אברבנל א רעה גדולה- he was so upset because he thought that ה' was only going to change His mind when they change their מעשים and אמונות. But he saw that they still held onto their ע''ז. Why did ה' change his mind not to destroy them? ה' needed them as a prop to destroy כ''י and to bring כ''י into גלות. ה' was watching them carefully so that they could be the שבט אפו of ה'.
וירע רעה גדולה- when he saw that ננוה was forgiven, he translated this to mean that כ''י would be destroyed. The anger was because ה' was acting forgiving and merciful with ננוה and being נוקם with ב''י.
ב sheet This is what I said and will say as long as I am alive. What does he say? All of the חסד and good that you did for ננוה isn’t because you love them or because they deserve it. It’s all about my land- you are prolonging your anger on אשור so that you could destroy כ''י. Therefore, I ran away to תרשיש because I know that the good you did for them was for the bad that is about to come on כ''י.
מ''ד ג ועתה ה'- he would rather die than see bad happen to כ''י. Since he was גורם it, he doesn’t want to see it and he would rather die.
Sheet ג He’s asking ה' to take his life- after ננוה was saved and you’re going to spill your wrath on my people and אשור will be the stick of Your wrath. I did my שליחות. From this sickness take my life because I don’t want to see the bad that is going to befall my nation. His complaint wasn’t that ה' forgave ננוה. He was complaining because ה' was destroying כ''י.
רד''ק ד ויאמר ה' ההיטב חרה לך-
1. Are you good and upset?
2. The fact that I’m doing good is making you angry. ה' is trying to show יונה the מוסר השכל of "טוב ה'..."- if this is how ה' is to ננוה, קו''ח to ב''י.
מלבי''ם ה וישב- he thought that even though the גזירה was נתבטל and the whole מהפכה didn’t happen, maybe there would be some kind of bad in the city.
מ''ד עד אשר יראה- waiting to see, maybe they didn’t keep their תשובה and the גזירה will happen.
ו מ''צ קיקיון- type of plant with wide and big leaves. The ילקוט שמעוני says that it’s so big that people could sit under it.
מהר''י קרא להציל מרעהו- when he fell into the water, the salt removed all of his hair.
אבן עזרא The enzymes and acids from the fish’s belly turned his skin very soft.
ילקוט שמעני His hair, clothing and skin were burnt.
וישמח יונה- provided relief for his pain.
מלבי''ם וישמח יונה על הקיקיון- took a lesson- obviously ה' wants me to remain here because something is going to happen in the city. He thought that ה' was holding him back so that he could see שלומת הרשעים:
1. ל' שלם- destroy completely.
2. ל' תשלום- see the payment.
מ''ד ז ותך- the worm cut and stopped the קיקיון from the place where it gets its nutrients. It no longer had moisture and died from the heat of the sun.
ח רוח קדים חרשית- eastern wind which silences everything.
אברבנל ט He was upset about the tremendous pain עד מות- he didn’t want to have pain before he dies.
מוסר השכל- "טוב ה' לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו"- showing יונה that He’s good to everyone and that his רחמנות is on all of His מעשים.
מכתב אליהו Any מצוה that a person works on, it’ll display itself in every area. If ה' is good to everyone, "טוב ה'...", then this is true about ה' in every area.
י חסת= רחמנות. Sometimes, people have רחמנות because the thing or person that he’s having רחמנות on arouses his רחמנות.
מלבי''ם חסת- when you care for something because of the benefit that you are getting out of it. יונה didn’t like the tree, he just wanted its benefits. There are a number of reasons you could have רחמנות on something:
1. You grow or raise it- he didn’t raise it. It came in one night and in one night it was destroyed. When you work for something, you care for it. Something with worth evokes רחמנות.
2. If it has value- but the קיקיון only had a use, it didn’t have any intrinsic value.
"מי יתן ירכי קדם"- I would give back anything for my previous years. This is referring to the years spent in his mother’s stomach. חז''ל say that there is no time as good as these days because you learn כל התורה כולה and understand everything. He doesn’t work and the food goes straight into him, everything is handed to him on a silver platter. So why would a person want to be born? Once a person is born, for every step along the way, he is always working hard for everything. He must learn in order to understand- this is the תכלית of the world. ה' is showing us that the point is that we must earn our keep, and enjoy the good feeling a person gets from working hard.
So, it’s a ל' of חס- you had רחמנות because you had benefit. The only thing that יונה had from the קיקיון was use- he didn’t work for it and it didn’t have any value.
יא ה' had all three reasons when it comes to ננוה:
1. "אחוס"- use- use as a שבט אפו. It says in ישעי' מג, "כל הנקרא בשמי ולכבודי בראתי יצרתיו אף עשיתיו"- anything which is called in ה'’s name= everything, is created for his כבוד. He designed it and also made it. רד''ק- ברא- יש מאין, יצר- to be מתקן the details. Everything in this world is מרבה כבוד שמים, and so is ננוה- ה' has a benefit from ננוה.
2. "ננוה"- worked for it- ה' created the people of ננוה. He was עמל and גדל them.
3. "העיר הגדולה"- has its own innate value- it was a big city with more than 120,000 people and lots of animals.
רש''י בהמה רבה- big people who are like animals- don’t recognize their creator.
אברבנל Now, ה' is answering יונה’s anger that He’s forgiving ננוה, who are still serving ע''ז, but so strict with ב''י- they’re like animals because they don’t have the תורה and aren’t ה'’s עם סגולה. Therefore, it’s not as fitting that they should get punished for serving ע''ז. ננוה had 120,0000 people who didn’t have a תורה. With the ענין of ע''ז, they don’t know between their right and left hands. They were given the שבע מצוות, but not like ב''י who got the תורה by הר סיני. ב''י heard not to serve ע''ז from the mouth of ה'- how can you compare?
Sunday, February 6, 2011
תרי עשר- מיכה ז
אברבנל We’re סומך the last three פסוקים of יונה:ד to this פרק- יונה seems to have a sad ending- ננוה is forgiven, but כ''י aren’t and they are going to be destroyed. The אברבנל teaches us that this isn’t the end of the story. This is only temporary forgiveness and there’s going to b a final destruction. כ''י will only have a temporary destruction, but will have a final restoration.
ילקוט After יונה heard everything, he fell on his face and said that ה' is נוהג the world with רחמנות- "לה' אלקינו הרחמים והסליחות".
ילקוט After יונה heard everything, he fell on his face and said that ה' is נוהג the world with רחמנות- "לה' אלקינו הרחמים והסליחות".
תרי עשר- יונה ג
ג מהלך שלשת ימים- was a three day walk from end to end.
אבן עזרא עיר גדולה לאלקים- ראי' that they were once upon a time יראי ה'.
רד''ק לאלקים- like הררי קל. When you put the name "קל" next to something, it means that it’s big.
ד עוד ארבעים יום...- this is the קריאה, "אשר אנכי דובר אליך".
How could a נביא ה' say something that won’t come true?
1. נבואה רעה could always be turned to good if you do תשובה.
2. רש''י- נהפכת- these words aren’t שקר. He didn’t say "נחרבת", he said "נהפכת"- has a dual meaning- if you do bad, there will be a physical overturn- "נחרבת". But if they do תשובה, then "נהפכת" is referring to אנשי ננוה- turn from bad to good.
3. מלבי''ם- עוד= 40,ארבעים= 80. 40+80= 120. יום can either mean a day or a year. In another 120 years after this ננוה was destroyed.
ה They believed יונה immediately.
רד''ק ויאמינו- the sailors testified about what happened and the people believed them and did תשובה.
ו מלך ננוה- was פרעה.
ז מטעם המלך- בעצת המלך
At that time, cattle were money. People were watching their פרנסה go down the drain. This was an incentive to do תשובה, because as long as they don’t do תשובה, they didn’t have פרנסה.
מ''צ בחזקה- with their whole heart.
ט מי יודע- any other עבירות that are on their hands.
מלבי''ם את מעשיהם- they did תשובה on חמס, but didn’t change their beliefs. This is a חלוקי דעות- some say that they did real תשובה.
י וינחם- this is חרטה.
אבן עזרא עיר גדולה לאלקים- ראי' that they were once upon a time יראי ה'.
רד''ק לאלקים- like הררי קל. When you put the name "קל" next to something, it means that it’s big.
ד עוד ארבעים יום...- this is the קריאה, "אשר אנכי דובר אליך".
How could a נביא ה' say something that won’t come true?
1. נבואה רעה could always be turned to good if you do תשובה.
2. רש''י- נהפכת- these words aren’t שקר. He didn’t say "נחרבת", he said "נהפכת"- has a dual meaning- if you do bad, there will be a physical overturn- "נחרבת". But if they do תשובה, then "נהפכת" is referring to אנשי ננוה- turn from bad to good.
3. מלבי''ם- עוד= 40,ארבעים= 80. 40+80= 120. יום can either mean a day or a year. In another 120 years after this ננוה was destroyed.
ה They believed יונה immediately.
רד''ק ויאמינו- the sailors testified about what happened and the people believed them and did תשובה.
ו מלך ננוה- was פרעה.
ז מטעם המלך- בעצת המלך
At that time, cattle were money. People were watching their פרנסה go down the drain. This was an incentive to do תשובה, because as long as they don’t do תשובה, they didn’t have פרנסה.
מ''צ בחזקה- with their whole heart.
ט מי יודע- any other עבירות that are on their hands.
מלבי''ם את מעשיהם- they did תשובה on חמס, but didn’t change their beliefs. This is a חלוקי דעות- some say that they did real תשובה.
י וינחם- this is חרטה.
תרי עשר- יונה ב
א designatedוימן-
רד''ק This fish was designated from ששת ימי בראשית to swallow יונה.
רש''י דג גדול- it was a male. יונה was standing very speciously in it and he didn’t daven. ה' hinted to the fish and it spit him into the mouth of an expecting fish. The מלבי''ם says that some fish have tens of thousands of eggs in them when expecting. He was oppressed there and he davened- we see in פסוק ב' that יונה is davening from a דגה.
"ואני אמרתי בשלוי בל אמוט לעולם"- when things were tranquil in my life, I felt that I will never move from this position. This is the same idea as what רש''י says- עמד בריוח ולא נתן לב להתפלל. We must be careful that when things are peaceful and ריוחדיק that we don’t forget about ה'.
"בצר לך ומצאןך... ושבת עד ה'"- the nature of a person is that when things are pressured and he has all kinds of צרות, he turns to ה'.
מלבי''ם וימן ה' דג גדול- why did ה' specifically choose this נס? ה' designated a very big fish to swallow יונה and it didn’t break his bones. It’s known that it is impossible to live in a fish for even one hour because a person needs fresh air from the outside. But since death was already decreed on יונה, it was considered like he was now born again and he was given the nature of an unborn fetus, that it can last for nine months without fresh air. This specific נס symbolized יונה’s rebirth.
רד''ק ממעי הדגה- the לשון of מ means מתוך. מתוך צרה he davened from deep within the fish. Other times where we see this:
1. ממעמקים
2. מן המצר
ויתפלל יונה- it was a tremendous נס that he was in the fish for three days and nights and he didn’t die. Another נס was that he wasn’t overcome with fright, but he remained with his דעת intact and he was able to daven. The רד''ק says that these two נסים were equally great, but the אברבנל says that the second נס was greater than the first.
מלבי'ם ויאמר קראתי- organizes the פסוקים in a beautiful way in order of the events that transpired.
הישועה הצרה
הדג בלע אותו
השליכוהו אל הים
הדגה בלעה אותו הדג פלט אותו לים
הדג(ה) פלט(ה) אותו ליבשה ממעי הדגה
אבן עזרא It is written in עבר, but some of it didn’t happen yet- any תפילה or ברכה of a נביא are considered like נבואה. Even though it’s not real נבואה, it’s as if it was נגזר להיות and is similar to נבואה, so it was written in עבר.
יונה was thrown into the water. He despaired that he was going to die. He was saved by a fish and he saw that ה' did a נס for him. He was then spit out of the fish, and he despaired again. He was in a צרה and he davened to ה'. He accepted upon himself to do what ה' said, and he was spit out. He then went to ננוה.
ד מצולה- עומק המים
מ''צ בלבב- means בחוזק because the heart is the strength of any human being.
מלבי''ם ונהר יסבבנו- why is it called a river? ים is water that stands still. נהר is מים המושכים. It was like a נהר- it was moving water. It went round and round like a whirlpool.
ותשליכני- You, ה', cast me over.
Waves are called:
1. משבריך- they break.
2. גליך- like a גלגל, they go round and round.
עלו עברו- at this point, he was sinking- he was under the waves.
נגרשתי- thought that he was being cast away physically and spiritually.
אך- but when the fish swallowed him, he realized that he would still be able to look at the היכל קדשיך.
ו His second צרה.
אפפוני- ל' אף. Went around him and threatened to choke him by coming into his nose.
תהום יסבבנו- physically, he was so deep down.
סוף חבוש לראשי- he had seaweed tied around his neck. We see from here that he was all the way at the bottom because seaweed is found at the bottom of the sea.
מלבי''ם ז לקצבי הרים- there are mountains so deep down below the water, and the water goes under them.
ברחי' בעדי לעולם- he thought that he was going to be locked out of the world forever.
"ותעלי" begins the second ישועה- the דגה swallowed him and he was raised up.
שחת- this can mean two things:
1. Grave, from dying.
2. גיהנום.
ח This is the third צרה.
בהתעטף- comes from ל' עטיפה- to wrap.
רד''ק אל היכל קדשיך- שמים.
מלבי''ם אל היכל קדשיך- בהמ''ק.
את ה' זכרתי-
1. I remembered to daven.
2. Do תשובה.
3. Promised that I will keep what ה' wants- going to ננוה.
ותבא אליך תפילתי אל היכל קדשיך- חז''ל say that יונה was in the water underneath הר ציון, which the בהמ''ק stands upon. "לקצבי הרים ירדתי''- referring to the בהמ''ק.
מלבי''ם ט משמרים- now that he accepted to go to ננוה and rebuke them like ה' wanted, he was comforting himself.
1. משמרים הבלי שוא...- talking about אנשי ננוה. They believe in ע''ז. Is it possible that they are going to leave חסדים- their ע''ז? ע''ז is called חסד because you do חסד with them- bring them all kinds of goodies. For sure they aren’t going to return from their ע''ז.
2. Even though they are going to do תשובה at this time, but at the end "חסדם יעזבו"- they are going to leave their good ways.
רש''י חסדם יעזבו- talking about the sailors. They left their bad ways and were נתגייר.
מלבי''ם י אזבחה לך בקול תודה- they must bring a קרבן תודה because this is one of the four reasons that you would have to:
1. ירדי ים
2. הולכי מדברות
3. Someone freed from jail.
4. Someone who was sick and was cured
I am going to do what I promised- go to ננוה. I was scared about what they were going to do to ב''י, that’s why I held myself back from going. I am still worried and I hope that ה' will save כ''י from their צרות.
מ''ד יא ויאמר- ה' made the fish’s heart want.
פרקי דרבי From when he did תשובה until he was spit out, the fish carried him 965 פרסעות. This פסוק- "לה' ויאמר... יונה"= 965.
