Ten Minutes of Meaning (Part 208): Days of Awe - Mesillas Yesharim

as always our generous series sponsor Anonymous we have been learning about the media the notion of feeling a sense of awe a sense of fear for the ribonac Shalom we pointed out last time that ramachal saves this almost for the end of the safer you would have thought it's the beginning living with and feeling a sense of all of the almighty being aware of and taking extreme ownership for our mistakes and living with the consequences of them you'd think would be the very beginning what would launch a life of a better version of you is understanding who we are and where we are in perspective in context of and yet then saves it towards the end really in the formula saves for the end because first you have to live with mindfulness and alacrity and nikius person has to swim with precious we have to at least grow if not achieve and perfect those other areas and qualities before we're in a position to really appreciate who we are relative to the almighty so that mentioned that there are different levels when we talk about era there are different levels there are coffee great coffee and donuts available U.S ownership is the lowest level to live with fear we pointed out last time our children we want our children to be obedient to do the right thing to live the right way minimally we want them to do it because they're afraid otherwise the punishment gonna take away your device you're going to be in timeout can't go out with your friends do the right thing otherwise you'll suffer the consequence that is the lowest level of course we Aspire and we dream of their following our footsteps for a much higher level which is that they have all for who we are what we live what we value and they want to emulate so the lower levels the fact that there are consequences we are held accountable it's not popular at all talk about this today we have helicopter parenting bulldozer parenting I just saw a news story the new thing is that there's a concierge business parents can hire a concierge to go with their child to University set them up make them friends take care of them walk them across the campus make play dates do their homework parents are so invested that a kid never has a skim knee we catch the child before they fall and they never therefore get the lessons school is important the School of Hard Knocks is the best education one can get and we try to catch a child before they fall we don't ever let them cry we don't ever let them experience pain we don't let them know that there's a consequence and then later in life when they confront the consequence which is natural they have no resilience they have no ability to withstand that consequence says we have to know there's a system of reward and Punishment with all the drushes that we give and we give and we believe and we mean Hashem loves us and he wants us and he needs us and he's rooting for us they're all true they're all true we give those dresses but we also pay the piper there's also a system of scravonish it's true that a parent loves children unconditionally rooting for them loves them needs them wants them believes in them and also if they don't clean the room and also if they overspend and also if they and also these consequences that's a primary responsibility of a parent because the camera says in condition has learned that recently did it keep it out of the aim if we honor parents we honor Hashem we dishonor disrespect parents we've disowned and disrespected Hashem the parent is the metaphor the symbol of Hashem in this world and we have an awesome responsibility those who are blessed to be parents and we give a bracha those who are waiting and longing should realize the dream of being parents but parents have an awesome responsibility not to helicopter rescue their children not to bulldoze the path for their children you don't have to make your children suffer but you're doing them a service when you let them learn early in life there's such a thing as a consequence such that you don't study you don't do well on the test you know there's such a thing as a consequence you don't turn this paper into time you lose points you didn't follow the rules there's such a thing as consequences because the world has consequences and the rebunctual misconsequences when they glare when the conversion candidate is standing in the Mikvah and we the base then are asking a series of questions one of the questions we ask do you believe in Ash you believe in Hashem the only God the one God Noah the deity yes you believe tourism yes do you believe in do you believe that we're held accountable for our Free Will for our choices for our actions they say now Hashem doesn't really care the minutia of the details they don't matter he's just rooting for us he looks the other way he just wants me to be happy we got a problem that's never happened but we would have a problem do you believe in yes Hashem loves you needs you believes and you want to but he also like parents hold children and teachers hold their students Hashem holds us accountables interestingly classifies this as a Kala Vada this is easy because hey after all we all know we all know we don't want to harm ourselves we don't want to sabotage ourselves we don't want to hurt ourselves so if we know there are consequences