Sha’ar Hayichud. Intellectually-Based Awareness.

אמר המחבר כאשר חקרנו על מה שצריך אליו יסוד דתנו ושרשה מצאנו ייחוד האלוהים בלב שלם שורשה ויסודה שהוא השער הראשון משערי התורה ובו ייחוד ייפרד המאמין מן הכופר והוא ראש אמיתת הדת ומי שנטה ממנו לא יתכן לו מעשה ולא תתקיים לו אמונה ועל זה היה תחילת דברי האלוהים אלינו על הר סיני אנכי ה' אלוהיך לא יהיה לך אלוהים אחרים והזהירנו על כך אחר כך על ידי נביאו ואמר שמע ישראל ה' אלהינו ה' אחד.

So even though in the minyan hamitzvos let's say in the Rambam's minyan hamitzvos so Anochi is one mitzvah of taryag. Yichud Hashem שמע ישראל ה' אלהינו ה' אחד is the second mitzvah in the minyan taryag. But what the Chovot HaLevavot is explaining is you can't isolate that mitzvah. It's the ikar shehakol talui bah. Everything everything else that a person does depends upon that. Everything we do every other mitzvah we do is an act of avoda is an act of avodas Hashem. If the correct emuna/yedia is missing rachmana litzlan is deficient rachmana litzlan so then that that negates that negates everything everything you do. And that's what he means לא יתכן לו מעשה ולא תתקיים לו אמונה. There is if you pull the foundation out from the building so it doesn't matter you know how how well you you build all the other all the other stories of the building. Vetzarich shetavin says the Chovot HaLevavot

הפרשה הזאת של שמע ישראל עד סופה ותראה איך נדבקו בו דברים מענין לענין.

You'll see the progression how how it unfolds. וכלל עשרה עניינים כנגד עשרת הדברות. No lechora the you know the asara that the Chovot HaLevavot is going to identify in the parshas Shema Yisrael don't correspond to the aseres hadibros ich veiss the way Rashi quotes Chazal you know that the parshas Kedoshim in the beginning of parshas Kedoshim you have the mitzvos aligned with aseres hadibros. איש אמו ואביו תיראו aligns with כבד את אביך ואת אמך. Shabbosai tishmoru aligns with זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. The asara devarim that that the Chovot HaLevavot is going to identify in the parsha of Shema don't at all align in in that respect. There's no bein adam lechavero that he's going to identify in the parsha of Shema. So the pshat is is that the primary maybe even exclusive. And that when a parsha is fundamental, it's reflected in the fact that it operates with that number ten. What does that mean? So we think of the fact that when you learn math, that we operate with base 10, that that's a convention. No, really, you could have had a digit the same way there's a digit that connotes seven, eight, and nine, so you could have made another squiggle. Enough squiggles left, enough possible squiggles left, you could have had another shape which would mean ten, and then the way you would have expressed eleven would be one zero. Have I confused you yet, or should I keep going? But that's not the way math works. Once you get to nine, so then you don't have a separate symbol for ten, but it's rather you put the one in the next column, in the tens column. But that's not a convention. And another way of saying it, the reason that it's a universal convention is because that's how Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world with base 10 עשרה מאמרות נברא העולם. It's not, it wasn't a human convention. So for that reason, ten then signifies completion. The fact that you don't have a separate symbol for ten, but now it becomes one zero as opposed to having, I mean, eight is not one zero, it's not that the symbols only go up to seven and then it's one zero. So ten then represents completion, that one through nine you're still doing with scattered single instances, iterations, etc. And once you get to ten, so now you have a complete group. And for that reason, given again, and why is it that way? I don't know, that's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu kach gazra chochmato that it's ten that expresses it. It's not why, it's what. That ten expresses that completeness, and that's what the Chovot Halevavot lichora is saying, is the same way that Aseret Hadibrot opening with Anochi, there's that sense of completeness, which also implies that without it there's nothing. So too, Parshat Shema, its axiomatic nature is also underscored by the fact that it's structured with asara. Lichora that's the machoz. Okay, so

