Pirkei Avos 1:1 Continued

We're continuing with Mishna Aleph of the second Perek. Let's take a look at the Rabbeinu Yonah's comment on the ha'amidu talmidim harbei. Right? So the shelosha devarim that Anshei Knesset HaGedola said happened, הוו מתונים בדין העמידו תלמידים הרבה ועשו סייג לתורה. Let's take a look at Rabbeinu Yonah. Who is saying? Who wants to read Rabbeinu Yonah? Please. Kedas Beis Hillel. Good. Now he's going to explain what that's referring to. What does it mean that ha'amidu talmidim harbei is like Beis Hillel?
כעניין ששנינו בית שמאי אומרים אין מלמדין אלא לתלמיד הגון וצנוע וכשר וירא שמיים.
Beis Shammai says that a person, a Rebbe, should only teach a Talmid who is fit, who is proper, and he's tzanua, he's modest, and he's kasher, and he's yerei shamayim. Shenemar, as the pasuk says,
כל חושך טמון בצפוניו. ובית הלל אומרים מלמדין לכל אדם.
So Beis Shammai says you have to do a background check. You have to really scrutinize who the talmid is and unless you can ascertain that he's an appropriate talmid, that he's modest, that he lives a good lifestyle, that he's yerei shamayim, you don't teach. ובית הלל אומרים מלמדין לכל אדם. Is that we teach, is that a Rebbe should teach everyone. מעשה בשביל שיצאו מהם עשרה טובים. If we were to stop here, so how would you explain, without looking ahead, if we would stop here, Rabbosai, so how would you explain Beis Hillel's shita? What's the rationale? What's the underlying reasoning? What would you say? Because if you would only teach exactly the right people, then you wouldn't have a lot of talmidim. And so Beis Hillel says that you should teach everybody so it's reaching as many talmidim as possible. Because you want to reach as many people as possible, right? I think that's how we would have explained. But now let's look and see how this, how Beis Hillel continues. מעשה בשביל שיצאו מהם עשרה טובים. That you should have a hundred students. Initially, if you'll have a class of a hundred, so ten will emerge as serious, especially serious, especially promising. Okay, then you continue with the ten. ועשרה כדי שיצאו שניים. And you should have ten students so at least two of them will come out good. And then maybe two will look like they're exceptional.
ושניים לפי שאינכם יודעים איזה מהם יוכשר זה או זה.
You should teach two students because you don't know which one of them will come out good, who's really going to turn out to be the best. ואם שניהם כאחד טובים. And maybe they'll be equally good. So did Beis Hillel give our rationale? No. What's Beis Hillel's rationale? Because maybe one of them will become like a huge talmid chacham. The reason you're teaching a hundred is because the only way you're going to find the best one is if you cast your net far and wide. Because the one who you think, the one who you may be, sometimes the one who gets picked first in the draft turns out to be a dud, right? Everyone thinks he has the greatest potential but it doesn't always work out that way. So Beis Hillel says no, you need to have as many talmidim as possible because that will increase the chances that you'll find the good one. Okay, now it goes on to illustrate veko hu ma'aseh. And the following story happened, shel Hillel. Yeah.
כה מעשה של הלל שנכנס לכל תלמידיו ואמר להם. תלמידי יש כאן כולכם?
Amru lo hen. So he didn't exactly take attendance, but he did ask, \"Is everyone here?\" Talmidai, my talmidim, yesh kan kulchem, are you all here? Or is someone still on court? Right? That's what Hillel asked them. So what did they tell him? Amru lo hen. Right. Amru lo hen. So most of the guys said, \"Yeah, everyone's here, everyone's here.\" אמר לו אחד מתלמידיו. But then one of them pipes up and says... כולם כאן חוץ מקטן שבהם, except for the smallest one, youngest one. But then one of them pipes up and says, well, not exactly literally to the wall here, almost everyone's here. There's one missing. One for some reason he's not here yet. So amar lahem, so Hillel said to them, יבוא קטן שעתיד הדור להתנהג על ידו. So this katan should come. So the one you're referring to, Hillel says to them, probably the Gemara tells us elsewhere that Hillel had eighty talmidim. So seventy-nine of the eighty were there, and the one who was considered in the class ranking, number eighty, was not there. Everyone else said, yeah, everyone's here. One of them said, you know, the number eighty isn't here. So Hillel says, the one that you're sort of dismissing, I'm not beginning the shiur till he comes, שעתיד הדור להתנהג על ידו. Because you think he's the katan she-ba-chabura, but he's going to be the one who's going to be the gadol hador who's going to guide the entire generation. Hevi'u lo, hevi'u lo לרבי יוחנן בן זכאי. And that was רבי יוחנן בן זכאי. Hineih, so you see, end quote.
