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Shiurim by Rabbi Shlomo Friedman in KBY.
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Good morning,
רבותי.
The רמב"ן has a הקדמה to his פירוש,
which is interesting.
He also has a some sort of הקדמה to the הקדמה.
Both of those we're going to skip now,
amongst other reasons,
the fact that there's a good amount of רמב"ן on the פרשה.
And,
of course,
we're not going to cover all that רמב"ן,
but I do want to give ourselves a fair chance to be able to
see some of the significant רמב"ןs on the פרשה,
so we'll start with that.
Okay,
on page ט of the standard printing,
בראשית ברא אלקים,
so the רמב"ן quotes רש"י who quotes this רבי יצחק that
raises the question of why the תורה begins from בראשית and not from החודש
הזה לכם ראש חודשים.
And רש"י gives the answer that כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו.
We need to know that God created the world to be able to know
that if God decides to give to us,
then we have rights to the world.
The רמב"ן points out that רבי יצחק's question is a bit of an odd
question.
After all,
certainly it's very important for us to know that God created the world.
A person that doesn't have that belief is considered to be a כופר.
So the question is somewhat odd.
The רמב"ן says that he thinks that the question is the following:
certainly,
רבי יצחק is not asking why the תורה needs to tell us that God
created the world.
That's clear,
the תורה needs to tell us that,
but for that,
the תורה didn't need to give us all of ספר בראשית.
After all,
in עשרת הדברות the תורה tells us,
כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ואת הארץ וכולי.
So רבי יצחק's question is not on why הקדוש ברוך הוא bothered to tell
us that He created the world,
but why the תורה needed to go to such great lengths to tell us
all the stories in ספר בראשית,
including the story of the details of creation,
the story of גן עדן,
the story of the דור הפלגה,
none of which we fully understand.
So,
says the רמב"ן,
that that's what רבי יצחק was bothered by.
Okay,
once you explain the question,
you have to figure out what exactly is the answer.
So,
says the רמב"ן,
that the answer of כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו וכולי is telling us the following
יסוד:
that הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world and gave various individuals or various groups
certain gifts,
and if those individuals are worthy of those gifts,
then they're able to keep them.
But if a person is given something amazing,
is given a special gift,
and he doesn't appreciate it,
doesn't act in accordance with expectations,
then quite possibly he might lose it.
And hence the תורה tells us the story of the creation of this amazing
world,
and גן עדן,
a wonderful place,
but אדם הראשון and חוה were not worthy of staying there in light of
their sin,
and therefore they were chased out of גן עדן.
And כנען was given some sort of a hold on ארץ כנען,
but when he sinned,
he was not worthy and was eventually evicted.
The דור הפלגה were given great bounty,
but nevertheless,
due to their sins,
they were dispersed.
The דור המבול as well was severely punished due to their sins.
So,
that's the יסוד of כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו,
that הקדוש ברוך הוא then gave us this land for a specific purpose,
for us to keep the מצות.
And חס ושלום,
if we don't,
then then we might be evicted from here.
Parenthetically,
my father,
עליו השלום,
pointed out that we find in ספר בראשית the fact that you have many
בכורות that sort of lose their status of a בכור.
There are at least some like five examples of that if you think about
it.
And that is something which is very fitting to the whole message of ספר
בראשית.
After all,
ספר בראשית is about,
you know,
use it or lose it,
use it properly.
That makes sense,
you know,
that's something that fits in the whole message of ספר בראשית according to the
way the רמב"ן understands it.
So let's take a look at the some of the רמב"ן inside.
He says,
all right,
let's take a look four lines from the bottom of page ט'.
ונתן רבי יצחק טעם לזה כי התחילה התורה בבראשית ברא אלקים וסיפור כל עניין
היצירה כי הכל שלו ומעשה ידיו הם שלו,
מלשון מושל,
וחשש תחת ידו,
גן עדן שהוא מבחר המקומות שנבראו בעולם הזה,
the most special place,
ונעשה מקום לשבתו עד שגרשו חטאו משם ואנשי דור המבול בחטאם גורשו מן העולם
כולו והצדיק בהם לבדו נמלט הוא ובניו,
נח,
of course,
וזרע חם חטאו גרם להם...
