Perek 8, part 2

We mentioned yesterday that as we try to understand a little bit the Malbim's peirush and argument here in his understanding of kapitel chet, that we would try to also בעזרת השם בלי נדר try to understand the Rambam's position on these inyanim as the Malbim indicates he's very openly disagreeing with the Rambam. In that vein, we saw yesterday that the Malbim quotes the pasuk from ma'aseh bereishit כי עדות השם נאמנה and this is in the, on pasuk aleph the Malbim’s hakdamah to his peirush on this kapitel כי עדות השם נאמנה שהכוכבים כולם נבראו בעבור הארץ in contrary to the philosophical position that the Malbim sees this kapitel as rejecting. The pasuk is explicit that the kochavim, all of them, were created for the sake of earth,

כמו שכתוב ויתן אותם אלוקים ברקיע השמים להאיר על הארץ.

So the emet is as the Malbim knew very well, the Malbim mamash knew everything, there's no such thing as a mareh makom in anything, in any area that the Malbim wasn't aware of. But as the Malbim knew very well, the Rambam had already asked this kasha on himself and far'entfert. So the Rambam's understanding on this is al yateka otcha, don't be misled דברו על אודות הכוכבים להאיר על הארץ, right?

ויתן אותם אלוקים ברקיע השמים להאיר על הארץ ולמשול ביום ובלילה

vetisbor and you'll think that the meaning of the pasuk is שמשמעותו כדי שיעשו זאת for the purpose of, in order that, right? You'll translate the lamed, which the lamed does mean sometimes, the Rambam is not disagreeing that sometimes when you have a lamed the lamed has the sense of 'in order to', 'for the purpose of', but you'll think that that's the pshat in this pasuk, you'll erroneously think according to the Rambam. Ela zot but what the pasuk does mean the Rambam says היא הודאה על טבען. It's rather a, not a statement of purpose, but a statement of fact that the kochavim, the shemesh, the yareiach, the kochavim are luminous bodies, right? That it's hoda'ah al tiv'an, not al matratam, not on their purpose, not not on the telos, but rather al tiv'an, a statement of fact, they're luminous bodies שהוא חפץ לבראותם כך that hakadosh baruch hu willed. It was, is the ratzon hashem to have kochavim which are luminous bodies which provide illumination. Klomar me'irim umanhigim. Klomar כלומר כמו שאמר לאדם ורדו בדגת הים. Adam wasn't created to be a fisherman. Uredu bidgat hayam means that it's a description of teva ha'adam that he has and exercises such a capacity

שאין משמעותו שהוא נברא לשם זה אלא זאת הודאה על טבעו שבו הוא יתעלה טבעו לזה.

So if we were producing a translation, so for the Malbim the pasuk in bereishit ויתן אותם אלוקים ברקיע השמים להאיר על הארץ would translate 'in order to', 'for the purpose of', and the Rambam would translate 'such that'. ויתן אותם אלוקים ברקיע השמים hakadosh baruch hu placed them in the firmament such that they provide illumination for the earth, but 'such that' isn't a statement of purpose. It doesn't mean that all this... is or was. Okay let's begin with the Malbim here on pasuk beis. So pasuk aleph למנצח על הגתית מזמור לדוד, Metzudos explains that the gittis is an instrument which was associated with the place Gas. That's where it was manufactured.

ה' אדונינו מה אדיר שמך בכל הארץ אשר תנה הודך על השמים.

The Malbim on this kapittel, everything the Malbim says is incredibly majestic. The sweep and the profundity, everything the Malbim said is majestic. The Malbim on this kapittel is a little bit more speculative than on other kapittlach. And again we'll try to... this pasuk actually provides an interesting illustration of it.

ה' אדונינו מה אדיר שמך בכל הארץ אשר תנה הודך על השמים.

So let's read a little bit in the Malbim. תחילה הניח ליסוד היסוד. So Dovid Hamelech begins by establishing the following foundation: Ki shem Hashem. And what shem Hashem connotes in this context, mah adir shimcha, shem Hashem, a name, let's say when we name a child, so yikarei shemo b'Yisrael. A name is how other people identify someone. And that's why you'll have someone whose name is Yaakov and he'll tell you but my friends call me Yanky. A name is how a person is known. That's what a name represents, how a person is known. So what does it mean to have shem Hashem?

כי שם ה' והיא החכמה והיכולת אשר בה נתגלה על ידי המציאות אשר המציא אשר בעבורו נקרא אלה בשם ה'.

