Berachos (Yerushalmi) 6:1 — Why the World Still Belongs to Hashem, Even in Our Hands
Why the World Still Belongs to Hashem, Even in Our Hands
Part of Berachos · 21:15
Explores the limits of human ownership and benefit (hana'ah) in a world that remains Hashem's, touching on shaatnez and the debate over plural versus singular divine names.
Audio Transcript
כתיב it says in the pasuk in Tehillim: לה' הארץ ומלואה תבל ויושבי בה. The earth and everything in it belongs to Hashem'. תבל ויושבי בה, earth and all that inhabit it. Since everything belongs to Hashem', so הנהנה כלום מן העולם מעל. If anybody has hanaah from anything in the world he is מועל בהקדש. מועל means he's like having benefit from something that belongs to Hashem'. עד שיטילו להם מצוה. The only time you could have it after he does the mitzvot and then it's מתיר. So the mitzvot the mefarshim say it goes on תרומות and מעשרות and things like that or also the bracha. אמר Rabbi Abahu, Rabbi Abahu said, כתיב it says: פן תקדש המלאה הזרע אשר תזרע ותבואת הכרם. See there the pasuk actually is talking by כלאים, if you mix grapes with others. So it says with the המלאה, המלאה the full one means the the seeds, will become תקדש, holy, doesn't mean holy, it means it'll become assur. ותבואת הכרם, and the תבואה of the כרם of the vineyard will become assur. So he taytsh like this: the
word מלאה is connected to the word ארץ ומלואה. It's a רמז for the ארץ, cuz it says in the pasuk we said before: ארץ ומלואה. So he taytsh like this: העולם כולו ומלואו עשוי ככרם. The whole world is compared to a vineyard. ומהו פדיונו ברכה. By a vineyard, so there's a year in the vineyard when you're not allowed to have any benefit unless you redeem it. The fourth year, נטע רבעי, כרם רבעי, so the fourth year, the first three years is orlah, you can't have hanaah, the fourth year, you got to redeem it. So he says here the same thing with the world, the world is like a כרם and you've got to redeem it. ומהו פדיונו, how do you redeem it, what do you pay for it? Bracha. What about the first three years? What about the fifth year? And there's no way you can fix it. You can't even make a bracha on it, you can't partake of it for three years. What does it mean in this case? No, he's talking, not talking about that, he meant the fourth year. The whole world is like the fourth year. Whole world is like the fourth year? The fourth year. And you have to redeem it. So there's no inyan of ערלה. No ערלה, no nothing the fifth year either, cuz after the fifth year you don't have to redeem it. Rabbi Chizkiyah, Rabbi Yirmiyah, Rav Avin בשם Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, said a pasuk like, quoted a pasuk like this. The pasuk says: אמרת לה' ה' אתה טובתי בל עליך. אמרת לה', you said to ה', ה' אתה, you're my God, טובתי, my good, בל עליך, is not on You. What in the world does that mean? So he taytsh't like this. הא? Well, there's different taytshen, we'll see in a second. One pshat he says: אם אכלת ובירכת, if you ate and you benched, that's the pshat: אמרת לה' ה' אתה, you're saying to ה' You're my God. Then כביכול כאילו משלך אכלת. Then it's as if you ate from yours. If you don't bench, then you ate from ה''s, mimela you're a גנב. But if you benched, then it's as if it's yours, you קונה it. That's why he taytsh't: בל עליך, טובתי בל עליך, the טובה is on you. That's like your רשות. Davar acher, another פשט, טובתי בל עליך, the word בל he taytsh't: מבלה אני טובותי עליך לגופך. I'm going to put the my good into your body. If you make a bracha, all the good will come into you. Davar acher, another פשט, טובתי בל עליך, יבללו כל הטובות ויבואו עליך. All the berachot will get mixed up and they'll all come to you. See how special it is to make a bracha. Should make a bracha.
