PHM #7

So what's this for today? We're going to I guess skip a little bit within the Hakdama. If you have this edition, it's on page Mem-Vav. What other editions do we have? In the Rav Kapach edition, it's page Yud-Tes. Any other editions? The bottom of Samech-Dalet going over to Samech-Hey. The Rambam describes how that there were four elements in Talmud Bavli. He says the first element is Perush Hamishnah, explaining the Mishnah. The second is Psak Halacha of machloksim that appear in the Mishnah. The third are Chidushim which nitchadshu after the Chachmei Hamishnah, amongst them meaning Gezeiros and Takanos that the Amoraim made. And the fourth is Agadeta, that Shas, Talmud Bavli includes Agadeta.

והרביעי דרשות מתאימות לענין כל פרק המזומן שיהיה בו הדרש.

The Rambam has a yesod that the placement of Agadeta is significant, that the Agadeta ties in with what the halachic topic and focus of that perek is.

והענין הרביעי הזה כלומר הדרש הנמצא בתלמוד אין ראוי לחשוב שהיא במעלה נמוכה או שתועלתו מעטה.

Don't think because it's not halacha, don't denigrate it Rachmana litzlan.

אלא תכליתו עצומה במה שהוא כולל מן החידות העמוקות וההערות הנפלאות. כי אותן הדרשות אם מעיינים בהן עיון מעמיק.

If a person is able to penetrate to the depths of the drashos and understand what Chazal intended in that drashah, yuban mehen, a person will come to understand מן הטוב המוחלט שאין למעלה ממנו. The biggest, deepest, most profound yesodos of Torah will be revealed to a person through these Agadetas.

ויתגלה מהן מן העניינים האלוקיים ואמיתות עניינים כל מה שבמחשבתם של אנשי החכמה וכל מה שכלו בו הפילוסופים בזמנם.

Whatever everyone, what all the Anshei hachochma are focused on, what philosophers, clearly the Rambam is saying many of them not successfully, what they sought, what they were searching for is present in the Agadetas in Shas. למעשה וכשתעיין בה כפשוטה. When you just look at the simple perush hamilos of Agadeta in Shas, תראה בה עניינים הרחוקים. Things which are nonsensical, about as nonsensical as you can get if you just look at the literal meaning, the literal translation. ולא עשו כן אלא לצורך עניינים נפלאים. So why did Chazal, why did they camouflage what they were saying? Why is it said in a riddle? Rambam says that there were multiple kavanos that Chazal had. ואחד כדי להפשיט מחשבות הלומדים. There is a gevaldig yesod here in even in less, even in inyanim that we have shaychus to, not the inyan that the Rambam was talking about, but this yesod is relevant there as well. When everything is explained to and obviously on one level this is what is supposed to happen, right? ואלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם כשולחן ערוך. It is supposed to set it before people like you are setting a table, to explain lucidly, fully. Me'idach gisa and here is the symphony. Me'idach gisa, sometimes when everything is just explained to a person without his having been challenged to make the breakthrough, he is not stimulated in the way that he would if he were initially challenged because there is nothing that is a sort of a I do not know if it is entirely true but to a degree there is a certain intellectual passivity if everything is just explained. And when a person has to be yagei'a, when a person encounters a difficulty, the level in which he is thinking and understanding is something that will let him get further ultimately than if it was just given to him initially k'shulchan aruch. And that's what the Rambam says כדי להפשיט מחשבות הלומדים. That was one inyan nifla that Chazal had in mind by encasing the chochmah of Aggadeta in again in a fashion that the literal meaning doesn't convey what it is really about. וגם לעוור עיני הכסילים אשר לא יאירו לבותם לעולם. The other is that to make it inaccessible to those to whom it should remain inaccessible, literally fools.

וגם לעוור עיני הכסילים אשר לא יאירו לבותם לעולם. ואילו היו מוצגים לפניהם האמיתות היו מסתרחקים מהם כפי חסרון טבעם שעל כמותם מהם אין מגלים להן את הסוד מפני שאין שכלם שלם בכדי לקבל האמיתות כמו שהן. והרי החכמים עליהם השלום היו מעלימים זה מזה סודות החכמה.

Even among chachamim there was a sensitivity that a person can be on a very high madrigah but not necessarily ready or equipped for the next madrigah.

