Transcript

It's near the beginning of Sha'ar Sheni of Rabbeinu Yonah.

דע כי דרכי הסיבות שיעורר האדם בהן נפשו מדרכי התשובה הם שישה.

The six either stages of life, events, situations which wake a person up and serve as a catalyst for tshuvah.

ובכל אחד מהם נלמד לדעת השיב את האדם אל יתחלק בחלקי תבונתו.

And in the ensuing part of Sha'ar Sheni, we look to teach and to break down into its various components each of these six. v'yazin et te-vunato

ויטה להם אוזן לשמוע השכל וידע עיקר מכל מכל חפצי אדם שנאמר.

However, ויותר מהמה בני הזהר. We're first going to read without really translating and then we'll try to understand and perhaps be able to come up with a sensitive translation, at least partially, be'ezrat hashem, bli neder. ויותר מהמה בני הזהר לשוב בכל יום ונפשך לטהר. Excuse me,

בלעדי סחר זה סיבה מעוררת. וילדי יום יקשרו מחשבותיך כי תזכור את בוראך. והיה לך זכרו למשיב נפש מדרכי תולדות גופך. וכן ערית שאור קשת מדעך לישר הדורי טבעך. ומיראת השם ואהבתו והבושה לפניו תוסף מעלה תמיד. ותשקוד על נקיון כפיך ותכרוס רעיונים מורדים מסר אפך. ויבארו נושאי כלי נפשך. ובזכר יוצרך תתאדר ושכלו יפיפי כמו שכתוב בהשם יצדקו ויתהללו כל זרע ישראל.

So Rabbeinu Yonah says that above and beyond again the various specific catalysts for tshuvah, a person should look to do tshuvah daily. לשוב בכל יום ונפשך לטהר. It shouldn't only be rachmana litzlan in eis tzarah. It shouldn't only be in Asseret Yemei Tshuvah. It shouldn't only be when a person hears a mussar shmuz. It shouldn't only be when a person learns Nach and learns the divrei tochacha that the nevi'im delivered. A person should do tshuvah every day. Now le-ma'aseh of the shisha drakhim of again the shesh sibos, the six catalysts within life. So if you look to the last of the six, it's Os Tes-Vav here in Sha'ar Sheni. הדרך השישי כל עת יכון לקראת אלוהיך. At every time, right, constantly.

כל עת יכון לקראת אלוהיך כי לא ידע האדם את עתו.

Life is fragile and unpredictable. Actuarial tables don't generate guarantees.

כי לא ידע האדם את עתו. על כן כליותיו ישתוני ובצדקה יקוני.

A person should think, he should prepare himself with tzedakah.

להשיב רוחו בטהרה אל אלוקים אשר נתנה ויחפש דרכיו ומעלליו בכל יום.

Right, every day a person should be engaged in doing tshuvah. yifkadeim l'vakarin. Morning after morning a person should be taking stock and doing teshuva v'gam yivchanem and even minute by minute a person should be looking with discernment

ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה רבי אליעזר אומר שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך. אמרו לו תלמידיו רבינו וכי אדם יודע באיזה יום ימות.

Well that's a totally impractical piece of advice.

וכי אדם יודע באיזה יום ימות? אמר להם כל שכן ישוב היום שמא ימות למחר ונמצא כל ימיו בתשובה.

So the derech hashishi puts forth the chiyuv to engage in daily teshuva. And what Rabbeinu Yonah is talking about here in os aleph is something which he clearly indicates is distinct from the six which are going to follow. So what it means is Rabbeinu Yonah is telling us that there are two different mechaivim in terms of always being preoccupied with teshuva. But it's not only two different mechaivim that generate the same chiyuv but it's two mechaivim which result in different distinct chiyuvim. The mechaiv of ha'derech hashishis, Rabbeinu Yonah's siba hashishis, is that a person should die bikdusha v'tahara. That when we return the neshama to Hakadosh Baruch Hu we should return it in the same pure and pristine state in which He gave it to us. And the Rambam quotes this in perek zayin of hilchos teshuva.

