Transcript

ויאמר אלהים נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו וירדו בדגת הים ובעוף השמים ובבהמה ובכל הארץ ובכל הרמש הרמש על הארץ.

Rashi paraphrases, elaborates a little bit a comment from Chazal in Bereishit Rabbah:

נעשה אדם אף על פי שלא סייעוהו ביצירתו ויש מקום לאפיקורסים לרדות

bilshon rabbim. Naaseh Adam gives a pichon peh leminim rachmana litzlan to say that there are rashuyot harbeh. Nevertheless, lo nimna hakatuv. So even though that there is that downside, that that

יש מקום לאפיקורסים לרדות, לא נמנע הכתוב מללמד דרך ארץ ומידת ענוה, שיהא הגדול נמלך ונוטל רשות מן הקטן.

Skipping a few words, uteshuvato ketuvah betzido: vayivra et ha'adam velo kativ vayivru. So the question and maybe it's maybe it's not a correct question but somehow one it's hard to shake it off: so why davka in in this context where it entails giving a pichon peh leminim does does the Torah impart the lesson of midat anavah? Why not why not impart that same limmud without the makom lirdos? It's certainly not a an otherwise lechatchila-dik thing to to give a makom lirdos to give a pichon peh because because it's gonna be teshuvato betzido. So he's talking as follows: the Rambam comments about the associations of Shabbos. So he writes as follows, but the Ramban al haTorah quotes this:

בתורה מופיעים שני טעמים שונים עם השבת כי מסקנותיהם שתיים שונות

and these two reasons yield two different conclusions.

כי הוא אמר בתור טעם לכיבוד השבת בעשרת הדברות הראשונות לאמר כי ששת ימים עשה השם ואמר במשנה תורה וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים על כן ציווך השם אלוקיך לעשות את יום השבת.

Vezeh nachon.

כי המסקנה של הדיבור הראשון היא קידוש היום וכיבודו כמו שאמר על כן בירך השם את יום השבת ויקדשהו. זאת המסקנה הנובעת מן הטעם כי ששת ימים וכולו. אך שהתורה ציוותה ופקדה עלינו אנו לשמור אותה זאת המסקנה הנובעת מן הטעם שהיינו עבדים במצרים שבשבת לא שבתנו בבחירתנו ובשעה שחפצנו ולא יכולנו לשבות.

So there are two discrete separate associations that the Torah establishes for Shabbos. One is that Shabbos serves as an edut on maaseh bereishit כי ששת ימים עשה השם and vayanoch bayom hashvi'i. The other is that... The other discrete association reason for Shabbos is zecher yitzias mitzrayim,

וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים ויוציאך ה' אלוהיך משם.

And the Rambam says you see that they're discrete in that they they feed into different conclusions. The punchline in as it were in Yisro is על כן ברך ה' את יום השבת ויקדשהו. The fact that Shabbos is an eidus on ma'aseh bereishis explains why there is kedusha Shabbos, why Shabbos is miskadesh. The fact that Shabbos is zecher yitzias mitzrayim explains על כן צוך ה' אלוהיך לעשות יום השבת, why we're the ones to to observe kedusha Shabbos.

וכן ציווה עלינו בתורה לשבות ולנוח כדי שנצטרף לשני הדברים.

So by observing Shabbos, we combine the two: A, נאמין בדיעה נכונה וחידוש העולם. A, it it instills and reinforces the correct belief in bri'as ha'olam which in turn is מורה על מציאות האל. If there's if the olam is nivra, there's a borei olam. And number two, venizacheir, we should be reminded through our shvisa on Shabbos בחסד האל שהניח לנו מתחת סבלות מצרים, because there's no such thing as an eved who who can at will take a day off every week. So two different associations with for Shabbos. The Ramban as as you know in Parshas Va'eschanan disagrees and says no, it's one and the same. Shabbos is eidus on ma'aseh bereishis. Should a person begin to wonder well, how do I really know that the world is m'chudash? What's the basis for that belief? So just as the Torah tells us אנכי ה' אלהיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים מבית עבדים, that the asher hotzeisicha provides the basis for the belief in anochi Hashem elokecha, so the Torah repeats that by Shabbos. The Torah says וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים. If you're wondering about about chidush ha'olam, do I really know it that I can give eidus on it through shvisa Shabbos? Of course you know it.

וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים ויוציאך ה' אלוהיך משם ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu took you out miraculously. The miracles of yitzias mitzrayim are the os umofes on bri'as ha'olam. So it's really it's really one and the same. Lefi mabat zeh, the Ramban's havanah is much more elegant. So what what HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't have enough mitzvos, he has to saddle Shabbos with two different two different ta'amim? Ta'amim chavilos chavilos. What it's... In talking about the ta'amei hamitzvos for the shalosh regalim, so the Rambam says as follows: שני חגים אלו גם יחד כלומר סוכות ופסח. Here too they nosnim de'ah umiddah. They impart a a fundamental belief and a fundamental middah. Hade'ah, again using de'ah not in the Rambam's sense of the word, but in in our common usage. The belief:

הדיעה בפסח היא זכר אותות מצרים והנצחתם לדורות והדיעה בסוכות היא הנצחת אותות המדבר לדורות.

Commemorating and perpetuating the memory of the miracles of Mitzrayim, the miracles of the midbar, and again with their theological implications for what they tell us about m'tzias Hashem, hashgachas Hashem. Hamiddah, what's the middah which Pesach and Succos instill within us? שיזכור האדם תמיד את ימי המצוקה בימי הרווחה. That a person should always always remember the days of difficulty and distress. When he's in a better position, when he's already in a comfortable position. Why? Why? Kedei—our impulse is to try to forget it. No, says the Rambam, the Torah wants us to remember it כדי שתגדל הודאתו לקל. First of all, a person—if a person doesn't take for granted the beracha that he has, so then his gratitude Hakadosh Baruch Hu is greater. But moreover ותושג לו ענווה והכנעה. But it will also instill within a person anava, hachna'a.

יאכל מצה ומרור בפסח כדי שיזכור מה עבר עלינו וכן יצא מן הבתים וישב בסוכות כמו שעושים האומללים יושבי המדברות והשממות כדי שיזכור שכך היה מצבנו לפנים. כי בסוכות הושבתי את בני ישראל.

According to the Rambam, כי בסוכות הושבתי את בני ישראל is not to remember the five-star accommodations that we had in the the the Hilton of of the midbar. Adaraba, it's to remember that we were—that we were roughing it, to remember how difficult things were. The Rambam elaborates this yesod when he talks about Mikra Bikkurim. This yesod of—of remembering times of difficulty, times of adversity during times of prosperity. And he says that's clearly the pshat in Mikra Bikkurim. Mikra Bikkurim is occasioned by prosperity. A person had a successful crop, he's bringing the first fruits to—to the Beis Hamikdash. And the Torah says he should remember and he should reminisce ארמי אובד אבי וירד מצרימה וירעו אותנו המצרים ויענונו. Mikra Bikkurim is designed that a person

שידע שהאדם ידע שחלק מעבודת השם הוא שיזכיר את מצבי מצוקתו בשעה שירווח לו.

At times of comfort and success and prosperity, a person has to think of the times of suffering, of difficulty, of adversity, of deprivation.

מטרה זו מודגשת הרבה בתורה. וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים.

Every time the Torah insists that we remember that we were eved be-eretz Mitzrayim, it's not just to remember that Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us out. It's not just the heichi timtza to remember that he took us out. No, it's to remember the times of suffering, the times of deprivation. Why? So here the Rambam elaborates and says and gives us an incredible yesod which he points out is basically meforash in the psukim. Mipnei she-chosheshim—why does the Torah stress so much that a person has to remember times of adversity?

מפני שחוששים מן התכונות המפורסמות אצל כל מי שחונך ברווחה.

Because we're concerned for those well-known corrupt midos that we're all susceptible to when we experience success and prosperity. כלומר היוהרא זכיכות הדעת והזנחת הדעות הנכונות. It began—it begins with yuhara, arrogance, presumptuousness, but ultimately it parlays into, it culminates into corrupt belief, into neglecting correct belief. And the Rambam points out it's meforash in the psukim in Parshas Eikev. Pen tochal ve-savata

ורם לבבך ושכחת את השם אלקיך המוציאך מארץ מצרים ואמרת בלבבך כחי ועצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה.

So the Rambam says something extraordinary here rabbosai. Just again, and he just shows us how it's pshat in the psukim in Chumash. It's not enough that it's not only the case that middas hagaivah is something that corrupts a person's character. It corrupts his belief. Ultimately, if the gaivah, to the degree that the person has the gaivah, to that degree it detracts from or can even rachmana litzlan completely undermine belief.

פן תאכל ושבעת ובתים טובים תבנה וישבת ובקרך וצאנך ירבין וכסף וזהב ירבה לך וכל אשר לך ירבה.

You'll have all this hatzlacha, all this prosperity. Veram levavecha and what happens if ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלהיך? Gaivah, which can result from prosperity and success, undermines belief. Unfortunately, it's something that we know and see empirically today. Two of the leading causes of kfira rachmana litzlan in our generation: one is the determination for self-gratification. People are not willing to accept that they want something and that it's off-limits. But the other leading cause is just gaivah. When people think one way and the Torah thinks differently, they have too much gaivah to think that maybe the Ribono shel Olam knows better than they do. And we mamash, you mamash see bechush what the Rambam here is talking about.

חושש מן התכונות המפורסמות אצל כל מי שחונך ברווחה כלומר היהרה זחיחות הדעת והזנחת הדעות הנכונות.

Prosperity can—it doesn't have to, rachmana litzlan it doesn't have to, and many people are prosperous and anavim shefalim with middas hachna'ah—but it can, if a person is not careful, it can breed yuhara, and yuhara can and does breed haznachas hadeios nechonos, neglect, rejection of proper belief. When the Torah couples hein by Pesach, hein by Succos, hein by Shabbos, that the Yomim Tovim, that Shabbos come to instill belief and also come to instill middos, it's to send a message because in order ultimately, in order to sustain the belief, so the midda also has to be inculcated. In order to sustain the belief that Pesach and Succos are coming to teach us about osos Mitzrayim and osos hamidbar and their implications for belief in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, all that is only going to be sustained if the accompanying midda is— Is also instilled, is also reinforced, the anavah that results from remembering the yemei hametzukah, the days of difficulty, the days of suffering even in times of prosperity. And that's lichora clearly the pshat in what the Rambam is saying by Shabbos as well. It's not that the Shabbos is doing double duty and the Shabbos is coming to teach two unrelated things. No, the de'ah which results from zechiros yetzias Mitzrayim is indispensable, excuse me, the middah that results from zechiros yetzias Mitzrayim from וזכרת כי עבד היית, that middah is indispensable for the belief that Shabbos is seeking to impart. You can come back to the comment of Chazal in Bereishis Rabbah that Rashi is citing, so it's mamash kaftor vaferach according to the Rambam. We asked, okay, but what's pshat that davka at the expense of proper belief the Torah has to teach me this anavah? So the teretz is because it's yet again the Torah's way of telling us that without teaching the middas ha'anavah, so then the belief is not going to be sustainable either. And that's the message, yes, that even at the expense of giving a pischon peh laminim, yeah, teshuvah b'tzidan, but even at the expense of giving pischon peh laminim, Hakadosh Baruch Hu imparts the middas ha'anavah because if he doesn't impart the middas ha'anavah and if we don't hear that lesson and we don't internalize it, then we're not going to be able to sustain the correct belief of na'aseh adam. In order to sustain the correct belief of ויברא לשון יחיד אלוהים את האדם, in order to sustain correct belief, so then a person has to first know and has to first internalize the message of na'aseh of the middas ha'anavah.