Nefesh Hachaim #9: Shaar 1, Perek 6, part 5: Ish Halacha part 2

So the point of the parsha a couple of weeks ago from Nefesh Hachaim was how how Chaim Volozhin explains the efficacy, the possibility, the the dynamic of teshuva. And we're hoping to sort of compare and see the differences between that and and how how the Rav understands it here in Ish HaHalacha. Remember exactly where where we left off last week, but but if you have it, so I'm reading on page 96 now. ולעתים אדם דר בצל העבר, a person lives in the shadow of the past. העתיד וההווה בבת אחת, the future and the present simultaneously. גם חוק הסיבתיות לובש מבחינה זו צורה חדשה, the law of causality takes on a different meaning.

אין כאן סדריות קבועה של תהליך הסיבתיות הכללית ואין היחס של סיבה פועלת,

an active cause, umesovev savil, and a passive result, שכבר הוקצב והותצב על ידה קיים כאן. When a person has this notion of a past that isn't just a memory but a past that's alive, so then the law of causality changes. Like this we think of the law of causality that what happened at an earlier point in time causes and determines what happens at a later point in time. Says the Rav in in this conception, in this reality of a past that exists. Again, remember the mashal we gave of in terms of space, the fact that a person walks from place one to place two doesn't mean that place one ceases to exist. It just means that's not where I am now. So if a person thinks of time in in a similar sense, so then the fact that a person has moved to a different point in time doesn't mean that the time and what the time contained no longer no longer exists. גם העילה גם והגם העלול, both the cause and the effect, mofi'im, now they both appear belevush aktivy passivy. It's not that the cause is active and and what comes later is passive. No, those roles can be inverted. They both appear betor poalim venifalim, actors and acted upon, betor mashpi'im umushpa'im, exerting influence, being influenced.

העתיד מטביע את חותמו על העבר וקובע את דמות דיוקנו. יש כאן השפעת גומלין,

there's reciprocity, veyenika hadadit, and there's bilateral nurturing and influence. Let's just read a couple more lines and then try to understand a little bit. הסיבה מתפרשת על ידי המסובב, in in this conception, in this dimension of reality, so it's not that the cause just dictates and determines the effect, but the cause can be interpreted and framed and contextualized by the result. nekuda achat, one point, meaning an earlier point in time, mitba'eret, is explained

על ידי נקודה ב'. העבר כשהוא לעצמו מהווה פרשה סתומה וחתומה

is a riddle waiting to be deciphered. העתיד וההווה דורשים ומפרשים אותה. It's the future and the present that... interpret and and decipher that riddle. הרבה דרכים לסיבה מנקודת מבט זו להשתלשל. From this vantage point, there are many ways the cause could play itself out, could develop. העתיד קובע את הכיוון ומציין את הדרך. The future establishes the direction and indicates the path of the past. Accordingly, Yesh tofa'ah, you can have a phenomenon שתחילתו חטא ועוון וסופו מצוות ומעשים טובים. Vechein lehaferch, but the the the opposite can also happen, Rachmana litzlan. העתיד משנה את מגמות העבר ונטיותיו. The future can and when a person lives it does change the tendencies, the the orientation of the past. Maybe to try to concretize. Let's say a person comes from a irreligious background, was not blessed with a religious upbringing. And because of that, so he experienced or was involved in activities which which are not which are not על פי על פי תורה, Al pi halacha. Or let's say a person who was born into a religious home but אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא and has made his mistakes. The facticity of what happened doesn't change. Rav is not talking about a time machine. He's not talking about that we believe in in a time machine and that a person can go into the time machine and and factually change the past. That's not what he's talking about. But imagine imagine the following. Let's let's say Rachmana litzlan someone ate Treif for breakfast this morning. Imagine that happened. And imagine that that we videoed it. So we made a video of the person eating his Davar acher and eggs. And Be'sha'ata so he's eating it with relish, with great great Geshmaak. So he's smiling and he's smacking his lips and he's having a good time. But now imagine, not imagine you can do it, right? You can take the, is this still called tape? Let's call it something else now, what is it called? You can take the, whatever it is, the video, and instead of him smiling, so you have him frowning. And instead of him enjoying it, you see that he's pained. And maybe even instead of V'chulu. So you can change, you can, you're not sort of changing the facticity of what happened, but you're redefining, reinterpreting, framing, or contextualizing in a dramatic. its meaning is redefined and and reinterpreted. And again think think of the video. So in the video the person is still eating. That doesn't change. You can't can't change that. The facts of of the past don't change. The person is still eating what he ate in in the video. But as opposed to this being a moment of of culinary enjoyment, it becomes a moment of of revulsion. It becomes a moment where where he which which inspires him to to make a change in in his life. So the past exists again in the sense not in the sense that that you can factually change the the past, but the actions exist in the sense that they can be reframed, reinterpreted, redefined, transformed. You hear that a little bit, Rav Assa? Maybe to read read some of the same lines. אין כאן סדרתיות קבועה, there isn't an absolute sequence של תהליך הסיבתיות הכללית in this dimension of of life, reality understood and and experienced this way. So you don't have the the set sequence of general causality. אין היחס של סיבה פעילה, you don't have that relationship between the active cause u-mesovev savil and the passive effect שכבר הוקצב והוקצב על ידה which has already been which has already been set aside and determined. That's not kayam kan. On the contrary, גם העילה וגם העלול, the cause, the cause is what the person ate for breakfast this morning. Whether the result of that is that rachmana litzlan he's he's headed on a path, whether that whether this morning's breakfast was the first step along a path rachmana litzlan to a hedonistic life which involves issur, or whether that was a step which served as such a wake-up call and such a transformative moment. So what the past was is going to be determined by the future. You hear that, Rav Assa? That's going to be determined. So גם העילה וגם העלול, both the cause and the effect מופיעים בלבוש אקטיבי פסיבי. It's not that the cause is active and that the effect, the result is now a foregone determined dictated conclusion. No, they're both betor poel ve-nifal, they're both betor mashpia u-mushpa. He-atid, the future matbia et chotamo, it leaves its imprint al he-avar. Because in light of what happens in the future, that defines, redefines, interprets, reinterprets what the past released, what the past initiated, what the past instigated is determined by the future. וקובע את דמות דיוקנו, it's the future that determines the the image of the past. Yesh kan between past and future hashpa'at gomlin, reciprocity ve-yenika hadadit. הסיבה מתפרשת על ידי המסובב, the cause is interpreted by the effect. Nekuda achat, an earlier moment in time mitba'eret, it's not that it just dictates and causes, but it's mitba'eret, it's explained

