Mishlei 2:14 – Habits are Internalized

Okay good morning Rabosai. Passuk Yud Daled. השמחים לעשות רע יגילו בתהפוכות רע. This whole series of pesukim all referring back to the lehatzilcha in passuk yud bais. So two groups of people. One, the first group who are smeichim la’asos ra and the second who yagilu. They take joy. They rejoice in what in a convoluted way emerges to be ra. Let’s see the Be’er HaGolah.

השמחים לעשות רע הם הרעים בפועל שפיהם ולבם שוים להרע.

So earlier the Gaon had said that there are two ways a rasha can function. Either he can function openly in committing acts of ra and rishus. And that’s the first group here. So hem smeichim. They experience simcha ba’asosam es hara. Then there’s another group that yagilu b’saphuchos ra. Hem hamedabrim mirmah who speak deceitfully, meaning that divreihem nir’im tovim that they posture that what they’re saying, what they’re counseling is good, is for people’s benefit and welfare and ובאמת הם עצות רעות. Vehem yagilu they experience not simcha but gilah כאשר יתהפך הטוב שדיברו לרע. When the seeming good materializes as ra.

וזהו יגילו בתהפוכות רע כי הם דיברו תהפוכות דברים טובים שיתהפכו לרע. ואמר אצל הרעים לשון שמחה ואצל המדבר.

The inyan

שהחילוק בין גילה לשמחה שהשמחה היא בדבר חדש וגילה היא בדבר שכבר היה ואינו מחודש.

Simcha is a response to something new. Simcha goes hand-in-hand with novelty, with newness, with freshness. On the other hand, וגילה היא בדבר שכבר היה ואינו מחודש. Gilah a person takes joy in something that’s not new. Vezehu yismichu hashamayim because כי הם השמים החדשים לבקר. But on the other hand, vesagel ha’aretz

כי ואין כל חדש תחת השמש לכך אין שייך בהם שמחה אלא בדבר מעשה בראשית שהיה מכבר.

So what does it mean that the shamayim in contradistinction to aretz are achadashim labokar? I mean the metzius of המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית is something which applies to all of ma’aseh bereishis. But maybe what it means is this. Shamayim in the sense of olamos elyonim, well let’s begin with aretz. On the earth, so we as well as everything around us exists in time. And what exists in time, not only do we exist in time, but we are governed as it were by time. And mimmela, everything ages. Buildings age, they get cracks in their facade. People age. There's half-life of different things in nature, the half-life of carbon, of different elements. So everything ages. And in that sense, אין כל חדש תחת השמש, nothing retains that quality of being chadash because everything exists tachat memsheles hazman. So the rasha is rejoicing at something that isn't new. A person has a car that he likes, he has a house that he likes, he has a suit that he likes. So the first time he has it, so it's a bechina of simcha, but subsequently it can't retain that freshness. Everything is governed by the and on eretz is governed by the passage of time. So mimmela the simcha then gives way to gila. The part of the beriah that's being referred to here as shamayim perhaps, I'm not sure that this is correct, but perhaps the part of the beriah that's being referred to as shamayim is not governed by time. Doesn't age. And in that sense, it's forever new. Let's say you had a person who didn't age, right, so he'd be forever young. Or when you see someone who's older and he has good skin or something, so you say oh, he's you know he doesn't age. Okay, the reality is that everyone, everything does age, but you know sometimes appearances are somewhat somewhat misleading. So maybe that's the inyan of chadashim labekarim meaning they retain the quality of chadash whereas eretz doesn't retain the quality of chadash. Vechen kan, oseh ra, עשיית הרע אצלו הוא מחודש. Because since there's no posturing, he's open and about his involvement with ra, so as he's doing the ra, meaning this new evil that he's hatched, so as he's hatching it, so he's rejoicing. So it's a bechina of simcha because it's a davar chadash. Aval hamidaber mirmah, כאשר יתהפך הדבר לרע when the ra materializes, he's set it into motion when under the guise of something which was tov. So by the time it materializes as ra, it's eino mechudash etzlo

כי זה היה בלבו תחילה בעת שנתן העצה זו שיפול הרע אך בהסתר. וכאשר הולך בזו העצה כבר היה לבו שמח ועכשיו כאשר משתפך ונגמר הרע

when the ra materializes, הוא גילה אצלו בלא שמחה. Velachein kesiv yagilu. Either way the pasuk depicts reshaim as enjoying as again whether it's the bechina of simcha or whether it's the bechina of gila enjoying, rejoicing at ra. There's obviously something very very unsettling at that idea. It's one thing a person has a yetzer hara and a person succumbs to the yetzer hara, but chotch, so we would expect some ambivalence. Maybe the person does it, but but simultaneously is is not entirely shalem with what he himself is doing. Some inner struggle and and the depiction of השמחים לעשות רע ויגילו בתהפכות רע look at what it points to is that it's a major principle of of human psychology as the Rambam and others present in perek aleph the Rambam presents in perek aleph Hilchos Deos that when a person that what should a person do so that he internalizes deos יעשה וישנה וישלש עד שיקבעו הדעות בו. That that when we do things, it molds character. But but that principle of human behavior is הן לטוב הן למוטב. It means if I push myself to run to minyan, so Ramchal says I'll develop, I'll cultivate a midas hazrizus even though initially I needed to really push myself sort of against my nature, but if I'll act with zrizus, I'll I'll I'll cultivate within myself the mida of zrizus. The Rambam says if if a person acts, if even if it's it doesn't come easily naturally, but a person pushes himself to act as a rachum, he pushes himself to act as a chanun, so ultimately yikavu hadeos bo, becomes a rachum v'chanun. But the same principle is זה לעומת זה עשה אלקים. The same principle applies to maaseh ra, maaseh rishus. And and that's how initially mistama a person does a maaseh ra, ein hachi nami, it it is with an ambivalence. It is with with the conflicted feelings. But but if it if he allows it to become habitual and and nikbau hadeos bo, so then you could reach a stage also where it's smechim laasot ra and and it's yagilu b'tahpuchot ra. And that's what Rabbeinu Yonah talks about in the beginning of Shaar Rishon. That that we need to try to respond promptly when when we see in ourselves, when we see a flaw, we see a shortcoming, we see that that we're doing something that that isn't right. It's not a static situation and and the sooner we we try to correct that shortcoming, the sooner we try to rectify that that flaw, so then the less the the easier relatively speaking the avoda is. Okay so we'll we'll stop here, bli neder im yirtzeh hashem we'll resume around the 12:30 with Pesachim. Okay have a very good productive morning rabosai, everyone should be well b'ezrat hashem.