What happens when a person believes in his own inner strength, to the point that he feels he can go against a halacha that is meant to protect him from sinning?
The pasuk says in 17:17 “A king in Yisroel should not have too many wives so that his heart shouldn’t turn astray and he will be removed from serving Hashem properly”. We know that Shlomo Hamelech did take many wives and he stumbled; the pasuk tells us that his heart wasn’t completely with Hashem. How do we understand this? How did Shlomo Hamelech come to disregard a commandment in the Torah? The gemora in Sanhedrin 21: tells us that Shlomo Hamelech erred because the Torah gives a reason for this prohibition. He reasoned that since he was strong enough not to be led astray, therefore it would be okay for him to have many wives. But he was mistaken, as the pasuk says in Melachim that they did turn his heart away from Hashem.
Shlomo Hamelech was the wisest person that ever lived. How did he make a mistake by evaluating himself wrongly? He knew everything; surely he knew his own strengths and weaknesses. We find a similar concept in gemora Shabbos 12: There is a halacha that one may not read by the light of a candle on Shabbos since the light may dim and he might come to dip the wick in oil to repair it and that is a melacha d’oraisa. The gemora says that that R’ Yishmael ben Elisha said “I am not worried about myself. I know that I can read and nothing will happen. This gezeira doesn’t apply to me”. Says the gemora, once he was learning on Shabbos by candlelight and he was about to touch the wick and in the last second he refrained. Then he said, “How great are the words of the chachomim that they made a gezeira and I thought it wouldn’t happen to me and I was saved from the nick of time. So I see how right they are. Rav Nosson read and was nichshal”.
Obviously, R’ Nosson believed in the words of Chazal before this incident happened. So what did he mean? Rav Eliyahu Baruch in his sefer says in the name of Rav Aharon Kotler that really Shlomo Hamelech did not make a mistake regarding himself. He knew himself and his nature and he was correct in his self-assessment. It was true that based on who he was, he wouldn’t stumble at all from too many wives. So where did he go wrong? The Torah is reality. The Torah says that a king cannot take too many wives or his heart will be led astray. And so, even someone as great as Shlomo Hamelech could stumble if he does take too many wives! Even if by nature he wouldn’t be led astray, since the Torah says he will, then he will. He quotes a Zohar that Hashem created the world by looking into the Torah. The Torah is the blueprint of the world, and whatever is written in the Torah becomes the reality of the world. Shlomo Hamelech didn’t know this secret, that no matter how strong you are, you won’t be spared if it’s written in the Torah that you will stumble.
The Chazon Ish in Sefer Emuna U’bitachon says that if a chachom takes a bribe, it will blind his eye. People might say, “I won’t get influenced from a bribe. I can take money from people and nothing will happen”. Says the Chazon Ish, even though you might be right that according to your nature you won’t be influenced from a bribe, but the fact that the Torah says that you will be blinded – so you will. No matter how smart you are, it won’t help. The same it is with R’ Yishmael; he didn’t make a mistake in his self-asessment. He was right that according to his tremendous yiras shomayim, he would never stumble in fixing the wick on Shabbos. By R’ Yishmael, every Shabbos was like our Yom Kippur. There is an interesting halacha that on Yom Kippur night you are allowed to read by candlelight. We are not afraid that a person might come to fix the wick because the fear of Yom Kippur is upon him. So if there is true Yiras Shomayim, it seems that you may learn by candlelight. Since R’ Yishmael’s yiras shomayim was so great, he shouldn’t have to be concerned about stumbling in the halacha. However, if the chachomim made a gezeira that we may not because we may stumble, then that becomes the reality. The fact that our sages prohibited learning by candlelight because one may stumble – that in itself can cause one to stumble. This is the power of the words of our sages.
Rav Elya Baruch asks a very interesting question on the above gemora: why didn’t R’ Yishmael learn a lesson from Shlomo Hamelech, that even if you are very strong you can’t go against the words of our sages? Says Rav Elya Baruch, R’ Yishmael couldn’t have learned this lesson from Shlomo Hamelech. Shlomo Hamelech went against an issur d’oraisa; it says straight out in the Torah that a king may not marry so many wives. However, by R’ Yishmael’s case, it wasn’t an outright mitzvah from the Torah – it was a gezeira instituted by the chachomim. R’ Yishmael didn’t understand that the chachomim have the same power as the Torah, that a halacha instituted by our sages carry the same weight as a mitzvah from the Torah and can also change reality.
R’ Yishmael ended up learning from his near-accident, and that’s when he said, “How great are the words of the chachomim”. Meaning, until now he knew how great the words of the Torah are, that they have the ability to change reality. Now he realized that the words of our chachomim are also so great.
My father shlita says that often the chachomim say we may not do something because it will lead to a sin, and we think we know better. But we don’t. the fact that the chachomim prohibited it will change the reality and so you may indeed come to sin. A person might rationalize with yichud with an old woman, saying that nothing will happen as a result. But he’s wrong. If chazal prohibited it, it is the reality. A person might tend to be lenient with an issur d’rabanan of muktzah, with the rationalization that the Torah never prohibited it. But that’s a serious error – chilul Shabbos is chilul Shabbos, and just as if one violates an issur d’oraisa of hilchos Shabbos his Emunah will weaken, so too if one violates an issur d’rababan his Emunah will weaken.
The Divrei Yechezkal (Shinava Rav)tells us something fascinating regarding agunos. We are usually very lenient so a woman can get remarried, so we accept testimony that the husband died even from a woman or a servant, who usually cannot testify in beis din. We find only one exception, and that is in Yevamos 121. If someone fell into water that has no end, if the body isn’t found than the wife cannot remarry. You can’t assume that the person is dead even though it naturally seems that there’s no way he survived. The chachomim say no, his wife cannot remarry because maybe he is still alive! Why are we so stringent in this case? Says the Shinava Rav, in all probability, if a person is lost at sea, he probably is not alive. Yet, the chachomim made this law, that we cannot assume he is dead and so his wife cannot remarry. By instituting this law, our sages created a possibility for those lost at sea to survive. They created this halacha because they wanted to save lives.
By viewing the Torah and our sages’ words as a powerful reality, we won’t be second guessing anymore. We will wholeheartedly accept both mitzvos d’oraisa and mitzvos d’rabanan with unwavering faith, understanding that once these commandments were instituted, they have become our reality.
