Sometimes when you have a work of art, in order to appreciate it, in order to see whatever patterns or themes may be embedded in that work of art, you have to have the right angle on it. Sometimes you look at it sort of frontally and you don't see it, and then someone sensitizes you and tells you to change your vantage point a little bit. And then all of a sudden it comes together and you see the pattern, you see what's within the work of art. Lehavdil, the same thing is true in terms of divrei Torah as well. That sometimes a person has to be viewing it from the right angle for it to register the way it's intended. We spoke yesterday about the machlokes rishonim that Rav Hutner identifies between Rabbeinu Yona and the Rambam. That Rabbeinu Yona says that a person satisfies the requirement of azivas hachet if henceforth in the future under normal or almost normal circumstances he would be able to be misgaber. But if he would be subjected to a nisayon betokef taavaso, in the most provocative and trying of circumstances, the fact that he recognizes that he wouldn't be able to be misgaber, so that means he just hasn't achieved hamadrega ha'elyona of teshuva, but a teshuva he's done. And it's clear that the Rambam doesn't agree with that. The Rambam says לעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה יעיד עליו יודע תעלומות שלא ישוב לזה החטא לעולם,
no exceptions. So we have to hold it the right way. You hold it the wrong way, so the Rambam registers as being very harsh and very... what's the right angle on it? How is one supposed to hold it? How is one supposed to position it to understand? משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say you have a teacher, a rebbe, so he's blessed with a class of very, very gifted students. To a man, each one is very, very gifted. So it's quite clear that he's not going to get them anywhere near their potential unless he really pushes them. If he doesn't ask for anything more than mediocrity, that's all he's going to get. But if he knows that he has students who are gifted and he pushes and he's demanding, so then he'll takeh elicit from them stellar results. חזר ואמר הואיל ורשותנו בידינו ומדעתנו עשינו כל הרעות ראוי לנו לחזור בתשובה ולעזוב רשענו שהרשות עתה בידינו הוא שכתוב אחריו נחפשה דרכינו ונחקורה ונשובה עד ה׳.
The Rambam here in perek hey tells us that a person should realize that the capacity of bechira chofshis with which a person was gifted, with which each one of us was gifted, it's not only that a person has this incredibly powerful formative capacity initially when he's still a tabula rasa, he's still a blank slate. Then he has this capacity. But once rachmana litzlan the chatoim have accumulated, once they've become entrenched, once there are old habits which are so hard to break, now he doesn't have that capacity anymore to chart a course and to determine his own destiny? No, that's what Yirmiyahu Hanavi says: הואיל ומדעתנו ורשותנו עשינו כל הרעות ראוי לנו לחזור בתשובה ולעזוב רשענו שהרשות עתה בידינו.
That same capacity is unimpaired. Is the challenge formidable? Itachen that the challenge is formidable. Is it easy? Lav davka that it's easy. But the point is that the nimshal to our mashal is that we're dealing with a gifted class of people, that every one of us is gifted in having that capacity. reshus beyadeinu and and that's sort of the angle at which the Rambam we were discussing yesterday needs to be held. That's the vantage point. The vantage point of that the Rambam thinks that the Torah sets the bar at יעיד עליו יודע תעלומות שלא ישוב לזה החטא לעולם because you only get what you ask for. The Rebbi only gets from the talmidim what he demands of them. And if they have that capacity for stellar performance and he just asks for mediocrity, so then you do them a favor by asking what they're capable for. You know, the very very famous Rambam, just to take one more brief moment, the very very famous Rambam of tekias shofar, maybe there's one point that we don't sufficiently underscore. אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב רמז יש בו לומר עורו עורו ישינים משנתכם והקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל הביטו לנפשותיכם והיטיבו דרכיכם ומעלליכם ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.
So when is this message being sent? When is this message being sent? So in Rosh Hashanah in Shamayim, so rachmana litzlan if it's the case, if it's relevant, so all the mekatregim are coming and they're filing their reports. ותפתח ספר הזכרונות ומאליו יקרא. umeialav yikarei. The message of the tekias shofar is in beis din a person is totally is nidon in complete passivity, right? You're not supposed to find the smart lawyer who gets you to walk even though you're guilty. In beis din a person is nidon in passivity. If rachmana litzlan there are eidus who are telling the truth and they were masreh him, there's nothing for a person to be doing. He's not supposed to be doing anything in beis din when he's being nidon. A person is supposed to be nidon in passivity. This Rambam is telling us that the message of tekias shofar is that in din Shamayim a person isn't supposed to be nidon passively. ותפתח ספר הזכרונות ומאליו יקרא, so the mekatregim, the malachim are telling Ribono Shel Olam, he was such a batlan and this is what he did all year and these are all the aveiros. And what the Rambam is saying, don't sit there passively. A person's not supposed to, that's what the message of tekias shofar is, that a person is not nidon passively. A person is supposed to be actively responding and being and acting and creating his own destiny even within the din. That's what the message of the tekias shofar is, that the din is not something that we're passively subjected to. Din is something that we can actively respond to and in that way we can determine what the outcome of the din is by exercising that reshus which is ata beyadeinu. A good Yom Tov and a gut gebentcht yuhr.