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Rabbi Moshe Haber Path of the Just -The Student of the Game: Humility in Wisdom 2.25.26 · Rabbi Moshe Haber - Daily Mussar/Weekly Perasha

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  A person elevating themselves in their mind and thinking that
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  they are a big deal. We spoke about, you know, the
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  original thing, elements of humility.
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  Then how you move in your mind and it keeps you grounded.
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  It keeps you relatable. It keeps you connected by
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  realizing that you have every one of us has some sort of
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  background flaw and God orchestrates orchestrates that
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  orchestrates it that way by design.
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  He gives every person some, like I said, funny uncle, difficult
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  grandparents, even a child. Child is not super proud of
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  something going on in their life.
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  So that exactly something to go on in their life that's a little
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  bit embarrassing to keep them grounded, to keep them low key,
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  to keep them human, to keep them relatable because it makes them
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  where they are. Otherwise they would start
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  elevating themselves in their mind and then they'd be lost.
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  Now we said ha ha. For example, wisdom, being very
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  smart makes people very arrogant, makes people think
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  that they're above a cut, above wisdom.
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  Thinking that you're smart is one of the things that really
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  lives people up in their mind and makes them think their big
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  deal. This is a gift and the greatest
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  part of yourself, which means this is a gift in your essence.
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  You know, if a person's wealthy, if you're very good about
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  themselves, I think they're a big deal.
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  But there's a lot of aspects to say to themselves, OK, listen,
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  I'm wealthy, but it's not me. And I can see there's a
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  separation between my wealth and myself.
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  And people can poke a hole in the arrogance that may come from
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  my wealth because they'll say it wasn't him, it was his father,
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  it was a company, it was his life, it was the one deal
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  they're going to break. Poke a hole when it comes to
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  your wisdom, which is you, yourself.
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  It's harder for people to poke a hole in that gift.
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  And therefore it's easier for me to believe that I am actually
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  special because of this thing that exists in my own mind.
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  And that's more dangerous because the more you think it's
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  you, the harder it is for you to separate from it and the harder
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  it is for you to keep yourself grounded.
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  I know I said this is your own mind and you think to yourself,
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  if I, if someone says I'm very smart and then you try to tell
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  them it's not you, it's from Hashem, it's hard for them to
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  see because you're telling me that my own existence, my own
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  mind isn't me. How do I celebrate to do?
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  Of course, everything's from my show, everything from my show,
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  but it OK, then that's what's harder to do.
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  There is no wise man and rabbi even who doesn't make mistakes,
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  who doesn't need to come on to others to teach him.
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  Every wise man makes mistakes in intellect.
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  Every wise man makes mistakes and come to his mind.
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  I feel a bit of it. Tell me, Dove, sometimes this
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  wise man needs his students to help him out.
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  He needs his students to teach him right from law and can based
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  on that, we want to tell him as smart as you think you are and
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  as much as you think it's you because it's harder to separate
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  and say to yourself, I'm a smart, but it's God.
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  We have an easier approach. Do you approach you?
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  You're smart, sure, be also very dumb.
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  You're smart, but you also have a full you have an area that you
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  don't know. You have a topic and you're in a
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  little bit somewhat ignorant and and you have aspect that is more
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  to learn. And we try to keep ourselves
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  humble by being real. And can how am I going to be
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  arrogant with my wisdom when there are parts, I can put them
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  on this table right here, right now, and I can prove to you
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  there are certain parts that I don't know anything about.
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  All right, really. That's sure.
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  So if that's the case, so then how can I be arrogant?
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  How can a person only look at the view of where he's smart and
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  not look at the view of the full reality?
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  Just be real firm. And all you need to do is he
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  said he made a joke with the wife.
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  All you need is someone out there who knows your full
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  picture, who knows where you're weak, and they'll show you the
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  complete picture and they'll take down that arrogance,
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  although the arrogance is kind from a source that's so
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  connected to you. It's so hard to separate.
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  It's so hard to keep myself humble if I'm smart in this
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  topic, but at the same time I'm staring at one topic.
