Good morning Rabbeasai. We're going to take a look בעזרת השם בלי נדר at the next letter. It's michtav lamed dalet. Also a very remarkable and justifiably famous letter. מכתבך לאחר חזרתך לחוץ לארץ הגיעני לנוחם האמת ניתן להיאמר כי הרבה נהניתי מקריאת מכתבך זה הנאה זו צמחה משני שורשים.
This enjoyment grew from two roots. א' מפני שתוכן הדברים וסגנונם ערוכים בטוב טעם ודעת. Both the content as well as the style are presented with understanding and with a correct sense and chush. ב' מפני שהנך מתבטא בגילוי לב על הנפתולים אשר בנשמתך.
Because you're open about the struggles, the inner struggles, the struggles within your neshama. והנני בזה להגיד לך כי לפי דעתי. I'm telling you that in my understanding, הנפתולים הללו שהנך דן עליהם במכתבך. These struggles, again נפתולי אלוהים נפתלתי עם אחותי says Leah, which you're discussing, which you're dealing with in your letter, מקורם היא תפיסה מוטעית בעניין הנידון. The source of these struggles is a faulty understanding. הרושם הכללי המתקבל מדבריך הוא כי זוהי הנחה פשוטה אצלך.
The general impression that I've received from what you wrote, it's axiomatic to you, it's a self-evident assumption, ki secular career hi double life. That if a person on the one hand is a ben torah, he learns, he davens, he does mitzvos, on the other hand, in terms of the source of his livelihood, he engages in a secular career, that somehow or other his existence is bifurcated and that he leads a double life. Again, double life as is a very negative term and description. אמנם מי ששוכר לו חדר בבית לחיות בו חיי תושב ושוכר לו עוד חדר במלון לחיות בו חיי אורח.
If you imagine a person on the one hand he rents a room in a house to live as a citizen, but on the other hand he also rents a room in a hotel to live as a guest, sevaday sheyesh lo double life. So there it is inconsistent, it's not at all harmonious. אבל מי ששוכר לו דירה בת שני חדרים. But if a person rents a two-room apartment, yesh lo broad life, not double life. uchani I recall שביקרתי פעם בירושלים בבית החולים של Doctor Wallach shlita. וראיתי כשהוא ניגש לחולה היה עומד להיכנס לחדר ניתוח. And I noticed that I myself observed that he would go over to the patient who was being wheeled into the OR veshaal lo and he would inquire from him. So that he, the surgeon, could daven for him before the surgery. כשסיפרתי את זה לאחד המיוחד מבין גדולי ירושלים זצוק"ל, presumably that means Rav Kook, when I shared this story, when I recounted this story to the unique one amongst the Gedolei Yerushalayim, itbate, he reacted, he responded: כמה צריך לקנאות ביהודי זה. How jealous, in the sense of קנאת סופרים תרבה חכמה, how jealous, how jealous we should be of this Jew שיש לו הזדמנות כל כך גדולה that he has such a great opportunity לשמש כלי שרת לכבוד שמים to function, to serve as a kli sharet for kvod shamayim. הגידו נא לי האמת אהובי חביבי, tell me the truth. האם אמירת פרק תהילים לשלומו של חולה על ידי הרופא המועמד לעשות את הניתוח האם זהו
double life? Would you say that that on the one hand he's a Ben Torah who davens, on the other hand he's masquerading as a doctor chas veshalom? Of course not, it's it's a very integrated and and harmonious life. v'atah chavivi yakiri, חלילה לך מראות את עצמך בראי כפול של חיים כפולים.
