Okay, Mishnah Yud Zayin it was. Mishnah Yud Zayin. Shimon his son says, כל ימי גדלתי בין החכמים, all my life I grew up amongst the wise, ולא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה, and I only found for body silence, ולא המדרש הוא העיקר, and the beit midrash is not the main thing, ela hama'aseh, but the action, vechol hamarbeh devarim, and anyone who speaks an awful lot, mevi chet, brings sin. Okay, thanks. So to try to understand... Should we go? Whatever that... You get something more exciting? And what, we'll learn it? Okay. Well, let's let's read the Rambam first. Rambam and and then we'll we're going to try to then we'll, be'ezrat Hashem, circle back to the Mishnah, try to understand the Mishnah. Are you going to read Halakhah Dalet here, do you know? Perek Beit, Halakhah Dalet? Well, here I have: לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה ולא ידבר אלא או בדברי חכמה או בדברים שצריך להם לחיי גופו.
Either he should be talking about Torah and chochmah, or things that are that that are are necessary, lechayei haguf. Okay, so part of that is for us is, you know, we we relax a little bit. We're supposed to. So that that's bichlal Torah. Torah should talk about lechayei haguf for us. Amru al Rav... אמרו על Rav תלמידו של Rabbeinu HaKadosh... Amru al Rav, talmido shel Rabbeinu HaKadosh, right? They said about Rav, who was the a talmid of Rabbeinu HaKadosh, Yehudah HaNasi, who who compiled the Mishnah. שלא שח שיחה בטלה כל ימיו וזו היא שיחת רוב כל אדם.
He never engaged in idle chatter. His entire life he never engaged in idle chatter, which is quite extraordinary when when when you think about it. But still he... וזו היא שיחת רוב כל אדם. And that's what most people talk about most of the times, says the Rambam, you know, devarim beteilim. How would you define idle chatter, devarim beteilim? That that there's no nothing productive about it, it's neither intrinsically meaningful, nor is it necessary for When When you call the doctor, you're not talking about divrei Torah, but that's not devarim beteilim. And then when you ask your mother what the shopping list is that that she needs from the supermarket, that's not divrei Torah, but it's not devarim beteilim. That's stam. So what what would be an example of devarim beteilim? What would be an example of devarim beteilim? What team LeBron James is going to play for next season. Okay, go ahead. ואפילו בצרכי הגוף לא ירבה אדם דברים ועל זה צוו חכמים ואמרו כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא.
Even when there's So what's the What does the afillu answer for us? What does the afillu add? What does the afillu add? Maybe by just speaking politely, is that what you mean? Meaning, even when the subject matter is important—maybe it's intrinsically important, it's divrei Torah, divrei chochmah; maybe it's instrumentally important, again, it's talking to the mechanic about getting your car fixed, that's not devarim beteilim. It's instrumentally important. You have a car, it's going to save you a lot of time and and let you live in a much more meaningful way. But even then, you know, a person is not supposed to be unnecessarily long-winded. אפילו בצרכי הגוף לא ירבה, even if tzorkei haguf are are legitimate topics of conversation, ולא ירבה אדם דברים. Okay, let's continue. ועל זה צוו חכמים ואמרו כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא.
Ah, it's our Mishnah, right? Correct? Ah, that's how the Rambam's quoting our Mishnah: כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא. Go ahead. וכן אמרו במשנה לא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה. Also our Mishnah, right? וכן בדברי תורה ובדברי חכמה יהיו דברי החכם מעטים וענייניהם מרובים.
So here too, just like like tzorkei haguf, we said that even though that the... subject matter is totally valid and important, but even so, don't be unnecessarily long-winded. Same is true even in divrei Torah and divrei chochmah, that a person should explain things well with as few words as are needed to do so. Right, there's supposed to be an inverse relationship between the number of words and and the content, you know, of what one is saying. ובזה צוו חכמים ואמרו לעולם ילמד אדם בדרך קצרה. A person should always teach his talmidim with concise formulations. אבל אם היו הדברים מרובים והענין מועט, but if you if the relationship is the opposite, a person says a lot in terms of words, but but says very little in terms of content, harei zo sichlus. What's sichlus? Sichlus? Foolishness. Sichlus? Foolishness. Sichlus? Sichlus? Stupidity, foolishness, yeah, yeah. Harei zo sichlus, that's foolishness. V'al zeh ne'emar, ועל זה נאמר כי בא החלום ברב ענין וקול כסיל ברב דברים.
Just like in in the the the the the the voice of a fool will be evident in, you know, just how garrulous, how how how much he talks. Okay, can you do Halacha Hey? Siyag l'chochmah? סייג לחכמה שתיקה לפיכך לא ימהר להשיב ולא ירבה לדבר.
