Description: Review 02
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Review of Volume I
The level of connection with Hashem, where it encompasses our minds and dictates our actions every second of our lives, seems quite overwhelming, and certainly seems very far away from us. But let’s return to the opening statement of the Mesilas Yesharim – the first line, the first assumption he makes about his readers:
ולמה צריך שישים מבטו ומגמתו בכל אשר הוא עמל כל ימי חייו
What does a person have set his sights towards, and define his goals, in everything he works for, all of his life? Mesilas Yesharim takes us by the shoulder and shakes us a little. “You’re not just like, ‘living’ life, right? You are a Jew! You have a vision – you must have one. You have some goal you are striving for, and you have a plan to get there – correct? What is it? Let me help you clarify it.” This is what he tells us, and expects from us, even before we start learning mussar! This is what’s so essential about learning mussar. Life is very serious, although we need to take it lightly at times to retain our sanity, overall, we have to recognize its importance and significance, and above all, seriousness.
That having been said, let’s think about where indeed are we headed. Eventually life comes to its ‘tachlis’, it’s purpose, which is the world-to-come, Olam Habah, Olam Ha’Emes, and Gan Eden. What does one do all day in Gan Eden? We know, as Chazal have taught us, that the pleasure in Gan Eden is so intense, that one moment there can’t be evaluated even if you experience every single pleasure that ever existed on this world, by every single person in the world, in all of history – it still can’t compare to one moment of Gan Eden. Yet, we know it’s not a physical pleasure.
What is the pleasure? Ramchal explains that as well.
שהאדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על ה' וליהנות מזיו שכינתו
A person was only created for the purpose to bathe in the glory of Hashem’s presence, and enjoy His company. What do we do in Gan Eden – we become amazingly close to Hashem! If a person isn’t so close to Hashem, there’s not an awful lot for him to do up there. If a person is close to Hashem – he enjoys that closeness in a measure unfathomable and immeasurable by any medium on this world.
There’s a well-known statement in Chazal, that Klal Yisrael is compared to a pomegranate. Why? Because, ‘אפילו ריקנין שבהם מלאים מצוות כרמון’, even the empty ones among you are full of mitzvos, like a pomegranate is full of seeds.
Now there’s an obvious question on this. How can we refer to them as ‘empty ones,’ if they truly are full of mitzvos like a pomegranate!? What’s empty about them?
Rav Dovid Povarsky Zatzal, was the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponavezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak until he passed away in 1999 in his high nineties, I was by his levayah, and there were tens of thousands of people there. He said a beautiful answer to this question. Think of the difference between a pomegranate and other fruits, like an apple or orange. An apple is one unit – its flesh comprises the majority of the fruit, and some seeds are embedded in the flesh. An orange is a number of segments all joined together to form one fruit. But the pomegranate has hundreds of individual little seeds. Each one stands alone and can be removed by itself.
The seeds represent the multitude of mitzvos that we have. But even if a person has done all those mitzvos, he can still be a ‘raik’, an empty person. Why? Because they haven’t changed him. They haven’t joined together to create one ‘adam hashalaim,’ one complete person. What prevents that from happening? If a person does mitzvos without any effort to connect to the ‘pnimiyus’ of the mitzvah, the soul and the depth of the mitzvah. If he doesn’t utilize the mitzvah as a path towards creating a relationship with Hashem. If he just does mitzvos with little thought and connection, he indeed will be full of mitzvos, but at the same time empty of true inner quality of the mitzvos. That’s why we refer to him as empty – he has all the external qualities of a servant of Hashem, but lacks the inside, the depth, the heart and soul.
This is what we are setting out to discover. How to get the most out of the Avodas Hashem that we do! How to utilize everything that we do, as a medium to develop a connection with Hashem.
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Review of Volume I
The level of connection with Hashem, where it encompasses our minds and dictates our actions every second of our lives, seems quite overwhelming, and certainly seems very far away from us. But let’s return to the opening statement of the Mesilas Yesharim – the first line, the first assumption he makes about his readers:
ולמה צריך שישים מבטו ומגמתו בכל אשר הוא עמל כל ימי חייו
What does a person have set his sights towards, and define his goals, in everything he works for, all of his life? Mesilas Yesharim takes us by the shoulder and shakes us a little. “You’re not just like, ‘living’ life, right? You are a Jew! You have a vision – you must have one. You have some goal you are striving for, and you have a plan to get there – correct? What is it? Let me help you clarify it.” This is what he tells us, and expects from us, even before we start learning mussar! This is what’s so essential about learning mussar. Life is very serious, although we need to take it lightly at times to retain our sanity, overall, we have to recognize its importance and significance, and above all, seriousness.
That having been said, let’s think about where indeed are we headed. Eventually life comes to its ‘tachlis’, it’s purpose, which is the world-to-come, Olam Habah, Olam Ha’Emes, and Gan Eden. What does one do all day in Gan Eden? We know, as Chazal have taught us, that the pleasure in Gan Eden is so intense, that one moment there can’t be evaluated even if you experience every single pleasure that ever existed on this world, by every single person in the world, in all of history – it still can’t compare to one moment of Gan Eden. Yet, we know it’s not a physical pleasure.
What is the pleasure? Ramchal explains that as well.
שהאדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על ה' וליהנות מזיו שכינתו
A person was only created for the purpose to bathe in the glory of Hashem’s presence, and enjoy His company. What do we do in Gan Eden – we become amazingly close to Hashem! If a person isn’t so close to Hashem, there’s not an awful lot for him to do up there. If a person is close to Hashem – he enjoys that closeness in a measure unfathomable and immeasurable by any medium on this world.
There’s a well-known statement in Chazal, that Klal Yisrael is compared to a pomegranate. Why? Because, ‘אפילו ריקנין שבהם מלאים מצוות כרמון’, even the empty ones among you are full of mitzvos, like a pomegranate is full of seeds.
Now there’s an obvious question on this. How can we refer to them as ‘empty ones,’ if they truly are full of mitzvos like a pomegranate!? What’s empty about them?
Rav Dovid Povarsky Zatzal, was the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponavezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak until he passed away in 1999 in his high nineties, I was by his levayah, and there were tens of thousands of people there. He said a beautiful answer to this question. Think of the difference between a pomegranate and other fruits, like an apple or orange. An apple is one unit – its flesh comprises the majority of the fruit, and some seeds are embedded in the flesh. An orange is a number of segments all joined together to form one fruit. But the pomegranate has hundreds of individual little seeds. Each one stands alone and can be removed by itself.
The seeds represent the multitude of mitzvos that we have. But even if a person has done all those mitzvos, he can still be a ‘raik’, an empty person. Why? Because they haven’t changed him. They haven’t joined together to create one ‘adam hashalaim,’ one complete person. What prevents that from happening? If a person does mitzvos without any effort to connect to the ‘pnimiyus’ of the mitzvah, the soul and the depth of the mitzvah. If he doesn’t utilize the mitzvah as a path towards creating a relationship with Hashem. If he just does mitzvos with little thought and connection, he indeed will be full of mitzvos, but at the same time empty of true inner quality of the mitzvos. That’s why we refer to him as empty – he has all the external qualities of a servant of Hashem, but lacks the inside, the depth, the heart and soul.
This is what we are setting out to discover. How to get the most out of the Avodas Hashem that we do! How to utilize everything that we do, as a medium to develop a connection with Hashem.