Transcript

Tonight we're going to discuss a little bit of the Inyan of the Mitzvah of Yiras Hashem, Yiras Shamayim with a possible digression for Chanukah, the Thursday of Chanukah. The Rambam in Sefer Hamitzvos in Mitzvos Asei Dalet enumerates the Mitzvah of Yiras Hashem: להאמין יראתו יתעלה נירא ביאת עונשו בכל עת. The Rambam in Yesodei Hatorah Perek Bais Halacha Aleph uBais:

האל הנכבד והנורא הזה מצוה לאהבו וליראה ממנו שנאמר ואהבת את ה' אלקיך ונאמר את ה' אלקיך תירא. היך היא הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו בשעה שיתבונן אדם במעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לדעת השם הגדול, כמו שאמר דוד צמאה נפשי לאלקים לק-ל חי. וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו וירא ויפחד ויודע ויודע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומד בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות, כמו שאמר דוד כי אראה שמיך וגו' מה אנוש כי תזכרנו.

So clearly as has been noted, the Rambam in Sefer Hamitzvos is referring to Yiras HaOnesh. He says Mefurash: נירא ביאת עונשו בכל עת. The Rambam in Yesodei Hatorah seems to be talking about more of the Yiras Haromemut. So the question is twofold: the question is why in Sefer Hamitzvos he doesn't mention Yiras Haromemut, and why here in the Yad he doesn't mention Yiras HaOnesh? In terms of the first question, so Lichora as follows: in Sefer Hamitzvos in Shoresh Dalet the Rambam says that one of the rules for Minyan Hamitzvos is that you don't enumerate Tzivuyim Hakolalim. ושמרתם חקותי ואת משפטי, Ushmartem Chukosai. Something which is כולל כל התורה כולה, so it isn't a discrete distinct Mitzvah, so it doesn't belong in Minyan Hamitzvos. The Rambam gives as an example Bederech Hasaga on the Behag, that's why he doesn't enumerate Kedoshim Tihyu because Kedusha is attained through all of Torah, that's how a person attains Kedusha. So you don't enumerate Tzivuyim Hakolalim. Yiras Haromemut Pashtus is such a is an example of a Tzivuy Hakolal. The Meforesh here in Yesodei Hatorah he writes as follows:

ומצאנו בתורה שני כתובים באחד מורה שהיראה מביאה לידי עשיית כל המצות שנאמר ועתה ישראל מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה והאחר מורה שלא נצטוינו בכל המצות אלא כדי שנגיע בהם ליראה שנאמר

Pasuk in Parshas Va'eschanan:

ויצונו ה' לעשות את כל החוקים האלה ליראת ה' אלקינו.

So Yirah, Yiras Haromemut Pashtus is the goal of Kol HaTorah Kula.

ויצונו ה' לעשות את כל החוקים האלה ליראת ה' אלקינו.

