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Taking Direction from Torah - Rav Aviyam Levinson
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We're we're getting closer to
phrase we use Kabbalah Shatorah that
formulation appears in Hazal.
But Hazal also talk about something
else, not just Kabbalas Torah,
but Kabbalas Oil Torah. Mishna says in
Pirkei Avos
in third perek
Rabbi Chanina ben [clears throat] Akavia
omer
kol hamkabel alav ol Torah ma'avirin
mimenu ol malchus v'ol derech eretz.
Person who accepts upon himself the
Oxford translation, yoke, not the egg
one, the yoke of Torah
uh so they they capital T remove from
him um
ol malchus, the government stops
bothering him, and he doesn't have an ol
derech eretz anymore. Derech eretz in
the Rishonim probably means parnassa.
Yeah? Kol hamkabel alav ol Torah if you
remove the yoke of Torah from yourself
so no longer have ol malchus v'ol derech
eretz. Those are replaced by a different
set of responsibilities.
Uh Rishonim all implicitly are bothered.
The Mishna says in in the second perek
Pirkei Avos, Yafes shmu'ah im derech
eretz. He's supposed to have talmud
Torah and derech eretz. So what do you
mean you're supposed to if you get if
you have it accept the ol Torah so we
get rid of the ol derech eretz? Wasn't
supposed to have been be involved in
derech eretz.
So obviously the the distinction is a
person is supposed to be involved in
derech eretz, but it's not supposed to
be an ol. It's not supposed to be a uh
uh yoke for him. Well, hopefully we'll
we'll we'll refine what that means in a
minute.
So Rebbe Yonah says on this Mishna
if a person accepts ol Torah ach
she'eino oseh Torah so ikkar melachto
arai. Person makes his Torah his main
his mainstay and the melacha that he
does is
the fi amitz damin going to what
whatever comes his way.
So Hakadosh Baruch Hu will protect him.
He won't have to be mevatel Torah
because of the government or ol derech
eretz lo yistarech la'asos melacha arai
b'tzorech parnassa. So uv'im at ya'aseh
pikol d'chiyu oso person will be able to
get to to to do a little bit of work and
he'll get what he needs. That's a a
simple point, right? If a person wants a
person wants to be mevatel Torah so
Hakadosh Baruch Hu will arrange that
he's able to be involved in Torah and
doesn't need to spend his time involved
in other things.
But Rebbe Yonah then adds something
else. Ki melacha tzaddikim mevareches,
the melacha of a tzaddik gets a bracha
from Hashem. Good. The nafsho samecha
b'chelko, and he's satisfied with what
he has.
That doesn't seem to be s'char, right?
Samecha b'chelko is a middah a person
needs to cultivate, so it can't be
s'char, right? Samecha b'chelko means
something you acquire, right? Or in the
in this case, it's a necessary corollary
of the fact that you're mekabel ol Torah
is you'll be samecha b'chelko. You can't
have it that it's a contradiction
otherwise. It has to be that way. And R'
Menachem goes down on that. The end of
the mishna says you're porek ol Torah,
so the So R' Menachem says,
she'u nitra no day v'torach acher
m'chilas halucham l'matze, he won't be
able to acquire that which he wants of
this world. Gam kim se'ana lo yismach
b'chelko, when he finds it he won't be
satisfied with it. V'chol yamav b'hevel
yiga asher yosif osher al osher, and
he'll spend his entire life pursuing in
pursuit of the wealth that always eludes
him.
>> [snorts]
>> So R' Menachem seems to say not just
that there's like a bracha to kol a
person who does what he's supposed to
do, he's mekabel ol Torah, so Hakadosh
Baruch Hu arranges that he's able to
learn, but that a person sort of by
definition if a person doesn't person is
mekabel ol Torah, so he won't need to do
as much cuz he'll be samecha b'chelko.
And if a person isn't mekabel ol Torah,
he's porek ol Torah, he is interested in
acquiring things of this world, so he
will by definition not be samecha
b'chelko. And R' Menachem in this
context quotes a pasuk in Koheles, ohev
kesef lo yisba kesef. A person looking
for money, so he won't he'll never have
enough of it.
So why is that? Why is it that if a
person
uh
is mekabel ol Torah so he'll be samecha
b'chelko, and if he's porek ol Torah he
won't be samecha b'chelko. How does that
happen?
