Sha’ar 2:34: Need a Good Working Plan to do Teshuva

Hi good morning Rabosai. I hope everyone is well. Just re-reading the last few lines here in Shaar Sheini in at least some of them here in Os Lamed Daled. Hatishi the ninth compelling consideration, the ninth mechayev that a person shouldn't delay teshuva.

בימי הזקנה בהעדר כוח ההרגשות איננו עוצר כוח לחדש מסילות בלבבו ולערוך מחשבות להילחם בהם ביצר.

So otzer in this context presumably means let's say one of the understandings of atzeres tihiyeh lachem is knufia to gather. So la'atzor one meaning of la'atzor is to gather. So ineinu otzer koach, the person's not able literally to gather the energy לחדש מסילות בלבבו ולערוך מחשבות להילחם בהם ביצר. So Rabbeinu Yonah here is as he does throughout the sefer is imparting invaluable wisdom and insight. To do teshuva certainly begins and again teshuva is most literally targets cheit but teshuva is also a catch-all term for change and improvement. It isn't necessarily the case that the context and the opportunity for change is due to cheit in the past. So what we're talking about teshuva very often and certainly in this context we don't mean it only narrowly in terms of that rachmana litzlan I did such and such, chotosi ovisi poshati X, Y, and Z, but in a broader sense teshuva represents change, improvement. So there's no question that the process of teshuva begins with ratzon, begins with desire and resolve. There's no question that that's sort of the animating force that's the first element of the foundation. But what Rabbeinu Yonah is telling us is that it entails more than that as well. For a person to change for a person to improve it requires lechadesh mesilos bilvavo. If I want to change then I need to change the way I do things. If I want to lose weight I need to change the way I do things. There's something if I can't continue my same diet as is or my same level of physical activity. The fact that there's a resolve, the fact that there's a sincere desire so that's the as it were the tenai kodem lemaaseh. That's what precedes the teshuva process but then the teshuva process means to introduce change so there has to be a chiddush mesilos bilvavo. A person has to come up with new paths. He has to design new paths that he's going to follow. If I want to improve my bein adam lachaveiro so what is that going to mean practically? What is that going to mean concretely? What am I going to do differently in order to achieve that result, in order to implement that resolve? So it begins with the resolve, it begins with a ratzon. But that's sort of like saying, you know, you see an empty plot of land, I want to build a house here. Okay, so it has to begin with that. If you don't want to build the house, the house isn't going to get built. But wanting to build the house is not going to make the house sort of just, you know, appear. You know, it's not going to - it's not going to - Rashi quotes the, you know, the bayis shlishi will come down from Shamayim, but that apparently is the only house that's going to - that's going to come about that way. All other houses need architects and and contractors. If I see an empty plot of land and and I want a and I want a house, okay, so now it begins with the resolve. Now, I need to begin to make the plans and only after I have the plans can I implement. It's for this - this reason also sends a very, very important message, very important for us to hear. Often we look back, even - even at your age, there's - there's enough behind you to be able to look back, kal v'chomer. And and we see, you know, times that we had a desire to change, a resolve to change, and and nothing came to fruition. There is a natural inclination, but it's a yetzer hara, not a yetzer hatov. There's a natural inclination to allow that to introduce a little bit of ye'ush, to think that, well, I don't know, can I change? If I can really change, so meicha taysay that this time is going to be any different than last time? But the first question, before we allow that reaction to to sink in, the first question is, maybe I wasn't doing things the right way. Maybe bichlal, maybe I just wanted, maybe I looked at an empty plot of land and wanted a house, and maybe I never even called the architect and and or the contractor. And if I did, I don't know, maybe I dialed the wrong number. Whenever a person doesn't succeed, so in milei d'alma, it could be that the person undertook to do the wrong things. If I take singing lessons and I don't make it to the opera, it wasn't because I didn't have the right singing coach, and it wasn't because I didn't work out, it's because I'm not doing the right thing. In milei d'alma, so a person has to recognize where where his abilities lie, where they don't lie, and he has to channel them in in the right direction. And in milei d'alma, the the takeaway from from lack of success might be, you know what, maybe - maybe