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Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily. In the previous class, we discussed how God gives us certain, drives and urges, which are not to be uprooted or shameful. They are part of the human psyche given to us by God for a reason. They are to be channeled, not removed. Rav Don Segal, one the premier Mashgichim/ spiritual supervisors of the generation, writes in his commentary on the Mesilat Yesharim (page 545), writes: ‘The good feelings that God gives a person are true feelings, that have sources high Above.’
Its beyond our understanding why God put them into us.
Everything about man is B’Selem Elokim/in the image of God.
He says that Rav Chaim Kanievsky once asked his uncle, the Chazon Ish, whether he should say Shehechiyanu on buying a new garment if he gets no happiness at all from it.
The Chazon Ish told him that somebody who is not happy with a new garment is lacking in the human side of him. A person should be happy when he gets a new garment, and thank Hashem.
That's interesting. We always hear stories about great rabbis who were removed from this world. And here we have the Chazon Ish, who was from the greatest of the greats, telling Rav Chaim Kanievsky that it's a normal human emotion that you're not supposed to get rid of.
If God put that emotion into you, it's good. Everything there is good, you just have to use it properly.
Rav Don Segal continues and says that he didn't really understand this story at first, but then he heard another story about the Chazon Ish, told over by Rav Chaim Greinemann. The Chazon Ish was once sitting on his porch talking in learning. Suddenly a wind came and blew the tablecloth off the table. Rav Chaim Grienemann was ashamed to stop in middle of their learning to pick up the tablecloth and put it up back on the table. He thought the Chazon Ish would be upset because maybe you're not supposed to notice these things, that these things shouldn't bother you, or that you shouldn’t be involved with other things when you're learning. But the Chazon Ish turned to him and said, “Why don't you pick up the tablecloth?” He answered that he didn’t want to do it during learning. The Chazon Ish replied with a famous Chazal/words of our rabbis, ‘God looked into the Torah and created the world.’
That means the world is all Torah. We don't see it that way, but everything in the world is an expression of the Torah, because the Torah is the blueprint of the world. Therefore, every urge and feeling that we have is coming from the Torah. If a person has an urge, when the tablecloth is falling on the ground, that he wants to pick it up, that it should be orderly, that feeling is Torah. Therefore, Rav Don Segal says, ‘Now we can understand the previous story of the Chazon Ish and Rav Chaim.
If God gave us the feeling of being happy when you're buying new garment, that's Torah. And if a person doesn't have that, he's lacking in his Adam.
Because man was created based on the Torah, and the Torah that created, man, the blueprint, says, you should have this.
If I have a blueprint for a house that says there should be a storage closet here, and there's no storage closet there, something's missing. The blueprint said there should be a storage closet. That storage closet means there's a purpose. So too, those feelings are there for a purpose.
Rav Wolbe says (and I’m taking a little liberty here), that some of these feelings are there to enhance our marriages. What would be if a man were not be bothered by the tablecloth falling off the table, or if a man wasn’t happy with the new clothing, or if, while his wife was putting so much effort into making the house beautiful, he would say, What's with this nonsense? Who cares about this? Who cares about that?
God gave these feelings, even to the greatest of Torah scholars, who might not think they’re important, because it is important. There are people around you that need to be recognized. The greatest of greats, Rav Yehuda Ades, once told a story about the greatness of one of the great Syrian Gedolim, Chacham Ovadia Hedeya.
Rabbi Yehuda’s father, Rabbi Yaakov Ades, had passed away, and his mother was preparing the food for the Arayat (Syrian word for shloshim, when they have a seuda)
This great Gadol went into the kitchen to thank Rebitzen Ades for whatever food he had tasted. Rabbi Ades commented on how great that was. On the other hand, sometimes you hear other kinds stories about Gedolim, which always irk me a little bit (and here we're seeing that the irking is correct, at least according to this. Hashkafa). There’s a story (that is unvalidated) about a certain Gadol who was a new chatan. When when he ate in his mother-in-law's house for the first time, he commented on how good the chicken was (which is a nice thing to do), her answer was, “In our house, we don't talk about food. Bad enough we have to eat food, we don't talk about food.”
That story always bothered me, and I'm happy that now my feeling is validated. If we have those feelings, they're there for a reason. And if a lady cooks, don't think it's not religious, if you say, “I enjoyed the food,” as if you're above enjoying food. It’s normal to enjoy food. Why? Speak to Rabbi Miller.
It's a whole discussion.
This is an important point, as sometimes these stories get overdone and misused.
Have a wonderful day.
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