Pirkei Avos 5: Seven Traits of a Chacham—Modeh Al HaEmes and Hakaras Hatov

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. שבעה דברים בגולם, ושבעה בחכם. There are seven things that make a person that he should be called a golem. And then there are seven things, he does the opposite of that, he becomes a chacham. And the Mishnah enumerates them: Chacham eino medaber lifnei mi shegadol mimenu b'chochmah. The minyan speaks only in front of those that are smaller than him. Bein hanichnas l'divrei chaveiro, he doesn't jump into the words of others. Bein eino nivhal l'hashiv, he doesn't jump to answer. She'eilos k'inyan, his questions are always on the topic. V'omer al rishon rishon, on the first thing he says, that's the answer to this, v'al acharon acharon. The Mishnah continues basically with etiquette, so to speak, of how a person converses and how a person talks. Ma shelo shama, omer lo shamati, meida al ha'emes, v'chilufin b'golem. What is a chacham, rabosai? A chacham. Many times we talk about chacham, a kluge mensch. I'm learning there's such a thing called a talmid chacham. Pashut, it means that he's a chacham in Torah, talmid chacham. Most baalei mussar say that actually it's two things. There's the Talmid and there's the Chacham. I mentioned daf zayin, klug. There's Talmid, there's Chacham. It's not that he's just a Chacham and Talmid. As a Chacham, possibly through Torah a person becomes a Chacham. Here the Mishnah gives us a formula of what a Chacham is. And there's two ways to learn the Mishnah, if you look at the mefarshim. One way we can learn the Mishnah, that these are all simanim of a Chacham. If a person has these qualifications, these mailos, these attributes, this is the way he behaves, then it's a siman that he's a wise person. There's another pshat in the mefarshim. You can learn that it means he becomes a Chacham. This is the formula, the eitzah on how a person becomes a Chacham. You look at the Tiferes Yisrael, he explains the Mishnah. You look at the Tiferes Yisrael, he explains the Mishnah that this is the basic rules of conversation. On every part of the conversation, before you start the conversation, during the conversation, after the conversation, modeh al ha'emes is the final point, that if there's an argument, after the conversation he's modeh al ha'emes. So then it becomes pshat that if a person doesn't have the ability to converse, a lot of people talk and talk and talk, but they never communicate. Person a gantzen leben ken reden und reden und reden, and he's talking to hundreds of people, but nobody communicated, to the point that nobody learned one from the other. Azak, v'seilzak, the duzaks was duzakst, and it's like, karav zeh l'zeh, and most people in life go through life that way. Azak dos and duzak, and you walk away thinking... so nobody learns from anybody. And we know that a chacham is the pshat, eizehu chacham? Halomeid mikol adam. So in order to be a lomeid mikol adam, you need to have these qualifications. So this, l'cheira, rabosai, is the two pshatim in the Mishnah kipshutai: that either the top pshat in the Mishnah is that this is a siman of a chacham, that a wise person knows all these details on how to communicate, the way he talks and the way he listens and the way he accepts what the other person says. So it's a sign, azak kluger mensch. On the other hand, there's another way we can learn the Mishnah, that it's a chacham because...