על ידי נקודה ב. העבר כשהוא לעצמו מהווה פרשה סתומה וחתומה.

Again, it's it's... It's an enigma, it's something which is undefined. The past is undefined, again not factually undefined in terms of what the person ate for breakfast, but העתיד וההווה דורשים ומפרשים אותה. It's the future and the present which interpret and decipher the cryptic past. הרבה דרכים לסיבה מנקודת מבט זו להשתלשל. There are many ways, there are many paths that the cause in the past can proceed along. It can play out in many different ways. Here basically you have all the ingredients, all the components for a profound explanation that the Rav has elsewhere in his writings, in the English book, one of those published posthumously called Abraham's Journey. So the Rav talks about the following question. How do you reconcile מעשה אבות סימן לבנים with Bechira? Again, not Hakadosh Baruch Hu's knowledge of the future, he's not talking about the Rambam's הכל צפוי והרשות נתונה, but the Midrash Chazal that the Ramban operates with in Sefer Bereishis of מעשה אבות סימן לבנים. So what the Avos did charts the course of future Jewish history. So where does that leave the Bechira? So how did that not sort of preempt our Bechira? So Yitzchak Avinu dug three wells, which are meramez to the three Batei Mikdash and it's only the third well that there's no eisek about, there's no fighting about, that it's Rechovos כי עתה הרחיב השם לנו ופרינו בארץ, signifying that the third Beis HaMikdash will never be challenged, never be destroyed, but will exist forever. So where's the Bechira to listen to Yirmiyahu HaNavi and avoid the Churban Beis Rishon? Yitzchak Avinu already dug three wells. So again, so the way the Rav says it, he doesn't mention these things but it's clear that it's the same person talking. So he says that the klal of אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים is not only true in Halacha, not only true when Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel, when Tannaim have a Machlokes how to interpret a Pasuk, that both are equally faithful and true understandings of what the Pasuk means, Halacha L'maaseh we gotta do one, but Elu V'elu he says is a klal in history also. And he says, he gives the example, that's why it's in those series of drashos about Avraham Avinu, that the Akeida was predetermined. Akeida was predetermined. But that predetermination was nitpas in אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים what it meant. It could have meant an actual physical Akeida, or it could have meant, I don't think he, I don't remember whether he quotes it, but but he's clearly thinking of it, the Rambam writes in talking about the Akeida he says, it's humanly impossible for a normal, על אחת כמה וכמה, Avraham Avinu for a father to be ready to shecht a son. It's humanly impossible. The only way it becomes humanly possible is if the father first sacrifices that deep profound paternal love that he has for the child. Otherwise the arm will not move, otherwise the arm will not, cannot pick up the ma'achelet, it cannot. It's psychologically and therefore Psychosomatically impossible. Avraham Avinu did pick up the macheles. He was poised and he could have if the malach hadn't told him to stop because Avraham Avinu sacrificed his love for Yitzchak Avinu, he sacrificed that to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Says the Akeida did happen, but it was something that there was an Eilu V’Eilu as to how it could have happened k’pishuto mamash. So that’s the same, so mi’meila he says okay so what Yitzchak Avinu’s three wells mean, so we know one side of the Eilu V’Eilu, what’s the other side? I don’t know, but there was another side. Yitzchak’s three wells, I don’t know, maybe they could have meant, I don’t know, whatever, there’s no point in speculating, but they could have, they did admit of other true interpretations בבחינת אלו ואלו דברי אלוהים חיים. Okay, we obviously when we look back at the ma’aseh avos we only know which side is playing itself out historically. And that’s how the Rav says the מעשה אבות סימן לבנים in no way encroaches upon bechira, but when you think about it that’s the same idea here as this sentence: הרבה דרכים לסיבה מנקודת מבט זו של השתלשלות. Right? There are many ways, there are many paths along which the cause can unfold and develop. That's the same idea that he explains there in that context.

