Podcasts about middot

Pourquoi la Torah appelle-t-elle la fête du Don de la Torah, "la fête des semaines" ? En quoi le compte du 'Omer permet-il d'accomplir un travail sur soi, de se parfaire, de raffiner son caractère depuis la fin de Pessa'h jusqu'à Chavou'ot ? Pourquoi et comment acquérir 48 Middot en 7 semaines pour être digne de recevoir la Torah ? De quelle manière devient-on détenteur de sa propre Torah ? Quelle différence fondamentale y a-t-il entre celui qui a des connaissances intellectuelles en Torah et celui dont les mêmes connaissances influencent sa vie de Juif ?

Sommes-nous véritablement ce que nous mangeons ? Si un Juif consomme des aliments interdits, les caractéristiques de ces aliments imprègnent-elles d'une manière ou d'une autre ses Middot, ses traits de caractère ? La consommation d'aliments non Cachères obstrue-t-elle le cœur et l'esprit d'un Juif jusqu'à l'abrutir ? La retenue exigée par le respect de la Cacheroute et les jeûnes forge-t-elle un Juif à dominer ses instincts et désirs ? Celui qui ne parvient pas à résister à la tentation de manger, sera-t-il capable de maîtriser ses pulsions dans d'autres domaines ?

Welcome to our daily Bitachon class as we are continue with the Haggadah, even though we're past the Seder , with important lessons that are timely. In the piece Baruch Shomer Havtachato we quote the Brit Ben HaBetarim where Hashem tells Avraham, Your children are going to be sojourners in a land that's not theirs, work for 400 years and toil. A nd also the nation that's going to work them, Dan Anokhi, I'm going to judge them." Rabbenu Yonah quotes this pasuk with an important lesson in his commentary to Pirkei Avot , Perek 1 Mishna 15 where the Tanna tells us אמור מעט ועשה הרבה. / Say a little and do a lot Rabbenu Yonah explains, כשתבטיח את חבירך לעשות בעבורו דבר, אמור לו מעט ועשה הרבה, והוא מדרך המוסר והחסידות,. /When you guarantee your friend (we're getting in the wording of Baruch Shomer Havtachato ) to do something, say a little bit and do a lot. This is the way of Musar , it's the way of Hasidut . You don't say I'm going to give you a million dollars. Say, I'll help you out with your house, I'll give you a hundred thousand and then you give the guy the million. Where do we learn this from? ולמדנו אותו מאברהם אבינו ע"ה שאמר, "ואקחה פת לחם" (בראשית יח, ה-ח) ואחר כך, "ויקח חמאה וחלב ובן הבקר אשר עשה" We learn it form Avraham Avinu , who said, I'll get some bread, and he ended up getting butter milk, and the cow. This is a very high midah. It's learned from Hashem , as are all our great Middot . Havei Domeh Lo , We have to be like Him. Hashem has these Middot . Where do we see it? Say Chazal , in Avot d'Rabbi Natan , למדוהו מהבורא ית' שלא הבטיח אלא בשתי אותיות שנאמר (בראשית טו, יד), "דן אנכי", - וגאלם בעשרים ושבעה מלות, Hashem promised Avraham Avinu with two words, Dan Anokhi , but He he ended up redeeming them with 27 words… הנסה אלקים לבוא לקחת לו גוי מקרב …גו" או I n Devarim 4,34, He uses so many words to describe how He punished the goyim . Not just the two words, Dan Anokhi . It developed into so many more words. And Rav Saadia Gaon says something unbelievable: . אם כשהבטיח את אבותינו בשני אותיות נעשה להם כמה נסים ונפלאות, על הגאולה העתידה לבוא שנכתבו בה כמה דפין וכמה קונדריסין וכמה ספרים מהבטחות, וכמה נחמות בישעיה, ירמיה, יחזקאל, ותרי עשר, על אחת כמה וכמה כי נפלאים יהיו מעשיו ונפשינו יודעת מאד, Hashem promised our forefathers with two words (Dan Anochi), And yet how many wonders, how many miracles, which are 50, which are 250, broken down over here, from two words. So on the redemption that's going to come in the future, how many pages? How many notebooks? how many books? How many promises are there? How much consolation is there? In Yeshaya, Yirmiyah, Yehezkiel and Tre Asar? The Navi is full of promises and comforts. Imagine what that's going to be- exponentially. It's going to be wondrous. How wondrous His deeds are going to be, and we're going to know it good and well. What does that have to do with us, every day of our lives? ויש לאדם לחשוב בדבר ולתת אותו אל לבו כי שכר גדול יהיה לו מפני הבטחון/ Think about this. and to put it on your heart. You get great reward from the bitachon, great reward from relying on Hashem about these things. This is something extremely important. When you sit down and learn some Navi , and you read of the promises, say , I believe that. I know Hashem is Baruch Shomei Havtachato, He keeps it. History proves it. Look what two words did! Now imagine what we're getting in the future. That is an opportunity. Rav Yerucham Levovitz, in his sefer , Daat Chochma U'Musar , volume 3, page 2, says something unbelievable. He says there is a fundamental way that Hashem acts. First, He promises. Why does He promise? Why does He guarantee? The reason is that the one that was guaranteed this will have full faith, and feel guaranteed. And that's what brings about the fulfillment. Hashem promises, and then we earn the zechut, by relying on Him. That's what makes it come true. He says, that's the only way it happens. He says this is an important understanding of the ways of Hashem, and it's a tremendous foundation. You can't get there if you don't go through the emunah and bitachon . And in order to exercise emunah and bitachon , Hashem gives us a havtacha , He gives us a guarantee , And our job is to be batuach , to feel guaranteed in His promise. He says that's what happened with Avraham Avinu . In Bereshit 15:6 .it says וְהֶאֱמִ֖ן בַּֽיהֹוָ֑ה וַיַּחְשְׁבֶ֥הָ לּ֖וֹ צְדָקָֽה׃ / This emunah gave Avraham Sedaka , meaning it gave us righteousness . And if we'd be lacking in that, we wouldn't have the fulfillment of the promise. He says we see the same concept by Yetziyat Mitzrayim . In Shemot 6,7-9 , where it says, Vyedatem Ki Ani Hashem/ And you will know I am Hashem, the Seforno says, Your job is to think and delve that all of this is going to come true. Because if I am the All-powerful, supervising God, there's no question I'll do what I promised. I'm going to bring it upon you. And when you think about this, then you'll be fit that I bring it about. So why didn't it happen right away? Because They were enslaved in work and therefore not able to have bitachon, like Avraham Avinu who did have the bitachon . Rav Yerucham says something fascinating – It was not their fault. The Torah says clearly that it was not their fault. They couldn't have bitachon because they were so oppressed. But he says, that's the system. That's the way it works. You need to have bitachon . And if you don't have bitachon , we can't bring it about. That's Darkei Hashem Yitbarach / the way of Hashem. You can't get anything unless you first rely on Hashem. That's the way Hashem works. And if you're missing a little bitachon , it's not going to come through. Rav Yerucham continues and says, every step of Yetziat Mitzrayim worked like this. He quotes another Seforno , on the pasuk in Shemot 12,11 where it talks about how to eat the korban Pesach - With girded loins, your shoes on your feet, your stick in your hand. Why? Says the Seforno, To show their reliance, without a doubt, to Hashem. They were ready to get on the road, ready to leave the jail while in the jail! Hashem set it up. Like the Gemara in Eruvim , 22A says, Hayom la'Asotam , Today we do, Machar lekabel sachar, Tomorrow we get paid off . Why did Hashem set it up that way? Because that's our Avodah , to work hard here, not to see anything and believe it's going to happen in the future. He goes on and says, when they went out into the desert, the pasuk in Shemot 12,39 says, Sedah lo Asu lahem / They did not prepare provisions for themselves. Rashi says, This tells the praise of Jewish people. They didn't say 'How can we go out to a desert without any food?' They relied on Hashem , they went out, and that's why Hashem says, I remember the kindness of youth, when you followed Me into the deser t. He says, this level of emunah only happens if a person has bitachon , bli safek klal , with no doubt at all . He has it in actuality . It's not in theory, he has it in his pocket. That's how we went out. How do you take your family out to the desert? Because I see the food in front of me.

