 One of the things that has always defined who we are as a people has been our library, our spiritual literature. Over the past year or so, I've become fascinated by a column in the Jewish press written by Elliot Resnick, which is called On the Bookshelf. And in this feature, he interviews various notable Jewish personalities and asks them what books they're currently reading, what books have impacted them in the past. It's a very fascinating series of interviews. And one of the things that has struck me has been the number of respondents that repeatedly report that the one book that helped make them who they were, as Jews, was the Nassila Sishorim, The Path of the Just by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lutzato, who is also known as the Ramchal, an acronym of his name. I want to begin by just sharing with you a little bit about his life. Our Moshe Chaim Lutzato was born in Padua in northwest Italy in 1707. His family was well to do, and they hosted many visitors who came from the Holy Land, and these encounters had a strong impression on young Moshe Chaim. He was a prodigious student, and believe it or not, he is said to have mastered the entire Tanakh, the entire Hebrew Scriptures, as well as the entire Talmud and corpus of rabbinic literature and commentaries at a very early age. He was very drawn to the mystical teachings of the Kabbalah, and by the age of 14 he was already fluent in the Zohar and in the writings of the Ariya Kadoche of Yitzhak of Luria. He attended the University in Padua, studying, among other languages, Latin, Italian, French and Greek. He became very well versed in mathematics, physics, botany, astronomy, philosophy, rhetoric and logic. He spent time writing poetry and writing plays, and before the age of 17 he published his first book on Hebrew grammar, Hebrew language and the rules of style and poetry, as well as publishing several dramas where various personality traits like pride and honesty were personified in the plays. At the age of 17, Ramchal began to lead a clandestine group of select and devoted Torah scholars and spiritual seekers who studied together in order to work towards the hastening of the redemption, primarily by the study of Kabbalistic texts. At the age of 20 Ramchal began receiving celestial visitations and heavenly mystical revelations. Unfortunately he was soon swept up in controversy as a result of leaks coming out of his camp. We think this is a new problem. One of his students who had come to Italy from Vilna wrote a letter to a friend back in Lithuania extolling the virtues and the greatness of Rosh Haim Lutzato and mentioning his heavenly visitations. When word got out about these experiences, rabbinic leaders were alarmed. Why is this? Because about 60 years previously the Jewish people experienced a national trauma that was caused by the Shaptites feed debacle. At that time there was incredible and tremendous persecution facing world Jewry and in 1648 the Kazakh hordes of Bogdan Chemelnitsky butchered over 100,000 Jews in the Ukraine. Shaptites feed was a brilliant and charismatic eccentric at that time who came to see himself as the Messiah. He was deeply involved with Kabbalah and began to attract a very large following among Jews of all stripes throughout Europe. These followers were expecting him to return the beleaguered Jewish exiles to their homeland, to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and to bring about the utopian messianic age of peace. Shaptites feed marshal numerous Kabbalistic proofs that the time for redemption was at hand and that he indeed was the promised redeemer. Unfortunately the whole movement came crashing down and Shaptites feed was exposed as a false Messiah when he was imprisoned in Constantinople and he converted to Islam under the threat of death. Now this led to a tremendous disappointment, despair and confusion among the Jewish masses for decades. It was a catastrophe that's hard to imagine. And into this climate when words spread of a secret Kabbalistic group trying to hasten the coming of the Messiah, eyebrows were raised. This was especially so when the group was being led by a very young unmarried charismatic man claiming to have had supernatural celestial revelations by ancient souls and angels. So rabbinic leaders were jittery about the potential for another false messianic and dangerous messianic movement emerging and so they sought to nip it in the bud. The Ramchal's teachers vouched for his legitimacy and his credibility but the critics pursued him relentlessly. In 1732 he finally married at the age of 25 but suspicions and rumors still followed him. He was falsely accused of practicing sorcery and with a threat of excommunication looming over his head. The Ramchal promised to stop teaching and writing about Kabbalistic ideas. Some of his writings were actually burned and unfortunately many of them over a hundred publications were lost. These included an 800 page commentary to the book of Koheles, Ecclesiastes, as well as the beginnings of a commentary to the Torah at that point that had reached already 600 pages. The Ramchal promised that he would cease teaching and writing about Kabbalah until he reached the age of 40. In 1735 at the age of 28 he moved with his wife and young son to Amsterdam where he supported himself as a gem cutter and polisher. Finally here in Amsterdam he found the calm that had eluded him for so long. He continued writing non-Kabbalistic works. Unfortunately many of them as well have been lost but three books published at that time among others that we still have became the most famous of his works. One is the Derah Hashem, the Way of God, which is a comprehensive and systematic overview of Jewish philosophy. One is the Dastvunos, which deals with the workings of divine providence especially focusing on God's allowing evil and suffering to exist in the world. And finally in 1740 at the age of 33 the Ramchal publishes the Nisilas Yisharim, The Path of the Just, which is his most famous work and it's a roadmap for spiritual growth. It's been reprinted and republished numerous times and dozens of commentaries have been composed exploring its depth. In 1743 at the age of 36 the Ramchal embarked on the incredibly difficult journey from Amsterdam to the Holy Land fulfilling a lifelong dream. They settled in Akko but in 1747 he and his family perished in a cholera epidemic that swept the city just prior to his 40th birthday. Ramchal was buried in Tiberias just beside the great Talmudic sage Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva was a complete ignoramus who despised