Hi good morning Rabosai. Os Yud Tes. הנה נתבאר כי נשמת הרשע יורדת לשאול משני מקראות שזכינו ומדברי חכמינו זכרונם לברכה. ועוד נאמר אורח חיים למעלה למשכיל למען סור משאול מטה.
L'maskil, his path of life leads upward so that he averts the fate, so that he avoids descending downward to Sheol. ועוד נאמר מי יודע רוח בני האדם העולה היא למעלה ורוח הבהמה היורדת היא למטה לארץ.
Perush, what's the question that Shlomo Hamelech is posing? Mi yakir? Who knows, not who knows what the fate of people is, but rather who can distinguish the different classes of people? Who can discern who's who? מי יכיר הצדיקים והרשעים בעולם הזה. We think that we have everyone typecast, we have our labels to affix to people. He's a tzadik, he's a rasha. Shlomo Hamelech says it's not so easy for us to discern about another person what his true character is. Mi yakir, who can really recognize and differentiate מי יכיר הצדיקים והרשעים בעולם הזה. כי יש רשע שמעשיו במחשך ולא יכירו בהם בני אדם.
There are people who outwardly posture righteously but in private, behind the scenes, they're wicked people. V'yesh tzadikim, on the other hand, sheyerei shamayim b'seser, כענין שנאמר והצנע לכת. See, here's these lines need pshat. I'm not sure that what we're going to say is adequate Rabosai. Meila by a rasha, one can certainly imagine a scenario where the outward appearance is totally misleading. That outwardly he poses and postures as someone righteous, but behind the scenes he's cheating and who knows what he really believes. But someone who's genuinely a tzadik obviously is not ever going to be intentionally publicly misleading. So l'chora what Rabbeinu Yonah means is that sometimes circumstances may conspire to creating an erroneous impression while the emes is that the person really is a tzadik. So it's not entirely parallel these two scenarios. I mean, v'hatzneia leches certainly means that the person is not looking to impress anyone, he's not looking to broadcast or project. M'idach gisa, v'hatzneia leches doesn't relieve one of the obligation of והייתם נקיים מה' ומישראל. V'hatzneia leches doesn't mean that a person isn't sensitive to maris ayin, that the person can intentionally give off the impression of being a rasha. He can give off the impression of sort of being a tam when he's a gevaldige chacham or a tzadik. But he can give off the impression of being a rasha. So lichora, the two are not parallel. I once read many years ago, I think it was a transcript of a conversation that Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan zichrono livracha had with some student and he was talking about the question of tzaddik v'ra lo. And he said you know obviously there is no one single perspective but some of the cases, only the Ribbono Shel Olam knows what percentage of cases, I don't know maybe it's one percent of cases, I don't know but there are some cases presumably again maybe it's one percent but there are some cases where the answer to the tzaddik v'ra lo is that we're mistaken about our judgment and that maybe the person isn't such a isn't a big tzaddik. That's that's what this Rabbeinu Yonah is is talking about as well. ויקרא לנפש הרשע נפש הבהמה. When Shlomo Hamelech speaks about who can recognize who is a beheima that his spirit is yoredes lematah la'aretz, so he's he's comparing the nefesh of the rasha to or he's referring to the nefesh harasha as a nefesh habeheimah. מפני שנמשכת אחר התאוה הגשמית כבהמה. Because it's drawn after its drawn towards all of its physical desires like the beheima. It just blindly follows every physical urge or desire that it experiences. וכענין שכתב ולא ידע בין ימינו לשמאלו ובהמה רבה. ולנפש הצדיקים קרא רוח בני האדם וכענין שנאמר אדם אתם.
What's reflected here in this passage is that however biologists would sort of give us a biological classification for what it means to be a person as opposed to an animal, so it's a fundamental idea we find again, it's it's certainly not unique to Rabbeinu Yonah in any sense that the truth is in terms of our physical lives there's a continuum between animals and people. I don't know so so people eat and drink, animals eat and drink, people have digestive systems, animals have digestive systems, people have excretory systems and animals have excretory systems, people have reproductive systems and animals have reproductive systems. There isn't really on the physical level so there isn't a a fundamental difference between a man and an animal. Okay maybe it's you know sort of the difference between a you know an old car and a brand new I don't know what the best car is a brand new Lexus I don't know whatever but they're both cars at the end of the day you know they're both they're both cars. What distinguishes a person and makes a person sort of not just a highly developed or sophisticated animal is is the spiritual dimension. And you know lishitasam the animal rights advocates who who oppose animal experimentation. and basically morally don't see any difference between people and animals, so lishitasam they're not wrong. Lishitasam if you have a purely materialistic view of man, so then it's true that it just is a continuum between animals and man. Lishitasam they're not wrong. Obviously they are wrong as can be. But what distinguishes us is only the spiritual dimension and to the degree that a person doesn't cultivate that dimension, so to that degree we're not really any different. ובין לשון המקרא כן הוא. And this is what the pshat in the posuk in Koheles is: מי יודע רוח בני אדם והם הצדיקים העולה היא למעלה.
