Reflections

This shiur is brought to you by torahweb.org. Shalom aleichem rabosai, a gut chodesh. I think what we're all familiar with the Ramban's principle that he adopted from Chazal and elaborated and made into a pillar of his perish al haTorah in sefer Bereishis of maaseh avos, the way we generally paraphrase it is מעשה אבות סימן לבנים. Ramban has this in different places. The first time I think is in Lech Lecha when the Torah describes

ויעבור אברם בארץ עד מקום שכם עד אלון מורה והכנעני אז בארץ,

that Avram Avinu traversed Eretz Yisrael. The Torah makes specific mention of the fact that Avram Avinu stopped at Shechem and the Torah also highlights the fact that the Kna'ani was present in Eretz Yisrael at that point. Ramban commenting on what the significance, right, some of the narratives of the avos strike us as being inconsequential. What's the significance of this and similar narratives? אומר לך כלל תבין אותו בכל הפרשיות הבאות says the Ramban. I'm gonna present to you a general principle, a fundamental principle and you'll detect it, you'll discern it, you'll recognize it even if I don't spoon-feed every case to you, you'll recognize it throughout these parshiyos. ועניין אברהם יצחק ויעקב והוא עניין גדול, this is something of major, major importance. הזכירו רבותינו בדרך קצר, Chazal said it very briefly, very compactly: כל מה שאירע לאבות סימן לבנים. Whatever transpired, whatever happened in the lives of the avos foreshadows and we'll see in a minute by now that foreshadows is really an inadequate translation, but dictates. Dictates. Foreshadows in a causative sense. It dictates what will happen to their progeny, to Knesses Yisrael throughout its varied history. ולפיכך יאריכו הכתובים בסיפור המסעות and that's why the pesukim tell us in great detail about the travels of the avos, v'hafiras habeeiros and how the digging of wells, ush'ar hamikrim and every seemingly mundane and inconsequential happenings.

ויחשוב החושב בהם כאילו הם דברים מיותרים אין בהם תועלת

and our reaction to that is what's the point? Why does this belong in Toras Hashem? וכולם באים ללמד על העתיד, each of these events is coming and telling us what will be in the future. It's telling us the future course of Jewish history.

כי כאשר יבוא המקרה לנביא משלושת האבות יתבונן ממנו הדבר הנגזר לבוא לזרעו.

When we see something that happened in the lives of the avos, one can reconstruct from there, one can infer from there a gezeira that will materialize vis-à-vis the banim, vis-à-vis Knesses Yisrael throughout the generations. An example: ולפיכך החזיק הקדוש ברוך הוא את אברהם בארץ, I skipped a little bit, ועשה לו דמיונות בכל מה שעתיד לעשות בזרעו. That's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu had Avram Avinu go throughout Eretz Yisrael. That anticipated and dictated that in the future we would make a kinyan chazaka on our... Why is Shechem singled out? Nirmaz lo mizeh, it was hinted, again, we seem to be speaking of inexorable gezeira, decree,

כי בנו יכבשו המקום ההוא תחילה קודם היותם זוכים בו

that that would be the first place within Eretz Yisrael that Avraham Avinu's descendants would conquer, as what had, as as later happened in the ma'aseh of Shechem, and so on. The Ramban goes on to give other examples of this כל מה שאירע לאבות סימן לבנים. The Rav zecher tzaddik livracha raises a very simple yet compelling question. So where does that leave room for bechirah? Again, we're not talking about the conundrum of divine foreknowledge and human free will. We're not talking about that that question. We're talking about a different, as it were, challenge to bechirah. If if the course of Jewish history is has already been decreed and decreed inexorably as as evident and as manifest in the lives and happenings of of the Avos, so where's bechirah? Yitzchak Avinu dug three wells, says the Ramban in in applying this principle, each well representing a Beis Hamikdash and it was only the third well that lo ravu aleha. It was only the third well that remained unchallenged, a remez to the fact that it will be the third Beis Hamikdash that will remain ledorei doros. So where was the bechirah in terms of our our causing the the churbanos? Isn't it clear that they were already nigzar? So the Rav answers beautifully, brilliantly. He says we know in halacha, we know in in the context of Talmud Torah that there's a principle of אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים. When there was a stalemate between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel as to whose view should prevail lehalacha, so before the bas kol resolved it in favor of Beis Hillel, the bas kol prefaced and said אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים. What Beis Shammai says is Torah, what Beis Hillel says is Torah. They're both true, they're equally valid, equally legitimate, not equally normative. Beis Hillel is normative, Beis Shammai is not normative, but equally true, equally valid, equal claim and representation of Torah. How is that possible? So this is really deserving of of its own shiur. But just to illustrate part of how it's possible in terms of how it's possible, let's say on the level of Tannaim, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu wrote the Torah, so there are many things in the Torah that are black and many things in the Torah that are white. And and a lot of that black and white was given to Moshe Rabbeinu, was explained to Moshe Rabbeinu, was presented to Moshe Rabbeinu on Thursday night, Friday night, whenever, beginning then. But then Hakadosh Baruch Hu intentionally left part of the Torah gray. Moshe Rabbeinu didn't come down from Har Sinai with perushim mekubalim on every detail in the Torah. Some things were left intentionally gray. Does ub'shochbecha ub'kumecha delineate the time, only the time in which you say Krias Shema, or does it also dictate the posture which a person should should adopt when saying Krias Shema, that a person should lie down at night, a person should stand up in the morning? Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't dictate that to Moshe Rabbeinu. That was left for the Chachmei HaMasorah after having mastered all the black and white of Torah, after having immersed themselves so that their mind is conditioned to think with Torah logic, with Torah canons of analysis, you'll go interpret it and there you can have two differing, opposing interpretations equally valid, equally legitimate, equally true, אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים. Hakadosh Baruch Hu left certain things in the Torah open to multiple interpretations. Says the Rav, that's true in history also. There are so many gezeiros from the time of Berias Haolam, right? Chazal in the midrash at the beginning of Parshas Bereishis darshen והארץ היתה תהו ובהו as already describing the future course, as charting the course of Jewish history. There are so many gezeiros, but those gezeiros, like psukim in Chumash, are subject and to and are governed by this klal of אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים. The Rav gives one example and leaves us with the charge of idach zil g'mor. Talks about the Akeidah. He doesn't mention it, but clearly he has in the back of his mind a comment that the Rambam makes about the nisayon of the Akeidah. Rambam says, here you have a man who had been unable to have children for decades and decades. And yet what he wanted more than anything, anything, in life was to have a child, and not only in the sense that we experience it, but in a more profound sense, because for Avraham Avinu, having a child meant that he could beget a progeny which would become a religious community. As strongly as we feel and experience that visceral need and desire to have children, when that's elevated to a higher level, when all of one's commitment to Ahavas Hashem, to which Avraham Avinu dedicated his whole life, literally was moseir nefesh, it's elevated to that level, it becomes unimaginably stronger, that feeling. And finally, finally, Hakadosh Baruch Hu grants him, Yishmael wasn't gonna do it. Finally Hakadosh Baruch Hu grants him such a child, and then Hakadosh Baruch Hu says והעלהו שם לעלה על אחד ההרים אשר אמר אליך. What does Avraham Avinu do? Now here comes the crucial line in the Rambam: however, when a son comes to him after his having lost hope, how great will his attachment be and how great will his love be. It's not something that we as parents, as genuine and sincere, as deep and as profound as our love for our children is, it's not something that we begin to approximate. It's not something the depth and intensity of that love is not something which we can begin to approach. Nevertheless, because Avraham Avinu's yiras Hashem, because of his ahavas Hashem, he holds this beloved son as little. The Rambam says something extraordinary here: in order for Avraham Avinu to have been ready to actually carry out what he understood to be the command of the Akeidah, first there had to be an emotional seismic shift. It is impossible, it is physically, humanly impossible for a father experiencing the depth and profundity of paternal love to take a maacheles and to... to shecht his son. It's impossible. The only way it's possible, the only way Avraham Avinu could place Yitzchok, could bind Yitzchok on the mizbayach and pick up the ma'acheles lishchos es beno is if he sacrificed that love that he had. Says the Rav, there are two ways in which total sacrifice is implemented: the physical and the experiential. The choice of the method is up to man. Avraham Avinu, skipping a little bit, implemented the sacrifice of Yitzchok not on Har haMoriah, אל תשלח ידך אל הנער, but in the depths of his heart. He gave up Yitzchok the very instant HaKadosh Baruch Hu commanded him. Avraham Avinu surrendered Yitzchok. There was a gezeira to be an akeida, there was going to be an akeida, that was nigzar. Whether the akeida would be a physical akeida that Yitzchok Avinu would actually be nishchat or whether the gezeira would be or whether the gezeira would take the form of this emotional experiential gezeira, but that wasn't decreed. אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים, that gezeira was open to it, lent itself to either of those two equally valid, legitimate, true interpretations, opposing interpretations, equally valid, equally true, conceptually, equally potentially true historically, but then historically one of the two materializes and the other doesn't. Every gezeira is like that. In light of what the Rav presents, we understand some of the depth of what Chazal are telling us in

כל המקבל עליו עול תורה מעבירין ממנו עול דרך ארץ.

