PHM #3

So let’s backtrack a little bit, just I think going back a few lines from overleaf, where the Rambam describes after Moshe Rabbeinu writes the thirteen Sefer Torahs, so the Rambam continues:

אחר כך עלה להר בחצי היום בשבעה באדר כפי שנתבאר בקבלה והיה זה מותו לפי השגתנו כמי שנעדר מאתנו.

However it was

וחיים עבורו לפי העילוי שהגיע אליו וכן אמרו עליהם השלום משה רבנו לא מת אלא עלה ומשמש במרום והדברים בעניין זה ארוכים מאוד מאוד ואין זה מקומם.

So maybe just to try to understand a little bit what that line means that it was וחיים עבורו לפי העילוי שהגיע אליו. The Rambam writes at the end of Hilkhot Mezuzah that

חייב אדם להיזהר במזוזה מפני שהיא חובת הכל תמיד וכל זמן שיכנס ויצא.

Every time a person goes through the doorway entering, exiting, יפגע ביחוד השם שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. So he encounters when he if if and then when he takes to mind the parshios which are which are written on the klaf of the mezuzah so

יצא ויפגע ביחוד השם שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא ויזכור אהבתו ויעור משנתו ושגיאתו והבלי הזמן.

And be aroused, to be awakened from his sleep and his immersion in all the futilities,

וידע שאין דבר העומד לעולם ולעולמי עולמים אלא ידיעת צור העולמים.

And the person will will know, he’ll recognize that the only thing that endures is Yediat Hashem. What’s pshat? So lichora, the pshat again, hopefully not not too simplistically, not not with too much oversimplification:

יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון והוא ממציא כל נמצא וכל הנמצאים משמים וארץ ומה שביניהם לא נמצאו אלא מאמיתת הימצאו.

Only Hashem really exists. Everything else exists in a different sense of the word off of Him, because of Him, through Him, which is why

ואם יעלה על הדעת שהוא אינו מצוי אין דבר אחר יכול להימצא.

Which is why ואם יעלה על הדעת. שכל הנמצאים צריכים לו, everything else depends upon Hashem

והוא ברוך הוא אינו צריך להם ולא לאחד מהם, אבל

Hakadosh Baruch Hu is absolutely independent and self-sufficient. לפיכך אין אמיתתו כאמיתת אחד מהם. The reality of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sui generis. It's not like anything else that we refer to as reality. הוא שהנביא אומר v'Hashem Elokim emes. הוא לבדו האמת ואין לאחר אמת כאמיתתו. Only Hakadosh Baruch Hu is really true, is really real.

והוא שהתורה אומרת אין עוד מלבדו, כלומר אין שם מצוי אמת מלבדו כמותו.

So let's say you have a puppet. So someone is manipulating the puppet. So the puppet is walking, jumping, whatever. But he doesn't really walk and talk. It's the puppeteer's motions which are responsible for what you perceive in the puppet. Let's say you have a ventriloquist and I don't know you hear the voice coming out of the wall or wherever you hear the sound coming from. But you know it's not really that the wall talks but the ventriloquist's voice is being funneled and emerging that way. So obviously the nimshal doesn't mean that there isn't bechira rachmana litzlan. That part of the mashal is that's not part of the mashal, that's not intended as part of the mashal. But when we look like we have our own life, our own existence, so in that sense it's like the puppet. Again, not in the sense chas veshalom of being controlled by the puppeteer, not chas veshalom in that sense, but in the sense of how the appearance. So we look like we have our own life, our own existence, but it's not the case.

כל הנמצאים משמים וארץ ומה שביניהם לא נמצאו אלא מאמיתת הימצאו.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mamtzi kol hanimtzaim. The existence that animates us is his existence. It's not that we have existence. Which is why the Rambam tells us in Hilchos Mezuzah that it's only when a person has that connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu physical life is like a blip, it's a blip on the screen because it's not real. The puppet only moves as long as the puppeteer makes the motions. So real life is Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The way a person establishes a permanent enduring connection to that real life is by connecting to Hakadosh Baruch Hu with a dagesh chazak on the yedias tzor olamim, not le'afukei from ma'asim which are necessary as well, but with a dagesh chazak. So that's one important nekudah. A second...

