Hakdama 13

I think we left off last time after the Rambam had quoted the Gemara in Chagiga with the metaphor from Shir Hashirim of דבש וחלב תחת לשונך for inyanim nistarim. So after the Rambam quotes the pasuk, להבין משל ומליצה דברי חכמים וחידותם, let's pick up a line or two after where he quotes the pasuk from Mishlei of

להבין משל ומליצה. ולפיכך ראוי לאדם שנפל לידו מדבריהם דבר הרחוק מן השכל כפי דעתו, שלא ייחס את החיסרון אל אותם הדברים, אלא ייחס את החיסרון לשכלו.

What once a person understands that given the nature of Agadata, that because of that, Chazal intentionally cloaked the content, the substance of what they were saying in meshalim, so then a person should realize that when he encounters something which seems to be nonsensical, so he should recognize that the shortcoming, the deficiency is not Rachmana litzlan in the divrei Agadata, but in his own sechel.

וכשיראה משל ממשליהם שפשוטו רחוק מהשכל מאוד, ראוי לו להצטער מאוד על שכלו שאינו מבין את העניין.

We're just sort of somewhat, not really dramatically, but I think we're kind of casual when there's something in learning we don't understand. Okay. So turn the page and ראוי לו להצטער מאוד. A person should, it's upsetting to not to realize that one is sufficiently far from truth that the words of Chazal are stumim vechasumim. It's a source of tza'ar.

ראוי לו להצטער מאוד על שכלו שאינו מבין את העניין עד שיהיו אצלו כל האמיתות בתכלית הריחוק.

Right, and the person is sufficiently removed, distant, ad k'dei kach, that these profound truths to him appear nonsensical.

כי יתרון השכלים זה על זה כיתרון המזגים. כשם שמזג איש זה טוב וקרוב יותר לממוצע ממזג איש אחר, כך יהיה שכל אדם זה שלם ומלא יותר משכל אדם אחר. ואין ספק שאין שכל מי שיידע עניין דק כשכל מי שהוא סכל באותו עניין.

The intellect of a person who understands something subtle, a subtle truth, his sechel is something which is qualitatively different than someone who doesn't. כי האחד הוא שכל בפועל והשני שכל בכוח. And this is a leitmotif in the Rambam's writings, this distinction between sechel bapoal and sechel bakoach. Later when the Rambam is, could be we'll get to that a little bit later this morning, but when the Rambam is giving us an example of how to understand Aggadeta, how at first glance it can seem very strange and nonsensical, but when one understands it as it was intended, one sees the profound wisdom. So the Rambam talks about the ma'amar chazal of

אין לו להקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו אלא ד' אמות של הלכה בלבד.

So towards the end of that, the Rambam has, I don't know, it's not really close to it, but if you see where he quotes the pasuk of ויבאו מכל העמים לשמוע את חכמת שלמה and I don't know, in in this edition, it's it's a whole column after that. So the Rambam writes החכמה היא אשר מוסיפה בתכונתו. Chochma is is what enhances a person's essence u'maatika oso and it it moves him, right? Vayatek misham hahora. U'maatika oso, maatikei hashemuah of Chachmei haMasor who who who transmit the masor from one generation to the next. ומעתיקה אותו ממהות פחותה למהות נעלה. Chochma, I'm looking for an English word, I know they used transfer in this kind of context, but it it moves the person, it transfers the person from a a lesser, lower essence to a higher, more noble essence. שהרי היה אדם בכוח ונעשה אדם בפועל. Until this point, he was really only had potential to be human. כי האדם קודם שישכיל אינו אלא כבהמות. If a person doesn't exercise his sechel, he's no different than than animals. שהרי אינו נבדל משאר מיני בעלי החיים אלא בהגיון. And again, behigayon, the Rambam means abstract intelligence. There is, you know, sort of concrete intelligence, but animals have that also. The Bava Kamma tells a story about a shor who figured out how to open a barrel very very very adroitly. But there's no abstract intelligence there. The Rambam's talking about the capacity for abstract truth, ultimately to to have emunah b'Hashem who's who's who's not not physical, which is obviously the the ultimate truth, the ultimate abstract truth. So the sechel here is not talking about sort of a concrete intelligence, but but a capacity for abstract intelligence. It's that which makes a person human, because animals are, I don't know, you go to the zoo, so the I don't know, the monkeys, the apes, they're also they also have sort of a degree of concrete intelligence. This this understanding that a person is not born human, but a person is born with with a capacity to become human. Now, in in practically in halacha, we don't operate with that because it's not given to us to form those judgments as to who has or who hasn't actualized that. So in terms of how we interact with people, so we don't sort of sit back and try to pass judgment and and and you know, the chiyuvim, whether it's chiyuvim to Bnei Noach, whether it's... Who can make these judgments. So we're not born human, we're not born special. What's special of us but when we're born is the capacity and the potential that we have. So the Rambam in a similar vein writes in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah

פרק ד הלכה ח נפש כל בשר היא צורתה שנתן לה הקל.