Just a short dvar Torah while I'm gone traveling in America lekavod Rosh Chodesh

Welcome to our Haggadah/Bitachon series. We're now up to the unit of Avadim Hayeenu . The Ritva writes that this is the beginning of the Haggadah - the answer to the son's question. And as the Gemara says, we start with the negative and end with the positive. And the reason is , says the Ritva in his beautiful words, לתת שבח והודאת לה׳ יתברך המאשפות ירים אביון To praise and thank Hashem Yitbarach , that H e lifts up the destitute from the dumps. This is an important part of our theme- we're not just telling the story, we're supposed to be feeling Hakarat HaTov and say Thank You to Hashem for what He has done for us. The Rambam, in his sefer Moreh Nebuchim section 3, chapter 43, when going through certain mitzvot , says that holidays of Sukkot and Pesach teach us De'ot and Middot . De'ot are the proper mindsets, and Middot are the proper character traits. The De'ot / mindsets of Pesach is to mention the miracles of Mitzrayim and realize hatmadatah l'dorot (this is an important line) that it's not enough to say that miracles happen, but rather that miracles continue to happen. (We see that in the V'hi She'amda , which we'll get to later on). So the Rambam , in his very succinct way, encapsulates the cognitive message of Pesach - הזכרת אותות מצרים / Remembering, mentioning the miracles, the signs, and התמדה לדורות /its continuation for generations. And what is the midah one should have? That a person should remember the bad days during the good days. We're in the good days now, so remember the bad days. Why? בעבור שירבה להודות לה׳ so that you will increase your thanks to God. And, what's the purpose of the thanks? V'shalumad midat anava v'shiflut , to teach you the trait of humility. As we mentioned in Ha Lachma Anya , anya is humility . The Rambam is telling us the purpose is to remember. Avadim Hayeenu -We have to remember the bad times in the good, and thank Him, and ultimately come to the anava v'shiflut . And we eat the matzah and maror to remember what happened to us. Remember what he says, the chesed Elohah , the kindness of God and the promise He made to our forefathers because they were Anashim shleimim b'deotam u'midotam . They were men full of De'ot and Middot Who are those forefathers? Avraham , Yitzhak , and Yaakov . He says this is one of the fundamentals of Torah Tiluyah Alav , that the Torah depends on. שכל טוב שהטיב ה׳ לנו / All of the goodness is that God ever did to us , ויטיב / and will do good for us , is in the merit of the Avot . That's why he talked about the Brit Ben HaBe'tarim , it's all about Avraham Avinu; and it says Yaakov Avinu goes down, Yitzhak Avinu is also mentioned in the Haggadah , when it says, I chose Yitzhak . This is where the humility comes in as well, to realize that it's in the merit of our forefathers that we're here, not because of what we did. Thanks, praise, humility, remembering where we came from- that is the beginnings of Avadim Hayeenu . The Avudarham says that's why we say in Avadim Hayeenu , ' Kulanu Zekeinim , even if we're old men,' and we heard this for years already and we know everything, we still have to say it, because you have to arouse your happiness and your thanks. This is not a cognitive experience; it's not just to tell me something that I don't know. No. I have to get myself to thank Hashem and be happy for what He has done for us to drive in the Hakarat HaTov . If HaKadosh Baruch Hu did not take us out, we would not be out! That's a fact. Nothing else could have gotten us out. He quotes the Midrash that says that it's like an embryo that's stuck inside its mother's womb. It's stuck there and it can't get out. It has to be pulled it out. Likewise, we would still be there, and we would have become entangled in the Egyptian culture and mindset. Therefore, God took us out and created a whole new existence. A new birth. So we thank Him for that fact on this night. We became a whole new nation- and that never would have happened. It's impossible. Even in the greatest dreams, it's could not happen. Only God can make it happen. In a mashal , in the sefer Zevach Pesach , he says, Maybe 600,000 people could not have been let out, but what if it had been just us and our children, and our grandchildren? Who knows, could we have gotten out? No. He says, Can millions of sheep fight off a lion ? No. Millions of sheep can't fight off a lion. There are certain things that just can't happen. Therefore, he says, there's only one way out of this, Yecholet Eloki Urtzonot / The ability of God and the will of God . He says the purpose of this is not to make you feel like you got out. We'll talk about that later in the Haggadah . The purpose now is to tell us Gevurat Hashem Yitbarach V'chasdoh , God's strength, His power, and the kindness that He did , to humble ourselves to the One that saved us, and only He could have saved us. No one else. It's like the patient that there was only one doctor in the world that could perform this life-saving operation and no one can else do it. That's the feeling that we're supposed have on the night of the Seder .

Welcome to our class on Perek Shira. We're now up to the song of the ant. There are two versions on what the pasuk of the ant is. One says it's Mishlei , 6,6, which is quite apropos. Shlomo HaMelech tells the lazy man, לֵֽךְ־אֶל־נְמָלָ֥ה עָצֵ֑ל רְאֵ֖ה דְרָכֶ֣יהָ וַחֲכָֽם Lech el nemalah atzel. Go (look at) the ant. Re'ei deracheha/ look at its ways, v'chacham/and you will become wise. There's another version that says the ant says a pasuk in Tehillim 136:25. נֹתֵ֣ן לֶ֭חֶם לְכׇל־בָּשָׂ֑ר כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ The Mabit says that, " Lechol basar " refers to creatures that have only flesh and no bones , one of them being the ant , and that's why, as we'll see, the ant doesn't live such a long time. The sefer Knaf Renanim says that both versions are true. We learn 2 lessons from the ant. One is not to be lazy, and we also see how careful they are not to steal. The Midrash Rabbah in Devarim 5:2, tells us that the ant builds three stories in his dwelling. He doesn't store his wheat in the top story because of the dripping of the rain, and he doesn't put it in the bottom because it could get too moist. He puts in the middle. And he only lives for six months because he has no bones and he has no sinews. He hardly eats in that amount of time, and yet he keeps storing and storing food. Why? Because he thinks maybe Hashem will give him life and he'll have a little bit more time. Rav Shimon Bar Yochai says he once went to a certain ant colony and found 300 kur (a large amount) of wheat! Furthermore, Re'ei deracheha/ look at its ways, v'chacham/and you will become wise- the rabbis say the ant has Derech Eretz, it stays away from thievery. They describe how an ant once dropped a wheat kernel. The other ants passed by and smelled that it wasn't theirs and so they stayed away. These are the two major lessons we learned from the ants, and therefore both pesukim are apropos. The Gaon of Vilna analyzes the pesukim . There are actually three things he says: One is, Lech el nemalah atzel. If you're lazy from doing mitzvot and ma'asim tovim, look at how fast and zariz the ant is. It gathers and gathers, even though it only needs a little, That's a lesson for us. We should be gathering for Olam Haba. Regarding Re'ei deracheha, see his ways, the word Derech refers to Middot . V'halakhta bidrachav, means It goes in G-d's ways, and follows His Middot. So what's its Midah ? We just said it has good Middot , it doesn't steal. It's careful to follow the Derech Eretz. V'chacham means he's wise – he knows how to properly store his wheat. The second pasuk, Noten lechem lechol basar, ki le'olam chasdo is saying the ant understands that G -d is the One that provides and therefore I don't have to grab, I'll get what's mine. The whole Perek Shira is about the lessons we learned from the animal kingdom, but the Malbim says we learn specifically from this pasuk, in which Shlomo HaMelech actually says, Go to the ant and learn from it. That's the ant song. The ant is there to teach us. And as we've said in the past about all the animal traits, Na'aseh Adam , G-d said to all of creation Let's make man. So we all have those traits inside of us. We just have to channel them or unleash them. That's why עַז כַּנָּמֵר, וְקַל כַּנֶּשֶׁר, וְרָץ כַּצְּבִי, וְגִבּוֹר כָּאֲרִי, לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹן אָבִיךָ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמָיִם We have to be brazen like a leopard, strong like a lion, run like a deer. How could you ask that from me? The answer is, you have that ability. And therefore Shlomo HaMelech is saying look at that ant, look how fast he is, look what he can do- and you can do it too!

