#52 - Addendum to Perek Gimel C - 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

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One of my fondest uh revelations, it's a little strong insights maybe over the last six months was as we're learning Massil Sharm, and he had focused so much on Ulam Habba, etc., and that I realized that I have to give myself and others a sense of why you want to get to Ulam Habah. What was so obvious to the Massile Sharm as the generations go, as we um get in a certain way more mixed up in our time of light and darkness mixing together, there's so much light in our generation, so many people learning different styles, also so much Torah available of different styles. Excellent Swaram and Chasidas and Kabbalah and Drush and Halakha, Parshanut, uh Nakh, I got a knock recently, which earlier doors didn't have such a thing. Uh Artscroll Gemaras, the Masifta Gemaras. There's never such a thing. 100 people. Maybe since Talmud Babli, 100 people worked on the every volume of the Masifta, giving the Pshad and Rashi and Drush and Tosis. Incredible. But I against that, there's so much bilbul, bilbuladeis. People don't know what's important, what's not. People identifying as cats uh on the very, very far extreme, but uh there's a lot. Anyway, so we don't always remember why we want to get to focusing on Ulam Habba. And I know we've we're past that, but I saw something recently which was um very impactful and powerful and beautiful, and I thought that's a thing we need have to keep coming back to. That somehow we have to remember that Um Habah is what it's all about. This world is a pros door, but not just that reality, but that's just one which makes us happy. Like getting to your birthday, your wedding, your grandchild's wedding, your a concert you want to go to, a sports game, you're excited to engage in. People look forward to things. Shwa is counting down the shwa is the sphere's homer, that's all what sphere is about. So we're getting there to the next world. Well, we engage in this world in the proper way, of course. But how do we remind ourselves? So I want to share some words from Rabbi Miller. What does it mean, Masifta Duraqia? Masifta Duraqia, which is like yeshiva shamala, the yeshiva of above, the yeshiva they have upstairs, is portrayed in the Gemara like a real yeshiva. Now, in a sense, in a true, in a sense, it's a marshal, it's a parable, right? So we have yeshivas down here, and we have yeshivas upstairs. What's the purpose of yeshiva? To gain Chachma Satora. That's the purpose. In the yeshiva, you don't manufacture boxes, you don't manufacture shoes. It's for the purpose of learning Chachmah. That's why one goes to Yeshiva or seminary, let's add. Now, in the world to come, there's one happiness. Seeing the Ziv Ashina, the re of the Shrina. And that's Chachma. Realizing the truth of the world. It's a tremendous wisdom. It comes through our eyes, such a happiness to see the emis of the Briya, to see what's going on in the Briya. What it was this world that we were part of. What was the wisdom here? The platypus. We see Hashem, never that's Masipta Durakiya. That's the Chachma. That's why it's Masipta. The Zivashhinah creates a place of learning. So you sit there, it's hadikim Yoshvim. They sit in that Masipta and they look at the Shinah and they gain wisdom from it. Tremendous wisdom. How long? Every second. Doesn't take a whole long drush by the rabbi with a joke at the beginning and uh a parable at the end and a few other jokes and stories and other distractions in the middle. Every second, tremendous wisdom every second. They learn the secrets of the Berea. The secrets of history. The secrets of nature. They learn, here's the point: all the pneemias of everything by looking at Hashem. Oh, that's what you did. Oh, that was the juxtaposition between the Holocaust and the state of Israel. Oh, that's why we bombed Iran. Oh, that's why I broke my leg. Oh, that's why Low Leno, he lost his mother. That's why he had such difficulty Shadukim. That's why things worked out for him so nicely. That's why he had so much Panassa. That's why the real estate went so well. That's why the United States and Russia. Do you know who the United States' best friend was in the Civil War? Russia. Do you know that? The Russian Alliance. I read that recently, I was shocked. The Russian Alliance was a lot of what kept the North kept wanting to make sure that the South didn't come in, excuse me, that the that England and France wouldn't recognize the Confederate States, right? That would have been they were rebels, they were renegades, etc. And that did a lot of uh meaning to that. If European nations recognize the South, that changes the whole thing. That was what