ילקוט He went into the mouth of the fish like a person goes into the בה''כ. A בה''כ has very big doors- he was able to go into the fish’s mouth standing up. It is also compared to a בה''כ because יונה was going to end up davening in the fish. The two eyes were like windows- were like bright flashlights for יונה. ר' מאיר says that there was a gem in the stomach of the fish and it was like the sun at its fullest for יונה and he was able to see everything in the ים and תהומות. The fish told יונה, today is the day that I am supposed to be eaten by the לויתן. יונה said, bring me to the לויתן and I’ll save both of us. יונה went to the לויתן and said, I came to see where you live. Eventually, I’m going to come down, fish you out and make you into a סעודה for צדיקים. I am a part of כ''י and ברית of א''א. When the לויתן saw, he ran away two day worth. יונה said to the fish, I did you a favor- I saved you. Pay me back by showing me everything in the ים and תהומות. First he showed him a tremendous נחל of the ocean- "ונהר יסבבני" and the paths of the ים סוף- "סוף תבוש לראשי". He showed him where the waves come out of- "כל משבריך וגליך עלי עברו". He showed him the pillars of the world- "הארץ בריחיה בעדי לעולם" and he showed him שאול תחתית- "מבטן שאול שועתי". He showed him גיהנום- "ותעל משחת חיי" and he showed him היכל ה'- "לקצבי הרים". He showed him the אבן שתי' and בני קרח standing on it and davening. He was in the fish for three days and nights and he didn’t daven. ה' said, I expanded the fish so that he wouldn’t be in pain, but he didn’t daven. I’m going to put him into a pregnant fish with 365,000 x 10,000 fish in her. The גדה said to the דג that the נביא that’s inside of you is supposed to be inside of me now and if you don’t, I’ll swallow you. The דג said, how knows if what you’re saying is true? The דגה said that it’s true. He asked the לויתן and he said that it’s true. The דג said, when did this happen and the לויתן said within the last three hours.
אברבנל Nothing stands before תשובה- we see this from the fact that when יונה did תשובה, the fish carried him 965 פרסעות. When he decided to do תשובה, nothing stopped him- he took him back to ננוה.
רד''ק This fish was designated from ששת ימי בראשית to swallow יונה.
רש''י דג גדול- it was a male. יונה was standing very speciously in it and he didn’t daven. ה' hinted to the fish and it spit him into the mouth of an expecting fish. The מלבי''ם says that some fish have tens of thousands of eggs in them when expecting. He was oppressed there and he davened- we see in פסוק ב' that יונה is davening from a דגה.
"ואני אמרתי בשלוי בל אמוט לעולם"- when things were tranquil in my life, I felt that I will never move from this position. This is the same idea as what רש''י says- עמד בריוח ולא נתן לב להתפלל. We must be careful that when things are peaceful and ריוחדיק that we don’t forget about ה'.
"בצר לך ומצאןך... ושבת עד ה'"- the nature of a person is that when things are pressured and he has all kinds of צרות, he turns to ה'.
מלבי''ם וימן ה' דג גדול- why did ה' specifically choose this נס? ה' designated a very big fish to swallow יונה and it didn’t break his bones. It’s known that it is impossible to live in a fish for even one hour because a person needs fresh air from the outside. But since death was already decreed on יונה, it was considered like he was now born again and he was given the nature of an unborn fetus, that it can last for nine months without fresh air. This specific נס symbolized יונה’s rebirth.
רד''ק ממעי הדגה- the לשון of מ means מתוך. מתוך צרה he davened from deep within the fish. Other times where we see this:
1. ממעמקים
2. מן המצר
ויתפלל יונה- it was a tremendous נס that he was in the fish for three days and nights and he didn’t die. Another נס was that he wasn’t overcome with fright, but he remained with his דעת intact and he was able to daven. The רד''ק says that these two נסים were equally great, but the אברבנל says that the second נס was greater than the first.
מלבי'ם ויאמר קראתי- organizes the פסוקים in a beautiful way in order of the events that transpired.
הישועה הצרה
הדג בלע אותו
השליכוהו אל הים
הדגה בלעה אותו הדג פלט אותו לים
הדג(ה) פלט(ה) אותו ליבשה ממעי הדגה
אבן עזרא It is written in עבר, but some of it didn’t happen yet- any תפילה or ברכה of a נביא are considered like נבואה. Even though it’s not real נבואה, it’s as if it was נגזר להיות and is similar to נבואה, so it was written in עבר.
יונה was thrown into the water. He despaired that he was going to die. He was saved by a fish and he saw that ה' did a נס for him. He was then spit out of the fish, and he despaired again. He was in a צרה and he davened to ה'. He accepted upon himself to do what ה' said, and he was spit out. He then went to ננוה.
ד מצולה- עומק המים
מ''צ בלבב- means בחוזק because the heart is the strength of any human being.
מלבי''ם ונהר יסבבנו- why is it called a river? ים is water that stands still. נהר is מים המושכים. It was like a נהר- it was moving water. It went round and round like a whirlpool.
ותשליכני- You, ה', cast me over.
Waves are called:
1. משבריך- they break.
2. גליך- like a גלגל, they go round and round.
עלו עברו- at this point, he was sinking- he was under the waves.
נגרשתי- thought that he was being cast away physically and spiritually.
אך- but when the fish swallowed him, he realized that he would still be able to look at the היכל קדשיך.
ו His second צרה.
אפפוני- ל' אף. Went around him and threatened to choke him by coming into his nose.
תהום יסבבנו- physically, he was so deep down.
סוף חבוש לראשי- he had seaweed tied around his neck. We see from here that he was all the way at the bottom because seaweed is found at the bottom of the sea.
מלבי''ם ז לקצבי הרים- there are mountains so deep down below the water, and the water goes under them.
ברחי' בעדי לעולם- he thought that he was going to be locked out of the world forever.
"ותעלי" begins the second ישועה- the דגה swallowed him and he was raised up.
שחת- this can mean two things:
1. Grave, from dying.
2. גיהנום.
ח This is the third צרה.
בהתעטף- comes from ל' עטיפה- to wrap.
רד''ק אל היכל קדשיך- שמים.
מלבי''ם אל היכל קדשיך- בהמ''ק.
את ה' זכרתי-
1. I remembered to daven.
2. Do תשובה.
3. Promised that I will keep what ה' wants- going to ננוה.
ותבא אליך תפילתי אל היכל קדשיך- חז''ל say that יונה was in the water underneath הר ציון, which the בהמ''ק stands upon. "לקצבי הרים ירדתי''- referring to the בהמ''ק.
מלבי''ם ט משמרים- now that he accepted to go to ננוה and rebuke them like ה' wanted, he was comforting himself.
1. משמרים הבלי שוא...- talking about אנשי ננוה. They believe in ע''ז. Is it possible that they are going to leave חסדים- their ע''ז? ע''ז is called חסד because you do חסד with them- bring them all kinds of goodies. For sure they aren’t going to return from their ע''ז.
2. Even though they are going to do תשובה at this time, but at the end "חסדם יעזבו"- they are going to leave their good ways.
רש''י חסדם יעזבו- talking about the sailors. They left their bad ways and were נתגייר.
מלבי''ם י אזבחה לך בקול תודה- they must bring a קרבן תודה because this is one of the four reasons that you would have to:
1. ירדי ים
2. הולכי מדברות
3. Someone freed from jail.
4. Someone who was sick and was cured
I am going to do what I promised- go to ננוה. I was scared about what they were going to do to ב''י, that’s why I held myself back from going. I am still worried and I hope that ה' will save כ''י from their צרות.
מ''ד יא ויאמר- ה' made the fish’s heart want.
פרקי דרבי From when he did תשובה until he was spit out, the fish carried him 965 פרסעות. This פסוק- "לה' ויאמר... יונה"= 965.
ילקוט He went into the mouth of the fish like a person goes into the בה''כ. A בה''כ has very big doors- he was able to go into the fish’s mouth standing up. It is also compared to a בה''כ because יונה was going to end up davening in the fish. The two eyes were like windows- were like bright flashlights for יונה. ר' מאיר says that there was a gem in the stomach of the fish and it was like the sun at its fullest for יונה and he was able to see everything in the ים and תהומות. The fish told יונה, today is the day that I am supposed to be eaten by the לויתן. יונה said, bring me to the לויתן and I’ll save both of us. יונה went to the לויתן and said, I came to see where you live. Eventually, I’m going to come down, fish you out and make you into a סעודה for צדיקים. I am a part of כ''י and ברית of א''א. When the לויתן saw, he ran away two day worth. יונה said to the fish, I did you a favor- I saved you. Pay me back by showing me everything in the ים and תהומות. First he showed him a tremendous נחל of the ocean- "ונהר יסבבני" and the paths of the ים סוף- "סוף תבוש לראשי". He showed him where the waves come out of- "כל משבריך וגליך עלי עברו". He showed him the pillars of the world- "הארץ בריחיה בעדי לעולם" and he showed him שאול תחתית- "מבטן שאול שועתי". He showed him גיהנום- "ותעל משחת חיי" and he showed him היכל ה'- "לקצבי הרים". He showed him the אבן שתי' and בני קרח standing on it and davening. He was in the fish for three days and nights and he didn’t daven. ה' said, I expanded the fish so that he wouldn’t be in pain, but he didn’t daven. I’m going to put him into a pregnant fish with 365,000 x 10,000 fish in her. The גדה said to the דג that the נביא that’s inside of you is supposed to be inside of me now and if you don’t, I’ll swallow you. The דג said, how knows if what you’re saying is true? The דגה said that it’s true. He asked the לויתן and he said that it’s true. The דג said, when did this happen and the לויתן said within the last three hours.
אברבנל Nothing stands before תשובה- we see this from the fact that when יונה did תשובה, the fish carried him 965 פרסעות. When he decided to do תשובה, nothing stopped him- he took him back to ננוה.
Friday, February 4, 2011
הסטורי' 2
א''י-
א''י was conquered by the Ottomans in 1517. After the גאנים (1038), we don’t hear about a ישוב in א''י until about 200 years later- the רש משאנץ (aka איש ירושלים) came up to א''י with about 300 תלמידים. They ran there to escape the צרות of the Crusades.
Later on in the 1200s, the רמב''ן went up to א''י and found no מנין in ירושלים. The local Arabs used to bother the Jews. If the Ottomans were there to protect them, it was good for the Jews. Otherwise, they bothered them.
In the 1500s, many Jews flocked to א''י to places where there were settlements. They mainly settled in two places:
1. ירושלים- it was small. Why?
a. In the 1400s, there was an earthquake, therefore it was built up, but it was small.
b. ארבה
c. The Arabs lived there. They weren’t happy that the Jews moved it. The Turks liked the Jews, but they didn’t live there at that time. The Arabs oppressed them terribly.
d. There was tremendous poverty.
2. צפת- why did it thrive?
a. No earthquakes.
b. No locust.
c. They had a pasha watching over them, so the Arabs didn’t oppress them.
d. Weren’t poor-
i. It was a port city. It was the capital of the גליל because it was the crossroad of the port cities. There was a lot of business and they were able to make money.
ii. There were lush fields there:
1. Sheep
a. Wool→ yarn→ fabrics
b. Milk and by products
2. Olives→ oil→ soap and cosmetics.
e. It was a מקום קדוש- תנאים and אמוראים were buried there.
ירושלים-
1. רע''ב- ר' עובדי' מברטנורה (1440- 1516)- he was there to prepare א''י when the Ottomans would capture it. He came from Italy in 1488. What he found was a desert with only 4,000 families. In ירושלים there were only seventy. Things were terrible- they had to pay very high taxes and they had no ספרי תורה. He established a קהילה-
a. Shul
b. תקנות
c. Yeshiva
d. Collected money- he had connections with people in Italy so he had them send money.
At the time that he died, ירושלים was a thriving city.
The רע''ב wrote a פירוש on משניות. The רע''ב to משניות is like רש''י to תנ''ך. By the time he died, ירושלים was ready to be lived in- החזירה עטרה ליושנה.
2. רלב''ח- ר' לוי אבן חביב (1485- 1545)- as a little child in Portugal, he was forced to convert and his father saved him. He moved to Salonika. He finished his father’s ספר, the עין יעקב. When his father died, he moved to ירושלים. He devoted himself to building all of the aspects of the ישוב, financially, physically and spiritually. He became famous in the area of הלכה.
צפת-
1. ר' יעקב בירב (1475-1546)- he was from גולי ספרד, but he didn’t immediately come to צפת. First he went to Fez. At that time he was only eighteen, but they chose him to be the רב. At that time, Fez was one of the most distinguished ישובים. He went to other places until he finally came to צפת. Out of all of the great ת''ח that were there, he was chosen to be the רב.
He was most famous for חידוש הסמיכה- סמיכה started from משה ר'. He gave it to his תלמיד, יהושע- he ordained him as the next leader. In order for one to have סמיכה, he has to:
a. Be in א''י.
b. Has to be רבי to תלמיד.
This was up until the time of the Romans- 100 CE. Then, they made it אסור to give סמיכה. They said that if they were caught, the people and the whole city where the סמיכה was taking place would be punished. Story- ר' יהודה בן בבא saw that to form a ב''ד, people need סמיכה. He took five of his students to a mountain between two cities and gave them סמיכה. He was caught and killed, but his students safely got away. סמיכה continued on for 359 years, until כ''י spread out too much and it was lost. There was no longer a סנהדרין. Right before, הלל השני made the לוח so that we could know when ר''ח and יו''ט is.
ר' יעקב בירב wanted to renew סמיכה. He had an understanding that this was possible to do based on what the רמב''ם says:
a. If all of the ת''ח in א''י agree to it.
b. They give it to only one person. This person can then give it out to other people.
But he says that this needs more clarification. ר' יעקב בירב gathered all of the ת''ח in צפת and they all agreed, and decided that he should be the one to get the סמיכה. He wrote to the רלב''ח, who said that he doesn’t agree. The רלב''ח wrote to the רדב''ז- ר' דוד בן זמרי in מצרים. He agreed with the רלב''ח because:
a. Everyone in א''י had to agree, and the רלב''ח didn’t. Why not? Because the רמב''ם isn’t clear.
b. A decision like this must come out of ירושלים- "כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר ה' ירושלים".
This caused a terrible מחלוקת, and eventually ר' יעקב בירב had to leave צפת. However, he was buried there.
Three reasons that he wanted to renew סמיכה:
a. He felt that as the generations went on and spread out, there was a splintering in halachik decisions by different רבנים. He wanted one central ב''ד that could פסקין very important שאלות.
b. He wanted to prepare כ''י for משיח, because "ואשיבה שופטיך כבראשונה יועציך כבתחילה אחרי כן יקרא לך עיר הצדק קרי' נאמנה ציון במשפט תפדה ושבי' בצדקה"- by judging כ''י properly, they would be ready for משיח.
c. He was from גולי ספרד and so he knew their situation. He saw many אנוסים who came to settle in צפת but they were חייב כרת. The only way for them to do תשובה was with מלקות, which can only be done if there’s a סנהדרין. He had mercy on his brothers- he wanted them to have a complete כפרה.
In צפת, they felt that סמיכה was ok. There were about four rounds given over, and then it died out. A סנהדרין was never set up and they never gave מלקות. ר' יעקב בירב was forced to leave, and he went to דמשק.
סמיכה today is someone who becomes an expert in הלכה. He is tested by his רבי and gets סמיכה. If someone has a שאילה, they can ask him.
2. ר' יוסף קארו (1488- 1575)- he was known as:
a. מחבר
b. בית יוסף
c. מרן
His father was ר' אפרים קארו. He was born in Toledo, Spain. At the age of four, he had to leave Spain and he went to Portugal. Four year later, he had to leave and he went to Istanbul. He stayed in Istanbul until his father died. He was about thirty at that time. He then moved to Adrianople, which was on the Greek- Turkish border. He got married- his wife died, and he got remarried. He was a great ת''ח and learnt with ר' שלמה אלקביץ. Story- one שבועות night, they stayed up learning on תקון ליל שבועות. Suddenly, a בת קול came out and started telling them of the זכות of their learning and that they were מחזיר the crown ליושנה. It said that their learning is בית ה' and you shouldn’t stop. Also said that if they would have been a מנין, it would have been so much greater. The בת קול ended off by saying that it’s a good time to settle in א''י. This made a tremendous impact on ר' יוסף קארו and he ended up moving to צפת. He had a private מלאך that taught him תורה. He wrote the ספר מגיד מישרים- all that he learnt with the מלאך. The מלאך taught him תורה and מוסר. He wrote the בית יוסף and the שלחן ערוך. Why?
