Sha’ar 2:7: The Gifts of Old Age, and How Access Those Gifts Decades Beforehand

Hi, good morning, Rabosai. Ha-derech ha-sheni. כאשר יבוא ימי הזקנה when, V'higia yemei haseivah when old age comes upon a person, ויחל וידל כוחו וימעט and his strength begins to diminish, Veyishach hayetzer and the strength of the yetzer hara also, the yetzer hara becomes subdued. Gam yizkor kitzo the person, because he's confronted with it, should remember his impending end, Ki karov hu because it's imminent. Veyavin leachariso and a person should discern what awaits him.

וישוב אל ה' וירחמהו. וכל שאינו חוזר בתשובה בבוא ימי הזקנה

and a person who is insensitive to this prompt for teshuva, יכפול ענשו או יוכפל ענשו ורבה משטמה עליו his onesh, his punishment, will be increased and kavyachol, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's ill will towards him will increase. כמו שאמרו רבותינו ז"ל שלושה הקדוש ברוך הוא שונאן Dal ge'eh a poor person who's haughty, who's arrogant, Ve'ashir mechachesh and the wealthy person who, through his denial, steals money, Vezaken menaf and an old man who's promiscuous. The Rabbeinu Yonah here is telling us that on two levels, ziknah is conducive to teshuva on two levels. Number one, the significance of the vidal kocho veyim'at, veyishach hayetzer is that the physical decline that a person experiences in advanced years is a reminder. It's a reminder to a person. If a person wouldn't feel any indications of advanced age, there wouldn't be any built-in reminder of his own mortality, of the fact that time is not endless, an individual's time is not endless in this world. So on that level, ziknah is conducive to teshuva. And that's the significance of the vidal kocho veyim'at that Hakadosh Baruch Hu again, it's a chesed that Hakadosh Baruch Hu built into the briyah these reminders of the passage of time in one's journey of life. The famous story with the Vilna Gaon where he pointed to the white hairs in his beard as as the reminder that time is moving and that it grows increasingly short. But there is another sense as well in which physical developments are conducive for teshuva. And that's the following. משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say you have a child in elementary school or maybe in high school and is very very concerned about his grades. The sun rises and the sun sets with his grades. If he gets an 87 when he wanted or maybe thinks he deserves a 90, it's a calamity. Fast forward to when he's say 30 years old. So he looks back on that and he sees how foolish it was. He sees how things which really had no reality were things that were front and center and of dominant importance to him. What allows him to see it? Why does he see it now when he didn't see it earlier? He could have seen it earlier, it's not that he didn't have a bechira to see it earlier, but what allows him, what makes it easier for him to see it now is that he's no longer within that culture which so builds up and emphasizes the importance of grades. And when a person moves, whether it's temporally or in whatever sense to a different place, it's much easier to have perspective on the rationality or irrationality of what he had done earlier. And it's a much bigger challenge to be able to have that perspective, to cultivate that perspective even without that distance. When a person is younger and experiences the yetzer hara in a very strong way, it's very hard, not impossible, and that is the goal, the goal is to do this, but relatively speaking, it's very hard to have perspective on that. It's very hard to have perspective on what that represents. Whether a person should be looking to accommodate and feed the yetzer hara or whether a person should be looking to sublimate and sanctify. When a person, through the gradual weakening and ebbing of physical strength finds himself in a different place, so then that affords a perspective on where he was previously. And in that sense, yemei hazikna are conducive to teshuva, not only because if one consults the actuarial tables, so one realizes that one has less and less time, but it's also conducive to teshuva because it allows us, it affords us, it much more easily affords us, it does so much of the work for us, so much of the work for teshuva the Ribbono Shel Olam does for us in giving us the perspective on the personal mindset which resulted in chet. Whether it was a person's involvement with ta'avos, whether it was a person's chemdas hamamon, all of that is placed in a different perspective when the yetzer is weaker, when the realization of כבודו במותו יקח הכל לא ירד אחריו כבודו increasingly impinges upon the person's consciousness. And that lichora is what Rabbeinu Yonah is quoting from the maimar Chazal here of שלושה הקדוש ברוך הוא שונאן. Everyone is mechuyav to be humble. The life's circumstances that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given to a poor person make it the natural reaction. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is doing the work in terms of giving the person the perspective, and אף על פי כן he's ge'eh. No one should lie or cheat to advance their interests. Lema'aseh if a person has the nisayon of oni, it is a nisayon not to do that. If a person is an oshir, so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu again has afforded him the position to see that yetzer hara for what it is. And similarly a zakein. A zakein the yetzer, a zakein has a yetzer hara. A person has a yetzer hara bimei ziknah as well, but he doesn't have the same, the yetzer hara is not of the same strength as when the person was younger. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has positioned the person to have a perspective on that yetzer. And when אף על פי כן, instead of taking advantage of that perspective that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has provided, instead of building upon that work of teshuva that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has done, so one, on the contrary, perversely looks to overcome the diminution of the yetzer and to continue the habits, so then kavyachol שלושה הקדוש ברוך הוא שונאן. Maybe the first and in that sense most important stage of teshuva is the perspective on one's chata'im. And what Rabbeinu Yonah here is explaining to us is how Hakadosh Baruch Hu often starts us off doing, performing that initial and most important stage by putting us in a position to have that perspective. משל למה הדבר דומה if your task is to be a scout and to see if there's any approaching enemy armies. So the ikar avodah is to climb up that tall mountain to gain the perspective from which to be able to see. If someone gives you a ski lift to the top of the mountain, so by giving that perspective, they've done the initial and most important part of the avodah. But this is a limud which is relevant בימי בחרותו של אדם as well because it teaches a yesod which is transposable to one's youth as well. What is done for us bimei ziknah, the distance, the stepping outside of the reality that one was in twenty, thirty, forty years ago, teaches that the avodah of a person bimei bechuroso, at every stage of life, is not to sort of just wait for the passage of time to do that avodah for him, to do that avodah for him, but to do his best to step back outside of that culture he finds himself in, outside that stage of life that he finds himself in and gain perspective. How do you do it? So maybe one approach is as follows. When a person has to make a decision—should I do this, shouldn't I do this? Maybe it's a decision of one discrete action. Maybe it's a decision of crossroads in life. Maybe it's a decision of a certain lifestyle, what the balance is between work and career and other things in a person's life. So a person should ask himself when I'll be X years old, al mishkavi baleilos, whether X is 70, 80, 90, whatever whatever the arichus yamim is that Ribbono shel Olam blesses blesses a person with. Will I have charata if I did this? Will I be pleased what I did this? Will I have charata if I did that? Will I be pleased with that? Right now it seems very important to me that I should put in long days in the office and to build my career, agam that it's going to make me somewhat of an absentee father while my kids are growing up. So as a 30-year-old, I see it one way. The corrective measure is for a person to ask himself how will I see it in 30 years from now? In 30 years from now will I have charata that I didn't spend more time in the office, or will I have charata that I wasn't more involved, I wasn't more of a presence when my children were growing up? Again, it's about lifestyle and it's also about discrete actions. Ultimately, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will put us in that position. But it's a chaval to wait for that melachta na'aseis because then a person can have charata al ha'avar and kabbala l'haba, but why wait for that? A person can simulate this derech hasheini of Rabbeinu Yonah. A person doesn't have to wait until the hairs turn white and he becomes old. He can ask himself what will the end of life perspective be on this? Will I regret having done this? Will I regret having passed up on this? Again, maybe it's a specific action, a moment of yetzer hara. Maybe it's a larger, again, crossroads decision. But a person can simulate this derech hasheini of yemei hazikna. I think there's—I forget how the saying goes—there's a saying in modern Hebrew, something like מה שאין הלב או המוח עושה הזמן עושה. No, is there such a saying? Anyone familiar with that? Something like that. The second is hazman oseh. I don't know what the first part, mah she'ein halev or mah she'ein hamoach says something. So Rav Goldvicht told me once besheim Rav Shlomo Zalman that Rav Shlomo Zalman said

