001 Letter 93

I think right now everyone's on mute. I have to unmute everyone listening. They can hear and they don't want to make sounds, so they're muted so that we don't hear them, but everyone hears everything. Okay. Hi, good morning, Shalom Aleichem rabosai. So for the new tkufo im yirtze Hashem at at some future date in the near future im yirtze Hashem maybe we'll try to reflect a little bit together on on the tkufo and the some of the opportunities and challenges that it presents but more focused, more narrowly, so one of the changes that we'll try בלי נדר אם ירצה השם to implement sort of help us continue to maximize our time and opportunities is we'll try to begin each each seder with a with a mini shiur with a chatzi shiur for a few minutes. For at least the first few days, what we'll try to do im yirtze Hashem is read a letter or bli neder read a letter, a part of a letter from the Pachad Yitzchak of Igros Ukesavim. So I think I think you all have the the letter that we're gonna look at today. It's Siman Tzad-Gimmel in in the sefer. Maybe we'll begin in the second paragraph of of the letter. למותר הוא לצייר לך. For the most part the letter, for the most part the letter speaks for itself but here and there maybe we'll comment

בלי נדר אם ירצה השם. למותר הוא לצייר לך כמה גדולה שמחתי להיודע כי דוקא הישיבה ב

blank פועלת לחזק את בדק הבית שלך. Right? It's unnecessary for me to to tell you to describe to you how how how great my simcha is to to be informed that a certain yeshiva is is helping you be mischazek maybe helping you grow.

אבל אי אפשר לי להעלם ממך כי אין קורת רוחי שלמה.

But I can't I can't hide from you that my satisfaction is incomplete. במהלך חיים של שלום, when a person is living at a time of peace, so the mahalach is that אפשר לו לאדם לחיות חיים שמניה וביה. A person can sort of be withdrawn into his own daled amos at the stage of life when that's appropriate בלי מגע ומשא עם הסביבה, without any interaction with the surrounding society, meaning even the meaning he's referring to even the insular Jewish community. Bematsav kaze in in that type of situation, meaning of sholom, אפשר לו לאדם לא לפעול ולא להתפעל. A person can be involved neither in acting upon others, influencing, nor in being acted upon, nor being influenced. It's possible for a person just to be sitting and shteiging and and and growing in Torah and yiras shamayim. He's not influencing others, he's not being influenced by others and again in a state of sholom there's a time and stage of life when that is appropriate. אבל במצב של מלחמה, at a time of war and again as as we probably intuit already and will become explicit soon he's not talking about war of of of bombs and in in that sense, כשכל אחד הוא צד, when there are different sides... Inevitably, right, willy-nilly a person b'matzav shel milchama, again so first he's illustrating it, you know, with the analogy when it's literal war, it's either laharog o lehayeireg. If a person is in the trenches, so a person can't be neutral, he's either gonna have to kill the enemy or he's gonna be killed. Again, moving away from the literal example of war, lifol o lehipael. Either a person is acting upon society or he's being acted upon, he's being influenced, he's being affected. Either he's affecting society or he's being affected. בזמננו נטושה היא המלחמה בין הקודש ובין החול. In our day, and again, this the letter is dated Tashyag, 1953 leminyanam. So obviously the milchama that Rav Hutner is describing is not one that has abated, it's one that has intensified. בזמננו נטושה היא המלחמה בין הקודש ובין החול between Kodesh and Chol, גם בחריפות גם בחמימות, both with and in terms of the intellectual debate as well as the passion. V'kasheh hu l'haamin, it's difficult to believe

שאפשר לו לאדם המחזיק את דגל הקודש לא להפעל אם איננו פועל.

Such a profound insight and just so important, so repercussive. It's difficult to believe that a person who holds on to the banner of Kedusha not to be adversely affected if he's not actively affecting others. Chavivi, חיים אנו בתקופת עקבתא דמשיחא. You know, when we see the Gedolim of past generations referring to how in their day they were living at a time of Ikvesa D'Meshicha, so we sort of wonder well, if that diagnosis was correct, so how come Moshiach hasn't come? I mean, Rav Hutner here is using that term. Rav Elchonon famously in his day, which was, you know, at least half a generation and a generation earlier said the same. But the answer is that from a perspective of world history, Ikvesa D'Meshicha doesn't isn't necessarily limited to ten years or twenty years. From the perspective and in the context of world history, Ikvesa D'Meshicha can be a hundred years, it can be two hundred years. And relatively speaking, that is still a rather short concluding chapter of history.

פרצוף הקדושה של כל הדורות הולך ומתקרב לעקב שלו. דורנו הוא בבחינת עקב.

