Terumah: Kedushah Through Action, Mesillas Yesharim, and Hishtadlus

Transcript

I spoke the inyan of asuli Mikdash, that kedusha is a cheftza. Kedusha meaning it's an asiyah, and the cheftz of the mitzvah of asuli Mikdash is that asiyah. Second big yesod, that kedusha is not a state. It's not a level that one reaches. It's a ma'aseh. It's a verb. Kedusha is a verb. Pashut you learn kedusha is a matzav, it's a madreigah. No, it's not. I believe that taharah maybe is a madreigah. Kedusha is a ma'aseh. What is kedusha? Kedusha is a lev. It's a madreigah. A person has kedusha? No. I think a person acts with kedusha. Mashenkin taharah, taharah is, he has taharah. He's mekayem taharah. And I said, va'asuli Mikdash, according to Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch's vort, that's the va'asuli Mikdash. It's a din in asiyah; you have to do it. And I said yesterday, but I forgot to finish it, so I want to finish it today. I said that in the Mesilas Yesharim, mentioned it, or maybe I mentioned it after shiur, the Mesilas Yesharim is mashma like this. So I want to show you what I meant when I said the Mesilas Yesharim is mashma like this. I want to show you the difference in how he brings taharah and how he brings kedusha. Taharah, which comes before anavah. Yeah, revolt, genius hashkafah. By Mr. Shamshon, genius hashkafah. It's amazing. He was a lamdan in hashkafah. I want to tell you what I'm being meisif here today. Remember I told you, Mesilas Yesharim, I want to explain to you what I was referring to. Certain things I feel, and then I have rayos as we go along. Certain things I have rayos from before. I said in yesodos which I feel, that the inyan of kedushah is not a madreigah. It's not something you're koneh. Even though, pashut, you see a person is a kadosh, which means he has attained the madreigah and the mailah of kedushah. I don't think it's so. I think taharah is so. Kedushah, I explained to you, is va'asuli. It has to do with the asiyah. It's behaving as a kadosh. Peirush: you va'asuli mikdash. You behave b'kedushah. You act b'kedushah. And then there's Mishkan, that the Eibishter rests among you, which is the, I guess we could say, the result of your actions of kedushah. I hold the Mesilas Yesharim says this. And I want to just, before I get to the Mesilas Yesharim, tell you, and it's muchlach like the Rambam, because va'asuli mikdash, the Rambam learns it has to do with the avodah that you do later in the Mikdash. So b'hechrech it has to do with not the house of, but rather the ma'aseh. It's a house which is muchan for the ma'aseh of doing avodah. So you see it's called avodas hakodesh. There's no kedushah; it's avodas hakodesh, according to the Rambam. Bayis muchan for avodas hakodesh. You see it's a verb, kedushah. Mikdash is the verb of doing avodas hakodesh. That's clear in the Rambam. So I'm telling you that if you don't learn like the Rambam, that it's taluy later, but it's taluy in the asiyah, so then the asiyah for the kedushah is the kedushah. It's muchach like this in the Mesilas Yesharim. Taharah. What is taharah? Ha-taharah hi tikkun ha-lev veha-machshavos. It's the tikkun. Now you can either translate him to mean that it's the ma'aseh of tikkun, the correcting. It's not muchach like that. It's tikkun ha-lev, the po'el yotzei, the mesukkan, the cleanliness of—not the cleaning of, but the cleanliness of. V'zehu הלשון מצינו אצל דוד שנאמר, Lev tahor bara li Elokim. Lev tahor. So you see that it's metzius; it's to be a lev tahor. Lev tahor bara li Elokim. Ve'inyana, shelo yaniach adam makom leyetzer.

