Mesorah & Emunah

אנכי השם אלוקיך הדיבור הזה מצות עשה והרמב"ן אמר אנכי השם יורה ויצוה אותם שידעו ויאמינו כי יש השם והוא אלקים להם כלומר הוה קדמון מאיתו היה הכל בחפץ ויכולת והוא אלקים להם שחייבים לעבודתו ואמר אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים כי הוצאתם משם תורה על המציאות ועל החפץ כי בידיעה ובהשגחה ממנו יצאנו משם וגם תורה על החידוש כי אם קדמת העולם לא ישתנה דבר מטבעו ותורה על היכולת והיכולת תורה על הייחוד.

So the Ramban in this respect concurring with the Rambam says that Anochi should be listed as a mitzvah assei and what's included in the mitzvah assei is the understanding that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is eternal, that he exists lemala min hazman, that everything else that exists came, comes from him voluntarily, is rooted in his infinite yecholet and that he exercises hashgacha over the world and that therefore we're obligated to serve him. Ramban says yedu veyaminu. It's interesting he has both verbs, yedu veyaminu, and what's especially interesting is the sequence that yaminu trumps yedu. So yitachen, I don't recall clearly, I think I saw this some place, I don't recall where, that what the terms yedu and yaminu mean in the Ramban is yedu a person knows. But a person can know something in a very sort of abstract, impersonal way. And then a person can know something in a very vivid, practical, immediate, repercussive way. And the Ramban says yedu is not just a sort of know abstractly that there's a Borei Olam, but yaminu in the sense that it's a yediya which is mitztayeret banefesh. It's a yediya, it's not just again theoretical abstract knowledge, but it's a yediya which is imprinted upon a person's nefesh. It reaches to the depth of his being, the vividness of the knowledge and the conviction of Anochi Hashem Elokecha. What's more the Ramban explains that because that's the standard the Torah sets for us, because the standard is not only to again either know it in some detached way or to merely accept it on blind faith, that's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu demonstrated all these yesodot ha'emuna for us. That's why when the Ramban says yoreh veyitzaveh, the Ramban means that the pasuk of Anochi Hashem Elokecha not only issues a mandate, not only is metzaveh, but it also teaches us how to cultivate that belief. It also teaches us how to provide basis for that belief and presumably implicitly that's the Ramban's way of explaining why the Torah doesn't introduce the mitzvah with an imperative. Why doesn't the Torah say de'u? u or ha'aminu because then I would have been misled into thinking so the posuk is only a mitzvah and in reality the posuk is not only a mitzvah but the posuk is also providing us with the basis for being mikayem the mitzvah, Yoreh veyetzaveh, Yoreh veyetzaveh. So it's quite clear from the Ramban that again Anochi Hashem Elokecha, that the mitzvah is that it should be again with a sense of total conviction, with a sense of vividness, with a sense of clarity, with a tremendous sense of reality. And that's why the Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, he brought these yesodos ha'emunah to life. He made them immediate, he made them vividly apparent. He allowed us to experience them through the nissim associated with Yetzias Mitzrayim. There is lichora an assumption here in the Ramban that he doesn't, at least here he's not stating, in Yitro he does articulate it famously at the end of Parshas Bo, which is that for the demonstration of Yetzias Mitzrayim to remain the basis again for this vivid understanding, perception, conviction of Anochi Hashem Elokecha, so it means that our belief and conviction in masorah has to be equally strong and equally firm. The evidence of Yetzias Mitzrayim, right, no chain is any stronger than any particular link in the chain. The evidence of Yetzias Mitzrayim is not any stronger, is not any more valuable than the strength or value of our masorah about Yetzias Mitzrayim. So the Ramban doesn't really articulate that link in the chain here. He more or less does in Parshas Bo when he talks about why the Torah gives us so many mitzvos zecher Yetzias Mitzrayim. And lichora for that reason it's fundamental to everything we do and everything we live, but also mistoma even formally it's a necessary component of being mikayem the mitzvah of Anochi to understand and know why we have such trust and conviction in our masorah. Because the way the Ramban is presenting it, the again the strength of our conviction, the strength of our belief in Anochi hinges on that strength of conviction and belief in masorah. In the post-Enlightenment pseudo-sophisticated culture that we live in, so masorah has a bad rap and people sometimes feel that it's inadequate or don't feel such a degree of conviction in invoking masorah as a source of truth. The emes is that the kadmonim already underscored the fact that it's a source of truth which is entirely intuitive that everyone operates with. Everyone relies on masorah. Everyone relies... be it from the the previous generation. No no one is fakpek that George Washington was the first person of the United States. Whatever pikpukim one may have about the cherry tree, so those pikpukim don't don't extend to, you know, who that guy is and and how he made his way onto the onto the one-dollar bill. But for some reason, the the kfira of of questioning the historicity of Avraham Avinu once upon a time was a very fashionable kfira. But it's the same intuitive source of truth. The difference is that that when the the world rachmana litzlan moved away from emuna, so it developed a bias against anything which which corroborates emuna and which upholds emuna. But if if we just step back for a minute and look, everyone everyone functions with no one someone someone someone we trust tells you this type of mushroom is good and this type of mushroom is poisonous, so we eat that mushroom and we don't eat that mushroom. So what is that? So that's mesora. So that's החיים והמות ביד מסורה and k'seder. There's no there's no one alive who doesn't live and and base his his knowledge and his functioning and the way he operates and the way he lives in in trivial matters and in matters of great import based on the knowledge and the experience that that people share with him, that people impart to him. It's it's just so intuitive. It's it's the ultimate mishpat that that we that that we rely on on mesora. So that's one perspective. The other perspective, a classic mareh makom that is well worth everyone's time if you haven't seen it yet to see it, if you've seen it already to chasra periodically, is the hakdama of the Oruch Hashulchan to Chelek Alef of Choshen Mishpat. So he begins by talking about the relationship between Torah Shebiksav and Torah Shebaal Peh, the the unintelligibility of the intentional unintelligibility of Torah Shebiksav without the amplification of Torah Shebaal Peh. And then he talks about about the extraordinary reliability of our mesora and the indication that we have of that. He says ומופת לזה שלא תמצא בכל הש"ס. So just doesn't need any commentary so maybe we'll just read together a little bit here. ומופת לזה שלא תמצא בכל הש"ס מחלוקת בעיקרי המצווה. He says all the the machloksim notwithstanding, machloksim are always about details. You never have you don't have machloksim about about ikkarim.