הנה כי אין לדחות הקטן מפני הגדולים כי הגדיים נעשו תישים.
Right, don't push aside, don't shun the younger ones because of the older, more advanced talmidim, because the young ones, right, literally a small goat, a gedi, right, Chad Gadya, Chad Gadya, the small goats become big, they grow into big goats. So small talmidim, they get older, they develop, and you never know. Then the Rabbeinu Yonah alludes to a Gemara in Yevamos, so let's take a look. We'll take a look at source number two here and then we're going to try to understand a little bit. Someone wants to read the Gemara in Yevamos? Who's going to read the Gemara in Yevamos? Randy? No. Rabbi Akiva omer, Rabbi Akiva says, למד תורה בילדותו ילמוד תורה בזקנותו. So if you learn Torah when you're young, you'll learn Torah when you're old. היו לו תלמידים בילדותו יהיו לו תלמידים בזקנותו. You should, right? Don't think that the fact that a person learned Torah in his youth means that he doesn't need to learn Torah in his advanced years. היו לו תלמידים בילדותו, so if you have talmidim when you're young, you should also have talmidim when you're old, shene'emar, בבוקר זרע את זרעך, in the morning you'll plant your seeds, and then the end of the pasuk is ולערב אל תנח ידך, and in the evening so don't discontinue what you were doing. Right, so what morning and evening here is a metaphor for what, Rabosai? When you're young and when you're old. Exactly, exactly.
אמרו שנים עשר אלף זוגים תלמידים היו לו לרבי עקיבא מגבת עד אנטיפרס.
Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand talmidim. He actually had twelve thousand pairs of talmidim, twelve thousand chavrusos, so he had twenty-four thousand, right? From Gvas until Antipatris, the names of two cities, meaning they were all concentrated in that one region. וכולן מתו בפרק אחד, and they all died in one period of time. A perek, so we most commonly think of it as a chapter, right? But if you think of it, so a chapter in a book is one section of the book. So if you think of one section of time, one period of time, so in Lashon HaKodesh you can use the word perek to refer to a perek zman as well. וכולן מתו בפרק אחד, and they all died during the same period of time, and what period of time was that? During Sefirah, exactly. מפני שלא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, because they didn't give kavod to each other. והיה העולם שמם, and the world was desolate, Rashi explains desolate because Torah was being forgotten, there was no one, all these twenty-four thousand were all the leading talmidei chachamim, those who were going to transmit to the next generation, so the whole world was desolate. עד שבא רבי עקיבא אצל רבותינו שבדרום ושנה להם, until Rabbi Akiva came to our rabbis in the south and taught them. and taught it, Torah, to them: Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yosi, Rabbi Shimon,
רבי אלעזר בן שמוע. והם הם העמידו תורה באותה שעה.
So he gave it to Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yosi, Rabbi Shimon, רבי אלעזר בן שמוע, and they were the ones that stood the Torah. והם הם העמידו תורה באותה שעה. They were the ones who then upheld, who sustained Torah. They were the ones who were responsible for perpetuating Torah, right, the fact that the Masora continued and הנה עד היום הזה is because that Rabbi Akiva not only taught Torah in his youth, but he continued teaching Torah even in his old age as well. So the question we have here rabbosai again is why does Rabbeinu Yonah say pshat Hamido talmidim harbei because by teaching so many, that is the best way to ensure that you'll reach the one who's going to emerge as a or the gedol hador. Why doesn't he just take the Mishna at face value? I mean, obviously there is obviously we don't want to just teach a gedol hador, we want to teach everyone, everyone should know as much Torah as they can, so why does he say pshat like that in the Mishna? You hear the question, rabbosai? Okay, so let's perhaps pose another question and use question number two to answer question number one. The Mishna Aleph here so last night we spoke about the Mishna from משה קיבל תורה מסיני until מסרו לאנשי כנסת הגדולה, right? And until that point in the Mishna, what was the Mishna presenting? Masora, shalsheles hamasora, exactly. Now, if Rabbeinu Hakadosh had consulted me, I would have said end Mishna Aleph here because Mishna Aleph is an introduction to Pirkei Avos. It's an introduction to Pirkei Avos by telling us the shalsheles hamasora. Now we're going to begin with the teachings of the Tannaim. So this should be Mishna Beis. No, shouldn't what the Anshei Knesset wouldn't it