Nefesh Hachaim #5: Shaar 1, Perek 6-7

I think the last time we had skipped the hagah but maybe before we try to learn the hagah a little bit just we'll backtrack to the paragraph before the hagah, Nishmas Hachayim. Just to review the context, so Nishmas Hachayim is explaining how again each each world serves as the Neshamah to the world below it. The world below it relates to the world above it as the Guf does to the Neshamah. He says, נשמת החיים של הכיסא, wherever you have here on on page Yud Beis for those using this edition, so the Nishmas Hachayim explains that all the Olamos can be sort of grouped and classified into four groups in ascending order: האופנים והחיות והכיסא הכבוד והאצילות קדוש ברוך הוא. So נשמת החיים של הכיסא, what's above whatever the the world of Kisay Hakavod, what that represents, what's above that, what serves as the Neshamah, as the the animating vital source of the world of Kisay Hakavod?

נשמת החיים של הכיסא הוא סוד שורש העליון של כללות נשמת ישראל יחד

is the root of the the aggregate of Yiddishe Neshamas, of Nishmas Yisrael, שהוא נעשה גבוה מאוד נעלה גם מהכיסא. And and that's what Yechezkel sees. That's the significance, that's the meaning of when Yechezkel sees a person sitting on the Kisay. So the person metaphorically represents the Klalus of Nishmas Yisrael. L'chora, l'chora, so what we have here is sort of the metaphysically corresponds and maybe even can be understood as a metaphysical source for for a very, very basic halacha, right? So we're all familiar with halacha: כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה וזה בזה. Different girsa'os in the Rishonim. So the Gemara in Shevuos quotes and applies this in the context that היה בידם למחות ולא מיחו so then דכולם נתפסים על העוון. Because כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה וזה בזה. It means that there's an interdependence and and mutual responsibility that all Jews have for each other. And that's how it is and why it is that a person can't just say אני את נפשי הצלתי. No, if a person could have been mashpia, v'yesh b'yado limchos, so then a person is is held accountable for that. The Rishonim then say that this principle of כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה וזה בזה is also what underlies a din, a principle that we have of yatza motzi. In order for shome'a k'oneh to happen, so the Mishna in Rosh Hashanah says that it has to be that a patur min hadavar cannot motzi את הרבים ידי חובתם. So an isha, a katan, who are pturim from mitzvas shofar can't blow shofar and be motzi anashim gedolim who are chayavim in mitzvos. Whenever you have shome'a k'oneh, so a patur min hadavar cannot be motzi es hamchuyav badavar. That notwithstanding, if you already made Kiddush Friday night, so you can make Kiddush a second time to be motzi someone. I, I'm already patur? So Gemara tells us yatza motzi. So the Rishonim challenge, I think already Rashi says, I think in Rosh Hashanah, that this klal is is an application of כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה. No, it's not the pshat. The fact that you've made kiddush doesn't mean that you're yotzei yochovas kiddush because another Jew hasn't heard kiddush, so you're still mechuyav in kiddush. What what we have here, lechora, in in this concept that the Nefesh HaChaim is is introducing us to, of that there's a Shoresh HaElyon of klalus nishmos Yisrael, so when we sort of figuratively visualize neshamos, so everyone has their own neshamah. And what the Nefesh HaChaim is saying is that is true and and there is certainly personal identity and distinctness and distinctiveness of of that that every yachid has, but there is a common root. If you sort of imagine it as there's a root here from which all the shishim ribbo or whatever neshamos branch out from which they they emanate. So there is a common root and and that lechora metaphysically is the source for this halacha of arvus of kol Yisrael areivim. Again, some even have the גרסא ערבים זה בזה זה בזה, right? If you have if the and then they suggest that if you have that גרסא ערבים זה בזה, so the lashon the the shoresh ayin resh beis means means at least two different things. It means like Yehudah says, אנכי אערבנו מידי תבקשנו. It means to be an arev, to be a guarantor. So כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה that every every Jew has to serve as a guarantor for for other Jews. But then you also have the lashon arev, lashon ta'aruvos, a mixture. So some say that if you have the girsa with the beis right on the lamed, it means that some people think it means that Jews should be mixed up, but that's not what it means even if you have the beis, that it means כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה that they're mixed together and and there is a and that's true on a very profound metaphysical level in light of this concept of Shoresh HaElyon of klalus nishmos Yisrael. Look at the Hagah: כי עיקר האדם הוא נטוע למעלה בשורש נשמתו. The main part, the essence of the person, is implanted lemala with the shoresh of the neshamah. ולזאת נקרא הגוף נעל. And that's why the body is referred to as a shoe. Why? Neged haneshamah, כי רק בחינת עקביים מהשורש נכנס לתוך גוף האדם. Bli neder im yirtzeh Hashem we'll have more on this later, but unlike the nefesh and ruach which are in the person, the neshamah at most, sort of the bottom of the the neshamah is in the person at best, and as it were, the rest of the neshamah is is above. So in that sense, if you if you imagine again the if you imagine the if you imagine this being the neshamah and it's just the bottom of the neshamah which is in the guf, so that's why the guf is referred to metaphorically as a na'al. I think elsewhere the Volozhiner says that's the pshat by Moshe Rabbeinu in Yehoshua, של נעליך מעל רגליך, של נעליך מעל רגליך means to to be transcend the the physicality. That's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is telling Moshe Rabbeinu by the sneh. ובזה יובן מאמרים ז"ל בבראשית רבה ובויקרא רבה. The the bekiyus in Nefesh HaChaim is is absolutely staggering. And and then when when one reads or hears the the descriptions of of the total, complete, absolute hisbatlus that the Rav Chaim Volozhiner had to the Gaon, so one can't even imagine the the madrega of the Gaon. So you have this same bekius in every Shach and Taz in Yoreh Deah and every Sifsei Kohen and Taz in Choshen Mishpat. Okay, it's not nogea here, it's not shogaig, so he's not... he's not gratuitously giving any marei mekomos that aren't relevant, but it's... Since we don't have too much beksav from from Rav Chaim Volozhiner, so we, because of that, very understandably, identify him with with the Torah of the Nefesh Hachaim. But I think in... in the hespedim of which at least one is... is printed here from the Nachalas Dovid. The Nachalas Dovid is the one whom... Rav Avrohom Berel called the Kasharyover, that the way we learned yesterday, about the ויהי קודש לו לגופות. That's he was... he was one of the gedolei hachasidim of... of Rav Chaim Volozhiner. So he writes that Rav Chaim Volozhiner was just the... from all over they used to send him shailos. He... he spent most of his time, not writing Nefesh Hachaim, spent most of his time just... as... as a meishiv, answering, answering the shailos. He was the... he was the gedol hador in nigleh as well. ובזה יובן מאמרם זל k'deshisa raba in Vayikra Rabba

