In the spirit of Tishrei and to start off that we should learn the corresponding perek in each of the Ten Days of Teshuva, so maybe we'll jump a little bit, we're not going to cover all of Perek Gimmel, but to see a little bit in Perek Gimmel, we'll begin perhaps with Halacha Dalet of Perek Gimmel, Halacha Dalet. אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב רמז יש בו.
What does it mean that on the one hand it's gzeiras hakasuv, on the other hand it's a remez? The Rambam has a similar formulation at the end of Hilchos Mikvaos. דבר ברור וידוע שהטומאות והטהרות גזירות הכתוב הן ואינם מדברים שדעתו של אדם מכרעת אותן והרי הן בכלל החוקים וכן הטבילה מן הטומאה מן החוקים היא שאין הטומאה טיט או צואה שתעבור במים אלא גזירת הכתוב היא.
Skipping one line. ואף על פי כן רמז יש בדבר. So that same it's gzeiras hakasuv, ואף על פי כן there is a remez. What the Rambam means is as follows. The Gemara in Sanhedrin says in Perek Cheilek, Sanhedrin says that why did the Torah reveal the reasons for mitzvos? The Gemara says because in a couple of instances where the Torah does, so Shlomo HaMelech, chacham mikol adam, was nichshal. The Torah revealed the reason for the issur for Melech לא ירבה לו נשים ולא יסור לבבו. And Shlomo HaMelech said, אני ארבה ולא אסטה, and then נשים הטו את לבבו. So there's a danger in revealing taamei mitzvos. A person might think, I can achieve the goal without this, without the instrument of the mitzva. And the question is, so how did the Rambam and so many other Chachmei Yisrael reveal taamei mitzvos? That Gemara would seem to hold for such an attempt. The more reasons we'll discover for mitzvos, so then the danger will increase, increase accordingly. So if I know why I eat matzah, so I'll skip matzah. If I know why I can't have shaatnez, so I'll wear shaatnez. If I'll understand... so itochen the answer is, and maybe one of the Lashon haRambam, this is the end of Hilchos Me'ila, ראוי לו לאדם להתבונן במשפטי התורה הקדושה. A person should reflect on mitzvos hatorah to understand what the goal of the mitzvos is, what the reasons for the mitzvos are. So why does the Rambam say kefei kocho? By definition a person can't ever do anything beyond that. It doesn't seem like the Rambam is sort of precluding that we should make a half-hearted attempt. Don't do it, don't think about ta'amei hamitzvos while you're texting. Don't text and delve into ta'amei hamitzvos, don't do a half-hearted attempt. Somehow that doesn't seem to resonate as pshat. So what does the Rambam mean kefei kocho? So it's like this Rabbosai. When we, and by we I mean us little people, meaning people, human beings, even the Chachmei Hamishna, Chazal, or the Rishonim, or the Avos Ha'olam, when they mention ta'amei hamitzvos, the ta'amei hamitzvos are neither absolute nor exclusive. There's no one suggesting this is the exclusive reason for the mitzvah. They're saying this is something that we understand, something we can appreciate, something we believe, something we see. The Rambam's kefei kocho is that the reason is a chefetz kefei kocho. The reason is not going to be, one is not going to claim that יודע דעת וסוף דעת של מקום, this is the reason that the Ribbono Shel Olam had in mind for this mitzvah. No, the whole reason is going to be kefei kocho. That's what it means. But אף על פי כן, it's not only a legitimate enterprise, but a person is mechuyav to do it. We're supposed to understand the mitzvos, but when we understand them, we don't make any claim to either absoluteness or to exclusiveness in giving those reasons. That's what kefei kocho means. Even when we say רבי שמעון דורש טעמא דקרא, how can he be doreish ta'ama dikra and say that this is the reason for the mitzvah if you can't give an absolute reason? So is that what we're saying shoresh hamachlokes? And we don't paskin like him, but the yeish omrim, is that what we're