חולי הגוף טועמים המר מתוק והמתוק מר ויש מן החולים מי שמתאווה ותאב למאכלות שאינן ראויות לאכילה כגון העפר והפחם ושונא המאכלות הטובים כגון הפת והבשר הכל לפי רוב החולי כך בני אדם שנפשותיהם חולות
mit'avim me'avoyim me'avim excuse me v'ohavim הדעות הרעות ושונאים הדרך הטובה ומתעצלים ללכת בה והיא כבדה עליהם מאוד לפי חוליים וכן ישעיהו אומר באנשים הללו הוי האומרים לרע טוב ולטוב רע שמים חושך לאור ואור לחושך שמים מר למתוק ומתוק למר ועליהם נאמר העוזבים ארחות יושר ללכת בדרכי חושך ומה היא תקנת חולי הנפשות ילכו אצל החכמים שהם רופאי הנפשות וירפאו חוליים בדעות שמלמדים אותם עד שיחזירום לדרך הטובה והמכירים בדעות הרעות שלהם ואינם הולכים אצל החכמים לרפאות אותם עליהם אמר שלמה וחכמה ומוסר אוילים בזו.
The question is phrasing it in terms of the Rambam's mashal. How does a person recognize if he's mit'aveh l'devarim ra'im, l'devarim marim, soneh ha'devarim ha'tovim? So how does he recognize his predicament to go seek out the chachamim who are rophei nefashot? L'chora, as follows, I think we've commented in the past in the Rambam in the beginning of הלכות תשובה פרק ה: רשות כל אדם נתונה לו אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ולהיות צדיק הרשות בידו ואם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך רעה ולהיות רשע הרשות בידו הוא שכתוב בתורה הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו לדעת טוב ורע כלומר הן מין זה של אדם היה אחד בעולם ואין לו מין שני דומה לו בזה העניין שהוא מעצמו בדעתו ובמחשבתו יודע הטוב והרע ועושה כל מה שהוא חפץ ואין מי שיעכב בידו מלעשות הטוב או הרע וכיוון שכן הוא הן ישלח ידו.
So the Rambam includes in his definition presentation of bechirah chafshit, that it's not only that a person can choose what he wants to do and a person is not predetermined to do good or bad, but that a person has the ability, has the capacity to recognize and to discern what's good and what's bad. It's not only that if you tell him this is good and this is bad, he now has the bechirah chafshit to act on that, but he has mi'da'ato u'v'machshavto, he has the capacity to be yode'a ha'tov v'ha'ra. Now l'chora, in light of this, it's significant that the Rambam says כך בני אדם שנפשותיהם חולות מתאווים ואוהבים הדעות הרעות ושונאים הדרך הטובה ומתעצלים ללכת בה והיא כבדה עליהם מאוד לפי חוליים.
The first part of of the bechira chofshis, the bedaato ubmachshavto, that capacity of בדעתו ובמחשבתו יודע הטוב hasn't been compromised. It's compromised in in the sense that there's a yetzer hara for a person to abuse the sechel to sort of justify what he wants to do. So in that sense yes, but in another sense no. That's what I'm saying that that a person can have can be misaave to deos raos. He can be sone derech hatov and misatzel laleches bo but none of that negates the underlying capacity of שיאמר מעצמו בדעתו ובמחשבתו יודע הטוב והרע. A person can simultaneously, if he's willing to be honest with himself, a person can simultaneously be so afflicted with deos raos that he's again he's misaave to them and and that he sone the deos tovos and yet he has the capacity to recognize that. Because because again embedded Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us this ability again not only to to choose but to recognize bedaato ubmachshavto. The danger is is that that we get sort of so caught up in what we're doing so we don't we don't step back and and exercise that faculty of בדעתו ובמחשבתו יודע הטוב והרע. And then a person just goes with whatever deos he has he has developed. Halacha Beis: בכיצד היא רפואתם מי שהוא בעל חמה אומרים לו להנהיג עצמו שאם הוכה וקולל לא ירגיש כלל וילך בדרך זו זמן מרובה עד שתיעקר החמה מלבו.
So what does this mean? If someone's someone's a kasun so tell him don't be angry. Shver. So so what does that mean? Tell him don't be angry. He gets angry. What do you mean tell him don't be angry? So lichora it's clear let's say look at the next sentence here in the halacha. ואם היה גבה לב ינהיג עצמו בביזיון הרבה וישב למטה מן הכל וילבש בלויי סחבות המבזות את לובשיהן וכיוצא בדברים אלו עד שיעקר גובה הלב ממנו ויחזור לדרך האמצעית שהיא הדרך הטובה ולכשיחזור לדרך האמצעית ילך בה כל ימיו.
