LM 31.1 — Is Lan Birah, Part 1 of 7 · תורה ל״א

Be'ezrat Hashem we are beginning Torah ל״א together אית לן בירא. This is the last in a set that has been exploring a series of exchanges between Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya and the סבי דבי אתונא, the Athenian scholars, which is found in the beginning of Masechet Bechorot. As a interesting historical note the Rav Chaim Kramer and Rav Eliyahu Atiah both explain that it's not clear exactly when this Torah was given, but working backwards Rav Atiah suggests based on the פסוקים that come up in the Torah, it was given on שבת שירה and because it's given after Rabbi Natan had become close to Rabbeinu and at a point in time when there were still תורות being given over as לשון רבינו ז״ל specifically point by point to Rabbi Natan he he places it within a four-year period, two of those תורות have שבת שירה דרשות that were given namely Torah ט' and Torah ס״ב.

So he places this either תקכ״ד or תקכ״ו which was 1806. Structurally the the Torah is a little bit different from some of the others. I'll read from Rav Chaim Kramer's note. He says that in the beginning Rabbi Nachman detailed lessons concepts for Rabbi Natan point by point so it was לשון רבינו and later on when the דרשה was delivered publicly, it was explained in somewhat of a different order and therefore Rabbi Natan includes both versions. The the beginning of the Torah is somewhat more terse harder to to to understand and then a lot of the ideas get unpacked so we'll have two bites at the apple, so to speak.

The the lesson's main themes, as Rav Chaim Kramer points out, are tzedakah, emunah, Shabbos, brit, traveling, chesed, longing for holiness, creating souls, and parnasah and livelihood. So we have our our task cut out for us. So we'll begin with the we'll begin with the Ma'amar Chazal. אמרו ליה So the סבי דבי אתונא, the Athenian scholars said to רבי יהושע בן חנניה, אית לן בירא בדברא We have a well in the desert. אייליה למתא. Bring it to the city. רבי יהושע בן חנניה did not answer them immediately, but rather אייתי פרי he bought bran, right? In powder form.

שדא להו and he threw it in front of them. אמר להו he said to them, אפשלו לי חבלי דפרי. Twist ropes out of the bran for me ואיילי and then I'll use that rope to bring the well. אמרו ליה They said to him, ומי איכא דמפשל חבלי מפרי? Is there anyone who could twist ropes out of bran? אמר להו He said to them, ומי איכא דמייתי בירא מדברא למתא? Is there anybody that can bring a well from the desert to the city? רש״י: דפרי is סובין is bran. עשו לי חבל מסובין Make me a rope out of bran.

ואם אין אתם עושים שאלתי And if you can't do what I'm asking of you, אף אני לא אעשה שאלתכם. I am not going to do what you are asking of me. לשון רבינו זכרונו לברכה. So as we begin paragraph א' I just want to give one word of introduction maybe just to prevent going kind of off-course and I'm sure we're actually going to discuss it in other ways as we go through the Torah. We're going to be discussing the הנהגה of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and specifically through the system of the גלגלים, the stars, the constellations, the מזלות.

נוזל is to flow. And the way that we're going to be discussing it is not the way that we generally, if you would Google it you'd open up a science book, this is not the way that we understand the the stars and the planets revolving around the Sun and so on. And for our purposes I think we could just set aside all those questions for now and not be bothered by them. One one way of, you know, suggesting just in the most basic way is we talk about sunrise and sunset all the time. On one hand, the Sun doesn't rise or set.

The way that we that we look at the solar system, we see that the planets are revolving around the Sun and the Earth is on its own axis. And therefore, when we see the day transition into night and vice versa, it's really because we understand the Earth is spinning. On the other hand, from a practical point of view, we would absolutely discuss sunrise and sunset. And therefore, the same way that we talk about that in an experiential way so that it's more practical, if we're going to be talking about avodah in a spiritual sense the way that Chazal understood the planets to be, then whether or not it matches up scientifically should not bother us.

There's more there's more things to say, but again for now we're just going to put aside that entire that entire discussion. So as far as Hakadosh Baruch Hu using the system of גלגלים, of מזלות to run the world, the first question that we would always say is אין מזל לישראל. I thought that we are not governed by the מזלות. And at least for now, I think we actually had a big discussion in the first shiur of the last Torah, but at least for now we can say that if I wanted to put something into effect, there's two ways that I could go about it.

On one hand, I could create a system of gears, of pipes, of גלגלים, however you wanted to refer to it, and would be cause and effect, there would be inputs and outputs, there would be consequences, and it would lend itself to creating a a a system of accountability, of of predictability, where things would be able to function in a meaningful way. On the other hand, even against that backdrop, there might be certain individuals, certain, either case-by-case basis or certain people that are just operating outside of that system, where, let's say because of a relationship, a child, בני בכורי ישראל, there are ways that they could appeal to the to the person directly and not necessarily be limited by the confines of that system.

So therefore, addressing how the system is set up, and in a meaningful way, how people could either affect the inputs that would operate within the system or go around the system directly to the, you know, to the to the bestower, if you will, to the to the one on top, those two things do not necessarily have to contradict each other. So let's begin with the Torah. Paragraph א is going to associate tzedakah with how the world operates or, more specifically, how Hakadosh Baruch Hu operates the world. צדקה היא בחינת הגלגלים, צדקה is associated with the גלגלים, which is the system by which the world runs.

כמאמר חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, there's a pasuk in Devarim that relates to tzedakah, it says, נתון תתן לו, you should give him, ולא ירע לבבך בתתך לו, and inside, כי בגלל הדבר הזה, because of this, because of tzedakah, so it's using the word בגלל, because of, to reference צדקה, יברכך ה' אלוקיך, הקדוש ברוך הוא is going to bless you, and חז''ל דרשו, גלגל הוא החוזר בעולם, that a גלגל is a circle, it's a cycle, there's a cycle of wealth and poverty, and because things go up and down, a person should be מבקש רחמים, should ask for mercy from Hakadosh Baruch Hu that he should not be affected by the down cycle.

Just parenthetically, I was just going to mention a brief idea, but it's so beautiful, I don't have a source for it, that if there is a cycle, if you have let's say a keli, the cup fills up, and once the cup fills up, so now it goes back down. How could a person make sure that his cup will never fill up, so that he enters the next part of the cycle? Instead of making himself like a a closed cup, like a keli that is going to fill up, make himself like a pipe, something that doesn't have a bottom, and therefore if the shefa is flowing through him, he allows himself to distribute his wealth, to give tzedakah, so therefore his personal cup will never fill up, and the shefa can continue to pour through him.

Okay, anyway, it's a nice idea, but back back to the back to the first line, we said that בגלל הדבר הזה, this word בגלל, because of, relates to the גלגלים, relates to how the world operates, and it also relates to tzedakah, which will be a catalyst and an input for Hakadosh Baruch Hu to pour in tzedakah as it were, עולם חסד יבנה, anything that הקדוש ברוך הוא pumps into the world, from הקדוש ברוך הוא's point of view is chesed and is tzedakah, and therefore, when a person gives tzedakah, that will impact how the world is run, bringing brachah into the world.

בשביל זה יש שש ברכות ואחת עשרה ברכות. Because of this, when one gives tzedakah, he will be zocheh to six brachot or eleven brachot. כמו שאמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה, a Gemara in בבא בתרא, הנותן פרוטה לעני מתברך בשש ברכות, a person that gives a coin to an עני will receive six ברכות, והמפייסו בדברים מתברך באחת עשרה ברכות, and a person who appeases him with words, gives a smile, gives him what he needs, will get eleven brachot. And the, I think the the note over here brings the Maharsha, which who explains that this doesn't mean that a person can give a smile instead of money, all the smiles in the world won't necessarily, you know, put food on the table, but when a when a person doesn't have the money to give, so therefore a person shouldn't just keep looking down, a person should give the smile certainly along with the money, and even if he doesn't have the money.

כנגד שבעה כוכבי לכת וכנגד שנים עשר מזלות. These six brachot and eleven brachot, respectively, are כנגד seven כוכבי לכת, the seven planets, and the twelve מזלות, the twelve constellations, and we'll address soon how does six and eleven brachot respectively relate to seven and twelve, leave it aside for now. כי הצדקה מנהגת כל גלגלי רקיע, the tzedakah leads, or it it creates an impact, it causes a shift in how the the כוכבים of the רקיע are going to be run. Again, the inputs into the entire system is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, is brachah, shefa, so when we open up the faucet so to speak, there's an idea that Rabbeinu brought in earlier Torah, maybe in Torah Bet', that the Shulchan Aruch brings to give tzedakah before davenen, we open up the faucet, the idea, we bring down the idea of chesed when we give to somebody else, so HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to bestow brachah into the world.

בבחינת דרך הנשר בשמים, this is the beginning of a three-part re'iyah that tzedakah extends to the heavens, to control, to guide the system. Number one, the path of the eagle, of the nesher, is in shamayim, is in the heavens. Number two, נשר דרחמי, that it brings from a Zohar that nesher suggests rachamim, that the eagle is compassionate, is protective of its young, and therefore it relates the nesher to rachamim. And number three, tzedakah is also רחמים, היינו צדקה. So, therefore, it it says that the דרך הנשר is in shamayim, and nesher represents rachamim, and tzedakah represents rachamim.

So, therefore, we see that tzedakah relates to shamayim. וזה שאמר שמואל Further, this is what Shmuel said, Shmuel ha-Amora, who had a very working knowledge of the of of astronomy, נהירין לי, it's as clear to me, שבילין דרקיע, the paths of the רקיע, כשבילין דנהרדעא. Shmuel lived in a place Nehardea, he was the Rav of of Nehardea, but he says that there's clarity about the paths of shamayim, the hanhagah of the world, the astronomy like the streets on the ground of Nehardea, of his city. היינו כשבילין דנהורי דעה, so, it's relates the word Nehardea, the city of Nehardea, to נהורי דעה, of illuminated da'at.

And he brings over here in the note from other sources that מידת רחמנות תלוי בדעת, and therefore tzedakah is associated with rachmanut, and tzedakah is associated with דעת, which is the בחינה of צדקה רחמי, ועיקר הרחמים על ידי דעת. So, if tzedakah, it relates to rachamim, and rachamim relates to דעת, so, therefore, Shmuel's statement of a clarity with regard to the to the paths of the הנהגה of the world, the paths of the רקיע, are similar and just as clear as the paths of Nehardea, and Nehardea is the the light, the clarity of דעת, and דעת relates to rachamim, relates to tzedakah, so that we see over here a comparison between the the paths of the heavens, the הנהגה of the world, and tzedakah.

So, that's really point one, really understanding that tzedakah relates to how the world is run. Okay, paragraph ב', ומה שחסר מהברכות, there's something missing over here, because we just associated a person giving tzedakah is triggering the inputs with how Hakadosh Baruch Hu inputs, gives bracha, sends energy into the world. We, the way that we counted it, we said that there are six and 11 brachot, respectively, associated with giving an עני צדקה or being מפייס an עני, so that's six and 11 is 17. But when we matched it up to how the world is run, the the shefa coming into the world, we associated it with the seven כוכבי לכת and the 12 מזלות, the 12 constellations.

So, it seems to be missing two, six to seven and 11 to 12. There shouldn't be 17 brachot, there should be 19 brachot. And so he asks inside, הלא היה צריך להיות שבע ברכות ושתים עשרה ברכות. It shouldn't be six and 11, but rather it should be seven and 12. ולפי הגמרא, מהנותן והמפייס אין כאן רק שבע עשרה ברכות. Why does the Gemara associate giving tzedakah with 17 brachot, when really, if the bracha aspect that it brings shefa, brings influence, חיות, into the world, it should really be 19? As As we answer, we're going to read read the words, read the paragraph, and then we'll flesh it out a little bit afterwards.

But, just as a as a note, there's two aspects, really, to any system, any delivery mechanism, a machine. There's the practical aspects of how it's delivered, there's all the details, and then there's the שלימות of a system, what brings it together so it's not just a collection of parts, but it's a but it's a machine, it's accomplishing a purpose. The idea of the שלימות of that system really resides, if you will, a level above, right? It dictates the system. So, there's the individual way the גלגלים, how Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to run the world, and then there will be the purpose that's being achieved, the inputs, what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is is is directing into those גלגלים in order to run the world.

And we're going to say We're going to connect this to two different aspects, emunah and brit. For now, we're going to focus on emunah. This idea of שלימות that really is above all of the individual pipes, all of the individual things that are responsible for the bracha being channeled into the world, that is the missing the missing thing in the system. So, דע שעיקר שלימות הגלגלים What is the the completion, the תכלית of this of the גלגלים, the individual planets or the pipes that's channeling the bracha into the world? שלימות הצדקה, the שלימות of the tzedakah of the charity that we give that's מנהיג these גלגלים.

We said that this is responsible for how Hakadosh Baruch Hu is running the world. אינו אלא בשבת. This is specifically on Shabbos. וזה, this is why the Gemara says in תענית, שמש בשבת צדקה לעניים. When the sun shines on Shabbos, that is associated with tzedakah for the עניים, היינו צדקה אין לה שלימות אור אלא על ידי שבת. Now, what is this idea of שלימות אור, the idea of a שמש? I'm just going to read the the פסוק is talking at the end of days, the פסוק in Malachi says, וזרחה לכם יראי שמי, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will shine for the יראי שמים, שמש צדקה.

Two of the מפרשים on the page, the Metzudat David says that the צדקה אשר עשיתם יאיר לכם כשמש, the tzedakah which is now going to bring you to the finale of how Hakadosh Baruch Hu is running the world, He's going to be giving the reward, that will shine for you as as light as the שמש. The Radak says that the what is the שמש צדקה? שינצלו מכל רע, that this שמש will save you from all רע, וישמחו בלב טוב. But either way, we see that the height of tzedakah is שמש, and the שמש that shines on Shabbos is tzedakah for the עניים, היינו צדקה אין לה שלימות אור אלא על ידי שבת.

So this happens on Shabbos, and over here there's a note that associates it with tzedakah that's given for the aniyim for צרכי שבת, so we could tap into that. על ידי שבת מאירה כשמש, through Shabbos, this is where the tzedakah can reach its the the ultimate expression, the ultimate bracha. If the tzedakah is bringing bracha, it's responsible for how HaKadosh Baruch Hu is running the world, and we'll see that the the primary emunah of HaKadosh Baruch Hu creating the world and running the world is on Shabbos, this reaches its expression on שבת קודש, בבחינת שמש צדקה.

So this we're saying is responsible for the missing number. When we were giving the brachot of six and 11, that was really at the level of the of the pipes, of the delivery mechanism of HaKadosh Baruch Hu sending a bracha into the world. But where is the seventh? The seventh is on Shabbos, which is the shleimus of that system. וזה שמסמיך התנא יציאות השבת שתים שהן ארבע וסמך ליה פשט העני. This is the the first Mishnah in Maseches Shabbos. It introduces the halachos of Shabbos, which the the first melacha that it discusses is hotzaah, is carrying on Shabbos.

And the Mishnah itself gives an example of transferring from a private area to a public area, and it gives it in the context of a baal habayit, of somebody standing in his house in רשות הרבים, and he's passing tzedakah outside to the ani. So that the very first introduction to melachot of Shabbos, to הלכות שבת, is in the context of hotzaah, and the example, the way that the Mishnah frames it, is in the context of tzedakah of somebody giving tzedakah to an ani who is standing outside. Parenthetically, I don't have it with me, but I saw one time a dvar Torah from Rabbi Frand.

He was talking about hotzaah as the 39 melachot generally speaking, as representing categories of productive and really transformative activity. Cooking would be transforming the substance, the form of something through heat. Boneh is taking pieces and building them into a structure. It represents a change. Hotzaah, the Gemara says, is a מלאכה גרועה. Why? I think there's a Tosafos over there, I don't have it on my fingertips, but you're not actually changing something, you're just moving it from point A to point B, and he related it to a pasuk by Yosef Hatzadik that the ultimate expression of malchut, if you look in the pasuk, it says nobody will even move a hand or a foot without your authority, which is unbelievable.

So on one hand, the Gemara calls it a מלאכה גרועה, but on the other hand, it's asur. Why is it a מלאכה גרועה like a lowly melachah? Because it's missing the aspect of transformative activity, but the fact that we don't do it is because it's actually the ultimate statement, even just moving something, that is the ultimate expression of malchut, which means that we're introducing הלכות שבת with hotza'ah, something that is a recognition of Hakadosh Baruch Hu creating the world at the at the highest degree, and we associate it in the in the context of a בעל הבית giving tzedakah to an עני, כי עיקר התנוצצות אור הצדקה ושלמותה, because the the primary shining, the primary shefa, influence of tzedakah and its שלימות, אינה אלא בשבת, this is on Shabbos.

The reason, כי עיקר החשיבות הצדקה, the primary chashivut of giving charity, in a certain sense, tzedakah really doesn't make any rational sense. If I'm in the world and חייך קודמין, and I'm out for myself, why would I give anything of my hard-earned money to anybody else to support a cause unless I said what goes around comes around, it'll give me kavod, I have some sort of a self-centered reason, or even pain, it pains me to see somebody else who can't make ends meet? But that really is self-serving. Tzedakah as a primary giving motion is be'etzem emunah.

