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Opinion & Comment
Hashem Helps Us Do Teshuvoh: Preparations for Yom Kippur

by HaRav Yechezkel Taub

Part 2

In the first part Rav Taub explained at length that keeping the Torah does not require giving up Olom Hazeh for Olom Habo. Doing a sin is considered a "shtus," an act of insanity, since the consequence of sin is a loss in Olom Hazeh as well as Olom Habo. Rather we should use Olom Hazeh to reach Olom Habo, and including the idea that by keeping mitzvos and not doing aveiros we will have Olom Hazeh as well as Olom Habo.

In light of the above we can ask, What actually is the difficult Divine test that we undergo? We were created in This World so that by withstanding challenges we will prepare our neshomos to take pleasure in the glory of the Shechinah and bring the creation to its final tikkun through Hashem's malchus. For this purpose it should have apparently been sufficient for a Torah-observant person not to receive any Olam Hazeh at all and for his challenge to be to forgo This World in order to be zocheh to eternal life. According to the above, someone who observes the Torah has both worlds and someone not Torah-observant does not have even Olam Hazeh. Where is the Divine test?

Another question is, how can it be that the yetzer hora, which does not have even Olam Hazeh to offer, is nonetheless successful in trapping man in its net?

Yirmiyahu the novi, in the name of Hashem (Yirmiyahu 8:6), reveals to us the answer to these questions: "Everyone turns to his own course as the horse rushes into the battle." If, when a soldier was fighting, he would even think of how he should fight more efficiently, he would be slain. By the time he finished thinking the enemy would, Rachmono litzlan, pierce his heart with a sword. When one is at war, thinking is impossible.

And this is the way the yetzer hora wins. His power is only through making a person imagine that if he listens to the yetzer he will gain Olam Hazeh, and if he does not obey he will lose it. The yetzer successfully implants this illusion in man by not allowing him to think at all. If he could somewhat think about what he is going to do, even about his benefit in This World, the yetzer could not persuade him to sin. There is no valid reason for succumbing to the yetzer hora, and these imaginings would vanish altogether if man would just take some time to think a little. The yetzer, however, does not allow man to criticize what he is doing, to check how authentic this illusion is; it turns man into a "horse that rushes into the battle," that must fight without thinking at all.

Anyone privileged to have even touched the door handles of a beis midrash feels clearly that true pleasure in Olam Hazeh is only through fulfilling Hashem's will, and that sinning takes someone even farther from enjoying This World. For instance, those who study Torah feel tangibly, when they are studying properly for a seder of four hours or daven the Shemoneh Esrei with kavonoh, a genuine spiritual pleasure although they are in Olam Hazeh. This is an enjoyment that all the pleasures of Olam Hazeh cannot match.

When, Rachmono litzlan, someone wastes his time in idle talk during a seder, or when he sometimes talks loshon hora, he feels emptiness and sorrow in Olam Hazeh too. Those who have forsaken the Torah do not live lives full of joy. On the contrary, their numerous destroyed family units are sufficient evidence to their suffering.

Since the main strategy of the yetzer hora is to stop a person from thinking, from considering whether a sin will give him Olam Hazeh, and since the yetzer's goal is to make man a shoteh during his life and muddle him with its illusions, the Torah taught us the way to fight against it. The Torah writes in parshas Nitzovim (Devorim 30:11-14) "For this mitzvah which I command you this day, it is not hidden from you and it is not far off. It is not in Heaven, that you should say, `Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it to us, that we may hear it, and do it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, `Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' But this thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to perform it." The Gemora (Eruvin 54a) comments on this posuk, "When is it near to you? When your mouth and heart want to perform it."

According to many Rishonim (and this is apparently Rashi's opinion too), this parsha is referring to fulfilling the entire Torah. The Ramban and other commentaries, however, explain it as referring to the mitzvah of doing teshuvoh. [Actually there is no great practical difference between the interpretations of the Rishonim, since even according to the Ramban it is impossible to do teshuvoh without accepting on oneself to observe all the mitzvos in the future. It is therefore necessary to explain even according to the Ramban that the Torah's statement "it is very near to you" refers to both teshuvoh and observing the whole Torah. The Ramban himself writes in connection with this mitzvah that "they should accept upon themselves today to do the Torah forever."] According to those Rishonim who explain this mitzvah as referring to fulfilling the whole Torah, what does the Torah mean when it writes that it "is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to perform it"?

