Two Types of Gedolim – Angelic and Human

Midrash at the beginning of this sidra comments on the description of Moshe as Ish HaElohim. דבר אחר מהו איש? According to this pshat it should be read leshon chol. Mahu? It's referring to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Amar Rebbe Avin מחציו ולמטה איש מחציו ולמעלה האלוקים. The bottom half human and the top half angelic and that's how the pasuk is describing Moshe Rabbeinu: מחציו ולמטה איש מחציו ולמעלה האלוקים angelic. So what what what does that mean? So perhaps we'll be’ezrat Hashem try to suggest two pshatim. Last week in in the aftermath of the the ptirah of Chacham Ovadia, so we spoke about recognizing both the tremendous exertion and effort, hasmada, amal veyegia which was fueled by and which helped create a tremendous ahavat HaTorah, to recognize that on the one hand, but to also recognize on the other hand the absolutely remarkable natural blessings and aptitude with which he was endowed. And and we said that again each, that for other Gedolim obviously it’s true in a different way, but the same in terms of uniqueness, just of of the blessing and the gift, the same can be said and should be recognized in in reflecting about the Rav, Rav Chaim, the Vilna Gaon. That there was again a combination besides again the nobility of character, besides the siyata d'shmaya, there was a combination on the one hand just of very of tremendous industriousness, amal veyegia, but also extraordinary extraordinary gifts that we can only marvel at. We don't really fully understand the amkus of Rav Chaim is something that is something we marvel at. I think the Rav said about Rav Chaim he penetrated to the neshama of Torah. The amittus is this idea that amongst the Chachmei HaMasorah we find the most gifted, brilliant, outstanding minds which Hakadosh Baruch Hu placed in this world. My chavrusa reminded me of the Radak in the beginning of Yirmiyahu quotes from the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim when Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Yirmiyahu...

בטרם אצורך בבטן ידעתיך ובטרם תצא מרחם הקדשתיך נביא לגויים נתתיך.

You were primed before you were born for for this task. So the Radak quotes

והחכם הגדול רבינו משה בן מימון זל כתב כי זה עניין כל נביא אי אפשר מבלתי הכנה טבעית בעיקר יצירתו שיהיה נכון לנבואה עם ההשתלמות.

That there's a certain extraordinary natural aptitude the Nevi'im have. Again, im ha'hislamdus. Then they had to actualize that potential. They had to develop it, they had to cultivate it. But there was a hachana tiv'is, there was an extraordinary natural endowment and aptitude that the Nevi'im had. Basically the same idea that we were talking about in terms of the Chachmei HaEmes. The the most unique and it shouldn't even can't even be compared next example is really sui generis. The Drashos HaRan, I don't think he's the only one who says it, but the Drashos HaRan says about Moshe Rabbeinu and the level of nevuah, the unique supreme level of nevuah that Moshe Rabbeinu achieved, he writes as follows:

כי אם היות שחול רוח הנבואה על האדם היה עניין אפשרי לפי המנהג הטבעי אמנם כאשר תחול בו ישקעו כוחו גופו עד שיבטלו פעולותיו.

He says bederech hateva nevuah is possible. That doesn't davka that this is is at odds with what we just read from the Radak besheim the Rambam. But bederech hateva for nevuah to occur, the physical kochos of a person need to be quiescent. They need to be, they need to recede. Which is why the Nevi'im are not awake and standing and functioning in the normal sense of the word when they receive nevuah.

אבל שתחול רוח נבואה על האדם והוא ער עומד על רגליו שלם בכוחותיו כאשר ידבר איש אל רעהו זה נמנע בחוק הטבע.

It's impossible. כי מי שישיג זאת המדרגה because someone who attains this this level ישיג היותו איש ושכל נבדל בבת אחת. He's simultaneously a person, flesh and blood, he's standing, he's standing on on his feet, the the way the way a person, only a person can, and at the same time he's just so totally spiritual that he's like a disembodied intellect, the the level of spirituality that that he has. And that's שני הפכים בנושא אחד. That's really a contradiction in terms.

וזהו שהודיענו הכתוב כי זה דבר ניסי חידשו השם יתברך והשגיבו בכוחו כי יתר הנפלאות שחידש לקיום התורה.

This is a miracle that Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought about together with other miracles not only to give Torah but for the to sustain Torah throughout the generations. כי הוא ההכרחי שבכולם because this is the the most critical כדי שלא יוכל שום נביא מכזב so that no false navi... could lie le-hitpa'er and claim in some grandiose fashion

שהוא ינבא דבר הפך דברי משה רבינו כי השם יתברך הודיענו שמה שהשיג משה הוא למעלה מן האפשרות.

It is beyond the human capacity. It was be-derech ha-pele. And the Torah says

שזה הפלא לא יעשה לאדם אחר בעולם כמו שנעשה למשה אם כן נדע בזה שכל מי שיחלוק עליו הוא מכזיב כי משה הגיע למדרגה שלא יגיע אדם אליה לעולם.

