Pirkei Avos 2:10

Okay, rabotai, perek beis, Mishna Yud. We're going to try to talk a little bit, be'ezras Hashem, שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך. How does that translate, שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך? You should do teshuvah a day before you die. So what did what does the Gemara in Shabbos say? Tanu Rabbanan, over there Rabbi Eliezer omer, Rabbi Eliezer says: שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך, a person should do teshuvah the day before you die. Sha'alu talmidav es Rabbi Eliezer, Eliezer, his talmidim asked Rabbi Eliezer: וכי אדם יודע איזהו יום ימות? Does a person know the day that he's going to die? Omar lahem, he said, vechol shekein, yashuv hayom, so do teshuvah today. Shema yamut lemachar, maybe he'll die tomorrow. נמצא כל ימיו בתשובה, it turns out that every day you're doing teshuvah. Ve'af Shlomo amar bechochmaso, and Shlomo said in his wisdom:
בכל עת יהיו בגדיך לבנים ושמן על ראשך אל יחסר.
All the time your your garment your white garment this should be white garment. Your garment should be white, it's not today, they should be clean, they should be laundered. And you should have oil on your head, right? Sometimes people use oil to you know to brush the hair or hold the hair in place. So that's a that's a mashal, right? בכל עת יהיו בגדיך לבנים is a mashal. Okay, so Rabbi Eliezer: שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך. A person should do teshuvah the day before he dies. The talmidim said to Rabbi Eliezer, a person doesn't know when he's going to die, so how does he know what what's the day before? The answer is yeah, eina hachei nami, so every day a person should be doing teshuvah. Okay. The the Rambam actually quotes our mishna in in the next source, and and let's see the Rambam and and then we'll we'll try to we'll try to reconstruct something, be'ezras Hashem. הואיל הואיל ורשות כל אדם נתונה לו, kemo shebe'arnu, since a person has has free will to to do teshuvah. Wait, what what does what does reshus in this context mean, rabotai? Permission is is the is the common meaning and usage, but but here it's a little bit a little bit different than that. What when it says in in When it says in Pirkei Avos, hevu zehirin bareshus, remember that mishna? What does reshus mean there? Government. Government. So reshus means in that context it means the powers, right? The the understood governmental powers. So רשות כל אדם נתונה לו means that a person has the the ability, he has the wherewithal, he has the the the capacity, right? So רשות כל אדם נתונה לו, a person has the the the capacity for for for self-determination. He's sovereign over himself, kemo shebe'arnu. Okay, therefore,
ישתדל אדם לעשות תשובה ולהתודות בפיו מחטאיו ולנעור כפיו מחטאיו כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה.
So therefore somebody should somebody should he should try to do teshuvah. So yishtadel in in modern Hebrew means to try. In rabbinic Hebrew, anyone know what it means in rabbinic Hebrew? It's not it's not quite the same as in modern Hebrew. Yeah, to to exert oneself, to push hard. So yishtadel is a person should exert himself, not not just not not just to try, but but he should he should exert himself. That's exactly right. ישתדל אדם לעשות תשובה. Good. Okay, halacha beis. לעולם יראה אדם עצמו כאילו הוא נוטה למות. Somebody should always view himself as if as if he's about to die. Ve'shema yamut besha'ato, and he might die at that moment, ve'nimtza omed becheit'o, and it'll turn out that he was still he was still sitting in his his state of sinning. לפיכך ישוב מחטאיו מיד, ולא יאמר כשאזקין אשוב, shema yamut I don't know why they vocalize that as ye'amer on there, maybe velo yomar. He shouldn't say. Yeah, I don't know why they made it ye'amer. Let's go with velo yomar. Okay. So, the Rambam didn't write with nekudos, obviously, right? But this this is, you know, whoever did it, it's his interpretation of the Rambam. Velo yomar. Velo yomar. Keshe'azken ashuv, because שמא ימות טרם שיזקין. Don't say when you have, like When I get old. Oh, when I get old. When I get old, keshe'azken, when I become when I become a zaken. Because you might die before you grow old. Yeah. Shema yomus terem, hu she-Shlomo omar bechochmoso: בכל עת יהיו בגדיך לבנים. Right. So so begadim are are a mashal for the the the cleanliness of a person. Begadim are a mashal for for his his his tahara, his purity. So that's our mishna, right? Now here's the question: if you take a look in the heading of the halachos we just read, so so where are these halachos? What are they saying, which perek of Hilchos Teshuva? Perek Zayin? Perek Zayin. Wow, there's a lot of There's The Rambam held off a long time in quoting this mishna of of שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך, and therefore ונמצאו כל ימיו בתשובה. So for instance, if if you take a look in the beginning, the very beginning of Hilchos Teshuva, how does how does Hilchos Teshuva begin? Perek Aleph, Halacha...
כל מצות שבתורה בין עשה בין לא תעשה אם עבר אדם על אחת מהן בין בזדון בין בשגגה כשיעשו כשיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו מחטאו חייב להתודות לפני האל ברוך הוא.
