Latest / Rabbi Moshe Haber - Daily Mussar/Weekly Perasha / Rabbi Moshe Haber Path of the Just - The Endless Sea of Learning: Humility and the Unknown 4.28.26
Transcript
- 0:00So we're going through a humbling process and the last
- 0:06couple of days besides, Shane pointed out.
- 0:10And if one realizes and focuses on the unpredictability of life,
- 0:16he's automatically humble. If you realize the fact that
- 0:20things swing all the time and those who are in power can lose
- 0:26their power in an instant and you become a person
- 0:29automatically becomes more humble.
- 0:31And he talks about the fact that, I mean, Weeze pointed out
- 0:34yesterday, something's shocking. If you think about all the world
- 0:36rulers over the last 20 years, all the names that you grew up
- 0:39with are these names as if they were going to last forever and 1
- 0:42by 1 and they would just, they ended up in nothing one after
- 0:46the other. Literally all these leaders of
- 0:49all these countries is like only yeah, that's early, early job.
- 0:56All the Russia and China's left from the.
- 0:58That's it. The only two world powers they
- 1:00allowed the Russia and China, 1 by 1.
- 1:02Every terrorist leader is gone. Every leader of those countries
- 1:05are gone. All these guys, it seemed like
- 1:07the untouchable, they built their palaces and they had a
- 1:09million pictures of themselves and they had their statues of
- 1:12themselves throughout the country.
- 1:13And they made themselves into a borderline, you know, as if they
- 1:16were a guard And all these things, they're all gone.
- 1:19And they're just gone with nothing left, with nothing
- 1:22remaining. They built up.
- 1:23I just think about this when this last guy, this wonderful
- 1:27fellow soccer, I simply was taken out a month ago or so.
- 1:30All right, Think about the guy who probably built up 100.
- 1:33There was some crazy billion dollar enterprise.
- 1:38He probably thought he had ran a a country of over 90 million
- 1:42people, right? That's a very big deal.
- 1:45And like this, he's gone, gone, Boy, does the guy get pulled out
- 1:49of his bed in middle of the night.
- 1:51His whole power is done. These people and they have this
- 1:54sort of bravado and these threats and this Galva, it's
- 1:57unbelievable, as he's telling us, obviously in a much more
- 2:00practical, normal people perspective, that life is
- 2:04unpredictable and things can swing in a minute.
- 2:06So the, the, the arrogance and you think about this, this the
- 2:10silliness of a person believing that I'm here, I'm set and I'm a
- 2:16big deal. It's silly.
- 2:18A person should be always in the same steady mindset that whether
- 2:22things go up and down, you can't tell.
- 2:24You can't tell on my face. I don't act like I'm a big deal
- 2:27when things are great. I don't act terrible when things
- 2:29are terrible. I'm always the same.
- 2:31That's our person. You see, that's the idea.
- 2:35Now let's see the next point. I think that idea is very
- 2:39powerful and very important because for whatever reason, we
- 2:43all are very prone to be very excited when things are rolling
- 2:47and now realizing that that things can switch an instant,
- 2:49not that we're threatened or scared, but that we remain the
- 2:52same. That's who you want to be.
- 2:53You always want to be the same person.
- 2:54Now he's like this. And another additional point
- 2:59when it comes to you in the it's bonenta me.
- 3:02You should think all the time to realize how weak that we're not
- 3:13dumb, to use a frank word, but how weak the mind of a person
- 3:18is, how he can make mistakes. Video of tauta because of a any
- 3:24person makes them on page 472 on top.
- 3:27Every person can make major mistakes.
- 3:30We all make mistakes. We see something, we perceive
- 3:32something and we're off all the time.
- 3:35And when one realizes that, again, that's a humbling
- 3:37concept. Shiote karolo tamita taut maidya
- 3:41amititit. You're more prone.
