Perek 1

Shalom Aleichem Rabosai, I hope everyone is well. I hope you had a good vacation. Perhaps at some point, בלי נדר אם ירצה ה', we'll come back to the Malbim's Hakdama, but but for today, let's just jump right in here from Kapittel Aleph.

אשרי האיש אשר לא הלך בעצת רשעים ובדרך חטאים לא עמד ובמושב לצים לא ישב.

As we try to make our way through the Malbim's peirush on Tanach, we'll see how he highlights various diyukim to which we should be sensitive, and and he sensitizes us.

בוא ובאר התנאים בה שיהיה האיש מאושר. ויש הבדל בין מאושר בין מצליח.

Kayadua, one of the pillars of the Malbim's peirush on Tanach is that in Tanach there's no such thing as synonyms. There's no such thing as as two words that have the identical meaning. There's always some, it may be a nuance, but there's always some important difference or distinction between the words. So we find in Lashon haKodesh in Tanach we have the word matzliach. Adonai Yosef sees that כל אשר עושה ה' מצליח בידו. He sees that Yosef is always matzliach. Here, the pasuk speaks of Ashrei ha'ish. The Malbim understands Ashrei as Kayadua, there is a machlokes hamforshim. Some say that Ashrei, this is what's reflected in the Metzudos, means praiseworthy. The Malbim clearly understands it means more in the sense of blessed or fortunate, and in that sense it seems to be similar to hatzlacha.

ויש הבדל בין מאושר בין מצליח. ההצלחה היא בעניינים עולמיים בחיי עולם הזה.

In mundane matters. והאושר הוא בעניינים הנפשיים בחיי עולם הבא. In the spiritual realm. והנה השלמות יהיה בשלושה עניינים. A person can achieve shleimus, can be complete, in three different areas. Shleimus hakinyan, tremendous wealth. A person has, he has such such vast wealth that that he can buy, he can acquire anything he wants. Shleimus haguf, health, physical health, and shleimus hanefesh. The Rambam speaks of shleimus in four areas. The first two areas are the same as the Malbim has here, shleimus haguf and shleimus hakinyan. And then the Rambam breaks down shleimus hanefesh into shleimus hamidos and shleimus b'maalos sikhliyos. We'll see in the hemshech the Malbim is going to say that shleimus hanefesh really includes two elements, that there are two that there are two elements to to shleimus hanefesh. The Rambam says these four types of shleimus are reflected in the pasuk in Yirmiyahu. How does the pasuk go? It starts... אל יתהלל עשיר בעשרו אל יתהלל חכם בחכמתו והעשיר. So the Rambam says that that chochma in that context means middos as the Rambam in Hilchos De'os says that the derech hamemutza is the derech of hachachamim. So the pasuk in Yirmiyahu is enumerating the four types of shleimus, the four areas of shleimus and saying that the ultimate shleimus is in terms of the ma'alos sichliyos that a person has yedias Hashem. Haskeil veyado'a osi. We'll see the Malbim is not really, not really different than the Rambam because he's going to say that shleimus hanefesh subdivides. לכן ביאר שמדבר פה מאשרי האיש. Dehainu the pasuk could have said אשרי אשר לא הלך בעצת רשעים. Right? It doesn't occur to us that we're talking about anyone other than a person. So ashrei ha'ish means that ashrei that he has the perfection, the completeness, the wholesomeness which is unique to a person.

לכן ביאר שמדבר פה מאשרי האיש העושר המיוחד אל האיש והאדם מצד שהוא אדם לא העושר שישתתף בו עם סוגו מצד שהוא חי.

He doesn't, we're not talking about some kind of completeness which is not unique to a human being.

רצה לומר כי שלמות הקנין ושלמות הגוף ימצא גם בשאר בעלי חיים.

You can find it in the animal kingdom as well.

כי מצאנו כמה בעלי חיים שמשיגים מחייתם ומזונם ביתר נקל וביתר שאת מן האדם.

We find some animals, again what shleimus hakinyan means that a person can can acquire whatever he has, he has the resources. So some animals have that built in to a greater degree than a person ever does. Vileis de'atir michazira. Nothing is wealthier than than than a chazira.

