Pirkei Avos 4: Ben Zoma’s Four Measures of True Wisdom, Strength, Wealth, and Honor

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Begins with the Mishnah ben Zoma omer: Eizehu chacham? Halomed mikol adam. Eizehu gibor? Hakoveish es yitzro. Eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko. Eizehu mechubad? Hamechabed es habriyos. More or less, the Mishnah is famous to everyone. Everyone knows the memros of this Mishnah. What is the Mishnah addressing? What is the shailah of eizehu chacham, eizehu gibor, eizehu ashir? So if you look through the Rishonim and Acharonim, the mefarshim on this Mishnah, choire comes out three mahalchim, three different mahalchim on how to understand what the Mishnah is addressing, what the Mishnah wants. Der ershte pshat is that the Mishnah is addressing b'etzem: who is a chacham? Who is a gibor? Who is a ashir? Who is a mechubad? A tzveite pshat, if you look through the Rishonim and Acharonim on the Mishnah, it's a shailah on how to achieve chochmah, how to achieve gevurah, how to achieve ashirus, how to achieve kavod. In the Sifrei baalei mussar... The Mishnah takes on a third meaning, third mahalach, and that is: how does one work against the yetzer hara in these inyanim? Farshteyt zach, there's big yetzer haras, taivas hakavod, taivas hamamon. The Mishnah is addressing deeper than just the literal who's the ashir, who's the chacham, but deeper: how does one attain his chachmah? How does one work against the yetzer haras that destroy chachmah, as we will now begin to explain. So we have three mahalchim, Nachumel, iberchazrin vos der Mishnah vil. Der ershte mahalach, the first mahalach, the Mishnah wants to tell us literally who is a chacham, who is an ashir, who is a mechubad. Der tzveite mahalach, as we soon will see in the Rishonim as well, is how to achieve all these things. How does one achieve chachmah? And the third mahalach is that the Mishnah is addressing how to protect. Let's use that for a beautiful way of chataichin kipshuto in the Mishnah. How do you protect your chachmah? How do you protect your ashirus? How do you protect your kavod? Because there's big yetzer haras in all pitfalls, pitfalls in these inyanim that you have to protect yourself. And the Mishnah is addressing how to do that. So let's begin the Mishnah with the first mahalach. What is chachma? Who is a chacham? Kipshutai. If you look at Rabbeinu Bechaye, the Machas Vitri, other Rishonim, they patched the Mishnah kipshutai. Who is a chacham? Halomed mikol adam. Fragen zei the kasha, l'choira, so he's not a chacham. He will be a chacham. If halomed mikol adam, still has a lot of work ahead of him, after chlal and fenalimin. So you could come and say he will eventually achieve chachma. Fragen the Rishonim the kasha, l'choira, why are we calling the person who is a lomed mikol adam that he is now b'etzem a chacham? Azoi fregt Rabbeinu Yonah. Now Rabbeinu Yonah says an interesting mahalach, and he says that it's not about achievement of chachma, because then it would be al shem ha'asid. Then it should be that he will be a chacham, not that he's a chacham now. Zogt Rabbeinu Yonah, he shows now that he's a chacham because he's ohev es hachachma. Wise people like wisdom. So the fact that he's—

Lomeid mikol adam, that he searches out to become a chacham, is a siman eino shein a chacham. Zogt Rabbeinu Yonah, otherwise the Mishnah is a chas v'shalom. What do you mean he's a chacham now because he's lomeid mikol adam, so he will be a chacham? Zogt Rabbeinu Yonah, and it's interesting, he says it's a member in the velt, zogt Rabbeinu Yonah. It's already acknowledged by all wisdoms that wise people search wisdom. A fool, amar ha'sheta, not interested. I could learn from this person something, ba'emes is nisht kein, because he's not an ohev chachmah. So he says, you know what? Who cares? I've seen people like this, that they're able to search out avodah, kashya, another chashuv by a chassid, I can learn something from him. Plugi yidn. Thus, hasiman, Rabbeinu Yonah says that he is a chacham, because a chacham is ohev es hachachmah to search it out. So we have here the pshat that we're discussing, be'etzem, that is a chacham. So either we can learn, a lomeid mikol adam, u'memeila vet er vern a chacham, zogn the rishonim, al shem ha'asid. Maybe, maybe because he