Thursday, February 27, 2014
Ethics of our Fathers: Chapter 2 Mishna 18: Living in the Past is Detrimental to your Health
9:41 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
"Rabbi Shimon said, 'Be careful in reading the Shema and the Shemoneh Esreh; when you pray, do not regard your prayer as a perfunctory act, but as a plea for mercy and
grace before G-d, as it is said: '"For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, and relenting of evil." Do not be wicked in your own esteem (lest you set yourself a low standard of conduct).
The first part of the Mishna is telling us to be careful that we should say the Shema and the Shemoneh Esreh in its proper time. The reasons we should be more careful about these prayers is because each one has a component of taking on the yoke of heaven.
When we say the Shema we are declaring that there is one G-d who runs the universe and keeps the world functioning on a daily basis. After that we declare that we will take on the yoke of mitzvos and do what G-d has commanded us.
Through the Shemoneh Esreh we also take on the yoke the heaven. We declare that G-d takes care of our needs physically and spiritually and continually runs the world. At the same time, He is the G-d of our forefathers who brought His name to the forefront in a polytheistic world.
The next part of the Mishna tells us that when we do pray, we shouldn't do it as a perfunctory act but as a plea for mercy and grace before G-d. Since G-d provides for the sustenance and function of the world, how could we pray to G-d by giving Him lip service without proper intention of what we say?
Prayer is a very difficult thing since we don't always see direct results of our prayers. After all, we pray for so many things that we desire and think are good for us but G-d may seemingly not answer our call to Him.
Prayer is one of the things that always needs strengthening. It takes preparation and hard work to pray three times a time saying the same things over and over. Spontaneous prayer is always accepted but when we delve deeper into what the prayers represent and mean, we see the greatness of the rabbis who developed them.
The last part of the Mishna tells us that we should not look evil in our eyes. The commentaries explain that if we do this and have a low self esteem, then we will not be able to do proper teshuvah (repentance). The reason is because we tell ourselves that we are no good, we make mistakes and are not worthy of anything.
I have heard my rebbe, Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlita say many times that the yetzer hara is very strong in that it convinces a person that they are not worthy of anything so why work on character development, I will just fail anyway! We have to look at each day anew and not worry about the past because if you live in the past you have no future.
This means that regardless what the person has done the day before, we have to realize that we make mistakes but we also have to grow from them and change. If we just give up hope, then we will never change and reach our true potential.
grace before G-d, as it is said: '"For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, and relenting of evil." Do not be wicked in your own esteem (lest you set yourself a low standard of conduct).
The first part of the Mishna is telling us to be careful that we should say the Shema and the Shemoneh Esreh in its proper time. The reasons we should be more careful about these prayers is because each one has a component of taking on the yoke of heaven.
When we say the Shema we are declaring that there is one G-d who runs the universe and keeps the world functioning on a daily basis. After that we declare that we will take on the yoke of mitzvos and do what G-d has commanded us.
Through the Shemoneh Esreh we also take on the yoke the heaven. We declare that G-d takes care of our needs physically and spiritually and continually runs the world. At the same time, He is the G-d of our forefathers who brought His name to the forefront in a polytheistic world.
The next part of the Mishna tells us that when we do pray, we shouldn't do it as a perfunctory act but as a plea for mercy and grace before G-d. Since G-d provides for the sustenance and function of the world, how could we pray to G-d by giving Him lip service without proper intention of what we say?
Prayer is a very difficult thing since we don't always see direct results of our prayers. After all, we pray for so many things that we desire and think are good for us but G-d may seemingly not answer our call to Him.
Prayer is one of the things that always needs strengthening. It takes preparation and hard work to pray three times a time saying the same things over and over. Spontaneous prayer is always accepted but when we delve deeper into what the prayers represent and mean, we see the greatness of the rabbis who developed them.
The last part of the Mishna tells us that we should not look evil in our eyes. The commentaries explain that if we do this and have a low self esteem, then we will not be able to do proper teshuvah (repentance). The reason is because we tell ourselves that we are no good, we make mistakes and are not worthy of anything.
I have heard my rebbe, Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlita say many times that the yetzer hara is very strong in that it convinces a person that they are not worthy of anything so why work on character development, I will just fail anyway! We have to look at each day anew and not worry about the past because if you live in the past you have no future.
This means that regardless what the person has done the day before, we have to realize that we make mistakes but we also have to grow from them and change. If we just give up hope, then we will never change and reach our true potential.
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