A Story of Rabbeinu Yonatan and Rabbeinu Shmuel – The Purpose of Good Character Traits is Knowledge of Hashem (Auto Translated) | תמלול וסיכום מתורגם

The Beginning of the Winter Semester: A Story from Lunel and the Debate About Astrology

Opening: The Month of Cheshvan – The Beginning of the New Semester

Maggid Shiur (Lecturer):

Gentlemen, yes, we see that… yes. Today is Parshas Noach. No, today is… the month of Cheshvan. It was yesterday, one day, two days, one or two days. And we’re beginning a new semester. “Chodesh asher” [the month that]. We’re going to begin learning. “Chodesh asher,” we’re beginning the Cheshvan semester, the winter semester, which is called “chodesh asher.” “Asher yeshivos bo matchilot” [the month in which the yeshivos begin]. What? “Asher yeshivos bo matchilot.” Yes, something like that.

One must make a kevius shiur (fixed learning time), like the Belzer Rebbe. What does one do at a kevius shiur? Like all the other… Rebbes only know how to do two things: dance and drink l’chaim. That’s what happens at a Rebbe’s. Very simple, a shidduch (match). Give each other bottles, little glasses of grape juice with a cake. No, but when two Rebbes think, he says, what can one do? One can give to the other, or grapes, today one can’t have grapes because they’re a saltbox, and such a cup with a bit of grape juice. It’s easy, and the newspaper has some story.

Anyway, but I have a harder job a bit, I’ll need to give some shiur. So we’re beginning the holy Torah. It was said that we’re going to start fresh. That’s what was said and that’s what we’ll do. We’re starting fresh. I just need to have my page, and they should give me a camera so I can send.

Announcement of the Study: Pirkei Avos and the Introduction

Maggid Shiur:

And we’re beginning like this. We’re beginning with the fact that there’s a book called Pirkei Avos (Ethics of the Fathers, a tractate of the Mishnah). Now, this book is studied in the summer. We’re going to study it in the winter. We’ll perhaps finish the hakdamah (introduction) a whole winter, then we’ll be able to study in the summer. But we won’t finish the hakdamah a whole winter. I said that we won’t finish the hakdamah in the winter, so there’s no such preparation for the summer. We’ll study. And what I want to study is like this, I wanted to bring the papers, but my paper machine broke this week. So, what I want to do is like this, what I want to do is, I’ll tell you a story. Okay? I’ll tell you a story. The story is relevant here. You probably know the story. I’ll tell you, I want to arrive at a point.

The Story: The Town of Lunel and Its Name

Maggid Shiur:

There was a group of Jews who lived in a city called Lunel. I don’t know if one truly says the word, that’s how it appears in the Chassidic books, Lunel. Simply how does one say Lunel? There’s a city. Lunil? Not Lunil. Lunil. “Chachmei Lunil” (the sages of Lunil), that’s how we said it when we were children. I don’t know. Okay. There’s such a town in France somewhere that’s called Lunil. Lunil? Let it be Lunil. “Chachmei Lunil.” Wikipedia says Lunil. Lunil in French one must say. In any case, there’s such a town.

And it’s named after the moon (levanah), did you know? Because luna is the moon in Latin. It’s named after the moon. The moon is a very important thing, “HaChodesh hazeh lachem rosh chadashim” (This month shall be for you the first of months – Exodus 12:2). We called the city by the name of the moon. There are many cities named after the sun, Beit Shemesh (House of the Sun), and so on. There’s also a city named after the moon.

The Jews of Lunel and Their Names

Maggid Shiur:

In that town there were groups of Jews, different groups of Jews. Some of them used to call themselves by the name of the moon. Have you ever heard of a tzaddik (righteous person) Abba Mari HaYarchi? Yarchi is Jewish Jewish Jewish. Yarchi is Yiddish. That means, there comes in a yarchi, “asher mipicha yarveh” (that from your mouth will be watered), me’oros (luminaries), good? What does it mean he’s a yarchi? Because of this. What? He even wrote a book something, I remember it’s called “Me’oros,” or so? Yes.

And in that town there was a second Jew later, he was called Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon. His father already lived there, Rabbi Yehuda lived there. Rabbi Shmuel held that one must call the city after Yericho (Jericho), he used to call it “Bik’as Yericho” (the valley of Jericho). Because Yericho is also named after the moon, did you know? Yericho is a city consecrated to the moon. And Lunel is… what? Ir HaTemarim (the city of dates) is another name it has, but it’s also called after the moon, Yericho, yareiach (moon), after yareiach. And therefore he called the city Yericho.

To such an extent that there were people who thought up a white one, they said from where the city of Lunel began, that when the Jews of Ezra, the wicked one exiled the Jews into exile, that it’s journeys, one from one exiled the Jews, at that time when the Jews traveled to Lunel, the Jews came from Yericho, and they called the city after Yericho. And this is a nice midrash (homiletical teaching).

The Sages of Lunel and the Beginning of the Debate

Maggid Shiur:

In any case, in that town lived several and several upright Jews, they sat and learned. The Raavad (Rosh Beis Din, head of the rabbinical court – Rabbi Avraham ben David) lived there basically, or in that region. And one day, I’m telling a story that’s not exactly a ma’aseh shehaya (an event that actually happened), rather the story happened in a town nearby that he had under his wing. There was a debate there one day between a Jew, Rabbi Yonasan, the first gilgul (reincarnation) of our Rabbi Yonasan. The second one also lived in Paskveik, also not too far. And the what’s-his-name, I’m telling a story that happened before. A few years before there was such a story, that there was a debate in the beis hamidrash (study hall) about the stars, do we know what they’re talking about, understand? This was the moon, but the stars, there was a debate in the beis hamidrash about this. Perhaps it happened with the Ba’al HaMaor (Rabbi Zerachiah HaLevi), perhaps the Ba’al HaMaor is also connected. So, what’s-his-name, in the beis hamidrash there was such a debate.

The Background: Rabbi Avraham bar Chiya and Astrology

Maggid Shiur:

And there were people who were considered maskilim (learned, enlightened), who studied Ibn Ezra (Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra) and other books. And there was another book, a very famous book in that time, that he wrote, the Rambam (Maimonides, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) brings it in Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh (the laws of sanctifying the new month) lo bishmo (not in his name). He was called, well, the astronomer, well, the man who said, Rabbi Avraham bar Chiya. Rabbi Avraham bar Chiya HaNasi (the Prince) wrote a book on Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh, and in that book, not only in that book, in another book he explained that according to the stars one can know when Moshiach will come. Because there’s a zman ra’uy ligeulah (a time fitting for redemption), he made a calculation for Yetzias Mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt), astrology, according to the conjunction, some conjunction of three planets, that when there’s the conjunction, he made a calculation that Yetzias Mitzrayim and also all the good things that happened for the Jews were… yes, a clever one. He said, according to when the three stars come together, then it always goes well for the Jews. So he calculated when it will be the next time, and he said, then Moshiach will come. This was Rabbi Avraham bar Chiya.

And in short, it was quite accepted to think such things. There was a debate in the beis hamidrash about this.

Rabbi Yonasan’s Position Against Astrology

Maggid Shiur:

There sat a Jew, he was called Rabbi Yonasan. He later wrote a book, it’s called Peirush Rabbeinu Yonasan (the commentary of Rabbeinu Yonasan). Thank you very much for the roof. Yes? Rabbeinu Yonasan of Lunel. So Rabbi Yonasan, before this he lived in the town of Montpellier. He had something, he, somehow, I don’t know clearly why, he held a bit more enlightened, or I don’t know if this is enlightened or the opposite of enlightened. He read something, it seems he read some things that the Rambam wrote or from that region, and he strongly held that it’s shtuyos (nonsense). The problem is, how does a debate go? Yonasan cuts that he’ll go like this the debate.

It seems he read, the Rambam has, I mean that he read Igeres Teiman (Epistle to Yemen). If I remember, this was already killed before. No, no, wait, listen. No, you’re holding by the explanations. I mean that, if I remember, in Igeres Teiman the Rambam already writes against calculations of Moshiach from the ketz (the end, the time of Moshiach). He read this, this was already translated. The ibn Tibbon meant I already have this. Yes, yes. But he says that he’s against astrology. So he read this. And I mean that, if I remember, the Rambam there almost explicitly speaks of Rabbi Avraham bar Chiya’s calculations and such things. I remember this was already transcribed earlier, Rabbi Yehuda ben Teima already transcribed. So he read this, in short, he strongly didn’t hold of it.

The Debate and the Difficulty

Maggid Shiur:

But how does a debate go? He had the debates probably every day. Jews came and said, “What does it mean? How can you say such a thing? It says in the Gemara (Talmud) in Maseches Shabbos daf nun (Tractate Shabbos, page 50), it says in Midrash Pesikta, what will you do?” Until he was stuck, he couldn’t win the debate.

The Advice: A Letter to the Rambam

Maggid Shiur:

So a wonderful idea (etzah niflah) occurred to him. I’m just telling a story, just a story, I’m going to look if it’s now. A wondrous idea (etzah muflah) occurred to me, that this book was written by a Jew, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides), and he had his address. How did he have his address? I don’t know. Once one used to write an address, one would have to write “to Moshe ben Maimon, Egypt,” and it arrived. Just like that, I don’t know how it was. He sent a messenger, there was no post and everything. He had the address of the Rambam, and he’ll send a letter to the Rambam and ask the question. He represents the beis hamidrash, an important beis hamidrash, here live several gedolei Yisrael (great Jewish scholars), such Rishonim (early medieval rabbinic authorities) that we call Rishonim. They didn’t know that they were the Rishonim. Anyway, a serious gathering where one learns, they learned Gemara well there, and the Rambam very respected what he saw from them later, he says that he holds that they can learn well. He’ll ask the Rambam himself, he should explain.

It’s not clear what he thought the answer (teirutz) would be. I’m telling the story, he hoped that the Rambam would somehow answer the Gemaras and tell him what to do with this.

The Rambam’s Answer: Igeres to Montpellier

Maggid Shiur:

And so it was (vechach havah), the letter that’s called “Igeres to Montpellier on the Matter of the Sages” (also known as Igeres on Astrology, the letter about astrology) is addressed to one Rabbi Yonasan. We don’t know clearly, but it seems it’s the same Rabbi Yonasan. Rabbeinu Yonasan, I don’t know, he was a Kohen (a priest, a descendant of Aaron). Was he a Kohen? Rabbi Yonasan, perhaps he was a Kohen. Rabbi Yonasan.

The Story of Rabbi Yonasan of Lunel and the Translations of the Rambam’s Books

The Correspondence Between Rabbi Yonasan and the Rambam

When it arrived from Lunel, I don’t know how, he sent a messenger, there was no post at that time. He had the address of the Rambam, so he supposedly sent a letter to the Rambam and asked the question. He represented the beis hamidrash (yeshiva/house of study), an important beis hamidrash, there live several gedolei Yisrael (great Torah scholars), such Rishonim (early medieval rabbinic authorities) that we call Rishonim. They didn’t know that they were Rishonim, but… anyway, he learned the Gemara (Talmud) well. The Rambam very respected what he saw from them, he says that he holds that they can learn well.

He asked the Rambam himself, he should explain (mesbir). It’s not clear what he thought the answer (teirutz) would be. I’m telling the story, he hoped that the Rambam would somehow answer the Gemara and tell him what to do with this.

The Letter “Igeres to the Masters of Knowledge on Astrology”

And so it was (uvchen havah), the letter that’s called “Igeres to the Masters of Knowledge on Astrology” (Epistle on Astrology) is addressed to one Rabbi Yonasan. We don’t know clearly, but it seems it’s the same Rabbi Yonasan. Rabbi Yonasan HaKohen (the Kohen/priest). Was he a Kohen? Rabbi Yonasan, I don’t know if he was a Kohen. Could be. Rabbi Yonasan, and he wrote the letter to the Rambam, and the Rambam wrote him back.