be more natural for Mishna Aleph to end ונביאים מסרוה לאנשי כנסת הגדולה? Okay, that's the theme of this Mishna. The theme of this Mishna is masora, shalsheles hamasora, good. Now from here on in, the rest of the masechta is going to be the teachings of the Tannaim. So I would have made that Mishna Beis, but Rabbeinu Hakadosh overruled me. So why do they overrule me? Because it's a part of our masora by having this teaching of having many students, it's a part of our masora because everything was passed down to us as the many students. So what if I don't know we'll have to see everything, one of the things, two of the things, but what if at least for now let's set the bar low, what if at least one of the things the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah said was how to preserve the masora? How to perpetuate the masora? They're talking the Anshei Knesset, they didn't say הוי מקבל כל אדם בשמחה, this is going to be such a Mishna later in Avos. What if what the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah are teaching is about perpetuating the masora? So then what which arrangement would make the most sense? The way the way Rabbeinu Hakadosh actually did set up the Mishna, do you hear that, rabbosai? Ah, so let's just spell it out. So comes Rabbeinu Yonah and says of course, of course there's value in teaching lots of talmidim. Of course we want everyone to know as much Torah as possible, not just not just the one who's going to be the gedol hador or the ones in the plural who will be the gedolei hador. Of course the rest of us also need to learn as much Torah as we can. But contextually here it's clear that that's not what Anshei Knesset HaGedolah were talking. talking about right now. Of course they valued it and of course bzmanim acherim they spoke about it, but right here in this Mishna, from the fact from the fact that Rabbeinu Hakadosh puts the שלושה דברים של אנשי כנסת הגדולה in this same Mishna as the Shalsheles Hamasora, so what that indicates is that they were talking about how to preserve this Mesorah. Oh, to preserve the Mesorah means that nothing should get lost. It means that everything from Brachos through Oktsin should be studied, should be remembered, should be transmitted. So who does that? Only the biggest people, the biggest people who know everything. So they're the ones who ensure that the totality of the Mesorah is transmitted. Oh, so says Rabbeinu Yona, you see from the fact that Rabbeinu Hakadosh includes the teachings of the Anshei Knesses Hagedola in the same Mishna as the Shalsheles Hakabala is they're not just exhorting, teach Torah as much as possible. Of course that's true, and of course that's a value, but that's not what they were saying because that wouldn't belong in this Mishna. If that's what they had been saying, it wouldn't belong in this Mishna. So what they're saying is how to preserve this Mesorah. This Mesorah that the Anshei Knesses Hagedola received ממשה מסיני ויהושע עד הזקנים ועד הנביאים. They said, what are we going to do? Now which of the other three things is clearly, obviously a way of protecting and preserving Torah? Asu syag l'Torah, right? That's straightforward. But that's also a teaching which says how are you going to preserve Torah? You can only preserve Torah if Torah is properly observed. If Torah isn't properly observed then rachmana litzlan, that's not called preserving Torah. So asu syag l'Torah also. The Anshei Knesses Hagedola, again, it's not stam an important directive, an important mandate that they're sharing, but it's davka how to preserve and perpetuate the Mesorah. Okay, so maybe it's two out of three and that's enough to say this pshat. It's enough. But it could be that even hevu metunim badin, that hevu metunim badin might also be part of protecting the Mesorah. How so? So let's take a look at the next two sources both from the Rambam. One from his Hakdama. What are the three major works that the Rambam wrote by the way? Mishneh Torah, Perush Hamishnayos, and Moreh Nevuchim. Mishneh Torah and Moreh Nevuchim was two and three chronologically, absolutely, right? Mishneh Torah was the second major work he wrote, the third one was Moreh Nevuchim, and the first one was Perush Hamishnayos. Okay, so we're going to take a look at two of his Hakdamos: the Hakdama to Mishneh Torah and the Hakdama to Perush Hamishnayos. Okay, who's reading this excerpt? Thank you, Gabe. רבינו הקדוש חיבר המשנה. Rabbeinu Hakadosh refers to Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi. Okay.
ומימות משה ועד רבינו הקדוש לא חיברו חיבור שמלמדים אותו ברבים בתורה שבעל פה.