Our generation is the equivalent of the heel לגבי כל הדורות הקודמים. Meaning, the level of ruchniyus of previous generations, so our generation is so lowly that the correct analogy, the correct depiction is, again, using the body as the metaphor, so we're b'vchinas eikev, the heel

לגבי כל הדורות הקודמים. בחינת הראש, הגוף, והידיים הם כבר מאחורינו.

Those belong to past generations. Anachnu hineinu ha'eikev. And look at this remarkable teitsch of Ikvesa D'Meshicha. Again, lichora the simple pshat in Ikvesa D'Meshicha is v'haya eikev tishme'un, that meaning Moshiach is gonna come right afterwards. And Rav Hutner is saying no, there's a double entendre here, that it's also again not just lashon eikev in the sense of sort of at temporal sequence; it's not just identifying where our tkufa is in the course of history, but it's also depicting the spiritual level which will exist at that time, which exists at this time. Anachnu hineinu ha'ekev, we're the heel. ההבדל מכל האיברים להעקב, the difference between all limbs, all the other limbs of the body and the heel, הוא שהעקב מוכרח לדרוס על משהו. Gevaltige svara, no? When you stand still or you walk, so your hand doesn't have to walk, doesn't have to trample something. It doesn't have to be coming in contact with something. It doesn't have to be pressing against something. בזמן שכל האיברים אפשר להם להסתובב בחלל. The rest of one's body is not making contact. The rest of one's body is just in space, in the air. Matzav hakedusha b'yameinu, the situation, the state of kedusha in our day demands כי האנשים המסימים בכבודו של קדושה. Again, those who—I think here sometimes, you know, that verb has a negative connotation. I think clearly here it doesn't. People who aspire to kedusha must by necessity act upon al hachol. They must be influencing, acting upon the chol. We'll see in a minute what chol means here. Kederech sheharegel, the same way when a person walks, his foot mashira ikvot bachol. It leaves footprints in the sand. עקבתא דמשיחא קודם כל עקבתא של הקדושה בחול. Gevaltige taytsh. Ikveta d'meshicha means that it leaves kedusha leaves its footprints in chol. V'chol tarti mashma. Again, in terms of the analogy of the body, it means afar, the dirt, the ground. But again, chol we use also not just kechol hayam, not just like the sand of the ocean, but we also use afar to mean vechullin. Kashem, so why taki is that the same word? כשם שהעקב הגשמי פועלת על החול שתחתיה, the same way the physical heel acts upon the sand, the ground underneath it. כמו כן העקב של קדושה, so too the heel of kedusha, which is our bechina, פועלת היא על החולין שתחתיה. It must interact. The hand doesn't have to interact with the ground. The knee, the head, other parts of the body don't have to interact with the ground. The heel has to interact with the ground. בדורנו אי אפשר לנו, in our generation, it's impossible מבלי פעולה של קירוב על החולין אשר סביבותינו. In order for a person not to be adversely affected, in order for a person not to be negatively influenced, so he has to be actively and positively influencing those, the sviva. Chavivi hayiti meushar, I would be very happy

לשמוע כי לכל הפחות נפש אחת מישראל נתקרבה על ידך לאבינו שבשמים,

that in our tkufa, it's the possibility, even when one is young, of being just entirely sagur u'mesugar, to be within one's own daled amos doesn't exist. There's going to be contact between oneself and the surrounding society. Either a person looks to be the active one in that encounter, to positively affect and influence, or a person, if he's passive, rachmana litzlan, is going to be negatively affected and influenced. V'atah da lach. ואתה דע מה שלפניך, so you should know and understand what your avodah is. It's interesting, the I can't say that that I chose the letter for this reason, but it's me'inyana deyoma.

תחוג את חג המצות ברוב שמחה ועליצות ותזכה לטעום טעמה של החרות האמיתית ומתוך כך למאוס בכל עניינה של החרות המדומה.