saying shoresh hamachlokes? And that's the Rambam. He says על מנת שארבה ולא ישיב... ashivei v'lo yashiv מ-על מנת שארבה because there's no ta'am to the mitzva. And they say in the Rambam there's no difference between al m'nas she-arbeh. So what did Shlomo disagree with us on? This yesod, again, that the ta'amim don't claim to be absolute or exclusive. I think רבנו אברהם בן הרמב"ם says it mefurash, and I think the Rosh also says it mefurash. Those two say it mefurash, that the ta'amim are not... Lich'ora, that's what the pshat is. When the Rambam says af al pi, again, both here by Teki'as Shofar as well as later by Para Aduma, the Rambam says on the one hand it's gzeiras hakasuv and אף על פי כן רמז יש בו. So that's what it means. That on the one hand it's gzeiras hakasuv in that ultimately it's inscrutable. Ultimately if someone says, "The reason haKadosh Baruch Hu commanded the mitzva," we don't know the reason haKadosh Baruch Hu commanded the mitzva. Is there some religious content that you're able to glean, that you're able to discern in the mitzva, that you're able to glean from the mitzva? Yes, there's this. And that's what the lashon Rambam is. Again, it means what we're able to glean from the mitzva, what we're able to discern in the mitzva, what we see an allusion, what we see alluded to in the mitzva. But it doesn't, again, there's no claim for absoluteness or exclusivity. That's why, that's the answer to the question we said, the Gemara says that why did the Torah reveal ta'amei mitzva? Because look and look and look, the one or two cases where the Torah did reveal ta'amei mitzva, so it led to a terrible michshol. So then how can the Rambam and so many other Chachmei Yisrael give ta'amei mitzvos? Because the teretz is if the Torah reveals the ta'am mitzva, so then that's davka absolute. So then you know clearly what the reason is. If you know definitively what the reason is, so then you have this concern that it may lead to people being nichshal and saying, "Well, I can bypass the mitzva and still achieve the same result." But when we engage in ta'amei mitzva, again, "we" doesn't mean just us low people, it means the Rambam, it means Chazal, it means anyone. But when we engage, so then we can't, we never again claim absoluteness or exclusivity, so then there's no room for any potential for any michshol. Could be that that accounts for the... that this is reflected in another way in the Rambam as well. We read before from the end of Hilchos Me'ila that וראוי לאדם להתבונן במשפטי התורה הקדושה ולידע סוף עניינם כפי כוחו.
It's a chiyuv to understand ta'amei mitzva. When you look in Perek Aleph of Hilchos Talmud Torah... So the Rambam talks about the different chelkei hamitzva of mitzvas talmud torah, so the Rambam is quoting the gemara in Kiddushin that ושננתם לבניך ושלשתם שתהא אדם משלש זמן למודו בשלש שליש במקרא שליש במשנה שליש בתלמוד.
So the Rambam says, the Rambam defines what each of those terms encompasses. Shlish betorah shebiksav, and then in halacha yud beis the Rambam tells you that divrei kabala and parshat torah shebiksav, torah shebiksav is not limited to chamisha chumshei torah, it includes Nach as well. שליש בתורה שבעל פה. Torah sheba'al peh for the Rambam again means halacha, right? That's how he uses the term in the hakdama as well when he says if you learn Mishneh Torah, you'll know all of torah sheba'al peh, he means you'll know all of halacha. And then shlish is in talmud. What does talmud include? יבין וישכיל אחרית דבר מראשיתו. How does the halacha pesuka, how does it emerge from the torah shebiksav? How does it emerge from the torah shebiksav? וידמה דבר לדבר ויוציא דבר מדבר וידמה דבר לדבר וידע במידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן עד שידע היאך הוא עיקר המידות והיאך יוציא האסור והמותר והאסור והמותר וכיוצא בהן מדברים שמהם מפי השמועה. עניין זה הוא הנקרא תלמוד.