the Secretary of State of Seward, one of the great Americans of the time. Some said the greatest American, the greatest American of the time was, of course, Lincoln, the great Lincoln, but he was maybe number two. And that's part a lot of what he did. And a lot of the bulwark against that was Russia. Incredible. Here you have this vibrant, dynamic, new democracy, and then it was an ancient monarchy. We know that with the czarists, they were Shoim Matsumim, right? We know what they were doing to the Jews at that time, and later Nikolai and all these were shy. Okay, but but there was a bris. What was that about? Why did Kansas Bork orchestrate that? Lesser level you'll understand why. Vietnam. Going back, Corbin by Srish, Korba Shane, we'll have such insight. We'll have such Havana and everything. And I mentioned the Platypas before, but the Chachman and the Briya is incredible on the on the macro level, what's going on in the cosmos, the Shemayim, incredible. I read once that that like galaxies cluster, you know, we think about like a solar system. We get that. Even the solar system itself is incredible. We're so far away from Mars, so far away from uh Pluto, so far away from Mercury, Mercury to Pluto. But then, but that's small stuff. We get these like massive galaxies, and they they're in touch with each other, they're moving with each other, and then you get to the micro-level things, the quantum level things, which things are going berserk and crazy. So much chachma, so much wisdom in everything that's happening. It wasn't always like that. People thought things were status. We understood the molecule, that was it. Who said there's a molecule? No, there's a molecule. No, there's an atom, there's an electron, there's a proton, there's a Higgs Bossum particle is incredible. So wherever you turn, there's chachman and wisdom. So the Zivishkina of Miller's saying is that we look at a Kurdish Morakul and it gives us insight into everything, all those things we couldn't understand. Just the we don't get all of it, believe me. All things in our life, old things in history, old things in nature. Of course, however, there's and that's a tremendous happiness. We'll have insight every second. However, there's another thing. There's such a thing as learning Gumara in Yeshiva Shamala. Those people acquired a taste, the gesmack of learning in this world. The world to come to get a real taste. Masukmund Vashitvan. Those who learn, those who were Zochat, understand Gumara Rashi, it's so sweet. Incredible. And this is true, right? It's sweeter than the most delicious kind of cake. Yami Yami, Varevna. The most the most delicious thing in the world you can imagine, this we mentioned before, is learning Torah. Although we don't always feel in this world. But those who will try, they got a certain masikas, a sweetness, certain pleasure in this world, and then the Shivishma, they'll be in a separate group. They'll be learning Torah and enjoying together with Zivishkhina together. So everybody gets Zivat Torah, everybody gets the Zivishkhina, and then the Lone Day Torah gets a special thing. I want to emphasize, I don't know if he mentions this here, we'll see it again, that those who support Torah also get that. A wife who supports her husband's learning gets that. A person who supports Yeshiva gets that. There's a known story, a Rubkai Malaj, that one of the big supporters of Velajan passed away. And I believe that this is the exact story that Rubkhai Valajja was having difficulty working on a certain sukhya. And that person, who was a simple person and learning-wise, maybe he's a Kavir, might have been a wealthy person, but he wasn't, certainly wasn't Rubukai Velaj, but he wasn't. I don't think he was a student of Velajan. He was uh he was probably a businessman who was supporting the yeshiva. He came and told Rubkai Valajan of the Pshat in the Mishnah or the Gamar that he was having trouble with. And Rubkai Valajar said, We always knew this, but that it happens that fast. It was like that night, the insight came right away. So don't think that I would add also, and not to be called the counter of uh Miller, but I think it's assuming from other things I've seen that those who try, even if you didn't reach those who attempt someone who tries to learn, and even if you didn't reach the masikas, not everybody gets masikas at tauru. Almost everybody gets some form of it, but even those who don't, but if you tried, of course the cuteshmok is giving to you. And if you supported taur, of course can give it to you. And if you had it, of course you're gonna have it. So that's the Shiva Shalmala. If a person spends their life trying to understand the secrets of the Gemara, of the sugas of the Gomorrah and the