Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:03 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back everybody, welcome back to the Musser Masterclass, musser Mondays. It is so wonderful to be here with all y'all and to study today the gate of laziness. We're in the Orchid Siddiquim Ways of the Righteous in the Treasure for Life edition, on page 543, the 16th gate laziness. What is laziness? We all have an idea of what laziness is, and now the author here, the Orchid Siddiquim, is going to elaborate more on this awful trait, really terrible trait of laziness. Okay, so what is laziness? Ha'atzlusi mida ra'o me'oid. Laziness is an extremely bad trait. Mi shezoz ha'mida goverisolov, whoever, this trait overpowers them. Inyonav mikul kolim me'oid. Ba'olam azeh u'ba'olam abo. However, this trait overpowers them.

01:15
The defectiveness, the deficiencies are not only in this world but also in the world to come. And about such a person, king Solomon, of blessed memory, said I'll stay. What does this verse say? I passed by the field of a lazy man and by the vineyard of a man lacking understanding, and behold, it was of a man lacking understanding. And behold, it was all filled with thorns, its face was covered with sharp grass and its stone wall was broken down. What does this mean? Dima chachmas atzel, izdey ish atzel.

02:01
He compares a lazy person's wisdom to a lazy man's field. It's not enough that he does not yield produce properly, but he also does not work it, but also it gives forth defective things. Eleme gadolav tvarim gruim has defective things, kigon charulim v'kim shonim, like sharp grass and thorns which spoil the produce. So not only does it produce something good, it produces something bad, something harmful, because he didn't properly maximize his field, cultivate his field, and even if he labored in his field until it did yield produce, his laziness would cause him to lose it. For the stone wall is broken down and since he is remiss and does not repair it, animals and thieves enter it and take everything and it says Its stone wall was broken down and even though a stone wall is very strong, it fell because of his laziness. And because of his laziness, the wall fell down when it had cracks, when it had flaws. It didn't fix it before it completely fell down. He says the same exact thing, this parable that King Solomon writes about in Proverbs.

04:04
This is exactly what happens to a person in their service of Hashem, in their Torah, in their mitzvahs. Someone who's lazy, loves to relax and take it easy. When we talk, then what happens as a result? The mitzvahs become more difficult upon them and the study of Torah. It becomes a difficult, burdensome task and they run away from the study hall to a place of rest and when they're sitting in the synagogue, they're sleeping. The result of laziness is deep sleep, because laziness introduces sleep into the nature of a person. Yikvar, here's Yishlam HaMelech, and King Solomon already warned us about this. Me'at Sheinas, me'at Tsunumos, me'at Chibuk, yedayim Lishkoff A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.

05:21
What happens If you start getting lazy? It becomes a lot of sleep, it becomes a lot of you know, he warns us. He says no, no, no, don't sleep too much. You sleep, you're going to start liking it, you're going to start getting lazy, you're going to start taking it too easy, and then you will lose tremendous opportunities to accomplish great things, great things. It's not enough that this lazy person will not attain great wisdom in Torah, since he doesn't study Torah properly, but because of his laziness he conjures up illogical ideas, illogical concepts that are incongruent with that of Torah. So he starts bending things because he's lazy to think it through and to work it through and to understand it properly. What is he going to say? He's going to rationalize, he's going to say it is good that the body rests so that it will be strong. A strong man can do more than a weak man. And you know he keeps on giving this excuse that more and more, excusing the laziness, that it is a good thing for him. And we know that it's not a good thing for him. It'll do terrible damage because he will not be able to understand, to accomplish and to fulfill his days with goodness he also. And then what happens? He starts listening to idle chatter, he starts listening to nonsense. He says you know the excuses that come when someone doesn't want to learn, doesn't want to grow. He says what do you mean? Because you think you know, I'll just tell you, because it's current events. Current events is Purim. Purim is in less than two weeks. A week and a half is Purim, next Thursday is the fast of Esther and on Friday is the holiday of Purim. It's going to be difficult because it's right before Shabbos.

07:58
So what happened with the people who argued with Mordecai? Mordecai said don't go to the party of Haman. You know how they twisted it. Thei said don't go to the party of Haman. You know how they twisted it. The people who wanted to go party by the party of Haman. They said you think Mordecai's the righteous, we're the righteous. You think we want to be here? We just want to make peace with our government, we just want to find a way for us to work together. So we're the righteous ones. They twisted it People who have this laziness like to twist things that the good person is bad, the bad person is good.

08:45
Everything is upside down on its head. It could be that it is true that rest will help you get stronger and laughter is healthy for the body. So you know, anybody who has the Reader's Digest in the past 50 years remembers there's a section there that laughter is the best medicine. So now the person who's lazy is going to say why should I be serious in my work? Why should I be serious in my study of Torah and doing mitzvot? You know, laughter is the best medicine. Even Reader's Digest said that. So then I should invest my life in laughter because it's a good thing, right? So what happens? They invest in that and it takes away from all of the fulfillment of their life, because all they're doing is laughing and mocking and being filled with jest.

09:43
So all of this that we said is with respect to a zealous person, someone who has alacrity, someone who runs to go do good things. Such a person occupies himself with Torah study, as he should, for a man's power is not the power of stone, nor are his bones made of copper, that he can labor constantly. You know your air conditioner can work constantly. It can be on 24 hours a day. It may not be good every once in a while give it rest, but it can handle it. We cannot. We're not made out of copper, we can't. Yeah, we need to rest.

10:21
But don't fall into the argument that by mistake you start saying and justifying you know, it's a good thing to sleep. You should sleep as much as you can. Just sleep, it's fine. No right, sleep, it has its merits. But don't allow sleep to take you over, because when you do so, it's going to completely consume you and remove you from the ability to accomplish.

10:46
The lazy person is always looking for excuses to not get things done. He says there's a rule, a fundamental principle, and that is, the lazy man will rationalize everything in accordance with his laziness. That's the result of laziness Everything. I didn't come, but you know, it's a good thing I didn't come. It's a good thing I didn't go to the meeting. It's a good thing, because you know, we all know meetings are a waste of time anyway. And they start, they justify everything that they don't do. That it was a good thing, or it was like I thought this through in advance. No, no, no, no, no. You're lazy. You know you're lazy, and that's a very, very challenging thing for an individual to live their life with laziness, because they don't accomplish, they don't get things done as they should and they lose tremendous opportunities for success. So this concludes day number 92. Now we're going to continue with day number 93.

12:03 - Intro (Announcement)
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