Schuss, Rav Mordechai Ostrow, Wulwick, Of Cohen, Morai Verabbosai. The Rambam very famously formulates in his introduction to Perek Helek the י"ג עיקרי אמונה. Yosef Albo thinks that the Rambam blurred the difference between Ikrim, between fundamental principles and details, and Protim, and says that I would have reorganized and I would have consolidated the י"ג עיקרי אמונה into three Ikrim. I would have said that there's one Iker Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and which encompasses with the details the first five of the Rambam's Ikrim, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu exists, is the source of all existence, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is one and unique, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is incorporeal and eternal, and that we relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu without intermediaries. So I would have said that that's one Iker, the Iker of Hakadosh Baruch Hu with details. Then he says he would have reorganized the next four about Nevua, about Nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu, about Torah Min Hashamayim, and about the immutability and the eternity of Torah. He says I would have called that a second Iker of Torah, again with details. And the last four about Yedias Hashem and Schar Va'onesh, Moshiach, Yamos Hamoshiach, and Techiyas Hamaysim. So Yosef Albo says that he would have consolidated that into Schar Va'onesh with the other things being details within Schar Va'onesh. Then he says that Smuchem L'kach, an indication that these really are the three overarching principles of Torah, of Yahadus, is when you look into the Rosh Hashanah Shemoneh Esrei. You look into the Rosh Hashanah Shemoneh Esrei, so the three Brachos that Chazal formulated for us for Rosh Hashanah, Malkhuyos, Zikhronot, and Shofrot, correspond to these three Ikrim that I, Yosef Albo, just presented to you. Malkhuyos referring to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Zikhronot to Schar Va'onesh, and Shofrot to ויהי קול השופר הולך וחזק מאד משה ידבר והאלקים יעננו בקול
referring to Torah. So you see what underlies Yosef Albo's comment is that Rosh Hashanah, a day of Malkhuyos, a day of קבלת עול מלכות שמים, is a day when we reaffirm our beliefs, our Ikrei Hadas. That that's an integral part of Malkhuyos, of Rosh Hashanah, is that again, so what exactly Kedei shetamlichuni aleichem? So what exactly is it that we're accepting upon ourselves? What exactly is it enthroning Hakadosh Baruch Hu as it were? What exactly is it that we reaffirm every year? So says Yosef Albo, it's the Ikrei Hadas. And hence, he says, one can reconstruct from the content, from the focus of the Brachos of Malkhuyos, Zikhronot, and Shofrot, what those three basic pillars and principles of Yahadus are. So what we're going to talk about tonight briefly, Im Yirtzeh Hashem, is again to try to understand one aspect of what it is we're reaffirming, what it is that we're accepting in the Malkhuyos of Rosh Hashanah as it pertains to the topic of surrendering to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. There is a, I think by now, a very well-known insight offered by the Rav Zechrono Livracha based on the Rambam at the beginning of Hilchos Krias Shema. The Rambam's sort of explanation and paraphrase of the Mishna at the beginning of the second Perek in Masechet Brachos explaining the sequence in which we recite the three Parshiyos of Shema. It requires some explanation because we don't follow the sequence in the Torah. Parshas Tzitzis of course coming in Sefer Bamidbar in Parshas Shlach. So the way the Rambam paraphrases and explains the Mishna is ומקדימין לקרות פרשת שמע מפני שיש בו ציווי על ייחוד השם ואהבתו ותלמודו שהוא העיקר הגדול שהכל תלוי בו.
