Welcome back to our special series on humility for Shovavim. The Rambam, in the laws of Teshuva, when delineating what one needs to do for Teshuva (Shovavim is all about doing Teshuva) lists the following criteria:
1- צועק תמיד לפני השם בבכי ובתחנונים He cries out constantly to God with tears and with with crying and with supplication.
So the first thing is prayer. He's a Baal Teshuva so of course, he repented and regretted and did what he had to do. Teshuva is always about really reconnecting and restarting. So you have to cry out to Hashem. It's about the relationship.
2 ועושה צדקה כפי כחו Give charity according to your ability, whatever your ability is. Charity is also a way of atoning for sin.
3-ומתרחק הרבה מן הדבר שחטא בו אני Stay far, far away from your sin. That means you have to make fences. If you stumbled on eating something that's not kosher, don't even walk into the airport concession or get near anything on kosher. Stay far away.
3- ומשנה שמו change your name
The Gemara talks about changing names. The Rambam says It's not some mystical power. Rather, it means to say
אני אחר ואיני אותו האיש שעשה אותן המעשים I'm somebody else. I'm not the same person. And with that, I changed my deeds. I'm a whole new person. I used to be Jose and now I'm Yosef. I changed.
4- The final cherry on top,
וגולה ממקומו He exiles himself.
Why? שגלות מכפרת עון מפני שגורמת לו להכנע ולהיות עניו ושפל רוח:Exile atones for sins because it causes humility, enabling one to be a humble and lowly spirit.
Avraham Menachem Danziger (the Alexander Rebi from from 1973 to 2005), in his sefer Divrei Menachem on Parashat Netzavim says we see from here that the main point of Teshuva is humility. That's the cherry on top. And he quotes Rabbenu Yona in Shaare Teshuva (first gate 23rd letter) that says אשר ההכנעה מעיקרי התשובהHumility is one of the fundamentals of Teshuva, as it says in Tehilim 90:3,
תשב אנוש עד דכא, /A man should return until he is crushed.
Crushed means he's humble. And that humility is what gives the added energy to Teshuva. That's why it's the last thing on Rambam's list. It's the final aspect.
But how does it work? The Imrei Menachem says something fascinating that he bases on the Magid of Mezerich (sefer Yosher Divrei Emet letter 13) But first we need some background- The Gemara in Masechet Temurah 31A discusses the Halachic concept that anything that comes out of an unkosher animal is unkosher. For example, camels are unkosher, so camel milk is unkosher. Furthermore, if a cow which is a kosher species has a hole in his lung, rendering it unkosher, the milk from that cow is also forbidden. In fact, the only reason we can drink cow's milk without taking sonograms first is that the majority of cows are kosher and therefore we can assume the milk that comes out of the cow is kosher.
To complicate matters, an egg that comes out of an ostrich is unkosher, but an that egg comes out of a chicken that had a hole in its lung is permissible. Why? The answer is that in order to become the chicken, It first has to rot and decompose, and that at that stage it becomes like dust. And anytime you have a new creation, a new being, the previous creation has to cease to exist. It has to go from something into nothing and then from nothing back into something- yesh to eyin and back to yesh. The middle stage is nothingness. And he says that's how Teshuva works. When you humble yourself, you become like nothing, you don't exist. And then you're ready for the rebirth. So in actuality, the Rambam's last two points, of changing your name and going into exile are not two separate things. It means I'm reborn, I'm a new person. And the way to be reborn is through humbling yourself.
(If anyone is now wondering why we can't eat an ostrich if it came from the ostrich egg and the ostrich egg decomposed, the answer is because it's an ostrich - it's not about where it came from. The chicken egg in question is a chicken, but it came from an unkosher chicken- which had a hole in its lung, so we don't have the problem of where it came from, because it decomposed and recomposed in the middle.)
This is an extremely important concept. It's how Teshuva works, and Hashem, in His love for us, built this into the system.
Let's take a look at Rosh Hoshana, when we blow the shofar. Why is the shofar bent? The Gemara in Rosh Hashana says it symbolizes humility. We have to humble ourselves. What does Hashem say when we blow the shofar? "It reminds Me of Akedat Yitzhak and I view it as if you yourself sacrificed yourself like Yitzhak was ready to sacrifice himself."
What does it mean to sacrifice yourself? It means I'm nothing. I annul myself totally.
The ultimate annulment is being ready to sacrifice yourself, like Yitzhak Avinu did. But Hashem doesn't want that from us. He doesn't want us to die. The famous Or HaChaim HaKadosh, at the end of Parashat Vayera, says that Yitzhak Avinu wasn't supposed to have children. But when the knife came to his throat, his previous soul left and a new soul came down and he was able to have children, based on the new soul. That's why right then and there, it mentions that Rivka was born. Yitzhak 1.0 didn't have a match because he wasn't going to have children. But Yitzhak 2.0 was ready for Rivka.
That's what happens every year on Rosh Hashanah. We are reborn. That's why Teshuva is compared to Techiat Hametim. Just like Yitzhak Avinu's soul left and came back, as a Techiat Hametim of sorts, so too, we have the ability to totally renew ourselves. And with that comes a whole new life.
That's why sometimes when things are going wrong, they say, let's change his name. There is a mystical force to changing the name, but the Rambam's understanding is that it's not mystical. You became a new person and therefore all the problems were the old you. We just created a new you and the new you was created through humility. Fascinating.
In the words of the Imrei Menachem, ונעשה איש אחר ואינו אותו האיש שחטא כלל:He is a different person.
So yes, there was a decree on Reuven, but you're not Reuven anymore. You became a new person, born again and rejuvenated.
And that happens with humility הכנעה it's a fascinating concept.
On Rosh Hashanah, the ultimate thing we do in the pesukim of Hashem becoming King is that we say Shema Yisrael Hashem Echad, which means Kabalat Ohl Malchut Shamayim. We accept Hashem's Kingdom.
Rav Chaim Pilaggi, in his sefer Kaf HaChaim (siman ידletter 38) says something almost beyond belief. He says, we all know that the main point of Keriat Shema is Mesirut Nefesh- bechol nafshecha-with all your life- Rabbi Akiva waited for that chance all his life. That's the main kavanah. You say Keriat Shema, I'm ready to give up my life Al kiddush Hashem and it's considered like it happened. He says that when a person is Moser Nefesh, that fixes every part of his body! Every one of his limbs now become holy because he was ready to give himself up and he's reborn and recreated. And he says that's why Keriat Shema has in it 248 letters- for the 248 limbs. Because literally, you are fixing your 248 limbs with your Keriat Shema! Wonder of wonders! 18 times, Hashem's name is mentioned, corresponding to the 18 parts of your spinal cord. This is the power of humility- when a person humbles himself, because hat's what Kabalat Ohl Malchut Shamayim is. Accepting the yoke of God.
A yoke means the load is put it on your neck and you're going to pull it. Accepting the yoke of God's kingdom- that's Hachnaah. That's humility.
It's interesting in the Gemara in Masechet Moed Katan page 16 describes David Hamelech as Neum HaGever Hu Kam
Ohl, he was the one that set up the yoke -of teshuva. The Chatam Sofer on tehilim 144:9 says Teshuva is ate just Hametim So David Hamelech , although he might have killed people, he brought back so many people to life by setting up Teshuva. And he's called the man that set up the yoke because teshuva is all about a yoke. It's about humility.