Torah sages until he himself became a student at the age of 40 and it's said that the Ramchals in nearly 40 years was a rectification of the first 40 years in the life of the great sage and martyr Rabbi Akiva. And despite the incredible controversy that plagued him the greatness of Ramoshevchaim Lutsato soon emerged and became clear, greatly as a result of the Nisilas Yisharim. When the Gaona Vilna, just about the greatest rabbinic sage of the last 300 years, saw the Nisilas Yisharim he exclaimed a new light has appeared in the world. If the author was still alive I would go across Europe on foot to learn from him. The great Hasidic master the Kosnisher Magid said that whatever levels I have reached in life they're all due to the Nisilas Yisharim. Rabbi Rukham Levavets the great 20th century Muser teacher wrote that the Ramchal was able to compress entire volumes into one sentence of the Nisilas Yisharim and from dozens of other incredible approbations Reshlama Walby the great teacher of Muser who passed away in the year 2005 said that the Nisilas Yisharim is the dictionary of the entire study of character development in a concise form. What I'd like to do is try to take you through a brief tour of the Nisilas Yisharim and the book begins with probably the most famous introduction in all of Jewish literature. The Ramchal writes that I didn't compose this work to teach people things they have never known but to remind them of things they have already known quite well. In most of my words you'll only find observations about which people have little doubt however it is precisely those concepts that are the most evident that tend to be the most overlooked and ironically it is common for people to be oblivious to these ideas that are accepted so widely by all people therefore he says since this book doesn't really contain much new information it's an incredibly bold thing for an author to write you won't find much new in my book Ramchal says and this is not just modesty he says since this book doesn't contain much new information there is no advantage in just reading the book once because the reader won't gain any new knowledge. The advantage of this book can only result by regular studying and reviewing. This may remind people of those things that tend to be forgotten and a person can then set his heart to those obligations which one tends to overlook. The Ramchal is really sharing here something that's very profound so many of us really know what we should be doing with our lives almost everyone in the world knows what's really right and what's really wrong you won't find a person on the planet who doesn't know the golden rule don't do to others what would annoy you or as it's expressed in many different kinds of literature love your neighbor as yourself everyone knows that but the fulfillment of rules like that is more in the breach than actually in the fulfillment and the question is why why do we ignore those things which we know so many times in life we catch ourselves realizing why did I do that I know it's wrong and that's the problem that the Ramchal is struggling with how is it possible as the Musur writers would later write to connect our head to our heart there are so many things that we know intellectually but we don't feel them deeply and it's because we don't feel them deeply and we don't value them that we don't pay attention to them and that's the great challenge how do we get ourselves to pay attention to and to implement the kinds of teachings that we really know are true Ramchal continues in his introduction by saying that it said he laments the fact that so few people dedicate themselves to thinking about their inner lives their spiritual lives to thinking about how to live a more godly life and he says the problem is that these kinds of of feelings are not into instinctual kinds of feelings that come naturally to us we naturally feel states of hunger or being tired they come very easily to people they're instinctual they register in our bodies but he says the fact is that spiritual leanings are not instinctual we don't feel them as intensely and immediately and he says therefore we will never be able to acquire these impulses unless we work at them with great effort we need to work at them in order to acquire them and so the Missilis Yasharam was a book that was written to help us acquire these spiritual levels and he ends the introduction by saying that he's going to base this book in the base the Missilis Yasharam on a passage in the Talmud from Avoda Zara 20b where Robert Finch has been yoy or taught a 10 step program leading towards human perfection he says in this list that Torah will lead to watchfulness or caution this will lead to diligence or alacrity and enthusiasm this will lead to cleanliness and innocence this will lead to abstinence which will lead to purity which will lead to piety which will lead to humility which will lead to the fear of wrongdoing which will lead to holiness which ultimately can lead to having God's Holy Spirit and the ability to resurrect the dead that's a very unambitious spiritual program you begin at step one and you're able to bring back the dead to life many Musur teachers said that their goal was not to resurrect the dead but to bring the living to life and that's really the program of the Missilis Yasharam so he begins before getting into this entire structured program this stepped program by stepping back a moment and beginning his work by telling us in order to have a successful spiritual journey we need to work at clarifying for ourselves what we're shooting for what are our goals because as we know unless you know where you're headed there are many ways of getting there so what exactly are the goals of our spiritual journey and here there's a spoiler alert the Ramchal basically spills the beans at the beginning of the book and says that we were created according to our sages we were created solely totally for the purpose of achieving ultimate pleasure in life that sounds pretty understandable but how by experiencing closeness with the creator every human being will resonate with the idea of having pleasure in life but the question is what is the ultimate pleasure and so Ramchal says here that the ultimate pleasure that we should be shooting for in life is the ultimate experience of establishing closeness with the creator and the Ramchal says that this is a transcendent kind of spiritual pleasure and our short life in this world the short number of decades we spend in this world is not where this bliss can fully be actualized he says that the ultimate pleasure that