Nefesh Hachaim #6: Shaar 1, Perek 6, #2

I think we were in the middle of the Hagah here in Tav Vav. The first of the two long Hagahs. The Nefesh Hachaim explains how kodem hachet, so Adam HaRishon didn't experience the yetzer hara as something internal. It wasn't. And it was more of an attempt to artificially provoke him and to lure him to chet as opposed to the way it is achar hachet, the way the yetzer hara is now something internal that we experience internally. So if you're looking in the Ruvin edition here, so maybe let's pick up here on amud yud zayin, the paragraph vehaya baal bechira. Again, it's the first of the long two Hagahs, a little bit into the Hagah. Excuse me,

והיה בעל בחירה לכנס אל כוחות הרע חס ושלום כמו שהאדם הוא בעל בחירה לכנס אל תוך האש.

Not that Adam HaRishon prior to the chet didn't have bechira, he obviously did, otherwise the chet couldn't have happened. But again, it was something external.

לכן כשרצה הסטרא אחרא להחטיאו הוצרך הנחש לבוא מבחוץ לפתותו.

There's an external meisis, an external force that's trying to lure him to chet. Not like how it is now, the way the reality is now, the way we experience it now,

שהיצר המפתה את האדם הוא בתוך האדם עצמו ומתדמה לו להאדם שהוא עצמו הוא הרוצה ונמשך לעשות העבירה ולא שאחר חוץ ממנו מפתהו.

So that phrase ומתדמה לו להאדם שהוא עצמו is an amazingly powerful insight and description. Now that the yetzer hara is something internal, so a person experiences it, it masquerades as the person himself, right? The translation of ומתדמה לו להאדם שהוא עצמו means that it masquerades as the person himself. Dehainu that we, when we're drawn to chet, so we think that we're accommodating ourselves. All right, maybe not our most noble instincts, maybe not our most noble selves, but we think that we're accommodating ourselves. And says the Nefesh Hachaim, no, but that's not the reality, right? The reality is that the yetzer hara is some kind of foreign organism which because of the chet of Adam HaRishon made its way into Adam and we experience it internally, but not because that is who we are. The mashal is this. Let's rachmana litzlan a person contracts whether it's an infection or whether it's bacterial or whether it's viral. So what does it mean? So what it means is a person experiences that he feels feverish and he feels aches and pains v'chulu v'chulu. The emes is it's due to a foreign organism which made its way into the body and the cure, again, first of all, is to recognize that that's what it is and then to try to chase it away. ומתדמה לו להאדם שהוא עצמו. The reality is we think when we try to give ourselves mussar, so we think that, okay, if we side with the yetzer hara, so, okay, this mussar should be powerful enough. So we're trading our Olam habo for Olam hazeh. But according to Nefesh Hachaim the reality runs deeper than that. It's sort of the maybe a little bit of a mashal, inadequate, but a little bit of a mashal this. Let's say a person works and works and works and then goes to the bank to deposit the money and he deposits it in the wrong account. So everything he did, everything he didn't do for himself. He goes, he works for 50 years and he has a retirement account and vechulu vechulu and all of it goes, it doesn't go, it's not under his name, it's under someone else's name. So besofo shel davar, lemi hu amel? You see he hasn't even done it for himself. Nefesh Hachaim says that's the reality. The reality is that when we cater to the yetzer hara, we're not even catering to ourselves. It's just נדמה לו לאדם שהוא עצמו. There's a remarkable parallel between this and the very famous Rambam which you're all familiar. Rambam at the end of Perek Beis of Giroishin when the Rambam talks about a get meusah when a person is coerced to give a get.

מי שהדין נותן שכופין אותו לגרש את אשתו ולא רצה לגרש.

When the halacha is that a person is obligated and therefore can be forced to give his wife a get but refuses to comply, so then the din is that

בית דין של ישראל בכל מקום ובכל זמן מכין אותו עד שיאמר רוצה אני ויכתוב הגט והוא גט כשר.

