Teshuva, Mesorah, & the Reality of Nitzchiyus – Past, Present, & Future

I think we left off on page 97.

אין בין אריסטו לגלילאו וניוטון בנוגע ליסוד הסיבתיות אלא שינוי כיוונים.

We'll wait a couple more lines and then try to understand, im yirtzeh Hashem.

בשעה שההשקפה המכניסטית תופסת את הסיבה כראשית התהליך ומבקשת אותה חוץ למסובב ההשקפה הטליאולוגיסטית קובעת את העילה בסופה של ההשתלשלות לפנים מן העלול. ברם שתי התפיסות הללו מודות כי המסובב

the effect נקבע למפרע על ידי הסיבה the cause

ואין אפשרות של שינוי כיוונים קיימת כלל. אין יצירה יכולה להזדווג עם הסיבתיות הכללית בין אם היא פרוספקטיבית או רטרוספקטיבית.

In many places the Rav explains the difference in categories of thought between ancient science, which continued throughout the medieval period, and modern science. One sees how the dalet yesodos are depicted, again when intended as scientific units, atomic units of being. So we're told that it's the nature of fire to go upward, that's its inherent quality, and it's the nature of aphar, its inherent quality is that it's the heavy yesod and it sinks. So the driving force, the driving cause that brings about the effect is within the object itself.

ההשקפה הטליאולוגיסטית קובעת את העילה בסופה של ההשתלשלות לפנים מן העלול.

Right, it's present within the effect. The effect is that if you have something which is primarily from the yesod of aphar, then it falls because it's the nature of the yesod of aphar to fall. Mah she'ein ken, modern science sees that there are forces from external forces that act on something. So modern science doesn't say that it's the nature qualitatively that it's the nature of aphar to fall; it tells you no, that there's a force of gravity and the force of gravity is what pulls things down. But either way the Rav says, as different on one level as those two mindsets are, there's no way sort of overcoming causality, because causality determines. Whether the causality is the law of gravity or whether the causality is the inherent nature of the yesod of aphar, but either way cause and effect are inexorable. Okay, so there's different types of the categories. they operated with different categories of understanding of causality, but it's something inexorable. And that's what the Rav says, that that inevitability that that imposes a type of, if you then transpose that onto a person, I don't know, a type of determination. You know, whether it's, I don't know, the combination originally of his genes and then the momentum of past actions. So again, you know, if causality is is unidirectional and and inexorable, it doesn't allow for yetzira, it doesn't allow for what happens, what what we read in the previous weeks in terms of the wholesale transformation of of the person in teshuva. אין יצירה יכולה להזדווג it can't be coupled with hasibatiyut haklalit.

מה שאין כן עיקר הסיבתיות יונק מתודעת הזמן שביארנו לעיל כשהעתיד משתתף בבירור העבר וליבונו

when when the future can also potentially transform the past, again, as we tried to understand a little bit like last week. מורה את דרכו מגדיר את מגמותיו it's the future that defines what happened in the past and explains what the what the influence of the past will be. אז נעשה האדם ליוצר עולמות. So then that's liberating. So then that means that that a person can be creative and and all options are open to him. A person is never a prisoner of the past, of past mistakes. There's no such thing as as a negative momentum which means that the person can't change, that a person can't break an addiction, that a person can't head head in a different direction. אמנם הסיבה מולידה סדרת סיבתיות חדשה the cause, again, the facticity of the of the past doesn't change, right? We all spent this morning however we spent this morning. We all used our time this morning however we did. And and that on on that factual level, that doesn't change and and as such that is a potential cause in terms of how it will influence how we spend our the rest of our afternoon and and evening. Aval sidra zo this chain יכולה לפכות לפנות לכאן ולכאן. There are there are different pathways open to it.

עומדת היא על פרשת דרכים ושואלת לאן. אם האדם רוצה הרי היא מהלכת ברוח הנצח העבר נשלה ומזדקק אליו.

Ha'ilot the causes nichna'ot lifkudato to his command. יש בידיה של ממשלת העתיד והעבר that this idea that the future can govern the past on the one hand it's true משום שיש פרדוקסליות יתירה it's very paradoxical

אבל גם מן האמת הגמורה. חיי היחיד והכלל מאשרים עובדה זו.

Just look at at the empirical evidence.

