Transcript

Generally Thursdays we're supposed to do a little bit Inyanei Machshava, Inyanei Hashkafa. We've been rather derelict in that. So maybe just a little bit of Tashlumin today. The famous Midrash at the beginning of yesterday's Krias HaTorah, the very first on the opening Pasuk:

ויאמר ה' אל אברם לך לך מארצך. רבי יצחק פתח שמעי בת וראי והטי אזנך ושכחי עמך ובית אביך. אמר רבי יצחק משל לאחד שהיה עובר ממקום למקום וראה בירה אחת דולקת. אמר תאמר שהבירה זו בלא מנהיג? הציץ עליו בעל הבירה. אמר לו אני הוא בעל הבירה. כך לפי שהיה אברהם אבינו אומר תאמר שהעולם הזה בלא מנהיג? הציץ עליו הקדוש ברוך הוא ואמר לו אני הוא בעל העולם.

The Rambam elaborates this Midrash. He integrates it with other Midrashim as well in Perek Aleph of Hilchos Avodah Zarah when he tells us about Avraham Avinu. He says the world into which Avraham Avinu was born was a world that

מדמים שאין שם אלוה אלא הכוכבים והגלגלים שנעשו הצורות האלו בגללם ולדמותם. אבל צור העולם לא היה שם מכיר ולא יודע אלא יחידים בעולם כגון חנוך ומתושלח ונח ושם ועבר. ועל דרך זו היה העולם מתגלגל והולך עד שנולד עמודו של עולם שהוא אברהם אבינו.

So this is the world into which Avraham Avinu was born, in which Rachmana Litzlan Hakadosh Baruch Hu is almost entirely forgotten, just a handful of Yechidei Segula. Then the Rambam describes as follows: כיון שנגמל איתן זה hitchil leshotes beda'ato to wander, to explore, to reflect

והוא קטן ולחשוב ביום ובלילה והיה תמה היאך אפשר שיהיה הגלגל הזה נוהג תמיד ולא יהיה לו מנהיג ומי יסובב אותו לפי שאי אפשר שיסובב את עצמו ולא היה לו מלמד ולא מודיע דבר אלא מושקע באור כשדים בין עובדי עבודה זרה הטפשים ואביו ואמו וכל העם עובדי עבודה זרה והוא היה עובד עמהם.

The Pasuk in Sefer Yehoshua, I think we say it in the Haggadah, that

בעבר הנהר ישבו אבותיכם מעולם תרח אבי אברהם ואבי נחור ויעבדו אלהים אחרים ואקח את אביכם וכולי וכולי.

So in the Pasuk itself, I guess it's a little ambiguous who the Vaya'avdu, who's the unstated subject of Vaya'avdu Elohim Acheirim. According to the Rambam, Avraham Avinu is bechlal that subject. The Vaya'avdu Elohim Acheirim is not just Terach and not just Nachor, but initially even Avraham Avinu.

ולבו משוטט ומבין עד שהשיג דרך האמת והבין קו הצדק מדעתו הנכונה וידע שיש שם אלוה אחד והוא מנהיג הגלגל והוא ברא הכל ואין בכל הנמצא אלוה חוץ ממנו.

