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Rabbi Moshe Haber Path of the Just-Importance of Pure Motives in Community Contributions 8.13.25 · Rabbi Moshe Haber - Daily Mussar/Weekly Perasha

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  The title is tawarah, which means a person doing things for
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  the right motive, at least partially.
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  We have all kinds of doing things of schma, doing good
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  things with the right mindset. We're trying to show us that
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  even though people do many good things, blended into our mind
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  and into our drive, often times are other motives, which is fine
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  as long as there are bad motives, which is actually
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  terrible. We explained the last couple of
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  days, although it's fine, really all Hashem cares about is the
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  real motive. So Hashem wants a real motive
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  and that's the part that matters.
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  So it may be fine they have other motives, but that doesn't
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  really, although it doesn't really carry much weight.
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  Point M1 And M2, which I think is a very important point, is
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  that although it's OK to have ulterior motives and we have to
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  be real with ourselves and say everything we do has some other
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  motives, that's what it is. I don't care if it's someone
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  building an institution, someone becoming building a new school
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  or someone becoming a rabbi, someone going to class, someone
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  doing this, There's all sorts of motives.
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  The reality is, is that all these different actions and good
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  ones have the power to develop us, to make us the better
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  people. But the part that's going to
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  make us into a better person is the part that we do for the
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  right reason, which is if I, let's say, go to class because I
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  want people to say I go to class, that drive and that
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  motive, it might get me there, but that won't build me.
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  The only part that will build me would it be the part that
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  actually enjoy it or I do it for its sake.
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  I do it for that reason. That part will change me.
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  What I was about to change you, that part of it will change you.
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  The same thing is true with Hassan.
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  If I give charity and I do so because I want people to know
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  I'm, you know, big time guy in the community, I'm doing
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  charity, I get the reward. That's the side.
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  A part of me wants to help people as well.
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  The part that wants to help people, that part, if you can
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  divide that up that element and that degree will help you become
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  a better person. But the part that you focused on
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  some side not good motive or definitely not productive
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  motive, it will not change because in fact you find the
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  people, you can't really explain this, but people have other
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  drives in these good areas that actually are not just not really
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  productive to the opposite. And you say what kind of blend
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  is this? There's good and then there's
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  bad mixed inside. And then as a shem have such a
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  world while Hashem runs the world that way.
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  That's for starters, we said on Sunday already Hashem has the
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  world go around based on giving people other reasons of doing so
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  just to get the world going right.
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  Can imagine a guy who builds an institution and the reason he
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  does so is solely because he wants to be president.
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  OK, now he does that for that reason.
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  Hashem did that. Hashem wants that institution to
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  be strong, so that's society. And for that man, it's not going
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  to make him. It's not going to build him.
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  What's going to build him is the part where he says to himself, I
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  care about the kids or I care about our community.
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  That part and amount of building, that's the tower, the
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  purity in there, that will probably would be real.
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  He compares the two and can compare it to fine flour,
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  compare it to pure gold, all those things.
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  The part that's pure is the part that's real, and that's the part
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  that will have an impact back on him.
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  Now for Hashem's result, everything you put into that is
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  going to help for His result, for His own sake.
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  Only the part that's pure is going to build.
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  That's the minds, right? That's what He says and he says,
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  and a person needs to remind themselves all the time, Ahmana
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  Ali Baba, Hashem wants your heart.
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  All Hashem cares about is your effort, your mind's effort, not
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  the action or definitely not the result.
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  Kien da la Don by the Houma singer badam shiyu maze mitzvah
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  Hashem. It's not enough for God our
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  actions to be actions of mitzvah.
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  Ella haikara levana shall live ETA horde le havin by la Buda
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  amitit. The core most important thing is
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  how pure is your mind. You can have a person who
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  doesn't do something great because she doesn't want her,
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  another person. And someone says, I understand
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  you're being sensitive and caring, but you know, there's a
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  lot of whatever that can be built if you just do that, OK,
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  it's another person. It's one person.
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  There's so much Torah that can be built.
