Let's see let's see what discussed what the Thursday limmud was going to be in in June so maybe for this morning let's see the Gemara in כ"ח ע"ב וכשחלה רבן יוחנן בן זכאי nichnesu talmidav l'vakro כיוון שראה אותם התחיל לבכות amru lo talmidav נר ישראל עמוד הימיני פטיש החזק מפני מה אתה בוכה
amar lahem אמר להם אילו לפני מלך בשר ודם היו מוליכין אותי שהיום כאן ומחר בקבר שאם כועס עלי אין כעסו כעס עולם ואם אוסרני אין איסורו איסור עולם ואם ממיתני אין מיתתו מיתת עולם ואני יכול לפייסו בדברים ולשחדו בממון אף על פי כן הייתי בוכה ועכשיו שמוליכין אותי לפני מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא שחי וקיים לעולם ולעולמי עולמים שאם כועס עלי כעסו כעס עולם ואם אוסרני איסורו איסור עולם ואם ממיתני מיתתו מיתת עולם ואיני יכול לפייסו בדברים ולא לשחדו בממון ולא עוד שיש לפני שני דרכים אחת של גן עדן ואחת של גיהנם ואיני יודע באיזו מוליכין אותי ולא אבכה.
The question is given that clearly רבן יוחנן בן זכאי's the eimah va-pachad that he expresses is because of the din vecheshbon so what's pshat in the opening line of the Gemara כיוון שראה אותם התחיל לבכות? Why does their presence trigger the reaction? You would have expected היה בוכה ונכנסו תלמידיו לבקרו וראו אותו בוכה. Why does their presence? I don't know whether what we're about I mean what we're about to say self-contained I mean what we're about to quote is obviously true in self-contained whether or not the application that that we'll make of it to answer the question is does it really answer the question I don't know you have to think about it. Shayla is you know even given the Mishna of Avot of אל תאמין בעצמך עד יום מותך I don't know רבן יוחנן בן זכאי really was so that he didn't know where he was going he really wasn't sure which on which derech yolichu oso? So omer is... So maybe, I think Reb Itzele writes in the Hakdama to Nefesh HaChaim that it's a characteristic of someone who's a real Anav that he's not makir be'maasav hatovim. That the person just has a sense of doing what he's supposed to be doing, he's not machzik tov le'atzmo. But on the other hand, כי אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא,
but he certainly does have an awareness of his shortcomings. Everyone has shortcomings. Some of us have bigger shortcomings than others, but everyone has shortcomings. So maybe in hachi nami, maybe just kipshuto. You know that they I know the story is told. I can't vouch for the story, but it resonates. It has the ring of truth to it, that someone once saw Reb Chaim on Rosh Hashana and saw the, you know, the Eimas Hadin in his countenance. And so he said, you know, le'chol hapachus, you know, I don't know how he referred to Reb Chaim, le'chol hapachus the Rebbe is a beinoni, you know you can relax a little bit. And Reb Chaim is supposed to have answered, halevai. So it's possible that's the pshat in the Gemara. I think the Rav has in Chamish Drashos that he thinks he says pshat in the Gemara as follows. He says a different pshat in the Gemara. He says that the Aggadeta in Gittin tells the story that when רבן יוחנן בן זכאי's, right, רבן יוחנן בן זכאי hatches a plan with his nephew, who's one of the heads of the Biryonim, to be smuggled out of the siege and he comes he comes to Vespasian and greets him as Shlama Alach Malka, Shlama Alach Malka, Shalom Aleichem Melech. So he says, you're making fun of me, I'm the general, I'm not the Melech, you're making fun of me, I should have you killed. And רבן יוחנן בן זכאי says no, the pasuk says that the Beis HaMikdash is going to fall into the hands of a Melech. If you're the one who's about to destroy the Beis HaMikdash, then clearly you're a Melech. And then taka k'hava that word reaches him that the Caesar died and that he had been appointed. And then he gives רבן יוחנן בן זכאי a request and רבן יוחנן בן זכאי says, you know, תן לי יבנה וחכמיה and the shalsheles of Rabban Gamliel and the doctor for Rav Tzadok. And Rabbi Akiva says, משיב חכמים אחור ודעתם יסכל. He should have asked for the Beis HaMikdash not to be destroyed. And רבן יוחנן בן זכאי, who had to make this momentous decision as a snap decision, thought if I ask for too much, I'll get nothing. So the Rav said, רבן יוחנן בן זכאי's whole life was haunted by whether he had made the right decision. That maybe, maybe it was his fault that the Beis HaMikdash had been destroyed. Maybe the criticism which was subsequently leveled against him, maybe it was correct. Maybe, maybe he should have asked for the Beis HaMikdash and that he was going to appear before the בית דין של מעלה bearing responsibility for the churban HaMikdash. And that's what the pshat in רבן יוחנן בן זכאי's not knowing באיזו דרך מוליכים אותי. What does that have to do with his talmido? No, that's a different point. Right, but like, does that have to do? Oh, I'm sorry, so what it has, thank you. Thank you for the point there. So what it has to do with the talmidim is that again, here is where ad kan what the Rav said and that's beautiful. Here comes the