So this is the Rambam's elaboration of the Midrash. So first, is there any hint to this in the Pasuk? The Rambam says that Avraham Avinu was forty years old when he finally figured things out. The Kesef Mishneh suggests that when the Rambam says כיון שנגמל איתן זה, when he was weaned, when this titan was weaned, that it means that he was three years old at the time and that the Rambam is combining the two opinions in the Midrash. There's one opinion in Chazal, עקב אשר שמע אברהם בקולי, for 172 of his 175 years, Avraham Avinu was preoccupied with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And then there's the view in the Midrash the way the Rambam has the girsa, that he was forty. So the Kesef Mishneh suggests that the Rambam synthesizes the two: that he was three when he began the search and forty when he brought it to a successful conclusion. So is there any Remez to these 37 years? In general when we And when you have a Midrash Chazal so it comes from one of two places, either the truth is it's the same principle is true for Midrash Halacha and Midrash Aggada, it has to come from one of two places. Either it means Chazal had such a tradition, they had such a tradition which they either later then ex post facto also find remazim in the Pasuk, or maybe not, but but the the initial source is they have such a tradition. Or if they have no such tradition, then there is something in the Pasuk that Chazal picked up on, there's some kind of cue or or clue in the Pasuk that Chazal were sensitive sensitive to. So I don't know, so maybe there's a tradition which underlies this Midrash, or or maybe maybe as follows. That that the world was was sort of shaku'a in Avoda Zara-dik mindset. So from the Dor Haflaga and and you know the ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת ודברים אחדים and and it's basically a universal initiative. So clearly clearly the at that point minimally there isn't any kind of correct conception of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you know to נעשה לנו שם פן נפוץ על פני כל הארץ. So that that again, that correct belief is is not widespread, so one one can easily enough pick up hints and traces of that in Parshas Noach. But what about Avraham Avinu's search vechulu? So lich'ora, maybe Chazal are reacting to two things. First of all in this Pasuk, it's lich'ora very significant. We would have expected like this, משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say you're you're you're at home one night you're sleeping and all of a sudden you hear someone banging on your door and with one of those megaphones, evacuate immediately! So once once your first reaction gonna be? So my first reaction would be shalom aleichem, but who are you? Like what's going on here? Who are you that that you're telling me to to evacuate immediately? I don't know who you are. So tell me who you are and tell me tell me what your credentials are to be telling me such a thing. Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't identify himself to Avraham Avinu. He just picks up as he the nevuah begins lech lecha me'artzecha as as with obviously no need for any explanation, any identification. It's clear that Avraham Avinu knows who's speaking to him. Oh, so maybe Chazal, and we'll see, I don't know whether this alone or perhaps with with something else we'll mention in a minute בלי נדר אם ירצה השם. So maybe Chazal see here Avraham Avinu, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's on his mind. He's already discovered Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And again, and if he if he grew up in such a society, so it means that that that that he did it on that he did it on his own. But Avraham Avinu clearly clearly is is ready to receive a nevuah from Hakadosh Baruch Hu without any need for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to identify himself or to explain to Avraham Avinu what's happening. So the way the way the Midrash very tersely, the Rambam a little bit more elaborately describes, so you understand that. Avraham Avinu's been for thirty-seven years he was thinking non-stop till he figured things out. And now for the past thirty-five years, again, it's been it's the thought which dominates his consciousness. So of course Hakadosh Baruch Hu can just appear to him and say and say lech lecha. Possibly additionally, at the end of Parshas Noach, so so the Pasuk says

ויקח תרח את אברם בנו ואת שרי כלתו ואת לוט בן בנו ויצאו אתם מאור כשדים ללכת ארצה כנען,

something something to that effect. I'm not sure if that was verbatim. So before Avram Avinu received any tzivui, so they were on their way to Eretz Kena'an. So what's pshat? So the Sforno has a comment and says that it was already known that if you wanted to achieve muskalos, if you wanted to understand, if you wanted to try to work on discovering truth, so the address was Eretz Yisrael. That was known, that was yadu'a. How is it known? By one or both of two sources. Either there was a certain sensitivity that some people had or the Sforno also mentions because that Eretz Yisrael was special had been indicated in the mabul. Right, according to the view in Chazal that the waters didn't fall directly on Eretz Yisrael, so that Eretz Yisrael was different was yadu'a. So Avram Avinu is is headed towards Eretz Yisrael. So what does that reflect? Why is he going to Eretz Yisrael? If it had been me, I would have gone to Switzerland, I would have or maybe to Colorado to go skiing, but I don't think I would have gone to Eretz Yisrael. So punkt Avram Avinu is going to Eretz Yisrael, so here too maybe the Torah is dropping the hints that again that Chazal with their acute sense for picking up on hints in the psukim see that Avram Avinu that there was a search and there was a process of discovery. It's interesting the just an interesting parallel, that idea that even before you know sort of the official public bechira of Eretz Yisrael that there was already a sense that Eretz Yisrael was special. The Sforno has the same idea in the beginning of in in Parshas Shmos. So the pasuk says that

ומשה היה רעה את צאן יתרו חתנו וינהג את הצאן אחר המדבר ויבא אל הר האלהים חרבה.

