Parshas Yisro

I'm sorry about the Baal HaTanya and the Mezritcher Maggid. Unfortunately, I don't remember the details so I'm fudging a little bit of the details but I think the punchline is I think that that I hope will be accurately conveyed but I can't vouch for the details. When the Baal HaTanya came to the Mezritcher Maggid, the Mezritcher Maggid was the Baal Shem Tov's successor and it was only after the petira of the Maggid, of the Mezritcher Maggid, that Chassidus branched out into with several different chatzeiros. But first with בעל שם טוב הקדוש and then the Mezritcher Maggid, so there was one central figure. So after the Baal Shem Tov, it was the Mezritcher Maggid. So the story is that the Baal HaTanya came to the Mezritcher Maggid once and he knocked on the door and the Maggid said who's there and the Baal HaTanya answered it's me, Zalman. The Baal HaTanya whose name was Schneur Zalman. It's me, Zalman. And then subsequently the Maggid tells the Baal HaTanya that he should go on a certain trip and in the course of that trip so the Baal HaTanya is forced I don't know whether it was due to weather or due to the nightfall he has to stop at a certain inn and so he has part of the I guess bed and breakfast or bed and dinner as the case may be so he eats there also and then at the conclusion of the meal so the baal achsanya discovers that there's a silver spoon missing from his very very valuable set of silver and the newcomer was the Baal HaTanya so obviously all suspicion is concentrated on the Baal HaTanya. The innkeeper wasn't too interested in constitutional rights or due process and despite the Baal HaTanya's negations so he begins beating him and as he beats him so the Baal HaTanya tells him it wasn't me and he doesn't relent, he keeps beating him and the Baal HaTanya keeps telling him it wasn't me and this goes on and there are several several such go-rounds that the innkeeper is mercilessly beating the Baal HaTanya and the Baal HaTanya's and the response that it elicits is that it wasn't me. Finally I think the story is that a maid sees this and finally her conscience is awakened she can't bear to see this innocent man being beaten anymore so she confesses that she had stolen the spoon and finally the innkeeper relents. So the Baal HaTanya had his emunas tzaddikim so he says I don't know so apparently the Maggid sent me on this journey apparently this was supposed to happen. So when he goes back to the Maggid to understand what that experience was all about so the Maggid tells him when you knocked on the door and I asked who it was and you said it's me, said it's I, only Hakadosh Baruch Hu says Anochi. Har Sinai, Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I for everyone else is ga'avah. I, I, I is ga'avah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu can say when Hakadosh Baruch Hu reveals himself who's there? Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Hakadosh Baruch Hu can identify himself, can reveal himself with an I. But when you knock at the door it's not supposed to be it's me, it's I Zalman. The tikun for that it's I so you had to be in that situation where you had to keep on saying it wasn't me, it wasn't I who took it, it wasn't me, it wasn't I, that was the tikun on the I. In terms of, of tikkun middos, I was about to say I don't know, but in terms of, in terms of tikkun middos, it's not clear that there's anything that outranks trying to uproot middas ga'avah and trying to cultivate

אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור, אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור,

middas anavah. The ultimate of middas anavah is ונחנו מה כי תלינו עלינו. Right? Not only that Moshe Rabbeinu doesn't say anochi afar va'efer, he says we're nothing.

ונחנו מה כי תלינו עלינו, לא עלינו תלונותיכם כי על השם.

