Avoiding Yeridah

Chazal comment on the pasuk of Vayishkav Bamkom Hahu that Yaakov Avinu lay down to rest bamkom hahu but the Yud Daled Shana ששימש בבית מדרשו של שם ועבר של עבר that he his hasmadah was such that he he never lay down to sleep. I guess he drimeled a little bit in the in the chair but he never lay down to sleep. So if he had such incredible incredible kochos so what happened now all of a sudden he he was overcome with fatigue and so 14 years of hasmadah finally caught up with him? So yitachen on on one level that that the understanding is that it's not pshat that Yaakov Avinu lay down to sleep and that memaila vayachlom and once you're once you're sleeping a person dreams but maybe the cause and effect is reversed. That Yaakov Avinu felt a need to have a dream and because of that Vayishkav Bamkom Hahu. The Vayishkav Bamkom Hahu was to facilitate the dream. What did he need to dream? Because a dream represents a plan, a blueprint for the future. Yaakov Avinu knew that he was going to be confronting and contending with nisyonos which he hadn't hadn't encountered until this point and he knew that he couldn't just rush in headlong without giving it thought without having a plan without having a dream a blueprint for the future so memaila וישכב במקום ההוא ויחלום. Similarly the topic that was suggested for tonight about dealing with susceptibility to yerida rachmana litzlan it's it's very important that we that we stop and think and have perspectives and and plans and and approaches to be able to to preempt possible yerida rachmana litzlan. One of the major challenges in in a life of avodas Hashem is maintaining balance. There are so many different things in a life of avodas Hashem that a person is supposed to balance, a person is supposed to balance yira and simcha, a person has to have the right balance between hishtadlus and bitachon, according to the Rambam the whole mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav which should dominate so much of what we do and so much of what we try to do and so much of what we try to cultivate basically means striking the right balance. And one of the areas in which we're challenged to maintain the right balance is with different demands which simultaneously are made on our time. Demands of talmud Torah, demands of family, demands of parnassa again at different stages of life so maybe substitute for parnassa school and the challenge is to maintain the right balance. Now when we talk about maintaining balance so the balance isn't always uniform. משל למה הדבר דומה, if you're supposed to eat a balanced diet so lav davka that that means that that in breakfast you have to have all the major foods from the major categories no it means over the course of the day you should have a balanced diet but lav davka that it means that that compressed into each meal is going to be the balanced diet. It means overall all things taken together. So a person has to a person has to maintain balance. And l'havdil in terms of avodas Hashem that's also true. The balance is not always going to be the same. The balance between yira and simcha on the Yamim Noraim is obviously not the same as the balance between yira and simcha on Chag HaSuccos Zman Simchasenu. On both times the balance is has to be there and there is a balance but it's not necessarily going to be the same formula. So at different times the balance is going to be struck differently. And thus we find that the Gemara in Berachos tells us that Rava said to the Rabbanan he made a request of the Rabbanan bematusa mineichu that ביומי ניסן וביומי תשרי לא תיתחזו קמאי that he says I don't want to see you during Nissan and Tishrei the Nissan is the time for for harvest and Tishrei is the time for the pressing of the wine. the olives and the grapes, so if