Fear of Sin and Caution are the Proper Measure Regarding Physical Pleasures | Eight Chapters, Chapter 4 (Auto Translated) | תמלול וסיכום מתורגם

Eight Chapters by the Rambam: Temperance and the Middle Path in Character Traits

Introduction: Why Eight Chapters and Not Guide for the Perplexed?

Lecturer:

One moment.

It goes like this. Ah, he’s coming, okay.

So, we’re taking here Shemonah Perakim [Eight Chapters, Maimonides’ introduction to Ethics of the Fathers]. We’re going to learn about the topic of… of what? About the topic of eating, not of running, but of eating. Very important to distinguish.

We’re going to learn and see about the subject of middos [character traits].

Critique of Chasidus: Bein Adam LaMakom vs. Bein Adam LaChaveiro

We already know that I have a bit of politics with the Chasidic world, the shitas haChasidus [the Chasidic approach], because Chasidus is very much occupied with what’s called bein adam laMakom [between man and God], or with devekus [cleaving/attachment to God] and all kinds of such things, and not sufficiently occupied with bein adam lachaveiro [interpersonal ethics].

Reb Yankele said that he holds that it’s possible that Rabbi Yisrael Salanter [founder of the Mussar movement] was completely right, that devekus without good middos, ah, all these things are not important. What comes of it?

Chasidic Stories That Support This Point

I saw the… the… what kind of book? I saw at my father’s a new book, Yalkut Toras Tzvi, or something like that, Yalkut Likutei Toras Tzvi, from the Veretzkier teshuvah [answer], all normal, simple things that he says. And there’s a story there that the Beis Yisroel of Gur [Rabbi Yisrael Alter, 1895-1977, Gerrer Rebbe] said after Yom Tov, after Yom Noraim [the High Holy Days], to his gabbai [synagogue attendant/assistant], to someone, he said that he holds that he made a… he tried, as a Chasidic rebbe tries to make Yom Tov what it should be, and he tells the gabbai that the entire beautiful avodah [spiritual service] is lost by breaking one middah.

So, you see that this was understood. It’s very easy to get excited on Rosh Hashanah [Jewish New Year] and pray. It’s not so difficult. People think that this is the great tzidkus [righteousness] of the rebbe. That the rebbe gives away a dollar to another Jew is a much greater mofes [wonder/miracle]. So that’s the nekudah [point].

Why Eight Chapters and Not Guide for the Perplexed?

And kol zeh [all this], so that’s why I’m learning Eight Chapters. If I wanted to learn Moreh Nevuchim [Guide for the Perplexed], I would need Chasidus, and I would need to learn about the Almighty and theology. But, it’s a hakdamah [introduction], one must first be a bit of a person. I feel that I’m lacking, so I learn what I’m lacking, like the pure ones. That’s the Chasidic story.

More Chasidic Stories: Eating with Taste and Kavanos HaArizal

Another story I saw there, which was more popular here on my WhatsApp, and I wanted to quote with the story. I said, this is just beginning with the Chasidic story, and not. Another story I saw there, and where is it? Ah, ah, no, it’s not the piece.

It says there that someone asked him, he gave him to eat, and there was no salt in it, he said there was no taste. He told them to send it back, bring salt, bring pepper, make it so it should be good. What does it mean, you talk about eating leshem shamayim [for the sake of Heaven], you even have kavanos [intentions], what does it have a taste? He said, you don’t know, whoever wants to have intention with kavanos haArizal [the mystical intentions of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria] must feel a taste in the food. Such a story is written there.

It says here the piece that was seen, that his son-in-law brings that his father-in-law told him, what is the kavanas ha’achilah [the intention of eating]? The kavanas ha’achilah is that the Almighty wants to be meitiv [do good] for people, and the Almighty is chafetz chesed [desires kindness], and we are mekabel [receiving] it. One doesn’t even need to have any kavanos haArizal. This actually fits with kavanos haArizal.

Okay, now, those were the Chasidic stories. I wanted to say that one shouldn’t think we’re doing this. But first one must say this, why are we giving such a shiur? We’re learning Eight Chapters, so we must begin with Eight Chapters and get to it as much as we can. Okay?

The Plan: Nine Middos from the Rambam’s List

So we’re learning this way, we want to learn, and this will be the beginning of a series. I’ve already said a few times, we’ve talked about this, that we’re going to begin to continue a bit in the mehalech [progression/approach]. That the Rambam [Maimonides] here in perek daled [chapter four] has a list of nine middos, nine extreme middos. The list is just a precision that we discussed, here’s a list, and I hold that it would be kedai [worthwhile] to try to learn about each one of the middos that’s on the list, in order to learn a bit about it. Vezeh hachali [and this is the beginning].

First Middah: Zehirus – The Middle Path Between Two Extremes

So the first middah on his list here in this chapter, and also in perek beis [chapter two] there’s a similar list, is the middah that he calls… I brought papers where it says a part of the things that I’m going to tell the world. I hope it’s enough for everyone, but there’s a bunch.

Analysis of Rabbi Shmuel Ibn Tibbon’s Translation

And here it says, let’s see, it says here like this, there’s the first piece from Eight Chapters chapter two or chapter four on the second page. Let’s see, the Rambam gave a mashal [parable/example]. Yes, essentially it’s all just a mashal, because kulo agav [it’s all incidental to] the Gemara is for the derech ha’emtza’i [the middle path]. But al kol panim [in any case], we want to talk about the middos themselves, so why do we need to do this also? We want to talk about the middos themselves.

And he says like this, a mashal, this is the targum [translation] of the first translation that’s here from Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon [12th-13th century translator]. A mashal of a middah that one must speak of from the middle path is hazehirus [temperance/caution]. And so, I’m reading Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon’s translation. “She’hi middah” – on page 2, the second page is what I’m reading. The second page, the other side of the first page, it says Eight Chapters chapter four from the top, and in the middle there’s such a small he’arah [note] that says Rashba [acronym], and I’m reading there.

If someone can read Arabic, he can read for me the first piece, because I don’t know how to read. I can read it, but I don’t know how to pronounce the words. So there’s a shame, barely have I begun Arabic, I won’t know. It’s not a shame, I can say what I want.

Wait, he says, Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon usually translates kim’at [almost] word for word. He says, a mashal of the middos is hazehirus, “she’hi middah memutze’es bein rov hata’avah uvein he’eder hargashas hahana’ah” [that it is a middle trait between excessive desire and the absence of feeling pleasure], that’s his lashon [language/formulation].

The Problem with “Rov HaTa’avah”

So zehirus, there’s a middah called zehirus, and he wants to teach us here that every middah is in the middle of what? Right? You didn’t know, true? I also didn’t know. So that’s what we’re going to learn. So zehirus, we’ve already talked about this once, I actually don’t want to talk about it now, because I’ve had new chiddushim [novel insights] about it.

In any case, “zehirus” is a middah called “zehirus”, so writes Rabbi Eliyahu Shmuel ibn Tibbon, that’s his lashon, yes? The Rambam wrote in Arabic. Zehirus is a middah in between “rov ta’avah” [excessive desire]. Now, this is a bit of a scam that he does “rov ta’avah”, because he says that a middah, the bad of every middah is too much, so “rov ta’avah” is already saying the same thing twice. It should have been a name for ta’avah [desire].

You have a problem, that when he says “rov ta’avah”, he’s giving away the game. In the makor [source] it doesn’t say like that, that’s the truth. That’s actually my mistake. He should have written… I’ll make you now, I’ll now take you the translations. Yes, you catch? “Zehirus” is the correct middah, the middle, right? There must be on one side one bad middah, and on the other side the second bad middah, right? That’s how all bad middos go, too much and too little.

He says like this, “zehirus” – this is the translation of ibn Tibbon – “zehirus is a middah memutze’es bein rov hata’avah”. Now, this is a scam, because memeilah [automatically] you should say “ta’avah” is a middah memutze’es bein rov hata’avah levachur mi’ut hata’avah [versus a small amount of desire]. Once you put in the word “rov”, you gave away the game, you have no word. You say “rov”, he means too much, not rov and mi’ut, right? He means ribui [abundance/excess], right? Ribui ta’avah, and zehirus is less than ribui ta’avah. Okay, so if so, ta’avah is less than ribui ta’avah. Your words don’t fit so well. You understand my problem? Yes, yes, very good.

The Arabic Source: “Al Sharah”

So, “al sharah”, “al sharah” means to be a ba’al ta’avah [one who is ruled by desire], yes, something like that, to be a bad person and a ba’al ta’avah. I’ll tell you later what he means. Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon put it in because he had a problem, because he thought that the word “ta’avah” won’t come out…

Yehudah Alcharizi’s Translation

Student: Who?

Lecturer: Yehudah Alcharizi’s [12th-13th century translator and poet] translation of Eight Chapters is Shmuel ibn Tibbon with tikkun [correction]. He lechatchilah [initially], he didn’t translate himself. He took Shmuel ibn Tibbon’s translation, and he saw that it doesn’t fit at all with the Arabic, so he changed it. Or changed dikduk [grammar], he held that he knows dikduk better than Shmuel ibn Tibbon, he knows Hebrew. But almost not, this is nimshach acharav [follows after him], this is not a mistake. It’s not a mistake, there’s a huge reason why he writes it, because writing “bein ta’avah” is also not a good word, because we’re accustomed, derech agav [by the way], I want to tell you a second thing.

Why “Ba’al Ta’avah” is Better than “Ta’avah”

By us it would indeed make sense. In our language it would make sense. In Yiddish it would make sense. Why? Because in Yiddish, if you tell someone that he’s a ba’al ta’avah, you don’t mean that he enjoys his krias haTorah [Torah reading]. You mean to say that he’s a glutton, true? He has too much ta’avah. And the truth is that the lashon is not our lashon, but the Rambam’s own lashon itself.

Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon was a good translator, but not such a translator as the Rambam himself is a translator. How do I know that the Rambam himself is a translator? You don’t need letters, you just need to open Mishneh Torah of the Rambam [Maimonides’ code of Jewish law]. And there you see the same thing as here, yes? Look on page 1 you’ll see. Go back a page, you’ll see how the Rambam himself is a translator of the two ketzavos [extremes].

The Rambam’s Own Lashon in Mishneh Torah

It’s very interesting. The first, what he translates here “rov ta’avah”, the Rambam calls “ba’al ta’avah”. “Ba’al ta’avah” is a lashon of the chachamim [the Sages]. We’re accustomed to speak this way, “ba’al ta’avah” means too much ta’avah. If so, Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon should have written “hata’avah”. “Ba’al ta’avah” is understood as the person who is a ba’al ta’avah, right? But he can write “ta’avah”. But in Arabic, the word “sharah” – I don’t know – means approximately like ta’avah, but it has the connotation of too much, because it’s a bad middah. When you say it’s bad, you mean to say too much, not just hana’ah [pleasure] and ta’anug [enjoyment].

Comparison of Different Translations

So this is a… yes. And you’ll see here the meshalim [parables]… and where is my page? Rabbi Schwartz, Rabbi Michael Schwartz, has – I think – the best translation there is. His translation here in Eight Chapters is more… he has his own klalim [rules/principles] for how he translates. But you can see here, where is it? What? No, no. Schwartz writes… he knows Arabic, should I tell you? Yes, he has a chiddushim [novel commentary] on Guide for the Perplexed. Yes. But he writes better than Kapach [Rabbi Yosef Kapach, 20th century Yemenite scholar and translator]. We’ll soon talk about how Kapach translates here the first verse.

But Schwartz has a minhag [custom/practice] that he fixes the grammar. If you’ll look at the piece you’ll see that lemoshal [for example]… I can show you it very easily in the previous pieces.

Schwartz’s Grammatical Corrections

If you’ll look here when it says “ume’alos hachelekh hazeh merubos kazehirus” [and the virtues of this part are many, like temperance], on page 1, go back, I’ll show you something. And we can talk about translation. Look on page 1 to see, yes, in perek vav [chapter six], in chapter six of Eight Chapters the Rambam talks about how every chelek [part] has its ma’alos [virtues], so the ma’alos hamiddos [virtues of character traits] belong to the hachelekh hamis’orer [the aroused/appetitive part], and he says that there are many ma’alos in this part, lemoshal, for example, yes, for example zehirus. So, I want today such a simple thing, in Arabic one says

Translations of the Rambam’s Eight Chapters: Comparison of Translators and Analysis of Terminology

Comparison of Different Translators: Schwartz, Kapach, Ibn Tibbon

Schwartz’s Method in Translation

Instructor: What? No, no. Schwartz writes… he knows Arabic? Yes. Kapach also wrote like this? Yes. But he writes better than Kapach. We’ll soon talk when he has Kapach’s translation here as the first translation. But Schwartz also has a minhag that he fixes the grammar.

Example: The Arabic Sentence Structure by Ibn Tibbon

Instructor: Let me take you back to the piece that you see, that for example… I can show you it very easily in the previous pieces.

Look here, when it says “ume’alos hachelekh hazeh merubos kazehirus” on page one. Go back, I just want to show you something, and then we’ll talk about translations. So, I wanted to say… Look on page one, you’ll see, yes, in chapter two in yes, in chapter two in Eight Chapters the Rambam talks about how every part has its virtues, so the virtues of the character traits belong to the aroused part, and he says that there are many virtues in this part, for example, on your anger and your wrath, for example zehirus.

So, I wanted to say a simple thing. In Arabic one says “zeh hachelekh”, that’s the order, “hatha aljuz'”, the… “hatha” perhaps, “aljuz'”, the part. In Arabic one says the “zeh” before the thing being discussed. In lashon hakodesh one doesn’t speak like that. One doesn’t say “zeh hachelekh”, one says “chelekh zeh”.

