Reshus – Bechira

רשות לכל אדם נתונה. אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ולהיות צדיק, הרשות בידו. ואם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך רעה ולהיות רשע, הרשות בידו. והוא שכתוב בתורה "הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו לדעת טוב ורע"

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כלומר הן מין זה של אדם היה יחיד בעולם ואין מין שני דומה לו בזה העניין שיהיה הוא מעצמו בדעתו ובמחשבתו יודע הטוב והרע ועושה כל מה שהוא חפץ ואין מי שיעכב בידו מלעשות הטוב או הרע וכיון שכן הוא "פן ישלח ידו".

So the word reshus, which we translate correctly in many contexts as permission, also means the capacity, as in al tisvada l'reshus, the authority, meaning that they have the ability, they have the power. So reshus is a lashon of, the Rambam doesn't mean that a person has permission, he's talking about a koach hanefesh, he's talking about an ability, a capacity that a person has. And l'chol adam means that the bechira chofshis is not something which is limited to Yisrael, clearly it means every person.

אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ולהיות צדיק, אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך רעה ולהיות רשע.

Dehainu, the Rambam doesn't say אם רצה להיות צדיק hareshus biyado, אם רצה להיות רשע hareshus biyado. Some things in life are processes. Some things in life there's a derech that a person has to travel in order to ultimately achieve. It's not always as simple as deciding right now 'I'm going to be a tzaddik.' A person has to work to make himself a tzaddik. A person right now resolves 'I'm not going to eat this food if it has a questionable hashgacha.' A person right now resolves 'I'm going to say a bracha.' But that the person is a tzaddik is a result of a process. Just an example of that in the Rambam himself, if you look back in perek aleph of Hilchos Deos, halachos vav v'zayin, v'chulei. כך למדו בפירוש מצוה זו: the mitzvah of ve-halachta bidrachav that he quoted at the end of halacha hei:

מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון מה הוא נקרא רחום אף אתה היה רחום מה הוא נקרא קדוש אף אתה היה קדוש.

Dehainu, the mitzvah of ve-halachta bidrachav is not only a mitzvah which dictates behavior, which dictates conduct, but it means that we're supposed to cultivate these midos not just to the point where a person acts with chanina, that he acts with rachmanus, but the person is a chanun, that the person is a rachum, right? אף אתה היה חנון, אף אתה היה רחום. Why? Because since the Rambam says that, since this is a kiyum in ve-halachta bidrachav,

לפיכך חייב אדם להנהיג עצמו בהן ולהידמות אליו כפי כוחו.

A person most resembles Hakadosh Baruch Hu not only if he acts with rachmanus, not only if he acts with chanina, but when he, the person, is a rachman, when he, the person, is a chanun, so then he's more misdameh as it were to at least to the midos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He's misdameh eilav more when the person himself is not just that he kovesh es yitzro and he acts in a way that's consistent with rachmanus or chanina, but he himself becomes a rachman or a chanun. So how does a person then mekayem this mitzvah? If the mitzvah is not only a mitzvah on the level of ma'aseh, on the level of actions, but in terms of molding one's personality? So vekeitzad, halacha zayin:

כיצד ירגיל אדם עצמו בדעות אלו עד שיקבעו בו? יעשה וישנה וישלש במעשים שעושה על פי הדעות האמצעיות ויחזור בהן תמיד עד שיהיו מעשיהם קלים עליו ולא יהיה בהם טורח עליו ויקבעו הדעות בנפשו.

