Ramban Ki Sisa

The Ramban comments on the posuk right at the beginning of Perek Lamed Beis:

וירא העם כי בשש משה לרדת מן ההר ויקהל העם על אהרן ויאמרו אליו קום עשה לנו אלהים אשר ילכו לפנינו כי זה משה האיש אשר העלנו מארץ מצרים לא ידענו מה היה לו.

The Ramban comments on המפורסם בענין העגל ומחשבתם בו. This posuk is the key to unlocking the whole Chet Ha'egel because it tells us what their intent was, kiviyachol, that it was clearly that they were thinking

שהיו ישראל סבורים שמשה הוא האלוהים ושהוא בכוחו ועצמו עשה להם הנסים.

From the beginning when they said כי בשש משה ממנו נעשה אלוהים. And further as it's explained they said אלוהים אשר ילכו לפנינו, not that they would give them chaim ba'olam hazeh or chaim ba'olam habah. So the Ramban says first of all, it's impossible that they attributed everything that happened to Moshe Rabbeinu and not Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What's more, you see that besides that just being self-evident, you see it reflected in what they said, that they were looking for אלהים אשר ילכו לפנינו. If they meant that they were looking for divinity, so then you attribute to Elokus not just אלהים אשר ילכו לפנינו, you attribute to Elokus chaim ba'olam hazeh, chaim ba'olam habah. Aval hayu mevakshim, says the Ramban, היו מבקשים משה אחר. They weren't looking to replace Hakadosh Baruch Hu, chas v'shalom, they were looking to replace Moshe Rabbeinu. אמרו משה שהורה לנו הדרך ממצרים ועד הנה, when the journeys were שהיו המסעים על פי ה' ביד משה. Hinei avad mimenu. Kipostanus.

נעשה לנו משה אחר שיורה הדרך לפנינו על פי ה' בידו.

Skipping two lines: וכן תמצא להבין זה מתשובת אהרן למשה רבנו. When Moshe said to Aharon:

מה עשה לך העם הזה כי הבאת עליו חטאה גדולה.

And his answer was:

ויאמרו לי קום עשה לנו אלהים ואומר להם למי זהב התפרקו ויתנו לי ואשליכהו באש.

And here Aharon is justifying himself to Moshe and saying: אל יחר אף אדוני והוא כמוסיף על חטאו פשע. Seemingly, Moshe Rabbeinu says what did you do and Aharon says well, I helped facilitate Avodah Zarah. They wanted to do Avodah Zarah, so I manufactured Avodah Zarah. So what kind of defense is that? It's brazenly admitting the crime and denying its criminality. That's מוסיף על חטאו פשע. That makes it worse, right?

כי הם ביקשו ממנו עבודה זרה ועשה להם בידו ולמה יחר אפו מה חטאה גדולה מזו.

But the point like I said,

אבל הענין כמו שאמרתי שביקשו העגל להיות להם למורה דרך ומחיה וקיבלו עבודת אלהותו עליהם אבל ירצו שיהיה להם במקום משה מורה דרכם. וזהו הצטדקותו של אהרן.

That's the Ramban's approach to the Chet Ha'egel, that what Klal Yisrael was looking for, whatever segments were involved, what they were looking for was not again, chas v'shalom, a replacement. The Netziv approach to the Cheit HaEigel that what Klal Yisrael was using, whatever segments were involved, what they were looking for was not, again, a replacement for the Ribono Shel Olam but a replacement for Moshe Rabbeinu. And there's common ground here, although by no means are they identical, but there's common ground here between what Ramban says and what earlier very famously Yehuda HaLevi says in in the Kuzari. Yehuda HaLevi says also that the the common denominator for Ramban is: don't make the mistake of of misreading the Pesukim that they were looking for some kind of crude form of of polytheistic Avodah Zarah, some crude form of Avodah Zarah; how can you think that something that you just, you just created, how can you think that that thing took you out of Mitzrayim in the in the past, and how can you think that, how can you... what Yehuda HaLevi says differently than Ramban is Yehuda HaLevi says that, not so much that he doesn't emphasize the point of looking to replace Moshe Rabbeinu, but rather that they wanted some kind of physical symbolic manifestation of the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, something which the Anan, the Amud Anan, represented, and and when the Anan would come and and cover the Ohel, which was an indication of Hashra'as Shechinah, so they they had this need for that there should be physical symbolic manifestation of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence. Either way, obviously the the explanation, be it of of the Kuzari, be it of the Ramban, either way the bottom line is that they then directed acts of worship towards this Davar HaNivra, and that's, that is Avodah Zarah. Ramban says it was Nefesh HaChotei, so maybe we'll come back to that. According to the Ramban, isn't it kind of strange? According to the Ramban, they're looking to replace Moshe Rabbeinu, so so have an election, have a campaign season, have everyone slander each other, have have a bit of time, have have debates, have everybody yell at each other, then elect a new leader. Isn't that how you, isn't that how you elect a new leader? So if you want to replace Moshe Rabbeinu, so select someone, appoint Aharon, appoint appoint Pinchas, appoint Yehoshua bin Nun, appoint whoever you think, Nadav Avihu, Elazar, Itamar, whoever whoever you think. Veyitachen, according to Ramban, the pshat of the Drashos HaRan, I don't know, but perhaps I remember if we had a case to talk about this, the Drashos HaRan says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created Moshe Rabbeinu with certain capacities that are beyond the natural capacities of of a person, meaning, if you, I don't know, if you say it in terms of genetics, so the the genes that from Adam HaRishon, from Noach, and then more specifically, more directly for us, Avraham Yitzchak VeYaakov, so the capacity that that that Moshe Rabbeinu had is not something that that could have resulted naturally from the laws of of genetics, but Moshe Rabbeinu was a was a special special briyah. Again, it doesn't mean that he wasn't human, doesn't mean that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't have to exercise his bechirah to to realize his potential, but the point is that his potential was was miraculous. His potential, the Ran says he thinks that the proof to that is: how can it be that the pasuk at the end of the Chumash

ולא קם עוד נביא בישראל כמשה אשר ידעו השם פנים אל פנים?

Once Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes something known in the world, so the Rambam explains that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's knowledge of the future doesn't encroach upon the bechirah, but once he makes it known to us, so then it would encroach upon our bechirah. So how can we have a pasuk that there's never going to be a navi like Moshe Rabbeinu? Kid, give us a shot first. Why are we... maybe yes. Maybe yes. The answer is no, because it's it's even even with a person's bechirah, if a person will fully fully, a person can be, can have, he he can he can fully actualize his potential. He's not going to reach Moshe Rabbeinu because Moshe Rabbeinu was a one-time one-time creation. If that's the case, then you understand very well. Klal Yisrael understand Klal Yisrael is kind of looking to replace Moshe Rabbeinu. Now let's ask a different question from the Ramban. To replace Moshe Rabbeinu, so again, one question was to take another person. Another question is, leave that question aside. So how do you think by throwing something into the fire, taking some gold and throwing it into the fire, that that's going to replace Moshe Rabbeinu? So clearly the answer to question number two is that Klal Yisrael thought that Hakadosh Baruch Hu would would go along with that venture. And that there would be something something inspired, something miraculous about that process. And that somehow or other it would induce some kind of hashra'ah. So השתא דאתינא להכי, so then stam to appoint another person, they knew that there was no such thing as you couldn't replace Moshe Rabbeinu. There wasn't going to be another human being who could replace Moshe Rabbeinu. And if you want to replace Moshe Rabbeinu