אדם גדול מנצל את חטאי עברו ופשעיו לשם מטרות גדולות ונשגבות.

The impetus that a past mistake can have on a person can The impetus that a past mistake can have on a person can be a very the rejection of it, the revulsion can serve as a powerful positive force moving forward. And it's a measure of a person's stature to what degree he does that.

במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד. אבל נוץ היסטורי וסטיות מן העבר יודעים לפעמים להעלות על עצמות יבשות טל של תחייה. דברי ימי העולם מלאים דוגמאות כאלה. חווית היש ההלכתית אינה מוגבלת בתוך מסגרת העבר האינדיבידואלי.

His experience is not limited by his individual past,

אלא יוצאת מתחום מצומצם כזה ושולחת את פארותיה לרשות הנצח. תודעת הזמן הקיבוצית של כנסת ישראל החובקת זרועות עולם, חכמי המסורת, ימי בית שני, תקופת הנביאים, מעמד הר סיני, גאולת מצרים, חיי האבות, בריאת העולם ובספרי מעשה בראשית היא קניינו של איש ההלכה. זמנו נמדד באמת המידה של תורתנו הפורש את זרועיה שמיים וארץ, כן אין איש הלכה חותם בעתידו הפרטי.

Just as his past extends beyond his birth, so too his future extends beyond his personal death,

שיסתיים בשעת מיתתו אלא בעתיד האומה כולה המתגעגעת לביאת המשיח ולמלכות שדי. הוד קדומים ויפעת אחרית הימים חופפים על תודעת הזמן של איש ההלכה. יש כאן טשטוש הגבולין.

There's a blurring of the borders,

המבדילים בין זמניות לנצחיות, בין חיי עולם לחיי שעה. כל מגמת מצוות זכירה שנאמרו בתורה, כגון זכירת יציאת מצרים, זכירת מעמד הר סיני ובתורת הרמב\"ן, זכירת יום השבת לקדשו, קידוש היום, זכירת עמלק, מכוונת כלפי הכנסת עובדות הללו עתיקות ימים ושנים לתוכה של תודעתו של אדם. גאולת מצרים, גילוי שכינה, בריאת העולם נהפכים לחלק אינטגרלי של תוכן התודעה העכשווית וחוויה בלתי אמצעית, כביכול כח ורבבות אונים.

Just the beginning of the next perek and then we'll try to understand a little bit B'ezras Hashem.

במצוות סיפור יציאת מצרים בליל ט\"ו בניסן באה הלכה מיוחדת: בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עצמו כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים. ואיך יכול האדם לראות את עצמו כאחד מיוצאי מצרים כשיטת המשנה והרמב\"ם בדמדומי השחר של דברי ימינו אם לא שיקלה לעצמו אם לא שיכלול עצמו בעבר הישן נושן זה ובתהליך הגאולה שהתרקם אז.

So it's like this: what in the beginning of Perek Zayin of Chametz U'matzah, so the Rambam says מצוות עשה לספר בניסן. niflaos shena'asu l'avoseinu Mitzvas Aseh she'ba'Torah

לספר בנסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו במצרים בליל חמישה עשר בניסן

she'ne'emar זכור את היום הזה אשר יצאתם ממצרים. So let's stop there. There's a gap, there's a seeming discrepancy between the mitzvah as the Rambam defines it and the prooftext and the pasuk. The mitzvah is לספר בנסים ונפלאות שנעשו לאבותינו. Okay so we're talking about events that we did not witness, certainly did not experience. It's na'asu l'avoseinu. If I can tell you as in and everyone can, you can recount stories that you heard from your parents or your grandparents that happened before you were born. So you're recounting something you heard. But what's the Rambam's prooftext? What's the pasuk? What's the source for the mitzvah? זכור את היום הזה אשר יצאתם ממצרים. So zachor means to remember. So I can remember what happened. It's not so easy anymore, even for me, I can remember what happened when I was a kid, but I can't remember what happened before I was born. I certainly don't remember what happened millennia ago. So on the one hand, the Rambam as it were acknowledges and it's not an acknowledgment, we would just say it's reality, but on the one hand the Rambam is acknowledging that the nissim v'niflaos were na'asu l'avoseinu. But m'idach gisa the prooftext is zachor. But then in Halacha Beis

מצוה להודיע לבנים ואפילו לא שאלו שנאמר והגדת לבנך לפי דעתו של בן אביו מלמדו

keitzad

אם היה קטן או טיפש אומר לו בני כולנו היינו עבדים כמו שפחה זו או כמו עבד זה במצרים ובלילה הזה פדה אותנו הקדוש ברוך הוא ויוציאנו לחירות ואם היה הבן גדול וחכם מודיעו מה שאירע לנו במצרים ונסים שנעשו לנו על ידי משה רבנו לפי דעתו של בן.

