על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בזדון הלב shifchus damim v'einayim ועל כולם אלוה סליחות סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו על חטא שחטאנו לפניך ביצר הרע
shifchus damim v'einayim ועל כולם אלוה סליחות סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בגילוי עריות
shifchus damim v'einayim ועל כולם אלוה סליחות סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בדיבור פי
shifchus damim v'einayim ועל כולם אלוה סליחות סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בהונאת ריע
shifchus damim v'einayim ועל כולם אלוה סליחות סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בהרהור הלב
shifchus damim v'einayim ועל כולם אלוה סליחות סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו
In the Vidui of Yom Kippur, b'emes, there are two dimensions al chet shechatanu. First of all, there's the pshuto kemashmao, that's the chet. Shifchus damim is a chet, lashon hara is a chet. But in addition to the chet atzmo, there is as it were a shlichus yad. There's an abuse, there's a betrayal of the gift Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us. Those faculties and facilities that are involved in chet, so it's not just the fact of the chet which a person is Rachmana litzlan guilty of, but it's the abuse of those faculties and facilities. You see this in the v'al kulam, where we list אלוה סליחות סלח לנו מחל לנו כפר לנו. We talk about how we misuse and abuse the gifts you gave us. So the al chet shechatanu is really another chet, it's the beged, whatever the chet was. Rachmana litzlan, don't do this, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. A person did it. Then B, it's that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us hands, he gave us hands to use for mitzvos. If Rachmana litzlan a person uses his hands for aveiros, so that's an abuse of that gift, it's an abuse of that trust that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us. And that's why tikkun has to be ואותו דבר שחטא בו מתקן. The aveira wasn't only whichever mitzvah or issur, it's the misuse of the hands, the legs, the eyes, etc. If you give a person a thousand dollars to distribute tzedakah and he goes and he goes to a restaurant and has himself a fancy meal and he squanders the thousand dollars there, he's a ganav. Not only that he didn't give the thousand dollars to tzedakah, but he's a ganav on the money. But that is also an abuse of the trust. There is an abuse of the trust, there is a misuse of the trust, of the, of the gift that he gave him. A person is created, and again, all this is the Nefesh Hachaim expresses all this in Nefesh Hachaim. A person is created L'ovdo U'leshomro. It means that everything we're given is a trust to be used for that end, for that goal. Anytime I divert it away from that, so besides whatever Rachmana Litzlan inherent Cheit there was in what I did, but the Etzem diversion is also an element or a dimension of Cheit. That's what's reflected here. As simplistic as it sounds when one articulates it, but if we engage in Cheshbon Mamash. So tocho, a person has to, the question which it's worth posing to ourselves is that do I view Torah and Mitzvos as obligations which I have throughout my life, or do I view Torah and Mitzvos as the reason I was created, as the Heichas Notzarti? And psychologically those are two radically different orientations. One sort of the first orientation I take my life for granted. Okay, but life comes with obligations. And the second orientation says no, my life is for this purpose. What the עיקר עשייה רבנו יונה reflects is that second orientation. If you sort of take your life for granted but there are obligations and that okay, so the Cheit was the Histalkus B'araios Rachmana Litzlan. The Cheit was the Lashon Hara Rachmana Litzlan. But if it's the second orientation, no, the Notzarti, the