Home > Lessons > Holidays > Chanukah > Chanukah – Shiurim > The mussar implications of Taryag: Torah vs the West
Western and Eastern Civilization have their unique approaches to build man. The Torah has its own approach and succeeds where they fail. The Torah has 613 commandments parallel to the 613 parts of the human being because every person encompasses the entire gamut of Torah and mitzvos in their daily life. When we know this, the work begins!
The mussar implications of Taryag: Torah vs the West
What growth in life looks like
A key challenge we face in bein adam lechaveiro (interpersonal relationships) is our tendency to form an initial impression of someone and hold onto it indefinitely. We assume we “know” how they think, operate, and who they are at their core, and this perception can remain static, barely evolving over time. Contrast this with our approach to learning Torah, where we are trained to constantly challenge and refine our initial assumptions.
This is a riddle, because if we want to “build a person” we must be able to change something in our approach to him, and the same applies for when we want to grow ourselves. Unfortunately, the dynamic approach we use to approach Torah learning often does not carry over into our relationships. Instead, we settle for a superficial understanding of our fellow person.
We usually understand that when we say we need to grow “in Torah and mitzvos” we expect that if we fulfill the mitzvos then our lives will change and we will be “growing.” Yet experience shows that this is false, our life does not change, rather the kiyum mitzvos (fulfillment of the mitzvah) change! Experience shows that our life either fades into the background for kiyum Torah and mitzvos. Or our life takes on the role of throwing constant challenges at us, preventing us from being mekayim the mitzvos. Either way there is no growth for us in our lives. Our life becomes essentially unimportant.
The problem with gedolim biographies
Examples of this are seen with the gedolim (spiritual giants) biographies which I call “shulchan aruch with comics” meaning these biographies are simply an illustrated story of them being mikayem shulchan aruch!
To veer away from this and have a unique and original gedolim biography, we then say that there is another side to their life which the regular gedolim biographies don’t portray, and that is that their life presents unique challenges to kiyum torah and mitzvos. This is what Nosson Kaminestky tried to show in his infamous biography “Making of a Gadol.”
This is the crux of the matter and is the focal point in the fight between Chochmas HaTorah and Chochmas Yavan. The culture of Chochmas Yavan comes to speak to the human being, and we don’t even realize that the Torah is speaking to the human being and his life because we assume that our lives are meaningless and just a background for Torah and mitzvos or a nisayon against Torah and mitzvos.
Our life is a microcosm of the Taryag Mitzvos
The foundational belief in Torah is that everything which the Torah speaks about we have in the present. I am actually a kadosh elyon (holy person), a rotzeach (murderer), a dovuk (spiritually connected person), a ganav (thief), in my own microcosmic way. This is the depth that the Torah comprises 613 commandments and each one of us is composed of 613 parts – meaning the commandments of the Torah have to do with a human being who is also 613! Everything is within us.
A personal example from my rebbi, R’ Wolbe:
An example of this concept can be seen when R’ Yeruchom told R’ Wolbe in regards to the time when the Altar from Kelm left a room when he saw money on the table because of the issur yichud (sin of being alone with someone, or in this case, something else) in order to avoid stealing it. R’ Yeruchom told R’ Wolbe “If I had been there I would have stolen it!” R’ Wolbe asked me what I think the explanation of the story was. I was hesitant to speak but R’ Wolbe demanded I speak my mind. I said “R’ Yeruchom did not mean he would put the money in his pocket, he meant he would touch it, arrange it, count it, organize it.” R’ Wolbe said “yes, that is what he meant!” This was considered gneiva (stealing) by him.
A personal example from the negative:
One night, I couldn’t sleep because I had recently read something in a biology book that revealed to me that I was a murderer! What happened was that while standing by R’ Yonasan’s ma’amar (discourse), a man vying for space pushed me hard, and I instinctively pushed him back even harder. After reading the biology book I reflected on the incident and realized that even though the man I pushed seemed fine, the force and nature of my push could have been enough to seriously harm or even kill him.