Interesting, very interesting bracha. You know, an example of what Rav Hutner's talking about in our day, we live in a culture that rejects, rachmana litzlan, the Ribbono shel Olam's morality, that rebels against the Ribbono shel Olam's morality, and it looks to mainstream and validate and even celebrate behavior that the Ribbono shel Olam explicitly prohibits. If a person sort of doesn't react to that, he becomes influenced. The influence happens very subtly, even imperceptibly. And what happens is, lav davka that it's rachmana litzlan so dramatic that a person would even contemplate, rachmana litzlan, engaging in forbidden behavior, but the acceptance, the lack of categorical rejection, the lack of categorical condemnation of the effort to reject a pasuk in the Torah is unfortunately sort of empirical and serves as an empirical example for what Rav Hutner is talking about in this letter. Either a person is poel or he's mispa'el. If a person just tries, again in his, in his very rich vocabulary, if a person just tries to remain minei ubei, so then something, he's adversely affected, something becomes eroded. Ad kedei kach, that again, even people who in their own personal lives would not contemplate such behavior, but become accepting of such behavior, not accepting of such behavior in the sense of people do aveiros, no, become accepting of such behavior. So what does it mean, so how is a person poel in let's say in this context, given this example? So one thing is agam that Rav Hutner is talking about being poel on others, but maybe with a משל למה הדבר דומה. The Meshech Chochma says in the beginning of Parshas Vayechi, there's a very beautiful Meshech Chochma. The pasuk is ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים. So the Meshech Chochma comments that doesn't seem to be such an accurate description. Yaakov Avinu very deliberately lived in Goshen. Yosef HaTzadik settled the family there and very deliberately kept them far away from Mitzrayim, which is the only place Yaakov would consent to be. So why does the Torah give Yaakov Avinu's address for those seventeen years as being in Eretz Mitzrayim? So the Meshech Chochma says that because a person is being described as living in that zone where he has a hashpa'ah. And Yaakov Avinu hayos, when Yaakov Avinu came down to Mitzrayim so then the ra'av ceased and then they were able to start planting again. So Yaakov Avinu's influence was felt. Not just in Goshen. So he didn't just live on Rechov whatever on Main Street in Goshen, no he lived in that sense, in the sense of impacting, affecting, he lived in all Mitzrayim. In that context, the Meshech Chochma writes, there's a fascinating phrase there. He says יש אדם חי לעצמו and then he writes in brackets vegam zeh tov, meaning when a person talks about being mashpia, talks about teaching, so oneself, one can be one's own talmid. One can be mashpia on oneself. That's also a way and maybe the most basic way of being mashpia. The same way Chazal in the Gemara Kiddushin, in the Talmud Torah sugyas, and the Rambam is careful to preserve this lashon that ilo agmerei avu'a that mechayav lemigmar nafshei. Chazal use the idiom that a person has to teach himself, not just learn. A person has to teach himself. So a Rebbe Talmid doesn't necessarily mean that there's two people. The Rebbe Talmid conversation can be a monologue, it can be bein adam le'atzmo. So being poel atzmo begins that, first of all, being poel, excuse me, and therefore not being nishpael, Rachmana litzlan, influencing positively actively as opposed to negatively passively being influenced, it begins just that a person has to talk to himself. A person has to react. And whenever we encounter this brazen rebellion, this attempt to legitimize behavior that Hakadosh Baruch Hu prohibits and disallows, so a person just, a person has to react, even if there's no one else in earshot, a person has to react for himself and that's probably the most important talmid a person has is lemigmar nafshei. It's only if lemigmar nafshei, so then we can try עד כמה שידינו יד כהה מגעת, so maybe I can talk to my chavrusah about it as well. Maybe I can talk to a friend of mine as well as occasion presents and as there's a context where it makes sense and where it's helpful to do so. But it's always possible and therefore always very important that a person should be poel on himself. Then in addition, a person looks again, obviously the point is everything in life has to be done with seichel hayashar. Obviously the point is not to walk around and just become a meshuga ledavar echad. That isn't the point. But the point is to recognize the appropriate opportunities and contexts to be poel because mamish we see bechush the truth of this penetrating insight that a person, if he's not poel is nishpael. And we look into our society and we see, we see how and again, by our society, I don't mean only the external Gentile society, meaning even in our communities we see how since there hasn't been sufficient pe'ilus, and again, the pe'ilus doesn't have to be something dramatic, it doesn't have to be something that makes the newspapers, the pe'ilus can be just a one-sentence reaction when it comes up in conversation, when one sees a news item, it can be to one's family, to one's chavrusah. We're not talking about dramatic and radical behavior, there's really context and occasion for such behavior, but it's important, again, and this is just דבר שיצא מן הכלל ללמד על הכלל כולו, it's obvious. It's obviously not the only, again, in Rav Hutner's imagery of מלחמה בין קודש לחול, it's obviously not the only front in in that battle, but it's one where it's again unfortunately one can easily see the the truth of of his insight. Okay, so בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll shift now to morning seder everyone, you know basher hu sham. I hope everyone within their context and and within whatever is again both in terms of hishtadlus to prevent safek sakana to the society as a whole, to our communities as a whole, so where one is for morning seder obviously that's something everyone has to figure out, but I hope בלי נדר אם ירצה השם that everyone basher hu sham will be able to maintain and then we'll continue with shiur in the sugya of kfeila בלי נדר אם ירצה השם probably around 12:15 אם ירצה השם בלי נדר. I don't know, I guess in a virtual in a virtual sense of the word would be the same place בלי נדר אם ירצה השם at at 12:15. Okay, yashar koach, chazak ve'ematz.