Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to our daily Gemara class on Musar (ethical self-improvement). Baruch Hashem, day by day, we're accomplishing tremendously in this class. What a great way to start our day. It's really a blessing to be with you every single morning, and hopefully we'll be able to continue.
Let's continue today. The Gemara says that thunder was created in order to straighten out the crookedness of the heart.
One more time: somebody asked in the Beit Midrash (study hall), “Why did Hashem create thunder?” That loud sound we heard last night, that we hear at certain times of the year. It's a scary sound. Why did Hashem create thunder? That's the Gemara's question.
The Gemara answers that the purpose of thunder is to straighten out people's crooked hearts. People have a way of falling asleep in life, and when they're sleeping, they end up getting themselves into all kinds of messes. They develop all types of terrible characteristics, and they end up hurting themselves and the people around them. So one of the tools Hashem has to straighten those people out is thunder. It scares them and can straighten out their hearts. It can wake them up to realize that they have to improve themselves.
An example of that: I remember years back, somebody who at the time was taking a helicopter from Jersey to New York City on a daily basis. He told me that a few days before, he and a few of his friends were on a helicopter when, suddenly, in the middle of the ride, there was thunder—or I don't know exactly what happened, but the weather wasn't good for the helicopter. He said, if you saw how afraid the people sitting in that helicopter were! People were saying Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel), people were crying, they were praying. He said it was something to see all these people—I guess they were probably wealthy people—humble themselves for a moment and act with an attitude they usually don't have.
This is what the Gemara says: Hashem made thunder in order to humble the person, to straighten out his arrogant heart. This statement of the Gemara opens a whole new door for us in understanding the creation Hashem placed us in. Baruch Hashem, over the last few months, we've opened our minds in different ways to look at creation and understand so many things from it, like understanding the wisdom of the Creator and seeing the purpose in each thing.
Here, Hazal (our rabbis) are opening our minds to another point we should focus on when we look at the world. What is that? In truth, we have enough reason to understand why the world needs thunder. That means we're not limited; it's not as if they ran out of reasons and are searching for a reason Hashem made thunder. It's not that they couldn't understand and had to find a reason: “Oh, Hashem is trying to straighten people out.” That's the kind of answer you give when you run out of answers, when you try to look for a spiritual answer.
But really, it's not so hard to understand why Hashem made thunder, just practically speaking. Thunder is very useful for mankind, besides the deeper scientific things thunder does, which I am not knowledgeable about myself. I'm not saying that we know everything thunder does. But on a simple level, thunder is important because lightning, as you know, can be dangerous. So when lightning comes to the world, it comes with thunder. When there's danger ahead, people should get off the streets, go inside, and be protected.
Even though humans on their own should take the right steps to protect themselves when there's danger, we all know that humans aren't necessarily so zealous about protecting themselves, even when there's imminent danger ahead. It's just the way we are. We're sleeping along the road of life. But when that thunder comes, that loud, scary sound, it really shakes a person up to the point where he needs to take action. So thunder actually helps mankind in the physical world. It helps people make the right decisions and leave a dangerous area. It's a very simple answer.
Again, without getting too scientific or into the deeper secrets of why Hashem made thunder: very simple, very practical. When there's a dangerous situation, I sound the alarm so people go indoors. Just like if, God forbid, there's a fire, they have a fire bell that rings to tell people to get out quickly. This is the purpose of thunder. Nobody can dispute that. Are our rabbis telling us that's not what thunder was for? When they say, “You know why thunder was made? In order to straighten out people's hearts,” what do they mean by that? Are they ignoring the physical reality that thunder is extremely useful for mankind? So why are they saying this? “The reason thunder was created was to straighten out the arrogance of man.” We would argue, “It's not true. That's not why thunder was created.”
The answer to this question is going to help us learn how to focus when we see creation. Of course, our rabbis understood that there's a physical benefit to thunder. They're not disputing that. They're not blind to that fact. So what do they mean when they say thunder was created for this spiritual purpose? What they're trying to tell you is that when we study the world, we must always remember that there has to be a spiritual piece to creation. And not only is there a spiritual piece; that is the main purpose of that creation.