וכולי ואם כן ראוי הוא,
on line 3,
שכאשר יוסיף הגוי לחטוא שיאבד ממקומו ויבוא גוי אחר לרשת את ארצו.
If a nation was given a special land and they sin,
then it is understandable they will be chased out of that land and some
other nation will be given it.
כי כן משפט האלקים בארץ מעולם וכל שכן אם העם מסופר בכתוב כי כנען
מקולל ומנוכר לעבד עולם ואינו ראוי שיירש מבחר המקומות הנושבות אבל ירשוהו עבדי ה'
זרע אוהבו כעניין שנאמר ויתן להם ארצות גוים ועמל לאומים יירשו בעבור ישמרו חקיו
ותורותיו ינצורו.
Much of the message of this מדרש quoted by רבי יצחק is that if
we act properly in ארץ ישראל,
then we'll have a strong hold on the land.
If,
חס ושלום,
we sin,
then we might lose it.
כלומר שגירש משם מורדיו,
הקדוש ברוך הוא chased out of this land those that rebelled against Him,
והשכין בו עבדיו שידעו כי בעבודתו ינחלוה.
We inherit the land based on our עבודת ה' in this land.
ואם יחטאו לו,
if we sin,
תקיא הארץ אותם,
the land will vomit us so to speak,
כאשר קאה את הגוי אשר לפניהם.
Okay,
skipping to the רמב"ן at the end of this piece on page י',
I won't read this inside,
discusses the מדרש that רש"י mentions,
בראשית בשביל ישראל שנקראו ראשית,
and רש"י mentions a whole bunch of things that are called ראשית.
So the רמב"ן says that this is kabbalistic,
and the רמב"ן in his introduction points out that those parts that are kabbalistic,
one should not try to understand if he's not a מקובל,
and we're going to be skipping those parts.
He does point out,
though,
that he points out in that light that I don't want to discuss this
מדרש at great length,
although he did discuss it briefly.
He says that I don't want to discuss it at length because people will
think they understand it and they'll come up with some mistaken ideas.
Therefore,
he says,
I wanted to tell you something about it so you shouldn't think that it's
nonsense,
חס ושלום,
but realize that it's kabbalistic.
Okay.
The רמב"ן on page י"ב explains what the פסוק mean when it says בראשית
ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ.
רש"י says בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ means in the beginning of
the creation of the שמים וארץ,
then the ארץ was תהו ובהו.
But the רמב"ן understands that when the פסוק says בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים
ואת הארץ,
that means like we probably understood it in first grade,
that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Just the רמב"ן says,
well,
it doesn't mean that God created all the heavens and all of the earth,
but rather what it means is the following.
Ramban says the word ברא has a connotation of creating יש מאין.
We understand that God,
הקדוש ברוך הוא,
created the world out of utter nothingness,
but it wasn't done in one step.
Rather,
the first step was for הקדוש ברוך הוא to create some very fine some
very fine matter which apparently the Greeks refer to as a hyle,
which didn't have any physical really physical didn't have full physical characteristics,
something which is not so definable,
and therefore it's known as תהו.
What does it mean בן אדם שתוהה?
That wonders.
It's something which it's hard to define.
The רמב״ן says there was some תוהו that was meant to eventually become the
שמים,
and some תוהו that was eventually meant to become the ארץ.
So that those are the only two things which הקדוש ברוך הוא created יש
מאין.
And from that תוהו,
הקדוש ברוך הוא then went ahead and created the rest of the שמים,
went ahead and created the rest of the ארץ.
In continuation,
he indicates that that place which was the beginning creation of the ארץ,
that sometimes we refer to as the אבן השתייה,
the מקום המקדש,
from which everything else was emanated and developed.