The siyag for wisdom is silence. Therefore, somebody shouldn't be too quick to respond, and he shouldn't speak too much. ילמד לתלמידיו בשובה ונחת ולא צעקה ולא אריכות לשון. And a person should teach should teach his talmidim with in a in a calm and settled way without screaming and without speaking too too extensively, not a concise manner. Hu she'amar Shlomo, דברי חכמים בנחת נשמעים, that the words of chachamim are heard in a soothing manner. Okay, so take a minute for your for yourselves on Halacha Dalet and Halacha Hey. There's one very, I don't know, a blatant, glaring question that that jumps off the page. Look at Halacha Dalet and Halacha Hey, and give it a moment's thought, give it a few moments thought, and what what jumps off the page at us? Does he repeat the same thing twice? Yeah, Halacha Dalet, what does Rambam say? Yarbeh adam shtikah, that's an amazing phrase. You can't really translate that literally into English. To be marbeh b'shtikah. So the Rambam begins Halacha Dalet, \"Don't talk so much,\" he says. People talk too much, right? If you got to summarize Halacha Dalet, people talk too much. Good. Okay. I I got the point. Then, I mean, if the Rambam never does it, but obviously in this context sometimes halachot overlap, right? That's clear. But but but but it looks like he is repeating himself. Halacha Hey begins, same point: Don't talk so much. Siyag l'chochmah shtikah. Right? Siyag, you want to stay out of trouble, be quiet. That's what he told me in Halacha Dalet. He quoted כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא. He quoted Avot, Mishnah. That that's the That's the question that just jumps off the page. Can Everyone Everyone see that that question? Can I ask...? Yes. So, obviously you need to be concise, but you need to talk what's appropriate. What's the person that you're trying to explain to them? You can't always just speak along for no reason. Good, an excellent question. So now, think a minute and then answer the question, answer your own question. Take a minute to think of it and answer your own question. Repeat the question? Yeah, go ahead. How How can you just categorically say כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא? What what... Let's say, let's say a teacher's in a classroom, and maybe maybe the concept is difficult, and he explains it once, and the guys don't get it. And he does it a second time. What what does the Gemara say? Rabbi Preida had a talmid, didn't get it, what did he explain it, 400 times or something? So how can you just say categorically, kol hamarbeh devarim, maybe, hey, some occasions and some circumstances require a person to talk a lot. So what, answer your own question. Maybe. Well, well, yes, sort of, but you need to take out the pencil sharpener, sharpen the point a bit. In the previous se'if, like that the Rambam said that kav beinoni. So, I don't think like when he's talking, he's saying always be quiet, it's just saying that the best thing for a guf is to be quiet. Doesn't mean that that a guy always has to be like that. You need to know how to use it. Yes, in some cases, obviously, it's going to be better to not be quiet, but if you choose no better way also, sometimes you need to talk, and many things happen. And here it says, or talk about it negatively, it's sorry more in and of itself, it's talk like, I'm sorry, I don't know how to explain. You'd say elevation is said, kol hamarbeh devarim, meaning that he's elevated that his speech... Ah! Marbeh devarim, there's no absolute definition of what ribuy devarim means. It's not that, \"Well, if you go beyond 75 words, that's ribuy devarim.\" No, ribuy devarim means more than you need to. If it takes five hours of non-stop explanation to explain something, that's not ribuy devarim. If it takes 30 seconds to explain something, and you spend a minute doing it, that is ribuy devarim. So ribuy devarim, again, doesn't have an absolute standard. You can't say how many words is the the definition of ribuy devarim. So the answer is it depends upon context, it depends upon what you're teaching, what needs to what needs to to what needs to to be said, right? Did you hear that? Yes. Now, so back to our original question here. Halachah Dalet and Hey, right, seem seems to be repetition, and and the Rambam begins Halachah Hey as if, you know, Halachah Dalet wasn't there. It starts all over again with, you know, \"Keep quiet. Don't, don't talk so much.\" Yeah. Can I ask you another question? Sure. I think there's a Gemara in Kiddushin that dis- that says that if someone asks you, you should you should be able to fluent in Torah so that if someone asks you a question, you shouldn't like... Tegamgem. Al tegamgem. Have it on... But that seems to לפיכך לא ימהר להשיב ולא ירבה לדבר. Okay. That's that's a nice question. Okay, so take a minute, and you you tell me the answer. Can it be that, you know, maheir lehashiv is like in an overconfident way, and al tegamgem is just like patience? Yeah, that's true, but yet... Could you say lo yemaheir lehashiv is like you answer quickly in order to answer, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't know the answer, you just wait a couple seconds before you have to answer? That's that's also true. But, you know, it depends upon the question. When the Gemara says שיהיו דברי תורה מחודדים בפיך, it means when someone asks you something and it's a mefurash Mishna, it's a mefurash din in Shulchan Aruch. And he's not asking you about a new case, about a complicated case, where you need to figure out now how does the halachah, how do the principles of halachah get applied to this, to this new case. Let's say, when the first time, I don't know, they ever designed home alarm systems, whatever sha'alos in Hilchos Shabbos that generated, so there's obviously no explicit se'if in Shulchan Aruch about alarm systems in homes. So the poskim have to then think, \"Well, this principle in Hilchos Shabbos applies and tells me this is a problem, this isn't a problem.