Let's take a look at the Ramban here. It's HaShem parshas Vav, posuk yud gimmel, Chumash. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says ויאמר אלקים לנח קץ כל בשר בא לפני כי מלאה הארץ חמס מפניהם והנני משחיתם את הארץ.
Earlier, the Torah had recorded ותשחת הארץ לפני האלקים ותמלא הארץ חמס. The Torah had recorded two areas of depraved behavior, hashchasa as well as chamas, and yet when Hakadosh Baruch Hu informs Noach of the impending mabul, he only invokes the chamas. הוא הגזל והעושק. ונתן לנח הטעם בחמס ולא הזכיר השחתת הדרך,
the sexual perversion and immorality, כי החמס הוא החטא הידוע והמפורסם. That was public, right? Presumably the gezel here has the same association as it has when we distinguish between gezel and gneiva, that gezel ויגזול את החנית מיד המצרי is just open, open brutal theft. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells Noach that which he is, he, Noach, is clearly aware of. ורבותינו אמרו שעליו נתחתם גזר דינם. And it was that which was responsible for the gzar din to destroy the world. V'hata'am, says the Ramban, meaning that once Chazal say שעליו נתחתם גזר דינם, so then clearly chamas is being singled out not only because it's yadua u'mefursam, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they're equally yadua, equally mefursam. So it means that there's something more egregious about the chamas, gezel and oshek than the hashchasas derech, and that, the Ramban says, is מפני שהיא מצוה מושכלת. It's an intuitive mitzvah. It's a mitzvah that any person who's endowed with seichel can and therefore should intuitively understand and recognize. אין להם בה צורך לנביא להזהיר. A person doesn't need a navi to come relay this mitzvah in the name of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave everyone an inner moral compass which allows them, which allows every individual to recognize the mitzvah on his own. So one can't plead ignorance. If one needs to be taught, so then one can, depending upon circumstances, legitimately plead ignorance. But when you have something which is intuitive, there's no defense of ignorance. And clearly there's no defense for individuals due to its prevalence in society. That's obviously the medubar here. There's no defense of brainwashing because a person has the capacity. To recognize what the principles of natural morality are and ignorance, the prevalence of it within society, none of these things offer a shred of defense. Rav Nissim Gaon has in the beginning of Masechet Brachos, so the hakdama of Rav Nissim Gaon to Shas is printed and Rav Nissim Gaon says כי כל המצוות שהן תלויות בסברא ובינתא דליבא, all mitzvot which depend upon sevara, depend upon sevara in the sense that they can be discovered and recognized through sevara alone, uvinvata deliba, and through havanat halev, kevar hakol hakol, not just the Jews, כבר הכל מתחייבים בהם, all are universally obligated in them מן היום אשר ברא אלוהים אדם על הארץ עליו ועל זרעו אחריו לדור ודור,
beginning with Adam Harishon and continuing forever. ורשות כל אדם נתונה לו, the capacity is given to every human being. אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ולהיות צדיק רשות בידו,
if he wants to incline himself to the path of goodness and to be righteous, he has that ability, he has that capacity. But conversely, ואם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך רעה ולהיות רשע רשות בידו,
but he can point himself, incline himself in the direction of evil. הוא שכתוב בתורה הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו לדעת טוב ורע כלומר,
what does the pasuk mean in Parshat Bereshit? הן מן זה של אדם, this species of man haya echad baolam, is unique in the world, is unique in the beriah, ואין לו מין שני דומה לו בזה העניין, and there's no second species that resembles him in this respect. sheyehe hu meatzmo, he from within, bedato uvmachshavto, with his understanding, with his thought, yodea hatov vehara, he can discern, he can know and he can discern what's tov and what's ra, and ועושה כל מה שהוא חפץ. So the Rambam is clear that the yesod of bechira chofshit is not only freedom of action, but the yesod of bechira chofshit is that a person also has an innate ability to recognize good from bad, natural good from natural bad. A person doesn't have an innate ability to know that you shouldn't have a linen, a piece of linen in your wool suit. A person doesn't have an innate ability to know that, but he has an innate ability to know natural good from natural bad. sheyehe hu meatzmo, bedato uvmachshavto, yodea hatov vehara, and it's very mistaber, very compelling, cause of what value is freedom of action if a person doesn't have the capacity to recognize what's good or bad, what's good and what's evil? So what is the bechira worth if it's not based preceded by if it's not grounded in and an ability to to discern and to discriminate good from bad? That's why there is zero excuse for the hypocrisy and the evil in the world in this past week in reacting to what happened in Eretz Yisrael. Zero, zero excuse. Zero excuse. It doesn't matter how how prevalent it is in in