וכן יתעצמו בכח גופם יותר מן האדם כמו הפיל והאריה.

Right? The elephant, the lion are stronger than the strongest human being can ever be. Vechein bechushieihem in terms of their senses.

הנשר והאיה בחוש הראות וכדומה. ואין זה עושר המיוחד אל האיש והאדם רק שלמות המדות ותכונות הנפש הם המיוחדים אל האיש לבדו. ומבאר כי אשרו תלוי בראשונה.

So how does a person attain, how does he achieve that shleimus hanefesh? The shleimus hanefesh first of all

בראשונה במה שיזהר מחטא. אשרי אשר לא הלך בעצת רשעים. ויש הבדל בין רשעים ובין חטאים.

So again here the Malbim will explain to us why resha'im operate with eitza and chata'im is described as derech chata'im.

ויש הבדל בין רשעים ובין חטאים שהרשעים הם חוטאים מצד הזדון והפשיעה.

It's premeditated, deliberate rishus.

בין בין אדם למקום בין בין אדם לחברו ולכן אמר עצת רשעים כי הם החוטאים בעצה והשכלה.

It's premeditated, it's with deliberation. מה שאין כן אצל חטאים when a person is designated as a chotei not as a rasha לא יוכל לומר בעצה כי הם אינם חוטאים בעצה. It's not premeditated, it's not deliberate. ומוסיף שאף בדרך חטאים לא עמד. Not only does this person avoid sin on the level of a rasha but even on the level of chata'im. שהחטאים הם החוטאים מצד התאוה לבד. So it's not premeditated, it's not deliberate, it's just succumbing to taiva.

רצה לומר שלא יחטא מצד תאותו גם כן. ולא לבד שלא הלך בדרך חטאים היינו שאינו מתמיד בחטאים כי גם לא עמד בדרכם אף לפי שעה.

He's not only isn't he a habitual sinner but even there aren't even... single occurrences of chet.

ובמושב לצים לא ישב הלצים הם יושבי קרנות אינם פועלים רע אבל גם לא יעשו טוב רק רדפו רוח והבל ולצנות ואינם עוסקים בתורה.

A letz is someone for whom life is empty. Pasuk bet: כי אם בתורת ה' חפצו ובתורתו יהגה יומם ולילה. Ulam, לא די במניעת הרע לבד. To be meusher, to attain shleimus hanefesh, it's not enough that a person is mekayeim sur meira, but there has to be asei tov as well.

כי מתנאי האושר שתעשה טוב ולא שיעשה טוב נימוסי לבד כפילוסופים שבדאו דתות לעצמם.

And it doesn't suffice that the person will do conventional, what's conventionally identified as good. Nimusi means sort of a convention. ולא שיעשה טוב נימוסי לבד. What's conventionally considered good, like the philosophers who invented laws for themselves.

רק שישמור תורת ה' ומצוותיו. כי אם בתורת ה' חפצו.

The counterpart to rishus and chet is tov, but tov is identified davka with Toras Hashem. Hence the Malbim explains: la'apokei, just what a person does what's conventionally good.

רק שישמור תורת ה' ומצוותיו. וגם ביאר שמתנאי עשיית הטוב שיעשהו בעבור שהוא טוב ובעבור מצוות ה' לבד. לא בעבור פניות אחרות.

Not because of other negi'os, other motivations that a person has

שיקווה להשיג עבור עבודתו שכר ותועלת שאז אין חפצו בתורת ה'.

How is that expressed in the pasuk? How is it expressed in the pasuk that he's doing good because it's mitzvas Hashem? Because the Torah, the pasuk describes: betoras Hashem chefzo.

שאז אם האדם רק מחפש שכר אין חפצו בתורת ה'

rak ha’arev vehamo'il. He wants what's sweet and what's beneficial to him, shemekabel sechar avodato. על כן התנה כי אם בתורת ה' חפצו. Let's just rewind for a minute here and reread.

וגם ביאר שמתנאי עשיית הטוב שיעשהו בעבור שהוא טוב ובעבור מצוות ה' לבד.