וכן סיפר כי אחד מן החכמים נפגש עם אנשים. שהיו בקיאים בחכמת מעשה בראשית.

There's a gvaltike mussar haskel here and again just... The Rambam says that Chazal wanted to ensure that people would be learning and thinking about and dealing with inyanim that they were equipped to be learning, dealing with, thinking about. And people who wouldn't grasp the ideas of Aggadata, Chazal wanted to make sure that it was inaccessible, and they made it inaccessible. I don't know, today where the pendulum seems to have swung very far from that sensitivity of Chazal in terms of, in terms of determining whether a person, hein mitzad ha'chochma, הן מצד היראת חטא, whether a person is ready for different t'chumim of Torah, the pendulum seems to have swung away from where Chazal positioned it. The Rambam, alav hashalom,

היו מעלימם זה מזה סודות החכמה. וכבר סיפר כאחד מן החכמים נפגש עם אנשים שהיו בקיאים בחכמת מעשה בראשית והוא היה בקי בחכמת מעשה מרכבה.

So amar lahem, למדוני מעשה בראשית ואלמדכם מעשה מרכבה. V'nanu, okay, it's a deal.

ואחרי שלמדוהו מעשה בראשית נמנע מלמדם מעשה מרכבה. ולא עשה זאת חס ושלום מתוך צרות עין.

He didn't begrudge them

מצדו בחכמה ומרצונו להיות לו יתרון עליהם, כי המידות הללו מגונות באחד השכלים שבבני אדם, כל שכן באנשים הגדולים.

That kind of competitiveness in chochma is...

ולא עשה זאת אלא מפני שראה עצמו ראוי לקבל מה שבידם, ולא ראה אותם ראויים לקבל מה שבידו. ולמד ראיה על עניין זה מדברי שלמה, דבש וחלב תחת לשונך.

So what does it mean that the

דבש וחלב תחת לשונך? ופירוש זאת עליהם השלום ואמרו שעניין דברים אלו כי העניינים הערבים שהנפש מתענגת בהם, כהתענג חוש הטעם בדבש וחלב, צריך שלא יהיו נאמרים ולא יצאו מן הלשון כלל. והוא אמרו תחת לשונך.

Let's keep it, keep it quiet. The dvash v'chalav, those inyanim of Torah should be tachas leshonecha. It shouldn't be al halashon, it shouldn't be al halashon that a person is going to be speaking about them, but it should be tachas leshonecha. Now comes something mamash, mamash extraordinary here in the Rambam.

כי העניינים האלו אינם מן הנלמדים ולא נדרשים בישיבת החכמה.

This subject matter again ma'aseh bereishis, ma'aseh merkavah, they're not learned, they're not taught in public settings, bi-yeshivas hachochmah. אלא רמזים עליהם בספרים ורמזים בנסתרים. Hints. Hints are are embedded in sefarim.

וכשמסיר השם את החציצה או אולי את המסווה מעל לב מי שרצוי לפניו ולאחר השתדלות בחכמות הוא מבין מהם לפי יכולת בינתו.

That is such a extraordinary sentence, let's read it again. U-keshe-meisir Ha-shem either es ha-chitzitzah or es ha-masveh, the same the same point. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu removes the veil מעל לב מי שרצוי לפניו ולאחר השתדלות בחכמות from from the mind of the person who was ratzuy before Him, capital H.

הוא מבין מהם לפי יכולת בינתו ואין לו לאדם עם הלימוד ובקשת החכמה בחריצות אלא להשליך יהבו על השם ולהתפלל אליו ולהתחנן שיביננו וידריכנו ויגלה לו סודות הטמונים בכתבי התורה כמו שמצאנו שדוד עליו השלום עשה כן הוא אמר גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך.

