על לימוד ספרי מוסר

00:00 This is our year, and we're in the middle of nothing right now. We're, we're-- I, I jumped us all the way to ER. I didn't put us in any particular order. The reason was I got, I got excited about something I found in the index, and then I went on a bit of a wild goose chase, and, uh, I was interested in seeing what the Rebbe says about in general, specifically about . So because of that, we're a little out of order. This letter is from ER, . It's our year. It's just a little bit in advance. And it's, uh, about Che-- it's about Chevas HaLevavos. That's what this year is about. The Se-- the most they say for Chevas HaLevavos and specifically Shaar HaBitachon. Uh, the short version of this is that I think most of you know that the Rebbe is a fan of Shaar HaBitachon. I think most people know that the Rebbe is a fan of Chevas HaLevavos. Uh, we've done a pretty good job of publicizing that. Uh, Rubashkin has done a very good job of publicizing that, that this is one of those that the Rebbe is interested in. I wanna show you a letter from our year, and then I wanna talk about some of the other things the Rebbe said about this particular Sefer, and then I wanna take us on a journey through other that you probably didn't know the Rebbe has at various times recommended, uh, with the specific things that he said about them.

00:59 Okay. So we have here on page of our year, . We don't have any context for this letter. Not much anyway. Person's sup-supposed to be having a child. That's all we have. It's a that they should have a son. And, uh, the, uh, down here, these that's in this footnote says that, uh, she's feeling a little bit weak, and she's a little bit afraid of giving birth. So she writes to the Rebbe that she's expecting a child, she's afraid of the birth process. She has . She has concerns and worries. And very typical of Rebbe letters, if you write to the Rebbe saying you have concerns and worries, I don't know, I would say about half the time he recommends Shaar HaBitachon. So here we go. Um, I don't know what that is. something like that. But certainly the that I mentioned is going at it. Yeah, anybody have any insight into those abbreviations? I'm not focused on number one, but, uh, certainly there will be a . Number two, the thing we're focusing on is Okay. So you've ex-- you've received my letter saying you were going to have a for a child. Yeah? Okay. Number two. Yeah, why not? Number two, . He tells her, "You have to strengthen your faith in Hashem." And and he said, suggests that she learn . This letter is actually interesting all by itself because this is the Rebbe writing to a woman. So, uh, the Rebbe writing to a woman is telling her to learn a

02:24 piece of Torah. I'm not saying that doesn't always happen, but I think there are certainly a lot of for guys learning Shaar HaBitachon that are around now. I haven't heard of a lot of women's groups learning it, but in this letter, the Rebbe recommends women learn it too. It doesn't seem that there's a gender divide between the two. Are there at least three other letters in our volume where it's almost the exact same thing? There's a one-line- Huh? Where there's a one-line answer from the Rebbe saying somebody was worried about something, they should learn Shaar HaBitachon. This is one example right here. Okay. I'm going into my main sheet over here. I'm gonna send you all this main sheet later. Let me make it a little bigger so you can see it. Here's my main sheet of stuff about Chevas HaLevavos and other . And as you can see, it is much uglier than usual because I didn't have time to make it pretty. One thing over here, this comes from a . Actually, I wanna do this one first. This comes from a volume seven. It's on page one hundred and forty-one. The Rebbe clarifies that he doesn't necessarily want us learning our all of Chevas HaLevavos. He's not ne-- he's not interested in the entire Sefer. It says, Somebody had written back to the Rebbe. The Rebbe said, "Learn Chevas HaLevavos. Learn this Moshiach Sefer." It's an old Moshiach Sefer, by the way. It's by . Um, it's write but not the that

