Shas ha-Shatfa Shas ha-Rabbanim Morai v'Rabosai Morai v'Rabosai. Perhaps let's begin by either reading verbatim or paraphrasing very briefly a few halachot and use that as a springboard for some reflection. The Rambam writes in the beginning of Hilchos Deios when he's illustrating the middah ha-beinonis how a person is supposed to blend the two extremes which then places him in the middle so the Rambam illustrates this with regard to a whole series of character traits and dispositions. So in that context the Rambam writes as follows: וכן לא יתאווה אלא לדברים שהגוף צריך להם ואי אפשר לחיות בזולתם כעניין שנאמר צדיק אוכל לשובע נפשו.
How does the middah ha-beinonis how does it translate when blending the extremes of asceticism and hedonism? So the Rambam says that the blending of those two is that a person should desire that which he needs to sustain his health to be vigorous but no more. And the Rambam says that the proof text for that is the pasuk of צדיק אוכל לשובע נפשו that when a tzaddik eats he eats again to sustain himself to keep himself strong to be able to function at maximum capacity. The Rambam continues with another example of how we implement the middah ha-beinonis how much money does a person look to amass? So the Rambam writes: וכן לא יהיה עמל בעסקו אלא להשיג דבר שצריך לו לחיי שעה.
Similarly a person should work at business to cover the most basic vital needs. And again here too the Rambam has a pasuk that expresses this blending of the two extremes: כעניין שנאמר טוב מעט לצדיק. So what sort of jumps off the page at us is but Hilchos Deios is addressed to all of us. So what's the Rambam doing quoting psukim about tzaddikim? If the Rambam has a very small elite audience in mind okay so then he can quote psukim about tzaddikim. But if he's talking to us so the proof text should be I don't know בינוני אוכל לשובע נפשו. Even that maybe is a little bit too self-congratulatory and a little bit too optimistic but such a pasuk the Rambam should quote. Ramchal in Mesillas Yesharim in perek yud he defines middas ha-nekiyus: היותו אדם נקי לגמרי מכל מידה רעה ומכל חטא. Middas ha-nekiyus means that a person is literally clean pure of any character flaw of any sin. Then he devotes the next two prakim to a discussion of middas ha-nekiyus and in perek yud gimmel he's ready to move on to the middah of prishus and the Ramchal writes as follows. He says: הפרישות היא תחילת החסידות. From prishus in perek yud gimmel I'm now beginning to talk about lifnim mishuras hadin says Ramchal. Everything that's been discussed in Mesillas Yesharim in the first twelve chapters is shuras hadin is what's required of a person. No there's no element of lifnim mishuras hadin. ותראה שכל מה שביארנו עד עתה הוא מה שמצטרך על אדם כדי שיהיה צדיק ומכאן ולהלאה הוא כדי שיהיה חסיד.
So it's clear from the Rambam it's clear from Ramchal that the conventional colloquial association that we have with the term tzaddik that a tzaddik... is refers to a very small slice or cross section of the population, whether it's sociologically correct I don't know, but it's not supposed to be true. And a Tzadik is a challenge for every one of us. And when the Pasuk says צדיק אוכל לשובע נפשו, so that tells me how I should regulate my diet. And when the Pasuk tells and when the Pasuk says tov meat latzadik, so the Pasuk is telling each and every one of us how to strike that balance between the material and the spiritual. Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei Teshuvah, when he's discussing the details of the Mitzvah of being dan l'kaf zechut, says that if the person is a yerei Elokim and that means he doesn't do any Aveiros, well that's the simple Pshat in what it means to be a yerei Elokim, a person doesn't do Aveiros. So then the Mitzvah of being dan l'kaf zechut is even if the surface appearances would seem to suggest that the person is doing something which is inappropriate, but it should be judged contextually by who the person is and therefore we should be dan l'kaf zechut in such a case. And if on the contrary he's he's not not not a yerei Elokim, but he's a person who's אשר יזהרו מן החטא ופעמים יכשלו בו, so then the Mitzvah of being dan l'kaf zechut is only when it's really very ambiguous what the person is involved in. So the term Tzadik is not intended in Tanach and is not intended by Chazal to be an elitist term. It's a description which is intended for each and every one of us. And perhaps the most famous and striking expression of this, the Rambam writes in פרק ה' הלכות תשובה אל יעבור במחשבתך דבר זה שאומרים טיפשי האומות ורוב גולמי בני ישראל,
don't even entertain the thought which is so widespread שהקדוש ברוך הוא גוזר על האדם מתחילת ברייתו להיות צדיק או רשע,
don't even entertain this thought of predetermination. Ein hadavar kein. It's not true. What is the truth? אלא כל אדם ואדם ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבינו או רשע כירבעם.
