Why Mussar? First Of All Be A Human Being (13 Minutes)

1:03And this is what we talked about last week. You have to understand that doing the mitzvah of going to the mikveh but then walking around immodestly—walking around naked, thinking, "Oh, I'm just among guys, like I'm in a football locker room"—is making a much bigger sin. A much bigger sin by doing that, walking around naked, not covering yourself, thinking that it's okay because you're just among guys, than the mitzvah that you're fulfilling by going to the mikveh. As a matter of fact, my Rav, who is amazing, says he hasn't gone to a certain mikveh for five years already because of how people behave there. who's amazing, says he hasn't gone to a certain mikveh for five years already because of how people behave there. And he lives in Yerushalayim. It's not like he lives in an area with, you know, predominantly non-Jews or something. He lives in Yerushalayim. Unfortunately, sometimes even the religious world forgets how to behave. And the reason for that is because, just like the Ramchal says, People like to delve into the Torah, into things that are mentally stimulating, into the Gemara, into the Mishnah, into different parts of the Parashat, Midrashim. But very few actually have the guts to look into Mussar. And I say guts, because in order to learn Mussar, you actually have to have guts. Why? Because Mussar requires you to change.

2:20Halacha, okay, so listen, today you didn't know this halacha. Until now, you know it. Fine, chazak u'baruch. Okay, so next year, you'll have a better etrog. Next year, you'll keep one more mitzvah on Shabbat. Next year, you're going to do something better on Sukkot. Great, chazak u'baruch. What do you think, Hashem is clapping for you? What is He clapping for? He's clapping when you stop being angry. Not because you're listening to some self-help book that's telling you to contain all this anger inside and build cancer. That's not working on your middot. That just means that you just kept your anger and you're not expressing it to the world. Not being angry means that you finally realize that there's no reason in the world to ever be angry. To such an extent that the Gemara actually says anyone that's angry... and let's say he takes this remote control or anything, he throws it, it's 100% just like he worshipped an idol. That throwing of this remote, or a pen, or any expression of that anger is 100% idol worship. So for the Gemara, which is from Hashem. It's not from me. It's from Hashem. Mount Sinai, we got the Oral Torah also. So for Hashem to tell us here,

3:36You threw a remote because you got mad when your team lost. You got mad because your stock went down. You got mad because, I don't know, something happened. And you threw something across the room. You acted like an animal for about three seconds, hopefully only three seconds and not the whole day. Hashem says it's avodah zarah, idol worship. How could this be? Okay, Hashem, listen, I understand. We've got to do mitzvot. We've got to look a certain way. We've got to act a certain way. We've got to be nice. But come on, once in a while, I can't get angry? Once in a while, I can't say, give the guy the bird because he cut me off? Why, I can't get angry, Hashem? No, it's 100% avodah zarah (idol worship). To that extent. Why? Because he says... If you're angry, that means that you think everything is supposed to go your way. The reason you're angry is because things didn't go your way. You thought the stock was supposed to go up when you bought it, and it didn't. You thought the employee was supposed to be on time, but he wasn't. You thought your wife was supposed to speak to you in a certain way, and she didn't.

4:52You thought that the baby is not supposed to fall at one and a half years old, and he did. You thought you shouldn't get a flat tire, and you did. Life happened. Life happened. Hashem runs the world, with or without you. And you got mad about it. Which means that you think that you're a mini Hashem because if you think that the world is supposed to run in accordance with your tune, it implies that you're discounting the divine orchestration of events. You're, in essence, saying that you're a mini Hashem, and you've made yourself into an idol. Therefore, if you actually put this into perspective, you'll understand it takes hard work. This is not like you listen to this shiur and, tomorrow, you'll never be angry again. You have to listen to this shiur and many others like it for seven years straight. And then, b'ezrat Hashem, you're not going to have anger. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, the one who started the Mussar movement, said that it's much more difficult for him. to repair, fix one midda, then it is for him to finish the entire Shas. And finishing the entire Shas takes seven years if you do Daf Yomi. So I finished my point. So the key here is that when you realize that there's never a real reason to be angry, you won't listen to these self-help books that tell you, listen, just contain it, don't express it to the world, get over it, meditate, and one of these other crazy things that they tell you to do.

6:22All they tell you to do is just keep it inside. Don't tell people you're angry. Smile. Kill them with a smile. No, Hashem is telling you, no, no, no. You don't actually have a reason to be angry, my son. Ever. Because once you realize I'm the one running the world, you know that everything that happens, I did it. What, are you mad at me for running my world? Who are you to tell me what to do? You mad at me for giving you a flat tire? You mad at me for making your kid fall? Maybe I made your kid fall because you deserve the kaparat avonot, but I didn't really want to give you what you really deserve, which chas v'shalom meant something much, much worse. I said, okay, let him suffer a little bit over three years. Instead of chas v'shalom, the kid breaking the leg, he got a little scratch six times over three years. It's much better than the kid breaking his leg. You got a flat tire. Why? Because I saved you. Because there's an accident that I had to make down the road, and I wanted to save your life. So I made you have a flat tire and I saved your life. So, you're going to tell me how to run the world? When you get mad, you're essentially getting mad at Hashem, and you're trying to tell Him how to run the world, making yourself into an idol. This is why, once we realize this, we'll never get mad. What's the question? Can we ask questions? Yeah, I believe the Gemara states that Hashem does get angry.