And then halacha yud beis, he expands the definition and says that ma'aseh bereishis and ma'aseh merkava is also included in talmud. But where does ta'amei hamitzvos fit in? It doesn't fit, lichora, it doesn't fit into any of the Rambam's categories. So the pashut is that what the Rambam means is as follows: The chiyuv of ta'amei hamitzvos, so that's one question is where does it fit. Another question which maybe is even a more glaring question is, why did we have to wait until hilchos me'ila to find out about this mandate of trying to understand ta'amei hamitzvos? We should have come across it in hilchos talmud torah, but it's not here in hilchos talmud torah. So the teretz is as follows: The chiyuv talmud torah, again, is torah shebiksav and then beyond that ושננתם לבניך שיהיו דברי תורה מחודדים בפיך. The chiyuv talmud torah is to know torah with clarity, with sharpness. So by definition that only refers to something which can be known with clarity and definitively. A person studies halacha, he can know it with clarity, he can know it definitively. He can know definitively, here's a kal vachomer which is the source for a certain din. Here's a binyan av, here's a kal vachomer which is the source for a certain din. A person can know it definitively. The very nature of ta'amei hamitzvos is that it's kefi kocho, is that it's something tentative. So that's takeh a chiyuv, it's a chiyuv in sevara that a person has to understand mitzvos hashem to the best of his ability, but it's takeh not part of the chiyuv talmud torah, it's not part of the chiyuv of veshinantam. Al kol panim, so back to פרק ג' הלכה ד' here: אע"פ שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב. We don't know the reason. Remez yesh bo, but we can say the following: כלומר עורו עורו ישנים משינתכם והקיצו נרדמים מתרדמתכם. The Rambam has uru uru, double lashon, to raise the sense of urgency. And when you're sort of waking someone up typically, so you shake them on the shoulder once, you wake them up again, you wake them up again, you wake them up again. If there's something very pressing, if it's urgent, so then you're gonna shake them repeatedly and you're gonna say wake up, wake up. It conveys a sense of urgency. What's the urgency? Rosh Hashana is a Yom Hadin. That certainly accounts for the urgency. Life is short, that also accounts for urgency. עורו עורו ישנים משנתכם v'hakitzu nirdamim mitardematchem v'chipsu b'ma'asechem v'chizru b'teshuva v'zichru borachem. אלו השוכחים אמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל.
habitu l'nafshotechem v'heitivu darcheichem uma'alaleichem יעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.
I think we've on occasion we mentioned, my friends zichronam livracha had a remarkable insight into this Rambam. The shofar is a call to teshuva. v'chipsu b'ma'asechem v'chizru b'teshuva. We would expect that if you're going to identify the audience for whom a wake-up call is intended, a wake-up call for teshuva is intended, so obviously that audience is an audience of people who are saddled with chet. choteim. Who has to do teshuva? Someone, someone who was chotei. And yet the Rambam identifies his audience for the wake-up call to teshuva is אלו השוכחים אמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק.
The Rambam doesn't speak in categories of chet. Doesn't speak in terms of chet. It's people who are wasting their lives on vanity, on things that are empty, that are hollow, that are ephemeral. Now again, ultimately obviously, someone who lives that way is going to get into trouble and do something which is also technically an aveira. But the Rambam, the categories, the initial categories have nothing to do with chet. השוכחים אמת בהבלי הזמן. They get so caught up, they get so swept away by the tide of all the nonsense in the world, in society. The, not only American, it's also European also, just, I'm not sure which sport it is, but the obsession with sports is a perfect example of havlei hazman. In America, people go crazy over baseball, football, and in Europe and South America, they kill each other over soccer. It's matches between those two. השוכחים אמת בהבלי הזמן. Just, they're so preoccupied with nonsense. shogim kol shnatam, they wallow all year long b'hevel varik, which gives them nothing. It's a ha'arah nifla'ah. Chet is sometimes they or often times, maybe according to the Rambam even primarily, let's look at the Rambam primarily. Chet is more the corollary. Chet is more the fallout or the consequence. But the main thing is sort of where a person's mind is at, what what his life is about. And this you find this again later as well. If you turn to Perek Tes for a moment. So the context here in this long Halacha Aleph, which the Rambam is explaining how do we understand all the berachos and kelalos for that matter given that schar is in Olam Haba. So the Rambam says I don't know, in the Frankel it's in the mid-sized lines so after they branch out to the left right before they branch out to the right maybe 35 percent of the way down the halacha. הקדוש ברוך הוא נתן לנו תורה זו עץ החיים וכל העושה כל הכתוב בה ויודעו דעה גמורה ונכונה זוכה בה לחיי העולם הבא.
You always have those two things wedded together right? There has to be knowledge and there has to be ma'aseh. Knowledge alone doesn't suffice, ma'aseh alone doesn't suffice, there has to be both. A person has to be osek hakasuv bah and he has to be yode'aho. לפי גודל מעשיו וגודל חכמתו הוא זוכה. Again the same two right? Those are the two elements. So therefore those are the two determinant factors for a person's Olam Haba. לפי גודל מעשיו וגודל חכמתו הוא זוכה. Now והבטיחנו בתורה שאם עשה אותה בשמחה ובטובת נפש ונהגה בחכמתה תמיד שיסיר ממנו כל הדברים המונעים אותנו מלעשותה.