And here the Rambam goes a step further. It's not only that we sort of have this gap or this disparity between the mitzvah and the pasuk, but here the Rambam depicts the events as na'asu lanu. It's not even na'asu l'avoseinu anymore. So that's where the Rav is coming from. So clearly what closes the gap is that the Torah expects that our identification with being a part of the Jewish people means that therefore Jewish history is our past and it's our past experience. As long as we think of ourselves solely as individuals so then the past extends as far back as one's birth. One's memory of the past doesn't begin until a few years after that, but it certainly doesn't predate that in any sense and you can't refer to that as zechirah. But if there is a complete identification in terms of who when we ask ourselves who are we who am I so the answer is I'm a part of the Jewish people so then it becomes a part of my past. Gerush Sfarad was a part of my past and there's no reason for people to be shocked when one day there's a world leader who acts in a way that supports our interests and the next day he doesn't. There's never been stability in terms of that should be a part of our memory. That's part of our collective past and that's what, on the one hand, again, so if you look at us as individuals to whom, you know, for whom were the miracles performed? La'avosenu, la'avosenu. But that's supposed to be, that's supposed to be a part of our memory. It's supposed to be a part of our collective memory, right? What's the word that the Rav uses? Whether the kibutzit, was it? Yeah, Toda'at hazman hakibutzit, yeah, Toda'at here on page 98 line 5. Toda'at hazman hakibutzit, the collective awareness of time, שכנסת ישראל החובקת זרועות עולם, by virtue of our self-identification as first and foremost a part of the Jewish people, so then we have personal memories, but we have collective memories. And in that sense, we remember what predates the date listed on our birth certificates. What's the continuity between this and the depiction of Teshuva? So the thread that connects them is that what the Rav is saying is that nitzchiyut, the reality of nitzchiyut, leaves its imprint on the way we experience time. If there's no such thing as nitzchiyut, so then the past is the past. And this idea, this reality, it's not just an idea, this reality of being able to redefine, reframe the past wouldn't exist. That capacity, we think of it as a psychological capacity and it is that on one level, but that capacity exists because that's nitzchiyut-dik resonating. From a nitzchiyut-dik perspective, the past, everything is preserved, everything is there. Past is still there, the future is already there from a nitzchiyut-dik perspective. And that's what the Rav is saying is that, again, what we experience as a psychological reality is a reflection of something much deeper and much more profound. And from this, that's what the Rav is saying also, the fact that the past is alive is what makes possible for this notion of zachor, right? The Torah says all generations have to remember, not just know, not just remember what your father told you, but remember היום הזה שיצאתם ממצרים. That all these are reflections of the reality of nitzchiyut in our experience of time. That's the flow between the depiction of Teshuva and the analysis of the Mitzvas Zechirah. The Rav has the same idea in one of the posthumously published English volumes, Abraham's Journey. So at the beginning there, he talks about and says, you know, it doesn't really concern us in terms of shaking our belief, you know, whether archaeologists think that they do or don't have archaeological evidence of Avraham Avinu. It doesn't really make a difference to us. Why not? So the mashal is like this: so you have rachmana litzlan, you have resha'im, and that's what it always is, it's never a mistake about history, it's always rish'us, who deny the Holocaust, who deny the Holocaust. So let's say you have a Holocaust survivor. So is is his knowledge and certitude that the Holocaust happened in any way shaken by by this vicious- No, not in the least. What do you mean didn't happen? I was there. What do you mean didn't happen? I was in Auschwitz and I saw the crematoria and I saw I saw all the Nazis yimach shemo. It's not shaken in the least by the- it'll be shaken by the existence of such rishus and such brazenness, but in terms of his certitude, it doesn't affect his certitude. He was there. So the Rav says Avraham Avinu is part of our collective memory. You know, whether the archaeologists think they do or don't have archaeological evidence of Avraham Avinu as a historical figure is no more necessary for us to continue with our certitude, our knowledge and certitude that of course there's a historical figure of Avraham Avinu, the same way rachmana