Good morning everyone. I hope everyone is well. We left off yesterday in Pasuk Alef. I apologize, I'm not sure what caused that. If however one knows who the mechaber is, so then there's a presumption and one should be guided by that presumption in terms of the effort that one expends to understand and to penetrate. Vahu asah kan the Gra continues sheloshah sefarim sheheim sheloshah Mishlei. That really, we talk about Sefer Mishlei, the Gra says the be'emes is it's really three volumes in one. Rashi in Sefer Melachim on the pasuk that the Gra is going to quote at the end of his commentary on Pasuk Alef, וידבר שלשת אלפים משל. So Rashi already points out that three times in Sefer Mishlei you find the introductory pasuk of Mishlei Shlomo. We have it here in Alef Alef. We have it again in Perek Yud, then the meforshim on the Gra also then point this out that this is what the Gra is referring to. We have it again in פרק י פסוק א. פרק י פסוק א also begins Mishlei Shlomo. And then finally one last time in Perek Kaf Hei. There too, גם אלה פרק כה פסוק א. גם אלה משלי שלמה.
So the Gra says that the recurrence of this pasuk indicates that be'emes really the Sefer Mishlei is three sefarim in one. What sort of delineates the three sefarim is rishon al chochmah. The first is devoted to chochmah. Hasheni al mussar, the second is dedicated to mussar. Vehashlishi al hatorah. And it's clear right that that's what the Gra is saying is also contained he's going to spell this out again I think in Pasuk Beit that לדעת חכמה ומוסר להבין אמרי בינה indicates the three sefarim of Mishlei. ונגד אלה השלשה אמר כאן שלשה דברים. So because Shlomo Hamelech is going to discourse on three different areas on chochmah, mussar, and Torah, so therefore he as it were על פי רוח הקודש presents his credentials in each of those three areas. ונגד אלה השלשה אמר כאן שלשה דברים when Shlomo Hamelech again indicates the authorship of Sefer Mishlei, so he says משלי שלמה בן דוד מלך ישראל. So נגד חכמה אמר שלמה דכתיב ביה ויחכם מכל האדם. Our association with Shlomo Hamelech is chochmah. When one hears the name Shlomo, so that's the immediate association of vayechkam mikkol ha'adam. נגד מוסר אמר ben David. That's why Shlomo Hamelech here is identified as ben David shehayah chasid gadol. David Hamelech was a very great chasid, כמו שאמרו חכמינו ז"ל הרואה דוד בחלום יצפה לחסידות. The Gemara in Brachot explains the significance, the symbolism of different visions a person can have in their dream. David Hamelech represents chasidut, וכמו שנאמר שמרה נפשי כי חסיד אני וכשנאמר עליו שהיה בן דוד מסתמא היה ממלא מקום אבותיו.
So that's fascinating. Meaning for Shlomo Hamelech to be introduced as ben David even though it's, I mean, David Hamelech's paternity is just a fact, but אף על פי כן for that to be invoked, it needs to be the case that Shlomo Hamelech is deserving of that association. The Rav Chaim Volozhiner writes. Rav Chaim Volozhiner, the Gaon, wrote a peirush in part of the Zohar. And then Rav Chaim Volozhiner wrote a hakdama to that peirush of the Gaon. And in that hakdama, so Rav Chaim Volozhiner says be'inyan hayetzer, he says, I've heard that people refer to me as a talmid of the Gaon. And he says chas v'shalom that anyone should belittle and diminish the kavod of the Gaon by referring to me as a talmid by associating someone like me with the great and holy Gaon. It's this yesod, right? For Shlomo to be, that's what the Gaon here is writing, that mistama to be able to invoke the fact that Shlomo, here again it's uncontestable that Shlomo is Ben David, and אף על פי כן to invoke that fact to highlight that association, it has to be the case that Shlomo is deserving and worthy of that association. When my father zichrono livracha was maspid the Rav zichrono livracha, so he quoted that comment from Rav Chaim Volozhiner and said that he thinks people shouldn't be so quick or glib about identifying themselves as talmidim of the Rav. One has to be worthy of an association. To claim an association and then invoke that association, so one has to be worthy of that association. So Shlomo Hamelech's qualifications to author Sefer Mishlei, the second of Sefer Mishlei which deals with mussar is the fact that he's a chasid. Now, chasid, what does it mean to be a chasid? What does chasid mean? So just what does the word mean etymologically? So it goes back at least to the Ibn Ezra. The Ibn Ezra says that the word, that the shoresh of chesed connotes, again, without any negative association, connotes an extreme. When the Torah describes the incestuous relationship between a brother and a sister as chesed hu, so the Rashi quotes the Gemara in Sanhedrin with a famous על פי על באר הגדה that Chazal explain that once as a chesed Hakadosh Baruch Hu was matir this incestuous relationship that Kayin and Hevel should be able to marry their sisters because there was no one else for them to marry. So once as a chesed this relationship was allowed. But what's the peshuto shel mikra? So the peshuto shel mikra the Ibn Ezra says is that it means it represents something extreme. Again, using the term without its usual negative associations. The Rambam says like that as well. The Ramchal has it in Mesilas Yesharim and based on that, amidas chasidus means something which goes beyond what's required, something which is