האם אליהו הנביא יחדש את הסמיכה המקורית? פולמוס חידוש הסמיכה בשנת רצ״ח

00:00 Welcome back. Last time we discussed why is why it had to be specifically Eliyahu HaNavi that's gonna answer all the different halakhic questions that came up throughout the ages and the Gemara and so on. And in the course of that shiur, we mentioned there's different opinions about when Eliyahu will come before Mashiach comes, after Mashiach comes, maybe together with Mashiach, and so on. In this week, we're gonna discuss whether Eliyahu HaNavi is also gonna renew semikhah, meaning the real semikhah, um, not the nowadays semikhah. Well, whether he's gonna be the one who's gonna renew it, and we'll go a little bit deeper into how the Rebbe learns the Rambam's opinion of when Eliyahu is gonna come, and we're gonna discuss this all in the course of discussing the controversy, uh, surrounding the renewal of semikhah that Mari Beit Rav, Rabbi Yaakov Beit Rav, tried to do in the year fifteen thirty-eight. So while the shiur is connected to the previous, previous shiur, uh, and perhaps it may be beneficial for some to listen to that one first, it's nevertheless it is still a standalone shiur. So the Rambam in Hilchot Sanhedrin, pereq daled halakha alef, writes that, "It seems to me that if the-- all the hakhamim in Eretz Yisrael will decide to appoint and, and give semikhah to one person, they can, they can do that, and through that they could renew the semikhah." And then Rambam goes on, "If so, if it's not so hard to, uh, renew semikhah," meaning the semikhah that

01:34 someone could done-- din eknat that the Rav could done give, give a class and could be appointed in Sanhedrin and so on. So why were the hakhamim-- in the Gemara we find they were very pained when they saw that the semikhah might go away. He says, "Because it's not, it's, it's not easy." You know, everybody's separated in different places, and it's hard to gather everybody. Uh, so it's much easier if somebody has semikhah from before. You don't have to gather everybody. He could just give semikhah straight on, on his own. But nevertheless, there is-- technically it is possible to do, to renew semikhah just by having all the hakhamim in Eretz Yisrael renew it. And the Rambam in Pirush Mishnayot on Sanhedrin, pereq alef, Mishnah gimmel, he elaborates a little bit more what's his hechrach because in the, in the, in the Mishnah there, the Rambam says, "Niren li." In other words, it's not straight from the Gemara. This is something that the Rambam is innovating. He's being mechadesh. So he says, "Because we find that Hashem promised in Tanakh, that Hashem promises that he's gonna renew the bezdin, that we're gonna have ." Right? We say it every day in davening. But how is that gonna be? So therefore, the Rambam says, "We must say that what's gonna happen is that the hakhamim could come together and renew semikhah." Now, this Rambam was the source of what happened in fifteen thirty-eight that Rabbi Yaakov Beit Rav wanted to renew semikhah. So a little bit

03:03 of the background. Rabbi Yaakov Beit Rav was-- Mari Beit Rav was from those that from, the, from, were, were inspired, were, were in Spain and from, from the expulsion. Um, and he first, first, first of-- and he eventually, when he made it to Tzfat, he first, he first was in, in, in Mitzrayim, and then he went to Tzfat. Um, he decided-- he, he looked around and he saw all these people from a lot of these people that were inspired, some of the, the Marranos and so on. They really wanted to return. They wanted to do teshuvah 'cause outwardly they acted like, like, like, like Goyim, like Christians. And the problem was, however, that they-- some of them have done things, ate things, non-kosher things, things that you get karas for. So how could you do real teshuvah and take care of something that you have, an issur of karas? So normally, in the time of the Beit HaMikdash, what would you do if there's a Sanhedrin? So you could go and you get malkis, right? If something, you have karas, so if you get malkis, malkis is mechaper for what you get karas for. However, there's no proper bezdin. In order to give malkis, you need a proper-- you need a, uh, someone who has semikhah, you need a proper bezdin that, that has, that has semikhah going back to Moshe Rabbeinu. So how are we gonna do that? How are we gonna have, help these people do proper teshuvah? And therefore, Mari Beit Rav,

