Transcript

Evening with the Hakaras Hatov to our hosts. Sukkos is Yom Tov. Sukkos is always a busy time. Baruch Hashem, our Hakaras Hatov is compounded Baruch Hashem blessedly busy circumstances and אף על פי כן, our hosts would not be deterred in extending their hospitality. Thank you very, very much. I'm not sure meteorologically how much time we have so we'll maybe begin with one idea and hopefully B'ezras Hashem if there's time we'll come to the Rambam at the end of Hilchos Lulav also. But the Rambam in discussing the Ta'amei Mitzvos of the Yamim Tovim, so he writes that

שני חגים אלו גם יחד כלומר סוכות ופסח נותנים דעה ומדה.

So the Yamim Tovim of Sukkos and Pesach Hakadosh Baruch Hu intended that they should impart proper belief as well as proper middos. Hadeiah B'Pesach, the proper belief in Pesach emerges from זכר אותות מצרים והנצחתם לדורות. From eternalizing the memory of the miracles of Mitzrayim והדעה בסוכות היא הנצחת אותות המדבר לדורות. To remember the miracles of the midbar l'doros. Hamiddah, what's the middah that the Yamim Tovim impart? שיזכור האדם תמיד את ימי המצוקה בימי הרווחה. So this is a very big yesod by the Rambam that both individually as well as collectively, nationally, a person is not supposed to forget difficult times. When a person finds himself in good, in better circumstances and situation, so he bedavka should remember the times, the days of difficulty and distress. שיזכור האדם תמיד את ימי המצוקה בימי הרווחה. And why is that? So says the Rambam for two reasons. א כדי שתגדל תודתו לאל. Number one, a person shouldn't take for granted the blessings that he has. So by remembering a time when things were when a person Rachmana Litzlan was in dire straits, when there were difficulty, when there was adversity, so then Tigdal Todaso. So then a person's thankfulness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu will be appropriately increased and magnified. And second of all, ותושג לו הענוה וההכנעה. And what's more, since success can corrupt a person, it can go to his head Rachmana Litzlan. So remembering the Yemei Hamitzukah helps instill within us anavah v'hachna'ah. So how do each of the Yamim Tovim do that? So on Pesach ויאכל מצה ומרור בפסח כדי שיזכור מה עבר עלינו. Now here listen to this remarkable perspective on Sukkos. The Rambam says

כן יצא מהבתים וישב בסוכות כמו שעושים האומללים יושבי המדברות והשממות כדי שיזכור שכך היה מצבנו לפנים כי בסוכות הושבתי את בני ישראל.

So the Rambam follows clearly Rabbi Akiva, right, that Sukkos means Sukkos Mamash, not Ananei Hakavod. But then he says something extraordinary. He says The dagesh chazak is not that it means Sukkos mamash and we were in a five-star hotel. We were in the Sinai Hilton. Ki vasukkos hoshavti means no, you were making do with these tiny little huts. You were enduring difficulty. That's what a person's supposed to remember. כי בסוכות הושבתי את בני ישראל. The bare bone existence of כי בסוכות הושבתי את בני ישראל. But then the Rambam continues and says what and what's the counterpoint?

והעברנו מזאת לשכון בבתים מקושטים ובמקום הטוב והפורה ביותר בארץ בחסדי הקל.

So the hoda'ah is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us again from initially, even once we had left Mitzrayim, we had to make do with flimsy Sukkos and והעברנו מזאת לשכון בבתים מקושטים, ornate homes, in the best place in the earth, in Eretz Yisrael, במקום הטוב והפורה ביותר בארץ בחסדי הקל. Let's, before we just try to comment on this, let's read a little bit more. The Rambam's Ta'amei Mitzvos for Lulav,

מה שנראה לי באשר לארבעת המינים שבלולב הוא שהם הבאה של שמחה וחדוה ביציאתם מן המדבר שהיה לא מקום זרע ותאנה וגפן ורימון ומים אין לשתות אל מקומות עצי פרי ונהרות.

The mitzvah of dalet minim expresses simcha that we left from the barrenness of the desert to such a fertile place, such as Eretz Yisrael. And the Rambam adds that one of the considerations as it were that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had in selecting the dalet minim

שהם מצויים הרבה בארץ ישראל באותה עונה והם בהישג ידו של כל אחד.