That the way a person becomes a rachman again is acting with rachmanus. So initially, that's what the Rambam is saying here, and initially all I can do in terms of let's say in terms of the mitzvah of ve-halachta bidrachav, so initially all I can do is להטות עצמו לדרך טובה. I can be mateh atzmo to act in a way that will help me ultimately... Ultimately lihyos tzaddik, ultimately lihyos rachum. I can be matteh myself to act in a way which is consistent and which helps cultivate the chanina. But that's gonna take time. It's not gonna happen overnight. So it's not necessarily with regard to everything that רשות לכל אדם נתונה that that lihyos tzaddik obviously when the famous sugya in Kiddushin again which is so so relevant to Hilchos Teshuva of המקדש את האשה על מנת שאני צדיק גמור is mekudeshes, safek mekudeshes, shema hirhir belibo. So obviously tzaddik is being used there in a different sense than tzaddik is being used there. There tzaddik means le'afukei from rasha again in the sense of, in the sense of right now was he, you know, what derech is he on? You know, is he on the derech ha'rishus or not? But the Rambam here is using the lashon tzaddik differently. And that's why the Rambam speaks in terms of lehattos atzmo. Me'inyan le'inyan, I heard over the summer a very penetrating and powerful vort from Rebbi Yerucham printed in his seforim that often, I don't know whether he's mesiach to this lashon haRambam or not, I don't know, but to paraphrase what he says in light of this, often right we look at where a person is in life or where a person ends up in life and you see that a person does something very dramatic. Ich veis, you can see that a person, he sits and he learns behasmada atzuma. That's what this person is doing. And another person, another person has to dust off his seforim if he takes a sefer out. And what we fail to realize is that very often the pivotal moment was not a choice between these two radically different outcomes, results, lifestyles, but the pivotal moment was when they were more or less in the same spot, a shtickel a crossroads. Maybe it was when they were, ich veis, teenagers. Maybe it was when they were 14 years old, what they were going to do over the summer. And maybe one decided to go to a certain program which would have a very positive hashpa'ah on him and which pointed him in a certain direction. And the other one chose differently. The momentum of what we do means that even the משל למה הדבר דומה. משל למה הדבר דומה. Ich veis, a person is in, ich veis, he's in Newark, he's in Elizabeth. So whenever you have an entrance to the turnpike, so usually the same entrance can take you in either direction on the turnpike. So right now, so right now, he has to make this little decision right there, they're right next to each other, right? One sign he may not notice, it says Turnpike North and one says Turnpike South. So right now, they're very close to each other. Yeah, a person a little bit of a little bit he's mateh atzmo. So then instead of being mateh atzmo to go south which will take him to Pennsylvania, so he's going north and nebech he's going to end up in Washington Heights if he doesn't watch out. It doesn't mean that along the way he doesn't have the bechira chofshis to reverse directions. It doesn't mean that, doesn't mean that he can't notice signs along the way that you know that he's coming to cities, to neighborhoods which are further north and really he's supposed to be headed south to get to his destination. But lema'aseh, the most pivotal decision, again, not that he didn't have, not that he doesn't have bechira chofshis subsequently, we'll talk about that soon, b'chora he certainly does, but it was that original להטות עצמו לדרך טובה. The applications of this are endless, are endless. What a person decides what he's going to do for parnassa, okay? So I'm choosing between A, B, and C. But if profession A, by and large, means that people work very long hours, they also earn a lot of money which creates a which creates its own nisayon, so it would be a mistake ten years down the road when this person is living a megushamdike lifestyle to say, oh, problem is that a few years ago he, two years ago epes he stopped coming to the Daf Yomi shiur. No, that's not where the problems began. Problems began ten years ago when he decided that he was going to go into this profession where the hours are incredibly long and where the salary is so great and the whole environment and the whole mindset of the workplace is money, money, money. That's where it began. Again, which is not to say that the person doesn't have bechira chofshis later, but it's harder later because later the momentum is going against him, going against him. So this yesod, again, how much of this the Rambam is thinking of, but this yesod that Rav Yerucham talks about is a very big one. Recently, recently I heard things which were mamash I don't know, staggering, terrifying, about incidents of mamash gilluy arayos, literally pashut k'mashmao. This is the worst manifestation, there are lesser degrees and lesser shades amongst people who otherwise subscribe and to a degree, whatever that means, live a frum lifestyle. And the consensus amongst the yodei davar is that the catalyst, the megareh yetzer hara, the yetzer hara is strong enough without geruy. is very, very healthy and powerful without our being megare it even more, and the megare of the yetzer hara, that's what the yodei davar say is things that people allow themselves to be exposed to on the internet. So there too, what Reb Yochanan Matallas says is that we're making a mistake in thinking that the only thing that went wrong was when this person rachmana litzlan didn't exercise his or her bechira chofshis appropriately beshas aveira. That too. That too was a moment of bechira chofshis and that's right. But the pivotal moment, the moment when there was less momentum, the moment when it was easier to exercise the bechira chofshis was the moment when the yetzer hara was just the yetzer hara about whether or not to allow oneself to see things which are assur and to be megare the yetzer hara. My understanding is that there's a program that I think some talmidim have already signed up for where people voluntarily to inhibit the yetzer hara. בעבור תהיה יראתו על פניכם לבלתי תחטאו, zu habusha. That busha inhibits us from cheit. Things that we're willing to do if no one knows about it, but if someone knows about it, we won't do. Mora shamayim, right? Mora basar vadam. That mora shamayim should be kemora basar vadam because there is a reality of mora basar vadam. Halevai. Halevai that when a person sins, shelo yirani adam. So there is a program where a person signs up that whatever he does on from his computer, so there's a printout of every site that the person goes to which is sent to his buddy. And that way, if bechadrei chadarim I'm being mitlabet with the yetzer hara, should I go, shouldn't I go, maybe it's not as bad as people say it is and whatever, should I go to the site, shouldn't I go to the site, or maybe I do know it's as bad, but whatever reason I'm inclined to rationalize it, so zu habusha, but if I know that someone is going to get a list of where I visited on my computer, they're going to get whatever I did off of my computer, they're going to get a list of, so then that busha would inhibit. Even yavo Eliyahu veyomar, he would take Eliyahu because אל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך. Lichora, I can't say it about myself. Lichora a person can't say it about himself. אל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך. But even yavo Eliyahu veyomar and would tell someone that he doesn't need such a siyua, that he's not going to be nitpas in such a thing, so avada a person should sign up for it anyway to be mechazek others, to help try to create an environment where everyone is going to... I mean lema'aseh rachmana litzlan, it happens. And lema'aseh rachmana litzlan, it happens in circles where we would think that it's unthinkable and inconceivable that it would happen. So ka'asher lamaisa, it does happen. So lichora in every area in life, so whatever we do, a person has to weigh what he does betoras yachid and what he does betoras part of the klal and betoras his obligation to the klal. So when I do something, I have to know not only whether it's right for me, but also how am I, what am I contributing to the overall environment, atmosphere, momentum, influence which our surroundings have on all of us. That's part of my obligation. In less dramatic Areas. There's always a yetzer hara about a Sunday morning seder. Not gonna have any Sundays for a long time. But about a Sunday morning seder. So even if a person has what as a yachid is a legitimate reason not to be there, but a person also has to weigh, no one's gonna know that, or even if some people know it, it's not gonna change the fact that there's one less person. And therefore the reason has to be legitimate not just betor yachid but also in terms of his achrayus to being mechazek the seder as a whole. A person has to make that shikul as well. Again, if your brother's getting married, still doesn't get you out of it, you're still gonna have to go to the wedding. But some shikulim I'm still gonna, I'm still gonna, I'm still gonna tell you that you should go and not be there. But it's not as simple as for me it's legitimate. It has to be that for me in terms of not only my achrayus to myself but my achrayus to the klal. That's part of the shikul. So here too even if yavo Eliyahu vyomar that יכול אתה להאמין בעצמך בדבר זה so a person should, should try to be mechazek the klal. Ein hachi nami a person does have to be aware of the fact that there are legitimate things that a person might want to do on the internet which are private. That's certainly the case and and that is a problem with the system. There are things that a person might have need to, ich veis, to be researching which which are totally legitimate and which are legitimately private and ein hachi nami, so a person would have to be aware that that he wouldn't do it on his computer, maybe use a computer in a public place where presumably no one's gonna be looking over your shoulder and but so a person does have to figure out how to navigate that. But that's part of the lehatos atzmo, part of the lehatos atzmo. Interesting lashon here in the Rambam. אין מין שני דומה לו בזה העניין says the Rambam