7:45Hashem gets angry, and it says in the Gemara, how long does He get angry? Shnia. Rega. For a rega. In Masechet Brachot, in Masechet Beitza, and a few other places. Rega is the same. It's like a second. Rega is different than a second. Rega is an actual... Yeah, go ahead. The time that you say rega, that's how long Hashem gets angry. Right. That's what I learned. Right. Now, it also says that Hashem gets angry every day, I believe. Right. Every day, rega. It is also, we are also supposed to emulate the Middot of Hashem, right? Tomer Devorah, right, Ramak. So what's the question? So the question is, are we allowed to get angry once every day? No. Wrong. No. Why not? All of the Middot that there are, according to the Rambam and according to the Ramchal and all the Sifrei Musar that you have, the Rambam explains it in Shemoneh Perakim that all of the Middot have extremes.

8:49Everything has an extreme. Every desire has its extreme. There's an extreme desire for money, someone who loves money, and there's someone who hates money. Neither one of them is healthy. So what's healthy? Middle ground. There's someone who loves women and someone who hates women. Neither of them is healthy. Middle ground. Everything is good with the middle ground except for one middah. What's the middah? Anger. Anger, you have to be at the extreme of never being angry, which is very difficult nonetheless. I'm not telling you to become Moshe Rabbeinu tomorrow. But you have to know where to get to. You have to know where to aim for. Why is anger something you have to be extremely cautious of? Because nothing good can come out of it. So what does it mean when the Gemara says in a couple of different places that Bilaam, the way he knew how to give his prophecy, to give his curses and so on, was because he knew the moment that Hashem was angry? Which you could also figure out by looking at the rooster.

9:51The rooster's, I don't know what this part is called, on top of its head, it has a strip of white at a certain moment during the day. It's called "rega" in Hebrew. Rega is not really a second because a second is actually a factor of time, whereas a rega is one 15,000th of a second. Nonetheless, the point is that the Gemara says that Hashem uses this rega, uses this moment. To get angry. But it doesn't actually mean that Hashem gets angry. What it actually means, as Chazal explain, is that it can't be that Hashem gets angry. Why? Because if Hashem gets angry, that would imply that Hashem has emotions. If Hashem has emotions, that would suggest that the emotions are stronger than Him. That would imply that the emotions are God. So, Hashem doesn't have emotions, just like He doesn't have a strong hand. You know, it says that Hashem took us out of Egypt with a strong hand. Now, obviously, Hashem doesn't have a physical hand. Just like He said to Moshe Rabbeinu, "You could see My back but you can't see My face because anyone that sees My face dies." Hashem doesn't have a face, He doesn't have a back. One of the 13 principles of faith is that Hashem possesses no physical form or resemblance to any form. So, what does it mean when it says that Hashem gets angry for a second, or for a rega? The concept is metaphorical, as Hashem uses and utilizes that moment to deliver all of the appropriate punishments on whoever deserves punishment for that day. Because obviously, there has to be a designated moment during the day that Hashem executes justice. If it were throughout the entire day, we simply wouldn't survive.

11:07It means that Hashem uses and utilizes that moment to deliver all of the punishments to those who deserve punishment for that day. That's the time He uses to deliver all the punishments. Because, obviously, there has to be a moment during the day when Hashem punishes us. If it were throughout the entire day, we wouldn't survive. If He used the entire day to punish us for every single thing that we did, we wouldn't survive a minute. This is actually the reason why, until this day, Am Yisrael is suffering from the golden calf. We're still suffering today, 3,300 years later, from the sin of the golden calf that happened 3,000 years ago, involving people we don't even know. If He dealt with us harshly by night, destroying us... He said, okay, I'll forgive you. Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded, yes, you know, don't destroy us, don't destroy us. Okay, fine, I'll forgive you. This is the way, you know, if that's going to happen next time.

12:10Hashem, Hashem, that's when Hashem taught us that. Correct me if I'm wrong? Yes, it's wrong. The correction is that He did forgive us by not destroying us. Moshe Rabbeinu told them, listen, if You're going to destroy them, Hashem told him, I'm going to start a new nation with you. And Moshe Rabbeinu says, I don't want You to start a new nation with me. As a matter of fact, erase me from Your book first. And Hashem, so Hashem obviously said, okay, so I forgive them. But it doesn't necessarily mean that He forgave them as far as forever. What He forgave is by distributing the punishment over the length of this world's existence instead of delivering it in one moment or even one year. Because if He delivered the punishment in a shorter period of time, it would be too much for us to absorb; we would all die. So, has Hashem not truly forgiven us? Rather, He has distributed the punishment over a long period of time. We're still suffering; according to the Gemara, we're still suffering for the golden calf until today, until the Mashiach comes. Every single suffering that Am Yisrael has, including the fires that are happening in Israel, including the Holocaust, including the pogroms, including everything, part of it, not the only reason, but part of the reason why it's happening is the kaparat avonot for the golden calf. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.