כי זה משה האיש אשר העלנו מארץ מצרים לא ידענו מה היה לו,

so then you need Hakadosh Baruch Hu to to create something which which will go beyond the normal maximum human capacity. That's what I have to say in in the Ramban. I don't remember, you have to look. Maybe the Halevi talks about this. I I don't remember, you'll have to look up. What what is Yehuda HaLevi going to do with Ramban's pesukim? כי זה משה האיש, but doesn't that clearly indicate what the Ramban is telling us that the impetus for the cheit ha'eigel is just the pesukim וירא העם כי בשש משה לרדת מן ההר, that it has to do with Moshe's disappearance? Isn't that isn't that just so compelling? Just peshuto shel mikra, mikra tzorvei'ach that that the cheit ha'eigel... So likhoreh what Yehuda HaLevi would say is that Moshe Rabbeinu he had been able to to induce, again, whether it was the anan coming down in terms of gilluy Shechinah, that Moshe Rabbeinu had been able to induce those physical symbolic manifestations of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's invisible incorporeal presence. But lacking Moshe Rabbeinu to to induce that, so then we need to just create something concrete that that will hopefully be a permanent, again physical manifestation of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence. Okay. Either way, so then a few pesukim later, pasuk vav, so the Torah tells us

וישכימו ממחרת ויעלו עלות ויגשו שלמים וישב העם לאכל ושתו ויקמו לצחק.

So what does vayakumu letzachek mean? So Rashi says letzachek

יש במשמע הזה גילוי עריות כמה שנאמר לצחק בי ושפיכת דמים כמה שנאמר יקומו נא הנערים וישחקו לפנינו אף כאן נהרג חור.

Similar to what Rashi says by when Sarah Imeinu sees Yishmael metzachek. So I think Rashi has the same associations there with that pasuk. I think there there maybe Rashi also mentions avodah zarah. Here avodah zarah is already present, so metzachek is just the other two: giluy arayos and shefichas damim. So the question is hancha if you sort of misread the pesukim at what what we might have thought as peshuta unenlightened by Yehuda HaLevi, unenlightened by the Ramban, so bechalal the how the Vayikumu Letzacheik is part of what's happening. But the way that Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi and the Ramban are explaining, so again as Chamur as the Chet Ha'egel is and obviously they're not coming to tell us, the Pasuk says Ub'yom Pokdi Upokadti, that every Puranius has an installment of Onesh, of payback for the Chet Ha'egel. So obviously the Ramban and Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi are not coming to tell us it wasn't a Chet Chamur. But Ma'aseh, according to the Ramban and Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, it's misdirected religious fervor, religious... it's grave, grave religious misjudgment v'chulu. So how does it result in the crudeness of Vayikumu Letzacheik? Now Ma'aseh, it's true that the question is not quite as dramatic as this because the Ramban doesn't go with... I think here it says that the Rashi is quoting the Tanchuma, but the Ramban doesn't go with that Tanchuma. Ramban says no, that וישבו העם לאכול ושתה, take a look at the Ramban on that Pasuk, Pasuk Vav here,

שישבו כולם כאחד לאכול לשבעה ושתו לשכרה כאשר יעשו בחגי מועדיהם ואחר כך קמו לצחק בעצביהם ובשמחה.

Ramban Lich'ora doesn't, there's no indication in the Ramban that he's interpreting along the lines of the Tanchuma in terms of what Letzacheik means. Ramban interprets it as a rowdy celebration. They got drunk. They got drunk. And the Ramban says כאשר יעשו בחגי מועדיהם, which doesn't mean that Gmul... it means as they would do. They got drunk and then there was a rowdy celebration. So obviously that pales in comparison to the Tanchuma's understanding of Letzacheik, but it also represents just an excess. It also is not behavior becoming something which seemingly is intended as a religious gesture. So how does that result in... even if the crudeness is something limited to something as crude as Shichrus, how does that happen? So I'm not sure if what we're going to discuss is Pshat here, if it's Al Derech Ha'drush here, if it's just Me'inyan L'inyan, but also in the... either way, hopefully there's a kernel of truth in the explanation we're going to try and discuss. There are many indications that there is a causal connection between one's belief and one's... between one's knowledge, let's say knowledge, and one's character, ethical, moral character. In the world, in the society we live in, so there's not, there isn't no such connection believed to exist. Some of the greatest past and even present scientists are the biggest Resha'im. Not... Not to suggest that scientists could be found at top of some of the list of rashayim, but you can find them in every other intellectual disciplines as well, not to and fairly single out that community. And yet we hold not like that. The Rambam writes and he says and he says that this is pshat in the pasuk in Yirmiyohu from the haftorah of Tisha B'Av

אל יתהלל חכם בחכמתו ואל יתהלל הגיבור בגבורתו ואל יתהלל עשיר בעשרו.