\" If that's the question, so the Rambam says lo yemaheir lehashiv. You know, you have to... you can't you can't respond too quickly. But if someone asks you, you know, someone asks you, \"Well, tell tell me what the...\" the toldos of the, you know, of tochen, or something like that, you know, something which is meforash, and the Gemara says no, harei zeh megunah, that that a person should, you know, what what we strive to do is to have, you know, a mastery over it that it's on the tip of your tongue. Is that Is that not a chochmah? Is chochmah not just to figure out things? Chochmah also means things that deal with ma'aseh bereishis and ma'aseh merkavah. I think that's probably what the Rambam means by that. Okay. We We're still stuck, rabbosai. I got a lot of excellent, huh, excellent additional questions, um, but if you're doing it to distract from the original question, it didn't work. We're still stuck with the original question, rabbosai. Someone's got to step up, and and we got to figure out the answer to this original question. Halachos Dalet and Hey seem to be repetitious. It's more about how you say what you should shouldn't say, like how you convey you know, the way a person when he asks asks a question, he could ask warmly or cheerfully. Could we say that maybe Halacha Dalet is condescending unlike a regular like individual talking about their daily like old talk. And Halacha Hey the Rambam stresses you're learning with like a student. Like it's talking more about how you should be telling as well you feel like a rebbe. So So that that that that is a crucial crucial observation that Halacha Hey does seem to be somewhat specialized. But af al pi chein okay. It's It's the same principle, albeit now being applied. So Here Here's Here's the Here's Here's Here's a Here's a question which sometimes an additional question helps us, point us in the in the right direction when we're trying to find the answer to the original question. In Halacha Beis, Rambam introduces as well shtikah, right? As well shtikah. S'yag l'chochmah shtikah. So, what's that got to do with vilameid l'talmidav b'shuva uv'nachas v'lo bitze'akah v'hu she'amar Shlomo divrei chachamim b'nachas nishma'im? Whether or not the rebbe speaks gently, whether he's screaming, give the same number of words whether you scream whether you scream the words or whether you say the words softly. So how does that come into Halacha Hey? Halacha Hey is about s'yag l'chochmah shtikah. Okay, s'yag l'chochmah shtikah, so I get it. I get the lo yerbeh sichah. I get that. I get but what the vilameid l'talmidav b'shuva uv'nachas v'lo bitze'akah, that's not It's not that when you talk softly, well, you know, when we talk at this decibel level, so closer to not talking than if I scream out. That's not the case. So, you would have a second question like that, our girsa? We have a second question of it. So you're saying maybe we can explain shtikah is not literal silence, but the way of presenting oneself in a quiet way, which could be, you know, not screaming or whatever, but just presenting oneself in a quiet manner? Maybe. It's a little bit It's a little bit of a stretch with the word shtikah, no? So here it is, rabbosai. Here it is. So the the following explanation, what my father's father Rambam suggested is a beautiful, beautiful and and very, very true explanation. The Rambam has two halachos about shtikah. Halacha Dalet There is a certain iron here. Halacha Dalet is how talking too much is prone to cheit. If a person talks too much, so eventually, I don't know, eventually he's start talking about things he shouldn't talk about. Eventually you make a joke that you shouldn't make. A person talks too much, a person is not being disciplined in his speech. He's not, you know, the more the more we talk, the more likely it is that we're talking not not so constructively. And And more likely it is that we're talking somewhat mindlessly, and we sort of, you know, let letting the words, letting the words flow. Halacha daled, and that's what our Mishna says, וכל המרבה דברים מביא חטא, and that's what the Rambam quotes in halacha daled. And halacha daled is about silence, or minimizing speech, as a way of as as as a strategy to avoid aveira, as a, a mishmeret, as as a safeguard against aveira. That's one halacha of shetika. Says the Rambam, but then there's another halacha of shetika. And there's another halacha of shetika, which is that if you want, listen to this, rabosai, it's unbelievable, if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your speech, so then you have to talk sparingly. משל למה הדבר דומה. If you take a cup of orange juice, the orange juice is full of taste and and and flavor. You begin to dilute it, so then the taste and the flavor began to get diluted. And the more you dilute it, the more you lose the taste and the flavor. And it's not even that if I took five ounces of orange juice, and then I diluted it with another five or ten ounces of water, okay, it just took me fifteen ounces to get the same orange juice. No, not in terms of flavor and taste! You lose the flavor and taste. I mean, in terms of the vitamin C you get it, but you lose in terms of flavor and taste, that's, for the mashal, let's focus on on the flavor and