lifnim mishuras hadin, again extreme in that context in the most positive sense. Again, it can mean extreme in a negative sense also, but in this context, again so what chasidus means is a person who doesn't only comply with the shuras hadin, but a person who goes lifnim mishuras hadin. That's what it means to be a chasid. Now, so let's follow this up here. So the credential to speak and teach about inyanei mussar, the credential that Sefer Mishlei presents for Shlomo Hamelech. Is that he's Ben David, Dehaynu, that he too is a Chasid gadol. So you see again minimally that Chasidus expresses itself not only Ich veis in I eat a big Shiur for Kazayis at the Seder. I eat a Chazon Ish Shiur for the Kazayis at the Seder, not just Reb Chaim Noeh's Shiur. But at the very least minimally one sees that the Chasidus has to express itself in Midos, which is again what the focus of Mussar is. Minimally what's implied by the Gaon here is that the Chasidus expresses itself there as well and Yitachen what it really means is that it primarily expresses itself in that area. That that should be the primary realm in which the Chasidus expresses itself. It's interesting in this context that if you take a look in the Rambam in Perek Aleph of De'os, so the Rambam says at the end of Halacha Daled that כל אדם שדעותיו כולן דעות בינוניות ממוצעות, everyone whose character traits, whose dispositions are balanced Lefi shuras hadin is Nikra chacham. ומי שהוא מדקדק על עצמו ביותר ויתרחק מדעה בינונית מעט לצד זה או לצד זה,
right the Rambam explained that of the two extremes generally we're more susceptible even though both extremes are wrong, equally wrong, but generally we're more susceptible to one extreme than we are to the other. Right, most people are more susceptible to eating too much than they are to eating too little. Most people are more susceptible to being overly interested in amassing wealth than too disinterested in it. So to compensate for that and what's more it ensnares a person more. So to compensate, preemptively compensate for that, so ומי שהוא מדקדק על עצמו ביותר ויתרחק מדעה בינונית מעט לצד זה או לצד זה,
so he's going Lifnim mishuras hadin is Nikra chasid. That person's called a Chasid. So interesting that the Rambam also gives us the definition of Chasidus in context of Midos. Again, the Rambam what we call Midos the Rambam calls De'os. Similar to what we have here in the Gaon. We find Chazal also illustrate Lifnim mishuras hadin in context of Bein adam l'chaveiro, let's say by Hashavas aveidah. Even if it's a case where a person is פטור משום השבת אבידה, Ich veis זקן ואינו לפי כבודו or one of the dispensations where a person would be Patur from Hashavas aveidah. אף על פי כן the person says no, I want to Mikayeim Hashavas aveidah meaning it's a Bein adam l'chaveiro context. So then that's one of the Chazal's illustrations for Lifnim mishuras hadin. ונגד תורה אמר מלך ישראל. The credential that Shlomo Hamelech possesses to offer Sefer Mishlei dealing with Torah, until now we've spoken about the credential for Chochmah and Mussar. What about the credential for Torah? Is that he was Melech Yisrael. Kemo shene'emar as the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos quotes the Pasuk, Bi, as it were Torah speaking in the first person, Melachim yimlochu. These three Mishlei... Again, we would refer to it as these three sections of Sefer Mishlei that the Gra refers to it almost as three different Sforim of Mishlei. Hem Sod, that's what the deeper meaning is of the Posuk in Melachim. The Posuk in Melachim describes Shlomo Hamelech as וידבר שלשת אלפים משל. So generally, let's say if you look in the Metzudos, so the understanding of that Posuk is that Shlomo Hamelech authored, Shlomo Hamelech constructed three thousand Meshalim, right? Shloshes Alafim means three thousand Meshalim. The Gaon in Pashtus is, you take a look in the Malbim there, so says, it's clearly the Malbim understands the Posuk this way as well, that the Shoresh Elef also means to teach, right? Let's say you say something is Me'alef, it means it's instructive. So the Shloshes Alafim Mashal means three, as it were, different Limudim that Shlomo Hamelech taught Meshalim in three different areas of Limud, meaning the Chachma, the Mussar, and the Torah. Why does Shlomo Hamelech need credentials to be able—why do we need to know, again, we're given Sefer Mishlei comes up with a business card for Shlomo Hamelech with his credentials, he's Shlomo, Vayechkam Mikol Ha'adam, he's Ben David, he's a big Chosid, Melech Yisrael, he's very great in Torah. And Sefer Mishlei is part of Kisvei Hakodesh. The sine qua non to be part of Kisvei Hakodesh is that it's Ne'emar Beruach Hakodesh. So what is—isn't that the—that's the credential, right? That's the credential. So what it means is that the Ruach Hakodesh itself is לפי מדרגתו של אדם. And what I just said before was really circular. No, the fact that it's Beruach Hakodesh is itself a function of the fact that this is Shlomo Ben David, Melech Yisrael, and it was Lefi Madreigaso that he merited the Ruach Hakodesh in each of these three areas and that we have the teachings that follow. Okay, so we'll stop here for now and Bli Neder Im Yirtzeh Hashem reconvene around 12:30. Everyone should have a good, productive morning Rabosai, be well, be safe.