Transcript

Let's begin the perek beis. חולי הגוף טועמים המר מתוק והמתוק מר. A person's sense of taste can be distorted.

ויש מן החולים מי שמתאווה ותאב למאכלים שאינם ראויים לאכילה כגון העפר והפחם ושונא המאכלים הטובים כגון הפת והבשר. הכל לפי רוב החולי. כך בני אדם שנפשותיהם חולות מתאווים ואוהבים הדעות הרעות ושונאים הדרך הטובה ומתעצלים ללכת בה והיא כבדה עליהם מאוד לפי חוליים. וכן ישעיהו אומר באנשים הללו הוי האומרים לרע טוב ולטוב רע שמים חושך לאור ואור לחושך שמים מר למתוק ומתוק למר. ועליהם נאמר העוזבים אורחות יושר ללכת בדרכי חושך.

Rambam here is presenting something very, very fundamental. Sometimes a choli haguf expresses itself in a way that one is aware of the choli. If a person sprains his ankle, sprains his knee, he's aware of the choli. He's aware that there's now a weakness in that part of the body that it can't support weight the way it's supposed to. But there's a more insidious type of choli where if a person doesn't have a, if he wouldn't have a broader frame of reference, the person wouldn't necessarily recognize the choli because he now experiences what's unnatural as natural. Okay, so in the case where all of a sudden a person wakes up one day and what until now had always been experienced as mosok, he experiences it as mar, and he wakes up one day and all of a sudden finds that he's mitaveh lepecham ve'ofor, so it's true because he has this broader frame of reference he'll be able to diagnose a choli. But absent that broader frame of reference, he wouldn't be able to recognize the choli because he experiences the abnormal as being normal, he experiences the pathological as being natural. No, but when the Rambam then uses the cholei haguf as a moshal, as an analogy for cholei hanefashos, so the implication is the same. The implication is that for a person to recognize when he has a choli. So the Rambam is going to continue and say that just as a person who has a cholei haguf consults a rofei haguf who's a baki in that chochma, so too a person with one of the cholei hanefashos has to consult with a rofei nefashos. But a person has to first know that he's sick to know that there's a need to consult. If a person knows, rachmana litzlan, he has hypertension, so then he'll go see a doctor to know what to do about it. If the person is oblivious to the fact that he has that condition, he's not going to do anything about it. So implicit here in what the Rambam is telling us, that just as cholei haguf can be experienced as something normal and natural. No, they eat something which is bitter and it tastes sweet. That they experience a taiva for ofar and tefel. And it's only having a broader frame of reference which allows one to recognize, no, something is very wrong here. It's only that broader comparative frame of reference. It also means that when a person assesses his deios, he can't rely entirely on what feels wrong to him. No, I feel that the way I spoke to that person was wrong. I feel like I acted improperly. That will diagnose some of the cholei hanefashos, just as one will experience the weakness in one's knee. It won't feel natural. But it's not going to diagnose all the cholei hanefashos. It's not going to diagnose when the mar feels matok, it's not going to diagnose when he has a taiva for ofar and tefel. To be mishaer deiosav, שיהיה אדם שם דעותיו תמיד ומשער אותן, to make a cheshbon hanefesh, so a person needs a comparative frame of reference according to which he measures his deios. Because we can easily have a cholei hanefashos, but not experience it as such. In terms of our experience, so we think everything is fine.

ומה היא תקנת חולי הנפשות? ילכו אצל החכמים שהם רופאי הנפשות וירפאו חליים בדעות שמלמדין אותם עד שיחזירום לדרך הטובה. והמכירים בדעות הרעות שלהם ואינם הולכים אצל החכמים לרפאותם,

aleihem amar Shlomo, umusar evilim bazu. Vecheitzad hi?

מי שהוא בעל חמה אומרים לו להנהיג עצמו שהוכה וקולל לא ירגיש כלל וילך וילך וילך בדרך זו זמן מרובה עד שתעקר החמה מלבו.

So here, why did the Rambam need the end of Halacha Aleph? What, what, what does the the end of Halacha Aleph, the Rambam says just as a person if he has a choli haguf, so we're laymen, we're not doctors, so we consult a doctor, so too if a person has a choli hanefashos, he's a layman, so he should consult the doctor. But lema'aseh if the Rambam would have skipped that and the Rambam would have just said, if you didn't have the last two, three lines of Halacha Aleph and you just would have said v'keitzad hi refuasam, but the Rambam introduces us to the concept of choli hanefesh, the same way there's choli haguf, there's choli hanefesh, the same way choli haguf can appear natural, choli hanefesh can appear natural, it needs a refuah, and then he should have continued Halacha Beis, v'keitzad hi refuasam. Because lema'aseh the Rambam is basically telling us what to do, right? Rambam is equipping us to, you know, a what do they call the whole genre, the self-help literature? So the Rambam has it here, right? You don't have to actually go to the doctor, the Rambam tells us what to do for each midah. So why does he have the end of Halacha Aleph? I don't know, I don't have an adequate teretz. Because especially because at the end of Halacha Beis, he seems to indicate that what he's telling us works for everything:

ועל קו זה יעשה בשאר כל הדעות אם היה רחוק לקצה האחד ירחיק עצמו לקצה השני וינהג בו זמן מרובה עד שיחזור לדרך הטובה והיא מדה בינונית שבכל דעה ודעה.

