Laws of Shavuos Falling on Erev Shabbos - Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Hillel shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 We’ll divide today’s class into two parts. First, we’ll go over the laws of Shavuos in general. As you know, Shavuos is the holiday of the rabbis who answer halachic questions. We travel to the Rebbe and so on for the simple reason that we’re not needed. There aren’t many questions. It’s a short holiday, just Yom Tov, and there are almost no questions. There’s no Chol Hamoed, so it’s very, very simple. So we’ll just review the laws briefly, and then we’ll get to the main topic.

00:40 Speaker 3 Rebbe.

00:42 Speaker 2 Huh?

00:44 Speaker 3 Rebbe.

00:44 Speaker 2 I wish! With Hashem’s help, may He give us the opportunity and the ability. With Hashem’s help.

00:50 Speaker 3 The rabbi is standing.

00:51 Speaker 2 Come on. You think so? If you beg, I’ll take you with a fishing rod. All right. I’ll spend fifteen or twenty minutes on the laws of Shavuos, and then we’ll move on to what we’ve gathered here for. We’ll go through the laws in chronological order, from before the holiday until its end.

01:17 Speaker 3 Yes.

01:19 Speaker 2 Preparations for the holiday begin today. We have the three days of hagbalah on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of Sivan, starting tomorrow—actually, tonight. During the three days of hagbalah, the prohibition on listening to music still applies. How do we know? Because the halachic authorities permitted music at weddings during the three days of hagbalah—that is, for a simcha of a mitzvah. But they did not permit listening to ordinary music, so the prohibition still applies during those days. Haircuts: As is known, the Alter Rebbe was not comfortable with people getting haircuts during the three days of hagbalah, but you may get a haircut on the day before the holiday. There’s no problem at all. This year, that means Thursday morning. There’s no distinction between before midday and after midday; neither is a problem. It’s different from Erev Pesach: because a korban was offered that day, we don’t get haircuts after midday. Why? Because after midday it’s Yom Tov. But on Erev Shavuos, we have no korban, so there’s no problem getting a haircut. There’s also no problem getting a haircut on Friday, even paying a Jewish barber. On the contrary, the Alter Rebbe says to get a haircut close to Shabbos so it’s clear that it’s in honor of Shabbos. That doesn’t mean a minute before Shabbos. You can get a haircut on Friday, even after midday, with no problem. The Alter Rebbe writes this explicitly in section 251, for example.

02:40 Speaker 3 Wednesday night, because there isn’t much time.

02:42 Speaker 2 Ah, what about Wednesday night? That’s the night before Erev Yom Tov. The night before—

02:47 Speaker 3 Don’t other halachic authorities say not to get a haircut after midday because the machine might break?

02:52 Speaker 2 You’re talking about laws concerning davening and Krias Shema, even on an ordinary weekday, and not only after midday. But the Alter Rebbe permits it after midday. He even permits getting a haircut from a Jewish barber; there’s no problem. You’re right about what you’re saying, but as a matter of halacha, the Alter Rebbe permits a haircut on Friday, including after midday. As for Wednesday night this year, that isn’t Erev Yom Tov itself but the night before Erev Yom Tov. Some are stringent about not getting a haircut then. What’s the reason? It has to do with a disagreement about exactly how to count the thirty-three days of mourning. We won’t go into the details. Some are stringent. But someone who needs a haircut that night—because there are many children to give haircuts to, or [unclear], or the barber is busy, whatever the reason—may be lenient when necessary and get a haircut then too. What did you want to ask?

03:50 Speaker 3 Thirty-three, thirty-three.

03:52 Speaker 2 It’s a disagreement. Come on, we won’t go into it. I won’t go into it. This is also a good place to mention getting a haircut in accordance with halacha. Many people—as my father once mentioned—

04:06 Speaker 3 Go up to the Temple Mount.

04:07 Speaker 2 When they want to go up to the Temple Mount, they shave like Muslims. That’s one way to judge them favorably. But that too is a problem, because going up to the Temple Mount is also prohibited. In any case, regarding haircuts: I’ve mentioned this several times, so I’ll just review it, since it isn’t our main subject now. There’s the area where shaving is prohibited, and there’s the permitted cutting length. As for the length, it’s preferable to be stringent and leave no less than five millimeters. That’s generally a number two guard on a clipper. Four millimeters is also possible, but it’s better not to get into doubts and problems. Five millimeters is a normal length—not too long and not too short.

04:43 Speaker 3 On a clipper, that’s number three.

04:44 Speaker 2 On a clipper, that’s number two.

04:45 Speaker 3 Four, three—it depends on the clipper.

04:46 Speaker 2 It depends on the clippers. That’s why I said approximately number two. It could be—if the clipper gives the length in millimeters, that’s best. If it says [unclear], that’s millimeters. If it doesn’t say, it’s roughly number two. Yes, number two. Now, the areas where you mustn’t cut the hair below five millimeters: I explained this once before. It starts at the upper corner of the forehead and goes in a straight line to the beginning of the ear. In other words, the area up to the beginning of the ear, just beyond the peyos—you mustn’t cut it shorter than that. The Rebbe says you may cut it, but don’t take it down below five millimeters. The Arizal is more stringent about where this area ends. If you take the ear and extend its upper curve upward, then draw a line from the upper corner of the forehead to that point, it includes a little more—another few millimeters, perhaps a centimeter. So don’t cut below five millimeters up to that point. Anyone who wants to follow the Arizal’s stringency may do so. As for the length of the peyos—how far down the restriction extends—leave them at five millimeters down to the middle of the ear. If you feel opposite the ear canal, you’ll notice a sort of separation between the lower jaw and the skull itself. That’s how far down the peyos extend. Below that is the beard, of course, which we don’t touch.

06:15 Speaker 3 At that bone?

06:16 Speaker 2 At that bone. There’s a line opposite the ear canal. A line—

06:21 Speaker 3 A joint.

06:21 Speaker 2 Yes, it’s called the joint, where the lower jaw meets the skull. That’s how far down they extend. Another thing to be careful about is that the peyos shouldn’t touch the beard. There are pictures where you can see the Rebbe actually pulling his peyos back—really pulling them back. You can see it clearly. There’s a stringency mentioned by the Ben Ish Chai. Say someone says, “I’ll cut all the hair on my head to five millimeters, six millimeters, or four millimeters, as required.” So they asked him, “Isn’t that considered rounding the head? You’re cutting the whole head to the same length.” He answered that strictly speaking, it isn’t considered rounding the head. Why? Because you aren’t cutting it to a prohibited length; you aren’t going below four or five millimeters. But as an added stringency, someone who wants to may make sure his peyos remain recognizable even though he cuts the rest of his head to a permitted length. For example, I cut my whole head with a number four or a number five. All right? Again, the rest of the head can even be cut with no guard. But if I cut the whole head with a number five, six or seven, I leave the peyos area a little longer, so it’s noticeable that I have peyos. That’s what the Ben Ish Chai says. Again, it isn’t obligatory, but it is a hiddur. You have to be very, very careful when trimming behind the ear, in the area adjoining the peyos. I’ll explain. There are little tails of hair back here, annoying little tails that you go to the barber to have trimmed. You want the line at the back of the neck to rise, pass behind the ear and meet the peyos in a straight, neat, aesthetic line. So I’ll tell you something more: sometimes you don’t shave that area, and two weeks later you discover a few tufts sticking out there.

