(Way#10) SERVING THE WISE: 48 Ways with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] hey good day everybody welcome back to beyond the seven live from jerusalem with the rabbi aaron david poston this class has been so exciting folks he's been teaching us of late the 48 ways to wisdom and today we got an exciting episode we got episode number 10 or lesson number 10 so let's tune right into uh jerusalem with rabbi aaron poston and see how everything's going rabbi you're live on the air sir please take the class away i'm so enjoying last week's class was awesome i know it's only going to get better and better thank you dan and welcome everybody who's watching now and we'll be watching later and shavuotov i'm so glad to be back glad to have you always thank you no i'm getting a lot out of this myself because it's a great review and it goes i go in depth you know i'll begin by speaking uh based on the book itself what ralph weinberg had to say and of course then we go to the midrash more we'll go deeper and deeper into maybe sources sources of the gemara sources of hazal of the great rabbis and what they had to say about this um i just want to share a little bit about my own experience first and i was wondering whether i should do it now or later but i might as well just um let me just explain the verse let me take a verse first and that is in exodus chapter 33 verse 11. so do you want to read it and then i'll explain it exodus chapter 33 and verse 11. verse 11 reads then the lord would speak to moses face to face as a man would speak to his companion and he would return to the camp but his attendant joshua the son of none a lad would not depart from the tent so in the hebrew um his servant yeshua bennun it's called a lad i don't understand he's uh he's not an old man but he's uh he's not a lad okay he's at least 40 years old so why is he considered a lad so that's the first question i'm going to ask and also it said he would not depart from the tent lo yamiche mitochondria so let me ask a question is yeshua bin nun he becomes the king of israel he's basically in place of moshe as the leader right he has the status of a king basically was he the smartest was he the most intelligent was he the most charismatic no the torah never describes him that way however this is how the torah describes it first of all as a lad when he wasn't allowed which means that he was like hungry like a young person hungry for wisdom that he would not depart from the tent we are told and we're gonna come through the we're going to hit this um sorry the source he set up the chairs he was there from the beginning making sure everyone had water his rebbe moshe had coffee right he's gonna give a lunge russia he should have um you know the right lighting the right chairs the podium is set up the microphone is set up and uh setting up the chairs for all the people are gonna learn how great is that how great is the merit to be involved in making sure that your rebbe is comfortable and is able to give over let's say in a certain atmosphere with very honorable atmosphere to give over the torah and that is one of the things we're talking about because this number 10 is called to serve the wise and we see that this elevated joshua to the point that he actually became number two you know uh i don't want to say this but it's been said you know he's not the smartest tool in the shed you know he's not the sharpest throw in the shed but it doesn't matter because he had a ma allah he had some kind of character trait that propelled him that elevated him that shot him to you know to be on the right side you know of the teacher basically your teacher is supposed to be on your right side okay so in the beginning whenever right he spoke josh was on the left but then when more people come in he goes to the right because that's a certain honor that even the the second you know the the student would stand on the rebbe's right okay when you have more than uh more than just you in the room okay so i wanted to just mention about my own experience and that is barack hashem i i i think i was an activist quite quite an activist before i entered yeshiva at a late age of 22 23 years old i was putting out newsletters activist newsletters in the secular world let's say or even i mean i was involved in other religions so i was very active uh outside of judaism with trying to uh you know spread i'll just call it the gospel right spreading the good news and so i mean i i went to printers i we were doing typesetting we were doing typing ourselves and distributing a lot of material so when i first came to yeshiva i i had a video camera and i remember rabbi's wife he had such a big library of i don't know if people know what i'm talking about a cassette tape they had cassette tape and it was all um you know numbered and i had a video camera i said you know why don't we videotape it i think it was the first time ever i'm this is going back uh you know vhs 35 years ago i think it was a beta cam it was one of these big thick um cassettes anyway and uh we started doing this and so what it entails is you got to be like the first one there you know you don't come in when the so you can then you review the lighting and you prepare where you're gonna sit and make sure everyone else not that close to you whatever it is and there was a lot of any time you're doing this you you do some preparation work so that got me like going and we did a lot of videos in hashem i think it uh spread the torah and but also i was like a uh they called it ben by it then buy it in hebrew means like you're you feel like you're a person of the home even though he wasn't my physical father but he was my spiritual father and to hang out in the rabbi's house because that's what we're going to talk about hanging out in the rabbi's house watching how he treated his wife watching how he spoke to his children watching how he paid his bills right but we think as very mundane things that's we're going to talk about tonight what does it mean to serve the wise what is the um what's the benefit to you right i understand if you're serving him you know he's going to the mikvah he's going to the um shopping so you're going to follow him around and you're going to carry his bags and carry his books and um but it's much deeper than that okay it's not just the benefit to him the benefit is to you the one who's serving the wise so barak hashem like i mentioned that i was weinberg's personal secretary on fridays for a few hours for for a bit of time and that really also i got to see i got to ask him if he wanted his coffee i knew how i knew exactly how he liked it right later on when um his brother ravyakov weinberg came to eretz israel once a year i would mishamish him i was in charge of his schedule so people who wanted appointments and i got not just the organized appointments but i got to see him in between appointments and ask him questions um rev gil eisenbach who's the mishkiyak till still to this day shalom be well was the uh the mishkiyak of the yeshiva and i was a personal assistant to him for many years and um again like about like a ben byatt also spent a lot of time in his home and it's just like unbelievable the opportunities one can have and when i lived on a yeshua called maliamos and we have jeff harlap i was on the vadrav trying to choose a rabbi being involved with people greater than me nor worth for example people from the highest levels the echelons of the great torah scholars who helped us decide who would be the rev um and also what i did for asiator for many years was it sounds credible they have a huge library i mean today you go to h.com and you can pick out so many things digitally but back in the day they had a torah a tape library it was called a tape