I think sometimes in the museums, I mean you don't, it doesn't have to be in a museum, but in a museum, you know, to to entertain people, they they sometimes do it that way. Let's say imagine you have two two mirrors which form a V, so if you're standing in the center of the V, so then you sort of simultaneously see yourself in both mirrors, right? So that's the the imagery that that that Rav Hutner is is employing. So he says chas veshalom that that's the way you should see your life, as though, again, there are two separate yous which are not integrated, and and there's something disjunctive or or bifurcated about life. Now comes kedarko bakodesh, an amazing taytch: kol hamarik be'echad. Right, Chazal say, again, the the literal context of of this is when a person is reciting the first pasuk of Kriat Shema. So kol hamarik be'echad, what Chazal, what what the maimar Chazal means literally, on on its most basic level, kol hamarik be'echad, a person who draws out the word echad. So mida k'neged mida, so what's the response? מעריכין לו ימיו ושנותיו. They give him arichas yamim v'shanim. Agav, what does that phrase arichas yamim v'shanim mean? It it would seem to be, I don't know, redundant or especially the the part about arichas yamim is is funny, right? To live long years, what does it mean to live long days? So there's a famous story about the Imrei Emes. The Imrei Emes, after the Sfas Emes was niftar mamesh, as they were walking away from his kever, so the Imrei Emes turned to his brother and said to him that the tatte, right, our father had arichas yamim. So his brother looked at him somewhat stymied, because the Sfas Emes was in his 50s when he died, you know, and and looked at him with this, you know, perplexed look on his face that that that his older brother Rav Avrom Mordechai, who was the mimalai mokom, the Imrei Emes, should should explain. And he said, there's two different things, there's arichas yamim and there's arichas shanim. Arichas shanim means to live a long life, to live into one's 80s, one's 90s, and and maybe even beyond, that's arichas shanim. Arichas yamim means what, how can you have arichas yamim, a day only has 24 hours, so how can you have, how can you have arichas yamim? So the Imrei Emes said when it... person's day is full, when a person accomplishes as much as he can accomplish in those 24 hours, when he capitalizes on the time, when he maximizes the time, that's arichas yamim. And that's what he said, that our father wasn't zocha to arichas shanim, but he was zocha to arichas yamim. Okay, anyway, so the ma'amar Chazal, again, what the ma'amar Chazal means literally in context and what it means halachically is כל המאריך באחד. If a person draws out the word echad of krias shema, posuk rishon of krias shema, so midah keneged midah, he's given, he's blessed with arichas yamim v'shanim. Says Rav Hutner to his talmid, aderaba, contrary to what you depict, that you think you're living this disintegrated, disharmonious double life, כל חייך צריכים להיות בבחינת hama'arich b'echad. Your whole life should be a bechina of drawing out echad, echad v'lo kefel. Incredible. Meaning ma'arich b'echad, so Rav Hutner is teitching that in addition to the simple pshat, k'midomeh this is what he means, that in addition to the simple pshat of again drawing out the word echad in saying shema, ma'arich b'echad means to extend the concept of echad, of Hashem echad, that it encompasses everything you do, and that everything you do is oriented towards, calibrated towards, and integrated with a focus on Hashem echad, echad v'lo kefel. צר לי מאוד עליך חביבי, I'm very distressed אם נקודה זו נעלמת מעיניך. Another mashal, another analogy from geometry. הרבה נקודות המפוזרות זאת תחת זאת, if you have many points scattered one under another, בוודאי שיש בהן משום ריבוי, there's certainly multiplicity there. אבל אותו המון הנקודות עצמו, but that same number of many dots, כשהוא מסודר מסביב לנקודה אחת העומדת במרכז, when that again mass of dots is arranged around one central point, so then it's no longer again just a collection of multiple random points, הרי זה עיגול אחד. זוהי חביבי חובתך בעולמך, clearly, clearly, again, we all recognize and Rav Hutner intends us to recognize, right, that phrase of chovoscha b'olamcha from the Mesillas Yesharim with its well-known teitch, that everyone lives in his own world. On the one hand, we all share the cosmos Hakadosh Baruch Hu created, but m'idach gisa, everyone lives in his own world, everyone has his own orbit, his own responsibilities, his own kochos hanefesh, his own life circumstances. Everyone has his own world, and everyone within his own world, again, was speaking in the second person when addressing this talmid, so Rav Hutner says chovoscha b'olamcha, your obligation in your world, your world with your kochos hanefesh, your abilities which determine how you're going to be mekayem the mandate of Chazal of כל הנהנה מיגיע כפיו גדול מירא שמים שנאמר יגיע כפיך כי תאכל אשריך וטוב לך. זוהי חביבי חובתך בעולמך