If a person accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah, so then HaKadosh Baruch Hu lifts and removes the ol derech eretz, all the yoke of mundane preoccupation. A person was it's nigzar that we're it's decreed that we're supposed to live and that we will live a life of being nosei ba'ol. A person cannot opt out of that. It was nigzar. But that in no way encroaches upon our bechira because it's entirely up to us what form and shape that ol will take. Will it be an ol Torah? Will it be an ol derech eretz? The gezeira is subject to the principle of אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים. There are two equally potentially conceptually true interpretations. Which one becomes the historical truth? That's up to us. We're living through a very difficult and for everyone an unparalleled for everyone alive unparalleled and unprecedented tekufa. The upheaval is total. We find ourselves physically cut off from friends, even from family, even from the closest of family. The numbers affected by unemployment and the nisayon of dire poverty are staggering, impossible to process, and of course, העולה על גבי כולנו, the loss of life. And everyone wants, we hear this rallying cry, we hear it in general society, but we also hear it within our society. Everyone wants just to return to normal. That's what everyone wants, just to go back to normal. For the restrictions, the stay-at-home orders to be lifted, to go back to normal. To go back, to go back to the rhythms and patterns of life. But a new phrase has entered our lexicon. The phrase is new normal. We're told that we can return, but we're not returning to the status quo ante, we're returning to a new normal. And at present, all indications are that there's a gzeira min hashamayim that we cannot return to the old normal. Barring a vaccine, and make no mistake about it rabbosai, there's no guarantee rachmana litzlan that there will be a vaccine. No guarantee whatsoever. There's a hope, a fervent hope, and an even more fervent prayer that there will be a vaccine, but no guarantee. There's a new normal. There's a gzeira min hashamayim that there's a new normal. But rabbosai, the rov's klal, itochen applies here as well. A gzeira min hashamayim about the future never impinges upon our bechira. The Ribono shel Olam was gozeir apparently, all indications are that there's going to be a new normal. But אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים. There are different ways that that gzeira can be interpreted and hence different ways in which that gzeira can materialize. That gzeira can be interpreted as there's a new normal, the world now exists with a coronavirus lethal to some rachmana litzlan, and even to others to whom it's not lethal, medical science doesn't begin to know what scars and potential damage it leaves even in those who recover. That's one possible interpretation of the new normal. A new normal which, if flaunted, if disregarded, if challenged, the price that will be paid is unthinkable. But there's another possible interpretation of the gzeira min hashamayim that we have to move to a new normal. The new normal can be a world which is spiritually different. It can be a new world which is religiously different. The gezeirah doesn't impinge ki hu zeh on our bechirah. It's our bechirah that will determine אין פורענות בא לעולם אלא בשביל ישראל. We're a tiny percentage of the world population, but our reaction can be determinative. Which of those equally true, equally valid, equally legitimate interpretations of the gezeirah will materialize? How does one create a new spiritual world? The new physical world will exist by default. If we're simply passive religiously, spiritually, the new physical world is already there and can continue. It will remain by default. But how do we create a new spiritual world? How do we not just tweak something? How do we not just change something? But how do we engage in something which is so transformative that it's a new normal? It's a שמים חדשים וארץ חדשה. There's another context in which we find this prescription. This prescription that we're clearly, clearly recognizing in the current pandemic of not an isolated change, not some self-contained improvement or upgrade, but a total overhaul. A new normal. There's another context in which we find this prescription. Midarkei hateshuvah, says the Rambam, להיות השב צועק תמיד לפני השם בבכי ובתחנונים. The teshuvah lifestyle, teshuvah's not a moment, it's not a moment of viduy, it's a lifestyle, it's a mahalach, it's a process. Midarkei hateshuvah, להיות השב צועק תמיד לפני השם בבכי ובתחנונים. The shav, the penitent, is always crying out to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. עושה צדקה כפי כחו is marshaling all his resources to do, to give tzedakah, a special, special zchus. ומתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו, distances himself far from the area in which a cheit occurred. Umshaneh shemo, skipping a line, and here comes the prescription, rabbosai, ומשנה מעשיו כולם לטובה ולדרך ישרה. Again, umshaneh ma'asav kulam. He changes, he overhauls, he transforms ma'asav kulam, all his actions, l'tovah u'lederech yesharah. So there it is, the same prescription. But did the Rambam just identify the goal and leave it to us to strategize? Maybe. Because after all, everyone's an individual, even each community has its particular identity. But did the Rambam also indicate the means? Did the Rambam only identify the goal, or did he identify the means as well? ומשנה מעשיו כולם לטובה ולדרך ישרה. Earlier in Hilchos Deios, the Rambam begins, as you recall, by describing the ends of the spectrum. extreme manifestations of character traits and dispositions and then tells us that what the Torah asks and demands and expects of us is the blend which leaves us in the middle. שני קצוות הרחוקות זו מזו, the two extremes at opposite ends of the spectrum, einan derech tovah, they don't constitute, right, there's the word tovah, right? משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה, the extremes don't represent, don't constitute derech tovah. In Halacha Daled the Rambam continues that a person should go on the, on the middle path,

