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Okay. We're going to start at the bottom of page Kuflan Bet Chas. Last time we met, we spoke about what is a person. So we said that a person is really a combination of two different things, body and soul. And it's the connection between body and soul that requires the work. In other words, if we just work on body or we just work on soul, then we haven't really worked on ourselves. So, like, when certain Rebbeim say the mushal of the, you know, you're the engine and not the body of the car, that's not a good mushal because you're both. If a car doesn't have an engine, so then it doesn't go anywhere. If an engine doesn't have a body, then it's meaningless. What's the context of it?
When I was growing up, they used to give a marshal, they used to say, what's the ichor, the body of the car or the engine? The answer is both. Both are the ichor because an engine without a body doesn't go anywhere. Like a body with a soul, right? So what's the ichor, the body or the soul? Are you going to spend your life feeding your body or are you going to spend your life feeding your soul? The answer is you have to take care of your body and you have to take care of your soul. Both require a certainty pool. And we said, and this is where we left off with last time, that das, which is the highest level of knowledge that a person could have, das is what creates the chibur, the connection between body and soul. So we'll start on the bottom of Kufla Hamid Ghas and we'll start to get into this a little bit more. Dasi hanakuda hamerkazus ba'adam. Hamakadash hanakuda hamerkazus ba'adam. Just like, if you recall last time we spoke about the fact that Bezalel was Mitzaref, the Ossetian of the Bria, he took all the different letters of creation and he rearranged.
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them in order to form the Beis Hamikdash, okay? And just like the Beis Hamikdash is the central place in the entire world, so think of the Beis Hamikdash as the, that's the major component that from everything, from there everything else flows. So too in a person, because remember, everything occurs within ourselves. So the Mikdash, which was built with Das, right, Bezalel had the Das, so too Das inside. of ourself, that is the central player. In other words, when a person is living without Das, there's something fundamental missing from their life. Just to highlight, just for a moment, when Chazal say, אין אדם חוטא אלא אם כן נכנס ברוח שטוס that a person doesn't do an Aveira unless a Ruach Shtos goes inside of him. What does that mean, an air of insanity? What does it mean, a Ruach Shtos? It means that logically, right, if a person is living from a place of Das,
they would never do an Aveira. In other words, every single Aveira that we do comes from a lack of consciousness. It's when a person is living basically on autopilot without Das, so then they're going to make decisions that they know aren't the right decisions. And by the way, that's when you speak to people and you say, this is the best version of yourself. They're quick to answer. They go, no. So why are you doing it? They can't, their DAS is not there, right? Ask a person, are you proud of the person that you are? Is this the best version of yourself? Can you improve it? Yeah, of course I know I can, of course I should, right? They say all these things, but at the end of the day, there's no lasting, impactful change that's been made because there's no DAS. DAS is the central feature of a person. And that's why most people walking around, their baseline is insanity. That's the addict. The addict has to admit that he is insane. Now what's the catch-22? The addict can't admit that he's insane because he's an addict. His addict has taken over, he has no DAS.
Yeah. Well, we never had the best version of ourselves. You're right. There's no question about that. But let's say there are certain basics that we know we ought to be doing. Everybody in this room has a basic that they know they should be doing and for whatever reason, they're not doing it. For some people, it's losing weight. For some people, it's learning with more hasmada. For some people, it's davening with more kavana. Whatever it is, your basic thing that you know you should be doing, understand that the reason you're not doing it is because you're not thinking. Imagine if you would have consciousness right now and you would say, I'm going to be able to get a billion dollars right now if I just stay focused. Davening is worth much more than a billion dollars. And we all know that in this room. When it comes time for davening, a million things get in our way. Everything from I'm tired, to I'm not in the mood, to I don't know what these words mean. A million things get in the way. Things that would never get in the way if we were standing in front of a billion dollars. If all we had to do was focus for 45 minutes, we would figure out how to do it. But we come up with these really sophisticated lies to ourselves to make sure that we don't.
end up doing it. It's all a ruach shloss. There's no das involved. There's value. Again, it took me a very long time in my life to learn this, but there's value to the person. I always thought it had to be this passionate experience, otherwise it wasn't real. It turned out that that wasn't true. It turned out, as I got older, that I realized that the mature people, the people that you looked at and said, whoa, that's an impressive person. That their godless was that they had the capacity to do things again and. again and maintain enough consciousness to do the right thing multiple times. There are people that, LaMarshall, there are people that say that they'll have a passionate davening once a month. Once a month they'll figure out how to get to that place where they're having a passionate davening. So I looked at that person and I said, yeah, but that one time that he davens, it's real. It turns out that when you get older in life you realize that the guy who can get up from Minion and go to the same Minion every day and daven with, again, even a baseline amount.