- 3:44You're closer to not knowing something, and you ought to know
- 3:47something. We're more prone to mistakes
- 3:49than we are to the truth. I can get out to me, not second
- 3:54as of it. And we should always be fearful
- 3:56of this danger. If I catch a little more to me
- 3:59and call Adam, and that should make us humble.
- 4:01Now, why should it be so humbling?
- 4:03Why is the fact that I can make mistakes so humbling?
- 4:06Because it means there's a lot of truth out there that you
- 4:09don't know. There's a lot of facts out there
- 4:12that we don't know if the the greater the learned person, the
- 4:16more humble he is, the greater the person, the more the person
- 4:19learns, the more he becomes humble.
- 4:21I've seen this. Why?
- 4:22Because the more they realize there's a sea of knowledge that
- 4:25they have no clue about. Because the world out there, the
- 4:28arrogant person, you sometimes find people.
- 4:31I've found this out there someone you know, you know.
- 4:34There are certain people in the community think are
- 4:35knowledgeable. If the guy is knowledgeable
- 4:38enough, he's actually knowledgeable to all I'd say,
- 4:41right? Such a person.
- 4:43He's actually running a great risk.
- 4:45He's running a great risk because if he's just enough
- 4:47knowledgeable that he can hold the conversation, that's the
- 4:51worst because there he believes he has every answer and he
- 4:54believes he knows he was talking about.
- 4:56And then that person is not willing to grow, is not willing
- 5:01to learn more with the person who's a drop further than that
- 5:03point, he becomes thirsty for more knowledge and he's aware.
- 5:07And no matter who you are, I'm talking about the greatest God,
- 5:10Dole. Just, you know, you only know
- 5:12the tip of iceberg. The greatest God, Dole, only
- 5:15knows the tip of the iceberg. And that's not disparaging him.
- 5:18That's the reality. Because Torah is greater than
- 5:21the sea. Exactly.
- 5:24It's endless, it's infinite, and every person has to realize
- 5:27that. And that's not meant to
- 5:29demoralize a person or to break a person down.
- 5:31It's meant to make you aware that there's a lot more to go.
- 5:34No matter where you're holding, there's so much more to go.
- 5:37And that's not a discovering point.
- 5:38It's an encouraging point, but it's all humbling.
- 5:40Every year we learn the same part of SHA, but we learn
- 5:44exactly everything that you've got, everything.
- 5:46You reanalyze every topic, the topic that you came around.
- 5:50I told you this point years ago. I I sat down since Friday night
- 5:54class years ago, sat down with I had like one of these epiphanes
- 5:58and I sat down. I wrote down in short and all
- 6:02this I learned like many sigurt A1 liner, this topic translated
- 6:09like this, that topic like this sat up like this.
- 6:11I went to my friend. I thought I was very proud of
- 6:13myself. I told him what I did.
- 6:15He says RIP it up. I said RIP it up.
- 6:17He said RIP it up. He's because you're going to
- 6:19think you know that you know of these topics and just having a
- 6:22one line on the topic to shape it up.
- 6:24It's very nice, but it gives you a sense of as if you address to
- 6:28each topic that you learn. You have to live it.
- 6:30You have to learn that you have to put months into it and you
- 6:32can't just write a one line or even if there's a reflection,
- 6:35even if you did the months years ago doesn't make a difference.
- 6:37You have to live it and you have to realize that there's so much
- 6:41that you don't know. And he's right.
- 6:42And we have to be able to be aware.
- 6:44And whenever someone tells us ha, ha, ha, a topic, whether it
- 6:48be in Torah and halacha and learning.
- 6:50And by the way, it's true in business as well.
- 6:53If you have a guy that comes into your company, you know
- 6:55this, and I know this the worst. A guy that comes into your
- 6:58company and you start talking and he's.
- 7:00Oh, yeah, yeah, you do this. Oh, yeah, you do that.
- 7:03You know what you're telling. Rocky, sit down.
- 7:06Let me paint. Dail works.
- 7:07I've been in this company for 20 years, OK?