Presumably he sent along a check with the letter, I imagine it doesn’t go for free. He was a wealthy person (gabir), I don’t mean that he was a gabir, he conducted there, he supported. He writes to the Rambam later in another letter about the translation of the Moreh Nevuchim (Guide for the Perplexed) that the Rambam should please help them, because they’ve already spent so much money on this that it shouldn’t be in vain (bechinam). He supported him, he was a kollel student (yeshiva student supported by stipend), he didn’t want the effort/expense (tumah) to be in vain. He supported him, he paid money that he should translate. Simply he sent a check to the Rambam, not God forbid (chas veshalom) for learning Torah, but compensation for lost work time (sechar beteilah), you know, the Rambam had a job.

The Rambam’s Epistemological Foundation

So, really, and he asked that the Rambam should answer the question, and the Rambam actually, in the only time, the only time in all the writings of the Rambam (kisvei haRambam), that the Rambam clearly put out his opinion about what one does with midrashim (rabbinic homiletical teachings) that don’t fit, and how it works. And very famous, the Rambam’s most basic piece of epistemology (theory of knowledge), that one says what one must think, stands in this letter.

The Three Sources of Knowledge

And he made it very clear, he said to the people (olam), that you should know that, if I remember, you must remember me well, that there are four things that a person knows. Things that he himself saw, things that he heard. Three things? Sensory perception (chishah). What he heard? No, he heard that another told him that so it was. What? He has a proof (re’ayah) to it? And the three? You missed one. Intellect/reason (seichel). Are you speaking of the Rambam or of the… Yes. And the chishah. The three things a person must believe.

And, says the Rambam, a person must know about each thing why he believes it. If because he saw it himself, or he himself… or he heard it from another, or because he himself proved it. That’s one thing.

The Distinction Between Levels of Belief

The Second Thing He Needs to Know

The second thing he needs to know is that things that someone has said, even if that person is a great man, we don’t want to get mixed up, we don’t want to think that this is the same level of belief, not the same sort of thing. Therefore, one needs to know how to weigh these things. And if there is something that is not true, it’s written in a book, it gets rejected in favor of the truth. This is the Rambam’s basic structure that he explains there. And just because something is written, and one Amora once said something, doesn’t yet mean that one must accept everything, etc.

The Practical Application

The Rambam says, we have very clearly, actually, the clearest, I’d say, the clearest time ever that the Rambam wrote out how one answers such questions. If someone asks him, “What does it say in the Gemara?” I feel like answering, “I can’t speak with the whole world at once. Do you want me to speak with Rabbi Yochanan, or with Reish Lakish, or with Rabbi Akiva? I’m speaking with you! What do you hold? Can I speak with everyone at once? There are so many people, so many generations. It’s very difficult to speak. Each person needs to figure out what his opinion is, where he got it from.”

The Translation of Moreh Nevuchim and Peirush HaMishnayos

Anyway, thus far the story. One minute. Now, I’ll continue the story. This is just an introduction to the story. I haven’t said anything yet, I haven’t told any story yet.

Rabbi Yonatan’s Satisfaction and Further Projects

Rabbi Yonatan saw that things were going well for him. Later he moved, apparently to Lunel, a second town, and he saw that things were going so well for him. And later copies arrived from the Rambam. They heard that the Rambam had written a kind of book, Moreh Nevuchim. So he paid Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon to translate it into Hebrew so he could read it. He was tremendously pleased with it.

Afterwards he saw that the copy they had had many mistakes. He couldn’t read the Arabic, but Rabbi Shmuel told him there were many mistakes. So he sent to the Rambam that he should send him a better version, and they sent him letters, and afterwards he also sent a section of the Raavad’s glosses, the glosses of the Ramach, whatever, halachic critiques, and he answered. In short, it became a whole extended back-and-forth negotiation.

The Discovery of Peirush HaMishnayos

Later they saw that the Rambam had also written a book, a commentary on the Mishnah. The entire Mishnayos of the six orders of the Mishnah the Rambam had written in Arabic. And so they imagined, perhaps they weren’t entirely right, that most of the Peirush HaMishnayos wasn’t so important. It’s just that the Rambam had written an ArtScroll for today’s Jews who speak Arabic, so they could know Mishnayos. They weren’t burning to translate the whole thing. The entire Peirush HaMishnayos was only translated later.

The Importance of Shemonah Perakim

But they saw that in this Peirush HaMishnayos there are sections that are very important. How does one who told the story know? It seems the one who knows Arabic, Rabbi Shmuel, told them. They saw one of the most important first things, it could be that Rabbi Shmuel also translated the introduction to Perek Chelek, we don’t know for sure, but there were others, there is the translation that we have, there are textual variants, the introduction has other things and other people translated it.

But they told him after he finished translating Moreh Nevuchim. He never finished translating Moreh Nevuchim, he kept fixing it, as all honest Jews keep fixing, but he finished more or less, he was waiting for the Rambam to answer him, to give corrections and answers, in any case he finished.

They told him, the students of Lunel apparently told him that there is an important book called Shemonah Perakim. He didn’t say it’s called Shemonah Perakim, he said that the Rambam had also written a commentary on the Mishnah, and in the introduction to Pirkei Avos he explained the foundations of good character traits, of ethics, of ethics, and he asks you to translate it. And so it was, after he translated the Moreh Nevuchim, he also translated the book that we call Shemonah Perakim, not only Shemonah Perakim, but also the entire tractate Avos.

The Source of the Story: Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon’s Introduction

This whole story, not the beginning of it, the beginning I added from other sources, but the end of the story is told to us by whom? Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon himself. Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon himself wrote an introduction to his translation of Pirkei Avos. He translated the entire Pirkei Avos, not just the Shemonah Perakim, Pirkei Avos with the introduction, and in the introduction he tells the story. I wanted to bring the introduction, but I don’t have it, my printer didn’t work, I have it here in front of me, I brought the story.

The Conclusion of Rabbi Shmuel’s Introduction

So the introduction ends, it ends in one version, that the sages of Lunel saw how beautiful and how good and how important the Rambam’s commentary on the tractate is, they asked him to write it out just as he wrote out the Moreh Nevuchim, and so it was, and this is it, so he says. Right, a nice story.

Questions About Payment and Professionalism

Discussion About Rabbi Shmuel’s Livelihood

Student: So when the Tibons asked, does that mean he paid him?

Teacher: Certainly paid.

Student: No, does that mean he paid him. He doesn’t work for free.

Teacher: They had a company.

Student: Yes, but the company…

Teacher: Yes, yes. His father already, his father already, they already paid his father. They worked for the same, for the same, for the same family. Later, I mean.

Student: What?

Teacher: Yes, Chovos HaLevavos, the introduction, not the entire Chovos HaLevavos.

The Rambam’s Approach to Payment for Torah Work

Teacher: Okay, so I want to understand an interesting thing. One needs to note something interesting here. Now, thus far the story, okay? Stories of righteous people.

Student: What? He was also a doctor, yes.

Teacher: But his father, his father originally was from Spain, and he wanted his son to be a person, he taught him secular studies, he taught with him, he gave him an education as he was accustomed, not as was the custom there. Yes, that’s why he was also a doctor.

Student: A professional writer, yes, it’s different. Professional… he wouldn’t have been able to…

Teacher: Okay, let’s not get into politics. In politics one needs to be a second time. But this is the story being asked about. Story being asked about, certainly, they pay. Nothing, he was… he had a business, he says, he had a job. Rabbi Shmuel, you don’t just sit around and wait to translate things. If you need to work for yourself, you paid him. That’s the question.

The Rambam’s Practice of Paying Scribes

So they write but the Rambam himself, it says “we have gold from our treasury,” they counted, they paid money. So now it’s like this, a translator must certainly take money, even according to the Rambam, one can’t be a kollel young man just to write, it’s certainly a job, but a scribe writes and copies, there’s no doubt they take money.

The Rambam himself paid for his… he had people who copied foreign things, he paid them. Certainly, the Rambam knows, yes, there are the manuscripts of the Rambam. Yes, he worked with people, he wrote. No, no, not like that. I mean, it’s about the work, about the… There’s a question about exactly how it went.

We do have the Rambam’s own handwriting on most of Peirush HaMishnah, including the introduction. I can see it. Apparently the Rambam himself wrote the whole thing. It was very nice, but professional. There are those who say that perhaps he wrote and others corrected. It’s not one hundred percent, but it’s accepted that he wrote it himself. Yes.

A Close Analysis of the Story: The Character of the Yeshiva in Lunel

But what I want to say is this. I want to make a close analysis of the story. I think the story is an interesting story. One needs to make a close analysis of stories of righteous people. And I want to analyze it like this, that you’ve told a story. The same group, a bit before, paid his father to translate a section of Chovos HaLevavos. Yes? Interesting.

That means, I think also Emunos V’Deyos, Rabbi Yehuda ibn Tibbon wrote. That means, they were Jews. One needs to grasp the story. Here there are Jews, they were Jews, I don’t know where they came from. A group of Jews, a serious group, a beis medrash, a yeshiva.

What Did They Learn?

And what does a yeshiva of Jews do? One learns Gemara Tosafos. Rif, they actually learned Gemara, Rif, Tosafos. What do you do? Those are all commentaries on the Rif, yes? They learned halacha, they didn’t learn Gemara, they learned halacha. The Baal HaMaor, they decided everything, in that yeshiva it was decided by the Rif, they didn’t learn Gemara.

A Fact About the Raavad’s Limitations

Should I tell you a fact, so you should know. And… but halacha, that would have been cooked, that was held greater, he was a great scholar. The holy Raavad writes on the Rambam, it comes from the same beis medrash better, the holy Raavad writes on the Rambam in glosses in Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh, “I have not attained this wisdom,” he writes plainly, “and my teachers also did not attain it.”

The Intellectual Hunger of Ashkenazic Jews for Broader Torah Wisdom

The Beis Medrash in Lunel: A Traditional Ashkenazic Yeshiva

The Baal HaMaor grasps that there’s a total soundcheck. And they didn’t learn there, it was a normal traditional Jewish beis medrash with some Gemara Tosafos.

Now, in what in the medrash were Jews, at least some of them, not the Eved, he was from the other side there, but other Jews who heard that somewhere else there are Jews where for them the meanings of the word Torah or the word wisdom is broader than that.

One doesn’t only learn halacha, the laws of the four guardians in Hilchos Daled Shomrim, but one also learns about how the world works, about what is Divine Providence, about what sages there are if there is a God at all. About science in general, medicine, all kinds of such things.

The Moment of Discovery: “We’re Missing Something”

And a large part of them, perhaps most, I don’t know, I’m telling you so one should grasp such a normal thing. They grasped that wait, we’re missing something, a part in Torah.

It’s exactly like there’s one shiur where one only learns nigleh, and someone comes and says, come on, you know there’s Kabbalah, one also needs to know how the world looks, how the world works. Exactly like that.

So they heard, someone told them, there were people who traveled, as eventually the family itself traveled, they came to live from other places, where there it’s more introduced.

The Sages Who Hungered for Broader Wisdom

And there was Rabbi Yonatan of Lunel for example, he was a world-class genius, he wrote commentaries, one can see, very beautiful analytical Torah study, others, also others, they are great warriors, they loved to learn.

But they loved to learn, they also loved, they grasped that they’re missing something, a very basic part of wisdom. They became very curious, they became so curious that they heard that all these books that are written not in Hebrew.

The Practical Problem: Language Barrier and Translation Campaign

Why not? Because the places where it began to learn more broadly, they spoke Arabic for the most part, and they wrote most books in Arabic.

So they said, what, what’s going on? Are we left as ignorant people? So they went and paid, sent messengers, struggled. Figured out a way how one can translate the books that deal with the foundations of Torah, in Emunos V’Deyos, and other things, into their language so one could learn it.