So it's not as if well this isn't always going to work, so when this doesn't work, then go lish'ol eitzah. Rambam seems to say no, what I'm telling you in Halacha Beis is, this is the refuah for every imbalance in de'os. I don't know. Okay, so now from the beginning of Halacha Beis. V'keitzad hi refuasam:

מי שהוא בעל חמה אומרים לו להנהיג עצמו שאם הוכה וקולל לא ירגיש כלל וילך בדרך וילך בדרך זו זמן מרובה עד שתעקר החמה מלבו.

Lo yargish klal here l'chora doesn't translate the way we ordinarily translate, doesn't mean that he shouldn't feel anything, because lema'aseh that's gufa the midah he's trying to cultivate, that's what he's trying to get. It means he shouldn't express anything. It means lo yargish that he shouldn't vent, not in the sense that he shouldn't feel, but that he shouldn't allow any outward, any outer expression, and in that sense he's, you know, he's stifling the cheimah and if he stifles it again and again and again, so ultimately it's ne'ekeres milibo. I think grammatically I think that's correct also. We in let's say in modern colloquial usage we say ech atah margish? for how do you feel? It doesn't really mean, really it's shorthand for איך אתה מרגיש את עצמך. But that's the, in other languages it's like that. I don't know, I know someone who his mother tongue is Russian. So as is often the case when we speak a second or third language, so we make the mistake of thinking in our mother tongue and then sort of translating into the second language, so it doesn't always come out the way a native speaker would say it. So I don't know if he still does, I haven't seen him for a few years, but when he used to say how are you feeling yourself? That's how he would when give you a shalom aleichem, he wouldn't say how are you, he'd say how are you feeling yourself. Which is really it must be that Russian is the same as lehavdil as it is in lashon hakodesh. It must be the idiom really is to to which is what eich ata margish is also. So margish it's not a stam kimpte in the word, aderaba we really use it in not in its literal literal sense. How do we explain lehargish? Follow the hif'il. Don't activate your emotions. Because lehargish is again is a causative. So it can mean again when you use it to mean feel so it means really it means feel yourself. It has to be a transitive. It's not an intransitive the way we just translate it and think of it. So don't don't activate your regesh, don't act upon your your regesh, don't act upon, don't activate your your regesh, don't activate your emotions. What's zman merubeh? So the Rambam obviously can't quantify first what what zman merubeh is. Zman merubeh is going to vary, but the one thing the Rambam can tell us is that tikkun hamiddot is a process. It's not something that that's going to happen instantaneously. It's it's it's a process and therefore it requires the persistence and the steadfastness in order for it to happen.

ואם היה גבה לב ינהיג עצמו בביזיון הרבה וישב למטה מן הכל וילבש בלויי סחבות המבזות את לובשיהן וכיוצא בדברים אלו עד שיעקר גובה הלב ממנו ויחזור לדרך האמצעית שהיא הדרך הטובה ולכשיחזור לדרך האמצעית ילך בה כל ימיו ועל קו זה יעשה בשאר כל הדעות אם היה רחוק לקצה האחד ירחיק עצמו לקצה השני וינהוג בו זמן מרובה עד שיחזור לדרך הטובה והיא מידה בינונית שבכל דעה ודעה.

Is this is this a hora'at sha'ah in the sense that really if if a person walks around in tattered clothing, so really that's not the derech habeinonit. Derech habeinonit is that a person should dress neatly, that in a neat, unassuming, dignified way. That that's the mida beinonit. It shouldn't attract attention because it's so flashy and it shouldn't attract attention because it's so because they're rags. So over here where the person is wearing rags, so it's a hora'at sha'ah mishum choli. So the peshatus is no, that the peshatus is that by vehalachta bidrachav the mitzvah, the process of cultivating the correct midos and the correct. deios is part of the mitzvah. It's not a hechsher mitzvah. The mitzvah of Vehalachta Bidrachav is to act in a way that a person is cultivating, reinforcing the correct middos. So depending upon basher hu sham, depending upon where the person is holding, so it may mean to act with the middah beinonis, or no, it may mean that a person is supposed to be at an extreme because that's what he needs to be doing at this point to be cultivating the middah beinonis. There's no mashma'us in the Rambam that it's a that it's some kind of necessary hora'as sha'ah.

ויש דעות שאסור לאדם לנהוג בהן בבינונית אלא יתרחק עד הקצה האחר והוא גובה הלב שאין הדרך הטובה שיהיה האדם עניו בלבד אלא שיהיה שפל רוח ותהיה רוחו נמוכה למאוד.

