Selichos: The Value of Vidui Even Without Teshuva - The Astounding Teaching of the Yad Ketana

Okay, welcome. Welcome again to the national Monday afternoon. As we were mentioning, um the upcoming safar on the Benl is going to publication. If anybody wants to be mish there's special associated with it. Namely, the author says that he will be misfad and grant them. We have an amazing share today on the topic of and the value of the of mentioned already started the going. However, Ashkanazim uh in general begin the Sunday before rashashana provided there's a minimum of 4 days of before rashashana. There is a custom in many there is a custom in many that they begin which is uh the first day of creation. So we're going to analyze one particular area of namely voy consists primarily of two components. Number one, asking for mercy which is primarily accomplished in the mid we know there's the says brisg there is a covenant sealed with the 13 that they will not be reverted empty-handed. However, the second component of is voy is voy and the question is what exactly is the role of voy in the ra and the ra identifies for us what exactly is voy the ram says vidi is basically taking place at the end of chuva the the lion of the ram is you say you relate the various sins that one may have committed I did X Y and Z I regret it. So interestingly the Rambam holds as part of Vidoi is karat. In fact the source of the Rambam that karat is part of Vidi at the end of eth of Yuma that as the points out that part of Vido is then the Ram says and I'm ashamed of my actions. So is part of Voy. and I'm never going to return. I'm never going to retract and do this again. So that means part of which really means that is a culmination of the process of chuva. It's not like you just jump into it and say, "Oh, I did this and this and this." You know, uh that's good. It's good that you're admitting to it, but uh Hashem knows you did it already. So what exactly is voy? The Ram says vidoy is where you express your regret. You express your kabala never to do it again and you express your bes your embarrassment. So the question then is if vidi is not just lip service it's a real understanding and recognition of what one did wrong in a very profound way where one experiences shame and regret then by the way the garantus says that before you do vidoy you need to do the ram says himself that if you do vidoy and you don't accept to stop doing it. It's so obviously first you have to throw away the you have to cast it away which means think carefully voy is going to the mikvah and stopping to sin is throwing away the shats. In that case, why would we start saying vidoy in the beginning of when we haven't even began the chuva process? Voy if anything is the culmination of the cha process. But yet right in the beginning of the vidoy right in the beginning of of the shuva process we immedi says This matter is very close to you. Of course, Ramban says it's referring to the midst of cha and it's in your heart. Do it asks inf1 that this is out of order. What do you mean? It's in your mouth, in your heart. As mentioned, first you have to do it in your heart. You have to regret. You have to you have to show shame. You have to accept not to do it again. And only then it's in your mouth. So it should be it's out of order. It's out of order. So Cutler, he brings a very important idea. This is cited in page. He brings a very important idea and that is you tell somebody you know you need to do chuva. For instance, I need to do chuva. No, not me. You got the wrong guy. She needs to do chuva and her uncle needs to do chuva and barl needs to do chuva and I have a list of a lot of people who need to do chuva but I'm not on that list because you see chuva is only from people and I don't sin as it says in all of the way the ways of man are pure in their eyes meaning everybody thinks they're on the right path or the famous saying from George Bernard when it comes to selfdeception every man is a genius everybody knows what other people need to do but everybody thinks that they're on the right path however it's amazing color points out in par where it's talking about the mitzvah of chuva it says that this mitzvah that is far in your eyes is distant in your eyes. It is not that this mitzvah that is that is um that this mitzvah that I command you today is not distant from you. It's not far from you but it's very close to you. So it's very interesting that it says in the context of this mitzvah you'll return it to your heart and then after it says after it says it says interesting so what's vapa says says means as follows. You need to look at your inner component, your inner consciousness and contemplate it in your heart that together to be able to discern and differentiate truth from falsehood. And when you really think about the inner workings of your heart, With this you will recognize how distant you are from. You will recognize you are Hashem. Could you hear me? Is the sound good. You will you will recognize how distant you are from Hashem. And then you will repent. You will return to Hashem. In other words, like this. In order for a person to do chuva, they have to come to the following recognition. They have to come to the recognition that they are very very far from Hashem. So far that there's nothing that they do that is adequate in the eyes of Hashem. In order for a person to do chuva, they have to come to the recognition that they are very distant from. how distant that from al to tough they could be doing a lot better because you know a person might think yeah I'm a I'm a good observant Jew I do everything I need to do I dive in I learn but then upon further analysis they recognize well wait a second from the time I get up in the morning am I getting up properly am I saying brah properly am I saying brahas with Kavana? Am I medactic