Pirkei Avos 1:6

Okay so let's see Mishna Vav in Masseches Avos. יהושע בן פרחיה ונתאי הארבלי קבלו מהם Yehoshua ben Prachia v'Nittai HaArbel accepted it from them יהושע בן פרחיה אומר Yehoshua ben Prachia says asei lecha rav make for yourself a rebbi v'kneh lecha chaver and acquire for yourself a friend והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות and judge your friend favorably. Great. So we want to we're just going to try to focus on the last part of the Mishna והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות. Unfortunately there was a little glitch here the Rambam's Peirush HaMishnayot is not on the sheet are you able to get it on your phone? Right now? Yeah. So you want the Peirush HaMishnayot to the Rambam for פרק א משנה טז? Okay great. And the part in the Peirush HaMishnayot which begins with hevei dan is the mic picking up on this bit? Yeah. hevei dan. hevei dan. The Rambam on Peirush HaMishnayot of this Mishna part of the Peirush HaMishnayot says wait it's commentary in English? No it's commentary in Hebrew. Oh okay so this commentary in Hebrew says okay you have it? Yes. Okay go ahead.
והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות. עניינו כשהיה אדם שלא תדע בו אם צדיק הוא אם רשע ותראהו שיעשה מעשה או שיאמר דבר שאם תפרשהו על דרך אחת יהיה טוב ואם תפרשהו על דרך אחרת יהיה רע.
So if you see somebody you don't know if he's good or bad and you see him doing something. Let's say you see someone walking down the street let's say on Yom Kippur and you've never seen him before you don't know anything about him and what happens? And you see him doing something or saying something
שאם תפרשהו על דרך אחת יהיה טוב ואם תפרשהו על דרך אחרת יהיה רע
if you explain what he's doing in one way he could be doing something very good or if you explain it in a different way if you justify it in a different way it could be something bad. Let's say you see a family walking and and one of the kids is crying so I don't know maybe the kids crying because he's overtired or sick and you know the parents are doing the best they can to calm him and to cheer him up sometimes but the kids crying well no maybe the parents are being nice to him maybe he's crying because the parents are being insensitive to him so you don't know who they are so you don't know so says the Rambam that's what our Mishna is talking about as a mitzvah of והוי דן לכף זכות. Okay let's continue. So what do you do in this case? קחהו על הטוב ולא תחשוב בו רע. You judge him favorably and don't think anything badly about what he's doing.
אבל אם יהיה אדם נודע שהוא צדיק מפורסם ופעולותיו טובות.
But if you see somebody who's he's known as a tzaddik and and everything he does he's good.
ונגלה פעולה שכל ענייניה מורים שהוא רע גמור ואין אדם יכול להכריעה לטוב אלא בדוחק גדול ואפשר רחוק הוא.
So if you see him doing something that everything about it screams he's doing something wrong. bad. He's doing something bad and you can't- there's no way to judge him favorably except if it's a very dochek, bedochek example, if it's not a strong- Yeah, that's it. The only way you could judge this person favorably is by seeing that you're really, really reaching for something which is a remote possibility. So what's the halacha?
ראוי שתקח אותו שהוא טוב אחר שיש לו שום צד אפשריות להיותו טוב ואין מותר לך להחשידו.
