I wish I typed faster, without spelling mistakes, so that I could add more amazing insights
and Torah thoughts from these speakers.
(but, right now, I don't. It takes me a lot of time to write everything down accurately).

Is anybody reading and gaining from these?
Or is it just me? (which would be enough, like the Rabbi who said
that if I give a mussar shmooze and only 1 person gains from it,
then it's still worth all the effort, even if that person is me).

I'll hopefully add more soon...at least before Shabbos, bli neder.

I am enjoying all of it!

Just havent got so much time, so read it in email.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Yosef Tikun HaYesod wrote on 28 Dec 2016 14:30:

These rabbis put their stuff on tape for a reason; no?

Sorry, but we are still from the old days, no tapes - just posts or downloads!!!!! 

The answer is that a whole hour shiur will often have 1 or 2 "diamonds"/important nekudas
that I can find and transcribe here, so that I (and everyone else)
can read them in only a couple of minutes.
And re-read them. And internalize them.
But if you have to listen to the WHOLE long shiur again, it's way harder to do that.
Some, won't even want to listen the first time to a whole hour shiur.
And by listening with a discriminating ear for the main points, I gain a lot more from them.
And, of course, by writing them down, I gain a lot, since it forces me to hear it several times, 
using rewind, so that I accurately type it
(there it is: I found a side benefit to not being a super-fast, accurate typer!)

Here's another great story/joke from Rav Fishel Shechter:

A single guy, down on his luck, decides to travel a long distance to the Sar HaMazel.
He says that he is tired of always doing things for other people, and never for himself.
On his way, he passes a lion, a princess, and a tree.
Each one tells him to ask about their mazel, 
since he is going anyway.
The lion is always weak and tired and can barely move.
The princess can't seem to find her life match and is still single.
And the tree feels it isn't growing right, and that something is wrong with it.
I'm always doing for other people and not myself. He keeps complaining,
but he agrees to ask for them.

When he gets there, the Sar HaMazel says that he can ONLY ask about other
people and not himself. He is so frustrated and angry. He is always doing things
for others and never for himself. O.K. he asks about the mazel of all 3 of those 
he passed on his way.

On his way home he passes first the tree. The tree asks him about his mazel. 
The guy starts complaining and says can you believe it, I went all the way there,
and he wouldn't even tell me anything about my mazel. He did, however, tell me about yours.
He said that you have a very big treasure chest buried in the ground that is
blocking the growth of your roots. Unless it is removed, you will not be able
to grow normal and be healthy. Then, will you please remove it? the tree asks.
Dig it up so that I can live and grow, and it's yours.
No, no. I've had enough! I'm always doing for others and never for myself.
I'm not interested in helping you. And no matter how much the tree
tried to reason and plead with him,
he moved on toward his home.

Next, about 15 minutes before sunset, he sees the princess.
She asks him what the Sar HaMazel said. He starts to complain:
do you know how far I had to travel and walk to get there.
And then, he didn't even tell me about
my mazel. He would only tell me about other's mazel.
So what did he say, the princess asked again.
He said that if you get married today, before sundown, you will be happily married
all the rest of your days. And not only that, but your children from this union
will all become tzadikim. Then, quickly, let's get married this instant, she says. 
Nothing doing. I am done helping other people. 
All I do is help other people, and I never do anything for myself.
She tries to reason with him and convince him, but to no avail.
And leaving her in tears, as the sun sets, he continues on toward his home.

He then passes the lethargic lion. He says what did the Sar HaMazel say? What's wrong 
with me. First, the guy complains that the Sar HaMazel had a terrible rule that he would only
answer me about others and didn't help me at all. I wasted so much time and effort going there.
My life is so awful and filled with frustrations that I don't even know why I bother going on living.
I'm sick and tired of always doing for other people and never for myself.
But what did the Sar HaMazel say about me, the lion asked. 
He said that if you find a fool who is always complaining, who doesn't see the good in life,
and is so closed-minded that he doesn't even see the brachas around him, that HaShem
has set up for him to enjoy, and you eat him, then all of your strength will be restored.

We think what an idiot. How ridiculous. What a moron.
But Rav Shechter finished by saying that we are all too similar to the foolish dead guy.
Doing for others, very often is intertwined with really helping ourselves. And we all need to 
open our eyes and see all the brachas around us that HaShem sets up for us to enjoy.
Good Shabbos! Chanuka Somaoch! And Chodesh Tov!
or GSCSACT as some might write.