we're capable of achieving is an experiment experience of attachment to the almighty which is only possible in the spiritual world to come in the afterlife however the Ramchal says that the only way to achieve this ultimate goal of attaching ourselves to the almighty in the afterlife is through the preparations we make for it in this life here we're able to make ourselves into fitting vessels to be able to experience the ultimate and we have in this life as well the possibility of having a taste of what the ultimate pleasures in the world to come are like the Ramchal says that the means that God gave us to achieve this ultimate goal is through the instructions the commandments provided in the Torah now the truth is that God could have skipped this step and simply create us as souls basking in heavenly bliss why did we have to be sent into a physical world in physical bodies if this is not really where it's at anyway God could have simply skipped this step and placed us into a spiritual bliss as souls in heaven the Ramchal explains but this would not be as pleasurable as creating us in a state where we have to struggle to achieve this kind of connections of God and earn our bliss rather than getting it as a handout rather than getting it as welfare ultimately the Kabbalists say that getting it without working for it is shameful it's embarrassing and it's not pleasurable so the world we're placed in is one full of challenges of temptations of things that distract us from our spiritual goal and the degree of perfection that we can achieve in this world is directly proportional to how much we exert ourselves to overcome all of these resistances the Ramchal teaches that the first stage to achieving spiritual perfection is what he calls the Hirot the Hirot there are many ways of translating it watchfulness caution and it describes having a conscious and aware mind about what we're doing in our lives the level of the Hirot is basically the level of being deliberate and careful as we go through our lives living with what we call now in the 21st century mindfulness living mindfully living with full consciousness and full awareness paying attention to our lives paying attention to what we're doing and evaluating every step of the way how are we doing am i meeting my goals am i fulfilling my potential am i doing anything to get myself off track a directed mindfulness this kind of the Hirot is being discerning about whether what we are doing is positive or negative it means being discerning about everything we do in life is it moving us toward our goal or is it hindering us from our goal the Hirot means always evaluating checking ourselves being careful the Hirot means not going through life on automatic pilot but rather thinking about whether our lifestyle and behavior is harmful to us are we wasting time are we doing things that we shouldn't be doing are we developing bad habits are we hurting ourselves and the Ramchal says that we have to be vigilant about this because we tend to get very very busy in life he says one of the traps of life he didn't know about the kind of lives we'd be living now he writes about this almost 300 years ago that one of the traps of life is would become very very busy and we don't have time to think about our lives to reflect upon our lives and he said we have to be very careful and vigilant not to fall into that trap he says each one of us has an inner adversary what we call in Hebrew a yatsahara the topic of last week's lecture and we constantly need to think about what inner challenges we have and how to successfully confront them we need to always be mindful about what is good in life what is the good life and what distractions we need to avoid in order to stay on track and not get diverted from what we really want to get out of life that's the greatest tragedy is to just get detoured you start off on day one and you're in the wrong direction so Zihirut says be careful make sure you're going in the right direction and there are Ramchal advises that we go through this kind of exercise about each one of our actions in life every single action we have to evaluate and think about and weigh and measure we've got to do a regular Hezbon on Effesh a spiritual accounting much in the same way that any business person regularly takes inventory and does a review of how their business practices are working if you're serious about succeeding you need to constantly evaluate Zihirut basically translates as being careful not to violate any of the 316 365 prohibitions of the Torah it's similar to the first rule of medicine do no harm don't mess up or the first rule in learning how to play chess don't blunder don't lose any pieces don't make mistakes that's the level of Zihirut Zihirut he says that this takes us to the next level which is Rizut Rizut is basically a lack of enthusiasm he says once you've taken care not to veer from your goals you need to take action in a positive direction with enthusiasm with diligence and with alacrity if caution if Zihirut relates to avoiding transgressions Rizut applies to the fervor that we bring to doing that which is good it's not avoiding the bad here we're zeroing in we're focusing on doing that which is good and the problem is there can be many obstacles that get in the way of pursuing virtue and pursuing fulfillment of God's directives including our own laziness and our own inertia and that's what Zihirut is intended to overcome we all are physical and therefore by nature we are weighted down with a certain anti-spiritual inertia we're not naturally propelled to the spiritual and so Zihirut says get up and go get up and do it overcome your laziness and your inertia whenever an opportunity arises to do something positive or to fulfill the divine will we should not delay but do it right away do it as soon as the opportunity arises and once you've begun a project once you've started a positive action you need to bring it to completion we're all aware of this that some so often we have great intentions and we start projects we don't finish them the third level in the mesilis Yashoram is called Nikyut often translated as cleanliness Zihirut being cautious pertained to avoiding sinful and inappropriate behavior Nikyut is cleanliness from the tendency to act improperly it's not staying away from the wrong behavior that we've accomplished already in step one but deep down inside of us we have things that motivate us that propel us that move us in the direction of doing that which is inappropriate and this third level of Nikyut of cleanliness is the level of cleansing ourselves of all those