So Moshe Rabbeinu goes to Har Sinai. So first of all the question is: is it coincidence that Moshe Rabbeinu goes there? Second of all the fact that the Torah refers to it already as Har Ha'elokim even though again it's obviously pre-Ma'amad Har Sinai. Okay. So obviously the second answer you could have answered al shem ha'asid and certainly the meforshim do give that answer in different contexts. But the Sforno says that on both of these questions, one he says explicitly, the other presumably he's implying, the Sforno says that he went there lehisboded ulehispalel. That Moshe Rabbeinu went, he wanted to be in solitude to and lehispalel and to daven. And presumably, I think my daughter showed me this the first time, this Sforno, and presumably that's what it means that Moshe Rabbeinu already had a sense even before Ma'amad Har Sinai that there was something special about this mountain and it's not just al shem ha'asid but he had a sensitivity to kedusha. Okay. So that's what perhaps the Torah is hinting at, the Midrash's search for the Ba'al Habira. Maybe just to reread two lines of the Rambam's again elaboration on this. If you have it it's perek aleph of hilchos avoda zara halacha gimmel. If you have it:

כיון שנגמל איתן זה התחיל לשוטט בדעתו והוא קטן ולחשוב ביום ובלילה

etcetera velibo mshotet umevin and again this process was ongoing, was continuous,

עד שהשיג דרך האמת והבין קו הצדק מדעתו הנכונה וידע שיש שם אלוה אחד והוא מנהיג הגלגל והוא ברא הכל ואין בכל הנמצא אלוה חוץ ממנו.

