Latest / Rabbi Moshe Haber - Daily Mussar/Weekly Perasha / Rabbi Moshe Haber Path of the Just- Mastering Contentment Amidst Community Life 8.4.25
Transcript
- 0:01It's called pretty shoot, so it sounds high and above our level,
- 0:07but these two points, I think actually I'm going to ask you
- 0:11how to address these two. Number one is that he writes on
- 0:17page three O 3, which we started last week.
- 0:21Is that one of the big ways that takes the you know, takes the
- 0:24person down from being Portage makes unable to like we said,
- 0:29whatever push means, it means having control.
- 0:31It means developing yourself on your own, not being pulled in.
- 0:34One of the big items is who's your company?
- 0:37Which means thank you. Who who do you consider your
- 0:40company? If you spend time what he says
- 0:43is the noble people and people of high society who are chasing
- 0:47Cavoli than chasing have a possession of physical things.
- 0:53It's very hard. These are the worthy rights in
- 0:56the middle of page three or three cubed or torti Cara ubag
- 0:59dulahi or you see people with all their extravagance and all
- 1:04the operas of their lifestyle. EF Shah deserves words.
- 1:08It's impossible. Shalo to torreira, tava to Bola
- 1:12hamoda time. I will not have a desire to be
- 1:16like them and to covet these same items.
- 1:20And even if you do not allow you to overcome you, there's no
- 1:24chance you're not facing a fight.
- 1:27I'll call Bani Medema Kamali in Malet.
- 1:29You are definitely involving yourself in risk and Sakana in
- 1:33these areas. Being new with Sakana, that's
- 1:36what he brings. That was on page three O 3 and
- 1:37three. We turned to page three O 4.
- 1:39So it's the concept. The concept is very simple.
- 1:41What I see. This is not simply what we dealt
- 1:44with in the beginning of last week.
- 1:46Advertisements and all the attraction out there that pulls
- 1:50us in. This is much more close to home,
- 1:53and this is if you surround yourself, if you connect
- 1:56yourself to people of this type of society, people of this type
- 2:00of mindset, people who live very well off and are very invested
- 2:04in material things. No matter what, we're tempted,
- 2:08our children are tempted, we're pulled in.
- 2:10So my question is simple question, how do you avoid this?
- 2:14We grow up in this community. We all know.
- 2:16We know we all live around these people.
- 2:18We all know. I know that my children only ask
- 2:21for the things that they see. They never ask for things they
- 2:23don't see and they only ask the things that they see.
- 2:25In fact, when they ask me something that's random, I
- 2:29usually try to find out what they see today, who they see
- 2:31today, The guy asking for the most, you know, out of the blue
- 2:35items, and it's coming from the fact they saw someone else.
- 2:39If this is a reality for kids, it's reality of us as well.
- 2:42We are tempted by the world that we see.
- 2:45We don't feel bad, ever, but not having something, we don't know
- 2:49that it exists. Once you know that it exists,
- 2:52you feel better for not having. In fact, what is most of us, by
- 2:57the Hashem, are living decent lives, good lives.
- 2:59What are our parameters of what makes us feel bad that we're
- 3:02missing out on something, something that someone else has?
- 3:05The basic this is not the attraction of advertising and
- 3:08all the other glitz and glamour and color that pulls us in.
- 3:12That's one thing we have to deal with that we have to tell
- 3:14ourselves easily. That's a fake world to deal with
- 3:18all the attraction of the world around us.
- 3:19It's on our phone that's in like we said on TV and what we see
- 3:24now, you simply say, OK, that's a fake world.
- 3:26That's a world of demean. It's it's just all fake anyhow.
- 3:29No one has that lifestyle, the lifestyle they're showing you
- 3:32over there. No one has hit do.
- 3:33It you know Someone Like You, let's say if they're talking
- 3:36about Jeff Bezos or he has something it doesn't, you don't
- 3:39want it because you keep it's not possible.
- 3:41Right, exactly. But like your neighbor.
- 3:43Problem here is you. See like you, like yourself,
- 3:47that guy could. That's the problem.
- 3:48The problem is when kids like my kids see their cousins or see
- 3:53kids in the same class have certain things they don't.
