Chapter 14: The Industrial Age
Post Civil War, technology changed the nation for three basic reasons:
1. The discovery and the uncovering of resources.
2. Burst of inventions.
3. Move to the cities- the city people wanted more products.
Resources:
1. Kerosene- in 1840, a Canadian geologist discovered that you could use kerosene to light lamps. Kerosene is a byproduct of oil. Edwin Drake used the steam engine to drill for oil. Oil refineries were now cropping up in many places. Oil produced another byproduct- gasoline. They used to chuck it, but with the invention of automobiles at the end of the 1800s, gas became a hot commodity. Because of this, oil became an even hotter commodity.
2. Coal- was cheap and easy. Fuel and coal mines opened up across the country.
3. Iron- was around and used, but it wasn’t so flexible. Realized that if you remove the carbon from iron, you get steal. It was hard and costly to remove the carbon from the iron until Henry Bessemer made the Bessemer process- it was an efficient way of removing the carbon from the iron. Steal was used for myriad of things such as:
a. Farm tools
b. Railroads
c. Cans for preserving food
d. Skyscrapers
Inventions:
1. Thomas Edison- he invented many things. He was nicknamed the Wizard of Menlo Park. He was a tinkerer. Edison didn’t event the light bulb, but got credit for it. Edison did invent the phonograph.
2. George Westinghouse- made electricity available to the average person. He harnessed it so that it was safer and less expensive. Electricity revolutionized the world- factories no longer had to be near water because electricity is now portable. This changed people’s lifestyles tremendously- people could now work even if it was dark outside. This also caused the invention of many appliances. The streetcar expanded the cities.
Inventions that changed woman’s lives:
1. Typewriter- was invented by Christopher Sholes. This brought woman into the offices.
2. Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone- brought woman into the work force. The switchboard connected the people.
By 1910, 40% of the office workforce was woman. People all over the world enjoyed the benefits of these inventions.
Inventions had a positive effect in the cities:
1. More leisure time because machinery could now produce quicker.
2. Inventions made life easier and more exciting:
a. Camera
b. Washing machine
c. Iron
d. Phonograph
Age of the railroads-
In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed. Over the next year, more and more rails were added. By 1890, there were 200,000 miles of track across the country. Railroads made it easier for travel and shopping. It linked the nation and also made long distance travel possible.
The railroads were built at the expense of the poor laborers.
The problem of the railroad- scheduling was difficult. Every city had different times because time was set by the sun. There was no organized time across the country. Professor Dowd organized time by dividing the country into twenty four time zones. Four out of these twenty four zones are located in the US:
1. Eastern
2. Central
3. Mountain
4. Pacific
This idea was instituted by railroads because they wanted a standard time. At first, many people were against it but eventually the entire world accepted time zones and there was now organization in clocks.
Railroads affected the way we travel and many businesses- they needed steel, coal, glass and oil so it impacted on many industries. Railroads also brought about new towns:
1. Stops along the way- once the railroad moved through an area, it was able to be lived in.
2. In 1850, George Pullman invented the sleeping car. This is a train car that can be slept in during travel. They built an entire town around the factory that made them. At first, Pullmantown was really nice, but over the course of many years, the workers felt that Pullman was controlling them. There were strikes against Pullman.
One of the most famous scandals was the Credit Mobilier scandal. The railroads offered opportunities to make money. Often, when there is an opportunity to make money, there is an opportunity for corruption. The Credit Mobilier scandal was an example of such corruption. The Union Pacific formed a construction company called the Credit Mobilier. They then went ahead and made fraudulent bills of how much the construction would cost. The Union Pacific gave the Credit Mobilier a contract to lay track at double the cost. They then pocketed the extra money. The Credit Mobilier scandal is one of the scandals that took place during the Grant presidency.
Farmers and the railroad-
People were unhappy with the railroads because:
1. They felt that the railroads were abusing them because they were charging insane prices to ship goods.
2. The farmers felt that the railroads were cheating the government- the government gave land to build railroads on, but they were selling the land to the people.
The Grange movement tired to fight the railroads politically and they were successful. They got some local official in to fight for the farmers. On a local level, farmers managed to pass laws to control the railroads. The railroads weren’t happy with these laws. They wanted to fight this so they went to the Supreme courts in Munn vs. Illinois, in 1877, the railroad said that a state can’t tell them what to do with business. The court ruled that private business can be regulated for the public good. The farmers won.
Ten years later, there was a new ruling in Wabush, St. Lois and Pacific Railroad vs. Illinois, they ruled that a state can’t control the railroad, only the Federal government can regulate the railroads now.
This set the stage for the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) - a federal commission which regulates railroads. In 1893, when there was a panic, many railroads lost business and were taken over by huge firms. There were only about seven companies that controlled the railroads.
Big business emerges-
America is now moving into big business. Now, Americas is becoming a country of businessmen, no longer a country of farmers and shopkeepers.
There are many ways to have a big business:
1. Corporation- when a private business goes public. They sell shares of stocks. People then invest in you and they make money when you make money.
2. Trust- many corporations held together by a group of trustees. They control the business and divide the money.
3. Holding company- a corporation that does nothing but buy stocks in other companies.
Different entrepreneurs:
1. Andrew Carnegie- came to this country as a pauper. He moved up the social ladder by doing smart things. Eventually, he owned the Carnegie Steel Company. He had a process by which he grew rich:
a. Vertical integration- owns all raw products that are needed for your business.
b. Horizontal integration- own all your products.
He also worked to make business run efficiently.
2. Rockefeller- owned oil. He had a huge oil trust.
3. JP Morgan- was a banker and also owned railroads.
4. Vanderbilt- owned railroads.
The success of these entrepreneurs led to an intellectual movement called Social Darwinism- Darwin believed in the survival of the fittest. Social Darwinism is the economical survival of the fittest- if I have to crush you along the way up, so be it. These people live by their strength. Many Rags to Riches movies came out. This was the culture of the day.
Two views on entrepreneurs:
1. They’re robber barons- they are nothing but robbers
a. You’re a robber
b. Your workers are being crushed.
2. Philanthropists- big charity givers. They built libraries and museums.
Many institutes were named after these philanthropists. They felt that it was benevolent to give money and would be a crime to die rich.
Eventually, to help curve monopolies, the government passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This outlawed trusts. This act set a precedent- more of an understanding that government should control business more than it really did. Courts didn’t back the act. In the case of USA vs. EC Knight, the court said that EC Knight (sugar business) isn’t a trust- said that certain businesses are exempt. Businesses themselves fought the law. They instead formed holding companies.
Unions form-
Industrialization had a nasty little effect on the poor little worker- now they could work and had to work sixteen hours a day and horrible working conditions. No one cared about the worker, just the output. They had a tremendous lack of identity. People used to have important jobs and now they were left turning screws.
Unions that formed:
1. National Labor Union formed in 1866. It was made up of about 300 smaller labor unions. They managed to get an eight hour work day. They formed a political party called the Labor Reform Party. They even nominated someone for president in 1872.
2. Knights of Labor- Terrance Powderly formed this union. Everyone was allowed to join this union- the skilled and the unskilled workers, the black and the white.
As the union movement grew, two types of unions formed:
1. Trade and Craft Union. One had to have the skill to join this union. This fell under the umbrella of the American Federation of Labor. It was led by Samuel Gompers- was a Jew. The AFL’s tactic was called collective bargaining- union bosses were the mediators between the factory owners and the workers. Gompers campaigned for bread and water unionism- they wanted basics such as an eight hour workday and pay.
2. American Railway Union- led by Eugene Debs. He believed in allowing everyone in regardless of race, gender, skilled and unskilled. Debs felt the problem wasn’t the rich people, rather in how our economic system is set up. He said that a system of private ownership and competition allows for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. He said that Americans should lean towards socialism because if the government owns business, then everyone is equal and everything is perfect.
A radical union that formed: Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) - it was founded in 1905. They advocated for extreme socialism, almost to the point of communism.
One of the major tactics all unions used was striking:
1. Great Railway Strike- took place in 1876. It was so powerful, the B and O (Baltimore and Ohio) railroads were shut down. President Hayes sent the workers back to work.
2. Haymarket Riot- took place in Haymarket Square, Chicago. The Knights of Labor organized a rally in Haymarket Square to protest the death of a fellow striker. They are unsure how it happened, but suddenly a bomb exploded. There was a riot. Strikers were displayed as violent groups. Within a few years, the Knights of Labor shut down.
3. Homestead Strike- Homestead, Pennsylvania in the Carnegie steel plant. He gave the workers of a pay cut so they went on strike. Carnegie hired scabs to take the place of the striking workers. Fights broke out between the workers and managers. Seventeen people ended up dead. When the strike was over, fewer than 25% of the strikers got their jobs back and there was no more striking in steel plants for the next twenty years.
4. Pullman Strike- the workers of Pullmingtown went on strike and the government forced them back to work.
5. Lawrence Textile Mill Strike- in 1912. Led by the IWW. They were successful.
Two women that helped unionize:
1. Mary Harris Jones- she was nicknamed Mother because she was a mother to all children. She helped unionize them. She took the children on a march before the White House. She also helped unionize mine workers.
2. Pauline Neuman- she helped unionize other woman in the garment industry- most of the woman were Jewish and Italian immigrants. No one listened to her about the plight of woman as she described the terrible factory conditions until there was a fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911. 150 women died. When this went to the judge, the factory owners were found to be guilty. The bosses didn’t agree- said that a fire is a natural disaster. This started a new awareness and a trend toward improvement.
Three cases that show that judges sided with big businesses and one that showed improvement:
1. Hammer vs. Dagenhardt- was against child labor laws. Child labor laws had begun to be passed. Business men apposed child labor laws. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of business. They said that child labor laws are unconstitutional because they are denying children their rights.
2. Lockner vs. New York- in 1905. The Supreme Court ruled that you can’t limit a work day. This ruling was also in favor of businesses.
3. Muller vs. Oregon- somewhat overturned. Women were working in a bakery for very long hours. Woman sued for a shorter work day. Their lawyer named Brandice proved scientifically why a woman’s workday should be cut and he was successful.
With all the improvements, the government is now moving slowly toward change, and the businesses were continuously fighting. Some even forced yellow dog contracts on people- if you want to be employed by them, you can’t join a union.
Monday, February 22, 2010
SS- Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Changes on the Western Frontier
The Native Americans lived on the Great Plains. Horse and buffalo were their way of life- the horses were used for hunting and the buffalo was used for its food, bones, and skins to make homes with.
After the Civil War, Americans began to move onto the Great Plains for different reasons:
1. Gold
2. Opportunities
3. Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862, which promise 160 acres of land to any family that would settle the land.
African Americans also moved West after the war. They were nicknamed the Exodusters.
As Americans began to move west, they met up with Indians. They often clashed over land and resources:
1. Sand Creek Massacre- in 1864. The Cheyenne Indians that were in the Colorado territory were pushed to the Sand Creek reserve. Life was difficult for them there and they began to raid nearby American camps. The Americans sent troops over to control the Cheyenne. These troops slaughtered 200 Cheyenne, mostly woman and children.
2. Custer’s Last Stand- at the border of Wyoming and Montana, whites and Native Americans clashed. The Sioux Indians were living here. Some settle and made treaties with the Americans, but the Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, wouldn’t make treaties. In 1870, gold was discovered right in the middle of the Colorado hills. The government offered to buy the land, but Sitting Bull said that he’s not going to sell the Black Hills. The Americans sent over Custer, a strategist, to force the Sioux to give up their land. Sitting Bull together with Crazy Horse fought the Americans and the Indians defeated the American army- they killed Custer. Soon after, America regrouped and killed out the Sioux.
In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act- Americanize the Indians. It wasn’t successful and the Indians resented it. It destroyed their way of life. The Indians were given the poorest farm land so they didn’t succeed at being farmers. But what really destroyed the Indians’ way of life was the destruction of the buffalo. By the 1900s, the buffalo were almost all wiped out because:
a. Railroads split the herds.
b. It was a sport to shoot buffalo from railcar windows.
3. Battle of Wounded Knee- the Sioux were losing all their land and the buffalo- their way of life was being totally destroyed. Their last effort at maintaining their culture was by gathering together to dance the ghost dance- this was a ritual which they believed would bring back their land and buffalo. The Americans were frightened by this strange act and tried to arrest Sitting Bull. During the arrest, Sitting Bull was killed. The American forces rounded up about 350 Sioux. They took them to Wounded Knee Creek and the army ordered them to give up their rifle. A shot was fired and 300 people were massacred. This was the last battle.
Books were written to show how the Americans mistreated the Indians. They portrayed the Americans as villains:
1. Dee Brown wrote a book called “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. It talked about how the Americans mistreated the Sioux.
2. Helen Hunt Jackson wrote “A Century of Dishonor”. It discussed the hundred years of pain that the Americans inflicted upon the Indians.
Growth of the cattle industry-
As the herds of buffalo on the Great Plains disappeared they were replaced by cattle. As the demand for beef grew, so did the cattle industry. Cattle ranching now became a big business from Texas to Kansas.
In the beginning, most of the cattle were long horns. This is a hearty breed. They were sturdy and could forge food on their own. They also took care of themselves. During the winter, they were allowed to roam somewhat free. They were frisky animals.
The men who took care of the cattle were known as cowboys. The cowboy way of life was developed by the Spaniards in Mexico. The Spanish influence can be seen in the cowboy’s vocabulary (lasso is a Spanish word), food and mode of dress- wore bandanas and special pointed boots to fit in the stir ups. They carried a six shooter- gun that could soot six shots before reloading. This came to be the symbol of the old west.
Cattle business didn’t really take off until it reached the west because they had no way of getting to the east. Between 1866 and 1886 there were about 1,500 cowboys- about 12% were Mexican and 25% were African American.
The cowboy’s way of life was difficult. They worked between ten and fourteen hours a day. They worked the hardest in the spring and summer. In the winter, there wasn’t so much work to be done so they either lived off of their savings or did odd jobs. Cowboys that we see in movies or shows such as Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hitchcock aren’t really cowboys and they don’t display the true life in the Wild west. In the spring, the cowboys had to gather up the cattle and they started the Long Drive- a walk from Texas to Kansas. This took about three months. In Kansas, they were shipped in cattle cars. These three months were the heat of their work. The Long Drive was a very difficult journey- they had to swim across rivers with their cattle. After the cattle were delivered, the cowboys went back down south.
Eventually, the era of the open range came to an end. There were a series of natural disasters such as droughts and blizzards which killed the cattle during the winter months. The cattle ranchers moved away from long horns to other breeds of cattle. These new breeds produced better meat and needed more care. The ranchers began to fence in their cattle. Barbed wire was a new invention at this time- it helped close in the open range. It was invented by James Glidden.
Settling of the Great Plains-
More and more people moved onto the Great Plains. As railroads were built, people were moving out west. The American government encouraged the building of the railroads. From 1850 to 1871, the government gave huge chunks of land to the railroad companies to encourage them to build railroads.
The two major railroad companies were:
1. Central Pacific- started in California and built east.
2. Union Pacific- started in Nebraska and built west.
They hired mostly immigrant workers such as the Chinese and Irish. African Americans and Mexican Americans also worked on the railroads.
In 1869, the tracks met at Promontory, Utah- they put a gold spike at the meeting point. America now had a transcontinental railroad.
Railroads brought many people west. Railroad companies also sold some of their lands to foreigners- this attracted people. The Homestead Act also brought people out west. The government passed many laws to get people to move out west. A lot of land went to miners and ranchers.
The west was lonely and building homes was challenging. People lived in:
1. Soddies- houses made out of mud.
2. Dugouts- houses dug out of the hills.
The prairie land was tough so it was hard to work. Woman worked with the men, while at the same time being responsible for their womanly jobs.
Inventions that helped farmers:
1. Steel plow
2. Reaper
3. Barbed wire- kept other wild animals away.
4. Windmill- helped water from down under the earth.
The government also tried to help farmers- the US government passed the Morill Land Grant Act. This act gave money to farmers to set up universities that would teach farmers new techniques in agriculture.
To buy machinery was very costly, so the farmers had a lot of debt. In order to minimize the debt, the farmers would farm huge tracts of land- bonanza farms. These farms generally grew cash crops. Over the years, there were a series of droughts in the Midwest. This hurt some of the farmers so that they now had huge debts. In addition, shipping the crop was very expensive so the farmers were really not doing well. In addition to this, after the Civil War, the dollar was very strong. This was great for the consumer but terrible for the farmer. The farmers felt that the strong dollar hurt them because they do more selling then buying and it’s lousy for their debts. They felt that they were choking and were ready for reform.
Oliver Kelly started the Grange movement. At first, this was a social movement- get together to talk and ease the loneliness. This quickly changed into a political movement. They spent most of their energy fighting the railroads.
The Farmer’s Alliance was an outgrowth of the Grange movement. All kinds of people joined, not only farmers. People realized that if they wanted change, they needed political clout. They formed the Populist Party, which wanted to give people a greater voice in government. Some of their ideas were:
1. Direct election of senators.
2. Secret ballot
Many people felt that the Populist Party was radical however in the national election, they won about ten percent of the votes. On a local level, many of their party members were elected. From this we see that the Populist Party was a real political force.
In 1893, the economic wheel turned and there was the Panic of 1893. During the presidential election of 1895, so during that year, it was a hot topic. There were two different opinions:
1. Gold bugs- let’s restore the dollar’s strength by making sure that it’s only backed by gold as opposed to silver.
2. The farmers didn’t want a strong dollar. They were therefore nicknamed the silverites. They wanted the dollar backed by silver. Their official term was bimetallism- mostly silver and a little bit of gold.
The presidential campaign was an interesting one:
1. Democrats and Populist Parties nominated William Jennings Bryon. A was a fabulous speaker and was a very dynamic person. He made a famous speech called the Cross of Gold. He spoke to the nation, telling them that they need their farmers because everyone needs to eat. He said that if they down the gold peoples’ businesses, nothing will happen, but if you shut down farms, grass is going to grow in the city because people need food. He said that gold shouldn’t be so important that you’ll kill people for it.
2. Republican Party- nominated William McKinley. He looked like a person who could be counted on. He wasn’t a good speaker so his campaign manager didn’t let him go out to speak; his manager would bring people to him and he would speak to them. Because of this, he was nicknamed the Front Porch Campaigner. He stood for the idea that the dollar shouldn’t lose its value.
McKinley won and the Populist Party died. Down the road however, all the Populist reforms did become laws.
The Native Americans lived on the Great Plains. Horse and buffalo were their way of life- the horses were used for hunting and the buffalo was used for its food, bones, and skins to make homes with.
After the Civil War, Americans began to move onto the Great Plains for different reasons:
1. Gold
2. Opportunities
3. Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862, which promise 160 acres of land to any family that would settle the land.
African Americans also moved West after the war. They were nicknamed the Exodusters.
As Americans began to move west, they met up with Indians. They often clashed over land and resources:
1. Sand Creek Massacre- in 1864. The Cheyenne Indians that were in the Colorado territory were pushed to the Sand Creek reserve. Life was difficult for them there and they began to raid nearby American camps. The Americans sent troops over to control the Cheyenne. These troops slaughtered 200 Cheyenne, mostly woman and children.
2. Custer’s Last Stand- at the border of Wyoming and Montana, whites and Native Americans clashed. The Sioux Indians were living here. Some settle and made treaties with the Americans, but the Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, wouldn’t make treaties. In 1870, gold was discovered right in the middle of the Colorado hills. The government offered to buy the land, but Sitting Bull said that he’s not going to sell the Black Hills. The Americans sent over Custer, a strategist, to force the Sioux to give up their land. Sitting Bull together with Crazy Horse fought the Americans and the Indians defeated the American army- they killed Custer. Soon after, America regrouped and killed out the Sioux.
In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act- Americanize the Indians. It wasn’t successful and the Indians resented it. It destroyed their way of life. The Indians were given the poorest farm land so they didn’t succeed at being farmers. But what really destroyed the Indians’ way of life was the destruction of the buffalo. By the 1900s, the buffalo were almost all wiped out because:
a. Railroads split the herds.
b. It was a sport to shoot buffalo from railcar windows.
3. Battle of Wounded Knee- the Sioux were losing all their land and the buffalo- their way of life was being totally destroyed. Their last effort at maintaining their culture was by gathering together to dance the ghost dance- this was a ritual which they believed would bring back their land and buffalo. The Americans were frightened by this strange act and tried to arrest Sitting Bull. During the arrest, Sitting Bull was killed. The American forces rounded up about 350 Sioux. They took them to Wounded Knee Creek and the army ordered them to give up their rifle. A shot was fired and 300 people were massacred. This was the last battle.
Books were written to show how the Americans mistreated the Indians. They portrayed the Americans as villains:
1. Dee Brown wrote a book called “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. It talked about how the Americans mistreated the Sioux.
2. Helen Hunt Jackson wrote “A Century of Dishonor”. It discussed the hundred years of pain that the Americans inflicted upon the Indians.
Growth of the cattle industry-
As the herds of buffalo on the Great Plains disappeared they were replaced by cattle. As the demand for beef grew, so did the cattle industry. Cattle ranching now became a big business from Texas to Kansas.
In the beginning, most of the cattle were long horns. This is a hearty breed. They were sturdy and could forge food on their own. They also took care of themselves. During the winter, they were allowed to roam somewhat free. They were frisky animals.
The men who took care of the cattle were known as cowboys. The cowboy way of life was developed by the Spaniards in Mexico. The Spanish influence can be seen in the cowboy’s vocabulary (lasso is a Spanish word), food and mode of dress- wore bandanas and special pointed boots to fit in the stir ups. They carried a six shooter- gun that could soot six shots before reloading. This came to be the symbol of the old west.