The reason is because I'm investing in my in Olam Haba, I'm associating myself with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I'm rising to a higher altitude by by connecting myself with the source מה הוא אף אתה, הקדוש ברוך הוא is giving chesed and I'm a ba'al chesed. So the עיקר חשיבות צדקה really is emunah, I'm not connecting at this level, I'm connecting at a higher level, above the worldly considerations. בבחינת והאמין בה' ויחשבה לו צדקה, it's a pasuk by Avraham Avinu. Okay, without without unpacking that entire pasuk, but it says that after והאמין בה', ויחשבה לו צדקה. Tzedakah is associated with emunah.

ושבת היא אמונה שממין בחידוש העולם ובייחודו. Shabbos is an expression of emunah. For six days a week we do hishtadlut, for six days of the week we are builders, we are investing in the world, and then on Shabbos we we stop. How do we do this? It's really because we are connecting to a higher authority, to the source, so to speak. One of the examples I've given when it comes to bitachon, to how are we able to lean into our hishtadlut and also have bitachon in Hakadosh Baruch Hu and balance those two ideas: sometimes a person might work and they're going to make $20 an hour, let's say.

So if they work for five hours, they made $100. It becomes very difficult not to think that I'm responsible for earning the money. But let's give a different example. A parent comes to a child and he says, "If you clean your room, then I will reward you, I'll take you to the baseball game." There is a chiyuv to fulfill the father's ratzon by cleaning the room, there is a reward that if the if the kid fulfills the father's ratzon, then he will be rewarded, but the the connection is not cause and effect. It's not כחי ועוצם ידי.

There's no question that the reason that I'm going to the game is a direct result of my efforts, it's a direct result of fulfilling the ratzon of Hashem'. When we work for six days a week, we are focused on our task because ratzon Hashem' is for us to be engaged in the world. When we stop on Shabbos, we're not just taking a break from the work so that we can get back to work, we're actually taking a break by rising above. We come to an understanding that there there is no work to do because our work is not responsible for the result.

The result comes from our being aligned with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who is, like we said, pumping the shefa into the world. That's dictated by tzedakah, that's dictated by our attaching ourselves to the source. When we keep Shabbos, we take ourselves out. It's not seven days, it's six days and there's Shabbos. מבדיל בין קודש לחול, בין אור לחושך, בין יום השביעי לששת ימי המעשה. We'll talk about havdalah and kedushah later on, but when when we make havdalah between there's six days and there's seven days, they're not the same. It's not the seventh day in a series of of seven, there's six days and then Shabbos is different.

ואמונה היא מקור הברכות. When we attach ourselves to the source, this is the source of the brachot, this is the source of how Hakadosh Baruch Hu provides shefa, provides brachah to the world. בבחינת ואיש אמונות רב, איש אמונות רב ברכות, a person who's associated with emunah, that is where there's a lot of blessing. בבחינת ויברך, this blessing, אלקים את יום השביעי. So we're associating emunah and brachah and Shabbos. ואין שלימות להברכה אלא עד שיקבלו ממקור הברכות. The shleimut of that brachah is not just when you're at the level like we said of the delivery mechanism, it's not just a person that's working six days.

The person that is on a practical level receiving things from Shamayim, the the person associated with brachot is at a level above, associated with the inputs of the brachah. בשביל זה כתיב בהם שש ברכות ואחד עשר להורות שאין להם שלימות. Chazal were extremely calculated and specific and strategic in framing the brachot as six and eleven rather than seven and twelve because they were they were leaving us a breadcrumb to understand this, that there's two ways of relating to brachah. The practical part of receiving tzedakah, right, the practical part of getting water out of the faucet is standing on the receiving side.

Therefore, how do we relate to brachah coming into the world? I remember when I was a kid, I saw my mother go to the ATM machine and she just punched in a few numbers and money came out. It seemed so obvious. How do we see that brachah comes into the world? We give tzedakah and brachah comes out of the ATM machine. We get we get money back, right? But that's really only part of the story. But how does the money get into the ATM machine? Who's really running the system? There's a source that's that's totally behind the system and Chazal leave us a breadcrumb to understand this.

Yes, we relate to the bracha, the actual bracha is delivered through the six and eleven, through the pipes. But if you want to understand the shleimut of the process, you have to go a level above. That that's where the completion is. That's why the six is really seven, that's emunah, that's Shabbos, and again we'll deal with the with the other one later, which we're going to relate to ברית קודש. וזה שאמרו חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, this is what Chazal tell us, that we see a system where there's Torah and mitzvot, but also there is a klal, there are certain ways of looking at it and framing so that we could see that it's all incorporated within a greater shleimut.

בא דוד והעמידן על אחת עשרה. David Hamelech came and he looked at the עיקרים to be to be כולל all of the mitzvot, and he framed it as 11 mitzvot. בא ישעיה והעמידן על שש. Yeshayahu came and he framed it as six mitzvot. בא חבקוק והעמידן על אמונה. We're not going to go through the which the six and 11 mitzvot are, but Chavakuk came and he said, there's 613 mitzvot and those that came before me, they were able to create כללים how Hakadosh Baruch Hu relates to us through the Torah and mitzvot in six or 11, but there's something that's an umbrella, an overarching idea that's even greater than everything, and that all folds into emunah.

להודיע שאין שלמות להדעת שהוא התורה. The shleimut of the ultimate da'at, the chochmah of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the ultimate da'at that's Torah, and we also said that da'at is associated with rachamim, associated with tzedakah. ואין שלמות לגלגלים אלא על ידי אמונה. So we see that the shleimut of there's two aspects really, in a certain sense, of emunah: Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu runs the world, and the shleimut of every aspect of our relating to Hakadosh Baruch Hu as the Creator and Sustainer of the world is emunah. Just because it's directly on point and I saw it this week, a piece from Kol Ram, Rav Moshe Feinstein zichrono tzadik v'kadosh livrachah on on פרשת אמור.

