Transcript

Antigonus Ish Soho kibel miShimon HaTzaddik. Antigonus Ish Soho accepted from Shimon HaTzaddik. Hu haya omer: Do not be like servants who serve the master to receive a reward. Do not be like servants that serve the master not to receive a reward, and fear of Heaven should be on you. So Antigonus is Soho and Shimon HaTzaddik. Antigonus Ish Soho, it sounds like some people from Soho. Soho is the name of a place. It means he was the personality, he was the Gadol of Soho. He said: Hu haya omer:

אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס.

Don't be like slaves serving the master to receive a reward.

אלא היו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב שלא על מנת לקבל פרס.

Rather be like slaves that serve the master not to receive a reward. ויהי מורא שמים עליכם, and fear of Heaven should be on you. Very excellent. So what do you want? Look at the Rambam's Perush HaMishnayot, and then a while back, a while later, we'll circle back and understand the depth better. Take a look two and a half lines into the Rambam: Ve'amar zeh chassid. Do you see zeh chassid?

ואמר זה חסיד אשר אתם לא תעבדו השם יתברך על מנת שיטיב לכם שיגמול לכם חסד ושיגמול כמות שתעבדו בעבורה.

And what's a chassid? The Rambam's prefatory note to Antigonus Ish Soho is characterized as a chassid. This chassid, this pious person, says about a person's style. This chassid said that you shouldn't serve Hashem on the stipulation that it should be good for you and you'll get chessed and you hope to serve Him and to do it because of Him. Ba'avurah, meaning yeah. ואמנם עבדו כעבדים שאינם מקבלים להיטבה ולא לגמול חסד. What he's saying is you should be like, it's actually not al menat,

על מנת שלא לקבל פרס, על מנת שלא לקבל פרס.

It means that you should be like an eved that's specifically doing it and he's not hoping, he doesn't want good news, he's just doing it to serve his master. He's doing it she'einam mekablim lehaitiv. You don't want, you're not hoping for good, not for chessed. Rather, sheyihyu osim me'ahavah, as was mentioned in Perek Yud in Sanhedrin. So what does it mean to be oseh me'ahavah? Or what's the definition of ahavah? Just, the Rambam just gave it to us. It means you be oseh me'ahavah, not as something, but to do it purely lishmah, purely altruistically, purely because one wants to serve Hashem, because one senses and appreciates that that's the right thing, that's the meaningful thing, that's the true thing to do. Not because a person has any personal interest, not looking for any self-gain, any reward. That's what it means to be oseh me'ahavah. Just reading one more line down there from the Rambam: Ve'im kol zeh. ואם כל זה לא פטר מן היראה. Even though you're serving Him from ahavah, that doesn't mean you shouldn't serve Him with yirah.

ואמר אם יהיה אתכם עובדים מאהבה לא תניחו היראה לגמרי ויהי מורא שמים עליכם כי כבר בא בתורה המצוה ביראה.

So if it had just said that you should serve Him be'ahavah, then you would think that means without yirah. ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. So that's why he has to have this second statement. כי כבר בא בתורה המצוה ביראה. Vehu amru את השם אלוקיך תירא. Ve'amru chachamim: עבוד מאהבה עבוד מיראה. Very, very excellent. So what do the last four words in the Mishnah add? What did the last four words in the Mishnah add? You need ahavah, but you also need to know that there's setting of ahavah. Setting of ahavah. Good. Excellent. Okay, turn to the other side. There's a tremendous depth to the Rambam's just mentioned. I think we may be able to uncover this depth with another statement of the Rambam in the Shemoneh Perakim. Okay, so just reading this thing down. Al omar adam, a person should not say, hareini oseh mitzvah. haTorah ve'osek bechochmata that I'm doing the mitzvot of the Torah and being osek in the chochma כדי שאקבל כל הברכות הכתובות בה so that all the brachot that are written I can be mekabel that. Or כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא or that so I'll be zoche to olam haba. ואפרוש מן העבירות שהזהירה תורה מהן or that I'm separating from aveirot that the Torah warns us about כדי שאנצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה so that I'm saved from the curses that are written in the Torah, or כדי שלא אכרת מחיי העולם הבא or so that I'm not cut off from olam haba. אין ראוי לעבוד את השם על הדרך הזה. It's not fit to serve Hashem on this derech. For one who walks on this derech, העובד על הדרך הזה, hu oved me'yirah. He's doing it because of yirah. ואינה מעלת הנביאים ולא מעלת החכמים. It's not like on the level of the nevi'im or on the level of the chachamim. Okay, so Halacha Aleph basically summarizes what we just heard in Rambam. The Rambam is explaining that doing just saying that you're going to do great things even if it's not for reward or and it's not to get to olam haba you're just you're doing it and you're you're doing it to get you to olam haba and to get the brachot of the Torah or you're just going to separate yourself from aveirot so that you you don't get karet so that's that's not considered to be... so Halacha Aleph basically repeats that it's not ideal that a person is serving Hashem out of self-interest, that self-interest might be that he wants to get all of the brachot of this world, that self-interest might be that he wants to get olam haba, that's not ideal. That's called hu oved me'yirah. He's afraid of the consequences of not serving Hashem. What is the ideal? The ideal the Rambam repeats in Halacha Bet. Let's read in Halacha Bet.

האובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבי החכמה לא מפני דבר בעולם ולא מפני יראת הרעה

or because of some yirah or or something bad happening. But look at yirah hatov and not because of fear the good but rather אלא עושה האמת מפני שהוא אמת. He should do what is truthful because that is the truth. וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל. And the good will come anyway. It's a ma'ala, so at this level, ma'ala gedola, it's a very high level. ma'ala gedola hi is a very high level. And not every chacham is zoche to this. היא מעלת אברהם אבינו and Avraham Avinu which the Kadosh Baruch Hu called ohavi because he served only out of ahava. And

היא מעלה שציוונו בה הקדוש ברוך הוא על ידי משה

as Hashem commanded at this ma'ala level through Moshe, Moshe Rabbeinu, she'ne'emar, לאהבה את השם אלוהיך, to love Hashem your God. ובזמן שאוהב את השם אהבה ראויה so in the time that he loves Hashem with a pure love, מיד יעשה כל המצוות מאהבה immediately then he'll do all the mitzvot out of love. Okay, and again just to summarize in your own words for us. Trying to serve Hashem because of ahava as that's supposed to be our goal and that's at that high level and not out of fear or for to get reward. Good, excellent. Okay, next up. And so I'm confused because I think another Mishna in Pirkei Avot said like that this world is a prozdor for the next. How are we supposed to serve Hashem like out of ahava if this world is only like in order to get you to olam haba? So that's such an amazing question. Let's explore that because the answer is a long answer, it's not a short answer. Let's explore that and we'll see if we get to it. There's something extraordinary about this Rambam that we need to read very carefully to notice. In Halacha Aleph, how does the Rambam use the term mitzvos? What does the term mitzvos mean in Halacha Aleph? Does it mean combined mitzvos aseh and mitzvos lo ta'aseh? How does the Rambam use the term mitzvos in Halacha Aleph? Only mitzvos aseh. Right, how do you see that? It says oseh mitzvos. It says oseh mitzvos of the Torah. First of all, oseh, that it's active, and second of all, reinforce that. In the second one, it says osek b'mitzvos. Good, keep that in mind too. Now how does the Rambam express not violating a lo ta'aseh? Haporash min ha'aveirah. Excellent. Does everyone see that? Look in Halacha Aleph. Does everyone see that in Halacha Aleph to be oseh mitzvos, mitzvos refers to mitzvos fulfilling mitzvos aseh? It doesn't refer to complying with mitzvos lo ta'aseh. But that's being poresh min ha'aveirah. Oseh mitzvos or osek b'mitzvos refers only to mitzvos aseh. Does everyone see that? Yes? Now look at Halacha Bet. In Halacha Aleph the Rambam said that both doing and performing mitzvos aseh and also abstaining from mitzvos lo ta'aseh, both of these, it's wrong to be motivated by sechar or fear of onesh. Maybe wrong is too strong of a term. It's less than ideal, it's not optimal, it's not the best, right? Now what are we expecting him to say in Halacha Bet? In Halacha Aleph the Rambam says when you fulfill mitzvos aseh and you abstain from mitzvos lo ta'aseh, it's not ideal to do it just out of self-interest. So now Halacha Bet is going to tell us what is ideal. So what do we expect him to say in Halacha Bet? He said you separate mitzvos and mitzvos aseh and lo ta'aseh. He said that doing mitzvos for ahavas Hashem is good and you can do and you don't do the lo ta'aseh out of ahavas Hashem. Right, so what we're expecting in Halacha Bet is that the Rambam should say, just as in Halacha Aleph correctly he said it's less than ideal to put on tefillin, to eat matzah, shake a lulav, only because I want the reward, only because I'm afraid of the