שיהיה הוא מעצמו בדעתו ובמחשבתו יודע הטוב והרע ועושה כל מה שהוא חפץ.

So I think if we were sort of asked to write this, not necessarily thinking as deeply or clearly as the Rambam, so Halacha Aleph is about bechira chofshis, right? We have bechira chofshis. So I think I would have written, a person has bechira to do, to do, to do what he wants and therefore he's accountable for what he does. Rambam says much more than that, right? The Rambam doesn't only say that. The Rambam says that a person also has the capacity to know good and bad. Not only, meaning, you could have said like this, I don't really have such a capacity to know good and bad, but I have free will to know how to act. The Torah tells me, the Shulchan Aruch tells me do this don't do this, I have a bechira chofshis to whether or not I'll listen to what it says in the Torah, whether I'll listen, I'll comply with what it says in Shulchan Aruch, but the Rambam is clearly, clearly saying no, bechira chofshis is much more than that. Bechira chofshis is the, is the, is the tip of the iceberg, what it begins with is a capacity to know tov v'ra, to know tov v'ra. B'che'ora because once the Rambam says it so then we realize, so what does it help that I have free will to decide the Torah says keep Shabbos and I now have free will to know whether to listen to the, whether I'll listen to the Torah? But if I don't have, if I don't have a capacity to know on my own that what the Torah tells me it's right that a person should listen to what Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells him. So ultimately the free will only means something, that's what the Rambam is explaining to us, if a person has that koach to be mechaven to tov v'ra. Because otherwise, so fine, so you're telling me this is good, this is bad, so maybe, but if I don't have the capacity to understand why I should be meshoubad to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I don't understand that tov v'ra on that level. So then so what? So then the bechira chofshis still isn't going to lead to a sense of accountability. But if I have that koach to be yodeia, excuse me, to be me'atzmo b'da'ato uv'machshavto... The question is just how far-reaching the Rambam intends this. The way we just presented it was kind of what was more narrow relatively speaking and to what extent does the Rambam's formulation here of what the reshus capacity of bechirah chofshis is to what extent that that's relevant we didn't really discuss it in Perek Gimmel but the famous discussion in Gimmel Zayin where the Rambam lists as a min someone who thinks HaKadosh Baruch Hu is a baal goof with the hasagas haRavad and in Rav Chaim's famous comment. So the Rambam says in Gimmel Zayin that

האומר שיש שם רבון אחד אבל שהוא גוף ובעל תמונה.

Omar haRavad

ולמה קרא לזה מין. כמה גדולים וטובים ממנו הלכו בזו המחשבה לפי מה שראו במקראות ויותר ממה שראו בדברי ההגדות המשבשות את הדעות.

Right, so the Ravad clearly agrees that this is a shibush, right, that this is a deah meshubeshes. The Ravad doesn't disagree with it. The Ravad agrees that it's minus but he says lo davka that everyone who believes in minus is a min. He can have a heretical view but he's not a heretic. It's minus but he's not a min. The Rambam says he is a min, right? So kayaduah Rav Elchonon quotes from Rav Chaim someone who's a nebech apikorus is oich an apikorus. So yitachen that the Rambam here the Rambam's that the reshus of bechirah chofshis is שיהיה הוא מעצמו בדעתו ובמחשבתו again not just to respond but bedaito uvmachshavto to be mechavein to tov vera. It could be that the Rambam means this in a very very dramatic sense and that it's quite relevant to what he said earlier in Gimmel Zayin.

אל יעלה על מחשבתך דבר זה שאומרים טיפשי אומות העולם ורוב גולמי בני ישראל שהקדוש ברוך הוא גוזר על אדם מתחילת ברייתו להיות צדיק או רשע. אין הדבר כן אלא כל אדם ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבנו או רשע כירבעם. או חכם או סכל או רחמן או אכזרי או כילי או שוע. וכן שאר כל הדעות ואין מי שיכפהו ולא גוזר עליו ולא מי שמושכו לאחד משני הדרכים אלא הוא מעצמו ומדעתו נוטה לאיזו דרך שירצה. הוא שירמיהו אמר מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב. כלומר אין הבורא גוזר על האדם להיות טוב ולא להיות רע. וכיון שכן הוא נמצא זה החוטא הוא הפסיד את עצמו. ולפיכך ראוי לו לבכות ולקונן על חטאיו ועל מה שעשה לנפשו וגמלה רעה. הוא שכתוב אחריו מה יתאונן אדם חי. וחזר ואמר הואיל ורשותנו בידינו ומדעתנו עשינו כל הרעות ראוי לנו לחזור בתשובה ולעזוב רשענו שהרשות עתה בידינו הוא. הוא שכתוב אחריו נחפשה דרכינו ונחקורה ונשובה.