in hala? Am I saying the davining with kavana? Am I utilizing my time? Or am I spending most of my day scrolling on a phone? All of these things without contemplation, a person will fool themselves that they're basically okay. And if a person thinks they're basically okay, whatever level you're on, you are distant from chuva. The first step of chuva, the first step of chuva is to recognize that are not okay. But until a person comes to that recognition, they are liable to fall in the trap of therefore the first step is You need to contemplate your inner self and come to the realization as this says how far you are from Hashem. You know, one of the things we're going to say in is we say our sins are greater than the hair on our head. So depending how much hair you have, but even all kidding aside, the statement is supposed to bring a person to the realization that nothing in their repertoire is the way it's supposed to be. Therefore says of Aaron Cutler, of course real vidi is the culmination of chuva. But in preparation for chuva, one has to come to the recognition of asham we're guilty we're treacherous knew we're dishonest. These are not actually labing labeling specific sins. They're general categories that we make this declaration not as a culmination of chuva but as a a preface to chuva as an introductory status of chuva. In order to do chuva you need to feel ashamu. So even though yes shuva real vidi includes busha includes includes but the vidi that we're referring to in the is a voy where we're we're acknowledging and we're articulating as the says okay that's one element of the voy of by the way if I'm I'm going to I'm going to just share with you a very short tangent on what the role of vid is in general from the from I believe the nth difficulties. The vid, the recitation of vido is a recitation where a person accepts upon themsself theim the s with the request that Hashem downgrade them to easyim with that don't cause even though the garra says only shall do not cause even other kinds of if a person is Please cleanse my sins in an easy way. You know, instead of something serious, a little traffic, you know, instead of something more serious, instead of something more severe, something of minor discomfort that goes away. What veto is is a recognition that of contrusess that a person really maybe deserves something of more significance and it's a request of mercy that a person is willing to accept uh some kind of cleansing process but with a request that it be done in a in a very easy way in a in a in a easy way. So that's how the Ramak understands the the the role of vidoy in the chuva process. But I want to share with you the amazing approach of the yadakana. Yanakana is one of the he said something very hopeful and something that should give a person a certain amount of in the cha process. He says there are people who are so immersed in sin and so sunk in sin they can't come out or at least they don't think they could come out. So how are they supposed to do chuba? What are they supposed to do? Oh, Hashem, I regret sinning. I'll never do it again. They know. Hashem knows they're going to do it again so fast. They almost it's become habitual. So what what are what are they supposed to do? Should they just forget about Yamiper and forget about Chua? Why bother if they're so immersed in sin? So theakana says Hashem so much has open arms to the baluva and wants that nobody should be cast away. Hashem gave us a great mitzvah. The great mitzvah is vidoy. Even if somebody doesn't have the wherewithal and the emotional energy to throw away their sin and to really make significant inroads in certain areas where they have shortcomings, but it may be difficult not to sin, but it's not difficult to articulate that you would like not to sin. So if you it might be difficult to overcome and to bend the sahara not to do the but it's not difficult to articulate that you would like to overcome the yahara even if you really don't know how you're going to do that by articulating hashem I've sinned against you egregiously I don't have the capacity to break my heart of stone I'm almost annoying by now but you know in my heart of hearts that I feel that I'm guilty that is a significant step that is called not it's chuvas that's not the rat of the heart but it's the rats of the mouth what is this analogous to say we know there's a famous concept in the laws of divorce that if somebody's supposed to divorce their wife they're obligated to divorce their wife so and they don't want to do it. There's a concept of we could force them. We force them until we beat them over the head we beat them over the head and we we force him and he says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to I want to." No kidding. He wants to because he just had his head, you know, beaten with a bat. So he's we say, "No, you don't want to." He says, "Yeah, yeah, I really the I really want to. I really want to." And this is idea. Now, this doesn't apply to other things. Let's say if somebody sells something or buys something and they're coerced to sell or buy, it's invalid. It has no standing. But if somebody is forced to do something that they're commanded to do from the Tyra, namely namely a mitzvah, even though they don't want to do it, we're forcing them to do it. The only reason we're doing it, he's doing it, is because we beat the living daylights out of it. It stands. It has validity. Namely, Namely that deep down a Jew wants to do the right thing. The only thing is the gets in the way. So when we beat him and we weaken the his statement of I want to I want to is he's really articulating what he really wants to do. He's really articulating that it is his desire to do the right thing. So this is the concept of in this vein in this regard is the concept of says the rabbar says and he says listen carefully