Tomer Devorah Part 29 Tashlich Bimtzulos Yam Kol Chatosam (HaRav Yitzchak Breitowitz)

yeah I just wanted to uh again call to your attention an interesting contrast between two MOS here uh yesterday we were looking at uh maida number eight which is which literally means he presses down he pushes down Aros and the Remar was Mazar what that means is that the negativity of an AA is not as powerful as the positivity of a Mitzvah uh meaning an AA does certain detrimental things both to you and to the world but it does not create a detriment that is as great as the light that is created by Mitzvah and this is why a Mitzvah cannot be rewarded in this world because there's nothing in this world that can be equal to a Mitzvah AOS can be punished in this world they can also be punished in gam uh but it's not sh the ra says based on the gor that a Mitzvah could ever be rewarded in this world because a Mitzvah is of such a high character now this also means that mitzvos are not set aside they are not cancelled by virtue of AOS so even if a person has many many AOS there will be punishments for those AOS but in AA does not diminish a mitzvah and AA does not extinguish a Mitzvah again this is actually taken from the rambam uh that does not net mitv and AOS but rather uh the AOS are punished and then the Mitzvah is rewarded now that's an interesting point because the punishment of an AA is limited in time the reward for a Mitzvah is Unlimited in time it is eternal so even even after the Russia suffers the maximum of 12 months in the r writes he will then be so the mil of is that even when God punishes for a sin he does not allow the sin to ascend as high as the Mitzvah and that is why the Mitzvah Remains untainted the Mitzvah remains preserved the Mitzvah remains available for all of its all of its reward and in the language of the which the Remar does not quote that means a does not extinguish the reward for a Mitzvah the reward for a Mitzvah is still going to be present yeah um so the Miss in P second par yeah um that's the reward that is all talking about well which which M you think he's talking about Cate the reward against the cost you so so that thater no no no well well that's actually referring to meaning what what's that saying is well it depends on on which side of the equation when it says you should look at the reward of uh a Mitzvah ked the inconvenience so that's looking at yeah on the other hand when it says when when you look at the reward of an AA canate the punishment the reward might be in this world the convenience that you get Conn get the punishment in or ma Zas can be punished either way but Mitzvah are truly rewarded only in now remember though I mentioned yesterday the rambam's idea that certainly the T does say there is Earthly compensations for doing Mitzvah but they are in the nature of opportunities enhanced opportunities they are not intrinsically intrinsically reward now the thing I want to contrast it though with is this is meta number eight meta number eight now again what was the bottom line of emulation that would mean uh how do I emulate Hashem to trigger this maida of Hashem looking at my Mitzvah that if I have a person that's done a lot of bad things to me he's hurt me a lot but he's also done many good things I should not allow the negative feelings I have to take away the credit that they deserve for the good things this will be a common scenario that people might face with their parents or whatever it is uh you know whether their grievances are imaginary or not is another question but even if a person has real grievances that will often not detract from all of the good uh that that was done and therefore if I can emulate the maida of appreciating the good that someone has done even if they've also done negative things I will trigger that maida from Hashem that he will look at my good uh even though there are negative negative ideas so the idea here is these are separate konos now based on this though um there's a bit of a problem here uh you know the rambam discusses that human beings are divided into three groups there are people that are called sadim there are people that are called benon middle of the rotors there are people that are called Rim now the exact definition of those terms there'll be many many M but I just want to again this is a bit of a review of something may have been last mon I don't remember I just want to go with the rambam's definition for a moment without looking at other definitions the rambam says a sadic is rubo zos a person who has more mitos than AOS so 5149 mitzvos the rambam defines that term as it's sadic now the rambam then qualifies it and I mean this is important the rambam says hey we're not just dealing with straight numerical calculations but rather assigns a qualitative weighing to mitzvos so it might be that a single mitv that took a lot of mes might count for a million and uh or or the other way around and AA that's very bad might come for a million others Hashem has what you would call a handicapping system a weighing system we have no idea what that system is but the bottom line is after God converts mitzvos and AOS into some type of numerical weighing however he does it that's a totally mysterious process ultimately if it turns out you have more good than bad you're called a sadic okay Russia the same process has to be done done and that simply means more bad than good and benoni is middle of the road although it's hard to imagine How mish be middle of the road okay now I'm not talking about rashash now I'm talking about the din when a person dies Ram Kipper is a separate sua a person dies so