So we'll begin to discuss a little bit yirah and ahavah. So tonight as an introduction to those two mitzvos of yirah and ahavah, just wanted a short hakdamah. It's going to be a short shiur tonight. hakdamah to the mitzvos of ahavah and yirah. And to begin with the Ramban in the perush al hatora in aseres hadibros. The Ramban on the mitzvah זכור יום השבת לקדשו says במדרשו של רבי נחוניא בן הקנה הזכירו עוד סוד גדול בזכור ושמור ועל הכלל תהיה הזכירה ביום והשמירה בלילה.
The night of Shabbos, Leil Shabbos is keneged shamor and Yom Shabbos, the Ramban says, is keneged zachor. For that reason the Ramban says Yikre'u lebirchas hayom. For that reason Kiddush Shabbos morning is called Kiddusha Rabba. So ordinarily we assume that that's just a lashon sagi nahor. It's a euphemism, but really the whole Kiddush is just the borei pri hagofen, so we call it Kiddusha Rabba. And the Ramban says no, there's a sod here. It reflects the fact that the yom of Shabbos, the day of Shabbos is keneged zachor. And for that reason it's referred to as Kiddusha Rabba. ואמת הוא גם כן. We're going to, we'll come back to discuss this. We're not going to understand it in the sense that the Ramban wants us to understand it, but we'll discuss it. ואמת הוא גם כן כי מדת זכור רמוזה במצות עשה והוא היוצא ממדת האהבה והוא למדת הרחמים כי העושה מצות אדוניו אהוב לו ואדוניו מרחם עליו ומדת שמור במצות לא תעשה והוא למדת הדין ויוצא ממדת היראה כי הנשמר מעשות דבר הרע בעיני אדוניו ירא אותו.
So the Ramban says that all mitzvos lo sa'aseh are rooted in yirah, in yiras Hashem, whereas mitzvos aseh are rooted in ahavas Hashem. That yirah means that a person, he recoils, he withdraws, he submits, which is what a person does in a mitzvas lo saaseh. He abstains, he withdraws from that which he would otherwise be inclined to do. ahavah means a person represents hispashtut, reaching out. A person tries to do and come closer, and all mitzvos aseh are rooted in ahavah. Therefore the Ramban says that really of the two ahavah is greater than yirah. And yirah is just a person gives in, he submits, and ahavah means that a person actively seeks to do the retzon Hashem actively, not just passively submits, but actively wants to implement the retzon Hashem. For this reason the Ramban says ahavah is greater than yirah, and the Ramban says that's the underlying yesod or sod of the halakhah of עשה דוחה לא תעשה. It's for that reason that עשה דוחה לא תעשה. ולכן מצות עשה גדולה ממצות לא תעשה כמו שהאהבה גדולה מן היראה כי המקיים ועושה בגופו ובממונו רצון אדוניו הוא גדול מהנשמר מעשות הרע בעיניו ולכך אמרו דאתי עשה ודחי לא תעשה.
And the Ramban continues that an aseh is greater than a lo saaseh. asseh again hence the din of עשה דוחה לא תעשה. The truth is this also, this is what the Ramban hinted at a little bit tersely earlier, this is also reflected in the halochos of kavod v'oneg Shabbos. Again the Ramban says that the night is keneged shamor. Again we know that the night is associated with middas hadin. Yirah is keneged shamor and the day is associated with zachor, with middas ha'ahavah. That's why the halacha is, again according to the Ramban, it's this notion which underlies the halochos that in terms of kavod v'oneg Shabbos, the day is more important than the night, right? That's why the halacha is if a person has one special ma'achal for Shabbos, he has one special delicacy for Shabbos, so he's supposed to save it for the day rather than at night. Or that's why the halacha is that in terms of the requirement of shalosh seudos, at least two of those seudos have to be bayom and only one can be balailah, right? On ערב פסח שחל להיות בשבת, so we look for all kinds of solutions for how to have shalosh shudis, how do you eat shalosh shudis? Do you eat two seudos in the morning before sof daled sha'os, or do you rely on peiros for shalosh shudis or various other solutions? The simplest solution lichora would be eat two meals at night. It's much simpler to eat two meals at night and then you'll have one meal in the morning and it'll be the simplest solution for shalosh seudos. Ella mai, the answer is again that since shalosh seudos is a kiyum in oneg Shabbos and the kavod v'oneg of the day of Shabbos has to be greater than that accorded to the night of Shabbos. So therefore within the shalosh seudos, they have to be distributed that at least two are bayom and only one, only one can be balailah. And again this fits with the Ramban's scheme that the night is keneged shamor, and that the day is keneged zachor, and that zachor is greater than shamor, because middas ha'ahavah is greater than middas hayirah. Al kol panim, at any rate, so the Ramban says that that mitzvos lo ta'asseh are rooted in and are an expression of yirah and the mitzvos asseh are rooted in and are an expression of ahavah. Now the Ramban's scheme of the night being keneged shamor, i.e. mitzvos lo ta'asseh, yirah, and the day of Shabbos being correlated with mitzvos zachor, i.e. ahavah, mitzvos asseh, also hints at the relationship between ahavah and yirah, between mitzvos lo ta'asseh and mitzvos asseh, and that in the following sense. One of the major, major yesodos of the entire sefer of Mesillas Yesharim, one of the overarching principles of the entire sefer. So of course Mesillas Yesharim is modeled on the baraisa in maseches Avodah Zarah of תורה מביאה לידי זהירות זהירות מביאה לידי זריזות זריזות מביאה לידי נקיות נקיות מביאה לידי פרישות פרישות מביאה לידי טהרה טהרה מביאה לידי חסידות חסידות מביאה לידי ענווה ענווה מביאה לידי יראת חטא יראת חטא מביאה לידי קדושה קדושה מביאה לידי רוח הקודש
and רוח הקודש מביאה לידי תחיית המתים. So this is the, the ladder which a person is supposed to climb. When the Mesillas Yesharim comes to explain what these middos are, so if you look for instance in the beginning of perek vov where he's defining the second middah of zerizos, so the Mesillas Yesharim writes as follows: אחר הזהירות יבוא הזריזות כי הזהירות סובב על הלא תעשה והזריזות על העשה.
