Yiras Hashem is Required to Acquire Chochmo u’Mussar

Hi good morning everyone. I hope everyone is well. Let's temporarily at least bli neder skip to pasuk zayin here rabosai. We'll, I hope, come back to the earlier psukim. Also, just what we discussed last on Thursday about the relationship between chochma and Torah was wrong. What I said was wrong as pshat nagon. We'll bli neder hopefully come back to it. But for now, let's pick up here in pasuk zayin. יראת ה' ראשית דעת חכמה ומוסר אוילים בזו. What does the word evilim mean? Again, bazu means to scorn, they scorned. What does evilim mean? So the metzudos translates evilim as rishayim. He doesn't really comment on the etymology of the word, it just says that an evil is a rasha. Then the Malbim suggests that the word evil is related to the shoresh ulai, perhaps, maybe, and and it indicates those who are skeptical, those who undermine truth, who who refuse to accept any any any truth with their their skepticism. Okay. So יראת ה' ראשית דעת. חכמה ומוסר אוילים בזו. What does the Gra say?

יראת ה' ראשית דעת חכמה ומוסר אוילים בזו כאן היא התחלת הספר,

meaning the first six psukim were the introduction, what the sefer is about, what the sefer is going to deal with, who is the author of the sefer vechulu. Now Shlomo Hamelech is coming to the the actual the actual sefer itself. וקיים מה שכתב לעיל שענין הספר הוא לדעת. Right? In pasuk beis, lada'as chochma umusar. ואומר עכשיו שהיראה הוא ראשית ותחלת הדעת. Yirah is the beginning and and maybe also in a certain sense the foundation of da'as. כענין שאמרו חז"ל כל שיראתו קודמת לחכמתו חכמתו מתקיימת. So what does that mishna avos mean?

והיינו מפני שאם אין בו יראת ה' אז הוא אויל.

A person who is bereft rachmana litzlan of yiras Hashem is an evil,

שהוא הפורק עול והיפך בעל ירא. ואוילים חכמה ומוסר בזו.

So it's impossible for an evil lada'as chochma umusar because they scorn it. It's only if a person has yiras Hashem that he's able to acquire and retain chochma umusar.

מפני שאם יש באדם יראת ה' ילמד לדעת בכדי שיהיה יודע ממה לשמור את עצמו. ודרך האדם כשרוצה את הדבר ומוצאו חביב עליו ושמור בו. אבל אם אין בו יראת ה' ואינו מתירא מן החטא אף שלומד כמה פעמים לא ימצא. כי אינו לומד בכדי שיהיה יודע ממה להזהר. וכל מילתא דלא רמיא עליה דאינש לאו אדעתיה. ולכן אף שילמדו החכמה ומוסר בזויה אצלם ולא יהיו מתקיימים בהם.

There needs to be receptivity. The Gra's pshat in the mishna here is in one respect similar to what the Rambam comments in the perush hamishnayos in Avos, in another respect diverges. The common denominator is that there needs to be receptivity. Zeh klal gadol in in teaching. Let's say, I don't know, let's say you're looking to be mekarev someone. But the person is very... Happy and therefore complacent in where he is at the moment, Rachmana Litzlan, so he's he's not shomer torah u'mitzvos, but he hasn't recognized the the emptiness of that lifestyle. So there's no receptivity. You know, משל למה הדבר דומה, you want to pour someone a drink, there needs to be a cup, there needs to be a glass, there need there needs to be a beis kibul, there needs to be something that that can hold and contain, there needs to be a receptacle. The analog to the receptacle, the cup in in the pouring the drink analogy, is the receptivity that that a person has to chochmah. If there's no receptivity to chochmah, so then the chochmah is not going to be be retained. What creates that receptivity? So the Gra, and here the Rambam actually has an unusual, from my understanding of yirah, but the Gra is is more pshuto kemashmao. He says the receptivity to chochmah is the yiras Hashem. A person who has yiras Hashem, so then he's going to be be receptive to to chochmah u'musar and mimitayla he'll learn and retain it. A person who's an evil, who lacks yiras Hashem, who's poreik ol, so there is no he's not he's not interested in in constraints, he's not interested in in in in in what he'll perceive as impositions. So there's no receptivity. If there's no receptivity, so then there's no receptacle. In order for there to be a beis kibul for the chochmah, so there has to be that receptivity and the receptivity is is yiras Hashem. More specifically, I'm not sure but but it could be that the following mashmaus here is as well. Just rereading one sentence here, ודרך האדם כשרוצה את הדבר ומוצאו, right, it's it's human nature that if a person wants something, he desires something and he finds it, חביב עליו ושמור בו. So this correlation between האדם רוצה את הדבר on the one hand with on the other hand it's therefore חביב עליו ושמור בו, so you can say it it means in in either of of two ways. Number one, a person receives his paycheck, he's been looking forward to the paycheck, he has a negative balance and and this paycheck is going to turn things around, ch'vays, he's getting a big end of the year bonus and and it's something which which he needs. So when he receives that check, he's going to be very careful not to lose it. He's going to do whatever he needs to to safeguard the the check. So it it could be that what the Gra means by חביב עליו ושמור בו is that if you have you have some priceless family heirloom in the family, you're going to safeguard it, you're going to you're going to take all all possible measures to safeguard it because because you cherish it so much. Because it's something you desire, it's something you want, and now you have it, so you you're certainly going to take what whatever measures are needed not to lose it. But it could be, I don't know, maybe I don't know, especially the lashon that we have here חביב עליו ושמור בו, sounds like it's almost mimaila, right, not so much that shomro but shamur bo, in which case, so so maybe maybe you find here in the Gra an idea that Rav Moshe Feinstein expressed. I actually heard this once from from his son Rav Reuven Shlita, I think it's also printed, I'm not sure about this, I think it's also printed in Darash Moshe. Rav Moshe said, I'm not sure what mashal he gave, but the we'll substitute one. Let's say you have someone, he's an avid ich veis baseball fan, an avid baseball fan, and then he gets a chance to attend game seven of the World Series. So this, this is extraordinary for him. So one of the adjectives which would be used, which he would use, which to describe the experience of going to game seven of the World Series because it's something that, that it's so meaningful to him and and so special, is he'll describe it as an unforgettable experience. So what makes an experience unforgettable? One of the things, this is not the only thing that can make an experience unforgettable, obviously rachmana litzlan trauma or something can make an experience unforgettable also. But one, one element which can make an experience unforgettable is it just means so much to a person. Whoever the, imagine there's one person more than anyone else in the world that you want to meet. Fill in the blank, whoever, whoever that is. And then you get to meet that person. You're going to remember that meeting, that encounter for the rest of your life. It will be literally an unforgettable experience because that's how special it is for the person, that's how meaningful it is for the person. Rav Moshe says this is, I don't know, it's an unbelievable idea and it's knockout mussar, like mamash knockout. He says that if we'd be machshiv divrei Torah, he says then we couldn't forget. If, if, if hearing an idea in Torah, if that was, if that surpassed everything in life, it meant everything to us. It really was כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו. So how can it be that I remember game seven of the World Series but I forget what I learned yesterday? But I do forget what I learned yesterday. So I don't know, maybe is that what the Gaon means also when the Gaon says, חביב עליו ושמור בו. And shamor bo means mimeila, just, just mitzad hachavivus, it's shamor bo. Okay, so maybe we'll, we'll stop here. Bli neder we'll continue with this tomorrow morning. And בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll resume around 12:00 with Pirkei Avos. Have a very good productive morning rabbosai, everyone should be well, be safe.