ועתה שמע,
line five on page י״ב,
ועתה שמע פירוש המקרא על פשוטו,
נכון וברור.
הקדוש ברוך הוא ברא כל הנבראים מאפיסה מוחלטת,
from utter nothingness.
We reject the approach that says that the world always existed,
and some matter which always existed.
הקדוש ברוך הוא created everything from utter nothingness.
ואין אצלנו בלשון הקודש בהוצאת יש מאין אלא לשון ברא.
Bara is connotation of creating something from nothing.
ואין כל הנעשה תחת השמש של מטה הווה מן האין התחלה ראשונה.
And in this world from then on,
nothing comes about יש מאין.
אבל הוציא מן האפס הגמור המוחלט.
So originally at creation,
God brought out of utter nothingness יסוד דק מאוד,
some very fine foundation,
אין בו ממש,
והוא כח ממציא,
it has the ability to generate other things,
מוכן לקבל הצורה,
להוציא מן הכח אל הפועל,
והוא החומר הראשון נקרא ליונים היולי,
ואחר ההיולי לא ברא דבר,
rather יצר ועשה כי ממנו הוציא הכל והלביש הצורות ותיקן אותם.
And he says that the שמים and everything in the שמים is one one
type of היולי,
and the ארץ is some other.
Okay,
and then from that he created בוהו,
some sort of form בוהו,
that there's something there,
there's something physical.
Okay,
so skipping to on page י״ג,
five lines from the bottom,
six lines from the bottom,
אם כן יהיה פשט הכתובים על נכון משמעו,
שבתחילה ברא אלוקים את השמים כי הוציא חומר שלהם מאין,
the material of which later became the שמים,
הקדוש ברוך הוא created from utter nothingness,
ואת הארץ שהוציא חומר שלה מאין.
Okay,
skipping to רמב״ן at the very end of page ט״ו
takes the position which some,
some modern scholars argue with,
maybe there's also older earlier sources,
ותדע כי הימים,
turning the page,
הנזכרים במעשה בראשית היו בבריאת השמים והארץ ימים ממש.
רמב״ן takes the position that the days of creation were 24 hours,
מחוברים משעות ורגעים.
Somebody said that even the רמב״ן could be reinterpreted,
but the simple reading of the רמב״ן is that the days were days of
24 hours rather than lengthy periods.
Then the רמב״ן פסוק ד׳
points out,
this is something which many ספרים indicate,
that in contrast to that which man manufactures,
a person builds a house,
so the fact that something happens to the builder subsequent to the building of
the house,
that obviously doesn't impact what happens to the house.
There's no need for any input on the part of the builder once he
finishes building the house.
On the other hand,
with respect to our world,
then in light of the fact that the world was created יש מאין,
then there's a need for God to continue to supply the juice,
to supply the electricity,
the energy for our world to exist.
Otherwise,
would revert back to יש מאין.
Take a look,
last word on the line,
six lines from the bottom on page ט״ז,
והענין להורות כי עמידתם,
existence of the worlds,
בחפצו,
God's will,
ואם החפץ יפרד רגע מהם,
יהיו לאין.
And if God's חפץ separates from the world,
then they will revert back to nothingness.
This is also something discussed a bit by נפש החיים in the beginning of
his ספר.
Okay.
The רמב״ן on page י״ז discusses,
he raises some problems.
It's not in entirely clear what that problem is,
but he seems to be,
perhaps he's addressing the following issue.
The פסוק says,
ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר יום אחד.
So,
in light of the fact that darkness seems to be just the absence of
light,
and light was only created in the morning,
after 12 hours,
so what started the clock?
What started the clock of ויהי ערב?
So,
the רמב״ן has a number of possibilities.
One possibility is that the concept of time,
although the concept of time doesn't exist when there is utter nothingness,
but once there is some matter in this world,
then already there is a concept of time,
and therefore,
once הקדוש ברוך הוא did begin creation with whatever היולי that we mentioned before,
then it is שייך to speak of the clock starting,
so to speak,
and thus we could say ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר.
