KLM: Part 2 - Increasing Spiritual Vitality with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

your Museum [Music] first of all I want to welcome the listeners from ibane and they're joining us tonight in the uh cavana Le Mitzvahs KLM shear and I just uh I want to begin um I'm not thrilled about this in the slightest but uh um a family that's very close to KLM uh the flax family uh Mrs uh Leia now tanza and Dr Flex unfortunately um there was a tragic passing in the family so I want to dedicate this year for the Elias nashama of shulamis Boss pinchas um the the Torah we learn and the Cabana we have for the learning we're doing should be and Elias nashama uh for her okay let's begin okay how do you generate spiritual vitality now the word Vitality at least myself that world just makes you feel good when you even hear it Vitality who doesn't want vitality and the I the topic of physical Vitality is discussed at length you can find out a lot about it everyone's seeking it but what about spiritual vitality how do you experience that in the practice of Judaism spiritual vitality the sode the secret is cavana limitsbus now I know you expected me to say that right but the reason I'm chuckling is because that's the Aries all that's why I said it's a sode and let me kind of explain why is kavana limits us so linked to experiencing spiritual vitality it works like this let's face it certainly for Jewish people there is no such thing as spirituality without the Mitzvahs that's the vehicle the creator of the universe provided for us to have spiritual connection so we see the role of mitzvahs now we get to the arizals we said last week the arizal says a Mitzvah without kavana is like a goof without a nashama a body without a soul let's translate that without a life force it's like a body without Vitality so you see it's extremely linked to vitality and kavana or very linked with that in mind tonight what I want to discuss I want to discuss three things number one is I want to bring up a major struggle we have feeling spiritual vitality that's number one number two is I want to discuss how we can overcome this obstacle and then thirdly we'll then try to use all of this to start living with kavana consistently all right and with Vitality that's that's our goal all right now before we get to this what I'm calling the leading killer the leading killer of Cabana limits is before we discuss that let's just have a brief review of the key points from last week's here okay we pointed out that even though when you infuse kavana into Mitzvahs you revive Mitzvahs that have suffered from uh mechanical feeling and wrote kavana revives the mitzvah but then we discussed the very scary fact that even kavana which revived the Mitzvah can itself become rote that's why we need and we presented a formula to stay to PR to guard to guard against kavana and the misfa becoming flat and US losing a sense of connection that's what we discussed and how what was the basis of the formula the formula was for us to ask ourselves before entering the misfa ask ourselves some important questions like number one what am I about to do number two before whom am I doing this right to get to draw into our awareness the presence of Hashem and to think about our goal right that's the kafana formula sounds great but there's just a huge problem there's a bit of a huge problem and that is it can be at times very difficult to implement the kavana formula to in to have kavana before we do things and what are the normal reasons we in this I've heard from people you know people that do right thank God when people get into this topic they feel an excitement and a joy so during the presentation everyone's fine it's what happens after and the people that do succeed will tell you it's amazing and then but sometimes there's that road challenge but what do I hear from people and and for myself that we forget sometimes it seems a bit overwhelming you know what I have to apply cavana all the time you somebody said to me you mean you want me to be thinking all the time and then uh and also how about this one it's hard to fit in our schedule right these are the challenges I hear about all the time so we have an incredible uh uh incredible route to feel vitality and we have an approach and everything but putting into action has all those problems I'd like to suggest to you there's one root problem and I'll introduce uh this by um a a very memorable evening uh with my rebby and and what he said to me um we were in the Yeshiva this was maybe close to 25 27 years ago and rabbit green my Revy would he'd get up on Shabbos night and always say a a a drudge is some Torah insights so he's presenting things and and in the midst of his presentation he says this listen to what he says he says you know it just takes you a couple of seconds to be in a state of ecstasy and then he just kept going and they finished this year so Mr Pat myself on the back I went up to him and I said rabbi you know um I gotta be honest with you I've I haven't I've had a few seconds on my hand in a few minutes and I don't find myself in a state of ecstasy well he was waiting for that question right I took the bait and then he explained and this is we're going to focus on the first thing he said he says well the truth is before you can instantly enter a state of spiritual ecstasy you have to stop the following voice in your head I gotta do this I gotta do that something's coming over here I've got