Part 3 · Chapter 20

Complex Kindness vs Simple Kindness 0:03

שזה נקרא חסד וטוב המורכב, this is called a complex or composite kindness and good. I mean it's complex because it has a lot of parts and a lot of depend, you have to weigh out the situation. ולא חסד פשוט בעצמי, it's not the same simple thing for everybody שמצד הטבע כלל. וכהאי גוונא, the same way with the opposite, the מידת הדין המורכב להטות רצונו ושכלו כלפי אויב ושונא שעשה לו רע הרבה.

So the same way, a person that if somebody does was very mean to somebody and did a lot of bad to him, he's gonna he's gonna become his enemy.

But this doesn't mean that the person is a cruel guy. גם שבעצם טבעו הוא איש חסד ורחמן

וכו׳ even if בעצם he's a kind person, but when it comes to, in other words, it could be that מצד the the עצם טבע a person likes to be kind and that's really what they would want, but they have to realize that to be nice to like there are certain people that you shouldn't be nice to. I mean that's a and in a way, so that's the thing.

If a person is like makes that מדה like the whole the מדה of חסד, if that would be their whole מציאות, then they would be able to say, "Well, even if I'm gonna get killed for it, I'm going to be nice to to to somebody, even if it's gonna be bite me back."

But the thing is that when you go up to the פנימיות of even within תוהו there's the head, there's like the inner רצון that they're coming from, and so therefore that can תיקון is really a higher שורש, has really a higher שורש. Like we see that that like for a parent that wants to just be nice to kids and they they want to have like a relationship of love, so therefore they want that to be externally kind and that the kids should in a way the kids will reciprocate and show them appreciation and love.

That's what they want. They want to be loved by by the kids, and so they wanna just do things that the kids will see as being kind. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they wanna if they that they really want to be kind. So if you say if you go deeper and you appreciate the פנימיות of the רצון to be kind is for their benefit. If you really want that, then you'll be willing to do something that's externally looks like גבורה, depending on the שכל.

ועל דרך זה יובן שיכול להיות מורכב כמה מיני אופנים שונים, you can have, based once you start having these considerations, it can come out in many different ways מאוד, לפי אופן דבר שמורכב בו המדות, according to the considerations that you're using to to put together the מדות. כמו אהבה ושנאה תלויים בדבר כנ״ל, like an אהבה and a שנאה that are dependent on something, הרי יכול למצוא דבר שמצידו אחד יאהבנו ויהיה רצונו ושכלו בהכל לטוב וחסד, ומצד הב׳ באותו הדבר עצמו ישנאהו ויטה רצונו ושכלו לרע ועונש.

So once you're you're letting your עצם מדות be connected to something based on a שכל, then you could have one מצד one, it's beneficial to me מצד one consideration and it's bad to me מצד another consideration. So מצד this I love him, מצד that I hate it. Like, for example, all things of like drugs and things like that. The whole thing is that that on the one hand they like it because it's pleasurable and it does things that like good for them, on the other hand they hate it because of what it does to them, has negative side effects.

In other words, they really they love the positive effects and they hate the negative effects. Since though we're not talking, we're talking about something that's an actual thing in the world, so this physical thing has both of these things connected to it. You can't have one without the other.

It's like so once they are both connected to that thing, so now your שכל can associate two opposite מדות with it.

That מצד that מצד this you'll like it, מצד that you will hate it, and then you have to decide which one is going to override the other one בפועל and how to act. עד שיכול להיות בחינת ממוצע כולל מחסד וגבורה יחד until you come out with a ממוצע that

so because I like I in other words, מצד what you like you totally like it, מצד what you hate you totally hate it. But now practically you have to say, "Well, this is going to end up on my list of things that I like somewhere in the middle, because on the one hand I like it, but on the other hand it's bad." So practically you're able to prioritize.

Balancing Love and Hate in Decision Making 4:52

In other words, essentially there's no mixing: what you like you like, what you don't like you don't like. But since we're talking about the way it comes out in an actual physical thing thing, where they're both together, so if you do a simple equation of the total amount of gain you get, so you're able to measure the amount of pleasure versus the amount of pain and subtract and you can figure out how to maximize your, you know, like in a business deal, I mean you want the profit and you don't want the expenses.

So you have to figure out in a, you can have a business deal where you end up losing money, but you still make a little bit of a, you make some money from selling something, but the amount of money you get to put into it makes it that you lose more than than you gain.

So then it's not worth it, or you could just gain a little bit, and then you can gain a lot. So, in other words, the money that you're gaining back you always, that's what you want.

But since you, you're doing על פי שכל, so you can say, "I'm not just going to go to any deal that's going to end up making somebody give me money. I'm only going to do one that's going to end up being profitable, and has to be profitable enough to be worth my, to be meeting my needs."

