Transcript

If you have a Rambam maybe we'll take a look in Perek Ches of Hilchos Teshuvah instead of starting with Siman Samech Ches in Shulchan Aruch. Anyone have one or? Maybe we'll do a little bit of Hilchos Teshuvah instead of starting with Siman Samech Ches. Any chance anyone has one? Okay, Perek Ches Halacha Aleph.

הטובה הצפונה לצדיקים היא חיי העולם הבא והם החיים שאין עמהם מות והטובה שאין עמה רעה הוא שכתוב בתורה למען ייטב לך והארכת ימים

Mipi hashemu'ah lamdu

למען ייטב לך לעולם שכולו טוב והארכת ימים לעולם שכולו ארוך

Vezehu ha'olam haba. So according to Rambam olam haba, which is translated as the world to come, doesn't mean that olam hazeh at a certain point is destroyed and then in its stead comes a different world of olam haba, which is a correct understanding according to others. But olam haba rather means from our vantage point. From our vantage point, meaning right now we're in olam hazeh, so olam haba is the next stop. But it's not that olam haba is the world to come in the sense that it's the world to be created, it's the world that Hakadosh Baruch Hu will bring into being. And so the Rambam comments in the last halacha of that perek:

וזה שקראו אותו חכמים עולם הבא לא מפני שאינו מצוי עתה וזה העולם אובד ואחר כך יבא אותו העולם אין הדבר כן אלא הרי הוא מצוי ועומד שנאמר מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליראיך פעלת ולא קראוהו עולם הבא אלא מפני שאותן החיים באין לו לאדם אחר חיי העולם הזה שאנו קיימים בו בגוף ונפש וזהו הדבר הנמצא לכל אדם בראשונה.

So it's referred to as olam haba from our vantage point. שכר הצדיקים הוא שיזכו לנועם זה ויהיו בטובה זו. The Rambam tells us explicitly in Halacha Daled that the use of noam here is intentional, that when we find for instance in Ledavid Hashem Ori, Lachazos benoam Hashem, that noam Hashem is one of the code phrases for olam haba. Halacha Daled: כמה שמות קראו לה דרך משל. There were various phrases, various terms that the pesukim use to refer to olam haba metaphorically: Har Hashem, Mekom Kodsho, Derech Hakodesh, Chatzros Hashem, Or Hashem, and Noam Hashem. and bet Hashem, and sha'ar Hashem, and at other times

והטפל קראו לו דרך משל ותלו הזהר הזמן לצדיקים סעודה. ובמקומות אחרים קראו לו סעודת צדיקים שיזכו לנועם זה ועם טוב הזהר. ועונש הרשעים שלא יזכו לחיים אלו אלא יכרתו וימותו. וכל מי שאינו זוכה לחיים אלו הוא המות שאינו חיה לעולם ואין לו זכר ואף כבהמה. וזהו הכרת הכתוב בתורה שנאמר הכרת תכרת הנפש ההיא עונה בה. מפי השמועה למדו הכרת בעולם הזה תכרת לעולם הבא כלומר שאותה הנפש שפירשה מן הגוף בעולם הזה אינה זוכה לחיים העולם הבא. אלא נכרתת גם מעולם הבא ואף כתוב.

So Rambam here speaks of one type of kares. I'm sorry, that that kares, rachmana litzlan, means kares from chayei olam haba. Ramban at the end of Parshas Acharei Mos, very very yesodadik Ramban, says if you look in the leshonot of the pesukim, the Torah talks about kares, the Torah has different leshonot. And Ramban says that kares can denote one of three different things depending on how the Torah formulates it.

והנה בכריתות בתורה שלשה ענינים. האחד שנאמר בו ונכרתה האיש ההוא. והשני שנאמר בהן ונכרתו הנפשות העושות ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מלפני.

Guess what? Not just the lashon kares but milfanai, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. והשלישי שנאמר בהן הכרת תכרת הנפש ההיא עונה בה, meaning the double lashon kares. All right? So one is there's a single lashon kares, venichresa. The second type of kares is also a single lashon kares but added milfanai. And the third is we have a double lashon kares, rachmana litzlan, hikares tikares.

וביאור הענין כי האוכל חלב ודם והוא צדיק והוא רוב זכויות אבל גבר תאותו עליו ונכשל בעבירה ההיא.

