Transcript

I think we left off last time when we were talking about that the yirah of pachad which is engendered if one learns through the here, the Sha'ar Rishon of Sha'arei Teshuva sensitively, not with detachment. It needs to be balanced. I think we mentioned the Ma'or Einayim of בעל שם טוב הקדוש of ואהבת את ה׳ אלקיך בכל לבבך. And it's a very, very important yesod. The emes is that the same point perhaps can be made even more powerfully as follows. We saw in the Ikkar Hamishishi, Rabbeinu Yonah says that the mindset of de'agah, which we explained is the antithesis of the smugness which gives rise to chet, so one of the elements of de'agah is אולי הוא מקצר בחובת התשובה. Maybe he's not... for the Sefer Rabbeinu Yonah, I think it's way later in Sha'ar Daled when he talks about the mitzvah of

אכילה ערב יום הכפורים. ועניתם את נפשתיכם בתשעה לחדש בערב בתשעה לחדש מתענין והלא בעשירי מתענין אלא לומר לך שכל האוכל ושותה בתשיעי מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו התענה תשיעי ועשירי.

That the mitzvas achilah of erev Yom Hakippurim, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu relates to that, right, we find that mitzvah a lot easier than the mitzvah of fasting on asiri. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says no, but I'm going to give you schar as though the mitzvah had been to fast on tishi and you fasted on tishi. So there is a mitzvas achilah on erev Yom Hakippurim. So Rabbeinu Yonah gives three reasons for this mitzvas achilah in here in Sha'ar Harvii, אותיות ח׳ ט׳ ו-י׳, Rabbeinu Yonah gives three reasons for the mitzvas achilah erev Yom Hakippurim. We'll go out of order. He says every other yom tov, so we have a seuda on yom tov to express the simchas yom tov. Obviously that can't happen on Yom Hakippurim proper. So that's what we're mekayeim through the mitzvas achilah on erev Yom Hakippurim. It's expressing simchas yom tov because

שבכל יום טוב אנחנו קובעים סעודה ושמחת המצוה. מפני שהצום ביום הכפורים התחייבו לקבוע הסעודה על שמחת המצוה בערב יום הכפורים.

The order in which Rabbeinu Yonah lists this, that's actually the second reason. The third reason,

השלישית למען נחזק להרבות תפלה ותחנונים ביום הכפורים, לשית עצות בנפשנו על התשובה ועיקריה.

In the best of worlds, a person gets shvach on Yom Kippur from fasting. Some people should get shvach because that helps... a person who feels shvach feels more hachna'ah than when a person feels very strong. A person is much more in touch with his own vulnerability and mortality when he's feeling weak than when he feels strong. But l'maiseh, we want the person to feel shvach, but not overly shvach, not inordinately so to the point where he won't be able to davven properly and he won't be able to think thoughts of teshuva properly. So the Torah therefore told us that we should fortify ourselves on erev Yom Hakippurim. We should fortify ourselves for the ta'anis. But the first reason Rabbeinu Yonah gives:

אם עבר אדם על מצות לא תעשה ועשה תשובה ידאג בעונותיו, ויכסוף ויחכה להגיע ליום הכפורים למען יתרצה אל ה׳ יתברך. ועל כן אמרו רבותינו ז"ל כל הקובע סעודה בערב יום הכפורים כאילו נצטווה להתענות.

tish'i v'asiri vehit'ana vahem

כי הראה שמחתו בהגיע זמן כפרתו ותהיה לו לעדה על דאגתו לאשמתו ויגונו לעוונותיו.

So the first reason that the Rabbeinu Yonah gives is that the mitzvas achilah on Erev Yom Kippur is to express simcha at the imminent kapparat avonos. So this is the same Rabbeinu Yonah who says that one element of da'agah is maybe I didn't do teshuvah properly, right? One of the three elements he told us back in Sha'ar Rishon in ikkar hachamishi is a person should be do'eig because of rachmana litzlan the onesh which can be forthcoming. But the second element of da'agah is לא השלים חוקו בתשובה. So maybe I didn't do teshuvah properly, so what am I so happy about the imminent potential kappara? The imminent potential kappara is dependent upon my doing teshuvah properly. So you see there is a, exactly what we were talking about, there is a delicate dialectical balance that a person is supposed to maintain. On one hand, a person is not supposed to be complacent and he's supposed to have this sense of da'agah of doing, to make sure that not only I do teshuvah, I do teshuvah properly. But me'idach gisa, come Erev Yom Kippur, a person is besimcha because he's anticipating kapparat avonos. He's anticipating כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם. So that dialectic is minei uvei within the Rabbeinu Yonah you have. Exact what Reb Mendel zogt, that there is a shaylah that's discussed. Let's say you have a person who because of sakana can't fast on Yom Kippur. Is there a mitzvas achila on Erev Yom Kippur? So Reb Mendel said, I think the Aruch Hashulchan had this discussion also, if I'm not mistaken, that it should be taluy on the different reasons of Rabbeinu Yonah. You have to make it taluy on the different reasons. You sort of have to elevate them from being ta'amei mitzvah to being hagdaros of the mitzvah, because the ta'amei mitzvah don't generate a nafka mina. And so presumably Reb Mendel said al tzad that it's not just ta'amei mitzvah but it's a hagdara, it's a hagdara. So then let's say according to the third reason dash hagdara, דממנו נחזק להרבות תפילה ותחנונים ביום הכיפורים, meaning you have to fortify yourself on Erev Yom Kippur so you're gonna be fasting on Yom Kippur. But if rachmana litzlan a person has a chashash sakana and the person's gonna be eating and let's say דאפשר יש בו סכנה, he's not even gonna be eating shiurim, he's gonna be eating normally on Yom Kippur, and according to this again it's not only a reason but a hagdara, so then he would not have a mitzvas achila on Erev Yom Kippur. Akiva Eger also has a sofek famously in the teshuvos, someone wrote to Akiva Eger that his daughter was sick and eating was dangerous to her, eating anything other than very very minimally her system couldn't take it. But she said she didn't care, Erev Yom Kippur is a mitzvah to eat, she's gonna eat and whatever happens happens. So her father writes to Akiva Eger, Akiva Eger writes back, tell her that I am gozeir that she's not allowed to eat. Gezrani aleha, tell her in my name that I said that Gezrani aleha that she's not allowed to eat on Erev Yom Kippur. And then Akiva Eger says, stam azoy says it's not clear to me whether nashim have the mitzvah of eating on Erev Yom Kippur. Maybe it's a מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא, and there is no special yalfoosa, there is no