So you can end up making like a hierarchy that you like this better than that, and which you think of like a ממוצע, that this is like so-so. כמו

שכתוב באשר משפטו ישם, I forget how the end of the word is, but the ענין is that it's talking about that it means that when ה' is judging, there you find His רחמנות and His חסד.

God’s Mixed Judgment: Saul’s Punishment and Honor 6:26

So it seems like it's opposite things. If He's judging, so then, so it says that this was said about שאול, על שאול, שהמית את הגבעונים, ועל שלא נספד כהלכה, דא ואיפכא כחד, that when שאול was punished because he killed the גבעונים, but at this right, that he killed the גבעונים because they helped דוד. So because of that he was being punished, but at the same time that he was punishing שאול for that,

when שאול died, he wasn't given a הספד, and so he told דוד to make sure that a הספד was done. So in other words, because because of what שאול did, there was a there was a plague and דוד didn't know what to do and they asked, with נבואה they found out that it's because of שאול. And so he was told to give over to the גבעונים, they gave over some of the descendants of שאול to be hung,

and so that was they were punishing שאול. But at the same time that he was being, דוד was being told to give these people over to the גבעונים, he was told to give a הספד for שאול for because he was never given proper honor. So wait a minute, are you mad at שאול or is God mad at שאול or is He happy with שאול? He's punishing him and rewarding him at the same time.

In other words, the ענין is that it wasn't an עצם thing that God was like he hates שאול and that's it, or he likes him, like or a parent gets mad at a child for, he yells at him for doing something wrong, it's not like now he doesn't love him anymore.

In other words, what what you do good I like, and what you don't do good I don't like. It's, they have no direct connection to each other, so you can have both at the same time.

וכן כשנשא שלמה בת פרעה, also with שלמה that that ה' was angry because he married בת פרעה, על זה אמר כי על אפי, that this is I'm angry, וכולי.

But at the same time, שיר ושיר השירים נאמר על שמחת בנין בית המקדש. So he said, "I was angry about that forever," but at the same time it says that since שלמה built the בית המקדש, it says שיר השירים, which is like a whole thing of שמחה and love, how much ה' loved שלמה. וכמו שכתוב ביום שמחת לבו וכולי, the day of his, the rejoicing of his heart, which is the time of the בית המקדש was built, that ה' was eternally happy because of that.

Divine Anger and Joy Over Solomon’s Choices 8:54

שמחה וחרון אף, דא ואיפכא כחד. So we see that ה' both had שמחה and anger at שלמה at the same time. וכן כי יצר לב האדם רע וכולי, and the same thing with man, that God with the מבול, first God said that since man is bad we're going to destroy him. After the מבול, he said that since man is bad we won't destroy him.

So what do you mean? The same thing, the same thing, the fact that man has a יצר הרע was both a reason to hate him and a reason to have mercy on him.

One, why? Because one thing is saying, "Well, they're bad, so I mean they're, we should get rid of them." The other side is saying, "Yeah, but they're born bad, so it's not their fault."

This is like what happens in a court case, that in a court case the same נקודה, מצד the one side they show you how that could be, how that connects to חסד, the other side shows you how it connects to גבורה.

So the one side says, "Well, they're born bad, so then we should get rid of them, because that's a bad thing. In other words, they're going to sin." The other side says, "Yeah, but it's not really, that means it's not fault, cuz they're born bad. So, we should be be easy on them. The other side said, "No, that makes them worse. That means that there's even no hope."

So, I mean, you could look at it both ways. It really just depends. Whatever you want, you'll be able to use that as an excuse for it.

Flood, Rainbow, and the Refinement of the Evil Inclination 10:16

And I mean the end of the day is that there was before the מבול, the bad wasn't able to be refined, and after the מבול, the world was refined a little bit, which is why there's able to be a rainbow. The ענין of a rainbow is that like the the cloud obstructs the light.

But that before the מבול the atmosphere was thick and it wouldn't make a rainbow. After the מבול, the atmosphere became thinner, and so now the light was able to come through, and when it hit the like the the raindrops, it would make a rainbow. In other words, that it it was מגלה like the beauty, hidden beauty in the light, that that resistance.

So, after the מבול, the bad of a person was refined enough that it could be used for good, that a person, in other words, be able to overcome his יצר הרע, and the fact he has to fight and have an opposition, and it's hard for him to do what God wants, will bring out the inner beauty of his connection to God, of his נפש אלוקית and things like that, so then it was a good thing.

Because But when it couldn't When it was before the מבול, wasn't able to be used in a positive way, so therefore it was the bad side won.