application, which is a bisel shvach to be honest. But it could be that since this is what's haunting רבן יוחנן בן זכאי, so he felt that he had possibly failed as a manhig. So the presence of his talmidim is what sort of accentuated that. It magnified that. That's what, you know, as much as he presumably was anyway completely preoccupied with that thought, maybe, so maybe that's a tzushpash. I don't know, the question's a little bit better than the answer, to be honest. But yeah, in terms of the Rav's approach, is it would it have been wrong if רבן יוחנן בן זכאי made the wrong decision? I mean, like, why should he be liable? So what's implicit in the Rav's havana is sometimes, you know, when a person has to make a decision in life, so sometimes a person does his best to make the right decision and doesn't. And then ein hachi nami, you're right. I don't know, maybe he's shogeg, maybe he's ones than shogeg, maybe he's shogeg karov l'ones, you know, but you know, sometimes when a person, who a person is at any moment in his life is a result of how he's lived his life until that point. It's, so again, to say things very superficially and over-simplistically, but just to be able to make the point, again, I don't think this is, I don't think these are really the terms in which it should be understood, but just to make the point to respond to your question, so let's say that there was a little bit of a chisaron of bitachon, you know, if according to the tzad that רבן יוחנן בן זכאי should have asked for the Beis HaMikdash to be spared. So maybe there was a little bit of a lack of bitachon in not asking for that. Again, I don't really think that's the pshat, but just to illustrate. So that lack of bitachon would be ein hachi nami, at the time he thinks he's making the right decision, he's doing the best he can to make the right decision, but a person can fall short at a particular moment and ein hachi nami, maybe he couldn't have done any better in that moment, but sort of who he was at that moment and why he fell short at that moment is a result of everything of how he's lived his life until that point. So that yesod is certainly true. So maybe that's what רבן יוחנן בן זכאי felt. Ein hachi nami, at the time I obviously made what I thought was the best decision, but maybe it was wrong and who knows what, you know, in the previous decades of my life, what put me in that position that my best was wrong. You know, in a totally different context, Ramchal does say, you know, that bechirah and he has, I think when he talks about mafsidei hazrizus in the perek of mafsidei hazrizus, so Ramchal says that if a person allows himself to become basically lazy. And that you know whatever it's time to eat dinner, you know it has to be a very slow leisurely dinner. If he finds himself in a situation that he has to finish eating dinner quickly in order to get to shul for mincha before shkia, he won't be adon al atzmo. I think I think he actually uses that phrase if he'll be and he won't be able to do it. But it's clear that it will be his fault for having put himself in that situation. One wouldn't say ones rachmana patrei if a person you know you know if he does like you know Harry Houdini where he chains himself up and then he can't figure out, I'm like Harry Houdini, I can't figure out how to get out so it's not going to be an ones rachmana patrei. I mean who told him to to chain himself in the first place? So presumably that's the pshat here that with רבן יוחנן בן זכאי is yeah inna hachinami at the time I did my best but maybe maybe where I had positioned myself you know what life's experiences you know are relative to having to make such a decision I don't know it's you know devarim amukim me'od but wouldn't the onush only be for the previous things and not for the current? Like the example we already said about the guy who was late to shul. So if he was meharher b'teshuva and he started he started he decided to no longer be not slow anymore and he still missed shul so inna hachinami if he was meharher b'teshuva but if he wasn't meharher b'teshuva if he was chewing his hamburger instead of meharher b'teshuva so I imagine that at this moment he really couldn't do differently. I think the seforim say that that a person is chayav not only for his actions but for the consequences of his actions as well. When it says that on Rosh Hashanah ספרי חיים וספרי מתים פתוחים לפניו that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is being dan the meisim also so what's he being dan? They haven't done anything since since last Rosh Hashanah. So I think I think it says in the seforim that that he's being dan what the repercussions were this past year what the fallout was this past year from what they did in their in their in their lifetime. They they were mechanech their children properly so you know they they continue to to reap the dividends from that. If they did other things in life which which are