tendencies that could lead us to laxity in observing the Torah any attitudes that might lead to transgressing or rationalizing inappropriate behavior that's often what does us in we don't want to do the wrong thing but what happens we end up rationalizing it so that it's not so bad and what this third level of Nikyut tries to do is to get us to basically clean ourselves of those tendencies to rationalize to minimize to minimize the the seriousness of doing the wrong thing we tend to sometimes poo poo the wrong thing what's the big deal this is just the way things are done everyone's doing it Sigmund Freud is said to have said when it comes to self-deception every man is a genius so Nikyut is the focusing ourselves inner on an inner dynamics of how our minds work and cleaning ourselves of the tendencies to rationalize inappropriate behavior and ultimately even to eliminate the desire or temptation for that which is prohibited now if you have realized what we've been doing so far today the first two levels of Zehirut and Rizut deal with behavior avoiding negative actions and doing positive actions but this level of Nikyut of cleanliness moves into the realm of not behavior but of motivation what's going on inside of us our state of mind the problem is that even though we will avoid committing transgressions that we realize our transgressions we will avoid doing things that are inappropriate when we realize they're inappropriate a person may subconsciously look for a loophole that will allow them to pursue their desires and this is essentially a form of self-deception now it's not easy to diminish our desires for that which is inappropriate it's not easy but there are Ramchal tells us it's not impossible and the most natural way of diminishing our desires for that which is unhealthy and inappropriate is by growing to appreciate the ultimate goal of those things we're trying to fulfill if we keep our eye on the ball and we keep our eye on the prize we're not going to get diverted and distracted as easily either by actual sins and transgressions and inappropriate behaviors or things that approach those kinds of behaviors and we're able to rationalize when our spiritual pursuits take on more of the foreground of our lives and the physical and material parts of who we are begin to recede into the background it becomes much easier to diminish the desire for negative behavior again the Ramchal points out it's not that hard to avoid grossly inappropriate behavior and obvious sins but the fine tuning kinds of transgressions are harder to avoid because the tendency again is to diminish them and he shares numerous examples in this chapter for example most of us would never dream of shoplifting but so many people are less than totally honest in their business practices because they say well that's just the way business is done the Talmud says for example that we're not allowed to cover up the defects in something that we're selling if you're selling strawberries you can't put the nice ones on top and the bad ones on the bottom but many people are drawn to doing exactly that if you're selling your car you want to sell your car we often don't emphasize that which is wrong with the car we want to simply emphasize that which is great about the car if we have a job where we're allowed 20 minutes for a coffee break it's very easy to take 30 minutes and not see ourselves as stealing but that's exactly what we're doing when we steal 10 minutes from our employer i'm sure none of us would commit adultery but perhaps flirting inappropriately is something we would do we're telling obscene jokes and brushing it all off by saying what's the big deal it's only a joke la shon hara evil speech slandering others diminishing others is a grave sin why is it so tempting to speak about other people why is it so tempting to listen to juicy gossip because ultimately what happens is we build ourselves up by lowering others if we see other people in a diminished state we feel bigger about ourselves so nikiut cleanliness means that we get rid of the need to do that we get rid of the need to build ourselves up by putting other people down that's not a healthy kind of self-esteem the next level on this stairway to heaven is called preshoot which means abstention the first three levels of the he wrote is reason and nikiut define more or less the parameters of what it means to be a righteous person if you're able to somehow succeed in implementing these first three levels you're basically someone that we would call a tzadik a righteous person but beginning with this next level of preshoot of abstinence of separation the ramchal takes us to the next level which is called hasidut it's higher than being a tzadik it's being someone that's a saint or pious what is the what is zihirut we saw zihirut means staying away from that which the Torah prohibits and staying away from anything that is spiritually inappropriate that's the level of zihirut however not everything that may be done should be done preshoot is a level of separation in certain contexts of things that even are permissible for example the ramban rambay motion ben nachman famously writes in his commentary to the book of leviticus where it says kadoshem ti you shall be holy he says what does it mean that you shall be holy and nachman he says you know what there are times when it's permissible to do certain things in the Torah but if you do them you could sometimes be a scoundrel what he calls a navval bershuta Torah even though you're not violating any laws you're really a lowlife and he gives us an example someone that is a glutton he's not eating any non kosher food he doesn't do anything that's prohibited he's eating kosher food but eating it and eating it and eating it and eating it to the point of gluttony and he says that's the kind of thing that preshoot tells us to separate from that even if something might be permissible you don't need to go whole hog and pursuing it there may be a fine line between enjoying a wonderful Shabbat meal and gorging oneself or between eating enough food in order to be healthy and making a religion out of food that's what often happens in the world today even among people that are not overeating and gorging themselves and stuffing themselves so they have to throw up but there are people that make a religion out of food they dedicate hours and hours and hours to thinking about food and dreaming about food so Ramchal says that the more we get caught up in goshmi us in the world of physical temporal material life the less room we have in our world for spiritual pursuits the more we get caught