So be'ezras Hashem, this is the second paragraph; we'll come back to the first one bli neder. ונאמר תחילה כי טובת השם יתעלה על ברואיו אף על פי שהם מקיפים ומכללים את כולם כמו שאמר החסיד טוב השם לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו הרי רבים עיוורים מלהבחין בהם ומהכיר גודל ערכם.
Even though the good and the kindness which Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestows is all-encompassing, most people are blinded and don't discern that Sha'ar HaBechina to discern the magnitude of the tovos which Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestows. ושלוש סיבות גרמו לסכלותם בכך. And there are three reasons for this blindness. Since we've got to it late, we'll just discuss one of them this week bli neder; we'll come back to the others. The third hanekuda hashlishis לאי ידיעתם את ערך טובת השם עליהם, the third reason for ignorance that tovas Hashem is being bestowed upon them הוא ממה שיאורע להם בעולם הזה מסוגי הפגעים ומה שמשיגם ממיני הייסורין בגופם ובממונם.
When a person Rachmana Litzlan is visited by yissurim, be it yissurei haguf, a physical affliction, be it bemamonam, financial setbacks, אינם יודעים סיבות אופני הטובה עליהם ותועלת הניסיון והייסורין להם בהם.
They don't recognize the reasons or the purposes for them. Therefore the reaction is זעפו כאשר חל משפט צדקו בהם. They respond with anger when Hakadosh Boruch Hu's just din is implemented. ולא הודו לו בעת תחולת חסדו וטובו עליהם, and they don't thank Him בעת תחולת חסדו וטובו עליהם. He gives the following mashal: הרי הם דומים בזה לעיוורים שהובאו לבית שהוכן להם בכל תועלותיהם.
To blind people who were stationed in a house which was designed to maximize their benefits. והונח בו כל דבר במיטב התיקון וכפי שיותר ראוי לקראת תועלתם ומטרת טובתם.
Everything to further their interest is there. Ve'im kol eileh, in addition, הוסכם להם בו מיני כחול מועילים ורופא אומן שירפאם בהם כדי לרפאות את ראייתם.
A medicine to restore their vision. ונעלמו מרפואתם ולא קיבלו משמעת הרופא. They refused to follow the doctor's prescriptions and consequently their sight wasn't restored. והיו מגששים בבית כשהם במצב הגרוע מחמת סמיותם. And therefore they were groping around in the house because they remained blind. וכל עת שהחלו להתהלך בבית נתקלו באותם החפצים שהוכנו לתועלתם.
At any moment that they began to walk around, so not only were they not able to take advantage of all the resources in the house but they were always tripping over them. ונפלו על פניהם והיו מהם פצועים ומהם שבורים וגדלו ייסוריהם ונכפלו פגעיהם והחלו להאשים את בעל הבית והבונה אותו ונעשו מעשיו גרועים בעיניהם. והייתה זו סיבה לכפירת טובת בעל הבית להם וחסדו עמהם. וגם בדרך כשהסכל הולך לבו חסר ואמר לכל סכל הוא.
An example just to concretize to just to understand what the Rabbeinu Bachya says before we try to go a little bit further. Let's say a person Rachmana litzlan takes sick. So a person Rabbeinu Bachya says can respond with anger: why me? Why should I be sick? Why should I be afflicted with yisurim? Or a person can respond by saying, oh, this is a siman min hashamayim that I need to engage in cheshbon hanefesh, that I need to engage in introspection. And a person on the contrary would be makkir tova that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is signaling him that he is not going on the correct path and is sending him a very clear message that there is occasion and need right now for cheshbon hanefesh. That's what he says. So if you have the proper perspective, so then you see that the doctor who gives the injection is not hurting you, but is doing it long-range for your benefit and that you stand to benefit from his intervention. If a person reacts the way Rabbeinu Bachya says blindly, blindly, so then he goes angry at the doctor who's trying to give him an injection. Now the kernel here in Rabbeinu Bachya, I mean in this paragraph it's not full-blown, but the kernel here is a yesod gadol, yesod gadol bachayim. And that is, we all know that the yesod on which all the Torah rests is bechira chofshis. Person does what he wants. That's the yesod the whole Torah is built upon that. Where does bechira chofshis reign? In what realm does bechira chofshis reign? I do what I want. I do what I want. I wear what I want. I do what I want. I go where I want. But bechira chofshis doesn't affect objective reality. All my bechira chofshis notwithstanding, it's not raining now. As much as I want it to rain and as much as I can stamp all you want and jump up and down and cry and yell and scream, but it's not raining. So bechira chofshis affects what you do, what you think, how you act, but it doesn't affect objective reality. It doesn't affect objective reality. Now even though that is true in the trivial example we just gave, Rabbeinu Bachya here says a yesod gadol. And that is ein hachi nami, an absolute truth of bechira chofshis can't budge. The metzius of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is an absolute truth, the most absolute truth there is. That Hakadosh Baruch Hu is kulo tov umeitiv is an