library where you would go and you would put i don't know 30 ah growth whatever was a quarter and you take a tape for like for a few days and you return it um so my job one of them i i tried not to leave the bait midrash for anything and one of my job was to run around to all the different classrooms and change the batteries and the recorders and get a new tape and make sure that the the tour was disseminated so i have a little bit of experience and now today presently with yuba nam what we do you can tell from our youtube uh website our channel we and we've had many greats many greats you know uh great rabbis speaking so we're talking about disseminating them as well but being involved with them trying to decide beforehand what the topic is you know um what what the point is we want to get across it's outside of the classroom you know going and visiting their in their homes there's just such great benefit that's what we're going to talk about tonight yeah so the first thing ravnaf weinberg in his book let's say for example someone came to you and said i'm going to give you 10 million dollars to build a bridge we're not engineers we know nothing about builds building bridges i'm talking about a real structural not like a community uh harmony we're talking about building bridges a real bridge so what are you gonna do you're gonna just uh wing it come on uh it's not gonna happen so you're gonna really you're not to do trial and error it's not going to work you're going to really try to sit down and study everything you need to do to to build a bridge well guess what life life is is is complicated so we want to choose a career we'll get married raise children we don't have any training so where we're going to get that training from you know you want to go to the wise you want to find out from the wise you're not going to do it based on trial and error so basically this idea of shimush it means two things if yes it means learning because you're in their presence but it also means assisting them just being around them okay so he writes in order to succeed in life first of all value and desire wisdom it happens to be i mean i don't think anybody could disagree with this it's the most important commodity in the world right and it's the key to bring meaning to to to your life so you're not going to leave it to guesswork now the problem is most human beings do not like the idea of having a teacher i'm just saying most obviously the older you are you realize right is one of the goals of acquiring wisdom is to know how little you actually know so those who are wise do get it but as youngsters right go through adolescence you know and maybe even ask younger kids than that you like your teacher right hashem there are some very um balanced and um functional people in this world who understand having a teacher learning is fun and learning is good but many i'm not sure how many i don't know what the percentage is um you know we think we know it all and we're a little bit biased against having a teacher or someone we don't like to admit we don't know everything right especially as kids obviously the older we get if you want a good job you sometimes you have to say i'm a quick learner that that part i don't know and i'm willing to take a course or upgrade myself but basically the idea of not wanting a teacher not thinking you need a teacher we think that is going to bring us independence and freedom but that's it's not true it's the other way around you know so he gives an example imagine yourself going back in time no i'm talking about you i don't know how old you're not going to say but let's say whatever let's say you're 35 years old and i say okay dan you're 35 years old go back in time now five years and if you went you now present day goes back to teach dan who's five years younger and and you know look i have some advice for you you know over these last five years i've learned a lot and i'd like to how would you receive this guy dan from the future right back to the future so that's what we have to ask ourselves like if we ourselves were able to learn something right which obviously hopefully in five years time we do if we would come back and tell the person who's not yet there five years prior how would you accept that person so this is unfortunately how we end up with our own parents right mark twain said when i went to college my father was a fool when i came back four years later i was amazed how much wiser he'd become it's like it's it's hilarious right so everyone makes mistakes right a fool learns from his own mistakes hopefully a wise man learns from other people's mistakes so misrat hashem when we're looking for wisdom one of the main thing and i think we spoke about this before but we'll mention again in perch chapter 1 and mishnah 6 it says make for yourself a rabbi now i have a different interpretation than most people but let's leave it as the simple shot you have to find someone in order to acquire wisdom from i'll tell you what my shot is they used to make yourself into a rabbi because that's literally what the hebrew says make for yourself a rabbi so of course it really means find somebody to be to be your mentor and make this relationship forge this relationship in other words it's a directive it's not a suggestion right i'm i'm not going to say unfortunately but it is a little bit hard to choose one rabbi sometimes and we call it a talmud mukha is like the star student or arab mukhaku you know it's my own personal rabbi so the reason it's difficult if you're living in a a really vibrant jewish community is because maybe you had your own rap by growing up in your in your school and now he's older you're older and you still have an excellent relationship with you and he he taught you all of that he taught you everything you know and you have a certain relationship and then you also have a congregational rabbi that things in the community come up and it's best to go to him under certain circumstances to deal with issues you might have a yeshiva rabbi later on you know we're not talking about when you were younger we're talking about when you were let's say i say younger i don't mean grade school i mean much later and maybe you were in kolel and you had a roshiva you have an excellent relationship with him or you take a daft yomi class and that means learning a page a day you can have so many relationships the question is which rabbi would you go to and now even today you can have you know on the internet certain rabbis that you listen to you know that you listen to religiously so it's a little bit difficult but he does speak about trying to find one rabbi but we'll get to that shortly how how are you supposed to find this rabbi so number one hopefully the rabbi you're going to make for yourself is someone who's accessible he used to be somewhat accessible right and something you can identify with someone who gives you meaningful answers to the questions and you should ask us a lot of questions test his wisdom and try to get to know each other he should get to know you because if he's going to give you advice he should know where you're coming from you have to have a lot of trust and it's somebody most importantly who's going to challenge you to move beyond your comfort zone you know today everyone's looking for a comfort zone i don't know i shouldn't say everybody but there's a lot of people i think in the colleges they have a whole uh a comfort area like don't don't mess with the don't mess with me but someone's going to encourage you to fulfill your potential so you have to go beyond your comfort zone so it's somebody who's willing to press you so so if you were like in sports if you were involved in sports what's a good coach a good coach is gonna is gonna push you to