To truly enjoy this world, you need your mind in Shamayim (כפי הסבא זצ"ל). When R' Ben-Tzion Bruk Zatzal spoke in Beth Medrash Gavoha, he was so engrossed in the Mussar Shmuess that he was giving, that it looked like he was in a different world. It was a packed Bais Medrash, but I wonder if he had any idea of how big his audience was. I’m sure it wasn’t important to him. He was a person who talked about the Yamim Nora'im like a real upcoming court case. And he was heavily engrossed in the details of how to deal with it.
When you truly feel Hashem, then the rest of the world is zero to you. I heard a story about R' Ben-Tzion Bruk Zatzal that when he was in the process of raising money for his yeshiva during pre-war Europe, he suddenly fainted at someone’s doorstep. When they revived him, they found out that he had actually forgotten to eat for 3 days!
I just got off the phone after talking with one of the 14 Bachurim from the Novardok Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael. By just talking to him, I felt like I was in a different world. He discussed Elul with a happy voice, but with utter seriousness. The biggest Bnei Torah and Roshei Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael have remarked that these bachurim are uncommonly “healthy” spiritually. (They love people, but aren’t afraid of them, and aren’t M’chanef (sweet-talk) them. They are seriously concerned about each other’s welfare, in Ruchaniyus & Gashmiyus.)
He told me that in Elul, they usually learn about an hour or two of Mussar. And this they learn first thing in the morning, or else, by the time you learn Mussar you are already far away into your regular Da'agos (worries). They try to have their heads full of Chovos Halvavos, Shaarei Teshuva, and Madregas HaAdam, etc. They keep learning these Seforim, and they sit on a Passuk until it sinks in.
The idea of Elul is to keep your regular schedule, but in a stronger way, in Torah and Tefila, etc. I heard the same thing in the name of R' Nosson Wachtfogel Zatzal.
During Elul, many Bachurim from other Yeshivos would come to Novardok, including R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz, who considered Novardok to be more on fire than the greatest Baalei Mussar of the times. When the Bachurim would cram together to hear a Shiur or Shmuess, the son-in-law of the Alter, R’ Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky Zatzal, would walk slowly between the rows, and very, very gently would tell them to be careful not to push each other. Being gentle and Eidel was a major Novardok issue, despite their fire. No heavy Kana’us type “Mussaring-out” people; just Eidelkeit, which is the Jewish way, as is says: הַקוֹל קוֹל יַﬠֲקֹבתולדות כז כב the “voice” is the voice of Yaakov. They say that whoever heard a Shmuess from R’ Yisroel Yaakov had to become a new person. Both Slabodka and Novardok had an ongoing agenda of people changing themselves completely.
