Sha’ar 2:9, 2:14: Times of Din (Old Age, 10 Days of Teshuva) Demand a Different Balance in Life

Good evening everybody. I hope everyone's well. So we left off yesterday, we were looking at the paragraph here in Os Tes where Rabbeinu Yonah quotes from the Mishnah in Avos. Let's perhaps review a little bit.

בן ששים לזקנה בן שבעים לשיבה בן שמונים לגבורה בן תשעים לשוח

the way Rabbeinu Yonah reads it, lashuach with a Sin.

בן מאה כאילו מת ועבר ובטל מן העולם. ברייתא כוונתם זכרונם לברכה בדברים האלה להחזיר על התשובה.

What's the need to label the decades of a person's life is to give perspective that will galvanize a person to do teshuva. ויחשוב האדם על קצו והגיעו לימי הזקנה. A person should have perspective on where he is in the journey of life, especially when he reaches yemei hazikna.

אם לא זכה לעשות כן בימי בחורותיו. ואחרי כי קרב לבוא עתו יעזוב חפצי הגוף ותאוותיו ויתקן נפשו. ובהגיע לימי השיבה יוסיף לגרש מלבו עניין העולם ולפי מעט השנים הבאות יעמוד בעסק העולם ויתייחד תמיד להתבונן ביראת השם.

So I just want to review a little bit what we said yesterday. I think I'm also partially correcting. I think one thing I said, at least one thing I said yesterday was wrong. When Rabbeinu Yonah is instructing us that a person should have a different balance in life in his older years, when he's elderly, than in his younger years, so we said clearly Rabbeinu Yonah isn't encouraging or even accepting of gratuitous, needless indulgence at any stage of life. So what exactly allows for this difference? So A, when he speaks about יעזוב חפצי הגוף ותאוותיו ויתקן נפשו, lichora that's a that also links up to the אם לא זכה לעשות כן בימי בחורותיו. Even bimei bachurosov a person shouldn't be shouldn't be יעזוב חפצי הגוף ותאוותיו ויתקן נפשו. Obviously a person is not supposed to neglect tzorchei haguf. And obviously a person is supposed to get married and fulfill mitzvas onah with whatever that entails. But a person is supposed to respond to heftzei haguf by the standard of what are tzorchei haguf and what's a mitzvah. And beyond that, so a person bimei bachurosov as well is not supposed to, again, just be accommodating of heftzei haguf k'sheleatzmam. And what he means is אם לא עשה אם לא זכה בימי בחורותיו to avoid and to throw off the yoke of heftzei haguf vesa'avoso. So then at least ba'hagia l'yemei zikna a person should attain that madreiga. So the first difference or change that Rabbeinu Yonah is instructing that should be effected bimei zikna is one that, again, it's sort of a it's compensatory. It's really something, a standard that a person should have maintained even at an earlier stage in life. Now the next line is what we were, I think, correctly discussing yesterday.

ובהגיע לימי השיבה יוסיף לגרש מלבו עניין העולם ולפי מעט השנים הבאות יעמוד בעסק העולם.

