Hilchos Deos #3

העומד בדברים האלו וכיוצא בהן דרך רעה היא מוציאה את האדם מן העולם. אפשר שמהם ויעשה בסגופות ובסדר אחר עד שלא יאכל בשר ולא ישתה יין ולא ישא אשה ולא ישב בדירה נאה ולא ילבש מלבוש נאה אלא השק והצמר הקשה והיוצא בהם כגון כומרי אדום והדומה להן גם זה דרך רעה היא ואסור לילך בה. המהלך בדרך זו נקרא חוטא. הרי הוא אומר בנזיר וכפר עליו מאשר חטא על הנפש. אמרו חכמים ומה נזיר שלא פירש אלא מן היין צריך כפרה המונע עצמו מכל דבר על אחת כמה וכמה. לפיכך ציוו חכמים שלא ימנע אדם עצמו אלא מדברים שמנעה התורה בלבד ולא יהיה אוסר עצמו בנדרים ובשבועות על דברים המותרים. כך אמרו חכמים לא דייך מה שאסרה תורה אלא שאתה אוסר עליך דברים אחרים. ובכלל הזה אלו שמתענים תמיד אינם בדרך טובה. ואסרו חכמים שיהיה אדם מסגף עצמו בתענית. ועל כל הדברים האלו וכיוצא בהן ציווה שלמה ואמר אל תהי צדיק הרבה ואל תתחכם יותר למה תשומם.

So the simple pshat is as follows. Mihad gisa, לא יהיה אוסר עצמו בנדרים ובשבועות. On the other hand, there’s the parshiyos of nedarim and shvuos in the Chumash. Mihad gisa, וכפר עליו מאשר חטא על הנפש is nikra chotei. On the other hand, a nazir is nikra kadosh, like the Gemara in Nedarim, beshum Rabban Gamliel about the yirbu kamocha biyisrael. So lichora, the just a very simple straightforward pshat is as follows. A person can take nedarim ushvuos. A person can be אוסר עצמו בדברים המותרים because he's basically designing a system which is different than that of the Torah's. The Torah says to go the derech habeinonis and he says, no, I have to consistently be al hakatzeh ha'achron. I can't have anything to do with anything that has any gashmius and the nedarim and shvuos and the taniyos are all towards that end. Or a person can selectively with or without nedarim ushvuos, tov shelo tidor, better without them. Or a person can selectively like the mishna says in Avos that nedarim siyag leperishus. So there it's not that a person is trying to come up with a different balance than the Torah gives. He's not trying to come up with a different system than that which the Torah gives, but a person sees that on an individual basis that he needs to be mechazek atzmo in a particular area. He sees like the Rambam says in the beginning of perek beis, he sees that maybe he's begeder cholei hanefashos with regard to a particular middah. So then, yirbu kamocha biyisrael, the Gemara says in Nedarim when this nazir looked into the well and he saw his image and he was overcome with ga'avah and whatever else would ensue and because of that he took a nezer nezirus. So Rabban Gamliel tells him yirbu kamocha biyisrael because he's not looking to establish a different standard than that of the Torah but rather nedarim siyag leperishus in his particular case with regard to this particular middah he needs an extra siyag. So lichora that's the בזאת תבחנו ובזאת נבחן whether or not it's an attempt to create a different balance to improve on the Torah's system, so that's אל תהי צדיק הרבה. But if it's because a person needs an individual siyag, so that's what the Rambam was talking about in beginning of perek beis, that a person is supposed to do that and that's why the Torah provides for nedarim. nedarim ushvuos. Sforno says this also very powerfully in Koheles on the pasuk that the Rambam quotes of אל תהי צדיק הרבה. Sforno says the pasuk after that is

אל תרשע הרבה ואל תהי סכל למה תמות בלא עתך.

That's so don't be a rasha, don't be a fool. למה תמות בלא עתך, why should you die prematurely? So listen to what the Sforno writes here.

אל תרשע הרבה להתאכזר אפילו על רשעים יותר מן הראוי כאומר ארבעים יכנו ולא יוסיף.