Every, the Rambam addressing every single one of us individually, personally, says that everyone, not that we can attain the Nevuah of Moshe Rabbeinu, the Rambam is not offering that, not that we can attain the Chochmah of Moshe Rabbeinu, but in terms of the Tzidkus that every single person is ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבינו. We clearly don't think of ourselves in such terms. And in so doing, to be very candid, we're guilty of one of the biggest Aveiros that a person can commit. And that Aveirah is underestimating oneself, underestimating one's potential, underestimating one's capacity. In Hebrew, or maybe it's a combination of Hebrew with a little bit of a Yiddish usage, the reason this is such a major and grave Aveirah to underestimate what our spiritual potential is, because if there are no Hasagos, there will be no Hesegim. Our accomplishments are certainly not going to surpass our aspirations. Our accomplishments, our attainments, are certainly not going to surpass what we view and what we define as our potential. If someone is a musical prodigy and he doesn't recognize his talent, he's not going to push himself to practice and to develop that talent. If a gifted athlete underestimates his gifts, he certainly won't make the most of them. If, less euphemistically, when we underestimate our spiritual potential, so we ensure, rachmana litzlan, that we won't even come close to realizing that potential. When the Rambam tells us, כל אדם ואדם ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבינו, he's telling us that every one of us has the capacity to be thoroughly consistent about implementing and translating our commitment to Torah and mitzvos. He's telling us that every one of us has the capacity to know halacha l'ma'aseh what we need to know as it was in the days of Chizkiyahu haMelech when בדקו מדן ועד באר שבע and people were b'kiyim even in everyone, that there was universal expertise even in Seder Taharos. When the Rambam tells us that כל אדם ואדם ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבינו, he's telling us that every one of us has the capacity to devote himself, herself, to avodas Hashem with a correct mix of Torah, avoda, gemilas chasadim depending upon his or her tichunas hanefesh. Every one of us has the potential to cultivate the shiflus, the anava, the humility, absent the hubris, so much of the pettiness, so much of the internal strife, so much of the katnus hamochin just evaporates. The Sfas Emes comments Chazal tell us, Rashi quotes it, that בתחילה עלה במחשבה לברוא העולם במידת הדין, ראה הקדוש ברוך הוא שאין העולם מתקיים, שיתף עמו מידת הרחמים.
So what's that anthropomorphic metaphor, of at first Hakadosh Baruch Hu thought this way, and then kavyachol he revised the plan? Obviously, there's no first draft and no final draft by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So what does the batchila, what does the basof represent? So the Sfas Emes says that batchila represents the ideal. And the ideal is, and it's this ideal to which we're supposed to aspire, for which we're supposed to strive, that a person should look to justify himself to middas hadin. That a person's not supposed to live banking on middas harachamim, a person's not supposed to live banking lechatchila, relying lechatchila on there's always teshuva. There's always teshuva. And he suggests that this is the relationship between Rosh Hashanah and Yom HaKippurim. Rosh Hashanah where the emphasis is on din more so than Yom HaKippurim where the emphasis is on rachamim comes first because it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu's challenge that a person should justify himself according to middas hadin. And we have such a capacity, we have a capacity להיות צדיק כמשה רבינו both in the realm of bein adam l'Makom as well as in the realm of bein adam l'chaveiro. This idea that we've been discussing helps us perhaps formulate what the dialectical mechayev of tshuva is. On the one hand, the self-realization, the self-assessment involved in tshuva, הנה הבורא נפח באפי נשמת חיים חכמת לב וטוב שכל להכירו ולירא מלפניו ולמשול בגוף וכל תולדותיו.
Rabbeinu Yona writes at the beginning of Sha'arei Tshuva, Hakadosh Baruch Hu infused within me a neshama of life, possessing chochma and seichel for the purpose of recognizing Hakadosh Baruch Hu, having yiras Hashem and using my seichel to govern my animalistic physical instincts and drives. ואחרי אשר בעבור זאת נבראתי ויהי בהפך מזה למה לי חיים.
