleasantness of the world to come ashore um it says about this to endow those who love me with substance that i may fill their treasuries the amount it says ain't later no i have seen oh god beside yours what god has prepared for those that wait for him the armor and it says how great is your good that you have hidden away for those who fear you and that is the reward for those who are exceedingly surrendered and selfless and have that level of be tool being hashem's instrument and that is the end of chapter 4.