Welcome to our humility series. I want to share a beautiful piece from the sefer Amud Avoda/Pillar of Service to Hashem, written by Rav Baruch of Kosov, a great Hasidic Rabbi, in his essay on Anava . He brings up a question based on the Gemara in Nedarim in 38A which says, Hashem only rests His Shechina on someone who is strong, smart, wealthy, and humble. The Rambam, in his commentary Shemonah Perakim , explains that smart means obviously someone wise in knowledge, and strong doesn't mean he has muscles, it means he overcomes his Yetzer Hara. And he says wealthy means that he's happy with less. The Rambam is obviously coming to answer the question that's asked by the Alshich, which is, " I understand why I need wisdom and humility. But why do I need wealth and strength (for the Shechina to dwell on me) ? He quotes this question from Maram Alshech in Vayikra 21,9 and his answer is, If a person is very weak and very poor and doesn't have any great speaking skills, am I going to say that this person is humble?? What does he have to be proud of? Conversely, if somebody is powerful, influential, wealthy and can do whatever he wants, and still he doesn't respond when he's insulted, that person can be referred to as humble. You need to first have the ability to stand up for yourself. Therefore, he says, in truth, humility is enough to bring Hashem's Shechina down on a person. As we've seen in the past, Moshe Rabbenu had the highest level of Nevuah because he was humble. But if a person is not smart, powerful and wealthy, there's no way for that humility to be expressed. True humility is when the person that has all of those qualities and realizes that the qualities that he has, he received from Hashem. As we know in all Middot, we emulate Hashem. The Gemara in Megila 31A says that Rav Yochanan says, Wherever you find God's greatness, there, you find His humility . The Gemara says this is said in the Torah, repeated in the Navi, and tripled in the Ketuvim . For example, the pasuk says, God is all powerful and He takes care of the widow and the orphan. So we talk about His greatness, and with that always comes His humility. Why is that the package? He explains that it's because that's the point. Humility is only humility when we first see the greatness. And only because God is so great and so powerful, is His humility that much greater. The greatest thing it says about Hashem, says the Tomar Devorah, is Mi El Kamocha/who is a God like You? Which means, Who is like God that is so powerful and yet holds back from letting out His anger . God should stop the world based on what's going on. But God tolerates, and the Tomar Devorah quotes that God has referred to as the God that takes insult. So God is so humble because He's so great. With this, the Noda B'Yehuda, in his second volume of Or HaChaim (siman כ )says, that's why we read in the Shacharit of YomKippurim , the Haftara of Yeshaya 57:15 that talks about God as כֹ֨ה אָמַ֜ר רָ֣ם וְנִשָּׂ֗א so says the High and the Lofty. And then it says, What do I look at? I look at the humble person. He says we read this on Yom Kippur because we want to say how great and powerful God is. And yet we ask Hashem, Please have that trait of humility. Yes, You can destroy and wipe us out, but have mercy. Take a little bit more insult (as if to say) and give us another good year. The Amud Avoda quotes a song called HaAderet V'Emuna, which goes through different qualities of God. One of the lines says, Strength and humility is to the God Who is the life of all worlds . Why the strength and humility packaged together? And again, it's the same point. The Amud Avoda goes on to explain another beautiful point: We say about Moshe Rabbenu two interesting things: first in Devarim 34 10, וְלֹא־קָ֨ם נָבִ֥יא ע֛וֹד בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל כְּמֹשֶׁ֑ה There is no prophet that is like Moshe Rabbenu Then, in Bamidbar 12,3, it says וְהָאִ֥ישׁ מֹשֶׁ֖ה עָנָ֣ו מְאֹ֑ד מִכֹּל֙ הָֽאָדָ֔ם Moshe was the most humble of people He says the two hinge on each other. Because Moshe Rabbenu was such a great prophet, his humility was true humility because he has so much to be proud of. And it goes both ways. Not only was he a great prophet because he was humble, but he was also the ultimate humble person because he was the greatest of prophets. He says it's a constant cycle. Moshe Rabbenu, because he recognized how great Hashem was, further humbled himself. The greater that he realized God was, the more humble he became himself. The more a person understands God, the more humble he becomes. So it ends up that something very counterintuitive is going on here. The people that have so many qualities- he's a hacham/wise he's gibbor/strong he's an ashir / wealthy- Yet he could be an Anav . Why? Because he realizes at the end of the day, these are all gifts from God. Beautiful. On the other hand, a person could be a Baal Ga'ava without having any qualities. What a paradox- the person that has all the qualities is humble, and the person without any qualities can be arrogant! There's a beautiful story told of the Chatam Sofer. A young man once came to him for advice, " How do I deal with my arrogance? How do I deal with my Ga'ava?" The Chatam Sofer replied, " Good question, please sit in my my room for a few minutes and I'll think of an answer for you." So the young man sat there watching, as people came to the Chatam Sofer with their questions. The first fellow said, " Rabbi, I need help. My daughter is of age. She needs to get married. I don't have any money for the wedding. I need a hundred thousand dollars ." The Chatam Sofer said, " Go ask that young man over there at the other end of the room. " So the man asked, and the young man answered, " I don't have any money. How can I help you?" The next man walked in with a very difficult, intricate halachic question. The Chatam Sofer again told him to go ask that young man at the other end of the room. So the man started asking the question and the boy said, " This is way too complex. I can't answer that question. " A third man walked in, looking for advice on a certain business challenge from the Chatam Sofer, who was brilliant, and had help from above. Again he said, " Ask that young boy at the other end of the room." And again, the boy said, " I don't know anything about business." After they left, the Chatam Sofer called the boy over and said, " Young man, you don't have money. You couldn't help that fellow. You don't really know that much Gemara, because you couldn't answer the question. You don't have much business acumen because you couldn't help that man either. What are you arrogant about?" And the answer is, like we've quoted from the Steipler, Arrogance doesn't make any sense. Middot don't necessarily make sense. It's just built into the person-whoever you are and whatever you have, you can become a Baal Ga'ava. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz once said he was watching a garbage truck go by with a driver, and a guy standing on the back- to put the trash in. He heard the driver say, " Ha! I'm not the guy in the back putting the garbage in. I'm driving the garbage truck! " The Rabbi said to himself, That's what you're arrogant about? You're the driver of the garbage truck! He says, that's all you need. Arrogance can grab onto anything. So you can be arrogant with nothing and you could be humble with having everything in the world. It's an interesting way of looking at it.