So, for all mitzvos of the Torah, whether positive or negative, if somebody transgressed one of them, whether it was on on purpose or by accident, when he when he does teshuva and he when when he does teshuva, and he returns from his sin, then he's then he's chayav to do viduy before Hashem, shene'emar, איש או אשה כי יעשו, when a man or a woman does this, we go on, right? והתודו את חטאתם אשר עשו, and they'll do viduy on their sins that they did. Zeh viduy devarim. וידוי זה מצות עשה. And that's a mitzvas aseh. Good. We we can stop there. So the Rambam here, we we would have thought that maybe the Rambam would indicate here, you know, do it today? But there's no such indication. And and he holds off until Perek Zayin before he quotes, שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך. Right? So that's what we want to understand. I mean, the the the time frame for doing a mitzvah it is, let's say if you look at the beginning of Hilchos Krias Shema, so the beginning of Hilchos Krias Shema, so the Rambam tells you right away, pa'amayim bechol yom, פעמים בכל יום קורין קריאת שמע בבוקר ובערב, right? And and over here, the Rambam isn't giving us the the time frame. We'll see, maybe he does elsewhere. What is the time frame for doing teshuva? Let's say a person knows that he's guilty of a cheit. So, again, every mitzvah has its time frame, right? When you eat matzah at the Seder, what's the zman for eating matzah at the Seder? Tzeit hakochavim? That that's the earliest, right? Not before tzeit, right? Not before tzeit. Until chatzos. Yeah, so it's a machlokes Tannaim, right? Whether until chatzos, or all night. And then, maybe even according to Rabbi Akiva, who holds all night, maybe miderabbanan you have to eat it by chatzos. So every every mitzvah has its zman. What's the zman for mitzvas teshuva? Let's say right now, I'm I'm I'm aware of chata'im A, B, and C, what what's my time frame for for doing teshuva? Aren't you supposed to do, like, obviously like the Sha'arei Teshuva we touched on earlier, the things that a person needs to do to accomplish a real teshuva, but anyways, it's sort of like, he probably still really, like what should be first, ultimately, like give a, a little teshuva of just, like, literally saying viduy to Hashem and having in mind what he did, and then to, like, he has the rest of his life to... So what what so what so what what would you suggest is the time frame for that, what you refer to as the little teshuva? I would think that has to be immediately. Immediately. So... All right, that is what Rabbeinu Yonah says. You want to read, please? See what it says, Shaarei Teshuva on the first side, rabbosai. Shaarei Teshuva, Sha'ar Rishon, Os Beis. U'da. Should know. ודע כי החוטא יתאחר מנשוא, that a sinner when he delays from doing teshuva from his sin, יכבד עליו מאד ענשו בכל יום, so that his punishment becomes heavier every single day. It's sort of like, you know, if someone borrows money with interest, so the interest is accruing every day, right? The interest, the interest is compounding every day. So lehavdil, that's what Rabbeinu Yonah says, yichbad alav onsho, יכבד עליו מאד ענשו בכל יום. Why is that? Ki yatza... Ki hu yodei'a.
כי הוא יודע כי יצא הקצף עליו ויש לו מנוס לנוס שמה.
He knows that... I don't know what ketzef means. Ketzef, yes. So like... Anger, anger. כי יודע כי יצא... Where where do you know that from in Tanach? בשצף קצף הסתרתי פני... Good, excellent! Good, good, good, good, good, was that Yeshayahu? But where where else where else might you more commonly know it from? But that's an excellent answer. Maybe like Paroh, like katzaf al avadav? Good, excellent! And who else? Those are both excellent answers. Vayiktzof hamelech me'od. Ah, Achashverosh, right? ויקצף המלך מאד וחמתו בערה בו, when Vashti refuses to to to come, so vayiktzof hamelech. So ketzef is anger, excellent. כי הוא יודע כי יצא הקצף עליו, that the the anger is literally emerging, as it were, against him, and veyeish lo... ויש לו מנוס לנוס שמה. He has somewhere to escape to. Right, he has a place of refuge. And what is that refuge? Manos, refuge, which is doing teshuva. Vehu omed bemerdo, and he know... vehu nosei avono... And yet he is is ignoring all that. He's acting as though he's oblivious to all that. Right, so clearly Rabbeinu Yonah holds that the chiyuv to do teshuva is immediately. If a person knows he has a cheit, okay, it's time to, you know, time to go into one's room for a few minutes and and think, and and, and and, and and, and and try to do teshuva. What what does the Rambam think on this question? So I think we need to infer. We need a little bit to read between the lines. So we read Perek Aleph, Halacha Aleph, the Rambam didn't say. He said כשיעשה תשובה וישוב מחטאו חייב להתודות, he didn't tell us what the timeframe for doing teshuva is. If if you turn to the the the second side, rabbosai, Perek Beis, Halacha Zayin. יום הכפורים הוא זמן תשובה לכל ליחיד ולרבים. So Yom Kippur is a time for teshuva for everyone, for each individual person, and the public. So what does that mean layachid velarabbim? Right? If every yachid is going to do teshuva, so that means that the rabbim is going to do teshuva, right? So what does it mean that it's זמן תשובה לכל ליחיד ולרבים? What do you say, rabbosai? He means that is like the Jewish people as a collective must do teshuva, but also that each individual person must do teshuva? Excellent. Meaning each of us has his own shortcomings, his own flaws, his own mistakes, right? Z'man teshuva lakol, layachid. But then there are certain communal or societal shortcomings or or or flaws. I don't know, if there's a lot of talking in shul, so if one person talks in shul, well one person, who's he talking to? He's talking to himself, whatever. If one or two people, if one or two people talk in shul, okay, so only only those yechidim need to do teshuva. If if the whole decorum in shul is not what it should be, if if there's a lot of talking in shul, then clearly that isn't only the shortcoming of one or two individuals, that already rises to the level of a communal problem, a communal shortcoming, a communal flaw, and there needs to be a communal initiative to do teshuva, right? And so the Rambam means, teshuva can play out on It should, it needs to play out, both on the level of the individual as well as on, as well as on the communal - just take a, you have a sheet? Okay. As well as on the communal level. Okay, who was reading? Yeah, please continue.