Let's skip this very yesodistik parenthesis for the moment. הנה שמך זהו אדיר אך בארץ. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you're known to us unequivocally, unambiguously, your existence, your chochma, the fact that you're the architect of the briya, the source of all existence, that's known to us compellingly, unequivocally ba'aretz, through what you've created on earth. And asher tenah, that's מה אדיר שמך בכל הארץ, and the second half of the pasuk, אשר תנה הודך על השמים, is that it's through the hisgalus of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in his chochma which is evident on earth, it's through that that we then recognize Hakadosh Baruch Hu even for his handiwork al hashamayim. It's the hisgalus of shimcha b'chol ha'aretz which is nosein hod which. Credits you, which allows us to also attribute to You and recognize Your hod, Your beauty al hashamayim as well. And again, and that's the Malbim, the pushback again, the philosophical argument that the Malbim outlined, that he understands this kapittel coming to rebut and reject, is that Earth is and kal vachomer man on earth is just such a tiny infinitesimal part of the briah. So the ikar of the briah is bashamayim. So for the Malbim, this posuk is pushing back against that idea and says no, ה' אדונינו מה אדיר שמך — again, he's gonna, he'll elaborate all this, but for now just to sketch it and outline it, מה אדיר שמך בכל הארץ. Your name, dehino, the hisgalus of You, Your existence, Your yecholos, Your chochma is bechol ha'aretz, is from what we see and observe and can appreciate ba'aretz. And it's that, it's that hisgalus ba'aretz, it's mamash punkt farkert, which is אשר תנה הודך על השמים. Take a look at the Radak again for purposes of contrast. So the Radak thinks this posuk says mamash punkt farkert. Take a look at the Radak here.

ה' אדונינו שאתה הוא אדון כל הברואים מה אדיר שמך בכל הארץ כגון מה אדיר אתה כי שמו הוא והוא שמו ומה אדיר בכל הארץ.

So adir is, ich veis, strong.

רצונו לומר גבורתך נראית בכל הארץ אבל ההוד הגדול והכוח העצום

is nireh bashamayim. So for the Radak, hodecha is something which far surpasses glimpsing the tchuma of adir, and it's mamash, the posuk is saying mamash davka lehipuch.

רצונו לומר גבורתך נראית בכל הארץ אבל ההוד הגדול והכוח העצום נראה בשמים כי הארץ דלה וקטנה כנגד השמים.

