Hilchos Teshuva, Perek 6

Okay I think we left off here in Perek Vav, Halacha Hey, and what he writes in the Torah:

ולא כתוב בתורה ועבדום וענו אותם הרי גזר על המצריים לעשות רע וכתיב וקם העם הזה וזנה אחרי אלהי נכר הארץ הרי גזר על ישראל לעבוד עבודה זרה ולמה נפרע מהם לפי שלא גזר על איש פלוני הידוע שיהיה הוא הזונה אלא כל אחד ואחד מאותן הזונים שעבדו עבודה זרה אילו לא רצה לעבוד לא היה עובד ולא הודיע הבורא אלא מנהגו של עולם ולמה זה דומה לאומר העם הזה יהיה בהם צדיקים ורשעים לא מפני זה יאמר הרשע כבר נגזר עליו שיהיה רשע מפני שידע הקדוש ברוך הוא שהרשע יהיה רשע מישראל כעניין שנאמר כי לא יחדל אביון מקרב הארץ וכן המצרים כל אחד ואחד מאותן המצירים והמריעים לישראל אילו לא רצה להרע להם הרשות בידו שלא גזר על איש ידוע אלא הודיע שסוף זרעו להשתעבד בארץ לא להם וכבר בארנו שאין כח באדם לידע איך ידע הקדוש ברוך הוא דברים שעתידין להיות.

So both the Raavad here as well as the Ramban in Parshas Lech Lecha are massig on this Rambam. So the Rambam seemingly solves the problem by saying that HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't say that Abdul was going to be mavid u-meaneh Klal Yisrael. He said that it will happen. Could have been it would have been Mohammad, didn't have to be Abdul. The fact that Abdul was mavid u-meaneh, so then he's acting of his own accord. That's his own bechirah. So the Ramban and Raavad have different asagos. And the Ramban is massig and says but אף על פי כן, that keshel-atzmo doesn't really answer anything because if HaKadosh Baruch Hu says I'm gozer that the Mitzriyim should enslave Bnei Yisrael, so then someone who volunteers, someone who steps forward and volunteers, should get schar for it. The fact that HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't assign the task to a particular Mitzri, how does that address the question? That's the Ramban's question. The Raavad's question is that as it were Abdul should be able to defend himself and say, Ribbono Shel Olam, you made a gezera, ועבדום וענו אותם ארבע מאות שנה. He says the other Egyptians, he says the ones who or וקם העם הזה וזנה אחרי אלהי נכר הארץ. So the ones who weren't oveid avoda zara, they weren't mekayem your gezera. Your gezera was only mequyama because of me, so how can it be that I'm getting punished? How can it be? So the Meshech Chochma I think cites the... Meshech Chochma is on the pasuk in Parshas Lech Lecha, וגם את הגוי אשר יעבודו. He cites the Ramban's kasha, but l'maiseh he addresses the Raavad's kasha as well. He says that had the pasuk said הנני מביא עליך את המצרים or

הנני מביא על זרעך את המצרים לעבד אותם ולענות אותם,

so then the Ramban would have been right. The Rambam would agree with the Ramban. Had the pasuk been written as a gezera that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling Avraham Avinu... So I am hereby telling you that I'm being gozer שיעבוד ועינוי על זרעך. So then the Ramban's would have been right. So then to volunteer to fulfill gezeiras haborei, the fact that that the gezeira didn't specify that it has to be Pharaoh, that wouldn't be a relevant factor. The Rambam shouldn't be talking about that. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't say it as a gezeira. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says: This is what's going to happen. The Rambam gives a moshal too:

המשל למה הדבר דומה לומר האומה הזאת יהיה בהם צדיקים ורשעים.