זמן תשובה לכל ליחיד ולרבים והוא קץ מחילה וסליחה לישראל.
Good, excellent.
לפיכך חייבים הכל לעשות תשובה ולהתודות ביום הכפורים ומצות וידוי יום הכפורים שיתחיל מ...
Now who else says this? Do you, you know there's a famous someone else amongst the Rishonim also speaks about a chiyuv teshuva on Yom Kippur. I apologize, it should be here on the sheet, but I, I forgot to put it. Rabbeinu Yonah? Yeah, Rabbeinu Yonah. Good guess. Okay, it's a good guess. Good guess. If we're talking about teshuva, it's a good, and it's not the Rambam, it's a good chance that it's Rabbeinu Yonah. You were right about that. So Rabbeinu Yonah famously says that, remember the pasuk, everybody knows the pasuk: כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם לטהר אתכם מכל חטאתיכם, what's the next three words? Lifnei Hashem titharu. So Rabbeinu Yonah says, but ki vayom hazeh, so let's let's teitch the pasuk. כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם, what what's the translation of the pasuk? That Hakadosh Baruch Hu will grant you atonement, literally atone for you, He'll grant you atonement. And then what comes next? Mikol chatoteichem. So says Rabbeinu Yonah, but according to the baraita in Masechet Yoma, it's not true, because the baraita in Masechet Yoma says that if a person is oveir on an asei, one morning he oversleeps zman tefillah, zman krias Shema, so then as soon as he does teshuva, he gets kapparah. If a person is oveir on a mitzvas lo ta'asei, so what happens? So then the baraita says, let's say a person ate non-kosher food, he ate a neveilah, so so then how does he get kapparah for that? So then teshuva tolah, teshuva protects him from being punished for the cheit, but the kapparah doesn't come until Yom Kippur. But what happens if he was oveir on something which is classified as chamurot? What if it wasn't a regular lo ta'asei, but a but a lo ta'asei which carries with it, rachmana litzlan, the punishment of kareit or mitas beit din? So then he needs to do teshuva, he needs Yom Kippur, but then there's a measure of yisurim which will complete the kapparah for him. Rabbeinu Yonah famously thinks if a person exerts himself in talmud Torah, so that's a substitute for for yisurim. Rabbeinu Yonah writes like that in Sha'arei Teshuva. So Rabbeinu Yonah says, so the kasha is like this: How can Chazal tell us that that Yom Kippur doesn't complete the the kapparah process for some aveirot? Doesn't the Torah say
מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה׳ תטהרו? כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם לטהר אתכם מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה׳ תטהרו.
Isn't the Torah promising that a totally clean slate? Answers Rabbeinu Yonah, this is how you should teitch the pasuk: כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם לטהר אתכם, Hakadosh Baruch Hu grants you on Yom Kippur atonement. Pause. מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה׳ תטהרו. Titharu is a tzivui. You should purify yourselves מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה׳. The mikol chatoteichem doesn't go with the כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם, instead it goes with the lifnei Hashem titharu. You, meaning the Torah addressing each of us, right? You, the Torah says, you have to purify yourselves on Yom Kippur mikol chatoteichem. Now, how does that play out in terms of the kapparah process? The Torah didn't say the kapparah was going to be complete for everything on Yom Kippur. כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם, Hakadosh Baruch Hu grants grants kapparah. Good? You hear? So Rabbeinu Yonah also famously speaks of a chiyuv teshuvah on Yom HaKippurim, right? Now, it's generally assumed, well, let's let's let's pose it as a question. Say, is the Rambam saying the same thing as Rabbeinu Yonah? Did did we find, you know, a, you know, company for Rabbeinu Yonah in that view, in that opinion, or or was the Rambam saying something different? He agrees? He agrees. Let's put your vote in. All those who think the Rambam agrees? All those who think the Rambam doesn't agree? All those who are asleep? I think the sleepers won, okay. They definitely won the vote, okay. So so the the case that he agrees is he says חייבים לעשות תשובה ביום הכיפורים. How do you say the Rambam doesn't agree? He just said that Yom Kippur is a day for teshuvah, he hasn't But he did say chayavim, right? And and and at the end of line one, you know, it's going over to line two. Didn't he say that it does provide kapparah? Generally it's assumed that the Rambam is like Rabbeinu Yonah, but I don't know, I'm not sure that that's the pshat. What's missing if the Rambam agrees with Rabbeinu Yonah? What's