08:08 Speaker 2 At the beginning of the ear. So the concern is that if you shave that area down to zero, it’s a problem. Once it’s shaved to zero, you may be violating serious prohibitions. Shaving there is itself prohibited: you’re shaving your peyos, which are part of the restricted area. So you have to pay attention to that.

08:28 Speaker 3 You set the clipper to four or five millimeters and go over it like this.

08:32 Speaker 2 No problem. Four or five millimeters is no problem at all. If you want it to be precise—if you want to trim those little tails—just make sure that after you cut the peyos to four millimeters, okay, or five millimeters, you take those tails with scissors and cut them even with the rest of the hair on your head. Then you know you haven’t gone below the permitted length. All right? Very simple, not complicated. You can also do it evenly with the clipper, moving it upward and finishing that way. But then be careful that the peyos—sorry, the peyos area—is only trimmed a little, that only the length is cut, and that at least five millimeters remain. All right? If you accidentally cut some hairs right down to their roots, you could run into a problem, G-d forbid.

09:18 Speaker 3 The clipper sometimes...

09:19 Speaker 2 [unclear]. That’s why I don’t recommend using a clipper. Scissors are better, and you should be careful. That’s simplest. Good, Tikkun Leil Shavuos. We’re moving into the Yom Tov itself.

09:27 Speaker 3 With the clipper you always have... With scissors you can...

09:31 Speaker 2 Set something.

09:32 Speaker 3 When you take off the plastic guard and the cap.

09:35 Speaker 2 If you use the zero setting—that’s what we’re talking about—if you use the clipper on zero, there’s a problem. If you keep the guard on, that’s fine; there’s no problem at all.

09:41 Speaker 3 So that means it isn’t that you can grab the hair and work on it.

09:43 Speaker 2 Some are lenient about that. Yes, we aren’t; we’re stringent about it. Sefardim, for example, are more lenient. There’s a major disagreement: how long does the hair have to be? The Shulchan Aruch doesn’t give us a length. It says a razor is forbidden and scissors are permitted. And there are three opinions in the laws of the parah adumah about the required length: whether you have to be able to bend the tip of the hair back to its root, or whether it’s enough to be able to grasp it with a fingernail. Being able to bend its tip back to its root is the longest measure, and that’s the one we follow stringently. It’s about four or five millimeters. Being able to grasp the hairs with a fingernail is, I think, the opinion of Rabbi Yishmael. I think that’s around three to three and a half millimeters. But again, the difference isn’t so great, so it’s better not to risk transgressing a prohibition. That’s why I said four or five. Tikkun Leil Shavuos. The Rebbe Rashab said, citing a promise of the Mitteler Rebbe, that whoever sits and learns all night will merit the crown of Torah. The Arizal said that whoever sits and learns all night, without wasting even a moment, and occupies himself with Torah is assured that he will live out the year and suffer no harm. So if someone wants the blessing of the crown of Torah and long life, here are two promises from great Torah sages. Reading the Tikkun: When can you start? A lot of people struggle with reading the Tikkun. Some of the words are difficult, they aren’t used to them, and it’s long for them because they read slowly. You can start reading the Tikkun even right after candle lighting. How do I know? Because that was the custom of the Rebbe Rashab. He would start reading the Tikkun immediately after candle lighting,

11:20 Speaker 2 so there’s no problem starting right after candle lighting—between Minchah and Maariv, after Maariv, or after Kiddush. Then, when you come to read after Kiddush at eleven in the beis midrash, you’ll already be around the Mishnayos, and you’ll be fine. You’ll have enough time to read the Tikkun.

11:33 Speaker 3 But if I read and finish on time, say, I don’t need to sit...

11:36 Speaker 2 You don’t have to. If you want, you can start early. The Rebbe Rashab started early. It doesn’t say why he did that.

11:41 Speaker 3 But say I started after candle lighting and finished at two in the morning. Do I have to wait longer?

11:47 Speaker 2 If you started after candle lighting and finished at two in the morning, sit and learn for another hour and a half or so, until alos hashachar. Learn until alos hashachar; that’s what’s needed. Someone who didn’t finish the Tikkun during the day should finish it—sorry, someone who didn’t finish it at night should finish it during the day. That’s also possible. As for learning, you sit and learn until alos hashachar. There are two approaches to when alos hashachar is; we won’t go into that now. One opinion says 120 minutes before sunrise, and another says 72 minutes before sunrise. The widespread practice I keep seeing here, when people go to the mikvah around that time, follows the earlier alos hashachar, 120 minutes before sunrise. As for the later alos hashachar, there’s disagreement about that too. I haven’t checked this year’s times, but I think the later time is around four in the morning, and the earlier one is roughly an hour before that, around 3:15, something like that. So many people start going to the mikvah according to the earlier opinion. Someone who wants to be stringent and follow the later opinion can do that too. In any event, you immerse shortly before alos hashachar. You can start going to the mikvah fifteen minutes or half an hour before alos hashachar.

13:03 Speaker 4 Any time between three—

13:04 Speaker 2 The stated time to immerse is shortly before alos hashachar. When is alos hashachar? If it’s at four, but you immersed at three, that isn’t shortly before alos hashachar. It’s well before alos hashachar.

13:14 Speaker 4 So, so—

13:16 Speaker 2 That’s why.

13:16 Speaker 4 [unclear] after alos hashachar.

13:18 Speaker 2 No, because then you don’t understand what you’re aiming for. That’s why I described the opinion that people follow in practice. What you see people doing—not day to day; I’ve checked this for Shavuos over several years—is going to the mikvah according to the earlier opinion, 120 minutes before sunrise. Say that time is three o’clock, just as an example. They immerse at 2:45, or at 3:15 if the time is a little later. I don’t know exactly when alos hashachar is; you need to check. People already immerse fifteen or twenty minutes before it, and there’s no problem doing that. Someone who wants to can follow the second opinion stringently. Again, as I said—yes, yes, yes—I don’t want to spend too long on this. On fast days, being stringent according to the first opinion, 120 minutes, means starting the fast earlier. In our case, the stringent opinion is 72 minutes. We won’t get into that now. Okay. Whoever follows one opinion may do so, and whoever follows the other may do so. Whichever opinion you follow, may you be blessed. If you want to be lenient according to the first opinion, that’s fine; there’s no problem. You immerse four times. Someone who is learning when alos hashachar arrives doesn’t have to stop learning to say Birchas HaTorah. We know that at alos hashachar you need Birchas HaTorah before learning, but if you were already learning beforehand, you can continue without interruption. The Rebbe would say maamarim before alos hashachar and continue them afterward. We won’t go into the reasons now because time is short. Birchos Hashachar.