וילך בדרך הטובים והיא הדרך הישרה. הדרך הישרה היא מדה בינונית שבכל דעה ודעה מכל דעות שיש לו לאדם.

Clearly, clearly beyond a shadow of a doubt, when the Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva tells us meshaneh, again this is his interpretation of, elaboration of the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah of the daled devarim which are מקרעין גזר דינו של אדם, one of which is meshaneh maaseh. So when the Rambam says משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה ולדרך ישרה, he intends us to make that association with Hilchos Deos. Apparently the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav is not an individual self-contained mitzvah, but is a mitzvah which is an overarching principle that impacts transformatively every, virtually every area of life. Where did the Rambam get that idea? Chazal comment in the Gemara in Brachos at the, all the way at the end of Brachos, darosh Bar Kappara, איזוהי פרשה קטנה שכל גופי תורה תלוין בה. What is a small little pasuk, but all gufei Torah hinge on this?

איזוהי פרשה קטנה שכל גופי תורה תלוין בה, בכל דרכיך דעהו והוא יישר ארחותיך.

Bechol derachecha da'eihu, we'll see in a minute its relevance, its connection to the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav. Let's, let's, let's try to explore this. In a word, what the Rambam is telling us is that the secret or the formula to creating a new normal is the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav. So let's try to get a little bit of a feel for the mitzvah and see how that's so. When the Rambam in Aleph Aleph is illustrating the, the ends of the spectrum, the extreme manifestations of different dispositions, so the Rambam writes, the Rambam gives several illustrations, ויש שהוא בעל תאוה לא תשבע נפשו מהלוך בתאותו. The impulse for pleasure, for enjoyment is so powerful and so gripping. ויש שהוא טהור גוף ביותר. So the desire for physical pleasure, for comfort, enjoyment, leisure, indulgence, that's one of the things which is governed by the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav. The Rambam continues with another example,

יש בעל נפש רחבה שלא תשבע נפשו מכל ממון שבעולם.

Some, there's a type that a person has such an appetite, such a voracious appetite for money, he can never sate that appetite. כענין שנאמר אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף. One who loves silver will not be sated with silver. Silver money can never, never be satiated, ve'yesh mekatzer etcetera. In halacha daled when illustrating what the mida beinonit is, the mean, so the Rambam gives another example velo yikpotz, excuse me, ולא יקפוץ ידו ביותר, a person shouldn't be too stingy, too tight-fisted. On the other hand לא יפזר כל ממונו, a person shouldn't give away all his all his assets, all his resources, אלא נותן צדקה כפי מסת ידו. So the mitzvah of ve'halachta bidrachav is governing the impulse for pleasure, enjoyment, comfort, leisure. It's governing the impulse, the desire for money. It's dictating how much tzedakah we give. The Rambam's not finished. לא יהיה אדם בעל שחוק at the end of perek beis,

לא יהיה אדם בעל שחוק והתל לא עצב ואונן אלא שמח.

A person shouldn't be frivolous, aletz. Meeidach gisa, he shouldn't be morose, ela same'ach, a person should be besimcha. Vetzivu, ela, skipping a couple of lines, מקבל את כל האדם בסבר פנים יפות, not to greet someone with leitzanut, with frivolity, but on the other hand not to be morose, besever panim yafot with a pleasant countenance. לא יהיה לו בעל קטטה, a person shouldn't be contentious, again, all this dictated by the ve'halachta bidrachav, velo ba'al kinah, jealous, velo ba'al ta'avah, ולא רודף אחר הכבוד, to be concerned with social prestige, with with with honor and all the other forms of kavod medumeh.

אמרו חכמים הקנאה והתאווה והכבוד מוציאין את האדם מן העולם כללו של דבר יילך במידה הבינונית.

So everything, virtually every area is regulated by the mitzvah of ve'halachta bidrachav. But let's step back for a minute. How is it possible for the Rambam to tell us in hilchos teshuvah for us to interpret the gezeira which we're living through currently to change one's entire life? Doesn't a person have to have a to implement change, a person has to have a single-minded focus? I have to be focused on that which I want to change. So how can I change my entire life? Is it is it real or it's just sort of it's words that that that sound coherent until one brings the words down into into real life. Lots of plans, lots of plans that they can sound and seem appropriate in theory and in practice they're not real. So is this is this real? Is it is it real that a person's working on so many different areas in his or her life simultaneously? But let's shift the question. How is it possible for one mitzvah to encompass so much? How is it possible for one mitzvah to touch upon virtually every corner of of our lives? There's something very very, very strange in the Rambam's organization for Hilchos De'os. His discussion of the middah beinonis occupies the first two perakim plus the first halacha in Perek Gimmel, and then in Perek Gimmel halachos beis and gimmel, the Rambam shifts to וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים בכל דרכיך דעהו. He shifts to seemingly a new and different mitzvah and focus that whatever a person does should be calibrated initially, not with some kind of ex post facto justification, but should be calibrated initially, is this something which is warranted by my avodas Hashem or not? The middah beinonis would seem to be too subjective. What exactly, where is the midpoint? Where's the midpoint? How much, how much money, how much food, how much, the Rambam applies it to speech also, what's the midpoint? So the answer is, the midpoint is determined by וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים. What's necessary, what's warranted and therefore justified by avodas Hashem, that's the middah beinonis. What's unnecessary is an extreme, is excess. Think of the following mashal. Let's say you have someone who nebech barely barely makes ends meet. If he carefully watches every penny, so then he's able to pay the rent and cover his other basic expenses, but only if he carefully watches every penny. So what happens when he goes to the grocery, to the supermarket? The question on his mind is, is this necessary or is it unnecessary? Is it a distraction? What happens when he goes not to the grocery, when he goes to the hardware, not to the hardware, what happens when he goes to the department store to purchase clothing? In area after area after area, he's mindful of the same question: is it necessary? So is he working on multiple areas at once? No, there's one focus that he has which will surface and would guide what he does in multiple areas. Take another mashal, a similar mashal. Let's say you have someone who has a very, very sore throat. Every word is painful. It hurts him to talk. So every time there's an opportunity to speak, the person again, whether it's maybe he's learning with his chavrusah, maybe there's some other bein adam lechavero interaction, but he's going to measure every word. Is it necessary or not? If it's necessary, so then he'll expend the limited vocal resources he has and he'll endure the strain, and if it's not necessary, then he can't afford to squander the limited vocal resources. And again, it’s something that will again and again arise and be addressed in multiple contexts. But really, it’s multiple contexts but it’s one avodah. It’s one focus. The Rambam tells us we create a new normal. We can potentially interpret the gezeirah of new normal. We can potentially be משנה מעשינו כולם לדרך טובה by asking ourselves there’s only one focus. A person doesn’t have to be focused on many, many things. A person is not being scattered. It doesn’t make us scatterbrains. It doesn’t fragment our focus. Just one focus at every turn in our day, vis-à-vis every component of our schedule: Is it necessary? Does it fit in, not bedi'eved, does it fit in lechatchilah to a life of avodas Hashem? Is it something that’s worth the person who has limited resources, has to watch every penny? The person who has a strained strained vocal cord has to weigh every word. And the person, the being who has limited days, has to weigh every moment of life. Is it necessary? And even if it is necessary, is the attention that I pay to it proportionate? Relaxation is necessary for 99% of the population. So even if the answer is yes, it’s necessary, but the follow-up question is, is it proportionate? If tomorrow were not Memorial Day, I’d go off to work and I’d work a whole day. Because the secular calendar dictates that it’s a day off from work, do I need an entire day of vacation? Or is it an opportunity to be marbeh b’Torah u’mitzvos? Even when there is a need for downtime, is there a need for downtime to the degree that I have it? Ribbono shel Olam has blessed so many of us that we’re comfortable financially. Each one ba'asher hu sham. When the Rambam talks about the midah beinonis of giving tzedakah, the Rambam's phrase is kefi massas yado, right? Reminiscent of the Torah's ish kematnas yado in a different context. What that means is that how much tzedakah beyond the absolute minimum for a person who’s in dire poverty, beyond an absolute minimum, how much tzedakah is not measured in absolute terms. A person can give a million dollars a year to tzedakah. Another person can give a hundred dollars a year to tzedakah. The second person