missing? A pasuk? A pasuk. Rabbeinu Yonah quotes the pasuk, he says מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה' תטהרו. That's the source for what I'm telling you, that there is a special chiyuv teshuvah on Yom Kippur. The Rambam doesn't give you a pasuk. Now, if the but if the Rambam doesn't mean what Rabbeinu Yonah said, then what does he mean? And where does he get a chiyuv teshuvah on Yom Kippur from if it's not like Rabbeinu Yonah from a gezeiras hakasuv, from a pasuk? Maybe he means it miderabbanan. Okay, I hear that. I hear that. If it's a derabbanan, it doesn't need a pasuk. I hear that. Who said it's a chiyuv in the first place? It just said it's a No, but look at the end of line one. Vechayav Rabbeinu Yonah was talking about the teshuvah of yachid, and the Rambam is talking about chayavim hakol? Yeah. Hakol verabbim? But I think hakol means yachid verabbim, right? I think that's what the Rambam means by hakol. Means once he said yachid verabbim earlier in the in the halachah, now hakol means both. So here's, Rabbos Does it does it not seem like Rabbeinu Yonah is only talking about yachid? Because Again, this Rabbeinu Yonah you don't have in front of you. I apologize, I forgot to put it on the sheet. The Rabbeinu Yonah He says it twice in Sha'arei Teshuvah. I'm sorry, I forgot to put it on the sheet. If you want, we can pull it up on your phone. You have you have phones here? You have web on the phone? So he says it once at the end of Sha'ar Beis, and then once in Sha'ar Daled. Maybe maybe do a word search in Sha'arei Teshuvah for lifnei Hashem tetaharu, and you should find it once in Sha'ar Beis, once in Sha'ar Daled. Where in where's Sha'ar Beis and Sha'ar Daled? Where at the end of Sha'ar Beis? I I think it's towards the maybe I'm making a mistake. It's definitely in Sha'ar Daled, but I think it's also in Sha'ar Beis, towards the end of Sha'ar Beis. Where in Sha'ar Daled? You don't have word search? It's it's scrolls? Yeah. All right, you have it there, Lewis? I'm in Sha'ar Daled now, I'll go back to Sha'ar Beis. Okay, we're bound to get it. I'm I'm closing in on it here. Oh, found it. 2:14. 2:14? That's how they break it down. So Sha'ar Beis? Sha'ar Beis, yud-daled. So, well well, so, can can you give the source in Sha'ar Beis for everyone to look up? Yeah, Sha'ar Beis, yud daled. In Sefaria, and AlHaTorah. Sha'arei Teshuva on Sefaria like that? Yeah, the source is on... How'd you find it? Oh, why did it stop? מצות עשה מן התורה להעיר... Okay, so so, okay, let's read Sha'ar Beis. Go ahead, please. From the beginning? How about from from that that the mitzvas asei, leha'ir es rucho, whatever, however it goes? Yeah.
ומצות עשה מן התורה להעיר אדם את רוחו לעשות תשובה ביום הכפורים שנאמר מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה׳ תטהרו על כן הזהירנו הכתוב שנטהר לפני ה׳ בתשובתנו...
Okay, here he doesn't present it with a kasheh. Here he just tells you that that מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה׳ תטהרו is is a mitzvas asei. Now again, the Rambam doesn't quote the pasuk. Now, so the suggestion here is as follows: remember we asked, what's the timeframe for mitzvas teshuva? So the suggestion is that when the Rambam says here, לפיכך חייבין הכל לעשות תשובה, since Yom HaKippurim is a zman for teshuva, since Yom HaKippurim, kavyachol Hakadosh Baruch Hu is waiting to forgive us, that's the deadline not for a special, additional mitzvas teshuva of Yom HaKippurim, that's the deadline for mitzvas teshuva of of all year long. We asked, if I know now that I have chata'im A, B, and C, what's my timeframe for doing teshuva? Every mitzvah has its timeframe. Krias Shema you have to say before the end of, in the morning, by when do you have to say Krias Shema, rabbosai? Three hours. By the end of gimel sha'os, three hours. By when do you have to daven Shacharis? Four. Four hours. By when do you have to do teshuva? And the answer is, well, since there's a day in the year which is a zman teshuva lakol, which is a time of mechilah uslichah l'Yisrael, so that's the deadline for mitzvas teshuva. Now, that that's what, kimedumeh, is the pshat in the Rambam. If you take a look in the Sefer HaChinuch, so the Sefer HaChinuch in his minyan hamitzvos follows the the Rambam in terms of what the 613 mitzvos are. The difference is that the Sefer HaChinuch counts them al seder haparshiyos. So take a look here in in mitzvah shin-samech-daled in the Sefer HaChinuch. Who's reading? Thank you. Mitzvah shin-samech-daled,
שנצטוינו שנתודה והתודו לפני השם על כל החטאים אשר חטאנו בעת שנתנחם עליהם.
So we're commanded to say vidui, right, on on all our chata'im when we when we have regret, when we have remorse. Vezehu inyan havidui...