Cattle business didn’t really take off until it reached the west because they had no way of getting to the east. Between 1866 and 1886 there were about 1,500 cowboys- about 12% were Mexican and 25% were African American.
The cowboy’s way of life was difficult. They worked between ten and fourteen hours a day. They worked the hardest in the spring and summer. In the winter, there wasn’t so much work to be done so they either lived off of their savings or did odd jobs. Cowboys that we see in movies or shows such as Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hitchcock aren’t really cowboys and they don’t display the true life in the Wild west. In the spring, the cowboys had to gather up the cattle and they started the Long Drive- a walk from Texas to Kansas. This took about three months. In Kansas, they were shipped in cattle cars. These three months were the heat of their work. The Long Drive was a very difficult journey- they had to swim across rivers with their cattle. After the cattle were delivered, the cowboys went back down south.
Eventually, the era of the open range came to an end. There were a series of natural disasters such as droughts and blizzards which killed the cattle during the winter months. The cattle ranchers moved away from long horns to other breeds of cattle. These new breeds produced better meat and needed more care. The ranchers began to fence in their cattle. Barbed wire was a new invention at this time- it helped close in the open range. It was invented by James Glidden.
Settling of the Great Plains-
More and more people moved onto the Great Plains. As railroads were built, people were moving out west. The American government encouraged the building of the railroads. From 1850 to 1871, the government gave huge chunks of land to the railroad companies to encourage them to build railroads.
The two major railroad companies were:
1. Central Pacific- started in California and built east.
2. Union Pacific- started in Nebraska and built west.
They hired mostly immigrant workers such as the Chinese and Irish. African Americans and Mexican Americans also worked on the railroads.
In 1869, the tracks met at Promontory, Utah- they put a gold spike at the meeting point. America now had a transcontinental railroad.
Railroads brought many people west. Railroad companies also sold some of their lands to foreigners- this attracted people. The Homestead Act also brought people out west. The government passed many laws to get people to move out west. A lot of land went to miners and ranchers.
The west was lonely and building homes was challenging. People lived in:
1. Soddies- houses made out of mud.
2. Dugouts- houses dug out of the hills.
The prairie land was tough so it was hard to work. Woman worked with the men, while at the same time being responsible for their womanly jobs.
Inventions that helped farmers:
1. Steel plow
2. Reaper
3. Barbed wire- kept other wild animals away.
4. Windmill- helped water from down under the earth.
The government also tried to help farmers- the US government passed the Morill Land Grant Act. This act gave money to farmers to set up universities that would teach farmers new techniques in agriculture.
To buy machinery was very costly, so the farmers had a lot of debt. In order to minimize the debt, the farmers would farm huge tracts of land- bonanza farms. These farms generally grew cash crops. Over the years, there were a series of droughts in the Midwest. This hurt some of the farmers so that they now had huge debts. In addition, shipping the crop was very expensive so the farmers were really not doing well. In addition to this, after the Civil War, the dollar was very strong. This was great for the consumer but terrible for the farmer. The farmers felt that the strong dollar hurt them because they do more selling then buying and it’s lousy for their debts. They felt that they were choking and were ready for reform.
Oliver Kelly started the Grange movement. At first, this was a social movement- get together to talk and ease the loneliness. This quickly changed into a political movement. They spent most of their energy fighting the railroads.
The Farmer’s Alliance was an outgrowth of the Grange movement. All kinds of people joined, not only farmers. People realized that if they wanted change, they needed political clout. They formed the Populist Party, which wanted to give people a greater voice in government. Some of their ideas were:
1. Direct election of senators.
2. Secret ballot
Many people felt that the Populist Party was radical however in the national election, they won about ten percent of the votes. On a local level, many of their party members were elected. From this we see that the Populist Party was a real political force.
In 1893, the economic wheel turned and there was the Panic of 1893. During the presidential election of 1895, so during that year, it was a hot topic. There were two different opinions:
1. Gold bugs- let’s restore the dollar’s strength by making sure that it’s only backed by gold as opposed to silver.
2. The farmers didn’t want a strong dollar. They were therefore nicknamed the silverites. They wanted the dollar backed by silver. Their official term was bimetallism- mostly silver and a little bit of gold.
The presidential campaign was an interesting one:
1. Democrats and Populist Parties nominated William Jennings Bryon. A was a fabulous speaker and was a very dynamic person. He made a famous speech called the Cross of Gold. He spoke to the nation, telling them that they need their farmers because everyone needs to eat. He said that if they down the gold peoples’ businesses, nothing will happen, but if you shut down farms, grass is going to grow in the city because people need food. He said that gold shouldn’t be so important that you’ll kill people for it.
2. Republican Party- nominated William McKinley. He looked like a person who could be counted on. He wasn’t a good speaker so his campaign manager didn’t let him go out to speak; his manager would bring people to him and he would speak to them. Because of this, he was nicknamed the Front Porch Campaigner. He stood for the idea that the dollar shouldn’t lose its value.
McKinley won and the Populist Party died. Down the road however, all the Populist reforms did become laws.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Perek Gimel
א watch יצר- ינצר-
מ''ד בני- speaking in the name of ה'. He’s saying that you are as dear to me as a child is to his
father. He’s warning that you shouldn’t forget His תורה.
מלבי''ם לימוד התורה =תורתי אל תשכח and קיום המצוות =מצותי יצר לבך.
What is included in a man’s חיוב of לימוד התורה? Even דינים that will never be done by
some people, like מצות הקרבנות. Why would a man learn these הלכות? There is a מצוה of לימוד התורה- ''והיגית בו יומם ולילה''. One has to learn לשמע, not necessarily to come out with any הלכות.
What else is included in ''תורתי''? The stories in the תורה that are the cornerstones of our אמונה, for example we get the יסוד of נבואה from our אבות and the יסוד of יצ''ם from the מכות. We are warned not to forget them. We should learn and remember until we come to a point that we won’t forget. By the מצות, it’s not enough to know them, we also have to keep them.
(Not inside) What is the ל' of ''לבך''?
1. The לב is the command center of the body and it rules over all the אורים.
2. ''רחמנא ליבא באי''- ה' wants the כונה that’s in our hearts.
All מצות can be divided into three parts:
1. חובות האורים- done with the body, for example:
a. צדקה
b. לולב
2. חובות הלבבות-
a. יראת ה'
b. גדלות ה'
c. אמונה
d. חשבון הנפש
e. ''לא תחמד''
3. חובות האורים and חובות הלבבות together- a prime example would be תפילה.
By חובות האורים, you don’t need כונה the whole time to be יוצא, just initially. But like this you aren’t doing it the right way. Really, the right way would be to have כונה the whole time. חובות האורים and חובות הלבבות together needs to be backed up by כונת הלב. We know that ''תפילה בלי כונה כגוף בלי נשמה''- it’s like a peel without the fruit inside. משל- servant who prepares food for the king, but leaves. נמשל- תפילה can be compared to the food, and we send our lips to serve Him. ה' wants our hearts and our minds. חובות הלבבות is an area in עבודת ה' that is often overlooked. They are really חיובים and must be learnt so that we could do them properly. -משל servant with field duties and house duties. נמשל- the field duties are equal to חובות האורים and the house duties are equal to חובות הלבבות.
ב This פסוק is a תוצאה of פסוק א. If you keep פסוק א, they you’ll have ארך ימים, שנות חיים
and שלום.
מצודת דוד -ושנות חיים The years that a person lives will be quality years when good things will happen.
גר''א -שלום שלום is the כלי that holds all the other ברכות in place. Without שלום, there is no point in ארך ימים or שנות חיים. ארך ימים and שנות חיים are תוצאות of קייום המצוות. שלום is the תוצאה of לימוד התורה. שלום is that which holds all the other ברכות in place, so we can say that שלום is equal to all the other ברכות. שלום is a fitting result from לימוד התורה which is equal to all the other מצוות.
The תורה and the מצוות are מלמד זכות on someone, so that ה' gives him ארך ימים and שנות חיים.
We can’t always see how פסוק ב is a תוצאה of פסוק א because we don’t know the חשבונות of ה'.
ג מצודת דוד -אל יעזבך Don’t allow yourself to be without them.
ג קשרם-קשר אותם
גרגרתיך- הצואר שלך
מצודת דוד -קשרם You should constantly talk about them and think about them.
ר' יונה sheet חסד includes most מידות טובות. אמת includes מעלות in a person’s דעות and שכליות. חסד is to put all of your energy and desires into another’s happiness. A true בעל חסד is someone who is דורש שלמם וטובתם- wants other to be happy and is anxious to do what’s best for them. We usually define someone as a בעל חסד if they do חסדים for others. But that alone isn’t such a big deal- you don’t have to go against your nature because by a Jew, his nature is to be a גומל חסד and likes to be on the giving end. Such a person is an עשות חסד. But a real בעל חסד is someone with אהבת חסד- this is a much higher level. Why? By nature, we want ourselves to have and others not to have and to be above. When we don’t have and be happy for others and want them to have good, this goes against our nature and is much harder. When someone is a true בעל חסד, the bad מידות that are in a person’s nature are removed from him, such as:
1. אכזריות- opposite of this because he wants harm for others.
2. כילות- stinginess- he has a hard time giving things up because he doesn’t want good for others. This doesn’t mean he’s a miser, but many of us can be like this. We often have a hard time giving to those that aren’t close to us. But as soon as a בעל חסד feels that each person is an extension of himself, he doesn’t have a hard time giving.
3. שנאה- he hates people and doesn’t want good for them. Sometimes, there’s something about someone that you just can’t stand. But a בעל חסד sees everyone as an extension of himself, so he doesn’t hate people.
4. קנעה- he’s jealous of something someone has, but a בעל חסד sees everyone as an extension of himself so he isn’t jealous.
5. תאוה- he’s self centered and doesn’t care for the good of others.
6. גאוה- he feels that he’s better than anyone else.
Someone who is an אוהב חסד will inevitably do חסד, (but someone who does חסד isn’t necessarily an אוהב חסד). He will do גמ''ח even if he doesn’t have money for צדקה. He will do ביקור חולים, ניחום אבילים…
ה' demands from us to try to be an אוהב חסד. How can one become an אוהב חסד? The חיצוניות is מעורר the פנימיות. So why doesn’t help us to become an אוהב חסד if we do חסדים? Because we must realize that there’s a פנימיות and try to be מכון to want to help others, and not do it because of ulterior motives.
Why was the II בית destroyed if they had תורה and גמ''ח? Because they had שנאת חינם. So even though they had גמ''ח, there wasn’t an אהבה for people, so there was no אהבת חסד. We need to be מתקן it.
אמת isn’t considered something bad to be good or good to be bad. The בעל אמת isn’t scared to say that something is bad or good. He doesn’t flatter people and has קנאות- zealousness to stand up for good.
חניפה- flattery is a form of שקר, but it’s also an אסור within itself. It’s one of the כתות that can’t be מקבל פני השכינה. The four כתות:
1. חניפים
2. שקרנים
3. בעלי ל''ה
4. לצים
So what’s חניפה? Flattering someone who’s doing an עבירה by telling them that is was right or fine. During the תקופה before II בית, the Romans appointed a goyish king over the Jews- אגריפס. He tried to be מקיים the מצוות and once did הקהל and read the פסוק that said that ב''י shouldn’t have a goyish king, and he started to cry. ב''י were scared of the repercussions so they told him that it’s fine because he’s considered to be ''אחינו''. By doing this, not only weren’t they giving תוכחה but they were also being מחזק his resolve to be חוטא.
If one’s in a position to give תוכחה and doesn’t, that’s also considered חניפה. If you’re sitting among people who are doing something wrong, and you know that they won’t listen to your תוכחה, you have to do something because otherwise people will think you’re expressing your approval. So either give תוכחה or get up and leave.
A בעל אמת is willing to go against the flow, but it’s very difficult. Story- Rabbi Brown and מחיצה.
Someone who is a בעל אמת is happy when צדיקים receive כבוד and when רשעים are lowered because it’s אמת, and even thought he knows, he’s happy that everyone else should see.
A בעל אמת, at the time when he’s judging won’t show favoritism and he’ll give an honest verdict. We pass judgment all the time on other people. We shouldn’t show favoritism to ourselves or someone close to us. We tend to judge with a double standard- we judge others very quickly, but when it comes to judging ourselves, we come up with excuses to justify our actions.
A בעל אמת is מודה על האמת- admits. It’s a difficult thing to do, but it’s אמת. We tend to say that we’re never going to convince the other person so he should just forget it, but that isn’t אמת. When someone gives us מוסר, we should accept it. A בעל אמת has a firm commitment to אמת, so he’s open to hear.
A בעל אמת is someone who isn’t מקבל ל''ה and doesn’t believe everything he hears, lest he believes something untrue. A בעל אמת checks out to see if a rumor or story is true before he believes its and repeats it.
Someone who’s a true בעל אמת will turn away from crooked דעות and השקפות that may be displayed under the banner of Yiddishkeit. A בעל אמת will investigate in order to see what’s the אמת, because he’s scared to let שקר come into his heart. He won’t let go until he comes to the truth.
The מעלות of חסד and אמת are so great that we can’t even comprehend the greatness of someone who reaches שלמות in these מעלות. Someone who is at the other extreme is among the רשעים who are despised in the eyes of ה'- ''אדם בליעל איש און... שנא ה' ''. With everything that we do, were moving one step closer to שלמות and one more step away from the opposite extreme.
שלמה talks about these מידות so that our עבודת ה' should be desired and accepted by ה'. Two פסוקים to prove this:
1. ''חדשיכם ומועדיכם שנאה נפשי''- as long as כלל ישראל don’t get rid of certain faults, ה' hates when they come to the בהמ''ק.
2. ''נירו לכם ניר ואל תזרעו אל קוצים''- it’s useless to plant seeds on top of thorns. First, remove the thorns, then you can plant beautiful seeds.
ר' יונה -קשרם על גרגרתיךWhy is it important for us to talk about these מידות?
1. It helps him and he can have a constant reminder to be נזהר in these מידות- when you hear yourself talking, it makes an impression.
2. Other people can also learn from you, even if you aren’t שלם. They’ll learn to praise and think highly of בעלי אמת- someone who’s always praising good מידות and putting down bad מידות.
3. ''מצרף לכסף וכור לזהב ואיש לפי מהללו''-in order to test gold and silver’s purity, put it through a furnace. In order to test the essence of a person, see what he praises and what he constantly talks about.
-כתבם על לח לבך this is the עבודה of ''וידעת הום והשיבותה אל לבבך''. This is lifetime goal. Why is it necessary to write it in our heart? Because it’s our heart that is responsible for our actions. We have to take what is in our mind and put it in our heart, because without putting it in our heart we won’t get anywhere. Possibly the longest journey of our life is the journey from the head to the heart. How do we do this?
מכתב 1. Repetition- if you repeat something out loud enough times, you can’t help it but it’ll
מאליהו have an influence because repetition goes into your subconscious. Make yourself a
Sentence about what you want to get into your heart and it’ll help.
2. כח ציור- imagination. When you hear or see something, it doesn’t affect your subconscious, but if you imagine it, it’ll penetrate. You should picture the עונש and it will stop you from doing a חטא.
ד פסוק ד is תוצאה of פסוק ג.
מ''ד -ומצא חן through the מידות of חסד and אמת, we’ll find favor and it will be known before
ה' and others that he has שכל טוב.
ר' יונה ומצא חן → חסד
and גר''א שכל טוב → אמת
Someone who is a בעל חסד will find חן in the eyes of ה' and others and someone who is a
בעל אמת will find אמת in the eyes of ה' and other people.
ר' יונה Why will a בעל חסד find חן in the eyes of ה'? ''כל המרחם על הבריות הבריות מרחמין עליו מן
השמים''- when ה' sees us treating His children with compassion, it’s מעורר a tremendous amount of רחמים from ה'. It’s like a key that unlocks good for us in שמים. Why will a בעל חסד find חן in the eyes of other people? A בעל חסד wants to always help others, so it’s
obvious that he will find favor in the eyes of others.
גר''א -חן it comes from the שרש of חינם because חן is a מתנת חינם from ה'. We always see a ל' of מצא before חן because someone who has חן isn’t deserving of it, it was just found. A
בעל חסד gives others more than they deserve, so ה' sometimes gives him more than he deserves. חן is inner qualities that shine forth to the outside. Not everyone who is a בעל חסד gets חן- it is very rare and given out randomly, but ה' likes to give it to בעלי חסד. It may seem that it’s a reward for a בעל חסד and not a מתנת חינם. It can be compared to someone paying $100 for a gorgeous diamond- it’s really a מתנה. ה' also likes to give חן to ענוים- ''לענוים יתן חן''. Besides for חן, מידות טובות also cause have a person to have a shine.
ר' יונה Someone who is a בעל אמת will be known for his שכל טוב- people will respect him. When we stand up for the אמת, in the long run we will be respected for it.
גר''א שכל טוב= הצלחה. Someone who has שכל טוב will be מצליח in what he tries to do. This is not a שכר, rather a תוצאה.
מאירי This פסוק is a צווי- commands us to do מעשים in a way that will find favor in the eyes of both ה' and other people. There is another פסוק with a similar צווי- ''והייתם נקיים מה' ומישראל''- when ראובן, גד, חצי שבט מנשה came before משה and asked to settle מעבר לירדן, משה said that they had to fight first so that it shouldn’t seem like they only wanted to settle there so that they wouldn’t have to fight, and then they’ll be נקיים. It isn’t enough that ה' knows that our actions are done for the right reason, others must know too.
An עיר הנדחת would be an example of this. An עיר הנדחת is a city where everyone serves ע''ז. Everyone must be killed and the spoils must be burnt. It seems that בעל תשחית is being done, but it’s more important that people should understand the reason why it was done was (to justify a wrongdoing, and not to get spoils) than to do בעל תשחית because it could cause a חלול ה'. Also, if people see you doing something wrong, they might copy. Story- ר' משה and tea. In our society, everyone contributes. If you do something that appears to be wrong, the esteem of that thing will be lowered in the eyes of society. If there’s no way to justify an action that seems wrong but is really right, rather don’t do it. If we see someone doing something wrong, we have to be דן לכף זכות, but we also can’t put ourselves into a situation where others will have to be ךן us לכף זכות.
But we can’t take this concept too far, that everything we do is done in the hope of finding favor in the eyes of others. A גנב is someone who steals secretly. A גזלן is someone who commits an armed robbery publicly. A גנב is scared only of ה'. A גזלן isn’t scared ה' or others. A גנב is worse because he’s concerned about what others think about him, but not what ה' thinks about him. We see the severity of a גנב that he has to pay back four times. Even if we’re doing everything right, we can still be like a גנב if we’re doing it because of what others will think about us. Sometimes, there’s a conflict between finding favor in the eyes of ה' and finding favor in the eyes of other people. Obviously, we have to find favor in the eyes of ה', but someone who lives their whole life to impress other people will have a very difficult time when faced with this נסיון. Story- Rabbi Rosenberg and the O-U. We have to always keep in mind and ask ourselves- what would ה' think about it? If He wouldn’t approve, don’t do it.
The idea of being such an approval seeker connects to בטחון- an approval seeker thinks that people run the world and if he makes the right impression on the right people, he’ll get places. This shows a total lack of בטחון.
ה בטח- צריך לבטח
בכל לבך- בלב שלם, בלי שום ספק
תשען- תסמך
מ''ד -אל תשען when you plan something out so carefully and use your חכמה, don’t think that it’ll automatically work out because everything is dependant on ה', not on חכמה.
ר' יונה sheet The שלמות of בטחון is that a person believes only in ה' and not in his own strengths, שכל or other people, therefore the פסוק says, ''ואל בינתך אל תשען''. Why does the פסוק specify not to rely only on חכמה? One can’t rely on anything accept for ה'!
1. Because it’s a mistake that’s most commonly made- people feel that חכמה is something that could be relied on. Don’t make that mistake!
2. It also includes not to trust in anything else. A person thinks that he could trust in other things because his שכל tells him. Don’t trust your שכל when it tells you to rely on other things because everything is dependant on יד ה' and not on anything else. There are פסוקים that come to prove that nothing is dependant on anything other than ה':
a. ''משיב חכמים אחור ודעתם יסכל''- ה' can and sometimes does take away a person’s חכמה. חכמה isn’t in your control. Sometimes, everything just flies out of your brain- shows that חכמה is in ה'’s control.
b. ''רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת ה' היא תקום''- a person makes plans and strategies and thinks that things will turn out according to his plans. Really, everything works out according to ה'’s plans.
c. ''אם ה' לא יבנה בית שוא עמלו בוניו בו''- you could work on building a house for days, but if ה' doesn’t want it to stand it won’t.
d. ''כי כל מעשינו הבל''- all our actions are nothing and are for nothing. Actions are nothing in that it’s not our actions that’ll determine what’ll happen to us- ה' does.
e. ''כי לא לקלים המרוץ...''- a race isn’t necessarily won by the fastest person. Whoever ה' wants to win will win- it’s totally in His hands.
f. ''לאדם מערכי לב ומה' מענה לשון''- a person plans out what he’s going to say and how he’s going to say it, but it’s up to ה' how his words will come out. ר' יונה learns out a קו''ח from here- if even our speech isn’t up to us, how could we think that our actions are in our control?
