Ahavas Hashem: Practical Implications and Applications

Hi Sholom Aleichem rabosai. I think it's just before Chatzos, good morning. Thank you very much for the for the zchus of sharing some divrei Torah. You know, some mitzvos they're fundamental and and perennial and rightfully they they should always preoccupy us. Nevertheless, seasonally we're either reminded that perhaps we've been guilty of neglecting these mitzvos or preferably we're prompted to intensify that that preoccupation. One example of such a fundamental perennial mitzvah is mitzvas teshuvah. There is a a well-known Maharsha with which with which you're familiar at the end of Masechet Megillah when when the Gemara records the chiyuv to be to be דורש מעניינו של יום ביום. So the Gemara says it's Hilchos Chag b'Chag and Hilchos Pesach b'Pesach and the Gemara doesn't mention Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It doesn't mention that we should be oisek in in Hilchos Teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So so the Maharsha says that that would have been misleading because if the Gemara would have said that that part of the takana of being דורש מעניינו של יום is just as you learn Hilchos Lulav and Hilchos Sukkah on Sukkos and just as you learn Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah and Hilchos Pesach on Chag HaMatzos you learn Hilchos Teshuvah in Yamim Noraim. So we would have thought that teshuvah is a seasonal mitzvah that just as mitzvas chametz u'matzah is only noheig on on Chag HaMatzos and just as lulav and sukkah only noheig on Chag HaSukkos so teshuvah is only relevant in the Yamim Noraim in Elul. And really that's not true, the Maharsha says. Really teshuvah is is a chiyuv which is noheig 24/7 every day of the year there is a there is a mitzvas teshuvah. That that truth and that reality notwithstanding, avada the reality also is that that there is an intensification that we're certainly prompted and and there certainly is a hisorerus to intensify our preoccupation with teshuvah during Elul and during Aseres Yemei Teshuvah. The mitzvah of ahavas Hashem also is another example of this. Certainly the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem kayadu'a is one of the sheish mitzvos temidiyos which the Sefer HaChinuch lists. Me'idach it's also certainly true that over the course of of Pesach there is special attention drawn to the mitzvah, the mitzvah looms even more prominent than it does otherwise. That Pesach a time of זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך אהבת כלולותיך, ahavas klulosayich, lechtayich achrai bamidbar. Shir HaShirim the Rambam says is all of Shir HaShirim is one extended elaborate mashal to to the preoccupation of ahavas Hashem. So certainly over the course of Pesach we we were all prompted to to intensify our our preoccupation with this mitzvah temidis. So in that vein, a thought and halacha l'ma'aseh. A thought halacha l'ma'aseh about the the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem. Just to begin by reading the final halacha or part of the final halacha in Hilchos Teshuvah. So the Rambam writes as follows: Davar yadua u'varur. It's it's something which is known and and it's something which is clear, something which is is self-evident. שאין אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא נקשרת בלבו של אדם that for a person to be totally totally bound up with ahavas Hashem it only happens עד שישגה בה תמיד כראוי, he has to tamid, he has to constantly be immersed, constantly preoccupied, ויעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנה. And a person has to leave, a person has to turn away from any and all other pursuits or preoccupations which... don't come under the umbrella of Ahavas Hashem, of Avodas Hashem. To just to try to spell out a little bit what the thrust of this Rambam is, what the halacha le-maiseh point which emerges is to return to another very famous passage in the Rambam. So earlier the Rambam quoting the Sifrei in Parshas Va-eschanan, the Sifrei ka-yadua comments on the juxtaposition of the two pesukim of ואהבת את ה' אלקיך with the pasuk of vehayu hadvarim haeileh. Sifrei says איני יודע כיצד אוהבו, a person doesn't know how it is that he propels himself to achieving to attaining Ahavas Hashem, so talmud lomar vehayu hadvarim haeileh, which the simple pshat in the Sifrei would seem to be that the whole gamut of talmud torah, the whole spectrum of talmud torah fosters Ahavas Hashem. The Rambam has a narrower part of the spectrum of talmud torah, but we're not going to get into that now. So it's talmud torah which again מביא לידי אהבת ה'. היכן הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו, the way the Rambam formulates it in

יסודי התורה ב ב, בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ, מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול.

