Urgency to Change. Dangers of Superficiality.

We're all hoping that with b'siata d'shmaya the vaccines and the vaccination program will bring an end to this horrific pandemic. As is true with everything in life, it's not something to be taken for granted. Not just as a matter of principle and faith that a person shouldn't take anything for granted, but even b'derech hateva it's not something to be taken for granted. The vaccination program has to move faster than rachmana litzlan the mutations and in order for that to happen. So got helfen that that is what's going to happen. The prospect b'ezras hashem of the pandemic finally, finally coming to a close paradoxically is something that should generate within us a sense of urgency. Ordinarily, I think if we were asked what's one's association with the prospect of the end of the pandemic, so we would say relief, respite. And certainly those are natural and correct reactions. But religiously and spiritually the prospect, halevai, halevai that the prospect is going to materialize bekarov, the prospect of the pandemic coming to a close should instill within us a sense of urgency. And that sense of urgency is because it should be unthinkable and unthinkable because it's intolerable that when the pandemic ends b'ezras hashem bekarov that we simply resume our lives the way they were before, now that we no longer have the disruption of the pandemic. It can't be in the sense of לא תוכל לשאת עליך ישנחי, meaning that it shouldn't be. It can't be that after a catastrophe of this magnitude that we just pick up our lives and resume life as if nothing happened. The glitch has been fixed, there's no longer disruption, so we go back to our old habits, our old way of life. It should be unthinkable. And that's why there should be a sense of urgency, because halevai that it's the case, halevai that it's the case that the clock is ticking, halevai that it's the case that if not the days or weeks, at least the months are numbered for how much longer the pandemic lasts. And we have to be in a different place when that day arrives. Now, I apologize for something I too often do, for projecting, but I know I'm not in that place yet and that's why there is a sense of urgency. It's crucial that we understand in the words of Hillel, אם אין אני לי מי לי. As Rabbeinu Yona elaborates, אם האדם לא יעורר עצמו אז מה יועילוהו anything else. No matter what the impetus is. No matter what happens externally, nothing automatically creates internal change within a person individually, within a community collectively. The most staggering proof to that, open up a Rambam, Perek Aleph, Hilchos Avodah Zarah. You're familiar with the Rambam. The Rambam traces the history of Avodah Zarah, the development of Avodah Zarah, biyemei Enosh, the ta'us that was made beda'atam hara'ah, the Rambam says, and Avodah Zarah was introduced into the world. The Rambam traces the evolution, the development of Avodah Zarah into its crude polytheistic form that it ultimately took. And the Rambam describes what the downward trajectory was from the days of Enosh, Adam, Sheis, Enosh, from the days of Enosh till Avraham Avinu. And then Avraham Avinu, כיון שנגמל איתן זה התחיל לשוטט בדעתו, and Avraham Avinu discovers Hakadosh Baruch Hu and then disseminates the belief in Hashem Echad into the world. There's something extraordinary in what the Rambam doesn't say. If we didn't have a Chumash, a Sefer Yeshayahu, and all we had was the Rambam, we wouldn't know there'd been a mabul. The trajectory that the Rambam describes, that downward spiral from the initial relatively speaking sophisticated type of Avodah Zarah where they were still on one level really monotheists, it's just that they were directing acts of worship towards devorim hanivro'im even though they weren't ascribing discretionary divine powers, the downward spiral from that to the crude polytheism which marked the society in which Avraham Avinu and the home in which Avraham Avinu grew up was uninterrupted by the mabul. The mabul. The whole world was destroyed. And yet Cham and Mrs. Cham, Yafes and Mrs. Yafes went into the teivah, spent a year in the teivah, shnas hachama, spent a year in the teivah, came out of the teivah, the same people. And because of that, the mabul, the whole world being destroyed, not just over 400,000 people in a country, which is already beyond what the mind can process, the mabul didn't press a reset button. The trajectory was continuous. If you plotted it on a graph, there was no spike and then another yeridah. No, it's just continuous descent, negative slope for the line. Nothing changes us automatically. It doesn't matter what the impetus is. It doesn't matter how catastrophic the external events are. It doesn't matter what the magnitude of the earthquake is, maybe literally, maybe figuratively. It doesn't matter what the magnitude is. אם אין אני לי מי לי, says Hillel. If I don't spiritually and in a proactive way take Take responsibility, take ownership of this that there needs to be change, religious, spiritual change. There won't be change. A person can walk into the Tevah and walk out of the Tevah the same person. A person can be blessed to survive a pandemic. A community can be blessed despite indescribable losses but on a communal scale to emerge from a pandemic and it's not automatically going to be different. By default, it will be the same. By default, each of us will be the same. The same shortcomings, the same deficiencies, the same inadequacies. And by default, the same will be true on a communal level. And for that reason, as we daven and as we hope again that whatever the correct units are, apparently months, that the months are numbered in terms of how many are left until the end of this horrific pandemic, there should be a sense of urgency. Because when that day comes, we need to be in a different place, because if it hasn't happened by then, it's less likely, far less