punishment, so in Halacha Bet when it tells us what is ideal, so what should he say? Put on tefillin, eat matzah, shake a lulav because of ahavas Hashem. Yes? You would expect that? What does he say in Halacha Bet? Does he say that? Does he deliver what we're expecting? No. What does he say? He only says it in respect to mitzvos and the way the Rambam is using it only refers to mitzvos fulfilling mitzvos aseh. Does everyone hear that? That's an unbelievable kashya. In Halacha Aleph the Rambam says the way that he puts on tefillin, put on tzitzis, shake a lulav, it's less than ideal to do it for reward. And to avoid eating trayfe, to avoid shatnez, it's less than ideal to do that again only because you want to avoid the punishment. In Halacha Bet he's now going to tell us what is ideal, right? Being oved me'ahavah. So we're expecting the Rambam to say put on tefillin, eat matzah, shake a lulav because it's true ahavas Hashem. Don't eat trayfe, don't break shatnez because it's true ahavas Hashem. But he only says the first half of that. Let's take a minute. Let's look again. Let's look again. Halacha Aleph, Beis. And let's just make sure everyone sees that kasha. This is a kasha that even after a shiur would keep you up all night, because so hopefully we'll figure out the answer, and then you'll see some beauty. Right. It seems like he's making a distinction between ahava for mitzvos aseh and then yira for mitzvos lo sa'aseh. Ahava, then and in Halacha Beis, those mitzvos also include lo sa'aseh because if not, what are you doing with the yira supply? So that's an excellent question. So presumably mitzvos does not refer to mitzvos lo sa'aseh because the Rambam has to be consistent in how he uses it, and in Halacha Aleph it's clear, right? It's totally clear that it only means mitzvos aseh. So presumably yiras Hashem means the punishment for being mevatel a mitzvah. But it says Abraham was botayach el Elokeinu. It also says ahava, also including lo sa'aseh, how does that fit in? I don't think so. I think again, all of Halacha Beis is only about mitzvos aseh because the word mitzvah in Rambam, that's why I've highlighted that first. The word mitzvah in Rambam, he is using it only to refer to the fulfilling mitzvos aseh, not the way it's sometimes used in other contexts. But why does he say it makes it seem like lo sisayhu should have the ahava? Because it says like yira and yira is also part of mitzvos? That's not a bad question at all, that's a very essential question. And hopefully as the shiur continues, the answer will unravel, and then we'll answer your question also. The Rambam uses in Halacha Beis the lashon of osek batorah umitzvos as opposed to oseh mitzvos hatorah. Is it not mashma, meaning if he used the same lashon then it would have been oseh mitzvos meaning not those mitzvos aseh, but because he refrains from using that same lashon, wouldn't it be that it's not only mitzvos aseh anymore? So you're right that the Rambam does not set, you're right. But notwithstanding the again, the fact that it's with an active verb osek being forceful that mitzvos is being used in the same way that it is in the context of the other. Why he drops oseh, I don't know, I don't know. Could it be that based on the last time the Rambam mentioned ahava and yira, yira is also connected to ahava, and having this ahava is going to automatically make you do mitzvos and therefore the opposite is also true? Isn't he mentioned having ahava also make you abstain from doing aveiros? Maybe, maybe. But let's see. Let's read the next source from Sefer HaMitzvos also about ahava and yira. Please. Sefer HaMitzvos Mitzvah Daled:

המצוה הרביעית היא הציווי שציוונו להאמין ביראתו יתעלה ולהיפחד ממנו.