ר' בחיי sheet A wealthy person or a fast person shouldn’t think that it’s because of his talent- ''כי לא
לקלים המרוץ ולא לגבורים המלחמה וגם לא לחכמים לחם וגם לא לנבונים עשר וגם לא ליודעים חן כי עח ופגע יקרה את כלם''- ה' set up the world that it looks likes the fastest win the race, but we see enough exemptions to realize that it isn’t like that. A person shouldn’t put
his hope in his השתדלות, he should place his hope in ה'. ''אף לאלקים דומי נסשי כי ממט תקותי'' – only hope to ה' because the only hope is from ה' and not from השתדלות.
In theory, we agree and believe it, but do we live our lives like that? No. The primary reason for this is because ה' set up the world according to cause and effect. Usually, if you put in effort, you get the desired effect. It seems to us that because one works he gets פרנסה. If we want the desired result, we’ll do the cause. ה' is THE CAUSE- סיבת כל הסיבות. The מכתב מאליהו gives two משלים:
1. משל- the dog fetches the stick in order to get the meat. To the dog, it seems that fetching the stick sends forth meat, but really it’s the owner. נמשל- things we do seem to bring us the desired results. Really, this is a narrow perspective- we have to see that ה' is in control.
2. משל- a man is looking into a room through a keyhole. He sees a pen written on its own. Really if he would just open the door, he would see that someone is controlling the pen. נמשל- our perspective of this world is necessarily limited. From our limited perspective, we think that medicine heals a person, that work brings פרנסה… - really it’s ה'. We have to open the door= get בטחון, and see that everything is ביד ה'.
When we do השתדלות, we thing that it’s doing something. משל- a child on a ride where a car runs on its own, but the child thinks that by turning the wheel they’re moving the car. נמשל- the connections between our השתדלות and what actually happens in no different than the child thinking that he’s controlling the car. Let’s say that the amusement park made a rule that the ride operator can’t start the ride until each child spins the wheel three times- ה' made a גזירה that things don’t happen without השתדלות. We have to do the necessary השתדלות to set the ride in motion. How much money a person makes was נגזר on ר''ה and that’s how much money he is going to make, no matter how much השתדלות he puts in.
Why do we have to do השתדלות? משל- a man has a millionaire friend. He sees this man’s son working in a store. He comes up with many reasons why this boy is working, but know that it isn’t for money. נמשל- ''לי הכסף ולי הזהב''- ה' tells His children that if they want money, they have to work for it. Every single aspect of every single bit of our lives is completely in His control. ה' tells us that if we want something, He will give it to us in the normal way. But know that the reason it works isn’t because of our effort.
If ה' controls everything, why do we have to do השתדלות? Because of the חטא of אדם הראשון. It used to be that there was no טבע in this world, but then אדם was חוטא and a set of curses came upon this world. Among them was the curse of ''בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם''. This was the introduction of טבע into the world. When ה' gives a punishment, it’s not נקמה, rather it’s מכ''מ. Our job is to be מתקן- the חטא of אדם הראשון was in a tiny way showing a lack of belief in יחוד ה'. To be מתקן it, we have to believe that ה' is the only power. We were thrust into a world of טבע and we must see past the טבע and see the יד ה'. If we do this, we can be מתקן the חטא of אדם הראשון. משל- a person is told to break a barrel but not to let the wine spill. This is a very difficult נסיון.
The מסילת ישרים says that one thing that stops a person from מידת החסידות is worries in עניני עוה''ז. What stops those worries? Having בטחון- completely relying on ה' because you know that you have nothing to worry about. ה' gives you what He decided with or without your השתדלות. But,מועיל אלא שהשתדלות מוכרח'' ''לא שהשתדלות- it doesn’t help but rather it’s necessary. השתדלות is a tax. After you have paid the necessary tax, now you’ll get what you need. So who pays extra taxes? No one! So just fill your חיוב and you’ll be finished with it, because you’ll only get what ה' wanted.
What is the minimum amount of השתדלות? There’s a כלל that the amount that you’re required to do is dependant on your מדרגה in בטחון. Someone who is still just learning בטחון has to do what the world considers normal השתדלות. What’s considered more than normal השתדלות? If you live normally but want to live luxuriously, work more hours or change professions. In this case, you won’t gain anything but you’ll lose time for עבודת ה'. We don’t want to be on the level of just learning השתדלות; assuming that we are on a higher level and keep telling ourselves that it’s not our work that’s doing this but rather ה', then our השתדלות that is necessary is minimized.
How do we know if we’re ready for that? Ask yourself, “What would happen if I didn’t do this השתדלות and I didn’t achieve my goal? Would I regret that I didn’t do it or would I accept it?” If you wouldn’t regret it then you’re on that level. But if you’re not on that level yet, don’t minimize your השתדלות so that you won’t be regretful of a מצוה. The highest level is not really anyone’s level today but it’s total, one hundred percent trust in ה' and one doesn’t need to do any השתדלות.
חובות הלבבות If you do too much השתדלות and rely too much on it, then ה' will leave you and won’tbe משגיח on you. He’ll leave you in the hands of your own השתדלות. That’s the worst situation to be in in life. What about someone who thinks that he could rely on both his בטחון and his השתדלות? One can’t trust in both ה' and his השתדלות. If he does, he’ll lose the little amount of בטחון that he does have.
We also have a special weapon- תפילה. If we concentrate on what we were saying, we would realize that it isn’t השתדלות, rather ה' that gives us all of our needs. For example, if someone was sick and they said ''רפאנו'', they would realize that ה' is the One who heals.
What is בטחון? A בעל בטחון is tranquil and knows in his heart that he can rely on ה', that everything that ה' does for him is for his good. The basis for this is
1. ה'’s יכולת
2. ה' knows that which is good for us.
משך חכמה Tells us that we have to believe that:
1. ה' is constantly looking out for His creations and giving us everything that we need. He is also looking to protect us from any lacks such as sickness or misfortune.
2. He has the ability to do good.
3. He knows everything that’s inside of us and what’s good for us.
What comes out from here then is that ה' is looking our for our good and feels our good more than we ourselves do. A person will have מנוחת הנפש and won’t do more השתדלות than necessary because he knows that ה' will give him what’s good for him. If we don’t get what we want, obviously it’s not for our good.
Seven qualities that if a person has, you can trust him completely:
1. If a person cares about you and loves you, he is מרחם on you.
2. He doesn’t forget about you for a second- he’s constantly looking out for you and looking to see what good he can do for you.
3. Has the ability to do whatever is good for you.
4. Has to know what’s good for you on a fundamental level, not just on a superficial level.
5. Has to be with you from when you’re born until the day you die.
6. No one can do anything to you besides for this entity.
7. This entity has to be the ultimate בעל חסד- not only on those who are deserving but also on those who aren’t deserving.
No person has all seven qualities, only ה' does. It’s impossible that something can happen to you that’s bad. Everything is covered by one of the seven qualities. We have to internalize all these principles and once we have integrated them, we’ll be able to submit to ה' completely. ''כוס ישועות אשא ובשם ה' אקרא'', ''צרה ויגון אמצא ובשם ה' אקרא'' because we know that everything that ה' does is good for me.
Our עבודה in בטחון-את עצמו לרשותו'' ''וימסר- submitting ourselves to ה'’s control. This is very hard because everyone wants to feel that they’re in control of their lives. בטחון means to realize that everything is being controlled by ה' who only wants that which is good for us. ה' controls everyone, even those that don’t submit. Every breath is dependant on ה'- ''על חיינו המסורים בידך''. What difference does it make if we submit or not- ה' is controlling anyway?!
1. When we do succeed in submitting, it brings a feeling of tremendous מנוחת הנפש. The difference between one who submits and one who doesn’t is a life of מנוחת הנפש or a life of stress. As long as someone feels that he’s in the driver’s seat, every obstacle makes him worried and scared. If you know that ה' is in the driver’s seat and you’re just the passenger, you don’t have to worry.
2. When someone submits, ה' will lead him with extra special השגחה פרטית because ''ה' צלך''.
Often, בטחון can bring about ישועות because of the extra השגחה פרטית he has. Sources:
1. ''הבוטח בה' חסד יסובבני'' –תהלים
2. ''ובוטח בה' ישוגב'' –משלי. ר' יונה says that ישוגב מן הצרה שכר הבטחון- אע''פ שהצרה ראוי' לבוא עליו ישוגב מן הצרה בשבר הבטחון
3. אוה''ח in בשלח- ב''י find themselves in a difficult situation. They davened to ה' and ה' told משה not to daven, but to go into the ים סוף. Why did ה' say not to daven? Sometimes, a person can be in such a strong צרה that even with תפילות he can’t be helped because of the testimony against him. Only בטחון will help.
When a yid is in a difficult situation, בטחון dictates that he should:
1. Think that it’s from ה'. If it’s from ה' it must be good for him. Sometimes, depending on the level of the situation, this alone might be enough. Sometimes the reason a person is put in a situation is to test him to see how he handles it.
2. A person hopes and prays to ה'. He asks ה' that it should be good in a way that he can see that it’s good= ישועה. Also included is trusting that ה' could bring about the ישועה in an instant. In a difficult situation, one must be afraid of ה' and of his חטאים- by יעקב, it says ''וירא יעקב מאד''- he was afraid because of his חטאים. Despite this, we have to have בטחון though.
Why תפילה?
1. The world is often set up in a way where ה' has something that’s waiting for you, but you have to daven, like by אדם.
2. We daven for ourselves- to strengthen our בטחון, to remind and drill into ourselves that everything is from ה'.
3. If we believe that a צרה is good for us, why are we davening that it should be taken away? AS a result of our תפילה and בטחון, sometimes we will then have achieved the point of our צרה.
When in a צרה, one should always daven, but תפילה must come with an amendment- if as a result of my shortsightedness and foolishness, please don’t give me what isn’t good for me. What You with Your ultimate בחירה choose for me is far better than what I could choose for myself.
The final מדרגה in בטחון is to leave ourselves in ה'’s hands, just like דוד said in תהלים, ''אם לא שוויתי ודוממתי נפשי כגמל עלי אמו''- I imagine myself as a nursing infant in its mother’s arms. Why is this the ultimate symbol of בטחון? Because he is secure and has nothing to worry about. We have to feel secure in ה'’s arms and accept that everything that he gives us is for our good.
ו דעהו- דע אותו
יישר ארחתיך- יעשה שדרכים שלך יהי ישרים
ח''זל tell us about this פסוק that one of the חכמים asked, ''איזהי פרשה קטנה שכל גופי
התורה תלוין בה?''. The קיום of the whole תורה is dependant on our קיום of this פסוק.
ר' יונה sheet How does it connect to בטחון? Any endeavor of yours, you have to remember and have
תקוה toward ה' that he’ll help you because it isn’t in your hands. What does this פסוק come to add? There could be someone who has בטחון- he has reached שלמות in פסוק ה- a very high level. Something could still be missing though- when it comes to little details, he doesn’t think about בטחון. This פסוק is telling us בכל דרכיך- in every detail of everything that you’re doing, no matter how small, you have to have בטחון.
When someone is in a big, risky situation, he knows that he needs ה'’s help and turns to Him. Whey don’t we ask ה' to help with the small things?
1. ע''פ טבע it works out.
2. Very often, we don’t care if it works out or not, and why should we bother ה' with such small things? Some also feel that if they ask for help with small things, they’ll use up their זכותים that they want for the bigger things.
משל- rich man and poor man- ''השלך על ה'...''. Who do you think is doing all the small things and taking care of details? He does it anyway, so we should acknowledge that we need ה'’s help. When it comes to small things, you don’t have to worry about using up your זכותים. If ה' has to change טבע for you, then you could worry. When you turn to ה', you get more זכותים. This פסוק tells us that we have to learn to turn to ה', even by small things. There is no such thing as something happening on its own- it’s חסד ה'.
Since this is true down to the smallest action, we are מחויב to turn to ה'. When it’s a question of whether or not we should turn to ה', it turns into something much bigger. Whether or not your cake flops isn’t such a big deal, but whether or not you turn to ה' is a big deal. By not acknowledging ה', you’re shortchanging your עבודת ה'. If you did turn to ה' before, it doesn’t matter because it’s a small thing but it does matter because you strengthened your בטחון and you get tremendous שכר.
This פסוק is the key of our בטחון and therefore the key to our entire קיום המצוות- שכל גופי התורה תלוין בה. Our entire relationship with ה' is dependant on this פסוק- a constant hint to remember ה'. It’s a high מדרגה, but it’s not so hard to do.
If you’re מקיים the first half of the פסוק, the second half will be fulfilled- there’s a much greater chance that you’ll succeed when you remember that it’s only through ה' that you’ll be successful.
Two practical ways to bring it into our lives:
1. שפתי חיים recommends three times a day to turn to ה' with a small request. If it does work out, realize that it’s from ה' and thank Him.
2. Think about what you’re saying when you say ב''ה, בע''ה, ע''ה.
מ''ד -בכל דרכיך In everything that you do, ask yourself how it’ll bring a benefit to your עבודת
ה', and you’ll be מצליח.
רמב''ם It shouldn’t be in a person’s heart that he’s working to make money or eating because he’s hungry, rather he’s doing everything so that he’ll be able to serve ה'. The highest level is that everything you do should be לשם שמים. A person who does this, it comes out that he’s constantly serving ה' no matter what he’s doing- ''וכל מעשיך יהיו לש''ש''.
מאירי ''ואהבת את ה' אלקיך בכל לבביך''- with your יצה'ר and your יצר הטוב. How does someone do this? Things which we think would be in the domain of the יצה'ר, have כונה that you’re doing it לש''ש and it’s like you’re serving ה' with his יצר הטוב.
ח''ח A person who’s מקים this will get שכר for the גשמיות. Why? משל- Master has to pay his servant for travel time. נמשל- if we have the right כונה, we’re actively serving ה' so we get שכר.
We tend to think that life is divided into two:
1. רוחניות- עבודת ה'
2. Everything else.
This פסוק is telling us that we have to have one goal in life and everything falls under that category- עבודת ה'. We don’t’ have to think the whole time that we’re going in the way of ה' so long as our goal is עבודת ה' and you don’t get sidetracked. Also make sure that it doesn’t go against the רצון ה'.
In life, two people can be doing the exact same thing however one will be doing עבודת ה' and one won’t.
Someone that ה' blessed him with שכל should use it by getting into his heart that ה' sent us on a mission in this world- to be מקים his תורה and מצוות- dot the רצון ה'. The highest level in עבודת ה' is someone who doesn’t make a move unless it gets him to his goal. He’ll get the ultimate joy in עוה''ב. משל- we’re like a servant of ה'. If we are faithful, we will be thinking about the mission the whole time. נמשל- At the end of one’s life, he should be able to say that he carried out his mission faithfully.
I’m missing a little bit at the end… I’ll have it a lil l8r, im just running out… if u want it, call me and I’ll gladly fax it 2 u.. my number is 362.5844. Good Luck studying and enjoy!!
מ''ד בני- speaking in the name of ה'. He’s saying that you are as dear to me as a child is to his
father. He’s warning that you shouldn’t forget His תורה.
מלבי''ם לימוד התורה =תורתי אל תשכח and קיום המצוות =מצותי יצר לבך.
What is included in a man’s חיוב of לימוד התורה? Even דינים that will never be done by
some people, like מצות הקרבנות. Why would a man learn these הלכות? There is a מצוה of לימוד התורה- ''והיגית בו יומם ולילה''. One has to learn לשמע, not necessarily to come out with any הלכות.
What else is included in ''תורתי''? The stories in the תורה that are the cornerstones of our אמונה, for example we get the יסוד of נבואה from our אבות and the יסוד of יצ''ם from the מכות. We are warned not to forget them. We should learn and remember until we come to a point that we won’t forget. By the מצות, it’s not enough to know them, we also have to keep them.
(Not inside) What is the ל' of ''לבך''?
1. The לב is the command center of the body and it rules over all the אורים.
2. ''רחמנא ליבא באי''- ה' wants the כונה that’s in our hearts.
All מצות can be divided into three parts:
1. חובות האורים- done with the body, for example:
a. צדקה
b. לולב
2. חובות הלבבות-
a. יראת ה'
b. גדלות ה'
c. אמונה
d. חשבון הנפש
e. ''לא תחמד''
3. חובות האורים and חובות הלבבות together- a prime example would be תפילה.
By חובות האורים, you don’t need כונה the whole time to be יוצא, just initially. But like this you aren’t doing it the right way. Really, the right way would be to have כונה the whole time. חובות האורים and חובות הלבבות together needs to be backed up by כונת הלב. We know that ''תפילה בלי כונה כגוף בלי נשמה''- it’s like a peel without the fruit inside. משל- servant who prepares food for the king, but leaves. נמשל- תפילה can be compared to the food, and we send our lips to serve Him. ה' wants our hearts and our minds. חובות הלבבות is an area in עבודת ה' that is often overlooked. They are really חיובים and must be learnt so that we could do them properly. -משל servant with field duties and house duties. נמשל- the field duties are equal to חובות האורים and the house duties are equal to חובות הלבבות.
ב This פסוק is a תוצאה of פסוק א. If you keep פסוק א, they you’ll have ארך ימים, שנות חיים
and שלום.
מצודת דוד -ושנות חיים The years that a person lives will be quality years when good things will happen.
גר''א -שלום שלום is the כלי that holds all the other ברכות in place. Without שלום, there is no point in ארך ימים or שנות חיים. ארך ימים and שנות חיים are תוצאות of קייום המצוות. שלום is the תוצאה of לימוד התורה. שלום is that which holds all the other ברכות in place, so we can say that שלום is equal to all the other ברכות. שלום is a fitting result from לימוד התורה which is equal to all the other מצוות.
The תורה and the מצוות are מלמד זכות on someone, so that ה' gives him ארך ימים and שנות חיים.
We can’t always see how פסוק ב is a תוצאה of פסוק א because we don’t know the חשבונות of ה'.
ג מצודת דוד -אל יעזבך Don’t allow yourself to be without them.
ג קשרם-קשר אותם
גרגרתיך- הצואר שלך
מצודת דוד -קשרם You should constantly talk about them and think about them.
ר' יונה sheet חסד includes most מידות טובות. אמת includes מעלות in a person’s דעות and שכליות. חסד is to put all of your energy and desires into another’s happiness. A true בעל חסד is someone who is דורש שלמם וטובתם- wants other to be happy and is anxious to do what’s best for them. We usually define someone as a בעל חסד if they do חסדים for others. But that alone isn’t such a big deal- you don’t have to go against your nature because by a Jew, his nature is to be a גומל חסד and likes to be on the giving end. Such a person is an עשות חסד. But a real בעל חסד is someone with אהבת חסד- this is a much higher level. Why? By nature, we want ourselves to have and others not to have and to be above. When we don’t have and be happy for others and want them to have good, this goes against our nature and is much harder. When someone is a true בעל חסד, the bad מידות that are in a person’s nature are removed from him, such as:
1. אכזריות- opposite of this because he wants harm for others.
2. כילות- stinginess- he has a hard time giving things up because he doesn’t want good for others. This doesn’t mean he’s a miser, but many of us can be like this. We often have a hard time giving to those that aren’t close to us. But as soon as a בעל חסד feels that each person is an extension of himself, he doesn’t have a hard time giving.
3. שנאה- he hates people and doesn’t want good for them. Sometimes, there’s something about someone that you just can’t stand. But a בעל חסד sees everyone as an extension of himself, so he doesn’t hate people.
4. קנעה- he’s jealous of something someone has, but a בעל חסד sees everyone as an extension of himself so he isn’t jealous.
5. תאוה- he’s self centered and doesn’t care for the good of others.
6. גאוה- he feels that he’s better than anyone else.
Someone who is an אוהב חסד will inevitably do חסד, (but someone who does חסד isn’t necessarily an אוהב חסד). He will do גמ''ח even if he doesn’t have money for צדקה. He will do ביקור חולים, ניחום אבילים…
ה' demands from us to try to be an אוהב חסד. How can one become an אוהב חסד? The חיצוניות is מעורר the פנימיות. So why doesn’t help us to become an אוהב חסד if we do חסדים? Because we must realize that there’s a פנימיות and try to be מכון to want to help others, and not do it because of ulterior motives.
Why was the II בית destroyed if they had תורה and גמ''ח? Because they had שנאת חינם. So even though they had גמ''ח, there wasn’t an אהבה for people, so there was no אהבת חסד. We need to be מתקן it.
אמת isn’t considered something bad to be good or good to be bad. The בעל אמת isn’t scared to say that something is bad or good. He doesn’t flatter people and has קנאות- zealousness to stand up for good.
חניפה- flattery is a form of שקר, but it’s also an אסור within itself. It’s one of the כתות that can’t be מקבל פני השכינה. The four כתות:
1. חניפים
2. שקרנים
3. בעלי ל''ה
4. לצים
So what’s חניפה? Flattering someone who’s doing an עבירה by telling them that is was right or fine. During the תקופה before II בית, the Romans appointed a goyish king over the Jews- אגריפס. He tried to be מקיים the מצוות and once did הקהל and read the פסוק that said that ב''י shouldn’t have a goyish king, and he started to cry. ב''י were scared of the repercussions so they told him that it’s fine because he’s considered to be ''אחינו''. By doing this, not only weren’t they giving תוכחה but they were also being מחזק his resolve to be חוטא.
If one’s in a position to give תוכחה and doesn’t, that’s also considered חניפה. If you’re sitting among people who are doing something wrong, and you know that they won’t listen to your תוכחה, you have to do something because otherwise people will think you’re expressing your approval. So either give תוכחה or get up and leave.
A בעל אמת is willing to go against the flow, but it’s very difficult. Story- Rabbi Brown and מחיצה.