Okay,
he also has other interpretations.
At the end of the page,
י״ז,
he points out the following:
why is ערב called ערב,
and why is בוקר called בוקר?
So,
what does the word ערב mean?
מעורבב,
mixed.
So at night things are mixed up because you can't see.
What does לבקר mean?
לבקר is to investigate.
So in the morning,
you're able to distinguish,
able to see things,
be able to understand things.
So,
says the רמב״ן,
three lines from bottom,
ויהי ערב ויהי בקר,
היה ערב והיה בקר של יום אחד,
יקרא תחלת הלילה ערב בעבור שיתערבבו הצורות,
תחלת היום בקר שיבקר האדם בינותם,
able to distinguish,
כפירוש רבי אברהם.
Okay.
At the end of פסוק ו׳,
he points out that to be able to understand the actual story of creation,
what הקדוש ברוך הוא created everyday,
that's something which is סתרי התורה,
and something we can't understand.
I think one of the,
some תשובות הגאונים,
that we don't understand exactly what's the מים מעל לרקיע and מים מתחת לרקיע.
There are many things in the story of creation which are not clear,
והוא הדין the story of גן עדן.
Okay,
skipping to at the end of page כ״א,
this is in פסוק י״א,
רמב״ן points out that the תורה speaks of the creation of fruit trees.
What about the creation of אילני סרק,
fruit trees that don't give fruit?
That we don't find any mention of that in the תורה.
So,
says רמב״ן,
he suggests that until the קללה that the land was cursed as result of
אדם הראשון׳s sin,
then,
quite possibly,
all trees bore fruit.
And in fact,
we're told at the time of the redemption,
then even the אילני סרק in ארץ ישראל will bear fruit.
So this is one example,
there is others,
at the time of the redemption,
we'll be reverting back to the world that was before the חטא of אדם
הראשון.
Okay,
skipping to page כ״ז,
פרק א׳,
פסוק כ״ו,
ויאמר אלהים נעשה אדם.
So,
this is already on יום ששי.
At the beginning of יום ששי,
it says,
תוצא הארץ נפש חיה,
and therefore you might have just expected the פסוק to say נעשה אדם.
Why does it say ויאמר אלהים נעשה אדם?
So says the רמב״ן,
נייחד בעשיית האדם מאמר,
the ויאמר אלהים,
בעבור גודל מעלתו,
כי אין טבעו כטבע החיה והבהמה שברא במאמר הקודם לו,
because the nature of man is different than the nature of animals.
והפשט הנכון במלת נעשה,
and why did it say נעשה?
So we remember רש״י.
רש״י says the לשון of נעשה is נעשה is speaking to the מלאכים.
The רמב״ן understands,
והפשט הנכון במלת נעשה מפני שכבר הראית לדעת כי האלהים ברא יש מאין ביום
הראשון לבדו,
ואחר כך מן היסודות ההם הנבראים יצר ועשה,
ואחר שנתן במים כח הש...
השריצות לשרוץ נפש חיה והיה מאמר בהם ישרצו המים והיה מאמר ב...
בהמה תוצא הארץ.
That is,
so the water somehow produced the fish,
the land somehow produced the animals.
So it says,
באדם נעשה,
כלומר אני והארץ הנזכרת נעשה אדם.
Creating man was a joint effort of God and the earth,
in the sense that man has two aspects:
man has a physical aspect and he has a spiritual aspect.
שתתוציא הארץ הגוף מיסודותיה כאשר עשתה בבהמה ובחיה כדכתיב וייצר ה' אלקים את האדם
עפר מן האדמה ויתן הוא יתברך,
הקדוש ברוך הוא,
הרוח מפי עליון כדכתיב ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים.
ואמר בצלמנו כדמותנו,
לשון רבים כי ידמה לשניהם במתכונת גופו לארץ אשר לוקח ממנה וידמה ברוח לעליונים
שאינו גוף ולא ימות.