- 3:56They don't care what kids different than them have.
- 3:59They care what people that like them have.
- 4:01And saying that it's true, like you just said, our neighbors,
- 4:04our friends, our siblings, our community members, people in the
- 4:09same class as us have things that we want.
- 4:13It's much more difficult to get around.
- 4:15We said last week, or was that one point?
- 4:18If a person is, let's say moves into the blackout class or this
- 4:24type of class, or they go whatever class you move into,
- 4:28you help yourself in this way. You separate in your mind
- 4:32somewhat the need to be like the Joneses because you're Joneses
- 4:35are no longer the Joneses. You'll join us now.
- 4:38You have your own things that you want to have.
- 4:40You want to have the most expensive this, so the best that
- 4:43it's its own world, understood? Every class has its attraction
- 4:47and has the things that people want.
- 4:48But the moment you step aside or you step away from that group,
- 4:53you've just separated yourself from all the lifestyle that
- 4:57those people have and all the attractions people have.
- 5:00OK, It's actually a very creative move.
- 5:03If you want to get out of these certain attraction is to move
- 5:05into a different class, but we can't.
- 5:08We live in our community. We want to be a part of our
- 5:10community. We want to go to weddings, We
- 5:11want to be involved while our kids to be friends to everyone.
- 5:14So this is the probably the most challenging thing we have.
- 5:16How do you deal with this? This is pretty shoot.
- 5:20How do you deal with this? How do you tell your kids?
- 5:23We I know they have what they have.
- 5:25We're not exactly like them. Just because you see what
- 5:28someone else has, it doesn't mean to have it.
- 5:31I don't know the answer personally.
- 5:33He's telling you. He's telling you his own answer.
- 5:36He's telling you so long as a person hangs out with those
- 5:40people, considers himself a part and a member of that group, he
- 5:45is facing a great challenge. And this is actually a reality
- 5:48that any member of this community has to accept, has to
- 5:51actually build his children up in a much stronger and himself
- 5:55up by the way, in a much stronger way than a child to go.
- 5:59I'll give you the perfect example.
- 6:00I grew up in Deal, OK, and being that I grew up in Deal, do
- 6:05resent of this. Literally, I grew up in Deal.
- 6:08I went to Lakewood schools, so no kids in Deal, literally no
- 6:11kids that I associated with and the kids in Lakewood were from
- 6:15different worlds. So I had none of this.
- 6:17There was no interesting as the Joneses.
- 6:19There's nothing literally tell you the truth.
- 6:21There's nothing that I wanted from what someone else?
- 6:24Had huh? Same thing pretty much, you
- 6:27know, but the point is there's nothing that we wanted.
- 6:31Why? I was I was I I grew up with
- 6:33hand me downs no problem at all. It didn't matter to me at all.
- 6:38I wore amidons no problem. They were actually shop.
- 6:42In fact, my amidons are so impressive that I went to
- 6:45Lakewood and I'm wearing these clothing from some other my
- 6:47father's cousin or something. I felt rich because I'm wearing
- 6:50sharp clothing. Even though amidons there was
- 6:53nothing. It was zeroed.
- 6:54I remember the only thing I didn't want.
- 6:56This is sound weird. My parents, I would then floor
- 7:01in the house, it was very scratched.
- 7:03It was wood floor was very, very scratched.
- 7:06And it bothered me a lot like crazy to the point that I
- 7:10actually asked my mother if she was OK with this, if she's OK if
- 7:14I do over the floor. And I actually on my own hands,
- 7:18I sanded the wood floor at my parents den and I read whatever
- 7:21you call the word shellac, whatever it is, I redid the wood
- 7:24floor because that's the one thing that I had seen in someone
- 7:27else's house and that's the one thing that bothered me.
- 7:29I remember her house that I saw it in and in the wood floor
- 7:31looks so good. And I want to.
- 7:33I can imagine living in this house, scratch floor all over
- 7:35the place. It bother me like crazy.
- 7:37I'm gonna let me do this. My point is, I grew up in a
- 7:40world literally where there's nothing.
