Transcript

The vort of the Gaon in Masechet Sotah with the view which maintains that a Talmid Chacham should have a shminis she-be-shminis of gaivah, so the Gaon says it refers to the eighth parsha, Parshas Vayishlach, the eighth pasuk, Katonti mikol hachasadim. The Rambam writes in Perek Beis of Hilchos Deos

יש דעה שאסור לו לאדם לנהוג בהן בבינונית אלא יתרחק מן הקצה האחד עד הקצה האחר והוא גובה לב שאין הדרך הטובה שיהיה אדם ענו לבד אלא שיהיה שפל רוח ותהיה רוחו נמוכה למאוד ולפיכך נאמר במשה רבנו ענו מאוד ולא נאמר ענו לבד ולפיכך ציוו חכמים מאוד מאוד הוי שפל רוח ואמרו שכל המגביה לבו כפר בעיקר שנאמר ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלוהיך ואמרו בשמתא מן דאית ביה גסות הרוח ואפילו מקצתה.

So the Rambam learns pshat, it's the Rambam's girsa in the Gemara in Sotah on the pasuk of ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלוהיך that what it means is by virtue of the fact that v'ram levavcha, by virtue of the fact that a person feels a govah lev, not that the vov implies a sequence, but that in and of itself represents, that in and of itself means that ושכחת את ה' אלוהיך. What does it mean that כל המגביה לבו כפר בעיקר? Mamash kofer be-ikkar, the Rambam says. It doesn't say ke-ilu kofer be-ikkar, kofer be-ikkar. Let's say you have a later, the end of Hilchos Deos by lashon hara, so the Rambam says that Chazal say אמרו חכמים כל המספר בלשון הרע כאילו כופר בעיקר. Ke-ilu kofer be-ikkar, not obviously he's not mamash kofer be-ikkar, doesn't mean Rachmana litzlan he denies HaKadosh Baruch Hu, right? Kofer be-ikkar means the Rambam says in Perek Aleph of Yesodei HaTorah in Halacha Vav

ידיעת דבר זה מצות עשה שנאמר אנכי ה' אלוהיך וכל המעלה על דעתו שיש שם אלוה אחר חוץ מזה עובר בלא תעשה שנאמר לא יהיה לך אלהים אחרים על פני וכופר בעיקר שזהו העיקר הגדול שהכל תלוי בו.

So HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the foundation, is the root of everything. If a person is kofer HaKadosh Baruch Hu, he's kofer be-ikkar. So that's what the lashon means. So sometimes we again, the derech of Chazal is to say that something is so chamur it's tantamount to and here the Rambam's girsa in the Gemara apparently was that a person who is magbia libo is mamash kofer be-ikkar, not ke-ilu kofer be-ikkar, he's mamash kofer be-ikkar. So what does it mean? Lichora is as follows: how do we define, not behaviorally, but in terms of the essence of the middah, so how do we define anava and conversely gaivah? So Rav Sacks zecher tzadik livracha used to say, not pshat that a baal gaiva is someone who knows 10 blatt Gemara and thinks he's a בקי בכל התורה כולה. He's not a baal gaiva, he's a meturaf. He's out of touch with reality. He knows this bekoshe he reads without nekudos and and he thinks he's a בקי בכל התורה כולה. So that's not a question of gaiva, that's a question of being out of touch with reality. And by the same token, if a person takeh knows kol haTorah kula, so it's not anav to think that he knows only 10 blatt. So what's the difference? The difference is this. The difference is that a baal gaiva has a sense of kochi ve'otzem yadi and an anav has a sense that everything is from Ribbono Shel Olam. Yegiya ve'amal notwithstanding, that's a tnai for הקדוש ברוך הוא'ס מתנה. But everything is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And the baal gaiva has a sense of kochi ve'otzem yadi. So I, I accomplished, I did it. I did it, I did it, so then mimaileh he's gonna have a gova lev, mimaileh he's gonna, he's gonna experience that, that gaiva. Now, the Rambam writes in the beginning of Yesodei HaTorah:

יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון והוא ממציא כל נמצא וכל הנמצאים משמים וארץ ומה שביניהם לא נמצאו אלא מאמתת המצאו.

