Intertwining of Din and Simcha

Last time we spoke a little bit about the Rambam in Hilchos Chanukah about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

אבל ראש השנה ויום הכיפורים אין בהן הלל לפי שהן ימי תשובה ויראה ופחד לא ימי שמחה יתירה.

The clear implication being, and and we tried to understand then that this is the premise from which the question of the Malachei Hashares, that the Malachei Hashares posed to Hakadosh Baruch Hu is based upon, that there is Simcha on on Rosh Hashanah and and Yom Kippur, which is why the Malachei Hashares expected that that it should translate into the saying of Hallel. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu said no, but the shira, that the Simcha of the Yamim Noraim is more contained. Unlike the Sholosh Regalim where the Simcha is something that's yeseira, it spills over and it dominates and defines the day. By contrast to the Yamim Noraim there is Simcha, but it's not the dominant mitzvah of the day. The days are ימי תשובה ויראה ופחד לא ימי שמחה יתירה. But Simcha there is. There is Simcha on the Yamim Noraim. The Rosh at the end of Maseches Rosh Hashanah quotes from some of the Tshuvos HaGeonim like that, that some used to say VeHasi'einu on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

והשיאנו ה' אלקינו את ברכת מועדיך לחיים ולשלום לשמחה ולששון.

So how exactly, where is there room, what's the relationship between the Simcha, albeit not Simcha Yeseira, and the ימי תשובה ויראה ופחד? So at first glance, eichshehu, they just coexist, albeit that there is a tension between those two, that on the one hand they're ימי תשובה ויראה ופחד and on the other hand Yemei Simcha. But somehow we're supposed to find a modus vivendi to allow those two to coexist. The Rosh quotes the Ravyah Yerushalmi which is, which suggests one basis for reconciling the two and allowing them to coexist. Ve'od heivi, very famously

ועוד הביא רבי"ה מהירושלמי פרק קמא דראש השנה אמר רבי סימון כתיב כי מי גוי גדול רבי חנניה ורבי יהושע חד אמר איזו אומה כאומה זו שיודעת אופיה של אלקיה בנוהג שבעולם אדם שיש לו דין לובש שחורים ומתכסה שחורים ומגדל זקנו ואינו חותך צפורניו לפי שאינו יודע איך דינו יוצא.

If anything, there's a mindset of aveilus surrounding din.

אבל ישראל אינן כן לובשין לבנים ומתעטפין לבנים ומגלחים זקנם וחותכים צפורניהם ואוכלין ושותין ושמחין בראש השנה לפי שיודעין שהקדוש ברוך הוא עושה להם נסים ומטה את דינם לכף זכות וקורע להם גזר דינם.

So that's one approach to how the din which inspires ימי תשובה ויראה ופחד coexists alongside the Simcha based on this sense of bitachon that Hakadosh Baruch Hu מטה את דינם לכף זכות. But itachen. There is an additional approach as well. The Mishnah

בארבעה פרקים העולם נידון בפסח על התבואה בעצרת על פירות האילן בראש השנה כל באי עולם עוברין לפניו כבני מרון שנאמר היוצר יחד לבם המבין אל כל מעשיהם ובחג נידונין על המים.

There is something absolutely when a person reflects upon this Mishnah, there is something absolutely staggering. Mideoraisa, one never finds a mitzvas simcha unless it's a Yom HaDin. It's not that on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur eichshehu they happen to converge and create this tension and we need to discover what the modus vivendi is that allows the two to coexist side by side. No, there's never a Yom Simcha which isn't concurrently a Yom HaDin. And it doesn't, the fact that the Shalosh Regalim, since the din of the Shalosh Regalim is not as pronounced in the character of the day, so it doesn't make that much of an impression upon us. Okay, so the Chazzan is Pesach, Shmini Atzeret, the Shatz puts on a kittel and the Kaddish is a little bit different before Mussaf, but it doesn't, but lema'aseh, you don't find simcha min HaTorah unless it's a Yom HaDin. So somehow it's not the pshat that on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there's simcha despite the fact there's din. What the Mishnah suggests is that the simcha because there's din. Yitachen, before we try to understand what the a little bit what the pshat in that spiritual phenomenon is, but yitachen, it's just pesukim that we say every Friday night in Kabbalas Shabbos.

ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ ירעם הים ומלואו יעלוז שדי וכל אשר בו אז ירננו כל עצי יער

cosmic simcha, cosmic simcha, לפני ה' כי בא כי בא לשפוט הארץ because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is coming because it's going to be a Yom HaDin. בחצוצרות וקול שופר הריעו לפני המלך ה' call for the band. ירעם הים ומלואו תבל ויושבי בה נהרות ימחאו כף that clapping providing the beat. Yachad harim yeranenu, again the entire beriah is depicted as participating in the simcha

לפני ה' כי בא לשפוט הארץ ישפוט תבל בצדק ועמים במישרים.

and maybe maybe the psukim in addition to describing and recording this dialectical phenomenon maybe they also give us a little bit of a clue as to what it's about in both kapitlach when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is dan so Hakadosh Baruch Hu is described as כי בא לשפוט הארץ that kavyachol Hakadosh Baruch Hu isn't being dan from afar he's not using his telescope to to scrutinize what what's happening but kavyachol Hakadosh Baruch Hu is coming כי בא לשפוט הארץ there is on some level in a certain sense din entails a giluy Shechina כי בא לשפוט הארץ and giluy Shechina is a source of simcha giluy Shechina is something that if a person is on a level to to sensitively feel and react and experience is something exhilarating which is why the normative response for all of us even even though if we're not necessarily holding on that level is that there's a mitzvas simcha din entails ki ba lishpot din entails in a certain sense giluy Shechina and that's a source of simcha the exhilaration of that moment of that reality is what's responsible for simcha moreover not only does din therefore trigger simcha but on a certain level it's also the only way to to trigger simcha not only is it a trigger but on a certain level yitachen it is an indispensable trigger so first I don't know if this is a mashal or another instance of a pattern that that we're going to try to recognize Rabbeinu Yonah writes here in Pirkei Avos on the mishna of

אם אין תורה אין דרך ארץ אם אין דרך ארץ אין תורה

so Rabbeinu Yonah writes there

אם אין דרך ארץ אין תורה רצונו לומר שצריך תחילה לתקן את עצמו במידות ובו זה תשכון התורה עליו

a person has to first refine himself and ultimately come as close as possible to perfecting himself bemidos u'vo ze and through that preparation through that effort he makes possible that tishkon haTorah alav that the Torah can can reside within him she'einena referring to the Torah שאיננה שוכנת לעולם בגוף שאינו בעל מידות טובות like you have two magnets so they they can they can attract or they can they can repel you can't necessarily bring even in the physical world you can't always bring two objects close to to to each other there has to be some natural attunement in order for for that to happen Says Rabbeinu Yonah, einena shochenes l'olam, wait, this, Rabbeinu Yonah says this isn't just a rule al derech harov. Seems to be a rule that has no exceptions. שאיננה שוכנת לעולם בגוף שאינו בעל מדות טובות. It's a similar what we're trying to understand a little bit is a similar manifestation of such a yesod. A giluy Shechina which triggers simcha doesn't happen in an olam of moral spiritual tohu vavohu. The same way the yesod is that אין התורה שוכנת לעולם בגוף שאינו בעל מדות, the environment isn't hospitable. Everything in the Ribbono Shel Olam's world requires its habitat. The habitat for Torah is a גוף בעל מדות טובות, so the world also has to be hospitable to a revelation of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence. What makes the world hospitable is that din. So it's not only that din involves כי בא לשפוט את הארץ and mimaila is a trigger, but itachan the pshat is that it's the trigger. So then l'chora the pshat is that it's not that on Yom HaDin or for that matter the shalosh regalim that despite the fact that there's din, there's simcha, it's because of the fact that there's din that there can be and that there is simcha. But the emes is as clear or as much as itachan we conceptually can understand that a little bit, ma'aseh practically, how does it just on the practical level? So that sort of explains the relationship and the intertwining of din and simcha on a conceptual level, but practically, a person has an eimas hadin, a person is shaking in his boots, מי יחיה מי ימות, how does it trickle down to the practical level? Rambam famously concludes hilchos lulav

שהשמחה שישמח האדם בעשיית המצוות ובאהבת האל שציווה בהן עבודה גדולה היא וכל המונע עצמו משמחה זו. ראוי להיפרע ממנו,

shene'emar

תחת אשר לא עבדת את השם אלוקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב.