You will become a chacham because through life, once had a principal, a menahel, a very chashuv Yid, Rabbi Yankev Goldstein, he always used to say that he has a degree from college. But you never went to college, he said. I have a degree from the college of life. Life itself teaches you a lot of things. So in order for it to teach you, in order for it to become that you should finally become a chacham from everything that you hear and see, you need these qualifications. This beisai is the pashut pshat in the Mishnah. And again, I emphasize the pashut pshat because avadeh I didn't come here to tell you pashut pshat. I came here to tell you a chiddush nifla that I saw in the Medrash Shmuel b'shem the Kaban Reb Yisrael. But before we get to that, loma, uplan and vidui, pshat is, and that is, it's all about being a chacham. You know, Rebbi Yerucham, the great baal mussar Rebbi Yerucham, made an interesting diyuk. You know, in the Haggadah we say, chacham and rasha, tam and she'eino yodea lishol. The opposite of a chacham is l'choira a tipesh, not a rasha. So if you want to have the two children who are opposite, it should have been echad tzaddik v'echad rasha, name, davka. Echad chacham. Chacham is not the opposite rasha. The opposite of chacham is a tipesh. And if you want to say the opposite of a rasha, give davka, tzaddik. Yushalmi on that Mishnah. Kana ben Shoyl, it's a Mishnah in Pesachim at the end of Pesachim. Takke has the girsa, rasha and tzaddik, the two opposites. Tzaddik mah hu omer, rasha mah hu omer. But our girsa is chacham. And Rabbi Yerucham, ... that davka sein a chacham. It's not only to be a tzaddik. Davka ich zayn a kluge mentch. It's very important to zayn a chacham. Mitz Hashem, we're going to learn up maybe pshat in Rabbi Yerucham's vort a little later on in the shiur, or maybe we'll say a different kneitch. I'm not sure if it's what Rabbi Yerucham meant. But keep in mind that the first thing we talk about, especially by Yetzias Mitzrayim and the Haggadah and Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim, is echad chacham. Davka a klug. And the Mishnah here is addressing v'los meintach chacham. So either it's a siman of a chacham, or with this, and if this is the way you communicate and listen, you will become a chacham. Now, in what reference are we discussing? Are we discussing in Yanei d'alma? Are we talking about Torah? As I told you, Talmid chacham, chaver chacham is in Torah, yeah? Most mefarshim, Rashi, the Rambam, ... it's mashma from most of the Rishonim, it's really a discussion about Torah. How does one become a chacham in learning? He has to be able to listen to the other person. He has to be able to modeh when he's wrong, and so on and so forth. And the Baal HaMusar on this Mishnah, bringing the famous maiseh from Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach — that's from Reb Yisrael Zalman — that Reb Yisrael Zalman once had a shiur, and he said a psak, a kasha, a teretz, and a bachur had then gefregt a good kasha. What was his response? Thought a minute, and before he had a chance to say anything, another bachur, a talmid of the Rosh Yeshiva, he tried to come for the kavod of the Rosh Yeshiva, says, No, he doesn't know, he's wrong, it's this and that. And he was saying ashtei kol Torah, and then another bachur jumped in and said the Rosh Yeshiva is right because of this and that. Reb Yisrael Zalman closes Gemara, and he said, I'm not sure which is the right pshat. I didn't go through it thoroughly. Sounds good, vos er zogt, and it sounds good, vos er zogt. It's not — what the emes is, I'm not sure. He stopped the shiur. And Reb Shlomo Zalman used to say this over all the time. And if you look at the lashon of the Rambam, that's how the Rambam used the lashon. It's not stam. Rashi says, Eino ba'ush to be modeh he was wrong.

The lashon of Rashi on this Mishnah, loy da lemes, he's not embarrassed to say he's wrong. The Ran goes one step further, that even if you have what to answer back, the huzvahs to zagen. You have what to answer back, but you're not sure yet if it's the truth, which means you could zoche outwin him in the argument. But what's takke the answer? He's modeh al ha'emes, I'm not holding there yet. It's not stam, I'm caught and I'm wrong and he's modeh, which some people can't even do. Some people could be dead wrong and they're still not modeh. People don't know that Reb Shlomo Zalman, who used to say over this story all the time b'shem his rebbe, that's how he became the Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Torah. Every