מהו זה שביקש משה רבינו להשיג שאמר הראני נא את כבודך ביקש לדעת אמיתת מציאותו של הקדוש ברוך הוא עד שיהיה ידוע בלבו כמו ידיעת אחד מן האנשים שראה פניו ונחקקה צורתו בקרבו שנמצא אותו איש נפרד בדעתו משאר האנשים.

Let let's say that there's you go you're going to meet someone someone you've never met before. So how you're going to how you're going to recognize the person? So you're given a really good detailed description of the person: hair color, eye color, height, weight, etc. Or alternately you can be given a very an excellent sharply focused photograph of the person. Clearly it's the second which is going to be which will ensure that you won't confuse that person with someone else. They'll tell you brown hair, auburn hair, a hin, a hair. Okay so maybe someone with a very similar shade of color or something that it'll be easy to mistake, easy to confuse. But a picture, a picture, so there's something unique about everyone's appearance which resemblances notwithstanding, but if you see the picture and you study the picture so you're not going to confuse that person you're supposed to meet with someone else. So that's the mashal the Rambam is giving for the type of yedi'as Hashem that Moshe Rabbeinu is asking for.

כך ביקש משה רבינו להיות מציאות הקדוש ברוך הוא נפרדת בלבו משאר מציאות הנמצאים עד שידע אמיתת מציאותו כמו שהיא.

What did Hakadosh Baruch Hu answer him?

והשיבו ברוך הוא שאין כוח בדעת האדם החי שהוא מחובר מגוף ונפש להשיג אמיתת דבר זה על בוריו.

What you're asking is not beyond human comprehension. You didn't make the mistake of asking for something that no nivra can ever have. No, Moshe Rabbeinu understands that. But what you did ask for is only accessible to human comprehension in Olam Haba, when a person is no longer a hybrid being of guf venefesh, but the person is purely spiritual, purely intellectual. Heishivo Baruch Hu again שאין כוח בדעת האדם החי שהוא מחובר בגוף ונפש. That's what it means כי לא יראני האדם וחי. That kol zman that the person is still in this world where one's existence is hybrid, guf venefesh, so then there's a certain limitation, there's a certain constraint on what a person is capable of understanding. Clearly implying that le'acher misa a person has hasagos that he doesn't have, that he can't have in this world. And the Rambam says it mefurash later. ומהו זה שאמרו ונהנין מזיו השכינה. What do Chazal mean by this metaphorical description that tzaddikim in Olam Haba are being neheneh from the ziv hashchina, that they're enjoying the radiance of the shechina? What does that mean?

ומהו זה שאמרו ונהנין מזיו השכינה שיודעין ומשיגין מאמיתת הקדוש ברוך הוא מה שאינם יודעין והן בגוף האפל השפל.

That they have this hasaga which is Moshe Rabbeinu, it's inaccessible to Moshe Rabbeinu. Even Moshe Rabbeinu there's a ceiling to what... In olam haba. So yitachen that that’s what the Rambam means that Moshe Rabbeinu dies in the sense that he left this world and and he’s not in touch with this world he he left this world in terms of his own journey as it were sof kol sof לפי העילוי שהגיע אליו because of the elevation which which came his way because that’s exactly the idea that that we just saw that no that neheneh miziv hashchina that that yodim umasigim what they can’t be yode'a umasig כל זמן שהם מחוברים מגוף ונפש and and yitachen that that’s why we don’t have it to the same degree as Moshe Rabbeinu had it. I’m amazed at how the mesader of these Gemaras is a ba’al ruach hakodesh he knows punt which Gemaras we’re going to need every day and takes those out for that particular day. Okay. The Gemara says in Berachos that רשעים אפילו בחייהם קרויים מתים וצדיקים במיתתם קרויים חיים. So maybe that’s what it means also because there’s an equation between life and yedi'as Hashem and the yedi'as Hashem not only endures but even even becomes magnified and and is increased le’achar misa. And the truth is that equation between life and and yedi’a it’s not just a not just a machshava it’s a halacha that the Rambam quotes and then explains. The din is a din in the Gemara and the explanation is in Perek Zayin of

הלכות רוצח ושמירת נפש. תלמיד שגלה לעיר מקלט מגלין רבו עמו.