So lichora what ירגיש עצמו לא ירגיש כלל in the sense of reacting. im huka vekolel so ordinarily if a person's on the derech hatova so he certainly he can he can defend himself he can tell the person don't do that again. There's certainly a a measured response which is very much allowed for in those situations. So that's what the Rambam's saying lo yargish klal the person doesn't do anything. And that's again that's the Rambam's whole approach that behaviorally he he he affects and and changes his middos. That's what it means that אומרים לו להנהיג עצמו לא ירגיש כלל to act as though he doesn't feel anything. It doesn't mean you tell him don't feel anything. Don't get angry don't do this don't do that. No אומרים לו להנהיג עצמו he should act as though lo yargish klal and then mimmela just like the then it's parallel to the next piece of advice that if a person is working on on govah lev so he does things which which are a bizayon which which will counteract that that sense of govah lev. ועל קו זה יעשה בשאר כל הדעות אם היה רחוק לקצה האחד ירחיק עצמו לקצה השני וינהוג בו זמן מרובה. עד שיחזור לדרך הטובה והיא מידה בינונית שבכל דעה ודעה.
Halacha Gimmel. ויש דעות שאסור לו לאדם לנהוג בהן בבינונית אלא יתרחק מן הקצה האחד. והוא גובה הלב שאין הדרך הטובה שיהיה האדם עניו בלבד אלא שיהיה שפל רוח ותהיה רוחו נמוכה למאוד. לפיכך נאמר במשה רבנו ענוו מאוד ולא נאמר ענוו בלבד. ולפיכך ציוו חכמים מאוד מאוד הוי שפל רוח. ועוד אמרו שכל המגביה לבו כפר בעיקר. שנאמר ורם לבבך ושכחת את השם אלוקיך. ועוד אמרו בשמתא דאית ביה גסות הרוח ואפילו מקצתה.
And so the pshat is as follows. When the Rambam quotes, we don't exactly have this girsa I think in Masechet Sotah. I think our girsa is a little different. But when the Rambam quotes כל המגביה לבו כפר בעיקר, if a person is magbia libo, so that's an act of kfira. De-hainu, it's not tantamount to kfira, it's not ke'ilu kafar ba-ikar, it's mamesh kafar ba-ikar. There's no no no kaf ha-dimyon. So what does it mean? It means as follows. The Rambam begins יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון וממציא לכל נמצא.
That the yesod of our emuna, of what we believe, of what we know, is that everything exists, not just because Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world so many years ago, but that everything exists because this moment Hashem sustains existence. Hashem through His existence gives us existence. Umamtzi Lechol Nimtza as the Rebbe used to point out is balashon hoveh. Not that Hakadosh Baruch Hu himtzi kol nimtza, that briat ha-olam was in the past and now the world exists simply by virtue of that act, but rather that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Umamtzi Lechol Nimtza. Rav Chaim Volozhiner in Nefesh HaChaim says the same, says that's pshat in what the Anshei Knesset HaGdola introduced into Birkat Kriat Shema המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית. Again, the world doesn't exist on its own. The world wasn't created that it can survive on its own, but every moment the world exists because of Hashem, through Hashem. Umamtzi Lechol Nimtza. Which means, never mind all the brachot in a person's life, never mind whatever abilities a person has, that those abilities come from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but his very existence from one moment to the next is because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית. Reb Zatzal used to say as follows, that the definitions, the respective definitions of anava and ga'avah is that not like the velt says that a ba'al ga'avah even though he knows ten blatt thinks he's a baki b'Shas, and an anav even though he's a baki b'Shas thinks he knows ten blatt. If a person knows ten blatt and thinks he's a baki b'Shas, he's not a ba'al ga'avah, he's a meshugeneh because he's out of touch with reality. And if a person is a baki b'Shas, so he should also be in touch with reality, he should know that he's a baki b'Shas. So what's the difference between a ga'avah and anava? So a ba'al ga'avah thinks כחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה, and an anav realizes that Im Bechukotai Telechu, amela ba-Torah being indispensable and being imperative and being the point of life, all that notwithstanding, Hakadosh Baruch Hu. hakadosh baruch hu is mamtzi kol nimtza. So where is there room for a person to have any gaiva? Every opportunity a person has to learn, every breath a person takes, every, every sevara a person is able to say is with the ability hakadosh baruch hu gave him. Again, none of which, none of which minimizes the need for amola and yegia, but at the end of the, at the end of the day, there's obviously no room for gaiva. So that's what the Rambam says, kol hamagbiya libo is mamash kofer be'ikar. It contradicts that hakadosh baruch hu is mamtzi kol nimtza, because to have a sense of govah lev, a sense of kochi ve'otzem yadi is, a person can only have that if he feels a certain autonomy. Again, none of which is to, whether in talmud torah or lehavdil in any other realm, none of that is to minimize or, or