That the reason we give priority within Mitzvas Krias Shema to Parshas Shema, the reason that is the first of the three Parshiyos, is because within. In the parsha of Shema, there are three foci, there are three elements within that parsha, the first one, the first pasuk which formulates Yichud Hashem. The second, the mitzvah of Ahavas Hashem, ואהבת את ה' אלהיך, and then on the heels of that V'shinantam Levanecha, the mitzvah of Talmud Torah. And it's because the parsha of Shema contains these three mitzvos, these three elements, that's why it's front and center stage within קבלת עול מלכות שמים. So says the Rav, so you see that קבלת עול מלכות שמים means not only affirming Yichud Hashem, not only affirming the absolute oneness in the most simple and absolute sense of the word of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but it also means devoting oneself to the goal of Ahavas Hashem and accepting upon oneself Talmud Torah. So the mitzvah of Talmud Torah then, what the Rav suggests based on this Rambam, there's an equation between Talmud Torah and קבלת עול מלכות שמים. How so? How does Talmud Torah equate to קבלת עול מלכות שמים? So the Rav elaborated and said because when one learns Torah, so one surrenders intellectually to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. One doesn't come with any preconceived notions to which Torah has to correspond. It's an act of coming again with no independent outside axioms or biases, but rather to understand Torah on its own terms and to again to be meshabed oneself, to subordinate oneself intellectually to Torah. And hence the mitzvah of Talmud Torah is a form of קבלת עול מלכות שמים because again one subordinates one's intellect to the seichel hatorah and one is again not seeking to make Torah correspond to any independently arrived at or preconceived notions but to rather understand internally where the Torah points, where the Torah takes us. Maybe just mention another passage in the Rambam. Rambam has at the end of Hilchos Meilah, Rambam offers a sort of aggadic perspective on the mitzvah of Meilah. And in so doing, the Rambam comments on the Gemara's distinction, the Gemara's division of mitzvos in Masechet Yoma, of mitzvos into chukim and mishpatim, mishpatim being those which are intuitively obvious and natural to us. Chukim being those whose reason and rationale at least initially immediately is not apparent. The Rambam says the same way the mitzvah, the issur of Meilah prescribes an attitude of reverence towards physical objects which have been endowed with kedusha, and that's those are the underpinnings of the issur of Meilah, this attitude of reverence that we have. If you have eitzim va'avanim but the eitzim va'avanim have been invested with kedusha because a person was makdish it, so then mi'meila now the issur Meilah that one can't derive one's own benefit, that one can't use it for mundane purposes attaches to this physical object. So the Rambam says how much more so that one can't have a mundane attitude towards mitzvos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And the Rambam says that when a person should do his best, ראוי להתבונן במשפטי התורה, that a person should reflect as deeply as possible about mishpetei hatorah and a person should try to decipher, a person should try to understand what the goal, what the rationale of chukim is. However, says the Rambam, if a person fails to do so, so then the same way again the Torah commands this attitude of reverence towards physical objects, how much more so that al yedameh b'da'ato says the Rambam. A person shouldn't with hubris presumptuously think that because I don't grasp it that there's any shortcoming in the mitzvos hatorah, but rather he should realize the shortcoming is in his own. the limitations of his understanding. And in a similar vein, the Rambam comments in Perek Chelek when he enumerates the yud-gimel ikkarim, so the Rambam in the ikar of Torah min Hashamayim says and that Toras Hashem temimah, all of Torah is replete with chochmah, with profound chochmah. Ay, but there are many pesukim in the Chumash that we don't see what the chochmah is. ותמנע היתה פלגש לאליפז בן עשו. So when most of us read that pasuk, it's not of the utmost concern to us who Elifaz's pilegesh was and what her name is and we don't necessarily see any chochmah in that. So the Rambam says, so what should a person's response be when a person sees such a pasuk? He says a person has to daven. A person has to daven that the Ribbono Shel Olam should give us seichel, when Rebbi Akiva Eiger blaibt shver in a Tosfos in something, Hashem ya'ir einai. It's not there's no shortcoming in the Tosfos that he doesn't understand. Rebbi Akiva Eiger says Hashem ya'ir einai. So that's exactly what the Rambam writes there in Peirush Hamishnayos. He says there are certainly chelkei haTorah, there are certainly parts of Torah that we don't really understand, that we can't appreciate. But the Rambam says chas v'shalom that a person should for a moment question the divine wisdom that inheres within it. So what should the reaction be? The reaction should be that there's a chiyuv tefillah which accompanies the attempt, the enterprise of Talmud Torah. The common denominator of these sources, again the Rambam's equation between Talmud Torah and קבלת עול מלכות שמים, the Rambam's comment, his homily at the end of Hilchos Me'ilah about the attitude towards chukim and the chiyuv tefillah of which the Rambam speaks in Peirush Hamishnayos is that it's axiomatic to our belief in Torah min Hashamayim that what's in Torah is true, is correct, is a source of profound wisdom. It's not only something which is binding, it's not only something with which to which we have to comply, but it's something which is emes, it's something which is right. The Maggid Mishneh sounds this theme when he elaborates a little bit the Rambam again in very well known lines that have become very well known at the end of Hilchos Lulav, so the Rambam writes that השמחה שישמח האדם בעשיית המצוה ובאהבת הא-ל שצוה בהן עבודה גדולה היא.
