Good morning Rabbosai, I hope everyone is well. So continuing here in Ha'derech Ha'chamishi, וראוי לכל ירא אלהים למעט בעסקו ולהיות בעיניו נחתם during Aseret Yemei Teshuva. Someone who is yerei elokim and again as we discussed yesterday as profound as that label is, but there's also something just very simple and direct about it. Who's serious and takes things at face value. Le'ma'eit be'asaka of to minimize as as much as discretion allows his mundane involvement. U'lehiyot be'eynav nich'tam, lashon לא סירה ולא סכה, lashon of fear. He should be fearful. ולקבוע ביום ובלילה עתים, he should set aside times להתבודד בחדריו לחפש דרכיו ולחקור u'lekadem ashmurot ולהתעסק בדרכי התשובה וכשרון המעשה. Rabeinu Yona is here describing and and sketching for us how to spend our time during Aseret Yemei Teshuva, how to approach the opportunity and responsibility of Aseret Yemei Teshuva. But but clearly it's it's a paradigm whose whose relevance and applicability goes beyond Aseret Yemei Teshuva. There are times when when a person maybe due to whatever the trigger, when a person feels, has a sense that there's something in his life that isn't right. And and what Rabeinu Yona is telling us is basically what the formula for self-reflection and introspection and deliberation are. Now that sort of scheduled during Aseret Yemei Teshuva but at any stage in a person's life a person may feel the need to be engaging in in that reflection in that introspection in that deliberation. Maybe it can be that a person is at a crossroads in life. Crossroads in life can be in in at a point in a person's schooling, it can be in a person's personal life in terms of shidduchim, there's different different crossroads in life that that we come to. So on the one hand most directly we're learning now about how one should spend one's time and organize one's schedule in Aseret Yemei Teshuva, but more broadly we're learning how a person when a person feels that he is at a crossroads, when a person feels that that needs to be some change effected in his life what the approach should be what the elements are again to properly engage in that reflection in that introspection in that deliberation. Lekadem ashmurot means to get up early, to get up before amud hashachar. Again in the next line the Rabeinu Yona is going to say that during that time לשפוך שיח לשאת תפלה ורנה ולהפיל תחנה to daven. It's interesting we find the same in the Rambam as well. The Rambam in Hilchos... The Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva in Perek Gimmel the end of Halacha Daled ומפני ענין זה נהגו כל בית ישראל להרבות בצדקה ובמעשים טובים ולעסוק במצוות מראש השנה ועד יום הכיפורים יתר מכל ימות השנה ונהגו כולם לקום בלילה בעשרת ימי אלו ולהתפלל בבתי כנסיות בדברי תחנונים ובדברי כיבושים עד שיאור היום.
So the Rambam also refers that that the minhag is is at night. So what's what's pshat in that minhag? So mistama there's that there's a nisterdiker level and and dimension. But in terms of the nigleh shebo, so itochen the pshat is is as follows. Night is is a time legitimately, necessarily, is a time for sleep. A person needs to, a person needs to to get get the proper amount of sleep. Itochen that what Rabbeinu Yona and obviously on a long-term basis, so a person can't curtail if if a person is getting the amount of sleep he needs, so a person can't curtail that, a person can't cut into that, shouldn't cut into that on a long-term basis. On a very short-term basis, on a very short-term basis it is possible, and and maybe the significance of of davening at night is that presumably that means that's being done al cheshbon a person's sleep. And what it means is that a person is sacrificing in order to daven and not just davening instead of, you know, well instead of, you know, instead of that business meeting, you know, I wasn't especially keen about about meeting that guy anyway, so you know, I'll say a few kapitelach Tehillim, you know, in mid-morning. Instead of that, instead of that that business meeting, the davening at night means that that a person is sacrificing in order to daven. He's not he's not davening out of convenience. He's sacrificing. And that's what what empowers as it were his tefillah. That context of of sacrifice for the tefillah infuses it and and imbues it with with a special with a special quality. What does it mean התעסק בדרכי התשובה וכשרון המעשה? There's two broadly speaking, there's really more than two, but broadly speaking there the there are two in our context