That will begin today for a few minutes apropos of the Gemara that we had at the end of the Sugya of לא אפשר וקא מכוין about שטיחת אבידה לצורך ולצורכה. So the Gemara says the fact that when it's בין לצורך בין לצורכה that it's assur isn't necessarily because לא אפשר וקא מכוין is assur, but it could be mishum dekalya because you're going to be me'abed the mammon. And the Gemara says two possibilities, either because of gannavim or because of ayin hara. So it's also Parshas Hashavua, בן פורת יוסף בן פורת עלי עין, so the Gemara darshens that Yaakov Avinu gives a bracha to Yosef and to subsequently to zaro shel Yosef that they're immune to ayin hara. So maybe we'll talk a little bit about what ayin hara is. Mishna Pirkei Avos in perek beis, the way we have it printed in our Shas, Rabbi Yehoshua omer עין הרע ויצר הרע ושנאת הבריות מוציאין את האדם מן העולם.
The Rambam apparently based on what Rav Kapach prints in his Perush Hamishnayos, the Rambam had the girsa not ayin hara but ayin ra'ah. We'll see in a minute the significance of that be'ezras Hashem. So what does ayin hara mean in this context? So the Rambam writes as follows: אמר כי הלהיטות לממון והתאוותנות ורעות הנפש והוא ממחלת המרה השחורה גורם לאדם לסאב ראיית מינו,
meaning other people, vesinaso. So ayin ra'ah here seems to mean that a person looks hatefully upon other people. A person looks hatefully upon other people. לסאב לשון תועבה ראיית מינו. Rabbeinu Yonah says מי שאינו שמח בחלקו ועויין את חבירו העשיר ממנו מתי יהיה שאושר גדול כמהו.
Right, as in the pasuk ויהי שאול עוין את דוד, after the women say הכה שאול באלפיו ודוד ברבבותיו, so from that day on ויהי שאול עוין את דוד. So there too the meforshim say it means to look, again, some emphasize hatefully, some enviously, tzad hashaveh very negatively at others. Matter of fact, Rabbeinu Yonah goes on and has a fascinating comment here. Again, he has the girsa as the way we usually quote it, the way we usually encounter it, that it's ayin hara. So he says ayin but ayin is lashon nekeiva, so why is it ayin hara, it should have been it should have been ayin ra'ah. So the Rambam takeh has that girsa, but Rabbeinu Yonah and others do not. So he says so ayin is more milashon the verb of oyen than it is the noun of the eye. But again, but it means the same thing: to look hatefully, enviously. Obviously and in that type of relating to someone else. But on the other hand, it is certainly clear that Ayin Hara has the possible effect of having a damaging and deleterious effect on someone. So the Gemara in Berachos says that Yochanan used to sit outside of the Beis Hatefillah, so when the women would come out, the first thing they would see afterwards is they would see his countenance because he was mishpirei Yerushalayim. So they ask him that why aren't you scared of Ayin Hara? Why aren't you scared of Ayin Hara? So he answers because ana mizar'ah d'Yosef. So again, בן פורת עלי עין, so I'm not susceptible to Ayin Hara. And the Gemara we have, right, our Gemara which says that the garment can get destroyed as a result of Ayin Hara. So while Ayin Hara does sort of emanate from a certain character trait in a person, it's more than that because it has some objective results and consequences. So how do we understand that? So I think two, I hope two, just perspectives to contextualize. First of all, משל למה הדבר דומה. So what does that mean? So that means that if a person goes around giving other people an Ayin Hara, so then he'll do them all in. So what does it mean exactly? So I don't know, you have to check and see whether this is true in all cases, but it seems that one is vulnerable to Ayin Hara certainly if one is doing what seems to be ostentatious, or even if one isn't necessarily doing anything actively which would seem to be ostentatious, right, that's what they said to Yochanan, like you're sort of calling attention to the fact that you have this bracha from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you're highlighting the fact, so isn't that type of ostentatious behavior something which makes a person susceptible to Ayin Hara? But even if a person is not being ostentatious, let's say you have the Gemara in Bava Basra where the Gemara darshens the pesukim in Sefer Yehoshua that Bnei Yosef come to Yehoshua and they say that it's getting crowded in our nachalah because we're so numerous and Yehoshua tells them, well we can't rearrange nachalah but I'll give you an eitzah tovah: ויאמר אליהם יהושע אם עם רב אתה עלה לך היערה.
Go up to the forest. So the Gemara here darshens that what Yehoshua Bin Nun was telling them is אמר להו לכו והחבאו עצמכם ביערים שלא תשלוט בכם עין רע.