אבל כדאי שהלב יעשה כדאי שהמוח יעשה ולא לחכות עד שהזמן יעשה.

So this derech hasheini of Rabbeinu Yonah, it can be מה שאין האדם עושה בעצמו הזמן עושה. It can be in such a bechina. No, but it doesn't have to be. It can be simulated. It can be that not, not to wait shehazman ya'aseh. She'adam ya'aseh be'atzmo. And and and one way to simulate it is through this thought experiment of what will my perspective be looking back. Will my perspective looking back be, oh, it's a chaval that I'm dying with only ten million dollars in the bank? When if I could have worked a little harder, I could have died with twelve million dollars in the bank? And you know, be one of the richer men in the graveyard instead of being in the top fifty instead of being not in the top fifty. Is that going to be my charata or is my charata going to be that I didn't learn more Torah? Is my charata going to be that that I wasn't osek more betzorchei tzibbur? Is my charata going to be that that I wasn't more involved with with with family? When a person looks back on on his life, is he going to have charata that I didn't chapa-rein more hana'ah in olam hazeh? Or no, when you're bovei me'at zikna, ישח יצרו וידם כל כוחו, he'll realize that it's nothing. He'll realize that wasn't life. He'll realize that was a nisayon in life, but not life. When a person is young, it seems like that's life. But it isn't. It's a nisayon of life. So what what what's my charata going to be on mishkavi baleilot? That I didn't have more hana'ah? I didn't I I only went once on the roller coaster and I didn't go twice on the roller coaster? I didn't go three times on the roller coaster? Or no, maybe the person's charata going to be that he didn't do another ma'aseh chesed? Maybe the person's charata's going to be that he didn't learn this Gemara? What what's the person's charata going to be? A person can simulate the the derech hasheini and we should because a person can save himself thirty, forty years of of living if he simulates it rather than waiting for it to happen me'eilav. Okay, rabosai, have a good productive morning. See you later אם ירצה השם בלי נדר at one o'clock. Kol tuv, be well, be safe.