שביקש הקדוש ברוך הוא להטיל קינא במעשה בראשית וביום אלף ברא שמים וארץ בשני רקיע בשלישי תדשא הארץ וכן על דרך זה בד' וה' בשישי בא לבראות אדם אמר אם אני בוראו מן העליונים הרי עליונים יתירים על התחתונים בריה אחת ואם אני בוראו מן התחתונים הרי תחתונים יתירים על העליונים בריה אחת לפיכך אני בוראו מן העליונים ומן התחתונים עפר מן האדמה ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים ולכך אמר עתה תסב אקינא יותר משאם היה בוראו מן התחתונים לבד שעתה יש בו חלק מן העליונים והוא כולו למטה והוא חלק העליון שבו

ach inyano הוא שהאדם השלם כראוי and we'll b'ezras Hashem get back to that phrase.

אך עניינו הוא שהאדם השלם כראוי עיקרו נטוע למעלה בשרש נשמתו העליונה ועובד אלפי רבוא עולמות עד שקצהו השני נכנס בגוף האדם למטה זהו כי חלק השם עמו יעקב חבל נחלתו שעיקרו קשור ונטוע למעלה חלק הוי"ה ממש כביכול

umishtalshel k'chevel like a rope

עד בואו לגוף האדם וכל מעשיו מגיעים לאור שרשו העליון כמו החבל שאם יניע הקצה התחתון

like a rope and you move the bottom of the rope so then מתעורר ומתנועע גם ראש קצהו העליון. The p'shat in the Midrash is that in order for things to be equal between elyonim and tachtonim, it doesn't mean, says the Nefesh Hachaim, that a person is a hybrid and and there's both guf v'neshama, but then the guf v'neshama are both ba'tachtonim. So that wouldn't... that wouldn't be even-handed in terms of elyonim u'tachtonim. What it means is that the adam inhabits both, that the adam inhabits both worlds. That... that adam is... is a birya who's simultaneously both ba'tachtonim as well as as ba'elyonim. And how so? The guf is... is ba'tachtonim, but the shoresh haneshama, the neshama is... is lemala, and then it connects to the to the guf. What does he mean אך עניינו הוא שהאדם השלם כראוי? Is it not true of everyone? What do you mean

שהאדם השלם כראוי עיקרו נטוע למעלה ועובד אלפי רבוא עולמות עד שקצהו השני נכנס בגוף האדם למטה?