Let me say it in other words. Yes, Hashem made thunder. It's true: in order to warn people. But guess what? He could have made it so lightning doesn't hurt people. If He's so interested in our safety and in our not getting hurt, thunder need not have come, lightning need not have come—or, better yet, maybe we want to see the lightning. It's very pretty. So let lightning come, and it won't damage us. It won't hurt us.
We can't always look at creation and say, “Well, yeah, we needed to do that, because if we didn't, then this would have happened.” That's a silly way of approaching the Creator's creation of the world, because Hashem can do whatever He wants. If He had created lightning so that it came and wasn't dangerous, it would have been very easy for Him to do. So to say Hashem created thunder to protect us from lightning is a practical answer. It makes sense. It's true. But that's like saying, “You know, the Creator made lightning, and after He made lightning, He realized, ‘You know, it's dangerous. Let me figure this out. Okay, you know what? Let me make thunder to protect us from the lightning.’” Well, do you think He's playing Legos? That's not the way the Creator works. He had it all figured out before He started. So the simple solution is: don't make lightning, or don't make it damaging to people.
Whenever we give an answer in the physical world—and we should—we can say, yes, thunder is there to remind us to go indoors. It's true. But that cannot be the ultimate purpose of thunder, because, with all its practicality, the situation didn't have to be that way for the practical solution to come and solve it. You only solve problems when you have a problem. But in the Creator's world, there's no such problem. He didn't have to make the problem to begin with.
So whenever we study creation, we must study its physical nature, be astounded by it, connect to it, and see Hashem's wisdom. Thunder is no different. When we see thunder, we see the wisdom of the Creator. We see how He's there to help us, pushing us to go indoors to protect ourselves. We see all that. But Hazal are saying there's even more spirituality in it. When you see a physical creation, you see the physical practicality, you see the spiritual benefit, and then you really try to figure out the ultimate purpose of that creation, which is going to be in Ruchaniyut, in spirituality.
So when the rabbis ask, “Why did Hashem create thunder?” they knew what the practical purpose of thunder is. But that wasn't the question. The question is, “What is the spiritual benefit of thunder to humanity?” There they try to see as much spirituality as they can. Like I said, there's already spirituality: if thunder helps us see the wisdom of G-d and the kindness of Hashem, that He's there to protect us, that's also spiritual. But in their chochmah (wisdom), they're always trying to reach an even greater level of understanding, that there might be an extra spiritual benefit here. And that would be the reason Hashem made it. That's the Gemara's question: “Why was thunder created? Give me the spiritual purpose. What does it do for us?”
The Gemara says, “You know what? For this one, maybe we don't always have the answer.” But Hazal had the answer for this one. It's to humble the person who's walking around this world thinking that the world belongs to him. With his arrogance, he looks down at people. With his arrogance, he's ignoring the Creator.
At the end of the day, why do we ignore the Creator? Because we're like Pharaoh. What did Pharaoh say? “See this Nile?” The Nile was the source of blessing for Egypt. That's what put them on the map. Pharaoh says, “This is my Nile, and I made myself. I'm a self-made man. I did it.” Don't we have that same thing in Israel?
Moshe Rabbenu said, “I'm worried that you're going to have money. I'm worried that you're going to build a nice house.” When was the last time you worried that your son would actually have a nice house? Again, you worry that maybe he won't have a house. Moshe Rabbenu is worried when we do have a house. He said, “I'm worried you're going to have money. I'm worried you're going to build homes. I'm worried you're going to have servants. I'm so worried about you because you're going to be so successful.”
“Moshe, why are you worried? It's a good thing. It's a Beracha.” Moshe Rabbenu says, “Because when you have Beracha in your life, when you have blessing in your life, sometimes, unfortunately—most times—it can get to your head. And then you're going to say, in Moshe Rabbenu's words, ‘Ah, kochi ve'otzem yadi, it is my strength. It is my power.’ Look how great I am. Look how powerful I am. Look at the company that I built. Look at this business. Look at this empire that I have. Look at all these possessions. Look at the real estate that I have. Look at the investments that I have. Ah, kochi ve'otzem yadi, it is my strength. It is my power. It is my knowledge. Look what I made. I'm a self-made person.” Self-made means I made myself.
And if that's not a bad enough reaction to success, it gets even worse. Once it gets to your head that you're the man, then everybody becomes like bugs in front of you. They become like flies, like ants. Someone on your level, someone as great as you, can't talk to a regular person. You're a very elevated type of person. You have a social status where you don't talk to regular people. Regular people are the people in the streets. They're the Hifsid cases. They're the people who don't know how to make money. They're the people who don't know how to build a company. They're Hifsid cases. Let them hang out somewhere together. Let them hang out together.
Me, I don't talk to a regular person. Before I talk to someone, I make sure it's within my kavod, within my honor, to be seen conversing with this person. Sometimes I'll go out of my way for the smaller people because I want to show that I really care about other people too. I want to show that it's very important to me. But in general, my attitude is, “Me, I'm up, and everybody's below me.” Once in a while, I'll find somebody on my level and be able to go out to dinner with somebody. But otherwise, I won't be caught dead with somebody who's not on my level.
That is why, by the way, successful people are unfortunately very lonely. Believe it or not. It may sound surprising to somebody who hasn't been living too much in this world, but the more experience you have in life, the more you realize that the more successful you become—which usually equals the more arrogant you become—the more you start to become a very lonely person. You could have millions of followers on your social media account, if you have one, but you become a very lonely person.
The loneliness, by the way, is self-imposed. It's not necessarily that people don't want to be with you. Sometimes that's also true. But the isolation is self-imposed: because you become so arrogant, you can't be with people. You can't talk to people. You can't hang out with anybody. So the crowd of actual people you can socialize with, talk to, and be with becomes very small. A regular guy has millions of people who could be his friends. But as you start climbing the arrogance ladder, you start lowering the numbers, until sometimes you have only like three people in your whole city you can talk to. So now you have to be lucky that those three people actually like you, which is also a long shot. Usually arrogant people are not beloved. Sometimes you have to be nice around them because they have certain power. Maybe you need their money or their political clout, so you have to behave yourself around them. But real love for an arrogant person is very rare.
If I called somebody here right now and said, “You know you're an arrogant man,” you'd get very offended. “What?” Arrogance is very ugly. Even the arrogant person knows it's arrogant. Arrogance is ugly. Who wants to be around arrogant people? You have to watch how you talk. You have to watch your step. You can't be a normal person. Now the number of people who could be his friends is down from millions to only three: three on his stature, because he can't talk to regular people. He has to have the zekhut (merit) that they actually like him, which again is a long shot. So how many real friends does this person have? That's what happens. An arrogant person has very few friends. He doesn't allow himself to have them.
That's what happens to us. Moshe Rabbenu says, “I'm worried about you: when you start to make money and build your homes and see your success, you're going to forget who you are. You're going to start living in la-la land, thinking you're this unbelievable person who's so powerful above everybody, and you're going to forget your family.” Oh, how money and success have destroyed families. You're going to forget your own brother. You're going to forget your own sister. You're going to forget your parents. You're going to forget the friends you had when you were young. Those people are no longer on your level. You forget the importance of the people in your life. You even forget people who care about you. That's what happens with success. It makes the mind bloated with hot air and destroys the person.
Moshe Rabbenu says you'll even forget your Creator. You'll even say, “Who needs Him? What has He done for me? I'm the one. I did it all.” That's why you'll find people who make money all over the world suddenly having an opinion about things they know nothing about. It's an amazing thing. One of the important characteristics of a person in Pirkei Avot is Hamakir et mekomo (know your place). What a great middah (characteristic) to have.
Let's say you're a person who understands education because you went to school and have experience in it. So you understand that area. Somebody asks you a question, and it would make sense for somebody who knows education to answer it. If somebody asks a guy in education a question about real estate, he would be very foolish to stand up and say, “Oh, let me tell you what I think.” What does it matter what you think? Why are you even talking? You have no experience in this subject.