Okay, so this is levtar, tikun, tikun halev. Again, I understand it has to do with a verb, but it's the verb now. In other words, it's not only the tikun; it's the haskana, the fixing up. But it has to do with the fact that it's fixed. Let me show you how the Mesilas Yesharim brings kedusha. Now, first of all, I don't understand how he calls it midas hakedusha. That's the first problem I have. Biur midas hakedusha. I didn't know kedusha is a midah. It's interesting, no? I mean, either it's a madreigah—I don't know, midah. What do you mean by midah? But al kol panim, it's clear in his lashon: Inyan hakedusha kaful. The inyan of kedusha is doubled, d'hainu, techilaso avodah, v'sofo... He says it clearly. The techilah of kedusha is the avodah of it. It's an avodah, and the sofo is gemul, like it says, techilaso hishtadlus v'sofo matanah. V'hainu shetechilaso hu mah she'adam mekadesh atzmo. It's in the verb; it's what he does. V'sofo mah shemekadshim oso. Mishkan and Mikdash—that's how it's... That's mamash the word I was telling you: Va'asu li Mikdash. You have to do avodas kedusha, and then v'shachanti is the makdish oso. Techilaso kedusha v'sofo... and the end is this. Are you masking? You hear what I'm saying? Every midah is the same one. Every midah is ... so why would he speak about it? The biur midas hataharah. The biur midas hakedushah, fine. Hataharah hi tikkun halev vhamachshavos. Because by kedushah, chiddush is that there's a gemul at the end. No, there's other avodos you do. Oh, so I was thinking maybe, I was thinking about that. In other words, it's the gemul at the end that's the chiddush, not so much the avodah, because everything is avodah. But the way I'm learning it's a little different. Because, like I said, in every verb here, for example, I used the lashon yesterday, I don't know if I said it in this shiur or after the shiur. What did we say? It says a lashon of anu ameilim vheim ameilim. Anu ameilim veinam mekablin schar, heim ameilim veinam mekablin schar. So you don't have to finish. It's all about doing, right? Lealech ligmor melachah, right? Lo alecha hamelachah ligmor, butlin mimenach. So what's the taich? If a person worked on taharah, and he wasn't masig it, so you would say he was koneh midas hataharah? No. I think in kedushah it is that. I think that's the chiddush. Tchilas haavodah. It's about the avodah. It's not about the achievement of it. In every verb, there's the verb, the peulah, without even being masig anything. That's what I'm saying. Hataharah hi tikkun. It's the fixing topic. If I would work on a pair of shoes, so there's fixing. I fixed the shoes, right? The fixing of the shoe is the peulah. What happens if it's not fixed? You would still say, I fixed the shoes. I don't believe that. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. I don't believe that. That's the whole vort that the Chofetz Chaim says, Anu ameilim v'heim ameilim. Anu ameilim u'mekablim sechar, v'hem ameilim v'lo mekablim sechar. The example is the shoes. That's the Chofetz Chaim's example. The guy would go into a shoe store and give a pair of shoes to fix, and the guy comes back and says, I'm sorry, I couldn't fix the shoes. I tried. I worked on it. So what are you gonna say? You're gonna charge him for it? But I'm showing you in the inyan of ameilus. No, but wait a minute, wait a minute. Fixing the shoes could be the verb of it, and it could be the verb which leads to the maskana of it being fixed. Every fixing is a verb, but it's mushlam with something. Tahir is zecha that way. Tahir, if you didn't, masig it, then you aren't masig it. Now, there's masagis and madregos. You're right, there's bigger madregos of taharah and smaller madregos of taharah. But if a guy worked on taharah and he wasn't masig it, he worked and he fell through and he wasn't masig it, you're gonna come and say, what, he's a tar? I'm asking. So there's madregos of taharah. You're missing my vort. Madreges in hasagas taharah, but you can't come and say there's madreges—you can't say there's madreges in how, in doing. If you did it and you didn't get anywhere, so you didn't get anywhere. What do you mean?