ג' עמודי הוראה- people that we lean on for הלכה. We פסקין like them.
a. רי''ף- ר' יצחק אלפסי- he had מנהגי ספרד. He was in the year 1000, which was 500 years after חתיחת הגמרא. He wrote a סכום הגמרא, in the order of the גמרא. He wrote the פסקי הלכה that are נוגע for today. He didn’t include the שקלא וטריא.
b. רמב''ם- ר' משה בן ממון- he was also from ספרד. He wrote משנה תורה יד חזקה- he put the גמרא into fourteen topics and also included הלכות that aren’t נוגע לזמן הזה.
c. רא''ש- ר' אשר בן יחיאל- he was a תלמיד of the מהר''ם. He was from אשכנז, but because of the terrible צרות he ran to Toledo, Spain. He was מסדר the הלכות of the גמרא from the ריף’s time up until himself 200 years later. He also brought in דברי ראשונים.
d. ר' יעקב בעל הטורים- he wrote the ארבע טורים- called the טור for short. He also codified the גמרא into four:
i. אורח חיים- day to day living.
ii. יורה דעה- אסור and היתר.
iii. חושן משפט- דיני ממנות.
iv. אבן העזר- marriage, woman…
But, he didn’t include the מקורות of where in the גמרא he found the הלכות. Also, he didn’t come to one פסק הלכה.
e. ר' יוסף קארו- he wrote:
i. בית יוסף- he both wrote this, and was called this. It’s a פירוש on the טור. He included the מקורות and came to a clear פסק הלכה. How? Generally, he would follow the majority. But sometimes he only followed the רמב''ם.
ii. שלחן ערוך- a shortened version of the בית יוסף. He only writes the פסק הלכה, he leaves out the שקלא וטריא.
כ''י had spread out and there was a split in מנהגים- אשכנז and ספרד. Two-thirds were in ספרד so most of the פסקי הלכה are ספרד. But they couldn’t be used for everything, because in some places אשכנז is different.
f. רמ''א- ר' משה איסרליש-
i. דרכי משה- anywhere in the בית יוסף that the הלכה is different for אשכנז, he wrote it.
ii. מפה- aka הגה- it’s the glosses on the side. This is written based on the שלחן ערוך. Now, all of כ''י is united and there is one ספר ofהלכה.
The מהר''א אבן לב had a ישיבה of sixty students and every student knew a different מסכתא by heart. So, whenever they had to find a מקור, that תלמיד would give it. They didn’t allow the בית יוסף into the ישיבה because that was a shortcut, an easy way out. One day, they were learning and couldn’t find the מקור. So they got the בית יוסף and they looked it up. They took it as a sign to allow the בית יוסף into their ישיבה.
There were three ר' יוסף s:
1. ר' יוסף קארו
2. מהר''א אבן לב
3. ר' יוסף טייטאצק
All three could have been the מחבר of the בית יוסף, but ר' יוסף קארו was chosen because of his extreme ענוה.
Why was he called the בית יוסף?
1. Just like the whole world was sustained from theבית of יוסף because he had food, so too everyone should be sustained from this ספר.
2. This ספר was his עמל so he hoped that it would be his בית in עוה''ב. The מלאך told him this, therefore he called it the בית יוסף.
This ספר was accepted by everyone. Even the רמ''א held ר' יוסף in high esteem and referred to him as "נשיא אלוקים אתה בתוכנו אשר מימיו אנו שותים" and it’s אסור to be ממרה the words of his mouth. Many גדולים held him in high esteem.
ר' יחזקאל אברמסקי was the chief rabbi in London and was once invited to a conference of “Jewish Scholars” but they weren’t of the same השקפה. He went and spoke about the שלחן ערוך. Another rabbi got up and said it’s obsolete and old fashioned, so how could you quote it? There was an uproar, so ר' יחזקאל tried to calm them down. He told them to take out papers and they should every detail that he says. He said a story of judgment and everyone wrote down the story, and it covered a lot. Then he showed them how concise it is in the בית יוסף- in three lines he was able to get everything down. So this shows the חכמה and תורה of specificallyר' יוסף – the fact that this was years ago show his greatness because he was able to consolidate it so much. They accepted his argument.
He spent twenty years writing the בית יוסף and seventeen years reviewing.
He took over as רב in צפת after ר' יעקב בירב.
The שלחן ערוך is divided into thirty sections so that you could finish it in a month. ר' יוסף was able to unite כ''י with one ספר. He died at about the age of eighty-seven.
3. ר' שלמה הלוי אלקביץ (1505- 1584)- he was born in Salonika and before he ended up in צפת he lived in Adrianople. Eventually, he moved to א''י and came up to צפת. He was one of the greatest מקובלים. He is most famous for his פיוט, "לכה דודי". He lived to an old age and learnt תורה בטהרה ובקדושה. He had many תלמידום. He was very beloved by כ''י.
There were local Arabs in צפת who were jealous of the Jews for having such a special leader. They plotted to do away with ר' שלמה הלוי. When he went for a walk in the hills of צפת, Achmad followed him and killed him. He buried him in his yard. The Yidden had no clue where ר' שלמה הלוי was. One day, when it wasn’t in season for trees to grow, a fig tree grew in Achmad’s yard- it was a sensation. The פשתן heard about it and came to check it out. He pressured Achmad to tell him the secret and he told him how ר' שלמה הלוי was buried under there. The Jews found out and reburied him and Achmad was hanged.
4. רמ''ק- ר' משה קורדובו (1522- 1570)- he learnt גמרא and הלכה from the בית יוסף. He learnt קבלה from his brother in law, ר' שלמה הלוי. He became one of the greatest מקובלים in צפת. He wrote two ספרים:
a. פרדס רמונים- it’s a ספר קבלה.
b. תומר דבורה- it’s a ספר מוסר and it’s arranged according to the י''ג מידות הרחמים.
He knew that he was going to die soon. He called in his תלמידים together and told them that he was going to die. He said that he has been told from שמים that one of them will open up his eyes to the light of קבלה. His way of learning will be different, but doesn’t conflict with his own. When I started teaching you תורת חן- חכמה נסתרת, the channels through which it comes down to the world were closed. People before this had a hard time understanding. They had to exert themselves very hard to understand the secrets of קבלה. When I die, these channels will open up and חכמים will understand much more easily. The man who I hinted to already grasp hidden secrets and he’ll teach them to you. His teaching will be greater than mine- accept what he says as the truth. Now, all of the תלמידים were confused- the person who they thought was going to be the רמ''ק’s successor didn’t fit the qualifications because he was not in the room at that time. They begged the רמ''ק to say, but he wouldn’t. The רמ''ק gave a sign- the person who will see an עמוד ענן on the top of the רמ''ק’s ארון, he’ll be the successor. He said goodbye to his תלמידים and died. Everyone came to his לוי', even the Arabs. By the הספד, they called up ר' יצחק מזרחי to speak. Everyone was wondering why him. After the לוי', the person who called up ר' יצחק explained why he did so- as I was burying him, ר' יצחק said that he’s not supposed to be buried there because there is an עמוד ענן and it didn’t stop there. The man understood that if he saw the עמוד ענן, he’s the successor and he should let him give a הספד. This man was the אריז''ל.
5. אריז''ל- ר' יצחק לורי' אשכנזי (1534- 1572)- he was called the ארי. Why?
a. אשכנזי ר' יצחק
b. אדונינו ר' יצחק
c. אמר ר' יצחק
d. He was an ארי- he was head and shoulders above the greatest people of his generation. The children of lions are called גור. His תלמידים were called גורי האריה.
He was born in ירושלים. His father was from אשכנז. His family came from Lorrain- that’s why they are called לורי'. His father died at a young age. His mother was not able to support the family, so she moved them to מצרים because she had a rich brother there- מרדכי פרנסיס. He recognized the ארי’s כוחות and gave him over to learn by the רדב''ז- he was the אב בית דין in אלכסנדרי'. He saw his כשרונות and יראת ה' so he assigned him a special רב- ר' בצלאל אשכנזי (a תלמיד of the רדב''ז). He wrote the ספר, שיטה מקובצת- a compilation of ראשונים on the גמרא in one ספר. The אריז''ל got married at the young age of fifteen- he married his own cousin. Eventually, the רדב''ז left מצרים and ר' בצלאל אשכנזי took over. He learnt with ר' בצלאל for a while until ר' בצלאל left to ירושלים.
The אריז''ל realized that to become the best person he could be, he must separate himself from הבלי עוה''ב. His uncle prepared a hut for him by the נילוס. ר' מרדכי brought him food and he learned intensely, only coming home for שבת. He had גלוי אליהו when he learnt there and he taught him זוהר (written by ר' שמעון בר יוחאי). At night, his נשמה went up to מתיבתא דרקיע. At the gates, they would ask him who he wanted to learn with. He told his תלמידים that he couldn’t record in eighty years what he learnt in one night.
One night, אליהו told him that it’s time for him to go to צפת and make his knowledge known. He was to teach it to ר' חיים ויטאל, and he would write it down and spread it to the world. There were those in צפת who didn’t accept him:
a. רדב''ז- he was living in ירושלים. He felt that the אריז''ל was much too young to be teaching the תלמידים of the רמ''ק. He sent the אריז''ל messages to wait, but he didn’t because the people wanted him and because אליהו said to. The רדב''ז decided to challenge the אריז''ל- he sent ר' בצלאל אשכנזי to “shlug him up” by asking very hard questions. ר' בצלאל came to the shiur and saw the רדב''ז sitting there in amazement. ר' בצלאל was also amazed. When the shiur was over, he went to go find the רדב''ז, but he wasn’t there. He went back to the רדב''ז and the רדב''ז said that he wasn’t at the shiur- realized that it was אליהו. The Villna Gaon says on this story "אשרי" three times:
i. אריז''ל- אליהו came to his shiur.
ii. רדב''ז- רדב''ז assumed his form.
iii. ר' בצלאל - he saw אליהו.
b. ר' חיים ויטאל- everyone thought that he was going to be the רמ''ק’s successor. He didn’t not hear the words of the רמ''ק because he wasn’t there when he died. He couldn’t accept that his friends were learning from the אריז''ל since he taught differently than the רמ''ק. So he didn’t seek the ארי out and the ארי didn’t seek him out. He knew that somehow he’d end up by him, but he wasn’t ready yet.
ר' חיים started having dreams to seek out the אריז''ל. One day he couldn’t resolve some difficulties in קבלה, so he fasted and davened to help him understand. Finally, his dream said that he should go to the אריז''ל and he will teach you. He decided to go see if he could help, then he would truly see his greatness. He came to צפת, and the אריז''ל was in the store he owned, bent over the accounting books. ר' חיים felt disgusted- how could someone involved in such גשמיות be such a great רבי? I should seek him out? So he turned to leave. The אריז''ל realized what was going on, so he said, what did you come to buy? ר' חיים said, I want the goods of עוה''ב and not עוה''ז. The אריז''ל said, I know what you want, and he told him his difficulty and solved it. The אריז''ל’s teachings were so great that he had to daven hard to be זוכה to understand. He became the תלמיד מובהק of the אריז''ל and his job was to write down the אריז''ל’s teachings in the ספר עץ חיים.
Someone went from Istanbul to צפת, and when he came back to Istanbul, he said that the אריז''ל knows everything about everyone. A רשע said, it’s not true, I’ll prove it. He traveled to צפת and on the way he stole horses, wasn’t מקפיד on כשרות, etc. One night, he was sitting with his wine and saying, l’chaim to the אריז''ל. At that moment, the אריז''ל was learning with his students and he smiled. When they asked why he said because he sees that a רשע is on his way to challenge him and he’s not going to succeed- when he comes bring him straight to me. The רשע came and told the אריז''ל that if he can tell him all of his חטאים, he’ll leave his bad ways and do תשובה. The אריז''ל sent everyone out of the room because he didn’t want to embarrass the man (just like יוסף) and he told him every עבירה he ever did. He broke down and begged for a כפרה and the אריז''ל helped him do תשובה. He came back to Istanbul a changed man.
The אריז''ל was able to see new גזירות that would happen. Story- he saw that צפת is going to have ארבה that are going to eat everything because there is a ת''ח who has no food, and no one is helping him. They sent him money. The אריז''ל said that ב''ד של מעלה annulled the decree. He saw the ארבה coming and then stop at the border of צפת. One time, the אריז''ל saw a plague coming because of a politician who exhorted people and took advantage. He decided to learn in order to annul the decree, but it didn’t help. The אריז''ל also got sick from this plague and he died at the age of thirty- eight. We only have two years of teaching from him. He was buried in צפת.
6. ר' חיים ויטאל- he was a תלמיד of the רמ''ק and everyone assumed that he would take over for him. He became the תלמיד מובהק of the אריז''ל. He wrote עץ חיים- קבלה. When he started learning with the אריז''ל, he didn’t understand and he had to fast. The אריז''ל took ר' חיים to the כנרת because they say that the באר מרים is there. He put a flask in and took some water out. He figured that since מרים lived in the דור דעה, the water would help. ר' חיים would write down what the אריז''ל said.
7. ר' ישראל נאגארה- he was one of the greatest מקובלים in צפת. He was a פיטן and put many of his פיוטים to music. Many became זמירות and songs which we have- much based on קבלה, for example "קה רבון...". He reminded the אריז''ל of דוד.
8. האלשיך הקדוש- ר' משה אלשיך- he was a תלמיד of ר' יוסף קארו and became a דין in צפת’s ב''ד. He gave a דרשה every שבת and wrote it into a ספר, "תורת משה"- because people can’t take notes on שבת and they might miss something. He wrote a פירוש on נ''ך called האלשיך הקדוש.
9. ר' אלעזר אזכר- he was a big ת''ח and מקובל. He is famous for composing the זמרה, ידיד נפש- speaks about דבקות to ה'. He also wrote ספר חרדים- about מצות. He set it up according to which מצוה is כנגד which אבר in the גוף.
10. ר' שמואל דיאוזידה- he was the תלמיד of the אריז''ל and ר' חיים ויטאל. He was a מקובל. He wrote a פירוש called מדרש שמואל on פרקי אבות. He was a great ת''ח and had great צדקות.
Up until the 1600s, צפת was having a golden age, thought it wasn’t officially a טור הזהב. But it came to an end. How? By the end of the 1500s, גולי ספרד were not coming in anymore. The population dwindled. Also, the sheep business dwindled and פרנסה decreased. Also, the sultans weren’t as strong in protecting the Jews at this point.
פולין-
This became a haven for Yidden, but primarily אזכנזים escaping the crusades.
For many years, there was no civilization in Poland. Even though they had people, they didn’t rise to greatness- because they had a cold climate and it was hard to get food. Then they discovered that potatoes grow in America, in cold, frozen soil. So they started to grow potatoes in Poland.
Germany was on its west and Russia was on its east. They were constantly fighting over it. At one point there was no Poland because Germany and Russia took it. They had the Carpathian Mountains on their south so the Ottoman Empire couldn’t take over. They had a lot of forests and transported lumber in water. The middle of Poland is flat land and is easy to take over. They had salt and coal mines.
Poland began with tribes and no civilization until the year 1000, when they had a king who accepted Christianity. So they remained Catholic. In the 12 and 1300s, they had feudalism and פריץ- landowners. They had people working for them- serfs. They were slaves who worked and had no life. At that point, Poland was the most advanced country. But it didn’t maintain this status- it didn’t continue to advance so it ended up backwards- they did not get rid of feudalism.
Poland became a center of תורה from the time of גזירות ת''ח and ת''ט, up until Nazism. Because they had a backwards existence, they were shielded from the גויים so they had an easy time learning תורה. The noblemen didn’t want to modernize the country because they like to have wealth and money, so they kept it that way. This allowed תורה to grow greatly. There were Yidden living in Poland from the 1100s- we know from קברים which have dates. Between the 13 and 1400s, the קהילה started growing. By the 1500s, there were 20-30,000 Yidden spread out between the different ישובים.
The peasants hated the Yidden because they didn’t work as serfs, they did their own thing. Some פריצים also hated them. Also the clergy hated them. But in the 1300s, the kings recognized the value of Yidden and protected them.
What type of jobs did they have?
1. Woodcutting- supervise chopping, transporting.
2. Innkeepers- also sold whiskey. The drunk גויים would bother them after they got drunk.
3. Tax collectors for noblemen- noblemen got mad if they didn’t get money and the peasants were mad to pay.
4. Money lending- this is a bad position to be in.
5. Small businesses
a. Peddlers
b. Farmers
c. Collected money- if had no money.
d. מגידים- some ת''ח gave דרשות.
The Yidden flourished in תורה, but in פרנסה it wasn’t so good. פולין - פה לין- the תורה came from אשכנז to be לן here in פולין. The Yidden were very sheltered from the גויים. They dressed like Yidden. They approached business only as a means for פרנסה, then came לימוד התורה. Yiddish began at this time. All שאלות were starting to be brought here to be answered.
The king protected them and invited them. When the Yidden were killed because of a false libel, the king found out and was horrified. So he wrote a letter that if a Jew is accused of killing a גויש'ע child, you need three Christian witnesses and three Jewish witnesses. And until then, the Jew is safe. If the prosecutor can’t bring witnesses, he’ll be punished.
The Jews had self government- they were in shtetels, where were קהילות, and they were in charge of everything. There was no גויש'ע government. The קהילה was even in charge of taxes. In charge of each קהילה was an organization, the ועד קהילה. On the ועד were:
1. עסקנים- many were businessmen who had time to give to the כלל.
2. רבנים
The head of the ועד was the ראש קהילה. The קהילה did the following:
1. Made ב''ד.
2. Supervised חנוך.
3. Organized גמ''חs- lending things without interest.
4. הכנסת אורחים
5. Medical matters
6. Ensuring that everyone had living quarters.
7. Regulated the marketplace.
Poland was divided into four parts. Each part had a ועד הארץ. The different קהילות were in the different parts. For any issue affecting the entire Poland, all the ועד הארץs made a ועד ארבע הארצות, and they met twice a year, in spring and fall in Lublin and Yaraslov (traded between the two). The ועד ארבע הארצות kept a diary of everything that was going on. They:
1. Were in charge of the tax collecting and distributing- this system lasted about 200 years.
2. Made תקנות for חזוק התורה.
3. They serves as ב''ד גדול.
4. They were עוסק in shidduchim.
5. שתדלנים- mediators between the Yidden and the king. Oneשתדלן was ר' שאול וואהל from the city of Brisk. He took no money for his work and taught his children to do the same.
1. ר' יעקב פולק (d. 1530)- he set up a מרכז התורה in Poland. He was responsible for making it a place of תורה from the 1500s until the Holocaust. He set up ישיבות in Poland with a method of פלפול. Some גדולים didn’t accept it. He had many תלמידים. His תלמיד מובהק was ר' שלום שכנא.
2. ר' שלום שכנא- he took over in Lublin. He also פסקיןed as ר' יעקב did, but since he had ענוה, they didn’t leave over their פסק הלכה in writing.
3. רמ''א- ר' משה איסרליש (1530-1572)- he was from the greatest פוסקים of his generation. He is compared by some to the רמב''ם. He wrote מפה on שלחן ערוך and also דרכי משה on the בית יוסף. He had a lot of צרות in his life. His father built a shul and it is still standing today- called the רמ''א shul. He died in ל''ג בעומר and people come to his קבר on ל''ג בעומר. It says on it "ממשה עד משה לא קם כמשה".
א''י was conquered by the Ottomans in 1517. After the גאנים (1038), we don’t hear about a ישוב in א''י until about 200 years later- the רש משאנץ (aka איש ירושלים) came up to א''י with about 300 תלמידים. They ran there to escape the צרות of the Crusades.
Later on in the 1200s, the רמב''ן went up to א''י and found no מנין in ירושלים. The local Arabs used to bother the Jews. If the Ottomans were there to protect them, it was good for the Jews. Otherwise, they bothered them.
In the 1500s, many Jews flocked to א''י to places where there were settlements. They mainly settled in two places:
1. ירושלים- it was small. Why?
a. In the 1400s, there was an earthquake, therefore it was built up, but it was small.
b. ארבה
c. The Arabs lived there. They weren’t happy that the Jews moved it. The Turks liked the Jews, but they didn’t live there at that time. The Arabs oppressed them terribly.
d. There was tremendous poverty.
2. צפת- why did it thrive?
a. No earthquakes.
b. No locust.
c. They had a pasha watching over them, so the Arabs didn’t oppress them.
d. Weren’t poor-
i. It was a port city. It was the capital of the גליל because it was the crossroad of the port cities. There was a lot of business and they were able to make money.
ii. There were lush fields there:
1. Sheep
a. Wool→ yarn→ fabrics
b. Milk and by products
2. Olives→ oil→ soap and cosmetics.
e. It was a מקום קדוש- תנאים and אמוראים were buried there.
ירושלים-
1. רע''ב- ר' עובדי' מברטנורה (1440- 1516)- he was there to prepare א''י when the Ottomans would capture it. He came from Italy in 1488. What he found was a desert with only 4,000 families. In ירושלים there were only seventy. Things were terrible- they had to pay very high taxes and they had no ספרי תורה. He established a קהילה-
a. Shul
b. תקנות
c. Yeshiva
d. Collected money- he had connections with people in Italy so he had them send money.
At the time that he died, ירושלים was a thriving city.
The רע''ב wrote a פירוש on משניות. The רע''ב to משניות is like רש''י to תנ''ך. By the time he died, ירושלים was ready to be lived in- החזירה עטרה ליושנה.
2. רלב''ח- ר' לוי אבן חביב (1485- 1545)- as a little child in Portugal, he was forced to convert and his father saved him. He moved to Salonika. He finished his father’s ספר, the עין יעקב. When his father died, he moved to ירושלים. He devoted himself to building all of the aspects of the ישוב, financially, physically and spiritually. He became famous in the area of הלכה.
צפת-
1. ר' יעקב בירב (1475-1546)- he was from גולי ספרד, but he didn’t immediately come to צפת. First he went to Fez. At that time he was only eighteen, but they chose him to be the רב. At that time, Fez was one of the most distinguished ישובים. He went to other places until he finally came to צפת. Out of all of the great ת''ח that were there, he was chosen to be the רב.
He was most famous for חידוש הסמיכה- סמיכה started from משה ר'. He gave it to his תלמיד, יהושע- he ordained him as the next leader. In order for one to have סמיכה, he has to:
a. Be in א''י.
b. Has to be רבי to תלמיד.
This was up until the time of the Romans- 100 CE. Then, they made it אסור to give סמיכה. They said that if they were caught, the people and the whole city where the סמיכה was taking place would be punished. Story- ר' יהודה בן בבא saw that to form a ב''ד, people need סמיכה. He took five of his students to a mountain between two cities and gave them סמיכה. He was caught and killed, but his students safely got away. סמיכה continued on for 359 years, until כ''י spread out too much and it was lost. There was no longer a סנהדרין. Right before, הלל השני made the לוח so that we could know when ר''ח and יו''ט is.
ר' יעקב בירב wanted to renew סמיכה. He had an understanding that this was possible to do based on what the רמב''ם says:
a. If all of the ת''ח in א''י agree to it.
b. They give it to only one person. This person can then give it out to other people.
But he says that this needs more clarification. ר' יעקב בירב gathered all of the ת''ח in צפת and they all agreed, and decided that he should be the one to get the סמיכה. He wrote to the רלב''ח, who said that he doesn’t agree. The רלב''ח wrote to the רדב''ז- ר' דוד בן זמרי in מצרים. He agreed with the רלב''ח because:
a. Everyone in א''י had to agree, and the רלב''ח didn’t. Why not? Because the רמב''ם isn’t clear.
b. A decision like this must come out of ירושלים- "כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר ה' ירושלים".
This caused a terrible מחלוקת, and eventually ר' יעקב בירב had to leave צפת. However, he was buried there.
Three reasons that he wanted to renew סמיכה:
a. He felt that as the generations went on and spread out, there was a splintering in halachik decisions by different רבנים. He wanted one central ב''ד that could פסקין very important שאלות.
b. He wanted to prepare כ''י for משיח, because "ואשיבה שופטיך כבראשונה יועציך כבתחילה אחרי כן יקרא לך עיר הצדק קרי' נאמנה ציון במשפט תפדה ושבי' בצדקה"- by judging כ''י properly, they would be ready for משיח.
c. He was from גולי ספרד and so he knew their situation. He saw many אנוסים who came to settle in צפת but they were חייב כרת. The only way for them to do תשובה was with מלקות, which can only be done if there’s a סנהדרין. He had mercy on his brothers- he wanted them to have a complete כפרה.
In צפת, they felt that סמיכה was ok. There were about four rounds given over, and then it died out. A סנהדרין was never set up and they never gave מלקות. ר' יעקב בירב was forced to leave, and he went to דמשק.
סמיכה today is someone who becomes an expert in הלכה. He is tested by his רבי and gets סמיכה. If someone has a שאילה, they can ask him.
2. ר' יוסף קארו (1488- 1575)- he was known as:
a. מחבר
b. בית יוסף
c. מרן
His father was ר' אפרים קארו. He was born in Toledo, Spain. At the age of four, he had to leave Spain and he went to Portugal. Four year later, he had to leave and he went to Istanbul. He stayed in Istanbul until his father died. He was about thirty at that time. He then moved to Adrianople, which was on the Greek- Turkish border. He got married- his wife died, and he got remarried. He was a great ת''ח and learnt with ר' שלמה אלקביץ. Story- one שבועות night, they stayed up learning on תקון ליל שבועות. Suddenly, a בת קול came out and started telling them of the זכות of their learning and that they were מחזיר the crown ליושנה. It said that their learning is בית ה' and you shouldn’t stop. Also said that if they would have been a מנין, it would have been so much greater. The בת קול ended off by saying that it’s a good time to settle in א''י. This made a tremendous impact on ר' יוסף קארו and he ended up moving to צפת. He had a private מלאך that taught him תורה. He wrote the ספר מגיד מישרים- all that he learnt with the מלאך. The מלאך taught him תורה and מוסר. He wrote the בית יוסף and the שלחן ערוך. Why?
ג' עמודי הוראה- people that we lean on for הלכה. We פסקין like them.
a. רי''ף- ר' יצחק אלפסי- he had מנהגי ספרד. He was in the year 1000, which was 500 years after חתיחת הגמרא. He wrote a סכום הגמרא, in the order of the גמרא. He wrote the פסקי הלכה that are נוגע for today. He didn’t include the שקלא וטריא.
b. רמב''ם- ר' משה בן ממון- he was also from ספרד. He wrote משנה תורה יד חזקה- he put the גמרא into fourteen topics and also included הלכות that aren’t נוגע לזמן הזה.
c. רא''ש- ר' אשר בן יחיאל- he was a תלמיד of the מהר''ם. He was from אשכנז, but because of the terrible צרות he ran to Toledo, Spain. He was מסדר the הלכות of the גמרא from the ריף’s time up until himself 200 years later. He also brought in דברי ראשונים.
d. ר' יעקב בעל הטורים- he wrote the ארבע טורים- called the טור for short. He also codified the גמרא into four:
i. אורח חיים- day to day living.
ii. יורה דעה- אסור and היתר.
iii. חושן משפט- דיני ממנות.
iv. אבן העזר- marriage, woman…
But, he didn’t include the מקורות of where in the גמרא he found the הלכות. Also, he didn’t come to one פסק הלכה.
e. ר' יוסף קארו- he wrote:
i. בית יוסף- he both wrote this, and was called this. It’s a פירוש on the טור. He included the מקורות and came to a clear פסק הלכה. How? Generally, he would follow the majority. But sometimes he only followed the רמב''ם.
ii. שלחן ערוך- a shortened version of the בית יוסף. He only writes the פסק הלכה, he leaves out the שקלא וטריא.
כ''י had spread out and there was a split in מנהגים- אשכנז and ספרד. Two-thirds were in ספרד so most of the פסקי הלכה are ספרד. But they couldn’t be used for everything, because in some places אשכנז is different.
f. רמ''א- ר' משה איסרליש-
i. דרכי משה- anywhere in the בית יוסף that the הלכה is different for אשכנז, he wrote it.
ii. מפה- aka הגה- it’s the glosses on the side. This is written based on the שלחן ערוך. Now, all of כ''י is united and there is one ספר ofהלכה.
The מהר''א אבן לב had a ישיבה of sixty students and every student knew a different מסכתא by heart. So, whenever they had to find a מקור, that תלמיד would give it. They didn’t allow the בית יוסף into the ישיבה because that was a shortcut, an easy way out. One day, they were learning and couldn’t find the מקור. So they got the בית יוסף and they looked it up. They took it as a sign to allow the בית יוסף into their ישיבה.
There were three ר' יוסף s:
1. ר' יוסף קארו
2. מהר''א אבן לב
3. ר' יוסף טייטאצק
All three could have been the מחבר of the בית יוסף, but ר' יוסף קארו was chosen because of his extreme ענוה.
Why was he called the בית יוסף?
1. Just like the whole world was sustained from theבית of יוסף because he had food, so too everyone should be sustained from this ספר.
2. This ספר was his עמל so he hoped that it would be his בית in עוה''ב. The מלאך told him this, therefore he called it the בית יוסף.
This ספר was accepted by everyone. Even the רמ''א held ר' יוסף in high esteem and referred to him as "נשיא אלוקים אתה בתוכנו אשר מימיו אנו שותים" and it’s אסור to be ממרה the words of his mouth. Many גדולים held him in high esteem.
ר' יחזקאל אברמסקי was the chief rabbi in London and was once invited to a conference of “Jewish Scholars” but they weren’t of the same השקפה. He went and spoke about the שלחן ערוך. Another rabbi got up and said it’s obsolete and old fashioned, so how could you quote it? There was an uproar, so ר' יחזקאל tried to calm them down. He told them to take out papers and they should every detail that he says. He said a story of judgment and everyone wrote down the story, and it covered a lot. Then he showed them how concise it is in the בית יוסף- in three lines he was able to get everything down. So this shows the חכמה and תורה of specificallyר' יוסף – the fact that this was years ago show his greatness because he was able to consolidate it so much. They accepted his argument.
He spent twenty years writing the בית יוסף and seventeen years reviewing.
He took over as רב in צפת after ר' יעקב בירב.
The שלחן ערוך is divided into thirty sections so that you could finish it in a month. ר' יוסף was able to unite כ''י with one ספר. He died at about the age of eighty-seven.
3. ר' שלמה הלוי אלקביץ (1505- 1584)- he was born in Salonika and before he ended up in צפת he lived in Adrianople. Eventually, he moved to א''י and came up to צפת. He was one of the greatest מקובלים. He is most famous for his פיוט, "לכה דודי". He lived to an old age and learnt תורה בטהרה ובקדושה. He had many תלמידום. He was very beloved by כ''י.
There were local Arabs in צפת who were jealous of the Jews for having such a special leader. They plotted to do away with ר' שלמה הלוי. When he went for a walk in the hills of צפת, Achmad followed him and killed him. He buried him in his yard. The Yidden had no clue where ר' שלמה הלוי was. One day, when it wasn’t in season for trees to grow, a fig tree grew in Achmad’s yard- it was a sensation. The פשתן heard about it and came to check it out. He pressured Achmad to tell him the secret and he told him how ר' שלמה הלוי was buried under there. The Jews found out and reburied him and Achmad was hanged.
4. רמ''ק- ר' משה קורדובו (1522- 1570)- he learnt גמרא and הלכה from the בית יוסף. He learnt קבלה from his brother in law, ר' שלמה הלוי. He became one of the greatest מקובלים in צפת. He wrote two ספרים:
a. פרדס רמונים- it’s a ספר קבלה.
b. תומר דבורה- it’s a ספר מוסר and it’s arranged according to the י''ג מידות הרחמים.
He knew that he was going to die soon. He called in his תלמידים together and told them that he was going to die. He said that he has been told from שמים that one of them will open up his eyes to the light of קבלה. His way of learning will be different, but doesn’t conflict with his own. When I started teaching you תורת חן- חכמה נסתרת, the channels through which it comes down to the world were closed. People before this had a hard time understanding. They had to exert themselves very hard to understand the secrets of קבלה. When I die, these channels will open up and חכמים will understand much more easily. The man who I hinted to already grasp hidden secrets and he’ll teach them to you. His teaching will be greater than mine- accept what he says as the truth. Now, all of the תלמידים were confused- the person who they thought was going to be the רמ''ק’s successor didn’t fit the qualifications because he was not in the room at that time. They begged the רמ''ק to say, but he wouldn’t. The רמ''ק gave a sign- the person who will see an עמוד ענן on the top of the רמ''ק’s ארון, he’ll be the successor. He said goodbye to his תלמידים and died. Everyone came to his לוי', even the Arabs. By the הספד, they called up ר' יצחק מזרחי to speak. Everyone was wondering why him. After the לוי', the person who called up ר' יצחק explained why he did so- as I was burying him, ר' יצחק said that he’s not supposed to be buried there because there is an עמוד ענן and it didn’t stop there. The man understood that if he saw the עמוד ענן, he’s the successor and he should let him give a הספד. This man was the אריז''ל.
5. אריז''ל- ר' יצחק לורי' אשכנזי (1534- 1572)- he was called the ארי. Why?
a. אשכנזי ר' יצחק
b. אדונינו ר' יצחק
c. אמר ר' יצחק
d. He was an ארי- he was head and shoulders above the greatest people of his generation. The children of lions are called גור. His תלמידים were called גורי האריה.
He was born in ירושלים. His father was from אשכנז. His family came from Lorrain- that’s why they are called לורי'. His father died at a young age. His mother was not able to support the family, so she moved them to מצרים because she had a rich brother there- מרדכי פרנסיס. He recognized the ארי’s כוחות and gave him over to learn by the רדב''ז- he was the אב בית דין in אלכסנדרי'. He saw his כשרונות and יראת ה' so he assigned him a special רב- ר' בצלאל אשכנזי (a תלמיד of the רדב''ז). He wrote the ספר, שיטה מקובצת- a compilation of ראשונים on the גמרא in one ספר. The אריז''ל got married at the young age of fifteen- he married his own cousin. Eventually, the רדב''ז left מצרים and ר' בצלאל אשכנזי took over. He learnt with ר' בצלאל for a while until ר' בצלאל left to ירושלים.
The אריז''ל realized that to become the best person he could be, he must separate himself from הבלי עוה''ב. His uncle prepared a hut for him by the נילוס. ר' מרדכי brought him food and he learned intensely, only coming home for שבת. He had גלוי אליהו when he learnt there and he taught him זוהר (written by ר' שמעון בר יוחאי). At night, his נשמה went up to מתיבתא דרקיע. At the gates, they would ask him who he wanted to learn with. He told his תלמידים that he couldn’t record in eighty years what he learnt in one night.
One night, אליהו told him that it’s time for him to go to צפת and make his knowledge known. He was to teach it to ר' חיים ויטאל, and he would write it down and spread it to the world. There were those in צפת who didn’t accept him:
a. רדב''ז- he was living in ירושלים. He felt that the אריז''ל was much too young to be teaching the תלמידים of the רמ''ק. He sent the אריז''ל messages to wait, but he didn’t because the people wanted him and because אליהו said to. The רדב''ז decided to challenge the אריז''ל- he sent ר' בצלאל אשכנזי to “shlug him up” by asking very hard questions. ר' בצלאל came to the shiur and saw the רדב''ז sitting there in amazement. ר' בצלאל was also amazed. When the shiur was over, he went to go find the רדב''ז, but he wasn’t there. He went back to the רדב''ז and the רדב''ז said that he wasn’t at the shiur- realized that it was אליהו. The Villna Gaon says on this story "אשרי" three times:
i. אריז''ל- אליהו came to his shiur.
ii. רדב''ז- רדב''ז assumed his form.
iii. ר' בצלאל - he saw אליהו.
b. ר' חיים ויטאל- everyone thought that he was going to be the רמ''ק’s successor. He didn’t not hear the words of the רמ''ק because he wasn’t there when he died. He couldn’t accept that his friends were learning from the אריז''ל since he taught differently than the רמ''ק. So he didn’t seek the ארי out and the ארי didn’t seek him out. He knew that somehow he’d end up by him, but he wasn’t ready yet.
ר' חיים started having dreams to seek out the אריז''ל. One day he couldn’t resolve some difficulties in קבלה, so he fasted and davened to help him understand. Finally, his dream said that he should go to the אריז''ל and he will teach you. He decided to go see if he could help, then he would truly see his greatness. He came to צפת, and the אריז''ל was in the store he owned, bent over the accounting books. ר' חיים felt disgusted- how could someone involved in such גשמיות be such a great רבי? I should seek him out? So he turned to leave. The אריז''ל realized what was going on, so he said, what did you come to buy? ר' חיים said, I want the goods of עוה''ב and not עוה''ז. The אריז''ל said, I know what you want, and he told him his difficulty and solved it. The אריז''ל’s teachings were so great that he had to daven hard to be זוכה to understand. He became the תלמיד מובהק of the אריז''ל and his job was to write down the אריז''ל’s teachings in the ספר עץ חיים.
Someone went from Istanbul to צפת, and when he came back to Istanbul, he said that the אריז''ל knows everything about everyone. A רשע said, it’s not true, I’ll prove it. He traveled to צפת and on the way he stole horses, wasn’t מקפיד on כשרות, etc. One night, he was sitting with his wine and saying, l’chaim to the אריז''ל. At that moment, the אריז''ל was learning with his students and he smiled. When they asked why he said because he sees that a רשע is on his way to challenge him and he’s not going to succeed- when he comes bring him straight to me. The רשע came and told the אריז''ל that if he can tell him all of his חטאים, he’ll leave his bad ways and do תשובה. The אריז''ל sent everyone out of the room because he didn’t want to embarrass the man (just like יוסף) and he told him every עבירה he ever did. He broke down and begged for a כפרה and the אריז''ל helped him do תשובה. He came back to Istanbul a changed man.
The אריז''ל was able to see new גזירות that would happen. Story- he saw that צפת is going to have ארבה that are going to eat everything because there is a ת''ח who has no food, and no one is helping him. They sent him money. The אריז''ל said that ב''ד של מעלה annulled the decree. He saw the ארבה coming and then stop at the border of צפת. One time, the אריז''ל saw a plague coming because of a politician who exhorted people and took advantage. He decided to learn in order to annul the decree, but it didn’t help. The אריז''ל also got sick from this plague and he died at the age of thirty- eight. We only have two years of teaching from him. He was buried in צפת.
6. ר' חיים ויטאל- he was a תלמיד of the רמ''ק and everyone assumed that he would take over for him. He became the תלמיד מובהק of the אריז''ל. He wrote עץ חיים- קבלה. When he started learning with the אריז''ל, he didn’t understand and he had to fast. The אריז''ל took ר' חיים to the כנרת because they say that the באר מרים is there. He put a flask in and took some water out. He figured that since מרים lived in the דור דעה, the water would help. ר' חיים would write down what the אריז''ל said.
7. ר' ישראל נאגארה- he was one of the greatest מקובלים in צפת. He was a פיטן and put many of his פיוטים to music. Many became זמירות and songs which we have- much based on קבלה, for example "קה רבון...". He reminded the אריז''ל of דוד.
8. האלשיך הקדוש- ר' משה אלשיך- he was a תלמיד of ר' יוסף קארו and became a דין in צפת’s ב''ד. He gave a דרשה every שבת and wrote it into a ספר, "תורת משה"- because people can’t take notes on שבת and they might miss something. He wrote a פירוש on נ''ך called האלשיך הקדוש.
9. ר' אלעזר אזכר- he was a big ת''ח and מקובל. He is famous for composing the זמרה, ידיד נפש- speaks about דבקות to ה'. He also wrote ספר חרדים- about מצות. He set it up according to which מצוה is כנגד which אבר in the גוף.
10. ר' שמואל דיאוזידה- he was the תלמיד of the אריז''ל and ר' חיים ויטאל. He was a מקובל. He wrote a פירוש called מדרש שמואל on פרקי אבות. He was a great ת''ח and had great צדקות.
Up until the 1600s, צפת was having a golden age, thought it wasn’t officially a טור הזהב. But it came to an end. How? By the end of the 1500s, גולי ספרד were not coming in anymore. The population dwindled. Also, the sheep business dwindled and פרנסה decreased. Also, the sultans weren’t as strong in protecting the Jews at this point.
פולין-
This became a haven for Yidden, but primarily אזכנזים escaping the crusades.
For many years, there was no civilization in Poland. Even though they had people, they didn’t rise to greatness- because they had a cold climate and it was hard to get food. Then they discovered that potatoes grow in America, in cold, frozen soil. So they started to grow potatoes in Poland.
Germany was on its west and Russia was on its east. They were constantly fighting over it. At one point there was no Poland because Germany and Russia took it. They had the Carpathian Mountains on their south so the Ottoman Empire couldn’t take over. They had a lot of forests and transported lumber in water. The middle of Poland is flat land and is easy to take over. They had salt and coal mines.
Poland began with tribes and no civilization until the year 1000, when they had a king who accepted Christianity. So they remained Catholic. In the 12 and 1300s, they had feudalism and פריץ- landowners. They had people working for them- serfs. They were slaves who worked and had no life. At that point, Poland was the most advanced country. But it didn’t maintain this status- it didn’t continue to advance so it ended up backwards- they did not get rid of feudalism.
Poland became a center of תורה from the time of גזירות ת''ח and ת''ט, up until Nazism. Because they had a backwards existence, they were shielded from the גויים so they had an easy time learning תורה. The noblemen didn’t want to modernize the country because they like to have wealth and money, so they kept it that way. This allowed תורה to grow greatly. There were Yidden living in Poland from the 1100s- we know from קברים which have dates. Between the 13 and 1400s, the קהילה started growing. By the 1500s, there were 20-30,000 Yidden spread out between the different ישובים.
The peasants hated the Yidden because they didn’t work as serfs, they did their own thing. Some פריצים also hated them. Also the clergy hated them. But in the 1300s, the kings recognized the value of Yidden and protected them.
What type of jobs did they have?
1. Woodcutting- supervise chopping, transporting.
2. Innkeepers- also sold whiskey. The drunk גויים would bother them after they got drunk.
3. Tax collectors for noblemen- noblemen got mad if they didn’t get money and the peasants were mad to pay.
4. Money lending- this is a bad position to be in.
5. Small businesses
a. Peddlers
b. Farmers
c. Collected money- if had no money.
d. מגידים- some ת''ח gave דרשות.
The Yidden flourished in תורה, but in פרנסה it wasn’t so good. פולין - פה לין- the תורה came from אשכנז to be לן here in פולין. The Yidden were very sheltered from the גויים. They dressed like Yidden. They approached business only as a means for פרנסה, then came לימוד התורה. Yiddish began at this time. All שאלות were starting to be brought here to be answered.
The king protected them and invited them. When the Yidden were killed because of a false libel, the king found out and was horrified. So he wrote a letter that if a Jew is accused of killing a גויש'ע child, you need three Christian witnesses and three Jewish witnesses. And until then, the Jew is safe. If the prosecutor can’t bring witnesses, he’ll be punished.
The Jews had self government- they were in shtetels, where were קהילות, and they were in charge of everything. There was no גויש'ע government. The קהילה was even in charge of taxes. In charge of each קהילה was an organization, the ועד קהילה. On the ועד were:
1. עסקנים- many were businessmen who had time to give to the כלל.
2. רבנים
The head of the ועד was the ראש קהילה. The קהילה did the following:
1. Made ב''ד.
2. Supervised חנוך.
3. Organized גמ''חs- lending things without interest.
4. הכנסת אורחים
5. Medical matters
6. Ensuring that everyone had living quarters.
7. Regulated the marketplace.
Poland was divided into four parts. Each part had a ועד הארץ. The different קהילות were in the different parts. For any issue affecting the entire Poland, all the ועד הארץs made a ועד ארבע הארצות, and they met twice a year, in spring and fall in Lublin and Yaraslov (traded between the two). The ועד ארבע הארצות kept a diary of everything that was going on. They:
1. Were in charge of the tax collecting and distributing- this system lasted about 200 years.
2. Made תקנות for חזוק התורה.
3. They serves as ב''ד גדול.
4. They were עוסק in shidduchim.
5. שתדלנים- mediators between the Yidden and the king. Oneשתדלן was ר' שאול וואהל from the city of Brisk. He took no money for his work and taught his children to do the same.
1. ר' יעקב פולק (d. 1530)- he set up a מרכז התורה in Poland. He was responsible for making it a place of תורה from the 1500s until the Holocaust. He set up ישיבות in Poland with a method of פלפול. Some גדולים didn’t accept it. He had many תלמידים. His תלמיד מובהק was ר' שלום שכנא.
2. ר' שלום שכנא- he took over in Lublin. He also פסקיןed as ר' יעקב did, but since he had ענוה, they didn’t leave over their פסק הלכה in writing.
3. רמ''א- ר' משה איסרליש (1530-1572)- he was from the greatest פוסקים of his generation. He is compared by some to the רמב''ם. He wrote מפה on שלחן ערוך and also דרכי משה on the בית יוסף. He had a lot of צרות in his life. His father built a shul and it is still standing today- called the רמ''א shul. He died in ל''ג בעומר and people come to his קבר on ל''ג בעומר. It says on it "ממשה עד משה לא קם כמשה".
Thursday, February 3, 2011
משלי- רעות
In order to acquire a friend who listens to you and cares for you, you must be that kind of friend.
What is the source of רעות? "ואהבת לרעיך כמוך אני ה'". What is the connection between the two halves of the פסוק? There were two friends who lived in the same city. ראובן was suspected of being a spy and they were going to kill him for his crime. ראובן asked the judge for permission to go home and tell his wife what was happening. שמעון agreed to stay in his place and receive the punishment if ראובן was not to return. On the day of the trial, ראובן had still not returned. שמעון was about to be killed in ראובן’s place and ראובן came back. שמעון said, kill me because I have no family. ראובן said, no kill me. They were arguing back and forth and the king said, no one will die, but I want to be a part of your friendship. ה' says, if you have a real friendship, I am a part.
מכתב מאליהו How can you become a friend? It is based on the ability to acquire and give. The word אהבה comes from the לשון of הב- giving. You must have the כח הנתינה- the ability to give. A person’s whole focus in this world must be to give to others. This מידה comes from ה'- הוא הכח העליון ממידות הקב''ה שהוא מרחם ומטיב ונותן בלי קבל דבר תמורה"- ה' is the ultimate נותן. He wanted to give, so He went through the whole trouble of making the world so that there could be people to be מטיב to. He wanted to give us the greatest opportunity to attain עוה''ב, so he created עוה''ז in a way where we can receive the greatest pleasure in עוה''ב. However, this is all a one-sided affair. We can’t give ה' anything because he is שלם- "אם צדקה מה תתן לו". ה' put in every person the desire to give. Our job is to fan it and escalate it so that it becomes a part of us and we are functioning with כח הנתינה.
We also have כח הנתילה- הוא אשר יתאוה האדם למשך עליו את כל הבא בתחומו כח אשר יקראוהו אהבת עצמו והוא שרש כל הרעות. אהבת עצמו is self interest and caring only for yourself. Most human beings have parts of us that give and parts of us that take. But our goal must be to escalate the הנתינה.
Examples of people who don’t do this:
1. Robber.
2. Dictators- the whole country is under his foot and they all do what is good for him.
3. Wanting something for nothing or finding subtle ways to get what you want for less.
People used to be much more altruistic. In the 80’s there was a big turn. We became the “me generation”. There was a רוח of people looking at things with an attitude of “what’s in it for me?” They did a study of New Year’s resolutions of young girls:
1980s- I’ll be more kind and giving.
1990s- I’ll stick to my diet.
Is it actually possible to give something, but it’s actually stemming from כח הנתילה? Yes. Story- a man became part of the zoological society so people would see how caring he is and want to do business with him. Is it possible to take, but it’s actually coming from כח הנתינה? Yes, for example eating someone’s cookies even though you don’t want to so that they aren’t insulted. What establishes if something is הנתינה or הנתילה? Your inner intentions.
Is there room in business for a person to a נותן or is it all הנתילה? This too, depends on the intentions. If you give a bonus to someone, is it to show appreciation or is it to get them to work harder?
