#40 - Perek Beis Addendum A - Mesilas Yesharim Explained

In two short sessions a week Rabbi Dovid Schoonmaker will elucidate and bring to life the eternal words of the Mesilas Yesharim. Rabbi Dovid Schoonmaker is the Rosh Yeshivah of Shapell's / Yeshivas Darche Noam in Yerushalaim.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

We learned words in our peric, which I don't think we really know what it means. And I got a new insight based on some of my reading that I want to share with you. And I think uh it's sobering, but it's something that needs to be said. We learned in the Perik all about the fact, and we discussed this, the battle of the E Tzahar, Vitahbulus Itzahar of Armaso. And we said that the Aitzahar is an Ishmael Chamahu Umulumad Barmimus. He's a man of war. And he's very, very, very sharp and conniving. And you can't escape him without Chafmarabah, Vashkafa Gadola, and then, of course, eventually with a great degree of Siatadish Maya. So, what does it mean that uh Yitzahara is a Ishmachama? So I just want to give you some examples. I'm reading a book about Eisenhower General and then President Eisenhower, I didn't really know too much about. And um I find there's a lot of Chachma in biographies. Uh, you get an overall perspective of persons. But anyway, so and Lo Yong Valoila, so I look a little bit so I just want to show you what this is like. He's in he's um on the war staff. Because right now he's on General Marshall staff, and he's talking about what the pressure is like in wartime in Washington. It wasn't meant to be an Ishmochama, he was in Ishmochama during the war, during 1942, I think this was. Every day is the same. 7:45 to 11, 7.45 a.m. to 11.45 p.m. That's a 16-hour day. That's what it said in his in his uh library. Then he wrote his friend LeRoy, who was about to join their staff. Dear Roy, just to give you an inkling of the kind of madhouse you're getting into. It's not 8 o'clock in New Year's Eve. Right, New Year's Eve. That's not Rosh Hashanah, by the way, you know, by the um the volume, that's a big thing. Yeah. I have a couple hours work ahead of me, and tomorrow will be no different from today. So it's 8 p.m. already, Arab the Kagiga. And um I've worked today. Tomorrow's not going to be any different. I've been here for about three weeks, and this noon I had my first luncheon outside of the office. First time he had a chance to leave the office in three weeks. Usually it's a hot dog sandwich and a glass of milk, okay. And I've I've had one evening meal the whole period. So the man's eating a hot dog and milk, and you know, once in 21 days he got outside, and this is what he's doing as he's getting ready for the big Yamtiv. And then this is really incredible. There was someone who was named Patrick Hurley, who was a former secretary. So I think secretary means he's the secretary of the war, but he sounds like he was really high up there. And then it was the war, so he and he was already in the Hoover administration, so it'd been years and years before this. I think so. He's probably an older person in his 50s, 60s, and he offered his services to FDR, and Roosevelt sent them to Marshall, who sent him to Ike. That's Eisenhower. Okay. So we're looking for someone to help us in Australia. Eisenhower's job at this point was to be machazing the Philippines. That they were worried the Philippines was going to get run over by the Japanese. We needed someone to organize blockade runners for MacArthur. Hurley was perfect for the job. Okay, why he's perfect is not you can Ein Schombfenim. It's page 183. Kuff. Kuf Pei Gimel. So he comes to Eisenhower. This older person was definitely older than Eisenhower, I think. Uh it seems right. Eisenhower served under him during the last three years of the Hoover administration. So he goes to someone younger than him and he says, When can you report for duty? Like, when are you ready? Now. Okay. What does Eisenhower say to him? Again, to an older person. Come back at midnight, prepare for extended field duty. He promotes him to brigadier general on the spot. They didn't have any uh stars for the thing. So he gave him one of his stars. I guess lent him. He put him on a night flight to Australia with$10 million, which that is about$100,$200 million, to buy whatever supplies. It's incredible. Eisenhower gets to that point. He's not living even, his wife isn't even there, of course. She's wherever she is, um, because he just got plucked to Washington. He's living with his uh brother, Milton, in uh outside Washington in Falls Church, Virginia. Every night when I reach their house, sometime around midnight, both would be waiting up for me with a snack of midnight supper and a pot of coffee. Why is he drinking coffee at that point? I don't know. He has to get back there by 7.45 in the morning. Okay, Slotham. But I cannot remember ever seeing their house in daylight during all the months in Washington. See, see, you get the idea over here, right? This is what an Ishima Kama is doing. 