up with luxuries in life the more difficult it is to focus on spiritual pursuits the katska Rebbe the famous Rebbe from katsk once said that he doesn't avoid sin because it's wrong he avoids it because there's no time I mean that if you're doing what you should be doing in life there simply isn't time to be doing the wrong thing don't worry about the fact that it's wrong worry about the fact that there are better things to do with our time there are better things to do with our time than spending 25 hours thinking about exactly how i'm going to prepare the sushi have sushi but you don't have to make a religion out of it sushi is not the most important thing in the world there's nothing wrong with eating delicious food but food is not supposed to take over our lives sleeping is an important activity not getting enough sleep is dangerous for our health and sleeping can even be pleasurable the Shabbos nap hopping a dremel on Shabbos afternoon it's wonderful unfortunately there are people who spend much too much time sleeping they sleep in in the morning they waste hours and hours and hours a day sleeping they sleep through life and this becomes decadence how clean does our car have to be there's nothing wrong with taking your car to the car wash once in a while it's not a bad idea but i grew up in new jersey where i used to see people spending an entire afternoon on their weekend cleaning and polishing and cleaning and polishing their cars is that worth the time of this is it permissible to spend 15 hours polishing your car it's not violating any violating any prohibitions in the Torah but is it worth dedicating ourselves to things like that there's nothing wrong with having good things in life nothing wrong with having a nice beautiful home with having vacations with traveling with having a nice car with having the latest iphone there's nothing wrong with these things the problem is when we have to have these things when they become necessities and they take over our lives and we can't live without them that's when they become a problem nice clothing can make you feel good about yourself nothing wrong with that but having nice clothing can easily become an obsession and vanity socializing is extremely important in life we're not meant to be hermits we're meant to interact with other people but it's very easy to spend almost all our time flitting from one party to the next and chatting on the phone all day long while neglecting the vital things in life like prayer and meditation and Torah study and analyzing our lives so we should never deprive ourselves of those things that are necessary in life but we need to keep non-essentials in check the next level of the Nassila Shahrim is called taha rapurity we saw that pre-shoot separation and abstention directed us to focus our lives on involvement with necessities and essentials and avoiding excesses luxuries and non-essentials what is purity what is tahara it's the idea that even our engagement in the essentials of life should be for a higher purpose which is to grow spiritually and in closeness to God this is what Solomon meant when he said in the book of Proverbs chapter 3 verse 6 in all of your ways you should know God so it's appropriate to have a nice meal and to eat well but try to use that meal try to use the food as a way of connecting to God appreciate where the food came from think about how God put incredibly delicious flavor into the food as a gift to us think about how every thing that we eat is a gift from God Torah study just about the most important spiritual activity can be demeaned and diminished it's possible to engage in Torah study simply as an intellectual exercise or worse as a way of building our egos and showing others how clever we are Torah study is supposed to be pleasurable it's actually considered to be the greatest pleasure the ultimate pleasure but it should never devolve into the pleasure of pride and arrogance Torah study is supposed to basically be an expression of our love for God and a pathway to help us grow in that love the next level on the ladder to perfection is called Hasidut Piety the Torah contains 248 positive commandments and these are the foundations of a positive and healthy spiritual life but there has to be more to a spiritual life than just discharging obligations someone who loves God will be like a child who is not only careful to obey their parents but will try to anticipate what their parents would like them to do the kind of child that tries to discern on their own what would give their parents pleasure and earnestly do these things without waiting for a direct request a husband who truly loves his wife will always be on the lookout for things that he knows will make his wife happy doing things for her buying things for her sharing things with her anticipating the kind of things that she would appreciate aside from being proactive in our service of God Hasidut applies to the manner in which we carry out our service for example seeking to perform the commandments of the Torah in the most beautiful way possible and putting everything into their performance this might be reflected for example in the care and attentiveness to detail and creativity that we bring to making a Passover Seder you can make a Passover Seder in a very routine kind of way you follow the instructions you go by paint by the numbers but there are people that I know and I'm sure many of you know who show a tremendous amount of initiative and creativity to make their Passover Seder exciting beautiful unusual the kind of experience that the children are never going to forget and that everyone at the Seder will get a tremendous amount out of that's an element of Hasidut not just fulfilling our obligations but showing initiative and going beyond the letter of the law this also applies to the joy and enthusiasm that are brought to our mitzvah observance there's a mitzvah in the Torah of welcoming guests into our homes but Abraham didn't just exceed to the request of people who asked him if they could come to his home for a meal he was someone who was fanatical about seeking out guests to make sure he couldn't sleep at night if he wasn't going to have guests in his home the Torah tells us that at the age of a hundred after he was circumcised he sat out in the blazing sun in the middle of the day looking all over the desert to see if anyone was coming because he was so unhappy that he wasn't able to host guests in his home this is enthusiasm for a command people can give charity but not do it enthusiastically to do it with a grudgingly grudging attitude unenthusiastically