So there's something so just so so extraordinary here. On the one hand the Rambam says that havanah in divrei Torah is a natural process. It's not like some I'm not saying that no one subscribes to this but the Rambam didn't and be-ikvosav other other gedolim as well. It's not that a person can surpass what his abilities are. A person understands הוא מבין מהם לפי יכולת בינתו. It's not that oh if a person only wants enough and a person only works hard enough so everyone can be Reb Chaim, everyone can be the Vilna Gaon. It's not true. Reb Chaim could be Reb Chaim, the Vilna Gaon could be could be the Vilna Gaon. That they had to work with again bakashas ha-chochmah be-charitzus and they had to work, the amal ve-yegiah was unbelievable, but the yecholes binah had to be there also. It is the Rambam is depicting it as a natural process, right? It's going to be le-fi yecholes binaso. So it's not going to be supernatural in the sense that a person is going to surpass his own abilities, that a person's going to surpass his own capacities. So in that sense the Rambam is very much describing this as a natural process. You sit, you learn, you think, you try to understand. But mei-idach gisa the Rambam says again in this context he's talking about ma'aseh bereishis and ma'aseh merkavah, that in order for the person to understand Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to lift the veil. So the mashal is as follows. Let's say a person is in a beautiful beautiful garden. Beautiful beds of flowers and blossoming trees to look at and it stretches on for miles and miles and he has wonderful vision, he has 20/15 vision. The only thing is there's a blindfold on. There's a blindfold on. If someone will lift the blindfold, so then that natural ability, that acute eyesight that he has will let him now soak in all the incredible scene. eyesight the keenness, the acuteness of his vision but m'idach gisa initially there was a blindfold and someone had to lift that blindfold. That's what the Rambam's describing: u'keshemasir Hashem, just let's be m'ayen on this,

וכשמסיר השם את המסווה או את המחיצה מעל לב מי שרצה לפניו לאחר השתדלותו בחכמות אז הוא מבין מהם לפי יכולת בינתו.

And that's where the Rambam says that with the limud, with the bakashas hachochma bacharitzus, with all the indispensable diligence and amal v'yegia a person has to להשליך יהבו על השם that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should lift that veil. Here the context is clearly sodos. Again, ma'aseh bereishis, ma'aseh merkava. The Rambam has the same idea in the yud-gimmel ikkarim:

כל אות ממנו יש בה חכמה ונפלאות למי שהבינה השם ולא תושג תכלית חכמתה ארוכה מארץ מדה ורחבה מני ים ואין לאדם אלא להלוך בעקבות דוד משיח אלקי יעקב שהתפלל גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך.

Now here what preceded here is the Rambam says that the yesod hashmini of Torah min hashamayim is every word, every letter in the Torah, not just Anochi Hashem Elokecha, not just שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד but even what strikes us as being uninterested and irrelevant: ובני חם כוש ומצרים ופוט וכנען and ושם אשתו מהיטבאל בת מטרד. No, the Rambam says it's all Toras Hashem temima, it's all Torah min hashamayim and there's chochmos niflaos in every word and every letter of Torah. And I but we learn the pasuk ובני חם כוש ומצרים ופוט וכנען and it doesn't really it doesn't resonate. So the Rambam says ein hachi nami, it takka doesn't resonate, so אין לאדם אלא להלוך בעקבות a person should go in the in the path of

דוד משיח אלקי יעקב שהתפלל גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך.