God has to determine at the moment of a person's death are you a sadic are you a Russa are you abandon so here's the thing the rambam says if a person is a Russia again based on the conversion system a person is Russia who didn't do Chua so the rambam says so let's say it's let's say it's 6040 just keep it a round number so the rambam says he has to go to geham for the 60% of sins that he committed but after he goes to geham he will go to habah for the Mitzvah that's even a Russia unless the Russia is a Russ who lost his share Inaba but again let's put that aside so here's my question what's the difference exactly between the Russia and the sadic I mean the Russia is 60% ofos he can't go toab till he goes to geham that sadic is 40% of AOS does that mean he goes to habah without going to Gehan what happens to the 40% of AOS in other words if you basically take Serious the idea that mitzvos and AOS are a separate calculation and they are not netted they are not netted so my question is very simple what will the difference be between the Russia what's the difference between 6040 and 4060 it seems that you're going to have to do the same thing no matter what you can't go to habah until you've been purified from your Aus so what is is the suggestion that go to and then they go to is the r telling me that if I'm a sadic I get a free pass and I go toah even if I have 40% of my Deeds are Aus in other words it's very problematical because even the sadic has to pay for his his Aus in one way or the other so what the mafor want to say is that it's a p that both the Russia and the sadic have to have some type of punishment I I don't mean punishment so much but I mean penance or rectification because really it's positive uh some type of rectification or ticking for their AOS but Hashem will give it to the sadic in this world so that he'll be ready to go toah immediately without suffering gam the Russia May in fact have to suffer gim the only question is well God knows the future so I guess God could figure it out but it's hard to figure out out how that works because the final determination of whether you're a Russia or at sadic is the moment of your death so so how can it be that God is going to punish the sadic in well what if the sadic becomes a Russia at the end you know and and and and deserves theen him so that's a certain issue about uh how does Hashem frontload the punishments of before the person's status is actually determined uh the other issue that one might raise is uh a question of of commensurate value uh that's a little obscur let let me explain what I mean God should punish people in the same way if they committed the same sin now we often say this idea Hashem will punish the sadic in this world so that the sad will not suffer geh and be able to go straight to but Hashem will not punish the Russia sometime sometimes in this world so the Russia will be punished in geh now is geh worse than suffering in this world apparently it is I mean that's the Assumption of the the says that sad gets punished in this world so he shouldn't go to geh now one might ask what's the fairness of that in other words a sadic does a sin a Russia does a sin there's actually a that the sadic May deserve a Mor punishment because he should have known better in the light but at the very minimum a Russia who doesn't AA should not necessarily get a punishment that's worse than a Sak who doesn't AA AAS have their punishments so what do you mean that God is going to punish the Russia by making him go to gam but God doesn't want to punish the sadic by making him go to gam so God's going to punish him in does that mean that the sadic is getting less of a punishment and if you're going to tell me well no Hashem could could create a an exchange rate where an extreme suffering in this world will be as bad as geham well if that's the case then there's no particular reason to say one thing over the other in other words there is no net benefit in saying versus G or G versus if Hashem is going to have a conversion standard where everything turns out to be the same so there are a lot of problems here uh in terms of the notion that Mitzvah and AAS are given separate calculations uh number one um what does that mean for the sadic who's a 6040 uh and if you're going to tell me that he'll get his punishment in well if that's less of a punishment than geham then what's the fairness of it uh in a sense Hashem is using his mitzvos as a way to make it easier for him I mean which is the opposite of not netting in a sense Hashem is allowing the Mitzvah to affect the uh the Onish for the AAS so these are things to think about it's not it's not clear and by the way in terms of bonm the rambam simply says that God gives bonim the benefit of the doubt so to speak and judges them like sadim so so the same problem I had by sadik and we'll have by bon bon as well okay but the thing I want to call to your attention again we talked about this when we looked at it before and now I'm going to talk about it again when we look at it uh in number eight that is if you go back to maida number six not so long ago ma number six in the p m is who God is a God who desires loving kindness now I had mentioned then that the Rach has aish in interpreting this this phrase that the simple meaning of the phrase is God is a God who loves to do kindness right God's desire is to do kindness which of course is true but he says a different God desires kindness meaning God desires the that we do that God looks at us he sees the that we do if we do and God gets pleasure from the that we do and the Remar explains that what that means is that when