in any way downplay the importance of yegia, of amola, of hishtadlus. All that is what hakadosh baruch hu wants us to do, and all that hakadosh baruch hu stipulates and, and makes, makes his brachos contingent upon, but at the end of the day, that's all it is. It's hishtadlus, it's hishtadlus with the abilities, with the existence that hakadosh baruch hu gives us. A question that, that's often asked and even when, when sort of not verbalized, but, but sometimes just felt is, okay, so even after a person understands all this, so how does a person avoid not having some sense of gaiva or govah lev? Let's say a person sees that, that he, he's got, ich veis, an identical twin brother and they decided that, the geneticists swear that they have the exact same IQ and they had the same upbringing and this and that, and he, and he works harder and accomplishes more than his brother. So how is a person gonna avoid having a certain sense of, doesn't, isn't there a natural susceptibility to gaiva, everything that we said notwithstanding? Isn't there a certain natural susceptibility? So lichora the answer is as follows. משל למה הדבר דומה. משל למה הדבר דומה. You have an ant colony, an ant colony, and in the ant colony, there's one ant who goes to the gym every day, religiously. Three hours a day in the gym, I don't know the names of all the machines, but whatever, he does the, and he lifts weights and everything, and his, his biceps are bulging and he's three times the size of every other ant. They all had the same opportunities, he's the one who invested all the time and the hard work. Okay, shoin. There's a saying in Yiddish: ער בלאזט פון זיך. So when a person sort of swells with pride, so you say that he's blown up with himself, from himself, of himself. vayehi hayom, and word spreads through the ant colony that there's this indescribably large giant approaching who with one, one step can obliterate the entire ant colony. They see a person, they see a person. So what a person is, what, 10 billion times bigger than an ant, whatever, I don't know how many zeros you need, to what power. So what when this ant, the bodybuilder ant, so when he hears that shmuah, so what happens, what happens to his gaiva? He still feels superior? He still feels big? He feels the same fear and the same dread that everyone else feels. So how can it be that the biggest gedolim don't feel some gaiva when they're just galaxies beyond us? There it is because they're gedolim because they have a sense of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. If a person has a sense of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד, so then again in terms of the mashal, the same way the ant doesn't have a sense of superiority vis-a-vis the other ants when he realizes that he's in the presence of this giant, so if only a person is able to maintain an awareness of being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so then it's not that the question is answered, the question doesn't get asked. And from that we can certainly learn that the antidote if a person when if and when we do feel these stirrings of gaiva lev and gaiva, so a person just has to try to think, you know, go back to Perek Bet in Yesodei HaTorah Halacha Bet, has to try to think of himself vis-a-vis Hakadosh Baruch Hu. ובריה שפלה ואפלה עומדת בדעת קלה לפני תמים דעות. And that's the antidote to gaiva. Forget the names of those involved, but they say one of the who later became in his own right one of the gedolei hachasidus, one of the biggest rebbes, so he said about himself, so apparently when he came to his rebbe initially, I forget if he came to Rav Simcha Bunim, I forget who the people are involved in the story, so right away he saw in this talmid, in this chasid, he saw the tremendous potential and how much of it had already been actualized. So right away he brought him into the inner circle. So he said that it took him years and years and years of working on himself to undo the sense of in terms of kina taiva kavod that had been engendered by that. So if even great people are susceptible, so kal v'chomer that ומה אני בשר ודם. So it's something that the antidote is to think about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. וכן הכעס דעה רעה היא עד מאוד. Similarly ca'as is also a de'a ra'ah וראוי לאדם שיתרחק ממנה עד הקצה האחר. וילמד עצמו שלא יכעוס ואפילו על דבר שראוי לכעוס עליו וכן אם רצה להטיל אימה על בניו ובני ביתו או על הציבור אם היה פרנס ורצה לכעוס עליהם כדי שיחזרו למוטב, יראה עצמו לפניהם שהוא כועס כדי לייסרם ותהיה דעתו מיושבת בינו לבין עצמו כאדם שהוא מדמה איש בשעת כעסו והוא אינו כועס,
as though a person were an actor. אמרו חכמים הראשונים כל הכועס כאילו עובד עבודה זרה ואמרו שכל הכועס אם חכם הוא חכמתו מסתלקת ממנו ואם נביא הוא נבואתו מסתלקת ממנו. בעלי כעס אין חייהם חיים. לפיכך ציוו להתרחק מן הכעס עד שינהיג עצמו שלא ירגיש אפילו לדברים המכעיסים וזו היא הדרך הטובה וכן דרך הצדיקים הן עלובים ואינן עולבים שומעים חרפתם ואינן משיבים עושים מאהבה ושמחים בייסורים עליהם הכתוב אומר ואוהביו כצאת השמש בגבורתו.
