Responding to a Pandemic: Tefillah, Teshuvah, Compassion, and Bitachon

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. We are in the midst of a pandemic, a gezeira. To know why, and to know cheshbon derachmana, what He wants of us, and to understand what are we doing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is showing us that we need to fix, it's hard to know. I'm a simple person, and I don't think I'm ראוי to come and understand the why and the what. Gedolei Yisrael, the Sar HaTorah, Reb Chaim Kanievsky shlita, l'orech yamim v'shanim, gave us a few points of tikkun that we should work on. Other Gedolei Yisrael maybe have the capability of explaining what and why, but the hamonam, and I'm one of the hamonam, the simple people, it's not our place, almost impossible for us to know. We do have clear guidelines, though, from the Rambam, our chiyuvim in times of gezeira of tzarah. The Rambam in Hilchos Taanis. Perek Aleph, Halacha Aleph. Mitzvas aseh min haTorah liz'ok u'leharia b'chatzotzros al kol tzarah shetavo al hatzibur, shene'emar, al hatzar hatzorer eschem, v'hare'otem b'chatzotzros. Kelomar, says the Rambam, this mitzvah, liz'ok u'leharia, to cry out, to scream out. Kelomar, this is kol davar sheyeitzolachem. This is any situation which we find a tzarah. For example, b'tzores, hunger, b'dever, plague. Ba'arba u'kayotzei bahem, za'aku aleihem v'hari'u. It's clear in the Rishonim, pshat in this halacha is tefillah. So it's clear that the response to a tzarah, the response to a dever, has to be tefillah. Clarin the Rambam, v'davar zeh midarkei haTeshuvah, and this is the way to do teshuvah, sheb'zman shetavo tzarah v'yizaku aleha, they come and they taka respond, and they daven, v'yari'u, yeid'u hakol, shebiglal ma'asei hara'im huru lahem, hakasuv, avoneichem hitu, v'zehu sheyigrom lahem l'hasir hatzarah me'aleihem, and this is going to bring about a speedy yeshuah from the tzarah. Which aveiros, Rambam says, shebiglal ma'aseihem hara'im huru lahem. So how do we identify which aveiros do we have to do teshuva from? There's a very interesting tefillah. Shleima HaMelech, Melachim Aleph, perek ches, pasuk lamed zayin, the tefillah that Shleima HaMelech davened to the Ribono Shel Olam when he brought in the keilim to the Beis HaMikdash, built the Beis HaMikdash, he davened. His tefillah is as follows, pasuk lamed zayin: Rav ki yihyeh ba'aretz, dever ki yihyeh, plague, shidafon, yerakon, arbeh, chasil, all different types of tzaros ki yihyeh, that they come about, ki yeitzei oyvecha b'eretz sha'arav, kol nega, kol machalah. So what is the response? Kol tefillah, kol techinah asher tihyeh l'chol ha'adam. Any call, any person that calls out from where he's standing, from where he's holding, he calls out, and this is—

לכל עם חו ישראל. אשר יידעון איש נגע לבבו. Every person knows, in his heart of heart, the depth of his heart, he knows where he's lacking. ופרס כפו ולאבייס הזה. So the tefillah, the teshuvah, every person knows where he needs to fix, which areas in his life he has to be misaken, he has to improve. And again, we do this right away. ועתה, the pasuk continues, ועתה תשמע השמים, מכון שבתך, וסלחת ועשית, ונתת לאיש ככל דרכיו, אשר תדע את לבבו, כי אתה ידעת לבדו, את לבב כל בני האדם. So what to fix and what to do teshuvah is each individual needs to make a cheshbon hanefesh. We're home. Maybe it's the proper time to take moments, we're anyway home. We anyway can't be involved with the daily rush of life. Good opportunity to be misaken, to be misaken. Years ago, when the tsunami in Thailand killed 250,000 people in one second. I remember Reb Belsky, my rebbi zatzal, he was overtaken by it. He was so... he wasn't able to find rest. And what he said to me, he said, I don't understand how people talk about the news and they don't realize something. It's something, an unbelievable thing. It's something which is and should be to change a person's life. Something like this that happens. And he quoted to me the pasuk in Tzefania. In Tzefania, perek gimmel, pasuk vav: V'charati goyim nashamu pinosam, hechravti chutzosam mibli over. I destroyed goyim. I made their corners empty, hechravti chutzosam, their yards, mibli over, nitzad oreh u'mibli yoshev. Omarti, the pasuk continues, pasuk zayin, Ach tiri osi tikchi musar. It should bring fear. It has to have a response. Something happened, and a person needs to respond by taking mussar, taking a mussar from it. Reb Yamin Kahn shlita said a very nice divrei chizuk. Mechaber, the Chelkas Binyamin, spoke very, very profound, very beautiful. And he mentioned a Radak. The Radak says a plague is called a dever. So the Radak in the Shorashim explains why is it called a dever? Why plague is a dever? Says the Radak, because it's dibur. Dever means Hashem is talking. Hashem is communicating with us. He's calling us. He's awakening us. He's reaching out to us. He's talking. He's talking. He's talking. I want to share with you, you know, a lot of times we get involved with fear. We're going to get sick. You're not going to get sick. L'maaseh, l'maaseh, we have to do teshuva. But part of it also, I think it's important not to lose focus on all the people that are suffering.