reverberating not in the right direction then then then they continue to bear responsibility for that. So it happens even when a person's in olam ha'emes so kal v'chomer that when a person's inna hachinami if the reaction is you know I have to undo this mida I can't flip a switch I can't so inna hachinami so then he's doing teshuva. But if he's not doing teshuva the fact that right now inna hachinami the power and the momentum of habit is just too great for him to overcome but that's the yesod of that that we we have responsibility not only for what we do but for the consequences of of what we do. One one of the morim here what was was telling me a story that that he was on on a beis din for geirus and the beis din asked the prospective ger you know what's your story? What what what sort of motivates you? What what sparked your interest? So he said I forget where it was some I don't know I guess somewhere in Asia I don't remember but but he went to go on a on a hike or one of these hikes where 20 percent of the people don't come back you know one of these these crazy hikes. So first you have to walk it's it's a 10 mile distance or something to get to the foot of the mountain and then and then you and then you try to scale the mountain. So if you can arrange a van so you go in a van but but otherwise if by yourself it's too expensive so so you first walk the 10 miles. So he's walking and then this van pulls over and says come you know we'll give you a ride. He says but you're full. So it was a group of of Israelis and then they said... And they take him in. But it wasn't empty, all the seats were taken but they make room for him. And he said he wanted to find out what does that mean "we're Jewish" and therefore there's always room for one more. What does that mean that you're Jewish but the van's full? And he started looking into Yiddishkeit and he was there. So when that, I didn't know that that group of Israelis were all wearing tzitzis and I didn't know that that was necessarily the case, but the consequences of that one comment, that one act, will reverberate forever. The Nefesh HaChaim has a pasuk, Hayotzer yachad libam, the pasuk from Tehillim that we say in Shabbos Pesukei D'Zimra, היוצר יחד לבם המבין אל כל מעשיהם. So one of the amazing things about the Nefesh HaChaim is he shows how so many pesukim, just the simple pshat of the pasuk you don't really understand without the ideas that he quotes al pi nistar. What do you mean המבין אל כל מעשיהם? It should have been המבין את כל מעשיהם. You don't understand to something, you discern something. You don't discern to something, you discern something. You understand something. What do you mean המבין אל כל מעשיהם? He gives two pshatim. He talks about this pasuk twice in Sha'ar Alef. At the first time he talks about the pasuk, he says that what it means is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu discerns el, to what point and to what degree the person's actions reverberate. And so he's not just mevin es ma'aseihem in terms of what the person does right in front of us, but he's mevin all the reverberations. Nefesh HaChaim is talking about again al derech nistar and throughout the olamos that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is calculating what the cosmic repercussions are of what the person does. But the emes is, even al pi nigla, you understand his pshat. המבין אל כל מעשיהם. You give someone a ride, המבין אל כל מעשיהם. Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees where that action hits. That's just pshat in the story also. Yochanan ben Zakkai saw his talmidim, and so since there's peiros, they're them and the hemshech kol hadoros, which is just the hishtalshelus hamesora. That is the reverberation of his actions. So by him not asking for the Beis HaMikdash, he saw that hemshech kol hadoros until Moshiach would not reach their full potential as talmidim and as ovdei Hashem. Be'fihem uvi'levavam. That was his heritage. Be'fihem uvi'levavam. Be'fihem uvi'levavam. Very good. אמרו לו רבינו בוכינו. So here too, there's a question. At first glance, this seems kind of heartless. Here Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai is tortured, איני יודע באיזה דרך מוליכין אותי, and they don't respond. Okay, but let's focus on us, not about you. Let's focus on us. Rabbeinu bocheinu. So haitachen? No. Maybe the pshat is, when they say to him Rabbeinu bocheinu, they're answering him. They're telling him we don't see any questions here, we don't see any sfeikos. You're still... Even after that self-revelatory explanation of his crying, no it's Rabbeinu and we still see that we still look to you for the brachos, so in turning to him for a bracha there's also they're also responding to what he said. So Amar lahem Yehi Ratzon שתהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם. Amru lo talmidov ad kan? Amar lahem ulevai. Tedu שכשאדם עובר עבירה אומר שלא יראני אדם בשעת פשיעה שלא יראני אדם.