of kavan. It turns out that guy in many ways is ahead because he has the consciousness to be able to do what's right over and over again. That repetition in life is much more important, right? Everyone, you hear this one a lot. This is a classic. I daven better without a Minion. Yeah, you ever hear this excuse? It's an amazing one. I daven better without a minion. Yeah, I play basketball better when I don't have to dribble. Right? In other words, that doesn't make it like a... You know, it's like, if all my points counted, if they hit the backboard, that would be amazing. Right? It's this ridiculous thing that you have to put the ball in the hole. Why do I have to put the ball in the hole? I really enjoy it much better when anytime I throw a ball against the backboard, I see points go on the scoreboard. No? And in the NBA, it's not like LeBron gets called for traveling, right? You have a zillion excuses that you'll come up with, right? I enjoy davening. Who said davening was about you? I enjoy davening, right? You hear what I'm saying? Turns out that the guy that knows this is the right thing to do and has the consciousness to do it every day, three times a day, in many ways is more mature. It's hard for us to think about, right?
But life is like that, right? We would never enter into any relationship and say things like, I'm only going to do it if I enjoy it, right? Everybody knows that in any relationship that you enter into, the value of the relationship is not when you enjoy it, it's when you don't enjoy it. How loyal are you and committed to that relationship, right? So, for example, I hope that none of you think that when you go to get a job, the job is going to be fantastic and amazing every single day. Because if you think that, you might end up like the millennials of this generation, constantly. quitting their jobs, looking for something that's going to make them CEO of the company within two years. There's something off about the fact that people say, if I don't enjoy my job, I'm leaving. By the way, what are companies doing because of that? Companies are doing their best to make their corporate culture like an amusement park. You go into, it used to be you went into an office, what did you have? You had cubicles, you had people working at computers, and that's what they did. They went, they crunched their numbers, they made their appointments, they came home. That was their life.
Today, if you walk into an office, it's like, we have a game room, we have bean bags, we have sleep pods. Why do we have all these things? Because we're catering to a generation of spoiled brats that never really gained enough, maturity to be able to say, I'm going to do the right thing every single day in a row. If it's not enjoyable ... It's not fun. I'm out. Right? And that's not the way life goes. All relationships go up and down. You'll have days in your job that are better. You'll have days in your job that are worse. It's the loyalty and the commitment to the job that give you a career. Same thing when it comes to a marriage. Who in their right mind thinks that every moment of their marriage is going to be better than the next? That's what people think when they get engaged. That's what people think when they first get married, right? And then all of a sudden when it starts to get rocky, what's the solution in today's generation? How fast can we get divorced, right? And thank God we didn't have any children because then we would have baggage as opposed to the loyalty of the committed relationship. Again, I'm not saying that it shouldn't be enjoyable. I'm not saying that there's not value in working towards having a passionate relationship.
But passion shouldn't drive the relationship. The truth of the relationship should drive the relationship. But the truth of the relationship will only drive the relationship if I'm a person of DAS. Otherwise the relationship is going to go out the window. very fast. Does that make sense? Okay. Weiter. Ilazos. Me'ikare avodaseinu b'torah hu lev li'hifrid b'shum oifen b'machshava u'maisa b'en se'cha ve'regesh b'en chir ve'kir. If that's the case, then the avoda when it comes to being a bentorah is as follows. Do not separate between machshava and maisa, thought and deed. Whatever you know to be true, do it. Again, it's hard to think about. Whatever you know to be true, do it. Every excuse in the book of, I know it, but Rebbe, it's so hard to do it. That's a hafrada already. Then you're separate. You're living in two separate worlds. Remember, the avodah is do what I know to be true. Don't split between marshavah and ma'isah. Bein seichel v'regesh, right? Don't split between the intellect and the emotion.