Welcome to our Anava series. The Midrash Raba Bereshit 81:2 tells the following story: Rabbenu HaKadosh, also known as Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the redactor of the Mishna, was passing by the town of Simonia , where the residents of came out to greet him and made a request. They said, " Rebbi, provide us with a person who will teach us both the Tanach and the Mishna and we'll judge our disputes." Rebbi gave them none other than Rav Levi BarSisi. When Rav Levi came to the town they constructed a large platform for him and seated him upon it so that he would address them, at which time the words of the Torah became hidden from his mouth. In other words, he forgot some of his learning. They asked him three questions on the laws of chalitza and he was not able to answer them. They said, Well, maybe this rabbi is more of an expert in Aggada, in the Musar aspects and not so much in Talmudic law. So they asked him a question on a pasuk , and again, he wasn't able to answer. When Rav Levi saw how dire the situation was, he got up early the next morning and returned to Rabbenu HaKadosh, hoping that Rabbenu HaKadosh would relieve him of his post, seeing the difficulty he was having. Rebbi asked him, " So how'd it go? How's it going in your new position?" He said, " Please, don't even bring it up. Don't remind me of my troubles." What happened? "They asked me these questions,and I wasn't able to answer them. " Rebbi said, What questions did they ask you ? Rav Levi repeated the questions and gave all the answers. Then he repeated the question from the pesukim and gave those answers. Rebbe then asked, " So why didn't you answer them like you answered me?" Rav Levi said, " They made a large platform for me and seated me upon it, and my spirit became conceited and the words of the Torah became hidden from me." Unbelievable. Why did this happen? Rav Yerucham Levovitz, in his sefer Da'at Chochma UMussar (vol 2, page 53) has an essay called Kedushat HaTorah/the Holiness of Torah . He writes, I was just in the town of Vilna and I was hosted in a house that was directly opposite of the university. I was looking at the students as they were going and coming from the school and I saw something strange. As they were walking in, they were combing their hair, making themselves look good. And on the way out, they were also doing that. The boys and girls were lightheadedly coming and going. And I assume that it was pretty similar when they were inside the classes as well. That's the way they learn their secular wisdom. It seems not to bother their studies, because they're graduating and everything is going fine. Maybe it bothers them a little bit, but it's not so terrible. On the other hand, let's look at how our study halls look. What if we would have that going on? It's a total contradiction. In a situation of lightheadedness, you can't learn Torah. You can't even think Torah in situations where it's unclean or unbecoming, because it disturbs the Torah. He says, You know what that shows me? That Torah comes from heaven. It's holy, it's pure. And therefore it doesn't tolerate anything that is contrary to holiness impurity. Which is why, as we said, You can't learn Torah opposite something that's not clean. You can't pray opposite something that's unclean. That's how holy our religion is. The nature of the Torah is kodesh kodashim. We have to make ourselves befitting to receive the Torah. We have to make sure that we're all shiny clean, not externally shiny and clean, but internally- we have to be shiny clean. Otherwise, the Gemara will not stay with us; Our learning will not stay with us. He says, Torah, due to its holiness and its purity, does not tolerate anyone with bad Middot. A drop of arrogance, or a drop of being makpid/ being exacting is enough to make it leave. As we may know, there are 48 ways to wisdom and most of them are character refinements. After this, he quotes this story of Rav Levi Bar Sisi, and says that because of a little bit of arrogance that he felt, he started to forget his learning. This is unbelievable. We don't find this in any other realm. Torah is compared to water, as we've said. Just like water flows downward, the Torah flows downward, like it says in Shir HaShirim 1:19. Therefore a person has to make himself fit for the Torah. A drop of arrogance, a drop of conceit, a drop of holiness , and it leaves. He says, professors have no problem standing on the highest of platforms with their hearts full of all kinds of abominations, with Middot that are off. It doesn't bother them at all. Why not? Because Torah is min Hashamayim . Torah is holy. That's why we need that refinement. What refinement are we talking about? The ultimate refinement is the refinement of humility . That's why we see that all the Gedoleh Yisrael are extremely humble. There's a famous story about Rav Akiva Eiger. Somebody wrote him a letter and he wrote back to the man with all kinds of great titles, "To the great leader in Israel, to the light of our nation." The person he was writing to was a simple rabbi, and when asked why he had addressed the rabbi this way, Rabbi Akiva Eiger replied, " Well, I see people write like that to me. I thought it was proper etiquette, so that's the way I wrote to him." Rabbi Eiger was not saying to himself, " Of course I'm the Gadol Hador and that's why they write like that to me. " He figured it was probably the way you're supposed to do it. This was the way of all our greats. It's not a coincidence. Rav Akiva Eiger was a giant of giants. When he asked a question, we call them bomb questions. And on the side of the Gemara there's a little gloss and a little sign that looks one of these warnings of a nuclear reactor. We used to say it's like a nuclear bomb, his questions. And he sometimes ends off his questions with, " God should enlighten my eyes," as if I'm the proble m. My glasses are foggy . They train us in Yeshiva that when you don't understand something, you don't say. Tosafot doesn't make any sense . You say, I don't understand this. Okay, very nice. That's good for me. But the greats say, " Oh, how lacking I am. I don't understand this Tosafot. I don't understand this Gemara. I have a weakness . This is what makes the great leaders great. It's not that they're great leaders and by the way, they're also humble. No, without the humility, they wouldn't have their Torah. They wouldn't be able to do it. And that, Rav Yerucham Levovitz says, is the message of that story. That's why it's very scary when we sometimes see people that know a lot of Torah but they're very arrogant people. What's going on? The answer is, quoting a term that the Chassid Yaavetz uses, " He's not a learned person. He's a Yodeah Torah." He knows Torah but that doesn't mean he's a Talmid Hacham . Similarly, there's a Gemara in Masechet Megila 28 B, where someone was asked to give a Hesped for a person that knew a lot of Torah. They asked Rav Nachman to give a eulogy, and his answer was, What should I say at the eulogy? That a basket full of books has been gone? I heard this from my Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Abba Berman. This man learned a lot, but the learning did not become part of him. It was just knowledge . If a person does not have the proper Middot , its not that he can't have knowledge , but that knowledge is just like secular knowledge. The reason Rav Levi Barsisi's Torah left him is because his Torah was Torah Kedosha which can not tolerate bad Middot. If it's just knowledge of Torah, that's a different story. That's the importance of humility when it comes to holding your Torah.

Welcome to our class on humility. When it comes to working on and thinking about a specific Middah , there is always a possible danger that something could ruin the Middah or ruin the effort. In the third gate of the Hovot Halevavot, the Gate of Serving Hashem (fourth chapter), he talks about the ten levels of service of Hashem. The ninth level (which is pretty close to the top) is people who serve Hashem for the right reasons, yet lack an important piece of information. שלא נשמרו ממפסידי העבודות, They aren't careful from guarding themselves from the things that could cause their service Hashem to be lacking. He quotes a pasuk from Kohelet (10:1) זבובי מות יבאיש יביע שמן רוקח /The flies of death can ruin the best of oils and quotes one of the pious men telling the students, " I'm afraid for you, for the greatest of sins ." They asked, What is the greatest of sins? And he said, הגבהות (החונף) והגאוה, כמו שאמר הכתוב Feeling exalted, being a flatterer, and having Ga'ava/ arrogance, as it says תועבת ה' כל גבה לב:‏ ,/ An abomination to God is anybody arrogant. This is scary. A person can do everything right and it can backfire, specifically when a person is working on humility. He might say, " Wow, look who I am. I'm working on humility." He ends up becoming arrogant from that! Rav Wolbe, in his letters, (vol 2, page 129), hints to this Hovot Halevavot and says, When a person works on Middot, every step of the way, he feels that his actions are coming from arrogance that's born from the Flatterer, which are almost the exact words of this Hovot Halevavot. And he says, I have a tradition from my rabbis that we should never think we're doing anything. Whatever we do is only to train ourselves. We're apprenticing, we're interning. When I'm trying to be Mechaven in my prayers, I'm just training myself in how to do it. Whatever I'm working on, it's just a training session. He says, Hitlamdut / an internship or training doesn't drag arrogance . In Aleh Shor (vol two, page 194) he says something similar: When it comes to apprenticing, it's impossible to become arrogant. If I'm doing something good, I can become arrogant. But if I'm just training, I haven't really done anything because I'm only in training. When I'm in training mode, I'm always looking to see what I can fix. My critical eye is going over me every step of the way. A therapist, a doctor, whoever's in training, they know they're in training. Like the nine interns following the big professor through the hospital. They're not arrogant. They know that they're interns. He stresses that we must understand this, and that the only success a person will have in working on themselves is if they have this attitude. Otherwise it's just going to backfire. You might say, " Look at me! Not only am I working on Bitachon, not only do I work on Hessed, I'm even working on Anava! Do you know how great I am?!" He says, If a person does not understand this concept that you're in the internship stage , you're just training, you're in the minor leagues, then you're better off not doing this. You'll be a good Jew without it. It's not for you. It's too dangerous. Furthermore, in Aleh Shor (vol 1, page 65) Rav Wolbe says we are supposed to think, "I just want to get a little bit better, or a little bit more truthful in my approach," One should not think, " I made it ," or " I got it ." Like the example of the poor man who knocks on the door and comes in in the middle of the meal. He is served whatever they're up to. He's not going to say, " Ooh, look who I am!" You're just an intern. You're apprenticing. It shouldn't get to your head. Mesilat Yesharim , in chapter 11, talks about different manifestations of Ga'ava . He says there's a certain type of arrogant person who says in his heart that he's so great and so honorable that honor can never separate from him, and therefore he doesn't even need it. To show that, he'll go to the extreme in humility. But in his heart, he lifts himself up and says, I'm so high up and so respected that I don't even need respect . I'm so great, I don't need someone to tell me how great I am . I have so much of it. I don't need anyone else to pat me on the back. A slightly different type of arrogant person says, "I want to be clearly designated as a person with many great qualities. It's not enough that people say for example, that I'm wise, or I'm kind. He want them to add to the list of his great qualities that I'm very humble. He becomes arrogant in his humility! He wants honor for showing that he's running away from honor! He sits in the back of the shul, and he acts in a very humble way to show that he's the ultimate Anav . Don't call me Rabbi, it's okay, he says. But in his heart he thinks, There's no one wiser and more humble than me . אֵין חָכָם וְעָנָו כָּמוֹנִי בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ" So both the Mesilat Yesharim and Hovot Halevavot are warning us that working on oneself and working on humility can backfire. That's why we go back to Rav Wolbe who tells us an important rule: One must always put on his training cap. He's an intern. He doesn't know anything. He's a humble person in training. The sefer Or Yisrael by Rabbi Yitzhak of Peterberg, in the section Kochvei Or ( (אות י brings down a pasuk from the Gemara in Berachot 61 that says that Yetzer Hara is compared to a fly. And they quote our pasuk זבובי מות יבאיש יביע שמן רוקח / The flies of death can ruin the best of oils. Why is the Yetzer Hara compared to a fly? The Or Yisrael answers, Because as many times as you yell at him, swat at him or blow on him, he doesn't go away. You have to keep sending away. He keeps coming back. That's the Yetzer Hara. He doesn't give up. And that's why even when we're working on something good, and we're trying to send him away, he comes right back. You have to be always aware of him. That's the only way to fight him- to take your fly swatter and keep swatting away. He gives a nice hint- the Gemara in Berachot 10A says that the Isha Shunamit , when describing Elisha, said, I know he's holy. How did she know? One of the reasons is that she never saw a fly on his table. There were never flies around him. He says this is a mashal - There were never flies meant he was able to keep chasing away the Yetzer Hara.