Our Sages taught us that man's thoughts run quickly through his mind and are not sufficiently stable to force him to think out everything he does beforehand. As mentioned, man's main avodoh, his way of defeating the yetzer, is to think before he does anything. By doing so he guarantees that he will overcome the yetzer hora since, as explained above, there is no real challenge between good and evil. Man is actually not at all faced with a question of preferring either Olam Hazeh or Olam Habo. What can happen is only his losing both worlds, Rachmono litzlan, instead of acquiring them both.

"In your mouth and in your heart, to do it" teaches us, according to our Mussar mentors, not to rely on our "heart" — meaning our thoughts, which have been formed without considering the matter at hand deeply. Before doing anything, a person should use his "mouth" to say: "I am doing this because it is Hashem's will." When faced with temptation to do an aveiroh, a person should first say, "I am refraining from doing this because it is the opposite of Hashem's will" or some similar phrase. The idea is to use the mouth as a supervisor over what a person does and not to rely only on one's superficial thoughts.

With this verbal assistance he insures his victory over the yetzer hora. Adopting the habit of saying this is essential, and by doing so one is fulfilling the posuk "It is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it." We must use our mouth to oversee our acts, and then it will be "very near to you." When "in your mouth" is lacking then it is not "very near to you."

What we have written is similar to what the gemora (Eruvin 54a) writes, that a person should speak out loud what he is studying, since then it "is it very near to you — when it is in your mouth and in your heart — to perform it." A person's whole life in Olam Habo and Olam Hazeh is dependent upon his absolutely embracing this practice, and by doing so "he emerges in one moment from darkness to great radiance" (Rabbenu Yonah in Sha'arei Teshuvoh 2:10, concerning a person listening to those who rebuke him). The yetzer has almost nothing to do anymore with such a person, and since it does not want its prey to be taken from it, it tries with all its might to prevent man from fulfilling this practice, or at least not starting to do it. The Torah, however, testifies that it is "very near to you" — that if a person really wants to accept this practice he will doubtless succeed.

*

An ingrained mistake that man must uproot from his heart before he does teshuvoh, so that he can serve the Creator properly in the future, is the thought that he cannot change himself completely. It appears to him as remote from reality that he will succeed in serving Hashem in a complete fashion. [For example, the yetzer makes him initially despair and completely weakens him by the thought that he cannot keep up the abovementioned practice of saying before any act that he is doing it or refraining from doing it because of Hashem's will.] Nonetheless, internalizing the belief that all is hopeless is one of the biggest achievements of the yetzer and the most dangerous situation possible for man.

If a person lacks strength to do teshuvoh, surely HaKodosh Boruch Hu does not lack strength. A principle of avodas Hashem is that man needs to do only a little and HaKodosh Boruch Hu finishes off for him all that is left. "Open for Me an opening the size of a needle's eye and I will open for you an opening the size of a great gate" (Midrash Rabbah Shir HaShirim 5:3).

Because of our being created to live in Olam Hazeh it is impossible for the Creator to do for us all that we need to do. We have been put here to prepare our neshomos to later take pleasure in the Shechinah in Olam Habo (as is explained in the first chapter of Mesillas Yeshorim). The Zohar writes that Hashem wanted our pleasure from the Shechinah in Olam Habo not to be nahamo dekisufa ("the bread of shame," i.e., what a person receives as an undeserved donation), and therefore Hashem created us in This World so we can prepare our neshomos through our acts.

Nonetheless, the Creator has made it part of the world that when a person starts off by doing something in the right direction, Hashem gives him the rest as a present. Since man will not receive the "opening the size of a great gate" unless he first opens an "opening the size of a needle's eye," the final result is considered man's entire avodoh. This is Hashem's chesed that He wants to help man as much as possible, and naturally the best goodness that man can receive [besides the uncountable, wonderful kindness Hashem does for us in matters of Olam Hazeh] is his later taking pleasure in the Shechinah in Olam Habo.

On the other hand, Hashem did not want us to feel as if we are receiving nahamo dekisufa — a handout. If man were to receive in Olam Habo only what he deserves for what he actually did, he would receive very little Olam Habo. The Creator of the World therefore did a great kindness and implanted in the world the rule that after man's making "an opening the size of a needle's eye" he receives as a gift the "opening the size of a great gate." Now he will receive much sechar in Olam Habo and it will not be nahamo dekisufa.