Leha'amin means to experience, to feel. To feel, to feel the yirah. V'lehipached mimenu, to be fearful of Him. Exactly. ולא יהיה חפשי ומשולח carrying, we shouldn't be like the goyim who just do whatever they want. So what, what is Yiras Shamayim as defined here in Halacha? Yiras Shamayim. Okay. Yiras Shamayim. At first, one of the Taryag Mitzvos is Yiras Shamayim. So Yiras Ha'onesh, Yiras Ha'onesh, Yiras Ha'onesh is this piece of Chazal, I'm supposed to think to myself after I die, there's going to be a בית דין של מעלה and I'm going to be held accountable if I eat that piece of Chazir. So if Yiras Ha'onesh is one of the Taryag Mitzvos, it means that a person is not supposed to outgrow it. And Yiras Ha'onesh is not something that, oh, it's only if I'm at a high Madreiga and wouldn't need to take that into account. No, the Torah says the person, the greatest, greatest, greatest people in the world, Antigonus Ish Socho, the Vilna Gaon, the Ritva, the Rambam, the greatest, greatest people in the world, they, what they also, they had Yiras Ha'onesh. Yiras Ha'onesh isn't something that's only because we're on a relatively low Madreiga that we need to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow. Yiras Ha'onesh is supposed to be part of a person's Avodas Hashem. A person is supposed to be mindful of the fact that there's accountability and that we have to live with that sense of accountability. Yiras Ha'onesh. Okay. So that's one of the Taryag Mitzvos, yes? Yiras Ha'onesh. Now, it's not, it's not just a stage which a person may outgrow when he becomes religiously more mature and religiously more motivated. No, Yiras Ha'onesh. Moshe Rabbeinu had Yiras Ha'onesh. The Avos had Yiras Ha'onesh. The Rambam had Yiras Ha'onesh. It's one of the Taryag Mitzvos, it's not something to be outgrown, right? Okay. If you had Yiras Ha'romemus and Ahava, didn't have Yiras Ha'romemus and Ahava, but didn't have Yiras Ha'onesh, it would not be the highest results. Correct. The Rambam also would say, but we're not going to have time to talk about that tonight, that he probably would end up doing Aveiros if he only had Ahava. But the difference between having Yiras Ha'onesh in general versus using that as your motivation... okay, so now let's come back to Halacha Beis. Come back to Halacha Beis, and that's what Yosef just... Come back to Halacha Beis. What was our problem in Halacha Beis, Yosef? What was the problem we had in Halacha Beis? Someone just remind us. What was Halacha Beis? Why is it that the Rambam, when he's describing the ideal that the Guf works towards being Mishubad, that we're striving towards, that we should be open-hearted to Ahava, the Rambam only describes Oved Me'ahava in terms of Mitzvos Asei? By Mitzvos Asei, the Guf is and be focused on just doing it because it's Hashem's Mitzva, the true way, but he doesn't say by Mitzvos Lo Sasei, Pachad Ha'onesh. So we said, why not? So what's the answer? You're not supposed to, you're not supposed to outgrow Yiras Ha'onesh. Yiras Ha'onesh is supposed to be a permanent fixture in a person's Avodas Hashem. Okay, but what's the obvious question we have now on the Rambam? What was in Halacha Aleph? What did the Rambam say in Halacha Aleph? Why does the Rambam in halacha aleph mention lo ta'asei and bein adam lachaveiro? He should just address them as mitzvos. Why does he have to highlight how you should how you should think about what you're doing while you're doing them? Right, so why does he say halacha aleph you shouldn't do them? Exactly, exactly. So in halacha aleph again, I'm sorry, this is a little complicated, but let me see if I can say something straightforward about how we'll put the puzzle together. In halacha aleph, the Rambam says to do, put on tefillin, let's take tefillin as an example, or a mezuzah, let's say, because you want this world or you want this world or the next world. That's not the ideal. To not eat treif because you don't want to be punished in this world or the next world. That's also not ideal. Right. The most ideal, or some people say only ideal, put on tefillin because it's emes. Because it's emes. And that's why you're doing it, not for any ulterior motive. What he doesn't say in halacha bais is why to abstain from eating treif. He doesn't tell you: don't eat treif because of the absolute emes. Correct? No. So why? That's what we have to understand in my understanding. Because you're not supposed to replace the yiras shamayim. Yiras shamayim which is primarily associated with violating mitzvos lo ta'asei. You're not supposed to replace that. You're not supposed to try to rise above that because yiras shamayim is a mitzvos asei. It's one of the, again, it's supposed to be a permanent part of a person's avodas Hashem. Then that leaves us with a question: so why did the Rambam critique it in halacha aleph? He should have critiqued only the being motivated by schar when you put on your tefillin. He shouldn't have critiqued abstaining from aveiros. So let me explain to you halacha aleph and halacha bais through this lens, through halacha aleph and halacha bais through this lens. If a person avoids aveiros, he's doing it for a reward, or he's doing it because he wants to avoid a curse in this world or the next world. He's afraid of the punishment, he's not afraid of the aveira, he's not afraid of the onesh, he's afraid of the, he doesn't want to be removed from oilam habah. He doesn't want to be removed from oilam habah. Do you see the subtle difference? So it's not fear of Hashem that's at this point. So how does the Rambam say that when in Sefer Hamitzvos he tells us you are supposed to have that consideration, which is why in halacha bais he doesn't provide an alternative? Do you hear the question? But it also says that yiras Hashem