Similarly the Gemara in Shabbos that If yiras Hashem meant yiras haromemus, it wouldn't have made its way into Sefer Hamitzvos. It wouldn't have made its way into Sefer Hamitzvos. What about the the the opposite question? That lichora is even more troubling. How is it that that in the Yad, the Rambam never talks about yiras ha-onesh? So yitachen, I'm not sure about this, but but yitachen as follows. The Rambam writes in in the hakdama to Sefer Hamitzvos that he basically intended Sefer Hamitzvos as a type of companion or or more even preparatory work for Mishneh Torah. He he describes already in the hakdama to Sefer Hamitzvos which was composed before Mishneh Torah, exactly what he's going to do in Mishneh Torah. He already he has it all in his mind already and says that that Sefer Hamitzvos is sort of a checklist to make sure that there are no gaps, that there's nothing omitted in in Mishneh Torah. Yitachen, he doesn't he doesn't remind us of that in the hakdama to Mishneh Torah. But but that's what the Rambam says in the hakdama to Sefer Hamitzvos. So yitachen as follows. Again, the lashon haRambam in Sefer Hamitzvos, among other things, the Rambam says that נירא ביאת עונשו בכל עת. That that we should constantly, right, the Chinuch lists yiras Hashem amongst the mitzvos temidiyos. The Rambam already emphasizes it. That bechol eis we should constantly we should we should be afraid of of punishment. So the emes is, as fundamental as that is for life, it's a mitzvah temidiyah, and ידועים המה דברי שלמה המלך that a person can never ever think of of achieving or attaining yiras haromemus if he doesn't first have yiras cheit, yiras ha-onesh. So as fundamental as it is, as indispensable as it is, basically what the Rambam says in Sefer Hamitzvos says it all. There are no pratim. It's not it's not like other mitzvos in the minyan taryag. Even after you're given the the essential definition in Sefer Hamitzvos, you have to know all the halachos. You have to know the dinei hamitzvah. Here the definition the definition is the mitzvah. As as central, as profoundly important and indispensable as it is as it is, it's also very simple. And basically, assuming that the Rambam intends us to to learn again Sefer Hamitzvos together with the Yad, he he has nothing to add. He said it all. He said it all in in those few words in Sefer Hamitzvos. It's as profound and as simple as that, that a person has to have a constant sense of yiras ha-onesh. Yitachen that ke'ein zeh, this phenomenon of of what sort of doesn't need any elaboration that the Rambam doesn't bother repeating from Sefer Hamitzvos to the Yad. So if if you look right right next right next to it in Sefer Hamitzvos where the Rambam talks about the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem. So the Rambam quotes the Sifrei that part of ahavas Hashem is שיהיה שם שמים מתאהב על ידך. Is that if a person is ohev es Hashem, so then he looks to draw others to avodas and ahavas Hashem as well. When the Rambam discusses ahavas Hashem again here in Yesodei HaTorah and then in the end of Hilchos Teshuva, he doesn't repeat that either. You have something similar, you do have something similar at the end of perek hey of Yesodei HaTorah, but there the Rambam is coming from the angle of the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem. But kemidumeh that the Rambam doesn't repeat again the Sifrei's drasha of שיהא שם שמים מתאהב על ידך in the halachos, and it could be that maybe אם כן הם דברינו אלה that the hesber is the same. The hesber is the same, that the Rambam intended that we were learning the two in conjunction, and again as basic and as paramount as it is, he said it all, he said it all already in Sefer Hamitzvos. Let's perhaps re-read for a minute here the Rambam in beis beis.

היכן הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול כמה שאמר דוד צמאה נפשי לאלהים לאל חי וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו ויירא ויפחד וידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומד בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות.

There's a certain contrast between the Rambam's depiction of ahava and the Rambam's depiction of yira. The Rambam's depiction of ahava includes, as it were, an appreciation for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, appreciation for who Hakadosh Baruch Hu is on whatever infinitesimal level we see reflections of that in his world. And that's how the Rambam presents ahava. There's no mention of the person himself. When it comes to yira, so the Rambam says:

וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו ויירא ויפחד וידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומד בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות.

Yiras Hashem, unlike Ahavas Hashem, is relational. There's nothing relational in Ahavas Hashem in the sense that when the Rambam tells us about that original, again, appreciation, there's no self-discovery involved. There's discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Yiras Hashem by contrast, the Rambam explains, involves self-knowledge as well. So Yiras Hashem is A, again, involves self-discovery, self-awareness, and B, Yiras Hashem is a relational concept. Unlike Ahavas Hashem, Ahavas Hashem doesn't emphasize the contrast between ourselves and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's just Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Yiras Hashem emerges from that contrast between who we are and who Hakadosh Baruch Hu is. Emes is, with important differences in emphasis, but in the Maharal also you find this, this idea that Yiras Hashem... The Maharal among other things is commenting on the famous Gemara in Berachos of

ועתה ישראל מה השם אלקיך שואל מעמך אטו יראה מלתא זוטרתא היא אין לגבי משה מלתא זוטרתא היא.

