The Laws of Prayer - Rabbi Binyomin Cohen shlita

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

00:09 Speaker 2 Hello, everyone. We’ll learn the laws of prayer. The importance of praying with a congregation is well known: a prayer said with a congregation is always accepted, always heard. It says, “Behold, G-d is mighty and does not despise.” The merit of the congregation is a great merit. When a person prays together with a congregation, his prayer is not examined as closely as when he prays alone. We can see an example of this in a school classroom. There’s a test, and twenty or thirty students take it. Each student is asked one or two questions. What happens to a student who, for one reason or another, couldn’t take the test? He wasn’t at school that day, so they give him a makeup test. Of course, that test is one-on-one. They won’t ask him just two questions. He’ll have to answer at least fifteen or twenty questions. The test will be much more involved, much harder. That student might ask, “Wait, if I’d been there with the class, they would have asked me two questions, and that would have been the end of the test. Why do they need to ask me twenty questions now?” The answer is that now you’re alone. When you were with everyone else, they asked the whole class all the questions, and each student ended up answering one or two, perhaps three. But now you’re alone. They’re not going to give you a five-minute test. It’s the same with prayer. When a person prays with the congregation, the merit of the congregation’s prayer is so great that his prayer isn’t scrutinized, even if here and there he wasn’t at a hundred percent. But when he prays alone, it’s an entirely different matter. That’s why praying with a congregation is very important. The question is: what happens if someone arrives late at shul and the congregation has already begun praying? If he starts from the beginning now, he won’t reach the Amidah together with the chazzan.

02:30 Speaker 2 So what does he do? There are two possibilities. One, which is stated in the Shulchan Aruch, is that he can skip certain parts of the prayers and make them up afterward. He can’t skip everything, and we’ll explain. For example, he says Baruch She’amar, the opening blessing before Pesukei Dezimra. Then he says Ashrei Yoshvei Veisecha. If he can, he also says the Song at the Sea, and then Yishtabach, the closing blessing of Pesukei Dezimra. He then continues with the blessings of Shema. After the prayers, he makes up all the psalms he missed. That is according to halacha, as stated in the Shulchan Aruch. But according to Kabbalah, it is known that the prayers and their sections correspond to spiritual worlds. There are four worlds—Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah—and one cannot skip between the worlds. So the prayers have to be said in order, and from Baruch She’amar onward, nothing is skipped. Anything before Baruch She’amar can be skipped and made up afterward. But from Baruch She’amar—when one is no longer permitted to speak—through the end of the prayers, according to Kabbalah one skips nothing. He needs to say the entire prayer service in order. Of course, this makes it all the more important for a person to be mindful and make an effort to arrive in time to pray with a minyan, so he doesn’t miss it. If someone prays with a minyan that goes quickly—say, a minyan of workers hurrying to their jobs—he can start a little before everyone else, a little before the chazzan. He might be at Ashrei Yoshvei Veisecha when the chazzan is beginning Hodu, and then he’ll reach the Amidah together with him. When we speak about praying with a minyan, the main thing is the Amidah, Shemoneh Esrei, which he needs to say together with the chazzan. Everything before Hodu can be made up afterward, because it is considered a kind of introduction to the prayers: the passage of the Akeidah, the incense passage, and Eizehu Mekoman.