or it's possible to give charity with a smile with love my manani spoke about eight levels of giving charity Hasidut piety is the person that always pushes to give charity in the most sensitive and beautiful way there's a story I often tell about a yeshiva student that was too proud to ever accept charity and his friends would try to creatively come up with ways to help him out and one friend came up with a great idea one day he came to his friend in the yeshiva and said you know what I just came from the supermarket they're having a huge sale on tuna fish because the whole shipment of tuna fish cans came in they were all dented and they're being sold at half price and his friend said that's great and you pick me up a carton and so his friend went to the supermarket bought a carton of tuna fish cans and came home and sat there with his son for an hour taking a hammer and denting the cans so that his friend in the yeshiva should be able to have his food without having to feel he's accepting a handout there's a wonderful story once told about the satma rebbe the great rebbe the satma community who once received a visitor from israel who said he needed to raise money for his wife's operation and the rebbe asked him how much he was looking for and the man said it would be wonderful if you can give me ten thousand dollars so the rebbe directed his assistant to write this man a check for ninety seven hundred dollars and the man was very thrilled and walked out with his huge check but then the rebbe's assistant asked him look he asked for ten thousand dollars and you cut him a check for ninety seven hundred why not just write him a check for ten thousand at that point and the rebbe said because if i had given him a check for ten thousand dollars he would have left here kicking himself that he should have asked for more he wouldn't have been happy so much with the ten thousand but he asked for ten thousand and he got ninety seven hundred he was thrilled this shows sensitivity and it shows someone who's trying to be careful in their performance of the mitzvah in our relationships with other people hasidut means going the extra mile on their behalf seeking ways to lighten their burdens and to bring them joy and pleasure and happiness in life this means being proactive being careful loving with attention to detail in the way we visit the sick comfort the mourner there are so many ways in which these activities can be done the perfunctory visit to the sick in the hospital the perfunctory shiva call and there are ways of doing it with tremendous sensitivity and concern in interactions with other people the hasid will go above and beyond in being sensitive to the feelings of others and avoiding anything that might hurt their feelings the famous story told about rebe akiva agar that had a guest at his Passover satyr and in the middle of the satyr this this guest accidentally knocked over a glass of wine spilled all over the table immediately immediately without missing a beat rebe akiva agar bumped his knee into the leg of the table spilling a lot of the different classes of wine at the table and saying oh it must be a very shaky table he was concerned about the feelings of this guest hasidut involves being in awe of god's presence realizing that we're walking through life and that we're always in the presence of god and that we're always being seen by god a hasid is always aware of this a hasid exhibits awe and respect for the way that the Torah is treated and the way that we treat those who study the Torah i remember the first time that i saw a class standing up in the presence of their teacher there was an awesome sight to see we don't see that in other schools but when you see a Torah scholar walk into a room and the room stand up out of respect that shows respect not just to the Torah but for god as well hasiduk involves cultivating attitudes of loving god and we see here one of the major concerns of the ramchal and the nesila tishorim which is the possibility of a person being a religious person but not very spiritual what an incredible tragedy that a person can be a religious Jew but not a very spiritual Jew because a person can relate to their Judaism as basically just following the do's and don'ts and ultimately hasidu tells us that the goal of all of this is to have a relationship with god and to love god and to think about our loving god and to cultivate that kind of love so focusing on the elements of our relationship with god is essential in order to reach the highest levels the ramchal points out that the true test of loving god and having awe of god comes when times are difficult when times are not easy in life that shows if we really do love god or not it's when we understand that regardless of how things are going in life god loves us hasidu also involves simcha tahain having a joy and happiness in life understanding that a life dedicated to pursuing spirituality is a joyous and fulfilling life a hasid is also someone who has a sense of responsibility and caring for the people of their generation a person who is always praying on behalf of their generation on behalf of others now the ramchal next comes to a very sensitive and difficult chapter in the book which he calls the mishkal hasidu had to evaluate hasidu and he says that not all kinds of going beyond the letter of the law are worthwhile or even praiseworthy the ramchal did not have a high regard for people who fasted excessively or who took on other kinds of self-mortification in a quest for holiness and spirituality the ramchal thought that these were often simply superficial behaviors that didn't necessarily affect the core of a person it was a sort of cheap spirituality the ramchal notes that our evil inclination our yaitzahara has the way of leading us to act in an extreme manner and fool ourselves into thinking that by acting in an extreme manner we're being righteous a person may begin to give away all their money with the thought that that's being very pious and religious but the tomwood actually tells us not to give more than 20 percent of our money away so that we ourselves would not become impoverished there are people who stay up all night long getting almost no sleep trying to study toro all the time and they hurt themselves by not sleeping but they think that by sacrificing sleep they're being very holy hasidu it requires that we walk with wisdom and careful consideration rather than acting impulsively in non-constructive kinds of behaviors hasidu it requires a careful assessment of the pluses and minuses of all of our behavior when we go beyond the letter