So I think what we're about to discuss is a correct diyuk. When the Rambam describes the beginning of Avraham Avinu's search, he says hitchil leshotet bedaito. When he describes Avraham Avinu's successful discovery of the truth of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he says השיג דרך האמת והבין קו הצדק מדעתו הנכונה. He describes, he characterizes Avraham Avinu's thinking, his intelligence, da'ato hanchonah. So it's pretty impressive that a three-year-old began the search as well, also pretty impressive, no? I think most parents or grandparents would have a lot of nachas from a three-year-old who's already holding by משוטט בדעתו ולחשוב ביום ובלילה. And yet the Rambam there, again just leshotet bedayto. He doesn't tell you, you know, look he was a precocious kid and he had a prodigious intellect, no, leshotet bedayto. He was thinking. Instead of just thinking about, you know, is the red crayon better than the orange crayon, so he was also thinking about he had other things on his mind as well. But why does the Rambam... okay so you'll say when he discovers the truth, so then that's when you pay the compliment. And that's true to a degree. But yitachen me'od that there's a deeper intent here in the Rambam as well. The Rambam describes that if we didn't have truth, if truth weren't taught to us in the Torah through our mesorah, if every person were expected to do things on his own without any instruction, without any tradition pointing us to the truth, the Rambam says that most people would die before figuring out the truth. Most people would die without figuring out is there a Ribbono shel Olam, isn't there a Ribbono shel Olam. He says the combination of the fact that it's a subtle and profound discipline and that people need to develop their intellects and there are so many preliminary prerequisites that a person needs to know and understand before he could figure things out himself, he says the overwhelming majority of people would die before figuring out the truth. He doesn't say, he does not say that the overwhelming majority of people wouldn't know or wouldn't have the capacity to ask the questions and start searching. He says the overwhelming majority of people wouldn't be able to bring that search to a successful conclusion. They wouldn't get to the finish line. They would begin their marathon but they wouldn't get to the finish line. The Rambam also writes, he says it about both ovdei avodah zarah as well as thinking Rachmana litzlan about Hakadosh Baruch Hu as a ba'al guf, he says that a poor chinuch or not having the subtlest or deepest of intellects is not no excuse because a person should recognize his own shortcomings and should defer if he's exposed to those who are ba'ale iyun and those who are ba'ale emes. Well, when you put those two realms together, so the impression, not the impression, I think what comes across pretty clearly is that whereas there's no expectation that the average person would, again, successfully figure out all the answers for himself without the benefit of Torah, without the benefit of a mesorah, there is a there is an expectation that people would have asked the questions and that people wouldn't or shouldn't be so shallow as to be content with an avoda zara belief system, an avoda zara ideology. What isn't realistic is to think that people on their own would have figured everything out because it's complicated. It takes a long time. It takes a certain grade of intellect. It takes being not not being too encumbered by other things. But to ask the question is something where, again, the message that comes across is that that would be expected. And that's why the Rambam says that a poor chinuch, to be educated to avoda zara, isn't an excuse. Because a person is expected to to be troubled by it. He's expected to raise questions about it even if he's not expected on his own to figure out the answers. And if he has access to ba'ale iyun, ba'ale emes, so then and and he's supposed to have the self-awareness to know that he with his inadequate chinuch should be deferring to those ba'ale iyun, those ba'ale emes. And uch'miduma that that's reflected here as well. The Rambam doesn't want to compliment Avraham Avinu for asking the questions even though mistama the Rambam would agree that he did so at age three when he was in nursery one was pretty impressive. I think the Rambam would agree that that was takeh that that's impressive. But the point is he doesn't want to compliment Avraham Avinu for that because that's takeh that's not his uniqueness. That that expectation is there from others as well. Avraham Avinu, I'm going to tell you, says the Rambam, about Avraham Avinu's greatness, I'm going to tell you about his superior intellect and reasoning because he's able to figure out the answers. But to be able to ask the questions, so that, again, even within an avoda zara-dikke society, you don't have to have Avraham Avinu's gifts for that to be an expectation, to raise the questions. So when you try to extrapolate from that, there's a lot it generates interesting questions, generates interesting questions. I don't know. Is it is it an adequate defense to say, Ribono Shel Olam, I was born into a Western culture that's obsessed with money and physical comfort and pleasure and is very, very, very much immersed in olam hazeh? So is that an adequate defense for a person not asking himself, is this really what life is all about? Is this really what makes life meaningful? Is there nothing more to life? It's sort of one big amusement park. What's the point of just sort of amassing money, amassing money, amassing money? So Kohelet says, לאיש אשר לא עמל בו ינחנו, so that when a person leaves this world, so someone else gets a windfall and yarshens a lot of money. And are those questions really beyond us? Well no, maybe despite the fact that so many, too many people in the society, in the Western world in which we live, are not asking those questions, are not thinking about those questions. But that's just the shoteh bedayto. Maybe that's just the analog to Avraham Avinu asking the question where Hakadosh Baruch Hu, where the Rambam doesn't highlight anything unique about Avraham Avinu. The compliment comes, the uniqueness, the singularity comes in terms of his superior intelligence because he's able to figure out all the answers without help, without getting guidance and receiving tradition and truth from baalei emet, baalei iyun. The Midrash uses the imagery of bira doleket. The Rambam talks about the galgal and the movement, I guess we would call it the movement of the planets and vechulu vechulu. The Midrash uses the imagery of bira achat doleket. So I once heard a pshat, I forget in whose name, a contemporary, that light, assuming that doleket translates as lit up—I mean you can translate doleket as burning, but assuming that the