And they notice that almost all translators write “zeh hachelekh”. That means, Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon and Rabbi Achituv who follows him, write… they, Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon has a minhag, he follows the Arabic sentence structure, even when it doesn’t make sense in lashon hakodesh.

For example, in Arabic one says “zeh hasefer”, or “yif’aleh zeh hasefer”, “tochen zeh hasefer”. In Yiddish it doesn’t make sense, in Hebrew also not. But, to say, I remember the first piece that we learned, “lamah chiber hamechaber zeh hamesechta vezeh haseder?”. In lashon hakodesh one doesn’t write like that, one writes “hamesechta hazo vehaseder hazeh”.

So, in Arabic the “zeh” always goes before the… that’s the rule, that’s simply how one writes the sentence, the grammar of Arabic. Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon will always translate in the Arabic order.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Ibn Tibbon’s Method

Instructor: For me it helps very much, because I don’t know Arabic, but here I can know exactly which word he translates. But for a normal person he can become… it makes it harder to read, because every sentence is backwards.

So, this is for example something that Achituv also writes like this. Someone like Schwartz, he writes over to write the sentences always, so that it should fit in lashon hakodesh, in the way how he would have written in lashon hakodesh the sentence.

Yes, yes, there’s a deficiency that he… no, one second, there’s another thing. There’s a deficiency that he, sometimes his pshat [plain meaning] isn’t correct. Because I have the original Sefardi, I can know precisely what I’m learning… This is a problem of not being pleasant to read, which is perhaps more precise, because sometimes he twists the sentence, but it reads wrong. It’s already a commentary, and it’s not correct.

Kapach’s Method

Instructor: Rabbi Kapach fixes when he wants, and when he doesn’t want he doesn’t fix. He knows himself when it’s better.

Student: What? From? From Shemonah Perakim [Eight Chapters] there isn’t.

Instructor: Because he also fixes a lot of grammar, but the problem with Rabbi Kapach is that he generally doesn’t care what’s written in the source, so it’s not interesting. Schwarz does care, but he fixes grammar, which makes it, he moves around the pronouns, such sorts of things, according to how it should be.

Analysis of Terminology: Ta’avah, Ta’avanut, Zehirut

The Word “Ta’avanut” – A Terminological Analysis

Instructor: So they translated ta’avanut. Ta’avanut is just a word in Hebrew. In Yiddish, or in our language, one said ta’avah, ba’al ta’avah. Ta’avanut is simply, in Hebrew it sounds worse when one says ta’avanut than when one says ta’avah. It’s the same thing. The same word.

So, yes, being engaged in ta’avah. So it already includes the too much. Because you understand, when one says that he is a ta’avan, it doesn’t mean to say that he enjoys a little pleasure, it already means too much.

Ibn Tibbon’s Problem with “Ta’avah”

Instructor: So the philosopher Tibbon didn’t have such a word, because for him the word ta’avah isn’t that. And in his world it didn’t make sense to say ta’avah, because too much. He didn’t know that the word ta’avah is a bad word. We know it already because we’ve learned dozens of books. He didn’t know. So he had to write in “rov ta’avah” [excessive desire] so that it would make sense at all.

Zehirut – The Middah Between Two Extremes

Instructor: Okay, anyways, let’s go on further. Zehirut, we haven’t yet spoken about zehirut. I just want to show what zehirut is about, from here you can see clearly what it’s about. It’s a middah [character trait] between rov ta’avah and between he’eder hargashat hahana’ah [lack of feeling pleasure].

Here you can see that Shailat fixed here, he wrote “he’eder hahargashah bahana’ah,” because that’s literally how the Arabic tells you. But certainly here Rabbi Kapach made more sense, more readable. Not feeling pleasure. Okay?

By the way, it could be that Day is more precise in how he translates it, “not having too little feeling in pleasure.” It’s more or less the same thing, but when you read it and write it over “he’eder hargashat hana’ah,” people mean that it means to say that the person is missing some feeling, he’s missing something or even a physical thing, he’s missing his “sense of taste” or even psychologically, he doesn’t love himself. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love himself, it means that he has no feeling in it. It’s a bit different.

The Rambam’s Terminology in Mishneh Torah: “Ba’al Ta’avah” and “Tahor Guf”

Searching for the Source of “Tahor Guf”

Instructor: Okay? Now, there’s the second opinion, the second side of being bad. This is a bit of a funny word, and it’s a funny word for a reason. Why is it a funny word? What bothers you about this?

Let me tell you. “Ba’al ta’avah,” go back to the Rambam here in Hilchot… what’s it called? In Mishneh Torah. Let’s see, look what’s written in Mishneh Torah. In Mishneh Torah it says that there is a ba’al ta’avah. What did we speak about? Ba’al ta’avah is a word that… I mean that there are pesukim [verses] and Chazal [the Sages] where ba’al ta’avah means this and that, one needs to still think clearly. I mean that in the Rambam Frankel one will see where he marks where the Rambam takes the language from.

After that he says, “veyiheyeh tahor guf beyoter” [and he will be exceedingly pure of body], that’s the other side, “velo yit’aveh afiloh ledvarim me’atim shehaguf tzarich lahem” [and he will not desire even the few things that the body needs]. So the Rambam found a word, it’s called “tahor guf.” I don’t know where he took the word from. Do you know from where?

Student: One needs to check in the… whoever knows should tell me. One needs to check in Shabti Frankel if he knows.

Student: Yes, there it means… yes.

Instructor: He means to say… yes, but the Rambam needs to take… the Rambam in Mishneh Torah has the same problem that we have. He’s searching for words for things.

Discussion About “Ba’al Ta’avah” and “Tahor Guf”

Instructor: Here you notice such a problem. Ba’al ta’avah, okay, it probably says in Chazal. And ba’al ta’avah, a ba’ner, do you remember where? He told us the zecher ta’avah [male desire]. A ba’al ta’avah. There’s a ba’al ga’avah [arrogant person]. We can speak here. There are owners. We can be the owners of various good or bad middot, yes? “Ba’al nefesh” [master of the soul] is written in a pasuk. Ba’al ta’avah.

Taharat haguf [purity of body], tahor guf.

Student: Where does it say that he’s a ba’al ta’avah?

Instructor: Ask books. They bring the Rambam, a great proof, I also know that. That tahor means to purify, that makes it here as if one can purify a house. It’s written as if the kohen [priest] comes and purifies, as if he cleaned out the house, he cleaned out the person. It’s a crazy chiddush [novel interpretation] from a gentile.

Student: What? Tahor we know, tahor there are two types of taharah [purity], there’s taharah… the Rambam says this not that, he means to say taharah not taharah from… not taharah from… there is by tzara’at kenim [leprosy of garments] a taharat haguf, that one purifies… but there taharat haguf means to clean, or to clean from tumah [ritual impurity], or to clean from dirt. Here is something that he’s a… he’s a pure soul, he says. Not a soul, a pure body. His body doesn’t have so much love for eating. He has a desire for pure things.

Student: I see here it says “lev tahor” [pure heart].

Instructor: Lev tahor? What should I do with lev tahor? I mean that means a good intention or something like that, no? I don’t know. I’ll need to search better. I won’t search for it now. I don’t remember. If I knew I could have answered you.

Broader Discussion About “Tahor Guf” in Lashon Chachamim

Instructor: Anyway, you see that I want to show you that the Rambam… okay, “aliba denkeem” as an example, “enkeem” is not a word at all. Have you heard of the word “hargeh”? Really? I haven’t heard of it until this piece of Rambam, really? So, what does that mean? That there aren’t such people, really.

Student: I mean that it says in places “guf tahor.”

Instructor: “Guf tahor” is a language… guf naki [clean body]. “Taharat haguf vehanefesh” [purity of body and soul] there’s a chapter. Just a person who is tahor, I mean in the sense of not having bad middot, of not having many ta’avot [desires]. There isn’t such a language?

Student: You can check if “taharat haguf vehanefesh” there is such a letter?

Instructor: There is in Hilchot Tefillah [Laws of Prayer] “taharah,” and it’s a lashon chachamim [language of the Sages], “yesh lecha guf tahor migufoh shel Moshe Rabbeinu” [do you have a body purer than the body of Moses our teacher]. There are such sorts of languages. Avraham Avinu [Abraham our forefather] had a guf tahor. There are places where such language is written. In Devarim Rabbah for example.

Philosophical Principles: Words and Concepts

When Philosophers Create New Terminology

Instructor: Let’s see if in my opinion… first of all, I’m always very strong. Second, because I want to tell you why. Did you see that? We’re not a shiur [lesson] in dikduk [grammar].

What I want to show you is, when a Jew writes a book and he writes words that no one has heard, he doesn’t mean that the words haven’t been heard, the concepts haven’t been heard. The problem isn’t the word, the problem is with the concept, right?

A thing that doesn’t have a word, just as everyone knows that Eskimos have many words for snow, just, let’s say. So one says for example, right? And Jews have many words for money. No, they don’t. They have “kein gelt,” “fein gelt,” “fardorbeneh gelt” – everything means money.

So, in the same way, a thing that happens, there are words for it. A thing that doesn’t happen, comes a philosopher, that’s one of the things that philosophers do, and sometimes you see that they think up new words, or they use old words in new ways. Why? Because he grasped that here there’s a structure, he understands something that there wasn’t a word for until now.

Philosophical Analysis of Middot: Why Words Are Missing for Certain Middot

Why Do Philosophers Think Up New Words?

Instructor:

No, they don’t. They have money, tein gelt, fachdach gelt, everything means money.

So, the same way, a thing that happens, there are words for it. A thing that doesn’t happen, comes a philosopher, that’s one of the things that philosophers do sometimes, you see that they think up new words, or they use old words in funny ways. Why? Because he grasped that there’s here a structure, he understands something that there wasn’t a word for.

And in every chochmah [wisdom] almost there’s such a thing, that one thinks up new words, or one thinks new meanings for old words. So, I don’t know if you notice this, if you learn any science, you’ll see that they’re always making up words. Why do I have to make up words? What was wrong? You didn’t have a word for me? I know something that you didn’t know.

People have words for things that they speak about day to day, there’s a word for it. But a thing that isn’t noticed day to day, it’s something a deeper thing, it’s something a more thing that one needs to be mitbonen [contemplative] to know at all that it exists, there’s no word for it. One begins to search for words.

The Case of “Ba’al Ta’avah” – Why Is a Word Missing for “Too Little Ta’avah”?

Instructor:

So, ba’al ta’avah, that’s a word, we can quite well the ba’al ta’avah. What the middah beinonit [middle trait] is called one needs to speak soon, but because ba’alei ta’avah one has met many times, it’s a normal thing to be really, but to have too little ta’avot, whatever the limit of too little is, that a person should have this problem, I don’t know if chachamim [sages] met that person almost not, in any case.

It’s a choleh [sick person], it’s no less, it’s not covered, it’s not for a middah. And I would say the same thing, I’m not going into someone’s rebbe’s shitah [approach], I don’t need to believe every thing stands on the forefront. Ah, what? Not. No, could be, could be, but that is already, I would have looked at more like a deficit, like some kind of machalah [illness], something like that.

There are prisoners, ka’as [anger], there’s no koach [strength]. When we speak here, we speak about the inyan [matter] of a ba’al ta’avah, a middah, right? There are middot that people are born with them, or are born with some kind of netiyah [inclination] to them, as the Rambam says, they have a hachanah [preparation] for them. But people who love to eat, there aren’t people who have too little love to eat. I know, it’s hard to find such people. Sometimes such a person happens, but it’s hard to find such a person.

That’s the fact, that’s the reason why there’s no normal word for it, not in lashon hakodesh [Hebrew], not in Arabic, not in Greek.

Discussion: The Arabic and Greek Terminology

Student:

Yes, in Arabic it means the same thing, it translates exactly that. I told you what it says in Arabic, he’eder hargashat hana’ot [lack of feeling pleasures], literally word for word, one who feels too little pleasure.

Instructor:

I don’t know, I need to search, I haven’t found. I searched to look in Frankel, I don’t have it here.

Student:

There is, there is.

Instructor:

Not here? Then I don’t rely. How does it say by you?

Student:

It says there like this, that the rule that he won’t have any taste in eating.

Instructor:

I don’t have the chochmah here. There is online, I need to search online. You’re right.

Student:

I can’t figure out the things in the middle.

Instructor:

It’s a midrash not.

I’ll look it up at home, it’s too archaic the Rambam’s language. But the fact is that the Rambam was tremendous in Arabic and tremendous in Greek.

Aristotle’s Sefer HaMidot and the Source of the List

Instructor:

And the holy rabbi, Rabbi Aristotle the holy or the impure, I don’t know, he says thus in his book where he makes the list, okay? Sefer HaMidot, there is in Otzar HaChochmah this book, if someone wants to see it. Sefer HaMidot, there is in Yiddish also. In Otzar HaChochmah there is in lashon hakodesh. No, it’s not in lashon hakodesh, it’s in lashon hakodesh in Otzar HaChochmah.

And he says thus, since he goes, in Book 3 Chapter 7 in our editions in any case, it says there thus, he speaks here, he makes here the list. And this is more or less the list that is here now comes from there, because it’s not exactly from there, it could be that there were middle steps also. But in any case, the elder grandfather of the list comes from there.

He says that the derech hamemutza [middle path] is the good way, and both one needs to speak of the extremes, without the extremes one hasn’t understood. Also because without the extremes, and mussar [ethics] is about lema’aseh [in practice], not about theories, one wants to know practically.

