Bein Adam Lachaveiro

Last week we read the Chofetz Chaim's explanation in Ahavas Chesed of the different strategic placement of the mitzvah of V'halachta Bidrachav. It's an indispensable stepping stone and preliminary for Yirah and then equally indispensable platform launching pad for Ahavah and ultimately for Dveikus. While unquestionably, certainly take the Chofetz Chaim's word for it, he he knew of what of what of what he spoke and wrote in terms of Yirah, Ahavah, and Dveikus. But but but but l'chora it's a little difficult to understand. Again as the Chofetz Chaim emphasizes there in the end of the again the hakdama, the psicha to Ahavas Chesed. Again V'halachta Bidrachav with its as as the Maharal points out with its emphasis on Chesed, by definition means a significant degree of involvement with with people. There's only so much long distance remote chesed that a person can can do. And and we associate again whatever using our imagination of of and and reading the descriptions of what Ahavas Hashem is, what Dveikus is, one would imagine a stress on hisbodedus. There would seem to be a tension between the two. It would seem to be a tension again between the the not only that one is not relieved from one's responsibilities in the Bein Adam L'chaveiro area but that adraba that that's that's it's pivotal, it's crucial for one's growth in the Bein Adam L'makom. So let's just we'll we'll try to go incrementally im yirtzeh Hashem. So the first the first idea that that needs to be clarified is is very basic, very elementary. And that is when we talk about Bein Adam L'chaveiro, Bein Adam L'makom, so we're employing shorthand. It's a שטיקעלע חסורי מחסרא והכי קתני. And the more elaborate formulation, obviously again there's no there's no no no chidushim in in in what we're saying now. Everything is Bein Adam L'makom. There's Bein Adam L'makom ich veis in in in Tefillah, there's Bein Adam L'makom that doesn't necessarily involve chaveiro and there's Bein Adam L'makom that involves chaveiro. And yes, in that latter realm of Bein Adam L'makom which involves chaveiro, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu often as it were delegated the the the the authority or the ba'alus over the mitzvah to chaveiro, so האב שמחל על כבודו כבודו מחול and and הרב שמחל על כבודו כבודו מחול. But when we talk about Bein Adam L'chaveiro, Bein Adam L'makom, it's not two separate realms. It's Ben Adam l'Makom, but this Ben Adam l'Makom, there's no, one's observance of Isurei Kilayim doesn't play out Ben Adam l'Chavero. One's observance of the Ben Adam l'Makom of V'ahavta l'Reacha Kamocha, of the Ben Adam l'Makom of

מה הוא חנון אף אתה חנון מה הוא רחום אף אתה רחום

plays itself out Ben Adam l'Chavero. But it's not pshat that there are two realms. There's one realm. There's Ben Adam l'Makom. There's Ben Adam l'Makom. L'chora, this idea is very powerfully represented and communicated in the fact that, again, the mitzvah of V'halachta B'drachav, which encapsulates together obviously with V'ahavta l'Reacha Kamocha so many of the chiyuvim in the Ben Adam l'Chavero, l'chora אין לך מצווה גדולה in terms of Ben Adam l'Makom yoser mimenu. Just to maybe read a couple of lines from the Rav's essay of Uvikashtem Misham, so the Rav writes: ברם ההדמות לא אמרה די. Fulfilling V'halachta B'drachav isn't the ultimate end, doesn't suffice.

חזון ההדמות מצטיין בתפארתו ובעוזו אולם אין הדרך העולה בית קל חסומה.

As distinguished, as wonderful and remarkable as it is to say that a person can be misdameh l'Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that a person can eichshehu resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu, עדיין אפשר לו לאדם להמשיך עלייתו מן ההדמות, V'halachta B'drachav, ela ha-histapkus.

כי אם שמור תשמרון את כל המצווה לאהבת השם אלקיכם ללכת בכל דרכיו ולדבקה בו.