The נשמה of man is eternal,
there's no reason why it should die.
The נשמה in a sense comes from הקדוש ברוך הוא,
and of course every person needs to decide what's going to be predominant.
Is he going to allow the physical to be predominant,
or will he see to it that the נשמה will take control?
ואמר בכתוב השני בצלם אלקים ברא אותו לספר הפלא אשר נפלא בו משאר המאמרים.
וזהו פשט המקרא מצאתיו לרבי יוסף קמחי,
I think is the father of the רד"ק,
והוא נראה מכל מה שחשבו בו.
Well,
it says all sorts of פשטים,
but I think this is the most correct פשט.
Okay,
skipping to פסוק כ"ט,
the רמב"ן indicates that,
we know that initially man and animals were meant to eat plants.
The רמב"ן,
if not here,
certainly the beginning of פרשת בחקתי indicates that all animals were herbivores before the
sin of אדם הראשון.
What that meant about their digestive system and their anatomy,
that I don't know,
but in any case,
he says that man was not allowed to eat meat,
because after all,
in a certain sense there's something shared in common by man and animal.
Although our נשמה,
as the רמב"ן discussed,
is certainly something greater than animals,
but there's some degree of intelligence by animals,
and therefore it was אסור for us to eat animals until after נח,
when humanity,
or the world,
was saved as a result of נח's righteousness,
and the animals were somehow involved in sin.
Then we were given the מעלה over animals to be able to eat them,
but even then,
we're not allowed to have אבר מן החי,
we're not allowed to have the דם,
because the דם is associated with the נפש.
We're not allowed to eat the animals,
to take meat from the animal when it's still alive,
until after the animal dies or is שחט.
Okay,
for גוים,
as long as it dies;
for Jews,
only after it's שחט.
So,
says the רמב"ן,
we'll pick it up from וכאשר חטאו,
halfway down page כ"ט,
first word on the line is ורוח,
כאשר חטאו והשחית כל בשר,
etc.
You know what?
We're not going to read it because we want to cover some additional important
רמב"ןs.
ויברך ויקדש,
so that God sanctified שבת,
not clear exactly in what sense.
רש"י says it's with respect to the מן,
talking about the future.
רב סעדיה גאון says that those that keep שבת are blessed.
אבן עזרא says that on,
that שבת there's some special כח in the גוף,
there's a נשמה.
But the רמב"ן gives some sort of kabbalistic explanation,
and he speaks about the fact that שבת is מעין הברכות,
the source of blessings.
There's some story with the חפץ חיים,
some fellow came to him for a blessing,
and somehow the חפץ חיים knew the fellow was מחלל שבת,
so he says that,
he says if שבת is a source of blessing,
with שבת,
those that keep שבת are blessed.
A person keeps שבת and he also wants ישראל מאיר to give him an
additional ברכה,
so why not?
A person doesn't keep שבת,
then ישראל מאיר's ברכה will not,
will not help him.
In any case,
the רמב"ן at the very end of page ל' points out פסוק says,
אשר ברא אלקים לעשות.
So לעשות is a connotation that הקדוש ברוך הוא created the six days,
created the world,
but that world is meant to,
those six days somehow impact the rest of history in the sense that every
one of the six days parallels another thousand years in in history.
There's a גמרא in ראש השנה which is generally speaking assumed to be correct,
although there might be some other opinions,
that the world,
the world,
as we know it,
will not go beyond 6,000 years and each day of the six days of
creation is כנגד a period of a thousand years.
So the first 2,000 years there was no תורה and there was only plant
life,
and thus also the first two days of creation there was no life till
there were some plants.
There was some development on the third day.
The רמב״ן then goes through each of the days and the history that corresponds
to that.
He says on the sixth day of creation,
what was created at the beginning of the sixth day?
The animals.
He says that the animals,
that the nations of the world,
they'll rule at the beginning of the sixth day.
Towards the end of the sixth day,
only when man is created,
that's when the redemption will take place.