this I got that I've got X I've got y I've got Z right he says gotta get rid of that that is the shoreish this is the root to why we have a struggle to implement the life-saving approaches of kavana why we're rushed we're always in a rush some things always making us feel rushed and we have to realize when you're rushed you're sapping the Vitality out of the moment rushing what does rushing do it moves you away from where you are to somewhere else and this is what we can definitely call the killer this is a killer of cavana is this being rushed feeling rushed so I want to point out to you and now we're gonna I'm gonna show you that this idea was indeed um understood by the wrong call and let me let me show you this you know the rompo who presented the this formula was well aware of this okay so I actually want to go to this first screen is clear uh yep that's great rushing kills Cavanagh that's a true statement I promise you I can testify and I'm sure many can testify along with me um let's look these words here right first of all the the Taya it's a major challenge to our Vitality now listen these are the exact words of the ROM call he says like this when yeah this is the the kavana formula we were using where you ask ourselves those prompting questions that remind you to be alive and to have cavana right you know what am I about to do what Mitzvah who am I doing it before well the ROM call before he says to ask those questions he says this episode that you should not enter when you're trying to fulfill Mitzvah don't enter suddenly into it don't rush into it and then below are he explains why he because he says if you enter suddenly yes your mind is not yet settled your mind is not settled and you're not capable of reflecting on what you're about to do there it is in in in clear print from the most one of the most important books of all time Mathias is showing don't enter into a Mitzvah suddenly right so now that's what the ROM call is crystal clear about this and uh so it's and and uh we'll go back to the the slides in a minute but I want to say this well I guess we we know what to do right rushing undermines our connection right the only spirituality for us is through Mitzvahs right and through cavana so let's just do what he says let's not intermit so suddenly and believe me I tried to follow that advice but you know times have changed from Padua Italy in the 1700s okay I'm not saying that there wasn't a yet Sahara then but I think it's safe to say we're rushing more than they are they were you know I saw a study I I started to look into this and people it's it's a big part of this is feeling rushed as opposed to you know like not having time it said people some people overestimate how uh how many hours they're they're busy by 25 hours one person said they they think they're involved 180 hours a week and there's not that many hours Etc okay so the thing is this things so the and and I have to thank the holy safer the Bill lovey for this Insight he brings up the following about the what the wrongful said uh instruction wise instruction don't run into the misfact don't rush settle down because if you rush in you're not going to be able to have a settle mind and be capable to reflect and spirituality and connection come from reflection right so he says like this he says you have to understand something says the bill Bobby a person imagines in his mind that he's rushing he's rushing and rushing but now I'm going um for for men I'm entering into shul or a woman picks up her sitter right so he says do you think you're suddenly going to be able to stop and turn off the the addiction to rushing uh when you start to put on your Tolleson to fill in he says it doesn't work that way it's not it's not happening he's saying we we have become ensconced in Russian in rushing around we're we're enveloped by a society that's rushing you know there's actually a reactionary movement now called slow living we may I was thinking about it we may need to succeed in our spirituality we may need to adopt slow living like the ROM the rambam says go to the far extreme and then we'll end up in the middle but anyhow I just say that um as a point but now so here's what we have to uh here's the key thing what do we do about the fact that we are just so rushy okay what do we do so this is the obstacle right I said spiritual Vitality comes from having kavana which puts soul and vitality into the Mitzvah however in order to be able to do that you have to be able to stop reflect right have a settled mind and reflect on what you're going to do and and being conscious you're in front of Hashem so the problem is right we're saying here that we rush so much um it doesn't seem even possible for us to do that you know one person that uh I work with in kavana lamesa's uh a great deal so you know we put you know um it was mentioned lastly by show all that you know again certain things we've been working on become wrote and the the answer again is to you need to stop and be able to reflect so this person was it was on holiday and because he was on a holiday he was able to do it but most of the time we're not on a holiday or vacation okay so what do we do so here we're going to discuss the solution how do we break out of the the effects of rushing number one we have to understand why in a deeper way why do we rush number two we're then going to um focus on the damage of rushing okay those two things where we got to understand why we rush