Good morning rabosai. I apologize for the delay. I hope everyone is well. So maybe just to finish, we left off more or less in mid-sentence here in the derech hasheini. So maybe let's just try to finish that sentence and then we'll skip at least temporarily בלי נדר אם ירצה השם to the derech hachamishi where Rabbeinu Yonah talks about aseres yimei teshuva. So here in the derech hasheini in os tes, so Rabbeinu Yonah writes: ובהגיע לימי השיבה יוסיף לגרש מלבו עניין העולם. There's less need and therefore there should be less involvement with worldly matters. ולפי מעוט השנים הבאות, and commensurate with the dwindling number of years that remain, yaamod b'eisek haolam, a person should minimize mundane preoccupation, ve'isyached tamid l'hisbonen b'yiras Hashem. He should be misbonen b'yiras Hashem. ולחשוב לנפשו ולתקן מדותיו ולבקש טהרת המצוות. Presumably in this phrase, l'hisbonen b'yiras Hashem, Rabbeinu Yonah has in mind the pasuk in Mishlei that Ramchal quotes in his hakdama to Mesillas Yesharim. Let's look at the pasuk that relates most directly to Rabbeinu Yonah here. Shlomo HaMelech says: בני אם תקח אמרי ומצוותי תצפון אתך להקשיב לחכמה אזנך תטה לבך לתבונה.
Lend your ears to chochma, incline your mind and heart for understanding. So Shlomo HaMelech is talking about pursuit again in Mishlei Perek Bais. He's talking about pursuit of chochma. He describes how that pursuit needs to be undertaken with a mashal: אם תבקשנה ככסף וכמטמונים תחפשנה. You should seek after it like silver, you should search for it as one searches for lost treasures. And then Shlomo HaMelech concludes: אז תבין יראת השם ודעת אלוקים תמצא. Rabbeinu Yonah in his perush on Mishlei writes: אחרי שסידר המעלות שישיג האדם בהן את החכמה, after Shlomo HaMelech has essentially highlighted how a person attains chochma, ידבר על פרי החכמה והתועלת הנמצא בה. He speaks what the dividend is, what the ultimate goal of attaining chochma is. כי אין מעיקר תועלת החכמה הכבוד שישיג האדם בה, nor chas v'shalom the kavod that a person will receive because of his chochma וחשיבות הנפש ביוסף על חכמה ותבונה כחכמת התשבורת והתולדות והמזלות.
And not sort of the enhancement of one's own soul. That's not what the pursuit is about either. That's not what motivates it. That's not what the end goal is. והנה ביאר עיקרי התועלות שישיג האדם מן החכמה ליראת השם.
The ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose and goal of chochmah is that it allows a person to attain yiras Hashem. V'amru Zal, and Rabbeinu Yonah quotes from Chazal, אין לו להקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו אלא יראת שמים בלבד.
So l'chora, what Rabbeinu Yonah here is teaching, there are certain fundamentals which are both the foundation and basis of life as well as the goal of life. They're both the starting line and the finish line. They comprise, they constitute both the starting line as well as the finish line. I think what we've had occasion to comment how the Rama begins Shulchan Aruch by quoting from the Rambam in the Moreh about שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. It's the first se'if in Shulchan Aruch. The Rama quotes it. So שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד is something which the Rama says it's the basis for everything. One's awareness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the basis for everything. It's what guides a person. It's what molds his character. It's what provides his values. It's what shapes his thinking. If you look in the Rambam, if you look up the selection that the Rama is quoting, so the Rambam has it at the end of the Moreh. What the Rama quotes at the beginning of Shulchan Aruch, the Rambam himself writes at the end of the Moreh. And what that juxtaposition of the Rambam with the Rama's quotation of the Rambam is that Shivisi is the beginning point and the end point. On its most basic, elementary level, it's the basis for everything. On its highest, most encompassing, most profound level, it's the goal of everything. And the same is true with yiras Hashem. Yiras Hashem is the basis, but yiras Hashem is also the goal of everything. And when Rabbeinu Yonah here in Sha'arei Teshuva speaks of yisyached tamid, that in a person's older years, b'mei seiva, once a person reaches בסייעתא דשמיא וחסדי השם the milestone of age 70, he should be misbonen b'yiras Hashem. Again, l'chora the paraphrase of the pasuk in Mishlei means that a person should really be intensifying his efforts to not be content with that elementary level of yiras Hashem which has been the starting point of a life of avodas Hashem, but should be looking to deepen it, to intensify it, to make strides towards that higher and ultimate level of yiras Hashem. Let's perhaps skip to haderech hachamishi so that today and tomorrow בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we can see this. So haderech hachamishi, b'aseres yimei teshuva. The fifth of the either. Occasions or circumstances that should awaken and galvanize a person to do teshuva. The period of Aseres Yemei Teshuva. Hayeray Dvar Hashem, Rabbeinu Yonah is quoting from Sefer Shemos of course. I think it is by makkas barad, no? When Moshe Rabbeinu gives the hasra’ah about what’s going to happen. So הירא את דבר ה' הניס את עבדיו ואת מקנהו מן השדה.
