Sha’arei Teshuva 2:1 Remembering Hashem

For those of you who don't read, good morning, good morning, I hope everyone's well. I forgot to unmute, sorry about that. תנאי הסיבות שיעורר האדם בהם לשוב מדרכיו ורעיו בששיהם. There are six circumstances, stages of life which as a result of which a person can and should be aroused to do teshuvah.

ובכל אחד מהם למדנו דעת את האדם ולמדנו דעת את האדם איך יתחלק בחיק תבונתו ויאזן את תכונתו וינע להם אוזן לשמוע.

And with regard to each of them, we're learning, we're teaching how a person should take himself to the side, a person should separate himself and to be able to reflect. And we look to arouse the person to hear. השכל וידוע יקר מכל חפצים דרושים ונחקרים. Now here comes the line that we'll spend a minute or two on אם ירצה השם בלי נדר. ויותר מהמה בני הזהר. But the truth is, above and beyond these six circumstances, these six stages of life, more important, more fundamental than that Rabbeinu Yonah tells us, lashuv bechol yom. Person should have a kvi'us to be misbonein to do teshuvah on a daily basis. V'nafshecha l'taher. And again, addressing us in the second person, addressing us directly, and to purify your soul. בלעדי ששת אלה סיבות מעוררות. Without encountering, literally seeing some cause which will serve as a catalyst. וילדי יום יקשרו מחשבותיך. And without the events of the day triggering your thoughts. The impetus for teshuvah should be an internal one. And specifically, here's the crucial phrase, כי תזכור את בוראך. When you remember your Creator. והיה לך זכרון למשיב נפש. מדרכי תולדות גוש עפר. Remembering Hakadosh Baruch Hu is something that will restore your soul from the chomriyos which otherwise will just engulf you. Maybe a little bit of a mashal for what Rabbeinu Yonah is teaching us here. Imagine you have a son, he grows up in his father's home and it's a wonderful home. He's given such an excellent chinuch, he's nurtured, all the right values and priorities are instilled with him. V'yehi Hayom, he goes to the other side of the world, maybe he grew up in Australia and he moves to the United States or vice-versa. And then he has no contact, it's before Zoom and Skype and FaceTime and whatever else and there isn't any kind of contact between him and his father. And he becomes enchanted and drawn in to a different lifestyle. And then somehow or other, whether it's because he conjures up the thought in a moment of nostalgia or maybe however it comes about, he thinks of his father. He remembers his father. So right away by thinking of his father, that triggers an association, an association with all the values that his father had instilled with him, instilled within him. It it triggers association for all the priorities in life that his father had taught him. And bekitzer, that moment of recollection gives him a different perspective and and causes him to reassess his direction in life, his focus in life. When a person takes a moment and thinks about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, כי תזכור את בוראך, it places everything in life in in context. What's meaningful, what's so transient as to be meaningless unless it's intended and needed for some greater, more noble, more transcendent purpose. A person remembers Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it defines his goals, it inspires his his aspirations and and it gives him that guidance. And and it's a a fascinating thing here. If if you go back for a minute in Sha'ar Aleph, if if you have the Rabbeinu Yonah in front of you, rabbosai, if you go back to Ha'ikar Hashishi in Sha'ar Aleph rabbosai. Habusha, one of the ikarim of teshuvah is a sense of shame, כענין שנאמר בשתי וגם נכלמתי כי נשאתי חרפת נעורי. Why is busha so central? We understand it's intuitive why hakaras hacheit, why acknowledgment of a cheit is is so crucial and and so indispensable. We understand why kabbalah lehaba is so crucial and so indispensable. But why bedafka do I have to have that sense of embarrassment? והנה החוטא יבוש מאד לבוא עבירה לפני בני אדם. We're all inhibited by public opinion, we're all inhibited when when we know we're under a a social microscope. ויכלם אם ירגישו ויכירו בעבירותיו. Right? Who who wouldn't, who wouldn't be humiliated if all all his shortcomings and faults and and misdeeds were were exposed? And how, but given that sensitivity that we have not to be exposed, not to not to have our shortcomings, inadequacies, faults, misdeeds, aveiros on display for anyone to know, so how is it possible איך לא יבוש מן הבורא יתברך? But they're always on display, so how is it that that ein zeh, says Rabbeinu Yonah, here's the diagnosis of cheit. Leaving aside the the the example let's say of a tinok shenishba, it's it's a common denominator to every cheit.

אין זה כי אם לפי היות השם יתברך רחוק מכליותיו.

The way cheit happens, the opening that exists for a person to be chotei is because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not on his radar screen. על כן יבוש מן הנבראים. That's why we're inhibited and we're embarrassed lest others be aware of our shortcomings. ולא יבוש מן הבורא יתברך, but we don't have that same sense of shame that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is aware. So the remembering Hakadosh Baruch Hu is both, according to Rabbeinu Yonah, both the catalyst of teshuvah as well as the goal of teshuvah. You see that in the Rambam as well, that remembering Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the goal of teshuvah because that's the reversal of cheit, which is rooted in forgetting Hakadosh Baruch Hu chas veshalom. The famous Rambam, you have it in more than one place, but the famous Rambam in Perek Gimmel, where he talks about the remez of teshuvah:

עורו עורו ישנים משנתכם והקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם, חפשו במעשיכם חזרו בתשובה,

and what's the culmination? חפשו במעשיכם חזרו בתשובה, and what's the culmination? Vezichru Borachem. The same as as this Rabbeinu Yonah. That's why the Rambam also has boshti in the quintessential vidui: נחמתי ובושתי ולעולם איני חוזר לעשות זה. So zechiras haborai is both cause and goal. It's both the beginning point and the end point of teshuvah. How is that? Obviously because zechiras haborai is possible on different levels. Zechiras haborai is possible on different levels, both quantitatively and qualitatively. A person can remember Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this again a momentary recollection, and that's enough, Rabbeinu Yonah is telling us, to give us a different perspective and a different focus in life. The goal is not just the momentary recollection, but the goal is sustained awareness of zechiras haborai. The goal to which we aspire, it's a lifelong journey, but one doesn't reach the destination, but one keeps getting closer and closer be'ezras Hashem of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. So zechiras haborai, ki tizkor boracha, he tells us here at the beginning of Sha'ar Sheini, and what he tells us, that when the teshuvah, part of the teshuvah, that's the catalyst of the teshuvah, but then the teshuvah itself involves the bosha. And again, the way the Rambam presents it, a person says in the vidui boshti. It's the culmination of the teshuvah. Why? Because different levels of zechiras haborai: one in terms of constancy and the other, obviously, in terms of the eichus of that zechiras haborai. A person can be aware of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a more superficial sense; a person can be aware of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a more profound sense. And there too, that's how ki tizkor boracha is both cause and catalyst for teshuvah on the one hand, as well as the goal and the culmination of teshuvah on the other hand. Okay, so we'll stop here for Sha'arei Teshuvah this morning. So בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll resume. Today's Thursday, so we have the early shiur at 11:30, בלי נדר אם ירצה השם, with the Ran about the bedikah, biur, in ענייני ביטול אם ירצה השם בלי נדר. Okay, rabosai, I hope you all have a good, productive morning. Be well, be safe, see you later, אם ירצה השם בלי נדר.