Even when the Torah says that punishment has to be administered, so al tirsha harbeh, don't go beyond what the Torah says. On the other hand,

אל תהי סכל לסור לגמרי מעסקי חיי שעה אפילו לעסוק בתורה ומצות.

Don't renounce entirely mundane involvement, iskei chayei sha'ah.

למה תמות בלא עתך שלא יעלה בידך לא זה ולא זה.

So the למה תמות בלא עתך, I don't know if it relates only to the אל תהי סכל הרבה, but it certainly relates equally in the Sforno's peshat to the אל תהי סכל הרבה. So that's the question a person always has to ask himself: is what he's doing בגדר נדרים סייג לפרישות? But the balance that he's trying to achieve is the Torah's balance, or now he's coming up with a better system? It's a better system: לסור לגמרי מעסקי חיי שעה. When people are reduced to poverty because they don't have a source of parnassah, and because of that they engage in devarim ha'asurim, and devarim ha'asurim which if publicized then result in chillul Hashem as well, so that's also part of אל תהי צדיק הרבה. A person can't improve on the Torah's balance between חיי שעה וחיי עולם, and if a person tries to, it's bichlal what Koheles says: אל תהי צדיק הרבה. Halacha beis:

צריך שיכוין כל מעשיו כולם כדי לדעת את השם ברוך הוא בלבד ויהיה שבתו וקומו ודבורו הכל ומרזה הדרך.

The Rambam proceeds to illustrate, perhaps it will be through it, what he's talking about here as he concludes at the end of halacha gimmel is

ועל ענין זה צוו חכמים ואמרו וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים והוא שאמר שלמה בחכמתו בכל דרכיך דעהו והוא יישר אורחותיך.

So here there's an אינו אומר אלא דורשני in the Rambam on two fronts. First of all, the breakdown of perakim here in hilchos de'os is very unusual. That halacha aleph in perek gimmel is where the Rambam is finishing off his discussion of the midas habeinonis. Again,

שמא יאמר אדם הואיל והתאוה והכבוד והיוצא בהן דרך רעה הן מוציאין אדם מן העולם אפרוש מהן ביותר ואתרחק לצד האחרון.

So the answer is it's assur to do that, that's also a derech ra'ah, but rather a person is supposed to go on the derech tovah vehaderech habeinonis. Halacha aleph, the Rambam is finishing his presentation of the midah habeinonis which has preoccupied him in perek aleph and perek beis. Then halachos beis vegimmel is a new topic of וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, bechol derachecha da'ehu. So why didn't the Rambam, should have began, halacha aleph should have been a pendant to the. division of perakim here in the Rambam. Second of all, the whole discussion of בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים lecha'ora belongs more under the rubric of the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem and in conjunction with the Rambam's presentation of ahavas Hashem than it does over here. It doesn't really seem to belong here. In Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuva, when the Rambam talks about

שאין אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא נקשרת בלבו של אדם עד שישגה בה תמיד כראוי ויעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנה כמו שציווה ואמר בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך,

that everything is totally devoted, a person is totally preoccupied, so that's where the Rambam should have talked about bechol derachecha da'eihu and בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים. It seems premature here and it's not clear what the continuity is with the previous discussion. So itachen two answers. Answer number one is that itachen that the Rambam is addressing the following unarticulated question: When a person finishes learning the derech habeinonus, so on the one hand it's very intuitive, but me'idach gisa, a person has a kasha, how can it be ha'olam hazeh is דומה לפרוזדור לפני העולם הבא? Olam haba is chayim ruchniyim; according to the Rambam bechlal there's no guf, even according to the other rishonim but that there is a guf, but a life of chayim ruchniyim, אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה ולא שינה etcetera. So why isn't it more appropriate takeh to go to the katzeh ha'acharon? So how do you sort of reconcile that ultimately what's meaningful and what ultimate life is is certainly devarim ruchniyim? So why doesn't the katzeh ha'acharon of the ruchniyus in every spectrum, why isn't that the right thing to do? And why isn't it the right thing, maybe that's not, maybe not the question why, but the question better formulated is so how do you reconcile the mida habeinonus with the fact that it's devarim ruchniyim which ultimately are what's important? And itachen that the Rambam says that what relieves that tension is the kavana of בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים by the devarim gashmiyim. When a person, again when a person is careful to eat and drink as much as he needs to to be healthy and to feel good and to feel strong, and when a person is careful to sleep in as much as he needs to sleep vechulu, when a person does wear a malbush na'eh, so when a person does that, if a person stam does that, ein hachinami, so then there's a tension between that, maybe not just a tension, maybe even an outright contradiction between that and between the tachlis of life. But when a person follows the derech habeinonus leshem shamayim, so then that's what what relieves the tension, because then if that's all elevated to avodas Hashem, so then already the kasha fades away. And emes is the Rambam says very very powerfully in Shmona Perakim, he does the same thing in Shmona Perakim in Perek Daled. He has basically what corresponds to the first two plus perakim here in Hilchos Deios, where he talks about the middah beinonis, and then in Perek Hei of Shmoneh Perakim he talks about בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, also the the same juxtaposition. And the Rambam says very, very powerfully. He says, לפי שהאדם אם ניגש ואכל מאכל ערב לחכו, reicho tov, ma'achal taiva,