- 7:41I didn't see anything. How old are you in need of
- 7:43these? This is 1011 years old in that
- 7:45range. OK, imagine.
- 7:48But the fact that I'm not allowed to shock her, but OK.
- 7:51But we had not to say we leave to know in in 1940s we didn't.
- 7:56We lived in the real world. But it was nothing to see.
- 7:59I didn't see anything. And therefore I don't want
- 8:01anything. And all the time I see my kids
- 8:03and I see what they want and they ask for and it's not their
- 8:06fault. You see something.
- 8:08Someone's always like you. And then the parents that hold
- 8:12them back actually are very mean.
- 8:14If you do this the wrong way, if you control your kids in this
- 8:17area the wrong way, it's not worth it because it actually
- 8:21becomes very, very tough on your children because they don't
- 8:25understand the why. They can't really get why.
- 8:28And instead they just feel controlled and they feel upset
- 8:31and they're actually resent. This is actually a very delicate
- 8:34area. I need to know the answer.
- 8:35I don't know the answer. What is the answer to this
- 8:38approach? We live in a community.
- 8:40Our children have cousins, they have friends, we have people we
- 8:43know. We all grow up the same.
- 8:45We all live around people. We see everything.
- 8:47Everything that's good is in front of our eyes.
- 8:50How do you figure out a way to be poresh, to separate yourself
- 8:54from any of these areas? Going to Misali Shahim, you're
- 8:57in the Sakana zone. I don't think that this item,
- 9:01now the book, is finally pushing us into a corner.
- 9:05All the other ones seem like it had a very logic explanation,
- 9:09but this one is basically telling you it's a real life.
- 9:13So the only thing that came from my mind was he was asking the
- 9:15question is if a person has gratitude for everything that he
- 9:21has. Early in life and.
- 9:24Then things other people have don't weigh on them as much.
- 9:28OK. Fine.
- 9:30So you're saying the jealous the the jealous approach as natural
- 9:34when you see what other people have, right, Some more changes.
- 9:36Well. When you are pretty here like
- 9:38you said with the hand me downs right?
- 9:40How you especially you felt about?
- 9:41Them I tell you why they were Prada pants, right?
- 9:44OK. And I felt wealthy wearing Prada
- 9:46pants even though they were my my mother's cousins.
- 9:49Whatever my my father's cousins kids pants.
- 9:51But I'm sure even the pair that wasn't Prada made you feel good
- 9:53too. And and that that that all comes
- 9:57from teaching gratitude as a young kid where nothing is
- 10:00coming to you. You don't assume anything.
- 10:02You know you're grateful for everything you get.
- 10:05Therefore you're not that kid that's going to be as I'm not
- 10:09saying it, but still going to it could still get you.
- 10:12But when you have no gratitude for anything, but everything out
- 10:16there is going to bother you and get to you, and you want it.
- 10:20So you're saying a very, I think it's very broad point and very
- 10:24exact point over here, which is saying that normally to rid
- 10:29ourselves in these attractions, temptations, polls, we have to
- 10:32cut away. We can't.
- 10:35The reality is we don't recommend.
- 10:37No one recommends. He's going to tell you himself
- 10:39besides him in the next page of three O 5 actually, that I don't
- 10:42recommend someone doing any of these things too drastic, too
- 10:45extreme. And you and I both know all the
- 10:47extreme people didn't work out for them.
- 10:49So anyone who takes this method to too strong of a way, it's
- 10:53actually unhealthy, it's dangerous and it's over
- 10:55controlling. And really what it is, is we're
- 10:57not being fair to our children because if we with them, we'd
- 11:00want what they want. So we're just adults.
- 11:02We don't care as much. So we hold them back and say
- 11:04it's a mitzvah. That's not fair.
- 11:06It's right. It's literally the reality.
- 11:08And instead they have to find a way, which is what you're saying
- 11:12to strengthen from within. We're going to say yes, we're
- 11:15going to go to that birthday party and it's going to be
- 11:17insane. We're going to go to up on
- 11:18Mitzrah and that kids going to have something wild and you're
- 11:21going to see that you don't want it.