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  There's so much good that can happen if you just go ahead with
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  that project, right? And the person says, I know it's
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  wrong. I won't do it.
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  Now there's two points to that. One is that God will definitely
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  get the job done the right way, that's for sure.
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  Two, Hashem cares more about the Libah, but the purity of mine
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  and that person, yes, so. Your kidneys.
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  Hashem Chaxi kidneys, Hashem Chaxi heart, and that means
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  Hashem Chaxi inside looks at your reasoning.
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  He looks at what's inside of you.
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  He does not even a results matter.
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  And this business results mean nothing.
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  It's a process that's way more important than the result.
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  Someone does something that's inappropriate or something
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  wrong, something that hurts another person, and he's
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  building and building and building and he say, wow, he
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  can't be stopped. Oh, he's such a builder.
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  You know what? There's people who have
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  collateral damage, people who lost their job, people who got
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  hurt, people who were talented, people who were not really
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  getting the recognition, whatever may be.
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  He does that and you're looking at him and saying, wow, there's
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  no wow. According to the Torah,
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  according to Hashem, there's no wow.
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  They might be wow the result for the sake of other people, but
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  for the sake of him. I'm not saying you won't get
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  reward, but what God wants is a purity of mind.
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  And God would rather have someone turn down a big
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  opportunity and a big process, big project, turn it down if
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  he's going to hurt another person.
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  And then rather than do that project and officially build the
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  world, I see Riley turn it down. It's hard to say and it's very
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  hard to live by because nobody ever knows.
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  Well, how do you make the decision?
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  Maybe it's worth it. Maybe the other side is being
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  too sensitive. You know, you have to figure it
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  out. But you do have to keep in mind,
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  and God's eyes, He's not seeing the big project.
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  He's seeing the purity of mind I've already seen.
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  That should always be our biggest strife, you know, And
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  I'll tell you how this can go off the rails.
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  If someone would utilize the other minds, which would say
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  building is the most important thing, you know, what can
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  happen. What can happen is a guy might,
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  a guy might not be so honest in business.
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  Same mindset. I'll be so honest in business.
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  Why I give a lot of charity After that, it's riding on my
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  shoulders. It's not ridiculous, right?
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  But the truth is, if you go down that road of thinking about
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  results, result, results, person can end up in that, that pro,
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  that world. He can start in a world which is
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  not so bad, which is I'm just going to start that project and
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  just, you know, sideswipe a couple of people for the sake of
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  building the community. And he can end up in a world
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  where he's dishonest in business again, for the sake of building
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  the community. That's how it works.
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  If you lose your focus of your mind and the purity of mind, who
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  knows where it can go? It's how it works when it comes
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  to community projects. You hear me?
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  This is on the recording, right? Yeah.
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  I, I, I would ask you the question if a person has like a,
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  a business that might not be so pure and he gives a lot of said
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  that. The discussion comes up all the
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  time. And then the question becomes.
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  Is the constant, Yeah. So now the truth is I don't, I'm
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  not going to judge. I said before I don't judge his
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  businesses as much as I used to, partially because I don't
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  really. Some of them do on the up and
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  up, some of them don't. Yeah, but the person getting the
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  money will never, ever get out of it.
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  That's sure. It's hard to get at such a
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  thing. The money keeps.
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  Coming in How? Can he get out of it?
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  The mind or the heart is really the king of our entire body?
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  And if the heart and the mine combined are not serving Hashim
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  and Abu dhat sharp havarim cum, the service of the rest of our
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  limbs are worthless. They pay to carry.
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  No way. That's only where the mine wants
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  to go. Whereas everybody is going to
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  go. My child, they give your heart
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  to me. All Hashem wants to know is how.
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  That's the key and that's the goal and that's towered out.
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  Is this a high level? Yes, but it is absolutely
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  something that has to be front center of every one of your
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  decisions and your thoughts. I remember my father, I say this
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  whole time they were conversations about different
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  things in the shoe a building bake and he used to tell me on
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  the side. They say it wasn't only to me,
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  but I'll say it was to me. Say Moshe, you want to build.