We're nothing. So that's the, that's the ultimate. Kimdumani that nothing outranks in terms of tikkun middos working on that. Agav, within that avodah, a person gufeh has to be careful for ga'avah. There's a Yiddish joke that in town there's a kinus bein keseh l'asor in aseres yemei teshuvah. So first the rav gets up to speak and says, who am I to give mussar in these holy days, in these yemei yirah va'fachad? איך בין א גארנישט, I'm nothing, I'm an efes. And then, you know, then gives the, after the rav gives his divrei mussar, his hisorerus, then the dayan gets up and again, מה אנו מה חיינו, who am I, what am I? איך בין א גארנישט. He gives his divrei mussar, his hisorerus. Then the shammas gets up, he's going to give a few divrei mussar, hisorerus, and also gives the same hakdamah, you know, who am I, what am I? איך בין א גארנישט. So the rav elbows the dayan sitting next to him and says, אויך מיר א גארנישט. Like what kind of gornisht is he? He's not... So we have to be careful that in not to be ba'alei ga'avah in working on middas haga'avah. I mean, as is true of all authentic Yiddish humor, the joke always has a profound point to it. Jewish humor is not slapstick comedy. It has a profound point to it. It's a profound joke. אויך מיר א גארנישט. Like what kind of gornisht is he? He's not entitled to refer to himself as a gornisht. So in working on middas haga'avah, so we have to, we have to be mindful of not being a ba'al ga'avah in middas haga'avah. How does a person instill, instill, how do we try to instill within ourselves a sense of middas anavah? So practically, stam ultimately, there only needs to be one answer. Practically, you know, we'll see why, why we have recourse to a second one as well. Practically there are two approaches. Ultimately there is only one real, ultimate and entirely necessary and sufficient approach. First of all practically, rubo d'rubo d'rubo of us probably shouldn't have any problems with the realization that we're not better than anyone else and that we have no reason to be misga'eh. I don't know, so how was how was the Rav humble and how was Rav Moshe Feinstein humble? It's hard for us to imagine that, but with the rov of us we don't have that nisayon. There is a story that Churchill once said about one of his political opponents. He said, he's a very humble person, he said about his political opponent. He says, but then again he has a lot to be humble about. So for for most of us, that vort is kemidumeh resonates very very clearly. I don't know, mi yomar zachisi even relative to other people. If let's say it's takeh true objectively that a person is smarter than someone else, so the fact that he's smarter than someone else is a gift min hashamayim, nothing to do with, a person can't take any credit for his IQ. And then the question is, okay, so given that gift, what have I done with it? If I takeh think I was given that gift, so what have I what have I done with it? What have I if anything, the often what what we're misgayeh in is really a source for humility because we're misgayeh often in things which are just gift min hashamayim and if anything adaraba, so the gift is mechayev and the question is whether or not a person has what does he done with that with that gift. How do how do those people who what we would think objectively really are better than the rest of us, so how would they not misgayeh takeh? How do how do they deal with it? Those of us who objectively really are mishachmo vamalah better than than than the rest of us, betorasam, betzidkosam, bemidoseihem, etc. So the answer is, למשל למה הדבר דומה. Imagine you have an ant colony, an ant colony, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of ants. And within this ant colony there's one ant goes to the gym every day, works out, lifting weights. I don't know if ants have biceps, I'm not sure if they do, but let's assume for a moment that maybe they do. Five times the size of the closest runner-up. Okay, so he feels like he feels like a gever. Okay, so vayehi hayom, vayehi hayom. So then this a human being, this extraordinary, extraordinary, the word spreads through the ant colony that there's this this moving skyscraper that with one one movement obliterates hundreds, thousands of ants with one step, with one with one movement. So what happens to the to the gaivah of this ant, to the shvitzer, the one who works out in the gym every day for four hours? So does he feel better, does he feel superior to anyone else? He doesn't feel better, doesn't feel superior to anyone else. What's the nimshal? So the nimshal is that those people who takeh are so much better than the rest of us, mishachmo vamalah. They don't measure themselves against people, they measure themselves by their שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. And anyone who's in the presence of the Ribbono Shel Olam, again, to the degree that one is in the presence of the Ribbono Shel Olam, so one feels vaanachnu mah. A person is literally nothing. A person is literally ke'ayin ke'ayin votohu. Our existence is not our own. So what is that? Nothing is our own, our existence is not our own, our ability to breathe is not. Our existence is not our own. Our ability to breathe is not our own. Our ability to think is not our own. Our ability to move is not our own. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is everything. So when a person really, really feels that, so what's the pshat? If a person, not, not as in the joke before, a person takeh feels like a gornisht, but I'm, but I'm more of a gornisht than you are, but I'm... So Churchill takeh said, he says, he thinks all people are like, think there's a, there's a something called a glow-worm or something? Is there such a thing? Yeah, a worm that glows in the, I think there's such some such creature. He takeh thinks that all people are glow-worms. He doesn't think we're more than that. He says, but within that he says he thinks he glows more than the others. But a ba'al avodah doesn't even think he's a glow-worm and he certainly doesn't think that he, doesn't, doesn't think that he glows more. And that's the omek of the story, the omek of the story that we began with with the maggid and the Ba'al HaTanya when, when the maggid tells him only Hakadosh Baruch Hu can say anochi, what it means is that the source, not stam a pshat, not stam a vertel, but it means is that the source for, for the not being room for any sense of ego is the reality of anochi Hashem Elokecha and, and that's the omek in what, in what the maggid was saying. The lack of, and again it's אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור, it's in terms of trying to overcome middas haga'avah which is a very sort of natural orientation. I think for many, maybe most of us, I think that that's the natural starting point. A person is naturally self-centered. That's the natural starting point. That's the Ramban ve'ahavta lerei'acha kamocha doesn't mean that you love your friend as much as you love yourself, because you can't be. We're all self-centered. That's the natural orientation that a person has. So