I want to thank everyone for coming out on a cold winter night for a much-needed night of chizuk. Just to let you know the program for this evening, be'ezrat Hashem Rav Twersky will deliver divrei chizuk, followed by some Tehillim, and if anyone is interested afterwards, there's refreshments, light refreshments upstairs after we finish reciting the Tehillim. Just a couple of points and words of introduction to the evening and to Rav Twersky in particular. The first thing is that we felt like we needed an evening of chizuk. We felt that considering the tefillos for a good period of time now that we've been davenning with all of our hearts, sometimes after a long period of time, we need to be mechazek ourselves and we need to feel a certain sense of strength and a certain sense of bitachon, a certain sense of emunah that will carry us forward and allow us to continue to daven with great kavana. And to that end, I just want to make a request that everyone should just keep davenning, that you shouldn't just view this as, okay now I was inspired, but everyone should really just keep davenning, keep davenning very very hard, keep davenning with great kavana and with great sense of feeling and im yirtzeh Hashem Ribono Shel Olam should hear all of our tefillos. I just want to thank Mrs. Fiedler, Mrs. Ruudah Fiedler and Mrs. Nicole Appleman for sponsoring this evening's night of chizuk. One more point, many people have asked about giving tzedakah, obviously we know tzedakah tatzil mimaves and it's something that's a great zechus for someone who we daven for. If anyone has questions about where they would like to give tzedakah, they can certainly direct those questions to Seth or Dariel or myself afterwards. When looking for someone to provide chizuk for our community and for the larger community and for the Fiedler and Raab families, we decided to look toward, we asked our first request of Yeshiva University was to contact Rav Twersky on our behalf, because not only is Rav Twersky known as, for those of you who don't know him, I'm sure for those who know him this is just repetitive, but for those who don't know Rav Twersky and have never been exposed to him in the past, not only is he known as an outstanding talmid chacham, a rosh yeshiva of very high caliber for many years, Rav Twersky is also known for an incredible sense of pikchus, an incredible sense of wisdom, of insight and most of all sensitivity. And I know in my time in Yeshiva many of the talmidim turned to him in times of need and times where they needed hadracha and when they needed chizuk and they found it to be extremely meaningful and extremely helpful and Rav Twersky has been turned to by many communities over the years who looked for someone who just has a certain sense of wisdom, someone who has a certain sense of an ability to capture the moment and to capture exactly where our avodah should be at a given moment and it's therefore a great kavod for us to welcome this evening Rav Mayer Twersky to deliver divrei chizuk to us. Kivod harav Leibowitz, ברשות הרב מרא דאתרא, Yahadus in large measure is a religion of dialectic. Our understanding of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is dialectical. We understand Hakadosh Baruch Hu to be simultaneously both immanent and transcendent. According to the Rashba's explanation, that's a belief that is reflected and reinforced every time we recite a bracha. We begin in the second person atah addressing someone in our presence, immanent, Baruch Atah, but then we shift to the third person, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is transcendent. Similarly, accordingly, we're again simultaneously intimate with Hakadosh Baruch Hu and indescribably remote. There's a phrase, I think it's from Rabbi Yehuda Halevi's poetry, I don't remember, mimcha evrach eilecha, I flee from You Hakadosh Baruch Hu to You. Bechira v'yedia, human free will and divine foreknowledge is another fundamental dialectic of religious life and belief. And our religious experience experience is also dialectical, characterized by both simcha and yira, by both joy and fear. The Tanna Debei Eliyahu, much quoted in sifrei Chassidus, highlights this dialectic of religious experience and says that שמחתי מתוך יראתי יראתי מתוך שמחתי, my joy arises out of my fear and my fear in turn emerges from my joy. Our approach to yissurim, Rachmana litzlan, our approach to suffering is also dialectical. Chazal in masechet Shabbos speak glowingly of people who are נעלבים ואינם עולבים שומעים חרפתם ואינם משיבים עושים מאהבה ושמחים בייסורים,
people who receive insult but don't respond in kind, people who are humiliated but yet keep silent, people who fulfill mitzvos out of love and people who rejoice at yissurim, people who rejoice at Rachmana litzlan suffering and adversity. Now, the first half of that dictum of Chazal is clearly referring to a bein adam l'chaveiro, to an interpersonal situation. The נעלבים ואינם עולבים שומעים חרפתם ואינם משיבים, but the second half of that dictum, the smaychim b'yissurim, articulates more broadly what our approach to yissurim is. But let's take note of Chazal's phraseology. Chazal speak of yissurim. We're not philosophizing away and reinterpreting the yissurim. The yissurim are very, very real. Suffering is real and it's experienced as such, and somehow, dialectically, it's possible to rejoice while simultaneously experiencing yissurim for what they are. So let's try a little bit to understand this dialectic of smaychim b'yissurim. Yissurim, physical and/or emotional, Rachmana litzlan, are painful and at times very, very painful. The pain is accompanied by a sense of helplessness and fear. And yet Chazal, without denying or even downplaying an iota the reality of this experience, speak of simcha. Fear can give way to simcha. How is that possible? How can a person simultaneously suffer and also rejoice? So the Chofetz Chaim explains: מידה זו באה לאדם מצד קדושת הנפש ומאמונתו הטהורה בהשם שהוא משגיח על כל דרכיו.
