L’he’damos

Okay good morning Raboisai. I apologize for the delay. Let's see the beginning of Hilchos De'os.

יש בכלל הנחסה זו תשע מצוות, מנהלכות דעות אחת עשרה מצוות, חמש מצוות עשה ושש מצוות לא תעשה, וזהו פרטן: להידמות בדרכיו.

So the first of the mitzvos is lehidamos bidrachav. What exactly is the translation of that phrase? So that will let's hold off for a moment. If you jump ahead for a moment to the end of halacha hey going over to halacha vov, so we'll read the halacha twice, once the way it is in the sort of the standard dfusim and the way they have it now based on the kisvei yad. Reading beginning with the last line in halacha hey, Raboisai:

מצווים אנו ללכת בדרכים האלו הבינונים והם הדרכים הטובים והישרים, שנאמר והלכת בדרכיו. כך למדו בפירוש מצווה זו: מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה תהיה חנון, מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה תהיה רחום, מה הוא נקרא קדוש אף אתה תהיה קדוש. ועל דרך זו קראו הנביאים לאל בכל אותן הכינויין: ארך אפים ורב חסד, צדיק וישר, תמים וגיבור וחזק וכיוצא בהן, להודיע שהן דרכים טובים וישרים. וחייב אדם להנהיג עצמו בהן.

Now here comes the crucial difference. So if you're looking in a standard dfus, so you have ולהידמות אליו כפי כוחו, right? Who's looking in a standard dfus? Right, so you have ולהידמות אליו כפי כוחו. If you look in the I'm not looking in the Frankel but in the I'm looking in the one-volume one but I think that they have the same reading here. It's וחייב אדם להנהיג עצמו בהן ulehidamos kifi kocho, meaning the word elav is not there. So this is actually a what what's in a little word of elav you might ask? So the answer is there's a world of significance to that little word elav. But maybe let's backtrack for a minute here within halacha vov when the Rambam says

כך למדו בפירוש מצווה זו: מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה תהיה חנון, מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה תהיה רחום.

There's something which is very very conspicuous, it's very bolet here, which is the lack of symmetry within the Rambam's formulation. Again this is a Sifrei that the Rambam is quoting, the מה הוא אף אתה, right? We know it in Parshas Behaloscha, zeh keli v'anveihu, מה הוא אף אתה. But the Rambam, we would have expected should have said מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה תיקרא רחום, or alternately מה הוא רחום אף אתה תהיה רחום. And you see the lack of symmetry which is so bolet when the Rambam says

מה הוא נקרא חנון, מה הוא נקרא רחום, אף אתה תהיה רחום, אף אתה תהיה חנון.