then the damage of rushing and then finally how we can shift into a less rushed State and and uncover the Vitality that's what we're up to let me let's bring us back so the first thing we'll understand is why do we rush okay I'm gonna go back one all righty so this is one of the main reasons okay says that and and this is based on the bill Bubby and this is showing here's the thing what happens is this we are constantly chasing unattainable goals this is the root of the problem okay a wild goose chase as they say now if you see this uh picture so you see the kid is running for the coins so what why is uh getting coins meaning money why is having enough money a unattainable goal well the gemara explains the spiritual physics when you get a hundred you want 200 when you get a thousand you want two thousand keep going up okay there's billionaires that want more billions okay so one into unattainable goal is we never feel psyched financially secure number one number two is we are driven instead of driving we are driven to get affirmation from Achievement you hear this very important we get a sense of affirmation when we're successful in achieving I'm not trying to say we don't you know need to be successful but I'm saying that we are seeking to feel successful to feel affirmed through those achievements well guess what the Torah says about that when you seek covered it runs away from you it is a wild goose chase you will never get in enough affirmation from seeking those things okay so do you hear what's happening we are rushing for things that we can never so that's why we're always rushed until we get exhausted and then we sleep a little and we get back on the treadmill right so but but here that that this is what's going on and of course the larger society is so much like this and we you know we have to face the facts we are infected by our I said I meant to say effective but infected by our fire environment right so that's a deep deep um underlying issue we we rush because we're seeking things that we can never attain so we're always rushing and that's why when you get to the show where when a woman opens up her for um uh sitter or its Shabbos right but it's it's hard to stop or you know or we just collapse and and get back on right Chavez is a uh collapse Rehabilitation and back in the thing right so someone pressed me and said well Torah life and Mitzvahs make you rush all the time you have uh Shania knicker of targum you have uh three dominating three times a day you have supporting your family you have learning with your kids you have taking care of the house you have cooking you have right so wait a minute wait a minute we're trying to be Jews and we're rushed because of that right good caution right seems like a good caution seems like it now we have to understand something um even more deeply okay I agree we have objectively demanding lives true no doubt about it however however do you think that you don't have enough time to make a Bray prehadama blessing or an after blessing in other words if you take the extra 20 seconds 30 seconds to do it well do you think that you will your demanding life will suffer so what I want to point out in this I'm speaking to myself and all of us um when we're rushing um in things that take a minute or two or even 20 minutes right you you're going to show anyhow or whatever it is right you're that is you can't say that that's well I I need to the same shamayan there's some part of us whose identity and esteem and affirmation is being driven by what's after that blessing what's after davening right if we're rushing when we forgive me for the pun but it's really true we're being irrational we are irrational when we say that our demands are so much that we can't uh make in a shariatsar uh by stopping and uh connecting okay so and now here's so we just covered the first thing the way the solution number one is to understand why we rush and we're saying we we we rush because in some sense we're seeking unattainable um uh goals we're seeking affirmation in the wrong place we're seeking Security in the wrong place and it makes us feel like we have you know I have to move there's a book I love this title because everyone I know relates to it when I relax I feel guilty if you don't relax you don't have a settled mind and you can't reflect and you will not have spiritual Vitality let's face it that's those are the facts okay now so that's number one number one is to understand why we're rushing because if we understand that maybe we can catch ourselves when we're chasing the wrong thing okay now the other thing is to realize the damage number two is to understand the damage that comes from rushing so that's now let's look at this picture that's up here what you know what's our purpose in life now some people will say to service and right but our purpose is uh as we pointed out the wrongful says serving Hashem and Mitzvahs are not the purpose of Our Lives they're the means to achieve the purpose the purpose is the vacus and let's never forget Mitzvahs are not actions activities mitzes are about a relationship with Hashem so when you are rushing through a blessing you see what's over to the left of this kid there's a treasure you're rushing by your ability to connect with Hashem you're rushing past your the means for your purpose you're missing out on the purpose of life which is to connect to Hashem now right so so damaging is what's happening is is you're devaluing the