So as the Gemara in Gittin describes that Rav Yosef did, so even so the principle of shlichusaihu allows even though our batei din are obviously only hedyotot but they can coerce him physically, physical coercion to give the get. Vechen says the Rambam

וכן אם הכוהו עכו"ם ואמרו לו עשה מה שישראל אומרים לך

similarly if the enforcers are non-Jews but they make it clear that they're enforcing what the בית דין של ישראל said

ולחצו אותו ישראל ביד העכו"ם עד שיגרש הרי זה כשר.

Says the Rambam

ולמה לא בטל גט זה שהרי הוא אנוס בין ביד עכו"ם בין ביד ישראל.

A get, one of the asarah devarim that the Rambam lists about the get in Perek Alef is that a person has to be megaresh lirtzono, has to be megaresh mida'aso, has to be megaresh lirtzono. So what kind of da'at, what kind of ratzon is it when you beat him up?

ולמה לא בטל גט זה שהרי הוא אנוס בין ביד עכו"ם בין ביד ישראל.

Answers the Rambam שאין אומרין אנוס אלא למי שנלחץ ונדחק a person who's pressed and forced

לעשות דבר שאינו מחויב בו מן התורה כגון מי שהוכה עד שמכר או שנתן אבל מי שכפאו יצרו לבטל מצוה או לעשות עבירה

but a person whose yetzer hara is pushing him to neglect a mitzvah to do an averah

והוכה עד שעשה דבר שחייב לעשותו או עד שנתרחק מדבר שאסור לעשותו אין זה אנוס ממנו אלא הוא אנס עצמו בדעתו הרעה. לפיכך זה שאינו רוצה לגרש מאחר שהוא רוצה להיות מישראל ורוצה לעשות כל המצוות ולהתרחק מן העבירות ויצרו הוא שתקפו וכיון שהוכה עד שתשש יצרו ואמר רוצה אני הרי זה גירש לרצונו.

So this is not the same as the Nefesh Hachaim, there's a parallel here, it's absolutely not identical. There is a parallel, but here too the Rambam says there's no din oinus when you just break down a yetzer hara that's superimposed upon a person that's causing a person to go against what is really his core. So the Rambam says that's not oinus. Again there is a parallel, not an equivalence between the ideas. Uvechet continues the Nefesh Hachaim

שנמשך אחר פיתוי הסטרא אחרא אז נתעברו הכוחות הרע בתוכו ממש.

When Adam sinned because he allowed himself to be drawn after the seduction of the Sitra Achra, אז נתערבו הכוחות הרע בתוכו ממש. Then everything got all mixed up, everything got all confused. Vechein baolamos, וזהו עץ הדעת טוב ורע. What the עץ הדעת טוב ורע represents is not that there was tov and ra sort of separately, but tov and ra confused with the lines between tov and ra blurred, שנתחברו ונתערבו בתוכו ובעולמות. Within Adam, this confusion, this mixture of tov and ra happened, and similarly in the olamos.

נתערבו ובעולמות הטוב והרע יחד זה בתוך זה ממש, כי דעת פירושו התחברות כידוע.

Da'as represents a knowledge which a person is able to apply to a metziyus, is able to know when and how to act given a certain circumstance, given a certain situation. That's how da'as can mean hischabrus. A person can have an IQ that's off the chart, but lav dafka have da'as in this sense. It doesn't necessarily mean that a person knows how to react to and deal with and adjust to different situations. Ke'kimdumei, I'm not positive, but ke'kimdumei that there's another remarkable depiction of the original cheit of Adam Harishon here, which also here maybe not just parallel but maybe actually closer to being the same idea as the Rambam has. Rambam is describing where Adam Harishon was holding before the cheit.

היו בשלמות מצבם ותמימותם והוא בתכונותיו ומושכליו אשר בו נאמר מחמתן ותחסרהו מעט מאלוהים. לא היה לו כוח שמתעסק במפורסמות כלל

velo hisigan עד שהפילו היצר מפורסמות במידות לגנאי vehu giluy ha'erva והיה זה רע בעיניו ולא הרגיש את גנותו. Here too, Adam Harishon, again, very similar to what the Nefesh Hachaim is telling us. Before the cheit lived, his existence was very sichli in the following sense. If you sort of, why is it that it's after the cheit וידעו כי ערומים הם? Vayitperu alei te'ena? Why do they have that sensitivity after the cheit, not before the cheit? So the Rambam explains as follows. Be'etzem, if you sort of factor out the yetzer hara from the equation, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the various evarim vegidim, all of which have their function, all of which have their purpose. A person's hands to allow him to maneuver, manipulate, deal with things. A person's legs to let him go places. A person's mouth to help with the breathing and help with ingesting food. And there's no sense of busha which is associated with any of these things. No one feels instinctively that their hands should be covered, that there's some sense of busha that I have these hands that engage in such and such a function. So the emes is that the mekomot ha'erva sheba'adam in a world where a person isn't preoccupied with the yetzer hara, isn't experiencing the yetzer hara internally, so the eivarim are no different than the other eivrei adam. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created them for a purpose and they serve their purpose and there's no more reason why there should be a sense of busha which then requires that it should be covered, there should be no more sense of busha with regard to the mekomot ha'erva, with regard to the reproductive system than there should be for any other of the ma'arachas of the human body. Adam HaRishon, Adam HaRishon before the cheit, so the full range of human activities there was no difference, there was no difference ich veiss between using one's hands to take a pen and write what did Adam HaRishon write? Sefer Yetzirah? There's no difference between taking a hand and using a pen to do that than there is in eating or then there would be in tashmish. It's all they all carry out functions that לפי המקום ולפי הזמן that a person is supposed to engage in. And mimaila so there was no sense of busha. The same way he didn't feel this compulsive need to wear gloves and not have his hands exposed, he didn't feel any need that the mekomot ha'erva should be covered either. Fine. So that's where Adam HaRishon is holding. הן לגבי אכילה הן לגבי תשמיש they were normal functions that again as needed, as mandated, as appropriate that he engaged in. Ka'asher chata, if you want to use a mashal, let's say when Adam HaRishon in that world, again he wasn't there for too many hours, only there for too many hours, but if one would imagine what the routine would have looked like. So when Adam HaRishon would have eaten dinner, so it wouldn't have been fundamentally different than when we notice in our car that the gas tank is close to empty and so you realize intellectually that it's necessary to go fill the tank because otherwise the car's not going to be able to operate anymore. So you go to the there's no yetzer hara, there's no yetzer hara that's driving that activity. It's understood that it's something you need to do, so you go and do it. So Adam HaRishon would have had an alarm clock and at six o'clock, okay, so it's now time to go to the gas station and fill the tank, it's time to ich veiss, I don't know what type of the yayin of shesh or whatever dinner would have been. However,

כאשר חטא ונטה אחר תאוותיו הדמיוניות והנאות חושיו הגופניים כמו שאמר כי טוב העץ למאכל וכי תאוה הוא לעינים

again this is the Rambam, נענש שנשללה ממנו אותה ההשגה השכלית ul'fichach. אשר מחמת שכלו נצטווה בו. I'm just going to read it again. There's something remarkable in the Rambam's depiction of the chet.

וכאשר חטא ונטה אחרי תאוותיו הדמיוניות ותענוגות חושיו הגופניים כמו שאמר כי טוב העץ למאכל וכי תאוה הוא לעינים נענש שנשללה ממנו אותה ההשגה השכלית ולפיכך המרה את הציווי.

