If you can, on your computer, your phone, if you open to the Rambam, Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuva, avosai. Perek Yud, Halacha Aleph, of Hilchos Teshuva. If a lot of people can't, so maybe we'll take a picture and send it out. Most people can, yes? Perek Yud, Halacha Aleph. Maybe open to the whole Perek because then Halacha Beis. אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא ואפרוש מן העבירות שהזהירה תורה מהן כדי שאנצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שלא איכרת מחיי העולם הבא אין ראוי לעבוד את השם על דרך זו שהעובד על דרך זו הוא עובד מיראה ואינה מעלת הנביאים ולא מעלת החכמים.
Halacha Beis. העובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה לא מפני דבר בעולם ולא מפני יראת הרעה ולא כדי לירש הטובה אלא עושה האמת מפני שהוא אמת וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל ומעלה זו היא מעלה גדולה עד מאוד ואין כל חכם זוכה לה והיא מעלת אברהם אבינו שקראו הקדוש ברוך הוא אוהבי לפי שלא עבד אלא מאהבה.
So look, maybe we'll pause for a minute so everyone can review Halacha Aleph and Beis that we just read. There's something remarkable in Halacha Beis, many things remarkable, but one that we're going to focus on. And as is sometimes the case, it's not what the Rambam says, it's what the Rambam doesn't say. When the Rambam in Halacha Aleph depicts oved miyira, so there's two elements to the depiction: that when the person is mekayem mitzvos asei, he's motivated by the s'char, כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא,
and that when he complies with mitzvos lo sa'asei, he is similarly motivated by כדי שאנצל מן הקללות and כדי שלא איכרת מחיי העולם הבא. Now, Halacha Aleph and Beis are point and counterpoint, right? The Rambam concludes Halacha Aleph by saying that the description he gave in Halacha Aleph is oved miyira, which is incomplete, and the real level to which we aspire, not as a midas chassidus but as a mitzvah of ahavas Hashem, is what he depicts in Halacha Beis. So Halacha Aleph and Beis are point and counterpoint, right? That's all pashut. But then in Halacha Beis, the Rambam only gives you half the counterpoint. When the Rambam says העובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ובמצוות, so mitzvos in Halacha Aleph, the Rambam doesn't use the way we use mitzvos. It doesn't refer to taryag mitzvos, both mitzvos asei and mitzvos lo sa'asei in Halacha Aleph. So how did the Rambam use mitzvos? As mitzvos asei. הריני עושה מצוות התורה, right? I'm going to actively fulfill mitzvos hatorah, meaning mitzvos asei. And the way he referred to what we call mitzvos lo sa'asei is efrosh min ha'aveiros. So in Halacha Beis, the Rambam didn't finish the counterpoint. He didn't say that one's compliance with the lo sa'aseis... Should rise above the Enatzel Min Haklalos and שלא אכרת מחיי העולם הבא. You see that everyone? So go to Sefer Hamitzvos, Mitzvas Aseh Daled. Mitzvas Aseh Daled in Sefer Hamitzvos. You have it everyone? Yes. והמצוה הרביעית היא שצונו להאמין יראתו יתעלה ולהיפחד ממנו. The Mitzvah Reviis of Hashem. ולא נהיה ככופרים ההולכים בקרי אבל נירא ביאת ענשו בכל עת.