If we'll fulfill mitzvos haTorah and we'll delve into chochmas haTorah, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu will remove all impediments כגון חולי ומלחמה ורעב וכיוצא בהן. And on the contrary וישפיע לנו כל הטובות המחזיקות את ידינו לעשות את כל התורה.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu will give us circumstances that are conducive to applying ourselves to Torah u'mitzvos כגון שובע ושלום וריבוי כסף וזהב כדי שלא נעסוק כל ימינו בדברים שהגוף צריך להם אלא נשב פנויים ללמוד בחכמה ולעשות המצוה כדי שנזכה לחיי העולם הבא.
So that's on the one hand right? That's the point. What's again just just to repeat the point is if we're osek hakasuv bah, אם עשה אותה בשמחה ונהגה בחכמתה. So we're being mekayem mitzvos, we're learning Torah. That's the point. Now here's the counterpoint. וכן הודיענו בתורה שאם נעזוב התורה מדעתנו. So what should the counterpoint to doing mitzvos be and learning? The counterpoint should be doing aveiros and maybe reading rachmana litzlan sifrei avodah zarah whatever. But look at the Rambam's counterpoint. וכן הודיענו בתורה שאם נעזוב התורה מדעתנו ונעסוק בהבלי הזמן.
Instead of going to the Beis Midrash Sunday morning he goes tailgating. And then says he כעניין שנאמר וישמן ישורון ויבעט. So then Hakadosh Baruch Hu on the contrary Hakadosh Baruch Hu says the support system I gave you was not to support that so He removes the support system and says and you're not interested so then there's no then the impediments why I have to remove the impediments either. And again the Rambam when he when he recaps he says it a second time. נמצא פירוש כל אותן הברכות והקללות על דרך זו. כלומר אם עבדתם את השם בשמחה.
Again here's the point. Again we're going to look at the point and counterpoint. So the point is כלומר אם עבדתם את השם בשמחה, avodas Hashem, ushmartem darko mashpi'a lachem haberachos etcetera. However ואם עזבתם את השם, that's the counterpoint. And what does azavtem es Hashem mean? It means ששגיתם במאכל ומשתה ונהניתם. Eating and drinking and being merry. Life is about the going to bars and drinking and and long lavish meals all the time. Again, the counterpoint initially isn't the aveira. He does go on to mention the aveira, of course, but the counterpoint initially isn't the aveira. And it I don't know it rings so true even in what to us at any rate seem to be more subtle ways, but maybe maybe they're not even more subtle. Now let's say a person where his kochos lie to make his tachlis for parnassa is not in a field that's intrinsically meaningful. Okay, that's fine. It's intrinsically meaningful to make your tachlis for parnassa. So how much parnassa does a person how much time does a person devote? He has to have an adequate parnassa. When we have these inflated hevel v'rik shebitnam figuratively metaphorically in terms of what it represents in terms of physical comforts and indulgences. So then we come up with a certain figure x that we need to less than which less than that is not a parnassa. But again the x doesn't mean what are real basics. X reflects again the the inflated indulgent luxurious affluent lifestyle. So then mimailei that puts pressure on a person to earn more. He has to earn more so he takes a job which is more demanding. And that's so so maybe ultimately is he can you fault him for bittul Torah? No not ultimately you can't. And and and we'll get him on a few other charges but but the root cause the root cause isn't the bittul Torah itself. The root cause is the orientation towards the הבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא ינצל. You know human nature is such that that we naturally assume that what we see all over the place is normal and natural. So when we live long enough in an abnormal society we lose perspective on the fact that there are things about it that are abnormal that there are things about it which which are aberrations. To hear the Rambam's kol shofar a person needs to sort of step back and על פי שכל הישר look at contemporary life and a contemporary society. Again not only in terms of the issue of indulgence that we've been talking about but in so many so many areas. We have such twisted notions that we think are straight because they're just so prevalent in in modern society. The imagery of sleeping was adopted by the Rambam and the Yamim Nora'im and the Selichot have the same, the same imagery. It could be that there's a double intent in that imagery of sleeping. On one hand, when a person is sleeping, so obviously time is just passing him by. And that's not a davar ma'us if a person is sleeping because he needs to sleep, so that's fine. But if a person is just sleeping endlessly, so then time is passing him by, life is passing him by, he's not doing anything when he's sleeping. And that l'chora is one kavana in this imagery of sleeping. But you wonder if the Rambam doesn't have a second kavana as well, that when we sleep, so as long as a person is asleep, his dreams seem very real. Right? And it's only when you wake up from the, only when you wake up from the dream, you have a dream, you're in an ice cream parlor, mamash you're euphoric, you wake up, it's apple, but nothing in the freezer, right? So a different reality when you're, different reality when you're when you're dreaming. It's an alternate reality. When a person's dreaming, it's an alternate reality, whatever that person's having a good dream, a bad dream, whatever it is. It's an alternate reality. The people who are שוגים בשנתם בהבל וריק, so they think they're having a good life, they think they're having a good life, they think they're getting the most out of life, when in reality they're just squandering life. It's interesting in the lashon of the Rambam. So the Rambam begins initially, עורו ישנים משנתכם ונרדמים הקיצו מתרדמתכם וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם אלו השוכחים אמת בהבלי הזמן ושוגים בכל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל הביטו לנפשותיכם והטיבו דרכיכם ומעלליכם.