So from times of Moshe until Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, there was never a canonized, complete Torah sheba'al peh that was taught in public. It was never put together, it was never written, canonized. Meaning there was Torah sheba'al peh and every Rebbi taught the Torah sheba'al peh in his words, in whatever sequence he chose to teach. Maybe he taught Pesachim before Rosh Hashanah, maybe he taught Rosh Hashanah before Pesachim. And maybe the words he used were עבר ראש השנה הם or maybe he said אלה הם ראשי השנה. So there wasn't a, again, the way we have it, a fixed text of the Mishna that we use as the text of Torah sheba'al peh. The content was all there, right? It's not that the content wasn't mi-Moshe Rabbeinu Hakadosh, but the form that it took. Yes? Okay, so now. לא חיברו חיבור שמלמדים אותו ברבים בתורה שבעל פה. What used to happen?
אלא בכל דור ודור ראש בית דין או נביא שיהיה באותו הדור כותב. כותב לעצמו זכרון מה ששמע מרבותיו ומלמד על פה ברבים.
So every generation the Rosh Beis Din or the Navi that lived during that time, he would write for himself some sort of way to remember all the halachos and the things that he learned from his Rebbi and then he would teach that be-al peh in public. So this is fascinating, Rav Soloveitchik points out, the Rambam's understanding is, right, you're all familiar, right, the Gemara in Gittin has a din that devarim she-bichtav, excuse me, דברים שבעל פה אי אתה רשאי לאומרם בכתב. You ever encounter that din? Well what does that din state? דברים שבעל פה אי אתה רשאי לאומרם בכתב that you can't write Torah she-be-al peh down. That originally, initially, until Rashi says until it was an eis la'asot, Torah she-be-al peh was, you weren't supposed to commit it to writing. Now the Rambam clearly, but the Rambam just said that everyone used to take notes, right? They used to take notes. כותב לעצמו זכרון מה ששמע מרבותיו. That's what we call taking notes, right? They used to take notes on what the Rebbi told them. So Soloveitchik explains that the Rambam's understanding of that din that דברים שבעל פה אי אתה רשאי לאומרם בכתב means that Torah she-be-al peh is not supposed to be transmitted in writing. It's supposed to be transmitted orally. Now, if the Rosh Beis Din took notes for himself to make sure that he didn't forget anything, but then he taught be-al peh, so then the mesorah was על פי על פה. So for the Rambam the din of דברים שבעל פה אי אתה רשאי לאומרם בכתב was never that Torah she-be-al peh can't be written down, it's that Torah she-be-al peh can't be transmitted in writing. If you lived in that time, you couldn't share your notes with anyone. You couldn't, the night before the test, you couldn't call up someone and say, email me your notes, please. You couldn't share your notes with anyone because then Torah she-be-al peh would be transmitted bichtav and that's what wasn't supposed to happen. But Torah she-be-al peh could be written down and it was written down. It was written down. Okay, fine. Now, ve-chen, וכן כל אחד ואחד כותב לעצמו כפי כוחו. So each and every individual would write for himself as much as, according to his own strength, as much as he wanted to, as much as he could write, be'urei ha-Torah and halachos, kemo she-shama, so from the explanations of the Torah, from the halachos that he heard, ומדברים שנתחדשו בכל דור ודור and any chiddush that happened in that generation, in each and every generation. Oh, so notice how the Rambam is describing the mesorah. What's the Rambam just say, those last five words? Some of what people wrote down were devarim she-nitchadshu. What does that mean? ve-chidushim? Right. So the Rambam understands like this, the Rambam's understanding is that when ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu gave Moshe Rabbenu the Torah, much of the interpretation of the Torah ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu gave Moshe Rabbenu. But there was some things that ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu told Moshe Rabbenu, look, here are the מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן. How many does Rabbi Yishmael have? Thirteen. Thirteen, right? Here are the מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן and use these middos, these are the rules for how you're supposed to read the Chumash. Right, the moshal is like this, let's say you're sending an intelligence agency some transmission, they send it in a code. So whoever's receiving that transmission has to know how you're supposed to decipher the code. Otherwise, otherwise it doesn't know what to do with the transmission. So the Torah is partially written in code, and the מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן is ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu gave us the rules, gave Moshe Rabbenu the rules of how we're supposed to decode, how we're supposed to decipher what's in the Torah. So in every generation, in addition to learning and mastering so much of the explanation of Torah which was given to Moshe Rabbenu at Har Sinai, so they also were supposed to and did discover new details and new dinim. Based on applying המידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן. Right? So the Rambam has that there was that there was chidush within the masorah. Right? Most of the masorah goes back to Moshe Rabbeinu at Sinai. But some of it HaKadosh Baruch Hu purposely left that we were supposed to elicit by applying המידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן. Good? I'll take a look and let's take a look in the hakdama to Peirush Hamishnayos. וכאשר מת יהושע בן נון עליו השלום when Yehoshua bin Nun died. L-zekeinim. Right, so it means when he was about to die. And no you're right and there's no reason at that point it shouldn't but you can tell from the next half of the sentence. L-zekeinim and whenever it was about to he made sure לימד לזקנים מה שקיבל מן הפירוש what he had received from Moshe Rabbeinu again so many so many halachos. But in addition he also transmitted to the zekeinim מה שהוציאו בזמנו מן הדינין and that which they again literally drew out, right, which they elicited by applying המידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן ולא נפלה בו מחלוקת and all the chachamim of Yehoshua's time agreed. Now ואשר נפלה בו מחלוקת what happened if there was a machlokes how to darshan and what din should emerge? פסקו בו הדין על פי רוב הדינים so then they ruled whatever had the majority. Majority. After a machlokes, exactly.