The Ramban says when a person is over on one of the chayvei krisot, but leaving that aveira chamura to the side, otherwise he's rov zachuyot. Otherwise he's rov zachuyot. So again, everything here is without teshuva. I'm talking about without teshuva. So then יכרתו ימיו וימות בנעורים קודם שיגיע לימי זקנה. So then the kares, that's venichresa ha'ish hahu. So then kares means olam hazeh. It means premature death, rachmana litzlan, in olam hazeh, which means before age 60. However, ein nafsho vehikares. But the kares does not relate at all to the nefesh.

יהיה לו חלק בעולם הנשמות כפי עבודת מעשיו הטובים כי צדיק היה ויהיה לו עוד חלק לעולם הבא הוא העולם שאחרי התחיה,

which is against the Rambam. ועל זה אמר ונכרתה האיש ההוא. So that's one type. ואשר עם החטא החמור ההוא יהיו עונותיו מרובים מזכויותיו. What happens if a person, rachmana litzlan, is over on one of the chayvei krisot and again leaving that aveira chamura to the side, to the side, he is also independently a rasha? That avonosav merubim mizchuyosav? So then

עונש הכרת שבעבירה החמורה מגיע לנפש החוטאת אחר שתפרד מן הגוף והיא נכרתת מחיי העולם הנשמות. ובמחויבי הכרת הזה רמז הכתוב ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מלפני.

Milfanai means it's from olam haba. However, the kares in quotations only... affects the person vis-a-vis olam habo. In terms of olam hazeh,

אלו אין להם כרת בגופם אלא פעמים שיחיה ויגיע לימים אלו וגם עד זקנה ושיבה כעניין שכתוב יש רשע מאריך ברעתו.

And there's kores chamur and the third type of kores is kores both in olam hazeh and also in olam habo, which dictates both premature death in olam hazeh as well as kores from olam habo. And that is when you have the double lashon. That's what the double lashon signifies.

ודרשו הכרת בעולם הזה תיכרת בעולם הבא. למה? שהוא ימות בנוער וודאי

again before yemei ziknah. And what's more,

שלא תחיה נפשו לתחיית המתים ואין לו חלק לעולם הבא. ואין כפל הכרת הזה האמור בתורה אלא בענייני עבודה זרה ומגדף. ורבותינו דרשו בו עוד במסכת שבועות כדבר שבא זה הפרק עול מגלה פנים בתורה ואת מצוותו הפר זה המפר ברית בבשר.

So davka by avodah zarah and then according to Chazal also the aveiros chamuros perek ol megaleh panim batorah. So then there's, then there's one that's left, the double, the double chiyuv kores. Again, a very different picture than what the Rambam gives us here. As the Mishnah quotes that the Ramban famously in the Toras Adam wrote to defend the Rambam that even though here in Halacha Alef the Rambam says that the puranus hareshaim is that they don't get olam habo, so the Rambam doesn't, sounds like they just, they just get no olam habo. And how does that work or so what does that mean? That there were no, what does that mean? It means that the punishment for someone who ate cheilev and the, and the punishment for Hitler and Stalin, yemach shemam, is just the same, the same punishment? And that nothing, there's no, there's no spectrum? And the Rambam doesn't delineate any of that. So he says, chas veshalom, in Perek Gimmel, Perek Gimmel, Hilchos Teshuvah, so there the Rambam does, there the Rambam does tell us that besides the ultimate punishment of not having cheilek leolam habo, there's also onesh Gehenom. It's just that it wasn't, that's here he's interested just in defining what olam habo is. Agav what olam habo is, he explains to us what kores is. So it's not his focus here to, to elaborate these points. But rachmana litzlan, the Rambam thinks that the, that the, that there isn't this, the same way there's a spectrum in schar, there's a spectrum in onesh as well.

הלכה ב. העולם הבא אין בו גוף וגווייה אלא נפשות הצדיקים בלבד בלא גוף כמלאכי השרת.

So in these two respects, so the Rambam differs from most of the Geonim and the Rishonim. A, again, it's really two, two sides of the coin, that olam habo isn't a future world, and B, that olam habo is, is only nefesh belo guf. And according to the, the other opinion, so olam habo taka is a future world, and it's a future world after techiyas hameisim when guf and nefesh are, are reunited. When in a mareh hanevuah or when malachim appear such as again, it's part of the mode of communication, that vision is part of a mode of communication. It's not that one is seeing an actual malach. A malach has no body.

וכל שאין בו גווייה אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה ולא כל הדברים שהגופות של בני אדם צריכים להם בעולם הזה.

Since in Olam Haba there are no bodies, so mi-meila there are no activities which are bodily, physical activities.

