Transcript

Let's perhaps return at the end of Perek Sheni to the Helek Hashlishi. Vehahelek Hashlishi,

אדם שהתנהג בכל תנאי התשובה והגביר שכלו על תאוותו. והגביר שכלו על תאוותו

means that he makes his Sekhel prevail against his Taiva. And how does a person try to do that? We have Sekhel and we have Taivas. How does one affect the outcome in terms of the competition between our Sekhel and our Taivas? In the Mesilat Yesharim, in the back, Mesilat Yesharim? So just highlighting a couple of lines in the Hakdama. Ramchal explains that the To'elet of learning Mesilat Yesharim is the constant repetition.

אבל התועלת יצא מן החזרה עליו וההתמדה כי יזכרו לו הדברים האלה הנשכחים מבני אדם בטבע.

Okay.

והנה כי אין דברי החסידות וענייני היראה והאהבה וטהרת הלב דברים מוטבעים באדם עד שלא יצטרכו אמצעים לקנותם אלא ימצאו אותם בני האדם בעצמם כגון שימצאו כל תנועותיהם הטבעיות כשינה והקיצה הרעב והשובע וכל שאר התנועות החקוקות בטבענו אלא ודאי שצריכים הם לאמצעים ולתחבולות לקנות אותם. אם לא נסתכלנו ולא עיינו מה היא היראה. אם לא נסתכלנו ולא עיינו מה היא היראה האמיתית ומה ענפיה איך נקנה אותה ואיך נמלט מההבל העולמי המשכח אותה מלבנו.

So this is an incredibly important insight and yesod here in the words of Ramchal. So we know בכל לבבך ובשני יצריך, we know a person that we each have a yetzer hatov and a yetzer hara. Okay, so we kind of imagine that, okay, so the yetzer hatov is pulling us to the beit midrash and the yetzer hara has a different agenda and but Ramchal says that's not the way it is. The yetzer hatov and yetzer hara function differently, or instead of calling it yetzer hatov yetzer hara, talk about the sechel and taivah, talk about a person's intellectual spiritual side versus the physical animalistic side. The physical animalistic is something that a person experiences instinctively, reflexively. Take your favorite flavor of ice cream, right? So you see that ice cream, so you don't have to make a deliberate decision to, a person naturally has a, naturally experiences a taivah, right? It happens reflexively, it happens instinctively. Ma she'ein ken, certainly initially, I'm not talking about the gedolei avodah who achieve very, very high madregos, anan bedidan, ma she'ein ken the hashpaah that the sechel potentially has over us, the hashpaah that the yetzer hatov potentially has over us is only when we live reflectively and deliberately. And that's what Ramchal is saying:

אם לא נסתכלנו ולא עיינו מה היא היראה האמיתית ומה ענפיה,

if we're not focused on it, so then it's not that if a person sort of is neutral, so then okay, so he's being pulled equally by the yetzer hatov and yetzer hara. So should I have the extra piece of pizza? So I'll have half a piece, you know. He's being pulled equally by the yetzer hatov and the yetzer hara. No, that's not the pshat. Says Ramchal, the natural state of affairs is that if a person isn't living reflectively, if a person isn't living deliberately, so איך נמלט מההבל העולמי המשכח אותה מלבנו. The natural state of affairs, the default setting is that a person will be more influenced by his animalistic side than by the spiritual or intellectual side because the animalistic side, even though ultimately it's certainly the weaker of the two forces, but that's a force which functions instinctively, it functions reflexively, it functions mindlessly. Ma she'ein ken, the tzad sichli, the tzad ruchani shebo, even though obviously that is the greater and the more powerful of the two forces, but that has to be activated. That doesn't function reflexively. Again, anan bedidan, that doesn't function reflexively. That's when a person is living reflectively and living deliberately. That's what Ramchal said also that התועלת יוצא מן החזרה לו וההתמדה. Again, that concerted effort. כי יזכרו לו הדברים האלה הנשכחים ממני אדם. The natural state of affairs is to be distracted and not focus. The natural state of affairs is that a person is focused on money and taivos and the hevel ha'rik because the tzad behami shebo functions mindlessly, reflexively, instinctively. So הגביר שכלו על תאוותו means that the person is making a concerted effort to live reflexively, to live thoughtfully, to live mindfully. And that way, ina hachi nami, is the taiva still there? Yeah, the taiva is still there, but it's being countered by the fact that the person has perspective on the taiva, that he sees it for what it is and judges whether or not it's appropriate lefi hamakom vehazman. הגביר שכלו על תאוותו והתמיד לחשב עם נפשו. So here this commentary paraphrases התמיד לחשב עם נפשו that עושה לעצמו תמיד חשבון הנפש. And u'stama that that is what it means. I mean it's hard to be medayek when learning in translation and yitachen meod that that is correct. You just wonder whether additionally I think where's that in Sefer Vayikra, the pasuk of וחישב עם קונהו משנת הימכרו לו? How does that pasuk go? Someone has the whole pasuk?