He took his beheima and his livestock and his avadim from the field and brought them indoors so they wouldn’t be killed by the barad. So Hayeray Dvar Hashem there means that a person just takes Dvar Hashem seriously. Hayeray Dvar Hashem by makkas barad, it's not, we’re not talking about a high madreiga. Just Hayeray Dvar Hashem, someone who takes Dvar Hashem seriously. Hayeray Dvar Hashem, someone who takes Dvar Hashem seriously and recognizes Aseres Yemei Teshuva for what they are, who takes Dvar Hashem seriously and recognizes the period between Kesay L’Asor for what it is, libo yecherev bekirbo בדעת שכל מעשיו בספר נכתבים. ובעת ההיא האלוהים יביא במשפט את כל מעשה על כל נעלם אם טוב ואם רע.
So we recognize the phrase of Ma’asecha besefer nichtavim from Pirkei Avos, right? דע מה למעלה ממך עין רואה ואוזן שומעת וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים.
But there it doesn’t describe Aseres Yemei Teshuva, it describes every day of a person’s life, right? דע מה למעלה ממך. At all points there’s an ayin ro’ah, there’s an ozen shoma’as, and there’s וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים. So mistama the simple pshat in the Rabbeinu Yonah is that again he’s using it, rabbinic idiom, but he’s takka using it in a very different sense than it appears in the mishna in Avos. In Rabbeinu Yonah, כל מעשה בספר נכתבים it means the future. What the future holds for a person. Is a person going to enjoy prosperity or Rachmana litzlan is a person going to encounter adversity? What Hakadosh Baruch Hu is decreeing for the person for the coming year is being written during Aseres Yemei Teshuva. In which case שכל מעשה בספר נכתבים in context, again, it’s Chazal’s idiom, but it’s being used in a totally different sense. It’s being used in the sense of call, not things that a person does himself, but things that will happen to a person. And it’s not referring to things that the person is doing presently, it’s referring to things that will happen to the person in the future. That mistama is the simplest pshat. One wonders if Rabbeinu Yonah doesn’t also have in mind the following, again, and what suggests this is what the meaning of this phrase is in context in Pirkei Avos. It’s certainly true that וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים is true for what we do all the time. And it’s nothing, it’s not a reality which is limited to Aseres Yemei Teshuva. But in a certain sense, because whatever a person does is subject, hear this rabosai, whatever a person does is really subject to revision and reinterpretation based on teshuva. Whatever I did this entire year, yes, it was nichtov beshasho, but it's not written in indelible ink. If a person does teshuva me'yira, so then zedonos na'asos kish'gagos. A person does teshuva me'ahava, zedonos na'asos kizechuyos. So what does that mean? It means that yes, every day, every moment this year, whatever I did was nichtov basefer, but now it's being rewritten. Now, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu promises דרשו ה' בהמצאו קראהו בהיותו קרוב that בעשרת ימי אלה שבין ראש השנה ויום הכיפורים, so the teshuva is mitkabeles miyad. Through teshuva, a person is given the incredible and extraordinary power to rewrite what he did. And in that sense, there's a special bechina of וכל מעשיו בספר נכתבים in aseret yemei teshuva. Maybe, maybe that's an additional kavana in this phrase in the Sha'arei Teshuva. הרי אדם נידון בראש השנה וגזר דינו נחתם ביום הכיפורים. ובעת שידע אדם כי יביאו את דינו לפני מלך בשר ודם.
If a person would know that he's about to stand trial for capital charges in a human court, הלא יחרד חרדה גדולה וישית עצה בנפשו. He would tremble and he'd strategize. ובכל דרכי חריצות יחיש מפלט לו. And with all and as diligently as possible, he would seek refuge to try to be exonerated from that accusation, to try to be found innocent in this capital case. ולא תעלה על רוחו לפנות על ימין או על שמאל ולהתעסק ביתר חפציו.
A person wouldn't be distracted by other affairs. ולא ישגיח לפתח ולשדד אדמתו ולא יפנה דרך כרמים ולא יספיק ביום צר מהכין לבו להינצל כצבי מיד.
A person would put everything else on hold to the degree that he's able and would have this single-minded focus on the impending din. וכן מה נאוה לו היוצאים לפועלם ולעבודתם עדי ערב בימים הנוראים ימי הדין והמשפט.
How foolish it is for a person to just simply go about his routine during aseret yemei teshuva when their fate hangs in the balance. ואינם יודעים מה יהיה משפטם. הלא לאחותם יאגל לבם ביום שידובר בה, שנאמר מה נעשה לאחותנו ביום שידובר בה.
Okay, so maybe we'll leave off here for today. Bli neder, tomorrow we'll try to finish the Derech Hachamishi and for today, we'll hopefully bli neder resume around 1:00 with the Pesachim shiur. Okay, rabosai, have a good productive morning, be well, be safe.