Transcript

Hi, good morning, Rabbeinu. It's a gut voch. Hope everyone's well. The Mishna in Avos: הוי זהיר בתלמוד ששגגת תלמוד עולה זדון. So the Rambam doesn't comment on the Mishna here in the Pirush HaMishnayos. Rashi:

הוי זהיר בלימוד לפלפל ולחקור דקדוקיו ששגגת לימוד עולה זדון שמתוך שאין מדקדקין בלימוד ומורין הוראה שלא כדין נעשה כזדון לפי שתלמידי חכמים השגגה נעשה להם כזדונות. ששגגת תלמוד עולה זדון

means KeZadon. Sheggas Talmud means that if a person errs in his learning due to—Rashi basically refers to superficiality—Lefalpel VeLachkor Dikdukov. A person learns too superficially, and because of that superficiality, so he thinks this is muttar when it's really assur. So that's KeZadon. Not that he's treated classified as mezid, but in terms of morally say, not on a judicial level, but on a mussardic level, that it's equivalent to mezid, but not on a strict halachik level. And what does Sheggas Talmud refer to? So as Rashi says a type of superficiality: הוי זהיר בלימוד לפלפל ולחקור דקדוקיו. But then interestingly, Rabbeinu Yonah in a similar vein, רבי יהודה אומר הוי זהיר בתלמוד. Rabbeinu Yonah has the gersa that we have printed of Talmud.

הוי זהיר בתלמוד ששגגת תלמוד עולה זדון שיחזור הדברים עד כי לא יוכל לשכוח דבר עד ירד לעומקם של דברים כי טבע האנוש קצר להבין החכמה והשכחה מצויה בבני אדם גם לא יסמוך בסברא הראשונה כמו שכתבנו בתחילת הספר אשר בכל זה עושה זדון כי בכל דבר מדבר התורה והמצווה שהתורה מצויה ולא נתן על ליבו בכל תאוותו.

So both Rabbeinu Yonah as well as Rashi say when the Mishna says ששגגת תלמוד עולה זדון, Mishna doesn't mean that al pi din he's treated as mezid. Doesn't mean that al pi din if a person again whatever the context is, whatever the issur is, if the issur results from Sheggas Talmud that al pi din he is din of mezid. On a mussardic level that it's equivalent to mezid, but not on a strict halachik level. And what does Sheggas Talmud refer to? So as Rashi says a type of superficiality, Lefalpel VeLachkor Dikdukov. But then interestingly, Rabbeinu Yonah also mentions shichcha. The fact that a person forgets, not due to human frailty, but the fact that the person forgets due to not making the appropriate hishtadlus for chazara. And it's interesting that that Rabbeinu Yonah depends... Should I... should I call him back? It's... it's too difficult to hear. Yeah, if he would be able to call in, I think that would be helpful. Okay, so if you just... if you give me a minute please, I'm sorry. Okay, so I'm... I'm not sure how much was audible. So, just to... to review briefly. So, both... both Rashi and Rabbeinu Yonah understand שגיאות תלמוד עולה זדון. They're alike in A in the following respect. That it's more on al derech hamussar. Similar to the way the Rambam said earlier we had... early in the perek we had the Mishnah ואל תהי דן יחידי שאין דן יחידי אלא אחד. So the Rambam said this is al derech hamussar. It's not al pi din. Betzedek tishpot amitecha. Ve'al pi din a yachid can... can be dan. So in a somewhat similar sense, so this Mishnah of שגיאות תלמוד עולה זדון means al derech mussar. It doesn't mean al pi din that we would label the person zadon. But... but it would be a... a, you know, a neglectful shogeg. You know, there are different dargas of shogeg, different... there's a range of... of degrees of culpability associated with a shogeg, and this would be a higher one because it's a shogeg which could have been averted. So... so again, it means on a mussar level, it's... that... that we treat it as... as zadon, but... al pi din, it is shogeg. Now, what does the shegi'as talmud consist of? What... what did the person do that's... that's shegi'as talmud? So here Rashi refers to the superficiality of his learning. The superficiality of his learning. Rabbeinu Yonah clearly agrees with that. Because he... he references the fact that טבע האנוש קצר להבין החכמה. And as Rabbeinu Yonah himself gives the cross-reference, this is something which in the very beginning of Pirkei Avos, he... he spoke about as well. On the Mishnah of he'vu mesunim badin. If you happen to have an Avos with... with Rabbeinu Yonah you can take a look Rabosai. On the Mishnah of he'vu mesunim badin, so Rabbeinu Yonah says

למורים הוראות ולפוסקים הוראות ולפוסקים הדין אמרו לבל ישמחו במחשבה ראשונה.