Nice vort.

With this typing u'll get a typing wizard!!!!!!!! 

Here's the next installment from Rav Fishel Shechter...Enjoy!
I'm sorry that I didn't do this while it was still Chanuka.
But I think the lesson applies all year long.

There was a frum man trying to do business in China.
He found a tremendous deal on shovels, to shovel snow...an exclusive.
He got a deal and they were unbelievably cheap. Each one he got for only $1 dollar.
Then, he found a big, super hardware store with chains throughout the country,
and they promised to buy them all from him at the wholesale price of $11 dollars. 
So he borrowed a couple of hundred thousand dollars, and bought all the shovels.
He was so happy. We're going to be rich, he exclaimed to his wife!  

A week or so later, he got a call.
They called to cancel the order.
What do you mean?! We have a contract!
No, if you look very closely at "sif katan vav" in the tiny little letters of the contract,
it says that we can still cancel the order. They changed their mind
and there was nothing this guy could do.
But I borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I have a huge shipment of shovels coming, where am I going to even put them?
I have nowhere to store them, and no way to pay back the loan! He was in such pain.

His Rav told him to daven. What's HaShem going to do for him?
What's HaShem going to do for him?!
But they canceled the order. Should I daven that they should
change their minds again and purchase the shovels?
Don't give HaShem ideas.
You are in distress? Daven: HaShem ease my pain.
What am I going to do right now? Please lift my anxiety. Please tell me what to do now.
Please easy my pain in my life right now. I'm going out of my mind. Please help me.
You have to ask for it. Ask HaShem to get you out of it.
Express your pain and ask for HaShem to get you out of it.
The Ramban says HaShem didn't cure Moshe of his speech impediment
because he didn't ask for it.

So, he gets the key and walks into the shul alone, right next to the Arone HaKodesh.
And pours out his heart:
HaShem, I don't know what to do.. help me. I have hundreds of thousands of shovels
coming on a container from China. You know what to do with them. I don't know anything.
Please help me. You have it all figured out. But I don't know what to do with them.
He kept pouring out his heart: I don't know what to do. I am ruined!
How am I going to pay off these chovos/the several hundred thousand dollars back?
Please help me.

Then a few days later, he got a call. The big ship sprung a leak and the
bottom of the ship filled with water. The shovels, that were piled on the bottom of the ship,
were now all warped and were considered unusable.
The insurance company was going to pay him for the entire loss...
and not just the wholesale price, but the retail price of $22 dollars each!
He became a multi-millionaire in that instant!
There was some discussion, where did the nes/miracle take place,
in the boat or in the Shul? In the Shul, is where it really took place!

You want peace of mind. You have to think it through and daven.
You are riddled with anxiety, going out of your mind.
You need to get it in your head that whatever is going to be is going to be.
Ask for menuchas ha nefesh. 
Ask Him to convert that pain you feel into bracha.
That eventually solves your problems.
Hold yourself back. That's what gives you parnasa. 
Chanuka is the ohr ha ganuz. Just ask for it. On Chanuka, Chazal put a koach
into it that HaShem says I'll start and act even before your teshuva.
Ask Him to lift the pressure off my chest.
Let me put my yegia and toil and pain in Torah,
instead of on the problems I'm going through.
Let me convert it to Torah. Please let my mesiras ha nefesh be in Torah and mitzvahs.
Let whatever pain I go through and suffer trying to learn Torah,
let that take off from and be instead of a different pain.
Rav Shechter concludes by claiming that is a tefila/a deal/an offer
that HaShem does not turn down, especially on Chanuka.

I am gaining so much from this series by Rav Ben Zion Shafier that I distributed 180 (life) free CDs to different places around town. Not only am I helping myself, but I am able to help others too. In that vein, here are the main points, in my opinion, of The Fight part 1: We have been given a certain set of circumstances.  A setting for our life. We were born to a given family, with a given set of strengths and weaknesses. Born into a particular time period, to a particular  family, given a very exact set of parameters. You will be so tall, so intelligent, have so much of this talent, and so much of this one. Now go out there and accomplish and live your life. Live up to your potential.  We are like actors on the stage who are given a certain role to play. Our measure of success is based on how we played that part. The measure of a man isn’t in an abstract sense who he is. All of the parameters of a person’s life are stage settings and props...backdrops against which we are to play our part. At the end of our days, there is only one measure against which the human is brought... how much did you accomplish with what you were given? How much of your potential did you fulfill? And we are measured by how close we came to accomplishing all that we were able to.