sefer that was ever written about Reb Shlomo Zalman or about brings this as how he got his shteller as the Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Torah. Got up to say a pshat b'shiur, a martzbach, the Rosh Yeshiva, the gefregt a kasha. He stopped a minute and he said, Okay, I'll go on to another shtickel Torah. He came home and he told his wife, I'm not getting the job. They asked me a poshete kasha on a Tosafos, and I told them I don't know. It's over. The reason why he got the shteller is because that's what he did. Reb Martzbach said that if someone can be modeh al ha'emes, is a chassid, is a emesdige chacham, and he got the shteller because he said he didn't know. That was the reason why he became the Rosh Yeshiva. Now most people know this part of the maiseh. The yeshiva came out, the history of Reb Shlomo Zalman, one of the mechlokim, and they add over there that there's actually more to the story. Reb Shlomo Zalman said, ... drei terutzim. I had three answers to the kasha, but I didn't work it through to know if they're emes. The meileh said I didn't know. It's not pshat I didn't know the answer to the kasha; he said he didn't know. Gavusa zogn. The Rambam, nitztam, the Rashi, there was eina beisht zogin. You want eina beisht? I'll tell you another maaseh that got gebracht in the sefer, and it's a mefurasha maaseh because it's actually in the teshuvos. There's a sefer that was printed with the teshuvos of Reb Shlomo Zalman, where Reb Shlomo Zalman writes back to the mechaber, I made a mistake. Lo evosh. I'm not embarrassed to tell you I made a mistake. What I said was against mefurash Gemara, Rashi, Rishonim. The mechaber wanted to print the letter. It's a sheinishdike Torah from Reb Shlomo Zalman, but he asked Reb Shlomo Zalman if he could doctor the letter, if he could just take out those words, because it's a shtickel bizayon. He's printing a letter where Reb Shlomo Zalman writes he made an open mistake. Reb Shlomo Zalman said, Vos redst? Down nisht. Red a lemes. Einei beisht. There's something to be embarrassed about? Forget. I'm proud. It's a sheinah zach. I want you to print it. Print in the sefer that I, Reb Shlomo Zalman, am modeh al haemes that I made a mistake. Habeisai, this is what you all hear in the yeshivos. This is all standard Torah on this Mishnah. A chacham has to be a modeh al haemes, plus the other qualifications in order to be called a talmid chacham. But again, is that the pshat in the Mishnah, chacham? Chacham means only in Torah. Chocham is everything, and the Tiferes Yisrael seems to generalize it, that he becomes a chacham with all these qualifications. Why am I here today? Because I want to tell you a chiddush that I saw from the Medrash Shmuel, she'ein hakadon Rabbi Yisrael, a davar shel pela, habeisah. Pilei ployim. It says in the Mishnah, U'meida la'emes. You know what the Mishnah is actually trying to talk about? A certain type of a chacham, and that chacham is a makir tov. That's the chacham that the Mishnah is talking about. Havta naiseh. Meida la'emes means that he could be a makir tov. A chiddush. You look at a Mishnah, you don't see. Vu liktin down Mishnah? Yes. Meida la'emes means that he's a makir tov, because part of being a makir tov is the meida la'emes. A lot of times, rabosai, we never admit. Like the Chofetz Chaim says, the ikar is to be makir the tov. It's very hard to be makir. It first be meida la'emes that the person did for you, go through life.

How many times people forget the chasadim that others have done for us. Modeh l'emes means a makir tov. Comes a whole new Mishnah, what does that have to do with chacham? Tzaddikah. Now I want to tell you, the emes is, the mefurash in Medrash, that modeh l'emes means makir tov. And if you follow through, you'll realize, chaveisai, that we actually say this over and over and over and over and over again in our tefillah every day that we daven. And then we'll understand the Mishnah that has to do with chacham. What does it have to do with a chacham? Yes, wise people are makir tov; foolish people are not. But it goes a lot deeper, chaveisai, and let me show you. There's an interesting Medrash. Medrash says, Dovid HaMelech, the ganzen tehillim is hodu laShem, praising the Ribono Shel Olam. Tishbachos. It's all praise, praise, praise, thanking the Ribono Shel Olam, being makir tov. Zogt der Medrash, he's an einikel of who? He's an einikel of Yehuda. Einikel from Yehuda, malchus Beis David, yeah? Yehuda was a modeh because when he came and he said, Tzadkah mimeni, that I did the chet with