Mesilas Yesharim 3

In the opening lines of Perek Alef, maybe the most famous lines in the Mesillat Yesharim, about chovat ha'adam be'olamo, so the Mesillat Yesharim says that

הורונו חז"ל שהאדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על ה' ולהנות מזיו שכינתו שזהו התענוג האמיתי והעידון הגדול מכל העידונים שיכולים להימצא. ומקום העידון הזה באמת הוא העולם הבא.

So here is the this sefer, right, of avodat Hashem. And the chord which the Mesillat Yesharim strikes here at the outset of what's the ultimate, what's a person's ultimate chovah, chovato be'olamo, not just what a starting point for a person's avodah is, but what's his ultimate chovah is that he should be able to be mit'aneg in olam haba. So it sounds very much shelo lishma. Sounds very much shelo lishma. So yitachen, be'emet if you look in the Rambam in Hilchot Teshuvah in Perek Tet and in Perek Yud, it seems to be a shtikl stira. That in Perek Tet of Hilchot Teshuvah when the Rambam talks about avodah lishma, so the Rambam says well, so the Rambam says as follows: In Tet-Beis,

ומפני זה נתאוו כל ישראל נביאיהם וחכמיהם לימות המשיח כדי שינוחו ממלכיות שאינן מניחות להם לעסוק בתורה ובמצוות כהוגן וימצאו להם מרגוע וירבו בחכמה כדי שיזכו לחיי העולם הבא.

Why is it that we have such a yearning for yemot hamashiach? Because then we have optimal conditions for avodat Hashem which will allow us to be זוכה לחיי עולם הבא. And this is not just why we azvei kir are mit'aveh l'yemot hamashiach, but the nevi'im and the chachamim. So you can't say that the Rambam is describing a madreigah of shelo lishma. This is why the nevi'im and the chachamim are mit'aveh l'yemot hamashiach, mashma that the fact that a person is עובד כדי לזכות לחיי עולם הבא is not a shelo lishma. In Perek Yud, the Rambam says

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל כל הברכות הכתובות בה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא אין ראוי לעבוד את ה' על דרך זו ואינה מעלת הנביאים ולא מעלת החכמים.

In case we were half asleep here, ואינה מעלת הנביאים ולא מעלת החכמים. Mamash the same nevi'im and chachamim who are mit'aveh l'yemot hamashiach. Why? Because they want olam haba. The Rambam says to be oved es Hashem because you want olam haba, that's not what the nevi'im and the chachamim do. So how m'yashev the stira in the Rambam? So lichora you have to say as follows: a person can want olam haba for one of two reasons. A person can want olam haba because a person is being self-interest. A person wants to live. Okay, so we, a person who's not that much of a ba'al madreigah, so he only experiences that that desire and that instinct to live in olam hazeh. A person who's a little bit more of a ba'al madreigah who understands that chayim amitiyim and chayim nitzchiyim are in olam haba, so then that same instinct for self-interest and self-preservation will be that he wants, he wants chayei olam haba. So that's a bechina of shelo lishma. That's the Rambam in Perek Yud. But let's say a person wants chayei olam haba like the Rishonim say on the pasuk כי לא יראני האדם וחי. That as long as a person is a ba'al guf, so then there are certain mechitzos which are mafsikos בינו לבין הקדוש ברוך הוא. And there are certain hasagas which a person is simply incapable of as long as, as long as he's a ba'al guf. I think the story is told about Nachman Breslever that on his that he used to say, maybe it was just on his deathbed or he said it earlier as well, that he looks forward to ridding himself of the levush of his guf. That's the lashon from Nachman Breslever. So if a person is mit'aveh for olam haba for that reason because of... Itochen that that's what the Mesillas Yesharim means as well. In Mesillas Yesharim when he says chovas ha'adam be'olamo lehisoneg al Hashem it doesn't mean lehisoneg al Hashem in the sense of Rambam Perek Yud but it means lehisoneg al Hashem in the sense of Rambam Perek Tes. Ella mai the emes is that's not really what he has in mind. Lekhora that's what you have to say to be meyashiv the Rambam but Mesillas Yesharim has something else in mind. What he means is like this. What's the whole I'll explain it as follows. Let's say it's a machlokes Amora'im among other places in Rosh Hashanah and we pasken that

אמר רבא מצוות לאו ליהנות ניתנו. מצוות לאו ליהנות ניתנו.

And therefore if you're mudo hana'ah from someone he can blow shofar and be motzi you with the shofar. Rashi in Rosh Hashanah says that לעול על צואריהם ניתנו not for hana'ah. What do you mean?

רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us mitzvos to be mehaneh us. רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל. So you'll say no it doesn't we're not talking about that type of hana'ah maybe. But be'emes be'emes what it really means is like this. That the purpose of mitzvos depends upon whose vantage point. From the Ribbono Shel Olam's vantage point so there's no question mitzvos lehanos nitnu. That's what mitzvos are for. Mitzvos are to guide us mitzvos are to uplift us mitzvos are to bring us closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Mitzvos are to be mehaneh us. That's what the mitzvos are all about. That's why Ribbono Shel Olam gave us mitzvos. So from the Ribbono Shel Olam's perspective there's no question that mitzvos lehanos nitnu. In terms of our kavana our kavana is supposed to be well Ribbono Shel Olam wants me to have a good time so my kavana is to have a good time. No our kavana in doing mitzvos our kavana is ke'eved kamei marei. Our kavana in doing mitzvos is to be oved es Hashem שלא על מנת לקבל פרס. The Ribbono Shel Olam bedavka wants that we should to give us pras. He wants to give us pras. But our kavana is supposed to be שלא על מנת לקבל פרס. And lekhora that's what the machlokes there in the Gemara is is a question of whether you only look at it from our vantage point and so from our vantage point mitzvos is lav lehanos nitnu. But ultimately why is it that the Ribbono Shel Olam from his vantage point what is kavyachol what is the tzorach gavo'a kavyachol what does he get out of our doing mitzvos our doing the mitzvos lishma not for the sake of hana'ah is that he does want to be mehaneh us. And lekhora that's the pshat. Now the whole point if you sort of want to summarize the theme of Perek Aleph in Mesillas Yesharim in one sentence so the theme which the Mesillas Yesharim is discussing is how a person's real life person's real existence ultimate existence eternal existence is in Olam Haba right? And therefore everything a person does is supposed to be mechuvon towards that. And that's basically what the theme of the entire perek is. Meaning that the Ribbono Shel Olam didn't create Olam Hazeh as an end unto itself. He created it as a prozdor not as a traklin but as a prozdor. That's how Ribbono Shel Olam created Olam Hazeh. So when the Mesillas Yesharim says that

האדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על השם ולהנות מזיו שכינתו

he's describing Hakadosh Baruch Hu's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu's lishma as it... were in creating, in creating Adam. That what Hakodosh Boruch Hu had in mind in creating us was not for the ימי שנותינו בהם שבעים שנה of olam hazeh, but rather as a bridge to olam habah. And mimaileh, if a person understands that that's what Hakodosh Boruch Hu had in mind, so then a person realizes that the ikar is olam habah, and then that has implications for what a person should be doing in olam hazeh. So what the Mesilas Yesharim is describing when he says הוא מה שהאדם לא נברא, he's not discussing, he's not defining our our motivation in our avodas Hashem. No, he's describing objectively. Again, this has to be discussed also, what does it mean to say why Hakodosh Boruch Hu, so so we'll discuss that another time bli neder. What he's saying is in terms of from Hakodosh Boruch Hu's vantage point. From Hakodosh Boruch Hu's vantage point, so Hakodosh Boruch Hu created Adam not for his life in olam hazeh, but as a bridge to olam habah. Now, if that's why Hakodosh Boruch Hu created us, if that's the mechuvon in the briyah, so then that's mechayev us. What does that mechayev us? Not it's mechayev us to that our kavonah should be, that our kavonah should be to to to get to olam habah to enjoy ourselves. No, but that's mechayev us to realize that what we're here for in olam hazeh is is for avodas Hashem and not for any other and not for any other tachlis. And that's what the pshat here in these opening lines is. Again, it's not discussing the motivation. It's not that חובתו בעולמו וצריך שישים מבטו ומגמתו is that a person is, but a person has to understand that Hakodosh Boruch Hu created us l'isaneig al Hashem and that's in olam habah, which means that a person is created for olam habah, not for olam hazeh. So what does that mean? It means that that olam hazeh was created as a makom of avodas Hashem. And that's that's what he means. If if Perek Aleph in Mesilas Yesharim, if if which he does later in the sefer, but if in Perek Aleph he had set out to define what avoda lishma is, so he wouldn't have begun with this formulation. But that's not what what Ramchal is doing here. Now, maybe just one one other hearoh for today, there's much more that that we need to discuss in Perek Aleph.

הנה שמו הקדוש ברוך הוא לאדם במקום שרבים בו המרחיקים אותו ממנו יתברך והם הם התאוות החומריות אשר נמשך אחריהן הנה הוא מתרחק והולך מן הטוב האמיתי ונמצא שהוא מושם באמת בתוך המלחמה החזקה כי כל ענייני העולם בין טוב בין לרע הנה הם נסיונות לאדם העוני מצד אחד העושר מצד אחד כי עניין שאמר שלמה השלווה מצד אחד הייסורין מצד אחד עד שנמצאת המלחמה אליו פנים ואחור.

Says Ramchal, olam hazeh is basically an uninterrupted nisayon with taivos chumriyos, de'hainu to be zocheh to chayei olam habah. So regardless of the machlokes, the Rambam or the Geonim, of of whether or not olam habah is just neshoma or guf uneshoma, but everyone agrees that even if it's guf uneshoma, it's not a it's not an existence with with physical pleasure. It's

אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה ולא שינה ולא ישיבה,

it's not it's not physical, even if it's beguf uneshoma, it's not the physical existence the way we experience it now. And certainly according to the Rambam that it's only only neshomos. So it's only to a person is only ready for such an existence to the degree that that a person is cultivates a spiritual personality. So only to that degree is he is he ready for olam habah. And only to that To the degree that a person cultivates a personality where he is rodef achar hata'anugim, achar hata'avos, so then he's not prepared. How much of Olam Haba can he tolerate? You take someone who likes to learn, you sit him down so they can listen to a four-hour shiur. You take someone who is not into it, so maybe after a few minutes he's going to be squirming. How much is he ready to receive? So on the one hand, this is probably an excellent example of what the Mesilas Yesharim discusses in the hakdama. It's perhaps not a big chiddush, not a big chiddush. But me'idach gisa, as the Mesilas Yesharim says in the hakdama,

כפי רוב פרסומם וכנגד מה שאמיתתם גלויה לכל כך ההעלם מהם מצוי מאוד והשכחה רבה.

