Beha’aloscha: The Mis’onenim, Hidden Discontent, and Finding Simcha Through Emunah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. This week's parsha, Parshas Baaloscha, we have the parsha of mis'onenim. Mis'onenim, mis'onenim, the complainers. It's a big yesod, rabosai. A person must understand, a Yid must understand that Yiddishkeit requires that a person should be tzefridn, he should be happy. A person who is not happy, and mimeila as a result of his unhappiness, he complains, he's a chronic complainer. It's not just a flaw. It's not just a bad middah. It's not just a bad personality. It goes to the heart of Yiddishkeit. It strikes against the whole yesod of what it means to be a Yid. Simcha, simchas hachayim, and in reverse, complaining, complaining. Goes against the grain of what the Torah expects and what the Torah wants from a Yid. In the parsha of mesonenim, it says, Rab b'oznei Hashem. It's evil. They complained, and it was evil. Vayishma Hashem. Hashem even hears the complaints as something that needs to strike with punishment, severe punishment, a severe reaction, that the Eibishter gets angry, V'ativa bam eish Hashem, vatochal biktzei hamachaneh. The pasuk, interesting, if we start analyzing the lashon of the pasuk, there's a few diyukim, a few things that need to be addressed, that need to be pointed out. Vayehi ha'am k'mis'onenim. The people were like. Vayehi. What do you mean, vayehi? It's not a state of mind. It's not a vayehi. It's what they did. It's what you do, right? When a person complains, it's something he's doing. It's a verb. It's an action. He's a mesoneh. The pasuk doesn't use lashon that they complained, but rather, vayehi, they were in a state of. Vayehi, they were, k'misainenim, like complainers. Why? Why doesn't the Torah just write, the ha'am were misainen, they complained? Why didn't it say, Vayehi ha'am k'misainenim? Another diyuk in the lashon, ki, ki, k'misainenim. It should say, Vayehi ha'am misainenim. They complained. Found in Chazal already, there's a Medrash Yelamdeinu that addresses the shaila and says that we have to say they were not mamash misainenim, but they were k'misainenim. Medrash says, Mimeihem lo chatu chet gamur. They never really did full misainenim. V'lo laku makas gemurah, because, ilu amar kasuv Vayehi ha'am misainenim, lo hayah lahem slicha. It would be so bad that they would never be able to be forgiven. So bad? It's so bad? What do you mean? All other chata'im we have mechilah.

For some reason here, they would never be forgiven for this. Vayehi ha'ames l'hoyi lahem slicha, ela ki mis'onenim. Meila, therefore, it doesn't say vayehi ha'am mis'onenim. Unbelievable chiddush. What does it mean? They were like mis'onenim, because if they really were mis'onenim, there would be no hope, no mechilah. So they complain. All right, I understand it's not a good thing. There's an interesting lashon of the Siforno. The Siforno taka addresses the ki mis'onenim, like, not actual mis'onenim, and he explains because they actually had nothing to complain about. Lo mis'onenim b'libam b'emes. Mamash, they weren't actually complaining, ki lo haysa atzlam shum sibah reuyah lazeh, because they had no reason to complain. Aval hayu mis'onenim b'divreihem, l'nasos. So they were complaining for the sake of complaining, only to pick a fight, so to speak, with the Eibishter. It was l'nasos. It was trying to rouse the Ribbono Shel Olam's anger. Okay, so then I hear they have nothing to complain about. They have nothing to complain about. And the fact that they're complaining, the Siforno's learning was just to complain, to fight with the Eibishter. All right, so that's a very bad thing. You know, a lot of times people have no reason to complain, and they're only complaining because they want to pick a fight. They're looking to complain so they can complain, so they can make a problem. Maybe that's why it's ra. It's ra b'oznei Hashem. Hashem is saying, if I came and I gave you a difficult situation and you complain, but there was nothing to complain about, and you're just doing it so you could complain, so you can make problems, that's ra b'oznei Hashem. Could be. But then again, had you really complained, it would be worse. What's called really complaining? This is called not really complaining. This is complaining externally. What's really complaining? So what is it? Let's take a look a little bit more in the pasuk. The pasuk doesn't say what they complained about. It doesn't even say what they complained about. It just says they complained. It