Transcript

והיסוד השני אחדותו יתעלה והוא שזה שהוא עילת הכל אחד לא כאחד של מין ולא כאחד של סוג ולא כפרט האחד המורכב שמתחלק לאחדים רבים ולא אחד כגוף הפשוט האחד במנין שמקבל הפרדה וחלוקה עד אין סוף אלא הוא יתעלה אחד באחדות שאין כמוה אחדות בשום פנים וזה היסוד השני הוא שהורנו עליו באמרו שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד.

So when we speak of achdos Hashem, it means that there's only one Hashem. It also means that Hashem Himself is one in the sense that there's no multiplicity or ribbuy in Him. Right, you can say that in a company, there's only one CEO. There's one CEO of the company. But that doesn't mean that there's no two CEOs. But that doesn't mean that the CEO doesn't have ramach evarim and shasah gidim. It doesn't mean that there's no notion of ribbuy of multiplicity within that one CEO. So when you say Hashem echad, there's one Hashem. Right, that's, you know, again, every mashal is not really a mashal in this context, but that's the nimshal to there's one CEO. But then there's one Hashem, but Hashem is one. And in that sense, and because Hashem is one in the most absolute sense of the term, meaning sometimes we use one, but not in such an absolute sense. You know how many, ich veis, cats did you see this morning? I saw one cat. Okay, so there's one individual cat. This is one individual cat, but it's one of many. There are many of the same species. And then there are other species. It's not even the only species of cat. This is one instance of many that belong to a species. And even this species is one species of many species. So usually when we use one, so there's one tabletop here. But this one tabletop can be subdivided, again conceptually, it can be subdivided infinitely. Practically we don't have the wherewithal to do that, but conceptually it can even be subdivided infinitely. Right, when you think mathematically, so you can still, you can always subdivide a line segment into half into half into half into half. You can always represent it mathematically. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu is one in an incomparably in an incomparable fashion. So שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד means not only that Hashem is one, it means Hashem is unique. Right, that's Hashem. And that's what the Rambam says:

אלא הוא יתעלה אחד באחדות שאין כמוה אחדות בשום פנים. שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד

to sort of express what that encapsulates is not only that there's one Hashem, and not only that the one Hashem is one. Again, there's one CEO, but that CEO internally, intrinsically is one. But again, what all of that yields is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is absolutely unique and singular. It's something that the Rambam emphasizes a lot. We have a tendency, we people, and it's quite clear from the Rambam this isn't a phenomenon that emerged just because you read the Siddurim in ה'תשפ"ד. We have a tendency to humanize Hakadosh Baruch Hu and basically make Hakadosh Baruch Hu into a Superman and sort of take ourselves or our existence as the definition of existence and then we sort of expand that to depict Hashem. So we're mortal, ימי שנותינו בהם שבעים שנה ואם בגבורות שמונים שנה, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu lives forever and we, ich veis, we have ramach evarim shasa gidim but Hashem is one but sort of it's one in the same category as our 248 and 365 and we know so much but Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows everything and the Rambam says no, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is absolutely unique. It's not that there's no comparison, there's no our existence, anything about our existence doesn't give us a frame of reference for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. ה' אלוקינו ה' אחד. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is totally and absolutely unique. That's why we know Hakadosh Baruch Hu through his actions. We know Hakadosh Baruch Hu through his actions. There is no frame of reference to define him. We know him through his actions. We know him as the Borei Olam, we know him as yodeia u'mashgiach. We know him through his actions. He said as shlishi, shlilas hagasmius mimenu to negate all physicality, all corporeality from him. Hu she'ha'echad hazeh, actually maybe let's, I'm sorry, I forgot one thing in yesod hasheini. In the yesod harishon so the Rambam writes Metzius Haborei Yishtabach. May he be praised. In the yesod hasheini it's achduso yisaleh. So the Rambam switches, right? It's not yishtabach, it's yisaleh. Right, so if we would lower the Rambam to our level we'd say the Rambam took out his thesaurus and said, good writing, you can't use the same, you can't repeat the same phrase. So okay, so he looked up you know what a good... so he picked out yishtabach, he picked out yisaleh. Yeah and maybe he could have done it in the reverse order but everything is nifla me'od here. What we just said, what's the yesod hasheini? The yesod hasheini is again Hashem Echad means echad yachid u'meyuchad. But it also means absolutely unique. Yisaleh means may he be elevated above all human comparisons and categories that you use in other contexts. In the yesod harishon we didn't know that yet. In the yesod harishon the Rambam only taught us metzius haborei. At that point, all the Rambam could add to that is yishtabach, may he be praised. Once the Rambam explains to us what it means ה' אלוקינו ה' אחד, now the Rambam can say no, yisaleh, may he be elevated again above these categories that humanize him. that that that blur the uniqueness achduso yisaleh. Everything every every word in the Rambam is so so meduyak. How is that possible for for a person to be to be the the the the the the very simple peshat is like this. Let's say you have someone is blessed with a beautiful voice, beautiful voice. So assuming that they don't have a cold or something, so whenever whenever that person talks, whenever that person sings, it's going to be beautiful, it's going to be beautiful because because given who that person is, so that person's our extraordinary is that person's ordinary. So the person who's blessed with the beautiful beautiful voice, you're always going to hear that, you know, you're always going to hear it. So our extraordinary was the Rambam's ordinary, that you know who who the Rambam was, so every every word is so every word is so deep and so profound because that was the level in which the Rambam thought, in which the Rambam wrote, and in which the Rambam lived.

היסוד השלישי שלילת הגשמות ממנו. והוא שהאחד הזה אינו גוף ולא כח בגוף ולא יארעו לו מאורעות הגופים כגון התנועה והמנוחה לא מצד העצם ולא במקרה.

So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is incorporeal, He's not physical. And since He's not physical, so everything which is a function of physicality doesn't apply to Him either. Motion, being in motion or at rest, so that's two of a physical body. Something which is physical, it could it can be in motion, it can be at rest. Something which is physical, it can be mitsad ha'etzem that the that it shifts between these two states. Let's say a person can move or be at rest, it doesn't have to be that someone's carrying him or someone's propelling him, right? The person mitsad ha'etzem, a person is mobile. If you have something which is inanimate, you have you have a stone. So a stone is going to be mitsad hamikreh that it's either in in motion, someone throws the stone, so the stone is in motion, and no one throws the stone, it's at rest. But either way, something something which is physical, again, either in a self-propelling way or being propelled by something else, but anything which is physical, anything which is a function of physicality doesn't apply to Hakadosh Baruch Hu because He's not physical. לכן שללו ממנו עליהם המשל, and that's why Chazal say that that you can't speak by Hakadosh Baruch Hu of chibbur and pirud. You can't speak of being connected or or or or set apart because again that's true of something physical. Two things which are physical, they can be connected and or they can they can be they can be disconnected, but it's not it's not true of something which isn't physical. לא ישיבה ולא עמידה. Again, to be sitting or standing is a physical is is a posture which is again a function of physicality. לא עורף ולא עיפוי, klomar lo pirud, vehu oref, v'lo chibbur,

כי עיפוי מענין ואפלו בקוצף פשתים. כלומר ידחפו אותם בקוצף מחמת התחברם בהם.

So what does it mean לא עורף ולא עיפוי? The Rambam says it means לא פירוד ולא חיבור. Ve'amar hanavi ואל מי תדמיון קל. And it also says ve'el mi tedamyuni, the first time it's it's not speaking. To whom can you compare Hakadosh Baruch Hu or speaking in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's voice, the second time it's speaking in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's voice, ואל מי תדמיוני ואשוה. Right? To whom can you compare Hakadosh Baruch Hu or speaking in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's voice, to whom can you compare me and and there will be some resemblance. ואילו היה גוף היה דומה לגופים. Rambam says even if you would say he's physical but but it's a different type of physicality there would be some point of resemblance. There would be some basis for hashvava. So it's quite clear that what these psukim are saying is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is absolutely entirely incorporeal. ואילו היה גוף היה דומה לגופים. vechol ma sheba I think the Rambam in the Yad also quotes the pasuk that that we quote in Aleinu every day.

וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך כי ה' אלקים בשמים ממעל ועל הארץ מתחת.

So so something physical can't be in two places at the same time. Can't be in two places at the same time. So how is Hakadosh Baruch Hu equally בשמים ממעל ועל הארץ מתחת? Because he's not he's not physical. Location is also a function of physicality. Something which is which is physical it has has coordinates. Now vechol ma sheba what do you do with all the psukim which describe Hakadosh Baruch Hu in in these terms?