absolute truth. That the beriah is full of reflections of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that he is hamamtzi kol hanimtzayim. These are all absolute truths. And yet unlike the trivial example that we gave, whether or not these truths will be perceived and recognized and experienced, so that is left to bechira chofshis. That's what Rabbeinu Bachya is telling you. You should know your bechira chofshis doesn't determine whether the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is kulo tov and your bechira chofshis... can't change that absolute truth an iota. And your bechira chofshis doesn't for an absolute, doesn't for a second at all impugn that ה' הוא האלוקים אין עוד מלבדו. But unlike what we ordinarily think, and unlike in the trivial example, but your bechira chofshis does determine, your perception does determine whether or not you recognize and whether or not you receive bechasdei Hashem. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is kulo tov. If a person is sick rachmana litzlan, so כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. There's a gam zu letov. That's an absolute truth. That's got nothing to do with bechira chofshis. But and this is a yesod gadol, this is a yesod gadol. A truth doesn't overtake you. It's a yesod gadol of Torah. Truth, kedusha, tahara, doesn't overtake a person. To the extent that a person is receptive, to that degree he recognizes and glimpses truth. And to the degree that a person is not receptive, so then he doesn't see it. The truth itself, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, tov u'meitiv, that's got nothing to do with our bechira chofshis. But the extent to which we can recognize those truths, so that is very much a function of our bechira chofshis ad k'dei kach that whether something comes across as evil and elicits anger or whether it comes across as a tov, which it is, that's totally in our bechira chofshis. Sfas Emes comments, Chazal tell us בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים. So what does it mean? Rachmana litzlan the Torah is telling you pretend something that isn't true? What does it mean בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים? So it seems to mean they're not really, but let's make believe. But you go ahead and make believe and you do your best to fool yourself that they are chadashim. He'itachen? Rachmana litzlan! On the other hand, if they are chadashim, so what's pshat בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים? Chadashim hem. Torah never gets stale. Torah is always as vibrant and vital as it was at Maamad Har Sinai. So what does it mean בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים? So Sfas Emes says no, hem hem hadvarim. חדשים לבקרים רבה אמונתך. Everything has the constant hischadshus in it. But you'll only see it, you'll only, it's there! You know, that's an objective reality. Torah's not telling you to pretend that there's hischadshus. Chas v'shalom! Torah should tell you to pretend something that isn't there? Pretend pretend there's an orange tree there and pretend you ate two oranges and you're not hungry anymore. No, it's takke בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים. The Torah would only tell you you should perceive it this way if it is this way. But if it is this way, what does the Torah have to tell you? So hem hem hadvarim. Truth doesn't overtake a person. It doesn't overwhelm a person. It doesn't overwhelm a person. To the extent that a person, the same way if you've once you're trained to recognize a certain geometric design, so when you look at a building, so you may see that the architect built that building in accordance with this geometric design. And if I've never been exposed to this geometric design, I don't know that it's every eight, I don't know exactly how the design is constructed, I won't see it. So if the design is there, you'll see it and I won't see it. If the design's not there, neither of us will see it. Neither of us will see it. So the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in our daily lives, from second to second. The presence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the world, that everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu does is letovah are all absolute truths, not subject to bechira chofshis, not a function of bechira chofshis. But whether we see it or recognize it, that's כולו תלוי בבחירה חופשית. That's part of chutz miyiras shamayim. Unlike the trivial example of raining outside where all you have to do is open your eyes, so here it requires more than that. That's what the Rabbeinu Bachaye says that even though we're surrounded by טובותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, but with the wrong perspective you won't see anything. That's the same, that's the same yesod which the Sfas Emes is building on when the Sfas Emes says בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים. בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים.