יש תופעה שתחילתה חטא ועוון וסופה מצווה ומעשים טובים ולהפך. העתיד משנה את מגמות העבר ונטיותיו.

What is it that the past served as an impetus for? The future defines that. It's not that the past inexorably has decided that. Adeiraba, the future can and does decide that. And that's what it means in the sense of a past that's alive. Again, think of that mashal of the video where you can't change, you don't change the fact that the person ate breakfast, but everything that that represents in terms of framing it, interpreting it, defining it, its significance, what influence it exerts, all that in the video is malleable. All that in the video can be changed and determined. The next sentence is also very crucial:

בציביון זה מצטיינת הסיבתיות השולטת בממלכת הרוח אם בעל הרוח בוחר בתפיסת הזמן המעוגנת בתחום הנצח.

This is how again causality functions on the level of spirit, if the person chooses to live with that dimension of time which is rooted in the realm of eternity. ברם כשהאדם מבכר את חוויית הזמן הפשוטה, we're going to come back to that sentence in a minute but anyway, ברם כשהאדם מבכר את חוויית הזמן הפשוטה, when a person opts for, gives preference to, call it the biological experience of time, שהוא בן מימד אחד, which is unidimensional, המופיע כפי ציורו של Kant, which appears according to the way it's diagrammed by Kant. determines, dictates, inexorably affects the future. So if a person chooses to live that way, so then הריהו משתעבד לאותו חוק הסיבתיות השולט במציאות הפיזית. So then he takeh will become subordinate to that type of causality. The Rav refers to this understanding of a past that exists, a future that exists, again, thinking of it as as the room we were in is still there, the room that we're going into is is still there, is already there, despite the fact that right now we're in this room. Think of the same thing with time. He refers to that conception of time as as one which which is right me'urah, me'urah begidin means that something is entangled, is in this sense rooted or anchored bitkhum hanetzakh. It could be for this reason, hear this rabosai. Tshuva as affecting the past doesn't play a role in dinei adam. Let's say you have a person who on the day of his bar mitzvah, and they they were bedi'avad, he became a gadol. On the day of his bar mitzvah, rachmana litzlan was mechalel shabbos be'eidim vehatra'ah. Be'eidim vehatra'ah. Eichshehu he ran away and Beis Din didn't didn't catch up to him. He spends the next he spends the next 80 years fasting and and doing tshuva and and then Beis Din catches up with him at at age 93. He gets misa be'beis din. He may be, he may be objectively, objectively, he may be the tzaddik hador, he may be the chasid hador, he may be the gadol hador, objectively, objectively. He gets he gets misa be'beis din. Tshuva doesn't make a difference in dinei adam in terms of no. The past is the past. He was mechalel shabbos be'eidim vehatra'ah. He's chayav misa. He's he's going to he's going to get skila. In dinei shamayim, as they say, he's going to get a front row seat on how does it go? Front row seat in gan eden, I think is the way the way the song describes it. So tshuva in terms of affecting the past has an effect in dinei shamayim, not in dinei adam. It affects the future in dinei adam. A person who was a gambler, if he breaks all his gambling equipment, so then he has ne'emanus moving forward mikan ulehaba. But in terms of affecting the past, so tshuva only affects the past in dinei shamayim, not in dinei adam. So like this, okay, mistama we could sort of come up with other explanations. I'm not sure how compelling or or satisfying, but according to the Rav is explaining, no, it's because basically this reality of time which allows for the tshuva in in its fullest sense is one that exists from Hakadosh Baruch Hu's vantage point, not not so much from our vantage point, right? This all is is very like you mamash have to stretch to understand what the Rav is talking about here. It's not something which sort of comes easily or intuitively because it's not really in the doesn't really belong to the domain of intuitive human experience. But it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hakadosh Baruch Hu who's lemala min hazman, ein hachi nami, so it's a much more, not much more, it is the perspective from from that vantage point. So mimmela that's the din that tshuva is po'eles in dinei shamayim but it's not po'eles in in dinei adam. Moving to skipping around the pages so towards the bottom of page 97 to around eight lines from the bottom of page 97. אמנם הסיבה מולידה סדרת סיבתיות חדשה. It's true that a cause, something that happened, everything has implications, everything generates a momentum, everything there's everything exerts a force. Omnam hasiba so a cause molida, it generates sidras sibasus chadasha. It generates a new chain reaction, a new sequence of effects. Aval sidra zu, but this sequence יכולה להפך לפנות לכאן ולכאן. But it's not predetermined again how that force which was exerted will play itself out, in which direction it will take the person. A person can make a mistake, a person can fall, and rachmana litzlan that can start them down the wrong path. A person can fall and it can create within the person a greater resolve than ever to do what's right. It can generate within the person a greater resolve than ever to avoid the tumah, the entrapment of chet. סדרה זו יכולה להפך לפנות לכאן ולכאן, it can turn in this direction, it can turn in that direction. עומדת היא על פרשת דרכים veshoeles as it were the past, the cause stands at a crossroads and asks lean? Where am I taking you? אם האדם רוצה הרי היא מהלכת ברוח הנצח if a person wants so a person takes it with again with the ruach of eternity and then he determines what the past, what force the past exerts. העבר נשמע ומזדכך אליו, haillos nichnaos lifkudaso. The causes are subordinate to his, the person's order, his command. יש בידיעה של ממשלת העתיד בעבר משום פרדוקסאליות יתירה it is the Rav says the ultimate paradox אבל גם מן האמת הגמורה but it's also truth, it's also pure truth. חיי היחיד והכלל מאשרים עובדה זו and this fact is confirmed both in the lives of individuals as well as in the lives of the klal.