Exactly this machlokes between these two schools of thought. Okay, that's just sort of outlining what the pshat in the posuk is. Let's try to fill in at least a few of some of the Malbim's details. Take a look at the parentheses here. So see כי אשר בעבורו נקראהו בשם ה'. We refer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as Hashem, as yud-keh-vav-keh, mitzad hachochma veyecholos which He revealed through bringing whatever exists into existence. ki mahuso, says the Malbim, His essence, mitzad atzmo as opposed to mitzad His actions, mitzad His creation, ne'elam venistar mei'itanu. It's totally totally hidden from us. It's not something that anyone, not just human being, malachim can't be this, it's not something that can be grasped. ושמו אשר בו נכנהו and shem Hashem which we utilize to refer to Him, הוא מצד הצד אשר בו נכירהו is from the angle from which we do, can understand and recognize Him. And that's why nikraehu beshem havayah which expresses the fact שהוא מהוה וממציא את הכל. Gives existence, sustains the the existence of of everything that that exists. So this this is a yesod of the Malbim here teaches is is mamash muskam amongst kol chachmei Yisrael. This distinction between knowing Hakadosh Baruch Hu mitzad his actions but the complete inability to know Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself as is. So the a little bit a little bit of a mashal is the following. A little bit of a mashal is as follows. Obviously the by definition there can't really be a an adequate an adequate mashal. But a little bit of a mashal is as follows. Let's say you have you have a group of talmidim. And every every morning after they're assembled so there's a a skylight opens and and the Rebbe parachutes in. And and and and learns with them and teaches them and and gives דברי חיזוק והתעוררות והדרכה ועצה and and nurtures. And then at the end of seder the skylight opens again and he and he vanishes. And then the the talmidim will be approached and they'll be asked tell us about your Rebbe. So they'll say he's extraordinary and they'll they'll be moneh shvachov. But then they'll say but le-ma'aseh we need to add a certain caveat or we need to frame what we're saying in the following way that we only know him and only interact with him in the classroom. We've never seen him outside the classroom. We've never seen him not teaching. We've never seen him outside the classroom. So we know him and we know him very well and we know him with conviction and with certitude but we also recognize the fact that we only know him within the classroom. So that's a a little bit of a mashal. A little bit of a mashal. There's there's yediah which which gives conviction which gives certitude which is the basis of emunah. But there's a recognition that that we know Hakadosh Baruch Hu through his actions and his conduct in his classroom in the world but we don't know Hakadosh Baruch Hu and can't know Hakadosh Baruch Hu outside that context beyond beyond that context. Everyone all chachmei Yisrael say it, right? The Rashba famously explains that that this yesod is one which is reflected in every bracha we say. That the reason brachot combine lashon nochach ve-nistar. Baruch atah Hashem, so that's nochach, right? We're addressing Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the second person something which is mind-boggling. Baruch atah Hashem but then asher kidshanu, it's not asher kidashtanu it's asher kidshanu. So that's lashon nistar, it's third person, right? So we we shift from second person to third person. So the Rashba explains again this same yesod. On the one hand Hakadosh Baruch Hu is nochach, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in the classroom so we we know Hakadosh Baruch Hu. On the other hand Hakadosh Baruch Hu we only he's only we only know him mitzad the classroom but but he's nistar mei-itanu hence the the shift. The Rambam has it, the Ramchal has it, everyone has it. Everyone everyone has this this this yesod. Ad kedei kach that that even when we talk about the Shem Hashem, so the Shem Hashem also is something that we can give Hakadosh Baruch Hu a name in the classroom. In the classroom he has a name mitzad what we see and experience and know from the classroom so we give Hakadosh Baruch Hu a name. The Malbim goes on and again we're not going to read word by word together now but I again as as we discussed when we began it's it's very very very kedai to to try to go through word by word. The Malbim explains that the אדני שמך בכל הארץ he says the argument of how earth and within earth man is dwarfed by the vastness of the beriah he says here's the counter-argument to that he says is the following. The more let's say when when they first invented computers so the first computers were as big as a room. And and then as progress was made so then the computers become smaller and smaller and smaller until you have these tiny computer chips whatever computer chips however the however the however the computer chips work. So he says the smallness of something is a reflection of greater wisdom and more profound wisdom than than the vastness. The fact that that that you can compress something into into a small area we always think that that's a greater reflection of chochmah than than when it when it spreads out over large large domains. Then then he also says that in terms of the number of physical laws again each of which obviously is its own reflection and of of chochmas Hashem of the chochmah in the beriah in albeit again in size in minuscule adam there are many many more laws of nature profound laws of nature working in harmony than in the vastness of galaxies. So the example he gives is for instance so all all planetary motion everything is just one law of gravity is what is responsible for the all the koach hameshichah is is what's responsible for all all all motion. And he said yet in adam you have again all the chochmah of mineral life tzomeach all the chochmah of chai all the chochmah of medaber and that's even before you get to the uniqueness of the symbiosis of sichli and gufani. So it's it's not only again that to design a small watch is a much greater feat of chochmah than a very large clock to be able to to have all the parts working even in on a miniature scale. scale is tremendously more impressive, more of a demonstration of chochmah than to have it operating on a macro scale. But he says it's also that there's much it's that adam is a much more complex briah than than the vastness of the of shamayim. That's again obviously summarized oversimplified but that's the the thrust of his argument. The ultimate the ultimate davar hanifla is

נוסף בו כח המדבר והשכלי. הקשר הנפלא בו קישר שני עולמות.

This extraordinary connection through which by virtue of which Hakadosh Baruch Hu connected two different domains two different worlds. בו קישר שני עולמות גשמי ושכלי. And yet somehow or other פועלים ומתפעלים זה בזה. Somehow or other they interact. The koach hasichli affects and is affected by the koach hagashmi. The koach hagashmi affects and is affected by the koach hasichli.

אשר ילאה כל שכל לדעת מה ואיך היו ונתחברו שני הרחוקים והנפלאים האלו.

Something that can never be fully understood. And טאקע עד היום הזה mind body connection is again he's he's talking about neshamah but mind body connection is is one of the biggest biggest mysteries. The brain is is probably the least understood part of the whole body and within that the the mind body connection. Here mistama the Malbim has in mind the Darkhei Moshe famously in siman vav talks about the matbeia bracha of asher yatzar and and he talks about the chasimah רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות. umafli la'asos and he says that the pela the Rema writes in siman vav in Darkhei Moshe the pela is is this again symbiosis between neshamah and guf. Again the Malbim is talking about sechel and guf. The Rema uses the lashon between I forget if he says nefesh or neshamah and and the guf. And he also comments on the interaction and he says rofe chol basar that in order for a person to be able to function again spiritually intellectually we see it as it is a different domain and yes and yet the the interconnectedness that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created two things that we would think can't can't connect. We would think that they're on different planes different dimensions of existence and that they can't meet they can't interconnect and yet they do and that's why rofe chol basar is necessary for the umafli la'asos for the person to be able to exercise the koach haruchani shebo. A person is rachmana litzlan sick a person is has physical ailments so it affects the the spiritual intellectual spiritual capacity as well. Okay so we'll stop here for today.