That basically zehiros and zerizos are really the same middah, but zehiros is the middah as applied to observance and fulfillment of mitzvos. mitzvos lo sa'aseh and zrizus is the very same midah as applied to observance and kiyum of mitzvos aseh, and the Mesilas Yesharim says והינו סור מרע ועשה טוב. Or in other words, when Dovid HaMelech tells us in Tehillim סור מרע ועשה טוב, so Dovid HaMelech is telling us in terms of a sequence of avodas Hashem that a person can only accomplish in asei tov to the degree that he is sur meira. Only to the degree that a person is nizhar on mitzvos lo sa'aseh can he accomplish and be oved Hashem through mitzvos aseh. And if a person Rachmana litzlan is negligent or his behavior is inadequate in terms of zehiros, then you can't talk about zrizus. That you can only have ahavah to the degree that it's rooted in yira. And the Mesilas Yesharim says it again, if you take a look for instance in perek yud-gimmel where he's talking about the midah of perishus, so the Mesilas Yesharim begins as follows: הפרישות הוא תחלת החסידות ותראה שכל מה שביארנו עד עתה הוא מה שמצטרך אל האדם לשיבוא צדיק ומכאן ולהלאה הוא לשיבוא חסיד נמצא הפרישות עם החסידות.
Again, in רבי פנחס בן יאיר's sequence, so perishus precedes chasidus. So what's the relationship between perishus and chasidus? So the Ramchal says it's כמו הזהירות עם הזריזות שזה בסור מרע וזה בעשה טוב.
The same coupling of perishus and chasidus as you have with zehiros and zrizus, that a person can only express and hope to attain ahavas Hashem to the degree that he expresses and attains yiras Hashem. That there's no such thing as again being able to approach Hakadosh Baruch Hu through asei tov unless a person first submits to the Ribono shel Olam through the sur meira. And be'emes all this is really hinted at in the Ramban as well, when the Ramban says that the Friday night, that Leil Shabbos is kineged shamor and that the day of Shabbos is kineged zachor, so the Ramban is also hinting at this sequence within avodas Hashem that it's only after graduating from the Friday night of Shabbos, which is kineged shamor, that a person can come to the day of Shabbos, which is kineged zachor. The same idea is expressed by the Sfas Emes. He says that's the deeper meaning of the famous Gemara with which we're all familiar. The Gemara says that זכור ושמור בדיבור אחד נאמרו. So what's the significance of the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu said it bedibur echad? Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't make miracles unless there's some need for it. So what's the significance of the fact that זכור ושמור בדיבור אחד נאמרו? So it tells us a heikesh of כל שישנו בשמור ישנו בזכור. So mimeila therefore נשים חייבות בקידוש היום דאורייתא because כל שישנו בשמור ישנו בזכור. Says the Sfas Emes, the deeper meaning of that Gemara is that כל שישנו בשמור, a person who has shaychus to shamor, a person who is mekayem the sur meira, a person who is nizhar on the lo sa'aseh of Shabbos, so then yeshno bezachor. Then he can experience the kedushas Shabbos, he can be mekayem the aseh of Shabbos, but if someone is not bichlal shamor, if someone is not bichlal shamor, so then there's no such thing as being bichlal zachor. That's what the Sfas Emes says. It's be'emes all hinted at in the Ramban's sequence of Leil Shabbos kineged shamor and the yom of Shabbos kineged zachor, which the Ramban says and that's why the yom of Shabbos has kiddusha raba. It's greater, but there's a sequence, there's a progression from Leil Shabbos to the day of Shabbos, from shamor to zachor. This yesod, again, as elementary as it seems, is one which people who have not had the zechus to grow up in a Torah home and to be attuned to the Torah's approach to things have great difficulty in understanding. Historically, one of the first so-called rulings of the Conservative movement was that they were quote matir unquote driving to shul on Shabbos. That driving for other purposes on Shabbos at the time they said is not allowed, but to drive to shul on Shabbos is allowed. So what was the fundamental error? And ad hayom hazeh when you deal with potential, as every Jew who is not yet shomer mitzvos, when you deal with a potential baal teshuvah, so ad hayom hazeh very often they have trouble with this concept. What was the error in that ruling? So again, the ruling is because a person lives too far to walk to shul so he should be deprived from enjoying the beauty of Shabbos and from basking in the splendor of Shabbos, okay, so you can't drive anywhere else, but you have to be able to drive to shul on Shabbos. So what's the error of that in terms of the hashkafah? So the error is that כל שישנו בשמירה ישנו בזכירה, that the Torah teaches us that a person can't experience kedushas Shabbos and can't have the aliyah which Shabbos promises unless he first totally devotes himself to shamor or in other