Day 42 - The Eternal Struggle Between Body and Soul (Orchos Tzaddikim | Love 6)
00:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back, my dear friends, to day number 42. We're on page 241. V'zo y'er ha'shemayim. And this is fear of heaven. We spoke about this yesterday in day 41, that the body and the soul are two opposites that are placed together in this world, where the soul only desires a closeness to Hashem's divine light and the body only desires the physical pleasures of this world, and that is a contradiction to one another. We are humans. Humans are a contradiction between body and soul, holiness and earthliness. You know, it's an amazing thing.
00:46
What did God create in the beginning of creation? The first verse in the Torah. And in the beginning, hashem created the heaven, the spiritual, the lofty, and the earth, the physical, the materialistic Right. In the beginning of creation. We see that there's always gonna be this struggle of the physical and the materialistic Right. In the beginning of creation, we see that there's always going to be this struggle of the physical and the spiritual, the heavens and the earth. Which one are we going to choose? So now, what is Yerushalayim? What is fear of heaven? Shalot Tavor, alma, shikos of the Torah.
01:20
Be careful not to transgress from what is written in the Torah. Ve'o'ava k'gon pin. Be careful not to transgress from what is written in the Torah. What is love Like that? We see from Pinchas that he gave his life for the sake of the Almighty, and now Abraham, we see the same. I have lifted up my hand to the Almighty Hashem, the Possessor of Heaven and Earth, that I will take nothing from a thread until a shoestring, nor shall I take of anything that is yours, so that you will not say I have made Avram rich. We know from Elisha that he did not want to take anything from Naaman and that love prevents a man from forsaking Torah study for the pleasure or the games of his youth, or or now we're talking about things that he has to limit himself, which is, the pleasures or the games of his youth, or for the love of gazing at women or wasteful conversation, and he will also give up unnecessary excursions and he will sing songs to fill his heart with joy in the love of Hashem.
03:19
Haoved me'ava osik ba'torah v'mitzvahs v'holach b'nesivas ha'chochmah. Someone who serves Hashem properly is always studying Torah, always fulfilling the mitzvahs and going in the ways of the wise. Lo mipnei dover, sheba'olam ve'lo mipnei y and going in the ways of the wise. He's not doing it because he's afraid of anything and not because he wants reward. He follows the ways of truth, the ways of righteousness, the right way, because it's the right thing to do. And it happens to be that, at the end, the ways of righteousness, the right way because it's the right thing to do, v'sofa tov lava v'glola, and it happens to be that, at the end, you'll be rewarded immensely for it.
04:00
V'mala zu hi mala gdolam ma'od. And this is a very, very elevated level for a person to live his life on. Ve'ein kol chocham zohala, and not every wise person is able to attain this. V'hi malas avram avino. This was the great quality of Abraham shakur. Ha'kodesh boruchu. God called Abraham. Oh Avi, my beloved, he became a beloved to the Almighty. That's how high of a level he reached.
04:29
V'fi shaloh avad el miyava. Everything he did was out of love for Hashem. V'hi ha'malo shatsivolo bo ha'. Everything he did was out of love for Hashem. And this is the quality that the Almighty sent through his messenger, moshe, telling us in the Torah your God, with all of your hearts, with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your might, with all of your strength, with all of your abilities, with all of your means, everything that you have, when a person loves God properly, then everything that you do you'll do out of love. When someone loves their spouse, they don't buy them flowers out of guilt. They buy it out of love. Everything they do, they do it out of love.
05:29
What is the proper love? Who is to love Hashem with a great proper love? Who, sh'yoav es Hashem, ava g'dol, is to love Hashem with a great, abundant love? Azam od a wild love, a passionate love At she tehei nav shokshur ba'avas.
05:45
Hashem is baruch till his soul is tied up in the love for Hashem. Ve'nim t'shoshog ebo tamid, and he, and he will be driven by it constantly, like he is madly in love with the Almighty. He's going mad from his love from Hashem. He's crazy about Hashem. It's like someone who's crazy about a woman, someone who's crazy in love, and he can't think otherwise. When he's eating, when he's drinking, when he's sleeping, when he's arising, his mind is on that thought of that love. Even greater than that love, yoser mizetia avas Hashem baruch hu b'lev ohavav Even greater than that obsession of human love is that of the love of Hashem. When a person loves Hashem appropriately, the love is even crazier than the love for another human being, like it says in the verse b'chol uvav cho v'chonav shchol, with all your heart and with all your soul. This is what King Solomon said with the parable, because I am sickly in love with you. All of the song of songs is a parable to this. That concludes day number 42,. My dear friends and I look forward to resuming with day 43.