taste of of the orange juice. You lose it! Halacha hey is not about avoiding cheit. Halacha hey is about maximizing the power of speech. Using speech as effectively as possible. And that's and that's why and and and shetika is necessary for that. But since that, since we're talking about shetika in that vein, that's why it's naturally connected and related to say another way that speech is used most effectively is not to be screaming. People get turned off by the by the screaming. Unless you're looking at a exciting thriller film, but otherwise people otherwise people get get turned off, people get turned off by by by screaming. So that's what the Rambam is saying. The same way I'm telling you that first think, so then you can choose your words carefully and deliberately, and the same way that the same way I tell you that shetika is pivotal for harnessing the power of speech, you should also know that that speaking softly, even once you speak, that that that that that the soft delivery rather than the the screaming delivery also helps maximize the effect of speech. You hear that? So that's that that that's what the two halachos are. Halacha daled is about avoiding unnecessary speech, because if you talk too much, we get into trouble. Right? And it deals with the the sort of what we find with siyag, because that's what we usually think of as a siyag, right? We usually view the concept as a fence which keeps us away from cheit. If you imagine cheit is way over here, so then when you build the the fence around it, so that's a safeguard that that that keeps you away from cheit. That's what halacha daled is about. But the Rambam says there's another type of siyag. Siyag sometimes isn't to avoid aveira, which is what halacha daled was about. Siyag is that that that sometimes you need that extra care, you need that, again, in the context of speech, you need to measure your words and use them as carefully and sparingly as possible, not because you're looking to avoid cheit, but because you're looking to use speech as effectively as possible, to make it the most effective tool you can. If you can explain something and everyone will understand it in ten words, so the twelve words, it's going to take something away from the sharpness of the definition. So, sometimes, like I've been doing this for the last five minutes, pedagogically, it's important when you introduce something new to reinforce it. And because of that, it is important to say it a second time or or a third time. And sometimes it can be important to say it one way and then say it another way to to help people grasp the new idea. But when when when when you've hit the target and and you've communicated it carefully, so then the added words can only detract, potentially detract. They can't add. They can only potentially detract from the clarity. Yeah, Aaron, go ahead. How do you see how... what is it that a person is supposed to feel, like that still... you don't know, are they... they already got it, don't have to explain more. So, there are I think a few a few responses. One is often you can tell by people's facial reaction. You can often see. I mean, I think you can see on on someone's face whether or not it's registered. It's true that some people have poker faces, and then it's a little bit more challenging to figure out. But usually there's, especially in the eyes, there's often a hint. It's often discernible whether whether they've grasped the point. Sometimes it's you know, you're guided by how difficult or new the concept is, and therefore, you know, you you know, you mesha'er that this is going to require more explanation, this point requires less explanation. And sometimes you don't know and you ask them, you know, is it clear? And they'll say... is it clear? Yeah. You don't think you're putting too much of a burden on... Why is it the person who's talking who has to... why doesn't the person who's listening... So that that's a great question. Maybe we'll leave it to the side only because if if we come back when we're done with the mishnah, then we'll we'll tackle it. Now, לא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא... so clearly from the end of of the mishnah, it's clear that Rabban Shimon is talking about, again, avoiding excessive talking as a way of avoiding sin. Siyag in the sense that we're used to using it, more commonly. But did did he indicate that in in the beginning of the mishnah? The Rambam not only quotes the end of the mishnah... look again in halacha daled, by the way, lines three and four. So, the Rambam not only quotes כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא, he also quotes the opening line of the mishnah: the lo matzati laguf, excuse me, לא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה. So how does... I understand how כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא clearly, clearly is talking about din number one of shtikah of keeping quiet at times and other times minimizing speech to avoid lashon hara, ona'as devarim, halbanas panim, nivul peh... וכולי וכולי וכולי וכולי וכולי. How, how is Clearly from the fact that the Rambam is quoting, well, it says so in the guf, tov ela shtika, that line also delivers the same message. Maybe לא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה means in order to harness the power of speech. If for the Rambam that line is also delivering that message, would you see it in the words? No? If they're delivering two different messages, one is teaching you that you can't you shouldn't talk a lot about, no, davar chofetz umatar, the, davar chofetz umatar. The other one is