Maschil B’gnus U’mesayem B’Shvach (Pesach)

The Mishnah in Pesachim, page 116a, presents the din of מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח, that the Rambam quotes in Perek Zayin of Hilchot Chametz U'Matzah, Halacha Daled. Rabbeinu Manoach has the following comment:

זה אף על פי שלא התפרש מן התלמוד מן התורה למדוהו.

Meaning Chazal don't tell us what the makor in the Torah is for this din of מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח. The din is in the Mishnah, but what the makor for the din is is not mentioned. Ma she-amru, and ma she-amru, says Rabbeinu Manoach, b'hatchalas ha-gnut

מתחילה עובדי עבודה זרה, יצא להם מן הפסוק שנאמר ויצונו ה׳ לעשות את כל החקים האלה ליראה. יצא מכלל הדבר שמתחילה לא היו יראים כי היו עובדי עבודה זרה.

Yetziat Mitzrayim chizka emunas Hashem and left it for the generations shinui hateva ve-nifla'oseihem, and this showed them emunas hachidush. So Rabbeinu Manoach understands that there's an implicit contrast here, that the ויצונו ה׳ לעשות את כל החקים ליראה is that until that point we were bereft, we were deficient. Ve-chein ma she-amru on hatchalas ha-gnut avadim hayinu, it came out for them from the text explicitly, for it says ki yish'alcha bincha,

ואמרת לבנך עבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים ויתן ה׳ אותות ומופתים וגומר ואותנו הוציא משם.

Behold, be-vei'ur it says ואמרת לבנך עבדים היינו. That's Rabbeinu Manoach's suggestion for the shoresh in the Torah for מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח. So we're going to briefly try to suggest an additional mahalach in addition to what Rabbeinu Manoach says. When the Rambam talks about the ta'amei mitzvos, so he says as follows about Sukkos and Pesach:

ושני החגים הללו יחד כלומר סוכות ופסח מלמדים השקפה ומדות. ההשקפה בפסח היא זכרון אותות מצרים והשרשתן לדורות.

So the hashkafa which the Yom Tov of Pesach imparts is by entrenching our awareness of the miracles of Mitzrayim for all generations. אבל ההשקפה בסוכות השרשת אותות המדבר לדורות. The entrenchment of all the miracles in the midbar, that that should remain for all generations. Ve-ha-middos. What's the lesson on the level of middos, what are these yamim tovim designed to instill within us in terms of middos?

שיהא האדם זוכר תמיד ימי הרעה בימי הטובה כדי שתגדל הודאתו לה׳ ותושג לו הענוה ושפלות הרוח. ולכן יאכל מצה ומרור בפסח כדי לזכור מה שארע לנו. וכן יצאו מן הבית וישבו בסוכה כדרך שעושים העמלים שכני המדברות והיערות כדי לזכור שכך היה מצבנו לפנים כי בסוכות הושבתי את בני ישראל ועברנו מזה לשכון בתים משכיות במיטב המקומות שבעולם והדשן ביותר.

So the Rambam says the midda, well, the tactic, there's a tactic and there's a midda. The tactic, the strategy is that when a person enjoys success, when a person enjoys prosperity, when he's thriving, so our tendency is to forget the bad times. And the Rambam says the strategy for inculcating within ourselves the proper midos is that just the opposite. Is that a person should always be זוכה תמיד ימי הרע בימי הטובה because remembering the yemei hara will instill within the person a sense of humility. And the Rambam says an extraordinary, extraordinary pshat in Succos.

למען ידעו דרתיכם כי בסכות הושבתי את בני ישראל בהוציאי אותם מארץ מצרים.

So we assume, especially if you understand Succos to mean ananei hakavod, that we're supposed to remember the incredible lodgings Hakadosh Baruch Hu arranged for us in the ananei hakavod. Rambam says no, it means punkt farkert. We should remember how we roughed it in the midbar.

למען ידעו דרתיכם כי בסכות הושבתי את בני ישראל בהוציאי אותם מארץ מצרים.

So the Rambam is assuming the view in the Tana'im that succos mamash, not ananei hakavod. And that that's exactly now that you're in Eretz Yisrael and you're איש תחת גפנו ואיש תחת תאנתו and things are flourishing and you're in the most fertile spot on the globe, so you have to remember the ימי הרע בימי הטובה. Lema'an yeid'u doroseichem. Mamash an extraordinary, extraordinary understanding of Succos. Fine. So that's the yesod. The yesod is to instill within us anavah, a person has to be זוכה תמיד ימי הרע בימי הטובה. That's the Lema'an yeid'u doroseichem of Succos. Going into the succah, we have now Baruch Hashem we're blessed with we live in beautiful houses, a person has to be זוכה תמיד ימי הרע go back to the succos, the way it was, the yemei hara. כי בסכות הושבתי את בני ישראל. Where we're benei chorin, everything is good. You have to eat the lechem oni. You have to you have to eat the maror. Rambam said this earlier as well. אבל מקרא בכורים יש בו גם מדת הענוה. Sheyeida ha'adam. Skip a line. Sheyeida ha'adam min ha'avodah meaning service to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. כי מן העבודה שיזכור ימי מצוקתו בזמן שירוח לו. Same idea. That when a person lives with expansiveness he should remember the times of difficulty, of struggle.