So lich'ora what he means, if you jump ahead for a minute to perek tes vav, in... in the Rav Rubin edition, it's on page nun alef, about one third of the way into the perek if you... find it without that, omnam bechinas haneshama in contrast to nefesh v'ruach, hi haneshima atzma.

עצמה שפנימיות עצמותו מסתתרת בהעלם ומקורה ברוך הוא כביכול בתוך נשימת פיו יתברך שמו שאין עצמות מהותה נכנסת כלל בתוך גוף האדם.

There is a concept that even though nefesh and ruach are spiritual entities, there is a notion, I think this is the way we all intuit it also, that despite the fact that they're spiritual entities, they're spiritual entities that can and are associated with and located in a certain makom. And in that sense, so nefesh and ruach, despite the fact again that they're spiritual entities, they're not physical entities, but nefesh and ruach again, you can put the coordinates on the graph of where the nefesh and ruach are. Nefesh and ruach again inhere in a person. Whatever. We'll, a little bit, we'll get up to perek 70 בלי נדר בעזרת השם we'll talk about that a little bit less imprecisely. Ma she'ein kein haneshama isn't located besoch guf ha'adam. Now, there are two exceptions to that. ואדם הראשון קודם החטא זכה לעצמותה. The madrega that Adam ha-Rishon was on kodem hachet, so then the neshama was in Adam himself. Ubsibas hachet, as a result of the chet, on account of the chet, nistalka mitoko. The neshama is too holy to reside alongside tumah, alongside chet, and therefore נסתלקה מתוכו ונשארה רק חופפת עליו hovering above him. The other exception and the only exception since אדם הראשון קודם החטא is לבד משה רבינו עליו השלום שזכה לעצמותה תוך גופו. Moshe Rabbeinu again so perfected himself, so transcended physicality that his guf could accommodate the neshama. לבד משה רבינו עליו השלום שזכה לעצמותה תוך גופו, velachein nikra, that's what it means in Vezot ha-Bracha, Ish ha-Elokim. Lich'ora that's what the Nefesh ha-Chaim again back to our hagah here. When the Nefesh ha-Chaim says אך ענין הוא שהאדם השלם כראוי, so lich'ora that's what he means because again he's depicting how the neshama is natul lemala, that's always the case, but he's depicting that קצהו השני הוא נכנס בגוף האדם מלמטה. But that's only true of ha'adam hashalem k'ra'uy. Bepo'al it's not true of ha'adam hamatzui. It's true of ha'adam hashalem k'ra'uy which is Adam kodem hachet and Moshe Rabbeinu. Only problem with that the medrash of Adam versus Beis ha-Mikdash and the neshama in the Beis ha-Mikdash, that was a story of inspiration. It makes it sound like the keitz ha-tachton of the neshama is not in the guf. It was a story of inspiration. So I think the Nefesh ha-Chaim would say that the only way that medrash really makes sense is if, as it were, on yom hashishi Hakadosh Baruch Hu is being even-handed in terms of the beriah. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is creating something both in shamayim and in aretz on yom hashishi. What he's creating that's in shamayim is the neshama. What he's creating in aretz is the guf. Now, but for that to be one beriah, so it means that there is a connection. It means that the neshama connects to the guf and that's what he's describing in the paragraph... do you have the Ruben edition? And da'as lanovon nakel

שכן הוא העניין גם בשרש הדברים למעלה בסוד האדם העליון כביכול.

Ayin Idra Rabba bapasuk וייצר השם אלקים את האדם על סוד האדם העליון vesiyem, going to the brackets translation, vechol ze lomo

כדי להוציא ולהכניס בו סתים דסתימא עד סוף כל סתימא. זהו שכתוב ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים נשמה שכל חיי העליונים והתחתונים תלוים מאותה נשמה ומתקיימים בה.