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  Look at the truth. Look at the full fiction.
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  Vulnam, Michel Bao, Serhaya Shah, someone who's of a
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  straight mind, a feeling. Zahaliotrakam Gadol Uma flag.
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  Even if he's a wild genius, permit kishi is taqel Viet bonin
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  yer eshen Macomb lagava. Wait, nasut.
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  Even if this man is a wild genius, he's knows everything.
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  Talika hakam, the kubal, he knows the whole bit.
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  Doesn't matter. It's very easy to keep him
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  grounded. It's very easy to keep that
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  person, to avoid that person becoming arrogant.
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  Now what arrogance are we referring to?
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  The arrogance of wisdom is I know better arrogance.
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  The most dangerous arrogance out there is when someone thinks
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  they know better. Because when you know better,
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  you're not listening, you don't hear anything.
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  No new information comes in. The application of the wisdom is
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  very dangerous because when someone thinks that they're
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  wise, they keep themselves exactly the same because there's
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  no new information coming in. I'm working with the information
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  I have because no one can tell me anything new.
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  Ta da. I know worldliness, I know I'm
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  gifted in every area. I know business, I know this, I
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  know marriage, I know children. I know the whole bit.
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  You're not willing to learn from others also, right?
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  And then you won't change. So the difficulty and the danger
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  of the arrogance of wisdom, as you've seen some people who
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  think that they're smart, you've seen it, I've seen it.
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  We don't continue with the warning.
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  These arrogant people, they continue to take in information,
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  but they keep it on the same stream.
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  And that stream is just adding fuel to mine.
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  Knowing everything. They don't really open up the
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  door to change. They never are willing to see a
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  mistake. They keep their, you know, the
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  overall base at Bay and that is I have a base of a lot of
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  information. I have a pile on to that.
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  I'm not going to learn anymore, but my learning is not going to
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  come from a hungry place of availability to change.
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  My learning is not going to come from vulnerability.
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  It's not going to come from the ability to be wrong.
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  No, no, no, it's only right and I'll add more to my rightness.
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  That's all it is. That's the mindset of such a
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  person. If that's the mindset of person,
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  you'll notice they don't change, not an iota, zero.
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  They don't change it all. They don't change your opinion.
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  They don't change their approach to life.
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  They don't change anything we do because in our and even though,
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  as David's saying, which is right, well, they are, they're
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  they're students of the game. They want to learn more.
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  You're willing to learn more, but it stays in the same thread
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  and the same theme, which is I know everything plus that and I
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  know everything plus that. It doesn't become an
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  availability and a vulnerability to change.
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  That's how dangerous arrogance and wisdom is.
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  Whereas the flip side is that you can be very smart.
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  You can know a lot. You do know a lot.
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  You have a whole life experience.
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  But at the same time, you want to be a student.
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  You want to be a Talmid Hakam. Hakam is a wise man at Talmid as
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  a student, the greatest of our grades, we refer to him as a
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  tamid Hakam. That's the greatest I've.
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  I've raised there. A tamid.
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  They're a student. Yeah.
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  You're forever a student to the game.
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  You know what I know? Like we mentioned the other day,
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  a ball player who thinks he knows it all, he comes out of
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  the draft, he's the first pick pick in the draft or is early on
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  he believes he already made it right.
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  He go look at his perspective one of two ways.
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  Either you could tell him you are just getting started, you're
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  a beginning, you're a fresher to his new league and it's a whole
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  new set of rules and workouts and you have to deal with all
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  new different challenges. The NFL is nothing like college
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  football and the NHL is nothing like college hockey.
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  That's a whole different game. You need to beef up and study
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  the game. Or he can think.
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  He already reached the finish line.
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  He graduated, all right. Graduating college is what is
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  the end or the beginning. That's how you look at it.
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  Arrogant guy. I just graduated with straight
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  whatever from the top college. I'm already set.
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  No, no, no, you're just getting warmed up, right?
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  And now you're getting started. You have student loans to pay.
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  You have exactly, you have some work to get involved in.