a person does and that will mitigate that will affect the severity of the punishment for his AOS meaning there's a difference between a Russia or a person who does AOS but also does versus a person who does AOS and doesn't do if I do I change I modify the standard of judgment that Hashem has so I just want to point out that on some level at least there seems to be a a tension or a little bit of a contradiction between meta number six and meta number eight in other words meta number eight says we don't allow the sins to take away from the Mitzvah meter number six says we do allow the Mitzvah maybe not all Mitzvah but it could be uh at least we do allow not to take away the sin it doesn't take away the sin but the is a mitigating factor in the severity of punishment so the concept that sins and Mitzvah are two separate calculations you see from meta number six that that's not entirely true that the and the that a person does can mitigate the punishment of the Aus okay so I just want to point out that in a way it's a little as asymmetrical the AOS don't affect the Mitzvah but at least some mitzvas they don't erase the a again it doesn't erase the AA but it can convert it from a more severe punishment to a less severe punishment now if you recall just to show you the on the emulation level how they're a little different meta number six says that even when somebody did very things very bad to me I should remember their in the sense of not punishing them so severely for the bad thing that they did I should use the as a mitigating factor in how I respond to the evil that is number six number eight says I shouldn't use the evil to mitigate my appreciation for the right so you see the relationship between the two meaning number eight says I should appreciate their in spite of what they did number six says that in spite of the evil that they did uh but I should appreciate them for the good thing so one is appreciating the the other is using the as a mitigating factor in your punishment or your response to their evil so six and eight are really kind of a pair I mean on one level there's a certain inconsistency on the other level they work together together in terms of how do you deal with people who are a mixed bag right frankly there are people you know I mean again me parents relatives friends spouse may be a big issue in which there's been a lot of good that have been done but there have been things that have hurt me and how do I uh process the pain and the appreciation and how they both have to coexist at the same at the same time okay um so this was maida number number eight um yeah number eight say yeah regarding eight so even though the AAS have no permanent reality ultimately with the exceptions you mention um like is it that the real cost of AA is the opportunity cost that you did that a Vera usually instead of doing a Mitzvah or mitigated the Mitzvah that you did do and the between R and sikim is that theik they both end up with no but the sikim have more Mitzvah in the end and so that's really what differentiates the two well yeah yeah I mean I mean as I say uh that sadic does not lose his AOS there needs to be a Penance or a kapara for them he does wind up with more mitus but the thing about opportunity cause this is a very interesting thing um now Pavo says You must look at three things and if you look at three things you will not come to AA right what are the three things actually they're two different lists but one the most famous list is may know from where do you come right your Genesis was a putrid drop of sperm and then remember Le where are you going meaning after we die the body will be m to the dirt Rema worms and the third which is the most important is in front of whom are you going to give an accounting meaning I should recognize my own insignificance and the fact that I will be standing before God having to account so the standard translation of means an accounting but the gr is omade on the fact what is the double language d what's you know a judgment and an accounting so he says like this he says is hashem's judgment on what you didb is the calculation Hashem makes what you could have done during the time you were doing that the opportunity cost meaning to say when I do have AOS there is a double judgment on me there is the Judgment of the AA that I did and then there's a judgment as to the mitzvos I could have done during that equivalent time so Den is the judgment on what you didone is the judgment on the good that you could have done now that's uh that's a scary thing because that essentially um at least doubles you know the accounting for everything because every AA that you a person ever done ever did had at its time an opportunity for Mitzvah that could have been could have been done in fact they say I mean this is obviously a modern mush that somebody made up I don't know who made it up but they describe geham what is geham ganam is going to the movies you go you you're shown two videos two movies one is a movie of your life and the other is the movie of the life you could have had the life you should have had the life that aades intended you for you to have and when we see the discrepancy between the two videos that's hell that's Gam gadam is when I see the difference between what could have been and what actually was now again I don't know if there's any particular mocker for that because obviously the movie thing is a modern uh adaptation of something but I don't know what the early imar is but they say that's geham ganim is simply the when we talk about fire it's really the shame the shame that a person feels when they realize what their