Avos 4:22, 3:1-2

And then in the last Mishnah here in perek daled, rabosai. Excuse me. Hu haya omer הילודים למות והמתים להחיות והחיים לידון לידע ולהודיע ולהיוודע. So what does that mean? מה שאמר לידע ולהודיע ולהיוודע kavanaso b'zeh sheyedu elu sheyivaldu. Meaning the first series of phrases describes three classes of people. The first are those not yet born. The second is ואלו שהם עתה ילודים, those who are us, right? Those who are alive now. And the third class is ואלו שיחיו לאחר המות, those who are already in the olam haneshamos who will be resurrected with techiyas hameisim. So the tanna then employs the shoresh of yada in three different forms כדי לכלול את הידיעה לשלוש הכיתות האלו, that all of these three classes of people should know

שהוא היוצר והוא הבורא והוא המבין והוא הדיין והוא עד והוא בעל דין והוא עתיד לידון.

What does it mean? The Rambam says

ומה שאמר והוא דיין והוא עתיד לידון כוונתו בזה שהוא הדן עתה את הכל בחיים ובמות ובשאר ענייני העולם והוא גם כן עתיד לדון את אלו שיחיו באחרית בגמול ובעונש.

And there will be another yom hadin in addition to the yom hadin that is experienced in this world, there will be another yom hadin when techiyas hameisim happens. The Rambam doesn't mention that in hilchos teshuvah when he tells us about yemei hadin. Okay. It's not a... Okay. U'ma she'amar the Mishnah continues

שאין לפניו לא עולה ולא שכחה ולא משוא פנים ולא מקח שוחד שהכל שלו

v'lo mikach shochad says the Rambam

כמו שאמר גם בתורה שלא ישא פנים ולא יקח שוחד. עניינו שאינו נוטל ממון,

inyano, excuse me,

אין עניינו שאינו נוטל ממון ומטה את הדין כי שטות היא לשלו ממנו יתעלה מה שלא יצוייר אפילו בדמיון איך יינתן לו שוחד ומה יהיה השוחד אלא עניינו מה שביאר שאינו לוקח שוחד הטובות.

We can't bribe the Ribono shel Olam with mitzvos. Even with a mitzvah you can't bribe the Ribono shel Olam. That's the currency that we're talking about. What might one have thought?

כגון שיעשה האדם אלף טובות ורעה אחת אין מנקה לו יתעלה אותה העבירה מרוב טובותיו ויחשבו לו אלף טובות פחות טובה.

We don't say well when you balance the books so you know there was a thousand dollars of income and there was only ten dollars of expense so he has nine hundred and ninety dollars in the bank. No, he has two different accounts. There's an account of mitzvos and there's an account of chas v'shalom aveiros. אלא נפרע ממנו על זו, meaning the one aveirah ויקבל שכר על אלו המצוות in the example the Rambam gave.

וזהו עניין לא יקח שוחד והוא כמו לא ישא פנים,

which is similar, ela yisa panim means

אלא נפרע מן הגדול במעלה על כל שהוא כמו שנפרע ממשה רבינו בעוון הכעס כפי שביארנו בפרקים שהקדימו ודומה לעשו הרשע על כיבוד אב ואם ונבוכדנצר כבוד ה'.

So it doesn't matter how much of a tzaddik a person is, the din applies to him. It doesn't matter how much of a rasha a person is, din applies to them. What's, I don't know, a little bit tzaruch iyun. I'm not sure what to do with it. But the lashon here seems to suggest, the Rambam says