וזהו ענין הוידוי שיאמר האדם בעת התשובה אנא השם חטאתי...
And this is like the... The the content of vidui, right? The content of vidui is that a person says at the time he does teshuva: Ana Hashem, chatasi... עויתי פשעתי לפניך ועשיתי כך וכך. Kach v'chach. What does kach v'chach mean? Such and such. Right, which which means then then he specifies the cheit, right? And now fill in the cheit. Ana Hashem, chatasi, avisi, pashasi, and and that I did, and then the person fills in what what his cheit, what his cheit is, or what his chata'im were. Klomar, the Chinuch explains this himself... כלומר שיזכיר החטא שעשה בפירוש... Right, so he mentions the cheit specifically, explicitly. Viyvakesh... Viyvakesh kaparah alav... Good, good. And and he should ask for forgiveness, for atonement. Now, what's the structure? Anyone ever learn any Sefer HaChinuch? You ever have occasion to learn mitzvos in Sefer HaChinuch? The every mitzvah in Sefer HaChinuch follows the same structure, the way the Sefer HaChinuch discusses the mitzvah. What what's the structure? How does he do it? Starts with the shoresh hamitzvah. He he begins with the definition of the mitzvah, then he goes to the shorshei hamitzvah, which means what? What's the shorshei hamitzvah? Right? Reasons for the mitzvah. Then what does he do? He'll tell you some of the dinim, and then he always concludes for to whom the mitzvah applies and when a person would be guilty of neglecting or violating this mitzvah. So, let's fast forward here within the Chinuch, you see the last three lines? Yeah, but do you see that line three from the end of the Chinuch, ve'noheges? Yeah. ונוהגת מצוה זו בכל מקום ובכל זמן Right, it doesn't matter whether the Beis HaMikdash is standing, the Beis HaMikdash is not standing. It doesn't matter whether you're in Eretz Yisroel or in chutz la'aretz. ונוהגת מצוה זו בכל מקום ובכל זמן, and what's more? ve'yisheger And there's no difference between men, men and women. Now, now again, the Chinuch always tells you when a person would be guilty of neglecting or violating the mitzvah. So, look what he says here, Rav Elsohn.
והעובר על זה ולא התודה על חטאתו ביום הכפורים שהוא יום קבוע מן העולם לסליחה ולמחילה ביטל עשה
So what does the Chinuch say? When would a person be guilty of having neglected this mitzvah, Rav Elsohn? Yom Kippur. Exactly! Meaning what we suggested in the Rambam is exactly what the Chinuch says. And and presumably that means that he learned pshat like that in the Rambam also, right? Okay. So now, kuntreisi the following: we have a a fundamental machlokes. Again, I I I am aware of chata'im X, Y, and Z. What's my timeframe for doing teshuva? What's the equivalent of shalosh sha'os for krias shema shel shacharis? Right? What's What's my equivalent of the night of Tes-Vov Nissan for for mitzvas matzah? So, the answer according to Rabbeinu Yonah is Right away? Right away. Right away, right? The answer for Rabbeinu Yonah is right away. The answer for the Rambam is until Yom Kippur. Right? The Torah gives us The Torah gives us time. The Torah The Torah gi- gives us a little space to do it by Yom Kippur, right? Okay, now. So then, let let's come back again to perek zayin, halacha beis, where the Rambam quotes our Mishna of shuv yom echad lifnei misascha. So how does that work out? We just said that the pshat in perek beis, halacha zayin, what's the timeframe for ma'aseh teshuva? Yom Kippur. In perek zayin, halacha beis, the Rambam quotes our Mishna and says, \"No, shuv yom echad lifnei misascha.\" A person doesn't know when he's going to die, so that translates into do teshuva right away. So how How does this all fit together? You hear the question? Yes? Let's just look at one more piece in that. Let Let's look at halacha perek zayin, halacha gimmel. So, again, we're we're back on page one, under Hilchos Teshuva, perek zayin. Do you see that heading, Rav Elsohn? Halacha gimmel. Who's reading halacha gimmel? Thank you.
