Click here to view text of Daf (can be minimized alongside player)
Play Audio Only Download Audio Download Video
Today’s Daf Yomi Question:
A person born on Tuesday is prone to wealth and zenus; how is this compatible with the concept of ‘Bechira’ (free will)?
Rashi explains that it means he will have strong desires. He will have Nesyonos becuase of this. He can fulfill his desires Behetter or try to overcome them. He has to know what he is capable of doing and do what he understands, as it says in Shulchan Aruch.
The Mars person doesn’t have this trouble since he can use it for a Mitzva. This much is from the secrets of creation, why one person has more Nisyonos than another, or why a person is fed more opportunities for Mitzvos than are others. Kach Alsa Bamachshava, Zechus Avos, Gilgul…
In Nida 16b the Tosafos Harosh says regarding this Gemara that a person can overcome the Mazal he is born with.
Tosafos there in Nida asks about Chizkia who was fortold that his son Menashe will be a Rasha. After answering that he was merely seeing the future and his decisions were not pre-decided, Tosafos points to our Gemara and says that many things are based on Mazal and that Hashem does not necessarily interfere with their system. Therefore this does not go against the rule of Hakol Mishamayim Chutz Miyir’as Shamayim, since it is not from Shamayim.
(Tosafos might be saying two separate answers. The first is like the Rosh. He is saying that in all probability he will turn out to be a Rasha, but his actual decision and level of Yiras Shamayim was not dictated by Shamayim or the stars.)
It must be pointed out, though, that in both cases mentioned in Tosafos we actually find that what was fortold was acually, or eventually, overpowered. Reb Nachman’s mother gave him Yiras Shamayim and Menashe did Teshuva eventually. Who knows if he was not created for the purpose of showing that Hashem made a special hole for him to return.
What I said from Rashi works for being born in the hour of Venus, or in the first Pshat of Rashi of Tuesday, that the grass grows fast and a lot. The second Pshat of Rashi, though, has to do with mixing and is directly associated with Aveira.
Interesting though, is that Rashi derives this from the fact that there is no command for the grass to come out Lemineihu. The Gemara in Chulin 60 says that although there is no explicit command for the fidelity of grass, the grass did so on its own, after seeing that this is what Hashem wants.
So, if the person is like the grass and will have the desire to break boundaries that are not inborn, he obviously has the ability to overcome this desire as well, just like the grass.