you'll if you won't be if you won't be here at those times, so then you won't be titredu with mezonos all year long. So to sort of borrow and and adapt something the Nefesh HaChaim says, Rava doesn't tell them don't learn during Nissan and Tishrei. He doesn't tell them lo tilmedu during Nissan and Tishrei כי היכי דלא תטרדו במזונייכו כולי שתא, but he tells them lo tischazu kamai. He says you'll learn elsewhere and realistically Rava certainly recognizes that if lo tischazu kamai, if you're not going to be in the Yeshiva, you're not going to be in the you're not I'm not going to see you, that there is going to be a certain reduction in the number of hours that you're going to be learning and Rava encourages it. But Rava says, he doesn't tell them don't learn. So the the rule number one in in terms of times when we can't maintain, when responsibilities are such, a person's an accountant and it's getting closer and closer to to April 15th and the demands on his the professional demands intensify, so rule number one is even when it's necessary to a degree of lo tischazu kamai, so it means a reduction, but a person has to hold on. A person can't allow it to to to eliminate. A person at times has to minimize. Again, in that example, in that moshel of the accountant when it's getting close to to April 15th, so the demands of his professional life intensify and presumably he's not going to be able to learn as many hours a day as he learns at other times of the year. But he has to be very careful again, sort of adapting what the Nefesh HaChaim says, that it shouldn't result in not learning in those times. Yes, it will probably result in a reduction during that season of the number of hours that he'll learn, but it's crucial, crucial in terms of avoiding a potential yerida that that it's lo tischazu kamai, but it's not lo tilmedu. Again, obviously we're using those as as metaphors in in this context. So to hold on to kvias ittim, no matter how busy or no matter what demands there are, and even if again, because in a certain season, at a certain tekufah, a person can't maintain the same intensity, can't maintain quantitatively the same number of hours, but to hold on to kvias ittim. Similarly, this isn't so much of an issue right now at at your current stage of life, but im yirtzeh Hashem at future stages of life, it probably will be more relevant that a person has to hold on another anchor that even again in in periods, in seasons where demands intensify, it's so crucial that a person also be anchored in tefillah b'tzibbur. That the whatever the demands may be, that a person again, that's part of the the the being anchored even when again, it's the equivalent of of yomei Nissan and yomei Tishrei. Okay, so that's the first eitzah that when necessary the the one will have to minimize but never ever allow it to eliminate, never to lose the the kvias ittim. If one does, then one becomes rachmana litzlan very prone to again, not a temporary reduction in number of hours but but a yerida. The second eitzah is is provided by Ramchal. Ramchal discusses in Derech Hashem perspectives on the role of tefillah. And he says that on the one hand, HaKadosh Baruch Hu designed the world in such a way that inevitably we have a certain involvement with the mundane, we have a certain involvement with chomriyus that can't and therefore shouldn't be avoided. On the other hand, this threatens to be a yerida for a person that unavoidable involvement with the mundane with the chomriyus, whether it's again hishtadlus for parnassa, hishtadlus for preparation for parnassa or other tzorchei haguf. הנה הכין הבורא יתברך שמו תיקון לזה. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu prepared, Hakadosh Baruch Hu anticipated again this potential yerida, right, the words of Ramchal.