Shomeshis Koni, so then the Histalkus B'araios is a Cheit, but then the Shipchus Yad in the gift of the Chush Harous is also also an element of Cheit. That's what's reflected here. And he also says in the second example he gives, of Lashon Hara and the Esek B'Torah. With the Teshuvah, okay, Lashon Hara is the Cheit Ha'dibbur Rachmana Litzlan. And Torah is the Mitzvah that one would perform with Dibbur. Wouldn't it be nice if that's all he meant? To some of the other mitzvot that we perform with dibbur as well. To say a kind word to someone, to give a mitzvah of chizuk to someone, lehachayos ruach shefalim, to invigorate someone with chizuk, to give a shalom aleichem to someone who's feeling forlorn, many other opportunities for mitzvot hadibbur, A. And B, if that's all Rabbeinu Yonah meant again, that since lashon hara is a chet hadibbur, the tikun, part of the teshuva has to be to correctly use the koach hadibbur, the yecholos hadibbur. Not clear that he would have used the idiom of ya'asok batorah. No doubt of the, of the girsah, of course it says v'ya'asok batorah. And the emes is that the metzayen, that one of the sources for Rabbeinu Yonah, Gemara Erchin 15b, מה תקנתו של מספר לשון הרע אם תלמיד חכם הוא יעסוק בתורה. ואם עם הארץ הוא,
okay, so he can't learn, so let him take advantage of one of the other opportunities of mitzvot dibbur, ואם עם הארץ הוא ישפל דעתו. So it's clear that the mida k'neged mida, the ha'asaka batorah as the tikun, as the teshuva for lashon hara is, runs deeper than just a p'gam hadibbur, an aveira of dibbur being niskenes by a mitzvah of dibbur. And the Rambam at the end of Hilchos Tzara'as, על עניין זה מזהיר בתורה ואומר השמר בנגע הצרעת זכור את אשר עשה ה' אלוקיך למרים בדרך. הרי הוא אומר התבוננו מה אירע למרים הנביאה שדיברה באחיה שהייתה גדולה ממנו בשנים וגידלתו על ברכיה וסיכנה בעצמה להצילו מן הים והיא לא דיברה בגנותו. טעתה שהשוותה לו בשאר נביאים והוא לא הקפיד על כל הדברים האלו שנאמר והאיש משה עניו מאוד ואף על פי כן מיד נענשה בצרעת. קל וחומר לבני אדם הרשעים הטיפשים שמרבים לדבר גדולות ונפלאות.
And it's kal vachomer to people who don't inadvertently misjudge someone, but whose whole focus is one that generates lashon hara. לפיכך ראוי למי שרוצה לכוון אורחותיו להתרחק ממושבם ומלדבר עמהם כדי שלא יתפס אדם ברשע רשעים וסכלותם.
And pay attention to these next lines of the Rambam, וזה דרך מושב הלצים הרשעים. The path of leitzim, people who are the scorners who don't take any... וזה דרך ישיבת לצים ורשעים בתחילה מרבים בדברי הבאי כעניין שנאמר ובכל עצב יהיה מותר ומתוך כך סר ממסילת ומעצת צדיקים ומתוך כך עוברים על המצוות ומבזים את דבר ה' ומתוך כך מדברים על האלוקים בגובה לב וביהירות ובגאווה וזוהי שיחת הרשעים שגורמת להם ישיבת קרנות וישיבת בורסאות של עמי הארץ וישיבת בתי משתאות של שותי שיכר אבל שיחת כשרי ישראל אינה אלא בדברי תורה.
So Rambam says maybe a single isolated instance of lashon hara which is normally doesn't reflect too much, maybe it doesn't reflect too much, but if there's anything habitual about it, so there's a broader context, there's a deeper subculture to the lashon hara, and it's a subculture, it's a context of leitzanus. The roots of this lashon hara are in this again leitzanus approach, this scornful attitude, a scornfulness that borders on a type of nihilistic approach to life of nothing of intrinsic importance or value or meaning. Those are the roots of lashon hara. So what's the antithesis of that? The antithesis of that is the Hafetz Haim. The thing that the Hafetz Haim was trying to... Okay I could find us a Rabbeinu Yonah. כעניין שנאמר נחפשה דרכינו ונחקורה ונשובה עד ה' ויעשה כן לג' דברים האחד למען יזכור כל הדברים שחטא עליהם ויתוודה עליהם כי הוידוי מעיקרי התשובה השני למען ידע כמה רבו עוונותיו וחטאיו ויוסיף להיכנע והשלישי כי אף על פי שמקבל עליו מעתה לעזוב כל חטא צריך שידע הדברים שחטא עליהם כדי לעשות בהם גדרים ולהישמר מאוד בנפשו מהם ממרת היצר.
