Aggadata – Shabbos 31A – part 4

בשעה שמכניסין אדם לדין אומרים לו נשאת ונתת באמונה קבעת עתים לתורה עסקת בפריה ורביה צפית לישועה פלפלת בחכמה הבנת דבר מתוך דבר אפילו הכי אי יראת השם היא אוצרו אין אי לא לא משל לאדם שאמר לשלוחו העלה לי כור חיטין לעלייה הלך והעלה לו אמר לו עירבת לי בהן קב חומטון אמר לו לאו אמר לו מוטב אם לא העליתה

So taking the Gemara I guess what we would say is the simpler pshat the pshat that lichora it's clear that Rashi understood that way as well we'll see in a minute בלי נדר אם ירצה השם from what the G'ra says but the way presumably others learn pshat in the Gemara so again so the Esakta befirya verivya pshuto kemashmao the Nasata venatata be'emuna so that's a remarkable thing so when Rava says

אפילו הכי אי יראת השם היא אוצרו אין אי לא לא

it goes beyond what Reish Lakish said in the previous Gemara right Reish Lakish in the previous Gemara just highlighted the absolute indispensability of yirat Hashem vis-à-vis Talmud Torah that yirat Hashem is the otzar of Talmud Torah. Again taking the Gemara again the way Rashi does so then Rava is saying that yirat Hashem is the otzar not just of Talmud Torah not just of the Kavata itim the Pilpalta be'chochma הבנת דבר מתוך דבר but the other questions that are asked as well. Again the Rabbeinu Chananel doesn't explain what the questions mean but he just he does highlight that

אף על פי שיש בידך כל אלו אי איכא יראת שמים אין ואם לאו לאו.

So it seems like something again on the one hand very remarkable on the other hand maybe maybe when we think about it maybe it's maybe it's the pshat and it shouldn't strike us as so remarkable. If יראת השם אוצרו אין good ilo lo. So in yes what and lo what? Yes what and no what? What's the medubar here in the Gemara? If yirat Hashem otzaro so then yes what's yes? So the simple pshat seems to be yes that it's בשעה שמכניסין אדם לדין in terms of schar in terms of being rewarded for that he has this beyado he has those zchuyos beyado he comes before the Kiseh HaKavod with those zchuyos beyado but but if the yirat Hashem otzaro is lacking so then he doesn't come before the Kiseh HaKavod with those zchuyos.

אי אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מקפח שכר כל בריה ובריה?

