The Power of Seder
One of the remarkable virtues of seder is this: a person immersed in an orderly process cannot be disturbed or distracted. He is wholly absorbed in the progression. Understanding that any interruption or lapse of attention may divert him from his course, he does not allow himself to deviate from the seder in which he is engaged.
The Toil of Building a Process
We learn this from the words of Chazal (Sanhedrin 99b): “‘Man is born for toil’ (Iyov 5:7) — I do not know whether he was created for the toil of the mouth or for the toil of labor. When it says, ‘For his mouth urges him on’ (Mishlei 16:26), we must conclude that he was created for the toil of the mouth. Yet I still do not know whether this refers to the toil of Torah or to the toil of conversation. When it says, ‘This sefer haTorah shall not depart from your mouth’ (Yehoshua 1:8), we must conclude that he was created for the toil of Torah.”
The words of the Gemara give rise to a difficulty: Why would we have supposed that the verse refers to the toil of physical labor at all?
It would seem, then, that the toil spoken of here is not the kind that breaks the body, but rather the toil of building a process, step by step. From here we learn that when a person toils to place himself within a seder and a process, nothing can disturb him or draw him away from his course. This is a ma’alah that sanctifies a person in a remarkable way, for during that time no aveirah can enter and divert him from his path.
Indeed, even when the Gemara concludes that the verse does not refer to the toil of labor, it does not retract the principle that the pursuit must be one of “toil.” Rather, it must be toil of the mouth in Torah, as opposed to toil of the hands or toil of conversation. The essence of this toil is to arrange one’s speech and actions into a clear process, step by step, so that no other consideration can intrude while the process is underway.
Why Spiritual Endeavor Requires Deliberate Structure
With the toil of physical labor this is far simpler, for it is the nature of work to draw a person into a process from which he cannot deviate. A laborer engaged in painting understands that he cannot stop in the middle of his work to attend to something else until he has completed the process, and so it is with nearly every type of work. In ruchniyus, however, this is not rooted in the natural order of things, and we are easily distracted from the avodah.
We find this in the words of Chazal (Shabbos 31a): “When a person is brought in for judgment, he is asked: Did you conduct your business affairs faithfully? Did you set aside fixed times for Torah?” And Rashi explains: “Since a person must occupy himself with derech eretz — for without derech eretz there is no Torah — he was required to set aside fixed times for Torah, a defined measure, so that he should not be drawn after derech eretz all day long.”
Here we may ask: Why is the primary obligation not to discuss words of Torah, with only the setting of fixed times applying to business itself? We must conclude that in the realm of business it is not feasible merely to set fixed times, because derech eretz is, in the words of the Mashgiach, Rav Wolbe, “a web of obligations.” As such, it draws a person into constant preoccupation, leaving no room for anything else to enter.
Such is the reality of derech eretz: it is inherently all-consuming, and therefore one cannot merely set fixed times for it, for it is a continuous process. In ruchniyus, however, this is not the case, and so a person must devise a strategy — a way to create for himself a process and a toil, at least for a defined period — in which he is entirely immersed in a seder and process, with no ability to deviate from it toward other matters. Such a process has the power to sanctify a person, since throughout its course no aveirah can penetrate.
Building Our Own Process
Indeed, we saw in the previous essay that such a progression can be built into the tefillah of Shemoneh Esrei by recognizing that it is structured as a long and continuous process. Upon reflection, however, we see that there we
are in fact compelled to build a process, for there is no possibility of stopping or interrupting in the middle of the tefillah. It is, in a sense, an artificially imposed process that obligates us to adhere to a seder. What we must clarify is how we can build such a process on our own, even where there is no external compulsion.
Ordinarily, when we do not want anything to disturb us in the midst of a spiritual endeavor, it is only because we magnify the value of what we are engaged in, claiming that it is so important that it cannot be interrupted. Thus, our discomfort at being disturbed during learning stems from the importance of the learning, and not from our being situated in a reality of process in which nothing can possibly enter.
If we wish to merit the virtue of seder in ruchniyus, we must build a process — at least for a brief and defined period — in which nothing can disturb us by virtue of the very fact that we are within a process, precisely as in the toil of labor, without needing external constraints to compel it. Such a process can be built in any area of ruchniyus, including bein adam lechaveiro. When a friend needs us to speak with him, we can construct in our minds an orderly process of what to say first and what to say afterward. And when we learn to build such toil and process properly, nothing will be able to enter, and through this we will merit to elevate and sanctify our lives.