Anava & Chessed

So Hillel tells the ger, מה דסני לך לחברך לא תעביד. Leaving aside for the moment the question of why he paraphrases it in the negative, I think two weeks ago we mentioned the Maharsha, but leaving that aside for now, Rashi says that Hillel's interpreting the posuk of v'ahavta l'rei'acha kamocha that rei'acha refers to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and Rashi refers us to the posuk in Mishlei of רעך ורע אביך אל תעזוב. So the question is if that's what Hillel is telling the ger, that basically if you want to know what kol haTorah kulah is, kol haTorah kulah is to do rtzon Hashem, so let him quote the posuk in Mishlei. Okay, so maybe if you're going to encapsulate kol haTorah kulah, it shouldn't be a posuk in Nach, it should be a posuk in Chumash, ושמרתם מצותי ועשיתם אותם. Why does Hillel bedafka have to ingeniously encapsulate kol haTorah kulah in this posuk? But let's leave that for a moment. קח נא את בנך את יחידך אשר אהבת. Chazal recreate the exchange between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu says, I love both my sons, es Yitzchak. So Avraham Avinu, he loved his children, he loved his sons. Is that a chidush? So emes is, emes is it is a chidush. How so? If we review for a minute the Rambam's famous description of ahavas Hashem:

כיצד היא האהבה הראויה הוא שיאהב את השם אהבה גדולה יתרה עזה מאוד.

Again,

אהבה גדולה יתרה עזה מאוד. עד שתהא נפשו קשורה באהבת השם ונמצא שוגה בה תמיד כאילו חולה חולי האהבה שאין דעתו פנויה מאהבת אותה אשה והוא שוגה בה תמיד בין בשבתו בין בקומו בין בשעה שהוא אוכל ושותה. יתר מזה תהיה אהבת השם בלב אוהביו שוגים בה תמיד כמו שציוונו בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך. והוא ששלמה אמר דרך משל כי חולת אהבה אני.

So both mitzad the tmidious of ahavas Hashem as the Rambam depicts it, both mitzad the azos, the strength of the ahava, ahavas Hashem is just, it monopolizes and fills a person's entire being. If bitmidus, הוא שוגה בה תמיד, he experiences this אהבה גדולה יתירה עזה מאוד, so how does he simultaneously, how does he have room inside his heart, inside his being, to love his children? Again, so we don't experience that kasha because this is a description, not a reality. But for Avraham Avinu, zera Avraham ohavi, so taka chidush, קח נא את בנך את יחידך אשר אהבת. And obviously, that's the way it's supposed to be. There's no criticism of Avraham Avinu intended here. A person is, he's supposed to love his children, he's supposed to love his family, he's supposed to ahavas Yisrael. So how does an Avraham Avinu, how does an Avraham Avinu do that? How is it possible for an Avraham Avinu? So clearly the answer is, we take a moshal. We can ask, we can ask. Have a parent, a good normal parent with normal parental love for his or her children. When when the parent sees someone else has love for his or her children, so there's a tremendous hakaras hatov, tremendous nachas ruach. When the parent sees that other people also shower love upon his or her children, there's a tremendous nachas ruach that the parent gets. הקדוש ברוך הוא אוהב עמו ישראל. Again we're talking about מידות הקדוש ברוך הוא as we glimpse Hakadosh Baruch Hu in his actions, in the midos that describe his actions. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu's love for us is what makes possible, is what validates, and is what obligates us to love each other as well. And for that reason and on that level an Avraham Avinu, there's no there's no simultaneously it's he's not again the ahava, his

אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא שוגה בה תמיד. אהבה עזה עד מאוד,