will be a chacham is er shein a chacham, azoi lehrt Rabbeinu Bechaye. Rabbeinu Yonah learns, sasim an shein hachacham. A kluge mensch zucht chochmah. There's an interesting Maharsha in Sotah. The Maharsha learns that there's a middle point here. A chacham is an anav. An anav searches chochmah. Azoy leynt der Maharsha, that a person who's an anav, he is going to look for chochmah, u'meileh he will eventually achieve his chochmah. Pshat l'chayverabbeisai: there's a wisdom, there's a chochmah in understanding that du veyst nisht. Azoy farshteichen the Maharsha. Amol di greste chochmah is that a person knows that he doesn't know. He knows that he doesn't know better; there are others who could teach him. All the downfall from all the chachamim in the world, by the way, was this point: that they thought they're smarter than etcetera, finish. Smarter than this, smarter than this, and smarter than that guy. They're smarter. Di greste chochmah, azoy farshteicht der Maharsha, di greste chochmah is farshteyen az du farshteyst nisht. Farshteyst nisht. You're not the smartest. There are others who could help you. ס'עליינע פלאגט. A kluge mensch listens. We're not das meint der Mishnah. So eizehu chacham? So it's either al shema asid, oder er veyst az er iz a chacham now, val er zucht chochmah. Ad me ken zogin, az ei mein ichtased al pshat in the Maharsha, it has to do with anavah. Das alein hachachmah, that the chacham knows that he doesn't know everything. That's a zel chacham according to the Rishonim, b'etzem. So let's learn now the Mishnah, eizehu ashir? What's an ashir? So obviously it means b'etzem, right? If we're going to learn the Rishonim that it means who is now a chacham, not who achieves chachmah, who is now a chacham, is the Mishnah eizehu ashir? The zel b'zach, right? Basically, let me tell you over a beautiful gaon, beautiful shem, in the Seder HaGra. In Seder HaGra ווערט געבראַכט, mi kimi me'afar dal, me'ashpos yarim evyon. What is the chiluk between a dal and an evyon? Das zel b'zach, mi kimi me'afar dal. So if you look at the Rishonim and Acharonim, it's mashma that there's different levels of aniyus, okay? It has to do with kimcha d'Pischa, it's a lot nogea l'halacha. It's not the right time and the forum for right now to discuss halachically the difference between a dal and an evyon. Ober in Seder HaGra zogt, mehe...

A dal means he's poor. An evyon means he's a nitztrach. It doesn't have to be that he's poor; he's needy. When somebody needs something and he doesn't have it, he's called an evyon. There's a dal b'etzem, and there's an evyon, a nitztrach. You know, in Hilchos Tzedakah we find that if a person lost his money, medafim helfen, he could come and ask for horses that run in front of him if that's what he was used to. Why? Because that's what he needs. Is he a poor person? No, he's not a poor person if you give him the money, but he's an evyon. An evyon is something deeper than just money. He needs something. The way I would fataytch the goyim what's negea to our Mishnah: an ani is someone who needs, an ashir is someone who needs nothing. Our Mishnah, Vilzagen, eizehu ashir? What's an ashir? He's not needy. He's a sameach b'chelko. He doesn't look—he's not looking for something. Our people wake up in the morning every day and they're unhappy. They need this. They need it. It's in your mind that you need it. It's not true. Und meila, the person walks around as a nitztrach. Abaye said there's a Tanna d'bei Eliyahu that Reb Chaim Volozhiner went to ask the goyim about. When it speaks in Tanna d'bei Eliyahu, the middos of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, one of the middos is He's a sameach b'chelko—our Mishnah. Interesting. Frekt Chaim Volozhin to the Goyen, Sameach b'chelko, the Rabbeinu Shmot tachalt? Vos iz shayach sameach b'chelko? So the Goyen gave him a moiridige teretz, which is a shmues for itself, im yirtzeh Hashem, one day when we talk about the ma'alos of Klal Yisrael, Am Yisrael, which we do talk on a constant basis, but this is not the form of the sugya of this Mishnah. Chelko, the Rabbeinu Shleim, zokt, main chelek is Klal Yisrael. Ki chelek nachlaso Yaakov, chevel nachlaso. The Rabbeinu Shleim is sameach b'chelko no matter what they are and who they are, no matter how low they fall, no matter how weak they are. Zogt der