04:52 Speaker 2 All of that can be made up afterward. Of course, ideally one should follow the order and say everything from beginning to end. But if he skips those passages, it isn’t considered skipping part of the prayers, because the prayers begin with Baruch She’amar, and from there nothing is skipped. If someone forgot Ya’aleh Veyavo on Rosh Chodesh, there is a difference between Maariv and Shacharis or Mincha. At Shacharis and Mincha, if he forgot Ya’aleh Veyavo, he repeats the Amidah. At Maariv, he does not, whether Rosh Chodesh is one day or two. Someone who forgot Ya’aleh Veyavo at Maariv on Rosh Chodesh does not repeat the Amidah. Why is that? Why does he not repeat it at Maariv, but does at Shacharis and Mincha? Some have suggested that because Maariv was originally optional, he does not repeat it if he made a mistake. After all, the entire Maariv prayer was optional. Although today Maariv has been accepted as an obligation, since it was originally optional, he does not repeat it at Maariv. But that isn’t correct, because if that were the reason, why would he repeat it at Maariv on Chol Hamoed? It is only on Rosh Chodesh that he does not repeat it. On Chol Hamoed Sukkos or Chol Hamoed Pesach, if someone forgot Ya’aleh Veyavo, he repeats the Amidah even at Maariv. If the reason were that Maariv was optional, he wouldn’t have to repeat it on Chol Hamoed either. The fact that someone who forgot Ya’aleh Veyavo does repeat it on Chol Hamoed shows that the reason is not that Maariv was optional. Rather, there is another reason. Today we follow a calendar; we know in advance when Rosh Chodesh will be. We know that Rosh Hashanah was on Shabbos and Sunday, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan was on Sunday and Monday, and Rosh Chodesh Kislev will be on Tuesday. We know in advance when Rosh Chodesh will be. We follow

07:05 Speaker 2 the calendar we know. When the Beis Hamikdash stood, in the time of the Sanhedrin, they did not establish the new month this way. Witnesses would come to beis din and testify that they had seen the new moon, and beis din would declare that day Rosh Chodesh. That was the procedure, as the Mishnah says in tractate Rosh Hashanah. This was so important that one was permitted to travel on Shabbos to come to beis din and report seeing the new moon. Take, for example, someone who didn’t live in Jerusalem—say he lived in Beit Shemesh—and he saw the new moon. He wouldn’t be able to reach Jerusalem on foot that day. So it says that someone who saw the moon and lived far away could ride a donkey on Shabbos to testify before beis din that he had seen it. In other words, it was so important that beis din would establish Rosh Chodesh based on witnesses who came and testified that they had seen the new moon. Beis din convened during the day, not at night. That means that at night, they never knew whether it would be Rosh Chodesh or not. Only the next day, when the witnesses came to beis din and the judges questioned them and determined that their testimony was reliable and accurate, would they establish that day as Rosh Chodesh. The Mishnah says in tractate Rosh Hashanah: the head of the beis din says, “Sanctified,” and everyone answers after him, “Sanctified, sanctified.” So they sanctified the new month only during the day. They did not sanctify it at night, because they did not know whether witnesses would come. Although today we follow the calendar and know from the night before that the coming day is Rosh Chodesh, the actual sighting and the actual determination by beis din took place through the witnesses, and the witnesses came only during the day. Therefore, at Maariv, if someone forgot Ya’aleh Veyavo, he does not

09:09 Speaker 2 Again. The Rambam writes that when Moshiach comes, with Hashem’s help, we will return to sanctifying the new month based on sighting the moon, rather than following the calendar. Witnesses will come to the beis din and testify that they saw the new moon. The beis din will question them: How did you see it? Was it shaped like this or like that? The Mishnah says that Rabban Gamliel had pictures of the moon on a board on the wall, like a school board, showing different shapes: a crescent facing left, a crescent facing right, a thicker crescent, a thinner one. He would ask them, “Did you see it like this or like that?” He would question the witnesses about how they saw the moon. The Rambam says that when Moshiach comes, with Hashem’s help, we will again sanctify the new month based on sighting the moon. We will not follow the calendar we use today, but witnesses who come to the beis din. That means that at night we will once again not know whether it is Rosh Chodesh. We will know only when the witnesses testify and the beis din declares that day Rosh Chodesh. Since that is the case, at Maariv they do not know whether it is Rosh Chodesh, and that is why someone who did not... someone who forgot to say Yaaleh Veyavo at Maariv on Rosh Chodesh night does not repeat the prayer. All of that applies to Rosh Chodesh. On Chol Hamoed, witnesses are not needed. Everyone knows that Chol Hamoed falls during the seven-day festival. Whether it is Pesach or Sukkos, it makes no difference. Once there has been a Seder night, the seven-day festival is Pesach. Once there has been the first Yom Tov of Sukkos, the seven-day festival is Sukkos. So here the issue is not that Maariv is optional. With Rosh Chodesh, there is uncertainty at night: they do not know whether it will be Rosh Chodesh or not. It is not a matter of whether Maariv is optional. Rather, the whole question of whether it would be Rosh Chodesh that night was very much in doubt. With Chol Hamoed, there is no doubt at all. Once