Okay. What does it mean tzaddik keMoshe o rasha kYarovom? So it means one of two things. ולא קם נביא בישראל כמשה עוד. So either the Rambam never said he can be a navi vchacham keMoshe he said he can be a tzaddik keMoshe Rabbeinu. Or the Rambam means Moshe Rabbeinu as representing a certain derech. Representing a certain derech. Lichora the first the first pshat is adequate also. Chacham o sachol so we usually think of that as included in hakol bidei shamayim. So what does it mean? So clearly what the Rambam means by it is that ich veis right Rashi quotes from Chazal beginning of parshas Korach that that Korach shepikeach haya מה ראה לשטות כזאת. Means a person can have tremendous native intelligence but he can either choose despite that intelligence to act like a sochel or another bechira that he has is a person can have profound native intelligence and not develop it. Whatever a person's native intelligence is you can have one person who's if there's I don't know if there's a way of ever knowing it but you can have if one person's natural IQ if you could echshehu know what it is would be off the charts. But l'maise the person is so busy with his taivos he never really develops it so l'maise not that much of it surfaces. And you have another person whose whose IQ is is much lower but he does everything to to develop it and because of that he lives a much more a much more secheldike existence. So on that level also chocham v'sochel is birshuso odom again to the extent to which given his chochmo he he chooses to act wisely or foolishly and the extent to which a person develops and and whatever innate whatever native intelligence he has. Then quoted the pasuk in Eichah מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב. So Rashi in Eichah says that this is a rhetorical question meaning don't you realize that when good things or bad things happens that's hashgacha from Hashem מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב. Of course it is. What happens in the world meaning don't think that the Churban don't don't analyze it in terms of geopolitics. מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב. And Rambam says no it's not talking about those types of external events but it's rather talking about the raos and tov that a person does and a person shouldn't look to avoid responsibility for that because מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב doesn't come from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Nefesh Hachayim agrees with the Rambam that the pasuk should be read benichusa not bitmiya but he understands it differently. He says מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב is part of what he talks about at some length that it's it's not the pshat that when a person sins Hakadosh Baruch Hu punishes him. What does that mean? So he says again maybe just a moshel before we come to what Nefesh Hachayim says let's say a a there's a fire here person sticks his hand in the fire he gets burnt. So he was punished? He wasn't punished. That's what happens the world was created with certain cause and effect certain natural consequences. It's not pshat no one would describe that as a punishment he saw it and it's it's it's consequences it's not not not not punishment. A person smokes chain smoker for for thirty years and then rachmana litzlan gets some lung disease. Is it a punishment? No bederech hateva it's it's not a punishment everyone knows that that that's a natural consequence of smoking. So Nefesh Hachayim says the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world is is that the same way in the physical world there are things that are carcinogens and again we don't describe that as a punishment so that's the way the spiritual everything in the physical world is some is mirroring is some something in the spiritual world. So that's the way it is in the spiritual world as well and that's what it means מפי עליון לא תצא הרעות והטוב. It's not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has to intervene to punish no Hakadosh Baruch Hu set up the world in such a way that that's what the fallout that's what the natural inevitable consequence of tov and ra rachmana litzlan is that tov again creates a malach tov and and has all these positive all this positive fallout and v'zeh l'umas zeh.

עיקר גדול הוא והוא עמוד התורה והמצוה שנאמר ראה נתתי לפניך היום את החיים וכתיב ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום. כלומר שהרשות בידכם וכל שיחפוץ אדם לעשות ממעשה בני אדם עושה בין טוב ובין רע ומפני זה הענין נאמר מי יתן והיה לבבם זה להם. כלומר שאין הבורא כופה בני אדם ולא גוזר עליהם לעשות. אלא הכל מסור להם. אילו האל היה גוזר על אדם להיות צדיק או רשע או אילו היה שם דבר שמושך את האדם בעיקר תולדתו לדרך מן הדרכים או למדע מן המדעות או לדעה מן הדעות או למעשה מן המעשים כמו שבודים מליבם הטפשים הוברי שמים היך היה מצווה לנו על ידי הנביאים עשה כך ואל תעשה כך הטיבו דרכיכם ואל תלכו אחרי רשעכם והוא מתחילת ברייתו כבר נגזר עליו או תולדתו תמשוך אותו לדבר שאי אפשר לזוז ממנו ומה מקום היה לכל התורה כולה ובאיזה דין ובאיזה משפט נפרע מן הרשע או משלם שכר לצדיק השופט כל הארץ לא יעשה משפט.