To the same degree that it's obvious and obviously true, to that same degree we ignore it and we forget about it. Mesilas Yesharim here explains that not only is oni a nisayon, but osher is a nisayon also. In many tekufos in our history, so Jews didn't have to worry about the nisayon of osher, and they didn't have too much opportunity to indulge too many taivos chomriyos even if that was their inclination. So we live in a very affluent society, a society in which objectively speaking, taivos chomriyos dominate. Taivos chomriyos dominate. When one wonders what Ramchal would tell us when eating out is a regular form of recreation to go to restaurants, temidin kesidran as a regular form of recreation, even assuming that it doesn't strain one's budget. One wonders what Ramchal would say about some of the cars that we drive. One wonders while surely Ramchal understood human nature profoundly and certainly understood the need that most of us have in our lowly madrega to take a break and to have a vacation. One wonders what Ramchal would think about the rather elaborate vacations that we take. And one wonders what Ramchal would say, fully cognizant of the Gemara in Sukkah about how a dirah na'ah מרחיבה דעתו של אדם and harchavas hadaas is something very very important and a very big bracha for one's avodas Hashem, but one wonders what Ramchal would say about some of the luxurious And hashichcha mehem is matzui. The helem and the shichcha are further complicated by the fact that there's a tendency that we have, natural enough, easy enough to understand, to sort of grade ourselves in relation to the society in which we live. So when you live in a society that goes crazy over taavos chomyos and we only go half crazy, so then we think that we're being very moderate. But obviously the way to measure whether we're moderate is not according to the standards of Western society in tashas samech hei, but according to the Rambam in perek alef and perek beis of hilchos deos. And the Rambam had a very different definition of moderation than we use. And again, independent of however taxing it may be financially, which is also a problem, which is also a problem. When people buy such expensive houses that really forces them to work extra to make extra money just to support that type of lifestyle, so a) it drains time away from intrinsically meaningful things. It's a mitzvah to earn parnassa. To earn parnassa to support an immoderate lifestyle is not a mitzvah. That doesn't have the redeeming value of יגיע כפיך כי תאכל. It drains money from tzedaka. And in addition to everything else, even if there were endless money available, even if there were endless money available, the Mesillas Yesharim is not talking about it being a drain on finances. Mesillas Yesharim just says a person has to cultivate a spiritual personality because that's the type of personality which can flourish in olam haba. And a person has to measure everything he does with this in mind. Again, it doesn't mean intrinsically, it doesn't mean and chas v'shalom I don't mean to intimate for a second that if you see that a person has a big house that he's violating this Mesillas Yesharim. No, it depends why he has the big house. No one had a more lavish lifestyle than Rabbeinu Hakadosh. So obviously there's no intimation here that a person can judge from chitzoniyus, but devarim hamesurim lalev. Maybe someone looking from outside can't necessarily tell. Sometimes you can have a pretty good hargasha, but maybe a person can't absolutely tell, but devarim hamesurim lalev. We certainly know to what end all the gashmius is mechuvon. There are times though where a person, let's say they use their money properly, they don't buy too much of a, they have what they need just for hashmasha. Is there a concept that a person sees his role as someone who, not so into learning, but he sees that if he works and he makes a lot of money he can contribute to Klal Yisrael as a whole as a baal tzedaka? Absolutely. So there is a concept of overworking in the sense too, if that would involve overworking even though it would sacrifice maybe on a person's own personal growth? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, again it's the same as the house. A person who ela mai, there certainly is such a concept. Halacha l'maaseh, well, when any individual is weighing it, so it's a, I mean, it requires yishuv hadaas to figure out that that's what a person's, that what a person's tafkid is in olam hazeh. But yes, absolutely, it certainly can be that the answer is yes, absolutely. But ela mai, in terms of, let's say, when ploni has to, has to make that cheshbon, so it depends upon what his abilities are in learning versus his abilities in, in business and the like, because on a very technical level, the chiyuv is to give tzedakah from what you have. There's no chiyuv to earn more money to give more tzedakah on a very, on a very technical level, which is why a person has to sort of weigh in terms of, well, given the abilities I have, so what's my chiyuv in terms of, of other things? You know, what's my chiyuv in terms of talmud torah, given, given the abilities that, that I have? Because again, the answer to, to your question is yes. Sometimes there, there are people for whom the answer is yes, but it has to be made very much individualized for that reason. But there certainly is such a concept. Okay, we'll continue next time bli neder.