grow he you know if whatever it is you're doing uh here's a stop watch and he knows you can do it in x amount of times he's gonna push you he's he's gonna tell you you have to do it in less time right or you have to do more in the same amount of time whatever however he's um judging the idea but you got to get out of your safe zone so don't look for someone who's just going to you know agree with everything right um otherwise but one i think this is one of the keys also you have to be honest with yourself you know we talked about the 12-step programs in recovery programs one of the statements that's made in their big book or their blue book or their i don't know what color it is today but basically it says that people who follow this path are usually successful except for those who are incapable of being honest with themselves well the same thing here is true in life right if you're not going to be honest with yourself certainly if you're not honest with yourself you're not going to be honest with your rabbi right now king solomon for example in brachas 8 a we know that he was the wisest person who ever lived but he had a mentor his mentor was shimi bengara and the talmud tells us that as long as his teacher was alive he went for advice and he never made a mistake when his rebbe passed away that's when he started to have to make mistakes now the person choosing the rabbi doesn't even have to be wiser than you okay in other words it's best if he is but you need you need somebody who has all these attributes we said before somewhat objective okay be somewhat objective and that's not necessarily wiser but uh so the other thing is that you don't have to follow him blindly either what does that mean it means you're allowed to disagree with him of course it has to be with respect don't dismiss him if you have questions about something he said or you disagree with his advice you have an obligation to go back to him and discuss it ask your questions raise your concerns and hear him out right and don't stop until he either straightens you out or you straighten him out it's the beauty about judaism right questions i mean i i did hear horror stories i never really experienced it maybe because my questions were not you know sarcastic but there are some times where kids especially ask certain questions and the rabbis oh come on you know dismiss the question now right and that's not that's not right so i never experienced it i have heard that such a thing existed maybe it doesn't exist today but um you want to you want to debate the issue you know you can ask the rabbi why why how this that the other thing and you know what you have to go back and process what he says and after the you know trying to process it and not coming to a solution then go back to him again with a fresh restate the question tell him what's really bothering you see if he has some insight and it doesn't mean you have to stick only to him you can go to other people to get advice on how this rabbi is trying to explain something to you you have this uh we call it a juke in your head some kind of it's a scratch disc and you're not getting tested and maybe someone else can help you and have some insight now the the idea of assisting he gives an example i don't like the example because he says if the president of the united states came to visit okay you would ask him for all kinds of advice so i don't know if today this uh example works but let's say a very successful businessman someone you know has integrity and has really you know made it so you would give him honor and you would you would ask him questions um you would do that for any wise person you stand up when the person enters the room you would help him you will pay attention to him and this is a concrete way to show that you honor and respect him because of his wisdom right you're putting a lot of value on the wisdom now wisdom cannot be attained there is wisdom that cannot be attained um there is a wisdom that can there is a wisdom to be attained you cannot find in a textbook right so so much wisdom that is not found in a textbook where are you going to find it right so it can only come from observing a person who embodies wisdom and seeing how his torah wisdom shapes his every action again how he responds to his wife how he makes certain judgment calls so watching how he applies his wisdom to day-to-day life is the best education and that's the main point and now we'll go through some more sources right we discussed this one idea of joshua well we have a statement in in the gomorrah that says and i think we spoke about this before and the rabbi said i've learned much from my teachers but even more from my friends and from my students i learned the most of all right now we're talking about learning from your rabbis so how do we deal with this this idea is actually just an introduction to the the three ways that i decide we're only going to talk about one of them another word in weight number 10 which is shimu which is dealing with the rabbis yet the statement says i learned more from my colleagues and even more from my students it's interesting that the three right we're number um we're number 10 where it says attending the sages the next 11 is and being careful with careful with careful analyzing with your friends analyzing ideas with your friends and the third number 12 would be sharp discussion with students so we're not going to deal with the latter two we're only going to but it's interesting that this mishna groups all three together okay but we're going to deal right now just with shimon i wanted to bring that in now we discussed this idea with joshua now one of the ideas is you should try to spend a lot of time in your teacher's house serving him and learn wisdom from his ways and the event edger comments on that verse we just discussed that joshua was not young but he still re he was still referred to as a lad because he acted towards moshe as a youthful servant would and yeah i mentioned that he was not necessarily the sharpest that tool in the shed okay but we learned a lot already what one needs to do interestingly enough when moses goes up to receive the torah where's joshua he's standing at the foot of the mountain right if you go to uh exodus 24 13 says so moses and joshua his servant arose and moses ascended to the mount of god okay so where where did joshua go he didn't go up he stood at the base of the mountain he waited there 40 days now moses was up there not eating not drinking and maybe even left his body i mean how could he be in in such a state where was joshua joshua was waiting to for his rebbe to return he was so dedicated but what was he looking forward you know when moses of course he came down not at this point but you know he comes down with a with a glow on his face how who wouldn't want to see moshe at that moment in time you know when he comes back from having a conversation with god what did he say how did he speak to you right to be the first one here to get the info right to get the inside scoop so that's something we should be doing to a certain extent this is a lesson for us another idea is joshua never stopped thinking about his ready in other words during those 40 days okay moses was obviously quite busy but what was joshua doing i mean maybe he was you know what they call uh you know um with his thumbs you know boring but twiddling his thumbs but nevertheless i mean he still had to eat he had to go the bathroom but he didn't like leave his place he didn't leave his post you know he was really waiting there he had a strong connection he had on his mind the whole time his redmi and what can we learn from teachers behavior so when a student observes how his teacher acts and speaks regarding everyday things the student