- 7:10It takes time. Even if you think you know, you
- 7:13don't know the first thing. You don't have the experience,
- 7:15you know the knowledge. Just sit down and learn.
- 7:18And the more the guy's a learner, the more you like him.
- 7:22You may like the initial knowledge that he has that
- 7:24sounds good, but that does nothing for you.
- 7:26Because if he has the belief that he knows it's a cap on how
- 7:31much you. Know me not to get political,
- 7:33but it's yeah, that's. One of my issues, yes, yes, yes.
- 7:36That's my challenge to that, if people don't.
- 7:39Ask the guy question yes or not. Right, if you learn to adopt for
- 7:41that purpose, to believe. Oh, someone says my my son came
- 7:45to me and he says, Dad, did you ever finish ours?
- 7:48I said no. Right.
- 7:50I know I never finished us. OK, I was on par.
- 7:52And then I whatever. I But that's you too.
- 7:57Don't beat me down too much, but it's fine.
- 7:59So I told him that I finished us.
- 8:04He's like, what do you mean someone's gonna finish ours a
- 8:06couple of times. All right, tell me an uncle.
- 8:08Whatever finished ours a couple of Times Now I don't want to
- 8:11aspire as that person except what they're doing.
- 8:13Dafio me, it's a different thing.
- 8:15So now I didn't explain it to a kid.
- 8:16You can't really explain it to a kid.
- 8:17But the truth is there's that DAF is a beautiful thing.
- 8:21If it's learnt as a review or as AI want to touch everything, you
- 8:26touch everything, but it's not meant to be a knowledge of
- 8:29everything. Absolutely not it's not.
- 8:30Oh, so and so he's about key and shots.
- 8:32No, he's not. Here's the guy who went through
- 8:34shots. Doesn't doesn't count for that
- 8:36right. And that's true of that topic.
- 8:38That's true. And any topic, if someone is,
- 8:41they do the clip notes on a topic, right.
- 8:43Oh, I know that. I, I, I went through that and I,
- 8:46I sat down, I read a book on it. I know it.
- 8:48You don't know it, you don't live it, you don't put your time
- 8:50into it. You don't know it.
- 8:51And the more a person realizes, and the only touching the tip of
- 8:57the iceberg in any topic of knowledge, whether it be Torah,
- 9:02an ear of Torah, Halaha, business, different areas of
- 9:06business life, marriage, raising children, how to deal with
- 9:11people, any of these topics, If we claim to know before we put
- 9:15in the years, we're fooling ourselves and we're being
- 9:18arrogant, that's for sure. Because you hold the
- 9:20conversation with someone as if you know.
- 9:22All right? If you have a person that knows
- 9:24everything about every topic, he knows nothing because no one
- 9:26knows everything about every topic.
- 9:28They don't have enough years in life.
- 9:29No, everyone has their expertise, but no one knows
- 9:32everything about every topic. Few people I know, at least not
- 9:35everything about all topics. What they're doing is that
- 9:37they're very good at catching on, they're very good at
- 9:42talking, They can put on a very nice show, but they're not
- 9:46knowledgeable in all these areas, even though they make it
- 9:48like they are. And they run the risk of lacking
- 9:51the humility now. So why is humility so
- 9:53significant when it comes to knowledge?
- 9:55Humility is so important to knowledge because if you're not
- 9:59humble, you're not open to learning.
- 10:01If you're not humble, you're not recognizing that there's so much
- 10:04more. Right now you've sketched
- 10:05yourself down, you know, and then you'll never know it.
- 10:07I'm done. So the minute you stop there,
- 10:10you don't know it all is when you're starting to learn.
- 10:13You open up the door when you're OK being not knowledgeable in a
- 10:17certain area. If you're fine saying in every
- 10:20area of life, if you're fine saying, I never learned that.
- 10:22I never learned that myself. I have to learn, right?
- 10:26I never knew that topic in halacha.