likely to happen subsequently. Individually, so each of us needs to ask the question for himself and answer the question for himself. כשם שפרצופיהם שונים כך דעותיהם שונות. Mai avodah isn't your avodah, your avodah isn't my avodah. Betuach that they overlap. But everyone needs to ask and answer the question for himself individually. But the question needs to be asked and answered communally as well. I don't think it's a one-part answer. It's in all likelihood a multi-part answer. But maybe for tonight, we'll just discuss one part, not necessarily, not making any judgments as to whether it's the most important part, but a part of the answer. And again, and this communal reckoning, this communal introspection. We're talking about our community, community Bnei Torah, sincerely committed. One of the Achilles heels communally of our Torah lifestyle, of our Torah observance is shitchiyus, superficiality. Superficiality is not only, in quotation marks, a chisaron because of the lack of depth, but represents a danger. You know, there is a very, very nice story. Rav Zevin records it in his Ishim V'Shittos that That Rav Chaim was once challenged somewhat skeptically by someone about what's with all these chillukim and all these distinctions and with the insinuation being that there was something artificial about it and Rav Chaim kedarko responded immediately and said you know the Rishonim say the Mishna says at the end of the second perek in Kiddushin that if you mekadesh b'issur hana'ah so eina mekudeshes he didn't give a shaveh perutah. So the Rishonim have a kashya but let's say a man was mekadesh an isha with orlah. So the din of orlah at least orlas Eretz Yisrael chutz l'aretz is a question but at least orlas Eretz Yisrael the din is that it's min hanisrafin you're supposed to burn it and the din is the Mishna says in Temurah that כל הנשרפין אפרן מותר. If you have issur hana'ah where the mitzvah is to burn it once you burn it and you reduce it to eifer to ashes so the ashes are now muttar behana'ah. So the Rishonim have a kashya so let's say he takes a whole the man takes a whole pile of orlah mamash bushels and bushels of orlah fruit such that if you would burn it be'afro you'd have a shaveh perutah so she should be mekudeshes. It's a question in the Rishonim. One of the one of the responses in the Rishonim there are some Rishonim saying inka nami. One of the one of the answers in the Rishonim is no afro is muttar but the eifer is פנים חדשות באו לכאן. The eifer doesn't exist he's giving her orlah. Orlah is assur behana'ah. Orlah is not a shaveh perutah no matter how many bushels of orlah you pile up it's not a shaveh perutah. I after it's burnt okay so after it's burnt and it's a panim chadashos and it's a new metzius a metzius that doesn't exist now inka nami in that metzius you'll have a shaveh perutah but the eifer is פנים חדשות באו לכאן. That's the lashon of the Rishonim פנים חדשות באו לכאן. So says Rav Chaim to the skeptic he says so I don't understand he says. He says when you make a panim chadashos when you when you make a sheva brachos the din is that in order to say sheva brachos you need a panim chadashos. So it's always a big whenever you're arranging a sheva brachos you always have to worry who's going to be the panim chadashos and what if he doesn't show up. So Rav Chaim says no just simple burn some issur hana'ah bring the eifer and you'll have panim chadashos and you can say sheva brachos. So Rav Chaim says ela mai no panim chadashos means two different things in two different contexts. So the story is is cute but it's a mistake to think of it only in those terms. It humorously highlights a very real and serious issue which is that shitchiyus superficiality can result in distortion. Shitchiyus superficiality can result in taking something that's important even very important but attaching disproportionate importance to it. Shitchiyus can mean that you have something which is important very important very very important but with shitchiyus one can exaggerate even that. Because when we see things on the surface level it says panim chadashos here it says panim chadashos here when we see things on the surface level so you don't Don't see things in their true dimensions. When there's shitchiyus, you can take something which is an ikar gadol me'od and yet allow that to eclipse something which is an ikar ha'ikarim. One of the Achilles' heels today is shitchiyus. Talmud Torah is keneged kulam. The world exists for הבל פיהם של תינוקות של בית רבן. It's almost, but underline and underscore that word almost, almost impossible to exaggerate the chashivus of Talmud Torah. But the key operative word is almost. With shitchiyus, one can. Talmud Torah doesn't justify making a chillul Hashem. Nothing justifies making a chillul Hashem. Nothing justifies making a chillul Hashem, nothing. Talmud Torah is very, very important, almost impossible to exaggerate. הבל פיהם של תינוקות של בית רבן is very, very important, almost impossible to exaggerate. But with enough shitchiyus, it's possible to exaggerate. There are obviously other factors, which is why the answer to the question we posed is a multipart answer. But we're talking about one part of the answer, one element, one component. And we know or we can all think of plenty of examples of where long before the pandemic, we were all aware of shitchiyus, of superficiality. One of the examples that we mentioned in terms of mistakes that inevitably ensue because of shitchiyus, and there are obviously different forms of shitchiyus, more crude forms and then more subtle forms. The next example is a more subtle form. Let's say a person needs to decide I don't know what community, he's newly married, married a couple of years, at the stage where a person needs to decide what community to live in, what type of community to move to. Maybe he's a little bit further along the path of life and the question which is omed al