- 11:23We have to somehow figure out a way to make our children
- 11:25stronger, as we are saying, which is build them up from
- 11:29within. Give them a sense of gratitude
- 11:31and understanding and appreciation and recognition of
- 11:34what life's about and all those things and the hope and the
- 11:37prayer is at one point it's going to click.
- 11:39That's the best of course show. The kids who looking with envy,
- 11:43he has things that are great that the kids who's getting this
- 11:46item doesn't have, whether it's. That's a short.
- 11:49Father, bring him somewhere. It's.
- 11:52That's part of my question, is that the right approach, which
- 11:54is, you know, people tell other people, you know those people,
- 11:57you see their house gorgeous, you know what's going on in
- 11:59their house, you know what kind of issues they have and stuff
- 12:01like that, which is, by the way, true big percentage of the time.
- 12:05Is that the right approach? You don't build the person like
- 12:08that. It might put out the little
- 12:09fire, but you're not changing the character of the child.
- 12:13So the idea is to strengthen them from within, to build them
- 12:16up, and to prepare them for this Mahama that every single child
- 12:20in our community has to face, and every adult the same thing.
- 12:24You're looking at people, you're seeing people, you're seeing
- 12:26these things. And we get to a point where all
- 12:28of us here by now are at a point, or we're just grateful
- 12:32for another good day. And we're thrilled we don't have
- 12:34to deal with certain headaches and all the things that people
- 12:37face, we're just happy not to face them.
- 12:39Forget about the big, beautiful home.
- 12:42I want it. Yeah.
- 12:43Do I like it? Sure.
- 12:44But does it mean that much to me?
- 12:46No, because I'm much more thankful for a very beautiful,
- 12:50healthy, happy life. I see enough out there to be top
- 12:54of the gratitude. And that's the way to build
- 12:55yourself up. I like that minds.
- 12:57I would say someone has a big house like God bless them and
- 13:01you put into a positive. God bless, I'm sure.
- 13:03But yeah, but I'm not, I'm not going to chase them in my life
- 13:06if God bless them. And that's the mindset.
- 13:08I'm still going to be someone in my eyes always seeing that.
- 13:10And what's going to happen is I don't enjoy the moment.
- 13:13I can't enjoy what I have. Family around the table, most
- 13:16beautiful thing out there. I'm not going to accept it or
- 13:19enjoy it because I'm thinking about the big house that so and
- 13:22so is building. And the reality is it sounds so
- 13:26silly, this type of topic. It's such a strong drive that
- 13:29people have and it's so hard to cut away from to figure out a
- 13:33way. Every person, by the way, has to
- 13:34develop their own method in this area.
- 13:36And if you don't, you will be pulled in one way or another.
- 13:39So you could say gratitude. You could say what David saying
- 13:41so and so is blessed. He's a mindsets.
- 13:43They weren't. Motivation is a good thing or a
- 13:45bad. Thing it's a bad thing if it
- 13:47destroys my car and happy life. That's the bad thing.
- 13:50Here we are. We're living our lives.
- 13:51They're all good and they're all for people.
- 13:55They can be taken away from them, the beauty of their life
- 13:58because it's something that doesn't exist, something that so
- 14:00and so has. That's a shame.
- 14:02You know if. You record a person, walk is
- 14:05talking about wanting all this stuff and you play it back on
- 14:08them. You know how?
- 14:09Embarrassing. Yeah, like.
- 14:11I can't believe what I just said.
- 14:12It's unbelievable, the chase thing that people do.
- 14:15It's something unbelievable. I know someone who built the
- 14:17house for like 2 or $3,000,000 that four or five years ago and
- 14:20someone on the block built the house.
- 14:22It's whatever, big or nice, whatever we want to call it now.
- 14:25The wife wants the husband I'm the house.
- 14:31And we think they're crazy. You're not.
- 14:32You're wrong. Right, like I, I, I didn't
- 14:34maximize my space or whatever. That's a shot, exactly.
- 14:37And I'm listening to this and it's like.
- 14:40By the way, I always think about who drive down the roads, blocks
- 14:43in Brooklyn and you see a house has been taken down to be, you
- 14:47know, who wants to be rebuilt. A lot of times you're seeing
- 14:49houses that are actually pretty good.
