Jewish audio on Chabad.org. This class is presented by Rabbi Leibel Schapiro. Rabbi Leibel Schapiro, a noted Talmudic scholar, is the Dean of the Yeshiva Gedolah Rabbinical College of Greater Miami, the rabbi of Congregation Beis Menachem, and a community leader in Miami Beach, Florida. Today actually I chose a topic which is going to be pretty light and no chidushim, as we call it, nothing new, things that everyone knows, and just to go through some, a few some points that anybody who learned a little bit, especially learned a little bit of Chassidus, knows simply these inyanim. But it is because we are now in the weeks of פרשת יתרו and פרשת משפטים. Last week was Yisro, this week is Mishpatim, which deals with מתן תורה, השם gave us the Torah, and that's when we became obligated to learn Torah and do all the mitzvot. So the subject that I thought to speak about was the Torah's advice, or the approach of Torah, how to be motivated to learn Torah and do mitzvot, because even people who know that this is the right thing to do, nevertheless, sometimes we feel that it's a burden upon us to do it, and sometimes we don't feel motivated to do it, and we try to be yotzei with the minimum that we're able to do. So what is it that we could think about that will motivate us to learn Torah more and to do more mitzvot and to feel more that we we should try and grow and grow and go higher and higher? Now, just as a starter, the lack of motivation generally comes, and by the way, this is not going to be a psychology class, I'm not a psychologist, I don't know anything about it, it's just things that it says in Torah and ספרים of what to think about, of what would bring a person to be more motivated to learn and daven and do mitzvot, etc. Usually the lack of motivation is because you are uninterested in what you're doing, something that you do something that you're not satisfied with, you do something that doesn't give you any satisfaction, you do something that you don't enjoy, you do something that you're not happy about, so then you're not motivated to do it. So you do the minimum, and the rest that you don't have to do, you don't do, and even things that you do have to do, sometimes you don't do because you don't feel good about it. You just say, \"I'm not in the mood of doing it,\" and you just don't do it. So in order to be motivated to do something, it is when you enjoy what you're doing, and it is if you are happy in what you're doing. And therefore, in our case, in order to be motivated to learn Torah and do mitzvot, and doing mitzvot includes doing what you're supposed to and, God forbid, not doing something that you're not allowed to do, is if you feel happy and satisfied about what you're doing, which is the reason why we find that שמחה של מצוה is so important. We know that to do the mitzvot is very important, to learn Torah is very important, but we also find that שמחה של מצוה, to be happy in doing a mitzvah and be happy in learning Torah, is also very important. We know it says, עבדו את ה' בשמחה, serve Hashem with simcha. The Rambam says in the end of Hilchot Lulav, he says that שמחה של מצוה עבודה גדולה היא. To be happy when you do a mitzvah is a great avodah. Now, we know it is very important to do the mitzvot, but why is it so important to do the mitzvot with simcha? And if a person does it without simcha, so what's so what's wrong, as long as he does the mitzvot? So there are many reasons why שמחה של מצוה is so important. Actually, it says that the Arizal reached these high levels that the Arizal reached, I mean, whatever we think of a greatest tzaddik possible, we always think of the Arizal, it says that he reached his level through simcha shel mitzvah, because he had the simcha when he did mitzvot. So there are many reasons given, but one of the reasons is because if you have simcha shel mitzvah, if you have simcha when you do a mitzvah, then you will do the mitzvah much better, you will do the mitzvah much more בהידור, and you will try to your best, you will not do the minimum, but you will do the maximum, and go higher and higher, and you will always do it, and you will never not be motivated, and you will never push it away and not do it, because you're happy about what you do. And that's why Chassidus stresses very much the importance of being b'simcha, generally speaking, but especially when you do a mitzvah. And we know in Chassidus that עצבות, being sad or depressed, is one of the biggest aveirot. They have a saying from the Baal Shem Tov, some say it's from other tzaddikim, that there are two things: one of them is not an aveirah, but it could lead you to the worst aveirot, and one is not a mitzvah, but it could lead you to the greatest mitzvot. The mitzvah part, he says the they said was mikveh, even though there is no mitzvah for a man to go to the mikveh, but if you go to the mikveh, it could cleanse you, and it makes you reach levels, and it brings you to many mitzvot. And the negative thing was עצבות. To be sad and be depressed is not an aveirah. It doesn't say anywhere in the תורה אסור להיות בעצבות, you're not allowed to be sad. But he said if you don't have the simcha, then it could lead you to the worst aveirot, because if you don't have the simcha and you don't enjoy what you're doing, you're not happy with what you're doing, then not necessarily that you would do it. So תורת חסידות stresses it very much, and this is one of the things that motivates a person when you are b'simcha in what you do. Now, what makes a person be b'simcha when he learns Torah and does mitzvot? Why should he be happy? So one of the things there is, is if you look at the purpose of why you learn Torah and why you do mitzvot, which means when you look a little bit beyond the actual act of what you do. When you look only at what you do, as is, at that moment, then sometimes it's very hard, and then you just don't feel like doing it. Sometimes you don't feel like you enjoy it, and why should you do it? But if you look a little bit further, and you look at the goal, you look at the purpose of Torah and mitzvot, so then, and you see how important that is, that gives you the energy and that gives you the understanding that it's so important that you'll be glad to do it. Imagine if someone would be told, you do this, and even though to you it doesn't seem that's important or it's not so easy to do, and they tell you, but by doing this, you're going to get a million dollars. So even though the actual act doesn't motivate you to do it, but looking a little bit broader, a little bit further, that itself will motivate you that you'll want to do it. And nothing will stand in your way because you know that this is going to bring you something very, very special. So if we look at Torah and mitzvot and we see that this is going to bring something very special, accomplish something very great, so great as I will explain in a moment, so automatically, this will make that you will be happy in what you do because you know that you're accomplishing something special.

