Part of the series: 9AM Schmooze, 5780-5781
Awareness of mortality gives one a sense of yakrus hazman, and thus he works to maximize his time and accomplish as much as possible in learning, yiras Shomayim, tikkun hamiddos, doing mitzvos, all of which are practically infinite. Without that awareness, we naturally feel as if we have plenty of time.
Transcript
AI-generated transcript. May contain errors.
Good morning Rabosai. Amud Aleph, se'if beis.
ומן הדברים שאדם חייב לזכור בעבורם יום המות כדי שלא תתבטל ואל תרפינה ידו בעבודת השם יתברך בשידת שנשא מעיניו לעמול בתורה ולהתבונן ביראת השם ולתקן מדות נפשו ולהשיג מעלות היראה והאהבה ולחשוב מחשבות איך יגדיל ויהדר מצות להיות לנפשו סגולה ואוצר
K'inyan she-ne'emar חכם לב יקח מצות כי ידע ויזכור שהימים קצרים K'mo she-omru Raboseinu zichronam livracha היום קצר והמלאכה מרובה והפועלים עצלים ובעל הבית דוחק. So the theme of this paragraph is that awareness of yom hamoves, awareness of mortality allows a person to recognize that time is not unlimited, it's not open-ended. And when a person realizes that there's only so much time available to him and then he contrasts that with what he's seeking to accomplish, so then there's a sense of the yakrus hazman, of the preciousness of time, and the person has the perspective which allows him to maximize his time, to make the most of his time. And Rabbeinu Yonah then lists all the areas of Avodas Hashem, each of which the truth is is open-ended. So there's no such thing as mission accomplished. As long as a person's alive there's more to do and even more to aspire to. La'amol ba-Torah, the finite component of Torah which is the pesukim, there's only so many pesukim in Tanach, the Mishnayos, there's only so many Mishnayos in Shas, etc. Even the finite component of Torah is obviously vast, על אחת כמה וכמה in terms of layers of understanding and comprehension which are infinite. So when a person realizes that time is limited, so then he's motivated, he's inspired to use his time, la'amol ba-Torah, lehisbonen b'yiras Hashem. What's an adequate measure of yiras Hashem that we should have, Rabosai? What's an adequate measure? So in general, lichora, the yirah that we have for something, how much yirah should a person have when he gets behind the wheel of a car? How much yirah should a person have when he's operating a crane at a construction site? So lichora, the yirah should be commensurate to the reality. A person's yirah shouldn't be understated, but it also shouldn't be overstated. It should be commensurate to the reality. A person should know that when he drives, if he'll drive recklessly, if he'll drive distracted, so Rachmana litzlan he can get into a terrible accident which can have catastrophic consequences, maybe for others, maybe for himself, maybe for both Rachmana litzlan. But on the other hand, as long as a person... Then a person should feel comfortable. So yira should be commensurate to to the reality a person is responding to. It shouldn't be understated, but it also shouldn't be overstated. So when when one applies that principle to Yiras Hashem, that yira should be commensurate. So it's clear that Yiras Shamayim is אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור. Again in a healthy sense, not in a neurotic, paralyzing sense. But in a healthy sense, so Yiras Shamayim is really something אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור. So again, when a person realizes that what what he's looking to accomplish is something which is open-ended, and yet time is not open-ended, so then there's an appreciation for time. A sense of yakrus hazman results. U'lesaken midos nafsho, I don't know if that's literally open-ended, but if it's not literally open-ended, it's very, very, very close to it. אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. The greatest tzadik is chotei, the greatest tzadik stumbles, the greatest tzadik is not perfect, which means that even he on his exalted level has more to do in the area of tikkun hamidos. The Rambam in Shemonah Perakim when he talks about that Chazal use the metaphor, the imagery of a nevuah, that the nevi'im other than Moshe Rabbeinu see Hakadosh Baruch Hu through an aspaklaria she'einah me'irah. So the imagery is sort of a mirror that's clouded, or a glass which is partially transparent but partially opaque. So that the vision is clouded, the vision is limited. What's the nimshal to to to these mirrors, to these semi-opaque, semi-translucent glasses? So the Rambam says, the nimshal are a person's midos. And a person's midos, meaning even the navi, he's talking about the nevi'im, he's talking about the the most exalted figures in in human history. But even the nevi'im, the Rambam said, had certain shortcomings in midos, and then the Rambam goes down the list and tells us. Tells us Yaakov Avinu, Dovid HaMelech, Shlomo HaMelech, it's astounding. But if even Yaakov Avinu, Dovid HaMelech, Ne'im Zmiros Yisrael, Shlomo v'yichkam mikol ha'adam, so even they their work on avodas hamidos wasn't finished. So practically for us, it's it's open-ended as well. ולהשיג מעלת היראה ואהבה, again once a person's been misbonein b'yira and recognizes that the commensurate yira is אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור, so then the effort to attain that, ולהשיג מעלת היראה ואהבה is also אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור. And finally
לחשוב מחשבות איך יגדיל ויאדיר מצוות להיות לנפשו סגולה ואוצר.
