Transcript
The Gemara in Sanhedrin discusses the idea of a din merumeh, which is a case where there's some kind of deception involved. The dayan is told midavar sheker tirchak, keep away from a false matter. If you come to a posek with a shaila and you're not telling the whole truth, you're essentially creating a din merumeh. The psak halakha you receive is based on a lie, and therefore it's not a real psak. The Sefer Chassidim says very clearly ואל תכסה ממנו דבר, don't hide anything from the posek. Because you want the emes of the Torah to be applied to your life, and that can only happen if you provide the emes yourself. If the shaila is false, the psak is false. We have to be meticulous and realize that the rav is there to help us find the ratzon Hashem. Deceiving the rav is like deceiving hakadosh baruch hu. Today we are learning Mishnah Aleph of Perek Vav in Maseches Bava Kamma. Hamishale'ach es hab'erah. He who sends a fire beyad by the hand of something like that. Let's read the Mishnah. השולח את הבערה ביד חרש שוטה וקטן פטור מדיני אדם וחייב בדיני שמים. Sent the fire with a cheresh, a deaf-mute, shoteh, an imbecile, or a katan, a minor, he is patur midinei adam, exempt from human court, but chayav bidinei shamayim, liable in the eyes of heaven. But if he sent it beyad pike'ach, with a person of sound mind, then the pike'ach is chayav. The Gemara says, tano rabanan. The sages taught: if one brings a fire, another brings wood, another brings the coal, and another comes and blows it, all are exempt except for the one who blew it. Wait, there's another case. המביא את האש והמביא את העצים והמביא את הליבה. This is a machlokes in the Gemara. Rabbi Yochanan says one thing and Resh Lakish says another. In the case of shaliach, there is a principle אין שליח לדבר עבירה. There is no agent for a sinful act. If a person tells someone to do something wrong, the person who does it is responsible. Unless it is a case of me'ilah or sheliach yad or tivcha u'michira. But here, because it's a cheresh shoteh v'katan, they don't have da'as. Because they lack da'as, the one who sent them is liable dinei shamayim. However, midinei adam he is patur because he didn't do the physical act of lighting the fire himself. We'll see how the Gemara explains the specific requirements for a ben sorer umoreh to be liable. The Mishnah says מאימתי הוא נעשה בן סורר ומורה? From when is he made a ben sorer umoreh? From the time he brings two hairs until he grows a beard. Not a beard on his face, but the Chachamim spoke in a lashon nekiah. It's the lower beard. The Torah says כי יהיה לאיש בן. A ben and not an ish. A minor is also exempt because he's not yet obligated in mitzvos. So the period of time for a ben sorer umoreh is only about three months. The Gemara asks mena hani milei? From where do we know this? Rav Yehudah says in the name of Rav, the pasuk says כי יהיה לאיש בן. A ben and not an ish. Once he has the signs of maturity, he is an ish. This shows that the din of ben sorer umoreh is a very narrow law. It's a chiddush. We are done with the introduction, now let's look at the Gemara inside. The Gemara says אמר רב יהודה אמר רב. No, let's start from the Mishnah on דף עין עמוד בית. Ben sorer umoreh, מאימתי הוא נעשה בן סורר ומורה? The Gemara there brings a Machlokes between Rebbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish. One says אחר דבריו של שטן, after the words of the Satan. And one says אחר דבריו של ישמעאל. The Gemara goes on to explain that the Satan came to the Ribono Shel Olam and he said, \"You gave Avraham Avinu a son at a hundred years old and he made a big Seudah, and he didn't even bring one Korban to you! He didn't even bring one Ayil or one Tor as a Korban!\" And the Ribono Shel Olam says to the Satan, \"Do you think he did all this for himself? If I would tell him to bring his own son as a Korban, he would do it!\" So immediately והאלוקים נסה את אברהם. The source for the Chafetz Chaim's rule that truth is also lashon hara is from a Gemara in Masechet Arachim. The Gemara there says on the posuk in Parshat Noach. The Gemara says over there on the posuk in the parsha of the mabul: מן הבהמה הטהורה ומן הבהמה אשר איננה טהורה. Instead of saying temeiah for non-pure animals, the Torah says those which are not pure. The Gemara comments: לעולם אל יוציא אדם דבר מגונה מפיו. A person should never let an indecent word escape from their mouth. For the Torah adds eight extra letters in this posuk just to avoid saying the word temeiah. If even an indecent word that is true should be avoided, how much more so should lashon hara, which is meant to disparage, be avoided