Someone who is a בעל אמת is happy when צדיקים receive כבוד and when רשעים are lowered because it’s אמת, and even thought he knows, he’s happy that everyone else should see.
A בעל אמת, at the time when he’s judging won’t show favoritism and he’ll give an honest verdict. We pass judgment all the time on other people. We shouldn’t show favoritism to ourselves or someone close to us. We tend to judge with a double standard- we judge others very quickly, but when it comes to judging ourselves, we come up with excuses to justify our actions.
A בעל אמת is מודה על האמת- admits. It’s a difficult thing to do, but it’s אמת. We tend to say that we’re never going to convince the other person so he should just forget it, but that isn’t אמת. When someone gives us מוסר, we should accept it. A בעל אמת has a firm commitment to אמת, so he’s open to hear.
A בעל אמת is someone who isn’t מקבל ל''ה and doesn’t believe everything he hears, lest he believes something untrue. A בעל אמת checks out to see if a rumor or story is true before he believes its and repeats it.
Someone who’s a true בעל אמת will turn away from crooked דעות and השקפות that may be displayed under the banner of Yiddishkeit. A בעל אמת will investigate in order to see what’s the אמת, because he’s scared to let שקר come into his heart. He won’t let go until he comes to the truth.
The מעלות of חסד and אמת are so great that we can’t even comprehend the greatness of someone who reaches שלמות in these מעלות. Someone who is at the other extreme is among the רשעים who are despised in the eyes of ה'- ''אדם בליעל איש און... שנא ה' ''. With everything that we do, were moving one step closer to שלמות and one more step away from the opposite extreme.
שלמה talks about these מידות so that our עבודת ה' should be desired and accepted by ה'. Two פסוקים to prove this:
1. ''חדשיכם ומועדיכם שנאה נפשי''- as long as כלל ישראל don’t get rid of certain faults, ה' hates when they come to the בהמ''ק.
2. ''נירו לכם ניר ואל תזרעו אל קוצים''- it’s useless to plant seeds on top of thorns. First, remove the thorns, then you can plant beautiful seeds.
ר' יונה -קשרם על גרגרתיךWhy is it important for us to talk about these מידות?
1. It helps him and he can have a constant reminder to be נזהר in these מידות- when you hear yourself talking, it makes an impression.
2. Other people can also learn from you, even if you aren’t שלם. They’ll learn to praise and think highly of בעלי אמת- someone who’s always praising good מידות and putting down bad מידות.
3. ''מצרף לכסף וכור לזהב ואיש לפי מהללו''-in order to test gold and silver’s purity, put it through a furnace. In order to test the essence of a person, see what he praises and what he constantly talks about.
-כתבם על לח לבך this is the עבודה of ''וידעת הום והשיבותה אל לבבך''. This is lifetime goal. Why is it necessary to write it in our heart? Because it’s our heart that is responsible for our actions. We have to take what is in our mind and put it in our heart, because without putting it in our heart we won’t get anywhere. Possibly the longest journey of our life is the journey from the head to the heart. How do we do this?
מכתב 1. Repetition- if you repeat something out loud enough times, you can’t help it but it’ll
מאליהו have an influence because repetition goes into your subconscious. Make yourself a
Sentence about what you want to get into your heart and it’ll help.
2. כח ציור- imagination. When you hear or see something, it doesn’t affect your subconscious, but if you imagine it, it’ll penetrate. You should picture the עונש and it will stop you from doing a חטא.
ד פסוק ד is תוצאה of פסוק ג.
מ''ד -ומצא חן through the מידות of חסד and אמת, we’ll find favor and it will be known before
ה' and others that he has שכל טוב.
ר' יונה ומצא חן → חסד
and גר''א שכל טוב → אמת
Someone who is a בעל חסד will find חן in the eyes of ה' and others and someone who is a
בעל אמת will find אמת in the eyes of ה' and other people.
ר' יונה Why will a בעל חסד find חן in the eyes of ה'? ''כל המרחם על הבריות הבריות מרחמין עליו מן
השמים''- when ה' sees us treating His children with compassion, it’s מעורר a tremendous amount of רחמים from ה'. It’s like a key that unlocks good for us in שמים. Why will a בעל חסד find חן in the eyes of other people? A בעל חסד wants to always help others, so it’s
obvious that he will find favor in the eyes of others.
גר''א -חן it comes from the שרש of חינם because חן is a מתנת חינם from ה'. We always see a ל' of מצא before חן because someone who has חן isn’t deserving of it, it was just found. A
בעל חסד gives others more than they deserve, so ה' sometimes gives him more than he deserves. חן is inner qualities that shine forth to the outside. Not everyone who is a בעל חסד gets חן- it is very rare and given out randomly, but ה' likes to give it to בעלי חסד. It may seem that it’s a reward for a בעל חסד and not a מתנת חינם. It can be compared to someone paying $100 for a gorgeous diamond- it’s really a מתנה. ה' also likes to give חן to ענוים- ''לענוים יתן חן''. Besides for חן, מידות טובות also cause have a person to have a shine.
ר' יונה Someone who is a בעל אמת will be known for his שכל טוב- people will respect him. When we stand up for the אמת, in the long run we will be respected for it.
גר''א שכל טוב= הצלחה. Someone who has שכל טוב will be מצליח in what he tries to do. This is not a שכר, rather a תוצאה.
מאירי This פסוק is a צווי- commands us to do מעשים in a way that will find favor in the eyes of both ה' and other people. There is another פסוק with a similar צווי- ''והייתם נקיים מה' ומישראל''- when ראובן, גד, חצי שבט מנשה came before משה and asked to settle מעבר לירדן, משה said that they had to fight first so that it shouldn’t seem like they only wanted to settle there so that they wouldn’t have to fight, and then they’ll be נקיים. It isn’t enough that ה' knows that our actions are done for the right reason, others must know too.
An עיר הנדחת would be an example of this. An עיר הנדחת is a city where everyone serves ע''ז. Everyone must be killed and the spoils must be burnt. It seems that בעל תשחית is being done, but it’s more important that people should understand the reason why it was done was (to justify a wrongdoing, and not to get spoils) than to do בעל תשחית because it could cause a חלול ה'. Also, if people see you doing something wrong, they might copy. Story- ר' משה and tea. In our society, everyone contributes. If you do something that appears to be wrong, the esteem of that thing will be lowered in the eyes of society. If there’s no way to justify an action that seems wrong but is really right, rather don’t do it. If we see someone doing something wrong, we have to be דן לכף זכות, but we also can’t put ourselves into a situation where others will have to be ךן us לכף זכות.
But we can’t take this concept too far, that everything we do is done in the hope of finding favor in the eyes of others. A גנב is someone who steals secretly. A גזלן is someone who commits an armed robbery publicly. A גנב is scared only of ה'. A גזלן isn’t scared ה' or others. A גנב is worse because he’s concerned about what others think about him, but not what ה' thinks about him. We see the severity of a גנב that he has to pay back four times. Even if we’re doing everything right, we can still be like a גנב if we’re doing it because of what others will think about us. Sometimes, there’s a conflict between finding favor in the eyes of ה' and finding favor in the eyes of other people. Obviously, we have to find favor in the eyes of ה', but someone who lives their whole life to impress other people will have a very difficult time when faced with this נסיון. Story- Rabbi Rosenberg and the O-U. We have to always keep in mind and ask ourselves- what would ה' think about it? If He wouldn’t approve, don’t do it.
The idea of being such an approval seeker connects to בטחון- an approval seeker thinks that people run the world and if he makes the right impression on the right people, he’ll get places. This shows a total lack of בטחון.
ה בטח- צריך לבטח
בכל לבך- בלב שלם, בלי שום ספק
תשען- תסמך
מ''ד -אל תשען when you plan something out so carefully and use your חכמה, don’t think that it’ll automatically work out because everything is dependant on ה', not on חכמה.
ר' יונה sheet The שלמות of בטחון is that a person believes only in ה' and not in his own strengths, שכל or other people, therefore the פסוק says, ''ואל בינתך אל תשען''. Why does the פסוק specify not to rely only on חכמה? One can’t rely on anything accept for ה'!
1. Because it’s a mistake that’s most commonly made- people feel that חכמה is something that could be relied on. Don’t make that mistake!
2. It also includes not to trust in anything else. A person thinks that he could trust in other things because his שכל tells him. Don’t trust your שכל when it tells you to rely on other things because everything is dependant on יד ה' and not on anything else. There are פסוקים that come to prove that nothing is dependant on anything other than ה':
a. ''משיב חכמים אחור ודעתם יסכל''- ה' can and sometimes does take away a person’s חכמה. חכמה isn’t in your control. Sometimes, everything just flies out of your brain- shows that חכמה is in ה'’s control.
b. ''רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת ה' היא תקום''- a person makes plans and strategies and thinks that things will turn out according to his plans. Really, everything works out according to ה'’s plans.
c. ''אם ה' לא יבנה בית שוא עמלו בוניו בו''- you could work on building a house for days, but if ה' doesn’t want it to stand it won’t.
d. ''כי כל מעשינו הבל''- all our actions are nothing and are for nothing. Actions are nothing in that it’s not our actions that’ll determine what’ll happen to us- ה' does.
e. ''כי לא לקלים המרוץ...''- a race isn’t necessarily won by the fastest person. Whoever ה' wants to win will win- it’s totally in His hands.
f. ''לאדם מערכי לב ומה' מענה לשון''- a person plans out what he’s going to say and how he’s going to say it, but it’s up to ה' how his words will come out. ר' יונה learns out a קו''ח from here- if even our speech isn’t up to us, how could we think that our actions are in our control?
ר' בחיי sheet A wealthy person or a fast person shouldn’t think that it’s because of his talent- ''כי לא
לקלים המרוץ ולא לגבורים המלחמה וגם לא לחכמים לחם וגם לא לנבונים עשר וגם לא ליודעים חן כי עח ופגע יקרה את כלם''- ה' set up the world that it looks likes the fastest win the race, but we see enough exemptions to realize that it isn’t like that. A person shouldn’t put
his hope in his השתדלות, he should place his hope in ה'. ''אף לאלקים דומי נסשי כי ממט תקותי'' – only hope to ה' because the only hope is from ה' and not from השתדלות.
In theory, we agree and believe it, but do we live our lives like that? No. The primary reason for this is because ה' set up the world according to cause and effect. Usually, if you put in effort, you get the desired effect. It seems to us that because one works he gets פרנסה. If we want the desired result, we’ll do the cause. ה' is THE CAUSE- סיבת כל הסיבות. The מכתב מאליהו gives two משלים:
1. משל- the dog fetches the stick in order to get the meat. To the dog, it seems that fetching the stick sends forth meat, but really it’s the owner. נמשל- things we do seem to bring us the desired results. Really, this is a narrow perspective- we have to see that ה' is in control.
2. משל- a man is looking into a room through a keyhole. He sees a pen written on its own. Really if he would just open the door, he would see that someone is controlling the pen. נמשל- our perspective of this world is necessarily limited. From our limited perspective, we think that medicine heals a person, that work brings פרנסה… - really it’s ה'. We have to open the door= get בטחון, and see that everything is ביד ה'.
When we do השתדלות, we thing that it’s doing something. משל- a child on a ride where a car runs on its own, but the child thinks that by turning the wheel they’re moving the car. נמשל- the connections between our השתדלות and what actually happens in no different than the child thinking that he’s controlling the car. Let’s say that the amusement park made a rule that the ride operator can’t start the ride until each child spins the wheel three times- ה' made a גזירה that things don’t happen without השתדלות. We have to do the necessary השתדלות to set the ride in motion. How much money a person makes was נגזר on ר''ה and that’s how much money he is going to make, no matter how much השתדלות he puts in.
Why do we have to do השתדלות? משל- a man has a millionaire friend. He sees this man’s son working in a store. He comes up with many reasons why this boy is working, but know that it isn’t for money. נמשל- ''לי הכסף ולי הזהב''- ה' tells His children that if they want money, they have to work for it. Every single aspect of every single bit of our lives is completely in His control. ה' tells us that if we want something, He will give it to us in the normal way. But know that the reason it works isn’t because of our effort.
If ה' controls everything, why do we have to do השתדלות? Because of the חטא of אדם הראשון. It used to be that there was no טבע in this world, but then אדם was חוטא and a set of curses came upon this world. Among them was the curse of ''בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם''. This was the introduction of טבע into the world. When ה' gives a punishment, it’s not נקמה, rather it’s מכ''מ. Our job is to be מתקן- the חטא of אדם הראשון was in a tiny way showing a lack of belief in יחוד ה'. To be מתקן it, we have to believe that ה' is the only power. We were thrust into a world of טבע and we must see past the טבע and see the יד ה'. If we do this, we can be מתקן the חטא of אדם הראשון. משל- a person is told to break a barrel but not to let the wine spill. This is a very difficult נסיון.
The מסילת ישרים says that one thing that stops a person from מידת החסידות is worries in עניני עוה''ז. What stops those worries? Having בטחון- completely relying on ה' because you know that you have nothing to worry about. ה' gives you what He decided with or without your השתדלות. But,מועיל אלא שהשתדלות מוכרח'' ''לא שהשתדלות- it doesn’t help but rather it’s necessary. השתדלות is a tax. After you have paid the necessary tax, now you’ll get what you need. So who pays extra taxes? No one! So just fill your חיוב and you’ll be finished with it, because you’ll only get what ה' wanted.
What is the minimum amount of השתדלות? There’s a כלל that the amount that you’re required to do is dependant on your מדרגה in בטחון. Someone who is still just learning בטחון has to do what the world considers normal השתדלות. What’s considered more than normal השתדלות? If you live normally but want to live luxuriously, work more hours or change professions. In this case, you won’t gain anything but you’ll lose time for עבודת ה'. We don’t want to be on the level of just learning השתדלות; assuming that we are on a higher level and keep telling ourselves that it’s not our work that’s doing this but rather ה', then our השתדלות that is necessary is minimized.
How do we know if we’re ready for that? Ask yourself, “What would happen if I didn’t do this השתדלות and I didn’t achieve my goal? Would I regret that I didn’t do it or would I accept it?” If you wouldn’t regret it then you’re on that level. But if you’re not on that level yet, don’t minimize your השתדלות so that you won’t be regretful of a מצוה. The highest level is not really anyone’s level today but it’s total, one hundred percent trust in ה' and one doesn’t need to do any השתדלות.
חובות הלבבות If you do too much השתדלות and rely too much on it, then ה' will leave you and won’tbe משגיח on you. He’ll leave you in the hands of your own השתדלות. That’s the worst situation to be in in life. What about someone who thinks that he could rely on both his בטחון and his השתדלות? One can’t trust in both ה' and his השתדלות. If he does, he’ll lose the little amount of בטחון that he does have.
We also have a special weapon- תפילה. If we concentrate on what we were saying, we would realize that it isn’t השתדלות, rather ה' that gives us all of our needs. For example, if someone was sick and they said ''רפאנו'', they would realize that ה' is the One who heals.
What is בטחון? A בעל בטחון is tranquil and knows in his heart that he can rely on ה', that everything that ה' does for him is for his good. The basis for this is
1. ה'’s יכולת
2. ה' knows that which is good for us.
משך חכמה Tells us that we have to believe that:
1. ה' is constantly looking out for His creations and giving us everything that we need. He is also looking to protect us from any lacks such as sickness or misfortune.
2. He has the ability to do good.
3. He knows everything that’s inside of us and what’s good for us.
What comes out from here then is that ה' is looking our for our good and feels our good more than we ourselves do. A person will have מנוחת הנפש and won’t do more השתדלות than necessary because he knows that ה' will give him what’s good for him. If we don’t get what we want, obviously it’s not for our good.
Seven qualities that if a person has, you can trust him completely:
1. If a person cares about you and loves you, he is מרחם on you.
2. He doesn’t forget about you for a second- he’s constantly looking out for you and looking to see what good he can do for you.
3. Has the ability to do whatever is good for you.
4. Has to know what’s good for you on a fundamental level, not just on a superficial level.
5. Has to be with you from when you’re born until the day you die.
6. No one can do anything to you besides for this entity.
7. This entity has to be the ultimate בעל חסד- not only on those who are deserving but also on those who aren’t deserving.
No person has all seven qualities, only ה' does. It’s impossible that something can happen to you that’s bad. Everything is covered by one of the seven qualities. We have to internalize all these principles and once we have integrated them, we’ll be able to submit to ה' completely. ''כוס ישועות אשא ובשם ה' אקרא'', ''צרה ויגון אמצא ובשם ה' אקרא'' because we know that everything that ה' does is good for me.
Our עבודה in בטחון-את עצמו לרשותו'' ''וימסר- submitting ourselves to ה'’s control. This is very hard because everyone wants to feel that they’re in control of their lives. בטחון means to realize that everything is being controlled by ה' who only wants that which is good for us. ה' controls everyone, even those that don’t submit. Every breath is dependant on ה'- ''על חיינו המסורים בידך''. What difference does it make if we submit or not- ה' is controlling anyway?!
1. When we do succeed in submitting, it brings a feeling of tremendous מנוחת הנפש. The difference between one who submits and one who doesn’t is a life of מנוחת הנפש or a life of stress. As long as someone feels that he’s in the driver’s seat, every obstacle makes him worried and scared. If you know that ה' is in the driver’s seat and you’re just the passenger, you don’t have to worry.
2. When someone submits, ה' will lead him with extra special השגחה פרטית because ''ה' צלך''.
Often, בטחון can bring about ישועות because of the extra השגחה פרטית he has. Sources:
1. ''הבוטח בה' חסד יסובבני'' –תהלים
2. ''ובוטח בה' ישוגב'' –משלי. ר' יונה says that ישוגב מן הצרה שכר הבטחון- אע''פ שהצרה ראוי' לבוא עליו ישוגב מן הצרה בשבר הבטחון
3. אוה''ח in בשלח- ב''י find themselves in a difficult situation. They davened to ה' and ה' told משה not to daven, but to go into the ים סוף. Why did ה' say not to daven? Sometimes, a person can be in such a strong צרה that even with תפילות he can’t be helped because of the testimony against him. Only בטחון will help.
When a yid is in a difficult situation, בטחון dictates that he should:
1. Think that it’s from ה'. If it’s from ה' it must be good for him. Sometimes, depending on the level of the situation, this alone might be enough. Sometimes the reason a person is put in a situation is to test him to see how he handles it.
2. A person hopes and prays to ה'. He asks ה' that it should be good in a way that he can see that it’s good= ישועה. Also included is trusting that ה' could bring about the ישועה in an instant. In a difficult situation, one must be afraid of ה' and of his חטאים- by יעקב, it says ''וירא יעקב מאד''- he was afraid because of his חטאים. Despite this, we have to have בטחון though.
Why תפילה?
1. The world is often set up in a way where ה' has something that’s waiting for you, but you have to daven, like by אדם.
2. We daven for ourselves- to strengthen our בטחון, to remind and drill into ourselves that everything is from ה'.
3. If we believe that a צרה is good for us, why are we davening that it should be taken away? AS a result of our תפילה and בטחון, sometimes we will then have achieved the point of our צרה.
When in a צרה, one should always daven, but תפילה must come with an amendment- if as a result of my shortsightedness and foolishness, please don’t give me what isn’t good for me. What You with Your ultimate בחירה choose for me is far better than what I could choose for myself.
The final מדרגה in בטחון is to leave ourselves in ה'’s hands, just like דוד said in תהלים, ''אם לא שוויתי ודוממתי נפשי כגמל עלי אמו''- I imagine myself as a nursing infant in its mother’s arms. Why is this the ultimate symbol of בטחון? Because he is secure and has nothing to worry about. We have to feel secure in ה'’s arms and accept that everything that he gives us is for our good.
ו דעהו- דע אותו
יישר ארחתיך- יעשה שדרכים שלך יהי ישרים
ח''זל tell us about this פסוק that one of the חכמים asked, ''איזהי פרשה קטנה שכל גופי
התורה תלוין בה?''. The קיום of the whole תורה is dependant on our קיום of this פסוק.
ר' יונה sheet How does it connect to בטחון? Any endeavor of yours, you have to remember and have
תקוה toward ה' that he’ll help you because it isn’t in your hands. What does this פסוק come to add? There could be someone who has בטחון- he has reached שלמות in פסוק ה- a very high level. Something could still be missing though- when it comes to little details, he doesn’t think about בטחון. This פסוק is telling us בכל דרכיך- in every detail of everything that you’re doing, no matter how small, you have to have בטחון.
When someone is in a big, risky situation, he knows that he needs ה'’s help and turns to Him. Whey don’t we ask ה' to help with the small things?
1. ע''פ טבע it works out.
2. Very often, we don’t care if it works out or not, and why should we bother ה' with such small things? Some also feel that if they ask for help with small things, they’ll use up their זכותים that they want for the bigger things.
משל- rich man and poor man- ''השלך על ה'...''. Who do you think is doing all the small things and taking care of details? He does it anyway, so we should acknowledge that we need ה'’s help. When it comes to small things, you don’t have to worry about using up your זכותים. If ה' has to change טבע for you, then you could worry. When you turn to ה', you get more זכותים. This פסוק tells us that we have to learn to turn to ה', even by small things. There is no such thing as something happening on its own- it’s חסד ה'.
Since this is true down to the smallest action, we are מחויב to turn to ה'. When it’s a question of whether or not we should turn to ה', it turns into something much bigger. Whether or not your cake flops isn’t such a big deal, but whether or not you turn to ה' is a big deal. By not acknowledging ה', you’re shortchanging your עבודת ה'. If you did turn to ה' before, it doesn’t matter because it’s a small thing but it does matter because you strengthened your בטחון and you get tremendous שכר.