14:34 Speaker 4 Wait a second—what about davening right afterward?

14:38 Speaker 2 I’ll answer everything in a moment. If I haven’t answered something, send it afterward; I’ll address it all shortly. Birchos Hashachar: alos hashachar has arrived. You didn’t go to sleep, and now you’ve stopped learning. What do you do about Birchos Hashachar? You say “Who gives the rooster understanding” and “Who clothes the naked,” but you were awake all night. What about Elokai Neshamah and washing your hands? You didn’t sleep; your hands haven’t become impure. So someone who was awake all night washes his hands when alos hashachar arrives. After using the bathroom, he washes again, as we do the second time—with a towel, like washing before a meal, and so on—and says all of Birchos Hashachar, including the blessing for washing his hands and Elokai Nesham. He says all of Birchos Hashachar as usual, like every day. The difference is that on an ordinary day you get up and wash beside your bed, right? You get dressed, use the bathroom, and then come out and wash your hands as you would before a meal, holding your hands with a towel so they don’t become impure, and so on. Yes.

15:40 Speaker 4 But the first three...

15:42 Speaker 2 Not the first three. That’s [unclear], but with a towel, yes. Then you say the blessing for washing your hands and Asher Yatzar, Modeh Ani, and so on—all of Birchos Hashachar. On Shavuos you do the same thing with one small change: you aren’t getting out of bed.

15:56 Speaker 4 That’s the only change.

15:57 Speaker 2 That’s the only change. You simply go and wash your hands, go to the bathroom, wash your hands a second time with a towel, as you do every day, and continue with Birchos Hashachar as usual. All right?

16:14 Speaker 4 Sorry.

16:14 Speaker 2 About what?

16:15 Speaker 4 That—because you said if he washes from the—

16:17 Speaker 2 Right, we should have—first of all, we haven’t gone into the details. The hardest question is: On what basis do you say “Elokai Neshamah”? What do you mean, “the soul You restored within me”? So everyone says Modeh Ani, yes. But if you don’t say Modeh Ani, that’s not so serious; it’s not even a verse—it was a prayer. It doesn’t contain Hashem’s name. Elokai Neshamah concludes with Hashem’s name. So in fact, many Jewish communities don’t say it. What does it matter? It’s in the Shulchan Aruch and so on, but they don’t say it. There is, however, a private instruction from the Frierdiker Rebbe to say it. That’s the situation: an instruction from the Frierdiker Rebbe to say Elokai Neshamah privately. I don’t know whether it was established for me or something else. It’s an instruction from the Frierdiker Rebbe, and that’s what we do. So we say the blessing as usual. Wait, one second. Krias Shema. When do we recite Krias Shema? What does a person do? He goes to sleep, right? We want to be able to daven properly. We don’t want to come to daven with our eyes closing. So the usual practice, the practice of most people in Chabad, is to go to sleep after immersing, rest until davening, then get up and daven normally. Someone who wants to can also daven at dawn or at sunrise. That’s earlier; there’s no problem with it. There’s no prohibition. That’s a separate question.

17:17 Speaker 4 That’s not their custom.

17:18 Speaker 2 It’s not prohibited. The widespread custom in Chabad is that the communities, as they’re called, daven at ten or ten-thirty, and sleep beforehand. What’s the problem with that? What’s the problem? It’s also stated explicitly that the custom is to go to sleep. So what’s the problem? The problem is that sometimes a person sleeps and sleeps and sleeps, and wakes up after the time for Krias Shema. He very much wanted to daven properly, which is wonderful, but he missed Krias Shema, a mitzvah from the Torah. By then, he can no longer recite it on time. Now, when is he allowed to recite Krias Shema?

17:50 Speaker 4 At sunrise.

17:51 Speaker 2 No, at dawn. At dawn. No, sorry: it’s possible to recite it at dawn, but dawn hasn’t arrived yet. I immersed before then and went to sleep before then. There’s a halachic time called misheyakir, the time for tallis and tefillin, the time of misheyakir. And a person who’s concerned, a person who’s concerned...

18:10 Speaker 4 The question is where we are in the timetable.

18:12 Speaker 2 Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Let me correct myself. The times work like this: first there’s dawn. Then comes the time of misheyakir, when one can distinguish between blue and white. Okay? That’s before sunrise. And the third time is sunrise, when the sun rises. Dawn, misheyakir, sunrise. According to the basic law, when can you recite Krias Shema?

18:33 Speaker 4 From sunrise.

18:34 Speaker 2 From sunrise. Not from sunrise—from misheyakir. At the time of misheyakir. Wait, why? Let me explain why for a second. Some people daven vasikin. What does vasikin mean? They begin Shemoneh Esrei at sunrise. So when do they recite Krias Shema? Before sunrise. Ah, so that’s after dawn. But it’s not just after dawn; it’s after misheyakir, which is a little later than dawn. If a person is standing there at dawn, you tell him, “Look, misheyakir hasn’t arrived yet.” According to halachah, Krias Shema is not ordinarily recited from dawn. When do we recite Krias Shema? Ideally, from misheyakir, and then we daven Shemoneh Esrei at sunrise. This person is up at dawn; misheyakir hasn’t arrived yet, and by the time it arrives he’ll be going to sleep. It’s about twenty minutes before sunrise, I think, if I’m not mistaken. “I’ll go to sleep and wake up afterward, at nine-thirty or ten, and miss the time for Krias Shema.” So the law is as follows: after the fact, in pressing circumstances, one may recite Krias Shema even at dawn, as you said, Roi. One may do so in pressing circumstances. So what do we advise him? Recite it at dawn. He says, “Yes, but that’s not the ideal way. I want to recite it at the proper time, but I’ll be asleep, and I’m afraid I won’t wake up.” So what do we tell him? “Listen, recite Krias Shema at dawn, and pay attention to your intention: If I wake up before the end of the time for Krias Shema, then right now I’m merely reading verses; I do not intend to fulfill my obligation.” He explicitly intends not to fulfill it. Wait, one second. And if you don’t wake up until after the end of the time for Krias Shema, then this recitation will count.

20:13 Speaker 4 Can one rely on...?

20:16 Speaker 2 What?

20:16 Speaker 4 What’s the source?

20:18 Speaker 2 If you want, you can rely on it. [unclear] But that is a lenient opinion.

20:24 Speaker 4 So in practice, we immerse just before dawn.

20:26 Speaker 2 In practice, we immerse a little before dawn.

20:29 Speaker 4 So I’ll already be...

20:30 Speaker 2 Wait, and then you’ll be awake at dawn. You won’t still be awake at misheyakir, because you’ll already have gone to sleep. Recite Krias Shema, recite all the morning blessings, and so on. A person wants to go to sleep quickly; he has no energy, he’s tired. So recite the morning blessings and so on. Make the condition as we explained, and recite Krias Shema with the condition I mentioned. Then, if you wake up before the end of the time for Krias Shema, recite it again. And if not, you’ve gained something: you haven’t missed it. This kind of condition appears regarding many things in halachah. It appears in lots of cases, even regarding the Torah reading. Okay, this condition appears there too. We’ll talk about that as well.