אמר Rav Acha, Rav Acha said, you know what בל עליך, what does בל עליך mean? שאיני מביא טובה על העולם מבלעדיך. בל עליך he taytsh מבלעדיך. That I will not give any good to the world, if you no, if you are not included. In other words in every good that I'm going to do, you'll be part of it. כמא דאמר, like it says, where do we find the word בלעדיך? בלעדיך לא ירים איש את ידו ואת רגלו, when Paroh said to Yosef, besides you, no one shall pick up his hand or foot. So בל עליך is like בלעדיך. A ר and a ד interchange. So what he's saying, בל, טובתי בל עדיך. My tovah will not come besides you. In other words, it's not for, if you, if you won't be part of it, there won't be any good. Does that, does anybody who makes a bracha? Anybody who makes a bracha. Not talking about, that's all of us. David specifically? No, no, we're talking about everyone, alle yidden. תני, it says in a baraita: מצה גזולה אסור לברך עליה. If you steal matzah, you can't make a bracha. Which bracha can't you make? Not hamotzi, and not על אכילת מצה. אמר Rav Sheshet, Rav Sheshet said, על שם, based on the pasuk says: ובוצע ברך נאץ ה'. ובוצע means breaking, which really means he took it away, he broke it away from somebody. So ברך, if you ובוצע and then you בענטש, נאץ ה', you curse the Eibershter really. It's not bentshing. אמר Rabbi Yona, said Rabbi Yona said: הא דתימר, בתחילה. That's only a bracha before, you're not allowed to make. אבל בסוף, but when you finish, and you have to make a bracha acharona, then you should. Why? דמים הוא חייב ליה. Now, it's half gone, you ate it up already. Now you owe him money. So now it's eaten already. So now you have to pay him back. So you make a bracha, because now it's as if now you ate it, and it's part of you, and you have a chiyuv to give back. L'chatchilah, you can't eat it. If you can't eat, how can you make a berachah? But now it's לאחר מעשה, and you owe the money, because it became yours, so you can bentsch. רבי יונה אומר, רבי יונה said: אין עבירה מצוה. Rabbi Yona said, an aveirah cannot be a mitzvah. That means that if you eat matzah let's say through an aveirah, you do not have the mitzot matzah. You're not yotzei the mitzvah. ורבי יוסי אומר, רבי Rabbi Yosi זאגט פארקערט: אין מצוה עבירה. A mitzvah can't be aveirah. Mimela, if it's a mitzvah eating matzah, so the aveirah is a separate thing, but it doesn't affect the matzah. And you are mekayem the mitzot matzah. How about you got lulav and etrog and sukkah also? Yeah, the question is,
אמר רבי אילא, Rabbi Ila said, סברא אומרת מצוה הבאה בעבירה. No, this, this, this, this, in this sugya when they talk מצוה הבאה בעבירה, this Yerushalmi is brought as a, dugma, dugma. ...about wearing shaatnez... Wearing shaatnez, doing an aveirah. Tzitzit with shaatnez, ken. Whatever it is, yeah. Shaatnez is only an aveirah, where's the mitzvah there? No, but if you're doing, if you're wearing shaatnez, then maybe you're not, you don't get any mitzvot that you do with it? No, no, no. You can't wear tzitzit unless it's with shaatnez. What about if you have shaatnez while you're davening? Why? If you have, if you eat matzah while you have shaatnez you're not מקיים מצות מצה? Takes away. Never heard of it. That's, no. Could be it's wrong, but I never heard of it. While you're davening, doesn't it say davening? Doesn't affect your mitzvot. Eibershter will not, it says, the Eibershter will not accept your tefilot, it's a different story. Because if you're davening while you're, while you're, while you're, but as far as, but as far as your mitzvah. Oh, it says למשל if you daven in a stolen סידור, Sefer Chassidim writes, you daven in a stolen siddur the tefilot are not נתקבל. What is it? The tefilot are not נתקבל. Why? Because the, it's, the siddur you davend is stolen. מצוה הבאה בעבירה. Yeah, but that's not, there, that's not, no, it's a מצוה הבאה בעבירה, the mitzvah itself, and over here the tefilah is a separate ענין. You're not allowed to use someone's tefilin without them knowing about it? No, you're permitted, you're allowed to, because a person is מסכים. If you know he doesn't want, then you're not allowed. But normally it says