Goyen, that's the pshat, he's a sameach b'chelko. Chabeisai, a mussar vet gebracht, a yesod, like we just told you from the Goyen, of not needing. Yes, avada the Rabbeinu Shleim... So there's a midah called not to be a nitzrach. Yeah, avada, avada the Rabbeinu Shleim... emes. Takke azoi. Ober, the Rabbeinu Shleim that doesn't need is a maila called a sameach b'chelko. In itself is a maila, not to be a nitzrach, not to be needy, to be content. Un der midah is der midah from sameach b'chelko. You know, there's an interesting Chofetz Chaim, ma'amarim Chofetz Chaim. Chofetz Chaim once came to an ashir. It's brought down in the sefer Chofetz Chaim, and he asked them, he asked the ashir if he could come and sit down and talk to him, stam l'fedzdakah v'inyanim. So the ashir, who was an ashir muflag, said, Chofesh kein tzait. Don't, no time. Chofesh kein tzait. He's busy. The Chofetz Chaim said, Ach, gib a kuk vi armer er is. Look how poor he is. Al tzad, but the most important thing in life, ah, he doesn't have time. Guy could come and say he has everything, but אין זמן. So what do you have? Vos hastu? It's perspective of what's called we have and we don't have. A nitzrach means he needs. An ashir means that he has. There's an ashirus of a sameach b'chelko. So the same way the Mishnah says, Eizehu chacham? Halomed mikol adam, means chacham b'etzem. Eizehu ashir? Haשמח בחלקו. So then what's eizehu mechubad?

So if you take a look at the Meiri, the Meiri learns, der mensch alein be'etzem is a mechubad. In Yiddish, there's an expression, the baalei mussar flagn use a pchisusdike mentch. What do you mean pchisus? He's got his hands and his legs. What's he, he's missing an arm and a leg? What do you mean pchisus? When the Torah says, der mensch ken zayn az a hot alts, aber s'ya pchisus. He's not a mechubad, be'etzem. In Slabodka Torah, there's a lot of talk about this, kavod habriyos, kavod habriyos, rabbeisai, kavod atzmi, which has to be understood, doesn't mean to be a bal gaivah, which is really what the Mishnah is saying, eizehu mechubad. It's not pshat, you walking around moneying kavod. No, eizehu mechubad is a mechabed es habriyos. So in a hechera mensch, a mechubad, she'eino mensch, tiferes ha'adam, like we've spoken many, many times. So der mensch alein, der is a mechubad, and thus is according to many Rishonim, eizehu mechubad. Okay, so the Mishnah, like most, like many Rishonim, is about how does the person get the title of a baal seichel? He's called a chacham. How is he called an ashir? And how is he called a mechubad? But like I told you, there's a second mahalach in the Mishnah, and that is, how does one achieve, how does one get, and that's the Medrash Shmuel learns like this, the Mishnah, how does one get to become a chacham? How does one, as we'll soon see from the Sfas Emes... Get to be an ashir. How does one get kavod? So like I told you, there's an interesting Sfas Emes that says that it's interesting, most of the Mishnah I could hear: Eizehu chacham? How do you get it? By lomed mikol adam. Eizehu mechubad? You mechabed the other guy. Normally, normally — should say the word normally, pashtus — the guy's going to be mechabed you back. But eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko. If it means be'etzem is an ashir, hevech. But it means, how do you achieve ashirus? So how do you learn this Mishnah? Tell me, you could take it to the bank, put it in the bank that what? I'm a sameach b'chelko? You're right, you're not going to become an ashir, but that's ashirus. So then it doesn't fit into the Mishnah. Eizehu chacham? You'll retain, you'll become a chacham, you'll gain chochmah by lomed mikol adam, mikol melamdai hiskalti. Eizehu mechubad? That's a way of getting kavod, as I state in Medrash Shmuel, and most Rishonim learn the Mishnah that way. So how do you learn the Mishnah, eizehu ashir? So the Sfas Emes, azoi darf men lernen der chelek from the Mishnah. The way to become an ashir, it's a bracha because you are a sameach b'chelko. So here we've given the success, so to speak, the secret of success for ashirus in one word. Not hypothetical ashirus, real ashirus. Zei deflekt iber zogin. I don't know from whom — maybe it's from Slabodka, I don't remember — but I know he used to say it over all the time. Naftali, sva ratzon, malei birchas Hashem. You