כ״ף טבת, the 20th day of the month of Tevet, is the yahrzeit of the Rambam. As we explained last year, the Shem HaGedolim of the Chida in Maarechet Gedolim, ערך רמב״ם, writes that the Rambam passed away, his yahrzeit is on the 20th day of Tevet. And that's what it says in Toldot HaRambam, which was printed in the She'elot uTeshuvot Birkat Avraham, which was by the son of the Rambam, Rabbeinu Avraham ben HaRambam. This is taken from the ketav yad of Rabbi David HaNagid, which was a grandson of the Rambam. As it also says in Seder HaDorot, דלת אלפים ת״ת רכ״ז. And even though in Tzemach David it says that it was כ״ד טבת, the 24th day of Tevet, but obviously this is a ta'ut hadfus, this must be a printing mistake, because he quotes it from the ספר Me'or Einayim, and in Me'or Einayim itself it says that it was כ״ף טבת, the 20th day of Tevet. So it comes out that the 20th day of Tevet is the yahrzeit of the Rambam. Now, the greatness of the Rambam we don't have to discuss, because everyone knows the greatness of the Rambam, especially the way the Shem HaGedolim of the Chida writes in ערך Rav Moshe Gaon concerning the Rambam the famous quote: ממשה ועד משה לא קם כמשה. That from Moshe Rabbeinu till Moshe, Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon, the Rambam, there was nobody like Moshe. And the reason they said that was because the Rambam did something similar to Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu was the one that wrote the תורה שבכתב. He was the one that Hashem gave him over the written Torah, and through him the תורה שבכתב was written. What the Rambam did, he wrote down the whole of תורה שבעל פה. As the Rambam himself writes in his הקדמה, in the introduction to his Sefer Mishneh Torah, that after the Mishnah, and then the Gemara, and then you have the תשובות הגאונים, everything of תורה שבעל פה, he says that ובזמן הזה תקפו הצרות יתרות, that now there are a lot of צרות, ודחקה השעה את הכל, and the hour, the time pushes away everything, ואבדה חכמת חכמינו, and the חכמה, the wisdom of our חכמים is lost. And he continues there, לפיכך אותם הפירושים וההלכות והתשובות שחיברו הגאונים, therefore all the פשטים, the commentaries, and the הלכות, and the תשובות that were written by the גאונים, etc., etc., נתקשו בימינו, are hard in our times, ואין מבין ענינם כראוי אלא מעט במספר, only a few people can understand it. ואין צריך לומר הגמרא עצמה, certainly the Gemara itself, that's hard to understand, שהם צריכים דעת רחבה, you have to have a wide, big understanding in order to understand the meaning of the Gemara. So he finishes off, therefore he says: ראיתי לחבר דברים המתבררים, I saw, I decided to make, to write clear things, בענין האיסור והמותר והטמא והטהור, in what's אסור and what's מותר, what's טמא and what's טהור, עם שאר דיני התורה, with all דינים of the תורה, בלשון ברורה ובדרך קצרה, in a clear expression and in a short way, עד שתהא תורה שבעל פה כולה סדורה בפי הכל, so the whole of תורה שבעל פה should be סדור, should be straight in the mouth of everybody, בלא קושיא ובלא פירוק, without kushiyot and without answers, should be straight. So the Rambam himself writes that he wrote his ספר which includes the whole of תורה שבעל פה, all the הלכות of תורה שבעל פה. So he did something which was similar to Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu wrote the whole of תורה שבכתב, and he wrote the whole of תורה שבעל פה. And as it says in the Shem Hagedolim, that after he finished writing his ספר, after he was closed in a room for many years and he finished writing the ספר, on the last day, his father, who was already in Gan Eden, appeared to him with another person. And he asked his father, who is this other person? And he told him, this is Moshe Rabbeinu. And he said that Moshe Rabbeinu came to see your ספר that you wrote. And Moshe Rabbeinu looked at it, and when he saw it, he told him: Yasher kochacha, which means that Moshe Rabbeinu gave a הסכמה to the ספר of the Rambam, which is the whole of תורה שבעל פה.

But Lichorah, one might ask that the Sefer HaRambam is missing something. The Rambam himself writes that he skipped the whole shakla v'tarya, the discussions that are in the Gemara בבלי וירושלמי, that's in בבלי and ירושלמי in the Gemara. And all he wrote was the dry halachah, as we would call it, just the simple halachah. Lichorah, when you write just the simple halachot, and a person would learn these simple halachot, he is missing the ta'anug, the pleasure, the geshmak that you have when you learn a shakla v'tarya. When a person learns Gemara, and you have a kushya and you have a terutz, and then you have a kushya on the Gemara, and you have a terutz of the Rishonim, and you're going through all these discussions, you have the ta'anug, you have the pleasure in learning Gemara. But when you learn just dry halachot, as we would call it, you're missing the pleasure in learning Torah. So Lichorah on one hand, even though what the Rambam accomplished was very great that he wrote down the whole of תורה שבעל פה, but he only wrote down the halachot of תורה שבעל פה, so therefore, the person who would learn it would be missing the ta'anug, the pleasure in learning Torah. So Lichorah, on one hand, the Rambam did something very great, but on the other hand, there is something missing when you learn the Sefer HaRambam.

