Al Ta’amin B’atsmecha ad yom moscha

But there's something, there's something extraordinary that emerges here. The image that we have of Kayin is of a rasha merusha. A person who has, who's rake, who's empty, devoid of any, anything positive, any shemetz of tov. Who else, what other type of birya could murder his own brother על פני אביו ואמו? And yet over here the Ibn Ezra tells us he's bringing the mincha אל המקום שקבע לתפילתו. He used to daven bikviut. He davened bikviut. What's more, Kayin's bringing a korban, and Kayin intuits this relationship. He intuits correctly that the makom hakorbanot, the makom hatfilla is optimally one and the same. The Ramban comments,

ויבא קין מפרי האדמה מנחה וכולו והבל הביא גם הוא הבינו האנשים האלה סוד גדול מהקרבנות והמנחות.

Kayin and Hevel understood the greatness of avodat hakorbanot. Agam that the Ramban in the hemshech says that according to Chazal, Adam Harishon also was makriv a korban, but he clearly doesn't attribute the havana that Kayin and Hevel had that their father taught them. Also, it seems that me'atzmo, Kayin understood on his own the sod gadol of korbanot. I think it's Rav David Tzvi Hoffman who says, I'm not positive about this, but I think it's Rav David Tzvi Hoffman who says that the pshat in הבל הביא גם הוא is that the initiative to bring korbanot came from Kayin. הבל הביא גם הוא, Hevel was a follower. But the one who took the initiative for avodat hakorbanot was Kayin. That's a much more nuanced picture over here of Kayin, not just this

רשע מרושע שופך דם. המקום אשר קבע לתפילתו, אנשים האלה הבינו סוד גדול של עבודת הקרבנות,

and itachen ad sof too that agam that it was bitzar ayin, it wasn't micheleveiha, but lemaise the initiative to bring korbanot came from Kayin, not from Hevel. So what happened?

וישע השם אל הבל ואל מנחתו ואל קין ואל מנחתו לא שעה ויחר לקין מאד ויפלו פניו. ויחר בקנאתו לאחיו שהיה לרצון.

Middas hakina. Middas hakina. We find later in Parshas Toldos a similar more nuanced image than what we generally assume. We correctly identify Eisav as a rasha, a kofer, and we do that correctly al pi Chazal. And that notwithstanding Rashi quotes from Chazal, he reconstructs the the full dialogue of which the Torah only gives us the the rashei perakim to which the Torah hints between Yaakov and Esav. Yaakov says מכרה כיום את בכורתך לי. So what prompts Esav's response of

הנה אנכי הולך למות ולמה זה לי בכורה? אמר עשו מה טיבה של עבודה זו?

We would have thought Esav would have said of course, what what interest do I have in in avodah in in doing avodah? No, Esav's interested. Esav's very interested. He wants he wants Yaakov to to tell him מה טיבה של עבודה זו? But tell me when Yaakov tells him כמה אזהרות ועונשין ומיתות תלויין בה? That there's a discipline to which the the kohen ha'oved has to adhere, and otherwise there are עונשות ומיתות תלויין בה. So then Esav at that point Esav says that's not for me.

אנכי הולך למות על ידי אם כן מה חפץ לי בה.

But but that was interest. He was nimshach achar ha'avodah. And perhaps the most frightening example and the most compelling example when you juxtapose two Rashis in parshas Korach, again Chazal's what is it that that triggered Korach's rebellion is

נתקנא על נשיאותו של אליצפן. קחו לכם מחתות קרח וכל עדתו אשר יבחר ה׳ הוא הקדוש

so Rashi explains Moshe Rabbeinu says you should know that the one Hashem chooses hu hakadosh and the rest of you are going to die for bringing a ketoret zarah. So what person in in his right mind would would play such a game of of of Russian roulette? So Rashi says because עינו של קרח הטעתו. He saw that his einikil is going to be Shmuel haNavi. So obviously I'm going to I'm going to survive and obviously I'm the one who's going to be the be the kadosh. But eino hit'ato because he didn't realize that his children would do teshuvah and it's his children who would survive ובני קרח לא מתו. That they על פתחו של גיהנום did teshuvah, but that he was going to be ne'evad. So how did how did Korach see it? He had ruach hakodesh. Korach was a ba'al ruach hakodesh. Okay, so maybe maybe you'll say, maybe we exaggerated Kayin's middos tovos, maybe. And and maybe we exaggerated Esav's middos tovos, maybe. Korach was a ba'al ruach hakodesh. He was a ba'al ruach hakodesh, but he had a middat hakinah and that middat hakinah spiked and and overwhelmed everything else. It's a davar nora דבר נורא עד מאוד. But but just to clarify what what we're not saying. We're not saying that that unless a person has perfect middos, rachmana litzlan, this is what will happen, this is what has to happen, rachmana litzlan. No, that's not that's not what we're saying, that's not the information. The Rambam writes very remarkably in Shmonah Perakim, he says that an even a navi, he says, can have certain can have chesronot be'middos. But he says adaraba, when Chazal talk about the masachim hamavdilim, the the screens the which limit the the view kavyachol, ha'asagah that that a navi has, that that what constitute those masachim hamavdilim... And then the Rambam goes and gives examples, tells us ויירא יעקב מאד ויצר לו was a chesron in Yaakov Avinu, and Dovid HaMelech, and Shlomo HaMelech. So a person can attain and sustain incredible madreigos even though his middos are not perfect. But and again, not suggesting that the p'chisus hamiddah in a person has to result in this, but it can. It can. A middah ra'ah despite all the good in a person can, if a person allows himself, he allows that middah to spike, he allows that middah to flare. He allows himself to fall captive to that middah, so all the Torah shebo, all the tov shebo, all the tefilla shebo notwithstanding, look look what can result. And it's even more, I will say. Lest we think that okay, so if I if I'm in the secular world, I'm susceptible to middas hakinah in terms of success in career, in terms of financial success. But I'm in the Beis Medrash, so I'm insulated from that, I've protected myself from that. To what was Kayin niskanei on? He wasn't niskanei on the that Hevel was richer than he. It was in Hevel, he was niskanei Hevel's korbon which Ribono Shel Olam accepted Hevel's korbon. They say from the Kotzker about the Gemara Kiddushin. Gemara says in Kiddushin that אם פגע בך מנוול זה, moshchehu l'veis hamidrash. If a menuval, the yetzer hara, confronts you, if it encounters you, אם פגע בך מנוול זה, moshchehu l'veis hamidrash. The Kotzker says, what's a lashon menuval zeh? He says, if the yetzer hara from outside the Beis Medrash confronts you, you can defeat him by moshchehu l'veis hamidrash. But there are yetzer haras in the Beis Medrash. The menuval zeh, the one who will be defeated by getting him into the Beis Medrash is the menuval zeh, the menuval whose his turf is outside the Beis Medrash. Okay, so get him into the Beis Medrash you'll vanquish him. But there are yetzer haras in the Beis Medrash. It helps one understand at least one dimension, one aspect, and of course there are many more dimensions and many more aspects to what Chazal have in mind when they say אל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך. A person's already holding by ruach hakodesh, so mistama he can breathe a sigh of relief, but no. He's on the derech hayeshora, and but the potential destructive volatility associated with the midos raos, and again, and midos raos, the midos raos can be in, can be about hakravas korbanos. It can be about whose korban is niskabel. And that rachmana litzlan potential destructive volatility, so takeh אל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך.