Transcript

at the beginning of Parshas Kedoshim after the Ramban's very fundamental discussion of Kedoshim Tiyu, perhaps we'll come back to that if we have time at the end. But for now if you see where it says וטעם הכתוב שאמר כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם. Right after the discussion of Kedoshim Tiyu. You see where that is? Okay, so I just want to start, you see it? Let's read. The Ramban on Kedoshim Tiyu is a bit of a lengthy exposition and then at the end of that, he says

וטעם הכתוב שאמר כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם לומר שאנחנו נזכה לדבקה בו בהיותנו קדושים. והנה זה כענין הדיבור הראשון בעשרת הדברות. וצוה איש אמו ואביו תיראו כנגד מצות כבד את אביך ואת אמך וצוה את שבתותי תשמורו כנגד מצות זכור את יום השבת לקדשו שם צוה על הזכירה וכאן צוה על השמירה.

So the Ramban he shortly will quote Chazal from the Medrash Rabbah who already point out this parallelism between the mitzvos here at the beginning of Parshas Kedoshim with the Aseres Hadibros. The Ramban says so איש אמו ואביו תיראו corresponds to כבד את אביך ואת אמך, es Shabbosai tishmoru corresponds to and complements just as mora av va'em corresponds to and complements kibbud av va'em so too es Shabbosai tishmoru corresponds to and complements

זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. שם צוה על הזכירה וכאן צוה על השמירה.

But that first correspondence and complementarity the Ramban points out is between כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם and Anochi Hashem Elokecha. So that needs to be understood a little bit. Noch amol. So let's just reread:

וטעם הכתוב שאמר כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם לומר שאנחנו נזכה לדבקה בו בהיותנו קדושים.

Okay, so first of all the pishat of the pasuk of Kedoshim Tiyu כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם is you need to be kedoshim because understood since I am kadosh the only way you can attain dveikus is if you too will be kedoshim. Right? Since כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם so mimaila that's why there's an imperative that you be kedoshim because to be misdabek b'Hakadosh Baruch Hu who is kadosh, so it is absolutely necessary that you be kedoshim. So that's the pishat of the pasuk. And then the Ramban says this corresponds to Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Now the Ramban earlier in Parshas Yisro I think we saw this Ramban bisheito in explaining the pasuk of Anochi Hashem Elokecha so the Ramban says as follows.

הדבור הזה מצות עשה אמר אנכי ה' יורה ויצוה אותם שידעו ויאמינו כי יש ה' והוא אלהים להם.

So the Mitzvas Aseh of Anochi Hashem Elokecha is to know that Hashem Elokecha. Now the Ramban says these two words are so laden with meaning. The two words are Hashem Elokecha. יורה ויצוה אותם שידעו ויאמינו כי יש ה' you should know י-ק-ו-ק and you should know that he is Elokecha. Now what does that mean? So the Ramban explicates for us everything which is compressed into those two words of Hashem Elokecha. כלומר הוה קדמון מאתו היה הכל בחפץ ויכולת. The name Havayah reflects existence, reflects existence in a double sense. First of all it reflects existence in the sense that Hakadosh Baruch Hu always exists and second of all it reflects existence in the sense that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the source, willingly, voluntarily is the source of everything else that exists. Right? So that's klomar to know Hashem Elokecha. So it means

כלומר הוה קדמון מאתו היה הכל בחפץ ויכולת. והוא אלהים להם שחייבם בעבודתו.

And Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not just Elokim, the Ba'al Yecholes, but he's Elokecha, he's Elokim lahem in the sense that he is your sovereign shachayavam ba'avodaso. Okay so clearly, clearly, ikarei emunah, ikarei das. But what's it got to do with dveikus? Nothing in Anochi Hashem Elokecha is talking about dveikus. So what does our Ramban mean when he says

וטעם הכתוב שאמר כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם לומר שאנחנו נזכה לדבקה בו בהיותנו קדושים?

The flow of the pasuk of קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם is to say that you need and are obligated to be kedoshim because I am kadosh and therefore the only way you can be misdabek be is behiyosem kedoshim. Okay so that's also דברים העומדים ברומו של עולם obviously. But what does it mean והנה זה כענין הדבור הראשון בעשרת הדברות? So it's clear from the Ramban, clear from the Ramban as follows: that it's the core, it's integral to the chiyuv avodas Hashem that a person seeks dveikus. Right? The only way these two mitzvos correspond in the same way איש אמו ואביו תיראו and כבד את אביך ואת אמך, the same way as shabbososai tishmoru and זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, those couplets correspond and complement each other, so too the Ramban says in the same way, in the same vein, Anochi Hashem Elokecha and קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני ה' אלהיכם correspond and complement each other. So the pshat is that the chiyuv of avodas Hashem, so on one level, what's the chiyuv avodas Hashem? Chiyuv avodas Hashem is to eat matzah at the seder, is to take a lulav on yom rishon of Succos, to eat kosher food and not eat non-kosher food. That's the chiyuv avodas Hashem. But on another level, the chiyuv avodas Hashem is through compliance, observance of his mitzvos to attain dveikus. That's what Hashem Elokecha, which says that anachnu chayavim la'avodo, and that is oriented towards achieving dveikus. If one would want to paraphrase that in the leshonos that the Rabbanim employed in different contexts, by Chanukah, so the ma'aseh hamitzvah is the hadlakah, but the kiyum hamitzvah is the pirsumei nisa and so forth, and in so many different contexts. Like Krias Shema, so there's a ma'aseh hamitzvah of reading the parshiyos, but the kiyum is obviously a kiyum shebalev. So if you talk about Torah u'mitzvos b'chlalusan, so the ma'aseh is, again, is the compliance, the observance, but the kiyum is that pursuit. That she'ifah for, that pursuit of dveikus. And that's what the Ramban says, that just as ush'martem es mitzvosai corresponds to and complements זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, just as איש אמו ואביו תיראו corresponds to and complements כבד את אביך ואת אמך, so too קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני, that the way to be mizdabek b'Hashem is to be kadosh corresponds to and complements anochi Hashem Elokecha. In the tefillah that we have appended to our Shmoneh Esrei, Elokai Netzor Leshoni, so there are different nuschaos. One nusach is אחרי מצוותיך תרדוף נפשי. So then it translates that my soul should pursue Your mitzvos. Lirdof acharei, the idiom in Hebrew, to chase, so just as in English, how they can say to chase after something, so too loshon hakodesh is lirdof acharei. But some have the nusach of uv'mitzvosayich tirdof nafshi. So if it's uv'mitzvosayich, so then the translation is with Your mitzvos. The beis can imply instrument, the instrument that you're employing. So uv'mitzvosayich tirdof nafshi means that my soul pursues, chases, with Your mitzvos. But then what's the object? So then the object is unspecified. So the answer is, oh, the object is obvious. Uv'mitzvosayich tirdof nafshi means that נפשי תרדוף אחריך במצוותיך, employing Your mitzvos as instruments, ובמצוותיך תרדוף נפשי אחריך. And the Ramban is saying, that's at the core. That's not a middas chasidus, it's not for the tzaddikei hador, it's for every one of us. It's for all of us. Uv'mitzvosayich tirdof nafshi,

קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני ה' אלוהיכם, שאנחנו נזכה לדבקה בו בהיותנו קדושים, הנה זה קנין הדיבור הראשון שבעשרת הדיברות.

This is, again, corresponding to and complementing the most basic yesod hayesodos that there is. In other context in life, so we sort of intuitively, even instinctively, recognize that. People go to school, they go to school with a goal in mind. They don't just go to class and take exams. No, you go to class and take exams because you want to be pre-med, you want to be pre-law, you want... okay, I need to take the class, that's what I need to do, but there's a goal. It's she'ifos which contextualize. which frame everything a person does. It should be that way, otherwise a person is just sort of wandering. It's supposed to be that way. And lehavdil, avodas Hashem is also framed by by by she'ifos. And if you just go a little bit forward here in the Ramban, ואמר וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים, it's right after the Ramban quotes the Midrash Rabbah which which also establishes the correspondence between the mitzvos of Parshas Kedoshim and the aseres hadibros. Right after that,

ואמר וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים. ואמר וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים, כי אחרי שעשה הזביחה וכל עבודה.

Right? So the parsha ואמר וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים is is the parsha of here of of the of pigul. That that you're not allowed to shacht something, not only with a machshava of chutz lizmano, which the Torah has already told us about in Parshas Tzav, but with a machshava of chutz limkomo as well. You can't have in mind that that you're shachting it to to eat it chutz limkomo, to eat it outside of the prescribed makom achila etc. So that's the parsha ואמר וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים. So says the Ramban as follows: כי אחרי שעשה הזביחה וכל עבודה לאלילים ולאלוהי מסכה, right? The previous pasuk of

אל תפנו אל האלילים ואלוהי מסכה לא תעשו לכם. וריקן כל העבודות כולן להשם המיוחד,

the Ramban quoting a lashon Chazal from Toras Kohanim. And as it were, he emptied out in the sense of directs, consecrates all avodos to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. אמר כאשר תזבחו לה' לא תזבחו לו אלא לרצונכם. What motivates hakravas korbanos, what motivates shchita, should be lirtzonchem, שתהא עבודתכם לרצון לפניו וירצה בכם. You should be doing it willingly, you should be doing it happily. Even when there's a mitzvah, you should be doing it in addition to responding to the tzivuy, but you should be doing it voluntarily.

כעבד יתרצה אל אדוניו בעשותו כל אשר יצונו, כלשון ונרצה לו לכפר עליו, ואור פניך כי רציתם. והטעם שלא תחשבו שיהיה בעבודה זו שום תועלת, ולא תעשו עבודת השם הנכבד על מנת לקבל פרס אלא לעשות רצונו, כי רצונו הפשוט הוא הבורא והמחייב.

So the Ramban here does does reach straight lichora. Again, let's let's re-read for a minute.

ואמר וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים, כי אחרי שעשה הזביחה וכל עבודה לאלילים ולאלוהי מסכה וריקן כל העבודות כולן להשם המיוחד אמר כאשר תזבחו להשם לא תזבחו לו אלא לרצונכם.

So what is the Ramban chozer what just happened in the previous pasuk? That bad, our memory isn't. We know what just happened in the previous pasuk. So why's he chozer here the the previous pasuk? So just tell me what this pasuk means. כאשר תזבחו להשם לא תזבחו לו אלא לרצונכם. So somehow or other, the Ramban is clearly explaining the flow of the pesukim. He's explaining the smichos haparshiyos, right? And if there were any doubt about that, so then it's that doubt is is clearly dispelled when the Ramban says

והטעם שלא תחשבו שיהיה בעבודה זו שום תועלת ולא תעשו עבודת השם הנכבד על מנת לקבל פרס.

So weiter when he's explaining what the mitzvah וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים לה' לרצונכם תזבחוהו, what the Torah is here emphasizing, so he's he's repeating that that stands in contrast to. The וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים להשם לרצונכם תזבחוהו is an antithesis to that avodah zarah, שלא תחשבו שיהא בעבודה זרה שום תועלת. So what's going on here? Obviously if you're oved Hashem, so it means you don't believe in the avodah zarah. So what's going on here? So it's klar that the Ramban is telling us the following. Avodah zarah, not only, in quotation marks, only misdirects avodah in the sense that rachmana litzlan avodah zarah is directed to a davar hanivra, which is the definition of avodah zarah. But avodah zarah also distorts what the concept of avodah is. Meaning you could have thought, let's say a mailman has a letter, okay? He has a letter and he delivers it to the wrong house. So what's off of what he did? The address is wrong. Everything else is right. He brings the letter and he's delivering the letter. All of that is right. The whole process is right. What's off is the address. Instead of delivering it to number 18, he delivers it to number 28. And the Ramban is saying no, that's not correct. Avodah zarah, it's not, in quotation marks, only that the address of the avodah of the religious worship is wrong, but the whole notion of what avodah is, is distorted, is caricatured. And what the Ramban is saying is that the hemshech hapsukim here of

אל תפנו אל האלילים ואלוהי מסכה לא תעשו לכם אני השם אלוקיכם וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים

what the Torah is saying is this: again, not only is the Torah telling us not to be oved avodah zarah, but the Torah's telling us don't serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu with an avodah zarah-dikke mentality. That's what the psukim mean.

אחרי שאסר הזביחה לכל העבודה לאלילים ואלוהי מסכה וקיים כל עבודה לשם המיוחד

after it tells you what the address for avodah is, it tells you and more than that, it's not just a question of having the right address, but it's also don't be עובד הקדוש ברוך הוא with rachmana litzlan an avodah zarah-dikke approach, an avodah zarah-dikke mentality. What does that mean? So if you go back, I think maybe we commented on this once, if you go back to the Ramban also in Aseres Hadibros in Parshas Yisro where the Ramban gives his history of avodah zarah, which differs from the Rambam's, so there's something very, very clear which emerges. The Ramban writes as follows:

ובכאן אני מזכיר מה שיורו הכתובים בעניין עבודת גילולים כי היו שלושה מינים הראשונים החלו לעבוד את המלאכים שהם השכלים הנבדלים בעבור שידוע ממקצתם שררה על האומות כעניין שכתוב שר מלכות יוון ושר מלכות פרס וחשבו שיש להם יכולת בהם להיטיב ולהרע וכל אחד עובד לשר שלו.

So the first stage of avodah zarah was to the malachim. Why? Because they, correctly to a certain point, knew that Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, let's give a mashal, right? Hakadosh Baruch Hu ונתתי מטר ארצכם בעתו. But how does Hakadosh Baruch Hu do that? He doesn't sit with a bucket and pour the water down on those areas that are getting rain. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a whole chain of laws of nature and natural phenomena that yield rain. Right? So Hakadosh Baruch Hu operates through a chain of command, as it were. So that they were right about. And within that chain of command, the nimshal to the clouds and is hamalachim, hamalachim. Where where they blundered so egregiously was in thinking that the malakhim שיש להם יכולות להיטיב ולהרע. They didn't think of them as clouds, but they thought of them as discretionary intermediaries, not as intermediaries in just in a chain reaction, but they thought of them as discretionary intermediaries, and because of that, they sought to find favor with the malakhim so that they would then get a good deal from the malakhim. והמינה השני בעבודה זרה, says the Ramban, שחזרו לעבוד לצבא השמים הנראה. Then they began worshipping not just the incorporeal malakhim, but they actually began worshipping physical objects, the visible heavenly bodies. מהם עובדי השמש והירח, ומהם למזל מן המזלות. And again,

כי כל אחת מן האומות ידעה כוח המזל כפי משטרה על הארץ שלהם.

They knew that the stars, the constellations are part of our intermediate causes in how Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mashpi'a to the world. On that they weren't wrong. What they were wrong is that pash'u. Right? The first thing is yad'u, that they knew. The second is pash'u, they thought they were wrong, כי בעבודתם יגבה המזל וייטיב להם. And they thought that by worshipping the mazal, so again, the mazal would be affected favorably for them. Bekitzer ma'aseh, what you see here in the Ramban is that the whole concept of avoda within avoda zara is basically you look to the whole thing is is very pragmatic in the sense that that a person is looking for a return on his avoda. That that's what the definition, that's what the mindset of avoda is within avoda zara. So that that's what the Ramban is telling us, it's not again, in quotation marks, it's not only that the address that to whom the avoda is directed is so fundamentally wrong, but the whole notion of avoda is fundamentally wrong. That it's not that a person is oved because because you oved the Ribono shel Olam because he's the Ribono shel Olam and you're yetzir kapiv and and you oved Hakadosh Baruch Hu. No, you oved Hakadosh Baruch Hu to find favor so you'll have a so you'll have a bumper crop, so that you'll have you'll have good health. That's all that's all avoda is about. It's like when you hold the door open for your boss and you hold the elevator door for your boss. You're doing it because he's going to decide what what bonus you get at the end of the year and he's going to set your salary for next year. That that's what it's about. That's clearly what our Ramban is saying.

והטעם שלא תחשוב שיהיה בעבודה זרה שום תועלת ועל כן לא תעשה עבודת השם הנכבד על מנת לקבל פרס.

Don't think that the ovde avoda zara just had the wrong address, but other than that they had some insight into into what avoda's about. No, there's not. The whole thing from aleph through tav is a total distortion, a total caricature. What's correct again is quote, not only in quotation marks, that avoda has to be directed exclusively to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but even then what real avoda means is

לא תעשה עבודת השם הנכבד על מנת לקבל פרס אלא לעשות רצונו.

What's the point of avodat Hashem to be to do retzon Hashem, not not that you'll have good health, not that you'll have parnasa. The point of avodat Hashem is to do is to do retzon Hashem, כי רצונו הפשוט הוא החוב והמחייב. So how does this shtim with the first Ramban we talked about here? That

קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני ה' אלוקיכם, לומר שאנחנו נזכה לדבוקה בו בהיותנו קדושים. והנה זה כעניין הדיבור הראשון,

and this again corresponds to and complements the dibur hamatchil. So isn't that clearly clearly saying that the point of avodas hashem and a point that that is supposed to motivate us, that's supposed to animate us, that's supposed to frame what we do is uvemitzvossecha techpitz nafshi? So is there a tension between this Ramban and what he says on the very next page? But before we try to answer that, agav, this what the Ramban says here again that קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני השם corresponds to and complements the dibur harishon. So be'emes, it gives one an enhanced, or maybe for the first time, a correct understanding of just what Ramchal tells us in Perek Aleph of Mesillas Yesharim.

יסוד החסידות ושורש העבודה התמימה הוא שיתברר ויתאמת אצל האדם מה חובתו בעולמו. ולמה צריך שישים מבטו ומגמתו בכל אשר הוא עמל כל ימי חייו.

So what is chovaso baolamo?

והנה מה שהורונו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה הוא שהאדם לא נברא אלא להתענג על השם ולהנות מזיו שכינתו שזהו התענוג האמיתי והעידון הגדול מכל העידונים שיכולים להמצא. ומקום העידון הזה באמת הוא העולם הבא כי הוא הנברא בהכנה המצטרכת לדבר הזה. אך הדרך כדי להגיע אל מחוז חפצנו זה הוא זה העולם והוא מה שאמרו זכרונם לברכה העולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור בפני העולם הבא. והאמצעים המגיעים את האדם לתכלית הזה הם המצוות אשר ציוונו עליהם האל יתברך שמו.

Skip a few lines.

וכשתסתכל עוד בדבר תראה כי השלמות האמיתי הוא רק הדבקות בו יתברך והוא מה שהיה דוד המלך אומר ואני קרבת אלהים לי טוב ואמר אחת שאלתי מאת השם אותה אבקש שבתי בבית השם כל ימי חיי וגו' כי רק זה הוא הטוב.

The same thing the Ramban is talking about.

אמנם כדי שיזכה האדם לטוב הזה ראוי שיעמול ראשונה וישתדל ביגיעו לקנותו והיינו שישתדל להדבק בו יתברך בכח מעשים שתולדתם זה הענין והם הם המצוות.

That's what the Ramchal says. Ramchal is saying a person has to know what's chovaso baolamo. Chovaso baolamo's to get to olam haba. What is olam haba? He explains olam haba basically is a makom of dveikus. How do you do that? How do you accomplish that goal? How do you accomplish the pirsumei nissa, hadlakas ner Chanukah? How do you accomplish the goal, how do you accomplish the goal of chovaso baolamo of lehayanos miziv shechinaso of olam haba of dveikus? על ידי קיום המצוות. על ידי קיום המצוות. Mamash the Ramban, that Kedoshim Tiyu is what corresponds to and complements the Anochi Hashem Elokecha. And coming back to this other question. So is there a tension or even a contradiction here? So lichora as follows. Perek Yud Gimmel of Hilchos Teshuva, Halacha Aleph. So the Rambam writes as follows.

אל יאמר אדם הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא. ואפרוש מן העבירות שהזהירה תורה מהן כדי שאנצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שלא אכרת מחיי העולם הבא. אין ראוי לעבוד את השם על דרך זו, שהעובד על דרך זו הוא עובד מיראה, ואינה מעלת הנביאים ולא מעלת החכמים.

So a person is not supposed to be motivated by the desire for olam haba. Mamash on the same page, the last halacha in Perek Tes, so the Rambam writes as follows. And this is not ma'alas hachachamim and not ma'alas hanevi'im. Mamash the previous halacha.

מפני זה התאוו כל הנביאים וחכמינו ימות המלך המשיח כדי שינוחו ממלכות הרשעה שאינה מנחת להם לישראל לעסוק בתורה ומצוות כהוגן וימצאו להם מרגוע וירבו בחכמה כדי שיזכו לחיי העולם הבא. מפני זה התאוו כל ישראל נביאיהם וחכמיהם ימות המלך המשיח.

Why? What's so great about yemos hamashiach? A person can aspire to Chai Olam Haba because one of the most basic instincts that a person has is that a person wants to live. It's as long as a person is mentally sound, it is a something which is at the core of everyone's being. A person wants to live, a person wants to live. Mi'idach gisa, everyone knows that in Olam Hazeh so we're all mortal. So that desire for immortality then translates into a desire for Chai Olam Haba. So a person can aspire to Chai Olam Haba because he wants to live, because everyone wants to be immortal, everyone wants to be immortal. So says the Rambam, that's Oved MiYira. Ma'aseh, that basically means that a person wants but a person can yearn for Olam Haba in a very different sense. Harey nis'barach lecha, says the Rambam, speaking about Olam Haba, Mahu zeh she'amru, let's look at this line. Mahu zeh she'amru, talking about Olam Haba, Venehenim miziv Hashchina. What is that a mashal for? That they enjoy the radiance of the Shechina. What is that a mashal for?

שיודעין ומשיגין מאמיתת הקדוש ברוך הוא מה שאינן יודעין והן בגוף האפל השפל.

The experience of Hakadosh Baruch Hu which is possible in Olam Haba was impossible in Olam Hazeh even for Moshe Rabbeinu, even for the Nevi'im, even for Chazal. There's a certain cap on what a person, כי לא יראני אדם וחי, the Rambam explained earlier in Yesodei HaTorah, there's only so much that even the greatest of people can understand of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and there's only so and that gufa is what's mekasher us to him. In Olam Haba,

שיודעין ומשיגין מאמיתת הקדוש ברוך הוא מה שאינן יודעין והן בגוף האפל השפל.

Says the Rambam, Vechama homa David, that's what the Frankel has and I think standard d'fusim have, Vechama homa David, but either way the same idea. Vechama homa David והתאוה לחיי העולם הבא. Shenemar, לולא האמנתי לראות בטוב ה' בארץ החיים. A person can also yearn for Olam Haba as Dovid Hamelech did, not because he's looking for personal immortality but because he's looking for the kirvas Elokim, for the yedias Elokim and kirvas Elokim which can only happen there, which can't happen here. And that clearly, clearly, wanting that, yearning for that, is not only does it not detract or diminish from one's avodas Hashem, but adaraba, it represents avodas Hashem on the highest level. And it's clear that that's the p'shat in these two Rambams as well. And that's why there is no tension, there is no conflict between these two Rambams that the Ramban and the Rambam. The avoda should rather be the avoda should be pure. It doesn't diminish adaraba it accentuates the purity if a person if through the avoda a person wants even more and more kirvas elokim more and more yedias hashem.