Sevara & Mitzva

I think we left off there in Perek Vov of De'ot. So the Rambam Halacha Aleph,

דרכו של אדם להיות נמשך בדעותיו ובמעשיו אחר ריעיו וחבריו ונוהג כמנהג אנשי מדינתו לפיכך צריך אדם להתחבר לצדיקים ולישב אצל החכמים תמיד כדי שילמוד ממעשיהם ויתרחק מן הרשעים ההולכים בחושך כדי שלא ילמוד ממעשיהם הוא ששלמה אומר הולך את חכמים יחכם ורועה כסילים ירוע ואומר אשרי האיש אשר לא הלך בעצת רשעים.

Then in Halacha Beis, להידבק בחכמים כדי ללמוד ממעשיהם shene'emar uvo tidbak. So the Rambam has the chiyuv to attach oneself to the chachamim twice, right? He says it initially in Halacha Aleph, שצריך אדם לישב אצל החכמים, and then again in Halacha Beis, מצוות עשה להידבק בחכמים. But I think we commented that in Halacha Aleph, right, the Rambam says it without a pasuk, right? He doesn't, he holds off on the pasuk until Halacha Beis. But Halacha Aleph, apparently the chiyuv is mikkoach hasvara. Ma she'ein kein in Halacha Beis, so here the Rambam tells us that it's in addition to being a chiyuv misvara, it's also a pasuk. It's an explicit mitzvas hatorah as well. So what we're going to discuss is I don't know has gaps and you have to figure out whether or not the gaps can be filled in or whether there's a pircha that emerges from those gaps. The makor or one of the mekoros in Chazal for the basic distinction that there are mitzvos which can be known mikkoach hasvara is the famous braisa in Yoma samech zayin.

תנו רבנן את משפטי תעשו דברים שאילמלא נכתבו דין הוא שיכתבו.

So even if the mitzvos had not been written in the Torah, so then logically we could have, would have, should have understood on our own that those mitzvos are incumbent upon us. ואלו הן עבודת כוכבים gilliu arayos, it's a shayla whether or not the next two words belong here or not, gilliu arayos, that's a shayla, but as we have it printed, ואלו הן עבודת כוכבים gilliu arayos, shefichus damim, vegezel, uvirchas hashem. So those are examples of mishpatim, which when contrasted with chukim, mean again that they're also dictated by svara.

את חוקותי תשמורו דברים שהשטן משיב עליהם ואלו הן אכילת חזיר ולבישת שעטנז וחליצת יבמה וטהרת מצורע ושעיר המשתלח.

Okay. Kimedume, if you look in the Rambam, whether in Hilchos Gezeila Va'aveida or in Hilchos Gneiva, so the Rambam doesn't tell us that the issur gezel, the issur gneiva, is also an issur mikkoach hasvara. He just, so he begins Hilchos Gzeila as he begins Hilchos Gneiva, there's lo tignov, there's lo tignov, it's a lav batorah. Kimedume that you don't know from the Rambam again what we're seeing for instance in our context here in Hilchos De'os, that the chiyuv is not only but the chiyuv is a double chiyuv both mikkoach hapasuk as well as mikkoach hasvara. Similarly in Rotze'ach Ushemiras Nefesh also kimedume you don't find it. L'gabbei megadef, birchas hashem, I'm not sure if you find it either that any reflection in the Rambam. The shayla is when does the Rambam tell us? When does he not tell us? And over here, so the Rambam is sort of very conspicuous in telling us the חיוב לשבת אצל החכמים initially in Halacha Aleph just mikoch hasvara because the reality of human nature is that דרך בריאתו של אדם להיות נמשך, so because of that, a person has to put himself in the in the right environment. He has to expose himself to the to proper influences. So perhaps as follows, perhaps and again there are there are, I don't know, this is not a davar shalem ayen sham. When you look here in Hilchos Deios, so yes on the one hand it's clear that the chiyuv is both mitoch hasvara mikoch hasvara as well as mikoch hapasuk, but on the other hand, there are clear differences between Halacha Aleph and Halacha Beis. There are elements to the chiyuv in Halacha Aleph which are not present in Halacha Beis. There are elements to the chiyuv in Halacha Beis which are not present in Halacha Aleph. So for instance, Halacha Aleph speaks not only leshev eitzel hachachamim but also lehischaber latzadikim. Why? Because the svara is again, the svara emerges from the reality that דרך אדם להיות נמשך בדעותיו, so chachamim are a very wholesome influence but so are tzadikim. Tzadikim also are also also a very wholesome influence. And heyos that the svara is the svara is equally to expose oneself to good influence and it's equally true that one should avoid negative influence so that's why in Halacha Aleph part of the chiyuv is also yisrachak min harioshaim. מה שאין כן in Halacha Beis it's exclusively the chachamim and you don't have the converse. You don't have the lehisrachak meiharioshaim. Me-idach gisa in Halacha Beis the extent of the there's a difference between leshev eitzel hachachamim and the and lehidavek bachachamim. Obviously lehidavek bachachamim implies a a much closer connection than leshev eitzel hachachamim. Leshev eitzel hachachamim I don't know, buy when you're looking to buy a house, so buy next door to the find out find out a block where where the chachamim live, you know buy in that block, that's a good block to buy on. Lehidavek bachachamim is

