043 Rav Twersky 900AM Mussar Rav Hutner Letter 42 June 17 2020

Good morning Rabbosai. I hope you're all well. So Michtav Mem Bais. וכמובן יש בכחה של תרומתו your contribution, meaning literary contribution, has the potency lehakeiven es haleiv to direct the heart כלפי המרכזיות של צורת האדם the centrality of what the essence of man is. ודעתינו זהו כעיקר העיקרים בתקופתינו this is the most fundamental issue in our era.

כי אבי אבות הטומאה של תקופתינו הוא הזלזול בצורת האדם

the source, the ultimate source of tuma in our era is the neglect, the making light of what tzuras ha'adam is. Mem bais, yeah, mem bais. ולא עוד אלא שיש בזה סוד עמוק there is a depth to it.

והנני מושל למסור הענין ברמז הנה עומק ייחודו של צורת האדם

the uniqueness, the singularity of Adam is בכח הבחירה הטבוע בצורה זו. Within the tzuras ha'adam, again, there's much that's unique and singular about Adam, his abstract intelligence, his moral conscience, there's much that's unique and singular, but within that constellation of singular features of Adam, so what's most defining is כח הבחירה הטבוע בצורה זו the ability to choose, bechira chofshis. I think the Meshech Chochma says that that's what the Tzelem Elokim is. Tzelem Elokim is that ability to not only act instinctively, which is the way an animal acts, is not only to act according to fixed laws of nature, which is the way the plant world operates, but that a person is unbound and unrestricted and has the koach habechira. And yet, there is at first glance a paradox here, והבטיחנו הקדוש ברוך הוא בתורתו Hakadosh Baruch Hu promises us in the Torah ki b'acharis hayamim tivatel sgulas habechira. So on the one hand, this is the most defining feature of the uniqueness of man, but on the other hand, in acharis hayamim, so then as the Ramban says פירושו של הרמב"ן למילת ערלת הלב that ומל ה' אלקיך את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך the Ramban says that we'll do good naturally. So how do you understand that? How is it that what's our essential human quality that elevates us above anything and everything else, that we lose that quality in acharis hayamim, so we're going to be demoted in terms of the chain of being in acharis hayamim?

ובודאי דאין הכוונה בזה על ידי מילת ערלת הלב תבוטל צורת האדם

that's unthinkable. Acharis hayamim means when things reach perfection. והיה באחרית הימים נכון יהיה הר בית ה' it's when Olam Hazeh comes to perfection. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world as אשר ברא אלקים לעשות. Hakadosh Baruch Hu left the world with potential that we should perfect it. And acharis hayamim is when that perfection is realized, is attained. It can't be that at that point tzuras ha'adam is negated.

כי סילוק הבחירה הבא בתור תולדה מהתעצמות כוח הבחירה אינו אלא גילוי סגולת הבחירה. אף על פי שבפועל ממש בטלה ההשתמשות בכוח הבחירה.

The removal of bechirah which comes as a result of exerting ourselves and asserting the koach habechirah, that really attests to and underscores again the special quality of bechirah, even though yes, in practice we won't need to exercise that anymore. Va'aderabah,

סילוק בחירה זה מופיע הוא דווקא כשיא הפסגה של נשגבות הבחירה.

On the contrary, not only does the siluk habechirah in the way the Rambam—the Rambam has a very different understanding of that pasuk—but not only does siluk habechirah in the Rambam's scheme not contradict this notion that the koach habechirah is what's most special and most exalted about man, but on the contrary, it underscores that. What does that mean? So maybe משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say the goal of all medicine is to cure illness and to keep people healthy that they should be able to live long, full, vibrant lives. And that's what all the doctors are doing in their clinical practice. That's what all the doctors are striving for in their research. It would seem a little bit paradoxical or dialectical at first, but when we would think about it, we would realize that it's not in the least bit, but that the ultimate achievement for medicine and for doctors would be to go out of business. That would be the ultimate achievement, right? The ultimate achievement for all infectious disease doctors and all ophthalmologists and all neurologists and all nephrologists, the ultimate achievement would be if illness were eradicated such that there was no more there was no longer need for doctors. So one sees in the context of that mashal that yitachen that it's the going out of business which gufeh doesn't point, that highlights just how important and vital the work is until one goes out of business. And Rav Hutner is telling us something similar about koach habechirah. Koach habechirah means because it lets a person, instead of just having everything bestowed upon him, it lets a person again, to the best of our very limited ability, it allows the person that he should make strides towards kedushah and taharah. But what highlights just how important that koach is and how important that avodah is—again think of the mashal to chochmah and melachet harefuah that we just gave—is when a person succeeds and in achris hayamim a person has done what he can do and he attains that level, so then the siluk habechirah is what attests to the vital and incredibly important work that that capacity has accomplished. אבל מכיוון שסוף סוף עומדת היא הבחירה להסתלק. Again, it's true that the way we just discussed it is the context and the sense in which again according to the Rambam's scheme bechirah will be negated.