As part of the event of Matan Torah, when G-d revealed Himself to Beneh Yisrael and gave the Torah, Moshe constructed an altar and had sacrifices offered. We read that Moshe placed half the blood in basins, from which he later sprinkled blood on the people, and he poured the other half on the altar (Shemot 24:6). Rashi, surprisingly, comments that the division of the blood into two halves was done by an angel. It would be impossible for a human being to divide the blood in two precisely equal halves, and so an angel was sent from the heavens to do this. We must wonder, why did Hashem find it necessary to dispatch an angel for this purpose? Why was it so critical for the halves to be precisely equal? Would these sacrifices have been in any way deficient if one portion of blood was slightly larger than the other? Rav Yitzchak Hutner (1906-1980) answered this question by exploring the symbolism of the division of the blood at the time of Matan Torah. If we would ask most Jews to define the term "religious Jew," to describe the defining characteristics of people referred to with this term, most would likely mention things like Shabbat observance, modest dress, eating kosher, synagogue attendance and daily Tefilot. People generally tend to define "religious" as ritual observance. In truth, however, these rituals are only half the story. Ethical conduct, integrity, kindness and sensitivity to others are no less a part of Torah than praying three times a day, Shabbat, Kashrut, and Seniut (modesty). In fact, Rashi begins his comments to our Parasha, Parashat Mishpatim, by noting the significance of the first letter of this Parasha: "VE'eleh Ha'mishpatim" – "AND these are the statutes…" Rashi writes that this letter – the conjunction "Ve-" ("And") – indicates a connection between the end of the previous Parasha, which tells of the Revelation and the Ten Commandments, and the civil laws presented in Parashat Mishpatim. Just as the Ten Commandments were proclaimed at Mount Sinai, so were the laws of Parashat Mishpatim given at Mount Sinai. We can never draw a wedge between Torah and ethical interpersonal conduct. The laws of Parashat Mishpatim, which govern the way we treat our fellow, are no less a part of the Torah as any of the other Misvot. So crucial is this message, Rav Hutner explained, that Hashem sent an angel to divide the sacrificial blood at the time of Matan Torah into two precisely equal parts. It was critical to convey the message that neither half of Torah carries even slightly more weight than the other. The two areas of Torah life – our obligations to Hashem, and our obligations to other people – are of exactly the same level of importance, and we must never allow ourselves to prioritize or emphasize one over the other to even the slightest degree. It is likely no coincidence that Parashat Mishpatim, the section in which this point is expressed, is always read around the time of 25 Shevat, the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yisrael Salanter (1809-1883), founder of the Mussar movement. Rav Yisrael placed very strong emphasis on maintaining this balance, on not allowing our pursuit of spiritual excellence to result in compromises in our Middot (character traits). One famous example is the time when his students approached him before they went to bake Masot in preparation for Pesach, to ask which stringencies are proper for them to observe when baking Masot. "Be very careful not to yell at the woman in charge of cleaning the factory," Rav Yisrael replied. "She's a widow. Concern for her feelings is the most important stringency you should observe." Rav Yisrael feared that in the students' concern to maintain the strictest Halachic standards for the Masot, they might neglect the more basic religious obligation to speak to widows with sensitivity and respect. As we approach his Yahrtzeit, let us internalize this vitally important lesson, and ensure to ascribe the same degree importance to both parts of the Torah, because this is what being a complete Jew means.

Welcome to our class on Anava . We've been talking a lot about working on humility. Rabbi Chaim Friedlander's sefer Siftei Chaim , on the topic of Middot (page 133) asks a powerful question. He points out that the Mesilat Yesharim bases his sefer on the ladder of levels that are described by Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, starting with Torah. Learning Torah brings to Zehirut/being careful, which brings one to Zerizut/being fast, which brings to Nekiut/being pure and goes on to Prishut/separating oneself physicality , purity and Hasidut/piousness. All the way at the end is humility . Humility is one of the last of the levels. It brings to one to Ruach , Hakodesh etc, and then we reach perfection. So seemingly, if we go step by step up the ladder, if we haven't yet conquered purity and piousness, how are we even talking about humility, which is so high up? To answer, the Siftei Chaim quotes a mashal he heard from Rav Yerucham Levovitz, the famed Mashgiach of the Mir in Europe, who says: When a person goes to a feast of kings, there are many, many portions and courses. There's the first course, the second course, the third course . I was once told that at the queen's table in England there are four forks and three knives! There are so many different hors d'oeuvres, appetizers, entrees, desserts… But what happens if a poor man walks in during the meal when they're up to the third course? Do they say, " Let's go back to the hor d'oeuvres ." No. He doesn't even ask for that. Whatever they're up to at that time is what they give him, and that's enough for him at that point. He's not worried about courses or etiquette or about the proper way to do things. He's hungry . That's the mashal . The nimshal is that we are poor when it comes to Avodat Hashem. Yes, 'wealthy' people of old such as Rabbi Pinhas ben Yair and others, of course had an order. He's like the chef telling you how you're supposed to serve the meal. Each one is going to lead to the next one. Yes, you want ices after the hors d'oeuvres to cleanse you palate, and yes, you want to have tea at the end. But a person who is spiritually poor has to grab whatever they give him, even if it's out of order, and even if he doesn't understand exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. He has to take what he can get. The Gemara says, ' This world is like a wedding, Grab and eat. Grab and eat. ' What does that mean? It means sometimes you're not eating in a specific order, with all the rules and regulations. You're just grabbing and eating. That's the way it is with our Ruchaniut/spirituality. I'll grab and eat, I 'll nosh on this and that. This is similar to the story that the Chafetz Chaim witnessed once. A girl was selling apples in the marketplace. Someone came and knocked over her basket of apples and they were rolling all over the street. Ruffians started grabbing the apples. The girl was just standing there crying, until a wise man told her, Grab something for yourself also . When the Chafetz Chaim heard this, he said, That's what's going on in our lives. The Yetzer Hara turned over the apple cart and he's grabbing away everything from us. So grab something back for yourself . We don't have to do everything exactly according to the proper system. We, too, can work on humility. We may not have the full depth and the understanding that we'd have if we did it with the recommended approach, on the regular road. Here's an example of another Middah . He says, hessed - we all know what kindness is. We do kindness, but if you want to really dissect it, true kindness means that I am not an egoistic person. I'm not someone that's focused on myself. I'm giving because the other person needs and all the other niceties- we'll call it the icing on the cake to do a hessed properly . But just because you can't have a cake with icing, that doesn't mean you have can't cake at all. Sometimes you might only have the icing, but if you're hungry, you'll take cake without the icing or icing without the cake. You can't be picky. At the end of the day, it will give you nourishment. It might not give you exactly what you need, but, as the famous saying goes, Perfect is the enemy of good (quoted by Rabbi Frand at the Siyum HaShas, and attributed to French philosopher Voltaire). This means that sometimes people try to do something exactly the way it's supposed to be but end up do nothing. It's like a very perfectionist housewife saying, If I can't have the perfect meal, I'm not going have any guests at all. That's really counterproductive. Just because you can't have all the niceties, with waiters and china and a ten course meal, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have guests at all. It's the same thing when it comes to working on our Middot, says Rav Yerucham Levovitz. We might not have everything perfect, and it might not be the way it's supposed to be, but perfect is the enemy of good. Therefore, when we're working on humility, don't say, how can I work on humility? I'm far, far from it. You can also have a connection to humility. The Chafetz Chaim once met a baker and asked, " How's business? " The baker replied, " It's so hard to be a baker. The housewives are so picky and they're always complaining, 'It's too hard… it's too soft.' "Then a few years later he met the baker again and asked how business was. This time the baker said says, " Business is great!" The Chafetz Chaim asked what had changed, and the baker replied, " Well, it's wartime. There's a shortage of bread. If anyone can get any bread, they're thrilled and happy to take the it. There are never any complaints." The Chafetz Chaim said it's the same thing with Ruchaniut . In the days of old where there was plenty of spirituality, and plenty of people serving Hashem, in a world that was much more pristine, of course in Shamayim, they were picky. The chef in Shamayim's kitchen was very picky and very exacting, Everything had to be organic, everything had to be fresh, everything had to be Whole Foods. But in you're in a time of famine, no one gets picky on what they're going to eat or serve. If they get picky, they die. Like the sad story in Masechet Gittin , of the wealthy woman who sent her aid out to buy fine wheat in the marketplace. There was no fine wheat left but by the time he came back to tell her, and she sent him out to buy a lower grade of wheat, there was none of that left either. She then sent him for barley and the same thing happened, and on and on until eventually there nothing was left to eat at all. So smart people realize, and Hashem's Bet Din up there is quite smart, that w hen there's a famine, we're happy with what we can get . We don't have the perfect meal. We don't have the right silverware, we don't have the right ingredients, nor the right dishes. But it's like making sprinkle cookies with your children on a day off, with all their germs and mess…They're so proud and you're so proud. Well, that's the way Hashem looks at our Avodat Hashem today. So make your little cookies, put some Anava sprinkles on them and be proud.

