Yefashfesh-Yemashmesh, Daily Cheshbon Hanefesh – Mesilas Yesharim #6

ובזה הודיעונו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה ואומרים נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא יותר משנברא ועכשיו שנברא יפשפש במעשיו ואיכא דאמרי ימשמש במעשיו.

The Gemara itself is not anything that Ramchal says by way of interpretation. The Gemara itself is very challenging to understand. What does it mean נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא? Obviously כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. What do you mean נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא? The fuller version of the Braitah Ramchal is just excerpting. Tanu rabbanan

שתי שנים ומחצה נחלקו בית שמאי ובית הלל. הללו אומרים נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא יותר משנברא והללו אומרים נוח לו לאדם שנברא יותר משלא נברא.

So for two and a half years there was a standoff as they debated this point. And then finally

נמנו וגמרו נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא יותר משנברא עכשיו שנברא יפשפש במעשיו ואמרי לה ימשמש במעשיו.

Okay, so that's the glaring question. What does it mean that נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא? Upon a little bit of further reflection, the mashma'us here in the Braitah is that the recommendation of yefashpesh and yemashmesh b'ma'asav. Rashi understands the two leshonos of yefashpesh and yemashmesh that yefashpesh means l'sha'avar and yemashmesh means l'haba. yefashpesh is retrospectively to review one's past actions and yemashmesh means to prospectively assess future actions and Ramchal of course says no yefashpesh is to distinguish tov from ra, a good action from a bad action, and yemashmesh means we'll discuss briefly in a minute בלי נדר אם ירצה השם means to within a good action to see whatever imperfection, whatever how in some subtle ways even the ma'asim tovim that we do might be tainted. But either way, this would seem to be very solid and appropriate hadracha regardless of whether נוח לו לאדם שנברא or נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא. The mashma'us in the Gemara is that nimnu v'gamru is נוח לו שלא נברא and heyos that that's the case that achshav shenivra is yefashpesh or yemashmesh b'ma'asav. So itachen that what those two questions taken together point to is that the mechaven in the Gemara is perhaps I don't know perhaps as follows. נוח לו לאדם שנברא the position of נוח לו לאדם שנברא is that a person will naturally maybe even with an element of ease and comfort a person will naturally do what's right. נוח לו לאדם שנברא a person will naturally just sort of trusting his and following his reflexes a person will naturally do what's right. נוח לו לאדם שנברא means that avada avada it's good and the ultimate bracha is that the ultimate tov is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives a person life. yeshus existence is the ultimate tov when the alternative is afsus is lack of existence. So avada it's tov, avada it's bracha in the most profound and ultimate sense. But it doesn't mean that it's easy. Doesn't mean that it isn't a real challenge. And hence that's where the Gemara says. Now that we've ascertained that human nature is such that life is a challenge, not rachmana litzlan insurmountable, but real, real, formidable. So now the hadracha has to be this constant cheshbon hanefesh of yifashpesh u-yemashmesh be-ma'asav. And if that pshat is correct, it would be very much consistent with the approach that we've seen earlier here in Ramchal. I think we commented how in the hakdama, so Ramchal introduces us to a very, very, very fundamental yesod. In the very first paragraph Ramchal takeh talks about the to'eles of Mesillas Yesharim is attained through the chazara alav ve-ha-hasmada, because in that way יזכרו לו הדברים האלה הנשכחים מבני האדם בטבע. So set Ramchal says that the natural state of affairs, if a person sort of doesn't make a concerted and consistent effort, the natural state of affairs is that a person gets distracted and a person forgets chovaso be-olamo. If a person just lives reflexively, so then a person will be nimshach achar ha-chomriyus. And again, this was something that we saw recurs in the hakdama:

ואת אלו דברי החסידות וענייני היראה והאהבה וטהרת הלב דברים מוטבעים באדם.

They're not reflexes, they're not instincts. The yetzer hatov is activated reflexively. The yetzer hara functions automatically, reflexively. And for that reason, and that's the background to the נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא, that just if a person's going to coast, so נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא. It's not, it's not the easy thing that a person was created. It's an indescribable bracha and tova, but not something that a person capitalizes on and is able to take advantage of just with ease. It represents a challenge. And yitachen, maybe that's even the pshat. It's been pointed out that seemingly this Gemara is the only place where Chazal were machria in something which wasn't halacha le-ma'aseh. Just seems to be an abstract philosophical question. So what do you mean nimnu ve-gamru? Nimnu ve-gamru is what happens in Beis Din. Nimnu ve-gamru is when you have a shaila halacha le-ma'aseh. No, but yitachen, according to what we're talking about, no, it is an abstract philosophical question in terms of human nature and what happens if a person just sort of follows natural instincts. It is an abstract philosophical question, but with very real concrete implications and repercussions. And it takeh lends itself to a nimnu ve-gamru. And that's what the Gemara says, and in light of the nimnu ve-gamru, so now the necessary advice is that achshav she-nivra yifashpesh, ika de-amrei, yemashmesh be-ma'asav. Ramchal continues as we mentioned to explain the two leshonos again differing from Rashi.

הפשפוש במעשים הוא לחקור על כלל המעשים ולהתבונן במה שנמצא בהם מעשה אשר לא ייעשה.

Am I doing things that are just wrong?

אשר אינם הולכים על פי מצוות השם וחוקיו. אך המשמוש הוא החקירה אפילו במעשים הטובים עצמם.

