Purim. 13 Ikarei Emunah #5

Just one thought, maybe, for a few minutes, we'll try to continue im yirtzeh Hashem, be'ezras Hashem, be'ezras Hashem, in a moment, in a moment. Everybody! Everybody! Everybody! Let's go! Hey! Hey! One of the sort of halacha l'ma'aseh implications, applications of the fact that the Purim is a day of kabbalas haTorah, of kimu v'kiblu. We don't, I'm not commenting in the context of what people should do in the context of anniversaries, right? In the context of yom tov when we don't celebrate anniversaries. Whenever we talk about what happened historically on a particular day, so its significance is that it means that that day is a zman. Pesach is a zman for geulah as evidenced, as illustrated, as expressed by the fact that kivayachol went out from Mitzrayim. And Shavuos is a zman of kabbalas haTorah. Purim is another zman of kabbalas haTorah again, not just that historically, the history provides the insight into the quality of the zman, what the zman is m'yuad for, what the zman is mesugal for. So what does it mean practically that Purim is a zman of kabbalas haTorah? So lechora one, but the only answer, but hopefully one correct answer. Let's look at the mashal of what happens when a president assumes office, so he gives his inauguration speech where he prescribes his vision, what he looks to accomplish during the course of his term. To be mekabel something means to minimally reflect on the significance of that. In the mashal position, in the nimshal that status, bracha, responsibility to reflect on its significance and what it warrants in terms of how do I then translate this kabbala? How do I live up to this kabbala? How do I live al pi this kabbala? So kabbalas haTorah by definition focuses a person in Ramchal's phrase on chovas ha'adam b'olamo, in Pirkei Avos's phrase on l'kach notzarta. If a person wins the lottery, he doesn't have to decide right away what he's going to do. He wins the Powerball lottery. He doesn't have to decide right away what he's going to do. I'll figure out how to invest tomorrow. I'll figure out how to invest after tomorrow. It's not that pressingly, he can put it in the bank and figure it out later. But when there's a kabbala which carries with it responsibility, it carries with it a mandate which is a mission, so then again, as in the mashal, so. The president is assuming the responsibility of of of the presidency; he can't go, oh I'm going to go on vacation and I'll figure out yes or no, as he's sworn in, yes or no what he's going to do to discharge the responsibilities of of of the office. So obviously in in that context there's a lot to think about, a lot to comment on in a general sense for each one of us personally individualizing it but just the one one general comment, by no means would it be the only relevant comment. Back back at the the context of כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו, of limmud haTorah harbeh, of כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו. Everyone has to figure out through self-knowledge what the particulars of their tafkid in life are, what the balance of the different responsibilities and different components of avodas Hashem is. There's no one there's no one mold in which everyone is supposed to be be placed. But whatever that correct balance is, the commitment to talmud Torah and aspirations in talmud Torah has to be a defining feature of a person's life. For some people, so maybe the fact that that's a defining feature will translate into into into continuing to learn full-time after marriage. For others maybe it doesn't translate that way. But if it doesn't translate that way, it should not not translate that way out of chesron. It should not translate that way because of correct shikulim in terms of כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו and how each one of us as an individual again balances and integrates the different aspects and different responsibilities and different demands of avodas Hashem. But the כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו, the כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו for every yachid has to be defining. Again it doesn't mean that it yields the same same thing for everyone in terms of where they are at at at at different at each stage of life. But wherever the person is, that should be a defining feature. And and part of that of talmud Torah of כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו as a defining feature is that a person has to have goals, has to have aspirations for for for their talmud Torah. And the goals and the aspirations. And not only expressed through the amount of time that a person looks to devote to Talmud Torah, but the goals and aspirations are in terms of Yedi'as HaTorah. So for instance, the goal which a person adopts as such, if a person adopts this goal of Daf Yomi, so the goal should be not just to go through Shas, the goal should be to know, to learn and to know. It shouldn't just be a goal of the goal, the aspiration has to be in terms of Yedi'as HaTorah. Again, the goals also have to be individualized. They have to be realistically ambitious, so provided that they're realistic, they have to be ambitious as well. I think we left off with the Yesod Hashlishi. Yesod Hashlishi is Shlilus HaGashmus. Hakadosh Baruch Hu's incorporeality. So the Rambam is quite clear here in Yesodei HaTorah as well, where he speaks at greater length, that when we say Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not physical, so what that really expresses again is that none of the actions or descriptions or states of being which are a function of physicality apply to him either. And that's what the Rambam says,