Tamar, meileh from that resulted Dovid HaMelech that said, Hodu laShem ki tov. What does being modeh that he did an aveirah... He didn't aveira. He was modeh that he did an aveira, yeah? So how did that become that Dovid HaMelech that's modeh to the Ribono Shel Olam is his einikel? And as a matter of fact, there's another medrash which flips it the other way. Where did Yehuda get his koach to come and say, Tzadkah mimeni? It came from his namesake, so to speak, that his mother said, Hapaam odeh es Hashem, I'll thank the Ribono Shel Olam, shenatalti yoser michelki. So again, that's a modeh to the Ribono Shel Olam. That's praising the Ribono Shel Olam. Comes Tzadkah mimeni, that I did the chet, and from there comes what? Dovid HaMelech, and the Teretz Chabes Hayiz. That Hapaam odeh es Hashem, you have to recognize the truth, shenatalti yoser michelki. In order to be modeh, first thing is, you got to be makir. You have to be modeh al ha'emes. You know, Rabosai, we live our lives and there's many chasadim the Ribono Shel Olam does for us, but we take it for granted. All of a sudden, when something happens, well, my yitach, we don't understand. You have to be makir the emes. Yes, we have good lives. Baruch Hashem, there's so much good. Others who look at us say, What do you have this good, that good? What do you— this thing is not good. And the teretz is because they're looking at it from the entire picture. Which we could call a chachma, wisdom, so to speak. From the outside, he sees it from... but when you're inside, you don't see it. Memeila, you're not a makir tov. Memeila, you're not a moideh. So modeh, a makir tov, same lashon, modeh, modeh, and this is all famous Torah, basically in the Sifrei Baalimusa. So a chacham is a makir tov, okay? And it comes from a pa'ameidas Hashem, Shenatalti yoser michelki, and from that results that a person could say, Tzadkah mimeni, and from that becomes David HaMelech's, Hodu laShem ki tov. I don't have to tell you the difficult life that David HaMelech had. I always spoke, why is it that David had to have every different type of yisurim sheyach? He went through everything. And the teretz is because he wrote Tehillim. Tehillim is addressing every situation that a Yid finds in the Tehillim, in the Tehillim.

Every matzav. That's why Dovid had to experience it. And Dovid is the one that says, Hoidu laShem ki tov. Mizmor l'Dovid, bivrochmei Avshalom b'noi. Chapela. And the teretz is, Dovid had this understanding of meid al ha'emes, which is a tremendous chachmah, which mainly results in, Hoidu laShem ki tov. Now why does it have to do with chachmah, rabosai? All right, ready? Let me show you something very interesting. There's a thing that Rabbi Rucham always said over from the mashgiach, the Alter from Slabodka. Did Paroi have yiras Shamayim? No. As a matter of fact, Paroi had no yiras Shamayim. That's one of the chisronos of Paroi. Yet he had the chachmah. He had the wisdom to recognize ein chacham v'navon. He had the wisdom later to be makir tov to Yosef, and later on, of course, he retracted on it. Where did all that come from? Zogt Rabbi Rucham in Parshas Vayechi, it's not from yiras Shamayim. You see, chachmah has nothing to do with yiras Shamayim. Chachmah is separate. Yiras Shamayim and chachmah, one does not bring the other. You would think everything comes from yiras Shamayim. No. And the truth is, as I'm mefurash by Rabbanan, rabosai, Moshe Rabbeinu was told by Yisro to pick what type of dayanim. No? Wake up the olam a little bit. Okay, no, I'll test you. No. אנשי אמת יראי אלקים. And if you don't know it from the pasuk, you gotta know it from the song, right? Everybody's singing it today. This is the song everybody sings today. We ask for banim, אנשי אמת יראי אלקים, yeah? Zogt the Alter from Kelm, what do you mean, אנשי אמת יראי אלקים? And the teretz is, אנשי אמת stands separately from יראי אלקים. So says the Alter from Kelm, which is Reb Yerucham saying over from the Alter from Kelm. I want to show you an interesting Alter from Kelm. Why do we say every day twice, יציאת מצרים? Zogt the Alter from Kelm. This is in Chelek Aleph, page shin yud-daled: כי כל ענין יציאת מצרים, אשר נצטווינו לזכור ב' פעמים ביום ובלילה בכל יום. Why do we say over יציאת מצרים twice a day? It's so important, יציאת מצרים. So you would answer, because it's the yesod of... no, the yesod, the yesod of emunah, yeah? It's interesting, the Alter from Kelm doesn't say that. That's not what the Alter from Kelm says. The Alter from Kelm says: שהיה לנו להשריש שורש הזה בלב ישראל, שהאדם צריך לבקש