הרי הכפירה היותר סמוכה לאחרית הימים היא הכפירה בסגולת הבחירה של האדם.

So as we get closer. closer to achris hayomim, so then the exaltedness of bechira is really being highlighted more and more. And kefira always targets that which is most prominent in kedusha. Kefira is a negative reaction to kedusha. The more prominent something is in the realm of kedusha, so then when people rachmana litzlan go in the wrong direction, so it's that which they react against. So since the segula of bechira, the importance of bechira, the exaltedness of that koach of bechira as we get closer to achris hayomim becomes more and more pronounced as we're getting closer and closer to realizing just what can be attained through bechira, so that's why that's what the kefira targets.

הרי הכפירה היותר סמוכה לאחרית הימים היא הכפירה בסגולת הבחירה של האדם, אשר מכפירה זו נובע כל הזלזול בצורת האדם של תקופתנו.

One of the forms of kefira and maybe this is what Rav Hutner was thinking of, I don't know, is that there is a very strong strain of thought over the past decades of avoiding moral responsibility. People have all kinds of excuses and all kinds of justifications for avoiding the moral responsibility for what they themselves do. Sometimes it's blamed on genes and sometimes it's blamed on collective historical experience. There are different ways people look to avoid assuming the moral responsibility for what they do. Having achrayis for what a person does is the other side of the coin of the koach of bechira, of recognizing that again defining dimension within tzuras ha'adam. If what defines us is the koach of bechira, so then a person is a ba'al achraya. A person is achrayis for what he does, for what he says, how he acts, how he reacts. Another form that this הכפירה בסגולת הבחירה של האדם takes is people just sort of unreflectively, just reflexively, giving in to physical instincts and physical desires. That's also a kefira, as though what a person feels on the level of physical instinct, as though that needs to happen. That's also when you think about it a kefira betzuras ha'adam. What an animal feels physically instinctively needs to happen; what a person feels physically instinctively needs to be judged. There needs to be, he needs to deliberate whether or not this is something I'm supposed to accommodate and even if so how, or maybe this is something I'm not supposed to accommodate. Maybe this is something that I'm supposed to demonstrate gevura and vekoveish es hayetzer.

ועל כן כל כך אני מעריך את פעולת הכרת צורת האדם והעלאת ערך חיי האדם

ba'ur hu lanu, which is why I value so much your contribution. Al ken rabosai, we'll stop here for now, beli neder, im yirtzeh hashem, I hope we'll resume at twelve o'clock. Have a good. Sure. The point of existence is to attain that state and be in that state. So leave aside what the Ramban says about achris hayomim. So everyone agrees, everyone agrees that that... Right, and in Olam Habo, and again what relationship is between Achris Hayomim and Olam Habo is a different question. So maybe this is a moshel or maybe this isn't the moshel, maybe it's the same thing we're talking about. But either way everyone agrees that in Olam Habo there is no bechira. But אף על פי כן the goal of Olam Hazeh is to reach Olam Habo, to be in that state of kirvas Elokim. So whether that same vision is a vision that applies to Achris Hayomim as well is what where the question is. But everyone has such a notion; even if you have a different understanding about Achris Hayomim, no one has a different understanding of Olam Habo. That's why everyone agrees that היום לעשותם ומחר לקבל שכרם, that only Olam Hazeh is an olam ha'asiyah. Okay, thank you, kol tuv u'v'racha.