So the Malbim actually identifies a double kavana that a person is supposed to have. Right? In coming la'apokei from the kavana of bakashas sachar, the Malbim has two kavanos that a person is supposed to have in doing good, right? A: שיעשהו בעבור שהוא טוב, and B: בעבור מצוות ה' לבד. So here lechorah the pshat in the Malbim is either of two things. First possibility is, the Rambam famously has in perek vav of shmoneh perakim, he has a stira between psukim on the one hand, he says this is what the philosophers say as well and ma'amarei Chazal on the other hand. He says the pasuk says about a rasha that נפש רשע אותה רע. That the nefesh, the soul of the rasha desires ra. Doesn't say that he does ra necessarily. It's not indicting him for doing ra. It says that נפש רשע אותה רע. I forgot how the counterpart in the pasuk goes. As opposed to the tzaddik who desires to do good. So the pasuk says that a person is not supposed to do good only out of a sense of obligation, but rather because he wants to do good. So that's on the one hand. Me'idakh gisa, you have the ma'amar Chazal of אל תאמר אי אפשי לאכול בשר חזיר. Don't say that I find basar chazir not appetizing, I find it disgusting, I wouldn't be interested in eating basar chazir, ela efshi ve'efshi, no, I would eat chazir, ומה אעשה שאבי שבשמים גזר עלי, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu said not to. So there clearly it doesn't mean that a person is supposed to have this natural intuitive repulsion about basar chazir. So the Rambam answers that it's a difference between mishpatim and chukim. That when it comes to mishpatim, so there a person should not only be acting out of a sense of obligation, but there it's the person is supposed to be attuned to the good. He's supposed to, his character should be such that a person should want to give tzedakah, a person should not want to steal, a person should want to do a chesed, not only that he feels a sense of obligation to do it, but that he should want, he should desire, he should have the sense that this is good and this is right and this is the way to behave. Mah she'ein ken when it comes to chukim, so there we don't have any intuition and that translates into how we're supposed to be mkayem. There is no natural intuition for achilas ma'achalos asuros. So there the modality, the way the person is mkayem is it's a mitzvah, Ribono Shel Olam said it's a mitzvah. It's a mitzvah, that's the only dimension. Mah she'ein ken by the mishpatim there's two dimensions. A, Ribono Shel Olam said it's a mitzvah, but B, he also gave us a sense, an inner sense that we either should have innately and if we don't have innately then if we somehow or other have drowned it out then we need to recover that this is good. And the ma'aseh that really what the Malbim is talking about runs parallel to the Rambam's chasid mitivo. שיעשהו בעבור שהוא טוב, recognizing that it's that it's tov and that's what the person wants to do. He wants to do what's right, he wants to do what's good. U'ba'avur mitzvas Hashem. Alternately, it could be what the Malbim means is like this. Not so much that he's speaking here about mishpatim and that he has in mind the difference between mishpatim and chukim. The other way to read the Malbim is that a person can be mkayem Rachmana litzlan mitzvos begrudgingly, in the sense that you see from the person's attitude that he doesn't really have conviction in the mitzvah, but he fulfills the mitzvah anyway. And the way a person is supposed to be mkayem mitzvos is with a conviction that the mitzvos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they're emes and they're good, whether we're in a position to fully or partially understand it or not, what Ribono Shel Olam says is is good and is emes and it's not only It's not, it's a recognition that mitzvos are not rachmana litzlan, they're not arbitrary, they're not whimsical, and they're certainly not something that we rachmana litzlan don't like or something like that, but are just sort of captive. No, that a person has a conviction for the inherent good and truth of mitzvos. The fact that he emphasizes baruch she'hu tov more than the aspect of emes sounds more like the first mahalach we said than the second mahalach.

על כן התנה כי אם בתורת השם חפצו והנה שלמות הזה נחלק לשניים.

The shleimus hanefesh really contains two elements: שלמות העיון ושלמות המעשה. This is where the Malbim is really now converging with the Rambam who identifies four areas of shleimus.