So mistama then the answer is that he will have already received his schar that whatever zchuyos a person has so when he's machnisin adam ladin so he will already have been he'll present a bill and he'll say you know accounts due and Hakadosh Baruch Hu will say no look it's already stamped paid it's already been paid that you received the schar for it already. And mistama what what it points to is the following let's say take what again lefum rihata and on a certain level is is a more extreme case. Let's say you have a person who Rachmana litzlan he's an atheist Rachmana litzlan he's an atheist but he does ma'asim tovim. He does ma'asim tovim he does favors for people and especially for for Jews he does favors. So it's pashut that a kiyum hamitzvah it's not. There's no such thing as a kiyum hamitzvah if a person doesn't, doesn't have emunah in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's not a kiyum hamitzvah. I think the Rishonim say that even, even again, doesn't need any raayas to it, the Rishonim go so far as to say again, that even the מן דאמר מצוות אינן צריכות כוונה, so tokea leshir is yotzei, but he has to know it's Rosh Hashanah. He has to, if let's say the מן דאמר מצוות אינן צריכות כוונה, but he got confused, he thinks today is erev Rosh Hashanah and he's practicing to blow shofar tomorrow, so even the מן דאמר מצוות אינן צריכות כוונה he's not yotzei. He has to know, if he knows it's Rosh Hashanah and he knows shofar is a mitzvah, okay, so then מצוות אינן צריכות כוונה. So קל וחומר בן בנו של קל וחומר a thousand times over, there's no such thing as a, there's no concept of a mitzvah or a kiyum hamitzvah if a person isn't maamin in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So l'chora the way to understand what this Gemara points to, that יראת ה' היא אוצרו, it's the otzar not only of Talmud Torah, it's not just a sgulah lizikaron, not just whatever it means in terms of Talmud Torah, but it's the otzar for every kiyum hamitzvah as well. So what it l'chora means is that without a certain threshold of Yirat Shamayim, the emunah is not, emunah has to imply a certain threshold of Yirat Shamayim. A person checks off on the list that yes, he believes in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but it doesn't translate into a certain baseline, a certain threshold of Yirat Shamayim, so it's not, so what kind of emunah is that if it doesn't translate to a certain threshold, to a certain baseline of emunah? Let's say you ask, you point to a certain fence and you tell someone, you know, that fence is, has an electrical charge that could kill a person if he touches it. And you ask him, do you believe me? He says, yes, a hundred percent. Then you ask him, you know, are you concerned about touching the fence? He says, no, why should I be? So he doesn't, so he doesn't really believe you. If he really believes you, it has to translate into, has to translate into something. Either he doesn't believe you at all, or he doesn't know what the word electrical charge really means and because of that, he believes you, but he doesn't believe you in the sense that that you were communicating the information to him because if he believes, there's a certain minimal, minimal practical manifestation of that belief. The Gra has an amazing, amazing pshat in this Gemara. He understands that Rava really is darshening the pasuk the same way Resh Lakish did, but just adding the context based on the earlier pasuk of ונשגב ה' לבדו ביום ההוא, that he's really darshening the pasuk the same way that Resh Lakish did and that it's referring to the Shishah Sidrei Mishna. And the Kavata Itim LaTorah is a remetz to again to, excuse me, Nasata Venatata Be’emunah is a remetz to Seder Zeraim, V'haya emunas itecha, and then Kavata Itim LaTorah is a remetz to itecha, Seder Moed, etc. And that, that really according to Rava, the whole, Rava is only presenting the one question of whether or not a person did his best to learn as much of Torah as he's capable of.

משל לאדם שמסרו לשלוחו על... משל לאדם שאמר לשלוחו העלה לי כור חיטין לעלייה

halach vehe'alo אמר לו עירבת לי בהן קב חומטון amar lo lav אמר לו מוטב אם לא העליתם. The Nefesh Hachaim has a, again, a very remarkable diyuk in the moshal here. In Sha'ar Dalet, Perek Dalet, so the Nefesh Hachaim writes

אמנם וודאי דאי אפשר לומר שאין צריך לעניין עסק התורה שום טוהר המחשבה ויראת השם חלילה.

In criticizing those people who spend an inordinate amount of time just on engendering a state of mind of yira and don't spend the time just learning, so the Nefesh Hachaim says in criticizing that, so obviously I don't mean to say

אמנם וודאי דאי אפשר לומר שאין צריך לעניין עסק התורה שום טוהר המחשבה ויראת השם חלילה שהרי משנה שלמה שנינו אם אין יראה אין חכמה ואמרו מאי דכתיב למה זה מחיר ביד כסיל לקנות חכמה ולב אין אוי להם לתלמידי חכמים שעוסקים בתורה ואין בהם יראת שמיים.

Skipping some of the other mekomos:

ואמרו עוד כל שיראת חטאו קודמת לחכמתו חכמתו מתקיימת כי יראת השם תחילה היא עיקר קיום של חכמת התורה כמו שאמרו רבותינו ז"ל אמר ריש לקיש מאי דכתיב והיה אמונת עתיך אמונה זה סדר זרעים חשיב שם בזה הפסוק כל הש"ס ומסיים אפילו הכי יראת השם היא אוצרו. דימה הכתוב את התורה לרוב תבואות והיראה לאוצר המחזיק בה המון תבואות ומשתמר בתוכו שיראת השם היא האוצר לחכמת התורה הקדושה שעל ידה תתקיים אצל האדם ואם לא הכין לו האדם תחילה אוצר היראה הרי רוב תבואות התורה כמונח על פני השדה למרמס רגל השור והחמור חס ושלום שאינה מתקיימת אצלו כלל.