אבל הוא מזיק ואפשר שיהיה גורם למחלה מסוכנת, הרי הוא והבהמה שוים, ואין זה מעשה אדם מצד היותו אדם אלא מעשה אדם מצד היותו בעל חי נמשל כבהמות נדמו. אבל תהיה פעולתו אנושית אם אכל המועיל בלבד, ואף אם יניח הערב ואכל הבלתי ערב לפי דרישת התועלת, וזו פעולה בהתאם למחשבה, ובזה ייבדל האדם במעשהו מזולתו. ואפשר,

then the Rambam says even more: אפשר שתהיה הנהגתו תמיד לפי התועלת כמו שביארנו. Could be that everything a person eats, everything is is calibrated that the to to maintain and sustain his health to the best of his ability. But אלא שעושה מטרתו בריאות גופו ושלמו מן המחלות בלבד, but that's his ultimate goal. His ultimate goal is that he should be again, he should be healthy and and should avoid rachmana litzlan sickness. Rambam says ein zo ma'ala. He's no better, Rambam says he's not really on a different level than the person who's eating for for pleasure. Rather,

לפי שכשם שהדיף זה הנאת הבריאות כך הדיף האחר הנאת המאכל או הנאת התשמיש.

He says they have different pleasures in life. One has a pleasure in life, it's hanas hacheich, hanas hagaron, and the other's pleasure, the other one's pleasure in life is the are the is the endorphins, what do they call them? The things that get released the the other one's pleasure in life is the are the is the hana'ah of of good health. Only if a person legitimately begins to infuse a kavanah of leshem shamayim, so only then does a person really elevate his actions above that of a ba'al chai. Because otherwise the same way a ba'al chai is just catering to to need and to instinct, so so too we're catering to to to desire and to to instinct. So that's lachora one one understanding of what the smichas haparshiyos here is, that the בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים is necessary to to sanctify and to elevate the achilah, the shetiyah, the sheinah, malbush no'i, etc., which the derech hatovah, which the middah beinonis requires. That's lachora one one pshat here in the smichas haparshiyos. Second pshat. The entire fulfillment and and implementation of everything the Rambam's been talking about here in Perek Alef, in Perek Beis, and the beginning of Perek Gimmel depends on being able to define what exactly is is the middah beinonis. So when it comes to money, what should a person's approach be? The middah beinonis. When it comes to speech, to how much a person talks, so what should his approach be? Should be the the middah beinonis. So what's what's the what so what is the middah beinonis? Maybe the middah beinonis is that I should talk twelve hours a day, no, twenty-four hours in the day. So one extreme would be to talk twenty-four hours a day, the other extreme would be not to talk. So I'll talk... So how do you decide what the middah habaynonis is? What defines the middah habaynonis? What defines the middah habaynonis? It's not, you can't always tell from everything the Rambam, all the examples that the Rambam gives, what the definition should be. So yitachen that the answer to the middah habaynonis, what defines the middah habaynonis, is what a person needs for his avodas hashem. And that's why the Rambam has to juxtapose the וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים to the middah habaynonis because without it middah habaynonis remains something which is in some cases too abstract to be able to implement and to fulfill. So how much again, so how much And there isn't a single word that he says,