This quality, this ability, this capacity to be someach, to rejoice, or perhaps better translated, there's even an element of serenity while simultaneously being in the throes of yissurim, this comes from the holiness of a person's neshama and pure belief in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is exercising his providence over everything that's happening. K'mo shekasuv, quoting a pasuk in Sefer Iyov, כי עיניו על כל דרכי איש, the eyes of Hakadosh Baruch Hu are on the ways of man. all the ways of a person v'oseh hakol l'tovaso and everything HaKadosh Baruch Hu does is done for our good. He continues, he quotes another Chazal צריך האדם להיות שמח בייסורין יותר מן הטובה. The challenge, we're challenged to be same'ach, to rejoice at yisurin more so than at what we experience as good שאפילו האדם בטובה כל ימיו for a person coasts through life on calm waters לא נמחלו לו העוונות שבידו. There's no atonement has been provided ובמה נמחלו לו בייסורין. The Chofetz Chaim says to paraphrase HaKadosh Baruch Hu's wisdom is infinite and as a result his will at times is going to be inscrutable to us. מי ישלו ומי יתיסר for whom HaKadosh Baruch Hu decrees tranquility umi yisyaser for whom HaKadosh Baruch Hu decrees suffering is not given to our meager understanding. But what we do know with absolute certainty as the pasuk says את אשר יאהב השם יוכיח. HaKadosh Baruch Hu rebukes one whom he loves. HaKadosh Baruch Hu chastises those whom he loves. Yisurin are designed to arouse us to teshuvah. They serve as a source of kapparah. There is a Midrash to which the Ramban alludes in Sha'ar HaGemul and in Vayikra Rabbah. The Midrash working off the pasuk in Sefer Yeshayahu, the Midrash says as follows: לעתיד לבוא הצדיקים יוצאין מתוך גן עדן. The righteous come out of Gan Eden ונותנין שבח והודאה להקדוש ברוך הוא על הייסורין שהביא עליהם בעולם הזה. לעתיד לבוא
tzaddikim come out of Gan Eden and they give praise and thanksgiving to HaKadosh Baruch Hu for the suffering which they endured during their sojourn in Olam Hazeh. hado hu dichsiv and that's what the pasuk in Yeshayahu is referring to, ve'amarta bayom hahu. You will say on that day אודך השם כי אנפת בי. I thank you Hashem ki anafta bi that you were angry with me. And thus dialectically we weep and rejoice simultaneously. We cry out of pain, we also cry at the need for such bitter medicine. And yet we can't lose sight of the fact that yisurin express HaKadosh Baruch Hu's love for us and for that reason they also invite simchah. The mashal perhaps, when a parent hugs and kisses his or her child there's an expression of love. But when circumstances dictate, circumstances that may not be known or intelligible to the child, but when circumstances dictate and parents have to administer foul-tasting medicine they're also acting out of love. Arguably the parent's love is even greater when giving the medicine, its bitter taste notwithstanding. And thus, if only the child is able to attain and maintain attain and maintain that perspective, the child can rejoice over his parents' love while simultaneously feeling the reality of the illness and the medicine. I don't mean for a moment to suggest that this reaction, this dialectical reaction of smaychim beyissurim comes easily. It obviously doesn't. And yet, even while we strive to feel and experience that simcha, even before we reach a madreiga where we can feel it, we need to at least know that there's cause for simcha. Everything that we've been discussing notwithstanding, yissurim remain a very real nisayon. Perhaps the greatest nisayon to which a person is subjected, one of the greatest. To maintain perspective amidst suffering is never easy, not to be overwhelmed by fear or despair is also not easy. But there's a very, very important yesod which needs to accompany us throughout life and that is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu never, ever subjects a person to nisyonos that he or she cannot handle. Every nisayon to which a person is subjected indicates that the person has the kochos hanefesh to deal with that nisayon. And if the nisayon is great, if the nisayon is very, very great, so what that attests to is that that person, those people, have very deep wellsprings of emuna from which