- 10:29I'm not going to make it like I know because I went outside the
- 10:31class. I have learned I don't know, you
- 10:34know, there's a new world out there at AI, whatever it is, and
- 10:37you're in business. And he said, I don't know it.
- 10:39Instead of giving the, you know, the new jerk reaction.
- 10:41I know it. I know, I, I, I saw two things.
- 10:43I know, I don't know. I have no idea how it works.
- 10:46And I delve into it now 'cause I want to learn.
- 10:49That guy wants to learn everything is the best.
- 10:52That guy who thinks he knows everything is literally in this
- 10:54topic the worst 'cause he has a cat.
- 10:57It cop is placed on your mind by your mind when you say you know
- 11:02it. When you think you know it, you
- 11:04do not have the thirst to learn and it stops you from being
- 11:07open. And it's one thing in Twitter,
- 11:10it's very bad in that area. Be sure it's very bad in
- 11:13business because the moment the person says I know it, I haven't
- 11:17worked out. They're not going to open up
- 11:20their knowledge to learning and it's very bad.
- 11:22Like I said, an apprentice comes on to the business.
- 11:25The first thing he has to know is I'm a learner and I'm here to
- 11:28experience. I want to I want to absorb, I
- 11:30want to be a sponge and I of course I want to feel like I
- 11:33know what I'm doing, but at the same time, I also want to feel
- 11:35like I'm going to climb that ladder.
- 11:38If they start off at the top of the ladder.
- 11:40There was a a concern of mine. There was a young man I'm Khan
- 11:46Barry and buy a Chevy Belohut. Remember the speech?
- 11:49I'm not going to say who was buy a Chevy Belohut, a teacher of
- 11:52his got up and said, you know that classic, classic anecdote
- 11:57of so and so that there were people who tried to climb the
- 12:01mountain and they put all the effort in.
- 12:03They put all that time in and they sweaty and they put they
- 12:07climb the mountain after months singing.
- 12:09In short, they get to the top of the mountain and see kids
- 12:11running around. Sure you've heard the C4.
- 12:14They see kids running around. They say, young men, how'd you
- 12:19get here? Like how you he little kids had
- 12:22to get it. They couldn't believe it.
- 12:23We put in so much time, so much effort, so much money.
- 12:25We sweat. We trained the gym and the kids
- 12:28said we were born on top of the mountain.
- 12:32All right, That's the classic thing.
- 12:34So I want to buy a chef at a Hut.
- 12:36And one of the teachers of this young man said, this kid, this
- 12:39Hatan, he was born on top of the mountain.
- 12:41In other words, he's been great since the beginning.
- 12:45OK, red flags right there. Red flags.
- 12:50That was the warning that this kid is in trouble because if he
- 12:55believes at 22 years old that he's born on top of the
- 12:58mountain, what's the rest of his life?
- 13:00What's the plan? All right, And you know what
- 13:04happened? I'm not going to say what
- 13:05happened, but it's been downhill since then from this kid, right?
- 13:09Because he never was told once by his parents, by his teachers,
- 13:14his rabbis, his school, he was never told.
- 13:17Young man, he had a lot of learning to do.
- 13:19They never told him that. Instead they let him believe he
- 13:22was born on top of the mountain and that was the risk to go
- 13:25downhill. Literally the best thing a
- 13:27person can do is be understand. Be smart enough to realize he
- 13:31doesn't know. It's the best state to be in.
- 13:34If you're smart enough to realize you don't know I have a
- 13:36lot to learn, Of course you. The one thing you want to be is
- 13:39a person. The greatest compliment in the
- 13:41Shiva world, it's a very strange compliment.
- 13:43The greatest compliment is not how much he knows.
- 13:48He knows how to learn. He's like, why is that a thing?
- 13:51He knows how to realize he has the tools.
- 13:54Eventually you got to learn. It's true.
- 13:56Eventually you have to actually learn.
- 13:57But knowing how to learn means you have the tools to develop,
- 14:01to learn, to absorb, to build, to grow.
