Taking Direction from Torah - Rav Aviyam Levinson

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.