Machshava:

Mesilas Yeshorim 

Collections: Rabbi Weinberger: The Bilvavi On Mesilas Yesharim

Description

P. 296. The fundamental concept of living life with thought and contemplation. Even a person who always runs from one chessed to the next, from one mitzvah to the next can be missing out on the main point if he does so without yishuv hada'as. A little bit with kavanah is better than a lot without kavanah. Chochmah (wisdom) needs to translate into action - and thus the sefer Mesilas Yesharim is not a "how to" book, but - at its core - it is a sefer to help us achieve chochmah. Chassidus means doing the right things for which the mind is filled with deep thought about the outcome of these actions, how everything and everybody around the person will be affected. Even the most positive actions must conducted with intelligence. If a person chooses not to eat in order to have more time for learning, the demands of his body will cause him to think, non-stop, about food. Staying up and learning late into the night is not a good thing if the person is completely unable to function the next day. A person cannot simply ignore the needs of the body. The soul and the body [when it comes to maintaining a healthy, unspoiled body] must not fight with each other.