actually sees how the torah which is part of his teacher's essence shapes his thoughts and actions so here's an example it's brought down as a story by rabbi reuven feinstein when a student is taught by his teacher the teacher tells the students things which the truth which the teacher thinks about that the student he thinks the student needs to hear right i prepare sheer so i'm writing what i think he needs to hear consequently the student doesn't have the opportunity to observe his teacher express his real personality right right now i'm on tv i'm on youtube i'm sitting here with you so you don't really see my full personality i'm an actor i'm sorry like i am i mean you know i'm worried about how my hair looks right i'm worried about it my is my button whoever do i have a little whatever a stain i mean i love the white hat the other week oh yeah shabbat shabbos it's only when the student serves his teacher at home and blends into the background somehow i'm not thinking about trying to put on my best white hat for my student my wife's having a conversation with me or my kids are crawling all over me and you know and think you know the milk spills right or something crashes or and how do i react right so this teacher stops focusing on the student's needs so that the student can actually observe the teacher's real personality and observe and learn the torah lessons which have undoubtedly shaped his teacher's personality it's amazing okay the next source we're going to get into is a very interesting source about alicia alicia was the student of elijah the prophet elisha was also a prophet so we're going to go to a story in second kings chapter 3 verse 11. verse 11 and jehoshaphat said is there no prophet of the lord here that we may inquire of the lord through him and one of the king of israel's servants answered here is elisha the son of shafat who poured water on elijah's hands okay let me get to the main point and then we'll go back and go deeper they're looking for water they actually are seven days in ready to go to war and they're afraid that they don't have enough water i mean they're all gonna die first instead of you know even pounding the enemies i mean so basically they're looking for maybe a prophet to tell them what to do somebody who's going to give them some guidance and one of the servants of the king says hey you got alicia right here you know he is he's the one who poured he poured water on his rebbe's hand says elijah was his rebbe so we see the one who's going to save the day is the one who served his rabbi i know there's a lot more to the story because they're looking for water okay let's let's go through the gamoras the gomorrah begins by telling us in the name of rabbi yochanan said in the name of greater is serving torah meaning serving a a rabbi serving the is greater than learning itself it's greater to serve a tamil than sit and learn with him from a book it's a greater attribute okay and the verse and the verse the verse that's brought this verse is we just quoted it poe elisha ben shafat asher yatsak mayam yao i'll yet die elena he poured the water on elijah's hands so it does say means poor it doesn't say lamar shouldn't the person said oh here's alicia who learned from eliahu no it doesn't say we should go and find you know alicia's right here he's going to help us because he learned from elliot but rather he's the one who poured the water on elijah's hands and from here the gomorrah concludes that learning malami i'm sorry malama gadola shimusha yotami luda so so the idea of serving the is greater than learning from books so i have a lot of comments here one of the ideas to bring down in proverbs chapter 1 verses 5 through 6. it's a little bit um you have to go to the original hebrew so you can start with the english and then i'll verse 5 and chapter 1 verses 5 through 6 yeah and it was that when ahab died the king of moab rebelled against the king of israel now proverbs proverbs chapter 1 oh i'm in kings i'm sorry but go why is it not gone oh oh forgive me it showed proverbs my mistake sir uh let the wise man hear and increase learning the understanding man shall acquire wise counsels to understand an allegory and a figure the words of the wise and their riddles beautiful okay so so the wise man the person who wants to become wise rights he's obviously the wise man he wants to hear more and increase his learning so he's going to try to understand and acquire counsel through allegory what is now in um i look i had a different translation it said epigram but that's what allegory is maybe not made the other one let me just see i'm not sure which one from hebrews is which is allegories or melitza i think the word melitsa it says then a figure but let me use this word epigram the word melitsa is an epigram what is that it's a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amazing amusing way so in other words the first one is called an analogy that sort of shall and we know that they're not so clear you need a lot of understanding and depth to understand what the person's really trying to tell you through hints and again it says in a figure i don't know what the figure is but use the word epigram [Music] i get it yeah it's almost like um savvy that's good and the words of the wise in their riddles so an enigma enigma that's what's a riddle a person or a thing i'm here to talk about a statement that is mysterious puzzling or difficult to understand so how would you be able to figure it out usually facial expressions even would hint to you that it could be sarcasm or it could be there's more to it and it's not just so simple to be in the person's presence and usually these ideas are not brought forth necessarily in a classroom of course a classroom would you know person to person would be better than zoom or skype right to be in the person's presence where you can really get a feel for the expressions beyond the words you know rate you know that's different than reading a book i mean okay some people would highlight or put in capitals if they want to get certain points across but when you're in front of person you're certainly getting a better feel okay so based on that idea uh there's a comment by the al-shikh and he actually brings in the name of the vilnigan that yodiyas say that just to understand how is a simple i don't know how simple but let's say string word law that could be learned it's actually more easy easily when you're in your rebbe's presence and you learn from how he acts and how he's actually behaving towards a certain thing it's so much easier you're sitting and leaning learning in a book i i do this all the time my students they can't picture it you know we can learn something it sounds very theoretical and they'll turn around says could you show us it's like so when they come to my house for shabbos and they're sitting at the table and they're they're watching then it becomes oh my god we learned about that i didn't understand now i see it it's like amazing now when it comes to lip so luck let's say you're just learning in a book you need to seem to learn all of shas shash is all these books behind me if you want to you know learn a certain subject you want to know what to do how do you know unless you learn the whole the gamut of everything and that that obviously takes a tremendous amount of wisdom being a video so much time also in order to know in order to put together ideas now we talked about the idea of what a gemara is gamora i think we talked about in the very beginning the concept of talmud or gemara is working out contradictions right you have this principle and you have that principle and somehow another you have an action that doesn't go black and white with this and doesn't go black and lightweight with that somehow