21:04 Speaker 4 Otherwise...

21:06 Speaker 2 Eating dairy and meat. Our time is really short. Eating dairy and meat on Yom Tov. As is well known, the holy Jewish people have the custom of eating dairy foods, for several reasons. One reason is that their utensils were not kosher. After the giving of the Torah, they couldn’t immediately kasher all their utensils and deal with the laws of shechitah and so on, so they ate only dairy. A second reason is that the Torah is compared to milk, as it says, “Honey and milk are under your tongue.” The Rema, in the Shulchan Aruch, gives an interesting reason. He says it’s very simple: just as on Seder night we take two cooked foods, the shank bone and the egg, one in remembrance of the festival offering and one in remembrance of the Pesach offering, so on Shavuos we also need two dishes—two loaves, sorry, two loaves—in remembrance of the two loaves. The two loaves are an offering brought on Shavuos. So what do dairy and meat have to do with it? When a person eats bread with dairy, he can’t eat that same bread with meat. So they told you: have two loaves and eat dairy and meat, and then it’s like the two loaves of Shavuos. And when do we eat them? The plain meaning of the Rema’s words is that you eat them at the same meal. In other words, you wash your hands, eat dairy, wait—without saying Birkas Hamazon—wait an hour, and eat meat. Of course, between the dairy and the meat, you wash your hands and rinse your mouth. You need to wash your hands clean and rinse your mouth, drink something. As I said, you eat—wait, wait, gentlemen, one second. You make Kiddush, wash your hands, eat dairy, wait an hour, drink something, and so on. After waiting an hour, you can eat meat. But in practice—wait! In practice, it’s quite difficult to do that. It’s a bit complicated. I’ll say this: whoever does it deserves praise. One second. Whoever—

23:19 Speaker 2 Whoever does it deserves praise. In practice, what you can do is simply what the Rebbe also did. I won’t go into all the reasons. There’s an obligation to eat meat, and simchas Yom Tov and enjoyment of Yom Tov, and so on. I won’t go into all the details because our time is very short. But in practice, the simplest thing to do is eat dairy baked goods in the morning. That is, you make Kiddush, eat dairy foods, say Al Hamichyah as needed, and so on. You wait an hour, and then you wash your hands and have a proper meat meal. Okay?

23:52 Speaker 4 Where are the two loaves?

23:53 Speaker 2 Very simple. The two loaves can—

23:57 Speaker 4 Wait, wait.

23:58 Speaker 2 Wait, wait, wait. Questions afterward.

24:00 Speaker 4 Who said you need two loaves?

24:02 Speaker 2 He did.

24:03 Speaker 4 He said it.

24:03 Speaker 2 I told you: according to the Rema’s reason, you need two loaves at the same meal. In practice, the Rebbe also did it this way, and many people—again, we don’t have to follow any one person—but many people have that custom. I also know people who eat dairy and meat at one meal.

24:20 Speaker 4 So it’s still part of the meal, without Birkas Hamazon in between and the blessings...

24:23 Speaker 2 You can do that too, if you want. There’s no problem; it’s just more complicated. Some people eat meat at night and dairy in the morning. That’s less recommended. The preference is—

24:33 Speaker 4 For me, with davening, I eat a piece of dairy cake on the side, and then I come back and eat a meal.

24:37 Speaker 2 Seemingly, that also fulfills the obligation; I don’t see a problem with it. Although it’s less preferable because, again, it’s not really part of the meal. But wait a second, and I’ll explain why. The meal starts after davening, after Kiddush. Kiddush must be where the meal is eaten. So doing it before davening doesn’t really fulfill this custom. Okay? So after davening, Kiddush—

24:58 Speaker 4 A meal.

24:59 Speaker 2 Yes, because that’s a meal—kiddush in the place where you eat a meal. Every week you make kiddush here over mezonos, right? That counts as eating a meal there. Your dairy meal on Shavuos will be after kiddush.

25:11 Speaker 4 What do you do afterward?

25:12 Speaker 2 Then you wait—one moment—then you wait an hour and eat meat, after rinsing your mouth and drinking something, of course.

25:20 Speaker 4 We’ll wash our hands. We’ll wash our hands.

25:21 Speaker 2 I said there’s no obligation. You see that the Rebbe himself did it this way. I’m telling you what the Rebbe did, and that’s how I do it. One second. Certainly. What else? Mezonos, right? That’s how it is. A few precautions regarding dairy and meat. Waiting six hours after yellow cheese—we’ll cover this very briefly. Waiting six hours after yellow cheese: there’s a dispute whether yellow cheese is considered hard cheese for the purpose of waiting six hours. Many poskim prohibit eating meat within six hours. Whoever is stringent is deserving of praise. But there’s also substantial basis for someone who wants to be lenient, to treat yellow cheese like ordinary dairy and wait only one hour. Fish with milk—you need to pay attention to this. Fish with milk. People get confused and eat fish with various cheeses and so on. That isn’t right. Why? That’s what the Beis Yosef wrote. Even though, according to all the poskim, it was a slip of the pen—there’s no prohibition anywhere against eating fish with milk—nevertheless, since the Beis Yosef wrote it, our practice is not to eat fish with milk or with dairy foods that aren’t fatty. Fatty dairy foods, with a high fat content, such as 28-percent-fat yellow cheese and the like—wait—may be eaten with fish, and butter may be eaten with it too. That leniency is based on the Tzemach Tzedek; that’s also correct. Um, moving on. Family members eating together—this happens a lot. If we turn this into an in-depth class today, we’ll be here until midnight. That’s fine with me; I have no problem. Stay with me.

26:45 Speaker 4 We’ll stay. I don’t know if we’ll stay awake, but we’ll stay.

26:47 Speaker 2 So that’s also an option. On Shavuos, with Hashem’s help.

26:50 Speaker 4 You’re saying—

26:50 Speaker 2 Two family members eating dairy and meat at the same table. People don’t pay attention to this: someone who doesn’t like dairy eats meat while others eat dairy at the same table. Yes, it happens on Shavuos because he doesn’t like dairy. You have to make sure there’s always a distinguishing object between them, okay? As I said, make sure to put something between them, or eat on separate tablecloths. The object needs to be something that isn’t normally on the table, okay? For example, something like a washing cup.

27:22 Speaker 4 Yes, that one.