What does what does that mean? It means Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not saying it betoras gezeira. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not saying this is going to happen in the future because I've been gozer. This is going to happen in the future because I see that it's going to happen in the future, not that I'm being gozer that it'll happen in the future. המשל למה הדבר דומה, let's say a person will tell you today that over the course of the next year, rachmana litzlan, there are going to be anti-semitic incidents in France. So mistomeh he's a hundred percent correct. Mistomeh he's a hundred percent correct, but that doesn't mean because he's being gozer. It means that you look and you can see. You look and you can see. You can see that that's what's going to happen. So that prediction, so that prediction should exonerate the reshaim who perpetrate the incidents around them or not? Aye, but but it was known. Yeah, it was known. But clearly that foreknowledge, no one thinks that that's gezeira, right? That's what the Rambam's moshal is. That's what R' Meir Simcha says: Look at the lashon hapasuk. The pasuk is כי גר יהיה זרעך. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling him a story, He's not telling him a gezeira. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling Avraham Avinu a story, not a gezeira. The story is

כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם ועבדום וענו אותם.

Again, the same way, rachmana litzlan, we can say what's going to be in France. The same way in quotation marks, המשל למה הדבר דומה. If it would have been a gezeira, the Ramban's right. If someone would have volunteered to fulfill the gezeira, that would have been a defense, it would have been a mitzvah and therefore it would have been a defense. And the Ra'avad's right. Again, it would have been a defense potentially that Ribbono Shel Olam, how else would Your gezeira been mekuyam? But the whole point is this isn't a gezeira. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not saying: I am hereby being gozer. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says: I'm looking in my crystal ball.

כמו שביארנו אומר הרמב"ם בסוף ההלכה שאין כח באדם לידע האיך ידע הקב"ה דברים שעתידים להיות.

We don't know how Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks in his crystal ball, but I'm looking in my crystal ball and I'm telling you this is what's going to happen. That's no more a gezeira on any particular individual than to say that amongst that amongst a certain nation there are going to be tzadikim and reshaim or to say that there's going to be anti-semitic incidents. But the leshonos harambam are very, very, very meduyak according to R' Meir Simcha. If you reread here rabosai, again, so the question is that seemingly the pasuk is

הרי גזר על ישראל עבודה זרה. הרי גזר על המצרים לעשות רע.

Right? That's that's the question that the pasuk seemingly is recording a gezeira. What's the answer? The answer is

לפי שלא גזר על איש פלוני הידוע שיהיה הוא הזונה ולא הודיע הבורא אלא מנהגו של עולם.

Right? So the Rambam changes, right? He changes the verb from gozer to lehodi'a. He doesn't only, in other words, the shift is not only from that it didn't specify eved, it just said in general, but the shift is also from gazar to hodiah because that's the whole vort. That there isn't that it wasn't gezeira again, it's narrating what's going to happen, but not as not as a gezeira. ולא הודיעו הבורא אלא מנהגו של עולם. Again at the end of the halakha, שלא גזר על איש ידוע אלא הודיעו. See he doesn't just say שלא גזר על איש ידוע אלא על האומה בכללותה. Right? It changes, there isn't gezeira here. Okay. So the maiseh according to the Ramban, the Ramban gives two answers as to why the Mitzrayim. So it's not a defense then, if not for you stepping out then Hashem's prediction would be false? No, because again that's why the Ramban, that's why the Rambam addresses you in the last two lines that this posuk is no different than the riddle of how Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows the future. It's no more Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows how each one of us is going to turn out. And הכל צפוי והרשות נתונה. And that's what the Rambam spoke about in hei hei. That that doesn't pose a question for us because in order to have a question we would have to understand how Hakadosh Baruch Hu's yedia works. What over here, what seems to have been an additional question is isn't Hakadosh Baruch Hu here being gozer on them. It's not just that He knows the future, He's being gozer. And the Ram says no, that's not what the psukim are saying. The posuk doesn't say

אברהם אבינו הנני מביא על זרעך גוי אשר יעבדום וענו אותם.

No, he's not saying I'm doing it. He's saying, I know it's going to happen. I know it's going to happen. And by only saying it again as a prediction as it were, and by not specifying who it is, okay. Let us begin perek zayin here a little bit.