16-hour days, hot dogs and milk, um, commanding people older than himself, people older than himself who had been already being demoted and just doing whatever they can for the war cause, getting shipped out on a few hours' notice with armed with millions and millions of dollars, and then the support staff giving some coffee, waiting out for him, appreciating his efforts. Now, this is the real kicker. Um speaking low, not to bother my neighbors if you're wondering why. Um it's late at night, couldn't sleep. Um he's still I guess they make like a thing like the Huras Shah, we would call it, and in the regular army, so Eisenhower is still a lieutenant colonel, but he had to be made a rate major journal uh major general. So he's not like he's not a major general, but he's a major general Lafida wartime wartime. Okay. Two weeks before that, that's on March 28th. I think this is right just to get some sense if it's not so important when I learned the history of the war, but uh Pearl Harbor is December 7, 1941. Everybody remembers. This is March 28th, about uh uh five, six months after that. Uh in 1942. I think I'm catching it right. Not important, but anyway. So his father passes away in Abilene. So his wife, Mamie, receives the message and he said, Oh, what a terrible thing I had to tell him. He is a wonder. People said he worked right on, and no one could have known him. He gets the phone call, dad died. Okay, sorry, puts the phone down. Ike Stowe is a Maxis being. I felt terribly he recorded on his office notepad that evening. I should like so much to be with my mother these days, but we're at war. And war is not soft. It was no time to indulge even in the deepest and most sacred emotions. I'm quitting work now, 7.30 p.m. I have a heart to go on tonight. Okay, so that he gave in already. At 7:30 p.m., he heard, kept working, you couldn't see it on him, but 7.30 he couldn't go on. And and but he couldn't indulge in his deep and most sacred emotions. And uh David Eisenhower is buried, and uh he didn't even go, it sounds like. At the war department, again, we're not donning the dust hard of what's the right thing to do. That's not the point here. I hope appreciates, right? We're just looking at the example. Eisenhower closes his door for half an hour to reflect upon his father. Incredible. So, this is what an Ishmael Kama is: absolute dedication, focus, no bluff, no muff, no right, pushing aside human emotions. Why do I share all this? Because I think it just gives us a picture when we, or you know, Barak Hashem, of course, some of our friends might be Khailim who are more experienced. Uh God bless you. But uh the normal person, we don't know what is an Anish Mukhama, really. This is what an Ishmo Khama is, and this is what the Aid Sahara is, so this is what we're up against. So I'm not giving the solutions. Um, and I think Monsieur Sharma is giving us a lot of solutions, of course, and that's the whole life is to find solutions. But forewarned is forearm, we have to know what we're up against in this battle of arts with the Aid Zahara. Who is he? This is what he's an Ishmael Khamma. By the way, Monsieur Sharm tells us he's not just an Ishmochama, he's Mulumad Barmimus. He's a really he knows what he's doing. He's a general, he's a he's a staff officer, he's on the planning committee, he he's working it all out, right? So it's not just that he's working, there's something working uh like a dog, hot dogs and and and uh milk, and there's something that's working efficiently, working really smart. So the Aetzahara is both an incredibly uh hardworking person, and he's not only an incredibly hard-working person, he's also really, really bright. So that's what we're up against. And we see how Matslich he is in the world, causing such a kill cool in the world. So, so he's got it all, right? You know, he's got the work ethic, he's got the talents, and he's got the kabalot. Uh he's proven a success. So I wish myself and all of us at Slach against this great enemy. Now that we know a little bit better what he's about, hopefully we'll be more matslif.