Good evening. Pleasure to welcome everyone to Bnei Yeshurun. I want to thank TorahWeb and Judah Diamond for putting this together, as well as their many other shiurim that they put together throughout the year. B'reshus Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Schechter, and Mori Ve'rabi, Rav Meir Twersky. I had the privilege of learning in Rav Twersky’s shiur for six years. So it's simultaneously exhilarating to welcome Rebbe to Shul and at the same time daunting and humbling to attempt to introduce him. But on the Thursday of Parshas Ki Savo in 2000, we were learning Bava Metzia in Yeshiva. And before shiur, Rebbe shared with us a beautiful Mahalach in understanding the punishments of the Tochacha and their severity. No one came here this evening to listen to me, so I won’t share with you the entire approach. However, it was summarized in the end with a line that I think reflects Rav Twersky’s Hashkafa, the Hashkafa of the Torah, what TorahWeb is about, why we are here, and it’s something that I try to relate to my own talmidim as frequently as possible. In expounding on the unique relationship, the covenantal bond between the Jewish people and Hakadosh Baruch Hu and His Torah, Rebbe concluded and said that our job is to try and have the Torah leave its imprint on us, not for us to leave our imprint on it. And that perspective is so true and really sums up so much of what Rav Twersky often tries to expound and explicate in his shiurim, and it’s a tremendous Kavod for me personally to present to you Mori Ve'rabi, Rav Meir Twersky Shlita. Thank you very much. B'reshus Ha-Rav Schechter, B'reshus Azas, Mori Ve-Rabbosai. Everyone encounters in some form or fashion adversity in life. Some perhaps on a daily basis, others maybe not a daily basis but at regular intervals, and maybe for others it's more irregular. No one successfully navigates their way, their journey in Olom Hazeh without encountering adversity, without at times having to engage in struggles. And the situation of adversity, the occasion or context of struggle is often one which is unavoidable, one which a person can’t really extricate himself from, and therefore needs to encounter that adversity, needs to engage in that struggle. Maybe it’s a friction in a relationship, with a parent, with a child, with a sibling. Maybe it's a neighbor, a community member. Maybe financial difficulties, maybe professional challenges, unemployment, Rahmana litzlan on all the above. And kimidumeh that we view adversity and struggles and challenges very negatively. And in keeping with that negativity, we become frustrated, angry, provoked. And to a degree that attitude of negativity is correct. To a degree. Chazal tell us לעולם אל יביא אדם עצמו לידי נסיון. A person is not supposed to invite difficulty in life, even when min hashamayim a person is given. The Gemara tells us in Berachos as you know about various Amora'im. Rabbi Chanina poses the question to Rabbi Yochanan, Rabbi Yochanan poses the question to Rav Elozar: Chavivim alecha yisurim? Do you welcome the suffering and the trials and the tribulations? And the answer is לא הן ולא שכרן. I don't welcome them, nor am I looking for what. nor am I looking for whatever reward will ensue. So we neither invite adversity and suffering and challenges nor do we on our own look to perpetuate them. And yet, the complete negativity would seem to be exaggerated and therefore wrong. Where that reaction of ours comes from is socially conditioned or at least socially driven and is a result of social influence. The society we live in prizes ease and comfort. Within such a mindset, so any adversity, any struggle is a disruption, a disruption, an annoyance, a provocation and therefore totally totally unwelcome. And that's why we become frustrated, we're angry, and our response to adversity, to challenge is we're looking to just endure. We're looking to just eichshu tolerate what basically we view as intolerable. L'hashkafas hatorah is that a person was created to work, to strive. L'fum tzara agra, היום קצר המלאכה מרובה and when the poalim are atzelim, the ba'al habayis is docheik. There's a Yerushalmi in Orlah that the sefarim quote. Yerushalmi talks about how if a person is just a recipient so the way the Yerushalmi is paraphrased, so then