When a person reflects in and ponders the actions and the wonders' great creations of HaKadosh Baruch Hu and glimpses the inestimable and endless chochmah which is therein reflected, so right away you already have the beginning of ahava and he has this tremendous ta'avah, this tremendous desire, this yearning, לידע השם הגדול. And then the Rambam, skipping to the end of the halacha, the Rambam says, he cites the Sifrei,

כמו שאמרו חכמים בענין אהבה שמתוך כך אתה מכיר את מי שאמר והיה העולם,

that through vehayu hadvarim haeileh, that's how a person knows HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that's how a person comes lidei Ahavas Hashem. So what the chiddush of the Rambam in at the end of Hilchos Teshuvah is that even if a person engages in the דברים המביאים לידי אהבה, even if a person engages in vehayu hadvarim haeileh, he also has to very consciously, directly and deliberately יעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנו. That won't happen on its own. It's not just that well if I expose myself to vehayu hadvarim haeileh, then that will on its own propel me to the highest levels of Ahavas Hashem. No, it's there has to be a conscious and deliberate sacrifice on the person's part of יעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנו. That same point is underscored by the Sefer HaChinuch going in in the Rambam's footsteps. The Sefer HaChinuch in the mitzvah of Ahavas Hashem, מצוה תיח שנצטוינו לאהוב את המקום ברוך הוא, she-ne'emar ואהבת את ה' אלקיך. Skipping: dinei ha-mitzvah שראוי לו לאדם, it's befitting for a person שישים כל מחשבתו וכל מגמתו אחר אהבת ה' that every thought a person has, his sole tendency, his sole goal, megama in in that sense is achar Ahavas Hashem. Just one more place in the Kadmonim where where this point is emphasized, the Chovos HaLevavos, he says it more than once but just reading one place where he says it in his hakdama to Sha'ar Ahavas Hashem. So the Chovos HaLevavos comments on how he organized the Chovos HaLevavos and how Sha'ar HaPrishus of abstinence precedes the Sha'ar of Ahavas Hashem, so the Chovos HaLevavos... The Chovos HaLevavos says

כי מן הנמנע שתתיישב אהבת הבורא בלבנו אם התיישבה אהבת העולם בנו.

A person can't love Olam HaZeh, again Olam HaZeh as a mundane physical reality, not as a venue for Torah and mitzvos and Avodas Hashem. A person can't sustain ahavas Olam HaZeh with ahavas Olam HaBa with אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא. It's like fire and water. So again, the same point is implicit, that halacha l'ma'aseh, what Ahavas Hashem demands from us is that a person has to see what is in his life which doesn't contribute to Avodas Hashem. What is it in his life which isn't really warranted, which isn't really driven by considerations of Ahavas Hashem? Again, just to be explicit and to make clear what the Rambam, what the Chinuch, what the Chovos HaLevavos are not saying. They're not saying that there isn't balance in a person's life; within Avodas Hashem, within the pursuit of Ahavas Hashem there is balance, and a person has many spheres of responsibility. He has Torah, he has Avodah, he has Gemilus Chasadim, and certainly the Rambam was very, very emphatic about the obligation to make hishtadlus for parnassa. So we're not talking about some kind of monolithic preoccupation in a practical sense, but in a conceptual and axiological sense that everything a person does is supposed to be, again, directed towards this goal of Ahavas Hashem and יעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנו. What the pirtei pratim of יעזוב כל מה שבעולם חוץ ממנו entails, obviously, is something that varies from individual to individual in terms of sometimes we have interests which we pursue which takeh do contribute to Ahavas Hashem and Avodas Hashem. But sometimes we can have interests which, if we're honest with ourselves, don't really contribute to the Avodas Hashem and Ahavas Hashem. And that's what the chiddush of the Rambam is. That's what he's underscoring at the end of Hilchos Teshuva is that part of what the mitzvah of Ahavas Hashem entails is not only to expose ourselves to that which is conducive to Ahavas Hashem, i.e., Ve'hayu Ha'devarim Ha'eleh, but also to very deliberately and very consciously turn away and sacrifice כל מה שבעולם חוץ ממנו which isn't contributing to this goal. The whole mindset of the Western culture, of American society, of having everything in life is one that's antithetical to this, the way it's understood in terms of American values. Obviously ultimately, if a person has Ahavas Hashem, he really does have everything. And just to add one final note, what we're talking about sheds light on another famous halacha, the halacha that the Rambam records in the last two halachos in פרק ג הלכות דעות halacha beis and gimmel. So the Rambam writes there

שצריך אדם שיכוון כל מעשיו כולם כדי לדעת השם ברוך הוא בלבד.