is a mitzvah itself. Having this yira, so when he says you should do this mitzvah, you should be mekayem the mitzvah, that includes all these, all the fears. But that fear is part of the larger mitzvah. So therefore you are doing it for Hashem. Someone who's serving Hashem through fear, you are serving Hashem through your mitzvah. But why did he critique in halacha aleph? Here's my question. Let's say I'm in Eretz Yisroel, and I go to a store somewhere in Eretz Yisroel, or even in America, for that matter, and I see a hashgacha that I'm not familiar with, and I don't know whether it's a reliable hashgacha or maybe not such a reliable hashgacha. And I think to myself: you know, if I don't know, I really shouldn't be eating it, and I'm going to be held accountable in shamayim for what I'm doing. Now, how do I know if I want to be honest with myself? The hidden question of course is whether that's self-interest or whether I'm looking to be mikayeim the mitzvah of את ה' אלהיך תירא. The hidden question of course is: Does anyone have an observation? Does... does anyone... anyone confronted with an opportunity, an occasion to violate a mitzvah lo ta'aseh. And right away, the warning signals start sounding in my head: you know this is asur. And that's what the warning bells are... are telling me. They're telling me you know this is asur and you know that the Ribbono Shel Olam is ma'anish over the mitzvah lo ta'aseh. And how do I know whether oh it's wonderful that I'm reacting that way, I'm mikayeim mitzvat yira, or oh, believe it or not as she-lo-lishmah, oh no, maybe this is what the Rambam was criticizing in Hakdama for, maybe I'm just doing this out of self-interest, I don't want the pain, I don't want the punishment. How do I know? The hidden question of course is: Is there a way, is there a litmus test that a person can perform that's different than to think and to stop and move on and then to think about it? The hidden question of course is: so let's take a minute to think about it. Yeah, that's precisely what the distinction here is, is that for the top, it's back for it to be an extrinsic factor of motivation, somebody forcing it on me, oh I'm just going to be punished, but for it to be an intrinsic motivator, I love Hashem so much that I have yirat haromemut, yirati she-be-kol-tzaddi mi-yirati, that I... I'm fearing Hashem intrinsically and that's what... that's what I do, that's what the mitzvah is. Yeah, how do I know? How do I know which it is? If I don't know, how do I know which it is? I'm questioning myself, which sometimes is a good thing to do, sometimes it isn't, sometimes it isn't. I'm questioning myself. The fact that I don't eat this ice cream even though the hashgacha was one I didn't recognize... I don't know anything about it. And then, again, the warning signal goes off. Maybe it's just, again, I'm looking out for number one. It's just pure self-interest. Or no, in ofen hamutav I am mikayeim mitzvat yira. It's just as simple as that. How do I know which it is? Obviously you have something embedded in the heart, that if you really love Hashem with your heart, that you would have like a visceral level reaction that I would never do that because I love Hashem only... yirat haromemut... but if you're just trying to fear, you're going into it and your head tells you no you're going to get... yirat ha'onesh... in a very negative, visceral gut-level reaction... and just like being... just like... it's just after the fact, like after you didn't eat it, if you're happy about that you didn't eat it, then probably it's out of... love for Hashem that you didn't, but if you're just sorry that you didn't, maybe then it's just out of fear. And just like... you know the difference... you're really not doing the mitzvah, so but if you had the positive response, then you would be doing it, but you'd be punished, you'd be scared of being punished. Excellent, excellent. If I'm trying to say whether it's out of punishment, self-interest, or yirat Hashem... because they're going to be punished, and that's one... self-interest... yirat Hashem. Or the mitzvah of yira... that's what I'm reminded of in the name... Shema, that's another approach to understanding. The way you test, this is the test that everyone of us experiences. Listen to this rabosai. The way you test... my aveirah she-ba-yad yesh by mitzvah lo ta'aseh... is that pashut mitzvah or is that self-interest? How do I mikayeim mitzvah asseh? Not supposed to be motivated by yiras haonesh. But by mitzvos asei I'm supposed to be motivated just by ahavah. I'm only supposed to have yiras haonesh for mitzvos lo sa'aseh. So if I want to know, again I see this ice cream, I picked up this ice cream, and I'm holding this ice cream, and I'm about to eat it and then I stop because of that mishnah in my mind. Is that self-interest or is that mitzvas yiras haonesh? What did I have in mind when I put on tefillin this morning? What did I have in mind when I put on tzitzis this morning? If when I put on tefillin this morning I had in mind sechar, so what would that indicate about my action now? If that was done out of self-interest, self-interest. But if this morning when I put on tefillin I wasn't focused on the sechar, I was focused on how I want to do Hashem's mitzvah, so then that would suggest that when I'm thinking of yiras haonesh in conjunction with maybe this food is not kosher, so what does that yiras haonesh represent? Not self-interest but the mitzvah. Right? Do you get that? You can tell by looking to see broader context how a person acts in every context. That sheds light in a case where it's unclear. So now look at something else in Hilchos Dei'os. In Hilchos Dei'os the Rambam critiques self-interest both by mitzvos asei and mitzvos lo sa'aseh, correct?

