Constancy. Avraham’s Discovery.

וכיצד ירגיל אדם עצמו בדעות אלו עד שיקבעו בו יעשה וישנה וישלש במעשים שעושה על פי הדעות הממוצעות ויחזור בהן תמיד עד שיהיו מעשיהן קלים עליו ולא יהיה בהן טורח ויקבעו הדעות בנפשו.

So it's a remarkable thing. Twice within this perek in context of talking about cultivating and internalizing the proper de'os, Rambam uses the lashon tamid. Here we just read it in halacha zayin, and we had it earlier in halacha daled:

לפיכך צוו חכמים הראשונים שיהא אדם שם דעותיו תמיד ומשער אותן ומכוון אותן בדרך האמצעית כדי שיהיה שלם.

The mindfulness and the concerted effort to cultivate and internalize the right de'os is something that needs to be constant; it has to be a constant preoccupation. If there's anything sporadic about again the focus or the effort, it doesn't work. And that probably partially accounts for why tikkun hamiddos, tikkun hade'os is such a formidable challenge. I'm not sure how good we are at things which are tamid, things which require that kind of constant, uninterrupted attention and effort. I think we're sort of more primed for do work, take a break, coffee break, lunch break, vacation. And in certain areas, that doesn't work. שיהא אדם שם דעותיו תמיד. v'yachzor bahen tamid. And that's the formula; without any, there isn't really any credible, legitimate alternative to that temidius. Another very yesodistik point that the Rambam's touching upon here: it certainly can be the case that a person will experience elements of Torah as being onerous. That certainly can be the case. When that is the case, the problem obviously rachmana litzlan doesn't inhere within the Torah. It's not that the mitzvos haTorah are inherently onerous; it's because of this dissonance between where a person's holding and where he's supposed to be. Let's say rachmana litzlan, a person suffers an injury and as part of the rehabilitation, say, he needs physical therapy. So the physical therapy, to be successful, is going to be onerous because a person has to push back against the, against, again, in the case of the moshal, against the injury. In this instance, it's against the, excuse me, the character flaw. Eizehu chacham? A person has to understand that what the source of is, that he experiences it as being onerous, A, and B, has to realize that it's a stage. That given what the source is, it's something which is, which is a stage.

לפי שהשם אלו הדעות שנקבעו בהן היוצר הן הדרך הבינונית שאנו חייבים לאחוז בה נקראת דרך זו דרך השם. והיא שלמדה אברהם אבינו לבניו שנאמר כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך השם לעשות צדקה ומשפט.

So for the Rambam, when the posuk says that Avraham Avinu taught derech Hashem, it doesn't just mean sort of in general in, no, it refers very specifically to the midah beinonis. If you go forward a little bit to Hilchos Avoda Zara in perek aleph. So within Hilchos Avoda Zara, it could be, it would be on its own a little cryptic. But the Rambam in halacha gimmel when he describes Avraham Avinu's search for and ultimate discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Rambam describes how Avraham Avinu, here too, describes Avraham Avinu's search for and ultimate discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And then the Rambam says around four lines into halacha gimmel, v'libo meshoteit u'meivin. His mind was constantly exploring, u'meivin, and incrementally he was understanding. He was peeling away layers of falsehood and discovering elements of truth until ultimately שהשיג דרך האמת והבין קו הצדק מדעתו הנכונה. So the Rambam describes that Avraham Avinu's breakthrough, Avraham Avinu's discovery is hishig derech ha'emes, but additionally hevin kav hatzedek. Kav, similar to its, in modern usage, it means also a path, a direction. I think we'll have that lashon in perek beis of Hilchos De'os. I think the Rambam has the word kav. Yeah, in beis beis, ועל קו זה יעשה בשאר כל הדעות. It means a certain direction, a certain path. So what is this kav hatzedek that Avraham Avinu discovered? And what's more, how did he discover it? Avraham Avinu was perplexed. Again, he was born into a polytheistic society where no one to whom he was exposed knew Hakadosh Baruch Hu. There were yechidim in the world, but Avraham Avinu had no connection to them. In Ur Kasdim, he had no exposure to Noach, he had no exposure to Shem ve'Ever, even though his lifespan overlapped with theirs. So he was perplexed, how, who's responsible for the motion and who controls the motion? So meila, that allows him to recognize a Borei Olam who's responsible for that. But how did Avraham Avinu recognize How did he simultaneously discover a Kav Tzaddek? And B, what is that Kav Tzaddek? So subsequently towards the end of Halacha Gimmel when the Rambam's describing how Avraham Avinu hodia le-Yitzchak beno ve-Yitzchak hodia le-Yaakov ve-Yaakov Avinu I'm skipping a little bit over here and there ve-Yaakov Avinu