life could have been and it was not and that shame is described as a burning fire right we we describe the feeling of shame in that way a very very intense and uh the the Swarm do say that we feel this with total Clarity without the defense mechanisms that cushion the blow right in real life even when we're aware of things that could have been better but we have mechanisms for our own sanity we have mechanisms to cushion the full brunt of the attack no excuses they deserved it they were you know said whatever it would be uh so geham is geham precisely because you confront the reality without any of the defenses that would otherwise protect you psychologically and therefore that's a very very painful painful thing okay Al righty so now uh let's go to number nine now number nine is actually extremely interesting it is the longest uh of the 13 Med that the raak is maber in peral we're still only peric alif and it is actually the most cabalistic as they sayari is a safer cabala but uh although obviously its underlying foundations are very very deep but it's relatively accessible it is not a safer that requires that you be a full fledged makal although there are many many Illusions uh to cabala but of the 13 that are discussed in peric Alf this is actually the most cabalistic uh of them all uh and this is the one that is the reason why we say this R this is number nine this is a prayer to God you will thow may you throw all of their sins now here it says as I have mentioned for whatever reason the r in the ter is not focused on of he does not offer any explanation regarding those different terms he is using them interchangeably but this says God will throw into the depths of the sea all of our sins right Tash right that's the Mak right why the ceremony is called Tash because of this person so what is this Mida this once again is a mid of R of hasem and like all the Midas of R of Hashem it becomes actualized by our Behavior so every time you look at any of this mid you got to answer two questions what is this Mida from hashem's side of things and the second issue is what Behavior do I do to mimic that Mida that will actualize the manifestation of hashem's Mida so here he starts off the following he starts off with a question he says b Israel sin and Hashem allows persecutors to punish us in different ways you have pyro uh we have sanv San was the king of Assyria we have hon right this is the The Familiar idea that we do have AOS and Hashem is Moser us into the hands of an enemy at some point we do Chua Hashem redeems us and Hashem then punishes or destroys that enemy whether it's parro or MIT that was destroyed by the tenmos and by cras yamu although pyro happened to survive but generally the Egyptian enslavers were destroyed whether it's s remember the story of SV this is a great miracle that also happened the first night of pesak where s the king of Assyria after he exiled the 10 tribes shortly afterwards and during the reign of kiso assembled an army of 180,000 soldiers to conquer yush and destroy the b mikash and a miracle happened the first night of pesak that all 180,000 people died by a plague through the Mali survived to go back to Assyria and he was then assassinated by his own Sons Etc but he hasem wanted him to survive so he would come back and report so they would know what happened it was not an adom bom or or or whatever whatever it was so pyro gets destroyed or his Nation gets destroyed s gets destroyed hon gets destroyed now here's the question why should that be so we understand that Hashem will accept our chuva and Hashem will redeem us but when the r were punishing us they were doing what was hashem's will because of arus right so why would there be an owner now truth of the matter is if the Remar will will answer this I'll cabala the truth of the matter is the reim themselves discuss this this this very question that is the rambam discusses in h Chua that if Hashem told AB a that your children are going to be enslaved in a land that is not theirs and they will be persecuted they will be uh there'll be strangers in the land that's not theirs Gus and they will be uh subjected as a and they will be persecuted for 400 years and then they will be taken out with great wealth how could Hashem punish the Egyptians they were carrying out the will of God they were carrying out the will of God now let me just point out on that question there are two ways of asking the question there are actually two questions there question one goes to the nature of Free Will question two goes to the nature of morality now let me explain this the question the rambam asks is Free Will and that is if God decreed that the Jews would be enslaved and persecuted then God decreed this would happen then the Egyptians didn't have free will because it had to be this way God made it happen if God made it happen how can you punish Egyptians for doing something that was not a result of free will but it was a gazer from Hashem right that's the rambam's question so the rambam answer is the following the rambam said that when God said to Abraham your children will be enslaved in a land that is not theirs for 400 years God did not say it has to be in Egypt nor did God say any individual Egyptian has to be a slave owner so every now granted if Egypt would have decided not to enslave us somebody would have had to do it and that's the problem what if nobody would do it what would God do okay but but yeah again somebody's going to do it it didn't have to be M therefore MIT had free will because they had free will they are accountable for what they did now the rambam then asks well that that is a