והוא מה שיקדים האדם ויקרב ויעמוד לפניו יתברך וממנו ישאל כל צרכיו ועליו ישליך יהבו והיה זה ראשית כללי ועיקרי לכל השתדלותו עד שכאשר ימשך אחר כך בשאר דרכי ההשתדלות שהם דרכי ההשתדלות האנושי לא יקרה שיסתבך וישתקע בגופניות וחומריות כיון שכבר הקדים ותלה הכל בו יתברך ולא תהיה ירידתו ירידה רבה אלא תסמך על ידי התיקון הזה שקדם לה.

So Ramchal says one, possibly possibly two things here. He says a person is required before engaging in any hishtadlus to daven. The foundation, the basis for all hishtadlus is

יתקרב ויעמוד לפניו יתברך וממנו ישאל כל צרכיו ועליו ישליך יהבו.

A person has to ask for all his needs from the Ribono Shel Olam and the person casts his burden, as it were, upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And this is the ראשית כללי ועיקרי לכל השתדלותו. Meaning, in addition to whatever whatever daily chiyuv tfila a person has, in embarking upon hishtadlus, there's a special chiyuv tfila. Now what this accomplishes, this chiyuv tfila in relation to, in conjunction with hishtadlus, A, it minimizes hishtadlus. Because when a person feels, if a person embarks upon hishtadlus without the tfila, without the השלכה על השם יהבו, so then a person can easily be drawn into the the mindset of I have to make this happen, not that the Ribono Shel Olam says I should make hishtadlus but I have to make this happen, and then he's likely to overdo the hishtadlus. A person embarks upon every hishtadlus with first again ישאל ממנו כל צרכיו, knowing that that's the ultimate address and source for aspakas tzorachav and alav yashlich yehavo, so then a person knows he has perspective and what he's doing is hishtadlus. And if a person recognizes that it's hishtadlus he won't overdo hishtadlus. Sometimes in different contexts people, sometimes we forget this lesson and we overdo hishtadlus. Again, one can overdo hishtadlus in in the sort of the academic context, there's such a thing as some people overstudy for tests. There's a certain amount of studying which is which is certainly begeder hishtadlus, but a person can certainly overstudy and over-prepare for a test as well. And beyond it, much more broadly in life in general in terms of parnassa and in many other areas. When a person recognizes that what he's doing is hishtadlus and that it comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it moderates and it should moderate the the hishtadlus which again precludes ולא תהיה ירידתו ירידה רבה. Could be that Ramchal here is intimating something else as well, not sure, but that when the tfila precedes any hishtadlus, when a person again is mispallel before embarking upon any course of hishtadlus, again in whatever context, whatever the endeavor may be, so then again A, as we just said it moderates the hishtadlus, but B, it also establishes as it were a sort of context and framework for the hishtadlus. The context and the framework for the hishtadlus now is I'm doing this because Hakadosh Baruch Hu said that I should be making hishtadlus. I recognize, as indicated in my tefilla, that whatever I'm going to get comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but He wants me to make hishtadlus. So then when that framework, when that's the framework and that's the context in which the hishtadlus is undertaken, so then it doesn't become a histabchus bachumriyus uv'gufaniyus, but it means carrying out dvar Hashem. It means, as it were, partnering with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Closely related to this, to the degree that we're able to initially calibrate what we do leshem shamayim, that whatever involvement we have, again, with the mundane, with milei d'alma, with gufaniyus, with chumriyus, to the degree that we're able to calibrate that genuinely leshem shamayim, as opposed to doing what I really want to do and then rubber-stamping it and saying, well, I'm doing this leshem shamayim, but to the degree that one really is able to genuinely, again, calibrate and plan what he's doing and gear it leshem shamayim and try, again, to have that accompanying machshava, that accompanying intention, so that too, again, can prevent the involvement with chumriyus from bringing about a yerida, because if it's נמצא עובד את השם תמיד, avodas Hashem can't result in a yerida. It can only be a yerida if it's not avodas Hashem. But if I'm really calibrating what I'm doing, I'm really calculating, planning, deciding what to do leshem shamayim, and then I try to carry it out leshem shamayim, so avodas Hashem can only uplift, can never bring about a yerida. Me'ein ha'inyan, maybe this is the correct venue in which to share something very disturbing which I was told pretty recently. I was told by accounts, and I single this out only because that's what I recently heard about, I don't know whether comparable issues exist in other fields as well, I certainly don't mean to pick on any one single field, but just to share and try to sensitize to what I'm told is a very real problem. Apparently, accounts have been given by frum doctors of the yerida that they've seen amongst their chaverim and due to the yerida to a degree former chaverim over the course of the intensive years of study and training, and especially the very difficult challenges of Shabbos when embarking on the field of medicine. So I'm very, very far ba'avonosainu harabbim from being a posek and I'm not here to give psak halacha, but only just to try to share and sensitize the olam that to anyone who's contemplating such a career, and we all know what a noble career and profession it can be, and we all know very noble doctors who do carry it out. and who accomplish tremendous things, but one has to be aware and make sure that one is aware of the nisyonos involved, it's not a simple path at all, one has to be aware of the, again, very complex shailos which which come up, and one has to go into it with very clear guidance from gedolei poskim, not, baruch Hashem, we don't have to look too far for that, one doesn't, but one has to, one has to have that guidance, and one has to be forewarned of the nisyonos that can come about when demands are made at a certain advanced point in one's career which go beyond what the permissibility is that was outlined by the, by the posek or by the poskim. So it's obviously not an impossible path, and that's not what the, that's not what the message is, but it is a path, and again, maybe other fields have similar issues just which no one happened to mention to me recently, I don't know, I'm not coming le'afukei anything else, but the nisyonos here are very real and hachacham einav berosho to understand what the nisyonos are and to make sure that one is fortified to deal with them and that one has the proper hadracha and in psak halacha in how that has to be done.