Hilchos Teshuva, Perek 2, Halachos 2-4

He spent a little bit of time on the Rambam's teshuva and then at the maybe we'll get a little bit to the other side of teshuva as well. Let's take a look here in the Rambam. Let's take a look in:

ומה היא התשובה? שיעזוב החוטא חטאו ויסירו ממחשבתו ויגמור בלבו שלא יעשהו עוד, שנאמר: יעזוב רשע דרכו ואיש און מחשבותיו.

What's this ve-yesireinu mimachshavto? The Sefer Ha-teshuva is a three-volume work on the Rambam's Hilchos Teshuva called Sefer Ha-teshuva by Rabbi Dzimitrowsky who was a Dayan in Yerushalayim. He's also the one he was married to a granddaughter of the Chasam Sofer. He gives a lot of thought on the Ikkarei Ha-das and the Piskei Kodesh. He's a very big talmid chacham. He has a very interesting discussion of what ve-yesireinu mimachshavto means in the Rambam. At first glance, one would sort of connect it with the ויגמור בלבו שלא יעשהו עוד, meaning that for that resolve to be real and potent and to stick, it has to be ve-yesireinu mimachshavto, that all any thought of the cheit as something within the realm of practical possibility is something that he banishes. So it's again, it's part of the ויגמור בלבו שלא יעשהו עוד. But then he quotes based on Chovos Ha-levavos, based on the Tur of Ibn Pakuda's Chovos Ha-levavos and רבינו בחיי על התורה, Ibn Pakuda and Ben Asher specifically. And they both have an idea based on which maybe the Rambam's ve-yesireinu mimachshavto is really part of the azivas hacheit. And what the Rambam means by ve-yesireinu mimachshavto, and again, the yesod is 100 percent true. The question is whether the Rambam is reflecting this sugya, but either way, the yesod is 100 percent true that no aveirah happens in a vacuum. Be-khlal, nothing happens in a vacuum. People don't just do things. There's a reason we do things. There's something that drives what we do. Maybe it's more conscious and maybe it's more deliberate, maybe it's less conscious and less deliberate, but there's always a context of what we're doing. There's always a reason a person does what he does. So the Rambam is saying ve-ya'azov hachotei chet'o, but in order for that azivas hacheit to, what that azivas hacheit requires is that a person also has to, whatever mindset, whatever thoughts a person had which provide some of the background and the underpinnings of the cheit, he needs to chase that away also, de-hainu. And if a person, I don't know, a person embezzled money from one place, so he didn't, he didn't just have everything, that person just didn't stop to do that, wasn't point of, whatever, lazy people are like that as well, but that's as likely that they do it in this context that they do it in that context. I don't know, there's sometimes kinds of normal and sometimes of inappropriate preoccupation with worries about financial worries in the present and the future v'chulu. The some setting, the some context that the Rambam frames and the ezivas hamachshavah according to this pshat is part of the ezivas hachet. The yesod is 100% true. The question is, is that what the Rambam is telling us here, but that the yesod is true is unquestionable. He has in the Sha'arei Teshuvah in more than one place talks about how part of doing teshuvah is yashes eitzos benafsho. That's the lashon of Rabbeinu Yonah, yashes eitzos benafsho means a person has to strategize how to do teshuvah. There's a reason a person was nichshal in the past and because of that in order to do teshuvah there has to be a well-thought-out plan of how to make his kabbalah l'haba as realistic as possible. Okay, the Rambam says vechen yisnechem continuing here in halacha beis, וכן יתנחם על שעבר shene'emar and again here there's a little bit of a difference between the newer, more dikduk texts of the Rambam printed, the Rambam quotes not only the beginning of the pasuk of shene'emar כי אחרי שובי נחמתי but also the end of the pasuk ואחרי הודעי ספקתי על ירך. What is he takeh meant with it, I think in the standard texts they only quote the first four words כי אחרי שובי נחמתי. So why takeh does the Rambam quote the second part of