This is the entire telos of life. It's for this purpose that I was created, and my life has been the opposite of that, so it's pointless. כעניין שנאמר אדם תועה מדרך השכל בקהל רפאים ינוח. V'od, moreover, כי כמשפט הבהמה לא עשיתי. It's not only that in succumbing to instinct, to urge, into not exercising discipline that I sink to the level of animal, but shafalti mimena, even lower. כי ידע שור קונהו וחמור אבוס בעליו. Animals instinctively recognize, acknowledge their owner, ואני לא ידעתי ולא התבוננתי. And I didn't reflect. I didn't stop to think. ושלחתי נפשי לחפשי מיד אדוניה. So on the one hand, one side of the dialectic of tshuva is this searing realization of just how much of a failure I've been. But what drives the tshuva is the contrast between that painful reality and the understanding and the realization that it doesn't need to be that way, that it doesn't have to be that way, that it has been to too much of a degree, it has been that way, but it needn't. The contrast between the potential, between the כל אדם ואדם ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבינו and the reality of being mired in cheit. It's that contrast, it's that dialectic of the two contrasting and conflicting images, the actual and the potential, which is the mechayev and the engine of tshuva. When the Rambam tells us that the viduy, the last component of the viduy is, we begin with the חטאתי עויתי פשעתי ועשיתי כך וכך נחמתי ובושתי במעשי. So all of that expresses one image. An image again of chatasi avisi pashasi, mired in cheit. But the declaration of ולעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה reflects an understanding of how great the potential is, and that as unwelcome and as unattractive as the image is which stares me in the face when I look in the mirror, it needn't be that way, and it doesn't have to continue. Of how great the potential is, and that as unwelcome and as unattractive as the image is, which stares me in the face when I look in the mirror, it needn't be that way, and it doesn't have to continue. Another halacha which captures this dialectic of teshuva: ואל תאמר שאין התשובה אלא מעבירות שיש בהן מעשה כגון זנות וגזל וגניבה.
Don't think that teshuva is only mandated and that teshuva only targets aveiros which consist of concrete actions such as promiscuity and thievery, rather כשם שצריך אדם לשוב מאלו, just as a person has to repent from these aveiros שיש בהן מעשה כך הוא צריך לחפש בדעות רעות שיש לו ולשוב מהן.
A person also has to scrutinize, has to look inward at his character and identify whatever flaws, whatever blemishes there are and repent from those, he has to uproot those min hakas, anger, min ha'eiva, enmity, min hakinah, jealousy, min hatachrus, competitiveness, min hahisul, a scoffing attitude, meredifas hamamon vehakavod, being in pursuit of amassing money and looking for kavod, umeredifas hamachalos, and looking for just the enjoyment of food and drink וכיוצא בהן מן הכל צריך לחזור בתשובה. So there too again rabosai the same dialectic. On the one hand, a list of character flaws, which it's very depressing to acknowledge. But on the other hand, the mitzvah of teshuva which says that a person is not only not supposed to succumb to these deos ra'os but that he's supposed to change them, means that he can change his character. And he can refine and elevate his character. The dialectic of teshuva. Let's reflect a little further rabosai. Why is it that we underestimate ourselves? Why is it that we don't recognize this potential? And why is it that we don't immediately relate when the Rambam says a pasuk about a tzadik? Why is it that we automatically sort of step to the side and assume that that can't be addressing us? Part of the reason is, part of the answer is, that sometimes we confuse what's very difficult with what's impossible. Sometimes we blur the lines between what's difficult and what's impossible. The Rambam says ראוי כל אדם ואדם ראוי לו להיות צדיק כמשה רבינו.