The essential defining quality of a person is the nefesh.

והדעת היתרה המצויה בנפשו של אדם היא צורת האדם השלם בדעתו.

So the Rambam describes the tzura initially as again it's a potential and then the Adam Hashalem is the person who has realized that potential. This it's this distinction which underlies the Rambam's view on hashgacha as well. It's why the Rambam says that hashgacha pratis is not something that a person's entitled to and that's automatically forthcoming to the degree that the person is human so to that degree has hashgacha pratis. The Rambam's shitta that many other rishonim have this as well is that hashgacha pratis is for people. There's no hashgacha pratis for animals. With all due respect to Lassie, there's no hashgacha pratis for animals. And sort of one corollary to that is so to the degree that a person lives humanly so to that degree he elevates himself and is worthy of hashgacha pratis. So we're kind of offended when someone tells us that we're no different than a beheima. We're sort of offended at that. But when you sort of leaving aside that self-defense instinct there's something very very compelling and also demanding about what the Rambam says. A person is not born with entitlement. A person's not entitled. A person is blessed with potential. He's blessed with a capacity but a person's not entitled. A person needs to actualize and realize that potential and that's what this distinction that the Rambam has between sechel b'poal and sechel b'koach reflects. We like to think that we're sort of innately special. Sits better with us. And we are in the sense of potential, in sense of capacity, in the sense of what we can be but that's the extent of what's innate. What's the extent of what's innate is the extraordinary potential and extraordinary capacity that we're given. But after that how much of that translates and how much of that gets realized is up to us. Then the Rambam goes on to give a mashal we're not going to read it together about how the lack of knowledge will render something which is really true nonsensical in the eyes of someone who lacks that knowledge. So he's talking about the science of being able to measure angles and be able to calculate the size of things even at a great distance and talks about the relative size of the sun relative to the earth etcetera. Then if you see Let's see what the Rambam says. It's a few lines before he quotes the Gemara in Eruvin of ליבם של ראשונים כפתחו של אולם. A few lines before he quotes the Gemara in Eruvin of ליבם של ראשונים כפתחו של אולם, if you go a few lines before that,

ועל כן צריכים אנו לשפר אמונתנו בהם ולהיטיב העיון בהם ולא נחפז להרחיק דבר מהם.

We shouldn't be quick, we shouldn't sort of be impetuous in being dismissive of Divrei Agadeta chas veshalom.

אלא כל דבר מהם שיירחק מאתנו נשתדל בלימודים עד שנבין את כוונתם במאמר הזה אם יש די בשכלנו להבין זאת.

We may not be able to understand it. שהרי הם עליהם השלום חז"ל with all their diligence bevakashas hachochma in pursuit of chochma and tuvei seichel and again of such fine intellect u'melumadim and learned and u'vecheveras anashim gedolim and they were surrounded, they with similarly great people, u'perushim mihana'os ha'olam. And they weren't mired in materialism and physicality.

אף על פי כן היו מייחסים את החיסרון לעצמם בהשוואה לקודמים להם.

Even Chazal, their self-assessment was that there had been a yeridas hadoros. והוא אמר ליבם של ראשונים כפתחו של אולם. The heart, or probably better translated, the mind of rishonim was open as wide as the opening to the ulam. ושל אחרונים אפילו כמחט סידקית אינו. You don't even have the eye of a needle. Kol sheken anachnu, says the Rambam, שאם העדר הדעת והחכמה ממנו כמו שהזהיר בנו יתעלה, that we've lost chochma as Hakadosh Baruch Hu warned would happen.

לכן הנני יוסיף להפליא את העם הזה הפלא ופלא ואבדה חכמת חכמיו ובינת נבוניו תסתתר. נתייחד כל אחד ממנו בארבעה דברים.