- 14:50Yeah. Being taken down.
- 14:52I think Haram and the the bricks and the building and all these
- 14:54things. It's a big shame.
- 14:56But then you say, OK, listen, they they bought a house.
- 14:58They put a lot of money into purchasing the house.
- 15:00They want to build a beauty and they want their own.
- 15:03Understandable. But there's a certain level of a
- 15:06drive. That's a shame because it takes
- 15:08away from life we live. That's normally that's actually
- 15:11very normal. Be a carbon.
- 15:13I call it for the Dutt. And he says this is the overall
- 15:17theme of this chapter. Pretty shoot is it's concept of
- 15:20it. For the Dutt, it probably means
- 15:22being alone. So we said this is not
- 15:25practical. You can't really, you know,
- 15:26you're not going out, you're not moving onto a field and living
- 15:29in a forest. You're not doing this, but you
- 15:31are, if you can, finding your own zone.
- 15:34This is something you need to have.
- 15:36You need to have a zone that you're in your own world a
- 15:39little bit your own element. Either that means you take walks
- 15:43or that means you think and appreciate your own life.
- 15:47Something that separates you from just looking and seeing and
- 15:50think what other people have. You have to hit his own where
- 15:53you are living your own life and enjoying it.
- 15:56Let's do the words and just try to apply that.
- 15:58Does he mean physically? He means physically being
- 16:01solitary, moving elsewhere. He means, you know, the, the
- 16:04Naveen used to go out for a minute or an hour or whatever it
- 16:06is, walk into the field and then they would have prophecy.
- 16:09All right, so that means moving elsewhere.
- 16:12But we all know it's very dangerous to move elsewhere.
- 16:14What it rather means is, like I said, take your own drive and
- 16:20think to yourself separate from what you saw and stop and think
- 16:25and appreciate and enjoy the world you have.
- 16:28That's what that's our modern day part.
- 16:30To do like he was, you know, because you went through a bad
- 16:33area lot and he was. With the destruction, so the
- 16:36idea is basically is going back to that bomb at that point when
- 16:39that bomb famously says the biggest thing, one of the
- 16:41biggest things that impacts a person's character development
- 16:44everything are his surroundings. So we have to find this art
- 16:48because we are very appreciative of the surroundings that we
- 16:51have, our community, the people we live amongst, it's all great.
- 16:56We also know that our surroundings are what takes us
- 16:58down. Our community is both the best
- 17:01influence and the worst influence at the same time.
- 17:03That's a reality. So what do you do about that?
- 17:05You have to find a balance of its portitude, which is I spend
- 17:10time alone, I think alone. You need to have your own zone.
- 17:14No one should be a copycat and no one should be a mirror image
- 17:19of the people around them. You need to be in your own
- 17:21strength and your own self. Yes, for a Navid, that meant
- 17:24going out to a field and standing alone.
- 17:27That's who Navi was. But for us, that means taking a
- 17:31drive, taking a walk, having a minute to think, looking at your
- 17:36own life and reflecting on life that you have and being
- 17:39appreciative of the life that you live.
- 17:41And that zone that you're in will be unique, independent,
- 17:44original, and I'll separate you from the world around you and
- 17:48from the minds of the world around you.
- 17:49And that's really the art and the dance of a member of our
- 17:52community. You need to be a big time
- 17:54member, someone who enjoys it all, was a part of it all, who
- 17:56goes to everything. But at the same time, someone
- 18:00who has a world where I'm separated, I think alone.
- 18:03My wife and I, we have our own unique developed character.
- 18:08That has to be how we build. If we build that, we kind of the
- 18:12best of both worlds. I read through the words that he
- 18:13says. Yeah.
- 18:14Carmen are called boy to do. The best thing is to separate
- 18:17Kimu King Kimura. She must see me.
- 18:19Enough in your name. Alam Ken ma vid hemda tamili Bo.
- 18:25The more you stop looking at things, the more you're going to
- 18:29want things the best way. If Mike is not the one a certain
- 18:32thing. If they don't see it, fine,
- 18:35that's awesome. But the problem is they do see
- 18:36it. I can't.