This פסוק is the key of our בטחון and therefore the key to our entire קיום המצוות- שכל גופי התורה תלוין בה. Our entire relationship with ה' is dependant on this פסוק- a constant hint to remember ה'. It’s a high מדרגה, but it’s not so hard to do.
If you’re מקיים the first half of the פסוק, the second half will be fulfilled- there’s a much greater chance that you’ll succeed when you remember that it’s only through ה' that you’ll be successful.
Two practical ways to bring it into our lives:
1. שפתי חיים recommends three times a day to turn to ה' with a small request. If it does work out, realize that it’s from ה' and thank Him.
2. Think about what you’re saying when you say ב''ה, בע''ה, ע''ה.
מ''ד -בכל דרכיך In everything that you do, ask yourself how it’ll bring a benefit to your עבודת
ה', and you’ll be מצליח.
רמב''ם It shouldn’t be in a person’s heart that he’s working to make money or eating because he’s hungry, rather he’s doing everything so that he’ll be able to serve ה'. The highest level is that everything you do should be לשם שמים. A person who does this, it comes out that he’s constantly serving ה' no matter what he’s doing- ''וכל מעשיך יהיו לש''ש''.
מאירי ''ואהבת את ה' אלקיך בכל לבביך''- with your יצה'ר and your יצר הטוב. How does someone do this? Things which we think would be in the domain of the יצה'ר, have כונה that you’re doing it לש''ש and it’s like you’re serving ה' with his יצר הטוב.
ח''ח A person who’s מקים this will get שכר for the גשמיות. Why? משל- Master has to pay his servant for travel time. נמשל- if we have the right כונה, we’re actively serving ה' so we get שכר.
We tend to think that life is divided into two:
1. רוחניות- עבודת ה'
2. Everything else.
This פסוק is telling us that we have to have one goal in life and everything falls under that category- עבודת ה'. We don’t’ have to think the whole time that we’re going in the way of ה' so long as our goal is עבודת ה' and you don’t get sidetracked. Also make sure that it doesn’t go against the רצון ה'.
In life, two people can be doing the exact same thing however one will be doing עבודת ה' and one won’t.
Someone that ה' blessed him with שכל should use it by getting into his heart that ה' sent us on a mission in this world- to be מקים his תורה and מצוות- dot the רצון ה'. The highest level in עבודת ה' is someone who doesn’t make a move unless it gets him to his goal. He’ll get the ultimate joy in עוה''ב. משל- we’re like a servant of ה'. If we are faithful, we will be thinking about the mission the whole time. נמשל- At the end of one’s life, he should be able to say that he carried out his mission faithfully.
I’m missing a little bit at the end… I’ll have it a lil l8r, im just running out… if u want it, call me and I’ll gladly fax it 2 u.. my number is 362.5844. Good Luck studying and enjoy!!
Dinim
ראש השנה is יום הדין- it’s a scary and frightening moment. We should at least know that there’s something to be scared about and have בטחון in ה'- without His רחמים, it won’t go. It can be compared to the boys in Japan waiting for their trial. ה' is the sweetest person, but there are people around Him so He has no choice.
We don’t blow the שופר this year. It says that somewhere where they don’t blow the שופר, they should expect a tragedy to come because they don’t have the protection that blowing it brings upon us. By taking away this took, we are showing that we are being מוסר נפש for שבת.
These 10 days between ראש השנה and יו''כ are known as the עשרת ימי תשובה. חז''ל discuss the עשי''ת in the גמרא- gives it authority.
These days are specially designated for תשובה. These days start at ראש השנה and culminate at יו''כ- ''בין כסה לעשר''. תשובה isn’t so easy to accomplish most of the time, but it’s easier during the עשי''ת.
דינים on מחילה:
יו''כ has so much קדושה because ה' is מוחל us. ה' is so happy- it’s a big חסד.
We have to think about תשובה on יו''כ:
1. חרטה
2. קבלה על העתיד
3. עזיבת החטא
4. ודוי- it is said ten times. You only have to say it one time to be יוצא, but you must be standing. One should stand with a bowed heart.
There are התירים to take medicine on יו''כ, but you should ask a doctor and רב before using them. Medicine can’t be taken with water and you shouldn’t take chewables.
חמישת עינוים:
1. You shouldn’t wear leather shoes.
2. Fasting- at the end of the fast, even if your father isn’t home, you can say ברוך המבדיל and drink water. If you’re really hungry, you can make your own הבדלה- make sure to take fire from the נר שבת.
3. Washing- only up to the knuckles.
Saying מוריד הטל isn’t as eloquent- it’s a substitute, and when we talk to ה', we want to talk in the most eloquent manner.
If you didn’t say משיב הרוח:
1. If you finished the whole ש''ע, you have to repeat. Take three steps back (putting the שכינה in front of you) and say ה' שפתי.
2. If you caught yourself in the middle of ש''ע, you go back to ה' שפתי, but you don’t take the three steps back. If you were in the middle of שם ה', say ''למדני חוקיך''.
3. If you caught yourself before ''ברוך אתה'' of that ברכה, even if you said מוריד הטל, you go back. If you said the שם ה', you only go back if you didn’t say anything. IF you got up to ''מחיה'', finish the ברכה and say משיב הרוח over there.
יעלה ויבא is in the ברכה of הודאה.
If you forgot יעלה ויבא:
1. If you finished the whole ש''ע, you have to repeat.
2. If you didn’t yet finish ש''ע, you go back to the beginning of the ברכה of רצה because you have ruined that ברכה.
3. If you said ''ותחזנה...אתה'', you go back. Once you said the שם ה', you finish the ברכה and say it then.
The תורה warns us about שבת 12 times. Why so many?
The תורה doesn’t tell what the מלאכות are, so how do we know? It’s מסורה from משהand חז''ל knew it from קבלה and they found a רמז in the תורה- in ויקהל and פקודי it talks about the מלאכת המשכן.
What’s an אב and what’s a תולדה? An אב is how the מלאכה was done it the משכן. The תולדה is just as important as the אב. Why are they called by these names? Because the אב is the concept. Each of the אב מלאכות have a purpose, and this is how we derive the תולדה. An activity that has the same תכלית as the אב is a תולדה.
What’s the definition of בורר- what’s the תכלית? Sorting from a mixture of types.
In order for something to be בורר, it has to have things:
1. It has to be a mixture.
2. In the mixture, there have to be types.
If you have lemon and lime candies, it would be considered a mixture because the two different flavors mean there are two types.
What isn’t an assortment? If you have a pot of soup with chicken and vegetables, in this pot there are different types, but they aren’t mixed. If you wanted to remove the chicken and vegetables from the soup to make it clear, you would be allowed to because there’s no mixture. If there were noodles in the soup, that would be a mixture.
You can have a mixture but not have two types, like if you have a plate of cookies, and some are bigger than others. This wouldn’t be בורר.
What’s a mixture? You wash silverware on Friday night, and it’s all mixed together after you wash it. Now you want to set the table and you want to take out the knives. Every time you remove something from the mixture, you’re sorting types. This is an act of בורר. If the silverware was divided into compartments, you would be allowed to remove items from the compartments and set the table.
If you have different types that are a mixture, there is a התיר to separate when you follow the following conditions:
1. אוכל מן פסולת- take the good from the bad.
2. יד- separate by hand.
3. מיד- do it before you eat, in the time frame of סמוך לסעודה.
If you’re going somewhere and want to set the table before you leave, what do you do? If אי''ם doesn’t work for you, you could spread the silverware out, so that it isn’t a mixture anymore.
Two other methods of getting out of בורר:
1. You can take some of the good with the bad that you want to remove.
2. פסולת that blocks access to the food is considered part of the food, like by a peel or wrapper. (Questionable התיר)
How can you remove bones from fish or seeds from watermelon?
1. Remove the פסולת for immediate use. This is called דרך אכילה- remove the bones while it’s still in your mouth.
2. מיד לפה- since it’s on my plate in front of me, it’s considered דרך אכילה, so I can remove the bones from the fish. This applies when feeding children who can’t remove the bones the first way.
טוחן= grinding.
1. אב- crushing grain.
2. תכלית- breaking down a large particle into smaller particles for a different kind of use. The purpose can’t be achieved in its original form.
Included in the תכלית is breaking down everything else, not just grain. For example, gravel for laying down a sidewalk- big rocks wouldn’t do the job, but smaller pebbles can.
The fact that you’re making something smaller isn’t טוחן. There is no standard of smallness with the מלאכה of טוחן. The תכלית is to achieve something significant. By giving it a new use or purpose, that defines it as טוחן.
When you chop vegetables for a salad, you’re giving them a new use. Mashing a banana would also be giving it a new use. The חזון איש says that mashing is טוחן and רב משה says that it isn’t- טוחן is only for breaking something down into different units. Can one break down a banana for a small child?
1. חזון איש- yes, but with a שנוי.
2. רב משה- yes, but we should do like the חזון איש.
There are four exemptions to טוחן, and you only need one:
1. אין טוחן אא בגדולי קרקע- food that doesn’t grow from the ground, טוחן doesn’t apply to it:
a. Eggs
b. Liver
c. Meat
d. Fish
e. Cheese
2. סמוך לסועדה- even something that’s גדולי קרקע, the מיד from בורר applies here. Not all פוסקים agree on this, so we try to combine it with another exemption. A salad is hard to find another exemption for, so we use a שנוי, such as cutting bigger pieces.
3. אין טחינה אחר טחינה- when the original טוחן is totally obliterated, there is no more טוחן. If you got mud on your clothing, you can’t scrape it off because there’s a cycle and you’re bringing it back to its original form. Instead, you should wash it off. If there is a lot of mud, be careful because it may be לש.
4. שנוי- do it in an awkward way. This is usually used with another condition when you need a היתר.
עובדא דחול- you can’t use a device used for mashing or grinding on שבת even if you have the exemptions.
It doesn’t discuss taking medicine in the תורה, so how could חז''ל make it אסור? חז''ל were given permission to make certain barriers so that we shouldn’t be עובר on the תורה- ''עשו משמרת למשמרתי''.
In the old days, they used herbs for medication. They used to crush them, so the איסור of taking medicine on שבת was instituted. Any kind of therapy is included. רפואה is that which rectifies a malady of any kind.
רפואה isn’t restricted on everyone:
1. מיחוש בעלמה- a common place malady, that doesn’t make you very sick. Included in this would be aches and pains. It’s אסור to take medicine.
2. חולה כל גופו- not to bad, but confines someone in bed and affects his whole body, like a flu. One can take medicine.
3. פקוח נפש- not necessarily life threatening, but even something that could be life threatening, like diabetes. Not only should one take medicine, you’re מחוייב to be מחלל שבת for it.
For all children under the age of five or six or that are very frail, any of their needs are considered חולה כל גופו.
Two questions about the איסור of רפואה:
1. Who is included in this איסור? Only a מיחוש בעלמה would be included in this איסור. If someone isn’t sure if they’re considered a מיחוש בעלמה or חולה כל גופו, they can be מקיל and take the medicine.
2. What exactly is אסור? Any kinds of therapy, not just substance therapy. If a doctor tells someone to do physical therapy, he can do it even on שבת.
One can’t take vitamins on שבת, but there is an exemption for רפואה:
1. מאכל בריאים- food for healthy people. An example would be tea. Even if one is taking it for their sore throat, and wouldn’t usually drink it, they can still drink it, because it’s food.
2. דרך בריאים- since during the winter people put cream on even before their hands get chapped, if someone has chapped hands, he can put on cream as long as he doesn’t smear it.
You can’t mix רפואה into food on שבת, but you can do it before שבת and use it on שבת.
A person is allowed to take medicine to prevent himself from becoming a חולה כל גופו. An example of this would be to take Tums so you don’t get heartburn.
מרקד means sifting. Why would one sift? In order to separate the good in the flour from the bad. What would be considered bad in flour? Bran, pebbles or other matter that got mixed in must be separated from the finer flour. The idea of מרקד is separating the good from the bad in a mixture by passing the mixture through a screen.
The אב מלאכה is sifting flour.
When it comes to sifting confectioner sugar over a cake, the lumps in the sugar can be crushed because אין טוחן אחר הטוחן, and the sugar can be sifted over the cake.
If there are clumps in the salt or sugar shakers, it would be considered מרקד to put rice in the shaker and use it.
Sand in a sand box- if it rained, and the sand is clumpy, there could be problems. If the sand is dry, and someone is playing with a sand sifter, they can’t use it.
מצה meal also can’t be sifted because there might be parts in it that shouldn’t be there.
A תולדה of מרקד is משמר מסמנן- filtering sediment in a fluid. In the city, many people have water filters because there are undesired objects in the water. This water that has been filtered is אסור to drink, even though some פוסקים hold otherwise. This water can be used to wash your hands with or do the dishes with.
There are three levels of mixtures:
1. צלולים- clear, clean. This is what we drink
2. עכורים קצת. Most of the שאלות are on this.
3. עכורים- muddy and dirty- liquids that are turbid and undrinkable. You probably won’t run into this on שבת.
Passing עכורים through a filter turns it into צלולים.
עכורים: מלאכה מדאוריתא
The water in New York looks clear but it’s not. It’s עכורים only for drinking. Let’s say someone does an oil change- the oil may go into the ground and will eventually reach water. Now there are toxins (=עכורים) in the water, so they filter it. Sometimes bubbles are bugs. It’s עכורים and can’t be filtered on שבת.
צלולים:
Clear enough that people don’t mind drinking. Our water would fall into this category. It’s not אסור to filter it- you can use a filter on your tap. If someone is sensitive to the water, it makes it more עכורים or עכורים קצת, so they shouldn’t use a filter. A mild preference, however, doesn’t make it a problem.
עכורים קצת:
Let’s say water is a drop yellow- it is still drinkable, but we might not want to. It’s אסור to filter it on שבת.
After מרקד, we have flour that’s ready for baking.
Steps of the מלאכה:
1. נתינת מים- when water makes contact with the flour, and the particles of flour cling together.
2. גיבול- this involves mixing the flour with liquid to blend them together.
The תכלית of לש (kneading) is to combine particles of solid into a thick mass with a liquid medium. This can include:
1. Pastes
2. Sand with water→ mud or cement.
There are four kinds of mixtures:
1. בלילה עבה- a thick mixture. This is אסור מדאוריתא.
2. בלילה רכה- a thin, pourable, battler-like mix.
3. דברים נוזלים- a very thin mix that has no density such as coffee. It is permissible to make this on שבת.
4. חתיכות- not an even consistency, like coleslaw. This can be done on שבת.
Pure, ground liver is equivalent in הלכה to flour. If you add liquid to flour, you did לש. If you mix liver with oil, you’re doing גיבול. Liver is already moist, so why are you doing גיבול? Because the natural moisture of the food is considered like it’s dry. There are some התירים for making liver on שבת, such as אין לש אלא בגדולי קרקע.
Chopped liver or chopped eggs that aren’t finely ground- not לש because it’s חתיכות. Because of this, it’s permissible to make cole slaw.
If you want to mix ketchup and mayonnaise, it wouldn’t be אסור because it’s דברים נוזלים.
You can’t make בלילה. In order for something to be considered בלילה, it must have three properties:
1. A combination of solids and liquids mixed together. Mixing honey and mayonnaise wouldn’t be considered בלילה. Mashing a banana also wouldn’t be considered בלילה because the moisture is natural and the natural moisture of the food is considered like it’s dry.
2. Viscosity- it must be thick enough to have the density of viscosity.
3. It has to be an even consistency- particles have blended perfectly with each other. To make a new consistency would be בלילה.
It’s אסור to make baby cereal on שבת unless it’s done with a שנוי.
A שנוי is אסור by a דאוריתא, but not by a דרבנן. Since בלילה רכה is דרבנן, it can be done with a שנוי. A שנוי has to be done in every aspect of the לש:
1. נתינת מים- whatever you normally add first, add it second.
2. גיבול- either mix with the handle of the spoon or finger in a criss-cross motion. You can also put everything in one bowl and then move it from one bowl to another.
A שנוי can be to reverse the normal way- now a days, people usually first put in the liquid then add the powder. If one isn’t sure how he usually does it, he should use he standard שנוי- add the solid first and the liquid second.
Potato flakes start off as a בלילה רכה then thicken and turn into a בלילה עבה.
There are four sections to thisמלאכה :
1. Basic premises.
2. דין of אש and תולדת אש- fire and second hand fire.
3. בישול אחר הבישול- there is no בישול after בישול.
4. גזרות חכמים of בישול.
There’s a מחלוקת over what the אב מלאכה is. If you go according to סדורי דפת, the אב מלאכה is אופה. Most of the ראשונים hold that סדורי דפת is symbolic- there was no מלאכה of אופה, it’s really בישול. But didn’t they bake in the משכן? Yes, but they did many actions that aren’t considered אב מלאכות. Really, מלאכות were functions they did to build the משכן. They did בישול when they boiled the dyes for the יריאות.
Examples of איסורים דרבנן:
1. Blech
2. Not to put cold foods on the blech because of חזרה.
3. Wrapping something hot with a towel.
Definition of the מלאכה: 1. Causing a 2. change in a 3. food or substance by the use of 4. heat.
Basic premises of the מלאכה:
1. בישול
2. צליי'- roasting
3. אופה
4. טיגון- frying
1. בישול- immersed in a hot liquid.
2. צליי'- without liquid or dry heat.
3. אופה- dry heat.
4. טיגון- pan frying or sautéing.
צליי' and בישול is hardening something soft. אופה is softening something hard.
Deep frying something is בישול. When there’s only a little oil, is it בישול or אופה?
We don’t blow the שופר this year. It says that somewhere where they don’t blow the שופר, they should expect a tragedy to come because they don’t have the protection that blowing it brings upon us. By taking away this took, we are showing that we are being מוסר נפש for שבת.
These 10 days between ראש השנה and יו''כ are known as the עשרת ימי תשובה. חז''ל discuss the עשי''ת in the גמרא- gives it authority.
These days are specially designated for תשובה. These days start at ראש השנה and culminate at יו''כ- ''בין כסה לעשר''. תשובה isn’t so easy to accomplish most of the time, but it’s easier during the עשי''ת.
דינים on מחילה:
יו''כ has so much קדושה because ה' is מוחל us. ה' is so happy- it’s a big חסד.
We have to think about תשובה on יו''כ:
1. חרטה
2. קבלה על העתיד
3. עזיבת החטא
4. ודוי- it is said ten times. You only have to say it one time to be יוצא, but you must be standing. One should stand with a bowed heart.
There are התירים to take medicine on יו''כ, but you should ask a doctor and רב before using them. Medicine can’t be taken with water and you shouldn’t take chewables.
חמישת עינוים:
1. You shouldn’t wear leather shoes.
2. Fasting- at the end of the fast, even if your father isn’t home, you can say ברוך המבדיל and drink water. If you’re really hungry, you can make your own הבדלה- make sure to take fire from the נר שבת.
3. Washing- only up to the knuckles.
Saying מוריד הטל isn’t as eloquent- it’s a substitute, and when we talk to ה', we want to talk in the most eloquent manner.
If you didn’t say משיב הרוח:
1. If you finished the whole ש''ע, you have to repeat. Take three steps back (putting the שכינה in front of you) and say ה' שפתי.
2. If you caught yourself in the middle of ש''ע, you go back to ה' שפתי, but you don’t take the three steps back. If you were in the middle of שם ה', say ''למדני חוקיך''.
3. If you caught yourself before ''ברוך אתה'' of that ברכה, even if you said מוריד הטל, you go back. If you said the שם ה', you only go back if you didn’t say anything. IF you got up to ''מחיה'', finish the ברכה and say משיב הרוח over there.
יעלה ויבא is in the ברכה of הודאה.
If you forgot יעלה ויבא:
1. If you finished the whole ש''ע, you have to repeat.
2. If you didn’t yet finish ש''ע, you go back to the beginning of the ברכה of רצה because you have ruined that ברכה.
3. If you said ''ותחזנה...אתה'', you go back. Once you said the שם ה', you finish the ברכה and say it then.
The תורה warns us about שבת 12 times. Why so many?
The תורה doesn’t tell what the מלאכות are, so how do we know? It’s מסורה from משהand חז''ל knew it from קבלה and they found a רמז in the תורה- in ויקהל and פקודי it talks about the מלאכת המשכן.
What’s an אב and what’s a תולדה? An אב is how the מלאכה was done it the משכן. The תולדה is just as important as the אב. Why are they called by these names? Because the אב is the concept. Each of the אב מלאכות have a purpose, and this is how we derive the תולדה. An activity that has the same תכלית as the אב is a תולדה.
What’s the definition of בורר- what’s the תכלית? Sorting from a mixture of types.
In order for something to be בורר, it has to have things:
1. It has to be a mixture.
2. In the mixture, there have to be types.
If you have lemon and lime candies, it would be considered a mixture because the two different flavors mean there are two types.
What isn’t an assortment? If you have a pot of soup with chicken and vegetables, in this pot there are different types, but they aren’t mixed. If you wanted to remove the chicken and vegetables from the soup to make it clear, you would be allowed to because there’s no mixture. If there were noodles in the soup, that would be a mixture.
You can have a mixture but not have two types, like if you have a plate of cookies, and some are bigger than others. This wouldn’t be בורר.
What’s a mixture? You wash silverware on Friday night, and it’s all mixed together after you wash it. Now you want to set the table and you want to take out the knives. Every time you remove something from the mixture, you’re sorting types. This is an act of בורר. If the silverware was divided into compartments, you would be allowed to remove items from the compartments and set the table.
