The very beginning of Shulchan Aruch the Rama quotes from the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim with lines with which we are all familiar but as the Mesillat Yesharim writes in his Hakdama it's important to reinforce basic fundamental concepts even without claiming to present any chiddushim. שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד הוא כלל גדול בתורה ובמעלות הצדיקים אשר הולכים לפני האלוקים. כי אין ישיבת האדם ותנועותיו ועסקיו והוא לבדו בביתו כישיבתו ותנועתו ועסקיו והוא לפני מלך גדול. ולא דיבורו והרחבת פיו כרצונו והוא עם אנשי ביתו וקרוביו כדיבורו במושב המלך. כל שכן כשישים האדם אל ליבו שהמלך הגדול הקדוש ברוך הוא אשר מלא כל הארץ כבודו עומד עליו ורואה במעשיו כמו שנאמר אם יסתר איש במסתרים ואני לא אראנו נאום ה'. מיד יגיע אליו היראה וההכנעה בפחד ה' יתברך ובושת ממנו תמיד.
Lashon klal gadol. Right, the lashon you find in the Mishnayos in Shabbos, it's obviously the case that comes to mind immediately. What does it mean when Rabbeinu Hakadosh or whoever first coined that phrase of klal gadol? What does it mean klal gadol? So what it means, klal gadol means that even though there may be many many or even infinite applications and instances of implementation but there's one underlying yesod. The dinim of chatos in Shabbos, so you can illustrate with 39 different melachos. You can illustrate them with 39 different melachos, shegogot shabbos, shegogot hamelacha, helam zeh, not helam zeh, but whether you talk about koseiv or whether you talk about kotzeir or whether you talk about zoreia or whether you talk about choreish you're talking about the same klal gadol. Don't be misled by the phenomenological variety that you're talking about different things. No, the yesod, the klal is the same. So what the Rama quoting from the Rambam is telling us, the definition of having yiras shamayim, of being a genuine yerei shamayim means that a person aspires and hopefully we actually do lead an integrated life. What does it mean an integrated life? Integrated life means that no matter there are many different hashkafos, many different approaches within the Torah world and what we're talking about now is equally relevant and equally crucial. Everyone leads a varied life. Dehainu everyone has to divide his time amongst different things. If nothing less than dividing your time between learning Torah and eating and drinking the minimum amount that you need to eat and drink. No one leads a life in which he's only involved on a superficial level in one type of activity. Everyone's life is divided, everyone's time in life, and the time is very short, everyone's time in life is divided amongst different seemingly amongst different pursuits. How many pursuits? That may differ, that may differ. If a person believes that Chazal seem to say that a person is supposed to make hishtadlus parnasa, so then he'll find that his time is divided between the hishtadlus parnasa, between Talmud Torah, between kiyum hamitzvos, between chessed which is אי אפשר ליעשות על ידי אחרים if he doesn't take his time away from Talmud Torah. If a person believes in pursuit of chochma in addition, so that's another claim on his time and another activity. But it doesn't make a difference. Either way, the most simplified life means that again superficially a person is drawn in different directions. There are different claims. Then family lays claim to time and a person's time is divided amongst all these obligations and amongst all these pursuits. Comes the Rambam and says klal gadol batorah. Yes, you're spending time with your family, you're spending time earning parnasa, you're spending time on Talmud Torah, you're spending time doing chessed, you're spending time following finding arba minim before Succos, but klal gadol batorah that a person is always being oved Hashem. He's always being oved Hashem. He's always in the presence of the Ribbono Shel Olam and always in his always being oved Hashem. That's what it means to lead an integrated life. An integrated life means that there shouldn't be any bifurcation, there shouldn't be any separation that now I'm eating, now I'm drinking, now I'm working, now I'm in the beis medrash, so now I have to, now I'm involved with avodas Hashem. No, a person has to make a cheshbon. A person has to make a cheshbon. If we're doing something, it should be because that's the ratzon Hashem. If we're working for a parnasa, it has to be because a person's not supposed to be mitzorech labrios and he's supposed to make a hishtadlus. If that's the case, then he's also being oved Hashem. And what's more, he certainly, certainly without any cheshbon is always lifnei Hashem. That's what it means to lead an integrated life. There is a danger to which again it doesn't matter what shita or who you identify with, there's a danger to which every one of us is prone and that is at one point, hopefully at one point, a person thoughtfully and consciously decides which pursuits he should be devoting time to and isn't doing it initially mindlessly. But even when that reflects a thoughtful, deliberate, careful decision, the danger is very great that you just fall into a routine and you forget the context of why you're doing it. And then instead of being integrated, then the different strands of our life, of our lives begin to drift apart. And when you begin to forget why it is that you eat and drink and you just take for granted that in my seder hayom I eat and drink and you stop and you don't stop and remind yourself what that represents as part of an integrated existence, so then that begins to drift away from the time you spend in the beis medrash. And when you stop and when you forget, you don't stop to think why it is that I make hishtadlus parnasa