you're allowed to take someone's tefilin, if you put it back the right way, you put it back the same. And you're allowed to take it, because ניחא ליה לאדם דתתעביד מצוה בממוניה. People, חכמים say people are happy if someone does a mitzvah with their money. Machloket is if there's a חסרון כיס if not. How about you take the money too, and use it to... So we'll be happy! And we'll be happy! So, there is a שאלה like this: the question is if there is a הפסד, ניחא ליה לאיניש, this mitzvah, happy מצוה בממונו normally is written in a case where there's no היזק. Like I take your tefilin and I put it back, I was not מזיק anything. But if there is a היזק ממון, that's a different שאלה. And the Gemara has a sevara that even there, but not לגבי taking money direct. למשל if I'm בודק חמץ, if, you have to be בודק חמץ, I'm בודק חמץ, oh, the Gemara in Pesachim, is the סלע a סלע or is it not? But the Gemara says ניחא ליה דתתעביד מצוה, אפילו in a case where it costs money, if, if people usually pay to בודק, whatever. There is a sevara like that, but בכלל the case is where there is no hezek. ...a billionaire, you can go and take a penny from him? Every penny is a, is a hefsed. You can't steal, you can steal a thousand dollars from a, from everyone, you can steal a penny from a billionaire. נהרג על, נהרג על פחות משוה פרוטה. It's נהרג על פחות משוה פרוטה, it says לגבי בן נח, he's נהרג על פחות, פחות משוה פרוטה. Yeah, the גמרא דרשנ'ט, אמר רבי עילא, the pasuk says: אלה המצות, these are the מצות. אם עשיתם כמצותם, if you do them the way you're supposed to, הן מצות, it's מצות, ואם לאו, if you don't do it the right way, אינם מצות, they're nothing. Zogt di Gemara vayter, a different perek: רבי יוחנן ורבי יונתן אזלון למיעבד שלום באילין קריתא... Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Yonatan were going to make shalom in at some place, some city in דרום. Must be in the time of Yerushalmi, people, different places had machloket. It's not a new thing in this world. So they went to make shalom. אתו לחד אתר, ah? They came to one place, ואשכחו לחזנא. They saw, they heard a chazan say, אמר, \"האל הגדול והגיבור והנורא והאביר והאמיץ\". He added. He didn't only say the that the Aibershter, which is big and strong and fearful. אביר This is where they killed him? A lion came and killed him? No, no, different. And אביר, he added all kinds of other praises. ושתקו יתיה. They made him quiet. They said, \"Don't do it.\" אמרו ליה, they said to him, \"אין לך רשות להוסיף על מטבע שטבעו חכמים בברכות.\" You have no right to add any words that the Chachamim made. When the chachamim made a berachah and they said, \"האל הגדול הגיבור והנורא\", and that's it! You can't add. And
Rav Huna בשם Rav said, there's a pasuk, \"שדי לא מצאנוהו שגיא כח\". You cannot find by the Eibershter extra What means לא מצאנו כח? By הקדוש ברוך הוא, we do not find you can't, you can't In other words, the Eibershter is so beyond you can't The Gemara will explain it even more, but you can't praise the Eibershter. No, but the same words. But you can't add! Because he added to האל הגדול והנורא, which the which the nevi'im said and the chachamim, he added והאביר והאמיץ. You can't. Listen, the Eibershter's koach, we can't, we can't grasp it. That's Bavli. We're learning Yerushalmi now. But that's in the same place in the Gemara. Abahu בשם Rav Huna says there's another pasuk, \"היוספר לו כי אדבר?\" Will you tell of Him if you speak? \"אם אמר איש כי יבולע\". If a person will say it, he'll be swallowed, meaning to say, אם בא אדם לספק גבורתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, if a person gonna wanna come and tell the strength of the אייבערשטער, מיבלע מן העולם, will be swallowed away from the world. And the Gemara will explain why, because every time you praise the Eibershter, you're really insulting Him, unless those things that Moshe Rabbeinu said or the nevi'im. אמר Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani, Rabbi Shmuel says, there's a pasuk that says, \"מי ימלל גבורות השם?