Ten Minutes of Meaning (Part 204): Don't be Consumed with Consumerism - Mesillas Yesharim

good morning Brokers and welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning we continue our study Michelle to try to inspire ourselves to be better and better versions of ourselves I want to thank our generous Anonymous sponsors Alta Ben 10 class as always help yourself to some coffee and donuts particularly as you get ready for the festival will come today and we'll be in your shalim no need to fast we'll have coffee and donuts there together has been talking to us about humility a core and key attribute one of the hardest ones to attain to have false humility a fake fraudulent humility that's easy but a genuine authentic humility not to think less of ourselves but to think of ourselves less often to realize the gifts and the opportunities and the blessings that Hashem has given us but the responsibility that comes with it to repair and improve the world around us and the key word that has been using over and over again in this parrot kishis Bonet that the only way that we can try to make Headway the only way we can grow in the quality of humility is to be contemplative is to be thoughtful is to be mindful when you simply live life and you engage the day with every accomplishment and achievement with every skill and talent that we show we swell with pride with every pleasure of the world that we enjoy we become more prideful more arrogant more and envious more Angry more anxious the only way that we can hopefully maintain our humility our perspective our context of what matters and what our priorities are and who we are and why we're here the key the court to do so Keisha is boning a person has to be a mizbona and the truth is we just read this in after a new son the three weeks to lead up to Tish above the navi bemoans my nation my people they're not contemplative they're not thoughtful they're not mindful they're impulsive they act based on their Instinct their impulse their desire their impetuous people and when you're impetuous and impulsive when your ego dictates what you do then you get angry you have tension you have mahlokas you have Sina srinam when you act impulsively then you can't conquer yourself you can't regulate yourself and you can't be the best version of yourself my people they're not thoughtful they're not mindful they're not contemplating is if you want to be humble if you want to grow in humility because she is he calls arrogance a great Sakana it's an enormous danger it's a tremendous threat it stands to undermine relationships business aspiration and ambition physical mental spiritual health person whose ego dictates their way it's an enormous archana it's an enormous dangerous the factors that lead to the loss of this virtue what are the things that block us from living with anivas with humility who are reboi vastavia it's when a person is focused on reboy what's reboy over indulgence excessive excessive extravagance regarding all anyone cares about is the expensive watch or the nicer clothing or having a stake in the most expensive restaurant all they care about are the externals and The Superficial rather than the panemius of this world that a person is going to swell with arrogance because the Apostle tells us we'll read it soon when you're satiated when you're full when you're satisfied then your ego swells in addition to your belly and then your heart is going to feel exalted and high you're going to think you're better than your Superior too you're going to think life is all about your ego What Makes You Happy Now what's interesting is the ram Khali or expands out of his commentary and points out that the Apostle is speaking about the pleasures of food if you eat in a hedonistic way if you eat in a gluttonous way if you eat until you're stuffed and you have no boundaries then such a person if you eat in such a way then you're going to swell with arrogance says not only that um for this reason the pie is find it beneficial so sometimes yes you could have more be satisfied with less you could have a second helping you could get the more expensive version you could replace your wardrobe you could level up you could get the newer version but don't why even though you can afford it even though you could but to prove to ourselves that we can live with less we don't have to have the best we don't have to have the most we don't have to have the upgrade we don't have to have the newest version because we're trying to break and crush this Instinct of arrogance so our generation was writing about this 300 years ago in Padua Italy think about our generation the consumerism the materialism more and more and more and better and better and bigger and bigger that Focus that emphasis that competitiveness always for reboy more and more and more and more do we ever look and say dayenu die it's enough what I have is enough I'm satisfied I'm happy this is all I need if a person always needs more if we are consumed by a consumer mentality if we are buying into this attitude that my happiness is defined by what I have I need more I need more I deserve more I need more I'm worthy of more I'll work harder for more I'm prideful that I was able to achieve and accumulate more than our arrogance will swell it says the only antidote is to say I don't always need reboy reboy reboy reboy leads instead Kenyan challenge is a lion does not Roar over a basket of straw but over a basket of meat and we think we too deserve and we want always the best but really the most primary factor the number one cause of the loss of humility the number one cause of lacking humility is foolishness foolishness a lack of real knowledge you know who's arrogant smartest or not arrogant the most virtuous Empires are not arrogant the more you know the smarter you are and the more you know you don't know and the more foolish the more ignorant you are the more you think that you know the more prideful you are the smarter the most knowledgeable they realize not what they know more importantly they know how much they don't know and when you know how much you don't know then you remain humble but when you think you have all the answers and you think you know everything then it's hard not to become arrogant is do you want to know someone's arrogant if they're ignorant in Torah and again this is a Mahala this is a absolute pandemic of Our Generation we are blessed with technology and I right now embracing some are watching online live or later technology is a gift that we have but technology is also a challenge because the more that we have at our fingertips we think all I have to do is search Google and chat gbt and all the Technologies available I know everything so if I have a question I can scour the internet till I find an answer that satisfies me smarter than any rabbi I've got a computer that can terabytes of information in milliseconds so if I can access that and I know how to use that then I'm smarter and that the truth is as a famous article in the Atlantic years ago the internet's making us stupid not smart because it's giving us the illusion of being smart but really it's making us more foolish stupider and more arrogant so you see we have a generation that maybe this is what the gemara tells us before mashiach comes will proliferate because is enormous people have to weigh in and have opinions and think they're an authority on things they know little or nothing about all because they can Google it so whether it's challenging your doctor because you have WebMD or challenging your Rabbi because you have barilan or challenging whatever it is because you think you can search it that illusion that we have more knowledge is really a reflection of our ignorance and it's making people swell with arrogance and therefore young people have no respect for older it used to be that young people respected those who lived longer Zucker why the longer you live the more you knew the more experience you had today young people think the older you are not the longer you lived in the smarter you are the less the more you need your grandchild's help to get on the internet so really the grandchild is smarter than you the grandchild at their fingertips in their pocket knows everything there is to know so they're smarter than you why should I respect my teacher who I need to help set up the video they want to show us about tissue above why do I need to respect my grandparents who need my help just to send one text message I know more than them because I have more access to more information than they but it's a mistake because that tells us an indication of a person's ignorance is self-praise when you think you know all that when you think you have access to all that knowledge all you're doing is reflecting expressing all you're doing is showing your ignorance the measure says the fruitless trees are asked why are your voices heard um in perpetuity Moshe is our greatest teacher forever and yet he excelled in univas he knew more Torah he was the authority of the transmitter of Torah toras Moshe we call it yet he had the greatest humility because he knew with all that he knew how much he didn't know and so the greatest obstacle to living with humility is PR is foolishness is ignorance instead a person should be humbled by knowing what we know more importantly what we don't know until next time stay happy stay healthy stay holy we resume the last week of August we're going on break after today wishing everyone a meaningful Tish above