לא אכילה ולא שתייה ולא יהיה שם כל דבר מן הדברים שמארעים לגופות בעולם הזה.

And whatever is a function of physicality, whatever only happens, whatever can only be predicated of a physical being, will not be true of that future existence. כגון ישיבה ועמידה ושינה ומיתה ועצב ושחוק וכיוצא בהן. So here the Rambam, he took pains to underscore this point earlier in Perek Aleph of Yesodei Hatorah that not only activities like eating and drinking, לא אכילה ולא שתייה, such as changing position, sitting and standing, not only are these a function of physical existence, but emotions and change in mood are also a function of existing physically. And that's why the Rambam says that it's mi-yesodei ha-das to understand that if we take a look back in פרק א הלכה יא, so the Rambam writes speaking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, פרק א הלכה יא of Yesodei Hatorah, שכיון שנתברר שאינו גוף וגווייה. Once it's been established that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is incorporeal, so then mi-meila נתברר שלא יארעו לו אחד ממאורעות הגוף, it follows as a logical corollary that nothing which is a function of corporeality is true of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And in this context, so the Rambam has ולא ישיבה ולא עמידה. And then he says וכן לא כעס ולא שחוק ולא שמחה ולא עצבות that all these, again, not only is eating and drinking a function of corporeality, but moods and emotions and all those fluctuations are also a function of physical existence. Yitachen, it could be the Rambam just wants us to have an accurate picture of Olam Haba. Yitachen, he's also reinforcing, because whatever we understand about Olam Haba reinforces the yesod haemuna in terms of understanding Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So this is also a way of reinforcing what he told us earlier in Perek Aleph of Yesodei Hatorah.

כך אמרו חכמים הראשונים בעולם הבא אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה ולא תשמיש אלא צדיקים יושבים ועטרותיהם בראשיהם ונהנים מזיו השכינה.

So look at the next half line here, rabbosai.

הרי נתברר לך שאין שם גוף ושאין שם אכילה ושתייה.

It's mefurash in Chazal, I think it's in Gemara Berachot, that Chazal say explicitly: בעולם הבא אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה. The Ra'avad, who at the beginning of Perek Chelek has a long hassaga on the Rambam's whole conception of Olam Haba and where Techiyas Hameisim fits in, he has a whole hassaga in the Rambam's scheme, so he says פשוטה של זו הגמרא contradicts the Rambam. What's the chiddush that אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה if a person doesn't have a body? So obviously that's going to pose problems for what we're talking about, but what what what Chazal have to say? No more, no more espressos and no more Burger Kings, doesn't have a body, so obviously, so what what what Chazal to give us this whole list of אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה? So he says aderaba. And the Yad Rama clearly says that Olam Haba again is takeh a world to come after techiyas hameisim when guf v'nefesh are reunited. The chiddush is even though we do exist with guf v'nefesh, but it will still be a totally different type of existence, and and that's why Chazal takeh say אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה etc. So the Rambam obviously, the Yad Rama acts after the Rambam, the Rambam obviously knows of that taina against him. So the Rambam is saying aderaba, I think that that ma'amar Chazal supports me. Think of it, the Rambam, I think it's where does he spell this out? Maybe it's in Iggeres Techiyas HaMeisim, but the Rambam spells out that Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't do anything without purpose, that that it's he has in different places this yesod that it's the it's a reflection of chochma that whatever a person does is purposeful. And therefore kol shekain Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you can't say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu does does anything which isn't purposeful. So says the Rambam aderaba, he says אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה, so why would a person exist with a digestive system? If אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה, so then that would be levatala. And if and if there's no tashmish, so why why does a person exist with a reproductive system? So he says aderaba, he says the fact that that when Chazal tell you that אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה ולא תשמיש etc, so clearly what that means is it has to be that there's no guf because otherwise that becomes something which is which is purposeless and and he can't describe that chas v'shalom to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So the Yad Rama counters that as well. And the Yad Rama, the Yad Rama's answer to that is he says that the chayei Olam Haba come as a schar for chayei Olam Hazeh. The partnership that that earned the chayei Olam Haba was a partnership of guf v'nefesh. Guf v'nefesh together, a person a person does mitzvos be-guf va-nefesh, a person learns Torah be-guf va-nefesh. So hayos that it's that cooperative entity that that earned the schar of Olam Haba, so mimaila the schar of Olam Haba is given to that. And that's why he doesn't think that that's how he rebuts the Rambam's argument that that it's purposeless to have to have a guf of le-asid lavo if if it's not fulfilling any function. If there's no achila, shtiya, v'tashmish, in what way is the guf being mekabel schar? It's alive, it's it's it's part of this hybrid, it's part of this hybrid existence. Meaning it doesn't doesn't mean that the the guf is part of this this entity which which now is in the whole point according to the Yad Rama is is not to think of it in a dualistic sense but to think of it as one you know one one integrated partnership. So the fact that the chayei mitzvos are given and and is is partaking of the schar also and then in again a person is given the the schar in the same form that he earned the schar. That's how the Yad Rama rebuts that argument of the Rambam. But that's what the Rambam means here in this line

הרי נתבאר לך שאין שם גוף לפי שאין שם אכילה ושתייה,

that again that there is a the what he doesn't spell out here that he spells out elsewhere explicitly is that the Rambam thinks that it's futile to have a body if if it's not being called upon to to function and and to fulfill physical physical needs. וזה שאמרו צדיקים יושבין, so what does it mean that tzaddikim yoshvin? So what what's that a mashal for? Al derech achida, כל נפשות הצדיקים מצויין שם בלא עמל ולא יגיעה. In the same way, sitting represents relaxing, it doesn't require a person to expend energy. So that's what we mean that the existence that that's it's a metaphor for an existence again without strain, without stress, without exertion. וזה שאמר עטרותיהם בראשיהם, again so what's that a metaphor? There's no body so there's no head, so we're not talking about physical crowns.

כלומר דעה שידעו שבגללה זכו לחיי העולם הבא מצויה עמהם.

So what the atorah, what the crown represents is the knowledge of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in whose merit a person is זוכה לחיי העולם הבא. And the Rambam consistently for instance in if you take a look in פרק ט' הלכה א' is another example but you have it consistently in the Rambam. If you're looking in the Frankel it's the second line of the mid-sized lines after branched out to the left.

וכך הוא הצע הדברים הקדוש ברוך הוא נתן לנו תורה זו עץ חיים וכל העוסק בכל הכתוב בה ויודעו דעה גמורה נכונה זוכה בה לחיי העולם הבא לפי גודל מעשיו וגודל חכמתו יזכה.

So there has to be an element of yedi'ah as well. It's not it can't be purely ma'aseh there has to be an element of yedi'ah as well. So that's what's being reflected here in the Rambam as well. That's also part of the Rambam's whole approach in terms of why he identifies the yud gimmel ikkarim, the ikkarim of what a person has to know and believe.

וכן זה שאמר עטרותיהם בראשיהם כלומר דעה שידעו שבגללה זכו לחיי העולם הבא מצויה עמהם והיא העטרה שלהם.

That's what is metaphorically being depicted as a crown.

כעניין שנאמר שלמה בעטרה שעטרה לו אמו והרי הוא אומר ושמחת עולם על ראשם.

And I'll tell you a reiyah that rosh is used metaphorically.

ואין השמחה גוף כדי שתנוח על הראש. כך העטרה שאמרו חכמים כאן היא הדעה. ומהו זה שאמרו נהנין מזיו השכינה?

What's the enjoyment that Chazal are speaking of in Olam Haba? Again obviously it can't be any kind of physical bliss or enjoyment.

שיודעים ומשיגים מאמיתת הקדוש ברוך הוא מה שאינם יודעים והם בגוף האפל השפל.

So here again something the Rambam has taught us earlier as well that Chayei Olam Haba affords the possibility even for Moshe Rabbeinu, even for David veShlomo, even for the Avos, Chayei Olam Haba affords the possibility of the level, a degree of yedias Hashem which is impossible ba'olam hazeh. That no matter how great the person, the fact that we exist beguf vanefesh in Olam Haba, the Rambam says places a certain cap on our understanding and our capacity for ידיעת הקדוש ברוך הוא. And the Rambam said it earlier for instance in Perek Aleph of Yesodei HaTorah when he talks about Moshe Rabbeinu's bakasha הראיני נא את כבודך. So the Rambam says midway through Halacha Yud

שאין כוח בדעת האדם החי שהוא מחובר מגוף ונפש להשיג אמיתת דבר זה על בוריו.

That there is a level, there is a degree of yedias Hashem, again ultimate understanding even in Olam Haba, even when we exist purely spiritually, ultimate understanding we can't have. But within what is possible, so there's a difference between what even Moshe Rabbeinu, even the Avos, even David veShlomo can attain, can experience in Olam Haba as opposed to what they can experience in. guf ha'afel hashafel, guf ha'afel hashafel. The Rambam uses those two adjectives again to describe the ignorance and as it were spiritual shiflus which is inherent in existing physically. He has it in the end of Perek Alef when he says כל הדברים האלו. Again, mostly some fluctuations,

כל הדברים האלו אינם מצויים אלא לגוף האפל והשפל, שפל ובזוי כל אשר בעפר יסודם.

And then again very famously in Perek Beis of Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah:

וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן מיד ונרתע לאחוריו ויירא ויפחד וידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה.

So consistently that double, that couplet of adjectives shafel and afel, unenlightened, lowly, is the Rambam's description of what it means to exist physically. That's what it means in the Pasuk in Mishlei: vetischaq leyom acharon. So yom acharon means yom hamisoh, Rachmana litzlan. So what's the logic of vetischaq leyom acharon? How does that occasion the simcha? So it's that yetzias neshama is a process. Again, there's a moment at which that process is complete and then that's sha'as hamisoh, Rachmana litzlan. But it's a process. And as the connection between nefesh and guf, neshama and guf becomes weaker and becomes more tenuous, so then the nefesh, the neshama begins to experience some of that ziv hashechinah and that's what it means vetischaq leyom acharon. That's what the Rambam writes here in the last line of Halacha Gimmel:

וזהו השכר שאין למעלה ממנו והטובה שאין אחריה טובה והיא שהתאוו כל הנביאים.

That all the nevi'im craved Olam Haba. The pshat is as follows. Again, a person can desire Olam Haba in a very selfish, self-centered way because we have an instinct that we want to live and we don't want to die, and Olam Haba represents immortality. So if a person craves Olam Haba in that sense, so that's what the Rambam is describing in Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuva, Halacha Alef:

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא.

Ein ra'ui la'avod es Hashem al derech zeh, שעובד על דרך זה הוא עובד מיראה, ve'einah ma'alas hanevi'im. Befirush, einah ma'alas hanevi'im. Over here he says היא שהתאוו כל הנביאים, all the nevi'im are misaaveh to Olam Haba because the desire of Olam Haba can also stem from that desire leyedias Hashem, for kirvas Elokim. So on that level, it represents the most noble yearning and the most noble aspiration. When I'm misaaveh for chayei Olam Haba because I want, little me wants chayei netzach. So then that's Oveid mi-Yirah. When the Nevi'im yearn for it because they want Kirvas Elokim, they want that degree of Yedias Elokim which is only afforded by Olam Haba, so then that's a tremendous tremendous madreiga. The Nesivos Shalom in Hilchos Teshuva has a very very beautiful he'ara about these last three perakim in Hilchos Teshuva. What was he doing? It’s supposed to be Hilchos Teshuva. All of a sudden the Rambam forgot the forgot what the title is and Ahava and zman HaMoshiach and Oveid me-ahava, so mai hai? Why does the word Teshuva even appear in these last in these last three perakim? So the Nesivos Shalom says, again, too often we lose sight of the forest because of the trees. Again, we're so focused on the minutiae of Teshuva, I did aveira X so ניחמתי ובושתי ממעשי ואומר איני חוזר לדבר זה והתודו, we do need to be focused on that as well, but that shouldn't blur our understanding that ultimately what Teshuva means is שובו ישראל עד ה' אלקיך. The barriers of עונותיכם היו מבדילים ביניכם לבין אלקיכם. So avada, so therefore if there’s a wall, if there’s a wall between a parent who is trying to get to a child, a child is locked in the room, a parent who's trying to get to the child, so yes, the parent is focused on, he's got the battering ram and he's focused on knocking down the wall. But that's not what it's about. It’s not that this is an exercise in demolition. It's not that the ultimate goal is demolition. No, the ultimate goal is that there should be no barrier between the parent and the child, so that parent and child should be together again. So it's true, it's true that a person, we have to look cheit by cheit and we have to confront our failings cheit by cheit, mida ra by mida ra. But never to lose sight of the fact that ultimately what Teshuva is, is התקרבות הקדוש ברוך הוא, removing those mechitzos, those barriers which avonosenu create, which avonosenu comprise, which מבדילים בינינו לבין אלקינו, but the point of Teshuva is שובו ישראל עד ה' אלקיך. The point of Teshuva is as the Rambam describes so beautifully in perek zayin to become davek l'Shechina again. So mimaila, as a natural segue between that and what Olam Haba is and what it means to be Oveid me-ahava, that's what Teshuva is ultimately about. Teshuva ultimately about is about this coming closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this yearning to be close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and yearning once more to reach Hashem.