הואיל ורשות כל אדם נתונה לו כמו שביארנו ישתדל אדם לעשות תשובה ולנעור כפיו מחטא כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה כדי שיזכה לחיי העולם הבא. לעולם יראה אדם את עצמו כאילו הוא נוטה למות ושמא ימות בשעה זו ונמצא עומד בחטאו לפיכך ישוב מחטאו מיד ולא יאמר כשאזקין אשוב שמא ימות קודם שיזקין. הוא ששלמה אמר בחכמתו בכל עת יהיו בגדיך לבנים ושמן על ראשך אל יחסר.

So the mechaiv of the siba hashishas, Rabbeinu Yonah's siba hashishis, it's taki a mechaiv of that it should be kol yamav b'teshuva. But the mechaiv is that a person again when with the yetzias neshama the neshama should leave as pure as it entered. The mechaiv is to die bikdusha v'tahara. What Rabbeinu Yonah is saying here in os aleph is the mechaiv to do teshuva daily. It's not just a second mechaiv but to live bikdusha v'tahara. Not just to die bikdusha v'tahara but to live bikdusha v'tahara. And yitachen me'od that the translation in ויותר מהם בני הזהר is that v'yoser doesn't just mean additionally but it means that a person should be more makpid be more nizhar not additionally be nizhar but be more nizhar on this than the other six. And we'll try to explain that some more right now b'ezras hashem. Let's try to understand a little bit more. So again go again to back to where we were just reading in os tes vav right after the gemara in Shabbos v'omer. The same posuk that the Rambam quoted,

בכל עת יהיו בגדיך לבנים ושמן על ראשך אל יחסר,

loven habegadim and the whiteness of the clothing moshel on nekiyus hanefesh bitshuva. Vehashemen moshel to ma'asim tovim and shem tov. Right, shemen, so the the fragrance of shemen is is something that that's released into the air. So that's a moshel to ma'asim tovim which which generate a shem tov, ke'inyan shene'emar טוב שם משמן טוב. עוד אמרו רבותינו ז"ל be'inyan hazeh moshel to ishto shel malach, right, kehegeh beyad hamalach who we said Kol Nidrei night. The malach is the the one who steers the ship, the the ship captain, שהיתה מתקשטת ושמה בפוך עיניה she she's applying makeup

ובא לו עובר אורחות ים ותאמר לה לשכנתה הלא בעלי הולך בדרך למרחוק ועל מה זה ואשר תתיפי אמר להם בעלי מלח הוא אולי יהפוך רוח ים וקל מהרה יבוא וימצאני ואני מקושטת.

Right, we don't have so much of a feel for this anymore, but but at most periods in history they did, you know, the the danger of of transoceanic voyages, so it's a moshel for the fragility and and unpredictability of of life. ויש על האדם לשוות בנפשו ויהיה שאנן ושלו when things are tranquil and good, so a person should should imagine eich yidag levavo v'yira

ורעד יבוא בו ביום המות בהיותו נחל מות ליתן את החשבון ואיך יתודה בעת מותו בלב נשבר וככה יעשה כל הימים יתודה בלב נדכה ויהיה מורא שמים עליו.

So Rabbeinu Yonah speaks in response or in response to and as a way of implementing and fulfilling this shiyur, talks about vidui. Talks about vidui. In back in os aleph here, Rabbeinu Yonah doesn't say anything about vidui. He does talk about lashuv bechol yom, but he certainly doesn't specify the vidui. And yitachein, yitachein the the pshat is as follows. I think we've mentioned the really profound insight that the Rambam zichrono livracha provided in the Rambam here in perek gimmel of Teshuva halacha daled,

אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב רמז יש בו. כלומר עורו עורו ישנים משנתכם והקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם

perek gimmel daled in Teshuva,

וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל. הביטו לנפשותיכם והטיבו דרכיכם ומעלליכם.