This is what Chazal (Sotah 52a) mean when they write, "HaKodosh Boruch Hu will bring the yetzer hora in Osid Lovo and will slaughter it. For the tzaddikim it will appear as a mountain. For the reshoim it will appear as a hair. These cry and these cry too. The tzaddikim cry [from happiness, of course] and ask, `How could we have triumphed over this huge mountain?' The reshoim cry [with endless sorrow, naturally] and ask, `How could we have not triumphed over this hair?'"

The obvious question is, What is truly the yetzer hora? Is it a mountain or a hairsbreadth? And what is the answer to the question of the tzaddikim? How could they have been triumphant over such a mountain?

According to the above we can well understand the whole matter. The yetzer hora is actually a mountain, and when Hashem pays sechar to the tzaddikim, giving them pleasure from the Shechinah for their victory, they cry from happiness and wonder how they could be victorious over such a great mountain. Their question is a strong one. There is no person in the world who can overcome a mountain.

The answer to their question is that indeed they did not overcome the mountain. The Creator of the World overcame the mountain for them. Nonetheless, since Hashem would not have done this if they had not first overcome one hairsbreadth of it, they are therefore considered as being victorious over the whole mountain. It is as if with their own powers were able to defeat the mountain.

The reshoim cry over how they could not defeat a hair, since all that was demanded from them was to defeat one hairsbreadth. If they had done that, they would have been rewarded as if they had defeated a mountain. Rabbenu Yonah (Sha'arei Teshuvoh 1:11) writes about "someone who sometimes sins because he desired something and his yetzer overcame him and attacked him, and his thoughts and feelings did not hurriedly rally when he was attacked, and he did not quickly rebuke the sea of lusts [i.e., the power of illusions of lust that the yetzer hora makes appear like a real ocean], and was destroyed."

Man thinks that even if he lived as long as Mesushelach and had the most sophisticated tools in the world to dry up the ocean, he would not succeed. Nonetheless, this great ocean will completely dry up if a man rebukes it. Lust is like an ocean only in order to give man sechar for drying an ocean, but it will dry up because of a person's rebuke — his true decision not to be allured by the illusionary ocean surrounding him.

It is needless to add that there is no contradiction between the two points that I have mentioned. The yetzer hora is a mountain or an ocean, but on the other hand it cannot give man even Olam Hazeh, and man will conquer it simply by thinking what is good for him in This World. Only in one's illusions is the yetzer a mountain or a ocean, and that ocean will dry up through man's decision not to yield to illusions, as the Sha'arei Teshuvoh explains.

Although we have explained that Divine Assistance for man "like the entrance of a hall," which is received only after he opens an "entrance like a needle's eye," with regard to all of man's avodoh, in reference to teshuvoh an exclusive Divine Assistance exists that is greater than general Divine Assistance. "Hashem helps those who return even when they cannot manage naturally" (Sha'arei Teshuvoh 1:1). Before he did teshuvoh he had no concept that such a lofty level in avodas Hashem existed at all [for instance, a man can have concepts of levels a thousand times greater than his own but not a million times greater]. After doing teshuvoh he himself will reach such a high level that he beforehand was not even aware of.

According to the above, the claim that a person does not have the power to reach lofty levels in avodas Hashem is not only lacking any basis, but is a dangerous thought. Perhaps it is the most dangerous thought there is for a person's ruchniyus, since HaKodosh Boruch Hu does not lack the power to give out.

Let us ask ourselves what separates us from those who are gedolim and true ovdei Hashem with all their heart and soul. Are they made out of another matter than we? Were they provided from Heaven with especially great powers?

The answer to all this is definitely No! They were born with the same spiritual powers as we have, but at some point they decided to change themselves and received Divine Assistance to come closer to Hashem and do His avodoh in a complete way.

We too, if we want to truly change, will receive special Divine Assistance and reach such high levels in avodas Hashem that at the present we do not even have any concept of their existence. After such a genuine decision to change we will, with Hashem's help, reach these levels and be fitting to receive all of the Divine abundance of ruchniyus and gashmiyus, and be zocheh to a gmar chasimoh tovah.


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