לא תמצא בכל הש"ס מחלוקת בעיקרי המצווה. הכל מודים שפרי עץ הדר הוא אתרוג והכל מודים שעין תחת עין ממון. אלא דכשבאו לדרשם מהפסוק מה דרוש ליה מהאי קרא ומה דרוש ליה מהאי קרא.

V'chulam emes. He says hashamata, did you ever hear שיחלקו כמה בתים יש בתפילין של ראש? Did you ever hear ever hear aza aza machlokes?

או כמה פרשיות צריך לכתוב במזוזה או כמה ברכות יש בתפילה או כמה ברכות יש לפני קריאת שמע ואחרי קריאת שמע או

o or o or

או בברכות פסוקי דזמרה, כל ישראל שמקצה העולם ועד קצהו שווין בזה, שיש ד' בתים בתפילין ושתי פרשיות במזוזה. י"ח ברכות בתפילה לבד ברכת המינים ושתי ברכות לפני קריאת שמע ואחת לאחריה.

Vehashinui to details behanusach kmo sheze omer Ahava Rabba veze omer Ahavas Olam o sheze omer Hodu kodem Baruch She'amar veze omer Baruch She'amar kodem. Both say Hodu, both get to Shalom on time in order to be able to say Hodu. The change is whether you say Hodu before Baruch She'amar or after Baruch She'amar.