Everything depends upon and again given the relationship of nishmah to guf, so the same way the guf depends upon nishmah for its chiyus, so too all of the worlds depend upon their chiyus. What's above it and what's chayus in that chain of being are the again what was initially nishmas odom, what is now nishmas nishmas Yisroel.

ויהי האדם לנפש חיה להיות מושפע ולהיכנס בתיקונים כעין זה ולהוציא הנשמה ההיא מדרגה לדרגה עד סוף כל המדרגות כדי שתהא הנשמה נמצאת בכל ומתפשטת בכל.

So what did he add here? What's da'as lanovon nakel? So what did he add in in this paragraph? So l'chora, in the previous paragraph, so he told us that what a person does in this world, the same way again envisioning the nishmah as a chevel, so just as when you tug at the bottom of the rope, so the top of the rope moves. So the nimshal to the top of the rope in the previous paragraph was the shoresh ha'elyon of the person's nishmah. Now he adds but l'chora it even goes one step higher. It goes to the again remember how we tried a little bit to visualize that we all have individual nishmas but there is sort of a common root for those individual nishmas. So now he's saying that a person's actions reverberate, a person's actions impact not only shoresh nishmoso, but the shoresh of the shoresh, right?

ודעת לנבון נקל שכן הוא העניין גם בשרש הדברים למעלה בסוד האדם.

of the Adam Elyon kavyakol. So it's not only that when you tug at the bottom of the rope, the nimshal is not just that the top of the rope is your individual neshama and and that your actions reverberate all the way to that level but even the level above that of the shoresh of the shoresh. Okay, so now let's try to begin a little bit of perek vav. אמנם להבין הענין היטב ביאור ki hu zal, he says, I guess the Ari,

דיבר בקדשו דרך קצרה כדרכו בכל כתבי קדשו בנסתרות כמו שכתב בעצמו בהקדמתו שם שהוא מגלה טפח ומכסה אלפיים אמה.

And Chazal say about Ma'aseh Merkavah that that a person only teaches Ma'aseh Merkavah to someone who's a chacham umevin mada'ato then you tell them rashei perakim and he connects the dots. He figures out how to understand and flesh out the rashei perakim. So that's what that's what the Ari zal said is I'm not telling you everything, I'm not spoon-feeding. If the person needs to be spoon-fed then he's not he's not ra'uy to be osek in those inyanim. So the Ari zal says אני מגלה טפח ומכסה אלפיים אמה. If you're ra'uy to be learning these things then you'll you'll figure out what's what's mechuseh. And if a person can't figure it out, so then so that means that we shouldn't

שלא כדי משמע לכאורה מדבריו ז"ל שם שהאדם אל העולמות הוא נפש ממש.

The Ari zal doesn't mean that the relationship of Adam to the worlds is exactly the same as the relationship of the nefesh to the guf. כמו הנפש הניתן ודבוק בתוך גוף האדם. No, there's a comparison. Now, because when you speak of the nefesh which is ניתן ודבוק בתוך גוף האדם, so then

אשר איזה דבר שהנפש עושה הוא רק על ידי כלי הגוף.

The nefesh acts, speaks, through the through the body. So there's a so it's it's it functions as one, albeit hybrid entity, but it functions it is one entity of guf u'neshama together. And therefore they act as one. The guf is inanimate without the the nefesh, but the nefesh on the other hand doesn't act without without the guf. So it acts as one.

כמו הנפש הניתן ודבוק בתוך גוף האדם אשר איזה דבר שהנפש עושה הוא רק על ידי כלי הגוף.

And therefore שבאותו רגע ממש גם הגוף עושה הוא. So when the nefesh wants to animate a hannachas tefillin, so then the nefesh's hannachas tefillin is the guf's hannachas tefillin. There's no the two comprise together one entity, albeit hybrid entity.

שבאותו רגע ממש גם הגוף עושה הוא דזה ודאי לא יתכן.

