When the Chazon Ish first came to Eretz Yisrael, one of the shailas that the rav encountered was what they should do on religious moshavim in terms of milking cows and goats. It’s tzaar baalei chayim for the cow to go more than 24 hours without being milked. So it says in Shulchan Aruch that the way we deal with that is that amirah l'akum mutar in that situation. So that's the way it had always been done in Europe. In Eretz Yisrael where there were moshavim, where there was no akum available, the question was how to deal with this issue. So the Chazon Ish wrote back to Vilna to Rav Chaim Ozer that he wanted to know if Rav Chaim Ozer would agree with what he, the Chazon Ish, was ready to say, that some of the Rishonim are of the opinion that if you milk the cow in such a fashion that it's holech l'ibud, so then the milk which is expressed doesn't have the chashivus of a mashkeh. So then mimmela it won't be a melachah. It won't be מפרק משקה מתוך אוכל because it’s holech l'ibud, meaning it won't just be that it's a מלאכה שאינה צריכה לגופה, but it will be less than that. So whether under the circumstances, whether or not he could instruct them to rely on this view in the Rishonim. And kimedumeh that I think Rav Chaim Ozer agreed, and that was the psak they gave. So there’s no question, this is one of not literally but what seems like countless examples that of course there are problems and when there are problems we look to see what solutions the halacha can provide, that we recognize sha'as hadachak k'dieved circumstances and in those sha'as hadachak k'dieved circumstances we look and often the poskim lefi shikul da'atam will say that even though we wouldn't advocate such a course l'chatchilah, but in a שעת הדחק כדיעבד דמי, so this is the halachic solution. But we were talking about last week, Bameh devarim amurim when the problem exists because al pi din tzaar baalei chayim is something that we're supposed to be mindful of and concerned with, and obviously there's a problem of being choleiv on Shabbos. So the problem is a halachic problem. The clashing concerns as it were are both halachic concerns. But what we were talking about last time is if the clash is between the Torah's approach and the Torah's conception versus the goyishe approach and conception and the problem that exists is having on a level of values and ideas assimilated to whatever degree the goyishe conception, that's not a שעת הדחק כדיעבד דמי. That's not a problem internally that halacha looks to solve. That's a problem that has to be solved with chinuch. It's a problem that has to be solved with strengthening one's emunah. But that's not a problem where one looks to see what's the halacha's is there a halachic provision for a שעת הדחק כדיעבד דמי. No, if the problem is clashing halachic values, what do you do with the issur choleiv versus tzaar baalei chayim when you don't have the solution of the Shulchan Aruch of amirah l'akum. Okay, so then you have to see what the halacha says. But when it's a question of a goyishe conception, let's say the example we were talking about last week of what a wedding ceremony should be, and when you juxtapose that to what the Torah's conception is, so they don't. They don't jive. That's not a sha'as had'chak kedi'eved domi of the same sort. It's a sha'as had'chak in terms of in terms of that that needs to be an awful lot of chinuch and there needs to be an awful lot of of strengthening ourselves and others in terms of our in terms of our emunah. The Rambam writes at the end of Hilchos Me'ilah. A Rambam I used to hear my father zichrono livracha often often quote and and discuss. ראוי לאדם להתבונן במשפטי התורה הקדושה ולידע סוף עניינם כפי כוחו.
A person should reflect on mitzvos haTorah and understand what what the telos of of the mitzvos is to the best of his ability. ודבר שלא ימצא לו טעם ולא ידע לו עילה. Let's say a person is confounded by a mitzvos haTorah. אל יהי קל בעיניו. Or a person it shouldn't rachmana litzlan he shouldn't view it lightly ולא יהרוס לעלות אל השם פן יפרוץ בו. And a person shouldn't be reckless in his attitude towards the mitzvah pen yifrotz bo rachmana litzlan. ולא תהא מחשבתו בה כמחשבתו בשאר דברי חול. And a person can't think about a mitzvah k'divrei chol. A person thinks about divrei chol and they don't make sense so itachen the answer is that eino chein hu they taca don't make sense. Many many years ago someone who was an editor of of a certain journal asked asked my father to to look at an article which was submitted and and so he gave my father the article and he read it and told him it's gibberish it's nonsense. So the editor of the journal told him yeah I didn't think it made sense either but I thought it was just too profound and that I wasn't I wasn't following so by divrei chol it doesn't make sense so itachen that it's not that it's so profound itachen that it taca doesn't make sense. But something from the Ribbono shel Olam is ולא תהא מחשבתו בה כמחשבתו בשאר דברי חול. Bo u're'eh, look at this look at this perspective that the Rambam gives. כמה החמירה התורה במעילה ומה אם עצים ואבנים ועפר ואפר כיון שנקרא שם אדון העולם עליהם בדברים בלבד נתקדשו.