l'ha'amid b'merkaz chayecha, the same way what combines otherwise random points into one coherent unified circle is that they all, again, they're all equidistant, every point on the circle is equidistant from the center of the circle. So זוהי חביבי חובתך בעולמך l'ha'amid b'merkaz chayecha. You have to at the center of your life. the focal point of your life has to be את האחד הקדוש ברוך הוא ה׳ אחד ve'az and then if everything circles around that, everything is measured by that, everything is calibrated towards that, everything is determined by that, so then yes, a person's secular career is not part of a double life but it's part of a broad life. It's part, again, of this integrated religious life, ואז אינו עליך לדאוג כלל לכפילות, then you don't have to worry at all about, again, this double life. כל נקודה חדשה שתרכוש לך, again, everything that you'll acquire, רק תרחיב את העיגול, it will make the circle bigger and wider. But the fact that a circle becomes bigger or wider doesn't mean it loses its unified integrated identity as a circle. Aval ha'achdus, again, that unity, einah zazah mimekomah is not, is not affected. מצטער אני על שלא הבנת את כל זה עד עכשיו,
I'm very distressed that until this point you haven't grasped this point. Umitoch tza'ari, הנני דן אותך לכף זכות, I'm being dan l'chaf zechus, כי רק מצב רוח של רגע. There must have been this momentary, transient mood, שם בפיך את הדברים אשר דברת במכתבך. It must be that when you wrote this letter, again, it was a passing mood. Chazak ve'ematz chavivi, be strong, draw strength, aleh vehatzlach yakiri, go up, be successful. Urechav, again, what's the pasuk in Trei Asar that Rav Hutner is paraphrasing, ורכב על דבר צדק ועשה את כל הצלחותיך, and use, convert all your success, meaning all your success in your career, levasis leribuy kevod shamayim. Everyone has their own kochos hanefesh, everyone has their own abilities given by hakadosh baruch hu. Those kochos hanefesh, those abilities again, which is what constitutes and creates olamo, his personal microcosm, will indicate to him the path he goes on, whether his career is, quote-unquote, a secular career or as klay kodesh. But either way, either way, when a person correctly identifies what his abilities are, where his energies, again in terms of hishtadlus l'parnasa, should best be directed, but either way, a person can and therefore should aspire to and should, bezras Hashem, again, live not a double life but should live a broad life. When the Rambam elaborates on the mishna in Avos, in perek gimmel, hilchos de'os, וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, so the Rambam by definition was assuming that everyone had what, again, in the vocabulary of this letter, is a secular career. The Rambam famously, very, very vigorously objected to being paid for for being a rebbe, for being some kind for being a spiritual functionary. The Rambam was very, very much opposed to it. By definition, for the Rambam, he and everyone were supposed to be pursuing some kind of secular livelihood. But that too, how a person frames it, how a person contextualizes it, what a person's goals are, how a person prioritizes, how he uses his money, how he tries to create create a life work balance, all this indicates again whether or not they're just scattered points or points that are all circling around a central echad which make it into again a harmonious circle and what one has is broadness and not multiplicity. Kimidomeh er farnimt means this as well if for some reason he doesn't, it's clearly something one can and should say based on this letter, כל המאריך באחד מאריכין לו ימיו ושנותיו. Again, so we said arichas yamim, we quoted the pshat of the Imrei Emes. There are 24 hours in a day. If a person lives his secular career as something which is detached from avodas Hashem, which is devoid of meaning, because it's not framed, it wasn't chosen and framed and contextualized, and the money, the hatzlacha he has is not earmarked for what it should be, so that person shortens his life, because all those hours of the day he's not really living. But if a person is ma'arich be'echad. If a person's ma'arich be'echad, again, he extends echad. Echad is not only Hashem Echad is not only in the Beis Medrash during time of Talmud Torah. It's not only in the Beis Kenesses during the time of Tefilla. But if the person's abilities are such that Hakadosh Baruch Hu blessed him with that he should be engaged for his parnassa in a secular career, if that's also again calibrated towards, geared towards, framed by וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, so then if he's ma'arich be'echad, so that's the source of that arichas yamim. The source of the arichas yamim is that those same 24 hours of the day instead of eight to ten hours of the day being siphoned off of his life, they become incorporated and integrated into his life, and his lifespan was just increased by an amazing 40% or so. Okay, so ad kan for this letter rabosai. Most probably בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll continue with Chullin around 1:30, if for some reason there's a change, so then hopefully אם ירצה השם בלי נדר you'll get an email to that effect. Okay, have a productive morning seder rabosai. Kol tuv.