אל תאמר אל תאמר שאין תשובה אלא מעבירות שיש בהן מעשה
Don't think that that there's only teshuva for like this,
אלא כשם שצריך אדם לשוב מאלו, כך הוא צריך לשוב מחטאות ודעות רעות שיש לו, לשוב מן הכעס, ומן האיבה, ומן הקנאה, ומן ההיתול, ומרדיפת הממון, והכבוד, ומרדיפת המאכלים, וכיוצא בהן; מן הכל צריך לחזור בתשובה
so, you also need to tell bad, are you bad, are you bad days, you bad thoughts, like like these. Yeah, de- de- de'os, you're right. That's the way we use the word de'os. The way the Rambam uses the word de'os, character traits. And the Rambam has this Again, you find it in Chazal, Pirkei Avos do it as well, but but but what for us is is a different usage of de'os, so de'os means character traits. So, de'os ra'os are are character flaws. Right. So so, bekitzur, what does Rambam say in halacha gimmel? Teshuva relates not only to, not only to actions, but also to, yeah, to middos, also to middos, right? Now, until now, until perek zayin, halacha gimmel, the Rambam hasn't told us that, right? In perek aleph, halacha aleph, what what was the Rambam referring to in perek aleph, halacha aleph? If you go back again, reread the on the bottom of this page, over there, so he was referring to a discrete mitzvah, right? A person did something wrong, or maybe he didn't do something he was supposed to do. So initially in Hilchos Teshuvah, the Rambam was talking about teshuvah for actions. Now, by the time we get to perek zayin, halacha gimmel, the Rambam says, you know, teshuvah is not only for actions, but teshuvah is also for character traits. Now, but let's say for, I don't know, when a person is, let's say a person is minimally bar mitzvah, maybe he is 16 years old, maybe he's 26, 36, 46 years old, and he's making a cheshbon hanefesh. Rosh Chodesh Elul, he's making a cheshbon hanefesh, and he says, you know, I I get angry a lot. I feel I harbor a lot of ill will towards other people, eiva. I'm a very jealous person. Any one of the above. I loved how that taxi horn honked, okay, one of the above, one of the above. I'm I'm too interested in money. I'm focused on kavod. Realistically, and and the Torah is always realistic, halacha is always realistic, what's the timeframe for doing teshuvah for that? Let's say, let's say I look in the mirror, and I say that I've had a middah, and I think I've had it my whole life. That's 40 years. That means that the roots run very deep. So how would you sort of, and again, and even if you take someone younger, so how would you define what's involved, and and and and is there going to be a difference between teshuvah on a ma'aseh and teshuvah on middos? You could say that halacha gimmel about middos, that's that kind of takes a longer piece of time to fix, to reject, but the earlier halachos, perek zayin, it's discussing a person who is actually did, actually do things, that's you turn around and do teshuvah. Fine, excellent. So we're going to we're going to just amplify that a little bit. In halacha, again, go back to the Gemara Shabbos for a minute here right underneath Pirkei Avos. Go back to the Gemara Shabbos, right? So they asked Rabbi Eliezer, no one knows when he's going to die. So what do you mean when you tell us to do teshuvah the day before you die? So amar lahem, what did he answer in line two? Do teshuvah today. Why? Because you don't know when you're going to die. Again, what are the next three words? shemma yamut lemachar. In halacha, do we operate with such a chashash? Do we say that a young healthy person that we think that he has to be concerned that God forbid, how how would we test that in halacha? How do you test that in halacha? Take a look at the Mishnah in Gittin, it's on the bottom of page two, towards the end of the first line. בת ישראל הנשואה לכהן, you see it towards the end of the first line? So what's the halacha if if the the wife of a kohen is allowed to eat terumah, right? By virtue of Now what what happens if she becomes widowed and she has no children from a kohen? So then she's no longer the wife of a kohen, she's not mother of a kohen, she has, there's nothing, there's no, nothing residual of the marriage if there are no children, so then she's not allowed to eat terumah. Ah, so here we can test: what happens, again, this is before phones and before cell phones, so what happens if her husband the kohen goes on a long voyage? It's a three-week voyage, and he's going to be away for four months, so she's not going to see him for six months at at at at the earliest. So here we can test: is she allowed to eat terumah? Or do we have to be choshesh, maybe he died? And so here we can check: does halacha, is is halacha concerned shema yamus lemachar? So, but what's the din? But take a look at the mishna in Gittin, בת ישראל שנישאת לכהן והלך בעלה למדינת הים, and he went, and and he went on a on a transoceanic voyage, limdinas hayam, he went to a medina, a country on the other side of the yam, on the other side of the sea, on the other side of the ocean, so what's the halacha, what are the next five words? אוכלת בתרומה בחזקת שהוא חי. You assume that you assume that he's alive. We don't we don't think that there's any kind of, yes, does it happen, one in, I don't know what it is, 100,000 or something that a younger person dies, rachmana litzlan, yes, it happens. But it's but it's baruch Hashem such an infrequent occurrence that we're not choshesh for that. So what does that mean? Why are we choshesh here? There's a chiyuv to do teshuvah a day before you die, so Rebbi Eliezer tells the talmidim, shema yamus lemachar you have to do teshuvah today. Ah, so let's let's look at at one other source, and then we'll try to figure it out. Take a look at the last source on the second side. Ha'omer le'ishto, who's reading? האומר לאשתו הרי זה גיטך שעה אחת קודם מיתתי, one sha'ah before I die, אסורה לאכול בתרומה מיד, she can't eat terumah right away, as soon as he gives her. He gives her a get. The the kohen gives his wife a get. So you can give a get and say that the get should not should not take effect until later. So he gives he can give a get today and say the get should be chal, should take effect in two weeks from now. So what he says is, \"I'm giving you the get today, and the get should take effect a moment before I die.