should say what they complained about. And l'chora, it's mashma from the pasuk that it doesn't really make a difference. You know, when people complain, usually it's not about what. It's about complaining. So the pasuk is teaching us they were complaining. What's the difference? You look a little further. It begins another, Vayitzak amel Moshe, almost like another parsha. Vayitzak amel Moshe, Vayispalel Moshe el Hashem, vatashke... So it calmed down. Then it says, V'asafsuf asher b'kirbo his'avu ta'avah, which l'choira seems to be a new parsha, that the asafsuf also started to complain. They wanted meat. Vayashuvu, vayifku, vayomru, again complaining. So l'chura, it would seem that this was not the same as the beginning. So that's why, in a Chanami, asipurna learns they were complaining al terech haderech. They were kvetching, it was hard, it was hard to go. So this was about the meat, yeah, and this, right, the asafsuf was about the meat, and this was about terech haderech. I saw an interesting Ramban. Ramban says, what was this inyan of complaining? What was the mesonenim? Says the Ramban a little different than Rashi, because Rashi learns mesonenim, ei mesonen al lashon alilah, mevakshim alilah lehachlif prish machrei hamakom, that actually it was an excuse. A lot of times people complain, it's not about the issue.

It's an excuse not to do what they have to do, which is a good lesson a person has to know this. When you see people complaining, many a time the issue is not what they're complaining about; it's excuses. It's excuses not to do what they have to do. They come and they complain. You know, we find in the shul, everyone complains about the rav. Complain. I've studied it in great length. Why? Why is everyone complaining about the rav? Everything he does and everything—he's not even doing anything. And the answer is, it's an alilah. It's an excuse. Why? Because if you don't complain about the rav, you have to listen to what he has to say. He tells you to daven. He tells you not to talk during davening. He tells you to learn. So how do you answer that? The answer is... Rabba aznei Hashem. Rashi explains, te'unah, shehi ra b'aznei Hashem shemiskavnin shetavo b'ozno v'yaknit. So actually, it's an excuse, and therefore they're really causing trouble, and therefore it's b'oznei Hashem. They want Hashem to hear it. The Ramban doesn't learn like this. The Ramban learns a little differently. The Ramban says, Anochi b'einai. Tikashen esrachku meHar Sinai sheyakarov lyishuv. They left Har Sinai. Har Sinai was close to where people had yishuv; it was inhabited. But then, as they move away from Har Sinai, bo beseich hamidbar hagadol vhanora bemasa rishon, they're now in the middle of the midbar. They're navigating in the midbar. Hayu mitzta'arim baatzmam, leimar, ma naaseh? So now all of a sudden they have tzaar. What do we do? Veech nichyeh? How do we live? Uma nochal? What are we going to eat? Uma nishteh? What are we to drink? Veech nisbol amal vaoni? So Ramban is learning that they had detailed complaints. The Siforno learns they were complaining al terech haderech. Rashi learns that what were they complaining? Also, the traveling, no rest. Ramban doesn't learn like that. Ramban is learning that it's almost like they had phobia and fears. What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? How are we going to take it? Maaseh neisim, he said, which are pretty much legitimate complaints, right? These are serious complaints. So then what's the problem? Says the Ramban, Vhoyah rabeini Hashem shehoyah lahem leleches achrav bsimchah vtuv lev, mirov kol tov asher nasan lahem. What are you complaining, Eibishter? Rabbeinu shleilam was good to you till now. B'saymech, have bitachon, trust Him. So the fact that you're complaining is, rabba, oznei Hashem. So we have over here a machlokes. The Ramban is learning that their complaints was more about fear, fear for the future. And still, it was a complaint against Klal Yisrael, that they're mesainenim, they're complaining for nothing. They should have relied b'simcha v'tuv lev on the Eibishter. It's interesting that the Netziv uses the word mesainenim and he translates it. What is mesainenim? גזירת אוון. The root word mesainenim has an aleph and a nun. Mesainenim has an aleph and a nun, which is really the shoresh of avon, v'chein machsh'veis einecha, that what? That avon, there's a sin. There's an expression in Yiddish, mitarn zindigen. Complaining is called zindigen. Zindigen means to sin. Comes from this Netziv. It's interesting.

Knows that. No, the mamelashon, so to speak, from Yiddish, they'll know that there's an expression, mitarin zindigen, when a person complains about his lot in life. Oh, what's going to be, and where... So you tell him, mitarin zindigen. Where does it come from, zindigen? It comes from here. This Even Ezra learns that the word mesonenim, mesonenim means zindigen, aveirah. So what's the sin here, rabosai? What's the sin? According to the Ramban, it didn't seem that they were trying to pick a fight with the Eibishter. It doesn't seem, according to the Ramban, that they were doing something malicious or vicious. Bishlaima according to the Seforno, they were trying to pick a fight with the Eibishter. They were trying to complain for the sake of making trouble. Okay, that's an avon, that's an aveirah. But according to the Ramban, it seems like they were complaining about their situation. So why is that called mesonenim, and why is it ra b'oznei Hashem? Eibishter says, I can't listen to it. I can't listen, ra b'oznei Hashem, and that there's such an oynish. Where does that come from? Why is it so? And the teretz, rabosai, is deep down, you have to know where. Where the shoresh of a person's complaining comes from, and I'll explain to you what I mean. Rabbi Yerucham mashgiach, Rabbi Yerucham explains that sometimes we complain about one thing, but the shoresh of it, the root of it, is actually from bad. There's a bad, and that's why he says it's ra b'oznei Hashem. On the surface, on the surface, not so bad what he did, but it's b'oznei Hashem. Hashem, who was able, the Ribono Shel Olam is able to listen carefully and hear and discern what's really bothering the person, ra b'oznei Hashem. Azoi learned Rabbi Yerucham. Mashgiach Rabbi Yerucham in Daas Tev explains, why does it say ra b'oznei Hashem? And the teretz is, you hear, the teretz is ra. Sometimes a person complains. Sounds like it's legit. Sounds like he has something to complain about. Ra b'oznei Hashem. The Eibishter hears that the shoresh of it is no good. And Rabbi Yerucham explains, so where is the shoresh? Usually taiva. Taiva. A person, he wants something. He's not getting what he wants, and the thing that he wants is not for him. It's takke not right. But he wants it. He wants it. He wants to have taivas olam hazeh. He wants to have who knows what. So what does he do? He starts to complain. So the complaints is this and this is difficult. That's not what it's all about. That's not what... There's an expression in Yiddish, rabboisai. And forgive me that I'm teaching you Yiddish, you know. You'll walk away from my shiur, you'll at least know Yiddish. I don't know if you understood all the divrei Torah I said; at least the Yiddish you'll learn, okay? Mizog tachter, meint a schnur. What does that mean? Sometimes a mother is going to sit at a table and she really wants to complain about the daughter-in-law. She's not happy with what the daughter-in-law... but she can't talk about the daughter-in-law because the daughter-in-law is going to storm off, and then she's going to make the husband leave and make a whole story. So she starts complaining about the daughter and saying, You know, you did... and the daughter's looking, But what do you want from me? I have nothing to do with this. Mizogt tachter, you say to the daughter, me meint dem schnur, you mean the daughter-in-law.