Who can recognize the ruach bnei adam? Who can recognize those bnei adam who have a ruach which is ha-olah hee l'malah? Meaning who can recognize tzaddikim? כי יש הרבה צדיקים שאין אדם יכול לגזור עליהם בעולם הזה שהם צדיקים באמת.
There are many many tzaddikim who are hidden and presumably he has in mind more than, you know, the tradition of the Gemara in Sukkah of lamed-vav tzaddikim. He's not talking just about that special class of tzaddikim. כעניין שנאמר כי האדם יראה לעיניים וה' יראה ללבב. A person can only see outer appearances. A person doesn't have the penetrating vision to see into others. וגם כי רבה מן הצדיקים הם יראי שמים בסתר ואין צדקתם מודעת כעניין שנאמר והצנע לכת עם אלוהיך.
Again, what it means is again, not that they're outwardly intentionally giving an anti yiras shamayim appearance, but they're certainly not outwardly projecting the depth of the yiras shamayim. They're not outwardly projecting anything which can legitimately remain private. Tzniyus is never supposed to prevent a person from doing what he's obligated to do. When we call a moreh hora'ah with a shaila and the moreh hora'ah gives a psak, so that's obviously not a chisaron in tzniyus that he's revealing the fact that he knows the answer. No, חכם שהגיע להוראה has an obligation to share that knowledge, to guide people, to render piskei halakha. Hatznei'a leches is anything which is not mandated to be in the public eye, so a person does whatever he can to keep it private, to keep it hidden. But obviously there are certain aspects and dimensions of life where the mitzvah can only be fulfilled in the public eye with people being aware of it. ורוח הבהמה היורדת היא למטה לארץ גם יש בהם רבים שאין אדם מכיר במעשיהם כעניין שנאמר והיה במחשך מעשיהם ויאמרו מי רואנו ומי יודענו.
And in terms of other people, the resha'im are right. Takeh there is an awful lot that וזה כלפי בני אדם we can get away with. וכן פירשו זכרונם לברכה כי רוח בני אדם אלו הצדיקים ורוח הבהמה אלו הרשעים.
And it's absurd to say that Shlomo Ha-Melech was wondering if there's an olam ha-ba or something rachmana litzlan. לא יוכל איש לומר כי היה מסתפק על נשמת האדם אם תעלה למעלה.
That's not what the posuk means. Hinei kasuv, again the same Shlomo Ha-Melech who authored Koheles says והרוח תשוב אל האלוקים. and what's more, just minei u'bei even if it wasn't Shlomo HaMelech speaking and even if we didn't have another pasuk in Koheles to to tell us what what this anonymous had he been anonymous author thought, you see you can't read the pasuk that way. ועוד היך יסתפק על רוח הבהמה אם יורדת למטה? What, the the author of Koheles is mi yodea whether רוח הבהמה יורדת היא למטה לארץ? He's entertaining the possibility that maybe monkeys go to Lema'lah? הלא רוח הבהמה מן הארץ והיך תעלה? ונתבאר בתורה כי נשמת האדם עליונית כי כתוב על נפש הבהמה כי היא מן הארץ שנאמר תוצא הארץ נפש חיה למינה.
Meaning nefesh is we think we sort of grow up with a translation of nefesh as soul and then we also have the association or the definition of the English word soul that it it some kind of spiritual entity. Now that combination is wrong, right? To translate nefesh as soul and then to take soul in a spiritual sense is wrong. Nefesh means an animating force, but it can be in a physical, it can be in a physical, mechanistic sense as well. כי נפש הבהמה מן הארץ. כי כתוב על נפש הבהמה כי היא מן הארץ.
It's not a soul. It's the living spark of an animal. The living spark of an animal is not what we understand by the term soul. כי כתוב על נפש הבהמה כי היא מן הארץ שנאמר תוצא הארץ נפש חיה למינה. ועל נשמת האדם כתוב ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים.
The neshamah of a person, when we speak of the neshamah of a person, so there soul, again with the English association that it has, is a correct translation. על כן תעלה נשמת האדם במות הגוף למעלה ככל הדברים שבים אל שורשם כענין שנאמר וישוב העפר על הארץ כשהיה והרוח תשוב אל האלהים אשר נתנה. ונאמר על נשמת הצדיקים ונתתי לך מהלכים בין העומדים האלה.
Perush, between the malachim who are omdim vekayamim כמו שנאמר ויעמידם לעד לעולם. What does it mean that they're standing? It implies a permanence, right? Standing means it's holding its position. So omdim in this context has the sense of a permanence. ונאמר קרבת על חד מן קאמיא. ואמרו זכרונם לברכה נפשותיהם של צדיקים גנוזות תחת כסא הכבוד שנאמר והיתה נפש אדוני צרורה בצרור החיים.
Okay, maybe we'll stop here for now. Bli neder to Hashem we'll resume around 12:45. Everyone should have a good, productive morning, rabosai. Be well, be safe.