How to Keep the Kabolo Ketano

Working With the Prevailing Cultural Currents

There was a time when the mashgiach was dealing with American bochurim and yungerliet in Eretz Yisrael.  There was a principle that came up again-and-again and that is the principle of pragmatism.  Americans are b’etzem a pragmatic people and that culture has really spread to much of the Western world.  As a pragmatic people, the bottom line is just “doing what has to get done.”  Simply do whatever it takes to get the job done.  

When it comes to their avodas Hashem or their Torah, however Americans are very frum, yet we don’t find that they are calling upon that pragmatism.  The mashgiach had a strong objection to this phenomenon because he felt that one must use their own cultural background for avodas Hashem and this was simply not turning-up.  We find, for example, that Rav Hirsch zt’l was very much into the German culture and their notion of “fulfilling one’s duties.”   Indeed, he based his Chorev largely on those notions that were very much engrained in the German culture.

People are expected to approach their avodah together with the keilim that are available to humanity at that time.  For us in today’s day and age, that means we are all pragmatic people.  The problem is that we seemingly don’t incorporate that pragmatism into avodah.

Approaching Teshuvah In a Pragmatic Way

Although being chozer b’teshuvah requires a lot of work, there is a very simple and pragmatic way to approach that avodah.  In a previous va’ad, we analyzed the Rambam (in hilchos teshuvah)  and realized that the avodas ha’teshuvah is based not according to minyan, but rather according to godel.  And that godel was measured by the degree to which Hashem is entering your life.  That entrance into your life is primarily through two middas:  ahavah  and yirah.  Ahavah, we explained, is when one happily allows Hashem to guide one’s life.  This was the essential background to the understand the importance of keeping up the kabbalah katanah, because otherwise your life simply won’t give any space for the Borei Olam to enter.

Another common mistake regarding the notion of a kabbalah katanah is as follows:  We decide upon a certain conduct and decide to follow-through with it no matter what and, if we find that we were able to keep that kabbalah katanah through thick and thin, then we feel that we did the ultimate teshuvah on this specific ma’aseh katan.  This conclusion is wrong.  It is flawed because it is still going according to minyan.  Even if one commits to do one thing, that one thing is still operating according to minyan which, we explained in the earlier va’ad, is not the way the Borei Olam counts.  

The point of the kabbalah katanah is not that you can make a “check” on your calendar everyday that you do it.  Rather, the point is that it creates a constant work for us to keep that small place “clean” such that the Borei Olam should be able to enter.  Hence, if you fail one day in keeping your kabbalah that doesn’t mean that either you or your kabbalah was a failure.  To the contrary, the point of kabbalah is that every single day, in a very sincere way, you are called upon to deal with that specific thing.

In working to keep our kabbalah, we are likely to encounter all different types of difficulties coming-up along the way.  Challenges with middos.  Challenges with ma’asim.  Encounters with our techunos ha’nefesh.  And since we are committed to our kabbalah, we are forced to deal with all these matters as they present themselves.   Facing these challenges will reveal to you the place where you want Hashem to enter your life.

And that’s what we do throughout the year – we try and keep that place clean for the Borei Olam.   That’s your kabbalah and that’s called being chozer b’teshuvah.  You were successful not because you kept up one thing, but rather because through this dynamic thing, you let the Borei Olam enter your life — and guide your life — in this one area.

Approaching the Kabbalah Katanah in a Pragmatic Way

Let’s consider one example where people approach their kabbalah in the wrong way.  Let’s say one undertakes to write down their learning for twenty minutes a day.  The goal is to keep this on a very pragmatic level.  It’s not a matter of seeing what else comes up and then focusing on those other things.  For instance, if one finds himself distracted, he thinks, “Now I see I need to work on rikuz machshava.”  This is a mistake.  The only thing you have to work on is writing down those chidushei Torah for twenty minutes.  Nothing more.  

Why not?  Because those twenty minutes is what gives the Borei Olam a place to enter your life.  The self-work, then, lies davka there – within those twenty minutes.  We have to hold onto this pragmatic approach to self-work rather than confronting the personality flaws that come up – whether it pertains to menuchas ha’nefesh or rikuz machshava or seder or nosei b’ohl – and then trying to become a specialist in those particular areas.  When we do that, we make the big mistake.  We leave our pragmatism behind and we become overly-intellectual instead.

Working in this pragmatic way steers us clear of other mehalchim that simply don’t work.  Working with yiras shamayaim and contemplating the onesh for the lavan as opposed to the techelis doesn’t work.   Being misbonen on our middos and producing some cheshbon ha’nefesh as to our best middos or worst middos – who is doing that?  Even if one were to do that, who could say they are even partly sure they are on track?  Many times people come to me with their own perception of their “best” middah or their “worst” middah and the are way off.  Sitting around in our armchair and being misbonein on our middos will not be effective.  We are pragmatic people and need to use that pragmatism in our avodas Hashem and our kabbalah katanah is exactly that – a pragmatic approach to reaching that which we would like to accomplish.  