You have the lowest and least valuable inanimate objects, eitzim va'avanim, afar va'eifer, but if Hakadosh Baruch Hu's name is associated with it because they were sanctified, someone was makdish it Beis Hamikdash. כל הנוהג בהן מנהג חול מעל בה ואפילו היה שוגג צריך כפרה.
So what is it? It's it's intrinsically it's nothing but someone was makdish it and because of that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's name is associated with it so a person b'shogeg he's mo'el so he needs kapparah. Kal vachomer למצוה שחקק לנו הקדוש ברוך הוא שלא יבעט אדם בהן מפני שלא ידע טעמן.
Chas veshalom that a person should should be bo'et that a person should should reject even if not practically even if only attitudinally even if only in terms of values. Chas veshalom that a person should be bo'et that a person should should kick that a person should should have a an attitude where he rachmana litzlan disparages, questions the mitzvah. ולא יחפה דברים אשר לא כן על השם. Right you'd think that the Rambam was writing this in תשע"ג. ולא יחש... בהן מחשבות כדברי החול harei ne'emar baTorah ושמרתם את כל חוקותי ואת כל משפטי ועשיתם אותם. So the Torah speaks of shmira and the Torah speaks of asiya. אמרו חכמים ליתן שמירה ועשייה לחוקים כמשפטים. The same way mishpatim where we're metzuveh lishmor vela'asos, the same is true by chukim. The asiya is known, hu she'ya'aseh hachukim. Asiya, comply. Practically, compliance. Again, that's one aspect of what we were talking about last week. That's certainly one aspect, one element. A mitzvah is a command and a command demands compliance. העשייה ידועה והיא שיעשה החוקים והשמירה שיזהר בהן ולא ידמה שהן פחותים מן המשפטים.
So shmira is an attitude. It means not only the compliance, but it means the attitude that a person shouldn't imagine that there's anything less sacred, less emesdik, less yashar about chukim than about mishpatim. המשפטים הן המצוות שטעמן גלוי וטובת עשייתן בעולם הזה ידועה.
We have a moral intuition that allows us to appreciate it and according to which we find them compelling. החוקים הם המצוות שאין טעמן ידוע. אמרו חכמים חוק חקקתי לך ואין לך רשות להרהר בהן.
A person is not allowed to challenge, again, the truth, the correctness, the yashrus of Ribbono Shel Olam's chukim. ויצרו של אדם נוקפו בהן ואומות העולם משיבין עליהן. Sometimes people have a yetzer hara and sometimes it's fueled by the umos ha'olam. כמה היה דוד המלך מצטער מן המינים ומן העכו"ם שהיו משיבין על החוקים.
So what was David Hamelech's response? וכל זמן שהיו רודפין אותו בתשובות השקר שערוך לפי קוצר דעת האדם.
When they would be pursuing him and harassing him with all the sophistry and all the falsehood that that kleine kop generated, היה מוסיף דביקות בתורה שנאמר טפלו עלי שקר זדים אני בכל לב אצור פיקודיך.
