Ahava & Yirah in Shemiras Mitzvos

So what we saw last time in the Ramban, in the Ramban motif which recurs, that to be an Oveid Hashem with the right kavana to how one frames one's avodas Hashem doesn't belong just to the realm of midas chasidus and lechatchila, but is itself a chiyuv. That's how the Ramban understands le'ovdo bechol levavchem בכוונה ורצון שלמה לשמה. That's the first part he says in va'asisa hayashar vehatov that techaven be'asiyasan. techaven in the ושמרתם את כל מצוות ה' so to techaven be'asiyasan לעשות הטוב והישר בעיניו בלבד and that's again how he interprets leratzonchem tizbachu. But lechora there's something that needs to be... we need to understand a little bit more. So what does that mean? So when a person puts on... when we put on tefillin this morning, so let's say that one's machshovos at the time, yes, one was mechaven to the fact that kemo she'tzivani... kemo she'tzivani borei. That's what my kavana is, kemo she'tzivani borei. But a person is not oblivious to the fact that we get schar doing mitzvos and you know, it's hard to say that that is, you know, totally irrelevant to what one is doing. So is one, every time we do that, we're being mevatel a mitzvah according to the Ramban? So obviously not just as a self-defense mechanism, but because, you know, Torah is something which is shaveh lechol nefesh. The din that

אין גוזרין גזירה על הציבור אלא אם כן רוב הציבור יכול לעמוד בה,

that gufe is ke'ein d'oraisa, that Torah is something which is shaveh lechol nefesh. Anything which is not shaveh lechol nefesh is not a chiyuv on everyone. What's a chiyuv on everyone is shaveh lechol nefesh. So lechora it follows, if you have the sheet from last time you can look there, if not you can open to the Rambam in Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuva. You have the following two halachos back to back here in the beginning of Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuva. Halacha Aleph: the Rambam says

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא ואפרוש מן העבירה שהזהירה תורה מהן כדי שאינצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שלא אכרת מחיי העולם הבא. אין ראוי לעבוד את ה' על דרך זו שהעובד על דרך זו הוא עובד מיראה ואינה מעלת הנביאים ולא מעלת החכמים.

Okay, so again if it's על מנת לקבל פרס, whether the person is focused on olam hazeh or whether he's focused on olam haba, so that's oveid miyira, it's not ma'alas hanevi'im, it's not ma'alas hachachamim. A person is supposed to be oveid me'ahava. Halacha Beis: what does it mean to be oveid me'ahava?

העובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה לא מפני דבר בעולם לא מפני יראת הרעה ולא כדי לירש הטובה אלא עושה אמת מפני שהוא אמת וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל ומעלה זו היא מעלה גדולה עד מאוד

excuse me

ומעלה זו היא מעלה גדולה עד מאוד ואין כל חכם זוכה לה והיא מעלת אברהם אבינו שקראו הקדוש ברוך הוא אוהבי לפי שלא עבד אלא מאהבה.

So the Rambam says אין כל חכם זוכה לה. This maila being... But the alternative to being oved me'ahava is being oved mi'yira, which is eina ma'alas hachachamim. So, so how do you reconcile Halachos Aleph and Beis? So it's clear, it's clear that the simple answer is that in Halacha Aleph when the Rambam says eina ma'alas hachachamim, he means when a person is oved a hundred percent mi'yira. It's a hundred percent, this is, this is putting away money in my retirement fund, whether it's my retirement fund in Olam Hazeh, whether it's for my retirement fund in Olam Habah, that's what the mitzvah is. Halacha Beis, when he says אין כל חכם זוכה לה, he's talking about someone who's oved a hundred percent me'ahava. But there's a whole spectrum in between where a person is oved simultaneously mi'yira u'me'ahava. That's not a tarti de'sasri, where a person can genuinely, sincerely say that I'm being mekayem this because it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu's mitzvah and I'm doing it as such, and simultaneously he's aware of, interested in, and also motivated by the schar which will result. So that combination, so that a person is oved a hundred percent me'ahava is אין כל חכם זוכה לה. That at least it should be partially me'ahava, not purely mi'yira, that's ma'alas hachachamim. And if it's totally, entirely mi'yira, so that's what the Rambam was talking about in Halacha Aleph that that's eina ma'alas hachachamim. So the pshat is that the Ramban will agree with this. And that the answer to the question we asked is that a person is only going to be mevatel the chiyuv of u'le'ovdo be'chol levavchem if it's Halacha Aleph, if it's exclusively mi'yira, if it's exclusively על מנת לקבל פרס. But to be in fulfillment on the most basic level of u'le'ovdo be'chol levavchem, of the al derech hapshat ve'asisa hayashar ve'hatov, so even if it's a combination, even if a person does it lishma u'she'lo lishma as well, you can have a person can be doing something simultaneously both lishma u'she'lo lishma, so then he's certainly being mekayem u'le'ovdo be'chol levavchem. Is he being mekayem on the highest, highest level? No, of course, that already is dargos of the l'chatchila and mitzvah min hamuvchar. It could be that there are intimations within the Ramban as well, but but even just misvara that's what the pshat is here. Would the Ramban say the same thing for katan ve'nashim? It seems like the Rambam is saying that they serve Hashem purely from yira until they serve Hashem from any feeling of ahava. Would he say the Ramban would say you're mevatel a mitzvah? If a person would be oved Hashem entirely mi'yira, just one second. The Rambam also is describing it as a stage, right? And it's basically the stage of מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה. So presumably the Ramban... you know the Ramban is going to agree with that. Eino hanami if a person never never progresses to the again that at least it becomes the shema v'shelo lishma and purely shelo lishma so then is he binichnas something like that. There's a verse in the Rambam talking about in Halacha Beis, does not need to be mikayim the mitzva of Yiras Hashem also? It could be that and I don't know if we spoke about this once, but it's very meduyak if you if you reread Halachas Aleph and Beis, if you have in front of you look rabosai. So Halacha Aleph.

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא ואפרוש מן העבירות שהזהירה תורה מהן כדי שאנצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שלא אכרת מחיי העולם הבא.

So it's clear that the way the Rambam is using the term mitzvos is for fulfilling mitzvos asei, right? He's not using mitzvos the way we do commonly colloquially as referring to both asei and lo sa'asei, because no, a lo sa'asei is referred to as aveiros, right? That's what just in terms of what what the terms mean in the Rambam. Now in Halacha Beis, העובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ומצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה. So in Halacha Beis, the Rambam is only talking about how you're mikayim mitzvos asei. Right? There's no counterpoint in Halacha Beis to how a person is being poresh min ha'aveiros that there was in Halacha Aleph. That that lichora is clear. Again, if again once it registers how the Rambam's using the lashon mitzvos in Halacha Aleph so then it's clear that, so that's a pella. So on the one hand in Halacha Aleph the Rambam's critiquing both, he's critiquing the shelo lishma for both the motivation the mindset for kiyum mitzvos asei as well as זהירות ממצוות לא תעשה. But then the counterpoint of what one is supposed to do, there's only half a counterpoint in terms of mitzvos asei. You hear that rabosai? So lichora the p'shat is like this. Mitzva daled of the mitzvos asei.

היא שצונו להאמין יראתו יתעלה ולהיפחד ממנו ולא נהיה ככופים ההולכים בשבירות לבם ובקרי אבל נירא ביראת ענשו בכל עת וזהו אומרו את ה' אלהיך תירא.

So keyaduah when the Rambam lists mitzvas Yiras Hashem in Sefer Hamitzvos he speaks only about yiras ha'onesh. But whether he whether he would also speak of, not for our purposes, the word only is not the point. The point is that he speaks of yiras ha'onesh. Which means that yiras ha'onesh is a mitzva min of the taryag, which means it's not something a person's supposed to outgrow. It's not it's not p'shat, this is for a certain stage of religious development. No, you eat matzah your whole life, you put on tefillin your whole life, you shake a lulav your whole life, and a person's supposed to have yiras ha'onesh their whole life. The biggest tzaddikim, the biggest chasidei elyon, Rabbi Akiva had because he was supposed to have yiras ha'onesh. Which is why in halacha daled, now the Rambam then also writes in Perek Shmonah. It's not clear what he's quoting, but he's quoting something that Yirah primarily by Antignos Ish Soko: ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. So the Rambam says that Yirah manifests itself primarily in Zehirous from Mitzvos Asei. So le'chora it's clear that the pshat in halacha beis that when the Rambam's depicting avoda me'ahava, he's talking about Mitzvos Asei, not Mitzvos Lo Ta'asei, it is because ahava is the modality for kiyum hamitzvos for Talmud Torah, again kiyum hamitzvos in the sense of Mitzvos Asei. But even on the ideal level, yiras ha'onesh remains the modality, a modality for zehirous from Mitzvos Lo Ta'asei. That's pshat in halacha beis. So why did the Rambam critique it in halacha aleph?

כדי שלא אנצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה כדי שלא אכרת מחיי העולם הבא

is yiras ha'onesh. So why did the Rambam critique it? So le'chora the pshat is like this: If you have a person who's being nizar from Mitzvos Lo Ta'asei mitoch yiras ha'onesh. So that can mean, that can reflect either of two very different things. It can reflect that he's being mekayem mitzvah gimmel of the Mitzvos Asei of yiras hashem or it can be that his avodas hashem is based on self-interest. The two converge, right? Yiras ha'onesh if it's motivated by, if it's driven by a mitzvah, so what am I afraid of? The mitzvah to be afraid of the onesh. A person should be afraid, he should be afraid of a midas hadin. So if I'm doing it betoras mitzvah, so what am I? I'm shaking over the midas hadin. And if I'm doing it out of self-interest, fine, I'm shaking over the midas hadin. So how does a person know when he looks in the mirror which it is? How does a person know which it is? No one else knows. Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows. No one else can know because אדם יראה לעיניים והשם יראה ללבב but a person has to be able to, he can't look in someone else's heart, he has to be able to look into his own heart though. So how does a person know which it is? How do I know what my yirah is? Whether it's a Mitzvas Asei of yiras ha'onesh or whether it's self-interest? So the answer is, how do I do Mitzvos Asei? If I do Mitzvos Asei at least partially because this is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu told me to do, so then yitachen that at least partially my yiras ha'onesh is because it's a mitzvah, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu said there should be yiras ha'onesh. But if my Mitzvos Asei is purely

כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא,

that's it, it's entirely that, so then it's quite clear that my concern of not to Rachmana litzlan be vulnerable to the klallos haksuvos batorah or Rachmana litzlan to be nichras from chayei ha'olam haba, it's clear that that's just my self-interest. That's not the mitzvah of yiras ha'onesh. Ah, so when the Rambam is critiquing it, and everything is so unglaublich meduyak. What did he begin with? In Rambam halacha aleph when he's depicting, what does he begin with? He begins with how you mekayem Mitzvos Asei. Because it's only, only when such a person who's being mekayem Mitzvos Asei that way, only that person should be critiqued for his yiras ha'onesh. Because davar lamed me'inyano. You see from the fact that he's

עושה מצוות התורה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא,

so that sheds light on what the root is, what's expressed in his kedei she'enatzel. That's why he bedafke begins with that. Okay, so we'll stop here for today. Tomorrow's Wednesday. So tomorrow b'ezrat Hashem we'll start a new unit on the Ramban, a little bit about Ta'amei Mitzvos and Chukim, and we'll, the first Ramban we'll begin with בלי נדר בעזרת השם will be the Ramban in Ki Seitzei on Kan Tzippor.