And they answer, no, anan mizar'ah d'Yosef, we don't have to worry about Ayin Hara. So there there's nothing ostentatious, but just if a person should go out of his way to be inconspicuous, and if a person doesn't go out of his way to be inconspicuous, so I don't know, so maybe that sort of is a passive passively being ostentatious. But being conspicuous and על אחת כמה וכמה being ostentatious would seem to be what at least in many cases what makes a person, rachmana litzlan, susceptible to Ayin Hara. So even so, so what does that mean? That the other person's Ayin Hara is what is affecting one? So משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say the pasuk says in Parshas Mishpatim: כל אלמנה ויתום לא תענון. And then the pasuk continues: אם ענה תענה אותו כי אם צעוק יצעק אלי. אם ענה תענה אתו כי אם צעק יצעק אלי שמוע אשמע צעקתו וחרה אפי והרגתי אתכם בחרב והיו נשיכם אלמנות ובניכם יתומים.
So it's quite clear from the posuk that whether it's the actual puronus or whether it's the speed with which the puronus rachmana litzlan is forthcoming, that that directly results from the tzaok yitzak elai. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu in certain cases says that that if you if you trigger this, if you're the one who who incites this, if if by being me'aneh the almonos v'yosom you incite that tze'akah, that complaint to me, so you should know that that complaint is going to bring puronus upon you. So ke'ein zeh yitachen is is again given the fact that the ayin hora is is potentially effective in in cases where a person is rachmana litzlan being ostentatious, where a person was just sort of passively ostentatious and allowing himself to be unnecessarily conspicuous, so then that's you should know, it's like it's like the posuk says, כי אם צעק יצעק אלי, that that it will it will take effect. Okay so a partial משל למה הדבר דומה. The the other perspective. We believe that the the world or worlds is not, are not, unidimensional. We don't think that the world is only physical. The world is physical also. That the world is world, worlds are are spiritual also. So the same way in the physical world there are physical laws of nature and there are physical forces, so too in the spiritual aspect and the spiritual dimension of the world of the worlds there are spiritual forces also. Even even even the the medieval rationalist tradition which had no exposure to kabbolah that for whatever reason the hashgocha decreed that that they not be exposed to the messora of kabbolah. No one denies malochim. No one, there's no such thing as as belief in a purely physical world. That's not, it's not, it's not our belief. So heyos shehadavar kein. So the same way, not the same way, but there's a physical aspect, there's a physical dimension to the world and on that plane there are physical forces and there are laws of nature that govern how those forces operate, so so too there are spiritual aspects and spiritual dimensions to the world and there too there are laws of of nature in terms of how those spiritual forces operate. There's only a a clash between between a scientific worldview and and ayin hora or or anything of of that ilk when one is insisting that the scientific worldview is that we only believe in observable phenomena and and anything other than that or or everything has to be purely physical. So that we don't believe. That we takeh don't believe. But a person can be totally shakuah in in science but recognizing that that represents one level, one dimension of of existence and avada that there are that there are others and ultimate levels and dimensions of existence. Hayos shehadavar kein, so the shaylah is, where's the line between superstition, between darchei ha'emori and the like and things which we say no, ayin hara and again using that just as one example obviously of a very broad category of things. So what's the difference between the ich veis so ayin hara so it's not a superstition. I wouldn't spend my money on the red strings on the way down to the kotel. I have other things to better investments with one's with one's money. So what's the difference? So the answer is, so how do I tell? How do I tell? To me it doesn't doesn't sound so different. So what's the answer? The answer is if it has a makor, if it has a makor, if it has a makor in chazal, has a makor in the zohar, has a makor in kisvei Arizal, it has a makor in in our masorah, okay? So then so then we've been taught that this is again that this is something which is present and operative in the spiritual aspect and the spiritual plane of existence. If it has no makor, so then that's that's so a person can't tell without yedios you can't tell. It could have been right it could have been that that a black cat walking in front of you could have meant that you're gonna chas veshalom flunk your midterms. It could have meant that but lemayseh it doesn't say that anywhere. So because of that it's stam a superstition and stam a superstition is לא תנחשו ולא תעוננו it belongs to that category of issur. Okay. But it's an important corrective sometimes people make the mistake of thinking that that anything which science can't analyze. No science can't put a microscope to Michael and to Gavriel and to that certainly isn't our belief that the world is only physical and that there's only a physical aspect and dimension and that being the case there's a makor for something so there is so there is. There's nothing irrational or even arational about that belief that there are shedim that there are mazikim. Okay so chazal tell us so there are. Iz vos? Okay. Then I wanted also a question was asked a few weeks ago already apropos of something we had discussed in Sha'ar Habitachon in terms of one of the recurring themes in in the Sha'ar Habitachon is the menuchas hanefesh that a ba'al bitachon has because