Hi good morning, good erev Shabbos. I hope everyone is well. So continuing here at the end of the Derech Hachamishis. ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה דרשו ה' בהמצאו אלו עשרה ימים שבין ראש השנה ליום הכיפורים. ומצות עשה מן התורה להעיר אדם את רוחו לחזור בתשובה ביום הכיפורים שנאמר מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה' תטהרו. על כן הזהירנו הכתוב שנטהר לפני ה' בתשובתנו והוא יכפר עלינו ביום הזה לטהר אותנו.
Rabbeinu Yonah is famously of the opinion that there is a special mitzvah, a special chiyuv of teshuva on Yom Kippur. He says it here and then he revisits this. He has occasion to revisit this in Hashaar Harevii. If you take a look rabosai, Os Yud-Zayin. If you take a look in Hashaar Harevii, Os Yud-Zayin. ועל זה שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה כי על כל כריתות ומיתות בית דין תשובה ויום הכיפורים תולים ויסורים ממרקים.
Meaning that for avonos chamurim, Yom Kippur, even teshuva and Yom Kippur need to be supplemented. So yesh sheailah, how can it be that there's anything which isn't fully resolved and fully erased by Yom Kippur? והלא כתיב מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה' תטהרו. You will be purified from all your sins. Ve-hateshuva baze, says Rabbeinu Yonah, כי מה שנאמר לפני ה' תטהרו מצות עשה על התשובה.
The translation of Lifnei Hashem titharu is not you will be purified, but you should purify yourselves. Not that you will be purified, it's not describing Hakadosh Baruch Hu's activity, kavyachol, as it were on Yom Kippur, but describing our obligation. כי מה שנאמר לפני ה' תטהרו מצות עשה על התשובה שנחפש דרכינו ונחקורה ונשובה אל ה' ביום הכיפורים. ואף על פי שנתחייבנו על זה בכל עת.
So before we go to that sentence, so that's the same thing Rabbeinu Yonah said here also, right? שנאמר מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה' תטהרו. Now here Rabbeinu Yonah elaborates a little bit more given that at the beginning of Shaar Rishon Rabbeinu Yonah introduces us to the chiyuv to do teshuva which is operative all year long also. So what is it that's unique to Yom Kippur? ואף על פי שנתחייבנו על זה בכל עת החיוב נוסף ביום הכיפורים. והטהרה אשר בידינו היא התשובה ותיקון המעשים.
So what exactly, what's the answer to the question? Is it just sort of kefel, not kefel halavan, but in this case it would be kefel ha-aseh? Is it just that it's a double aseh on Yom Kippur whereas it's a single aseh all year long? But ein hachi nami in terms of the domain as it were of the aseh, it's the same. So the emes is there seem to be two differences. I think one difference I think the Rav underscores and the other one Rav Fortman underscores. First of all, if you come back to our passage in Shaar Hasheini, so Rabbeinu Yonah writes מצות עשה מן התורה להעיר אדם את רוחו. A person should arouse himself, right? Lashon hisorerus. להעיר אדם את רוחו לחזור בתשובה ביום הכיפורים. Yitachen that what that indicates is that whereas all year long the mechayev of teshuva is yedias hachet. When a person is aware of chet. That's the mechayev of teshuvah. On Yom Kippur, there's a chiyuv to look for chet. There's a chiyuv to take the initiative to engage in cheshbon hanefesh and to identify and uncover chet which until this point we may have been unaware of. And that distinguishes the chiyuv teshuvah of Yom Kippur from the chiyuv teshuvah of all year long. Yitachen that that's included, or that's the thrust of what Rabbeinu Yonah says here, when he says מצות עשה מן התורה להעיר האדם את רוחו לחזור בתשובה.
Secondly, and this second mashma'us lechora is in both places. The way the Torah refers to teshuvah in Yom Kippur is as taharah. Now taharah is a higher form of teshuvah. It goes beyond what the basic threshold of teshuvah is. Basic threshold of teshuvah is to do teshuvah, to do what's necessary that Hakadosh Baruch Hu bechasdo hagadol is mechaper. But taharah is a higher—let's say in English there's repentance, but not every repentance necessarily leads to purity. To attain taharah through the teshuvah process implies a deeper and more fundamental teshuvah. And that's what also distinguishes the mitzvas teshuvah of Yom Kippur. That's what Rabbeinu Yonah says here in Haderech Hachamishi על כן הזהירנו הכתוב שנטהר לפני השם בתשובתנו. והוא יכפר עלינו ביום הזה,
not only to grant kapparah, but letahar osanu. And then again in the Sha'ar Harevi'i os yud-zayin, החיוב נוסף ביום הכפורים והטהרה שבידינו היא התשובה ותיקון המעשים.
Again, the emphasis being that on Yom Kippur we set the bar higher and the bar is not just teshuvah, but a teshuvah that yields taharah. You know, there is a very, very beautiful and almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of comment from the Maharal, which is very relevant to our limud of Sha'arei Teshuvah and in countless other situations and contexts as well. אמר רבי חנניה בן עקשיא רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצות.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to bestow merit upon us and that's why He gave us so many mitzvos, that's why the Torah is great and vast. So at first glance that's counter-intuitive. Right? If there would be fewer elements involved in the task we're given, so wouldn't it be easier to accomplish and easier to fulfill? Imagine the professor walking into a class tomorrow and said, "You know I've been thinking, I really haven't been good to you and therefore I want to amend my ways and I'm assigning you 500 pages to read over the course of the next two days that weren't originally on the syllabus." I don't know, I think we would—I'm not sure, maybe we would... look for him to express his goodness in some other fashion. But what does it mean? So the Maharal says something extraordinary. Maharal says Hakadosh Baruch Hu programmed us for success. So that means that whatever challenge or task Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us and again, in especially in the form of Torah uMitzvos, it means that corresponding to that we have the kochos hanefesh to accomplish it. If there's a mitzvas lulav in the Torah, it means that we have the kochos hanefesh to fulfill that mitzvas lulav in a very meaningful way to have it impact upon us the way it's supposed to for it to accomplish and reverberate the way it's supposed to. So that means that for every mitzvah Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us, the neshama that he designed for us became greater, enriched because for every mitzvah, for every task, for every challenge Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the requisite and corresponding kochos hanefesh. רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted that we should have a great neshama. לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות, for every again, the more vast Torah is, the more challenging mitzvos are, so then that translated into the greater the neshama that we have to be able to be positioned to be able to fulfill those mitzvos and to meet those challenges. It's such a fundamental fundamental hashkafa, again it's something that should accompany us in our limud of Sha'arei Teshuva but in so many other contexts as well. Okay, so we'll stop here for now בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll resume with the psukim at 12 o'clock. Have a good productive morning rabosai, everyone should be well, be safe.