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות,

that's self-interest with regard to, with regard to mitzvos? Right, it's self-interest with regard to what? Asei or lo sa'aseh? Asei. But then first, so which does he mention first? Asei. Right. So that's not accidental. If once, if you fulfill mitzvos asei with that mindset, so then your concern for onesh by mitzvos lo sa'aseh is also self-interest. But if you fulfill mitzvos asei by ahavah, this is Hashem's mitzvah because it's true, so then when you're focused on onesh, that's good. That's the mitzvah of she-kefahu ha-Torah. Do you get that nuance? Do you see that in the Rambam? If not, please tell me, we'll try and say it again. He's saying that the mitzvah of the fear, the lo sa'aseh fear, he doesn't say that off the bat because that is a mitzvah already, so the fear only on the aveiros already is a lo sa'aseh and it can be a mitzvos haShem. Meaning, in Hilchos Dei'os the Rambam doesn't give you an alternative for fulfilling the mitzvah for complying with mitzvos lo sa'aseh, because there is no alternative, you're always supposed to be focused on onesh. But in order for that to be proper, it depends upon how you fulfill mitzvos asei. If you fulfill mitzvos asei out of self-interest, so then your concern with onesh by mitzvos lo sa'aseh is also self-interest. But if you fulfill mitzvos asei by ahavah, this is Hashem's mitzvah because it's true, so then when you're focused on onesh, that's good. That's the mitzvah of she-kefahu ha-Torah. The Rambam doesn't give you an alternative for the mindset for complying with lo sa'asehs. You just need to contextualize it differently. Do you get that nuance? Not so much? So let me get that, okay, state it if I understand correctly. So it's not necessarily a bad thing to have self-interest when you're talking about onesh if it's when you do aseis with. Exactly. And the Rambam will say later in the perek that we all need to have a stage of shelo lishma. We all need to obey Hashem as much as we can on high levels, but to be oved me'ahava all the time, not just some of the time, not just partially, is an unbelievable high level. But even to do it with a mixture is a very high level. So we all need to go through a stage of where we are motivated by self-interest. Now, what's the ideal? What we're discovering is that there's a difference in the ideal way of fulfilling mitzvot asei and mitzvot lo ta'asei. The ideal way of fulfilling mitzvot asei is to be oblivious to schar. That's the ideal that we all hope someday we'll attain that level. The ideal way of fulfilling mitzvot asei is to be oblivious to schar. I'm not in it for that, forget it, I'm not interested in that, I just want to fulfill Hashem's mitzvot, I want to put on tefillin, I want to eat matzah, I want to sit in the sukkah. The ideal way to perform mitzvot lo ta'asei is to have yirat ha'onesh. That's part of the ideal. Now, says the Rambam, but when you have yirat ha'onesh, how do you know whether that's self-interest or whether that's haKadosh Baruch Hu told me that I should have yirat ha'onesh? Do you get the question of the source? And the way you know, if I am concerned that I have to fulfill Hashem's will on Shabbat, that I'm going to be punished, how do I know if that's self-interest or if that's performing a mitzvah of yirat ha'onesh? So the answer is what were you thinking when you made Kiddush on Shabbat, that's a mitzvah asei. If you were focused on schar, if you wanted just to do what's right, so then when you have yirat ha'onesh, so that's ideal. That's the ideal way of performing mitzvot lo ta'asei. But if when you made Kiddush, when you put on tefillin yesterday, when you shook the lulav in Sukkot, you were focused on schar, so then your yirat ha'onesh of lo ta'asei also isn't ideal. It's also self-interest, which is why this is so extraordinary, how everything is crafted so beautifully in the Rambam. He prefaced the halacha, he prefaced how you fulfill mitzvot asei and only after that does he preface the lo ta'asei. Do you see why that's so significant of a source? Can someone just maybe spell it out just as an articulate that, why that's so important? Is that just to show that as long as a person is inside of the mitzvot asei, it is avodat Hashem and then for mitzvot lo ta'asei it is yirat Hashem? Excellent. So the Rambam says hamodeh al ha'emet, the only reason I'm criticizing, the only reason I'm saying it's not ideal for a person who avoids aveirot because he's afraid of punishment, the only reason I'm saying that's not ideal is if this is the type of person who when he does mitzvot is focused on schar. But once you get to halacha beit, and you're talking about the type of person who when he does mitzvot asei is not focused on schar, so then that person, then his yirat ha'onesh is ideal. So just to summarize and then we'll take your questions. So the Rambam points out an amazing chiddush here that there's a difference in terms of what's the ideal way to serve Hashem between doing a mitzvah asei and a mitzvah lo ta'asei. A mitzvah asei the ideal is altruistic, oblivious to schar, just doing it because it's right, because Hashem says so. Mitzvot lo ta'asei a person should have yirat ha'onesh. A person should know that haKadosh Baruch Hu punishes people who go against his mitzvot. He has this chiddush. Where does he get this source from? 45 years ago we began no such notion would have had time that it's the same ideal how to actively and fulfill mitzvos ase and that to abstain and become part of mitzvos lo sa'ase you would have said it's the same ideal and the Rambam comes and says no. No, these are different ideals. There's an ideal of how to do a bris. There's an ideal of how not to eat treif with the nefesh. Maybe we can say and we can read it back into the Mishnah that

אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס

that that's an ase that's an active action but ויהי מורא שמים עליכם doesn't have any requirements of

על מנת לקבל פרס או שלא על מנת לקבל פרס

it just says stam. And let's and let's when we come back to page 104 look at line 6 in the Rambam on page 104. V'amar, no second line in line 6. אבל אמר אלא שהעובד מאהבה v'oseh kol mitzvosav v'zehu ha'oved me'ahava v'yesh she'amru ad me'ahava v'zehu she'adam ohev me'ahava. And again what does it mean to be oved me'ahava? It means to be oved me'ahava means to... v'yesh ad me'ahava... אם יוסקי עובד מאהבה you might think that that means that you've outgrown yira right? You might think that Rabbi Akiva, the Rambam, the Tanhuma said you've outgrown yira. No. So what does it tell you? ואל תניחו יוסקי מיראה v'domo b'yiras shamayim. That's what the Tanhuma said. Now how does the head... look at this next line in the Mishnah, it's unbelievable. Kvar baTorah hamitzvah b'yira v'hu amar את השם אלקיך תירא. Oh so the Rambam just said right how do you know that you're not supposed to outgrow yira? Maybe yiras shamayim is a stage and once a person becomes a real oved Hashem maybe he's supposed to outgrow yira. So what does it say? Exactly what we just said. No, you can't be supposed to outgrow it because because it's a mitzvah. Obviously you're not supposed to outgrow a mitzvas ase. You're not supposed to outgrow tfillin. So you're not supposed to outgrow yiras shamayim because it's a mitzvah. ולא עוד אלא שאמרו חכמים העובד מאהבה והעובד מיראה. And again that's what Chazal say, you're supposed to have both. V'amru...

למד מאהבה ולמד מיראה. שלא יעשה ושלא ישכח מה שציווה לעשות ומיראה שלא יעשה מה שהוזהר שלא יעשה.