So the Rambam's wake-up call to teshuva goes out to people whom he does not identify as as chotim. He doesn't identify them as sinners. He identifies them as people who have been distracted by all the transient elements of life and because of that distraction are squandering the opportunity of life. And teshuvah in this sense isn't even chet centric. Even if somehow or other the shichchas ha'emes, I mean ultimately it always has to if it's there, if it prevails long enough, if it persists long enough. But even if the shichchas ha'emes doesn't result in chet, but this teshuvah in the sense that if a person is distracted by havlei hazman, you know havlei hazman means all everything which is transient and ephemeral which isn't again either has no redeeming value or is not being done with a mindset which is redemptive. I mean earning a living is transient but if it's done with the right mindset so that's not what we're talking about. If it's done with the wrong mindset it is what we're talking about. And other things don't really have any redemptive value, they're just stam narishkeit. So even if there's no and rabboisai hear this hear this. Even if there's no chet. Even if there's no chet. But that shichchas ha'emes by havlei hazman, that distraction on account of and immersion in havlei hazman, it distances a person from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Teshuvah can't and therefore shouldn't be defined exclusively in terms of chet. Ultimately again teshuvah means to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. A person can be distant from Hakadosh Baruch Hu even without chet. Just he's not that's not what life is about and it doesn't have to translate into chet. If you look at what Rabbeinu Yonah is describing here so that's what he's describing. I don't know if he I guess maybe maybe when he talks about rebellious thoughts, maybe there but other than that there's no mention of chet in Rabbeinu Yonah either. ויוסף מהמה בני הזהר. And again we suggested the yosef doesn't just mean additionally but the yosef means that a person should be even more nizhar about this than any of the following sibos that Rabbeinu Yonah is going to list off.

ויוסף מהמה בני הזהר לשוב בכל יום ובנפשך לטהר. בלעדי ששת סיבות מעוררות

even without any of the following six catalysts for teshuvah. And so what do you need to overcome? And again what you need to overcome is that ילדי יום יקשון מחשבתך, right? In the Ramban we were talking about you know the pshat of the Ramban referenced the pshat of the Ibn Ezra and the Radak that eileh toldos Noach means the history of the times of Noach because mah yeled yom. So yaldei yom, the realities and preoccupations and distractions of the passing day yekushun machshavtecha, they literally they knock on your thoughts. They encroach upon your thoughts. And the response to that is... כי תזכור השם יתברך, that that you remember Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Because again, teshuva means to close the distance between oneself and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And and yes, it could be rachmana litzlan that that distance is was created by chet, but it could be that that distance just is because a person is is distracted. כי תזכור השם יתברך והיה לך זכרו למשיב נפש and and remembering Hakadosh Boruch Hu will will restore you, will restore your nefesh מדרכי תולדות גוש עפר. That's Rabbeinu Yona's in Rabbeinu Yona's words in his formulation. That's the same havlei hazman that the Rambam was talking about. Gush afar, meaning a clump of of dirt. Meaning the chomriyos ha'adam. Chomriyos ha'adam again, in an unredeemed sense. וכן ערוה תעור קשת מדעך לישר הדורי טבעך. So keshes is, right, you have a bow and arrow, right? So so what does Yitzchak say to Eisav? Take na, no, he mentions the keshes there that he should go go hunting. So ve'ad arom be'erya means that that you're uncovered. So so uncover the the bow of your knowledge to straighten hidurei tiv'acha. Lashon hadar, you don't have to straighten out the the beauty of of one's nature. So kemidomeh that that the way Rabbeinu Yona is using the word hadar here is there is a a remarkable piece in the Haksav Vehakabbala in in the pasuk in Parshas Kedoshim of ve'hadarta pnei zaken. So he quotes Chazal say ve'hadarta pnei zaken, eizehu hidur? What what does ve'hadarta pnei zaken mean? So Chazal say לא ישב במקומו ולא יסתור דבריו. How are you mehader pnei zaken? You don't sit in his seat, you don't contradict him. ולכאורה יש להקשות על מאמרם ולשאול. Lichora, the drashas Chazal is is is incongruous with the pasuk. מה ראו שהחליפו מצוות עשה במצוות לא תעשה? ve'hadarta pnei zaken is mitzvas asei. Chazal translate it as a mitzvas lo sa'asei.

כי והדרת פני זקן הוא לשון קום ועשה והם פירשו בשב ואל תעשה.

