Aveiros – Rishumo Nikar

תניא אמר רב משום רבי ראובן בן איצטרובלי ואמרי לה במתניתא תנא אמר רבי ראובן בן איצטרובלי אין אדם נחשד בדבר אלא אם כן עשאו.

A person is never suspected, he's never accused of doing something unless he actually did it.

ואם לא עשה כולו עשה מקצתו ואם לא עשה מקצתו הרהר בלבו לעשותו ואם לא הרהר בלבו לעשותו ראה אחרים שעשו ושמח.

Wow. Metiv Rabbi Yaakov,

ויחפו בני ישראל דברים אשר לא כן על ה' אלהיהם.

How can that be? Pasuk says that the Bnei Yisrael alleged things of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they attributed things to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. לא היו ולא נבראו. Obviously none of these things apply, unless התם לאחוס הוא דעבד. A person's doing it l'hachis, he knows it's not true so then this doesn't apply. Later the Gemara makes another exception that if the person, if the accuser, the one who's making the allegations is acting out of sina, that also doesn't apply. That also doesn't apply. Well what's pshat? So when you begin the sugya, so you think the pshat is as follows. Why should it be, how should it be that if someone suspects me of doing something, it must be that on some level I am guilty, even if it's not on the level that he's alleging or more significantly it's not even on the level that he could possibly know about. He's, how how can someone else know whether hirharti belibi la'asoso or whether ראה אחרים שעשו ושמח. No, no-one can know. No-one can know. So what's pshat? So lich'ora you'd say it's mida k'neged mida. A person kills beshogeg, he gets away with it, so Rashi quotes the Gemara in Makkot, Hakadosh Baruch Hu orchestrates that he should do it again in the presence of edim. So a person did something, he got away with it, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu orchestrates, it's a mida k'neged mida. So the רבי ראובן בן איצטרובלי is explaining to us if a person is having these yisurim, this is what it's about. It's a mida k'neged mida. It's a mida k'neged mida. The only thing is if that's the case, then you don't understand Rabbi Yaakov's kasha. You wouldn't have expected this apply to apply when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the object of suspicion. So the rule doesn't apply in that case, you can't have a kasha. You can't have a kasha. So ela mai, what seems to be the Gemara is saying something else. The Gemara is saying like this. How is it, how is it that if a person, how is it that a person is falsely suspected? That people innocently yet falsely suspect him of doing something. How does that happen? Not why does that happen, it's going to answer the why also, but the question is how does it happen? How does it happen that you innocently yet falsely suspect me of doing something? So the Gemara answers because eichshehu, eichshehu, there's something which again it's not on a conscious level, it's not on a conscious level, there's something in me which elicits that. Right, we've all read the stories, right, how the Arizal, right, could look at a person and tell you whether this morning he davened with kavana or he didn't daven with kavana, he said a bracha achrona or he didn't say a bracha achrona. How is it? So the pshat is like this. The pshat is like this. A little kid comes in and his mother says to him, how many times I told you not to play in the mud? He says I wasn't playing in the mud. So she says look at your pants, look at your shirt, look at your hands. What do you mean you weren't playing in the mud? It's rishumo nikar, it's all over you. Everything that exists in the physical world is a mashal for what exists in the spiritual world. So we don't have the prescription which lets us see it. The Arizal had a, no offense to eye doctors, the Arizal had a better, had a better, a better ophthalmologist than, than, than, than we have. The Arizal had, had, had glasses, had lenses. He saw these things. He didn't only see the, the physical mud. He saw spiritual begadim too. So whenever we do something, whenever we do something, even hirhur, even simcha b'libo, there's an imprint on the neshama. And what Reuven ben Itztrobli is telling us is something ayom v'nora, pachad. He's saying, and you know what, it's that. The other person may not understand it. It's not, it's not necessarily a signal that he's consciously decoding, that he's consciously receiving, but if a person is nechshav b'davar, so it means that, that, that there was some rishumei nikar. Again, maybe only the Arizal would, would be able to see it consciously and knowingly, but it's rishumei nikar. וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים, not only b'sefer nechtavim, but it's v'chol ma'asecha in the person's neshama. Again, if, if a person, if you go out and you play in the mud, it's rishumei nikar. There's no such thing as playing in the mud and, and walking out of that morass squeaky clean. It doesn't happen, it can't happen. The same thing is true, the same thing is true, rachmana litzlan, in ruchnius. There's no such thing as, as an action which doesn't have consequences. And that's what it says here. In the sefarim it says, again with this same type of mashal, the Chafetz Chaim has it in places, and, and I think the Nefesh HaChaim also has this basic idea already. That, you know, the same way, rachmana litzlan, that physically, a person can be a ba'al mum, a birth defect, rachmana litzlan, born without a, geferlech. So spiritually, again, spiritually a person has a demus also, and, and the spiritual counterparts for the, all the eivarim. So the same way, if a person, again, a person is, is, doesn't take care of his body, he can become a ba'al mum. It's rishumei nikar, because things make an imprint. And some imprints are indelible. So the same thing is true in ruchnius, the same thing is true in ruchnius. And the same way a person can make himself into a physical ba'al mum, so rachmana litzlan, that's the mashal, the analogy you find in the sefarim, the same thing can happen in terms of ruchnius. It's too tempting because we, we think of everything in terms of the physical and the concrete. So the opposite and equal reaction for something that we do in the physical world, we, we see, right? You punch a wall, so you, nothing is left to the imagination in terms of what the opposite reaction is, your hand hurts. And, and you can't, you can't lose sight of it. But it's too easy in ruchnius for us to delude ourselves and to think it doesn't make such a difference. It doesn't make such a... No, he says, you should know it's rishumei nikar. It's rishumei nikar. And one of the ways in which the Ribbono Shel Olam brings it to our attention is, is what Reuven ben Itztrobli says. Me'inyan l'inyan, the Ba'al Shem Tov says that there's another way that the Ribbono Shel Olam, so many other ways, I don't think he means necessarily this is the only other way, there's another way the Ribbono Shel Olam brings it to our attention as well. He says, right, all the darshanim, all the darshanim interpret, כל הנגעים אדם רואה חוץ מנגעי עצמו is a truth which has relevance beyond hilchos tzara'as, beyond the negei tzara'as. כל הנגעים אדם רואה חוץ מנגעי עצמו. So, the Baal Shem Tov says, so what does the Ribono Shel Olam do to compensate for that? So, the Ribono Shel Olam what he does is this: he says if a person has a midah meguna, something that has to be corrected, fill in the blank, whatever it is. He, his, his lashon isn't naki, anger, bitul, whatever it is, whatever this falt nisht kein midos that need to be mesaken. So, the Baal Shem Tov says, so what does HaKadosh Baruch Hu do? So again, I don't see it in myself, I don't see it in myself. So, the Ribono Shel Olam orchestrates things that I should see someone else who has that midah. And I should see someone else blow his top, I should see someone else just wasting his time. I should see someone else, well, whatever, fill in the blank, whatever midah it is that I need my my attention drawn to. So, the Ribono Shel Olam lets me see it in someone else. Says the Baal Shem Tov, again, it's hashgacha pratis. That's not, it's not accidental that a person is is seeing that midah. It's a wake-up call that that he should be working on that midah as well. Okay, that's food for thought.