Aristotle’s Remark About Middot Without Names

Instructor:

He says thus, he says that a portion of them don’t have names. The Rambam will be tomorrow the end of his list, that not all have names, and the reason why they don’t have names is about this. He says that some don’t have names, and he says when he speaks of pleasure and pain, which this is the subject of the middah that we’re speaking now, he says thus, and one has spoken about this ba’al, he says thus, in the middle here stands temperance in the translation, that’s the zehirut, and he says, too much means that here stands dissipation, in short to be a glutton, and he says, and after that he says thus, those who have too little of the subject of ta’anug [pleasure], one doesn’t find many, therefore they don’t have a name, therefore one will call them insensible, that’s his translation on the side, he writes a literal translation, which sounds not at all taken, not un-sensing, but un-sensing in simple means not, that un-sensing would have meant a blind person, something like that, but he says, one doesn’t find such people many, therefore the language hasn’t given them a name, we need to speak, we according to our calculation must be such a thing, not because there’s such a problem, there’s no problem that one has, you can say that a person is an illness, I’m not speaking of that, he doesn’t have an appetite, but it’s not the essence a problem that it happens such, so therefore it doesn’t have a name.

Critical Remark: Did They Invent the Extreme?

Instructor:

And since so are, one can even have complaints on Aristotle that he does this, on the Rambam, you can even complain that here he just invented a problem, you want to make a secret that every middah is a middle, therefore it must be from both sides, and not always is there from both sides, you invent, it is yes there, theoretically is yes there, you can be in a certain measure is yes there, it could be that a person is a bit more on that side.

There isn’t a spectrum bet that there’s too much and too little. There isn’t a spectrum, because one can’t be too good or wherever. It was one at my shiur from what the Divrei Chaim mitzvah doesn’t mean that it’s a spectrum. But it’s quite means that there’s too much and too little. Now, ah, really.

Back to the Main Subject: What Is Zehirut?

Instructor:

Now back to the main subject. The main subject that I want to know, that you wanted to know, what is the definition of zehirut, a middah that is between too much enjoying oneself, too much loving to have pleasure, and too little loving pleasure. That’s the question that we have. A good question. From our teacher.

Discussion: What Does “Zehirut” Mean?

Instructor:

So like this, what? Perhaps it means what? If I tell you the word zehirut, what do you think it means? Do you know lashon hakodesh? What does zehirut translate to? It’s an inyan [matter] of zehirut.

Student:

Careful.

Instructor:

What? What’s the middle line? Careful. It means to be cautious in your actions. Very good.

What does Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon say? What’s the translation? He says that it’s the translation of a word in Arabic which is ifah, al ifah, the ifah. Ifah or iffah, I don’t know how, iffah I mean he tells me. That’s the translation of it. Iffah is a word that translates a word in Greek which is called… I didn’t remember the word, sophrosyne. Okay? Sophrosyne. In English usually one translates it temperance.

I’ll look in the Rambam here. This is, one minute, this is the correct, I’ll tell you what it’s about.

How Are Middot Divided by the Rambam? – According to Subjects

Instructor:

Let’s Recall Something Correct

Let’s recall something correct, and this is clear, this can be seen clearly in the Rambam here, right? How are all these middos (character traits) divided up? We already spoke one of the two shiurim (lectures) that there are different ways how one can make middos, right? When we make middos, we speak of certain middos, we spoke about why it would be a good thing in general to speak of certain middos.

When we make lists of middos, there are different ways how one can make the list, right? How, the way how the Rambam and Aristotle make the list is lefi neshayim (according to subjects/topics). In other words, if there is a part of life, a part of human life, which is involved with money, the middah of money is to have a certain, it’s kovea shem bifnei atzmo (establishes a category in itself).

Money has two or three or four middos, which are many parts of it, there’s making money, spending money, sharing money, there are all kinds of matters of money. But what divides the middah is not what lies binefesh (in the soul), it starts from the outside, one can say, right? It’s a subject, and the subject has a good way of conducting oneself and a bad way of conducting oneself. The correct way is called the good middah, and the middah binefesh, the hergel (habit) or the middah, the techunah nafshit (character trait) which makes a person conduct himself that way, that is the middah of it, right? That is how it’s divided up, right?

If you want to know what a middah is in the Rambam’s world, you don’t need to make an X-ray on your soul and see which parts it has and what sort of retzonot (desires) lie in it. On the contrary, you need to look at what sort of thing you’re talking about, what is the object of the middah. Right?

Application to Our Middah: Ta’anug (Pleasure) Is the Subject

Maggid Shiur:

So, when we speak of the middah that we’re speaking of, you can immediately see from the too much and too little, that the object of it is a thing called ta’anug (pleasure), pleasure in English. I can be more meduyak (precise), but at least that. Ta’anug. Ta’avah is too much pleasure, too much love of pleasure, right? Not actually having pleasure. And too little is too little love of pleasure. It shouldn’t be too little either.

Even if you say, you can say a person is actually sick, or perhaps there is also a correct measure, that a person should have hana’ah (enjoyment) from certain things, not too little. That’s the meaning. So, the subject of the middah is pleasure, ta’anug, ta’avah. Too much is not good, too little is not good, and in the middle one must arrive.

The “Derech Ha-Memutza” (Middle Path) – An Analysis of What People Already Think

Maggid Shiur:

Everyone knows, so let’s remember, when we say that all middos tovos (good character traits) are middos emtza’iyot (middle traits), what we actually mean is, as Reb Yeshaya once asked very nicely, everyone holds that he is in the middle anyway, right? Everyone holds that more religious than me is a fanatic, and less and freer than me is a shaygetz (irreligious person), true? And he uses this to say that people are biased, but this is very nice.

But one can also learn from this that everyone admits that whatever the correct thing is, is a middle. It’s not, no one says, “I am the most extreme, and one must be extreme.” Except for the Chazon Ish (Chazon Ish, 20th century rabbinic authority), who also doesn’t mean it literally. Except for that, no normal person says, you don’t find such a person, he doesn’t say, “I am crazily fanatical.” If he says that, he only means it to anger you, because it’s always politics. But actually, he says, “No, I am correct. More than me would be fanatical, less than me is just an animal. I am exactly in the middle.” Yes?

So, in other words, bring this out. What they say that middos are a derech ha-memutza is an analysis of what you already think, right? Like all philosophy, all correct philosophies are not to tell you a new thing that you didn’t know, but to explain better to you what you knew, which was a bit confused. When you say yes, what I say is correct, we have learned this already. Right?

When people go around and say things that they don’t clearly grasp what they’re saying. People go around and say, for example, that they love a season.

Derech Ha-Memutza: The Contradiction of “No Ta’avah Is the Ideal”

Philosophy as Analysis of What We Already Know

Maggid Shiur:

I am exactly in the middle, yes? It would be in other words. Let’s bring this out. What they say that middos are a derech ha-memutza (derech ha-memutza: the middle path) is an analysis of what you already think, right? That’s how all philosophy was, all correct philosophy, is not to tell you a new thing that you didn’t know, it’s to explain better to you what you knew, which was a bit confused. When you say yes, what I say is correct? We have learned, I mean you know this already. Right?

The Confusion: From “Less Is Better” to “Nothing Is the Ideal”

When people go around and say things, they don’t clearly grasp what they’re saying. People go around and say, for example, that they love, ah, it’s good to be restrained, let’s not use the word restrained, it’s not good to be a coarse glutton, yes?

Now, many times people get confused. The Rambam (Rambam: Maimonides) speaks about this in the rest of the chapter, a large part of the rest of the chapter is about what people get confused about. He says, a person thinks, if so, the ideal person is one who is on that side. The ideal person is someone who never eats, he doesn’t feel any taste in food, he doesn’t get married. That is the ideal person, because you tell me that it’s a virtue to be less of a glutton. True? It’s true.

And they speak this way because most people don’t have the problem of being too little of a glutton, they have the problem of being too much of a glutton. One says always, to all mashgichim (mashgichim: spiritual supervisors) and all, every person admits, one doesn’t need to be religious to admit, every person admits that too much of a glutton is not good. By eating most people admit, one doesn’t need to say it again. Okay, we are relying, we’re speaking of the people who admit, okay?

The Contradiction That People Create

But when the person says this, he brings himself a contradiction. Okay, if so, the ideal person would be one who is a contradiction to what you say is the ideal person, one who has no ta’avah (ta’avah: desire) at all, he has no pleasure in anything at all. He says, many times he says yes, but I’m not on that madreigah (madreigah: spiritual level). Right? What do people say when you tell them this?

Okay, I want to tell you a secret. The excuse is true, but “I’m not on that madreigah” one must stop saying. It’s one of the great habits of laziness of thought.

Great Principle: When “Madreigos” (Levels) Is an Excuse Not to Think

Okay, I believe I’ll close up for the minute, because it’s not my shiur today. I’ll say a principle, klal gadol ba-Torah (klal gadol ba-Torah: a great principle in Torah), Yitzchak Lau’s principles, someone will make a list of my principles, this is one of my principles. When the answer to a basic confusion in your thought is, there are madreigos, we’re not on that madreigah, you check your assumptions. As a rule, amar Rabbi Yitzchak (amar Rabbi Yitzchak: thus said Rabbi Yitzchak), kol makom she-atah motze akum v’avodah zarah (kol makom she-atah motze akum v’avodah zarah: wherever you find idolatry – a humorous formulation), madreigos, we’re not on that madreigah, you should check, something is wrong. That’s what I hold.

Why? You can think yourself why.

Questions and Discussion: Is “Madreigos” Always an Excuse?

Student:

I didn’t say that there are never such things that there are madreigos.

Maggid Shiur:

I said that this is usually, in the world that I know, I don’t know how they conduct themselves in Japan, in the world that I know, usually when someone says this, the simple meaning is he has no mind to think, or this is a way of stopping thinking. It’s not a way… I don’t want to say the examples, I can give you more examples, many examples that I’m not afraid of bandits who don’t hold like us, I can give you. But I’m saying a principle.

Therefore, back to the… No, no, no.

Student:

No, that’s not something added. That is a madreigah.

Maggid Shiur:

I don’t agree. I don’t agree, that’s not a madreigah, that’s normal. One must be crazy to complain all the time. That is a point. But he doesn’t agree. He smiles, he’s happy. What’s bad? Why should he be drawn? Why should he be drawn?

One minute, I told you that most people are not fools and idiots. Did I say it’s not a madreigah. It’s not a madreigah. I don’t agree. I am not in agreement. But this is, I mean, I don’t want to go off the subject too far, okay? There’s a speed limit, there’s such a shoulder how far one can go out a bit and not too far.

So, I have such a principle, when one deters… A person should not suffer in his soul, okay? Our shiur is not a workshop to learn things, but to learn how to learn, right? Don’t suffer in your soul. When I know for myself, when I come to a sugya (sugya: Talmudic topic) and I start to say, “You see, there are many madreigos, we’re not on that madreigah, we don’t understand,” I know that I’ve made a shortcut. I’m not holding by learning now, okay? If I need to travel further, if I need to sleep peacefully, that’s a good answer. It’s not, but that’s never a good answer, okay?

And here too, I want to show, this is a way of escaping the contradiction. Okay? Let’s go back to our example, okay? This is a prime habit of that which one may not think, I must restrain myself from it.

The Ice Cream Example: A Person Without Preferences Is Not Normal

A person says to a person, so actually I shouldn’t love anything at all. Okay, so I ask you, you yourself, have you ever met such a person who has no thing at all that he loves? Okay? Let’s even speak of food, okay?

If I meet a person, I have met such people, I don’t want to be a liar, but that’s a small problem, the other problem is a lie. But if it were truly so, I would stay away from that person. Do you agree? You meet a person who doesn’t have, what should every person have things that he loves, he has food that he loves, according to his nature, according to his upbringing, whatever it is, yes? Let’s say.

You say that it’s not a big deal, everyone understands that, you will admit that loving food too much is not good, it’s a middah that is the opposite of that, which is what one shouldn’t be meshubad (meshubad: enslaved). Let’s call the middah, how do you call it in Yiddish, not to be a ba’al ta’avah (ba’al ta’avah: one ruled by desire)? The positive middah has a name, what is it called?

Questions and Discussion: What Do You Call the Middah?

Student:

A parush (parush: ascetic)?

Maggid Shiur:

Do you have a better name? Parush is negative. Refined? Noble? How is it called, aesthetic? Hmm, feels not like that. A what? How do you say it in Yiddish? How do you say it in the talks? Not to be a ba’al ta’avah, but to be a… Worked on? Refined? Restrained? Okay, one of these things.

Student:

What?

Maggid Shiur:

They’re all negative things, do you grasp? There’s a problem here. None of them is what it should be. Noble? Noble can mean many more things than the subject here. Worked on.

Student:

Very good, but the worked on is very good.

Maggid Shiur:

The most worked on is not drawn to anything at all. You go with him, and you show him three flavors of ice cream. Okay, he has never eaten ice cream, you don’t know. Let’s say that he’s a normal person, he grew up in America, there’s no such thing that he hasn’t eaten ice cream his whole life, right? You ask him, which do you love, the chocolate or the vanilla? He tells you, “Neither of them.” I mean that one must send him to a doctor. Actually send to a doctor, because he has something, he has no appetite, or he’s depressed, or something.

Questions and Discussion: Is This Really True?

Student:

I bring you such a matter, do you know people in America, the greatest ascetics. I once heard from one who said, one of them? I mean such a shock, he does love one of them? He perhaps works on himself, he specifically doesn’t love the things, okay. He won’t tell you that he hates it, we’ll talk about that. Do you believe there is such a person?