לא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה, it's telling you that you you you can talk about things that you should you shouldn't talk a lot about things that are for the chai haguf. That are tzorchei haguf. Yeah. Yeah, so that's that's excellent. I think that's one answer. That that he's quoting it for to tell, again, that the Rambam says not only do you keep quiet if there's no need to talk at all, but even when there's need to talk, don't don't talk a lot. And the Rambam said that that's true even if you're talking about tzorchei haguf, right? Even if you're compiling a shopping list, that's tzorchei haguf. Even if you're calling the doctor, that's that's tzorchei haguf, vechulei, vechulei. So maybe that's what לא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה means, even not only should you keep quiet if you can get quiet, but maybe, well, that's one pshat. And maybe that's the better of the two. We're going to suggest a second one, I'm not sure, but it could be. But לא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה. So what we all, we all have a guf and a neshama. What do we associate chet with? Neshama. We associate it with the neshama in terms of culpability, but in terms of driving force, what do we associate chet with? Yetzer hara. The guf, right? The guf, because why does a person sin? He sins because of ta'avot, he sins because of because of anger, so all those things are are physical forces that that we experience. So we associate, again, that there's, you know, that there's chet until we do teshuva, does it does it, you know, as it were, sully the neshama? It does, and then teshuva cleanses, but but in terms of the the source of chet, we associate chet with guf. Ah. So maybe, maybe that's also a little bit of a remez, not only tzorchei haguf, maybe that's what, I'm just saying, lo matzasi laguf. For the guf, which is the source of chet, so I I have found that the best way to to check the guf, and to hold and hold the guf in check, that that it shouldn't lead me to chet, is to be careful with my speech. To to to quiet. Okay, great. Now let's take a look. We have on the bottom of this page two halachos in Hilchos Shabbos. Let's take a look at those halachos. Lucas? אסרו חכמים לטלטל מקצת דברים בשבת כדרך שהוא עושה בחול.
The Chachamim were assur to assur you to move some things on Shabbos like you would move them on chol. ואמרו מה ראו לאסור זה? Why did they, why did they What what do we call this issur? Muktzeh. Muktzeh, or kli shemelachto le'issur, right? So if you have I don't know, you have let's say you were eating peanuts, and so you you have the peanut shells here. So peanut shells are what? There is no use for peanut shells, so they're junk. So what's junk is muktzeh. So you you can't you can't You certainly can't routinely just pick it up and move it. Or even what's the din of a kli shemelachto le'issur? What's an example of a kli shemelachto le'issur? A hammer. A hammer. Why why is it why is that an issur? Why is that a kli shemelachto le'issur? 'Cause most commonly you'll you'll use a hammer to bang a nail, but some people might use a hammer to open a coconut. I don't think you can do that. Can you use a hammer? It could be, yeah. So when you have a kli whose primary usage is to do a melacha, right, the most common use of of a hammer would be to bang a nail into the wall, which would be boneh, but there's a secondary use, a secondary conventional use, not not, not artificial, but but real secondary use, such as using a hammer to to open, to open a a coconut. So, that's considered keli shemelachto le'isur. Keli shemelachto le'isur is not like muktzah in that categorically you can't pick it up, you can't carry it, but you can carry it for what two purposes? Letzorech gufo and letzorech mekomo. Right. Letzorech gufo means you can pick it up to use it to open the coconut. But letzorech mekomo means if you left it on the dining room table, and you need this area for for for seudas Shabbos, so you can pick it up and put it away. And and what can't you what what what what for what purpose can you not, everyone is would agree you cannot move a hammer? There's an example we give that illustrates. It's called michamah letzil. Let let let's say you left the hammer, I don't know why, you were eating coconut in the backyard on Friday afternoon. I'm not sure exactly why you had Friday afternoon to be eating coconut in the backyard, but whatever, I don't know, you were. So, you're eating coconut in your backyard on Friday afternoon, and you have a hammer there to open the coconut, and you left the hammer outside. And now it looks like it's about to start pouring, and you're afraid that the the metal parts of the the hammer will get rusty if it's left out in the rain. So, that's called michamah letzil. Literally michamah letzil means you want to move something from the sun to the shade, but it's just illustrating that you're not take you're not picking it up to use it, letzorech gufo, you're not moving it letzorech mekomo because the hammer is here on the dining room table where we want to eat the seudas Shabbos, but you're doing it to to protect it, that it that it shouldn't rust. So, with a keli shemelachto le'isur, you can't do this. Okay, so so it's issur tiltul on Shabbos. Says the Rambam, why on earth is it tiltul? Sometimes this tiltul is categorical, it's muktzah. Sometimes it's it's more nuanced such as a keli shemelachto le'isur, but nevertheless, issur is there. Why did Chazal promulgate, why did Chazal institute this issur? Amru, the Chachamim used the following sevara: ומה אם הזהירו נביאים וצוו שלא יהא הילוכך בשבת כהילוכך בחול.