Very very bolet. What's the pshat? So the pshat is as follows. Elsewhere the Rambam explains that when we describe, when the Torah describes Hakadosh Baruch Hu as רחום וחנון ארך אפים, we don't mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself has tichunos, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself has qualities. Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself is undefinable, Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself is Hashem echad. He doesn't have different aspects, he doesn't have different facets, there's no multiplicity to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hashem is Hashem echad in the most absolute simple sense. So what does it mean when the Chumash tells us that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is rachum, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is chanun? It means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu acts in a way that if a person were to act that way, we would say, "Oh, he's a compassionate person, he's a merciful person, he's a kind person." We have tichunos. We're not echad, we're not echad in any sense of the word. We have ramach evarim, we have shasge giddim, we have... we're all kinds of combinations, we're murkav, we're a composite. Part of our composite nature is that we have different qualities. A person can have a quality of being rachum, a person can have the quality of being chanun, he can have the quality of being athletic, he can have the quality of being ich veis smart, he can have the quality of being sociable. A person has lots of different qualities, a person is multi-faceted. There is multiplicity to us. By Hakadosh Baruch Hu, what it means is that we observe in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's hashgacha, we observe actions that if a person were the source of those actions, we would say, "Oh, the person is a tremendous rachman, tremendous rachum." And we observe in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's hashgacha actions that if we were to see them coming from a person, we'd say, "Oh, that person is a gevaldige chanun." But really what we're doing is we're describing his actions, we're not describing him, we're describing his actions. That's the pshat is מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה היה רחום. Right? You hear, rabosai? So mah hu, מה הוא נקרא רחום, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is described as rachum. Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't have different qualities. Hashem echad. He doesn't have yud-gimmel middos. Yud-gimmel middos describe his actions. Hashem is Hashem echad. He's nikra rachum. And that's clearly, clearly the pshat. Going one step further, the mitzvah of v'halachta bidrachav, again, to literally go in the ways of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, for the Rambam, it doesn't mean, it can't mean that a person should resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu. There's no such thing as resembling Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is totally, absolutely unique. A person can't resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu. What a person can do, and this is what my chavrusa explained to me, this is what the phrase l'hidamos means. L'hidamos doesn't mean to resemble for the Rambam. L'hidamos means let's say in the koteret where everyone has l'hidamos bidrachav, so if you translate as "to resemble", so then the phrase is incoherent. To resemble what? You have to resemble something, someone. You can't "I resemble". You can't. You can resemble something, someone. There has to be... there's a missing word without which it's not coherent. So what the phrase l'hidamos means is that a person should mold his own image. It's a reflexive, it's a passive reflexive. L'hidamos means that a person should mold, that a person should mold, should cultivate his image. Excuse me, that a person should mold, should cultivate his image. How? How should we mold, how should we cultivate our image? Bidrachav, through the darchei, through the ways which characterize Hakadosh Baruch Hu's actions. That's what l'hidamos bidrachav means. And that's the significance of what... I don't know, I guess the scribe who was copying this over was bothered by the hiddamos, you have to resemble something, so he generously solved the problem for us and put in the word eilav. But it's clear that as all the kisvei yad say, it's lehidammos, which means that a person should be building, molding his image and there's no eilav. Eilav would mean that it translates as to resemble Him, but there's no such thing as resembling Hakodesh Baruch Hu. The gap between everything and Hakodesh Baruch Hu is infinite. There's no such thing as Tzelem Elokim notwithstanding, betzalmeinu kidmusenu, a person doesn't really resemble Hakodesh Baruch Hu. Okay, so that's just in terms of what the koteret of lehidammos bidrachav means. So first the Rambam has his hakdama: כל המצוות שבתורה בפירושן ניתנו etcetera where he traces the masora and gives a sort of historical context on what Mishneh Torah is. Then he has his listings of the Taryag Mitzvos De'oraisa. Then he has those paragraphs about Derabanans. And then the Rambam tells you: וראיתי לחלק חיבור זה לארבעה עשר ספרים. Do you see that in the hakdama? Do you see where that is in the hakdama? Any other thumbs up? Okay, a nod, a nod is also acceptable. Whichever you prefer, freedom of expression, constitutionally protected. Okay, can do that Churchillian V-sign if that's what you prefer. Okay, so וראיתי לחלק חיבור זה לארבעה עשר ספרים. Sefer Rishon, which is Sefer HaMada: הכל בו כל המצוות שהן עיקר דת משה רבנו. All the mitzvos which are the fundamentals and foundations of the religion that Hakodesh Baruch Hu taught us through Moshe Rabbeinu. וצריך לידע אותם תחילה הכל. And because they're the fundamentals and the foundations, it's the basis of everything. כגון ייחוד שמו ברוך הוא ה' אלוקינו ה' אחד ve'issur avoda zara. וקראתי שם ספר זה ספר המדע. So what's Hilchos De'os doing in Sefer HaMada? What's it doing here, given this sort of definition of what the Sefer HaMada is about? So lich'ora the again, the most basic and part of Hilchos De'os is the first three perakim which deal with the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav. So I don't know if we... The translation you're likely to encounter, it doesn't really seem to integrate into the Rambam's definition of Sefer Hamada. But the answer is as follows. In Parshas Ki Sisa at Shlishi, so Moshe Rabbeinu asks Hakadosh Baruch Hu:

ואתה אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך הודעני נא את דרכך ואדעך.

