Second Vaad Elul – go to me – the minimum of Teshuva

Second Vaad Elul – go to me – the minimum of Teshuva

In the last vaad we brought from Yeshayah perek 55, possuk 3 ‘incline your ear and go to me. Listen, and you will be alive, and then I will make bris olam.’ In this vaad, we will explain the part of inclining the ear. 

Yom Kippur is the greatest day of the year, and on it, we receive atonement for all of our aveiras. However, in order to receive the atonement, we need to be someone who is doing teshuvah. If not, the day doesn’t do anything for us.

Teshuvah according to Reb Yisroel

Reb Yisroel in Michtav 30 qualifies what is required to be a person doing teshuvah. He says that for this end, it is not necessary to do all the stages in teshuvah. Reb Yisroel says that this is a later stage in teshuvah and is not required to be defined as a person who does teshuvah.

Instead, we need to recognize the catastrophe of our lives as a result of our aveiras. We need to recognize what it says in the possuk ‘our sins are upon us, how can we live?’

So, Reb Yisroel is saying that to be defined as a person doing teshuvah doesn’t require making any kabbalos or doing anything else other than just recognising the terrible plight of himself.

Screaming and deep criticisms are no longer the mehalech

I know how to shout at people when they speak apikorses ideas to me. The Chafetz Chaim, Reb Elyah Lopian and Reb Yerucham knew how to shout and speak harshly. They knew how to express to people in their shmussen etc. that they were living with total flaws in their Yiddishkeit. However, nowadays this approach no longer works. We are no longer built in a way that allows us to cope with such deep criticisms and change our lives as a result.

Similarly, nowadays teshuvah cannot be conducted by merely identifying our flaws and then completely reversing them. Just like we are unable to grow from a gadol screaming at us, so too screaming at ourselves in teshuvah will not help. But Reb Yisroel is saying that teshuvah requires a person to recognise that his sins are upon him and that this muddies his whole being. How is this suitable for us in our generation?

Teshuvah-reconnecting with Hashem

The gemorah in Avodah Zarah says ‘Fortunate is the man who does teshuvah.’ The gemorah asks what about a woman? Rav Amram says it means fortunate is the one who does teshuvah when he is a man.’

The Rambam understands this gemorah to mean that fortunate is the man who does teshuvah when he is young and still has the yetzer with all the same drives that initially brought him to the aveirah.

Rashi says a different pshat, he says fortunate is the man who does teshuvah ‘when he is a bachur with his koach’. Rashi explains this to mean that ‘he is quick to recognize his Creator before he becomes elderly.’

Rashi learns that the teshuvah that Rav Amram is describing is teshuvah without aveirah. Rather, the teshuvah is that of recognising the Creator. I heard this from Rav Wolbe zt’l.

If so, this gives rise to the following question. It’s understandable, according to the Rambam, why teshuvah needs to be done on aveiras when the person is still young with all his same drives from the yetzer. However, according to Rashi, who says that the teshuvah does not revolve around the aveirah but about recognizing the Creator, why must it be done when he is a bachur with his koach and all his drives? 

I think the explanation is that Rashi is saying that there are two ways of recognizing Hashem. One way of recognizing the Borei is during yemei ziknoi,when all the bodily functions are declining. The only thing that remains with the person is the Borei.

The alternative way is when a person is a bachur with his koach, he can relate his kochos to avodas Hashem. When a person does this form of teshuvah, it is as if he has a techiyas hamesim– his koach, which became disconnected from Hashem, becomes reconnected with Hashem. Rav Amram holds that this is the way to do teshuvah.

In truth, even a person of 60 years of age is still suitable to perform the type of teshuvah of a bachur. Whichever kochos he still possesses at 60, that became disconnected from Hashem, the teshuvah for him to do is to reconnect these to Hashem.

This mehalech of Rashi fits perfectly with the Nefesh Hachaim. When Reb Chaim Volzhiner speaks about teshuvah, he then speaks about korais. Most aveiras do not carry with them the punishment of korais. If so, why does Reb Chaim speak about korais with teshuvah?

Teshuvah returns the kochos to become reconnected with Hashem. Prior to the teshuvah the person is disconnected from Hashem. This disconnection is similar to korais. Similarly, throughout the sefer, Reb Chaim doesn’t once mention that teshuvah requires the leaving of one’s aveiras, azivas hachet, kabolas, etc. The only things that Reb Chaim requires for teshuvah are to reconnect with Hashem.

In Shaar Aleph of Nefesh Hachaim, it appears that when a person commits aveiras, he becomes totally disconnected and then needs to reconnect with Hashem. However, in Shaar Dalet Perek 24, he writes that what he wrote in Shaar Aleph was not intended to mean that when a person does an aveirah, he becomes totally disconnected from the Borei. Rather, the intention was that one little spark of the nefesh becomes disconnected.

This means that Reb Chaim holds that teshuvah is not about the aveiras. Rather, it’s about the kochos which became disconnected from Hashem. Teshuvah is about reestablishing the connection.

If so, when Reb Yisroel says that we need to be ‘oseh teshuvah,’ he doesn’t mean that we need to feel totally flawed due to our aveiros. Rather, we need to reconnect our kochos to the Borei. 

Another ingredient for teshuvah

An additional ingredient that is required to be an oseh beteshuvah is that the improvement must be connected to Hashem and His malchus. (like the possuk says (lechu elai-this is the elai). It is not sufficient to just work on a good middah. Some people do very good deeds, but the Torah doesn’t want what they do since they are not doing it in a way of connecting to Hashem.

The Nefesh Hachaim in Shaar Aleph, Perek 17 says that the only way to connect with Hashem is through the mehalech of sod of keser malchus. Keser means that you want. So, keser malchus means to want malchus.

The mashgiach always used to begin Elul by speaking about kriyas shemah and kaballas ol malchus shomayim. I used to think that he was teaching us how to prepare ourselves for Rosh Hashonah but not for Yom Kippur. However, the truth is that kabbalas ol malchus shomayim is what enables us to desire a connection to Hashem, and this is equally relevant to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

In Shacharis, we say ‘vechulam mekablim ol malchus shomayim zeh mizeh’. Why do the malachim accept malchus shomayim from one another?

Every malach has a tafkid to take a part of malchus shomayim and reveal it. If every malach would make his own revelation, you would have the picture of malchus shomayim being made up of 500 megapixels, whereby each malach is doing his own thing and making his own pixel. However, none of these pixels would be connected. This is not malchus shomayim. Only when all the malachim’s malchus shomayim are connected as one thing is there malchus shomayim.

So too when humans do good deeds, this only creates individual pixels. Only when a person does good deeds because they want malchus shomayim, do they form one picture.

I think that the mehalech of being an oseh teshuvah according to Reb Yisroel is beyond us. I am presenting another mehalech of how we can be an oseh teshuvah that is more attainable for us. After all, we all need to come to Yom Kippur as oseh teshuvah.

__________

Written by Rabbi Rapport