that's not the direction in which I'm supposed to be channeling my my energies. But הבא לטהר מסייעין אותו, when it comes to ruchniyus, when it comes to doing teshuvah, so it can't be - it cannot be that the person's in the wrong profession. It cannot be that he's working in the wrong area. It can be that I'm learning something that I'm not ready to learn. It can be that I'm trying to learn on a level that I'm not ready for, that can be. And and in that context, the person does have to ask the question of: Should I be doing this? But when it comes to So by definition a person is applying his energies and is channeling his energies in the right direction. Could it be that he has unrealistic expectations? It could be. But he's in the right area. It's not, it's not, there's no analog to 'I'm in the wrong profession', 'I'm, I'm taking the wrong major'. There's no analog to that. Which is why if we haven't succeeded in, in our tikkun hamiddos, or if we haven't succeeded to the degree that we would like to succeed, there's a need l'chadeish and there's a need la'aroch machshavos. There's a need to strategize and there's a need to come up with a different approach. Because the right approach succeeds in, in the area of teshuvah. There's no such thing as, unless a person is Paroh, but there's not too many people on that list, so there isn't really a lo leisa safeika to that effect. Unless a person is Paroh, he has the ability to still do teshuvah, and הבא לטהר מסייעין לו, so when I'm not succeeding, so that's why from what Rabbeinu Yonah is telling us, what b'imei ziknah is more difficult to do, so a person can infer what kodem yimei ziknah needs to be done. What do I need to do differently? L'chadeish mesilos. What do I need to do differently? How do I need, maybe, maybe the difference is I need to change my attitude to something? Maybe the difference is practically I need to do something different. And la'aroch machshavos means that a person needs to have a plan. Whenever you want to accomplish something, if you want to get from point A to point B, so you need a plan. I mean, sometimes the plan just sort of happens so easily and quickly because it's not especially complicated, and we don't realize we're planning. But we're always planning. Either I'm going to walk, or I'm going to drive, or I'm going to, I'm going to take public transportation or something. But I need a plan as to how I'm going to travel from point A to point B. In teshuvah, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to move. We're trying to improve. We're trying to move from point A to point B. La'aroch machshavos, and a person needs a plan. He needs a plan. That plan has to involve something new, something different. Again, the difference may be attitude. It, it may be a support system. Or it may be doing things differently, a different approach. And to recognize that it's not only what I'm going to do positively, it's how I'm going to avoid the pitfalls. lehillaicheim bahen b'yitzro. A person has to recognize that, that in order to get from point A to point B, so I actually need a plan how I'm going to travel. But I also have to realize that there are going to be potholes and, and pitfalls along the way, and to figure out how am I going to circumvent those, those pitfalls. And then we have to be realistic. We have to be realistic. Other than buying a lottery ticket and winning the lottery, so things don't, don't come easy in life in any field. If a person wants to, to rise to the top of a profession, people work very hard. And there's something intuitive that, that any top-notch doctor has worked tremendously hard to become what he is and who he is. And there's something intuitive that there's, that there's a correlation between the effort put forth and, and the result. And it's certainly true in ruchnius as well. A person has to again, this is what it's more difficult to do b'yemei zikna, which is why a person doesn't want to leave it to then, but it's necessary litroach v'la'amol. That doesn't translate and shouldn't translate into oh it's so onerous. No, if you ask, if you ask someone whose dream it is to be a doctor, if you ask him what med school is, medical school or residency involves, he'll tell you you work tremendously hard and you have to be focused. He won't tell you it's onerous because if you want it and this is the way, this is the only way it can be had, so that's not onerous. Is it objectively working hard? Is it objectively exerting oneself? Absolutely. But is it onerous? No. And a person has to recognize that it's going to require litroach v'la'amol as well in talmud Torah but also in peulos, also in the, in terms of the, our behavior, in terms of the bein adam l'chavero. Okay, we'll, we'll stop here for now. We'll, im yirtze Hashem, we'll resume around, around 12:45. Okay, have a good, productive morning, everyone should be well, be safe.