So we are lacking, we are deficient in comparison to Chazal in four respects. Number one, chulshas haseichel. The weakness of the intellect. Number two, chozek hataiva. The intensity of our taivos. Number three, ve'atzlus milivakesh chochma. Right, the laziness in pursuit of chochma. And on the contrary, והלהיטות לבקש הנאות העולם. And the opposite of laziness, the passion for pursuing worldly pleasures. Arba shiftei hara'im. So איך לא נייחס את החיסרון לעצמנו בהשוואה עליהם? So given again that we are deficient in these four crucial respects, so how can we not recognize that when the words of Chazal appear nonsensical to us, that the deficiency is in us, not in what Chazal said? So here too, this is also a theme which the Rambam returns to, that sort of seichel and guf don't operate independently in the sense that the more a person stresses the physical and the material—stresses meaning unduly, disproportionately, doesn't mean that he's careful to maintain good health and to eat a good diet, but disproportionately—והלהיטות לבקש הנאות העולם, so. Guf and sechel impact each other. They influence each other. And as a result, a person who's להוט לבקשת הנאות העולם inevitably that will interfere with and detract from his ability to understand. Again, not just in a practical and pragmatic sense, not just in the sense that if he's devoting time to it, so that's time that's diverted from bakashas hachochmah, but in terms of the capacity that the person has. If a person is megushamdig, his sechel becomes megushamdig also. A person is again shaku'a in olam hazeh, in the hana'os of olam hazeh, so the sechel becomes megushamdig also. So there is this, again, this interplay, this interaction between sechel and guf. And that's what is being depicted here in terms of why our understanding is limited because of again, the chozek hataiva and the להיטות לבקשת הנאות העולם. You have this again, again towards the end of the Rambam's explanation of the ma'amar chazal of

אין הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו אלא ארבע אמות של הלכה בלבד,

I don't know, maybe 20 lines before he refers to Maseches Avos and a few lines after that he quotes a pasuk in Yirmiyahu: איך תאמרו חכמים אנחנו. So around 20 lines or so before that, the Rambam says:

אבל עם השגת המושכלות יתחייב לעזוב את הלהיטות לתענוגים הגשמיים.

When a person achieves some degree of understanding of devarim muskalim, so if he wants to go further, so that's mechayev him to abandon again the pursuit of physical pleasure as again an end unto itself. Ki bemuskal rishon, it's intuitive, right? Muskal rishon means some things we only understand after thinking long and hard and some things we understand bemuskal rishon, right? Even the first time we think about it, it's intuitive. כי במושכל ראשון מושג שחורבן הנפש בתיקון הגוף. By tikun haguf here the Rambam means tikun haguf, let's say, in the, I don't know, in the Greek sense of the word. He doesn't mean that the body should be healthy. He means sort of when a person is looking to have, let's say, the Greeks sort of worship the body and everything about the body should be sculpted to perfection. The Rambam means tikun haguf in that in that sense. Not that a person is healthy, not that a person exercises a reasonable amount. כי במושכל ראשון מושג, it's intuitive, שחורבן הנפש בתיקון הגוף. If a person is prioritizing the body, so that's at the expense of the nefesh. ותיקון הנפש בחורבן הגוף. And if a person is prioritizing the nefesh, again that means that he doesn't allow again the guf to be independently important. The same, that same interconnection, that same interconnectedness between sechel and guf, that the focus on the guf is something which has a destructive, again, focus on the guf meaning disproportionately as an end unto itself, as a person just looking for hana'ah leshem hana'ah. כי במושכל ראשון מושג שחורבן הנפש בתיקון הגוף, because there's a chorban hanefesh. This is by no means, this idea is not limited to the Rambam by any means. For instance, you have Chovos HaLevavos in the hakdamah to the Sha'ar Ahavas Hashem writes as follows. He says that the sha'ar immediately preceding Ahavas Hashem in Chovos HaLevavos is Sha'ar HaPerishus. He says,

ועל כן הקדמנו שער הפרישות לשער הזה כי מן הנמנע ממנו,

it's impossible. It's simply impossible, says the Chovos Halevavos. שתתיישב אהבת הבורא בלבנו, a person can't have Ahavas Hashem in שתתיישב אהבת העולם בנו. If a person loves Olam Hazeh—again, not—he's not talking about the love the Vilna Gaon loved Olam Hazeh, also. The Vilna Gaon loved Olam Hazeh because of the mitzvos, because of the ribbono shel olam. That's not what the Chovos Halevavos is talking about. He's talking about tailgating, he's not talking about shaking a lulav on Sukkos.

כי מן הנמנע ממנו שתתיישב אהבת הבורא בלבנו עם התיישב אהבת העולם בנו.

