בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ. Then the Torah says ביום עשות ה' אלהים ארץ ושמים. Rashi quotes from Chazal the famous comment that בתחילה עלה במחשבה לברא את העולם במידת הדין, וראה שאין העולם מתקיים, שיתף עמו מידת הרחמים.
Vehadhu dichtiv ביום עשות ה' אלהים ארץ ושמים. Elokim representing, expressing midat hadin, Shem Yud-Kay-Vav-Kay expressing midat harachamim. So what does it mean by the Ribbono shel Olam, a machshava and then a revised plan? Obviously, it's this anthropomorphism is a metaphor for something, but what is it? The Ribbono shel Olam doesn't have to revise His plans. So what does it mean that batchila ala bemachshava and later Hakadosh Baruch Hu did differently? It's interesting. Tosafot in Rosh Hashanah suggests this distinction between the original machshava as opposed to the ultimate implementation as a pasuk hashlishi for the machloket Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua whether batishrei nivra ha'olam or benisan nivra ha'olam. So Tosafot in Rosh Hashanah says that the machshava as it were, kaveyachol, Hakadosh Baruch Hu conceived the idea of beriat ha'olam or beriat ha'adam betishrei on Rosh Hashanah, but the actual implementation, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't do it right away. But then he decided that he would do it, but when he did it, the timing of the ma'aseh didn't quite match the timing of the machshava. So what does that represent? The explanation is as follows. What does it mean for a person? Let's say a person is moving into a house, or maybe he's even building a house, and he has this dream house that he wants, right? His machshava. And he tells the architect and the builder he wants to have a study which will be lined with bookcases floor to ceiling, and he wants to have a dining room to have a table that he'll be able to accommodate אורחים עד בלי די. And then the architect tells him, 'you know, everything you told me, you're exceeding the square footage that you have available to you.' Okay, so then he has to, then he sort of makes certain adjustments. Okay, so maybe there's going to be one less bookcase in the study, and maybe there'll be a few feet less in the dining room, but machshava represents an ideal. Machshava represents the ideal. It's not always possible to implement the ideal, but it represents what a person strives for, what a person wants. That's what the original machshava represents. When the Torah tells us, and later I saw the Sfat Emet says something along these lines as well, when the Torah tells us that the machshava, that עלה במחשבה לברא העולם במידת הדין meant that the ideal for a person is that a person should be able to exist and justify himself before Hakadosh Baruch Hu answering to a pure midat hadin. That a person should be able to stand before the Kisse Hakavod and just responding to a midat hadin, a person should be able to justify himself, his life, the value of his life, how he lives his life, how he spends his time, by midat hadin. The reality is that אין אדם צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. So the ma'aseh Hakadosh Baruch Hu governs the world with midat harachamim as well, not only midat hadin, but there's a mixture of midat harachamim and midat hadin. Why is it so important? It's the same pshat in Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua. What does it mean if batishrei nivra ha'olam? What does it mean if Adam was created on Rosh Hashanah? It means that the essence of a person is his accountability to din. That's what it means. To be a person means to be accountable for who you are, for what you are, for what we do, for how we live. That's what batishrei nivra ha'olam, that's the essence of a person, his accountability. What does it mean that benisan nivra ha'olam? So Nisan represents al pi halacha as well as al pi machshava. Nisan represents hitchadshut, right? The Terumah Hadashah every year, the The terumas halishka, there was a new terumas halishka, the new fund for korbanos tzibur, so that terumah was inaugurated on Rosh Chodesh Nissan. That's when they started taking the money from the new terumah right during Chodesh Adar, they collected the money, that's Parshas Shekalim, and the Olas Chodesh B'chodsho and then they started using the new fund in Nissan. So Nissan also in the physical world also, that's when the flowers return and the trees begin to blossom again. So Nissan represents hitchadshus. Same thing, the ideal is b'Tishrei nivra haolam. A person shouldn't need the hitchadshus in the sense of teshuva, that that there should be a shleimus, that that a person should be able to respond to Midas Hadin. However, the Ribbono Shel Olam says I know that the person I know that the adam I'm creating needs hitchadshus and therefore he's being created in Nissan. Why does the Torah tell us the Ribbono Shel Olam זה מדורה קמא ומדורה בתרא? Because the answer is that we have to know the madura kama because that's what we're supposed to strive for. A person is not supposed to rely on the fact that b'Nissan nivra haolam. A person is not supposed to lechatchila rely on the fact that ביום עשות השם אלוקים ארץ ושמים. A person is supposed to what we push ourselves for is Bereishis Bara Elokim. What we push ourselves for is b'Tishrei nivra haolam. That's what Sama D'chayim suggests that Yaakov Avinu is all nervous is all scared. אם יהיה אלוקים עמדי ושמרני בדרך הזה אשר אנכי הולך ונתן לי לחם לאכול ובגד ללבוש ושבתי בשלום אל בית אבי.
