Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back, my dear friends, to day number 35. Ha'ava shishis, what is the sixth misguided love? Hi'ava sakavod, and this is the love for honor. Ve'a ove sakavod, one who loves honor. Lo yiu ma'a sol eshem shamayim. He'll do anything just so that people will honor him.

00:20
Ki kol ha'mitzvot she'yaseh miten stoko yasek vatora, whether it, whether it be a mitzvah of giving charity or learning Torah or any other mitzvah, why is he doing it? He's doing it with the knowledge. Oh, people are looking, people are seeing, people are going to comment. They're going to praise me, they're going to give me honor, they're going to do something special for me. He's going to want them to give him glory, greatness and maybe even put a crown on his head. You know, and then you lose out all of the benefit of the mitzvah that you performed. Instead of this mitzvah elevating you, it only lowers you. Ve'afilu mi sh'yeish bo'torah v'masim tovim, and even someone who is filled with Torah and good deeds, ha'kavod motziyo min ha'olam. The desire, the misguided love for honor will remove him from this world, literally. Someone who has misguided love for honor will do silly things just for the attention, just for people to say wow about him. Kol shekein mi she'en bo torah masim tov m'rodivach rakobot, kamo masiv megunim. And definitely someone who's running after honor and isn't doing Torah and good deeds. At least someone who's doing Torah and good deeds okay. At least they're doing something proper. They're doing it for the wrong reason. Like we mentioned previously, we talked shalol ishma, bol ishma. Doing it non-altruistically will hopefully lead someone to do it altruistically, but someone who's just doing things for honor and not even in the realm of Torah and good deeds, kamo mas of megunim, how inappropriate Is such an action? Okay, now we're up to the seventh misguided love Yeish od avos shvis shehiro al kol avos.

02:25
This is the worst of all of the misguided loves the love for pleasures Indulgence, like eating, drinking and other pleasures, and other pleasures, like illicit behavior and excursions, traveling, vacations. We don't have to get into this too much. Like someone who loves wine and gets drunk constantly and is always eating gluttonously exotic foods and is always going to the pub, such a person will very easily forget his creator, because the verse says and you will eat and you will be satiated. And then what does it say? Hiyisham rolocho pen tishkach es Hashem. Be very cautious and be very careful, because you could forget your God. V'ochalto v'savoto. Hiyisham rolochem pen yivte levavchem v'sayto v'abadetem l? Be very, very careful lest you go after your heart and you go astray and turn and serve other gods, and we know.

03:51
The verse in Deuteronomy tells us be very careful, because Yishuran, the Jewish people, became fat. And what did they do? They kicked against God, they rebelled against God. When we become comfortable in our materialistic urges and desires, then what happens? We rebel against God.

04:17
Anybody who wants to escape the trap of these misguided loves needs great wisdom and much fortitude, lest you be entrapped in their corruptions, for all of these love encircle a man's heart, and if he manages to reject one or two of them from his midst, the others will still drive him from light to darkness. So so, therefore, it's important for us to learn to be with alacrity and watchful, and a watchfulness to ensure that we use all of these loves to go in the right way, to go in the ways of God. In all your ways, says King Solomon in Proverbs, know Hashem, meaning everything that you do, it's fine. You have a desire, you have a temptation, you have a love, know Hashem. You have to know Hashem in everything that you do. The love for your children will be in this way as well. You want to teach and guide your children to go in the proper way. You want to guide your children in the proper way. Avodas, hashem, baruch, hu ki'in yin shenema ov labonim yodia el amitecha. You want to guide your children in the proper way. V'ksiv ve'odatim l'vonecho l'vnei avonecha, as the verse states, you shall make them known to your children and to your children's children. V'kamoshenema b'avrom, as we see with Abraham, ki'odatim l'mana shi'itzave, as it says in Genesis.

06:41
So it's very important to realize, and this is a common theme that we see throughout the study of Musa, and that is first, is we can't be afraid of our negative traits. Don't be afraid. If you have a negative trait, it's fine, welcome. You're human.

06:54
Okay, we're all created with positive gifts, incredible talents, incredible positive traits, but we also have some rotten traits. And those rotten traits we can't push them aside and not notice them. We have to know that they're there, because the minute you identify it, the minute you recognize this is a trait that I possess and it's a negative one. Now you can start getting the tools to overcome them. In fact, I personally have seen that when I came face to face with one of my negative traits and I wrote it down. I wrote down this is one of my. It immediately gave me the tools to overcome it, because now I knew this is going to be a struggle for me and I'm going to need to overcome it and in doing so, just by identifying it, it constantly reminded me okay, you need to work on this, and this is something which is very, very important, I believe, for each and every one of us. So this concludes day number 35.