They shouldn't rely on their initial understanding necessarily. אך בהמתנה גדולה ובעיון הדק לבל יטו בשיקול הדעת. Lest they err in... in weighing things. כי האדם הממהר להורות - a person who is unduly quick or swift to paskin - nikra poshea. He's neglectful. ואף על פי שחשב לומר האמת - even though he... he intends to... he intends to speak the truth -

אין זה שוגג אך קרוב למזיד הוא אשר לא נתן בלבבו לומר לבב הנמהרים לא יבין לדעת.

So that's the same as... again, Rabbeinu Yonah himself is... is juxtaposing the two comments. That's how Rabbeinu Yonah understands our Mishnah. Again that here too, here too, what it means is that again this is Rashi's pshat, the first and the first half of Rabbeinu Yonah's pshat, it means a superficial learning. Superficial learning is prone to result in error. Then Rabbeinu Yonah adds also that another thing which generates error is the shikcha due to lack of appropriate chazarah. But it's interesting, he doesn't ascribe ta'us to shikcha in sort of in the most obvious way, dehainu that I learned something and I learned that it was assur and I didn't chazer and I therefore think I remember that I learned that it was muttar. No, Rabbeinu Yonah obviously doesn't disagree that that type of error can result from shikcha, but he says there's a more subtle type of shikcha as well, excuse me, there's a more subtle type of error which results from shikcha as well, and that is that in order to engage in that deeper learning, when the person correctly rejects the superficiality, so a) the momentum he needs in the learning, b) the various assumptions that he needs to make in order to engage in a deeper learning, if he forgets things, so then that will impede and prevent the proper iyun. So it's interesting, it's a subtle type of process that's resulting in ta'us. It's not necessarily as simple as oh I learned I forget, you take ochel mitoch psolet, you take psolet mitoch ochel. Oh that's right yeah, you're supposed to take psolet mitoch ochel. So rachmana litzlan a person forgets that and thinks that, so then he's going to do the wrong thing on Shabbos. Rabbeinu Yonah says no, even in the context of the sugya, there's a diyuk from somewhere else, or maybe there's even a diyuk minei ubei in this sugya, but if I lost that due to adequate chazarah, so then that throws off my whole iyun, the whole iyun which was the first point he mentioned which is necessary. You know, all of this sort of, hagam that the Rishonim are talking in the context of hora'ah, of paskening, but clearly whatever they're saying is the process of learning isn't different for paskening than it is elsewhere, it's just that in paskening, so there's an application at hand that needs to be made, but you know the standard, the effort that's required to penetrate to amitta shel Torah, it's not that that's different in the context of hora'ah than elsewhere, it's just that in the context of hora'ah, so again there's a practical application which is immediately at hand and relevant. But the process of penetrating and attaining amitta shel Torah is the same. So that having been said, so lekhora both what Rashi and Rabbeinu Yonah say very much support something from Rav Chaim. Rav Chaim disagreed in Hilchos Tisha B'av, I think it's in Hilchos Tisha B'av, so the Shulchan Aruch quotes from the Gemaras in Moed Katan, the devarim hara'im, the list of devarim hara'im that a person is allowed to learn on Tisha B'av. So the Magen Avraham quotes that that means to learn it what we would call bekiyus style, not be'iyun, because in order to steer clear of פקודי ה' ישרים משמחי לב, so a) a person should be learning devarim hara'im and b) even in the devarim hara'im, if the person's going to be יורד לעומקם של דברים, so vayter there's going to be פקודי ה' ישרים משמחי לב. And Rav Chaim disagreed with that Magen Avraham. He said learning is learning. Either it's muttar to learn or it's not, or it's assur to learn. If it's muttar to learn, then you have to learn it properly. So what's this sort of artificial distinction between learning it more on the surface as opposed to learning it in depth? You have to learn it properly. You have to learn it properly. That's why there were some who, coming from this angle, don't accept what has become very much accepted today in my impression is in most yeshivos, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong about that, that we sort of have an iyun seder and a bekiyus seder. And they say that there's a sort of a that that's a false dichotomy, it's an artificial dichotomy. On one level it is. On one level it is, that's true. But me'idach gisa, you know the same Rav Chaim who disagreed with the Magen Avraham also they quote that, I think when Rav Velvel was bar mitzvah, maybe it was under bar mitzvah, I forget what age he was when Rav Chaim made this comment, so Rav Chaim said to someone about Rav Velvel, he knows Shas with Rashi. So what does that mean? How to sort of, how does one integrate those two comments? So it means that the reality of the fact that learning is learning, but me'idach gisa in order to engage in that learning, there are yediyos from all over Torah that a person needs. And in that sense even Rav Chaim certainly recognized that a person needs, very few people, that a person needs to get under his belt yediyos in as much of Shas as he's capable of doing. And basically what bekiyus seder means for us, which is lichora entirely correct and legitimate, is that a person sets himself a pace that the goal of finishing Shas, if it's realistic for him, is that he has a schedule that will realistically accomplish that. Very few of us can adhere to such a pace and see the range of Rishonim that we would look to on a sugya; we'd look in a Rashi and a Ramban, a Baal HaMaor, Ramban, Rashba, to go through Shas the first time like that. For most people doesn't work, they'll never make it. mah she-ein kein, if they go through Shas with Rashi, A, that is realistic, and B, it will also mean that subsequent to that the deeper learning will also be accelerated because when one is not hampered by a missing yediya here and there, so then it removes impediments, it removes roadblocks. So there is a tension between those two, but there's no contradiction. There's no contradiction. Part of the ksav hashlishi between those two is the recognition that based on Shas and Rashi, so that's a tremendous tremendous achievement, but on the other hand a person realizes that lemaiseh there's something missing in my grasp and that doesn't translate in terms of mastery. And when it comes to mastery of an inyan, so that's what Rav Chaim said, there's no sort of two levels. Learning is learning. But learning to get yedios we do recognize a different level of learning. The learning to get yedios we do recognize a different level of learning. Again there too a person can be doing it so superficially that they're not getting anything out of it. Okay. Fine. So that's the pshat of Rashi and Rabbeinu Yonah. The Meiri is very much on the same wavelength as Rashi and the Rabbeinu Yonah. The Meiri writes