אדם גדול מנצל את חטאי עברו ופשעיו לשם מטרות גדולות ונשגבות.

A great person doesn't mean that he never sins, it doesn't mean that he never sins, it doesn't mean that he never stumbled, but what it means is that he takes advantage of the sins of his past for great and exalted goals. במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד. Kemidumeh that the Rav is implicitly suggesting a pshat in that meimra, right? The difficulty of that meimra is goes without saying, how can it be that a person achieves heights that had he not been chotei in the first place he never would have achieved? It can't be that the only way to get to the summit, the peak is to be chotei and if a person was never chotei. that he can't scale and reach the same summit or peak. It's how can that be? It's lo nitan l'he'amer. I'm not sure but itachen what the Rav is implying pshat here is במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד, it means that ba'alei teshuva have done something that a tzadik gamur hasn't done. Einam yecholim la'amod in the sense of if you're if you're having a place where all those who have changed the past, who have redirected, reinterpreted the past will will a place of honor for them, so a tzadik gamur won't be standing in that place because he never needed to and therefore never did exert this this influence and the and change the past. Ba'alei teshuva will will be standing there. Does that mean that the tzadik gamur attains less than the ba'al teshuva? No. No. But but the the if at the peak, if at the summit, you know, there's one spot that's reserved for people who changed the past and one spot that's reserved for people who never sinned, that doesn't mean that one is higher than the other. There's no implication as to which which is a higher level and who says they are who says they are on on on different levels? But it's different. It is different. And that's what it means that במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד, they haven't done it, they haven't done it. It doesn't mean that they've attained something that the tzadik gamur doesn't doesn't attain. Doesn't the lashon of like einam yecholim la'amod seem to imply that like they wouldn't be like like they couldn't get into that spot? They they couldn't get to that spot. But the question is, is there an implication that that spot is here and the spot for the tzadik gamur is over here? Or no, maybe maybe the two spots are like this and and there's two two two seats side by side or two standing spots side by side. It it mean it represents having done something that that the tzadik gamur has not done. Me'idach gisa the tzadik gamur has done something the ba'al teshuva hasn't done done either. You can you can flip it around and there's no contradiction. Right.

עוונות היסטוריים סטיות של העבר יודעים לפעמים על עצמות יבשות כטל של תחייה.

Sometimes here talking about in the chayei haklal now, historical sins, past aberrations serve as a type of dew of revival. דברי ימי עולם מלאים דוגמאות כאלו. Okay, maybe maybe we'll we'll try to finish this on I think the last shiur next week is Wednesday, so maybe the Rav talks about sippur yetziat mitzrayim so we have to try to finish this beforehand and and then also try to finally come back to and see where the overlap is and where the very very clear distinct difference is between this and and the nefesh hachaim.