Tzedek, Tzedaka, Tamim.

Continuing with the Ramban from yesterday on the beginning of Parshas Noach. The Ramban says that Noach ish tzadik means that he was innocent and tamim he was entirely innocent, good.

אבל באברהם שאמר לעשות צדקה ומשפט שבחו אותו בצדק שהוא המשפט וברחמים שהיא הצדקה.

So what's the Ramban coming to explain? That if tzadik means innocent, so then l'chora tzedek then means truthfully m'ika hadin, right? The same way innocent is something which reflects m'ika hadin, so then that's what tzedek—if tzadik is someone innocent, then tzedek means shuras hadin. But then how do you distinguish that from mishpat by Avraham Avinu? So the Ramban says no, there it means something different.

אבל באברהם שאמר לעשות צדקה ומשפט שבחו אותו בצדק שהוא המשפט וברחמים שהיא הצדקה.

So then is the Ramban distinguishing here tzedek and tzedakah, or no? He's distinguishing when tzedakah is alongside mishpat. I mean clearly the Ramban is saying that by Avraham Avinu tzedakah means rachamim, it doesn't mean again—if you begin with innocence so then you get m'ika hadin, right? What's just, what's m'ika hadin. And that's not what it means because that's what mishpat is. So is it the difference between tzedakah and tzedek or is it... or is it when it's alongside mishpat? Either way l'chora even if you say when it's alongside mishpat, clearly there's a different connotation to tzedakah than there is to tzedek. And the Ramban is distinguishing the two, that tzedek is justice and hence one who is in fact innocent, it means that he's innocent, and tzedakah has the sense of rachamim. So it's strange, right? It's the same shoresh and yet clearly, you know, din, innocence on the one hand and rachamim on the other hand are two very different meanings. And somehow they're both emerging from the same shoresh. So maybe let's leave that question for a second. The Rambam gives an extraordinary pshat in how practically the word tzedakah, as the Rambam says means rachamim, and how that sort of fits with the fact that it has the same semantics as tzedek. He says he used tzedek to describe when a person does what's right and warranted for someone else. So if an employer pays his employees what they have coming to them, so then he's acting bitzedek because that's what justice requires. He says tzedakah, again, so when do we use tzedakah? Let's say we use it most commonly, colloquially when a person gives tzedakah. He says when a person gives tzedakah, he's acting bitzedek klapei atzmo. The same way the employer... So when a person acts klapei acherim in a way that's consistent with his neshama, his values, so that's why it's referred to as tzedakah, because relative to himself it's tzedek, relative to himself it's tzedek. You hear the pshat of the Rasa? In the bein adam lachaveiro it's what we colloquially call tzedakah, right? In the bein adam lachaveiro it's rachamim. But in the bein adam le'atzmo, no, that's what's warranted, the same way when the employer gives the employee his wages beino leveino that's what's warranted. So when the ashir gives the ani the tzedakah, that's what's warranted for the ashir beino levein atzmo. And it's basically the same fundamental understanding which underlies the two. Again, but and that's how it ends up, once one ends up describing what's required al pi din, and the other ends up describing again what is an act of rachamim because the rachamim is tzedek beino le'atzmo. So when we're talking about bein adam le'atzmo, we use the word tzedakah, Lashon HaKodesh uses the word tzedakah, and when we're talking about the bein adam lachaveiro, so then Lashon HaKodesh uses the word tzedek, but it's the same underlying, underlying meaning. At first glance the Rambam seems a little bit to be soseir this understanding he gives of tzedakah in perek tet of Hilchos Teshuvah. In halacha alef when the Rambam is explaining the role and the significance of

ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם ונתנה הארץ יבולה ועץ השדה יתן פריו

all the brachos and conversely rachmana litzlan the klalos, so the Rambam says as follows: הקדוש ברוך הוא נתן לנו תורה זו עץ החיים, tes alef in Hilchos Teshuvah,

וכל העוסק בה ככתוב בה ויודעה דעה גמורה נכונה זוכה בה לחיי העולם הבא.

One's chelek in Olam HaBa, there are two factors that determine: one is godel ma'asav and the other is godel chochmaso, those are the two variables, the two factors.

והבטיחנו בתורה שאם נעשה אותה התורה בשמחה ובטובת נפש ונהגה בחכמתה תמיד שיסיר ממנו כל הדברים המונעים אותנו מלעשותה כגון חולי ומלחמה ורעב וכיוצא בהן וישפיע לנו כל הטובות המחזקים את ידינו לעשות את כל התורה כגון שובע ושלום ורבות כסף וזהב כדי שלא נעסוק כל ימינו בדברים שהגוף צריך להן אלא נשב פנויים ללמוד בחכמה ולעשות המצווה כדי שנזכה לחיי העולם הבא. וכן הוא אומר בתורה אחר שהבטיח בטובות העולם הזה

utzedakah tihyeh lanu. Now the pasuk continues כי נשמור לעשות את כל דברי התורה הזאת, something like that. So again just re-reading that last line which is the one where tzedakah appears:

נשב פנויים ללמוד בחכמה ולעשות המצווה כדי שנזכה לחיי העולם הבא.