Again, that's another place where a lot of people split. They split between the intellect and the emotion. If it's true, feel it as true. If it's real, if it feels real, know that to be real. Don't split between seichel and regesh. And again, bein chiyah v'kiyim. Don't split between obligation and fulfillment. Again, this is another word that people don't like to talk about. They don't like to talk about the word obligation. I'm obligated to do something. The number one thing you hear when you go do these interviews in America is, I don't. want to do it because I have to. I want to do it because I want to. But there's something deeply narcissistic about that and people aren't even paying attention to how narcissistic it sounds. There are things that we're obligated to do that we don't want to do. If I'm obligated to do it, I should be my kind. Again, that's called leading a good life. Don't split between Chiav and Qiyam. Yeah.
I don't know. When it comes to the job thing, I don't know. It kind of paid off pretty well for them, though. Like, the fact that they, like, you know, like, just... Did it? We're looking at the most over-medicated, addicted generation in the history of the world. Did it really pay off for them? Yeah, but good, but there are slides in my office, right? Talk to the managers. Talk to the managers of these people that are actually having to work with them, right? And saying, I can't get these people to do anything. Talk to the computer technicians that, again, this is already dating ourselves a little bit because Facebook is not a thing so much anymore. But talk to the computer technicians that when Facebook came out, that they couldn't get people to be productive at. all because the average user was on Facebook seven to ten hours a day. You're not dating yourself, don't worry. It's still like that. Not necessarily on Facebook, but yeah.
Right, so I'm saying at some point, again, let's switch it, right? It's not working out well for the people that their entire relationship exists based on the swipe right, swipe left phenomenon, right? So yeah, they got slides in the office, but their productivity, and by the way, they're not even happier. You talk to these people, they're not happier in their environment. Because... Yeah, maybe it's... I stand corrected. Maybe it's because the slides weren't turning enough. Again, I'm not... The value of the person that knows how to stay committed, the enjoyment comes not from the fun that he's having, but from the product that he's producing. It used to be that people made things with their hands, and there's something about being able to say, I made that. People whose great-grandparents worked on building the skyline of New York, building bridges. These people, they were able to say, I did something.
People, again, I'm privileged. I get to come to yeshiva every day. I get to come to a job where we're able to look at people and say, OK, we've seen the actionable changes, that there's something real about that. But when you live with this sort of ephemeral type of reality, where everything is constantly coming and going, and you can't actually point to what you've accomplished, of course you're going to be miserable. Right? Who wants to come to work every day like that? Yeah. No matter how many slides they put in. So maybe I'd like you to learn to art, so I'll learn to art, but shouldn't we also strive to enjoy it. So I want to work on the relationship where, of course, it should become enjoyable, but the answer of when it's not enjoyable doesn't mean I'm out. When something is not enjoyable and I know it to be true, the answer is double down, right? If you, let's say, have it in you to be a great basketball player, let's just say, right? Was that, I'm not, I wasn't, that wasn't a comment about you. I mean, obviously it was, but, right? I'm saying, let's say you had it in you to be a great basketball player.
Let's say Tiger Woods, right, when he was a kid. He had it in him to be a great golfer, right? To a degree, I don't mean this really to be true, it's a bad example, but to a degree, because you have the capacity to do it, on some level you're obligated to bring out that talent that you have. At some point in his career, he stopped enjoying the game of golf. It could be because he was behaving exceptionally inappropriately in his life, right? But if you're a great golfer and you stop enjoying it, it means something is off. Something is off. It requires a recalibration.
Right? When people say, I'm not enjoying my Judaism, the answer is not, so I quit. The answer is, well, why? Right? If something is true, right, and I know it deeply to be true, not intellectually, I know it deeply to be true, then why are we not doubling down to figure out how that should become enjoyable? Right? When people don't enjoy davening, the answer is not stop davening. The answer is double down and figure out what davening really is, right? People say all the time, I've been davening for the last 18 years of my life and I never enjoyed it. For many of those people, when you actually talk to them about what davening is, they've never davened once in their life. They've said words from a sitter, but that's not nearly the same thing as davening.