So I think we already commented earlier, we had jumped ahead to this halacha on the lashon of שלא יכעוס אפילו על דבר שראוי לכעוס עליו. A person shouldn't get angry even about something that really by right he should get angry about. But if a person should never get angry, then there is nothing which is rauy lichos alav. So we said the pshat is like this. Ha'emes hi, in theory, there are times when a person should express a degree of outrage, feel a degree of outrage. of anger. But Chazal tell us that anger is such a volatile emotion that a person can't control it. To imagine a faucet. So sometimes when it gets wound up, so you're not able to open it gradually and when you open it, so you can't modulate the stream and it just comes bursting and surging through. So that's what inevitably happens with anger, it's too volatile an emotion. That's what Rashi consistently says that he points out by Moshe Rabbeinu that wherever he's ba l'chlal kaas he's ba l'chlal taus. Rashi says by Shim'u na hamorim, unlike the Rambam, that the anger wasn't the cheit, but the anger is what resulted in the cheit. Because he was angry as evidenced by Shim'u na hamorim, so that's why he hits the rock. Because he's angry, so that's why he can't instruct Bnei Yisrael about the dinim of hagala and libun. Wherever he's ba l'chlal kaas he's ba l'chlal taus. The Ramban puts this center stage in the Iggeres. The road for tikkun hamiddos, the road for yiras shamayim begins with training oneself to always speak b'nachas. That discipline basically puts a cap on emotion. ובזה תינצל מן הכעס שהיא דעה רעה לחטוא. אמרו חכמים שכל הכועס אם חכם הוא חכמתו מסתלקת ממנו אם נביא הוא נבואתו מסתלקת ממנו.
So this can and presumably should be understood on two levels. To a degree, you can understand it on a natural level as it were. For a chacham to exercise his chochma, there's a certain yishuv hadaas that's necessary. And when he loses that yishuv hadaas, so then he can't draw upon and can't exercise his chochma. So you can understand it in a very on a very natural plane. But stamo it also means something more than that. stama Chazal mean more than that as well. There's a much-quoted passage from the Sha'arei Kedusha of Rav Chaim Vital where he explains how come there are no mitzvos in the Torah which deal with middos? Why isn't there an issur in the Torah of kaas? Why isn't that one of the taryag mitzvos? Not to get angry. So basically, when we look and see, so the Rambam's answer to that, which Rav Chaim Vital isn't going with that mahalach, is stama that there is and it's all included in ve'halachta bidrachav. Rav Chaim Vital is not assuming like that. He says no, there's taka no mitzvos and issurim of middos in the Torah. So hai tachan? hai tachan? What about all those mussar shmoozen about tikkun hamiddos and all this? So Kol haTorah kulah is against it? What, there's no mitzvos no issurim in the Torah? So Rav Chaim Vital says adaraba. משל למה הדבר דומה like this. Let's say someone shows you the catalog in medical school. First year medical school what you look at the catalog. And you see that there's no basic biology, there's no basic chemistry, there's no basic biochemistry. So what do you say? You say what kind of a medical college is this? They don't even teach people the yesodos? So they're going to be terrible doctors? Obviously, the real pshat is no, there's no basic biology, chemistry and biochemistry because you don't come to the medical college. college unless you already and unless you already mastered the basics of biology and chemistry v'chulu. So says Rav Chaim Vital that Torah is pitched on a level where the precondition for that is that a person have middos. That's why there's no there's no there's no mitzvos of middos in the Torah the same way you don't have basic biology and organic chemistry in medical school. You don't know it, so then medical school is not for you. Medical school is being pitched, is geared for someone who already has that. He says it in terms of ich veiss the different levels of neshama, but what it amounts to is that aderaba, the fact that there's no mitzvos and issurim dealing with middos in the Torah doesn't de-emphasize them, but if anything, it just magnifies the importance that it's it's the t'nai kodem l'ma'aseh for all of for all of Torah. So yitochen that Chazal also mean אם חכם הוא חכמתו מסתלקת ממנו אם נביא הוא נבואתו מסתלקת ממנו,