words, unless a person first totally submits himself unqualifiedly, unconditionally, to the ratzon Hashem, so only then can he hope to approach the Ribono Shel Olam by virtue of kiyum hamitzvos of mitzvos asei. But to the degree that our submission, i.e., our zehiros, is flawed, to that same degree no matter how much Torah we learn behasmadah and no matter how long a shemoneh esrei we stand and no matter how mehudar our lulav ve'esrog are, so those mitzvos will also be lacking and will be flawed. That's the hakdamah to ahavah veyirah. I just want to begin our discussion of yirah. It's well-known and in all the sefarim that we talk about yiras hachet and yiras haromemus. The Rambam in Sefer Hamitzvos when he talks about the mitzvah of yiras Hashem only talks about yiras hachet. There is no mention of yiras haromemus. In perek beis of Yesodei Hatorah he talks about yiras haromemus, but in Sefer Hamitzvos he talks only about yiras hachet. Indeed, naturally we'll come to talk about that as well. There is a famous saying, it's written as well, from Rabbi Yisrael Salanter that a person cannot achieve yiras haromemus unless he first trains himself in yiras hachet. Yiras hachet means simply that a person דע לפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון, that each of us has to be afraid of the consequences of our actions, that we're held responsible for everything we do and the sechar vaonesh, simply, yiras hachet because Rachmana litzlan for every chet which I do, Rachmana litzlan there is an onesh forthcoming. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter says that a person cannot achieve yiras haromemus unless he first trains himself in yiras hachet. People don't like this comment of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. It seems condescending. We would like to think, our self-image is that we would like to think that we're not on a madreigah of such a madreigah of shelo lishmah that we can only appeal to ourselves based on yiras hachet, we would like to think that we can appeal to ourselves based on yiras haromemus, just that our yirah should not be so much a sense of fear of punishment as a sense of awe before the Ribono Shel Olam. And yet Reb Yisroel Salanter says, Reb Yisroel Salanter says, and kol hatorah kulah supports Reb Yisroel Salanter, right? When you read through the Tochechah, when you read through all the thread of onesh, it's quite clear that the Torah presents onesh as a threat to induce correct and proper behavior. There's not the slightest shadow of doubt that Reb Yisroel Salanter is 100% correct. But why is that? So here too there are many levels to the answer. I want to begin tonight just with the most elementary level. משל למה הדבר דומה, משל למה הדבר דומה. We all know that certain things are unhealthy, not helpful for us. We know that a sedentary lifestyle is not healthy. We all know that. We know that high cholesterol can be dangerous. We certainly know that smoking can be very dangerous. And yet hachush me'id that an overwhelming number of people, probably a clear majority of us and of any group of people, certainly disregard what we know. We don't act on that. And yet rachmana litzlan when a person has an attack of angina and thinks he might be having a heart attack so then all of a sudden everything he knows he immediately implements. And then all of a sudden the smoking addiction which was too powerful to be broken gets broken overnight. And all the self-discipline which was beyond, beyond the person in terms of diet, so somehow or other he finds the resources to impose such self-discipline. So teva bnei adam is that we react to things which are concrete. To things which we feel and sense and which are almost, if not actually, tangible. That's our starting point in life. And in the same way even though we know all these lifestyles which are not good for us, and yet so many of us are only deterred when rachmana litzlan we confront yiras ha'onesh as it were, lehavdil, in the form of a chest pain or something like that rachmana litzlan. So Reb Yisroel Salanter says, if you're honest, if we're honest with ourselves, we'll realize that the same is true. That we don't begin on a madrega where yiras haromemus is sufficiently real to us. It's too high, it's too lofty, and it's too abstract for us at the beginning of our lifetime of avodas Hashem. And it's only yiras ha'onesh which is much more concrete and much more real and almost tangible. That is something which we can relate to even immediately. And that realism about our starting point for avodas Hashem is very important. Very important that we don't delude ourselves and think that we are too enlightened to motivate ourselves through yiras ha'onesh. Now again this doesn't mean everything is bemidah uveshikal. It doesn't mean that a person has to be morose and depressed from this awareness of yiras ha'onesh. No, that's not