Rambam discussed the Yesod hachamishi asher bo yisaleh שהוא יסוד והוא היסוד החמישי הוא יתעלה הוא הראוי לעבדו ולרוממו ולפרסם גדולתו ומשמעתו ואין עושים כן למה שלמטה ממנו במציאות מן המלאכים והכוכבים והגלגלים והיסודות וכל מה שהורכב מהם כפי שכולם מוטבעים בפעולותיהם אין להם שלטון ולא בחירה
ela rtzono yisaleh ואין עושים אותם אמצעים להגיע בהם אליו אלא כלפיו yisaleh yachado hamachshavos ויניחו כל מה שזולתו וזה היסוד החמישי והוא האזהרה al Avoda Zara ורוב התורה בא להזהיר על זה. Now the question is as follows. Why is it that the Rambam to explain the Yesod hachamishi, so the Rambam has to tell us that malachim and all other celestial, higher, however we should refer to them, forms of life, that they're not ba'alei bechira? Right, the Rambam says they're mutba'im be-fuloseihem, which means they're they're programmed, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has them programmed and that there's no that they have no bechira. And what would be, what would be if if the metzius were that malachim were ba'alei bechira? If malachim were ba'alei bechira, how does that affect this yesod, right? The yesod is not per se whether or not malachim are or are not ba'alei bechira. That's not what the Rambam is setting forth as a yesod. What the Rambam is setting forth as a yesod is the fact that you're not supposed to worship any anything as an intermediary between ourselves and the Ribono Shel Olam. So of what relevance is it whether or not the malachim are or are not ba'alei bechira? If that's if that's for some reason if that's a yesod, so let it be an independent yesod, but how is it an integral part of this yesod? Okay. Now, so let's leave that for a minute and let's let's discuss a different question. What's the difference between Machnisei rachamim and asking a friend to davven for you? Now, if I'm not mistaken, I I believe I believe that the Rav writes in Nefesh Hachaim, I think so, that the tradition in Volozhin was not to say Machnisei rachamim הכניסו רחמינו לפני בעל הרחמים because it goes against this yesod of the Rambam in the Yud Gimmel Ikkarim, the Yesod hachamishi. The what you have at the end of Slichos, at the end of Slichos. So the question is, how is it that asking a malach, Machnisei rachamim הכניסו רחמינו לפני בעל הרחמים, how is that different than asking someone to davven for you? How is that different than asking someone to davven for you? Right, the Ribono Shel Olam tells Abimelech go ask Avraham Avinu that he should davven for you. Ask have have Avraham Avinu davven on your on your behalf. v-yispallel b'adcha v-chaye, Avraham Avinu will davven for you then then you'll live. Okay, maybe maybe that's not a raya, but we find, right, the in Brochos we find that Yochanan ben Zakkai when his son takes sick, so he asks Chanina ben Dosa, he sends a sheliach to Chanina ben Dosa that Chanina ben Dosa should be mispallel. So why is that, why is that acceptable? Why is that acceptable? And this is and this is not acceptable. So perhaps that's what the Rambam has in mind here. And that's what the Rambam is telling us. But when you daven, when you ask a person, you ask the person to be mispallel for you. So you recognize that that person is a baal bechirah. And it's not, it's not in asking the person to daven on your behalf, you're not intimating that you can't or that you're not going to daven directly, but what you're saying is in addition to my tefillah, so then I also want to have the zchus of your tefillah and in general you have more zechuyot than I do, so therefore I'm asking you that you should daven on my behalf as well. So there's nothing, that doesn't compromise the היסוד החמישי כי הוא זה. But what happens if you make that same request, right, if you address yourself to malachim? And malachim are not baalei bechirah. So then you're not asking them, it makes no sense that you're asking the malach to do something. You can't, you can't ask something which is not a baal bechirah to respond to you. So objectively what you're doing when you ask a malach to daven is objectively what you're doing, regardless of what misdirected but perhaps sincere kavanah may be underlying it, the Rambam is saying, but when you ask a malach, so in effect what