translation of doleket is that it's lit up—that light represents, again, what's good, it represents warmth, those are our associations with it. And I think there are even studies on Rachmana litzlan, I think now this time of year when we approach the leilei Tevet haarukim that there are even certain types of depression that there's more susceptibility to depression Rachmana litzlan when the balance between the day and the night, when there's so much more night than there is day. So we associate light, that light as opposed to darkness and warmth, are very, very positive associations. And mistama that it's not coincidental, right? המאיר לארץ ולדרים עליה ברחמים. That the one thing we single out is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he's me'ir la'aretz, he illuminates, he provides or, and we underscore berachamim. So then based on that, so the pshat suggested in this midrash is that Avraham Avinu didn't only discover the Borei Olam, didn't just discover that there was a brias ha'olam by a Borei Olam, but he also discovered something about the nature of brias ha'olam. He discovered that olam chesed yibaneh. And Chazal are including that in the mashal as well and that's why the mashal is about a birah dolekes. Just to clarify what's meant when one says that olam chesed yibaneh, it's not giving reasons for why HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world. We don't know why HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the world, we can't even think about that. You can't think about HaKadosh Baruch Hu before brias ha'olam, you can't think about HaKadosh Baruch Hu outside of the world. So to speculate why there was a brias ha'olam is to try to think about HaKadosh Baruch Hu before the world. You can't do that. Can't do that, that's beyond the capacity of the human intellect. What's meant by saying olam chesed yibaneh is the following: that this much without giving reasons for brias ha'olam, this much we can say. Pasuk says, this much we can say which is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is, actually we're holding after mincha and then the Yud Gimmel Ikkarim, that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is absolutely self-sufficient and independent. By definition brias ha'olam wasn't out of any need. It didn't fill any need. It wasn't that HaKadosh Baruch Hu, rachmana litzlan, is needy. It was the ultimate act of altruism. Again, why, we're not saying why. You can't think about that. But the description remains true and correct that as an act brias ha'olam is the ultimate act of chesed. No one had any claim on being created. None of us had any tvia to the Ribono Shel Olam, you owe it to me to create me. עד שלא נוצרתי איני כדאי. No one had any such tvia on HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So the whole world Avraham Avinu understood that also. He understood not only that there's a Borei Olam who created the world but that it's an olam of chesed. And that's what's reflected also in the imagery possibly of birah dolekes. אם כן אם דברים אלה, so then it would give a very beautiful perspective generally when we think of Avraham Avinu. So I guess the two primary and immediate associations you have with Avraham Avinu is one, hikir es boro, and two, תתן אמת ליעקב חסד לאברהם אבינו. And Avraham Avinu is the personification of chesed. According to this interpretation of the midrash, so then it's really shnayim shehem echad. Meaning Avraham Avinu became the personification of chesed because that was part of his discovery in terms of hikir es boro. I think the Rav has a remarkable, remarkable pshat in the Chazal. Chazal say that Avraham Avinu vayita eshel, achila shesiya lina, so he would, the travelers who would come, he'd bring them in and he'd serve them. And then he would tell them that they should thank HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And he used it as an instrument of kiruv. So the Rav says it wasn't stam, the way to a person's heart is with a good piece of kugel. I mean there's much truth to that also. But it wasn't, it's not only, not only. So Avraham Avinu would tell them to bench. If they would say no, so then Avraham Avinu would say, then you have to pay me. Why? Because Avraham Avinu says a pshat is like this. He says if you don't believe in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, there's no basis for chesed in the world. That's the kugel is mine, so why should I share it with you? Mah heichah taisi that I should share it with you? And if I do share it with you, then of course you should reimburse me, you should compensate me for that. Why should I be sharing it with you? Avraham Avinu says like this, if you believe, if you acknowledge that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, he didn't owe it to anyone, he created the world as an act of chesed. So then the world is an olam chesed, so avada that's the way we're supposed to interact with each other. So then of course, you're traveling and you're hungry and you're tired and you're thirsty, so of course I should do a chesed and I should give you food and drink and I should let you rest under my palm tree. But if there's no Ribbono Shel Olam and things were always here or whatever it is that you think, so there's no basis for chesed, so either pay up or bench. But there's no basis for chesed otherwise. So here too, the Rambam pshat also clearly, again I don't know whether in that context he doesn't associate it with the imagery of the dalakas, but clearly part of the discovery of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, what that includes is a recognition and understanding that the existence of the world is based on chesed and therefore that becomes a prime cardinal value in terms of how we're supposed to act and how we're supposed to conduct ourselves. And maybe just one final very short he'arah. Again, so the Rambam describes Avraham Avinu שהתחיל לשוטט בדעתו והוא קטן ולחשוב ביום ובלילה. The Rambam underscores the fact that Avraham Avinu's quest was incessant. He was just constantly preoccupied. It's very much and not coincidentally, not coincidentally the same description or definition that the Rambam has in the last halacha in Hilchos Teshuva,

דבר הידוע וברור שאין אהבת הקדוש ברוך הוא נקשרת בלבו של אדם עד שישגה בה תמיד כראוי ויעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנה.

That ahavas Hashem can't be a part-time pursuit. And that's the description of Avraham Avinu again, it was bayom uvalayla. There was nothing again, nothing sporadic, nothing intermittent about the, about the quest. Because it was bayom uvalayla, that was crucial. That was critical for the ultimate success of השיג דרך האמת והבין קו הצדק, the same way in terms of in pursuit of ahavas Hashem, that that same linkage holds true of the ישקע בו תמיד קבוע ויעזוב כל שבעולם חוץ ממנו. Okay, stop here.