So if the talmid kills beshogeg and is going to be punished by punished but also get the kapara of going to the ir miklat so then you the you send the rebbe there also.

שנאמר וחי ונס אל אחת מן הערים האל וחי עשה לו כדי שיחיה.

You have to provide that the person should be able to live. וחיי בעלי חכמה ומבקשיה בלא תלמוד כמיתה חשובה. If he’s going to be there and you’re going to send him to the ir miklat and you’re going to send him without a Rambam so what are you you’re not giving him life what’s he what’s he going to do there? Why does it have to be his rebbe? Why not just have a teacher there? You mean according to this explanation why does it have to be his rebbe? I don't know maybe it means like the Yerushalmi. The din is that a person can leave Eretz Yisrael lechutz la’aretz ללמוד תורה ולישא אשה. You can also that’s in terms of mitzvos. You can also leave if for in terms of parnassa de’agas he’s allowed he’s allowed to leave but in terms of mitzvos it’s ללמוד תורה ולישא אשה. So what do you mean what do you mean lilmod Torah? The the the din is assuming that that all the magidei shiur and all the yeshivos are davka bechutz la’aretz and nothing in Eretz Yisrael. So Akiva Eiger in Shulchan Aruch quotes a lashon from the Yerushalmi that לאו מכל אדם זוכה ללמוד. That that you can’t just sort of randomly be meshadech a talmid with a rebbe. It has to click. It has to click. So maglin rabbo the assumption is that that the talmid had found the rebbe from whom he zoiche lilmod and and so you can’t just have a you know maybe it’ll be it’ll be a shtelle it’ll be a position you know to be the rosh yeshiva of the of the ir miklat. No so that doesn’t work. It has to be it has to be maglin rabbo imo. Might not have too many applicants for that position. So al derech hapshat, so the Rambam mentions it because it's just such a important idea that as it were he can't help himself but at least be meramez a little bit to this inyan of היה זה מיתה לפי השגתנו but chayim avuro. So al derech hachidud, I don't know if it's the pshat, but al derech hachidud the Rambam can't be ma'arich to explain all this, but how can he not mention it? The Hakdama l'Peirush haMishnayos is basically a Hakdama to Torah, the ultimate goal of Torah is this which is responsible for this idea that when Moshe Rabbeinu from our vantage point dies that it's chayim avuro, so the Rambam can't be ma'arich to explain to us what it's really all about, but how can he not mention it?

וכאשר מת עליו השלום אחר שהנחיל כל הישוב אשר ניתן לו מן הפירושים למדוהו יהושע ואנשי דורו וכל מה שקיבל ממנו הוא או אחד הזקנים אין בו דין ודברים ולא נפלה בו מחלוקת.

So this I think that's where we left off, we discussed that, that was the last thing we discussed last time I think. ומה שלא שמע מן הנביא עליו השלום. See, it's a funny to us it seems like a inadequate kinuy for Moshe Rabbeinu, מן הנביא עליו השלום. I mean there are lots of nevi'im, so but ela mai, lechorah what it means is that Moshe Rabbeinu's nevuah was so unique that the emes is that even the very term nevuah means something different in terms of the eichus of the communication to Moshe Rabbeinu as opposed to the eichus of the communication to any other navi, and it's really a shem meshutaf. It's really being used in two different senses. When you say Moshe Rabbeinu was a navi or you say that Yeshayahu, Yechezkel and Hoshea were nevi'im, it means different things. So yitachen ומה שלא שמע מן הנביא עליו השלום. No, that is the ultimate, it does encapsulate what's unique about Moshe Rabbeinu, the navi par excellence, the navi in the sense of the navi in terms of the ultimate in nevuah.

ומה שלא שמע מן הנביא עליו השלום יש בו דין ודברים על המסתעף ממנו ונלמד הדין בהם בהיקש על ידי שלוש עשרה מידות שניתנו לו בסיני והן שלוש עשרה מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן ומאותם הדינים הנלמדים יש דברים שנפלה בהם מחלוקת על ההסכמה עליהם.