you have to mesh them together and put them together so if you're sitting and learning from a book you never know that it's only through um it's being able to weigh and determine based on the changes or the the situation how to behave and that you're not going to see in a book necessarily but you will witness it when you are a live human being there's another idea brought down in uh percia vote it's the first chapter and i believe it all depends on the number you have but it's probably admission to 17 in many places that it says learning is not the car but the most meaning it's not learning but doing that's the main thing like the whole purpose of learning one of the purpose of learning is in order to put into practice okay so based on that again we're relating back to the idea of how to really figure out how it's done so concerning this idea and the maurice giuse writes again in the name of the guru that when you learn halakhah from watching your rabbi it it becomes um embedded into your heart and we're watching more than more than if you just learn it from listening the seeing is much more powerful than hearing so usually when you're sitting in a classroom it's you're really only using i mean obviously you're looking you might be looking at the words you might be looking but the idea of watching it done in practice is much more powerful and it's the hebrew says it becomes enrouted into your heart by saying much more beautiful the al-sheikh writes he adds s when you're watching your rabbi you're watching him do things even what we call mundane things and you can learn so much because everything he does we would call a mundane thing there's nothing monday like it's not really mundane someone comes over to him and asks for tzedakah so you're watching how he behaves with the person right someone says oh the the marcotte the the supermarket just called and they said we owe them x amount of money what's his reaction right how's he dealing with it you know was it true and he's going to pull out his checkbook and he's going to write the check and he's going to make sure that it gets there you know like see how he behaves right is he with honesty and integrity and you know all his emotions because this is i'm going to call it whole there's nothing call means mundane but there's nothing mundane when it comes to a torah scholar right all his actions are for the sake of heaven so when he's not sitting with a book open how does he behave i'm just like he says how does he behave according to the torah and through this you'll be so much as revealed so many details are coming to uh to light the mahashan writes that when you learn from your rabbi so there are um times that the rabbi teaches things that are not lamisic in other words he's teaching you theoreticals right you're sitting in front and you have a book and a lot of it could be theoretical therefore that's why um when you're serving the torah scholar so through that you'll actually see in actuality what to do because what he's doing he's doing right it's not theoretical anymore and there's so much um value to that uh safer called the mosha he writes that even okay we pretty much said that it's always about what is real but when you're learning in shots you're learning in the the books a lot of it is not just theoretical but you're constantly working out the um the contradictions and you really don't know how to apply it but when you're around this person who's already worked it out it's it's so much revealing now he's making a claim this is incredible that if someone doesn't do what we call shimushka all they do is learn from the books they're called an ignoramus and that's a strong statement although on the other hand we're going to see the marshall he says no and like raj you might say also that when you're actually learning the talmud the gemara where you're actually hearing the reasons behind everything that's like you're sitting in the presence of these rabbis and again like we started off by saying that you learn from your colleagues you learn from your students quite a lot that when you're sitting and learning go more not by yourself it's important you're not sitting by yourself or you're sitting with other people it's like the rap night is right there in the room we're talking about rabbis lived thousands you know hundreds and thousands of years ago so there is some benefit to it but it's obviously not the same when you have a real live person in front of you wow [Music] um there's another idea and we we did discuss this i'm sure but if we didn't i'm sure people are familiar with this this would be in there's two ideas one's in psalms 111 verse 10 it's not the only time that that idea is expressed 111 verse 10 yeah reads the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the lord good understanding to all who perform them his praise endures forever so if the beginning of wisdom is the fear of hashem remember this is the 40 ways to wisdom right this is just one of them so if you're around this person who you respect and fear because he has a lot of wisdom and you want it so you're going to miss shamesh you're going to serve him so there is a uh in percyavote it's chapter three in different editions this is different numbers but let's say it's number eleven reviews said for one who puts fear of sin before wisdom so that wisdom will endure one who puts his wisdom before the fear of sin the wisdom does not endure so trying to be around a rebbe you know i don't know if people understand i maybe they do from a church they have this idea of a clergyman there's some kind of i don't know but in judaism it's very different you know you stand up for someone who's over 70 you stand up from your rebbe the whole classroom stands up when he comes in the room like the presidents of the united states you know like william buffett you know somebody just who who is you know loved someone who's wise so you know wow you have to have this or when when he comes in in the room and so therefore by being around him this helps with the awe now there's another idea that it's actually wrong for a rabbi to prevent his students from serving him because you're stealing that opportunity for him to have awe now it's very funny and awkward for me you know i i'm walking and i'm carrying a lot of books and i got my students are fighting with each other to grab the books out of my hands it's quite amazing and i feel like a little bit embarrassed you know what i mean like i it's only a few books i can handle it sometimes it's a lot and i do really appreciate it but it's just like one little thing come on but they're they're very eager so i should not prevent them from doing that because this aw is very important having this or having this fear uh as we just saw is the beginning of wisdom and they want it yeah can i ask you a question i mean because i had a headbutt when i was you know working uh in christianity and after uh i'd i'd gone back to an old church after 10 years okay and you know i watched this thing grow and i know exactly what you're talking about but but the leadership of this place had grown to the point where they were being served hand and foot and they actually did a couple services a day there's a couple thousand people that attended and the point being that they had a past doors uh lounge and they were being served hand in foot and i got asked what i what i thought and i was just i was i was almost shocked that they would actually let people serve them in that fashion but i see where you're coming from the angle where you're coming from but can it not cross a line where um you know there's a mindset that expects a degree of uh lavishment that's incorrect yeah for sure look i don't want to talk about individuals because i don't know