Transcript

So it's the end of the parsha, right before the tzivuy of bris milah, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Avraham Avinu התהלך לפני והיה תמים. What does v'heyei samim mean? So just if you look in the meforshim here in the Mikraos Gedolos, there are different perushim which are complementary, not mutually exclusive, and there are many, many facets to it, but let's just focus on one of them. The Ramban says on v'heyei samim

מצוה אחרת עוד בעניין הזה כטעם תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך. אחרי הזכרת השם לא ימצא בך קוסם קסמים מעונן ומנחש ומכשף. וכל העניין בשניהם שיאמין בלבו כי הקדוש ברוך הוא לבדו הוא בעל היכולת בתחילה ובסוף, הוא היכול לעשות ולבטל. ולא ישמעו אל מעוננים ואל קוסמים או אל מנחש ומכשף. ולא יאמין שיבואו דבריהם על כל פנים. אבל יגזור בלבו שהכל בידי עליון העליונים שהוא קל, והוא קל שדי עושה טובה שלא היה במזל, ומביא רעה באות המזל טוב ויפה כפי שיתהלך האדם לפניו. מפר אותות בדאים וקוסמים יהולל. וזהו שאמרו צא מאצטגנינות שלך.

So according to the Ramban, v'heyei samim means to be complete in your belief. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling Avraham Avinu, be complete in your belief. In this particular context, the Ramban says it means to believe that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Ba'al hakoachos kulam. And therefore, no matter what you foresee in the future based upon astrology, tzei m'itztagninus shelcha, v'heyei samim, be perfect, be complete in your belief that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Kol Yachol, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can and does as He wills. The Ramban says that's why the Torah has the tzivuy of תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך, also in context of the issurim against m'oninim and ksomim, to know that they have no power. The Rambam in Hilchos Avodah Zarah has something similar, something similar but with a different emphasis. So Rambam, my father, used to discuss in the end of Perek Yud Alef in Hilchos Avodas Kochavim, after the Rambam has also the issurim of doreish el hameisim, m'chashef, ov v'yidoni

ודברים האלו כולן דברי שקר וכזב הן והן שהטעו בהן עובדי כוכבים הקדמונים לגויי הארצות כדי שינהגו אחריהן. אין ראוי לישראל שהם חכמים מחוכמים להימשך בהבלים אלו ולא להעלות על לב שיש תועלת בהן. כל המאמין בדברים אלו וכיוצא בהן ומחשב בלבו שהן אמת ודבר חכמה אבל התורה אסרתן אינו אלא מן הסכלים ומחסרי הדעת. אבל בעלי החכמה ותמימי הדעת ידעו בראיות ברורות שכל אלו הדברים שאסרה תורה אינם דברי חכמה אלא תהו והבל. ומפני זה אמרה תורה כשהזהירה על כל אלו ההבלים תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך.

So the Rambam's understanding of tamim, it overlaps with the Ramban, but it's really even more far-reaching. According to the Rambam, what would it be if a person thinks that all of these things, again the ov, the yidoni, all these kinds of sorcery and the like, yesh bahem mamash. Aval mah e'eseh? the Torah doesn't let us engage in such practices or consult such practitioners. So the Rambam says once over on

תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך. תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך

means that these practices which the Torah disallowed, so the Torah disallowed them because they are hevel and because they are false, and to comply with the Torah on a practical level, but not to, not to mold one's thinking in accordance with the Torah, not to accept the Torah's structure of, of belief which underlies mitzvos goes against תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך. So it's not enough for a person to say, well, I will submit to what the Torah says and I will abstain from Ov, Yidoni, vechulu. No, a person has to reject in his mind that there's any, any credence to such practices. Clearly, clearly, according to the Rambam, this halacha, this requirement of תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך then applies to any, any belief or any truth which the Torah articulates. What, what does that mean practically? So we don't really grapple with the Torah's issurim against meoninim and kosmim. It's, it's alien to us and we're not, we're not tempted to think that יש בהם ממש אבל התורה אסרתן. But in every, in every tekufah, it's certainly true in ours, must be true in every tekufah, there's always some contrast between Torah beliefs and beliefs of general society, whether they were idolatrous beliefs or secular beliefs as they are now, there's always been a gap, always will be until Yamos HaMoshiach. There are always areas in which our westernized, secularized instincts or intuitions are against the Torah's and, and we think that the Torah is, I don't know, we think the Torah rachmana litzlan is, is not, that there's something which isn't sufficiently moral or ethical in a particular mitzvah. We don't think the Torah is, is liberal enough in, in certain areas. So it's not enough just to say, well, mah e'eseh, what the Torah rejects is emes ve-divrei chochmah, but מה אעשה אבל התורה אסרתן. So the Rambam says that's not enough. When the Torah rejects beliefs, when the Torah rejects practices because of the underlying beliefs, so then one has to attune himself not only on, on a practical level, but also on a cognitive level, on the level of belief as well to what the Torah is teaching us. Not enough, it's not enough when you date a ketubah that you write that it's תשנ"ח. But really, since we know that scientists say that it's millions or billions of years old, so somehow or other, whatever, okay, we're supposed to write Tashnach, so we'll write Tashnach. But we know, we know from all our science textbooks that the world is millions and billions of years old. Now a person certainly can and perhaps should believe that the discrepancy is due to the fact that the days of sheshet yemei bereshit are not six 24-hour days. A person certainly can and probably should believe that a lot of the discrepancy is accounted for by the upheaval of the mabul, which the mefarshim already explain. All that is fine, again, not only can a person, a person probably should, probably should. But to think in your heart of hearts that Tashnach really doesn't, I don't know, just can't be or whatever, alright, whatever, I'm a frum Jew, so when I fill out a ketubah, I write Tashnach. So the Rambam says תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך. People grapple with how the Torah deals with Jews versus non-Jews. People grapple with how the Torah deals with men and women. People grapple with many, many issues and the oftentimes the struggle is very sincere and we should do our best on our own to understand, to help others understand. But in each of these things, we don't have to claim to be omniscient. We don't have to claim to understand everything. And it's perfectly okay to say I don't understand how or why the Torah said this. That is a correct posture and one which there's always occasion to adopt. But the posture which you can't adopt is: well, the truth is that the Torah is discriminating and using the word discriminating with a negative pejorative connotation, not as a factual question of drawing distinctions, but discriminating with all the negative overtones that the word has. Chas veshalom! We can't fight against the Torah. That's what the Rambam says תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך. Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Avraham Avinu also תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך. That a person has to attune not only his behavior to what the Torah says, but a person also has to attune his thinking to what the Torah says as well. And what a person doesn't understand, okay, no one understands everything. Sometimes we understand a little more, sometimes a little less. No one understands everything. And it's okay to say not understanding is not a chisaron. A person does his best, you do your best to understand as much as you can. But the one posture which is not correct is this posture of אף על פי כן, that even though basically it is wrong, it doesn't seem correct, well, אף על פי כן I'll toe the line anyway. That's not what the Torah wanted. The Torah wanted again that we should attune not only our behavior but our minds as well to the Ribono shel Olam's teachings. And that's one important facet of תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך. Primarily about the Rambam in Hilchot Avodah Zarah on תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך where the Rambam said that tmimut means that a person has to be committed to Torah not only practically but intellectually as well. That was what we focused on last week. And specifically the Rambam says the various practices of doresh el hametim, shoel ov veyidoni. Only etcetera etcetera a person is not supposed to merely abstain from that practically but a person is supposed to number one with conviction reject these systems as false, and number two, the Rambam says he's supposed to know as clearly as he can the raios bevuros that these are false, so to be intellectually committed to Torah. And what we said that the same principle applies the Western world is very much taken with the idea of progress and the notion that over the course of time we progress. And there's certainly no question that in technology and science, which is the source for technology, that of course there is dramatic amazing progress. But what happens in the secular world because of the notion of progress is that there's a certain sense of superiority which people have vis-a-vis earlier generations. And while we may be technologically more advanced, it's not at all clear that we are morally or religiously more advanced. And one has to be very, very much on the guard against this kind of notion of superiority. And when there are contemporary isms, whatever that ism may be, whatever the intellectual fad may be, one has to bear in mind this Rambam of תמים תהיה עם ה' אלהיך, that it means not only to be practically committed to Torah, but intellectually committed as well. Okay, that's what we discussed last week. I wanted to move on today to another component of tmimus, one which at first glance might not seem to belong within this rubric, but if you'll bear with me, I think we'll see that it does. The Rambam begins in Hilchos De'os, well-known in perek aleph, the Rambam explains how the proper course of action, the haderech hayeshara, is always the

מדה בינונית שבכל דעה ודעה מכל הדעות שיש לו לאדם.

