Perek 5: Yiras haOnesh & Kabbolas ol Mitzvos. Regret, Objectifying Teshuva.

ותנאי גדרי התשובה רבים מאוד, אך אזכור מהם עשרים תנאים, ומהם בכל גדר מגדרי התשובה חמישה תנאים, ובהם יהיה כל גדר מגדרי התשובה שלם.

So of each of the four elements of teshuva that the Chovos HaLevavos had enumerated in Perek Daled, that themselves each one itself is a composite, and he's going to mention five sub-elements that together comprise the element for each of these four. מהם תנאי החרטה חמישה. Again, tnai doesn't translate the way we're used to it, doesn't translate as a condition. A condition is something which is distinct, but as a tnai kodem l'maaseh. And here it means that it's a, again, it's an aspect of charata. Tnai in the sense that if you don't have it, you don't have charata. So tnai in that sense of it. Not tnai as in ותתפללו משם צר והמקדש תסליי where the tnai is something distinct. In the sense that if you don't have it, so then the charata is inadequate, is deficient. מהם תנאי החרטה חמישה: הראשון -

היראה ממהירות עונש הבורא בחוטא על מה שקדם לו מן העונות, ויחזיק בעוז חרטתו, כמו שנאמר תנו לה' אלהיכם כבוד בטרם יחשיך ובטרם יתנגפו רגליכם על הרי נשף.

I'm not sure, but it could be what this means is the following. Well, let me pose it as a question. The lashon of v'hizhazek b'oz charataso maybe suggests, maybe not, depends how you take it. When we reflect on the potential meheros of onesh, and Chovos HaLevavos means potential. We don't know what HaKadosh Baruch Hu's timetable is for punishment. The Rambam writes that

יש עבירות שהדין נותן שנפרעין ממנו בעולם הזה ויש עבירות שהדין נותן שנפרעין ממנו בעולם הבא ויש עבירות שהדין נותן שנפרעין ממנו בעולם הזה ובעולם הבא

and even if it is an avera from which one from which HaKadosh Baruch Hu is nifra' min ha-adam. that's something which we don't know so it's obviously a possibility that needs to be recognized and reckoned with. So contemplating that very sobering fact so that's something which will motivate and generate charata or itself is an integral part of the charata. You hear the question what I'm saying? Yes, no, maybe? No, I don't know you could have thought from the phrase בשק וזק ובכל זה חרטתו that maybe he means the first but I don't know contextually when you look at the let's say the next four of the tnayei hacharata they don't seem to be incentivizing charata they seem to be aspects of charata. שבירת לבו והכנעו לאלוקים המשיבה ממנו מן החטא. That's incentivizing charata or that's an expression of charata? והשלישי לשנות מלבושו ותכשיטו ולהראות סימני החרטה. So for that he's saying explicitly is an aspect of charata right? It's not incentivizing it's not generating it's an aspect of charata.

הרביעי הבכי והצעקה והאבל נזכרת על מה שקדם מן החטא.

Also explicit that that's an aspect of charata.

החמישי שיוכיח נפשו ויכלימנה במצפונו על מה שהיה מקצורו בחובת הבורא יתעלה עליו.

So kimdumas that each of these again as we said at the outset is an element which comprises charata. And if that's the case so then Chovos HaLevavos is saying and this is fascinating that that yiras haonesh again it's not only that if we experience it if we take it to heart not only that will spur us to do teshuvah but that's an integral part of the charata gufa. So what's the shittah now? So lichora is as follows. In Sefer HaMitzvos mitzvah aseh daled so the Rambam has as follows:

והמצווה הרביעית היא שציוונו להאמין יראתו יתעלה ולהיפחד ממנו ולא נהיה ככופרים ההולכים בקרי אבל נירא ביאת עונשו בכל עת.

What does the Rambam mean by bechol eis? What's bechol eis modifying? It's modifying only nira bias onsho? At all times we should have yiras haonesh? Well no maybe it means two things. At all times we should have yiras haonesh and the yiras haonesh should be that the yiras haonesh could be bechol eis. Which does it mean? So I don't know so maybe in maybe I don't know if you can read the original you could come to this conclusion based on that. But lemaisa if you take a look in Avos in where is it is it in perek aleph of Avos the mishnah of אל תתייאש מן הפורענות? Where is that? Perek aleph? Ayin zayin? Where is it? Maybe Ayin zayin? No no no it's not. It's not. Aleph zayin? Oh okay. Yeah אל תתייאש מן הפורענות. So the Rambam says, where is the Rambam?

ואמר כשתחטא או תרצה לחטוא אל תבטח ותאמר שהשם יתברך לא יענישנו אלא בעולם הבא ולא תייאש מהנקמה ממנו מהרה על החטא ההוא.