sure people but i've heard stories so there was there's a group of people that i learned with in a certain city in the united states and they all were part of a um they were part of a i guess what do you call jews for jesus um a messianic group and they had a certain teacher who expected in other words demanded almost they went on tours and he said okay who's gonna who wants to be blessed by paying for me like to get into um so we all know not to accept gifts that's why it's like there's a turmoil going on that one should not want to accept the gifts but at the same time we have a directive i get to the source yet hopefully you'll find it that it says that one should not prevent his student from serving him because it's a you're stealing this opportunity from him so if you're balanced where you you know you're kind of shying away from it not expecting it but once it happens you let it go you know and let it happen i was they all left that guy this particular guy and they some of them are processor converting some of them are 100 percent uh into the noah hyde and not interested in moving forward but it was universal they all felt this was wrong that this person was taking advantage was and he was using his this lesson um to for his own advantage and in that sense it would be wrong okay but but there is what to be said for sure you're touching on about the service side and i i just love how uh you brought it forward with with uh joshua so i'm done there waiting at that the the base of the mountain this is yeah this is an angle i had not considered thank you rabbi all right okay i just want to go a little bit into the more it's so i'm sorry the the the story of elisha and um the servant of the king who said hey alicia's right here he's the one that poured water on the uh on elijah's hands so this is a comment based on the gemara that this verse is bringing this idea that johoram ben achav the king of israel and yahushua the king of yehuda they went out to fight a war against moab okay and they were walking for seven days in the the desert of adam and they they didn't have any water to drink or to give to their camp the camp of the army and for their animals and they were concerned lest um on account of the lack of water they would be so thirsty they might even die of thirst and they wouldn't have any any power any energy to fight so yahushua the king of yehuda searched out sought out if there was a prophet of god that would direct them that could instruct them what to do so returned or answered one of the servants of the king and that's when he said here is elisha the son of shafat who poured water on the hands of elijah now rashi tells us there that the pouring of the water that a lot that elisha poured was [Music] on the hands of elijah was at the time that elijah brought together all of the false prophets of baal and remember he said you can't stand on the fence you got to choose sides and he put water into a moat and he put the offerings in the middle and of course they the jewish his offerings were accepted the the um the offerings of the bow nothing happened but uh so at that point in time that's when elijah that's when alicia poured the waters on elijah's hands now that was before they offered up the cow and he poured an additional four jugs of water into the moat in order to increase the miracle that took place and that's when the fire came down from heaven and it consumed the offering even though there was a lot of water there so the water that was all around the altar and it was filled up and obviously this all created such a miracle now wait to hear this miracle that what does it mean that he poured water on his rebbe's hands he actually the water flowed out from his fingers it's amazing when when elijah needed water poured he called his servant he's called a student alicia and alicia poured the water that came from his fingers that's pretty miraculous i see light and rashy there yeah like a um like a spring that's why that's why they thought meaning that the servant of the king who brought alicia forward he thought that it would be fitting for alicia to to do for them another miracle that's why you know it wasn't just that he was the student of elijah but he was also the one that brought the water the elisha and that they thought elisha would prophesize for them in the name of god what to do about the water and if you now if you go to in the same chapters chapter 3 verses 17 and 18 you'll hear the rest of the story because what happened they remember they needed water so where did the water come from what happened let's read 17-18 do you want me to read it rabbi yeah yeah for so has the lord said you shall not see when neither shall you see rain yet that valley will be filled with water and you and your cattle and your beasts shall drink and this will be slight in the eyes of the lord and he will deliver moab into your hands okay i'll just read 19 you will strike every fortified city in every choice city and you shall fail every good tree and you shall stop up all the springs the water is your cluster every good field with stones basically what happened there was no wind there was no rain but it must have rained somewhere else and the waters overflowed the banks and the channels whatever brought the wood exactly where it needed to be brought for them and they had the water that was that was miraculous there's a lot more to the story i don't want to go into but that i wanted to fill in some of the background to the story this is the merit this is what one can gain i'm just saying that this is what one can gain from shimmers that you'll have the ability to save people this is amazing there's so much more so there's another verse and different rabbi it's actually uh the time of yahoo which is a very ancient source brings a different source from where you could know that serving is greater than learning and that is in first kings chapter 19 verse 21 21 reads and he returned from after him and he took the yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and with the gear of the oxen he cooked the meat for them and he gave the people and they ate and he rose and followed elijah and ministered to him so the last the last part of it he rose and followed elijah and ministered him this in hebrew yeshua tahu serving and he served so this was uh a proof this is we're talking about um alicia right he went and served his rabbi wow now keep in mind it doesn't say that he learned from him it says that he served him so we learn here that serving is greater than learning i just have a few highlights left to go through that's beautiful and in the missionary be our own he brings down that there are two parts of serving atomic first of all even the word how do you know he's a tom mclaughlin talmud means a student of the wise the one you're serving is a student of the wise he's still learning if you have a guy who's so arrogant like you were describing these people sitting around waiting for the students to run around and do all their they weren't that bad you know rabbi when i did that when i did that they they announced they announced that following week that they were hosting a barbecue and they were going to serve the rest of the people which i thought was profound and a good retort but the point being i did not understand the lesson the way you've brought it out so far today thank you look for rebbe's and yeshiva and he's talking to his students and he asks another student to make some photocopies so they're prepared you know i get it you know but to use your students as servants that's not what it's about it's having them around you you know when you're relaxing and i look to some really crazy stories in the gamora i mean most a lot of times the the student is carrying the