האמת. Interesting, huh? I would say it has to do with chizuk and emunah. No. It has to do with being mevakeish the emes, and mimeila v'lo yitener retzonai lishlol ha'emes, which is a famous yesod by the Baal HaMussar. You have to make the emes your ratzon, not your ratzon the emes. Alter of Kelm says it many times. He calls it ma'amar chacham. But that's why Yetzias Mitzrayim is mentioned twice a day. Tell me, how do we finish Kriyas Shema? Anybody know how we finish Kriyas Shema? Hashem Elokeichem emes. How many times do we say the word emes after that? Emes ve'emunah, emes, emes, emes — eight times. Ezras Yisrael, it says eight times. The Yaavetz explains four of them is for the arba leshonos of geulah. Only Sefard says it about the time for emes. Ashkenazim say it without the word emes. Everyone's without the word emes. There's no word emes. No, some of them only take it eight times. Okay, so I could just tell you what — I'm happy with what the Yaavetz says in Nusach Sefard. I daven Nusach Sefard, fine with me. So either way, the point being — okay, so you know what.

I'm an easygoing fellow. I'm not going to fight with you. I'll take out a Shulchan Aruch, which quotes the mefurashi Gemara. Okay? And then you'll see it's not important how many times you say the word emes. Let me read you a mefurash halacha. Kol mi shelo amar emes v'yatziv, shachris, v'emes v'emunah, arvis, lo yatza yedei chovas hamitzvah ki tikunah, which is a Gemara Brachos. The Shulchan Aruch paskens it. This is in Siman סמך ו', סעיף י'. Says the Mishnah Berurah, what does it mean? Im lo yatza kriyas Shema k'tikunah. If you don't say emes v'emunah, you don't say emes v'yatziv, you're not yotzei k'tikunah. Why? Why is a person not yotzei Kriyas Shema if he doesn't say emes v'yatziv? What? That's what the Alter Rebbe is saying, l'chaira, right? The Alter Rebbe is saying... But every day you have to say the words emes v'emunah, because if you don't say emes v'emunah, you're not yotzei Kriyas Shema k'tikunah. And the reason is exactly what the Alter Rebbe is saying, because the reason to say Kriyas Shema twice a day, it's about emes. And I'll tell you where we say this every day, and I want the oilam to pay attention every day when you daven. L'olam yehei adam... Reish hamayim, seisu bagalui, modeh al emes, v'dover emes bilvavoi. So how do you start your day? You're a shemayim, modeh al emes, v'dover emes bilvavoi, v'yashkim v'yomar, Ribono Shel Olam. The first thing is the emes, and that brings to, lefikach anachnu chayav, which brings Ashreinu, to thank the Eibishter. Shanachnu mashkim u'ma'ariv, erev vavoker, paamayim b'chol yom, Shema Yisrael. Hashem Elokeinu... You say it every day by davening. You know, our Rebbe say there's worlds in the tefillah. Just pay attention to it. It's so clear. First step is that you have to know the truth. Now I understand a little bit. I'm trying to get to make sure that we're within the confines of time. It's gonna be a new policy, rabosai, we're not going overtime anymore, okay? Bli neder. Bli neder, bli neder, bli neder, okay? I want to make sure. That's right, we're working on the middah of emes. Up here, it's not what we say every day. It's unbelievable, we say it every day, no? Modeh al emes, v'dover emes bilvavoi. And that brings to that a person realizes all the tzidkus of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, lefikach, it brings us to be l'shabeach. And then you could lead to Dovid Hamelech's Ashreinu, mah tov chelkeinu, ma na'im goralenu. It starts with Kriyas Shema, k'mayim b'chol yom. Mamish exactly what the great baalei mussar teach us. Now let's go back, rabosai. To the chacham and the rasha in the Haggadah. Tziyas Mitzrayim is about emes. It's about truth. It's about chacham. Chacham mah hu omer? He wants to know the truth. The chiluk tzvishen the chacham and the rasha, and all the baalei mussar speak about this. The language is very close to the same. The difference is one wants to know the truth, and the other one wants to ask. It's a very big difference. You see? You know, there's a ... kavod, rabosai. Like I said, I'm going to end in a minute, and maybe one day we could get through this whole shmues, because I hold, like all baalei mussar hold, a Yid is about Yehudi. It's about being modeh. Modeh has many, many, many aspects. It means to be modeh to the truth. We stand for the truth, and through that we're modeh to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The chacham, he wants to know mah ha'eidus v'hachukim, hamishpatim. He's looking for the truth.