והוא כמו לא ישא פנים אלא נפרע מן הגדול במעלה,

someone who's a gadol b'maalah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu is nifra for him al kol shehu, even on a kol shehu. Now again, that kshe'la'atzmo is something that we understand, right, usvivav nisa'arah me'od, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is medakdek עם הצדיקים כחוט השערה, that the greater the person, so then the expectations are adjusted accordingly, and what for us wouldn't be considered a cheit, for a great person would be considered a cheit. So the idea kshe'la'atzmo we're familiar with, but sort of to mention that idea and then illustrate it with כמו שנפרע ממשה רבנו בעוון הכעס, I don't know, is that really an avon kol shehu? כל הכועס כאילו עובד עבודה זרה וכולי, the ma'amar Chazal that the Rambam quotes in Perek Bet of De'os. So that's what's tzaruch iyun here. Unless you say, I'm not sure whether this sits well in the lashon, I'm not sure, but unless you suggest ein hachi nami, the Rambam obviously is the first one to teach us to take midos very very seriously. But that a person over the course of his entire lifetime should get angry once and pay the price that Moshe Rabbeinu does of not being able to enter Eretz Yisrael, so that's what illustrates the Rambam's klal that נפרע מן הגדול במעלה על כל שהוא. Meaning, ein hachi nami, avon hakas is not a kol shehu, but if you look in the context of a lifespan of 120 years and you can count on the fingers of one hand instances of veering away from the vehalachta bidrachav of ka'as, so lichora in the context of a life of 120 years, A, maybe in that sense it's a kol shehu, B, it certainly seems like a kol shehu when we measure it against the din that was nigzar over. I think we spoke a little bit about this in a different context, when we spoke a little bit about I think we spoke about Og, ואין הקדוש ברוך הוא מקפח שכר כל בריה ובריה. Lefi peshuto, again there is room to say differently, but lefi peshuto, Esav HaRasha engaged in kibbud av v'eim because he had an instinct for kibbud av v'eim. He wasn't doing it lesheim mitzvah. אף על פי כן, and again as we saw Og Melech HaBashan על אחת כמה וכמה had no such intention. אף על פי כן, we see that there is schar. So the peshat is, again, one has to know exactly. So the pratim of how to apply this, but in terms of the mitzvah vehalachta bidrachav, so we're supposed to be appreciative and makir tova for what people do for us, even without doing drisha vechakira and bedika as to the kavanas. You got an Amazon delivery, so you're gonna start clarifying, well, is he doing it because he wants me to have the food or he's doing it because he wants the paycheck, and lemaysa the only way he's gonna get the paycheck is if he delivers me the food. No, he's a million times better than Og Melech HaBashan. Again, if one happens to see the individual, could be you don't see him, could be it's just left at the doorstep, but if you see him, a thank you without compromising on health protocols, a thank you is certainly warranted. ואל יבטיחך יצרך שהשאול בית מנוס לך. A person shouldn't let his yetzer hara tell them that he can escape accountability in the grave.

שעל כרחך אתה נוצר ועל כרחך אתה נולד ועל כרחך אתה חי ועל כרחך אתה מת ועל כרחך אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון לפני מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא.

What does the Rambam say?

והתבונן באומרו שעל כרחך אתה נולד ובהמשך לזה שהזכיר עניינים טבעיים שאין לאדם בחירה בהם.

All these happen involuntarily, שעליהם אומר הקורא השמיים. Velo amar, but the Tanna doesn't say

שלא אמר שעל כרחך אתה חוטא או אתה עובר או מהלך או עומד וכדומה לזה, לפי שכל אלו עניינים שביד האדם ואינו מוכרח בהם.

There is no coercion, there's no pre-determinism, כמו שביאר בפרק השמיני. So I think we spoke a little bit about this also, the scope of what's nichlal in yiras shamayim in this maimar Chazal is very broad. It doesn't say שעל כרחך אתה מהלך או עומד. No, if I decide to go for a walk, I decide to go for a jog, that was my bechira. It's not only if I decide to eat matzah or if a person decides to eat neveilos utreifos, that's his bechira. Once we have a principle of bechol derachecha daehu, so then everything that a person does, everything that's discretionary in a person's life, is pertinent to and therefore subsumed under yiras shamayim. Why did the Tanna? Lichora, the Tanna wants to impress upon us, don't think that death is an escape from accountability. So lichora, all he had to say is that על כרחך אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון. That death isn't the end, death is a transition, and there's a din vecheshbon. Why does he give the whole arichus of שעל כרחך אתה נוצר ועל כרחך אתה נולד? I mean all that is true, but how is it relevant to what the Tanna wants to tell us? I'm not sure. The Rambam doesn't seem to be commenting on it, but maybe as follows. Maybe the