what he's receiving is nahama d'chisufa is bread of shame. If a person doesn't work to earn it, the bread in this case is figurative, representing the way it's applied, representing spiritual reward. A person is supposed to work. The dynamic for spiritual attainment and spiritual achievement is hard work, is amala v'yegi'a. Within such a mindset, so when we encounter adversity, so again, it's not a disruption or an annoyance, it's an opportunity for growth. When you think about it a person can't control anything around him. A person can't control what circumstances he's subjected to. A person can't control what conditions are sometimes imposed, superimposed upon him. But what a person has total control over are his reactions to those circumstances, to those conditions. And those reactions, those opportunities to react are opportunities for growth. And when we're just feeling frustrated and annoyed and provoked whether it's by the difficult familial relationship, whether it's about a difficult time in finances, so we're missing out on what the Ribbono shel Olam has given us as an opportunity for growth. On the one hand the Gemara tells us that לעולם אל יביא אדם עצמו לידי נסיון, that a person is not supposed to invite nisayon, is not supposed to invite difficulty, adversity etc. and m'idach gisa as we all know Ramchal tells us that all of life is nisyonos. So clearly clearly the kasuv hashlishi is that a person isn't supposed to gratuitously add to the nisyonos, to add to the challenges and adversity of life. But basic challenges and a degree of adversity is part of the fabric of life and it's there as opportunities for growth. So maybe just to illustrate some of the reactions which would allow us to take advantage, to capitalize on those opportunities for growth. Let's say a person finds himself through no fault of his own in some kind of contentious situation. Someone is provoking an argument again and the option of just opting out of that relationship or that situation isn't really available. So Chazal tell us that אין העולם מתקיים אלא בשביל מי שבולם פיו בשעת מריבה
that the world exists for the sake of the person who's able to who has the self-discipline not to answer, not to be provoked. As Rashi says bolem piv means soger es piv, to keep quiet at a time of argument, at a time of provocation. The Gemara goes on to say מה אומנותו של אדם בעולם הזה, what should a person's trade be in this world? Yasem atzmo k'ileim. A person has to know how to act as a mute, has to know how to keep silent. כל המעביר על מידותיו Chazal tell us, if a person is in a situation where really on a certain level he's entitled to respond, on a certain level he's entitled to figuratively hit back, and instead the person when appropriate is mevater and a person doesn't say anything and a person walks away from it, so כל המעביר על מידותיו is מעבירין לו על כל פשעיו, it's a zechus that he should be forgiven for all his sins. Again, illustrating how adversity, difficulty, difficult situations when seen in the context of a worldview that doesn't prize and cherish comfort and ease, but a worldview that recognizes hard work as the way for attainment and achievement, so within that worldview all these situations are opportunities for growth. The Ramban famously explains based on the Midrash that the idea of nisayon of Hakadosh Baruch Hu testing, Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows what the results of the test are going to be. So what's the idea of nisayon? So the Midrash has two approaches, one adopted by the Rambam, one adopted by the Ramban. The one adopted by the Rambam is it gives a mashal to that you have to beat flax or maybe in sort of our realm of experience sometimes if a rug is very dusty, so you have to beat it out to get the rug looking good again. And the nisayon is when a person is subjected to a test, to a trial, to adversity, so then that elicits a response from him that otherwise perhaps wouldn't have been forthcoming and he achieves a madreiga which otherwise he wouldn't have pushed himself to achieve. Rachmana litzlan when if one encounters financial difficulties, or Rachmana litzlan another example one has to deal with unemployment, again which is so challenging on many levels, it challenges a person. If seen as an opportunity for growth, it challenges a person to work on his midas habitachon. Levoreich al hatovah comes easy and naturally. Levoreich when things are less than what we perceive as tov challenges us to work on our midas habitachon. Let's focus perhaps a little bit on the role of hard work, now not so much in the context of life situations and life challenges but more internally within Torah mitzvos. Talmud Torah is something which is very difficult and very challenging. And kimedumeh that there's a very common mistake that we make. think sometimes when we we open a Gemara and we think to ourselves, ah, if only I had the the the abilities, if only I had the kochos of talmidei chachamim who were so, so capable and and we think of the the greatest of them, ah, so imagine if I had a head like the Vilna Gaon, if I had a head like Rav Chaim, if I had a head like the Rav, so I wouldn't be struggling with this. So that's true, but what's not true and what's more significant is that on their level they struggled with other questions, that with their prodigious powers it's not that there were no difficulties, it's not that every blat Gemara was totally, totally smooth and and easy sailing and and they could coast. No, it's true that they didn't struggle with what we struggle with, but they struggled on on their level. And I don't know if it's true, but the story is told that Rav Chaim used to become so feverish from the mental exertion in in learning that that he would go and he'd lean his head against the cold stone pillar to to cool himself off. Whether it's whether the actual story is true I don't know, but what it reflects is is certainly true. So everyone everyone has difficulty in in learning. That's how the kinyan Torah is made through the mental exertion. Hard work can mean physical exertion, hard work can mean mental exertion through the mental exertion of of pushing oneself to try to understand to the best of one's ability to stretch one's mind to try to understand a new idea. If and and maybe it's beyond me, so then the the way the form the exertion takes is to seek out someone who can and and will, will explain it to me. I I recently stumbled across a couple of sources in in talking about how we's supposed to go about chazarah review of of our learning and again the discipline and exertion that are expected there. So Rabbeinu Yonah in Pirkei Avos commenting on the mishnah of כל השוכח דבר אחד ממשנתו. So Rabbeinu Yonah writes as follows, כי השכחה מצויה בבני אדם, that's why I copied this down, כי השכחה מצויה בבני אדם because shichchah is something, forgetfulness is something which is very common. And therefore a person should be aware of that weakness that that we have, of that susceptibility that we have. והיה לו לחזור ההלכה הרבה פעמים and he should have reviewed his learning, the Rabbeinu Yonah is speaking specifically about if a person forgets halachos, halachos l'maiseh, and and because of that then acts inappropriately. והיה לו לחזור ההלכה הרבה פעמים. Now listen to this next line rabosai, ולחשוב בה כל היום וכל הלילה. He should have walked around just day and night, thinking and reinforcing and drilling into himself this halachah that he just learned עד שלא תוכל לסור מלבו until it would become so deeply rooted and so firmly planted in his mind in his memory that that he wouldn't be able to, that he wouldn't be able to forget it. The the other source that I that I stumbled across the Gaon writes in his commentary on Mishlei on the pasuk in kapitel yod-tes that עצלה תפיל תרדמה ונפש רמיה תרעב. There's a question in meforshim on the first phrase atzlah tapil tardemah, which is the subject, which is the object. So the the way the the Gaon understands it is that often in Loshon Hakodesh, unlike in English, which is which is why sometimes we have difficulties in in our learning, so the subject doesn't come until later in the in the sentence. So atzlah tapil tardemah means that tardemah sleep causes laziness. So So after explaining that the mashal, which is in terms of a person seeking his livelihood, so the Gaon explains what the nimshal is in terms of in the spiritual realm. And he says, וכן הוא בתורה ומצוות על ידי תרדמה, sleeping more than is necessary, whatever one needs, sleeping beyond that. וכן הוא בתורה ומצוות על ידי תרדמה בא לידי עצלות.
