Sha’ar 2:2: The Right Perspective on, and Reaction to, Suffering

Good morning Rabosai. I hope everyone is well. Just finishing the introductory paragraph here in Sha'ar Sheni. והיברו נושאי כלי נפשך. Your body will become purified. ובזכרה יוצרה תעדה עדיה ותכחול יופיה. It will become, it will be adorned, it will have its ornament through remembering Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

כמו שכתוב בה' יצדקו ויתהללו כל זרע ישראל. ותוסף אומץ להאיר את רוחך בדרכי הסיבות השישה אשר יתבארו.

So optimally, says Rabbeinu Yonah, these six sets of circumstances or periods of life should reinforce the daily internal impetus to teshuvah we have. Tosaf ometz, it should give you added strength and added vigor in doing teshuvah. You shouldn't be looking to these external stimuli exclusively, but it should be to reinforce. However, ואשר לא השיג המעלה הזאת, says Rabbeinu Yonah, even if a person hasn't attained this madreigah whereby there is this daily internal impetus initiative, יכנע לבבו להתעורר מדרך הסיבות ורעות רבות. So then his heart will become subdued through these six, each and every of these six circumstances occasions.

ולפי מיעוט ההכרה מדרך הסיבה המעוררת לב האדם לתשובה וכפי נטותו אל דרך הרצון יודע ויבחן כי התשובה מן הנפש החשובה.

The more, it's according to different girsa'os exactly what Rabbeinu Yonah is literally saying here, but either way the point is that it's a barometer. One can measure the sensitivity of the nefesh, the alertness of the nefesh by looking to what degree it responds and embarks upon teshuvah. Haderech harishon. The first impetus, the first external impetus to teshuvah: כאשר תמצאנה את איש צרות. When a person is visited by, when a person's encumbered by tzaros.

ישיב אל לבו ויאמר אין זה כי אם דרכיו ומעלליו אשר עשו אלה לו וחטא עלול לנפשו.

A person shouldn't dismiss it as happenstance, as the wheel of fortune, but a person should see a direct cause and effect between the adversity that he's encountering and his own chata'im, his own inadequacies. And if a person recognizes tzaros for what they are, so then

וישב אל ה' וירחמהו. כענין שנאמר ומצאוהו רעות רבות וצרות ואמר ביום ההוא הלא על כי אין אלוהי בקרבי מצאוני הרעות האלה.

So Rabbeinu Yonah clearly feels that this is true both on a communal level as well as an individual level. Kimidumeh the context of the pasuk is a communal level, but Rabbeinu Yonah doesn't see any difference between the two. וסיבה במנהג בשר ודם. If a person looks in human affairs to see how we react: כי יחטא איש לאיש, and only ube'eis tzara. And it's only when the one who perpetrated, the one that perpetrated finds himself in difficult straits. Only then is he moved to feel a charata and the sense of submissiveness. And it's quite clear

מפני שהוא צריך לעזרתו תהא החרטה הזאת גרועה בעיני חברו.

So his friend, again, on a human level, rightfully sees that as very a very inferior and even unwelcome sense of charata, ke'inyan she'amar Yiftach, "And why come to me now when you are in trouble?" Before you banished me, and now because you need me, so now all of a sudden I'm your half-brother again.

ומחסדי השם יתברך שהוא מקבל התשובה מתוך הצרה ותהיה לרצון לפניו.

Interesting, Rabbeinu Yona highlighted this in the very beginning of Sha'arei Teshuva as well, the very first paragraph of Sha'arei Teshuva around eight lines into the sefer, so Rabbeinu Yona writes

והתבאר כי התשובה מקובלת גם כי ישוב החוטא מרוב צרותיו. כל שכן אם ישוב מיראת השם ואהבתו שנאמר בצר לך ומצאוך כל הדברים האלה. ואוהב נדבה את החוטא

and Hakadosh Baruch Hu freely loves the chotei בשוב אדם ביום תוכחה מקרב צרה. Even though the chotei is only bestirred to do teshuva on the day of rebuke and from a midst suffering, אבל אף על פי כן Hakadosh Baruch Hu responds lovingly,

שנאמר שובה ישראל עד השם אלוקיך כי כשלת בעוונך קחו עמכם דברים וגומר אוהבם נדבה.

So I'm not sure whether Rabbeinu Yona's proof that the teshuva is mitoch tzara is from the pesukim which are part of the vegomer or whether he's indicating that the ki chashalta ba'avonecha is not just a description of on a spiritual level that chet represents stumbling, but שובה ישראל עד השם אלוקיך כי כשלת בעוונך, you've fallen, you're suffering because of your sins. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu's saying, and I'm happy kavyachol to allow that to be the impetus for your teshuva. Ki chashalta ba'avonecha, you're tripping, you're stumbling, you're suffering because of your sins. And my reaction will be that ohev nedava.

ונאמר כי את אשר יאהב השם יוכיח וכאב את בן ירצה.

So here the ahava is present even before the teshuva, right? The tochacha, the being meyasser imposing the suffering which is the impetus for the teshuva, so here not only is the teshuva mitoch tzara accepted be'ahava, but the ahava is present even beforehand. כי את אשר יאהב השם יוכיח. There's a natural tendency we have when encountering tzara, encountering adversity, to see it as something which is impinging upon our lives, something which is interfering with what we otherwise had planned on doing. And sort of the psychological background to that is that we have certain expectations, the adversity, the tzara... is not part of those expectations and plans. So anything which is unexpected is is seen as being an intruder. And because of that we naturally react with a sense of frustration, with a sense of annoyance, we feel provoked. And what Rabbeinu Yonah is teaching us is that it's crucial to in order to be able to react appropriately and be able to capitalize on the opportunity, a person has to see and experience these things for what they are, which is not something which is interfering, not something which is impeding and obstructing, but something which is m'orer a person to t'shuvah. The sort of the moshel of why it's so crucial to see it for what it is. So imagine, imagine you're walking down the street and then someone comes over to you and all of a sudden you feel this stabbing pain here around your upper arm, around your bicep. So what are you going to do? I don't know, depending upon the person, you're either going to yell, maybe you're going to punch the guy in the nose, sort of depending upon what one's instincts are. You're not going to say shkoyach. I think that that much is a צד השוה לכל נפש. But then imagine you go to the... it's almost time, or maybe it is time already depending upon what your doctor's recommendation is to get a flu shot. You go, you go to the pharmacist, you go to the doctor and the same thing happens. You feel this stinging, right? They tell you it's going to feel like a little pinch, but whatever, it doesn't feel like a little pinch, it feels like someone's putting a needle into your arm. Then you get the shot, so you don't punch the guy in the nose, and you don't call for the police, you say thank you very much, and you ask how much the bill is, and you pay for the pleasure of having him stuck a needle in your arm. So why do you react differently? Because because we're perceiving what happened differently, because we have different expectations. When I go to the doctor's office, so I frame that needle in my arm one way, and because I see it that way, I define it that way, so I react in a certain way. And when I'm walking down the street and someone comes over to me and jabs a needle into my arm, so in the case of the moshel, understandably, I see it differently, and in the case of the moshel correctly I see it differently, and because I see it differently, I react differently. So too often, only because it's so natural, we react to the tzoros as though we're walking down the street and someone uninvited thrusts a needle into our arm. But really, the way it should be perceived and framed is as the analogue to going to the doctor's office for the flu shot. And and how it's perceived, how it's framed will determine how we respond, how we react. Okay, so maybe bli neder im yirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up here in terms of Sha'arei T'shuvah tomorrow with ואם לא ישוב האיש.