rebbe's towel to the mikvah you can't go in the same time as you're ready with the waiting outside there's a story about someone who wanted to know what happens when the the rebbe is with his wife and he snuck underneath the bed and he was listening and he says rebbe i'm trying to learn everything about you know how to do everything in life it was a really crazy story but okay that's not for now but you get the idea that it's about serving them and how you how are you gonna get close to them to hear and to see so you have to say can i help you can i run some errands for you can i i'm talking about from your side you know so you have an opportunity to be around them the idea is to be around them okay so here there's two sides to this idea it's an account this idea that we said it's greater to do the service than just learning so one is the actual idea of just learning it's the idea and know exactly what to do that's the benefit because most the ideas most ideas are organized where here in the mind but still you need hydra you still need guidance how to make these determinations and how they come to fruition it's not just theoretical you want to know exactly what to do and the issue is that there's many times there's so many variables the ishtana ba ophanim there's so many differences so you learn in the law book one thing but when you see it it's a whole it's different like i told you over and over again i learned with you but i didn't see it in practice now i'm seeing them probably it's a whole different like it just makes such an impression and you know when you're learning just something theoretical it doesn't really it doesn't stick so he says it's not enough just to have book learning but the thing has to be learned with deep um contemplation about the action of the rabbi that's the first thing the second thing is through coming close and really investigating that what the your rabbi is doing the time of khakhan is doing it's going to have influence on you and it's going to guide you more so what happens is like this we're too involved with our environment our environment influences greatly so we know that it has an influence so which influence is going to win out the influence of the rabbi or the influence of your you know your other friends who don't know so much so the rambam actually writes concerning this that when you see somebody let me just read in here shaderic shall that when someone sees all his friends acting one way i would call peer pressure i guess he's noah he acts like everyone else that's why you have to do shims you have to get close to that god though that person is great come close to him and learn from his ways in all all actions of life it is so important we're talking about someone gave you 10 million dollars to build a bridge what are you going to do go on the internet and go to youtube and to tour to tutorial and find out how to build a bridge you're going to have to go and spend some time with the greatest bridge constructors that's what it's about and let me just read this here the enyakov explains that serving the torah scholar that is what does it mean to serve him to have fear have like an edit like like like a servant who fears his his master that like we talked about the lad right he didn't leave his post for 40 days moses is up on the mountain and the guy yeshua is just hanging waiting for his rebbe to return the whole idea is his rebbe is on his mind that's called fear he didn't move from his place since when you have proper fear from your rabbi that is serving him you're going to end up serving him like like a servant like a slave and this is going to bring you this is going to make you atari remember this is the 40 ways to wisdom so shimmer if you do this this is what joshua he became again i don't want to say it sounds horrible he was not the the sharpest tool in the shed and yet he became the the moses is in moses's place so here and another gomorrah that brings down someone who fears from the he himself will become okay so we'll leave it at that that was uh a good start right um it leads us into this idea i'm sure there's a lot to think about and this is just one of 48 and it's to bring it into our lives the opportunity does not come every day for every person so one should seek it out find opportunities to hang out with tamales and it could mean you've come up with an excuse can i come over and clean your house can i come over and wash your dishes can i come over and help you in the garden i don't know you know you know when he goes out of his house to go to the shul you just meet him and can i carry your books and you have an opportunity to walk with him maybe he's talking to someone else but you get to hear now let me explain when someone's doing shimoosh someone who wants to become a dayan a a judge someone who wants to be able to make determinations they rush they sit in the court and they listen right usually the only people that sit in the court are right the litigants or the lawyers and that's it i'm talking about jewish court you don't just it's like it's not about um you know people taking pictures and writing reports this is private right uh i mean the judgment may become public at the end but what goes on in the courtroom right is someone private but there are students of the dyneem students of the judges who have permission to sit there and hear the deliberations because that's where the juice that's where the the energy that's where the the life of what's behind the halacha it's like sitting and reading a page of talmud he says he says that how's that it's all about the contradictions and working them out and resolving them so the same thing in judgment you know why one rabbis again the same rabbi says you know on the one hand i could see it like this on the other hand i can see it like that and then you get to see which way he does determine in the end based on what the other judges have to add to the conversation so it's called shimoosh it's exactly what we're talking about here in order to become a dayan you have to do like they call stage that may be hebrew like an internship right like an internship so i know how i don't know how but i can only imagine doctors right there's a certain period of time after towards the end of school before they become these doctors they're treated like i don't want to say on on the air right they're not treated with much respect that's for sure and it's quite humiliating and um demeaning to have so much behind you and yet so much ahead of you and you're in this period where you i don't know what to paid if they paid anything right and they're treated like get me the scalpel or clean up after me like i mean but they know they know that in order to get to that next level they have to do with this thing is called shimoosh i'm going to call it chimichu i don't know it's lahavdil like it's a little bit different than what we're talking about but it's the same general idea right you get to get points yeah for sure rabbi you know if you have a few more minutes i just want to bounce a couple of things off you uh from a banana perspective uh and and just uh uh get your feedback because i know that somebody on on youtube is asking a question that's in the same line as what what i'm feeling and um you know coming out of christianity i want you to know i feel it's a graduation just like you say uh it may have been an internship but i know i've had to flush a lot of everything learned there um but they really use this uh uh point of servitude okay uh you know in their in their religion in their religion it's uh you know the the greatest of all is the servant of all is the way that they push it hard and you know when i when i got to the point where i said enough's enough and i became a binay know