That they're easily available in Eretz Yisrael. So both the Ta'amei Mitzvah of Mitzvas Sukkah as well as Dalet Minim, they converge in that Sukkos is very much a Yom Tov which is centered around Eretz Yisrael. The middah which the mitzvah of yeshivas Sukkah imparts is that the middah and the hoda'ah is that b'mei haravacha in Eretz Yisrael we remember the yemei hamatzuka in the midbar and we have a hoda'ah for the fact that now we're in Eretz Yisrael. And the mitzvah of dalet minim also celebrates, we rejoice at having left the barrenness of the midbar and arrived in the fertile land of Eretz Yisrael. So what emerges according to the Rambam yitachen then is as follows rabosai. The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah tells us in the beginning in talking about the issur of bal teachar, so the Gemara says that in terms of the aseh of מוצא שפתיך תשמור ועשית, so it has to be by And in terms of Bal Tacher, he has gimel regalim. And Rabbi Shimon says it has to be gimel regalim kesidran. So he has to, he won't be over the lav until Pesach, Shavuos, and Succos pass after he took the neder in that sequence, sequentially. So there is a notion of kesidran by the shalosh regalim. The pshat is that the kesidran of the shalosh regalim is not just on the calendar that Chodesh Nissan is a Chodesh HaRishon, but that there's a progression within the shalosh regalim. That the shalosh regalim together form a unit and that there's a progression within the shalosh regalim. And that's what's reflected in the kesidran of the calendar as well. So according to the Rambam, the kesidran is beautiful. Pesach commemorate, celebrate the attainments, political and spiritual, of Yetzias Mitzrayim. Shavuos Matan Torah and Succos Eretz Yisrael. And that's the kesidran of the shalosh regalim. And itachen that al derech aggadah when the Rambam writes אף על פי שכל המועדות at the end of Hilchos Lulav here,

מצוה לשמוח בהן ובחג הסוכות היתה שם במקדש שמחה יתירה שנאמר ושמחתם לפני ה' אלוהיכם שבעת ימים.

Each of the shalosh regalim is obviously bound up, simchas haregel of each of the shalosh regalim is bound up with Mikdash, shalmei simcha, but clearly that connection runs much deeper between the simchas yom tov of Chag HaSuccos as opposed to Pesach and Shavuos. So itachen al derech aggadah that the pshat is as follows: the Rav used to explain prompted by the Mishna in Keilim of eser kedushos. So the first of the ten levels of kedusha is ארץ ישראל מקודשת מכל הארצות שכן מביאין ממנה the omer, shtei halechem, and maybe the Mishna mentions bikkurim as well. So the obvious question is what about all the mitzvos hateluyos ba'aretz, what about terumos and ma'asros and challah? Why is the Mishna saying that you see that Eretz Yisrael is ארץ ישראל מקודשת מכל הארצות only with respect to the ketzira for the minchas ha'omer which was from the seorim that grew in Eretz Yisrael? What about all the mitzvos hateluyos ba'aretz? So the Rav used to explain that Eretz Yisrael really has two kedushos. It has a kedushas Eretz Yisrael, but Eretz Yisrael also has a kedushas mikdash. The same way we recognize that there's machaneh Shechina and there's machaneh Leviya and there's machaneh Yisrael, there are different levels and degrees of kedushas ha'aretz. So what the Mishna in Keilim is listing are eser kedushos of kedushas mikdash. It's not listing other kedushos, davka kedushas mikdash. And the chiddush of the Mishna in Keilim is ארץ ישראל מקודשת מכל הארצות even in terms of kedushas mikdash, not just, not just that Eretz Yisrael has kedushas ha'aretz, but Eretz Yisrael even has a degree and a dimension of kedushas mikdash. I think my son suggested once, I'm not sure if I'm doing it justice now, but the pasuk at the end of Mikra Bikkurim:

ויביאנו אל המקום הזה ויתן לנו את הארץ הזאת ארץ זבת חלב ודבש.