\" Who could speak the gevurot, the strength of Hashem? כגון אני וחביריי. I, me and my friends. Now, he didn't mean himself. Means the chachamim have a right to decide how to praise the Eibershter, but no one else could. אמר Rabbi Abahu, Rabbi Abahu says, \"מי ימלל גבורות השם?\" Who's the only one that could say the gevurot of the Eibershter? The Eibershter, but no one else. תרגם יעקב כפר גובריא בסוף, so he taytsh't this pasuk. It says a pasuk, \"לך דומיה תהלה, אלקים בציון\". To you, you know what is the tehillah? What is the best praise? Demamah, being quiet. He said, סמא דכולהון משתוקא. The the the the the spices, the best spice, hey, the best thing to do is don't say anything. By the Eibershter, just stay quiet. And he gives an example why: למרגלית דלית לה טימי, if you have a jewel that has no flaw, that's of, like yeah, and it's valueless, you know it's priceless! Priceless. כל מה דמשבח לה פגמתה. The more you're going to, as much as you're going to praise it, you say it's worth a million dollars, it's a, God, what do you mean? It's worth The same with the Eibershter. Whatever you're going to say, like it says in another ma'amar, it says a lashon, imagine a millionaire, a billionaire, you're going to say, \"This guy, ooh, he has a thousand dollars!\" You're insulting him! All right, for a poor man, if you say he has a thousand dollars, ooh, it's a praise. But by the Eibershter, it's plenty. Inflation now it gets that way. North, east, south, and west, but you're leaving out up and down. When? Where? No, but in echad we think all. Four, but the ח itself is the seven heavens and the earth, so it's the earth. The earth includes everything. זאגט די Gemara ווייטער, שאלו התועים את רבי שמלאי. The תועים, the mistakers, which means אפיקורסים, את רבי שמלאי. Yeah, תועים, they make mistakes. כמה אלקות בראו את העולם? How many gods created the world? אמר לון, so he said to them, לי אתון שאילין? You're asking me? לכו שאלו את אדם הראשון. Go ask Adam Harishon. Adam Harishon, he should know, he was created, he knows. What are you asking me? שנאמר, it says, \"כי שאל נא לימים ראשונים\". So he quotes a pasuk. The pasuk says, \"כי שאל נא\", you should ask \"לימים ראשונים\", the first days. And it says from the day, למן היום אשר ברא אלקים אדם על הארץ, from the day that the Eibershter created the אדם על הארץ. Now, he taytsh like this: The lashon is \"אשר ברא אלקים\", that אלקים created. ברא is lashon yachid, is singular. אשר בראו אלקים אדם על הארץ אין כתיב כאן. It doesn't say here בראו, they created. If there would be more than one creator, it would have said they created. אלא, what does it say? \"למן היום אשר ברא אלקים אדם על הארץ\", that He created. He is one. So here we have a pasuk talks about Adam Harishon. אמרו ליה, they said to him another pasuk: והכתיב, doesn't it say בראשית ברא אלקים? So בראשית made אלקים, huh? No, no, that's that's the ma'aseh with with Talmi HaMelech. No, they'll say אלקים is לשון רבים. In the beginning, who created? אלקים created. אלקים is two. אלקים is plural. אמר להם, so he said: וכי בראו כתיב? Does it say they created? אין כתיב אלא ברא. He. So obviously, even though it says אלקים, it's only one. אמר רב שמואל, so רב שמואל said, רב שמלאי said: כל מקום שפקרו המינים, wherever the the apikorsim found a mistake, they found something to טשעפע זיך, תשובתן בצדן, the same pasuk has the answer. These two pesukim, the same pasuk where they טשעפע זיך, בראשית ברא אלקים, that same pasuk is a re'ayah against them, because it says ברא. חזרו ושאלו, so then they continue, they asked
him again: מה הא דכתיב, what's the peshat in the pasuk where it says, and this is a a a straight פסוק, נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו, let us make man in our image. Let us make man. So we see more than one made man. אמר להם, he said to them: there's another pasuk says, ויבר- no, ויבראו אלקים את האדם בצלמם אין כתיב כאן. It doesn't say they, אלקים, they, meaning many gods, created them in בצלמם, אלא what does it say? ויברא אלקים את האדם בצלמו. It says he, אלקים, created in his image. So here the pasuk says clearly him, so it's one. אמרו ליה תלמידיו- Isn't it grammatically incorrect? To say what? Well, to have a plural with a with a singular noun. So how do they reconcile that? אמרו ליה תלמידיו, so