dov wrote on 18 Apr 2010 17:08:


The Klausenberger Rebbe Ztz"l explained - sarcastically:

Barasi Yetzer Horah, barasi Torah tavlin k'negda. Tavlin = spice. Something that makes food more tasty. Torah makes the Yetzer Horah Tasty?

A yid lounges around on Miami Beach all day, doing what is done on a beach. when he comes home in the evening he feel terrible, he has a tremendous void in heart. The knowledge that he didn't spend his day the proper way weighs heavily on his heart.

He takes out his gemorro, learns the day's blatt in Daf Yomi, and he feels better with himself. He feel that now he is a good guy. He used the Torah to make his Yetzer Horah more tasty. Tomorrow he will have a repeat performance of today. He will not grow at all!

Oy Vey...

Nu Nu... the Avera is an Avera... but at least let the Mitzva also be a Mitzva...

At least he still learns...

His issue is not the learning... why knock him for that...

(Don't take this personal... You didn't say it... Besides, I have a track record of defending any good that a person does... regardless of the bad... Otherwise we'd all be screwed...)

Tried-Trying-Will Try

dov wrote on 18 Apr 2010 17:08:


There is a difference between being Yotzei, & accomplishing what a mitzva has the potential to accomplish.

The mere act of winding the leather straps of Tefillin around your arm, your eardrums processing the sound that gets emitted by the Shofar, absolves your obligation to do those deeds today. You don't have to do it again. You were Yotzei.

But we know that there is much more to it. The Seforim Nefesh Hachaim (Litvish) & Me'or Veshomesh (Chasidish) [among many others] explain the Mishna Da mah lema'aleh mimcha, Know what is above you. We all know that Hashem has an innumerable amount of spiritual "Worlds". Each one loftier than the one before. We live on the lowest one, the most base. We also know that Hashem controls everything according to our deeds. So they explain the mishna to be read: da mah lama'aleh - mimcha, Everything that happens in the Upper Spheres is from YOU, our deeds control all the upper worlds!

A mitzva done with all the deep kavanas will go much farther than one done without thought and feeling.



I am not writing to dispute or contradict your words. I am only elaborating on them.

Tried-123 wrote on 19 Apr 2010 15:36:


SURE!!!!

By all means, we MUST learn Torah. We MUST do so every single day. Otherwise we have NO hope of ever getting out of the clutches of the Yetzer Horah!

The Rebbe was saying (as I understand it), just don't go to bed at night patting yourself on the back that I am a good guy. I am tzaddik. I should continue on the path that I am travelling on. I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.


(... and all the Frummies, the ones that are busy all day serving Hashem and are constantly on the lookout not to slip at all, they are OVERDOING it. They are just plain crazy. There is no need to be so obsessive-compulsive with guarding our eyes & minds)

Wow, it reminds me of the judge who heard the litigant and said, "you're right." The defendant cried foul and went on to say his peace, and the judge said, "you're right."

The witness then said, "Your Honor, they can't both be right!"

The judge said, "Nu, so you're also right!"

Who would want that job? Thank goodness we are just "hyssop in the wall"!

Far from knocking anyone for learning, the Rebbe tz"l may have just been lamenting the fact that sometimes, a mitzvah - even learning Torah - can facillitate one's postponement of teshuvah. Maybe even indefinitely. It seems to me that at the root of the problem, though, is the fact that this fellow (talking to myself, not just the guy on the beach) is motivated to do teshuvah out of guilt - absolve the guilt and no more motivation for teshuva! I need to rid myself in every way I can today of my self-serving and slowly grow to being among the meshamshin es haRav shlo al m'nas l'kabel pras! Looking to be useful as a motive - now that's geshmak living!

... and Rabbi Dov is right too!

Tried-123 wrote on 19 Apr 2010 15:36:


YOU should be the one calling yourself Bardichev!


Oh! There is a Bardichev already?

How about trying Bardichev II ?

THE MORE THE MERRIER!!!!

How does he do that!?!?!

Or maybe I should be BARDICHEVinISRAEL :D

When you go to Israel remember to take me along, please.

Isn't that what the original Yosef Hatzadik asked?

Hey not so fast...
The original wanted.......HIS BONES :o :o :o to be brought to Israel.... :D :D

Tried-123 wrote on 19 Apr 2010 20:52:


The following was posted before pesach in the Yosef Hatzadik's Ha'oros thread:
Yosef Hatzadik wrote on 25 Mar 2010 22:59:




On a different note:
Can the above be connected somehow with the How and Why a mikve works??

I am thinking along the line, that when someone submerges himself completely, thereby cutting himself off from all air, he is undergoing a Mobil, sort of....

...or maybe, when someone did do the tumah actions, he is taking upon himself a miniature mobil, so-to speak??

Anyone wanna try to help out?

mikveh -

a person realizes that they cannot function in this world without Hashem, in the same way a person cannot live under water without air.

Tried-123 wrote on 19 Apr 2010 15:36:


Actually, what many people don't realize i that very often, the issue IS the learning. Or the teshuva. As several other people have pointed out, people can do all kinds of things that are unhealthy to an extreme (and also terrible aveiros, by the by), but they can feel that they've balanced things out, because of their big mitzvos.

More commonly, you'll see people who feel intense guilt, and want to do an equally intense teshuva - so they punish themselves in various ways, and they DO have a really intense teshuva. Which lasts until the next time they feel, when they start the process over again.

And it saddens me, but does not surprise me. When you feel a strong sense of doing something wrong, you've gotta do something to change that feeling. And as painful as some of the things people do, in its own way, it's not as difficult as real, long term effort and change. Slow and steady. It's not as dramatic, but it means changing a lot of things that have been a part of you for so long.