This, in sum, is the first step in the sugya – to give the Borei Olam an entrance into your life and to be guided by Him in the context of keeping to our kabbalah katanah.  And we are accomplishing this not in a spooky way; but rather in a very pragmatic way of simply arranging oneself for those twenty minutes.  

Allowing Hashem to Guide you Via Halacha

There is a ha’gos  on the Even Shleimah of the Gra that says one of the biggest reasons why people don’t keep halacha is because they don’t learn properly.  When one hasn’t learned properly, then everything is asur.  So, for example, in hilchos ribbis, people think that everything is asur and, as a result, end up violating a d’oraisa. Yet, if you would be a talmid chacham, then you would find a way how to do this particular transaction b’heter.  

The pshat in that statement is as follows:  when you learn the halacha properly, you can accept that Hashem is guiding your business – and that He guides it in His way.  When you are really knowledgeable, you will find that you can do business the way Hashem wants you to.  

This explains how learning Hashem’s Torah will produce ahavas Hashem.  As you learn more and more, you see more and more that the ratzon Hashem is not against your life; but rather goes together with your life.  You can let yourself can be guided by ratzon Hashem and your life will be livable.  This is the classical way to ahavas Hashem.  

Hinging the Kabbalah Katanah to a Mitzvah; Not a Middah

When it comes to keeping to one’s kabbalah katanah it is important to keep the focus on one’s mitzvahs as opposed to the surrounding middos one may encounter along the way.  When you let your life be guided by Hashem, for example, during those twenty minutes it should be in a very pragmatic way.  Sticking with a pragmatic way will change you and you will turn over into a different person.  

Yes, you will have to work on your middos – but not in the way we traditionally think.  We usually make some sort of self-analysis and identify some flaw — like achriyus or something  — and then look around our lives in a global way “where could I be makayim this terrible flaw of achriyus?”  This is an idealistic way of thinking.  We understand we cannot reach a stage of absolute achriyus in just one year so we take that big ideal called being an achriyus-dika person and concentrate that entire lofty ideal into one little action.  We hope that this little action will somehow burn through my heart and then I will become that achriyus-dika person I hope to be.  

This is a very non-pragmatic way of thinking.  This idealistic approach wants me to be something.  Be a savlan.  Be a ba’al achriyus.  No.  This is wrong.  You don’t have to be anything.  You can take all of these concepts at face value and simply do the mitzvah.  Simply do the ratzon Hashem via your kabala katanah.  You will then see with your very own eyes how happy we are that we have mitzvahs.  For without mitzvahs, no one would guide our life and we’d be left with a very cheap mehalach towards becoming a more refined person.  No ratzon Hashem would show-up at all; but only a list of aspects of the adam ha’shaleim.  A list of achriyus and savlonus and chesed and emes.  We take one thing on that list and since we can’t get to the whole thing, we’ll resign ourselves to just doing a ma’aseh katan.  This is wrong.

Idealism simply doesn’t get the job done.  How often do I hear people suggesting that all we should do is work on character refinement? “Why don’t we learn two sederim of mussar and one seder of Mishna Breurah,” they ask.  This perspective stems from an idealistic picture of what a human being could be.  But it is not pragmatic and goes against our cultural pragmatic mindset.  Without tying our growth into mitzvahs it will just remain a totally fluid endeavor.  

Rather we have to forge ahead in a pragmatic way.  Torah.  Mitzvahs.  I simply have to write Torah down or make it clearer via writing.  Let us continue on with this practical ma’aseh and see what will be with those twenty minutes.  Let’s see what things will show up during those 20 minutes.  You can and will meet yourself during the course of those 20 minutes.  You will find lacks in achriyus.  You will find defects in nosei b’ohl because you’ll find yourself not really caring if anyone will understand what you wrote.  Be that as it may, don’t venture onto that list.  Stay pragmatic and simply work on those 20 minutes.  You will definitely experience change and you will find that you can grow and develop in different areas.  For within that very practical undertaking you will encounter a whole world of middos and a whole universe of avodah. You will have the opportunity to bring ahavah and yirah into this kabbalah katanah.  And you can use this kabbalah katanah to reach many aspects of your avodas Hashem. 

Conclusion

The importance of the kabbalah katanah lie in the fact that it is a simple action – for example, writing down our Torah or having kavanah I the first bracha of Shemone Esrei  – and growing from all the different kinds of middos and kochos we have to contend with whenever we deal with them around this small ma’aseh.  When we keep up the kabbalah katanah, then, we will have a pesach that we can reach Yom Kippur in a manner that we were chozer b’teshuvah.  By connecting to a concrete mitzvah — as opposed to an idealistic middah — we will consistently find realms where work is called for.  Even if we are not successful on occasion, it doesn’t mean we failed; rather it just means we have discovered another area to work through.   We will find, via this small, practical ma’aseh the ahavas Hashem is guiding your life.  For these reasons, sticking to one’s kabbalah katanah in a practical way is one of the most important things one can focus upon before Yom Kippur and is an approach that will definitely enable one to be chozer b’teshuvah.