Mishlei 3:8-9: Teshuva, Yira, Tzedaka

Good morning. Let's return for a moment to pasuk chet again. רפאות תהי לשרך ושקוי לעצמותיך. What's the subject of rif'ut? What will be healing? What will be a salve for your, again the Gaon understands it, for your flesh? Hasur meira of the previous pasuk

שהיא התשובה תהיה רפואה לבשרך כמו שנאמר ושב ורפא לו.

The Rav has in one of the drashos in Al Hatshuvah, he talks about how the psukim in Navi speak of tshuvah in terms of refuah. This pasuk that the Gaon cites, other psukim as well: הסולח לכל עונכי הרופא לכל תחלוואיכי. That on a spiritual level, so chet constitutes choli and tshuvah is the refuah.

ושקוי לעצמותיך היא היראה שהיא מצות עשה כי ישב ולא עבר עבירה חשב עליו כאילו עשה מצוה ויטול שכר מצוה וזהו שקוי לעצמותיך.

So I think what the Gaon here is saying is something very, very interesting. We mentioned, I think, yesterday the machlokes between the Rambam and the Maharal. The Rambam is of the opinion that the pshat in that Gemara in Kiddushin is that the same way a person has a sakhar for actively being mekayeim a mitzvas asei, he also receives sakhar for passively abstaining from a mitzvas lo sa'asei. Obviously, it means that the context is such, the circumstances are such that a person could be over the mitzvas lo sa'asei. A person is not getting sakhar for mitzvas lo sa'asei 24/7 for not eating treif. But when he's in the supermarket and he's buying meat, when he's eating dinner, so then ein hachi nami, a person gets sakhar for the meni'ah from the lo sa'asei as well. Maharal disagrees and says, no, the sakhar is only for the tza'ar involved. The Gemara in Kiddushin there tells stories about how there was tremendous tza'ar, there were instances where there was tremendous tza'ar associated with the meni'ah from the lo sa'asei. In the Gaon here, apparently we have a third, very, very new pshat, which is the Gaon seems to be saying that the pshat is like this. The Rambam says in Sefer Hamitzvos, excuse me just one second, Rambam says in Sefer Hamitzvos in Mitzvas Asei Daled:

היא שצונו להאמין יראתו יתעלה ולהיפחד ממנו ולא נהיה ככופרים ההולכים בקרי אבל נירא ביאת עונשו בכל עת והוא אמרו יתעלה את ה׳ אלוהיך תירא.

So the Rambam here says that, again, this is the only element of the mitzvah that he mentions in Sefer Hamitzvos, but that one element of the mitzvah of yiras Hashem is yiras ha'onesh. Meaning that a person should abstain from aveirah, maybe should also be motivated to be mekayeim a mitzvas asei, but let's focus on the first half of that, that a person should abstain from aveirah because of the yiras ha'onesh. So kumt oys, says the Gaon, that every time a person is מונע עצמו מלא תעשה, he's being mekayeim an asei of yiras Hashem. Right? So even though conceptually that would align the Gaon with the Maharal that we mentioned, dahinu that there's no sakhar for being nimna from a lo sa'asei, but practically it would align him with the Rambam that practically there will be sakhar because whenever the person is nimna from a lo sa'asei, that's an expression of yiras Hashem. It's an expression of yiras Hashem on the level of yiras ha'onesh and it's an expression of yiras Hashem on the level of just that a person who... prospective of onesh. And lechora that's how this reads here, right? ושקוי לעצמותך היא היראה שהיא מצות עשה. So he's talking about a mitzvas asei. And then the Gra segues to

כי ישב ולא עבר עבירה חשב עליו כאילו עשה מצוה ויטול שכר מצוה.

So how does that read straight? Ela mai, it seems to be what we were just discussing. V'zehu shikuy l'atzmosecha, again shikuy is the marrow for the bones, meaning that a person is receiving something for the same way marrow is something positive, so a person is receiving schar.

כמו שנאמר ועצמותך יחליץ. ומה שכתוב אצל הלא תעשה לשרך.

Again, the first half of the pasuk is referring to doing teshuva. ואצל המצות עשה לעצמותך. What do you mean eitzel hamitzvas asei? I thought he said that it's ישב ולא עבר עבירה. No, but that's a kiyuma, the mitzvas asei of yira.