Okay. So again keyadu'a, we mentioned I think last time, the question is raised: why didn't the Rambam include this in perakim she-monah, in the hakdama to perek chelek? Amongst the... He says here: על כל התורה כולה is just doesn't make any sense without recognizing this.

ואל תתמה ותאמר היאך יהיה אדם עושה כל מה שיחפוץ ויהיו מעשיו מסורים לו וכי ייעשה בעולם דבר שלא ברשות קונו ולא חפצו והכתוב אומר כל אשר חפץ ה' עשה בשמים ובארץ.

So throughout the Rambam's depiction of bechirah chofshis, halacha gimmel, halacha daled, is that bechirah chofshis is absolute. Dehainu, that a person again can exercise his bechirah chofshis, can exert that bechirah chofshis and do what he decides to do. As a matter of fact, there's a very, very mamash dvarim nifla'im in hilchos teshuvah where the Rav explains, he says, is all of a sudden in the middle of hilchos teshuvah that the Rambam starts digressing and discoursing about bechirah chofshis? Then in perek zayin, he starts talking about teshuvah all over again. He starts from scratch.

הלכה ג' אל תאמר שאין תשובה אלא מעבירות שיש בהן מעשה כגון זנות וגזל וגניבה אלא כשם שצריך אדם לשוב מאלו כך הוא צריך לחפש בדעות רעות שיש לו ולשוב מן הכעס ומן האיבה מן הקנאה מן ההיתול ומרדיפת הממון והכבוד ומרדיפת המאכלות וכיוצא בהן מן הכל צריך לחזור בתשובה.

So why didn't the Rambam tell us that in perek aleph, in halacha bais? The Rambam perek aleph, halacha bais is the Rambam clearly says, if a person did something wrong, he has to do teshuvah, and this is what constitutes teshuvah, and these are the chelkei ha-teshuvah. Didn't say anything about this. Now all of a sudden in perek zayin the Rambam wakes up and remembers that he didn't tell us yet that there's teshuvah from middos ra'os. So the Rav says, what happened is that in between, the Rambam presents bechirah chofshis. Dehainu, so what did we think? That we thought that back in perek aleph, perek bais, a person had no bechirah chofshis? So then there was nothing to talk about. You couldn't talk about anything there. So no, but the Rambam explains just how powerful bechirah chofshis is. Dehainu, we could have thought that what a person can sort of do is that we have different and often contradictory urges, desires, inclinations. A person has an urge, a person has a desire, a certain ta'avah, and keneged zeh, he knows, this is very tasty, I want to eat it, but the doctor told me to watch my cholesterol. So he has this back and forth, and bechirah chofshis is sort of a... is machria beineihem. Machria beineihem. Okay, so teshuvah, that understanding of bechirah chofshis is enough to understand the existence of teshuvah. The existence of teshuvah. Okay, so I was nichshal in A, B, or C. So keneged A, B, or C, so let me let me try to strengthen the tzad she-keneged. Let me think, Rabbeinu Yonah writes in Sha'arei Teshuvah, let me think about the דין וחשבון רחמנא ליצלן. Let me think about רע ומר עזבך את ה'. Let me let me try to tip the scales in favor of the contrary urge and the contrary impulse. That's also a bechina of bechirah chofshis, but a more limited bechina bechirah chofshis. Again, you sort of, you can look to be mechazek one urge over another urge. And, and you can therefore look to decide which, which urge you'll follow. Comes the Rambam and says,