Hamakir et mekomo: the most ridiculous person is someone who starts talking about things he doesn't think about as if he's an expert. If you're an expert in education, you don't talk about real estate. You can talk about it, you can understand it, you can ask questions, but don't talk about it like you know this business, because you don't. If you're in the jewelry business, don't start giving amazing opinions on the shoe business. You don't know shoes. Hamakir et mekomo is a very simple reality: when you have an opinion, make sure it's about something you know and have experience with. Because if you don't, you're going to sound stupid and foolish, and you're going to make very bad decisions and hurt yourself and others along the way. That's obvious. I didn't tell you any big chidushim (novel insights) just now. I told you a very simple fact of life. But unfortunately, we see this around us. I'm talking about ourselves, not the other people out there. We have this. Maybe we don't have it on the level of Pharaoh, but we all have this struggle.
Moshe Rabbenu is talking to us: once a person reaches a certain level of success or financial success, for some reason, all of a sudden he has an opinion. He believes he has an opinion on every matter in society. They know how to run a country. What does having money have to do with running a country? Nothing. Zero. But that's what happens sometimes. The people who run a country are sometimes there only because they have money. They only got there because of money. It doesn't mean that if you have money, you can't run a country. It doesn't mean that. But it certainly doesn't mean that if you have money, you for sure can. There's a certain chokhmah of how to run a country. It's possible to make money and not have that wisdom.
A person who's successful in one area doesn't necessarily know how to succeed in education. One has nothing to do with the other. Just because you're successful in buying buildings doesn't mean you know how to make people safe. You're not a doctor, so you can't give instructions on things you know nothing about. Again, these are obvious things. But when we become arrogant, we get so full of ourselves that we feel invincible. We actually believe that whatever thoughts come to our mind must be right, because look how smart we are. How can we ever be wrong? Again, it sounds silly when I say it. I'm sorry. It sounds that silly. But that's the reality. It is the reality of mankind.
Moshe Rabbenu says, “I'm worried about you. I'm worried that when Hashem blesses you with all types of success, instead of feeling indebted, instead of being more humble than before...” There's a lot of that. But the reality is, the more Hashem gives a person, the more he has to lower himself when he says modim (we give thanks). If Hashem gives you a little bit, you say modim like this: you lower your head a little. Hashem gives you more, you have to make your modim even lower. The more success you have, the more humble you have to be.
But Moshe Rabbenu says, “You know what? I'm afraid, because Hashem made the world in a way where you have free choice. Sometimes, when you're more successful, instead of becoming more humble, you become more arrogant. And when you become arrogant, you just forget reality. You forget the people around you, you forget your real friends, and you forget the Creator too. And you forget who you are. You just become someone in a different world. You lose your friends.” It's a terrible reality, being an arrogant person. It's one of the ugliest characteristics a human can have.
The Gemara says that when Hashem created thunder, He had that arrogant child in mind. His child. He had him in mind. Hashem could do whatever He wants, but He's not going to change the guy's arrogance. That's free choice. Again, the world's about free choice. You want to be arrogant in life and destroy yourself? Bechavod (go ahead). That's your choice. When you're humble, that's your choice. When Moshe Rabbenu says that he was the most humble man, it's only a credit to Moshe Rabbenu because he could have been the most arrogant man. So arrogance and humility are your choice.
But as a caring father, you know, you have a son. You want him to do the right thing. At some point, you can't tell him what to do, because he's got to do it on his own. There comes a point where he's got to live his life. But as a caring father, you're still watching and you're still concerned. Even though you know he has to make the decision, you'll figure out maybe ways on the side. You'll talk to his friends. You'll create a situation. You'll figure out all types of strategies that maybe will get through to him and help him make the right choice. You can't force him, but you can help him.
The Creator of the world is the same. He's not going to change the way we are. We have to change who we are. But that doesn't mean He doesn't care about us. So the Gemara says that when He created the world, Hashem knew this reality of a human being: that he can get so caught up with himself and damage himself and the people around him. Hashem says, “You know, I'm going to give him an opportunity once in a while to wake up.” Again, it's an opportunity. It's not a sure thing. You can hear thunder day and night and nothing will change. But once in a while, you hear this thunder. Sometimes it's really loud, and you really get scared. All of a sudden, that big you is running under the couch. You're sitting under the bed. “Hey, what happened to you?” Your wife looks at you and says, “I don't understand. Aren't you this big man? What are you hiding under the table for?”