It's in Kol Ram, if you have the new print, it's page קל״ט. In פרשת אמור, the the pasuk talks about Shabbos: ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי שבת שבתון מקרא קודש. Comes along Rashi: מה ענין שבת אצל מועדות? Why does the parashah discuss Shabbos in in the middle of the the the מועדות, in the middle of ימים טובים? ללמדך שכל המחלל את המועדות כאילו חילל את השבתות, וכל המקיים את המועדות כאילו קיים את השבתות. It ties together kiyum and and חילול, chas v'shalom, of Shabbos and Yom Tov together. And Rav Moshe Feinstein, maybe this is why I presented the piece from Rabbeinu this way, but I think it's mamash on point, he says: נראה בביאור הדברים, שבת is יסוד האמונה בבריאת העולם, and therefore a person who's מחלל שבת, חס ושלום, is כאילו כופר במעשה בראשית, and the מועדות are אמונה שהשם יתברך מנהיג את העולם כולו בעצמו ומסדר את הטבע כרצונו.

Shabbos is emunah in בריאת העולם, and the מועדות is we relate to הקדוש ברוך הוא as the מנהיג and the one who sets up who's מסדר טבע, who sets up the system, the טבע, the גלגלים. And he goes on and says that it's tied together. If, chas v'shalom, a person would say that הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world and let it go, a clockmaker's universe, then that would that that would be כפירה, that would be אפיקורסות. And if a person, chas v'shalom, would be able to say that הקדוש ברוך הוא didn't create the world, but He was the manager, He was the one who runs it, but but it's not אין עוד מלבדו, He's just He's stronger than everything, He manages the world otherwise, that would also be כפירה, that's also אפיקורסות.

Therefore, full emunah incorporates it these these thing things go totally together: הקדוש ברוך הוא creating and sustaining the world together, and that's over here what we're tying together, Shabbos and tzedakah. Shabbos and the גלגלים, ויברך אלקים את יום השביעי, the Shabbos and or Hashem as the Creator of the world, and the tzedakah, the system of the גלגלים, and הקדוש ברוך הוא running the system of the גלגלים, and how we are able to relate to that, going together as building up, as as forming emunah. Now, I said that I would give a couple of meshalim just before we we finish paragraph ב׳, how I relate to some of the ideas we were discussing about the six days of Bereishis and Shabbos.

Two examples, neither one of them are mine. I believe I heard them from Rabbi Aharon Lopian-sky in various shiurim, but I don't know if either example is perfect, but just to try to illustrate the idea. Let's say a person had a machine—I think I touched upon this earlier—and they had to replace one piece. There was a car and they had to change a tire, or they had to replace the steering wheel, or even the engine. The engine is pretty much as core to the to the function of the car as it gets. Nobody would say that it's a different car.

So if replacing any particular part does not redefine it as being a different entity, then what is it that defines it? It has to be the purpose. It's going to be something that's above any of the individual parts. So while it's not a car if it would be missing all of the individual things that build it into what it is, what holds it together, what creates the shleimut of this thing is something that really is a level above any of the particular things that come to form it. Another example, which I've also mentioned before, is what we say that הקדוש ברוך הוא, כביכול, rested on Shabbos.

There's two reasons to rest. One person rests Because they're performing a task and they run out of steam, so they have to stop and take a break so that they can continue their task. They're they're running, they get tired, they stop so that they can run further. Another reason to rest is because you've achieved tachlit, a computer program is debugging and it stops, you're not going to run it again, it's debugged. A person is building a house and they complete the house, they stop, not because they need to go on, but because they've reached tachlit.

Now that you've reached tachlit, that actually comes to provide a framework to understand the entire period of activity. The idea of Shabbos, of reaching completion, of understanding the purpose of the world, is it's it's different. It's it's it's a havdalah. It's not part of the six days and then we just rest, it's another it's another day with another function. The six days have individual functionality, comes the seventh day the purpose is to rest. What it's doing is it's defining tachlit. Perhaps by the way we can say this is why there's a famous idea that Mashiach comes if a person keeps two Shabbasos, heard this from someplace as well.

If we think about Adam HaRishon, Adam was created on יום השישי, he wasn't created on יום הראשון. Adam's first complete day of the world was Shabbos if you think about it. When a person keeps two Shabbasos, if a person works all six days, they come to Shabbos and then they they look backward and they understand. But if you're writing a story, right, they always say there's an introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Say what you're going to say, say it, and then sum up what you said. You keep a Shabbos, you define the purpose of everything you're about to engage in, you have a framework.

Then you go through, you work for the six days, and then you achieve that tachlit, and you look back on everything that you've done, and that represents a completion in the system. So when we look at Shabbos, we look at emunah, we look at tzedakah, we look at the purpose that defines all of the specific practical relationships and interrelationships in the world, that really is a level above, that provides the shleimut of the entire system. Finishing off paragraph ב, now that we said there's a relationship between giving tzedakah and bringing berachah into the world, the hanhagah of how הקדוש ברוך הוא guides the world.

So when the baal habayit gives tzedakah to the ani, if you were an objective observer, you would say that the primary mover, the one who's doing the action, is the baal habayit, the wealthy man. He is the one who is on the giving end and he's providing. And yet, we're setting up this Torah so that when a person gives tzedakah, he is actually receiving, he is bringing berachah into the world, and he becomes the beneficiary of those berachot. So the objective observer sees the baal habayit, the wealthy man, putting things into motion. The primary movement appears to be the wealthy man giving tzedakah, and yet the purpose of that giving, the actual tachlit, the beneficiary, what's really going on is that the person giving tzedakah is receiving.