may be in full compliance with the mitzvah and the person giving the million dollars a year may be sorely sorely lacking and remiss in being mekayeim the mitzvah. It doesn’t matter how many zeros there are in the checks. It’s kefi massas yado. Is a person giving to the best of his ability? Okay, so a person needs to get guidance from a moreh hora'ah what the balance is between giving tzedakah and between savings. A person needs that guidance. But the important thing to understand and the question to ask again when we have that single-minded focus: Is it necessary? All the money that I'm accumulating in the bank... Is it necessary? And to the degree that savings of course are warranted and legitimate, but is it proportionate? Is the amount that I'm putting away, is it is it proportionate? In in the current tkufah, Ribbono Shel Olam should have rachmanus, we should act in a way that elicits that rachmanus, but to make it through the current tkufah, certainly one of the ingredients is going to be philanthropy. There's going to be aniim who need money and Yeshivas are going to need money because of all the fallout from this pandemic. That single-minded focus of how much pleasure, comfort, leisure, indulgence exists in my life, is it necessary? Is it proportionate? How much how driven am I to amass wealth? Is it necessary? Is it proportionate? How concerned am I? Am I concerned with a dignified life or am I concerned with a prestigious life? It's all one single focus. A person is not spreading himself too thin. There's just one question that a person asks at every turn: Is this component of my life, is this part of my schedule, is it warranted? Is it justified? And even if so, is it proportionate? That one question: is it warranted, is it justified, בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים. That's what the Rambam in recognizing the nexus between b'chol drachecha da'ehu and v'halachta bidrachav. That's what the Rambam sees in this ma'amar chazal of איזוהי פרשה קטנה שכל גופי תורה תלוין בה. What what can we anticipate if we're mekabel on ourselves bli neder to try to implement this? Are we doomed to failure? The answer is, the realistic answer is that inevitably at times we will fail. But the fact that at times we fail is not indicative of ultimate failure, but on the contrary that stops and bumps along a journey of ultimate success if if we're willing to stay the course. Rav Hutner has a famous letter. He quotes the English, the letter is written in loshon hakodesh, but he quotes in English the saying: Lose a battle and win the war. And then in that context he writes very famously with tremendous insight: החכם מכל אדם אמר שלמה המלך, the wisest of all men says: שבע יפול צדיק וקם. The righteous falls time and again, right? Seven as as a metaphor for for the cycle, v'kam, picks himself up. Hatipshim choshvim that the pshat in the pasuk is כי כוונתו בדרך חידוש, that it's a chiddush, אף על פי ששבע יפול צדיק, despite the fact that he falls, he scrapes his knees, מכל מקום הוא קם, he gets up, he dusts himself off, aval hachachamim... The wise people yodim heytev, they know very well shehakavana hee that what Shlomo Hamelech really intends in this pasuk שמהות הקימה של הצדיק הוא דרך השבע נפילה שלו. The way the tzadik climbs, what helps propel him are the setbacks. וירא אלהים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד, say Chazal in Bereishis Rabbah, a footnote quotes, טוב זה יצר טוב, מאד זה יצר הרע. So there's no question that in looking to implement this, that we will have moments of failures, but we won't fail if we're willing to, if we're willing to look at everything we do and everything we say like the person who's living on such a tight budget that he weighs every purchase whether he's in the grocery, whether he's in the department store, whether he's in the hardware store; like the person who has strained vocal cords who has to weigh and measure every word regardless of the context, regardless of with whom he's interacting. If we're willing to approach and look at life, what we do through that lens, there will be sheva yipol, but it will be sheva yipol vekam. Are we on a madreiga, let's say in terms of money, to ask ourselves that question about every penny? I don't know, I'm projecting here so please don't be limited by my projections. I don't know that that's the case. I don't live that way. I'm not saying that's right. It isn't right, but I don't live that way. But even if we can't ask ourselves that question about every penny or every dollar, maybe we still are capable of asking ourselves that question about every hundred dollars? Does a vacation have to cost as much as it does? We do need to relax. Does a vacation have to cost as much as it does? We're not talking about pennies. Does a simcha have to cost as much as it does? Does a Yom Tov and our Yom Tov plans, do they have to cost as much as they do? It may not be comfortable questions for us to ask, but we are capable of asking those questions and we're capable of answering them honestly and we're capable of acting on the answers. Not with a hundred percent initial success. כי שבע יפול צדיק, but the pasuk doesn't end there: כי שבע יפול צדיק וקם. None of this, how we act, what we devote time to, how we allocate our resources, none of this will happen on its own. There's bechira, is tremendously empowering, but וזה לעומת זה עשה אלהים. It's also frightening and just to try to illustrate what is intended by that. You're all familiar with the Rambam's reconstruction in Perek Aleph of Hilchos Avodah Zarah of the emergence of Avodah Zarah in the world. Its initial stages במי דורו של