- 14:04You want to know how to learn Every year I know how to learn a
- 14:07marriage. I know how to learn with
- 14:08children. I know how to learn when it
- 14:10comes to Gemara halaha, I know how to learn.
- 14:13It comes to life and business. I know how to learn.
- 14:16I know how to learn the things I don't know.
- 14:18That is the humility you need to have.
- 14:20It's not arrogance, humility, the humility to have to say I'm
- 14:24holding by point A, I got to get to point Z.
- 14:29But thank God I'm gifted with the fact that I have the tools.
- 14:33And by the way, every one of us with the minds that we have, we
- 14:36have the tools. That's not arrogance, that's
- 14:38just believing in Hashem. He gave me the tools.
- 14:41I have the tools, but I do not have the outcome yet.
- 14:45Thank God I don't because I want to live more years and I want
- 14:48more to get done. If I believe I'm done, I'm done.
- 14:51If I believe I have more to grow, I'm going to get there.
- 14:55So if I jump into that sea and I believe that the sea is very
- 14:58shallow because I already reached the whole sea, I'm in
- 15:00trouble. But if I jump into the sea and I
- 15:03believe that it's very deep, I'm going to dive in.
- 15:06But in all my effort, I'm going to swing through it.
- 15:08That's Lily's point. So humility in this area is
- 15:11fundamental, and the best thing to be is to be a Tamid Kaham.
- 15:18Why do we call a person Tamid Kaham?
- 15:20Smart enough to know what he doesn't know.
- 15:22Why don't you want to call him a Ha Ham Gadot Tamim means as a
- 15:26student. So and so he's a student.
- 15:30He's telling me about the great rabbi.
- 15:31He's a student. How about yourself?
- 15:33That's all as a student. What are you talking about?
- 15:35It broke a million books. Can't be a student.
- 15:38No, he's a student because he was aware throughout his life
- 15:42that there's more to know. I'll give you from from from
- 15:46personal clients. My father, when he came out to a
- 15:48new topic, he would jump into the topic and he just every,
- 15:52he's learning. If he was ha la vie say the
- 15:55topic, Ha vie say the topic of Tippin Kelly, the topic of bugs,
- 15:59whatever it was, the topic that he got involved in, excited
- 16:01about, he would dive into that topic.
- 16:04And he would buy every book on the topic.
- 16:06And he would go to rabbis in Israel on it and he would delve
- 16:09into it. And he would make you ask us
- 16:11questions if we knew more than in his mind, knew more than him
- 16:15on that topic. Just ask us if you know anything
- 16:17about it. Yeah, he's got anything on it.
- 16:19And that was a way of saying I'm diving in and I want to be, I
- 16:23want to be a learner. I want to be an apprentice, I
- 16:25want to be a student, I want to develop more.
- 16:28And if you're a Tamil Haram, you become a Haram.
- 16:31If you're a Haram to start, you become an arm audits.
- 16:35And it's one thing when it comes to learning, OK, We all learn on
- 16:37our level when it comes to life. If someone is not willing as a
- 16:41young husband, let's say for example, he's not willing to say
- 16:44I'm a learner. I know how marriage works.
- 16:47How you know, 'cause you saw your parents, you know nothing
- 16:49from seeing your parents. It's good to have the experience
- 16:52of your parents, but it doesn't mean you know you didn't see how
- 16:56they did it, You didn't see what they went through, you didn't
- 16:58see their development and you know what?
- 17:00You didn't see 2026. So you don't have experience
- 17:03from seeing your parents. You have something to start
- 17:05with. You're not the full thing.
- 17:07And any area I'm telling you, look in your work, when the kid
- 17:11comes in and he's a know it all, he is very quick to the exit.
- 17:16The kid comes in and he has knowledge, but he has the
- 17:19ability to listen. He's on his way to greatness.
- 17:22That's the reality. So he's telling us over here.
- 17:25A major element of humility is to be OK saying I don't know.
- 17:30The best thing to say is I don't know how about to learn?