society that that anyone who any of the whether it's on the college campuses, whether it's the the all all those college campuses, or whether it's the the administrations, or whether it's a a handful fortunately only a handful of the politicians who hold elected office, anyone who either has been supporting Hamas or has equivocated, yeah, we're after thinking about it they decided that maybe they do oppose the beheading of babies, maybe maybe after after a few days of of contemplating they figured out that maybe they do oppose that, but only only if it can be mentioned in the same breath as concern for for civilian casualties in in Gaza. So that's evil, it's pure evil. There's no excuse for it and and it's nothing less than pure evil. And we should know that's the world we live in. We should have an accurate perception of. Fortunately that's not everyone. It's not everyone. There are there are people of of conscience who who have not reacted that way. But there are an awful lot of people who who don't have conscience. And and it's pure evil, it's pure evil. That's why Hakadosh Baruch Hu destroyed the world. It was a mitzva mishugalos of gezel, not of torture and shefichas damim. So הלא דברים קל וחומר. It's also equally clear that anyone who who broadcasts such a reaction has blood on their hands. Blood on their hands because when when they provide cover for people who perpetrate such atrocities, so they're encouraged to try to do it again. They mamash have blood on their hands. It's not some kind of oh it's just sort of in the realm of words so so who cares about it. It needs to be recognized for what it is and denounced for what it is. It needs to be recognized for what it is and then denounced for what it is. Ramban adds ועוד שהוא רע לשמים ולבריות. The the other dimension which makes the chamas a greater liability is the fact that that it's it's not only ra lashamayim but it's ra labriyot as well. It could be that Ramban just means it kiphshuto. Kiphshuto, ra lashamayim v'labriyot, so it's sort of a double offense. Simultaneously it's a double offense. Could be he means it kiphshuto. Could be, I don't know, no, don't have any any proof for this. It could be that he also means it in the following sense. That the Rav zikhrono livrakha has a drasha in which he explains that one of the differences between those aveirot in the Torah which you need, we needed Ma'amad Har Sinai and we needed Moshe Rabbeinu to bring us the Torah, Torat Hashem, to know that something is assur as opposed to those mitzvot which are also intuitive, part of natural morality, is the following. Here just maybe to give a mashal to introduce what the Rav says. Let's say a person will, so Hakadosh Barukh Hu, there's moral law in the world, there's also physical law in the world. Hakadosh Barukh Hu created that the world functions, operates according to physical laws. So let's say a person will defy Hakadosh Barukh Hu's physical law. So he'll go out onto a a tenth-floor patio and he says he's going to climb over the railing and he doesn't believe in gravity. So he's going to step off, he's going to step off the patio. So what's going to happen? Is it only in the olam ha-emes that he's going to be held accountable for that merida against Hakadosh Barukh Hu? No. Because it's a natural law. Again, not only miko'ach gezeirat hakatuv but because it's a natural law, the consequences are in olam hazeh as well. When he steps off the ten-floor porch, he's going to fall. And not because Hakadosh Barukh Hu is punitively intervening to punish him, but because Hakadosh Barukh Hu embedded that into the natural fabric of the world. So the same thing is true, the, again, ad kan the mashal. So the Rav says that that's what's true for natural morality. That when society violates natural morality, so it's not only that there's going to be a din v'cheshbon, a din shamayim in the olam ha-emes. No, but the destruction happens in this world. The world can't function, it can't survive. You look into the world today and and you see unfortunately empirical evidence of what the Rav was was describing. So possibly, I don't know, possibly that's an omek to what the Ramban means that ra lashamayim v'labriyot meaning that the world just can't function this way. It couldn't function this way. Because what maybe the ra lashamayim v'labriyot is also building off the mitzvot muskhalyot. I don't know, either way the idea is certainly true whether it's part of the Ramban's mukhven here, I don't know. Okay, we'll stop here. There's no iyun shiur today. Just a reminder of the Tehillim and the mincha at at one o'clock in the basement. It's very, very important that barring some really, really unforeseen circumstances... stances to the contrary, that on a daily basis we all try בעזרת השם בלי נדר to be there for the Tehillim, for the Mincha. Our efforts need to be as sustained as the efforts of the chayalim who stand on the front lines and the efforts of all acheinu Bnei Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael as they're exposed to what's happening.