Maggid Shiur:

No, I can’t be sure. Every person is different. You can understand what I mean to say.

Student:

Ah, because it’s not fasting, it’s kavod (kavod: honor), and he is from kavod.

Maggid Shiur:

Okay, I understand, it’s not kavod. But let’s be real. There are three people who were at a party, but you’re not coming here today. Because it’s another one of the excuses that we use to stop thinking. I’m not saying it’s not true, I’m just saying that in practice, I have a principle, when you stop the thought, I don’t like it. Because you would have had to think something, I do want to understand.

He says, ah, today there actually isn’t, today one is unfortunately born in America, it’s an olam ha-malei ta’avot (olam ha-malei ta’avot: a world full of desires), there isn’t one Jew and no gentile in all of America who doesn’t have, who isn’t drawn to one of the two things. I’m saying a funny example, it could be that one hates ice cream, but he doesn’t hate wrong.

Tikkun Ha-Middos Is Not Restraining Oneself

Student:

No, not he restrains himself.

Maggid Shiur:

Let’s recall the basic foundation of tikkun ha-middot (tikkun ha-middot: character refinement). Tikkun ha-middot is not that one restrains oneself, right? Restraining oneself is a moshel b’yitzro (moshel b’yitzro: one who rules over his inclination), it’s a very beautiful thing. We’re speaking of the ideal which is already so, right? He is already a tzaddik gamur (tzaddik gamur: complete righteous person). The tzaddik gamur doesn’t know at all which ice cream he loves, he doesn’t love any of them, properly. If the doctor will tell him that he needs to eat it, he will eat it. He has, he doesn’t know at all what this is. Can you imagine such a person?

Student:

There are certain things that people love that another doesn’t love at all.

Maggid Shiur:

Okay, very good, very good.

Student:

A child loves candy, and he gets older, and he doesn’t even have anything on it.

Maggid Shiur:

Correct, correct, it’s a childish ta’avah. Could be. An adult, an adult, ice cream is very much a good thing. What do they talk about regarding shidduchim (matchmaking)? What do they talk about people who died? Or the news?

Student:

Very good, in shul.

Maggid Shiur:

One of them has zero preference?

Student:

Very good, I agree, I agree. It could be, very good.

Derech Ha-Memutza Means the Right Things, Not “Zero”

Maggid Shiur:

But let’s be more clear. I agree. This is a hachanah (hachanah: preparation) that Aristotle (Aristotle) made in his talk. I just want to tell you that it’s true that if one speaks of specifics, for example, an adult person, there are many adult people who don’t love any candies at all, true. There are those who do. But it’s not required that he shouldn’t love any candies at all. Believe me. Very good. But I’m speaking now of the middos… Let’s… Again, what I’m trying to bring you is to the contradiction that you have.

You speak… I agree. This is still meanwhile the ta’avot. Again, now you’re talking about the derech ha-memutza. That is correct. A child is suited to love candies. A grandfather who loves candies, something is wrong. A grandfather should already love steak. He should love… Right, so a grandfather loves steak. On the contrary, a child shouldn’t love steak, I don’t understand what he wants from him. A grandfather loves steak, that makes sense. And whiskey, and all such sorts of things that children don’t understand. But… Okay, this I still agree with.

So now, now you’re talking exactly about derech ha-memutza. What does derech ha-memutza mean? Not in the middle. It means that you’re ra’uy, right, you’re suited to have the right things. You speak with a person who doesn’t love steak, you think he is something… He hasn’t grown up yet, he still loves ketchup with hamburger, what’s it called, the hot dogs. Yes, something is wrong with him. But an older person has other loves. Okay, so this one should love, and that not love.

The Absurdity of the “Ideal Tzaddik” Without Any Pleasure

But when that’s what your emunah (faith) was, I want to now catch you in your contradiction in your emunah. You say that the ideal person doesn’t love anything at all, right? He doesn’t love to eat, basically.

Now, you’re gonna maybe concede that he might have to… he’ll die without eating anything, so he forces himself to eat, the tzaddik. He feels like a person who has no appetite at all, and one must literally shove the food down his throat, because it’s very hard to eat without any pleasure. Maybe even impossible. That’s the ideal tzaddik.

I ask you a question. An ideal tzaddik… one minute. I ask you such a thing. So, into eating at all? Very good. No, not into it is a bit less. I want to tell you completely. You say that we’re simply not on the level of not being completely. But the ideal tzaddik eats only with IV, basically, because he has absolutely no pleasure at all, and it’s very hard to… the throat basically doesn’t tolerate any pleasure, almost not, he can perhaps only drink water. So basically, his wife drags him to the IV every few weeks so that he shouldn’t die of hunger.

What kind of piece of hana’ah (pleasure) is that if he has no preference? That means he’s close to the grave. That’s how we describe certain people. We describe people like that, sometimes killing your senses is the ultimate madreigah (spiritual level), right? But under it, that makes a small madreigah, and they live like that in the whole nothing. But under it, that’s the madreigah, they’re under it. I’m not yet under it, that means I’m not a great non-ba’al ta’avah (one driven by desires). No, I’m not. No, I’m not talking about myself. I mean to say, there are people who love more, he’s more into eating, he’s more into other ta’anugim (pleasures).

What’s the nafka minah (practical difference)? You’re not on that, you don’t say with that between the.

The Problem with the “Perfect Person” Without Any Ta’avos

They’re Into It — But We’re Talking About Nothing

Instructor: They’re into it. No, into it is still a small madreigah, we’re talking here about completely not there. No, that’s the madreigah, they’re into it. I’m also not into it. I’m not a great ba’al ta’avah. Perhaps you also need to exclude the ta’avah? No, I’m not. I’m not talking about myself.

I mean to say, there are people who love to eat more, he loves to eat more, he loves to eat other ta’anugim. What have we come to? They’re not… But you say that there’s a middah (character trait), a middah tovah (good character trait) is not to be a ba’al ta’avah, and you use the excuse of “we’re not on the madreigos (spiritual levels).” I agree. By us, we’re completely happy when we don’t eat the fourth piece of kugel. Okay, we’ve already held back today too. But, no problem.

The True Tzaddik Doesn’t Love Anything?

But a true tzaddik doesn’t love anything, right? The adam hashalem beyoter (most complete/perfect person), I don’t know, Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher), whoever you imagine as the most perfect person, doesn’t love anything at all. That’s what comes out.

And then I ask you, okay, that person, does he even sound healthy to you? Forget about healthy, does he sound good to you? That’s a good person? You start to realize that it doesn’t sound correct. It sounds to be something weird. That’s what I mean. Not agree? Not just that he’s sick, something is wrong with that person. He’s not basar vadam (flesh and blood, i.e., a human being), he’s not a person. He’s a malach (angel), esh (fire), okay, but a person he’s not, right?

The Alter Rebbe Had Preferences

The Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad Chassidus) had preferences? Yes. He loved the rebbetzin’s (rabbi’s wife’s) cheesecake that she made. It wasn’t the rebbetzin’s job to go make him always what he loves, right? Of course. So she came when he didn’t… could be that he covered himself. He had a preference? Yes.

Not only that, he loved to talk, he loved to talk. Yes, wait. By the way, I didn’t know the people, I can’t tell you. The greatest people that I know, all have preferences, all have love. Sometimes they have love for themselves too. And sometimes they don’t have love for themselves, but they covered themselves. No problem. He waited ten minutes before eating the kind of cheesecake he loves. That’s already a restrained Jew. But not to have any ta’anug (pleasure), I don’t know anyone like that. I was close to some people who picked on themselves and stuff. Who hold themselves back very well.

Such a Person Is Not Just Sick — He’s Pasul Le’edus

Student: Nothing. Probably. Not just sick, I would even bad him.

Instructor: I mean that it’s not just sick. A sick person I would be mochel (forgive) that he’s sick, and if he’s sick, what should he be able to do. I would even have complaints against him. Just, I would even… kal sheken (all the more so) that he’s a chaver (friend). I mean that I wouldn’t be able to trust him. I mean that he would be pasul le’edus (disqualified from giving testimony).

Student: Why?

Instructor: Why? It says in the Gemara (Talmud) that one who doesn’t do any business, one who is a yoshev shel ohel (one who sits in the tent, i.e., studies all day without working), he’s pasul le’edus. It could even be a talmid chacham (Torah scholar) who can’t do middos (character traits; here: business dealings), he’s pasul le’edus. There’s such a Gemara in Bava Kamma (a tractate of the Talmud) somewhere. I’ll ask my brother Elazar, he brought it to me, I don’t remember anymore.

He comes one day, he tells me that a kollel yungerman (full-time Torah student) is pasul le’edus. Because it says in the Aruch (a Talmudic dictionary) that one who doesn’t have a job, it says that you mooch money, all money. Why? Edus (testimony) means, by you it truly means that you say that that person owes you fifty thousand dollars. By you, you’re hefker binchasecha (ownerless regarding your property), by you there’s no chiluk (difference) between fifty thousand dollars or fifty cents. So, one can’t trust you. Your connection with reality isn’t the one that the beis din (rabbinical court) needs.

The Tzaddik Is Indeed Pasul Le’edus

You can say, “No problem, a tzaddik is indeed pasul le’edus, and when a tzaddik measures a tooth, I say, you could bite the bullet and say that, but you realize that there’s something weird with what you’re saying.”

And you see in the olam hazeh (this world)… I mean that not, I don’t know. Bekitzur (in short), I know that besides that he also has the middos and orderliness. I don’t know, I feel that something is weird with that person. Honestly, I ask you, try making, the ma’asiyos (stories) that are told. By the way, most of them are not clearly normal, and certainly not trustworthy.

When I see such a person, first I’m choshed (suspect) that he’s a shakran (liar). Let’s say, not a liar, not a bluffer. Yeah, I know, right? I don’t know, I read too much like exposés on gurus and stuff. And all ganavim (thieves), no’afim (adulterers), rotzchim (murderers), vechadoimeh (and the like). And some of them indeed don’t eat, because that’s part of the game they want to play.

Student: What? I free, I know, I only read the cynical people, I don’t read the ma’aminim (believers). Could be, it could always be that there’s such a person.

Instructor: I’m sure that there’s such a way, no people that I can trust. I’m just bringing out a point of saying that I don’t agree that it’s something… we… There’s something a theory that says that he’s essentially a malach, and a person should be a malach. But we who talk with dead people, I wouldn’t be his chaver. Let’s say like this, I want to be a chaver with good people, right. I mean like this, the more a person is a tzaddik, the more I want to be his chaver. Maybe he doesn’t want to be a chaver with me, that’s a second problem, but I want to be his chaver, right.

There’s a trick how one can be a chaver with one who is a greater tzaddik than you, it’s called a chassid (Chassidic follower). I don’t want to be a chaver with one who is not into food. I’m not into, I’m not… my friends, none of my friends are majorly into food, right? Because I indeed have other interests. I indeed have other interests.

An Example: One Who Doesn’t Know Which Ice Cream Is Best

But one who is like you say, who is properly… I’ll give you an example, I’ll give you an example of what I mean. One who grew up in America, and he doesn’t know which ice cream is best, he doesn’t know which ice cream is best, he doesn’t know which ice cream is best for children. Let’s say that he’s a good one, okay? One who doesn’t know at all which restaurant is good, he indeed has no preference, he doesn’t know, he doesn’t have…

And you love ice cream, you love other things, no problem. I’m not talking about that, you understand my mashal (parable), yes? I’m not talking about extremes. I love ice cream, you don’t love ice cream, what’s the chiluk? Or something else. I don’t mean extremes, I’m talking about extremes.

Student: Very good.

We Live in a Stirah

Instructor: I want to indeed bring out that we live in a stirah (contradiction). All of us who are Chassidic Jews, we say that it’s a thing to be refined, we don’t truly believe that the most refined person is the best person. Most of us at least. You, you could… that’s what I think.

I want… I personally know that if I meet such a person, first of all I think that he’s a liar, okay, it’s a problem. It’s not a problem to fast, but after fasting he eats, he fasts out, and when breaking the fast he eats cheesecake.

I didn’t know. I’m not sure if I would trust him with fifty dollars if you don’t eat. Is there such a one? Yes, I’m not sure. I don’t know. Unless I heard that precisely one of his meshuga’os (crazy things) is returning someone’s money. But otherwise I wouldn’t trust him. I’m not talking about the holy Riminover (a famous Chassidic Rebbe), I don’t know how to assess such a person.

Digression: Borrowing Money and Not Paying Back

I already told you, I said that there’s a thing that this is just my personal meshuga’os, not… I have no complaints against him. No, I’m telling you, I’m telling you about a person I knew, I’m telling you about a person I knew, right? I have no complaints, I didn’t say that I didn’t give him money, but I didn’t say that I gave him money. I’m just bringing out that I have a problem.

I don’t want to say that this is my, I’m makdim (preface) a bit myself. When I talk with a person, when I want to do business with a person, I need to be able to trust. Yes? Sometimes, in order for me to trust a person, in order for me to be able to tell him my sodos (secrets), let’s say, yes? I need to know what kind of person he is. I need to tap him out a bit, which jokes he loves, which food he loves, which…

Student: My father lent someone money, yes? And he didn’t have a plan to come back. A lot of money. And he didn’t come back.

Instructor: He lent to a tzaddik? No! He lent to a ganav (thief).

Student: There, okay, but I know that the reason Yisroel Hirsch’s father threw him out, because he borrowed money and didn’t pay, right? And he said afterward that he gave it for tzedakah (charity). Is that a gedulah (greatness) that he doesn’t know what money means and he doesn’t have to pay?

Instructor: The reality is, a lot of the people that we respect are like that. Not all of them. I’m just saying, one needs to be able. There are people I know who are indeed very removed from the world, but still, when he borrows money, he gives back. There are those who don’t grasp at all, and he needs to give it. He doesn’t grasp.

Student: Ah, that you say that he’s a liar. Well, fine, could be that he’s a liar. He knows what he’s doing. He knows that one shouldn’t borrow.

Instructor: No, he borrowed for tzedakah. He even gave away to a second person the money he borrowed. He knew that he needs to pay, and not because he knows that he needs to pay, because the world is indeed temporary, something like that.

I mean precisely that people are like that. I think there are people that are like that. It’s a bad middah, one needs to have a certain refinement. He’ll pay. What’s it to you? I already live with Moshiach (the Messiah). I already live so strongly in Moshiach. Well, he’ll pay. There’s no what he won’t pay. He’s something not connected with reality enough. I don’t mean to come out, this is a middle point. I won’t sidetrack.

Student: True, true, true, true. True. Not only, there aren’t such people that only one way it works. But let’s say it goes this way too. I agree. He’s not nizhar (careful) with his own money either.

Instructor: I didn’t know. True, I want… true, true.

Back to the Topic: Why We Talk About Derech Ha’emtza’i

Rabbosai (gentlemen), rabbosai, let’s go back, let’s not go down from the topic. What I want to bring out is just that I mean, I want to bring out why we talk at all about the derech ha’emtza’i (the middle path), about zehirus (carefulness), what’s the point. Because we all talk about zehirus, but we don’t truly believe that the most zehirus, the most perishus’dige (ascetic) person, is the best person. We don’t believe in that, and as I said, if you meet that person who is lekho’orah (apparently) ideal, you know what? I won’t befriend him. You want to be a great tzaddik? I just don’t have a life. Very good.

Now, what am I missing? Now, you see that I’m stuck. I don’t have a language. I don’t have a word here. I’m stuck. I’m stuck. Beseder (okay), I’ll understand that most people are much too coarse ba’alei ta’avos. One may be… I can even imagine that the sheleimus (perfection) is very far from most people. Very far the other way.

Conversely, it doesn’t seem to me, that even when one works too hard from that direction, one begins to suspect him that something is funny, something is wrong, something is even something bad somehow. That’s what I think. Because chas vesholom (God forbid), I have many seforim (books) that are mesbir (explain) in the other time, but that’s what I think. Because I certainly don’t want to be a chaver of that person.

Personal Acquaintances with Tzaddikim

I personally, with some with various tzaddikim. Each one of them I know which exactly their weakness is, which soft food should be cheap. Almost each one of them. I can’t go into the details. I know of one who is much a better liar, but… why should he be a liar? He’s stronger. The one liar. Liar I mean that he lives in certain… that he’s closed, not an open person. He’s very private. I’m sure that his private Monday knows about what he loves. I don’t know, because he conducts himself very well. He’s not heimish with people. That’s what I mean sheker (falsehood).

Honestly dark, also almost every other one it was coarse, because he loves going sweets, and his wife to take in the more shalach manos (Purim gift baskets) every year, after a few days. He what already. He was a pretty, it doesn’t to him. He wasn’t the doctor. He didn’t bring a great in-to-app, one can understand him, because he’s used to her estor if he should he didn’t understand, and we used had to be a great must have gone refined, but to him, between two things.

I don’t know. I go to farbrengens [Chassidic gatherings], I go to other things. I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t answer. I’m not a Chassid. I don’t know what I should tell you. I don’t know. Okay. Because I didn’t make the sound. I don’t know.

The Middle Path and the Nature of Zehirus

Side Note: Moshe Shaor

It’s Moshe Shaor. He was a fine young man, he didn’t do… he wasn’t the thing, he wasn’t any great enthusiast, you can understand, he lived in our area, he lived in our restaurant, you shouldn’t understand him, he had great mesirus nefesh [self-sacrifice], he loved these things. I don’t know.

Okay, anyway, nachazor le’inyaneinu [let us return to our topic].

The Problem and the Resolution of the Middle Path

So therefore we are in a problem. So rabbosai [gentlemen], you understand that we are here in a bit of a bind, and therefore the holy tzaddikim [righteous ones] came and said a teirutz [answer/resolution]. The teirutz was a tremendous teirutz, that all midos [character traits] that are not bushah [shame/embarrassment], we never mean the kitzoniyos [extremes]. We always mean a certain middle way, a certain correct way. When we say that a person must be perushdig [ascetic], he must be a parush [ascetic], he must not be a glutton, we don’t mean maximum not a glutton. We never meant that. Because whoever could mean that he meant that, he made a mistake, because that’s not a good thing.

Now, but aside from that, the derech ha’emtza’i [the middle path] doesn’t mean that one should be a bit of a glutton and a bit not a glutton. They understood very clearly. Many people learn the Rambam [Maimonides] on the derech ha’emtza’i, they say, ah, so the Rambam was against working on oneself. Chas v’shalom [God forbid]. The Rambam says aside from the fact that the entire Torah, a large part of Torah is about this.

Most people, or kim’at [almost] all people, don’t have the problem of being too little. When it comes to eating, when it comes to that problem, I’ll be able to tell you, okay? Until you do the most work on yourself, that you should eat less, or love whatever, you should have less gluttony. Most people can work on that side, because… we’re talking about tashmish [marital relations], every Jew who keeps the Torah, already holds very strongly far from that side. But anyway, most people can generally work on that side, because that’s not a real problem.

But theoretically, when you ask me, so well, what should one be extreme? I tell you no, because midos tovos [good character traits] always mean a shikul ha’da’as [judgment/discernment], I tell you how much is right. There is a certain right way. It can still be like Rabbi Yeshaya Friedman, it can also be that there is a what is right? And how much, let us remember, how much is always not at all a number, or generally not a number. It’s always also a ritual, which means when and where and with whom and why and how and how much and in what manner. That means, there is a way, a kind of eating that is for what to eat.

Example: Adults and Candy

And I mean, for example [lemashol], it can be that a part of midos is, an example [dugma] of a middah tovah [good character trait] that has to do with ta’avah [desire/appetite], is that an adult person should not eat any candy and only eat steaks, only love steaks. In which Torah does it say? I don’t know. It seems to me a basic human thing, everyone understands this, even a non-Jew understands this. A grown father who eats candy is a ba’al ta’avah [one controlled by desire]. If he eats steaks, not too much, I don’t know, one must calculate how much, but from the child, right? If he eats steaks, he loves it, he’s a normal person, he’s a good person.

The True Meaning of the Middle Path

We spoke about the emtza’i [the middle/mean], we said that tzaddikim said… that means relative to what? Relative to a father who eats candy. Eating candy is not appropriate for him. Emtza’i is not the point of relative. Emtza’i is the meaning that the correct middah is not… to solve [le’salven] the problem that you said, not simply that one must be a person who needs interventions to eat. One must be a person who eats the right things at the right times, lichvod Shabbos [in honor of the Sabbath] more, the whole week less, v’chadomeh [and so forth]. This is part of the middah ha’emtza’is [the middle character trait], the correct ta’avah, okay? This is the solution of the derech ha’emtza’i, okay? Right? That’s what I mean. I think it’s right.

Back to the TikTok Talk: What Ta’avah is About

So now, I need to come back to my TikTok talk, I forgot that I’m giving a TikTok talk. Ah, ah, ah. And that means still everything, this is however what ta’avah is about. You understand what it’s about, right? It’s about this, this… as we always say, you must act as if it’s a living middah, right? It’s a certain… every middah fills this out. It’s a certain active judgment that can show me: this is a good thing to love, this is not a good thing to love, this is not a good time to love, this is not a good person to love, v’chadomeh.

From Where Comes the Word Zehirus?

Now, from where did the word zehirus [caution/carefulness] come for a good year? Okay? From where did this come here? Right? A good question. Yes, it’s good. A good question. So, I will first say an interesting thing. So, here I have a bit of a mehalech [line of reasoning], I still lack a bit of clarity in this mehalech, but I can give a bit of mekoros [sources] on it, okay?

R’ Shmuel ibn Tibbon’s Targum

Go back to page one, there’s an interesting thing, yes? Page one says like this, in the second chapter, how the Rambam made a similar list, the… R’ Shmuel wasn’t the matarah [purpose] of making a list, but he made a list to say which ma’alos [virtues/qualities] belong to the chelek ha’mis’orer [the appetitive/emotional part of the soul], he says like this, and look in the targum [translation] of R’ Shmuel ibn Tibbon, yes? It says like this, “u’ma’alos zeh ha’chelek rabos me’od” [and the virtues of this part are very many], there are very many ma’alos in this part, yes? Very many, all midos tovos, all midos that are called bechinas midos [in the category of character traits], not bechinas seichel [in the category of intellect], belong to this part. “Lemashol, ki’zehirus” [for example, like caution], so he translates zehirus, and he adds a peirush [explanation].

So, R’ Shmuel ibn Tibbon thought… are you on the first page? R’ Shmuel ibn Tibbon thought that you won’t understand, he also thought that you won’t understand what this word zehirus means here, you won’t understand what to do. So he added a peirush, he wrote: “kelomar yiras cheit” [that is to say, fear of sin]. The word “kelomar” [that is to say] was brought to us by Nachum here in the last page, that in perek dalet [chapter 4] he says befeirush [explicitly] on other midos, on lev tov [good heart] and tov lev [good-hearted] and other things that he translated, he says that he must be mefaresh [explain] the subject and the meaning, because the midos don’t have any name, “shem yadu’a bilshoneinu” [a known name in our language], and therefore he must be mefaresh what he means. And a part of his being mefaresh is he looks and he says, when he translates he searches how it’s called in the Gemara [Talmud], how it’s called in the Mishnah the middah, and he tries to translate according to how he understands lashon chachamim [the language of the Sages], according to how one says lashon hakodesh [the holy tongue], the middah.

Zehirus Doesn’t Appear in Chazal

So, R’ Shmuel ibn Tibbon held that you won’t properly know what zehirus means. Why? Because zehirus doesn’t appear in the entire Torah kulah [in all of Torah]. I checked, this I did check. In all the divrei Chazal [words of the Sages] the word zehirus appears not only once, two times actually. Once it says “sheloshah devarim nashim mesos bish’as leidasan, al she’einan zehiros beniddah uvechallah” [three things cause women to die in childbirth, because they are not careful regarding niddah and challah], so that’s a verb, but it’s not zehirus, right? Because they are not nizhar [careful] in the three mitzvos [commandments].

Zehirus appears very little. I say zehirus with a vav and a tav appears only once, and it doesn’t appear it’s probably [mistama] there a mistake, it doesn’t appear. It’s only one more time that it appears, and therefore [umemeilah] it must be that they meant that, because there’s no other, no other options, so HaTorah yagid lecha [the Torah will tell you]. Very good.

The Ma’amar of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair

And now, HaTorah yagid lecha, there is a ma’amar [saying] in a very famous ma’amar of Nachalas Bnei Yair, which is printed… yes, it appears in the Torah, and the Torah appears… I’ll tell you, I think so, in the Torah appears, the lashon zehirus appears in the Torah, like “v’hizhartem eshem es hachukim v’es hatoros” [and you shall warn them regarding the statutes and the laws] and so on. Perhaps other places, I didn’t search. But now, in the…

Question: Zohar and Brightness

Student: “Zohar” is more a lashon of brightness, no? According to what we spoke, according to Kabbalah.

Maggid Shiur: No, “zohar” is indeed a lashon of “zohar” [radiance/brightness]. Very good. But here it means, “v’hizhartem” means what? It means to warn. Or lashon chachamim is “hizharti es peloni v’hizharti es peloni” [I warned so-and-so and I warned so-and-so], what does it mean? I warned him, yes?

Zehirus in Tanach

And it also appears, so this appears in the Torah. If one looks in Nevi’im [Prophets] or in Kesuvim [Writings] be’etzem, it also appears that a person can be “nizhar” [careful/cautious]. Like Dovid HaMelech [King David] said, “gam avdecha nizhar bahem” [also Your servant is careful with them]. I am also careful, I am also warned. Not only warning others, but I myself can become a warned one.

So it seems, it begins, if one traces it like this, in the Torah it’s called “v’hizhartem eshem”, the Almighty said to Moshe [Moses], Yisro [Jethro] said to Moshe, this is warning the Jews what they must do. And afterwards one can internalize this, yes? It says “melech zakein u’chesil asher lo yada lehizaher od” [an old and foolish king who no longer knows to be careful], it appears in Koheles [Ecclesiastes].

Question: Transition to English

Student: Wait, wait, wait. Yes, yes, that’s a transition to English of this.

Maggid Shiur: One minute, I’ll tell you, one minute, let me transit one thing. I’ll tell you what appears in the Torah. In the Torah it seems to me that “zehirus” originally meant to warn another. Warned can be it has to do with or [light], I don’t know. One warns, one makes him a bright vessel [kli lechtik], and it has to do with “v’hotzeisi eschem mechoshech Mitzrayim” [and I took you out from the darkness of Egypt], I don’t know, it can be. But it means to warn. And there is also afterwards a person who is warned. A gam avdecha nizhar bahem, or lo yada lehizaher. So one who is yes nizhar and not nizhar. Okay?