it's an avodah. Lema'aseh the fallout from when we don't achieve at least a certain threshold of anavah is can be great and in many areas. Certain mitzvos, being mekayem certain mitzvos, being nizar on certain issurim require a requisite degree of anavah. It's not really possible to be mekayem kibbud av va'eim kedaba'i without anavah. Because lema'aseh what the demand of kibbud av va'eim, a person is being machnia himself. Whether he's being machnia himself in מלאכות שהעבד עושה לרבו for one's parents, whether a person is being machnia himself in what mora av va'eim says that one can't say to one's parents even maybe if by some other standard it would seem to be appropriate and a comeback, an objection. Right? We're all familiar with the stories in the gemara in Kiddushin quoted in the Rambam, quoted lehalacha, kis shel zahuvim, throwing it into the ocean and ripping the begadim and it requires a hachna'ah, it requires a hachna'ah. Without a capacity for hachna'ah... So it's very, very challenging and very, very questionable if we can be properly mekayem the mitzvah. The middah of anger which inevitably rachmana litzlan leads to cheit is inextricably bound up with the middah of ga'avah. 99.99 percent of the time, anger is fueled by ga'avah. Anger bein adam l'chaveiro, when we get angry at each other, it's rarely if ever a pure kind of moral outrage. It's what really fuels the anger is how dare you do this to me. The me is rarely if ever absent from when we get angry, from when we experience outrage. And ve're'ayah, we very rarely if ever react as strongly when the same thing is done to someone else. I get much more indignant when someone takes my parking space than when they take someone else's parking space. That's the metzius. So it's hard to attribute that to moral outrage when one sees b'chush that it's that it's me. It's not just how can this be done, how can you do this? It's how can you do this to me. The hachna'ah that we have to have in asking sheilos, hein in what we perceive as pure inyanei halacha, hein as what we see more in broader social religious realm, and being machnia ourselves to what we're told is the correct Torah opinion also is something that requires an orientation and the mindset of anavah. So much of the problems and confusion that exist today in religious matters is fueled by people who, due to a lack of anavah, overstep their bounds and are not machnia themselves to those who are qualified to provide us with guidance say. It's also a fallout from, to a large degree, it's a fallout from ga'avah. Practically, how do we work on instilling middas anavah? Again, so mitzvos such as kibud av v'eim, which directly involve being machnia oneself, certainly contribute to the effort. Making every effort to, as much as possible, not look to be given credit, not look to do or say anything just to sort of enhance one's reputation. Again, we're not talking about והייתם נקיים מה' ומישראל, we're not talking about if someone thinks you're eating chazir, so then you don't paveh anavah and say, "Okay, so let them think I'm eating chazir, let them think I'm a hypocrite." No, והייתם נקיים מה' ומישראל. But let's say a very common occurrence, a very common occurrence is let's say a person will be talking and learning with his chavrusa or someone in the beis medrash, with the rebbi, with the talmid, and he'll say something and the chavrusa will say, "No, it's all wrong," and then the chavrusa will say a korekt pshat, and the emes is that the chavrusa, the rebbi, whoever it was, misunderstood you and what you really said, and you really had said the correct answer. He for whatever reason, maybe you didn't say it as clearly as it could be said, or for whatever reason he just didn't hear what you were saying, but l'mayseh he thinks what you said was krum. of what he thinks you said takke was krum, and he thinks you said it. In reality, what you really said was correct pshat. So most of the time, the only need to set the record straight is to assuage our ego. Most of the time. Itachen that there are yotzei min haklal, but most of the time, it's just to assuage our ego. I don't want him thinking that that I said something so stupid, so foolish, so krum. I want him to know, "Yeah, yeah, that's what I said, that's what I meant to say." So if a person doesn't issue that correction, doesn't set the record straight, so that can go a long, long way to, again, help cultivate the middas ha'anavah in terms of, "Okay, good, so let him think I did it. So what? Let him think I did it." They tell a story, again, I can't vouch for from getting the details until the punchline correctly, the Sfas Emes, the Sfas Emes was a yosom. And the Sfas Emes as rebbe, he became rebbe at a young age. He succeeded his grandfather, the Chiddushei Harim. He was a yosom. So I don't know from what age, but at a certain age he was being raised by the Chiddushei Harim. So one night, maybe it was a Thursday night, the Sfas Emes stayed up, he was up all night learning. Then he davened vaskin. So he wasn't at the regular minyan. And apparently the Chiddushei Harim thought maybe he had overslept. So the Chiddushei Harim, when he saw him, was giving him mussar. He was giving him mussar. All the sleeping and the need for regular habits and how can you oversleep? He's giving him mussar and the Sfas Emes doesn't say anything. So there was someone someone who was there, I don't know, his brother or someone else was there, and after the Chiddushei Harim left, said, "Why didn't you tell him?" Sfas Emes says, "What? And lose the opportunity to hear mussar from the zaide?" So to say that, that's the same Sfas Emes that they once asked, some chutzpah once asked the Sfas Emes. Sfas Emes was, whatever, learn his sefarim, it doesn't, it gives a sense, somewhat of a sense for who he was, for the giant of spirit that he was. So some chutzpah once asked him, "How is it, how can it be, you in your twenties, you're rebbe, and you have all these ziknei chassidus that are so much older and wiser? So how is it that you're the rebbe and they're all the chassidim?" So the Sfas Emes tells a story, says there was once a group, they were determined to, I don't know, climb Mount Everest. So they tried several times, weren't successful. Finally after years of trying, finally after years of training and then years of trying, finally they get to the top. And again, they're in their thirties at this point. This is something they've been, it's been a long time. They see this four-year-old playing Lego on top of Mount Everest here, but they finally scaled the mountain after years and years and there's this four-year-old playing with his Lego on the top of Mount Everest. So they said to him, "How did you get here?" So he said, "I was born here." So that was the Sfas Emes's answer to that chutzpah. So if you have that mindset, so then you can also have the attitude of "How can you lose the opportunity to hear mussar from the zaide?" Maybe just in closing, one unrelated just quick vort in halacha. זכור ושמור בדיבור אחד נאמרו. So whatever Hakadosh Baruch Hu does has a purpose. So