So the Rambam when you read carefully and it's unmistakable, the Rambam depicts that basically the chet happens in two stages. We can call it two chata'im or one chet that happens in two stages. Stage number one is not eating from the etz hada'as. That's not stage number one. When the Rambam says ka'asher chata, he's not referring to eating from the etz hada'as. ka'asher chata means when Adam HaRishon used to see, it's the same way when we have food, so they have the what's it called, the what it tells you, all the nutritional information, the panel, what's it called, the nutritional panel, whatever it is, where it lists, it tells you what percentage of your Vitamin A, what percentage of your Vitamin C, vechulu vechulu. So that's when Adam HaRishon, when Adam HaRishon was in olam hasechel, so that's how he saw food. That's how he saw food. He didn't see it as something to be desired because of a physical aesthetic act of enjoyment. That was his world. What the nachash, what the nachash lures Adam veChava to step out of that world, and that's what the Rambam is saying that כי טוב העץ למאכל וכי תאוה הוא לעינים is that he's seeing all these activities in a different light. He's seeing them not as filling the tank, not as ingesting the necessary nutrients that he needs to fuel his body, but he sees it the way we experience food and drink, the way we experience it. So that's the initial chet. Then, almost as an inevitable corollary, then לפיכך המרה את הציווי, then once he steps out of that world, so then the desire for the food, because he stepped out of that world, became so overwhelming and he eats it. So it's a two-stage in the chet. You hear that rabosai? So if you look here, I'm not positive, but can you do that? The Nefesh HaChaim is saying that also. Let's backtrack for a minute. והיה בעל בחירה ליכנס אל כוחות הרע חס ושלום. Initially, the bechirah of Adam is ליכנס אל כוחות הרע. It means, it means to, he didn't have any of these yetzer haras that again, that for us exist internally and therefore we experience internally ad kedei kach that it's מדמה לאדם שהוא עצמו. He didn't have that. So Adam HaRishon had to be lured ליכנס אל כוחות הרע. Then ובחטא שנמשך אחרי פיתוי הסטרא אחרא, maybe that's a second stage. It's exactly what he's describing is that same two-stage process that the Rambam has. Ayin alav if that reading is as correct here. ve'inyan mevo'ar lamevin b'Etz Chaim sha'ar klipas nogah

אלו שקיצר שם בענין ועיין היטב בגלגולים פרק א וזהו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה כשבא נחש על חוה הטיל בה זוהמא רוצה לומר בתוכה ממש ומאז גרם על ידי זה

irbuvya gedolah bema'asav. A tremendous confusion in his actions. שכל מעשי אדם המה בערבוביא vehishtanus arbeh me'od

פעם טוב ופעם רע מהפך טוב מטוב לרע ומרע לטוב.

The phenomenon of inconsistency was created by this chet of Adam because it created this irbuvya of tov vera. So a person does things, פעם טוב פעם רע, which is why on one level it's the effort to cultivate consistency. Which is the avodah of a person, because the source, the goreim of cheit causes the inconsistency, and for a person to be misgaber in that, he has to try to cultivate that consistency. If you see, it's a hallmark of people who are big, big ba'alei avodah is that there's a remarkable self-discipline and consistency that they have.

וגם מעשה הטוב עצמה כמעט בלתי אפשר לרוב העולם שתהיה כולה קודש זך ונקי לגמרי.

So not only does this irbuvya express itself in our inconsistency, that we do things pa'am tov, pa'am ra, but the irbuvya expresses itself even within our tov. Even within our tov, there's a taruvus of ra. כמעט בלתי אפשר לרוב העולם that there shouldn't be בלי שום נטייה לאיזה פנייה that there shouldn't be some negiya, some ulterior motive, u-machshava kalla legamrei and some self-serving intention.

וכן להיפך במעשה הלא טוב גם כן מעורב בו לפעמים איזה מחשבה לטוב לפי דמיונו.

So you notice everything is written so carefully, so nuanced. The element of ra within the tov and the element of tov within ra, the Nefesh HaChaim doesn't describe them symmetrically. Nachon? Let's reread the paragraph.

וגם מהמעשה הטוב עצמה כמעט בלתי אפשר לרוב העולם שתהיה כולה קודש זך ונקי לגמרי בלי שום נטייה לאיזה פנייה

u-machshava kalla legamrei. Meaning here, the emes is that there is an element, a shemetz of ra within the tov, right? The emes is, right? It's bilti efshar that bimtzius there won't be a shemetz of ra within the tov. Look at the

וכן להיפך במעשה הלא טובה גם כן מעורב בו לפעמים איזה מחשבה לטוב.

He should have stopped there. He adds lefi dimyono. The tov, the ra she-ba-tov is real. The tov she-ba-ra is lefi dimyono. What's the pshat? Because the tov, what's the tov she-ba-ra? The tov she-ba-ra is that a person sells himself a bill of goods. A person is moreh heter le-atzmo. Yeah, I'm not really supposed to do this. I'm not really supposed to talk during chazaras ha-shatz, during krias ha-Torah, but it'll be rude if I don't laugh at his joke in the middle of aseret ha-dibrot. How can I not laugh at his joke when he's so b'simcha? He's reading Anochi Hashem Elokecha. So what if he's reading the simana osifei d'idagesh? It doesn't make a difference what he's reading. It's going to be rude, so I have to. And then not to reciprocate and tell him an equally ridiculous, ridiculous joke is also not a chesed. Avada avada, ואהבת לרעך כמוך זה כל התורה כולה. So there's a מחשבה טובה לפי דמיונו, but aliba de'emes, so the ends don't justify the means. Aliba de'emes, there isn't a machshava, there isn't a real machshava tov. It's so incredibly meduyak. But a person confuses the taruvus within the ra is that a person takes what maybe is a good impulse and has it within the ra. But within the ra, it's not good. The ra taki is really pure ra, because the good impulse within the ra is not, that's not a legitimate way for the impulse to express itself. So it's lefi dimyono. Ma she-ein kein, the pniyah and u-machshava kalla legamrei, so that taki is a shemetz, that is a shemetz of ra, and here the taruvus is not just lefi dimyono, it's amittidik.

וגם הצדיק הגמור שמימיו לא עשה שום מעשה שלא טוב ולא שח מימיו שום שיחה קלה שלא טובה חס ושלום עם כל זה כמעט בלתי אפשר כלל שמעשיו הטובים עצמם כל ימי חייו יהיו כולם בשלמות האמיתי לגמרי ולא יהיה אפילו באחת מהנה שום חיסרון ופגם כלל. וזהו שאמר הכתוב כי אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא ורצו לומר שאי אפשר שלא יהיה על כל פנים קצת חיסרון במעשה הטוב עצמו שעושה כי חטא פשוטו.

Literally what the word cheit means is to miss the mark, is that something is deficient. That's what it means in traditional Loshon Hakodesh, it's what it means in, l'havdil, in modern Hebrew also. Lehachti et hamatara means to miss the goal, to miss the mark. So

כי אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא,

the Nefesh Hachayim snaps the pshat that the tzaddik does aveiros. No, it's more subtle than that. אדם אין צדיק בארץ, no, yitachen that the tzaddikim in this world takeh don't do aveiros, but within their tov is not perfect. That the Nefesh Hachayim says that you should have a tzaddik where, again, that he doesn't do any ma'aseh ra'im, Shlomo Hamelech is not precluding that you'll have such a person. But it's kim'at bilti efshar that you'll have a person where every ma'aseh tov is a hundred percent without a little epes a defect. Sometimes manufacturers, let's say when they manufacture a shirt, so sometimes the shirt is labeled irregular and they sell it at a discounted price. Sometimes the irregular can be a glaring deficiency and sometimes the irregular is if you look very, very, very carefully, just one stitching is a little bit off. That's what the Nefesh Hachayim is describing, similar to what Ramchal has in the Gemara in Eruvin that נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא, that yishmesh b'ma'asav or yefashpesh b'ma'asav. I said it in the wrong order. So yefashpesh b'ma'asav, Ramchal says, means to see are there things that I do that are just wrong? Just wrong. And then yishmesh b'ma'asav is like you feel material. You feel a material, even if it's a good material, you're looking to see if there's epes a little defect within this silk, is there some kind of shortcoming within the silk? That's what the Nefesh Hachayim is describing in the pasuk of ואדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. It's interesting though, because there seems to be a little bit of a disconnect, one would say lefi ani'ut da'ati, even contradiction. That Shlomo Hamelech seems to say this categorically, right? אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה ולא יחטא, there is no such thing. And the Nefesh Hachayim says kim'at bilti efshar. So he hedges. Right? The pasuk seems to say impossible and he says, well, it's virtually impossible, it's just about impossible. So how does he hedge when the pasuk doesn't hedge? The Ramban has in the beginning of Sefer Hamitzvos in the Shoresh Rishon, one of his defenses for the Geonim who included mitzvos d'rabanan in the minyan taryag. So the Rambam says how can you include mitzvos d'rabanan in the minyan taryag when the whole source for the fact that there is a minyan taryag is the Chazal who say that מצוות נאמרו למשה מסיני. So how can you say that Mikra Megillah and Chanukah v'kayozeh bahem ne'emru l'Moshe mi'Sinai? You can't say that a mitzvah predicated upon a metzius which never happened yet was already given at Har Sinai. The whole story of Mordechai and Esther didn't happen yet. There can't be that there was a mitzvah of Megillah given at Har Sinai. You can have a mitzvah that was given at Har Sinai which didn't become operative until you went into Eretz Yisrael, but the metzius existed, that was in Eretz Yisrael, there were crops. You could talk about terumos u'ma'asros and hafrashas challah and orlah etc. It's not that the Ramban is saying that everything at Ma'amad Har Sinai had to be operative immediately. But to have a mitzvah which is predicated on a metzius which hasn't happened yet, the story of Chanukah hasn't happened, the story of the Megillah hasn't happened, it can't be that that mitzvah was given to Moshe Rabbeinu al shem he'asid. So it says that 613 mitzvos were given on Har Sinai. That's the Ramban's ta'anos. The Ramban gives examples how you find not only in Chazal, I think he shows in the pesukim also that not only do Chazal but in Tanakh itself you find pesukim. al derech rov. What it means is that the over—that Gemara, the Rambam's Gemara, doesn't think is a tiyufta on what the Geonim said. It means the heyos that the overwhelming majority of mitzvos halacha lemoshe misinai, the overwhelming majority of taryag halacha lemoshe misinai. Ee nami Mikra Megilla and Chanukah vechulu are not halacha lemoshe misinai. So lechora that's what the Nefesh Hachayim is saying. Ee nami, the literal translation of the pasuk is that it's impossible. The Nefesh Hachayim is saying yeah, the pasuk will express itself that way if something is true 99.999% of the time, so the pasuk will say that it's that it's impossible. But mistama if you would have asked the Nefesh Hachayim he would have said yeah, but by my rebbe it wasn't like that. He was the point oh oh one for whom who showed that what the correct pshat in the pasuk is.

ולכן שמכניסין האדם למשפט לפניו יתברך שמראים לו חשבונות רבים לאין שיעור על כל פרטי פרטים שכל מעשיו ודיבוריו ומחשבותיו.

And then mimaila the din vecheshbon that a person ultimately gives is not just a din vecheshbon begadol on you know is this maise in the good column or rachmana litzlan in the other column? No, but you look at all the pirtei pratim, you look at all the nuances and all the the subtleties within the the maise.

וכל פרטי הנהגתו ואופני נטייתו לכל אשר ינוטם. וזהו שאמר הכתוב שעשה אלוקים את האדם ישר כנ"ל

meaning that Adam was created yashar, he didn't have within him the kochos hara, he didn't have within him the irvuvya. He had within him the simple capacity just to do something which was purely good. והמה i.e. becheteim through this sin bikshu cheshbonos rabim. They invited a very complicated—now the accounting system in Shomayim as it were becomes a much more complicated procedure. המה ביקשו חשבונות רבים. They were the ones who elicited these very intricate forms of accounting.

ועיין זוהר שם מבואר שם על פי דברינו ונמשך עניין כן עד עת מתן תורה.

This new reality, this new human reality continued that way from the time of the cheit until Matan Torah. There is a tradition—why should we all why should all of humanity have been suffering from the cheit of Adam Harishon? So there is a tradition that they quote it's I don't know where it is apparently somewhere in the Sifrei Kabbalah that the neshama of Adam Harishon was a neshama that was koleles all the subsequent neshamos of individuals of the world. So which means that we're not really suffering for someone else's cheit but it was our cheit oso.

ונמשך עניין כן עד עת מתן תורה שפסקה זוהמא מתוכם כמו שאמרו רבותינו ז"ל

that when עמדו על הר סיני so then we were purified of this zuhama, this filth, this which represents the internalization of kochos hara of yetzer hara.

ולכן אחר כך בחטא העגל אמרו רבותינו ז"ל שבא שטן ועירבב

meaning hinu sheba mibachutz. Again you needed for the cheit ha'eigel there had to be an external invitation or enticement to cheit. It wouldn't have happened on its own. There was no internal impulse to cheit.

היינו שבא מבחוץ כמו בעניין חטא אדם הראשון כנ"ל כי מתוכם נתגרש.

The kochos hara were no longer internalized at that point. However,

על ידי חטא העגל חזרה אותה הזוהמא ונתערבה בתוכם כבראשונה וזהו שאמר הכתוב והמה כאדם עברו

what does it say? brisi? I'm not sure what's...

וזה שאמר הוא יתברך לאדם הראשון כי ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות, לא שהיה ענין כלל ועונש,

not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is threatening him, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is cursing him and telling him that this is the punishment that I'm going to give you. כי מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב, ela peirusha what it means when Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells him

ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות, שעל ידי החטא ממנו אם תחטא אדם ותאכל מעץ הדעת טוב ורע,

so what will happen as a result, תסער בך הזוהמה של הרע, within you the again that filth of the ra will be mixed in and the only way that gets separated out is through misa.

ולא יהא תיקון אחר להפרידה ממך כדי להטיבך באחריתך אם לא על ידי המיתה והעיכול,

bekever. Nefesh Hachayim has this also quotes this idea from Toras Hanistar. The pshat that Nefesh Hachayim says in the pasuk in Eicha כי מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב, so in the Rishonim you have a machlokes between Rashi and the Rambam how to read that pasuk. According to Rashi the pasuk is to be read as a rhetorical question, meaning that when you see these onshim that are going to befall you with the Churban Habayis, don't think that this is accidental, don't think it was just a downturn in geopolitics. כי מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב, when there's good and when there's bad that befalls a person, that doesn't come mipi elyon, it doesn't come from above, so it's bitmiya. So in Rashi's pshat it's a question bitmiya. The Rambam says no, the Rambam says מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב is a statement of fact that a person has bechira and whatever good or bad is done in the world, whatever good or bad is performed by people in the world, מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב. Don't credit Hakadosh Baruch Hu if you put on tefillin this morning, but don't blame Him for all the bad things you did either. מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב, so it's a statement of fact. The Nefesh Hachayim has one element of Rashi, one element of Rambam and his pshat therefore is a third pshat. For Nefesh Hachayim like the Rambam it's a statement of fact, it's not a question bitmiya, but me'idach gisa the raos and tov are not the good and bad of the mitzvos and issurim that we do, it's rather again the sechar va'onesh and what the Nefesh Hachayim according to the Nefesh Hachayim what this pasuk means is that the sechar va'onesh as it were doesn't require Hakadosh Baruch Hu's direct intervention. משל למה הדבר דומה, let's say a person is a chain smoker for 40 years and then rachmana litzlan gets lung cancer. So we don't think of it oh that there was divine intervention for his having violated the chiyuv of v'nishmartem me'od lenafshoseichem, so he was punished rachmana litzlan with getting lung cancer. We say no, we say that that's a natural consequence, a natural corollary. He engaged in risky dangerous behavior and this was a natural consequence because the way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, given the natural law in the world and the way cause and effect works, so if a person does something which is a known carcinogen, so then rachmana litzlan, we don't attribute miraculous supernatural, we don't attribute that to miraculous supernatural divine intervention. If a person drives on the highway at 100 miles an hour and then crashes, so we don't look at that as we don't have to resort to seeing that as again supernatural divine intervention. We say no, a person can't control the car at such speeds, so. So the Nefesh Hachayim says the same way that's true within the physical world, again if a person rachmana litzlan jumps off, jumps out the window... of the 50th floor and is killed by the impact, we don't see that as supernatural miraculous divine intervention, it's just if a person flaunts the natural law that HaKadosh Baruch Hu created, so then that's what happens. So Nefesh HaChaim says it's the same pshat spiritually. Spiritually also this cause and effect in in the world. And that's what מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב means, like Rashi, ra'os v'hatov are the sachar v'onesh that come upon a person. But like the Rambam, it's not bitmiyah, it's not well, doesn't it come from Hashem in the sense of intervention? Says the Nefesh HaChaim, no, it doesn't come from Hashem in the sense of intervention because he created the world that way. The same way in in the physical world there are laws of of cause and effect and then it's directly attributable to the person. The person drives at speeds where you can't control the car, so then it's מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב, it's it's his fault that what happened. This is the world a person's in. In that world you can't drive 120 miles an hour and think you're going to be able to make these turns and think you're going to be able to keep the car on on the road. It's not going to happen. מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב. So the same thing is true, there's a reality, there's a spiritual reality to mitzvos and Rachmana Litzlan aveiros. And the spiritual reality materializes, not because of any special divine again supernatural intervention in in response to. And that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling Adam HaRishon, you should know, it's like telling someone if you drink the hemlock you're going to die. You're not giving him a klalah, you're not promising that you're going to punish him, you're explaining to him, this is, this is hemlock. If you drink it, that's the natural corollary and consequence of of what you do. I think maybe, I'm not sure, I think maybe Rav Yerucham has a ma'amar where he talks about that that's what it means BeReishis Bara Elokim, that the world was created with Middas HaDin, that that's what it means. It means that it's that there's the same way in the physical world we understand that that there's, again, Middas HaDin means things just function according to cause and cause and effect, right? You can't you can't appeal to the law of gravity you know to have rachamim and even though the person jumped out the window that the law of gravity should be suspended. No, Middas HaDin means no, things just go according to the prescribed order in which they were they were set up, in which they were established. So BeReishis Bara Elokim means the whole briyah is like that, the briyah is like that not only in terms of the physical world but the spiritual world is also like that. There's natural spiritual cause and effect. And that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu is telling Adam HaRishon the same way if you drink hemlock you're going to die, I'm not giving you a klalah, I'm not promising you an onesh, I'm just telling you what the metzius is. So I'm also telling you if you'll do this cheit so the metzius is that ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות, it will then become necessary for a person to have to experience misa in order to separate out that irbuvya of tov vara.