- 17:33I feel like I know I've seen it. Maybe I can give my answer, but
- 17:37I don't really know. You tell me.
- 17:39Challenging, but like today. So you take a young rabbi, we're
- 17:43in a generation of AI answers, everything quicked and you go to
- 17:48young rabbi, right? Is small minion somewhere and
- 17:51you ask him a question, He's not sure now the right thing would
- 17:55be I'll get back to you, right. The people hate that.
- 17:59I'll get back to you. I need to know I'm I'm going to
- 18:02do it anywhere. If I saw you give me the answer
- 18:04or not. And now these rabbis are put in
- 18:07a position where they have to, they have to, you know, go
- 18:12against the grain a little bit. And it becomes like very
- 18:16difficult to, to really be true, like really have to build
- 18:20yourself to say, these are my parameters.
- 18:22This is how I operate and I'm not going to be bullied by the
- 18:26cloud. Yes, if you're if you're reason
- 18:29this is considered a topic of humility, why does it come with
- 18:32the humility because of that issue.
- 18:34And that is, is that people want us look very good.
- 18:38And if you're in the top in the position of a rabbi and your job
- 18:41is knowledge, right? And if you don't know what you
- 18:43are saying is you're 2% less Rabbi in a sense that's how you
- 18:47feel at least right. So now, if that's your
- 18:50situation, that's how you define, that's how you feel like
- 18:53you define, then you're running the risk based on the arrogance,
- 18:56amazing, the insecurity. You're running the risk of
- 18:58faking it like, you know, just so you continue feeling like
- 19:02you're deserved to be in the position that you're in.
- 19:04And that is a very dangerous and challenging position to be in.
- 19:07And it's far greater to say, I don't know even when you do
- 19:10know. And to say I do know when I
- 19:12don't know, understand, because if I say I don't know, if I get
- 19:16used to it, I'm not where I'm coming from.
- 19:18Heim Kanhaser of Heimanski Zazali was the rabbi, a doodle
- 19:21in the beginning of his book that we learned on Sundays.
- 19:23He talks about Emmet. And in that chapter of Emmet, he
- 19:28says to be a truthful person. Get used to saying I don't know.
- 19:31And even at times when you do know, the facts make it seem
- 19:36like you don't know everything, even you do.
- 19:38They get used to that track, he says.
- 19:40And he has a man who didn't know a lot, a lot, a lot.
- 19:43He could ask him any question in any of the dashes.
- 19:45Children could ask him how many letters are there in the Torah
- 19:49and how many pasukim, how many times it says the name Al Bayer.
- 19:52He can't see any of those types of questions.
- 19:54He was an encyclopedia, literally.
- 19:55And yet still he writes in the beginning of his book from his
- 19:58own personal advice. The best thing to do is get.
- 20:01He's saying I don't know even when you do know.
- 20:04That's more of a truthful person.
- 20:06Yes, a rabbi should be perfectly comfortable being who he is.
- 20:09If he's getting ahead by sketching who he is, he's
- 20:12running at great risk. He's running this risk.
- 20:14First of all. He's running the risk of
- 20:15arrogance. He's also running the risk of
- 20:17not learning and not developing. You're perfectly fine being who
- 20:21you are, by the way. People can see right through you
- 20:24anyway, so you can pull the sketch for a couple of years.
- 20:26People can see right through you.
- 20:27They know who you know, they don't.
- 20:28They know who you don't know and it's humility, development and
- 20:32growth. When someone is willing to say,
- 20:34I don't know, it's definitely a way of becoming who you want to
- 20:38become because your inexperience and that not in the topic allows
- 20:44you to be hungry and thirsty enough to learn and develop and
- 20:47grow. When I fake it like I already
- 20:50made it, how am I going to make it anymore?
- 20:52Right? When I I'm real with myself and
- 20:54I say, I don't know, I could develop.
- 20:57That's how important this humility is.
- 20:58No stop, baby.