So the the Ramchal famously says based
on Yerushalmi,
that the
the goal of our existence, not the
reason, but the goal of our existence is
to avoid nama d'kisufa. Hakadosh Baruch
Hu put us here so we could earn the uh
closeness to Him that we already had
before we came into this world, but
before we came into this world we had it
because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave it to
us, that's our natural state if you
will. And Hakadosh Baruch will arrange
we would have a different of this world
whereby we could earn our
share and thereby avoid the quote
unquote shame of of getting something as
a gift.
We're familiar with that in a
theological context. Okay, everyone has
to ask at some point in their life like,
okay, what's what's Hashem's goal in in
creation over here? So, the answer is to
avoid so far. Very nice.
But, if you pay attention a little bit
to the world, so you'll see it's not
just a theological principle, it's
actually how the world operates.
Which makes sense. If that's Hashem's
goal in having us here, so the world
should should run accordingly, right?
For example,
what happens when you when you finish a
Sefsa?
Right? Let's say, I don't know, you
finished Sefsa this year. Schmeck 112
lot you learned, right? It's a lot of
work over a lot of time, and you're
happy and you make a CM and you're
satisfied and happy for
about 20 minutes.
Right? And you're like, okay,
now what?
Then you Okay, so then you go on to the
next one, right? That's that's what
happens, right? So, why does Hashem make
it that way? Why can't you like be happy
with the fact you finished for like 10
years?
The answer is you'd be happy learning
that you learned for 10 years, then it'd
be 10 years till you make another CM,
right? What's driving you to make the
next CM is like, okay, I I I I feel like
I have to accomplish something, I have
to do something with my life. I can't
just sit here with with what I've done
until now, right?
Because the person not here to be happy
with what they did until now. Person is
here to accomplish more, right? If
that's their goal, if put you here to
accomplish something, to earn something,
so you can of course you can't be
satisfied with what you've done until
now. That would contradict the whole
purpose of you being here, right? So, of
course it's that way.
But, the truth is it But, it's not just
it's not just in making CM, right?
Whatever you decide is your goal, you're
never satisfied with it. A person who
sets his goal to to to be
as a lawyer, so he'll never be satisfied
with how he is as a lawyer, because
that's his goal in life. Whatever you
put as your goal, whatever your is, you
can never be satisfied with it. Yeah, we
talked touched a little bit a little bit
last week. This is liberation, right? I
wrote looking
from a not the first like four
after that. Okay, that's when he he
elaborates on this a lot. You just have
to, you know, broaden it a little bit.
That's what he's saying. Okay?
Now, not everyone's equally driven in
all areas, right? If you want to be a as
much as you can as a lawyer, so you put
your invest your efforts in being a
lawyer. If you want to be a talmid
chacham, you invest your efforts in
learning Torah, right?
And some people,
they are parnassah happens to be a as a
lawyer, but like they're okay. They
don't have to be like the most
successful lawyer. Like they're okay
with that. And some people like if
they're not like getting to the top,
they're like
they're like jumping out of their seats.
Like, what what am I doing here? Right?
So, how does that happen? And the same
thing happens with learning. Some people
are like, okay, I finished school, but
like what what am I what am I doing
next? And some people are like, okay, I
finished school, very nice. Eventually
I'll get to something else. Right? So,
what what what determines how much drive
you have? And the answer is what's your
goal, right? What are you hungry for? If
your goal is to finish mesechtas, so
you'll be happy with the fact you
finished the mesechta for about 5
seconds, and then you move on, right?
Cuz that's what you're here for. If your
goal is to be a lawyer and to be
matzliach as a lawyer, so then you'll
accomplish something there, you'll be
happy for 5 minutes, and then you you'll
feel a need to move on because that's
that's that's your that's your standard.
That's your goal you set for yourself.
The
characteristic we think of of a when we
think of an ol, the the you know, the
thing that comes to mind is like
pressure, responsibility. And that's
certainly true. But there's another
salient characteristic of a of a yoke.
Why do you put a yoke on a cow? When
it's plowing.
Cuz you want it to walk straight. Right?
If your cow could do whatever it wanted
and you put a plow on it, attach a plow
to it, and you're supposed to walk and
drag the plow through the ground, right?
What direction is the cow going to walk
in?
Whatever it feels like, right? If
there's like, "Ooh, that's an
interesting plant over there." Like the
cow would just like start walking that
way, right? Because what what's keeping
it walking straight? Put a yoke on. Now
the cow's head is bent down like this.