11:03 Speaker 2 Sukkos or Pesach has begun, the days that follow are part of that festival, and therefore at Maariv on Chol Hamoed one repeats the prayer if one omitted Yaaleh Veyavo. If someone forgot it, even at Maariv, they repeat the prayer. There is no doubt about whether it is a festival or whether it is Chol Hamoed. This differs from Rosh Chodesh, when they knew only during the day whether it was Rosh Chodesh, because the witnesses arrived during the day. With Chol Hamoed, they knew from the outset, so someone who forgot Yaaleh Veyavo on Chol Hamoed must repeat the prayer, both on Chol Hamoed Sukkos and on Chol Hamoed Pesach. The Shabbos Amidah differs from the weekday Amidah. It is shorter: the first three blessings, the last three blessings, and one middle blessing. Suppose someone makes a mistake and, out of habit, begins the weekday blessings. He finishes “the holy G-d” and begins “You grant man knowledge,” and so on, then remembers in the middle of a blessing. He should finish the blessing in which he remembered and then begin the middle blessing for Shabbos. For example, on Friday night, someone said “You grant man knowledge” and remembered in the middle of “Heal us.” He finishes, “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who heals the sick of His people Israel,” and returns to “You sanctified the seventh day.” Or he remembers in the middle of “Bless for us”; he finishes, “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who blesses the years,” and begins “You sanctified the seventh day,” and so on. That applies if he remembers in the middle of a blessing. But what if he said only the word “You”? He was about to say “You grant man knowledge,” said “You,” and then remembered. There is a difference between Friday-night and Shabbos-afternoon prayers on the one hand, and Shabbos-morning prayers on the other. On Friday night, the Shabbos prayer also begins with “You”: “You sanctified the seventh day.” So if he said “You,” even though he intended to say “You grant man knowledge,” he has said only “You,” and he continues, “sanctified the

13:27 Speaker 2 seventh day,” and continues the Shabbos prayer. The same applies to Shabbos Minchah. Although he intended to continue, “grant man knowledge,” he had not said those words; he had said only “You.” The Minchah prayer begins, “You are One and Your Name is One.” So after saying “You,” he continues, “are One and Your Name is One,” and so on, and continues the Shabbos prayer. Shabbos morning is different. There is no “You” there. The Shabbos-morning prayer begins, “Moshe rejoiced in the gift of his portion.” Therefore, if he began “You,” he finishes the blessing “Who grants knowledge” and begins “Moshe rejoiced in the gift of his portion.” This applies to Shacharis, Maariv and Minchah. Shabbos Mussaf is different. If, instead of beginning Mussaf with “You established Shabbos and desired its offerings,” someone began “You grant man knowledge” and then remembered, he stops in the middle of the blessing. He does not finish it with “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who grants knowledge,” or “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who blesses the years.” He stops and begins the text of Mussaf: “You established Shabbos and desired its offerings.” What is the reason for the difference? Why, in the Shabbos prayers of Maariv, Shacharis and Minchah, does he finish the blessing, while in Mussaf he stops in the middle? Because, in principle, it would have been fitting to recite the regular Shemoneh Esrei on Shabbos too and add the Shabbos passage, just as we say Yaaleh Veyavo on Rosh Chodesh and Chol Hamoed. It would have been fitting to recite the regular weekday prayer and add the Shabbos passage. But our Sages said: the Shabbos prayers are long enough already. There is Shacharis and Mussaf, the psalms recited before Baruch She’amar, and the Torah reading. When would we get home? When would a person eat the Shabbos meal? So they shortened the Shabbos Amidah to just seven blessings instead of nineteen. But since, in principle, it would have been fitting to say the entire