What, and just as the Chachamim were were warned you about, that they recommended to you that your the way you walk, the nevi'im, sorry, the nevi'im, that the way you walk on Shabbos shouldn't be like the way you walk on chol, וכן שיחת שבת כשיחת חול, and and the way you speak on Shabbos, your conversations shouldn't be like your conversations on on chol, shene'emar vedabeir davar, there's a pasuk in Yeshayahu, Yeshayahu says 'vedabeir davar', then קל וחומר שלא יהא טלטול בשבת כטלטול בחול. So, kal vachomer, you know, the things you move on Shabbos shouldn't be like the same way the the the things you move on chol, כדי שלא יהא כיום חול בעיניו ויבוא להגביה ולתקן כלים מפינה לפינה ומבית לבית,
that that in order that your If you didn't have issur muktzah, if you didn't have restrictions on keli shemelachto le'isur, so you could spend an awful lot of time on Shabbos, you'd go down to your workshop. Say a person has his own workshop. So he's gonna go down and he's gonna rearrange his his workshop, he's gonna take all his again, let's assume that that many or or even for argument's sake, all of the all the tools he has in his workshop all qualify as as keilim shemelachtan le'isur, so he's gonna move all of them around, o yatznia avanim, he'll move around some rocks, And let's say, let's say his backyard is is enclosed, so there's no issur of carrying, because it's it's enclosed. Maybe he has a he has a fence around his his property. So then he's gonna move around, then he'll take you know, he has these sort of big stones that he uses for sitting on. He's gonna pick them up, move them from one place to another. Vechayotzei bahen, and many similar cases, שהואיל ובטל ויושב בביתו יבקש דבר שיתעסק בו. He's bored, he has nothing else to do! He's bored. Yeah. Venimtza shelo shavas. And if we'll allow him, if he'll be allowed to do this, if a person will be allowed to to to rearrange his workshop on Shabbos, to go around and and move stones around his backyard on Shabbos, so what would the result be? The result He hasn't rested. Shelo shavas. ובטל טעם שנאמר בתורה למען ינוח. He hasn't he hasn't rested on Shabbos, and it's Right. So even even though he wouldn't have been guilty of any melacha, right, because everything the Rambam described didn't involve any melacha, but then, halo, what kind of a Shabbos will that be? You know? Ve'od, ועוד כשיבקר בכלים שמלאכתן לאיסור. And furthermore, if he wants to, if he goes and he moves something that is a kli shemelachto le'issur, אפשר שיגע בהן ויבא לידי מלאכה. So he might he might mess around with it, do something with it a little bit, come to do a melachah. Let's stop there. Let's stop there. If if there's no restriction on handling a hammer, if there's no restriction on handling a screwdriver on Shabbos, obviously the odds of a person using the hammer to do a melachah increase greatly. Mah she'ein kein, if before I touch a hammer I have to stop and think: Is it legitimate for me to be using the hammer, holding the hammer now or not? I have to figure: Did I do that letzorech gufo, letzorech mekomo, or maybe this is more mechama letzel? So if every time before I handle a hammer I make this cheshbon, so I'm that, I'm I'm that less likely, obviously, to end up using the hammer. Ve'od, ועוד שמקצת העם אינן בעלי אומניות אלא בטלין כל ימיהן.
Right, so you have people who, I don't know, maybe maybe they inherited a fortune. They don't really work all week. They're not they're not professionals. אלא בטלין כל ימיהן. They're not doing anything all day. כגון הטיילין ויושבי קרנות שכל ימיהן שובתין ממלאכה ואם יהיה מותר להלך ולדבר ולטלטל כשאר הימים נמצא שלא שבת שביתה הניכרת.