- 18:37I can't avoid that and I can't try to stop them from seeing him
- 18:42because there are a lot of other repercussions that I don't want.
- 18:44I want them to hang out with their cousins.
- 18:46I want them to enjoy the community that we have.
- 18:48I want them to go to that school.
- 18:50I want them to see what they see.
- 18:51So what then do I do this this type of mindset develop it for
- 18:55the dude in the mind. OK, about his kid.
- 18:58I've been a melek Allah Shalom. I would say besheba hit by the
- 19:01dud to Ahmad me Tanley everyday or not.
- 19:04He near Arhic Nidor. I liked, you know, separate and
- 19:11dwell in the mid bar. If I could fly away, that's what
- 19:16I would do. They would separate themselves.
- 19:23They would go to the fields and they would go to the mountains.
- 19:32The rabbos would follow Leah's footsteps.
- 19:36Kemat al ham ham Sai ayuted. They found the gated greatest
- 19:40way, greatest tool. Muhan leknot SU la muta pursuit
- 19:46ulla monastery. Lai ham le ham the greatest
- 19:51tool. To be Paresh is to be Paresh.
- 19:55Literally. Like we said, you can't do it, I
- 19:58can't do it. We're not moving to a different
- 20:00town. We're not separating, and we
- 20:02don't think it's good for us. So what are we doing instead?
- 20:05We're living amongst the people, we're separating our mind and
- 20:09saying just because I see that doesn't mean I want it.
- 20:12Am I in this fight? I am.
- 20:13I can't avoid the fight. There's no way to say let me be
- 20:17I move to a different city. It's not going to work for me.
- 20:20It's not healthy. Next chapter, you're right next
- 20:23to the line she writes, Don't do this all at once and don't jump.
- 20:26It's not healthy. I have to figure out how to have
- 20:29his boy, the dude in the mind, which is, I think alone.
- 20:33I live alone in my mind. I have my own approach.
- 20:36My family's got its own character, right?
- 20:39So normally you can do this by separating by us.
- 20:43I think you have to actually, you know, manually develop that
- 20:49important duty by telling your family we are our own.
- 20:53We do our own thing because because you see that, I can't
- 20:55stop what you see, but I can stop what you think from what
- 20:58you see because you see what they're doing.
- 21:01It doesn't mean we have to want it.
- 21:03It doesn't mean it's best for us.
- 21:04It doesn't mean that it's part of our life.
- 21:07We have our things, they have theirs, and have to build on
- 21:10that point to create it for the dude.
- 21:12That instead of being the simple, easy way which is
- 21:14separate from others, you live among others.
- 21:17Imagine a family. I don't know how this works.
- 21:19Imagine families are living among other people, three
- 21:23brother in laws living in the same house and deal.
- 21:24All right, they are. One guy is doing very well.
- 21:29The other guy is not doing so well.
- 21:31One guy's black idol was not. All right.
- 21:34Good luck. How does it work?
- 21:36Yeah. Someone has to move out
- 21:37eventually. Maybe that or you could, if you
- 21:39could figure out the art call a couple, that'd be amazing.
- 21:42I'm sure there's a challenge why they're not going to the pool,
- 21:46why they're allowed to go into the pool, why this, why that?
- 21:49How come they have a job call? How come not how would the wife
- 21:52tells her husband? How come so and so heck knows
- 21:54how to figure it out, you know, to make the money.
- 21:58We know the deal. We know it works.
- 22:00It's hurts, hurts, she says as she doesn't say it.
- 22:04She thinks it. She sees it with all the deal.
- 22:07Very, very, very hard. I don't know how a person
- 22:09handles it, but you have to figure out a way to develop a
- 22:11strength and you know, strength among you and your wife and your
- 22:15children. Literally, it's manual is a lot
- 22:19of work. It would have been easier this
- 22:20way. Just move to the field doesn't
- 22:23work for us. So instead, we need to do this,
- 22:26adopt the best of the community and cut out the impact of the
- 22:29community. We'll start.
- 22:32With this, they're kidding, their cousins saying.
- 22:34They're all. Fronts I have scrutiny.