כל שישנו בבל תאכל ישנו בקום אכול מצה, כל שישנו בשמור ישנו בזכור.

We don't find a special heikesh to be mechayeiv. So maybe, says it's not clear to me that nashim are chayavos in the mitzvah anyway. So here too, again, if the Rabbeinu Yonah is not only on the level of ta'amei mitzvah but on the level of hagdaros, so its connection to the tzom of Yom Kippur would potentially affect that question as well. Maybe we'll just... Maybe we'll just to make a little bit of havara here in the Shaarei Teshuvah, just to take a look at the ikkar hashishi. Habusha. Part of the experience of teshuvah, part of the experience of teshuvah is that a person should have a sense of shame, כעניין שנאמר בושתי וגם נכלמתי כי נשאתי חרפת נעורי. This is something that the Rambam also puts front and center in teshuvah in פרק א הלכה א, the Rambam tells us the ikkar of viduy is

חטאתי עויתי פשעתי לפניך ועשיתי כך וכך ונחמתי ובושתי במעשי ולעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה.

So boshti venichlamti, nichamti uvoshti, boshti. For the Rambam also it's front and center. So why is this so crucial? What would it be that a person sincerely acknowledges it was wrong, it was terrible, and I have remorse and I'm not going to do it again, but he doesn't feel so ashamed, doesn't feel so ashamed? So mamash, the Rabbeinu Yona explains it to us.

הנה החוטא יבוש מאד לבוא עבירות לפני בני אדם ויכלם אם ירגישו ויכירו בעבירותם.

We all have an instinct that we're sensitive to not having our shortcomings exposed in the presence of others. And when those shortcomings are exposed, so we're humiliated, we feel humiliated. ואיך לא יבוש מן הבורא יתברך. So why is it that I'm ashamed, I'm humiliated if you know of what I do that's wrong, that's inappropriate, that's sinful? So why is it that that is a source of humiliation for me, but when I think no one's watching in the bachadrei chadarim, so then I'm not embarrassed?

ואיך לא יבוש מן הבורא יתברך ואין זה כי אם לפי היות השם יתברך רחוק מכליותיו, על כן יבוש מן הנבראים ולא יבוש מן הבורא יתברך.

So Rabbeinu Yona says an incredible yesod. He says leaving aside a tinok shenishba case, leaving aside a tinok shenishba case, he says there's a tzad hashaveh to virtually all chet. And that tzad hashaveh is that again, the same way when other people are watching, we don't do what we know will make them think less of us. And the sense of busha that a person has is so, see how basic it is to human dignity that המלבין פני חבירו כאילו שופך דמים. That's how fundamental and that's how basic that sensitivity that we all have to not being embarrassed, not being exposed is that it's ke'ilu shofech damim. So why are we interested in a human mortal audience and we're oblivious to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to a divine audience? Ein zeh ela, says Rabbeinu Yona, the tzad hashaveh, leaving aside tinok shenishba cases, to every chet is that a person is oblivious to the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When a person has a sense of boshes, so what's the busha? I was over the chet in the bachadrei chadarim, no one knows about it, so what do I have to be mizbayesh? Teretz is no, if now I can be mizbayesh, so it means that now I do have a sense of being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and that's why busha is so, so vital as part of the experience of teshuvah because it's mamash the... tikkun of the cheit. It's it it it reverses what gives rise to cheit. What gives rise to cheit doesn't matter what yetzer hara is. We all have different yetzer haras to different to different degrees. But maise, if we would have the sense of being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it would inhibit the yetzer hara. When the when the yetzer hara isn't inhibited, and it's true when you do teshuvah, the teshuvah has to be individualized to what the yetzer hara is and and what my weaknesses and and how I'm prone to being nichshal. All that needs to be individualized, but in addition, there's also something which is common to every cheit and therefore common to every program of teshuvah and that is that every yetzer hara would have been inhibited had I had a sense of being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And the fact that my yetzer hara, whatever it was, whatever its dynamic is, the fact that that yetzer hara wasn't inhibited is ain zeh, says Rabbeinu Yonah, כי אם לפי היות השם יתברך רחוק ממחשבותיך, which is why busha is just so vital and so central to to teshuvah. And that's why the Rambam also in this very very, the Rambam is very very sparing in in his words and ikkar ha'vidui, very sparing, and v'nichamti boshti is is included because it's just so fundamental to to teshuvah. And so b'ezras Hashem, we'll continue with more with ikkar hashishi next week.