If you have different types that are a mixture, there is a התיר to separate when you follow the following conditions:
1. אוכל מן פסולת- take the good from the bad.
2. יד- separate by hand.
3. מיד- do it before you eat, in the time frame of סמוך לסעודה.
If you’re going somewhere and want to set the table before you leave, what do you do? If אי''ם doesn’t work for you, you could spread the silverware out, so that it isn’t a mixture anymore.
Two other methods of getting out of בורר:
1. You can take some of the good with the bad that you want to remove.
2. פסולת that blocks access to the food is considered part of the food, like by a peel or wrapper. (Questionable התיר)
How can you remove bones from fish or seeds from watermelon?
1. Remove the פסולת for immediate use. This is called דרך אכילה- remove the bones while it’s still in your mouth.
2. מיד לפה- since it’s on my plate in front of me, it’s considered דרך אכילה, so I can remove the bones from the fish. This applies when feeding children who can’t remove the bones the first way.
טוחן= grinding.
1. אב- crushing grain.
2. תכלית- breaking down a large particle into smaller particles for a different kind of use. The purpose can’t be achieved in its original form.
Included in the תכלית is breaking down everything else, not just grain. For example, gravel for laying down a sidewalk- big rocks wouldn’t do the job, but smaller pebbles can.
The fact that you’re making something smaller isn’t טוחן. There is no standard of smallness with the מלאכה of טוחן. The תכלית is to achieve something significant. By giving it a new use or purpose, that defines it as טוחן.
When you chop vegetables for a salad, you’re giving them a new use. Mashing a banana would also be giving it a new use. The חזון איש says that mashing is טוחן and רב משה says that it isn’t- טוחן is only for breaking something down into different units. Can one break down a banana for a small child?
1. חזון איש- yes, but with a שנוי.
2. רב משה- yes, but we should do like the חזון איש.
There are four exemptions to טוחן, and you only need one:
1. אין טוחן אא בגדולי קרקע- food that doesn’t grow from the ground, טוחן doesn’t apply to it:
a. Eggs
b. Liver
c. Meat
d. Fish
e. Cheese
2. סמוך לסועדה- even something that’s גדולי קרקע, the מיד from בורר applies here. Not all פוסקים agree on this, so we try to combine it with another exemption. A salad is hard to find another exemption for, so we use a שנוי, such as cutting bigger pieces.
3. אין טחינה אחר טחינה- when the original טוחן is totally obliterated, there is no more טוחן. If you got mud on your clothing, you can’t scrape it off because there’s a cycle and you’re bringing it back to its original form. Instead, you should wash it off. If there is a lot of mud, be careful because it may be לש.
4. שנוי- do it in an awkward way. This is usually used with another condition when you need a היתר.
עובדא דחול- you can’t use a device used for mashing or grinding on שבת even if you have the exemptions.
It doesn’t discuss taking medicine in the תורה, so how could חז''ל make it אסור? חז''ל were given permission to make certain barriers so that we shouldn’t be עובר on the תורה- ''עשו משמרת למשמרתי''.
In the old days, they used herbs for medication. They used to crush them, so the איסור of taking medicine on שבת was instituted. Any kind of therapy is included. רפואה is that which rectifies a malady of any kind.
רפואה isn’t restricted on everyone:
1. מיחוש בעלמה- a common place malady, that doesn’t make you very sick. Included in this would be aches and pains. It’s אסור to take medicine.
2. חולה כל גופו- not to bad, but confines someone in bed and affects his whole body, like a flu. One can take medicine.
3. פקוח נפש- not necessarily life threatening, but even something that could be life threatening, like diabetes. Not only should one take medicine, you’re מחוייב to be מחלל שבת for it.
For all children under the age of five or six or that are very frail, any of their needs are considered חולה כל גופו.
Two questions about the איסור of רפואה:
1. Who is included in this איסור? Only a מיחוש בעלמה would be included in this איסור. If someone isn’t sure if they’re considered a מיחוש בעלמה or חולה כל גופו, they can be מקיל and take the medicine.
2. What exactly is אסור? Any kinds of therapy, not just substance therapy. If a doctor tells someone to do physical therapy, he can do it even on שבת.
One can’t take vitamins on שבת, but there is an exemption for רפואה:
1. מאכל בריאים- food for healthy people. An example would be tea. Even if one is taking it for their sore throat, and wouldn’t usually drink it, they can still drink it, because it’s food.
2. דרך בריאים- since during the winter people put cream on even before their hands get chapped, if someone has chapped hands, he can put on cream as long as he doesn’t smear it.
You can’t mix רפואה into food on שבת, but you can do it before שבת and use it on שבת.
A person is allowed to take medicine to prevent himself from becoming a חולה כל גופו. An example of this would be to take Tums so you don’t get heartburn.
מרקד means sifting. Why would one sift? In order to separate the good in the flour from the bad. What would be considered bad in flour? Bran, pebbles or other matter that got mixed in must be separated from the finer flour. The idea of מרקד is separating the good from the bad in a mixture by passing the mixture through a screen.
The אב מלאכה is sifting flour.
When it comes to sifting confectioner sugar over a cake, the lumps in the sugar can be crushed because אין טוחן אחר הטוחן, and the sugar can be sifted over the cake.
If there are clumps in the salt or sugar shakers, it would be considered מרקד to put rice in the shaker and use it.
Sand in a sand box- if it rained, and the sand is clumpy, there could be problems. If the sand is dry, and someone is playing with a sand sifter, they can’t use it.
מצה meal also can’t be sifted because there might be parts in it that shouldn’t be there.
A תולדה of מרקד is משמר מסמנן- filtering sediment in a fluid. In the city, many people have water filters because there are undesired objects in the water. This water that has been filtered is אסור to drink, even though some פוסקים hold otherwise. This water can be used to wash your hands with or do the dishes with.
There are three levels of mixtures:
1. צלולים- clear, clean. This is what we drink
2. עכורים קצת. Most of the שאלות are on this.
3. עכורים- muddy and dirty- liquids that are turbid and undrinkable. You probably won’t run into this on שבת.
Passing עכורים through a filter turns it into צלולים.
עכורים: מלאכה מדאוריתא
The water in New York looks clear but it’s not. It’s עכורים only for drinking. Let’s say someone does an oil change- the oil may go into the ground and will eventually reach water. Now there are toxins (=עכורים) in the water, so they filter it. Sometimes bubbles are bugs. It’s עכורים and can’t be filtered on שבת.
צלולים:
Clear enough that people don’t mind drinking. Our water would fall into this category. It’s not אסור to filter it- you can use a filter on your tap. If someone is sensitive to the water, it makes it more עכורים or עכורים קצת, so they shouldn’t use a filter. A mild preference, however, doesn’t make it a problem.
עכורים קצת:
Let’s say water is a drop yellow- it is still drinkable, but we might not want to. It’s אסור to filter it on שבת.
After מרקד, we have flour that’s ready for baking.
Steps of the מלאכה:
1. נתינת מים- when water makes contact with the flour, and the particles of flour cling together.
2. גיבול- this involves mixing the flour with liquid to blend them together.
The תכלית of לש (kneading) is to combine particles of solid into a thick mass with a liquid medium. This can include:
1. Pastes
2. Sand with water→ mud or cement.
There are four kinds of mixtures:
1. בלילה עבה- a thick mixture. This is אסור מדאוריתא.
2. בלילה רכה- a thin, pourable, battler-like mix.
3. דברים נוזלים- a very thin mix that has no density such as coffee. It is permissible to make this on שבת.
4. חתיכות- not an even consistency, like coleslaw. This can be done on שבת.
Pure, ground liver is equivalent in הלכה to flour. If you add liquid to flour, you did לש. If you mix liver with oil, you’re doing גיבול. Liver is already moist, so why are you doing גיבול? Because the natural moisture of the food is considered like it’s dry. There are some התירים for making liver on שבת, such as אין לש אלא בגדולי קרקע.
Chopped liver or chopped eggs that aren’t finely ground- not לש because it’s חתיכות. Because of this, it’s permissible to make cole slaw.
If you want to mix ketchup and mayonnaise, it wouldn’t be אסור because it’s דברים נוזלים.
You can’t make בלילה. In order for something to be considered בלילה, it must have three properties:
1. A combination of solids and liquids mixed together. Mixing honey and mayonnaise wouldn’t be considered בלילה. Mashing a banana also wouldn’t be considered בלילה because the moisture is natural and the natural moisture of the food is considered like it’s dry.
2. Viscosity- it must be thick enough to have the density of viscosity.
3. It has to be an even consistency- particles have blended perfectly with each other. To make a new consistency would be בלילה.
It’s אסור to make baby cereal on שבת unless it’s done with a שנוי.
A שנוי is אסור by a דאוריתא, but not by a דרבנן. Since בלילה רכה is דרבנן, it can be done with a שנוי. A שנוי has to be done in every aspect of the לש:
1. נתינת מים- whatever you normally add first, add it second.
2. גיבול- either mix with the handle of the spoon or finger in a criss-cross motion. You can also put everything in one bowl and then move it from one bowl to another.
A שנוי can be to reverse the normal way- now a days, people usually first put in the liquid then add the powder. If one isn’t sure how he usually does it, he should use he standard שנוי- add the solid first and the liquid second.
Potato flakes start off as a בלילה רכה then thicken and turn into a בלילה עבה.
There are four sections to thisמלאכה :
1. Basic premises.
2. דין of אש and תולדת אש- fire and second hand fire.
3. בישול אחר הבישול- there is no בישול after בישול.
4. גזרות חכמים of בישול.
There’s a מחלוקת over what the אב מלאכה is. If you go according to סדורי דפת, the אב מלאכה is אופה. Most of the ראשונים hold that סדורי דפת is symbolic- there was no מלאכה of אופה, it’s really בישול. But didn’t they bake in the משכן? Yes, but they did many actions that aren’t considered אב מלאכות. Really, מלאכות were functions they did to build the משכן. They did בישול when they boiled the dyes for the יריאות.
Examples of איסורים דרבנן:
1. Blech
2. Not to put cold foods on the blech because of חזרה.
3. Wrapping something hot with a towel.
Definition of the מלאכה: 1. Causing a 2. change in a 3. food or substance by the use of 4. heat.
Basic premises of the מלאכה:
1. בישול
2. צליי'- roasting
3. אופה
4. טיגון- frying
1. בישול- immersed in a hot liquid.
2. צליי'- without liquid or dry heat.
3. אופה- dry heat.
4. טיגון- pan frying or sautéing.
צליי' and בישול is hardening something soft. אופה is softening something hard.
Deep frying something is בישול. When there’s only a little oil, is it בישול or אופה?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Pirkei Avos- Mishna Daled
רבי לויטס איש יבנה was from the third generation of תנאים. He learned in יבנה and was a
תלמיד חשוב there.
מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח- על האדם להיות ענו ביותר
שתקות אנוש- שתקות גופו במותו
רמה- תולעים יאכלו את גופו
The משנה is coming to teach us to have ענוה ביותר. We learn this from the words ''מאד מאד''.
Story- the ח''ח didn’t take a donation because he felt that he didn’t fit the title in the letter. It’s not enough to be humble. A person has to be exceedingly humble- ''יפה ענותנותא לישראל''.
רע''ב -מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח in all other מידות we’re supposed to take the middle road- the שביל
הזהב, the דרך האמצעי/ הממוצא. When it comes to ענוה, there’s no such thing as being a little humble or having a little bit of גאוה. We have to be totally humble and have absolutely no גאוה. A person should turn to the opposite extreme of גאוה because:
1. גאוה is exceedingly disgusting.
2. The majority of mankind stumble in גאוה and don’t separate themselves from it, therefore we have to distance ourselves.
ר' יונה How can a person feel a גאוה when at the end the worms will be greater than him?
When it comes to מידות, a person should choose the קו האמצעי, for example in נדיבות and כילות and in אכזריות and רחמנות- we know that ''כל המרחם על האכזר, סופו להיות אכזר על הרחמנים''.
There is no מידה that is worse than גאוה:
1. Most עבירות are enrooted in גאוה. Often, if a person feels too high or mighty, he may be חוטא.
2. גאוה causes שכחת ה'- ''ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלוקיך''.
Sheet There are some מידות that one shouldn’t take the middle road with, but rather go from one
I side to the opposite extreme. One of these מידות is גאוה. A person can’t just be a big ענו, he
has to be שפל רוח. By משה it doesn’t just say that he was an ענו because that’s a level, not a
שבח. It says that he was an ענו מאד. It’s the way of צדיקים:
1. When insulted not to insult back- people would insult back because they’re worried about their כבוד, which shows גאוה.
2. When they hear people embarrass them, they don’t say anything in return.
3. Do it from אהבה.
4. They’re happy with their יסורים.
Someone who does the above four things, he’s like the sun when it comes out. What’s the connection? The moon came before ה' and said, ''איו שני מלכים משתמשים בכתר אחד''. The words of the לבנה were an עלבון to the sun, and ה' made the moon smaller. Those who insult, ''וחרפה תשוב אל חקם''- reflect the בושה on them, and become smaller. The sun, ה' מגדיל כבודו and it became bigger.
ר' זאב Why is there a double לשון of מאד מאד? A person has a נפש הבהמי and a נפש הרוחני. A person
מבאסקאוויץ is able to have גאוה- מצד מעלות נפשו הרוחני. The טענה is giving him a warning- מאד. A person can also feel גאוה- הגשמי מצד מעלות נפשו (pretty hair, big eyes…) so the טענה is giving him a warning- מאד.
פסקי With most מידות, the best דרך is the דרך האמצעית. By ענוה, a person has to be שפל רוח. תלמדי
השל''ה חכמים are considered like ספר תורה חי. We have to have כבוד התורה, therefore we have to have כבוד toward חכמים תלמדי. A תלמיד חכם has to have ענוה, but shouldn’t be שפל רוח because the ציבור has to have כבוד towards him. Story- כתב סופר at his son’s wedding.
רמב''ם What’s a גזירת שוה? When you have one word in the תורה and the same word somewhere
Sheet II else, they become equal. A גזירת שוה is the rule of equality.
1. An עובד ע''ז and a בעל גאווה are equal. Proofs:
a. ''תועבת ה' כל גבה לב''
b. ''ולא חביא תועבה אל ביתך''
From here we can learn that someone who has גסות הרוח, it’s like he serves ע''ז. Story-
ר' אליהו לופיאן repeated the פסוק of ''ולא חביא תועבה אל ביתך'' so that he shouldn’t have גאוה.
2. Someone who has גאוה, it’s like he’s עובר on ג''ע
a. ''תועבת ה' כל גבה לב''
b. ''כי את כל הטועבות אל'', and after it’s מפרט all the אסורים of עריות.
3. Someone who’s a בעל גאווה, it’s as if he’s the idol itself- ''חדלו לכם מן האדם אשר נשמה באפו כי במה נחשב הוא''- withhold from yourself גאוה, that today you’re living but tomorrow you could be gone, because if you don’t, you’re considered like the בָמָה itself.
4. A מתגאה is worthy to be killed, he abuses his right to live- ''אין אני והוא יכול לדור בדירה אחת''.
a. ''ורמי הקומה גדועים''- those that are of elevated status, they have to be destroyed.
b. ''ואשריהם תגדעון''- you have to remove the בעל גאווה just like you have to remove the trees that are used for ע''ז.
5. Haughty people won’t awake by תחית המתים. We learn this פסוק from ישעיהו- ''הקיצו ורננו כל שכני עפר''- only those that wereשכני עפר in their lifetime will awaken.
רש''י We always have to keep in mind that we were created from earth and we end up back in the earth. If a person frames his mind with this reasoning, which is the מסובב, he’ll acquire the effect- ''מאד מאד...''.
נודע ''יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו''- the גמרא tells us that when משיח comes, ה' will שחט the יצה''ר. The צדיקים will rejoice because the יצה''ר will appear to them like a huge mountain and they’ll rejoice that they were able to scale it. The רשעים will cry from frustration because the יצה''ר will appear to them as a hair strand and they’ll be upset that even that they couldn’t conquer. Man’s hope is to conquer his יצה''ר and withstand the temptation of being חוטא. The means of doing so is reminding one’s self about the יום המיתה that it strengthens his ענוה- who am I to be mean to someone else or be חוטא before ה'.
תוספות תקוה= קו מדה. Throughout our lives, a person can do great things and take credit. We can allow גאוה to seep into the realm of our accomplishments. The measuring rod throughout the course of our lives is our מעשים, but a person has to measure his מעשים against the רמה. The earthworm is מחי' us- it loosens up the soil so nutrients can permeate the ground. Also in the fall, the earthworm decomposes leaves, which makes fertilizer, which we need to sustain us. When a person does a מעשה נורא, you should condition your mind and say ''תקות אנוש רימה''.
כנסת רמה is from the לשון of ''למה רמיתני''- it’s a לשון of deceit. It says in משלי, ''רבות מחשבות...''. ה' carries out all the plans of man. All man’s hopes are שקר and only what ה' wants will happen. How humbling to man that no matter how hard you plan, only what ה' wants will happen.
חתם When a person goes up after 120, he’ll be asked questions. The סניגרs and קטיגרs will be standing there- ''אוי לנו מיום הדן ואוי לנו מיום התוכחה''. The person may try to come up with a פתחון פה- my יצה''ר attacked me with renewed vigor every day, like a strong lion. I was like a נמלה compared to him. Man’s whole hope to come out victorious on the יום הדין will only be fulfilled if he led his life like a רמה- conducted himself with ענוה.
יכהן פאר The גמרא in ברכות tells us ''קשה רמה למת כמחט בבשר החי''- just like a needle pricks live flesh, similarly the רמה that eats his flesh will prick. A person has a גוף and a נשמה, and a רוח is מיחד the two so that the רמה somehow pricks. To the degree that during your lifetime you prick your friend, the רמה will prick you in your קבר- ''במדה שאדם מודד מודדין לו''. In order not to have the prick of the רמה, we have to be ''מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח''- someone that’s an ענו won’t be a בעל גאוה and prick his friend.
ר' בונים A person has to lead his life with the imagination that before him are to pockets. In one of them is a paper that says ''ואנכי עפר ועפר'' and in the other is a note that says ''בשבילי נברא העולם''. How can we maintain a balance of the two? One of the בעלי מוסר said that if you don’t know your shortcomings, it’s a פחד but if you don’t know your values, it’s a פחד שבפחד. A person has to realize that his מעלות are from ה' and that you have them in order to serve Him.
אור יהל When משה came to be מנחם אבל to אהרן when נדב and אביהו died, he said, “there’s a פסוק that says that ה'’s משכן will be sanctified by His honor”. This can be understood to mean by His honorable ones. משה said, “I thought it would be either of us but now I see that it’s through נדב and אביהו so they’re greater than us”.
Why would משה, who was the ענו מכל אדם, say that he thought that it would be him who was chosen- isn’t this גאוה? משל- a king says to one of his servants that he wants to honor one of his קרובים and the servant assumes it’s him. If you don’t know the values that ה' gave you, you’re not an ענו, but a fool. So what is an ענו? You know what you have but you know that it’s not yours. It’s ה'’s and He’s given you the ability.
So it’s not that משה said, “I’m so great,” rather that ה' gave him this כח to be his קרוב. He recognized his מעלות and חסרונות and that they were from ה'.
So why are we still מתגאה and think that we are superior? There’s a פסוק, ''וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך''. The source of דעת is ה'. It’s the חלק אלוקים ממעל. The נשמה is the דעת as it says, ''ויפח באפו נשמת חיים ויהי לנפש חיה''- ה' made אדם alive with the נשמה and made him into a נפש חיה- a רוח ממללא (because our דעות are expressed through speech). So our נשמה contains our דעת and it’s up in שמים because the נשמות come from under the כסא הכבוד, so that’s ''וידעת היום''. What’s your לב? It’s the חלק הנפש בגוף האדם- a physical housing for the נפש. The גוף comes from the ארץ. So to transfer between ''וידעת היום'' and ''והשבות אל לבבך'', the דעת has to travel from שמים to ארץ. You have to work very hard to do this- you have to do it ברגילות to make it really travel the distance.
Don’t have גאוה- you have a כח, but don’t be מתגאה over it because it’s not yours. A ת''ח also can’t have גאוה because everything he has is from ה'- ''והחכמה מאין תמצא''. A ת''ח without מידות is worse off than a carcass.
משה knew that he had כוחות, but he recognized that they were from ה'.
Now, ר' יוחנן בן ברוקא discusses the ענין of חלול ה'. He was the תלמיד of ר' יהושע בן חנני' (say about his mother ''אשרי יולדתו''). He lived in the third generation of תנאים. He said that one who is מחלל ש''ש privately will get punished in public and ה' is מתיחס with the מזיד and the שוגג the same way when it comes to the עון חלול ה', therefore it’s a very severe עון.
The מצוה of קידוש ה' as an עשה is ''ונקדשת בתוך ב''י'' and the עבירה of חלול ה' as a לאו is ''לא
תחללו את שם קדשי''
There are three עבירות that are יהרג ועל יעבור:
1. ע''ז
2. ג''ע
3. ש''ד
People were created for one reason- to serve ה'. If we’re not ready to give up our lives for Him then we’re not totally given over to Him. We have to be ready to be מוסר נפש for ה' completely. When there’s a time of שמד, you must give up your life for any מצוה in the תורה. If the מעביר (one who’s forcing someone to transgress) is doing it for his הנאה, it’s more lenient then if he would be doing it just to show ה'. It’s also more lenient if it’s in private than public. What are the דינים?