וכל מה שבא בכתובים בתורה מתוארי הגוף. כגון ההליכה ממקום למקום.

vayelech Hashem ka'asher how does the pasuk go when he finished talking to Avraham Avinu? כגון ההליכה ממקום למקום והעמידה והישיבה. vehadibbur vechayotze bahem. Again to speak so it means you have vocal cords that are that are vibrating and and producing sound waves. So what does all this mean? כולם הם דרך השאלה. It's all speaking in anthropomorphic terms. kemo she'amru דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. See here this is something you find in in many many of the Rishonim. You find in Chovot Halevavot, you find in Ibn Ezra, you find in in the Radak. Again that's already after the Rambam. The Rambam, I think Yehuda Halevi has in the Kuzari everyone everyone uses this phrase of דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם in in speaking of the anthropomorphisms in Tanakh. The you know if if you look up the phrase that again the phrase is from Chazal but Chazal use it to explain kefel lashon. Chazal don't use it in this context. Chazal use it in a in a very different context. Let's say whenever you have double leshonot hashev teshivem. Those kinds of double leshonot. So you have sometimes you have not whenever sometimes you have מחלוקת רבי ישמעאל רבי עקיבא whether you have to darshan something from the kefel lashon or whether it's דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. Chazal are not using the this expression in the context that that all the Rishonim are sort of borrowing it from. So what why do they I mean given that that is not the context of Chazal so so why but but again you know it's meduyak in the Rambam. It's not stam well you know it's a beautiful phrase so we'll borrow the phrase albeit in a different context. No but the Rambam says kemo she'amru. Right? The Rambam is quoting the phrase. He's not sort of borrowing the phrase and and using it in a and again it's not only the Rambam, it's everyone does it. So lachora the pshat is that even though again and Chazal never used it in this context but there is a yesod in דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם which is that you find places even in Chumash where let's say when a imagine someone someone's giving a drasha. So if he if he's gonna be a good darshan. And if he wants to convey, if he wants to communicate the same content, but on two different occasions but he has two different audiences, so he's gonna say it differently. He's gonna say it differently. Maybe he'll give a maybe he'll give a different moshal, or maybe he'll even have to use different vocabulary. It it should, to be an effective darshan, so it needs to be tailored to the specific audience. And again, anyone who communicates effectively does that. People don't realize that and sometimes they then take, let's say, what an Adam Gadol said to in a particular context to a particular audience and then they sort of play it in their minds to a different audience with all kinds of diyukim. And and the whole thing is just a a misguided analysis because effective communication means that you're talking to the to to your live audience. So דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם means that that the Torah Kedosha, Hakadosh Baruch Hu does that in the Torah Kedosha and and the Torah reflects again, even though Chazal said it in in a dramatically different context, but there's a yesod here and and the yesod is that that the Torah does that as well. The Torah also, it's it's mei'eis hagevurah, every every every word every letter is mei'eis hagevurah, but it's mei'eis hagevurah intended for bnei adam and that's reflected in how the Torah speaks. Okay, now again Chazal made that point in a vastly different context, dehino idiomatically how the the Torah speaks and the Rishonim say but the same yesod is true in terms of philosophically how how how you speak. That the on the one hand, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is very real, the ultimate reality, the only reality, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is very real. On the other hand, because we're so megushamdig, there is a danger because he's not physical, he's not tangible, there's nothing tangible, you can't you can't shake hands, he's not he's not visible, so there's a danger of Hakadosh Baruch Hu who's the reality of of becoming some kind of abstraction. So how do you sort of, what's the kasuv hashlishi for most of us between those two? The kasuv hashlishi is דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. The kasuv hashlishi is on the one hand that that we speak of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in human terms, anthropomorphisms, but with the awareness that it's an anthropomorphism and that's a way of making it real in terms that are easy for us to relate to. But we need to recognize that that's what's happening when the Torah expresses itself that way. So the Torah could say, you know, in very what for us would be very clinical terms, the Torah could say avodah zarah is very very bad. Okay, or the Torah could say וחרה אף השם בכם, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to be filled with wrath. So people being who we are, what we are, the latter formulation is much more real to us and and makes much more of an impression upon us than sort of the clinical description that it's min ha'aveiros hachamuros. But if it's depicted as כי קל קנא השם, no, hashem is going to avenge this, and it's depicted as וחרה אף השם בכם, hashem is not getting angry and he's not he's not losing his cool, hashem is not getting angry, but that it's speaks to us in a way that sort of the clinical, the clinically precise formulation doesn't. So on the one hand, the Torah speaks that way, again, with our assuming, our knowledge that it's speaking as a mashal. And that's what it means in this context that דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. So to say that when a guest leaves, okay, so we know what that means. So that's very meaningful to us. So to say that a nevuah ended, so we describe that Hashem left. Again, Hashem's not going anywhere, He doesn't come, He doesn't go. A nevuah began for the navi and a nevuah ended, so that's very abstract. But if you express it in concrete terms, but recognizing that that's a mashal, so it becomes easier for us to grasp, easier for us to understand. But we have to recognize that it's being expressed, again, in that mashal to make it easier for us to hold on to the abstraction. And that's what the Rishonim are explaining. And the reason they not only are using the phrase from Chazal, but they're quoting, right? The Rambam says kemoshe amru. He's quoting Chazal, even though Chazal's not at all in this context, is because the yesod that the Torah reflects not... the Torah could be written in a way that reflects Hashem's... it could have the perfect precision that Hashem is capable of and it wouldn't employ דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu, again, He's an effective darshan, lehavdil, right? So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is tailoring to His audience. The audience is people. So therefore, דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. The audience is people and therefore דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. So not only true in idiom, but it's even true in terms of employing anthropomorphisms. That's what the Rishonim mean. וכבר דברו בני אדם בענין זה הרבה. I'm not sure what that line means. Maybe it means that what we were talking about, that you know, that the Rambam says, you know, I'm not the first one to be even using דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם in this context. Because again, you have it before the Rambam, you have it in Chovos HaLevavos, you have it in Ibn Ezra. I'm not sure what this line means.