Zehirus in Lashon Chachamim

And in lashon chachamim there are also many times the chachamim exchange, “hizaharu bachut” [be careful with the thread], “hizaharu bedivreichem” [be careful with your words], and so on. And there is also “hevei zahir bidvarecha” [be careful with your words]. Be a zahir. Zahir means is a… you should be a person who is zahir in his words. Not “divrei kalah kachamurah” [treat light matters like serious ones]. Yes. “Hevei zehirin birshus” [be careful with the authorities] and so on. Be a nizhar, basically, right? Be a nizhar. Be a meisin lev [attentive]. Think before you do something.

But as I understand, what it means here is not a general thing, right? Notice what you do. But it’s always, almost always in lashon chachamim, it’s not a general thing. Not “hevei zahir”, be a nizhar. But be a zahir in something. Like “nizhar bahem”, in the mitzvos that the Almighty said, yes, I am nizhar. Or “hizaharu bedivreichem”. It’s about something, right? I am careful, I am meisin lev, I am aware about something. That’s how I think the translation always is in Mishnah.

The Memra of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair

Like Rabbi Yeshaya says, there is once in “kol haTorah kulah”, in a list in Bar Ilan source, where “zehirus” appears. Because this is in one girsa [textual version] of the Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair memra [saying], which the Rambam held very strongly of it, right? The first one who built on that is not… what is built on Shemonah Perakim [Eight Chapters – Maimonides’ introduction to Ethics of the Fathers]. And in Shemonah Perakim bahakdamah [in the introduction] he says that there is Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, he only brings the end, right? He only brings the end, “chasidus mevi’ah lidei ruach hakodesh” [piety leads to divine inspiration].

But there is the memra of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair is printed twice, at least in the Vilna edition of Shas [Talmud] it is printed twice. And not in both of them does “zehirus” appear, but in one of them “zehirus” appears.

I don’t know, I haven’t yet figured out exactly the story with all the girsa’os. There are many girsa’os of it, and many also perushim [commentaries] on it, even already in Chazal, already in midrashim [Midrashic literature] there is more than one peirush on what Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair means to say, and in which context he speaks, what he says. I spoke about the memra a bit in a certain peirush the previous shiur, two-three shiurim back.

But al kol panim [in any case], in the girsa that is printed in Maseches Avodah Zarah [tractate Avodah Zarah], in our edition it says Torah [Torah], Nevi’im [Prophets], be’ezras Hashem [with God’s help], zerizus [alacrity], v’chu [etc.]. One doesn’t mention the Hashem. And in most other versions it doesn’t say Torah, it says zerizus, Nevi’im, the forty chumashim without Torah.

Zehirus, Yiras Cheit, and the Inner Levels of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair

Different Girsa’os in Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair’s Memra

Maggid Shiur:

Even in Chazal, in the midrashim [rabbinic homiletical teachings], there is more than one peirush on what Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair means to say, and in which context he speaks, what he says. I spoke about his memra [ma’amar: teaching/statement] a bit, a certain peirush, the previous shiur, two-three shiurim back.

But attention, in the girsa [version/textual reading] that is printed in Maseches Avodah Zarah, in our edition it says “Torah mevi’ah lidei zehirus, zehirus mevi’ah lidei zerizus” [Torah leads to caution/vigilance, caution leads to alacrity], and chuli [and so on], one can’t the rest. In most other girsa’os it doesn’t say Torah, it says zehirus mevi’ah lidei, it begins without Torah. It’s a machloikes [dispute], the Rishonim [early medieval rabbinic authorities] came with another shmuess, that Torah is an external thing, Torah is an inyan to midos [character traits], and so on.

Rabbeinu Shmuel ibn Tibbon’s Peirush on Zehirus

But, there “zehirus” appears. Yes? So the holy Rabbeinu Shmuel ibn Tibbon [the holy Rabbeinu Shmuel ibn Tibbon, medieval translator and philosopher] held that whatever it means there zehirus, it speaks of guarding oneself from ta’anugim [pleasures]. Wait, soon we will speak about chata’im [sins]. From ta’anugim, because this is certain that when he translates always the middah [character trait] aliba d’emes [according to the truth], not only here, but another bunch of places where the Rambam brings it, he always translates zehirus. And zehirus he always means what is translated here in perek dalet [chapter 4], the middah that is emtza’i [the mean/middle path] between loving ta’anugim too much and loving ta’anugim too little. Right? This is the translation of zehirus.

The Context in Maseches Avodah Zarah – Arayos

How does it come into Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair’s midos? It comes in very simply, because as the context of Maseches Avodah Zarah there is that in another place the Gemara [Talmud] brings another memra that Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair said, “hevei, how not” – it’s all built on this pasuk [verse], a continuation [hemshech] or one must better research, he learns from the midrash from “v’nishmarta mikol davar ra” [and you shall guard yourself from every evil thing] – “shelo yeharhair adam bayom v’yavo lidei tumah balailah” [that a person should not think (improper thoughts) by day and come to impurity at night].

And the memra is indeed on this, in other words, tumah balailah [impurity at night] means whether beshogeg [unintentionally], whether bemeizid [intentionally], whether be’ones [by force], whether beratzon [willingly], all kinds of aveiros [transgressions], and the tumah that he speaks there, peshitus [simply] speaks of arayos [sexual transgressions]. Right? And there is a midrash that I saw in Maseches Kallah Rabbasi [Tractate Kallah Rabbati] that is mesbir [explains] very clearly that this is what he means.

Look in the Mishnah in Tractate Sotah, there is another place where this is printed, I believe that it’s apparently not from the Mishnah, it appears that it’s a baraita (tannaitic teaching not included in the Mishnah) that was added at the end of the Mishnah, and he brings all these things, and one sees that it’s truly a continuation of the point, like “the eye sees and the ear hears,” a person first thinks/contemplates and afterwards he acts, and this is in the context of doing transgressions of pleasures. Arayot (forbidden sexual relations), famously, is quite pleasurable, so it says in the holy books, and I don’t know, and consequently…

The Novel Insight: Internal Mitzvot – Not Just Doing, But Also Wanting

No, there, let’s speak clearly though, there is a great source for the general idea that not only must one not do transgressions, but one also may not love transgressions, right? You remember the novel insight of Shmuel in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), that not only should a person not do any bad things, he also may not love bad things. That’s the meaning…

Questions and Discussion: The Relevance to Arayot

Student:

This isn’t relevant to arayot?

Teacher:

Certainly it’s relevant. That’s the meaning of “one who hates gifts will live.” First of all it’s relevant, certainly it’s relevant, this is back to our discussion. Not entirely irrelevant, because the Rambam wouldn’t have said that one must have piety (chasidut) also not. But in the proper manner, that’s the meaning of “one who hates gifts will live.”

So again, you’re asking practical questions. In any case, it leads to a mitzvah, right? It leads to a mitzvah. But in the Gemara, Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair was novel in teaching the idea of internal mitzvot. It doesn’t say explicitly in the verse, it says “and you shall not stray after your hearts,” one can find sources.

He brings the verse of “venishmartem” (and you shall guard yourselves), he says that “venishmartem” is an internal matter, not only that you shouldn’t do any bad things, you shouldn’t even think of them, you shouldn’t even love them. And on this goes his statement, that there are many levels of not loving, not loving, and the end of this is… in one version, the end of this is action (ma’aseh).

And the end, chasidut means not to do any bad thing also not. Zehirut (caution), zerizut (alacrity), all these terms, nekiyut (cleanliness), tahara (purity), prishut (abstinence) – there are different versions in how Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair said the order and what they are – these are all internal things, all like good character traits (midot tovot). Good character traits in relation to what? In relation to arayot. What is arayot? Arayot is one of the two cases of pleasures (ta’anugim). Let’s add another thing, I need to add, but let’s finish this first.

Rabbeinu Yonah’s Understanding of the Levels

And consequently Rabbeinu Yonah (medieval commentator) understood him very well, that if he established, he understood that the level that Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair speaks of zehirut means to say… when he says “zehirut leads to zerizut,” he means to say a specific thing. He means to say, one who loves filth (shmutz/base pleasures), why? Because whoever loves it too much, in the end becomes a great humble person (anav), on the contrary, one becomes a greater righteous person (tzaddik), to know I can even become a pious person (chasid), I can even come to fear of sin (yirat chet), from not loving, from being a good person, as the Rambam brings in the introduction of Eight Chapters (Shemonah Perakim), right?

That’s the plain meaning (peshat), and it’s quite a good peshat. What more do I want to add, I want though, I need to add to clarify this.

The Proof from Pirkei Avot: What is Yirat Chet?

So, first of all, how do I know that, so, now, how do I know that this is the peshat? First of all I know very clearly. How do I know? So, because it says here, and we’re holding here in the middle of Pirkei Avot, and in Pirkei Avot the Mishnah preferred to think that you won’t know this, because you don’t remember the Gemara so well and you don’t understand the whole context, so it added a word that you’ll know even less. There’s such a word called “yirat chet.” Have you heard of this? What is this yirat chet? Have you heard of such a word “yirat chet” in the Mishnah? Another one of those funny things that nobody knows what they mean.

“Yirat chet” is common in the Gemara. “Fear of sin,” the person says in English. What does “fear of sin” mean? Why? No. Why? First of all, “sin” isn’t scary, “sin” is quite tasty. Why should one be afraid of it? Okay, so yirat onesh (fear of punishment) it’s called. Usually one calls it yirat onesh. What it says in books, in the later books, yirat onesh. Yirat chet means yirat onesh? I don’t think so. But it could be yirat chet means yirat onesh. There’s such a word yirat onesh, perhaps not in the Gemara.

The Mishnah of the Five Students

In the Mishnah there’s such a concept that’s called yirat chet. Not only, let’s say very clearly, we’re saying here that there’s a novel insight that the Rambam makes here an introduction to Pirkei Avot. It says in the Mishnah, but when you don’t know the concept that the Rambam teaches in all the books, one wouldn’t have grasped that there’s such a concept. You know that there’s a concept, it’s a novel insight. A simple Litvak only knows that one may not do any transgressions. And the Litvak unfortunately thinks that if there’s an obligation of negative and positive commandments (lav va’aseh) in the Torah, that’s the peshat, there’s another transgression.

There are also transgressions of thoughts (machshavot), isn’t that right. There are other kinds of things called good character traits, of not wanting to do bad things, which means truly a good person. It’s not another kind of transgression. You can call it a transgression if you want, but it’s a different kind of thing, things that he does.

Now, but how does this stand in the Torah? In the Torah one can find certain places where this says, but in the Mishnah it certainly says, because the Mishnah has various other kinds of titles for good people, and they are very specific, right? In Pirkei Avot, chapter 2, mishnah 10, it says so, what does it say there? Do you remember what it says?

Student:

No.

Teacher:

I don’t know when… ah, this is chapter 2 in general. In chapter 2 it begins like this, yes, “What is the straight path that a person should choose?” Yes? You remember that chapter 2 in Pirkei Avot begins like this? Rebbi says, “What is the straight path that a person should choose?” Yes, this means the middle path (derech hamemutza) according to the Rambam. But in any case, there is such a thing of a path that a person has, not only what he does, right?

One of the paths that Rabbeinu HaKadosh (Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, compiler of the Mishnah) says one should do is one should be careful with commandments (zahir b’mitzvot), but not that this is the whole thing, right? There’s a path, a person should have a path, he should set fixed times for Torah study (kevi’ut itim l’Torah), he should also be careful with a minor commandment (zahir b’mitzvah kalah), also he should calculate the loss from a mitzvah (mechashev hefsed mitzvah), he shouldn’t actually be in three things, etc. etc., yes?

Now, and later it says so, for example, in mishnah 2, I think, in mishnah 8, I think, it says, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai had five students, and each one had a different praise/virtue (shevach), yes?

Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, a cemented cistern that loses not a drop (bor sod she’eino me’abed tipah). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, fortunate is she who gave birth to him (ashrei yoladeto). This is a kind of praise, it means something, it’s not… it has a deep meaning. Rabbi Yose HaKohen, pious one (chasid). Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel, one who fears sin (yerei chet). Rabbi Elazar ben Arach, like an ever-strengthening spring (k’ma’ayan hamitgaber). Yes?

The Meaning of the Praises

What are all these things? He doesn’t say how much Torah they learned. Not one of them speaks, this is about their talents, right? About what kind of people they are, about what character traits (midot) they have, about what virtues (ma’alot) they have, right? It’s not one of these things, he doesn’t say… when we would have written such a mishnah, not us God forbid, but some joker would have written, he would have said, the righteous one was a great fulfiller of honoring father and mother (mekayem mitzvot kibud av va’em), the second one was a… let’s say, this mitzvah he especially fulfilled. That’s not what it says, right?

The Mishnah speaks of some kind of people, certain character traits that people have, that they have a certain perfection/completeness (shleimut) in this. One, his virtue is he is ashrei yoladeto. This is a virtue of the person, he means something.

Questions and Discussion: The Virtues of the Students

Student:

Found by Armenians. What?

Teacher:

Not everything means the Torah, because he would have left something over. You can close all of chapter 1 where he writes “to fulfill the entire Torah” (lekayem kol haTorah kulah). He says on the contrary, on the contrary, the weak ones were the Torah.

But it’s a virtue in his intellect (sechel), not in the Torah. He said, it doesn’t say about Torah there, by the way. It says he doesn’t forget anything. What one teaches him he remembers. Also what one doesn’t teach him he remembers. It doesn’t say anything about the Torah. It could be that the Torah is the best thing to remember, but it’s a virtue, it’s a weakness of character traits that people have, perfection that they have. Perfection of intellect, perfection in character traits, piety. It’s a certain kind of thing that the Rambam explains.