Then all of a sudden he shifts, ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.
Rambam shifts to the lashon of the yachid. There's a tremendous yesod here. Divrei mussar and divrei hitorerut can be addressed to us collectively. There are certainly common issues, flaws, shortcomings. But l'ma'aseh l'ma'aseh the teshuvah, when a person does teshuvah, it has to be individualized to who he is. How he does the teshuvah is ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.
At that point... That at that point there is no collective direction. At that point it becomes individualized. It's no longer talking to rabbim as a whole, collectively, but it's talking to, telling each yachid to find how he needs to translate this ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה ומחשבותיו אשר לא טובות.
You wonder if that's how the Rambam pshat. We'll read it in הלכות תשובה פרק ב, right? דרשו השם בהמצאו קראוהו בהיותו קרוב. That's also the Rambam. And then the next pasuk, יעזוב רשע דרכו ואיש און מחשבותיו. And then the Navi switches to the lashon yachid. And that's where the Rambam took his cue from, from those pesukim in Yeshaya. Keivan d'asa l'yadan, let me say something about this Rambam that we'll be learning tomorrow night's shiur. Perek chamishi is going to be Friday, so we're not going to be learning it on Thursday night. If you take a look in פרק ה הלכה ה. Shema tomar, perek hey is all about bechira chofshis. That's what the Rambam has been discussing in the four previous halachos. Halacha hey. שמא תאמר והלא הקדוש ברוך הוא יודע כל מה שיהיה קודם שיהיה. יודע שזה צדיק או רשע או לא יודע.
Does he know or doesn't he know? אם יודע שיהיה צדיק אי אפשר שלא יהיה צדיק. If God knows that this guy's going to be a tzadik, then it's not possible otherwise. ואם תאמר שיודע שיהיה צדיק ואפשר שיהיה רשע הרי לא ידע הדבר על בוריו.
How do you reconcile bechira chofshis with Hakadosh Baruch Hu's foreknowledge, God's knowledge of the future? How do you reconcile those two? דע שתשובת שאלה זו ארוכה מארץ מדה ורחבה מני ים וכמה עיקרים גדולים והררים רמים תלויים בה אבל צריך אתה לידע ולהבין דבר זה שאני אומר.
This is quite remarkable. The Rambam spoke about this in Shmona Perakim also. He's talking about it over here. Meaning, the Rambam intended both Shmona Perakim and Mishneh Torah for a popular audience. He didn't think that it was only yechidei segula who were going to be learning Shmona Perakim. He wanted all of us to learn Shmona Perakim. He didn't think it was only yechidei segula who were going to be learning Mishneh Torah. He wanted all of us to learn Mishneh Torah. And this question, the Rambam says, is something that we all need to understand, to have the perspective that he's about to provide on it. כבר ביארנו בפרק שני מהלכות יסודי התורה שהקדוש ברוך הוא אינו יודע בדעה שהיא חוץ ממנו כבני אדם שהן ודעתם שנים אלא הוא יתברך שמו ודעתו אחד ואין דעתו של אדם יכולה להשיג דבר זה על בוריו. וכשם שאין כח באדם להשיג ולמצוא אמיתת הבורא שנאמר כי לא יראני האדם וחי כך אין כח באדם להשיג ולמצוא דעתו של בורא. הוא שהנביא אומר כי לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם ולא דרכיכם דרכי נאום השם. וכיון שכן הוא אין בנו כח לידע היאך ידע הקדוש ברוך הוא כל הברואים ומעשיהם אבל נדע בלא ספק.
