You are a yeshivish rabbi and scholar. Please edit the following text for a yeshivish book in a natural tone while maintaining the original author’s voice:

Bad middos, or negies, make you believe that your involvement in the world, your involvement with other people, is a thing which happens just in your backyard. It’s all a question of your own hanoeh, it’s a question of your own toeles, it’s a question of you figuratively reaching a higher level in the company ladder. It’s all your own backyard. Your involvement in the world is your own business. This is the illusion you believe when under the spell of the Middos Ro’es.

The basic mokum of Yiras Shomayim, the way we spoke last time, means that something else, something higher, something above, has to reveal itself. And now, in the realm of you being involved in the world, that’s a very basic thing. You have to understand that your involvement in the world, to your amazement, is not your backyard. It’s not. It’s not your own business. No, it’s not.

This is a deep thing. The reason why it’s not your own business when there is a mitzvah is because it’s very clear that it’s not my own business. I can’t suddenly decide to put the t’fillin shel yad on my head, even if I think it would be better, for whatever reason, to do that - because the halocheh says you can’t do that. So it’s very clear that mitzvos are not my own business. Therefore your negius don’t affect you so much.

But in your involvement in the world, why shouldn’t you do it the way it comes? Because that’s the approach of Yiras Shomayim. Yiras Shomayim has this basic ingredient, that it’s not my backyard. And that’s what Anshei Avimelech did to Avrohom Avinu. They said that Soroh Imeinu is their backyard; she is for our melech. It is a thing which is for us. By Paroh it was the same thing. It is for the melech. It is for us. Because it is my backyard. Everything is for my own benefit.

The world is not your backyard. That is the basis of Yiras Shomayim. Your life has to reveal that. This is the deep thing you can work out in bein hazmanim. That your life is not your own business. That is an avoideh which is bene’imim. I don’t tell you you have to take weird actions. But in the trips and things you already do, you need to find some connection, some new insight in torah.

The Mashgiach told me when he goes for a trip in bein hazmanim, when there is not some novel insight in torah connected to his trip, whether to a tree, to a mountain, to nature, or to involvement with other people, when there is no new insight coming up from the bein hazmanim, the bein hazmanim is worthless. It’s gurnisht. It’s a bitul torah. According to what I tell you, it’s not only worthless, it will destroy you. Because you will be strengthening the hargosheh that the world is my backyard.

When you think about what’s happening in the bein hazmanim here in Israel, there’s always these terrible things happening. They say it’s a zman puranus, because we are not learning in Yeshiva. There are bad things happening and you shouldn’t make a tiyul. It’s a dangerous time because the zchus ha’toreh is not magein on us, you read that in the newspapers once in a while.

I have another take on that. It’s because… רק אין לו יראת אלוקים על כן יהרגו אותו. These bochurim think the world is their backyard. It’s my own mokom of pleasure and it’s much more exciting to go to the desert with shabbos shoes and without water. It’s easier, you know? It’s much more exciting. It’s your backyard. No, it’s not your backyard.

That’s a very harsh illustration. You think it’s your backyard and that’s why you go and do all these crazy, exciting things. You go offroad in a quad bike and then to your amazement you fall off the cliff. Of course you will fall off the cliff. It’s not your backyard. The world is not your backyard to have hanoeh. No, it’s not.

When you do think that the world is there In order to chill out, or it could be to להוציא את המרץ, perhaps that’s the difference between Americans and Israelis. Americans want to sit back and relax. The Israelis really want to have some action going on. Whichever one it is, if you think that’s what bein hazmanim is for, you make a big mistake. You destroy yourself. You are poshut mechazek Ein Yiras Eloikim BaMakom Hazeh. You are the mechazek these koyches which tell you it’s your backyard. The world is my own business.

The world is not your own business. When you’re able to see that the world is not your own business, then, believe me, then good middos will surface. Then you open the door that the good middos are also able to surface. It’s an actual thing too. It’s an actual enjoyment to do chesed. It’s enjoyable to be responsible or whatever it is. That’s an enjoyable thing.

But when you think it’s your backyard, why should I be responsible? It’s my backyard, don’t tell me what to do. Why should I do chesed with you? It’s an effort. I want to have my own little backyard and no chesed involved there. But when you understand it’s not like this, then you open up the possibility that good middos and positive qualities are able to surface. And then bein hazmanim makes sense.

But that’s what you have to have. You have to have Yiras Shomayim. And this Yiras Shomayim, that is a very basic thing. I would say the approach of a Jew to the world is an approach of awe. When you go for a trip, you are mispoel. It’s not a question of your own hanoeh only.