Ha-hidammus mekusheres b'dveikus. So again, this very basic idea, basic Aleph-Beis idea is again powerfully represented here, that in order for a person to be misdavek b'Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he has to resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu as much as possible, and that hidammus primarily is attained and is carried out in the realm of Ben Adam l'Chavero. B'tosefes be'ur, Yahadus, the Torah is intended to be much more than ramach mitzvos asei, שס״ה מצוות לא תעשה, much more than middos and dei'os. Ultimately, it's a way of experiencing everything. One's entire life is experienced through the prism of Torah. When the Gemara in Makkos tells us that בא חבקוק והעמידן על אחת, Tzaddik be'emunaso yichye. Okay, different pshatim in the Gemara, what does it mean that each of the Nevi'im were ma'amid on? But one mahalach is that it's a yesod which encompasses all of Torah and that Tzaddik be'emunaso yichye. It's not only that through his emunah he's mekayem mitzvos and he's nizhar on mitzvos lo ta'aseh, but he views everything in life through the prism of emunah. So in his personal life, he sees hashgacha pratis wherever he turns. When he looks into the world, so he sees chochmas haborei, niflaos haborei. Some of this the rav depicts, some of it he depicts in his, when he draws the portrait of the ish hahalacha who sees a mayan, he sees a spring and sees the embodiment of maseches mikvaos and sees that a mayan is metaher bezochalin, that even running, moving water is okay in a mayan and a spring, unlike a mikveh where it has to be be'ashboren, the water has to be at rest. He describes the incident with his father about seeing shkia on Yom Kippur, how the shkias hachama is mechaperes. So Yiddishkeit is a way of experiencing the world. That's what it means tzaddik be'emunaso yichye, it means that the emunah is a lens, sort of like when you have that, ich veis, that surgery where they implant a lens inside the eye so you don't have to be wearing your glasses all the time. It's implanted. It's there all the time. Tzaddik be'emunaso yichye, so again, it's a lens, it's a prism through which he experiences everything. He sees the real, the ultimate reality. If a person has even a little bit of that, okay, so he sees hashgacha pratis in his life, he sees niflaos haborei in the world. What does he see when he sees people? The tzaddik be'emunaso yichye who sees the world again through a lens, through a prism of Torah, so what does he see when he sees people? So mistama the answer is that he sees in front of him tzelem Elokim. He sees in front of him when he's with acheinu Bnei Yisrael, he sees בנים אתם לה' אלקיכם. What does he see, what registers when he finds himself in a situation where people are making demands on him, on his time, when maybe his plans for how he wanted to carry things out, how he wanted to implement things seem to be rerouted because there are other people to take into account? So how does he see that? How does the tzaddik be'emunaso yichye, how does he see and experience that? So presumably, what we would see as frustrating, annoying situations, as unwelcome intrusions and diversions from our avodah, so he sees... Maybe it's an opportunity for chesed, but there's no such thing as as tzaddik be'emunaso yichye, there's no such thing as as as if a situation is thrust upon a person. If if a if again, if if a person is in a situation where he's supposed to be dealing with and sensitive to other people and and making that part of the balance of what he's supposed to be doing, so there's no such thing as as being frustrated or annoyed that that I'm being diverted, distracted from my avodas Hashem. That's gufe the opportunity for avodas Hashem that's being put in front of me right now. A mashal, I think in the biography of Reb Boruch Ber it says that at one point Reb Boruch Ber had in his shiur an einikel of Reb Chaim's. So Reb Boruch Ber would never begin the shiur until until that talmud was there. If he was late, then the shiur began late. So what's pshat? Because when Reb Boruch Ber, whoever heard that the the Rebbe has to, he's nichnas acharon? He comes in, so the shiur begins. So what what what does it mean that that he's waiting? So the teretz is because Reb Boruch Ber, he didn't see a talmud there. He saw his מורי ורבי קדוש ישראל'ס אייניקל. If that's the case, then then then then then he had to be misyaches differently than if it was than if it was than if it was a talmud without that without that association. So if the deeper pshat in bein adam lechaveiro, again, being another aspect of bein adam lamakom, again, one which is sort of epitomized by the Rambam in Hilchos Mamrim:

עד היכן כיבוד אב ואם אפילו נטלו כיס של זהובים שלו והשליכוהו לפניו לים לא יכלימם ולא יצעק בפניהם ולא יכעוס כנגדם.

