#62 - Perek Daled I - 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

I'm super excited to share a new insight. So the top level people, it's shamus. What else is it worth? What else is worth it? Next level, covet. As we spoke about bar khabarabbah. But la khol amon, what about the regular people? Hinehibin has kharbonish at swam. What's going to mour them is skarbonish themselves. Right? Punishment. Not covet, punishment's interesting. So that's that's lower than covet. Covet, I guess, is a little more sophisticated still. But they're gonna get whooped. That's a har on the lower level. Like the Ramam also calls that a lower level. When one sees how far Omekadin is, okay. I don't want to talk too much about Omekadin yet. We'll do that Ezra Shem in the next session. But what I just want to reflect again on what the Msila Sharma is doing. And we've made this basic reflection, but I want to reflect on the reflection. For these people, this is what's gonna be more of them. For these people, this is what's gonna worry them. For these people, this is what's gonna worry them. What's the point? Look at Rabbeinuhar Ramchal being yarried into the Mitsidas. Now, it could be, by the way, if you say, well, I don't really relate to anything, that's not the point. The Ramchal knew his generation, this is what was moving people today. This is not moving you. Maybe Kabad Chasidis is gonna move us, maybe it's Brasil Chasid, maybe it's uh philosophy, whatever it is. That's not the point. The point is look at this man of greatness reaching down into how people think to elevate them. And there's these types of people, and then there's these types of people, and then these types of people. Canegad Arbapanam Dibrita, to me, it's almost a moving moment in the Seder. Barakhamakam Barakou Barkshu Bakarba the Torah. Knegar Arba Bam Dibrutara. The Torah spoke to four types of people, and Chachamenu spoke to different types of people, and he cared about them. Who are we talking about? Rabbein Ramchal, Roshikai Mussato, Italian. Knew, I read once, called Kisviari, I think it was Baal Pé. Baalpeh when he's 15, and it's highly believable. He had Gili Giloy Elio. Elio came to him. Elio. Not in the form of someone you know making herbs. In a real transmission. He writes about these things. You can you can read it. It's in different swarm. Otsus Ramkal, I think, if someone can find in the green books, Otsus Ramkal and the Agda, Yaqob came to him, Avram came to him. But I think Elio came to him already when it's 1819. That's part of the everyone knows that the Ramkal was run out of Italy. That was it because he was really revealing too much and he was talking about these things. 1819, Elios coming to him. He wrote the books that Klyser live off of today, Massil His Sharm. But who doesn't want to missile his sharm? Us. Everyone. Who doesn't want to missiles sharm? Everybody. Some people it's more central than some people less central. Okay, but it's part of the Jewish bookshelf. Das Tunis. You get serious about a muni, you gotta learn that's Tunis. Derech Hashem, I don't know. I learned Derech Hashem later in life. I don't know why it took me so long to learn it. Bread and butter. Those three swarm. And then Mamma Makodish, Adi Ramarum, and Klaqsi Khakma, the people who are the people who are super experts. You know, there's whole schools that they learn Groat and Ram Khal. That's what they learn. They don't learn all this swarm, the Al Khazidas, this they learn Ariza, Ghra, Ramchal. The place I can't emphasize enough, those that don't know. You know, so someone said to me recently, the Falan Shiva said, well, the Ramchal wasn't such a capitalist. Like, what? You know, you think he was just an ethicist? He just wrote Basilh Sharm. Or Birucham said all of his Kabul he put it to Ms. Sharm. The Khidish. That's Massilis Sharm. That was such a but what we talk about like central thinkers of Khaystral on a level that's look, he's talking about Rucha Kodish here, he's talking about Triya Samasim at the end. We'll get there, stay with us. I mean, he's talking big stuff. This is the Tum Aliyah's reason to Ziris to Trias Amesim. This is supposed to be a way to get you to be able to enliven the dead. Okay, I don't think that's going to do it in Masilish Arm Explain. Please don't expect that at the end and don't ask your money back, right? But that's where the man is going. I don't know what he could do. Who knows the boundaries of what he could do? His kedusha, his, his, his, his, his precious, his, his khachma. It's not something we can understand. It was a light from above. One of those holy souls which which went beyond beyond boundaries. So elevated, so exalted. But here he is. There are people who are moved by covid. Not everybody's moved by Shlami Adas. How am I what do I write for them? What do I write for the people who are not Schleiyadas? What do I tell them? How do I I gotta get to the result that we were talking about? I have