Implementing Ratzon

is to translate his understanding and commitment into a powerful ratzon to implement that which he knows and to realize that to which he's committed and that ultimately the measure of a person can be taken by the degree of ratzon that he's able to cultivate and ultimately implement. I don't remember if we mentioned the Rambam writes about in perek hei, we saw there Yesodei HaTorah, in talking about Kiddush Hashem that when a person is moseer nefesh on Kiddush Hashem, so Rabbi Akiva v'chaveirav ואין מעלה למעלה ממדרגתם. The incredible madreigah which is attained by someone who fulfills the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem. If you think about it for a minute, well let's say someone makes you the following offer. You have to work hard for, I don't know, an hour or two and then you're going to be remunerated for that hour or two with enough money to last you the rest of your life. You're going to be insured good health, you're going to be guaranteed not to have any personal problems, but you have to work hard for an hour or two, but really work hard. Put in a sixty-minute hour, sixty-second minutes. You have to really work hard for that hour or two. But after that, all this remuneration is forthcoming. So is it a nisayon to accept the deal? You'd have to be crazy to pass on such a deal. Well, I think we would all, I think we'd all jump at the opportunity. Why is it, a klotz kasha, but תורה היא וללמוד אנו צריכים? So why is it that when kedoshim surrender their lives for Kiddush Hashem, okay, so they're being promised a better deal than the one we just spoke about. They're not being promised fifty years of subsidized living and fifty years of good health, they're being promised eternal returns. And it's not as if otherwise they can, you know, immortalize themselves in this world. They can't do that anyway. So why is it such an incredible, why is it so incredible to be able to do? So the answer is because the most powerful instinct, the most powerful desire everyone has is to live and to live in Olam Hazeh. It's the most basic powerful instinct, desire that a person has. The ability to be moseer nefesh, of course, intellectually... The nissayon is to be able to translate that intellectual awareness, understanding, commitment into a ratzon to to do what's right. The ratzon that a person has to live is so strong that even with all the all the promises, it has to be a ratzon of avodas Hashem which is gonna overcome that and allow a person to be moser nefesh. And and itachen, I don't remember if I saw this somewhere or not, itachen that it's no coincidence that the in Loshon Hakodesh the word nefesh also denotes a person's ratzon. אם יש את נפשכם לקבור את מתי מלפני says Avraham Avinu to the b'nei Cheis, so Onkelos translates im is re'usa. So nefesh represents represents ratzon. Because mesiras nefesh in the sense that we generally understand it and translate it, basically represents a mesiras nefesh that a person is mose that powerful natural ratzon that asei retzoncha kirtzono. So how do we try to develop and and intensify that ratzon? Ramchal writes in Perek Vav, ותראה כי טבע האדם כבד מאוד. A person naturally is sluggish. Kaved me'od, naturally we feel weighed down.

כי עפריות החומריות גס. ומי שירצה לזכות לעבודת הבורא יתברך צריך שיתגבר עצמו נגד טבעו ויתגבר עצמו ויזדרז שאם הוא מניח עצמו בידי כבדותו ודאי הוא שלא יצליח.

So before one one gets to to what follows here in Mesillas Yesharim, the antithesis again of a ratzon which energizes a person, which pushes a person forward to achieve and to accomplish and to realize his potential, the antithesis of that is chomriyus. Providing one part of the of the answer or the formula for which we're searching, that to allow to facilitate developing that ratzon, a person has to be mema'et bechomriyus. A person has to be a mistapek bemu'at. In in gashmius in order to allow, in order to facilitate developing that ratzon az, that that powerful ratzon, which can can serve as an engine in in his implementing ratzon Hashem. In Perek Zayin, Ramchal continues: Veomnam hisbonen od, reflect further, and and you'll notice, Ramchal tells us the following:

שכשם שהזריזות היא תולדות ההתלהטות הפנימי, כן מן הזריזות יולד ההתלהטות.

The same way acting with zerizus, acting quickly, acting with alacrity, is something which results from again having an an inner fire, but it's also true that

כן מן הזריזות יולד ההתלהטות. כי מי שמרגיש עצמו במעשה המצוה כמו שהוא ממהר תנועתו החיצונה, כן הנה הוא גורם שתבער בו תנועתו הפנימית כמו כן, והחשק והחפץ יתגבר בו וילך.

Even if a person doesn't feel that hislahasus, that hislahavus, doesn't feel that cheshek, that chefetz. If a person pushes himself, if a person has to, again it's somewhat unnatural for him at this stage, but he pushes himself, so that helps create and that helps generate the cheshek and the chefetz. Who who was it that they say, was it Reb Elchonon? I forget who was it that arranged the sidrei hayeshiva that the the bochurim only had enough time for breakfast between davening and first seder if they would run to the dining room and then had to run back to the beis medrash. Otherwise there wouldn't have been, presumably not because it was a five-course breakfast either. That's this yesod of the Mesillas Yesharim, that even when we don't feel it naturally, we can help create that reality, we can help generate that hislahasus, that hislahavus, by pushing ourselves, and that creates והחשק והחפץ יתגבר בו וילך. Conversely,

אם יתנהג בכבדות בתנועת איבריו, גם תנועת רוחו תשקע ותכבה. וזהו דבר שהנסיון יעידהו. ואמנם כבר ידעת שהנרצה יותר בעבודת הבורא יתברך שמו הוא חפץ הלב ותשוקת הנשמה.

