040 Rav Twersky 900AM Mussar Rav Hutner Letter 35 36 June 14 2020

Good morning Raboysai Gut Voch and Rebbe Avyon as well. Michtav lamed-hey. כיון שבנוגע לספר הקודם אירע תקלה אצלי, currently the footnotes correspondent here, apparently he hadn't acknowledged or something the previous sefer that he received or not, at least the impression one has from this opening paragraph. הנני מזדרז עכשיו לאשר קבלת ספרו על התורה, a more recent sefer written and I hope תתקבל תשובתי בזריזות זו משום תיקון המעוות. This should be my tshuva.

ולהדרת גאון התהילה יאמר מילה סלחתי. אף על פי שאמרתי שהזריזות היה לאשר קבלת הספר,

to just acknowledge receipt of the sefer,

מכל מקום כלל הזריזות הזו בתוכה גם העיון בגוף הספר עצמו.

I also took time to get into the sefer.

והופתעתי לראות בספר הגדת השלום, ניכרים הם יפה יפה סימנים מובהקים ממדרגת הלמדנות שהביא לעולם את ספרי ההלכה שלו. זכורני שאצל אנשי מרן הגרי"ז זצ"ל,

Rav Yisrael Salanter, Reb Itzele in Slabodka, the mussar yeshiva in Europe so he received many things from the mussar movement. They said that by Rav Yisrael Salanter's people, by his talmidim, by those who followed him, hoyesa revacha ha-imra, the following saying was very widespread:

א דרשן לייגט אריין אין מאמר חז"ל, א בעל מוסר נעמט ארויס פון מאמר חז"ל.

A darshen literally invests, to put into. He invests in a ma'amar chazal and a ba'al mussar derives, takes out from a ma'amar chazal. What does that mean? A person can take a ma'amar chazal and say a whole genius ma'aracha explaining the ma'amar chazal and the whole thing is just a very theoretical construct. So he takes a two-line ma'amar chazal and geniusly is able to develop that into a whole theoretical ma'aracha. So he legt arein. He's again the ma'amar chazal becomes bigger as it were, it becomes broader, it becomes from being a two-line cryptic comment becomes a whole ma'aracha. But א בעל מוסר נעמט ארויס פון מאמר חז"ל. A ba'al mussar is always looking to find the practical application. To look into a ma'amar chazal again, not just to develop it into a ma'aracha, but then there should be a practical, obviously not in an artificial sense, in a natural organic sense that there should be a practical application, a practical implementation to that ma'amar chazal. Right, that saying is somewhat reminiscent, I don't think it does justice to this saying to identify it with the following, but it's certainly somewhat reminiscent with what the Ramban writes in the Iggeres where he tells his son that whenever you finish learning, so you always have to ask yourself as you close the sefer, what practical applications are there to what I learned today.

והנה עלה בידו של הדרת גאון להמציא בזה שביל מחודש,

a new path. תוכן הדברים הם בציור של נעמט ארויס. The content is clearly there's an application, there's an implementation. but yet the discovery of that which is to be applied, to be implemented, is through this again genius insight which develops the Maamar, which Liktei Diburim.

ובודאי שעל ידי זה תתפשט התורה של נמט רויס גם אל החוגים אשר לפי תכונתם הם שייכים למהלך ליקוטי דיבורים.

And this is very effective because even those who perhaps their orientation obviously there is a understated element of criticism here on the Hofno's behalf, on the Hofno's part. Even those who are not necessarily oriented the way he clearly says one should be to the nemte rois, they'll be so, they'll be captivated by the lomdus sheba, the Liktei Diburim, that they'll be more receptive to and will be drawn into the other aspect as well. Let's perhaps take a look at a little bit of the next letter as well. Hinecha kosev the second paragraph.

למצוא מקור שמצות תפילין היא מעשה מצוה שענינו הוא באמת ענינו של תלמוד תורה.

You were digging, right, be-machtares. You were digging to find, to identify a source that mitzvah tfilin is not an independent mitzvah as it were, but its definition is that it's a maaseh mitzvah which is really considered as it were a practical equivalent of Talmud Torah.

והנך מוצא סמוכים לזה בדברי הרמב"ן בהלכות אבילות. לא איצטריך לזה כי הלכה מפורשת היא שאף על פי שמצוה שאי אפשר לקיימה על ידי אחרים אינה נדחית מפני תלמוד תורה מכל מקום מצוה דתפילין נדחית היא מפני תלמוד תורה.

So Mitzvas Lulav, a person even רשב"י וחבריו שתורתם אומנותם can't allow their incessant preoccupation with Talmud Torah to interfere with Mitzvas Lulav. Because since Mitzvas Lulav is a chovas gavra, so every chovas yachid, every chovas gavra by definition is a מצוה שאי אפשר להעשות על ידי אחרים. Mitzvas Matzah, Mitzvas Sukkah, etc. However, when it comes to Mitzvas Tfilin, so there the one who for whatever reason the Talmud Torah is competing with a Mitzvas Tfilin, so then Mitzvas Tfilin is נדחית מפני תלמוד תורה. And that's only because

מפני הטעם הנ"ל שמצות תפילין היא מסוג מצות תלמוד תורה.

Actually, I don't know why the Hofno isn't metzayen this. I don't know what's the date on the letter, I don't remember the date on the letter, I don't know what was published when. But the emes is that in the Or Sameach on the Rambam he has this idea of this equation between hanachas tfilin as being a maaseh as it were of Talmud Torah.

הנך כותב שתלמוד תורה יכול להעשות מצוה מעשית כפי הנ"ל אין לך ענוה גדולה מזו עד כאן לשונך.

