Ten Minutes of Meaning (Part 92): Truthfulness is the Foundation of the World - Mesillas Yesharim

hey can't hear you that's right general big gratitude to the grundstein selenium connie grunstein dear friends for their sponsorship and memory of his father mr tambour our own continuing who has laid out the course the formula for us about how to live our best selves how to try to perfect ourselves in this world zahiro's mindfulness cautiousness and then zereza's alacrity zeal enthusiasm to go pursue our goals with resolutions and with strategies and now meet this on the kiosks which is a long chapter with identifying different parts of our lives our character our behavior and telling us that to live our best selves we need to nikeas we need to purge we need to cleanse ourselves of some of these poor habits and negative behaviors and to be able to streamline our lives to conform to who we want to be and to how we want to live and so the latest one he's been speaking about is the power of power of speech which is so appropriate for today eratish above and for this time of the year the nine days the three weeks but really is relevant to the entire year around being a medabear is the highest level of the four levels or descriptions of creation itself from the domain and the madaba the capacity the power to speak to use our words to communicate with others to be able to take ideas and concepts to formulate and articulate them in ways in which we can build and construct elevate and enrich it is a unique powers which distinguishes man and therefore we have to be exceedingly careful with how we use it if we abuse it we actually compromise and corrupt ourselves and when we're careful and safeguard it then we realize the best of who we could be so we've been talking about the prohibition to lie pathological liars who the way that you know they're lying as their lips are moving you have the occasional liars who sometimes exaggerate they mix in some untruths with that which they're saying and then you have the the people who are sporadic liars they lie to god to themselves they lie in order to defend themselves all of which are wrong and we categorically reject but three different levels and layers of what needs to be worked on the signature the stamp of the holy one his signature his emblem his logo is truth that hashem is by definition what he says what he does conforms is consistent with reflects absolute truth and to be godly in our lives means to have a loyalty to the truth it means not to exaggerate not to bend the truth it means for our our word to be our bond it means not to promise or pledge things we're not going to follow through it means to be punctual in our commitment in time to others is not allowed to tell a lie he's not allowed to distort the truth other than in three areas one of the pillars upon which the world exists is truth and we know that economies would fall and nations and diplomacy would would dissolve relationships could never sustain themselves if there were no truth if people had didn't act faithfully and honestly if people didn't speak the truth if when you talk to someone you couldn't be confident that what they were saying to you is true the world would simply cease to exist part of the social contract of man to operate in a world is to be committed to tell the truth to commit to tell the truth person who tells lies they are removing one of the foundations of the world you're violating that social contract you're violating the foundation the construct that's literally holding up the world it's holding up the world war in the opposition the person who cannot tell a lie the person who has this unyielding faithfulness the truth of the time is so shallow they're holding up the whole world the person who says to themselves whatever benefit i get by exaggerating the story a little bit i lose by compromising my character whatever benefit i get to get myself out of a situation by lying or distorting the truth i lose by weakening the foundation of the world a person has to be committed to truth even at personal pain or loss now again we do have a concept of there are times when your wife says how do i look in this dress for example that's a pikachu situation there are times where you're allowed to lie in order to preserve the truth and that can be a very slippery slope who determines when it's justified when it's right you have to be careful with it and there's an entire area of jewishness you're allowed to bend the truth in order to preserve a sense of peace between truth and peace sometimes peace wins out to achieve an objective truth sometimes you have to be willing to bend a subjective or lower truth but these are massive questions the questions that need consultation with great great people however on the whole a commitment to truth has to be the foundation of the world it holds up the world of relationships how many relationships have been broken by infidelity not only physically but emotionally or financially or in so many other ways truth holds up relationships truth holds up the economy creates credit and trust truth is the core and the source the foundation of the world uh that in a place a community a society that is absolutely committed to truth that cannot operate there the mothers the energy of negativity of sabotage of destruction finds its way in in an environment that's riddled with lies and untruths in sanhedrin tells us because the wife of one of the rabbis altered her words her attention was for the good but she told the lie the mothers took root there yeshua until they sent her away because of this and they were able to return to a sense of peace and tranquility they inserted says i don't need to elaborate