Every move was choreographed. What keeps urgency from choosing the wrong method?
When the goal is urgent and genuinely good, can I still notice when my desire for speed is making the wrong method look right?
Learn the source
Ramchal writes, “הנה ראייתו תהיה ברורה לגמרי והבחנתו זכה ולא תטהו החמדה לשום דבר — Then his sight will be completely clear and his discernment pure, and desire will not incline him toward anything.” The exact Hebrew and Torah Lens’s English rendering appear with the source below.
Chapter 10 describes Nekiyus, an advanced clarity that notices how desire can make a questionable permission feel persuasive. The point is not that every strong wish is wrong. It is that even a valued outcome does not get to bend the judgment that chooses how to pursue it.
What happened
On November 11, a three-story mixed-use building beside an active excavation site collapsed in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
By 12:22 GMT on November 12, WABC reported eight people dead and 17 injured, four critically; officials said others might still be missing.
About 250 firefighters and emergency personnel searched with dogs, tools and buckets, while FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said every move was choreographed.
Crews were working methodically because unstable debris could endanger victims and responders; the cause remained under investigation.
ABC News · Eight dead after Flatbush building collapse · updated 12 November 2026 ↗WABC · Flatbush collapse live updates · last updated 12 November 2026, 12:22 GMT ↗Associated Press · Rescuers dig through Flatbush rubble · 12 November 2026 ↗
Return to the news
The wish to reach a trapped person quickly is wholly good. Yet in unstable rubble, that very urgency can make a dangerous shortcut feel like courage. The rescuers’ discipline brings Ramchal’s bechinah into view without claiming anything about their inner lives: clear discernment serves the goal by refusing to let desire choose the means. Nekiyus is not coldness or delay. It is the honesty to ask whether the method still protects the good I say I want. In ordinary avodah, a worthy aim—helping, correcting, finishing, even making peace—does not certify the first path that feels fast. Before I rush, I can let the goal itself demand a cleaner way.
Stay with the thought
The desire to reach someone under rubble quickly is not selfish. It is one of the purest urgencies imaginable, and the courage and exhausting labor at the site deserve acknowledgment.
But precarious wreckage has its own truth. A movement made too quickly can shift debris and endanger the very person one is trying to reach. That is why discipline is not the enemy of urgency here; it is urgency made faithful to its purpose.
Ramchal’s bechinah belongs inward. We cannot read a rescuer’s heart, and this event tells us nothing about why the collapse happened. It can still expose a pattern in us: once I decide that my goal is good, I may stop examining the path I use to reach it.
Nekiyus asks for a cleaner loyalty. Helping, correcting, finishing, defending or making peace does not certify the first method that feels fast. The right means may feel slower precisely because it refuses to spend the good I claim to seek.
Mesilas Yesharim · chapter 10 · Nekiyus ↗WABC · Flatbush collapse live updates · last updated 12 November 2026, 12:22 GMT ↗Associated Press · Rescuers dig through Flatbush rubble · 12 November 2026 ↗
Take one thing with you
Before one urgent good deed today, pause long enough to name the outcome you want and ask: does this method protect that good, or is speed making permission for itself?
A reflection, not a personal halachic ruling.Sources & reporting notes 4 references
- ABC News · Eight dead after Flatbush building collapse · updated 12 November 2026 ↗
Page displayed November 11 at 7:24 PM and was retrieved November 12 with the toll updated to at least eight dead. It attributes the toll, injuries, rescue conditions and continuing investigation to New York City authorities and the FDNY.
- WABC · Flatbush collapse live updates · last updated 12 November 2026, 12:22 GMT ↗
Live page retrieved November 12. It reported eight dead, 17 injured and four critically hurt, and said crews were working methodically to avoid shifting unstable debris that could endanger victims or first responders. The count may change while the search continues.
- Associated Press · Rescuers dig through Flatbush rubble · 12 November 2026 ↗
Date-only report retrieved November 12. It independently documents the large technical response, rescues, dogs and hand removal of debris, and quotes the FDNY commissioner saying every move was choreographed. Its visible headline still carried an earlier toll, so it is not the source for the later count.
- Mesilas Yesharim · chapter 10 · Nekiyus ↗
Exact approved automatic-corpus excerpt and Torah Lens’s original English rendering. Ramchal describes clear moral discernment that is not tilted by desire. The application asks only about the reader’s own choice of means; it does not diagnose rescuers, victims, investigators or any named person.
Hebrew passages are quoted sources; English renderings are our own. The event connection and suggested reflection are Torah Lens’s application. Prepared with AI assistance. Rabbinic supervision has not yet been established.