15:43 Speaker 2 weekday Amidah, someone who mistakenly began a weekday blessing finishes the blessing he has already started. That applies to Maariv, Shacharis and Minchah. As for Mussaf, even on a weekday Rosh Chodesh we do not say some version of Yaaleh Veyavo. The Mussaf prayer has its own text: “You gave Rosh Chodesh to Your people as a time of atonement for all their generations.” So it has no connection to the regular blessings of the Shemoneh Esrei. Therefore, if someone mistakenly began “You grant man knowledge,” or any other weekday blessing, during Mussaf, he stops in the middle and returns to “You established Shabbos and desired its offerings.” Until now we have discussed someone who mistakenly began a weekday blessing in a Shabbos prayer. What happens if someone substitutes one Shabbos prayer for another? On Friday night, instead of saying “You sanctified the seventh day,” he said “Moshe rejoiced in the gift of his portion,” or “You are One and Your Name is One.” Or the reverse: on Shabbos morning, instead of saying “Moshe rejoiced in the gift of his portion,” he said “You are One and Your Name is One,” or “You sanctified the seventh day.” Since they all have the same conclusion, “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who sanctifies Shabbos,” if he remembers before concluding the blessing, of course he corrects himself. Suppose on Shabbos morning he said “You are One and Your Name is One” instead of “Moshe rejoiced,” then remembered and corrected himself, returning to “Moshe rejoiced in the gift of his portion.” But if he already concluded the blessing and said, “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who sanctifies Shabbos,” he has fulfilled his obligation. The conclusion of all the Shabbos blessings is the same, at Maariv, Shacharis and Minchah: “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who sanctifies Shabbos.” Therefore, after the fact, he has fulfilled his obligation and does not need to repeat the prayer in which he made the mistake. He has fulfilled his obligation with the prayer he said, even if he substituted one for another. But that is only

17:53 Speaker 2 when he substituted one Shabbos prayer for another. It is different if he began a weekday prayer, “You grant man knowledge.” That is another matter. On a related note, suppose someone forgot to say Nishmas. Out of habit, he finished Shirat Hayam: “And Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be One and His Name One.” He began, “May Your name be praised forever, our King,” and finished the blessing of Yishtabach, ending with “the one King, the Life of all worlds.” Then he thinks, “Wait, what about Nishmas? I forgot to say Nishmas.” Nishmas belongs between Shirat Hayam and Yishtabach, and he forgot it. He did not say Nishmas. He can say it after Yishtabach, before beginning Yotzer Or. He says “Nishmas kol chai,” and it is not considered an interruption, since it is part of the Shabbos Pesukei Dezimra. It is true that Nishmas belongs between Shirat Hayam and Yishtabach, before Yishtabach. But if he made a mistake and already said Yishtabach, he can say “Nishmas kol chai” afterward, and it is not considered an interruption. How do we see that it is not considered an interruption? During the Ten Days of Teshuvah, after Yishtabach we say, “A song of ascents: Out of the depths I have called to You, Hashem.” If that were an interruption, how could we say “A song of ascents” after Yishtabach? Wouldn’t it be an interruption? We see from this that it is not. Of course, ideally one should say everything in its proper order. But someone who mistakenly said Yishtabach and finished it can say “Nishmas kol chai” after Yishtabach, before beginning “Who forms light and creates darkness.” It is no less appropriate than saying “A song of ascents: Out of the depths I have called to You, Hashem,” and he has fulfilled his obligation. There is something else on Shabbos: additional chapters of Tehillim that we say between Hodu and Baruch She’amar. On weekdays, after “Hashem reigns” there is just one psalm, “For the conductor, with melodies,” followed immediately by Baruch She’amar. On Shabbos there are various psalms, “The heavens”