I'm not sure but it would seem that in the first of again Rabbeinu Yonah says there are three... three different considerations, each of which individually necessitates this chipus derachav, that a person should scrutinize all aspects of his life. Number one, a person has to have a catalog of cheit in order to be mitvadeh. Chazal says there's a machlokes tannaim in the gemara in masechet yoma of whether or not viduy requires peirush hachet. Do we derive from Moshe Rabbeinu's אנא חטא העם הזה חטאה גדולה ויעשו להם אלוהי זהב,
we derive from that that viduy requires peirush hachet? No, maybe Moshe Rabbeinu said that as a meilitz p’shat, it was chessed of Hashem that he forgave them, and really viduy doesn't require peirush hachet. The Rambam paskens that viduy requires peirush hachet. That’s why in Hilchos Teshuva 2:3, he says the ikur of viduy is asisi kach v'kach, that a person specifies what the cheit is. Shulchan Aruch doesn't require peirush hachet l’ikuva. Shulchan Aruch says it's meshubach, it's preferable. Shulchan Aruch does not require peirush hachet l’ikuva. Whether this Rabbeinu Yonah should be read that it's l’ikuva and that's what he means by me’ikarei hakapparah. It sounds like that, sounds more like that. And maybe it can be read that it's preferable, it's certainly preferable, but bechol ha'eis, that the peirush hachet is preferable in terms of, so if I don't have this catalog in front of me, so when I'm misvadeh, I can't be mifareish the chata'im. Hasheini, says Rabbeinu Yonah, the second consideration which leads to the chipus derachav is מה ידע כמה לא עונות וחטאים יעזוב ויעקור. Again, why can't a person just say Ribbono Shel Olam, I'm sorry for everything? Why can't a person genuinely say that with remorse? So says Rabbeinu Yonah, the hayos that it's integral to the teshuva experience that a person have a sense of hachna'ah beyond the hachna'ah that a person has to have just for Ribbono Shel Olam per se, but mitzadd chata'av. So the amount of hachna'ah has to be commensurate to my avonos vechata'im. And again, if I don't have an accurate count, an accurate list of those avonos vechata'im, so then I can't have the commensurate sense of hachna'ah. And the third consideration here is also very, very yesod. ואף על פי שמקבל עליו לעזוב כל חטא, even if again if a person would just do a klolisdike teshuva without this chipus derachav, Ribbono Shel Olam, I'm going to be nizaher in every every every se'if. ואף על פי שמקבל עליו לעזוב כל חטא צריך שידע העוון שחטא בו כדי לעשות בהם גדרים.
Practically, to do teshuva means that a person has to strategize. וישמר מאד ונפשו בהם ממאור היצר, as the very beginning, Rabbeinu Yonah spoke about this at the very beginning as well. Take the book, look at the very beginning in Os Daled, here in the beginning of Sha'ar Rishon, when he's talking about the all the negative fallout from p'shi'us, from procrastinating in doing teshuva, he says vekasher ye’acher, about halfway through paragraph Daled. v'ka'asher ye'acher lashuv, if a person procrastinates in doing teshuva, so in the interim, the opportunity, the nisayon of the cheit will come his way again. וכאשר יאחר לשוב והחטא בידו יפול במוקשו כבראשונה. The person hasn't done teshuva for the first cheit, so when he finds himself in a similar situation, similarly challenged, it's very likely that he's going to be chotei again. And what's more, says Rabbeinu Yonah, ויגדל עוונו האחרון מאד. The repeat offense is worse than the original offense. וטעם והוסף זה השני. Why is the repeat offense worse than the first one? כי מראש לא חשב כי פתאום יבוא היצר לשובב עליו.
Initially, the person didn't anticipate and maybe there's a degree of limud zchut because the person didn't anticipate that he was going to be ambushed by the yetzer, maybe he was unaware of this weakness, maybe he was unaware of this type of situation just how great the challenge is. אך אחרי אשר ראה דלות כוחו. But after the person became aware of his weakness, of his vulnerability, ואשר גבר היצר עליו וכי הוא עצום ממנו היה לו לראות כי פרוע הוא.