you're doing is saying well I have no right to address the Ribono shel Olam directly. I can't address the Ribono shel Olam directly, so I address myself to the Ribono shel Olam via the malach because I can't address Him directly because objectively there's no other way of making sense of the fact that you're addressing the malach. The malach is mutba befulaso. So what are you asking? He can't respond to you anyway. So what's the point of asking him? So obviously your point is not to ask the malach. When you go and you have no direct access, you want something that only the President, only the Secretary of State, only a cabinet member can approve. But you have no direct access so you go to an undersecretary. So the most you can hope is that via the undersecretary the request makes its way to the Secretary, but you know that that's just a way of channeling it. So that's what the Rambam says here. In light of the fact that they are not baalei bechirah, so that's why objectively addressing yourself to the malach, objectively what that states, objectively what that indicates is that the malach has to be an emtza'i between us and the Ribono shel Olam and that we can't address ourselves and that we don't have access rachmana litzlan to the Ribono shel Olam directly. So that's why the Rambam is telling us, no, the yesod hachamishi is not necessarily to know that malachim are not baalei bechirah. That per se is not the yesod hachamishi. The yesod hachamishi is to know that we have direct access to the Ribono shel Olam, that we have as we mentioned from Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, והוא קלי וחי גואלי. That's what the yesod hachamishi is, that we have direct access. Now, if I ask a malach, if I ask a malach to daven, so am I compromising that yesod? Says the Rambam yes, you by definition you're compromising that yesod because since they're mutba'im befulasam there's no other way to understand, to interpret this channeling of the request via the malach. Whereas when you speak to a person who's a baal bechirah, so then it doesn't necessarily intimate that. Ein hachi nami, if you go to the rebbe and you ask the rebbe to daven but you do it with a kavanah that I can't daven to the Ribono shel Olam, but only the rebbe can daven, so that's the same thing as davening to a malach. It's no better. If you go to the rebbe because you want because אינו דומה תפילת צדיק בן צדיק לתפילת צדיק בן רשע
or you want the zchus of his tefillah in addition and therefore you're asking him in that capacity, so then it doesn't compromise the yesod hachamishi, but ein hachi nami it could potentially go against the yesod hachamishi. So lechorah as follows. On one level, it seems to be going to kivrei tzadikim, again as the maiseh rav of Kalev in Chevron seems to be a way of invoking the zechus of the tzadikim. That’s on one level. It’s a way of invoking the zechus. When the Chofetz Chaim le'es ziknuso, when it came to maror, the only kabbalah that he had that he would rely on for making a bracha was chrein. He wouldn’t make a bracha on lettuce. And le'es ziknuso, he was just physically unable to eat the chrein. And he had tremendous agmas nefesh because he wasn’t able to kayem the mitzvah. So he asked, he sent people that they should go mispallel at the kever of the Gra that in the zechus that he published the Tosefta Kodashim with the Hagos HaGra, that in that zechus he should have a refuah sheleimah and should be able to eat the chrein. And that’s the po'el of a tzadik. In addition, the Chasam Sofer who we’re going to mention soon anyway, the Chasam Sofer says that there’s another inyan in being mispallel. There is some—we don’t really אין לנו עסק בעניינים אלה. But there is some connection between people who have been niftar and makom kevurasam. There is a certain connection. And the Chasam Sofer, maybe I’ll read you, the Chasam Sofer is in Orach Chaim kuf samech vav. No, I’m sorry, it’s the Maharal talks about kivrei tzadikim. In the Nesivos Olam, Nesiv Ha'avodah, perek yud gimmel. הא דאמרינן במסכת תענית שכאשר גזרו תענית היו יוצאים לבית הקברות כדי שיתפללו עלינו המתים ברחמים אין זה שאנו מבקשים מן המתים שיתפללו עלינו רק שאנו הולכים לבית הקברות ומתחברים למתים.