Why can't we say the same thing in kedusha? Stop trying to explain to you. You don't need the result at all. Because I'm saying, in ya kedusha kaflu, d'hainu techilaso avodah v'sofo gemul. Which gemul? Not the gemul that you, but the gemul is techilaso hishtadlus. That's the chiddush. It's all about hishtadlus. It's not more than hishtadlus. By tehirah it's takke tikkun, and there's levels of tikkun. Can a person come and say, I tried my best? Why is it at the end of the ladder? Why is it the end of the thing? The reason why it's at the end of the ladder is because one thing leads to another. That doesn't bother. As soon as I'm starting to work on my middos, I'm working, right? But not for kedusha. I'm not. I'm trying to be mekadesh myself. No, what is kedusha? Hishtadlus hu sheyeh adam nivdal v'netak min hachumriyus legamrei. That's what I'm doing. U'mizdabek tamid b'chol es uv'chol sha'ah b'Elokus. All of those things is slowly, slowly getting to that point, right? Which means as soon as I open my sefer, that's what I'm starting to do. No, I don't think so. Maybe small steps, but I'm doing that. No, I don't think so. There's no... I mean, how to do it? Why isn't it? A person starts to work on himself. Just put that in, get to the last... But that's not kedusha. But I'm starting to work on myself. I don't understand why not. Working on yourself isn't kedusha. Working on yourself could be in different areas. Kedusha is a different topic. Kedusha is that sheyeh adam nivdal v'netak min hachumriyus legamrei, and in that, it's techilas ha'avodah. There's something called kedusha, right? So how do you get to kedusha? It's about avodah. So where is a person at the beginning of being the kedusha? Let's say he just reached that point. He just finished the ha'ira, and he's now starting to work in kedusha. Where is—what is he now? What type of person is he? He's not kadosh because it needs hishtadlus. He's a tahor, he's everything. So what is he working? To do what? What do you mean, to do what? I always thought kadosh means that I'm somewhere below that now, and I'm starting to work on that, and I'm working my way up. The way Rabbi is saying is, if they achieve this kedusha, of course any person that's doing anything, which not Rabbi, is in this area of kedusha. There's an area called kedusha. What is the area called kedusha? That he's movedel min hachumrius. That it's movedel min hachumrius is the area of kedusha. Now how does a person masig that? And the answer is, he's not. The Eibishter gives that to him. That's a matnas chinam. Tahara is that you have to be masig it. Tahara works with hasagah, which means I have to hishtadel, and then I'm masig, and then there's levels in hasagah. Kedusha is not levels in hasagah. There's no such thing. Mekadshin oisoi harbeh. Adam mekadesh atzmo me'at, mekadshin oisoi harbeh. There's no levels. Either you do a little bit, the Eibishter gives you a lot. It's not תלוי in you achieving anything. Kedusha is not about you achieving. Kedusha is about you acting, hishtadlus. That's what I'm trying to show you. The Mesillas Yesharim goes out of his way to emphasize the ma'alah and the inyan of hishtadlus by kedusha. Avadeh in every other middah there's hishtadlus, but the hishtadlus is to reach the goal, and without reaching the goal, hishtadlus is nothing. By kedusha, it's strictly the hishtadlus. The result of it is sofeg gemul. It's the Eibishter; it's not you. You know what? Maybe if you read it, you'll understand. No, but I want to explain to you, moideh b'kvart. That's the lilishmi, because what is kedusha? Hishtadlus hu sheyehei adam nivdal v'netak min hachumriyus legamrei, u'misdabek tamid b'chol eis uv'chol sha'ah b'Elokav. Which means there's no him; it's all the Eibishter. So v'asa li mikdash needed lilishmi. In order to be makdish, what is kedusha? Kedusha is lilishmi. ... Yardei quotes Mesillas Yesharim? Read now Taharah and read now Kedusha, because that's the kasha you're asking, which is what I'm addressing. Why would the Mesillas Yesharim— I showed it to you. Taharah is the one before... Kedusha is you're just acting. And you know where I think it comes from? I'll tell you where I think it comes from. It's stated in Yesod Kedoshim, ki kadosh...