This is basically what the Gemara says. The Gemara says in תמיד, איזהו חכם הרואה את הנולד. See, in Pirkei Avot, it says something else. In Pirkei Avot, it says איזהו חכם הלומד מכל אדם. Who's a chacham? Somebody who learns from all people. But in Masechet Tamid, it says איזהו חכם, who's a smart man? הרואה את הנולד, who sees what will be born, which means he sees the future. Now, it doesn't mean that you have to be a navi to know the future. What it means is that who's a chacham? Somebody who looks at things not just the way it seems at the moment, superficially at what you're doing, but look a little bit beyond, you look what this is going to bring you. What is the goal, what is the purpose of what you're doing? And if you look then, then you will be a chacham. And then, you will be smart to realize that what you're doing is so important and so special that you'll be motivated to do it, and there will be no question that you're going to do it wholeheartedly and you're going to do it to the best of your ability. In other words, the problem why people would not be motivated to do mitzvot, or not, God forbid, to do aveirot, is when you look at the now, you look at the way it looks now. This is actually from the beginning on, from the beginning of the first day of creation, from the first sin which was done by Chava and Adam Harishon when they ate from the עץ הדעת. It says, what happened there? She looked at the tree, and she saw כי נחמד הוא למראה וכי תאוה הוא לעינים, that it looks beautiful, it looks geshmak, and it looks shmak to eat. So, with the convincing of the nachash, she ate from it, because she looked at the now, now it looks good and it's geshmak, so why not eat it? Had she looked a little bit further and seen what this could cause, the tzarot and the problems that this would bring by eating, and the positive accomplishment would come if she wouldn't eat it, then it wouldn't come to it. And it says in many sefarim that this teaches us for the whole future that many of the problems come because you look at what it looks now. Just to use as an example: non-kasher food looks geshmak, you'll eat it. If you look at the way it looks now, you'll eat it. If kasher food doesn't look so geshmak, you won't eat it. Matzah doesn't look so good on Pesach, you don't like it, you don't eat it. But if you look a little bit further and see what you will accomplish and what Hashem wants to do this, so then it'll bring a person to be motivated to do the right thing and not do the wrong thing. It says in פרקי אבות, חמשה תלמידים היו לו לרבן יוחנן בן זכאי. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai had five talmidim. הוא היה מונה שבחם, and he mentioned the special qualities that each one had. And then it says he asked each one to give a lesson, to say some things, something, give a lesson to the people what should do. And the mefarshim say that each one, the lesson that he gave was connected to his special quality. One of the people, one of the talmidim, one of the five talmidim, was Rav Shimon ben Netanel. And it says Rav Shimon ben Netanel, what was his ma'alah? His ma'alah was ירא חטא. Yerei chet means he feared sin, which means he was a ירא שמים, a very special yerei shamayim, God-fearing Jew, but special in a very special way. And he did everything in the proper way. If you want to use the words, he was motivated to do everything right. Then when Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai asked him, what is your lesson that you give to people? So he said, הרואה את הנולד. He said that you have to see the nolad. You have to see what this will bring. And when you see what this will bring, this brings you to be a ירא חטא. This makes you be afraid to do an aveirah, but it doesn't mean afraid afraid of being punished, afraid means having the proper yirat shamayim and doing the right thing. And the Rebbe is medayek here that it doesn't even say yerei shamayim, he was afraid of שמים, ירא השם, he was afraid of Hashem, which is true. Why does it say ירא חטא? Because the word chet has another meaning. The word chet doesn't only mean sin, chet means missing. There's a pasuk it says, והייתי אני ובני שלמה חטאים, it means missing. Every time a person does something wrong, he misses out, as I will explain soon, in accomplishing what he's supposed to do. And in order to be afraid of that, you have to see the future. You have to realize that what you will do will bring something so special that therefore you're afraid not to do it, and you're afraid to transgress what you're not allowed to do, and you're afraid to miss out in what you're supposed to do. The truth is that many of us know, we know all of it, and what I'm, like I said before, what I'm speaking tonight is very simple and everyone knows it, and we all know what I'm going to explain, what it means to do a mitzvah, what it accomplishes, and nevertheless, it doesn't necessarily motivate us always to therefore run and do mitzvot and be sure that we don't, chas veshalom, do anything wrong. Now I'll tell you why. The expression here, this is a pasuk and also in the words of Rav Shimon ben Netanel, is הרואה את הנולד, to see the future. It doesn't say להבין את הנולד, to understand what the future is, what the outcome will be. It doesn't say לידע, to know. It says לראות את הנולד, to see. Seeing is different than understanding. We always learn this in sefarim, says אינה דומה שמיעה לראיה. Hearing, and hearing also includes understanding, is not the same as seeing. When you understand something, it is not really, really 100% clear in your mind. You heard it, you understand it, but if somebody will come and disprove it, all you're going to say is, right, you proved