What is most desired, what is most pleasing, is that chefetz, the desire and and the teshuka, the the yearning. Similar to this approach, this strategy of the Mesillas Yesharim of of acting as though we have that tremendous cheshek or chefetz. That helps create it. When a person is moser nefesh for something, it deepens the bond of of love that a person feels and that naturally naturally translates into a very powerful ratzon. You ever see parents run if a little child falls and and hurts himself, herself? So the parents run very, very quickly. The more of an ahavah a person has, so ahavah naturally, naturally expresses itself through a strong ratzon. The way we develop an ahavah is by being moser nefesh. Again, the the analogy from parenting, whatever degree of instinctive love parents have, it's deepened and it's intensified the more they're moser nefesh for for the children. The connection, the bond, the love parents feel after they're up night after night with a baby, with an infant, it intensifies. The more we're moser nefesh for Torah, for avodas Hashem, the greater our love is and then mimmela, mimmela, love is is accompanied by a ratzon. Those are perhaps three three approaches. Wanted to just for a few minutes move to a a different a different theme. The end of last week's parsha, Rashi refers to the the famous Mishna in Rosh Hashanah, comment on the pasuk,

והיה כאשר ירים משה ידו וגבר ישראל וכאשר יניח ידו וגבר עמלק. וכי ידיו של משה עושות מלחמה?

The Mishna is is a remarkable Mishna. Seems to be a machlokes between the Maharsha and the Tosafos Yom Tov how to understand the Mishna. The Maharsha understands that Moshe's hands didn't determine whether or not Klal Yisrael were משעבדים את לבם לאביהם שבשמים, but rather it reflected whether or not they were משעבדים לבם לאביהם שבשמים. That Hakadosh Baruch Hu allowed Moshe to be able to keep his hands stretched towards Shamayim kol zman that Klal Yisrael were mishabdim es libam. And when they lost that focus, so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu signaled to them that they should understand why the tide of the battle was turning by having Moshe's hands fall down. Tosafos Yom Tov takes the Mishna more probably what we would say kipshuto is that as long as Moshe Rabbeinu, he did the best that was humanly possible, as long as Moshe Rabbeinu was able to keep his hands stretched towards Shamayim, so that focused Klal Yisrael on Hakadosh Baruch Hu and mimmela they had the emunah, they had the, they were mishabdim es libam. And when it became humanly impossible and his hands fell to his side, so then then they lost that madreigah. Clearly the madrega of emunah that we're talking about, that in its z'chus Klal Yisrael is able to vanquish Amalek, is a very high and great madrega of emunah. Clearly it's something that great Baalei Emunah are displaying. How can it be that something seemingly as trivial as the posture of Moshe Rabbeinu's hands was a make-or-break in terms of that emunah? How can that be? I'm not sure if we know the answer to that, but the inference is clear: emunah is something very fragile. I think that the mechaber of Bilvavi quotes in the beginning of one of his sefarim from Reb Chatzkel Levenstein, one of the great Baalei Mussar, one of the great mashgichim, that he said l'eis ziknuso—he lived to be quite a zaken—he said l'eis ziknuso that if a few minutes pass when he doesn't think about inyanei emunah, he feels a yerida. So here's a tzaddik v'kadosh spent his whole life working on emunah, and that's how fragile he felt the madrega of emunah is. So what's pshat that the yado of Moshe mechazkos or machlishos emunah? I don't know, but that was the case. And so much of the parshiyos of Vayehi b'nsoa and Vayashuvu v'yivku and ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו, וימרו על ים בים סוף as the pasuk says in Tehillim, you see it, you see it by Klal Yisrael. Rabbeinu Yonah in Pirkei Avos and in Perek Beis in the Mishnah of אל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך says that it's hein b'chasidus, by which he means dikduk b'mitzvos, and hein b'inyanei emunah. Yitachen that part of the reason for this fragility of emunah is similar to what we read from Ramchal again with a different sort of different perspective in mind, in a different context. Naturally, we relate to the physical, the tangible, the visible. A Baal Emunah is living on a different plane. He experiences the world, events, life in terms of the spiritual, the invisible, ultimate reality. But a person has to stay focused on that. To maintain that madrega. As powerful as habit is, as powerful as training is, person can train himself to, I don't know, always dress a certain way and always be very fastidious about his dress. But that transcendent focus of a ba'al emuna, again, transcendent, above, beyond the physical, the visible, the tangible, habit can't sustain that. And maybe that's part of what that remarkable autobiographical comment from Reb Chatzkel illustrates. The need to constantly reinforce and be mechazek our emuna.