of the law for example there's a requirement in jewish law that before we have meal before we have bread at the beginning of a meal we wash our hands and the code of jewish law gives a minimal amount of water that we're supposed to use when we wash our hands although the shulchan arach the code of jewish law encourages us not to use that minimum amount of water but to use more water to give to be generous with how much water we use there was one time when rabbi israel salantur who was the pioneer of the muser movement in the 19th century he was seen at the beginning of a meal washing his hands with the minimal amount of water that's necessary and people asked him why aren't you using more water that's what the shulchan arach recommends and israel salantur said that he cannot be a hasid at the expense of the water carrier he was living in a time where you just couldn't go to a faucet and turn it on someone had to schlep the water from the river up to their basin so for him to use more water than necessary he felt was taking advantage of someone's hard work the next level in the ms clc shawram is humility we all know and this is taught in all of our muser shawram the vanity and arrogance are one of the most vile character traits possible humility involves a person not living in a way where they puff themselves up however the amchal says that humility has to be expressed not just in action but internally as well because acting humbly without feeling it is hypocritical and is actually obnoxious the story is told about a wealthy man who used to always sit in the back of the synagogue in order to appear humble the rabbi came to him one day and said you know you'd be much better up you'd be much better off sitting up front and wishing you were in the back than sitting in the back and wishing you were sitting all the way in the front humility of course does not mean a lack of self-esteem or a lack of awareness of one's qualities moses was we're told the greatest prophet of all time moses led the jewish people out of egypt he received a Torah at mount sinai he led them for 40 years in the desert and he understood that he was a person who spoke to god face to face and yet moses understood that everything that he had all the talents he had all his greatness were merely gifts of god and then ultimately compared to god he himself was very little great people realize that despite all of their greatness they have flaws and they haven't yet realized their potential and therefore they will never come to harbor feelings of pride was a famous story about revzisha of anapoli the great saddak who before he died had his students gathered around him and he was trembling and he was expressing tremendous trepidation of meeting his master meeting his maker and his students couldn't believe it they said you're the holiest person of the generation there's no one as righteous as you are what are you afraid of they couldn't imagine why zisha was shaking on his deathbed and they said maybe he's afraid that when he goes upstairs they're going to ask him why weren't you as great as moses or they said maybe he's afraid that when he goes upstairs they're going to ask him why weren't you as great as my minorities and revzisha said to them no i'm not afraid of either of those questions because if god asks me either of those questions i have a very good answer if i'm asked why weren't you as great as moses i'll say i was never given moses capabilities why weren't you as great as my minorities i was not given the talents and the intellectual acumen of someone like my minorities but i'm afraid of one question they're going to ask me zisha why weren't you zisha and of that question i have no answer and that's why i'm terrified ramcha points out that humble people are able to conduct themselves in a way where they're able to receive an insult and not respond in anger a person that's truly humble doesn't have to strike back in anger humble people don't seek honor and they're actually uncomfortable when they are given honor the next level up is what is called fear of sin fear of doing the wrong thing now what's strange about this level is that the very first level we saw was the he wrote being careful not to do the wrong thing so it doesn't sound like fear of sin is much higher than that in fact what there am howl says is that the fear of sin is very high up on the ladder because it's a sublime level when we understand it properly of course fear of being punished for committing a sin is a relatively easy to attain level people that are afraid of being punished that's not what we're talking about here the more elevated level of fear of sin is a fear that our sins will damage our relationships with god a fear and the realization that by doing the wrong thing we dishonor our relationship with god it's not a fear of being punished it's a fear of doing disservice to our relationship the chossid lives a life of awareness that they're living in the presence of god fear of sin is a constant concern that even a subtle inappropriate behavior may have occurred now we all have this kind of sensitivity in our own lives when it comes to certain interactions we have with others imagine that you're invited to the home of an extremely wealthy person or a famous person for a shabbat meal it's a little bit intimidating and you might sit there at the shabbat meal very self-conscious of your behavior concern that you may say something or do something embarrassing or inappropriate that's what we're talking about here when we say that a chossid has a fear of sin we live in fear of simply doing something inappropriate in terms of the relationship a person who has climbed to this kind of high spiritual level lives with a constant awareness that they're living in the presence of god they're living in the palace of god in the home of god and this will lead to heightened concern about doing anything even subtly that spoils that relationship the final level in this ladder of personal perfection and the Messiah shalom is called holiness and the Ramchal lets us know something very special about this final level he says that we begin the journey to holiness but ultimately we're not able to reach it on our own ultimately we can begin the journey but achieving holiness only comes as a divine gift we can only go so far on our own we can strive for spiritual growth and closeness to God and when God sees that we have made as much effort as possible he will reach out and bring us close to himself this is an extremely high level and one where all of a person's earthly activities are perfectly in tune with the