וענין זה מודגש בתורה הרבה וזכרת כי עבד היית לפי שיש לחוש מן הרגילות המדות הידועות לכל מי שנתחנך באשר.

Once a person is ushered into success, into affluence, so a person has to be choshesh rachmana litzlan

כלומר מהבעיטה והגאוה והזנחת ההשקפות האמיתיות פן תאכל ושבעת ואמר וישמן ישורון ויבעט.

Umachmas chashash zeh to counteract that basic human susceptibility of the vayishman yeshurun vayivat, צוה במקרא בכורים בכל שנה לפניו יתעלה במקום שכינתו. The same idea that the Rambam develops with regard to Pesach and Succos. The ימי הרע בימי הטובה. So here the lashon is slightly different. Here it's ימי מצוקה בזמן שירוח לו. But clearly there is a common fundamental idea, again that that instills the middas ha'anavah. Itochen. Mikra bikkur. So what's mikra bikkur? Mikra bikkur is hakoras hatov. You have to give a thank you. You have to praise Hakadosh Baruch Hu. משל למה הדבר דומה? It's the end of the, end of the calendar year and the boss calls you into, into his office and tells you what your bonus is going to be. You get a very nice bonus, chaticha reuyah vos ken bay, very nice bonus. So you have to say thank you. Okay. So you begin telling, you begin telling the boss, "You should know when I was a little boy," he says, "I wanted to, I wanted to buy this and this toy and my parents didn't have the money and I remember when I was a little boy I fell down and I ripped the knees on my pants and I wore the next year pants," the boss says "Just say thank you and get out of here." So mikra bikkurim is supposed to say thank you to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Remember some maiseh? ארמי אובד אבי וירד מצרימה ויגר שם במתי מעט. So what's the pshat? Pshat is mikra bikkurim teaches the yesod, מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח. You're supposed to give shvach vehoda'ah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So the emes is you can say thank you to the boss for the bonus and simultaneously you can think, "Yeah, he deserves my hakoras hatov, I have to acknowledge his largesse, but you know what? There's a reason he gave me the bonus and not the other guy the bonus. There's a reason I'm getting a bigger bonus than he got." "Thank you" I have to say, but on some level... Mikra bikkurim, the parsha of Arami oveid avi, gufeh, gufeh, mikra bikkurim is an occasion for shvach. It's an occasion for hoda'ah. What's the arichus? What's the arichus devarim? The teretz is the Torah tells you when you have occasion for the shvach, it's מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח. מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח. One, one sees in a totally different light, I think we've spoken about this from different vantage points in, in the past, but that Chazal used the parsha of Arami oveid avi as the, as the vehicle through which we're מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח, again, as the Rav used to point out, that the Rambam writes

וכן מתחיל להודיע שעבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים וכל הרעה שגמל לנו ומסיים בניסים ונפלאות שנעשו לנו ובחירותנו והוא שידרש בארמי אובד אבי.

It's not two different dinim in the Mishna. It's not מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח A, B, and והוא שידרש בארמי אובד אבי. And that's gufeh the mekor in the Torah, itochen, for the whole din of מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח. The emes is, could be that the impetus to this, this next step was from a comment my chavrusa made to me. We usually translate מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח as, as antonyms, right? You, you begin with the bad and you end with the good. I work for a little bit more eloquent English, find a, take out your thesaurus and find out a different word for bad and a better word for good, but lemaiseh that's, that's the, that's the translation, right? מתחיל בגנות ומסיים בשבח, you begin with the bad and you end with the good. But it's not really, that's not really a correct translation and when you think about it they're not really opposites. Gnus, when the Rambam defines in Hilchos Lashon Hara what lashon hara is, והוא שמספר בגנות חבירו. Gnus is to disparage. To meganeh, to meganeh means to disparage. So the shvach is whose shvach? The shvach is our own shvach? Is the shvach self-congratulatory? Rachmana litzlan, that's not what the shvach is. The shvach is, is שבחו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. The gnus is our gnus. When you're going to conclude with

שבחו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, ויביאנו אל המקום הזה ויתן לנו את הארץ הזאת ארץ זבת חלב ודבש,

blessed, blessed. Lest, lest you think that and listen, achrei kekhlos hakol, Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have given Eretz Yisrael to, he didn't have to give me such a, lest, lest you think that the, that the bracha is coming to you, so maschil bigunus, you begin with the, the self-disparagement, because if you begin with the self-disparagement, so then the conclusion of mesayim bishvach, not only does neither the experience of success, of prosperity, of thriving, neither that experience nor the, the shvach, nor the reflecting on why the boss gave me the bonus more than he gave my co-workers the bonus, if a person's maschil bigunus, so then תושג לו הענווה ושפלות הרוח.