אנוש when at the time on one level they were still on one level monotheists, ascribing everything to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, just thinking it was Hakadosh Baruch Hu's will, beda'atam hara'ah says the Rambam. Mistake sometimes isn't intellectual, sometimes... Sometimes it's a moral flaw that leads to a mistake, it's not always an intellectual shortcoming. Bedaitom haraa, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to direct acts of worship to the heavenly bodies. And from there the Rambam describes the almost inexorable descent into crude polytheism. Until Amud Haolam, until Avraham Avinu emerges onto the stage of history. There's something extraordinary in that Rambam. Extraordinary! Not extraordinary in what he says, but extraordinary in what he doesn't say. If a person would learn the Rambam, Perek Alef of Hilchos Avoda Zara, but not learn Chumash Bereishis, you wouldn't know that there was a mabul. The Rambam describes one continuous descent from Enosh into worse and worse manifestations of Avoda Zara, beginning with a monotheistic belief, but acts of worship towards the sun, etcetera, into crude polytheism. And it's one, if you're plotting it on a graph, it's one continuous descent. How can that be? The mabul had to have pressed the reset button. It has to have been that after the mabul, things were restored because there was such clarity afforded by the mabul. Even Cham and Yefes had to have emerged from the teivah different and changed. It must be that with the passage of time it happened again. But that's not what the Rambam describes. There was one continuous unbroken descent. The mabul did not press a reset button. Staggering. But you know what? Maybe this truth isn't hidden in such a distant moment of history. I'm not aware of descriptions of tremendous hisorerus l'teshuva after the Holocaust. We are aware that that reaction was triggered by the Six-Day War. But it doesn't seem to have been triggered by the Holocaust. How can that be? So the answer is given by Rabbeinu Yonah. Rabbeinu Yonah, both in Avos as well as in Shaarei Teshuva, commenting on the Mishna, Hillel says אם אין אני לי מי לי. Says Hillel, it doesn't matter what divrei hisorerus I hear, it doesn't matter what divrei hadracha I receive, it doesn't matter what momentous or catastrophic experience I live through, אם האדם לא יעורר את עצמו, if a person doesn't take personal responsibility to take initiative to change, לא יועילו לו המוסרים. No external force, no matter how compelling, no matter how overwhelming, it can be a mabul, it can be a war, it can be a pandemic. No external force can change a person. אם אין אני לי מי לי. The only person who can change me is me. No one else can do that, nothing else can do that, no one else can do that. One, the hour is beginning to get late, but if you'll allow me, one final thought to try to hold the lens of וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, of v'halachta bidrachav to every component of our lives, to every preoccupation. It requires discipline, tremendous discipline. But that's a description, it's not an implied question. Discipline is the bedrock of halacha. Discipline in the Torah's view and definition of avoda, avodas Hashem, of religiosity, spirituality, discipline is the foundation of everything. Currently, there's a unique application of discipline that we're being called upon to demonstrate. Many rabbonim are now allowing and ipso facto encouraging outdoor minyanim. Some say explicitly, some say behind the scenes, that they don't really think it's a good idea, but people are going to do it anyway. So let's try to minimize the damage and let's try to at least impose guidelines. No one for a minute thinks, no one can possibly think because it's not true, no one for a minute thinks that those guidelines ensure safety, that those guidelines eliminate safeik. No one for a minute can think that it isn't premature to be giving guidelines when the doctors who are advising us are just beginning to learn about this machla. Every day the facts of the machla change. It's so brand new that that's not a criticism of anyone, it's just a fact, it's a reality, it's brand new. To give guidelines about how to deal with this sakana which is now embedded in our lives now is like putting someone behind the wheel of a car without his having the foggiest notion of is it safe to drive at 20 miles an hour or 40 miles an hour or 80 miles an hour or 200 miles an hour? Is it safe to drive with your eyes open or with your eyes closed? That's the current state of lack of most basic knowledge. And yet these guidelines are being given. And why are they being given? Because the impression that the rabbonim have is that the mispallalim are so restless they're going to do it anyway, so let's at least try to channel it in a way that relatively speaking is less dangerous. Relatively speaking, hopefully based on what today's scientific surmise indicates. And who knows what tomorrow's scientific knowledge will say about today's surmise? And what's driving this? What's driving this is our restlessness. Rabosai, rabosai. Every one of us and I mamash implore you, every one of us should send an email to our rav saying if it's not the right thing to do, don't allow minyanim because you're worried about my restlessness. I'll find other outlets, other channels. I'll engage in the introspection. Is it really tefilla b'tzibbur that's driving this? The tefilla b'tzibbur to which I in the past couldn't allot enough time to say all of korbanos? I couldn't allot enough time to that I had to run out of shul. Is it really the