1. ג' עבירות חמורות-יהרג ועל יעבור
2. בשעת השמד- יהרג ועל יעבור
3. Not בשעת השמד, in private, solely for the הנאה of the מעביר- יעבר ואל יהרג
4. Not בשעת השמד, in private, למען ההעברה- יעבר ואל יהרג
5. Not בשעת השמד, in public, solely for the הנאה of the מעביר- יעבר ואל יהרג
6. Not בשעת השמד, in front of at least ten men, למען ההעברה- יהרג ועל יעבור
יהרג ועל יעבור is upholding a קדיש ה'. A קדיש ה' is required for everyone to do. The only thing to be מכפר on a חלול ה' is:
1. תשובה
2. יו''כ
3. יסורים
4. Only after all that, מיתה.
רמב''ם Someone who is known to be a גדול בתורה andמפורסם בחסידות who does something this is not anעבירה but something that’s inappropriate for him to do, it’ll cause a חלול ה'. For example:
1. Not paying up immediately
2. Joining theעמי הארץ inקלות ראש
3. Speaking in a way that’s notבנחת
4. Acting withכעס andמחלוקת
All this is worse and worse according to yourמדרגה . Instead, we have to do good things that will make people be impressed with you and people will want to be like you. That’s a.קדוש ה' Story- theח''ח wanted to make a birthday party when he turned eighty in order to make a קדוש ה'. Story- ר' נחום הרודנה fell in gutter while collectingצדקה and didn’t want to die so as not to make a חלול ה'.
ת''י -כה Not everyone is included in this in נפרעין ממנו בגלוי. For example, there is a person that תקפו יצרו- he gave intoתאוה but wasn’t חוטא להכעיס. He can’t beעומד the נסיון but he has בושה, so he does it in private. He gets paid back in private. If this person sins in public, he gets paid back in public. Who is theמשנה talking about? Someone who is פושט טלפיו כחזיר– pretends that he’sכשר when he really isn’t. He is aחונף and hypocritical. He isאחד בפה ואחד בלב. He isחוטא andמחלל ש''ש in private intentionally to trick people- he’s מחכיש ה'. But in public, he acts like aצדיק because he’sחס on his כבד. He will get paid back in public even though he wasחוטא in private. They everyone will know that he’s really not a צדיק.
תוספת יו''ט What does it mean that ''ואחד שוגג אחד מזיד בחלול ה' ''? The שוגג is more lenient than the מזיד so it can’t be the same punishment for both. Where it says ''אחד'', id doesn’t mean the same punishment but that it’s both punished in public.
''חלול'' is from the ל' of חול, חולין- regular, a חסרון in קדושה. Someone who makes a חלול ה' acts in a חול way to ה'.
רוח חיים חלולים means hollow, so that’s what חלול means here.
A person who says that in a certain aspect of his life ה' isn’t there is מחלל ש''ש במחשבה because ''מלא כל הארץ כבודו''. Even every footstep we take is a דבר רוחני.
Sheet II Make ה'’s name beloved onto others- וְאִהַבְתָּ, so that ש''ש should become beloved through your life. A person should learn תשבע''פ and תשבכת''ב. He should serve a ת''ח so that he can see him live. You should also act nicely to others so that they’ll say, ''אשרי... אתפאר''. Someone who learns תורה and serves a ת''ח but doesn’t conduct himself honestly and act like a mensch, people will say on him, ''אוי...יצאו''.
תלמיד חשוב there.
מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח- על האדם להיות ענו ביותר
שתקות אנוש- שתקות גופו במותו
רמה- תולעים יאכלו את גופו
The משנה is coming to teach us to have ענוה ביותר. We learn this from the words ''מאד מאד''.
Story- the ח''ח didn’t take a donation because he felt that he didn’t fit the title in the letter. It’s not enough to be humble. A person has to be exceedingly humble- ''יפה ענותנותא לישראל''.
רע''ב -מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח in all other מידות we’re supposed to take the middle road- the שביל
הזהב, the דרך האמצעי/ הממוצא. When it comes to ענוה, there’s no such thing as being a little humble or having a little bit of גאוה. We have to be totally humble and have absolutely no גאוה. A person should turn to the opposite extreme of גאוה because:
1. גאוה is exceedingly disgusting.
2. The majority of mankind stumble in גאוה and don’t separate themselves from it, therefore we have to distance ourselves.
ר' יונה How can a person feel a גאוה when at the end the worms will be greater than him?
When it comes to מידות, a person should choose the קו האמצעי, for example in נדיבות and כילות and in אכזריות and רחמנות- we know that ''כל המרחם על האכזר, סופו להיות אכזר על הרחמנים''.
There is no מידה that is worse than גאוה:
1. Most עבירות are enrooted in גאוה. Often, if a person feels too high or mighty, he may be חוטא.
2. גאוה causes שכחת ה'- ''ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלוקיך''.
Sheet There are some מידות that one shouldn’t take the middle road with, but rather go from one
I side to the opposite extreme. One of these מידות is גאוה. A person can’t just be a big ענו, he
has to be שפל רוח. By משה it doesn’t just say that he was an ענו because that’s a level, not a
שבח. It says that he was an ענו מאד. It’s the way of צדיקים:
1. When insulted not to insult back- people would insult back because they’re worried about their כבוד, which shows גאוה.
2. When they hear people embarrass them, they don’t say anything in return.
3. Do it from אהבה.
4. They’re happy with their יסורים.
Someone who does the above four things, he’s like the sun when it comes out. What’s the connection? The moon came before ה' and said, ''איו שני מלכים משתמשים בכתר אחד''. The words of the לבנה were an עלבון to the sun, and ה' made the moon smaller. Those who insult, ''וחרפה תשוב אל חקם''- reflect the בושה on them, and become smaller. The sun, ה' מגדיל כבודו and it became bigger.
ר' זאב Why is there a double לשון of מאד מאד? A person has a נפש הבהמי and a נפש הרוחני. A person
מבאסקאוויץ is able to have גאוה- מצד מעלות נפשו הרוחני. The טענה is giving him a warning- מאד. A person can also feel גאוה- הגשמי מצד מעלות נפשו (pretty hair, big eyes…) so the טענה is giving him a warning- מאד.
פסקי With most מידות, the best דרך is the דרך האמצעית. By ענוה, a person has to be שפל רוח. תלמדי
השל''ה חכמים are considered like ספר תורה חי. We have to have כבוד התורה, therefore we have to have כבוד toward חכמים תלמדי. A תלמיד חכם has to have ענוה, but shouldn’t be שפל רוח because the ציבור has to have כבוד towards him. Story- כתב סופר at his son’s wedding.
רמב''ם What’s a גזירת שוה? When you have one word in the תורה and the same word somewhere
Sheet II else, they become equal. A גזירת שוה is the rule of equality.
1. An עובד ע''ז and a בעל גאווה are equal. Proofs:
a. ''תועבת ה' כל גבה לב''
b. ''ולא חביא תועבה אל ביתך''
From here we can learn that someone who has גסות הרוח, it’s like he serves ע''ז. Story-
ר' אליהו לופיאן repeated the פסוק of ''ולא חביא תועבה אל ביתך'' so that he shouldn’t have גאוה.
2. Someone who has גאוה, it’s like he’s עובר on ג''ע
a. ''תועבת ה' כל גבה לב''
b. ''כי את כל הטועבות אל'', and after it’s מפרט all the אסורים of עריות.
3. Someone who’s a בעל גאווה, it’s as if he’s the idol itself- ''חדלו לכם מן האדם אשר נשמה באפו כי במה נחשב הוא''- withhold from yourself גאוה, that today you’re living but tomorrow you could be gone, because if you don’t, you’re considered like the בָמָה itself.
4. A מתגאה is worthy to be killed, he abuses his right to live- ''אין אני והוא יכול לדור בדירה אחת''.
a. ''ורמי הקומה גדועים''- those that are of elevated status, they have to be destroyed.
b. ''ואשריהם תגדעון''- you have to remove the בעל גאווה just like you have to remove the trees that are used for ע''ז.
5. Haughty people won’t awake by תחית המתים. We learn this פסוק from ישעיהו- ''הקיצו ורננו כל שכני עפר''- only those that wereשכני עפר in their lifetime will awaken.
רש''י We always have to keep in mind that we were created from earth and we end up back in the earth. If a person frames his mind with this reasoning, which is the מסובב, he’ll acquire the effect- ''מאד מאד...''.
נודע ''יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו''- the גמרא tells us that when משיח comes, ה' will שחט the יצה''ר. The צדיקים will rejoice because the יצה''ר will appear to them like a huge mountain and they’ll rejoice that they were able to scale it. The רשעים will cry from frustration because the יצה''ר will appear to them as a hair strand and they’ll be upset that even that they couldn’t conquer. Man’s hope is to conquer his יצה''ר and withstand the temptation of being חוטא. The means of doing so is reminding one’s self about the יום המיתה that it strengthens his ענוה- who am I to be mean to someone else or be חוטא before ה'.
תוספות תקוה= קו מדה. Throughout our lives, a person can do great things and take credit. We can allow גאוה to seep into the realm of our accomplishments. The measuring rod throughout the course of our lives is our מעשים, but a person has to measure his מעשים against the רמה. The earthworm is מחי' us- it loosens up the soil so nutrients can permeate the ground. Also in the fall, the earthworm decomposes leaves, which makes fertilizer, which we need to sustain us. When a person does a מעשה נורא, you should condition your mind and say ''תקות אנוש רימה''.
כנסת רמה is from the לשון of ''למה רמיתני''- it’s a לשון of deceit. It says in משלי, ''רבות מחשבות...''. ה' carries out all the plans of man. All man’s hopes are שקר and only what ה' wants will happen. How humbling to man that no matter how hard you plan, only what ה' wants will happen.
חתם When a person goes up after 120, he’ll be asked questions. The סניגרs and קטיגרs will be standing there- ''אוי לנו מיום הדן ואוי לנו מיום התוכחה''. The person may try to come up with a פתחון פה- my יצה''ר attacked me with renewed vigor every day, like a strong lion. I was like a נמלה compared to him. Man’s whole hope to come out victorious on the יום הדין will only be fulfilled if he led his life like a רמה- conducted himself with ענוה.
יכהן פאר The גמרא in ברכות tells us ''קשה רמה למת כמחט בבשר החי''- just like a needle pricks live flesh, similarly the רמה that eats his flesh will prick. A person has a גוף and a נשמה, and a רוח is מיחד the two so that the רמה somehow pricks. To the degree that during your lifetime you prick your friend, the רמה will prick you in your קבר- ''במדה שאדם מודד מודדין לו''. In order not to have the prick of the רמה, we have to be ''מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח''- someone that’s an ענו won’t be a בעל גאוה and prick his friend.
ר' בונים A person has to lead his life with the imagination that before him are to pockets. In one of them is a paper that says ''ואנכי עפר ועפר'' and in the other is a note that says ''בשבילי נברא העולם''. How can we maintain a balance of the two? One of the בעלי מוסר said that if you don’t know your shortcomings, it’s a פחד but if you don’t know your values, it’s a פחד שבפחד. A person has to realize that his מעלות are from ה' and that you have them in order to serve Him.
אור יהל When משה came to be מנחם אבל to אהרן when נדב and אביהו died, he said, “there’s a פסוק that says that ה'’s משכן will be sanctified by His honor”. This can be understood to mean by His honorable ones. משה said, “I thought it would be either of us but now I see that it’s through נדב and אביהו so they’re greater than us”.
Why would משה, who was the ענו מכל אדם, say that he thought that it would be him who was chosen- isn’t this גאוה? משל- a king says to one of his servants that he wants to honor one of his קרובים and the servant assumes it’s him. If you don’t know the values that ה' gave you, you’re not an ענו, but a fool. So what is an ענו? You know what you have but you know that it’s not yours. It’s ה'’s and He’s given you the ability.
So it’s not that משה said, “I’m so great,” rather that ה' gave him this כח to be his קרוב. He recognized his מעלות and חסרונות and that they were from ה'.
So why are we still מתגאה and think that we are superior? There’s a פסוק, ''וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך''. The source of דעת is ה'. It’s the חלק אלוקים ממעל. The נשמה is the דעת as it says, ''ויפח באפו נשמת חיים ויהי לנפש חיה''- ה' made אדם alive with the נשמה and made him into a נפש חיה- a רוח ממללא (because our דעות are expressed through speech). So our נשמה contains our דעת and it’s up in שמים because the נשמות come from under the כסא הכבוד, so that’s ''וידעת היום''. What’s your לב? It’s the חלק הנפש בגוף האדם- a physical housing for the נפש. The גוף comes from the ארץ. So to transfer between ''וידעת היום'' and ''והשבות אל לבבך'', the דעת has to travel from שמים to ארץ. You have to work very hard to do this- you have to do it ברגילות to make it really travel the distance.
Don’t have גאוה- you have a כח, but don’t be מתגאה over it because it’s not yours. A ת''ח also can’t have גאוה because everything he has is from ה'- ''והחכמה מאין תמצא''. A ת''ח without מידות is worse off than a carcass.
משה knew that he had כוחות, but he recognized that they were from ה'.
Now, ר' יוחנן בן ברוקא discusses the ענין of חלול ה'. He was the תלמיד of ר' יהושע בן חנני' (say about his mother ''אשרי יולדתו''). He lived in the third generation of תנאים. He said that one who is מחלל ש''ש privately will get punished in public and ה' is מתיחס with the מזיד and the שוגג the same way when it comes to the עון חלול ה', therefore it’s a very severe עון.
The מצוה of קידוש ה' as an עשה is ''ונקדשת בתוך ב''י'' and the עבירה of חלול ה' as a לאו is ''לא
תחללו את שם קדשי''
There are three עבירות that are יהרג ועל יעבור:
1. ע''ז
2. ג''ע
3. ש''ד
People were created for one reason- to serve ה'. If we’re not ready to give up our lives for Him then we’re not totally given over to Him. We have to be ready to be מוסר נפש for ה' completely. When there’s a time of שמד, you must give up your life for any מצוה in the תורה. If the מעביר (one who’s forcing someone to transgress) is doing it for his הנאה, it’s more lenient then if he would be doing it just to show ה'. It’s also more lenient if it’s in private than public. What are the דינים?
1. ג' עבירות חמורות-יהרג ועל יעבור
2. בשעת השמד- יהרג ועל יעבור
3. Not בשעת השמד, in private, solely for the הנאה of the מעביר- יעבר ואל יהרג
4. Not בשעת השמד, in private, למען ההעברה- יעבר ואל יהרג
5. Not בשעת השמד, in public, solely for the הנאה of the מעביר- יעבר ואל יהרג
6. Not בשעת השמד, in front of at least ten men, למען ההעברה- יהרג ועל יעבור
יהרג ועל יעבור is upholding a קדיש ה'. A קדיש ה' is required for everyone to do. The only thing to be מכפר on a חלול ה' is:
1. תשובה
2. יו''כ
3. יסורים
4. Only after all that, מיתה.
רמב''ם Someone who is known to be a גדול בתורה andמפורסם בחסידות who does something this is not anעבירה but something that’s inappropriate for him to do, it’ll cause a חלול ה'. For example:
1. Not paying up immediately
2. Joining theעמי הארץ inקלות ראש
3. Speaking in a way that’s notבנחת
4. Acting withכעס andמחלוקת
All this is worse and worse according to yourמדרגה . Instead, we have to do good things that will make people be impressed with you and people will want to be like you. That’s a.קדוש ה' Story- theח''ח wanted to make a birthday party when he turned eighty in order to make a קדוש ה'. Story- ר' נחום הרודנה fell in gutter while collectingצדקה and didn’t want to die so as not to make a חלול ה'.
ת''י -כה Not everyone is included in this in נפרעין ממנו בגלוי. For example, there is a person that תקפו יצרו- he gave intoתאוה but wasn’t חוטא להכעיס. He can’t beעומד the נסיון but he has בושה, so he does it in private. He gets paid back in private. If this person sins in public, he gets paid back in public. Who is theמשנה talking about? Someone who is פושט טלפיו כחזיר– pretends that he’sכשר when he really isn’t. He is aחונף and hypocritical. He isאחד בפה ואחד בלב. He isחוטא andמחלל ש''ש in private intentionally to trick people- he’s מחכיש ה'. But in public, he acts like aצדיק because he’sחס on his כבד. He will get paid back in public even though he wasחוטא in private. They everyone will know that he’s really not a צדיק.
תוספת יו''ט What does it mean that ''ואחד שוגג אחד מזיד בחלול ה' ''? The שוגג is more lenient than the מזיד so it can’t be the same punishment for both. Where it says ''אחד'', id doesn’t mean the same punishment but that it’s both punished in public.
''חלול'' is from the ל' of חול, חולין- regular, a חסרון in קדושה. Someone who makes a חלול ה' acts in a חול way to ה'.
רוח חיים חלולים means hollow, so that’s what חלול means here.
A person who says that in a certain aspect of his life ה' isn’t there is מחלל ש''ש במחשבה because ''מלא כל הארץ כבודו''. Even every footstep we take is a דבר רוחני.
Sheet II Make ה'’s name beloved onto others- וְאִהַבְתָּ, so that ש''ש should become beloved through your life. A person should learn תשבע''פ and תשבכת''ב. He should serve a ת''ח so that he can see him live. You should also act nicely to others so that they’ll say, ''אשרי... אתפאר''. Someone who learns תורה and serves a ת''ח but doesn’t conduct himself honestly and act like a mensch, people will say on him, ''אוי...יצאו''.
Pirkei Avos- Mishna Gimmel
What’s the connection between what בן עזאי said before and what he says here? In משנה ב', he’s warning about קיום המצוות, even the easy ones. Here, he’s telling us:
1. Not to degrade anyone, even a lowly person.
2. To give every person and creation כבוד no matter how small.
תומר Everything that’s created, from the lowest blade of grass to the largest cedar tree, they are
דבורה all דברים מכובדים because they are all created by ה'. Someone who’s מבזה one of ה'’s sheet creations is in essence being מבזה ה'’s חכמה. It says ''מה רבו מעשיך ה' ''- רבו doesn’t mean גדלות, rather כמה חשובים הם.
A person has to have רחמנות on all the בריות- he can’t disgrace them and he has to have רחמנות on them. ה'’s חכמה is spread out on all creations, from the most insignificant to the most significant. Because of this, we are careful of בזוי אוכלים. A person gets פרטית הנאה from food, so he should be extra careful not to be מבזה it for nothing. Story- The ח''ח had black bread, said that you can’t say ל''ה on it. Story- Cow that was being led to שחיטה. רבי said to it ''זיל לכך נוצרת''. Because of this, he got terrible צרות. Why? Because he acted with דין towards the cow. Once, there was a weasel in רבי’s house and his maid wanted to get rid of it, and he had רחמנות on it. Immediately after, the יסורים were removed. They weren’t an עונש, rather a תוצאה.
ג אל תהי בז לכל אדם- אל תתנהג בבזיון לשום אדםאפילו השפל והנקלה ביותר
אל תהי מפליג- אל תחיקאת עצמך
דבר-נברא- דומם,צומח,חי
שעה- תועלת
מקום- חשיבותו בעולם
רע''ב -אל תהי בז לכל אדם to say that פלוני is so vulnerable and he can’t get me back.
-ואל תהי מפליג to distance yourself because of גאוה from everything because every person
has to care for every creation, because every creation has a תועלת.
ר' יונה ר' יונה divides the משנה differently:
1. אל...שעה- don’t disgrace anyone and don’t distance yourself (by dismissing the responsibility) with דבר of disgrace- never say something mean to someone because you think you’ll never see him again, because there will be a time when you’ll be repaid.
2. ואין לך דבר שאין לו מקום- there is no creation that isn’t important, so one has to give כבוד to everything and everyone.
I sheet ''נוח...ברבים''- obviously, it’s not easier in this world, but in the long run, next to ה', it’s easier
than the burning decree of someone who embarrasses his friend in public. Story- מר עוקבא
thrust himself into a hot oven. This story teaches us that even as a תוצאה of a מצוה, you
can’t cause someone embarrassment.
Why is this אסור so חמור?
1. Because it’s like you’re being מבזה ה', since every person is created בצלם אלוקים, and we know ''ובזי יקלו''.
2. Because the embarrassment is so strong, it could take someone years to recuperate. Story- the בית הלוי and the butcher. Story- ר' שמואל מגיד kept his face in the furnace and let the flames rise towards his face until the man who slapped him left. Story- ר' יוסף חיים קפלן was crying because he saw someone embarrassing someone else publicly- it was like he stabbed someone to death.
חסיד יעב''ץ -אל תהי בז לכל אדם ''לכל'' is coming to include even a רשע. The תורה tells us about a רשע,
''כבדהו וחשדהו''. There is never any excuse to humiliate another human being. This applies to a child, or someone with limited דעת.
ספר מוסר -אל תהי בז לכל אדם the אזהרה is קשורה to a יחיד. Sometimes, someone does something and
אבות and you may think that if he could do something so terrible, then you want to cut ties with him. Don’t be מבזה the person in their entirety because of one bad מעשה, one הנהגה that is questionable, or one פגם. Judge them favorable, because you don’t know the whole picture.
ר' שלמה -אל תהי בז לכל אדם אל תבזה עצמך בפני שום אדם. Don’t cheapen yourself by doing or saying
קפלן things that lessen your dignity. It says in דברי הימים, ''ויגבה לבו בדרכי ה'''- we have to have dignity in דרכי ה'. This אזהרה is for a תלמיד חכם because he’s a ספר תורה חי.
