Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Importance of Renewed Review and Daily Seder in Mishnayos and Mussar -- Not an Option

Recently I received one of the biggest compliments of my life.  I saw a colleague wearing a Cubs jersey, so I asked her if they won last night.  She replied, "Yes, that makes it 3-3; so there is only one more game to play."  I told her that I actually do know enough about baseball to realize that the World Series (a deliciously "ugly American" ugly title, since it only US teams play in it) is best of seven.  I also thanked her, though, for thinking that I wouldn't know.

That little ego boost (yes, I was seriously flattered) was particularly nice just now, as I once again began Mishna Brura last week.  I have learned the first siman more than once.  I have heard shiurim on that siman.  I also have a chavrusa that began just a few years ago and we are going through very carefully and meticulously; we learned that siman together.  Surely, I reasoned, a review at this point is going to be boring; what more could I possibly learn?

Sigh....

I have already learned three significant new things on just the first siman; two of which are changing my daily behaviour.  When I say "new", of course, I mean things that I have obviously seen each and every time that I have learned that siman, but somehow it didn't register/resonate with me enough for me to remember.  Of course, I would like to remember everything I learn, but: (1) I already have historical evidence that I haven't been retaining everything I learn; (2) just saying, "this time will be different" won't work any better for me than "there's alway next year" (aka, TANY) worked for the Cubs for 104 years till now.  I have therefore decided that this time I will, bli neder, learn the באר הטיב and שערי תשובה along with the Mishna Brura.  Since I need to add something and since the Mishna Brura (who was not a wealthy man) deemed it worth the cost of dedicating upwards of a third of the available real estate on the page, I figure I can't go too wrong with this one.

So what did I learn that has changed my daily behaviour?  First, that the first obligation one has in his daily learning is a seder in mishnayos.  The Ari z"l notes that the same Hebrew letters comprise the words משנה and נשמה/soul; indicating that the learning of mishnayos builds a connection between one's soul and his Creator.  Second, one must absolutely have a fixed seder to learn mussar texts every single day.  In fact, notes the Mishna Brura in the Sha'ar HaTzion, that seder in mussar is even more fundamentally important than the learning of mishnayos.

I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings...
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc
Post a Comment
Read more