Sunday, March 25, 2007

Middos/Tikkun Continued

To which I now respond: That's an argument??!!

and add:



ספר פרי הארץ - מכתב לז
ובאמת ירדו תהומות ועל אלו אמרו מתריעין מיד בצעקה גדולה ומרת נפש ווי ווי כולי האי ואולי כי נגע עד הנפש:
אשר על כן חרדתי עליהם את כל החרדה הזאת פן ואולי ח"ו תקראנה אותם כאלה, לבנות מגדל בשכל נבדל פן יפתה לבבכם וסרתם מכוונת האמונה והאמת. שכל הדברים הנוגעים ברומו של עולם הכל למקום אחד הולך הוא הסובב אל נקודה אחת הן יראת ה' היא חכמה...



תלמוד ירושלמי מסכת שבת דף ח/ב
ה'. א"ר יצחק בר אלעזר מה שעשת חכמה עטרה לראשה. עשת ענוה עקב לסולייסה דכתיב ראשית חכמה יראת ה'. וכתיב עקב ענוה יראת ה'...



תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף לא/א
אמר ריש לקיש מאי דכתיב והיה אמונת עתיך חוסן ישועות חכמת ודעת וגו' אמונת זה סדר זרעים עתיך זה סדר מועד חסן זה סדר נשים ישועות זה סדר נזיקין חכמת זה סדר קדשים ודעת זה סדר טהרות ואפילו הכי יראת ה' היא אוצרו...

d 







To which my correspondent responded

C'mon there are a million such comments about everything in Torah.
To which I responded:


ביאור הגר"א - משלי פרק ד פסוק יג
חזק במוסר אחוז את המוסר שהתחלת בו ותחזק את עצמו. אל תרף אפילו לפי שעה אל תרף א"ע מן המוסר. נצרה כלומר אלא אדרבה תוסיף תמיד גדרים ומצות על המוסר שלא יבא לידי רפיון. כי היא חייך כי מה שהאדם חי הוא כדי לשבור מה שלא שבר עד הנה אותו המדה לכן צריך תמיד להתחזק ואם לא יתחזק למה לו חיים.


My correspondent wrote:

Staing the position
 
Purpose of Judaism is ethiccal behavior.
 
Talmud trains us in lucid thought.
 
In case we want to think about ethics, Talmudists we will be able to think lucidly. (As well as all other devotees of deamding disciplines.)
 
And then we just might behave ethically.
 
And thats why we all spend a zillion hours on Menachos.
 
You can't possible mean this can you?
 
A gutten Shabbos.

14 comments:

  1. My favorite story about this A Chossid once went to his Rebbah to tell him he had finished Shas.The Rebbah answered him"DU HUST GELERNT SHAS UBER VOS HUT SHAS DIR OISGELERNT"
    "Wonderfull you learnt Shas But what did shas teach you? A prolific lesson."
    another cute blurb i heard why is it that chassidm skip tachnun and litvaks skip korbonos Chassidim think the ikkur is avodah and litvaks think avodah is chassidish

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  2. Today in the daf There is a mention of Meroz I remember hearing in your Navi Shiurim you bring up the possibility of it referring to a civilization of Aliens.I know that was Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's View is there an Achroinim or Rishonim that states this explicitly or is it conjecture. I would very much appreciate Mareh Mikomos even just post them seforim here.It will make a great post and will make for great discussion Thanks

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  3. I heard a great Vort on Pesach that anyone who has ever given a Shiur would appreciate It says in the Haggada "Kol Hamrbeh Lisaper Byitzias Mitzrayim Harei Ze Meshubach" But in Shulchan Aruch it says Until his eyes close which one is it ? Anyone who gives a shiur knows a lot of times people have plenty of energy left as right after shiur they are feisty as possible only during Shiur they are fighting the sleep from their eyes Hence Kol hamarbeh is the klal

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  4. let me see if i understood Bei’ur HaGR"A correctly...

    ...for the [reason] that a human being lives is in order to break that which he did not yet break until that quality; therefore one must always strengthen oneself, and if not, what's the point of living?

    ?

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  5. According to the Rambam who says the Olilie Baval did not take the Coast of Eretz Yisroel back from the people living there, did they take Bnei Brak of today?and also is the Bnei Brak in the Haggadah the same as the Bnei Brak of today?

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  6. To the alien man -
    http://www.torah.org/features/secondlook/extraterrestrial.html
    Enjoy!

    Or just search on google Meroz alien. Jewish sources alluding to extraterrestrial life is classic internet fodder.

    Tzvi

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  7. It is hard to figure out from these snippits what exactly the debate is. Anyway, on the Y-lmi you cite, just a reminder that the Ishbitza on this week's parsha discusses it.

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  8. Where exactly? and in what context meaning does he describe which cities they captured and which not?

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  9. anon I know its classic internet fodder but the rabbi spoke about it in his navi shiur I wanted Mareh Mekomos

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  10. I do not think they conquered Bnei Braq, although obviously Jews lived there after the Churban.

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  11. RYGB:

    I was just unsure whether i was understanding it properly; some of the phrasing seemed awkward, so it was a bit unclear to me how to read it.

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  12. From the Tzetel Katan (by the Rebbe, R. Elimelech of Lizhensk ZY"A) as found translated at http://www.chassidus.net/tzetel.htm ---

    "16. A person was only created in order to break his nature.
    Therefore he should spur himself to correct his midos*. Specifically
    when he is 18.

    As I have explained, one who is born with the nature to be stubborn,
    should break this nature for 40 days one after another. He should
    specifically do the opposite from what he had in mind to do.

    The same is if one is lazy. He should train himself for 40 days to do
    everything swiftly. Whether he is going to sleep, or rising in the
    morning from his bed. He should quickly dress himself, wash his
    hands, purify his body and speedily go to the Beis HaKnesses after he
    has finished learning in a sefer.

    Similarly someone who is shy, from a shyness that is bad. He should
    train himself 40 days to pray with a loud voice, with all his
    strength, and with all his limbs in order to fulfil the verse, 'All
    my bones say...' And he should say the blessing over the Torah with a
    loud voice. [All this] he should do until from Heaven they will help
    him and remove this evil shyness that is in him.

    The same is with the one who does not clearly say his words. He
    should train himself for 40 days to listen carefully to the words he
    says. [This is the case] whether speaking common things or words of
    prayer or when he is learning Torah. The reason for this is that one
    is ruled over by those things he is used to do.

    The same is with the person who does not learn diligently. He should
    train himself for 40 days to learn more then he is used to learning.
    Every time before he learns he should look at this Tzetel Katon. From
    this time on he will be helped from heaven and he will add to his
    service and break his bad midos until he attains perfection."

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