Sometimes when again beginning in the first generation after Moshe Rabbeinu and then continuing subsequently through the generations of the masorah, sometimes they all concurred about how the yud gimmel middos would be applied and what is derived therefrom. ויש מהם שנפלה בהם מחלוקת בין שתי דעות. Sometimes you're gonna have a machlokes in what to darshen, right, so many sugyas, what is this tanna darshen from this and what is that tanna darshen from this? So sometimes you could be employing and applying the same מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן and still... And still generate different drashos, have different understandings. V'kaasher, skipping a couple lines,

וכאשר נפלה מחלוקת זו הלכה אחרי הרוב, כפי שאמר השם

achrei rabim lehatos. So then the procedure was that they would be omed leminyan and the din would follow the rov. This is the Rambam's view

שהנבואה אינה מועילה בעיון בפירושי התורה ובדרישת פרטי הדינים בשלוש עשרה מידות.

Nevuah is irrelevant to talmud torah, it's irrelevant to darshaning, it's totally, totally inapplicable. אלא מה שיעשה יהושע ופנחס בעניין העיון והלימוד, even though they were nevi'im, but in terms of their talmud torah, so they didn't have any advantage. The fact that they were nevi'im didn't give them a step up, it wasn't in any way relevant to their talmud torah.

מה שיעשה יהושע ופנחס בעניין העיון והלימוד הוא מה שיעשה רבינא ורב אשי.

I think the Gemara in Berachos in daf gimmel has a brayta that one of the Tanna'im says he went into a churva. Does this say it? One of the Tanna'im says he went into a churva and Eliyahu Hanavi waited for him outside, and when he came out Eliyahu Hanavi told him, he went into the churva, he's looking for a quiet place to daven mincha or whatever he was davening, and Eliyahu Hanavi comes out and tells him that he wasn't supposed to do that. So I think the Maharatz Chajes, I think it's the Maharatz Chajes on that Gemara comments that Eliyahu Hanavi is not wearing his hat of navi, he's wearing his hat of one of the chachmei hamesorah, because he has no standing to teach torah betoras navi, it's rather betoras chacham.

מה שיעשה יהושע ופנחס בעניין העיון והלימוד הוא מה שיעשה רבינא ורב אשי. אבל מה יתרון הנביא ופעולו במצוות?

So then what is the role of the navi, what was the role of the navi? הרי הוא חי נפשי מעיקרי הקדמות הגדולות העצומות. This is an amazing sentence here.

הרי הוא חי נפשי מעיקרי הקדמות הגדולות העצומות שעליהם משען הדת ויסודה.

Understanding what the role of a navi is and isn't is a major, major principle on which the whole enterprise of Torah rests. Why is that? What does the Rambam mean? So presumably at least part of what he means, maybe it means more than this as well, but at least part of what he means is that if a person understands that nevuah as the Rambam will explain was to exhort people to perform mitzvos, maybe for hora'as sha'ah, but is not an instrument for dinim ladoros, that only nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu was that, so then all the colossal errors that were made and all the fraudulent allegations would have been recognized and will be and are recognized as such.

וזה לא יתכן אלא אחר חלוקת של טענות הנבואה שבנביאים ואמיתת שם הנבואה.

The first thing I have to explain to you different types of again alleged nevuah and how you verify nevuah.

הוא וגם זה יסוד גדול שכבר שגו בו כל המון בני אדם.

The elite, even some of them have it wrong,

שהם סבורים שהנבואה לא תתאמת לכל טוען אליה אלא בעשותו אות כאותות משה רבנו וישנה מנהגו של עולם דוקא כמו שעשה אליהו בהחיותו בן אישה אלמנה או כפי המפורסם מאותות אלישע וזה יסוד שאינו נכון כי כל האותות שעשו אליהו ואלישע וזולתם מן הנביאים לא עשאום כדי לאמת נבואתם.

On the contrary, aderaba,

כי הנבואה כבר נתאמתה בהם לפני כן ומה שעשו האותות ההם הוא לפי שהוצרכו להם ומקרבתם אל ה' השלים חפצם

kemo shehuvtechu hatzadikim

ותגזר אומר ויקם לך. אבל תתאמת הנבואה על פי מה שאפרש בדברים אלה שאחרי זה בהם

veomar techila

שיסוד דתנו בעניין הנבואה הם כפי שאפרש. והוא כי הטוענים לנבואה נחלקים לשני חלקים.