The Rambam’s Interpretation: Yerei Chet = Nizhar = Zehirut

And afterwards there’s another kind of thing, it’s called yirat chet. Yirat chet isn’t the same thing as a ma’ayan hamitgaber, it’s not the same thing as a chasid. It’s a different kind of thing. What does yirat chet mean then? Not that he doesn’t do any transgressions. Nobody does any transgressions here. He also learns. Not that’s the word.

A yerei chet, says the holy Rambam, yerei chet is a nizhar (one who is cautious), one who has zehirut. So says the Rambam, the same word, he says “elifa” (Arabic term).

Rabbi Yosef Kapach’s Difficulty with the Translation

And how does the holy Rambam translate in chapter 2, mishnah whatever mishnah it is, Rabbi Shimon is a yerei chet, the Rambam translates so. And this is what Rabbi Yosef Kapach (20th century Yemenite scholar and translator), who wasn’t happy with the translation (targum) of zehirut, he didn’t know what zehirut means, and he didn’t know of the mishnah of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, he thought it means to be careful, like Rabbi Eliezer Shturm says. So he wrote, always when it says zehirut he translated prishut. Because he says zehirut, he was right, that zehirut means restraining oneself from desires (ta’avot).

Whether prishut is a good translation of this or not, I don’t know, and I won’t start saying what I know yes. It’s not clear that prishut is a good translation of this. First of all, it’s certain that Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon didn’t hold that it’s a good translation plainly, because in the same mishnah of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair it also says zehirut and also prishut, a list in our course, it could be that they’re the same things. That’s first of all.

Second, in any case, how are we? The Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon who wrote, this is a sign in itself for itself, which we’ll see afterwards also. He himself indicated that when Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon says zehirut, that is (dehaynu) yirat chet, that is being a yerei chet, this is the Rambam’s translation.

What Does “Chet” Mean in “Yirat Chet”?

Whatever the yirat means, the Rambam holds that this means yirat chet. Not as you would have thought that yirat chet means fear of transgression. Yirat chet means, very simple, chet means pleasure, a certain specific kind of pleasure, is called (nikra) chet, okay? Like it says in the Gemara, the chosen of Israel who did not taste the taste of sin (bechirei Yisrael shelo ta’amu ta’am chet). Says the holy Rambam, directly (without shame), this doesn’t mean that they never had sex. Doesn’t mean that they didn’t know transgressions.

Yirat Chet: The Rambam’s Definition of Zehirut and Ta’avah

The Rambam’s Interpretation of “Zehirut” — Yirat Chet

Teacher:

Whatever zehirut means, the Rambam holds that this means yirat chet. Not as you would have thought, yirat chet means fear of a transgression. Yirat chet means, it’s very simple, chet means pleasure, a certain specific kind of pleasure is called chet. Okay?

Like it says in the Gemara, “bechirei Yisrael shelo ta’amu ta’am chet.” Says the holy Rambam in Parshat Mishpatim, this doesn’t mean that they never did any transgressions, rather they have no taste in the pleasure of transgressions.

Says the Rambam, a young man (bachur) who hasn’t yet gotten married, he doesn’t have the taste, he hasn’t yet entered into the specific human pleasure, and this is a certain virtue for him. “Ve’ish tachtav bechirei bnei Yisrael, na’arei bnei Yisrael,” says the Rambam, it’s a virtue of young men that they have no taste in this, they aren’t accustomed to being part of this aspect of life.

What is the virtue in this? This is a certain prishut, because too much of this is a problem, and the Rambam holds that too much is a problem, it’s better to be removed from it.

Discussion: The Virtue of Innocence

Student:

He has a virtue.

Teacher:

Yes, yes.

Student:

A ten-year-old child is higher in this.

Teacher:

Yes, that’s exactly what I told you from the Rambam. A ten-year-old child is higher, he is in the sense, he doesn’t have the problem, he doesn’t have the evil inclination (yetzer hara). The Gemara calls it a yetzer hara. When one says yetzer hara, one doesn’t mean…

Student:

What does it mean he doesn’t have a yetzer hara? He’s helpless, he doesn’t have strength.

Teacher:

It is a yetzer hara.

Student:

If he has, he’s a greater righteous person for restraining himself. But one should remember that it’s an even greater righteous person who is a weaker kind of person.

Teacher:

Yes, yes.

Student:

He has a certain virtue.

Teacher:

But why? Because he doesn’t have the yetzer hara. He doesn’t have a yetzer hara.

Student:

This is a helpless garment that was placed on him.

Teacher:

No, no, it’s not a helpless garment. It’s a deficiency (chesaron) in the person. It’s not wrong to love the desire (ta’avah). A little is perhaps yes, it has a place, and so on. But most people have too much.

Student:

Everyone who is fourteen years and older is a weaker kind of person?

Teacher:

Yes, absolutely.

Student:

That doesn’t make any sense.

Teacher:

Have you never learned “over pi shnayim b’chet”? What does “over pi shnayim b’chet” mean?

Student:

Because nobody holds back.

Teacher:

No, no, not because it’s easier. Not because everyone restrains themselves. I understand that everyone restrains themselves. But one means that he is innocent, that’s what one calls in our language innocent. There is a certain virtue in this, there is perfection (shlemut).

I also don’t want to be arrogant with small children, because it’s very good, but I will prove, it has in it a certain virtue. I didn’t say that it’s… everything is by you extreme. I didn’t say that it’s the whole virtue. I didn’t say that it’s the whole virtue. I didn’t say that it’s… one minute, I want to… let’s stick to the text (nusach). I didn’t come now to say a sermon (derasha) about this. I only came to say that chet, as the Gemara sometimes calls it ta’am chet, chet means here, yirat chet means that he doesn’t love this so much. That’s the meaning. Yirah in the sense of the opposite of love (ahavah).

Yirat Chet Means an Aversion to Ta’avah

Yirah doesn’t mean fear, nobody is afraid of sinning, it doesn’t make sense to be afraid to sin. It only means, he has, in English one says, an aversion. He doesn’t love this kind of thing. That’s the meaning.

Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel was a refined Jew, he restrained himself. He loved less, less, not infinitely not possible, because he wouldn’t have had children, I don’t know. He loved sex less. That’s the meaning of yirat chet, in English. In other words, he had the character trait called zehirut.

Proof from Rabbi Yochanan

Translation

“Teach me,” says Rabbi Yochanan, “teach me fear of sin from a virgin.” Do you remember? Rabbi Yochanan said he learned fear of sin from a virgin, because there was a girl who came to his study hall, and she said, “Master of the Universe, may it be Your will that people not stumble through me.” That’s the meaning of fear of sin. She didn’t want to sin, and she prayed, and presumably she also acted accordingly, she prayed that people shouldn’t stumble through her. What is fear of sin? Fear of sin is specifically about sexual relations. That’s the meaning.

Student:

What?

Maggid Shiur:

One minute, one minute! As I said, that fear… as I told you, that fear means… I have a whole shiur left.

Student:

No, it can’t mean that.

Maggid Shiur:

It’s very good, soon I’ll tell you. It can mean that, but it doesn’t. There’s a history to this avodah. It can mean that, but it doesn’t. One can say it can mean that. It can mean that in a verse, but in the Rishonim it doesn’t mean that. There’s only one person who said so.

Why We Don’t Speak Explicitly About Everything

Because we don’t want to humiliate you, we can’t speak about everything explicitly. For whatever reason, we don’t want to speak about everything explicitly, but we must speak about this explicitly. Because people are coarse, we must influence people. Rabbi Shimon, before this, the holy Rabbi Shimon did what he did, and he wrote “without fear of sin.”

You also know that fear of sin doesn’t mean… you also know that fear of sin is a general thing. What can you do with people for whom everything remains a general thing? This is generally a problem with learning. Let me say it clearly. There is… one minute, I have an answer to your question, a whole historical answer. I don’t have time to say it next time or another time. But I want to say this, because I have better things.

The Problem of Literal Reading: We Are “Golems of Prague”

Let’s say something obvious. We are a bunch of autists, golems of Prague, Claude AI, when we read from the sayings of Chazal or holy books, okay? Because like, we’re basically like that person whose father told him “bring me a teapot,” so he went looking for a teapot, okay? That’s how we usually look when we read the Mishnah, okay? “He brought a cow’s tooth,” where is there a teapot? There’s no teapot. “Go jump in the lake,” okay, he put on his bathing suit and went into the pond. Yes? The father told his son “don’t cross my threshold anymore,” so he crawled out the window. Yes? Do you know the story? This is mockery, this is a column, he didn’t mean to say that, right? You understand?

We Don’t Know the Language of Chazal

Now, we have a problem that we don’t know the language. We really, really don’t know the language of the books we read very often. Not only us, I mean that the sages of the Gemara already didn’t know many verses. They themselves admitted that the Amsterdam rabbi knows better the meaning of verses. Simple verses, we don’t know. We think up Purim Torah. It says “do not go up on the altar,” we don’t know what it means. We say Torah, it means bringing Torah in a basket like the beams. I’m sure there’s such a midrash.

And I’m not talking about that. You’re simply learning as an am ha’aretz, because you’re an am ha’aretz, because you don’t know the language. And every single language has idioms, words that don’t mean literally. And then come all the commentators, “what’s the reason for caution?” I don’t know, that’s how the word is used. In our study hall the word is used that way. It literally means many things. In practice it means this. I’ll bring you a clear proof that it means this. You ask me why the word is used? I don’t know.

Example: “Hard-headed”

Why when we say, I don’t know, why when we say a “hard-headed person” doesn’t it mean someone who has a headache? Why does it mean an angry person? Why doesn’t it mean a lustful person? Can you explain to me? What does it have to do with a hard head? What does it mean? Why? I can explain to you why. You understand why? But why not? It doesn’t make any sense. Language doesn’t have to make sense. It’s an agreement between people.

And when one learns… what?

Student:

Yes, yes, it changes.

Maggid Shiur:

I have no complaints that it changes. The problem is that we read old books that use many words that we simply don’t know any translation for. We think up Purim Torah because we don’t know. And I do a bit of archaeology, and I show you that this is what it means. I show you a proof that this is what it means.

Now, I also have archaeology for your time, just to be clear. I have more archaeology which shows me that this is what happened. The answer is, in short, I can’t explain it, I’ll have to explain it a second time, or I can perhaps answer many things now, I have a whole hour left. I’m sorry, every hour when you do it slowly it becomes longer.

Summary: The Meaning of “Yerei Cheit”

But in any case, this is the meaning of yerei cheit in the Gemara, without any doubt not everywhere, again, it’s not every time in the Gemara, I haven’t checked in all of Shas where it says yerei cheit, but many times when it means a yerei cheit, it literally means this, he is restrained in this matter, he doesn’t, he does less, doing less all honest Jews do, he doesn’t like the thing, he has a bit of hatred, you can call it hatred, or hatred of sin would have been a slightly better word, but yirah as they call it, he fears it, it’s frightening, he doesn’t do even the slightest bit, it’s frightening, it means he has an aversion to sin, okay?

He doesn’t want too much, because the measure is the middle measure, not that he has a problem going to his wife, no, he doesn’t have too much, that’s the meaning of fear of sin.

And how do I know this? Because the Rambam himself translates two or three times there in the Moreh Nevuchim which I brought, he translates yerei cheit.

Looking for a Piece of Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim

Now I want to show you, I still need to show you one piece of Rambam, because you’ll be happy, and you, I want to show you a very interesting thing, there’s also a problem when the world didn’t know the translation they became very confused, and I’ll show you a piece of Rambam, where is it? I still need to find it, I didn’t prepare this piece. It’s in the holy Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim, in Moreh Nevuchim it’s very interesting, I want to show you how the Rambam, not the Rambam, it’s not brought in Temimus, but the same story, and so, I’ll see if I can find it. Let me search for it like this, Moreh Nevuchim, Part Two, Part Two talks about prophecy, here it talks about prophecy, and further, but this talks about… no.

There are two people, one is happy and one is unhappy. The happy way is a higher… these wenches, and there is a higher type of person.

Student:

“Where did you get that idea from?”

Maggid Shiur:

“You.”

Student:

No, you sold the idea to me.

Rambam on Character Traits, Perfection, and the Limits of Free Will – Moreh Nevuchim Part One, Chapter 34

Okay, It’s in Part One, I Made a Mistake

Maggid Shiur:

Okay, rabbosai, rabbosai, rabbosai, I just want to tell you one piece of Rambam which is actually not relevant to politics, and it has to do with this, and we’ll continue, okay?

The holy Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim Part One, Chapter 34 talks about the topic of why most people don’t learn the secrets of the Torah, okay?

Did you know there’s such a topic, such a thing?

He doesn’t say grab it, it’s for everyone.

And the Rambam counts five reasons why not, okay? Five reasons why not.

The Fourth Reason: Excellence in Character Traits is a Prerequisite for Intellectual Excellence

The fourth reason is like this, that they know clearly, and he also said this in the introduction to the Eight Chapters, that excellence in character traits is a prerequisite for intellectual excellence, right?

One cannot be a person of intellect without good character traits. “A person of tranquility and composure,” as it says here.

One must have composure of mind, one must be developed in all character traits, because if not one is busy.

That’s the simple meaning, afterwards one has no time, one is busy with desires, and many other reasons.

One cannot have good intellect, one cannot know the hidden meaning before one fixes the character traits.

Who knows about this?

You see a great sage who has bad character traits, he is far from being a sage.

It’s very simple.

This is an answer to all questions.

So, by the way, I haven’t yet met the sage who has bad character traits, I don’t know if there’s a problem.

Now like this, except for people who transgress for the sake of Heaven, which hasn’t happened yet.