So the Ra'avad is masig. So Rambam says you have to know that teshuvat hashe'ela zo, but then he ends up by saying well we don't really understand. So the Ra'avad says, so what did Rambam accomplish? He says if you're going to ask a question then answer it. Either don't ask the question or answer it, but don't ask the question and and put people in some kind of quandary. So the Meforshim explain it's tzarich iyun gadol what the Ra'avad is, the Ra'avad's the Ra'avad's hasaga is צריך עיון גדול מאוד. The Meforshim explain that biklal what the pshat in Rambam is, is the following. If if we're asked a question and say well we don't understand that, well that's not really an answer. What what Rambam is doing is Rambam's giving us a perspective explaining why the question is not really legitimate in the first place. And and what Rambam explains is the following. How does a human being know something? How do I know that it's daytime now? How do I know? Because it is and I'm able to perceive what is. So if something is a factual truth and I'm able to perceive it, so then that's how I know. If something is a logical truth, two plus two is four, and and that's something that with my mind, I don't need my eyes to see that it's daytime, I need my mind to tell me that two plus two is four. So a person knows what is. So far so good. Now by extension for a person to know the future, that would have to mean that the future is, that would have to mean that the future is set. The only way a person only knows what is. Again, how do I know two plus two is four? That's a logical truth and with my mind I'm able to access that truth that is. How do I know it's daytime? It is daytime and with my senses I'm able to access that, I'm able to I'm able to to to know that. A person knows what is. Now when you think about knowing the future, so the only way a person can know the future, I can think something is very likely to happen. I can think oh I know so and so, he's a dyed in the wool Democrat so I'm sure he's going to vote Democratic in November or he's a dyed in the wool Republican so I'm sure he's going to vote Republican. I don't really know it for a fact, but I'm ninety-nine percent sure. But to know, a person can only know the future because he knows what is. So to know the future would mean that the future would have to be determined. The Rambam says we in asking the question of how can we have bechira when Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows the future are guilty of a false fallacy. We're guilty of the fallacy of imposing upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu, attributing to Hakadosh Baruch Hu our way of knowing. But the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows is not the way we know. We know again basically what's sort of, here's our mind and and there's either a fact or a logical truth and and then we perceive it, we grasp it, right? So the knowledge that we're getting is something external to us. There's nothing external to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he and his knowledge are one and the same. Which we don't understand. But but what we do understand is that in order to have a question about how can Hakadosh Baruch Hu know the future without the future being predetermined, that's only a the question only arises if you can first understand Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu's knowledge works. If a person has no inkling, and we have no inkling, but of how Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows, so then how does a person know that there's anything, that there's any tension, that there's anything irreconcilable between Hakadosh Baruch Hu's knowledge and the future? We know that for our knowledge to know something, the future would have to be. Our way of knowing things, it's impossible to reconcile knowledge of the future with bechirah, but we don't understand how Hakadosh Baruch Hu's knowledge works. Right? That's what the Rambam says. A person, he and his knowledge are two different things, but for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's all one. We don't begin to understand what that means, but what we do understand in effect is to define that we don't know, we don't understand how Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows. We don't understand what knowledge is. It's just that with a shem meshutaf between human knowledge and divine knowledge, but it's two totally different metziyuses. It's two totally different realities. So given our complete lack of understanding of how divine knowledge functions, we don't have a question. We don't need to answer the question; the question isn't legitimate in the first place. Rambam says, that's כי לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, don't think of me as Superman, and don't define me, capital M, in human terms and human categories. So now, this is the halacha of the sugya go like that: דרשו ה' בהמצאו קראהו בהיותו קרוב is the pasuk Chazal tell us to do teshuvah during Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, and behimatzo is now, this teshuvah, Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, דרשו ה' בהמצאו קראהו בהיותו קרוב. What should you do? יעזוב רשע דרכו ואיש און מחשבותיו. Again, the individualizing. וישוב אל ה' וירחמהו ואל אלהינו כי ירבה לסלוח. What to do teshuvah? Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows the future. Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows the future, so then I was predetermined to do all my aveiros. So what reason is it to...? Oh, כי לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם ולא דרכיכם דרכי. It's true Hakadosh Baruch Hu knew about my aveiros before I did them, but that doesn't mean that I was predestined to do those aveiros. No, כי לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם ולא דרכיכם דרכי. That's why Dirshu Hashem Behimatzo. That's why Yaazov Rasha Darko. That's why there is a chiyuv teshuvah, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu's point of view notwithstanding, כי לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם, no, I don't know things the way you know things. I don't think the way you think. It's an entirely different metziyus. And my knowledge of the future in no way predetermines the future. That's why Dirshu Hashem Behimatzo, and that's why there's a chiyuv of Yaazov Rasha Darko.