And then commenting on the second half of the pasuk, v'nefesh remiyah. So nefesh remiyah means a deceitful soul, right? A soul that's being deceitful. This is, I don't know, I found it to be a staggering line in the Gaon. ונפש רמיה מי שלומד הרבה, a person who learns a lot, v'eino chozer tamid, but doesn't constantly review, v'rotzeh le'esof harbei, and yet he expects to retain a lot. So that person's being described as a nefesh remiyah. It's like he's trying to pull off a bank heist, he can't, it doesn't happen. It's deceitful. It's an amazing thing. The Gaon says it's deceitful. How can a person possibly expect to retain a lot if he's אינו חוזר תמיד ורוצה לאסוף הרבה? He says yirav. So such a person is going to go hungry, which means שלא יישאר בידו כלום. In the area of tikkun hamiddos, character refinement, character development, again the Gaon writes in his peirush on Mishlei, it's cited in there's a collection, a small collection of some, most of it if not all of it is drawn from different places in the Gaon on Mishlei, Even Shleimah, so the Gaon is quoted as saying that all of life is for tikkun hamiddos. The Gaon explains that the Gemara in Brachos comments on the pasuk of על זאת יתפלל אליך כל חסיד לעת מצוא, that every chasid, every devout person should daven for this. There's one thing that a devout person should be davening to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that this is something that he fervently desires, it's something he wants, it's something he needs. So the Gemara says very cryptically that one of the pshatim is that there should be, he should live near a beis hakisei. So what does that mean? So the Gaon explains that it's a metaphor and he says that the same way when a person goes to the beis hakisei, so then the body dispels the waste which is toxic. If the waste remains inside a person's body, so then it's toxic to the body and the body needs to get rid of that waste which is toxic. And he says that that's a metaphor for tikkun hamiddos. And that's when Chazal are talking about that על זאת יתפלל אליך כל חסיד לעת מצוא, that a chasid should be davening for this, should be davening for the beis hakisei, it's a metaphor again that the person should be able to expunge from himself that which is toxic, that which he needs to be free of. Rav Salanter as you all know commented that it's easier in relative terms, he says, to learn through Shas than it is to correct one middah fully. The ikkar avodah, there's a tradition, it's recorded in different places, one of them is in the Tzetel Katan, the ikkar avodah is the first forty days. That when a person is trying to correct, change, refine, reform a particular middah, so the ikkar avodah is the first forty days. Forty is a period of yetzirah. It's a period of yetzirah for yetziras havlad. The first forty days are crucial. That's why we have forty days from Rosh Chodesh Elul through Yom Kippur for a person to recreate himself in anticipation of Yom Kippur. The critical period in the effort of tikkun hamiddos. If a person can really hone in and work and target the middah for 40 days, so then he makes a breakthrough. The last area I wanted to touch upon in terms of the role of hard work in avodas Hashem is when it comes to teshuva. And maybe to before trying to comment a little bit on it, just to read a couple of passages. Rabeinu Yona in the first sha'ar of Sha'arei Teshuva lists the ikkarei hateshuva. I think he has 20 or so ikkarei hateshuva, 20 fundamental elements of teshuva. Ha'ikkar harishon, the first of those 20, hacharta. A person should have a sense of regret, of remorse. Yavin levavo, a person's mind, his heart should discern כי רע ומר עזבו את ה', that it's bad and bitter that he forsook Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that he has abandoned Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Veyashev el libo, and a person should take to mind, a person should internalize כי יש עונש ונקם ושלם על העוון, that there's accountability for what we do. There's no free passes, no automatic amnesty without teshuva. With teshuva is of course there is, but without teshuva there's no amnesty. כי יש עונש ונקם ושלם על העוון, כעניין שנאמר לי נקם ושלם.
Veyomar belivavo, skipping a line and a half, a person should say inwardly, should address himself: Me asiti? איך לא היה פחד אלוקים לנגד עיני? How could it be that I was oblivious to yiras Hashem? ולא יגורתי מתוכחות על עוון ומן השפטים הרעים, and that I wasn't afraid, I wasn't inhibited by punishment that's forthcoming. The passages we're reading are very heavy passages and so with the disclaimer that a person should focus on them to the extent that he or she can do so in a religiously and emotionally productive and healthy way. לא חמלתי על גופי, I didn't have compassion on my body, ולא חסה עיני עליו משחתו מפני הנאת רגע אחד. For a momentary pleasure, for momentary enjoyment, I wasn't concerned about subsequent destruction. Later in the ikkar hashlishi, so this was regret, remorse, charata. The ikkar hashlishi, the third fundamental element of teshuva that Rabeinu Yona discusses: Yishtonen kelyosav veyagon, sorrow, anguish. Yishtonen