Complaining, rabosai, is a tricky thing. You gotta know from what you say to why you're saying it, and what you're really addressing might be two different things. You walk around complaining. You listen to people that complaining, complaining. It's hard to know. It's hard to know what they're really complaining about. Is it really the things that they say? No, maybe there's something deeper. Maybe that they're complaining is because they're not happy, that they're not, and therefore they complain about things that there's nothing to complain about. The Ribono Shel Olam hears this. It's ra b'oznei Hashem. You know, the asafsuf is an interesting lesson, and I think the parsha of misonenim is a parsha. The Torah is teaching us something. It's a lesson. And like I said, it speaks and it addresses the heart of Yiddishkeit, a Yid is not allowed to be a misonen. Like I said to you from the Eben Ezra, it's called zindigen. It's a contradiction: a Yid and a misonen is a contradiction. What's wrong? He's complaining. Who doesn't krechtz? Who doesn't krechtz, right? Everybody, oy, oy, shreklech, terrible, right? It's not so pashut. You know, the Chofetz Chaim used to say, a mensch meg zogen... A person is allowed to say, Asi shver, that it's difficult, but he can't say, Asi nish gut. When someone asks you, How's it? you can't say, It's not good. Tartzt nish gut, and I don't say. Zei flekt a chofetz, chaim zogn. A Yid is not— You think so what? So he said it, big deal. What did he say? He said it's not good. How you doing? Not so good. No, you don't say that. Shver, it's difficult. Aber nisht gut? I don't want to say it. What's the point? Misonenen. Misonenen means, like I said, people think, So what's he complaining? So it's vos. No. It's a contradiction to the hashkafah of a Yid who's a ma'amin in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It's a contradiction. It's a contradiction. So on one hand, because when you complain, sometimes you mean something completely different. Sometimes when you complain, it's about something completely different. You know, like I said, the asafsuf. What was the asafsuf? They wanted meat. The mefarshim say they had plenty of meat, plenty of meat. They still had plenty of cattle. You know how much cattle they took? They had meat. It's not true. The whole story is not true. The mefarshim also talk about, Zacharnu es hadagah asher nochal b'Mitzrayim chinam, es hakishu'im, v'es ha'avatichim, v'es hachatzir. So I always wondered, I don't understand. You want meat, so what are you saying, Zacharnu es hadagah? We remember the fish and the chrein and the... And the vegetables. Bishla, and you come and say, I want fish, and you say, I remember the fish. Okay, I get it. I get it, right? No? Rabosai, pashut, I always want the pshat in pasuk. When you complain you want meat, so how do you say, I remember the meat? But you didn't get meat. So what are you complaining? Zecharnu es hadagah. You remember the—what are you talking about? And then also, kishuyim, v'haftichim, the mefarshim say that all these things were actually fed to them in Mitzrayim because it was a weak diet. It was very bitter; it stays in the system long. It's not a very healthy thing. These were not healthy vegetables, so to speak. I don't want to go into diet now. You know, a lot of people start hacking with these pesukim: Is haftichim good? Haftichim's no good. Betzalim, shumim—garlic is good, garlic is not good, v'chaveis. Betzalim—when you're pregnant, it's not good to eat these things. Kishuyim—what are kishuyim? These are squashes. Some guy came to me in Lakewood and he says to me, Squash is the worst thing to eat. Look at the pasuk. I said, I don't know. Ein zachreinu klal. One thing I do know for sure, yeah, they're remembering what? The great—

The diet they had in Mitzrayim, that's what the... You know, when you complain, it doesn't make sense. If you listen to the complaints, it doesn't add up. The Torah is teaching us something. You have the meat and you're complaining. You want the kishuim. It's not even something that was good for you, but you're complaining. Did you ever try to stop for a minute to listen to what you're complaining about? And the teretz is, no, maybe not. Maybe not. People complain. And on top of this, the famous kasha. You know, when they had the mon, had everything that they could have ever wanted. Everything, everything was in the mon. Every taste was in the mon. So many mefarshim want to say, yes, but you didn't have the food. You know, food is enjoyable only when you see it. A blind person, they say, doesn't really enjoy his food. Food is not about taste necessarily. It's about the way it looks. Maftali Trup used to say, a schmooze. What was his schmooze? He says he once walked into a restaurant, and they charged him a lot of money for the restaurant. You know, he walked out, he said, I don't even know what. In my house, I get the same food. You know, it's the same. My wife cooks the same chicken, has the same taste. But in the restaurant, you pay for the way it looks. They give it you on a special plate, with the nice silverware, with the right side, the left side, and the napkin folded over. There's alba chicken. It's the same piece of chicken. Right, it's... at least it looks, it looks good. It looks, you