Some kind of chibur. Again, the premise is that there’s a connection between the meisim and the makom kevurasam and that by our going there, when the chaim go there, it makes possible some kind of chibur. ומתחברים למתים שגם המתים יתחברו לחיים ויבקשו רחמים על ישראל כי המתים גם כן ישראל והם אוהבים ישראל ומבקשים רחמים על ישראל.
That’s another dimension which the Maharal sees in the practice. So what do we rely on? What is the yesod of what we’re saying over here? So the Maharal here is discussing it as well. So basically there are two... Two tzdadim. So one is he says, yesh lomar, the Maharal himself doesn't approve of saying it. The Maharal says it, one shouldn't say it. The Maharal also thinks one shouldn't say it. But, but in trying to be melamed zchus, so he suggests maybe one tzad limud zchus is that yesh lomar כי מה שאנו אומרים הכניסו רחמים הכניסו אין זה בקשה כלל רק שאדם מצוה כך למלאכים שהם מכניסים מצוה כך למלאכים שהם מכניסים את התפילה להכניס את התפילה לפני השם יתברך ויש כח לאדם לצוות למלאכים שהם ממונים על זה שיביאו תפילתו לפני השם יתברך.
Okay, so that's one, one possible, I mean he doesn't, he doesn't think that that's an adequate basis for saying it, but that's one. That it's not being said be-lashon bakasha, but rather be-derech tzivuy. So that's one possibility. The other possibility is, if you take a look, the Netziv talks about this question in Ha'amek Davar at the end of Parshas Yisro. Now the Netziv has a limud zchus, the only thing is the Netziv doesn't say how everything he's saying relates to the Rambam. So, so this is a mahalach, but whether or not the Netziv somehow or other thought that this was consistent with the Rambam, I don't know. But the Netziv says in Ha'amek Davar as follows. He says that to daven to a malach, he says, to daven to a malach such as hachnisu rachameinu or hachnisu tefillasenu, he says the pshat in that, the reason that's appropriate at times, right? The Netziv is saying that he thinks it is appropriate at times. That the reason that's appropriate at times is because he says משל למה הדבר דומה. He says משל למה הדבר דומה, you have a בנו של מלך שסרח. So he knows that, that his father's door is open to him. He knows that, that he can, that he can walk in and he always has, always has an audience. He can always walk in. Ella mai, it's an expression of his own contrition, it's an expression of his own awareness of cheit and lack of worthiness that first he asks the ohev shel melech to be mefayes his father a little bit and then only later will he go to the melech himself. And that it's an expression rather of, it's the ultimate expression of humility, that I know Ribbono Shel Olam, you give me the opportunity, but right now with these begadim tzoim, so I don't feel that אין לבוא בשער המלך בלבוש שק. I don't, I don't think that it's appropriate for me to, even though you always, always open the door to us, that I think it's more appropriate first to try to be mefayes you indirectly and then only later to address you directly. That's what the Netziv basically writes at the end of, in Ha'amek Davar at the end of Parshas Yisro. Whether, whether he's intending this that he thinks that this distinction would be true within the Rambam, that as long as a person knows that he can have direct access, I don't know, he doesn't mention the Rambam, so presumably it's hard to think the Netziv in terms of the Yud-Gimmel Ikkarim is mispareid anafshei, is disagreeing. So maybe, maybe what it means is that if a person thinks that fundamentally we have to have an intermediary between ourselves and the Ribbono Shel Olam, so that, that contradicts the Yesod Ha-Chamishi. If at times a person feels like I'm too much of a chotei and therefore it's more appropriate, not that I can't, not that I can't, but that it's more appropriate to first be