The path of God --the law of Moses is hard to figure out in a practical sense. There is a great deal of conflict in figuring out the general rules and also in my individual life how to apply the law of Moses in any given case.
It is a sure bet that if things are not going right in one's life --that for sure he has been transgressing on the Law of God. But even things might not be going well even if you have started to walk in God's Law. The reason is that the ability of repentance to fix things is limited. As the Gemara says עובר על מצוות עשה ועושה תשובה לא זז משם עד שמתכפר לו. עבר על לא תעשה תשובה תולה וים הכיפורים גומר. עבר על לא תעשה שיש בו כרת תשובה ויום כיפור תולים ויסורים מכפרים
You might think that to figure out what the actual obligations of the Law of God are it would be best to open up the book itself along with the Oral Law to see what they say but that is kind of a long route. The simplest way to go about this is to learn what s called "Musar" which refers to books written during the Middle Ages that more or less explain the basic obligations of the Torah in the most simple fashion possible.
It is also helpful to learn the books of the Gra and Reb Israel Salanter's disciples.
However in terms of what the practical application of Musar I find it best to try to emulate my own parents and my Dad in particular who came about the closest that I can imagine to the true ideals of Torah. [Even though our home was basically Reform and I do think that keeping all the Laws of the Torah is important but in terms of the basic goals of Torah our home was the best thing I have seen in terms of actual fulfillment of the basic obligation of the Torah to be a decent human being and to work honestly for a living and to keep the Ten Commandments etc.]
I am not thinking that I have any great access to "the Truth". Rather my best estimation of the right path is basically based on my parents and what I learned at the Mir Yeshiva in NY.
It is a sure bet that if things are not going right in one's life --that for sure he has been transgressing on the Law of God. But even things might not be going well even if you have started to walk in God's Law. The reason is that the ability of repentance to fix things is limited. As the Gemara says עובר על מצוות עשה ועושה תשובה לא זז משם עד שמתכפר לו. עבר על לא תעשה תשובה תולה וים הכיפורים גומר. עבר על לא תעשה שיש בו כרת תשובה ויום כיפור תולים ויסורים מכפרים
You might think that to figure out what the actual obligations of the Law of God are it would be best to open up the book itself along with the Oral Law to see what they say but that is kind of a long route. The simplest way to go about this is to learn what s called "Musar" which refers to books written during the Middle Ages that more or less explain the basic obligations of the Torah in the most simple fashion possible.
It is also helpful to learn the books of the Gra and Reb Israel Salanter's disciples.
However in terms of what the practical application of Musar I find it best to try to emulate my own parents and my Dad in particular who came about the closest that I can imagine to the true ideals of Torah. [Even though our home was basically Reform and I do think that keeping all the Laws of the Torah is important but in terms of the basic goals of Torah our home was the best thing I have seen in terms of actual fulfillment of the basic obligation of the Torah to be a decent human being and to work honestly for a living and to keep the Ten Commandments etc.]
I am not thinking that I have any great access to "the Truth". Rather my best estimation of the right path is basically based on my parents and what I learned at the Mir Yeshiva in NY.
