In bentching we have the bakasha נא פת פצנו לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם ולא לידי הלוואתם.
I think we generally understand that bakasha to be that we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu to spare us the shame or humiliation of having to ask, of having to beg, not to be reduced to the lowly status of an עני המחזיר על הפתחים. And in fact, that understanding is correct, but it doesn't exhaust the intention of that bakasha. We've spoken in the past about the Rambam in Perek Beis of Hilchos De'os, where the Rambam writes based on a Gemara in Sotah that כל המגביה ליבו כפר בעיקר. And we discussed how the Rambam doesn't say it with a kaf hadimyon, not ke'ilu kafar be'ikar, it's not tantamount to, it is rigorously equated with kefira. How can that be? So we explained that the essence of ga'avah of govah lev is a sense of kochi ve'otzem yadi. A person has a sense of independence, a sense of autonomy, and that's why it's magbiha libo. That's why he's so impressed with his accomplishments, with his abilities, with his own status. All of that a person can only be impressed with, a person can only be magbiha libo if there's a sense of kochi ve'otzem yadi, a sense of independence, a sense of autonomy. And in fact, in fact, our very existence is totally and absolutely dependent upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון וממציא לכל נמצא.
That Hakadosh Baruch Hu every second wills our existence and otherwise we wouldn't exist. Hence, for a person to be magbiha libo, to have this sense of kochi ve'otzem yadi is not tantamount to kefira, the Rambam says it's actually kefira. Nimtzinu lamedim that a person of faith, it should be permanently embedded within his or her consciousness the absolute dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And this is a concomitant, it's something which must accompany genuine emunah. In fact, Rabbeinu Bachya writes in Chovos Halevavos, I believe it's Sha'ar Habechina, that it's from the חסדי הקדוש ברוך הוא that we're created in such a way that it's easy for us to sense our vulnerability. And based upon this Rabbeinu Bachya, one should understand the bracha of Asher Yatzar. The bracha of Asher Yatzar at first glance is a very strange bracha. What's the occasion for the shevach vehoda'ah? So the bracha says because if Hakadosh Baruch Hu hadn't created us as He did, so then אי אפשר להתקיים ולעמוד לפניך אפילו שעה אחת. That's kind of strange because once Hakadosh Baruch Hu decided that He was going to create us, so doesn't that, doesn't that necessarily entail that He create us in a way that we can exist, in a way that's viable? So why is that some kind of distinct shevach vehoda'ah? אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה וברא בו נקבים נקבים חלולים חלולים. גלוי וידוע שאם יפתח אחד מהם או יסתם אחד מהם אז אי אפשר להתקיים ולעמוד.
Okay, but if Hakadosh Baruch Hu birtzono chose to create us, then well obviously He has to create us in a way that we're viable, that we can exist. So the answer is... No, that what we're thanking Hakadosh Baruch Hu for, like the Avnei Ezel says, is that he created us in a way that's viable, but in a way that also is so easy for us to be acutely aware of our own vulnerability. There's always just the slightest, the slightest thing out of balance, the slightest blockage, rachmana litzlan, and then it's אי אפשר להתקיים ולעמוד לפניך. So what we thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for is precisely for having created us in a way that it's easy for us to sense that vulnerability because again, that feeling, that religious orientation and emotion is fundamental to any ma'amin. Now, a person is obligated to strive as best he can to feel and experience that dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu directly. Meaning that that dependence, again, which we have, that absolute total dependence is one which mitzideinu we are supposed to strive as much as possible to feel that directly towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu rather than through a human intermediary. My sense should be part of feeling that dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu should be a sense of independence from other people, because the extent to which seemingly one is dependent upon other people, so that potentially can diminish his sense of the genuine and ultimate dependence upon the Ribono Shel Olam. The Avnei Nezer in his famous teshuva as to why throughout the generations gedolim lived in chutz la'aretz and didn't go to Eretz Yisrael, so he explains that unless a person can support himself in Eretz Yisrael, so then he's not mekayem the mitzvah of yeshivat Eretz Yisrael. To live in Eretz Yisrael but to be supported from chutz la'aretz, Avnei Nezer says, a person is not mekayem the mitzvah. And why is it? Because it's exactly this mida which he discusses. What's the uniqueness of Eretz