i don't need to prolong this because we all know we all know the damage that can be wreaked that if a person is not loyal to the truth so it's an opportunity vida davar our deburr ilahadvaram we're in the book of dvaram in a time of year that we're preparing for our violation and abuse of the kawakadibur the spies misspoke they spoke negatively they slandered the land of israel and that caused that was the catalyst of a night of crying and bahria became a bachelor is that crying because of the almighty said you're crying for nothing you're crying for no reason i'll give you a reason to cry and we've been crying for the generations ever since sinistrenum the core root of why the buttermitts was destroyed is because of baseless hatred because we used our words to slander disparage judge criticize marginalize the abuse of the power of words has to be rectified repaired and atoned for with a commitment to measure our words to be present and mindful when we use our words to choose the right words and to follow through on the words that we use and that's why the ramkha here when he describes this meda of nicus you want to cleanse yourself you want to perfect yourself you want to live your most whole and complete life possible then it includes an acute awareness of the words we're saying the words we use how we choose them how we react to others the power of words is how we perfect ourselves and with that moves on now to the next character trait that we need to achieve in the kiss he moves on to the world hashem to desecrate hashem's name to act or behave in a way which pushes people further from hashem doesn't draw them closer you know when you double park or don't hold the door don't say please and thank you when you're not honest in business when you have no entire integrity or ethics when you wear a yamako or you have a religious look and you're rude and discourteous you have set back the agenda of the almighty our mission here on earth we are here to create a kiddush hashem we hear so that when people interact with us they say wow that's what it means to be a jew that's what it means to be loyal to love hashem and torah i want a piece of that i want part of that we're here to be marbeque to bring hashem down to earth for people to draw close to see him and to be attracted to his values to that lifestyle when we do the opposite we've made a khalal as a vacuum as a whole we made a hole where hashem doesn't reside and it's filled instead with hate and venom a person has to be careful our of here on earth is to defend hashem's honor and all of our actions should reflect and deliberately carefully that no desecration of the honor of hashem should take place you know the passage says desecrate hashem's name israel and instead do the opposite create a kid of hashem points out the only antidote to a jew lands on the front page when a jew makes a headline when a jew leaves a negative impression on others the only antidote to that hashem is a lifetime of commitment to kid hashem hashem give a nice tip hold the door be honest in business follow through have a smile on your face carry yourself modestly according to the values of hashem rabbin wonders isn't there a third category is life either made up of a kid am i either desecrating hashem's name or sanctifying it what about power of what about neutral what about just being what about just existing and says there is no such thing as neutral or power it can't be switzerland can't be when it comes to the issue of honoring hashem every action at the gym in the supermarket at work in shul and the pastor says israel the place where shem and killer take place most specifically is among the jewish people of course we have to worry about what the nations of the world think of us but we need to worry about what we think of us we need to worry about the impression we leave on one another within our nuclear family the primary place of kirish hashem is among jews among jews how many assimilated secular unaffiliated jews have been turned off by an interaction with an orthodox jew who didn't come through in business or who was rooted discourteous who was dishonest or lacked integrity the primary place of kirish hashem is with the jewish people there's so much work that needs to be done so much repair that has to happen to overcome the stereotypes and overcome the predispositions and overcome the biases we have to be dedicated to kidness hashem in the way that we conduct ourselves to attract others to our way of life to kill shashank to sanctifying hashem's name so rebecca says no you don't have the luxury of power of there is no in between there is no neutral every thing you do everything you say will either yield and register as a hashem if you've failed if you've missed the opportunity if you violated the chance then you drove people away from hashem hashem you left a negative impression or the opposite if you had a smile and you were kind and you were respectful and you followed through and you behaved according to the total values you've made a kit of hashem you've drawn people close that's our mission that's our mandate it's why we're here in the kadesh an obligation among the nations of the world and even first and foremost an obligation among one another and when we do and we can repair the world in his image and draw people closer to him then please god will experience the great redemption we want to sit on the floor tonight and tomorrow we'll be able to gather and join and learn messiest asharama to live our best lives in yerushalayim here hakodesh continue with living with amuna in 15 minutes at 8 45. tonight our introductory remarks will take place at 8 35 this evening stay happy stay healthy and stay holy