מה שאין הפה יכול לדבר ומה שאין האוזן יכול לשמוע,

so why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu say זכור ושמור בדיבור אחד? He should have said it b'shnei dibburim. He should have said it, I mean, He's talking to us. So why make this miracle of זכור ושמור בדיבור אחד נאמרו? What does it accomplish? So we know the Gemara... כל שישנו בשמירה ישנו בזכירה, that's why noshim are metzuvas in Kiddush even though it's a מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא and otherwise we would have expected them to be patur because of the hekesh of כל שישנו בשמירה ישנו בזכירה. But where's the hekesh? A hekesh always means when you have two mitzvos in the same pasuk. You have two mitzvos in the same pasuk, so then we assume that it's not incidental or coincidental that the Torah has these two in the same pasuk. It means that there's some equation that's being implied by putting them in the same pasuk. But listen, here's a pasuk in Parshas Yisro and there's a pasuk in Parshas Va'eschanan, so where's the hekesh of shamur and zachor? Oh, so the teirutz is, no. So that's what the שמור וזכור בדיבור אחד נאמרו is. שמור וזכור בדיבור אחד נאמרו, so that's the makor for the hekesh. That's where you have a hekesh of shamur and zachor, mimaila you have כל שישנו בשמירה ישנו בזכירה.