שישא בת תלמידי חכמים וישיא בתו לתלמיד חכם ולאכול ולשתות עם תלמידי חכמים ולעשות פרקמטיא לתלמיד חכם ולהתחבר להם בכל מיני חיבור,

that obviously goes a lot further than leshev eitzel hachachamim. Or in other words, bekitzur, what the Rambam is telling us here it's not only that the chiyuv emerges both mikoch hasvara as well as mikoch hapasuk, there's a difference. The chiyuvim are not identical. They do overlap, they do overlap, but on the other hand they're not identical and it חאפס א נפקא מינא the fact that the chiyuv is the fact that it's also a chiyuv mikoch hasvara in addition to the fact that it's a pasuk in Chumash חאפס א נפקא מינא again for those differences that that we just enumerated. Samuch le-kach that that is the reason, a reason for the Rambam to tell us when something is a chiyuv not only not additionally that it's also a chiyuv mikoch hasvara. If you take a look in Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuva for a minute. Take a look. Al yomar adam, Perek Yud Halacha Aleph,

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא ואפרוש מן העבירות שהזהירה תורה מהן כדי שאנצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שלא אכרת מחיי העולם הבא אין ראוי לעבוד את ה' על דרך זו שהעובד על דרך. זהו עובד מיראה ואינה מעלת הנביאים ולא מעלת החכמים.

Good. What is... so that's oved miyirah which is not the ideal. What is the ideal? Halacha beis.

העובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ומצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה לא מפני דבר בעולם לא מפני יראת הרעה ולא כדי לירש הטובה אלא עושה אמת מפני שהוא אמת וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל. ומעלה זו היא מעלה גדולה עד מאוד ואין כל חכם זוכה לה והיא מעלת אברהם אבינו שקראו הקדוש ברוך הוא אוהבי לפי שלא עבד אלא מאהבה. והיא המעלה שציוונו הקדוש ברוך הוא על ידי משה רבינו שנאמר ואהבת את השם אלוקיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאודך.

Good. Halacha daled, let's continue.

אמרו חכמים הראשונים שמא תאמר הריני לומד תורה בשביל שאהיה עשיר בשביל שאקרא רבי בשביל שאקבל שכר בעולם הבא תלמוד לומר לאהבה את השם כל שאתם עושים לא תעשו אלא מאהבה. ועוד אמרו חכמים במצוותיו חפץ מאוד במצוותיו ולא בשכר מצוותיו. וכן היו גדולי החכמים מצווים לנבוני תלמידיהם ומשכיליהם בייחוד,

in private.

אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל טובה אלא היו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת שלא לקבל כלום אלא מפני שהוא הרב ראוי לשמשו כלומר עבדו מאהבה. כל העוסק בתורה כדי לקבל שכר או כדי שלא תגיע עליו פורענות הרי זה עוסק בה שלא לשמה. וכל העוסק בה לא ליראה ולא לקבל שכר אלא מפני אהבת אדון כל הארץ שציווה הרי זה עוסק בה לשמה.