So Rashi says: ויביאנו אל המקום הזה is the Beis HaMikdash. So it's out of order, no? It should be: ויתן לנו את הארץ הזאת ארץ זבת חלב ודבש and then vayevienu, and then within it even the Mikdash, go, the crescendo should be the Mikdash. So yitachen the pshat is that: ויביאנו אל המקום הזה Hakadosh Baruch Hu brought us to the Beis HaMikdash. And again he gave us a Beis HaMikdash, which obviously most intensely and most intensively is concentrated on Har HaMoriah. But a Beis HaMikdash that radiates throughout ויתן לנו את הארץ הזאת ארץ זבת חלב ודבש, that kedushas hamikdash radiates throughout throughout Eretz Yisrael. So yitachen that special connection between simchas chag hasukkos and Mikdash. The context of that is that the whole Yom Tov of Sukkos is a Yom Tov with the simcha celebrates the shleimus of closing that cycle. The shleimus of Yetzias Mitzrayim, Matan Torah until Eretz Yisrael and again Eretz Yisrael as Eretz Yisrael, but Eretz Yisrael also as as the Makom HaMikdash. That's what the whole Yom Tov of Sukkos what we rejoice in. And m'meila the simchas Yom Tov therefore is more bound up with the Mikdash than is true for Pesach and Shavuos. So maybe we'll stop for a niggun and then try to continue a little bit more bli neder. The last halacha in Hilchos Lulav as we have it in the standard dfusim begins:

השמחה שישמח אדם בעשיית המצוה ובעשיית המצוות באהבת הקל שצוה בהם עבודה גדולה היא.

So that's what the Frankel edition prints also, on the side there's a note though that in the kisvei yad which is how this edition prints it based on Rav Kapach's edition. So the halacha actually what the Rambam apparently actually wrote is: שהשמחה שישמח אדם בעשיית המצוות. What's in a shin? If the way we ordinarily read and understand and think about the Rambam: השמחה שישמח אדם בעשיית המצוות is a free-standing statement. And the Rambam is sort of m'inyan l'inyan within the general topic of simchas. First he was talking about simchas Yom Tov, in particular simchas Sukkos, and now he's talking about simcha more generally and m'inyan l'inyan. If what the Rambam as the kisvei yad suggests actually wrote: she'hasimcha sheyismach adam. So then the sum of what we generally associate with it certainly remains, but the immediate thrust of the statement is very different. Then the Rambam is explaining in the previous halacha, the Rambam again based of course on the sugya in Sukkah, the Rambam when he describes Simchas Beis HaShoeivah, so the Rambam writes that:

לא היו עושין אותה עמי הארץ וכל מי שירצה אלא גדולי חכמי ישראל וראשי ישיבות. ראשי הישיבות והסנהדרין והחסידים והזקנים ואנשי מעשה הם שהיו מרקדין ומספקין ומנגנין ושמחין במקדש בימי חג הסוכות.

