Hashem’s Help With Teshuva

We spoke yesterday about the different understandings in the Rambam and Ramban about the psukim of v'hiv chodesh v'ayser vos v'hiv aechem v'psar chem. So the Rambam also tells us how he learns pshat in the Gemara that the Ramban begins with הבא לטהר מסייעין אותו. So the Rambam here in Perek Vav Hilchos Teshuva Halacha Hey. The context, the context is bechira chofshis, how we have bechira, and that gives us the opportunity and obligation to do teshuva.

ומהו זה שאמר דוד טוב וישר השם על כן יורה חטאים בדרך. ידרך ענוים במשפט וילמד ענוים דרכו.

Does that, does that pasuk mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sort of pulling strings like a puppeteer? Perek Vav Halacha Hey. So the Rambam gives two pshatim. Number one, what it means when David Hamelech says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu guides, he teaches chata'im. chata'im here meaning sinners, not sins. את מחתות החטאים האלה בנפשותם. That when he's moreh derech to them, so the first pshat the Rambam says is

זה ששלח להם נביאים מודיעים להם דרכי השם ומחזירים אותם בתשובה.

Okay, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends nevi'im who deliver his message, and in that way he's moreh derech. V'od, says the Rambam, שנתן בהם כח ללמוד ולהבין. He gave people who have sinned the capacity, the koach lilmod u'l'havin, to learn and to discern. שמידה זו בכל אדם. This is quite remarkable.

שמידה זו בכל אדם שכל זמן שהוא נמשך בדרכי החכמה והצדק מתאוה להם ורודף אותם.

You know, it's almost, maybe a little bit of a mashal. Right, so there are certain, I don't know, chemicals or behaviors which are addictive. So if a person smokes a cigarette, rachmana litzlan, so the nicotine is something which is addictive. There's a natural reaction that a person has which urges him to continue, to go forward. Certain behaviors are like that. The people who are not stoned out of their heads from marijuana haven't been legalized, are all going to be bankrupt because they're going to be addicted to the gambling because they legalized gambling. Those are both addictive behaviors. So in the physical world, we know that there's a certain, again, momentum that the behavior, the chemical, whatever it is, creates. So the Rambam says the same thing happens spiritually. That when a person is initially נמשך בדרכי החכמה והצדק, if a person will only take the initial steps, so then מתאוה להם ורודף אותם. So he's, addicted is obviously not a correct literal translation, but it's not far. מתאוה להם, so he desires to go further along that path of chochma and tzedek, of wisdom, of Torah and righteousness, ורודף אותם and to pursue them. V'hu she'amru chachamim הבא לטהר מסייעין אותו. And that's the pshat in the meimar Chazal. Klomar, what that meimar Chazal means according to the Rambam is ימצא עצמו נעזר על הדבר. So again, it doesn't mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu intervening in human affairs, but it means again, similar to the yesod that we spoke about from the Radak on ואתה נותן להם את אכלם בעתו that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the system whereby this haba l'taher, he he has a siyua in the sense that even though he only took two steps forward, but he feels a positive momentum which is helping to carry him and helping to propel him even further. And that's what it means when it's attributed to Hakadosh Baruch Hu of יורה חטאים בדרך. Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to add also just a mareh makom again. We've been learning the Ramban on ומל ה' אלקיך את לבבך. So the first pshat in the Ramban is that it's true of every teshuvah, and the second is no, that it's talking specifically about the teshuvah in acharit hayamim. Again, which is sort of, I'm not sure we highlighted this yesterday, which is parallel to what we when we were talking about the atah u'vanecha, והתודו את עונם ואת עון אבתם, that the Torah's presentation of teshuvah here is layered. Part of the presentation is what teshuvah means throughout the generations, and part of it is what the teshuvah means, the teshuvah that will precipitate the geulah ha'atidah. So again, not by way of elaborating the Ramban, but saying what another one of the gedolei rishonim has to say about the pasuk, so Rabbeinu Yonah has here in the very beginning of Shaarei Teshuvah. Let me just find... where is this one?

ובהזהרה על התשובה בכמה מקומות בתורה ונתבאר כי התשובה מקבלת גם כי ישוב החוטא מרוב צרותיו, כל שכן כי ישוב מיראת השם באהבתו.

That's we would have thought Rabbeinu Yonah highlights a chesed. We would have thought that okay teshuvah is enough of a chesed bidvarim where the teshuvah is l'shmah, but where the teshuvah is occasioned by tzaros, we wouldn't have thought that

אין לך שלא לשמה גדול מזה. כמשל למה הדבר דומה.

So Reuven insults Shimon. So Shimon says apologize. Reuven says no, never. So Shimon takes him and twists his arm and he twists and he twists and he twists. Eventually, Reuven's going to apologize, not because he had an epiphany and all of a sudden he's turning over a new leaf, but it hurts. So he's gonna apologize. So we would have thought, so what's that apology worth? What's that apology worth? Hakadosh Baruch Hu says no, that if the person means the teshuvah, even that the teshuvah is precipitated by tzaros, that he accepts that also. B'tzar lecha u'metza'ucha.