He should have recognized that he's exposed, that he's vulnerable. Here's the phrase that we want now: v'lashet eitzot b'nafsho. That the person should have looked for strategies. Once a person has been alerted to the fact, you know, in such a situation, I have a weakness, and in such a situation, I know from experience that Rachmana litzlan I'm prone to succumbing, I'm prone to stumbling. So then a person, it's not just a question of determination, but it has to be v'lashet eitzot b'nafsho. The person has to strategize. Here Rabbeinu Yonah says generically l'hosif yirat Hashem. That the yirat Hashem that the person should have should be stronger, should be a counterforce which is stronger than whatever pull that the yetzer hara would have. Here Rabbeinu Yonah is talking about a different type of strategy. It's the same in the sense that Rabbeinu Yonah says that practically if we're really intent on succeeding in our teshuva, so there has to be a plan for implementation, which requires, which requires certain strategies. I've been nichshal once, maybe more than once in area A, B, C, and D. So lema'aseh, okay, I'm not going to do it again. But lema'aseh every time I'm provoked, every time I'm challenged in this way, I respond that way. So how am I going to make good on that determination not to do it? So Rabbeinu Yonah told us at the outset that צריך לשית עצות בנפשו, that a person has to, again, one ingredient always is deepening, intensifying yirat shamayim. But a second one is also to target this specific cheit. צריך שידע הדברים שחטא עליהם כדי לעשות בהן גדרים ולהישמר מכל נפשו בהן ממרת היצר.
If a person has trouble with drinking, so then he shouldn't even have one drink. He shouldn't even have one drink. And obviously a representative example that we need to transpose into every context. Mishna Nedarim nama matnitin perek yud gimmel Hilchos Nedarim מי שנדר נדר כדי לכונן דעותיו ולתקן מעשיו הרי זה זריז ומשובח.
Keitzad? Kigon shehaya zolel ואסר עליו הבשר שנה או שתים. ומי שהיה שוגה ביין ואסר היין על עצמו זמן מרובה,
v'asar hashichrus l'olam. וכן מי שהיה רודף שלמונים ונבהל להון ואסר על עצמו המתנות או הנאת אנשי מדינה זו. וכן מי שהיה מתגאה ביופיו ונדר בנזיר.
V'chayotzei b'nedarim elu, כולם דרך עבודת השם הם. ובנדרים אלו וכיוצא בהן אמרו חכמים נדרים סייג לפרישות. ואף על פי שהן עבודה לא ירגיל אדם בנדרי איסור ולא ירגיל עצמו בהן אלא יפרוש מדברים שראוי לפרוש מהן בלא נדר.
So that's exactly what this Rabbeinu Yonah's talking about as well, that צריך שידע הדברים שחטא עליהם כדי לעשות בהם גדרים. Chazal make gezeiros l'shaveh l'chol nefesh. But then everyone has to make his own gederim, his own gezeiros, which address his individual areas of weakness and vulnerability. One of the main reasons sincere, heartfelt teshuva doesn't always achieve the goal that it pledges to achieve is because of a lack of yashrus eitzah benafsho, a lack of la'asot bahem gederim, the lack of the practical, pragmatic element of teshuva. If a person is committing himself to a different result, he has to identify for himself a different process. But if I just commit myself to a different result without, again, without that strategizing of 'So how am I... how am I not going to be נמשך אחר מידת הכעס or redifa achar hamataros, v'chulu v'chulu?' How am I not going to do it? Okay, so I'm committed to not doing it, but tachlis, how am I not going to do it? If a person doesn't have that practical plan, as sincere and heartfelt as it is, it may not be realistic. So says Rabbeinu Yonah, a person needs just to say ribbono shel olam, נחמתי ובושתי בכל עוונותי, but a person needs hichus hachata, he needs to identify them individually so that he can strategize individually. Ikkar hasheleimus hatzarich שיחקור וידע ויכיר גודל העונש לכל אחד מעוונותיו ואיזה מהן יש בו כרת ואיזה יש בו מיתת בית דין ולמען ידע גודל עוונו והשתדלותו וימרר בבכי על שהחטיא התמימים ולמען יוסיף ויקום מפחד עוונותיו
ki aveirot hachamuros. And as on when she-yesh bahem krisos, and as on שיש בהם מיתות בית דין, and as on שיש בהם מיתות בידי שמים, who מן ידע דאזל אדוניו וחס באדנותו, and who מן נהרג בדפי על שהחטיא תמימים, who man yosef l'kamon and who man yidchak b'adonuso, gevuros chaburos, and then תשובה תולה כפרת ייסורים ממרקין, and so it's written ודפק ודחק וגעי בדמי סוס, יתבא עיקרא דא בשער השביעי.