אין זה שינוי כלל דכל אחד יכול לעשות בזה כפי רצונו

deda d'achsik.

השמעתם מימיכם שיהיה בין חכמי ישראל ההולכים בדרך התלמוד מחלוקת בעיקרי מלאכות שבת ויום טוב?

Is kotzer a melacha, is kotzer not a melacha? Is kosev an av melacha, is it not an av melacha? או בימים שזה יקדים וזה יאחר? Which day of the week is Shabbos?

חלילה לא הייתה כזאת בישראל. ויותר מזה תראה נפלאות ואות ומופת על אמיתות הקבלה.

He says, and maybe the ultimate testament and testimony to the reliability and veracity of our tradition, הנה זה יותר מחי מאות שנה, it's already almost two millennia, שעם ישראל מפוזרים מקצה אל הקצה. That Klal Yisrael is scattered, ואין להם שום חיבור זה אל זה. And there's no connection, no communication, mishinui lishonam,

כמו עם בני ישראל שבארצות רוסלנד פולין ואוסטריה עם אחינו בני ישראל שבארצות פרס מרוקו אלג'יר תוניס טריפולי.

No, mamash no connection, ki hu ze.

וזה רק ארבע מאה שנה שיצאה חוכמת הדפוס לאור עולם.

Only it's a recent discovery, the printing press.

וקודם לזה ליטרלי לא היה שום התחברות מדינות אלו למדינות שבאסיה ואפריקה. והנה אצלנו החדשים חודש מלא וחודש חסר,

and which months are always malei, which are always chaser, Cheshvan veKislev, the two months that are swing months, pe'amim sheshneihem mele'im, pe'amim sheshneihem chasairim,

פעמים שאחד מלא ואחד חסר. האם אירע שבמשך מאות מהשנים האלו יעשו אלו מלא ואלו חסר?

Did you ever hear there should be a discrepancy in how the calendar was set up and being followed in Morocco and how it was being followed in Russia?

וכבר אמר אחד מגדולי חכמי יוון שחישוב המולד לישראל הוא אות ומופת על הנבואה בישראל.

So you see clear, so what the Aruch HaShulchan is adding besides the, again, just the intuitiveness, the fact that everyone intuitively recognizes and accepts and operates with mesorah as a source of truth, he says when you look into our mesorah, just it's just so overwhelming, the reliability and the integrity of the mesorah.

האומנם עמודי הקבלה מתורה שבעל פה חזקים כראי מוצק אשר כל כלי יוצר עליו לא יצלח לשברו, וכל רוחות לא ינידוהו ממקומו לעקור, ומקולות מים רבים אדירים משברי ים לא ינוע ולא יכס.

So when someone asks us how we know something, whether it's a point in halacha or whether it's a yesod b'emuna, and the answer is that we know it based on mesorah, it's not an answer to be given apologetically, it's not an answer to be given with any sense, rachmana litzlan, of insecurity. It's an answer to be given with conviction and with pride that we have such a mesorah. The fact that there is an irrational, profoundly, profoundly irrational bias, not against masora because the world operates with masora, but against masora which upholds emuno, which upholds belief and religion, the fact that the world, rachmana litzlan, is plagued by it, is no reason that we should feel anything less than the confidence that as the Oruch Hashulchan here is describing, our masora inspires, and the type of vaddaus of yeda ve-emuno, which for the Ramban is intended ultimately to rely on masora, and yitachen that maybe the reason the Ramban doesn't even have to highlight this point, and even in Parshas Bo he's not really underscoring the efficacy of masora, he's just commenting on why the Torah has so many mitzvos zecher l'yetzias Mitzrayim because it's so self-evident of the reliability, again, hein mitzad its intuitiveness, hein mitzad the overwhelming indication and proof that we have for the truth of our masora, so the yeda ve-emuno again with all its conviction, with all its absoluteness, with all its vividness, is something which a person can and does acquire by reaching into our masora.