Welcome to our humility series. Today we are going to explore the contrast of arrogance and the proper outlook. We know we should not be arrogant, showy, boastful people who take credit for our accomplishments and feel that we're special. That is Gaava , which should not be confused with something called the Rommemut HaNefesh/an uplifted soul, a feeling of how special I am. I come from good stock. I have Tzelem Elokim, I'm not an animal. I'm a human being. I have a certain royalty to me. That's not a feeling of Ga'ava . What's the difference? Ga'ava is I'm better than somebody else. Like it says of Hashem, Ki Ga'oh Ga'ah /He is arrogant bove the arrogant. His kiseh kavod is above the most arrogant of the wild beasts- the lion, the domesticated cow, the eagle. They're the most arrogant and Hashem is above them all. That's the term of Ga'avah . But there's another term used of Hashem, הַמֶּלֶךְ הַמְּרוֹמָם לְבַדּוֹ מֵאָז. /Hashem is the King that was uplifted alone from way back when. What does that mean? The Maharit, Rav Yosef of Trani and the Bet Aharon explain that this means that even before there was a world, where there was no one compare oneself to, Hashem was Ram . That's what we also have to be. I'm not great if I look at myself, where I come from and what my sources are and see that I'm royal. I'm not comparing myself to you. That's an inherent greatness and that is a prerequisite to having good Middot . Rav Yehezkiel Levenstein says that when a person has that feeling of Rommemut , he doesn't need to start looking down on others. He has an inherent greatness. He doesn't need to become great by pushing others down. The Elder of Kelm says that the force against the Jewish people is Amalek . What did Amalek do? We left Mitzrayim b'Yad Rama/with an outstretched hand, with Rommemut They were like a bubbling bath. They were on the top of the world. But along came Amalek, and like a person that jumps into the bubbling bath, cooled them down, didn't let them feel their Rommemut , or feel how special they were. Amalek wanted to take away the feeling of Beni Bechori Yisrael. That's what Amalek came to do. So how do we fight off Amalek? Says the Elder of Kelm, וכאשר ירים משה ידו, :Moshe Rabbenu lifted up his hands and כשישראל נושאים לבם לאביהם שבשמים, the Jewish people lifted up their hearts. He says this means שהתחזקו ברוממות נפשם they strengthened themselves in the exaltedness of their souls. And they looked and had they honor then V'gavar Yisrael. He adds that later Amalek was Haman, who also tried to break the Jewish people, להכניע רוממות הנפש מישראל, to break that exaltedness. But it didn't work. How did we fight back? לא יכרע ולא ישתחוה, Mordechai would not bend, he would not bow. We have to realize that this is not just about Amalek the person or Haman the person. Bereshit 6, 5 says וְכָל יֵצֶר מַחְשְׁבֹת לִבּוֹ רַק רַע כָּל הַיּוֹם: / The Yetzer of his heart said only bad all day . So simply it means that all day the Yetzer Hara is giving you bad ideas of what to do. The Nefesh HaChaim, in Shaar 3,Perek 8 says this means that the Yetzer Hara's trick is to say all day to you, You are no good. He wants to break you. He wants to make you feel shafal . And once he breaks you, you'll do anything. You need to have Rommemut HaNefesh. But part of his ploy is to make you think that being shafal/ being lowly is how you're supposed to feel. The Imrei Emet says something unbelievable about the words רק רע כל היום The last letter of רק is ק The last letter of רע is an ע . The last letter of כל is ל . The last letter of היום is מ , which spells עמלק Amalek. We all have an Amalek inside of us that wants to tell us all day, " You're no good. " But don't think that's Anava . It's Shiflut . And the Nefesh HaChaim in Shaar א perek ד וזאת תורת האדם כל איש ישראל אל יאמר בלבו ח"ו This is the Torah of the human being, to ant Jewish person, Don't say in your heart, Who am I? What's my strength? What's my power? What can I do? Who am I? " No, you have to realize, he says, and put steadfast in your heart. Every deed, every speech, every thought that you do every second of the day has impact. ומה רבו מעשיו ומאד גדלו ורמו. How great are your deeds! How powerful they are! Rabbi Ades once said, Imagine a man sitting in front of the control tower with all kind of buttons and levers, and that's the place where they hit the button to launch a nuclear attack. Will he sit there and they'll say, " Who am I? What am I? What can I do? " It's not about you, it's about what you connected to, where you're positioned. You're a Jewish person! Your soul came from beneath the Kiseh Hakavod. You're powerful. And this is throughout all our writings. Mesilat Yesharim chapter 19, when talking about praying for the Bet Hamikdash to be built, says, "if a person says, מִי אֲנִי וּמָה אֲנִי סָפוּן שֶׁאֶתְפַּלֵּל עַל יְרוּשָׁלַיִם What am I? What's my value? I'm going to pray for Yerushalayim? My prayers are going to cause the Galut to come and the Yeshua to happen? And he says, Yes. The answer is Man was created alone, because everyone has to say, בִּשְׁבִילִי נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם" I am the only one to pray for the churban. I am important. I'm the only person in the world. We have to walk around with these feelings of Rommemut HaNefesh . The Sefer Kol Mevaser on Parashat Yitro quotes Rav Bunim of Peshishcha who said, Every Jew has to have two pockets . In one pocket, it should say, " בשבילי נברא העולם / For me the world was created And in the other pocket should say אנכי עפר ואפר , /I am but dust and ashes If you're getting a little too carried away, remind yourself I am but dust and ashes And if you're getting a little down, you have to take out the בשבילי נברא העולם / For me the world was created. It's a balance. You have to have both. So much so that Rav Hutner brings down in that in the Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashana 26 B, there's a discussion of How the shofar of Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be. Should it be bent or should it be straight? One opinion says, כמה דכייף איניש דעתיה / the more you bend yourself in humility, the better it is And another opinion says, No כמה דפשיט It's better to be straight. What are these two approaches? Rav Hutner, in his sefer on Rosh Hashanah, Maamar 15 says that, yes, there's a concept of bending yourself. That's important. It's Rosh Hashanah. There's Kabalat Ohl Malchut Shamayim. accepting the yoke of God's kingdom. I am going to humble myself and bend myself. But that could be dangerous. We don't want you to feel like you're a piece of dirt. So the other side is, you have to stand up straight, stand with your head high and say, I belong to the army of Hashem. I'm a proud card-carrying Jew. That's not a contradiction to Anava . You can know who you are, know your family, know your roots, know your greatness. And at the same time, after all that, you say, but did I do it? It's a gift that Hashem gave me. It's the car that God gave me to drive. It's not my car, its all His gifts. It's the talents that God gave me. Anava doesn't mean walking around lowly. That's the Yetzer Hara talking to you. When you walk around feeling down and low and it's not allowing you to produce, then you know it's coming from that Rak Rah Kol HaYom. You have to see what it's producing, what it's causing. He wants to break us. And that's why we sometimes think that it's the Yetzer HaTov saying, " You have to be humble. You have to be xyz.." No. You are great. And there's nothing wrong with saying you're great. And there's nothing wrong with saying Bishvilli Nivrah Olam . There's nothing wrong with saying Banim Atem Hashem Elokechem I once asked one of the gedolim, Rav Berel Povarsky, what a healthy person that's feeling depressed should do. And he said, " What should you do? You say the Beracha Ohev Amo Yisrael- God loves you. You're part of the Jewish people. The Creator loves you." Those are the thoughts that a Jewish person has to have. Rav Haskel Levenstein says, the more Rommemut you have, the better your Middot will be, the less you'll be brought down, the less you'll be stuck over pettiness and silliness. Rav Ades says he was once on a plane, looking out the window at all the cars in the parking lot getting smaller and smaller and smaller. What happened? Who was shrinking all the cars? Of course, he was saying that in jest. The cars didn't get smaller, he said. I got higher. And when you lift yourself up, you see that all the things that are seemingly important, that people get busy with, are really small. You lift yourself up and the challenges disappear. Rav Yerucham Levovitz once said, " How many people have to go for therapy to get out the sandbox and stop playing in the sand? How many people have to go therapy to stop playing with their dolls? How'd you stop?" The answer is, You matured. You grew up, you became uplifted. It says in HaAzinu Devarim 32,2 thar the Torah is compared to a wind that blows through the grass, and just like the wind strengthens the grass and makes it grow, it lifts you up, it makes you greater, it makes you above. Now, someone might say, and again, the Yetzer Hara talking, "what do you mean? Ma Anu, We say every morning, what are we? Ma Hayinu/What's our life? Ma Hasdenu/What's our kindness? Ma Sidkatenu/What's our righteousness? Ma Yeshuatenu/What's our salvation? Ma Kohenu/What's our strength? And we go on..: and we say, רוֹב מַעֲשֵֹיהֶם תֹּהוּ וִימֵי חַיֵּיהֶם הֶבֶל לְפָנֶיךָ It's hot air, man is nothing more than an animal… it sounds horrible, But you have to continue. Now we go into a whole different story לְבַד הַנְּשָׁמָה הַטְּהוֹרָה שֶׁהִיא עֲתִידָה לִתֵּן דִּין וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן לִפְנֵי כִסֵּא כְבוֹדֶךָ: We're Your nation the the children of Your convenant, of Avraham Yitzhak and Yaakov, that You love them and You're happy with them. And we're called the Yisrael Yeshurun, and therefore we have to be thankful and praise You and bless You, אַשְׁרֵינוּ מַה טּוֹב חֶלְקֵנוּ וּמַה נָּעִים גּוֹרָלֵנוּ וּמַה יָּפָה יְרֻשָּׁתֵנוּ: How lucky we are, how fortunate we are, We come to shul in the morning and we stay late at night and we say, Shema Yisrael.. what a positive switch. You can't get stuck in the What are we?Of course there is truth to that. What is our strength? And what is our abilities? But we have a Neshama, and that gives us Rommemut. These are the thoughts that we have to have. And they're not contrary to Anava.