So these people, they don't do anything all day, they're the yoshvei kranot, the tayalin, and so they they rest and they don't do melachah the whole week. So if it was muttar for them to walk around and to talk, there's no issue of ve'daber davar, and they would move muktzeh like every other day, then they haven't rested at all. There's no there's no Shabbos wouldn't be known. It would be indistinguishable, etcetera, etcetera. So the Rambam has three different reasons for issur muktzeh and and tiltul of a kli shemelachto le'issur. The first one is to ensure, two words, rabosai, to ensure minyan hamelachot, excellent. The second one is to, two words, not necessarily in Rambam, שלא יבוא לידי מלאכה, right, avoid melachah. And number three is to ensure shevitah hanikeret, yes? Clear what each of the three reasons is? So what do you say about those reasons, rabosai? Reason number two clearly conceives of, let's say, the restrictions on carrying, handling a kli shemelachto le'issur, it conceives of it as what we would call a classic seyag. Don't do this, because if you do it, you're likely to end up doing an aveirah. Right? So issur muktzeh, again, here it's really the issur tiltul of kli shemelachto le'issur, is להרחיק את האדם מן העבירה. In Halachah, in excuse me, in reason number one, is is that להרחיק אדם מן העבירה? No, it's to make Shabbos meaningful. If if a person won't be restricted in terms of tiltul, if he can spend all day in his workshop, rearranging the workshop, he can spend all day in the backyard with some tools, moving around the lawn, so what kind of a Shabbos is he going to have? He's going to squander the blessing of Shabbos. If if we'll restrict him in those areas, so then he'll open up a chumash, and he'll thoughtfully work through the parashah, he'll go to the rav's Shabbos afternoon shiur, he'll maarich at the seudah with zmirot and and and and and divrei Torah. So, why do we look at Why not? Kevod v'oneg for Shabbos, that's just Any other reasons? It's the same two reasons as for This can this can also fit into our she'elot between the two different types of seyagot. Exactly. That's, so, if I find something that we're both again, this is another example. Here too, reason number one, or the middle reason in the, excuse me, the middle of the three reasons is the restrictions are to keep us away from an aveira. But reason number one, and probably reason number three, but certainly reason number one, is it's not to keep us away from an aveira as much as it is to unleash and and and and and harness the positive potential. You you you want to you want to in a good sense of the word, of the phrase, you want to take advantage of Shabbos. You want to make the most of Shabbos, so don't be involved in these activities. The more distractions, the more nonsense we can fill our day with on Shabbos, then the less likely we are to to to to to do with Shabbos what Shabbos is intended for. That's what Rambam says: lebatel otam lema'aneinu, right? Great, okay. So we have a few minutes, we're going to begin another mishna, and we'll see how far we get. Okay, go to second mishna in your text. על שלשה דברים העולם עומד על הדין ועל האמת ועל השלום שנאמר אמת ומשפט שלום שפטו בשעריכם.
Great, so we're going to talk about emes. It's not to say that din and shalom are not worthy of a of a discussion, but but but we're going to try to focus, be'ezras Hashem, tonight on emes. So you want to continue, please, with Rabbeinu Yonah? Yeah. יש לאדם לדעת שאף על פי שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה שמותר לשנות בדבר השלום, לא יעשה כן תמיד, אלא בעת הצורך, דהא כי הוה אמר רב עבדי לי טלופחי עבדא ליה חימצי, וכד גדל חייא בריה איפכא לה, וכד חזא רב אמר איעליא לך אמך, אמר ליה אנא הוא דאיפכא לה, סיום הגמרא ביבמות: אמר לו היינו דאמרי אינשי דנפיק מינך טעמא מלפך, את מיהא לא תעביד הכי שנאמר למדו לשונם דבר שקר העוה נלאו, וכו', כדאיתא בגמרא ביבמות דף סג עמוד ב.
So so the the Rabbeinu Yonah doesn't quote the the full Gemara. The Gemara in Yevamos tells the following story: that Rav's wife, I don't know why she did this, but but she was very, she was a contrarian. So every day she'd ask Rav, \"What do you want for dinner tonight?\" So Rav would say, \"Pizza.\" So she'd make hamburgers. The next day she'd say to Rav, \"What do you want for dinner tonight?\" And he'd say, \"Hot pockets.\" Whatever, steak. What? Chicken cutlets. So he'd say he'd say, \"Let's have hot pockets.\" So then she'd make lasagna. He always got the the opposite of what he asked for. So one day, his wife sent a message to him through their son: \"Go go ask Abba, go ask Tatty, not Abba, because Rav's son didn't call him Abba. How do I know that? How do I know that he didn't call him Abba? Because his name was Abba. Yeah, his name was Abba, so he wouldn't call him Abba.\" So, \"Go go ask Daddy, Tatty, what whatever, I'm sure they were speaking Yiddish at the time, go ask father what what he wants.\" And then much to Rav's surprise, he got what he wanted. He said, \"Let's have falafel.\" And sure enough, they had falafel. So he he says to his son, \"Look, your mother's turned over a new leaf.\" And he says, i'alya lach imach. And the son answers, אנא הוא דאיפכא לה. \"No, she didn't change! I told her the opposite of what you wanted. You told me you wanted fleishigs, so I told her you wanted milchigs, that's how you got fleishigs.\" So what does Rav say? Amar lei, so what does Rav tell his son on line four? Line four, yeah, Hainu de'amri inshei... Yeah, well, denafik minach, meaning, children, right, your children teach you, and you learn from your children. He said, that that was a real chochma, you know. That that would never have occurred to me to try that, you know. That was a chochma. However, so first Rav compliments him, so, you know, he doesn't want to seem harsh, and and and he doesn't want to be harsh, because, you know, the son who was doing it, you know, for kibud av, but then later on Rav tells him, ואת לא תעביד הכי. Ve'at lo ta'avid, but don't do that. You shouldn't do that. That's, I appreciate it, and the chochma was really good, you know. It was it was it was really smart, it was a chacham, right? But don't do that in the future, ve'at lo ta'avid. Why? Because like it says in the pasuk, למדו לשונם דבר שקר. I think this is the haftarah of Tisha B'Av, no? למדו לשונם דבר שקר. They train, literally they train their tongue to speak to speak sheker, to speak falsehood. What does that mean? Rabbeinu Yonah explains, כי בהיות האיש מלומד לדבר שקר בדבר שאין בו לא הפסד ולא תועלת,
