Good morning Abbos, I hope you're all well. הנני מאשר בזה קבלת מכתבך מהתחלת שבט. שאלתך היא שאלת חכם אשר עליה נאמר כי היא חצי תשובה.
Well, what does that saying mean that a sheilas chochom is chatzi teshuvah? Sometimes a person can have a question and it reflects sort of a general sense of confusion, of lack of understanding, of call it intellectual disorientation. So then there's no teshuvah implicit. The question isn't really, doesn't represent the first part of the journey towards the answer. But sometimes a person, again, it doesn't happen on its own, a person has to make hishtadlus with the seichel Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives him, a person is able to define the question. It's not just of I'm confused, I don't know what's going on here. There's a clear definition to the question. The question is carefully, precisely defined. When a question is presented that way, so then the question will indicate a direction in which to head for the answer. The question gives you a head start on the answer. Whenever we're in a position to do so, before we start looking for the answer, the challenge is whether the question has been asked as well as it can be because the better the question is asked, the more work that goes into asking the question properly, the closer one is to an answer be'ezras Hashem. אמנם דע לך יקירי כי זד ומזיד אינם בני חדא בקתא כאשר חשבת.
They don't belong to the same category. They're not synonyms. ובאחת היא השמועה בבית מדרשנו כי השם זד הונח בפרטיות על אותו השטן אשר עיקר ההסתה שלו הוא להכניס בלב תהייה על הראשונות.
A zaid refers to someone who on his own, maybe tries to entice others to this as well, not only sort of mikan ul'haba to lure a person into chet rachmana litzlan, but even l'sha'avar to get the person to regret and to renounce the mitzvos and ma'asim tovim that he's done in the past. כלומר אותו השטן המוליד הרהורים ופקפוקים של חרטה על המצוות והמעשים טובים שכבר נעשו על ידי האדם.
And we know Chazal tell us in Gemara Kiddushin, the Rambam quotes it lehalacha in Hilchos Teshuvah, that a person rachmana litzlan can and does forfeit the zchus of ma'asim tovim, of mitzvos when he's tohan al harishonous. Maybe what we'll comment on that in a minute bli neder. עניין זה משמש מפתח לכמה פסוקים בתהילים כגון אל יעשקוני זדים או זדים הליצוני עד מאוד וכדומה.
What is what is this again this midda rachmana litzlan of tohan al harishonous? So I think it's Reb Elchonon who bases the question, I think it was Reb Elchonon raises the question, we view teshuvah, this is the opening chord of Sha'arei Teshuvah. But why? Isn't teshuva just the other side of the coin of tohal al harishonim? It seems to be a midda. The midda is that if a person regrets what happened in the past, so a person can uproot it. הין לטוב הין למוטב. So what what is it that's so special then about the the koach of chuva, the possibility of chuva when in light of this Gemara, this din of tohal al harishonim, it just seems like chuva is the positive side of the coin to which tohal al harishonim is the negative side of the coin. So if you take a look, it's actually meduyak in the Gemara as well, but if you take a look in the Rambam in perek gimmel, Hilchos Chuva, halacha gimmel, so the Rambam writes as follows: כל מי שניחם על המצוות שעשה vetho al hazachuyos ואמר בליבו ומה הועלתי בעשייתן ulai, the Rambam uses ulai the way we use halevai, ulai lo asisiosan, הרי זה איבד את כולן. noch a mal, כל מי שניחם על המצוות שעשה, a person who regrets, he has remorse over the mitzvos that that that he's done, ותוהה על על הזכויות and and he views it with with amazement like why did I do those things? Rachmana litzlan, he thinks. ואמר בליבו ומה הועלתי בעשייתן? So what what did I accomplish? ulai lo asisiosan, halevai that I hadn't done it. הרי זה איבד את כולן. He loses all the mitzvos and ואין מזכירין לו שם זכות בעולם שנאמר צדקת הצדיק לא תצילנו ביום רשעו אין זה אלא בתוהה על הראשונות.
So it's very meduyak here. So that's imagine a split screen. So that's one side of the screen. The other side of the screen is if if you go back to to the Rambam at the beginning of Hilchos Chuva: כל מצוה שבתורה בין עשה בין לא תעשה אם עבר אדם על אחת מהן בין בזדון בין בשגגה כשיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו חייב להתוודות.
