The Rambam's Hilchos Teshuvah, that the fact that the Rambam divided this into ten perakim was intentional to correspond to the aseres yemei teshuvah. And maybe we'll try to take a look a little bit at perek shemini, but maybe just perek shemini the Rambam talks about olam haba. So maybe before we begin with perek shemini, maybe just one or two observations and then אם ירצה השם בלי נדר hopefully that will segue into perek shemini. When the Rambam talks about teshuvah, he uses two different grammatical idioms. In פרק א הלכה א, the Rambam talks about yashuv mechato. Elsewhere, for instance in perek zayin, you find especially just in the pesukim that the Rambam quotes, the pesukim talk about ושבת עד השם אלוקיך in parshas nitzavim. What we just read Shabbos Shuvah, שובה ישראל עד השם אלוקיך. So the teshuvah is not described as a, as it were, there's a point of departure for teshuvah and there's a destination. And it's important to in thinking of teshuvah and trying to do teshuvah and hopefully be'ezras Hashem experience teshuvah, it's important to realize both ends of the spectrum. Yashuv mechato means that teshuvah is an act of moving away from cheit, that a person is distancing himself from cheit. That's what the idiom of yashuv mechato. And certainly that's an intrinsic, indispensable part of teshuvah. We need to understand how and why we became entangled in cheit and mired in cheit and we need to know how we're going to make good on our resolve of לעולם איני חוזר לדבר זה. So teshuvah involves moving away. Teshuvah on one level is defined as moving away: yashuv mechato. But there is a potential pitfall, one which when one describes it logically it seems absurd, it seems ridiculous that a person could ever stumble. And yet, maybe the way to hone in is as follows. What do you say about the following snapshot? A person is bent over and he's saying viduy, he's klapping al cheit, and he's klapping al cheit, I don't know, let's say for the deos raos that the Rambam enumerates in zayin gimmel. He's klapping al cheit for kaas, just as the Rambam says כל המאריך בעניין זה. and insidious midda ra'ah of ka'as and and how it then triggers rachmana litzlan ever chet and a person says what he shouldn't say when he's mika'as, a person does what he shouldn't do when he's mika'as, and and he's ma'arich in in this direction. And similarly in in eivah and in kinah. So let's say we see a snapshot of such a person saying vidduy and he's bent over, you see the, you see the the pain, the anguish reflected in in his face and he's again, talking about the, the re'us of this midda ra'ah, of, of this chet. So, so what's our reaction? So he's, he's sort of captured what tshuva is about. Tshuva is is encapsulated in, in, in this vidduy, in this snapshot, or something's missing? What's missing from the snapshot is Ribbono Shel Olam. Sometimes as as absurd as as this sounds when, when we articulate it, sometimes we sort of spin off chet and it takes on a life of its own, and and I'm misvadeh because ka'as is a bad thing. I'm misvadeh because talking lashon hara is is is a bad thing, which they are. But the reason they're bad things is because Ribbono Shel Olam created the world that way, that they're bad things, and He told us that they're bad things. And in the al chet shechatanu, we have to be very, very careful not to gloss over the lifanecha. Otherwise there is something missing from that otherwise very beautiful snapshot of tshuva, that lifanecha. And and that's the second direction of tshuva, that tshuva is not only a, a movement of recoil away from chet, but it's also a movement forward to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, yosher meichait, but there's also ושבת עד השם אלוקיך שובה ישראל עד השם אלוקיך. And to aspire to do tshuva, and be'ezras Hashem to then actually hopefully, hopefully, הבא לטהר מסייעין אותו to hopefully do tshuva, so we have to be aware of both of those directions. It's a movement away, but it's also a movement towards. That's sort of the general background. The last three perakim of Hilchos Tshuva are their placement, their inclusion within Hilchos Tshuva is is not immediately obvious, the rationale for that inclusion within Hilchos Tshuva is not immediately obvious. The Rambam, I don't think he, I don't think he mentions, I don't think the word tshuva or, I don't think he says anything about tshuva in the last three perakim. He finishes his discussion of tshuva at the end of at the end of perek zayin, and then perek ches is Olam Haba, perek tes is berachos utefillos and yemos Hamashiach, and perek yud is is ahavas Hashem. So the Nesivos Shalom says, because that's the natural, I don't know if this is exactly how he says it, but this is the the basic thrust of of what the Nesivos Shalom says, no, this is the natural continuum because tshuva again, the forward movement of tshuva is ad Hashem Elokecha. Ad Hashem Elokecha. The ultimate kiruv to Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in olam haba. The ultimate, the way a person earns that kiruv is in olam hazeh, but the ultimate kiruv is in olam haba. So the natural, the ultimate destination, the ultimate end point of teshuvah is chayei olam haba. That's a pshat in the Rambam at the beginning of Perek Zayin, when the Rambam says, הואיל וסוף כל אדם למות וסמוך לתשובה ועוונותיו ישתדל האדם לעשות תשובה ולעמוד מכף מחטאיו כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה כדי שיזכה לחיי העולם הבא.
