אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
כ״ב חֶשְׁוָן תשפ״ז
The sugya is Sanhedrin 99a: the length of yemei ha-Mashiach. On 97a: The dog at the corner.
Neither post nor transcript has been reviewed by Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l nor the Toras Avigdor organization.
As the days of Noach
Ki-yemei Noach zos li.
Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak: yemei ha-Mashiach will be as the days of Noach until now. HaKadosh Baruch Hu swore after the mabul that there would never again be a universal flood. The same span of years from that oath until now is the span He swears to maintain after Mashiach comes, without becoming angry again. Rashi spells out the two oaths.
Why measure from Noach? From the mabul the world deteriorated greatly. Samecheinu ki-yemei inisanu: gladden us as the days You afflicted us. The years of setback are paid back.
No eye has seen
All the Nevi'im spoke only of yemei ha-Mashiach. What comes after:
Ayin lo ra'asah Elokim zulascha ya'aseh la-mechakeh lo.
Ayin lo ra'asah: no eye has seen what He will do for those who wait for Him.
There is the olam ha-neshamot that has existed from the beginning. Adam and every zocheh entered it. There is also the olam ha-ba that begins after the duration of yemei ha-Mashiach. The verse covers both. No navi, not even Moshe, was given a vision of it.
Shmuel holds there is no difference between this world and yemei ha-Mashiach except shi'abud malchuyot: subjugation to the kingdoms. The existence remains natural. The whole world will recognize the Torah and come to Yerushalayim. People will live longer according to the natural capacity of man. The Rambam quotes Shmuel in Hilchos Teshuvah.
On the olam ha-neshamot that exists now there is no machlokes: it cannot be described. The machlokes is whether the Nevi'im saw the future olam ha-ba after Mashiach. They spoke of yemei ha-Mashiach and left the future unseen. Shmuel: they spoke of the future olam ha-ba and left yemei ha-Mashiach as natural.
Two things no navi was permitted to see: HaKadosh Baruch Hu, lo yirani ha-adam va-chai: no man shall see Me and live, and olam ha-ba. The real schar of olam ha-ba is tzaddikim yoshvim ve-atroseihem be-rosheihem ve-nehenim mi-ziv ha-Shechinah: the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads and enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah. Because that looking cannot be described, olam ha-ba itself cannot be described.
Far and near
The Nevi'im spoke for ba'alei teshuvah. For tzaddikim gemurim who never sinned, ayin lo ra'asah.
R Abahu: the place where ba'alei teshuvah stand, tzaddikim gemurim cannot stand.
Shalom shalom la-rachok ve-la-karov.
Rachok is first: one who was far and came close. Karov is one who was always close. When both are now on the same madreigah, the ba'al teshuvah is greater. Lefum tzara agra: according to the pain is the reward. He struggled against the habits he had formed.
R Yochanan: rachok means one who kept himself far from sin. Karov means one who came close to sin and later returned. The first receives the first greeting. Why should a man receive reward for overcoming difficulties he himself created?
Glass, not wood
All reports of olam ha-ba in the Gemara are mashalim. No one saw it. Techiyas ha-mesim can be described because it is a marvelous physical existence. Olam ha-neshamot cannot, because it is not physical.
Which happiness is greater? Techiyas ha-mesim. The body will be purified so the light of the neshamah shines through it. Rav Miller zt"l: a flame in a wooden box does not shine through the walls. In glass the light is transmitted. A rose petal and the mud are the same materials. The petal is sublimated: fragrant, colored, soft. Coal and diamond are both pure carbon. The arrangement of the molecules makes the difference. So Adam before the sin shone until the malachim wanted to worship him. The happiness of the reunited body is greater than the neshamah alone.
The Nevi'im also spoke of those who help talmidei chachamim: marrying a daughter to one, doing business for one, supporting one from one's property. For the talmidei chachamim themselves who give their time to Torah, ayin lo ra'asah. Some people are both.
What is ayin lo ra'asah?
R Yehoshua ben Levi: yayin ha-mishumar be-anavav mi-sheishes yemei bereishit. Wine kept in its grapes from the sixth day. Fruits were once superior. Some excellence became recessive and later reappears. The grapes themselves are the vessels.
Reish Lakish: Eden, not Gan Eden. Adam dwelt in the Gan. The river went forth from Eden to water the Gan. Gan is like the garden of a palace. Eden is the palace itself. Even that Eden is only a mashal for the Eden of the neshamot.
Diamonds on the ground
The Mishnah lists those who have no chelek le-olam ha-ba.
One who says the Torah is not from Heaven:
Ki dvar Hashem bazah ve-es mitzvaso heifer hikaret tikaret.
Even if he accepts the whole Torah except one pasuk, or except one dikduk, one kal va-chomer, or one gezeira shava of the oral Torah that the nation accepted, he is included.
One who learns but does not teach: he shows no enthusiasm to transmit.
One who does not look at the Mishnah: he rejects the united opinion of Anshei Knesses ha-Gedolah.
One who has the opportunity to learn and does not. Rav Miller zt"l: free diamonds scattered on the ground. He regards them as glass. He scorns the dvar Hashem.
Idolatry: davar means the dibbur the Am heard, the first two of the Aseres ha-Dibros. After that they asked Moshe to speak.
How are the words of Lavan, of Korach, of Bilam's donkey min ha-shamayim? Everything Moshe wrote was dictated by the peh ha-gevurah: the mouth of the Mighty One. Sometimes nevuah is placed in the mouth of the unworthy. We learn the Torah HaKadosh Baruch Hu dictated.
One who learns and does not review is like a man who plants and does not reap, or like a woman who gives birth and then buries the child. Torah is wealth and Torah is a child. The masechtos you learn cluster around you in olam ha-ba like children. They are entirely your product. Forgetting is burying them.
Zamer be-chol yom: sing in Torah in this world and you will sing in olam ha-ba in the same proportion. The degrees are of a grand symphony, not hour matching hour.
Nefesh ameilah ameilah lo ki achaf alav piv. He saddles himself with the toil of the mouth in Torah. The Torah labors for him in another place to prepare his happiness. The more he invests here, the greater the preparation there.
Man was created for toil. He can choose the amel of the mouth in Torah and thereby exchange other physical troubles for a toil that pays. The Targum: all bodies are bodies of hardships. Happy is the one whose hardships are in Torah.
In Mishlei: no'ef ishah chasar lev. Occasional learning ends in chasar lev. Better to be wedded to the Torah. Siata di-shemaya and the opening of new sevaros come only to one who persists. A little bit does not succeed proportionately.
R Elazar ha-Moda'i: one who profanes the kodashim, scorns the moadim, nullifies the bris, uncovers his face against the Torah not according to halacha, or shames his fellow in public. Even if he has Torah and maasim tovim, he has no chelek.
How the Rambam's combination of Shmuel's natural yemei ha-Mashiach with the universal ayin lo ra'asah of the present olam ha-neshamot sits with the full list of those who lose their chelek is left open.
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