what publicly okay after after 32 years as an adult doing that when i put it aside i remember sitting in in a group with a bunch of uh christians and this was one of the very probably the very last time i actually sat in a group with christians before i publicly became a banana like i never ever went back since i got to the point where somebody made a comment and it was so drippy drippy drippy on this endless servitude i got to the point and i said yeah okay so i can hang around for 10 years do everything for the right to scrub your toilets and and i had to walk away and we've got a question online from somebody called seeking truth and he says that i understand serving out of respect and appreciation of the rabbi or person they're learning from but he says if it goes unchecked doesn't it become a little bit like idolatry and i think that you know you you've really balled this together with a question of internship those coming out of christianity are those coming out of um out of a foreign religion to turn to the wisdom of the rabbis um you know there's a a point where servitude is no longer servitude and it can become ideology can you elaborate a little bit to clarify like just bring this into focus like a lens a little bit because what you've talked about today is is the beauty of the reality of honest servitude um whereas a lot of people have come out of some real distortion of it i think i think i i thought i clarified it but i'll try my best again if it's coming from the rabbi to expect it that's wrong and i don't know if that's clear but it's the person themself feeling the need to come close to the rabbi and finding finding an excuse or a reason to come close even to be creative and make it up can i i see your garden's a mess can i come by can i come by if your rabbi says you know i need help in my garden but i'm not paying that then there's something off there if he says i need help in my garden and i'm paying a fair rate or i'm even willing to pay more okay i mean is that is that servitude i don't i don't think so no i mean he's trying to help you if you need the money if you don't need the money say no i can't do it let's get someone else to do it who does need the money i i don't see i'm not really sure where this idea is coming from other than if it goes unchecked meaning if the person is off balance this rabbi is way out of line yeah and so we're talking about when the person comes to you and says can i help you you should not say no that's a hard thing for me to say because i want to feel independent i don't want to you know but you know what i know that this is good for him so i'll allow him to do it but to push him to force him that is obviously wrong now i wanted to bring up another idea in the 12-step program the actual it's a word called service coming and setting up the coffee and setting up the chairs and i don't know whatever they do reading certain things they call that service now i'm not so sure that's true service i think the real service is going and being a sponsor and helping more people but let's say starting at the bottom you know like any job if like we said you don't have the experience so you start by making the coffee man if you don't know how to make that you know ask them what do i do i plug in the water i turn on the lights you know what i have to do um it's part of your recovery to become self less that is in the 12 step program so to here it's incumbent upon the person number one is everything we talked about to have awe and reverence for their teacher to become self less it's not all about me because then there are people i i guess i imagine that in order to acquire wisdom you have to be like a sponge and it's all about you but um look the rabbis you're not you know usually people are not paying i mean okay there's schools there's tuition okay there's whatever rules that you have to live by maybe there's a torah newt and there's a certain expectations i don't know if that if that goes what he's saying about unchecked so if it's an institution that has certain rules and they expect people to clean up after themselves clean their rooms their dormitory rooms or set up for them you're the one gaining and uh supposedly let's say it brings down the tuition right otherwise they'd have to hire more people um so i think it has to do with is it the rabbi who's trying to take advantage uh and there probably are there probably are people who are you know so you have to uncheck i don't i don't buy it you have to check it out you know it shouldn't go unchecked right the complaint should be made if if demands are being made that are unreasonable but if the rabbi says i need a few volunteers and i'm going um i don't know i'm going shopping for shabbos i need some volunteers who wants to come with me and you know you have 30 people and you only need three of them so if it's the same three people that's probably that might be a problem yeah you know what i mean like maybe the students need to favoritism you're always volunteering need to say look we're having such a good time with that rabbi i can't believe you're not volunteering you know um i guess teachers pet mentality is one of those things that is a general a general dissuader for a lot of people uh i mean there's nothing wrong with with with going out of your way but i find that the general consensus is is that people a teacher's pet um but there's an honesty in in in joshua in in joshua's servitude and i like how you brought out today maybe he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but the reality is hashem brought him to be a leader of the nation through his time in that servitude with with the mosha and and i think you you've really hit on something that's deep there i just know that those those but i know it that have come out of especially christianity and idolatry there's almost their eyes are too on on their leader and they miss the whole point of hashem in the whole picture and what hashem's doing behind the scene and an idolatry that you know has a way of blinding their their minds and their eyes and they get it out of whack and they end up they end up spending their entire days you know from from you know till death and they think they've done something effective and at the end of the day they spent all their days doing work in vain and and and nobody wants to do work in vain and and i think you know the world needs the light of torah clarified uh for them so that they can actually serve and and be more community focused i think you know this this series i think you said it right on so let me just clarify what i want to say it's coming from the student's interest in in gaining wisdom that he observed his fear he has all his respect and he'll find any reason or excuse to get close to see um in actuality how things how the person behaves if he doesn't like the way he behaves rub far away i love how you touched on today the book smart person alone is missing something that there's there's there's a there's a an angle of wisdom that is not taught in books and um uh there's profound nugget of truth there that's so weighty that everybody's gotta you know grab the helm of a of uh of a rabbi and and and learn learn from it uh um yeah it's it's just wonderful stuff sir well on that note i guess are we going to wind her down for this week we're going to wind down and uh yeah okay now next week uh rabbi i am on on emergency call it in in my my employment so i won't be able to broadcast so hashem willing a couple weeks from today hashem welling sure great all right all right folks that was a part 10 of 48 ways to with wisdom here on beyond the seven live from jerusalem with rabbi aaron david poston hope to see you in a couple weeks till then have a wonderful wonderful time [Music] is