Right? Earlier the Rambam has described that there are extremes. A person can be such a hedonist that he can't satisfy his lust for material pleasure. And then a person can be such an ascetic that he's repulsed and distances himself even from what's necessary to sustain himself, and he doesn't eat. Rambam says you can have someone who is so greedy for money that no matter how much money he has he wants more, and he's very tight-fisted, he can't relinquish a penny of his wealth. And you have someone else who is just so disinterested in money and just so removed from that, that he doesn't even put his mind to earning enough money to support himself, even minimally. And the Rambam says that in each case, the haderech hayeshara is the mida beinonis, is the median between the two extremes. That a person should have enough interest in material things that he eats enough to keep himself healthy. He should have enough interest in financial matters that he can support himself, that he's able to address whatever financial needs he has.

הדרך הישרה היא מדה בינונית שבכל דעה ודעה מכל הדעות שיש לו לאדם והיא הדעה שהיא רחוקה משתי הקצוות ריחוק שווה ואינה קרובה לא לזו ולא לזו.

Ulifichach, and now here comes the Rambam's interpretation of a Gemara in Sotah: ציוו חכמים הראשונים שיהא אדם שם דעותיו. Right? shuma, shuma, to appraise, to assess. A person should always assess his de'os. What does it mean to assess? So the Rambam says in the sense of weighing them. When you weigh it, you try to strike a balance. Let's say if you want to see how much something weighs. So if I want to know how much this weighs. So how did they do it in old scales is you have weights on one side of the scale, and then when you balance it, so you know. If I have 10 pounds on this side of the scale, and the scale balances when I put the seifer on the other side, so I now know that this seifer weighs 10 pounds. So the sense of appraising, in the sense of assessing and weighing, the Rambam says, means balancing. And the Rambam learns pshat, Rashi in Sotah doesn't understand the maimar chazal of being sham deosav this way, but that's how the Rambam, that's how the Rambam understands the maimar chazal in the Gemara in Sotah. The Kesef Mishneh is metzayen.

כל השם אורחותיו בעולם הזה זוכה ורואה בישועתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא.

So again, so sham orchosav, again, you're assessing, you're weighing. So what are you weighing against what against what? So Rashi learns pshat מחשב הפסד מצוה כנגד שכרה. Person has to make a cheshbon. Okay, so I'm tired. I want to sleep late this morning, but soon's zman krias shema. So you have to weigh the הפסד מצוה כנגד שכרה. So which is more worthwhile? To get the extra hour sleep or to have mitzvas krias shema? That's what you're weighing according to Rashi. And the Rambam says no, what you're weighing is the two extremes within the middah. That's how the Rambam learns pshat in this Gemara in Sotah. So just parenthetically, this is not our focus today, but just parenthetically, in general, this is known as the golden mean, right? What the Rambam calls deah beinonis. And is often assumed that the Rambam adopted this from Aristotle because Aristotle talks about it. But then as the Rambam doesn't, the Rambam was not shy about attributing what he took from chachmei umos haolam. He does it very openly in his sefarim one after the case. But the Rambam did not, and we'll see I think soon, the Rambam didn't, the Rambam did not adopt this idea. The Rambam felt that this idea was within Chazal. And that's what the Rambam says, that's the pshat in sham orchosav. Again, the sense of assessing in the sense of weighing. So what are you weighing? So the Rambam says you're weighing the two extremes to try to balance the two extremes within every middah. Okay, good. And then the Rambam gives examples again which we quoted in terms of a person's involvement with material things, vechuulu vechuulu. Now the real pshat in, and one final word from Hilchos Deos, is that the Rambam says that this deah beinonis is gufo the definition of mitzvas vehalachta bidrachav.

ומצווין אנו ללכת בדרכים האלו הבינונים והם הדרכים הטובים והישרים שנאמר והלכת בדרכיו. כך למדו בפירוש מצוה זו מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה היה רחום.