04:32 based on this Rambam, decided that he's gonna renew semikhah. And therefore, in the year of fifteen thirty-eight, uh, he gathered, um, twenty-five hakhamim, um, and they all got together, and they renewed the semikhah, and they gave semikhah to Mari Beit Rav. And, uh, eventually, Mari Beit Rav, um, gave, gave to others as well. He gave to, to, to Rabbi Yosef Cairo, uh, among others, and then he gave-- and Rabbi Yosef Cairo actually gave to the Alshekh, and Alshekh gave to Rabbi Chaim Vital and, and, and so on. But in, in the course of this, after he gave semikhah, after he, he was-- he got semikhah, so the first-- one of the first things that he did was send semikhah to Rabbi Levi Ibn Chaviv. Rabbi Levi Ibn Chaviv was the Rav in Yerushalayim who had, uh, many disagreements with Mari Beit Rav. But nevertheless, Mari Beit Rav gave Rabbi Levi Ibn Chaviv, he sent him semikhah. And Rabbi Levi Ibn Chaviv came out very strongly against this semikhah for various reasons. First of all, he says, "You have to have not just the majority of the hakhamim in Eretz Yisrael, you have to have all." In other words, does kol mean all or kol means rubi ki kolei? And many other things. There's a whole kuntras hasemikhah with the, with the teshuvot back and forth between, between Mari Beit, Beit Rav and Rabbi Levi Ibn Chaviv. However, one of the things, one of the main things that, that, that, that bothered Rabbi Levi Ibn Chaviv

06:06 And bothered others as well, was this thing that the Rambam writes that we have to say that people, chachamim could come together and we could renew semikhah on our own, because if not, who's going to renew semikhah? So he took issue with this, and we also see the same issue. The Radvaz also took the same issue of the Baz was the Radvaz. Rab-Rabdalet ibn Zimra was also at that time, he was the Rav in Mitzrayim. He later moved to, to Tzfat, but at that time, he was still in Mitzrayim, and he had the same issue, and therefore we're gonna focus on the words of the Radvaz 'cause it's much shorter as opposed to, uh, Levi ibn Chaviv and Amiri Berav, which is back and forth. So the Radvaz on this Rambam that we brought before, Halacha Sanhedrin, Pereg Dalet, Halacha Yud Dalet. So he writes that this Rambam was the source of this whole controversy that happened, that the chacham-- the Chach Mitzvat want to renew semikhah, and they sent to me while I was still in Mitzrayim, they sent to me what's my opinion about this whole thing. And the Radvaz also didn't agree with the Meiri Berav. He agreed with Rabbi Levi ibn Chaviv. And one of the things that he, one of the things that he writes is that this proof that the Rambam writes, that we have to say that we can renew the semikhah, 'cause if not, who's gonna do it? He says, "I don't understand." We know that it

07:30 says that Eliyahu HaNavi is gonna come before Mashiach. It says there's, there's the Nevuas and so on, and, and, and there's a chacham in, in, in Gemara as well, and he-- Eliyahu HaNavi is already musmach from, from going back from Shechinah and going all the way back, and he'll-- he could renew semikhah. So what-- wh-what you're saying that your proof is because who's gonna, who's gonna do it? Eliyahu HaNavi could do it. And then he brings to, to, uh, as a side point, he also brings perhaps, uh, for the Bnei Reuven, meaning from the Asher Shvat, and maybe somebody over there will be able to renew the semikhah, or Mashiach will be able to renew the semikhah. We'll, we'll get to those two points a little bit later. But his main point is that we have Eliyahu, so Eliyahu could seemingly renew semikhah, and Eliyahu is gonna come before Mashiach. On this, we find the Tumim, Chei Shem Mishpat, Siman Alef, Sof Katun Beis, who actually-- the Hasagana actually agrees with the Radvaz and Levi ibn Chaviv that really Eliyahu could do it, and therefore we couldn't-- we wouldn't be able to renew the semikhah. It's no-not a real proof for the Rambam. But he writes that the Rambam himself goes according to Shevet Ahai, according to his opinion, as we mentioned in the previous shiur, that the Rambam in, in Hilchot Melachim writes, Hilchot Melachim, Pereg Bet, Halacha Bet, he writes, he brings through opinions that it could be that Eliyahu will come before

08:59 Mashiach is true. But he also writes that it could be Eliyahu will come after Mashiach comes. And since the Rambam holds that Eliyahu can come, it could be that he'll come after Mashiach comes. So therefore, according to that opinion, how is-- what-- how it says Mashiach is gonna come, and there's gonna be already semikhah. So how, how is that gonna happen? So it must be that the chachamim could, on their own, we can renew semikhah, and that's what the Rambam holds. And the Rambam is going to Shevet Ahai, even though he doesn't agree with it, but he, he answers the Rambam. So it would seem to be everything's good and nice that those who hold that the Rambam holds that chacham could renew it is because he holds his opinion that Eliyahu is gonna come after Mashiach comes. And those that hold that he can renew s-- that, that, that Eliyahu is gonna be the one who's gonna renew semikhah, they hold that Eliyahu is gonna come as, as, uh, the Pashtus Haksuvim, as the Pashtus of the, of the, of the Psukim, his Mashma that Eliyahu is gonna come before Mashiach comes. However, there's a, a famous sikha from the Rebbe, and the Rebbe mentions it in other sikhas as well. Uh, the Rebbe said it, uh, in a, in a hadran on the Rambam. Um, the, the third Siyum Rambam in Tafshim Mem Zayin. Um, it was actually the first Siyum Rambam that was for Pereg Echad and Shelesh Prakim together. So the