even if it is true. Welcome back to the Parsha Podcast. We are in Parshat Kedoshim. Let's look at a Rashi. Rashi asks, מפני מה נאמרה פרשה זו בהקהל? Why was this parsha said in a gathering of all the people? And Rashi answers, מפני שרוב גופי תורה תלוין בה. Because most of the essential bodies of the Torah, most of the essential laws of the Torah, are dependent on it. The Gemara in Masechet Brachot tells us a similar idea. When we talk about the Mitsvah of Kiddush Hashem, we see that it's central to our lives. After all, Kedoshim tihyu is the command to be holy. How do we achieve this? It starts with the way we treat one another. לפני עיוור לא תיתן מכשול. Do not place a stumbling block before a blind man. This isn't just about physical blindness, but about not misleading someone or causing them to stumble in their spiritual or personal life. And of course, the most famous line in this parsha, maybe in the whole Torah: V'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha. Love your fellow as yourself. Rabbi Akiva said, זה כלל גדול בתורה. This is a great principle in the Torah. So we have to ask ourselves: how are we living up to these standards? Are we really striving to be kedoshim? Are we being careful with lifnei iver? Are we working on v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha? This is the challenge of the week. Well wait a minute. You have to also understand how much did you actually commit yourself? If you were just thinking about it, maybe you haven't really done it yet. You know, there's a word, there's a certain concept called da'as. Right? In Hebrew it's called da'as. You have to have a certain amount of da'as and then you have to be able to follow through with the ma'aseh. You have to do it with your hands. Not just with your head. But if you have the kavanah and you don't do the ma'aseh, it's not the same. You know, the sefarim talk about this a lot. The sefarim hakedoshim. They say that you have to be meurav im habriyos. So you have to be involved. You have to do things. You can't just be a person who thinks about it. Now, the Gemara says in Masechet Kiddushin, I believe it's daf mem, it says over there מחשבה טובה הקדוש ברוך הוא מצרפה למעשה. That if you have a good thought, then it's as if you actually did the action. But wait a minute. Does that mean that you don't have to do the action? No! Of course you have to do the action! But it says מחשבה רעה אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מצרפה למעשה. Meaning, if you have a bad thought, but you don't do it, then Hashem doesn't count it against you as if you did it. Because Hashem knows that we are only human. And we have yetzer hara. And we have ta'avos. And sometimes we think about doing something wrong, but then we catch ourselves. We say, wait, what am I doing? And we don't do it. So Hashem says, I'm not going to count that against you. But if you think about doing something good, and then for some reason you were anuss, you weren't able to do it, then Hashem says, okay, I'll count it as if you did it. But that's only if you really wanted to do it. If you were just pretending, or if you weren't really serious, then it's not the same. You have to have the ratzon. You have to have the pnimiyus. You have to really want to do the mitzvah. And if you really want to do it, then Hashem will help you. He'll give you the koach. He'll give you the siyata d'shmaya. To be able to actually do the ma'aseh. Because at the end of the day, we're in a world of assiyah. This is Olam Ha'assiyah. And we have to do. We can't just be cholem. We can't just be dreaming. We have to be active. We have to be osekim b'tzorchei tzibur. We have to be involved with the community. We have to help people. We have to do chessed. And all of these things require action. They require us to get up and go. Not just to sit and think. So even though thought is important, and even though the machshavah is the neshamah of the mitzvah, still, you need the guf. You need the physical action. And that's why we have so many mitzvos ma'asiyos. Most of the taryag mitzvos are things that you actually have to do. You have to put on tefillin. You have to shake a lulav. You have to eat matzah. These are all physical actions. Because the goal is to bring the kedushah into the physical world. To make this world a dirah betachtonim. A place where Hashem can dwell. And you can't do that with just thoughts. You have to use physical objects. You have to use your physical body. And that's the whole point of why we're here. To elevate the gashmiyus. To turn the gashmiyus into ruchniyus. And that can only happen