his talmidim said to him: לאלה דחית בקנה, these guys that you answered, you didn't answer them a real answer. You pushed them away. לנו מה אתה משיב? What are you telling us? In other words, we still have a problem. If it says אלקים, אלקים is לשון רבים. And when it says נעשה, let us make, it's לשון רבים. So what what are you saying? For not not what are you saying, because okay, you have a re'ayah, but why does it say here לשון רבים? Why does it say plural? That's your she'eilah. אמר להם, he said to them: it means something else. Leshe'avar, originally, by the by אדם הראשון, אדם נברא מן האדמה- מן העפר, אדם הראשון was created from the dust, Chava, yet himself the Eibershter created, and חוה נבראת מן האדם, חוה was created from the אדם, מאדם ואילך, from Adam and on, בצלמנו כדמותנו, now it's our image, because now that every person is created like plural, like who? אי אפשר לאיש בלא אשה, you can't have a man without a woman, אי אפשר לאשה בלא איש, you can't have a woman without a man, ואי אפשר לשניהם בלא שכינה, you can't have them two without Shechinah, that's ג' שותפים באדם, a person has three shutafim. That's what it means. A person is created in our לשון רבים image, who is the our? The father, the mother, and the Eibershter. Yeah, yeah. That doesn't reconcile אלקים ברא, though. That's still plural and a singular. Yeah, okay. Well, the word Elokim is the name of the Eibershter, so. Yeah, okay, we have No, I don't have a problem with that. So they had a problem, we don't. Now
what do we do with cloning? Here it says אי אפשר לאיש בלא אשה, אי אפשר לאשה בלא איש. They haven't get to do people yet. Okay, but in theory there's there is such a thing. I mean they didn't do it to people yet. Clone sheep. It didn't last. Didn't last, yeah, it had sick It was sick. It got sick right away. So it's made in the image What's the What's the name of that sheep? What's the name of it? Dolly, Dolly. No, they clone that's that Dolly didn't live. Dolly A more, yeah? Yeah, they have now. Okay, maybe test the images is different is something different than the It looks exact. I don't know, okay. I'm not a scientist. I'm not I'm not a researcher and neither are you. חזרו ושאלו, so then they continue, they ask him: מה הא דכתיב, what's the peshat and it says in the pasuk, is a pasuk in Yehoshua, a strange פסוק, קל אלקים ה' קל אלקים ה' הוא יודע. So it says a few times Hashem's name. So it was a few a few gods? אמר להם, he said to them: הם יודעים אין כתיב כאן, it says all this הוא יודע, he knows, it doesn't say they know. אלא הוא יודע כתיב. So mimela, if it says הוא יודע, it shows it's one. אמרו ליה תלמידיו, so the talmidim said: רבי, לאלה דחית בקנה, them that you just pushed away, לנו מה אתה משיב, what are you answering us? אמר להם, so he said: I have no kashya to begin with. שלשתם שם אחד, it says קל אלקים ה', it's all one. He just has three names. כאנשים דאמרי, just like people when they speak about the king, the king at that time was called Julius Caesar Augustus. So it's three? He had three names, so the Aibershter has three names. That doesn't explain the middot. Those go on the middot, and this is uh, say it's No, but it's an image. It's a simplistic peshat. You could have a person who could have more than one name. Right. It says קל אלקים ה' דיבר ויקרא ארץ, and he called the land. So says קל אלקים ה'. אמר להם, he said to them, וכי דיברו ויקראו כתיב? Does it say they spoke, they called? כאן אינו כתיב. It doesn't say that, אלא דיבר ויקרא, he spoke. So in the אמרו לו תלמידיו, רבי, לזה דחית בקנה, them you pushed away stam azoy. ולנו, לנו מה אתה משיב? What are you going to answer us? So same thing, אמר להם, שלושתן שם אחד הן, it's all one name. כאינש דאמר, like people say, when there is a craftsman they say אומנין, בניין, ארכיטקטין. Architect, you could tell him he's a craftsman, he's a builder, and he's an architect. So it means that there are three people? He's the same guy, has these three things, so what's the problem? Okay, stop here. A chasid, a lamdan, and a Who is he saying? Okay, different names. A chasid, a lamdan, or a ירא שמים. Yeah. You have enough money? Yeah, I got 125. Okay.