So Shlomo HaMelech says, אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף. A person who who loves and covets money can never be sated by money. A person can never have enough. If a person loves money, there's no such thing as having enough. He can have billions of dollars, more than he could ever spend if he lived to the age of Mesushelach, ואף על פי כן, Shlomo HaMelech tells us the reality is that אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף. Chazal famously comment in the Midrash that Sifrei... Similarly אוהב מצוות לא ישבע מצוות. And that Shlomo Hamelech is not only interested in exposing for us the folly and the danger of allowing oneself to become enamored of kesef, but it's also a mashal for other types of love. The same way אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף, so אוהב מצוות לא ישבע מצוות. So that also means if lo yisba mitzvos, it also means that we're dealing with something which is open-ended. So that's what Rabbeinu Yona says when we realize that everything we want to accomplish is really open-ended. There's no such thing as okay, finished. Tam venishlam. There's no such thing as finished. So then a person realizes that he needs to make the most of his time, to use his time to its fullest. Rabbeinu Yona also tells us that to be marbe bemitzvos, a person needs to not only respond when opportunity presents itself, but a person needs to proactively think and pursue mitzvos. Right, it's not just לקיים מצוות הבאות לידך. It's not just מצווה הבאה לידך אל תחמיצנה. But Rabbeinu Yona is saying if a person, the open-endedness of mitzvos, the אוהב מצוות לא ישבע מצוות, that translates into proactively thinking לחשוב מחשבות איך יגדיל ויאדיר מצוות. Where's there another mitzvah to do? Where's there something else to accomplish? Where's there something else that needs to be done? It doesn't have to be something dramatic. It can be something which seems to us relatively small. I don't know if in the ultimate scheme of things anything is relatively small, but at least it seems to us as being relatively small.
לחשוב מחשבות איך יגדיל ויאדיר מצוות להיות לנפשו סגולה ואוצר. ומי שאינו זוכה יום המות תמיד דומה בעיניו שיש לו פנאי ומיתון להשיג חפצו.
It's natural. It's natural. It's not a question of having become corrupted. It's almost the natural default position into which we easily slip, that if a person isn't making this concerted effort to be aware of the yakras hazman, so the feeling a person has is that I do have plenty of time, is that time is of something of abundance. So yitachen that that's sort of the undesirable flip side, the flip side that's supposed to be avoided of the fact that a person has, and this is letova. This is a faculty Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us letova. A person very much has a capacity to immerse himself in the present, which is very much letova. I don't know if a person were always weighed down by thinking about past mistakes or heina vehena, so he couldn't be happy, he couldn't function. A person has the capacity to be fully immersed in the present. And again, there's on one level that's something for a person to take advantage of and for a person to harness. But me'idach gisa, it shouldn't allow the person to slip into this default position of being oblivious to the fact that time is of limited supply.
ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה יפה שעה אחת בתשובה ומעשים טובים בעולם הזה. מכל חיי העולם הבא.
On the other hand,
ויפה שעה אחת של קורת רוח בעולם הבא מכל חיי העולם הזה.
Okay, so maybe B'ezras Hashem we'll pick up tomorrow with Ois Chof Daled. Okay, rabosai, have a good productive morning, so B'ezras Hashem we'll reconvene around 12:45. Kol tuv, thank you.