על כרחך אתה נוצר ועל כרחך אתה נולד ועל כרחך אתה חי

maybe it doesn't only mean, you know, that we weren't consulted as to whether or not we wanted to to become a fetus that was formed in utero and we weren't consulted whether we wanted to be born. It obviously does mean that, but maybe it means more than that. Maybe what it means is that the mahus of a person is that a person is a being with accountability. That's what it means to be a person from from the very first moment, from the על כרחך אתה נוצר, you are notzar as such. When the fetus first begins, so that's a fetus which is on track to be again a one who is accountable. Lichora Rebbi Eliezer's view, right? Famous there's a machlokes tannaim in Rosh Hashanah whether or not beTishrei nivrah olam or beNissan nivrah olam. We at least partially, even though in other contexts we operate with Rebbi Yehoshua, we partially in our tefillos reflect the view of Rebbi Eliezer, Hayom haras olam that we say in the ראש השנה שמנה עשרה. So what's the significance of that beTishrei nivrah olam? Tishrei is a time of din vecheshbon. So beTishrei nivrah olam means no, a person is created. That's his essence. The essence of the person is that it's not something that's sort of superimposed upon him. It's not something that all of a sudden, out of the blue, le'achar misah, oh wow, there's a din vecheshbon. No, that's from the get-go. That's the על כרחך אתה חי and על כרחך אתה נוצר. It's all one continual Ayin Alef. Okay, maybe we'll go a little bit to perek gimmel, rabosai.

פרק ג משנה א. עקביא בן מהללאל אומר הסתכל בשלושה דברים ואין אתה בא לידי עבירה דע מאין באת ולאן אתה הולך ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון. מאין באת...

I'm again reading the text as it's printed here in the Rambam's Peirush HaMishnayos.

מאין באת מליחה סרוחה ולאן אתה הולך למקום רימה ותולעה ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון לפני מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא.

So clearly what Akavya ben Mahallel is guiding us, he's guiding us on a path to avoid aveira, to avoid all aveira, right? Okay, let's see the Rambam here. Hahistaklus hazos, meaning the initial histaklus of da me'ayin basa, מביאה את האדם לידי ענווה ובהתבוננו מאין בא. How can a person feel arrogant? Okay, so maybe it's easiest to visualize a later stage. I don't know, so we were all infants, helpless, cared for by our parents, changing our diapers, feeding us. So how can a person who has such roots, how can he be misga'eh?

והסתכלותו אחריתו ולאן אתה הולך תביאהו לידי זלזול בקנייני העולם הזה.

Again, that's the mashal we gave the other day. If I know that I'm only going to be in a rental temporarily for two weeks, I'm not going to sink in $75,000 to improve the apartment because I can't take it with me. So I'm not interested in creating or acquiring what I can't take with me. I'm going to be in a certain country for two days and no matter... but they have a law that you can't take any money out of the country. I'm not going to bother trying to amass any riches in that country. Vehistakluslo b'gedulas hametzaveh, right, the third of

לפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון, תביאהו לידי זריזות לקיים מצוותו וכאשר יזכרו שלושת הדברים הללו לא יחטא כלל.