Right? And those very same people, when you introduce them to davening, what do they say? They say, that was the most incredible experience. So what changed? Right? It's when they locked on to what the truth of what it is. Right? So we're not searching for enjoyment in our Judaism because otherwise without it we can't do it. We're searching for enjoyment within our Judaism because that's the natural calibrated role. Right? When someone stinks at something, if I'm a terrible basketball player, I'm going to hate playing the game. Who wants to miss that many shots in a row? It's the same thing when it comes to learning Gemara. Right? Every time you open the book, the book looks at you and says, you're an idiot, you're going. to close the book. I get it. But that doesn't make the book not true. Right? It just means I have to double down and learn those skills because if there's knowledge and truth and wisdom in that book, I should probably learn it well. Does that make sense? Okay. Weiter. Machshavas amukos hogu harbe chokrim v'chokim musorim kavu avotahom pa'er benadrisho benakiyum. So, when it comes to the philosophers, deep thinkers, there was a tremendous divide between.
what they knew to be true and their actions. It's like the famous story of the philosopher, of the philosopher in the college campus who was a professor. I'm sure many of you guys have heard this story before that, you know, he was teaching about ethics, and then they found out that he was one of these like deeply unethical people, right? You know, you guys know this? Yeah. Right? So, they came to him and they said, aren't you a, you know, a professor of ethics? And his response was, you don't ask a math teacher why he's not a triangle, right? The difference between a Godel Betaira and a philosopher is the philosopher could live. in the Olam Ha-Machshabe. He could sit there and think about all the deepest things in the world, but it has nothing to do with his life, right? So, when we see someone who is a Godel Betaira... When we see someone who's a Gadu Bataira and they're behaving in a way that's disgusting, we know that there's something off. And by the way, that's why so many of us, when we see people that are dressed in a way that indicates that these people are religious, and then we see them behaving in a despicable and disgusting way, it bothers us a thousand times more.
And it should. It's not the wrong thing. If you saw somebody dressed in a particular way that indicates that religion is the central focus of their life, and then their response to things is to spit on people, it bothers us deeply. Why? Because if you purport that religion is the central focus of your life and then you behave in such a way, there's clearly a divide. And we know that we should hold our Gedole Torah, and in this case not just Gedole Torah, but Bene Torah, to a higher standard. If you can't behave yourself, people say, how come you don't speak out against them? If I need to teach you that spitting on a person is wrong... You didn't learn that in kindergarten? They didn't teach you that in kindergarten? Don't spit? Right, so clearly they didn't have kindergarten morals that taught them not to spit. Even if somebody is doing something wrong. I disagree. I think the Kotel should be an Orthodox place. As an Orthodox Jew, I think we have a responsibility to the Kedusha of the Kotel. But, I'm not going to spit on somebody. I'm just not. I'm not going to spit on somebody. I think everyone in this room intuitively knows that we shouldn't spit on people.
When people who are tremendous tamidei chachamim have those exposés that they were child molesters or things of that nature, why does that bother us? It should bother us. Why does that bother us? The answer is, it bothers us because the whole idea of the Torah is we don't split between Machshava and Maisa. There's no split between Chiav and Chiam. If you're obligated, you do it. Don't do that thing. It drives us crazy. It should. Yeah? The whole rule of America is split up. Yeah, correct. So we're always split up. Enoch and Amir. But when we see people, and again, those people, let's be clear, Nachi, I agree with you, they're no more or no less human than you and I, and we're also doing those things, right, we may not be spitting on people, Alex, if you need to go, you can, don't worry about it, I know.
you. No, I know, I was just reading. Okay, I'm saying, I know, I was told you need to go, so please don't feel that you need to. No, I'm not being forced to stay. Okay, good. Would you stay if you were forced to, though? Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Hamshakhal Nevevera. Nachi, you're not wrong. I am also leading a split life, there's no question about it. Just my split happens not to be with spitting on people, right? I don't fault them for being human. I mean, I fault them for their lack of humanity that they're treating other people with, right? But they're not any fundamentally different. than we are. The difference is that when they dress that way, right, to us that sends a signal, that they're living lives that indicate you shouldn't do that. You understand? So when a guy is dressed like a regular whatever, right, so they're not necessarily sending that message. And I'm not saying that clothes matter. You know that's not my point, right? But if you're walking around with a strimal in the summer, that must really mean something to you, right? Because there's no reason to wear a fur hat in the summer. I mean, even in Russia, they took those things off in the summer, right? But it became a thing that today,
that's the way. If you're going to dress that way, so then you're saying something about yourself. That's what he's saying. Ketumah yei chashevah. Dado B'tairah would see that and he would say, that's Tumah. How could you behave that way? Yeah, what did you say. I was going to say, don't they think the exact opposite, that all of it is part of their Torah lifestyle? Um, I have no doubt that they believe that that is part of their religious obligation. Let me be exceptionally clear. They do not have a Gaddafi behind them who's saying it, okay? There's no Rav that I've ever met that says that a, um, there's no Rav that I've ever met that says that spitting on a person is a, uh, is a healthy way of giving Musar or of protecting the dictums of Kal Yisrael. Sometimes the things we think are, um, exceptionally stupid.