אלא אם עושה הפעולה או עושה המילה מביא לידי מעלה או לדבר המביא לידי מעלה. והוא מתבונן וחושב בכל פעולה ותנועה ורואה,

and again he, a person, he calibrates, he assesses everything, ורואה אם היא מביאה לאותה התכלית או אינה מביאה, and only afterwards ve'achar kach ya'aseha. Then the Rambam says, again so this is what this is a darga gevoha me'od, lo yasiguha ela meatim, and ve'acharei hachshara raba and a person who does this is not lo pachos mi'nevia. Then the Rambam turns around and says, zehu ma shedoreish Yishtabach Shemo mimenu, for this is what there is nothing lifnim mishuras hadin in the word doreish, right? וזהו מה שהוא דורש ישתבח שמו ממנו, shetiheye zo matratenu

באומרו ואהבת את ה' אלוהיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך, כלומר בכל חלקי נפשך.

That bechol nafshecha means every resource, every sphere of activity, every level of nefesh,

שתשים תכלית כל חלק מהם תכלית אחת והיא אהבת ה' אלוהיך. וכבר זירזו גם הנביאים עליהם השלום על עניין זה ואמרו בכל דרכיך דעהו,

right? So that just underscores the question that we asked before, that really in the end the Rambam should have had the בכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים together with ahavas Hashem. Rambam here says it mefurash that it's that this is the way of implementing and expressing and achieving, it goes in both directions ahavas Hashem. So what's pshat over here? Only very, very few are such benei aliya that they attain it. Rambam says, veHakadosh Baruch Hu doreish. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hakadosh Baruch Hu requires it. So it's clear and be'emes right here in the Rambam minei u'vei also it's clear that lichora what it means is as follows. Think maybe we talked about this in other contexts. If you have the Rambam in front of you, you take a look in the famous Rambam in the beginning of Perek Beis of Yesodei HaTorah. So the Rambam says in Halacha Aleph that

האל הנכבד והנורא הזה מצווה לאהבו וליראה ממנו שנאמר ואהבת את ה' אלוהיך ונאמר את ה' אלוהיך תירא.

Fine, two mitzvos, ahava and yira. Halacha Beis, היכא היא הדרך לאהבתו וליראתו. So the Rambam very famously,

בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהם חוכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ, מיד אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאווה תאווה גדולה לידע השם הגדול.