וחישב עם קונהו משנת המכרו לו עד שנת היובל והיה כסף ממכרו במספר שנים כימי שכיר יהיה עמו.

Okay, so if you want to redeem, that's by a Jew who was sold to a non-Jew. What's the context there? I think it's some context of a non-Jew. That seems to be the context. Right, when if a Jew was sold to a non-Jew and you're redeeming him. So you have to, so how do you calculate what the price should be? You calculate by if he was sold for a hundred thousand dollars for twenty-five years, so that he was sold at four thousand dollars a year, so five years are left, and then you should pay eighty thousand dollars to redeem him. So vechishev im means to come to a reckoning with. Right? vechishev im konehu means you're coming, you're reckoning with the buyer. That's what that means there. So I wonder whether again you can't really tell in translation but whether the Chovos HaLevavos might also have in mind besides just saying that the person makes a cheshbon hanefesh, the Rambam writes as follows.

פרק ה' הלכות תשובה הלכה ב'. אל יעבור במחשבתך דבר זה שאומרים טיפשי האומות ורוב גולמי בני ישראל שהקדוש ברוך הוא גוזר על האדם מתחילת ברייתו להיות צדיק או רשע. אין הדבר כן.

It shouldn't even be a fleeting thought that there's pre-determination.

אלא כל אדם ואדם ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבנו או רשע כירבעם, או חכם או סכל, או רחמן או אכזרי, או כילי או שוע, וכן שאר כל הדעות.

In our times, you hear a lot people look to avoid assuming responsibility. So it's very convenient to sort of blame things on forces beyond one's control. I don't know, it was 20-some odd years ago, someone started shooting on the LIRR. And so when he was brought to trial, his defense was that he wasn't responsible because he had this uncontrollable rage about slavery. Slavery, slavery hadn't been around since the 1860s. He was just so enraged over slavery that he had to go kill people who were sitting and drinking their wine and coffee on the LIRR. So people like to, there is a psychological attractiveness for the belief in that a person's not responsible for what he does. That way you can do whatever you want and still sleep well at night, or party at night as the case may be.

ואין לו מי שיכפהו ולא גוזר, ולא מי שמושכו לאחד משני הדרכים, אלא הוא מעצמו ומדעתו נוטה לאיזו דרך שיחפוץ. הוא שירמיהו אומר מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב.

Klomar, the Rambam is now going to darshan the sequence of pesukim in Eicha. So he begins with the pasuk מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב. Klomar,

אין הבורא גוזר על האדם להיות טוב ולא להיות רע.

Whatever good happens in the world, it's not because Hakadosh Baruch Hu decreed it, it's because we did it of our own free will, of our own accord. Whatever evil happens in the world, similarly it's not because Hakadosh Baruch Hu decreed it. It wasn't that we were puppets and that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was pulling the strings, it's because we, because people, perpetrated that evil. V’keivan shekein, listen now to this next line or so, rabosai. וכיון שכן הוא נמצא זה החוטא הוא הפסיד עצמו. He destroyed himself.

לפיכך ראוי לו לבכות ולהונן על מה שעשה לנפשו וגמלה רעה.

