Absolute Yedias Hashem and Avodas Hashem

The Chovos HaLevavos says that one of the main causes that we maybe don't recognize and therefore appreciate the overwhelming number of chasadim that Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows upon us is that we grow up surrounded by those chasadim and as a result we take it for granted. And he gives a mashal, he says, imagine you have a kind-hearted person, he took into his house there was an abandoned baby and he took this abandoned baby into his house and treated him like his own son providing for all his needs and raised him and nurtured him and loved him and really showered everything that a parent would on a natural biological child. And then imagine that this same kind-hearted individual, the Chovos HaLevavos continues, hears of an adult who's being held in captivity under extremely harsh conditions and he ransoms him and helps rehabilitate him, helps him get back on his feet again. Doesn't actually do in a relative sense nearly as much for this second individual as he did for the first. And yet he says the teva ha'olam is such that the second individual is gonna have much more of a hakaras hatov than the first one because the second one doesn't take anything for granted. The second one lived under such harsh conditions and only then again as an adult as someone who had experienced suffering and privation for so long so then he's able to appreciate, he's able to recognize and appreciate all the chasadim of his benefactor. By contrast the one who was adopted as a neonate so he doesn't remember being bundled up and left on a doorstep somewhere so he takes everything for granted. So the Chovos HaLevavos says that we're the nimshal, we're the nimshal to the abandoned baby that we just grow up surrounded by chasdei hamakom and because of that we just take all the chesed that Hakadosh Baruch Hu built into the beriah, all the chesed that sustains us, well, we take it all for granted. This yesod of the Chovos HaLevavos is true in many other contexts as well, it's not just when it comes to bechina, when it comes to discernment of chasdei Hashem for the purpose of having hakaras hatov. It's also true about to give one example, an example that we're going to focus on just briefly בעזרת השם בלי נדר, it's also true of certain blind spots that we have in our avodas Hashem. Whether it's because we from an early age had this blind spot and because of that we don't recognize it as such, we're not sensitive to its true nature that it's a blind spot. Whether it's because so many other people around us share that same blind spot. Here too there's a danger of taking the extraordinary as being ordinary. In the case of the Chovos HaLevavos it's taking for granted chasadim and here it's failure to recognize certain blind spots. Case in point, the Rambam begins. as you know

יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון והוא ממציא כל הנמצא.

The foundation of everything and the pillar of all wisdom is to know, to view reality through such a prism that Hakadosh Baruch Hu on an ongoing basis is the source of everything that exists. Hu she'hanavi omer, skipping a little bit, v'Hashem Elokim emes, and v'hu she'haTorah omedes, skipping one more line, ein od milvado, כלומר אין שם מצוי אמת מלבדו כמותו. The only true existence is Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Everything else feeds off of his existence. Everything else exists because of him. Everything else exists through him. Ein od milvado. ידיעת דבר זה מצוות עשה, shene'emar, anochi Hashem Elokecha. To know this is a mitzvas asei.

וכל המעלה על דעתו שיש שם אלוה אחר חוץ מזה עובר בלא תעשה.

The Rambam says the lav, one violates the lav, not if he's, it's not necessary that he be convinced, that he have a conviction that יש שם אלוה אחר, כל המעלה על דעתו. So a person entertains the idea. He gratuitously entertains the idea. Not talking about a person who has an honest question that he needs hadracha to answer and to resolve. Person maleh al da'ato. Person gratuitously questions, a person gratuitously casts doubt. What the maleh al da'ato here underscores, what that definition of the lav underscores, it's true even without it, it's true without it, it's already implied for the Rambam in the phrase yedias davar zeh, is that the mitzvah of anochi Hashem Elokecha is to believe and to know with certitude. Not superficially but with absoluteness, with certitude, definitively. Ad k'dei kach that entertaining again gratuitously, not someone who's been genuinely searching, ad k'dei kach that even l'halos al hadaas detracts from the mitzvah. Mitzvah is to know with certainty, with absoluteness. Metziyas Hashem is the absolute reality, and m'meila the mitzvah is to know it absolutely, to know it with certainty, to know it with certitude. Then the Ramban writes: anochi Hashem Elokecha,

הדיבור הזה מצוות עשה, אמר אנכי ה' יורה ויצוה אותם שידעו ויאמינו כי יש ה'.