20:16 Speaker 2 “The heavens declare the glory of G-d,” “Rejoice, O righteous ones,” and so on—verses in the psalms said between Hodu and Baruch She’amar. What happens if someone makes a mistake on Shabbos and, out of habit, after finishing Hodu and Hashem Melech, starts Baruch She’amar? He skips all the psalms he was supposed to say between Hodu and Baruch She’amar, and remembers only after finishing Baruch She’amar, at “a King praised in song.” Then he says, “Oh, wait, what about all those psalms? I didn’t say them.” The question is whether he can say them after Baruch She’amar, before Yehi Chavod and Mizmor Shir Leyom HaShabbos, or whether we say no, that would be an interruption, that is not where they belong, and he should wait until after the Amidah. The halachah is that he can say them after Baruch She’amar, before Mizmor Shir Leyom HaShabbos. Why? Because there are prayer rites, such as Nusach Ashkenaz, in which the prescribed order places Baruch She’amar before Hodu. In Nusach Chabad, as well as Nusach Sefard and the Sephardi rite, Hodu comes before Baruch She’amar, but in Nusach Ashkenaz, Baruch She’amar comes before Hodu. So when someone has made this mistake, he can rely on the opinions that place this material there in the prescribed order of prayer, and it is not considered an interruption if he says those psalms after Baruch She’amar. That is what I heard from Rabbi Ashkenazi, a”h: someone who made this mistake can say those psalms between Baruch She’amar and Mizmor Shir Leyom HaShabbos, and it is not considered an interruption. It is common for someone to daven in different shuls—not necessarily his neighborhood shul or the shul near his home. Say he travels to visit someone, or he is on the road and stops at a shul along the way where they use a different nusach. Suppose he davens Nusach Chabad and enters a shul where they daven Nusach Sefard or Nusach Ashkenaz,

22:48 Speaker 2 or the other way around, and he needs to lead the prayers. Suppose he is an obligated mourner: he has a yahrzeit or is within the year of mourning, and he wants to lead the prayers. What should he do? How should he daven? Which nusach should he use—his own or the congregation’s? There are letters from the Rebbe about this. Since the silent Amidah is something he davens for himself, he davens it in his own nusach, the one he normally uses. But the repetition of the Amidah is for the congregation. After all, what is the purpose of the repetition? To fulfill the obligation on behalf of someone who did not concentrate or cannot daven. That is why the prayer leader recites the repetition. Since it is intended for the congregation, he should recite it in the nusach the congregation uses. Whether it is Nusach Sefard, Nusach Ashkenaz, or the Sephardi rite—whatever it may be—because it is for the congregation, he uses the congregation’s nusach. But suppose people from different places have gathered. For example, someone is at a train station in the afternoon, they see that sunset is approaching, and someone calls out, “Minchah, Minchah! Who wants to daven Minchah?” Here you cannot say there is an established local nusach. These are travelers who happened to be there: one davens Nusach Sefard, another Nusach Ashkenaz, another the Sephardi rite, and another Nusach Chabad. Since they are a group of people gathered in a place without an established congregation, he can daven the whole service in his own nusach, including the repetition. There is no established minyan here with a nusach of its own. In a regular shul, the local custom determines its nusach, so he should recite the repetition in the congregation’s nusach. But when people have happened to gather together in a place like this, he can daven everything in his own nusach,

25:00 Speaker 2 since during the silent Amidah everyone davens in the nusach they are accustomed to. Another point: Some have a custom—an Ashkenazic custom—to take out a Torah scroll on Simchas Torah night and call up three people: a kohen, a Levite, and a Yisroel. Chabad and Sephardim do not have this custom. What happens if a Chabad chossid or a Sephardi finds himself at an Ashkenazic minyan where they take out a Torah scroll on Simchas Torah night, and he is a kohen, there is no other kohen, and they call him up to the Torah? Can he go up, even though according to his custom they do not take out a Torah scroll at night and there is no Torah reading on Simchas Torah night? But this is the local custom. Can he go up, or should he step outside and let three Yisroelim go up? The answer is that he can go up, because that is the local custom. Here, the custom is to call people up, even though it is not his own practice. He can recite the blessings over the Torah; there is no problem with that. He can recite the blessings and go up to the Torah—of course, if he was called up—and it is not considered an interruption. Someone needs to say Kaddish because he has a memorial day, a yahrzeit, or he is within the year of mourning and says Kaddish, but he finds himself at a minyan where both the wording and the placement of the Kaddish prayers are different. Let’s explain both points. The wording is different: he davens in one nusach and finds himself at a minyan that uses another, where the wording of Kaddish is slightly different. He can say Kaddish in the congregation’s nusach, because the Kaddish prayers are intended for the congregation to answer Amen. There are also differences in where Kaddish is said. Let’s take Minchah and Maariv in particular, and the end of the service after Aleinu. In Chabad, at Minchah, immediately after Tachanun we say Aleinu, then whoever says Kaddish recites Kaddish Yehei Shlama, and after Al Tira and the Mishnayos, Kaddish Al Yisrael. The same is true at Maariv. Immediately after