27:24 Speaker 2 Moving on. Um, I explained the order earlier. In practice, you can do it. The better approach is to eat meat both at night and during the day. Now, again, if someone comes to me and says he doesn’t like meat, that’s a different matter, okay? I’m talking—wait—about people who like meat. Someone tells me, “Beef doesn’t make me happy; I don’t enjoy it.” If I had time, I’d go through the Alter Rebbe’s entire discussion of this, but we won’t get into it now. Someone says, “I don’t like dairy and I don’t like meat; I don’t enjoy them.” Fine? Then—wait—there’s nothing to discuss. He doesn’t have to eat meat. Why? Because the Alter Rebbe says that there are two mitzvos to partake of things that bring us joy: one is meat and one is wine. So the obligation to drink wine still applies today, unless someone really doesn’t like wine. There’s no point choking down a revi’is of wine. Drink wine you enjoy, okay? Grape juice is less recommended, but drink wine you like. Wait—as for meat, the mitzvah concerns the meat of shelamim offerings in the time of the Beis Hamikdash. We don’t have shelamim meat today. Even beef today isn’t shelamim meat. So, wait, someone who enjoys beef should eat beef. Someone who doesn’t enjoy beef can also eat only dairy. No, not only dairy—yes, dairy. Chicken is also called meat. Yes, something meat-based at any rate.

28:48 Speaker 5 So [unclear] eats dairy mezonos.

28:51 Speaker 2 In actual practice, at night you should presumably eat meat. All of the Jewish people eat meat. In the morning, make kiddush and eat dairy foods as the Rebbe did, and afterward eat chicken, and then taste something, drink, wait an hour, and eat a meat meal with handwashing.

29:12 Speaker 5 I want to—I can’t work it out; I can switch things around. I can wait an hour and after that...

29:17 Speaker 2 Wait when there are five hours left until sunset. What do I care?

29:19 Speaker 5 To have the meal before sunset.

29:21 Speaker 2 Not right before sunset—I was exaggerating. Ah, but it’s Erev Shabbos. This year it’s Erev Shabbos. Wait an hour and a half, two hours; that’ll be fine. I have no problem with that.

29:31 Speaker 5 [unclear].

29:31 Speaker 2 No problem. You’ll make it; it’s fine. There’s enough time—you’ll make it on time.

29:36 Speaker 5 Moving on.

29:36 Speaker 2 The reason I don’t really recommend having a dairy meal and then a meat meal—meaning washing your hands twice—is that, in practice, it’s very hard to do. People who get up and daven early come home at seven or six-thirty, wash their hands, make kiddush, and eat. They eat a little dairy, and then at two—at two they get up—at twelve they get up and eat a meat meal. Of course they can do that. But if your meal starts at two, where will you fit in both dairy and meat, with handwashing for each? You won’t manage it.

30:09 Speaker 5 Both will be enough for them.

30:10 Speaker 2 You don’t have to wash twice. Do it with the same handwashing.

30:12 Speaker 5 But if they eat there in between, they have a problem with handwashing.

30:17 Speaker 2 No, they eat—they get up in the morning, daven at sunrise, and eat dairy.

30:22 Speaker 5 They go to sleep.

30:24 Speaker 2 That’s it, and they bentch before that.

30:26 Speaker 5 They did it twice.

30:26 Speaker 2 Yes, certainly.

30:28 Speaker 5 I said one handwashing.

30:33 Speaker 2 Ah, good. Regarding Shavuos falling on Friday this year, there’s something new: eruv tavshilin. Gentlemen, why do we make an eruv tavshilin? Why? Why do we make an eruv tavshilin?

30:47 Speaker 5 I just want to ask something.

30:48 Speaker 2 One second, one second. So what did we write? What did the Rebbe write?

30:52 Speaker 5 I have daughters who...

30:53 Speaker 2 A person—as I said, a person who doesn’t like meat—the Alter Rebbe says he should have meat or other things that bring joy.

31:01 Speaker 5 Meaning there’s no problem.

31:02 Speaker 2 Bring them joy with other things too. No—if he doesn’t like meat, it doesn’t bring him joy. Why should he eat it? Do you understand what I’m saying? That’s how the Alter Rebbe answers. That’s the meaning. That’s how the Alter Rebbe answers: he says meat and other things that bring joy. Okay, now I’ll say it again; I’m saying the same thing about wine. The poskim write that someone who enjoys wine shouldn’t drink wine he doesn’t like, that disgusts him, because it won’t bring him joy. Okay? So either drink wine you like or don’t drink wine at all. I haven’t seen this addressed in the same way regarding meat, but presumably the same principle applies. It seems the same principle applies. Someone who doesn’t like meat and gets no joy from it can refrain from eating it and eat dairy instead, or... Ah, this year we have something new: eruv tavshilin, because Shavuos begins on Friday. When Yom Tov is immediately followed by Shabbos, we need an eruv tavshilin. Why do we need an eruv tavshilin?

32:00 Speaker 5 Preparation for Yom Tov.

32:00 Speaker 2 Preparation from Yom Tov for Shabbos. Who told you that? Very nice, but what does it say? What’s the logic behind it? What? What does preparing something before Yom Tov accomplish? A cooked food, an egg and a fish. What?

32:12 Speaker 5 You prepare it then.

32:13 Speaker 2 What am I preparing? How does that help? How does that help you cook? What’s the connection?

32:15 Speaker 5 To cook for Shabbos.

32:17 Speaker 2 What’s the connection? How does it enable you to do that?

32:23 Speaker 5 You take it.

32:26 Speaker 2 What’s the connection? If you prepared something on Wednesday and ate it on Shabbos, how does that affect Yom Tov?

32:31 Speaker 5 Go on.

32:32 Speaker 2 So first of all, you all need to convert. That’s the first thing.

32:34 Speaker 5 Amen.

32:35 Speaker 2 And I’m not just saying that—Shavuos is also a festival of converts. You all need to convert, for a simple reason: this question comes up in rabbinical courts for conversion. You should know that. They ask converts. It’s one of the questions they sometimes ask—not every time, not every day, but some converts are asked it. A certain young man here spoke to me after hearing about a woman who converted and was asked why we make an eruv tavshilin. He told me, “When I heard that story, I genuinely wondered: why do we?” He didn’t know, so he considered converting again, but he didn’t. He’s Jewish from birth. In any case, the reason we make an eruv tavshilin is this: According to Torah law—and why am I explaining this? Because besides doing what good Jews do, it’s important to understand what we’re doing. We should do it, but we also need to understand. According to Torah law, you may prepare food on Yom Tov for Shabbos. You may do so without an eruv tavshilin or anything else, on one condition: that you prepare the food early enough for guests to be able to eat it on Yom Tov. In other words, the permission to prepare on Yom Tov for Shabbos rests on the possibility that guests might come. When does that become a problem? If you prepare the food a minute before sunset. Guests aren’t going to come then. At that point you know they won’t come. All right, you—wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No looks, no thoughts. You know guests won’t come, right? A minute before sunset—when would anyone else have time to eat it? So that is forbidden by Torah law. Then the Sages came and said: Even if you prepare at nine or ten in the morning, I have a problem. I’m concerned that if people prepare on Yom Tov for Shabbos, they’ll also come to prepare on Yom Tov for a weekday. Okay, from Yom Tov

