Rabbi Guy Matalon - Mesilat Yesharim - Quick Overview of Chapters 1-18

hi welcome to another session of path of the just messily sharing where we learn life skills to make us better people that's our motto what's the goal in life mashiach according to the ramachan as much pleasure as possible excellent to attain as much pleasure as possible yudah what would be the fastest way to attain pleasure the best way to attain pleasure in this world go to l.a right 20 year old blondes so the recall says the ultimate pleasure that we can seek is a connection to god that is the greatest pleasure that we can have the challenge for all of us is that we don't see it that way why because the body the yet cell tells us that we can express we can experience pleasure through the body right well the body pays you if you experience pleasure the body pays in cash pleasure that has to do with spirituality you don't get paid in cash you get a postpone check when does that come in hola that's the big difference so mashiach is absolutely right the goal of the ramchal is that we should seek to have as much pleasure as possible but you should have the greatest pleasure the greatest pleasure is your connection to god and the connection to hashem is proportional to our moral perfection the more we've completed or perfected our morality and our behavior the greater amount of pleasure that we see we feel when we connect the gap that's the basic perspective of missility sharing so the first moral perfection that you have to start working on he calls me the carefulness which means that you are going to pay very close attention before you act so that before you say something you'll actually think what if i say this what will be the implications if i do this what will happen and in that sense you will not come to break jewish law okay so that is the beginning is that you are going to evaluate what you do and how you do it and you will sort of control yourself so that you won't do the things that you're not allowed to do then comes midasrizut which is sort of quickness alacrity right that you don't get it's the opposite of procrastination that every when you have a thought of performing a mitzvah you get up and do it you don't sort of kill the spirit to do good so the first part is to cease doing bad then you start doing good then you begin working on the desires themselves the cute is cleanliness in the sense that you are removing the desires to sin right now you might have a desire to sin but as you work and get higher and higher and higher you should get to a level that you don't desire to sit anymore okay do you hear that i already brought you to this level i can prove it to you in the realm of sexual relations you don't desire to have relations anymore i'll give you an example are you attracted to grandma well i see cured there are some things that we all have there's no desire whatsoever because we know that that is not but if you think about it what's wrong with it but the idea is there are aspects of our desires that we have full control of i always give the example if a cop pulls you over you're going to be super nice to him yes officer no officer what seems to be the problem officer you're not going to tell the guy off are you why not correct so you so you have the ability to control your emotions you have an ability to work on the three worst moral negative traits which are haughtiness anger and jealousy i wish that all of us wouldn't be aware of where we're holding with with this negative moral character to so that we know what we actually need to fix i'm trying like it's difficult sometimes the openness comes to the center but melanie is always when i was sick i'm much more humble listen i think i think an aspect of humility is something that comes with age also the more experience you have the less cocky you are so guys you know who are young are very cocky you know they're like well after biddata nikith after we are able to remove our negative or our desires to sin and our those three negative moral qualities we enter a new realm so vendetta pre-shoot is where we we try to limit ourselves from areas that we know we have a problem so let's say i know that i have a problem when i go to the beach because i go to the wrong beaches so i will create a boundary around that so yes the torah allows me to go to the beach but it has to be a man only beach right because in the none if you go to a mixed beach there are other people who are not so dressed so appropriately right so we have to protect ourselves from that so you say well i have a problem when i ever go to the beach i you know the car just stops and i just roll off and i don't know what beach i am so then you can't go to the beach because you can't seem to control yourself tells us that there are several areas where you have to control with regard to arias which is women your eyes your ears your touch and your thoughts if you sit in the on the train in the train it's probably more correct as opposed to on the train it's a little tricky with the electrical lines you're sitting in the trains and comes a woman dressed as modest as ever with a baby carriage with her baby and she takes her ravkav and puts it against the thing and you're looking at her hand and you say wow what a beautiful hand you're over when you look at a woman's finger and then are enjoying her you are stealing that's not allowed she's not yours the only woman that you're allowed to enjoy and that's a way and you're not doing anything you're not touching her you know talking to her you're just looking in a way that you are receiving pleasure you're not looking at her you know intimate parts you're looking at her hand the way both answers you can't derive pleasure from you from with no female basically that's what you should not unless she's your wife then do i have as much pleasure so putting boundaries now we enter the realm of khasidud the realm of piety is a very deep idea that seems to be very very simple but this is one of the longest if not the longest chapter in mesilatisharim okay so he says that the root of khasidut if you really want to understand it is ashley adams happy is a man who toils in torah and performs or does pleasing spirit to his creator what does that mean it means that because this person loves the kalash baruch so much that when he comes to perform a mitzvah he's not doing it to get it over with he looks for opportunities to fulfill god's will every chance he gets because he loves hashem and he gives the example of a husband and a wife a son and a father or two friends that and if you knew your wife liked a certain thing you would do it because she likes it and you're gonna go over and beyond what she likes because you are trying to make her happy you're trying to create a good feeling in her and you're going to do go beyond the duty it's like if she tells you you know i love having flowers for shabbos so you're gonna get yeah but there's one way i bet the fly here's your flowers you think she's gonna like it no right if if hashem says i want you to put on your filling you know you want me to put on felon fine did you do this filling you did fill in no that's doing filling that's like bringing the flowers and throwing in her face you want flowers here you go try that i'm not married for long i think what would happen you might be married for long but i think when you wake up you will recognize the environment in an environment in which you're in there'll be a few lumps here you know there's some fluorescent light and a guy going are you okay i think he's back you know i think that's what you're gonna find right yeah the idea is when you perform a mitzvah to do it in the way that you show the hashem that you care that you're doing it because you love it you're doing it not to get rid of it not because it's an obligation but because you want to create we will continue on tuesday you