So here the Rambam is not talking only about ma'aseh bereishis and ma'aseh merkava, he's talking about other chelkei Torah that we just don't understand. Why is it important that we should know how many sons Cham had and what their names were? It's presumably that's not going to be high on one's list to you know name your sons after... shall I name the first one Cush, shall I name the second one Cush? So presumably it's not going to be too high on one's list. So what do we need to know it for? So we takka don't know. Says the Rambam, so it's the same yesod, right? It's the same yesod that tefilla is indispensable because there's a veil Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to lift. There's again a person can have twenty-fifteen vision, but unless someone removes the blinders, unless someone removes that blindfold, he can't exercise that twenty-fifteen vision. A person can have yecholos binaso of David HaMelech, but first there has to be the gal einai in order to facilitate the abbitah. Could it be that he still refers to the same type of sodos he's referring to here and seeing that that pasuk also has a sod attached to it as opposed to... I mean possibly. Obviously to really say one would have to know what the Rambam thinks is pshat. But elsewhere the Rambam sort of does tell us how to learn pshat in these types of psukim and he doesn't necessarily say a pshat of something which is Ma'aseh Bereishis and Ma'aseh Merkavah. So, kimduma that the simple pshat is that that it's just something which is hidden from us. Something can be hidden from us because it's sodot hatorah, something can be hidden from us just because it's it's cryptic and and enigmatic, but lav davka that that it it that that there's sod misodot hatorah embedded in it. So the peshtus is that that here he is repeating the same yesod in a broader sense. So what appears is that the Rambam is telling us the following. The Rambam is telling us something, it's just so extraordinary. The Rambam is telling us that that there are two chalkei hatorah. There's there's a chelek of torah which is revealed. The meaning, the significance, the idea, the importance is not hidden. At least some of the meaning, significance, importance is is is revealed. That that's Then there's a chelek hanifla and again nifla means כי יפלא ממך דבר למשפט. So so Onkelos taitches I think arei yitkasei, right? It means something which is mechusa, something which which is hidden. Then there's the second chelek in torah of dvarim mechusim. The dvarim mechusim may be dvarim mechusim because it's sodot hatorah of Ma'aseh Bereishis and Ma'aseh Merkavah, or the חלק הנפלא המכוסה שבתורה, it may be chukim whose whose reason eludes us, or it may be ובני חם כוש ומצרים ופוט וכנען. All this belongs to the chelek hanifla shebatorah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu put blindfolds on us with regard to that chelek in torah, and with regard to that chelek in torah so there's a siyata dish'maya above and beyond whatever siyata dish'maya means in any other context. There's a siyata dish'maya that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to lift the veil, there has to be a gal einay, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to lift the veil for a person to understand the divrei torah. וכשמסיר השם את החציצה המסווה. There's a veil, there's a a wall which is which is obstructing a person's vision. A masach, a screen, it's all the same, different translations. They're all capturing the same point. And and that's why bakasha, the role of bakasha in talmud torah is is paramount. It's indispensable, because for the whole chelek of torah, again, be it things which seem inconsequential and irrelevant to us, uvenei Chom, be it chukim, be it sodot hatorah, all of that in in different ways, but they are there is a a common denominator, they're all nifla'os. They're all nifla'os, they're all hidden. They're all they're all a chelek of torah where Hakadosh Baruch Hu placed a veil over over our eyes. It's interesting, the gemara in Megilla tells the story that

תרגום של נביאים יונתן בן עוזיאל אמרו מפי חגי זכריה ומלאכי, ונזדעזעה ארץ ישראל ארבע מאות פרסה על ארבע.

Eretz Yisrael shook, trembled.

יצתה בת קול ואמרה מי הוא זה שגילה סתריי לבני אדם.

Who's messing around here with with this division that that I created in divrei Torah between what's supposed to be the chelek hanistar shebaTorah and and the chelek hanigleh shebaTorah? מי הוא זה שגילה סתריי לבני אדם. And Yonatan ben Uziel defends. Yonatan ben Uziel

עמד יונתן בן עוזיאל על רגליו ואמר אני הוא שגליתי סתריך לבני אדם גלוי וידוע לפניך שלא לכבודי עשיתי ולא לכבוד בית אבא אלא לכבודך עשיתי שלא ירבו מחלוקת בישראל.

Itachen be'shitat ha'Rambam there's a nifladike pshat in Birkas haTorah. So we taki do have bakasha. In Birkas haTorah in the morning we have bakasha. תפילת נחוניה בן הקנה when you come to the Beis Medrash there's bakasha. You taki see this stress on on bakasha in in conjunction with Talmud Torah. But what what's the bakasha in in in Birkas haTorah in the morning? What's the bakasha? V'ha'arev na. So we translate correctly to make it sweet, it should arev, what's arev is arev l'chech, something which is which is sweet. But l'maise itachen according to the Rambam what the real pshat is, how did the Rambam say pshat over here? When when he quoted the Gemara in Chagiga with with a posuk of דבש וחלב תחת לשונך ופירשו זאת עליהם השלום ואמרו she'inyan dvash is the ultimate sweet, it's it's probably the sweetest, it's I don't know maybe even more concentrated than than sugar, but it's it's certainly the the prototype of sweet. And yet Chazal use dvash as a moshal for what had been hidden and a person experiences the sweetness by the discovery of of what hidden really means. Right?

ולמד ראיה על עניין זה מדברי שלמה דבש וחלב תחת לשונך ופירשו זאת עליהם השלום וענו שעניין דברים אלו כי העניינים הערבים שהנפש מתענגת בהם כהתענג חוש הטעם בדבש וחלב צריך שלא יאמרו ולא יצאו מן הלשון כלל.