03:30 you're used to from the other one. This guy says, "It's very hard for me to read Chevas HaLevavos. It's a tricky Sefer. In the beginning, it gets very z-- it's very difficult in the beginning." The Rebbe writes, "You certainly remember, I told you. I'm not saying learn Shaar HaYichud, that's the tricky part. I want you to learn the sections of Shaar HaBitachon that come after that." I'm sorry, of Chevas HaLevavos that come after that, specifically Shaar HaBitachon. So the Rebbe does not necessarily recommend the entire Sefer. There are sections of it that are very technical and very philosophical, and they don't necessarily, uh, immediately strengthen Bitachon. The Rebbe is pointing to specific areas that he likes regarding it. I also found this over here, which was just kinda cool. Says, uh, that this is from a that was put in at one point, but, uh, I don't know if it ever made it into any Yigras. I couldn't find it anywhere else. The Rebbe writes that the person should learn Chevas HaLevavos, the this is the same idea, the that I want you to learn, specific chapters of Chevas HaLevavos. And when you do it, you'll see that the power of Chevas HaLevavos is it can explain to you that even the has an obligation to love Hashem, that, uh, it's automatically should come to love of Hashem. So something that's unique about this Moshiach Sefer, about, uh, above other Sefarim is it seems to have a unique way of speaking to the and convincing

04:48 it to love Hashem. But the main reason I brought this up here is the idea that the Rebbe does not necessarily want us to go through the book cover to cover. He wants a specific section of it. That specific section, he wants us to learn a lot of. I have several letters here where the Rebbe tells us, tells individuals to learn Sh-- to learn Shaar HaBitachon, this one section of Chevas HaLevavos several times over. We have here, um, from you should think of it from time to time. That's not so strong. You get a little stronger here. you should learn two or three times, Shaar HaBitachon and Sefer Chevas HaLevavos. This isn't a one-time read. This is something that happens multiple times. And we have this lesson again down here, except now it's three or four times. It increased. three or four times, Shaar HaBitachon And I'm also not saying to learn it once to be or learn it, uh, sit down one time, read it three times over and say, "I've figured it out." I want you to extend the learning of it over the course of many weeks, to drink it in slowly. So Rebbe's instructions of Shaar HaBitachon that we have so far are, or for Chevas HaLevavos so far, so far is that first of all, he doesn't seem interested in all the chapters. He's very interested in Shaar HaBitachon. He's, uh, he, he also mentions in other places, I don't have it on the sheet here, but he mentions in

05:58 other places Shaar Cheshbon HaNefesh. The Rebbe is also very interested in there are certain Shaarim that the Rebbe specifically points out as the ones that are for us He also wants us to learn it several times over, and he doesn't want us to learn it quickly. It's supposed to be a nice slow burn that goes over the course of several weeks. Although we saw in our letter that the Rebbe talks about it in the context of someone who's scared, he also talks about it in the context of anger a lot of times. People write saying that they have a problem with kas, and the Rebbe's go-to book for handling kas also-- anger also seems to be Chevet HaLevavot. I have a letter here where the Rebbe says, "Bechol yom chol." This is advice for someone who says they can't handle their anger. Every single day of the week, weekday, I mean, you know, not Shabbos. In the morning, separate a couple coins for tzedakah, of course, b'li neder, and then learn Shaar HaBitachon in Sefer Chevet HaLevavot. It's advice for angry people. Bedikas hamizuzos, ve'ein fiyaos, and also, of course, check your mizuzahs and the way that they've been set up on the wall. Um, why would a book about bitachon be good for anger? If you've learned Yigra Sa'ar Amban, you might know why. Uh, and even if you've learned Chassidus, it comes up in Chassidus too. Uh, anger generally stems from one of two things. Uh, it stems from ego because I can't

06:59 imagine someone would have done this to me. How dare they do this to me? Do they not know who I am? And the other place that it comes from is, now this is mentioned in Tanya, is not recognizing that God's hand is in absolutely everything. Like it says in Tanya, that when, uh, I'm, I'm paraphrasing, somebody, uh, something hits you in the-- you know, somebody smacks you in the face. Somebody smacks you in the face, you could get angry, or you could recognize that something was gonna smack you in the face. It didn't have to be that guy. If it was nobody, a tree branch would have hit you in the face, but you were getting a smack in the face today. So a basic bitachon in the fact that either way I was getting smacked can avoid you getting angry when someone does come by and smack you in the face. Once again, that is a paraphrase of Tanya, but that's what the Rebbe's probably referring to here when he says that someone who gets angry needs to strengthen their bitachon, and bitachon can be strengthened through learning Sefer Chevet HaLevavot. If you're interested in more things on Chevet HaLevavot and why it's so exciting to the Rebbeim, you should see that link I put in the main chat. One thing that I didn't put on my sheet here that I wanna paraphrase, it's really cool, is there's a section of Chevet HaLevavot that the Re-- that the Alter Rebbe mentions in one of

