Good morning, Dvar Halacha Wednesday. We're reading the opening sentences again here in HaDerech HaShlishit: כאשר ישמע מוסר החכמים והמוכיחים יקשיב וישמע ויכנע וישוב בתשובה ויקבל בלבו כל דברי התוכחות ושלא יגרע דבר מדבריהם והנה האיש הזה ברגע קטן יצא ויצא מאפלה לאור גדול.
It's interesting and very important, ki'medumeh that in the other drakhim here of HaSha'ar HaSheni, Rabbeinu Yonah doesn't speak of this dramatic, instantaneous transformation. If we go back to the opening lines in HaDerech HaRishon: כאשר תמצאנה את האיש צרות ישב אל לבו ויאמר אין זה כי אם דרכיו ומעלליו אשר עשו אלה לו וחטאיו ענו לו לנפשו וישב אל השם וירחמהו.
Similarly, in the Derech HaSheni: כאשר יבואו ימי הזקנה והגיעו ימי השיבה ויחל כחו וימעט.
Here too, Rabbeinu Yonah doesn't talk about the extraordinary transformation that can happen in a rega katan. The same is true in the Derech HaChamishi and the Derech HaShishi as well, ki'medumeh. And apparently the difference is when the impetus for teshuvah, when the hitorerut l'teshuvah is due to external circumstances: the tsaros, the stage of life coming closer to one's encounter with personal mortality in Olam Hazeh, the awareness of din in Aseres Yemei Teshuvah v'chulu external reality. Whenever there's this external impetus, the more we're driven, the more we're prompted by the external impetus, the less deep the teshuvah goes, the less relatively speaking transformative the teshuvah is. By contrast, now it's true that in Derech HaShlishi we were talking about hearing musar hachachamim, and I guess in one sense, it's literally the case that one is, there's an external impetus here as well, but there's no external reality. Tsaros are an external reality, yemei ziknah, yemei seivah are an external reality, Aseres Yemei Teshuvah v'chulu an external reality. This isn't an external reality. It's ideas that the person is choosing to internalize. So here the impetus is internal. When the impetus is internal, so then that the potential exists not just for a very, very, very meaningful and very, very significant and very, very important teshuvah. But the potential exists for this extraordinary instantaneous transformation. ברגע קטן יצא מאפילה לאור גדול. One wonders whether in quoting that phrase from the Mishna in Pesachim which we incorporate into the Haggadah, the לפיכך שהקדוש ברוך הוא הוציאנו מאפילה לאור גדול, one wonders if Rabbeinu Yonah is not just, again, as is the rabbinic style of writing, borrowing and enriching his language with idiom from Chazal, but if Rabbeinu Yonah is also transposing some of the meaning of that phrase. The afaila l'or gadol of Yetzias Mitzrayim was from Mem-Tes Shaarei Tumah, right the bottom of the Mem-Tes, the 49th Shaar HaTumah, till 49 days later Kabbalas HaTorah. Also this extraordinary remarkable total transformation. And the more the hisorerus is from within—again, from within doesn't mean to the exclusion of learning a shtickel Shaarei Teshuvah, a shtickel Mesilas Yesharim—it means as opposed to the tzaros. But the more the hisorerus is from within, so the greater the potential exists for that total transformation accomplished in a rega katan of יצא מאפילה לאור גדול. The emes is even when a person finds himself in an eis tzarah with tzaros enveloping, or a person finds himself at that stage of life of yemei zikna, that doesn't preclude the inner hisorerus. The person can allow the tzaros to trigger something which ultimately will yield this derech hashlishi as well, but to the degree that a person is simply responding to the tzaros, to the yemei zikna, the potential is not as great as it is here. Okay, so we'll stop here for now, rabbosai. Bli neder we'll resume at 12:00, im yirtzeh Hashem. I think we said we were going to, apropos of the Rashi, we were going to take a look in the Rambam Sefer Hamitzvos, what was it, Mitzvah Reish-Tes, and then we were going to begin there. And then probably continue a little bit in the Gemara, bli neder, im yirtzeh Hashem. Okay, have a good productive morning, rabbosai. Be well, be safe.