מכתב מאליהו Gives an example of someone in a pure business situation that had כח הנתינה: חנוך. חז''ל tell us that people who lived in those days lived for two or three hundred years. It says, "ויתהלך חנוך את האלקים ואנני"- he lived in such a corrupt generation. What did he do to become such a great צדיק? He was a shoemaker and with every stitch, הי' מיחד יחודים לקונו. ר' סלנתר- how could it be that someone is serving ה' if he is doing his work? With every stitch he thought- I’ll be careful to make the shoes so that they will be good and there will be no problems. He was with ה' because he was a נותן- he wanted that everyone should benefit and have הנאה from his work.
Sheet Do you love and then give, or give and then love? A חסידה is listed as an עוף טמאה. She’s called a חסידה because she does חסד for her friends. What is the חסרון? She does חסד with her friends. It is very important to do חסד with your friends, but you must realize that there’s a מקום for חסד even with those who aren’t your friends. You must have the ability to go beyond your group of friends. How do you get there? A person must pay attention- when you give to someone, you love him- you have a connection with him. Someone you feel like a stranger towards, it’s because you don’t give to him. When you give, you’ll feel a connection.
Ultimate friendship- with your husband. Your entire עוה''ב is built on this friendship. This love is a special kind of love and it needs analysis- if you have the source, you can build on it better. People say that this love comes from הכרת הטוב- you are both helping each other and you have הכרת הטוב for each other and this is the יסוד of this רעות. But this is not the יסוד- there are many people who don’t have הכרת הטוב and are still happily married.
The יסוד is: this love comes from the fact that they are משלים each other. A man can never reach his שלמות without a woman. As long as a man is not married, he is חסר because he is not fulfilling his תפקיד. By being married, a couple is giving the other partner an opportunity to be שלם. When you give, you love and when you love you give more, and then you love more… שלמות= to be ממעלה תפקידו. A man needs a wife at his side to accomplish specific תפקידים. A woman’s שלמות comes from being an עזר כנגדו. She’ll get satisfaction from staying in her home because she is doing her תפקיד- taking care of her husband.
Part of השלמה: sometimes, people are so different, but they help each other work on their differences. When we see these opportunities, we must have certain tolerance. ר' פרדה used to teach his student the material 400 times. One time, the student still didn’t understand, so he taught him another 400 times. A בת קול came out and he got a big שכר. Why didn’t he just get a new תלמיד? This was his מוסר. It taught him to be a סבלן. It’s crucial in life to be patient and accept people for both their good and their bad. This is נתינה. Our עבודה is to stretch ourselves further and see the מעלות in other people.
Many times in the world out there, we see things fall apart. Why? By nature, most people are takers, unless they have worked on themselves. When a person first gets married, the first step is נתינה and then אהבה. But after a while, it dies down and they revert back to their natural mode of being נוטלים, and they don’t even notice this change. In place of both giving to each other, they now expect things from each other. We see this blatantly in the secular world, but we must know that it exists in our world too. An עצה to all married couples: the way you were when you started out- wanting to give to each other, is the way you must be. But when you start demanding things from each other, that’s when it gets rocky. Asking from each other doesn’t mean asking for help. It means demanding, like “you owe me”. ר' חיים שמולוויץ- חז''ל define roles:
1. Husband- "...ולכבדה יותר מגופו".
2. Wife- "איזה אשה כשרה העושה רצון בעלו".
Each one should remember their role on their own. But when they start reminding each other of their roles, it won’t be good.
What is the biggest preventer of being a good friend? Being self centered.
יח:א לתאוה יבקש- מי יבקש תאוותיו
נפרד- יהי' מובדל מאחרים
will be revealedיתגלע= יתגלה-
גר''א יתגלע- when this word is written with an ע, it means to have a stronger clarity.
ר' יונה Someone who is self centered won’t be מותר for his friends. People won’t like him and he’ll find himself alone. תושי' is a לשון of תורה. He’ll speak about his תאוות even to אנשי תושי'-
1. ת''ח- he’s not embarrassed to show his true colors in front of them. Usually, people behave on their best behavior before a ת''ח. But this person is blinded by his wants and doesn’t see past himself, so he acts inappropriately.
2. A person who wants to be the head, in every ענין of חכמה, even if he doesn’t know, he has to be the head.
אבן המלך תושי'-
3. With the whole תורה his בושה will be revealed, because in some way he is negating the תורה, as it says, "ואהבת לרעיך כמוך זה כלל גדול בתורה". So, if you don’t keep באל''ח, you’re not completely being מקיים the תורה. Why?
Sheet 1 If a person lacks באל''ח, he also lacks באל''מ. Why? Because if you don’t feel love for someone with a צלם אלוקים, you don’t feel love for the creator of the צלם אלוקים. משל- someone says that paintings aren’t good. Really, what he is saying is that the artist isn’t good. He lacks an appreciation for art. נמשל- by lacking appreciation for ה'’s בריאה, you are really saying that you don’t like ה'. If a person isn’t used to being מותר, he’s fooling himself if he thinks that he is going to be מותר for ה'. By putting others before yourself, you will be successful when the choice is your רצון vs. the רצון ה'.
What does it mean to be a good friend?
כז:ט שמן- שמן שיש לו ריח טוב
קטרת- עוד ענין של ריחות טובות
ישמח לב- ישמח לב של כל אחד
רש''י שמן קטורת- a king uses this oil because it smells good.
Good smells give a person a good feeling. We know this from בשמים- we want that out נשמה יתרה should to up with a good smell.
מכתב מאליהו There is a big ענין to go out on מצש''ק because the נשמה is looking for something to hold onto.
מ''ד ישמח- שמן and קטרת are משמחים the לב.
ומתק- the good feeling that you get from the smell is like the good feeling of when a good friend gives you an עצת נפש.
רש''י ומתק רעה מעצת נפש- מתק= להתיעץ. It’s sometimes better to get an עצה from another, objective party.
ר' דיתקינד There was a שחט and people didn’t like his כשרות standards. They went to ר' דיתקינד - he suggested they get him an invite from a different city and he’ll move. They did exactly this. The שחט didn’t know if he should move, so he went to ר' דיתקינד. ר' דיתקינד told him so stay. The people were very confused. ר' דיתקינד said, I have to give every person the best עצה for them.
רעהו can be referring to ה' because he is the רעה הכי טוב.
רש''י ומתק רעה מעצת נפש- a person whose מעשים are מתוקים before ה' because he does the right things in the right way. This is better than going after his own רצונות. A person sometimes things that by doing the right thing he benefits in עוה''ב. This is true. But, he also feels good in this world.
יב:כה מ''ד דאגה- when a person worries, he should try and find a way to minimize how it looms. How could he do this? Put it into perspective. But it’s even better to be happy and say "גם זו לטובה".
גר''א "מחר תבכה מאשר היום תשחק"- sometimes, it seems to be dire now. But maybe later on down the line it’ll be a ישועה. Even if he doesn’t have the זכות to see it, it is really for the good.
מלבי''ם דאגה בלב איש ישחנה- different kinds of thoughts are hidden deep within a person until the person’s spirit brings into his heart and mind these thoughts. A person has the כח to allow or suppress these thoughts into his mind. One of these thought modes is the worry mode. He can worry about what is going to happen in the future and it’ll consume him. A rich man can be consumed with worry that maybe his house will be destroyed, maybe he’ll lose all of his money, his children will die… This person can always be worried, for nothing. When a person finds himself consumed with anxiety:
1. He must suppress it by הסך הדעת- distraction, often by doing something for others. So, ישיחנה= יורידנה. How? Through הסך הדעת.
2. Change the picture in his mind to a positive picture. This is a good idea because it usually works out ok. So ישמחנה- put a positive ציור in your mind.
Worry can be good because it makes you move. But only up until there. It shouldn’t consume him.
רש''י דאגה בלב איש ישחנה- ישחנה can also be written as יסחנה because of אותיות מתחלפות. It means to have הסך הדעת.
ישמחנה- be busy with תורה, be happy and not worried because "לולי תורתך...".
Sheet 4 When you have דברי תורה on your mind, it removes thoughts of חרב, רעב, שדות, זנות and יצה''ר. Whoever doesn’t have דברי תורה on their mind will have thoughts of חרב, רעב, שדות, זנות and יצה''ר. ח''ח says that woman should learn- it’s a מצוה to fill their minds with תורהדיק thoughts in order to combat other thoughts.
רש''י ישמחנה- he should speak about this with other people and his friends will give him נחמה and relieve him of his worry.
ישמחנה ישחנה
ע''י גם זו לטובה ימעיטנה מ''ד
ע''י ציור טוב לעומת ציור הרע יורידנה ע''י הסך הדעת מלבי''ם
ע''י דברי תורה יסיחנה מדעתו רש''י
וחברו ינחמנו- ישמח את לבו ישחנה לאחרים
מכתב מאליהו People were created in such a way that the mechanism of talking things out minimizes the worry even before he gets a נחמה. Story- ר' שמחה זייתל זיו felt a רגש of קדושה and didn’t speak about it for twenty-five years because speaking lessens the intensity.
כז:יז ברזל בברזל- ברזל ע''י ברזל שני
יחד- ל' יחדד- יתחדד
איש יחד- איש אחד יתחדד
מ''ד ברזל-like one ברזל used to sharpen the other ברזל, so too when two ת''ח learn together, one sharpens the other.
ר' הירש Can also be referring to two friends discussing השקפה and deep מחשבות- they sharpen each other’s minds. Good friends can help each other grow if they about the right things.
יד:י לב יודע- לב האדם בעצמו יודע
מרת נפשו- צרות נפשו
ובשמחתו- ובשעת השמחה שלו
לא יתערב זר- איש זר לא יקח חלק
מ''ד לב יודע- the heart of a person who learns תורה, only he can feel the צער of learning. And at the time that he gets his שכר, no one else gets a חלק.
לימוד תורה is meant to be a געשמעק experience. Sometimes it is hard, and one must fight laziness or difficulty in understanding. As a woman, we must encourage our sons and husbands to learn.
רש''י לב יודע מרת נפשו- this is talking about כ''י in גלות. They suffer greatly. But the שמחה they will get לעתיד לבא, the גויים won’t have a share.
מדרש This is referring to חנה. She suffered greatly, but when she got her ישועה, she had such a great feeling of שמחה that no one else was able to sense. She was even able to sing שירה, "עלץ לבי בה'...".
ר' הירש No matter how close you are to a friend, you don’t feel his pain. So if he doesn’t pull out of it, you must be patient because you don’t know how he feels. You might think you know what they’re going through, but there’s a place you don’t touch- you don’t have a right to tell someone that they shouldn’t feel what they’re feeling. A good friend stands with him through his pain and does whatever he could to help.
מאירי sheet This is an עצה for a person who’s in pain- he should prepare himself and strengthen himself against the pain. He should hide his צרה and not be מפרסם it all over his face. Why not? So he isn’t the “nebach”, the object of everyone’s pity. He should keep his dignity. But there seems to be a contradiction- it says in the פסוק, "ישחנה". He can talk about it to close people. But speaking about it too much isn’t good. "לב יודע..."- only your heart should know about your צער.
When a person is in a good מצב where things are good for him, he should also keep it low key. He shouldn’t flaunt it to everyone. Why? Because when it’s so public, there could be a reason for damage to happen- "אין הברכה מצוי'...".
ר' מילר A person should be like a miser who secretly counts his money. You should think about all of your ברכות, but keep it hidden. When we have a ברכה, we must use it as a tool to serve ה' in a positive way. When a person flaunts it and pains other people, it’s reevaluated in שמים if he’s using it the right way.
מכתב מאליהו The תקון for someone being jealous and causing עין הרע is to share with others.
יח:כד איש רעים- אדם שמקריב חברים
להתרועע- להתחבר עם חברים
ויש אהב- ויש חבר
דבק- יותר קרוב
מ''ד איש רעים- a person should be a friendly person. Why? Among those friends he’ll find a real friend who’ll be closer than a brother.
מלבי''ם איש רעים- a person who has a whole group of friends really has none. Because a real friendship is a relationship between two people. When there is a whole group of people, it isn’t an אהבה אמיתית. להתרועע- when it’s written in התפעל it comes to show מה שהוא מדמה- it’s as if he has a lot of friends. When there is a group together, it’s not real friends. But when it’s a one on one, together they can share an אהבה closer than brothers.
ר' הירש A person should be a חברותי. He should have a lot of friendlies. But you have to accept the idea that those that are on your wave length will be fewer.
Why do people sometimes feel that friends are closer than your sibling?
1. You live with them, so you have much more opportunity for conflict.
2. You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your relatives. "הנה מה טוב ומה נעים שבת אחים גם יחד"- the most beautiful thing is when your brother is close to you like a brother.
כ:ו רב אדם- רוב בני אדם
יקרא איש חסדו- איש קורא על החסד שלו
מי ימצא- איפו מוצאים את האיש כזה
מ''ד רב אדם- most people talk about all of the חסד they do, but don’t really do it. "ואיש אמונים מי ימצא"- rarely found. Most people don’t keep their word.
רש''י רב אדם יקרא איש חסדו- people promise friends that they will help them. But בשעת הצער, when they call for help from their friend, "ואיש אמונים מי ימצא"- they don’t come to help.
ר' יונה This פסוק speaks about גאוה- that a person announces the חסדים he does. What is wrong with this? מיכה boils down the מצוות into three parts:
1. עשות משפט
2. אהבת חסד
3. והצנע לכת עם ה' אלקיך- מ''ד says on these word that you should do מצוות in a quiet way, without publicity and not to glorify yourself through them. By doing it quietly, you show that you are only doing it למען ה'.
ר' יונה ואיש אמונים מי ימצא- a person who covers up his חסדים and צדקות, does it quietly.
A חסד that is done בצנעה, it’s לשמה. A מצוה is done so that you’ll so the רצון ה'. But when we do things for others, it defeats the purpose of the חסד.
Two points that are חסרונות in עניני חסד:
1. If you speak about the חסד, the recipient will be embarrassed.
2. מצוות that are done בצנעה are done למען ה'. This is much harder by a חסד though, because someone already saw it.
When you do a חסד for someone else, you must make sure that it’s about them and not about you. If you’re really doing it למען ה' and as a מצוה, you’ll want to do it like this. It shouldn’t be that you make the recipient lower and you raise yourself up. Doing a חסד shouldn’t be to feed into your גאוה.
טו:יז טוב- יותר טוב
ארחת ירק- סעודה של ירקות
ואהבה שם- יש שם אהבה
משר אבוס- שור מפוטם שהשמינו על האבוס
ושנאה בו- ויש שם חסר אהבה
מ''ד ארוחת- a סעודה of vegetables served in a place where they love him is better than eating a good piece of meat in a place where he is hated.
מדרש When שלמה was in גלות, a man recognized him and brought him home. He gave him a nice meal, but he spoke to שלמה in a way that made him sad. Then a poor man saw him and invited him in. He didn’t have much, but he gave him חזוק.
Sheet 3 ר' יוסף בן נחמאש connects this פסוק to a famous גמרא on כבוד אב ואם- a man can give his father פסיוני to eat and it’ll cause him to lose his share in עוה''ב. Another man can make his father work very hard on the grinding stones and he’ll be זוכה לחיי עוה''ב. רש''י says on this, a man will feed his father expensive meat. His father will ask how he can afford it and he’ll answer, “It’s none of your business. Chew and eat”. This not nice way of speaking will cause him to lose his share in עוה''ב. There was once an old miller who was drafted to go serve the king. The son said, “I’ll go in your place because the work is brutal. You continue your hard work and support the family”. This will bring him to עוה''ב. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. This also applies to doing חסד- you must do it in the proper way.
כז:יט כמים פנים- מים שמראים פנים
מ''ד כמים- it’s the way of water that it reflects you face back at you. So to, this is the way of a person’s heart- if his heart is pleasant towards his friend, the feelings will be reflected back to him.
ר' חיים If a person has an enemy, he should try and feel real, true אהבה for this enemy and the enemy will turn to his אוהב.