It's not that the Rambam is introducing here an element of shelo lishma into the teshuvah. Rather, the Rambam has in hilchos teshuvah, he has that really amazing, amazing drasha where he talks about the whole structure of hilchos teshuvah and he explains that Perek Zayin of hilchos teshuvah is where even though he doesn't use the phrase, the Rambam is depicting teshuvah mei'ahava. So teshuvah mei'ahava, the perek of teshuvah mei'ahava, the Rambam is introducing with you know, he's telling us don't forget we're all mortal and so כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה ויזכה לחיי העולם הבא. Look, because ויזכה לחיי העולם הבא, that's the ultimate destination of teshuvah in terms of the forward movement of teshuvah, in terms of the שובה עד השם אלוהיך. So the ultimate destination is כדי שימות והוא בעל תשובה כדי שיזכה לחיי העולם הבא.
And that's the, that's how the last three perakim connect to hilchos teshuvah. So maybe just we'll try at least maybe Halacha Aleph and then I'm not sure how much more we'll get to. So the Rambam writes here in Perek Ches Halacha Aleph, הטובה הצפונה לצדיקים היא חיי העולם הבא. והם החיים שאין עמהם מות והטובה שאין עמה רעה.
It's unadulterated, unpure, pure tovah, eternal, eternal life. Hu shekasuv batorah למען ייטב לך והארכת ימים. מפי השמועה למדו למען ייטב לך לעולם שכולו טוב והארכת ימים לעולם שכולו ארוך. וזהו עולם הבא. שכר הצדיקים הוא שיזכו לנועם זה ויהיו בטובה זו.
The Rambam tells us later in Halacha Daled, if you just jump ahead for a moment, rabosai, that in nach so we find different metaphorical terms for olam haba. וכמה שמות קראו לה דרך משל. Har Hashem, mecom kodsho. Apparently the Rambam learns pshat in the kappitel of L'David Mizmor that it's not referring to the Beis Hamikdash but the way the Rambam understands the kappitel, it's referring to olam haba. Chatzros Hashem, ohel Hashem. And here's the phrase that the Rambam is already drawing upon in Halacha Aleph, noam Hashem. Lachzos b'noam Hashem. Again, according to the Rambam, it doesn't mean in the Beis Hamikdash o levaker beheichalo, but these, these phrases, the Rambam says, are referring to olam haba. שכר הצדיקים הוא, again back to Halacha Aleph, שיזכו לנועם זה ויהיו בטובה זו. ופורענות הרשעים הוא שלא יזכו לחיים אלו אלא יכרתו וימותו.
The ultimate schar is to merit olam haba, the ultimate onesh rachmana litzlan is to forfeit olam haba. וכל מי שאינו זוכה לחיים אלו הוא המת שאינו חיה לעולם אלא נכרת ברשעו ואובד כבהמה. וזהו הכרת הכתוב בתורה שנאמר הכרת תכרת הנפש ההיא עונה בה. מפי השמועה למדו הכרת בעולם הזה תכרת לעולם הבא. כלומר שאותה הנפש שפרשה מן הגוף בעולם הזה אינה זוכה לחיי העולם הבא אלא גם מן העולם הבא נכרתה.
So the Rambam here partially agrees with the Ramban, partially. The Ramban at the end of Parshas Acharei Mos is medayek that the Torah defines three different types of leshonos in the Torah, three different formulations when the Torah speaks of kares. Sometimes the Torah has a lashon of ונכרתה האיש ההוא מעמיו. V'nichrasa ha'ish hahu. The kares the Torah speaks of in terms of the ish. Sometimes you have venichresu hanefashos ha'osos where the kareis is related not to the ish but the kareis is related to the nefesh. And sometimes you find that with a double lashon of kareis, הכרת תכרת הנפש ההיא עונה בה, in the pasuk for instance that the Rambam here is quoting. So the Ramban says that kareis means any of three different things as reflected in these different leshonos. When the Torah talks about venichras ha'ish hahu, so that kareis is a kareis which means that a person, rachmana litzlan, dies prematurely in olam hazeh. It doesn't affect him in what the Ramban describes as olam haneshamos and olam haba. It only affects the person in olam hazeh. That's why the Torah speaks of kareis without mentioning nefesh. It only speaks of venichras ha'ish hahu. When would that be? When would that punishment, rachmana litzlan, be for whom? So Ramban says if you take any of the chayvei krisos, he gives the example let's say of cheilev and dam. Let's say a person who basically he lived a good life, he was rov zechuyos and mi'at avonos. Whatever reason, gavar ta'avaso and bemeizid he ate cheilev, he ate dam and didn't do teshuvah. Didn't do teshuvah. So then, then the onesh is venichras ha'ish hahu, meaning the kareis affects the person in olam hazeh. It doesn't affect him in olam haneshamos, in olam hazeh. What if that same person who violates bemeizid one of the chayvei krisos didn't lead a good life? He was rubo avonos and only mi'at zechuyos. So then it would be the second category of venichresu hanefashos ha'osos, of ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מלפני. So then the kareis would affect him but only the nefesh. It wouldn't affect him in olam hazeh, it would only affect him l'achar misa. And then the Ramban says that in terms of what you find mefurash in Torah Shebichtav by avoda zara and megadef, and those are the only examples you find mefurash in Torah Shebichtav, so there the avon, rachmana litzlan, is so chamur that הכרת תכרת הנפש ההיא עונה בה. So the kareis is something which affects the person both in olam hazeh and subsequently in olam hazeh, dying prematurely, rachmana litzlan, and that the nefesh is also, also cut off. So that's what the Ramban says, the leshonos of krisos in the Torah are not all of a chad machta. He has these three classes. In the Rambam it's quite clear that he has at least two classes because if you go back again to the Mishna at the beginning of Krisos lists off all of the chayvei krisos for us. If you go back to Perek Gimmel, so in Perek Gimmel the Rambam gives a list of אלו שאין להם חלק לעולם הבא. And of the chayvei krisos, I think the only thing from that list of chayvei krisos which is in the Rambam's list of אלו שאין להם חלק לעולם הבא is ovdei avoda zara. None of the other chayvei krisos are there. So in the Rambam it's quite clear that again he has at least two of the two types of kareis the Torah speaks of. He has the kareis again which affects a person in terms of, rachmana litzlan, losing his olam haba. It's that which he lists here in Perek Gimmel again when you look at the list in Perek Gimmel here, the only list of the is not cheilev, is not dam, is not any of these, is not kareis, rachmana litzlan, eating during Yom Kippur. None of those chayvei krisos are in the list in Perek Gimmel. So it seems quite clear that it's that again the Rambam also has a kareis which means forfeiture of olam haba, rachmana litzlan, but then most of the time the Torah is talking about kareis, the overwhelming majority of the time the Torah is only talking about kareis in olam hazeh. The Rambam pretty clearly what's reflected here in Perek Gimmel, Hilchos Teshuva, the Rambam says it explicitly also in the Hakdama to Perek Cheilek after he lists the Yud-Gimmel Ikkarim, which is most of what he's listing here in Perek Gimmel, Hilchos Teshuva as well. So the Rambam says that if a person is guilty of denying any of the Yud-Gimmel Ikkarim, so then he loses his olam haba. He says any other avon... And he doesn't distinguish between whether or not the rishus included shfichas damim and eating on Yom Kippur or only lesser aveiros. So the Rambam also has clearly at least two very different types of kares. So on the one hand, a cheit that says וזהו כרת הכתוב בתורה means וזהו כרת הכתוב בתורה in that pasuk. It doesn't mean, the Rambam doesn't mean וזהו כרת הכתוב בתורה that every time we see the lashon kares in the Torah. וזהו כרת הכתוב בתורה in this pasuk of הכרת תכרת הנפש ההיא. There's another extraordinary idea which the Rambam here communicates. When he says that a person rachmana litzlan a rasha, again, עיין לעיל פרק ג, a rasha who forfeits his cheilek, who has no cheilek l'Olam Haba, so he says ela nichras b'risho, and then he adds these two words v'oveid kabb'heima. It seems like sort of an insult, a almost gratuitous insult. But ela mai, it's actually an extraordinary, extraordinary idea that the Rambam is reminding us of, that he's reinforcing. An indispensable component of being zoche l'Olam Haba, alongside a person's maiseh, is a person's belief, a person's yediah, particularly of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Whenever the Rambam talks about Olam Haba, for instance in Perek Tes, so if you take a look in פרק ט הלכה א, so around 40% of the way, 35% of the way into Halacha Aleph, if you're looking in a Frankel, it's in the mid-sized lines: הקדוש ברוך הוא נתן לנו תורה זו עץ חיים וכל העושה כל הכתוב בה ויודעו דעה גמורה נכונה זוכה בה לחיי העולם הבא.
And again the Rambam right away reiterates that combination, לפי גודל מעשיו וגודל חכמתו הוא זוכה. That alongside the maiseh that a person does, so the yediah, the knowledge, the emuna is indispensable. That's why the Rambam formulated the Yud Gimmel Ikrim, that's why the Rambam famously writes at the end of Peirush Hamishnayos Brachos, he digresses to discuss something which isn't so directly relevant to Peirush Hamishnayos, but it touches on yesodei ha'emuna. And the Rambam says because what's dearest to me from everything I can teach is something which relates to yesodus ha'emuna. Okay, so that element of yodeio, of chochmaso, is an indispensable element alongside the maiseh in terms of a person being zoche l'chayei Olam Haba. Moreover, the Rambam says that capacity that a person has for that knowledge, the capacity that a person has for ידיעת הקדוש ברוך הוא, for knowledge which is totally abstract, which relates to things in ultimately Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which is not physical, the Rambam says that capacity is the tzelem Elokim that a person has. And the Rambam says what's more, all this is in the Rambam in פרק ד הלכות יסודי התורה, the Rambam says it's the nefesh, not fully explaining the Rambam's schema, but it's the nefesh again which attains that knowledge which is eternal. It's the tzelem Elokim when a person is born with a potential tzelem Elokim, the tzelem Elokim is... It's potential in the sense that it's the potential for knowledge of the non-corporeal, meaning ultimately hakadosh baruch hu, and then the tzelem elokim is actual when a person acquires such a such knowledge. He has belief in hakadosh baruch hu, that's the baseline, that's the threshold of that knowledge. So then the tzelem elokim is no longer potential but it's actual. And it's that and it's through that, through that realizing of the tzelem elokim, it's that which is nitzchi about a person. So what the Rambam says here is something amazing when he says וכל שאינו זוכה לחיים אלו הוא מת שאינו חי לעולם ונכרת ברשעו ואבד כבהמה.
So what would we, let's say if you imagine, let's say independent of this whole discussion, let's say you take a person and you rid the person, you divest the person of his tzelem elokim. So you would say that he's a gorilla who walks upright. He's a slightly way more sophisticated, it's a better working version of a gorilla but mima nafshach that's what a person is. If you take a person and you take away his tzelem elokim, he's not a person. What makes a human being human, what's uniquely human about us is our tzelem elokim. You take a person and he doesn't exercise that potential, that capacity to be a tzelem elokim. So that's what the Rambam is saying here, it's non-definitive of itself, but what the Rambam is saying is it's an amazing, amazing idea, what the Rambam is saying that the natural destiny of a person, a person is created betzelem elokim, he's created with that capacity. It's not that nitzchiyus is sort of something superimposed upon being human. No, that's the natural, natural calling of a person. A person's betzelem elokim, so as such he's on track that he should become nitzchi because the tzelem elokim is this ability to, again, alongside ma'asim to know hakadosh baruch hu, to connect to hakadosh baruch hu, and it's that tzelem elokim which is the source of a person's nitzchiyus. V'isda'ach, says the Rambam, he doesn't mean it as an insult. He's saying that a person who ends up being nichras berisho, it means that he had no tzelem elokim. It means that he uprooted the tzelem elokim from himself. To be human, to be human, yes, in terms of olam hazeh means to be mortal, but on a different level, to be human really means to have chayei nitzchi because to be human is, what's uniquely human is that capacity, that endowment, that potential to realize, to actualize a tzelem elokim, which is our nitzchiyus. Halacha bet. עולם הבא אין בו גוף וגוייה v'tzarich iyun what the difference between those two words is. אלא נפשות הצדיקים בלבד בלא גוף כמלאכי השרת. The Rambam famously thinks that olam haba is not guf uneshama together but it's just the nefesh. עולם הבא אין בו גוייה אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה ולא דבר מן הדברים שגופות בני אדם צריכים להם בעולם הזה ולא יארע בו דבר מן הדברים שאירע הגופות בעולם הזה,
and nothing happens, nothing can be predicated of the nefesh in olam haba which is a function of physicality, כגון ישיבה ועמידה ושינה ומיתה ועצב ושחוק וכיוצא בהן. All the, the whole spectrum of psychological, emotional reactions and fluctuations, all of that is a function of physicality. כך אמרו חכמים שם עולם הבא אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה ולא תשמיש אלא צדיקים יושבים ועטרותיהם בראשיהם ונהנים מזיו השכינה.
Haray nitba'er lach, says the Rambam, since this is a rayah from Chazal to the conception that I am telling you of Olam HaBa, says the Rambam, Haray nitba'er lach, says the Rambam, שאין שם גוף לפי שאין שם אכילה ושתייה. So the Yad Ramah in, in his essay at the beginning of Perek Chelek in his commentary on Sanhedrin, so he he turns around and says, he says the פשוטם פשוטם של דבר that maamar Chazal is against the Rambam. If we say that Olam HaBa is guf veneshama together and the techiyat hametim ushers in Olam HaBa. For the Rambam, techiyat hametim is a vaday a vaday a vaday techiyat hametim, it does not usher in Olam HaBa. But if you are saying no, like the majority opinion, that Olam HaBa is guf veneshama together, so then Chazal takke have to tell us despite the fact that Olam HaBa is guf veneshama together, you should know that it is going to be different than than the the way guf veneshama lived in Olam HaZeh, it is going to be אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה etcetera. According to the Rambam, be-kitzur just say that עולם הבא אין בו גוף. Ain bo guf and, okay, so obviously then it just naturally logically follows that אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתייה. So the Yad Ramah turns around and says no, this is the פשוטה פשוטם של דבר is against the Rambam's conception. So what is pshat the Rambam? It follows the devarim shel HaRambam. Let us say let us say you have a gabbai tzedakah and and for instance you have a family that is homeless. Family is homeless. So he is looking to to raise money to be able to have a few months' rent to get them a roof over their heads. So he can walk into walk into shul and give a patch on the tisch, rabosai, I am collecting for a poor family who is homeless, please please give generously. Or he can take a few extra moments and he can say I am collecting for a family who when it is cold, frigid cold, they have no place to retreat, no place of refuge from the cold. When it is when they are tired, when they want to come into a private abode, it does not exist for them. And he can describe, depict just some, does not even need to give all, but some of the consequences of of what it means rachmana litzlan to be homeless. So on the one hand it is all unnecessary because obviously we know that a rachmana litzlan family is homeless, if it is raining they are going to be drenched and and at night they are sleeping on a park bench and they can get mugged and and we know all of that. So he is not really telling us anything we do not know, yet on the other hand there is no question that it impresses upon us by by spelling out at least some of the consequences it drives home the point that their life is just totally totally different. And the fact that it can be summed up by saying they are homeless we would think, oh, okay, so this is one difference between them and us, so we have a home and they do not have a home. No, the one difference makes all the difference in the world and and so we would not think that it was gratuitous of the gabbai tzedakah to give that drasha. What the Rambam is would tell us is that Chazal Chazal could have just said עולם הבא אין בו גוף. But ain bo guf we still might have somehow or other I do not know thought of Olam HaBa sort of well everything must be an analog to Olam HaZeh. Okay so we can't really understand how it is but Olam HaBa so so we whenever the time to open a bottle of scotch and so somehow or other in Olam HaBa so there is some we do not quite know a spiritual spiritual bottle of scotch like that. You could have and we probably would have To some degree, on some level, even once told that Olam Haba there's no guf. Okay, so there's a difference between that family and us. They have no home, we have a home. No, there's not one difference. There's all the differences in the world between a homeless family and someone who has a roof over their head. There's not one difference between chayei Olam Haba and chayei Olam Hazeh. There's no overlap, there's no point of intersection, there's no commonality, there's no common denominator ki zehu zeh. That's what Chazal emphasize by saying אין בעולם הבא לא אכילה ולא שתיה. Everything that we define, that frames our life and our experience in Olam Hazeh, all of that, all of those categories, again it's not just that there's some counterpart, some analog, no, all those categories are totally, totally irrelevant. It's what the Rambam writes later in the perek. Halacha Zayin. כמה חמד דוד והתאווה לחיי העולם הבא, כמה חמד דוד או חמד דוד והתאווה לחיי העולם הבא, שנאמר לולא האמנתי לראות בטוב ה' בארץ חיים. כבר הודיעונו חכמים הראשונים שטובת העולם הבא אין כח באדם להשיגה על בוריה ואין יודע גודלה ויופיה ועוצמה אלא הקדוש ברוך הוא לבדו ושכל הטובות שמתנבאים בהן הנביאים לישראל אינן אלא לדברים של גוף שנהנין בהן ישראל בימות מלך המשיח בזמן שתחזור הממשלה לישראל אבל טובת חיי העולם הבא אין לה ערך ודמיון.
So you can't, there can't be a mashal. There's no mashal to give. There's no mashal to give. ולא דמוה הנביאים כדי שלא יפחתו אותה בדמיון. הוא שישעיהו אומר עין לא ראתה אלקים זולתך יעשה למחכה לו. כלומר הטובה שלא ראה אותה עין נביא ולא ראה אותה אלא אלקים עשה אותה אלקים לאדם שמחכה לו, יעשה למחכה לו. אמרו חכמים כל הנביאים כולן לא נתנבאו אלא לימות המשיח אבל עולם הבא עין לא ראתה אלקים זולתך.
And that's what, that's the Rambam's answer to the Ra'avad. Ein hachi nami, you could have just said עולם הבא אין בו גוף. The gabbai tzedaka can get up and make his appeal and say there's a homeless family, please give. But if he really wants us to impress the point, if he really wants us to understand fully the significance of it, he's going to give a little drasha, he's not going to just say that there's a homeless family. Okay, a gut yohr, a gut voch, shavuah tov.