Ah, it's a little reminder. Here you are in the helicopter, and all of a sudden it's shaking. What happened to your greatness? You're crying. You're saying Shema right now. What happened? Ah, there's a moment. Again, you can move a moment later and forget about it. That's your free choice. But it's a moment. It's a moment where our caring Father says, “Let me do something so that maybe this person can, for a second—for one second—have a moment of clarity: you're a human. Relax. You're not the Creator of the world. Humble yourself. You'll be a better person because of it. You'll have better relationships because of it. You'll be able to serve your Creator better because of it. You'll be happier because of it. That's it. Enough with the nonsense. Get rid of all this garbage in your head, all the illusion. You created an island of illusion in your mind. It doesn't exist.”
In reality, nobody thinks he's so great. If people respect you because they're scared of you, that's all. They don't think you're God's gift to humanity. They don't think that. I give you a 100% guarantee. I'll sign on it. There's nobody in the world who thinks anything about you that is so special. Actually, when people see a kind, humble person, they respect you more because of that. But that's what happens to us. Hashem says, “I have a solution.” Again, not a solution to solve the issue. “That's not in my hands,” Hashem says. “You've got to solve your issue. You have an arrogance issue? You've got to solve it. But once in a while, I'm going to remind you who you are. I'll scare you, and you'll realize at that moment, ‘Ah, wait a second.’”
Fear. That's what thunder does to us. It makes us scared, which can humble us.
Now somebody here might ask, which is a very good question: maybe we'll deal with that on Monday. Is fear a good thing? Let's take a poll. Is fear something positive, or is fear something negative? Would you want your son and daughter to live with fear? Would you say that's a good way to live, or would you say fear is a very, very bad way to live? It's a good question. We have to think about that.
I'm sure the first reaction to that question is, “Of course not. Fear is paralyzing. Fear is not comfortable. Fear is scary. Who wants to live a life that's paralyzing, uncomfortable, and scary?” So obviously, fear isn't good. But Shlomo HaMelech says, “Fear is not good. Fear is not good.” He says Hashem made this world so that we should be afraid of Him. Is that really what we want? Do we want to walk around life being afraid of anyone, including the Creator? Is that a comfortable way, a pleasurable way to live? It doesn't seem that way to me. I'm sure it doesn't to you either.
Shlomo HaMelech says that's the purpose of life. Bottom line, he says, “Be afraid of Hashem.” As it says, “Be afraid. Live with fear.” I don't know about that. Please come back on Monday, because I don't want you to think this is an impossible question to answer and never hear the answer. It's a very important answer. I think some of you are going to say, “You know what? I'm not going to skip that day.” Fear is the real deal. It's something that's actually very important. Can it give us a life of pleasure? How? How can it be? Paralyzed and pleasure? It doesn't work. How? I want freedom. What does that mean? We'll have to deal with it on Monday, if that is not Hashem.
But today's lesson, to finish off, is that Hazal opened our eyes: when we see creation, we not only ask about the wisdom of the Creator in creation in the physical sense, but we try to look for the spiritual purpose of that creation. Here, with thunder, they opened our eyes. Thunder is a gift from our Creator to help us realize that where our head is may be the wrong place, and to humble ourselves and change the way we think and the way we approach people and situations.
It's very nice for a successful man to say, “You know what? I don't know anything about that subject. I don't know. I really don't know.” What a beautiful thing to say: “I don't know.” I'm successful here, but I don't know this. “What do you think?” That's a beautiful person. A beautiful person is able to talk to everybody. Yes, go out to dinner with somebody who's not nearly as successful as you. That's a beautiful person, who's able to warmly greet every person he sees. That's a beautiful person. That's a person who has a beauty to him. That's what Hashem wants from us. He doesn't want us to be holed up in our penthouse somewhere without anybody to connect to. That's not what we're here for. Thunder was made with that in mind. It's a spiritual creation. Number one. It has other things too, but number one, it's spiritual.