Sha’ar 2:5 – 2:6: Yisruin Shel Ahava, Viduy Before Death

Good morning rabbosai. Maybe just to reread the last few lines in os hay here, the ones dealing with yisurim shel ahava that we had last night that we had excuse me yesterday morning.

כאשר יבוא מוסר השם יתברך על האיש אשר הוא זך וישר.

Again, musar lashon yisurim upon a person who's pure.

יהיה לניסיון ולהגדיל שכרו לעולם הבא כמו שנאמר למען ענותך למען נסותך להטיבך באחריתך ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה פשפש במעשיו בעת צרתו.

If a person scrutinizes his actions in a time of tzara vechipeis vechakak if he searched and he didn't find any sin in his hand

וחיפש ולא מצא חטא בידו הם הם ייסורים של אהבה.

So what exactly is the pshat in yisurim shel ahava at least according to Rabbeinu Yona? So it's interesting that initially he says that if there's no chet, so then the yisurim are nisayon, and then in conclusion he describes, defines them as yisurim shel ahava. So it could be, I'm not sure, this is shelo biyun harauy, that for Rabbeinu Yona the inyan of yisurim shel ahava is not simply kavyachol HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, you know, this tremendous tzaddik, so he'll be sovel yisurim in olam hazeh and then that will allow me to owe him one for olam haba and leharbos sachar. Maybe at least part of what it means is this: kayadua the medrash and then later within the rishonim, so we find two approaches to the inyan of nisayon. One of which, which you have in the medrash, which is the one that the Ramban follows in his peirush al haTorah, is that the inyan of nisayon is that when a person is challenged, so then a person will be pushed to achieve what he otherwise would not achieve. And this idea that there can be latent potential which will only be actualized when a person is put to the test is not just true of us, but it's true of asanei olam, it's true of Avraham Avinu. And isachen that maybe the pshat yisurim shel ahava is that again it's not stam, you know, here you're getting a patch you don't deserve, so because of that you're owed one and the payback will be much better because the patch was an olam hazeh-dik patch and the payback will be in olam haba. No, maybe the pshat is that the pshat yisurim shel ahava is that was it I think the medrash describes Avraham Avinu as crying on the way to the akeida. So even for Avraham Avinu there were yisurim involved, a nisayon involves yisurim. yisurim pose a nisayon. If the person then responds to that nisayon and there's latent potential which otherwise wouldn't have been actualized that is actualized and because of that he reaches an even higher level, a higher madrega in his avodas Hashem, so then takeh the person will have earned the sachar. And maybe that's what Rabbeinu Yona, that's his havana in yisurim shel ahava. And that's sort of his response to what otherwise is the question that Ribbono shel Olam doesn't really have a system to. give the maximum schar without giving a person undeserved yisurim. That's the sort of the question which is generally posed. That's the challenge which is posed to this. And maybe that's what Rabbeinu Yonah has anticipated that and is explaining to us what he means by yisurim shel ahava, the pshat in how they work. I think that the Midrash that the Ramban quotes in Vayeira, I think, gives an example that let's say you have pishtan, you have flax, you have linen. So the way you convert it into something which will be then suitable for making a fine garment is you have to beat it. You have to beat the pishtan. That's the way the potential within the pishtan is extracted. That's the way it surfaces. And it's yitachen that that's what Rabbeinu Yonah's understanding in this view in Chazal is of yisurim shel ahava. Interesting, the Rambam l'shitaso, I guess, in light of this, a little bit of l'shitaso. We mentioned yesterday that the Rambam makes a point of saying, you know, this is a view in, it's a view in Chazal, he says, but not necessarily the view in Chazal. It's an opinion in Chazal. So the Rambam when he talks about nisayon, he takeh goes with the other view in the Midrash. When the Rambam talks about the other view in Chazal in terms of how to understand the inyan nisayon is lashon nes. Nes is like a banner, like a flag that flies high, a banner. And nisayon means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows who Avraham Avinu is. Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows what, how the lengths of Avraham Avinu's ahavas Hashem. But He wants us to know. He wants it to serve as an example and an inspiration for us. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu stages a nisayon lashon nes lehodia that we should have that example and that role model. So the same way the Rambam is not so inclined to the view of yisurim shel ahava, he takeh also inclines to the other havana in Chazal in terms of nisayon. Does that mean that there's some kind of sort of machlokes in toras ha'adam here in as to whether or not maybe the Rambam would say that he thinks that a person is capable and of actualizing all latent potential without a nisayon? And maybe ultimately the nekudas hamachlokes is in how to understand man and his potential. ומענין הדרך הזה אשר זכרנו, again, we're concluding Rabbeinu Yonah's discussion of the first of the six circumstances or stages of life which should prompt a person to teshuva. ומענין הדרך הזה אשר זכרנו hateshuva beyom hamoves. ואות החוטא כי חלתה אליו הרעה ואבדה תקותו when a person sees that the end of his life has come, he has no more hope in terms of Olam Hazeh,