kelyosav veyachshov, a person should think, should reflect: כמה רבה רעת מי שהמרה את יוצרו. How great the evil, the brazenness of a person who rebels against his creator. Veyagdil yagon belivavo, and he should allow that sorrow to intensify, he should intensify that sense of sorrow that he has in his mind, in his heart. Vesa'ar mis-cholel bera'yonov, there should be a storm, a tempest playing itself out in his thinking. Veye'anech bimrirus lev, and a person should krechtz, he should sigh with a sense of bitterness. What Rabeinu Yona is describing are very deep, profound, and draining emotions. There's physical exertion, there's mental exertion. The depth of our teshuvah depends upon how much we are willing to and how much we actually exert ourselves emotionally. There probably is, I don't know whether one could do such a study, but one would expect that there's a correlation, I think Rabbeinu Yonah actually says this explicitly, so then there is, not probably, there is, there is a correlation between the depth of a person's teshuvah and whether or not that teshuvah endures, how enduring that teshuvah is. The more superficial or casual the the teshuvah is, Hashem yishmereinu v'yatzileinu, without too much too much forethought or afterthought, the less power it's going to have to stick and to last and to endure, even though it it is sincere, even though it is sincere. The deeper, the more gut-wrenching, the more anguish, again in a religiously productive, emotionally healthy way, the more anguish that's associated with the teshuvah, the more the teshuvah lasts, the more the teshuvah endures. Earlier, in the very beginning of Shaarei Teshuvah, Rabbeinu Yonah explains that one of the prices a person pays, some of the fallout for procrastinating when it comes to do teshuvah is that he says if a person would do teshuvah immediately, so then subsequently when he'd find himself confronted with that same yetzer hara, that same nissayon, so the memory of just how much anguish was involved in the teshuvah process would inhibit him from cheit. That's משל למה הדבר דומה. Sometimes, let's say a person ate a particular food or something, and the food was spoiled and the person got food poisoning. So then it's a natural reaction, even though it's not entirely logical, but there's a natural reaction that next time the person sees that same food, so he associates that food with all the sickness that he had last time he consumed it, and his instinctive reaction is that he doesn't want any part of it, he doesn't want to partake of that food. Rabbeinu Yonah says we would have that same reaction to the possibility of a repeat cheit if we would do, again, a deep, profound teshuvah. But deep, profound teshuvah means willing to open ourselves up to, awaken ourselves to, again, emotionally draining, gut-wrenching experience. The Rambam also when he describes the regimen of teshuvah, midarkei hateshuvah, teshuvah the Rambam tells us isn't just a moment, it isn't just a day, but it's something that spills over to an extended period of time because he describes a lifestyle of teshuvah. מדרכי התשובה להיות השב צועק תמיד לפני השם בבכי ותחנונים.
Again, the same disclaimer in terms of how to process what the Rambam is telling us, these are very intense prescriptions. מדרכי התשובה להיות השב צועק תמיד לפני השם בבכי ותחנונים.
The penitent, the person doing teshuvah, halevai that we should all be zocheh to that designation, is constantly crying out to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in tears. עושה צדקה כפי כוחו, engaging in acts of tzedakah to the fullest extent possible, מתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו, distancing himself greatly and looking to achieve the result of להכנע ולהיות עני ושפל רוח. Potentially and ideally, teshuva is something again which is emotionally ultimately it's energizing and exhilarating, but first there's a strain, there's a there's a stage where it's where it's draining. Ultimately it's again, it's energizing and exhilarating, but the stage that one goes through is very, very intense. Again, potentially and and ideally. We don't want to let the societal mindset of ease and and comfort impose itself upon our attempt to do teshuva, whether it's bein adam lachaveiro, ani moichel loch, ani moichel loch, or whether it's our teshuva bein adam lamakom. The famous maimar chazal that that with which you're all familiar and and will conclude with this in context is talking about havanas divrei Torah, understanding divrei Torah, but is really emblematic of a broader worldview. Chazal tell us that אם יאמר לך אדם יגעתי ולא מצאתי אל תאמין. A person tells you that that I exerted myself, I I toiled and and didn't succeed, so don't believe. Lo yagati umatzasi, what if he what if the person alleges the other extreme? That no, I I didn't I didn't break a sweat, umatzasi and I and I accomplished and I attained, don't believe him either, al taamin. Yagati umatzasi taamin. The only credible storyline which defines a person's life is yagati, that I exerted myself, umatzasi, and then with with the syata d'shmaya I found, I accomplished, so then taamin. A gut yom tov.