a person knows that that things aren't accidental they're not happenstance they're not unjust. That things are the way they're supposed to be. Things are the way they're supposed to be because the Ribono Shel Olam is mashgiach כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. So the question was asked so why is it then if rachmana litzlan in the case of illness so why are we davening that that the person should get better? Okay. So apparently it's good that he he be sick so instead of sending him a get well card send him a have a good time card apparently it's good that you should I don't know knock that line of greeting cards out of the store and come up with a new one or any other adversity rachmana litzlan. So lichora the again the approach is as follows. You know the velt says the pasuk says וברכתיך בכל אשר תעשה. That Hakadosh Baruch Hu created us that kach gazar chochmaso that a person is supposed to be active and proactive. That, that mandate to be active, it's true on the level of hishtadlus, it's also true on the level of tefilla that a person is supposed to be mevakesh tzorachav. Implicit in that mandate of bechol asher ta'aseh is that we're given a vantage point according to which we perceive what's good and what's not good. The fact that כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד, but in terms of halacha we talk about besuros tovos and besuros ra'os because on the human vantage point there are good things and there are bad things. So ultimately from Hakadosh Baruch Hu's vantage point so everything is letova, but that doesn't mean that from our vantage point that we see and that we perceive everything as letova. There's besuros tovos and there's besuros ra'os. So from our vantage point, like the Rambam writes in Perek Tes of Hilchos Teshuva, if a person is sick, so then a person can't immerse himself in learning and a person can't be oved Hashem properly and if a person rachmana litzlan is poor, is destitute and because of that he's hungry and he's cold and because he's not clothed properly, so all of those are impediments to avodas Hashem which is what the point of life is. So all those things are bad things, they're bad things. And that's why from our vantage point that a person should enjoy good health and that a person should have enough money, a person doesn't have to be rich but that a person should have enough money, so those are good things. And therefore, because we're supposed to be proactive, we're supposed to be bechol asher ta'aseh, so what we daven for is we daven for that. We daven for Refaeinu Hashem veneirafei and we daven for ותן טל ומטר לברכה. Where the bitachon fits into the equation is that in terms of what one's attitude is towards the current situation, what things are this second, I can't change what is this second, I can daven about what should be in the next second, I can't change what is, what is is and I can't change what was. So in terms of one's attitude towards that when as it were Hakadosh Baruch Hu has already shared what's true from his vantage point, so then a person's bitachon is supposed to be if right now, again, so I know that right now as of this second this is what's good and this is what's right, and that's what his bitachon tells him and because of that he has menuchas hanefesh. And the same about the past. In terms of what hishtadlus and what tefilla a person should be making with an eye towards the future, so it's bechol asher ta'aseh. We don't have, we're not given ruach hakodesh, we're not given inside information on which to act, so we're supposed to act upon our vantage point and we're supposed to take hishtadlus and we're supposed to and we're supposed to daven again according to the human vantage point according to which health is good and illness is no good, according to which having being above the poverty line is good and rachmana litzlan being beneath the poverty line is no good. Now so as we, we daven, as we make hishtadlus, but here too the bitachon is also future oriented in the sense that we know that if what we're asking for ultimately isn't good, so then the bitachon is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's going to overrule us as it were. But it doesn't preclude because Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants that we should be acting in, in that. So that's one sort of kotev hashlishi to the role of tefilla in light of bitachon. Another concept... But another another kotev is that that sometimes again what's letovah is that that a person is is again yisurim come in different different forms, emotional, physical, etcetera. But that a person is is experiencing yisurim again as as part of as part of being meorer him to teshuvah, I think the Chovos HaLevavos I'm not sure if we had that already or we're going to have it, says that that's one of the types of of yisurim is is not that they're already intended as a kaparah, but they're intended as a hisorerus to teshuvah. And then the tefillah is is part of the reaction to it. So the tefillah is not trying to overrule, is not saying, well, bitachon says well what Hashem says is good and I'm davening for what's farkeir. No, but the tefillah is the response, is part of the response right that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to the to the yisurim and on that level also the two are are perfectly compatible. Okay, I think on the schedule next the bechinah is actually scheduled for a week from today. So I don't think we'll be I'm not sure exactly we probably won't go right down to the wire on the shiur, we'll probably try and find one or two days next week for chazarah. Which days they'll be lav davka it'll be Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm not sure which days it'll be, but we'll we'll try bli neder to have one or two days of of chazarah before then.