good answer for the initial enslavement but what about later when it says God hardened parro's heart now God hardening parro's heart that implies that parro what be sure you understand these are two different questions meaning the rambam's first question is about the brisban absar that hasem already told a that the Jews are going to be enslaved so didn't that take away the Free Will of the Egyptians ROM's answer to that one is no God did not take away the Free Will of the Egyptians because God never said the the Egyptians have to enslave them okay question number two is okay but when God hardened pyro heart and brings Maka after Maka after Maka because pyro hardened his heart no I'm sorry because Hashem hardened Pyro's heart that is saying that pyro would have changed his mind but God didn't let him that is an interference with B so there the rambam has a second answer which is a well-known answer answer and the second answer of the rambam is that just as when Hashem punishes a person for an AA it could take many many forms there can be death there can be geham there can be a loss of arm a loss of leg a loss of eye so too the rambam says one of the punishments God could bring on a Russia is a loss of Free Will meaning it does not say that pyro Harden I'm sorry it does does not say that Hashem hardened parro's heart till the second five makos the first five makos parro hardened his own heart so he rebelled against Hashem over and over and over and over again he can lose the capacity of free will but God can punish him because God is punishing him for the Rebellion before which culminated in losing it's like I mean an analogy you can give is you know a guy gets drunk and operates a motor vehicle and kills somebody while he's drunk so he tells the judge judge you can't blame me I was drunk I couldn't control myself how can you punish me for killing somebody when I'm drunk I was drunk right the answer is yes you were in a state where you couldn't control yourself but you put yourself in that state and that's why you're responsible meaning technically you're not responsible for what you did now but you're responsible for setting into motion the things that resulted in this it's it's m much the same analogy other words the concept here is that parro is being punished for his own rebelliousness and this is accomplished by taking away his Free Will so God can keep on bringing more and more m and parro cannot say to God how can you punish me when I don't have a choice he says well you put yourself in this situation of not having a choice by your volitional choice decisions that you made over and over and over again right that's the the r okay now now I want to point out the following the rambam's two questions remember two questions one is bris and the other is Hashem Harden par is really confined only to a um specific problem and the problem is free will because the rambam asserts quite logically that punishment cannot exist unless there is Free Will meaning you can't be punished for that which you could not choose other words ones as well as reward by the way is connect connected to free freedom of action so that's why the rambam had to deal with the problem of but there's another problem which ramban raises which is different than the question of the rambam it's not the same question and that is okay mitam had free will but L said they were carrying out the will of God God said that his will his decree was the Jewish people should be enslaved so if I'm enslaving the Jewish people I'm doing God's work now again be sure you understand that is not the same question as the Ramba the rambam's answer does not answer this question the rambam was simply concerned with how can you be punished if there's Not Free Will so the rambam's answer is they had Free Will ramban is asking a different question yeah they had free will but they didn't do anything wrong they're carrying out the will of God God decreed that the Jewish people be slaves so the ramban on that the rambam doesn't address that question the ramban on that gives two interesting answers answer number one goes to motivation which only Hashem knows and he says Hey listen the Egyptians did not enslave and persecute the Jewish people because their cavana was to carry out out the will of Hashem they did so out of the evil and Malice of their own hearts and therefore the fact that it happened to be the will of God because nothing would happen if it's not the will of God does not give them an out because they didn't for they didn't even believe in God I mean their motivation was not right so according to this the punishment of the Egyptians and Pyro is evil motive not necessarily evil action the action be etm might not be evil because it was the will of God that' be carried out it was the gazer to purify us but the motive taints it that's the that's the first answer of the ramban okay yeah does ran have a proof for that what's his what's his far that int well I I think he he he says it it's fairly you know he considers it to be I think self-evident I don't I don't think he brings a proof but he says uh if pyro said who is God that I should listen to him then it's not likely that pyro was motivated out of fear of God to to enslave the Jewish people now the ramban gives a second answer though that's really really difficult although here the ramban does bring explicit support from aask here the ramban does bring a proof but this is a real problem he says it's true that God decreed slavery and servitude on the Jewish people but God had a certain limit the Egyptians went beyond they perpetrated an evil that was beyond what God