How can a person free himself from the yetzer horah of sinah and kinah?
ANSWER:
I would suggest that you take a Mesilas Yeshorim and study it slowly like you're studying a Tosafos. It opens up your mind, you get an understanding what are the great issues of Olam Hazeh. You must work on what we're looking for in this world, and after a while, when the sechel comes in, then the foolishness goes out. There's no place in the mind for sechel and for sh'tus to be together, and when you fill your mind with chochmoh, then the foolish attitudes of the world, sinah and kinah will go out.
Of course there's always some kinah; kinah is kinas sofrim. No matter if you're a tzaddik, if you see another tzaddik standing a longer Shemoneh Esrei, it hurts you; you'd like to do the same thing too. It's good, it's very good.
There's kinah in the next world too. Melameid shekol echod v'echod nichveh mei'chuposo shel chaveiro. In Gan Eden each person is under a chuppah, a chuppah with diamonds. Oh, each tzaddik is enjoying his chupa with diamonds, many diamonds, each mitzvah he did is a diamond. He's sitting with his wife also and they're enjoying that diamond forever and ever. Then they take a look down there and see the next chuppah, it has one diamond that they don't have, it hurts them, it hurts them. Kol echod nichveh mei'chuposo shel chaveiro, you say in Gan Eden? Yes, that's one thing in Gan Eden, you'll be sorry that you didn't do more; you could have gotten that diamond too.
Therefore when people learn the purpose of life, then many of the foolish things go out of their heads. Like the Rambam says, when you learn Torah, a great deal of the sh'tus of Olam Hazeh goes out of your mind.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
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