That certainly can't be, it can't be, agam that the Ari zal doesn't spell it out, but it's pashut that that's what the Ari zal cannot mean and does not mean. Why? Because that relationship is only again, the nefesh and the guf ha'adam are just parts of the person. They're parts of the person. So then you have that that symbiosis. Ma she'ein ken clearly what we're talking about here is the relationship between distinct entities, right? The the Adam is an entity that's distinct from all the olamos. Each of the olamos is distinct one from another. So agam that that the Ari zal uses this analogy... Vegam says further raya to this, so lefi zeh yachuyav haya, if that's what had been meant, it isn't, but had that been the case, so then it would out of necessity follow שבשעה שאנו אומרים קדושה למטה when we would say kadosh kadosh lemata,

ממילא באותו רגע ממש גם המלאכים היו מקדישים במרומא כגוף אחד

because we're the nefesh, the neshamah to the malachim the same way again the guf is, the nefesh and the guf don't put on tefillin at separate moments, it's all one. And yet rabboseinu zal

אמרו בפרק אין עומדין שאין מלאכי השרת אומרים שירה למעלה עד שיאמרו ישראל למטה

that the malachim only say shira after we say shira, שנאמר ברן יחד כוכבי בוקר ויריעו כל בני אלהים. Ulishna dehadei vayarieu afterwards tfe mashma that they will not start at all to

להקדיש ליוצרם עד שיגמרו ישראל שירת קדושתם למטה. וכן סדרו אנשי כנסת הגדולה

in birchas kedushas hashem atah kadosh vechulu וקדושים בכל יום יהללוך סלה. So it's fascinating, so the mechuvan in the beracha is, I think we generally just understand the beracha to mean atah kadosh is a statement of fact, אתה קדוש ושמך קדוש, and then a further statement of fact is וקדושים בכל יום יהללוך סלה. And Nefesh Hachaim tells us, yeah that's true, but what it also means is atah kadosh in affirming that fact, so we are being mekadesh Hashem, again by it is a statement of fact, but through our affirmation of that fact, so that allows for now subsequently on the heels of that וקדושים בכל יום יהללוך סלה. Again there are different pshatim. According to Nefesh Hachaim, surely kedoshim refers to malachim. This is some say kedoshim means Yisrael, some say it means malachim, some say it means both. According to the halacha, according to Nefesh Hachaim, no, it means davka the malachim because our part in being mekadesh Hashem is in the affirmation of atah kadosh. When we say it we affirm אתה קדוש ושמך קדוש. So having done that, so now that allows in the aftermath of that for

וקדושים בכל יום יהללוך. אגם דמלישנא דהזוהר לכאורה משמע שהמלאכים מקדישים קדושתם אתנו יחד כחדא ממש,

simultaneously, hainu what the Zohar Hakadosh means is היינו שקדושתם תכופה ממש תיכף אחר סיום אמירתנו that it comes so instantaneously after our kedusha that we sort of can't be we can't grasp that separation in time, but aliba d'emes there is one. Ke-achada kari lah. אבל עיקרו של דבר, so what does the Arizal mean? What is the mashal then? He's not going to finish the explanation until the beginning of perek zayin.

אבל עיקרו של דבר הוא כי הוא יתברך שמו אחר שברא כל עולמות ברא את אדם אחר מעשה בראשית.

So Adam was created last, achar ma'aseh bereishis. What's the significance of that as it were of that divine plan? Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu created Adam beryah nifla'ah, this wondrous creation, כוח מעשה בכל המחנות, a beryah who encompasses within himself all the kochos that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had created in the world until this point.

שכל בו כל צח צחות אורות הנפלאות ועולמות והיכלין עליונים שקדמו לו.

Everything, all the kochos of everything, everything is then compressed into Adam.

וכהבנת הכבוד העליון בסדר פרקי המרכבה כל הכוחות הפרטיים הנמצאים בכל עולמות עליונים ותחתונים כולם נתנו חלק כוח וחלק מעצמותם בבניינו ונכללו בו במספר פרטי כוחותיו שבו.

I think later, I don't remember where, later he's going to say that that's the pshat in na'aseh adam betzalmenu. the creation of Adam in the sense that everything that had been created until that point gave from its its spiritual force, vitality, energy, and and contributed that to to what then constitutes Adam. ובפרשת תזריע תנא כיון דנברא האדם uv'reish parshas bamidbar רבי אבא פתח ויברא אלקים את האדם בצלמו ta chazi

ובאדרא רבא כמראה אדם ושם בדף קמ"א וברעיא מהימנא ויאמר אלקים נעשה אדם עד והיינו נעשה אדם בצלמנו.

He wasn't, he didn't go to the bookcase and open the sefer just to look up a different version or to look up the mareh makom. He didn't have time for that. He just sat down and and was writing.

וברעיא מהימנא פרשת פנחס ויאמר אלקים נעשה אדם עד והיינו נעשה אדם בצלמנו וכן אמר זה הלשון יותר.