Even if you are not from the group, from the at risk, that you don't have strong symptoms, and you are Yidden people, even Goyim people suffering. People at home, parnassah, pachad of not having parnassah. Many times, many, many phone calls I get. This inyan, the parnassah, vos vet zayn mit the parnassah, they're worried about the parnassah. A Yid in a matzav of tzarah l'Yisrael, he needs to not only think of himself, but he needs to think of the klal, and even the rest of the world, goyim as well. And this is a story that awoken me a tremendous hiso'orerus. I read in the sefer Kisra shel Torah. It's stories about Reb Shmuel Birnbaum, the rosh yeshiva zich tzaddik livrachah, by one of the family members. He writes there that when the tsunami came, Reb Shmuel couldn't find menuchah. He couldn't sleep. You would think that the reason is because of tiri tikchumuser, a world, a world gehimmel geshehen, something happened. It says here that what bothered him was the tzaar of the people, even though they were not Yidden. Vayehayah yachol lisha'in baleilos. Mir ro'eh vishtatfus b'tzaaron shel Bnei Adam, afilu me'einam Yehudim. Even though they were not Jewish. I think possibly that's the pshat in the Rambam. The third Rambam in Hilchos Taaniyos, the third Rambam: Halacha gimmel, aval lo yizaku v'lo yari'u, v'yomru davar zeh miminhag ha'olam iru lanu. It happens. Tzaros happen. Events sometimes are bad. It's part of life and part of this world. B'tzarah zu nikra nikris. Harei zu derech achzarius, v'goremes lahem lidavek b'ma'asei hara. And the meforshim ask, why is it called achzarius? You're not listening to the mitzvah. You're not listening to Hashem talking to you. Why is it achzarius? Achzarius means a person who is mean, who's an achzar. Where is the mean? Why? So someone explains, some meforshim, possibly I remember from the Mikhtav meEliyahu, that the word zar means indifferent. He's indifferent. It's gait im nishtan. It doesn't connect with him. He goes with his—so he's indifferent to the tzarah. So he's called an achzar. But maybe the pshat, rabosai, after this maaseh from Reb Shmuel, speaks volumes. Gedolei Yisrael, how they understood and the feelings that they had. And what Torah transforms a person to be an adam hashaleim, not adam, not a mensch. You're anachser because, let's say, it doesn't bother you, it doesn't affect you, but it's affecting the rest of the world. So the fact that you don't want to do anything about it, you're anachser. So at this situation, these moments, in מאיר דציבור, don't only daven for yourself. Don't only think about your health and your family's health. Think about the world is in tzarah. Yidden for sure, many are going to suffer from the health and from the parnassah. The fear, a lot of pain and suffering, but even for the rest of the world, goyim included, goyim included. You know, rabosai, pachad is part of tochachah. The tochachah clearly states that when the Ribono Shel Olam sends tochachah to the world, to Klal Yisrael, a big faction, a big factor of it is pachad. The pasuk says,

In Devarim, chof ches, pasuk samech vav, parshas Ki Savo in the Tochachah, V'hayu chayecha teluyim lecha mineged. You're not going to have security in your life. Ufachadta laylah v'yomam, v'lo sa'amin b'chayecha. You don't have any guarantees, and it's fear. Baboker tomar, mi yiten erev, uva'erev tomar, mi yiten boker, mipachad levavcha asher tifchad, umimar'eh einecha asher tir'eh. The Gemara גרדa talks about it's referring to people who need to go and then make parnassah, which is a lot less than what we have. What we have today is literally pachad levavcha. Rashi says, V'lo sa'amin b'chayecha, zeh hasomech al hapalter. Chayecha teluyim lecha al hasofek, kol safek tarti, shema amus hayom bcherev haba aleinu, v'Rabbeinu darash zeh lo ketvum min hashuk. It's interesting how the Chazal