Let's just take a look at a very brief section,
five lines from bottom on page ל״א.
He says,
והוא האלף הששי כי בתחלתו ימשלו בו החיות,
הם המלכיות אשר לא ידעו את ה׳,
ואחרי עשיריתו כשיעור הנץ החמה ביום,
או ליום,
יבוא הגואל.
Okay,
that doesn't seem to have happened yet,
but we're on the way,
perhaps שנאמר,
בוא כצאת השמש בגבורתו,
זה בן דוד,
נעשה בצלם אלקים,
וכולי.
Okay.
פסוק ז׳,
פרק ב׳,
פסוק ז׳.
פסוק says,
ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים.
Mentions ויצר ה׳
אלקים,
ויצר ה׳
אלקים,
uses the שם מלא.
And so says the רמב״ן,
we're on page ל״ג:
ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים,
ירמז לנו הכתוב הזה מעלת הנפש יסודה וסודה,
its foundation and its secret,
it's special message,
כי הזכיר בה שם מלא,
ויצר ה׳
אלקים.
ואמר כי הוא נפח באפיו נשמת חיים.
הקדוש ברוך הוא,
ה׳
אלקים,
נפח באפיו נשמת חיים להודיע כי לא באה מן היסודות.
It's not just,
man wasn't just created from the various יסודות which formed the creation of the
rest of the universe,
כשרמז בנפש חיה התנועה,
with the animals that just move around.
גם לא בהשתלשלות מן השכלים הנבדלים,
also not something which emanated from שכלים,
from מלאכים.
והיא רוח ה׳
הגדול,
מפיו דעת ותבונה,
כי הנופח באפי אחר מנשמתו יתן בו.
Expression which is commonly known from the זוהר:
מאן דנפח מדיליה נפח.
If a person breathes into a balloon,
breathe then it's from his breath.
So if God blew into man,
so to speak,
נשמת באפו,
then that means that there's some spark of God,
so to speak,
that's found within man.
It's obviously important for a person to know,
as Rav Kook writes in the הקדמה למוסר אביך,
that the ABC of עבודת ה׳
is to know the holiness and the importance of one's soul.
If one doesn't know that,
then it's hard for him to be a proper עובד ה׳.
Okay,
skipping to,
it says פסוק י״ז,
ב׳
י״ז,
that the day that you eat from the עץ הדעת,
then you will die.
So the רמב״ן,
doesn't mean that you'll die on that day,
it means that then you'll be חייב מיתה.
So,
after all,
אדם הראשון didn't die on that day.
Then the רמב״ן goes on to discussion as to whether had אדם הראשון not
eaten from the עץ הדעת,
would he live forever?
There are opinions in חז״ל that seem to indicate that yes,
although he does quote those that understand that being that man does have a
physical element,
then then it's sort of inevitable that a Eventually he would have died anyway.
Okay.
Skipping to על כן יעזב איש את אביו ואת אמו at the end of
page ל״ט,
רמב״ן understands unlike רש״י.
רש״י says והיו לבשר אחד means in the ולד.
רמב״ן says והיו לבשר אחד that man and wife see each other as,
a couple sees each other as one.
They have an interest in spending time together.
And he says in the last few words,
ויראה אשתו קרובה לו מהם,
the person sees his wife in a certain sense as being closer to him
than parents.
Famous story of Rav Aryeh Levin that when he went to the doctor with
his wife,
whose foot was hurting,
says that רגלה של אשתי כואבת לנו,
that my wife's foot hurts us.
Okay.
רמב״ן points out that חוה was under the impression in פרק ג׳
פסוק ו׳
that חוה׳s's mistaken impression was that the problem with the עץ הדעת was that
it was physically harmful,
and therefore when she saw that it looked so delicious,
figured something that looks so delicious can't be physically harmful,
and therefore she went about to eat the tree.
Okay,
פסוק י״ג,
חוה is asked,
מה זאת עשית,
and the פסוק doesn't say,
why'd you eat from the tree?