07:53 his letters right after he leaves prison. 'Cause right after the Alter Rebbe leaves prison, he says that he wasn't afraid, and the reason why he wasn't afraid was because he thought of something that it says in Chevet HaLevavot in Shaar HaBitachon. It says there that somebody was wandering through a desert and a lion, and they wa-wa-- somebody, somebody wandering through a desert, why are they not afraid of lions? Somebody asked a desert wanderer, "Why are you not afraid of lions?" I believe is the rush in, in, in, in Chevet HaLevavot. "Why aren't you afraid that lions are going to attack you in the desert?" And this person said back, "Because I'm too embarrassed to let God know I'm afraid of something he made. I recognize God's there, and I'm embarrassed to let him know I'm afraid of lions." The Alter Rebbe says the same thing about his time in prison, that he thought of this idea that he couldn't be afraid because it's humiliating to be afraid of something that God made when you're right in front of God himself, who is the ultimate, ultimate in intimidation. I guess there's a nicer way to say that. Transitioning to the question of Mussar in general in the Rebbe's letters, there's a Sefer Chukas Tzedek, a Chassidus from the Friediker Rebbe where he writes about what Mussar is, uh, what-- and the Chassidic view of what Mussar is. I wanna read it real quickly. I have a keta here, a little section. "Ve'adam k'shehu misnay geBal chay,

08:55 heni hu gerea yesh meBal chay." When a person acts like an animal, he's worse than an animal. "D'Bal chay ein lei da'as l'dat zeh livcher ba'ula." An animal cannot choose the right thing, and a person can. "Yesh mekmayin yanei chemdes haguf vetevos." Okay. "Aval ha'adam," but the person, "yesh bei da'as l'dat zeh livcher ba'ula." A person who has da'as, they can choose what's good for them. "Lekmayin yanei chemdes haguf, um, ma'alas hamidas tevos." They understand the advantage of having good midas. They understand which things are positive and negative, ma'alas hamuskalus and of intellects. "V'baruch hatevos gufanios hu ge'udea meha'zeh miyesh mekmay lehavdil Bal chay." And somebody who invests in physical pleasures, they're worse than a Bal chay because they have a choice. So he says, "V'chachmas pitla lacheim ha'abay deherayis me'usim shkutsim vetiyuvim shel tanugim vetevos gufanim. Gadol enish b'suro geheinom vedema sheyanish adam b'glal hamshuchasa achei tevos haguf ki chachmas Mussar." And what is chachmas Mussar? Chachmas Mussar is job. So the Friediker Rebbe says everything we just said is true. Going after what you want in the physical world is disgusting, makes you worse than an-- it makes you worse than an animal when you act like an animal. And understanding how rotten that really is, how disgusting that is, and, uh, how disgusting all worldly pleasures are, and how great the punishment is of people who do such things and what sort of suffering they'll have in Gehennom, that, that is chachmas haMussar. Mussar's job is to remind us how bad physical

10:08 pleasures are and how much we're going to suffer for them. This is the Chassidic view from the Friediker Rebbe of what Mussar is exactly. Is there a place for that in Chassidus? We're supposed to be happy. Is there a place for dwelling on how rotten we are and how rotten our pleasures are and how rotten Gehennom's going to be? Well, there certainly was once upon a time. This is from the Kutie DeBurim. The Kutie DeBurim, the Friediker Rebbe writes that there was a period of time, "Hayis et kupah shega'ein et Torah sabru," they used to think, "she'ikaru limad haTorah," that really people need to learn Torah, nothing else. "Lasham tikun avairas utikun hamidas." What do you do for people who've done avairas if they're only supposed to be learning Torah? "Sagua asat mamis hagufim she'ein ve'erich, ve'erich hagolos." They, uh, they, they would make themselves suffer. They would hurt themselves. The Friediker Rebbe says at that time, "Ve'es tikupa keshur de'lam imperek beSefer Chevet HaLevavot." But back then, people were a lot more sensitive. They would learn Chevet HaLevavot. They would learn a Maimon in Shaar HaTshuva and Rabbeinu Yona. They'd learn Reshis Chochma. These are some of the old Mussar Sefarim. "Hayis leka chashba g'deid uviyesh sheviulu lev nishbar ve'nitkel utikun hamidas." This would break their hearts, and they would fix themselves. So there was at least once a place for this. Whether there's still a place for this or not really depends on the Sefer. Once upon a time before we had Chassidus,