know. All right. So maybe the mon, they couldn't see anything. They couldn't see. And maybe that's what was so kadosh about the mon, you know. It didn't have the taiva aspect of it, which means it filled you up, gave you the right taste that you could have wanted. It was nech, it was nichnas. It went into the me'ayin. It was all absorbed. It was healthy, everything. Yeah, but it didn't have the sugar, and it didn't have the taiva that attracts. We call that megarea. You have, you know, one of the things about cuisine is if you put in a lot of salt or you put in a lot of sugar, the mouth wants more and more and more. Could be by the mon there was no more and more. You ate and you were satisfied. It is what it was, you know. So could be that's what was bothering them. They couldn't see. The mefarshim say that the Torah actually explains to us the asafsuf, and that is, V'ha'asafsuf asher b'kirbo his'avu taiva, vayashuvu vayivku gam bnei Yisrael vayomru mi ya'achilenu basar. So what's his'avu taiva? It's a double lashon. It's a double lashon. It's a double lashon, his'avu taiva. And the answer is that a taiva taiva taiva. That a taiva. He's avel taiva. They had what they needed, rabosai. But they're looking for something else. They're looking. They're searching. Why do people search? Why do people look? People have what they need. The Eibishter gives what you need. And if the Eibishter doesn't give it to you, mistama you don't need it. You don't have to walk around thinking you got an oinesh and therefore you didn't get what you're supposed to get. So then why don't you just look at what you have and say, I have? And the answer is, something within. There's a hole in the heart of a person, in his pnimiyus, in his inner. He's not happy. Something's missing. And when you're missing, you search. The problem is we're searching in the wrong places. You know what the heart wants? If he's a Yid, the heart wants Torah. The heart wants to be close to the Rabbeinu Shloilam. The minute it doesn't have and it's empty, so it starts searching, but it's searching for the—

Wrong things. Hisavu taiva. They started looking, I need something more and more, and the problem is, it doesn't end, because that's not what you need. Hasafsuf asher b'kirbo, hisavu taiva. They were looking for something, they're searching. Had they had an understanding of what it means to be in the midbar, what it means to be connected to the Eibishter, what it means to be lechtech achrei bamidbar b'eretz lo zerua, they'd be very happy. The Rebbe, Rav Pam, always used to say, everyone is searching for the city of happiness. It's an expression. It can only be found in the state of mind. I used to say it over all the time. What's the point? If you understand what you're really looking for, you're in the right mindset, then you'll be very happy. Misonenim. What's misonenim? And I think the Ramban is saying something very, very eloquent and unique. Ramban is saying, Anochi b'einai, ki kashe nisrachku meHar Sinai. They left Har Sinai. They left Har Sinai, huh? They left Har Sinai. Kashe nisrachku meHar Sinai. So they blamed it. Their unhappiness and their complaining, that it has to do with makom yishuv. We don't, we're afraid, we don't have parnassah, we don't have this. Maybe they weren't identifying where the real emptiness and where the real unhappiness came from. When Yisrachku meHar Sinai, as time goes on, away from Har Sinai, you're missing it. You know, they left Sinai, Kitinok haBoreach miBeis HaSefer. And that's what the Ramban is saying. What they should have done is, they should have went after the Eibishter, b'simcha uv'tuv lev, b'simcha uv'tuv lev. Mis'onenim is not just that a person sinned externally by saying, by complaining. Mis'onenim goes to the core of where the person really is holding. To be a Yid and to understand what it means to be a Yid, and to complain is a contradiction. Doylei Yisrael used to say that whenever they're very unhappy, you know what they, they focus on the bracha in the morning, Shelo asani goy, and they automatically become happy. Doylei Yisrael, it's in many of the sefarim, Chassidish sefarim, Litvish sefarim, that when they made the bracha, Shelo asani goy. It brought happiness. How could you be unhappy? Shelo asani goy. Reb Boruch Ber, b'Chashmuel zecher tzaddik livracha, used to say, people think when they make the bracha, shelo asani goy, when they make that bracha, they're thinking about the bowery goy, right? The goy walks around with his pants by his ankles, right? His pants all the way down to his ankle, and then he has 50,000 tattoos. He has more tattoos than he has room on his body, right? And he walks around moving around from side to side because he's shikker, right? He's high and he's low. He's all over the place. Oh, shelo asani goy. He said, no. You know, he said, when I look at the honorable goy, when I look at the prestigious goy, that's when I make the bracha, shelo asani goy. I look at the presidents and I look at the prime minister. Oh, shelo asani goy. He said over in the Kedushas Levi that he once walked into bais medrash and he said all the brachos besides shelo asani goy. So he asked him, Rebbe, you missed one bracha. He said, I didn't miss it. He said, what happened was I was walking the street and a very honorable sar...