So he says something hafla va'fele, hafla va'fele. He says that that earlier in the piece, I'm I'm reading the the part shlo kaseder, he says that שורש הדר בלשון הקודש קרוב עניינו לשורש הדר בארמית. That ve'hadarta in lashon hakodesh, its meaning is very close to the meaning of hadar in Aramaic. כי בלשון ארמית כשהוא בבניין הקל עניינו חזרה לאחור. Medehadar bei kura. To repeat, to do something again, chazara l'achor. And וחזרה לאחור וכן בלשון הקודש הוא שאל, it's therefore by extension

להורות על מין ממיני היראה אשר תיפול על האדם פתאום ותשיבהו אחור מהופך זממו.

So based on that hadar in Aramaic means again to go back, sometimes to go back in the sense of repeating, but it also then means in lashon hakodesh, it means to recoil, right? When a person, when a person recoils, when he's nirtah l'achorov, so he's going back. And then he says gevald, that's the pshat. So vehadarta pnei zaken means that in the face of a zaken, so you should recoil. The sense of eima that you have should be something that, that causes you to pull back, to recoil. And that's why Chazal translated even though what to us seems like the mitzvah should have been, should have been expressing things to do bekum vasei. No, but but if it's talking about what it means is to recoil, so that that's something where the, the content is going to be lo saasei, that לא ישב במקומו ולא יסתור דבריו. So maybe, and so this is, this is nifladig pshat. But maybe that's what Rabbeinu Yonah means also. Maybe hiduei tevacha means sort of the recalcitrant parts of teva, that the, meaning the, the parts of teva haadam which, which are pulled back from where they should be. And that's what he means, leyasher hiduei tevacha. So hidua means the exact opposite of hadar is the point. And that's how Rabbeinu Yonah is speaking of leyasher hiduei tevacha. But notice that what Rabbeinu Yonah is talking about again here, again, there's no mention of chet, there's just a mention that the, this mechayev of teshuva, the mechayev of not, not doing teshuva daily to die bikdusha vetahara, but doing teshuva to maximally live bikdusha vetahara, to always be mindful, to always have the right orientation, to always have the right sense of direction, to always keep one's eye on the goal, the purpose, the meaning of life. Because if a person, and and again, that's teshuva because any lapse in that, and we obviously have lapses in that, any lapse in that distances a person from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Again, even if, even if that lapse a person is not culpable for chet in that lapse, but it's still, that's what that's what the teshuva means. It's the, you know, the, perhaps a moshal might be as follows: For let's say, I don't know, it can be a plane that's flying, it can be a boat on a sea voyage. If you, depending upon how often you check the instruments, that will sort of determine how much time you allow the ship or the plane to be off course and to just be drifting as opposed to be traveling in in the direction that you want. It's a way of maximizing the blessing and opportunity of life, which is why it's not defined in terms of chet. That's why he doesn't talk about vidui. He talks about, no, he just talks about ילדי היום יקושו מחשבותיך, how the, again, the daily events, daily happenings preoccupy you or or encroach upon your thoughts, how דרכי תולדות גוש עפר, that the, again, sort of natural direction that our the physicality will take us in needs to be countered. You know, there is something which kemidumeh, again he doesn't say it as explicitly but I don't know, it's lichora in between, it's in Ramchal, it's in the lines, yitachen here that in Rabbeinu Yonah it's in between the lines, underlying the lines. At several points here in the Hakdama, we'll do the first one. Because I'm getting a little bit later, I don't want to be ma'arich, we'll do the first one. Famously, Ramchal begins by saying that I don't really anticipate that you're going to find chiddushim in my sefer, and therefore you should know that the point of the sefer is not to learn it once, but to learn it again and again, to learn it repeatedly, so it will serve as a reminder for what a person knows, but is prone to forget it. But listen to how he says it:

כי לא תמצא ברוב דברי אלא דברים שרוב בני האדם יודעים אותם ולא מסתפקים בהם כלל. אלא שכפי רוב פרסומם וכנגד מה שאמיתתם גלויה לכל, כך ההעלם מהם מצוי מאוד והשכחה רבה. על כן אין התועלת הנלקט מזה הספר יוצא מן הקריאה בו פעם אחת, כי כבר אפשר שלא ימצא הקורא בשכלו חידושים אחר קריאתו שלא היו בו לפני קריאתו אלא מעט, אבל התועלת יוצא מן החזרה עליו וההתמדה,

here comes the crucial line, rabosai, כי יזכרו לו הדברים האלה הנשכחים מבני האדם בטבע. Ramchal says, it's natural to forget. That's the natural state of affairs. That a person forgets, he forgets, forgets Hakadosh Baruch Hu, forgets what's important in life, that he gets caught up in all the, again, transient aspects of life. So that's natural.

