Sha’ar 2:2: Opportunity & Responsibility in Teshuva

Hi good morning everyone. I hope everyone is well. So continuing here in Shaarei Teshuva Shaar Rishon in Shaar Sheni. ואם לא ישוב האיש מדרכו הרעה ביום רעה. If even on the day when a person suffers and endures yissurim it doesn't arouse a person to teshuvah, vehuchach bemachov and he's chastised with pain, ולא שב עד מוכיחו and he doesn't return to HaKadosh Baruch Hu who is chastising him, yigdal avono he thereby increases his cheit rachmana litzlan, veyuchpal onsho and the onesh literally is doubled, is increased. The idea Rabbeinu Yonah is introducing, he's about to prove it from the psukim in Parshat Bechukotai, is that yissurim which are intended to be machnia a person and thereby arouse him to complete the teshuvah, it's rachmana litzlan an act of perversion, an act of meridah rachmana litzlan for the person not to be nichna in the face of those yissurim.

הלא שרים המלך מיסר מי שחטא לו ולא יוסר יקשה מוסרו ויכבד עולו מאד.

The yissurim are designed that we should recognize HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we should be nichna. And that's why as it were the middat hadin dictates that if a person doesn't respond, doesn't recognize, doesn't acknowledge, so then the lesson needs to be intensified.

וכתוב אם עד אלה לא תשמעו לי ויספתי לייסרה אתכם. ונאמר וחנפי לב ישימו אף לא ישוועו כי אסרם.

Because they don't cry out, so therefore yasimu af they precipitate wrath rachmana litzlan. This is an example of a klal gadol in life, which is that opportunity and responsibility are two sides of a coin, they go hand in hand. On the one hand the yissurim represent a tremendous opportunity, a tremendous opportunity in terms of arousing us to teshuvah, but whatever there's opportunity, wherever there's brachah, there's also responsibility to take advantage of that and to capitalize on the gift of opportunity which is being given us. ואם לא ידע ולא יתבונן. So the first reaction Rabbeinu Yonah was describing is a reaction where a person is just sort of passive in not responding to yissurim with teshuvah. He's not denying cheit, but on the other hand he's not responding with teshuvah. Even more serious... is

ואם לא ידע ולא יתבונן כי התלאות מצאוהו מפני חטאיו

if the person refuses to even make this correlation between yissurim and chet.

הך יאמר כאשר אמרו הפלשתים כי לא ידו נגעה בנו מקרה הוא היה לנו.

Now this isn't the Yad Hashem. The wheel of fortune is turning.

בזאת יהיה קצף עליו מלפני השם ויגדל עוון הכת הזאת מחטאת הכת הראשונה.

The first kat, the first group acknowledges chet but isn't aroused to address it. And the second one denies chet.

על כן כתוב בראשון על הכת הראשונה ויספתי לייסרה אתכם וכתוב אחרי כן על הכת האחרת הנזכרת ואם תלכו עמי קרי ולא תאבו לשמוע לי וגומר כי כל כת האחרונה בפרשה קשה מן הראשונה.

So Veyasafti leyasra etchem, I think according to Rabbeinu Yona, I think, double-check, make sure this is correct rabosai, is not only that I will continue at the same level but that I'm going to raise it a notch. I'm going to not just continue but increase.

כי כל כת האחרונה בפרשה קשה מן הראשונה. ואחרי כן כתוב ואם באלה לא תיווסרו לי והלכתם עמי קרי והלכתי אף אני עמכם בקרי. ואחרי כן כתוב ואם בזאת לא תשמעו והלכתם עמי בקרי והלכתי עמכם בחמת קרי. ופירוש והלכתם עמי בקרי

just what's the teitsch? What's the translation of that phrase when Hakadosh Baruch Hu says by way of indictment vehalachtem imi bekeri? כי שמו מקרה הוא היה לנו, right? Following the famous Rambam in the beginning of Hilchos Ta'anios. So Rabbeinu Yona says that keri means to vehalachtem imi bekeri means to attribute what happens to accident and to happenstance.

ואם אינו איש מכיר מעשיו ואיננו יודע כי יש בידו עוון השכוח.

So what if a person does want to react appropriately, but he's unaware of chet? He's unaware of what chet would have triggered the yissurim that he's enduring?

עליו לפשפש במעשיו ולחפש דרכיו כעניין שנאמר נחפשה דרכינו ונחקורה.

So clearly reflecting the two verbs in the posuk of nachpesa deracheinu venachkora, so Rabbeinu Yona also speaks that the introspection consists of two parts. When we engage in a cheshbon hanefesh, so there's two parts to that introspection: לפשפש במעשיו ולחפש דרכיו. Lephaspesh bema'asav corresponding to the nachpesa means to scrutinize one's actions. It means that I look at what I do, not to the exclusion of what I say and think, but I look at what I do and as it were, I hold a magnifying glass to it if need be. Halevai that it will only be with the benefit of a magnifying glass that I'll be able to detect what's wrong and what's amiss. I scrutinize my actions. I see that over here I was insensitive to need or to opportunity. That's nachpesah. The nachkorah, although the Rabbeinu Yonah switches the verb to nachpesah to nachkorah, excuse me, as the pasuk has it, excuse me, the drachav means that whatever we do, whatever acts of commission or whatever acts of omission that we're guilty of, they don't happen in a vacuum. They don't just happen on their own. There's always a context in terms of one's own character, one's own middos, one's own habits. So the cheshbon hanefesh on the one hand is again to just scrutinize one's actions, take inventory: what did I do? How does that measure up against what I should have done or shouldn't have been doing? What didn't I do and how does that measure up against what I should have done? That's ma'asav. But then when a person sees A, B, C, a person needs to try to understand within the context of his character, so what's the shoresh hadvarim? What's the root cause? A person never just does something. It comes from somewhere. It comes from somewhere and even if it's a momentary weakness, but there's a weakness. It comes from somewhere and that's the darkei adam, the person's path in life, his habits, his character, his middos. And the cheshbon hanefesh needs to happen on both levels. Okay, so maybe we'll stop here for now, bli neder, im yirtzeh hashem, tomorrow we'll try to finish os bais.