Sha’ar 2:11: Rejecting Rebuke

Hey, good morning everyone. I apologize for the delay. So I think Os Yud Alef here. ושלא יתעורר לקול המוכיחים יכפל עונו. One who doesn't respond to the words of those who offer him rebuke, yuchpal avono, his sin literally is double, right? Kefel, aganev yeshaleim kefel. כי הזהירוהו והקשה את לבו ולא נסר. Because he was admonished and he hardened his heart and didn't respond. Kemo shene'emar, תחת גערה במבין מהכות כסיל מאה. What divrei tochacha can accomplish for a discerning person will exceed that which a hundred lashes or a hundred beatings will accomplish with a fool. אך מרי יבקש רע ומלאך אכזרי ישלח בו. Yuchpal avono could be that just the phrase, the idiom means that his cheit is increased, his cheit is compounded. But one wonders if maybe Rabbeinu Yonah intends it even more precisely than that, and maybe what Rabbeinu Yonah has in mind is the following. Right, on one level, maybe not the most conscious of levels, but on one level, the essence of cheit is the mirdus shebo, is the failure to be nichna to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When a person denies responsibility for cheit, when a person's not chozer bitshuva, so on a certain level he's perpetuating that cheit. Once the cheit happens, so then it's in a certain sense a replay of the cheit in the sense of perpetuating the rebelliousness by not doing the teshuva. Now again, so let's say the person ate neveila. So it's not a replay of the cheit in the sense that he's eating neveila a second time, but the core of the cheit, the core of that act of eating neveila is the merida shebo, is the rebelliousness shebo, is the failure to be nichna to devar Hashem. When the person refuses, when the person's intransigence results in the not doing teshuva, so that replays the cheit and in that sense yitachen that Rabbeinu Yonah means yuchpal in a very precise sense. It's interesting, the phrase vehiksha es libo. The association is clear in terms of Paroh. What does it mean there in context of that Paroh hiksha es libo? So lichora in that context, the sense of the pasuk is that be'emes Paroh has every reason and is even instinctively inclined to give in. Because the course of action he's on, I mean, everyone agrees that Paroh has bechira at least at a certain point and and let's go with the mahalach now of of Rashi and the Rambam that it's only for the first five makkos. But at whatever point Paroh still had bechira, so that let's go with Rashi and the Rambam, let's align Rabbeinu Yonah with with that school of thought that Paroh, that it was that it was Paroh himself was maksha libo for the first five. Or even even if you you go with the mahalach that throughout the eser makkos Paroh doesn't have bechira, the hikshas libo means that there's a perverse counter-force which is being intentionally exerted and applied. Already by by by by the fifth makka it's quite clear that that Paroh is up against something, someone greater than he. And and to not be nichna, it's not simply that Paroh doesn't listen. No, ba'al korcho he listens, he hears, he knows, and there's a part of him that that instinctively, correctly wants to react in in a way that will lead to self-preservation and the hikshas libo requires a a a concerted counter-effort. Right, that's what the semantics of of hikshas libo are. So Rabbeinu Yonah is is suggesting here that lichora there's a similar dynamic that that happens when we're resisting divrei tochacha. It's not simply, we think of it as well, the status quo is that this is my matzav, this is where I am. And what can I tell you, the divrei tochacha didn't register, they didn't hit home, they didn't arouse a reaction, I didn't take advantage of the divrei tochacha, I didn't internalize the divrei tochacha. So we sort of see it as just a a passive lack of hisorerus. And Rabbeinu Yonah says no, the asher lo yisorer, the lack of hisorerus is not just a a passivity, a a physical, spiritual inertia. The lack of hisorerus is because there's pushback, because on one level the natural thing is that a person should do teshuva. That's really what the natural response is. The same way the natural response for Paroh was to give in. Not to not to stick to his suicidal course of action. And and the lack of hisorerus isn't just a a passivity, it isn't just again a spiritual inertia and and laziness, it's actively, perversously pushing back. It's actively, perversely, you know, as it were, figuratively putting putting one's fingers in in one's ears so as not to be affected, so as not to be moved by the divrei tochacha. If a person doesn't allow this hikshas libo counter-reaction or counterforce, so then the natural reaction, again, not a natural reaction which makes it easy, but the natural reaction is that we should do teshuvah. Peirush says Rabbeinu Yonah, איש רע לא יכנע לכל המוכיחים. An evil person doesn't submit to the words of those who offer rebuke, ach yivakeish lehamros. But he looks to continue rebelling, to rebel further. וכפי שלא נכנס מדברי המלאך המוכיח, and since he didn't submit to the words of the messenger who offered words of rebuke, מלאך אכזרי ישולח בו. An evil messenger, right, the first malach that doesn't mean an angel, right, the first malach means I don't know the darshan we want to listen to, the ba'al musar whose shmuess we want to listen to, it doesn't mean a malach. The מלאך אכזרי ישולח בו does refer to a malach. But that's a middah kineged middah, says Rabbeinu Yonah,

כי המוכיחים נקראו מלאכים שנאמר ויהיו מלעיבים במלאכי האלהים ובוזים דבריו ומתעתעים בנביאיו.

Interesting. So Rabbeinu Yonah explains to us that a moichiach is nikra malach. A malach, I think we correctly associate and understand, means that he's on a shlichus hamakom. So the message being delivered when Hoshea, Amos, any of the nevi'im enjoy a nevuah, so the message being delivered is a message from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When we're privileged to hear genuine divrei tochechah, so we should recognize that that too, albeit not through a prophetic medium, but that too is a message from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Harbei shluchim lamakom. It doesn't have the status of a nevuah, a person is not going to be chayav misah for being over divrei hanavi, obviously. So the equivalence obviously doesn't begin to exist on that level, but it very much exists on another level. And it's not just a question of nomenclature here that malachim, moichichim nikrau malachim, it reflects something fundamental about substance and content. Divrei Torah, advar Hashem. When a moichiach makes us aware of where we've strayed, so that very much is a message, again, albeit not through the medium of nevuah. Okay, so maybe we'll stop here for now and בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll pick up with the sugya of ayin lamed at 12:45 בלי נדר אם ירצה השם. Okay, a gut erev Shabbos, rabosai, everyone should be well, be safe, be'ezras Hashem.