That's why sometimes you you find that when he quotes, so a word is off. It doesn't always mean that they had a different version of something. It's that they wrote everything from memory. They didn't look things up. They just sat and they they sat and there was just this stream and they just they just wrote. So occasionally, occasionally the version's off or or something like that.

וכן אמר זה הלשון יותר בתיקוני זוהר חדש עיין שם ובזוהר חדש יתרו.

He spent a whole lifetime looking this up. He mentions it in the Nefesh HaChaim. ובזוהר חדש יתרו מעשה מרכבה, going into the brackets, dyokna shel adam, the image of Adam, זה דיוקנא דכליל כל דיוקנין. Again, it encompasses everything.

ושם דף ל"ג ושם שיר השירים ויאמר אלקים נעשה אדם עיין שם היטב בכל המקומות הנזכרים. ועיין בעץ חיים שער הצלם ובליקוטי תורה פרשת כי תשא ופרשת האזינו.

V'zeh kol ha'adam. This is what the essence of Adam is. שכל כוח פרטי שבו, every faculty, every force, every form of energy that a person has,

מסודר נגד עולם וכוח אחד פרטי מסוד השיעור קומה של כל הכוחות והעולמות.

It corresponds to again one of the kochos of of the different facets of the bria and all of them are compressed, encapsulated within Adam.

שמסודרים כביכול כתבנית קומת אדם כמו שיתבאר אם ירצה השם בשער ב' פרק ה'.

Meaning there is an idea that that you can sort of depict whether it's the eser sfiros that you can sort of depict that in the shape of the human body. So so what is that idea? So what that idea is, again, at least part of it, what the Nefesh HaChaim is is introducing us to is that that reflects the fact that all of that is then compressed into into Adam. Hagaha, וזה היה קודם החטא. This description of Adam as being comprised on the one hand of all the spiritual, positive spiritual kochos... of the world and exclusively from that. So that's a description of Adam kodem hacheit. לא היה כלול אז at that point, kodem hacheit, so Adam was constituted only מכל עולמות וכוחות הקדושה לבד velo micochos hara. ואחר החטא נכללו ונתערבו בו גם כוחות הטומאה והרע. After the cheit, so then within Adam there's not only kochos hakedushah, there's also kochos hatumah. Umimeila, and if that's what happened to Adam, so since the shoresh of the person's neshamah is what animates the entire briyah, so then וממילא עירב ועשה על ידי זה גם בעולמות. So then this mixture, this confusion of tov vera, happens throughout the briyah, מזה הטעם שהוא כלול ומשותף מכולם. And as a result

הם מתעוררים ומשתנים כפי נטיית מעשיו. והוא עניין עץ הדעת טוב ורע,

meaning עץ הדעת טוב ורע means that in that tree tov vera are mixed up. That's what he means, right? והוא עניין עץ הדעת טוב ורע, that tov vera in that tree are mixed up, they're mixed together, they're mixed up, there's a confusion. So let's read and then we'll, there's so much to try again even on the surface try to understand over here.

והעניין כי קודם החטא אם כי וודאי שהיה בעל בחירה גמור.

Now the fact that the depiction being given here of Adam kodem hacheit is that he was only comprised, only constituted of kochos kedushah, that doesn't mean that he was a robotic tzaddik.

וודאי שהיה בעל בחירה גמור להטות עצמו כל אשר יחפוץ.

Adam was created as a ba'al bechirah to incline himself in whatever direction he would desire,

להיטיב או להפך חס ושלום כי זה תכלית כוונת כל הבריאה וגם כי הרי אחר כך חטא.

I mean obviously he had to have been a ba'al bechirah because otherwise how does the cheit ever happen? Omnam, but the bechirah was different than the way we experience bechirah. We can sort of try to describe what this was, but we can't really, again, it's not our reality, it's not our existence.

אומנם לא שהיה עניין בחירתו מחמת שכוחות הרע היו כלולים בתוכו.

His bechirah was not because he had these conflicting tendencies, these conflicting dispositions or predispositions within him. No.

כי הוא היה אדם ישר לגמרי כלול רק מסדרי כוחות הקדושה לבד וכל ענייניו היו כולם ישרים קדושים ומזוככים טוב גמור בלי שום עירוב ונטייה לצד ההפך כלל.