And lichora... The meaning of that line is not only that in light of the fact that that there are fewer years awaiting a person in the future, it's not only that in light of that a person should be mema'et b'eseik ha'olam, it's also that objectively there's less need for hisaskus b'eseik ha'olam and that's what allows for the person to be increasingly focused on inyanim ruchniyim. Again, in a person's youth, when when a person is a young man in his 20s and and and his 30s, so a person in terms of planning for the future is supposed to plan in terms of olam hazeh as well. A person should should be should have money in a retirement account and a person should be should be saving for anticipated future expenses associated with gidul banim etcetera. So objectively there is more eseik ha'olam which a person needs to attend to and as such relatively speaking, relative to what will be later in his life, it will preoccupy more time. He should never lose sight of the fact of what's ikur and tofel, what's means and end, what's the instrument and what's the goal but without losing focus, without blurring any of those crucial differences, so a person does need to be more, relatively speaking, attuned to inyanei ha'olam in his youth than he does when there's לפי מעוט השנים הבאות. At that point a person doesn't need to be meeting with his financial advisor, at that point a person doesn't need to be doesn't need to be investing, he doesn't mean there's very little that the person really needs to be involved in in terms of devarim gashmiyim. And the correct balance in life between devarim gashmiyim and devarim ruchniyim is not absolute, is not fixed. It's that the devarim gashmiyim should be given their due that that a person should should not neglect the the devarim gashmiyim. But what that means differs, what that means differs, let's say what that's true in in all situations, let's say parents shouldn't neglect their children. So what does that mean? What does that mean? So when you have a baby it means that you have to feed the baby every three hours etcetera. When you have an older child, so then it means something very different, which may take more, it's the same idea of balance. Okay. So says Rabbeinu Yonah ולפי מעוט השנים הבאות יעמוד בעסק העולם. As a person grows older, so he should minimize his involvement with devarim gashmiyim. V'yisyached tamid, he should constantly look to seclude himself u'lehissbonen b'yiras Hashem to reflect on inyanei yiras Hashem, maybe we'll hold off on the next the next three phrases. Here there's something very striking rabosai. If you jump ahead, where is it, to haderech hachamishi os yud daled. Take a look rabosai, haderech hachamishi here in sha'ar hasheini os yud daled. So the derech hachamishi again of those occasions or circumstances of life or times of life that that should prompt a person to do teshuva is aseret yemei teshuva. Now midway through do you see where it says וראוי לכל יראי אלקים. Do you see that rabosai? וראוי לכל יראי אלקים. So says Rabbeinu Yonah lema'et b'asakav. Veyihyeh be'einav nichatim. I think nichatim is lashon אל תירא ואל תחת. It's a lashon of fear. So a person should be mema'et be'asakav, his thoughts filled with eimas hadin, ולקבוע ביום ובלילה עתים להתבודד בחדריו. So the parallel between Rabbeinu Yonah's depiction of aseret yemei teshuvah and his depiction of yemei seiva is remarkable. What back to our passage here, what does Rabbeinu Yonah say about the yemei seiva? Yamit be'esek ha'olam, right? Let's have a split screen. What did he say about aseret yemei teshuvah? וראוי לכל יראי אלקים למעט בעסקיו. Exactly the same phrase, right rabbosai? What else does Rabbeinu Yonah instruct bimei hazikna, bimei haseiva? What else does he instruct? Yisyached tamid lehisbonen. Here too, ולקבוע ביום ובלילה עתים להתבודד. Right, lehisboded, again in lashon harishonim we shouldn't be quick to dismiss anything as purely synonymous, but for our purposes, for this point, let's again speaking roughly and therefore perhaps imprecisely, let's assume they're more or less synonymous, the lehisyached and the lehisboded. That's a remarkable thing. The choice of words which is obviously very, very premeditated and very intentional when from on the part of the Rishonim. Rishonim certainly have the sensitivity. When a person thinks in a nuanced, precise, profound way, so then that naturally will reflect itself into his speaking or writing in a nuanced, precise, profound way. So there's no sort of happenstance in how the Rishonim express themselves. So this isn't coincidence. It's not that, well, you know, sort of these are Rabbeinu Yonah's favorite words in his in his personal lexicon. It's very intentional that the description of aseret yemei teshuvah parallels the description of yemei zikna vehaseiva. Let's maybe just pause for a brief moment to sort of let let that register upon us. Right, the implication is clear, rabbosai, right? The implication is that if a person is misyaches to din as we should. So I'm not supposed to think, well, I checked the actuarial tables, and you know, the odds are pretty good in favor of someone my age. The odds are pretty good. And sort of let that decide dictate what the degree of eimas hadin is. No, the eimas hadin should be such that a person doesn't take anything for granted. The mindset of aseret yemei teshuvah, it's not the mindset of kol hashanah. Kol hashanah a person doesn't, shouldn't live with a sense of חרב חדה מונח על צוארו. But the mindset of aseret yemei teshuvah is supposed to be that whatever my age is, fill in the blank. And whatever the actuarial tables tell me about the life expectancy of my age, the reality of then is that everyone כל באי עולם עוברים לפניו כבני מרון, not just the ba'alei zikna and ba'alei seiva and ba'alei gevura, of all ages. And that's what Rabbeinu Yona is so powerfully conveying when he describes the routine of Aseres Yimei Teshuva in terms that parallel the routine of the zaken or a ba'al seiva. In addition to the yemai ha'asaka, yamid beis ha'olam, in addition to that, the other parallel that Rabbeinu Yona underscores is the yisyached or the yisboded. One of the dialectical tensions that we're supposed to learn to creatively balance in life is that between yachid and tzibbur. A person's involvement with, commitment to, service of the tzibbur, and the person's need at times to also withdraw into his own reshus hayachid, into his own daled amos. And as with other balances in life that a person is supposed to strike and maintain, the correct balance can vary from religious season to religious season. The correct balance between yira and simcha in Aseres Yimei Teshuva is not the same as the correct balance between yira and simcha in Chag Hasukkos. And so too, the correct balance in terms of the hisbodedus as opposed to all the involvement in Aseres Yimei Teshuva is not the same as that of all year long. Aseres Yimei Teshuva we're supposed to find more time than we have on a daily basis the rest of the year for this lehisyached, this lehisboded. There's a degree of solitude that's needed for a person to reflect carefully, slowly, deliberately, for a person to resolve, to muster resolve, to strengthen resolve. That work needs to be done in private. Hence the emphasis in these two parallel contexts on the lehisyached and lehisboded. Okay, bli neder tomorrow morning we'll continue a little bit more on these lines again, back and forth between haderech hasheini and the haderech hachamishi. For this morning bli neder we'll continue. at one o'clock. I think one o'clock is the kvias for Tuesday bli neder im yirtze Hashem. I don't think I mentioned this already. In addition to seeing the Ramban on daf vav, maybe also go back to the Ramban, the long Ramban about bittul where the Ramban talks about our sugya and the need for two psukim for the nochri shekivasho and the nochri shelo kivasho and bli neder im yirtze Hashem we'll resume around one o'clock. Okay rabbosai, have a very good productive morning, be well, be safe.