רשות לכל אדם נתונה רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ולהיות צדיק הרשות בידו. כל אדם ראוי להיות צדיק כמשה רבנו. להיות צדיק כמשה רבנו

doesn't just mean that I have this taiva and I have this impulse, so I'll try to give a nudge to that impulse versus this taiva. That clearly means that a person can have total, total, can exert total mastery over himself. He can change midos. He can form his own, his own instincts. He can, he can inculcate deios into himself. Oh! You understand? The Rambam says, now you understand just how far-reaching bechirah chofshis is, so now you'll understand, now I can tell you the secret that teshuva is not only from ma'asim, but teshuva is from deios ra'os also. The whole, especially the way the Rav develops it, the whole thrust of the Rambam seems to be at odds with the famous nekudas habechirah of Rav Dessler that is very much quoted. You don't get that impression at all in the Rambam. Rav Dessler writes in Michtav M'Eliyahu, here in cheilek alef, he gives a mashal as follows: an old-fashioned war, which was just a ground war. There's no, no aerial bombardment, no naval, just face-to-face combat. So he says, so where's the, where does the fighting happen? The fighting happens literally on the front line, right? The front line of the two opposing armies, they're the ones who are actually engaged in the hand-to-hand combat. So as one wins, so then the front line will move in either direction, depending upon who's prevailing. So he says that's, so he says that's the battle between the yeitzer hatov and the yeitzer hara. In the same way, the same way, again, in hand-to-hand combat between two armies, so the same way you can't make inroads over here when this is where the battle line is, when this is where the front lines, the front line is, you can't make inroads here, you can't make inroads there. So he says a person has a certain nekudas habechirah. I mean, it's a gevaldige limud zchus on, you know, for a person, a gevaldige limud zchus, but it's very, very hard to see how it's at least consistent with the Rambam. Very, very hard to see how it's consistent with the Rambam. So he says a person has a certain nekudas habechirah, and the nekudas habechirah, it can be determined either by past decisions that he's made, for which he does have an achrayus in terms of the past decisions, or it can be as a result of forces beyond his control. Doesn't seem to be, doesn't seem to be on the Rambam's wavelength at all. Again, which is not to say that the Rambam thinks that anything can be accomplished instantaneously. That's what we were talking about before, about lehattos atzmo. The Rambam also agrees that if right now, right now I'm very stingy, right now I'm a big ka'asman, right now a big ba'al taiva, so it's not that I have bechirah chofshis that in a second from now I can, I can be ois ka'asman, ois ba'al taiva, and, and, and no longer such a kamtzan. I can't do that. I can resolve to turn in that direction. I can make sure that I get on the turnpike heading in the, in the right, in the right direction. So the Rambam, but this notion that, that even on the level of mitzvos ma'asiyos, that, I don't think, I don't see how it's misyashev with the Rambam's presentation here, and especially the point is dramatized by the Rav's ha'ara in terms of how the Rambam then turns around and says, "Now you'll see that anything is possible." When you realize just what the koach bechirah chofshis is, now I can tell you what the real expectation in terms of teshuva is. It doesn't make a difference what midos ra'os you have, and it doesn't make a difference what upbringing you had, it doesn't have a difference... okay, v'tzarich iyun, maybe, I don't know, maybe he doesn't really mean what, entirely 100% what it would seem. I'll just finish Halacha Daled. ודע שהכל כחפצו יעשה o ye'ase? Ya'ase.

ואף על פי שמעשינו מסורין לנו. כיצד? כשם שהיוצר חפץ להיות האש והרוח עולים למעלה, והמים והארץ יורדים למטה, והגלגל סובב בעיגול, וכן שאר בריות העולם להיות כמנהגן שחפץ בו, כך חפץ להיות האדם ברשותו בידו וכל מעשיו מסורין לו, ולא יהיה לו לא כופה ולא מושך אלא הוא מעצמו בדעתו שנתן לו האל עושה כל שהאדם יכול לעשות. לפיכך דנין אותו לפי מעשיו, אם עשה טוב מטיבין לו, ואם עשה רע מריעין לו. הוא שהנביא אומר מידכם היתה זאת לכם, גם הם בחרו בדרכיהם. ובעניין זה אמר שלמה שמח בחור בילדותך ודע כי על כל אלה יביאך האלוקים במשפט, כלומר דע שיש בידך כח לעשות ועתיד אתה ליתן את הדין.

Okay, so so bli neder next time, I think we'll probably just to finish this unit, probably go to Perek Vav and then maybe go back to after that to Perek Daled. A gut yohr, ksiva v'chasima tova, shana tova.