11:11 this was the, this was the go-to way to break your heart and to accomplish biur hamidas and tikkun hamidas. Nowadays, I think it depends on a case-by-case basis depending on the book. So besides Chevet HaLevavot, which the Rebbe clearly approves of at least in the Shaar HaBitachon and wants us to think about regularly, Reshis Chochma shows up a lot. I pulled a letter over here from my phone, which is why it looks so funny on the screen. This is a very typical letter. The Rebbe wrote this letter to a lot of la-- young chasanim in almost the exact same language, where he recommends people right before their weddings learn specific chapters of Reshis Chochma and L'chayim, that once again, the Rebbe is not advising we learn the entire book. The Rebbe is pointing out a couple chapters that he thinks are kaddai for us. So the Sefer Reshis Chochma, you guys, uh, who, who here learned Reshis Chochma before they got married? I got really into it, never stopped. I still love Reshis Chochma. It's really good. I love Reshis Chochma and, um, I don't keep the rules. I'm reading the whole book constantly. It's one of my favorite books. Love Reshis Chochma. But, uh, the Rebbe does not recommend every chapter. The Rebbe recommends, the Rebbe recommends, I wanna go a little faster 'cause we're short on time, mainly 'cause I started a little late. I apologize The Rebbe says down here, a couple of weeks before your wedding, of course, learn You should

12:19 learn with from, uh, from who are married from . And in the days that are coming up right before your wedding, a couple of days before your wedding, and . These three chapters deal with, uh, eating, what you do when you're eating food. deals with , and deals with . So these are the three things that the Rebbe wanted us to get from before our weddings, and I don't think it's extreme to say that this is something we should also be reviewing from time to time. Um, the sections on what we do with food, what we do with, uh, , and what we do with . There's a Sefer called Kav HaYashar that if you live outside of-- If you lived in any Hasidic circle outside of a Lubavitch circle, Kav HaYashar would be, would be a, would be a, a book that you were very familiar with. I don't know. As it is, are a lot of people who are familiar with Kav HaYashar? In, in, in the Hasidish world at large, this is the Mussar Sefer. Um, Kav HaYashar is a mystical Mussar Sefer. It reads a lot like the Reishis Chochma, I believe, that the was the one who said that anybody who reads it a hundred and one times is guaranteed . So it's very big among . It's much older than . I'm just saying it's their, their favorite one. Uh, the learned it, it turns out. This is in Likutey Dibburim. I didn't find anything from the Rebbe's suggesting

13:33 people learn it, but I'm sorry, I got it confused with something else. The did not learn it. This is that the or there's two Girsas in the story, initially taught it to Yekusiel Lepler as a way of easing him into Hasidus. So here we go. Yekusiel Lepler needed to be eased into learning Hasidus. Even once he eventually got good at Hasidus, he was given Hasidus as a . And this is the and I told you in a footnote it says this is the episode. It's unclear who this was exactly. Sounds like the here wanted to give Yekusiel Lepler, Lepler some clothing before he dived into Hasidus properly. And how did he give him his intro into Hasidus? he told him to first learn Kav HaYashar and Chumash with Rashi, and, uh, after that, he started teaching him Hasidus. So Kav HaYashar is at least approved as a way of getting people into Hasidus. Uh, here's a controversial one. Mesilas Yesharim. This one we are familiar with. This is the, this is the Litvish's favorite, uh, Mussar Sefer. If you'd asked me going into this whether our Rebbe is a fan of Mesilas Yesharim or says anything about it, I would have said no. I, I'm unaware-- I was unaware of anything. This is in Likutey Sichos. It's printed in the in the back. And somebody had given the Rebbe a bunch of Sefarim. I believe among them was a Sefer with from the Ramchal, from the Ramchal, maybe not even Mesilas Yesharim, but some Sefer