Right? The ultimate schar from the limmud hachochma and asiyas hamitzvos is Chayei Olam HaBa, and the raya for that is... utzedakah tihyeh lanu. So from pshuto, the word tzedakah seems to me that we'll receive HaKadosh Baruch Hu's gonna give us tzedakah, and that tzedakah that He's gonna give us is chayei olam haba. So how does that mesh with what the Rambam tells us in terms of what the word tzedakah means? So the Ibn Ezra on the pasuk, he doesn't really, he's not being msayeia to what the semantics of tzedakah is in this pasuk. tzedakah here refers to olam haba. I think the Ibn Ezra in this pasuk. But how does that work for the Rambam? The Rambam says that tzedakah doesn't mean charity. tzedakah, what tzedakah really means is when that person, when the osher is acting in a way that bein adam l'atzmo is b'tzedek. So then how does tzedakah mean olam haba? So something extraordinary here, lichora the pshat is as follows. I think maybe we mentioned once that the Rambam has in the previous perek, in fact פרק ח הלכה א here, that if a person rachmana l'tzlan is chayav the type of kareis, for the Rambam this is only the kareis associated with avodah zarah, it's not the other krisos in the Torah. If a person is chayav the type of kareis which means that he's נכרת מחיי עולם הבא, so the Rambam says וכל מי שאינו זוכה לחיים אלו speaking about chayei olam haba

הוא המת שאינו חי לעולם אלא נכרת ברשעו ואבד כבהמה. וזהו הכרת הכתוב בתורה שנאמר הכרת תכרת.

When the Torah has the double lashon kareis, which is only once by megadef, by avodah zarah, so then it means not just kareis olam hazeh rachmana l'tzlan but even olam haba. So I think we commented, what does the Rambam need the avad k'beheimah? Like the Rambam is, as it were, sort of hurling a gratuitous insult to the guy, you're a vilde chaya, avad k'beheimah. So what's the pshat? We said no, the pshat is like this, the pshat is that by virtue of the neshamah or the Rambam calls it the nefesh within us, so really to be human means to be זוכה לחיי עולם הבא. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us a nefesh where the default setting is that a person should merit chayei olam haba. If a person is mkalkel to such an extent, so then he's sinking to a sub-human level. That's what the Rambam is telling us. He's not interested in insulting the guy. The Rambam is telling us that that a person rachmana l'tzlan who loses his chayei olam haba, that meant he has sunk to a sub-human level. The natural destiny of a person, the natural certainly the natural destiny of a Jew, כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא, is that a person should be זוכה לחיי עולם הבא. That's so kum d'ei, so we said how does the Rambam Hilchos Teshuvah shtimm with what he has elsewhere? When in Hilchos Teshuvah utzedakah tihyeh lanu refers to chayei olam haba. The teretz is no, tzedakah means the same thing. utzedakah tihyeh lanu means that if we'll live by the Torah so then we'll be doing tzedek, right, bein adam l'atzmo, we'll be doing tzedek by ourselves and what does it mean ultimately when a person does tzedek by himself? They'll be

זוכה לחיי עולם הבא. רבי אברהם אמר צדיק במעשיו תמים בלבו,

meaning the Ramban has interpreted tamim as an adverb, right? Ish tzaddik tamim that the Ramban basically taytshes tamim is an adverb, that Noach was completely innocent, right? Wholly with a W, that he was wholly innocent. The Ibn Ezra says רבי אברהם אמר צדיק במעשיו תמים בלבו. Now it's sort of two different adjectives, two different descriptions. So the Ramban again k'darko, just he writes very compactly, וכתיב תמים אתה בדרכך, meaning that lichora that pasuk is a kasha on the Ibn Ezra, that tamim doesn't, tamim is something which is expressed, it's not just something which is internal. וכתיב תמים אתה בדרכך so that's a kasha on Ibn Ezra.

ואחר שאמר שהוא איש צדיק איננו איש חמס ומשחית דרכו כבני דורו החייבים, אמר שהיה מתהלך את השם, את האלוהים התהלך נח, אמר שהיה מתהלך את השם הנכבד ליראה אותו לבדו, איננו נפתה אחרי הוברי שמים,

the astrologists,

ומנחשים ועוננים וכל שכן אחרי עבודה זרה, ואינו שומע להם כלל, רק בשם לבדו הוא דבק תמיד והולך בדרך אשר בחר השם או אשר יורה אותו כי נביא היה, וזה טעם אחרי השם אלהיכם תלכו ואותו תיראו.

So what does Ramban mean and why is it relevant here that he is a navi? So the Ramban consistently, as he himself gives the cross-references, Ramban understands that the idiom of אחרי ה' אלהיכם תלכו or hishalech lefanai means to observe mitzvos Hashem. That's what the idiom when you have in Chumash halicha, again whether it's acharei or lifnai, here it's sort of in between it's im, but the halicha means bedarkei Hashem, bemitzvos Hashem. So how could Noach, how did Noach know the derech Hashem to be את האלוהים התהלך נח? So that's what Ramban answers, he gives two possibilities. He says either הולך בדרך אשר בחר ה', the Sheva Mitzvos which maybe he knew bekabbala from Adam HaRishon or asher yoreh oso, maybe even it means beyond that ki navi haya, that since Noach was a navi, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu told him what what's expected of him, what the darchei Hashem are, but the idiom of halicha of hishalech means lishmor mitzvos Hashem. Lishmor mitzvos Hashem. Give me one second. So bli neder, the iyun will be a few minutes after the end of Mincha.