The two are contradictory, the two are mutually exclusive. Min hanimna, it's impossible. And it's only when כאשר יהיה לב המאמין ריק מאהבת העולם ופנוי מתאוותיו, only when a person's heart, mind, is empty, is free of that type of megushamdig ahavas olam hazeh. Then תתיישב אהבת הבורא בלבו. Then the person is open to and can develop Ahavas Hashem. Somewhere here I think he has, one second, I think he even has a mashal of fire and water in terms of how they're contradictory, but I don't see it right now. I don't think so. The Rambam continues here, again, after he had just quoted the phrase from Yechezkel of arba'as shiftei hara'im, really, my four bad punishments.

ובדקם עליהם השלום את הענין הזה ושכל דבריהם נקיים מבלי סיג בהם חסו עליהם והזהירו שלא לזלזל בהם. ואמרו

v'omru kol ha... this is, again, as identified here, this is in our Perek and in Hanizakin: כל המלעיג על דברי חכמים. A person who scoffs, who ridicules divrei chachamim, nidun betzoa roscas. So says the Rambam, what does it mean tzoa roscas? Extraordinary pshat here.

ואין לך צואה רותחת גדולה יותר מן השכלות שהביאתו להלעיג.

Tzoa sort of represents the ultimate in terms of physicality. Right, that's what the tzoa, the waste, is sort of something which, even in the physical, right, the body—the body absorbs what it can use from the food that we take in, and the rest, the waste, so then the body rejects. And so tzoa is sort of the lowest in terms of physicality, right? That's what the metaphor of tzoa is. So says the Rambam: אין לך צואה רותחת גדולה, the ultimate tzoa, boiling tzoa, is hashichlus shehevi'aso lehal'ig because that sichlus is a function of the person being shakuah in the— materialism and in the physicality. That's what's responsible for the sechelus. V'lochein says the Rambam,

ולא תמצא לעולם מי שמרחיק את דבריהם אלא אדם מבקש תאוה, מבכר ההנאות החושיות, ומי שלא הואר בכלל מן האורות הבהירים.

Those who ridicule Chazal are people who fundamentally are devoted to pursuit of pleasure. And accordingly, again, that has constrained their sechel. ומפני שידעו באמתות דבריהם כלו בהם את חייהם. Chazal devoted their lives וצוו לשקוד עליהם בלילה ובקצת היום, right? אין אדם לומד רוב חכמתו אלא בלילה. That's why Chazal said that we should be so diligent in pursuit וקבעו זאת לתכלית וכפי שכן הוא, and in reality it is. Okay, maybe I think we've in every context we've looked at this bit, but we'll maybe just begin it now.

ואמרו אין להקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו אלא חוץ מארבע אמות של הלכה.

Right? There's nothing that Hakadosh Baruch Hu that really kavyachol interests Hakadosh Baruch Hu in his world other than the ד' אמות של הלכה. V'hisbonen b'inyan hazeh. Reflect on this. אם תעיין בו כפשוטו, if you just look at it simply, which in this context would mean simplistically, תראהו רחוק בתכלית מן האמת. It would be just wrong. It would be a wrong assertion on behalf of Chazal.

כאילו ארבע אמות של הלכה בלבד הן התכלית, ועבור שאר החכמות והידיעות יהיו מאוסות ונידחות.

Right? ד' אמות של הלכה lichora doesn't include ma'aseh bereishis, doesn't include ma'aseh merkavah, and seemingly this ma'amar Chazal is being dismissive of all that. Uvizman Shem v'Ever, and the implication of this would be that שם ועבר ושלא אחריהם שלא היתה שם הלכה, so the world was and therefore everyone populating the world was nothing. אין ספק שלא היה להקדוש ברוך הוא בעולם כלום. However says the Rambam, again this is an example of how one needs to understand the depth and the profundity of what Chazal are saying.

אבל אם תעיין בענין הזה בעיון מעמיק תראה שיש בו מן החכמה דבר נפלא, וצמצם שכלו בו דבר גדול מן המושכלות. ואני אבארהו לך כדי שיהיה זה כמשל לשאר מה שיבוא לידך, ולכן התבונן בו כראוי.

That's interesting here. I don't know. What does the Rambam mean by that when he says I'm going to explain this ma'amar Chazal to you and that will serve as a mashal for other ma'amarei Chazal that you'll encounter? So it sounds like he means more than just, you know, it's a mashal that what seems, that you should know that what seems nonsensical at first glance when a person exerts himself intellectually and has the siyata d'ishmaya, when a person understands it will see the depth and the profundity. But it sounds like the Rambam means more than that. It sounds like the Rambam says that if we really study this example carefully, the Rambam's giving us a derech in learning agadata. That's what it sounds like, right?