And so it was, they learned it, they were very happy with it.

The Excitement of Chassidei Ashkenaz

Emunos V’Deyos, the section would have already been included before, and there was another translation even before in Ashkenaz. I don’t remember who the translator was, but it exists today, and Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid, all the Chassidei Ashkenaz were all tremendously happy with this.

That what, one can understand, we serve God all day, now one can understand who He is. Imagine, exactly like Chassidus like the Baal Shem Tov.

A Story: The Ketzos HaChoshen and the Dziedzice Rebbe About Chassidus

Do you know the story of the Ketzos HaChoshen with Rabbi Hershele of Dziedzice? It’s exactly such a story, yes? I can tell stories.

He wanted to know what is the essence of the thing of Chassidus. He wasn’t such an opponent, but he lived there, and he didn’t know what it was. I heard this story from Rav Beis Moshe many times, he already thought it through thoroughly, it’s written in the Chassidic story books.

So what did he do? He asked the Rabbi of Dziedzice, he was also in that area, he asked, what is the matter of Chassidus? There’s already wisdom, there’s Kabbalah, there are all things before this. What has Chassidus now revealed?

The Parable of the King and His Palace

So he told him a parable, that there were people who served some king, and they had all kinds of maps of how the king’s palace looks, and they say all kinds of stories, that the king is like this and the king is like this. Very interesting, okay, very much proper conduct, love and fear for the king.

Until someone came, this wasn’t enough for him, he didn’t want to hear about the king, and say that it was like this, and that it was like this, that the king’s place has so many floors, and the king himself is so wise, and so on. He said he wants to see the king himself. So he went to him, he sends an invitation to the king, and behold in our holiness, the king is here.

The Application: Chassidus Brings the King Himself

So the Dziedzice Rebbe said to the Ketzos that this is the distinction of Chassidus from Kabbalah, or even all other things that came before. That one speaks about what was, that the king is so great, he has so many floors, his building, his thing so high, his thing so wise, and the thing of the Baal Shem Tov was that one can bring the king himself.

So what did he do regarding this matter? This is a Chassidic story. But it’s no different from all these reactions of Rabbi Yonatan of Lunel and others to the Rambam.

The Key Verse: “By the Hearing of the Ear I Heard of You, But Now My Eye Sees You”

Rabbi Shmuel, shows in his introduction, he says exactly this. One heard, as the Rambam brings the verse in the Book of Job, “by the hearing of the ear,” Job said this, Job was a great philosopher, and he spoke with his friends the whole time whether God is just, or not, various philosophical inquiries.

And finally, the Almighty came, “vaya’an Hashem es Iyov min hase’arah” [and God answered Job from the whirlwind], and He told him, the Almighty explained to Job the entire world, how it works, yes? He didn’t really tell him, He told him that he doesn’t know, he can’t understand.

Job’s Response: From Hearing to Seeing

And Job said this, this is Job’s teshuvah [response], I’m not going into the question of why this relates to Job’s inquiry. He told him, Job said to the Almighty like this, “vaya’an Iyov” [and Job answered], he said, “l’shema ozen shema’ticha” [by the hearing of the ear I heard You], I heard You, “l’shema ozen” means I heard the news, yes? Shemuas ozen [hearsay], “vayishma Yisro” [and Yisro heard], I heard, I heard reports about You, “v’ata eini ra’asecha” [and now my eye has seen You], and now my eyes have seen You, “al ken em’as v’nichamti al afar va’efer” [therefore I recant and repent in dust and ashes], I have charata [regret] for everything I said, I didn’t mean any of it.

Now, how he interpreted the second half of the verse, that’s not the nosa [topic]. But what Job is saying is, he was a great ma’amin [believer], I mean, if one doesn’t believe in the Almighty, the entire inquiry of Job doesn’t begin, I mean, he was misgaber [strengthened himself], he never became baruch Elokim [cursed God], all these things.

But he says, all of that was nice stories, it was heard, I heard that. When I saw it myself, it’s a completely different matter, one must rewrite the entire books from the beginning, it’s not the same thing at all.

The Rambam’s Interpretation: Faith Based on Tradition versus the Eyes of the Intellect

And this is how the sages understood the same thing, this is what they called the difference between one who has “l’shema ozen shema’ticha,” the Rambam says the interpretation in his commentary on Job in chelek gimmel [part three], I heard, that means he has emunah mipi hakabballah [faith based on tradition], he heard that it exists and it’s this way, until one who knows, that means “eini ra’asecha” [my eye has seen You], one doesn’t see the Almighty with the eyes, one sees Him with “einei haseichel” [the eyes of the intellect].

He saw it himself, that means he himself had a hochacha [proof], whereas until then it was only a rumor, which he only heard, now he can see it himself. This was a tremendous simcha [joy], this was a great thing.

The Historical Context: “An Exile of Wisdom”

So the people who heard that there are such books that are mesbir [explain] this, I tell you, the Chasidei Ashkenaz and the same thing the chachmei Ludomir [the sages of Ludomir] and others, they were very nispael [impressed] by the fact that there is such a thing, it didn’t exist.

Our Rich World Compared to Those Times

We are not in that situation, it’s hard to imagine. Later there was a problem from this, but we already have all kinds, everyone, I mean, whoever it is, whoever is only engaged in Otzar HaChochmah [a digital library of Jewish texts], or whoever goes to a proper beis medrash, there are already so many Torah works with Chassidus, with Kabbalah, with such Kabbalah, with such Kabbalah, with philosophy with all kinds of things.

We live in a very rich world, everyone, there is machshava [Jewish thought], there is Lithuanian, Chassidic, whatever one wants. But you must remember that this didn’t exist.

The Time of the Rambam: 12th-13th Century

In the zmanim harishonim [the early times], I shortened this, literally lis’chilas zmanim harishonim kim’at [almost to the beginning of the early times], the time when the Rambam still lived in that time, 12th century, 13th century, it’s already hundreds of years ago, I don’t know what it was before that, bizman haGemara [in the time of the Talmud], I don’t know, a lot before that we don’t know, but already for hundreds of years no Jew thought about the Almighty.

Okay, obviously they thought, but they didn’t know what it is. It’s not a joke that I’m saying, it’s history.

What Was Learned in the Yeshivos

It was in the yeshivos, they learned Gemara Tosafos. What people did quietly at night nobody knows, but we’re talking about what was learned officially in public in the yeshivos. There were Geonim [the post-Talmudic sages], they wrote teshuvos [responsa], everything in halacha [Jewish law]. There are two or three teshuvos in the Geonim that discuss something.

I don’t want to go into a story, it’s part of the galus [exile], I mean that it’s an exile. It’s certain that it’s an exile. It’s certain that bizman haBayis [in the time of the Temple], it can’t be, there were nevi’im [prophets], it’s certain that they were engaged in muskalos [philosophical concepts] and yesodos elokus [foundations of Divinity].

I’m talking now about the sages, certainly, the Moreh Nevuchim [Guide for the Perplexed] is all like this. I didn’t think about the Almighty, such a guzma [exaggeration] that I said, but they weren’t engaged in it, they weren’t… They learned Gemara Tosafos, they learned the sefer.

I mean, the sefer itself, the sefer once had… I don’t know, I mean, it was… I understand, one can justify it.

Why the Jews Were So Excited

I tell you, I want to explain it from the perspective of a Jew, why he is so excited. Then you can already answer back the others.

I’m just saying a fact, I’m saying, the Torah that we say is after what was already learned, you know that Gemara Tosafos is also not bad, fine, I hear. But let yourself grasp, for thousands of years, from chasimas haGemara [the sealing of the Talmud] there is a lot of aggadah [non-legal Talmudic narratives] for example, one speaks yes, “retzoncha l’hakir es Bor’echa, l’mad aggados” [if you wish to know your Creator, study aggadah], all very good.

The Geonim and the Aggadah

But in the yeshivos, already in zman haGeonim [the era of the Geonim], and in our regions people are happy with the Geonim, but it’s very sad. These are already the great Geonim, or at least a portion of them, who say “we don’t understand the aggadah, it’s not k’pshuto [according to its simple meaning].” What does that mean yes? I don’t know, I don’t have an answer.

They didn’t live in it, they didn’t immerse themselves in it. It’s certainly not that the Amora’im [Talmudic sages] and Tanna’im [Mishnaic sages] who wrote the aggadah didn’t know what they meant. Whether it’s k’pshuto, whether it’s not k’pshuto, whether the teiretz [answer] is Chassidus, Kabbalah, philosophy, whatever the nimshal [the lesson of the parable] is, whatever it’s a parable, it’s a story.

How one understands it, they lived in it, they immersed themselves in it, they wanted to know “mei’heichan nivra ha’orah?” [from where was light created?] I don’t mean what it says in Midrash [homiletical teachings], all these sorts of things.

But later, the reality was, this was public in the yeshivos.

A Dispute Among the Tanna’im Regarding Ma’aseh Merkavah

I saw in the Midrash next week, that the Midrash says, I mean the Yerushalmi [the Jerusalem Talmud] says, that ein dorshin [one may not expound], the Mishnah [Mishnah] says ein dorshin b’merkavah [one may not expound on the Divine Chariot], that’s not the halacha. This was shitas Rabbi Yishmael [the opinion of Rabbi Yishmael], Rabbi Akiva [Rabbi Akiva] didn’t hold that way. Where is the ra’ayah [proof]? Rabbi Elazar ben Arach [Rabbi Elazar ben Arach] did yes. So says the Yerushalmi.

So b’kitzur [in short], the Gemara says entire drashos [expositions] on Ma’aseh Merkavah [the Account of the Divine Chariot]. I have a second point, I grasped that this is in the Yerushalmi. So in short, the Gemara says entire drashos on Ma’aseh Merkavah, I have a second point, I grasped that this is in the Yerushalmi.

There is a machlokes Tanna’im [a dispute among the Tanna’im], and we don’t conduct ourselves like the Tanna’im. Already. Al kol panim [in any case], it was, but later, if you look at our few Geonim, until Rav Saadia Gaon [Rav Saadia Gaon] came and the Ramban [Ramban: Nachmanides] and the Chovos HaLevavos [Chovos HaLevavos: Duties of the Heart], the few people that we know, nobody knew anything, they didn’t learn, they didn’t learn, they sat, they learned Gemara Tosafos, they learned Rif, arba sedarim [four orders of the Mishnah], Nashim Moed [Nashim Moed: the orders of Women and Festivals], Nashim Nezikin, Chullin [Chullin: a tractate of the Talmud].

Application to the Ra’avad

And… yes, yes, the Ra’avad [Ra’avad: Rabbi Avraham ben David] is already… I can’t go into the Ra’avad, I want to yes, but… one thing for now, we’re now holding by the Ra’avad’s contribution in the story that I’m sharing, I just want to bring out that we’re not accustomed to grasping this.

One can understand, even a Litvak who learns in a Lithuanian yeshiva, everyone knows that there is Ramchal [Ramchal: Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto] in all the Lithuanian books here in the corner, some Ramchal. Some know that there are people who have what to say,

Historical Lack of Machshava in Torah Learning and the Thirst for Knowledge of God

The Fact: Machshava Was Historically Marginalized in Mainstream Torah Learning

I want yes, but one thing before we now hold by the Ra’avad’s contribution in the story that I’m sharing. I just want to bring out that we’re not accustomed to grasping this. Even a Litvak who learns in a Lithuanian yeshiva, everyone knows that there is a Ramchal in all the Lithuanian holy books here in the corner on the side. Some know that there are people who have what to say about something… yes, there is something! Okay?