So cheit, a person inflicts harm upon his nefesh.

וזהו שכתוב אחריו מה יתאונן אדם חי גבר על חטאו וחזר ואמר נחפשה דרכינו ונחקורה.

So I wonder whether והתמיד לחשב עם נפשו besides just meaning again that he makes a cheshbon hanefesh, Lechashv im nafsho that he comes to an accounting with his nefesh the same way V’chishav im konehu is the negotiation, the accounting is with the owner. Here the accounting is with the nefesh. What do you mean the accounting is with the nefesh? The accounting is with the nefesh על מה שעשה לנפשו וגמלה רעה. I don't know if that's a possible havana here. V’harei yisborer, again, the Chovos HaLevavos is continuing describing this, again, in broad strokes, the teshuva, the various components of a genuine teshuva. So this is an idea that Rabbeinu Yonah will later elaborate in Sha'arei Teshuva that integral to the teshuva process is deepening one's yiras shamayim. And the simple pshat in that is, well, maybe we'll do that together with the next phrase, uvosh mimenu. That a person has a sense of shame before HaKadosh Baruch Hu. These—this again, the yiras shamayim that they cultivate, the feeling of bushah toward HaKadosh Baruch Hu, these are integral to the teshuvah process. Why so? Because leaving aside, you know, the category of a tinok shenishba vekhadomeh, on the one hand, every cheit is different. It highlights maybe a different shortcoming, a different flaw within the person. But there is a common denominator to every cheit. The mashal is as follows: let's say you have someone he's about to take, he's about to take an exam. And it's very, very important, I don't know, he's applying for admittance to a school and his life's dreams hinge upon getting accepted. And he's not really adequately prepared, so he decides he's going to cheat. So he has his—he rationalizes it—he has his cheating scheme all planned out, and he's going to do it. The only thing is, he comes in and he sees that the proctor, you know, walks over and stands right in front of him. And he looks around and he sees that there are four cameras and they're all pointing at him from every every which angle. And whatever he does, you know, he sees a sign, 'Smile, you're on candid camera.' So what happens? He ends up not cheating. He was ready to cheat and he was going to cheat, but he ends up being inhibited from cheating because the only point in cheating is if you can get away with it, and there's no point in cheating if you're going to get caught. So the common denominator, no matter what weakness and flaws and character deficits we have, if we had yiras shamayim, if we were aware of HaKadosh Baruch Hu's presence, so then we'd be inhibited from the cheit. So every cheit besides its own particular dynamic and its own individual shoresh, there's also a common denominator, which is this inadequacy of yiras shamayim and this lack of awareness of the presence of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Hence, the teshuvah has to include again, intensifying yiras shamayim. And uvosh mimenu now means that the person has an awareness of being in the presence of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. A bushah is something a person only experiences in the presence of whoever you're embarrassed from. It's only in that person's presence that we're embarrassed. So uvosh mimenu, the—that experience of bushah mimenu is grounded in awareness of being in the presence of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And finally,

והשיב אל לבו גודל חטאו ועונו והכיר גדולת מי שהמרה פיו ועבר על דברו.

So the pshat here is as follows. So agam that he apologizes, but what he's apologizing for is a shadow, is a pale imitation of what he really did. Right? Because the teshuva can't be an adequate teshuva unless the teshuva is based on an accurate assessment of the chet. So that's what the Chovos HaLevavos says that the chelek hashlishi means that השיב אל לבו גודל חטאו ועונו, the person doesn't underestimate his chet. Mitzvos HaTorah are divided into kalos and chamuros. He doesn't, you see that there is a ranking within chatoim, so he doesn't underestimate the chet. And on the other hand, again, the common denominator, a common denominator to every chet is that every chet obviously means going against devar Hashem, ratzon Hashem, והיא כגדולת מי שהמרה אותו ועובר על דברו. Because all of that, otherwise it's the teshuva is, he's doing teshuva for whatever he perceives is wrong. And if his perception is superficial, so then to that degree the teshuva has to be, has to be inadequate.