וצריך שתבין הפרק הזה של שמע ישראל עד סופו ותראה איך נתקבו בו דברים עניין לעניין וכל עשרה עניינים כנגד עשרת הדיברות והוא שצונו להאמין בבורא יתברך באומרו שמע ישראל השם. ולא הכווין בכאן באומרו שמע לשמע האוזן,

not the auditory sense, אך הכווין לאמונת הלב כמו שאמר הכתוב נעשה ונשמע. Nishma doesn't mean to listen, it means to understand. To understand, to accept. And I mean that that usage has trickled down to to English also right like did you hear what I'm saying? Also isn't that it's not necessarily an audiologist who poses that question you know did you hear what I'm saying? Even non-audiologists will will pose that will pose that question the same usage has trickled down.

וכל מה שבא על הדרך הזה בלשון שמיעה לא התכוון בו כי אם להאמין ולקבל. ואחרי אשר חייבנו להאמין באמיתת מציאותו חייבנו להאמין שהוא אלוהינו

k'mo she'amar elokeinu

שמע ישראל ה' אלוהינו ואחר כך חייבנו להאמין כי הוא אחד אמת כמו שאמר ה' אחד.

So throughout this paragraph, if you take a look in Rav Kapach's translation, so he is massig on Ibn Tibbon, and where Ibn Tibbon has emuna, so Rav Kapach has yedia. Take a look in footnote ten in in Rav Kapach's translation in his edition. He says that Ibn Tibbon translates אך התכוון לאמונת הלב which Rav Kapach translated as kavanaso hayedia ve'eino nachon. U-v'chol, b'chol makom shebamakor the Arabic is אלף עין תיו קוף אלף דלת, turgam emuna ve'ein zeh nachon. So the emes is you have the same he'arah in Sefer HaMitzvot. The Ibn Tibbon who translated the Chovot HaLevavot was Rabbi Yehuda Ibn Tibbon. The one who translated the Rambam was Rabbi Shmuel Ibn Tibbon his his son. So in ספר המצוות מצווה א as we have it,

היא הציווי שציוונו להאמין האלוהות והוא שנאמין שיש שם עילה וסיבה הוא פועל לכל הנמצאות ואמר אנכי ה' אלהיך.

So ka-yadua much has been said about the fact that here in Sefer HaMitzvot it says shetzivanu l'ha'amin and that in the beginning of Yesodei HaTorah the Rambam says that יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון. But Rav Chaim Heller in his edition of the Sefer HaMitzvot in his in his note on this he says ואמנם בגוף הערבי כתובה מילת the same word itqad, I don't know how you pronounce it, but אלף עין תיו קוף אלף דלת, the same the same word that we have here in the Chovot HaLevavot. It's the same the same word here in Sefer HaMitzvot that the Rambam is using.

ואמנם בגוף הערבי כתובה מילת שבאמת יש לה גם מובן דעת ושפיר נוכל לתרגם שציוונו בידיעת האלוהות