כי יזכרו לו הדברים האלה הנשכחים מבני האדם בטבע. אם לא נסתכל ולא נעיין מהי היראה האמיתית ומה ענפיה,

if we don't look, if we don't delve into what genuine yira is and what its expressions are, eich nikneh osah, how will we acquire it? And here again, ve'eich nimalet מן ההבל העולמי המשכח אותם מלבינו? I think Rabbeinu Yonah used that, right? What was Rabbeinu Yonah's phrase? Gush afar. Okay, he talked about the hevel ha'olami. Again, so the natural state of affairs, you look in the Hakdama, he has it a couple more zimanim. Dehainu, and here's the yesod, rabosai, it's a very, very, very big yesod in life. So בכל לבבך ובשני יצריך. What is it, yetzer hatov and yetzer hara? But the yetzer hatov and yetzer hara are different and they function differently. They are polar opposites and they are counter-forces, but they're different and they're different in how they function. The yetzer hara is something which is reflexive. It's something which happens without a person thinking. When a person, a person does, a person can do this if he wants, but a person doesn't need to consciously, with premeditation, decide he's going to have a ta'avah. He doesn't have to, a person just experiences it, right? It's the natural, reflexive, it happens naturally, reflexively, it's a natural state of affairs. The Yetzer HaTov is something which comes from reflection. It's not reflexive, but it's reflective. If a person just sort of coasts through life, so it's not that he's going to be equally affected by the Yetzer HaTov and the Yetzer HaRa. No, he's going to be affected more by the Yetzer HaRa than the Yetzer HaTov. And that's what the Ramchal is saying there: נשכחים מבני האדם בטבע. HaHevel HaOlami is meshakeach osam milibenu. And that's again, it's not quite as accentuated and quite as explicit here in Rabbeinu Yonah, but kemidomeh that's what Rabbeinu Yonah is saying as well. ילדי יום יכושו מחשבתך. That's normal, that's the normal state of affairs. That yaldei yom again, the events of the day, yekushu machshavtecha, they're going to again, either ensnare or encroach upon machshavtecha unless you counter it with by consciously focusing on יד כי תזכור את בוראך. And if you do that, so only in that way will it be zichron lameshiv nefesh from what otherwise is the דרכי תולדות גוף עפר. Again, what the normal tide or current without reflection is in the direction of the Yetzer HaRa. It's not that the waters are still. So the Yetzer HaRa and the Yetzer HaTov function differently, which is why ultimately the Yetzer HaTov is a stronger force, because what's reflective is stronger than what's reflexive. But the challenging side to that is that again, it's not as if without it there's neutrality. And yitachen that this is also hinted at in the lashon Chazal in Berachos, I don't know whether we will or won't get to this Gemara this year together, but on I think it's daf hey, so the Gemara has the לעולם ירגיז אדם יצר טוב על יצר הרע. That a person should agitate, literally make it angry, right? A person should agitate the Yetzer HaTov against the Yetzer HaRa, which sounds like that the Yetzer HaRa doesn't need to be activated, the Yetzer HaRa is poel, and a person needs to activate the Yetzer HaTov. But heim heim hadevarim again, which Ramchal very explicitly is telling us and lichora Rabbeinu Yonah implicitly because the Yetzer HaRa is דרכי תולדות גוף עפר. It's a person doesn't, the physicality we just experience, right? A person doesn't need to be told, oh, you're hungry now and you need to eat. When we're hungry, we feel that we're hungry. Physicality we just feel. We can be totally passive and feel it, and therefore whatever results from physicality is something which affects us and impacts us even if we're living mindlessly. And there's going to be nothing that counters it unless we're living reflectively. And that's what Rabbeinu Yonah is describing also. And again, that's why the daily teshuvah isn't focused upon or even defined in terms of cheit. It's defined upon not drifting away from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And by being mindful of this on a daily basis, that allows us yom yom, instead of drifting away rachmana litzlan, but to come closer.