So the Rambam says that this idea of the derech habeinoni is gufo the definition of the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav. We'll see in a minute that this is also very, very significant. I mean, the drasha of

מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה היה רחום

doesn't really hint at this definition of derech habeinoni. It's you have to emulate the middos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

כך למדו בפירוש מצוה זו מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה היה רחום.

So what does that hint at the Rambam's definition of

ומצווין אנו ללכת בדרכים האלו הבינונים והם הדרכים הטובים והישרים שנאמר והלכת בדרכיו כך למדו בפירוש מצוה זו?

It doesn't really seem to support the Rambam's definition or contention. The emes is, if you look in Perush Hamishnayos, you'll see something very, very interesting. The Rambam has, as you know, the before his Perush Hamishnayos on... On Pirkei Avos, he has a hakdama of Shmoneh Perakim, and it’s known as such as Shmoneh Perakim. So in Perek Dalet of Shmoneh Perakim, the Rambam has a similar discussion to what he has at the beginning of Hilchos Deios about derech habeinonis. And in that context, the Rambam says the following. The Rambam refers to people who go to extremes, whether it's dressing in sackcloth and fasting constantly, or whether it's rolling around in snow and ice. And the Rambam says about that, זו התורה השלמה המשלמת אותנו, right, this Torah which is complete, which is perfect, and which perfects us, המשלמת אותנו כמו שהעיד עליה יודעה, as Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself testified about the Torah, Toras Hashem temimah. Torah is perfect. I don’t know why the Rambam interchanges the phrases now from Tehillim, מחכימת פתי משיבת נפש, I don’t know why he puts machkimas pesi first. לא ציוותה בשום דבר מזה. Torah doesn't ordain any of this kind of behavior, אלא רצתה שיהיה האדם טבעי הולך בדרך הממוצעת. No, the Torah wants that a person should go in the middle path. יאכל מה שמותר לאכול במצוע. A person should eat with moderation what’s permissible to eat.

וישתה מה שמותר לשתות במצוע. ויבעל מה שמותר לבעול במצוע ויבנה את הארץ בצדק ומשפט. לא שיגור במערות ובהרים.