How does a person begin on the path to ahava and yira? He has to reflect upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu's ma'asim and bruim haniflaim hagedolim and that starts him off on the path to ahava and yira. Fine, okay, and then this basically concludes the Rambam's discussion of ahava and he returns to it in Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuva. What's anomalous lichora about the Rambam is that he doesn't tell us any of the dinim of ahavas Hashem. He tells us a mitzvah, he tells us what the hechsher is, haderech le'ahavaso ve'yiraso, but the dinim of that ahavas Hashem means that a person should do, should be mekayem all mitzvos מפני אהבת אדון הכל אשר ציווה בה. That a person should be so preoccupied with Hakadosh Baruch Hu that he'd be best described as ke'cholas ahava ani. All those dinim of what ahavas Hashem should entail, how it should express itself, so all the dinim of the mitzvah the Rambam doesn't have. So it's a funny thing that the Rambam presents a mitzvah and doesn't tell us any of the dinim of the mitzvah. Ella mai, the Sefer HaChinuch has at the end of Mitzvas Ahavas Hashem, he says that when is a person guilty of being mevatel ha'mitzvah, right? That's the way he concludes every mitzvah, when is a person guilty of being mevatel ha'mitzvah? So the Sefer HaChinuch again, you're guilty of being mevatel mitzvas tefillin if you don't put on mitzvas tefillin for a day. You're guilty of being mevatel mitzvas lulav if you don't take the lulav on the first day of Tishrei. So you should be guilty of ahavas Hashem if a person isn't oheiv Hashem. Now says the Chinuch, if a person is just interested in hana'ah from olam hazeh, he's not striving, he's not aspiring, he's interested in hana'ah and kavod, and that's what animates him, that's what drives him, so then he says he's been mevatel and onesh gadol me'od. So it's clear from the Chinuch that as long as a person is working to attain ahavas Hashem that he's being mkayem the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem. Ahavas Hashem is not only when a person gets to the top of the mountain, but the whole climb, the attempt, the striving, the aspiring, all that is part of the kiyum hamitzvah. It's not hechsher mitzvah, it's all part of the kiyum hamitzvah. The emes is, that's meforash what the Rambam here, that's the answer for the Rambam in perek beis of Yesodei HaTorah. When the Rambam is telling us haderech l'ahavaso, it's not betoras hechsher, but haderech l'ahavaso itself is midinei hamitzvah, is part of the kiyum hamitzvah. And be'emes that's meduyak that that's what he's saying again. So how can it be that the me'atim me'od are such bnei aliyah that they ever really attain this, and this is required mizad ahavas Hashem because if you look, the Rambam here is very meduyak. The Rambam says וזהו מה שדרוש יתעלה ממנו שתהא זו מטרתנו. This should be our goal. That's our goal. Our goal should be to be such a person. Our goal should be to be such a person who's on such a madreigah that every word he says, every action he does, everything is measured and calibrated that it should have something to do with avodas Hashem, with ahavas Hashem. If a person is working on that, so then he's being mkayem the mitzvah. He hasn't exhausted it, he hasn't been mkayem the mitzvah a thousand percent that he can go on vacation, but he's in fulfillment and certainly not rachmana litzlan in violation of that mitzvah. There is a remarkable, again, the fact that the Rambam says that this, again, the working towards the goal, the striving, וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים is a mitzvah that's incumbent upon everyone. There is a very remarkable teshuvos HaRambam. The Rambam was asked about listening to zemer Yishmael. The Rambam has a whole list of issurim why he thinks it's categorically assur. He doesn't like the song, he doesn't like the instrumentation, he doesn't like the lyrics, he doesn't like anything about it. But then the Rambam says, then the Rambam says that haklal that the mechouvan in everything a person does has to be to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu because that's what it means to be a goy kadosh. Something to that effect. He quotes the phrase from parshas Yisro of goy kadosh. So what's the pshat? So be'emes what the Rambam there is saying. So what does the word kadosh mean? What does the word kadosh mean? So we translate it as holy. What does it mean etymologically, kadosh? So kadosh means something that is set aside for a specific purpose, right? Chazal have a lashon of hekdesh l'avodah zarah. Something can be, it's not the word kadosh isn't, doesn't inherently have a positive connotation. Is set aside, is designated. So Goy Kadosh means again set aside for a specific purpose. So the Rambam is saying that basically how do I know that וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים is something that every Jew is capable of working towards and aspiring to and that HaKadosh Baruch Hu asks us of that because that's what it means Goy Kadosh because Goy Kadosh means that it's a nation that's set aside, that's devoted, that's designated, that's sanctified for a purpose, the purpose of Avodas Hashem, and so mi'meila, mi'meila that's how I know that the Rambam says forget all the other issurim that I listed, he says just its emptiness, just the hollowness of the activity, so that would be grounds enough that it's not consistent with Goy Kadosh. Now obviously the Rambam also here in Shmona Perakim he has an entire perek, Rambam talks about, he talks about if a person, he's not talking about relaxing, he's talking about גבר עליו מרה שחורה, but it's the same basic principle, so there he takeh talks about שמיעת שירים ומיני נגינה, not zemer yishmaelim, he's not talking about that. But so again we're not talking about that a person is supposed to be so taut and tense because he never relaxes, no, a person is supposed to relax as much as he needs to relax and a person is supposed to have as much downtime as he needs, and the Rambam himself has it here in the beginning of perek chamishi and all of that, not only is it not at odds but adaraba, it's part of Goy Kadosh, the same way a person has to eat enough and a person has to rest enough, a person has to איש איש כפי מדרגתו, a person has to relax enough also. He talks about tiyul be-gannos as as appropriate, as needed for the person. But beyond that, all of that as well is part of living up to the mandate of Goy Kadosh which basically Goy Kadosh is mechayev in this וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים.