1) Rambam, first halacha in perek 7 of Hil Teshuvah:
הואיל ורשות כל אדם נתונה לו כמו שבארנו ישתדל אדם לעשות תשובה ולהתודות בפיו מחטאיו ולנעור כפיו מחטאיו כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה ויזכה לחיי העולם הבא
Had you asked me I would have said that a person should do teshuvah to rid himself of aveiros so that he can live a righteous, fulfilled life. But that's not what the Rambam says. He puts the focus on death -- כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה. Rambam could have eliminated that phrase entirely and simply said to do teshuvah ויזכה לחיי העולם הבא. Why the particular stress on dying as a baal teshuvah?
2) R' Ovadya Yosef holds that if a person or tzibur cannot say slichos in the morning, they can be said before mincha. He was asked why in that case the slichos should be said first -- tadir v'she'aino tadir tadir kodem, so mincha should be recited first.
Whatever the answer is, the question should not apply only to mincha. Unless you are saying slichos b'ashmores ha'boker (as the Rambam says to), then when you come to shul for shacharis at 6:30 or 7:00 or whenever, you have a tadir chiyuv of shacharis that should take precedence over slichos.
(The Shaagas Aryeh already is mechadesh that you only apply the rule of tadir when comparing apples to apples, i.e. two mitzvos d'oraysa or two mitzvos derabbanan, but when you are comparing something like a minhag with a real chiyuv, then the rule does not apply and, counterintuitively, the minhag can come first. Whether this Shg"A is correct is a debate and a discussion for a different post.)
"1) ...Why the particular stress on dying as a baal teshuvah?"
ReplyDeletethe place where the baal teshuvah alone may stand ("perek 7", #4), is in olam habah! while the completely righteous sit forever*, the one who broke ranks with them [sinned] in this world, but by the time of his death regroups, gets to break ranks in the world to come: he gets to >stand< and stretch!
*with crowns on their heads, basking etc.
I once listened to a shiur by Rav Mayer Twersky on yutorah where he brought up this halacha and compared it to the first halacha in perek yud of hilchos teshuva where the rambam says that one should not do mitzvos in order to get olam haba. If I rememember correctly he explained that there are 2 reasons that one could desire olam haba. One could desire olam haba for the hana'a, or one could desire olam haba because that is the way that one can get closest to Hashem. If one is doing it for hana'a, then it is not fitting to do mitzvos for olam haba, but if one does mitzvos in order to achieve olam haba as the highest level of d'veikus then it is the proper way to serve hashem, and that is the main goal of his teshuva. This is similar to what the rambam explains about why we should desire mashiach: not because we will have a care-free life, but because we will be able to devote our entire lives to avodas hashem. I don't remember all the details of the shiur or any mekoros so this might not be exactly what he said but I think it is at least similar.
ReplyDeleteAll well and good, but, like I wrote, then the Rambam could have just said ויזכה לחיי העולם הבא
DeleteWhy does he add כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה?
The mishna in avos 2:10 seems to say the same thing: shuv yom echad lifnei misascha. See rambam, rabbeinu yonah, bartenura. Can you also ask the same question on the mishna?
ReplyDeleteThe Mishna is talking about when to do teshuvah, not why to do teshuvah. The Rambam is addressing why.
DeleteWhy does the mishna say that the time is the day before your death, and we have to say since you don't know your day of death you have to do teshuva every day. It should have said "a person should do teshuvah to rid himself of aveiros so that he can live a righteous, fulfilled life." That would be a much easier formulation of the zman to do teshuva, especially if that is the ikkar reason to do teshuva?
DeleteMaybe the rambam said keday sheyamus vihu ba'al teshuva in order to stress on how high of a level he will be in olam haba like alonzo said. And this is not shelo lishma as rav twersky explained that one of our main goals is to achieve d'veikus in olam haba. Does that work?
ReplyDelete"...like alonzo said"
Delete'let it Snow, let it Snow, let it Snow...' [Argyle lives!]
see chovos halevavos sha'ar habitachon near the end of perek hey paragraph vihahevdel hashvi'i. I think it might help clarify the mishna and the rambam
ReplyDelete