mefayes the melech indirectly, and on the contrary and that He'll recognize that as a, a sign of one's hakaras ha-cheit and, and regret, so I guess the Netziv thinks that that would be consistent with this Yesod Ha-Chamishi. What about Yaakov's malach goel oti? Is he requesting or is he tzivuy? I don't know, which is that? In tzivuy, he's giving the malach some orders. But again, so then the Maharal says, the Maharal says that if it's belashon tzivui, so the emes is it's not a problem. I don't think it's the Maharal doesn't like it because he says it's well you look here he explains why he doesn't like it. It's too it's too open to misinterpretation that that all of a sudden we're being metzaveh. So he he doesn't like it. But in theory the Maharal is is okay with the idea of being metzaveh the malach to carry out what what his mission is. So I guess that's the that's what's happening with the Hamalach Hagoel Osi. Then there are different traditions whether or not whether or not the Vilna Gaon skipped the stanza Barchuni L'shalom because of this same consideration. Did did the Vilna Gaon say say Barchuni L'shalom? So if it's if if Barchuni... so some say he did. So some say the Vilna Gaon skipped because it's it's exactly this problem that you're that you're that you're davening to the malach. You're davening to the malach. And again, for for whatever reason davening to the malach or telling the malach to give you a bracha is different than telling a a a person to to give you a bracha. And others say no, that Barchuni L'shalom is not a problem because we're not saying it belashon bakasha, we're rather saying it belashon tzivui. Rather saying it belashon tzivui. So mistama... well most people say Barchuni L'shalom, so when when we say Barchuni L'shalom, you have to have in mind that it's belashon... belashon tzivui rather than rather than belashon bakasha. But wouldn't another way to explain Hamalach Hagoel be that we're asking God to send the same malach that protected Yaakov to also protect his children? Not belashon tzivui, just asking God. Maybe maybe it is a bakasha, but the bakasha is the Ribbono Shel Olam should send the malach to be mevarech. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting that the Chasam Sofer in that teshuva has another very interesting distinction he draws between when you have someone else, another person daven on on your behalf as opposed to to davening to the malach. As opposed to davening to the malach. He says what's the peshat in another person davening in your behalf? So he says the truth is that you can't daven for someone else. Davening for someone else is the same as being an intermediary or malach. Ella mai, he says when you ask when one Jew is mispallel for another Jew, it's because since all of Klal Yisrael is כגוף אחד כנשמה אחת so the person's davening for himself. And and it's only when when you feel the other person's pain that you that you daven for them. So you're not davening for someone else. You're davening because the the empathy, the sense of identification is is so great that it's no different than a person davening for his own tzrachim. אך כל ישראל שותפים בגוף אחד ונפש אחת וכשאחד מצטער גם חברו מרגיש ועמו מצטער ועל דרך זה המתפלל על חברו צריך שיחלה עצמו עליו פירוש שיראה כאילו גם הוא חולה וכיוון ששניהם בצער
so then he can be the other one can can daven as well. Okay. Let's see Ha'iyun Hashishi. הנבואה והוא הדעת שזה המנהג הנורא שיש שימצאו בו אישים בעלי כשרונות מפותחים מאוד ושלמות גדולה ותתכונן נפשם עד שמקבלת צורת השכל ויחבר אותה. השכל האנושי בשכל הפועל ויאצל עליהם ממנו אצילות שפע ואלה הם הנביאים וזו היא הנבואה וזה עניינה. וביאור היסוד הזה בשלמות יאריך מאוד ואין כוונתנו ביאור כל יסוד מהם וביאור דרכי ידיעתו לפי שזהו כללות כל המדעים אלא נזכירם בדרך הודעה בלבד ופסוקי התורה מעידים מנבואת נביאים רבים.