I am gaining so much from this series by Rav Ben Zion Shafier
that I distributed 180 (life) free CDs to different places around town.
Not only am I helping myself, but I am able to help others too.
In that vein, here are the main points, in my opinion, of The Fight part 1:
We have been given a certain set of circumstances.  A setting for our life.
We were born to a given family, with a given set of strengths and weaknesses.
Born into a particular time period, to a particular  family, given a very exact set of parameters.
You will be so tall, so intelligent, have so much of this talent, and so much of this one.
Now go out there and accomplish and live your life. Live up to your potential.  
We are like actors on the stage who are given a certain role to play.
Our measure of success is based on how we played that part.
The measure of a man isn’t in an abstract sense who he is.
All of the parameters of a person’s life are stage settings and props...
backdrops against which we are to play our part.
At the end of our days, there is only one measure against which the human is brought...
how much did you accomplish with what you were given?
How much of your potential did you fulfill?
And we are measured by how close we came to accomplishing all that we were able to.

Maybe the shiurim will help me, if I can capture the main points
and read them over and think about them.
So, I have put a lot of time into summarizing the main points.
Maybe they can help other people too. It's long but worth it.
Here are the main parts (according to me) of Part 2 of The Fight:

Just like the nefesh in a behama is dumb, so too it is in man. We have: 
• Hungers 
• Passions
• Instincts 
But we also have a Nefesh Hasechli that:
Only wants to serve HaShem 
Only wants to do good. To be 
• Magnanimous 
• Generous
• Noble
It feels Shabbos. 
That part of me that is pure Sechel, and wants to cling to HaShem. 

And I am comprised of both!
I am caught somewhere between. 

The two vie for primacy of the human in constant battle. They are in constant conflict.
One or the other becomes dominant, like a muscle that with use becomes stronger,
and with disuse atrophies.The human is in conflict. He has two very different voices inside him:
One part has no wisdom, just complete desires.
The Nefesh Bahami is blind to anything not revealed and immediate.
And it even denies HaShem's existence! While the Nefesh Hasechli sees the future.
It wants to cling to HaShem, and kedusha, Shabbos, and Olam HaBah.

Eating meat and milk together, or wearing shatnez, or eating a predatory animal/treif,
strenthens the nefesh behami. While learning Torah is pure spiritual nourishment.

Imagine two overlapping circles.
One is white. The other black. 
Imagine that both are fifty percent gradient.
So what you have in the middle is sort of gray.
If the white is 100 percent and the black is ten percent, then the shade is very, very light.
If the white is 10 percent and the black is 100 percent, it's very, very dark. 

The first determinant of who YOU are and your ability to pass the next nisayon
is your overall spiritual level: how much ruchni and how much gashmi you are.
And for that, all mitzvahs help, and all aveiras hinder.
Therefore, one needs to work on his overall growth: doing chesed, learning Torah,
and davening/asking HaShem for help. HaShem, I didn’t choose this test. Please help me!

But then let’s imagine that surrounding the overlapping circles are dots. Each has a label:
• Gavah
• Anger
• Jealousy
• Impatience 
• Tayvah 
Each of these can at any given time flare up and expand, covering the entire circle!
So let’s imagine that my problem is anger.
If you say the wrong thing, in the wrong way, at the wrong time, my small dot called anger
will flare up and cover the entire circle. I now feel angry. I see the world through a prism of red.
I now have a different perspective. 

But when you work on the issue 
1. It becomes harder for the circle to expand
2. Its color becomes weaker
3. It is easier for it to recede 
So again, imagining that anger is my issue, the less that I use my anger,
the less often I allow myself to get angry, the less it has a hold on me!
So the simple solution to anger is NOT to get angry.
When you don’t get angry for awhile, the midda lessens. It has less hold on you.