Then he says in Perek Vav based on this, so so far we haven't gotten to where he comments on the moshal. Then based on this in Perek Vav

לזאת אמת שזו היא הדרך האמיתי אשר בו בחר הוא יתברך שמו שבכל עת שיכין האדם עצמו ללמוד ראוי לו להתיישב קודם שיתחיל על כל פנים זמן מועט ביראת השם טהורה ובטהרת הלב ולהתוודות על חטאו מעומקא דליבא כדי שתהא תורתו קדושה וטהורה.

Right, every time before every seder a person is supposed to do teshuva. Before every seder a person is supposed to do teshuva.

ויכוין להדבק בלימודו בו בתורה בו בהקדוש ברוך הוא היינו להדבק בכל כוחו בדבר השם זו הלכה.

And that's how a person creates the otzar. So the Yirat Hashem implies, right, the pshat in the pasuk יראת השם טהורה עומדת לעד according to Nefesh Hachaim is, to have Yirat Hashem a person needs genuine Yirat Hashem, has to be in a setting of tahara, so the Yirat Hashem implies that a person is mitvadeh mechata'av. Then he says in Perek Zayin, continues the theme.

ולזאת ראוי לו לאדם להכין עצמו כל עת קודם שיתחיל ללמוד להתחשב מעט עם קונו יתברך שמו בטהרת הלב ביראת השם ולהיטהר מעוונותיו בהרהורי תשובה.

Yirat Hashem has to be tehora

כדי שיוכל להתקשר ולהידבק בעת עסקו בתורה הקדושה בדיבורו ורצונו יתברך שמו. וגם יקבל על עצמו לעשות ולקיים כל הכתוב בתורה שבכתב ובעל פה ואשר יורהו ויבין דרכו והנהגתו מהתורה הקדושה. וכן באמצע הלימוד הרשות נתונה לאדם להפסיק זמן מועט.

So until now he was talking about the hachanos, that that to prepare the otzar beforehand, so a person should be should think a little bit about Yiras Hashem, should do teshuvah. Then he says, also, he doesn't doesn't give you a timetable, presumably הכל לפי מה שהוא אדם, maybe it's not nitan to give a timetable, maybe it's because it depends upon the individual that

הרשות נתונה לאדם להפסיק זמן מועט טרם יכבה מליבו יראתו יתברך שמו שקיבל עליו קודם התחלת הלימוד והתבונן מחדש עוד מעט ביראת השם.

A person should again to reinforce that context of yira, that mindset of yira before it dissipates, so a person should be misbonen further in Yiras Hashem.

כמו שאמרו רבותינו ז"ל עוד משל לאדם שאמר לשלוחו העלה לי כור של חיטים לעלייה אמר לו עירבת בהן קב חומטין אמר לו לאו אמר לו מוטב שלא העלית.

So now listen to this next line rabbosai, וכה על אמצע העסק בתוך חכמת התורה. It refers to the mashal doesn't just refer to the preparations a person makes before learning, it refers to also what he does in the middle of learning,

שראוי גם כן לעורר בתוכו יראתו יתברך כדי שתתקיים תלמודו בידו.

What does the Nefesh HaChaim see it? So he doesn't spell it out, but presumably what what he means is that when you think about it, the mashal of עירבת בהן קב חומטין means that he's asking the shaliach not simply did you sort of layer the bottom of the of the container with some of the soil, but did you mix it in throughout? Right? That eiravta means that the mashal suggests that the that the kav chomtin should be, again, not just that that sort of you you layer the bottom with it and then you pile everything on top, but that it should be mixed in throughout. So that's what he says. So you see that the mashal intimates that as necessary, so a person should be'emtza halimmud also reinforce that mindset of Yiras Shamayim which is the context, which is the otzar for learning. Then he goes on to say that that's peshat over here, that תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל, the next line in the Gemara, מערב אדם קב חומטין בכור של תבואה ואינו חושש. Again, so what's this din? So this is a din, you're selling tevuah, so you're selling it by weight. So when you weigh it, so you're selling him Ich veis ten pounds of tevuah. So even though part of those ten pounds is the soil that you mixed in, but you can charge for that. You don't have to be discounting that from, you don't have to say, well, half a pound of this is the soil, no, you charge him for the for the ten pounds. Says the Nefesh HaChaim,

ולכן סמך אצלו הברייתא תנא דבי רבי ישמעאל מערב אדם קב חומטין בכור של תבואה ואינו חושש והוא דין מדיני גזל ואונאה אשר מקומו בסדר נזיקין ומה שייכותו הכא אמנם הורונו בזה שכמו במשא ומתן הגם שנראה כגזל ואונאה אמנם כיוון שהקב עפר הוא השימור והקיום של כל הכור תבואה אינו חושש משום גזל.

