Mishlei 2:9: Derech Meisharim, Middah Beinonis, and Tochacha

Good morning, we're by Pasuk Tes. אז תבין צדק ומשפט ומישרים כל מעגל טוב. Az tavin tzedek, az, then when? כקשה יתן לך השם את כל הנזכר לעיל, hachochma, hatvuna, etc. Az tavin tzedek. What what does tzedek refer to? Hein middos tovos, dehainu tzedek miyamin,

מה שצריך האדם לגמול חסד ולהיטיב בכל מיני טובות לבריות,

umishpat hu mismol. מה שצריך הוא לעצמו להיות אכזר ולא למלא תאוותו. So in general we know that that let's say for instance you find the the maimar Chazal that לעולם תהא שמאל דוחה וימין מקרבת. That that even even when you have to give tochacha, even when when there needs to be an element of of din, acting with a certain toughness, smol docha, it should be simultaneously yamin mekareves. So smol is identified with din and and yamin is identified with with racham with chesed. That's what the Gra is referring to when he says tzedek miyamin and mishpat hu mismol. Why is that relevant for the pasuk? Because it it it's the sort of the background or the context to the next word of mesharim. Meaning that on on in one area, so the person's behavior should be characterized by rachamim. In the other another area a person's behavior should be characterized by din and yet a third area should represent the fusion, should represent the blending of the of the rachamim and the and the din. And that's why mesharim straight means it doesn't it veers neither to the right as tzedek does, nor does it veer to the to the left as mishpat does, but but it goes straight. So noch amol, az tavin tzedek, כקשה יתן לך השם את כל הנזכר לעיל, az tavin tzedek, vehein middos tovos, dehainu tzedek miyamin,

מה שצריך האדם לגמול חסד ולהיטיב בכל מיני טובות לבריות.

So under normal circumstances a person's posture and and and what characterizes his interaction with other people is heavily heavily heavily weighted with middas hachesed, middas harachamim. Umishpat hu mismol. Where's a person supposed to be acting with with din? מה שצריך הוא לעצמו להיות אכזר ולא למלא תאוותו. Let's say a person has a an unhealthy desire, whatever whatever that that physical or materialistic desire may be, but it's not something which again just represents sort of a physical instinct or urge, a materialistic instinct or urge, it doesn't really represent a any anything with any redeeming side to it. So then the person needs to the discipline that he has to the self-discipline that he has to impose is is comparable to a middas achzariyos, an unmitigated din.

להיות אכזר ולא למלא תאוותו אלא לסגף עצמו. ומישרים הוא הדרך הממוצע

is is the middle path bidvarim shetzarich, meaning some physical needs that we experience are real in the sense of of... and valid and and important and and need to be accommodated, but there a person has to find the right balance, hu haderech hamemutza בדבר שצורך כגון שינה ושאר דברים. But when a person is tired, so that's not always and only a yetzer hara obviously. And for that matter, when a person is hungry, it's not always and only a yetzer hara. So בדבר שצורך כגון שינה ושאר דברים, so then the person has to find the derech hamemutza. It's very interesting how in this pasuk how the Gra says that tzedek, again more in the sense of of of the association we have with tzedaka than the sense of of justice, but rather more the sense of tzedaka, of righteousness, of charity, that tzedek representing the chessed and mishpat the din. So it's by association one is reminded at the end of perek aleph Hilchos Deios, the Rambam has the second half of the halacha here in פרק א הלכה ז: lefi shehasheimos ha'eilu, these various descriptions, these epithets of tzedek, yashar, tamim, gibbor, chazzak that we find in in Tanakh as describing Hakadosh Baruch Hu, shenikra bahen hayotzer,

הן הדרך הבינונית שאנחנו חייבים ללכת בה נקראת זו דרך השם.

So the Rambam here identifies the derech habeinonith is the derech Hashem. And that's how vehalachta bidrachav is the mitzvah to go in the derech habeinonith. והיא שלמד אברהם אבינו לבניו and this is what Avraham Avinu taught his household, his children, his sons, and maybe bakol, if bakol if he had a daughter so then his daughter as well, but

והיא שלמד אברהם אבינו לבניו שנאמר כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחרי ושמרו דרך השם לעשות צדקה ומשפט.

So Rabbi Einstadter has a very nice he'ara in his sefer on Chumash. He has a very nice he'ara, he says, how does the Rambam know that the derech Hashem is the derech habeinonith? That's sort of the lynchpin of perek aleph. Perek aleph about the derech habeinonith, the Rambam says is what the Torah mandates in the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav. But how do we know maybe, how do we know the darkei Hashem are derachim beinoniyim? So he says that it's based on this, just the pasuk of vehalachta bidrachav doesn't really, that doesn't necessarily dictate that the darkei Hashem are derachim beinoniyim. So how does the Rambam know that? So he says no, the Rambam has, it's this pasuk that the Rambam derives it from, because this pasuk says that Avraham Avinu teaches the derech Hashem. Right? There's a single derech that Avraham Avinu is teaching. And yet seemingly he's teaching two opposite extremes. Tzedaka is one extreme lich'ora, and mishpat is another extreme. Again that's sort of the the association with our pasuk and the Gra's commentary on our pasuk. Tzedaka is charity and mishpat is din. So aren't those darkei Hashem? So the answer is no, clearly he's teaching the blending of the two, the combination of the two. And in that sense when you combine the two opposites, that's the the basis for the derech habeinonith. So that's how you see in this pasuk that the derech Hashem is the derech habeinonith. And again the Gra is, again he's not linking it to being darkei Hashem, but in terms of recognizing, identifying tzedek umishpat as being two ends of the spectrum, in that case, in that sense it's similar. The next line, the next couple lines are hard to understand here, I don't know, I'll read them, I'm not really going to explain them adequately. Umizeh. based on the tzedek mishpat u-meisharim

תבוא על כל מעגל טוב והם נגד מה שאמר לעיל.