So what did the Rambam just do? He identifies ahava with po'el. One who oseh Hashem will not forget to do anything he was commanded to do. Ahava is associated with mitzvas ase והיראה לא יעשה דבר ממה שהוא מוזהר ממנו. Yira is associated with mitzvos lo sa'ase. Oh so that's why that's what we just saw in our beautiful teshuvah. The idea of being m'kayyem mitzvos ase is to be mindful of mitzvos ase. The idea of mitzvos lo sa'ase is to be... to be Ohavei Hashem, to be Ohavei Ahavah, and with the p'nimiyus ha-Sefas, that's what our mission is. But then this Pasuk says

אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס.

Don't be mindful of the consequences of doing a Mitzvah.

הוו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב שלא על מנת לקבל פרס.

Don't look for the reward. So I and everyone else thought this meant I outgrew Yirah. Now we can tell from Sefer Yehoshua, no, what I just told you was only Ahavas Hashem, being Ohavei Hashem, but you're not supposed to outgrow Yirah when it comes to Mitzvos Ma'aseh. So this Pasuk that we just saw in Perek Yud, Hilchos Teshuva, was taking from this Mishna, but there is also another part of the Mishna and it says ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. We know that our Mitzvos take place at different stages of our life. Sometimes we are Ohavei Hashem, we are in this state of Ahavah, where we see everything as Ahavah from Hashem, and we're looking up at Hakadosh Baruch Hu from a place of Ahavah, but there are also other times when we're in a stage of Yirah, and from a state of Yirah, and from Yirah, that's a very good question. So presumably the answer is this: that the default assumption on any Mitzvah in the Torah, unless the context clearly tells you differently, the default setting is that this is something that the Torah lechatchila wants us to be doing. Right? It's not saying, only build a Sukkah in this... whatever. Only take a Lulav if you're in that... the default assumption, and this is true for almost all Mitzvos in the Torah, is that the Torah is telling you what the Torah lechatchila wants us to be doing. But when you look at certain Mitzvos where the context clearly tells us that if you got yourself into this situation, which we would prefer had never happened. So if you stole, hashavas hagezeila, so that's... if you ate the meat of the Korban and it became Nosar, and Nosar, and lo s'yasiru but והנותר עד בוקר באש תשרופו, burn it. So there the context tells you that it's only in this bedi'eved situation. But otherwise the operating assumption for all Mitzvos is this is what the Torah lechatchila wants us to be doing. There's no indication by עשה לשמה כנגד טהירו that it's not falling in the pattern of most Mitzvos. Do you see that? On this issue of self-interest, does it prevent us from Ahavah or is the issue, is the self-interest issue generally like a bad thing to have? What was the question, Moshe? Why? Why aren't we supposed to have outgrown that? What happened? That's what the Rambam says when we're not supposed to have outgrown it. That's what, that's what the Rambam says in the Mishneh Torah in many different places. How do you grow someone up when it comes to this piece of pasta? How do you grow someone up when it comes to that ice cream that I don't break the law of the Hashgacha. But why not? Why not prioritize that the same way? Our Rabbi and our teacher, Rav Dessler, in the second volume of the Michtav MeEliyahu, uses an interesting lashon. He says the yirah and the ahava of a choleish. Choleish is a weird lashon to use here because he says not the mitzvos she-aseh or the mitzvos lo saaseh, but he says the yirah of a choleish. Choleish means two things. It means doesn't only mean that we should be afraid of the onesh which can come at any time. Looking down at someone else is not supposed to be part of the discussion. Take Shlomo HaMelech. Shlomo HaMelech, didn't he listen to all the halachos of a king? He wasn't very wise in that area. He had too much gold, too many horses, he had too many wives because he believed the problems would never apply to him. If you didn't have a proper yirah of a choleish, so then it came to a very, it resulted in a different lifestyle from other kings because he didn't care about these yirah of a choleish. Could it be because yiras Hashem is what first back that allows us to fulfill mitzvos and Torah and everything else is secondary? I think that's what you're saying, I think that's right. The full answer requires another long shiur which we don't have time for now. But one thing which is also relevant that the Rambam does so much talking about here is how it's connected to emunah and how it can be understood in... Maybe we'll come back to it another time. We'll just leave it where it is now. I'm afraid what I'll say will be too rushed, we'll only be halfway through. Okay, so we'll stop here for today. I'll take the questions that are left. Thank you very much for listening.