And the Rambam says that we can talk about shleimus in four different dimensions. We can talk about shleimus in the first dimension, he says shleimus hakinyan, that a person in terms of financially, in terms of his holdings, person has money, he has assets, he has commodities, he has everything a person would want to have and more. Shleimus hakinyan. He says that's the most inferior of them all, the most external, extrinsic. He says then there's shleimus haguf, when a person is in the best of health and strong and vigorous vechulu. Then there's shleimus hamidos where a person's midos are mushlamos. But he says even that doesn't represent a form of ultimate shleimus. He says even that is only significant as a prerequisite for shleimus sikhlis which allows for yedi'as Hashem. But he indicates clearly and that's what he thinks the pshat in the pasuk is in Yirmiyohu just as background to it. So the Rambam in Perek Aleph of Hilchos Deos when he talks about the midah beinonis he says the midah beinonis is derech hachachomim, is derech chochmah, derech hachachomim. So in light of that the Rambam says that the pshat of the pasuk in Yirmiyohu is gevaldig, he says it's in descending order. אל יתהלל חכם בחכמתו, so that's again a person has the midah beinonis, his midos are stellar. ואל יתהלל הגיבור בגבורתו, shleimus haguf, he has the best of health, the strength, the vigor. ואל יתהלל עשיר בעשרו, shleimus hakinyan, כי אם בזאת יתהלל המתהלל השכל וידוע אותי because all everything else are just stepping stones. A person needs a certain amount of money, a person needs health, and avada ve'avada a person needs his tikun hamidos. But none of those are ultimate. The only one which is ultimate is כי אם בזאת יתהלל המתהלל השכל וידוע אותי. So it's quite clear again that the shleimus hamidos is necessary, not sufficient, but necessary for haskel veyadoa osi. So why is that? Again, why is one's intellectual capacity it doesn't seem to be, in our experience, one's intellectual capacity is not linked to one's moral fiber and we don't see any indicator in a person's IQ. Whether he's a menuval. And perhaps someone is a big menuval and also has an IQ which is off the charts. And clearly what we're talking about in terms of the Cheit Ha'eigel also is reflecting this yesod, right? That somehow or other the Cheit of Avoda Zara, even once understood the way the Ramban, the way the Halevi explained it, leads to, results, culminates in vayakumu letzacheik, and even if that means only in quotation marks what the Ramban says, and all the more so if what Rashi says comes from that understanding. So there are two sides to the coin, so maybe we'll try to describe each of the two sides. The more maugshamdik a person is, and basically having bad middos is different forms of being maugshamdik. The more maugshamdik a person is, the more diminished his capacity is to understand and accept that ultimate reality, i.e., Ein Od Milvado, is totally, totally removed from any, any shemetz of gashmius or any quality that pertains to gashmius. אין לו גוף ולא ישיגוהו משיגי הגוף. The more gashmius is one's reality, so the more one thinks that is reality, and it gets, and unless a person sort of neutralizes, rachmana litzlan, HaKadosh Baruch Hu by not making Him relevant to how you live your life, so then the more maugshamdik my reality is, then the more maugshamdik my belief is as well. That's one side of the coin. The other side of the coin, it's the exact same thing, it's the same point. The other side of the coin is that the more maugshamdik one's conception of HaKadosh Baruch Hu is, the more license one sees to live an immoral and maugshamdik existence. Right? So those are two sides of the coin, two sides of the coin. When there's a religious impulse, let's first say it the way the Halevi says it, when there's a religious impulse to create without the license that a tzivui to do so would provide, some kind of physical, tangible, again, symbolic manifestation of HaKadosh Baruch Hu's presence, so again, it means that our being excessively maugshamdik is now spilling over into how we relate to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. To say it the way the Ramban would perhaps flesh it out, same basic idea the way the Ramban would flesh it out. If you think that you need a Moshe Rabbeinu to be an intermediary, not just for Kabbalas HaTorah for that one-time event in the history of of the world, but no, on an ongoing basis you need an intermediary of a Moshe Rabbeinu. Again, ad kedei kach, that you can't replace Moshe Rabbeinu with Yehoshua bin Nun, with Aharon HaKohen, with Pinchas, with Elazar. You have to try to create a substitute on that level of Moshe Rabbeinu. So again, what it means is that what where I'm holding in my being the Gashmiyusdik, so I can't, there can't be any connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so I need that physical intermediary. That results in the Avoda Zara, because it's two sides of a coin. And so the limmud, the limmudim, go beyond the fact that it's not a good idea to attribute independent power to some koach. The limmud of the parsha go go go beyond that. A person has to refine, purify, and elevate themselves to have proper emunah. The shortcut way is to not refine, purify, or elevate oneself, but to lower rachmana litzlan and adulterate rachmana litzlan one's emunah in terms of what one believes. The goal of avodas Hashem, emunah bashem, and yedi'as Hashem is to truthfully be oved, ma'amin, and yode'a, not to take a shortcut and just humanize Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu's shleimus is he's he's God, not a superperson. The avoda is not not to humanize Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The avoda is to understand what it means that there's a Ribbono Shel Olam. Not to not to imagine him again just as the sweetest person you could imagine. Anything anything positive, any shleimus that we can imagine is nichlal, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu's not not a person. And there's a there's a temptation that we have, it's very understandable one, very very understandable one, to try to instead of elevating, refining, purifying ourselves, to to lower Hakadosh Baruch Hu rachmana litzlan to close that gap. You have that that very natural temptation is one that that exists not only... And in general, we look for for shortcuts, figure out where this comes from, but we look for shortcuts. In the same way you put something in the microwave and instead of waiting thirty minutes which you had to in the in the in the in the days of of ovens of old, so it's ready in in in thirty seconds. Instead of reading some kind of thoughtful position paper that a candidate has, so you just have a mindless candidate with a mindless slogan and and and everyone gets all enthused and everyone everyone cheers and be it for him or be it for his equally mindless opponent with an equally mindless slogan. So we we also look for shortcuts, we look for shortcuts. Now there's a fascinating Lashon in the Mesilas Yesharim, in the Mesilas Yesharim. Here we go. Chapter one.

יסוד החסידות ושרש העבודה התמימה הוא שיסבור ויתאמת אצל האדם מה חובתו בעולמו ולמה צריך שישים מבטו ומגמתו בכל אשר הוא עמל כל ימי חייו. והנה מה שהורונו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה שהאדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על השם ולהנות מזיו שכינתו שזהו התענוג האמיתי והעדון הגדול מכל העדונים שאפשר שימצאו. ומקום העדון הזה באמת הוא העולם הבא כי הוא הנברא בהכנה המצטרכת לדבר הזה אך הדרך כדי להגיע אל מחוז חפצנו זה הוא זה העולם והוא מה שאמרו זכרונם לברכה העולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור בפני העולם הבא.

So the goal, so the destination, if you want to know should I turn right, should I turn left, or should I go straight, or should I not go anywhere because I'm not trying to get to, if I'm not trying to get to. So where is a person trying to get to? So a person is supposed to be oriented towards, geared towards Olam Haba. However, the the way, the bridge to Olam Haba is Olam Hazeh.

והאמצעים המגיעים את האדם לתכלית הזה הם המצוות אשר ציוונו עליהם הקדוש ברוך הוא. ומקום עשיית המצוות הוא רק העולם הזה. וכשתסתכל בדבר תראה כי השלימות האמיתי הוא רק הדביקות בו יתברך והוא מה שהיה דוד המלך אומר ואני קרבת אלהים לי טוב ואומר אחת שאלתי מאת השם אותה אבקש שבתי בבית השם כל ימי חיי וגומר כי רק זה הוא הטוב וכל זולת זה שיחשבוהו בני האדם לטוב אינו אלא הבל ושוא נתעה.

So figment of of imagination.

אמנם לכשיזכה האדם לטוב הזה ראוי הוא שיעמול ראשונה וישתדל ביגיעו לקנותו.