Because חוה was guilty not only of eating,
but also of convincing אדם to eat as well.
Okay,
skipping to page מ״ב,
ד׳:א׳.
So קין is given that name by his mother,
חוה:
קניתי איש את ה׳,
which רמב״ן,
in contrast to רש״י,
says the following,
two lines from bottom on page מ״ב:
והנכון בעיני שאמרה,
הבן הזה יהיה לי קנין לה׳,
כאשר נמות יהיה במקומנו לעבוד את בוראו.
So this רמב״ן,
according to רמב״ן,
then the story of קין is very tragic in the sense,
anyway it's tragic without the רמב״ן,
but רמב״ן makes it in the sense that חוה had high hopes for this
fellow,
קין.
After all,
she said at the time of his birth that she realized that they were
going to die,
and she says that he will be עובד ה׳
after us,
that's קניתי איש את ה׳.
He was worried about that.
I don't,
I remember how this works out with that,
mister.
Yeah,
some discussion at the bottom in the הערה about that.
Okay.
פסוק ג׳,
the רמב״ן points out that these people had,
knew that there's some great mystical significance to קרבנות.
חז״ל say that also אדם הראשון brought,
and this is,
will,
will stop the speech of those people that speak nonsense about קרבנות,
which presumably is referring to the,
maybe,
whatever he says in the bottom,
like referring to the רד״ק?
No,
no,
no,
I don't know who he's referring to.
Sounds like referring to רמב״ם,
but whatever,
מורה נבוכים,
but,
okay.
הלא אם תיטיב שאת,
you know what,
we're going to skip that.
Also an interesting רמב״ן.
גדול עוני מנשוא,
פסוק י״ג,
גדול עוני מנשוא,
so רש״י sounds like that קין is saying,
"Hey,
what you making such a big fuss about?
You're able to tolerate the the heavens and the earth,
so you know,
forget that I killed this guy." The רמב״ן says that this is some sort
of וידוי,
a וידוי that he says,
"I realize what I did is terrible.
It's not בענין גדול עוני מנשוא,
rather I realize that what I said is what I did is terrible,
but nevertheless,
one גוזר on me that I should die or גוזר גלות,
but if you don't give me special protection,
then I'm going to be,
then then then I'm going to die.
Animals are going to kill me." And furthermore,
he bemoans the fact that he'll never be able to truly feel a closeness
to God as result of his sin.
Okay.
Skipping to פסוק כ״ג,
we're we're in פרק ד׳
כ״ג on page מ״ו.
There's this whole dialogue between למך and his wives.
And the רמב״ן,
in very in contrast to רש״י,
has a totally different explanation.
He says what has gone over here is the following:
those guys of you that have come from USA know that there's a major
discussion about gun control,
right?
Some people say,
"Well,
hey,
how could we allow everybody to have guns?" You know,
but what do the those that are in favor of people being allowed to
have guns,
what's their טענה?
To defend themselves.
When need to be able to defend yourself,
or when guns are outlawed,
only outlaws will have guns.
And in fact,
that debate is a very old debate which goes back to למך and his
wives,
because after all,
למך is the father of those that developed נחשת ברזל,
developed weapons,
swords,
and his wives said that,
"You're bringing death to the world by teaching your kids that,
by helping your kids." And למך says,
"It's not that.
Guns don't kill,
it's the people that kill.
You could kill even without." So that was the dialogue over there,
which apparently has not been resolved,
at least as of as of yet.
Okay.
On פרק ה׳,
פסוק ד׳,
the רמב״ן discusses the length of the years,
how the fact that people lived such a great,
such a long time.
Apparently the the רמב״ם says something about that they the רמב״ם says something about
that that was these people,
בהנהגתו מזונו,
they ate healthy,
did exercise,
lived such a long time was על דרך נס.
But the רמב״ן doesn't agree with that.
Says,
"Why didn't other people also do that?" What might be the answer?
Other people,
they liked eating tasty food and they didn't like to do exercise.