A person is supposed to direct, calibrate, and orient everything he does for the purpose of yedi'as Hashem. ויהיה שבתו וקומו ודיבורו הכל הוא מזה הדבר. And every waking moment, optimally, a person should be headed in this direction, should be moving towards attaining this goal that everything should be, again, calculated, calibrated, and directed towards this goal. At the end of the Rambam then, as you know, so he amplifies this in halachos beis and gimmel, and then at the end of halacha gimmel he writes

ועל עניין זה ציוו חכמים ואמרו וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים.

This is what Chazal were instructing us to do when they said

וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים והוא שאמר שלמה בחכמתו בכל דרכיך דעהו והוא יישר אורחותיך.

That be'chol derachecha, all your ways, all your preoccupations should be calibrated... should be calculated to da'ehu, towards the goal of yedias Hashem which is synonymous with ahavas Hashem. So if we were to ask, is this only a chiyuv midivrei kabbala? It's just a pasuk in Mishlei or maybe it's even less than that, maybe it's just a chiyuv derabbanan from Pirkei Avos? So the teretz is no, it's clear that really the mechayev in וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים is the mechayev of ahavas Hashem because the mechayev of ahavas Hashem, in order for ahavas Hashem to be נקשרת בלבו של אדם כראוי, it has to be יעזוב כל מה שבעולם חוץ ממנו. So what that translates into is this chiyuv of וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים. Thank you very much, rabosai. We want to thank Rav Twerski very much and now we're going to open the floor to questions. The way it's going to work is anyone who'd like to ask a question, please press star six to be put in line. Again, star six if you'd like to ask Rav Twerski a question. Hi, my name is Adam Felsenthal. Thank you so much, Rav Twerski. I just had a question, how would you advise to counsel people who have doubts about both I guess about pratim of Yiddishkeit as well as the very existence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu with regard to, meaning is there the resolution of those doubts kind of a prerequisite to ahavas Hashem or is there a way that you can somehow have appreciation for ahavas Hashem even with faith crises? Thank you for the question. It would depend on the specifics of what the person was struggling with. There are some questions which need to be, sometimes a person can be assailed by specific questions, specific sfeikos, and he needs to broach them and they need to be met head on. Sometimes, depending upon the person, depending upon the nature of the doubts, he just needs chizuk to persevere and he'll outlive or outgrow the sfeikos. It depends upon the yachid and the particulars and the specifics of what the struggles are and that in turn will give different, differing answers to your question. Thanks, yasher koach. We're going to unmute the next question, this is the 718 number, you're ready to go. Rav Twerski, a pointer, it's this a very hard question, but how do you synchronize ahavas Hashem and what you mentioned that the Rambam encourages people to work? Could you tell us a source for the Rambam? Thank you for the question. It actually touches on a very, very fundamental issue, which is that the thrust of what the Rambam is telling us in those halachos that we referenced at the end of Hilchos Perek Gimmel, Hilchos Deios, is that sometimes we're overly narrow in conceiving of and defining avodas Hashem and what's part of our pursuit of ahavas Hashem. Sometimes we think that when we're in the beis medrash learning, when we're in shul davening, when we're out doing a chesed, so then we're being oved Hashem, and when we're in the office, so we're basically coping with a necessary evil of earning a living. And I don't think anyone, not only the Rambam, I know the Torah, I don't think anyone, any of our ba'alei chachmei masorah who exposit the Torah for us really agrees with that erroneous conception that we often entertain. Heyos that it's a religious obligation that the Rambam quotes the mekoros in Hilchos Talmud Torah for his position, so heyos that that's a religious obligation, so mameila that's also something which if a person honestly engages in it for that reason and therefore consciously frames it in that context, so then when he's in the office, so he's being oived Hashem, he's not being diverted by a necessary evil, it's part of that balance we were alluding to which is part of a complete avodas Hashem, and the same way the Gemara in Shabbos says when Hillel is in the bathhouse, so he's doing chesed, he's doing chesed with himself, if a person, if what a person is doing is something that Torah requires or encourages, and making hishtadlus for parnassah, so again the Rambam was as emphatic as anyone on that, so then memaila it's something which a person should think of and frame and contextualize that way, and because of that it's not a diversion in his avodas Hashem and his ahavas Hashem, it's part of the balance which they require.