the Torah's goal either. But what it does mean is that it's not something which we can just dismiss and it's not something which we should say, well we don't need that, we're too enlightened for it. Specifically, and again, please don't misunderstand, this is not intended to be a source of depression or making anyone here morose, but it's very, very important. The Gemara in Brachos talks about it of לעולם ירגיז אדם יצר הטוב על יצר הרע. The Gemara talks about יזכור לו יום המיתה. Part of what Rav Yisroel Salanter says about Yiras Ha'Onesh being an absolutely indispensable stage, hopefully it's a stage which we move beyond, but being an absolutely indispensable stage for our Avodas Hashem, so that means having an awareness of mortality. And that's not an easy thing for people your age. For people your age, by and large, mortality is very, very either theoretical or, if not theoretical, a very remote fact. But the truth is, the truth is, that סוף דבר הכל נשמע. It is the ultimate reality which we all confront. And if you deal with an older person who is struggling with mortality because they're, let's say, in their 80s or something, it's very difficult at that age and stage of life to begin to confront mortality. To confront mortality, to be able to be mekayem the pasuk in Mishlei of vatis-chak l'yom acharon, a person has to not be depressed by the thought, but he has to have an acute awareness of it his entire life. Again, not depressed, not depressed by it. But he has to have an awareness. He has to have a sense, number one, that he has to live his entire life with a sense of responsibility. Again, responsibility is not mutually exclusive with simcha, it shouldn't be mutually exclusive with simcha, but it is mutually exclusive with kalus rosh and hefkerus and hesach hadaas, all of that it precludes. It doesn't preclude simcha. And only if a person has this awareness of mortality, which again is the ultimate awareness of Yiras Ha'Onesh and Yiras Ha'Cheit, only then, number one, according to Rav Yisroel Salanter, can he ever hope to move beyond that and, number two, only that way can he ever hope to have the kochois hanefesh to confront it b'vo yom pkudoso. It's not an easy thing, but when a person dreams of this future and when you get out in the professional world, it's very, very important to remember what Dovid HaMelech says in Tehillim, it's the kapitel we say. אל תירא כי יעשר איש כי ירבה כבוד ביתו כי לא במותו יקח הכל לא ירד אחריו כבודו.
And it's that awareness, if a person is constantly accompanied by that awareness, he'll have the yiras cheit, that's what the Gemara in Brachos says of יזכיר לו יום המיתה, and paradoxically, if a person has that awareness, he'll be able to live the way he should, which as we discussed in a previous shiur, is the ultimate basis for simcha. So paradoxically, what the Western world runs away from, what the Western world is afraid to confront because it's too depressing, the truth is just the opposite. The truth is that by confronting it and by allowing that to influence and direct my entire life, so that allows a person to live besimcha, because only then with that awareness of yiras cheit can we hope to live the way we should, which ultimately is what simcha, what brings lidei simcha amitis. All of the shiurim we've been having this year in Chovos HaLevavos and Hilchos Deos have all been dedicated le'ilui nishmaso of my father hareini kaparas mishkavo. Everything we've discussed were things I learned from him, things which he articulated but more importantly embodied. This inyan which we spoke about of vatis'chak l'yom acharon, of living with an awareness of yom hamisa and the concomitant responsibility to live properly and to use time, so we said that it again allows a person to live properly, it also allows a person to be able to confront yom hamisa, because that's not something a person can do on the yom hamisa. My father's last interaction with this world on Motzaei Yom Kippur after Neila, so we have the minhag in his beis medrash that after Neila we sing and dance to show emuna that Hakadosh Baruch Hu will accept our has accepted our teshuva, our tefilla. So this year in the hospital, we also observed the minhag, we also sang. And it was after אשרינו מה טוב חלקנו and after אשרי עם שככה לו אשרי העם שהשם אלוהיו he lost consciousness gradually and several hours later was niftar, mitoch has'chok, mitoch simcha, the kind of description you read in storybooks. But a person can only hope to conclude his life that way if he lives his life from a young, young age, from your age, from today, with this awareness of יזכיר לו יום המיתה, of yiras cheit, and to allow that to have the formative influence in everything he does, not to depress him but to motivate him, not to depress him but to direct him, but with that motivation, with that direction, so that a person can live this simcha kol yamav.