Now, as golden as it is, as valuable as it can be for a person who makes use of that path to teshuvah, the Chovos Halevavos says that there is still yet a better way, a higher level of teshuvah. Because better is when someone else goes to the dentist! You hear that? That’s what the Chovos Halevavos says. Why should your teeth have to suffer in order to wake you up to teshuvah if you can learn the lesson from somebody else’s teeth?
So you’re walking down the avenue and you see someone going into the dentist office. And you know what’s in store for that poor fellow. He’ll be sitting in the waiting room imagining all types of things and then he’ll finally go in and the dentist is looking at his teeth deciding how many teeth he should drill today and how many he should leave for the next appointment.
So instead of passing it by and ignoring the message, you stop for a moment on the avenue and you’re thinking, “Look at how he is suffering. I had better do teshuvah before it comes to me. Because don’t I also open my mouth when I shouldn’t? Or maybe sometimes I keep it closed when I should open it more? Shouldn’t I be opening my mouth to learn more Gemara or to encourage my children or to praise my wife’s cooking more often?”
That’s a better way of teshuvah, the Chovos Halevavos says. When misfortune comes upon you so surely you must get busy thinking about doing teshuvah. But there’s a safer way, and that’s before misfortune comes to you. When you see yissurim coming on somebody else and you’re willing to take the hint even then, that’s the wise person – the one who can learn those same lessons without any suffering.
The Wise Fool
Now, concerning this there’s a statement in Mishlei (19:25) םƒר¿עַי יƒ ̇∆פּו ה∆ּכַּ ̇ ı≈ל – you smite the leitz and the fool becomes cunning. There are two categories here, one is a leitz and one is a pesi. The leitz is the kind that refuses to take hints; he chuckles at such an idea that a stranger going into the dentist’s office should be an incentive to teshuvah. And because such things don’t make any impression on him, the only way of piercing his shell is when suffering is inflicted upon him.
For that type of person, יםƒטָפ¿ׁ ̆ יםƒˆ≈ּלַלּנוֹכוָנ – blows are prepared for the leitz (ibid 19:29). Like the Mesilas Yesharim (ch. 5) says, “That’s one thing he won’t laugh off.” And so when he himself is sitting in the dentist chair or maybe he’s lying on the operating table and he’s about to inhale, perhaps then maybe some thought of repentance might enter his mind there.
That’s the leitz; ה∆ּכַּ ̇ ı≈ל – the scoffer has to get hit over the head sooner or later. But םƒר¿עַי יƒ ̇∆פּו – the pesi wisens up. A pesi is someone who is mispateh b’yitzro; he’s being persuaded by the yetzer hora. That’s us! And if we’re looking for a good way to do teshuvah, then םƒר¿עַי – we are supposed to become wise from this object lesson of the troubles that come to others.
Cause of Misfortune
Now this is so important and at the same time so underutilized that I must dwell on it for a few minutes. The Gemara says in Yevamos (63a) ין≈‡ ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי ילƒב¿ׁ ̆ƒּב ‡ָּל∆‡ םָלֹעוָל הָ‡ָּב ּ̇נוָﬠ¿רֻּפ that any misfortunes that come upon the world are sent only because of the Am Yisroel.
Now, if you’re a humble fellow it may be too much for you to swallow that you’re important enough that the Congolies should kill themselves over you. Or that the brown ones in Indonesia should slaughter themselves for your sake. So stop being humble and begin to realize the place of our people in this world.
The whole world is the backdrop, is scenery for the Am Yisroel. Whether you can accept this idea easily or not, it makes no difference; that’s the Torah. Torah tells us that whenever misfortunes are visited upon the nations of the world, it’s for the sake of our becoming wiser. And Rashi says םָ‡¿רַי¿ל – to make the Am Yisroel afraid, ּרו¿ז¿חַּי∆ׁ ̆ י≈„¿ּכ הָבּוׁ ̆¿ ̇ƒּב – so that they should do teshuvah.
Messages from Asia
And so when we read that in India the Ganges River overflowed and many were drowned, and many were rendered homeless and now epidemics and starvation are widespread; it shouldn’t be merely a remote and meaningless news item to us. Because then we are not viewing the world through the Torah eyes.
The Torah says that we’re expected to understand that that’s a message for us. Chas v’shalom, it could have happened here! You know what it means to be in a neighborhood of flood and famine and epidemics? It’s an experience that shakes a man. That’s ה∆ּכַּ ̇ ı≈ל. It’s a warning for us. Do teshuvah! That’s the purpose.