It’s a tactic on how a person should relate to his יצה''ר. The יצה''ר makes דרכי ה' look like such a big thing that a person may come to a state of despair. When we have a fall in our רוחניות, we should tell ourselves, ''אלמלא נפלתי לא קמתי''- I fell, but I’ll get back up and put the pieces back together. It says about a צדיק- ''שבע יפול וקם'', but he’s still called a צדיק because he gets back up.
ר' בונים When the תורה uses the word ענו, רש''י is מסביר in two ways- שפל וסבלן. A person has to be
מפשיסחא humble with himself. When someone slips in רוחניות, he has to be an ענו with himself. He has
to be סובל את שפלתו- tolerate his lowliness, and סבלן אם עצמו- patient with himself. If he’s סובל את שפלתוand סבלן אם עצמו, then he can get back up.
ת''י -יט Even a דומם,צומח,חי that is disgusting, harmful, hurtful, hateful and poisonous, such as a
fly, snake or scorpion, one should not dismiss. ה' created them for the good of the world.
-כ At this moment, this person may seem purposeless- he may be totally empty of חכמה or he may be the persecutor of good people. But it’s not for nothing that ה' lets him live. Either he’s necessary now and you just can’t see it, or the time will come when his contribution to the world will come forth- ''קל דעות ה'''.
עבודת There’s no person that doesn’t have his שעה in רוחניות, where he can turn around his whole ישראל course in life. We learn this from אלעזר בן דורדיא. He was so שטוך בחטא that his תשובה
wouldn’t be accepted. As soon as he heard this, he ran and asked the mountains, valleys, sky, sun and moon to daven for him but they all said that first they had to daven for themselves. אלעזר בן דורדיא then realized III sheet- ''אין הדבר תלןי אלא בי''. He put his head between his knees and cried out until his נשמה left him. A בת קול came out and said, ''ר' אלעזר בן דורדדיא מזומן לחיי עוה''ב''. רש''י says on the words ''זה קלי ואנבהו''- ''ראתה שפחה בים מה שלא ראוי יחזאקל בן בוזי'' - by קריעת ים סוף there was an amazing revelation, higher than the revelation of יחזאקל. But they remained שפחות because they didn’t translate it into reality. You have to integrate it otherwise you won’t grow. A התעוררות is worthless if you don’t act upon it. You must do something immediately to trap it so that it doesn’t fizzle out.
''יפה שעה אחת של תשובה ומעים טובים בעוה''ז מכל חיי עוה''ב'', because in this world, the עולם המעשה, we can take action.
רש''י -אין לך דבר... There’s never a דבר חכמה that isn’t used in our life because all חכמה comes from the תורה- ''הפך בה הפך בה דכולה בה''.
מדרש ''בז לדבר יחבל לו''- someone who is מבזה something that ה' created will be punished through it. דוד questioned ה'’s creations, among them insanity, and ה' said, ''חייך סוף שצטרך לשדות''.
1. Insanity- דוד was running from שאול and came to גת. The king at that time was אכיש, the brother of גליות. When he heard that דוד was in גת, he wanted to take revenge on him. דוד-שמואל א, כא, יג-טז came before him and started to garble his speech, draw on the doorposts and drool on his beard. He portrayed himself as a משוגעה, so אכיש chased him out. It says ''בשנותו את טעמן לפני אבימלך''- at that time, all the kings of גת were called אבימלך, so it’s really referring to אכיש.
2. Spider-when דוד was running from שאול, he hid in a cave. ה' put a spider web on the outside of the cave so it looked like it had been sealed for a long time.
3. Wasp- שאול knew where דוד was hiding and he was going to go kill him with a special spear. דוד snuck into שאול’s camp in the middle of the night to get the spear, but it was under שאול’s head. ה' put שאול in a תרדמה and a wasp bit him. He moved his head a little, and דוד took the spear. When שאול woke up, he was very confused, and he cancelled his plans.
נוצר חסד -ואין לך ךבר שאין לן מקום מקום is referring to ה'- ''ברוך המקום''. There is nothing in this world that isn’t touched by the hand of ה'. Fools call it Mother Nature. הטבע= 86= אלקים. It’s an עבודת עבד ה' to search out the יד ה' because it can be found in everything- ''על כל נשימה ונשימה תהלל קה''.
V sheet What is the שרש העמוק when one humiliates another person or being? לצנות- mockery, scoffing, laughing at, poking fun at… This מידה is so strict that חז''ל say that ליצנים are included in the four groups of people who won’t be מקבל פני השכינה.
The five חלקים of ליצנים:
1. הנותן דופי בבני אדם ללא סיבה- finds fault without a reason. This stems from גאוה and a רוע לב. He wants to make light a person’s reputation before others.
2. מי שלועג בלבו לבני אדם- scoffs others in the inner chambers of his heart. Why? מפני קוצר השגתם במעלה- because you feel that they aren’t up to par. Who designated this job for you? R’ Ephraim Wachsman said that there used to be individual mockers in a generation, but now there is a דור of ליצנים- people who feel that they are above humanity. ''יושב במים ישחק''.
3. מי שקובע עצמו תמיד ללעוג על דברים ופעולות- someone who is addicted to ליצנות, someone who feels that they are a cut above humanity, people look down on him. Someone who mocks events, undertakings, efforts… by saying that they’re hopeless falls into this category. שלמה said on these people, ''ראיתי איש חכם בעיניו? תקוה לכסיל ממנו''- there’s more hope for a כסיל and he’s better off in life than someone like this. Someone like this can come to אפיקרסות because he could be לועג על המצוות.
4. הקובע עצמו תמיד לשיחה בטלה ודברים בטלים בדרך יושבי קרנות- watch out for too much overindulgence in empty talk because it will come to be that you’ll indulge in דברי לצנות.
5. המתלוצץ על מעשים ודברים על דרך מקרה ועראי- many people sin through him. At times, he randomly knocks. Be cautious!
אור יהל
sheet ``
Here, תוכחה means הוכחה, which means שכל. If a person mocks, he doesn’t use his שכל. What caused קרח to get into the mood of מרידה? ה' told משה to appoint אליצפן as the נשיא of קהת. When קרח heard about אליצפן’s appointment, he was upset. He went to משה and said that קהת had four sons. The oldest received to מנות of גדולה (משה → מנהיג, אהרן → כהונה) and the next מנה should go to the next son of קהת. His argument was illegitimate, because in the face of ה', there is no reasoning. קרח was a פקח- wise and he knew that his words had no footing. He knew that משה was just speaking the words of ה'- we know that the שכינה spoke from משה’s throat. קרח’s מרידה was doomed before it even started. Because of his קנאה, קרח aroused the עם for מרידה against משה and אהרן. קרח gathered 250 people and they came before משה. קרח began to mock him-
1. Does a room full of ספרים need a מזוזה? משה said yes.
2. Does a בגד of תכלת need a חוט of תכלת? משה said yes.
קרח mocked, and all 250 of his followers were brought under the spell of לצנות.
ה' brought three groups of punishment on the מורדים:
1. בלועי דקרח- the land opened up its mouth and swallowed קרח, his wife- ''חכמת נשים...'', possessions, עבדים and שפחות alive. (This פי הארץ was created בין השמשות along with the פי הבאר and פי האתון.) קרח jumps up and down and says, ''משה אמת ותורתו אמת''.
2. שרופי דקרח- קרח’s followers were burnt alive by a heavenly fire.
3. הנגף בעם- 14,700 people were killed by a מגפה because they began to question דינו של הקב''ה.
After these punishments, משה told all the נשיאים to bring their מטות and from שבט לוי he took the מטה of אהרן. משה put them before the ארון and said that whoever’s blossoms first, it’ll show that he’s the כהן נאמן. אהרן’s grew almonds and now everyone knew that he was the כהן נאמן.
Why did ה' wait to bring the אות? Why didn’t He do it first so that the מרידה would be quieted? If someone falls under the spell of לצנות, he doesn’t have שכל so no matter how great of an event happened, it wouldn’t be absorbed.
A לץ is like an animal because an animal has no שכל. A human being is a combination of two נפשות:
1. נפש הבהמי- eat, drink, תאבות
2. נפש הרוחני- the control we have over our actions and תאבות.
When someone is a לץ, he’s using his נפש הבהמי.
First, ה' had to remove the לצנות and only afterwards could he show them and they would accept.
A לץ can’t have logic so he ends up having יסוריםand then death because he never does תשובה. Why? A person who’s moved into action and change because he’s התבונן, he doesn’t need יסורים. But a לץ that didn’t feel moved from תוכחה because of כח הלצנות, you have to treat him with יסורים. When a person mocks, he’s now like an animal and what would rebuke help? It says in משלי that ה' prepares יסורים for a לץ. The purpose of the יסורים is to break the לצנות, remove the נפש הבהמי, and only after that will he have the שכל to listen.
קרח turned his followers into ליצנים. With this כח of mockery, a person tramples on everything and nothing makes an impression on him. לצנות shatters מוסר. יסורים break and humble a person. The three sets of יסורים broke them.
1. Not to degrade anyone, even a lowly person.
2. To give every person and creation כבוד no matter how small.
תומר Everything that’s created, from the lowest blade of grass to the largest cedar tree, they are
דבורה all דברים מכובדים because they are all created by ה'. Someone who’s מבזה one of ה'’s sheet creations is in essence being מבזה ה'’s חכמה. It says ''מה רבו מעשיך ה' ''- רבו doesn’t mean גדלות, rather כמה חשובים הם.
A person has to have רחמנות on all the בריות- he can’t disgrace them and he has to have רחמנות on them. ה'’s חכמה is spread out on all creations, from the most insignificant to the most significant. Because of this, we are careful of בזוי אוכלים. A person gets פרטית הנאה from food, so he should be extra careful not to be מבזה it for nothing. Story- The ח''ח had black bread, said that you can’t say ל''ה on it. Story- Cow that was being led to שחיטה. רבי said to it ''זיל לכך נוצרת''. Because of this, he got terrible צרות. Why? Because he acted with דין towards the cow. Once, there was a weasel in רבי’s house and his maid wanted to get rid of it, and he had רחמנות on it. Immediately after, the יסורים were removed. They weren’t an עונש, rather a תוצאה.
ג אל תהי בז לכל אדם- אל תתנהג בבזיון לשום אדםאפילו השפל והנקלה ביותר
אל תהי מפליג- אל תחיקאת עצמך
דבר-נברא- דומם,צומח,חי
שעה- תועלת
מקום- חשיבותו בעולם
רע''ב -אל תהי בז לכל אדם to say that פלוני is so vulnerable and he can’t get me back.
-ואל תהי מפליג to distance yourself because of גאוה from everything because every person
has to care for every creation, because every creation has a תועלת.
ר' יונה ר' יונה divides the משנה differently:
1. אל...שעה- don’t disgrace anyone and don’t distance yourself (by dismissing the responsibility) with דבר of disgrace- never say something mean to someone because you think you’ll never see him again, because there will be a time when you’ll be repaid.
2. ואין לך דבר שאין לו מקום- there is no creation that isn’t important, so one has to give כבוד to everything and everyone.
I sheet ''נוח...ברבים''- obviously, it’s not easier in this world, but in the long run, next to ה', it’s easier
than the burning decree of someone who embarrasses his friend in public. Story- מר עוקבא
thrust himself into a hot oven. This story teaches us that even as a תוצאה of a מצוה, you
can’t cause someone embarrassment.
Why is this אסור so חמור?
1. Because it’s like you’re being מבזה ה', since every person is created בצלם אלוקים, and we know ''ובזי יקלו''.
2. Because the embarrassment is so strong, it could take someone years to recuperate. Story- the בית הלוי and the butcher. Story- ר' שמואל מגיד kept his face in the furnace and let the flames rise towards his face until the man who slapped him left. Story- ר' יוסף חיים קפלן was crying because he saw someone embarrassing someone else publicly- it was like he stabbed someone to death.
חסיד יעב''ץ -אל תהי בז לכל אדם ''לכל'' is coming to include even a רשע. The תורה tells us about a רשע,
''כבדהו וחשדהו''. There is never any excuse to humiliate another human being. This applies to a child, or someone with limited דעת.
ספר מוסר -אל תהי בז לכל אדם the אזהרה is קשורה to a יחיד. Sometimes, someone does something and
אבות and you may think that if he could do something so terrible, then you want to cut ties with him. Don’t be מבזה the person in their entirety because of one bad מעשה, one הנהגה that is questionable, or one פגם. Judge them favorable, because you don’t know the whole picture.
ר' שלמה -אל תהי בז לכל אדם אל תבזה עצמך בפני שום אדם. Don’t cheapen yourself by doing or saying
קפלן things that lessen your dignity. It says in דברי הימים, ''ויגבה לבו בדרכי ה'''- we have to have dignity in דרכי ה'. This אזהרה is for a תלמיד חכם because he’s a ספר תורה חי.
It’s a tactic on how a person should relate to his יצה''ר. The יצה''ר makes דרכי ה' look like such a big thing that a person may come to a state of despair. When we have a fall in our רוחניות, we should tell ourselves, ''אלמלא נפלתי לא קמתי''- I fell, but I’ll get back up and put the pieces back together. It says about a צדיק- ''שבע יפול וקם'', but he’s still called a צדיק because he gets back up.
ר' בונים When the תורה uses the word ענו, רש''י is מסביר in two ways- שפל וסבלן. A person has to be
מפשיסחא humble with himself. When someone slips in רוחניות, he has to be an ענו with himself. He has
to be סובל את שפלתו- tolerate his lowliness, and סבלן אם עצמו- patient with himself. If he’s סובל את שפלתוand סבלן אם עצמו, then he can get back up.
ת''י -יט Even a דומם,צומח,חי that is disgusting, harmful, hurtful, hateful and poisonous, such as a
fly, snake or scorpion, one should not dismiss. ה' created them for the good of the world.
-כ At this moment, this person may seem purposeless- he may be totally empty of חכמה or he may be the persecutor of good people. But it’s not for nothing that ה' lets him live. Either he’s necessary now and you just can’t see it, or the time will come when his contribution to the world will come forth- ''קל דעות ה'''.
עבודת There’s no person that doesn’t have his שעה in רוחניות, where he can turn around his whole ישראל course in life. We learn this from אלעזר בן דורדיא. He was so שטוך בחטא that his תשובה
wouldn’t be accepted. As soon as he heard this, he ran and asked the mountains, valleys, sky, sun and moon to daven for him but they all said that first they had to daven for themselves. אלעזר בן דורדיא then realized III sheet- ''אין הדבר תלןי אלא בי''. He put his head between his knees and cried out until his נשמה left him. A בת קול came out and said, ''ר' אלעזר בן דורדדיא מזומן לחיי עוה''ב''. רש''י says on the words ''זה קלי ואנבהו''- ''ראתה שפחה בים מה שלא ראוי יחזאקל בן בוזי'' - by קריעת ים סוף there was an amazing revelation, higher than the revelation of יחזאקל. But they remained שפחות because they didn’t translate it into reality. You have to integrate it otherwise you won’t grow. A התעוררות is worthless if you don’t act upon it. You must do something immediately to trap it so that it doesn’t fizzle out.
''יפה שעה אחת של תשובה ומעים טובים בעוה''ז מכל חיי עוה''ב'', because in this world, the עולם המעשה, we can take action.
רש''י -אין לך דבר... There’s never a דבר חכמה that isn’t used in our life because all חכמה comes from the תורה- ''הפך בה הפך בה דכולה בה''.
מדרש ''בז לדבר יחבל לו''- someone who is מבזה something that ה' created will be punished through it. דוד questioned ה'’s creations, among them insanity, and ה' said, ''חייך סוף שצטרך לשדות''.
1. Insanity- דוד was running from שאול and came to גת. The king at that time was אכיש, the brother of גליות. When he heard that דוד was in גת, he wanted to take revenge on him. דוד-שמואל א, כא, יג-טז came before him and started to garble his speech, draw on the doorposts and drool on his beard. He portrayed himself as a משוגעה, so אכיש chased him out. It says ''בשנותו את טעמן לפני אבימלך''- at that time, all the kings of גת were called אבימלך, so it’s really referring to אכיש.
2. Spider-when דוד was running from שאול, he hid in a cave. ה' put a spider web on the outside of the cave so it looked like it had been sealed for a long time.
3. Wasp- שאול knew where דוד was hiding and he was going to go kill him with a special spear. דוד snuck into שאול’s camp in the middle of the night to get the spear, but it was under שאול’s head. ה' put שאול in a תרדמה and a wasp bit him. He moved his head a little, and דוד took the spear. When שאול woke up, he was very confused, and he cancelled his plans.
נוצר חסד -ואין לך ךבר שאין לן מקום מקום is referring to ה'- ''ברוך המקום''. There is nothing in this world that isn’t touched by the hand of ה'. Fools call it Mother Nature. הטבע= 86= אלקים. It’s an עבודת עבד ה' to search out the יד ה' because it can be found in everything- ''על כל נשימה ונשימה תהלל קה''.
V sheet What is the שרש העמוק when one humiliates another person or being? לצנות- mockery, scoffing, laughing at, poking fun at… This מידה is so strict that חז''ל say that ליצנים are included in the four groups of people who won’t be מקבל פני השכינה.
The five חלקים of ליצנים:
1. הנותן דופי בבני אדם ללא סיבה- finds fault without a reason. This stems from גאוה and a רוע לב. He wants to make light a person’s reputation before others.
2. מי שלועג בלבו לבני אדם- scoffs others in the inner chambers of his heart. Why? מפני קוצר השגתם במעלה- because you feel that they aren’t up to par. Who designated this job for you? R’ Ephraim Wachsman said that there used to be individual mockers in a generation, but now there is a דור of ליצנים- people who feel that they are above humanity. ''יושב במים ישחק''.
3. מי שקובע עצמו תמיד ללעוג על דברים ופעולות- someone who is addicted to ליצנות, someone who feels that they are a cut above humanity, people look down on him. Someone who mocks events, undertakings, efforts… by saying that they’re hopeless falls into this category. שלמה said on these people, ''ראיתי איש חכם בעיניו? תקוה לכסיל ממנו''- there’s more hope for a כסיל and he’s better off in life than someone like this. Someone like this can come to אפיקרסות because he could be לועג על המצוות.
4. הקובע עצמו תמיד לשיחה בטלה ודברים בטלים בדרך יושבי קרנות- watch out for too much overindulgence in empty talk because it will come to be that you’ll indulge in דברי לצנות.
5. המתלוצץ על מעשים ודברים על דרך מקרה ועראי- many people sin through him. At times, he randomly knocks. Be cautious!
אור יהל
sheet ``
Here, תוכחה means הוכחה, which means שכל. If a person mocks, he doesn’t use his שכל. What caused קרח to get into the mood of מרידה? ה' told משה to appoint אליצפן as the נשיא of קהת. When קרח heard about אליצפן’s appointment, he was upset. He went to משה and said that קהת had four sons. The oldest received to מנות of גדולה (משה → מנהיג, אהרן → כהונה) and the next מנה should go to the next son of קהת. His argument was illegitimate, because in the face of ה', there is no reasoning. קרח was a פקח- wise and he knew that his words had no footing. He knew that משה was just speaking the words of ה'- we know that the שכינה spoke from משה’s throat. קרח’s מרידה was doomed before it even started. Because of his קנאה, קרח aroused the עם for מרידה against משה and אהרן. קרח gathered 250 people and they came before משה. קרח began to mock him-
1. Does a room full of ספרים need a מזוזה? משה said yes.
2. Does a בגד of תכלת need a חוט of תכלת? משה said yes.
קרח mocked, and all 250 of his followers were brought under the spell of לצנות.
ה' brought three groups of punishment on the מורדים:
1. בלועי דקרח- the land opened up its mouth and swallowed קרח, his wife- ''חכמת נשים...'', possessions, עבדים and שפחות alive. (This פי הארץ was created בין השמשות along with the פי הבאר and פי האתון.) קרח jumps up and down and says, ''משה אמת ותורתו אמת''.
2. שרופי דקרח- קרח’s followers were burnt alive by a heavenly fire.
3. הנגף בעם- 14,700 people were killed by a מגפה because they began to question דינו של הקב''ה.
After these punishments, משה told all the נשיאים to bring their מטות and from שבט לוי he took the מטה of אהרן. משה put them before the ארון and said that whoever’s blossoms first, it’ll show that he’s the כהן נאמן. אהרן’s grew almonds and now everyone knew that he was the כהן נאמן.
Why did ה' wait to bring the אות? Why didn’t He do it first so that the מרידה would be quieted? If someone falls under the spell of לצנות, he doesn’t have שכל so no matter how great of an event happened, it wouldn’t be absorbed.
A לץ is like an animal because an animal has no שכל. A human being is a combination of two נפשות:
1. נפש הבהמי- eat, drink, תאבות
2. נפש הרוחני- the control we have over our actions and תאבות.
When someone is a לץ, he’s using his נפש הבהמי.
First, ה' had to remove the לצנות and only afterwards could he show them and they would accept.
A לץ can’t have logic so he ends up having יסוריםand then death because he never does תשובה. Why? A person who’s moved into action and change because he’s התבונן, he doesn’t need יסורים. But a לץ that didn’t feel moved from תוכחה because of כח הלצנות, you have to treat him with יסורים. When a person mocks, he’s now like an animal and what would rebuke help? It says in משלי that ה' prepares יסורים for a לץ. The purpose of the יסורים is to break the לצנות, remove the נפש הבהמי, and only after that will he have the שכל to listen.
קרח turned his followers into ליצנים. With this כח of mockery, a person tramples on everything and nothing makes an impression on him. לצנות shatters מוסר. יסורים break and humble a person. The three sets of יסורים broke them.
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