minimize the pachad, even for this, even the fact that you have to go to the store and to buy and to be somech on the baker, Chazal said that's already v'hayu chayecha teluyim lecha mineged. But of course the pashut pshat is, and as Rashi says, shema amus hayom, and it's pachad and there's fear. It's a chelek of the tochachah. It's a chelek of the tochachah. Pachad is extremely detrimental. It's a chisaron in ruchnius. It's a chisaron in ruchnius. Emunah and bitachon requires every Yid to fight pachad, to fight fear. You don't have to be marech on this. This is pretty self-understood. It's klar. Everybody fully understands that, that emunah and bitachon requires not to have pachad. But it's also physically a detriment. Pachad, fear, fear itself could cause illness. This is a mefurasha pasuk, rabosai, in Mishlei. A pasuk in Mishlei says, perek ches, pasuk yud-daled, Ruach ish yechalkel machaleihu, v'ruach necheah... The spirit of a person will sustain his sickness. V'ruach necheah, but if he is down, mi yisienu? Who's going to pick him up in his disease? The Metzudas explains, Ruach ish, ruach ha-sichli asher b'ish. We're not talking about a ruach ruchni; we mean a sichli, we mean a physical. Ruach ha-sichli, a man's attitude, his mind over matter, so to speak. Ruach ha-sichli asher b'ish yisbolel v'yachzik choli ha-guf. This will help him to sustain disease. כי היא מהנהגס מן ההגסס הגוף בבריאותו, ואף כי בחוליו, אבל כשרוח עצמו נכהה ושבורה בעצבון ויגון מי יושיענו? כי אין הגוף נושא אותו להחזיק כי אם נכהה שבורה. If you are, if you are strong, if you are, בשמחה, the lashon Rashi is. Rashi explains, רוח איש, רוח גבר שהוא איש גיבור, ואינו נושא דאגה בליבו. Not afraid. ומקבל כל הבאות בשמחה ובחיבה. And the mitzvah is telling me that this is going to be the thing that helps the person fight disease. Rashi, רוח גבר שהוא איש גיבור. To be strong, it's not easy. People fall apart. People get very scared and they can't function. רוח גבר שהוא איש גיבור, ואינו נושא דאגה בליבו. I think it's very interesting, the lashon of Rashi, ואינו נושא דאגה בליבו. Naturally, you don't have the דאגה. It's you, in the mind, creating the דאגה in the heart. ואינו נושא דאגה בליבו. Or at least means that you—

Doesn't let it affect him. Al kol panim, this is the yeshua, and this is one of the eitzes in order to be able to fight the disease. I would like to say, maybe it's possible that the fear itself could be instead of the actual machlah. Sometimes the fear produces the outcome that's needed without even having to get the machlah. You could be yotzei. You could be... You could be able to achieve what's needed, the goal that's needed from a machlah. Maybe you could have it with the pachad alone. The Chovos HaLevavos says this clearly in Shaar Teshuvah, perek vav. The Chovos HaLevavos says that this is one of the tools that the Eibishter uses to make a person do teshuvah. Sometimes he's me'aneish him, and sometimes he makes a situation around him that's pachad, and with that he has the... he has the maila. He has what he needs. Like this, he could go do teshuvah. The pachad... Sometimes it's instead of the actual onesh, because it produces the same result. This is in Chovos HaLevavos, perek vav. It was an expression in Europe. My baba in my zeide, my zeide, my baba zatzal, used to say it all the time: The Ribono Shel Olam zol shrעקן un nisht strafen. The Ribono Shel Olam should give us fear, frighten us, but not actually punish us. רבי חיל שניצלער, תלמיד חכם, he once told me from the Ishbitzer, אמרי דקדח, from the Mei HaShiloach, the Ishbitzer: Why did Klal Yisroel have to be in Mitzrayim through the year that the Mitzriyim got their makos? Why would they have to be there? You have to punish the Mitzriyim. They needed to learn the lessons of the makos. Why was Klal Yisroel have to experience all the beholah? Now, it didn't affect them. It didn't