But the answer to this can be found in something else. כ״ף טבת comes in the week of Parashat Vaera, which is after Parashat Shemot. And since the Zohar says in Parashat Beshalach that from שבת, מיניה מתברכין כולהו יומין, that all the days of the week get their brachah, their blessing from Shabbos, so there is a connection in all the days of the week to the past Shabbos. There is definitely a connection the days of the week to the coming Shabbos, to the parashah of that week, but there is also a connection in the days of the week to the Shabbos before. The Shabbos before כ״ף טבת is Shabbos Parashat Shemot. The name of the parashah is Shemot. What does the word Shemot mean? The names. So the inyan of Shemot represents the inyan of names. Let's understand, what is the concept of a name? Lichorah, we find two opposites concerning the inyan of a name. On one hand, a name is an ענין חיצוני, a very superficial thing concerning a person. And that is the reason why the name does not show on any of the characteristics of the person. בגילוי, in a revealed fashion it doesn't show. You have to be a very great person to look at the name and from the name to see the characteristics of a person. That's why the Gemara says that דווקא רבי מאיר הוה מדייק בשמא, the Gemara says in Yoma דף פ״ג עמוד ב׳, that Rabbi Meir used to be מדייק, used to look into the names. But most other people, when you look into a name, you can't see the characteristics of a person, which means a name does not express the sechel of a person, whether he has a good head or not a good head, and what kind of sechel he has. It doesn't express what kind of middot the person has, whether he has good middot or bad middot, and it doesn't express any other parts of the person. So Lichorah the inyan of a name is a very superficial thing לגבי the person. On the other hand we find that a name is very close connected to the עצם הנפש, to the essence of the person's life, to the essence of the whole person. As we see, that when you call a person by his name, he turns around בכל עצמותו, with his whole being. It's not the pshat that when you call him by his name he's affected in one part of him, this affects his sechel, or this affects his middot, or this affects his ability to see, his ability to hear, which are called the כוחות הגלויים, the revealed attributes of the person, the specific details that a person has. But this affects the whole person, the whole person turns around. So we see that a name affects the whole person. And even more than that, we see that a name affects the עצם הנפש because it says in sefarim a segulah to wake up a person from his faint, if a person faints and there is no other way to revive him, you tried everything and nothing helps, so then try to call him by his name. If you tell him his name into his ear, then this will wake him up. This shows that a name has in it connection to the essence of the person. Because what is the pshat that a person fainted? A person fainted, it means that he's still alive, so his nefesh is still there, his life is still there. What's missing is the כוחות הגלויים, the revealed kochot are not there. When a person is awake, then his כח השכל is functioning, which means the ability to understand is in his brain, the ability to feel is in his heart, the ability to see is in his eyes, the ability to hear in his ears, etc., etc. When a person faints, he can't hear, he can't see, he can't think. What does that mean? That all these kochot left their kelim, left the places where they're supposed to be, and where did they go to? They went back to the עצם הנפש. We know that all the kochot a person has, they all come from the person's life, from the person's nefesh. But from the nefesh, they are put into different places. The nefesh includes all the different kochot a person has, and from the nefesh they spread themselves out to the different parts of the person. The כח השכל that's in the nefesh, the ability of understanding that's in the life of the person, comes from the nefesh and becomes a specific כח השכל and is put into the brain. The כח of seeing that's in the nefesh is put into the eyes, the koach of hearing in the ears, etc., etc. So when a person is awake and is functioning normally, so then all these kochot are in their proper places. When a person faints, the pshat is that they left their places. Where did they go to? They went back to the nefesh itself. If the person died, chas veshalom, then he doesn't even have the nefesh. But he's still alive, the pshat is that the nefesh is there. And the kochot are there, but they're not in their proper places, they went back to the עצם הנפש. When you want to revive the person, what are you trying to do? You're trying to reach out into the עצם הנפש and take these kochot back from the עצם הנפש and bring them back to their kelim, to the proper places. And since we say that one of the segulot to wake up a person from his faint is by calling him by his name, obviously, by calling him by his name, you reach out into his nefesh, into the essence of his life. Because if calling him by his name would just affect the superficial part of the person, then how could calling him by his name revive him? That part of him, the superficial part of him, is not functioning. What we have to do is bring them back from the עצם, that they should come out into the כוחות הגלויים, into the revealed part. And since by calling him by his name you accomplish that, obviously, by calling him by his name, you affect, you touch his nefesh, and therefore you're able to bring back his kochot from the nefesh into the kelim, into the different parts of the person. So this also shows how the name is connected to the עצם.