34:03 Speaker 2 for a weekday. They were concerned for the honor of Yom Tov. That’s the first reason. So what did they tell you? They said: Prepare an eruv tavshilin before Yom Tov, as though you began your Shabbos preparations before Yom Tov. Then people will say, “If the Sages told me I can’t prepare on Yom Tov for Shabbos unless I began preparing on Wednesday, before the festival, then certainly I can’t prepare on Yom Tov for a weekday.” That’s how they protected the honor of Yom Tov. The second reason is for the honor of Shabbos. What might happen? A person might eat all his best dishes on Yom Tov and forget about Shabbos. Suddenly Shabbos arrives: “Oh, I have no good dishes for Shabbos.” So they said: Start preparing before Yom Tov, so that on Yom Tov you’ll remember to save good dishes for Shabbos. That’s why we need to make an eruv tavshilin and keep it until Shabbos. Okay. The preference, they say, is to eat the eruv tavshilin only at the third meal. Where we don’t wash for the third meal, eat it at the second meal and use the bread for lechem mishneh. You already know how to make an eruv tavshilin. I won’t go into the details because of—wait, wait, wait, one moment. I’ll say it very briefly. For an eruv tavshilin, we take bread at least the volume of an egg, and a cooked food fit to eat—meat or fish, a piece at least the size of a kezayis, or a hard-boiled egg. We take them, and the wording is in the siddur. There are two parts to the text. There’s the wording of the eruv itself: you say the blessing over the eruv and then say, “Through this, it shall be permissible for us to cook, bake, light a candle,” and so on. Anyone who doesn’t understand it in Aramaic must say it in Hebrew as well. You need to understand what you’re saying.

35:53 Speaker 2 Before making the eruv, you need to grant a share to everyone in the city. What does that mean? You take the eruv and give it to your wife. She lifts it a handbreadth and acquires it on behalf of the other people in the city for whom you’re making the eruv.

36:06 Speaker 5 Can your wife do that?

36:07 Speaker 2 Your wife can. And then you say—you say that you’re going to grant them a share. She hands it ba—one second, wait. One second, wait. She gives the eruv back to you, and you—there’s a text there. You need to say the wording in the siddur, that with this you’re granting a share to everyone in the city, and so on. Everyone, uh—you say the blessing and the whole text. You’ll see it in the siddur. I’m skipping the simple things. All right?

36:32 Speaker 5 It’s all in my head.

36:33 Speaker 2 One moment, wait. Also—

36:34 Speaker 6 Why does everyone have to include all the people in the city?

36:35 Speaker 2 Gentlemen, anyone who wants is welcome to pull my beard. I’m religious; I’ll tell you everything. It wasn’t glued on this morning. One moment. Everyone, regardless—everyone’s custom is to make an eruv and grant a share in it to other people. That’s the point. Everyone is obligated to make an eruv, but also to grant a share in it to everyone in the city. That’s the custom. That’s—one moment. Even someone who doesn’t cook, even someone... The wording is in the siddur. I won’t repeat it. The wording is in the siddur; see what it says.

37:05 Speaker 5 Are you making one for me?

37:07 Speaker 2 Yes, and you’re making one for me. Understand? Everyone grants a share to everyone—one moment. Um, wait. Someone who doesn’t cook at home might say, “I cooked everything before Shabbos—before Yom Tov.” That doesn’t help. It doesn’t help. He must make an eruv tavshilin, because otherwise he’ll have to ask a neighbor to light the candle for him. Understand? Lighting Shabbos candles is also something done on Yom Tov for Shabbos.

37:35 Speaker 5 A candle.

37:35 Speaker 2 No, if you’re not lighting.

37:38 Speaker 5 You eat, but there’s the hot plate, the bread anyway.

37:39 Speaker 2 You don’t cook, though. Be well.

37:41 Speaker 5 No, you have to prepare it for Shabbos.

37:42 Speaker 6 Something cold.

37:44 Speaker 2 Cold is different. Yes. Cold and wet, yes. Uh, one more important thing: it’s very worthwhile not to forget to make an eruv tavshilin. The reason is that if someone forgets, he’ll have a problem. He might have to—I say “might.” Someone who forgot to make an eruv tavshilin needs to ask a rav what to do. It depends how negligent he was about it. There are situations where they’ll tell him, “You’re covered by the rav’s eruv.” There are situations where they’ll tell him, “You need to call a neighbor.” There was a Jew here last year who had to go to his neighbor and ask him to come, and the neighbor had to lift all the utensils and pots in his home. You can’t cook yourself on Yom Tov, and your wife can’t cook. There’s a procedure they prescribe. I won’t go into the details; I don’t want you to end up in that situation. What’s more, if you missed it and didn’t make an eruv tavshilin, your wife can’t light Shabbos candles.

38:31 Speaker 5 Just one candle.

38:32 Speaker 2 Just one candle. All right? There is a particular way to light additional candles. That’s why I said not to get into this situation—don’t miss making an eruv tavshilin. If you did miss it, ask a rav, because it’s very important.

38:43 Speaker 5 If you’re a guest, you need to make it together with your host.

38:46 Speaker 2 Yes.

38:46 Speaker 5 If you’re a guest, you need to make it together with your host.

38:51 Speaker 6 Even in someone else’s home.

38:52 Speaker 2 If you’re a guest—no, in principle it should belong to the host. Share it between you. Now I want to emphasize, gentlemen, I want to emphasize: the subject of meat and dairy on Shavuos is rather lengthy, and there are some differences of opinion. What I’ve given here is the practical halachah. Again, I emphasize: a meat meal at night is possible—a meat meal at night. In the morning, dairy after Kiddush. Mezonos, as the Rebbe would do, and after an hour and rinsing—uh, drinking some water, and so on. Wait an hour and wash your hands for a meat meal. Someone who eats dairy at the Shabbos morning meal is not a transgressor or anything of the sort. But I’m telling you what I see as the practical halachic ruling, and again, I’m not going to go into this subject at length. Anyone who wants can discuss it further afterward, verbally, with Hashem’s help. Uh, I deliberately wanted to fit in one more section, a whole other subject. I wrote about it—the announcement for the class said, “There is a key to understanding the Torah that people don’t know.” I want to ask you a question. The yetzer hara—in your opinion, as we stand on the eve of Shavuos, the Giving of the Torah and so on—does the yetzer hara hinder our receiving the Torah, or does it, uh, spur us to receive the Torah?

40:15 Speaker 6 It spurs us on.

40:16 Speaker 2 It spurs us on. Why do you say that?

40:17 Speaker 6 He called the Torah [unclear].

40:18 Speaker 2 Huh? Whose [unclear]?

40:20 Speaker 6 The Torah is its antidote; it’s the solution.

40:22 Speaker 2 The Torah is its antidote. The Torah is the solution to the yetzer hara. Who said the yetzer hara spurs us on? It’s the opposite—it opposes us. Wait, wait.

40:29 Speaker 6 But what does that...