Said during the Kollel Nefesh HaChaim TuBshvat seuda 

Welcome to our series on Anava . Chacham Bentzion Abba Shaul, in his sefer Or LeTzion Chochma UMussar (page 242) brings up the following point: On one hand, our rabbis tell us in Sanhedrin 37A, that everyone has an obligation to say, " The world was created for me. " That means you're supposed to look at the sun, the moon, the stars and know that everything in the world is there for me . That might sound like arrogance. But Chacham Bentzion says we see from here that humility does not mean that a person feels lowly and he is in a state of Ye'ush and despair thinking he has no value. It doesn't mean you think, "There's no benefit in what I am and in what I do." That's not the definition of humility. That's Shiflut/lowliness and negativity .. What is humility? Humility means that I believe that whatever I accomplish is a gift from Hashem. I'm a somebody. I may have a beautiful car or a beautiful watch, but someone gave me the car and someone gave me the watch. I'm not saying, This car is a piece of junk. No, it's a beautiful car, but it was given to me by somebody else . He further expounds on this by explaining a seeming contradiction: On one hand, the pasuk in Divrei Hayamim II 17:6 tells us, " וַיִּגְבַּ֥הּ לִבּ֖וֹ בְּדַרְכֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה And his heart was uplifted in the ways of Hashem." VaYigba Libo almost means arrogance . But on the other hand, Mishleh tells us in pasuk 16:5, תּוֹעֲבַ֣ת יְ֭הֹוָה כׇּל־גְּבַהּ־לֵ֑ב יָ֥ד / it's an abomination to be arrogance. He explains that one refers to the past and the other one refers to the future. What you did in the past, you're supposed to be humble about. You're supposed to look back and say it was with Hashem's help. I'm supposed to look back and say, Baruch Hashem, thank you Hashem, for giving me those opportunities. Like the famous story that the Chafetz Chaim was once overheard in a moment of contemplation and meditation, discussing his life with Hashem, " Hashem, I owe You so much. You gave me the Mishna Berurah, you gave me the Chafetz Chaim, you gave me all these things." That's all in the past . But when you go in the future , you have to have strength. You can't despair. You should say, I'm gonna do it. I can do it. Conversely, I heard from Rav Wolbe that when the Chafetz Chaim was in the middle of his Mishna Berurah , there were certain tragedies and challenges that were going on in his personal life. One day he opened the window, shook his fist and said, " You're not going to stop me!" He was talking to the Yetzer Hara. Look at that courage! Look at the energy, look at the almost arrogance. I'm going do it! That's fine. I'm going to do it is beautiful. I did a little bit. I'm going to do more. I'll keep on doing more. I have talents that Hashem gave me. I'm going to keep growing . That attitude gives the person the drive to move further in his Avodat Hashem . He used the rule, One that has aspirations will be successful even though it looks like naturally it won't happen. His example is the tremendous drive that the Americans had to put a man on the moon. If you have a drive and you have a dream, you'll get there. But many people are broken because they flip the pipes. Instead of saying, Forget about what I did in the past, let's look at the future , they make the past the main thing. They focus on the past and forget about the future. This is the dichotomy between humility (or arrogance) and lowness in the wrong way. Rav Eliyahu of Izmir (1640 -1729) was a leading Rav of Izmir, Turkey. He authored over 30 different tremendous sefarim including Shevet Mussar, that are learned all over. In his sefer Chut shel Hessed on Parashat HaAzinu, he discusses the Piyut that we mentioned previously, that we say on Rosh Hashanah. The last stanza says, " Piyut הִשְׁתּוֹנֵן, וְהִכּוֹנֵן, וְהִתְבּוֹנֵן בְּסוֹדֶךָ. וְהִבַּטְתָּ, מָה אַתָּה, וּמֵאַיִן יְסוֹדֶךָ. וּמִי הֱכִינְךָ, וּמִי הֱבִינְךָ, / Sharpen yourself and prepare yourself. Look into your secrets. What does it mean to Look into your secrets? He says, the secret refers to the fact of my humble beginnings- What am I made of ? Dust. Further, after we say, וְהִתְבּוֹנֵן בְּסוֹדֶךָ we also say, What are you Ma Atah /What are you? Like Moshe and Aharon said to Korach (Shemot 16,7) Where are your roots? So it starts off, I'm humble and I'm nothing. Well, if that's the case, if I'm humble and I'm nothing, then what is the purpose of my Mitzvot? Can a mosquito impact the king? Then we say, no, slow down מי הכינך Who set you up for this? Hashem set you up for greatness. מי הבינך Who gave you understanding ? And מי ינידך , what's making you move ? You have a soul inside of you, a Neshama, a spirituality inside of you. Realize where you came from. He quotes the sefer Bet HaElohim that says that there's a danger in thinking of yourself as the lowest of low, because you'll end up saying Hashem doesn't supervise me, He doesn't look at me . But then you can go to the other extreme and say, I'm arrogant. Mi Hashem Who is God? It's a constant balance on this tightrope, not to get stuck with being broken because I'm a nobody, and not to be arrogant. It's like the Shfeel Hazahav/ the golden path. Rav Wolbe, in Alei Shur vol 2 page 160 quotes the Hovot Halevavot in Shaar Hakniah, which is dedicated to humility. In the second chapter, he says, הכניעה היא אשר תהיה אחר רוממות הנפש והתנשאה מהשתתף עם הבהמות במידותן המגונות, וגבהותה מהידמות במידות / Humilty comes after you realize the exaltedness of your soul and that it's being uplifted. I'm not a partners with an animal in their low Middot. It comes when you realize how wise you are and how dear is your soul. You know about all the good Middot. כאשר תהיה סמוך לזה כניעת הנפש ושפלותה, אז תהיה מידה משובחת , And then then when I add a little spice of humility in there, then the humility is a good Middah. אבל זולת זה איננה נכנסת במידות המשובחות ומעלות הנפש, אך במגונות שבהן, כי ענינה בזה כענין הבהמות But if it's humility that's not coming from that, it's not considered good quality. It's just despair. It's not, humility. That's just the animal that doesn't have any recognition of what it is at all. As Chacham Bentzion said, You can feel great in who you are, and then you add that little flavor of, All those qualities I have, I got from Hashem . Like we stated at the beginning- Look at this beautiful car that I have. I have a stretch Rolls Royce. Wow, what a car. But you know what? My father gave it to me. So I'll now humble myself to my father for all that he gave me. It's not a contradiction. As long as you have that right attitude of, What I have is great, but it was given to me. And more than that, I have a responsibility to use it properly, that is the proper hashkafa / attitude , not to be brought down with this work on our humility. Further in that same discussion, Rav Wolbe quotes Rabbenu Yonah in Shaare Avodah where he says the first step to serving Hashem is that man knows his value, realizes his level, realizes who his parents and his grandparents are, how hashuv they were and where he came from- And say to yourself , Adam Gadol V'Chashuv Kamoni , something that's important like me today, with all the great qualities I have, I am the children of the greats, of the kings of old, how can I sin? So Rav Wolbe is teaching is that learning your good qualities is not a contradiction to humility. We have to make sure we have that proper outlook when we're working on humility.