the pasuk as well? itachen that the Rambam wants to convey, we generally translate nechamah in this context when the Rambam speaks about nichamti uvoshti and over here the Rambam says yisnechem al she'avar. So we generally translate that as to have regret. Regret, I'm not sure exactly what what the connotation of the word is in English, but lav davka that it's so unequivocal that it refers to a profound feeling, that it refers to something which a person feels very deeply. כי אחרי שובי נחמתי ואחרי הודעי ספקתי על ירך, the second half of that pasuk captures the anguish that the person feels, that the nechamah is not just regret but is a remorse, it's something which runs deeper, something which is a profound feeling and thought. יודע תעלומות יעיד עליו שלא ישוב לזה החטא לעולם. So you know that the simple peshat is as the Kesef Mishneh explains and the Kesef Mishneh as well, paskent, that the lehoid in Lashon Hakodesh has two different meanings. That lehoid can mean to give testimony, or lehoid can also mean to call upon someone else to give testimony. והוא עד או ראה או ידע. So lehoid again it can mean to give testimony, it can also mean to call upon for testimony. ואעידה בם את השמים ואת הארץ. So Moshe Rabbeinu is saying I will call as witnesses the Shomayim and Oretz, not that I will testify about but I will call as witnesses. That's what the Meforshim explain here, that the Rambam is using it in that latter sense. It doesn't mean that the standard for teshuva is not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to look into his crystal ball and say that the person will never ever repeat the chet and and if that's not true it means that the teshuva even bishasoi was not there. No, that is not the standard. The standard is high but lower than that. The standard is that his resolve right now, right now what he's what he's saying that ולעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה. Right now if he means that so sincerely and with such determination that right now he takeh is determined never ever to repeat the chet. And that that is true, that that is what he really sincerely feels and is thinking and he's not just saying it min hasafah v'lachutz. So יודע תעלומות יודע תעלומות. So a person is ready to call Hakadosh Baruch Hu to attest to that fact. הקדוש ברוך הוא בוחן לבבות. Hakadosh Baruch Hu who is yoidia machshovos. Eino chanami if rachmana litzlan subsequently a person slips and does repeat the chet, so then you don't say lo milsa l'mafreia that the person had never done teshuva. But what's the raya from the פסוק שנאמר ולא נאמר עוד אלהינו למעשה ידינו? So what's the raya from the posuk? How does that where do you see that יודע תעלומות יעיד עליו שלא ישוב לזה החטא לעולם? So the Kesef Mishneh explains that the Rambam is assuming a somewhat dubious assumption that the Rambam is assuming that we know the beginning of the posuk and that the beginning of the posuk says פסוק קחו עמכם דברים ושובו אל ה'. That the novi says kachu imachem devarim, meaning viduy, v'shuvu el Hashem, and then you'll say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu ולא נאמר עוד אלהינו למעשה ידינו. We're not going to be over avodah zarah anymore, we're not going to say אלהינו בלשון כל למעשה ידינו about about our handiwork about about the the psila. But it's in the context of the kachu imachem devarim that that you see that the Rambam is saying that it's that a person is me'id ha'alumos. וצריך להוציא בשפתיו ולגמור עניינים אלו שגמר בלבו. One yesod that the Rambam here halacha daled is telling us teshuva so ordinarily when we talk about teshuva so we talk about azivas hachet, we talk about kabbalah l'haba, we talk about charata al ha'avar and you sort of say those b'neshima achas. So the Rambam broke it down right? The Rambam broke it down to the first sentence in our halacha he spoke about azivas hachet and kabbalah l'haba and then v'chein and then he also talks about the charata. But when you read halacha gimmel carefully, you see that there's more omek to why the Rambam writes halacha bet as he does. Let's see halacha gimmel.