So the dvorim areivim were the niflaos. So kumt ois that lichora according to the Rambam when we say v'ha'arev, the pshat in v'ha'arev really is, Ribbono shel Olam, it's it is Dovid Hamelech's tefillah. That's the tefillah of gal einai because v'ha'arev means that I should be able to have the sweetness of understanding the niflaos as well. And and we taki have that bakasha. A, lichora it's just it's emes that that's how the Rambam understands it. And B, otherwise the kasha is, so we don't have that bakasha. We don't have the gal einai. Okay, it's very nice that it should be zies, it should be zies, but but first first we should be mivakesh the gal einai. Hertz es, no, that's gufa what what v'ha'arev means according to to the Rambam. Because that's what when Chazal talk about the דבש וחלב תחת לשונך, the dvash v'cholav, the dvorim areivim, the dvash v'cholav, the dvorim areivim are those things which were niflaos that the person now is zoche to understand. So when we say והערב נא ה' אלוקינו we we are mispallel the tefillah of Dovid Hamelech of gal einai v'abita. I mean the the Rambam it just so happens does not have this nusach according to the editions based on the kisvei yad, but in our nusach of where the chassima is המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל, so המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל takeh means because in the context of veha'arev so Hakadosh Baruch Hu is directly involved with everyone's talmud Torah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu made a decision that Reuven ben Yaakov should be zocher to have the veil lifted and should be able to now understand this nifla mitoraso. So המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל is not just by virtue of the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל by virtue of Ma'amad Har Sinai, by virtue of nesinas haTorah. No, it's on a... it's on every yachid veyachid ba'asher hu sham when

מסיר השם את המסוה מעל לב מי שרצה לפניו לאחר השתדלות בחכמות.

So the Rambam has two sort of conditions for Hakadosh Baruch Hu responding to the tefillah. The first is the person has to be ratza lefanav. Person has to be ehrliche. And second of all, a person has to be asking for what's appropriate. He's five years old in first grade and doing arithmetic and he's being mispallel Ribono shel Olam let me understand calculus. No. First figure out what two plus two is and then vaiter a little later we'll move on to calculus. A, it has to be ratza lefanav. Person has to be ehrliche. Second of all, it has to be le'achar hashtadlus bechochmos. A person is supposed to ask for what's appropriate, not to be overreaching. And and that's takeh what the Rambam says, and when Hakadosh Baruch Hu responds positively and and lifts that veil, so הוא מבין מהם לפי כח בינתו. A person doesn't go beyond what what is appropriate for him. And then again he part of the again le'achar hashtadlus bechochmos again, that's what he reinforces again ואין לו לאדם אלא לימוד ובקשת החכמה בחריצות. It can't be that again the bakasha that a person asks has to be commensurate with the effort and hashtadlus that he's making. A person can't ask, you know, Ribono shel Olam I'll spend ten minutes a day learning and let me let me become a baki in shas. It has to be commensurate, the the bakasha. Again, Hakadosh Baruch Hu lifts a veil, Hakadosh Baruch Hu removes a blindfold. But a person, that's what that's what we can and should ask for, but then what we ask for has to be commensurate to what by virtue of. Whatever a person is is ra'ui to be asking for. Okay, please. When a person says Amen to a beracha, right, so he says, the Gemara says גדול העונה אמן יותר מן המברך. Why is that? Why should he be bigger? The one who said the beracha did the whole thing. He's the one who remembered and he's the one who spoke it out and everything. So why is the one who says Amen bigger? So Rav Chaim says a pshat. He says when you're making a beracha, so you're mentioning Hashem's name. You're talking to Hashem. You're saying Baruch Atah Hashem. It's like a person who's in the presence of a king. When you're in the presence of a king, you're overwhelmed. You can't think of anything else. You're just like, whoa, I'm talking to the king. You're not thinking about what you're saying. You're just like, I'm talking to the king. But the person who's standing on the side, he's not talking to the king. He's listening. He can think about what's being said. So he can have more kavana than the person who's actually saying the beracha. That's why גדול העונה אמן יותר מן המברך.