He has a teshuva in which he deals with the, with an old question, a question that goes back to the days of the Geonim as to whether or not it's mutar to fast on Rosh Hashana. And he very definitively shows lichora that it's certainly assur. He brings rayos that there's a mitzvas simcha on Rosh Hashana. So that's one basis. Then he speaks of the fact that Rosh Hashana is also Rosh Chodesh. There's an issur ta'anis on Rosh Chodesh. I think it's the Gra in Shulchan Aruch who quotes the Toras Kohanim and that darshans that mikra kodesh קדשהו בכסות נקיה ובמאכל ובמשתה. So the reasons to assur fasting on Rosh Hashana are very compelling. So how was there a view in the Geonim? And again, it was a view that for all the pushback to it, it remains. Ad kedei kach that it says in Shulchan Aruch that if a person once in his lifetime will fast a ta'anis chalom on Rosh Hashana, so then he needs to continue fasting because some say it's a mitzvah to fast on Rosh Hashana. So again, it's not the accepted view lahalacha, but it was never nidechei mikol vakol either. Okay, but that's... so how does one understand again the case against it seems very compelling. It is very compelling lichora. And the emes is when you look when the Rishonim or even the Geonim themselves who pushed back against that custom, that practice of fasting on Rosh Hashana, they don't say it the way the She'agas Aryeh said it. The Rosh quotes a תשובת רב האי גאון: ונראה דברי רב האי שכתב ולהתענות בשני ימים טובים של ראש השנה אנו רואים שיפה הוא שלא להתענות. שיפה הוא שלא להתענות,
that's not the formulation that one uses when something's assur. You don't say that it's, I don't know, if he'd be talking about any other Yom Tov, he wouldn't say שיפה הוא שלא להתענות, he'd say assur lehisanos. He says שיפה הוא שלא להתענות. And then the rayos that they bring: וכן דעת הרי"ץ גיאת וכתב דעשרת ימי תשובה מקרי יום צום לא מקרי.
Not the compelling rayos: simcha, Rosh Chodesh, mikra kodesh. The Ravyah famously brings the Yerushalmi: אמר רבי סימון כתיב כי מי גוי גדול רב חנניה ורבי יהושע חד אמר איזו אומה כאומה זו שיודעת אופיה של אלוהיה. בנוהג שבעולם אדם שיש לו דין לובש שחורים ומתכסה שחורים ומגדל זקנו ואינו חותך צפרניו.
If a person is in the dock and there's a capital charge against him, so the person is mourning just the vulnerability. לפי שאינו יודע איך דינו יוצא אבל ישראל אינם כן לובשים לבנים ומתעטפים לבנים.
We put on festive clothes for Rosh Hashana, megalcham zekanam, we get a haircut, vechotchim tziporneihem, they trim their fingernails, ואוכלים ושותים ושמחים בראש השנה. So a davar, I don't know, sort of quasi-Aggadata. So I heard from Rav Sachs zichrono livracha the following. He said the Geonim knew very well there's a mitzvas simcha on Rosh Hashana. They knew very well there's an issur ta'anis on Rosh Chodesh. They knew very well that מקרא קודש קדשהו במאכל ובמשתה. There is, again, exactly which shitta in the Rishonim it is, but what we have in... And the Rambam again in the regular Rambam it's in brackets but but apparently al pi the kisvei yad it actually is there. The Rambam writes in פרק א' הלכות תעניות אין גוזרים תענית על הציבור לא בשבתות ולא בימים טובים וכן אין תוקעין בהם לא בשופר ולא בחצוצרות ולא זועקים ומתחננים בתפילה.
That's the norm. However, אלא אם כן הייתה עיר שהקיפוה גויים או נהר או ספינה המיטרפת בים.
But what if there is is there a sakana for which is which is present that very day? אפילו יחיד הנרדף מפני גויים או מפני ליסטים או מפני רוח רעה מתענים עליהן בשבת וזועקים ומתחננים בתפילות.
And that's what Rav Schechter said that we should be saying Avinu Malkeinu even on Shabbos. זועקים ומתחננים בתפילות but the Rambam writes also misanis aleihen b'shabbos. In an eis tzara some hold that that a taanis in response to an eis tzara is is appropriate even on Shabbos and by the same token even on Yom Tov. So what the the Gemara in Brachos lamed aleph where the Gemara says דכל היושב בתענית בשבת קורע לו גזר דינו של שבעים שנה.
