Tzav: 5786 - The fifth section of the Shulchan Aruch: When the Rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef-Chaim Sonnenfeld, ruled on a question on the night of the Seder about wheat that was found in the soup. Rabbi Shimon Sonnenfeld, at the conclusion of…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:02 Speaker 2 In a Jewish town, the rabbi, who was already advanced in years, passed away. They needed to appoint a new rabbi. There was a young Torah scholar in town, a student of the Gaon of Yehuda[?], who seemed suited to the position. But the town’s wealthy man had a son-in-law who was not such a scholar, and he decided that his son-in-law should be the rabbi. The one with the money calls the shots. So many people sided with the wealthy man, while many others sided with the young scholar, who really knew how to learn. The town was in an uproar: who would be the rabbi? Word reached the local nobleman, who ruled the whole area. He heard there was a commotion in the Jewish town over who would be rabbi. He thought to himself, “I’m in charge here. I’ll decide who the rabbi will be.” He sent word that he would make the decision. But how would he know? How would he decide? He announced that he would examine them, and they set a time and place for the two candidates to come for the examination. The day arrived. What did the nobleman know? Had he studied the laws of mixtures? Had he studied [unclear]? What did he know? So he sent for Mushke, the Jew at his court. “Tell me, which book is most important to the Jews?” The Jew told him, “A siddur.” “Bring me a siddur.” He went and brought him one. The nobleman called in the first candidate, the wealthy man’s son-in-law. He opened the siddur and said, “Start reading.” It opened right to Ashrei. A Jew says Ashrei three times a day. The man recited it by heart, fluently. The nobleman closed the siddur. “Now call in the second candidate,” the young Torah scholar. He opened the siddur and said, “Start reading.” It opened right to the yotzros for Shabbos Zachor. There are four Shabbosos on which some people recite yotzros, various liturgical poems, and the yotzros for Shabbos Zachor have words people aren’t used to, very, very

02:22 Speaker 2 difficult words. So he began to read, but it wasn’t so fluent, and the nobleman decided that the wealthy man’s son-in-law would be the rabbi. The young scholar was heartbroken. Why had Hashem done this? How could it be that the siddur had opened right to those yotzros for him? He went to his teacher, told him the story, and asked why. His teacher said, “Because you really aren’t fit to be a rabbi.” That hurt him even more. Why? His teacher said, “Tell me, when he opened to the yotzros for Shabbos Zachor, why didn’t you just recite Ashrei?” After all, the nobleman didn’t know or understand what he was reading. “You could have carried on with Ashrei. Why didn’t that occur to you? If it didn’t occur to you, you really aren’t fit to be a rabbi.” We learn from this that a rabbi needs to know the fifth section of the Shulchan Aruch. Sometimes these things aren’t written down. Sometimes you have to work things out from the circumstances. All this is an introduction to a story I wanted to tell, connected with Pesach, about the rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Sonnenfeld, of blessed memory. He would conduct his Seder quickly so that if a question arose—and all kinds of questions can come up on Pesach—he would be ready to give a halachic ruling, and people would know they could come to him. On Seder night, a woman came to him. Oh no, what had happened? In short, at home, in one of the bowls of soup served during Shulchan Orech, they had found a grain of wheat in the soup. Did they now have to throw out the entire dish? It was chametz, and on Pesach even the tiniest amount of chametz is a problem. And what about all the utensils? Did they have to throw them all out? They didn’t know what to do. The rabbi told her, “The food is fine. You can keep eating it. There’s no problem with the utensils.” Why? What had happened? So

04:35 Speaker 2 he said, “It’s a Jerusalem custom.” There was a groom there who had gotten married a few days earlier. In Jerusalem, the custom is to throw grains of wheat during the chuppah as a sign of blessing. So the rabbi said, “A few grains probably got caught in his shtreimel, and when he was eating the soup, one fell from his shtreimel into the bowl.” There was no need to throw out all the food, and no question about the utensils. And when they checked, they did indeed find a few more grains of wheat in the shtreimel. That is the fifth section of the Shulchan Aruch. Sometimes you need to work out what happened and why. So he said, “There’s no problem with the food or the dish, and no problem with the utensils. Everything is perfectly fine. It was only that bowl he was eating from—the grain apparently fell into it from his shtreimel.” So, with Hashem’s help, may we have a kosher and joyous Yom Tov.