הכול ברשות כל אדם נתונה לו כמו שביארנו ישתדל האדם לעשות תשובה ולנעור כפיו מחטאיו כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה כדי שיזכה לחיי העולם הבא. הכל ברשות כל אדם נתונה לו

is the opening phrase of perek hei, right? That the person has bechira, so yishtadel, yishtadel doesn't mean to try, it means to exert himself. So here the Rav has really very, very important and fundamental insights into all of hilchos teshuvah in one of the drashos in Al HaTeshuvah. So what? Until perek hei so we were assuming a person should do teshuvah even though he doesn't have bechira chofshis? And he told us we should do teshuvah in perek bais? חייבין הכל להתוודות ולעשות תשובה on Yom HaKippurim. So obviously we knew there was bechira chofshis. So what was nischadesh over here in perek hei and perek vav and now in perek zayin he sort of reintroduces the chiyuv to do teshuvah? So the Rav explains very, very beautifully. He says, until the Rambam taught us just how powerful bechira chofshis is, you could have thought that doing teshuvah means doing the following. A person has, let's say we all have, ich veis all kinds of netiyos, all kinds of ta'avos, all kinds of weaknesses, all kinds of flaws. Okay. With which point us in the direction of certain aveiros. A person is stingy so it points him in the direction of the

לא תקפוץ את ידך ולא תאמץ את לבבך לא תקפוץ את ידך.

A person is a ka'asan, it points him in direction of of pen yosef that that Rachmana litzlan he'll he'll hit someone. Le'ummas zeh a person also knows that there's going to be a din ve-cheshbon. So his bechirah consists of aligning himself with that with with with that side. His bechirah consists that that he'll he'll align himself, he'll adjudicate between those competing forces. That there are some things that point him towards aveira, Rachmana litzlan. There are other things, I mean a person also has, he has a yetzer tov, he has a netiya to ruchniyus and in addition a person can have yiras chet, yiras shamayim. So the bechirah chofshis is to is to see to it that the correct side prevails. And and that same type of bechirah can bring a person to do teshuva. Here in Perek Hei the Rambam tells us the secret. No, that

רשות כל אדם נתונה לו אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ולהיות צדיק הרשות בידו ואם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך רעה ולהיות רשע הרשות בידו.

That the teshuva that the bechirah chofshis is not only that a person can determine his conduct but a person can affect himself. He can affect himself, he can those chesronos that a person has, he's stingy, so a person can work on that and a person can change that. It's not just that his bechirah is should I give in to my stinginess or should I overcome my stinginess and and give tzedaka. Should I give in to my ka'as or should I overcome the ka'as and not hit the person, not curse the person? No, the bechirah is אם רצה להטות עצמות that a person can refine the middos. A person can refine the middos. That's why the Rav says it's such a such a beautiful, beautiful insight in Halakha Gimmel. The Rambam now tells us in Perek Zayin

ואל תאמר שאין התשובה אלא מעבירות שיש בהן מעשה כגון זנות וגזל וגניבה כשם שצריך אדם לשוב מאלו כך הוא צריך לחפש בדעות רעות שיש לו ולשוב מהן מן הכעס מן האיבה מן הקנאה מן התחרות מן ההיתול ומרדיפת הממון והכבוד ומרדיפת המאכלות וכיוצא בהן מן הכל צריך לחזור בתשובה ואלו העוונות קשים מאותן שיש בהן מעשה.

