These shiurim were given at 12pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Y.U., to Rav Twersky’s shiur.
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See the table below the player for details about the shiurim in this series.
| Track | Length | Description |
| 1 | 33:59 | – “Hodi’eini nah es d’rachecha” – wanted greater yedi’ah of darchei Hashem in order to increase ahavas Hashem. – it’s true that everything is l’tov, but we don’t experience it as such, hence the question. |
| 2 | 34:27 | – On the level of human experience, we perceive evil. HKB”H doesn’t just have more info, but has a fundamentally different perspective on reality. – A Jew is supposed to live a proactive life of destiny, not one of passive fate. Even though we have no control over anything in life, we do control what our attitudes, thoughts, and reactions are, which ultimately is everything. |
| 3 | 44:03 | – A life of destiny entails exercising his bechira and living as a subject, not object. – Reaction to both good and yisurin must be change and elevation. If one doesn’t reach as such to the former, one may get the later. |
| 4 | 30:46 | – Both yachid and tzibbur must react to yisruin with teshuva / aliyah. – No such thing as taanis without teshuva – Yisruin, as well as an eis tzara, serve as a general yedias hacheit – i.e. indicate that there’s some problem – and are mechayeiv in pishpush b’ma’asim. |
| 5 | 30:20 | – “Why” leaves room for many difficult follow-up questions, “what” doesn’t and instead leads us to what is required of us – theme of sefer Iyuv: a) approach to yisrum as “what” and not “why” b) HKB”H initially looks to elicit reaction through beracha, and if not forthcoming, sends yissurin to achieve the same goal – person can’t seclude himself and connect to Hashem as a yachid. Same is true of geirus – beis din impresses upon the ger that geirus isn’t just one’s own mitzvos but also becoming part of the klal. |
| 6 | 30:19 | – The Rav initially writes that yissurin come to raise one up. Later writes it’s about shortcomings, and specifically it comes from a failure in bein adam lachaveiro. – Beracha has to be shared. When the sequence of events is beracha followed by yisurin, indicates a problem in bein adam lachaveiro. – Chazal saying that aveira A leading to yisurin B DOES NOT mean that all instances of yisurin B come from aveira A. We can never presume to claim to know why something happened. When people say they know why X happened, it is am-a’ratzus. In addition, one should not say things that people are not ready to hear. |
| 7 | 33:36 | – Antisemitism is a constant, as anyone who has a sense of history knows. – The goal is not to survive yissurin, but to grow. This is true of difficulties of all magnitudes. – If we don’t react/grow after a miracle, then HKB”H has to use yissurin to get us to grow. Delaying reacting is a big problem. Reacting immediately to mussar etc. shows that the aveira was an aberration. |