Why the 5th night of Channuka is the highest and the darkest Sorry for the late upload :)

Women in Tanach SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/01QmPoPVFrdXoxsli21of5?si=G39hZX17QV6qxzdS4I73zw Mark Trencher offered to have a conversation with a Franciska Show podcast listener David Sheril about his latest survey on  the topic of Midos/Midot in the Jewish Orthodox Community as an interem episode while Franciska is on podcast Hiatus.   Enjoy the podcast and here is a link to the Orthonomics Podcast itself: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-orthonomics-podcast/id1607753307   About David Sheril: David Sheril grew up in Chigwell, a suburb of London. His family became baalei teshuvah when he was nine years old. When David was eleven, his family moved to the Bayit Vagan in Jerusalem. He moved to the U.S. at age 22, in 2005. David's yeshivah education includes Mir Yerushalayim and Ner Yisroel. He served as a rebbe at a Russian-American Jewish high school in Brooklyn for several years before going to law school. He is currently General Counsel for a privately-held real estate transactional, management, and lending company. David resides in Clifton, New Jersey, with his wife Miriam (formerly an officer at the Federal Reserve Bank and now Head of Product at an international fintech startup) and their three children      

Chichichichi wawa

Middot (and we're talking mainly about interpersonal behaviors) are so important, especially in these stressful days. So we are pleased to present this as a dual-platform episode, being released on both Orthonomics and The Franciska Show … both covering important issues in the Orthodox Jewish world, and both available at all podcast platforms. Much of this episode deals with findings from the recent survey: The Middot “Report Card”: How We See Our Community and How We See Ourselves Across 19 Middot “Bein Adam L'chavero.”   This episode is being co-hosted by Mark Trencher of Orthonomics, and David Sheril, a member of the Franciska Show Discussion Group. (Thanks to Franciska for recommending David to participate.)    David Sheril grew up in Chigwell, a suburb of London. His family became baalei teshuvah when he was nine years old.  When David was eleven, his family moved to the Bayit Vagan in Jerusalem. He moved to the U.S. at age 22, in 2005. David's yeshivah education includes Mir Yerushalayim and Ner Yisroel. He served as a rebbe at a Russian-American Jewish high school in Brooklyn for several years before going to law school. He is currently General Counsel for a privately-held real estate transactional, management, and lending company. David resides in Clifton, New Jersey, with his wife Miriam (formerly an officer at the Federal Reserve Bank and now Head of Product at an international fintech startup) and their three children. 

In this class, we speak about the laws of a shul vs. a beis hamedrash Which then evolves into a larger conversation about feeling a pressure not to be the “Frummy” one

Parshas Vayeira delivered to the Avreichim of Kollel Nefesh HaChaim

The primary section of the Selihot service is the "Yag Middot," the recitation of G-d's Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which was established by the Ansheh Kenesset Ha'gedola (Men of the Great Assembly). The Kaf Ha'haim (Rav Yaakob Haim Sofer, Baghdad-Israel, 1870-1939) writes (581:5; listen to audio recording for precise citation) that it is forbidden to recite the "Yag Middot" without concentrating on the words' meaning. He adds that the words must be recited with fear, awe and trepidation, and with as intense concentration as possible. One should bow when reciting the words "Va'yaabor Hashem Al Panav Vayikra," and then stand straight for the recitation of "Hashem Hashem." The custom in Yeshivat Bet-El was to stand up straight when reciting "Vayikra," and then bow again for "Hashem Hashem." The Ben Ish Hai (Rav Yosef Haim of Baghdad, 1833-1909) writes that when reciting "Hashem Hashem," one should lift himself with his feet, as we do when reciting "Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh" in Nakdishach. One must make a brief pause between the first "Hashem" and the second, as they are separated by a "Pesik" note. The Kaf Ha'haim writes that one who recites them without a brief pause is liable to severe punishment. One should also briefly pause in between the words "Vayikra Be'shem" and "Hashem." One must recite the "Yag Middot" in a loud voice, just as Moshe Rabbenu declared the attributes in a loud voice. There is a debate among the commentators in identifying the thirteen attributes. We accept the view of the Arizal (Rav Yishak Luria of Safed, 1534-1572), who listed the attributes as follows: 1) Kel; 2) Rahum; 3) Hanun; 4) Erech; 5) Apayim; 6) Rab Hesed; 7) Emet; 8) Noser Hesed; 9) La'alafim; 10) Noseh Avon; 11) Va'fesha; 12) Ve'hata'a; 13) Ve'nakeh. It is proper to count the attributes with one's fingers while reciting them. The "Yag Middot" may only be recited together with a Minyan. If one is in the middle of the recitation when the congregation completes it, he may nevertheless continue and complete the recitation, since he had begun to recite the "Yag Middot" together with them. This is the ruling of the Ben Ish Hai (Parashat Ki-Tisa).

Sharon Brous is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR. Her book, The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Heal Our Hearts and Mend Our Broken World, is a national bestseller, and her 2016 TED talk, “Reclaiming Religion,” has been viewed by more than 1.5 million people. Brous was named #1 on the Newsweek/The Daily Beast list of most influential Rabbis in America, and has been recognized by The Forward and Jerusalem Post as one of the fifty most influential Jews. She joins Dan and Lex for a conversation about loneliness, the importance of connection, and the power of showing up for one another.Interested in deepening your relationship to Judaism Unbound? Apply to be part of our Certificate Program in Unbound Judaism. Learn more at www.judaismunbound.com/certificate. The deadline to submit your application for cohort 2 of this program is July 8th, 2024.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!