There was no Ramban at all. Do you grasp? Do you grasp that there was a yeshiva for four hundred years, it was the great yeshiva of Klal Yisrael. Rabbeinu Gershom made a whole yeshiva, and there was the yeshiva in Babylon of the Geonim, and there was here in Lul Nil there was a yeshiva and so on. Nobody knew about anything. I don’t know, I don’t know what one knows yes, it’s all already late, but I know yes, I’ll tell you what I know, what I know, is therefore the group, this would spoil a story. No, almost not.

The Yeshivos of the Geonim: Only Gemara, No Aggados

Geonim? In the time of the Geonim there were Karaites, I don’t know, not from the heimishe ones. It’s in general, it’s in general a special topic, it’s in general not an Almighty thing, only Chassidus is an exception. But also according to the approach of the Chassidim, according to the conduct, also not. No, it’s really not, it didn’t exist, it holds you back. Okay, it can make you.

I’m speaking now, if you went to yeshiva, to the yeshiva of the Geonim, you went to learn in the yeshiva of the Gaon Yaakov, I would have learned Gemara, whatever, that’s all. They didn’t even learn the aggados of the Shas. In the Gemara, they came to a whole section, a sugya of aggados, the Gaon said… and he doesn’t hold of this. I went further. What? Peytan doesn’t count.

The great leaders of Israel? No, really. Rabbi Elazar Kalir was before the… yes, he was in the same period, but he was a chazan. They didn’t take him seriously. The Tosafos took him seriously as halachos, and so on. Yes, yes.

Piyutim: Not Part of the Mainstream

Okay, I want to tell you… I want to tell you a fact, I can’t help you. The fact, I’m not the innovator of this. All the sources describe the reality. So, all people, not just sources, all who call themselves maskilim. Maskilim is a word that everyone likes to use. Already, from the beginning of this. Everyone described that they are the realities. There are thousands of issues, and one learns this, and it doesn’t exist. I say, today, even the one who is a dry vessel of yeshiva, there is also something. It’s not like that. One can say it’s good, one can say it’s not good, I don’t know. I’m saying a fact.

And suddenly comes, comes, as you say, Rav Saadia Gaon himself wrote the books for reasons, not necessarily only about the, which is also about the reasons, we would have spoken once. No, I say there, who says, the paytanim, we are the exceptions, but the paytanim is not, one went to yeshiva, let’s understand, the yeshivos of the Geonim didn’t hold of piyutim. Piyutim were said in the beis medrash in Eretz Yisrael, and the Geonim didn’t say any piyutim. In Babylon, in the official mainstream, what we call the mainstream, the main tradition of Torah, they didn’t say any… One davens ten minutes? Certainly, the Ashkenazim received the tradition from the paytanim, but what we call the yeshiva of the Geonim, there was no piyut.

Rashi: A Broad Person, But in Yeshiva – Gemara

Also Rashi, I mean Rashi was interested in everything, Rashi was a very broad person, and to a certain extent, he learned the whole night, I’ve already been a commentary on the whole night, many piyutim, there are today piyutim from Rashi that are being published and other things, teshuvos. Even in Rashi’s time they learned, mostly Gemara Tosafos. I don’t mean Tosafos, Gemara. Another word, still before Tosafos. Tosafos came. In short, they learned Gemara. What was, wasn’t, it’s already nobody.

The Thirst for Knowledge of God: Historical Examples

Rav Saadia Gaon and Chasidei Ashkenaz

Now, it came, Rav Saadia Gaon wrote his book for his reasons, true. People came, for example, Jews sat in Ashkenaz, you can literally read writings like this. Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid, who have many writings, the Rokeach, many writings from them, and they all write approximately this, they wanted to serve the Almighty, they want to know who this is, how we should see Him, we can’t see, one must know what is yes, how it works. And they found the books of Rabbeinu Saadia, they rejoiced tremendously with them. Let’s not go out of the vessels.

And Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid and the Rokeach, both Rabbi this is from Worms, Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid, and especially Rabbi Elazar of Worms a bit more, he tries more systematically to lay down things, and he quotes entire pages from the Emunos V’Deos, he puts it in, to this he adds more things, he didn’t only learn that, but he was tremendously happy with this, that finally he can understand, ah, it’s like this, it’s like this.

The Story with Chovos HaLevavos: The Desire for “Sha’ar HaYichud”

And the same thing is later the Chovos HaLevavos. Now, I’ll tell you a story, the story is in the introduction of Rabbi Yehuda ibn Tibbon to his translation of Chovos HaLevavos. There it says that he came to the city, and they told him, they had already learned “Emunos V’Deos.” “Emunos V’Deos” is Rabbeinu, I mean, the first great section of it is proofs for the existence of God, for the creation of the world. They rejoiced tremendously with all these things.

And they heard that there is another book that speaks of this, this is “Sha’ar HaYichud” from “Chovos HaLevavos.” They asked that he should translate the “Sha’ar HaYichud.” They didn’t ask for the entire book. I mean that later he translated the rest. But when there is an introduction in the “Sha’ar HaYichud,” and he says, they wanted him to translate. “Sha’ar HaYichud” is more or less a summary of “Emunos V’Deos.” He writes himself, the “Chovos HaLevavos,” that he takes from Rav Saadia the things. And they asked that he should translate “Sha’ar HaYichud.” The mussar didn’t interest them, the rest of the book. But the “Sha’ar HaYichud” they…

What “Hochacha” Means – A Deeper Understanding

The Modern Mistake: Proofs as Only Intellectual

Today one tells the story, and one has a mistaken view. First of all, because we look at it, ah, the Rishonim held of proofs, some modern thing, why does one need to prove? It makes by them it was like… It’s less than what it is. A hochacha is “eini ra’asecha,” you can prove, it’s a tremendous revelation.

The Rambam’s Interpretation of “May the Glory of Heaven Be Revealed”

My Interpretation

I mean my interpretation, I spoke here on Erev Rosh Hashanah, I saw that the Rambam interprets it almost literally, and others. What is the interpretation? We pray that kavod shamayim (the honor of Heaven) should be revealed, that the Almighty should reveal Himself. What does that mean? That the Almighty should show Himself to you. How does the Almighty show Himself? It can mean that He should do things, certain actions, we speak of His actions, He should redeem the Jews, He should show that His pious ones fare better than others, He doesn’t give up on the pious ones, and so forth. Okay, that’s one thing.

But when Chassidus says it, it doesn’t mean that, right? I mean not only that. So what does it mean? Because what does it say? Chassidim mean that it means to feel things. But I want here a simple interpretation, a good intention. I mean that the Rambam intended this, and Reb Tzadok almost explicitly writes this, and so on.

That the Almighty should reveal to us means, and should find a good proof that there is a God. Something that cannot be refuted. Until now everyone can refute it, I don’t know, some are better, some in practice, there are people who didn’t succeed, it’s simple that one can refute it. It’s proper to refute the proof, I don’t know. But that’s the interpretation, right? Something that is proven, one and one is two that everyone agrees to.

I’m not saying, sometimes when a person says, I lent him one dollar and another dollar, he says, he owes me everything and I owe him nothing. It can still be, a person can be stubborn even about one and one, right? But a clear intellectual list, everyone admits. Yakiru veyede’u kulam vesaviru, meaning, it could be that the wisdom should not only be deep, it should also be true, but also what can be explained. Sometimes it’s too deep, it cannot be explained. That’s the interpretation, right? It’s already a good interpretation.

Proof as Experience: “Have You Seen the Almighty?”

According to this there’s another step, I say this, but first I don’t stop there either. It could be that it goes together, it could be that we’ll have a good proof. This is what the Chovos Halevavos thought, that someone who only heard, okay, he heard, but he himself saw. Proof doesn’t mean hearing that there’s a proof, right? You have to do the proof.

This is not a critique of proofs with knowledge of Hashem, there are other critiques that hold exactly there in the frightening critique. But they saw this as… Have you seen the Almighty? Have you thought? Have you delved into what the proof is? One has experienced the proof, yes. Experience is certainly.

By us it’s often told that there’s a contradiction, as if there’s an experience in the proof, but there’s also an experience in the proof, certainly. Imagine that someone comes today, we’re already after a long time, it’s already been said that one cannot prove, we’re already smarter, we’re already too smart, we’ve already thought it over three times. Other philosophers have already come who say one cannot… Okay, it’s already too complicated, but one must go in, I want to tell you the story.

The Great Joy: “He Heard, Now He Sees”

It goes into the story that a Jew certainly heard, he doesn’t take any doubt, not just all doubts in faith. This is true, Rav Saadia Gaon also explains this, but certainly, it’s proper to answer whoever has doubts, but one must already with doubts, it’s proper to rejoice with it. He says, he heard, now he sees, he did it and this was the great joy of the chachmei Yisroel (sages of Israel), when they paid money for this, to translate the Chovos Halevavos, the Sha’arei Yichud, to translate the Saadia Gaon, and the same thing they requested from the Rambam to translate Moreh Nevuchim.

The Same Yearning by Moreh Nevuchim

And regarding the honor they meant our translation that if not it wouldn’t have been. Other people translated, translated other books, but it was the first. It could be that Charizi only wrote because there was competition. One cannot know that if not the first there would have been nothing. But when it’s certain that it was born from the yearning for knowledge of God, we wanted to finally know.

We’re told about the person, afterwards there was a dispute, the Rambam said something that doesn’t fit, there are the more traditional people, the less, and the Rambam. But this is already all three steps afterwards, it began that one wants to hear this. Right? Now.

Shemonah Perakim Is Not Disconnected from Moreh Nevuchim

The Introduction to Shemonah Perakim: A Mussar Book?

And before that I say, according to the introduction I say that it’s very interesting the introduction that we learn here from Shemonah Perakim, because Shemonah Perakim doesn’t speak about this. It is indeed mussar, one hundred percent mussar. A bit about free will, and the end. There aren’t questions of more philosophical, like investigations, matters of thought. But Shemonah Perakim officially is mussar, it’s a commentary on Pirkei Avos, it’s the introduction to the commentary on Pirkei Avos, and the entire commentary on Pirkei Avos speaks about it extensively.

The Translators Grasped: Shemonah Perakim Belongs to Moreh Nevuchim

And here you see that Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon with Rabbi Yehonasan of Lunel, the friends whom we paid, grasped, I don’t know how, someone told them the essential matter, that to the Moreh Nevuchim one must add Shemonah Perakim. A very interesting thing. They didn’t translate that, they didn’t have a project to translate the entire Rambam. They left Seder Zeraim, they could do Seder Zeraim themselves, they don’t need to have the commentary, exactly the Arabic commentary. That’s not what burned for them. But Shemonah Perakim burned for them that one must have it. A very interesting thing.

The Key Point: One Complete Picture

You see here that there’s a fundamental thing that is connected. I’ll explain it even better, it’s not disconnected. It’s not simple that there’s someone who wants to speak investigations, he wants to bring proofs to the creation of the world, or I want to interpret prophecy, I know, all the things that the Moreh Nevuchim speaks about, that’s very nice, but to this it’s crazily important, it’s also intellectually important, to understand, I’m not speaking of doing it, that’s even more important, but to understand, it’s a part of the complete picture of if someone wants to learn the teachings of the Rambam, he cannot say, “What is this that the Rambam writes? What is this? Shemonah Perakim that stands on the shelf there, it’s nice things. Afterwards there’s Moreh Nevuchim, which is great deep things, this is for those who have the yearning it’s made.” No!

The Integration of Shemonah Perakim and Moreh Nevuchim: Malos HaMidos as Foundation for Malos Sichliyo

The Necessity to Learn Both Works Together

But to this it’s crazily important, it’s also intellectually important, it’s even more important, but it’s understanding, it’s a part, the complete picture of if someone wants to learn the teachings of the Rambam, one cannot say, someone says, there are the patterns, what the Rambam writes, one sees two mussars either the Shemonah Perakim, it stands on the shelf there, it’s nice things. Afterwards what there is the Moreh Nevuchim which is great deep things, this is for. For those who have the yearnings it’s made. No, those who want to understand the thing, must bring this out. One cannot even count it, one cannot say, for the children he wrote this, and for the adults he wrote that.

Why Shemonah Perakim Is Missing in Moreh Nevuchim

And it can also be another thing, I mean that it goes together, that Shemonah Perakim in a certain sense is missing what stands in Shemonah Perakim. There are topics that he speaks about in both places, there are contradictions, one can make all the investigations, but in a certain sense, he doesn’t repeat things, he doesn’t feel obligated to repeat that one of the people who… Today the custom is that one repeats everything twenty-five times, or one of the people who very strongly valued their time, but he says something once, and he held that he said it well, so that’s it, and he doesn’t give it again, right?

So he did it once, and there’s a certain foundation that stands, that in Shemonah Perakim one speaks around this foundation, and he doesn’t repeat it in Moreh Nevuchim, it’s not the topic, it already stands, it’s missing, I see that it’s missing.

Now, why exactly is it missing? That’s the story so far. Why exactly is it missing?

The Introduction to Shemonah Perakim: The Rambam’s Explanation

So the Rambam himself explains this in his introduction essentially, the introduction to the introduction, before Shemonah Perakim there’s an outstanding introduction, and one won’t also need to bring there, one must pay, one must buy a new copy from Shin or something, print it out. But in the introduction the Rambam explains what is the matter of Pirkei Avos, why it needs a commentary, more or less these two things.

Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon’s Introduction

And the same thing, Rabbi Shmuel ben Tibbon, when he wrote his translation, his translation, he wrote an introduction, an introduction to the introduction to the introduction, and there he wrote what is the importance of Pirkei Avos. He more or less copied what the Rambam said, not innovating innovations, but there’s here something a point of innovation that one must speak about. And also wrote why one needs the translation. This is simple, one needs it for the… What I told you the story until now.

But in other words, he does the same thing that the Rambam did, only in his context. He adds one thing, I don’t know if I can go into this with the audience today, he adds one thing that he argues with the Rambam. Very interesting. That means, he writes over first of all the main matter why it’s important.

The Importance of Good Character Traits: The Path to Intellectual Excellence

Let me just say what he says, I want to have… He writes over why Pirkei Avos is important, consequently the Rambam’s commentary on Pirkei Avos. And he says, it’s important why? Because it speaks about good character traits. Now, good and bad character traits, yes, the weak good character traits and the condemnation of bad character traits.

Malos HaMidos and Malos Sichliyo

And the matter of good character traits is that the malos hamidos (excellence of character), as it stands in the Rambam on this, malos hamidos bring to something that we call malos sichliyo (intellectual excellence). Very important, yes, this is the language of the Rambam here in chapter 2, that there are two types of excellence. There is malos hamidos. Also in the introduction, in short, there is malos hamidos and malos sichliyo. Malos hamidos bring to malos sichliyo. Malos hamidos means, yes, what we spoke about means being human, malos sichliyo means knowing the truth, understand? There is malos sichliyo itself. It divides, there is comprehension, there is memory, there are other excellences, but the purpose of the whole thing is this means understanding.

Scriptural Support: “Shema Eitza VeKabel Mussar”

And on this he brings a verse, there’s a verse in Mishlei, “Shema eitza vekabel mussar lema’an techkam be’acharisecha” [Hear counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your end – Proverbs 19:20]. He interpreted it literally, learn mussar, so that the wisdom can come.

The Purpose of Malos Sichliyo: Knowledge of the Creator

And what is the matter of malas sichliyo? The matter of malas sichliyo is that the peak, malas sichliyo, malas sichliyo has many things, one can simply learn math, sharpen the intellect, perhaps it’s also an important thing as a step. But the purpose of this is, to arrive at yedias haBoreh (knowledge of the Creator), yedias Hashem, as there’s a verse, and the previous verse, remember how the Rambam brings, but the verse also brings the Rambam at the end, Moreh Nevuchim, part 3 chapter 51, “Im tevakshenah kakesef vechmatmonim techapsena az tavin yiras Hashem vedaas Elokim timtza” [If you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Hashem and find knowledge of God – Proverbs 2:4-5].

Interpretation of “Yiras Hashem” and “Daas Elokim”

So the Rambam interprets I think the verse, that im tevakshenah, what will you seek wisdom? Will you seek wisdom with seriousness, like money, like treasures? What will you have from this? What will you have from seeking wisdom? You will have yiras Hashem.

Yiras Hashem Means the Beliefs of Torah

And Rabbi Shmuel ben Tibbon interprets here, what does yiras Hashem mean? Yiras Hashem means seriousness. No, yiras Hashem, he says, yiras Hashem means Judaism. Yiras Hashem means the beliefs of Torah. But earlier he says, you had yiras Hashem, you didn’t understand yiras Hashem. It was like this, that you had yiras Hashem, certainly, this is an honest Jew, we’re not speaking of any non-Jew here. Perhaps this is even from the malos hamidos, to have yiras Hashem even.

That you had yiras Hashem, now is to have yiras Hashem, that means like the study of the mitzvos, the things that were yiras Hashem, yiras Hashem, Torah, midos laHashem, yes, the mitzvos, the Torah, you had it. Now is to understand it also. You want to know the reason, you want to know the meaning.

Daas Elokim Means the Existence of Hashem

And the second thing, vedaas Elokim, that means the existence of Hashem, timtza, you will find it. Timtza means he wants to say, he interprets it like this, he will know His existence. A Chassidic interpretation, a bit. Timtza, that means that someone who only heard about the Almighty, doesn’t really know what the existence of Hashem means. The existence of Hashem is indeed a deep thing, one must understand the type of existence that the Almighty is. That there is a God is not the same thing. The Rambam calls it mechuyav hametzius [necessary existence – a philosophical term for the type of existence that the Almighty has, which is not dependent on anything else], there’s a whole understanding in this. So daas Elokim – what?

Discussion: The Etymology of “Metzius”

Student: Yes, yes.

Teacher: Ah, I say, I think it’s a derash. He doesn’t say it explicitly, I’m interpreting it in now. The word metzius, on the contrary, the word metzius as an existence comes from the word metzius of finding, so I think, yes. Who figured out the… I don’t know. Metzia, like motzi rishon, all people think it means something that one finds, not something that one finds, right? Birtzoscha emtza’acha kol hadevarim ha’eleh. No, metzius? I don’t know. Existence? Nimtza? Dirshu Hashem behimatzeo, as long as the Almighty exists you will seek Him. That’s not the interpretation. I don’t know, it’s actually a good interpretation. But I don’t know. Perhaps the philosophers put in the interpretation of metzius. Ilu metzius shelo, nothing happens with metzius. Machlokes hametzius, I don’t know.

There is about what one says altar kodesh, and it says Havaya, Ehyeh, meaning I am, something like that. Also there there’s a dispute what it means. But it’s very good.

The Necessity to Understand the Existence of Hashem

But on the contrary, now you see something, that the thing of grasping that the existence of Hashem is something, this requires already a bit of understanding. That the Almighty does things, this is the actions of Hashem, this is not the existence of Hashem. But daas Elokim timtza, one must find, one must understand, it could be the wisdom, the main wisdom that the Rambam thinks about the existence of Hashem is what shows this itself. So that’s the interpretation of daas Elokim timtza, and you must believe in this.

Why Malos HaMidos Is Necessary for Malos Sichliyo

So there have already been enough lectures to answer the question why must one have malos hamidos to arrive at malos sichliyo?

The Problem of Bias

Because a, as all the mussar masters know, someone who is a baal taavah (one driven by desires), he seeks himself, he doesn’t seek the truth. This is very simple. There are still giants, but this is… Negios (biases). Also because he doesn’t understand, but also because he has negios. You won’t want to know that there’s a God because you want to eat better. It’s very simple. Or in general, you won’t want to know math even, because he wants to win the lottery, whatever.

Like that one says, I said earlier, I want you to owe me, not I want to owe you. Math says that I owe you, but I don’t hold of math. Understand? It’s alternative facts. I can’t do that.

Bad People Don’t Know Anything

But certainly, there’s broader than this. I say it sometimes, this is just because people asked questions. Certainly, there’s no time. The fact is that bad people don’t know anything. This is a known thing. I can’t… I say regarding faith, this is from the timtza one must learn. But I think for many giants it’s simple.

Two Types of Malos HaMidos

Only you must also remember that by the Rambam, here it doesn’t stand explicitly in the introduction, but malos hamidos, the purpose of malos hamidos by the Rambam goes a bit more complicated. That means, one way of saying, okay, let me say it. No, one must speak about this.

Type A: Personal Excellence (Between Himself and Himself)

Good Character Traits as a Prerequisite for Wisdom and Knowledge of God

⟦#1⟧ Continuation: Good Character Traits as a Condition for Wisdom – The First Reason

The Complexity of Man

Maggid Shiur [Lecturer]:

A person can be a complicated creation, it could be that here he’s bad and there he’s good. But you understand, I’m saying there’s no contradiction. There could be a Hitler who just – Hitler didn’t find one good thing, I don’t know. Just, he would have been busy with nonsense, with bad things. But he could have with inclinations – it could be. But that means that in that level he’s a tzaddik (righteous person).

He says, yes, it can’t be otherwise. This is very basic, right? This is mored le’atzmo (contradicting himself).

Wisdom is a Difficult Thing

I mean that it’s simply… wisdom is a difficult thing. We think that wisdom is for free. You want the truth? You’ll know the truth to make – ask AI, ask, if it’s bad, AI will also say falsehood. It could be it can help you, because you need to want to, because you don’t want to – it won’t help you at all.

And not wanting – most bad character traits are obstacles against knowledge of truth. It’s not so complicated, it’s not a lot of faith for this.

⟦#2⟧ The Second Reason for Good Character Traits: The Social Purpose

A Person Doesn’t Live Alone

Maggid Shiur:

And secondly, that’s one thing. The second thing is also very important for the Ramban (Nachmanides). Is that a person doesn’t live alone.

When a person can live on an island, and they should send him a kaf charuvim (a spoonful of carobs) mi’Shabbos le’Shabbos (from Sabbath to Sabbath), he truly needs very little. He can have quite a lot of bad character traits.

You know, about this, all the mashgichim (spiritual supervisors) say that the yeshiva bochurim (yeshiva students) may have bad character traits. It says they may not, but it doesn’t disturb, because the worst thing is he must get along with his chavrusa (study partner), with a shtender (lectern). Not terrible. Even without a chavrusa, he doesn’t learn at the shtender.

But afterwards he has a chasuna (wedding/marriage) – a person can’t live without having a chasuna, because other problems arise. It’s clear that he can be a bracha (blessing). He can’t. So lo tov (it is not good – referring to Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for man to be alone”) means not for learning, not for learning – be’kitzur (in short), there’s no way, as everyone knows, he must live with other people.

Good Character Traits as a Condition for Social Life

Living with other people requires good character traits. If not, he’ll get divorced, he’ll become simply out of people – be’kitzur, he goes back to good traits or to being alone.

So good character traits, the one from the Rambam mentioned about it, he tells me, this is the second sort of good character traits, or the second tachlis (purpose) of it. Good character traits, that is, it could be this makes you what is good – that which lets people live in a society with other people, that you can get along with your wife, with your boss, with your friend in the beis medrash (study hall), with broader, and so on, and through this a person can live.

Without a Proper Society One Cannot Learn

And when one can’t, when one doesn’t have a society, one doesn’t have a chevra metukenes (properly ordered society), one certainly can’t learn.

Yes, one can, one can – with great avodah (work/effort) one can go into a me’ara (cave), there’s Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who is truly a yechidi segula (a uniquely exceptional individual) can do this. Even for him it’s very hard, it would have been better – perhaps he would have learned better when he doesn’t have to go into the cave. Okay, some ma’alah (virtue/advantage) there is in what – it’s not a normal thing.