there the there are two different elements or two different areas of teshuva. There's the recognition of cheit and and the resolve to change. And and that's more as it were, let's call it conceptual. But then in order to implement that resolve, it it requires a very practical plan. It requires implementation. A person can legitimately, sincerely, having recognized cheit, resolve to change. But if there isn't the, what I guess in the business world what they call the strategic planning, he's not necessarily going to be successful in in carrying that out. And and and lehavdil, it's true in in every area of life, right? A person can can resolve I'm going to use my time better. I'm going to use my time better. Okay, so that that's a person recognizes that that that he's not not doing as well as he can in in making the most of his time and he resolves to to to use his time better. But now practically, how's a person going to translate that practically? How's a person going to going to implement that? Clearly that there are things that that have impeded him until this point. And and unless there's an understanding of of what has impeded me and and how I'm going to solve that and how I'm going to avoid that moving forward, so then the sincerity of the resolve notwithstanding, the person isn't really positioned that well to be able to successfully implement. A person looks and says I have to work on middah such and such. I have the following middah that that I need to to be metaken. Okay, so so there's the recognition and there's the resolve, but lemaisah, how? How? The teshuvah always has to have that practical element. That's what lichorah להתעסק בדרכי התשובה וכשרון המעשה refer to. Rabbeinu Yonah continues and he has three different phrases for tefillah: לשפוך שיח ולשאת תפילה ורינה ולהפיל תחינה. Rishonim didn't as as beautifully and poetically as they wrote, they didn't write just to have that beautiful and poetic effect. The the genius was to be able to express with such precision profound ideas so beautifully and so poetically. So for this morning let's try to understand what lishpoch siach means. So clearly Rabbeinu Yonah is is working off the pasuk תפילה לעני כי יעטוף ולפני ה' ישפוך שיחו. Whether he knew the niggun for the pasuk I don't know, but but this much is clear: he he certainly certainly knew the pasuk. תפילה לעני כי יעטוף ולפני ה' ישפוך שיחו. So lishpoch is is an interesting verb for for tefillah, no? Right? Lishpoch literally means to pour, no? ושפך דמו וכיסהו בעפר. When when the shochet shechts, so veshaphoch damo. So if you've ever if you've ever seen a shechitah, so when the shochet shechts, so blood comes pouring and gushing out of the beis hashechitah. Again maybe even pouring is is a little bit of a doesn't fully capture. It's it's not a controlled pouring either, let's say in ושפך דמו וכיסהו בעפר. Lishpoch siach means that that we have within us all kinds of deep, at times raging emotions, at other times maybe it's it's a feeling of of of sadness, of of inadequacy. Lishpoch siach means that the That when a person davens, so the person is so fully, totally involved, that just all that religious, emotional feeling comes gushing out. The image perhaps of a little child who comes running crying to his mother. The child's not speaking necessarily in measured tones, is not very composed and dispassionate. He's being shofech siach. And that's a crucial dimension of tefilla. To know that when we have that all that what's so overwhelming internally, that a person can and should and is invited to be shofech siach. And maybe that's why shfichas siach is associated with the oni. Again, Dovid HaMelech is obviously saying that about himself in a self-effacing way, but whether the oni is understood, you know, literally in financial terms or whether the oni is understood more figuratively on other levels, but either way it has the same associations, right? The oni is just so needy. And I think that's the primary association that we have, rachmana litzlan, with an oni or aniyus is that neediness. And the תפילה לעני כי יעטוף, all that neediness and all that what am I going to do, there's no solution on the horizon, how do I find my way through it? Again, the emotion, the turmoil, the all of that comes gushing out, lishpoch siach. Okay, so we'll stop here for this morning, beli neder im yirtzeh Hashem we'll resume around 12:45 with the pesachim limud. Have a good productive morning rabosai, everyone should be well, be safe.