divine will this is an incredibly high level for a person to live on where they're basically like a tuning fork and they and god are basically vibrating at the same frequency and the Ramchal says that such a person is transformed into being similar to a priest who serves all the time in the holy temple he becomes similar to an angelic being similar to an angel even while dwelling in a physical body in this terrestrial world this is an extremely rarefied level that is achieved by very few people in any generation the Ramchal says that people who reach this level spend lots of time spend lots of time in solitude and meditation in order to strengthen their attachment to God it doesn't mean by the way that they're living as hermits isolated from society but even when they're among others they have an awareness of what's going on inside their own consciousness they're never separated from their attachment to God now what's incredible about this last chapter is that the Ramchal actually in his list does not mention the last two levels that are articulated by of Pinchas Ben Yair in the Talmud but the Ramchal does say that in this last section on holiness that someone who is able to reach this level may begin to transcend their physical human nature in their spiritual attainments and understanding of God and merit a level of Ruach Akodesh merit a level of being imparted to a degree with a level of prophecy that we call the spirit of holiness and that God may ultimately give to this person the ability to resurrect the dead as we found with the prophets in the Torah Elisha and Elijah someone who is totally united with God is able to draw from God the life-giving power of the Creator now the Ramchal concludes his book by confessing that he has not exhausted all there is to say about the path to spiritual perfection based upon the steps of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair and that his book should serve as a starting point for greater study and greater practice similarly I have to state the obvious that all I've been able to try to do tonight is basically begin to scratch the surface of the Ramchal's magnificent manual of spiritual growth what I'd like to do is end with one question before we take questions and it's sort of the kind of question that anyone who tries studying the Masila Tasharam and even though people even people who haven't studied it just might hear a lecture like this might wonder to themselves the obvious question is how far will most of us ever get on this kind of spiritual program most of us will probably say to ourselves that we're not going to get very far we can maybe imagine ourselves as you know reaching the level that I'm not going to do anything wrong in my life that if I know something is wrong I won't do it maybe I can reach that level and maybe I can reach the level of that once I know that I should be doing something I do it without delay and I completed I can maybe imagine reaching that level and maybe even possibly I say to myself for 40 years from now I can maybe I'll be able to eliminate the inner desires I might have to potentially do the wrong thing the drives to move in that direction and rationalize things that are maybe not so positive but to get beyond that third level to get beyond the level of being at Sadik to the level of being a Hasid a saint I mean anyone that studies this book can get disheartened can feel this is way beyond me I'm nowhere near that I can't imagine in 10 lifetimes reaching those levels so the question becomes is there what's the value of studying a book like this so I think there are several answers to this question number one as there I'm how alludes to in the beginning of the book that if you're on a spiritual journey you've got to know ultimately where you're heading and so even though you may never reach and maybe we will but even though we may never reach the higher levels of this ladder it's still important to know where we're heading where we're going these higher levels can be at least goals to seek goals to aspire to and that's not a bad thing secondly on a more pragmatic level we have to realize that every single person is different and you know what it could be that even though a person might seem like they're stuck on level one or two but it could be that in terms of certain parts of their life they're even actualizing level four or five or maybe even six I mean that this ladder of growth is not necessarily a straight line and sometimes we might excel in one or two levels and maybe even grab a portion of higher levels so the fact that we're not able to complete those higher levels does not mean we should be unaware of them because it's possible that in our progress and in our growth we might be able to grab hold of at least parts of those higher levels and I think one last reason is important we know that in our holy temple one of the vessels in the temple was the menorah the seven branch menorah which symbolize so many things the light of godliness the light of Torah the light of spirituality and we know that the priest would light the menorah every day in the temple but one of the odd things about the menorah in the temple was that we're told that there was a set of steps leading up to the menorah that when the priest the Kohane lit the menorah he ascended three stairs in order to light the menorah and what's peculiar about this is that the menorah was not very tall it was the height of an average person an average human being would be able to light the menorah without going up these stairs and I think that one of the symbolisms here is that when you are on a spiritual quest when you're seeking spiritual goals your reach should exceed your grasp and that in order to succeed in a spiritual journey unless you have high goals and and ambitious goals you may not achieve more modest and humble goals if you're only shooting to be someone in life that's going to be a C student you may not even reach that if you if you have ambitions to become an A student maybe you won't hit A plus maybe you'll hit B plus but you'll do much better if you have strong ambitions when it comes to your spiritual ambitions so I believe the Missilesi Sharim for all its value and its wisdom and there is so much incredible wisdom as we saw before locked in every line of this book but I think one of the beautiful things about the Missilesi Sharim is that it teaches us how to reach high how to have high aspirations and high goals and it paints a picture of what an ideal spiritual life can look like so we can always place it in front of ourselves and have it as a goal to shoot for