Perek 8, part 3

I think what we discussed the Malbim's Hakdama to Kapitel Ches and try to understand a little bit his comment on pasuk bais ה' אדונינו מה אדיר שמך בכל הארץ that the most compelling reflection and demonstration of the Borei Olam that's represented by Shem is not in the works of the heavens but rather bechol ha'aretz. And then the contrast אשר תנה הודך על השמים, if the hisgalus ba'aretz is that which contextualizes and helps us appreciate that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is also the source of everything bashamayim. Ustama the response that the Rambam u'de'imei would make to that is the Navi Yeshayahu says

שאו מרום עיניכם וראו מי ברא אלה המוציא במספר צבאם.

So Yeshayahu tells us to look up, שאו מרום עיניכם וראו. When the Medrash in the beginning of Parshas Lech Lecha famously depicts Avraham Avinu's search for and discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it gives the mashal of someone who's passing by and sees a birah dolekes and says that it's impossible for there to be such a birah without there being a Ba'al Habirah. So clearly the birah dolekes refers to shemesh, yarei'ach, kochavim, etc. So apparently the Malbim's response to all that—I don't really hear, he doesn't, I don't think he tells us in this Kapitel—but the Malbim's response to all that is Ein hachi nami one can and perhaps even should recognize Hakadosh Baruch Hu by the שאו מרום עיניכם וראו. The birah dolekes really is evidence of and points to Hakadosh Baruch Hu but lemaiseh lemaiseh the most compelling is still bechol ha'aretz, but the בני דורו של ישעיהו didn't need it. Avraham Avinu didn't need to have recourse to that because that's actually how he understands pasuk gimmel right, מפי עוללים ויונקים יסדת עז. Ollalim ve'yonkim again literally refers to babies who are still nursing, refers to chulshas ha'adam, but it's dafka in adam that yisadta oz that you established the oz, the compelling nature of metzius that counteracts tzorecha, it counteracts your adversaries, those who seek to deny you Hakadosh Baruch Hu, lehashbis to silence oyev u'misnakeim that even if the ma'aseh shamayim don't silence them, but with any with the slightest bit of intellectual honesty when they look at the ollalim ve'yonkim, when they look at the briah of adam, so then that does prevail. So presumably that's what the Malbim would respond. The way the Malbim understands psukim daled ve'hei is that Dovid Hamelech is reviewing all the philosophical arguments for the superiority of the heavenly bodies and then from pasuk vav and on comes Dovid HaMelech's rebuttal. That's the way the Malbim reads the kapittel. כי אראה שמיך מעשה אצבעותיך. ma'aseh etzbaosecha the Malbim explains in the Be'urei HaMillos as opposed to ma'aseh yadayim. So when you speak of the fingers rather than the hand it means that you're dealing with subtlety. Meaning you're dealing with tremendous finesse where it requires where you have to describe it in terms of the fingers rather than the hands. An artist who's working with a big canvas so you speak of ma'aseh yadayim but someone who's working in which requires exquisite artisanship working in very small spaces so there you're going to speak not just of ma'aseh yadayim but ma'aseh etzbaos. So again this is the philosophical position. כי אראה שמיך מעשה אצבעותיך here the Malbim has an extraordinary etymology of the word shamayim. So we're all familiar with what Rashi says in Chumash that shamayim is esh umayim. It's a contraction of those two words because it's made from esh umayim. The Malbim says the more al derech hapshat etymology is extraordinary. He says that shamayim is basically just the lashon rabbim of the word sham. That sham there connotes distance. So shamayim is multiple distance right vastness way way beyond right. Ki ereh shomecha that which is so distant so high above and so vast and this is where remember in the hakdama when he listed the five arguments for the philosophical position. So he spoke about mitzad mekomom that was the fourth mitzad godlom was the second and mitzad ribui hakadurim just how much there is. So all of that for the Malbim is now compressed into this word shamayim which has the sense of vastness right it's so above and beyond. Ki ereh shomecha with that which is so above and beyond that which is so vast it's so distant from us even internally within shamayim we're dealing with such vast areas over which is spread out just so many and such vast planets and galaxies. Ma'aseh etzbaosecha again is the fourth argument of the dakus hamelacha. וירח וכוכבים אשר כוננתה vechonen so we had in the Parshas HaMishkan the kiyor vehakanno so the kan is the basis. So lechonen means to firmly provide a basis for something. וירח וכוכבים אשר כוננתה that you created that they exist eternally as opposed to mortal man. מה אנוש כי תזכרנו ובן אדם כי תפקדנו that's how the Malbim understands these two pesukim and then beginning pasuk vav is the rejection for the way the Malbim understands of those arguments. vetechasreihu me'at me'elohim it's lashon chol because it refers to malachim it doesn't refer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. ותחסרהו מעט מאלהים וכבוד והדר תעטרהו. The Malbim says that the fifth of the arguments that the philosophers pose that the heavenly bodies exist eternally as individuals ma she'ein kein people it's only humanity which endures but each individual is mortal. So he says bammeh devarim amurim if you look. Look at a person as being fundamentally a physical creature, so then a person is born and dies. If you see the essence of a person as the neshama, if you see the essence of the person as me'at me'elokim, as comparable to the angels whose essence is not something physical but whose essence is spiritual, so then you realize that on the contrary, that man also as an individual is immortal. Pushing back at the fifth of the arguments, and what's more, given that his essence, given that his essence is the neshama, so he's greater than the physical objects of the shemesh veyareiach vekochavim and all the vast galaxies. Vechavod vehadar te'atreihu, the way the Malbim understands, again, this I think we've had already, how kavod refers to the neshama, למען יזמרך כבוד ולא ידם. Kavod refers to a person's neshama. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu crowned Adam, right? Te'atreihu with an atarah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu crowned Adam with kavod vehadar. Kavod refers to the neshama, the exalted neshama. Hadar, the Malbim here has the same as the Gaon. We have two words for beauty: we have hod and hadar. They're both words that refer to beauty. So the Malbim, like the Gaon, says that hadar refers to external beauty, right? The esrog is something which is physically beautiful. Peri etz hadar refers to a physical quality of beautiness. So vechavod vehadar te'atreihu means it refers to neshama veguf. That on the one hand Hakadosh Baruch Hu crowned man with the neshama, with its extraordinary capacities for understanding, its extraordinary capacities for yedias Hashem. And what's doubly extraordinary, what's doubly remarkable, is how it's wedded, how the neshama is designed and coordinated with the body, the hadar, the external. The Malbim explains: he says it's one darga of chochmah and artizanut when a person is, when the artisan is able to make certain designs. But if he's able to then etch those designs in a material or a substance that doesn't really seem inviting or conducive to it, so then that artwork becomes doubly extraordinary. And that's what the Malbim says. He says vechavod vehadar te'atreihu, the kavod of the neshama, for the neshama to exist sort of anywhere, in any context, is extraordinary. But its partnership, as we exist in olam hazeh, its partnership with the hadar, with the physical, is again, that in terms of dakus hamelacha, so the dakus hamelacha is much greater in Adam than it is anywhere else in the beriah. What does it mean תמשילהו במעשי ידיך כל שתה תחת רגליו? Again, literally translates that you made him the ruler over your ma'asei yadecha, that you placed everything underfoot. So the Malbim says that what it means metaphorically is that everything in the beriah serves man, as the next two pesukim continue to illustrate: tzoneh, the same as tzon, ואלפים כולם וגם בהמות שדי, the animals of the field, צפור שמים ודגי הים, the birds, the fish. Everything is there to serve man. So basically for the Malbim, what that does is it turns the argument on its head: the argument of how the... The vast number of heavenly bodies indicate that that's the ultimate, so the Malbim turns around and says, no, when you, when you think about it how all this is for the, is for the welfare of man and and that man is the crowning, crowning creation in the Briya, so then everything, both of the Riboy Hakadurim and the Mekomom Hagdolom, everything when you then reflect on the fact that this is all of Tamshilehu Bemaasei Yadecha, that man is the crowning achievement, so it's a reflection of of his importance, not of of their, not of his being secondary, but of his being primary. That's that's the, again, we would have to go through word by word to appreciate all the, all the subtleties of of what the Malbim argues. Lemaaseh, what he doesn't seem to what, what he doesn't seem to speak of here, which the the Rambam, for instance, does in in advocating his position, the the universe has gotten even even more vast by current astronomical understandings and calculations than it was in the days of the Rambam, far, far more so. But even in the days of the Rambam, when when the universe was a smaller place, we we don't seem to have the the slightest inkling or ability to discern how the whole Briya is possibly here servicing, servicing man, whether it's the, all the the galaxies or whether it's the hundreds of species of ants that that exist in the world. Okay, so we understand, the fact that Tvuah grows in the field, we we derive benefit from that. But when you look at the, again, the vastness, not only in Shamayim, but even here on earth, so that's what the Rambam says, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Retzon Hashem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu created a world. He said he created a world, and the same way it was Retzon Hashem that there should be people in the world, it's Retzon Hashem that there should be astronomical bodies in the world, and and it's Retzon Hashem that there should be lower forms of of life, and each is just here because it's it's Retzon Hashem. That doesn't, in terms of who we are, what we are, what our potential is, it doesn't make a difference whether the whole world is here for us or not, right? You know, whether whether the Shamayim Ushmei Shamayim and and everything else is here for us, it doesn't make a difference in terms of the fact that that a person has the capacity for Yedias Hashem, that a person is Betzelem Elokim. So on that, obviously, there's no, there's no difference of perspective, no difference in approach. The question is whether or not that unique opportunity and unique dimension which we have down here on earth, does that indicate that everything was created, that the whole Briya is oriented towards us or not? Well, that's not the case. That's where the difference of opinion lies. So the Rambam says that there's something. The Rambam says that we egotistically like to think that if you explain the whole beriah in terms of man, that makes sense of the beriah. And the Rambam says it doesn't make sense of anything. What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu need us for? So the Rambam says we have this rather we have this megalomania. No, if you explain that all the animals are here and all the fish are here and all the trees are here and all the grain is here and all the mineral world is here and all the planets are here for us, oh! And the Rambam says, so zoll zein azoy? And what does Hakadosh Baruch Hu need us for? Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't need anything. And the Rambam says, and he quotes the pasuk from the perek in Yeshayahu הן גוים כמר מדלי like a water, like a drop of water in a bucket. Ella mai? So we don't know why Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. It's no less of a mystery to say that everything is here for us than to say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu willed this world with all its diverse type of creatures, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu willed that. So we think, well what could Hakadosh Baruch Hu possibly want monkeys for? So the Rambam says, what do you think he wants you for? Or you think that that does explain something? But a person doesn't need this... what a person's opportunity, and the other side of opportunity is always obligation, but a person's opportunity or obligation in life doesn't require that we see him as being the purpose of everything else. Whether the planets are here for us or not, so a person was created betzelem Elokim. A person was created betzelem Elokim, which is a potential of yidias Hashem. A person was created with the opportunity and therefore obligation of leovdah uleshomrah, to engage in avodas Hashem. Now whether everything else in the beriah was to further that, or everything else in the beriah is just an independent element of ratzon Hashem, it doesn't affect what a person's tafkid is, what a person's opportunity is, what a person's potential is in this world. Again, philosophically in terms of how one views the beriah, there are obviously very, very different positions. The Rambam's understanding, the Rambam's conception of the again, in his cosmogony, there were spheres in which the stars and everything were embedded, but the Rambam's conception of them in פרק ג הלכות יסודי התורה is כל הכוכבים והגלגלים כולם בעלי נפש ודעה והשכל הם. They're not just physical bodies, they have intelligence. והם חיים ועומדים ומכירים את מי שאמר והיה העולם, and they all have a yedias Hashem. We're unique in terms of down here on Earth in terms of that that capacity, but we're not unique in the bria in terms of that.