So the yesod hashishi is to believe in nevuah in general, that there is such a phenomenon as nevuah. Right? And the Rambam emphasizes that in the Yad as well, that's why he talks about nevuah in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah. And the Rambam says that מיסודי הדת לדעת שהאל מנבא את בני האדם. In Perek Zayin, מיסודי הדת לדעת שהאל מנבא את בני האדם. So why is this, why is this so important? Again, not why is it true, but again all the things here, right, all the Yud Gimmel Ikkarim, it's not only that they're true, but that they're indispensable to emunah. A person doesn't know it, he's not just lacking in yediyah, but he's lacking in yediyas HaTorah, but he's lacking in basic emunah. So why is the yesod hashishi so basic, so fundamental? So lichora, for why, maybe two reasons, maybe others as well. First of all, the Rambam writes here in Perek Ches of Yesodei HaTorah that משה רבינו לא האמינו בו ישראל מפני האותות שעשה שהמאמין על פי האותות יש בליבו דופי שאפשר שיעשה או ייעשה האות בלט וכישוף אלא כל האותות שעשה משה במדבר לפי הצורך עשאם לא להביא ראיה על הנבואה ובמה האמינו בו,
skipping a couple of lines, ובמעמד הר סיני שעינינו ראו ולא זר ואוזנינו שמעו ולא אחר האש והקולות והלפידים והוא ניגש אל הערפל והקול מדבר אליו ואנו שומעים משה משה לך אמור להם כך וכך. וכן הוא אומר פנים בפנים דיבר השם עימכם ונאמר לא את אבותינו כרת השם את הברית הזאת ומניין שמעמד הר סיני לבדו היא הראיה לנבואתו שהיא אמת שאין בו דופי שנאמר הנה אנוכי בא אליך בעב הענן בעבור ישמע העם בדברי עימך וגם בך יאמינו לעולם. ומכלל שקודם דבר זה לא האמינו בו נאמנות שהיא עומדת לעולם אלא נאמנות שיש אחריה הרהור ומחשבה.
So the Rambam says the basis for our believing in the authenticity of Moshe Rabbeinu is Ma'amad Har Sinai, not any of the osos Moshe Rabbeinu did, but rather Ma'amad Har Sinai. Ma'amad Har Sinai. What happened at Ma'amad Har Sinai? That we experienced bederech nevuah that Hakadosh Baruch Hu communicates with us through Moshe Rabbeinu, right? That עינינו ראו ולא זר ואוזנינו שמעו ולא אחר that Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe Rabbeinu לך אמור להם כך וכך, כך וכך. So what emerges according to this Rambam is that without belief in nevuah in general, we don't have the proper foundation for belief in nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu, right? Without the belief that all of us potentially are capable of nevuah, so then we can't believe, we can't have the true foundation and the true basis for belief in nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu. Mimeila says the Rambam, היסוד השישי הנבואה לדעת that there can be nevuah amongst people in general, not just Moshe Rabbeinu. There can be nevuah amongst people in general, and then mimeila this yesod is then the basis for the yesod to follow in the yesod hashvi'i of nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu. I think that that's one element of why this is just so fundamental that there's nevuah. And the other thing is if you take a look in הברייתא דפינחס בן יאיר, right? The Beraisa which the Mesillas Yesharim uses to structure his book. So Mesillas Yesharim lists all the dargos and says and they culminate in Ruach HaKodesh. And if a person really climbs the ladder, so ultimately it מביא לידי רוח הקודש. The yesod is and again in this what the Rambam is telling us is such a tremendous yesod, yesod ha'emunah, that a person is is not only created to be oved Hashem, but a person is also created with the capacity to to experience Ribono Shel Olam as directly and as intimately as happens in a nevuah. That and to realize that that capacity exists in a person. And and to realize that that's obviously in in our generation we're far from it, but but to realize that that's the the ultimate goal, so the Rambam says that that's that's a yesod ha'emunah as well. Hayesod hashvii just one more. היסוד השביעי נבואת משה רבינו. והוא שנאמין שהוא אביהן של כל הנביאים שקדמו לפניו והבאים אחריו והכל הם למטה ממנו במעלה והוא בחיר השם מכל המין האנושי אשר השיג ממנו יתעלה יותר ממה שהשיג וישיג כל אדם שנמצא ושיהיה נמצא ושהוא עליו השלום הגיע לתכלית הרוממות מעל האנושיות עד שהשיג המעלה המלאכית ונעשה במעלת המלאכים לא נשאר לפניו שום מסך שלא קרע ולא עצר בעדו שום מעצור גופני ולא נתערב בו שום דבר מן החסרון לא מעט ולא הרבה והושבתו בו הכוחות הדמיוניים והחושים בכל השגתו ונבהל כוחו המעורר ונשאר שכל בלבד ועל עניין זה אמרו עליו שהוא מדבר עם השם בלי אמצעות המלאכים.