a person who is accustomed to lie will lie even when it's inconsequential, to lie, also, even if it's inconsequential, there's no loss, there's no hurt, it doesn't matter. So like whether you're telling them like something big or whether, like, you know, you're telling them the high temperature, showing them, you know, the temperature outside, you have to, you're going to move over to like a habit of doing it, and once you do it, and whenever a person is, even when it comes to, you know, big business, and he's just going to lie about it, he's just going to lie about everything. So if if if if we pose the following question to ourselves: why does a person have to always be truthful? How many answers to that question did Rabbeinu Yonah provide? Two, excellent. What are the two answers? First one is copy Hashem. Number two? Ways of Hashem. And and and what's what's the Elaborate each of the two answers, please, you're 100% correct. Elaborate each of the two answers, please. So, to elaborate on this, the first one is you copy Hashem. What He does, you know, whatever Hashem does, Hashem is emes, and you have to be emes, copy Hashem, right? Hashem is truthful, you have to be truthful. Second one? Second one is the story with Rav. You see the story with Rav that even if there, even if there's no there's no difference, the person, you're lying, you're not actually doing anything bad, nothing bad will result from your lie, you're still not allowed to, it's a habit. If like a person accustomed to do something a little bit bad, like Rav told him you can't tell them, you know, like you can't tell them that, so you can't do that. Excellent, excellent. Rabbeinu Yonah says that there are two mechayev, there are two reasons, there are two things that impel that even if the subject matter seems inconsequential, a person has to be honest. There are two mechayev, two things that impel honesty, integrity, even when it seems totally inconsequential. The first one is that the middah of HaKadosh Baruch Hu is emes, and we're supposed to emulate the ways of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And listen, I mean hear hear this yesod, Rabosai. Sometimes the underlying principle is much more important than the surface iteration of events. It's maybe what you're asking me about, let's say I I heard that the weather forecast for tomorrow the high is supposed to be 96°, that's what I heard, and you're asking me what's the forecast for tomorrow, and I say, \"The high's going to be, I don't know, 95°.\" It doesn't make a difference, you know, in terms of how you're going to dress for tomorrow and and how much water you need to drink to stay hydrated. It's the same protocol for 95 or 96. So the application, but the middah of emes is the same. Do you hear that point, Rabosai? Whether it's seemingly a little lie or a big lie, that's only on the level of consequence, but on the level of am I living up to the middah of emes, am I fulfilling vehalachta bidrachav whether it's a little lie or a big lie? It doesn't matter whether it's an inconsequential lie or a consequential lie. It's either it's emes or it's not emes. So mechayev number one is vehalachta bidrachav. Emes is one of the middos of of HaKadosh actions. And so we we have to we have to imitate that, we have to emulate that. Number two, says Rabbeinu Yonah, independent of that, leaving aside vehalachta bidrachav, and and maybe we'll talk a little bit more about this on Sunday night, im yirtzeh Hashem, but Rabbeinu Yonah says, you can't, and listen to this yesod, it's so important to listen, you can't compartmentalize when it comes to your midos. If you're going to be messy in I don't know, in your room, so then you're going to be messy with your with your with your shiur notes. And so maybe it really isn't so intrinsically important how how neat your room is, but you can't compartmentalize, you can't compartmentalize midos. So if a person will not be totally truthful in consequential, in inconsequential matters, so then that midah carries over, because you can't compartmentalize midos. That's a big, big, big yesod. So that's why Rabbeinu Yonah says even leaving aside vehalachta bidrachav, you know why even if the subject matter is inconsequential, why you have to be so mindful? Because if you develop a habit of not being exact and precise and truthful, so then that's going to carry over to to very consequential matters as well. When you talk about inyanei emunah, you're going to talk with the same lack of rigor, the same lack of precision. And therefore, that's a limdu leshonam, that that's what Rav was telling his son. It was very good, and thank you, I appreciated the hamburger tonight, you know, but but lema'aseh, if if if you allow yourself to be accustomed to saying, \"Tatti asked for pizza,\" when that's not true, and what he really asked for, you know, was a what was a hamburger, so then that's going to carry over. Because you can't compartmentalize midos. If the midah is important in any context, which so many midos are, we need we need to operate with that midah consistently. And maybe we'll talk some more about this on Sunday on Sunday night im yirtzeh Hashem.