Yachol k'ma'ini, how can it be? And the answer is, Ani Hashem mekadishchem. I give you, because kedusha b'etzem is not shayach by a ben adam. A ben adam is chol. How do you want to be makdish? Eretz is, the Eibishter is makdish. So you just do va'asu li mikdash, and Ani Hashem mekadishchem. And meileh, that's kedusha, yeah? Taharah is also... No. Taharah is not. Taharah is you. It's also in your kedusha. No, it's not. Taharah is not kedusha. Taharah is cleanliness. No, it's not. No, it's not kedusha and tumah and taharah is two different... two inyanim. It's not a metziusdike thing. Understand? It's not a metziusdike thing. But whatever it is, it's in your hands to be metaher yourself. There are things that you could do to be metaher yourself, but there's nothing you could do to be makdish yourself. It's techilaso hishtallus. The beginning of it is hishtallus. That's the pshat. Va'asu li mikdash, veshachanti b'socham. Mishkan. The Ribono Shel Olam, who's kadosh, is makdish you. Okay, now read it again. Read it. Read taharah and read kedusha. Give it. Read taharah. Oh, so I'm asking, what does tikkun mean? Tikkun verb or tikkun peliyotzin? So it's not clear. Okay, but go ahead. Oh, so that's leit טהר, that's the verb, right? Does he talk about hishtadlus? Does he talk about the Ribono Shel Olam giving it? No. It's a person. ... clean. He's clean. Okay, good. Now what does he say by kedusha? Everything is that way, isn't everything that way? And the answer is it's not. Go ahead. So what is the hishtadlus? You are mavdil yourself. That's the hishtadlus. You take away all the chumros. Now how does, mimeila, Mishkan, it shayach to be chal on you kedusha? What you do is you prepare. You do the groundwork for the kedusha. Mimeila the kedusha is chal on you, bifnei itself. Yes. We're trying to tell you that you should do whatever you can do with your hishtadlus. Kohen to Rebbe just means you do. You're not koneh anything. You do, and I'm going to be mashria all the kedusha from... I'm learning up the pshat. What's negea to your hishtadlus? He doesn't write. It doesn't write. Okay, I'm maskim. The wording seems that you could acquire something, but I'm not learning it that way. I'm not learning it that way. But he explains it, it's only b'hishtadlus. He's explaining this maamar. So what does he have to explain? Just say a little bit of a lack. What does hishtadlus have to do with it? But what is... I'm showing you it has nothing to do with hishtadlus. It has to do with a little bit. You do a little bit, Hashem will do the more. So I thought the chiddush was that the rest is, by other things, the rest is not done for it by Hashem. Hashem does the rest. So that's how I answered you. I answered it. The one way I answered it, the one way to learn it is, it's the gemul. The chiddush is the gemul. But you see that he emphasizes the hishtadlus. Forget about the hishtadlus a little bit. What does hishtadlus have to do with this? So this is the yesod I want to say. The inyan of kedushah—why am I saying this? I wasn't hitting the right chord that I was... I had something in my head and I wasn't hitting it properly, and I'll tell you what I was trying to bring out. There's no such thing as an omeid by kedushah. You can't be standing at the same place. Why not? I read something. Why would I lose it? Tell me something. Why would I lose it? I don't understand. What's wrong if I'm amassing something and that's it, I got it? Because there's no hasagah. Huh? Because there's no hasagah. It's all about hishtadlus. It's all about what I do. So I can't just get— So then you stay with it. You stay with it.

That's what I thought on ... No, I hold it's not by everything. I hold it's only by Torah, and Yomim Mazakeh and Maim Mazakeh, and it's only by inyanei kedushah. It's not by everything. By Tairas halev, it doesn't go backwards. You don't lose it by not going further. I don't believe that's true. I'm not 100% convinced that every midah, a person reaches midah rachmanus, and that's it. If he doesn't work on getting it more, he loses it. I don't believe that's true. He'll just stay whatever he is. That's all. But by kedushah, it's either you're moving ahead or you're falling behind. And by Torah it's the same way. Why? So I want to say this pshat, because the hasagah of it is not you. The hasagah of it is always lefi the maaseh. So you've got to continuously do the maaseh. That's why it's vegisa bo yomam valaylah. I hold it's such a true vort. It's constant learning that you're masig. Otherwise, if you don't have that constant learning, meheira hu shecheach. It's not a real hasagah. It's a hasagah based on maaseh. It's a hasagah based on limud. If you're mevatel mehalimud, meheira hu shecheach. Why? Why? What's the taich? The Torah says it's never a real hasagah. The hasagah is lefi the