Now let's pay especially careful attention to the next couple lines, rabosai:

וכל המגיס דעתו וחולק כבוד לעצמו ומתכבד בעיניו במקומות אלו חוטא ושוטה. ועל זה הזהיר שלמה ואמר אל תתהדר לפני מלך. וכל המשפיל עצמו ומקל גופו במקומות אלו הוא הגדול המכובד העובד מאהבה. וכן דוד מלך ישראל אומר ונקלותי עוד מזאת והייתי שפל בעיניי.

So the Rambam here gives us a crucial profound insight into simcha. Simcha, genuine simcha requires shiflus. Genuine simcha is not self-centered but selfless. Dovid HaMelech is is mesameach, sameach lifnei Hashem because he's משפיל עצמו ומקל גופו. But kol zman that the person is - the antithesis of that - the person is מגיס דעתו וחולק כבוד לעצמו, so then he can't, he can't experience, he can't demonstrate genuine simcha. The Rambam here links, because because they're linked, simcha with ahava. So it's interesting in this context to remind ourselves when the Rambam writes in Perek Beis of Yesodei HaTorah:

היאך היא הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו? בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו ובברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ, מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאווה תאווה גדולה לידע השם הגדול, כמו שאמר דוד: צמאה נפשי לאלוקים לקל חי. וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן, מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו ויירא ויפחד וידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומדת בדעת קלה ומעוטה לפני תמים דעות.

So there's a very, very basic difference between the Rambam's depiction of the beginnings of ahava as opposed to the beginnings of yira. The beginnings of yira, and and this difference remains as the person progresses beyond the beginnings respectively of yira and ahava. Yira is relational.

ויירא ויפחד וידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומדת בדעת קלה ומעוטה לפני תמים דעות.

And when you think about it, even in its most mundane sense, I'm afraid of someone if he - it doesn't matter how big and strong he is, I'm only going to be afraid of him if he's bigger and stronger than I am. It's it's it's relational. By ahava, there's no self-reflection, there's no enhanced self-perspective, there's no mention of self.

בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו ובברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ, מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאווה תאווה גדולה לידע השם הגדול.

There's no - again, it's not about self. Yirah is relational, albeit instilling a sense of shiflus. So on the practical level, the challenge of mitzvas simcha, again, which is inextricably intertwined with din, is that it challenges us to move away from our self-centeredness. And you see this avoda can also be recognized within Yamim Noraim from a different angle. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippurim are both times of malchiyos, lehachtimo מלך על כל הארץ, melech mocheil vesolayach, both times of malchiyos. There is a famous vort from the Gra. It's already, the Ibn Ezra says it already. Ibn Ezra says it on the pasuk of when the Shivtei Kah say to Yosef HaTzaddik after hearing his dreams, המלוך תמלוך עלינו אם משול תמשול בנו. So what's the difference between molech and moshel? So the Ibn Ezra explains that molech means when it's me'ratzon, when the subjects willingly, voluntarily, welcome and embrace the molech. And memshala means when it's superimposed from above, when it's baal korcham of the subjects. And what the brothers are saying to Yosef is, do you think you're describing how in the dream how we're willingly going to bow down to you? It never will come to pass. hamaloch timloch aleinu, will it ever come to a point that we will embrace you as a ruler? Even if, even if lu yehi that אם משול תמשול בנו, even if lu yehi that some day you will be able to impose your rule over us, even if אם משול תמשול בנו, it will never ever be that hamaloch timloch aleinu. So malchiyos means that when Rosh Hashanah is a day of malchiyos, the same for Yom Kippurim, means it's not a day of begrudging acknowledgment, it's a day of embracing malchiyos, because that's what malchiyos implies. But we mentioned last time the he'ara that one aspect of malchiyos is din. So kumt ois that the mitzvah of malchiyos is to willingly, voluntarily, happily, joyously embrace din. So how does a person do that? Who wants to be exposed to the rigors of din? See, here too, the challenge is. To move away from our self-centeredness. Not surprisingly, and this requires elaboration, but dai lachakima birmiza, not surprisingly though, that movement away from the self-centeredness, the selfless involvement with simcha, the selfless kiyum hamalchius is also the secret to teshuva, is also the secret to being zoche bdin that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is מטה את דיננו לכף זכות.