So what you should do is you should judge him favorably on one maybe tzad that it's possible that it could be good. So let's say you have someone, this is actually, I forget where, in one of these collections of stories this story was written up, I don't remember where. The following is a true story. I think a rav of a certain community walked by a McDonald's or something and he happened to look through the window and he sees one of his balabatim, he sees one of the people from the shul sitting there and eating in McDonald's. So this is- so he knows this guy is a wonderful guy, he's known this guy for years, but he sees him. He pinches himself. Yeah, that's- that's Yankel, that's- that's Dovid, and that's- that's... So what happened? So how are you gonna judge kaf zechut there? Again, this is a person he knows he's a medakdek bemitzvot, he's very careful about observing mitzvot. How could you possibly be dan lekaf zechut? This is what the Rambam is talking about, really, really a stretch. So what happened in this case? This is supposed to be a true story. He was a diabetic. And a diabetic, if the sugar drops very low, it's a sakana. If it drops to- if the blood sugar level drops beneath a certain level, it's actually a sakanat nefashot and the person has to eat, drink something immediately. So this happened to him while he was in front of McDonald's and he understood what was happening to him, so he ran in. And exactly at that moment when he was taking that bite that he needed to save his life, his rav had to walk by. That's an example of what the Rambam is talking about. Sometimes you see- how often is a person who's eating in McDonald's eating because he's a diabetic who's having an attack? I don't know, what is it, one in a million or something? But that's what the Rambam says. No, but if you know the person is a tzaddik- again, tzaddik doesn't mean he has to be a tzaddik like the Chofetz Chaim, but you know a person is very careful about keeping kosher. You've known him for years, he's always very careful, he comes to the rav and asks a shaila, 'Is this hashgacha good? Is that hashgacha good?' And he asks some shailos that happen in the kitchen when things get mixed up. And then you see him eating treif! So that's an example of what the Rambam was talking about. Go ahead, continue. ועל זה אמרו כל החושד בכשרים לוקה בגופו. And regarding this, it says that anybody who's choshed bikhsherim gets malkos. So notice, according to the Rambam, kol hachoshed bikhsherim, if a person suspects a person who's kasher, he deserves the malkos, is talking about even in what kind of situation? If there's no tzad efshariut that he's- even if there's no possible way. Do you see that? Even- even when you have to reach for this one in a thousand, one in ten thousand interpretation, but if you know that this person is a kasher and you don't reach for that interpretation, lokeh begufo. So it's amazing! Okay, now the Rambam has another- וכן שיהיה רשע מפורסם במעשיו. So if the man- if the guy's a rasha and it's- everybody knows it, whatever he does, all of his actions are widely known. Yeah.
ואחר כך ראינו שעשה מעשה שכל ראיותיו מורות שהוא טוב ויש.
And then you see him doing something that according to all logical possibilities it's a very good thing. ויש בו צד אפשרות רחוק לרע. And there's some distant possibility that it's bad. ראוי להישמר ממנו ושלא תאמין בו. It's proper to guard yourself from him and to not believe in him. ושלא תאמין בו שהוא טוב. That you should believe that he's good. I don't have an example of this, a scenario of this. Who's from New York? Anyone else from New York? New York City? Let's say you see the mayor of New York City seeming to do something good for the Jews. So that's what this third category is. If you know consistently that this person is a rasha, so even if it seems good and it's again seemingly far-fetched to think that it's not good, but that's what you should think because the person is a rasha. But does this only apply to people who are truly a rasha or people who are in the extreme? Say someone I know who's not religious and they do something good but they're not a bad person necessarily. No, this is not someone who's like the mayor of New York City, but someone consistently evil. And the first one, the second one, the example of a tzaddik is talking about someone who's consistently a tzaddik. So what do we have here? Just to sum up. So the Rambam says there's three possible scenarios. One is you don't know the person or Rabbeinu Yonah adds, you know the person but the person is a little bit inconsistent. So then what's the halacha in that case? If you see them do something which is ambiguous, assume it's good. dan lechaf zechus. You don't know who or you know them but you know sometimes he does good things and sometimes he does other things. That's the mishna הוי דן את כל אדם לכף זכות. If the person is known consistently to be a tzaddik and you see him do something which apparently unless you have some seemingly far-fetched interpretation is bad, you should still interpret it for the good, favor him. Then the opposite case, if you have someone who's consistently a rasha and a well-established and deserved reputation of being a rasha and he's seemingly doing something good, so then the seemingly far-fetched interpretation is that it's not good. Now just to get a feel for those last two halachos. They're a little bit, it's sometimes halachos are intuitive and sometimes halachos teach us what we don't necessarily have a natural intuition for. How would you understand or explain those last two scenarios? A tzaddik who's seemingly done something bad or a rasha who's seemingly doing something good for the Jews? How would you explain those two? How do they make sense to us? I have a question about the tzaddik side. People change over time, people could have a change. But I also had a question about the rasha side. I could think of a dozen reasons for that rasha doing that thing. For example, let's take a moshal. Let's say you're learning the mishna and I don't know you're learning about some great idea that was supposed to be in the daf today and it's starke as some people here describe it to be. And you go over to a four-year-old boy and you ask him, \"What does this line in Tosafot mean?\" He says \"I don't know\". Then let's say you go over to a Schachter and you ask him about a line in Tosafot and you ask him \"What does it mean?\" The first one you wouldn't be surprised if he said I don't know, but you'd be surprised. Okay. But would you take them the same way? Or would you see them in the same way? No, they're not the same. They don't know, they don't know, they don't know, but they don't know differently. The four-year-old is thinking what do you want from me? This is Tosfos and I certainly don't know these squiggly ones. I only know the square letters. I don't know what you're talking about. The Rosh Yeshiva is thinking, yeah, this line is a shver line in Tosfos because it seems to be against the Gemara in Zevachim, it seems to be against the Gemara in Menachos. And so that's how we would, that's how we would process the two I don't knows differently. Someone once told me a story about Rav Hirschprung. Rav Hirschprung, when he came to, when he left Europe, he got away from the Nazis, but he settled in Montreal. And he was a very big Talmid Chochom. He also had a phenomenal memory. He knew everything by heart. Someone once came over to him and asked him a Kashya and Rav Hirschprung said, I don't know. And the guy walked away, it was clear from his facial expression that he was very pleased that he had stumped Rav Hirschprung. So Rav Hirschprung turns to his son-in-law and says, he thinks, that young man who asked the Kashya, that his I don't know and my I don't know are the same. But they're not. So what's the, so if you wanted to then generalize, extrapolate from our fictional story with the Tosfos and the kid, or this actual story with Rav Hirschprung, so what would you say what's the Yesod? Even though they both said verbatim I don't know, how do we interpret it differently? Context. Exactly. We interpret things contextually. And that's context, right? The fact that you're saying I don't know means one thing when Rav Hirschprung says it and another thing when a four-year-old says it. That's not far-fetched. On the contrary, it's absurd to do anything else. It's absurd to ignore context. Oh, so now apply that to our halacha that we're learning here in Tosfos, maybe down a couple lines. Someone could find that psak. You have this guy, let's say, he's a Rasha and you see him going into McDonald's and you see him obviously eating a cheeseburger based on the packaging and his actions. It's true, what are the chances that someone eating in McDonald's is eating because he's a diabetic and just had a severe attack and has to eat immediately and wasn't able to find anything else? The chances are one in a million. But what are the chances that this person who is a known Rasha and has been so measured in his past actions is eating Treif in a deli? So that one in a million interpretation becomes the most logical and sensible interpretation. Do you hear that le-ma'aseh? Yes. And similarly, what are the chances that this Rasha, again, someone who's been a known Rasha consistently over an extended period of time, not inconsistently, consistently, what are the chances that he's doing something good? One in a million. So go with the one in ten thousand chance that what he's doing now is also bad because in context, that's the most logical and sensible interpretation. Yes, you hear what I'm saying? So what's the, what does that have to do with judging, judging people? What about judging people at all? So that's what, what we meant to say. Excellent question. So we're gonna, so let's hold off on that, and then I think as we continue, I hope we're going to see how that logic applies to the first case as well. Could be, could be, we will only have to take the whole thing. The point is the first case there's no context. So basically what the Rambam was explaining to us is that the Mishna had been done specifically so as when there's no context. But if there's a context then you follow the context. If the context is that this guy's a Tzaddik, follow that. If the context is that he's a big Rasha, follow that. That's exactly the point, exactly right. That our Mishna is referring to a case where there's no context. Where there's no context then I can't use context to interpret, so then what do I do? I should interpret favorably. But then we have to come to your question, excellent question, why not just refrain from judging entirely? Why should he? In the first case why should he just judge like a guy is a Tzaddik? In the beginning, before we see anything, we should assume he's a Tzaddik. That's the way it's done. But why? We've already seen examples where you know somebody came into the community, but we don't know who he is, we've never seen him before. We don't keep such a company, so we don't know that he's a Tzaddik. We don't keep such a company, so we don't know that he's a big Rasha, so we don't say that the assumption is so on and so forth. Right? Okay. Now we're going to take a look at the Ramban on Shabbos, try to, and with that, hopefully we'll answer your question. Okay, the Ramban on Shabbos, oh, before we get to the Ramban on Shabbos, let's, let's watch one other point here. The Gemorah in Bava Basra, Rashi actually quotes this, and the posuk says in Parshas Toldos, which Parsha is it? Parshas Toldos, excuse me, Parshas Toldos that ויזד יעקב נזיד ויבא עשו מן השדה והוא עיף, right? So what's just the literal translation? Eisav came, ויבא עשו מן השדה, what's the literal translation? Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Before that, yeah before we get there. Right before that, ויבא עשו מן השדה, he came from the field והוא עיף, and he was tired. Now, Rashi I think alludes to this Gemorah, look at what Chazal say:
אמר רבי יוחנן אותו היום עבר אותו רשע חמש עבירות, בא על נערה מאורסה,
V'harag es hanefesh, V'chofer be'ikar, V'chein halah. That Rasha, Eisav. Rebbi Yochanan doesn't even want to mention his name, he violated five really major aveiros on that day. He raped a woman who was already me'urasa. He murdered someone. He denied Hashem and Hashem is the foundation of everything. Kofir be'ikar means when a person denies Hashem. Kofir be'ikar means he denied Hashem and he... he spurned the bechora, and he spurned being a bechora. Now where do you see that? The Torah just says he came from the field and he was tired. And somehow or other Rebbi Yochanan sees it in this next posuk, that he committed these five major aveiros. How so? בא על נערה מאורסה, he raped a girl who was me'urasa. ויבא עשו מן השדה, he came from the field. So a posuk over there in Sefer Devarim where the Torah talks about where me'urasa is violated, the Torah describes it as... this idea of me'urasa, the rapist found her in the field. So it's kind of like a gezeira shava, not literally gezeira shava, but similar, right? That just as sadeh in Devarim is mentioned in the context of rape, that's what he did here as well. Okay? Harag es hanefesh, where someone... you see Kofir be'ikar, tired. ויבא עשו מן השדה והוא עיף. Woah is to me, I'm tired from all the killings. I'm tired from the killing spree. It's almost as if he's going to deny Hashem. Sifseisa. Then here, lamah zeh li. And in the next pasuk it will say, Esau says, למה זה לי בכורה. So ksav, lamah zeh li. Sifseisa, sifseisa. And they're saying, tell me why zeh. And in Az Yashir, when it says zeh keli v'anveihu, so kiviyachol, who's zeh? Hashem. So lamah zeh li, what do I need zeh, what do I need Hashem for? That's how Chazal interpret it. Tfu bitechiyat hameitim. Tfu bitechiyat hameitim. And ksav, והנני הולך למות, I'm going to die. And once I die, so Chazal interpret והנני הולך למות, once I'm dead, the death is irreversible. Vayivaz es habechorah, he spurned the birthright. Vayivaz es habechorah, he spurned the... So what do you say about this Gemara? What do you say about this Gemara? That he was doing things that seemed like super normal, just coming from the field, but we interpret it in the worst way possible. You know, Esau's the bad guy. No. So the halacha, this is experimental, the halacha of dan es ha-adam is also a principle in interpreting Agadah. Do you see how the Tosafot parallels the same principle in the halachic context and also a principle for parshanus? That's basically what Yochanan is doing here in interpreting the pasuk of Esau is the same as the Rambam explains as far as the halacha is concerned when you when you see an evil person doing something. So it's amazing how right the halacha is also a principle of interpretation, of parshanus. Do you see that, Rabosai? Yes? Question. Isn't the whole halacha based on our intuition that that we don't understand? That's that's the whole question. Isn't it actually halacha? Not to judge the rasha? lechaf zechus, no? On the contrary, halacha and this is halacha, this part, the Rambam has this Mishnah also. I mean, it is intuitive, but it's also halacha that we just went over. Okay, good. Fantastic. Now let's we want to try to get at least one more point here. Let's see the Gemara in Shabbos. Who's reading the Gemara in Shabbos for us? Thank you. Tanu Rabbanan. אדם הדן את חברו לכף זכות. Who went to judge his friend? They were believing דנין אותו לכף זכות. Ma'aseh be-adam echad, a story with a certain person, sheyarad mi-Galil ha-Elyon, who went down from the Galilee, he came down from the Galilee, he lived all the way up north, and he went down and nis-tacher and נשתכר אצל בעל הבית אחד בדרום, and he hired himself out to a ba'al habayis for three years in the south. And maybe he was working as a farmhand, maybe, whatever he was doing. So he left his home, he lived all the way up north, and he went all the way down to Beersheba, or something, all the way down south, and he worked there for three years. Ve'erev Yom Kippur... Ve'erev Yom Kippur, he said, he said to the boss, \"Give me my wage, הב לי שכרי ואלך ואזון את אשתי ובני, I'm going to go and build myself up, I'll support, I'll support, the ba'al habayis, I'll support, and I have arrived, as it were, I'm at my prime, just to be able to tell him.\" I'm gonna go and build myself up. I'll support. I'll support. I'll provide for myself. I'll support. I'll support my family. I don't know. I'm gonna go, as it were, to go as fast as I can just to be out of here, so I can support my family. So just give me all my back pay, please, Mr. Weiss, and I'm gonna go home and support my family. I'm gonna go to the baal habayis and tell him I don't have any more, I don't have any money! אמר לו הבעל הבית תן לי דמי. The worker said, give me behema. The baal habayis said, I don't have any behema. He said, give me karka. He said, give me avdi. He said, I don't have any avdi. Give me bigmai. Give me aliyah. I don't have that. Give me carim and subtos. Give me pillows and mattresses. He said, I don't have them. He was very distressed. After the regel, the baal habayis came with loads... with him he had loads of, on three donkeys. One donkey was carrying... אחד משא מאכל ואחד משא משתה ואחד משא ממינים. One was food, another one was mishchar. He had food, he had meat, he had bread, he had potatoes, he had fruit, etc. אחד משא מאכל ואחד משא משתה ואחד משא ממינים. All kinds of fruits and all kinds of bottles of wine and water, etc.
אחד משא מאכל ואחד משא משתה ואחד משא ממינים. ונטלם והלך לביתו של פועל.
He went to his employee's house. The baal habayis who asked for his help to unload. After the eat and drink, the baal habayis gave his worker his wages. He said, the baal habayis said,
בשעה שאמרת לי תן לי שכרי ואמרתי אין לי מעות מה חשבת?
When you said give me your wages and I said I didn't have any money, what did you think?
אמרתי שמא פרקמטיא בזול נזדמנה לך ולקחת בה את הכל.
You saw some merchandise and it was doing so well and maybe you've spent all your money on it. Maybe you've invested in some other merchandise, so you're having temporary cash flow problems.
ובשעה שאמרת לי תן לי בהמה ואמרתי אין לי בהמה מה חשבת?
When you said give me behema and I said I didn't have behema, what did you think? אמרתי שמא מושכרים ביד אחר. You knew that I had cows, you thought maybe I hired them out? Maybe they were out in the stable? All horses, all the cows? Maybe they've been out to the fields? You made a deal with someone. ומה חשבת בשעה שאמרתי לך אין לי קרקע? And you knew that I've been working on my foundation. You knew that I owned so much land. אמרתי שמא מוחכרים הם ביד אחרים. Maybe you made a deal with someone and they take the field and you work the field and you have to get something, a certain amount of ground, a certain amount of produce from this field, and beyond that you can keep the rest. Now that arrangement is called aris. So maybe you've bought the fields, you've entered into such an agreement, so you don't actually get the land you own.
ומה חשבת בשעה שאמרתי לך אין לי כרים וכסתות? אמרתי שמא הקדשת כל נכסיך לשמים.
The land of Israel, the land of Israel in at a time where he said that ramaz here b'masechta, what was that?
איש אשר אמרתי אליך הנה הראה את הקץ את העם הזה במשך שבעים שנה.
So what did you think? Did you suspect him of something when I had denied him the p'ras? Amarti, I said,
שמא עינה בכוס נתן שמא היו בניו עניים והוא בא לינשא.
You're not allowed to pay the debt from the temple if you've done exactly as he had done, as my son had done. You wouldn't be allowed to pay the debt from the temple. So maybe that's what you had in mind when I had said בשעה שאמרתי לך עמי אתה at the time where he said that I've been disinherited and my son is not going to have any of this. And you knew my intentions, you know that I disinherited him and I had done it at that time. So what happened when I said I have no money? Amarti, I said,
שמא הקדיש כל נכסיו לשמים ואין לי ליתן לו כלום.
Maybe he was mafkir everything to the Beis HaMikdash. So then this is really far-fetched. What are the odds of that happening? This is what the Mishnah talks about. So what does it say? Amar lo havu da'at'chu. Daya daya. That's exactly what happened. Exactly, exactly what happened. נדרתי כל נכסי שלא יהנו בהם בני. I gave all of my wealth to Horkenos, I gave all of my wealth to Horkenos, the neder of all my wealth I gave to the Beis HaMikdash because he had a son Horkenos, and he wanted his son to be a money... and the son wasn't learning. And the father found out the reason he wasn't learning was because he was having the time of his life, because his life was easy, and he was supporting him, and then eventually he'll inherit. So he was acting like a spoiled rich kid. So what the father decided to do was mafkir everything to the Beis HaMikdash. So now he's no longer a spoiled rich kid, and now he is not supporting him, right? That's exactly what you have asked me to pay the debt as you've done just as I had done. But right after I had done that, so how do you expect me to have any money now? שבשעה שהדרת את חברך מן הנדר. I went to my father's house to undo the kol haneder and he undid all of my vows. And then they responded as, oh my god, how could he do that? And that's how Horkenos regained his portion of the money. Din hashamayim shedinuchon just like your judges. המקום ידינכם לכף זכות. So that Hashem should judge you... Hashem should judge you with zchus. What's very, very precious about that last line? HaMakom sometimes we refer to Hashem in some way, and I'm not sure if you noticed that we sometimes refer to Hashem in some way that we call HaMakom. So we say המקום ידינכם לכף זכות. Let's just ask you a question. When we're dan l'caf zchus, why do we need to do that? What's the situation in which we're dan l'caf zchus? We don't know the truth. When we don't know, right? When we're dan l'caf zchus, the situation is I don't know whether these parents are mistreating the child and that's why the child's crying, or whether the child's sick or the child's overtired and the best parents in the world wouldn't be able to get the child to stop crying right now. So when we dan l'caf zchus, it's because we don't know. So what does it mean that Hashem should be dan l'caf zchus? Right? He gives them a bracha that המקום ידינכם לכף זכות. Hashem should judge... No, but the whole concept doesn't make sense by Hashem because Hashem is never in the dark. Hashem knows exactly what happened. Hashem knows. He knows. He knows everything. End of fact. So what does it mean for Hashem to be dan l'chaf z'chus? Do you hear that question, R' Sen? I'm just giving a bit of a thought about that. Little bit of time to think about that, then we'll get an answer. R' Efraim, would that happen? R' Efraim, would that happen? What else? Who else? R' Efraim, he's giving over a thought about that. I checked with him earlier as well. But why do we call that? I think it's right. But why do we call that dan l'chaf z'chus? When Rebbi says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can be dan l'chaf z'chus, meaning השם יודע מחשבות אדם, meaning Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows our intentions, that's why and what happened. Like He knows. He knows everything. And in this whole story, the employee doesn't know what happened. He doesn't know that his boss took a neder and consecrated everything to the Beis Hamikdash. But in his in that whole state of not knowing, that's where you have the mitzvah to dan l'chaf z'chus. So it shouldn't apply in this situation. It doesn't make sense. God could also decide to see some of the good side of whatever the good they were doing would outweigh the bad. In a sense, but it also is similarly to some other answers is that you would expect Hashem just to see everything straight because He doesn't have to judge something in a favorable way because He knows what our intentions are in the entire in the entire way. He sees in our minds. So you'd think if you do something wrong, that Hashem knows what you're doing, what your intention is. He knows if you're doing it as an aveira. So you'd think that Hashem is going to punish you but you were what you were just saying, don't think that, you're going to judge other people favorably and then Hashem can change His judgment. Good. Good. Sound. Here's a mashal, R' Sen. Here's a mashal. You have a 21-year-old 21-year-old young man or kid, a young man. I'll make him 18. I'll make him 18. And he's arrested for drug trafficking. What's the drug that we talk about all the time now that's coming over from the border from Mexico? What's it called? Fentanyl, yeah. They get him for selling fentanyl. And you know, multiple eyewitnesses, there's a trial and he's convicted. Found guilty. Open and shut case. He was clearly guilty. Now they're up for the sentencing. So first the prosecutor presents what he thinks the sentence should be. Then the defense attorney presents what he thinks the sentence should be. So the prosecutor says, Your Honor, and he points to the defendant who's found guilty, this individual is an angel of death. People are dying daily in this country from drug overdoses, and they're dying because of people like him who traffic in the fentanyl. And therefore, I respectfully ask that the court give him the maximum sentence possible. Send him away for 30 years, which is the maximum sentence. Lock him up for 30 years. Now it's the defense attorney's chance. Defense attorney says, Your Honor, this young man until until this offense, had a totally clean record. He had never been involved with the police, he had never done anything wrong. He was a star student in his high school. He Voted by his fellow classmates. He made a mistake and yes, a big mistake. It was a mistake. Your Honor, have compassion upon him and he'll redeem himself. He'll redeem his life. So I respectfully ask the court to give him a minimum sentence of two years. So who's right? Who's wrong? Who's right? Who's wrong? The prosecutor's right? Or the defense attorney's right? Who's right? Who's wrong? All those who think the prosecutor's right... All those who think the defense attorney's right... Does anyone want a third choice to vote on? I think they're both right, you know. Both descriptions are true. They're both right. What the prosecutor said is 100% true, but what the defense attorney says is also 100% true. So what's going to determine... and the judge... what's going to determine whether the judge accepts the prosecutor's recommendation or the defense attorney's recommendation? What's going to determine? What whether he chooses to look at things favorably or unfavorably. There's no stira be'deiah here. The judge knows all the facts. The facts are that he was trafficking in fentanyl, in fentanyl which kills people. But the facts also are that he had a clean record until that point and had led a very straight and upstanding life until then. So now the same act of selling the drugs, you can view it favorably, and you can view it unfavorably. So that way you can give someone a beracha that Hashem should judge you favorably because we can be in a position of this kid, this young man who was selling fentanyl... we can do something and all the facts can be clear but Hashem can judge it... can judge those facts favorably, or we can judge them unfavorably. Do you hear that? So that's what it means to give a beracha that Hashem should be dan l'kaf zechus. Now, is that not rachmunus, like rachmunus and din? It's similar. It's similar. Meaning din will maybe not look favorably. Maybe it's similar to rachmunus and din. Yes. Meaning we say often that like there are certain things that can be done that like shift Hakadosh Boruch Hu from sitting on kise rachamim to kise din or something like that. Yeah. Usually I'm saying the opposite, but so I don't know what that would mean if it weren't the outlook that he has or the way he chooses the judgment based on the case. 100%. Excellent. Excellent. Just to ask a question but just if you do any mitzva, should not that also tip the scale? Like an example of the good things he did, it fits in about the defense attorney to help him defend. So what makes the judge judge favorably and doing a mitzva? Is doing a mitzva also tipping the scale? Good. Excellent question. So the answer is that you're right, any mitzva would be relevant, but when you're dan l'kaf zechus, since that's a midah for a midah, so then that's going to be more powerful than just a regular mitzva. But now I'm getting... I don't know if I'm getting too stuck up on the mashal, but in this case the judge would be dan l'kaf zechus towards rachmunus or whatever that is because of the fact that he might redeem himself, that this person is going to... this is just a one-time mess-up and he's done everything else perfectly. But Hashem knows if this is... this is just like a quick mess-up or if this is the start of your life going downhill or you know... So he does, but not, I think Rashi quotes in Rosh Hashanah, right? When Hagar and Yishmael are in the desert and he's on the verge of death, so the pasuk says וישמע אלקים אל קול הנער באשר הוא שם. And Chazal say ba'asher hu sham, he's thirsty, he doesn't have any water, and the malachim said to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Yishmael you're going to save? His great-great-grandchildren are going to be Hamas, they're going to be Hezbollah, you're saving Yishmael? And what does Hashem answer? He's judging him by how he is today. Right now is he a tzaddik or a rasha? So they say right now he's a tzaddik. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't judge a person today based on his knowledge of the future. Hakadosh Baruch Hu judges a person today based on where he is today. So the mashal doesn't work, right? Yeah. Okay, now let's just make one point and then we'll get to your question. What is this Gemara in Shabbos with being dan l'kaf zechut? What does it tell us about what being dan l'kaf zechut means for us? How do we know, how does it shed light on what we're doing? And how does it answer your question? As you said, why don't you just refrain from judging? So what's the chiddush of being dan l'kaf zechut? What is that chiddush in light of this Gemara in Shabbos? What is that chiddush of being dan l'kaf zechut for us? Or in other words, without the Gemara in Shabbos, so maybe being dan l'kaf zechut just means, I don't know, you don't know whether it was good or bad, assume it was good. But in light of the Gemara in Shabbos, being dan l'kaf zechut is not just telling us about what to think, it's telling us about a middah that we should have, that we should look at people favorably. Being dan l'kaf zechut at its root is a middah tovah that the Torah demands of us. We're supposed to have that middah tovah that when we look at people we look at them favorably. And how does that answer, how does it answer your question? So as someone asked, why do you have to judge at all? Why not just refrain from judging? Because if I refrain from judging, I'm not cultivating or demonstrating the middah of looking upon people favorably. Whereas if I do judge, again, I don't know what's going on with these parents here, crying, shouting. If I just refrain from judging, okay, it's no middah tovah. But if I judge them favorably, that means I'm cultivating and performing this middah tovah of seeing people, seeing my fellow Jew favorably. And that is what being dan l'kaf zechut is really all about. It's not so much the, it's the middah tovah. It's a halacha in middos that we're supposed to see people favorably. We're supposed to be favorably disposed, favorably inclined towards people. And that's why davka, you should judge. You should judge the parents that they're doing what they can and the child is sick, or they're just totally tired or totally irrational for some other reason. Question from Ishmael. Is there a difference between the Mishnah which says דן את כל האדם and the Gemara which says chavero? Yeah, that's a great, great question. That's a great question. I don't know the answer. I don't know. I was thinking about it, I don't know the answer. But we see in about the cases of big Roshei Yeshivos when they do something that you say... And so the reason that the Gemara brings this whole case of, unfortunately, it's a very good example, of a rasha, but let's say, let's say it's someone who is just a basically an evil person, so then you're replacing, you're legitimizing this evil, you're validating this evil, so you can't just give this rasha credit for doing something bad, which he didn't actually do, it's similar to just praising a rasha, it's a way of validating him, it's a way of legitimizing him, okay, but I want to propose one thing, then we have to stop for Mincha, in the case of the Gemara, and that the Goy paid him back, and then the Gemara says, okay, fine, let's say, what if he started doing teshuva? And if you want to ask this shaila, I might be worth your while to look at this Tosafot here in the Beis Medrash, and they go on here, yes, but back then, the Rabbanan didn't know he was paying it back then, so then it matters if you want it or not. That's a fantastic question, but the answer follows as follows: what when we make Hataras Nedarim, what's the basis for Hataras Nedarim? You just come to the Beis Din and say, please be mattir my neder? There has to be a basis for Hataras Nedarim. And what's the basis for Hataras Nedarim that the Torah requires, anyone know? We say it in the text of Erev Yom Kippur: bechulhon icharatna behon. And what does icharatna behon mean? I regret. That when a person asks Hataras Nedarim, he says if at the time I had taken the neder I was in the same composed state of mind that I have now, I never would have taken the neder. So wonderfully, what happens was that he was so upset and so angry at this sapha, at this meshullach, and acting like this horrible person and being so upset, that if he wasn't really suspecting him of not being ben Torah, he realizes that he was he wasn't really. Okay, so we'll stop here for Mincha.