So how come the Rambam didn't tell us this earlier? Earlier the Rambam didn't didn't talk about teshuva from deos. So he says no, that's what's what was nischadesh. Earlier, until earlier we were just understanding again that a person's bechirah and therefore a person's teshuva is sort of adjudicating between different kochos within himself, different netiyos, different different impulses. Again, I should not give in to the anger, I should not give in to the stinginess, I should not give in to the taivah. Then the Rambam says no, let me tell you something about bechirah chofshis. Bechirah chofshis means that not only not only can a person again be machriya, not only can he adjudicate between the different kochos, but a person can change himself. He can improve himself, he can refine himself. Oh, now that you understand that, so the Rambam says let me tell you that teshuva is not only not only if because of one's chemdas mamon one stole, but the teshuva should be on the chemdas mamon itself. And the teshuva is not only Rachmana litzlan on a ma'aseh znus but but the teshuva should be on the middah of of of taivah. Well, what does the Rambam write here? And again in Halacha Aleph

כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה כדי שיזכה לחיי העולם הבא.

Why shouldn't he just do it totally lishma? Why, why set the bar lower than lishma? And the question is especially driven by the fact that, again, the way the Rav guides us through Hilchos Teshuvah, so here in Perek Zayin, the Rambam is going to talk about teshuvah me'ahavah which he hasn't spoken about until now. And that's why here in beginning with Halacha Vav, the Rambam quotes the ma'amarei Chazal and has the whole glowing description of teshuvah because here he's talking about teshuvah me'ahavah. So davka in this perek, you would have thought that a person should, he should do teshuvah, even without the orientation towards chayei olam haba. So the emes is that you have a certain tension here, even leaving this halacha aside. If you take a look in פרק ט' הלכה ב'. Well, maybe first

פרק י' הלכה א'. אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא. אין ראוי לעבוד את השם על דרך זו שהעובד על דרך זו הוא עובד מיראה.

So the Rambam says explicitly to be motivated by אזכה לחיי העולם הבא, to be motivated by avoiding rachmana litzlan the fate of היכרת מחיי העולם הבא, is al derech hayirah. And he says explicitly it's not ma'alas hanevi'im, it's not ma'alas hachachamim. So on the same page, just go to the previous halacha, Tes Beis.

ומפני זה התאוו כל ישראל נביאיהם וחכמיהם ימות המלך המשיח כדי שינוחו ממלכות הרשעה שאינן מניחות להן לישראל לעסוק בתורה ובמצוות כהוגן וימצאו להן מרגוע וירבו בחכמה כדי שיזכו לחיי העולם הבא.

So here the Rambam is describing the nevi'im and the chachamim as desiring yemos hamashiach because then

וימצאו להן מרגוע וירבו בחכמה כדי שיזכו לחיי העולם הבא,

which he says here in Yud Aleph is not ma'alas hachachamim, not ma'alas hanevi'im. A blatant stira. So the teretz is as follows: that a person can long for chayei olam haba in two different ways. A person can long for chayei olam haba in a, call it a selfish way. That everyone has, every healthy person, everyone who's, every healthy person, speaking about mental health, every healthy person wants to live. Every healthy person wants to live. A person can want to live in olam haba the same way no one wants to die in olam hazeh. Okay, but we realize the inevitability of that. So then that instinct for life gets transferred to a desire for chayei olam haba. So that's mipnei hayirah. That's mipnei hayirah. It's not the highest, it's not the ideal, it's not what the Chachamim are motivated by, it's not what the Nevi'im are motivated by. But a person can desire Chayei Olam Haba for another reason. And and that's as follows. You take a look here in Perek Alef Halacha Yud in Yesodei HaTorah. So when the Rambam is explaining what Moshe Rabbeinu asked from Hakadosh Baruch Hu by הראני נא את כבודך, so

ביקש משה רבינו להיות מציאות הקדוש ברוך הוא נפרדת בלבו משאר מציאות הנמצאים עד שידע אמיתת המצאו כמה שהיא והשיבו ברוך הוא שאין כח בדעת האדם החי שהוא מחובר מגוף ונפש להשיג אמיתת דבר זה על בוריו.