moment you're discounting a moment that offers the true treasure for some coins you'll never get you here so the damage is you're damaging your um the the true treasure you're damaging your ability to get that and and if I can just say this because no one means this but we're being insulting to a shin if we're rushing by if we're rushing by our time to thank him for food uh our time to uh uh to help a person or time to you know to do some Mitzvah that's kind of insulting you know I sorry Shem it's like the opposite of abramovino you know abramovino is with Hashem and he runs to do it one of ashen's Misses so he's really excuse me Hashem running towards Hashem right but we're excuse me Hashem and running past Hashem to get something we can't get you here so that's not nice and it's really just so not good for us okay okay so let's just review okay Vitality comes from uh having a settle uh from kavana cavana comes from having to settle mind and reflection before you act right that gets undermined by rushing okay and you can't just turn it off like a lever we have to we have to change our mindset and realize number one why we rush and why it's it's a wild goose chase we have to understand all the damage we're doing to our relationship with Hashem by rushing and thirdly I wanna now this is that was the sorme raw and now the osei Tov the third thing is and this I I tell you is very powerful when you employ it I'm gonna um just I just want to introduce this for a minute we're almost done by the way psychologists have been talking about this a long time and I can affirm it from my own experience that a lot of how you um do in life depends on how you view yourself what your identity is and what you identify with now before we started KLM we we gave a course on ashrae and one of the things we we pointed out is when you're reciting for example pasuki to zimra when you're praying to Hashem you are like a courtier in the king's court you're not like you are okay we're princes and princesses we are courtiers and courtiers right and that's the reality so I I I can just tell you every time I view myself as a courtier in the king's court as a prince meant to represent some province of this vast Kingdom and I'm appealing to the king and I'm acknowledging the king's greatness when I identify myself as a prince and a courtier I am more connected right it works I promise you I promise you so what do we need to identify with to stop rushing to settle down and reflect we have to identify with the needs of our Essence and let me this this this is a midrish in co-health rabba that Messiah shisharam brings and this midrash is saying something absolutely true about the soul okay about our souls it's you know if we give a metaphor it's hit and miss when the midrish gives a metaphor it's revealing the essence of the point and it says that our soul is like a princess who's used to dwelling in the Palace of the king and she marries a poor villager and it says you know no matter what he gives her the finest of his food it's nothing it's kind of oh it's disgusting right now why would Hashem put this princess and let letter uh marry the Villager of course we're talking about the soul in the body why because there is something that this Princess loves she loves anything that connects her back to the king right so our soul loves Mitzvahs our soul loves to prepare for the encounter with Hashem that occurs with the mitzvah so what I suggest to you is identify with the inner princess okay I'm not trying to be cute with that and I want to show you this thank you look at the look at the language this is the language of the rum call and there's a classic translation but I really think that this translation is is valid okay so the words in Hebrew are from the wrong call he says instead of rushing pizza petapitom into the mitzvah and where you won't have you won't have a settle mind you will not be able to reflect Etc Ella yasminavar he should invite himself to the Mitzvah you hear this invite it it you can it'll be classically translated he should prepare himself for the Mitzvah but it could also be he should yes an invitation invite yourself to the midse soon and and prepare your heart with deliberation I think it's bit his bonus until he enters into a state of deep reflection and then connection reflection and then so do you realize how happy your inner princess would be if you bring her properly you escort her gently into the Palace of amitzvah unbelievable and by the way you know I just want to tell you again I'm trying to practice what I preach here and this thing about seeking uh if I'm having trouble focusing in prayer I try to check myself and say wait maybe I'm trying to attain the untainable and then also I just sometimes have been saying to myself you know let me let me do a hasid right for that soul of mine that nashama that's this princess that's desperate for that kind of connection right so this is the pre we need this if we're going to succeed with the formula and in my humble opinion I think we we have a breakthrough here because if we if we move in this direction we're really not going to be able uh um be fetching anymore I I forgot to do it I didn't uh it was too much this this is the way and but of course with anything like this um uh we need to Shen's we need help from heaven so we should all pray that we can momish integrate this okay and then please God uh really really have a sense of spiritual vitality [Music] foreign