27:39 Speaker 2 the Amidah, we say Aleinu, the mourner’s Kaddish, [unclear], Al Tira, Mishnayos, and Kaddish Al Yisrael. Elsewhere, the custom is to say a psalm. At Minchah, they say “Lamnatzeiach Binginot, Mizmor Shir”—Psalm 67—between the end of the Amidah—between the end of Tachanun and Aleinu, and they say Kaddish Yehei Shlama between the psalm and Aleinu. At Maariv, they say Shir Hamaalos before Aleinu, with Kaddish Yehei Shlama and then Aleinu. Someone who davens Nusach Chabad and finds himself at a minyan where they say Kaddish after the psalm—at Minchah, after Lamnatzeiach Binginot, or at Maariv, after Shir Hamaalos—can say Kaddish Yehei Shlama there, and after Aleinu he will say only Kaddish Al Yisrael. Although the Chabad order places both Kaddish prayers after Aleinu, since the custom here is to say Kaddish before Aleinu, it would seem strange if he did not say Kaddish then and said two Kaddish prayers after Aleinu instead. That is what I heard from Rabbi Ashkenazi, a”h: the placement of the Kaddish prayers does not matter. He can say the Kaddish the congregation says, and afterward say just one more, Kaddish Al Yisrael. Or another example: Jews of Moroccan descent have a custom to say Half Kaddish after Aleinu. That is not generally the Chabad practice; in Chabad, only the prayer leader says Half Kaddish. But this is the custom among Moroccan Jews: after Aleinu, the mourners—those saying the mourner’s Kaddish—say Half Kaddish. Now, this person has said Kaddish Yehei Shlama before Aleinu at Minchah, because that is what the congregation there does. After Aleinu, they say Half Kaddish. Rabbi Ashkenazi, a”h, says he should say Half Kaddish; he does not need to say Kaddish Al Yisrael, because what matters with the Kaddish prayers said for a memorial day or yahrzeit is the number of Kaddish prayers. In other words,

30:02 Speaker 2 You need to reach sixteen Kaddishes—seventeen, uh, sixteen Kaddishes. The type of Kaddish doesn’t matter, only the number. So if, instead of Kaddish Al Yisrael, he says Half Kaddish, that counts just the same, because the main thing is to reach the required number. What is the significance of the sixteen Kaddishes we say? It is written that a Kaddish lasts for an hour and a half. It’s like, for example, a painkiller that relieves a headache for a certain amount of time: in the same way, Kaddish brings an elevation to the departed soul for an hour and a half. Since there are twenty-four hours in a day, dividing them into periods of an hour and a half gives us sixteen Kaddishes a day. That is the idea behind saying sixteen Kaddishes. Sometimes a person travels somewhere and isn’t sure he’ll have a minyan for Maariv or Mincha. He might not be able to say Kaddish at all. He can say extra Kaddishes at Shacharis, or at the preceding service. For example, he has finished davening and another minyan has begun. He has already said all the Kaddishes he needs to say, so he doesn’t have to say Kaddish with this minyan. But he says extra Kaddishes because he isn’t sure he’ll have a minyan for the next service. Suppose he might miss the two Mourner’s Kaddishes and Kaddish Al Yisrael at Mincha. He says them now with the additional Shacharis minyan, and they count toward Mincha if he doesn’t have a minyan then. If he does have a minyan, of course he should say the Kaddishes with the minyan he davens with. But making up Kaddishes with another minyan does help if he wasn’t able to say them. Or suppose he was late for Maariv and there are no more Maariv minyanim. He can make up the Kaddishes afterward at Shacharis, with a second minyan, for the service at which he

