Sha’ar 4:14: Yirah and Simcha

Good morning raboisai, I hope everyone is well. So continuing here in the derech hachamishi. So Rabbeinu Yona says that during Aseres Yimei Teshuva a person should lishpoch siach and laseis t'fila verina. So the phrase t'fila verina albeit in the opposite sequence, I think is from Shlomo Hamelech. Right? Shlomo Hamelech says לשמוע אל הרינה ואל התפילה. What does rina mean? So in Maseches Brachos, so when the Gemara quotes this posuk on daf vav, so Rashi comments that rina are shiros vesishbachos which the tzibur say binimas kol arev with a sweet melody, songs of praise that we say with a sweet melody. Maybe that's one of the mekoros for the idea of nusach in davening. So this is sort of a remarkable thing. I mean Rabbeinu Yona is describing how the reality of Aseres Yimei Teshuva should be a person's personal reality. It should be v'eimo nichas. His thoughts should be fearful, he should be in a healthy, in a religiously, emotionally, mentally healthy sense he should be anxious about the din. And there seems to be something incongruous in this context for Rabbeinu Yona to say and laseis t'fila verina. That a person's part of the avoda of Aseres Yimei Teshuva is that he'll be singing, again to plug in Rashi's definition here of rina, he'll be singing שירות ותשבחות בנעימת קול ערב. But when you think about it, this same paradox characterizes the Yamim Noraim but especially Yom Kippur. Despite the fact that we don't say Hallel because as the Rambam writes yimei yirah vafachad. That notwithstanding, the beautiful piyutim of shevach that we have, and then even more on Yom Kippur than Rosh Hashana is a major, major focus of the day. My father zichrono livracha once said that in the machzor there were two foci. There's viduy and there's shira. Those are the two foci of our seder hat'fila on Yom Kippur. What's the, sometimes you call you have something you think is a contradiction, so instead of calling it a contradiction you call it a dialectic and you go veiter. But if you stop and try to understand, so a contradiction means it's taki x and not x. And a dialectic means that while they seem incongruous, but in reality, they really do coexist because in reality, again, they really do in a way that's not initially intuitive, they really do harmonize, they really do integrate. So what is taki the pshat in this dialectic that figuratively, not literally, Rabbeinu Yona says when you go lehisboded in Aseres Yimei Teshuva. The answer is that that the same reality which which creates, which generates the din of Aseret Yemei Teshuva, it's part of that reality that Dirshu Hashem Behimatzo. Hakadosh Baruch Hu kaveiyachol doesn't judge the world or us from afar. He doesn't remain remote and inaccessible when he judges, but כביכול הקדוש ברוך הוא makes himself accessible and available when he judges. So the flip side of the malchuyos and din, and this is why it's a dialectic and not a contradiction, the flip side of the malchuyos and din of the Yamim Noraim and Aseret Yemei Teshuva is the Dirshu Hashem Behimatzo. The Dirshu Hashem Behimatzo, so it means that as much as we're sensitive to the reality of din and and the need to come to terms with our our failings and our faults, but part of that reality is the kirvas Elokim. So on the one hand, the first aspect of that reality elicits from us the shofech siach and what Rabbeinu Yonah is about to mention lehapil techina, but the but the second aspect of that reality elicits from us the rina, שירות ותשבחות בנעימת קול ערב. And and it's one reality, it's one inseparable reality, which is why, again, these two why we have this dialectical combination of siach, that that outpouring of just desperation and and and need and and dependence and and the rina. In its most acute form, so that dialectic is limited to and characterizes Aseret Yemei Teshuva, but in a different form it should characterize life all the time. As sobering, as weighty, as yiras shamayim should be, but but the same reality which to which we respond and which generates that sobering, weighty awareness, also is one that generates a tremendous simcha. And it's that balance which which keeps the yirah from being unhealthy and overwhelming. Because otherwise potentially it is. It is overwhelming and unhealthy. And and it's it's not emesdik nor is it healthy. for a person to see one side of the coin without the other side, to focus on one aspect of the reality without simultaneously being aware of and feeling the second aspect of the reality as well. Life with yiras Shamayim involves tremendous responsibility. It's not a carefree easy existence. It's much easier not to think and to do whatever you want. It's a much easier path in life. But while living with that sense of responsibility and accountability is not easy, is not carefree, but there's something genuinely exhilarating and tremendously uplifting and tremendously joyous about such an existence. Is it heart-rending for a person to look in the mirror and see what he has to work on in terms of tikkun hamiddos? Yes. But there's something tremendously joyous that that's what our problems are, as opposed to the fact that the Jets are winless this year. I think it may also be easier to fix the tikkun hamiddos problem than to fix that problem also, but besiyata d'shmaya I don't know. So at the same time when the siach v'tchina, it's no contradiction. Simultaneously there's rinah. Okay, we'll stop here for now and בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll resume around 12:40. Have a good productive morning rabbosai, everyone should be well, be safe, kol tuv.