So most most Rishonim learn pshat that it's talking about a taanis chalom. That's what Tosafos ad daf quotes Rabbeinu Chananel. But but there are some albeit a miyut in in that Gemara who say no it refers to a taanis shel teshuvah. The the Rambam here is is much more of a direct parallel. So what Rav Sacks zecher tzadik livracha said is the Geonim experienced the yom hadin of Rosh Hashana as such an eis tzara that they held that there was an inyan to fast, simchas mitzvah notwithstanding, Rosh Hashana notwithstanding, mikra kodesh notwithstanding. Ad kan shamati. L'chora what that suggests is that the position that we accept l'halacha that that one doesn't fast, that's not supposed to express a lesser eimas hadin, a lesser experience of the tzara that a person feels on Rosh Hashana because of eimas hadin, but on the contrary it's supposed to express a gvura that that eimas hadin notwithstanding the person still fulfills simchas Rosh Hashana. And and that's why Rav Hai Gaon says יפה הוא שלא להתענות meaning I understand why you're fasting, I understand why you're fasting, but the even higher madreiga is to reconcile your experience of the eimas hadin with as it says in Ezra and Nechemia אכלו משמנים ושתו ממתקים כי קדוש היום לאדוני. The the eating and drinking on Rosh Hashana is not supposed to come easily because it it reflects an adulterated, weakened form of eimas hadin. It's supposed to represent a tremendous gvura. Obviously it can represent an adulterated sense of eimas hadin, obviously it can reflect a weakened sense of eimas hadin, but that's not what it's supposed to. A person can during these A person can do it the way Rav Hai Gaon says to have a seuda on Rosh Hashanah, meaning without lessening, matching the eimas hadin of the other gaonim who fast, who fasted, אף על פי כן Rav Hai Gaon had a seuda. A person can go about his routine to a degree, not entirely, but a person can and even should to a degree go about his routine but with a tremendous sense of kovid rosh, with identification for the terrible tzarah which is ongoing in Eretz Yisrael. The captives are suffering a fate worse than death. It's pashut that to fall into the hands of those reshaim yimach shemam is worse than being killed. The Gemara in Kesubos says that Chananya Mishael v'Azarya were ready to be moseir nefesh, but אלמלא נגדוהו לחנניה מישאל ועזריה פלחו לצלמא, that Chananya Mishael v'Azarya would have succumbed to torture even though they didn't succumb to the threat of death. It's kedai to try to hold that thought for at least a few seconds when we say אחינו כל בית ישראל הנתונים בצרה ובשביה. It's a Gehennom on earth. It's mamash a Gehennom on earth. So a person can have that sense of identification and still, again, be going about his routine, but not routinely. Again, elements of the routine, not entirely, but with a gevurah, or we can go about elements of our routine because we're forgetting, because we're distracted, because rachmana litzlan we're becoming detached. The mitzvah on Rosh Hashanah is to have the seuda despite eimas hadin, not because of an adulterated eimas hadin. The inyan of maintaining elements of our routine is despite the nichnas betzarasam, not because of an attenuated, weakened form of nichnas betzarasam. לכל זמן ועת לכל חפץ תחת השמים, says Koheles. Even though Koheles then proceeds to illustrate primarily in the realm of action, but the yesod is certainly true about midos, about different capacities Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us. One capacity Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us is to become acclimated to a situation and that's a capacity which at times we're called upon to exercise letovah. Sometimes there are changes, irreversible, irrevocable changes in our lives, and then So lacol zman. But וזה לעומת זה עשה אלהים every every mida we have can be exercised in the wrong context. The mida of rachmanus can be exercised in in the wrong context. In in the name of rachmanus to say that the Tzahal should be restricted in in how they conduct this operation because of civilian casualties. So because of rachmanus on those civilian casualties, so Hamas is supposed to be able to be positioned rachmana litzlan to attempt to repeat these atrocities? So exercising what's the right capacity and the right mida in the right situation can be totally assur in the wrong context and the wrong situation. So we have a capacity to become acclimated, to sort of accept a new normal and and the reason Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us that capacity is not just as a nisayon not to use it, but because at times we're supposed to use it. But at times we're not supposed to use it. We're not supposed to become acclimated to the fact that there's that there's a milchama being waged in Eretz Yisrael, that there are so many people either shvuyim or unaccounted for in the midst of of this milchama. The sense of tzara, the depth of concern can't weaken as time goes on because we become acclimated. You know the Rambam writes in Hilchos Deos, perek alef halacha dalet: צוו חכמים הראשונים שיהא אדם שם דעותיו תמיד ומשער אותם ומכוין אותם בדרך האמצעית.