He's a doiver emes b'levavi, and I want to tell you a meyridike vort. There's a sefer, Knesses Yisrael. It brings from a kadmon, a meyridike vort. He never said, Modeh liha emes. It says, Modeh al ha'emes. What's the difference? People read it quickly, Modeh al ha'emes, Modeh al ha'emes. It's caught my eye because it's meyridik. Let's say you have a discussion with another person, and he's also not. Is it to be modeh to the emes? So he says, no, it's not about being modeh to the emes. It's about modeh al ha'emes even if that other person is wrong, and his raayos could be upgeshlagen, but it's not about being modeh l'chaveiro, the other person. It's not about—it's about you. Can you follow through to think and say, I want the truth? You know, rabosai, in life it's so easy to get away, to slip and get away. The other person, I'm not confronting. What is it? The truth, though. There's something about anshei emes, people who seek the truth. And when you seek the truth, rabosai, you're a completely different person, completely different person. It's not about being modeh to something or to somebody. It's about being modeh. Now I want to end with the following, rabosai. This is a lifelong work. To be an esh emes. It says clearly in the pasuk, Go b'chutza, yisir Shalayim, im timtzu anshi emes. It's very difficult. They're far and few between. It's not the ikar hametzius. Midas emes, it's a tremendous thing. So what are we to work on? It's such a high bar. How do we work on it? So I want to leave you with two things. There is a pasuk, chaveirim: Emes me'eretz titzmach. The emes sprouts from the ground. This becomes, in the Baalei Mussar and all the sefarim, as the guiding light of how a person reaches emes. In this pasuk, Baalei Mussar, Chassidish sefarim, they all find, how does one search, look, find the emes? And the answer is, it's in the words, Emes me'eretz titzmach. I'll tell you how the Chassidish sefarim understand it. I'll tell you how the Alter from Kelm understands it. The rest is homework for the rest of your life to work on, okay, rabosai? Homework. You know, sometimes it's homework. It's a one-night thing and you come back. This is for the rest of your life, rabosai, homework, okay? Chassidish sefarim, shtei tchlushei rem azavot, titzmach has to grow, so you have to plant it, right? How do you plant emes? And the teretz is, you got to put the sheker in the ground, bury it, and then titzmach, the emes grows. So here's our Chassidish sefarim: Emes me'eretz titzmach. You got to bury the sheker first, you see. A person is completely enwrapped, involved in sheker. There's no way. What do you expect? You see the emes. What are you talking about? Emes me'eretz titzmach. How is up the chtushechim? The alter from Kelem, which is maybe the same deher, but from a different angle. Zogt der alter from Kelem in Mei Kvodei, velecht es iberzogn belshoine. Just like a seed. How do you use a seed? It's a small kernel, and from that grows big things. Matchila nir'eh l'adam ki hadavar sheshaman neveh b'libo, v'lo yenehenu mimenu ki lo yargish taeles. Aval b'ribui hayamim yisorer b'kirbo emes, v'yargish taeles, u'migarger echad yimtza kama gargarim, v'zehu emes. Me'eretz titzmach means it starts small. It's a kernel. It's a small little kernel, and after that it grows. Emes me'eretz titzmach. It's not going to come in one minute. A person works on inside to be doiver emes.