What's Yaakov Avinu so nervous about? At the end of the previous parsha the Ribbono Shel Olam gave him a havtacha that he's going to be with him. So what's he so nervous about? So Sama D'chayim sort of assuming this type of mahalach say no, it's im yiheyeh Elokim imadi. Yaakov Avinu was nervous, he doesn't want to have to employ Midas Harachamim that that he should be able to survive his encounter with Eisav with Lavan or whatever else awaits him. He wants it should be davka im yiheyeh Elokim imadi, that that it should be with Midas Hadin that that he should be able to emerge. Every Jew, kal v'chomer a ben Torah who has some appreciation for what it means to be a Jew, has to strive for shleimus, has to strive for shleimus. Too often in today's world, in today's society, people have hasagos, people have dreams, they have aspirations professionally, professionally. Ask people what they want to be, so very few people tell you that their life's dream is to be a sanitation worker or or an exterminator, if that's anyone's choice then I please forgive me for the choice of examples and I'll use a different one next time. But very few people tell you no, my life's dream is to be a garbage man. That's what I want to be lechachma tzadti. I haven't heard it in all the years. And yet when it comes in terms of ruchnius, you don't you don't hear the same types of she'ifos, you don't hear the same types of she'ifos. The same way a person doesn't want to be a garbage man, if a person is capable, he wants to he's not going to be the best doctor, he's going to be a he's going to be a first-rate lawyer, he's going to be a person has to have she'ifos in Avodas Hashem, a person has to have she'ifos for shleimus in Avodas Hashem. Now obviously all of that sort of poses the question so what does that mean? What does the shleimus mean? And that's not a question which I hope to answer this morning, but I'd rather I want to add one more preliminary comment and that is that in order to achieve shleimus one thing is clear. Again the definition of shleimus hopefully in coming weeks bli neder im yirtzeh Hashem it's something we'll talk about. But whatever that definition of shleimus is, in order to achieve shleimus a person has to have a sense of yekaras hazman. A person has to have an appreciation for the value of time. There's an Ohr HaChaim Hakadosh we sort of have the impression which on one level is true, but on another level as optional things, there's לפנים משורת הדין-דיקע things. So you're beginning to wonder is the end of this sentence going to be that next week's bechina is going to have Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh on it? Maybe, we'll stay tuned. But the emess is in all all the meforshim in the Mikraos Gedolos, mamash, mamash devarim yesodiyim. So there's a very, very יסודיקע אור החיים הקדוש in Parshas Vayechi. He has the same idea elsewhere as well. ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות. So it's a funny phrase, right? We sort of, it's in shnayim, so we, so we hear this a few times a year, not just once a year. So okay, so you're used to hearing it, but what do you mean? In English, if you would say that that someone's going to die soon, so you'd say that that he's approaching death, right? You wouldn't say that his days are approaching death. That's not, it's not intelligible. You'd say that that he's a very old man and he's getting weak and and it's quite clear the process that's in motion, so you'd say that he, rachmana litzlan, is approaching death. What's this ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות? So Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh says like this. He says that this is all based in Zohar. Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh says it's like this: a person's neshama, sort of imagine a person's neshama as a bunch of little little squares, being comprised of a bunch of little squares, corresponding to every that every little chelek of the person's neshama is a day of his life, the day of his life. Every day of a person's life, he's supposed to be mesaken that corresponding part of the neshama. And that's what it means ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, that the person's time, that is his life, because every day, every day again, he it's that part of the neshama is gone, that part of the neshama that he's supposed to be mesaken on chof ches Tishrei, that's today's avoda. There's a little part of the neshama and he was given a day to mesaken that. And that's what it means ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות that with every day, so as the day goes, so then that part in the neshama goes. When the days are up, so then there's istalkus haneshama. That's what Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh says. So there can't be shleimus, whatever, obviously we'll talk about שלמות בין אדם למקום, bein adam lachaveiro on different levels, bli neder, im yirtzeh Hashem. But whatever it is, given that a person's life is his time, ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, a person's time is his life, so there can't be shleimus if a person aspires to shleimus. Why? Because בתחילה עלה במחשבה לברא את העולם במידת הדין that there should be shleimus, that that's what we should strive for. So that has to translate into a sense of yakrus hazman. Yakrus hazman means, having a sense of yakrus hazman means that a person has to sort of free himself from convention. Conventionally, there are times that we use and there are times that we waste. Thursday nights we use, it's mishmar night, mishmar night. But Friday afternoons and motzaei Shabbos are times we conventionally, which are not, not necessarily used to their maximum efficiency. In terms of the yakrus hazman, the time of Thursday night isn't any more valuable, there's no more of a tikkun that one's neshama is supposed to, that one is supposed to accomplish on Thursday night as opposed to Friday afternoon, Friday afternoon or motzaei Shabbos. If Friday afternoon a person is tared with tzorkei Shabbos, okay, so that's part of his avoda, it's part of his tikkun. It doesn't mean that a person, the point is not that that a person doesn't get ready for Shabbos, but just sort of we let our guard down in certain zmanim. And it's those zmanim which a person has to capture in in his quest for shleimus. There is this vort and quote, I first heard it as a child, my father, zichrono livracha, always used to quote it, but subsequently I've seen that many many sefarim quote that the Zohar Hakadosh says ואברהם זקן בא בימים. Ba bayamim, right? So the usually the English translation is, again similar to the English idiom, he was getting along in days, he was getting old. So but beis can also mean with, right? אשר לקחתי מיד האמורי בחרבי ובקשתי. with my sword uvekhashti or by means of, the beis also means with. So the Zohar Hakodesh says אברהם זקן בא בימים, Avraham Avinu was zaken ba bayamim, had all his days with him. It wasn't the day that he had wasted. That's what it means Avraham zaken, he came ba bayamim. If you wanted to know when he was 42, so what did he do, what did he do the chof ches Tishrei of that day? Did he have something to show for it? Was there some enduring legacy from that? Yeah, Avraham Avinu zaken, he was ba bayamim. And that's what the velt says is the pshat of arichas yamim. What do you mean arichas yamim? You're wishing someone he should have 25 hour days? The rest of the world should have 24 hours a day, but you, I'm wishing you arichas yamim, you should have 25 hours a day? No, the answer is יש ימים ויש ימים. The day has 24 hours. Arichas yamim means arichas shanim, so you're wishing people not just 70 years, not just 80 years, but more and more and more. Arichas yamim, you're wishing a person that qualitatively the days should be long. And without that sense of yakrus hazman, that every minute counts, not in a neurotic sense, not a person needs to relax, he needs to relax, he's also using his time. But time shouldn't be just, there's no such thing as I have nothing to do. Well, there's never enough time. היום קצר והמלאכה מרובה. That sense of yakrus hazman, it's only with that that we can hope again to aspire and to strive for the shleimus of Breishis bara Elokim. Just one or two just technical pieces of information. There will be a schedule for Shabbosos soon, just for now, in addition to the Shabbos, assume Parshas Lech Lecha and bli neder that there will be a schedule soon. In terms of the mussar seder, so we had said that during the chodesh Elul was Shaarei Teshuva. So now for the rest of the year, we're going to divide our time sort of between the more classical classics and the more modern classics. So beginning with the more classical classics, which I assume is going to be a chazara, we'll begin with the Mesillas Yesharim. Part of tying in with what we were talking about now as well as an attempt to be mechazek the seder, so given that people have their sedarim and I don't want in the twelfth hour to encroach on established sedarim, but it would seem that immediately after Maariv, before the post-Maariv seder gets going, a little bit of downtime. And maybe if everyone were to learn mussar at the same time, it would be a chizuk, ish es re'eihu, each one would be mechazek the other. It would be less of a chance of forgetting and it would be a chizuk both, again, for the smaller oilam as well as the broader oilam. And we'll see in terms of the pace whether it's certainly not less than a perek a week, although that's probably a little too slow, but we'll see in terms of the pace. So let's assume that and try as much as possible right after the 10 o'clock Maariv. I hope, if I'm wrong, please let me know, that that really is not going to encroach upon sedarim, but maybe sort of save and retrieve a few minutes which otherwise might... so for let's say 15-20 minutes at that point. There will also be sometime next week the schedule in terms of the bechinos on bekius. The schedule will not tell you that the bechina is the next day, it will give you at least two days' notice before the bechina and Ari will continue, please excuse me.