me wrong, I admit I was wrong. But if someone saw something, saw it with his own eyes, and somebody will come and prove it to him, prove him wrong, he's not going to change his mind, he's not going to admit. All he's going to say is, you have a very good question, but what should I do? I saw it myself. And whatever he saw is going to stay with his in his mind, that's going to stay with him. So seeing means something that is so clear in your mind that nothing could change it. So when it says here, איזהו חכם הרואה את הנולד, which is based on the pasuk actually, החכם עיניו בראשו, but the expression is הרואה, sees the future, it means that to see the result of your mitzvot and the result, God forbid, of your aveirot, you have to see it in order that it should have the effect that because of that, you will become a ירא חטא and you will be motivated to do it. In other words, we have to really think about it, and we would say, araynklapn zikh in kop, to really bang it into our head, it should be clear in our mind, in Yiddish we would say, es zol zayn afgeleygt. Afgeleygt means not only to understand, it should be very clear to our mind that this is true. And if we have that, then there are no two ways about it, you will definitely come to be a ירא חטא. You will definitely come to do the mitzvot and not do aveirot, because the result and the goal of what these aveirot could bring, chas veshalom, and what the mitzvot bring, are so so clear in your mind that it brings it, makes it so important, and it makes you happy in doing what you are doing, and therefore, you will definitely be motivated.

Now, what is it, what is the goal, what is the purpose of doing mitzvot? What does it accomplish? And again, very simple things, this is everything that we know. The der Eibershter created the world, and He created us human beings, sent us down to this world, sent a neshamah down to this world, and He gave us a mission. Now, why He wanted this, why He needed the creation of the world, why He needed the people here and give them a mission that He is looking for them to fulfill, we will never know. It's impossible to know, because it's something beyond our understanding, and it's more than just beyond our understanding, it's something not in the category of understanding at all. Beyond our understanding would mean that it's so deep that our small mind can't understand it. It's not that. It's something that is completely beyond the level that would fall into the category of being able to understand or not to understand. And I'm not going to go into it. In other classes, I explained why it's referred to as a תאוה, נתאווה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem had a desire to make a world and want the Yidden to come into the world and make a dwelling place for Him here. And they asked the Alter Rebbe, why did He want to do it? And he said the expression is, a ta'avah, oyf a taaveh fregt men nisht kein kashe. On a desire, you can't ask questions. And what it meant was that this is something so is so essential within Hashem that is beyond understanding. It's not any reason that we could think of. In other words, there is no \"because.\" If you ask a question why or you say \"because,\" it means that there is something that had to happen, meaning in other words that if it wouldn't be, there would be something lacking. We can't say that by Hashem. So, therefore, it's not because of anything. It's just It's just the way Hashem wanted it, and that's it, whatever it is. So, we don't know why, but we do know what. We know what He wanted. He gave us a mission in this world. \"I'm putting you into this world, and I want you to do what?\" He gave us a Torah, gave us mitzvot, and He says, \"This is your mission.\" And the truth is the mission is not only when we learn Torah and do mitzvot. Every moment of our life is part of our mission, because every moment of our life, even when we're not involved in learning Torah and doing mitzvot, is also part of our being here, which was sent by Hashem for a purpose. So, every moment of our life, there is a mission that we have to accomplish, whether it's learning Torah, doing mitzvot, or בכל דרכיך דעהו, when we do our own things, when we're eating and drinking. If that's the way Hashem made the nature that we should do it, we have to do it as part of our mission, that we should do it the proper way. So, we have a mission that we have to accomplish. And the mission is so important not only for us, that if we don't accomplish our mission, then there was no purpose in us coming down to this world. This is our essential metziut. Our being is here because of this mission that Hashem gave us. But not only that, this mission is so important for the klal, for the whole creation of the whole world as a whole. In other words, Hashem created a world, and all the different people in the world, different parts of the creation, are all part of one big puzzle. And when everyone fulfills his mission, then all the parts come together, and then the general ta'avah of Hashem, so to speak, desire of Hashem, will come to its to its completion. So, everyone is important not only for himself, for Klal Yisrael and for Hashem Himself! Because if one person is missing, then it affects everybody. Like a Sefer Torah. A Sefer Torah has so many letters, 305,000 letters, and if one letter is pasul, it's not only that letter is pasul, and you can't read that pasuk, the whole Sefer Torah is pasul. So, if someone would, God forbid, scratch off a letter, he can't say, \"Well, so all I did, I scratched off one letter. So, one week in that one aliyah, that pasuk, he couldn't read.\" You can't read the Sefer Torah at all! It affects the whole Sefer Torah. The same thing here: every person's mission in the world is part of the general mission Hashem gave to the whole creation, and by doing the right thing, you fulfill your purpose in life and the purpose of Hashem's creation, you are part of it, and if, God forbid, not, you affect everything. The famous mashal, this is the elementary mashal that everyone knows, with the guy who was in the boat and he made a hole under his seat and they asked him, \"What are you doing?\" He said, \"Well, I paid for my seat, so I could do what I want to my seat.\" Yeah, but your seat is part of a whole ship, and if you let the water come in your seat, the whole thing is going to sink! So, the same thing with us. I remember once the Rebbe spoke about this, and he gave another mashal. It was actually I could tell you when it was: it was the Shabbos the first time they sent a rocket to the moon that it reached the moon. And the Rebbe, as he always did, anything that happened in the world of significance, the Rebbe would speak about it and learn a lesson in עבודת השם, based on the vort of the Baal Shem Tov that anything that a Yid sees and hears in this world is to teach him a lesson in serving Hashem. Otherwise, Hashem wouldn't make him see it or Hear it. Certainly when there are major things that happened in the world. So the Rebbe would very often talk about these things. So that Shabbos, I remember the Rebbe spoke about it and took many lessons out of this inyan of sending the rocket to the moon. But one of the things I remember that he said was that this project, he said, cost billions of dollars, and they sent up the rocket, and in the rocket they had everything planned exactly what you're supposed to do. Every one of the astronauts was given a schedule when he's supposed to walk, when he's supposed to sit, and when he's supposed to stand, and when he's supposed to eat, and when he's supposed to tie his shoe, and you can't go out of your schedule. Everything is exact. So the Rebbe said one of these guys could say, \"What difference does it make? So I'll tie my shoe a little bit later, and I'll I'll move here, I'll move there. They're small things.\" So if he would do that, not only would he jeopardize his own what he's supposed to do that little thing, he would jeopardize his own mission, the mission of the rest, the whole project, the billions of dollars that they've put in. So every small thing counts for everything. So the Rebbe said this is one of the lessons we take from it. There were many more lessons that the Rebbe learned out from this this inyan. But if a person thinks in this way, that doing what Hashem wants him to do is so important that this is his little maaseh that he's going to do is important for the whole purpose of the creation of the world. If that's so important, so then a person would be happy to do it, because this is his whole metzius. Imagine if a person gets something that he likes. It's not his whole life, but something that he likes, he's happy. And if he knows if he'll do something, he'll get what he likes, it'll motivate him to do it. Here you're not getting something that you like. You this is fulfilling your whole essential being of why you're here in this world. So then, how could it be anything else? This is the פשט הרואה את הנולד, that you see the future, that if you real a person realizes that learning Torah and doing mitzvos is so important, this will make him the happiest person to do it. And when you're the happiest person to do it, then you do it to the best of your ability and you do it not the minimum, but the maximum, and that motivates you. They have a famous mashal given in the מוסר ספרים, the mashal of once there's a person walking up a mountain, it's a famous mashal, everyone knows it, walking up a mountain, carrying a very, very heavy load, and he's walking, sweating in the middle of a hot day, and someone else saw him, and he said, \"I see you're carrying a heavy load. I would like to help you.\" Said, \"Be my guest, certainly. Take it over a little bit. I can't wait to get up there and it's so hard for me, and heavy, and it's...\" Next day, he walked on the same mountain and he saw another person, or the same person walking, carrying, also it looked like the same heavy load, and when he asked him, \"Can I help?\" He said, \"Oh no, I'm not letting you. I'm taking it all by myself.\" So he asked him, \"What's the difference? Why yesterday you asked I asked you to help, and you said yes, and today you said no?\" \"I'll tell you why. Yesterday I was carrying the same load of rocks, and today the same basket, the same load, just as heavy, they're diamonds.\" Rocks, therefore you're not motivated, because there's a shvache purpose, there's not much that you can accomplish by carrying. You have to have it there maybe. But if they're diamonds, you know what you could gain by it. So that made him happy to do it, because he knows what this is going to bring him. So when we realize what Torah u'mitzvos is, this brings the greatest simcha. And if a person doesn't realize what it is, or if a person is not b'simcha, that means that he doesn't understand what's going on. I remember the Rebbe once explained pshat in the Rambam where the Rambam says that שמחה של מצוה עבודה גדולה היא, that to be happy when you do a mitzvah is such a great avodah, he said, because if a person is not happy when you do a mitzvah, that shows that you don't understand what's going on. Because if you'd really understand what a mitzvah is, then how could you not be happy? It's like a person is given a million dollars and he's not happy. So, it's one of the two things: or he just doesn't know what this is, or he's a meshugener. But if he's a normal person, he has to be happy. If a person is not happy when he does mitzvos, and it it means that you don't know what's going on. If a person only is הרואה את הנולד, and knows what the mitzvos bring, what you accomplish, so it's impossible not to be happy. So understanding that you always have this mission and this is what Hashem wants, and this is the greatest thing possible in any possibility, then you have to be b'simcha. This is a pshat, it says in sefarim,

the Rebbe mentioned many times, that the Shulchan Aruch starts Orach Chaim with the first words is שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, which means Hashem is always in front of me. Then the Orach Chaim, Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim finishes with another word in connection to tamid: טוב לב משתה תמיד, which means a person always has to be happy. So here it says שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, that Hashem is תמיד in front of me, and this is טוב לב משתה תמיד. And the expression that the Rebbe used is, these are the שני תמידין. We know that they used to be מקריב, used to sacrifice in the Beit Hamikdash every day, two קרבן תמיד, they're called the שני תמידין. Here we have the two תמידין that go together. First, the beginning and the end. The pshat is that if a person has שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, if always what Hashem wants of you is always in front of you, then you will always be besimcha. If a person realizes that he's here, every moment of his life is here for the purpose of accomplishing what Hashem wants, so then automatically he will be טוב לב משתה תמיד, he will always be happy in being here and doing what Hashem wants him to do. And this pasuk leads us to another point, all along the same lines, and again no chiddushim, no big big inyanim, but another point here. שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד means that Hashem is always with me. שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, the simple translation means, I am keeping Hashem always in front of me, because Hashem is always next to us. And that's another point of motivation, which is basically the same thing, but it's looking at it a little bit differently, the fact realizing that always Hashem is next to us. One of the things that motivates a person to do let's say to do something that you're supposed to do, is if you know let's say if you know that another person is watching what you're doing. All by yourself, eh, so I won't do it. But if someone is watching, then you try to be more careful. It always reminds me when I I told this over many times, but it had such an impression on me, once by a farbrengen before before the Rebbe farbrenged, this those times Yom Tov when you washed, so 770 had thousands of people standing and washing, and the towels, there were no towels. The few towels that were there were soaking wet. So I walked over, my turn to wash, and there was somebody behind me, and I looked around and you know, our minhag is that we take the towel, we take the coat with the towel, I'm looking for a towel. So when I looked around, I took my I looking maybe to take my סירטוק and hold on, my jacket, I'm looking. So the guy behind me says, \"Come on, wash like you wash at home.\" In other words, if other people wouldn't watch you, probably you would, yeah, so you won't have a the האנטוך, you won't have the towel, says, \"Wash like you wash at home.\" But you don't do that. Other people are watching, then you're different. What, should I say anything? Nothing to answer. I used Yeah, with my coat, cause I was after all not at home. No, cause before, I washed. So, and this actually is what the Gemara says in Berachos, that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai before he passed away, his talmidim asked him, \"Give us some some צוואה, some give us some lesson, something, a teaching that you want before you leave.\" So he said, \"Yeah, I'll tell you what my lesson to you is.\" Or if you want to put it in the words of the lines that we're talking about now, what they asked him was, what should we do to motivate us to do the right thing? That's not the words they used, but I'm using it just to make it fit to this discussion. So he answered, \"הלואי שיהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם. Halevai you should be afraid of Hashem like you're afraid of a human being.\" So they asked him, \"Rabbi, that's all? Should be afraid like of Hashem like we're afraid of a person? We can expect to be afraid of Hashem much more than you're afraid of a person.\" So he says, \"Well, I tell you Halevai, that's the way. When you do something you always say הלואי שלא יראני אדם, הלואי that no one should see me. And you're afraid. And if you know someone is watching, you won't do it if it's wrong, and if you're supposed to do something good, something right, and if someone is watching, you'll make sure to do it. Look at Hashem the same way. Look at Hashem is always next to you and watching you, and then you will be motivated to do the right thing, you'll be motivated to learn when you're supposed to, to daven when you're supposed to.\" Like they say this joke, this is a joke and people know make fun of this, they say there's once an eidem, a son-in-law, af kest. In the old days, they used to when you took a son-in-law, you promised him kest. Kest means that you would support him and he would sit and learn for as many years as you promised. So there's this guy that learned for 10 years cause his in-laws promised him kest, so he stayed at their house and he would sit and learn. And since they support him, they expected him to learn into the night. So at night he would sit there. He wasn't so interested in learning, but he would hear his mother-in-law in the kitchen, know walking around, he was in a different room, hear in kitchen, so he would learn, continue learning. After Ten years, he found out that every night it was the cat. So he learned 10 years for the cat. Yeah, but he learned. Why? Because after all, he thought somebody was there. And this is human nature. Human nature is that when somebody is watching you, you feel more that you want to do it. They even would say that they used to laugh at people, they would say there was some person who sat down by תיקון חצות, midnight it was a special tefilah that they would say, and cry for the חורבן בית המקדש, and he would close the shades because you shouldn't do things that other people should see, you should do things in private, be more an anav, and he would leave a little crack hoping somebody peek in, and look in, and then he would see not only that he's a big tzadik doing תיקון חצות, that he's such a big tzadik he's even closing the shades that no one should see. But that's human nature. Or did they say, someone once said, at least let the cat look at me, but somebody should see what I'm doing, it shouldn't be... That's human nature. If we would realize that Hashem is always standing next to me and watching, שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, that gives us energy and motivation that we should do the right thing because we know Hashem is right there. And we believe it! Which one of us doesn't believe that Hashem is next to us? The Gemara says that you have a thief, a גנב who goes to steal, and he's asking Hashem to help him. And he knows Hashem said, \"Don't do it,\" and he believes in Hashem, and he knows Hashem is standing right next to him. The best proof he knows: he's praying to Hashem very quietly. So obviously Hashem can hear him, because if Hashem is far away, how could Hashem hear him? So Hashem hears him because, and he believes Hashem hears him. And he goes to steal! Why? He takeh believes Hashem is next to him, but it's only belief. He does, s'iz nisht opgeleygt, he doesn't see it. Chassidut calls it אמונה בדרך מקיף, you believe, but in a superficial way. It has to be ראיה, you have to see it, meaning mamash as if you see. The same thief, if he will see a policeman come, he'll run away and not steal, because that he saw! But Hashem, he didn't see. It has to be mamash, you have to be sure that Hashem is there like as if you would see Him. That's called שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד, to really, really, really Hashem is next to me. Then you have טוב לב משתה תמיד, then you have the simcha in what you're doing, knowing that you're doing the right thing and Hashem is watching you, so you want to do it properly. It's not only another person watching you, it's Hashem watching you! So then this motivates a person to do it. So it's one thing to realize what is it that when, what do you accomplish when you do תורה ומצוות. The other thing is to know that Hashem is next to you when you do these mitzvot and He's watching what you do, like it says in תניא, הנה השם נצב עליו, השם is standing on him, ומביט עליו, and looking at him, אויב ער דינט כראוי, to see are you doing everything properly. And Hashem is standing there, He knows. Imagine we'd be standing some place and the Rebbe is standing right next to us and watching to see what we do. We would do this to the best of our ability. Imagine standing in front of the Rebbe. The Rebbe once told somebody on yechidus that in th- in this room, or something like that, people refrain from saying lies. You'd never lie in front of the Rebbe, you'd never do things that are wrong. And the Rebbe is only a human being, but such a big tzaddik and he has ruach hakodesh. Imagine when we realize Hashem Himself is standing next to us! But we have to think about it, it doesn't happen by itself. These are things that don't fall into one's mind. Certain things that are gashmiyut, you don't have to work hard to know that it's happening, you just look at it and you see. These are ענינים רוחניים that in order to, זאל זיך אפלייגן, we should really know it's there, we got to really think about it, and think again, and think again, like I said before, אריינקלאפן זיך אין קאפ, to bang it into our head. So then if we come to, after we come to that point, then how is it possible for us to be different? And that adds another point. One of the things that makes a person not really be motivated is when you don't have self-esteem. You don't, you think anyway what I'm, what difference does it make what I'll do? Who am I anyway? My act won't make a difference, so why should I bother myself? If it's easy, it's fine. If it tastes good, it's fine. If it doesn't, who cares? No one cares anyway. It makes no difference because מי אני ומה אני, who am I, and what am I? I'm nothing. And here it says no, שויתי השם לנגדי, Hashem is standing right next to me, and He's looking at me, and He cares about me! Imagine, Hashem Himself went away, as it says in Tanya, from His כסא הכבוד, came down to look at me! In Tanya it gives an example: imagine you'd have a king come down from his throne, and go out into the street, and find a drunk that's rolling in mud, and come over to him, and pick him up, and kiss him, and take him into his palace, and make a big fuss over him. That person would feel so good, it would be impossible for him not to appreciate what Hashem what this king did for him, and it would be impossible for him not to listen to the king and not to do what the king asked of him. It would be impossible. Unless he's