It's a very great form and expression of avodas Hashem that a person should have a sense of simcha, should have a sense of serenity and profound joy in fulfilling mitzvos. וכל המונע עצמו משמחה זו ראוי להפרע ממנו. He's rachmana litzlan held accountable. We just read it two weeks ago, תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב.
So says the Maggid Mishneh elaborating what our approach, what our attitude towards mitzvos should be: עיקר הדבר הוא שאין ראוי לו לאדם לעשות המצוה מצד שהן חובה עליו והוא מוכרח ואנוס בעשייתן.
A person's approach to mitzvos shouldn't be: well, they're obligatory and, as it were, there's, I'm fulfilling mitzvos at gunpoint, I'm forced, I'm coerced to fulfill them. אלא חייב לעשותן והוא שמח בעשייתן. A person recognizes that what Hakadosh Baruch Hu says binds me, it obligates me, but a person takes joy in fulfilling them. ויעשה הטוב מצד שהוא טוב. When a person fulfills a mitzvah, it's with the awareness that it's good. ויבחר באמת מצד שהוא אמת. And a person chooses emes because he recognizes it as such. So mitzvos are not just something with which we have to comply, something in which on a practical level that we have to make sure we're in sync with demands of mitzvos, but there's an attitude which we'll see in a minute, I think one can say without a disclaimer, is equally important, is no less important than the active and actual compliance. To this and an analogue which speaks in very strong terms. You know, sometimes the Chumash, the Yerushalmi, the gedolei acharonim speak in politically incorrect terms. It makes us uncomfortable because we adulterate all leshonos. We don't want to say anything which might be offensive to us, but the Torah and the chachamei mesorah teach truth and anshei emes, so they say it as it is. So there is a Rema. Take an analogue to this. What we've been talking about until now basically is an aspect of emuna in Torah min hashamayim. Emuna in Torah min hashamayim doesn't only mean that Moshe Rabbeinu comes down from Har Sinai with the shnei luchos habris telling us what we have to do. Moshe Rabbeinu came down with Har Sinai with emes. Moshe Rabbeinu came down with Har Sinai with what's true, with what's right, with what's good. Yes, we have to comply with it, but it's not only that these are dictates with which we have to comply. Again, it's an acknowledgment, an acceptance, a recognition, an affirmation that what Moshe Rabbeinu, תורה צוה לנו משה, is tov, is emes. And that's an aspect of Torah min hashamayim, of emuna in Torah min hashamayim. When the Gemara in Makkos says that בא חבקוק והמידן על אחת that Vetzaddik be'emunaso yichye, it means that emuna is an attitude. How does a person live constantly with emuna? A tzaddik through his emuna he lives. It means that everything is filtered through the lens of emuna. So it means that again, that emuna ultimately has to be an all-encompassing attitude. As it relates to Torah, so that's what it dictates. Again, not simply compliance, but an attitude of affirmation of this is right and this is good. My own ability to understand and appreciate the truth and wisdom of whatever degree of success I may have notwithstanding, but I know that it's tov, I know that it's emes. So the analogue to this in terms of emuna as an attitude in ma’asei Hashem, so ma’asei Hashem expresses itself, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's involvement in the world expresses itself through the Torah and mitzvos that He gave us by which we live, but also expresses itself through Hakadosh Baruch Hu's hashgacha pratis, through Hakadosh Baruch Hu's divine providence. In this context, there's a very, very important halacha which is codified by the Rema in Shulchan Aruch based on a Gemara in Bava Kamma, something very, very relevant halacha l'ma'aseh. It appears in the siman in Yoreh De'ah about how menachamim, how those who go into a beis avel to fulfill the mitzvah of nichum aveilim should conduct themselves. אל יאמר אדם לאבל, the person who comes to the avel should not say מה לך לעשות כי אי אפשר לשנות. וואס זאל מען טון?
Right? What are you going to do? You have to move forward. Right? It's a line that's a little bit too familiar to us, especially given the fact that the Rema introduces it with ואל יאמר אדם לאבל. A person is not supposed to encourage the avel by saying, look, you've got to accept reality, we can't do anything about it, we can't change what happened, so you have to look forward, you have to move forward. אל יאמר אדם לאבל מה לך לעשות כי אי אפשר לשנות.