\" So what's the halacha? She can't eat terumah. She's אסורה לאכול בתרומה מיד. As soon as he gives her the get. How how is that consistent with the mishna in Gittin that we just learned? In the mishna in Gittin, he goes on a trip, he's going to be away for six months, he's going to be away for a year, maybe he's going to be away for five years until he comes back. So she's muteres to eat terumah, cuz we're not concerned that he died. You don't you that's not a a it doesn't it it doesn't rise to the level of of safek that that that a younger person dies. So why is it that in the last case of where he gives her the get, she can't eat terumah? Does everyone hear the question? So think about this, maybe you need two minutes to think about. So think about, so think about this for a second, and let's let's try to figure this one out. There's, like the first one when he goes away, there's, and he just hopes that he comes back, so there's still a chance the get won't be, take effect, but. Again, the first case is without a get, right? The first case is just he didn't give her a get. The question is whether she lost her right to eat terumah because of his death. So he's still, there's still a chance he comes back, but in the second, in the second one, she has, the get is going to take place, he is he is going to die. Uh-huh. So the second one, he says, \"הרי זה גיטך שעה אחת קודם מיתתי.\" He's going to die at some point. Ein hachi nami. Who says he's going to die young, rachmana litzlan? No, but he's going to die at some point. It would be arbitrary for us to say, well, once he hits age 60, 70, oh make it 75, make it 78, make it 80. So when he links it to his death, which is going to happen at some point, so then it's not a chashash, shema yomus, vadai yomus. You don't know when. We can't arbitrarily decide when to start being choshesh, you have to be choshesh immediately. When he just goes away and says, \"I'm going to be back in five years,\" okay, a forty, a fifty, a sixty-year-old person says he's going to be back in five years, there's every reason to assume that be'ezras Hashem he will. And therefore, you're not choshesh. So do you hear that rule? So if if it's not linked to his if he doesn't when he says, \"This is your get\"—Mr. Cohen says to Mrs. Cohen—\"Thi- this is your get, and the get should take effect שעה אחת קודם מיתתי.\" So then, at some point he's going to die. It's arbitrary for us to say when, so then, by definition, we have to say that as of right now she cannot eat terumah. But when he doesn't give a get, he just goes away, and she's not going to be able to hear a word from him for five years, for ten years, okay, there's no reason for us to assume that this person who's not very, very old or very, very sick, there's no reason for us to assume that that that that that he might die. Now, which שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך, which of the two cases in hilchos terumos is that parallel to? Is that parallel to the kohen who goes overseas and is going to be incommunicado, is going to be out of touch for ten years, or is that parallel to the case of where he gives a get that should take a pl- that should take effect שעה אחת קודם מיתתי? Di- do you hear the question, rabosai? Is is y- you with me, or sho- anything sh- should we backtrack? You good? Good? Can you repeat it one more time? Sure, sure. The hilchos terumos? Yeah, sure. So if if a kohen goes overseas, and before modern communication, when someone went overseas, there was zero contact. So the question is his wife is only entitled to eat terumah because she's married to him. So do we have to say, well, maybe he died, in which case his now widow would not be allowed to eat terumah? So the halachah is, no, you don't have to be concerned he died. Why should it occur to you that he died? He's not very, very old, he didn't leave terminally ill, rachmana litzlan. He wasn't very old, he was in reasonable health, there's no reason to assume that a person is going to die in in in the foreseeable future. And yet, the halachah is, in hilchos terumos, that if a kohen gives his wife a get and says this get will take effect a minute before I die, so immediately his wife can't eat terumah. So so how do you reconcile those two? So we said, in the second case, at some point he's going to die, right? He's not an angel, he's not he's not immortal, at some point he's going to die. It's arbitrary to say when he'll die, so therefore, right away you have to be choshesh that and she can't eat terumah. But where he just goes away for ten years, so then there's no reason to think he's going to die within the next ten years. Good? Now, when Reb Elazar says, \"Do teshuvah, שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך,\" which of the two cases in terumos does that parallel? The get case of שעה אחת קודם מיתתי. Which is which is why, I just want to make sure we get to the point, and then and then there's questions, we'll take questions. Which is why he has to do teshuvah right away. Good? So far, so good. Now, why did the Rambam not quote this until perek zayin? So here's the explanation, rabosai: When you're doing teshuvah for an action, a discrete action, \"I I spoke lashon hara, I didn't get up in time for davening in the morning,\" a discrete inaction, so that the process for that teshuvah is not so long, and the Torah gives a deadline of Yom HaKippurim. \"I need to do teshuvah before they blow shofar at the end of Yom Kippur. I need to do teshuvah before Ne'ilah is over.\" But if the teshuvah is not for a discrete action or inaction, it's for a bad middah that I have, so, so that's a long process. If if I if I have a middah, a bad middah, if I have a middah that needs to be corrected, if I have a middah that needs to be refined, you know the famous saying from Reb Yisroel Salanter? Reb Yisroel Salanter famously said, it's easier to master Shas than it is to correct one middah. Reb Yisroel Salanter wasn't underestimating what what's involved in mastering Shas. So, if if the if I need to do teshuvah, maybe it's for ka'as, anger, maybe it's for eivah, feeling ill will towards people, maybe it's for kinah, maybe it's for jealousy, maybe it's for redifas hamamon, being focused, too focused on money, whatever it is that I need to do teshuvah for, so I I need to think of that as a lifetime process. I need to think of it is that I need to finish it before I die. So if that's the case, when do I need to begin? I can't wait till Yom Kippur, right? Cuz this is gonna be