Meor Einyanim #5

Zehu ma'amar Chazal. I think it's where we left off. Zehu ma'amar Chazal, מאי טעמא עיזי מסגי ברישא? So seemingly the Gemara asks sort of a very question about something very insignificant. Why do the goats, if you see goats, why do they go in front of the sheep? מאי טעמא עיזי מסגי ברישא. So the Meor Einayim assumes as the Maharsha before him did as well that the Gemara, this agadata isn't to be understood literally, but it's really a figurative, a metaphorical question. So what does this mean מאי טעמא עיזי מסגי ברישא? So what does the question mean? וצמי לומר ישראל נקראים עזים שבאומות כמאמר חז"ל. The Gemara in Beitzah says that we have the tchunah of azus. Azus is a forcefulness. It can obviously rachmana litzlan be channeled the wrong way and can express itself as arrogance, but it can also express itself as tenacity in holding on to our emunah even in difficult times. So izey doesn't mean shouldn't be understood to mean just goats, but it means

מאי טעמא ישראל נקראים עזים שבאומות כמאמר חז"ל? מאי טעמא יש להם כח לילך ולהסתבק ברישא.

And maskay barisha doesn't mean that they're walking in front of the line, but it means that they have this koach to attach themselves as the bechinah of hachacham einav berosho that the Meor Einayim has explained previously. מאי טעמא יש להם כח לילך ולהסתבק ברישא reishas hakol. Where does that koach come from? How are they able to be mistabek by Hakadosh Baruch Hu? ואמר מפני שבתחילה חשוכא. The Gemara answers that the reason the izim go first is because they're often black. So he says, what's the metaphorical meaning of black here? מפני שבתחילה חשוכא. הם בחשכת המדרגות. They're on a low madregah, unenlightened, darkened madregah. V'hadar and only later misham l'nahora. מסתבקים ומתעלים משם לנהורא וממתקין הקטנות שכל בגדלות. So he's applying the idea that he presented that we saw last time of middos nifallos. And that middos nifallos is not something that a person is supposed to banish or overcome, again the example he gave is if a person is learning shelo lishmah and he finds himself in the grips of the middah of hispa'arus of cheishek, but the problem is that he's experiencing it as self-glorification or cheishek for mamon. He thinks it's going to be his ticket to riches. So he explained that מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה means that the person is supposed to capitalize on the middah which he experiences of hispa'arus of cheishek and redirect it and channel it that it should be not one's self-glorification but for התפארות הקדוש ברוך הוא. It should be not a cheishek, not a desire for chemdas mamon but once the person experiences the desire he should stop and think, "I want that desire to be channeled כלפי הקדוש ברוך הוא." So how is it that the eizeh, meaning ישראל עם סגולה ברישא, how are they able again to go to the front in the sense of being מזדווג בהקדוש ברוך הוא? Because initially they're black. Meaning the shelo lishma, the low madreiga is a launching pad for hasagas. Misham umisaleh misham, they elevate themselves from there from the chashocha lenahora to the light וממתקין הקטנות שכל בגדלות. The right lamatke, to literally to sweeten is that phrase, that term is used to again to represent sort of redeeming and elevating a middah. So the same way if you have, I don't know if the coffee is bitter and you put in some sugar, so when you, if you have bitter coffee, the solution is not to spill the coffee out and waste the coffee, adaraba, no, it represents an opportunity to have the good cup of coffee, you just need to, you need to sweeten it. So so too the middah nefula again is not something, the avodah is not to suppress, not to banish, but the avodah is to redirect, to channel differently, to elevate. That's what's represented by mematkin hakatnus sechel, literally, they sweeten their small-mindedness begadlus.

ולכן יש להם כח זה. מה שאין כן אומות העולם שנשארים בקטנות בגשמיות.

But the umos ha'olam don't do this. ולכן אמרו רבותינו ז"ל gabei Bilam: השתא דעת בהמתא לא הוי ידע, right, so Bilam says about himself veyodeia da'as elyon. Well, that's Bilam says that about himself. So Chazal ask, how is that possible? השתא דעת בהמתא לא הוי ידע and he's yodeia da'as elyon? So the Me'or Einayim explains what it means is, again, das behemta, again, the behemishus when a person is mired in physicality. Bilam didn't know the avodah of being mesakein that middah nefula. If he doesn't know the avodah of being mesakein that middah nefula, so he's never going to be able to elevate himself.