32:17 Speaker 2 didn’t say Kaddish. As we saw, Kaddish is meant to cover each hour-and-a-half period within the twenty-four hours, with a Kaddish for every hour and a half. So altogether he needs to reach sixteen Kaddishes. Again, the wording of the Kaddish doesn’t matter, nor does its place in the service or its type. The main thing is that he said sixteen Kaddishes. Suppose a person is a Kohen or a Levi, and he wants to be called up—or his practice during the year, or when he has a yahrzeit, is to be called up—for Maftir. He arrives at shul on Shabbos and discovers that he is the only Kohen or the only Levi. I’ve seen people step outside so that a Yisrael can be called up instead of a Kohen, allowing them to be called up for Maftir. That is not the right way to act. Our Sages established the order of aliyos: a Kohen, then a Levi, then a Yisrael on a weekday. On Shabbos, seven people are called up. If there is no other Kohen to take the Kohen aliyah, he doesn’t have to be called up for Maftir. If there is another Kohen, of course that Kohen can take the Kohen aliyah and the person with the obligation can take Maftir. But to give up the Kohen aliyah—an aliyah the Torah granted you as a Kohen, not one you buy—that isn’t right. The Torah gave that aliyah to Kohanim, just as it gave the Levi aliyah to Levi’im. There is no reason for a person to step outside and, in quotation marks, “throw away” the aliyah the Torah gave him in order to receive another one. If you can easily get Maftir, wonderful. But if not, take your own aliyah; nothing has happened. Take the Kohen aliyah or the Levi aliyah. It counts for you too, just as if you had received Maftir. You don’t have to be called up specifically for Maftir. Another thing that sometimes happens: a person is called up for Maftir and doesn’t know how to read the—I'm not talking about the cantillation, but even the letters. He makes mistakes with the vowels, yet insists on taking Maftir. That isn’t

34:36 Speaker 2 right either. If he doesn’t know how to read the haftarah properly, he should take the seventh aliyah. Let him take the seventh aliyah and say Kaddish. That is better than insisting on Maftir and struggling through it, or reading it with countless mistakes. It brings no satisfaction to the departed when a person reads Maftir with mistakes. If he knows how to read it, by all means, let him read it. But if he doesn’t know how to read Maftir properly, let him take the seventh aliyah and say Kaddish. That is better. It brings more satisfaction to the departed when he goes up, says the blessings properly, and says Kaddish. He doesn’t have to take specifically the Maftir aliyah. Sometimes two people both want Maftir. They both have an obligation, they didn’t coordinate beforehand, and they arrive at shul on Shabbos and argue over who will get Maftir. It’s worth knowing that in such matters, it’s best to give way. A person can say to the other, “Okay, you want Maftir? That’s fine. I’ll take the seventh aliyah; you take Maftir.” In Heaven, they will sort it out. If Maftir was due to you, they will record in Heaven that you received it. The greatest satisfaction for the departed is that his son or relative did not start a quarrel over an aliyah. He let someone else read and be called up—that brings great satisfaction in Heaven. It is better than arguing, insisting on Maftir, and causing the other person distress or a quarrel. You want Maftir? Please, take it. I can take another aliyah. All the aliyos are important. Our Sages say that, when comparing the verses, “And Lotan’s sister was Timna” is equal to “I am Hashem your G-d.” “I am Hashem your G-d” opens the Ten Commandments at the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. What could be more important than that? “And Lotan’s sister was Timna” is speaking about the chieftains of Esau, the names of Esau’s descendants, yet it is equal, because all the verses in the Torah are holy

36:46 Speaker 2 with the same holiness. That is what the Gemara says: “And Lotan’s sister was Timna” is equal to “I am Hashem your G-d.” So there is no need to argue or make an issue over an aliyah. You can give way and let someone else have it if it matters so much to him, and in Heaven it will be counted for you as though you received the aliyah you needed. Another point: a Kohen recites the Priestly Blessing, but a Kohen who is in shivah, may we be spared, does not do so. What happens if he is the only Kohen in the shul? There are communities like that. For example, among Jews from Georgia, there are no Kohanim, so a Kohen from another community comes. Usually he is the only Kohen, brought in especially so there will be a Priestly Blessing. Now this Kohen is in mourning, in the middle of shivah. If he does not go up for the Priestly Blessing, his absence will be very noticeable, because he is the only Kohen who gives the blessing every Shabbos. Therefore, halachah says he should go up for the Priestly Blessing even during shivah. In a minyan with several Kohanim, if he does not go up, no one will check. Two Kohanim went up, or three; the main thing is that there was a Priestly Blessing. But here, where the Priestly Blessing depends on him and he is the only Kohen who gives it throughout the year, his absence would stand out. That would be considered public mourning, and we do not observe public mourning on Shabbos. So that Kohen should go up for the Torah reading and for the Priestly Blessing even during shivah. It is told of Rabbeinu Tam, one of the great early authorities, that he would receive a particular aliyah every Shabbos—I think it was the sixth aliyah. Everyone knew: the sixth aliyah was Rabbeinu Tam’s; Rabbeinu Tam would be called up for the sixth aliyah. Then it happened that he was sitting shivah, and he said, “If I don’t go up for the Torah reading