to get these people's resources. I have to help Klyserl. What do I write for them? Covid. I look in the world, I look in Mishlay, I look in Kohelis, doesn't move me. But I know maybe when maybe when it was when I was eight or nine, it's been so long. Ramosha Feinstein, as a child, saw that chess, chess was like a favorite pastime of Tommy Diyeshiv in Russia and Lithuania. Someone told me he spoke to a pepperman, my friend Akiva Resnik, Sliita Rav in Ramadashkol area or Malodavna area, known area, known person. He told me that he spoke to a pepperman, paperman or pepperman, I think paperman was a friend of Gifter, had learned in an American, had learned in uh tells. He said he remembers always been his manim in tells. You'd have two fellows on a hammock that would play chess blindly, and the third Bach would move the pieces. That was the Gishma. That's how they that's how they vacation in tells. Everybody played chess. Remosha was nine, ten, uh-uh, no, no more chess. A separation from this world. So the Ramchal's level of separation is is not one we can imagine of the world, but yet to understand us. To understand. There are people who are moved by covenant. Ah, that's it. That's it. That's how they're gonna get into Zahiris. And you know, there are people who that that's also also gonna move them. Then maybe they're like they're they're schleppers, they don't care about their covet. They'll let people walk all over them. What are you gonna tell them? Onish. Ah, that's it. And maybe if he's here today and say, you know, and there are other people who need, maybe they need, you know, Ramnachman. I'll tell them that. Who knows what he would say today. But he cared about us. That's what I want to emphasize now. Allow me to continue. And then I was thinking more about this. We can't even open up our mouth about his level. The gro, it's well known. The kind of legendar said the grow was maybe a rashpa and a thousand years not a rambam. Think about that. Those the gro, I mean, the gra. The world shook in front of the gro, the world shakes in front of the gro. A thousand years not a rabbam. Whatever Ben Arambam wrote. Moranivuchim. Guide to the perplexed. Let yourself sit on that world. Word. Nivuchim. So many machadra we read Kore Naeem, my fine reader. In our own generation. Gdolim that reach out to the people. The example that I feel closest to, and I only saw him once in my life, but for me was very real, was Ravar Lebsteiman. I want to tell you a little bit of Ravar Lebsteiman. He knew Kalatara, that's obvious. He was the godalador and the you know the bona fide leader of the yeshiva movement in Israel and America, etc. But he he was born in Brisk. He was born in Brisk, you know, back then. Like Brisk. Brisk wasn't a wasn't a safer for him. It wasn't wasn't ideal. It was a place he grew up. He was a parush, he was totally separate from this world. I'm not sure, but I think I heard one time they say he slept sideways on a bed. You imagine that he was short, but still, like, not to get too much comfort. He hardly ate anything. His house was messy. I was in his house. I don't think it had a paint job done in 50, 60 years. This we saw, people saw. He didn't use the back of a seat for like 60 years. So much comfort. You know, I know me, like the second, if you look right now, you can't see it. But you know, I got this comfortable chair. I got it secondhand. Gula one, you know, armrests. I can't imagine. I just, you know, after a minute, I was just tired. Take it easy, a recliner. To imagine if our lab been a recliner. Imagine if our lab been a recliner. It's inimaginable. I can't I can't even get the mushroom. He was culo amalis, cool precious, culo separation. Covered all these things. I'm talking for from reading hundreds of pages of things about him and stories like him, right? Some you know that I believe me, I don't believe every story I read, but you read enough, you get a picture of a person. And you hear from people and you hear from other people. You get a picture. It's not no one was building it. They don't say the things they said about him about other Israel. There are other ways he was he wasn't as big as Aldigdul Israel in other ways, etc. But you get a picture of a person so separate, so above, so so not caring, so beyond, you know, things that move. We spoke a lot about Covet in recent weeks. Covid, uh, you know, what people thought about him. I'll tell you one story was known that he was behind, at least at some level, the Naqah Kharidi, some of the efforts to get Kharida more into the army, and obviously the Kanoim were very, very against him. And uh and it was a tense time. And some of these people they're really crazy, you know, they give really Mazalzal and Talmud Khamm and Baza tell me the khan, Rahumal Islam. And he went to Yushalaim, and people were yelling at him, and uh and they had they rushed up to the car. It was terrible, you know, a terrible, terrible situation. And everybody's sitting there in the car, and they're driving back to Ben Abrah, you know, down the turns, those who know Yushalayim. Now they made the road a little bit better, but down the turns, and and it had been like 10 minutes, no one said a word of what you know, heavy silence in the car, terrible silence. Here's the Ghutalad door, the person they all did. They knew who he was, they knew what Ravar and Lab was, and they knew why he was doing what he was doing, and they knew why he supported whatever level he supported. Very interesting to get the exact history, what he did, what he didn't, etc. They never got it clear, but for sure, and they were against him. And and and finally Ravar and Leb opened his mouth. What did he say? I can't understand why people have tightness on each other. Why did why why should a person have a tie note on someone else? Now, I don't know if he meant why should I have tinyness on them? Why have time on me, but I think that's what he meant. Why should I you know, okay? You know what happened. Above, above and beyond. O'Reilly, everybody knew, everybody knew a new shelly for years. It wasn't it wasn't someone that newspapers made. It was it was 40 years, 50 years of uh giving hydrauchida cholesterol. Anyway, but what's the point, friends? But he was so your raid into the generation. I'll tell you one story that uh Baker came to one time and said, My mother wants me to wear a sweater. Do I have to listen to him? Her and Ravarn Late turned to him and said, You shouldn't smoke. Get it? Who got it? Ravarn Late was saying he understood he saw right through this boy. His mother didn't want him to wear a sweater, his mother wanted to stop smoking. He didn't want to tell the Rashiva that he was smoking, so he said, And he but he wanted to do it, do I have to listen to my mother? Do I have to listen to my mother when she because she doesn't want me to smoke? But he dressed up the question in the sweater, and Varnlate saw right through it. But there's there's a zillion things like this. And I remember I told my Rebbe Rubyako Friedman this uh definition one time, and he liked it, got us going for it, that he was so beyond the door, so above the door, so separate from from the door, a lot of things which move, but from that place he like penetrated so deeply and so in touch, and that's what those were. So I'm I'm moved by this again. Uh something I try to give over in these sessions is not just to learn to be Madayak the language and take the lessons, but it's also to reflect what what's happening here in the book, right? And we don't always get those insights. What's happening what's he doing over here? What's Ram Khal doing? Why is he writing this? Keep going, you know, get get the next. No, no, no, no, no. I can't. I'm not getting the parakeet yet. We're not ready for we're not ready for zarizas. We're not ready for zerizas of shumpanim. I'm not reading a book just for the Shlami Hadas. Schleimi Adas also deserve a place for sure. I gotta talk about it. How do I get the Schleimi Hadas, the Gdolim of the next generation, the Tamil Kham of the next generation? Definitely. How do I get them to Zihiris? One, but not everybody's on that level. What about the next level? What about what about the Phusim? But they're still on a higher level. Them? Covid, that's gonna work for them. Okay, but what about the Hamona Am? Ah ben it's garbage. Okay, scarables is gonna get them. And I find friends, all this together in a world of increasing anxiety, in a world of increasing anti-Semitism, in a world of political craziness, it's very soothing that we have swarm like this, that we had and have Gdolim that cared about us and still care about us. Not all of us are gonna be involved with Gdolim hand to hand, right? But there are people out there, you know, Ravashar Vice, my friend Eric Kubersmith, Rabbi Eric Kubersmith Schlita, is help serve Usher Vice on his fundraising trips. He tells me, he sees Ravashar Vais out there. It's not just uh Gvirum, of course he spends time with the he's there to fundraise, but he yet needs him. Ravasha Vice is there. Let him come. It's not just uh you know the Fasha people, he's there. Rivashi Vais, I remember we were discussing something once I was a relationship with him. He said to me, like when you stand, Dolly's throat's like when you feel like you're supposed to feel like you stand in front of your father. That doesn't mean that no one should think every time you go, you're gonna have that experience. And schoolmaker told me, and I went to see Rupshim Gala, and he was busy. I there there's there are people out there. The one I love so much, uh Tim Meyer Zilberg. Swee Meyer Zilberg, incredible. I have a friend who was going through it Sarah he told me he held my hand for 42 minutes and was crying with me. 42 minutes. Now, believe me, today with Swee Meyer is like thousands of people, you're not gonna get that time. I don't know how you get time. But I said to Talmud recently, he said he felt it, you know, you felt, you feel the love, you feel the you feel the involvement, the the the care for kleiser, the the the the the care for each member of Klystro. They're they're out there, the people are out there. Or Melek Biederman, I I don't know uh where he is, but someone told me he was close to really Melek Bieterman. He says that I have uh a relative of my son, and sometimes they're in Ramad Chemish, and Melich Bieterman stops at their house sometimes to rest. What's the resting? He was on the phone calling Almanas, he saw him calling him up. He finally has a minute between drushes to talk. Calling up, how are you? What's going on? It happened there was a woman here, and Navuk, her husband passed away, her husband had a brain tumor for many years. Tidler said, So wonderful, wonderful person, Abraham friend of mine, Nabuch. But you know, she gets a call one time. This is Melek Biederman. So he said, I'm sorry she knows who she was. Those that don't know, uh, Melek Biederman is like very, very well known. Uh I'm giving this uh week before Lie Bomber. Laibomer maybe he has a tissue for maybe 10,000 people. You know, he's like he's uh he's uh a very, very central figure in like the whole Chasidish yeshewish world in America, I'm sure, in a in a in excuse me, in Israel, yeah. So not everybody knows him. So he's like, no, so she calls this woman up. Um she didn't know she didn't know he was, but then listen to this. And I heard the storytelling from my wife, but then he found the way to her heart. They spoke a little bit, and he said soothing words to her. Her husband Nebuchadnezzar loved to learn, and the brain tumor affected his mind. And he said that your husband is a higher level than everybody because his kheshik, his desire to learn, is the strongest, and that that carried her. So there are people out there, and you have to find them. And even if you don't find it, for the Rabanam and Schules, of course, you know, the trying so hard and doing such great work, right? But not all of us, not all of us will be Zokhid to have a relationship with someone like that, but to know that we have the Ramchal and we have the Ram. The Ram wrote Amornavukim. He wrote to those who are mixed up. That says, hello, here's a guide for the mixed up. Don't call it perplex, perplex a fancy word. And and Rabin Ramchal is ready to the Hammonam. Rab Nachman, you know. I don't I don't know too much of Rab Nachman, but I was told someone said to Rab Nachman that he was Megala too much, Rab Nachman wrestler. And he says, You think I'm ready for this generation? I'm writing for later generations. And you see, you know, you see Rab Nachman, how how how it's not my thing so much, but I see that people are moved by it and touched by going to Umman. I see so many, so many people go to Uman, so many people are touched by it. That was a tsadi that was there, that was that was extending himself, that spoke a language to later generations. Uh I know someone who asked the wrestler what time, like, what is so, so just Ramnaqum, Ramnaqam, everything Ramnack Ramnaqum. He said, listen to this. Who Tsio T Mayam? He took me out of the, he took me out of the surf. He took me out of the surf. So it might not be your thing. Like I said, it's not exactly my thing either. I don't know too much. I know a few pieces and I like them, you know, mostly what I heard from Raplach, but but but I get it in this in this rubric, right? That's the point. We have to all find it. So so what am I saying at the end of the day, friends? What's my khadish here? We all know that Torah is great. We all know that Swarm are great. Not only are they great, they are written for you. Gdoli Stral, Karishborhu was worried about you. Karishborhu wrote a Torah for you. And he sent his shluchim, his wonderful shluchham, Rabbeinu Abam Khap Shemtav, Rabbeinu Harizal, Rabbeinu Hagra, Rabbeinu Ravkuk, Rabbeinu Rabtsodik, Chabitzhaim, Ramchal, Rabbi Sol Salantar, Rabbi Ruchim, all this, the Shemishmule, the Swasemas, all the Swarm that are in Klayasal today, they're Maral. Chabad Chasidis, each person, they were big tsadi. Balatanya was kulu for the Hebra. Read the Balatani. He says he was writing for his chasidim. The relevant to the Balatanyah's words to see how people love Tanya today, not just Khabadik's. It's there. So they cared about us, Kadish Borhu cared about us, and he sent us. He was shows all the Sadiqim and all of us. That's why we have to be doubly to Tsadiqim, connect to them, and realize that Sadikim was speaking to us. That doesn't mean every single tzadik, and doesn't mean everybody who's who has a title and uh or who's a rabbi is it is a tzadik or or is on that level, obviously. But Yeshanashim, March Hashem today, just like the Rubin Ramcha was doing, that would that was it. I was moved, I was markab a little bit. I hope it was uh meaningful for everybody, and I look forward to continuing in the next uh session. That's laqhah.