So here a similar question to the question we just posed at the end of perek daled. Why isn't it enough of לפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון? Lich'ora that, that should keep us on the straight and narrow. If a person is tempted to cheat on a test, and when he walks into the room, you show him where the cameras, and the cameras are at every possible angle. It's, it's impossible for him to do something that won't be captured on, on the camera. So what's he going to do? He's not going to cheat. Doesn't matter how much he wants to cheat, it doesn't matter whether he has any scruples which would prevent him from cheating, but he knows he's not going to get away with it. So why isn't the לפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון enough? And even if we need to be mitztaref ul'an ata holeich, why do we have to go all the way back to me'ayin bata? Lich'ora here there's a tremendous insight that Akavya ben Mahalalel is, is providing. Often we encounter, when, when you look around, you, you can see it by, by following the news. So often we see, let's say rachmana litzlan the horrible, horrible toll that, that the virus has taken in nursing homes. The, in general, the lack of oversight in, in nursing homes. So, I understand totally. People are selfish. They're not concerned with the elderly. But what seems to be the height of irrationality is: what do people think? That they're all Peter Pan and they're all going to remain young forever? And, and I'm going to be 20 forever, so it's not relevant to me how society takes care of its elderly. I'm 20 years old, what's it got to do with me? Maybe I'm 40 years old, but still, what's it got to do with me? But if a person wants to live a long life, everyone does, so just out of self-interest, people should be tremendously concerned with how society deals with the elderly. And obviously that tremendous concern is not present, is, is lacking. So how does one understand it? Forget morality, forget altruism, forget goodness. Just self-interest. Right now I'm 20 or 40, but I hope not to die at age 45. So how can I not be totally, totally invested in how society deals with the elderly? How can I, how can I, how can people park their, their parent or parents in, in nursing homes and go visit one day a year on Mother's Day or Father's Day? Why don't they just cheshben, reason for themselves, what don't they want their kids to do with them when they get old? But people don't think that way. Why don't people think that way? Here's the vort rabbosai. Because a person can be so selfish and so self-centered that he doesn't even think about himself at a future stage. You hear the vort? A person can be so selfish and, and the self-centeredness can be such that I'm so, so preoccupied with myself, with my present self, that I can't even be mischashev with the me in 10, 20, 30 or, or 40 years from now. Ad kedei kach. And that's what we see. There are lots of young people who don't care about old people. In so doing, they're acting against their own self-interest, and they can't focus on that because the self-centeredness is so great that they not only don't they think beyond their daled amos, they can't think beyond, beyond themselves, they can't think... So Akavyah ben Mahalalel says, I know I can give all kinds of good advice. But lemaiseh, first you gotta break the gaivah. If I can't break the gaivah, no other thoughts are gonna stick. People are not going to focus on other thoughts. The first thing I gotta do, Akavyah ben Mahalalel says, for people is, is cut through that gaivah. Once, once that gaivah is is pierced, so then a person is capable of thought. Oh, he's capable of thought, so now we can tell him, we can tell him what to focus on. And the emes is even when the gaivah is broken, the allure of olam hazeh can have that same numbing effect. The allure of, oh, I'll have a big house, I'll have the, the biggest house in in the on the block. That allure of also, just if a person gets caught in that, it doesn't let him think. So the answer to that question is yeah, eino hachami logically, if we could focus on לפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון, that's enough. You don't need anything else. That's enough to keep us on the straight and narrow. But the point is that, that Akavyah ben Mahalalel says it's not so realistic to think that a person's going to be able to do that without first piercing the gaivah, without first freeing his his mind from the incessant preoccupation with inyanei olam hazeh.

רבי חנינא סגן הכהנים אומר הוי מתפלל בשלומה של מלכות שאלמלא מוראה איש את רעהו חיים בלעו.

The Rambam doesn't comment.

רבי חנינא בן תרדיון אומר שנים שהיו יושבין ואין ביניהם דברי תורה הרי זה מושב לצים שנאמר ובמושב לצים לא ישב.

Says the Rambam, where do you see that the definition here, where do you see the definition of moshav leitzim? You see, Ashrei ha'ish, praiseworthy is the person who who doesn't spend time in a moshav leitzim. How do you see what the definition of moshav leitzim is?

וראייתו על שמושב לצים נקרא כל מושב שאין מדברים בו במעלות התורה היא מסוף הפסוק שאמר כי אם בתורת ה' חפצו כאילו אמר

that the antithesis, right, he rejects the moshav leitzim because

כאילו אמר כיון שחפצו בתורת ה' לא ישב במושב לצים.

Why not? Why can't I learn this? No, because obviously the definition of a moshav leitzim is

אשר אין בו תורת ה'. אבל שנים שהיו יושבין ועוסקין בתורה שכינה עמהן שנאמר אז נדברו יראי ה' איש אל רעהו ויקשב ה' וישמע. ומניין לאחד שיושב ודורש כאילו קיים את התורה שנאמר ישב בדד וידום כי נטל עליו.

What does the Rambam say? ופירוש וידום מן הדיבור בדממה מן אמרי דממה דקה. This is very interesting. Generally, we translate veyidom as to be silent. And the Rambam says no, sometimes it means to talk quietly. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean absolute silence, maybe it means that a person is talking so quietly that it's inaudible, maybe that's sort of the, you know, the semantics of of how the word is being used. ומזה פירוש התרגום וידום אהרן ושבח אהרן. Aaron HaKohain after Nadav ve'Avihu, so Aaron he said the berachah of Dayan HaEmes. He said the berachah of of Dayan HaEmes. Veshabach Aharon. I mean, the pasuk says veyidom. No, so veyidom can mean that a person speaks very quietly.