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  He gave me a name of you choose the committee.
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  You want to build, you choose in the community.
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  We can do that. We can do that.
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  That's not our goal. He's dumb and it's not our goal.
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  Our goal is something else. Our goal is to build people,
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  build families. There's no purpose.
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  You tell me that shows are great.
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  Please tell me all the time you want to build, you choose.
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  You use the name, the names. We can do that.
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  That's not our goal. So the point is, and that's just
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  the point is you have to figure out your motive, your drive,
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  your mindset. And I'll tell you what happens.
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  The more your motive is clear, the much it's it's so much
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  easier in life to get out of the fog and the forest of so many
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  things, which means a lot of times people make decisions
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  because they want big time success and they want to be very
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  well known. Someone has something you can
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  say or not say. Yeah, you know, in the news
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  someone says a hot bar item, people talk and they were
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  carriers weight. Maybe it's not the right thing
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  to say. Maybe.
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  But you know, you you attempt it because it's in the Carolina way
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  to be front page. It'll be a big deal.
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  You say it. That's the wrong motive.
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  I mean, you're driven to make the papers, right?
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  Wrong motive will bring a person to do the wrong thing.
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  Now you get even finer. Here's a person within total and
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  it's what's in doing good deeds, his own, you know, toward the
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  community and his own personal life and your own personal life.
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  You can build yourself in a way that's developing and building
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  or you can build yourself in a way that has other motives in
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  mind, whatever it may be. You pray in a certain shoe so
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  people see you so you're more well known you, I don't know,
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  like we always mentioned, keep more public charity.
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  People know your name, right? You do certain things that make
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  you more out there. If you have that opportunity.
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  The motive is off and the driver is wrong and that has not the
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  best result. And his point is just try to
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  think clearly, think about the purpose.
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  So if I don't give you an issue, this guy, Andrew Carnegie, OK,
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  so he's one of the wealthiest steel manners in the world, and
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  he treated his workers terribly and he fought the unions and all
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  that. And he said he goes, look, I'm
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  going to give all my money to charity.
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  These workers, they're just going to go out and drink and do
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  whatever they're going to do. They're going to waste the
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  money. I'm going to preserve the money.
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  I'm giving it to charity. So he treated his work as
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  terribly, but gave all his money in charity that that's so his
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  motive was positive. That's off but but.
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  But that's off because he's getting to the second step.
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  See, sometimes you have that which is even.
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  Let's say that's what we got over to to Jewish world.
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  Even when it comes to results, our results are not my own ego.
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  Our results ought to build. What Guy says I want to build
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  the community, I don't know this SBH, I want to make my own
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  thing. I'm rather huge and I'm going to
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  do it better. I just said they're amazing
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  organization. I'm going to do it my own way.
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  I have a few things I can change.
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  I'm going to do it better. And the process, your goal is to
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  build a hero and the process, there's people who have invested
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  their life, there is so many volunteers, there's so many
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  people who are committed, there's so many people who are
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  linked to the organization already.
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  And all that's going to be sideswiped because you can do it
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  better. Again, the goal might be even Le
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  schma in a sense, second layer le schma, but it's still off.
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  Now you have to figure out it's one of the hardest things.
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  Figure out you can't be too soft in this area because then
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  nothing will ever get done. There's always someone who's
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  going to get hurt. It's one of the hardest things
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  to figure out. When is competition appropriate?
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  When is it not appropriate? When is building the right thing
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  is not the right thing? Schools, every single one of
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  them anyway. School that has a challenge,
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  it's because of another school, right?
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  It's also because of the first school's weaknesses.
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  How do you decide? I see a school, they have a
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  weakness. I want to build another school
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  that's better. I build that school.
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  The first school that has that weakness will be highlighted and
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  it will crumble or at least be tested very soon.
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  And we've seen the time and time again in the community.
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  I don't have the shoulders to make the decision personally,
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  but these people did. And the question is, how do you
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  know when it's right, when it's wrong?
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  Well, you have to think and rethink about your motive.
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  The most classic example of this topic goes back to 100 years or
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  so is the originally yeshiva. They always talk about the Shiva
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  religion in Europe, Originally Shiva.
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  The reason it's a good story because there's a Rabbi Loudon
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  model. He worked it out.
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  He worked out the Shiva model in his mind and a perfect model,
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  the structure, even wrote a book on it, the whole thing.
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  And he went to his teacher that would not go on and he told them
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  I want to make a Shiva and they got on the gun and said no this.
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  Is Rabbi Slanter. This is Rabbi Velocity.
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  He said they are going to the He said no.
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  He came back five years later and he said, I still want to do
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  it. And they got on the and I said
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  yes, go ahead with it. And he built it.
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  And he built, like I said, the most successful, which is what
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  change always everyone it's got would change.
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  And he said it. Either he said it or the Rabbi
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  understood. He said originally you came
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  back, he was too excited. You're too excited.
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  There might be some selfish motives, and this is something
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  that I struggle with personal all the time, which is how do
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  you decide when you're doing something that's right or you're
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  doing something for competitive reasons?
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  You're doing something because you're afraid something else is
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  going to come up that's bigger and better.
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  How do you decide? You have to work this through.
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  It's such a challenging challenge when you're in
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  community service. You have to work this through.
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  Try to figure out when you're genuine and when you're not.
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  And in reality, in the morning, you have to accept the fact that
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  probably never, probably never full of le schma.
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  No shock. There's too much publicity,
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  there's too much talk, there's too much notoriety in the
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  community today to really be le schma.
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  You can't. You can't be spoken about all
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  the time and then tell yourself, I don't care if people say it's
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  impossible. It's not physically possible.
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  But like I said all week, you have to find a zone.
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  If you're in big service, you have to find a zone where nobody
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  knows what you do. You have to do charity that's
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  partially unknown. You have to do Torah.
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  That's some unknown you have to do that's not known.
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  I'll give you an example as well.
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  If a rabbi or for a community leader is very nice person, love
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  dafkas not guaranteed. He's a very nice person.
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  He seems like we're an nice guy. He's soft, he's kind, he's
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  caring. He's not proven to be a nice
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  guy. How do you find that?
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  If he's a nice guy, and this is a strong point, but I've seen it
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  personally, you find that if he's a nice guy, if he treats
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  the person who's not a donor to his institution, who's not well
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  off, not a famous name, if he treats him properly.
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  I'm not saying you choose him equal because there is an area
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  which is you do have to be and this is not called, you know,
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  whatever they want to use the word, use those words.
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  You know, when you would you're very good to it.
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  You're not very nice to a donor. It might be partially as
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  borderline Hakurat the top there too.
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  This guy who out of his way, they give you a lot of money and
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  he holds up the institution he deserves Hakurat the top.
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  There's no question about that. But at the same time, if he's
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  not nice, the leader and he's sort of, I'd say the scar is not
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  really involved, not really caring about someone, not a big
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  donor, that's an indication that he may not be a nice guy.
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  He might seem like the kindest person around, but look what
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  he's going to, You know what he's doing.
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  If someone's only kind to people who are up by them, the kindness
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  is right now not proven to be real.
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  They need to be kind across the board.
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  Again, that's an indication of your little schma element.
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  And all these things are things you have to think about and
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  rethink and rethink and make sure that even though you're
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  doing good, you're actually doing good for good sake.
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  And this is something that a person, I'm telling you
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  personally can easily lose track of.
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  I mean, you can easily find out I went into this for the good
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  reason, but somehow I ended up all I'm doing all day is dealing
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  with the well off, all I'm doing all day.
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  It's nice to the guy who can help me back.
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  That's called being smart, love. Dafka is a really nice.
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  Nice means you're actually a caring person across the board.
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  And that's the same requirement of the SHMA.
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  The SHMA means genuine. The SHMA means real.
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  The SHMA means you are the same to everybody.
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  That's what the SHMA means. I'm gonna start with this.