through the ma'aseh. So while the machshavah is the key, and it's the start, and it's the soul, the body is the action. And you need both. You need the shleimus of both machshavah and ma'aseh. Only then can you truly accomplish what you're supposed to accomplish in this world. And that's what the tzedaka and the chessed is all about. It's about taking our thoughts of wanting to help, and turning them into real, tangible help for another person. And when we do that, we are fulfilling our purpose. We are making the world a better place. And we are bringing Mashiach closer. Every single mitzvah that we do, every ma'aseh tov, brings more light into the world. And eventually, all that light will gather together and the geulah will come. B'mheirah b'yameinu. Amen. We learned in Masechet Gittin that המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה. This is a klal gadol in Choshen Mishpat. If a person wants to take money from his friend, he has to bring proof. Rashi explains that this is because we have a chazakah that the money currently belongs to the person who has it. This teaches us that המוציא מחברו עליו הראיה is not just a legal rule, but it is a fundamental principle of yosher and tzedek. The second perek of masechet Bava Metzia begins with the mishnah of eilu metziot. The mishnah tells us אלו מציאות שלו ואלו חייב להכריז. These are the items that a person finds that they're allowed to keep, and these are the items that they must announce. The mishnah then lists peirot mefuzarin, ma'ot mefuzarin, kerichot birshut harabim, igulim shel devailah, kikrot shel nehtom, machrozot shel dagim, hatichot shel basar, וגיזי צאן הבאות ממדינתן, anifot shel pishtan, veleshonot shel argaman, harei eilu shelo, divrei rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yehuda omer, כל שיש בו שינוי חייב להכריז. Keitzad? מצא עיגול ובתוכו חרס, kikar uvethocho ma'ot. רבי שמעון בן אלעזר אומר כל כלי אנפוריא אין חייב להכריז. Welcome everybody to Headlines Shiur. Today we're going to be talking about a very interesting Sugya. We're going to be talking about the Issur of Lo Sachmod. We know it's in the Aseres Hadibros. But the Gemara says in Bava Metzia לא תחמד בדמים לא עבר עליו עד שיעשה מעשה. What does this mean? It means even if you pay for it, if you pressure the person to sell it, you have already violated the Issur. Let's look at the Rambam. The Rambam says in Perek Vav of Hilchos Gezeila Va'aveida: כל החומד עבדו או אמתו או ביתו וכליו של חברו או כל דבר שאפשר לו שיקנהו ממנו והכביד עליו ברעים והפציר בו עד שלקחו ממנו אף על פי שנתן לו דמים רבים הרי זה עובר בלא תעשה שנאמר לא תחמוד. There is a specific Issur. You can't pressure someone to sell something. How do we define this? What about a business deal? Is every single business transaction where one person is more aggressive than the other a violation of Lo Sachmod? If you walk into a store and you say, listen, I really want to buy this car, and the guy says, it's not for sale, and you keep on asking him and asking him, and finally he says, fine, I'll sell it to you for fifty thousand dollars, even though it's worth forty thousand dollars. Have you violated the Issur? The Gemara in Bava Metziah says explicitly: Lo Sachmod Bidamim. It's talking about a case where you pay for it. So even if you're paying the full price, or even more than the price, if you pressure the guy to sell it, it's a Lav of Lo Sachmod. But there is a very important Chiddush here. The Rambam says Vahichbid Alav Bere'im. He pressured him with friends. He brought in people to talk to him. He made him feel uncomfortable. This is the definition of Lo Sachmod. It's not just a simple negotiation. It's a level of pressure that goes beyond the normal Derech Ha'olam. Hi everybody, this is a shiur and we're learning the second parsha of the Torah, Parshas Noach. The beginning of the parsha says, Eleh toldos Noach, נח איש צדיק תמים היה בדורותיו. The midrash asks, why does it repeat the word Noach, Noach? And the midrash gives several answers. One answer is, שמו נאה ומעשיו נעימים, his name is beautiful and his deeds are pleasant. Another answer is, נח לעליונים נח לתחתונים, he was pleasant to the ones above, to God, and he was pleasant to the people below. And we see that Noach was a tzaddik. He lived in a world that was full of chamas, and Rashi explains that chamas is gezel. The world was destroyed because of theft. Noach found chein in the eyes of Hashem. ונח מצא חן בעיני ה׳. This is a very important lesson for us. Even if the generation is corrupt, a person can still be a tzaddik and find favor in the eyes of the Ribbono Shel Olam. Thank you for listening.