ויעקב אבינו לימד בניו כולם והבדיל לוי ומינהו ראש והושיבו בישיבה ללמד דרך השם

ve-lishmor mitzvas Avraham. The mitzvas Avraham, here the Rambam refers to mitzvas Avraham, right? That command that Avraham Avinu had imparted. The command is the Kav Tzaddek. So what is that? So it's clear from our Rambam Hilchos Deios that it means the mida beinonis. And somehow or other what the Rambam is telling us here in Hilchos Avodah Zarah and in Hilchos Deios for that matter, but in Hilchos Avodah Zarah he's telling us that together with his discovery of the Ribbono Shel Olam Avraham Avinu discovered the mida beinonis. So how is that true? How did Avraham Avinu part of the extraordinary, extraordinary gadlus and insight that he had was to recognize that once we know there's a Borei Olam the world is not only a reflection of chochmas Hashem in terms of scientific knowledge, but it's also a reflection of chochmas Hashem in terms of moral knowledge and a moral code. Once Avraham Avinu recognized that Hakadosh Baruch Hu borei hakol

וידע שיש שם אלוה אחד הוא בורא הכל ואין בכל הנמצא אלוה אחר זולתו

so then he recognized that patterns in nature are Hakadosh Baruch Hu's moral code. The fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu provided that he built into nature that parents in some cases in the animal kingdom only the mother have this overpowering instinct to nurture and to protect and to provide for their young totally dependent otherwise helpless offspring. So Avraham Avinu recognized middas rachmanus middas chanina. Once the world is the handiwork of the Borei Olam so that then means that within the world there's also Hakadosh Baruch Hu's דרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא are reflected in the world. The דרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא are the hashgacha is not we think of hashgacha sort of you know where Hakadosh Baruch Hu intrudes upon nature but nature itself is the most basic aspect of hashgacha the patterns in the world. The Rav zecher tzaddik livracha used to say very very... Very, very yesodostik used to say as follows: that hagam, that obviously it's beyond not just human knowledge, it's beyond angelic knowledge also to know, to understand why Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. But without knowing why Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, we can say descriptively that

היות שהקדוש ברוך הוא הוא אינו צריך לא להם ולא לאחד מהם ואם יבטלו לא יבטל הוא לביטולם.

So Hakadosh Baruch Hu, if a person, if a being, not a person, if a being has no need for anything, it's not catering to any need, so we can say descriptively, without addressing the why question, that what that being did is something altruistic. And that's what the Rav used to say, that brias ha'olam, it's not just we sort of think of it as the ultimate science experiment, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in the lab and he produces the world. And the Rav used to say that brias ha'olam was a moral act. It's not just sort of a scientific act, but it's a moral act. And Avraham Avinu understood that, and understood that therefore that it's a moral act, and therefore there's a moral code which is present. And that's how Avraham Avinu, together bad bevad with his discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, discovered kaven tzedek. Discovered the mida beinonit because again, the mida beinonit is the derech Hashem. The derech Hashem is the way we characterize His actions. His actions in again later, a couple of thousand years later in the Torah as well, but initially in the briyah. That the bifurcation that exists today when in terms of different areas of knowledge is a modern construct. The sharp delineation between again the scientific knowledge, this moral knowledge, that the Rambam didn't have that what he would say is artificial total separation. To the Rambam maaseh breishis doesn't mean, when the Rambam talks about maaseh breishis, he doesn't mean what we mean when we talk about science. He means something much broader, much richer, and much more nuanced than what we mean when we talk about science. We commented earlier here in perek aleph how the pshat in the mida beinonit is not that a person is a five, but a person rather has within him the zero and the ten which allows him to act as a five, which is what 99% of the time, if not more, is what's correct. So the emes is lachora that definition is further reinforced here as well. Ki yedativ, the Rambam quotes the pasuk from next week's parsha:

כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך ה' לעשות צדקה ומשפט.

So generally we contrast tzedakah umishpat, right? We contrast charitableness with din. And the derech Hashem means that a person is sholeit over both. And that's exactly what, again, as we saw from the Rambam's illustration by ka'as, what the middah beinonis, what the middah beinonis means. Okay, and we'll stop there for now, so bli neder we'll continue a little later with.