There are two types of people who again allege nevuah. The first type is a person who alleges nevuah מתנבא בשם עבודה זרה. The second is

או מתנבא בשם השם. והנבואה בשם עבודה זרה נחלקת לשני חלקים. החלק הראשון שיקום נביא ויאמר.

So there are two types of neviyei sheker who are מתנבא בשם עבודה זרה. The first one alleges שכוכב פלוני נתן עלי רוחניותו. That such and such a star bestowed its spirit upon me, vayomer li and the star itself instructed me:

עבדו אותי בכך או קראו אלי בכך. וכן עם כל עבודת אליל או צורה מן הצורות

avodah zarah. ואמר שהוא בא אלי בנבואה על כך להודיעני בכך. Such and such a star told me that we should bow down to this getchka

או ציווה אותי לעבדו באופן פלוני כפי שהראו נביאי הבעל ונביאי האשרה.

That's one type of navi sheker who is מתנבא בשם עבודה זרה. Another type of navi sheker who is מתנבא בשם עבודה זרה, vehacheilek hasheini sheyomar היה לי דבר ה'. He attributes, this navi sheker attributes the nevuah not to the kochav but to Hakadosh Baruch Hu,

שיאמר היה לי דבר השם לעבוד עבוד פלוני או להוריד רוחניות פלוני באופן פלוני ויתאר אופן מאופני העבודות והפעולות שעושים אותם אנשי אותה הדרך כפי שנקבע אצלנו בתורה. הרי זה גם כן מתנבא בשם עבודה זרה, כי השם הזה כולל,

it encompasses,

את האומר שהיא עצמה ציוותה על עבודתה או איזה עניין מענייניה או האומר שהשם ציווה על עבודת מה שאינו השם. כאשר נשמע מן הטוען לנבואה אחת משתי הטענות האלו,

if a person alleges either of these two types of nevuah, either that the source of nevuah is the kochav or the source of nevuah is Hashem, but either way the content of the nevuah is to serve avodah zarah, ונתבררה העדות על כך, you have eidus that they allege such and such a nevuah, הרי דינו למות בחנק. He's chayav misas beis din kemo sheamar yisaleh והנביא ההוא או חולם החלום ההוא יומת. Now comes a mamash a remarkable, remarkable paragraph. We'll again not exhaust its meaning but maybe a little bit, understand just a little bit, skim the surface: ואין פונים לנבואתו ולא נדרש ממנו אות. Such a nevuah is by definition a nevuah shel sheker. There's no need to assess it. ואפילו עשה מן המופתים. If someone comes and they tell you that they saw a square circle, you don't have to interrogate them. You don't have to sort of assess the validity of what the person is telling you. You know by definition that what he's telling you is sheker. So too the Rambam says ואין פונים לנבואתו ולא נדרש ממנו אות. We're not going to oh is he for real, is he not for real? By definition, if the content of the nevuah is avodah zarah so you know that he's a navi sheker and you know the din of maves. ואפילו עשה מן המופתים, let's say even though we didn't ask he voluntarily pulls a rabbit out of his hat,

ואפילו עשה מן המופתים כדי לקיים את הנבואה הזאת, דבר ששמענו נפלא ממנו הרי זה נחנק.

He pulls a beer out of his hat, not just a rabbit out of his hat. דבר ששמענו נפלא ממנו הרי זה נחנק. He gets chenek, and אין פנים לאותם המופתים. Ay, but how can it be that he was able to perform such a feat if he's a navi sheker? The Torah told us already

כי הטעם שנתקיימו אותם המופתים הוא כפי שאמר הכתוב כי מנסה ה' אלוהיכם אתכם.

And now comes an extraordinary extraordinary couple of lines from the Rambam.

כי עדות השכל המכחשת נבואתו חזקה יותר מעדות העין הרואה את מופתו. הואיל וכבר נתבאר לבעלי השכל שאין ראוי לכבד ולעבוד זולת האל האחד שהמציא כל הנמצאים ונתייחד במכלול השלמות.

