HASHKOFO-----importance of (1)

Halachah and Hashkafa are two components of your soul’s delicate ecosystem. The wrong hashkofos are not only be deadly in and of themselves, but they can also poison your Halachic observance.

The ibn Ezra asks how we can have a Mitzvah commanding us not to be jealous. Jealousy is a feeling, and hence cannot be controlled, right?

Wrong, says Ibn Ezra. Nobody is jealous of anything unless you believe it is attainable. The town peasants are not jealous when the princess gets engaged, because they know they have no chance at marrying her anyway.

So too, if a person would only realize that whatever Hashem gives someone else is because Hashem the other person to have it and not him, nobody would ever be jealous, because they would understand that the things they are jealous of are unintended for and thus unattainable by, him.

In other words, the way to fulfill the Halacha of "thou shalt not be jealous", the way to control your feelings, is by having the proper hashkofo (whatever hashem gives someone is
unattainable to another).

Without the hashkofo, the Halachah is impossible.

Your hashkafos control not only the Middah of jealousy, but your other Midos as well. Someone who perceives another Jew as a brother will treat him better than someone who perceives him as a stranger (see Rambam Matnas Aniyim 10).

Someone who recognizes that everything he has is merely a gift from G-d will not be arrogant; but someone who believes in “my power and the strength of my hand” will be inappropriately proud.


Someone who recognizes that anything bad that someone does to him in this world was decreed from on High (even though the perpetrator volunteered willingly to fulfill that Heavenly decree) will have no interest in taking revenge, since he knows that the damage done to him was not due to the perpetrator but to the will of G-d. (Sefer HaChinuch, Lo sikom)

Someone who recognizes that we are in the world for a short time with an opportunity to collect gold coins (Torah and Mitzvos) will not squander his time poring over Shakespearean plays. He will try to spend as much time possible collecting that gold, regardless of whether the Halachah obligates him to do so. It’s simply a matter of common sense. If someone does not bother to learn, then he obviously does not recognize (Hashkofo) the value of learning.

The Rambam (Hilchos Teshuva 8) says that not only do we have to do Teshuva for our bad actions, but also for our bad beliefs (“deos”). He lists as examples, arrogance, materialism, and the like. Although we usually classify these things as “midos” – personality traits – and not “beliefs” – the Rambam makes them into one.

The reason is because these personality traits, as we explained, are directly dependent on your beliefs (Hashkofos). Someone who has wrong Hashkofos will inevitably have bad Midos. And it is the bad “deah” – the bad Hashkofo – for which we are Halachicly obligated to repent.