Al tityayeish mehipuranus means that don't be mityayeish from puranus in the sense of, oh, puranus is not imminent. The same way if you're mityayeish from an aveidah, you don't anticipate finding it. So too, mityayeish mehipuranus means you don't anticipate that the puranus is anything imminent, anything that needs to be reckoned with in the immediate future. So the Rambam there is meforash that the mitzvah of yiras ha'onesh is what the Chovos HaLevavos says about meheiros, potentially, possibly, not definitely, but potentially, possibly. Okay, let's just, so that's in terms of clarifying Perush HaMilos. But now, the lichora mashma'us is as follows. Again, להאמין יראתו יתעלה ולהפחד ממנו. So let's sort of edit the Rambam. Okay, let's edit it. Shetsivanu, if you have it, take a look so you can follow.

שציוונו להאמין יראתו יתעלה ולהפחד ממנו ונירא ביאת עונשו בכל עת.

That's the suggested edit. Right, skipping the five words of ולא נהיה ככופרים ההולכים בקרי. I don't remember the text, maybe the Chafetz Chaim talks about it somewhere. The mashma'us in this Rambam is that at least sometimes, if a person does an aveirah, in addition to that aveirah, he's also mevatel the aseh of yiras shamayim. ולא נהיה ככופרים ההולכים בקרי. If a person acts as though he's not going to be accountable for what he's doing, that's what it means, kekofrim haholchim bekeri. Keri means that there's no hashgachah. אם תלכו עמי בקרי, that's what the Rambam says at the beginning of Hilchos Ta'aniyos. Or in other words, what the Rambam here is saying is that the mitzvah of yiras ha'onesh, it merges with kabbalat ol mitzvos. Kabbalat ol mitzvos means that a person lives with an ol, so to the same, again, משל למה הדבר דומה, if an animal has a yoke and the... and the owner then allows the owner to direct and command the animal where to go. So Kabbalos Ol Mitzvos means that a person lives with this awareness of being a metzuveh that life isn't hefker. And the Rambam merges yiras haonesh with that. Do you see that? Do you see how that phrase—what? So hashata de’asinu lehachi—so now it's very good. Remember I think maybe the first ha'arah that we had in here in the Chovos HaLevavos was that back in perek rishon, it wasn't the first, I must have said something in the pesicha, no, but back in back in perek rishon, back in back in perek rishon, ואמר בביאור מהות התשובה שטעם, again, ta'am doesn't mean reason, it means the substance, tochen,

שטעם התשובה הוא הסכמת האדם לעבודת הבורא יתברך אחרי יציאתו ממנה וחטאו בה.

That the Chovos HaLevavos says that cheit represents prikas ol and therefore teshuva means taking that harness and returning it to its place. Right? We talked about that, no? So if if the definition of cheit is not just that I did something assur—no, but but in doing something assur—that gufa represents a prikas ol, so then the yiras haonesh is a part of that ol. And and that's how the yiras haonesh is not only something that that motivates and engenders charata, but is is integral to the charata itself. Hasheni,

שבירת לבו והכנעו לאלוקים על מה שיהיה ממנו מן החטא כמו שנאמר ונכנעו עמי אשר נקרא שמי עליהם.