So the Rav zecher tzadik livracha used to underscore the fact that the Rambam says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mamtzi kol nimtza. Not that הקדוש ברוך הוא ה'ת'ש'ס'ט years ago himtzi kol nimtza, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mamtzi kol nimtza. What's the difference between himtzi and mamtzi? Himtzi is past tense, mamtzi is present tense. So the pshat is not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world and now the world exists on its own based on inertia, so the world continues to exist. No. Every second Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mamtzi kol nimtza. All metziyus is always rooted in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It can't be otherwise. That's what the Nefesh HaChaim explains, that that we say in Birkas Krias Shema המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית. This is the same idea. The Baal Shem Tov says it on the posuk of לעולם השם דברך ניצב בשמים. What does it mean לעולם השם דברך ניצב בשמים? That the asara ma'amaros, the, the דבר הקדוש ברוך הוא which gives rise, which allows, which brings everything into existence, it wasn't that that was a one-time dibbur, no, but לעולם השם דברך ניצב בשמים is the same idea. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mamtzi kol nimtza. There is no metziyus which, which can be independent of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. On a deeper level, that's what yichud Hashem means on a deeper level. It doesn't only mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is one, that when we talk about Hakadosh Baruch Hu that he himself is, is one, but on a deeper level, yichud Hashem means Hashem is echad and the only echad, not in the sense that everything else is two, three, or four, everything else is not simple and echad the way Hashem is, but more than that, but Hashem is echad in the sense of ein od milvado. And that everything else is nimtza me'amitas himatzo. That's why again each of the Birkas Krias Shema is intended to elaborate Shacharis is intended to elaborate one of the Parshios of Shema. That's what the kiyum of Krias Shema u'virchoseha is. So how does the bracha of Yotzer Ha'meoros how does that elaborate yichud Hashem? So it's not only the the idea that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is יוצר אור ובורא חושך עושה שלום ובורא את הכל va'afukei from from the belief that there's that there was one that created day, one that was created night, one creates tov, one creates ra, of course it means that also. But the entire bracha, the entire bracha of

כולם עושים באימה וביראה רצון קונם וכולם פותחים את פיהם בקדושה וטהרה,

the fact that that everything, everything, the entire briah is depicted as expressing kavod shamayim, all that is part of the notion of yichud Hashem, that nothing can or does exist outside of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, all that is part of the hakara of yichud Hashem on a deeper level. משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say you have you have a speakers bureau and you have ich veis 10, 20 people, 30 people who are listed in the speakers bureau. And whichever one you get, whenever you call the speakers bureau, whatever you need a drasha on, in whatever whatever field, it's always always fabulous. Okay, so you think, look, so many talented people. Be'emes, behind the scenes there's one speechwriter, he writes all the speeches. He knows everything. He knows everything. You want economics, you want history, you want popularization of science, so you name it, there's one guy. He's writing all the he's writing all the speeches. Okay, it's sort of it looks it looks like, oh, I have so many so many erudite and learned speakers. No, they have many mouthpieces for one for one speechwriter. And that's what the bracha of Yotzer Ha'meoros is about, again, the whole depiction of how how everything is about kavod shamayim because on a deeper level, that's the only thing that's real because ein od milvado because all metzius is is rooted in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. הוא ממציא כל נמצא. If a person has a sense of kochi v'otzem yadi, kochi v'otzem yadi, I did it. So then takeh, it's not just hashchasas hamidos, it's not just a mida meguna, but but a sense of kochi v'otzem yadi is mamash without a ke'ilu, without a kaf, without a kaf hadimyon, the Rambam says mamash is mamash kofir. Because what's pshat I did it, what do you mean what's pshat I did it? A person's very metzius comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. If a person, to the degree that we understand that and feel that, the indispensability and the obligation of yegia v'amal notwithstanding, a person can't have a sense of kochi v'otzem yadi. משל למה הדבר דומה. Imagine you have a person, he's he's linked. Dumbbells. He's curling these. So he's gonna have a sense of kocho ve'otzem yadi? He's takeh, okay, he's, he's working, he's shvitzing, but can't be. A person can't have such a, such a feeling, such an experience of kocho ve'otzem yadi unless he forgets the fact that he's linked to the heart-lung machine. So that's the answer. Sometimes, sometimes we wonder. Lema'aseh, lema'aseh, let's say you have two people, you send them for an IQ test, same IQ. Both have the same, the same IQ score. And then you send them to the same yeshivas, same opportunities, and one of them, one of them shtaigs away, becomes a big talmid chacham, the other one's a little less. So he doesn't, doesn't become as big a talmid chacham. I think they, they tell a story, I'm not sure who the, I don't know if there was a name associated with the story, if there was I don't know it, of someone who had been a yeshiva bachur in, in the same time along with Rav Aharon Kotler. And he also was a very capable guy, but didn't, didn't become Rav Aharon Kotler. And he said later that the difference between them was, he says that when he got tired he went to sleep, and Rav Aharon used to fall asleep over the Gemara. Okay, so, so why doesn't he takeh feel a little bit of, lema'aseh given the indispensability of yegia va'amal, so why isn't that sort of an opening or an invitation takeh to feel oh, so I was takeh more yageia, more amel and that's why I've come further? So the answer is, it's not the answer, the question doesn't happen. If a person knows that he's linked to the heart-lung machine, it's not, it's not that there's an answer to the question. The question doesn't, the question can't arise. If, if a person's already asking the question, so that's an indication that, that we're not sufficiently aware of what we need to be aware of. It's not that there's an answer to the question, it's that the question doesn't, the question doesn't arise. Questions which are not, which are not legitimate, which are not supposed to arise don't have answers. If the question's not supposed to be there, then you can't, can't give an answer. So anava is, is a reflection of a person's understanding, his relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's, that's what the middah of anava is. A person understands what his, what his, his relationship with the Ribbono Shel Olam is. When a person understands that again, so there's no, a person understands again that