So again magal is a circle right, something agol is is round. So magal is a cycle.

ומזה תבוא על כל מעגל טוב והם נגד מה שאמר לעיל

lakkachas mussar haskel tzedek u-mishpat u-meisharim.

כמו שאמרו כל מעגל טוב הוא האוהב את התוכחה שמביא לידי כל מעגל טוב.

So I don't know the lashon here is a little bit it's a little bit hard to deal with. Take a look footnote 62 says that other versions say it differently. But clearly according to all versions of the Biur HaGra here the Gaon has in mind again if you take a look in footnote 57 if you're looking in the Philip edition where he quotes from the Gemara in Tamid. Tanya Rebbi omer

איזו היא דרך ישרה שיבור לו האדם יאהב את התוכחות.

That the derech yeshara is that a person should welcome to the point of cherishing and loving rebuke.

שכל זמן שהתוכחות בעולם נחת רוח בעולם טובה וברכה בעולם.

So that's what the Gaon seems to be saying that the way meisharim the way the combination of tzedek and mishpat and then especially the meisharim yield closing this this circle. We're going to we're going to close the circle kol magal tov all good. So the so what is that that that kol magal tov that's not being explicitly specified? So the Gaon says no in light of what Chazal tell us in the Gemara in Tamid how derech yeshara translates into into tov is that the person welcomes and even seeks tokhacha. How is tokhacha an expression of derech yeshara? I mean it's tokh whatever the right thing in life is so in case we're not doing the right thing so tokhacha will set us straight. So maybe maybe that phrase helps helps answer the question but but perhaps as follows. Lemaiseh the derech ha-beinonis the Rambam if you take a look again if you still have your Hilkhos De'os open if you take a look at

פרק א' הלכה ד'. הדרך הישרה היא מדה בינונית שבכל דעה ודעה מכל הדעות שיש לו לאדם והיא הדעה שהיא רחוקה משני הקצוות בריחוק שווה ואינה קרובה לא לזו ולא לזו.

So the derech ha-yeshara which is the derech ha-beinonis which is the Derech Hashem is equidistant from the two extremes. Then the Rambam says

ולפיכך צוו חכמים שיהא אדם שם דעותיו תמיד ומשער אותם ומכוון אותם בדרך הממוצעת כדי שיהא שלם.

What's the le-fikhakh here rabosai? Let's say there's a mitzvah of krias ha-megillah. Okay. And the megillah has to be written on a klaf. Or there's a mitzvah of krias ha-Torah and avadah the krias ha-Torah the Sefer Torah has to be written in klaf. So le-fikhakh... What the lefichach here lichora in in the rambam it's clear that what the rambam is saying is, the middos beinoniyos is pretty precise, right? The rambam's emphasizing שהיא רחוקה משני הקצוות ריחוק שווה. Dehainu that our middos are supposed to be calibrated with a very high degree of precision. S'loo yehee, okay, just don't be totally extreme, you know, you know, just don't, don't be ingantzen meshugeh. Don't, don't be totally extreme. But there's a very sort of, but there would be a very wide range of what's acceptable behavior. So chazal wouldn't have said שיהיה אדם שם דעותיו תמיד. They wouldn't have said that it has to be a constant preoccupation that the person is thinking about, assessing, evaluating, re-evaluating his middos. Behayos that what we're talking about is no, let's say when you're driving on the road, when you're driving on the road you don't have to drive perfectly in the middle of the lane you're in. You have a certain margin of error. You want to go a couple of feet over to the left, a couple of feet over to the right. Okay. So you don't have to, so when you learn how to drive, you don't have to learn how to drive a perfect straight line. Okay. You don't want to weave in and out. That's not good. But a little bit here, a little bit there is is not a problem. But if but if you're supposed to drive in the in the exact center of whichever lane you're in, so then that's going to require a higher degree of driver's education than than you than we need otherwise. So that's what the rambam's emphasizing הדרך הישרה היא רחוקה משני הקצוות ריחוק שווה. That's, again, that's a high degree of precision. Ulefichach tzivu chachamim that this has to be a constant focus, a constant preoccupation שיהיה אדם שם דעותיו תמיד. What שיהיה אדם שם דעותיו תמיד is in effect self-tochacha. Right? In effect that's self-tochacha. Right? If I'm if I'm always if I'm always assessing my my my middos, that means I'm engaging in self-tochacha. And veyitachen maybe that's why rebbe in the braisa in tamid associates tochacha with the derech hayeshara because as is mashma in this rambam, it requires the constant monitoring, the constant monitoring. Again, so as much as as we try or should try, at any rate, that it should be self-monitoring, okay, אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. So mimaila the derech hayeshara is naturally associated with with tochacha. Maybe more so than than than other mitzvos. I don't know. Mitzvos achilas matzah, there's no, I don't know there's no reason that you in particular associate mitzvos achilas matzah with with the inayn of tochacha or whatever whatever example you may give. Mashe'ain kain the mesharim, the derech hamemutza is because of the because it's so challenging is more naturally and obviously related to tochacha. That would be perhaps one level on which to understand the association of derech hayeshara with tochacha. Okay. We'll stop here. בלי נדר אם ירצה השם we'll resume around around 12:30 with pesachim. Have a very good productive morning rabosai, everyone should be well, be safe be'ezras hashem.