מ''ד יא:יג מגלה סוד- you must reverse the words of the פסוק- a person who told over someone’s secret is likely going to be עובר on רכילות. And even if he himself doesn’t go back to the person, your friend has another friend… until it eventually gets back to the person.
ונאמן רוח- a person who is נאמן to ה' won’t repeat what was told to him, even when it wasn’t told as a secret.
ר' חיים צבי קץ “Don’t mention mentschen”- you should not speak about other people.
מלבי''ם הולך רכיל מגלה סוד- a בעל רכילות’s nature is going to be to reveal secrets. When you tell someone a secret, it’s like you’re giving him a פקדון. And just like a person doesn’t give a פקדון to someone non- trustworthy, also a secret. Also, someone who’s always repeating things, it’s the same nature that will reveal secrets. There’s another פסוק which says, "מגלה סוד הולך רכיל"- someone who reveals a secret, it’s his nature to be a בעל רכילות. Someone who is loyal to ה' hides things.
יז:ט מכסה פשע- מי שהוא מוחל על חטאים
מבקש אהבה- הוא מחפש שאהבה תמשיך כאן
ושונה בדבר- מי שחוזר על דבר
מפריד- מפריש
אלוף- אדם שר וחשוב
מ''ד מכסה- if a person hurts someone else and the person forgives, this is a reason for people to love him- because he is a forgiving person.
ושונה בדבר- but if you bear a grudge, you’re being עובר on "לא תקום ולא תטור". You must forgive and not bear a grudge. If you do have hard feelings in your heart, you can’t get rid of them, but you must try. Never act out because of this.
מאירי if your friend is loyal and a good friend, what do you do? מכסה פשע. But if ושונה בדבר- he repeatedly tries to hurt you, you must break off the friendship. This plays itself out in two ways:
1. Sometimes a friend is bringing you down ברוחניות- this is not ok. Ask for help.
2. Emotionally- sometimes, friends manipulate you or are emotionally taxing in a different way.
כה:טז דבש מצאת- אם מצאתך דבר מתוק
דיך- בשעור מוגבל
פן תשבענה- שמא תהי' שבע ממנה
והקאתו- אתה תתן את זה בחזרה
מ''ד דבש- if you find honey, eat just a little, just enough to satisfy you and restore your spirits. If you eat enough to satiation point, you will throw up everything, including the little good from the beginning.
יז הקר- תעשה קרי
מבית רעך- מהבית של החבר שלך
פן ישבעך- שמא יהי' שבע ממך
ושנאך- והוא ישנא אותך
מ''ד הוקר- make yourself rare in your friends house so that he doesn’t become “satisfied” from you. He’ll love you more if he sees you less frequently. Do not hold on too tight.
But what about between spouses? There is a special ברכה in marriage that this idea doesn’t apply. But sometimes, for example, a husband may need space- you must give it to him. Woman are usually more talkative than men so we must be careful not to crowd them. This ברכה doesn’t apply until marriage though. During the engagement period, there must be separation.
מאירי "ובדרך נסתר אמרו במדרשות רעך הוא אלוקיך ובדרש עוד אל תחטא תמיד שוגג להביא תמיד עולות..."- do not make yourself a frequent visitor of the בהמ''ק to bring a קרבן חטאת because you keep doing שגגות. Why does it matter if it’s a שוגג? It is a level of חטא because you didn’t think of הלכה. If you are someone who is a שגגת תמיד, it becomes like a זדון- "שגגת תמיד דומה לזדון". If you see that you are making mistakes, you must stop yourself "כי אין התנצלות בשגגה עד שיתמיד בה". It’s not just no big deal.
ר' סלומין ענין הולך רכיל- so many of us have tried to correct the area of לשון הרע. But with all of the efforts put into learning the הלכות, it seems to be out of proportion with the amount of הצלחה resulting. Because משיח didn’t come yet!
When one learns מוסר ספרים, he doesn’t usually come across the מידה of סקרנות- curiosity. It seems that so much damage has been done by people who are nosy. Why isn’t this dealt with in the ספרים? These are people who have to know what is going on everywhere and are busy giving unsolicited advice. They do lots of damage. So why don’t the ספרים speak about it?
We have a terrible problem which is more prevalent today- lack of confidentiality. People are so unreliable and don’t have the נאמנות to keep a secret. Those you could tell a secret to are few and far between. The ספרים also don’t deal with this, besides for the ספר ארחות חיים לרא''ש, which says "אל תהי להוט לדעת את הסתרים בין אדם לחבירו". But that’s it. Shouldn’t there be more stress on it?
Until I saw the רש''י on "לא תלך רכיל"- רש''י says that a רכיל are the people who go to their friend’s houses so that they could see what’s bad and publicize it. So mind your own business! It’s a לאו. Why do you need to know about other people and institutions? And don’t say, “I know but I won’t talk about it”. That’s impossible, and why do u want to know?
ח''ח if someone would go to a speech in order to criticize it, he is עובר on the לאו from the moment he walks in, as the של''ה says, "לא תלך" is the ענין of going to find out what’s happening. הולך רכיל מגלה סוד- such a person is very unreliable and you can’t trust him with a secret. The irresponsibility to keep a secret comes together with the יצה''ר to find out about everyone.
קנטרס הספקת If someone was given the opportunity to go to שמים and experience the קדושה and see what goes on and be taken from one place to another, he would have no pleasure unless he knew that he could come down and tell his friends. We do not enjoy any new thought unless we are able to tell it over. That’s how ה' made people because the תורה was given to us ללמד וללמד because any new idea that you reach about ה' or the תורה, He wants us to share it. So we have a great urge to tell it over to people. Every השגה that a mother has in עבודת ה' only comes to fruition when she transmits it to the next generation.
So we are inquisitive and we want to pass the results and findings of our inquisitiveness onward. If we use it correctly, ב''י will be built to perfection. But if we don’t use it correctly, we cause great damage.
So what is the עצה? We have to go back to our root. We need to reeducate ourselves. Our educator should be בלעם הרשע who understood the secret of our survival and how to destroy us. "וישא בלעם את עיניו וירא את ישראל שוכן בשכנו..." and he said the ברכה, "מה טובו אהליך יעקב". רש''י says that he saw every tribe separated from each other and that the openings of the tents didn’t face each other so that they could not see in. בלעם saw it that they did not want to look into the other’s tent, not that they didn’t want anyone to see into their own tent. They were חושד themselves, not others. They didn’t want to tempt themselves, they weren’t interested in knowing. This is the tactic that we must use. We must train ourselves not to look so that we won’t want to look or speak about others. It’s much harder to hold onto it after you already know. There’s also another benefit- not allowing outside influences into homes, not feeling like you must keep up with your neighbors, not being עובר on צניעות.
ה' made us this way for the sake of תורה.
What is the source of רעות? "ואהבת לרעיך כמוך אני ה'". What is the connection between the two halves of the פסוק? There were two friends who lived in the same city. ראובן was suspected of being a spy and they were going to kill him for his crime. ראובן asked the judge for permission to go home and tell his wife what was happening. שמעון agreed to stay in his place and receive the punishment if ראובן was not to return. On the day of the trial, ראובן had still not returned. שמעון was about to be killed in ראובן’s place and ראובן came back. שמעון said, kill me because I have no family. ראובן said, no kill me. They were arguing back and forth and the king said, no one will die, but I want to be a part of your friendship. ה' says, if you have a real friendship, I am a part.
מכתב מאליהו How can you become a friend? It is based on the ability to acquire and give. The word אהבה comes from the לשון of הב- giving. You must have the כח הנתינה- the ability to give. A person’s whole focus in this world must be to give to others. This מידה comes from ה'- הוא הכח העליון ממידות הקב''ה שהוא מרחם ומטיב ונותן בלי קבל דבר תמורה"- ה' is the ultimate נותן. He wanted to give, so He went through the whole trouble of making the world so that there could be people to be מטיב to. He wanted to give us the greatest opportunity to attain עוה''ב, so he created עוה''ז in a way where we can receive the greatest pleasure in עוה''ב. However, this is all a one-sided affair. We can’t give ה' anything because he is שלם- "אם צדקה מה תתן לו". ה' put in every person the desire to give. Our job is to fan it and escalate it so that it becomes a part of us and we are functioning with כח הנתינה.
We also have כח הנתילה- הוא אשר יתאוה האדם למשך עליו את כל הבא בתחומו כח אשר יקראוהו אהבת עצמו והוא שרש כל הרעות. אהבת עצמו is self interest and caring only for yourself. Most human beings have parts of us that give and parts of us that take. But our goal must be to escalate the הנתינה.
Examples of people who don’t do this:
1. Robber.
2. Dictators- the whole country is under his foot and they all do what is good for him.
3. Wanting something for nothing or finding subtle ways to get what you want for less.
People used to be much more altruistic. In the 80’s there was a big turn. We became the “me generation”. There was a רוח of people looking at things with an attitude of “what’s in it for me?” They did a study of New Year’s resolutions of young girls:
1980s- I’ll be more kind and giving.
1990s- I’ll stick to my diet.
Is it actually possible to give something, but it’s actually stemming from כח הנתילה? Yes. Story- a man became part of the zoological society so people would see how caring he is and want to do business with him. Is it possible to take, but it’s actually coming from כח הנתינה? Yes, for example eating someone’s cookies even though you don’t want to so that they aren’t insulted. What establishes if something is הנתינה or הנתילה? Your inner intentions.
Is there room in business for a person to a נותן or is it all הנתילה? This too, depends on the intentions. If you give a bonus to someone, is it to show appreciation or is it to get them to work harder?
מכתב מאליהו Gives an example of someone in a pure business situation that had כח הנתינה: חנוך. חז''ל tell us that people who lived in those days lived for two or three hundred years. It says, "ויתהלך חנוך את האלקים ואנני"- he lived in such a corrupt generation. What did he do to become such a great צדיק? He was a shoemaker and with every stitch, הי' מיחד יחודים לקונו. ר' סלנתר- how could it be that someone is serving ה' if he is doing his work? With every stitch he thought- I’ll be careful to make the shoes so that they will be good and there will be no problems. He was with ה' because he was a נותן- he wanted that everyone should benefit and have הנאה from his work.
Sheet Do you love and then give, or give and then love? A חסידה is listed as an עוף טמאה. She’s called a חסידה because she does חסד for her friends. What is the חסרון? She does חסד with her friends. It is very important to do חסד with your friends, but you must realize that there’s a מקום for חסד even with those who aren’t your friends. You must have the ability to go beyond your group of friends. How do you get there? A person must pay attention- when you give to someone, you love him- you have a connection with him. Someone you feel like a stranger towards, it’s because you don’t give to him. When you give, you’ll feel a connection.
Ultimate friendship- with your husband. Your entire עוה''ב is built on this friendship. This love is a special kind of love and it needs analysis- if you have the source, you can build on it better. People say that this love comes from הכרת הטוב- you are both helping each other and you have הכרת הטוב for each other and this is the יסוד of this רעות. But this is not the יסוד- there are many people who don’t have הכרת הטוב and are still happily married.
The יסוד is: this love comes from the fact that they are משלים each other. A man can never reach his שלמות without a woman. As long as a man is not married, he is חסר because he is not fulfilling his תפקיד. By being married, a couple is giving the other partner an opportunity to be שלם. When you give, you love and when you love you give more, and then you love more… שלמות= to be ממעלה תפקידו. A man needs a wife at his side to accomplish specific תפקידים. A woman’s שלמות comes from being an עזר כנגדו. She’ll get satisfaction from staying in her home because she is doing her תפקיד- taking care of her husband.
Part of השלמה: sometimes, people are so different, but they help each other work on their differences. When we see these opportunities, we must have certain tolerance. ר' פרדה used to teach his student the material 400 times. One time, the student still didn’t understand, so he taught him another 400 times. A בת קול came out and he got a big שכר. Why didn’t he just get a new תלמיד? This was his מוסר. It taught him to be a סבלן. It’s crucial in life to be patient and accept people for both their good and their bad. This is נתינה. Our עבודה is to stretch ourselves further and see the מעלות in other people.
Many times in the world out there, we see things fall apart. Why? By nature, most people are takers, unless they have worked on themselves. When a person first gets married, the first step is נתינה and then אהבה. But after a while, it dies down and they revert back to their natural mode of being נוטלים, and they don’t even notice this change. In place of both giving to each other, they now expect things from each other. We see this blatantly in the secular world, but we must know that it exists in our world too. An עצה to all married couples: the way you were when you started out- wanting to give to each other, is the way you must be. But when you start demanding things from each other, that’s when it gets rocky. Asking from each other doesn’t mean asking for help. It means demanding, like “you owe me”. ר' חיים שמולוויץ- חז''ל define roles:
1. Husband- "...ולכבדה יותר מגופו".
2. Wife- "איזה אשה כשרה העושה רצון בעלו".
Each one should remember their role on their own. But when they start reminding each other of their roles, it won’t be good.
What is the biggest preventer of being a good friend? Being self centered.
יח:א לתאוה יבקש- מי יבקש תאוותיו
נפרד- יהי' מובדל מאחרים
will be revealedיתגלע= יתגלה-
גר''א יתגלע- when this word is written with an ע, it means to have a stronger clarity.
ר' יונה Someone who is self centered won’t be מותר for his friends. People won’t like him and he’ll find himself alone. תושי' is a לשון of תורה. He’ll speak about his תאוות even to אנשי תושי'-
1. ת''ח- he’s not embarrassed to show his true colors in front of them. Usually, people behave on their best behavior before a ת''ח. But this person is blinded by his wants and doesn’t see past himself, so he acts inappropriately.
2. A person who wants to be the head, in every ענין of חכמה, even if he doesn’t know, he has to be the head.
אבן המלך תושי'-
3. With the whole תורה his בושה will be revealed, because in some way he is negating the תורה, as it says, "ואהבת לרעיך כמוך זה כלל גדול בתורה". So, if you don’t keep באל''ח, you’re not completely being מקיים the תורה. Why?
Sheet 1 If a person lacks באל''ח, he also lacks באל''מ. Why? Because if you don’t feel love for someone with a צלם אלוקים, you don’t feel love for the creator of the צלם אלוקים. משל- someone says that paintings aren’t good. Really, what he is saying is that the artist isn’t good. He lacks an appreciation for art. נמשל- by lacking appreciation for ה'’s בריאה, you are really saying that you don’t like ה'. If a person isn’t used to being מותר, he’s fooling himself if he thinks that he is going to be מותר for ה'. By putting others before yourself, you will be successful when the choice is your רצון vs. the רצון ה'.
What does it mean to be a good friend?
כז:ט שמן- שמן שיש לו ריח טוב
קטרת- עוד ענין של ריחות טובות
ישמח לב- ישמח לב של כל אחד
רש''י שמן קטורת- a king uses this oil because it smells good.
Good smells give a person a good feeling. We know this from בשמים- we want that out נשמה יתרה should to up with a good smell.
מכתב מאליהו There is a big ענין to go out on מצש''ק because the נשמה is looking for something to hold onto.
מ''ד ישמח- שמן and קטרת are משמחים the לב.
ומתק- the good feeling that you get from the smell is like the good feeling of when a good friend gives you an עצת נפש.
רש''י ומתק רעה מעצת נפש- מתק= להתיעץ. It’s sometimes better to get an עצה from another, objective party.
ר' דיתקינד There was a שחט and people didn’t like his כשרות standards. They went to ר' דיתקינד - he suggested they get him an invite from a different city and he’ll move. They did exactly this. The שחט didn’t know if he should move, so he went to ר' דיתקינד. ר' דיתקינד told him so stay. The people were very confused. ר' דיתקינד said, I have to give every person the best עצה for them.
רעהו can be referring to ה' because he is the רעה הכי טוב.
רש''י ומתק רעה מעצת נפש- a person whose מעשים are מתוקים before ה' because he does the right things in the right way. This is better than going after his own רצונות. A person sometimes things that by doing the right thing he benefits in עוה''ב. This is true. But, he also feels good in this world.
יב:כה מ''ד דאגה- when a person worries, he should try and find a way to minimize how it looms. How could he do this? Put it into perspective. But it’s even better to be happy and say "גם זו לטובה".