So we're going to express this dynamic now through the גלגלים. If you want to look at Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah in the third perek, it's a little bit hard what we're going to read, and we're going to go through it again in פרק י״ז tying together how the גלגלים, how the מזלות work with the first two chapters as well. But briefly, the way that the Rambam expresses how we perceive and understand the גלגלים, again we're not going to get involved for our purposes in the in how this relates to our current understanding of the מזלות, but פרק שלישי in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, the Rambam describes a system, if you would imagine like an onion, spheres, right, balls, one within the other, each one of those spheres containing a planet and stars of of that level.

Now from the inside looking out, since they're otherwise clear, it would look it would just look like a sky. There's multiple planets, if you will, but each one of those planets actually resides in another sphere, and each one of those spheres have movement. And there's eight of those spheres, each of which has its own planet, and those spheres are moving from west to east. Outside of those eight spheres, there is a ninth, which has actually no division, and none of the stars or anything like that in it. However, the ninth the ninth sphere, if you will, is actually revolving the entire ball, the entire onion, like we described, from east to west.

So if you would imagine if you have a airplane or a boat, something which is moving in one direction, people on the boat could be moving in the opposite direction. So the primary movement would be going from east to west, if that's the direction that the boat is going, and yet, vis-a-vis the relationship of the person to the boat, they are actually moving west to east. So what we have is a system where the overall movement is going in one direction, and yet the individual relationships and the tachlit is going to be from the point of view of the, you know, the micro, the smaller players in the system, if you will, and they are actually dictating the overall the overall dynamic.

So to give a slightly different mashal, mashal, which is not exactly like this, but just if you could picture a system of levers or a system of pulleys, you have the primary movement and strength applied in one direction, and yet the tachlit of what you're trying to do might be directionally different or might be moving at a totally separate pace. Therefore, as applies to our Torah over here, we have the primary movement, the giving from the wealthy man to the poor man, and yet the primary effect, the tachlit of what's actually happening, is the berachah and the benefit that the wealthy man is receiving as a consequence, as a result of having given, so that he's receiving from the poor man.

So the next time a person knocks on your door or asks you for a favor and it's inconvenient, you shouldn't be expecting him to say "Thank you" to you, you should be saying "Thank you" to him. You have received actually much more. So inside: "גם שמצינו גבי גלגלים", similar to the way that we find by the גלגלים, by these constellations, "שעיקר הליכתם ממערב למזרח", from our perspective, we're looking at the stars, the world is spinning very fast in one direction, but from our perspective we don't seem to be moving. So as we look up at the stars, we see them moving from west to east.

"וגלגל היומי", but the actual primary, the ninth sphere that's moving the entire system, that's moving, "מכריח אותם ממזרח למערב". So the גלגל היומי that's shifting the entire system is moving from east to west. And yet from the point of the perspective, what what's being achieved, what we are seeing is things that are moving from west to east. "זה הדבר מצינו גבי צדקה", similar we find by tzedakah: "מזרח, זה בחינת הנותן צדקה". Coming from the east, the primary movement appears to to be the act of the giving. "מזרח אביא זרעך", we see from the east, "I will bring your seed," and זרעך is a לשון of צדקה.

"בבחינת 'זרעו לכם לצדקה'", pasuk in Hoshea: to plant צדקה. So we see that the word מזרח is hinting, it's giving a remez to the giving of tzedakah. "ומערב", and coming from the west, "זה המקבץ הצדקה", is the עני who is receiving the tzedakah. "היינו העני, בבחינת 'וממערב אקבצך'", a pasuk in Yeshayahu: from the west, I will gather you. "וזה יותר ממה שבעל הבית עושה עם העני", even more than what's being achieved and accomplished from what the baal habayit gives the עני, that's a certain amount of money, "העני עושה עם בעל הבית". But actually, the עני is providing for the baal habayit.

The baal habayit reached his pocket and gave some money, but what he got was the six plus eleven, and we could even say if he attaches at the highest degree, the seven plus the twelve berachot that he receives and literally is is effecting input into the world. He's aligning himself with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Who achieved more, the עני or the baal habayit? The baal habayit gave a few dollars, that was that seemed to be the primary movement in this world, that was the pulley, that was the leverage, that's where it seems to be applying the movement, but in terms of what's being achieved, what comes into the system, much more than the baal habayit gives the עני, the baal habayit receives from the עני.

"כי עיקר התנועה ממערב למזרח", the primary movement that we see is actually from the west to the east, "היינו שעיקר העשיה העני עושה עם בעל הבית". From the point of view of the perspective, the relationship of the stars to the world, it's not the primary movement. The primary movement is east to west because the entire ball is being shifted east to west. But what what is being achieved by that movement? The relationship of how the stars that are moving from west to east relate to the world and how the constellations are going to influence the world.

So just to take a step back before we go to the third paragraph, we started off the Torah, actually the entrance point was through tzedakah. When we give tzedakah, we effect how much berachah comes into the world. Why? Because Hashem, the Ribono Shel Olam, set up a system of teva, set up a system of גלגלים, a a system of gears, so to speak, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, "עולם חסד יבנה", He is giving to the world. When we give tzedakah, that effects how Hakadosh Baruch Hu runs the world. What is the shleimut of that system? Not when we attach, I guess you could say, to the individual pipes, but when we attach to the source that is actually pumping the shefa into the world.

That is at the level of emunah. Now, to fully relate to emunah, it's not just the aspect of הנהגה that the Ribono Shel Olam is מנהיג the world, but it's that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, created the world for a tachlit, and we are in touch with that tachlit on שבת קודש, which means that to fully attach to hakadosh baruch hu at the source, so to speak, at the level of emunah, is where to tzedakah and Shabbos, where hakadosh baruch hu as the Creator and as the manhig of the world, come together. With this in mind, we've spoken before, חק הטוב להיטיב, הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world ultimately for our benefit, we can perhaps say what this Torah says by tzedakah, but we can say it even broader.