A personal example from the positive:
I am a kadosh elyon (holy and lofty individual). I do not live exclusively in my sensual life, I have another part of myself which transcends this. For example, next door to my office, construction was underway on the neighboring property with the relentless noise of a jackhammer. I simply could not take a nap due to the noise! I brought earplugs, hoping to block out the sound and get some rest, but I still couldn’t fall asleep. Then, I reframed my perspective. I thought to myself: for my neighbor, every boom boom of the jackhammer is music to his ears, because he is building something which will bring in money for himself. Why not share in his joy? If he is happy, I can be happy for him too. “I am happy because my neighbor is happy!” This shift in mindset worked, and I was able to sleep through the noise! My kedusha was able to affect my gashmius’ (physical) life! I don’t have it by tayvos nashim (desire for women) or tayvos achila (desire for food), but I have it here! This is where I reveal my mayla of kadosh elyon, and makes for what I call “an interesting life!”
The practical application of this concept
To apply this practically and see our lives and the lives of those around us in a new way we can cast the maylos of Torah on ourselves or on our neighbor and see how they emerge! We will end up discovering ourselves through the deep eyes of the Torah. We will uncover the microcosm of the Torah’s mayla which we already have by ourselves or which our friend already has! This is what the Torah means when it says in Devarim Chapter 30, verse 14:
כִּֽי־קָר֥וֹב אֵלֶ֛יךָ הַדָּבָ֖ר מְאֹ֑ד בְּפִ֥יךָ וּבִֽלְבָבְךָ֖ לַעֲשֹׂתֽוֹ
“No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.” it is by us, we just need to take it out! It is there now!
The goyyim (Non-Jews) do not have this. They don’t have taryag in their chochma. They have unbelievably nice and profound concepts but when we cast them on our life, nothing shows up from us personally. It just stays as an abstract goal which truly can never be reached. We cannot discern it in our life and build ourselves from it.
A personal example of the impersonal goyish mindset:
My daughter works as a manager for a kidney donor transplant service, and they recently held a Shabbaton. During the event, there was a panel of leaders, including a government ethics spokesperson who stated that the ultimate form of giving should be altruistic. However, others pointed out a dilemma: R’ Heber emphasized that one should prioritize giving to a fellow Jew.
I could not hold myself back and I raised my hand to share my perspective: ‘Altruism,’ I explained, ‘is a goyish concept. In Judaism, we don’t focus on abstract altruism; we focus on chesed—acts of kindness. When we do chesed, it brings tangible benefits, such as the joy of seeing a smile in return. Only in the case of chesed shel emes—kindness shown to the deceased—do we truly give without expecting anything back. Every other form of chesed personally and uniquely affects and expresses itself in our lives.’
Altruism, as the government ethics spokesperson described, is detached from human experience. In their ideal, a computer would decide where the kidney goes, completely removing personal connection or personal humanity from the equation. This abstractness is what the Non-Jews keep returning to in their weltanschauung. We however specifically deal with the nature of humanity, wherein the Torah definition as we described above, allows us to find the mayla’s, such as that of chesed, within ourselves throughout our personal life.
And don’t ask from the Rambam who says tzedakah (charity) is best done anonymously, because he is referring to tzedakah, while the giving of one’s kidney is chesed!
How this applies to walking in the footsteps of the Gedolim
They say ‘Rav Boruch Ber attempted to reach for the stars by aspiring to be like Rebbi Akiva Eiger and he ended up landing on the moon in being Rav Boruch Ber. What comes out from this approach is that Rav Boruch Ber’s entire self identity is his failure to become Rebbi Akiva Eiger. Due to the influence of western civilization we happily accept this as a truism.
Chochmas HaTorah refuses to accept this. Chochmas HaTorah teaches us that Rav Boruch Ber saw that he was Rebbi Akiva Eiger at age 16; and needed to work on this Rebbi Akiva Eiger in him. Naturally, he grew up into Rav Boruch Ber! To bring this concept home, let us realize that Rav Boruch Ber exclusively chose “Rebbi Akiva Eiger” not all of the gedolim of yesteryear who were all bigger than his teenage self…this is because Rav Boruch Ber saw Rebbi Akiva Eiger’s maylos were by him in a microcosmic personal way. Rav Boruch Ber saw this concept of the “taryag” in action. He saw the “taryag” of Rebbi Akiva Eiger speak to his personal “taryag.” We can do this with one mayla at a time and see how we are a living Torah expression right now. And then work on growing in that area.
Western and Eastern Civilization
Only Torah can do this.
Let us take a look at the two wrong ways that famous world civilizations approach the building of a person:
In Conclusion
This is our work ahead of us. Let us try to do it with bein adam lechaveiro. Let us try to cast a mayla upon our neighbor and see what emerges. We will discover that each person is actually multifaceted. So many things we would not expect to show up, surprise us by showing up!