A real goy passes by. I took the opportunity to make the bracha shelo asani goy. Took the opportunity. They say over from Reb Anshel, the first Rothschild, Reb Anshel Rothschild. I read it in the histories, the history about Reb Anshel Rothschild. So he would walk the street, the fashteitzach, the goyim, the hoodlums used to yell at him, Yuden, you know, the smelly goy, smelly Jew, smell. Every time a goy would tell him, he would take out money and give it to the guy. Thanks for the compliment. Thanks for the compliment. Baruch Hashem, yeah. Thanks for the compliment. Moiridik, huh? Imagine, you know today, when a guy rolls up his window and he's, You Jew, get all angry. You get angry. You should be proud, Baruch Hashem, I'm a Yid. What do you mean? Thrilled. Thanks for the compliment. Thanks. Can you do it again? Can you call me dirty Jew again? Moiridik, huh? Or do you get angry? It says over there that the hoodlums, the young hoodlums in the town, they caught on that every time you call him a dirty name, Jew, right, he would give money. So they all lined up to— they made a business out of it. It says over there, he chapped that he can't give every guy a— That's lota. So he started giving them brachas, you know. Then they stopped, you know. Then they stopped. The point being, it's a contradiction. A Yid can't be unhappy. It doesn't go together. Tachas asher lo avadta es Hashem Elokecha b'simcha uvtuv lev meirov kol. You know the tochacha comes from that. So I wasn't oived Hashem b'simcha meirov kol. Why does the tochacha, tochacha, all the tremendous calamity, why? Which is really what we learn over here, that Vayivar b'Hashem. Hashem mamash vayichar apo. Hashem gets angry. What's so angry about? You're complaining. Who doesn't complain? I used to say over, it's a Jewish thing to complain, krechtz, no? Who doesn't? They say over the famous joke that there was once a Yid sitting on a train, and he was krechtzing how thirsty he is and how hot he is and how tired he is. Oy, oy, oy, oy, I'm thirsty. Oy, I'm tired. Oy, I'm hot. Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy. Okay. The guy sitting next to him couldn't take it anymore. He just couldn't take it. He said, Could you stop complaining? Could you stop? You're making me crazy. Stop for a minute or two, and he started again. Oy, oy, oy. Oy vey, oy vey. Okay. So by the next stop that they came to, the guy who was sitting next to him ran out, went to the first vendor, bought him a drink, ran into the train, gave the guy the drink. Here, open up the bottle, drink. The guy drank. Two minutes later, the guy started again. Oy, was I thirsty. Oy, was I so hot. I was so hot. I was so thirsty. I'm not going to change. Jewish nuance. It's the nuance, achleis people. You see that complaining. Yeah, you see complaining, rabosai. It's not just an act of complaining. It speaks something deeper, to the point that it's mamash a taina. Tachas asher lo avadta es Hashem Elokecha b'simcha uv'tuv lev. I always wondered, pshat in the pasuk, tachas asher avadta...