Lovely. Try it, rabosai. Whatever I say, is it true or is it not true? Start with small things. Small. Like a garden, like a seed planted in the ground. And from that, big things come of emes. Emes, the Eretz titzmach. Chochmah, rabosai. And why is it a chochmah? A person could see a beautiful, but there's something wrong because he's not a chochmah, he doesn't see it. It's all about the glasses. I end with a story. He deserved it. When I was a young boy, the first thing I ever heard from Rav Gifter, Camp Agudah, and it seems like this was a theme in Telz, because they said over from the Mordechai Pogromanski, from the sefer zagen from the Mordechai Pogromanski. Telz, everybody spoke about Mordechai Pogromanski. They bigged up the mashal that they took a person to a museum, and they showed him beautiful paintings. He looks at the painting — what's the name of the greatest painters? Avelango. What's? Das nachaim tavo, betavi something, Avelango. Okay, akol panim. Huh? Michelangelo. Michelangelo. Rav Gifter knew it. Unfortunately, I'm not as smart as him. Good, you can't. He knew all the names of all the painters. The guy looks at it and he says, Zoyimilch. Zoyimilch. What's zoyimilch? See, today zoyimilch means that it's yogurt. Europe's, zaya milch was zaya milch. It was green. Kept on complaining that it was green. They showed him another picture, another picture, another. See, al zoy a milch. That look, how could it be? It was like anything, it's all gorgeous paintings. And they look, says Rav Gifter, b'sheim Rav Matzkin, they notice on his glasses from breakfast is left over from the zaya milch. V'meileh, al zeh the zaya milch. Yata maiseh, does this. He sees zaya milch. Rav Gifter used to say over, with this he understands a peledike zach. And they landed on the moon. We know the Russians and the Americans landed on the moon. It's not true. Well, that's what Rav Gifter said over then. They never landed on the moon, okay? Ah-ha, that was the real story? They said they did, okay. You know, let me tell you something. I am not more than what I've heard from my rebbeim all my life. Whatever I say over, something I heard, I mekabel and I trust that. I stood there and I heard this from Rav Gifter. So I don't know who landed on the moon or who didn't land on the moon. The fact that Satmar Rav held that Americans also never landed on the moon. You know that, right? Okay, so let me tell you, you guys forced me into telling you this, okay? According to the Rambam, there's no such a thing as a moon. I don't know if you know that. The Rambam says clearly in Hilchos De'os, it's eina baal geshem. It has no physical entity. The Rambam, Hilchos De'os, perek beis. It's the author of the Rambam. What is he saying? What is he saying or what am I saying? No, what he's saying. He's saying is it's a giss, something like a giss. What is it? The moon. It doesn't exist. Reb Yankiv Zechainu Livracha, zech tzaddik livracha, got up at a Agudah convention. Reb Yankiv got up at a Agudah convention and he said, It's a charayah that the Rambam, what he speaks in Hilchos De'os, is not halacha l'maaseh l'chol hadoros. Zei ater gezogt. Therefore, in Hilchos Refuah, whatever the Rambam writes in Refuah, nu, nu, it's not mukhach that it's halacha l'maaseh for our days. You can imagine the backlash, okay. Mit gefregt, the satmarov, zechainu livracha, zech tzaddik livracha, the Rambam, the moon? Ah! How do you know? Because it was on television, see? That's what television does for you, see? See, the sheker of the television, that it does is, the satmarov said, you see, it proves to you the sheker of the television, all right? Al kol panim, I've gifted it over that two landed on the moon, the American said one step for mankind, one step for... he saw the Creator, he saw the Borei Olam, while the Russian remained a zalbe koifer.

It's all the same thing. Noida lam, say. A person is a doiver emes b'lvavo. A person could see same thing. Chacham, tipesh, has to do with doiver emes b'lvavo. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.