Can't look to the sides. So, can't get
distracted. It just keeps walking
straight. And what you've done by doing
that is you've harnessed all the energy
the cow has and you put it into this
task, right? By forcing the cow to do
only this, making this the cow's
responsibility, you forced it to go only
one direction, only to to to work on one
goal, right? That's what you've done.
When a person is
all Torah, that's what it means. Yes,
it's a responsibility.
All of our right
our responsibility. They're not here for
our enjoyment. That's true. Right?
But it also means if you if you
are all Torah, that means you've
decided, "Okay, this is my
responsibility." Right? Tunnel vision,
like this is my goal. My goal is Torah.
If my goal is Torah, then my all the
everything else every other goal becomes
secondary. So then you're satisfied with
what you have because that's not your
goal. If your goal whatever your goal is
you can never be satisfied with. Right?
So if your goal is becoming a if your
goal is to learn, then you'll never be
satisfied with it. So if you're all
Torah, by definition
all the all the any other ambitions you
might have necessarily take a backseat.
Because they're not your goal. Right?
And if a person removes all Torah, he
makes something else his goal. But that
something has to come in and fill the
vacuum. No person can survive with no
ambition. You
Ambition is what makes you alive, but
one of the symptoms of being alive in
this world pretty much is is is striving
for something. Right? A person doesn't
want to accomplish anything, we call
that mental illness. Right? That's when
you worry the person is suffering from
depression. Right? They don't want to
accomplish anything. What they want to
accomplish, okay, could be but they want
to accomplish something. Right? That's
what that's what living fully is. Right?
So
what the mission is telling me is if
you're
so everything else everything else
becomes secondary.
There's no secret to open secret. I mean
if you if you get, you know, step three
three feet beyond the all the madrash,
so you'll see that like runaway
materialism is like a major scourge on
our community. Okay? It's crazy. Okay?
It's crazy. Right?
Um
what I pick pick your expression, it's
there. Okay? Now
you can solve that in one of two ways.
One of which works and one of which
doesn't. Right? The way that doesn't
work, but it's the only thing that many
people can do is try to make like
sort of force people into a mold. Like,
"Okay, I know you could you want to do
something bigger, make a bigger splash
with you know,
buy a fancier car, but like it's not
right to do it. And that will get you
like a certain amount of, you know, that
will get you a certain way. It won't It
won't Long term, that's not going to
solve any problems. It's going to
you're you're going to tamp down this
expression of it. You'll find a
different expression where people can
spend their money and make a splash.
Right? The only way to actually address
that is to address it at the root. Like
everything, you have to address it with
education, right? And you have to people
have to learn and internalize at your
stage, where you are. When you're still
in the closer vest vision, you can still
think clearly because you there's no
you're not in any situation, right? Is
is what do you value? What actually
matters? What's your goal? If your goal
is to to to to make If you want to if
you get your high, you get your your
excitement out of making a splash,
so then that's what you're going to do.
If you make If you make If you get your
excitement out of learning, if that
becomes your all, so then all this other
stuff doesn't matter.
What do I need it for, right? Is it Is
it Is it or is it not furthering the
goodness of whatever occasion this is or
whatever whatever thing I need, right?
If it's better for us, good. That's my
goal. that's the That's the focus. If
And all this stuff Once a person's in
the the mindset of like, "Okay, I have
to like make my look or whatever." So
then so then to tell them, "No, make it
less." is like then you make the person
feel like a matter, right? Which maybe
they'll be willing to sacrifice for, but
maybe they won't. And it's very hard to
make that It's very hard to to to buy
into it to a to a restriction like that.
The only way to to to solve that is to
solve the the underlying emotional
conflict, which is say, "Okay, very nice
that that that that that could be
exciting. Could be exciting to have a
10-piece band at my Could be, right? But
but why? Like it doesn't interest me,
right? Because my all is not that. My
all is Torah. And if a person wants to
really accomplish something, you really
want to you want to accomplish something
in in furthering the the the community's
march away from all this crazy
materialism we're in in America and the
rest of the world. Um so right now, pull
your energy into learning, right? And
all this other stuff will just will just
become less meaningful. And that's the
real way to make progress. And then you
got to say now now is the time you can
make a difference cuz now you now it's
easy. Now the stakes are low, right? You
get to, you know, 35, 40, you're making
a bar mitzvah for your older son, it's
too late, right? You have to solve the
problem before that. Okay? So so we have
to say we're
we're mikabel Torah. We're also not just
mikabel Torah, we're mikabel oil Torah.
Okay.