Part of the series: 9AM Schmooze, 5780-5781
1) Nefesh is a person’s essential defining quality. For the Rasha, it goes to Gehinom. 2) Death is very difficult for one who didn’t separate himself from physical desires. Better to make that separation while alive and be prepared, and then for him death is just a bridge to eternal life.
Transcript
AI-generated transcript. May contain errors.
Hi good morning Rabosai. I think that we left off in the middle of Os Yud Zayin. Tzu'am l'valo she'ol. Tzu'am says Rabbeinu Yonah, k'mo tzu'rasam. Meaning even though the more common construct in Lashon Hakodesh when the noun ends in a Hey and you add the pronoun suffix is that the Hey turns into a Suf, so what the more common usage would be to find the word tzu'rasam, but sometimes you find Tzu'am, atzabim k'sunasam, same construct there too. ותקרא הנפש צורת האדם, the Nefesh is referred to because that's what it is as the tzu'ras ha'adam. The Rambam explains this in Perek Daled of Yesodei HaTorah as well. The idea of tzura being, we ordinarily translate tzura as shape, so how is the Nefesh the shape of the person? So tzura as shape is sort of an applied meaning, a meaning in a very specific context. In the context of, let's say you have a lump of clay, so what distinguishes one lump of clay from the other is its shape. If you shape one into a plate and you shape one into a glass, so then it's the shape. Are you able to hear me? Rabosai? Yes. Okay, thank you. So again, so tzu'am l'valo she'ol here in Os Yud Zayin. Tzu'am k'mo tzu'rasam. Again, Tzu'am is a contracted version of tzu'rasam, similar to v'chein kisunam, atzabim, kisunasam. ותקרא הנפש צורת האדם, Nefesh is referred to as the tzu'ras ha'adam. So tzura again we generally translate as shape, but what it really means is the essential defining quality of something. If one is dealing with an inanimate object, so what's the essential defining quality of an inanimate object is its shape. If you have clay, so what distinguishes one lump of clay from another lump of clay is its shape. So tzura really means the essential defining quality. When dealing with a living being, so clearly its essential defining quality is not its shape. Hence the tzura of a person is his Nefesh. That's the essential defining quality of humanity, of what it means to be a person.
ויש מן הדברים על הנפש שאמרו בגדר הנפש שהיא צורה עיקרית.
U'biur ha'inyan. So what does it mean then that tzura, tzu'am l'valo she'ol, כי נפש הרשע יבלה שאול אותה? So we find for instance in Chazal the expression bigdei kehuna she'balu. Bigdei kehuna she'balu means bigdei kehuna that get worn out. So here l'valos I think Rabbeinu Yonah is using as a transitive in the example we just gave, so balu is an intransitive. Here Rabbeinu Yonah is using it as a transitive that She'ol, which is one of the synonyms for Gehenom, will wear out the Nefesh of the rasha, will cause the Nefesh of the rasha to be worn out, to wither, v'hi, and but despite the fact that the Nefesh is mizvul lo, כי הנפש מן העליונים, milashon mizvul kodshecha, v'harasha sibbe b'chatasav, the rasha brought... he caused through his sins v'olel lenafsho
נפש היקרה והעליונה שהיא מזבול לו לבלות אותה שאול מטה.
v'kama kasha hamaves says Rabbeinu Yonah למי שלא הפריד תאות העולם מנפשו עד שיפרידנה המות. How excruciatingly difficult is death for a person who hasn't separated himself from taivas ha'olam from pleasures of the world until death imposes that separation. The mashal is the mashal is if a person is moving. He's moving to a different climate, it's a different culture with a different language. Everything is very different. So if the person has prepared himself for that move, so then he looks forward to the move with excitement, with anticipation. If the person is totally unprepared for that move, so then he dreads that move and the transition is very difficult.
וכמה קשה המות למי שלא הפריד תאות העולם מנפשו עד שיפרידנה המות.
If a person does make those preparations, so then Shlomo Hamelech tells us vatis'chak l'yom ha'acharon. That the nefesh rejoices when it approaches its last day. When the nefesh begins to sense, begins to feel its impending and sort of incremental departure and transition, so vatis'chak, it's rejoicing at its destination. ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה b'masechet derech eretz ברצונך שלא תמות מות עד שלא תמות. What does that mean? be'ur hainyan. הרוצה שיהיה לו יום המות לחיי עד yidaber al libo אחרי אשר סופו לעזוב את האדמה ולהניח חפצי הגוף. Our stay here is temporary and physical desires, like it or not, will be abandoned and on the contrary u'v'acharisow yistemam v'yisem. The mashal is this, let's say a person drinks. So initially, maybe when he takes the first few drinks, so he enjoys them. But the result of his constant drinking is that he develops an addiction. And when he's forced to try to free himself of that addiction, so then in the end what he initially enjoyed he ends up detesting because of the painfulness of the detoxing, of breaking the addiction. ממילא ברור דיעזבם בחייו better that a person should abandon pleasure for the sake of pleasure in his lifetime and not wait for that forced separation ולא ישתמש באדמה רק לעבודת הבורא יתעלה. And a person should definitely partake of what he needs but only what's needed for higher spiritual concerns for avodas hashem. v'az a person lives his life that way, יהיה לו יום המות לחיים שאין לו הפסק. Then the day of death is just a transition, it serves as a bridge to Chayei Netzaich. Okay, we'll stop here for now. אם ירצה השם בלי נדר we'll reconvene in some form or another, I'm not sure exactly what, I don't know what happened with the connection this morning, I apologize, at around 12:45. Okay rabosai, have a good productive morning, everyone should be well, be safe.