ממציא כל נמצא וכל הנמצאים משמים וארץ לא נמצאו אלא מאמיתת הימצאו

everything, all metzius is rooted in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so what's pshat, I'm a big hero over here? Not a big hero. And also gives us a little bit of an understanding that when we talk about shiflus, shiflus doesn't mean and shouldn't mean a sense of inadequacy. That's not what shiflus means. And it's a hakara, it's a hakara again, on a deeper sense, on a deeper level of Yichud Hashem, of Ein Od Milvado. So when we talk about feeling shiflus, again, it doesn't mean shiflus in the sense of the the the I don't know the translation probably has the wrong associations for us of of lowliness. So I don't know, I think maybe it doesn't, maybe we just project onto it, but it doesn't mean a sense of inadequacy in a practical sense, maybe in an ontological sense it means that, but not in a practical sense. Aderaba, aderaba. He'emes is, he'emes is, a person has a sense of Anavah, so he feels equal to any task that should be his, because if it's kochi ve'otzem yadi, so again, even if a person's a ba'al gaiva as long as he's not a meturaf, exactly how far does he think kocho ve'otzem yado extends and how far does he think that the kocho ve'otzem yado can carry him? But if it's not kochi ve'otzem yadi, it's again the indispensability, the mitzvah, chiyuv of yegiah, amal, and hishtadlus notwithstanding, but everything is totally on the Ribbono Shel Olam. So by definition, whatever a person is supposed to do, Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives him the kochos to do. So it's not, it's not supposed to engender again a sense of what can I do? No, aderaba, aderaba. The potential for gadlus ha'adam is rooted in his anavah. Potential for genuine gadlus ha'adam flows from a person's anavah. A lot of avodos which seem and not only seem but objectively are tall orders. To davven properly. To do a teshuva בחינת לב נשבר ונדכה אלקים לא תבזה, tikkun hamidos, so all of these are very tall orders, and they're not, none of them are easy avodos. The anavah that a person has, again, the anavah, the recognition Adderaba, everything's bivchinas

הבא ליטהר מסייעין אותו. בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך מוליכין אותו.

But we need to have we need to have anavah, and then we need to have the the hasagas and the sheifas which the anavah makes possible. The reason anavah is is one of the two exceptions to the derech habeinonis, or at least what beinonis means in that context. There's no in between in depicting our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That relationship, again, of mamtzi kol nimtza. There's when it comes to ich veis, when it comes to giving giving away money. Okay. So there's a midah, there's a midah of of being open handed. There's a midah of being tight fisted. And a person has to go derech habeinonis. He's not supposed to become impoverished from from giving tzedakah. There's no two aspects to to this relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's very simple, again, that everything everything ein od milvado, everything is rooted in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and hence אסור לו לאדם לנהוג במידה הבינונית. It's a hanhaga tovah. Whenever a person undertakes to do something, whether it's learning or any other endeavor to reinforce and reflect, hopefully both, the anavah, it always has to be with a tefillah. There's no such thing as as undertaking to do anything without a tefillah. There has to be a tefillah that Hakadosh Baruch Hu yatzliach hadarki. There shouldn't be such a thing shouldn't be such a thing when we talk about our plans for the future. There shouldn't be such a thing as saying I'm going to do this, I'm going to go here, without Im yirtzeh Hashem. There's no there's no such thing. Everything everything everything has to be preceded by a tefillah and and and followed by hoda'ah. That the the recognition that if I was able to do this if I was able to reach this point, it's not because I'm better than anyone else. It's because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me the the ability. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave me the koach. And and we need to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for that. And that's that's the anavah that one has to have. The recognition that that nothing is kochi ve'otzem yadi, the chiyuv of yegiah, amal, hishtadlus notwithstanding. And again, it's both the way we talk reflects what we're thinking and feeling, but it also helps, helps guide and and the the thoughts and instill the feelings. If you take a look at Rav Chaim Volozhin and in his hakdamah to the Peirush of the Gaon on Zraim, talks about how the shiflus of the Gaon was ein lishaeir. So that kind of even as as with all what he tries to convey, he says he can't really do it. Ein lishaeir the shiflus that the Gaon had. The more a person, again, is aware of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then again, the shiflus of, not not of, the Gaon obviously didn't feel inadequate. But again, but a shiflus, a shiflus of knowing, again, given Yichud Hashem of Hakadosh Baruch Hu being Hamamtzi kol nimtza, so mimeila that there is no room for any hargasha of self.