the say and he plans on doing the it's like he's going to the mikvah and he's still hanging on to the rat. The thing is, if he's going to want purity, he's going to have to throw away the rat. Ask the well if is the mikvah and throwing away the aa is the throwing away the sherets, then how could you say the guy was to think about it. If he's still so immersed in his aa and he's doing the aa repeatedly and he has no regret and he has no bua. So then that's not voy. So why would you say this guy went into the mikvah holding on to the rat? He never went into the mikvah if he's not embarrassed and he's not ashamed and he has no regrets. He never went into the mikvah. But the answer is no. he did go into the mikvah because even though he's still sinning and maybe he doesn't regret it but deep down there's a certain awareness that he's guilty and he's doing the wrong thing and he's on the wrong path. Though as insincere as this chuba may be, his declaration of vidi still has great value, it's still considered a immersion in the mikvah. And therefore the yanakana says this really highlights the value of vidi and we're going to be saying vid many many times. Sometimes in we'll be saying it three times says you know I don't know I guess we don't have as many things to say vid for or something but whenever you have the opportunity to say vido recognize that it's not just the culmination of chuva as raarin color said it's the pre the preface of chuva introduction to chuva namely it's the recognition that your ways are not correct, that you are very distant from Hashem. As the Raak says, Vidy is an acceptance of with the request that it should be easy without Torah. And number three, the adakana says vidoy actually has great value even if even not as the culmination of chuva even as just a way of showing and articulating that your real rat is that you would like to return to hashem. Well with this with some of these ideas this brings us to another uh insight of motion. We know we have to have a a minimum of four days of right so that if rashana is on a Monday night as it is this year we don't start the mat shabas before we start this coming shabas you have to have a minimum of four days why a minimum of four days says because by all should offer and on rash it says You should make that. In other words, you should make yourself a carbon and therefore you need four days to check the carbon which is you from four days of fasting you where you fast and you search your ways in sin. So it's interesting that the the period is a period of investigating and searching yourself from imperfections. But exactly how are you searching yourself? What is theorim? What is this process that you're investigating yourself? If you have any mment says well by fasting for four days. By the way, one of the reasons there are people who fast during is to make up for the four fast days of but the when by the way you know why are tough it's a tough time of the year and pay you need a lot of coffee that's how you remember that are in tough cuff Do you say that sounds a little bit humorous? Well, I once heard from that. That's how you remember that. So I remember anyway when the brings us down the says that are a minimum of four days because we find by carbon that they need to be investigated for four days before they're brought by all the in it says the rash it says that you have to be m self. So the question is how how are we investigating ourselves? What is the process of mim? What is this por what is this investigation? I understand the way the rabb says it we're fasting but the doesn't even bring down that we're fasting. So says on page and then through that the process of mim he quotes and the missionar that the Indian of vidoy as as we said before is not only serving as the culmination of chuva after we've come to a level of pusha and karata and aziva but it's also a statement of how far we are from Hashem that by saying the vid it's a recognition of how far we are from Hashem as says that from to we're declaring how far we are from Hashem this vidi is part of the idea that is a por We're investigating ourselves from the various m from the various imperfections we're trying to inspire ourselves and really and it's better said awaken oursel from the slumber of that this world casts on us that makes us think that we're pretty good. If somebody thinks they're pretty good, they might as well skip to to they might as well go to straight to If somebody thinks they're basically good, they could go to right now until a person feels a in order to start the process of you need to think how far you are from he says is coming close to Hashem from being distant from sin. So the mish doesn't bring down that it's tinus that is theor and therefore says the mim is the procedure the daily procedure of vidi that we begin with and hashem we should be able to accomplish this first step of the vidi which is recognizing how distant we are we should be able to accomplish that whatever we need to for our sins to be cleansed should do it with great and great. By the way, learning is a is a protection from is a protection from is a protection from. So we also as the uh teaches even an empty vidy even a vidy without has great value it's still like a it's still a statement of the of what your is even if you're not even able to throw away the sin it still has value. Okay. So these are some of the thoughts and the benefits of the vidoy and the and this is also accomplishes the four days of but most importantly we begin shabas because in order to do cha you have to have and shabas which we usually learn tyra it gives us the sima to be able to begin the process. of I wish everyone a wonderful day and we will be the have a good day everyone. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thank you. And should we should have all >> Amen.