Now one of the points which which the Rambam is emphasizing very much here is that nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu and this is part of why it qualifies as a separate yesod, it's not just that Moshe Rabbeinu was was greater, right, that Moshe Rabbeinu is is in the same class as as every neviim, but he was greater than they were. Maybe he because he received nevuah more often or because or because his nevuah revealed more to him, it was more of the same, right? He was greater because he had he had more of the same, more nevuah than they did. No, what the Rambam here is emphasizing is is that nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu's qualitatively was different. It wasn't just nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu was was one of a kind. And in that sense nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu wasn't just greater but nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu was unique, right? And and that's what the psukim of לא כן עבדי משה is that is that the uniqueness of nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu, not just the greatness, right, but the uniqueness of of nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu. One one element of that the Rambam says is that when Hakadosh Baruch Hu communicate to all the neviim, so the Rambam says so there were the neviim to receive the nevuah Hakadosh Baruch Hu employs two of their faculties. He employs not only the koach hasechli, but he also employs their koach hadimyon, right? And that's why they see images and that Hakadosh Baruch Hu right it's a mareh, it it's an image. And that's how Hakadosh Baruch Hu communicated to the other neviim, it's employing their their koach hadimyon as well. The Rambam says that with Moshe Rabbeinu, so the koach hadimyon was not active at all. That that that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't need that that that koach, that faculty to be to be activated, to be used, that part of the directness of the nevuah is that the only faculty which was operative when Moshe Rabbeinu received nevuah was just the koach hasechel and that it was again pure, direct, unmediated and it didn't have to be presented bederech mareh employing the the koach hadimyon as well. So the point again which which the Rambam is emphasizing is that Moshe Rabbeinu is not greater than the other neviim, and the reason this is singled out as its own yesod is the uniqueness of of nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu. Now obviously, right, it's it's easy enough to understand why that is so fundamental because only nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu can create Torah. That that Torah which is ledorei doros, which is lenetzach netzachim, the Rambam Only issues forth from Nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu, and again, and that we understand, and the basis for that is not just that Moshe Rabbeinu was greater than other neviim, but Moshe Rabbeinu's nevua was unique. Stama, the Rambam here goes on, we're not going to read through it together, I hope you will read through it, though. The Rambam goes on, he has it here, he has it in Yesodei HaTorah as well to list the four differences between Nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu and the nevua of other neviim. The pshat is that the Rambam doesn't mean to imply that if a person doesn't know these four differences, that he's also lacking in their emuna, but rather the Rambam is just a little bit elaborating and developing the idea for us, but lav davka that the four differences, that Moshe Rabbeinu was awake and that they were in a dream v'chulu, lav davka that these differences, also knowing them, is indispensable in terms of emuna, not just in terms of yedias haTorah. Then the Rav used to just point out the Rambam at the end of Hilchos Tumas Tzaraas when the Rambam talks about how chamur loshon hora is, so the Rambam says look at Miriam. הרי הוא אומר התבוננו מה אירע למרים הנביאה שדיברה באחיה שהייתה גדולה ממנו בשנים וגידלתו על ברכיה,
right, her kid brother, וסיכנה בעצמה להצילו מן הים והיא לא דיברה בגנותו אלא טעתה שהשוותו לשאר נביאים.
Right, so the mistake of Miriam, right, in not understanding why Moshe Rabbeinu had to be poresh min ha'isha, whereas she and Aaron and all other neviim didn't have to abandon family life, is that טעתה שהשוותו לשאר הנביאים. That this yesod, again, that Moshe Rabbeinu wasn't just another navi, but was absolutely unique, right? The uniqueness of Nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu is—is the zechira of Miriam is not only a zechira in terms of loshon hora, but also a zechira in terms of the uniqueness of Nevuas Moshe Rabbeinu. You know that next time we'll try to finish up, I'm not a hundred percent sure if next time will be tomorrow or Thursday, so I guess if there's shiur tomorrow, then there'll be a sign up.