But if you don't approach them that way, so you won't see that hischadshus. You won't see that hischadshus. If you get up every day and you daven and it's the same old Shmoneh Esrei, there's only so many times you can read a book. The best book, so many times you read it, and eventually it gets boring. It doesn't have a koach of hischadshus within it. And if someone will tell you בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים, so they're telling you you should engage in self-delusion because it's not. It's not. So it was a gevaldig, it was a gevaldig book and I read it and I re-read it and I re-read it, and maspik, it's already coming out of your ears. It's coming out of your ears. There's only so many times. The Torah says you should know בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים within Torah, within mitzvos. So no matter how many times you build a Sukkah, no matter how many times you take a lulav, no matter how many times you put on tefillin, so you should know the koach is there that it's a new mitzvah. זאת התורה לא תשתנה ve'haTorah lo tibatel. So what does it mean בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים? You should know that the Torah has within it a koach of hischadshus, that every day it can be experienced with the same hislahvus, with the same hislahvus. You can't if you have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch every day. Eventually no matter how much you like peanut butter, eventually it's not going to, eventually you're going to switch to tuna fish. It's inevitable, inevitable. It's going to happen. It doesn't have it within it. No matter בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים isn't going to help. But if the koach is latent, the koach is latent that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave a mitzvah, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave Torah to be studied, Hakadosh Boruch Hu says within that Torah, בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים because it has that koach, but it has that koach but only if it'll be, but you'll only see it if you have once been trained for that geometric design. Only if you're searching for it. The fact that you have to search for it on the contrary, that doesn't mean that it's not really there. On the contrary, it confirms that it is there. But the point is it's not, it's not going to come out and hit you in the face. And that's a yesod gadol. What you put into mitzvos is what you get out of mitzvos. The sensitivity with which one responds to events in his own life, to current national, international events, to the briah as a whole will determine how much of yad Hashem he sees. Too often in our avodas Hashem, so we wait, it's not be'einecha kachadashim. We wait and we want that hischadshus should overtake us. We want the hischadshus to overtake us. We want that we should be able to walk into shul in the morning and magically the hischadshus should overtake us. So that's the yesod which the Sfas Emes says, and it's the same kernel here. It's the same kernel here that even though it's an absolute truth, but the Torah's truths because of bechira chofshis, so they'll only be perceived and experienced to the extent that a person is open to that, to the extent that you're trained to recognize that geometric design, so then you'll, then you'll recognize it. And too often we're waiting. to overtake us, to overtake us. That's the yesod, בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים. Sfas Emes says in a similar, similar vort. That's beautiful. Sfas Emes says, היום הזה ה׳ אלוקיך מצוך לעשות את החוקים האלה ואת המשפטים.
Unbelievable vort, Sfas Emes says. Says the pshat, what we think the pshat in the pasuk is, that today, hayom hazeh, is when this is happening. היום הזה ה׳ אלוקיך מצוך לעשות את החוקים האלה ואת המשפטים.
Akadosh Baruch Hu's telling you the v'chukos. He says no, היום הזה ה׳ אלוקיך מצוך לעשות. Hayom hazeh is the object of what you're supposed to make. What are you supposed to make? לעשות את היום הזה. And sometimes he says you find es means in. So what the pasuk really means is hayom hazeh, what's this day? It's just another day. It's like the day that came before, it's like the day that's going to come after and you go through your routine and you get up mitzvas anashim m'lumadah and you daven and and you talk to the same person during chazaras hashatz that you talked to yesterday. You know, it's a day just like the just like the day before, just like the day before. And then you go to seder and it's another day and it's okay, another blat Gemara, another this. So no, היום הזה ה׳ אלוקיך מצוך לעשות. No, you have to make the day. It's not going to overtake you. The koach hachiddush of המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית, that doesn't overtake you. It's there. It's there for the having, it's there for the taking. But היום הזה ה׳ אלוקיך מצוך לעשות. What hayom hazeh? How do you do it? עם החוקים האלה עם המשפטים. If a person is engaged in avodas Hashem and a person is cognizant of Akadosh Baruch Hu, then every moment, every moment it can't become stale. An experience of being omeid lifnei Hashem, of being oveid Hashem, that can't become stale. עם החוקים האלה עם המשפטים. Everything else, you have a job as a as an Indian chief, okay, so eventually it gets boring, eventually it gets boring. But היום הזה ה׳ אלוקיך מצוך לעשות עם החוקים האלה ועם המשפטים.
A person's through Torah, through mitzvos, היום הזה ה׳ אלוקיך מצוך לעשות. Okay, then we'll continue.