So what's wrong with that? Why isn't that just a realistic, pragmatic approach to life? Shezehu kigiduf. This borders on blasphemy, says the Rema. Zehu kigiduf. It borders on blasphemy. Why? דמשמע הא אם אפשר לשנות היה עושה. Sounds like, lu yehi, lu yehi like the dor haflagah, lu yehi that we had the ability to fight Hakadosh Baruch Hu and lu yehi that we could overturn what Hakadosh What can we do? The Ribono shel Olam is stronger than we are and it's been decreed, so we have to accept it. So says the Rama that that's Rachmana litzlan ke'giduf because what's being insinuated, what's being implied is that what happened isn't good, what happened isn't right, what happened isn't true, which is why if only I could, if only I could override the Ribono shel Olam's gzera Rachmana litzlan, so I would have, but i efshar l'shanos, but I can't, so we have to move on. Says the Rama, ze ke'giduf. Well, what difference does it make? If Rachmana litzlan, the implied giduf is that if I could, I would override Hakadosh Baruch Hu's gzera, or is it any different than if I say a person gets up and says, you know, what can we do? It says in the Torah that such and such is forbidden. Fill in the blank of such and such I leave it to everyone's resourcefulness to fill in the blank. We have no choice, we have to comply with halacha. We have to comply with halacha, we have no choice because we're Torah committed Jews, so we have to comply, we have to comply with halacha. But it's a problem. So what's insinuated between the lines in that is not altogether different than what the Rama is commenting on and what the Rama is condemning as an approach to nichum aveilim. If if what's being insinuated between the lines is that really we think this halacha is unfair and if only we could, if only we had a get out of jail free card to play and and we could override a specific mitzvah or a specific halacha, we would do it, but i efshar l'shanos. So we have that same attitude, the same i efshar l'shanos in terms of relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as God of history. So so too i efshar l'shanos in terms of relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as a nosen hatorah. But it's no more acceptable, it's no more consistent with belief the same way in relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as God of history, it's incompatible with הצור תמים פעלו כי כל דרכיו משפט, so so too in terms of relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as a nosen hatorah, תורת השם תמימה משיבת נפש, יבחר בטוב מצד שהוא טוב באמת מצד שהוא אמת,
so there's no such thing as well, we have to see, we have to advance such and such a cause as much as possible even though it's not really on the same wavelength as halacha, but we're gonna do it, we're gonna push the boundaries as much as we can. The attitude, sometimes made explicit, other times left implicit, is that really we fundamentally don't accept the the underpinnings of the halacha, but i efshar l'shanos, i efshar l'shanos. So what are we gonna do? So we're gonna we're gonna push the envelope as much as we can in a particular area. What are we gonna do? We're gonna again we're gonna struggle, we're gonna say there's a problem here, there's a... but the attitude is the same attitude that the Rama classifies Rachmana litzlan as ke'giduf. Chaim Volozhin at the end of Sha'ar Aleph in Nefesh HaChaim explains how before Torah was given, so at that point someone like Yaakov Avinu based on his esoteric mystical knowledge could divine appropriately and correctly. that he was supposed to marry two sisters and and go ahead and do so. And he says from the time that Moshe Rabbeinu brought Torah down, from the time that the Torah was given על ידי משה רבינו, so then again our job is to understand as much as we can but even Adam Hagadol, even the greatest person with the greatest knowledge, so his understanding of all the sodos hakabala of all the sisrei Torah tells him that he should ich veis he should ride to shul on Shabbos, it tells him whatever whatever he thinks he should override, so there's no such thing as as being as having a any kind of logic or insight that that that changes Torah an iota. To accept Torah 365 days a year, 354 days a year, and certainly on Rosh Hashanah means not only to commit ourselves to complying with the Torah, but it dictates a certain attitude towards Torah. And surrendering to Hakadosh Baruch Hu means not only surrendering because efshar leshanos, because we have to comply with what he says, but it means surrendering intellectually, attitudinally to recognize that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the source of truth, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the source of chochmah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the source of tov. And therefore what it says in the Torah is not just again is emesdik. There's no such thing as it's out of sync with what people nowadays tell us about how some people are wired, or it's out of sync with this, it's out of sync with with that. Torah is emes. Could be