to draw. When we're profoundly challenged, it means that we're capable of profoundly responding. Now, there's also an additional dimension of dialectic in our approach to yissurim besides the smaychim beyissurim. On the one hand, as we've been discussing, the Midrash explains again that dialectically yissurim are a gift, even an indispensable gift at which we strive to rejoice. And yet, Chazal tell us in Maseches Berachos that when Rabbi Yochanan was sick, he was asked chavivin alecha yissurim? Do you cherish, do you welcome the yissurim? If you had your druthers, would you continue having to contend with the yissurim or would you prefer to be healed? So Rabbi Yochanan responds לא הן ולא שכרן. He says, I don't welcome them, nor do I welcome the reward which continued yissurim will afford me. So how do we understand this element of dialectic? On the one hand, a gift, אודך השם כי אנפת בי. I thank you Hakadosh Baruch Hu that you were angry with me and on the other hand, Rabbi Yochanan says לא הן ולא שכרן. So the answer is that yissurim are indeed a precious and indispensable gift, but only when Hakadosh Baruch Hu deems it absolutely necessary. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu will accept our tefilla, our teshuva, our tzedaka, as Rabbi Leibowitz mentioned instead, so then we have no need for and therefore we want no part of yissurim, which is why, again, the smaychim beyissurim notwithstanding, when confronted with yissurim, looking at the present and at the past is אודך השם כי אנפת בי. We thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for the gift. But looking forward, we move forward with an attitude of לא הן ולא שכרן, we look to see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should accept our tefilla, our teshuva, our tzedaka. that they shouldn't be absolutely necessary and if they're not absolutely necessary so then we want no part of the yissurin. So permit me perhaps to share one or two insights into tefillah and and one into teshuvah. In Masechet Taanit we learn that on a taanit one goes out to the beit olam, one goes out to the cemetery. One of the explanations provided for this practice is that the המתים יבקשו עלינו רחמים, that those who've already departed this world should pray on our behalf, they should intercede on our behalf. So the question is why is this not only a legitimate practice, a practice which is encouraged, which is mandated, and davening to malachim is something which the Rambam and many other authorities not only reject but even condemn? What's the difference between going out to the cemetery and davening and between addressing oneself to malachim? So the Maharal somewhat cryptically explains as follows. Maharal says the meitim according to this explanation it's a Jewish cemetery that we're going to, the meitim are ohevei Yisrael. They love their fellow Jew and when we go out to the cemetery, the Maharal says again somewhat cryptically the meitim, those who have already departed mitchabrim el hachayim, there is some connection that's forged, there's some connection that's made, and then they daven. So how did he exactly explain how this is to be distinguished from davening to malachim? So the Chatam Sofer has a teshuvah where he amplifies what the Maharal means. And he says that according to this approach in the Maharal, the Chatam Sofer says something strikingly beautiful. He says there's really no such thing as davening for someone else. There's no such thing. What do you mean there's no such thing as davening for someone else? Don't we do it all the time? Aren't we asked to do it all the time? According to this approach, the Maharal says there's no such thing as davening for someone else as the Chatam Sofer. Rather what happens is when we go out to the cemetery, the sense of empathy that exists means that the meitim then feel our tza'ar, and it's only once a person shares in the tza'ar, it's only once a person shares in the pain, then a person can daven. But there's no such thing according to this approach in the Maharal, we don't daven for someone else. We daven after we share, after we empathetically share the pain, share the tza'ar, then we can daven. Malachim are incapable of that empathy. Malachim would be