Yisrael? The mida of Eretz Yisrael is that direct relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu that kavyachol, as it were, the hashgacha in Eretz Yisrael is not through any sar but is direct, is direct. The very minute a person's parnasa comes from chutz la'aretz, so that's exactly what we're saying. The very minute a person, a person becomes dependent upon other people, so that interferes with, that compromises what Eretz Yisrael is supposed to be, which is that direct relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So that's exactly again the same mida that we're talking about in terms of an independence from people. So that's the mida of Eretz Yisrael, the Avnei Nezer explains, and for that reason that a person is not mekayem the mitzvah if in Eretz Yisrael he's dependent upon chutz la'aretz. And this same idea certainly is suggested by the Gemara's din in Bava Metzia and elsewhere of עבדי הם ולא עבדים לעבדים, that to the extent that there's an ol basar vadam that we bear, so that potentially again interferes with our sense of the only real and ultimate ol of Malchus Shamayim, the same idea of אוזן ששמעה בהר סיני עבדי הם והלך זה וקנה אדון לעצמו.
And lich'ora in this way we should also understand the pasuk in Mishlei of soneh matanos yichyeh. Again. Sonei matanos yichye should also be understood in this light that a person should want to experience that dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu directly, not through any intermediary, not to be beholden, not to be the beneficiary of any person, but as much as the Ribbono Shel Olam makes it possible for us that we should experience that dependence directly. And that's the deeper pshat in the bakasha of נא אל תצריכנו לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם ולא לידי הלוואתם.
It's not simply that we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu spare us the humiliation and the shame of having to ask Rachmana litzlan, of having to be me'chazer al hapesachim, but it's rather let us experience that dependence that we have on You, let us experience that directly. Don't let it be clouded for us by having human intermediaries. Of course when there are human intermediaries, again ultimately of course the dependence is upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu and they're just shluchei hamakon, but what we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu and what we and what we have to strive for and when the Rambam writes in Hilchos Matnos Aniyim about how a person should do anything possible לעולם ידחק אדם עצמו ויתגלגל בצער ואל יצטרך לבריות ואל ישליך עצמו על הציבור,
it's not only because he shouldn't be machbid al hatzibbur, it's for that reason as well, but it's not only for that reason. Again, it's because it compromises by making himself dependent on briyos, it compromises his relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And that's what we say, נא אל תצריכנו לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם ולא לידי הלוואתם.
And how do you know that again that that's the, that that's certainly the omek hapsht in what we're asking for is because we follow it up, כי אם לידך המלאה הפתוחה הקדושה והרחבה. We shouldn't have just said נא אל תצריכנו לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם ולא לידי הלוואתם
shelo neivosh, right? Because that's what we're asking, to be spared the humiliation. The answer is no, we're asking for much more than that. We're asking Ribbono Shel Olam let us experience You and our and our dependence upon You directly and let it not be clouded by our having to have this sense of dependence upon human intermediaries. This bakasha of Na'al tztrichenu, this sense of dependence upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu and this striving for dependence exclusively on Hakadosh Baruch Hu which implies independence from other people, it's certainly in the bechina of a mitzvah temidis. We talk about it tonight, it's especially inyan d'yoma for two reasons. Number one, this week, as all the Bnei Yeshiva are aware, marks the end of the shloshim for Rav Ahron Soloveichik zecher tzadik livracha. And tomorrow night im yirtzeh Hashem there will be an azkara and that's the time for milei d'hespeda, but it seemed only proper that the mida we discuss tonight should have been one of the midos which he exemplified. After he suffered his stroke, a debilitating stroke from which he never recovered, which left him basically permanently disabled, the simplest things, simplest, simplest things, such as walking, such as wrapping up tefillin in the morning after davening, required superhuman effort. And he resisted until it became literally, physically impossible. In the very last years, he consistently resisted all help, all all offers of help. And what that represented was this striving for נא אל תצריכנו לא לידי מתנת בשר ודם ולא לידי הלוואתם כי אם לידך המלאה הפתוחה הקדושה.