Rashi: Ad kan bitmiya, כלומר ולא יותר ממורא בשר ודם. Ulevai, שיהא כמורא בשר ודם שמתוך כך תחטאו מעבירות חמורות. עובר עבירה בסתר ממורא הבריות,
veyodeah shehakol hu Hakadosh Baruch Hu ve'aino maniach l'kach. Every ganef, every ganef is more concerned with mora basar vadam, again a ganef as an illustration is more concerned with mora basar vadam than he is for mora shamayim, so halevai that the mora shamayim was kemora basar vadam. We'll come back in a minute to Rashi. So there is a pshat that in the Sifrei Chassidus they've brought from the Baal Shem Tov on this Gemara, an extraordinary pshat. The Baal Shem Tov says like this. The Baal Shem Tov says: Tedu שכשאדם עובר עבירה אומר שלא יראני אדם. He says human psychology is such that when a person does something, when a person knows that he's doing something wrong, so he has this paranoid, seemingly paranoid fear of being discovered, of exposure. It can be that what he's doing is just so, he's at home, he's got the window shades drawn, and no one can possibly see him, and אף על פי כן a person has this fear, this terror, that someone's watching, that someone's about to look in on him, someone's about to see him, and it's irrational, there's no basis for it. So the Baal Shem Tov says the pshat in the Gemara is שתהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם, that a person should recognize that that visceral mora that he has which he interprets and experiences mora basar vadam is really an instinct that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave him for mora shamayim, and that's what it means. Yehi Ratzon שתהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם, that you should recognize that what you process as some kind of irrational mora basar vadam is really an instinct that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave you for mora shamayim. Gevald. And that's what he says ulevai, and you want to know that that's true that when we think we're experiencing mora basar vadam we're really experiencing mora shamayim is Adam over aveira and he's beseser. He's not vulnerable to exposure and אף על פי כן he's worried about exposure midei basar vadam, so you see again that's totally irrational, so you see that what we process and erroneously interpret as as mora basar vadam is really an instinct for mora shamayim. Just recognize that you have that instinct, interpret it correctly, and you'll have mora shamayim. Now that's extraordinary, extraordinary pshat from the Baal Shem Tov. Coming back to Rashi's pshat, so perhaps as follows, to amplify as follows, I think we discussed this in a different context once without mentioning this Gemara. If you have a Rambam, so take a look in Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuva. Take a look at those two halachos, alef and beis, if you can, because I think I'm over there. Al yomar adam, Perek Yod, halacha alef. Al yomar adam 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.
Good. halacha beis. So what should a person do? העובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה לא מפני דבר בעולם לא מפני יראת הרעה ולא כדי לירש הטובה אלא עושה אמת מפני שהוא אמת וסוף הטובה לבוא בגללה. ומעלה זו היא מעלה גדולה עד מאד ואין כל חכם זוכה לה והיא
מעלת אברהם אבינו שקראו הקדוש ברוך הוא אוהבי. Now, when the Rambam uses the lashon of osek batorah uvimitzvos, it's clear from the way he used it in halacha alef that that refers to Talmud Torah, it refers to kiyum mitzvos asei. The Rambam uses the lashon mitzvos in halacha alef as referring to mitzvos asei. lo sa'aseis, he refers to as aveiros. That, that, that's clear. But one thing's clear, so then there's something extraordinary here. In halacha alef, the Rambam sort of critiqued the mindset of yirah both legabei aseis and lo sa'aseis, but then when he tells us what the correct mindset is, he only tells us legabei aseis. You see that? You have it in front of you? Take a look. So, Al yomar adam הריני עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה כדי שאקבל הברכות הכתובות בתורה או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא
v'efrosh min ha'aveiros. So until now, עושה מצוות ועוסק בחכמתה was talking about again kiyum mitzvos asei and Talmud Torah. Or a person shouldn't say v'efrosh min ha'aveiros. Now he's talking about lo sa'aseis כדי שאנצל מן הקללות. אין ראוי לעבוד את השם על דרך זו.
