Avraham’s Uniqueness, Justice Divinely Defined

Perek Yud-Ches Pasuk Yud-Ches. So the flow of the Psukim in which the Ramban is commenting: Pasuk Yud-Zayin,

והשם אמר המכסה אני מאברהם אשר אני עושה, ואברהם היו יהיה לגוי גדול ועצום ונברכו בו כל גויי הארץ, כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו ושמרו דרך השם לעשות צדקה ומשפט למען הביא השם על אברהם את אשר דבר עליו.

So Rashi says, V'Avraham Hayo Yihiyeh, Midrash Agadah, Zecher Tzaddik Livracha, Chol Vehizkiro Bercho. I mean, what's the flow? Hakadosh Baruch Hu says: 'Am I going to conceal' - right, it's a rhetorical question - 'Am I going to conceal from Avraham Avinu that which I'm doing?' And then he says, ואברהם היו יהיה לגוי גדול. So Rashi says, Al Derech Midrash, Zecher Tzaddik Livracha. Again, Zecher Tzaddik Livracha, not in the sense that we use it, but rather if you mention the Tzaddik, you should give him a Bracha. Right, not that the mentioning of the Tzaddik should occasion a Bracha for us, but if you mention the Tzaddik, you should give him a Bracha. Chol Vehizkiro Bercho. So that's Al Derech Midrasha Rashi. Pshuto Shel Mikra, says Rashi,

וכי ממנו אני מעלים והלא הוא חביב לפני להיות לגוי עצום.

And Lefi Pshuto, it's explaining, what do you mean, המכסה אני מאברהם אשר אני עושה, who is Avraham Avinu that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is saying that how can it be that I'll conceal it from him? Avraham Avinu is so special that he's going to be a Goy Gadol V'Atzum, so how can it be that I'm going to conceal this from him? And then presumably according to Rashi, the כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה is why he's so special. So Pasuk Yud-Ches explains Pasuk Yud-Zayin, Pasuk Yud-Tes explains Pasuk Yud-Ches, right? Pasuk Yud-Zayin says, 'Am I going to bitmiya, will I conceal it from Avraham Avinu?' Pasuk Yud-Ches explains because Avraham Avinu is special, and Pasuk Yud-Tes explains why he's special. Right? So that's the flow of the Psukim according to Rashi. What does the Ramban say? V'Avraham Hayo Yihiyeh, Midrash Agadah, sorry, והנכון כי השם יתברך דבר בכבוד אברהם. Amar, הנה הוא עתיד להיות לגוי גדול ועצום, and therefore what? And therefore as the progenitor of a Goy Gadol V'Atzum, יהיה זכרו בזרעו ובכל גויי הארץ לברכה. Avraham Avinu throughout history is going to be known because he's going to be the progenitor of a Goy Gadol. So Memeila, יהיה זכרו בזרעו ובכל גויי הארץ לברכה. And that's why

לכן לא אכסה ממנו, כי יאמרו הדורות הבאים איך כיסה ממנו,

or alternatively, if they'll assume that even though I didn't tell him, they'll assume that I did,

או איך נתאכזר הצדיק על שכנו והרחמנים עליו ולא הוכיח ולא התפלל עליהם כלל.

So that's why, because Avraham Avinu is someone who's going to be known and renowned LeDor Doros, that's why I can't conceal it from him because however people will interpret things, either they'll interpret that he wasn't worthy of being told, or they'll interpret that he was told, but the reason there's no mention of it is because he didn't react. Now, והגילוי עליו טוב ויפה, Ki Yedativ. Ki yedativ bo and revealing the imminent destruction of Sdom is totally appropriate, why?

כי ידעתיו בו שהוא מכיר ויודע שאני ה׳ אוהב צדקה ומשפט

klomar שאני עושה משפט רק בצדקה. Right, it's a din which is ameliorated with chesed.

ולכך יצוה את בניו ובית אחריו והלכו דרך ה׳. והנה אם בדרך צדקה ומשפט יפטרו יתפלל לפני להניחם בטוב הדבר ואם חייבים הם לגמרי גם הוא יחפוץ במשפטם לכן ראוי שיבא בסוד ה׳.

And Avraham Avinu will know how to appropriately react to my telling him that Sdom is about to be destroyed since ki yedativ. Again, Avraham was, since אברהם היה יהיה לגוי גדול ועצום, that's why it's היתכן שהמכסה מאברהם אשר אני עושה. And as it were, I can afford to share this information with Avraham Avinu because he'll know how to react to it, because since

כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את בניו ובית אחריו ושמרו דרך ה׳ לעשות צדקה ומשפט,

why does he command his household to act that way? Because he understands what the derech Hashem is, so he'll be mispallel appropriately. He'll be mispallel, he'll be sho'el kehogen, he won't be sho'el shelo kehogen in his tefillah. That's the flow of the pesukim according to the Ramban. A person is only supposed to davven when the tefillah is appropriate. Some things it can be inappropriate to davven for. But the Ribbono Shel Olam says that's not a concern with Avraham Avinu because ki yedativ, ki yedativ that he understands what derech Hashem is, la'asot tzedaka umishpat, so mimmela he'll know how to davven. So the phrase la'asot tzedaka umishpat. So according to the Ramban, it's almost as if if we were going to write the pasuk with the punctuation, it's almost as if it's hyphenated. Or maybe that's what the effect of the vav is, meaning the vav is not just sort of I do A and B but sort of merging A and B into one, right? I do mishpat bederech tzedaka. It's a hyphenated... That's what Ramchal says also. Ramchal in towards the beginning of Mesillas Yesharim says that the reason emes is included in the yud-gimmel middos harachamim

ה׳ ה׳ א-ל רחום וחנון ארך אפים ורב חסד ואמת,

and then at the end is venakeh velo yenakeh, is because Hakadosh Baruch Hu does rachamim and chesed but not in a way that contradicts emes. You can have rachamim or chesed which is done in a way that contradicts emes, or you can have rachamim or chesed and again in a way that blends with and therefore to a degree ameliorates the mishpat but doesn't contradict the mishpat. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu's middah would be, okay, so the person sinned, we'll leave him be, let him get away with it, so that would be a middas harachamim which contradicts emes, which contradicts If HaKadosh Baruch Hu would say that a person sinned and therefore he should be immediately punished, maybe even immediately killed, so that would be a middas hadin which wasn't blended with a middas harachamim. When HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that the person was chotei, but there will be a middah of erech apayim which gives him an opportunity to do teshuva and if he does teshuva he can get kappara, so that's a middas harachamim which is consistent with din. Not a middas harachamim which conflicts with din, but a middas harachamim which is consistent with din. That's what the Ramban is saying also, I do mishpat but in a way of tzedaka. It's not pure mishpat, on the other hand, it's not pure tzedaka in the sense that it's a middas harachamim which would be contradicting the middas hadin. Is that why Avraham Avinu had to davven for 10 people because otherwise it wouldn't have been emesdik to meyatzeil Sdom? Apparently that's what the lechora that's what the implication of the Ramban is, yes. Yes, lechora. The Rambam doesn't say this, but lechora one can reconstruct based on what the Rambam does say, that again so far we have two pshatim, we have Rashi's pshat in the sequencing of the pesukim here yud zayin through yud tes, that yud zayin HaKadosh Baruch Hu says rhetorically am I going to conceal it from Avraham Avinu, pasuk yud chet says but I love Avraham Avinu and v'hoyo he's going to be the goy gadol and why do I love him למען אשר יצוה את בניו. That's the flow according to Rashi. According to the Ramban the flow is am I going to conceal it from Avraham Avinu, so who's going to know if I conceal from Avraham Avinu what difference does it make? No, it's going to make all the difference, Avraham Avinu's going to be renowned for all of history because he's going to be the גוי גדול ועצום ונברכו בו כל גויי הארץ. He's going to be the most famous person who ever lived. And they'll have questions on him if he's not given the opportunity to be mispallel. Ay, maybe he will be mispallel shelo kahogen, I don't have to worry about that ki yedativ. That's the flow according to the Ramban. Again I don't know that the Rambam says how he learned pshat but I think we can reconstruct it. In Parshas Ki Sisa where Moshe Rabbeinu makes a bakasha which results in the י"ג מדות הרחמים being recorded in the Torah, so Moshe Rabbeinu's bakasha is va'ata Perek lamed gimmel pasuk yud gimmel in Sefer Shemos,

ועתה אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך הודעני נא את דרכך ואדעך למען אמצא חן בעיניך וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה.

Actually I should begin with the previous pasuk and we'll come back to it at the end. So Moshe Rabbeinu asks for הודעני נא את דרכך. The Rambam says the י"ג מדות הרחמים which the Torah records are not an don't provide an exhaustive list of darkei HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the world. So if they don't provide an exhaustive list of darkei HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the world, so sort of what's the criterion that HaKadosh Baruch Hu was using in recording these yud gimmel middos in the Chumash? So the Rambam says hu hitstamtzem. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, made do. He limited בהשקעת שלוש עשרה מדות אלה even though Moshe Rabbeinu was really given to understand everything

מפני שאלה הם המעשים היוצאים מלפניו יתעלה באשר להוות בני אדם לידי מציאות והנהגתם.

But these are the middos that pertain to Hakadosh Baruch Hu's creation and governance of people. I mean there were other middos and there's more to the briya than just people, so there are other middos, but these are the middos that pertain to Hakadosh Baruch Hu's creation of and governance of people. הוות בני אדם לידי מציאות והנהגתם. And says the Rambam, and the emes is, that was really the emphasis in Moshe Rabbeinu's bakasha.

זאת היתה המטרה האחרונה של שאלתו שהרי השלמת הדבר ואדעהך למען אמצא חן בעיניך וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה אשר אני צריך להנהיגם במעשה שאדמה בהם במעשיך והנהגתך.

The pshat here, this pasuk, I mean Rashi also is misyacheis to it in a very different pshat. How does the pasuk hang together? ועתה אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך. If you have it, it's ל"ג י"ג in Shemos.

ועתה אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך הודעני נא את דרכיך.

So Moshe Rabbeinu is asking for yedias Hashem. הודעני נא את דרכיך. I want to know the darchei Hashem. And by knowing darchei Hashem, that will be ve'eda'acha. That will be, that will give me yedias Hashem. למען אמצא חן בעיניך, and that's the way a person is oivais Hashem. And now seemingly a total non-sequitur: וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה. The last phrase there in the pasuk seems to be, doesn't seem to connect to the rest of the pasuk. You take a look, Rashi is clearly addressing that difficulty. The Rambam's pshat is as follows: that Moshe Rabbeinu, as great as his desire for yedias Hashem and ahavas Hashem was, that he's not even asking this for himself. Moshe Rabbeinu is saying: Look, Ribbono Shel Olam, I didn't want the job, but you made me take the job to be the manhig of this people. So now, אם מצאתי חן בעיניך. Again, pasuk yud beis, the preceding pasuk,

ל"ג י"ב. ויאמר משה אל השם ראה אתה אומר אלי העל את העם הזה ואתה לא הודעתני את אשר תשלח עמי.

Ribbono Shel Olam, you instructed me that I should lead this people up from Mitzrayim to Eretz Yisrael. So you've appointed me the manhig. You've appointed me the manhig, so then I need to know what your darchei hahanhaga are that I'll emulate them. And it's not for me: וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה. I'm not, I'm not asking for me: וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה. So mimaila, that's why the yud gimmel middos that are recorded are the yud gimmel middos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu that pertain to hanhagas bnei adam as opposed to other middos which, I don't know, in terms of the briya as a whole. You hear that pshat? That's how the Rambam learns pshat here in the pesukim in Ki Sisa. That's what's mefoirash in the Rambam. Lich'ora, it's clear, I think it is. Al pi zeh, the way the Rambam learns pshat in our parsha is like this: והשם אמר המכסה אני מאברהם אשר אני עושה. Am I going to conceal from Avraham Avinu what I'll do? If I'll conceal from Avraham Avinu what I'll do, so then it's going to be okay, he'll see it after the fact, but if I won't explain it to him, it's going to be inscrutable. He's not going to have understood. He'll know the fact of the destruction of Sedom va'Amora, but he won't know, he won't understand the midda. Why does he have to understand the midda? ואברהם היו יהיה לגוי גדול ועצום because these middos are needed again for hanhaga... וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה. But Avraham, it's not going to happen until future generations. Avraham Avinu is not going to be the manhig. First it's going to be Yitzchak and Yaakov, then they're going to have to go down to Mitzrayim for two hundred and ten years. No, ki yedativ. Whatever I tell Avraham Avinu... He's going to transmit. He's going to transmit. So, itochen also. Maybe according to, maybe according to the Rambam's peshat, we also understand something which lechora is omer dorsheni in the pesukim here. Me'altan lei, Avraham Avinu is going to ask even for עשרה צדיקים בתוך העיר. Then he's going to go down from 10 to being מצרף הקדוש ברוך הוא to the minyan asara, so he goes down from 50 to 40. So why does Avraham Avinu do it incrementally? Like if ultimately he's going to ask for 40, let's say. Again, Rashi says it's 10 to save each city, right? There were five cities. But even according to Rashi, that there's 10 for each city, so ultimately he's going to say maybe you can be metzaref with nine in each city. So what about 45? So Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, okay, 45. So why didn't he just begin with that? Why does he work incrementally? First he asks 50, 10, a minyan without Hakadosh Baruch Hu in each city. And then he says, you know what? How about that you'll be the asiri to the minyan? So then to save all five cities, 45 will be enough. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu, when he asked for 50, Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't tell him there aren't 50. Hakadosh Baruch Hu just said, yeah, if there are 50, then they'll be saved. He didn't tell him that there aren't 50. So it's not that Avraham Avinu sees that that isn't enough so he has to ask for more. So why doesn't he just initially ask 45? Why is it done so incrementally? Why is it done so incrementally? So lechora, according to, I don't know what Rashi's answer to that is, but according to the Rambam, the peshat is like this. Let's say Avraham Avinu would have fast-forwarded and just by asking incrementally, so Avraham Avinu understands exactly where the cutoff is in terms of the darkei Hashem. By asking, what about this scenario? What about that scenario? What about this scenario? So it's not just an exercise in tefillah according to the Rambam, it's also an exercise in understanding the darkei Hashem. So mimaila, that's Avraham Avinu, he's... again, it's avada it's tefillah as well, but it's tefillah, but it's also this attempt to understand the darkei Hashem because that's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu was telling it to him. That's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu was telling it to him. Okay. We'll resume at 1:30.