Why One Cannot Explain the Foundations of Torah to the Masses

Now, says the Rambam like this, and about this one cannot explain to the masses, to most of the world, the foundations of the Torah.

Why?

Says the Rambam like this, there are many people who at the beginning of creation, who were born like this, the nature of their temperament, a nature in their body, it is impossible for them to achieve perfection in any way.

There are people who are born with a bad composition of their body, right?

He says this is only a preparation, and in the Eight Chapters it says it’s only a preparation. But anyway, there’s a bit of a contradiction with last week, but he states a fact:

There are many people born with a temperament, impossible, they will never become good people, perfect people, they will never have good character traits, they cannot succeed.

Why This Is Not Enough to Be a Prophet

Because this is not enough to be a prophet. To be a prophet one must not want to do bad things. And… not only a prophet, right? I say prophet because there he says prophet, but he says for example:

First Example: Someone with a Very Hot Heart

Like the example of one whose heart is very, very hot by nature, that he should be saved from anger, even if he habituates himself greatly.

Someone who is born, because it’s not all people, there are such people, with a very hot heart, he is also an example, right? He doesn’t mean to be a sharp cutter.

And he, even if he struggles very hard, he will try very hard not to get angry, but in practice he will get upset. So he says.

And therefore he won’t be a perfect person, one won’t have what to do. One can help him, he won’t become a perfect person.

Second Example: Someone with Very Hot Testicles

Another example, and like one whose testicles are hot and moist, someone who has very hot testicles, and most of the strength of the structure, this is the Rambam a great doctor, he tells you exactly what the problem is, and the strength of the seed and the abundance of producing seed.

A person who is born, in English one says he has a great libido, and the Rambam held that it’s something physical.

Because it is far that he should be a fearer of sin, even if he habituates himself to the utmost habituation.

The person will never be holy and pure. He doesn’t say “impossible,” he says a bit weaker.

Discussion About “Far That He Should Be a Fearer of Sin”

Student:

He says “far that he should be a fearer of sin,” he says everything you’re saying.

Maggid Shiur:

Listen, listen. No, he doesn’t say like that one. “Because it is far that he should be a fearer of sin.” The person, he’s talking here specifically about a problem, right? About a certain problem.

Just a person who has very strong… his body is such a type of body that very strongly likes to do transgressions, certain types of transgressions, not all transgressions.

A person doesn’t like to be insolent, that’s not a problem, he’s a peaceful person, it’s a problem.

He’s talking here about one problem, he’s not talking later about other problems that people have.

The person, he has a problem, his seed is boiling, it’s very far from being a fearer of sin. So says the holy Rambam.

What Does “Yerei Cheit” Mean?

You ask, yerei cheit means he’s not afraid of any transgression? He will be afraid, he will feel bad, he will say the general tikkun a thousand times a day the person, he will go to the mikveh, all these tikkuns. He doesn’t say that.

He says that he will, I’ll tell you, let’s remember for a translation, right? Here it says yerei cheit in the Rambam. He says, he cannot be a yerei cheit.

Student:

Yes, why the previous one?

Maggid Shiur:

No, the person, again, again, here we’re talking about this person. Once, three times, he’ll fail? Let the person also, that’s my Rambam.

No, no, he doesn’t say he’ll fail. He says, he won’t be a yerei cheit.

He presumably won’t fail, perhaps if he restrains himself strongly, he goes to a place where there are no temptations at all, I don’t know, he can restrain himself. He doesn’t say that.

He says, he won’t be a yerei cheit.

You must remember that the Rambam must say good character traits. For the Rambam it’s not enough for perfection that you shouldn’t do bad things, you must not want bad things either, you shouldn’t love bad things. Let’s say a weak aspiration.

I must finish, I must go up the mountain.

Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech’s Translation and the Question

The person says, it says here in the translation that Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech wrote, that the person is far from being a yerei cheit.

On this Rambam many other honest Jews came and were very angry. The holy Rambam taught us that a person always has free will and he can always be better.

Here the Rambam comes and in practice, so people are born with a bad temperament, he won’t be a yerei cheit.

Rabbi Kapach’s Answer: “Afifa” in Arabic

And comes for example Rabbi Kapach and he says, “Ah, you don’t understand, it doesn’t say here yerei cheit. What does it say in the source?” What do you think it says there in Arabic?

I’ll tell you the secret. I didn’t bring this piece here, one really should bring it.

Yes, here it doesn’t say yerei cheit, it says “afifa.” He won’t be restrained, he won’t be a person with the character trait.

Certainly he will fear sinning. He answered the whole question.

You understand? You understand that nothing was answered, right?

Because the yerei cheit means from the outset that that person certainly won’t sin, he’s not talking about sinning at all in practice, because he will restrain himself strongly, he will make resolutions, he will say the general tikkun, he will restrain himself, perhaps he can.

But anger is different. Anger he says yes perhaps, because it’s an internal thing, he will get upset, it’s already a feeling.

But sin is not the forbidden feeling, the prohibition is the doing. He can do sin. A yerei cheit he will never be.

This is something the Rambam could have written. It’s not an important translation, and Rav Shmuel Ibn Tibbon understood well.

Although, if the word bothers you, you can write another word, like for example abstinence. But it’s still true that the person won’t have any abstinence.

“They Will Not Rise in the Character Traits of Caution”

I don’t know, I think I remember another place where it’s very clear that yerei cheit means zahir [zahir: careful] or nizhar [nizhar: being cautious].

Can you tell me? “Lo ya’alu b’midos haz’hirus” [lo ya’alu b’midos haz’hirus: they will not ascend in the measures of caution].

The Tzanzer Rebbe’s Critique of the Rambam

The Tzanzer Rebbe was very upset with the Rambam. He wrote that he doesn’t agree with this piece, even though he was a great devotee of the Rambam.

In Divrei Chaim al haTorah [Divrei Chaim al haTorah], or al haMo’adim [al haMo’adim: on the holidays], I don’t remember where, it says there that he is a devotee of the Rambam.

He says that the Rambam is not right. Why is he not right?

But he says this because he holds that truly, he agrees with the fact. He agrees that someone who is born with a strong midas haka’as [midas haka’as: the character trait of anger] will always be a ragzan [ragzan: an angry person].

But what? You will never be able to use ka’as l’sheim shamayim [ka’as l’sheim shamayim: anger for the sake of Heaven].

The Two Things That Cannot Be Used L’sheim Shamayim

It’s one of the two things. You will never be able to use ka’as l’sheim shamayim. We already spoke about why, I don’t remember why. Or be able to use ta’avah l’sheim shamayim [ta’avah l’sheim shamayim: desire for the sake of Heaven]. That’s what you cannot use l’sheim shamayim.

Student:

It’s also ka’as?

Maggid Shiur:

Yes. Always, here with ka’as there is the pnei yotzei min haklal [pnei yotzei min haklal: the exception] that the Rambam makes there in chapter 2. But regarding ta’avah for example, yes, it’s ta’avah. Because that is the lokei’ach haRambam b’pshitus [lokei’ach haRambam b’pshitus: the Rambam’s lesson in its simple sense].

The Tzanzer Rebbe’s Derech: There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Middah

But what? Because the Tzanzer Rebbe goes with the Baal Shem Tov’s derech [derech: way], which he built on Gemara’s [Gemara’s: Talmud’s], and he is very strong in this style, which is very strong in derech hamemutza [derech hamemutza: the middle way] in this nekudah [nekudah: point], that there’s no such thing as a bad middah, rather there are things that are used not in the right oifen [oifen: way].

So one can use passion and ta’avah, even literally ta’avos gufniyos [ta’avos gufniyos: physical desires], one can transform it somehow, although I’m not sure, perhaps the Rambam here is more realistic, and one can use it for avodas Hashem [avodas Hashem: service of God] somehow. One can serve the Almighty with this derech, how one can serve.

Discussion About P’riyah U’r’viyah and Pilegesh

Student:

I already know, he can marry many women and make many children, and it’s a great mitzvah [mitzvah: commandment] of p’riyah u’r’viyah [p’riyah u’r’viyah: be fruitful and multiply].

Maggid Shiur:

Most people can’t do it. It’s a problem in today’s times after ben Gershom [ben Gershom: Rabbeinu Gershom Me’or HaGolah, who forbade polygamy]. Before that he could do it, truly, that it’s bad. There’s no such thing.

Yes, a person needs, not just a little he needs. And he won’t go through isurim [isurim: forbidden things], truly.

Rabbi Ya’akov Emden [Rabbi Ya’akov Emden] said that he doesn’t understand why we don’t rule that every rabbi should have a pilegesh [pilegesh: concubine].

Ah, people say, perhaps one needs once, but milchamah [milchamah: war] one needs only once, because it’s still gadol mechaveiro yitzro gadol heimenu [gadol mechaveiro yitzro gadol heimenu: whoever is greater than his fellow, his evil inclination is greater than him].

On this is not the shitas haRambam [shitas haRambam: the Rambam’s approach].

The Rambam’s Shitah: An Ideal Person with Every Middah in a Certain Measure

Yes, the shitas haRambam is very clear that there is, that the truth is, he’s not playing games with you, he agrees, the foundation is he agrees that one must use every middah, but there is still for him an ideal person who has every middah in a certain way and a certain ma’as [ma’as: measure].

He wouldn’t say that someone who is a huge ba’al ta’avah [ba’al ta’avah: a person with desires] should be a huge ba’al ta’avah in avodas Hashem. That’s not the Rambam’s way.

The Rambam would say, perhaps he should do so, I’m not saying he shouldn’t do so, but a perfect chacham he won’t be. He won’t, because it interferes.

Why Does Ta’avah Interfere with Chochmah?

Why? Let’s remember, what interferes ta’avah with chochmah [chochmah: wisdom]? What’s the issue? One can be a great ba’al ta’avah and come to shul early in the morning and learn. Good, one can.

Obviously it’s such a distraction, right? There’s very much time, one needs to seek every, it’s a lot of work, and there’s very much time when one is oseik b’ta’avos [oseik b’ta’avos: occupied with desires].

The Gemara: “Rasha Yitzro Tarud B’yitzro”

As it says in the Gemara, when a person comes, a ba’al ta’avah, the Gemara says, remember the Gemara, yes? A rasha [rasha: a wicked person] comes to Heaven, he says, I couldn’t learn. Why? Rasha yitzro tarud b’yitzro [rasha yitzro tarud b’yitzro: a wicked person, his evil inclination chased him with his evil inclination].

What does rasha mean? Rasha there also doesn’t mean rasha who does sins. It means a ba’al ta’avah, a person who loves this very much, he is occupied with this, he has most of the time, he will have a lot of time for this.

The Parable of Shlomo HaMelech

Even if he will be a tzadik [tzadik: a righteous person], he gets married, like Shlomo haMelech [Shlomo haMelech: King Solomon] got married, how was Shlomo haMelech also a chacham, I don’t know. But he got married to a thousand wives, and it takes very much time.

I have a staff, I take care of the wives, I can’t manage. I’ll be a melech [melech: a king], I’ll have a staff for this. A normal person doesn’t have time.

And also there’s simply, the Gemara says, giborim [giborim: mighty ones], I’ll be a great ba’al ta’avah, I won’t have any time to learn.

Even if I’ll be a tzadik, I’ll be a tzadik, but the Rambam won’t call me a tzadik, because the Rambam’s tzadik is he understands, he doesn’t understand.

He is busy with other mitzvos [mitzvos: commandments], there’s no problem, he can be a supporter, he can’t have any te’anos [te’anos: complaints] against this person. But that’s the reason why one cannot take out for each one hotza’os al pi panim [hotza’os al pi panim: the foundations according to the face].

What Does “Z’hirus” Mean in This Context

And I’m just showing you from this piece very clearly that yiras cheit [yiras cheit: fear of sin] means specifically this, certainly in R’ Shlomo ibn Tibbon [R’ Shlomo ibn Tibbon]’s world, and it means specifically z’hirus [z’hirus: carefulness].

If you want to know what is actually the simple meaning of this, that z’hirus has apparently yes a broader panim [panim: face], as the Mesilas Yesharim [Mesilas Yesharim] understands, one wasn’t just meaning only the mitzvos.

But I didn’t know what simply is the meaning, is he right in the translation of z’hirus. But, or it could be that he is right, but his translation apparently makes sense, and therefore one must learn, one must see another shiur.

The Dispute of Plato and Aristotle

And more or less the result is that there is a dispute of Plato un Aristotle [Plato and Aristotle] about this, in a certain sense, even Plato would have had to learn with tzimtzum [tzimtzum: limitation].

But there is a dispute of Plato and Aristotle, Aristotle was very strong with tzimtzum in the business.

Conclusion: The Dispute of Plato and Aristotle Regarding Z’hirus

Even if he didn’t know what the Rebbi Shimon was right with the translation of z’hirus, but… at least, it could be that he was right, but his translation apparently makes sense. And therefore, one must learn… one must learn another shiur.

The Answer: A Dispute of Plato and Aristotle

The more or less answer is that there is a dispute of Plato and Aristotle about this, in a certain sense. Even Plato called the middah with tzimtzum, but there is a dispute of Plato. Aristotle was very strongly metzamtzem the middah which is called sophrosyne, which is the translation of z’hirus. And the Rambam [Rambam: Maimonides] goes with Aristotle’s shitah, but originally it actually meant a broader thing, even the Greek-Arabic word that one speaks about, and therefore the same thing the Jewish word which means something similar.

Indication of Further Material

And I have a whole list of Jewish words that also mean something similar, which I can show you a whole drasha. B’ezras Hashem next time, come back.