14:49 from the Ramchal. And, uh, the Rebbe in response writes about how amazing the Ramchal was. So the Rebbe writes here, I'll read just an excerpt. You classified, the Rebbe says to this person in a letter, you've classified the Ramchal as a author of Mussar Sefarim. You've classified Mesilas Yesharim and the author of Mesilas Yesharim, the Ramchal, as a Mussar person. I would like you to add to his name, Mekubal. The Ramchal was not just an author of Mussar Sefarim, he was also a great Kabbalist. It's true that the Ramchal's work, Mesilas Yesharim, is more famous than his Kabbalah works. Certainly, his Sifrei Kabbalah make him worthy of the title Mekubal. So the Rebbe, well, the Rebbe doesn't really have a comment that I could find anywhere on whether we should be learning Mesilas Yesharim from the Ramchal, but he does attach the word Mekubal to the Ramchal's name and say that it's not just a-- he's not just a Mussar author. The Ramchal, the author of Mesilas Yesharim, is also a Kabbalist. Another very popular Sefer is, uh, in, in Mussar se- circles is my last one on the page is the Shaarei Teshuva Rabbeinu Yona. This is what I was thinking of earlier when I said the learned it. The learned this. Um, the when he was first-- when he was young, and this is about Likutey Dibburim, right? This is in Likutey Dibburim. He learned Shaarei Teshuva Rabbeinu Yona, and I've heard, although I couldn't find in the Rebbe's letters, that there was

16:08 one of the Sefarim the Rebbe from time to time would recommend learning during Elul. This is another one of the, uh, on, on our approved list of Mussar Sefarim that seem to have the Rebbe's . We have this from the . We'll read it together. He says, um, "The good heart and the good Midas of the Hasid, Rav Chanoch Hendel, it came to him through Yegiah, through hard work. He worked hard on himself until he had proper Kabbalah Sefer. At one of the Farbrengens, Rav Chanoch Hendel said the following, as long as a Metzeyrah has not been healed from Tzaros, he can't go into the Beis Hamikdash. and as for a young scholar, as long as a person hasn't fixed his disgusting Midas, he's not allowed to go to Lubavitch. It's also for him to, to defile the ho-- the Heichal of God that's within the Dalet Amas of the Rebbe. Over the next ten years, the Rebbe says, "I learned Shaarei Teshuva Rabbeinu Yona, the Chareidim, the Reishis Chochma, Pekeach Ivrim, and ten times Yigres Teshuva and specific sections from Derech Chayim. I'm sorry, this is not the Rebbe. This is, uh, this is Chanoch Hendel. I misread. So Rav Chanoch Hendel, not the Rebbe is talking now. Rav Chanoch Hendel says he prepared for going to the Rebbe-- to go to the Rebbe for the first time by cleaning out his Midas, just like a Metzeyrah's not allowed to go to the Beis Hamikdash until he's not, uh, full of Tzaros anymore. And

17:35 how did he do that? One of the Sefarim he learned to clean out his Midas was the Shaarei Teshuva Rabbeinu Yona. In addition to all of these great Hasidic works, there was the Shaarei Teshuva Rabbeinu Yona. So that seems to be one of the ingredients in, uh, in cleaning out our Midas enough that we are worthy of visiting the Rebbe in Lubavitch. That's my list for now. I'd love to add to it sometime, but this is a provisional list of some of the Mussar Sefarim that the Rebbe is most interested in. And by way of Hazara, we have Chemes Lubavitch and a ton on it. Seems to be specifically meant to be learned many times for anger, for, uh, for, for sadness, for, um, for worry. We have, um, the Reishis Chochma. We have three specific chapters from it, uh, Tes Vav, Tes Zayin, and Yod Zayin. We have the Kav HaYashar mentioned in Likutey Dibburim as a Sefer that was used to train Yekusiel Lepler. We have at least a compliment for the Mesilas Yesharim that the author was not just a Baal Mussar but also Mekubal. We have Shaarei Teshuva Rabbeinu Yona, which Rav Chanoch Hendel used in order to get himself ready to meet the Rebbe for the first time. There you have it.