Teshuva: Orientation in Life, Personalizing

אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב, remez yesh bo. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is beyond our understanding, beyond our comprehension, and as such, there’s no way we can ever in any absolute sense say this is the reason for a mitzvah. But nevertheless, we can understand, we can appreciate a dimension of a mitzvah. Remez yesh bo. In addition to the concrete performance legislated by the mitzvah of shofar, there’s a religious experience, there’s a religious content, spiritual content that we can identify. Klomar, עורו עורו ישנים משנתכם והקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם. Awaken you who are asleep from your sleep, vehakitsu nirdamim mitardematchem, arouse yourselves from your slumber. This is what the kol shofar tells us.

וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם. אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל.

People who forget truth because they’re distracted by, they’re preoccupied with ephemeral futilities. The entire year they’re wallowing in futile and empty, hollow pursuits אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל, which will neither benefit nor save. Habitu lenafshoteichem, focus on your souls. Veheitivu darcheichem uma’aleleichem, improve your ways,

ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.

It’s interesting, this is more parenthetical to what we want to discuss a little bit tonight, how the Rambam’s ta’amei mitzvot are correlated and mesh so well and so beautifully with his halakhic understanding of the mitzvah. The Rambam in Hilkhot Shofar in multiple places tells us that the mitzvah of tkiat shofar is not the tki’ah but is the shmi’ah. In the very beginning of Hilkhot Shofar in the koteret he says the mitzvah is the lishmoa kol shofar. Again in halakhah aleph, the mitzvah aseh is the lishmoa kol shofar, later in, where is it, perek gimmel, he tells us the matbe’ah habrakhah is lishmoa kol shofar. Al pi din, in contrast to the mitzvah of tkiat shofar be’yovel, on Rosh Hashanah the mitzvah is shmi’ah. And the Rambam’s ta’amei mitzvah also focused on the shmi’ah, right? The mitzvah is the shmi’ah and the ta’amei mitzvah interpret that as well. What’s so extraordinary about this Rambam is something I heard from my father zichrono livrakhah. We would expect if the Rambam is interpreting the kol shofar as a wake-up call... to teshuvah and we're wondering to whom that call is addressed, who's the intended audience for that call to teshuvah? So the answer is obvious. Who's being called to teshuvah? A chotei, chotim. To whom does one send out a wake-up call to do teshuvah? Elu hachotim. But how does the Rambam define the intended audience for the kol shofar? The Rambam says, doesn't say anything initially about cheit. אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן. Extraordinary. The audience is not defined at least initially by cheit. It's defined as people who are preoccupied with foolishness, with emptiness, with hollow pursuits, who squander their precious lives in pursuit of things that don't endure.

אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק.

No mention of cheit. Cheit, ultimately the Rambam does get to cheit.

יעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה

is not exactly an endorsement of the person's current derech or his current thoughts. But the cheit is the corollary. The cheit is the fallout. But the cause is one's orientation in life, one's focus in life, one's aspirations in life. The call to teshuvah goes out to us when we've been lulled or allowed ourselves to be lulled into a life which is empty and hollow because it's focused disproportionately on things that have no ultimate meaning and which are not enduring. Cheit is then the corollary. A person isn't anchored in emes and nitzchiyus. A person is preoccupied with hevel and what's cholef va'over, what's ephemeral, what's transient. So then inevitably cheit will ensue. But the root cause is what our orientation is. It's all too easy for us to become part of the Rambam's audience of אלו השוכחים את האמת because of the following convergence of factors. Number one, the tzad chomri shebe'adam naturally gravitates to the chomriyus, is attracted by the chomriyus, is enchanted by the chomriyus, is desirous of the chomriyus. Those are all natural, even instinctive reactions. inclinations, urges. That's one factor. The other factor that combines and the combination can be very potent. The other factor that combines is that we are to a degree supposed to be involved with the chelek hagashmi. A person is supposed to maintain and sustain his health and well-being, or make the hishtadlus in that direction. A person obviously can't really maintain or sustain it, can only make hishtadlus in that direction. A person is supposed to make hishtadlus for parnassa. So it's not as if a person isn't supposed to have the appropriate involvement. So there is going to be, there should be, there's supposed to be involvement. And then היות שהצד החומרי שבאדם is attracted to it, it's very easy to forget what's the, what is only intended as a means and an instrument to a noble, spiritual, enduring, nitzchiyus'dike, divine end and allow the means to become an end and a goal unto itself. It's very easy for that to happen. I think as we know from looking in the mirror or the computer screen as the case may be, because our picture's on the computer screen also. It's all too easy to be part of the Rambam's audience and it begins, the Rambam is telling us, it begins by sort of recognizing the need for that reorientation. And once we recognize that, and it could be that it's something we know but haven't implemented. But the short circuit may be in the implementation. It's only then, after that reorientation, after waking up, only then can a person do the chipus bema'aseichem. See, there's a profound paradox here. The teshuva can't even begin with the chipus bema'aseichem because without the right lens, if a person's not looking through the right lens, he's not going to see what he needs to see. I can make a cheshbon hanefesh how my middos are. I can make a cheshbon hanefesh about how much I've learned, I can make a cheshbon hanefesh about how much tzedaka I give, I can make a cheshbon hanefesh about alef through tav, or alef through taryag as the case may be. But the cheshbon hanefesh will only be as good as the lens through which I'm looking is accurate. So the first is the עורו עורו ישנים משנתכם והקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם is that reorientation. With that reorientation, a person has the lens for the chipus bema'aseichem which allows for the chazara bitshuva and ultimately for the zichru borachem. One other quick thought in relation to this halacha. The Rambam wrote so carefully, so precisely, compressed so much content into so few words. You can read a halacha a hundred times, and each time notice something you missed before. and the hundredth time you still see something else. Elu, let's re-read the second half of this paragraph, rabbosai.

אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנותם בהבל וריק.

If you have it in front of you, take a look,

אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל. הביטו לנפשותיכם היטיבו דרכיכם ומעלליכם ועזבו דרכיכם הרעים ומחשבותיכם אשר לא טובות.

But if you have the Rambam in front of you, you see I didn't read it, right? I took liberties there. I read what l'chora he should have said, but he didn't say. The Rambam's takka the whole time in the plural, right? Who am I talking to? Who's the kol shofar talking to? אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנותם. Habitu, lashon rabbim. Vehetivu. And then all of a sudden, he shifts to a lashon yachid.

ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.

Clearly what the Rambam is teaching us, the need for teshuvah is universal. The general concepts of teshuvah, what teshuvah seeks to accomplish, what it needs to address and redress can all be spoken about in general terms. But ultimately, it has to be individualized. Ultimately, what I need to do to implement the הביטו לנפשותיכם והיטיבו דרכיכם, I need to individualize in the context of my life, my chesronos, my chata'im, and everyone else needs to do the same. There's a point at which one can no longer talk about teshuvah bilshon rabbim, at which one can no longer talk about in general terms, patterns, models of teshuvah. In terms of the actual implementation, so of course, of course, we need to individualize that. It needs to be individualized in the sense someone else's chesronos are not necessarily my chesronos. Even if we have similar chesronos, the shoresh hadvarim, the root cause isn't necessarily the same, the strategies. And also it needs to be personalized in the sense that as true as it is that there are general, typical human failings, I need to take ownership of my failings and not just thrust them upon or attribute them to the human condition. And thus the Rambam tells us I can begin in the collective, I can begin in the lashon rabbim, but at the end the directive which the kol shofar gives is personalized to each of us because the teshuvah has to be individualized. What the teshuvah's for, how I do the teshuvah, how I... How I grow, how I change, at what pace I grow, at what pace I change. What's the new balance and mix that I should be creating in my life? All of that needs to be personalized and individualized. Hence, the end of the lashon is

ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרע ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה,

back to the lashon yachid. Have a good night, rabosai. Everyone should be well and be safe.