This is the yesod that tzaddikim always reiterated: “I want what lies within the Torah and tefillah.
The Zohar HaKadosh (Parashas Behaalosecha) compares this to a fool who sees the king’s palace and thinks it’s the king himself. The wise man, however, recognizes that these are only the walls surrounding the king. As they go further inside the palace and the fool sees the king’s royal garments, he assumes that this is the king—but the wise man realizes that this is still not the king—the חכם always realizes that the לבושים, the outer trappings, are not the essence; they’re only an indication that something special is housed inside.
A Yid who has Yerushalayim in his heart always says: “I wish to see the King Himself!” I don’t want, after 120 years of life, that people will say that I finished many masechtos, or even the entire Shas. That’s not my end goal! Of course, if completing Shas will bring me closer to the Ribbono shel Olam, I want to know Shas.” But this Yid learns Torah because he wants to encounter the Ribbono shel Olam within it!
When he sees words of mussar in Chazal, he’s immediately drawn to them: “Ah! These words are so instructive to me... they show me where I have gone wrong—and I don’t want to continue living in a mistake. Will I really go on with a life permeated with ego and hubris?! This Yid doesn’t thrive on superficial fulfillment, and he doesn’t need to be praised by others for the good that he does—because this only detracts from it. It’s a shame. You already invested in doing good, why wouldn’t you want to utilize it as an opportunity for closeness with Hashem?