know why Naftali had birchas Hashem? Because he was sva ratzon. He was sameach b'chelko; he was very happy. Das alein vos a mentsh is a sameach b'chelko, that itself is a zechus—let's use the word zechus—that he should become an ashir. It's a very, very good question, and that's the third part of the shiur. Let's go to the eizehu mechubad, and that is the same thing. How does one gain respect? How does one get kavod? And the teretz is, eizehu mechubad? Hamechabed. That's how you achieve and you get kavod. Efracht doch gut. These are big things. How do you get to it? That's really the third mahalach of the baalei mussar, how to learn up the Mishnah. The Mishnah is addressing: how does one attain chochmah without falling into the pitfalls of chochmah? How does one attain ashirus? How does one attain kavod?

Without running into the problems of kavod. If you take a look at the Bar Benel, he learns the Mishnah this way. And he says, if you take a look, dargansa Mishnah is hakinah, v'hataivah, kavod. Why is a person not a lomeid mikal adam? Because he's kinah, jealousy of the other guy. Why is a person not a sameach b'chelko? Because of hataivah. Why does a person not mechabed the other guy? Because he has kavod problems. These are all issues of the Bar Benel, which are yesodei ha'adam: hakinah, v'hataivah, v'hakavod motziin es ha'adam min ha'olam. So our Mishnah, be'etzem, is just addressing how not to fall into the hakinah, v'hataivah, v'hakavod. So let's learn up the Mishnah according to this, and let's begin with a meridike lashon of the Mishnah that the mefarshim discuss. Eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko. Why does it say chelko? It should say, eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'mah sheyesh lo. Yeah, whatever he has, he's happy. The word chelko—and if you notice, like we mentioned from the Gaon, chelko can mean mamash dveikus with Klal Yisrael, chelek Hashem amo. It doesn't just mean b'mah sheyesh—the guy's happy with what he has, it's enough. Obviously the word chelko means more. Zakein Chaim Volozhin, you know what it means? Mishnah is telling us a tremendous mussar, Zakein Chaim Volozhin. No matter how much you achieve, it's always chelko. It's only half of what you ever want. Zogt the Mishnah, you'll never be happy anyway, so might as well be happy. Chelkoi is only a chelek because no one ever gets more. Mi sheyesh lo maneh, chafetz masayim. He wants more and more and more. So chelkoi, because it never reaches kuloi. So meileh, just be happy with the fact that you have chelek. The Baal HaNefesh says it's interesting, the taiva of money is different than any other taiva. Any other taiva, the more you take from it, you get sick of it. So money is a chesronless. You never get—there's always... Vifel can an esrog dessert? You have to go to a chassid... fifty types of... Okay, good. I don't know anybody who doesn't come back from a chassid... I even just looking at it already... There's so much. Okay. I never saw... I have so much money, what am I gonna do with all this money? And the Baal HaNefesh, the... the yesod from them taiva is that it always is chelkoi. You never feel that you ever got. Zogt the Mishnah, zogt Reb Chaim Volozhiner, the pshat in the Mishnah is, sameach. B'chelko, knowing that you can never get more, so be happy. Whatever it is, you'll always never be happy to look for more. There's a vort from Chaim Brisker, shaina vort. He says, if you notice, it says, Ha-sameach, that he's happy. It's a loshon heiveh. It should have said, Yismach b'mah sheyesh lo. It's always a loshon of Chazal, is yismach, he should be happy with what he has. When someone says to you, Be happy with what you have, right? So he doesn't say, Be happy. It says, loshon heiveh. Chaim's a diyuk, okay? Zogt Reb Chaim a meyredike vort. He says, whenever a person achieves, Rosh, he'll win the lottery, he'll be very happy for that day. The problem is that that happiness goes away tomorrow. The trick is to keep the simchah heiveh. It's a meyredike vort. It's a gaonus, yeah? A person can be happy. Tell me, when you won the lottery, when you got this thing, how many people, they get a house, oh, they're so happy. A year later, they're not happy again. What happened? When the Torah says, D'shtu bleibt, aber der simchah geit avek. Zogt Reb Chaim.