That's the part of the pasuk we want: למען אמצא חן בעיניך וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה. So the Rambam explains that הודעני נא את דרכך ואדעך that the translation is, right, teach me the דרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא, vehalachta bidrachav, right? The דרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא ואדעך, and thereby I will know You. And thereby I will have Yedi'as Hashem. So the Rambam says you see here explicitly again, so the vav is not two different bakashos, it's not that Moshe Rabbeinu is asking (a) הודעני נא את דרכך. Excuse me. (b) He's also asking v'eda-acha. No, clearly what it means is הודעני נא את דרכך and thereby v'eda-acha, right? Hakadosh Baruch Hu, teach me Your ways, and thereby—the vav has that sense of 'and thereby'. Let's say a similar usage of the vav if you take a look in Hilchos De'os for a moment to perek bais, halacha gimmel for a moment, and you see a similar meaning of the vav. When the Rambam says:

יש דעות שאסור לו לאדם לנהוג בהן בבינונית אלא יתרחק מן הקצה האחד עד הקצה האחר והוא גובה הלב שאין הדרך הטובה שיהיה אדם עניו בלבד אלא שיהיה שפל רוח ורוחו נמוכה למאוד.

Skipping two lines: ועוד אמרו שכל המגביה לבו כפר בעיקר. Right, so that's a bulldozer of a statement. Not כאילו כפר בעיקר, not k'kafar b'ikar. No chaf hadimyon, no equivalence. Actual.

ועוד אמרו שכל המגביה לבו כפר בעיקר שנאמר ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלהיך.

So what does the vav mean here? So v'ram levavecha doesn't mean and down the road, ultimately it may lead to, it will set off a chain reaction that will result in ושכחת את ה' אלהיך. No, it's clear that the way the Rambam is taitching the pasuk in Parshas Eikev—this is based on a Gemara Sotah, but the Gemara Sotah doesn't, the way we have it doesn't say it this way. It's clear that what the pasuk, the way the pasuk translates is v'ram levavecha and thereby, right, by virtue of the fact, by virtue of the gova... Petitioning, teach me Your ways and thereby I'll know You. So the Rambam says because again Hakadosh Baruch Hu's essence is unknowable. A person can't know Hakadosh Baruch Hu's essence. A person you can know, a physical object you can know, you can understand the essence. You can understand it's a gas, it's a liquid, it's a this, it's a that and this is its chemical composition. You can understand the essence of something. Hakadosh Baruch Hu's essence cannot be understood; Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself is unknowable. We know Hakadosh Baruch Hu through His actions and that's what it means הודיעני נא את דרכיך ואדעך. So the whole basis for the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav begins with yedias Hashem because הודיעני נא את דרכיך, again, vehalachta bidrachav means to know the darkei Hashem again and then lehidamos and then to mold, to build one's own image accordingly. But the yesod of the mitzvah is yedias Hashem. Right, the yesod of the mitzvah is in yedias Hashem because yedias Hashem means to what we glean from דרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא, what we glean from seeing how Hakadosh Baruch Hu runs the world, what Hakadosh Baruch Hu implanted in nature, the rachmanus that Hakadosh Baruch Hu implanted in nature, that there's a maternal instinct that a mother looks out for its helpless offspring, etc. So in that sense again, circling back to our question of how does Hilchos De'os come into Sefer HaMadda, given the definition that the Rambam gives for Sefer HaMadda, the yesod that we're talking about is yedias Hashem. That's the first part of the answer. Right, so you remind me, maybe we'll see another time what the—there's a second part to the answer also, בלי נדר אם ירצה ה', you remind me. So maybe we'll stop here for now.