So Kayaduah in Sefer Hamitzvos the Rambam only mentions the element of Yiras Ha'onesh, he doesn't mention Yiras Haromemous here, that he has in Yesodei Hatorah, here he only, in quotation marks, has Yiras Ha'onesh. Yiras Ha'onesh is one of the Taryag Mitzvos. A person doesn't look to rise above Yiras Ha'onesh. The Chofetz Chaim in his Avodas Hashem, Rav Chaim in his Avodas Hashem experienced Yiras Ha'onesh. The greatest Ba'alei Avoda, the greatest Chasidim in Avodas Hashem didn't graduate, because they weren't supposed to graduate from Yiras Ha'onesh. And that's what's remarkable here in Hilchos Teshuva, that's what the Rambam doesn't say. A person is supposed to graduate from being motivated by Kabbalas Sachar. That a person is looking to eclipse that level. A person is looking to graduate from that, he's not looking to graduate from Yiras Ha'onesh. And that's why the counterpoint of Halacha Beis is only half what Halacha Aleph. So the question that begs then is why did the Rambam have it in Halacha Aleph? Right, Halacha Aleph the Rambam critiques as being inadequate, but then in Halacha Beis he retains part of it, so why did he include that part in Halacha Aleph? So the Pshat's like this. Let's say it's often the case that young people, sometimes at later stages of life also, but it's more common with young people, maybe they're not working yet, have very very very limited funds at their disposal and can't really give Tzedakah. Okay, there's no Chiyuv, there's no Mitzvah to give what a person doesn't have. But sort of how does a person know whether that's the Pshat in them not giving Tzedakah? Maybe they're just not interested in giving Tzedakah and it's just sort of coincidentally, you know, the balance sheet doesn't really indicate that there is any that there are any funds available. So the answer is, you know, when when they will be at a point where they have money, so if at that point they give Tzedakah, so then that frames and contextualizes when they didn't give Tzedakah. But if when they have the money to do so, when they have the wherewithal to do so, they still don't do so. So then that frames the not giving tzedakah earlier very differently. So the yiras ha'onesh either way is supposed to be there. It's a permanent central feature of avodas Hashem and religious experience. It's a permanent central feature of avodas Hashem and religious experience. But does that represent the fact that ultimately my avodas Hashem is self-serving and the dogesh chazak is on self-interest? What does that represent a respect and an awareness that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Elokei emes? And you know if someone tells you that this wall is charged electrically and with such a charge that if you touch it you'll experience a very very powerful shock. So you're obviously not going to touch it. But the not touching it can just be sort of self-preservation. But it can also be that there's this recognition, there's this respectful deference to the sheer power that inheres here. So the Rambam includes the yiras ha'onesh in halacha aleph even though he's not going to exclude it in halacha beis because what that represents is framed by what it's connected to. So hem hem hadevarim that we were talking yesterday in context of the Rambam. And maybe the way to summarize it is yahadus is absolutely not a religion of fear but it absolutely is a religion with fear. It's not a religion of fear. But it certainly is a religion with fear. Fear is necessary and healthy. A partial mashal. I remember when a long long time ago when I took drivers ed. So I assume they still do the same thing now. So if you took a course the insurance rate that your parents paid was less than if you just passed the test without taking the course. So I took the course. And part of the course was that they showed us a film. They showed us a film of car crashes. Of teenagers who went joy riding and drove recklessly and we saw images of cars that were totaled. And then they flashed names across the screen with ages 17, 18, 19, fatalities. And it was designed appropriately and effectively to instill fear. Now the effect of that has not been that you know for all these decades that I drive you know with supercharged anxiety but the effect of that is that presumably everyone who was in that class drives responsibly. Drives responsibly which is not part of a life of fear. It's part of a very happy well-adjusted productive life as opposed to a life which is meaninglessly squandered and wasted by getting killed in a car accident because of one's own fault at age 18. So a life with fear is basis for a very happy meaningful flourishing thriving life and a life without fear is counterfeit. It's a fool's paradise. Because there are And when we brush up Yahadus to depict it as a religion absent of fear, we do ourselves and others a disservice. Again, we weren't talking yesterday or today about kiruv, we weren't talking about, obviously kiruv needs to be done at the pace that the people are ready for. And this isn't the first shmooze in, we're talking about what a, for someone who's already there, what a correct conception of Yahadus is. Okay, we'll stop now so people have time to grab lunch. It's, I think it's very important that whoever can should join in the Tehillim at 12:30 et cetera.