פרק מה פסוק כו. Vayagidu lo lemor: עוד יוסף חי וכי הוא משל בכל ארץ מצרים ויפג לבו כי לא האמין להם.
Vayafog libo, נחלף לבו והלך מלהאמין מלהאמין והיה לבו פונה אל הדברים.
Lashon mefigan teiman ובלשון משנה וכמו מעין הפוגות וריחו לא נמר מתורגם וריחו לא פג
lashon Rashi. So for Rashi Vayafog mefigan teiman means that they they lose their taste, they their taste dissipates, it goes away. So similarly Vayafog libo means נחלף לבו והלך מלהאמין that that his heart turned away, the same way again that the idiom of mefigan teiman means that the the taste dissipates. So so too his heart turned away in that in that he didn't believe the report that Yosef was alive. V'einenu nachon says the Ramban כי לשון פוגה שביתה וביטול. It doesn't mean to lose something, it it connotes cessation. כמו אל תתני פוגת לך וכן עיני נגרה ולא תדמה מאין הפוגות.
My eye will shed tears without any respite, without any cessation. It will be constant constant flow of tears. שנגרה תמיד מאין שביתה והפסקה. Vechein mefigan teiman, it doesn't mean that it makes the it's not the sense of of going away, but it's the sense of שביתה וביטול שמפיגין אותו ומתבטל. וכן על כן תפוג תורה תבטל ותיפסק. וגם זה,
so the translation here is not that his heart turned away, but rather ויפג לבו שנתבטל לבו ופסקה נשמתו. That as it were his his heart his heart missed a beat, which caused him to faint. כי פסקה תנועת הלב והיה כמת. Vezeh ha'inyan, this phenomenon, says the Ramban, ידוע בבוא השמחה פתאום. When there's a sudden simcha, it can cause fainting. Vehuzkar besifrei ha'refuos, it's in the medical books, says the Ramban, כי לא יסבלו זה הזקנים וחלשי הכוח. Elderly or infirm people can't absorb this שיעלפו רבים מהם בבוא להם שמחה בפתע פתאום. Many of them will faint when there's a sudden unanticipated simcha. Then the Ramban sort of gives the the medical understanding of it כי יהיה הלב נרחב ונפתח פתאום והחום התולדי יוצא ומתפזר בחיצוני הגוף ויאפס הלב בהתקררו.
Okay, so whatever it is that that the inner workings are that generate this this symptom. והנה נפל הזקן כמת. So Yaakov Avinu basically collapsed in a faint when they told him that Yosef was alive. ואמר כי לא האמין להם. See according to Rashi the flow of the pasuk is easy. Vayafog libo, his heart turned away because he didn't believe them. They're telling him they're telling him a story, his heart turned away because he doesn't believe the story. He found it too literally too incredible. But according to the Ramban. the surprise of the Simcha, if a person discounts it, so then it's not going to elicit that reaction of fainting. So what does it mean that on the one hand Vayafog Libo and Me'idach Gisa כי לא האמין להם? Ve'amar כי לא האמין להם להגיד שעמד זמן גדול מן היום והוא שוכב דומם בעבור שלא האמין להם כי הידוע בעלוף הזה,
meaning continuing that this is something that's known Besifrei Harefu'os, this is a known phenomenon, that when this type of fainting occurs שיצעקו לו וירגילו אותו בשמחה ההיא עד שתקבע בו בנחת.
That that you try to get him accustomed to get him to gradually assimilate the Besora and that way he'll be able to be revived. וזה טעם וידברו אליו את כל דברי יוסף אשר דבר אליהם וירא את העגלות.
So Mah Nafshach, he believes them, he doesn't believe them? So apparently what the Ramban is saying is the following, just in terms of the Perush Hamilos here. If something is so incredulous that the person doesn't believe, so then it's not going to cause him to faint either. He's just going to, I don't know, maybe he's going to be annoyed that people are telling him tall tales. If it's not something extraordinary, so then the system can tolerate it, the system can absorb the Besora. But if you have something which is extraordinary and the person is sort of Ma'amin Ve'eino Ma'amin, he's ambivalent as it were in his response. So on the one hand you'll have the Vayafog Libo because he does give it some credence. Me'idach Gisa it required a prolonged effort to get him to assimilate it because he also had his doubts whether something like that could be true. So Yaakov Avinu is ambivalent in terms of whether or not what the Shevatim are telling him is true. He gives it enough credence that you have the Vayafog Libo, but there isn't that much credence that he can be quickly restored. It has to be a gradual process until he's able to assimilate it. Okay. Let's skip now to פרק מו פסוק טו. אלה בני לאה אשר ילדה ליעקב בפדן ארם ואת דינה בתו כל נפש בניו ובנותיו שלשים ושלש. ובפרטן אי אתה מוצא אלא שלשים ושנים.
Ela Zu Yocheved, this is the Ramban quoting Rashi quoting Chazal, Ela Zu Yocheved. שנאמר אשר ילדה אותה ללוי במצרים לידתה במצרים ואין הורתה במצרים. זוהי שיטת רבותינו. ורבי אברהם השיב והאבן עזרא
seeks to refute what Chazal's p'shat. ואמר כי זה תמה. אם כן למה לא הזכיר הכתוב הפלא שנעשה עמה שהולידה משה והיא בת מאה ושלשים שנה.
If if Yocheved was born as soon as they arrived in Mitzrayim, so they were in Mitzrayim for 210 years. Moshe Rabbeinu was 80 at the time of Yetziat Mitzrayim. So that would mean that Yocheved was 130 when she gave birth to Moshe Rabbeinu. Im kein says the Ibn Ezra, למה לא הזכיר הכתוב הפלא שנעשה עמה שהולידה משה והיא בת מאה ושלשים שנה ולמה הזכיר דבר שרה שהיתה בת תשעים.
That's that's the Ibn Ezra's tayna on on Chazal. If that's the case, so why isn't this front page news? This should be in in the headlines in in bold print. ולא די לנו בזה הצער עד שעשו הפייטנים פיוטים ביום שמחת תורה.
Ibn Ezra didn't didn't didn't care too much for piyut. There's a, we spoke about this, the famous Ibn Ezra in and I think it's in Kohelet where he has his his attack on paitanim. He didn't wasn't wasn't too favorably inclined towards towards paitanim. עד שעשו הפייטנים פיוטים ביום שמחת תורה יוכבד אמי אחרי התנחמי.
That Yocheved apparently outlived Moshe Rabbeinu. והנה היא בת מאתים וחמשים שנה. So right as as Moshe Rabbeinu is saying that that his mother Yocheved should have nechamah acharai. So Moshe Rabbeinu lives to be 120, so she gave birth to him when she was 130, so lo dai lanu that Chazal say that she gave birth at 130, the paitanim say that she lived to be at least 250. והנה היא בת מאתים וחמשים שנה וכי אחיה השילוני היה כך וכך שנים דרך אגדה או דברי יחיד אינם דברים.
Ibn Ezra is not happy with this. והנה פני החכם בעיניו בסתירת דברי רבותינו אני צריך לענות אליו.
So the Ramban says I have to defend Chazal here. Now in parshanut, so the Ramban sometimes disagrees with with Chazal also, but the difference is is the difference between asking a kasha and saying that it doesn't it doesn't solve all the difficulties in the pasuk and between saying something is lo nitan le'he'aneh. So the Ramban is not upset that the Ibn Ezra has a kasha. In parshanut you can have a kasha, but but the Ibn Ezra is depicting it as though it's lo nitan le'he'aneh. Right? פני החכם בעיניו בסתירת דברי רבותינו. That the Ramban takes exception to. So therefore אני צריך לענות אליו. I have to respond. ואומר כי על כל פנים יהיה בדבר יוכבד פלא גדול מן הנסים הנסתרים שהם יסוד התורה כי היא בת לוי עצמו לא מתייחסת אליו.
She's not a descendant of Levi, maybe she's a granddaughter, great-granddaughter, no. Yocheved is the daughter of Levi, כמו שכתוב אשר ילדה אותה ללוי. Levi bemitzrayim. Ve'od kasuv Amram, who's a grandson of Levi, married Yocheved dodaso, his aunt. So it's clear that Yocheved is a daughter of Levi. Vihinei, so the Ramban says to the Ibn Ezra, so what do you want? You want that Yocheved should have given birth when she was younger? והנה אם נאמר כי הוליד אותה בבחרותו כאשר הוליד כל בניו.
If you want to say Yocheved was born והיתה לידתה אחר רדתו למצרים מעט הנה היא בלדת משה זקנה מאד כמנין שאמרו רבותינו או קרוב לו.
So mah nafshach, if Levi fathered Yocheved at a young age, so then you'll end up saying like Chazal that Yocheved was at an advanced age when she gave birth to Moshe. But if you'll say on the contrary ואם יאמר שנולדה לו אחר שבתו במצרים ימים רבים והנה נחשוב שהוליד אותה אחר רדתו למצרים חמשים ושבע שנים,
if you want to ensure that Yocheved be much younger when she gives birth to Moshe Rabbeinu, so then you got to make Levi much older when he fathered Yocheved. So what did you, you're trying to make this more natural and less miraculous to explain why the Torah doesn't describe this explicitly, but you can't. You pull in one direction, you're going to, the miracle will be in the other direction. So you'll delay Yocheved's birth. To delay Yocheved's birth, then you have to say that Levi was at a very advanced age when he fathered her. והוא יהיה בן מאה שנים כי ברדתו היה בן מ"ג שנים. והנה יהיו בזה שני פלאים.
Number one שיהיה הוא זקן כאברהם שהזכיר הכתוב עליו הלבן מאה שנה יולד וכתוב ואדוני זקן ותהיה היא זקנה בלדת משה בת ע"ג. ואם נאחר עוד לידתה לסוף ימי לוי הנה יהיה פלא גדול משל אברהם.
So the tayna on the Ibn Ezra is that however you slice it, even if you were to say differently than Chazal, something very remarkable happened here. Either Levi was very old when he fathered her, or she was at a very advanced age when she gave birth to Moshe Rabbeinu, or both, or a combination of the two. אבל אומר לך דבר שהוא אמת וברור בתורה. What about the Ibn Ezra's tayna, so why doesn't the Torah call attention to this? כי הנסים הנעשים על ידי נביא שיתנבא כן מתחילה או מלאך נגלה במלאכות השם.
If the miracle was predicted by the navi beforehand, or a malach acting and sent as a messenger announced the miracle beforehand, so then yazkirem hakasuv. That's described in Chumash. Vihanna'asim me'aleihem, but those miracles, those nissim nistarim that happened without prior notice, without advance notice from a navi, from a malach, והנעשים מאליהם לעזור לצדיק או להכרית רשע לא יזכיר בתורה ובנביאים. וזהו זהב רותח מוצק בפי החכם הזה ממה שהשיב על רבותינו בענין פנחס וזולתו במקום הרבה.
And basically this will seal the lips of the Ibn Ezra with this type of tayna that he raises in various places against Chazal, this yisod that nissim nistarim which were not forecast al yedei navi, al yedei malach, are not recorded explicitly in Chumash. Why not? Says Ramban, velamah yazkirem hakasuv? Why should the Torah record it? Why should the Torah highlight it? וכל יסודות התורה בנסים נסתרים הם. ועם התורה אין בכל ענינו רק ניסים לא טבע ומנהג.
Let's just read several lines and then try to understand it a little bit b'ezras Hashem. ועם התורה אין בכל ענינו רק ניסים לא טבע ומנהג שהרי יעודי התורה כולם אותות ומופתים כי לא יכרת וימות בטבע הבא על אחת מן העריות או אוכל חלב ולא יהיו השמיים כברזל בטבעם מפני זרענו בשנה השביעית וכן כל יעודי התורה בטובות ההם וכל הצלחת הצדיקים בצדקתם וכל תפילות דוד מלכנו וכל תפילותינו ניסים ונפלאות אלא שאין בהם שינוי מפורסם בטבעו של עולם כאשר הזכרתי זה כבר ועוד אפרשנה בעזרת השם.
So the Ramban says the pushback to the Ibn Ezra is that the Torah doesn't record nissim nistarim because they're maaseh bechol yom. If the Torah would record every nes nistar that happens, then kolu kol hagvilin, and the Torah wouldn't, you wouldn't be able to write the Torah if the Torah recorded every nes nistar that happens. You can record something which is exceptional, something which happens once in a yovel, so that you can record. Something which is maaseh bechol yom, so what the Torah should write every time the traffic light turned from red to green? Oh, why isn't that in the Torah? It's maaseh bechol yom. What? So the Ramban basically says that the Ibn Ezra's taina is this is something extraordinary, it should have been recorded in the Chumash. So the Ramban's answer is, but if the extraordinary is ordinary, so then it's not going to be recorded in the Chumash. That's the Ramban's pushback. Okay. Now in terms of the etzem shita, this famous shita of the Ramban, what does it mean, what doesn't it mean? It's often misinterpreted to mean that the Ramban denies that there's such a thing as natural law. So that reading is wrong, is clear on many, many levels from the words of the Ramban himself. We're going מן הקל אל החומר. The reasons that that can't be the correct understanding. So we just read in this week's parsha, Yaakov Avinu fainted, and the Ramban says דבר ידוע בספרי הרפואות. He says, yeah, he says look it up in the medical books and you'll understand why Yaakov Avinu fainted. That that's what happens when a person is elderly or a person has a weak constitution and he hears some gets a besorah about a simcha, he faints. And then the Ramban describes exactly, explains what's happening in terms of the physiology which produces that reaction. We learned earlier in Bereishis on the pasuk of ki yedativ. We saw that the Ramban says, if you have it, take a look again. We had seen this in פרק י"ח פסוק י"ט. והנכון בעיני שהיא ידיעה ממש ירמוז כי ידיעת השם שהיא השגחתו בעולם השפל היא לשמור הכללים וגם בני האדם מונחים בו למקרים עד בוא עת פקודתם.
People are vulnerable to mikrim, the accidents. Aval bachasidav, those who are chasidei elyon, יסב אליהם לבו לדעת אותם בפרט להיות שמירתו דבקה בם תמיד.
So chasidei elyon are not vulnerable to natural accidents, but bli ayin hara, we are. So from the words of the Ramban himself. It’s obvious no one really thinks there’s no such thing as teva because you don’t see people, someone once gave this example, you don’t see people walking off of rooftops based on this Ramban. Now the Ramban says there’s no such thing as teva. Well, no, maybe they do and there’s a reason we don’t see them anymore, but hopefully that’s not the case, hopefully that’s not the case. Obviously there’s such a thing as teva. My brother, Hashem yikom domo, pointed out it’s a pasuk in Tehillim we say in Pseukei D’Zimra all the time, חוק נתן ולא יעבור. ויעמידם לעד לעולם חוק נתן ולא יעבור.
It’s a chok, a chok means a law, a natural law, חוק נתן ולא יעבור. The Ramban is not denying that the, that there is such a thing as teva, that there is natural law, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created a world which, which operates according to natural law, which has lots of laws of physics etc. But what, what do these lines mean though? So what, what does it mean? The, the most famous statement of it, of course, is at the end of Parshat Bo. מהנסים הגדולים המפורסמים אדם מודה בנסים הנסתרים שהם יסוד התורה כולה שאין לאדם חלק בתורת משה רבנו עד שנאמין בכל דברינו ומקרינו שכלם נסים אין בהם טבע ומנהגו של עולם בין ברבים בין ביחיד.
So what do these lines mean then? Well, what do they mean? So the line in, here in Vayigash is easier to, to understand. The lashon ועם התורה אין בכל ענינו רק נסים לא טבע ומנהג,
meaning the Ramban is saying bichlaliyus. There’s no contradiction between the following two statements: Hakadosh Baruch Hu created a world which functions according to natural law, statement number one. Statement number two: Klal Yisrael exists supernaturally. There’s no stira between those two statements. Let’s, let’s say in a very broad sense. Obviously the Ramban means it in an even more detailed sense, but in a very broad sense, the world functions according to natural law. If, if you want water to freeze then it’s going to have to be thirty-two degrees or, or less. It’s not going to freeze otherwise. A, a persecuted, despised, stateless, defenseless people for millennia, and and we’re here and and and exist and continue to exist and, and clearly will eternally because of Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s havtacha. There’s no contradiction between saying that there’s a natural, that there’s natural law in the world. And between saying that that Am HaTorah bechlaliuso exists exists and and their fate and destiny is something which is not dictated by inexorable teva. Bechlaliuso. What about the fact that the Ramban in in here in at the end of Bo says it's בין ברבים בין ביחיד? So the emes is if you contrast it so first of all again in our Ramban minei uvei again you just we didn't have to go to other Rambanim just minei uvei here. If if you have our Ramban take a look what he says: כי לא יכרת וימות בטבע הבא אחת מן העריות או אוכל חלב.
Eating chelev does not trigger an an allergic reaction which which kills a person. It's not a it's not it's not that there's a natural law that that dictates that. ולא יהיו שמים כברזל בטבעו מפני זרענו בשנה השביעית. וכן כל יעודי התורה בטובות ההן וכל הצלחת הצדיקים בצדקתם.
So why is the Ramban singling out tzaddikim? If the Ramban means that there's mamash no teva for any yachid, so there's nothing to single out the tzaddikim. Ella mai? So if you take a look the Ramban has this in Bechukosai as well at the beginning of the right before the tochacha, the brachos... Ukvar be'arnu Perek Chof Vav Pasuk Yud Aleph I think. Ukvar be'arnu כי כל אלו הברכות כולן נסים אין בטבע שיבואו הגשמים ויהיה השלום לנו מן האויבים ויבא מורך בלבם לנוס מאה מפני חמישה בעשותנו החוקים והמצוות ולא שיהיה הכל הפך מפני זרענו השנה השביעית ואף על פי שהם נסים נסתרים שעולם כמנהגו נוהג עמהם.
Vehaklal I'm skipping several lines כי בהיות ישראל שלמים והם רבים לא יתנהג עניינם I'm sorry I missed one line that's important too as he was before sorry yes sorry beforehand also והטעם בזה כי הברכות ההן אף על פי שהם נסים הם מן הנסים הנסתרים שכל התורה מלאה מהם כאשר פירשתי.
That's our Ramban, right? The Torah is is full of it. והם אפילו ליחיד העובד כי כאשר יהיה האיש החסיד שומר כל מצות השם אלוהיו ישמרהו הקל מן החולים והעקרות והשכול וימלאו ימיו בטוב.
So the Ramban meforesh says כי כאשר יהיה האיש החסיד שומר כל מצות השם. It's klar that lichora what the Ramban means in in the end of Parshas Bo when he says בין ברבים בין ביחיד is that this hanhaga that a person won't be randomly affected by teva this hanhaga of not being randomly affected by teva there is teva but will the person be randomly affected by teva will he just be a statistic? That the statistic is that so many people get sick with a certain illness every year, so many people get the flu every year, so many people get something else every year. Will the person be randomly affected by teva? So you should know that that hanhaga of not being randomly affected by teva, that exists klapei ha-rabim and it also exists klapei yechidim. But not every yachid all the time. And that's what the Ramban meforash spells out in Bechukosai, that it refers to the yachid hachassid, the same way he had said earlier in Parshas Vayeira. So when that lashon says again, that very, very strong lashon. Sorry, I lost that again. שאין באדם חלק בתורת משה רבינו עד שנאמין בכל דברינו ומקרינו שכולם נסים אין בהם טבע ומנהגו של עולם בין ברבים בין ביחיד,
it means that that hanhaga exists for the rabim and it also exists for yechidim. That hanhaga of not being subjected to the randomness of teva. If you have teva absent hashgacha, so then a certain number of people are just going to get sick because statistically that's what happens. The Ramban is saying that there's a hanhaga that Hakadosh Baruch Hu operates within teva and there will be no randomness. People won't be randomly affected by teva, whether it's on the rabim as a whole or whether it's yechidim. But it means that that hanhaga exists for yechidim. It means a person has to acknowledge that that hanhaga exists for yechidim. For which yechidim? Not every yachid. Not every yachid. That's what the Ramban writes here in Bechukosai, כי כאשר יהיה האיש החסיד שומר כל מצות השם אלהיו ישמרהו הקל מן החולי
etcetera. It's clear that that's what the Ramban means. Maybe just to flesh out one other line here in the Ramban. Again, back to our Ramban here. והנה פן יהיה חכם בעיניו בסתירת דברי רבותינו הנצורך לענות אליו ואומר כי על כל פנים יהיה בדבר יוכבד פלא גדול מן הנסים הנסתרים שהם יסוד התורה.
So just to understand what that phrase means, hanissim hanistarim. The Yocheved giving birth as she did, according to Chazal at age 130, is just one instance of nissim nistarim, which are yesod hatorah. What does it mean that the nissim nistarim are yesod hatorah? So if you look inside in the Ramban here in Parshas Bo, so the Ramban initially says, he describes how there were three schools of heretical thought. There were those who denied Hakadosh Baruch Hu entirely, they were atheists. There were those who acknowledged a God, but said that He's above knowing what's happening in the world. And then there were those who said no, He knows what's happening in the world, but He's above being mashgiach, exercising any kind of hashgacha in the world. The Ramban says, initially he says it about a nes nigleh. When a supernatural miracle happens, so that refutes all three of those schools of thought. The fact that something can happen which defies teva clearly means It clearly means that there's a Ribbono Shel Olam. It clearly means that there's a Ribbono Shel Olam who created the world voluntarily and therefore it doesn't function inexorably. He can overrule it as he likes. The fact that that miracle is targeted shows yediya and hashgacha, and if the miracle is predicted beforehand by a navi, it proves nevuah also, and the Ramban says וכאשר ירצה אלוקים בעדה או ביחיד ויעשה עמהם מופת בשינוי מנהגו של עולם וטבעו יתברר לכל ביטול הדעות האלו כולם כי המופת הנפלא מורה שיש לעולם אלוה מחדשו ויודע ומשגיח ויכול וכאשר יהיה המופת ההוא נגזר תחילה מפי נביא יתברר ממנו עוד אמיתות הנבואה
skipping a line ותתקיים עם זה התורה כולה. So initially the Ramban says it about a nes nigla, that a nes nigla demonstrates all the yesodos HaTorah, all the yesodei emunah of the Torah. Then the Ramban famously, again, further on in this passage, מן הניסים הגדולים המפורסמים אדם מודה בניסים הנסתרים שהם יסוד התורה כולה.
There's no difference fundamentally in terms of emunah between believing that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can override teva or that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can operate within teva. Again, overriding teva means when you get water from a stone. Operating within teva means when Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees to it that if we observe shmitta, so then we'll have bountiful rainfall. The rain doesn't come through supernatural means; it happens through meteorological patterns and workings, but there's no fundamentally there's no difference. If teva sort of exists inexorably and functions inexorably, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu can no more operate within teva than he can override teva. It's the same yesod, right? If teva just represents ratzon Hashem, so then A, Hakadosh Baruch Hu can override teva if he wills, B, he can operate within teva. And that's what the Ramban says, again, that's not a denial of teva, it's just saying that Hakadosh Baruch Hu can operate within teva as well. That's what the Ramban says. So from nissim gluyim you see that teva's not something autonomous, it's not something inexorable, but it's something that Hakadosh Baruch Hu controls. If he controls it that he can override it, he also controls it that he can operate within teva. That's what our Ramban is saying that כי על כל פנים יהיה בדבר יחיד פלא גדול מן הניסים הנסתרים שהם יסוד התורה.
The yesod HaTorah that there's a Ribbono Shel Olam who created the world voluntarily, that he's yodeya, that he's mashgiach, that there's sachar ve'onesh. So all of that is demonstrated and reflected in nissim nistarim. That's what the line means: ניסים נסתרים שהם יסוד התורה כולה. Okay, we'll stop here.