והאדם נברא קטן בקטנות שכל. והלא כוונת הקדוש ברוך הוא,

it seems to be singular, there seem to be a lot of to'uyos sofer in copying the manuscript, I'm just thinking, no reason for it to be plural,

והלא כוונת הקדוש ברוך הוא היה בבריאת האדם לעבדו. ומדוע ברא תחלה בלי שכל ואין לו דעת לעבדו? אך הוא גם כן מטעם הנ"ל: כי יתרון החכמה מן הסכלות.

So the Me'or Einayim explains, again, it's the same, this cycle of originally experiencing the middah as a middah nefula and then redirecting it and thereby elevating it and using the experience of the middah nefula again as the platform is something which really, if you look at the human life cycle, that's what happens. That והאדם נברא קטן בקטנות שכל. So so it's as if HaKadosh Baruch Hu is pointing him, rachmana litzlan, in the wrong direction. So what does that mean? So he's created bekatnus hasechel. So so in a sense, you know, when you play, I still play pin the tail on the donkey at birthday parties, it's been a few years since I've been invited, I would go, I would play, but no one invites me anymore. So when you turn the guy around and around, you know, if you're pointing him in the wrong direction, so what chance does he have? You know, so you set him up and and you point him in the wrong direction when he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be going over here. So so what does that mean

והלא כוונת הקדוש ברוך הוא היה בבריאת האדם לעבדו ומדוע ברא תחלה בלי שכל ואין לו דעת לעבדו?

So again lechora here the Me'or Einayim is teitshing that the yisron hachochmah comes from the sichlus, not just that chochmah is superior to sichlus, but that that the yisron hachochmah comes, it derives from the sichlus. Again, the same theme. ותיאובתא דחשוכא לאתכללא בנהורא. I think one of the additions says that's a quote from from some in the Zohar Hakodesh. The desire of darkness is to be subsumed within light. כי הקטנות נקרא נוקבא לגבי הגדלות. Katnus can be metaphorically depicted as feminine. Ve'el ishech teshukaseich, so this is remarkable, right? So the pshuto shel mikra seems to be that as part of the klala to Chava, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Chava that your desire will be to your husband, right? Ve'el ishech teshukaseich. Again, which means that you will desire your husband. And Me'or Einayim says no, what it means is Ve'el ishech teshukaseich, your tshuka will transfer el ishech. Right, not not that it's your desire for, but your desire will transfer, will go from you, Ve'el ishech teshukaseich, הנקיבה מעוררת תשוקה בחתן, so the same way a woman can arouse desire in the man, a wife can arouse the desire in the husband. So too again, this same idea of elevating the midda nefula, right? That the midda nefula you then you then sort of then transfers and from there it the chashek which originally the person experiences in a tzurah nefulah, so that chashek then gets transferred, Ve'el ishech teshukaseich, הנקיבה מעוררת תשוקה בחתן. Again, that's part of the mashal.

והאדם הנמשל והאדם תחלה בחינת קטנות ואחר כך כשבא אל השכל,

when when he matures, and when he matures spiritually, emotionally, intellectually,

ואחר כך כשבא אל השכל הגדול מדבק הכל גם הקטנות לגדלות והוא בחינת זיווג.

So again, a person doesn't he doesn't outgrow, he doesn't leave behind the katnus, but the katnus again, the desire, the passion, the excitement, all that he then redirects. He experiences it originally on the lower level, but then he again, he redirects it and he uses that to achieve the higher level. וזהו כמשוש חתן על כלה ישיש עליך אלוקיך Ve'yisba'er bemakom acher. Ve'ee efshar, now this is remarkable,

ואי אפשר לבוא לאור גדלות תכף, לכן בא הקטנות תחלה.

Here's where he is finishing the answer to the question that he asked at the beginning of the paragraph about why are we created originally as an infant, a baby, a young child who has no sechel, no da'as ba'avodas Hashem, because the the way the world is, the person has to a person can't just cultivate yesh me'ayin sort of the תשוקה להקדוש ברוך הוא. A person experiences the tshuka and then redirects it and then then elevates it. לכן בא הקטנות תחלה. Ve'zehu perush beis, this is a another pshat in the Gemara of

מאי טעמא עיזי מסגי ברישא. מאי טעמא עיזי שהוא עזות שבאדם,

the midda of azus masgei beresha,

ורצונו לומר בא בתחלה לאדם הקטנות והשיב כבריאתו של עולם ברישא חשוכא וכולי כמו אמר.

Okay, we'll stop here for tonight.