Mishmush means to investigate the ma'asim tovim. לחקור ולראות היש בעניינם איזה פנייה אשר לא טובה. Is there some perhaps... corrected. או איזה חלק רע שיצטרך להסירו ולבער. Or maybe within the tov, maybe there's an element of ra. Maybe a person is engaging in actions of kibud av va'eim, but maybe the attitude is a wrong attitude, rachmana litzlan. Maybe a person is giving tzedaka, but maybe it isn't with the seiver panim yafos that he should be giving the tzedaka. Kehena vekehena, not only bein adam lachaveiro, but of course that same potential for a chelek ra embedded within the tov is obviously possible bein adam lamakom as well. And Nefesh HaChaim has this idea as well. Nefesh HaChaim says that's the pshat in the pasuk in Koheles:

כי אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא.

So we generally assume that the pasuk means that even a tzaddik, rachmana litzlan, so occasionally is going to do chata'im. And Reb Chaim Volozhiner says no, the pasuk mean is כי אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב, and within the tov v'lo yecheta. That there isn't a tzaddik whose tov is perfect. Within the tov there's an element of cheit, there's an element of missing the mark. That even the tov needs to be scrutinized to see how and what can be improved. Kelal hadavar continues the Ramchal:

יהיה אדם מעיין על מעשיו כולם ומפקח על כל דרכיו.

A person should scrutinize all his actions, I think we spoke about that last time, the emphasis on the all, ומפקח על כל דרכיו and should be monitoring all his ways, his habits, his paths in life, שלא להניח לעצמו הרגל רע any bad habits, u'mida ra, כל שכן עבירה ופשע. Ve'hineh nireh says Ramchal, I see that there's need for a person שיהיה מדקדק ושוקל דרכיו דבר יום ביומו. A person should engage in cheshbon hanefesh daily.

כסוחרים הגדולים אשר יפלסו תמיד כל עסקיהם למען לא יתקלקלו.

Like merchants are always taking an inventory in their business that the business should continue to succeed, continue to flourish. So there's something remarkable here in this sentence, just to reread that part of the sentence:

והנה נראה צורך לאדם שיהיה מדקדק ושוקל דרכיו דבר יום ביומו.

In the previous sentence when Ramchal first introduced this idea again of that a person has to constantly be engaged in this self-monitoring, so he spoke about being me'ayein al ma'asav, u'mefakeach al drachav. מעיין על מעשיו כולם מפקח על כל דרכיו. In this sentence he just says medakdek veshokel drachav. Okay, maybe medakdek alludes to ma'asim, maybe. But either way, the remarkable thing is this: we would have thought if a person is going to make a daily cheshbon hanefesh, what do you have to check for on a daily basis? Not a monthly cheshbon hanefesh, not ich veis, not a Chodesh Elul annual cheshbon hanefesh, but a daily cheshbon hanefesh. So I don't know, if you would have been desperate and you would have asked me, so I would have told you, okay, if you're going to make a daily cheshbon hanefesh, so you can look at what you did today. You don't have to be shokel drachav. No, a derech is something that emerges and crystallizes over a period of time. I mean, if yesterday I was shokel derech, so what am I being, okay, it could be that today, rachmana litzlan, I did something wrong, I said something wrong, I thought something wrong. But Ramchal says no. Ramchal says the daily cheshbon hanefesh... Is shining the spotlight on shokeil derachav. So there's an extraordinary yesod here rabbosai. Every derech, every every path that a person goes on, again whether it means in the literal physical sense, begins with a first step. There's a first step that that a person is now headed in a certain direction. And not only, not only is the is the first step noteworthy or significant just chronologically sequentially as it were because it is the first step. If you sort of imagine a plane or or a ship that's supposed to follow a certain course, and then at some point for some reason there's a minute shift in the angle of the of the plane of of of the ship, so that's going to multiply exponentially as time continues and it will all trace back to that first step. So it's not only the first step comes before the second step. Everything a person does in life generates a momentum. That's what Chazal say that mitzvah goreret mitzvah, aveira goreret aveira rachmana litzlan because everything a person does generates a momentum. There's no such thing as doing something that doesn't have fallout. Everything, everything generates a momentum. Says Ramchal, not only does a person have to check, not only is it the the prudent thing, the necessary thing, tzorech he says, not just prudent. Not only is it the necessary thing for for a person to check maybe I did something wrong today, maybe I took the first step on on a certain derech. Maybe I felt a little bit of anger inwardly, I don't know, maybe I felt a little bit of disdain towards someone, a little bit of gaavah, a little bit of stinginess. And yitechein that none of those materialized, none of those translated into action, but lemaaseh they still represent a step. They still represent a step along a derech. A derech which if not a step which if it goes unrecognized and therefore I don't respond to is likely to be followed by a second and third step in the same direction. Maybe I got up to minyan this morning but maybe I thought to myself oh what an ol, what a what a shverer maaseh. The way to ensure. The way to ensure that a person lives as well as a person possibly can is to nip that in the bud. Is is not only to be sensitive and and seek to correct and take corrective measures for a wrong maaseh, but even to recognize a step, again, which may, it may have been something which no one else can be aware of because it may have not gone beyond the realm of of machshava. It may have been a maaseh, but the maaseh might not even qualify on the level of maaseh rachmana litzlan as a maaseh aveirah, but it still, it represented a certain shift in direction. Says Ramchal, a person needs to catch that. משל למה הדבר דומה, we know rachmana litzlan with a machalah, that the sooner the machalah is is caught, the earlier the stage it is, the more treatable it is, the easier it is to contend with. And that's what Ramchal is telling us, sheyehe medakdek veshokel, not only not only one's maasen, but whatever steps I took today, again, steps which may have just have been comprised of machshavos of hirhurim of sheifos. So in what direction were those steps pointed? Were they in the right direction that I can and should be'ezras Hashem build upon them, or were they perhaps off? And and that I need to think about that, I need to recognize it, and I need to make that effort to to change that sense of direction.