decreed that the Jewish people bear now the let me just show you this in fact the Remar brings this P too the ramban says this is an explicit P I'm just find the P where brings it it's in zakar where Hashem says about the umos that although he decreed that the Jewish people be in Exile and suffer he is still going to punish the umos and the question is why God decreed it so this is what the NV says I was a little bit angry but the they collaborated to do evil beyond what my Gaz was this is a the ran says that's exactly why MIT and all persecutors get punished they went beyond hashem's decree they went beyond hashem's decree now this is a difficult preposition and I think this is why there see the first answer the I don't think he needed a proof so power didn't believe in God that's fine the second answer is theologically very very problematical actually there are two problems here problem number one is how on Earth are you supposed to know the ran see they read oh if you would have done up to what I allowed that would have been fine but you did more than I authorized well how are you supposed to know how much got authorized who's going to tell you that God said they'll be slave they'll be persecuted and God said oh not as much as you did not that much I mean how do you know what's what's that much I mean that I think it's a problem but the other problem is even a bigger problem and that is you mean Egyptians could have hurt the Jewish people beyond what Hashem intended them to be hurt and it's not just Egypt remember zakar is actually talking about every enemy of the Jewish people including Hitler you mean that Hitler could kill 6 million Jews all God said well yeah I decreed the Holocaust but you know I I meant I meant you know 5,000 people would die not 6 million well if God didn't want 6 million to die then how could 6 million die how could pyro do more than God decreed if God didn't decree it how could it have been done this is a very very I think an amazing thought a problematical thought that there is a concept that evil can get Unleashed in the world for a certain purpose once it's Unleashed like a like a virus it can go beyond its boundaries now there is again we'll talk more about this this brings us back to a lot of things there is anesh a famous oresh who actually says that because human beings have free will human to human evil can go beyond hashem's Gaz meaning I can hurt a person even though God did not want that person to be hurt sometimes God will stop me that that can happen that's why we D but if somebody hurts me it's not necessarily God's decision God let the free will have free reign amazing thing and I think it's based on this ramban the r which is ultimately based on the in z now I'm not sure if this would be an answer people ask the question I mean we we're facing it even right now why does Hashem allow why does Hashem allow such evil to take place and the question becomes is this a gazer from Hashem I mean it is I mean ultimately it's a G from hasem but it's there in a different way it's not that God is willing X number of people die but God is allowing to go beyond its parameters for which in which case the Russia could be held accountable because it's no longer the direct will of God no everything is by God because we do I mean we do because God could stop God could stop this God could stop the Holocaust right we do for Hashem to intervene but the point is when Hashem doesn't intervene it's not that Hashem is direct willing the negative consequence he is allowing to have a free reain and that's why the balir can be punished for that he can no longer say it's God's will it wasn't God's will that you kill God let you do it but for that you could be accountable right so again the point the thing I want to bring out just in terms of understanding because a lot of a lot of people I mean I will tell you now a lot of people just misunderstand the shakar here a lot of people assume that rambam and ramban are asking the same question and are giving different answers it's very important that you understand that the question of the rambam and the question of the ramban are two very different questions the rambam's question is on the ramban's question is even if a person has B how can you punish them if they're carrying out the decree of God that's a separate question and on that the ramban's answer is I either punish them for their um U mevolent intention or they went beyond the decree of God which gets us into the whole issue of Free Will being given a a broader a broader row which is again the PK in zakar I think that's the ramban and it's y in the name of the now I will tell you that this or is so controversial that um I've heard people say that uh it's Aus to say it the said it okay whatever but or they they try to reinterpret it misinterpret it they try to move different ways with it but on the other hand uh the is actually in the ramban it's in this ramban and ultimately it seems to be the meaning of the a I'm sry too sounds well yeah but but no but even then you see you you could interpret that in different ways you could say uh you shouldn't have given the enemy free reign in fact for car uh in other words when we say God went too far if that's the tin that doesn't mean God directly decreed the the but God the enemy have the free will that it enable the enemy to have have already raed well well okay but as I say uh you know the notion of hashem's Rage can also refer to releasing Free Will okay okay well stop here I thinko thank you for listening to this awesome production to find out more and to partner in our mission please visit o.edu [Music]