The Main Reason for Good Character Traits

So this is the ikar reason (main reason) why one must have good character traits. The good character traits aren’t pressed, rather the good character traits make a person able to live with other people, and being able to live with other people.

Application to the Broader World: Wars and Bad Character Traits

This makes it so that one can – all the wars that there are, all the troubles, kim’at (almost), not all, but almost all – people don’t know, but what there are wars, there is a war in Russia with Ukraine, because Putin doesn’t learn any mussar (ethics). Not a vort (joke).

Yes, learning mussar would have helped? No, it holds something further than learning mussar. But basically, it’s basically bad character traits, yes? People have bad character traits, one can give in. Yes, in a certain sense, Iran has great bad character traits.

I’m saying this, and there are so many people, it’s already a whole system. It could be that it’s already – we spoke about every Pesach – it could be that it’s already more than one person the bad character traits. It’s more than one person needs to learn mussar. It’s a hard thing, it’s hard teshuva (repentance) to do.

Talmid (Student):

Very good. A virtual…

Maggid Shiur:

So… It’s still everything, I agree with the worth, I agree with the worth, sometimes it will already make a shiur without other times. It doesn’t mean to do, but why? It must be for a good reason. Not in the world… be’kitzur, I’m not going into it, I just want – and I’m just saying, this is only to answer a question, but it’s also so important here for my hemshech (continuation) that I want to say here.

What People Used to Ask

What people, many times when I say that one doesn’t have… people used to ask this, I mean that now everyone already knows, but when I always used to say that one says always that without good character traits one doesn’t have any traits – the ma’alos hamidos (the virtues of character traits) is one doesn’t have any traits.

And one says that be’derech ma’alas hasichlis (through the path of intellectual perfection) people think that one can skip, and these are all ways to be why one can’t actually skip, both bifrat (in particular) and bichla (in general).

The General Principles are a Good That is More Important

And the general principles are a good that is more important, and you’re right, all these problems are great problems. One doesn’t say that it’s a solution for the problems of the world to learn mussar and it’s too simplistic, but this is how clear – it would help very, very well. In order for it to help, this is truly al ha’inyanim (regarding these matters).

I mean the whole Torah is that one should have better character traits, and through the better character traits there will be ma’alas hasichlis (intellectual perfection). Torah is a strange complicated system. Whatever it is, we don’t even understand it. But the thing that’s called Torah, the Torah was made, Moshe kibel Torah mi’Sinai (Moses received the Torah from Sinai), it’s a whole histachlus (perspective/worldview), not only on one – al kol panim (in any case), one can say ve’ahavta le’re’acha kamocha (and you shall love your neighbor as yourself – Leviticus 19:18), but the simple meaning is, it’s a whole complicated system that no one understands.

How the Torah Works

And somehow, the hishtalshelus (chain/development) of this is that people have a little better midos (character traits). And after they have better midos, one can live one with the other, and one can somehow, this is one level.

And a person can’t – before this one says that it’s Torah min haShamayim (Torah from Heaven), or one of the reasons. A person can’t figure out such a system alone, to try and to be. One has already tried many other ways, chapost (do you understand)? They didn’t succeed. And the Torah works better than many other systems, at least, this is what one can see.

The Basic Problem of the World

I mean only to bring out, it’s a great thing. The basic problem of the world is that people don’t have good midos. When a person doesn’t have good midos, he fights with his friend, he fights with his wife, he fights with his shachen (neighbor), he fights with the next beis medrash, he fights with the next kehilla (community), with the next city.

And what one sends nuclear weapons to I don’t know where, is also only a greater level of the same thing. And the people who do it, derech agav (by the way), are the same people as me and you, chapost?

Leaders are Not a Different Sort of Person

You think that there is some sort of person who’s called the rosh hamemshala (head of government/prime minister)? It’s a different sort of person? It’s the same sort of person, I can tell you.

It’s understood that he has some other mochin (minds/mental capacities), he must think, I mean that just just just, it’s truly lema’aseh (in practice) the same sort of person. When he went to cheder (elementary religious school) he didn’t share his chips. I’m telling you that the same thing he does when he talks, when two nesi’ei olam (world leaders) talk. It’s the same problem that there is. There’s no safek (doubt). No?

Talmid:

Do you agree? Sounds simple.

Maggid Shiur:

What?

Talmid:

What does it mean temperamentally they’re different?

Maggid Shiur:

The Mizrach (East) have quite a blow of bad midos. Some problem. But I’m just saying that he’s not some other sort of person.

Certainly… some gadlus (greatness) he must have, it’s a fact of gadlus, I’m saying he doesn’t have to have gadlus, but it’s a fact that he’s a gadol (great person) because he leads some whole world.

He eats – when you bring him potato chips, does he grab them or not, according to how he was mechanech (educated). And when they bring him a plan that one can bombard that one, it could be the same thing.

It’s understood, there’s much more pressure, thousands of people come and say, “no problem”. It’s a greater hachlata (decision). But even by that nivul (contemptible person) it’s a greater hachlata, because simply he has much more pressure, they shout at him from here and from there, and he sees himself…

But it’s not… it’s still a person, the same person who stands on nefashos (souls/lives), who goes to him until kisei (throne), the same thing. It’s not a different sort of simple meaning, it’s not a different sort of thing.

⟦#3⟧ Anecdote: The Advisor of a President

Maggid Shiur:

I saw, I can’t only on scripture, I saw one of the yo’atzim (advisors) of some president told – he used to sit, some young man, he sat in meetings, they talked that they should make another sanction on Russia, a smaller sanction.

He says, he used to come out of that meeting, he was sure that somewhere down the hall is another room where there they think truly, because here… It can’t be that they’re leading the world here. It must be that somewhere, he doesn’t know where, somewhere where must be the serious person, because it doesn’t look like it to him.

Be’kitzur, it’s… it’s humanity. I don’t mean, the ideas with the ta’amei hamitzvos (reasons for the commandments). Be’ofen klali (in general), the whole… No, it’s not hard. No, no.

I don’t remember what his nimshal (analogy/application) was, what he wanted to bring out with it. I mean that he brought out that they were very young and they didn’t understand. It could truly be that sometimes one who doesn’t understand, but there isn’t a second… The people who aren’t… We speak of the melachim (kings) as if it’s some bri’ah bifnei atzma (a creature unto itself).

Talmid:

What’s another dugma (example) of a person?

Maggid Shiur:

What?

Talmid:

Yes, it’s all the same thing.

Maggid Shiur:

And what did I want to say?

Back to the Main Argument

So this means that midos tovos (good character traits)… midos tovos, I’m saying, it’s not so simple, it’s not enough to say they share, and one will make peace. I agree, it’s not so simple. But it’s also not so simple to share with the brothers. I’m not saying, okay, try it, it’s not so simple. There are many reasons why yes, many reasons why not.

The Torah as a System

Be’kitzur, on this is the meaning a Torah, or you can say a religion, which makes for me everyone should have to give din vecheshbon (judgment and accounting) somewhere, does something up, makes people a little better. One makes the person a little better, one can make that the world should work. Afterwards one can think a little.

If not, one doesn’t have time, one must run away every day from one land to the second from a war, and one can’t… Nothing good will come out of this.

⟦#4⟧ Back to the Rambam’s Structure: Three Levels

The Three-Step Ladder

Maggid Shiur:

So, this is the reason why Pirkei Avos (Ethics of the Fathers) is important. Did I say a pasuk (verse)? I need to say another pasuk. What’s the next pasuk that he brings?

Ah, he says, so there are three levels, yes? It comes out, that is, mussar, as we brought the pasuk, “kabel mussar lema’an tachkam” (accept discipline so that you may become wise). “Tachkam lema’an” (you shall become wise in order to), that is, the matara (goal) of chochma (wisdom) is yedi’as Hashem (knowledge of God), like the pasuk “ata hore’isa lada’as” (you have been shown in order to know – Deuteronomy 4:35).

And what is the matara of yedi’as Hashem? That is the matara.

The Pasuk from Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah)

The Rambam’s Interpretation of “Ki Be’eleh Chafatzti” and the False “Contradiction” at the End of Moreh Nevuchim

As it says in a verse in the book of Jeremiah which we read on the Ninth of Av – day of mourning, “Al yithalel chacham bechochmato ve’al yithalel hagibor bigevurato al yithalel ashir be’ashro. Ki im bezot yithalel hamithalel haskel veyado’a oti ki ani Hashem oseh chesed mishpat utzedakah ba’aretz ki ve’eleh chafatzti ne’um Hashem” [Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord – Jeremiah 9:22-23].

It’s a very long verse, and it’s a bit complicated, the end makes it a bit unclear.

The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim

And the Rambam himself, I’m not going to go into this now, I just want to say about this – the Rambam in his book, at the very end of Moreh Nevuchim [Guide for the Perplexed], in the very last chapter, Part III, Chapter 54, explains this passage, this verse, and he says that this is the end of the book.

Consequently, he says, in these chapters, it’s already two chapters before this, but in these chapters I’m not saying any novel insights (chidushim), I’m only explaining the ultimate purpose (tachlit) of the whole thing.

The Rambam’s Commentary on the Verse

And he brings this verse, and he says that one must know that the ultimate purpose of everything is wisdom (chochmah). And then he goes on and he explains the end of that verse, “Ki ani Hashem oseh chesed mishpat utzedakah ba’aretz ki ve’eleh chafatzti”.

“Ba’aretz” [in the earth], says the Rambam, means that the Almighty supervises/provides providence (mashgiach) also in the earthly realm (ba’aretz), not like others who said that the Almighty is only in the upper realms (be’elyonim) or something like that.

And “ve’eleh chafatzti” [in these things I delight] says the Rambam means as one who does kindness, justice, and righteousness (ke’oseh chesed mishpat utzedakah). In other words, says the Rambam, which simply is outwardly…

The Rambam’s Interpretation of “Ba’aretz” in the Verse “Ki Ani Hashem Oseh Chesed Mishpat Utzedakah Ba’aretz”

And he brings this verse, and he says that one must know that the ultimate purpose of everything is wisdom, and then he goes on and explains the end of that verse, “Ki ani Hashem oseh chesed mishpat utzedakah ba’aretz ki ve’eleh chafatzti ne’um Hashem”. And the Rambam says that “ba’aretz” means that the Almighty supervises also in the earthly realm, not like others who say that the Almighty is only in the upper realms or something like that. And “ve’eleh chafatzti” says the Rambam means “oseh chesed mishpat utzedakah”.

In other words says the Rambam, which is simply explained in Part I, Chapter 54, that knowledge of God (yedi’at Hashem) means knowledge of His actions which are His attributes (yedi’at pe’ulotav shehem midotav), which means “mah hu rachum af atah rachum” [just as He is merciful, so too should you be merciful]. This is what Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to know when he said “Hodi’eni na et derachecha” [Make known to me Your ways]. “Derachecha” means attributes (midot), actions (pe’ulot), kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth, and this is “ve’eleh chafatzti”, “ve’eleh chafatzti” refers to this.

R’ Shmuel Ibn Tibbon’s Dispute with the Rambam’s Interpretation of the Verse

So, R’ Shmuel Ibn Tibbon wrote here in his introduction at great length to say that he doesn’t agree with the Rambam’s interpretation of this verse, because it’s very strange that… Do you understand what’s strange? He doesn’t say this is strange, he says something else. Yes, what does kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth have to do with it if we’re talking about “haskel veyado’a oti”?

How much time do I have here? No, it’s not… When did I start? Before one o’clock already, what? One can’t continue forever.