גר''א "מחר תבכה מאשר היום תשחק"- sometimes, it seems to be dire now. But maybe later on down the line it’ll be a ישועה. Even if he doesn’t have the זכות to see it, it is really for the good.
מלבי''ם דאגה בלב איש ישחנה- different kinds of thoughts are hidden deep within a person until the person’s spirit brings into his heart and mind these thoughts. A person has the כח to allow or suppress these thoughts into his mind. One of these thought modes is the worry mode. He can worry about what is going to happen in the future and it’ll consume him. A rich man can be consumed with worry that maybe his house will be destroyed, maybe he’ll lose all of his money, his children will die… This person can always be worried, for nothing. When a person finds himself consumed with anxiety:
1. He must suppress it by הסך הדעת- distraction, often by doing something for others. So, ישיחנה= יורידנה. How? Through הסך הדעת.
2. Change the picture in his mind to a positive picture. This is a good idea because it usually works out ok. So ישמחנה- put a positive ציור in your mind.
Worry can be good because it makes you move. But only up until there. It shouldn’t consume him.
רש''י דאגה בלב איש ישחנה- ישחנה can also be written as יסחנה because of אותיות מתחלפות. It means to have הסך הדעת.
ישמחנה- be busy with תורה, be happy and not worried because "לולי תורתך...".
Sheet 4 When you have דברי תורה on your mind, it removes thoughts of חרב, רעב, שדות, זנות and יצה''ר. Whoever doesn’t have דברי תורה on their mind will have thoughts of חרב, רעב, שדות, זנות and יצה''ר. ח''ח says that woman should learn- it’s a מצוה to fill their minds with תורהדיק thoughts in order to combat other thoughts.
רש''י ישמחנה- he should speak about this with other people and his friends will give him נחמה and relieve him of his worry.
ישמחנה ישחנה
ע''י גם זו לטובה ימעיטנה מ''ד
ע''י ציור טוב לעומת ציור הרע יורידנה ע''י הסך הדעת מלבי''ם
ע''י דברי תורה יסיחנה מדעתו רש''י
וחברו ינחמנו- ישמח את לבו ישחנה לאחרים
מכתב מאליהו People were created in such a way that the mechanism of talking things out minimizes the worry even before he gets a נחמה. Story- ר' שמחה זייתל זיו felt a רגש of קדושה and didn’t speak about it for twenty-five years because speaking lessens the intensity.
כז:יז ברזל בברזל- ברזל ע''י ברזל שני
יחד- ל' יחדד- יתחדד
איש יחד- איש אחד יתחדד
מ''ד ברזל-like one ברזל used to sharpen the other ברזל, so too when two ת''ח learn together, one sharpens the other.
ר' הירש Can also be referring to two friends discussing השקפה and deep מחשבות- they sharpen each other’s minds. Good friends can help each other grow if they about the right things.
יד:י לב יודע- לב האדם בעצמו יודע
מרת נפשו- צרות נפשו
ובשמחתו- ובשעת השמחה שלו
לא יתערב זר- איש זר לא יקח חלק
מ''ד לב יודע- the heart of a person who learns תורה, only he can feel the צער of learning. And at the time that he gets his שכר, no one else gets a חלק.
לימוד תורה is meant to be a געשמעק experience. Sometimes it is hard, and one must fight laziness or difficulty in understanding. As a woman, we must encourage our sons and husbands to learn.
רש''י לב יודע מרת נפשו- this is talking about כ''י in גלות. They suffer greatly. But the שמחה they will get לעתיד לבא, the גויים won’t have a share.
מדרש This is referring to חנה. She suffered greatly, but when she got her ישועה, she had such a great feeling of שמחה that no one else was able to sense. She was even able to sing שירה, "עלץ לבי בה'...".
ר' הירש No matter how close you are to a friend, you don’t feel his pain. So if he doesn’t pull out of it, you must be patient because you don’t know how he feels. You might think you know what they’re going through, but there’s a place you don’t touch- you don’t have a right to tell someone that they shouldn’t feel what they’re feeling. A good friend stands with him through his pain and does whatever he could to help.
מאירי sheet This is an עצה for a person who’s in pain- he should prepare himself and strengthen himself against the pain. He should hide his צרה and not be מפרסם it all over his face. Why not? So he isn’t the “nebach”, the object of everyone’s pity. He should keep his dignity. But there seems to be a contradiction- it says in the פסוק, "ישחנה". He can talk about it to close people. But speaking about it too much isn’t good. "לב יודע..."- only your heart should know about your צער.
When a person is in a good מצב where things are good for him, he should also keep it low key. He shouldn’t flaunt it to everyone. Why? Because when it’s so public, there could be a reason for damage to happen- "אין הברכה מצוי'...".
ר' מילר A person should be like a miser who secretly counts his money. You should think about all of your ברכות, but keep it hidden. When we have a ברכה, we must use it as a tool to serve ה' in a positive way. When a person flaunts it and pains other people, it’s reevaluated in שמים if he’s using it the right way.
מכתב מאליהו The תקון for someone being jealous and causing עין הרע is to share with others.
יח:כד איש רעים- אדם שמקריב חברים
להתרועע- להתחבר עם חברים
ויש אהב- ויש חבר
דבק- יותר קרוב
מ''ד איש רעים- a person should be a friendly person. Why? Among those friends he’ll find a real friend who’ll be closer than a brother.
מלבי''ם איש רעים- a person who has a whole group of friends really has none. Because a real friendship is a relationship between two people. When there is a whole group of people, it isn’t an אהבה אמיתית. להתרועע- when it’s written in התפעל it comes to show מה שהוא מדמה- it’s as if he has a lot of friends. When there is a group together, it’s not real friends. But when it’s a one on one, together they can share an אהבה closer than brothers.
ר' הירש A person should be a חברותי. He should have a lot of friendlies. But you have to accept the idea that those that are on your wave length will be fewer.
Why do people sometimes feel that friends are closer than your sibling?
1. You live with them, so you have much more opportunity for conflict.
2. You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your relatives. "הנה מה טוב ומה נעים שבת אחים גם יחד"- the most beautiful thing is when your brother is close to you like a brother.
כ:ו רב אדם- רוב בני אדם
יקרא איש חסדו- איש קורא על החסד שלו
מי ימצא- איפו מוצאים את האיש כזה
מ''ד רב אדם- most people talk about all of the חסד they do, but don’t really do it. "ואיש אמונים מי ימצא"- rarely found. Most people don’t keep their word.
רש''י רב אדם יקרא איש חסדו- people promise friends that they will help them. But בשעת הצער, when they call for help from their friend, "ואיש אמונים מי ימצא"- they don’t come to help.
ר' יונה This פסוק speaks about גאוה- that a person announces the חסדים he does. What is wrong with this? מיכה boils down the מצוות into three parts:
1. עשות משפט
2. אהבת חסד
3. והצנע לכת עם ה' אלקיך- מ''ד says on these word that you should do מצוות in a quiet way, without publicity and not to glorify yourself through them. By doing it quietly, you show that you are only doing it למען ה'.
ר' יונה ואיש אמונים מי ימצא- a person who covers up his חסדים and צדקות, does it quietly.
A חסד that is done בצנעה, it’s לשמה. A מצוה is done so that you’ll so the רצון ה'. But when we do things for others, it defeats the purpose of the חסד.
Two points that are חסרונות in עניני חסד:
1. If you speak about the חסד, the recipient will be embarrassed.
2. מצוות that are done בצנעה are done למען ה'. This is much harder by a חסד though, because someone already saw it.
When you do a חסד for someone else, you must make sure that it’s about them and not about you. If you’re really doing it למען ה' and as a מצוה, you’ll want to do it like this. It shouldn’t be that you make the recipient lower and you raise yourself up. Doing a חסד shouldn’t be to feed into your גאוה.
טו:יז טוב- יותר טוב
ארחת ירק- סעודה של ירקות
ואהבה שם- יש שם אהבה
משר אבוס- שור מפוטם שהשמינו על האבוס
ושנאה בו- ויש שם חסר אהבה
מ''ד ארוחת- a סעודה of vegetables served in a place where they love him is better than eating a good piece of meat in a place where he is hated.
מדרש When שלמה was in גלות, a man recognized him and brought him home. He gave him a nice meal, but he spoke to שלמה in a way that made him sad. Then a poor man saw him and invited him in. He didn’t have much, but he gave him חזוק.
Sheet 3 ר' יוסף בן נחמאש connects this פסוק to a famous גמרא on כבוד אב ואם- a man can give his father פסיוני to eat and it’ll cause him to lose his share in עוה''ב. Another man can make his father work very hard on the grinding stones and he’ll be זוכה לחיי עוה''ב. רש''י says on this, a man will feed his father expensive meat. His father will ask how he can afford it and he’ll answer, “It’s none of your business. Chew and eat”. This not nice way of speaking will cause him to lose his share in עוה''ב. There was once an old miller who was drafted to go serve the king. The son said, “I’ll go in your place because the work is brutal. You continue your hard work and support the family”. This will bring him to עוה''ב. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. This also applies to doing חסד- you must do it in the proper way.
כז:יט כמים פנים- מים שמראים פנים
מ''ד כמים- it’s the way of water that it reflects you face back at you. So to, this is the way of a person’s heart- if his heart is pleasant towards his friend, the feelings will be reflected back to him.
ר' חיים If a person has an enemy, he should try and feel real, true אהבה for this enemy and the enemy will turn to his אוהב.
מ''ד יא:יג מגלה סוד- you must reverse the words of the פסוק- a person who told over someone’s secret is likely going to be עובר on רכילות. And even if he himself doesn’t go back to the person, your friend has another friend… until it eventually gets back to the person.
ונאמן רוח- a person who is נאמן to ה' won’t repeat what was told to him, even when it wasn’t told as a secret.
ר' חיים צבי קץ “Don’t mention mentschen”- you should not speak about other people.
מלבי''ם הולך רכיל מגלה סוד- a בעל רכילות’s nature is going to be to reveal secrets. When you tell someone a secret, it’s like you’re giving him a פקדון. And just like a person doesn’t give a פקדון to someone non- trustworthy, also a secret. Also, someone who’s always repeating things, it’s the same nature that will reveal secrets. There’s another פסוק which says, "מגלה סוד הולך רכיל"- someone who reveals a secret, it’s his nature to be a בעל רכילות. Someone who is loyal to ה' hides things.
יז:ט מכסה פשע- מי שהוא מוחל על חטאים
מבקש אהבה- הוא מחפש שאהבה תמשיך כאן
ושונה בדבר- מי שחוזר על דבר
מפריד- מפריש
אלוף- אדם שר וחשוב
מ''ד מכסה- if a person hurts someone else and the person forgives, this is a reason for people to love him- because he is a forgiving person.
ושונה בדבר- but if you bear a grudge, you’re being עובר on "לא תקום ולא תטור". You must forgive and not bear a grudge. If you do have hard feelings in your heart, you can’t get rid of them, but you must try. Never act out because of this.
מאירי if your friend is loyal and a good friend, what do you do? מכסה פשע. But if ושונה בדבר- he repeatedly tries to hurt you, you must break off the friendship. This plays itself out in two ways:
1. Sometimes a friend is bringing you down ברוחניות- this is not ok. Ask for help.
2. Emotionally- sometimes, friends manipulate you or are emotionally taxing in a different way.
כה:טז דבש מצאת- אם מצאתך דבר מתוק
דיך- בשעור מוגבל
פן תשבענה- שמא תהי' שבע ממנה
והקאתו- אתה תתן את זה בחזרה
מ''ד דבש- if you find honey, eat just a little, just enough to satisfy you and restore your spirits. If you eat enough to satiation point, you will throw up everything, including the little good from the beginning.
יז הקר- תעשה קרי
מבית רעך- מהבית של החבר שלך
פן ישבעך- שמא יהי' שבע ממך
ושנאך- והוא ישנא אותך
מ''ד הוקר- make yourself rare in your friends house so that he doesn’t become “satisfied” from you. He’ll love you more if he sees you less frequently. Do not hold on too tight.
But what about between spouses? There is a special ברכה in marriage that this idea doesn’t apply. But sometimes, for example, a husband may need space- you must give it to him. Woman are usually more talkative than men so we must be careful not to crowd them. This ברכה doesn’t apply until marriage though. During the engagement period, there must be separation.
מאירי "ובדרך נסתר אמרו במדרשות רעך הוא אלוקיך ובדרש עוד אל תחטא תמיד שוגג להביא תמיד עולות..."- do not make yourself a frequent visitor of the בהמ''ק to bring a קרבן חטאת because you keep doing שגגות. Why does it matter if it’s a שוגג? It is a level of חטא because you didn’t think of הלכה. If you are someone who is a שגגת תמיד, it becomes like a זדון- "שגגת תמיד דומה לזדון". If you see that you are making mistakes, you must stop yourself "כי אין התנצלות בשגגה עד שיתמיד בה". It’s not just no big deal.
ר' סלומין ענין הולך רכיל- so many of us have tried to correct the area of לשון הרע. But with all of the efforts put into learning the הלכות, it seems to be out of proportion with the amount of הצלחה resulting. Because משיח didn’t come yet!
When one learns מוסר ספרים, he doesn’t usually come across the מידה of סקרנות- curiosity. It seems that so much damage has been done by people who are nosy. Why isn’t this dealt with in the ספרים? These are people who have to know what is going on everywhere and are busy giving unsolicited advice. They do lots of damage. So why don’t the ספרים speak about it?
We have a terrible problem which is more prevalent today- lack of confidentiality. People are so unreliable and don’t have the נאמנות to keep a secret. Those you could tell a secret to are few and far between. The ספרים also don’t deal with this, besides for the ספר ארחות חיים לרא''ש, which says "אל תהי להוט לדעת את הסתרים בין אדם לחבירו". But that’s it. Shouldn’t there be more stress on it?
Until I saw the רש''י on "לא תלך רכיל"- רש''י says that a רכיל are the people who go to their friend’s houses so that they could see what’s bad and publicize it. So mind your own business! It’s a לאו. Why do you need to know about other people and institutions? And don’t say, “I know but I won’t talk about it”. That’s impossible, and why do u want to know?
ח''ח if someone would go to a speech in order to criticize it, he is עובר on the לאו from the moment he walks in, as the של''ה says, "לא תלך" is the ענין of going to find out what’s happening. הולך רכיל מגלה סוד- such a person is very unreliable and you can’t trust him with a secret. The irresponsibility to keep a secret comes together with the יצה''ר to find out about everyone.
קנטרס הספקת If someone was given the opportunity to go to שמים and experience the קדושה and see what goes on and be taken from one place to another, he would have no pleasure unless he knew that he could come down and tell his friends. We do not enjoy any new thought unless we are able to tell it over. That’s how ה' made people because the תורה was given to us ללמד וללמד because any new idea that you reach about ה' or the תורה, He wants us to share it. So we have a great urge to tell it over to people. Every השגה that a mother has in עבודת ה' only comes to fruition when she transmits it to the next generation.
So we are inquisitive and we want to pass the results and findings of our inquisitiveness onward. If we use it correctly, ב''י will be built to perfection. But if we don’t use it correctly, we cause great damage.
So what is the עצה? We have to go back to our root. We need to reeducate ourselves. Our educator should be בלעם הרשע who understood the secret of our survival and how to destroy us. "וישא בלעם את עיניו וירא את ישראל שוכן בשכנו..." and he said the ברכה, "מה טובו אהליך יעקב". רש''י says that he saw every tribe separated from each other and that the openings of the tents didn’t face each other so that they could not see in. בלעם saw it that they did not want to look into the other’s tent, not that they didn’t want anyone to see into their own tent. They were חושד themselves, not others. They didn’t want to tempt themselves, they weren’t interested in knowing. This is the tactic that we must use. We must train ourselves not to look so that we won’t want to look or speak about others. It’s much harder to hold onto it after you already know. There’s also another benefit- not allowing outside influences into homes, not feeling like you must keep up with your neighbors, not being עובר on צניעות.
ה' made us this way for the sake of תורה.
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