Why Is Talmud Torah Not In Rambams Darkei Hateshuva

ומדרכי התשובה להיות השב צועק תמיד לפני השם בבכי ובתחנונים ועושה צדקה כפי כוחו ומתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו ומשנה שמו כלומר שאני אחר ואיני אותו האיש שעשה אותן המעשים ומשנה מעשיו כולם לטובה ולדרך ישרה וגולה ממקומו שגלות מכפרת עוון מפני שגורמת לו להיכנע ולהיות עני ושפל רוח ומפני עניין זה נהגו כל בית ישראל להרבות בצדקה ובמעשים טובים ולעסוק במצוות מראש השנה ועד יום הכיפורים יתר מכל ימות השנה ונהגו כולם לקום בלילה בעשרת ימים אלו ולהתפלל בבתי כנסיות בדברי תחנונים ובדברי כיבושין עד שיאור היום.

Obviously there's much to be said about what the Rambam says, but let's for a moment focus on something he doesn't say. Talmud Torah is conspicuously absent from Hilchos Teshuvah. We would have thought and takka other seforim do mention do do assign it a a conspicuous place and yet both the Rambam's darkei hateshuvah which an individual follows in the context of his personal teshuva both the general hanhogos of kol Beis Yisroel in aseres yemei teshuva. I don't know, I have problems, yeshiva didn't start davening maariv at ten o'clock and they're doing Elul and the aseres yemei teshuva also. I don't, apparently they didn't learn for ten fifteen, I don't know. So what's pshat here that that that Talmud Torah is is so so conspicuously absent? So the first thing is a a very elementary yesod. תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם וכל חפציך לא ישוו בה. All that notwithstanding, it doesn't preclude the fact that in Torah there are zmanim and occasions where there's a particular emphasis, a particular avoda, a particular mitzvas hayom which isn't Talmud Torah. If a person will will say that he doesn't have time on Rosh Hashana to hear the 100 kolos, he has to learn, doesn't, he's not going to go to hakafos on Simchas Torah because he he has to learn. So if you took a shvua to finish Zvachim Menachos by the next morning, okay, so maybe maybe takka you have to skip hakafos, but other than that, no, you hear the 100 kolos on Rosh Hashana. The mitzvas hayom is shofar. Avada you go to hakafos. Think Rav Pinkus talks about this in one of his shmuessen. Consider that, that's first just that that that introductory note. Two stories. It's it's reported that Reb Chaim used to exert himself so so mightily in thinking and in concentrating about divrei Torah that he used to become so feverish that he had to walk over to the to the pillar and and put his head against the cold stone to to relieve the fever and and to revive himself. One story. A second story. The Rav tells the story. Reb Chaim walked out once from the shul in Brisk and saw some children and one of them was crying. So Reb Chaim goes over to the little boy and asks him why he's crying. So the child says because they're playing horse. And the way the game works is they alternate, they take turns. One kid is the horse and the other is riding him and it's his turn to be the horse and he doesn't want to be the horse and he's crying. So Reb Chaim says, "I'll be the horse. I'll take the turn." So Reb Chaim gets down on his hands and knees and tells all the other little boys that he's the horse and they're riding him and they're beating him and the balabatim see Reb Chaim. So what's our reaction to the first story? The reaction to the first story is what extraordinary yegia and amal. What extraordinary ahavas hatorah. What it means to be shakuah in divrei Torah. Those are the types of reactions that the first story elicits. What does the second story elicit? Such extraordinary shiflus. Such extraordinary humility. What does darkei hateshuva mean when the Rambam says midarkei hateshuva? Darkei hateshuva means that when a person is in the process of teshuva, so that experience reverberates. It's not something that—it's not something that—okay, so I set aside my time, I set aside my five, my ten, my twenty minutes and I make cheshbon hanefesh and otherwise I go about my business and my routine is unaltered. If a person is really doing teshuva, a person is really in the throes of teshuva, so it has to express itself, it has to reverberate. And the dominant feeling has to be one of shiflus. To do teshuva is to come face to face with one's failings, one's inadequacies, the absurdity of one's gaiva. If a person were to ask, "Is darkei hateshuva—is it a chiyuv?" So the question would miss the point. It's not a chiyuv. It's a natural expression, carryover, reflection and reverberation of the teshuva. And Talmud Torah for all its centrality, for all its uniqueness, leharbos betzdaka, the galus, the shinui maasim, all that, those are all reverberations of the mindset of the shov. Without detracting or diminishing rachmana litzlan from the וכל חפציך לא ישוו בה, but Talmud Torah is not intended— to express, to express that. That having been said, there is a kotav hasheini, not a kotav hasheini on that topic, but a kotav hasheini that relates to certainly collectively to our social condition and obviously everyone has to decide and diagnose for himself whether and to what degree it relates to him individually. The most famous halakha in Hilkhos Teshuva, the beginning of this same halakha in perek gimmel,

אע"פ שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב רמז יש בו.

A person can never presume to say this is why Hakadosh Barukh Hu gave us the mitzvah, this is what motivated Hakadosh Barukh Hu. A person can comment on on the religious content of the mitzvah, what the mitzvah means to us. Remez yesh bo.

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

My father zichrono livrakha pointed out something so remarkable in this Rambam. The Rambam is explaining how the kol shofar is a call to teshuva, a wake-up call to teshuva. So who's the audience to whom that's addressed? If there's a wake-up call for teshuva, so the audience is clearly an audience of choteim. Who who is the Torah, whom is the Torah, whom is Hakadosh Barukh Hu instructing to do teshuva? Elu hachoteim. But the Rambam doesn't identify the audience that way. He says that the kol shofar which is a call to teshuva, the audience is

אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנותם בהבל וריק.

Doesn't say anything initially about cheit. Cheit is the fallout, cheit is the corollary. But the core issue is an orientation to havlei hazman, to shallowness, to transient realities as opposed to ultimate realities. אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן. They're busy with havlei hazman. They're busy with money, they're busy with ta'anugim, they're busy with with the havlei hazman. Ultimately we'll find things in Sefer HaMitzvos and Minyan HaMitzvos that that get violated as a result. But that's the corollary. It's not the root. It's not the core problem. The core of the problem is the preoccupation with havlei hazman, with hevel varik. The Rambam obviously thought that that problem, that that misguided life orientation was something that to varying degrees was relevant in all generations. It's certainly relevant in the affluent materialistic society that we live in. As much as it's ever been relevant. And when that root problem exists, of the preoccupation with havlei hazman and the spending all one's time immersed behevel varik, so here the משתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו of perek bet, when that's, if and when that's the defining or one of the defining issues, then lechora, משתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו translates into renewed commitment and intensification of Talmud Torah. Mitzad the משתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו, not again, not modifying the first heara at all. The antithesis, משתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו, the person distances himself greatly מן הדבר שחטא בו, the antithesis of the

שכחת האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנותם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל

is certainly, is certainly Talmud Torah. Good Yom Tov, ksiva vchasima tova.