Sha’ar 2:13: Identifying with What We Learn

Hi good morning gut voch rabosai. I hope everyone is well. Hadorch harevee. Hadorch harevee בעת שיעגה אדם בתורת השם. Higayon libi lefanecha, right? יהיו לרצון אמרי פי והגיון לבי לפניך. So higayon is associated with a lev. So it connotes a learning in depth. So when a person will delve into toras Hashem, not superficially, will delve into toras Hashem ויגה בדברי הנביאים והכתובים veyaven benoam hamussarim veyireh ha’azharos vehaonashim. Right Chazal tell us that only נבואה שהוצרכה לדורות נכתבה. That what was eternalized in Kisvei Hakodesh is what hutzecha ledoros. Which means that Yeshayahu Hanavi despite the historical gap in time is very much attuned and very much his nevuas, all nevuas are tailored for all times. So when a person will hear those azharos ve’onashim, yecherad ladevarim, he’ll tremble ויכין לבו להיטיב דרכיו ומעלליו Veyisratzeh el Hashem

כענין שנאמר ואל זה אביט אל עני ונכה רוח וחרד על דברי וכן כתוב בענין יאשיהו ויהי כשמוע המלך את דברי ספר התורה

vayikra es begadav. Uve’inyan Ezra ne’emar כי בוכים כל העם כשמעם את דברי התורה. So what these psukim that Rabbeinu Yonah is quoting, is about to quote, what they illustrate is the expectation that when we learn Torah, we do so with a complete sense of identification. It's there's no there's no intellectual detachment rachmana litzlan in learning Torah. Ich veis להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות but to give a משל למה הדבר דומה so sometimes you read a story. And in that story, the author brings the character or the characters to life so effectively, so skillfully that you identify with them. If they have moments of joy, you rejoice with them. If they have moments of sorrow, you cry with them. So they're real and you identify you identify with them. So להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות when we learn Torah, there's no room for intellectual detachment. You see this idea also reflected, if you take a look for instance in Chagiga daf daled. So the Gemara has a few such illustrations about various Amoraim just to read the first one or two. רב הונא כי מטי להאי קרא בכי. When Rav Huna would come to the posuk, the following posuk, he would cry.

וזבחת שלמים ואכלת שם. עבד שרבו מצפה לאכול על שלחנו

right Hakadosh Baruch Hu invites us to Yerushalayim to be makriv shelamim and to partake of the shelamim there, and yet look what happened, yisrachek mimenu. How how can things make such an 180-degree turnaround?

דכתיב למה לי רוב זבחיכם יאמר השם. רבי אלעזר כי מטי להאי קרא בכי.

Rabbi Elazar used to cry when he was, I don't know, learning Chumash, being maavir sedra. So when he would come to the following posuk, he would break out in tears.

ולא יכלו אחיו לענות אתו כי נבהלו מפניו. ומה תוכחה של בשר ודם כך תוכחה של הקדוש ברוך הוא על אחת כמה וכמה.