Aval kol ha'am, everyone else, ha'anashim ve'ha'nashim, כולם באים לראות ולשמוע. So if the halacha begins with a shin, so then the Rambam's explaining why this is, right? Why is it that that it was only the meyuchadim shebe'meyuchadim, why is it that it was only the spiritual elite who were being mesamei'ach and everyone else was watching? שהשמחה שישמח האדם עבודה גדולה. It represents a tremendous madrega, a madrega that the gedolei chachmei Yisrael, rashei yeshivos vechu'lo attained, aval kol ha'am, anashim ve'nashim hadn't attained enough of it that they should be manifesting that simcha in the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva. So it's a very different mashma'os just of the halacha, the way with the shin. So why is it such an avoda gedola? Why does it require such gadlus hamochin to really experience simcha on its highest level? And especially again what the Rambam characterizes as the simcha yeseira of Mikdash. So when we experience simcha, so lichora one of two things happens, whatever occasions the simcha. Maybe the simcha's what we refer to as a simcha, a person makes a bar mitzvah, a birth of a child. Either the simcha isn't really a simcha yeseira, it's mitigated by realities of life. Life has its share of challenges and difficulties and setbacks. And even when there's a simcha, it's not a simcha yeseira. Or if it is a moment of simcha yeseira, it's because we're masi'ach da'as from those circumstances. But the moment either on our own or we'll be put in a position where we have to refocus once again on those other circumstances, so the simcha taka recedes a little bit and it's somewhat mitigated, it's not a simcha yeseira. I don't know that we ever experience a simcha yeseira without hesech hada'as. A chosson and a kallah, because they're masi'ach da'as on how they're going to pay the bills five years from now, right? If they knew about that they'd be happy, but not quite as exuberant. So either our simcha is a mitigated simcha or it's a simcha lema'aseh which is partially fueled by hesech hada'as. Lichora the only way a person can experience a simcha yeseira such as the gedolei chachmei Yisrael vechu'lo experienced and expressed at Simchas Beis HaShoeiva without hesech hada'as is if there is nothing else in the world that's relevant. If everything that we are bothered by, encumbered by, distressed by, if ultimately that's a shell, an empty shell, and a person's focus on the Ribbono Shel Olam and the reality of ein od milvado as such, so then a person has a simcha yeseira which doesn't, the simcha can be a simcha yeseira and it doesn't require hesech hadaas, or at least not the hesech hadaas of just short-term, momentary distraction. The simcha, the unmitigated, unbridled joy that a person has beasiyas hamitzvos requires a gadlus hamochin because there is nothing to stare that simcha. Tell the story that I think it was the, I think they tell about the Hafla'ah and his brother that when they wanted to investigate the competing approaches of Misnagdim and Chassidim, so they went to the Maggid, they went to the Mezeritcher Maggid. At least this is how Chassidim tell the story, I'm sure there should be better times afterwards, but the way Chassidim tell the story is that they went to the Gaon and the Gaon was learning Chumash, and the Gaon was learning Parshas Bo. I think in the, half of this is in the, the half about the Gaon, at least this pshat from the Gaon is in the classic biography of the Gaon, the rest of the story is not there, it's recorded elsewhere. And the Gaon was learning pshat, was learning the pasuk in Parshas Bo

לא תוציא מן הבשר מן הבית חוצה ועצם לא תשברו בו,

something like that the pasuk goes. So the Gaon says it's strange, the pasuk begins with lashon yachid and ends up lashon rabbim, לא תוציא ועצם לא תשברו בו. So he said because the Yerushalmi says that once you take it, once you take the psar pesach out, if you take it out a second time there's no issur, but if you break a bone and then you break it a second time, so אין מוציא אחר מוציא but יש שובר אחר שובר. That's what, that's what they heard from the Gaon. Then they went to the Maggid and they asked the Maggid what's pshat in the Mishna in Berachos חייב אדם לברך על הרעה כשם שמברך על הטובה? It's impossible. It's not, it's humanly impossible, it can't be a halacha which is humanly impossible. So the Maggid said, I don't know the answer, but I have a talmid who I think might know the answer. And he tells him, he sends them to the Rebbe Reb Zusha. Rebbe Reb Zusha was in oni meduka beyissurim who had been Rachmana litzlan the worst yissurim possible. So they come to the Rebbe Reb Zusha and they say to him, the Maggid sent us to you to tell us. They asked the kasha, how is it possible חייב אדם לברך על הרעה כשם שמברך על הטובה? So he says no, there's a mistake. He says the Maggid sent you to someone else. And they said no, the Maggid told us you Reb Zusha. The Maggid told us to go to you. He said no, the Maggid couldn't have sent you to me because nothing bad has ever happened to me in in my life.

עבודה גדולה היא השמחה שישמח אדם בעשיית המצוות ובאהבת האל שציווה בהן עבודה גדולה היא.

It requires a gadlus hamoichin of ein oid milvado to experience that simcha on on on the highest level. And that's what the Rambam is saying, sha'as hasimcha, sha'as hasimcha. I don't think the Rambam is totally being mevatel us. I don't think the Rambam is telling us that that that the person can't have that simcha b'ze'ir anpin with a katnus hamoichin as well. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part but I don't think the Rambam is totally being mevatel us. But the simcha yeseira, a simcha which is which is unmitigated, which is unbridled, without hesech hadaas, is because a person experiences and lives the ein oid milvado. The Rambam continues

וכל המונע עצמו משמחה זו ראוי להיפרע ממנו שנאמר תחת אשר לא עבדת את השם אלוקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב. וכל המגיס דעתו וחולק כבוד לעצמו ומתכבד בעיניו במקומות אלו חוטא ושוטה ועל זה הזהיר שלמה ואמר אל תתהדר לפני מלך.