so imagine the following mashal. Imagine you have someone he's standing on a table. Standing on a table, so he's really he's really high. Maybe he's standing on this very tall this tall platform. So what's going to happen to him and the heights to which he soared if the platform rots away? So he's going to end up in a bor amok. So too חכם הוא חכמתו מסתלקת ממנו because the platform for the chochma, the platform for the nevuah has to be the has to be the middos and this especially is one which is especially corrosive. Ayin Aleph. לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה ולא ידבר אלא או בדברי חכמה או בדברים שצריך להם לחיי גופו. אמרו רב תלמידי רבינו הקדוש לא שח שיחה בטלה כל ימיו וזו היא שיחת רוב כל אדם. ואפילו בצרכי הגוף לא ירבה אדם דברים ועל זה צוו חכמים ואמרו כל המרבה דברים מביא חטא ואמרו לא מצאתי לגוף טוב אלא שתיקה וכן בדברי תורה ובדברי חכמה יהיו דברי החכם מעטים וענייניהם מרובים. והוא שצוו חכמים ואמרו לעולם ישנה אדם לתלמידו דרך קצרה אבל אם היו הדברים מרובים והעניין מועט הרי זו סכלות ועל זה נאמר כי בא החלום ברוב עניין וקול כסיל ברוב דברים.
So Rashi k'midomeh on לעולם ישנה אדם לתלמידו דרך קצרה says that that's a din in Talmud Torah that the rebbi has an obligation to distill and say things as compactly as possible to make it easier to memorize, to make it easier to commit to memory. Rashi understands it as a din in Talmud Torah, mistama especially when when Torah Shebe'al Peh was was just that. And the Rambam says no, the Rambam says no, the chiddush is this, really what it's reflecting is again this general middos of לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה. I would think okay, לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה and a person should economize in speech and דברים שצריך להם לחיי גופו. Okay, so there so a person should measure each word. But וואס קען זיין שלעכט for when a person's learning he's going to be a little bit a little bit more expansive. So says the Rambam no, that's the chiddush of Chazal. Yeah, as much as is necessary to explain and clarify, avada then then a person's not being marbeh. But an unnecessary word even when it's divrei Torah, even when it's divrei chochma, so even there a person is supposed to is supposed to economize on speech. סייג לחכמה שתיקה לפיכך לא ימהר להשיב ולא ירבה לדבר וילמד לתלמידים בשוב ונחת בלא צעקה ובלא אריכות דברים.
So why does the Rambam have two halachos here? He already said לעולם ירבה אדם בשתיקה. He already said that כל המרבה בדברים מביא חטא. A person talks too much, so eventually he's gonna say something which he shouldn't say. It's sichlus. So he already said it. There's what to add, but seyag lachochma shtika sounds like the Rambam's now introducing something new, something he hasn't spoken about yet. So I found the Zichron Levacho said that lichora what the Rambam means is the following. That you can think of a seyag in and understand the purpose of a seyag in either of two ways. The way we ordinarily do, that it's a safeguard from cheit. It's a safeguard from cheit. Okay, so in halacha daled the Rambam says again, if a person prattles enough, so inevitably, as we all know, he's gonna say something which he shouldn't have said. But then seyag can also mean not just a safeguard from doing something wrong, but a seyag can also mean a way of enhancing and magnifying the positive effect of what a person does do. And what the Rambam in halacha hei is saying is that not only does shtika help a person avoid the cheit, but shtika also makes his words more effective when he does speak. If the again, the economy of speech that he has, so in halacha daled he's telling you, so that's a way to avert cheit. And in halacha hei he says, and it's also a way of empowering and enhancing one's speech. That seyag again is not only to avoid cheit, but it's to deepen and enhance the positive. And that's what the Rambam taki concludes, that דברי חכמים בנחת נשמעים. Mistama benachat nishm'aim means two things. Benachat nishm'aim means the idea of speaking softly, but nishm'aim means that they're heard, in the sense that they register, and that people accept it, because it's with this seyag lachochma shtika, so it has more of an effect. All right, so we'll pick up next time.