litzlan, a Holocaust denier doesn't in any way diminish the certitude that a survivor has that of course the Holocaust happened. I was there. It's in my memory. So what are you telling me, you know, based on your, you know, the boich svara that in your rishus you're generating that it didn't happen? It's the same same idea, again, that collective historical memory. But that collective historical memory assumes again two things. A, it assumes this identification that our self-identification is, I'm a part of the Jewish people, I'm not just Reuven ben Shimon, I'm not just poloni almoni, but but fundamentally I'm a part of the Jewish people and then mimailla that's what masorah is, the sharing of collective collective memory. And that's how the Torah can say that the מצוה סיפור יציאת מצרים is a mitzvah of zikaron. That's what the Rav is he's revealing all this to us. Yes, two questions. One is the Rav saying that Jewish memory and Jewish history are, like, the same in a type of- Jewish memory is of Jewish history. And that's the same way, let's say, in an individual's life, his memory and his life are not the same, but his memory is of his life, so the memory is of of of Jewish history. And just a second part second question just in terms of nizchiyos and teshuva. We we have the same certitude- So you know, the reshaim use the same tactic in you know they deny the Holocaust, so then anything that will try to undermine Yahadus and Jews, so they'll deny. So then they'll also deny that there was a Beis Hamikdash. So okay, so maybe for hasbarah you need to show them all the archaeological digs, you know, to disprove it, in terms of hasbarah on the international stage. But in terms of our own knowledge, a person's not shaken by that kind of brazen lie. That's what the Rav says about Avraham Avinu. A person it doesn't doesn't detract from from our certitude. Again, if you're looking to convince, you know, umos ha'olam, so then you need people who are expert in hasbarah to expose the lies. Yes, the second question, what's what so if there's this concept of nizchiyos, and we and from what the Rav said before that teshuva undoes anything in the past, that the aveira is still there. So in what way just elaborate how does nizchiyos give the ability for teshuva to exist? Because without nizchiyos, so then the past is in the past. If the past is in the past, so nothing in the present or the future changes an iota about the past. So what happened in the past, he ate neveila, that's what happened in the past. He ate neveila. If if there's no nizchiyos, again, the past is havar ayin, right? havar ayin. It's gone. There is It's not here anymore. It happened. It's gone. There's no point crying over spilled milk. The past is purely the past. From a nitzchiyus'dik perspective, so then you know, from a perspective of nitzchiyus, so things don't pass in and out of existence. So the past is still there and the future is already there, which is how one can touch the past. Again, the way we do it, the way that metaphysical reality is implemented is through a psychological process. But the Rebbe is saying that the yesod that we have that capacity is- again, there are traces of nitzchiyus. And that's the tzad hashavah. That's how he- because otherwise it's not clear why and how he's segueing from his discussion of teshuvah to these next pages. If the aveirah is not undone, as in- maybe- No, the aveirah is not- again, the fact remains that the person ate a kezayis of an animal that died without the benefit of shechitah. That fact remains. But what can be changed about the past, not is, that whereas if one doesn't avail himself of teshuvah, so the meaning and the reverberations of that is that it was an aveirah, which is metamtem and metamei and exerts a negative influence on one in the present and moving forward. But if one avails himself again of teshuvah again, which is rooted in the existence of nitzchiyus, so then that lets him not undo the fact pattern of the past, but it lets him redirect and reinterpret and reframe how it reverberates. So it takes away the token of the aveirah? Not only takes it away, but it can totally change it. Because now it could be that that memory of when I now realize what happens when I'm not disciplined, that that memory and that feeling of nichamti uvoshiti is so powerful that that act of eating the neveilah now galvanizes me to be makpid on kashrus in a way that I never, ever was previously, even before I had ever eaten the neveilah. And in that sense, the past is changed in terms of how it reverberates into the future. And that's how the present and the future are determining the force and momentum and the reverberation of the past. Well, that's the idea. משה קיבל תורה מסיני, page 199. Umesarah le-Yehoshua. Zu sitra de-halacha. This is the slogan of halacha.