וראייתו על שהוא כמי שנשא עליו כל התורה מן אמר נטל עליו.

Yeshev badad veyidom, he's sitting alone and he's learning quietly, so we view it as ki natlo alav, that that he's accepted the entire Torah upon himself. Of course this is a very big yesod, very big yesod. You know, you you Baruch Hashem, you have she'ifos in learning, to learn, finish masechtos, to learn, finish Shulchan Aruch, to learn, finish sifrei machshava. And and sometimes that yetzer hatov can be hijacked by the yetzer hara where we try to do too much, too quickly, at once. So a person needs to sort of reassure himself, but then how can I, I'm okay, I'm learning Pesachim, that's very nice, but I'm neglecting Rosh Hashanah, Yoma, Sukkah, Yevamos, and so forth. So this mishna's is a good reminder. Why is it that it's כאילו קיים את התורה? Because he's doing as much as he possibly can, כאילו קיים כל התורה כולה. At this moment when a person's learning a mishna, we're learning a mishna of ours, you can't learn more than one mishna at at one time. We're doing the most we can vis-à-vis kol haTorah kulah. We're implementing, we're acting on our commitment to to aspire to to learn kol haTorah kulah. So mimaila,

מנין לאחד שיושב ודורש כאילו קיים את התורה שנאמר ישב בדד וידם כי נטל עליו. ישב בדד וידם כי נטל עליו.

Maybe we'll we'll we'll stop here and and we'll say... Okay everyone should have a very good productive Wednesday. Be well, be safe and and... Thank you rebbe. Thank you rebbe, have a good day. Thanks rebbe. Thanks rebbe. Rebbe, can I ask a question please? Yes. Hi. One thing... You're muted, you're muted. Yeah, okay. Is there a difference about just the Rambam there, I remember seeing in Talmud Torah that he says you should learn out loud or like someone who doesn't learn out loud will forget his learning and the Gemara speaks about it, so why are we biyidom, why are we being so quiet while we're learning? So how's that... Right, so I don't know, is is you're you're you're 100% bedayek, but which way does the diyuk go? Does the diyuk go that, you know, he's not he's not doing it very loudly, or does the diyuk go on the other hand you see that he's not simply, you know, you know, silently reading with with with his eyes. You know, maybe the diyuk I think here in in this in the Machon Hama'or perush hamishna to the Rambam in the notes, I think that they take your diyuk in the opposite direction. It could also be that that if what we suggested in terms of yidom, that yidom really means to be silent. So how does it mean to talk quietly? It means to talk when it's inaudible. Right? So then as far as I'm concerned, I can't hear you, so you're being quiet. Then hashta d'asinu l'hacha, it could be that that this Rambam, that the pasuk doesn't even really even really mean that that he's learning so quietly, because the ma'aseh describes someone who's yeshev badad, right? So he's sitting alone, there's no one else in the Beit Midrash at this time. So it could be that at that point you would describe no matter how loudly he's learning, you would describe it as as yeshev badad veyidom. Because the yidom doesn't so much mean talk softly the way we suggested, it means not to be audible to others. And when you're alone, so then it doesn't give us any indication of of how softly or loudly the person is learning. What was the diyuk the other way? The diyuk that the Machon Hama'or said? No no, so Machon Hama'or was being medayek, so you see that that it has to be kol. The Rambam is, you know, looking for kol, that the person should be motzi b'peh, you know, as opposed to just... Okay. I have one other question from earlier in the Rambam where we were saying that if you it's not just a thousand mitzvos and one one aveira. It's a it's you can't just cancel cancel them out. So does that mean we should like... overall changes do you have to medayek in every single thing you have to think out all the little things that you went through? I don't think that there's a chiyuv to let's say I'm doing teshuvah for a certain middah so obviously that middah probably has expressed itself many times but mistama when you do teshuvah for that middah so you're doing teshuvah for everything which resulted from that middah. If it was a bein adam l'chaveiro I'm doing teshuvah for the middah of anger and in anger I yelled at you okay so then I takeh need to try to remember that and ask mechila but leaving aside that application I don't know if there's a chiyuv to do that.