maaseh, of how much you do. You do, you're makdish, makdishin osa. You'll learn, matzasi, you'll get. So in your avodah, there's nothing more than your gata. That's what it is. And it's 100% true. It's 100% true. The more you gear and the more kedushah, the more hasagah, no matter how weak the kishron of the person is, how weak, it's not telling you. It's telling you ... If I mask myself, so it's a klal: I should lose it, or why should I lose it? So there is a medrash that if a person ... maskilah, he would stop learning. And so, you have to learn. It's not hitting the right nekudah. The nekudah is because it's a hasagah which is based on the limud. So, הסתמא ... in metzius. Let's say, ... yourself will decide to stop learning, you're going to forget everything. I hope so. I hope 100%. I hope 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. And I know that it's true, because I know big people who were tremendous in learning, and they just thought it's slack, and they just don't want to talk. It's not. It has to do with how much Torah you learn. Yagata u'matzasa. That's the way it works. Techilasa hishtatlus, techilasa yegiah, techilasa avodah — yours, that's what it means. Anu ameilim v'heim ameilim. Anu ameilim u'mekablim sachar. That's the vort. We do ameilus. You mean, shtelt zich a chavrah — a guy learns Shas. So what do we tell him? Oh, good, nice hard work you put into it. Yeah, but he was masik. Man, think about what we're saying by a siyum. Make a siyum and we tell a person, Anu ameilim v'heim ameilim, anu ameilim u'mekablim sachar — tremendous ameilus. Why don't we tell him, Gavaldig, you finished Shas? Continue. And what's the minhag, that as soon as you finish, you make a siyum, you right away start Vayter. Because you're supposed to know that you're supposed to start Vayter. What does it mean? Teretz: you finished ameilus. That's what you finished. You didn't finish the Shas. You don't finish that. You finished a certain measurement of a shiur worth of ameilus, a masechta worth of ameilus. That's the taich. Anu ameilim, they ameilim; one ameilim kamschar, one ameilim kamschar. I want you to know, even the nusach of the thing is, Lo nisyashi mimach, I won't forget you. What does that mean? What are the—translate the words. I won't forget you. What do you mean, I won't forget you? Lo sisnashi mimach. You shouldn't be forgotten from me. So it's a bracha, it's a tefillah. He wants, Lo sisnashi mimach, he wants that you shouldn't be forgotten from me, and I shouldn't forget from you. It's two lashon. You shouldn't forget me, and I should not forget you. Yeah, so you shouldn't forget me. What does it mean, you shouldn't forget? I don't know what it means. Huh? I don't even know what it means. You shouldn't forget me. What, you should send me greeting cards every now and then? What does it mean? Huh? That's this vart. The vart is, it's not about me. It's about you might disappear from me. You could disappear, and I could disappear from you, because it's all about me.

You being together, that's all it is. It's not about yediah. It's about Torah and Klal Yisroel. B'soif naaseh Torah dilei. He becomes connected to the Torah. I shouldn't leave you, and you shouldn't leave me. And it's toli habaha. That's what it means. We should always be connected. When you're connected to Torah, then the Torah is connected to you. I shouldn't forget you, and you shouldn't forget me. What does it mean, you shouldn't forget? Unless it means it's chusim. Maybe, look it up. Well, you think it means it's chusim? I don't know. Let's look it up. Because the rest of it also is... Hadran alach, hadran alach. What does that mean? Hadracha lan. I'm returning to you. I'll keep on going back to you. Hadracha lan. That's what I'm telling you. That's what I mean. It's like a man and a wife. It's a connected thing. It has nothing to do with knowledge. We will remain connected. We remain connected. Then anacha nami. The moment we're not connected, then... Tell me something. If a person divorces his wife, yeah? So it's a little bit, it's nothing, it's finished. You take everything and you get rid of it. That's finished. It's over. Oh, completely over? Yeah, completely over. That's what it is. When you're connected to the Torah, does it mean automatically connected to you? That's what I'm telling you. Automatically it's connected. That's what it is. L'hisnashi minach, because it's not about me knowing you. It's about me learning you. It's about me being connected to you. You're connected to the Torah, and the Torah is connected to you. That's the taich. Kedusha. You do this, you're connected, and Hashem is connected to you. Kania Hashem is kedusha. So it comes out, kedusha is not hasagah. It's not hasagah. It's a verb. It's an action. It's a doing. It's hishtat... to do. Like by... same thing.