החיוב להגות בספרי מוסר
The obligation to learn Musar seforim
וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ עַל משֶׁה וְעַל אַהֲרֹן וַיֹאמְרוּ אֲלֵהֶׁם רַב לָּכֶׁם כִּי כָּל הָּעֵדָּה כֻּלָּם קְדשִּים וּבְתוֹכָּם ה' וּמַדּוּעַ תִּתְנַשְאוּ עַל קְהַל ה' :(טז:ג)
They gathered together against Moshe and against Aharon and said to them, “It is much for you! For the entire assembly, all of them, are holy and Hashem is among them, so why do you exalt yourselves over the congregation of Hashem?” (16:3)
With this complaint, Korach wanted to equate Moshe to his other Jewish brothers, even though Moshe had been alone with Hashem many times, Korach made himself as if he would not admit to this. This is why demonstrated all kinds of trickery and stories, that all that Moshe said he made up by himself, and the Shechina was never alone with him.
Among the tricks of Korach was the famous was the subterfuge brought in the Midrash (Tanchuma Korach), he asked Moshe if a house filled with seforim needs a mezuzah. Moshe replied that it needs a mezuzah. Korach was surprised and asked, “A mezuzah only has two parshiyos and this house filled with seforim has the entire Torah which contains 248 parshiyos and should surely exempt the house! Since you say things that are not rational it proves that you make things up.”
The truth of the matter is that it is very hard to understand Korach’s argument, for the mitzvah of mezuzah is on the door of the house from the outside, and the seforim that he refers to are found inside the house, how can they possibly exempt the house from mezuzah?
By way of Mussar we can explain the debate between Korach and Moshe which revolved around the ways of avodah incumbent on the person in his world. The ‘house filled with seforim’ teaches learning the laws of the Torah, and the ‘mezuzah’ represents ahavas Hashem – love of Hashem and accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven and the yoke of mitzvos. It teaches the obligation to learn mussar which arouses the heart to love and fear Hashem. This was the argument of Korach with Moshe, in Korach’s view one who is a talmid chacham, that is, ‘a house full of seforim’ does not have to be also involved in ‘mezuzah’, which is ‘mussar seforim’, the light of the Torah straightens the curvature of the heart. However, this was not Moshe’s view. According to his view it is not possible for a person to be exempt from the obligation of ‘mezuzah’, which is the study of mussar. Correct, the light of the Torah straightens and purifies the mind of the person, but this is only if he also studies mussar, for only through mussar does the person know before Whom he is serving, and for Who he is learning, and what his intent must be when he is learning, and only through this can one learn Torah with pure intent which illuminates the way for the person how to purify his heart and midos [traits].
Without a doubt, right is with Moshe Rabeinu, and as HaGaon HaTzaddik Rebbe Zundel Kroizer once told me when I asked him to explain to me the intent of the Rambam (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 2:2) which speaks about getting closer to Hashem Yisbarach by observing the wisdom of the character. To begin, I quote:
‘What is the way to love Him and fear Him? When the person thinks about His deeds, and sees the great wonders, and sees the boundless and endless wisdom within them, he immediately loves, praises and glorifies, and develops a great craving to know the great Name, as Dovid said (Tehillim 42:3), 'צמאה נפשי לאלקים לקל חי' – My soul thirsts for G-d, the living G-d’. When one thinks about these things, he immediately recoils backwards, is afraid, and knows that he is just a small creature that wonder of wonders stands with a simple mind before innocent opinions, as Dovid said (Tehillim 8:4-5) 'כי אראה שמיך מעשה אצב עותיך... מה אנוש כי תזכרנו' – ‘When I behold Your Heavens, the work of Your fingers... what is frail man that You should remember him’. According to these words I explain great principles from the action of the Master of the Worlds so there should be an opening to understand, to love Hashem, as Chachamim said regarding love, through this you come to recognize Who said the world should come into being.’
These are the words of the Rambam.
The Rambam continues and explains there, that when the person considers the wisdom of nature and the world that rotates, he comes to recognize the Creator, and realizes that he [the person] is but a small low creature, and through this he will come to love the Creator and understand His greatness.
The Rambam concludes there (4:12), ‘When a person contemplates these matters and recognizes all the creations, the angels, the spheres, man, and the like, and appreciates the wisdom of the HaKadosh Baruch Hu, in all these creations, he will add to his love for the Omnipresent. His soul will thirst and his flesh will long with love for the Omnipresent Baruch Hu. He will stand in awe and fear from his humble, lowly, and base [nature] when he compares himself to one of the great and holy bodies, how much more so when comparing himself to the pure forms which are separate from matter and do not share any connection with it. He will see himself as a vessel full of embarrassment and shame, empty and lacking.’
The words of the Rambam bothered me very much, for we see many goyim who study these wisdoms – wisdom of nature and speres – and even so they do not come to recognize the greatness of the Creator, rather just the opposite, they are the greatest deniers, Rachmana litzlan.
I once asked this question to Rebbe Zundel Kroizer, and he answered me that in truth everything depends on the intent of the one who is studying and his purpose in studying, that when he comes to seek the greatness of the Creator through nature, and as Rambam explained, surely, the learning will add to his emunah. But if he just comes to learn the laws of nature – his learning will not add anything to his emunah, for this is not his purpose, and he will certainly not reveal anything he is not interested in.
The same applies to learning Torah. If we learn with the will to be closer to Hashem and fear Him, then we will earn this. But, if we learn for other purposes, it is impossible to earn this, and for the person to have the right intent when learning he must learn mussar.
To our dismay, when the Torah says (Bamidbar 26:11) 'ובני קרח לא מתו' – ‘but the sons of Korach did not die’, it hints to us that even the generations that remained like those who followed Korach, for even today there some who follow Korach and learn Torah and not mussar, but if one thinks about ‘Moshe emes v’Toraso emes’ for without mussar there is no distinction between one in yeshiva and a baal habayis. Although the one in yeshiva sits and learns, but when he comes to shul there is no difference between him and the man standing next to him. We see the yeshiva man does not place more value on Tefillah, he davens with the same coldness and quickness as the men around him, but with mussar, the difference between then would be noticeable.