So what is yeidu v'yaaminu? So here in the notes, the Pnei Yerushalayim writes that

בספר האמונה והביטחון כתב רבינו, שאין הידיעה שלימה אלא אם כן יש עמו אמונה על ידי הוכחה חותכת,

meaning for what for the Rambam is implied by the verb yedia, for the Ramban it needs the, it doesn't have that full implication. The connotation of yedia is not as absolute for the Ramban as it is for the Rambam. So m'meila the Ramban buttresses it by saying the mitzvah is ladas u'lhaamin.

ולפי זה הכוונה של ידעו ויאמינו היא שידעו על ידי הוכחה חותכת.

But the same point: to know with absoluteness. There's nothing casual, there's nothing insignificant about the reality of Anochi Hashem Elokecha; it's the absolute reality. And the mitzvah is again, כל אחד ואחד באשר הוא שם, to know it again with as much certainty, as absolutely as we can. Now the natural corollary of such a yediah of Anochi Hashem Elokecha, of Ein Od Milvado, and again Ein Od Milvado is as the Rambam basically says and the Malbim elaborates it, Ein Od Milvado is compressed into the phrase Anochi Hashem Elokecha. The Shem Havayah יהוה among other things expresses existence. Anochi Hashem Elokecha, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is explaining to us again this absolute reality that I am existence, again in an exclusive sense. Everything else is here because of Me, through Me. When a person is blessed, privileged to have such a yediah, so the natural corollary is that not only should it be something important in his life, something central in his life, not only should it be the most important thing, it should be the only thing. If what a person knows and believes, yed'u ve'yaaminu, is the absolute reality of Anochi Hashem Elokecha and Ein Od Milvado, so there's a disconnect if I know that but there's something casual about my commitment to Avodas Hashem, to Torah and Mitzvos. If this is existence, this is goodness, Hakeil Hatov Vehameitiv, this is truth, so how can it be that I compartmentalize that in my life? And my life consists of I have my professional aspirations, commitments, responsibilities, I have my personal familial responsibilities, and then I have my religious responsibilities. It's a part of my life, an important part, but a part of my life. To clarify what we're not talking about, we're not talking about that a person can't have, shouldn't have professional responsibilities. We're not talking about that. We're not talking about that a person can't have, shouldn't have familial bonds, deep, abiding relationships and responsibilities. We're not talking about that a person shouldn't eat and drink as much as he needs to, sleep as much as he needs to, relax as much as he needs to, grow in Avodas Hashem at the realistic pace that he should, not trying to do too much too fast. We're not dismissing any of that; we're not even trying to modify any of that. But none of those things should exist independently outside the all-encompassing, what should be the all-encompassing circle of Avodas Hashem. Because if the absolute reality which we know, which we believe, is Anochi Hashem Elokecha, then that has to be the. absolute reality of our lives, and it can't be compartmentalized that it's one part of my life. All the other involvements, engagements, responsibilities we spoke about, they all have their place because the Torah recognizes them, and be-middah u-ve-mishkal the Torah encourages them. So we're not talking about that we're not supposed to balance all these things, but it's not a question of balancing family with Torah, job with Torah, ve-chulu ve-chulu. It's a question of finding within Torah the correct balance to what the Torah wants me to be involved with. Just as in the Chovos HaLevavos's example of a blind spot, the way to try to overcome that blind spot is to try to step out of ourselves for a moment, try to step back and take a fresh look. And then a person just recognizes again the overwhelming chessed built into the briah, from as the Chovos HaLevavos describes in the fact that all the needs of the newborn are provided for, the mother nurses the baby. So a person has to step back and try to recognize and place a little bit of distance in order to recognize and appreciate that which he takes for granted. So the same is true in terms of blind spots in avodas Hashem, which we also take for granted to such a degree that at times we're oblivious to them. And ke-midumeh, there aren't too many questions, if any, more important to ask of ourselves when we step back: Does the place of avodas Hashem in my life, does the place that it occupies in my life, in the way I decide how to allocate my time, in the way I make all decisions, is the place of avodas Hashem in my life, is it consistent with the ידעו ויאמינו כי יש השם? Is it consistent with that absolute belief that we're so blessed and so privileged to have in Anochi Hashem Elokecha? And if it's wanting, so what do I need to do to bring it in line? What do I need to do to align my life, my routines, my aspirations, my outlooks with that core defining absolute belief in the absolute emes of Anochi Hashem Elokecha?