Transcript

Next we'll go to משל למי שהיה סומא והמליכוהו למלך, that's where we left off. So just to review a little bit, the Meshech Chochmah explains that if one's pathway to emunah is the emotional reaction and enthusiastic reaction, be it to ahavah, be it to yofi, be it to gevurah, a person will not be able to attain true emunah. A person sees yofi. So maybe initially the person sees it in, I don't know, in nature. And he recognizes that the yofi which he's seeing in this particular context is a quality which is present here as well. V'havaya that he beholds yofi in other contexts as well. This is not the only beautiful scene that he's ever beheld. So clearly there is distinct from each of these instances of yofi, there's a techunah of yofi, there's a quality of yofi. Again, something more than the individual instances of yofi that the person has beheld. He recognizes that there's a quality of yofi, and then he idolizes that. He, that hispailus for yofi becomes the basis for his belief in something greater than the individual instances of yofi in front of him. So what he'll arrive at is, again, he won't transcend the physical. If it comes from an emotional reaction to the physical, then his belief, even when he extrapolates and looks to elevate, so he'll just create a god of beauty, which will be framed in physical categories. Which is why the basis for emunah has to be the sechel to have correct belief in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, who's not guf, not koach baguf. So the basis for that belief has to be the sechel as opposed to the hargashos, the hispailus that a person can experience because of ahavah or yofi or gevurah etc. But we do have these capacities and we do experience these emotions. So the Torah says that that's channeled into mitzvos maasios so that we won't allow that to encroach upon the techum of emunah BaHashem. How the Rambam in Yesodei HaTorah, why is a person getting closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu when he looks out at nature? What is that about? Oh, so the answer is that the Rambam is very, very meduyak. The Rambam is very meduyak, because if you look at the lashon HaRambam Perek Beis.

והיאך הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו ובברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול.

The Rambam is very careful to say that the hisbonenus b'ma'asav there are two relevant responses to your question. One is that in Perek Beis, the Rambam is describing a person who's already a ma'amin. He's not describing what the path to emunah is. He's describing a person who's already a ma'amin, and that's what he says the lashon בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו ובברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים. Meaning the person already has arrived at correct emunah, ayin Perek Aleph. The person has already arrived at correct emunah, and then when he looks at the world, he's looking at the world as the handiwork of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in whom he already has correct emunah, so then that inspires ahava and yirah. So that's reaction number one, which is the response to the question everyone asks how can you have some scientists, not all Baruch Hashem, but some scientists are very b'kofer. The answer is that that's not a pircha on the Rambam, it's not a kasha on the Rambam. The Rambam never said that this will force a person to believe, this is going to cause him to believe. It may, but it may not. The Rambam is talking about, again, after Perek Aleph where he outlined a different path to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, then he says בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו ובברואיו הנפלאים. He sees them as ma'asav capital H His, u'vruav capital H His. That's A. B, even at this stage, the hispa'alus that the Rambam is describing is not a hispa'alus the aesthetic experience of watching a sunrise from the top of a mountain top. He's not describing an aesthetic experience. The Rambam is careful to say ויראה מהם חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ. The Rambam is saying that what the person understands, what the person glimpses, what the person sees reflected is the chochma. So that, again, so that is very much what the Meshech Chochma is emphasizing, that the his'orerus has to be a his'orerus sichlis. Now, so the Meshech Chochma continues:

ומפני שכל ישראל ממליכים עליהם המלך הראש זה כח השכל המשיג מציאותו יתברך באחדות המוחלט בחיוב המציאות על כל ההרגשות.

So we elevate the sechel over the hargashos. It's that is the basis for the fact

היינו שנהרגים והורגים גם בניהם רחמנא לצלן וכל האומה נשחטת ונחנקת בשביל מציאותו יתברך ואחדותו שמושגת בשכל ובלתי מורגש ובלתי מצויר.

So the question is the following. A, the question is, and again, the Meshech Chochma knew all this. I mean, there are accounts of the early Christians before it became the official religion of Rome. the phenomenon of dying for one’s beliefs is not limited to Knesset Yisrael. The same way the Meshech Chochma asked earlier, what does it mean when the Gemorra in Shabbos says that we are ma'aminim bnei ma'aminim? What does it mean that that implication that that we're uniquely ma'aminim and he proceeds to answer the question in terms of the eichus of their emuna. So the same question can be raised here, but even those whose emuna is based on on the hargashos, they do have a they do the historical record of and and again, not that we’re bringing to bear a yedi'ah that was unknown to Rav Meir Simcha, he he certainly knew it. So so what what does he mean in light of that? That's question one. Question two, I don’t know that they have the same answer. Could be the questions one and two have answers one and two. If you take a look in the Meshech Chochma in Parshas Vayakhel, Perek Lamed Hey, Posuk Lamed Aleph. Lamed Hey, Lamed Aleph. Do you have that on the computer or sir? You want a picture? Should send him the picture. All those who would like a picture. Okay. Just that you don’t need the bottom lines, just anything I can get off the top and not on the bottom lines. All right.

ראו קרא ה׳ בשם בצלאל בן אורי בן חור למטה יהודה.

So again, the unposed question is that generally the Torah identifies individuals, their name and their father’s name. The Torah doesn’t routinely go back to the to the grandfather. Parshas Shelach. ואלה שמות האנשים אשר שלח משה לתור את הארץ. Keseder. Keseder. It's the exceptional case where an individual is identified by more than his father’s name.

ראו קרא ה׳ בשם בצלאל בן אורי בן חור למטה יהודה. והעניין דמסירות נפש צריך להיות שלא בחקירה והתחכמות יתירה. ויהודה מסר עצמו בים במסירות נפש. כמו דאיתא בתוספתא דסוטה. וכן חור מסר עצמו בעגל.

Why is that true?

דהחקירה תעכב ברצון פנימי מלמסור נפשו על קידוש השם יתברך כעדות יעבץ החסיד.

The Yavetz Hachasid lived at the time of Gerush Sefard. And and he attested that those who were too involved, not involved in in the religiously appropriate and and healthy and way with philosophy, so they were not omed b'nisayon in when told to either leave or or convert. That's what that's what the Meshech Chochma is referencing.

לכן אמר שבעבור זה שלא חקרו ולא נתחכמו יותר מדי לכן וימלא אותו בחכמה ובתבונה ובדעת והבן.

So in what zechus was Betzalel so did HaKadosh Baruch Hu fill him that he was overflowing be'chochma u'vtevuana v'da'as in the zechus of Chur who acted shelo be'his'chakmus yeseira. So the mida k'neged mida is when a person knows how to act shelo b'his'chakmus yeseira, so then HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives that person the חכמה בינה ודעת יתירה. So here the Meshech Chochma seems to be saying that the capacity to die al kiddush Hashem is because one's religious belief Isn't based on hargashos. Because the strongest hargasha that we have is one for self-survival. The strongest instinct a person has is for self-survival. So how does a person how does a person overcome that and and moser nefesh? So the answer is only if he's mamlich the sechel over the hargashos. That's what this Meshech Chochmah says. The other Meshech Chochmah says that

מסירות נפש צריך להיות שלא בחקירה ושכליות יתירה דהחקירה תעכב הרצון פנימי מלמסור נפשו על קדושת השם יתברך כעדת יעבץ וחבורתו.

So the mechaven here is as follows. In terms of question number one, maybe that's why when the Meshech Chochmah said horgim gam beneihem, so again, he's very much aware of the fact whether one can, should, is obligated to kill oneself preemptively in terms of the gimel aveiros and then to take it a step further, even to kill the children preemptively in terms of kiddush Hashem. So that's a major, major dispute in the Rishonim. Can you get the דעת זקנים מבעלי התוספות on the computer in Parshas Noach on I guess ואך את דמכם לנפשותיכם אדרש or שופך דם האדם באדם דמו ישפך? What perek is that? Tes? I guess. ואך את דמכם אזהרה לחונק עצמו. Right? Even if there's no blood, even even my bloodshed doesn't mean literal bloodshed. It means it means murder, or in this case suicide, even if there isn't literally blood. Even if the way that the person kills himself there's no no blood spilled. V'amru b'Bereishis Rabbah יכול אפילו כחנניה משאל ועזריה Talmud lomar ach. Perush, יכול אפילו כמו אלו שמסרו עצמם לקדש השם shelo yachabel be'atzmo. Ah, but what if אם הוא ירא שלא יוכל בעצמו לעמוד מניסיון Talmud lomar ach? כי בשעת השמד יכול למסור עצמו למיתה ולהרוג עצמו. A person is afraid that he's going to be tortured and that he'll break under the torture. Right? The Gemara later in Kesuvos, right, in the third perek, says that that that torture rachmana litzlan is a greater nisayon than than just being confronted with the prospect of instantaneous death. Sorry, what the hostages endured is is mind-boggling.

וכן בשאול בן קיש שאמר לנערו שלוף חרבך ודקרני בה

Talmud lomar ach.

שאם ירא אדם שמא יעשו לו יסורין קשים שלא יוכל לסבול ולעמוד בניסיון שיכול להרוג את עצמו שיכול להרוג את עצמו. ומכאן מביאים ראיה אותן ששחטו התינוקות בשעת גזירה.

Veyeish she'osrim. So this was a major among the Chachmei Ashkenaz and you know, during during the times of the Crusades, this wasn't wasn't a theoretical question. Veyeish she'osrim. Umeforshim ken, יכול כחנניה וחביריו שכבר נמצאו למיתה Talmud lomar ach. אבל אינו יכול להרוג את עצמו. And that Chazal is saying שאול שלא ברשות חכמים עשה. Uma'aseh berav echad ששחט הרבה תינוקות בשעת השמד. That that they were told that the Crusaders were were approaching and he was killing children that that they shouldn't be forcibly taken and then baptized and shmad.

כי היה ירא שיעבירום על הדת והיה רב אחד עמו והיה כועס עליו ביותר.

Ukera'o rotze'ach והוא לא היה חושש. Ve'amar oto rav, the one who was objecting, the one who called him a rotze'ach, im kidvarai, if I'm right, יהרג אותו רב במיתה משונה. Vechien haya. Shetefasuhu akum vehayu poshtin oro, they were flaying his skin,

והיו פושטין עורו ונותנין חול בין העור והבשר ואחר כך נתבטלה הגזירה ואם לא שחט אותם התינוקות היו ניצולים.

So the Meshech Chochma knows that this is a major major machlokes. So what's he being machnis rosho? I don't know, this context is nothing. So maybe the pshat is like this. He's not endorsing that opinion, but he's saying the ability to have done it if one thought that was correct. And the ma'aseh in the the kinos, the kinos, I don't know, there's this kinos that we say on Tisha B'Av, you know, this Ba'alei Tosafos, this ma'aseh notwithstanding, it's presented in very laudatory terms, this practice that they killed children preemptively. In the kinos we, I don't know, if we're going to derive the psak halacha from the kinos, it would be like the the rav echad who was killing the tinokos. So again, whether you agree or disagree in terms of psak halacha, maybe what the Meshech Chochma has in mind is that capacity if one thinks that's what the halacha requires, that capacity, ein hachi nami, do we find in other nations this capacity to surrender one's own life? We do, but maybe, I don't know, you have to check the historical record see if this is oisgehalten. But maybe what he's saying is vehargum gam beneihem, that that's something, that that is unique and that is something which so contradicts hargashos, that it's only with this, the fact that כל הממליכם עליהם המלך, that they have a capacity for that behavior. What does the Meshech Chochma think on that shayla? I don't know, it doesn't make a difference in this context. It's not relevant. He's not being machnis rosho to that machlokes in the Rishonim. What about the Meshech Chochma later in Vayakhel? So lich'ora the answer is that in Vayakhel the Meshech Chochma is not talking about the basis for one's belief. He's talking about how one approaches the situation of Kiddush Hashem. Here he's talking about what the basis is for one's belief. There he's talking about that when... A person will be able to rationalize why he shouldn't do it. And and that's what he means that מסירות נפש צריך שלא בחקירות וחכמות והאמונה not the underlying emuna, that's not what he's saying, it's not the underlying emuna, it's not it's not how he arrived at his emuna, it's it's in terms of I mean chazal say and and critically, right, that Aharon Hakohen you know does make a cheshbon why he shouldn't resist them by the egel and chazal are critical of that cheshbon that Aharon made and Chur didn't make Chur didn't make a cheshbon and he he just resisted the the avodah zarah. So that's lachora how to integrate these these two passages. Okay let's start.