So there are at least two driving forces, two mechayvim in this need to know whether it was a regular lav, was it a לאו שיש בו מיתה בידי שמים, לאו שיש בו מיתה בידי בית דין,
yesh bo malkos, ein bo malkos. There are at least two considerations that necessitate this. So let's say someone, you have a guest comes to your house and you don't offer him food and drink, you don't extend yourself to extend hospitality. That's one type of chet. Let's say you have a guest come over to your house and you have a lot of orchim and in that context you're malbin panov. The apology for the second offense can't be the same type of apology as for the first. The apology has to reflect the chomer hachet. You didn't offer him a cup of coffee. I apologize for not being machnis orech. But if that's the same apology which is offered after being malbin panov, so obviously that's going to be inadequate. The Rabbeinu Yonah says when a person is misvadeh, when a person is reacting emotionally to chet, so the onesh is an indication of the chomer hachet. So a person has to know what the magnitude of the chet is so that the I'm sorry to the Ribono shel Olam matches the—it can't be an I'm sorry for not giving you a cup of coffee when rachmana litzlan there was halbanas panim. But then Rabbeinu Yonah also says u'lema'an yefached me'onesho. The Rambam writes in Sefer Hamitzvos in the mitzvah of yiras Hashem שציוונו להאמין ולהתפחד ממנו ולא נהיה ככופרים ההולכים בשרירות ליבם ובקרי אבל נפחד לירא עונשו בכל עת.
So one element of the mitzvah of yiras Hashem is yiras ha'onesh. One element of mitzvas yiras Hashem is to know that יש דין ויש דיין and that a person is accountable for what he does. The Bach says Rabbeinu Yonah, so within that, if there's a din, if there's a chiyuv of yiras ha'onesh, so then a person's jaywalking, he has to know what is he liable for, a twenty-five dollar ticket? Maybe he's liable for a warning the first time, maybe twenty-five dollar ticket, I don't know, maybe they're going to put him in jail for six months? The yiras ha'onesh also has to be commensurate to what the is a response to the onesh, is a response to the onesh. If I'm aware of the onesh, so how can a person have an adequate yiras ha'onesh? To have adequate yiras ha'onesh a person has to be informed, a person has to— No, because if I'm aware that for jaywalking I can go to jail for six months and not just get a fine, it's going to it it elicits a different, a different reaction. And so Rabbeinu Yonah says, ulma yefached me'avonosav? The pachar me'avonosav can only be adequate if a person is aware of what the potential onesh or what the penalty is for that aveirah. Rabbeinu Yonah writes in Sha'ar Sheni, he writes when talking about the different times of the year or for different things that happen that should be me'orer a person to teshuvah. So the derech hachamishi talks about talks about Aseres Yemei Teshuva. And he says in that context, he writes, וכן מה נואלו היוצאים לפועלם ולעבודתם עדי ערב. He says how foolish people are who, if they have the opportunity not to just go about their regular routine and schedules, who nevertheless stick to those routines and schedules ביום הנגזר מהדין והמשפט ואינם יודעים מה יהיה משפטם ספר חיים וספר מתים לפניך נפתח.
And even though we have the luxury, not everyone does. So if a person does have a person does have the luxury not to be encumbered with the mundane, which we need to deal with the rest of the year, if a person has that opportunity, if he has that flexibility, so then the Rabbeinu Yonah says, אבל אהה ראוי לכל ירא אלוקים למעט בעסקיו. If he has that flexibility, so he should minimize his mundane commitments and preoccupations ולהיות בימים הנבחרים בודד ביום ובלילה להתבודד בחדרים ולחפש דרכיו ומעשיו ולהקדים אשמורות ולהתעסק בדרכי התשובה ובתיקון המעשה.
The way the yeshiva and academic calendar works out this year, so there are no no college classes Bein Hazmanim. No, again, not encumbered by other responsibilities and obligations, so it mamash provides this this precious, priceless opportunity to be mema'et b'asakim and to be focused on Aseres Yemei Teshuva. Obviously, I'm not privy to people's personal schedules and what considerations there are in terms of whether they're able to be in yeshiva for Aseres Yemei Teshuva. But that flexibility, which the fact that there aren't classes affords, so we should have in mind to take advantage of that fully with these words of Rabbeinu Yonah as our guide. Tizku l'mitzvos.