So what he should have said in halacha beis is he should have said העובד מאהבה עוסק בתורה ובמצוות והולך בנתיבות החכמה ופורש מן העבירות לא מפני,
but he doesn't have that. You hear the kasha? He doesn't have that. So the vort is like this. The vort is like this. Hamitzvah harevi'is in Sefer Hamitzvos in mitzvos asei היא שציוונו להאמין יראתו יתעלה ולהיפחד ממנו ולא נהיה ככופרים ההולכים בקרי אבל נירא ביסורו של כל עת.
yiras ha'onesh is a mitzvas asei. yiras ha'onesh isn't something a person is supposed to outgrow. It's not supposed to, it's not something a person's supposed to outgrow. It's not something he's supposed to transcend. You don't transcend achilas matzah. You don't reach a madreiga where you don't eat matzah on ליל חמישה עשר בניסן. You don't reach a madreiga where you don't take a lulav on Chamishah asar b'Tishrei. There's no such thing as reaching a madreiga where a person doesn't have have yiras ha'onesh. Oh. So the vort is that what the Rambam is saying is the ideal is that when it comes to mitzvos asei a person is oved me'ahavah, but in terms of זהירות ממצוות לא תעשה, the yiras ha'onesh is part of the ideal. That's not something a person's supposed to outgrow. That's not a stage. It's not something he's supposed to outgrow. It's not something he's supposed to transcend. So then why did he mention in halacha alef? So then in halacha alef, he should only be critiquing the עושה מצוות התורה ועוסק בחכמתה, he shouldn't be critiquing the ve'efrosh min ha'aveiros. No, that's part of yiras ha'onesh. So the vort is like this. If a person has yiras ha'onesh, so how does he know whether that yiras ha'onesh is part of of his being oved es Hashem the way HaKadosh Baruch Hu designed. But whether it's self-interest and self-centeredness. It could be either, right? It certainly could be that he's being oved es Hashem the way HaKadosh Baruch Hu designed. L'yiraso she-be-chol eis is a mitzvahs asseh. Again, from mitzvahs asseh obviously no less. But on the other hand it obviously can be just self-interest and self-centeredness. So what's the answer? Look at how he's mekayem mitzvahs asseh. If he's being mekayem mitzvahs asseh out of self-interest, so then that's the pshat in his yiras shamayim. If he's being mekayem mitzvahs asseh me'ahavah, so then that yiras shamayim is noch because that's how HaKadosh Baruch Hu designed it. So in halacha aleph and that's why, that's why the Rambam first has oseh mitzvos HaTorah and then efrosh min ha'aveiros. It's once the person is עושה מצות התורה כדי שיקבל שכר כדי שיזכה לחיי העולם הבא
so then that frames, that contextualizes his אפרוש מן העבירות כדי שינצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה או שלא יכרת מחיי העולם הבא
so then then that's part of what's being critiqued. But once in halacha beis the person substitutes, no, that he aspires, he works to that to being oved me'ahavah, עושה האמת מפני שהוא אמת וסוף הטובה לבוא בכלל so then that rehabilitates the yiras shamayim. The yiras shamayim, no, that that's the correct, that's takeh the correct. Where did the Rambam get this from? This, maybe, I don't know, maybe the different okay. So first of all if it's part of his mitzvahs asseh then it's m'de'oraisa, but lichora it's mefurash. The Rambam understands that that's pshat in the mishna of Avos of Antignos Ish Socho, אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס אלא הוו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת שלא לקבל פרס.
But then what does Antignos say? ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. So according to the Rambam, no, that's gufeh the pshat in the mishna. Don't think the fact that that you're striving to, and you know, Antignos, and the fact that you've achieved oved me'ahavah, don't think that that means that you transcend the the ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. No, even even when you're engaged in that avoda, no, it's still supposed to be L'yiraso she-be-chol eis ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. So that lichora that's I think klar the pshat in the Rambam and and his makor is the mishna of Avos. Yitachen that that's also what Rabi Yochanan ben Zakkai is saying. When Rabi Yochanan ben Zakkai is saying שתהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם, if you compare mora shamayim to k'mora basar v'adam you're obviously talking about yiras ha'onesh, right? You're not talking about yiras haromemus. You're clearly talking about yiras ha'onesh and which is what Rabi Yochanan ben Zakkai had been expressing also. And they said to him, ad kan? Like we're not supposed to outgrow that? You're not gonna like this is the last bracha you're giving us? You know, so it's maybe if we come back next year you'll give another bracha, okay. Give us a bracha what should happen this year and next year you'll give us you know you'll give us the bracha for the next stage. But this this is you're leaving us now, bishas petiraso. So ad kan? We're not supposed to go beyond this? Yeah, he says ein hachi nami, in terms of mora shamayim, yes, there's supposed to be yiras haromemus, but that's not something which means that you've outgrown or that you eclipse the the the dimension of mora shamayim which is k'mora basar v'adam. No, I'm giving you a bracha that should be with you for the rest for the rest of your life in the same way Antignos Ish Socho said ויהי מורא שמים עליכם. Okay, so we'll stop there.