it doesn't not only doesn't it preclude but it fosters a love for people as well. It fosters a love for Yitzchak Avinu, it fosters a love of ahavas Yisrael. Hillel if he only wanted to communicate that the essence of Torah is to do retzon Hashem, to be meshubad l'retzon Hashem, Mista'ama there were less cryptic ways than than interpreting the pasuk of v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha as reiacha referring to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Yitachen that what Hillel was conveying to the ger, what was the ger's question? What was the ger's question? So the ger had an intuition that yeah there's takeh taryag mitzvos and there's takeh different areas and different realms but is it is it disconnected or is there a is there some kind of some kind of unifying perspective on all of Torah? Is Torah there's bein adam lamakom, there's bein adam l'chaveiro, different realms, different tchumim? So the ger had an intuition and Hillel was telling him yeah your intuition is correct. That v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha as the pshuto shel mikra means is rooted in the v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha as Hillel was teitching it again based on the pasuk in Mishlei. That the basis for the v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha on the pshuto shel mikra to love your fellow Jew is rooted in an ahavas Hashem which is why there's no not only is there no conflict but there's not even any any separation or distance between the bein adam lamakom and bein adam l'chaveiro. That's what the ger intuitively was asking and and that's what Hillel answered him. That he couldn't that wouldn't have been conveyed if he would have said ושמרתם מצותי ועשיתם אותם. That achdus of the tchumim of bein adam lamakom bein adam l'chaveiro, it's davka understanding v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha on both levels, on both levels that Hillel was able to communicate this. Let's explore a little bit more again now not necessarily in conjunction with the Gemara in Shabbos but a little bit more again the merging of bein adam lamakom bein adam l'chaveiro. How bein adam l'Makom is is incomplete ultimately we'll see inconceivable without the bein adam l'chavero. I think what we also discussed last week, the Gemara in Kiddushin where Rav Yosef when he hears his mother's footsteps approaching he says, איקום מקמי שכינה דאתייא. I have to stand up because the Shechinah is approaching. The pshat that Rav Yosef felt and experienced that ultimately Rabbeinu Bachya explains in Chovos HaLevavos. So let's say in the example in the instance of the Gemara in Kiddushin so parents a mother in particular has an instinctive love for her children. So we sort of use words like instinct and an instinct just means it's something you automatically do and sof pasuk. Where do instincts come from? So Ribbono shel Olam implants instincts in in the human personality. Or in other words and the Chovos HaLevavos makes this point that when we again developing cultivating acting on that instinct or capacity Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us bestow or shower love chesed and others we do it as Hakadosh Baruch Hu's agents. And that's what Rav Yosef understood that's why Rav Yosef when his mother was approaching said איקום מקמי שכינה דאתייא. This is a manifestation this is an emissary of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chesed. So on that level also a person's bein adam l'chavero is his bein adam l'Makom because we act again as it were shluchei d'Rachmana in bestowing chesed in bestowing ahavah. It's something which is very very important to realize that very often young people's perception of Yiddishkeit of whether or not they associate Yiddishkeit with warmth and with love is very much a function of what they see in their parents and their rebbeim. And that's basically this idea again that in our bein adam l'chavero so we're representing Hakadosh Baruch Hu and that is again another level on which bein adam l'chavero is gufa bein adam l'Makom. Because a person again Rav Yosef's mother represented Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the maternal love that she bestowed upon him and that works הן לטוב הן למוטב. If a person doesn't doesn't draw on that capacity if a person doesn't act on that instinct which Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave him or her so then the person misrepresents Rachmana litzlan Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Like Chazal say about when Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu to stop davening that that they'll yomru that that from the what the talmid does they're going to extrapolate to to the Rav. There's another level again on which the bein adam l'chavero is is a part of bein adam l'Makom. On a third level the Gemara in Avodah Zarah with which with which you're all familiar the Gemara says Rav Huna says that I forget the exact lashon

כל מי שאומר שאין לו אלא תורה כל מי שאומר שאין לו אלא תורה

is אפילו תורה אין לו. If a person says that he's a baal melacha achas I learned, but that's what I do. I'm totally involved, totally absorbed in that and there's no chesed. He only has Torah. So the Maharsha says, אפילו תורה אין לו. And the pasuk, the Gemara quotes, the Gemara quotes a pasuk from Divrei HaYamim is that וימים רבים לישראל ללא אלהי אמת. What do you mean l'lo elohei emet? So if you look in the Maharsha, I think that what the Maharsha just has a line or two. But the Maharsha says, what do you mean l'lo elohei emet? A person's not practicing chesed. So why does that mean that he doesn't have a true Ribono Shel Olam because he's not practicing chesed? Basically, I think this is implicit in the Maharsha's comment. If a person's avoda focuses only on learning. Again, learning, as the Gemara in Sukkos says, can be a Toras chesed also. If a person learns al m'nas l'lamed, so that's the ultimate chesed. I certainly don't intend that contrast. But a learning which is, again, not al m'nas l'lamed, not where the learning itself involves a chesed. If that's his avodas Hashem, so that's a distortion of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Because the middos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we looked at the Gemara in Sotah last week of

אחרי ה' אלקיכם תלכו, מה הוא מלביש ערומים, מה הוא מבקר חולים, מה הוא קובר מתים.