We find that when we give tzedakah, we're מוסר נפש, we engage in avodah, we think that we are giving something. However, by connecting with Torah and mitzvot, we are actually the ultimate beneficiary of our relationship with hakadosh baruch hu. Next paragraph, ג. So we we had started with paragraph ב saying the Gemara seems to talk about two aspects of berachah, being six berachot and 11 berachot. But when we look at the hanhagah of the world, the berachah that's coming into the world, we're missing two. It's not six and 11, but actually it's seven and 12, so that there's a total not of 17 berachot, but of 19 berachot.

So we accounted for one of them when we spoke about emunah, being the shleimut of the system, which isn't accounted for at the level of the individual pipes, the berachah coming into the system, but it's overall. A second aspect of that is going to be kedushah, is going to be brit. ודע שאין קיום אמונה אלא על ידי בחינת ברית. The the aspect of emunah it goes hand in hand and is actually sustained with the aspect of brit, of קדושה, בבחינת ובריתי נאמנת לו. It's a pasuk in Tehillim, and it associates the idea of brit and emunah.

וזהו שנאמר ברית בשבת. This is why the pasuk says brit connected with שבת, כמו שכתוב the beginning of the pasuk says ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת, כלל ישראל should guard שבת, לעשות את השבת לדורותם, and now here's where it enters in the text: ברית עולם. It is an everlasting bris. Again, bris is associated with ברית קודש, with kedushah. ביני ובין בני ישראל. So because Shabbos is a בחינה of emunah, in order to maintain and to sustain this emunah of Shabbos, it has to be a בחינה of bris, of a covenant between Klal Yisrael and הקדוש ברוך הוא.

וזה אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה, חוקות שמים וארץ לא שמתי. But for the aspect of bris, the laws, the חוקות שמים וארץ, which we are going to relate to as גלגלים, would not be in place, כי חוקות שמים וארץ, the גלגלים, the הנהגה of the world, היינו הגלגלים תלויים בברית. So what do we see? That through שמירת הברית, there is a kiyum of emunah, which we said is the perfection of Shabbos and tzedakah which come together. This is how we relate to הקדוש ברוך הוא at the source. And because these two things together, we said, is the perfection, the שלמות of tzedakah which ultimately guides the גלגלים, it comes out that besides that emunah is at the source and responsible for the perfection of how brachah comes into the world, ברית קודש also is at the source of what is responsible for הקדוש ברוך הוא's הנהגה with the world.

Now I'm just going to offer a couple of thoughts and perhaps we'll keep them in the back of our mind to see how they develop. The We put an extreme amount of stress on the idea of kedushah throughout a lot of these Toros, but in the context of our Torah, we had said, why is the שלמות of tzedakah, why is the שלמות of brachah in the world at the level of emunah? Because there's a certain שלמות that it defines the purpose, it defines the תכלית of the entire system itself. That we made sense with emunah, where הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world, he's outside the system, he created the system for a purpose.

That purpose itself comes to comes to provide the entire basis on which the world exists, and that filters through to הקדוש ברוך הוא's הנהגה. How does kedushah represent this? So perhaps we can say, what we quoted earlier, המבדיל בין קודש לחול, right, בין אור לחושך, בין יום השביעי, בין ישראל לעמים, בין יום השביעי לששת ימי המעשה. We we have in the list of things where there's a havdalah, we have kodesh and chol, okay, Yisrael and עמים, the six days and the seventh day. What's the nature of a havdalah? So the I was listening to a shiur the other day, but I hope I'm presenting it right.

I won't even quote it in case I'm I'm saying it slightly off. You don't have to make a havdalah between two things that are totally different from each other. There's no reason to make a havdalah between a car and food, let's say. They're they're not they're not the same thing at all. Where do you where do you make a havdalah? When there seems to be a continuity, there seems to be a a series of things, and you come to distinguish that, no, these two things are actually not part of the same set. There seems to be a series of days, day one into day two, to day three, right, it's going forward, but you make havdalah between the six days and the seventh day.

The seventh day is not just another day in the series, it's totally separate. There's people in the world, right, Adam Harishon was not Jewish, he represented humanity. Later on, the Ramchal discusses by Avraham Avinu how the Jewish nation came to be And ultimately by Har Sinai. But at first there were people, and then it seems to be that all people look the same, and then there's a הבדלה, בין ישראל לעמים. Between kedushah and chol, if we think about the two most physical activities at the level of animal, right, at the level of physical beings, perhaps we could say, right, there's eating.

There's a lot of focus on kedushah of eating. By the way, Shabbos also has shalosh seudot, we make kiddush, there's a lot of things that are that are food-related. But leaving that aside for a second, it would be פרו ורבו, the very first the very first mitzvah in the Torah, and the the world is made for for ישוב, it comes up in the Gemara, it's the most basic function of humanity is to populate the world. Where is the line between where a person is engaging in purpose and where we're procreating the world because we're physical beings?

The the havdalah between those things is that aspect of kedushah. So at the most fundamental level of where do we rise above בין ישראל לעמים, where do we rise above between people and animals, between Klal Yisrael and between the rest of the nations, where our most basic functions are no longer part of the fact that we are of the world, but rather we rise above? Kedushah makes it that we are abstracting away from just the the physical functionality, and we actually have a spiritual purpose that drives the entire system, which I think is in line with the Torah.

So we have Shabbos and tzedakah where we relate to emunah, we relate to the purpose of the world, and then we relate to kedushah, where that takes the the most basic physical functionality and we say, "No, we don't relate to it as just process or, you know, let alone for for physical pleasure and so on, but we relate to that relationship, איש and אשה, that הקדוש ברוך הוא ביניהם, we build a בית נאמן בישראל, we relate to that act itself as as kedushah, as represented by brit." We'll let that sit for a while, and now we're going to see paragraph ד, which is going to connect the idea of brit with the idea of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's הנהגה with the world.