Again, there was no mixture, there was no confusion. כוחות הרע היו עומדים לצד. The kochos hara were external. The yetzer hara was something external, was something extrinsic. We experience the yetzer hara as something internal, as something intrinsic. That's our reality, that's the way we experience our yetzer hara. אדם הראשון קודם החטא was not like that. Adam harishon, it's as if the mashal is let's say that, take something that we don't really necessarily have a natural yetzer hara for. I don't know, I think most people don't have a natural yetzer hara to go rob a bank or something. Not a natural yetzer hara. You can have a meisis umadiach comes to you and convinces you and brainwashes you and tries to change your pattern of thought. The way you think, that's not on your radar screen. You have no natural netiyah to do that. You have no natural desire to do that. But a person is susceptible that if he allows himself to do so, so then he can allow himself to be convinced that that is something he should do. And then he can go ahead and and do it. So that was the type of bechirah that Adam had. Again, הוא הנחש הוא היה So the yetzer hara was something external for Adam kodem hachet. Again, it's like someone trying to convince us to go rob a bank. Someone trying to convince us, the Pachad Yitzchak is about to use the mashal to put your hand in the fire. A person doesn't have a natural yetzer hara to do such a thing. A person can be convinced, right? Every few years we hear this crazy story on the news about some immature kids, and one dares the other one in the zoo to go jumping to the lions' thing, and then jump back out, and we know the end of the story in some of those things, some of them not so... there's nothing natural about that desire. There's no natural desire that a person has to do something so self-destructive and so irrational. But a person can be enticed by an external... an external yetzer hara can lure a person and convince a person to do something which is unnatural. It's not natural to do that, and yet it happens. It's not natural to take a dare, take a challenge, oh you know, can you put your hand in the fire and see how long you can withstand the pain? There's no natural desire anyone has to do that, but a person can be enticed and bring himself to a point that he thinks that he actually wants to do it. And then a person will go ahead and do it. So that was the experience of the yetzer hara. Again, even what we now experience as an internal yetzer hara, all our physicality and being nimshach to unnecessary degrees and proportions, everything that we experience as an internal yetzer hara was like these types of dares that is a mashal to the way that the yetzer hara functioned then.

הכוחות הרע עומדים עומדים לצד וענין בפני עצמו חוץ ממנו

was totally external. Vahaya ba'al bechira, however, we can be convinced, we're ba'ale bechira to take that dare to go into the zoo to climb over the fence and go into the lions' pen. We are ba'ale bechira to do that. והיה בעל בחירה להכניס עצמו על כוחות הרע chas veshalom כמו שהאדם הוא בעל בחירה להכניס עצמו לתוך האש. Person has such... I don't know, when I was a kid there was this guy, I don't know what his real name was, but his stage name was Evel Knievel, you ever hear of him? Yeah? So his thing in life was, purpose of life, everyone's life has to have meaning, so the meaning of his life was he used to ride a motorcycle, and he'd go up this ramp on a motorcycle and then he'd fly over record distances. He'd fly over, he'd line up eighteen cars or something, and then he'd rev up the engine and I think he was in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most broken bones of any meshugene whoever walked on the face of earth. I assume eventually he killed himself with all those stunts, I don't know, I can't imagine that he lived to be a very old ben shivim. So that's not a normal yetzer hara. Even after the chet you can't blame Adam HaRishon for that one. That's meshuge even today. But a person is a ba'al bechira to do that, a person can do perverse things. Again, when we are nimshach to a natural yetzer hara, we don't consider it perverse. It's wrong, it's assur, it's immoral, but it's not perverse in that sense. There's something natural about the yetzer hara. That doesn't justify it, it doesn't whitewash it, it doesn't allow it, chas veshalom, but it's natural yetzer hara. And now you hear about things which are also perverse. So then chet was something it wasn't natural. There was something perverse about the experience of the original chet. והיה בעל בחירה להכניס עצמו על כוחות הרע chas veshalom

כמו שהאדם הוא בעל בחירה להכניס עצמו לתוך האש. ולכן כשראה הסטרא אחרא להחטיאו הוצרך הנחש לבוא מבחוץ לפתות.

There had to be someone again convincing, seducing externally,

לא כמו שהוא עכשיו שהיצר מפתה את האדם הוא בתוך האדם עצמו.

We experience We experience it internally, intrinsically.

ומזדמן לאדם שהוא עצמו הוא הרוצה ונמשך לעשות העבירה ולא שאחר חוץ ממנו מפתהו.

Okay, so Bezras Hashem we'll pick up here for next.