not a normal person, but a normal person, impossible. Here, this is exactly what's happening. Hashem cares, stands right next to me, cares what I do, gave me a mission that makes me important that because on me hangs the whole world. Imagine if we'd understand, and on each individual the whole world depends. Like I said before, everyone has his mission, but not only his own personal mission, he's part of the whole mission of the world, and if I don't do mine, the whole world, כאפט א היבער א כפרה, doesn't accomplish. So, you can imagine what it is that I have. So, if you think so then I'm very important. So, this doesn't can't I don't look down at myself, I'm looking up. It doesn't mean you have to become a baal gaavah. See, to become a baal gaavah, that's not the kavanah. There's a big difference between understanding that what I do is important to Hashem and being a baal gaavah. Baal gaavah means that I am in control and I'm important. פארקער, here you're saying the opposite. That my importance is that Hashem gave me importance because He wants me to do something, so it's really Hashem. But I have to remember that He gave me that mission and He made me important. Every Yid, the Baal Shem Tov said, every Yid by Hashem is as beloved as a person who has an only child that was born to him at his old age. You can imagine how you love that child. Hashem loves every Yid much more than that, and cares about every Yid much more than that. So then, what I do is so important, and how could how could I not do it? This is a form of something that this these things in שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד bring a person to be happy in what he does, and therefore, you are motivated. And it's all based on this one thing: רואה את הנולד, to see what is accomplishment, what does is the result of what you do, or, God forbid, of what you don't do.

Bichlal, we know that one of the ways to be motivated, generally speaking, in the psychol- psychological point of view, is when you work with a goal. I see it always, you know, there could be bochurim sometimes that, you know, are not the biggest learners. They could waste time. סדר, they don't really come. When they learn for semichah, same bachurim learn for semichah, learn Yoreh De'ah, they learn day and night. They don't waste time. Why is it? Because there there is a goal. They know they have to get this piece of paper, and they know that they're learning and this is important to them. And when they know that this is important to get, then they'll do everything, and they do it with such energy and they're so motivated to to learn because they know that they're reaching some goal that they want. See, sometimes you see people who the goal doesn't motivate them. For instance, sometimes people are lazy to go to work, they're not they're not interested, they don't enjoy what they're doing, and they know that in order to make a living, you have to go to work. And they're still not motivated. And the reason is only because the goal is not that important either. If you would tell them that you won't make $500 by going to work, you'll make $5,000 by going to work, they'll run. In other words, you could The motivation is all based on how important the goal is to you. And if you know that the goal is very important, if Some people you won't buy with five, but you'll buy with 10,000. This motivation The goal is always for sale. Like they say, a house is always for sale. I remember when I was looking for to buy a house, so passed by a certain house, I asked the agent, \"Maybe we could buy this house?\" She said, \"You want this house?\" I said, \"Yeah, but it's not for sale.\" Says to me, \"Every house is for sale. Depends for how much! Every house is for sale. Now, you give them a higher price, always sale.\" Yeah, it's true. This is also. A goal, if you work with a goal, it definitely will motivate you to do what you're supposed to do. It will make you happy what to do. Depends if the goal is important. For some people, the goal of making a living is not important, God forbid. But if you realize in Torah and mitzvot, the goal is not something גשמי. The goal is such a thing which is infinite, and this is the infinite will of Hashem in the creation of the world, and the infinite will of Hashem in creating me. This is me, there's nothing else in me. Then how can a person not be motivated to do the right thing? And this is the peshat in the Gemara where it says, אין אדם עובר עבירה אלא אם כן נכנס בו רוח שטות. A person doesn't do an aveirah unless he becomes a fool. What does that mean, become a fool? Yes, plenty smart people who do aveirot, unfortunately. Not everyone who does aveirot is because he's a stupid man or a stupid woman, there could be smart people and they do aveirot. What does the Gemara mean that a person doesn't do aveirot unless he's a shoteh? But what's the opposite of a shoteh? A chacham. Now, we said before, what's a chacham? איזהו חכם? הרואה את הנולד. A chacham is somebody who sees the goal, has the goal in mind, and then he's a chacham, then he will do the right thing. A person that doesn't do mitzvot is why? Because he's a shoteh. Doesn't mean a shoteh in everything in the world, but this concept of ראיית הנולד, of seeing what תורה ומצות means, the importance, the greatness, the the the mission that we're given, if you don't have that, then you're not a chacham, then you're a shoteh. So a person אין אדם עובר עבירה, you'll only do an aveirah if you're a shoteh. That means you you don't look beyond what you're doing now, just this act which might be hard or not might not might be tasteful or whatever it is, then you can do aveirot. Otherwise, if you're not