Establishing Importance

Establishing Importance

In the last vaad we explained that the first step of teshuva is to understand that we are obligated to change in a certain midda.

Obligation always emerges from something which is important.

“Importance” is not made by the emotions

We mistakenly think that “importance” is decided upon by our feelings such that we will say that we “feel” that a specific obligation is important. This is problematic for our avodas Hashem because the “importance” needs to actually be something which has permanence to it, but emotions wear away over time. R’ Yisroel Salanter says in his 30th letter, that hispaylos (being touched by something) is temporary. We will not be able to make a real change in our lives if it is based on something which occurs as important to us through our feelings. 

What makes work important

Many people are deeply engaged in their professions, viewing their work as important. The primary reason professionals see their jobs this way is not due to emotional attachment, but because of the significant consequences tied to their roles. If a contract isn’t fulfilled, the deliverables fall through.

In R’ Shlomo Wolbe’s words: “People are working so hard because they are caught in the net of ramifications.”

The battle of the imagination

R’ Yisroel begins his famous letter to the masses “there is a fundamental struggle that man has, which is between his intellect and his imagination.” Imagination takes something and turns it into the most desirable and important thing. For example, the desire to be rich is an “imagination,” we ignore all the ramifications of being rich which we do not want such as the responsibilities towards others, and all we see is the money aspect of being rich. The imagination functions unrealistically by making one aspect important and all the other aspects fade away.

Another example we are familiar with, is a young man who wants a beautiful wife. His imagination magnifies the aspect of her beauty and fades out the other aspects such as how she won’t be taking care of the kids when they are crying because she will be busy applying makeup to herself, or how she will be buying a new pair of shoes every Monday and Thursday. These are clearly things the young man does not want in his wife. Yet his power of imagination makes it such that he glosses over those issues.

The intellect on the other hand holds everything in its proper weight and see’s all of the aspects.

Imagination can even isolate a person from their future. The power of imagination has a person think “right now I will take pleasure for myself, and my future in this world and the next I am not able to focus on.” When adolescent boys go on vacation, they claim the reason they are taking a vacation is because they need a break to unwind. Then they say that a vacation means to have a thrilling experience! They are blind to the fact that these thrilling adventurous experiences are the opposite of the very purpose of vacation which they say they need so badly! 

Vacation’s purpose is so that we can go back to work more relaxed. Yet a thrilling roller coaster-bungee-jumping trip means that when we go back to work we will not be able to focus! 

The battle of the intellect

This is a very deep concept we cannot go into in too much depth right now. The main takeaway is that the opposite force within us is the “intellect.” 

R’ Yisroel says there is a “battle” between the intellect and imagination. This means they are fighting over the same thing. The intellect gives importance to something through us contemplating its ramifications. That thing is “what should be important.” As opposed to the imagination,

Our conclusion of this whole discussion is that our avodas Hashem needs to have a flavor of importance specifically from the intellect. When we see through the intellect that our avoda has ramifications then it will not wear off as feelings do.

Working to see the ramification of the avoda

When we want to work on a topic in avodas Hashem we must first look at what the ramifications of the obligation are. This is as opposed to saying “I am so inspired about this area of avoda so I am going to make a change!”  

A foundational point in avodas Hashem therefore is to not take action immediately due to inspiration. I will tell you a personal story that happened to me when I was learning a piece in Chochma U’mussar with my rebbi, R’ Shlomo Wolbe;

In the piece, the Alter from Kelm says that he was with R’ Yisroel Salanter and R’ Yisroel said something which overthrew all of the Alter from Kelm’s working frameworks in life such that “one who understands what R’ Yisroel said needs to change his entire life.”

The Alter from Kelm continues and gives us the key to hearing the message. The Alter from Kelm says “I Boruch Hashem did understand what R’ Yisroel was saying because I do not act upon what I understand.” In other words, “since I am not going to change immediately, I am able to understand it.”

R’ Shlomo Wolbe and I read the rest of the piece wherein the Alter from Kelm speaks out what it was which R’ Yisroel Salanter said. We looked at each other and shrugged “its pashut! (obvious stuff)” we ironically and humbly concluded, smiling[1].

So what comes out for us to succeed in avodas Hashem is that we first need to determine what ramifications we want the avoda to have. For example, by tefila it would be “when I daven I see the pull of the world is weakened on me.” As opposed to “my goal is that I daven with complete concentration.” Of course, we have to also acknowledge the ramification on the other side, such as losing time and money by dedicating more time to tefila. But the key is that we need to come out deciding that the positive ramifications of the mitzvah have more weight! This is what chazal mean when they say “weigh the benefit of the mitzvah with the loss of the mitzvah.” Not the focus on the loss of Olam Haba, but rather the focus on the loss in Olam Hazeh! The pasuk says on this “come make a cheshbon” this cheshbon is of course made in the intellect. As we said previously, the imagination only sees one thing and is unable to make this intellectual weighing between the two sides.

So our first step is our analytical and conceptual approach to avodas Hashem. Giving it weight through the intellect, not from the feelings of it. This is earnest avodas Hashem, and one which will be lasting. Ultimately, the emotions will stem from the intellect and therein they will have more staying power.

This is Teshuva!

R’ Yisroel Salanter defines a Baal Teshuva as someone who reaches a point that they recognize they have hit rock bottom and need to make a change in their lives. This is the stage we find ourselves in with our avoda today. Of course, after this realization, the next critical step is to translate it into a concrete small action. In the upcoming vaadim, we will explore how to take the next step and build from this foundation.

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[1] Editor’s Note: The above story is discussed in detail in the shiur “Learning and Application of Mussar (2014-2015): 08 – We have to find a way how to THINK about Mussar” and in the shiur “Cheshbon Hanefesh 14 (2008-2009)”