So what does it mean that yirah is a milsa zutrasa? So the Maharal says, he says very beautifully as follows. Basically, his definition of yiras shamayim is an awareness that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the source of our existence and that we are again in elul, simply again totally dependent on Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He says when a person has yiras shamayim, the pshat according to the Maharal is not that he's acquired some body of wisdom, he's an expert in physics, he's an expert in astronomy, lehavdil, he's an expert in Torah. When a person has yiras shamayim, he simply is in touch with reality. It's not that he's acquired some some body of wisdom, but a person who lacks yiras shamayim, and again yiras shamayim for the Maharal again is this awareness of total beholdenness, total dependence, total everything to Hakadosh Baruch Hu because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the source of everything. So he says that's a milsa zutrasa in the sense that again if ich veis, משל למה הדבר דומה, let's say you have a person, he walks around, he's flapping his wings, thinks he's a bird. And then after intensive therapy, so he realizes he's not a bird. He realizes he's not a bird. So you'll say now he's one of the, have to make a bracha, he's one of the chachmei umos ha'olam now? He's formerly he thought he was a bird and now he, I don't know, now he hasn't acquired any knowledge, now he's just in touch with reality. This isn't something extra, this is just, just again he now has the basic self-awareness that a person has to have. The same idea as as within the Rambam again with important difference in emphasis, but that yirah involves a self-understanding, self-awareness, without that accurate self-awareness, self-understanding, there's no yiras shamayim and B, because of that or or in tandem with that, again yirah is something relational. The relationship between one and and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And if you think about it, even in in on the human level, that's that difference exists between yirah and ahavah as well. Yirah a person is, if I don't know, if you're walking down a dark alley at night and you you meet someone, he's not armed and he doesn't veis, he doesn't know karate and he's and he's five foot two and you're five foot eight, so you're not going to you're not going to be scared. You're not going to be scared. If you're walking down the dark alley and you're five foot two and he's six foot eight and he spends hours in in the gym every day, so that then you're going to then you're going to get scared. Yirah is something yirah is something relational. Ahavah, no. If especially if it's an אהבה שאינה תלויה בדבר, there's nothing there's nothing relational about ahavah. So halo davar hu. Again yiras shamayim, without yiras shamayim a person. is lacking self-awareness. Is lacking self-understanding. Now let's move to something related within yirah, talking now about both yirat ha-onesh as well as yirat ha-romemut. The Rama in the beginning of Shulchan Aruch quotes from the Rambam in Moreh Nevukhim about שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. And the Rama says that

כשישים האדם אל ליבו שהמלך הגדול אשר מלוא כל הארץ כבודו עומד עליו ורואה במעשיו,

miyad, I forget how the lashon goes, hu yarei and he has a sense of boshes and a sense of hachna'ah. Here in Yesodei ha-Torah talking about yirat ha-romemut on the heels of a certain degree of knowledge, the Rambam also has that same word miyad, hu nirtah l'achorav. The same miyad that the Rama quotes from the Rambam by shiviti. Although there, it's possible certainly the way the Rama is quoting it the emphasis is more on yirat ha-onesh than it is on yirat ha-romemut. But the significance of the miyad in both cases is profound, rabosai. What the miyad teaches us is that yirat shamayim is something natural, even instinctive. If it's so natural, if it's so instinctive, so why is it such a struggle for us? Why does it, why is it such a, why is it such an elusive goal? So clearly what that Rama quoting the Rambam is telling us is that the condition, it's a conditional statement, kesheyasim ha'adam or sequential, כשישים האדם אל ליבו then miyad. The problem is not yirat shamayim, the problem is hesech ha-da'as. What stands between us, what stands between a person and yirat shamayim is not, if a person already genuinely knows and believes, it could be there's a lack of knowledge and a lack of understanding, that's the other possible gap, but if a person genuinely knows and believes

מאין באת ולאן אתה הולך ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון.