The Rambam says if you think you're seeing what sechel tells you you can't be seeing, so then you know you're not seeing it. You hear that rabbosai? If you think, it's a gevaldig yesod in life. If you think you're seeing what the dictates of sechel tell you you can't be seeing... Again, if a person thinks he's seeing a miracle, if a person's standing by Yam Suf, he can be seeing a miracle because Hakadosh Baruch Hu can perform miracles, so the dictates of sechel don't tell you that you're not seeing it. But if there's a... if you think you're seeing what the dictates of sechel tell you that you can't be seeing, the sechel is, for a person who's a baal sechel, if a person's got a pagum sechel, then he shouldn't put too much trust in the sechel. The sechel is more reliable than what the sensory experience that a person thinks he's having. Does he say that the sechel tells you this can't be true because of mesorah or because paganism is just inherently ridiculous? So at this point he's saying that even if you didn't have a pasuk in the Chumash, you would know it just al pi sechel. He's saying it the same way he describes in Perek Alef of Avodah Zarah by Avraham Avinu, that when in the days of Enosh when they claimed that you should be oveid avodah zarah, so they did so bedatam hara'ah. And then Avraham Avinu ultimately then discovered on his own

הודיע לעם שאין ראוי לעבוד אלא לאלוה העולם ולא ראוי להשתחוות כדי שיכירו כל הברואים הבאים וראוי לאבד ולשבר כל הצורות כדי שלא יטעו בהם כל העם כמו אלו שאינם מדמים שאין שם אלוה אלא אלו.

The Rambam means even without a pasuk. Even without a pasuk. Even if there hadn't been a pasuk which taught us that there will never even be a hora'as sha'ah, right? Issur avodah zarah is the one thing for which there can't be a hora'as sha'ah. Everything else can have a hora'as sha'ah. Issur avodah zarah, the Torah says will not have even a hora'as sha'ah. Rambam says even without that, you know al pi sechel. And ay, but this guy seems to be proving his credentials, he pulls a lion out of his hat, he... so you don't have to be able to explain how he's doing it to know that it's not true. There are much less dramatic applications of this also. A person doesn't need to be able to explain, if a person knows something can't be true, you don't have to be able to explain how it happened. People tell the most absurd stories about different gedolei Yisrael. If a person happens to know, or know enough about that gadol to know that the story can't be true, you're not mechuyav to know how did this story evolve? How did this seemingly rational, credible person come to tell... someone on over Sukkos told me, came over to me, very nice person, wonderful person actually. And tells me, tell you a maaseh about your zeideh, he says. Okay. What's the maaseh? So and so, he mentioned a certain name. So and so was with the rav, and he's learning. So the rav says... What sugya you learning? So he says, I'm learning the sugya of whether you put on tefillin Chol HaMoed. Right, good, so then they're both sitting and learning and then a while later the Rov says to him, Nu, so what do you say? So so-and-so says, it's pashut to me beyond any shemetz of doubt that you shouldn't, should not, put on tefillin Chol HaMoed, but I do and I'll continue to do so because my father put on tefillin. And the Rov says to him, och, mamash bididi hava uvda. I had the same experience. I also think you're not supposed to put on tefillin, but since my father put on tefillin, I put on tefillin. And this... it was a wonderful person who was telling me this story. He's telling me story with the greatest shpieles. So his personality is such that I knew he wouldn't be offended, otherwise the right thing would have been to do to say nothing, but I knew he wouldn't be offended because that's that's his personality. He doesn't have a thin skin. So I said to him, there are two problems with with the story, not the least of which is that my grandfather did not put on tefillin Chol HaMoed. And my father did not put on tefillin Chol HaMoed. There are some other kashas on the story also, but but that's the first one that that comes to mind. So you're not mechuyav to know. So how did so how was this how was this story fabricated out of out of thin air? You're not mechuyav to know. When you know something is not true, you're not mechuyav to to be able the the tokef of saying that it's not true doesn't depend, there's no burden of proof on you to be able to explain how a bilbul arises. You don't have to explain where that bunny rabbit came from. You don't have to explain where the lion came from. If it's not true, it's not true. And and again, so the Rambam is talking in a very very dramatic sense of of a navi sheker who's doing an אות נפלא שנפלא ממנו, but there are these much much less dramatic applications of the yesod as well.