Sameach. V'simcha has to be present, not something that a person is yismach, he's happy. No, hasameach. You got to constantly work to have that simcha. Says the Brisker Rav, a megedike zach. You know, the ani b'etzem is luckier than the ashir. Why? That's a peledike zach, the way the Brisker Rav looked at things. Remember, my zeide, zichrono livracha, told me he was involved around the Chofetz Chaim. There was a lot of shidduchim. He heard the Chofetz Chaim discuss shidduchim for family members. For one of his grandchildren, there was a shidduch that was redt, and my zeide heard this loshon, mamash the exact, and he used to say it over all the time. She came from a very poor home. So the Chofetz Chaim said, Chutz fun der maileh vos zi kumt fun a nora mishpachah, vos andere mailos hot zi? That's how he talked. Besides for the maileh that she's a bas aniyah, maybe she—tell me more about her mailos. Like, this was the—today it's the first thing you ask. You did a rich shidduch, yeah, but how's the guy? Okay, that's the next. But the Chofetz Chaim was the other way around. Chutz fun der maileh vos zi kumt fun a nora mishpachah, vos andere mailos hot zi? I heard this from my zeide many times. He used to say over mamash the word for word. The Brisker Rav, a megedike taich: der ani is be'etzem der ashir, and der ashir is der ani, favos. Sagt the Kerav, der ani hot doch kein zachnis. So what does he feel secure? What's his security in life? Deibishter. Sagt, the Eibishter is what to feel secure about. Der ashir, what is he secure about? He's secure, punkt fakert, mit zayn gelt. Aber the problem is, it's never enough. Mi sheyesh lo maneh, rotze masayim. See, he ends up being secure about something which is, for him, not security. S'iz a פלאדיקe zach. The person who is an ashir, his security is something which to him is insecure. He's a boteach ba'ashrai. He's a hotach. But that ashirus to him is not to be talking. He's not comfortable with that because he's afraid he needs more. So der gantze bitachon vos er hot, it's on a facade. It's on something which doesn't really exist, because in his mind, it's never enough. Masha'en kein der ashir, der ani, zayn bitachon is in the Eibishter. Der Eibishter is batuach. Dos is muftach. So we have over here a rebbeisai a yesod. And it's interesting, the Brisker say over that the Brisker Rav gezogt, the greatest matanah that the Eibishter ever gave a person was bitachon, the chovas halevavos. It's a matanah that he can be boteach baKadosh Baruch Hu. The chovas halevavos was— It's the greatest present, he says, that the Ribono Shel Olam gave Klal Yisrael: tachton, that they could be muftach in the Ribono Shel Olam. The man shouldn't be tachton, so the pshat is that he's having bitachon on something which is avar. He'll lose the money in a minute. So he's really insecure because he really has no security, and that insecurity makes him depressed, ani. There's another pshat, rabosai, in eizehu ashir? hasameach b'chelko. Chelko? A man should have ganisht. So what is he sameach about? Un der teretz is, chelko, like b'teibishter. We don't mean physical; we mean chelek ruchni. Chelko, that a man has, that he knows there's an olam haba, there's a Torah, he has Torah and mitzvos. Then he's sameach. Eizehu ashir? hasameach b'chelko, was er zayt. Zogt the Chidda, az a bach, gezogt, when someone is depressed, he feels... he should think, Ashreinu, mah tov chelkeinu, u'ma na'im goraleinu, u'ma yafa yerushaseinu. That bracha is al tanzen fun simcha. There's an interesting na'emeli melech, rabosai.

Emily Melech says, Chelkoi. It's going back on Olam Haba, and I think what he's saying is a mevadik kavod. Kol Yisrael yesh lahem chelek l'Olam Haba. Every perek begins with this, that every person has a chelek l'Olam Haba. Zogt der Mishnah, איזהו עשיר? השמח בחלקו, fors er hat Olam Haba. Imagine a goy, vos hot er shein. Once mentioned here, Reb Yerucham, in Parshas Miketz. Reb Yerucham discusses the inyan of being zan u'mefarnes goyim. It's a very interesting Reb Yerucham. And he says that Yosef was mefarnes goyim. Zogt er, what's the pshat that he was so into being mefarnes goyim? So he learns that has to do with rachmanus. Rachamav al kol ma'asav. Then he says a mevadik zach: Der iker rachmanus vos midarf hoben af a goy, vos er hot nisht kein Torah u'mitzvos. And the lashon he uses there is from the Alter from Kelm, that the Alter from Kelm would say that when he sees a goy in the street, hot rachmanus af hem. Hot nisht kein Shabbos. Look what we have and he doesn't have it. A whole different way of looking at what's called having, what's called not having. And then Reb Yerucham writes, which to me is a chiddush nifla, he says, and I also have a little bit of this feeling of rachmanus. Chaven a baal mussar, Reb Yerucham. So he didn't want to say that he has it completely, because he worked on himself and he realized he doesn't have it completely to that extent. So, tabisulhata. This is lashon. Gam ani yesh li tzaar pesa. Huh? I can't hear, what? And I also have a little bit of this rachmanus, like Dalta from Kelm. That what? That when I see a goy going to church, on his way to church, I feel bad for him. ... Azar rachmanus. He has rachmanus on the poor guy. We don't even have those hasagos. It's rules apart from us. Eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko. If you look at the Chofetz Chaim, he says this, a lot of this yesod. Chelko doesn't mean chelko hagashmi, but chelko haruchni. Chelko haruchni. It's interesting, the Chofetz Chaim on this Mishnah puts both things together. It's talking about chelko hagashmi, as well as chelko haruchni. Das pas fun Chofetz Chaim. Shein v'dol. The Mishnah is talking about chelko hagashmi. U'mdel simchaso b'mah shehaben is simcha fun ruchni. Zogt der Chofetz Chaim, ועל מדאפארשטיין, der chelek hagashmi that we've given in this world is here and given to us because of our chelko haruchni that we have to achieve in this world. Hasameach b'chelko, if you understand that this is your chelek. That this is what the Rabbeinu Shleilam gave you. So it's matim for you and not for somebody else. It's only you. This was given to you because of your Olam Haba, ruchni, your tikkun of neshama, whatever language you want to use, whether baalei mussar's nusach or Chassidish nusach, whatever nusach you want to use. But your chelek hagashmi is actually tied to your chelek haruchni. So mimeila then you'll be an ashir. Eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko. Someone who's sameach in his actual chelek. And this becomes the lessons of how someone can be an ashir, if you understand this. If a person understands life, money, what it's there for. Someone once told me a shene davar, something interesting, I like it very much. I don't remember from which chassidic gadol he said it over. He says if you took Yiddishe gelt and you would squeeze it, that aroys would come mitzvos. Hate the money.

Squeeze it. What are you going to get from it? You'll get mitzvahs that come out of it. Think I'm meivin the kavanah. The inyan of money, avadeh, it's important. Machtashekel, befine, shekalim is shekel hakodesh. It's not shekel ha... You know, they used to say when I was growing up that the Jews came over from Europe, from aniyim merudim, they started making parnassah, flikt min der Shul, and the heilige dollar. They used to talk about it. Unfortunately, it was misunderstood. What did they mean by the heilige dollar? Yes, you worship the dollar. There's a kedushah to it. But the real kedushah in it is because it's brought down clearly in the pasuk, shekel hakodesh, az eshteit in the Torah, that the shekel itself, the money itself, has in it kedushas damim. There's kedushah in it. This becomes chelkoi, and this becomes the ashirus. I would like to say a pshat on the Mishnah. This is my hargashah dehev. I think that the Mishnah is saying another yesod also, and that is: one leads to another. Zei farshteh the Mishnah. Eizehu chacham? Halomeid mikol adam. You know what the greatest chacham is? The first thing is to be lomeid, to look into the other person un tzu farshtehn. The next step, he'll be a sameach bchelko. You know where the problem why we're not sameach bchelko? Where does kinah come from? We're jealous that the other person has. Little do we know that the other person has other issues and other inyanim. Person, you look at him, says shtub. My brother came to me. I'll tell you where it came from. Wherever I go, I try to see why am I here? Why did the Eibishter send me here, there? I take trips to Philly. I have to go to Philadelphia. The Eibishter wants these trips to Philadelphia. And I try to understand to myself, obviously the trip itself has—there's a reason for it. So I pass by over there in Jackson. It's a sheiner heizelach. And I think to myself, keep on cooking, goyim leben, az a shein oichit. Chamalnul gemeint. I always thought in New Jersey, the trailer, you know, the trailer element, you know, what do they call it, Tent City. Chamalnul gemeint that it's Tent City. Why I don't like it. Az a sheiner heizelach. And as I pass by, I'm thinking to myself, the outside looks beautiful. Shtelt zich far vifel problems, vifel zevel, vifel mishugasn s'doyne veinen, how many people. The external, if I don't look into it, then there's— I mean, I'm not saying I was mitkane, but there's kinah. You know where kinah comes from? Vechol asher l'reeacha. What does it say in the pasuk? It says that you shouldn't be mekaneh v'cheila shelo. You have to look at everything. When a person is closed-minded, he doesn't—he's not a loimed mikol adam. He's only about himself. And the next thing is, he's mekaneh. And what was the next step? That he's not mechabed acheirim because he's jealous. The way to make a person to realize the entire Mishnah of what delvet is, is to be a loimed mikol adam. Open your eyes. See the whole picture. See the briyah. See the ganze sugya. When you're a loimed mikol adam, you know the Baalei Mussar always say the famous mashal of Valtalmin, the lake from Tish, their lives and their problems, and you're able to choose. You take your package back. Everybody would take his package back. That's when a person is loimed mikol adam. From yedel mensch, mimeila he's a sameach b'chelko. Mimeila he'll be mechabed es habriyos. I'd like to end with a vort from Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zichrono tzaddik livrachah. I'm saying only half the shmues. I want the other half to be...