So this perek is mamash a pela, kulo pela. The entire perek is kulo pela. First of all, the repetition, no? In Halacha Aleph, the Rambam tells us what isn't oved meiahava and then says and that's not the ideal. And then Halacha Daled, he starts all over again, vayter, the same thing, right? The exact same thing. In Halacha Aleph,

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה,

etc., etc. Halacha Daled, שמא תאמר הריני לומד תורה, he starts all over again in Halacha Daled. Right? The same cycle of Halacha Aleph and Beis, what's oved miyirah, what's oved meiahava? So the Rambam cycles through that a second time in Halachos Daled and Hey. What's even more of a pela is that he gives a different definition of what it means to be oved meiahava. The definitions in Halacha Beis and Halacha Hey are not identical definitions. In Halacha Beis, the definition is העובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה, the pathways of chochmah,

לא מפני דבר בעולם לא מפני יראת הרעה ולא כדי לירש הטובה אלא עושה אמת מפני שהוא אמת וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל.

Halacha Hey,

וכל העוסק בה לא ליראה ולא לקבל שכר אלא מפני אהבת אדון כל הארץ שציווה הרי זה עוסק בה לשמה.

Those are not the כפל בעניין במילים שונות. So it happens to be that the Rambam has two different definitions of what it means to be oved meiahava. The biggest kasha is in Halacha Beis. Right? You wouldn't have thought this was possible. And if we didn't have a Rambam, so we wouldn't have known it was possible. But you wouldn't have thought it was possible to give a definition of oved meiahava without mentioning the Ribono shel Olam. You wouldn't have thought so, would you? But look at Halacha Beis, that's what the Rambam does. Halacha Hey is more what the... more of what we would have expected, no? Halacha Beis is... is... So the answer lichora is as follows: that here too, by the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem, the Rambam is standing by two different mechayvim. The chiyuv of ahavas Hashem mikoach hasvara, the chiyuv of ahavas Hashem mikoach hapasuk of ואהבת את השם אלוקיך. Here too although the there is obviously overlap between those two distinct mechayvim, but that there's not they're not identical. The mechayev of mikoyach hasvarah, the mechayev of mikoyach hasvarah is even emes is before a person would even have discovered akadosh baruch hu. The chiyuv mikoyach hasvarah is that a person should search for truth. Even before the person knows Ribono Shel Olam, the chiyuv mikoyach hasvarah is Avraham Avinu didn't know what he was searching for necessarily. He knew that that what if he had known what he was searching for that he wouldn't have had to search, right? Avraham Avinu knew that that the belief system in which he was raised was was nonsense. And and and he was searching for truth. Okay, so חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת, hashem elokeichem emes, so that search for truth led him to Ribono Shel Olam. And that's why the Rambam defines it without mentioning akadosh baruch hu because the chiyuv mikoyach hasvarah is that a person should be searching for truth is even before the person knows Ribono Shel Olam. Even before he knows akadosh baruch hu, a person should be searching for truth. He shouldn't be just just partying and and v'chulu. So the definition of oved meahava mikoyach hasvarah is is that a person has has a devotion dedication to emes, which again obviously then converges with leads him to akadosh baruch hu. But but the emphasis again is on אמת מפני שהוא אמת. אמת מפני שהוא אמת. When one talks about the mechayev mikoyach haposuk, so obviously if one's talking about the chiyuv ahavas hashem mikoyach haposuk, so then we're not talking about a chiyuv that's even before a person would know akadosh baruch hu. We're talking about the chiyuv mikoyach haposuk, talking about the chiyuv which a person receives standing at the at the foot of Har Sinai. So there the Rambam says the pshat in oved meahava is מפני אהבת אדון כל הארץ שציוה בו. That's why again semuchim l'kach that that this is the pshat the Rambam, that's why in halacha aleph he doesn't quote any maamarei chazal. All the maamarei chazal no, so he should have sort of saved he should have used some of his bekius halacha aleph and some of bekius halacha daled, no? See all all the bekius is sthupped into halacha daled and halacha because in halacha aleph the Rambam's talking about the chiyuv mikoyach hasvaras, he can't quote a maamar chazal. He can't say it's because chazal told us. That's not necessarily chiyuv mikoyach hasvarah. He's emphasizing no, al yomer adam, you don't you don't need i don't know it doesn't have to be because it's a gemara in nedarim. It doesn't have to be because it's a posuk in chumash. Even absent the gemara in nedarim, even absent the posuk in chumash. But here too, just as in פרק ו' הלכות דעות, the Rambam makes a point of telling us that the chiyuv and that's why he he cycles through twice. Once he's telling us yira ve'ahava mikoyach hasvarah, once he's telling us mikoyach hapsukim. So here too, again if if we we come back to our question of when does the Rambam tell us that that something is also mikoyach hasvarah, when not? So here too, it's because the two obviously overlap, but they don't they're not totally identical. There is nafka mina that remains even once it's a posuk, there's a nafka mina that remains due to the fact that it's mikoyach hasvarah. Yitachen that by issur gezel, by issur shefichas domim, there is no nafka mina that remains. The fact that that it's also mikoyach hasvarah, but but maybe there it doesn't chap any nafka mina, yeda. How does the first type consider oved meahava? It sounds like you're saying it's about being searching for the emes. How is that oved meahava? Ahava means means something which is totally selfless, altruistic, שלא לשום דבר בעולם. It doesn't necessarily translate as love. When the Rambam describes ahava he's without the negative association that we usually have with that word, totally captivated, totally mesmerized, but lav davka that it translates as love. You find that lema'aseh obviously sometimes ahava does mean love, but you find it also in let's say a negative sense also when you find Amnon and Tamar. So Amnon is obsessed with Tamar, he doesn't love Tamar. He's obsessed with her. And yet the Navi uses the word ahava to depict it. In Perek Bet of Hilchot Teshuva, when the Rambam's quoting the Gemara in Yuma about the illustration of Teshuva Shleima, that דהיינו עומד באהבתו בה, so that's not, Rambam's not talking about love there either, he's talking about lust and obsession, he's not talking about love there. Okay, so that's a suggestion, just to indicate sort of some of the loose ends here that we need to think about be'ezrat Hashem. So if you have the Rambam in Hilchot Melachim, Perek Tet, Halacha Alef:

שישה דברים נצטווה אדם הראשון על עבודה זרה ועל ברכת השם ועל שפיכות דמים ועל גילוי עריות ועל הגזל ועל הדינים.

There's a machlokes between the Rambam and the Ba'alei Tosafot whether Adam HaRishon also received ever min hachai or whether ever min hachai was added to Noach. So the Rambam thinks that Adam HaRishon, who was a vegetarian, so he only had six mitzvot, and then Noach had the seventh mitzvah of ever min hachai. And the Ba'alei Tosafot say no, that Adam HaRishon already had the איסור אבר מן החי, I mean it wasn't allowed to kill an animal, yeah, but let's say one animal attacked another animal and as a result the limb became detached, so that potentially after the sin the איסור אבר מן החי would have been muttar to Adam HaRishon. Okay, good. Then the Rambam says this is what's relevant to us in our context:

אף על פי שכולן קבלה הן בידינו ממשה רבינו והדעת נוטה להן מכלל דברי התורה ייראה שעל אלו נצטוו.

So the Rambam says it's three things: A, we have a kabbalah; B, the שבע מצוות בני נח is svara, hadaat noteh lahen; and three, it's the mashmaut in Torah she'bichtav also. So here the Rambam does make a point of telling us that hadaat noteh lahen. So how does that, what do we do with that? That's one thing that we need to come back to. The other thing is the example we had already in Hilchot De'ot of where the Rambam indicates to us that something is a chiyuv also mikoch hasvara, so we saw that in terms of the mida beinonit, that the Rambam originally presented it as ra'uy and ein ra'uy, ad k'dei kach that he even tells us the din d'rabbanan before the din d'oraita, so is there a nafka mina there? Is there some lingering remaining nafka mina to the fact that it's also a chiyuv mikoch hasvara? How does it diverge there, or does it diverge in the way that the example of ahavat Hashem and u-l'dovka bo worked? Okay, so those are at least two questions be'ezrat Hashem we'll come back to. Okay, so we'll resume at 1:30 in the sugya of Tosfot be'ezrat Hashem.