If a person knows and genuinely believes החכמה שאין לה ערך וקץ which is reflected in Torah, which is reflected in ma'asav uvivru'av hanifla'im. So then the source of the problem in having yirat shamayim is the problem of hesech ha-da'as. And that's what the Rambam says in both contexts that as long as a person isn't maysiach da'as, it's miyad. It's immediate, it's instantaneous because it's something natural, it's a natural reaction. The same way, again, in basar vadom, so fear is also a natural reaction. Right? If you think of occasions when we're afraid in basar vadom, it's always a natural visceral reaction that doesn't require effort. No, if a person understands danger, so then there's a natural tendency to be afraid. And so they tell the story about the Kotzker Rebbe, that a Chassid once came to the Kotzker Rebbe and asked him, Yelamdenu Rabbenu, how to have Yiras Shamayim? How does a person have Yiras Shamayim? So the Kotzker Rebbe answered him and said, did you ever have the following experience or if not can you imagine it? You're walking through a forest all alone and then all of a sudden this tremendous, starving, ferocious lion comes jumping out. He says, or you're surrounded by a band of bloodthirsty bandits. He says, do you need to be instructed how to have fear? No. Obviously the moshal in terms of the point of the moshal is the naturalness, not obviously not the other aspects of what the lion or what the bandits represent. But it's a natural reaction. And when we're missing that reaction, it's because we're just, again, oblivious to a reality like the Maharal says that Yiras Hashem isn't a groise chochma. It's just being in touch with reality because it's a natural reaction. And the problem is hesech hadaas. The Baal Shem Tov explains that it's natural and instinctive on even a deeper level than we realize. The Gemara in Berachos which says when רבן יוחנן בן זכאי was dying and the Talmidim ask him for a brocha, so he gives them a brocha that Mora Shamayim should be kemora basar vadom. So the Talmidim ask, ad kan? And רבן יוחנן בן זכאי answers halevai, תדעו כשאדם עובר עבירה אומר הלוואי שלא יראני אדם. Okay, so the simple pshat in the Gemara would seem to be that basar vadom is something very real in our lives. If you run a red light, it's שלא יראני בשר ודם, you don't want the policeman to be looking at the wrong time when you run the red light. The Baal Shem Tov says it means more than that. The Baal Shem Tov says what does it mean that כשאדם עובר עבירה אומר שלא יראני אדם? So he says, the Baal Shem Tov says the metzius is as follows. He says a person can be bechedrei chadarim, can be in an inner room of his house which has no windows with the door locked and be poised to be over an aveira, and the whole time the person has this irrational fear of being discovered, that someone's watching him. room, the door's locked, no one can see what he's doing. So what's this, what's this again, paranoia? What's this irrational fear? So the Baal Shem Tov says: HaKadosh Baruch Hu implanted within us that instinct that when we do something wrong, we have this sense, this fear of being seen. So we mistakenly interpret that as though it were a fear of Basar Vadam, when in reality it's an instinct for Mora Shamayim. And he says that the pshat in רבן יוחנן בן זכאי's bracha to the talmidim that halevai that Mora Shamayim should be like Mora Basar Vadam, what it means is that halevai, רבן יוחנן בן זכאי is telling his talmidim, halevai that you should realize that that natural instinctive what you think is Mora Basar Vadam, which as such is at times irrational and paranoid, is in reality a natural instinctive Mora Shamayim. And then there's just one last nekuda related to that in the beginning of Uvikashtem Misham, so the Rav talks about different areas, different domains in which we see reflections of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, in which we as it were see His fingerprints, kavyachol. So he says one of those areas is within a person's own spiritual and emotional life and being. And one of the examples he gives is the conscience, that a person has a conscience. When we do something wrong, so unless we've really piled layer upon layer, if you have a radio blaring and you can't turn it off, so you put towels on it and you try to stifle the sound and ultimately drown it out, and if you put enough on, so then you can be pretty successful. But if you don't, so we hear, we have a conscience, a conscience that can't sleep well at night. We're bothered when we do something wrong. We're bothered, our menuchas hanefesh is disrupted. So what's pshat in that conscience? The Rav says the same thing, that that's an area in which a person sees a reflection of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and in our context, what it means is again another facet and another manifestation of the naturalness and instinctiveness of yiras shamayim, if a) we only recognize things for what they are, if we only recognize the instinct for Mora Basar Vadam for what it is, if we only recognize our conscience for what it is, and b) if we're not masiach daas from realities that we know and we believe, so then yiras shamayim is miyad, is a natural and instinctive reaction.