Yeah. So where do we draw the line in terms of that? Like, let's say, uh, Let's say someone is of that nature where they think that they need to protest the ruling of the law. That's an example. Where does one draw the line between going too far and what's right. I can only ask for your opinion. Yeah, I'll share with you my opinion. Any protest that's sanctioned by Gedole Torah, which we have had, but very, very, very few, they consist of things like getting together to say tehillim, getting together to work on ourselves, to make sure that we're focused on our Avodah Hashem. I've not yet in my life heard from any Gedole Torah that people should be attacked. I've not yet heard from any Gedole Torah in my life that the way to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu is to lie down in the middle of the road and stop cars from going. Certainly, I don't think there's ever any call for violence, so...
No, but where do we draw the line? Is it just talk? Is protesting in general... Protesting is a democratic value. I have every right to protest. As a citizen of this country, as someone who pays taxes in this country, I have every right to protest in a legal fashion, in an appropriate fashion. That's Mekad Hashem Shamayim. What's an appropriate fashion. Anything that infringes upon the rights of others is no longer an appropriate fashion. So again, we could flip the... When they were protesting, pulling out of Gush Katif, there were ways that it was done extremely inappropriately. Like, for example, there was a story... There was a story of a soldier, who I know, who planted a fake bomb in the Tachana Merkazi to protest Gush Katif. He brought a propane tank in a knapsack with wires running all over it into the bathroom and then he walked out of the bathroom and left it. He shut down the entire Tachana Merkazit for hours until they were able to get back in. Yeah, they caught him. They put him in jail. It was a complicated case, all right? I don't – I'm not – again, I think every Israeli citizen had perhaps the – for sure the right and perhaps the obligation to protest against pulling out of Gush Katif. I just think there's a way of doing it. Causing panic is not an appropriate way of doing it.
Again, the topic today – I just want to be clear – the topic today is not how to protest appropriately or inappropriately. The topic is at some point you've lost your mind, right? The thing you know to be true and then the action that you're doing are so far off from one another and that's not a Torah value. Ma meirim divrei me'ar amami pano. You guys know who the Ramami Panna was? He was one of the Rishonim. He was one of the great Mekubalim. K'mi yisod Hashem hu alokim, sh'havayim neblas ba'shkoch ha'yotzeh ki ya'limar hu hu amaysa. He says, and that's the key here, that learning in the Jewish world means action. Klomar, sheh ba'emes ein pirud b'ein limud u'maisa, there is no split between what we learn and what we do, u betoch ha'maisa nivla ha'limud, embedded in the action itself is learning, u sheh zem b'chuyav misod ha'yichud atzmo sheh u yisod kol ha'tarakula, in other.
words, all of, we say, gadol ha'tamata mevil idei maisa, right? What is he saying? What he's explaining, he's saying that limud is maisa, that learning just for the sake of learning, that is called action, right? And in the world of action, there's learning, they're embedded integrally, you can't split one from the other. Learning naturally obligates action, and learning is part of the action that we're obligated to do. And more than that, when we're involved in the action, that's also a learning experience. Adam ha-magbir koach, machshavto, mazniyach es-hespailos ha-leiv, o'mesnaig shelo k'fi. machshavto ha-tova. Let's say you have a person who his intellect is exceptionally strong, and in a certain way it's pushing down that hespailos ha-leiv, that excitement of his heart. O'mesnaig shelo k'fi machshavto ha-tova. Or he's acting in a way that he knows is not correct. Ein zeh al ha-adam chalki ve'ein ba'zeh shleimos. This is a partial person. He has not reached a state of maturity, completion. In other words, where have you reached maturity? People all the time talk about this.
What does it mean to be mature? Are you living the life that you know to be true? Analyze the split, that's your level of maturity, right? I know this could be true, but I'm not doing it. And here comes the zillion excuses. It doesn't matter. Every one of those excuses could be valid and you're still immature. Because maturity means I'm doing what I know to be right. It's on a person to strengthen himself, to unify every single one of his powers that he has. Your thoughts should excite you, right? When you think about something and you learn about something that ought to excite you. And what I'm excited about, that should drive my actions. That should lead me to do the things that I know to be true. לימודו יביעו לידי דס הלכה, והלכה לשמיר לקיים. Learning should bring you to a knowledge of what the Torah requires me to do. Guys, that's a big one. דס הלכה. That's halach. If you're learning and you don't know what the halach is at the end of the suggah, something is off.