40:30 Speaker 2 Wait, wait, gentlemen, one moment. There’s a well-known story in the Gemara. The Gemara says that the Men of the Great Assembly wanted to kill the yetzer hara for sexual desire. They didn’t kill it. They tried to eliminate it, and it already caused chaos in the world, and so on, right? So what did they do? They killed the yetzer hara for idol worship. Right? Let me ask you a question: Why would they need to kill the yetzer hara for sexual desire? Why? Why? Why not leave it alive? If there’s a problem with something specific, fix that. Arrange for the yetzer hara for sexual desire to affect a person only when it’s needed. Why not? Having children, yes. Children might be born, and so on, yes. So why not do that? Isn’t it a simpler solution? Let’s look at the Zohar. The Zohar says: “Rabbi Yitzchak son of Rabbi Yosi was traveling from Cappadocia to Lod.” He came from Cappadocia; he went from Cappadocia to Lod. Rabbi Yitzchak, Rabbi Yitzchak. By the way, Rabbi Yehudah said to Rabbi Yitzchak: “Tell me, why weren’t the sages of the Mishnah, the Men of the Great Assembly, clever enough to eliminate the yetzer hara entirely, except for the time when it’s needed for marriage?” Rabbi Yitzchak asks Rabbi Yehudah: Tell me, why didn’t the sages of the Mishnah, the Men of the Great Assembly, find a way to kill the yetzer hara for sexual desire completely, except for...

41:57 Speaker 6 When it’s needed.

41:58 Speaker 2 When it’s needed. Rabbi Yehudah answers Rabbi Yitzchak—and pay attention to his answer. He smiled: “The yetzer hara is as necessary to the world as rain is to the world.” The world needs the yetzer hara the way it needs rain to make things grow. Why? Pay attention. “For were it not for the yetzer hara, there would be no joy in learning.” If there were no yetzer hara—not what you said. You said it opposes you. Joy in—ah, “Were it not for the yetzer hara, there would be no joy in learning.” There would be no joy in learning. The yetzer hara of desire serves as the force that makes a person desire to study Torah. And in the words of the Maggid of Mezritch—there’s a book called Betzeva HaKohen, which belongs, I think, to Rabbi Arno Shmuel Hirsch Katz[?], if that was his name, if I’m not mistaken. He writes: “I heard from the chassidic master, our teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, z”l, that even the eagerness, the desire, a person has for Torah or for doing a mitzvah—that eagerness comes from the yetzer hara.” Do you have a desire to learn? That’s the yetzer hara—the desire. What does “yetzer hara” mean here? Without the yetzer hara, a person would have no eagerness at all. Without this drive to desire, a person would have no desire to study Torah. Pay attention: it isn’t opposing you. The desire you have to eat a shawarma or to commit some particular sin—that desire is the same desire that wants you to study Torah. Do you grasp what we’re talking about? That is why the Zohar says, as the Maggid explains, “Were it not for the yetzer hara, there would be no joy in learning.”

43:50 Speaker 6 Against the Alter Rebbe.

43:51 Speaker 2 Do you understand? It isn’t against the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe himself cites this teaching of the Zohar. We won’t talk—we’ll talk about it. One moment. Without the yetzer hara, there would be no joy in learning. There wouldn’t. Why am I saying this? Because there’s a phenomenon we’re going to see: people don’t understand that the key—and it really is the key—to studying Torah is to love it, to love it. Without a desire to learn, no matter how smart you are or whatever—whatever you may be—if it doesn’t matter to you, if it doesn’t interest you, if it isn’t enjoyable for you, you can bury it from the start. It’s worth nothing if you have no desire for it. Now, that desire doesn’t appear in a second; it doesn’t appear in a second. It’s something that develops. But you see what the Zohar says. If not for the joy in learning—if not, if not, if not for the yetzer hara, you would have no desire to learn. In other words, there has to be a desire to learn. Let’s take a look. Look at source D, in the Aglei Tal. “I recall something I heard from some people who stray from the path of reason regarding the study of our holy Torah.” That’s what the Aglei Tal says. They were mistaken, and they said—this was their mistake—“That one who learns, develops novel insights, and rejoices and takes pleasure in his learning is not studying Torah for its own sake to the same degree as one who studies plainly, derives no pleasure from the learning, and does it only for the sake of the mitzvah.” People said you shouldn’t take pleasure in studying Torah. You enjoy it? Then it isn’t sufficiently for its own sake. Don’t enjoy it. “But in truth, this is a well-known mistake. On the contrary, the essence of the mitzvah of studying Torah is to rejoice, be glad, and take pleasure in one’s learning. Then the words of Torah are absorbed into one’s blood.” And pay attention to the last line—it’s powerful: “And since he enjoys the words of Torah, he becomes attached to the Torah.” In our words: If you

45:39 Speaker 2 enjoy Torah, you’ll become attached to it. If it’s something that annoys you, it’s black and white, it isn’t made appealing, it’s... What is this Gemara? It’s heavy, it’s annoying, it’s complicated. There’s no point in sitting down. It’s not—you can sit and learn, but that’s not it. That’s not—you won’t become attached to Torah. The proof is that many good people sit and learn, but because they have no desire for it, they only learn within a structured setting. Once you leave that setting, you spread your wings. The Shem MiShmuel continues. Or someone will come and... Huh? We skipped the Or HaChayim. Yes, sorry. There’s Or HaChayim, source C. Let’s look at Or HaChayim, source C. “If people could sense the sweetness and pleasantness of the goodness of Torah”—pay attention to the wording—“they would go wild with passion for it, and a world full of silver and gold would count for nothing in their eyes, for the Torah contains all the good things in the world.” In other words, if you really felt how sweet it is, you would throw everything else away. And the Or HaChayim isn’t saying this as a figure of speech. Really, why am I bringing all these sources? Why am I saying this? Because they show us how fundamental—not just fundamental and basic, but the one and only foundation—for truly sitting down to learn, truly wanting to learn, and truly absorbing the Torah you study is loving it. If you don’t love it, it won’t work. The Shem MiShmuel here—I’ll tell you what he says from memory. He says there are two kinds of yetzer hara. After all, it says the yetzer hara will be slaughtered in the future. So how can you tell me that the yetzer hara is the joy of learning, and so on? He says there is a yetzer hara of the intellect. That yetzer hara will die in the future. It tries to divert you from matters of holiness; in the future it will die, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu will slaughter it. But there is