Think about what we spoke and see how you apply it in your own life. There's a meyridike sma. The sma says in Choshen Mishpat, daas baal habatim hepech midaas halomdim. It says the sma, when he wanted a pasken a shaila, he would go to the baal habatim in shtot, and he would say to them, What do you think should be the halacha for this Choshen Mishpat shaila? And whatever they said, he would do punkt fakert. The chassidim, as the Torah will, punkt fakert. Daas lomdim is the flip of sma in Choshen Mishpat. Not all rabbanim ... know sma. Or if they don't know it, they get to know it. Life teaches it to them. Daas — and I don't mean baal habatim ... in this shul, I don't — excuse me, I don't mean to insult. I'm not even that. The velt, that's what he's trying to say. Daas baal habatim is a lomeid mikol adam, and I believe Reb Shimon Zalman is saying a meyridike vort, and I'll show you how he applied it to the Mishnah. When you're a lomeid, when you're a mevakesh chochmah, you're looking for the truth. You're trying to understand. A person could walk around with the hasharos that he had, and he's completely off key. There's no shaychus to the reality in front of him. He's a zuchnisht. He's not a lomeid. He's not looking to learn, to learn, to understand. And I wanted to see how it applies, he says, to the Mishnah. If you ask somebody who is a chacham, you know what he would say? A guy that knows everything is a smart guy. ... Das is the velt. ... Hasanita zeh, eizehu chacham? Davka, fakert, haloy made me kol adam. Haloy made me kol... Fakert, not that he knows, which is really ... I thought of the Mishnah. Remember, the biggest wisdom is to know that you don't know. Das aleine is chochmah. What's the das balavadim of ... of Gibor? He could beat up his enemy, yeah? Hakovesh es yitzro. It's exactly, exactly not what people think a gibor is. Hakovesh es yitzro. ... What about the ashir? People think the ashir is a guy who has a lot of money. The teretz is, is sameach b'chelko. What about the mechubad? He's mechabed es habriyos. And I want to end off with something. My father was once honored by a yeshiva ketanah ... I have to go get that tape. You know, it was the new ... when they started, instead of the honorees talking over there. I don't know why, but for some reason they had it pre-taped, maybe because the honorees would go on and talk forever, so I guess you have one minute. I don't know the pratim why it changed, but it was after the ... that they changed. My father was given to say one line. That was what he was told by the photographer, one line. Till today, I can't get over the line he chose to say. He said, Honoring is to give kavod, yeah? I came here tonight. Not to get kavod, but to give kavod. Thank you for making me the honoree. I chapt this. It's a tremendous lesson in this. We don't understand what kavod is. I heard this from Rav Shlomo Shadron, and I heard this from him directly. He said he once came to an American dinner, and he couldn't get over, vos tut zich? He couldn't get over. He says, What happened? A guy got up, and all of a sudden everybody started to clap. So he said he didn't know, and he asked, What's going on? So he said, It's a dinner. Now, Yiddish, a dinner is a thunder. So he said, A dinner? Okay, let's make a bracha on the ramen. Let's make a bracha shekol nihiyah bidvaro. He says, Dos heist kavod? What's the kavod? Where's the kavod? He said, We have to understand what true kavod is. Kavod is not what we want and what we search for kavod. Like the Rishonim tell us, the me'ulah dimensions, hagasah, how many times do people fight over a shtikel kavod.

An aliyah. There's a chalom shlagn vegn aliyah. Vos, bezuchter kavod. Das is kavod by דיר, das is pchisus. That a person is able to lower himself, and that's the taiva, and that's the blindness that a person has, and there are blind spots in life. And the Mishnah is telling us we have to be careful from these blind spots. One of the balabatim in my shul told me a maaseh. He said over, fighting about the amud. This goes back, miyamim kedem. Rabbi Yehoshua Fein once told me that fighting in a shul is part of a shul. Everybody knows that, right? So he said over from Reb Yisrael Salanter. Rabbi Yehoshua Fein told me a maaseh from Reb Yisrael Salanter, that he was in the bati Ungar, and he davened Shacharis over there. Then there was a shailah, Yet tachnun, nisht tachnun. It was one of those yet tachnun, nisht tachnun days. So one guy screamed, Yet tachnun. The other guy screamed, No tachnun. So a guy picked up the chair, and he threw it at him. So he went and he took the table and threw it at him. Fighting over the minyan. So he went over to Reb Yisrael Salanter after the davening, and they asked him, Rebbe, vos take dem minyan? It's like what you saw today is takke the minyan. Er zogt, Yez, yez, ... put a tish ... So I heard a balabas say to me this week, he says that he was once in the beis medrash, and they were fighting over the amud. So a guy went over quickly to daven for the amud, and he says it wasn't chisedike mention, if lying gebeld. The other guy held he had to have the amud, so he stood behind him, and he davened for the amud. And azoyt men gedavent in the beis medrash, the veiner rav didn't know even what to do. He didn't know how. There are two people standing there davening. Okay, okay. You know, rabosai, you see how you're laughing? Look in the mirror, rabosai, and with this I'll end the shiur. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.