T88 (Tinyana) PNC - Unripe Fruit, the Koach ha-Moishech, and the Malach with Shofarois Searching for Avaidois

**"Tzarich li-zaher me'oid, she-loi le-echoil pri she-loi nis-bashlah kol tzarkah."** A person must be very careful not to eat fruit that has not yet ripened *kol tzarkah*. Just as it is **assur** to *cut down a tree before its time* — Chazal say (Bava Basra 26): **assur le-katzeitz ilan be-loi zmano** — so too **assur lit-loish** the fruit before it ripens, *ve-chein assur le-ochlah*. **And the danger is sharp**: *yechoilah le-hazik loi me'oid le-nishmaso, ki yuchal le'abeid nafsho al-yedei zeh*. **Why?** — *Ki ha-pri, kol zman she-hi tzricha le-his-gadeil, yeish lah koach ha-moishech*. While a fruit is still in the process of ripening, it has *koach moishech* — a drawing-power, because it needs *chayyus* to keep growing, so it draws nutriment and life-force toward itself. **Once it ripens kol tzarkah, the koach moishech ceases**, because it no longer needs to draw chayyus. But while it still has more ripening to do, **the koach moishech is still active**. **Therefore one who eats it before its time** — the fruit, *me-achar she-yeish lah koach ha-moishech*, *can draw to itself the chayyus ha-nefesh of that very person*; and a person can lose his nefesh through this.

**Three escape-routes — bracha, gevurah, and rest.** *Im mevarech ha-bracha shel ha-pri be-kavanah u-be-yiras shamayim — yuchal le-hinatzeil mi-zeh*. The bracha said with kavonoh and yir'as shamayim is the first protection. **And more**: *im hu chazok be-yoseir ba-avodas Hashem, yuchal gam-kein le-hoitzi od chayyus me-ha-pri ve-limtzo sham avaidois* — for there are *devorim avudim*, lost things hidden inside the very fruit, *raz'in ila'in*, and the strong tzaddik can extract them. **The third route is for fruit already separated**: cooking the fruit at home does *not* help — but if the unripe fruit is *left to lie* until it ripens *me-eilav be-talush* (on its own, while detached from the tree), *zeh moil u-mutar le-ochlan*. **Rabbeinu's mashal**: it is like a man who is yagei'a, exhausted, *u-merachef rechifois harbeih be-fiv* (he is *sa-ffin* — panting heavily) until he rests. So too the fruit picked too early — *tzarich le-hamtin ad she-yanuchu mi-rechifosan*, *and only then is there heter to eat them*. *Ve-ha-devorim s'sumim.*

**The malach with the shofarois who searches for avaidois — and the secret of "ta'avas resha'im toveid."** *Yeish malach, ve-tachtav kammah memunim, ve-chulam oichazim be-yodam shofarois, ve-heim oimdim ve-choifrim tomid u-mechafsim achar avaidois. Ve-heim toikim teki'ah teru'ah, ve-achar kach choizrim ve-toikim teki'ah*. There is a malach with many memunim under him, all holding shofarois, *constantly digging and searching for avaidois*; they blow Teki'ah-Teru'ah — and then come back and blow Teki'ah again. **And when an avaidah is found — there is a great noise and a great simchah.** **Why?** — Because there are *kammah devorim avudim* — many things lost on account of *ta'avois*, bechinas **"תַּאֲוַת רְשָׁעִים תֹּאבֵד"** (Tehillim 112:10). **And even tzaddikim sometimes lose** — bechinas **"יֵשׁ צַדִּיק אֹבֵד בְּצִדְקוֹ"** (Koheles 7:15). **Even the choifrim themselves** — the malachim digging for avaidois — sometimes lose: bechinas **"יַחְפְּרוּ וְיֹאבֵדוּ"** (Tehillim 83:18). And bechinas **"עֵת לְאַבֵּד"** (Koheles 3:6). **The cap-stone reading**: **תַּאֲוַת רְשָׁעִים תֹּאבֵד** — *ta'avas resha'im **toveid*** — *the* roshei teivos *spell* **תְּקִיעָה תְּרוּעָה תְּקִיעָה** — the very kol-shofar pattern that the malach is sounding to *find* the avaidois. The shofar that searches *is the same shofar* that names the lost. *(Rabbeinu also said then* — *kasheh me'oid me'oid li-hyois mekabel*; *ve-gam hizkir az* **"קִנְאַת סוֹפְרִים תַּרְבֶּה חָכְמָה"** *(Bava Basra 21a). Ve-omar she-kol ha-na"l — **kol echad** — kavonois Elul (T87), peirois (T88), ha-malach ha-tokei'a — chad inyana hu, ve-yeish bo razin gedoilim.)*