Es Hashem Elokecha. Why does it say Hashem Elokecha? Elokecha is midas hadin. Could be. It's a ta'ina even with his midas hadin. Even when things go rough, and there are nisyonos and it's difficult, it's still a ta'ina, tachas asher lo avadta. Es Hashem Elokecha, b'simcha uv'tuv lev. What's the double lashon of simcha and tuv lev? Simcha, gotta be happy. And what does it mean, meirov kol? And the answer is, kol, you don't have to get everything, rabosai. People are only happy when they have everything. That's not the right hashkafah of a Yid. It's meirov kol. You have most of what you... mostly you're okay, mostly you got what you... Daf zayin of freedom. There's a person that says, Kol mi sheyesh lo maneh, rotzeh masayim — I want everything. It's everything or nothing. Haman talks like that. Haman speaks, V'chol zeh einenu shaveh li, v'chol zeh einenu shaveh li. Why? Because he didn't get everything he wanted. He didn't give me everything. I want it all or nothing. Chazal say, Where does that come from? Hamin ha'etz. Haman is hamin ha'etz. Has to do with eitz hadaas. What does Haman have to... Haman has to do with eitz hadaas. How does Haman... I remember we were sitting once at the Pesach seder. And we were reading in the Haggadah, Ilu nasan lanu es Haman. So one of the kids in my house, they were young, they asked me, Ta, what does Haman have to do with the, with the, Ilu nasan lanu es Haman? They couldn't read it. What does Haman have to do with Pesach? I had the same question. What does Haman—you remember who it was, right? You remember who it was. What does Haman have to do with Eitz Hadaas? How did the Eitz Hadaas come in? Hamin ha'etz, mefareshim say that just like Adam, he had everything in Gan Eden. He was just told, Don't eat from the Eitz Hadaas. What was the first thing he had to go eat? The Eitz Hadaas. You have everything. Why don't you try everything out first? Go for it. Can you imagine the whole store is in front of you, and every type of cereal and ice cream and meat. You see that piece of chazer over there? Don't eat that, right? So what's the first thing he goes with? The carrot? Right there to the chazer. That's hamin ha'etz. You had everything, and the first thing you had to go to was the Eitz Hadaas. What's the pshat in the maaseh? What's the pshat in Adam Harishon and in Haman? And the answer is, the Torah is teaching you don't need to have everything. It's a lesson in life. Gan Eden. is when you have everything but, and it's still ganeiv. Restriction. Not having everything you want doesn't mean you don't have everything. That's called having everything. Who said yeish li rav? And who said yeish li kol? And who said yeish li kol? And who said yeish li rav? He said yeish li rav. Look it up. I know. And what did Esav say? What is it? When he has a rav, Esav has a rav. Yeish li rav. They say that Esav had a rav. That's exactly the Jewish humor. Yeah, he had a rav. Esav had a rav. What did he mean, yeish li rav? He never had everything because the more he had, the more he wanted. He always... Yaakov said, yeish li kol. Whatever I have, I have everything. I have enough. You know, Avraham Avinu had a daughter. You know what her name was? Bakol. The daughter's name was Bakol. Why did he call her Bakol? It's a weird name, strange.