haperek what yeshivas to send his children to. And he sees a yeshiva has a tremendous ahavas Torah. There's a passion, you feel a passion in the air. Looked into a Yeshiva, sees I don't know every year in high school they make a siyum on a big masechta and they really know it. They didn't just turn the pages. They really know it. They really have a tfisa. And by the way, it's a no-brainer. That's why I want to send my children. Are these things ikkarim gedolim? Absolutely. Ikkarim gedolim. Rashi says the pshat in והערב נא השם אלקינו is that we should learn b'ahava. מה אהבתי תורתך כל היום היא שיחתי. Ahavas hatorah is an ikkar gadol. But the ahavas hatorah is only worth as much as the authenticity of the Torah. And the question is, is one subtle expression of shitchiyus? Do we focus on ikkarim gedolim, which is laudable, but ignore ikkarei ikkarim, which is not laudable? There are ikkarim, but there are also ikkarei ikkarim. The ahavas hatorah is gevaldig. The siyum on masechta, the siyumim, וכל חפציך לא ישוו בה. Ein l'sha'er. But if at some point part of that package involves distortion of ikkarei ikkarim and and we're not honed, we're not zeroing in on that, that's also albeit subtle a subtle form of shitchiyus. What are some of the ikkarei ikkarim? Rav Chaim Vital explains, the sefarim quote this, nigledike sefarim quote what Rav Chaim Vital writes. That the reason according to his understanding that there are no mitzvos in the Torah that deal with middos, despite the fact that middos are so fundamental, there's no lav in the Torah, Rav Chaim Vital says, not to get angry. Most monei hamitzvos, let's leave the Smag aside for the moment, don't have in minyan hamitzvos a lav of ga'avah. So says Rav Chaim Vital, how can that be? Hayitachein? The ma'amarei Chazal which talk about the gnus of the middos ra'os and the importance of the middos tovos, and yet it's not—I know we have a mitzvah to take a lulav but and an issur to eat a neveila, but—so משל למה הדבר דומה for what Rav Chaim Vital says, that let's say you open a course catalog in medical school and you look and you see oh no basic biology here, no basic chemistry. So apparently neither biology nor chemistry is that relevant or important for... for a career as a doctor. Okay, maybe it's middos chassidus to study a little biology. Maybe it's middos chassidus to study a little chemistry. But ha-devarim mochechim that it obviously isn't crucial because it's not in the catalog. The mistake obviously is it's so crucial, it's so pivotal, that it's the sine qua non for going to medical school. They don't look at your application unless you already know basic biology and basic chemistry. That's what Rav Chaim Vital says about middos. He says the Torah is building, the Torah builds us, it builds a person. The middos tovos are the foundation. They are ikarim and they are ikarei ikarim. What's a ikarei ikarim, not just an ikar, but an ikarei ikarim? Something which is so fundamental and foundational that without it the ikarim are undermined. Within Yahadus, within Torah, there needs to be balance. Koheles says אל תהי צדיק הרבה. The Ribbono Shel Olam says אי אתם רחמנים יותר ממני, Chazal say. There needs to be balance. A person has to know how to balance. And the same way within the functioning of the body when that balance is disrupted, the very minute that balance is disrupted, so the exquisite, wonderful functioning of the body is totally undermined, just one sickness after another, one problem after another. The same is true in religious and spiritual life; there has to be balance. There has to be balance between the spiritual and the physical. There has to be balance within mitzvos ha-Torah to know which mitzvah applies when. When there's no balance, Torah is easily distorted and when Torah is distorted, chillul Hashem is the result. There's balance between physical and spiritual. There's balance between when we look at a person, a person's not all good, not all bad. Take the good, leave the bad. When you look at society around us, doesn't matter what the percentages are, but the bad needs to be filtered out and the good needs to be recognized. There has to be balance. It doesn't mean, for instance, in those examples that any person I look at that the balance is fifty-fifty. No, the balance is in appreciating and acknowledging the good and recognizing the other for what it is and having the correct attitude towards that. And the same is true to the outside world, towards information, towards knowledge which comes from the outside world. There's obviously an awful lot that needs to be rejected, there's obviously an awful lot that needs to be filtered out. But even if it's ninety-nine percent, it's a dangerous imbalance to throw out a hundred percent. I don't know what the exact percentage is. To have a balance, which is necessary for Torah to be lived and projected authentically, is not an ikkar, it's an ikkar she'b'ikkarem. Because otherwise, when there's imbalance, when there's wholesale indiscriminate rejection when there should be discriminate rejection and filtering, when there's exaggerated importance instead of the very great importance which it should have, so Torah gets distorted and terrible things can be done in the name of Torah. And one of the causes—again, the question we posed ourselves has a multi-part answer, and this is one part—but kemeduma that it is one part. When we look for what community we're going to live in, when we look to what mosdos, to where to enroll our children, we certainly should be very cognizant of ikkarim, but we shouldn't be shtichiyusdik and see the ikkarim and be mindless of the ikkaray ikkarim. So there should be a sense of urgency. The same Hillel who said אם אין אני לי מי also concludes with אם לא עכשיו אימתי and Hillel's words are words that always, but maybe even more so now, resonate and should resonate very much. א גוט שבת רבותי, everyone should be well be safe.