והיסוד הששי הזה הוא שהורה עליו באמרו כי לא ראיתם כל תמונה כלומר לא השגתם אותו בעל תמונה לפי שהוא כמו שאמרנו לא גוף ולא כח בגוף.

So what when the Torah wants to talk about hashgachah, so the Torah talks about עיני ה' א-להיך בה. Torah talks about Eretz Yisrael in Parshas Eikev, Torah says that again, literally translated, that Hashem's eyes are always, His gaze is always focused on Eretz Yisrael. So that's דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם. Again, to say that, you know, if you say that a person is... you'll say that a person would be watching carefully. That's the way a person would exercise, you know, hashgachah on a human level. So that's the way the Torah impresses it upon us. But all the דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם are again sort of when we want to describe a nevuah ends, we want to describe hashgachah. But when we're thinking about Hashem Himself, so then we don't even use this דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם as a bridge. When a person is davening Shemoneh Esrei, a person's not supposed to have any kind of physical image in mind. A person is not supposed to, if a person is looking to focus on something, so it says in the sefarim he can see the letters. of י-ה-ו-ה in in in in front of his, you know, his mind’s eye. But he’s not supposed to have any, any, any physical image in mind. Because again, then we’re not trying to describe that that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is communicating that that Moshe Rabbeinu is receiving a communication with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Okay, then you can say וידבר ה' אל משה לאמר. When we’re talking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself, so then we don’t, we don’t even use this heter, as it were, to use דברה תורה כלשון בני אדם to to help us, to help bridge things for us, we don’t use. What does a person focus on? He can focus on either or both: either the osiyos of י-ה-ו-ה, or I think the Nefesh Hachayim says that when a person davens, let’s say if a person is davening by heart, he says it’s a segulah for kavanah to see the words. Right? So when a person’s davening א-ד-נ-י, he should see the א-ד-נ-י. And he should see the ח-ו-נ-ן. And, and again, in, in his mind’s eye. But that’s sort of what the, the anchor is for us in terms of, of focus, but not chas veshalom any, any physical imagery. Okay, this is, this is, it’s a, it’s a very big topic, too big to begin now, but maybe just to introduce it, so you can take a look and, and then bli neder next week we’ll talk about it. This is the place to talk about what happens if a person makes, makes a mistake in, in the Yud-Gimmel Ikkarim, so, ’cause this is where you have the, the famous Hasagos HaRavad in Hilchos Teshuva, when the Rambam says that if a person חמשה הם הנקראים מינים and one of the five who was nikra min is who thinks that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is, is physical, and the Ravad says למה קרא לזה מין. So in terms of just what the Ravad’s attitude towards mistakes is, is, is needs to be correctly understood, and that’s not always the case. What the Rambam’s attitude is, so maybe bli neder im yirtzeh Hashem we’ll, we’ll begin with that next week.