47:18 Speaker 2 a drive called the drive that comes from the heart: the drive for desire. Yes, it wants pleasure, what feels good to me. You may want bad things, but that same desire is—you... You see a tzaddik sitting and studying Torah, taking pleasure in Torah, and you see some wicked person off in some hole somewhere, I don’t know where, committing serious sins and taking pleasure in them: the two are coming from the same place. There’s no difference. In both cases, the yetzer hara is jumping and dancing along with them, because it isn’t an evil drive; it’s a drive to desire. How do I know that? Look at Midrash Tanchuma, Midrash Baruch, as I found it. The verse says, “Only this have I found: that G-d made man upright”—a verse in Koheles. “Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not create the one who is—who is called”—meaning man, Hakadosh Boruch Hu created him, uh, uh—“Hakadosh Boruch Hu created man in His image, called righteous and upright, so that he would be righteous and upright like Him.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu created man upright and righteous, like Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, so that he would be that way—in the image of G-d, righteous and upright like Him. And if you ask—uh, uh, here’s the question—why did He create the yetzer hara? For it says, “The inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Huh? We want to be righteous, but He saddles us with a yetzer hara. Hakadosh Boruch—sorry, man says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, say it’s evil; who can make it good? Hakadosh Boruch Hu answers: “You make it evil. I did not create an evil inclination for you; you make it evil.” Why? Why? Look at the proof. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: “Why don’t children of five, six, seven, eight, and nine sin, but only from the age of ten onward?” And then he grows up, and the yetzer hara... Hakadosh Boruch Hu says

48:57 Speaker 2 Go and see: children have no desire to commit sins. They’re innocent. Then, around age ten, your eyes open and you begin to see things you shouldn’t. You start acquiring desires and getting your desiring inclination used to bad things. So you make it a yetzer hara, not Me. I don’t make it a yetzer hara for you. And if you ask, how can a person guard himself? Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: “You made it bad. Why is it that when you were a baby you didn’t sin, but when you grew up you did?” Ah, you opened your eyes. You’ll tell me it’s hard to guard your eyes, hard to guard—there are so many things in the world harder and more bitter than the yetzer hara, and you manage to sweeten them. Then the Midrash lists things people are forced by circumstances to do in order to live. They have no choice, because otherwise they would die. And you understand that there’s no getting around it. So with the yetzer hara, too, there’s no getting around it. Fine, all this sounds very nice. We need to love the Torah, but how do we do that? Everything is built on desire. That’s the foundation. Learning Torah is actually built on desire—on desiring Torah. If you don’t desire it, it won’t work. As the Maggid said, “If not for the inclination—no person would...” And a person needs to long for Torah, to be with it, to pursue it, to be crazy about it, to be fired up about it, and so on. How do we do that? There are many methods and approaches, but before we continue, I want to read a passage with you: what happens to someone who learns Torah without enthusiasm? He comes in all—you know, all dried up. What happens to him? The author of Toras Haminchah. Look at section 11. The author of Toras Haminchah says—his name was Rabbeinu Chananel, Rabbi Chananel Siki or Ski. He was a student of the Rashba, and he would deliver sermons

50:41 Speaker 2 at Shabbos Minchah; that’s when he gave all his sermons. There’s a book called Toras Haminchah, named for the fact that he delivered them at Shabbos Minchah. He says: “When a person comes to the shul or the beis midrash, he should come with love, eagerness and longing.” He’s moving up through the levels here: love, eagerness and longing. “And that place should be beloved and dear, pleasant and agreeable.” In other words, the shul should be inviting. Tell Mendy Leiner[?] here that the shul should be inviting, that it should be pleasant. That’s what’s happening here, boruch Hashem, right? And why is all this important? First of all, he says, for the honor of Hashem, may He be blessed. It honors Hakadosh Boruch Hu to arrive joyfully, for the place to be clean, and so on. And also, because when a person does something with eagerness and love, he longs for it. His soul opens up and expands. In other words, he isn’t constricted. He does things with joy, and his soul is open and expansive, ready to receive intellectual ideas. As it is written, “And when the musician played, the spirit of Hashem came upon him.” So there is a great need to long for shuls and batei midrash, so that one’s mind can settle there. For one’s mind to settle means that he feels at ease, with an expansive spirit. Otherwise, you can’t learn. If a person comes to the shul or beis midrash without eagerness and longing, and prays and learns there without intention—if his intention isn’t to know Hashem, may He be blessed, and to honor Him—he has no advantage over other living creatures. If you come to shul to learn without enthusiasm, if you come to learn without enthusiasm, there’s no difference between you and an animal. You see, you can’t settle for that. Or you need to decide which animal you are. Because other living creatures also gather in shuls and batei midrash: they nest there, chirp there and raise their young there. Birds come and build nests in all

52:28 Speaker 2 sorts of places. As it is written, “Even a bird has found a home.” In other words, if a person doesn’t act with the intention of honoring Hashem, may He be blessed—if you’re not doing it for Hashem’s honor, if you’re not learning for Hashem’s honor, but you learn all sad, all dried up, all... then you have no advantage over a bird! You’re just like the bird itself, which also found a home. [unclear] probably won’t work, but birds, G-d forbid, we can be.

52:50 Speaker 7 I wanted to ask the rabbi something.

52:52 Speaker 2 One moment, I just want to finish this last point, and then I... We have here—okay, to acquire Torah with joy, the first key is, as we said, that it has to be done with joy. You can’t attain it any other way. If you don’t learn with joy, it’s a shame; it won’t work. How do you do it? Let’s look at source 8. “Rabbi Shefatya said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: Anyone who reads without a melody and studies without song, of him the verse says, ‘And I, too, gave them statutes that were not good,’” and so on. Someone who wants to start learning joyfully has to begin by reading it aloud, with a tune. Now, don’t think that’s easy. It’s one of the hardest things to start doing. Why? Because sometimes you arrive feeling sad, dried up. To start saying words and speaking, to pull yourself out of that state, is very difficult emotionally. But one of the great Torah sages once said that if a person starts learning with a melody—learning and saying the Gemara aloud, chanting it, simply learning with vitality—it will take him no more than twenty minutes to get into it. That’s his assurance: within twenty minutes he’ll be into it, and then he’ll be off and running. And I want to finish with one last passage from the Tashbetz. Rabbi Shimon ben Tzemach Duran says: “The Torah is acquired in three ways.” This may be the strongest source I’ve seen showing that this really is the way to acquire Torah with joy. “The Torah is acquired in three ways. The first is to spend more time in the study hall.” Meaning, to have a place for Torah study, equipped with books and scholars. Like here. Books, scholars, coffee, soda, everything. “Second, to distance ourselves from arrogance and haughtiness, because the Torah is compared to water, and it says, ‘It is not in heaven.’ And third, to have a fervent desire and a great longing for it, because through these three things we will be wedded to the Torah, and it will remain with us.” The key to learning Torah, to truly connecting with Torah, is to love it. True, you may have been through

54:38 Speaker 2 a few places in your life where you didn’t exactly love Torah because it wasn’t presented to you properly. But if you really want to learn, love it—and that takes a bit of work. We’ll finish with one last thing from the elder chassidim of Lubavitch, who used to wish one another “Mazel tov” in Lubavitch, I believe after the Torah reading. Now listen, notice that the Tashbetz says here, “Through these three things we will be wedded to the Torah.” And the Frierdiker Rebbe writes that on Shavuos every person should say aloud, “I hereby accept upon myself the yoke of Torah.” So don’t forget that. Enjoy the class.