שלמות העיוני נקרא תורת השם. כי היא תובעו דעת השם ודרכיו ואמיתותו. אבל חלק זה לא ישיגהו האדם עד תכליתו ודי אם בתורת השם חפצו ומאויו ומשתדל להשיגו ודורש אחריו. כי אם בתורת השם חפצו

means it's his desire, but not necessarily that he attains it. Right, a person what a person has he doesn't desire anymore. A person desires to own a Lexus. Okay, once he owns the Lexus he doesn't desire it anymore. He may be happy, he may be whatever, that he has this car. But desire means something that a person doesn't have. So

כי אם בתורת השם חפצו אבל חלק זה לא ישיגהו אדם תכליתו,

a person never can never fully attain Toras Hashem, Toras Hashem in the sense of yedias Hashem. And therefore the most that we can ask of the person is that that's his aspiration and that he moves as far as he can in that direction. ודי אם בתורת השם חפצו ומאויו, his desire, his aspiration, ומשתדל להשיגו ודורש אחריו, and he exerts himself to attain it, hagam shelo yasigeihu. Why? Because u'fanai lo yeira'u. In Parshas Ki Sisa, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says וראית את אחורי ופני לא יראו, so וראית את אחורי ופני לא יראו means you can see my actions, but you can't see me. You can understand something about my actions, but you can't grasp me, my essence. ושלמות המעשי הוא תורת האדם. Right, the Malbim here is commenting on the fact A, that the first time it's referred to as Toras Hashem, the second time it's referred to as toraso, and B, lichora the second toraso should have been ובו יהגה יומם ולילה. You don't need to repeat the noun of Torah, you could have used the pronoun of u'vo. So says the Malbim, no, the reason, and he explains this in the Biurei Ha-milos, that when a pasuk repeats the noun when seemingly it could have used the pronoun because the antecedent is clear, so it's not the same noun. There's a difference. We're not talking about the same cheilek of Torah. We're talking about a different cheilek of Torah. That's why the first is Toras Hashem, that's the Torah which functions which focuses upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, upon yedias Hashem. U'vsoraso refers to Toras ha-adam in the sense that it's the cheilek of Torah that focuses on a person's obligations, on the do's and don'ts of the person. ושלמות המעשי הוא תורת האדם, it's the cheilek of Torah which focuses on the person, hi, that cheilek of Torah, toreihu, teaches him את אשר יעשה ולא יעשה. What he does, what he should do, what he shouldn't do, mitzvos asei, mitzvos lo sa'asei. V'zeh nikra toraso in the sense that it's Toras ha-adam, it's the part of Torah that focuses on a person. So that a person can fully attain. with understanding of the ד׳ חלקי שולחן ערוך. It's not something which remains in the realm of cheftz, of a desire, of an aspiration. No, it can be an achievement, it can be an accomplishment ובחלק זה יהגה יומם ולילה ללמוד על מנת לעשות. How does the Malbim know ללמוד על מנת לעשות? So if you take a look in the Biurei Ha-millos, the Malbim was a multi-faceted genius. Just extraordinary, multi-faceted genius. So he says that you find the word if you see where it has yehgeh in the Biurei Ha-millos, he writes ההגיון הוא הממוצע בין הדיבור והמחשבה, right? Memutza, lashon emtza. What do you mean it's in the middle of dibbur and machshava? It means sometimes you find that higayon means machshava and sometimes you find that higayon means dibbur. Higyon libbi is thought, right? Higyon libbi is thought. So he explains that the mashma'os of higayon means מוציא דבר מתוך דבר. So either it means that analytically be-machshavto a person is analyzing and being מוציא דבר מתוך דבר or it means when a person speaks so then speech is when a person translates thought, articulates thought, is also being מוציא דבר מתוך דבר. I mean we're accustomed to speaking without thinking, but be-ma'aseh what speech really is, right, is a person is מוציא דבר מתוך דבר, he's articulating thought. That's what speech is. So the mashma'os of higayon is hotza'ah, right? It's hotza'ah in the sense that a person is being מוציא דבר מתוך דבר. Either it means analytically he's deriving one thing from another like the middah of binah, מוציא דבר מתוך דבר. Or what it means in terms of speech is he's מוציא דבר מתוך דבר is that he articulates thought. He's motzi machshavto into speech, into words. That's how he knows that yehgeh means specifically talmud Torah which is al menas la'asos because it's being מוציא דבר מתוך דבר, it's being מוציא ההלכה למעשה מתוך התלמוד. Okay so we'll stop here for this be-li neder at 1:30 we'll continue with Yesh Nochalim.