ואצל המצות עשה לעצמותך שבבשר ועצם הם רמ"ח אברים ושס"ה גידים.

Right? When our pasuk again, as we saw yesterday, the Gra understands lesharecha. Again, the lamed is a prefix, but sharecha and the vav is the same as bisarecha. So the bisarecha and atzmosecha of the pasuk is parallel to evarim and gidim. Why? Every limb has a bone, right? There's no such thing as a limb which doesn't have a bone. So עצמות הן האברים והבשר הוא מן הגידים. Mashe'ein kein, the gidim are in the basar. לכן הבשר שהוא שרך הוא נגד לא תעשה. Right? It's referring to doing teshuva for being over on lo sa'aseh. V'atzmosecha, which represents the kiyum mitzvas asei of yiras Hashem, neged mitzvas asei. Okay, maybe just take one more minute to the next pasuk. כבד את ה' מהונך ומראשית כל תבואתך. So express kavod for Hakadosh Baruch Hu by separating from your hon, from your money, u'meireishis kol tevuasecha, and from the first of your crop, of your grain. כי האדם צריך ליתן ב' דברים. That there are two types of nesinos that a person is chayav in: Tzedaka u'trumos u'ma'asros. הצדקה היא ממון והון של אדם. Meaning tzedaka comes from a person's cash, right? It's not that there's something specific that the person has to give. He has to give from his money, from his holdings. ותרומות ומעשרות הן מן התבואה. But trumos u'ma'asros, it's not that you have to give the kohein ten dollars or give the Levi a hundred dollars. No, you have to give the kohein from the

ראשית דגנך תירשך ויצהרך. לכן אמר כבד את ה' מהונך שהוא ממון לצדקה ומראשית כל תבואתך הן תרומות ומעשרות מן התבואה.

V'amar kabeid, how is giving tzedaka, how do we refer to that, how do we describe that as kavod? ואמר כבד כמו שנאמר ומכבדו חונן אביון. By favoring, by helping out the pauper, the destitute person, so that's how a person expresses kavod for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Okay, we'll stop here. Have everyone have a very good and productive day, rabosai, be well, be safe b'ezras Hashem. Rebbi? Yes, question. Yeah, please. Why does the Gra in pasuk ches say that חשוב עליו כאילו עשה מצוה? It's not according to the Shas, isn't it that he mamash... Yeah, so I don't know, you're asking very well, but I'm wondering if maybe... you're asking very well, but maybe the answer is this. Maybe there's a difference in the level of schar a person gets between whether or not the asei is active or passive. In which case even though this aseh is being fulfilled passively, but he's getting schar as though it was something active. That's one way to say it. The other way to say it is that the whole chiluk between a mitzvos aseh and a mitzvos lo sa'aseh in terms of schar is the active versus passive, but over here היות דהוי מצות עשה, so we treat it as something active. Either of those two are, I'm not sure which, I have to think to try to think a little bit bli neder as to which it would be correct. So just to, I'm not entirely sure I quite understood, so just to clarify. Either ke'ilu asa mitzvah because even though it's passive, it's ke'ilu he did an active mitzvah? That was the second one? Again, you're asking very well, why is it ke'ilu asa mitzvah? The way we understood the Gaon, it is asa mitzvah. So apparently, so maybe the, again, the first possibility is true, but maybe there's more schar for an active mitzvah than a passive mitzvah, and that's what we're saying: not only is there going to be schar for an aseh, but it's going to be schar for an active aseh. That's one possibility. The other possibility is no. The other possibility is that that really without a ke'ilu even an aseh which is fulfilled passively wouldn't get schar, but you can be... but for the aseh it's more easily to, it's easier, it's more nitan to be machshev that as something active than it is... how can you be machshev not eating treif as something active? But yiras shamayim, that you can be machshev as something active. And according to the first pshat, why would this ke'ilu be true? I mean, why would it be that specifically for yiras shamayim it's ke'ilu he gets the schar for doing an active mitzvah even though he did a passive mitzvah? I don't know, I'm not so sure that the first pshat is correct that I want to go further yet. I have to think about it more bli neder. Thank you.