But I just want to say, here lies a certain secret (sod) which we’ll speak about more. Here lies a certain secret, and it’s very interesting. That is, I’m saying, R’ Shmuel Ibn Tibbon, his introduction here disputes with the Rambam. That is, he says that the Rambam interpreted the verse, because the verse apparently has a bit of a problem, if “haskel veyado’a oti”. Unless one can come and say that “veyado’a oti” means only that. It’s an amazing interpretation, “veyado’a oti” doesn’t mean knowing the Almighty. So one can say that the verse says one thing and it brings out a second aspect, and the Rambam apparently gives an answer. The question was difficult for him too, he gives an answer, but in practice still, according to the Rambam, “ve’eleh chafatzti” means “eleh” – kindness, justice and righteousness.

Yes, so R’ Shmuel Ibn Tibbon learned the verse well, and he wasn’t happy with this either. He felt, he felt that there’s something difficult here that needs to be answered. The Ramban had, I think that the Ramban had a different answer, perhaps the same answer as him, one needs to go into this, but he felt that there’s something difficult here.

R’ Shmuel Ibn Tibbon’s Practice as a Translator-Commentator

And his practice in several places, after R’ Shmuel Ibn Tibbon translated the Moreh, he also wrote glosses (hagahot) on it. There’s a bit printed in the book, and the new edition by R’ Schwartz prints them all on the side. And he was a great student of the Rambam, but he held that he was allowed to argue too. One of the things he thought to argue about is the plain meaning (peshat) of the verse. He says he’s not arguing, God forbid, about the idea, but he says that the Rambam’s interpretation didn’t correctly interpret the verse. And he says that one must interpret the verse simply so that it comes out that “ve’eleh chafatzti” should indeed mean the “yado’a oti”. Okay.

This is what he talks about, and he wrote a whole page about it. He says that this, he writes like this, “shelo yehei ner chalak”, there shouldn’t be an introduction, there shouldn’t be the… He writes an introduction, there should already be words of Torah (dvar Torah) in the introduction too. Not only about the story that was discussed should there be words of Torah, this is words of Torah, a whole lengthy piece, he tries to explain how one can explain the verse so that the verse should indeed mean everything knowledge of God, even though it says “chesed mishpat utzedakah”, it says “ki ve’eleh chafatzti”, one must understand the verse, but this is what he says.

The Modern “Contradiction” Theory and the Sharp Refutation

The Claim of the Latest Scholars

Now, I’ll tell a story, an interesting story, we’ll end with this story. In recent generations, the latest commentators, there were many who learned the answers in Moreh Nevuchim, and for their own reasons, I think, they held something amazing, that is something foolish, it can’t be, that it must be that in this last piece of the verse, and the Rambam writes two paragraphs to explain the verse, and he goes back to the topic of the thirteen attributes, the whole thing, it turns out that the Rambam is retracting here from the whole book.

I’ve seen people say, I wanted to say earlier who was the first to say this, I didn’t find it properly, but really the latest scholars, contemporary people. And they claimed that it appears that in this piece the Rambam is retracting from the whole book. The whole book, always, the Shemonah Perakim that we learn, and the Moreh Nevuchim thousands of times, and the chapter itself, in the first three words of the Rambam he elaborates at length that wisdom is the only ultimate purpose, and “yihyu lecha levadecha” [let them be for you alone], this is the thing that is the true perfection (shleimut) of a person, everything else is only to get to this, and so on. They claimed, but what should one do with this piece “ki ve’eleh chafatzti”? And the Rambam is still explaining, and he indicates that this is the meaning “mishpat utzedakah”, which is what the Rambam explained, this means conducting human affairs (hanhagat bnei adam), this means one should conduct oneself with justice and righteousness with people. They said, it must be that here the Rambam is retracting from the whole thing, and not the ultimate purpose of everything is not knowledge of God, but the ultimate purpose is doing charity, “chesed mishpat utzedakah ba’aretz”.

So there’s an interpretation from, I don’t know who was the first, I know that Shlomo Pines says this interpretation, I saw a personal article about it, and before him there were other people, also such types of people, perhaps Hermann Cohen said this interpretation, and… No, not true. Chapter 53, yes, because Chapter 53 interprets kindness, justice and righteousness. But then 54 explains what the verse means. And then he goes back to explain what is kindness, justice and righteousness from the last verse.

The Sharp Refutation: “With All Due Respect, It’s Nonsense and Foolishness”

There’s an interpretation from today’s professors, unfortunately, Kellner, the one who writes about the Rama, they all love to talk about the glaring contradiction that’s here. With all due respect, it’s nonsense and foolishness (shtutim vehavalim). It can’t be, first of all it’s foolish, twenty-five times that he says this, he should find some half-precision because it’s a difficult verse. I agree that the verse needs to be understood, and there’s something here to understand, but it can’t be in any way that here there’s a retraction from the whole thing.

The True Answer: “Kol Ma’asecha Leshem Shamayim” and the Complete Lack of Understanding

What is the Error of the “Contradiction” Claimants?

And I’ll just say one word, and one needs to elaborate on this. In my humble opinion, the question was born from a complete lack of understanding, and the whole thing that the Rambam tries to avoid here in the introduction to Shemonah Perakim, which Rabbi Shimon Finkler explains the same thing.

What is the complete lack of understanding? There are people who think, there’s a question, this is a legitimate question. Let’s say what is a legitimate question? A real question, this is a question that one can actually ask, practically speaking (halachah lema’aseh). Should I be a kollel young man, or a kollel young man isn’t the right word, or one engaged in knowledge of God, or one engaged in settling the world? This is a legitimate question. That is, a kollel young man can be both, he can do nigleh (revealed Torah) or he can do nistar (hidden Torah). A legitimate question, or how much of both should I do. This is a proper question, practically speaking, a person is after all limited, even when this is the ultimate purpose, a person can’t, it can be that even if it’s overriding, there is indeed, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe used to say before he said, it’s indeed a great thing to contemplate the oneness of God (achdut Hashem), but an even greater thing, that this is overriding then to teach another Jew the oneness of God, even a smaller level. This is also the responsibility. There’s a legitimate inquiry. One can say otherwise, one can say no, this is a legitimate inquiry. I’m not going into this at all, it’s not the topic, not the practical thing. Practically it can certainly be that there are studies on this, there’s this way, etc. etc.

Why Chesed Mishpat Utzedakah Cannot Be the Ultimate Purpose

But to think that there’s a real inquiry, what does it mean to be a good person? This is after all our question. What does human perfection (shleimut ha’enoshi) mean? What is the ultimate purpose of life (tachlit hachayim)? What does it mean to be a person? To say that there’s a time when the ultimate purpose of a person is to be a person, is to be in this world, in the earth. The Rambam says in the earth, he emphasizes the word in the earth. Yes, that you don’t want to mean that providence is only in the upper realms, it’s also with the lower realms, is one very good? But there’s no time at all to say that the ultimate purpose of the person is to be that there should be a good settled world.

I ask a fundamental question, what is the settled world for? After all, and remember, they learned this at such length, the Rambam quoted at length in the introduction to Perush HaMishnah, at great length, says that the sage Aristotle already said this, and our Sages say the same thing, in their way, and so on. And Aristotle says this, I mean the language, I like to be precise, he says that it can’t be that there should be a person whom we call a person is the best thing, because a person isn’t the best thing. Angels are better than people. A person is a person, he dies. First of all he dies, we learned last week in the Torah portion, he dies.

Okay, his soul lives. Okay, he’s already at the soul, he’s already at knowledge of God. Yes, I understand. One can say a person, if you’re talking about a person, in terms of his comprehension, his soul, you’re not talking about a person. I’m talking about a person, I mean, a person whom kindness and justice are relevant to. In the Garden of Eden there’s no kindness, justice and righteousness, there are no rich people, there are no poor people, there’s no injustice, there’s no charity there. Charity is an end to a problem of this world.

It can’t be, because the intellect says that it can’t be. It can’t be that one is everything… a good person, a good person, truly, what does it mean to be a person who fulfills the existence of man, the essence of man, that someone who never stole. Understand, imagine, a person can be a soul who didn’t have time at all to steal. What does a thief have to do with it? Stealing is a problem! If one steals, certainly, I’m saying in other words, certainly, it can even be that someone who has knowledge of God and he steals yes, he’s corrupt, and his knowledge of God doesn’t help him. It can be, I’m not saying this way, but to say that the end… what does a good person mean?

I ask, what does the Torah say? I ask, I ask, I ask, it can’t be, it’s not possible in reality, and it’s certainly not in the way that the Master of the Universe thinks that the goal should be kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth. It’s not impossible, it’s foolish, anyone who thinks for two minutes, the only way one can believe this, I can’t believe this, and the Master of the World to Come, perhaps He has a reason, but if someone doesn’t believe in the World to Come, meaning he doesn’t believe that there’s a portion, then he can say, I want to do perhaps the angels are greatest, but I’m here in this world, for me this is the ultimate purpose. Even this isn’t enough, because you’re interpreting you’re not any great ultimate purpose, you’re a weak thing.

Critique of Certain Chassidic Interpretations

And I mean, I don’t want to say now to him, and I want more time to go into this. There are very many people who have such teachings. There are even people who talk about Chassidic Torah, there’s like the principle “ikar Shechinah betachtonim” [the main dwelling of the Divine Presence is in the lower realms], and I’m afraid that the reason they talk about this, is because they don’t believe in the upper realms. So he says the main Divine Presence in the lower realms, because there’s already a Chassidic Torah too. It can’t be that one line of the Rambam is, in short, complete foolishness.

The True Answer: “Kol Ma’asecha Leshem Shamayim”

And so what is the answer? I want to be brief, and very briefly, what is the answer? The problem of the people, the problem of the whole imaginary contradiction is, that one doesn’t understand what “kol ma’asecha leshem shamayim” [all your deeds should be for the sake of Heaven] means.

Okay, I’ll have a sharp, a very clear thing. There’s a level called “bechol ma’asecha da’eihu” [in all your ways know Him] which stands in Chapter 1, in the Chassidim in Chapter 4, and in the answer of Moreh Nevuchim also in Chapter 51, talks about the Patriarchs, the level of the Patriarchs, that the Patriarchs are the Patriarchs, that the Patriarchs were one hundred percent engaged with the Almighty, so too the Chassidic way, the Rambam says there the language of attachment (devekut), but only knew the Almighty, and the Rambam asks there a question, there’s a question, how can it be, I’ll tell you the word, there’s a question, the Rambam says this in Chapter 51, as is known the Rambam says, the Chassidic Maggid grandfather had a piece of Rambam, he says, agrees.

The Question of “Tzaddik Ve’ra Lo” – The Ramban’s Answer

The Ramban says, there’s a question of the righteous person who suffers (tzaddik ve’ra lo). Says the Ramban, I have no answer. A righteous person (tzaddik) means only one who is attached (davuk) to the Almighty. Even a righteous person is sometimes not attached to the Almighty. There’s a Chassidic concept of diminishment of consciousness (hitkatkut hamohin). But practically, sometimes he needs to go to work, sometimes he’s simply broken, sometimes he just forgot for a minute, “Shiviti” [I have set God before me] for a few minutes. In that minute he’s not a righteous person, it’s just as if he was a normal person. Not exactly. Okay, there’s some difference, but almost he was a normal person. Then troubles can happen, as it says “vehastir panai umtza’uhu ra’ot” [and I will hide My face and troubles will befall him]. So says the Ramban.

So in other words, when one says that a person can be “vechol ma’asecha leshem shamayim”, or can be attached to God 120 percent a minute, whatever, 60 seconds a minute, there’s a question, a basic question, that this isn’t possible for flesh and blood in this world, perhaps a soul in the World to Come,

The Rambam’s Innovation: How “Kol Ma’asecha Leshem Shamayim” Doesn’t Mean Constant Devekut

The Practical and Moral Impossibility of Constant Devekus

But for a person it’s seemingly not possible, because why not? It’s not practically possible, first of all not practically possible – he has to sleep, he has to eat. It’s also not morally possible. It’s right, it’s not right – he must. You can’t say: I want to be devuk (cleaving to God) and I don’t want to have chesed (kindness). Perhaps there’s such a heichi timtza avad (theoretical case of a servant), but usually one can’t say that. One can’t say: I won’t work for parnasah (livelihood), I won’t take care of my children. It’s clear that one is not allowed to be devuk in the Almighty. This is as if the contradiction – one doesn’t do what one cannot, one also may not.