וזהו גם כן ענין מה שאמר הוא יתברך אחר הן האדם היה וכולי ועתה פן ישלח ידו ולקח גם מעץ החיים ואכל וחי לעולם הלא חפץ יתברך שמו להיטיב לברואיו ומה איכפת ליה יחיה לעולם.

So why is it that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is concerned that Adam HaRishon will live eternally? אמנם רוצה לומר שכאשר יאכל מעץ החיים וחי לעולם. If in this state, this confused state of ta'aruves tov vara, you takeh don't want, it's not a tova to let him live l'olam.

ישאר חס ושלום בלא תיקון שלא יפרד הרע ממנו עד עולם חס ושלום ולא יראה מאורות וטובה מימיו ולזאת לטובתו גרשו מגן עדן כדי שיוכל לבוא לידי תיקון גמור כשתפרד הרע ממנו על ידי המיתה והעיכול בקבר. וזהו ענין הד' שמתו בעטיו של נחש שאף שלא היה להם חטא עצמם כלל עם כל זה הוצרכו למיתה מחמת התערובות הראשון של הרע על ידי חטא אדם הראשון מעצת הנחש וימשך הענין כן,

and this is how this reality will continue עד עת קץ הימים until the kiyum of bila hamaves lanetzach וגם עוד יתבאר החיים. Okay, we'll stop here. Next paragraph. Aval ba'avodas ha'adam and be'eisek haTorah vehamitzvos, the birur is le'eila ule'eila more than the birur that will be le'eis keitz. And k'mo she'amar the Rav haKadosh miLechovitch on the mishnah, איזהו גבור הכובש את יצרו, that the tashlum of birur hara is davka through hakibush. And this birur is lema'alah from the birur that will be at eis keitz. K'mo she'mosu in Maseches Shabbos, דף עג עמוד א, the mishnah says, ha'ofeh ve'habishel, ve'isay bagemara, בירור שעל ידי אוכל.