39:13 Speaker 2 “For the sixth aliyah, it would be noticeable. Everyone knows that I’m called to the Torah for the sixth aliyah every Shabbos, and if I don’t go up, that would be a public display of mourning.” So he was called to the Torah for the sixth aliyah during shivah. Again, the rule is that public displays of mourning are not observed on Shabbos. If people would notice something and say, “Oh, he wasn’t called to the Torah because he’s in mourning,” or “He didn’t give the priestly blessing because he’s in mourning,” then he should not refrain from doing it. Rather, he should be called to the Torah if it is the aliyah he regularly receives every Shabbos. Likewise, since there are no public displays of mourning on Shabbos, if a man is the only kohen, he should go up and give the priestly blessing even during shivah. Similarly, someone who regularly receives a particular aliyah every Shabbos—as Rabbeinu Tam did—should receive that same aliyah during shivah. Otherwise, it would be considered a public display of mourning: everyone would see that he wasn’t called to the Torah or didn’t go up to give the priestly blessing, and they would ask, “Why wasn’t he called to the Torah? Why didn’t he give the priestly blessing?” The answer would be that he is in mourning, making his mourning public, which we do not do on Shabbos. While we’re on the subject, it’s worth mentioning something I’ve often seen: people praying in a mourner’s home omit the priestly blessing, and they also omit “Our G-d and G-d of our fathers, bless us with the threefold blessing.” That is not correct. I heard from Rabbi Katz a"h, the head of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah in Kfar Chabad, that when he was with the elder Rabbi Landau, Rabbi Yaakov Landau a"h, the rabbi of Bnei Brak, while Rabbi Landau was sitting shivah for his wife, the Rebbetzin, Rabbi Katz came to help make a minyan in the house. Rabbi Landau told him, “Give the actual priestly blessing.” In Bnei Brak, the custom was to give the priestly blessing on weekdays too.

41:27 Speaker 2 So he told him, “Give the priestly blessing.” Certainly, then, when it comes to saying “Our G-d and G-d of our fathers,” it should also be said in a mourner’s home. It is not correct to say that the Chabad custom is to omit the priestly blessing. Here is an actual precedent: I heard from Rabbi Katz, who heard from Rabbi Landau, that the priestly blessing should be given even in a mourner’s home. Perhaps some have a different custom, but it should be understood that this is not the Chabad custom. The Chabad custom is to give the priestly blessing—or at least to say “Our G-d and G-d of our fathers”—even in a mourner’s home. Another point worth mentioning, since we’re discussing the priestly blessing: on weekdays, we don’t give the priestly blessing at Minchah, except on a fast day. On fast days, we give the priestly blessing and say “Our G-d and G-d of our fathers.” But this applies only when Minchah is prayed close to Maariv, or at least from plag haminchah onward, which is an hour and a quarter before sunset. If Minchah is prayed at what is called Minchah Gedolah—say, at two o’clock or two-thirty—then the priestly blessing is omitted entirely: neither “Our G-d and G-d of our fathers” is said nor, certainly, is the priestly blessing given. This is according to the Chabad nusach, and it is also in accordance with Kabbalah and the practice of Sephardim. There is an Ashkenazic custom to say “Our G-d and G-d of our fathers,” but the Chabad and Sephardic customs are not to say it and not to give the priestly blessing at Minchah on a fast day when Minchah Gedolah is prayed, before plag haminchah.