So how can it be? And what does “kol ma’asecha leshem shamayim” (all your deeds for the sake of Heaven) mean?

The Rambam’s Step-by-Step Guidance: From Shema Yisrael to the Level of the Avos

The Rambam says something there, and he even gives practical guidance. He says: I hold that I want to tell people, my chassidim (pious ones), who have read the sefer (book), to begin thinking about the Almighty more. Now, if you know who He is – whoever doesn’t know who He is, doesn’t think about the Almighty, doesn’t think about the dimyonos (imaginary conceptions). If you know that you’ve already learned Moreh Nevuchim (Guide for the Perplexed), and you already know what it is, think about Him more.

When should you think about Him? The Rambam says: I mean twice a day when you say Shema Yisrael (Hear O Israel: the central Jewish prayer declaring God’s unity), that’s enough. Start with that first. There’s a bit more – when you do a mitzvah. Okay.

And he asks the person, the Rambam has such a conversation with you, he says to him: So, when will I think about my business? I have to remember to go to the bank.

He says: Well, you also talk with your wife sometimes, and then I’ll think about you. There’s enough and more time when they think about everything today.

The Rambam says: So I tell you. But if someone should say that even when he spoke with his wife, even when he does business, he also thinks about the Almighty? The Rambam says: I tell you even to do this, this is the level of the Avos (Patriarchs), of Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher). About the Avos it says: “hen hen hen merkavah” (they themselves are the chariot for the Divine Presence). When Yaakov Avinu (Jacob our Patriarch) peeled his staff, I also thought about the Almighty. Don’t try, don’t even attempt, says the Rambam.

The Rambam’s “Nireh Li”: A New Definition of “Kavanah”

Afterwards the Rambam says a piece – I mean here he says how one can indeed try it. What’s the proof? He himself says: You only want to do in Shemonah Perakim (Eight Chapters, Rambam’s introduction to Ethics of the Fathers) and in Hilchos Deos (Laws of Character Traits), he says “bechol ma’asecha leshem shamayim” (all your deeds should be for the sake of Heaven).

The Rambam says: “venireh li” (it appears to me) – it’s a “nireh li,” very interesting. Yes, “nireh li” means that this is not simple, this is a chiddush (novel insight).

The Rambam says: venireh li, how can one say about what is one a merkavah? It’s indeed a question. Yaakov Avinu also went to the beis hakisei (bathroom), he also did – it says in peshuto shel mikra (the plain meaning of Scripture), going out with a simple meaning, he did all these things. Yes, not only did he do, he had the kavanos (intentions), he also did. Yes, how can it be?

The Kavanah of the Avos: To Build a Nation That Knows God

The Rambam says: “nireh li” thus, that because the kavanas ha’avos (intention of the Patriarchs) was “bechol ma’aseihem leha’amid umah yodaas es Hashem” (in all their deeds to establish a nation that knows God). What does the Avos mean? Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). Certainly they did all pe’ulos ba’olam hazeh (activities in this world), but what was their goal? They had a novel goal. By the way, I don’t know any kind of goal. They had a plan, a dream, I don’t know, a nevuah (prophecy), I don’t know, some wondrous plan.

They had a plan that they’re going to make their children should be… It didn’t even work, two generations half fell away, yes, until Yaakov Avinu. In short, they had a plan though. They had a plan: we’re going to make a new kind of family, a nation. It began with a family, perhaps one can convert etc., Avraham made geirim (converts), a group of people. But their goal is going to be lada’as es Hashem (to know God).

Until today there wasn’t such a thing. There were misbodedim (solitary individuals in contemplation), there was hishalchus halev (walking with the heart/inner spiritual work) but private, not a nation. Chanoch (Enoch), sorry, misbodedim – it was private. This was their goal, and this is indeed the meaning of Torah (the Jewish Bible/Law). Avraham Avinu began, until Moshe Rabbeinu established it lichlal (as a comprehensive system).

This was their goal. And that Yaakov Avinu goes to have a wedding with Lavan (Laban), what did he think? Why did he have a wedding though? Not think – what was his plan? Thinking is not enough. What was his plan? That somehow from the whole thing will come out a thing called Yisrael (Israel), “Shema Yisrael Hashem echad” (Hear O Israel, the Lord is One), which will be a nation that knows God. For this one needs to have money, needs to have politics, needs to have such things, but this was their goal.

The Difference Between “Thinking” and “Kavanah”: What is the Goal of the Entire Action?

The Rambam says: when one says “ha’avos hen hen hamerkavah,” a new meaning emerges. Not meaning that earlier, even while davening, while working he thought. It could be yes, could be no, that’s not the main thing. It’s a new thing. Perhaps it doesn’t even matter, I don’t know, it’s not the main thing. But this is already a question whether one can think two thoughts twice, I don’t know, it’s a technical question.

The thing is, that Yaakov Avinu, the kavanah of a thing doesn’t mean what one thinks. We talk a lot: kavanah, hilchos kavanah bemitzvos (laws of intention in commandments). Kavanah doesn’t mean what you think in your head, making an x-ray of your head what you think. Kavanah means the purpose. I ask you: why are you doing this? What for?

The Parable: Two Types of Having Children

A normal person has children, he has children because he wants to have children. Certainly he’s religious too, he also wants yedias Hashem (knowledge of God), but he doesn’t have children in order to know God. What does it mean he has children to know God? Children… By a Jew perhaps, the Rambam says that the kavanah of pirya verivya (procreation), the Rambam says, a Jew must be mezaveg “shema yihyeh lo ben gadol beYisrael” (perhaps he will have a great son in Israel). What’s the connection? Because there needs to be a nation that knows God, and not the whole tachlis (ultimate purpose) should depend on some boy that he knows.

Just a regular avodah (service) is a mitzvah, he doesn’t say that one must do it, but this is not the kavanah of talmidei chachamim (Torah scholars), this is the kavanah of hamon am (the common people). The kavanah of talmidei chachamim is, that Avraham Avinu didn’t have a family in order to have a family – which is understood that it’s one level of shleimus (perfection/completeness) to have a family, besides him. He had a new chiddush. Only a family so that from the family will hold together over another thousand years later, will come out a matter of knowledge of God.

This is the Rambam’s chiddush, and this is the meaning “avos hen hen hamerkavah.” Not meaning that he even thought, he becomes like Reb Binyamin Klotzker (a Chassidic figure known for constant devotion), he made an accounting, he gave over one alone from below, yes? Not that is the meaning. The meaning is: he built wood, even literally perhaps, could be that he sang that he’s not the level and not arousing. Only the goal.

The Parable of the Business and the Yeshivah

In other words, for example, if someone will say: there’s someone who has a business, why did he make the business? There’s someone who has a business, and from it he gives tzedakah (charity). There’s a second one, he wants to open a yeshivah (Torah academy). And he thought: how will he support his yeshivah? He said a new plan – instead of going after money, he’ll make a business from the profit and the business give for the yeshivah. This is a different kind of kavanos, “kol ma’asecha leshem shamayim.” This was the kavanah of the Avos.

The Main Point: “Tachlis” Doesn’t Mean “Most Time”

And what do I want to bring out from this whole derashah (discourse)? Now you understand a whole contradiction. When one says that there’s as if a contradiction – there are pe’ulos shleimus ha’olam hazeh (activities for the perfection of this world), one needs to have a whip, one needs to have an army, one needs to have money, one needs to have an economy, everything needs to be begashmiyus (in physical/material terms) good.

What is true? The Torah and the Torah, most of Torah, and the Rambam speaks about this, most of Torah speaks about olam hazeh (this world). Most hilchos mitzvos (laws of commandments) are – most mitzvos, a few mitzvos that speak about mitzvos shebalev (commandments of the heart) etc., but most mitzvos are from olam hazeh. And indeed: “ani Hashem oseh chesed mishpat utzedakah ba’aretz” (I am the Lord who does kindness, justice, and charity in the land). Okay, I can’t not answer that verse exactly, but I just want to explain the idea.

This is most of Torah, this is a very important thing. It’s most of what one does most of the time. Could be Yaakov Avinu, most of the time he didn’t daven and learn, he married wives, but later he worked most of the time. It says in the verse in the parshah: “kachom yom” (like the heat of day) – he wants here a devekus, it should give a question of a shomer (guardian), I don’t know, a me’ilah (misappropriation), it can’t be.

But what? His kavanah from the point of the whole thing was this. And you understand what means here a point? It could be that the Rambam should say – it could even be that the Rav should his whole life not say Moreh Nevuchim, and it should still be the same thing. There is Moreh Nevuchim, certainly in a time, baruch Hashem, that he can delve into it, this is the tachlis of the whole thing. But he can say: I’m making Moreh Nevuchim, I’m making that my grandchild should have Moreh Nevuchim – it’s still the same thing, it doesn’t change.

That it can be that a person should say “chesed mishpat tzedakah ba’aretz,” this itself the whole thing, and it’s very important, it takes up more time, perhaps a whole life, perhaps whole generations, I don’t know, until olam haba (the World to Come) one will arrive at yedias Hashem (knowledge of God), and it’s still not a contradiction. This is the tachlis.

Tachlis Doesn’t Mean Quantity, But Kavanah

Because tachlis doesn’t mean that I think about this more time, tachlis doesn’t mean that I do this more time, tachlis doesn’t mean any of these things. There’s such a thing that an organization can say what is the life, or what is the life of the klal (community), what is the life organized around. It can’t be that the thing that’s organized around he does one second a day. It’s not a thing of kamus (quantity), it’s a thing of kavanah. Kavanah I mean mechaven (intending), what is the goal for this?

Summary: Why There’s No Contradiction

Now, how one understands why “ani Hashem oseh chesed mishpat utzedakah,” one needs to understand the whole sugya (topic) of “hidamus bidrachav” (imitating His ways), I’m not going into this now.

I just want to say: it seems to me that all these people who say this contradiction simply didn’t understand what kavanah means, that the kavanah of everything is knowledge of God. They meant that it means that it comes out that everyone must be a philosopher, a Chassidic Jew who davens at length and only does that. I don’t know, either yes or no, it could be that the right way is… This is already a practical question, it has nothing to do.

When the Rambam elaborates that the kavanah of everything is to knowledge of God, which is after all an intellectual thing – I don’t know if it’s entirely knowledge of God – there’s no contradiction at all with being ten thousand times more busy with chesed umishpat utzedakah ba’aretz. Because the question is: what is the goal of the whole thing? What is goal? I also don’t mean what is your dream. It means just like the deed of Yaakov Avinu – he builds a whole kehillah (community), he builds an army, he fights with Eisav (Esau) and with Lavan. Practically, halachah lema’aseh (practical law), kipshuto shel mikra (according to the plain meaning of Scripture), but his kavanah is that it should be from the end of the action should be “yimalei ha’aretz dei’ah es Hashem” (the earth will be filled with knowledge of God). This is the meaning.

And one needs to elaborate why today’s people don’t grasp this kind of thing that there’s such a thing, an organization of a goal. They think that a goal means that this one must do the whole time, or this one must have in mind the whole time. Both things are not the meaning. And consequently they say this. There are others because they don’t believe in hashoras hanefesh (immortality of the soul), consequently they hold something else and so forth. But this seems to me simply devarim peshutim (simple matters), and enough already.

Consequently, understand, it could be one needs to learn midos tovos (good character traits) because it’s a hachanah (preparation). What does a hachanah look like?