He never says that it's easy. He never says that we can coast through life and achieve that goal. In other contexts, in our professional lives, so we intuitively recognize the need, the indispensability of a work ethic. If a person wants to found and establish a business from the ground up, it's going to take years and years of hard work. He's going to have to invest long hours. In many, many fields, just to mention one example, a person wants to enter the field of medicine, years and years of hard devoted work and energy has to be invested. A person doesn't coast and emerge a top rank physician. And we recognize that both intuitively as well as seeing it empirically. We know that ambition has to be matched by industriousness. And yet for some reason, when it comes to Avodat Hashem, we don't think in terms of exertion. And because we don't think in terms of exertion, we see the goal of being a tzaddik, of being totally consistent in our commitment, of using our time fully, צדיק בין אדם למקום בין אדם לחברו, because we don't think in terms of exertion, so that appears to us to be an impossible goal. We're all familiar with the famous drashas Chazal in Parshas Chukas: זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באוהל, that אין התורה מתקיימת אלא במי שממית עצמו עליה. To be koneh Torah, those yechidim who are koneh Torah regardless of what prodigious abilities Hakadosh Baruch Hu blesses them with, none of those yechidim attain it without ממית עצמם באהלי תורה, without driving themselves harder and harder, relentlessly. Juxtaposed to that, a famous saying again with which we're all familiar, rabbosai, from Reb Yisrael Salanter, that it's easier to master Shas than it is to break a single middah. And just to state the obvious, Reb Yisrael Salanter was not underestimating or downplaying the difficulty in mastering Shas. See, it's possible, it's possible and we're challenged to mechapes b'dayos ra'os. It's possible for a person who be-teva is given to anger and be-teva is a kapdan with others, who's very makpid in others. It's possible for such a person to become rach k'kaneh, to become soft and gentle and sensitive and warm and embracing. It's possible for a person who be-teva is a ba'al ta'avah and is very much drawn after physical comfort, enjoyment, indulgence, and the like, it's possible for him to change that basic character and orientation, but provided that we're willing to work at it relentlessly. Chazal say in the Gemara in Sukkah that le-asid lavo, resha'im, tzaddikim will see the yetzer hara and it will נדמה להם כהר גבוה. The yetzer hara will appear like Mount Everest. And resha'im will see the yetzer hara and it will appear to them k'chut hasa'arah, like not even a molehill. So the obvious question which you wrestle with in this Gemara is on the contrary, tzaddikim were able to overcome the yetzer hara, it wasn't such a big deal, and resha'im couldn't overcome the yetzer hara. One of the pshatim suggested in the Gemara is that the reason tzaddikim are able to overcome the yetzer hara is because they recognize it as a big challenge. And they recognize that every time I'm confronted with a challenge, every time there's an opportunity to curb my ta'avah, so it doesn't seem to the rasha, it doesn't seem like the stakes are very great. So it's not such a big deal if I'll indulge my ta'avah again in whatever direction my ta'avahs happen to take me, happen to point me. So I'll indulge it this one time, it's not such a big deal. But because it's נדמו להם כחוט השערה, so they never overcome it. Tzadikim, every time, they realize that in order to change a mida, whatever that mida is that we need to change, whatever those midos are that we need to change, every time, it has to be seen as this is going to be the make-or-break encounter. Every day, every day, I have to view that it's so consequential and so repercussive whether I get to minyan on time or whether I come in five minutes late. Every day when I'm tempted to say something to my neighbor in shul during chazaras hashatz, during kerias hatorah, it's not, 'Well, it's only one comment.' No, this is of major consequence, this is of major import. Every time I interact with someone, it's of major consequence whether I stop and try to choose my words, knowing that person's sensitivities and sensibilities, and to speak to him appropriately. When a person is so consistent and so determined day in, day out, so then the prospect of ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבנו is seen not to be impossible, to be very much within the realm of possibility, but one which demands consistent, consistent, determined hard work day in, day out over the course of a lifetime. Maybe just one related comment in terms of how we project such aspirations to our children, to our grandchildren. So as in every area, the most effective way is by demonstrating it. The most effective way obviously is by being a role model. But there is another very important area that we should be sensitive to. We send a very, very loud and strong message to our children when they see whom we admire, whom we tell stories about. The Sefer Hachinuch writes in the taamei hamitzva for the mitzvah of being mechabed chachamim, he writes משורשי המצוה לפי שעיקר היות האדם נברא בעולם הוא מפני החכמה.
The purpose of life is to attain chochma kedei sheyakir boro, that a person should recognize Hakadosh Baruch Hu, should serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu. על כן ראוי לבני אדם לכבד מי שהשיגה. Therefore, it's fitting that people should accord honor to those who have attained chochma because ומתוך כך יתעוררו אחרים עליה. When we see someone being accorded honor and respect, so then we're inspired to emulate that person. We're inspired to try to follow in that person's footsteps. When our children, when our grandchildren hear whom we tell stories about, when they see whom we admire, it sends a very, very strong message. If we're impressed with professional success, not professional success which is anchored... not professional success which is necessarily validated by Torah values, but more olam hazahdikke values. It sends one message to our children. If at the Shabbas table, if at the dinner table, we tell stories about Gedolei Yisrael past and present, we tell stories about big ba'alei chesed, we tell stories about big ba'alei avoda, so then מתוך כך יתעוררו אחרים עליהם. We need to aspire in order to grow, and we also need to guide our children and grandchildren in their aspirations to help them grow as well. A Gut Yar, א גוט יום טוב.