So again, in the mashal the point is that you're not stealing, right? Even though you're giving him when he asks for ten pounds of tevuah a certain amount of that is the soil, so that's not called gezel because it needs to be there, it's supposed to be there. So too, as it were, you're not stealing time from Seder. So what you do before Seder, avada, that's not stealing time from Seder. The point is what you do in the middle of Seder also. So there you would have thought that you're stealing time from Seder, that you're not, you shouldn't be spending the five minutes now or whatever it is on the

התבוננות במעט ביראת השם ואינו חושש בזה משום ביטול תורה כיון שהוא הגורם שתתקיים אצלו חכמת התורה. תלמוד בבלי שבת דף ל״א ע״א התבוננות במעט ביראת השם ואינו חושש. אמר רבה בר רב הונא כל אדם שיש בו תורה ואין בו יראת שמים דומה לגזבר שמסרו לו מפתחות הפנימיות ומפתחות החיצונות לא מסרו לו בהי עייל.

Rashi: So what did the mashal suggest? That there is something there, right? Right, it suggests that there is something there. He just doesn't have access to it. It's not, it's of no worth, it's of no value to him because he has no access to it.

יראת שמים דומה לפתחים חיצונים שדרך להם נכנסים לפנימיים כך אם ירא שמים הוא נעשה חבר לשמור ולעשות ואם לאו אינו חושש לתורתו.

He doesn't value the Torah if it doesn't, if he doesn't have the yiras shamayim that makes it translate, and then mimmela it takeh has no, in fact has no value. So you see lav davka it doesn't mean that a person's going to forget everything he knows. That doesn't mean that he's going to forget everything he knows, but it means that it won't have the chashivus of Torah. Sometimes it will mean that he won't understand it properly, he'll understand it in a slanted, in a distorted way. You know the velt repeats what Rav Yisrael Salanter, Rav Yisrael Salanter said, commenting on Chumash. Let's say according to the Midrash that the Ramban quotes and approaches the pesukim where Paroh has bechira chofshis for the first five of the makkos and only loses the bechira chofshis by makkat shechin. So even then how does he not recognize, just for, out of an instinct for self-preservation, that he's up against something and someone that he can only lose? He doesn't have to be one of the lamed-vavniks, no, just a little bit of, just out of an instinct for self-preservation. So Rav Yisrael Salanter says Kedarko with his, in addition to everything else, tremendous insight into human nature. He says a person only sees what he's willing to see. What a person doesn't want to see, he doesn't see. If a person doesn't want to see something, if a person doesn't want to hear it, so he doesn't see it and he doesn't hear it. So the same thing rachmana litzlan is true. The same way it was true for Paroh in terms of nissim veniflaos that prove למען תדע כי אני השם, but he didn't want to see it, so he didn't, he didn't see it. The same way if a person doesn't want to see something he. So too, a person can see it and he can, and he can close the eyes of his mind not to draw the appropriate conclusion. So the same thing is true rachmana litzlan in divrei Torah also. A person can, a person can learn and a person can read and a person can and he sees and he hears what what he wants to see and what only what he wants to see and only what he wants to hear. So if he has yiras shamayim, so what he wants to see and what he wants to hear is amittah shel Torah. So then he'll hear and see amittah shel Torah. If he's lacking yiras shamayim, so then there's other things that he's interested in hearing and seeing. So he'll see that, he'll see that. Machrez Rebbe Yannai:

חבל על דלית ליה דרתא ותרעא לדרתא עביד. אמר יהודה לא ברא הקדוש ברוך הוא את עולמו אלא

created the world only k'dei sheyire'u milfanav, shene'emar: והאלוקים עשה שיריאו מלפניו. HaKadosh Baruch Hu made the world. What's the point of life? Why HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world we don't know, but what's the point of life now that there is a world that we're here is that we should have yiras shamayim.