ועליהם אמר הכתוב בכל ימי הזקנים אשר האריכו ימים אחרי יהושע.
Right when the Mishna says Yehoshua l-zekeinim it's referring to the zekeinim of whom this pasuk in Yehoshua chaf-daled speaks.
ואחרי כן למדו הזקנים ההם מה שקיבלו מפי יהושע אל הנביאים אל הנביאים למדו זה לזה.
Now look at this next next line here. ואין זמן שלא היה בו התבוננות וחידוש עניין there was no time that there wasn't some chidush. Every generation in applying המידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן discovered new dinim. And
והיו בכל דור מטעימים דברי הקודמים עיקר ולומדים מהם ומחטינים מהם.
And so what one generation discovered then was incorporated into the masorah and was the basis for the next generation's understanding. Good? So you see so this is fascinating. Right? So the Rambam characterizes that the chachmei ha-masorah it's a beautiful idea that first they master everything which has been taught which is already known and then based on that they then go and again applying המידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן so they discover they elicit more from the Torah. Good? And the Rambam says ein zman it happened in every generation. Oh. So now with this so let's let's come back to our Mishna Hevu Mesunim Badin. So maybe what do you say Rabosai? How does this give us maybe a new or or broader understanding of Hevu Mesunim Badin? Maybe you want that one master ton of chachamim so he could add to the masorah? Yeah maybe part of what Hevu Mesunim Badin means not just when a beis din is dealing with I don't know a a dispute between two ba'alei dinim make sure you get all the facts down straight. It means that also. And make sure you think it through carefully so you know which din in Choshen Mishpat applies. It means that also. But maybe it also means Hevu Mesunim Badin when again you the chachmei ha-masorah so you're not only Only going to transmit what you received from your, from the previous generations, you're also going to apply מידה שהתורה נדרשת בהם and this continued even until the times of Amoraim. You're gonna, you're also going to be dan in the sense of you're going to be deriving new dinim. So hevei matun, make sure you get that right, because what you say then gets incorporated into the mesorah. So maybe all three phrases of the Anshei Knesseth HaGedolah, they're all talking about preserving the the integrity, preserving the mesorah. Do you hear that havah aminah? Good. Yes? Okay, good. Let's move on to another point in the Mishnah. משה קיבל תורה מסיני. So what, what do you say about that opening phrase of the Mishnah? What do you say? All true, how much point... Okay, that too, but not, maybe, maybe an even more basic question. It shows the divinity of the oral Torah and the written Torah. It certainly, that's certainly what it means, but what what do the words mean literally? It's from Sinai, not from Hashem. They obviously don't come from a mountain, but so it obviously means from Hashem who gave them at Har Sinai. But why does it say it this way? Right? It obviously means משה קיבל תורה ממי שנגלה בסיני. Right? That's obviously what it means, no no ambiguity about what it means. But why that roundabout way of saying it? Why not say
משה קיבל תורה מהשם? משה קיבל תורה מהקדוש ברוך הוא?
