The mishna in Pirkei avos perek 6 says "every day a bas kol goes out and says woe unto people from the embarrassment of the Torah"
The Besht asks what is the purpose of this Bas Kol, as no one hears it? The Nesivos Shalom gives a practical and profound answer. He says that, in fact we do hear the BK if we are paying attention. The Bas Kol is in the messages Hashem personally sends us every day through the events that happen to us (or thoughts that occur to us). They are messages directly from Hashem to change and move closer to Him and His Torah. I have decided to record things that have come up in my day and the lessons I have taken from them. Perhaps they will be a chizuk to me, and maybe even others someday.

Here goes one. Every morning we say the bracha, shelo usani oved. Thank you Hashem so much for not making me a slave. In todays day and age, (at least in the US) this blessing seems so removed from our life. However, in reality the opposite is true. "A free person is only one toils in Torah", our generation is a slave to its desires. Everyone is running around chasing fleeting pleasures, and as available as those pleasures are, it still isnt enough... People are depressed, anxious, and no one feels good and wholesome. Thank you Hashem for leading me on the path to truly being free.

Every day we say in retzei, and return your avoda and the fires of Israel and their tefillos be mekabel with ratzon. There is a machlokes acharonim whether vishay yisrael is going on return your avoda and the fires (meaning korbanos) or on be mekabel ishay yisroel beratzon. According to the second pshat what are these fires that we want Hashem to be mekabel. Perhaps these are the fires of our desires we vanquish for Hashem. We ask that our hard work should find favor in His eyes even if we are not perfect and go flying up to heaven like our tefilos and korbanos. Just a thought.

The Rambam holds that Moshiach will not come without Tshuva. If thats the case how can we say ani maamin in the coming of moshiach if we may not do Tshuva? The Rambam himself holds one who does not believe in this is an apikores. It must be that we are obligated to believe in ourselves! We must believe that we can and will do Tshuva, it is our destiny! Not believing in oneself is counter to the very core values of Yiddeshkeit.

bright wrote on 13 Aug 2023 16:36:

I don't know where or if he says that.

My apologies - he does say that.

Thanks for reading, this is the opinion of rebbi eliezer on sanhedrin 97b, this seems to be the source of the Rambam hilchos tshuva 7:5. When I heard this vort I thought it is possible he is refering to tshuva with a melech kashe that r yehoshua is referring to, but that still doesnt take away the vort because even such tshuva needs bechira otherwise it wouldnt be much of a tshuva but that is a longer discussion.

bright wrote on 13 Aug 2023 17:46:

Yes, it's not in מלכים, but in תשובה, like you wrote, - my apologies. There are many explanations in that גמ where ר יהושע argued with him to the point where ר אליעזר kept quiet. דרשות הרן מהרשא מהרל ועוד. Thank you

Matir assurim, wow thank you Hashem 180 days. You were there for me the whole time!

Special thanks to Ki Sorisa for all his help. I feel like I got an amazing chavrusa! 

Ki satzei lamilchama (last weeks)... The Ohr Hachaim explains that its going on the milchemes hayetzer. You will start fighting and you will be terrified. "dont be afraid, hashem is with you, who took you out of mitzrayim". You were then on the lowest levels of tumah and Hashem was with you. Nothing changed, you are not allowed to fear the Yetzer Hora because Hashem IS with you regardless of what you may have done! 
Interestingly, Rabbeinu Yona starts off Sharei Tshuva saying that even if a person cant do tshuva bderech hateva, Hashem will take him the whole way (if he starts it).

The famous question is asked, what is the difference between a ben sorrer umorrer who gets judged based on his end and yishmael who was judged based on were he was. The Mizrachi answers that then ben SM is already on a path of destruction and is therefore judged on the logical outcome of that path even if in the distant future. Yishmael was not on that path. R Dovid Krohnglass learns  from here that certainly when one is on a good path Hashem judges him based on the logical outcome of good. Us on this website (certainly the ones putting in the F2F work and posting) are very likely to be considered "on the path to good". May we merit that Hashem judge us based on that outcome of good and complete Tshuva and freedom!

The nesivos shalom in his intro to tshuva explains that the koach of tshuva is to make oneself like a briah chadasha. We are not "that" person. This would appear to answer R elchonons kasha from toe al horishonos...

The nesivos shalom in his intro to tshuva explains that the koach of tshuva is to make oneself like a briah chadasha. We are not "that" person. This would appear to answer R elchonons kasha from toe al horishonos...This is in the Tefilla in Rabbeinu Yona's Yesod HaTeshuva, too. 



Interestingly, I haven't found it as clearly in Shaarei Teshuva. He speaks about Tehsuva working above and beyond the forces of nature, but not the idea that one isn't the person he was yesterday at all.



Perhaps there are two forms of Teshuva - the painstaking, step by step "build back better" process described in Shaarei Teshuva. And the one-time "jump off the roof" process that he is describing in Yesod HaTeshuva.



I always read Yesod Hateshuva before Ne'ila.

....It's my life. It's now or never...

chaimoigen wrote on 31 Aug 2023 13:09:

Maybe the answer would be as יחזקאל הנביא says ״ונתתי לכם לב חדש ורוח חדשה אתן בקרבכם״ (I think it’s the Haftorah of Shabbos Parah) that after we do the hard work and change our tevah, Hashem will give him a “New heart and spirit”, but the new being is not the natural outcome, it is not the product of our work, rather Hashem will give it to us as a gift because we did the required work.

( I would also explain based on the discrepancy between the אלוקים עשה את האדם ישר and ״ועיר פרא אדם יולד״. That we take a piece of ourselves and create our entire self in that negative light, however Hashem only created a part of us like that, we corrupted it. The trick is to put back into place, the negative where it belongs and the positive be the ruling power, which will naturally be “a new person” and yet will also be beyond the forces of nature.)

This is in the Tefilla in Rabbeinu Yona's Yesod HaTeshuva, too. 
The Nesivos shalom brings the R yonah as a proof to this concept. IMHO its hard to bring a proof from there as R yona appears to be speaking from a practical standpoint before one does tshuva, as not to be weighed down by his deppressing amount of aveiros. The rambam who says ayn zu ohso shechata is a pretty good proof though.