המסורה מסמלת את תפיסת כנסת ישראל ביחס לתופעת הזמן בכל צביונה והדרה.

It symbolizes our approach, our grasp of the phenomenon of time. שרשרת הקבלה קיימת לעד ולנצח נצחים. The mesorah brings the past into the present. And let's say the famous Gemara Menachos when Moshe Rabbeinu is sitting in the back bench in Rabbi Akiva's Beis Medrash and someone asks Rabbi Akiva, zu minayin lecha? And what does it say that? And Rebbe Akiva says halacha moshe misinai. So what does that mean? So it means that when Rebbe Akiva, or for that matter when we quote a halacha moshe misinai, so it means that that whole that past is alive and continuing into the present and future.

אין כאן זמן המבלה את הכל ואין כאן עת חולפת ומתחמקת.

The time doesn't evaporate, it doesn't disappear. You know when you look in Sefer HaMitzvos, I don't remember which mitzvah it is though, in the mitzvos asei, where Ramban has זכירת מעמד הר סיני. Where is that? I think it's in mitzvos asei, no, is it among the lo sa'asei? Where does he have it? Lav bais. Do you have it? Can you read it?

מצוה ששית שנצטוינו שלא נשכח מעמד הר סיני ולא נסיר אותו מדעתנו אבל יהיו עינינו ולבנו שם כל הימים ואמרו השמר לך ושמור נפשך מאד פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך ופן יסורו מלבבך כל ימי חייך והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך יום אשר עמדת לפני ה' אלהיך בחורב וגו'. והכוונה בזה גדולה מאד שאם היו דברי תורה באים אצלנו מפי נביא עליו השלום ואף על פי שנתאמת אצלנו ענין נבואתו באותות ובמופתים, אם יקום בקרבנו נביא או חולם חלום בזמן מן הזמנים ויצונו בשום הפך מן התורה ונתן אלינו אות ומופת תהיה התורה נסוכה על ידי השני או יכנס בלבנו ספק על זה, אבל כשהגיענו ביאור התורה לאזנינו ועינינו רואות אין שם אמצעי נכחיש כל חולק ומספק ונשקר אותו ולא יועילהו אות ולא תצילהו מאתנו מופת.

Okay. And how does he say it in Hashmatos? Over here he has it on one of those pesukim.

והמצוה הזאת היא במצות לא תעשה, הזהירנו מאד, אני מזהירך מאד להשמר ולשמור עצמך מאד מאד להסתכל ולהתבונן בכל המצוות שלא תשכח מעמד הר סיני מכל הדברים אשר ראו עיניך, הקולות והלפידים, את כבודו ואת גדלו ודבריו אשר שמעת שם מתוך האש.

So Ramban says as part of the Ramban's mitzvah of not forgetting, of remembering Ma'amad Har Sinai, it's not just to remember that Hakadosh Baruch Hu spoke the Aseres Hadibros. It's the whole setting, the whole scene, the whole experience. To remember the kolos and the lapidim, all the audio-visual effects. So it's quite clear that the mitzvah again is not just content-oriented but is experience-oriented. And that's for the Ramban, this is in Sefer HaMitzvos, it's much more subtle, there's one word which seems to be subtle, but here it's more explicit here. Again, part of the mitzvah, not just to remember Ma'amad Har Sinai doesn't mean just to remember that Hakadosh Baruch Hu spoke anochi Hashem elokecha. It's to remember the kolos and lapidim and what that expresses so forcefully is that again masora doesn't just... Does transmit information but it transmits experience. It makes the past a living past. That’s what’s really again captured by the fact that the mitzvah is not only the tochen but everything that was part of the experience. And you wonder if maybe that’s another case in which we’ve said a different mahalach, maybe this is an additional answer to the question which arises, משה קיבל תורה מסיני? It should have been משה קיבל תורה מהקדוש ברוך הוא. But Sinai evokes more than just the content of the Torah. hehar bo'er ba'eish. Sinai evokes more than just content. And the point is משה קיבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע, so the mesirah l'Yehoshua again is not only the content, the Torah content in terms of the hamishah hilchos shechitah or some other halacha l'Moshe mi'Sinai, but the whole experience is part of the mesorah and then it becomes part of our collective memory. Okay, we know that tomorrow we'll begin with section gimmel, and we’ll lock the door I guess until we’ve finished.