What deserves to be at the center of our avodat Hashem — and what was only ever supposed to remain secondary?

Continuing the learning in Yayin Yashan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David return to the framework of the Mesillat Yesharim and begins putting the pieces of avodat Hashem into their proper order. The question is not simply whether something is holy, meaningful, or even a good practice. The deeper question is whether we know what is ikar and what is tafel — and whether the things we add around our Yiddishkeit are bringing us deeper inside or quietly distracting us from the main thing.

Along the way, the learning moves through the language of kinyan, teachings from Rabbi Elimelech and Rabbi Elazar, the inner work of hitbodedut, and the danger of allowing external practices to replace genuine inner growth.

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00:00 Opening Blessings and Sponsor Acknowledgments
02:10 The Five Parts of Avodat Hashem in Mesillat Yesharim
05:03 The Five Components of Serving Hashem
07:52 The Avodah of Effort
11:07 The Work Ethic of the Early Tzaddikim
17:40 What It Means to Make a Kinyan
19:39 When a Kinyan Becomes Part of You
23:07 When Spiritual Pursuits Become Distractions
24:18 Ikar and Tafel: What Actually Matters?
25:24 The Five Essential Categories
27:10 Stop Searching for External Add-Ons
28:25 Rabbi Elimelech and Rabbi Elazar
30:45 When Details Replace the Core Avodah
32:21 External Practice vs. Inner Growth
36:10 Marriage: The Basics and the Extra Expectations
38:19 When the External Distracts From the Ikar
39:29 Hitbodedut and Spiritual Focus
41:17 Half Measures vs. Wholehearted Commitment
43:34 Looking Ahead: Continuing the Learning

How far does בכל דרכיך דעהו (In all your ways, know Him) really go?

If the avodah is to invite Hashem into every part of our lives, what happens when the place we’re standing in is messy, compromised, or somewhere we know we probably shouldn’t be? And how do we distinguish between genuinely searching for Hashem from wherever we are and simply finding a holy-sounding way to rationalize what we already want?

Continuing Yayin Yashan, Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn through the Imrei Noam, Malchut Shlomo, the Mei HaShiloach of Izhbitz, the Baal Shem Tov through the Me’or Einayim, and the Piaseczner Rebbe’s Mevo She’arim quoting Rav Asher of Stolin.

At the center is an extraordinary Chassidic idea: you do not have to wait until you have arrived somewhere spiritually perfect to begin looking for Hashem. ובקשתם משם — seek Him from there. From the place you actually are.

But “from there” does not mean everything suddenly becomes permitted. That tension — between never giving up on finding Hashem and never using Hashem to justify ourselves — is where this shiur lives.

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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t

00:00 Opening Blessings and Sponsorship Acknowledgments
01:49 Hashem’s Endless Game of Hide-and-Seek
03:14 The Imrei Noam: Seeking Hashem Everywhere
04:25 Every Person Has a Different Path to Discovery
08:07 Inviting Hashem Into Every Part of Life
20:09 Where “בכל דרכיך דעהו” Has Boundaries
21:42 The Dangerous Voice of Rationalization
22:50 “Hashem, Don’t Let Me Become an Imposter”
24:20 When Repeated Sin Starts Feeling Permitted
26:18 How a Tzaddik Can Strengthen Your Avodat Hashem
28:17 Can You Find Kedushah in a Dark Place?
32:33 Yaakov, Esav and Why We Don’t Seek Out Nisayon
44:17 Protecting Yourself Without Running From Your Shlichut
46:35 The Bracha in the Middle of an Aveirah
47:54 Torah and Mitzvot Are the Framework — Not the Finish Line
49:29 The Baal Shem Tov: Seek Hashem From Where You Are
50:50 Why You Can’t Separate the Neshamah From the Act
52:30 בקשו פניו תמיד — Never Stop Seeking

What does it really mean to fulfill בכל דרכיך דעהו — “In all your ways, know Him”?

Beginning a new section of Yayin Yashan on Avodat Hashem, we learn through the Me’or Einayim of the Chernobler, Mesillat Yesharim, the teachings of Peshischa, the Divrei Binah of Biala, Malchut Shlomo, Orchos Tzaddikim and Rav Shlomo Carlebach to ask a very practical question: what are the things I have quietly become dependent on?

Not everything material is a problem. But when I begin to tell myself that I need the right circumstances, the right comforts, the right possessions — maybe even the right spiritual experience — before I can really serve Hashem, something has gotten between us.

And from there we move into one of the most beautiful images in the shiur: being pulled toward Hashem like iron toward a magnet. Sometimes He has already been pulling us for years. We just had a completely different picture in our heads of what that pull was supposed to look like.

00:00 Opening Blessings and Sponsorships
01:27 What Does It Mean to “Know Hashem”?
03:00 The Chernobler: Why the World Was Created
04:25 Yichud: Oneness and Your Unique Avodat Hashem
11:31 The Purpose of Creation: Knowing Hashem
13:47 When Material Things Become Spiritual Barriers
23:19 Being Pulled Toward Hashem Like a Magnet
24:54 When Miracles Don’t Look the Way We Expected
26:25 Marriage and the Expectations We Bring With Us
27:28 Aliyah and the Reality We Didn’t Picture
29:01 Can Someone Far From Torah Still Feel the Pull?
30:33 The Friends Who Hold Back Your Growth
31:37 Living Every Day With the Purpose in Mind
32:45 When Even the Shulchan Aruch Becomes Avodah Zarah
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For more Shuirim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com
Join Rav Shlomo Katz's WhatsApp Community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KHKOhhPaeHx5Kb74WL9L9a?mode=ems_copy_t