If you’re sitting home and eating breakfast and as your wife turns on the radio to hear what the weather will be today, you hear the latest about a famine somewhere in Tibet, you must understand that this is staged for your edification. Again, ין≈‡ םָלֹעוָל הָ‡ָּב ּ̇נוָﬠ¿רֻּפ – no misfortune comes upon the world, ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי ילƒב¿ׁ ̆ƒּב ‡ָּל∆‡ – that is not intended for you. It’s for that purpose that you should hear of it and utilize it and become better.
How are your Knees?
And of course, the closer it is to home, the more you’re responsible to take the lesson. So if you’re walking on the street and you see a Puerto Rican with one leg and he’s hopping on crutches – one leg is cut off right above the knee – we must understand this as a vision from Above. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is speaking to us. It’s ה∆ּכַּ ̇ ı≈ל, but it’s יƒ ̇∆פּו םƒר¿עַי. He’s the one who got it in the knee, but you have to wisen up. That sight is supposed to be a kick in the pants for you: wake up! And if as a result of this encounter you are none the wiser, then you lost the opportunity.
Now, what does it mean wiser, that’s not our subject now. It could be many things. Are you using your legs to get to shul on time? Maybe you’re using them for worse things. And even before that, did you thank Hashem today for your knees, how they’ve been bending back and forth all day without any friction or creaking? And even if you have some creaking, some arthritis, at least you have a knee unlike this poor fellow.
Disrespectful Neighbors
I learned this lesson from my rebbeim in Europe – they said it much better than I am, and I listened to them. And so when I came back to America I remembered what they said and I studied the people on my block.
Now these people, every single one is a chacham. They see a man with a beard and he’s wearing rabbinic garb too, so they know that he’s an ignoramus. That’s me, you understand. Now these people, you should know, never read a hard-covered book in their lives. But every one of them knows that he is far superior to me in education.
One of them sometimes condescends and he comes over with a ‘Forward’ in order to explain to me the news of the day. And he explains it to me like you talk to a peasant. He won’t listen to me when I ask him to come to the shul, to the shiur, but he comes to teach me about the world. So these poor blind fellows, when suffering comes upon them, because they’re so ignorant of Torah teachings so they don’t know what it means, what to do with it.
Ignoring the Rabbi
Once next door to me, there lived a young man, a mechallel Shabbos; but he was on the top of the world. He had a big business and things were going very well with him. He had an elderly father who tried at one time to prevent his son from breaking with the Shabbos, but the son said, “This is America, Papa. You’re from Europe.” He knew better and he saw he was succeeding. For some years, things were going very well and he was convinced that this was the right way. “You see, it’s succeeding.”
A dapper young fellow running off every Shabbos morning; no such thing as Shabbos, no such thing as Judaism. He gets in his car and he drives off to work and play. The rabbi is watching from his window but he doesn’t even care to be ashamed. He’s smoking a cigar; he looks up at me and gives a puff and jumps into his car. He’s off to good times; everything is hefker.
Ignoring Retribution
One summer night – his window was just across the driveway from my window; the windows were open one summer night – in the middle of the night, we were awakened by a terrible groaning. He began to groan from a great pain in his spine, a sudden pain. But this poor fellow, the leitz takeh, had no preparation. He never heard of these teachings, that you have to utilize the opportunity to get better and therefore in his blind suffering he didn’t budge.
So he got up Shabbos morning with pain in his spine and he went off to his business. But not for long; he had to come back the same day. Not long afterwards his father told me that he was in the hospital with cancer in the spine.
One day they bring him home. And thenceforth, he never goes to work anymore. He sits on his porch and saliva drools down from his lips. He had a stroke and he’s incapacitated for years. He has to have a Negro woman to help him get up and go to the bathroom. He’s a wreck of a man.
But the poor fellow, just as he didn’t have any sense before to understand and to have any incentive to get better, he now also doesn’t. It’s like beating a piece of wood. The wood doesn’t get better; it just crumbles.
All for Us
So the question is: Why are they being beaten if they’re not going to get better; and they don’t know how to get better?
The answer is: It’s to make this fellow Miller better. That’s the purpose. ה∆ּכַּ ̇ ı≈ל – They’re being smitten. םƒר¿עַי יƒ ̇∆פּו – And the pesi gets wise. Now, I can’t say I got wise but at least you see I’m bringing the example of the lesson here before this audience. There’s some benefit. The purpose was for us to get better. That’s what we’re doing tonight. His life