world to come, they'll do it again. Only this time will be with tremendous happiness, a sweetness. A Nachmadimi Zahov, um we Pazrav, Tara's Nachmad, we say in Shabbas Dhabani. Um sukkumidvash, sweeter than sugar, no fitsu. Nothing as sweet as that. But even without that, the study of the greatness of Hashem, the Khachmus Hashem, that encompasses everything. And certainly, therefore, right? So it's all about wisdom and it's all about Gishmach. Every person, every human being loves perspective. You see, someone is so depressed, someone's so having such a difficult time, and what brings them to Kama a different perspective. Someone listens to them and shares them a different way of looking at their difficulty, suddenly they're happy. Saga makes happiness, Torah makes happiness, Khachma makes happiness. I'm reminded, well, this will end, that I was uh Zopath Biarevi in the NCSY Summer Cola, quite a famous program today. And uh uh far fewer, maybe there were 250 students when I was there. I started when they were 48 and then we're 86 and then 90, and then we passed 100. Eventually I had to move on. Um, but one of the things I was Zophit to help arrange was Rabnasa Sri Finkel, the great Rosh Shiva of the Mir Yeshiva, one of the most beloved characters in Kalisra. I think in his time he was the most beloved person in Klaiisrael. That'll be my my guest and respected. Yeah, Parkinson's. Yeah, he ran this and built and built up this amazing, amazing Torah metropolis of the Mir Yeshiva, which is going strong today, Wadra Hashem Ken Yirbu. And we came to see him. Uh 150 uh Talmudim that spent the summer learning, most of them from unorthodox homes. And he came in and it was an electrifying moment. All the flashes were going. I think we had flashes then. I think they were called like an electric moment. And then he started speaking. Here was this Grand Rosheshiva all in black, long coat, uh, frock, hat. And he said, When I was a boy, my Rebbe asked me, Nady. His name was also Nadey. What did you think about this shot? And I said it was a nice shot. And my Rebbe said, Nadey, it's sweet. It's so sweet. It's not just nice, it's so sweet. And that really moved uh Talmudim was what was one of the highlights of the summer. And you saw how this great Roshiva knew how to had a he himself, by the way, for those who don't know, Ron Safi was uh Chicago boy, and I think he was even in a mixed school when he was younger, and he played basketball, etc. And then he became the Roshiva the Mirror, but he right away, you know, bonded with this, with this, with our Talmudim, and it was an amazing moment. But the point I'm bringing here is the fact that as Rebu's emphasizing to him 70 years ago, you know, the sweetness of Torah, the Gishma of Torah, and that's what it's going to be, Mesratasham. So again, I just thought we needed, I saw this recently. I thought, I need an extra pump. We need a pump, and you have to always remember that. You know, sometimes when you hear, oh, it's Alumhaba, it sounds, oh, what do you mean I'm having such a good time in this world? You tell me I have to worry about the next world. That's not because we don't get it, right? Like a high school kid, you don't say to a kid, what do you mean I'm such a good having such a good time in school? You're telling me to think about vacation? I'm I'm having such a good time just like watching T watching uh football on on the TV. You have to bother me with the fact that you know, it's a kid, a kid walks in, his father says, Uh, Sonny, I got your tickets to the Super Bowl. Dad, don't bother me right now. I'm in the middle of the Jets game. Sonny, I'm taking you to the Super Bowl. Super Bowl, super bowl, super bowl. You, me, there. $1,500 tickets. We're flying there. You are, it's a game now. This game, the whole game is to get to that. No, dad, don't bother me. No, that's only because you're missing it, right? We're all missing it. We shouldn't be looking at it. Oh, sometimes the idea of, I know it, the idea of living for Olam Haba feels to us like uh a heavy coat in the middle of the summer that we're putting on ourselves. We're having such a good time in this world and doing mitzvah souls in this world, and you're you're worried about Olam Habba. What are you doing? That's the opposite, right? It's because we're missing it. We don't realize, we don't realize the reality of it, but we also don't realize the geschmack of it, the pleasure of it, the the wonderfulness of it, the enjoyment, and bashem. When we keep hearing things like this and repeating them to ourselves, Sri Nam Khizak, it'll make more and more reality for us of how wonderful that reality be, and we shall be Zoha to be there together with all Clayas, with all the Tzadikim. Basvatashem.