Let's say a ma'isah with Rav Moshe Feinstein. That two boys in Rav Moshe's yeshiva came to him and they asked him a shaila. It was one of them had borrowed something from the other, right? And then the thing broke and Rav Moshe was very upset with the shaila. Why? Because it was the gamaras that they were learning that year. It was the gamaras that they were learning that year. He said, you're coming to me with a shaila that's often a Gemara. The Gemara tells you exactly what to do. How did you learn those gamaras and not walk away knowing what the halacha is? You understand? And then once you know the halacha, l'shmir l'kiyim. If you know what the halachah is, that ought to get you to a place where now you're doing it. You know the halachah is when you wake up in the morning, you're supposed to go watch Negel Vassa. You're supposed to say Modani as soon as you wake up in the morning. Right? You know that's the halachah. So that should lead you to do it. You know the halachah is to come to davening and to daven a certain way. So that should lead you to do it. I'm sorry.
What is the expression, what's the tool that gets you from point A to point B, that gets you from doing one to the other? What's the answer? Das. To the degree that you are conscious, aware, mindful of what's going on, that's what bridges the gap. Right? Here's what I know to be true. I know I shouldn't be doing this right now, but I'm about to do it. Where'd you lose yourself? The moment you lost mindfulness is the moment that you lost the whole thing, right? Every gap in maturity is a lack of consciousness. I know it to be true, right? Guy says, guy says, I can't fall asleep, that's why I can't wake up in the morning. Could be, right? Yet that same guy five years later, right, when he's in college or graduating college has a job, all of a sudden has no problem waking up. What changed? The answer is das. When I knew that I had to, all of a sudden I was able to. This is what they'll tell you, right?
And then it sounds like this, no, but like, it's just, it was different. What was different about it? What's the answer? They have no answer. Once you know something to be true, it obligates you naturally. The answer is we don't feel as naturally obligated about davening as we do about our job. We don't feel naturally obligated about our learning as we do about our family. And that's off because the Torah requires us to learn, you understand? So you can't split. I'll give you another one. What if I'm not cut out for learning? What if it's just not for me? How many times have you heard that from people before? Maybe it's just not me. Because, and insert the excuse here, because I'm ADHD, right? Because I have a learning disability. Because I just don't like it. I don't find it enjoyable. You can have a zillion excuses and yet somehow people with ADHD are capable of learning massive amounts of information when it comes to other things. Somehow people with learning disabilities push through when it's important. And by the way, some of the guys I'm most proud of here in yeshiva are guys that do have learning disabilities and they're pounding.
Sometimes it's Gemara, sometimes it's Mishnah, sometimes it's Shana and Mikra, sometimes just general love of Hashem. But don't make an excuse and say, I can't do it because. If you know it to be true, then DAS demands of you that you do it. Yeshiva was talking about to me concept in khinuch. We were talking about it this week. I'm not going to embarrass anybody. But it's... I don't think I'm going to embarrass anybody. But he said there's something called a weak constitution. He said somehow in yeshiva there are some guys that are always the guys that are getting sick. Have you noticed that? Rabbi, my throat is hurting. Rabbi, my stomach is hurting. And there are some guys that get legitimately sick and somehow it doesn't... it doesn't... I'm not embarrassing anybody. I'm not calling on specific people who may or may not keep a spittoon by their... by their gemara so they don't miss a day. It's a...
It's what the yeshiva describes as a strong constitution. And there are people that have an exceptionally weak constitution. Talk to them in the beginning of the year. What do you want to get out of the year? They'll tell you all lists of things they want to get out of the year. And by the end of the year... These pashas didn't do it. Why? It's a lack of maturity. A strong constitution comes from focus. The same people that can go to the army and have that amazing focus somehow can't have it in beis medrash. And by the way, somehow those same people when they come back from the army into the beis medrash. all of a sudden they have it. What changed? It's called growth, boys. It's called maturity. If you can't do it now when it's easy in life how are you going to do it when it's harder? What's the answer? That's right. You either have a strong constitution that's built on daas or you have a weak constitution. On the other hand a daas mechayavish ha'maisi yas b'shlemus and not only that, an intelligent person, he knows I have to do this thing all the way. ha'mitzvah k'fi kol ha'choseh ba'kavanas ha'leiv, ha'machshavas ha'mach gam yachat.