So the Rambam here says and and the Rambam says that's what the pasuk כי לא יראני האדם וחי means, that kol zman that the that that we exist be'guf vanefesh, so that hybrid existence places a certain cap on what a person is capable of understanding about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That there's a certain ceiling on Yedias Hashem by virtue of the fact that we live a physical existence. That places a certain cap on what a person can understand, right? כי לא יראני האדם וחי. The re'iyah sichlis which you're looking for, what you're asking for is beyond what even you Moshe Rabbeinu can have vachai while still living in the state of guf vanefesh. The Rambam says it again in Perek Ches of Yesodei HaTorah, no excuse me Perek Ches of Hilchos Teshuva. At the end of Halacha Bais, ומהו זה שאמרו ונהנין מזיו השכינה? What does it mean that in Olam Haba Tzadikim enjoy the radiance of the Shechina? What does that mean? What does that metaphor mean?

שיודעים ומשיגים מאמיתת הקדוש ברוך הוא מה שאינם יודעים והם בגוף האפל השפל.

Same idea. And therefore in Halacha Zayin Kama Hama or Kama David והתאוה לחיי העולם הבא, shene'emar לולא האמנתי לראות בטוב ה' בארץ החיים. So a person can desire Chayei Olam Haba because he wants to continue living. So that's a madreiga of mipnei hayirah. Nothing to be contemptuous of. Halevai that we should all be at least on on that madreiga. But then that a person can also aspire to Chayei Olam Haba not because he's looking to perpetuate his own existence, not not with a selfish emphasis, but he can aspire to Chayei Olam Haba because he's מתאוה התאוה הגדולה לידע השם and there's and the ceiling is raised in Olam Haba for Yedias Hashem. As opposed to where it is in Olam Hazeh. And the pshat is that's what the Rambam was referring to here in the beginning פרק ז הלכה א. Yeah, he's takeh introducing now a teshuva me'ahava. Teshuva me'ahava a person can, again, he can totally refine himself first of all, not just adjudicate differently between opposing kochos within himself, but he can refine himself and let him aspire again

כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה כדי שיזכה לחיי העולם הבא

in the sense that Dovid Hamelech was and the Chachamim Neviim of פרק ט הלכה ב are pining for Chayei Olam Haba. לעולם יראה אדם את עצמו we'll just do one more halacha here.

לעולם יראה אדם את עצמו כאילו הוא נוטה למות ושמא ימות בשעתו ונמצא עומד בחטאו. לפיכך ישוב מחטאו מיד ולא יאמר כשאזקין אשוב שמא ימות קודם שישוב. הוא ששלמה אמר בחכמתו בכל עת יהיו בגדיך לבנים ושמן על ראשך אל יחסר.

So as the Kesef Mishneh quotes, it's a mishna in Pirkei Avos, שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך, a person doesn't know when that is. So mimmela what it means is that kol yamav bitshuvah. See the question is, and this isn't the setup for an answer, this is just the question with a tzarich iyun. Why does this belong here in Perek Zayin? Meaning we just explained why Halacha Gimmel the Rambam couldn't tell us before and everything else that's going to follow in this perek is talking davka about teshuva me'ahava and the possibility of the teshuva me'ahava, possibility of a teshuva where a person doesn't just sort of align himself with different kochos, but a person refines and changes and elevates himself. All that is good, but lichora Halacha Beis is equally true of the type of teshuva the Rambam was talking about earlier. Even if teshuva were just mean don't give in to the ka'as and curse someone, give in to your finer instincts and have yiras shamayim. Halacha Beis is equally appropriate. So why is it mimmela Halacha Gimmel, so we understand why the Rambam is first telling it to us now and all the ma'amarim about במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים אין צדיקים גמורים יכולים לעמוד and גדולה תשובה שהיא מקרבת את האדם לשכינה, again, all that is about the teshuva me'ahava. To do the teshuva me'ahava a person has to draw on the enhanced understanding of bechira chofshis. But Halacha Beis, why does Halacha Beis belong here? I don't know. Ayin sham, tzarich iyun. Sunday bli neder shiur is going to be a little earlier than usual. I'm not sure exactly what time, not before 10:30 but possibly as early as 10:30 bli neder im yirtzeh Hashem.