So lichorah we have two opposites here. On one hand, the name does not express the characteristics of the person. On the other hand, it has a connection to the עצם. But these two things are not opposites in truth, but they go together. Since the name is connected to the עצם הנפש, so therefore the name cannot express any of the individual characteristics of the person, because the nefesh itself is beyond all these details. Like we said before, the nefesh itself includes all these kochos, and they all come from the נפש and are put into the different parts of the person. But the way they are in the נפש, they are not individual kochos. From the נפש comes out the individual כח השכל and it's put to the brain, the כח of seeing and it's put into the eyes, etc., etc. But the way they are in the נפש, it is not a specific כח. The נפש includes all the kochos. So since the name is connected to the נפש itself, therefore the name cannot express any of the individual kochos. Therefore, the name does not express the characteristics of the person, power of שכל and riches, or anything else, because it expresses the עצם of the person. This is one of the reasons why it says in the פתיחה of the Ramban to his פירוש on the Torah, taken from the Zohar חלק ב' דף פ\"ז עמוד ב', and in Yonat Elem פרק כ\"ה, that it says כל התורה כולה שמותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the whole Torah are names of Hashem. What does that mean? Because in Torah we have two עניינים. We have Torah as a specific part of Hashem, כביכול, as the חכמה of Hashem. But then we also have the Torah as being the עצם of Hashem, the essence of Hashem. And that is expressed in the fact that the Torah is like the name of Hashem. Just like להבדיל the name of a person expresses the עצם of the person, the Torah is the name of Hashem, the Torah has the עצם of Hashem. And this was, by the way, the difference between the Torah the way the אבות learned it before מתן תורה, and the way the Torah we have after Matan Torah. Before Matan Torah, Torah was only the חכמה of Hashem, but the עצם of Hashem was not in the Torah. When Hashem gave us the Torah, and He said אנכי ה' אלקיך, אנכי is \"I\", \"I\" is the essence of Hashem. So when Hashem said that, He put His essence into the Torah, and that's what He gave us. And that's expressed in the concept of the names of Hashem. Especially the name הויה, י-ק-ו-ק, which is known as being the שם העצם, the name of the עצם. As it says in the Kesef Mishneh, הלכות עבודה זרה פרק ב' הלכה ז', and also in the Pardes שער י\"ט, and the Moreh Nevuchim speaks about it in חלק א' פרק ס\"א and further, and the Ikkarim מאמר ב' פרק כ\"ח, and many other places, it says that שם הויה is a שם העצם, expresses the עצם. And this is the concept of the Torah being the names of Hashem, because the name expresses the עצם. It says in ספרים, which part of the Torah expresses more this fact that it's the עצם of Hashem? The part of the Torah which are the Halachot of the Torah. In Torah we have the shakla v'tarya, the discussions, and we also have the Halachot. So it says that the Halachah of Torah expresses more the fact that this is the עצם of the Torah. As the Gemara says in Sanhedrin דף צ\"ג עמוד ב', that when it says in the pasuk \"וה' עמו\", it says השם עמו concerning David HaMelech, Hashem was with him, and it uses the name הויה there, so it says in the Gemara that this means שהלכה כמותו, that the halacha is like him, because halacha is connected to שם הויה. That's why it says concerning the discussions of the Torah, \"אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים\". When we have arguments and discussions, so even if the halacha is not like this opinion, it is still part of the Torah of Hashem. But what the Gemara says is \"אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים\", that both opinions are the words of אלקים חיים, there we use the name אלקים. But when it comes to the halacha, there we use the name הויה, \"הויה עמו\", שהלכה כמותו, because הויה is שם העצם, and in halacha we have the עצם, the essence of Hashem more than we have in the shakla vetarya in the Torah. As it's understood that the discussions of Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, is the חכמה of Hashem, but the halachot of the Torah is רצונו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, that's the will of Hashem. Because the halachot tell us what Hashem wants us to do, that is the will of Hashem. And the will power is more עצם, more essence than any other ability that a person has, any other attribute a person has. And the same is with Hashem. The ratzon of Hashem expresses more the essence of Hashem. And that is why we find that sometimes when the Torah wants to speak about ratzon, the koach of will, the Torah uses the word nefesh. As the פסוק says, \"היש את נפשכם,\" and Rashi explains it means, \"Do you want?\" It says, \"אין נפשי אל העם הזה,\" and it means, \"I don't want העם הזה.\" So sometimes when we use the word nefesh, we mean ratzon. Why? Because ratzon, the will of a person, that's such a strong koach, that's so essential within the person, that this expresses the whole nefesh, and that's why sometimes we use the word nefesh. And the same is concerning Hashem, that the ratzon of Hashem is like the essence of Hashem. So therefore, the halachot which are the ratzon of Hashem are more essential. And this is the maalah of the ספר of the Rambam, that he wrote down all the halachot of תורה שבעל פה as he writes. And even though on one hand we're missing the geshmak, so to speak, the taanug of the shakla v'tarya of learning the discussions, the questions, and the answers, etc., etc., which is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, but on the other hand, you have the etzem, you have the essence of Hashem in the halachot the way the Rambam wrote them. If you learn the shakla v'tarya, so then you lose, so to speak, in your mind the connection to the ratzon because you're involved in the chochmah. But when you learn the simple halachot, so then you have the etzem more. Now, it doesn't mean chas v'shalom that you should take away from learning the chochmah, but what we're trying to bring out here is the maalah in writing the halachot of the Torah, which brings out the etzem