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  You have to start creating relationships and actually
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  practicing it and playing at all your wisdom.
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  You have to apply it. You're not the end.
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  You're at the beginning. Every single graduation that we
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  have in our structure can be seen as ends or beginnings.
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  It's all about how a person plays the game and how he looks
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  at it. Arrogant or humble and the same
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  thing is true with wisdom. You learned a lot in your life.
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  You know a lot. You have your parents
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  upbringing, you have your own personal experiences.
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  You have the businesses you've been in, you have the school
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  that you went to. You have the learning that you
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  do every day. You have life that you have is
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  very, very exact approach to by now you have an approach.
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  You understand people, you know right from wrong, you know
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  what's coming. You can read the news and you
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  have your own translation of what's really going on.
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  You ever read, you develop the Reed, see that as a complete
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  picture, or see that as a student of the game, hungry for
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  more? The latter you're going to grow
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  and grow and grow The former. There's nothing going to change
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  in us. And we don't want to be a person
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  who doesn't change. We want to be a person who
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  remains humble, who remains hungry, who remains growing, who
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  remains constantly evolving in a good way.
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  That's the idea. All right, That's the concept.
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  Can you name me Shahu? A guy who's honest with himself,
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  who's smart. He knows a lot.
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  He knows more than the average Joe.
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  And I'll say Ella should hook to all lawsuit.
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  All his mind is doing, actually. He's just doing what he's
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  naturally gifted by. He shouldn't be overly proud of
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  himself. He just allowing his mind to be
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  cut off. He's like a bird that flies.
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  A bird reaches his prey and reaches the other birds.
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  He's able to fly. Why is he able to fly 'cause he
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  was born with wings. Nabluk, a guy with a basic mind
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  who uses his mind, is using the gift that God gave him right
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  off. She might be a loaf that he
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  should develop a car. He's able to fly because that's
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  his nature without a shorter morcher and an ox that can pull
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  because that's his nature. The visual.
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  Who can? That's his makeup.
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  Bishu Raham, who? The visual tip, all MI viola's
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  it. When a guy is wise, he should
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  realize that is my nature. I have this sermon mental
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  makeup. So relax.
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  I shouldn't be overly excited about myself.
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  It's my Rook. I feel very good about myself
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  and I'm able to develop and process and think and learn and
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  build and make companies and do all that.
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  But that's really, if you think about it, just the basic flow of
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  how I was made-up. A bird was born with winks.
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  Ox is born with strength. I as human being was born with a
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  mind and therefore it's God's given and it requires a lot of
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  development. I am just starting what I'm
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  holding right now. This is baseline.
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  This is the makeup of a human being.
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  If that's the case, I have a calm down.
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  I'm going to chill out when it comes to how proud I am with
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  every smart move that I make and I realize how much did I really
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  deviate from the plan anyhow, is that the plan was set up.
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  God gave me the wisdom. He put me in the right
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  schooling. He put me in the right family.
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  He connected me to the right people.
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  He gave me the desire for more wisdom.
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  Maybe He pumped me around a bunch of friends who are a
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  little smarter to make me a little hungrier, right?
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  He put me in a family that I don't have a good opinion.
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  I'm embarrassed, right? He put me in a certain
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  schooling. He guided me along this path.
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  I'm a bird with wings that went to wing school.
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  What am I? And because of that, calm down.
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  I calm down when I'm proud of myself that I have the right
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  opinion. Or as if someone doesn't see it
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  that way. He's prone to think that every
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  time he says something smart, it's like he made a creation
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  with his own gifts. He created wisdom and he came up
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  with a genius idea, this guy. And now he knows.
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  Wow. And every time he made a move in
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  business, he feels to himself like, I knew how to do that.
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  And the danger and the arrogance and the remaining the same,
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  that's really what he's prone to, is all coming from the fact
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  that he thinks he's behind the wheel.
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  And he developed Wisdom A and wisdom B and wisdom C.
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  So on the one hand he thinks he set, on the other hand, he
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  thinks it's all coming from him. And both those things are
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  mistakes. 1 you never set when it comes to wisdom.