that we're out of sync with Torah. So that's what the Rambam says, we're out of sync with Torah, the the shortcoming is within us. And that's part of the tzadik be’emunaso yichye that attitude towards kiyum hamitzvos, that attitude towards shmiras hamitzvos. Just we we began talking about Malchiyos of Rosh Hashanah, maybe just to to conclude on that note as well, there's a profound paradox related to Rosh Hashanah. And that is Rosh Hashanah Yom Hadin, Rosh Hashanah the first of Aseres Yemei Teshuva, it's certainly a time that we want to position ourselves to be able to merit kapparah. If if there's one day in the year when we want to make ourselves worthy and deserving of kapparah, it's Rosh Hashanah. So the Rambam writes at the beginning of Hilchos Teshuva that in order for a person to attain kapparah, so not only does he have to do teshuva, but he has to be misvadeh, he has to say Vidui. And without Vidui אינו נמחל לו אינו מתכפר לו. So the problem is when you when you search the Machzor on Rosh Hashanah for Vidui, it's not there. There is no Vidui. Why it's not there is on one level easy to understand. משל למה הדבר דומה. Imagine there's a coronation of a melech basar vadam. Everyone is praising the melech, everyone is swearing their undying allegiance to the melech. In the midst of all this, a villager comes to the front and says to the melech, "You know I really wanted to apologize, the other day when you came to visit our village, remember someone threw a rotten tomato at you? Well, it was me and you know I really really have tremendous remorse at what I did." So what's so outrageous about this? What's so outrageous is that at the moment of coronation, at the moment of malchiyos, there isn't even a hava amina of disrespecting the king. There isn't even a hava amina of disobeying the king. It's not a time even in the context of confession and the apology to make mention of any disrespect or disobeying of the king. So on Rosh Hashanah we can't be misvadeh. That's clear. That's why the Arizal says we should even skip the first Avinu Malkeinu. We shouldn't even say אבינו מלכנו חטאנו לפניך because you can't even mention cheit. The mere mention of cheit, the the hava amina of cheit contradicts the malchiyos of of Rosh Hashanah. Okay, so that we understand. But le-maaseh, how do we then merit the kapparah on Yom HaDin? So what, our hands are, our hands are tied by the fact that you can't be misvade on Rosh Hashanah? So apparently what we have to say is along the following lines. I think some of this, not sure exactly how much, I think some of these ideas are in the Nesivos Shalom. Not sure exactly how much. But you have to say something along the following lines. The Gemara says in Shabbos that כל המשמר שבת כהלכתה is אפילו עובד עבודה זרה כדור של אנוש is mochalin lo. If a person observes Shabbos ווי עס דארף צו זיין. Again, not only the letter of the law but the spirit of the law. He's meshamer Shabbos ke-hilchasa so mochalin kol avonosav. What happened to the vidduy? What happened to the Rambam hilchos teshuvah פרק א הלכה א that vidduy is meakeiv in kapparah? So apparently this is another track for kapparah. Apparently when the Rambam is telling us that vidduy is meakeiv, so the Rambam is not saying that it's meakeiv that there's no such thing as kapparah in the world, it doesn't exist without vidduy. No, the Rambam is telling us that this track, the track of teshuvah, the track of korbonos, that this track only affords kapparah, only leads to kapparah when accompanied by vidduy. But Shabbos, apparently Shabbos is also a source of kapparah even without the vidduy. There is a parallel track of kapparah. What's Shabbos about? So Shabbos in a different sense than Rosh Hashanah, now's not the time to elaborate that. Shabbos is also a day of Malchiyos. Also a day of ישמחו במלכותך שומרי שבת. Shabbos is also a day of Malchiyos. So what emerges from that Gemara in Shabbos is that what we can be po'el all year, what we can accomplish all year long which requires a vidduy devarim, on Rosh Hashanah we can accomplish through that same kapparah can be attained, can be arrived at through Malchiyos. That the Malchiyos of Rosh Hashanah is the source of kapparah. Ein hachi nami, we don't have the vidduy. And what we're doing doesn't qualify us, again, for the track of kapparah which the Rambam outlines for us in hilchos teshuvah. But apparently the Malchiyos of Rosh Hashanah, if a person really, really אמרו לפני מלכויות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם, with that Malchiyos, so then that becomes a source of kapparah just as the Gemara tells us in the context of Shabbos. So halevai in the zechus of the Malchiyos, again, a Malchiyos not only of recognizing Hakadosh Baruch Hu's might in the sense of sovereignty, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu's truth in the sense of sovereignty, Hakadosh Baruch Hu as source of truth and how that carries over to in our attitude towards kiyum ha-mitzvos, that we should be zocheh for the Malchiyos, we should be zocheh to the kapparah, ksiva ve-chasima tovah.