So it's probably compelling even without the shin, but especially with that correct reading. So when the Rambam says וכל המונע עצמו משמחה זו, so he's not just talking in general but he's clearly referring very pointedly to the gedolei chachmei Yisrael, the roshei hayeshivos, and the Sanhedrin and the chasidim, if they'll be המונע עצמו משמחה זו. Maybe it's not I don't know to to juggle, to it's not not not lefi kvodom. So rachmana litzlan ra'uy lehipara mimenu. And that's what the Rambam says

וכל המגיס דעתו וחולק כבוד לעצמו ומתכבד בעיניו במקומות אלו.

So the emes is, it's shifting gears just just for a brief moment. It's a pachad p'shodim. The Rambam's addressing the bnei aliya who have this gadlus hamoichin to experience and express this avoda gedola of simcha v'chanal. And even such individuals are not beyond the susceptibility of rachmana litzlan being המונע עצמו משמחה זו or being המגיס דעתו וחולק כבוד לעצמו. The Rambam has a similar idea commenting on the p'sukim in Parshas Shoftim in the hakdama to perek chelek, Perek Helek mishnayos איכה נדע את הדבר אשר לא דיבר השם. How how do you know that a navi is a navi sheker? So the p'sukim go on to say he he makes a prediction, a prediction letova and it doesn't it doesn't materialize. to someone who's not worthy of nevuah. And even, even Ma'amad Har Sinai according to the Rambam was no exception to that. So for a claim to be a navi to need to be falsified by the fact that a prediction doesn't materialize means that the claim was made by a person whom otherwise by virtue of who he is was a credible claim. Because otherwise patently, patently if someone who doesn't have the qualities, the the necessary prerequisites for being a navi claims to be a navi, so you don't have to wait to see whether the prediction materializes. Even if the prediction materializes, he's a navi sheker. So who's ra'ui to be a navi?

חכם גדול בחכמה גיבור במדותיו ולא יהיה יצרו מתגבר עליו בדבר בעולם אלא הוא מתגבר בדעתו על יצרו תמיד בעל דעה רחבה נכונה עד מאוד הולך ופורש מדרכי כלל העם ההולכים במחשכי הזמן והולך ומרגיל עצמו שלא תהיה לו מחשבה כלל באחד מדברי הרשות

this is the person where where the jury is out to see whether or not he's telling the truth. And yet that that person could be a navi sheker. That's what the Rambam says. That's pshat in the pasuk בזדון דיבר הנביא לא תגור ממנו. Why should we be more afraid of this ba'al aveira than any other ba'al aveira? Says the Rambam כלומר אל יפחידוך ויבעתוך מלהורגו אמונתו ויושרו וחכמתו. He's the gdol hador. Avada you have a pachad. The navi sheker is the gdol hador. If he's someone who could have been a navi, he's mishichmo vamala. And yet, and yet a person is never, never invulnerable to a nefila. He's never, never, never invulnerable. Just very quickly, the Rambam continues

וכל המשפיל עצמו ומקל גופו במקומות אלו הוא הגדול המכובד העובד מאהבה וכן דוד מלך ישראל אומר ונקלותי עוד מזאת והייתי שפל בעיני.

So if you ever have a dream like Shlomo Hamelech and you're offered to make one request, you might want to consider asking for a complete unabridged perush haRambam on Tanach. Something to, very, very high on the, the way Rambam learns pshat in pesukim. So the Rambam has two phrases, right? וכל המשפיל עצמו ומקל גופו במקומות אלו. And he says clearly he's telling you that's the pshat in what Dovid Hamelech says. Dovid Hamelech says two things: A, venikloti od mizot—that's meikel gufo; vehayiti shafel be'einai is mashpil atzmo. So maybe we'll leave part of it for another time bli neder, but just to to round out, there can't be simcha without shiflus. And there certainly can't be the simcha yeseira, the avoda gdola of simcha without the מאוד מאוד הוי שפל רוח because as we were talking, because the possibility of the simcha, the possibility to so totally, fully experience the simcha is based on the ein od milvado. If there's ein od milvado, so then who's even Dovid Hamelech? Avada vehayiti shafel be'einai. You can't... simcha is unimaginable without that shiflus. Room for improvement that there is in that hargasha of shiflus, so the more potential there is in increasing the simcha. It's holding off a minute to before Didan Didan!