So here is a very old and I don't know almost if not intractable kasha here in terms of the apparent stira between here and perek aleph. It's very, very difficult to contend with. In perek aleph the Rambam illustrated the middah beinonis by giving examples both with govah halev as well as ka'as. The very first example the Rambam gave in terms of the middah beinonis was with the middah of ka'as. Later when the Rambam wanted to illustrate the difference between hachacham and hachasid, so he used the middah of anavah, the spectrum of govah halev and anavah, and the very unmistakable impression and understanding we had in perek aleph is that these middos are also governed by the derech habeinonis. And now in perek beis, the Rambam tells us no, it's assur. Here the person is supposed to be at one end of the spectrum. I don't know, so we'll we're going to learn halacha gimmel without at least initially and maybe not only initially but entirely, without trying to meyashev that that stira.

ויש דעות וכו' והוא גובה הלב שאין הדרך הטובה שיהיה אדם עניו בלבד אלא שיהיה שפל רוח ותהיה רוחו נמוכה למאוד לפיכך נאמר במשה רבנו עניו מאוד ולא נאמר עניו בלבד לפיכך צוו חכמים מאוד מאוד הוי שפל רוח ועוד אמרו שכל המגביה לבו כפר בעיקר שנאמר ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלהיך ועוד אמרו בשמתא דאית ביה גסות הרוח ואפילו מקצתה.

So the meimar chazal of kol hamagbi'ah libo, so the way we have it in the gemara in the first perek in Sotah, ke'ilu kafar ba'ikar. So one would have said that okay, so the Rambam had a different girsa in the gemara. But the problem is the Rambam in Perush Hamishnayos in Avos quotes it as we have it. So tzarich iyun what he has in mind here with when he drops that chaf hadimyon, the ke'ilu. Here it's kol hamagbi'ah libo is mamash kafar ba'ikar. So how does that, so why is it that he himself has the how did he understand the fact that chazal, because he himself has this girsa, say it in the you know in a sense of equivalence, not literally that it's kafar ba'ikar? So I don't know, tzarich iyun. What does it mean though, just again so taking this Rambam k'she'le'atzmo without without looking to be meyashev with the girsa hagimara in Sotah, what does it mean that kol hamagbi'ah libo is kafar ba'ikar? What does it mean taka to say that without a ke'ilu? There's lots of equations... But we understand there's a different level in which they can be an equivalence. So we'll have in the second half of the Halacha, kol ko'eis is כאילו עובד עבודה זרה. So we understand that it's not literally avodah zarah but there's a certain equivalence, it's k'ilu. But what does it mean to say kol hamagbi'ah libo is kofer ba'ikar? So maybe the pshat is as follows. Well, what does it, just in terms of definition of terms, what does it mean for a person to be an anav? What does it mean for a person to be a ba'al ga'avah? So Rav Sachs zecher tzadik livracha said as follows. So we think that if a person, I don't know, a person imagines that he's a baki b'shas when he isn't, so we think he's a ba'al ga'avah. So Sachs would say no, he's not a ba'al ga'avah, he's a meshugeneh. He's out of touch with reality. A ba'al ga'avah? He thinks he's a baki b'shas and he isn't. He's a mat'eh. He's a meshugeneh. And for a person who is a baki b'shas to think he isn't, why is that a ma'alah? Why is that a ma'alah? Chazal are very critical of חכם שהגיע להוראה ואינו מורה. So ella mai, both the ba'al ga'avah, both the anav, have an accurate self-image in the sense, in the sense of they know how much they know, again in using that example, that illustration, that context. So what's the difference? Difference is that the ba'al ga'avah thinks it's kochi v'otzem yadi. Ba'al ga'avah thinks that whatever he's, whatever he stands out in, in whatever area he stands out, he thinks it's כחי ועצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה. And the anav realizes that everything he has, again the importance of hishtadlus and amal, all of that notwithstanding, without diminishing the importance and indispensability of amal and hishtadlus notwithstanding, mi'ma'aseh all of a person's abilities are from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. All of a person's opportunities are from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. His very existence is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So if not kochi v'otzem yadi, everything is bechesed shamayim. Everything is bechesed shamayim. So the anav knows, the anav and the ba'al ga'avah, they each know in terms of that illustration how many blatt Gemara they know. The ba'al ga'avah thinks it's kochi v'otzem yadi and the anav realizes that everything, everything, again his amal notwithstanding, everything is the indispensability of that notwithstanding, he knows everything is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So the definition again of the magbi'ah libo is kochi v'otzem yadi. So hashtah de'asinu l'hachi, if you go back to the very beginning of the Yad: יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון. Mamtzi lechol nimtza. And והוא ממציא כל נמצא. So as the Rav used to underscore, the Rambam says it in loshon hoveh. He doesn't say in the past tense himtzi, he gave existence to everything that exists, but mamtzi kol nimtza, right? Every moment what exists exists parasitically off of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, because of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, through Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Again, which is the source for a person's anava. A person has a sense of kochi v'otzem yadi, it means he feels some independence, he feels some autonomy. So that's what the Rambam says, that's not only terrible middos, but it's mamash kofer ba'ikar. For a person to feel that sense of independence, that it's me, it's kochi v'otzem yadi, he feels some kind of independence, some kind of autonomy, so that's mamash, mamash kofer ba'ikar. Okay, 10:00.