affect them actually, but they were around it. It was surrounded. Says the Ishbitzer, Klal Yisroel also needed mussar. The makos was there to take mussar for Klal Yisroel too. So the Ribono Shel Olam gave the makos to the Mitzriyim, while the Yidden, they saw it. Tirei, they saw it, and they were yotzei. Makkas and the lesson that they needed to take from it with the fear. I do want to add one word of chizuk, and I think this is an important, an important yesod. I like to tell the oilam that many Yidden are feeling very down that they can't go to shul. It bothers them that the yeshiva is closed and the shul they can't daven. Yidden, some Yidden, that was their life, and they feel very bad. There's a story from Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. There was cholera in Europe, and Yidden had to eat on Yom Kippur. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter paskened that maybe it was by kol nidrei or whatever it was, should get up and make Kiddush and the oilam should eat. Famous story. And the question is, there really is no Kiddush if you eat on Yom Kippur, but Rabbi Yisrael Salanter paskened, bizol machin Kiddush. So most understand the story because Rabbi Yisrael Salanter...

Contra set policy. Everyone must eat. If you're not feeling well, you gotta eat. Don't be overly zealous and frum. So he was makpid, and he paskened that berabim they should make Kiddush. I'd like to add a little insight, an added insight into this. I think Reb Yisroel Salanter was conveying a message, that if you eat on Yom Kippur because of disease, it's not the pshat you ate on Yom Kippur; it's the pshat you fasted on Yom Kippur. That's kedushas Yom HaKippurim. Loz oys meinen, you shouldn't think that you had to eat on Yom Kippur. You didn't have — you fasted on Yom Kippur. Essen of Yom Kippur does heist gefasted of Yom Kippur. And I heard this yesod sitting once by Reb Leibish, zichrono tzaddik livrachah, shal'shuvos Beis Avi. He was the head of the Igud Harabbanim, a very accepted, famous posek. Women erev Yom Kippur called that they're pregnant, fasting, and he would tell them, You have to eat, and whatever the case may be. And there was one lady who kept on pushing, But I don't want to, and I'd rather not, and I want to be machmir. Ich muss fasten of Yom Kippur. That was her words. So Reb Leibish told her, When do es of Yom Kippur — when you eat on Yom Kippur, that's called you fasted on Yom Kippur. Rabosai. Don't think you're not going to minyan for listening to das Torah. If we're listening to the Rabbanim, and they're telling us not to go to minyan, das heist you went to minyan. This is what the Eibishter wants, and it means that you went to minyan. I would end with the tefillah of Shlomo HaMelech. Tefillah of Shlomo HaMelech. Shavu eilecha kol levavam, lechem alef, perek ches. Pasuk mem-ches: Veshavu eilecha bechol levavam uvechol nafsham, be'eretz oyveihem asher shavu, v'hispallu eilecha derech artzam asher nasata la'avosam, ha'ir asher bacharta, vehabayis asher baniti lishmecha. Muler, Ribono Shel Olam, tefilosam v'es techinosam, v'asisa mishpatam. Vesalachta la'amcha asher chatu lach, ulechol pish'eihem asher pash'u bach, venatatam l'rachamim lifnei שוביהם v'rachamum. Ki amcha v'nachalascha heim, asher hotzeisa miMitzrayim, mitoch kur habarzel. Lihyos einecha p'suchos el techinas avdecha. The Ribono Shel Olam should listen to our tefillos, and the Ribono Shel Olam should see how much ratzon we have to want to go to shul and to want to daven. Metabolit, like a karban, kasher, u'kreichim. We should be zoche that the Ribono Shel Olam chavik matrega ad yaavor zam, it should pass quickly, and we should all be zoche to be well. It's Hashem, Klal Yisrael should come back to the matzav, and it should be, im yirtzeh Hashem, a complete speedy yeshuah. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.