A person has to always constantly be assessing his midos and making sure they're balanced the way they should be. So on one level אל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך. A person isn't supposed to think that he's immune to a yerida. אל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך. But you don't find the Rambam saying this in other contexts so clearly there's more to it, something that's that's especially relevant here. So the mitzva of vehalachta bidrachav is a very difficult mitzva because the pshat in the de'ah habeinonis is that the person has within him the potential for both extremes and and in that sense you know he has to constantly make sure that that they're held in the right balance. But in in the light of our current avoda, our current challenge, one wonders maybe another aspect of the pshat is a person a person goes out and and he sees an ani nebach. So he has the right reaction. But then he sees a second ani and and again we're talking about a case where there's no no question about the authenticity. But then he'll see a second ani, he'll see a third ani, he'll see a fourth ani. Does he still have the same reaction? Or no, he acclimates to it? He becomes desensitized to it. Maybe pshat, part of the pshat in this Rambam of שיהא אדם שם דעותיו תמיד, he should always be appraising, lashon shuma, שיהא אדם שם דעותיו תמיד is because of this danger of acclimating really corrupts our middos. That capacity to acclimate potentially desensitizes us. When the person sees the tenth oni of the day, so the mechayev in rachamanus is no less than it was when he saw the first oni of the day. But human nature is such, and the Rambam says and we have to constantly be monitoring ourselves, constantly checking and rechecking ourselves, because human nature is such that we don't respond the same way to the tenth oni as we responded to the first oni. And the same way that's true in terms of the tenth oni as opposed to the first oni, it's also true that human nature, if we're not being sham de'oseinu tamid, that human nature is such that on the tenth day of the—it's literally more than that obviously, but for purposes of the mashal, that on the tenth day of the milchama, the mechayev is the same in terms of nichnas b'tzaraso. But the Rambam is saying, don't take for granted that because one responded to the first oni the right way, that one is going to maintain that without a very concerted effort, because lav davka that one will, because we do have a capacity to acclimate, we do have a capacity to just say, well, this is the new normal. And again, in totally different context, there are times when we're supposed to tap into that capacity, but there are times when it's absolutely wrong that we can't allow ourselves to be exercising that. Halavai, that we're going to be zoiche to nissim gluyim and that the eis tzara will be resolved definitively and conclusively very, very quickly. But it will require nissim gluyim for that scenario to materialize. Even with nissim nistarim, that's not the scenario which Klal Yisrael faces. And it's our avoda, שיהא אדם שם דעותיו תמיד, not to slip into acclimation mode. But what if a person honestly feels that that is happening? So there isn't necessarily a button that a person switches to intensify, to deepen emotions. So Ramchal has a very important yesod in Mesillas Yesharim. Ramchal says, when he's talking about zerizus, he says on the one hand, it's true that zerizus results from and expresses a certain inner hislahvus, a certain bren. It naturally results when that hislahvus is present, but he says it's equally true that if that inner hislahvus isn't present, if the person pushes himself to run, so the acting with zerizus will create the hislahvus. Even if unfortunately we feel that we're slipping in terms of the Nichnas B'Tzurasan, so a person pushes himself to make sure that he's there for the Tehillim not only on time, but he's there early. And a person pushes himself to say the Tehillim not not sort of with our routine mode of tefillah. So that can either result from the Nichnas B'Tzurasan or it can generate if needed be, if need be, the Nichnas B'Tzurasan. Whatever other kabbalas are are appropriate that the person looks to implement. Again, it can result from a natural need or it can help create that natural feeling. But but it's an avodah that that needs to be engaged in continuously, steadfastly, that the same level of concern that we had on Isru Chag, that that we sustain it until Rachmei Shamayim, the the the yeshuah comes.