Torah doesn't want us to go out and live in the cave, live in mountains, ולא שילבש את השק והצמר, not that a person should wear sackcloth, ולא שיגייע את גופו, he should torture himself, etc., etc. But it's interesting, the Rambam says that all of these behaviors, which are rejected, are incompatible with Toras Hashem temimah meshivas nafesh, with Torah which is hameshlemes osanu. So the Rambam says, in other words, that this this halacha of deiah habeinonis, of finding the median between extremes, is a form of temimus. How is that? What does that mean? So be'emes, it gives us the proper understanding of what derech beinonis means. And that's it. The pshat in derech beinonis for the Rambam is not that derech beinonis represents a compromise between the extremes, not that it represents a compromise between hedonism and asceticism. No, it's not the pshat that it represents a compromise, but rather it's the way you combine them. The way a person combines and reconciles those opposites and extremes, the way a person blends them and fuses them. That already is taka, that already is an inyan of temimus. To split the difference between again between the extreme of being a ba'al taiva and the extreme of being misa'aneh tamid, so to split the difference, okay, maybe that's correct, but you wouldn’t attribute that to temimus. You wouldn’t associate that with temimus. But if the pshat is that the Torah says again that derech hamemutza'as, derech hamemutza'as, that a person is involved in the world to the extent that he should be, that he needs to be. He makes a living. He eats to sustain himself, that he should be healthy, that he's involved with the world to the extent that he needs to be. That derech hamemutza'as, according to the Rambam, is a way of again blending both extremes. Meaning that a person incorporates both extremes into his avodas Hashem. It's not that he's compromising, but rather he's incorporating both. So if that's the pshat, if that's the pshat, so then it's taka an inyan of temimus, not stam a midah be'alma, but it’s really an integral part of the Torah's conception of temimus for us. And now already it's more understandable how by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So vehalachta bidrachav is ani vahu, מה הוא רחום אף אתה תהא רחום etcetera. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu obviously you can't speak of some kind of din and rachamim. So Rachmana Litzlan it doesn't mean that HaKadosh Baruch Hu compromises between din and rachamim. What it means is that with HaKadosh Baruch Hu it clearly means that he reconciles and blends what are opposites. That's clearly when we talk about מדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, so Rachmana Litzlan it can't mean any notion of compromise of splitting the difference. It has to mean this blend, this fusion. So that's what the Rambam says, so the way, the only way a person can also blend or reconcile opposites is with the derech hamimutza. And that's why for the Rambam this is, that's why the Rambam quotes the pasuk of תורת השם תמימה משיבת נפש in this context. That means, and again this is implicit in the Gemara in Sotah as understood by the Rambam, that in order to stay the course of the derech habenonis, as the Gemara says, it's not something which you can just be on automatic pilot and stay the course. It requires that a person constantly be shomur orchasav. A person has to constantly be weighing that he is again blending the extremes rather than veering towards one of the extremes. And what's important to realize, again if we read the end of Perek Alef of Hilchos De'os, it gets a little complicated. There are some questions which we're not going into now. But what this means is not only excess, let's say in the example we gave, not only is it wrong excess in the direction of being too involved with earning money and making it an end unto itself and wanting to land a job which doesn't just give a proper parnassah but to strive and aspire for wealth. So clearly that violates the derech habenonis. If the wealth comes, okay, you can do a lot of mitzvos with it, you can do a tremendous amount of good for it. Don't throw it out. But that should be a person's goal in life and that a person should be willing to sacrifice time from other Torah pursuits for it. So that clearly we recognize that that means that a person is veering to an extreme. But sometimes the yetzer hara tells us to go to the other extreme. Tells us to go to the other extreme in what seems to be that a person is noteh more towards the ruchniyus. And at times this can also be wrong. At times this can also be wrong. And what the Gemara shomur orchasav is that a person has to be very vigilant to maintain a very steady course. Let's say sometimes a person is in a moment or a day or a time of inspiration. So a person says I'll just stay up all night learning. Stay up all night learning. עס קען זיין שלעכט. It could be nothing. It could be nothing. But in terms of shomur orchasav, again the question is, the question is good. So a person, a person in a moment of hisorerus, kumt a hisorerus. But ultimately, ultimately and certainly the hallmark of gedolim is not the peaks and valleys which we know from our experience in avodas Hashem, but rather the consistency. Rather the consistency. And it's more important that we should strive to learn. to have as much learning in our daily schedule as possible, rather than the occasional excess of staying up all night learning. Okay, so when it's a minhag, okay, Shavuos night it's a minhag, okay. When it's a mitzvah, when it's a mitzvah of והגית בו יומם ולילה, certainly a mitzvah, certainly a mitzvah. We're not talking about that. But stam, stam azoy, if the result is, if the result is peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, meaning so then you're so wiped out that you don't do anything Friday and you don't do anything motzaei Shabbos and it also goes against the thrust of shom'o k'olsov, which means that consistency and steadiness is more important in avodas Hashem than having these peaks and valleys. And it's a very very important thing to keep in mind. I think Rebbe Meir Berlin, the Netziv's youngest son, writes in his zichronos, in his memoirs, he writes that his father the Netziv used to ask incoming talmidim to Volozhin, so the best and the brightest were attracted to Volozhin, so there were many many iluyim and tremendous masmidim who would come to