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  Be very honest with yourself, as smart as you are, you, everyone
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  of you can prove to me that there's an area I don't know and
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  every and I can prove to you and this area you don't know, right?
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  And that's not meant to humiliate a person.
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  It's meant to humanize a person and to keep us grounded, hungry,
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  growing, developing deep. That's Part 1.
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  At the same time, also realizing that our wisdom is really just
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  our natural development or whatever we do have, besides the
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  fact that there's more to go and we have to be hungry and
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  therefore change. What we do have is actually
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  we're just walking along the path that was carved and formed
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  in front of us. We're not really doing that much
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  special. Yeah.
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  We put in the time and the effort and we like to learn.
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  And we're, we're a student of the game.
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  All that's correct. But even as we're doing that, it
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  came from a natural makeup. We have wings.
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  We like to, we like to spread them.
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  We have a brain, it likes to be spreaded more few if that's the
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  case, that's where it came from. Basically, I shun created a path
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  for you to give you wisdom. It's all God-given.
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  You didn't create that decision or create that idea or come up
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  with that hop with that thought and that opinion and that
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  statement. It's all naturally God-given.
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  God creates for you to make up of your approach to everything.
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  And I'll prove it to you, Sir, many, many of your opinions came
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  from your experiences, not even your learning your experiences.
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  And they made you very smart in a certain areas.
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  You bought a house once. You know what it means to buy a
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  house. Next time you're buying a house,
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  you're looking at the other guy who's who's overpaying for this
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  and for that. And you're looking at him and
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  he's saying to yourself, I know how to do this.
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  I've been down this rodeo and know exactly what's going on.
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  You don't buy this. So you buy that way, right?
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  You have wisdom. Where did that come from?
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  It came from your learning, but also came from life itself.
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  So I shimmed throughout you a piece of experience that went
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  into your machine, that became wisdom, came out on the other
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  side as wisdom, right? That's how life works.
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  Or you've dealt with someone who's got you wants in business.
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  You know how it works. You know when it looks too good,
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  it smells too good, it is too good.
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  You know that. You see another guy, he's about
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  to invest, and you go over to him and say stutterson, No,
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  there are no red flags on this guy right now, but I can
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  guarantee you I'll put money down.
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  This is not going to work access.
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  How do you know I know? How do you know?
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  I have a feeling, You have a feeling.
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  I'm going to trust your feeling. I'm going to take away the
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  opportunity at 8% because you're feeling.
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  I have a feeling and you say you're feeling.
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  And lo and behold, you're right. Where'd that wisdom come from?
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  It came from your life salad. Your life mixed.
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  So I shouldn't provide it for you.
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  Schooling in investment, schooling in homebody, schooling
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  in childbearing, schooling in marriage.
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  Hashem gave it to you because He gave you the certain kind of
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  wife and the certain kind of child and the certain kind of
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  this and the certain kind of that.
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  See, your wisdom itself, even the actual horma, is built on
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  God's gifts. And that should tell us that is
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  not myself making every time we make a decision.
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  That's smart. We believe it's a bria.
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  I created a new creation. No.
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  You flex your arm. You have a body with an arm.
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  You have a body with a mind. You flex your arm.
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  You blink your eyes. You had a thought to Todavar.
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  If that's the case, I should see that it's God-given just like a
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  bird, and nothing is a bird flexing his wings.
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  It's very cool. A bird can fly.
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  If you got up and flew, I'd be amazed, right?
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  I know we have AI that allows it, but I'd be amazed the bird
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  can fly. It's no big deal because it's
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  natural gifts. The same thing is true with
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  myself. If I have a smart thought, it's
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  like a bird flying. It's my natural gifts that God
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  created for me and therefore I should calm down when I'm able
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  to express those gifts. Now, I'll be overly excited and
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  don't let it come to my head because when it does, I have all
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  the challenges that I'm prone to.
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  When a guy is too small for himself and he believes that he
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  knows everything, I'm not hungry, I'm not changing, and I
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  argue. That's the fear.
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  Start with this.