That doesn't really need any elaboration. It should be understood that when a person, when it is kal be'einav, so there's a double problem. A, kishe'le'atzmo, that represents an unacceptable degree of assimilation, even if lema'aseh a person will comply. But kishe'le'atzmo, the lack of shmira as the Rambam explains, the lack of esteeming the chukim, that kishe'le'atzmo is not acceptable, and inevitably and inexorably it leads to practical assimilation as well. There's no way a person remains faithful to what he doesn't think is emesdik and yashar. It doesn't last. It may last for a certain tkufa, the tkufa may be a generation or two. Sometimes it's accelerated and it's less than that, but there's no way that if a person doesn't, if the attitude is not משפטי ה' אמת צדקו יחדיו, if the attitude and the appreciation isn't פקודי ה' ישרים משמחי לב, so again k'she'le'atzmo, it's not wrong only because it leads to something, it's wrong k'she'le'atzmo, but also we should understand inevitably it does lead because it can't, it can't stop at that. The person doesn't live, doesn't live with what isn't emes, a person's not going to be moser nefesh for what isn't emes, a person's not going to be moser nefesh just to comply, a person's only going to be moser nefesh for what's emes and for what's yosher. And it's also certainly not something that can be transmitted to the next generation. You can't transmit to your children that the emes is we really don't think this makes any sense and the emes is we think this is a problem with the system, but אף על פי כן we're traditionalists and we do it. It doesn't, it's not going to, and for good reason, it's not going to captivate hearts and minds. Emes, emes captivates hearts and minds and engenders emuna and loyalty and mesirus nefesh. What we're talking about again, not only the element again of a mitzva as something which is an obligation with which we comply, but a mitzva as something which is emes and yosher and therefore is something again in the phrase of the Rambam something lishmo, to esteem. It's true of dinim de'oraisa, it's also true of dinim derabbanan. The same attitude, the same attitude is required for dinim derabbanan. The Ribbono Shel Olam trusted Chazal. He trusts Chazal. לא תסור מן הדבר אשר יגידו לך ימין ושמאל. He took his checkbook out, signed the check, and told them fill in what you want. לא מסרה הכתוב אלא לחכמים in some cases. Okay, then it's mamash a din de'oraisa. In either case he opened an account for them and let them and said and I authorize you to write your own checks. So Ribbono Shel Olam trusts them. Ribbono Shel Olam trusts them. Whatever else emunas chachamim does or doesn't mean, it certainly means that Chazal, the chachmei hamesora, are endowed, cultivated and are endowed with the integrity and the insight and the siyata d'shmaya which demands the same reaction from us and the same attitude towards dinim derabbanan as towards dinim de'oraisa. If the Ribbono Shel Olam can trust them, so then we can trust them also. I think, I think we talked about this once but it's worth repeating. Someone once told me that a rav told him to do the following thought exercise. He said think of the biggest contemporary tzaddik, gaon, kadosh that you know of. Think about it. Close your eyes, think about it. Think about what madreiga, try to imagine what kind of madreiga he's on. Okay, fine, he said. So he waited a couple of minutes, had the guy think and ponder and tells him you thought? He said yeah. Okay, he says now what do you think that guy... What would that adam gadol tell you who he is, what he is in comparison to Reb Chaim? In comparison to the Vilna Gaon? Stama. What would he tell you? 100 times, a thousand times, whatever more, so multiply it. So close your eyes again. Think again. So whatever your conception was of the contemporary gaon, gadol, kadosh. Okay. But now, now we're talking about Reb Chaim. Okay, you did that? Okay, now. What do you think Reb Chaim would say who he was vis-a-vis the Rambam? Vis-a-vis the Rashba, vis-a-vis the Rambam? Okay, multiply again. Again, by exponentially. And then you get back to the heilige Tannaim and Amoraim. So what do you mean that people sit, what do you mean that people sit with the the the the same attitude of reverence? The same koved rosh which the Ribbono Shel Olam wants us to have vis-a-vis dinim de'oraisa? Maybe we understand them, maybe we don't understand them. Maybe we a little bit appreciate them, maybe, maybe, maybe it's too perplexing or maybe the society we live in is too messed up and we have too much of a yetzer hara to appreciate it. But either way, be it the dinim de'oraisa, be it the dinim derabbanan, the emes and the yosher, and that's part of the kabbalas HaTorah to which hopefully we'll be zoche.