tefilla b'tzibbur that's driving this? Or maybe it's the general restlessness and the need for social contact. But whatever it is, if it's not the right thing, a Jew, a ben Torah, an oved Hashem has the discipline. Our rabbonim shouldn't be giving us what they consider and I'm not masiach to whether even bedieved it's correct I'm not commenting on that at the moment. But our rabbonim shouldn't be giving us guidelines for bedieved situations because we're confronting them with that reality. Each one of us, rabosai, each one of us should be sending an email and sharing with our rav if the right thing to do, if the way to ensure that in every community has had levayas. One levaya is more than enough. על אחת כמה וכמה there's been more than one. כי אין בית אשר אין שם מת, there hasn't been a single community spared. And b'derech hateva make no mistake about it, b'derech hateva, b'chasdei Hashem, things have improved dramatically. But b'derech hateva the virus is still out there. And as society opens up and there's not we but other members of society ignore guidelines, there's every reason to be concerned that the virus is going to rebound rachmana litzlan. We hope and pray for the best, but a person has to be prepared for the worst. The formula in life is you hope and pray for the best, but you have to be realistically prepared for the worst. And right now we're entering a very very dangerous tekufa. As society opens up, no one has any idea how many people out there are walking around asymptomatic with the virus, prone and positioned unintentionally unknowingly to spread it. And no one knows who the yachid is, it's a mystery, it's a medical mystery even with all the categories of those who rachmana litzlan are most prone. No one knows who the yachid is who might be prone that the virus is lethal. Rachmana litzlan that our restlessness should expose a single person, a single member of any community, even if it doesn't happen in my minyan, in my community. But it's that general restlessness, it's that general approach. Our rabbonim need to hear from us, tell us what's right. Don't tell us what you think you need to do because we can't deal with what's right. We can. Because that's the bedrock of halacha. Bedrock of halacha is that a person follows Ribbono Shel Olam's orders. If there's a pandemic and the order is that gatherings and it's not only tefilla b'tzibbur, it's every gathering, tefilla b'tzibbur is not fundamentally different than any other gathering, if a gathering is dangerous because who knows. goes in which gathering there's going to be someone asymptomatic with a virus setting off a spread. If that's not warranted al pi halakha, and it isn't, if that's not justified al pi halakha, because it isn't, because it's premature, because we have to wait until we learn more and know what effective guidelines are, not just what we can guess are effective guidelines. So the rabbonim need to hear from us and need to know that we'll stay the course. They don't need to make compromises because otherwise, rachmana litzlan, we're going to do what's worse. No, we're going to be disciplined and we'll find other ways to partially satisfy the basic human social needs that we have. There's the phone, there are other, other online platforms. Is it the same? Of course it's not the same. But so what? A person can't deny reality. You can't, you can't negotiate. It's not a business deal that you negotiate with, with reality. The situation is what the situation is. The way a person is nizaher during a pandemic, a person cannot wait until on the news there are pictures of refrigerated trucks, rachmana litzlan, with bodies piling up. When you see that, it's way too late to begin being careful. The care has to be when things are good, because that's the only way it stays good. And our rabbonim have to know that we want to hear guidelines which are lechatchila, not bediavad of im kvar—if they're going to do it anyway, so then let's at least try to channel it. Let's at least try to, to mitigate what's going to happen. Chazal, one of the takkanos which dictate the pace of kriyas haTorah, is to finish the brochos u'klalos she'baTorah before Shavuos. That through Kabbalas haTorah, we should leave, we should be able to leave, the klalos behind, through a transformative, through a transformative Kabbalas haTorah. We spoke about how the combination of v'halachta bidrachav be'chol drakhecha da'eihu touches upon virtually every corner of a person's life, but not quite every corner. How about Talmud Torah? How about tefilla? So the answer is that when a person's midos are so refined, when a person's focus is so sharpened, so then mimmeyla, the dividend will be, will accrue in the areas of Talmud Torah and tefilla as well. A person who's asking about everything: "Is this warranted? Is this part of my schedule? Is this involvement, is this activity, is this preoccupation—is this warranted? Is it necessary? Is it proportionate?" Such a person, he's going to, that as he divests himself of all the so much which preoccupies our time, which isn't necessary or which is disproportionate, naturally he's going to be such a person that there's going to be a ribbuy in Talmud Torah. There's going to be a, a new focus and a new appreciation and a new dedication to tefilla. It will be משנה מעשיו כולם לטובה. Kabbalas haTorah, a Kabbalas haTorah with such a sense of resolve, such a sense of conviction, allows a person to leave the brochos u'klalos, the klalos behind. And zol Got helfen that we should be zocheh to such a Kabbalas haTorah be'ahava to yeshuos ve'nechamos. Thank you rabosai, be well, be safe.