0366 - Clarify If the Minchas Elazar Placed a Note in the Kossel - R' Ahron Berenstein

00:00 I heard recently from Rav Yosef Segal, who is one of the roshei ha-kolel in the kolel Tzemach Tzedek in the Old City of Yerushalayim, a yechidus that he heard from his father-in-law, who was Rav Abba Bernstein, and he told him what the Rebbe spoke to him about in yechidus. This Rav Abba Bernstein was a big talmud chacham. He was the rosh yeshiva of Chai Olam. He was a member of Badatz of Yerushalayim, a very chosheved Yid. And he told him the yechidus that he had in the youths by the Rebbe. When he was on yechidus by the Rebbe, the Rebbe said, "I want to ask you something. Can you be mevarer? Can you find out what the Munkatcher, the Munkatcher Salozer did when he was in Eretz Yisrael when he came to the Kotel? Did he put in a tzatel in the wall of the Kotel?" Because we know there's a big shakla v'tarya, a big discussion if you're allowed to do it or not. And the Rebbe wanted to find out what the Munkatcher did. And the Rebbe said to him that, "If I find out what he did, this will be by me maise Rav. This will be by me a psak din for something that he did." And it says in the Gemara that if someone, a big posek did something, l'maise, that's the Rav. That's the best way to learn halakha. So he wanted him to find out. And he said to him, "I want you to find out not miklale

01:16 itmar, but b'feiresh itmar." This is an expression in the Gemara. Sometimes there are dinim that a tanna or amora said b'feiresh, said outright this is the din or did the way the din is. But sometimes there's something else that he said, and from that we could learn now that according to that, seems like that's, this is how you held. So the Rebbe said in this case he doesn't want to have it miklale itmar. He wants to have it b'feiresh itmar, to know what b'feiresh he said or what b'feiresh he did. When the Rebbe said this to him, he said to the Rebbe, "From dem zeich a remez as the Rebbe kleert for in Eretz Yisrael." From this I see a remez that the Rebbe is planning, thinking to go to Eretz Yisrael. So the Rebbe got serious and the Rebbe said, "Velche Yid kleertos nit for in Eretz Yisrael?" Which Yid does not think of going to Eretz Yisrael? And anyway, the Rebbe said it's negeilah lo chol ha-maise because from when Mashiach will come till they'll build the Beis Hamikdash will take some time. I think he even said according to the Gemara it comes out that it could take 18 minutes. Now, in that time before the Beis Hamikdash will be built, we'll only have the Kotel. So we'll wanna know what we can do by the Kotel. Can we put a tzatel into the Kotel or not? And that's why I wanna know. When he left yechidus, he went to his son-in-law.

02:35 He has another son-in-law who is the Heintiker Munkatcher Rebbe, and he asked him if he knows what his grandfather, the Munkatcher Salozer did when he came to the Kotel. And he said he didn't know. But he said, "Let's ask his gabbai," because Chaim Ber who was the gabbai of the Munkatcher Salozer was still alive. And he said, "Let's go ask him. Maybe he'll know." So they asked Rav Chaim Ber, and he did not know. So when this Rav Abba Bernstein came to Eretz Yisrael, he spoke to Rav Moshe Zelig Margolies, very, very chosheved Yid, Rov Tzvadim, and he asked him if he knows. They tried to found out, find out. They, they heard some things, but nothing was clear. So they didn't get it clear. So he answered the Rebbe back that they did not get this clear, so they don't know. And that's how it remained, that the Rebbe did not get a clear psak from what the Munkatcher said or what the Munkatcher did, what the Munkatcher Salozer did. And therefore, by the Rebbe it remained a sofik. And therefore, years later when the Rebbe sometimes would send people on shlichas and tell them to go through Eretz Yisrael and stop by the Kotel, so he mentioned that b'negeiah whether you should put a tzatel into the Kotel or not, you should find out al asara. Over there, find out what the meaning is when you get there. But the Rebbe himself would not pasken because as far as the Rebbe was concerned,

03:48 he didn't get a psak din that he wanted because they didn't know what the Munkatcher did. And by the Rebbe, had they found out what the Munkatcher did, that would have been by the Rebbe a psak din.