#53 - Addendum to Perek Gimel D - 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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You know we all are. You know we're all expected to be. You know we all can be and have in us to be, and then Silcharm believes in us and shares with us that we need to be. What? Sadikim, is govim. Malochim! We can't be shas. No. Problem solvers. Solution-oriented people. Those who come up with creative solutions to problems. Where am I getting this from? From our peric. We mentioned this point, but I really want to clarify it and just dedicate a short session, a short addendum, because I think it's such an important part of everything Mr. Osarm was talking about, and an important and unknown part of our solution. I don't know if everybody has heard in the drush a rub getting up and say, you guys are problem solvers. And in the team, sometimes in a business team, you have that guy who has come up with the solutions, who's creative, who thinks about third-wave thinking, win-win. Well, guess what? That's all of us. Let's see. Because the Ms. Arm said early in the parak, how a person has to judge his actions, Bishas Maisa, Bishlow Bishas Maisa. And you have to judge them what's good, what's bad, etc. That part we're used to. And we think we're used to that. But here's the khadish. Reflect. Think. Delve into. Wonder. The yakr basiklo. In your sechel. Delve into. Here is uh is uh two ways of looking at things in yeshivas. But yakur means a khokir is someone who who who investigates, investigate, aza tahbula yasa, what tahbula, what can I do? What strategy can I do to get out of this mess? La summir raw litarmeno. What I would have said, what do you mean? You find a problem in yourself, run to the tzadik, alive or dead. You find a problem in yourself, Davan. You find a problem in yourself, throw up your hands. No. Says to Mesil Sharm, it's an incredible line. We have to think about it. Yaqkar Basikla is a tahbaliyya. So who says you can do it? But his basic hanach is you can do it. Right? And all those who've adopted Mesila Sharma as a book which is for us are saying that this is something that we can't do. This it wouldn't be, this is a he's our guide in this also. Of course, we need Siat Deshmaya, as he said at the end of the parik, the second parak, Imla Ozo, Im Mulli Ozo, and Yacholo. Without Siat Dishmaya, we'd never and are thinking we also need Siat Deshmaya. That's true, but realize we need Siat Deshmaya is very different from throwing up our hands and saying, I don't know, let me run to my Rebbe, let me run to my Rav. Every time I have an issue, I've ever had a problem. That's not the way. Yachkor Bisikhlo. Aza Takhbulla, yes. What Takbullah can I do to fix this problem? How do I get how do I get around this anger issue I have? How do I get around this um using my phone too much? How do I get around the toro making storm? Yachkor Bisikhlo. How do I deal with my election hara? Now, of course, there are times when a person thinks and he's stuck. The Gamaran Brahpas tells us, in adam matyratsmo me in chavishmatir artsmo based as soon as someone who's bound, someone who's stuck, always can't always get out. There are issues which we need help for, of course. And when a person needs help, he has to reach out for help. And there are things which are beyond us psychological issues, Torah issues, etc. We need rabandam. I'm the first one to when I have my younger years for sure. I turn to my rabandam all the time. I'm old, it's hard to get to them. But when I can, I try to. Recently I went to two of my Rabunam about different things, of course. And it was okay to get a certain amount of questions. Obviously, that's part of the picture. But it's a totally different world when a person sees himself. I'm a problem solver, I'm an Avota Session problem solver as I grow and as I develop. And I'm the one who knows myself best, and I'm the one who has to judge and think about what I can do to deal with this problem. I need outside help, I need a consultant, I need a rough. Of course, fine, take it. But but but but not without first considering yourself where you can get up to and seeing the aces which can work for you. It's such a training, such a way of looking at itself. And what moves me when I was omen on this, I don't think I in the other times I've learned with Silas Sharm, I've ever I've ever, uh, this point didn't stand out with such clarity. That's why we keep learning, that's why we review the deep words of the great Rebbe over here to think about them again and see them again and run into new ideas and new concepts which need to be said. Yaakub is Sikhla, it's for for all of us. Every Jew has to be a problem solver. Some of us are better at it, some of us are worse like it, just like every just like every other talent. But all of us have to be involved in that. Never see yourself as someone who's just, my hands are up, I get to my issues, I don't know how to deal with them. And I know myself as a Rebbe when there's a Talmud who's himself working on solutions, and then he can come to me and we can talk about what he sees and what I see. It's a different world than someone who's just coming without any of his own thoughts about his own situation, without any uh knowledge of what he does. He's not a player, he's much, much less a player, he's much less involved in the process. I think it's a very, very inspiring line. A very, very inspiring line that that's something that's inside of us, and that really was what creates this uh three-part um structure, which I can't stop saying because I think it's such a good way to think about the whole picture. What's the Ratsana Torah? Where am I? How do I get there? What's the Ratsana Torah? Where am I? How do I get there? It's not enough just to do a Heshman Nefish and say, I'm good, I'm bad, and go to sleep. What's the Ratsana Torah? Where am I holding? How do I make the next step? But how do I make the next step? I can know how to make the step. I have that in me to to go and continue. And I think when a person's in that that kind of like it's such, you know, that can do positive moving out of my problems insight. So I'm adding one other point now. It's not just the ability, but it's the um way we look at ourselves. When you say someone's a problem solver, there's a lot of positivity to that. It's not just the problem that they're solving, it's the attitude that they bring to the to the business, to the startup, to the yeshiva. All right. A lot of people, you know, are always talking about, you know, this is a borrowing, this is wrong. Okay, what can we do about it? Let's, okay, that's the problem, fine, great. Now what? Let's let's just talk about this wrong a lot with media, just getting into the all the problems of the world. What are we trying to do with it? It's not solution-oriented. When we hear the word solution-oriented, it's positive. We like that. Oh, we want to be around that solution-oriented man or woman. That's that's that's good energy, that's positive energy. We're moving in the right direction, we're moving towards something. So it's two mylas that we have in this mishore. One, of course, most importantly, most basically, that we fix our fix the problem. I'm gonna speak Lash and Hor, I'm gonna I'm going to um learn more Torah, I'm gonna get less distracted, I'm gonna focus better in Daving and come on time to Daving, stay in the end of Davning, etc. Do more chasid, all the things that I feel I have to, one that feels they have to work on. You're gonna get to those incredibly, incredibly important things, what we're here in this world to do, but it's also the whole um essence of what type of person you become. When you're a problem or solving oriented person, you're someone who's positive, who's moving forward, who's not just sitting and complaining. That's a different different life, a different world. So we should take that line uh seriously and bring it home to ourselves. You bonin the sichlo. So you have the answers, friends.