similar to the get, שעה אחת לפני מיתתי. So now the answer to the question is like this. We asked, in Perek Beis, Halacha Zayin, it sounds like I don't have to do teshuvah today. I should, but I don't have to. Just get it done by Yom Kippur. In Perek Zayin, Halacha Beis, the Rambam quotes our Mishnah in Avos, as explained in the Gemara in Shabbos, which says do teshuvah today. What is the answer? Because in Perek Zayin the Rambam is talking about teshuvah, as he's about to say in Halacha Gimmel, not for a discrete action, he's talking about doing teshuvah for what? For for what, rabosai? For middos, and that's a process. Think of it as a lifetime process. When do you have to begin a lifetime process? Well, I don't know, at some point I'm going to die, so it's not totally open-ended. At some point, I am going to die, I don't know when that is. So if something is a lifetime process, then I need to, I can't arbitrarily say, well, I'm good until age 50 and then I'll begin then, I'm good. No, a person doesn't know when he's going to die. He's not choshesh, but in theory, oh, so there the Rambam says when you're doing teshuvah for middos, on the one hand, Yom Kippur isn't the deadline and you have to begin today, but on the other hand, Yom Kippur is not the deadline to have finished the process. It's okay on Yom Kippur, it's okay on Yom Kippur, it's okay on Yom Kippur to to tell HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to say HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it's a work in process. The middos that I'm looking to improve upon, the middos that I'm looking to correct, the middos that I'm looking to change, no, I I I I can't honestly stand before You Hashem and say I finished, but I'm working on it. And if I wasn't working on it before Yom Kippur, a person can begin it on Yom Kippur, at least if if he may if if if for some reason I didn't begin earlier, but on Yom Kippur, I can begin, and then I can say HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it's it's a work in process, because Yom Kippur is the deadline for for teshuvah on actions or inactions. But when you're talking about teshuvah for middos, on the one hand, because that's a long lifetime avodah, so on the one hand, Yom Kippur, you don't have to be finished, on the other hand, you can't wait till you're not supposed to wait till Yom Kippur to begin either. You see that, rabosai? And that's what our Mishnah is talking about according to the Rambam. Yes. I think you said that the difference between the get and our case of teshuvah is because that you said that like the chazakah was made the change, right? But since you call that, if you're going to change, doesn't that mean it's an hour before you die? Again, when it's linked to his death, if you link something to a person's death, right, be it the chiyuv, be it the get, or be it in our case the chiyuv to do teshuvah, make sure you finish the teshuvah before you die, so then that says, well, now the question no longer is if, but the question is when, and a person can't arbitrarily decide when he thinks that's gonna happen. So then mimeila, that translates into: as of today she can't eat terumah, as of today, I have to correct my middos before I die, so as of today I should be working on them. It doesn't mean I have to finish it today, because it's a process. In the case of the get in Shas, why don't we say the svara of of chazakah that he's alive? Because at one point that will be wrong. Again, if if if it's going if he's going away for 10 years, he's going medinas hayam, he's going on a on a transoceanic voyage, and then returning, even if he's going for 10 years, so then we can we can follow the chazakah, and say he's alive. There's no reason for me to think that this person, who's not very old, there's no reason for me to think that that he's that he's not still alive. But the minute he links it to his death, that has to happen at some point, and then it's then it would be arbitrary to say, well... Meaning the svara of chazakah is impossible because it can't be permanent? Because it can't stand, because eventually it has to be wrong. And once it once it once it can't be once it can't stand, so then we can't follow it. Still though, that really when you look at it, either one, like the picture is not actually the same, both of them are cases of a chazakah. No, so you you're asking very well. Again, let let's say he gives his wife a get, and he's 30 years old, right? The kohen, Mr. Kohen is 30 years old, and he gives his wife a get and says, 'This will be a get שעה אחת קודם מיתתי,' right? Why is he doing such a thing? Maybe he has a brother who's not frum, and he doesn't and they have no children, and he doesn't want her to have to have yibum or chalitzah with that brother. Whatever reason he's doing it, he's doing it. So are the are the odds pretty good that for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years he's not going to die? Yes. The the the odds are are pretty good. But the difference is this: the the difference is, when he just goes away for 10 years, so there's no reason to think, you you you're you're talking about the 10-year period, and there's no reason to think that he'll die within that 10-year period. When he says שעה אחת קודם מיתתי, he will die, and then you can't just follow a rov to say when he's going to die. Ma she'ein kein, within 10 years, there's no reason to think he's going to die within 10 years. There is still the metzius he's alive. No, the the odds are there, but the point is in one case, so let let me try to explain it better. You you're asking well, well. In in one case, the question is not will will he die? The question is when he will die. If he says שעה אחת קודם מיתתי. If he says, 'I'm going away for 10 years, and I'll see you in 10 years from now,' so the question is not when he will die, but if he will die. So when it comes to the question of if he will die, so then we can say, 'No, there's no reason to think he will die.' When it's the question of when he will die, so then we can't arbitrarily choose a point, so mimeila we have to begin being choshesh right away. Right? Okay, so may- maybe we'll take the questions afterwards. So thank you very much, rabosai. You should continue to be matzliach in your Torah, and in your middos, and in your yiras Shamayim. Everyone should have a gut yohr, k'siva v'chasima tovah.