Why? If someone asked you what you did this summer and and you say I was at Moshav Beit Meir. That doesn't answer the question what you did this summer, it says where you were this summer. If you tell them about about all the learning and all the activities, so then you're then you're you're telling them. Who did you study with this summer? I studied with Moshav Beit Meir. I studied with Ramot Shapira. That's a funny way of, why not say משה קיבל תורה מהקדוש ברוך הוא? Right, so that's that's the question that that begs here. I think it shows how we were all at Har Sinai and that you can and that shows that you can learn from somebody else and not just from your rebbe but... well, so so... Well, I'm going to sort of paraphrase what what you're saying. That clearly by saying משה קיבל תורה מסיני, the Mishnah's telling us something even more than just that the Torah comes from Hashem. Somehow or other by saying miSinai, Rabbeinu HaKadosh is telling us something more than just just a quotation from Pasuk. That is telling us something more than the fact that Torah comes from Hashem. Somehow miSinai tells us even more than that, right? And that's what we want to understand. That from Har Sinai he put it all down, maybe that's what the way... Oh, oh, so let's take a look at the Gemara Sotah here on the second side. Amar Rav Yosef, Amar Rav Yosef, Amar Rav Yosef.
לעולם ילמד אדם מדעת קונו שהרי הקדוש ברוך הוא הניח כל הרים וגבעות והשרה שכינתו על הר סיני.
So Hashem let go of all the mountains and the valleys and Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have given the Torah wherever he wanted, right? None of the venues were working, right? Mount Everest was was not work on vov zayin Sivan, right? Mount Everest was was available, all the other majestic mountains and mountain ranges were were available. And yet Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose a bit. Very unassuming and unimpressive Har Sinai, and that's an expression of what? Anavah? Yeah, right, right, right, not looking to impress, not looking to, it's an expression of anavah, humility, and we should emulate that. Shalom and welcome back. Okay, so here, here the words like this rabbosai. Let's understand what... Okay, so again you can, this Gemara can on one level just take it at face value, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have had a much more impressive venue, and he bypasses those options and goes for Har Sinai. But here's what that symbolizes. Where Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave the Torah symbolizes something very profound. We'll try to understand it a little bit with a mashal. So imagine, imagine the following. Imagine you have a preschool teacher, preschool teacher, she teaches an adorable class of two and three-year-olds. Okay, it's in the first half of the 20th century. And then she hears about this famous professor of physics, at the time he wasn't a professor of physics, he was just a clerk named Einstein who wrote the papers that have revolutionized the world of physics, the understanding of the world, for which he'll eventually get a Nobel Prize. So she calls him up, she writes him a letter. Dear Professor Einstein, you know, I heard that you have this amazing theory of relativity and special relativity, and you know I have this adorable class of two and three-year-olds, could you please write a child's version of your scientific thing? So what's the response going to be to that request? He's probably going to rip up the letter and what kind of... like what, you're making fun of, you're belittling, you're disparaging, you're belying, what, you the most abstruse, abstract concepts and you want me to make that chochma available to your two and three-year-old students? Hakadosh Baruch Hu created Torah and in so doing Hakadosh Baruch Hu made his capital H chochma accessible to us. So that's the mashal multiplied by infinity. The gap between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is infinitely greater than the gap between the two-year-olds in the preschool class and Albert Einstein. Unbelievable. That's what Torah is. Torah is Hakadosh Baruch Hu created a Torah which is accessible, and not only is it accessible to the greatest of the great, but on varying levels it's accessible to all of us. And he broke it down into manageable units of pesukim. And then when the Torah Shebaal Peh gets written down, it's broken down into manageable units of Mishnayos. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu takes his chochma and he creates a Torah in a form that's accessible. Really Hakadosh Baruch Hu, because he's infinite and his chochma is infinite, so we shouldn't be able to understand anything, kiveyachol, about חכמת הקדוש ברוך הוא. And yet Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw fit to give us to create a Torah which would make accessible to us his chochmah. That's the pshat. That's what's symbolized by giving Torah on Har Sinai. The real Anavah is the fact that there's a Torah. That's the real Anavah. Right? What's so ludicrous that Einstein could make his theory in a child's version. So again multiply the mashal by infinity, so that's what Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu did. That Anavah is staggering. That's what was represented, that's what was symbolized by the fact that Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu chose this venue, which is a very modest venue. Oh. You hear that, Matisyahu? You have anything to add, or a question? No? משה קיבל תורה מסיני, so now come back to the Mishnah. משה קיבל תורה מסיני highlights that extraordinary chesed bracha. משה קיבל תורה מהקדוש ברוך הוא doesn't highlight that. משה קיבל תורה מסיני, again the association with Sinai is as the Gemara in Sotah says that הניח הקדוש ברוך הוא כל הרים וגבעות all the majestic mountains so Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu bypassed those and took lowly Har Sinai. Mi-Sinai highlights again this incredible act of Anavah, chesed on the part of Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu that he created and gave the Torah. That's what's all compressed into the word mi-Sinai. Did you hear that, Matisyahu? Some say that this is similar to that every person could learn, right? Because it says mi-Sinai, right? It's very accessible to us. But yeah, that's one thing. And also I don't know if this is true, but based on what we've learned so far, it's possible that similar to what Ephraim said, but that possibly there's a little more than mi-Sinai, that it's not only from Hashem we learned that in each generation, right, someone could come up with his own personal ideas. Again, it's not his personal ideas, it's discovered that when Newton discovered gravity, right? So it's not his, he discovered a law which was there all along in the world but hadn't been understood, right? That's what דברים המתחדשים בכל דור ודור. That's what it means, right? That in every generation they discover something that's in the Torah, right? Right. So I was thinking maybe besides making it more accessible, and it says from Hashem, right? It's really like Moshe, like for example, this is another example, like one of those, like the first generation where they figured out about Torah, Moshe figured out about Torah, so it's not only from Hashem, but Moshe contributed in the way that he discovered it from Hashem. You know what I'm saying? I was thinking that that may be a reason why it says משה קיבל תורה מסיני and not from Hashem could be that if we're so focused on the topic of Masorah, that's the greatest idea to teach someone to give over the Masorah, that it's not just that Hashem is in one place, but it's mi-Sinai, he can make like any place Kadosh whatever he wants, so don't think that Hashem is so far from you. Interesting. Very interesting. Very interesting. Yes. Did you say that besides the fact that Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu giving the Torah on Sinai that shows his humbleness, you also say that shows his greatness because nobody would ever say that that Har Sinai was not unimpressive, that Hashem turned it into such an amazing thing that had clouds and the sound of a shofar? So it's all the more so that he did this, not only on a mountain that already had a high stature, but by doing this act of chesed on a low mountain and turning it back into something very high and impressive. Very interesting. Yes. Can we say maybe also we get from משה קיבל תורה מסיני if if there's a chiyuv for each for everybody from each generation to teach over all their Torah they know to the people they're teaching it to, and Moshe wouldn't be able to do that from Hashem because I think we may say that Moshe learns all the Torah that will ever be learned from Ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu. But Bnei Yisrael heard the Torah at that time that was available at that time from Sinai, and that's what Moshe gave over. Meaning saying that from Sinai refers to that which Moshe Rabbeinu was given to transmit as opposed to what was given from his own personal that he wasn't able to transmit. Interesting. That's a fascinating suggestion. Fascinating suggestion. Okay, we're going to, I'm not sure we're going to get to the punchline tonight but we'll see. We want to touch a little bit, we're going to try, we'll see if we get there be'ezras Hashem in another siyag laTorah. So what does siyag mean? What's siyag, what's an example of siyag rabbosai? Muktzah. Muktzah? Muktzah. So siyag is a fence, is a safeguard, and it means what Chazal made a gezeirah don't do this because if you do this you're liable to end up doing what the Torah prohibits. Right? So that's what siyag is. And one example is Muktzah. Either Muktzah is the more we carry indoors we might carry outdoors where it's not eruv, or maybe Muktzah is the more we handle things the more likely you are to use them to do melacha etc. Good, excellent. Now let's read here the last source we have here on page two. הלכות דעות פרק ב. Okay, who's reading? Thank you.
לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה ולא ידבר אלא או בדברי חכמה או בדברים שצריך להם לחיי גופו.
A person should not talk a lot and the only things he should say is a dvar chochma or words that he needs for his chayei gufo. אמרו על רב תלמיד רבינו הקדוש. They said on Rav a talmid of Rabbeinu Hakadosh שלא שח שיחה בטלה כל ימיו that he never talked anything mundane all of his days. Or anything idle, right? So maybe he talked something mundane, maybe if his horse's horseshoe broke he wanted to get the horseshoe guy to get it fixed because he needed it to ride to the Beis Medrash, so he spoke about mundane matters but he didn't engage in idle chatter. Says the Rambam וזו היא שיחת רוב כל אדם and this is the this is the this is the talking of rov most of what we talk about, says the Rambam, most of our talk is really idle chatter. ואפילו בצרכי הגוף לא ירבה אדם בדברים. Even for the someone needs a tzorech for his guf he shouldn't increase his words. He should try to economize in his speech. He should try to speak as sparingly as possible.
ועל זה צוו חכמים ואמרו כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא.
This is why the Chachamim commanded us and they explain that anyone who speaks a lot he's going to come to a cheit. If a person talks, the more we talk the more likely we are chas veshalom to talk loshon hara or ona'as devarim hurtful speech. If a person is speaking and choosing his words and speaking very deliberately and sparingly, so he's more likely to avoid cheit. Good. Okay, this is halacha daled, the first part of halacha daled. Now if you skip to where it says siyag lechochma shetika, this is halacha hei. So go ahead please. Siyag lechochma shetika. לפיכך לא ימהר להשיב ולא ירבה לדבר. You shouldn't be quick to respond and you shouldn't increase talking. וילמד לתלמידים בישוב ובנחת בלא צעקה ובלא אריכות לשון. And he should teach talmidim with gently and benachas not crying out and don't talk a lot. הוא שאמר שלמה דברי חכמים בנחת נשמעים. That is what Shlomo said, the words of the Chachamim is heard with nachas. Good. Now so rabbosai in halacha daled the Rambam quoted from Pirkei Avos: כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא. How does it go? כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא. Right? So meaning if a person talks a lot, he talks too much, that's he's gonna be on the path to cheit. So what did he begin again in Halacha Heh with Siyag l'Chochma Shtika? He's just repeating it? Did you hear that question, Abba? Can you say the question again? Sure. In Halacha Dalet, the Rambam says speak sparingly, economize your words, because if a person talks a lot, if he's Marbeh Devarim, he talks a lot, mayvee cheit. Again, he talks a lot, so he's gonna end up idle chatter. Idle chatter is he's gonna end up, it's a very, very slippery slope from stam idle chatter to gossip and etc. So now he's already told us don't talk a lot, be Marbeh beShtika, that's the way to avoid cheit. Then in Halacha Heh, he seemingly starts all over again and says Siyag l'Chochma Shtika and lo yarbeh ledaber. Right? So there seems to be a very blatant repetition here. Yes? Does everyone hear the question, Abba? Now, here's the clue. If Halacha Heh the Rambam introduces with Siyag l'Chochma Shtika, so I understand how that translates into lo yarbeh ledaber. What's it got to do with וילמד לתלמידים בשובה ונחת ולא בזעקה ולא באריכות לשון? Well, I understand velo ba'arichus lashon. Vilamed letalmidim benachat refers to the tone of voice, the style. It doesn't refer to how much the Rebbe said, right? דברי חכמים בנחת נשמעים is not talking about how expansive and how elaborately he speaks. It's talking about again the gentleness with which he speaks. A person can yell and say as few words as the other Rebbe who speaks softly. So how does that fall under the Halacha of Siyag l'Chochma Shtika? Did you hear that, Abba? Okay. So, my father-in-law, zichrono livracha, said a very beautiful pshat. He said that most commonly siyag means what we said before. It prevents us from violating an issur. But sometimes siyag means caution and care that we need to exercise in order to maximize and make the most of something. It's not a question of avoiding issur, it's a question of maximizing potential. If a person wants to, hear this, Abba. Halacha Dalet says if we talk too much, we're gonna end up saying lashon hara, etc. Halacha Heh says if we want to speak effectively, if we want to teach effectively, so if a person chooses his words carefully, lo yemaher lehashiv, choose your words carefully, and then distill what you want to say into as few words as possible, then it's gonna be as clear as possible. Because if a person talks more than he has to, so then that's just confusing. It's like blurring the picture. If something can be explained well in ten words and you do it in fifteen words, so that extra five words, it just blurs the picture. Instead of sort of painting a picture with very sharp contours, it becomes blurry. So Siyag l'Chochma Shtika, here we're not talking about avoiding aveira, we're not talking about avoiding lashon hara and onas devarim, we're talking about how to use the gift of speech as effectively and productively as possible. And that's why it's not only shtika, but there are other relevant strategies: דברי חכמים בנחת נשמעים, before you answer take time to think, formulate your thoughts, lo yemaher lehashiv. So that's a second... meaning of syag. Syag not as a safeguard to avoid chet, that's the first meaning, the most common usage of syag, but the second meaning of syag is the care and the caution one takes, again not to avoid chet, but on the contrary to maximize the potential, in this case and point, the potential of speech. You see that, rabosai? See the pshat? Okay, so we'll stop with the seifer.