But other people,
they they had junk food,
but whatever.
In any case,
the רמב״ן says that it was that being that they were very direct descendants
and close in time to אדם הראשון,
so being that אדם הראשון was created directly by הקדוש ברוך הוא,
so they also lived a long life.
Okay,
there's a discussion over here to what extent,
was it all the people in that generation or דוקא these?
The רמב״ן understands it was all the people,
the רמב״ם understands דוקא these.
Okay,
no more time for that.
Okay,
פסוק ג׳,
ו׳
ג׳,
it says,
לא ידון רוחי,
הקדוש ברוך הוא will not tolerate man,
בשגם הוא בשר.
So what's that פסוק mean?
So רש״י has some interpretations,
some interpretation,
but the רמב״ן says the פשט is the following:
that הקדוש ברוך הוא says that,
"I created man with a spiritual element and a physical element,
but I see that man is just following his physical element.
In which case,
there's nothing so holy about man,
and therefore,
also man..." הקדוש ברוך הוא says,
"You're not going to tolerate man if he continues to act in such a
physical fashion." Okay,
we will say,
to review some of the things which we've seen:
so,
the רמב״ן had a different twist on the question of רב יצחק.
The רמב״ן says that רב יצחק is not asking why God tells us,
why the תורה tells us about creation,
why God goes in great length to the stories in ספר בראשית.
And the answer which רב יצחק is giving is to teach us a lesson,
that if a person is given gifts and he doesn't live up to expectations,
then he then might lose those gifts.
Okay,
then the רמב״ן explained that בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ means that
הקדוש ברוך הוא created this היולי,
היולי,
which was the basis of שמים and some היולי was the basis of the
ארץ,
and from that היולי,
undefinable,
unquantifiable matter,
He created the rest of שמים,
the rest of ארץ.
Okay.
He says that בהו is something which has some sort of form,
and he says that as for the בהו of the ארץ,
that's the אבן השתיה.
He says that the days of creation were 24 hours.
He indicates that once there is a matter that was created,
the concept of time can exist.
He tells us what ערב means and what בוקר means.
The רמב״ן says that even עצי סרק bore fruit at the time of creation
until the חטא of אדם הראשון.
He says that נעשה אדם means God is speaking to the physical earth and
saying that "You and I will create man," in the sense that man has
a physical element and a spiritual element.
He pointed out that until the time of נח,
then man was not allowed to eat animals.
Elsewhere the רמב״ן says also animals weren't allowed to eat animals.
He says the word לעשות tells us that the days of creation,
in a certain sense,
were the basis of the rest of history,
with each one of the days of creation corresponding to another thousand years.
He tells us that the לשון of וייצר ה' אלקים speaks of the holiness
of man,
that he wasn't created just from the earth or from some emanation from מלאכים,
but rather הקדוש ברוך הוא בכבודו ובעצמו created man,
and thus man's soul is very holy.
He tells us that according to some,
אדם הראשון would have died eventually anyway,
but ביום אכלך ממנו תמות means that you'll be חייב מיתה and will die
earlier than would have otherwise.
והיו לבשר אחד means that man and wife see themselves as being very connected.
קין,
says the רמב״ן,
his mother thought that perhaps he would be able to worship God in their
stead when they die.
גדול עוני מנשוא is a form of וידוי rather than בתמיה.
למך's's dialogue with his wives is whether he bears any guilt for having taught
his kids about manufacture of weapons.
למך thought not,
his wives thought perhaps yes.
רמב״ן discussed the longevity of the people in the earlier generations of the history,
and בשגם בשר says הקדוש ברוך הוא won't tolerate man's behavior forever,
in light of the fact that man is totally following his physical rather than
spiritual aspect.
Have a wonderful שבת.
Have a good שבת.
Instead of ten of the earlier ראשונים,
so it's only the five ראשונים,
beginning of this זמן,
so I'm sure you guys had שיעור and also,
and a טיול,
but okay.
יישר כח.