Volozhin. So when they would come in, the Netziv would ask them, what's the definition of a masmid? So everyone had a definition of a masmid. Yomam va'layla, hasmada, pashuto k'mashma'o. And the Netziv would say no, that's not the right definition, but rather the definition of a masmid is that when it's time to learn, you learn, and when it's time to eat, you eat, and when it's time to sleep, you sleep. That's the definition of a masmid. That's what the Netziv used to say. And that's the same idea of shom'o k'olsov, meaning that in the long run, in the long run, when a person doesn't follow the Netziv's formula, and let's say you're young and maybe you don't know it from personal experience and maybe you haven't seen it in others empirically, but אני הייתי גם זקנתי, take my word for it, when a person doesn't follow the Netziv's formula, so in the end he simply accomplishes much less. And with having the peaks and valleys of when hasmada doesn't mean what the Netziv says, when hasmada means that a person just learns all the time and he doesn't sleep when it's time to sleep, I'm not saying you have to be machmir to be m'kayem the Rambam's eight hours a night, not necessarily, you can be meikel on that, you can be meikel on that, that's not necessarily what we're talking about. But when a person doesn't follow the Netziv's formula, what happens inevitably is that instead of having a steady line on the graph, you have peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, and in terms of avodas Hashem and in terms of coming closer to the Ribbono shel Olam, there's no question that the steady approach is the correct one rather than the one with all these peaks and valleys. And all that is implicit in shom'o k'olsov in assessing and evaluating and avoiding what seem to be positive extremes as well, avoiding what seem to be positive extremes as well. Let me just comment on one other theme or component of temimus, again this from this week's parsha, or actually Chayei Sarah. The posuk says ואברהם זקן בא בימים וה' ברך את אברהם בכל, when Avraham tells Eliezer to go find a wife for Yitzchak, Parshas Chayei Sarah. So my father, ani kapparas mishkavo, used to like to quote a Zohar on the posuk ואברהם זקן בא בימים. A very beautiful Zohar. The Zohar says, so again the simple translation of the posuk seems to be that he was, in English we say, getting along in years. That's an English idiom. zakein ba bayamim in lashon hakodesh seems to be a rough equivalent. Just as yamim sometimes also has the sense of years. He was old, he was getting along in years. That would seem to be the simple translation or literal translation. Zohar says no. We know that beys in lashon hakodesh can have many meanings, but one of it is with, right? With. beys means with. אשר לקחתי מיד האמורי בחרבי ובקשתי, right? With my sword, with my, with my bow and arrow. So beys has the sense of of with. So the Zohar says אברהם זקן בא בימים, he was zakein, he came with his days, which according to the Zohar means that he had something to show for every day, that there wasn't a wasted day in his life. Avraham Avinu was old. I don't know, where was he in relation to 175? I'm not sure exactly. I'm not sure if we can reconstruct that from the psukim. But al kol panim he was he was old. But each of those years and each of those days of his life, so he had it with him. There wasn't a wasted day which he which he which he didn't have with him in his old age. And when he was 90, when he was 140, he had 140 years of accomplishment in avodas Hashem to show for the 140 years he had been alive. That's also an inyan of tmimus. That's also an inyan of tmimus that a person's life should be complete. A person's life should be complete in the sense that every day was used and every day was was taken advantage of and and to have an appreciation for the value and the preciousness of time also belongs in this idea of tmimus. But the Rosh Yeshiva, zichrono levracha, also used to tell the following story. I think it might be about Reb Salant, I don't remember who it was about. But he was once taking a walk late at night. It was long after shkiya. Maybe even after tzeis hakochavim. He was taking a walk and he walked by the shop of the shoemaker. So again, as we know from the psukim all the way back to Ezra Nechemia, so they used to work during daylight hours. There was no no electrical light. So you worked during when there was natural light. That's what the posuk in Ezra Nechemia tells us, Berachos and Megilla quotes it. They used to work from amud hashachar till tzeis hakochavim. And after that, the work day was over. Work day was over. And this shoemaker had a little candle which was which was about to go out. It was flickering to go out. You know when a candle goes out, so the flame jumps a little bit at at the end. So it was flickering, it was going out. And he was still, he was still working. So Reb Salanter went in, I'm not positive it was Reb Salanter. I think the story's about him. So he went in and he said to the to the shoemaker, why don't you close up already? Why don't you close up? It's already dark and your candle is about to be extinguished. So the shoemaker said, it's true, but I think I can get another minute or two of illumination from this candle before it goes out. And he said it in Yiddish, כל זמן שהליכטעלע ברענט, as long as that... again, lichtele means a... with the... right, Shabbos licht, so licht is a candle and the le at the end is a diminutive, means small. So as long as the little candle is still burning, even though it's so little and so tiny, as long as it's burning, so I can still I can still chap arein another minute or two of work. But again, whoever the story's about, I think it's Reb Salanter, but I'm not sure. So he walked away and he said נר ה' נשמת אדם. נר ה' נשמת אדם. So the same mussar haskel which this shoemaker taught about his work, כל זמן שהליכטעלע ברענט, so that should carry over a person's lifetime. נר ה' נשמת אדם, as long as the lichtele brennt, as long as a person has and the candle is still burning, mamash ad yomo haacharon, even if it's already flickering, so a person should try to use every. Every minute, every second that he can. That's the same idea as the Zohar of אברהם זקן בא בימים and it's also a very important component of tmimus that we should strive to implement in our lives. Okay, so now we're coming to those days where we'll all be mitchadeish, maybe we'll all stop there.