כל המתוודה בדברים ולא גמר בליבו לעזוב הרי זה דומה לטובל ושרץ בידו שאין הטבילה מועלת עד שישליך השרץ וכן הוא אומר ומודה ועוזב ירוחם.

So this is the Rambam's take on, on his understanding the Gemara in Taanit which the Kesef Mishneh quotes, Kesef Mishneh quotes,

אמר רב אדא בר אהבה אדם שיש בו עבירה ונתוודה ואינו חוזר בה למה הוא דומה לאדם שתפס שרץ בידו שאף על פי שטובל בכל מימי שבעולם לא עלתה לו טבילה זרקו מידו כיוון שטבל בארבעים סאה עלתה לו טבילה שנאמר ומודה ועוזב ירוחם.

But it's not clear what does it mean אדם שיש בו עבירה ואינו חוזר בה. So Rashi and I think Rashi in Taanit says it's, Tosafot's talking about a gazlan and the gazlan has stolen property in his, in his reshut and Yom Kippur or let's say he went to the mikvah and he's crying away with the shliach tzibbur and ma'aseh in his sitting in his bank account he's, he's got money or sitting at home he has, he has stolen property. So that's what it means that אדם שיש בו דבר עבירה ואינו חוזר בה. The Rambam takes it much more generally to say that yesh bo aveira in the sense that he hasn't genuinely resolved to azivat hacheit. Not davka that we're talking about an aveira in a very tangible, physical sense that יש בו דבר עבירה such as a gezeilah. So what's pshat? So lichora you'd say that the pshat is, and this is true, the viduy is just an articulation of, of an inner, viduy is only meaningful as an articulation of an inner reality. So if it mirrors the inner reality, so then it means something to be mitvadeh. If it doesn't, so then again it certainly doesn't mean anything and if anything, therefore to make a mockery out of it is a negative, not just a zero. But the diyuk in the Rambam here is what did the Rambam say teshuva consists of in halacha bet as we say? What, what were the three elements of teshuva from halacha bet as we say? What, what were the three elements of viduy from halacha bet? Viduy, azivat hacheit and conceptually יגמור בליבו שלא יעשהו עוד, these are obviously very closely related to that. But you also need veyitnachem al she'avar, right? But it's very meduyak in halacha gimmel that the Rambam when he says that the viduy is nothing, it's like tovel vesheretz beyado, it's only if he was מתוודה בדברים ולא גמר בליבו. What happens if, if a person is gamar belibo la'azov but the truth is he doesn't yet feel an adequate sense of remorse? He's not really yet mitnachem adequately al she'avar and he knows it. He knows it, he's working on himself. I think maybe we talked about last week maybe in the context of Sha'arei Teshuva when Rabbeinu Yonah says when the charata comes, so Rabbeinu Yonah says if it's a cheit that, that we've done habitually. So then basically we've become totally desensitized to that cheit and when we do teshuva, so then there needs to be a certain amount of distance before we can really have a deep and heartfelt charata, remorse, for the cheit. A person has to grow a certain amount, he has to move beyond the cheit a certain amount in order to have that. So it's very, very, it's a very realistic scenario to imagine someone who can genuinely have been גומר בלבו שלא יעשה but doesn't yet feel this adequate remorse. And the Rambam doesn't dismiss such a vidui. And let's say a person is popping an על חטא בשנה ברגל, על חטא שחטאנו לפניך again the whole, the whole list on the al cheits. And with some of them, again, emes is he doesn't yet feel this, this adequate nechamah, sounds like the Rambam the vidui is still min hatorah. And again, is the teshuvah complete? Is the vidui complete? No, probably not, על פי הלכה ב. But me'idach gisa the Rambam isn't mevatel it. And itachen that the, that the metaphor, טובל ושרץ בידו the metaphor is, is not just intended in very general terms as a metaphor for something which is, which is ineffective or self-defeating. The same way as טובל ושרץ בידו, so it's ineffective, it's self-defeating. So too if a person hasn't completed the teshuvah process. No, by mikvah, so the only condition for the mikvah being effective to be metaher the person is there has to be the equivalent of azivas hacheit. You have to let go of the sheretz. You have to feel bad that you touched the sheretz? No, you don't have to feel bad that you touched the sheretz. You have to let go of the sheretz. You have to let go of the sheretz. So itachen that the, again, that that the metaphor is, is intended to be nuanced, not just a, a general... The Rambam writes in one place when he says what when you have to say p'shat in mashal, I think he says whether in divrei neviim or in divrei chachamim, I'm not sure. He says you should know that sometimes not every prat in the mashal represents a lesson in the nimshal. Sometimes to give a mashal, it's a mashal has to be coherent. Let's say the mashal is going to be a story, it's got to be the mashal. It's a story, it's got to be a good story. Sometimes you're going to need some prat just to flesh out the story that the mashal should be coherent as a, as a mashal. Can't be a good mashal if it... you'll fall asleep during the mashal, don't have a good mashal, every good story, can't get a whole picture with the mashal. But lav davka that every prat in the mashal is, is representing some lesson in the nimshal. So too with the... so the question is what's the, what's the comparison to mikvah? So certainly the comparison to mikvah, the comparison to mikvah is certainly that just as mikvah isn't metaher, so too teshuvah is metaher, l'chora that's certainly part. But itachen that this too is, is alluded to in the mashal. That there's nothing in the mashal which corresponds to charata. There is everything in the mashal which corresponds to azivas hacheit. And again, kabbalah al habah and azivas hacheit are really one and the same, right? But even if I returned what I stole yesterday, if I intend on stealing tomorrow, it's not be'inyan azivas hacheit. And that's what the Rambam is saying in halacha gimmel. And the Rambam is saying what's a chochka utalul, what's a mockery and what has no place is to be mitvadeh without azivas hacheit, without גומר בלבו לעזוב. However, to be mitvadeh without having yet achieved the adequate level of nechamah is still meaningful. It's still something which is, which is very meaningful and represents an important stage in teshuvah. And in light of that you see that back in halacha bais, the fact that the Rambam broke it down and first he said in the beginning of halacha bais, mah hi hateshuvah,

