Zechor Es Bor’echo

עורו ישנים משנתכם והקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם וחפשו מעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל הביטו לנפשותיכם והטיבו דרכיכם ומעלליכם ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.

Rambam explains this as a remez in the kol shofar that the kol shofar is intended as a wake-up call. It's intended as a call to chizru betshuva, chipsu bema'aseichem, nachpasa dracheinu venachkora, chipsu bema'aseichem. Scrutinize—the kol shofar tells us—scrutinize your actions and chizru betshuva and repent. So to whom is is this call for tshuva addressed? So we would finish the sentence and if for some reason there were a few words which were illegible in the ksav yad, we would confidently fill it in that a call to tshuva is addressed to ba'alei aveira. And and that's how one would identify those to whom the kol shofar, the call for tshuva is addressed. But remarkably that's not what the Rambam says. When the Rambam explains the intended audience the Torah has with that call, that wake-up call to tshuva, the Rambam doesn't directly refer to aveira. He says אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן, people who forget, are distracted from emes, from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, from Torah because of the futilities of life. Hevel is is the the antithesis of emes. Emes is that which is real, which endures, and hevel and futility is that which yields nothing. אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם and they're immersed their whole lives behevel voreik with futility, with emptiness אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל which accomplishes nothing, which yields nothing. So the call to tshuva—is the Rambam identifies its target audience, its intended audience—not as ba'alei aveira. That's not the defining characteristic. The defining characteristic are people who are preoccupied with hevel voreik, who squander the opportunity and blessing of life. Now undoubtedly and inevitably if a person is שוגה כל שנתו בהבל וריק, so mistama, mistama we'll be able to indict him for bittul Torah and mistama we'll get him on a few other things also, but but that's not the—clearly not the point in the Rambam. That that what defines, the defining characteristic is what's axiomatic to his life, the preoccupation with havlei hazman. And again havlei hazman is anything which which is of no last... value either intrinsically or as a hechsher propaedeutically. Interest in pleasure, comfort, money, kavod for no greater redeeming goal or purpose. It's a theme which recurs in the Rambam. Later in Perek Tes of Hilchos Teshuva when the Rambam is explaining what's intended in the brachos and klalos with their emphasis on the olam hazeh-dic consequences of our actions, so the Rambam explains that the brachos and klalos which play out, which materialize in olam hazeh are not intended and do not constitute the ultimate schar, but rather Hakadosh Baruch Hu says if we show, if we demonstrate through our actions that we want to devote ourselves to Torah and mitzvos, so then he'll if Klal Yisrael demonstrates that, so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu will shower us with bracha that will provide the optimal circumstances for such a life. But if rachmana litzlan Klal Yisrael demonstrates the opposite, that we're not interested in devoting ourselves to Torah and mitzvos, so then we'll find ourselves rachmana litzlan mired in circumstances which takeh don't allow for such pursuit. So listen to how the Rambam says it: הבטיחנו בתורה הקדוש ברוך הוא guaranteed us, he promised us in the Torah she'im na'aseh osah the Torah b'simcha, b'tuvas nefesh v'negeh b'chochmasah tamid שיסיר ממנו כל הדברים המונעים אותנו מלעשותה. He'll remove all impediments

כגון חולי ומלחמה ורעב וכיוצא בהן וישפיע לנו כל הטובות,

and on the contrary he'll bestow upon us all the good המחזקים את ידינו לעשות כל התורה which will strengthen our hand, which will bolster us in our life of Torah and mitzvos

כגון שובע ושלום וריבוי כסף וזהב כדי שלא נעסוק כל ימינו בדברים שהגוף צריך להן.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu will see to it that we're not preoccupied, we're not distracted with the mundane necessities of life so that נהיה פנויים ללמוד בחכמה ולעשות המצווה. But then that explains the brachos, what triggers the brachos from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So again what triggers the brachos from Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Na'aseh osah b'simcha, right? The kiyum hamitzvos, v'negeh b'chochmasah, and being immersed in Talmud Torah. So now comes the counterpoint, rachmana litzlan what triggers klala. V'chen hodianu baTorah שאם נעזוב התורה מדעתנו, so what should come next? Na'azov haTorah mida'ateinu and rachmana litzlan engage in aveiros. But what does the Rambam actually say? שאם נעזוב התורה מדעתנו v'na'asok b'havlei hazman. Again the antithesis of Torah axiomatically in terms of one's values, in terms of one's preoccupations, the antithesis of a life of Torah is preoccupation with futility, preoccupation with what's transient and ephemeral. The Rambam recaps and reviews later in the halacha:

נמצא פירוש כל אותן הברכות והקללות על דרך זה, כלומר אם עבדתם את השם בשמחה ושמרתם דרכו,

mashpia lachem habrachos. If however rachmana litzlan אם עזבתם את השם, so listen to again the next clause here in the Rambam:

אם עזבתם את השם ושגיתם במאכל ומשתה וזנות ודומה להן

and you immersed yourselves במאכל ומשתה וזנות ודומה להן. Again, no hint, no intimation that the ma'achal and mishteh doesn't have the best hechsherim in the world, no intimation that the tznius involves Rachmana litzlan issur bi'ah. No, it involves a preoccupation with no greater redeeming purpose, a preoccupation with the mundane, the physical, the here and now, for no greater redeeming purpose. That's the antithesis of אם עבדתם את ה'. Now clearly, it's not that the Rambam in Perek Gimmel or anywhere in identifying the Torah's audience for the call to teshuva is uninterested, is making light of aveiros Rachmana litzlan, but the Rambam is teaching us that the aveira is the result, aveiros are a result, aveiros are a corollary, and the determining factor is one's outlook on life, one's approach to life, one's pursuit in life. The definition of the pursuit doesn't necessarily involve aveira, just a preoccupation with nothingness. In our society, nothingness comes in many different forms and fashions. You have it at least in one of the places in the Rambam also, at the end of Hilchos Tumas Tzara'as when the Rambam talks about loshon hara. So the Rambam describes the following progression: זהו דרך ישיבת הלצים הרשעים. Wicked people who are scoffers, who are cynics. Batchila, initially says the Rambam, marbin bedivrei havai,

כעניין שנאמר וקול כסיל ברוב דברים, ומתוך כך באים לספר בגנות הצדיקים, כעניין שנאמר תאלמנה שפתי שקר הדוברות על צדיק עתק, ומתוך כך יהיה להן הרגל לדבר בנביאים וליתן דופי בדבריהם, ומתוך כך

skipping the pasuk, באים לדבר באלוהים וכופרים בעיקר. So the Rambam describes this frightening progression and escalation. But what does it begin with? It doesn't begin with loshon hara and certainly not hotza'as shem ra. It begins with בתחילה מרבים בדברי הבאי. It begins with emptiness, with nothingness, with lack of substance, lack of content. But that preoccupation with nothingness is the trigger, is the catalyst. So as we look to spend the next 40 days, hopefully reflecting on teshuva, hopefully besiyata d'shmaya doing teshuva, so the Rambam instructs us to go back beyond whatever Rachmana litzlan specific aveiros we identify. Not only averos b'meizid rachmana litzlan result from that involvement preoccupation with havlei hazman, averos b'shogeg do also. If life is a pursuit for emes, Torah is emes, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is emes, so then that's what's always on our mind. The forgetfulness which results in averos b'shogeg is not going to happen. It's highly, highly unlikely to happen when that's what's on my mind, that's what I'm pursuing. But if my pursuit even partially, if my preoccupation even partially is the havlei hazman and I'm trying to discharge an obligation of Torah mitzvos, it's not going to be paramount in my awareness and my consciousness. I'm going to be much more susceptible to all the slip-ups and all the forgetfulness and all the mistakes and all the inadvertent errors as well. One other fundamental idea:

עורו עורו ישנים משנתכם וקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם וחפשו מעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם.

Rambam here defines for us that whereas teshuva does target individual chatoim, in his nusach of the viduy in perek aleph, the Rambam tells us that peirut hachet is necessary, asisi kach v'kach. But that specificity and that individualization of the teshuva and the viduy notwithstanding, the essence of teshuva is zichru borachem. Earlier the Rambam communicated this as well in פרק ב הלכה א, again the Rambam's presentation of a gemara in Yoma:

איזו היא תשובה גמורה זה שבא לידו דבר שעבר בו ואפשר בידו לעשות ופירש ולא עשה מפני התשובה לא מיראה ולא מכשלון כח.

There's no external factor which inhibited him from the aveira. The only change, the only difference is his teshuva, is the internal:

הרי שבא על אשה בעבירה לאחר זמן נתייחד עמה והוא עומד באהבתו בה ובכח גופו ובמדינה שעבר בה ופירש ולא עבר זהו בעל תשובה גמורה.

v'hu she'Shlomo omer, so this idea that teshuva should be done immediately while a person's at the same stage of life and in that way the teshuva is best because you can't attribute it in part to the fact that a person's at a different stage of life that his yeitzer hara has weakened with age, etc. So this idea is what Shlomo Hamelech expresses. expressed in Koheles, hu sheShlomo omer

וזכור את בוראך בימי בחורותיך עד אשר לא יבואו ימי הרעה והגיעו שנים אשר תאמר אין לי בהם חפץ.

This idea of teshuvah, immediate teshuvah at the same stage of life, is what Shlomo was expressing when he said וזכור את בוראך בימי בחורותיך. So here you see very clearly that equation between teshuvah and zechor es borecha. Shlomo Hamelech doesn't say anything about teshuvah, he doesn't say do teshuvah. Shlomo Hamelech talks about remembering Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the Rambam says Shlomo Hamelech is exactly expressing this idea of doing teshuvah at the same stage of life. Ultimately, leaving aside an extreme case, a tinok shenishba case, there is a common denominator to every aveirah and that common denominator is that if a person would have an awareness of being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then we would be inhibited from doing the aveirah. Again, leaving aside a tinok shenishba case, שכחת הבורא רחמנא ליצלן is what allows for every aveirah and the emes is, it's the core, it's the root of every aveirah, the specific dynamic of a specific aveirah notwithstanding and that's why the essence of teshuvah, the essence of the avodah of teshuvah is to try to cultivate an awareness of being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The essence of teshuvah is zechor es borecha.