If a person's avodas Hashem doesn't express itself in ben adam l'chaveiro, so then that's l'lo elohei emet because Rachmana litzlan, that projects a distorted image of the Ribono Shel Olam. So exactly whom is he serving? Exactly whom is he worshiping? That's not the Ribono Shel Olam that we know from the Torah of מה הוא מלביש ערומים. So we've seen then that on three levels or from three different angles, ben adam l'chaveiro is central to ben adam l'makom. Ben adam l'makom is incomplete, ultimately inconceivable. Number one, if you love Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you have to love Hakadosh Baruch Hu's children. V'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha, if v'ahavta l'reiacha means Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so v'ahavta l'reiacha also has to mean the peshuto shel mikra. Number two, we are called upon to reflect, even dispense as it were, the Hakadosh Baruch Hu's love for people is channeled through other people. One of the channels, not the only channel. And third of all, the ben adam l'chaveiro, again, is part of the v'halachta bidrachav, without which it becomes l'lo elohei emet. Everyone has a natural tendency, I don't know if there are any exceptions, maybe, but rubanu k'kulonu have a natural tendency. There are some people for whom we have a natural affinity. Maybe we're phrased on the same, more in the same wavelength, maybe temperamentally more compatible. And then there are other people who were sort of less on the same wavelength, less. So here in both directions, to the degree that a person is working on his Ahavas Hashem, if he doesn't find his capacity for Ahavas Yisrael increasing and enlarging, so that means that he's probably deluding himself in terms of whatever strides he thinks he's making in his Ahavas Hashem because the two go hand in hand. The more a person genuinely, genuinely feels that he's coming closer, taking a step closer to the Ribono Shel Olam, so that has to, has to express itself and manifest itself in more of an affinity for more of his fellow Jews. And it's a measuring stick which we can use to measure our progress in coming closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Sort of the same relationship reflected upon from the opposite end, no contradiction, but as part of any Sheifos that we have, that we should have, to come closer to the Ribono Shel Olam, so part of that has to be working on our Ahavas Yisrael. It's not an easy thing for the following reason. The most basic, we talked about this in a different context when we were learning a little bit of Igeres Haramban, the most basic reality of everyone's life is himself. That's the most basic, most basic awareness that we have. Not in a crude or negative egotistical sense, but one's world revolves around oneself. I don't mean it in a selfish sense. What's here? Here is the annex of the Beis Medrash because that's because that's where I am. It doesn't necessarily bespeak Gaiva or self-centeredness in a negative sense, but that's the reality. One's life revolves around oneself. That's again, not in I don't mean it in a negative or egotistical sense, but it's quite clear that that reality easily can lead to life revolving around oneself in a negative or egotistical sense. Part of that natural self-centeredness which needs to be transcended and which the challenge of Tikkun Hamidos represents is that naturally we view and experience the world from our own perspective. Ultimately in order to cultivate tivate a personality of chessed, a person has to learn how to view the world from other people's perspective. kol zman that a person is locked into his own perspective, so then his chessed has to be severely limited. The ability to understand that what may be from one's own vantage point a nuisance, an intrusion, an unwelcome burden, from someone else's vantage point may be something which is urgent, may be something which is very pressing, may be something which is a cry for help, is absolutely indispensable. And it's an avoda. It's an avoda. And anytime a person has to transcend or refine the natural self-centeredness which we all have, it's a tremendous, tremendous avoda. It's an avoda, and here too is another level on which the bein adam lachaveiro, bein adam lamakom, the distinction evaporates. It's an avoda which is inseparable from the avoda of anava. Because ultimately what facilitates and what makes possible real chessed, the ability to understand and to see things from the other person's vantage point requires a tremendous sense of anava. And on that level as well, the bein adam lachaveiro, bein adam lamakom become one and the same. The anava that a person has לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא has to express itself, can be cultivated by his avoda in the tchum of chessed and the ability, again, to see and experience things from the other person's vantage point.