כל אחד ואחד לפי גודלו ולפי מעלתו משבחים ומפארים ליוצרם כמו המלאכים. וכשם שמכירים את

HaKadosh Boruch Hu

כך מכירים את עצמם ומכירים את המלאכים שלמעלה מהם. ודעת הכוכבים והגלגלים מעוטה מדעת המלאכים.

Their yediah is less than that of the malachim, but גדולה מדעת בני אדם. So it doesn't again, it doesn't change an iota what a person's potential or tafkid is, but it does, it does administer a strong and not unnecessary dose of humility, the Rambam's world view. That's what he he returns back to in

פרק ד הלכה יב. בזמן שאדם מתבונן בדברים האלו ומכיר כל הברואים ממלאך וגלגל ואדם וכיוצא בהם ויראה חכמתו של

HaKadosh Boruch Hu

בכל היצורים ובכל הברואים מוסיף אהבה למקום ותצמא נפשו ויכמה בשרו לאהוב המקום ברוך הוא ויירא ויפחד משפלותו ודלותו וקלותו,

not just vis-a-vis HaKadosh Boruch Hu. וכשיערוך עצמו לאחד מהגופות הקדושים הגדולים. When he compares himself against the shemesh, he sees shiflus and dalus, vechol shekein לאחד מהצורות הטהורות הנפרדות, the malachim, which are which are not physical at all. וימצא עצמו שהוא ככלי מלא בושה וכלימה ריק וחסר. The yesod which emerges in this context and so many other contexts from the Bais HaLevi, the formulation I heard once from my brother Hashem yikom damo in a very very different context but it's it's relevant in so many, so many contexts. It's a very very major yesod. In life, a person should take what he does seriously, but he shouldn't take himself seriously. A person should take morning seder, afternoon seder, night seder, a davening, a mitzvah, working on midos, everything a person does should take very seriously, but it's not supposed to take himself seriously. The Rambam often reminded us to resist that temptation to take ourselves not just too seriously but seriously. A person should take what he does seriously; he's not supposed to take himself seriously. And we'll stop here for today.