And he repeats this, take a look in the edition with the notes here, the Ran says this a few times. We find sometimes in Gemaras or a few Gemaros like this, you find that one Amora will refer to another Amora as Moshe. Call him Moshe, not because his name was Moshe, could be his name was Avrom, Yitzchok, Yaakov, calls him Moshe. It's quoted from the sefarim, apparently it says in the sefarim, there's an idea that the big talmidei chachamim they have a nitzotz of Moshe Rabbeinu. Whatever that means, that's a lashon that people quote from the sefarim, whatever that means. So yitachen one pshat in the Midrash of מחציו ולמטה איש מחציו ולמעלה אלקים is that Moshe Rabbeinu again as the not only most outstanding example but then also as Chazal use the lashon Moshe as the prototype for chachamim. So מחציו ולמטה איש. The stories about the hasmada and the amal ve-yegia, all those stories we can understand, we can relate to, and should draw inspiration. It should increase our aspirations. The chetzio u-lemala is Elokim. Again, no matter how much we chazer, no one, I don't think anyone in this room is going to know tens of thousands of sefarim mamash verbatim by heart and have everything filed away in his mind under in the right file in endless number of files and topics in halacha. It's not going to happen. I don't think it's going to happen no matter how hard we work. We're not going to be mistaken for Reb Chaim. It's not, he doesn't have to worry about anyone forging divrei Torah and publishing them in his name. It will be nikkar that it's not Reb Chaim. me-chetzio u-lemala is Elokim. And again, as we discussed last week, we should realize that the masorah is transmitted through such individuals. It should be a source again of chizuk in terms of our confidence in the masorah, in terms of our emunas chachamim, our pride in the masorah. מחציו ולמטה איש and me-chetzio u-lemala from our vantage point, Elokim. But yitachen there's another pshat as well in contradistinction to the examples we've been talking about. of gedolei hadoros again with that hachona tiv'is of which the Rambam speaks there have been chachmei hadoros who have taken pains to tell us autobiographically that that's not their profile. That while that profile is undeniably true of those individuals of whom we spoke and others kayotzei bahem there are others who have taken pain and big people don't engage in false modesty it's genuine modesty but not false modesty. There have been chachmei hadoros who have taken pains to emphasize that that description doesn't match them and that their aptitudes mechatzo that their aptitudes are entirely enoshim from our vantage point as well. I think the most outstanding example of a person who consistently tried to communicate that message was Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel. We all know it because he engaged in it so many times. You know how he would talk to teenagers and they'd ask him if they were on the basketball team and tell them I was also on the basketball team and what position did you play and I played this position and I played center and he and not only he the people around him also because I think it goes without saying everything we're saying about both tipusim is a hundred percent leshvach. So there are amongst those who lead the generation there are Rav Chaims and the Rav who have a hachona tiv'is that we don't begin to understand. But then there are others whose hachona tiv'is is not all that different than ours. And here the element of inspiration and challenge and pushing us to have greater aspirations obviously is manifold in a manifold sense much much greater. Only the Ribono Shel Olam knows in position to make such judgments but on our level it's not easy to detect someone who was a bigger marbitz torah in our generation than Rav Nosson Tzvi hard to detect. Again ultimate such ultimate historical judgments are left with Hakadosh Baruch Hu who has the vantage point. But from our vantage point he doesn't seem to have been second to anyone as a marbitz torah and mekadesh shem shamayim in our generation. And he took pains to emphasize that he was kulo ish. The same thing if I'm not mistaken is quoted from Rav Elchonon also Rav Elchonon used to I don't know whether he said it explicitly or sort of said it speaking of the third person but everyone realized that he was talking about himself that don't think that a person has to have extraordinary hachona tiv'is. And itochen that that's another pshat maybe the medrash again talking about Moshe Rabbeinu so again Moshe Rabbeinu Chazal refer to Chachamim as Moshe. So Moshe's the prototype. So by describing Moshe Rabbeinu as mechatzah u'lmata ish and mechatzah u'lmayla elohim, so Chazal are telling us that in the doros, there're going to be two types of Moshes. There're going to be the Moshes again, whose stories of their again, without again being distracted from the haslamdus as the Radak quotes, without being distracted for a moment from the extraordinary hasmada, amala, and yegiah, and mesirus nefesh. But lemaiseh, there are Moshes of the generation who whose kochos are are just extraordinary. But then there are others whose kochos by their own description are more ordinary. They belong more in the realm of the ordinary than the extraordinary. And obviously, if that's the way the hashgacha designed things, so it means that's what we need. The unparalleled confidence and pride in the masorah is is brought to a an otherwise unreachable level by those who were mechatzu u'lmayla, those who are who are represented by the mechatzu u'lmayla elohim. But on the other hand, the maximum effect in terms of chizuk, in terms of providing for us a role model and inspiration is provided by those who are who were represented within Moshe Rabbeinu by the mechatzu u'lmata. That's not a value judgment. Again, the hashgacha designed the designed it that way. It means that both are hechrechim for our appreciation of the masorah and then devotion and dedication to try to absorb as much of that as is possible.