Again, אמנם לכשיזכה האדם לטוב הזה, that a person should be zocheh, should merit this ultimate tova of Olam Haba of... dveykus b'Hashem, the two are synonymous. שיעמוד וישנה וישתדל וייגע להכנסה. Right, let's look at Ramchal. Ramchal says it again. Again, once, once we see it in Ramchal's terms, then obviously, that's what we have to do. Right, that's the, the trademark, that's the siman muvhak of an emesteh chidush that once you hear the chidush, it's impossible to retreat to one's previous mindset where one wasn't clearly focused on this. We think of difficulty, whether it's difficulty in learning a Blatt Gemara, difficulty in learning a Posuk Chumash, or whatever. Difficulty in tikkun hamiddos, difficulty in whatever area of avodas Hashem, we think of difficulty as something which is outside interference. Meaning, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to learn through Shas and being stuck on the teitch of this line, being stuck on the havana of this Rashi, of this Rambam, so that's impeding me. That's, that's external, outside interference. And Ramchal says difficulty is inherent to the process. Rauy, again, remember I think we discussed the lashon rauy, the Rambam, everything carries over to Ramchal's use of it, meaning it's self-evident in sevara. Rauy she'ye'amol bishishnah, right? Amol, exertion, v'yishtadel b'yegiah, right? yegiah v'amol. ראוי שיעמול במשנה וישתדל ביגיעה להכנסה. Says Ramchal, if you think about it, how can it be that something as august as dveykus b'Hashem, a person should coast through without having to exert himself? Without having to work tremendously at it? It should be just like a, like a ride on a, on a motorboat on calm water, just pull the string and pshhh. It should be as easy as that. So we, whatever difficulty we experience, again, we think that's outside interference, and because of that it's frustrating, and because of that... No, it's an inherent part of the process. Rauy she'ye'amol, it's not supposed to be easy. Why should something so precious be so, so, so easy? ראוי שיעמול במשנה וישתדל ביגיעה להכנסה. And that's also mamash a major, major yesod. Chazal say that that if a talmid doesn't see siman bracha after five years, so then he should draw conclusions. Again, we're under optimal conditions. The talmid is learning in the right yeshiva with the right rebbe with the right chavrusah, not that he's learning in the wrong yeshiva with the wrong rebbe, wrong chavrusah, so then you can't draw conclusions after forty years. But everything is, the whole support system is there and this goes, okay, so then there are certain conclusions to be drawn, certain inferences to be drawn. But less than five years, you're not supposed to draw any conclusions. Less than five years, you're not supposed to draw any conclusions. It's slow, deliberate, painstaking, and that's inherent to the process. That's not something which is intruding from the outside and sort of unnecessarily complicating things for us, and because of that it's... Should engender within us this frustration and this resentment v'chulu v'chulu. No, it's inherent. If you're driving cross country, you don't anticipate arriving the next day. If you set out from Maine on Sunday morning, you don't expect to be in California on Monday morning. You realize that it's a journey. And because it's such an ambitious journey, the difficulty and the hurdles are inherent to the process. They're not something which is intruding from outside. When one thinks they're intruding from outside, so then psychologically one is less likely to marshal all of one's kochos hanefesh to deal with them and to be misgaber. One's more likely to say, you know, this is beyond the normal level or degree of difficulty that one would rightfully anticipate, so meheicha taysi? And if one knows that no, rauy sheyaamod, not just ראוי שיזכה על ידי מעשיו, no, that's not Ramchal's formulation. It's rauy sheyaamod and yishtadel. And you once commented on the Mesillas Yesharim's use of yishtadel, it doesn't just mean try the way we use it in more modern usage, but it means to exert oneself. V'yishtadel b'yegia. Again, it's reinforced. Yishtadel b'yegia l'hikannessa. So then if a person recognizes that, so then psychologically we're more ready to try to reach down deep to try and be misgaber and not look for a shortcut. Im yirtzeh Hashem, we'll continue tomorrow. As things stand now, im yirtzeh Hashem, I will probably not be here on Tuesday, and there's a good chance that I won't be here Wednesday either. And Thursday the Rov is giving a shiur anyway during the slot of early shekiyah time. But that depends as it hopes to be resolved im yirtzeh Hashem.