שלילת הגשמות ממנו והוא שהאחד הזה אינו גוף ולא כוח בגוף ולפיכך לא יאורו לו מאורעי הגופים,

that anything which is a function of physicality doesn't apply to Hakadosh Baruch Hu either, k'gon hatnuah v'hamenuchah. Originally the Rambam illustrates it just in terms of whether being in motion or at rest לא מצד העצם ולא במקרה. Just the whole thing just doesn't is not nitpas, that description the same way you can't say, you can't use weight to describe a color. You can't say is red heavier than green? It's not weight is a description when you're talking about mass. You can't use that description when you're talking about when you're talking about color. לכן שללו ממנו עליהם השלום השינוי והחיבור והפירוד. Or you can't talk about connection, disconnection. V'amar hanavi, skip a couple lines, ואל מי תדמיון אל ואל מי תדמיוני ואשוה. To whom can you compare Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I'm speaking in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's voice, to whom can you compare me and there would be any similarity? Says the Rambam, אילו היה גוף היה דומה לגופים. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu was physical, there would be some points of similarity.

וכל מה שבא בכתובים בתורה מתוארי הגופים כגון ההליכה ממקום למקום והעמידה והישיבה והדיבור וכיוצא בהן כולם הם דרך השאלה.

All the anthropomorphic descriptions of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, וילך ה' כאשר כילה לדבר, such pesukim. So they're all, all anthropomorphisms of being, the word is being used again derech hasha'alah, meaning that in addition to its, to one meaning which is a, which is a physical meaning, so it also has a, a non-physical meaning as well. So let's say Yeshiva, the Rambam says, is something that's abiding. Right, that Yeshiva means to sit because... to be abiding. So for instance when it says in Tehillim פה אשב כי איויתיה, so what it means is that my Shechina will abide here. It doesn't mean that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is sitting with one foot on top of the other. So that's what Rambam means by derech hasha'ala. By Basod Hashlishi

הזה הוא שהבורא אינו גוף ואמר כי לא ראיתם כל תמונה.

You should know that at ma'amad Sinai you didn't see any image. Peh, לא השגתם אותו בעל תמונה. What you apprehended was purely spiritual, intellectual apprehension. There was no physical element or component to it ki Hu zeh. The Rambam also explains in Yesodei HaTorah that human emotions are also linked to physicality. We even know that sometimes there's a physical component to when you feel emotions, whether it's face, whether it's the endorphins or the cortisol or whatever it is that's being released. And the descriptions of vayichar af Hashem and such are also al derech hasha'ala. Also derech hasha'ala. There is a temptation which you can summarize, and the summary grossly, grossly oversimplifies. But you can summarize a lot of what the Rambam taught and emphasized and communicated is that we have a tendency to think of HaKadosh Baruch Hu in superhuman terms. What does that mean? So most of us can't fly, but Superman, faster than a speeding bullet, he can. You know Superman? You guys know? He goes, he goes, he's... So we have a tendency to think of HaKadosh Baruch Hu in superhuman terms. That we live so long, and in the same terms HaKadosh Baruch Hu lives forever. And what we spoke about last time in terms of the Echad, not like any other echad, and here too, shelilas hageshumus again means that all the categories of things that exist that we know, all these are inapplicable. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is sui generis. HaKadosh Baruch Hu's existence, it's not just that it's greater, it's longer, it's eternally longer, vechu vechu. No, it's sui generis. HaKadosh Baruch Hu's kadmon is not a superlative human life span. It's not an eternal human life span. It's an existence that is entirely different, unique, singular. Okay, maybe next time we'll begin with the Rambam and the Ra'avad about whether someone who thinks HaKadosh Baruch Hu has a guf, whether or not that person is classified as a min.