רב סימון ורבי אלעזר הוו יתבי, חלף ואזל רבי יעקב בר אחא. אמר ליה חד לחבריה: ניקו מקמי דגברא דדחיל חטאין הוא.

He's a yerei cheit, we should stand up for him. אמר ליה אידך: ניקו מקמי דגברא בר אוריין הוא. He's a talmid chacham.

אמר ליה: אמינא לך אנא דגברא דדחיל חטאין הוא ואמרת לי את בר אוריין הוא?

So you're being me'at be-shivcho.

תסתיים דרבי אלעזר הוא דאמר דגברא דדחיל חטאין הוא דאמר רבי יוחנן משום רבי אלעזר: אין לו להקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו אלא יראת שמים בלבד,

shene'emar:

ועתה ישראל מה השם אלקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה,

uch-tiv:

ויאמר לאדם הן יראת השם היא חכמה שכן בלשון יווני קורין לאחת הן.

Tistayem. So in other contexts we distinguish between the phrases yerei cheit and yiras shamayim, right? Here the Gemara isn't doing so lichora, right? Let's say in Birkat HaChodesh, חיים שיש בהם יראת שמים ויראת חטא. So we don't intend that to be repetitious. So what does it mean in that context? So I think Rav Chaim Kanievsky has in Orchos Yosher, again, yiras shamayim is what we think it means, and he says yiras cheit, he explains based on the Nefesh HaChaim, the Nefesh HaChaim in Sha'ar Aleph, that al derech mashal, the same way, let's say if a person sticks his hand in fire, so rachmana litzlan he gets burned. So we don't view that as that because he was being reckless, so HaKadosh Baruch Hu intervened in the world and and and punished him. We say no, HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world that fire burns and that if people stick their hand in fire, they they get burned. But we don't we don't view it as as a punishment having to be imposed that requiring intervention to impose a punishment. We say no, that's that's that's how HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world. Nefesh HaChaim explains the same thing is true in terms of the spiritual reality. The same way, again, if a person smokes rachmana litzlan, so we don't view it as a punishment if all the adverse effects of smoking come to pass. We say no, that's just that's inherent in the, those dangers are inherent in in the smoking. So he explains that that's the same way HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world in such a way that again mitzvos have again inherently they they they generate kedusha and and inherently they elevate a person, and conversely rachmana litzlan for aveiros. So the aveira itself is like the aveira is a poison. The aveira is a is a is a poison. So that's what that's how the Nefesh HaChaim explains. So mimaila that's what in Orchos Yosher Rav Chaim Kanievsky says, that's what it means yiras cheit, that yiras cheit means that a person has that attitude as though ma'achalos asuros he... He doesn't just view it as something I'm not supposed to do, but the higher madreiga is that he views it as a reality, he views it as a poison. And the same way we don't just recoil from eating poison because it's something we're not supposed to do, but because it's poison, because it's a reality. So that's what yiras cheit means. See in our Gemara, so the answer is that yiras shamayim, again, is New York City, New York State. It depends in what context you're using it, that yiras shamayim, if you use it alongside yiras cheit, so then yiras shamayim is New York City, it means it has a narrower connotation. So when we say in Birkas HaChodesh יראת שמים יראת חטא, so it's clear that yiras shamayim just means again, a person is cognizant of HaKadosh Baruch Hu and has yiras shamayim. If you use it alongside yiras cheit. If you don't use it alongside yiras cheit, so it certainly doesn't mean, so then it can be used in a broader sense that it includes, that what yiras shamayim really means, it includes in the broader sense, it includes what yiras cheit is as well. And that's the pshat here. Isn't this against the Rambam? You should be afraid of a cheit because it causes some internal spiritual harm. Is the Nefesh HaChaim against that? You mean in the Perek Vav of Shemoneh Perakim, is the Nefesh HaChaim against that? I mean, it's certainly, well, one second. What about the Nefesh HaChaim? I'm sorry? What about the Nefesh HaChaim? It's only the Nefesh HaChaim's pshat in yiras cheit. What about the Nefesh HaChaim's against the Rambam, the Nefesh HaChaim's pshat in yiras cheit? Why? Because the Rambam says that that's not what should be motivating you. So you're asking from what the Rambam says about mishpatim, right? That's the part you're asking from? You're asking from the mishpatim or from the chukim? From the chukim and the mishpatim, the midrash states:

אל תאמר אי אפשי אלא אפשי ומה אעשה גזר המלך.

Rambam? Again, yitachen on other levels the two things don't totally integrate, but on this level I don't think so. What does that mean? Let's say, if you mention to any Jew, not only Baruch Hashem shomer torah u'mitzvos, but once upon a time it used to be even people who were assimilated, and you mention, you ask him if they want to eat chazir. So it used to be that even Jews who weren't frum, but who would eat everything else, but chazir, that would be was sort of that was always the sort of the prototype, the ultimate antithesis of being a Jew. So that's a chisaron in the efshi v'efshi mo'eseh? So lichora not. The Rambam would agree, presumably, that because a person has yiras shamayim, so it translates into instinctively recoiling, but not instinctively recoiling, the Rambam's chilluk is that when it comes to gezel, so the Torah wants us to have a moral instinct that gezeilah is wrong. We should have a moral instinct that gezeilah is wrong. I think the Rambam would certainly agree that a person through his chinuch and through his shmiras hamitzvos develops a religious instinct that basar chazir and kilayim and everything else is wrong. So there's also an instinctive, you know, pulling back from the cheit. This is a very beautiful the the Maor Einayim I think I think this is how he says it I'm not positive but if I recall correctly he juxtaposes I believe these mamorim here of אין לקדוש ברוך הוא אלא יראת שמים that ultimately the foundation of everything is yiras Shamayim. I think he juxtaposes it to the to the famous Gemara at the end of Makkos of who's the last one I think Chavakuk who's the last one Chavakuk בא חבקוק והעמידן על אחת Tzaddik be-emunaso yichyeh. And he says they're not saying different things. The emunah which Chavakuk is talking about again is what we were talking about before is not just sort of this abstract emunah this abstract intellectual agreement about metzius Hashem but the emunah that that Chavakuk is talking about is an emunah of מלא כל הארץ כבודו. That as as the Rama writes in Siman Aleph quoting the Rambam that's something which engenders yirah. So so the emunah and the yirah on that level are hainu hach that the emunah we're talking about is an emunah which which can't exist which which doesn't exist without it translating into into yirah as as per the mashal that that we tried to give before. Okay a little bit we'll just try to a little bit more. Darash Rava Mai d-chsiv Al tirsha harbei?

הרבה הוא דלא לירשע הא מעט לירשע אלא מי שאכל שום וריחו נודף יחזור ויאכל שום אחר ויהא ריחו נודף?

So how does that so Rashi what's the answer to the question?

פירושו כלומר הכי קאמר קרא אם חטאת מעט אל תוסיף על רשעך דמי שאכל שום וריחו נודף כבר לחברו כלום יחזור ויאכל עוד אחר וינדף ויוסף על זמן אורך?

How does that answer the question? Why and why is that a hava amina? The same way the Gemara says it's no hava amina that that be a little bit of a rasha don't be a big rasha. That's no hava amina. So why is there a hava amina if you're a little rasha? So now already a little rasha be a big rasha. So yitachen the hava amina here is no that maybe we would have thought we would have thought like this we would have thought okay so I understand that I began at my Bar Mitzvah I understand that I had bechirah chofshis and and I could have gone on either path on on either on either on either of two roads. But now at my age I've gone so far down the wrong path I've made so many wrong turns Rachmana litzlan so now already the negative momentum is so great and and the cumulative effect of of all the mistakes is so powerful so at this point and and I'm too old and and can a person really change and undo and and redirect and overcome so many years of negative momentum? So that's what the pasuk says no not only should you realize that bi-tchilas darko that that a person has the bechirah le-hattos atzmo to either of two directions but even if already Rachmana litzlan rasha meat he still has that same bechirah and he shouldn't think that now it's it's inevitable that once he Rachmana litzlan rasha meat that that it'll be it'll be rasha harbei.