This brings us to the first principle in working on this issue:
the more you give in, the stronger the desire becomes.
Now initially it’s satisfied, and the appetite goes away.
But then it comes back stronger and more potent, like drinking salt water,
which will never quench one's thirst. We need to work on Tayvah itself,
or else it will flare up and cover everything.
But the fight isn’t when your drunk, not to fall; 
it’s not getting drunk! 
Imagine a guy who gets drunk all the time and falls on his face.
One day he says to himself
this is crazy I’m always getting drunk and falling on my face. I have to do something about this.
So he studies ballet, and then Yoga, all in hopes that he can improve his balance,
so that he won’t fall down. Don’t work on your balance; don’t get drunk!
The fight is the desire, and learning how NOT to get caught in it. Once you are drunk, it’s too late.
The main fight is not thinking and not seeing.
We will in the future discuss how to work on that. But that is the fight.
Once the thought comes up in my brain, it’s already late in the game.
Once I’m involved in the act, forget it.

I think these pretty heavy shiurim should only be read one a day,
so either don't read this until tomorrow,
or at least reread this one tomorrow. But since someone asked for it,
and it was quite hard to find,
being buried on page 18 out of 34, December 12th of my 90-day forum thread,
(the other 2 were on page 9 November 28/29th), I am going to post it now.
Sevearl other ones, I have written up on paper, but not YET on the computer.
So these 3 will have to suffice for a while.
I spent hours going over and writing down what I feel are the main points of The Fight part 3.
Of course, I did it for myself, but since I think that what Rabbi Shafier says
may very well help others, I am posting it here for anyone who wants to read it:

HaShem wants us to succeed. 
Marriage is the basis of the family.
HaShem wants marriages to work.
And He created all the forces need to accomplish just that.
Take these two utter strangers, with completely different natures.
Tell them to now spend the rest of their lives together in peace, harmony and love.
How does it work?
To help bridge the gap, HaShem created various forces to allow a man and woman to form a bond.
One of those forces is physical intimacy. The act of a man living with his wife causes a bonding
and an attachment. Much like we find in the wild that certain species mate one time
and are pair bonds for life.
The physical act has the power to create a bond.
I heard my Rebbe use this expression "making love" many times, and was a little embarrassed.
But it comes out that the expression “making love” is actually an apt, and accurate term.
The act brings to love. Hashem created the very nature of man to desire to cling to his wife.  
Not only does he have a desire to be with her physically, but much more.
Hashem created this need and the ability to feel a bonding and sense of attachment to his wife.
The problem is the times that we are living in. The "blade got dulled".
By the time you got married, you already had seen so many women.
You already had desired so many women, that the mechanism got dulled. 

The answer according to the Sefer HaChinuch is that: you need to train yourself
to look at your wife and say: that is how a woman talks, that is how a woman walks.
Anything else is strange. The goal is to train myself to have eyes for my wife only,
to only be attracted to my wife, to only have an interest in my wife,
to only have a desire for my wife. In certain cultures, fat women were considered desirable.
It seems that much of the male attraction to particular looks in women is culturally based.
In the ancient Greek times, big and voluptuous women were considered the ideal.
Being fat was a sign of health and wealth.  But because the culture we live in views fat as ugly,
it changes our view of beauty. Desire is natural, but what we desire is learned.
Torah wants a man to be happily married. This is the system - imprinting your mind
and training yourself, this is a woman. Nothing else is a woman.
Everything else is foreign and strange. The behamah side of me is attracted to that
which it has been taught is desirable. If the culture that a man is in thinks, "thin is in",
then he will find that attractive. If the culture that he is in considers tanned skin to be ugly,
then he won’t be attracted to tanned women. If the culture that he is in considers large women
to be unattractive, then he won’t be attracted to that. He won’t find it desirable.
If he is brought up with the notion that slanty eyes are the most beautiful things in the world,
then he will most likely consider that normal. That is what a woman looks like,
and he will be attracted to that. Desire is not evil or bad.
It has its role and is very significant and important. The idea is to see your wife,
and only your wife, as a woman. Every time that a man looks at another woman with hunger,
he is training himself that his wife is not the only one for him.
Quite the opposite, he is training himself to have eyes for other women.
To review: 1. you have to work not just on tayvah, but your overall ruchnius,
2. you have to work on Tayvah directly too,
3. don’t learn how not to fall when you're drunk.
Instead, learn not to get drunk.
And now the fourth principle is that you can change the object of your desire.
Take an image of your wife, and carry it in your brain.
When an attractive woman comes along, pull out that image from your brain and say to yourself:
mine is what I want. I’m not interested in someone else.
Mine will make me happy. Mine was given to me by HaShem. 
You are training yourself to be satisfied with what you have, with what HaShem has given you.
Become drunk with your wife. When you are physically together, use the passion
to emblazon her image in your mind. Develop eyes only for your wife.
You are reprogramming your brain. Take vacations together. Get into your wife.
Spend time doing fun things together. Go to a romantic setting. As much as you can, 
fall in love with your wife, do it. As much as you can fall in lust with your wife, do it.
Hungering for her, desiring her, focusing all of your drive on her.
It’s important that you understand why HaShem made these forces and put them into man.
They bring the couple together. They cause a bonding. They cause an attachment.
These desires aren’t evil.
They have a very real place, and are essential for the success of a marriage.

Changing gears, there is a big difference between pleasure and passion.
Pleasure is the amount of enjoyment that you receive while doing an activity.
Passion is the desire, the pull you have to that activity.
That stale, old peanut butter sandwich was eaten with great passion,
since you were starving and hadn't eaten for days, but it gave you very little pleasure.
There are things that we desire that bring us little pleasure,
and there are things that bring us great pleasure, that we don’t instinctively desire.
While the addict may have started out motivated by the pleasure he received from alcohol or drugs,
the desire, craving, hunger, and urge has become so powerful that it controls him,
even when the activity no longer brings him pleasure.
Not only aren’t addicts motivated by pleasure, they often find no enjoyment in it anymore.
It leaves them empty and depressed, down and out — but they need it all the same.
One of the biggest obstacles in working on tayvah is the mistake that it is pleasure that I’m pursuing. 
Pleasure is the state or feeling of being pleased or gratified, a source of enjoyment or delight.
Most people are not pleasure seekers, but are rather driven by tayvah.
They are Behamas, ruled over by their desire and instincts like the animal kingdom.
This means simply that you have a great pull to that activity. It grips you and gets hold of you.
Out of control, tyvah will ruin your life. Like a dog in heat, all day long hungry, desirous,
needing something that you can’t have.
You can’t have every beautiful woman that walks down the street.
Not every movie star and actress is going to agree to be with you.
So it’s not pleasure that you are pursuing.
It’s not enjoyable being hungry all day without the ability to eat.
HaShem wants you to be happy. HaShem is the giver and created the whole world to give.
We were created for Olam Habah. But HaShem wants us to be happy here and now.
When you love your wife and you work on being satisfied with her alone, then life is beautiful!
If not, it’s gehenom!
Being in heat isn’t fun. It's being out of control. Just like being filled with hatred isn’t fun
and being filled with flaming anger isn’t fun.

YTHaY, what a great thread! Tyvm for spending so much time and posting these  vortlach! keep up the good stuff!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written any of these.
This one I just heard from a recent Beshalach shiur by Rav Fishel Shechter.
It's too good not to write immediately:
A frum Jew is sitting in first class on an 11-hour flight. He is enjoying his seat immensely,
but after about an hour, he gets up to take a little walk around the plane. 
Way in the back, in the economy seats, he sees the Rosh HaYeshiva, Rav Shmuel Birenbaum, 
zecher Tzaddik l'vracha. He is sitting all cramped holding his Gemara and learning.
This special Jew has a flash of inspiration, and says: Rosh HaYeshiva, I'd like to make
a Yisachor/Zevulun arrangement with you. If you will give me 1/2 of the reward for your learning
on this flight, I will give you my amazing, spacious
first class seat, where you will be able to learn with menuchas hanefesh. 
Intrigued, Rav Birenbaum asks: are you serious? Are you really prepared to give me your seat?
When the guy answered "yes", he turned to the guy sitting next to him (a goy) and said:
go take his seat in first class, so he can sit down next to me. We are going to learn together
b'chavrusa the whole rest of the flight. 
He took the deal, but with an important twist! 
And this was the LAST time that this rich Jew ever made such an offer again!
Why? (I'm adding something that I've heard from my Rabbeim:
because it's a lot easier to buy a Talmid Chacham than to make one or become one!)
AMAZING story, huh?

Yeah, the next flight I'm on, I'm sending everyone to firstclass and will share economy next to our Rosh Yeshiva here cords shlita