davening for us if they're capable of it. So that already would mean that they'd be acting as intermediaries. There's no such thing in yahadut. But again whether it's the cemetery or להבדיל להבדיל ניבדל לחיים or when we're approached to daven so we're not davening for someone else. We're davening because we share in the tza'ar, because of the sense of empathy. Another observation about tefillah. The Navi Yeshayahu says, it's the haftarah for Shabbat Chazon, when he's describing just how upset kavyachol, as it were, Hakadosh Baruch Hu was at that point with Klal Yisrael so the Navi Yeshayahu says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu repeats the following in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's name: גם כי תרבו תפילה אינני שומע. Even though you engage in ribui tefillah, even though you daven again and again and again, even then I won't listen. So what's reflected here and which is discussed in in different sefarim and Chazal emphasize it as well, that clearly, clearly the point is that ordinarily There's a tremendous, tremendous koach, there's a tremendous power and potency in riboy tfila. And it's not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says I heard you once, I'm either going to listen or I'm not going to listen. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants that tfila should be repeated again and again and again. Chazal say that Moshe Rabbeinu davened tfilos keminyan va'eschanan, that Moshe Rabbeinu davened the numerical equivalent of the word va'eschanan over 500 times. The Gemara says in Maseches Brachos that mispallel velo na'ana, if a person davens and he wasn't answered or at least wasn't answered on a level that we can perceive, on a level that we can understand, that we recognize, sefarim say that there's no such thing as a tfila which is not answered at all. But some tfilos are answered on levels that we can relate to, that we can understand, and other tfilos are answered on levels that we can't relate to, that we can't understand. But if a person can't recognize, it's not on a level that one can recognize that the tfila was answered, so what is a person supposed to do? מי שהתפלל ולא נענה, say Chazal, yachzor veyispallel. A person is supposed to daven again because of this again fundamental idea of riboy tfila. The moshal is as follows. Let's say you have a person has to is trying to knock down a door. Rachmana litzlan, a child is locked in a room, there's no key, and you have to knock down the door. So the person is running and throwing his shoulder against the door time after time after time. And then finally, on the 20th attempt, so then all of a sudden, so the door gives way. So what does that mean, that the first 19 attempts failed and the 20th attempt was successful? No, it means that the first 19, imperceptibly, were weakening the door, weakening, weakening, and weakening, and the 20th represented the cumulative effect. Riboy tfila. And riboy tfila again, there's no such thing, no such thing of one tfila and certainly riboy tfila, there's no such thing as tfila which goes unanswered. There's tfila which sometimes goes unanswered on a level that we can perceive, there's no such thing as tfila which goes unanswered on some higher level. And finally, I just wanted to share one comment about teshuva. Chazal say in Maseches Brachos that if yissurim come upon a person, and again, speaking with the Maharal and Chasam Sofer, a sense of empathy come upon people, so ימשמש במעשיו יפשפש במעשיו. A person should scrutinize his or her actions. What's the double phrase yemashmesh yefashpesh? So Mesillas Yesharim says that we should make two inventories. One inventory is of our mitzvos umaysim tovim to see what within our mitzvos umaysim tovim can be improved, and the other is to look, the other inventory is to look at our actions as a whole and see that maybe there are some actions which aren't necessarily good, maybe there are some foci in our life, maybe there are some centers of gravity in our life which are not entirely appropriate. But how do I know if I'm engaging in that cheshbon hanefesh, how do I know whether I came up with the right answer? So yissurim ba'u alav. A person is memashmesh, a person is mefashpesh, a person engages in a very real cheshbon hanefesh, engages in soul-searching, but how do I know, how do I know whether or not I came up with the answer? So the answer to that is that as long as a person is religiously healthy, as long as a person is not unfair to himself, is not beating himself up, there's no wrong answers. משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say a person has a problem with his knee. So he goes to the doctor. The doctor takes tests, does an MRI, and discovers that he has water in his knee, which could be accounting for the symptoms that he's been experiencing. Does the doctor know that this is the that this is the answer? He doesn't know whether this is the answer. He doesn't have to know that this is the answer, but it's not a wrong answer. When we engage in cheshbon hanefesh, as long as that cheshbon hanefesh is carried out in a healthy way. Again, a person is not not being unfair to himself, to herself, in engaging in that cheshbon hanefesh. It's a fair, sound cheshbon hanefesh. So no, we don't have an urim vetumim to tell us that this is the be'hey hayediya, this is the item that we were supposed to discover, but there are no wrong answers. If the doctor finds water in the knee, if he finds a problem with a cartilage, so maybe that is accounting for everything, maybe it's not accounting for everything, but it's clearly not a wrong answer. And clearly, clearly, one is not being one's energies are not being diverted to attend to that issue. The same is true when we make a cheshbon hanefesh. Is it the answer? Who knows. But what we uncover is an answer. It's not a wrong answer. And that's what we need to know. We don't have to know that it's the answer, we need to know that it's an answer. And it's something that again points us to how we can grow, how we can improve, how we can do teshuva. Chazal tell us, the pasuk tells us that hakadosh baruch hu is especially close to nishberei lev. Hakadosh baruch hu is especially close to those who reach out to him with a broken heart. Too often we sort of have an illusion of being able to take care of ourselves autonomously, independently, of being able to stand on our own two feet. But it's always an illusion, it's not the truth. A person never takes care of himself, a person never stands on his own two feet. A person is always totally and absolutely dependent upon the ribono shel olam. Nishberei lev, when we reach that stage, realize that, realize that dependence, that absolute, complete dependence, which is always true. Ribono shel olam should give the entire kehila the strength to recognize the nishberei lev, the ability to be same'ach beyisurim and ultimately to reach the stage of לא הן ולא שכרן where the tefilla and the teshuva are accepted and make the yisurim unnecessary. We're going to set up the mechitzah now for for Tehillim. Thank Rabbi Twersky very much for coming out and providing us with divrei chizuk. The we don't have the the siddurim have Tehillim in the back, just don't want to mad rush to the siddurim, so maybe a couple of women and a couple of men just come and grab a bunch of siddurim and help distribute the siddurim. Okay, everyone please take a Siddur. Okay, we're going to start from page, page five hundred eighty-six, Kaf-Alef. Tehillim Kaf-Alef. Tehillim page five hundred eighty-six. למנצח מזמור לדוד ה' בעזך ישמח מלך ובישועתך מה יגיל מאד תאות לבו נתתה לו וארשת שפתיו בל מנעת סלה כי תקדמנו ברכות טוב תשית לראשו עטרת פז חיים שאל ממך נתתה לו ארך ימים עולם ועד גדול כבודו בישועתך הוד והדר תשוה עליו כי תשיתהו ברכות לעד תחדהו בשמחה את פניך כי המלך בטח בה' ובחסד עליון בל ימוט תמצא ידך לכל איביך ימינך תמצא שנאיך תשיתמו כתנור אש לעת פניך ה' באפו יבלעם ותאכלם אש פרימו מארץ תאבד וזרעם מבני אדם כי נטו עליך רעה חשבו מזמה בל יוכלו כי תשיתמו שכם במיתריך תכונן על פניהם רומה ה' בעזך נשירה ונזמרה גבורתך
Okay, we continue with Kaf, sorry, Perek twenty, excuse me, Perek one hundred twenty-one. Shir Lama'alot. One hundred twenty-one. שיר למעלות אשא עיני אל ההרים מאין יבא עזרי עזרי מעם ה' עשה שמים וארץ אל יתן למוט רגלך אל ינום שמרך הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל ה' שמרך ה' צלך על יד ימינך יומם השמש לא יככה וירח בלילה ה' ישמרך מכל רע ישמר את נפשך ה' ישמר צאתך ובואך מעתה ועד עולם