And the Gemara continues with various such illustrations. Again, the common denominator of all. of all of them is that there's no gap between a person and what the person is learning. What what we're learning speaks to us. You see that sense of complete identification with one's learning. You see that reflected again not just here in Rabbeinu Yonah's Hadracha Harevi'it and in this and the pesukim he's quoting, not just in the Gemara in Chagigah, but you see it in halacha as well. The halacha is that on Tisha B'Av, which in turn is coordinated with what the halacha is for aveilus chadasha and aveilus shel yachid rachmana litzlan, so a person is allowed there's an issur talmud torah because פקודי ה' ישרים משמחי לב. The oneg dom and פקודי ה' ישרים משמחי לב. Talmud torah is mesame'ach a person and an avel in shiva is not supposed to have in different periods of shiva the different dargos of simcha, but in the week of shiva he's not supposed to have the simcha of talmud torah. Even the simcha of talmud torah is off-limits. However, he's allowed to learn devarim hara'im. Clearly the axiomatic, again it's not only assumption, it's an assumption but it's also a mandate, is that when one learns there's a sense of identification. If there would be pure intellectual detachment, so then learning devarim hara'im fundamentally wouldn't be a different experience than learning other chelkei hatorah. And yet clearly Chazal are telling us that it is, because when there's an issur simcha of פקודי ה' ישרים משמחי לב, אף על פי כן learning the devarim hara'im is muttar. ואשר לא שת לבו אל דבר ה' continuing here in Rabbeinu Yonah, yichbad pisho alav. Again, the theme that recurs here as a leitmotif in Rabbeinu Yonah that there's a two-sided coin: one side of the coin is opportunity, is bracha, and the other side of the coin is responsibility. When given an opportunity so we need to take advantage, we have a responsibility to take advantage of that opportunity. ואשר לא שת לבו אל דבר ה', yichbad pisho alav, ולא פחדו ולא קרעו את בגדיהם. I I think that double check this, but but if I'm not mistaken right the ואשר לא שת לבו, so Rabbeinu Yonah again is borrowing as it were this phrase from Chumash Shemos by Makat Barad, I think, where

הירא את דבר ה' מעבדי פרעה הניס את עבדיו ואת מקנהו אל הבתים, ואשר לא שת לבו לדבר ה'.

I I think that's where it is, but please double check that, in which case lo shas libo stands in contradistinction to הירא את דבר ה'. Whether the person will be shas libo is a reflection, is an indication of whether or not the person has the yiras hashem. And if we find ourselves not not responding to Tanach, not responding to divrei mussar and Chazal in sifrei mussar, so it's an indication that that we need to work on yiras hashem. ואשר לא שת לבו אל דבר ה' yichbad pisho alav k'inyan shene'emar

ולא פחדו ולא קרעו את בגדיהם. ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה כל לומד ואינו מקיים נוח לו שנהפכה שלייתו על פניו ולא יצא לאויר העולם. ונאמר אכתוב לו רובי תורתי ואף על פי כן כמו זר נחשבו. ונאמר איכה תאמרו חכמים אנחנו ותורת ה' אתנו אכן הנה לשקר עשה עט שקר סופרים.

Okay, so we'll we'll stop here for now bli neder, im yirtzeh hashem we'll we'll reconvene around 12:00 to continue. Rabbi, can I ask a question? Sure. Why is this a separate derech from the derech hashlishi? Isn't it really similar that just instead of being instead of being divrei mussar from someone else, it's divrei mussar from Nevi'im? Isn't it really the same idea? It is fundamentally, I guess the chiddush as it were. Meila, so we're told there's going to be a shmuze tonight. Okay, so that means clearly the shmuze is being geared and tailored for us and it's something that there's an expectation that it should hit home with us. But I don't know, we're learning Nach from thousands of years ago. So kama shma lan? But eino chanami, it's fundamentally the same. I think maybe maybe that's why he's mekatzer. Maybe that's why the derech harevi'i is rather short because he doesn't need to review everything he said about the derech hashlishi. Thank you, Rabbi. And can I ask another question from a few days ago? Just when the Rabbeinu Yona was talking about the zakein and how he should enjoy the light or because yemei hachoshekh are coming, I was just wondering, how what does he really mean? Meaning, isn't there Olam Haba? Isn't there, what does it mean the yemei hachoshekh? And it sort of sounds so depressing and you should value every minute here on earth, but isn't the ultimate or coming after he dies? Correct, but I think wasn't the context there that Rabbeinu Yona is sort of urging us to make the most of every stage of life? So kol zman that a person is in Olam Hazeh, so then the way that a person is energized to make the most of Olam Hazeh is to want to be here. Meaning if I'm if I'm there's a delicate balance between on the one hand knowing that the tachlis of Olam Hazeh is to come to Olam Haba. There's a balance between that on the one hand, which you're correctly highlighting, with on the other if that translates into not wanting to be here, then the person doesn't make the most of it here. So therefore the depiction is from an Olam Hazeh-dik perspective. Thank you, Rabbi. Kol tuv, see you later, bli neder.