or why it is that I go to college or why it is that I do any of the activities I'm involved in, even if initially it was a correct, well-thought, deliberate decision, but if you just do it automatically as routine and you end up doing it just habitually but not thoughtfully, so then that integrated existence implodes. There’s even more need to be mindful of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד when you’re doing your accounting or your computer programming or when you’re working as a lawyer, as a businessman, or as an Indian chief. There’s even more need for the שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד than there is in the Beis Medrash. In the Beis Medrash you have נפש החיים שער ד' to rely on. There’s no נפש החיים שער ד' as Reb Chaim Volozhiner himself points out outside of the Beis Medrash. And the danger exists and this has to be understood, it doesn’t make a difference, you can’t run away from this danger by saying, I’ll learn in Kollel the rest of my life. No, no matter what you do, no matter what you do, your time is always going to be divided. So this is not a challenge you can run away from. It doesn’t make a difference, it doesn’t make a difference where you live, where you move to, this is one of as the Mesillas Yesharim would say, this is one of the nisyonos which is simply endemic to the olam ha'asiyah which Hakadosh Baruch Hu created. You can’t run away from this nisayon. And when through hesach hadaas we’re distracted from this nisayon, so the inevitable result, again, is that you forget why you’re doing things and therefore how they have to be done and what your kavanah. Now again, this is the klal, obviously it has endless, endless applications and ramifications. But there’s at least two things which I think we need to impress upon ourselves. Number one, again, that paradoxically, if anything, the need for שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד is even greater outside of the Beis Medrash. And again, even if one aspires to the Toraso Umnaso of Rashbi which doesn’t exist bazman hazeh, it’s still a challenge which has to be confronted. It’s unavoidable. The need is even greater. Number two, if that kind of thoughtful life is not something which we begin to practice during the years when we live bekoslei hayeshiva, it’s going to be many times more difficult to develop it outside of the koslei hayeshiva. And here, now perhaps relative to other examples that can be given, some of which don’t need to be given which daiah l'chakima b'remiza, but relative to that, certainly פחות פחות פחות חמור. And yet, it also distresses me greatly. From time to time, I daven here in the morning as well, daven shacharis here. And the minyanim are wonderful here. But invariably, invariably, and it represents a small, small minority but even that shouldn’t exist. Even that shouldn’t exist. You see guys talking, you see guys talking during kaddish. You see guys being masei'ach daas when they’re wearing tefillin. So how can that be? How can that be? It says in the last perek in Gemara in Berachos that bish'as... What? How? When people are mekansen, you have to be mefaser. When people are mefaser, so then you have to be koness. What exactly does it mean? So different pshatim. When people are not being marbitz Torah, then you have more of a chiyuv to be marbitz Torah. But clearly what it means is that what needs the most reinforcement is what's weakest in the generation in which one lives. And it's quite obvious to any person who steps foot in a shul, not to chas veshalom be mekanter, but letoeles hadvorim, it's quite obvious that one of the weak points of our generation is no understanding for kedushas beis knesses, no understanding for tefilla, no understanding for what it means not to be masiach daas when you have tefillin on. It's enough of a nisayon if a person leaves yeshiva with the habit of not saying a word during shaas hatefilla. It's enough of a nisayon not to allow oneself to slip and become corrupted in this respect if a person emerges from yeshiva with the right habit. But what's going to be if when you're in yeshiva, it's something we do? So then what's going to improve on the way out? So here too, שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד, so we emphasize and maybe the need for it is greater outside of the beis medrash, but that doesn't mean that it's to be taken for granted inside shul or inside the beis medrash either. The danger exists inside the beis hamedrash also, that you can go on automatic pilot to daven but instead of mindfully and thoughtfully, mindlessly and thoughtlessly, you can even go to seder that way. And then even this part of your life begins to unravel. It's probably worthwhile to review this seif every day. I think there's a Chassidisher vertel on the pasuk in Novi, עד מתי אתם פוסחים על שתי הסעיפים? Eliyahu Hanovi asks this. So it's teitch as follows, אין מקשין על דברי אגדה. But there are two simanim, this is where the ein makshin part comes, which consist of a single seif. There's סימן רל"א, excuse me, there's the סימן רל"א with two seifim. עד מתי אתם פוסחים על שתי הסעיפים, not two simanim. There's a seif here in סימן א סעיף א of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד, and then there's the seif of וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים. That's what they teitch. Don't, no, no, no, don't, don't, אל יהי דבר זה קל בעיניך, אל יהי דבר זה קל בעיניך, עד מתי אתם פוסחים על שתי הסעיפים?
You can't live without these two seifim because these two seifim are supposed to underlie and inform and color and characterize everything we do, and every other seif in Shulchan Aruch is toleh veomed on these two seifim, on these two seifim.