והיה כי יבאו עליך כל הדברים האלה הברכה והקללה, שנאמר בצר לך ומצאוך כל הדברים האלה באחרית הימים ושבת עד ה' אלקיך ושמעת בקלו.

Nitbaer baTorah. So remember we when we looked at those are the pesukim in Parshat Va'etchanan, not our pesukim. So we mentioned then that the Ramban al haTorah understands those בימי בית שני and the Ramban elsewhere assumes that that also the acharit hayamim means the way acharit hayamim is usually used. Rabbeinu Yonah aligns with the second pshat that he understands the pesukim as also as referring to acharit hayamim.

נתבאר בתורה כי יעזר השם לשבים כאשר אין יד טבעם משגת ויחדש בקרבם רוח טהרה להשיג מעלת אהבתו, שנאמר ושבת עד ה' אלקיך ושמעת בקלו ככל אשר אנכי מצוך היום אתה ובניך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך.

V'omer. Maybe one more time just from the that sentence of v'nitbaer or something that כאשר אין יד טבעם משגת, that sentence please. כאשר אין יד טבעם... what's the phrase? Please just give me a second here. Nitbaer baTorah. Yeah.

נתבאר בתורה כי יעזר השם לשבים כאשר אין יד טבעם משגת ויחדש בקרבם רוח טהרה להשיג מעלת אהבתו.

So Rabbeinu Yonah here says something which is so it's, I don't know, virtually impossible to exaggerate its importance. Rabbeinu Yonah says that as long as a person does what he can do, however little or much that is. So a person has to be honest with himself about what that is. But as long as a person does as much as he can do, HaKadosh Baruch Hu finishes the job. Right? There's a pasuk later in the Torah that when אין יד טבעם משגת, when ואם לא תשיג ידו, right, if it doesn't reach, if he doesn't have it b'haseg yad means that that he doesn't have the wherewithal, if he's not able on his own to cultivate ahavas Hashem, if he's not able with the teshuvah to end up as an ohev Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu just says you do what you can and I do the rest. And what's the prooftext? Chazal say in the parasha, shene'emar,

ושבת אל ה' אלוהיך ושמעת בקולו ככל אשר אנכי מצוך היום אתה ובניך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך.

And then v'amar b'gufeh ha'inyan

ומל ה' אלוהיך את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך לאהבה את ה'.

And the נביאים וכתובים דברו בזה. So this, so this same idea that that there are certain ultimate goals in avodas Hashem that as long as the person does his maximum, so then HaKadosh Baruch Hu finishes the job for him. So you find in a very similar... and he doesn't say it in the context of teshuvah, but Chovos HaLevavos already says it by ahavas Hashem. He says the truth is that real ahavas Hashem on the highest level is not really something which is naturally attainable. But if a person does his maximum, so then HaKadosh Baruch Hu finishes the job for him. And then later Ramchal says the same thing about kedushah, that that in the effort to cultivate kedushah, that's why Ramchal says v'hisdkadishtem v'hiyitem kedoshim, or maybe he had another pasuk like that also I think. So what's the double phrase? So Ramchal says what it means is that v'hisdkadishtem, you do yours, and then v'hiyitem kedoshim, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu says and I'll take care of the rest. So it's so relevant lema'aseh that you don't maybe sometimes when a person thinks that this is too much, I can't do it, so maybe he's right. Maybe he's right, but the conclusion to be drawn is not therefore that it's a futile attempt, but rather the conclusion to be drawn is okay so that means that whatever I can't do HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to finish the job for me. So it's not something that's supposed to occasion a ye'ush in a person, but no that's what ושבת אל ה' אלוהיך, you'll do teshuvah to the best of your ability. Ay you don't think that your teshuvah is going to catapult you to ahavas Hashem, maybe you're right, maybe it won't, maybe maybe maybe that is true in in in one's case, but

ומל ה' אלוהיך את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך לאהבה את ה' אלוהיך

and then that's what Ramchal says the same thing about about cultivating cultivating kedushah. But Rabbeinu Yona is not limiting this to the teshuvah of the higher level, and his understanding of u'mal Hashem elokecha is not the Ramban's change in human nature. No it's it's this sort of partnership that that HaKadosh Baruch Hu forges with us that he says to us you do your best as ba'alei teshuvah and then I'll you know I'll I'll I'll elevate you. L'mashal it's imagine you have you know imagine you have a building a skyscraper 150 stories tall and and you have to get to the top level and the elevators are out. It does happen from time to time in some places and and the elevators are out so a person who can climb to the 150th floor so a person starts walking and walking and when he's ready l'chalos when he can't take another step further so that's when the elevators will the elevators will kick in. It's not a replacement for our effort, but it's a perspective on that yeah, maybe it does seem like too much, but as long as we do what we can בכל לבבנו בכל נפשנו HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that he'll finish the job. Okay, we're going to stop here for this shiur and iy"H we'll continue next time.