I don't know that you need the Chovos HaLevavos's framework to say this, but within his framework it it it certainly flows very naturally. But charata, the Chovos HaLevavos, I don't know if you if you park in a no-parking zone and then you get a ticket, so you have charata. You have charata that you did. I don't know if you have shviras halev and and and you know and and a person is full of hachlatah? Oh, that was that was a stupid thing to do. It wasn't worth taking the risk. It wasn't worth taking the risk. Better to, you know, for five minutes look for a parking space than then have to you know waste so much money paying that ticket. But but cheit isn't just something wrong. Again, It's it's a prikas ol. It's it's it's a presumptuousness which is an understatement, a vast understatement כנגד הקדוש ברוך הוא, so the charatah isn't just, you know, I, you know, I, that was wrong. And the charatah is is a charatah that that should express itself, that needs to express itself, that needs to consist of שברון לב והכנעה לאלוקים. v'hashlishi is is also fascinating, l'shanos malbusho v'tachshito, להראות סימני החרטה בדבריו ובמאכלו ובכל תנועותיו, k'mo shene'emar על זאת חגרו שקים ספדו והילילו, v'amar ויתכסו שקים האדם והבהמה. So it's interesting, you know, you easily could have understood, and let me take a look at the meforshim, and I don't know is there any heicher for how the Chovos Halvavos is reading the pasuk. Let's say the pasuk in in Sefer Yonah. ויתכסו שקים האדם והבהמה. I think that's the when the melech sends out his his order to all the anshei Ninvei. So you could have said that v'yiskasu sakim is not to express charatah but to engender charatah. It's not part of the teshuvah, but again, it's אחרי הפעולות נמשכים הלבבות that that it's a way of engendering. And the Chovos Halvavos clearly clearly doesn't read the pasuk that way, right? Chovos Halvavos holds no that the melech of Ninvei is telling them how to do teshuvah. And what's so fascinating about this is that let's say unlike in in the Rambam, so as as the Rav discusses, so with the exception of viduy, so all of teshuvah is purely baleiv. It's purely baleiv. I mean if there's no actual gezel or something that he needs to return, you know, if I don't know if he's doing teshuvah for ma'achalos assuros, azivas hacheit is not is not something which is necessarily concretized al yedei ma'aseh, the kabbalah l'haba, the yasirum mimachshavto, even the acharei shuvti nichamti, it's all kiyumim shebaleiv. Again, with the exception of the viduy. The viduy is the only thing. And the Chovos Halvavos holds no that at least for the charatah... we'll have to see bli neder in terms of the other things, but at least in terms of charatah, so teshuvah is not supposed to be only baleiv. Teshuvah is supposed to be objectified for the Chovos Halvavos in ma'aseh. When the Chovos Halvavos is doing teshuvah he he skipped the... is that a franchise? He's Spanish! Rabbeinu Yonah. v'harvi'i... v'harvi'i habchi v'hatze'akah v'ha'eivel, מתחרטה על מה שקדם לו מן החטא, k'mo shene'emar פלגי מים ירדו עיני על לא שמרו תורתך, v'amar בין האולם ולמזבח יבכו הכהנים משרתי ה'. So it's interesting, I'm not sure how one one knows, you know, if if you look just to to give a mashal... the mishnah and gemara at the beginning of the fifth perek in Berachos. אין עומדין להתפלל אלא מתוך כובד ראש. That's the mishnah. Gemara, m'na hanei milei? Amar Elazar, d'amar k'ra, v'hi maras nafesh. And then v'sispalel Chanah. I forget what exactly the lashon is, I don't know if that's correct. So it says right now, mimai, how do you know that that description can serve as a mokor for a din? דלמא חנה שאני דהות מריבת ליבא טובה. Given that it's presented in Navi as a description of Chanah, so maybe it was meyuchad to Chanah. How do you know that it's a paradigm for us? So I don't know, so you have a pasuk in Tehillim, פלגי מים ירדו עיני על לא שמרו תורתך. Maybe that's high middas chasidus in charatah of David HaMelech. But again, obviously that's not how Chovos HaLevavos is learning, so we have to figure out, how does one know when to see such a description as being normative as opposed to shanei David HaMelech who... because the impression, I don't know unless you'll say that not everything he's saying here is ba'akev. I don't know. ובהם יהיה כל גדר מגדרת הארבעה השלם. Sounds like everything he's listing here is pretty basic, that introductory sentence of the perek sounds like that absent any of these five, it's really incomplete. So if something is incomplete without it, you hear, that means you're not treating it as a middas chasidus. So I don't know. How do you know when David HaMelech says something, how do you know when it reflects something we're also supposed to be doing me'ikar hadin and when it reflects... we don't assume that tikkun chatzos is me'ikar hadin. חצות לילה אקום להודות לך על משפטי צדקך, David HaMelech says.

והחמישי שיוכיח נפשו ויכלימנה במצפונה על מה שהיה מקצורה בחובת הבורא יתעלה עליו כמו שנאמר וקרעו לבבכם ואל בגדיכם.

So it's clear from Chovos HaLevavos, again we saw this in a much more dramatic fashion, but there, again, lav davka that it was me'ikar hadin as we discussed, you know, about משחרת עליהם מבקש מחילתם כל ימי חייו, back at the end of perek bais. But there we said that that obviously can't be me'ikar hadin in terms of basic teshuvah, teshuvah which serves as an instrument of kaparah. But here, again, not necessarily to that degree, to that extreme as the end of perek bais, but Chovos HaLevavos is telling us the following: that charatah, sh'heim, is when a person has, again, let's, again, the tnai hashlishi notwithstanding, but for the most part, even for the Chovos HaLevavos, charatah is a kiyum shebelev, is a davar shebelev. It's a feeling, it's a... A person has that thought, that's enough, or he has to hold on to it? Again, lav davka, again, to the extent that he has the end of Perek Beis. So it's clear the Chovos Halvovos is saying it's not enough just to have it. You know, משל מה הדבר דומה, the same way that I don't know, you know, whatever when if if we get angry at someone. You know we're not necessarily mekayem the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav and ke'ilu k'gavha ashpah, you know? That it takes a little bit longer than that. You know that that feeling, if it's a deep feeling, it's not something which is only moment, you know, a momentary. How long b'ikar din, I don't know, but more than a second. It should be more than a second. It should be, it should be the, at least one round of יוכיח נפשו ויחמנה במצפונו. Okay, we'll stop there.