a shoteh, if you have that chachmah of ראיית הנולד, it'll never happen. Because how could it be? Unless you're an abnormal person, but any normal human being would be that way. This is the basic peshat in what it says, עקביא בן מהללאל אומר, עקביא בן מהללאל said, says in פרקי אבות, הסתכל בשלשה דברים ואין אתה בא לידי עבירה. If you look at three things, you'll not come to an aveirah. Which three things? דע מאין באת, look where you came from, ולאן אתה הולך, where you're going, ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון, and to whom you're going to give a report, to give a דין וחשבון. And he says if you do look, know that, he doesn't say that you should know these three things. הסתכל, look at these three things. Like I said before, knowing is not enough. We all know it. We have to look at, see it! So he says if you want to not come לידי עבירה, and the Rabbi is מדייק, he doesn't say not to come לעבירה, to an aveirah, not even לידי עבירה, לידי means the hand of an aveirah, just like you have a pot and you have a handle, so the pot is the pot itself, then you have a handle. Not even to come to a handle of an aveirah, which means something which is not an aveirah, but close to an aveirah. You will not come if you see these three things, which is basically what we said before: You see מאין באת, where you came from, which means you see that you have a mission in this world, you were sent down by Hashem. לאן אתה הולך, where are you going to, in other words, what will you accomplish, what will you gain by doing this mission? You will accomplish the great fulfill, do what Hashem wants, which is the tachlit, the goal of everything. And you have to give a din v'cheshbon, that means Hashem is always watching to see what you're doing. You're you're giving a din v'cheshbon. And if you look at that, then אין אתה בא לידי עבירה, you won't come to an aveirah. Because if you have that in mind, you see what it is, then it's impossible for a person, because that gives you the energy, that gives you the motivation to be able to do it, because you know that this is the most important thing. And this is the, so to speak, the preparation for פרשיות יתרו, משפטים, the פרשיות that we just we just received the Torah. When we receive the Torah you have to, you know, start thinking, just like comes Shavuos we have to start thinking for the new year in Torah. Rosh Hashanah is a new year generally speaking. So when the Alter Rebbe said we have to live with the פרשה of the week, so when it comes to פרשת יתרו, משפטים, we have to live with that. So we have to work on ourselves to accept upon ourselves to do what Hashem wants, which means to motivate ourselves to do the right thing. And this is what it is: to איזהו חכם הרואה את הנולד, שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, we have Hashem always in front of us. This is something that should always be there, and any moment that we stop from what we're doing, the first thing that should come to our mind is Hashem. And I'll finish off with the famous story, they say that once there was a misnaged who was chatting up with a chasid and he said to him, he went to the Rebbe, some say it was by the Baal Shem Tov's צייטן, some say other chasidim, and he came to him and he said, \"What did you learn by a...\" he's making fun of him. \"You don't have to go to your Rebbe, we're all פרומע יידן, we all do this good right thing, what's the purpose of your going? What did you learn there?\" So he says, \"What did I learn? I'll tell you what. I learned that I'm able to be a יודע מחשבות. I could read people's minds.\" That \"Wow! Oh, that's something special, you learned that? Let's try it out, see if it's true.\" So he says, \"Yeah, let's try it.\" \"Okay,\" so he says to him like this, the chasid says to him, \"You sit down, forget about everything else, focus on one thought. Because if you're thought of a lot of things, it's hard to understand, to know, but if you focus on one thought, then I'll be able to tell you what you thought.\" He says, \"Good, I'll see it. If it's true, I'll become a chasid too.\" So he sits down for two minutes and he starts focusing and thinking and thinking. Okay, so, \"נו, what did I think?\" \"Ha, what did you think? שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, what else did you think? You thought about Hashem.\" So he says to him, \"Wrong! That's not what I thought about.\" He says, \"That's exactly what I wanted to show you. If you'd be a chasid, and someone tells you, forget about everything else and think one thought, there is no question that you would think about Hashem, what else would you think about? And you thought about, who knows, what kind of בבא מעשיות you thought about. This is what I learned in chasidut, this is what I learned.\" Learned by my רבי, שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. So we're involved in all kinds of things, true, but the moment I have one thing to think about, it's only Hashem, and you didn't, and that's it is. And the end was this guy became a chasid, because this is something more special than learning how to be a יודע מחשבות. יודע מחשבות, it's a kontz, it's a trick, it's some special quality that you have, but it's not a quality of your מהות of where what level you're in, and this is something that shows us a level, and that brings a person to יראת שמים, it brings a person to to be מהדר במצוות, and all I would say is that we hope that we'll all take it to our mind and our heart, and I'm saying it to myself too, we're all together, and then we'll do the right thing, and Hashem will look into our hearts and give us what we ask for, which the main thing is the coming of משיח במהרה בימינו. Amen.