היזהרו שתהא משנתכם סדורה בפיכם עד שיהיו דברי תורה מצויים בידכם ומזומנים להוראה שאם לא כן פעמים שישאלוהו בדבר נחוץ ויורה בו שלא כהוגן ונמצא מכשיל ואין לו טענה בשגגה זו ששגגת תלמוד עולה זדון כל שלבו ודעתו להוראה יש לו להתעמל בה עד שתהא סדורה בפיו.

So the Meiri is very much along the same lines as the Rashi and Rabbeinu Yonah. The editor in the Meiri gives a mareh makom to the Rambam in the Moreh, in Gimmel Mem Aleph. And the Rambam in the Moreh is remarkable. So maybe I'll just read you a few lines. The Rambam talks about how an issur can happen that there are four halachic categories for issurim. It can happen be-ones, a person can be onuss in the issur, it can be shogeg, it can be meizid, or he can be doing it le-hachis, be-yad ramah. Then when the Rambam's talking about shogeg, he says כאן חלקה התורה בין יחיד הדיוט meaning in terms of the dinim of what happens by an aveirah b'shogeg בין יחיד הדיוט מלך כהן גדול ופוסק הלכה. And now listen to these next few lines. I'm skipping a little bit as I put these few lines together, but listen to these next few lines, rabosai. Mikan anu lemadim, says the Rambam שכל העושה או פוסק הלכה על סמך לימודו. If a person either acts for himself or paskens for others based on his understanding. אם אינו בית דין הגדול או כהן גדול. If he's not the Beis Din HaGadol or Kohen Gadol.

הרי הוא בבחינת מזיד ואינו נמנה עם השוגגים. לכן נהרג זקן ממרא אף אם הוא עושה ופוסק על סמך לימודו. בית דין הגדול רשאים לפסוק על סמך לימודם. לכן אם הם טועים הם שוגגים.

Now skipping a few lines but continuing here: אבל הפוסק הלכה על פי בורותו. His ignorance. One minute. No, I'm sorry, I skipped something key. בגלל עיקר זה אמרו, continuing here reading from the Rambam in the Moreh:

בגלל עיקר זה אמרו ז''ל ששגגת תלמוד עולה זדון כלומר המתרשל בלימוד ועושה על פי רשלנותו הרי זה כמזיד.

Skipping a few lines: אבל הפוסק הלכה על פי בורותו, his ignorance,

הוא מזיד בלי ספק מכיוון שהכתוב אינו מוחל על פסיקת הלכה בטעות אלא לבית דין הגדול דווקא.

So the Rambam, the mashmaus, one time he says ke-meizid, but the other time says... This is mamash meizid. The mashmaus in the Rambam, this is what the editor in the Meiri is metzayen, this passage in the Rambam. The mashmaus in the Rambam is that the Rambam took שגגת תלמוד עולה זדון at face value. שגגת תלמוד עולה זדון means mamash a din meizid. But the Rambam stipulates it refers to a person who's misrashel belimudo, right? His hisrashlus, his laxity. There's a casualness with which he learns and then either paskens or decides for himself. There's a casualness. Again, a casualness with which, you know, inevitably will translate into a superficiality. There's a hisrashlus. Ai, zaken mamre it isn't necessarily hisrashlus and now was the Rambam's whole raya. The Rambam says, how do I know that if a person paskens wrongly, erroneously, based on his own learning, how do you know that you treat that as meizid rather than shogeg? Rambam says, my raya is from zaken mamre. A zaken mamre learnt the sugya. A zaken mamre, in order to be a zaken mamre, a person has to be a very big talmid chacham. He has to be samuch, meaning the original smicha, איש מפי איש עד משה רבנו. The Rambam says in Hilchos Sanhedrin that in order for a person to be samuch he has to be ראוי להורות בכל התורה כולה. So the zaken mamre is not some kind of am ha'aretz who's disobeying the Beis Din HaGadol. He's a big talmid chacham who's disobeying the Beis Din HaGadol. A very big talmid chacham who's disobeying the Beis Din HaGadol. Ai, but he's convinced in his learning, in his learning that this is the right thing. The teretz is no, you see that even if the mistake results from one's own learning, he has a din meizid because we treat the zaken mamre as a meizid. Ai, but he wasn't necessarily misrashel and later the Rambam says that a person is only שגגת תלמוד עולה זדון if it was if there was borus in his part, there was ignorance in his part, there was hisrashlus in his part, there was laxity, there was a sense of casualness in dealing with divrei Torah. So how's that analogous to the zaken mamre? So teretz is, it's analogous in the following sense: that the zaken mamre also had something which it's his fault that he did the wrong thing. In the zaken mamre, his fault is that he was supposed to defer to the Beis Din HaGadol. What's the analogue to that by stam individual is the hisrashlus. So the fact that, meaning the parallelism between the zaken mamre and the שגגת תלמוד עולה זדון case, the way the zaken mamre is a proof and paradigm for the שגגת תלמוד עולה זדון case is that even though the mistake is a result of one's learning, it still is classified as meizid provided shegi'os mi yavin, I don't understand, how can that be? No, provided that there was a stop sign, that there was a caution that a person ignored. In the case of the zaken mamre, that caution which he throws to the wind is ignoring the Beis Din HaGadol, not referring to the Beis Din HaGadol, and for us that caution is the hisrashlus, this laxity and casualness when it comes to divrei Torah. But the Rambam does seem, that's what the editor is being metzayen, the Rambam does seem to understand this as not just al derech hamussar, but even al derech hahalacha in the case of hisrashlus. We obviously don't interact with a Beis Din HaGadol, there is no Beis Din HaGadol, but lechora we would have an analogous situation. Let's say a person learns a sugya and learns it, let's say he's a person who knows how to learn. Been learning for for many years and he's not a novice in his learning. And he learns a sugya and he comes to a maskana which is lekula where the Mishnah Berurah or the Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasa say lechumra. So the pshat says that unless that individual is רב שלמה זלמן אוירבך, a Rav Moshe Feinstein, a Rav Soloveitchik, that person should not be following his own learning lekula against a Mishnah Berurah. Yitachen that if he comes out lechumra where the Mishnah Berurah is lekula, yitachen that he might be on a madreiga, lav davka. Maybe he's on a madreiga where he ignores his own conclusion. But he could be on a madreiga to rely on his own learning to go lechumra, but not necessarily lekula. To rely on one's own learning to go lekula is a very high madreiga. It's a very very high high madreiga. It means again that one is on the level of רב שלמה זלמן אוירבך again vechadomeh. Rabbi Shimon

אומר שלשה כתרים הם כתר תורה וכתר כהונה וכתר מלכות וכתר שם טוב עולה על גביהן.

So this the Rambam does comment on.

שלש המעלות הגדולות האלו נתנו לאומה ביסוד הציווי על התורה. ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. והן הכהונה והמלכות והתורה. כהונה זכה בה אהרן ומלכות זכה בה דוד וכתר תורה מונח לכל.

V'chol Mi Sheyirtzeh, it's the Rambam, Lehisater Bo. Omru Chazal שמא תאמר או ושמא תאמר, excuse me,

שהכתר הזה פחות הוא מן השנים לכן אלא הוא גדול מהם ובו יהיו השנים.

Not only is Kesser Torah greater than Kesser Kehunah and Kesser Malucha, but Kesser Malucha and Kesser Kehunah are also subservient to Torah in the sense that a Melech his legitimacy depends upon his acting al pi Torah. The Kohen's legitimacy depends upon his again his being nizaher in kedushas kehunah and doing avoda על פי דיני תורה. אלא הוא גדול מהם ובו through it Yiyu Hashnayim Shenemar Bi, this is Torah personified. So Torah is speaking here as it were, right? We're personifying Torah. בי מלכים ימלוכו בי שרים ישורו. Aval Kesser Shem Tov how can anything surpass Torah? So the Rambam says no, Kesser Shem Tov what it really means is

אבל כתר שם טוב מושג על ידי התורה. כלומר לימודה וקיומה כי בזה יהיה השם טוב האמיתי.

And lichora you can say pshat in the mishna. I don't know that one can really say that the Rambam here in Peirush HaMishnayos is saying this. I don't think that he is. I'm not sure why not. But lichora what one could have said pshat in the mishna as follows. If you take a look at the Rambam, the well-known halacha the end of Perek Hei of Yesodei HaTorah rabbosai. The Rambam in Perek... So on Halacha Yud Aleph he’s talking about the third type. The first half of the halacha he talks about what the Chillul Hashem is, so we’ll skip, we’ll jump in midstream to the Kiddush Hashem side of this third element of Chillul Hashem Kiddush Hashem. וכן אם דקדק החכם... well, the initial line in the Rambam is

יש דברים אחרים שהן בכלל חילול השם והוא שיעשה אדם גדול בתורה מפורסם בחסידות.

So we’re talking about an אדם גדול בתורה מפורסם בחסידות. Now, וכן אם דקדק החכם, that chacham who's gadol batorah and mefurssam bachasidus. אם דקדק החכם על עצמו, he’s very, very careful and scrupulous and meticulous. והיה דיבורו בנחת עם הבריות, he speaks softly, gently with people. v'daato meureves imahen, he relates to them and they’re able to relate to him. ומקבילן ומקבלן בסבר פנים יפות, he greets everyone with a smile, he greets everyone with warmth. ונעלב מהן ואינו עולבן, and as inevitably happens in interactions, you know, at times people are going to insult him, he’ll be insulted, but he never ever responds in kind. mechabed lahen, treats everyone with respect and dignity, and even v'afilu lamikilim lo, even those who don’t, don’t treat him with that dignity, who dismiss him, who treat him lightly. nosei v'nosein be'emuna, all his dealings, in particular in commerce and business dealings, his word is gold. ולא ירבה באריכות עמי הארץ וישיבתם, you don’t find him at meals, in venues with amei ha'aretz where the gathering is a gathering of with no no substance to it. ולא יראה תמיד אלא עוסק בתורה, whenever you see him, he’s oseik batorah, atuf b'tzitzis, muchtav b'tfillin, ועושה בכל מעשיו לפנים משורת הדין. Always, always goes lifnim mishuras hadin. והוא שלא יתרחק הרבה ולא ישתומם. Now, what result does this have? The cumulative effect of all these different strands of behavior, what result do they have? עד שימצאו הכל מקלסין אותו, everyone praises him. v'ohavin oso, they all love him. umisyavim lema'asav, and they all want to emulate his actions. They all, they all, their desire is, oh if only I could be like that person, if only I were as, as upright, as yoshor, as wise, as sensitive as that person.

הרי זה קידוש השם. ועליו הכתוב אומר ויאמר לי עבדי אתה,

you are, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says you are my servant, ישראל אשר בך אתפאר. I, I take pride, kiviyachol, in you. So the Rambam here is really describing a type of shem tov, right? עד שימצאו הכל מקלסין אותו. What does it mean to have a shem tov? It means to have a, to have a golden reputation, right? No one has, everyone has only good things to say about him. עד שימצאו הכל מקלסין אותו. I don’t know, so it’s consistent with what the Rambam says in Peirush Hamishnayos. It’s, I don’t know that one can really say that the Rambam said it in Peirush Hamishnayos, it’s consistent with what the Rambam said, that Keser Shem Tov results from Keser Torah, but maybe it refers to this. It refers to someone who acquires the Keser Torah and through that makes a Kiddush Hashem. He has that shem tov which creates a Kiddush Hashem and that’s al gabeihen. That taka goes beyond. Again, it’s an application of the Keser Torah in, again in this. Meaning לימודה וקיומה לפנים משורת הדין with all this exacting and exactitude of behavior that that that he earns that Shem Tov which creates a Kiddush Hashem. Okay, so so maybe we'll stop here.