The sharp contrast here is that when the Rambam talks about teshuva, he talks about teshuva even vis-a-vis an individual cheit. כשיעבור אדם על אחת מהן, right, if a person is over on any particular one. So let's say Rachmana litzlan, a person has ten aveiros, so a person can do teshuva for for one of the ten, for one of the ten and that teshuva's miskabelles. When the Rambam, again, it's meduyak, if you take a look in the Rambam Kiddushin you'll see it's meduyak there, but when the Rambam quotes the midda of tohal al harishonim, he talks about all of them. He doesn't talk about an example of oh, you know, that ani to whom I I lent money, you know, I wish I had never lent it, he's such an ingrate, and vechulu vechulu. No, I'm happy that I'm happy that I go to shul every day and I'm happy that I learn and I'm happy that all my other mitzvos, but that one halva'ah to the ani אם כסף תלוה את עמי, oh, I have charata on that, he's not a nice guy. The Rambam doesn't describe it that way. The Rambam describes it as that a person is renouncing the whole way of life. This midda of tohal al harishonim, the way the Rambam understands, again this not germane to to what Rav Hutner's going to develop in this letter, but for the Rambam this midda of tohal al harishonim, again it's meduyak in the Gemara as well like that, is only Rachmana litzlan when a person renounces the whole way of life. And and that's why teshuva remains a gevaltdige chesed because there is no analog to teshuva in terms of tohal al harishonim. Because teshuva is that a person even even when he renounces a single aveira with with all the chelkei hateshuva, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu's miskabel that also. So teshuva is much more far-reaching than than the midda of tohal al harishonim. That's I I don't remember exactly where the lines are but but but a talmid helped me with with this havana very much. I don't remember where the lines are in terms of who said what but okay maybe let's just begin to see it's a long letter let's see what Rav Hutner has to say. Chochmas Loshon Hakodesh and Chochmas Loshon Hakodesh מחייבת כי צירוף האותיות יוצר מושג. That combination of letters creates a concept. הלוא ידעת גם שמעת because the letter zayin shemisparo shiva, right, the letter zayin which numerically represents the number seven, its content is svia to be content mitoraso shel hamaharal. והתיבה שבע בא היא בהבדל מהמספר של האותיות המכונה שמונה
because svia, right, the word which expresses seven, right, those same letters also express the concept of being content, of being satiated, בפני ששביעה עניינה כדי הצורך. A person is sveia, it means he ate enough. ועוד ששומן מובנו יתר על הצורך. Right? Shmona related to the word shumon. Shumon is fat. So that means that there's more, there's something excessive. ועל כן מפורסם הוא בדברי המהרל that shmini is mispar al hateva that eight represents something metaphysical, בעוד שהמספר שבע היינו כדי צרכו של עולם. That seven represents what's the sort of that things are finished and full and complete on the natural level. And then when there's shumon, when there's extra, so that means that you're going beyond the natural level to the metaphysical level. וזה זיין ימי בראשית וכדומה. And that's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the natural physical world in seven days. וצירוף האותיות של זיין ודלת בתיבה זיד, so how does the word zeid express again to'er al harishona? So a nice thought here. וצירוף האותיות של זיין ודלת בתיבה זיד מובנו הוא הדלות הבאה אחרי שביעה.
Right, the Gemara in Shabbos when it darshans the letters of the aleph bais, so the dales, dal, represents poverty. So how do you have poverty after svia? How do you have poverty after svia? It means כלומר תואר על הראשונה. It means no, that a person was full of mitzvos and now he's impoverished because he renounces that svia, שעל ידי זה הוא מאבד את כל הזכויות הקודמות. ולאחר שהשביע את עצמו במצוות נזדלדל מנכסיו,
he became impoverished venasa dal. He became a pauper. ועל כן אנו אומרים כי פירושו של התיבה זיד and that's where this idea comes from that zeid refers specifically to this form of yeitzer hara of evil, הוא אותו השטן אשר עיקר כוונתו הוא בזה להביא את האדם להיות תואר על הראשונה.
Okay, so maybe what we'll try בלי נדר אם ירצה השם to finish the letter tomorrow. Okay rabosai, have a good productive morning. Hopefully im yirtzeh Hashem we'll continue at twelve.