v'hu sheneda. So Rav Chaim Heller says that the kushya me'ikar lersa. This whole question of why the Rambam writes l'ha'amin in Sefer HaMitzvot and leida in Mishneh Torah is kushya me'ikar lersa. That leida is what the Rambam wrote, l'ha'amin is a translation, but the translation could just as well have been could just as well have been leida. Well, elamayi, lichoira, the pshat is as follows. In, again, in Ibn Tibbon, father and son, lichoira the pshat is as follows. If you take a look in Sefer Hamitzvos, so in Mitzvah Daled, so Mitzvah Aleph is again the way we have the translation, אשר צונו להאמין באלהות, to believe in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Mitzvah Beis, היא שצונו באמונת היחוד, Yichud Hashem, שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד. And each time Ibn Tibbon is saying leha'amin, emunas, shena'amen, it's that same Arabic word. Mitzvah Daled, היא שצונו להאמין יראתו. And here too Rav Kapach published the Sefer Hamitzvos with the original Arabic. So here too it's the same word in Arabic. So what does leha'amin yiraso mean, right? If you translate leha'amin as to believe, so you can't believe fear. You don't believe fear. You can experience fear, you can feel fear. You don't believe fear. So what does the phrase mean? On the other hand, you don't really know fear either. I mean, you can use that in a different sense of the word, right? You can say that after having been, after such and such an experience, I now know what fear is, but that doesn't mean what it means here. So leda'as doesn't really translate here either. So Ibn Tibbon, Ibn Tibbon was very, very conscientious in translating the Rambam. He had great yiras hakavod for the Rambam and because of that he was very, very conscientious. So the shayla is, if the Rambam uses the same verb for the mitzvah of Anochi, for the mitzvah of Yichud Hashem, and the mitzvah of Yiras Hashem, what one verb is there, let's not use your favorite language, rabosai, what one verb is there that fits each of those contexts? I mean the first two contexts, so leda'as works perfectly well, right? Leda'as Anochi and לדעת ה' אלקינו ה' אחד, leha'amin would also work, but certainly in light of what the Rambam writes in Mishneh Torah, so leda'as. But again, neither leda'as nor leha'amin works for yiraso, and whatever you're going to say here, it's the same verb and maybe it has two totally different meanings, I don't know. So lichoira what Ibn Tibbon was using leha'amin for, and he thought that people would understand this sense more through the verb of leha'amin than leda'as, but what Ibn Tibbon intends leha'amin for is leda'as. One can, and in some contexts we certainly do use it in this very narrow sense. Leda'as, I don't know, we know lots of things. We know that two plus two is four, we know lots of things. The mitzvah of Anochi is not only to know that there's a Ribbono Shel Olam, but to live with that awareness. It's to have this, it's a knowledge which generates an awareness, that's what the mitzvah is. It's an intellectually based awareness. It's an awareness which is the result of knowledge, but not all knowledge generates awareness. I think most of us do not walk around all day thinking that two plus two is four. When it's nogaya, you need to buy four apples and you have two, so you start to think how many more apples you need, but when it's not relevant, so we don't necessarily walk around with an awareness. It's okay, it's stored away in our knowledge bank, but it's not an awareness that we live with. And that's what the mitzvah of Anochi is. The mitzvah of Anochi is not simply to know and that if a person is asked, is there a Ribbono Shel Olam, so he says yes, of course there is, I know there is and I can tell you why I know. Yeah, all that is very, very important, but it's more than that. It's not only that, it's more than that. It's to live with an awareness. Now the emes is, that's what the Rambam means by leda in Mishneh Torah. But apparently Ibn Tibbon felt, and I don't think one can justly, that that wasn't what people would understand in using the term leda. And for him, leha’amin had that sense of something which is again not only knowledge, but a knowledge-based awareness. Something which is so, a person knows so deeply that it's part of his consciousness and awareness. So if you plug that in, so that plugs into yira also. Leha’amin, to have this intellectually based awareness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu that expresses itself, that generates yiras shamayim. So to be maseig on Ibn Tibbon assuming that leha’amin means to believe, lichora is to miss the point because that's not how he's using leha’amin. He's using leha’amin again to express this idea. That's clear because otherwise you can't say leha’amin yiraso. Leha’amin yiraso just is nonsensical. It's clear what Ibn Tibbon means by leha’amin. Again, he means an awareness, an intellectually based awareness of yira. That's what leha’amin yiraso means, to cultivate, to maintain an intellectually based awareness of yira. And mistanma you got that from the Sforno. That's what it means in yiraso. So the gap between what Ibn Tibbon is saying and what Rav Kapach is saying is not, I don't know if there is a gap because that's the sense in which leha’amin is being used here. Chazal also darshan that shema means understanding, knowledge, understanding. Right, the drasha of שמע בכל לשון שאתה שומע, that that's the makor for the shitas hachachamim that Krias Shema is ne’emeres bechol lashon, also means that shema doesn't mean ha’azein, it doesn't mean to hear in an auditory sense. Alright, and we'll stop here and we'll pick up tomorrow in perek gimmel.