The mitzvah requires in all of its halacha the kavana of the leiv and the intelligence together. So if I have daas I know I want to do my mitzvah. I want to do my mitzvah all the way, emotionally and intellectually. And it is incumbent upon us to know this. The light that is Nitzchi, the eternal light that is hidden inside of every one of us. And it burns brightly, specifically when? When you are one, when you're in a unified state. Every time you've done something that you feel proud of, it's because you were in a unified state. I did the thing I knew to be true and I did it well. That is when we burn brightest. When you have together your guf, your ruach, and your actions. Everything comes together. Then you feel awesome. Right? Why do you guys come into my office complaining? Gosh, look, I'm wasting my time. So stop.
Where's your das? Where's your consciousness? Moshe Lema'a Doverdoma, to what can be, can this can be compared? L'koach elektri. You guys know what that is? Electrical power. Ha-meir u'mechamim dafka k'sheshnei kotvim mazrimim ha-zeram el ha-gof ha-meir. When does the electronic power warm? When does it illuminate? When all the wires are connected. To what? To the, to the actual thing that can illuminate, right? So let's say you have a light bulb. The light bulb by itself cannot turn on. The electric power in the wall is of no use. What do you need? You need the wires to be connected. V'kotay v'echad b'lvad ein b'kochol da'had l'gar. And one wire alone is not enough, right? You need a full circuit. So too, the light of a person can only shine in truth. When do we get illuminated, boys? When do we get lit up? When do we get on fire?
When do we feel amazing about ourselves? When do we feel like we're in flow? When we both are going on at once. When you have your intelligence, your human spirit together with your human body. When one dominates the other, what do you feel? Depressed. Angry. The intelligence is what bridges the gap between my spirit and my body. I need both together in order to do it. If I just have body, right? If I'm just listening to the desires of the body, for example, eating however much I want to, right? And the intelligence is not guiding the desires of the body, right? To say, do this for a mitzvah, so then something is off, right? Let's say, for example, that a person knows that the right thing to do is to eat healthy food in the appropriate times in order to invigorate themselves to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Then the eating takes on new dimensions. I'll give you another example, a better example. I have an important test coming up. I know I need to sit down and study, but ADHD. I know I need to sit down and study, but... You know he's going to have those buts, right? But not only do I need to sit down and study, I need to study well. It's an important test. It's a hard test. This test is going to determine whether or not I get into the college of my choice. And it's not going to be a test that you study for a week beforehand. This is going to be one of those six months things. This is an ACT. This is an SAT.
Something big like that. I'm saying whatever, right? And then you put in six months worth of work, and you're disciplined about it. Every day for an hour. You see your scores climbing every single practice test you take. And then you take that test. You don't just talk about it. You actually take the test. And you do awesome at it. When you get that great mark on the test, when you got that 36 on your ACT's, and you open up the envelope, how do you feel about it? The answer is you feel awesome. You're lit up. Why? Because there was a barrier, there was the laziness that's natural to all of us, but your Das demanded of you that you take. this seriously, that you invest your passion in it, and ultimately you're Masliya. How amazing do you feel? What's the reason you don't feel that way when it comes to yeshiva? Because you didn't do that. You allowed your Das, I'm not talking about you, anybody, right? You allowed, but it's true, when a guy in yeshiva complains, I don't feel like I'm getting anything out of this, what's the answer? Yeah, for sure. Where was the Das, right? I know where the Guf was, right? And I know where the Ruach was. Guy's sitting in bed saying, no,
Rabbi, this is what I want. So get up. So tired, Rabbi. I was on Netflix all night last night. That guy's not lit up. He's not invigorated. He's not excited. He's not juiced, as Rabbi Safer might say. And do you know how Rabbi Safer is able to live the way he is? Das. By the way, the salt is a great example of it. Because he took upon himself, I'm going to do this. I'm going to lose this weight. He committed himself to a program, right? And he had the das to follow through on that. And he doesn't cheat. What's the pshah? It's the chibur. That's why he's excited to do it. You know what I'm saying? All right, we'll stop here for today, guys.
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