Ay, how can a person contain contain his legitimate lichora anger? אלא יקבל גזירת הכתוב וישתוק. Because he sees in front of him not a an oppressive parent, he sees in front of him again, tzaddik be'emunaso yichye. He sees in front of him gezeiras hakasuv.

ועד היכן מוראם אפילו היה לבוש בגדים חמודות ויושב בראש בפני הקהל ובא אביו או אמו וקרעו בגדו או הכוהו על ראשו וירקו בפניו לא יכלים אותם אלא ישתוק ויירא ויפחד ממלך המלכים שציווהו בכך.

So if you have a shvere Rambam, so most of us, I think, don't pick up the Rambam in anger and throw it down and say מה לי ולצרה הזאת. A shvere Rambam, and you have to work at it. Maybe sometimes it's it's it's a glatte Rambam and sometimes it's a shvere Rambam. Okay, so the reaction is, okay, so I got to I have to work at it to roll up my sleeves and and apply myself and work at it. So the same thing is true, the same thing is true that there are situations bein adam lechaveiro which are analogous to a halacha in the Rambam, a shtikel Gemara which seems very glatt to us. And then there the there can be situations bein adam lechaveiro which seem to us more analogous to to a shvere Rambam. Okay, so the same way the reaction to a shvere Rambam is I have to work at it. But that's only, again, as long as we remember as long as we remember that the bein adam lechaveiro is a bein adam lamakom. That's only as long as we remember and and as long as... as obvious as it is and as basic as it is, that's almost as easy as it is to forget. And certainly one of the biggest nisyonos in bein adam l'chavero is not forgetting it, is maintaining that awareness. And again in a double sense, A, in the sense that a מצוה בין אדם לחבירו is a מצוה בין אדם למקום. Again, d'varim pshutim, so pashut that it almost seems silly to say it. But also in the sense that tzaddik b'emunaso yichye, again there's a lens, there's a prism. Any Jew, any Jew, the chashivos that Rav Baruch Ber gave to that talmid, any Jew, בנים אתם לה' אלקיכם. The Gemara in Kiddushin lichora reflects this, where it says that Rav Yosef when he would hear his mother's footsteps approaching, so he used to say איקום מקמי שכינה דאתייא. To stand up for the Shechina, you have to stand up for the Shechina. So Rav Yosef, tzaddik b'emunaso yichye, I don't know if the Gemara heard the footsteps and means even at a distance or Rav Yosef was a sagi nahor, he didn't see his mother, so whatever the reason, what does it mean איקום מקמי שכינה דאתייא? So tzaddik b'emunaso yichye he saw in his mother an emissary to bestow Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chessed. If there's someone in our lives, a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a friend, whatever, whoever, tzaddik b'emunaso yichye sees, sees that that person, v'nosan l'cha rachamim, that that person is an emissary to bestow Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chessed. That's part of the way that tzaddik b'emunaso yichye sees people through the prism of his emunah. He sees people that way and he sees, and again ultimately, ultimately the real the most basic source for this is the pasuk in Parshas Noach of

שופך דם האדם באדם דמו ישפך כי בצלם אלקים עשה את האדם.

To be pogaya in a person is to be pogaya in a tzelem Elokim. That perspective, again combined with the perspective of tzaddik b'emunaso yichye, someone is reaching out to us. So without tzaddik b'emunaso yichye kan zain he's a nudnik, kan zain that it's a very unwelcome intrusion. With the tzaddik b'emunaso yichye, so apparently, apparently Ribono Shel Olam sees that I need to do more chessed, apparently the Ribono Shel Olam sees that I need more tikun hamidos in this area and he's sending me, he's sending me a growth opportunity, not a frustration and annoyance but a growth opportunity. Lichora it's this perspective. In terms of the question with which we began of how does the Chofetz Chaim is holding by Ahavas Hashem, holding by Dveikus. So how is he not stirred by the involvement with people? If the involvement with people is again with that lens, so then that goes a long way to alleviating that tension when one has this perspective, the Bein Adam L'Makom perspective, the Tzadik B'Emunato Yichyeh perspective on the Bein Adam L'Makom.