There's no greater expression of humility mitzade ha-Torah, mitzade ha-nosem ha-Torah presumably is the mechuvon, that Talmud Torah can be take the form of a mitzvah maasis.

דאחוה חביבי שדבריך הם מקרא מפורש. הלא ורואה הנך כי בגוף החובה של לימוד תורה לא בא שום ייחוד על הלימוד בפה. כמו ולמדתם ושיננתם וכדומה.

In Parshas Va'eschanan, in the parsha of Krias Shema, the Torah says in the mitzvah of Talmud Torah it says veshinantam. It doesn't necessarily, it doesn't specify that when you learn Torah that a person should be מוציא את הדברים בפיו. Similarly, ולמדתם אותם ושמרתם לעשותם. The Torah doesn't tell us whether or not that limud is supposed to be in the form of saying it be-peh or maybe it's just higayon haleiv. But rak be-mitzvas tefillin in Parshas Bo

ובפרשת תפילין נתייחד הפה להדיא כמו שכתוב למען תהיה תורת ה' בפיך.

An interesting observation, right? That it's davka here that we see that there's an inyan that when you're learning that a person should be מוציא את הדברים בפיו. What's the p'shat? says Rav Hutner. He says

ייחוד פה דתורה בתפילין דוקא הוא בולט מאוד עד שאי אפשר לעבור על הבליטה הזאת.

This is so conspicuous that it's impossible to not have one's attraction attention be drawn to this. אלא שהם הם דבריך. No the p'shat in this is what you said. דהרי הפה לגבי המחשבה היא בערך הגוף לגבי המוח. There are many sources that could be referenced to sort of provide perspective on this sense, but maybe the one that's best known to us is the Nefesh Hachaim. Nefesh Hachaim says that the three parts, the three aspects of nefesh, ruach, neshama in ascending order of spirituality serve as the source for ma'aseh, dibbur, and machshava. And the reality is that ma'aseh is the lowest of the three because it's the most physical, right? It involves a person uses their רמח איברים ושסא גידים to carry it out. It's the most physical. Dibbur is already more spiritual than ma'aseh, but highest, most spiritual and therefore it has its source in the neshama, which is the highest part or the highest aspect of the soul is machshava. הרי הפה לגבי המחשבה. So it's that general approach which is reflected here in this letter. הרי הפה לגבי המחשבה. The mouth, speech, relative to thought, היא בערך הגוף לגבי המוח. Because again, even the chituch sefasayim, there is a more physical, there's more physicality when a thought is expressed and articulated than when it remains purely in the realm of thought.

הרי הפה לגבי המחשבה היא והיה מקום לומר דלימוד בפה יש בו צד הורדה לעומת לימוד המעלה במחשבה.

Maybe the kedusha one might have thought, if it hadn't been a pasuk in the Torah, one might have thought that the kedusha of Torah is such, the reality of the exalted spirituality of Torah, the Torah is so nisgav, so ram venisgav that it can't or at least shouldn't be lowered to and converted into dibbur.

אבל לקושטא דמילתא אדרבה פה דתורה יש לה צד עדיפות גדול לגבי מחשבה דתורה.

On the contrary, we know on the contrary that a person is supposed to be mashmia kolo when he's learning and it's a segula for to help remember that a person is motzi befiv what he learns. So adaraba, the Torah tells us a chidush, Torah tells us a chidush again, not only is it can it be done, and not only is it muttar, but adaraba, it's the preferred form of Talmud Torah. Why does the Torah share this? insight this aspect of the mitzvah davka in the context of the parsha of tefillin ודווקא מצד שיש בזה הליכה ממקום גבוה למקום נמוך, de-hainu anivus de-Torah. This reflects the humility of Torah, obviously the humility of Torah of the Nosson HaTorah. Ve-al kein, the setting, the parsha in Chumash which is most appropriate for us to be taught this aspect of mitzvas talmud, מקומה של יחוד היבט התורה היא דווקא בתפילין because

משום זה שהתלמוד תורה יכול להיות מצוה מעשית אין לך ענוה גדולה מזו

because the tefillin reflects an even greater anava mi-tzad Torah. There the Torah is converted as it were by wearing the tefillin which have parshiyos of the Torah on it, it's converted into a mitzvah ma'asis. Obviously not in the same sense that it's converted into dibbur. Into dibbur, it's mitzvas talmud Torah. As tefillin, it's an equivalent, it's a different mitzvah which is talmud Torah ma'asis. As dibbur it is mitzvas talmud Torah. So in that sense obviously Rav Hutner doesn't intend to equate the two. He doesn't, as he indicates in the concluding sentence in parenthesis here, that

אין הדברים מוסברים בכאן כל צרכם, אלא שלחכם אני כותב ודי לחכימא ברמיזא.

I don't need to, I can just be merameiz to you. So I don't know what Rav Hutner has in mind in terms of the fuller understanding, I don't know, but itachen me'od, it certainly does mesh very beautifully with what we spoke about a couple of weeks ago in the Pirkei Avos shiur, the משה קיבל תורה מסיני, the yesod how the very existence of Torah, the fact that חכמת הקדוש ברוך הוא whose Ein Sof is distilled into a Torah, a davar ha-nivra of Torah which is then accessible to us is an extraordinary, the ultimate, ultimate as it were expression of and manifestation of anava. And then Rav Hutner is saying and it goes even weiter because then you might have thought that it's enough that this Torah should then be created and be accessible in the stratosphere of olam ha-machshava. But that it should be accessible and mitan ve-nitpas even in the stratosphere of olam ha-dibbur, so that's already a greater expression of anava. Okay so we'll stop here. A very very gutte erev Shabbos, a productive day, be well, be safe, kol tuv.