ואני אבארהו לך כדי שיהיה זה כמשל לשאר מה שיבוא לידך, ולכן התבונן בו כראוי.

So reflect carefully on what I'm telling you says the Rambam because I'm giving you a derech in learning agadata. דע כי הקדמונים והחכמים של הדורות הראשונים, they posed a... חקרו חקירה נפלאה כפי החכמה שהיתה להם וטוב השכל. A wondrous question v'his'ames etzlam and they uncovered a truth shekol nimtzah, whatever exists lo yitachen מבלי שיש לו תכלית שלמטרתו הייתה מציאותו. There's a purpose, there's a function for everything that exists כי אין שום דבר שהוא מצוי לריק. There's nothing that exists for no reason. ומאחר שנתאמתה להם ההנחה הכללית הזאת and once this axiom became clear to them,

עסקו בפרטי כל המציאות כדי לדעת תכלית כל מין מן המין

to understand what the function, what the purpose of everything is. The where did this yesod come from? So elsewhere the Rambam explains because a person who's a person who's a chacham, so אף אחת כמה וכמה if we're not talking about a person but we're talking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, doesn't do things which are not purposeful, right? It's futile and therefore foolish just to spin your wheels. It's a sign of chochma that a person does things which are purposeful, which are calibrated to achieving something. So if we see that amongst people, so

קל וחומר בן בנו של קל וחומר לגבי הקדוש ברוך הוא.

That's where this axiom comes from. Then the Rambam goes on to explain, I don't think we need to read it all together inside, that aval bederech klal, this is right after the Rambam quotes the pasuk of ויבואו מכל העמים לשמוע את חכמת שלמה. That Shlomo Ha-Melech understood within the workings of the world just what every system was intended for, what every ecosystem was intended for in terms of the larger briyos, so Shlomo Ha-Melech's knowledge was so great and unique in this realm. Aval bederech klal what one can generally say is that כל הנמצאים מתחת גלגל הירח, everything that exists underneath the sphere of the moon literally, the conception, the Rambam's cosmology, it wasn't his original cosmology, it was very prevalent in earlier times was that the world consists of several concentric spheres of which the Earth is the central one and then the sphere closest to the Earth is the one where the moon is embedded in the sphere, and then the sun, the stars are all in further distant from the sphere of the moon. So נמצא מתחת גלגל הירח means what's on Earth. Tachlis, that's what it means. That's just in the Rambam's vocabulary. That's a way of saying what's on Earth. The trees, the vegetation, the mineral deposits, etc. Aval bederech klal

כל הנמצאים מתחת גלגל הירח לא נמצאו אלא בשביל האדם בלבד.

That's what the kadmonim say and Rav Saadia Gaon has like this in Emunos ve-Deios as well. And that's the view that the Rambam subscribed to here in the הקדמה לפירוש המשניות. In the Moreh hu chozer bo, he changed his mind and said that we don't really know even תחת גלגל הירח why Hakadosh Baruch Hu created different things. Right? When you're trying to sleep on a hot summer night and there's a mosquito buzzing around you, so one wonders why did the world need mosquitoes, right? So the Rambam says don't bother trying to stay awake thinking about that, you're not going to figure it out. We don't know. adam is unique and singular, that doesn't necessarily mean that everything was was created for for our sake. Lemaise, Gemara has in Brochos in vov amud beis, Ve'amar Rabbi Chelbo, מאי כי זה כל האדם? Right? The the posuk at the end of Koheles,

סוף דבר הכל נשמע את האלקים ירא ואת מצותיו שמור כי זה כל האדם.

What does it mean כי זה כל האדם? Amar Elozor, אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא, amar Elozor,

אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא, כל העולם כולו לא נברא אלא בשביל זה. רבי אבא בר כהנא

amar, שקול זה כנגד כל העולם כולו. So be'emes those two opinions in Chazal really are the same two opinions as what the Rambam originally subscribed to, what Rav Sa'adia has as well in Emunos Ve'Deios, that כל העולם כולו נברא אלא בשביל זה. It sounds like it's there for for us, that we do know why it's there. Again, we we may or may not to varying degrees we we may be able to explain what the function of everything is. And the second says no, שקול זה כנגד כל העולם כולו. We're saying that in terms of worth, in terms of intrinsic value or worth, so that's what כי זה כל האדם means, but very clearly avoiding saying that כל העולם כולו נברא אלא בשביל זה. So it seems to be that these two opinions already are two deios here in Chazal. Okay, we'll stop.