Transcript

The Midrash Rabbah at the beginning of Parshas Lech Lecha gives a famous mashal. A person is over mi-makom le-makom, he sees a birah doleket, he sees a mansion which is illuminated and he reasons to himself that if there's a birah doleket there has to be a ba'al habirah. הציץ עליו בעל הבירה, so then the ba'al habirah looks out at him and identifies himself: אני הוא בעל הבירה. The nimshal is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu finally reveals himself to Avraham Avinu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the ba'al habirah, reveals himself to Avraham Avinu. What do Chazal have in mind with this mashal of a birah, of a birah doleket? So the Rambam in Hilchos Avodah Zarah in Perek Aleph when he describes Avraham Avinu's search for HaKadosh Baruch Hu, so the Rambam says as follows:

וכיון שנגמל איתן זה התחיל לשוטט בדעתו והוא קטן והתחיל לחשוב ביום ובלילה והיה תמה היך אפשר שיהיה הגלגל הזה נוהג תמיד ולא יהיה לו מנהיג ומי יסבב אותו ומי יסובב אותו כי אי אפשר שיסובב את עצמו.

Finally,

ליבו משוטט ומבין עד שהשיג דרך האמת והבין קו הצדק מתבונתו הנכונה וידע שיש שם אלוה אחד והוא מנהיג הגלגל והוא ברא הכל ואין בכל הנמצא אלוה חוץ ממנו.

So basically the Avodat HaMelech comments that this is the Rambam's interpretation of that Midrash with the birah. The Rambam interprets that Avraham Avinu reasoned that every effect has to have a cause because something physical can't be self-sufficient. אי אפשר שיסובב את עצמו because what's physical isn't self-sufficient. And ultimately Avraham Avinu discovered in this way that HaKadosh Baruch Hu who is אינו גוף ולא ישיגוהו משיגי הגוף he is self-sufficient and he's responsible for the world. He's responsible because he's infinite and omnipotent, he's responsible for the endless motion of the spheres. And the Rambam intentionally in describing Avraham Avinu's quest and Avraham Avinu's discovery uses the same leshonos that he uses in Perek Aleph of Yesodei HaTorah in telling us about the mitzvah of Anochi Hashem Elokecha to know HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Rambam in

פרק אלף הלכה ה: המצוי הזה הוא אלוה העולם אדון כל הארץ והוא המנהיג הגלגל בכוח שאין לו קץ ותכלית בכוח שאין לו הפסק שהגלגל סובב תמיד ואי אפשר שיסוב בלא מסובב והוא ברוך הוא המסובב אותו בלא יד ובלא גוף.

So that's the process, the logical process of discovery which Avraham Avinu went through, which culminated in his recognition of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. What's the significance of the doleket in the Midrash's mashal according to the Rambam? So presumably the Rambam would say that the doleket is the mashal for the motion of the galgal, the fact that the world is in motion. So that's the mashal of if there are light bulbs then obviously someone's got to be turning on the light bulbs and someone's got to be changing the light bulbs when they burn out and there's got to be someone who's taking care of it. Itakhen that in addition to the Rambam's havana in this Midrash, alongside that, there's another remez in this Midrash as well. There is a very famous Gemara in Eruvin on Daf Kuf.

אמר רבי יוחנן אלמלא לא ניתנה תורה היינו למדין צניעות מחתול גזל מנמלה ועריות מיונה דרך ארץ מתרנגול.

Even if Torah hadn't been given, says Rabbi Yochanan, we could have, should have derived and learned the practice of tzniut from cats. Rashi explains that when cats have to relieve themselves, they don't do it in the presence of others, and then they cover their waste. Gezel min hanamalah, in the ant colony, one ant doesn't steal from another. Arayot miyonah, that the yona is monogamous. It only relates to its own mate and not to any of the other birds. Okay. Fine. So this Gemara is quoted to illustrate, to document, that Chazal have a notion of natural law, that there are elements of law of Torah which are embedded in nature. But there's another tremendous yesod which is latent in this Gemara as well. Now if you look out at the kingdom of baalei chayim, so you can find a single example of tzniut in a chasul, you can find a single example of gezel in a namala, you can find a single example of arayot in yona. But if you look at every other species of animal of baalei chayim, so you're not going to find that they're especially careful about gezel, and you're not going to find that they have any sense of tzniut, and you're not going to find that they have any sense of arayot. So why would it be that אלמלא לא ניתנה תורה, so how would we have known to hone in on these solitary examples which are bitul beshishim? So what does Rabbi Yochanan mean that אלמלא לא ניתנה תורה, hayinu lomedin? What does hayinu lomedin mean? I would have thought no, it's bitul be'matayim, the biggest bitul. Bitul be'matayim each of these things. So clearly what Rabbi Yochanan is telling us, there's an additional chidush. Rabbi Yochanan is telling us that even אלמלא לא ניתנה תורה, Hakadosh Baruch Hu endowed us with the ability to recognize and appreciate midot elokiyot. Even אלמלא לא ניתנה תורה לישראל, we would have had a koach here, we would have looked at the entire bria, of the entire bria we would have only found in the ant colony that there's a notion of not stealing, of not being toref one from the other. But we have a koach, and we would have been expected to exercise that koach to recognize that this is the correct way, that this is the derech haeloki, not the way everyone else does it. So too for the tzniut, so too for the arayot, so too for the derech eretz. We have a capacity to recognize, to discern, to appreciate midot elokiyot. It's not just that they're there, but that we can recognize them and appreciate them and be discriminating in what we see. In Birkas Krias Shema, so we say every day

הקדוש ברוך הוא המאיר לארץ ולדרים עליה ברחמים ובטובו מחדש בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית.

HaKadosh Baruch Hu illuminates, He illuminates the world, המאיר לארץ ולדרים עליה ברחמים. Or is associated with rachamim. Or is not only a source of light, it's a source of warmth; it's associated with rachamim. Avraham Avinu had the gadlus in looking at the beriah, not only to logically reconstruct that if the galgal is being soveiv, if there is a galgal and the galgal is being soveiv, there has to be mi shemesoveiv oso because it can't be self-sufficient. But Avraham Avinu also again, as al pi this Gemara Rebbi Yochanan, the same way we have and would be expected to recognize and appreciate the value of being nizar in gezel, arayos, the value of tznius, we would have been expected to recognize that that's not stam a habit of an animal, but that's a reflection of a mida elokis. So when Avraham Avinu looked at the world, not only did he see a birah, but Avraham Avinu saw within the birah birah dolekes. He saw המאיר לארץ ולדרים עליה ברחמים. He recognized the hanhaga of chesed and that Avraham Avinu said a hanhaga of chesed isn't the result of a random collision of atoms or something because that hanhaga of chesed which Avraham Avinu saw in the world, המאיר לארץ ולדרים עליה ברחמים, he recognized as a mida elokis. He saw in that hanhaga of chesed birah dolekes, המאיר לארץ ולדרים עליה ברחמים. In that hanhaga of chesed, Avraham Avinu saw a reflection, the shadow as it were, kavyachol, of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Be'emes, this idea that a person finds, if he has the sensitivity to understand what it is and where it ultimately emanates from, a person finds HaKadosh Baruch Hu reflected in chesed is lichora mefurash a Gemara. There is a Gemara in Kiddushin. Rav Yosef says, the Gemara says that Rav Yosef when he would hear his mother's footsteps, he would hear his mother, he was able to distinguish the sound of her footsteps from someone else's, so Rav Yosef would say איקום מקמי שכינה דאתייא. He'd say let me rise because the Shechina is approaching. So what's the peshat? The peshat is exactly what we're talking about: the model or the prototype of chesed and love and warmth and devotion is a devoted mother, is the devotion of a mother to her child. So when Rav Yosef heard כי שמע קל כרעי דאימיה, when he heard the sound of his mother's footsteps, איקום מקמי שכינה דאתייא. Same idea. To see again that that capacity for chesed is a mida elokis which his mother represented, which his mother embodied. And he saw again, he saw a reflection of מדת הקדוש ברוך הוא. In that giluy of chesed. There is a very, very beautiful and moving story about Rav Shimon. A talmid came to him, this was before the war. A very poor talmid whose parents couldn't afford to buy him a train ticket, nor could they afford to provide him with ample tzedah laderech. So he walked for days without proper nourishment because he wanted to come learn by Rav Shimon. And finally he arrives, Rav Shimon at that point was in his home, he wasn't in the beis medrash, so they point this bochur to Rav Shimon's home. He very deferentially knocks on the door, Rav Shimon sees, brings him in and the talmid says, you know I came for a farher to I'd like to learn in the yeshiva. So Rav Shimon quickly sizes up the situation and says there's time for that, he says, but first you have to sit down and you have to eat something. He apologizes that his Rebbetzin wasn't home and that the talmid will have to settle for his cooking. There are no recipes that come with this story, veiss ich nisht, but so Rav Shimon prepares a lavish seudah for the talmid. Mamash hachayos. So then the talmid is ready for the farher and Rav Shimon says there's time, not yet. When was the last time you slept in a bed? So the talmid hems and haws, he evades the question, so Rav Shimon says you'll go you'll lie down, you'll rest, there's time. Talmid lies down so all the fatigue and exhaustion finally hits him and he sleeps a long long time. Then he finally wakes up hours and hours later and goes to Rav Shimon, he wants to have the farher, Rav Shimon tells him no we had that already, go to the beis medrash and learn. Later, a few years later, so this talmid then suffered through the horrors of the Holocaust, went through the concentration camps. And he said, he survived, and he said that the only thing which allowed him to retain his emunah during those dark and just indescribable experiences of the Holocaust was his farher with Rav Shimon. Because he said to himself if there can be such a Jew in the world who embodies chesed like that, then there has to be a Ribono Shel Olam and His Torah has to be emes. And that's the idea we're talking about, that a person can see reflections with the appropriate sensitivity, a person can see reflections of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in chesed. Chesed is basically a middah elokus and when we encounter it, what we're seeing and hopefully we appreciate it as such is, again, a reflection, a revelation of that middah elokus. And that's what Avraham Avinu saw in the birah dolekes, davka dolekes because המאיר לארץ ולדרים עליה ברחמים. Let's leave this aside for a minute and switch topics for a moment. Rambam Hilchos Deos:

מצווין אנו ללכת בדרכים האלו הבינונים והם הדרכים הטובים והישרים שנאמר והלכת בדרכיו.

We're supposed to go בדרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא, which the Rambam identifies with the middos hametzuayos. That's the mitzvah of vehalachta bidrachav. Okay? Vehalachta bidrachav. If you look in the Koteres where the Rambam lists the mitzvos which are going to be discussed in Hilchos Deos, so the Rambam lists as mitzvah alef lehidamos bidrachav. Right? lehidamos to resemble. That a person should resemble the way Hakadosh Baruch Hu is revealed through his drachim. So that's an amazing amazing description and definition of the mitzvah. I think we would have thought, okay, you can be told to go בדרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא, but ilmalei, we'll see in a minute that it's mikra kasuv ultimately, not just Rambam and Chazal, but where Chazal take it from the psukim. But ilmalei mikra kasuv ee efshar l'omro. What do you mean to resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu? A person resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu? lo nitan lehay'omer. lo nitan lehay'omer had it not been said. Parenthetically, I don't recall I may be mistaken, I don't recall the way it's reproduced in Al HaTeshuva, that there this example is quoted, but maybe in the Teshuva drasha at the time the Rav gave the example. The Rav there in inferring the famous stira in the beginning of Hilchos Teshuva as to whether or not the mitzvah is Teshuva or whether or not the mitzvah is viduy, the stira between what the Rambam writes in the halachos and what he writes in the Koteres. So the Rav suggests the following. He says that the Rambam in the halachos is practical, de'hainu he defines what lemaiseh, what do you have to do, maiseh hamitzvah. The Rambam in the Koteres tells you what the kiyum hamitzvah is. He illustrates it there by quoting Hilchos Tefilla. In the beginning of Hilchos Tefilla, so the Rambam says in the halachos מצות עשה להתפלל בכל יום. In the Koteres he says לעבוד את השם בכל יום בתפילה. De'hainu practically what do you have to do? You have to daven. Lemaiseh what's the kiyum? The kiyum is avoda shebelev. So a beautiful beautiful example. And based on that he says the kiyum of Teshuva is a kiyum shebelev. Lemaiseh what external performance, what maiseh hamitzvah is there involved? You have to be misvadeh. Other than that, there doesn't have to be any other external performance involved in Teshuva. And this here in Hilchos Deos is also a wonderful example of this pattern that the Rav identifies. In the halachos, the Rambam says that מצווים אנו ללכת בדרכים האלו הבינוניים. Practically, what do you have to do? Practically, this is what you have to do practically. But lemaiseh what's the kiyum hamitzvah? What is all that supposed to amount to? What is all that supposed to generate? Is lehidamos bidrachav. Lehidamos bidrachav. Al kol panim, so it's mischadesh here again an incredible chiddush. That a person can resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We can talk about a person resembling Hakadosh Baruch Hu. If a person is הולך בדרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא, if a person assimilates those drachim which we use to describe Hakadosh Baruch Hu's actions in this world, so then a person is misdameh to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Where did the Rambam get it from? So in the Yahrtzeit shiur about the mechikas Hashem, so the Rav quotes a Sifrei in Parshas Eikev laleches bechol drachav אלו דרכי הקדוש ברוך הוא shene'emar השם השם קל רחום וחנון v'omer

כל אשר יקרא בשם השם ימלט. וכי היך אפשר לאדם להיקרא בשמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא? אלא מה המקום נקרא רחום וחנון אף אתה הוי רחום וחנון.

Lechach ne'emar כל אשר יקרא בשם השם ימלט v'omer כל הנקרא בשמי ולכבודי בראתיו יצרתיו אף עשיתיו. So the Rav calls attention to the fact, why does the Sifrei introduce these psukim from Navi of כל אשר יקרא בשם השם ימלט? of kol hanikra bishmi. So that's exactly what the Sifrei is coming to be mechadesh that laleches b'chol drachav is not just telling us again that a person is metzuve in a certain orach chayim, in a certain mahalach in life, but that through that a person can accomplish what otherwise would seem impossible and inconceivable, that he's nikra b'shem Hashem. Why is he nikra b'shem Hashem? Because he's being mizdame l'Hashem. Mistama the Sifrei needs the pesukim, I don't remember maybe the Rav says this in the hemshech. Yeah, I think he basically says this in the hemshech, that the Sifrei needs the pesukim because the Sifrei is darshening v'halachta b'drachav from the pasuk v'laleches b'chol drachav. So it's not entirely clear from there this idea of being mizdame or that a person can actually resemble kavyachol Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The way the Gemara in Shabbos darshens it from ze Keli v'anveihu ani v'hu, so then lichora from that drasha it's already in the pesukim in Chumash. Okay, so in the mitzvah v'halachta b'drachav is nischadesh that a person can resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu, l'hidamos. A person can resemble Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Now, what when Chazal, let's say the Gemara in Sotah at the end of the first perek in Sotah illustrate v'halachta b'drachav:

מאי דכתיב אחרי ה' אלהיכם תלכו? ללכת אחר מדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. מה הוא מלביש ערומים דכתיב ויעש ה' אלהים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם אף אתה הלבש ערומים. הקדוש ברוך הוא ביקר חולים דכתיב וירא אליו ה' באלוני ממרא אף אתה בקר חולים. הקדוש ברוך הוא ניחם אבלים דכתיב ויהי אחרי מות אברהם ויברך אלהים את יצחק בנו אף אתה נחם אבלים. הקדוש ברוך הוא קבר מתים דכתיב ויקבר אותו בגיא אף אתה קבור מתים.

So clearly the emphasis in this Gemara it's exclusive, not just emphasis, but the emphasis within v'halachta b'drachav is on ma'asei chesed, acts of chesed. Now it's true that certainly in the Rambam's identification of v'halachta b'drachav with the drachim habeinonim, so there's certainly a broader applications for v'halachta b'drachav, but that doesn't blur this point, doesn't blunt this point, that the emphasis within v'halachta b'drachav is on ma'asei chesed. In his essay U'vikashtem Misham, so the Rav calls attention to the pasuk towards the end of Parshas Eikev:

כי אם שמור תשמרון את כל המצוה הזאת אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם לעשתה לאהבה את ה' אלהיכם ללכת בכל דרכיו ולדבקה בו.

The Rav assumes that there's at least in the last two phrases of the pasuk that there's a sequence here, there's a progression, that from v'halachta b'drachav, a person who perfects the v'halachta b'drachav progresses to u'l'davka vo, to dveykus. שהלא דבר הוא. V'halachta b'drachav, the primary focus in v'halachta b'drachav is ma'asei chesed, and it's v'halachta b'drachav which facilitates, which is the stepping stone for u'l'davka vo. So what's the pshat? So the pshat lichora in light of what we're talking about is the following. If or since Hakadosh Baruch Hu is revealed through chesed. In the birah dolekas, איקום מקמי שכינתא דאתיא. If Hakadosh Baruch Hu can be found in chessed, so then conversely, a person can become, can be mizdammeh to Hakadosh Baruch Hu through chessed as well. The same way Avraham Avinu, Avraham Avinu saw reflections of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in chessed, if Yosef saw reflections of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in chessed, so if that's how or one of the ways in which Hakadosh Baruch Hu reveals Himself, one of the ways in which Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence in this world is reflected, so then that is what underlies, again, the the vehalachta bidrachav that a person is mizdammeh to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, is nikra beshem Hashem, ומלא מקרא כתוב ואי אפשר לומר, through ma'aseh chessed. There are many many avenues to follow up and bli neder I hope that we'll have occasion to, but just for now one one final he'arah. If if we're sort of asked two associations with Avraham Avinu other than the fact of being Avraham Avinu, so probably the two most obvious associations is A, Avraham Avinu discovered Hakadosh Baruch Hu, discovered Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and B, Avraham Avinu represents, embodies middas hachessed. And clearly what we're talking suggests that those aren't two separate features or elements of Avraham Avinu's character and biography but shnayim sheheim echad.