Even in something as small. I remember one one morning going over to him in the Beis Medrash and And he was wrapping up his tefillin after davening. So try to do it sometime with one hand. Try try to wrap up your tefillin with one hand. Try to do anything which we take for granted with the the use of two healthy hands, bli ayin hara, Baruch Hashem, try to do it with with only one good hand. So I asked maybe I can wrap up the tefillin and he adamantly adamantly declined and said no I have to train myself to do it and as long as it takes I have to do it. Again it was that teshuva of that we have to strive that our dependence should be directly on the Ribbono Shel Olam and that we shouldn't allow it to be clouded by a sense of dependence upon other people. The other reason this mida seems to be especially meinyana deyoma American society was traumatized by the events of September 11th. If you try to pinpoint exactly what that trauma consists of, I remember that that night in the the neighborhood where I lived I was walking home from Maariv 9:15, 9:20 in the evening and there was a person I don't know him I assume he he must live somewhere in the general neighborhood he was out he was he was walking his dog so makdim b'shalom good evening good evening and then then he says you know I don't feel safe anymore. I don't feel safe anymore. And that was the refrain that one heard and continues to hear. And what that reflected was that prior to September 11th people and if only one could say well this is true of the secular world but it wasn't true of anshei shlomeinu if only one could say it. I'm not sure one can. People had a sense of being totally absolutely safe secure invulnerable because you live in America things are totally safe totally secure and there's no there's no vulnerability here. Eretz Yisrael is dangerous. Eretz Yisrael there one is very vulnerable there it's not safe and maybe one shouldn't even even go there. You have to weigh many times maybe one shouldn't even be going to Eretz Yisrael. And that was the prevalent sense. And then all of a sudden that was totally punctured. That that notion imploded when the planes exploded. But that notion was totally and fundamentally flawed to begin with. To be to be a maamin means that a person feels totally vulnerable. Now certainly certainly there's much individual collective cheshbon hanefesh to be made in the aftermath of September 11th. But that that sense that refrain which one heard over and over again as no longer feeling safe again highlighted something which was very flawed within us to begin with namely a misplaced sense of autonomous safety security and invulnerability. And that never existed. September 11th didn't change that that never existed. To be human means to realize that every moment לולי רחמיך השם לולי חסדך השם לולי השגחתך השם אי אפשר להתקיים ולעמוד לפניך אפילו שעה אחת.
That was true September 10th it was as true September 10th as it was September 11th at night it's just that we failed to realize that and to recognize that and certainly and and the hesitations about going to Eretz Yisrael again which were also misplaced also reflected this flawed not just outlook but but self perception as well and it certainly was one which one has to meditate upon in the aftermath of those events. so misplaced, also reflected this flawed not just outlook but that self-perception as well, and it certainly was one one has to meditate upon in the aftermath of those events. But there is a second failure that occurs in this story. And it's not the failure of the Meraglim. It's the failure of the people. Because when the Meraglim come back and they give their report, the people weep. ותשא כל העדה ויתנו את קולם ויבכו העם בלילה ההוא.
The congregation lifted up their voice and they cried and the people wept that night. And the Sages tell us, Bechiyah Shel Chinam, it was a weeping for no reason. And because they wept for no reason then, Hashem said: 'You wept for no reason, I will give you a reason to weep for generations to come'. And that night was Tisha B'Av. The night of the churban. The night of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. This is the source of our galut. And it all stems from that moment of lost emunah. But our job is to fix that. Our job is to have bitachon. To see that we are not grasshoppers. To see that we are the children of Hashem. And that we can indeed go up and possess the land.