for our actions so that should motivate and Inspire us condition us to make the right decisions and behave and live in the right way so we get the right results right easy right No in fact that's why we have a Shabbos of the Shabbos which happens to be in three days from now and we're speaking about your future self what's our relationship with the US in a few years from now if it were so easy we knew eat all the wrong things today your blood pressure medications your cholesterol your sugar levels your heart disease your your shortening your life you won't be able to get on the floor and play with your grandchildren or great-grandchildren if we actually had a relationship with our future self it would transform our relationship with our current self but the relationship with our future self is so far off and so distant and so alien and unfamiliar that we end up actually not taking care of our present self because we're so we're so uh disconnected from our future self that's our topic that's a little Shameless plug subtle no for the uh shabashiva Joshua this coming Shabbos says it's easy just live with and think about the consequences and you'll always make the right decisions right not so easy if we knew that every time we raised our voice and lose our cool and grow impatient with our spouse our children we've alienated them we push them away we harmed our relationship we never do it if we know that every time we eat the wrong thing isn't it aren't the human beings pathetically pathetic we'll eat the wrong food that makes us sick right I'm talking to the ashkenazim now lactose intolerant gastrointestinally challenged ashkenazin so we eat the wrong food we're sick up all night we pay for it for a few days we say we'll never eat that again a month later looks really good maybe this time will be different I think I'm stronger now shouldn't be a problem I got a lactate pill in my wallet I'm good to go right until you're up online sick again the lowly animal the ram Khan made this point much earlier in the safer the lowly animal knows if that's poisonous or harmful stay away and the human being we keep coming back we say can I have another the very things that hurt us and harm us and we say can I have another so the notion of consequences implications accountability should condition us to make better decisions pathetically it doesn't venuez says this low-level motivator called consequences it's really pathetic and it's really for very low level unsophisticated people who don't have complex understanding of life that's what you use so yeah if you're an immature unsophisticated undeveloped child you say if you do this then you'll suffer that so don't do this but that's not really ultimately why you want them to not do this why do you want them to not do this ultimately because you want to explain there's a value here's a core value that we have this matters this is important the shapes who you are your identity your essence you don't want to behave in that way it's beneath you it's below you it's passionate for you if you're more sophisticated and advanced than mature we want you to embrace the value not just do it out of fear you know lose your device you're going to be put in time out you're not going to get your allowance you can't go out with your friends so Euros is a form of Europe fear of consequence is a motivator and it is a legitimate form of fear but it's a lower level what we're striving for hamina Shani the higher level is this is relevant for the time we find ourselves right now because we are in the yamim no run is the Hebrew the translation of the words these are the days of oh the days of awe what are days of awe days of all so minimally days are wow he's in charge he's in control and I gotta come and grovel and beg forgiveness because he's the judge and if he rules unfavorably for me I'm in trouble talk about consequences talk about accountability I'm in awe I'm afraid that's the lower level the higher level of days of awe is he's awesome not awesome like the word that's been usurped but awesome he fills me with awe human beings are the only mammals we get goosebumps we see something that's awesome and we recoil and we react and we get the chills we get goosebumps that's awesome that Sunset is awesome that Grand Canyon the Swiss Alps that's awesome that brilliant mind that artistic that that athlete that talent that Insight that level of has said of loving kindness of selflessness and filled with awe it's awe-inspiring it's awe-inducing these are not supposed to be days of awe awe of fear these are days of all all of admiration days of awe days of getting Goosebumps and the reason that we're avoiding doing the wrong thing is not because I'm afraid to suffering the consequences but because I don't want to disappoint the awesome God his world is awesome he's awesome his values are awesome his expectations are awesome I would never want to disappoint him because I'm filled with awe filled with awe he's awesome everything he does is awesome and I have admiration and I'm living with all with goosebumps that's a higher level that's how we want our children to feel towards us that's how we hope we feel towards those who came before us and that's what Hashem wants in our relationship with him will pick up next week until then stay happy stay healthy and stay home