אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
כ״ו חֶשְׁוָן תשפ״ז
The sugya is Sanhedrin 101a. On 100b: Entirely good.
Neither post nor transcript has been reviewed by Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l nor the Toras Avigdor organization.
Let them engage in Torah
The Torah girds itself in sackcloth and comes before HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
Your children made me a musical thing. Chazanim at weddings. Pesukim as amusement.
He answers: My daughter, when they want to eat and drink and be merry, what should they do? Let them engage in the Torah. If they know Mikra, they study Mikra. If they know Halachos, they talk Halachos. The merriment is those words.
Do not whisper a pasuk over a makah: a wound. Abaye: the severe case is kegba: when he spat on the wound. Saliva was thought medicinal. Do not mention the Name of Shemayim over spit. Even nega tzara'as without the Name is still a pasuk. Even vayikra el Moshe, which has no Torah of illness in it, is still a pasuk.
I am your healer
Ki ani Hashem rofecha: I am Hashem your healer.
If He will not put the illness of Mitzrayim upon you, why does He need to heal? The next words interpret themselves. If you listen, I will not put it. If you do not listen, I will put it, and nevertheless I will heal you.
Illness exists so that a man becomes aware and cries out. You still go to a doctor. V'rapo y'rapeh. Going is required. Forgetting the call is missing the deed. If the illness succeeds in bringing you to call out, He heals.
He smiled
When R Eliezer ben Hurkanus fell ill, his talmidim came.
He said there is a strong wrath upon the world. They wept. Is it possible a Sefer Torah is in distress and we should not weep? R Akiva was smiling.
As long as I saw my Rebbe's wine never turn sour, flax never smitten, oil never rancid, honey never caked, everything perfect, I feared he is receiving his Olam Haba in this world. Now that I see distress, I know he is not being paid off here. He was a perfect man. Paying him off here would have required every perfection. One flaw shows the payment is reserved.
R Eliezer: did I lack anything from the Torah? R Akiva: you taught us ki ein adam tzaddik ba-aretz asher ya'aseh tov ve-lo yecheta. Even the greatest has a small thing for which he is paid in this world. Moshe, for a small thing, could not enter Eretz Canaan. Even the greatest is not a finished account.
On another visit: R Tarfon, R Yehoshua, R Elazar b'R Azariah, R Akiva. You are better for Yisrael than the drop of rain. Rain does good only for this world; you do good for this world and the next. Better than the course of the sun. Better than father and mother: parents of this world; you are the real parents, because the mind is the main part of the person. Avraham and Sarah made souls by changing minds with Torah. These words were also tefillos. We need the Rebbe as we need rain and sun.
R Akiva: chavivim yisurim: suffering is precious. R Eliezer: support me so I can sit and hear the words of Akiva my talmid further. He wants the lesson more than he wants the illness to stop.
Only yisurim
Menashe was twelve when he became king. He reigned fifty-five years. He did evil.
Chizkiyahu taught Torah to the whole world. Mishlei was inscribed by the men of Chizkiyahu. From all the labor the father toiled on the son, nothing made him good except yisurim.
They captured him in hooks in the lips, bound him in copper, carried him to Bavel. They threw him into a copper vat and made a fire under it. He thought: call to the God of my fathers? He is angry. I did l'hach'is: to anger. Call to the idols? After all I did for them, nothing. He called the big ones, then the little ones. No answer. Then: if You will not answer, people will say You are the same as they are. Immediately the heat was turned off, the door opened, he was taken out and restored to his kingdom. Then he recognized HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
By twelve the father's labor is expected to have been a permanent deed. That it was not remains.
Kayin, Esav, Menashe came with alila: arguments.
Kayin: is my sin too big to forgive? If You do not forgive, You set a precedent that teshuvah does not pay. Forgive me and every later sinner will be encouraged.
Esav: have you only one berachah? Defending the honor of HaKadosh Baruch Hu forces Yitzchak to give Esav also some berachos.
Menashe: if You do not answer, people will say You are the same as they.
Looked but did not see
Sheloshah melachim ve-arba'ah hedyotim ein lahem chelek la-olam ha-ba.
The parashah of Yeravam begins. A name is prophecy. The person decides how it turns out. Yeravam is yariv am: the one who takes up for his people. It turned she-aribah: he laid them low. Or he made a quarrel in his people, the ten tribes against Yehudah and Binyamin. Or he made a quarrel between Yisrael and HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the long battle that ended in the loss of the ten tribes.
His father is Nevat: the one who looks. Ben she-nibet: he looked but did not see. He saw fire coming out of his genitals, a son who would be a light. He thought he would be king. It was Yeravam. The low manner of the vision should have warned him.
Yeravam received a good prophecy from Achiyah ha-Shiloni after criticizing Shlomo, and went too far. He made the golden calves as memorials, these are your gods who took you out of Egypt, parallel to the keruvim. An image is forbidden even for a good purpose. The name was the saying. The calves were the deed.
Ba-davar hazeh, the golden calves, became the sin of the house of Yeravam: le-hachrit: wipe out in this world, u-le-hashmid: destroy for olam ha-ba.
Why was he worthy of kingship? Because he criticized Shlomo and risked his life publicly. Why was he not protected from the error? Because he criticized in public from the start, instead of privately first. Hoche'ach tochi'ach... ve-lo tisa alav chet.
Shlomo built the Milo. He filled in a breach and closed the many gateways David had left open. The people: your father David made extra openings so that Yisrael could go up easily on the regel to the Beis ha-Mikdash. You closed them to make a toll, angaria, and to build a palace for the daughter of Paroh.
How the public criticism sits with the prophecy he was given, and at what point looking became not seeing, is left open.
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