ודע שהיסורים, paragraph ד, שהיסורים שיש לאדם בדרכים, a person is going on the way, he's going on his journey, and he experiences certain hardship, היא בסבת גלגלי הרקיע, that is caused by the system of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's הנהגה with the world. It's caused by the system of גלגלים. Now, as a very practical example, and this is not the full scope of what he's speaking about, the stars and so on affect very directly many things in the world that we do see: the way that the sun shines that can affect the weather, the sunlight affects the plants, the sunlight can affect a person's mood, the moon can affect the tide, a lot of other things are affected.

So if for the sun and the moon applies this way, and these are things that we do experience, the other stars can certainly have an effect whether or not we we directly know how they impact the world. כי אין לך דבר מלמטה שאין לו כוכב מלמעלה. This system of הנהגה, its flow, mazalot, we said נוזל, it flows, when when Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends shefa to the world through the system, the cause and effect, the process, so we experience the consequences in this world, but that is caused by the כוכב, so to speak, by the spiritual energy that's coming in from on top.

יש כוכבים שהם מגדלים מיני עשבים במקום שהם מאירים. There are certain again, let's say the sun, certain planets, the כוכבים, whatever it is, that impact how things grow. ויש מהם מחייבים שיהיה דרך בני אדם במקום שהם מאירים. There are things that will cause that there could be certain places where there is a path. ויש שהם מחייבים שיהיו מדבר. Sometimes the way that the stars are in that place will cause that there's no growth, that it's a מדבר. ויש שהם מחייבים שיהיה ישוב במקומות שהם מאירים. Now, I'm not sure if the reason that he's saying this is because it impacts the environment and the growth, which makes it, you know, habitable in a certain way, so other place other some places will be suitable for living and some places won't, or he's saying kind of in a more spiritual way that this is a place where people will want to live.

But איך שיהיה, this is impacted by the כוכבים. ולפי התנוצצות הכוכבים על המקום, כן המקום מתנהג. The way that the mazalot are shining, that is how the world the the world operates. I mean it's probably true in both ways, but I'm not sure the, you know, specifically what he's referring to, maybe both. וזהו בחינת דרכי ציון אבלות, the ways of Tzion are in mourning, מבלי באי מועד, because nobody is coming to the Beit HaMikdash for Yom Tov, it's a pasuk in Eichah, but the way that we're interpreting it is that the ways of Tzion are in mourning, a person encounters hardships when he's journeying, the דרכי is אבלות, they're encountering hardships, why?

Because מבלי באי מועד, nobody is coming at the appointed time, because the mazalot are improperly guided and they're not able to guide a person along his journey. So because the mazalot are not in sync, then that is going to cause hardship along the way. מועד, זה בחינת גלגלי הרקיע, שעל ידם נחשב הזמן. The מועד, the appointed times, that is the system of the כוכבים and the מזלות, and when those are not are not in sync, so to speak, or they're not in a way that will cause berachah, that could chas veshalom cause that there could be yisurim along the way.

Now, what causes the mazalot not to be giving off bracha? Chas v'shalom, rachmana litzlan, חטא. And we're going to say שמירת הברית. V'zehu, pasuk in Mishlei: דרך רשעים, one who's not shomer the ברית, כאפלה, it's in darkness, it lacks דעת, לא ידעו במה יכשלו, and they don't know why they stumble. שאין כוכבים ומזלות מאירים להם, because of their sins, because they're pogem in the ברית חז״ל say, then the stars and the mazalot are not shining for them. ועל ידי זה נכשלים, and that's why they're nichshal, that's why yissurim come. והכל תלוי בברית, בבחינת אם לא בריתי, right?

That we said that but for the ברית, יום ולילה חקות שמים וארץ לא שמתי. But for the brit, all of the חקות שמים וארץ, the galgalim would not be in place, and that's why chas v'shalom there's yissurim. So now we related tzedakah, and tzedakah in its perfection at the level of emunah associated with Shabbos, as well as ברית קודש with the galgalim, with the הנהגה of the world. וזהו כל הדרכים בחזקת סכנה. This is a Chazal that all of the ways are בחזקת danger, בבחינת ההסכן הסכנתי. It's a pasuk by Bilaam when when he's having the conversation with the donkey, but Chazal tell us that there was inappropriate kedushah behavior that went on between Bilaam and the donkey, and therefore the language that the donkey uses to Bilaam is ההסכן הסכנתי, "Have I ever endangered you?" But it's a lashon of sakanah, it's lashon of סוכנת, that's where Chazal learn these issues of אישות between them, היינו שהדרך תלוי בשמירת הברית.

This idea of endangerment on the דרך is associated with these עריות issues, קדושה issues associated with שמירת הברית. ובשביל זה, and therefore the Gemara tells us, חייב אדם לפקוד את אשתו קודם שיצא לדרך. If a person is going to go on the road, he should make sure that he's going to be safe from שמירת הברית issues, and therefore he should be with his wife בקדושה before he goes on the דרך, כדי שלא יהיה בבחינת כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו, that he shouldn't be נכשל in the חטא of זרע לבטלה, חטא of פגם ברית, and therefore he should be with his wife before he goes on the road, היינו שעל ידי שמירת הברית לא יהיה לו צער בדרך.

If a person engages in קדושה in the right way, and ultimately he is safe, and he tries to build a שמירה against ברית issues in the wrong way, so this will also act as a שמירה from צער on the way. Okay, we're going to stop over here. We'll continue next time with paragraph ה, but just in one line, essentially we've seen that we can relate to Hakadosh Baruch Hu at the source through אמונה, as represented by Hakadosh Baruch Hu's creation and הנהגה of the world, Shabbos and צדקה, and through קדושה, through שמירת הברית ענינים, and that will directly impact how ברכה is brought into the world, of which we are the direct, the beneficiary. Okay, Be'ezrat Hashem next time.