You know, the halacha is you're not supposed to give a name to a child. A child will be embarrassed with the name. Imagine you give a child a name, Koel. What kind of name is that, Koel? You know what the real pshat is, Rabosai? Avraham Avinu had a boy, and then he had a girl. He had everything. Children. You have children, you have everything. That's Bakol, and he wanted to remember this, that whenever he mentioned his daughter's name, I have everything. Chabatz. Ba-kol. I have everything. We have children, we have everything. The Ribono Shel Olam gives us children. The Ribono Shel Olam gives us health. The Ribono Shel Olam gives us life. We have everything. Talk to a guy: What do you mean, I don't have a Ferrari, and I don't have a second home. That's yesh li rov. Complaining is not just an act of complaint; it goes to the heart of Yiddishkeit. A Yid is not a complainer. I speak this with all conviction, with the fullest—I believe it a hundred percent. A Yid who complains, something is wrong with his emunah, something is wrong with his pnimiyus. There's something wrong. If he'd learn and daven, he wouldn't complain about all this. If he had emunah, he wouldn't complain about this. So it's not just a grade as a complainer. No. Vayichar api. Vativra boneish. He's looking, he's savu taivis and asafsuf. Something's wrong with him. What are you searching? What are you— you got what you need. You got what you have, and the Torah says something's wrong with you. Something. There's something deeply, which is within a conflict. There's something missing. If you're a Yid, this doesn't go together. Something doesn't clap. Tachas asher lo avadta es Hashem Elokecha b'simcha uv'tuv lev. What is tuv lev? You know, rabosai, when you feel you're missing something, you're not generous. You're not tuv, the heart. You're angry. You're bitter. There's simcha, happiness, and then there's a certain hatovas lev. You know, Chazal tell us that one of the mailos is lev tov, a good heart. To the point that the Mishnah says this is the greatest maila of all the other mailos, to have a lev tov, to have a good heart. What does it mean to have a good heart? So people think it means to be kind. It's a lot more than that. A tov lev, he's a happy person. Happy people are kind and generous and loving. You see tuv lev in the context. Happiness from the pasuk. There's two types of tovas lev. Lev tov means he has a good heart. What do you mean he has a good heart? He does favors, yes, but it's more than that. He's got a healthy heart. He's got a healthy heart. You know, when you go to a doctor, he runs a lot of tests to see if your heart's healthy. But the only thing he wants, so if you have a hole in your heart? No, there's a lot of other things that's pumping, and if it's strong, the muscles. Tuv lev encompasses, rabosai, a lot of different things. And one of them is sefrid, the manch who's happy. Expression again in Yiddish. We're going to teach a lot of Yiddish today. Tuv lev a tzufridener mensch. You see that it's not just about being kind to others, because the pasuk uses it in the context of simcha. Tachas asher lo avadta es Hashem Elokecha b'simcha uvetuv lev. And that's meirev koel. You're missing the concept of you have what you need. Meirev koel. You don't need to have everything in life. That's avdus Hashem b'simcha. That's called simcha, and that's...

Kol avodas Hashem, and if you don't have that, you're mis'onenim, mis'onenim. It's ra, boozing Hashem. Hashem can't hear it. Hashem cannot listen to a Yid that krecht, like the Chofetz Chaim said, Mitornitz zogen, mitornitz zogen asi shlecht. Shver, shlecht nein. You're not allowed to say it's bad. Mis'onenim means avein, zindigen. What is complaining? It's not complaining, it's sinning. It's a sin, because Yiddishkeit, a Yid, and tachas asher lo avadta es Hashem Elokecha b'simcha uv'tuv lev is a contradiction. It's a contradiction. It's a contradiction. How do we avoid this? You have to have self-introspection, to look into yourself. What's really going on? And Rabbi Yerucham speaks a lot about this. You have to know where you—what's really—you're saying this, and you're complaining about this, but what's really wrong? You never know. Something could be very seriously wrong. Your complaint is a symptom of something more serious. And what is that seriousness? Mis'avu taiva. You're off. You're searching. There's a hole inside you. There's an emptiness inside you. You're searching. You're searching for the wrong thing. You're being mis'aveh for a taiva, when the real taiva is taiva nafshi. Lifarech like Dovid HaMelech says, the real taiva is for the word of Hashem. That's what a Jew is misa'aveh for. A Jew searches. It's hard. He has a taiva, taiva to learn, to daven. And mimeila you're feeding it the wrong thing. You're being masaveh taiva. And the biggest proof will be when you start listening to yourself. Do you make any sense? Complainers, when it's not about the issue and it's not a real issue, it doesn't even add up. It doesn't make sense what the... It's all over the place. It's never about the issue. Remember that. Complaining usually is not about the issue. It's a siman of something deeper that's wrong. This is a parsha in the Torah called misonenim, and we need to work on it. A person needs to work on it. If he sees negative, why am I seeing negative? Why? And the answer is maybe, maybe it's a sign, symptom of something deeper that lacks in emunah maybe, or I'm not learning properly, or I have bad middos. It can be many different things where the result of it is complaining. The result of it is misonenim. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.