שיעזוב החוטא חטאו ויסירו ממחשבתו וכן יתנחם על מה שעבר.

It's very meduyak. It's not just that he wants to quote different pesukim. No, the Rambam is saying the ikar de-teshuvah is azivas hacheit v'kabbalah al habah. And then yes, there's also a requirement, there's also a stipulation ויתנחם על מה שעבר but that's something additional. hala midarkei hateshuva, what's that? hala midarkei hateshuva? darkei hateshuva liheyos hashav tzo'ek, what's that? darkei hateshuva liheyos hashav tzo'ek lifnei Hashem bivchi vesachanunim

ועושה צדקה כפי כחו ומתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו ומשנה שמו כלומר שאני אחר ואיני אותו האיש שעשה אותן המעשים ומשנה מעשיו כולן לטובה ולדרך ישרה וגולה ממקומו שגלות מכפרת עון שגורמת לו להכנע ולהיות עניו

ushfal ruach. If we take a look, the Kessef Mishneh already identifies the mekor for this halacha.

פרק קמא דראש השנה אמר רבי יצחק ארבעה דברים מקרעין גזר דינו של אדם ואלו הן צדקה צעקה שינוי השם ושינוי מעשה ויש אומרים אף שינוי מקום וחמישה דברים אלו רמוזים להם בדבר אלו.

And the Rambam also, it's clear that that's what the Rambam is quoting. But what's remarkable here is the way Rav Yitzchak introduces, the context in which Rav Yitzchak introduces this list of things is that these are דברים שמקרעין גזר דינו של אדם. tze'akah, tzedakah, shinui hashem, shinui ma'aseh, ויש אומרים אף שינוי מקום. And the Rambam isn't talking about being דברים שמקרעין גזר דינו של אדם, he's not, the siman he doesn't even allude to that. He talks about darkei hateshuva. darkei hateshuva means a lifestyle of teshuva, another correction to our common popular misconception. We think of teshuva sort of as a moment. teshuva is a moment when a person is meharher bilivo and he's meharher bilivo and he has, again, he has a kabbalah al haba, he has a nechama about the past and then he'll say it:

חטאתי עויתי פשעתי ונחמתי ובושתי ולעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה.

And the Rambam says it is, it is, there is a moment of teshuva, but there's also a lifestyle of teshuva. It's not, okay, kam v'nish'am, but there's a lifestyle of teshuva. But then how do you sort of transpose what Rav Yitzchak says on דברים שמקרעין גזר דינו של אדם and use that to depict what the lifestyle of teshuva is? So itachen that what the peshat in the Rambam is pashet. What the Rambam is saying is if Rav Yitzchak talks about being דברים שמקרעין גזר דינו של אדם, it means that rachmana litzlan a gezar din has been sealed against this person. So what does it mean when Chazal say that tzedakah tatzil mimaves? So what does that mean? Means that I take out my checkbook and I write a check? Check! So simple as that? Or it means one heartfelt tefillah? The Gemara in Masechet Shabbos tells the story, right, that Rabbi Akiva's daughter on her wedding day, she sees at her wedding seudah, she sees an oni standing at the door and everyone else is so busy with the simcha that no one notices him. And she notices him and she goes over and unbeknownst to anyone else, no one else notices, no one else sees what she's doing and she goes over and she gives food, she gives money, I forget what the Gemara says. That then later she takes a pin out of her headpin or whatever it is and without looking she just puts it into the, sticks it into the wall behind her. And then later it turns out that in so doing she pierced a poisonous snake which was poised to bite her and kill her. And when Rabbi Akiva hears what happens he said... Did you do something today? Do you have something special zechus today? She tells him what happened with the ani, and he says: Tzedakah tatzil mimaves. Ein hachi nami, it's that the Gemorra that the passuk is being quoted about a single instance of tzedakah. And the tza'akah text that the Gemorra in Rosh Hashanah had is for tza'akah, וייצעקו אל ה' בצר להם וממצוקותיהם יושיעם. Assuming that the b'tzar lahem represents the tefillah that's been tza'akah that was created at that tzara. I don't know, I'm not sure, but somehow with the Rambam, even if you have sort of these dramatic snapshots as you have with Rabbi Akiva's daughter, the Rambam is telling us that it has to reflect, it has to be indicative of שינוי מעשה של אדם. I'm not sure if this is p'shat, eino. It has to reflect, it has to be indicative of some lifestyle, not just a moment of noble behavior or a moment of intense tefillah, as meaningful as that is, I don't know, eino. Ultimately, ein hachi nami, the Gemorra is ta'akeh referring to that maybe even a single instance can have such a tremendous koach that it becomes the basis for שינוי מעשה של אדם, but what you see is that these are the things that clearly what the Gemorra means is these things in addition to teshuva, right? It means that the teshuva alone is not going to yield the result of the being שינוי מעשה של אדם. It has to be teshuva plus tzedakah, tza'akah, shinui hashem, etcetera. So clearly that, so you can glean from that ma'amar chazal so how it is that teshuva should translate into a lifestyle. You see that this enhances the teshuva. You see that this upgrades the teshuva. You see that this, when this accompanies the teshuva, it brings it to a different level. So from here the Rambam says you can reconstruct what the lifestyle of teshuva should entail. Maybe just the line here the Rambam says that ומשנה מעשיו כולם לטובה. So again Rabbi Yitzchak mentions amongst his arba'ah devarim, shinui ma'aseh. So there is a difficult Rashi. So Rashi says shinui ma'aseh means he stops stealing. So the Rishonim, the Ritba ask on Rashi, all these things are things which are additional. If a person's stealing so then stops stealing is a tshuva, it's nothing additional. So clearly the Rambam also is reading the Gemara that way, but the pshat the Rambam gives us is a remarkable pshat. Part of translating tshuva into a lifestyle is that even everything that a person's been doing which is not, you can't be indicted for anything, can't be indicted for anything. He upgrades everything he's doing. That's part of again translating into a lifestyle the commitment of tshuva, the new commitment of tshuva. He comes every day to minyan, he comes, he's always been coming five minutes over to minyan, and you can't, you can't get him for that. It's nothing, no chet he has to do tshuva for there. So now he's going to come ten minutes over, he's going to come ten minutes over. Whenever his parents ask anything of him, he does it and he does it with the right attitude and with the right demeanor. There's nothing to criticize, there's nothing to do tshuva for there. שינוי מעשה כולו טובה, I'm going to try to anticipate what my parents would want, what my parents need, that they shouldn't have to ask me. That that type of upgrade of taking one's avodah to the next level is what shinui ma'aseh means according to the Rambam. And everything we do in terms of perfecting it even further is shinui ma'aseh, shinui ma'aseh. A person never exhausts this שינוי מעשה כולו טובה. Every year a person, every day a person can find added expressions, added ways, new avenues of שינוי מעשה כולו טובה.