כמו שכתוב במות אדם רשע תאבד תקוה והוא מתוודה בעת ההיא

if the person says Viduy at that point ושב אל השם בלב שלם and repents to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, גם התשובה ההיא מועילה. That teshuva is also effective. Ribono shel Olam accepts that teshuva also. It's true, אף על פי שאינה משיגת לתשובת השב בעצם תומו it's not the equal of teshuva when a person is at a much earlier stage in life. Here there's something interesting, excuse me just one second. Just for obviously there's no such thing as gavra agavra kaminas but for purposes of just contrast to help us notice a point here in Rabbeinu Yonah, so let's just review the lashon of Rambam here in פרק א' הלכה א' הלכות תשובה. Rambam says

וכן בעלי חטאות ואשמות בעת שמביאים קרבנותיהם על שגגתם או על זדונם אין מתכפר להם בקרבנם עד שיעשו תשובה ויתודו וידוי דברים. וכן כל מחויבי מיתות בית דין ומחויבי מלקות אין מתכפר להם במיתתם או במלקותם עד שיעשו תשובה ויתודו.

So the Rambam has it in the opposite sequence, right? The Rambam says yaasu teshuvah v'yisvadu. Rabbeinu Yonah in the line we just read writes הוא מתוודה באותה היא ושב אל השם בלב שלם. Now again the point is not gavra agavra kaminas but the point is to sort of just the contrast to highlight lichora what the Rambam says is the logical way, right? The viduy is an articulation of what a person is feeling and experiencing, right? So first the person has to experience the remorse and the person has to have the resolve l'haba and then he can say it in the viduy that

ריבונו של עולם ניחמתי ובושתי ולעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה.

So the way the Rambam sequences it is lichora the logical way. So what's p'shat over here that that Rabbeinu Yonah says that הוא מתוודה באותה היא ושב אל השם בלב שלם? So I don't know but ayein alav but perhaps as follows. In that context it's not only appropriate. In that context it's appropriate that the viduy and the teshuvah will be simultaneous. That as the person is misvadeh he experiences what he's saying what he's professing. As the person says nichamti he experiences the nichamti. In that context there's room for such an assumption and therefore I'm not sure whether one should say that the viduy is m'orer the teshuvah or the two happening simultaneously maybe either or or both are true. But that's meyuchad to that context. At any other stage in life if there hasn't been the kiyum she-baleiv of teshuvah first the person shouldn't be misvadeh. There's no assumption there's no presumption that the person is going to experience what he says, right? One of the al cheits is על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בוידוי פה. That's one of our... Beshas misa there is and beshas misa it's therefore appropriate that that to say because as the person says he experiences. Okay, so we'll start here bli neder im yirtze Hashem next week I guess we'll begin the Derech Hashem and we'll have we'll try to focus on this drasha that we mentioned yesterday in Al HaTshuva at least some parts of it later im yirtze Hashem bli neder. Okay, have a good productive morning rabbis, be well, be safe.