10:17 Rebbe goes into this Rambam about when is Mashiach gonna come, if he's gonna come before or after. Um, and the Rebbe explains, 'cause the, the Rebbe, the Rebbe's Medayek of a number of things in, in this, in this, in this, in this Rambam. We, we won't elaborate on the, on the, on the whole sikha, but the whole Shakav Atariv, how it gets to this point. But the bottom line is that the Rebbe says that there's two points in Mashiach, in an Eliyahu coming. Eliyahu, there's two-- he's coming for two things. There's what Eliyahu is gonna do for himself, meaning Eliyahu as Eliyahu HaNavi, and like, uh, what we find in Tanakh and Gemara, things that Eliyahu did in general. And then there's things that Eliyahu HaNavi is gonna do as part of Biat HaMashiach, as part of the coming of Mashiach, as part of the Geulah. But according to all opinions, the Rebbe explains both opinions the Rambam holds that Eliyahu is gonna come before Mashiach comes. The whole discussion is in the Rambam and is saying if he's gonna come before or after, that's talking about what components are part of Eliyahu as Eliyahu coming as part of the Geulah, or what components are Eliyahu's coming as, as, uh, a private navi, so to speak, a private citizen, not, not private citizen in, in, in the full sense. He's still-- he's a navi, but as a job, as Eliyahu HaNavi, as we find in Tanakh, and then it says that he comes as, as

11:41 part of the Geulah. But everybody holds that Eliyahu is gonna come before Mashiach is gonna come. So if so, if so, we're back to our question. What is the Rambam's proof that we could renew semikhah? Um, that chachamim on their own could renew semikhah. W-why can't it be-- why can't Eliyahu HaNavi, according to the Rambam- Or why can't it-- why does it not have to be or why can't it be Eliyahu HaNavi, the one that's gonna renew Semikhah? So one answer we find, and the truth is, Mari Berav himself addresses this, this question in, uh, in Kuntras HaSemikhah, uh, Kuntras Dalet. So he's-- he himself addresses this question. He says, "If you're gonna ask, don't we have Eliyahu HaNavi that he could, uh, be s-- give Semikhah?" So he says that, "No, Eliyahu HaNavi, he passed away." Um, and so it's gonna be like the other Tzadikim. Th-once they pass away, they're not gonna be-- once they, they get up from techias hameisim, they're not gonna be able to give Semikhah. As we find also from a teshuvah from, from the Tur Masadeshen, that, uh, in the Tur Masadeshen, uh, has-- there's, there's a qu-- he, uh, was asked, or he wrote it as if he, as if he was asked that, that is the wife of Eliyahu HaNavi, is she mutar to marry someone else? In other words, is, is she considered almanah or is she still married to him, and then she can't marry anyone else 'cause Eliyahu HaNavi is still alive? And

13:18 he paskens that she can. She can marry someone else. So we see that Eliyahu HaNavi is not considered that he's alive, so therefore he can't give Semikhah. So therefore, we have to have another way, another way that everybody else will be able to renew Semikhah, and that's what the Rambam writes, that it's gonna be all the Hakham get together, and if they agree on someone to give Semikhah, they could give him Semikhah. However, as we explained in, in the last shiur, that most don't hold like this, um, and we brought from the Chasam Sofer, but, uh, this is brought in many places, in Chasidus and other sefarim. The Rebbe has been citing to Chasam Sofer sometimes, so we, we quoted it from the Chasam Sofer, that there's-- that no, that we hold that mis-- that, that Eliyahu HaNavi didn't die. He's different than everybody else. And in fact, we had our whole shiur last time was explaining that Eliyahu HaNavi is unique, that he, he-- it's true that he's sometimes like a malach, uh, but, but other times he's mislavash in his guf, and therefore, that's why specifically he was able to pasque dinim and he's gonna be able to pasque dinim, because Eliyahu is unique. And we explained why does it davka have to be him? 'Cause he's one who, who, who, who has Semikhah, and so on. So this seemingly doesn't really fit with most of, of most-- of how most learn about how Eliyahu is now, uh, even a-even after al hasara

14:44 hashamayima. So we're back to the question, why can't it be Eliyahu? Or, or to look at it differently, what is the hecher? What forces the Rambam to say that the Hakham could all get together and renew Semikhah if we say that his whole thing is-- his whole proof was because there's no o-other way to do it? Seemingly, there is. Even according to the Rambam, there is. According to the Rambam, we just explained from the Rebbe that Eliyahu will come beforehand. And if Eliyahu will come beforehand, and, and according to most opinions, he's-- he is different than all the other Tzadikim who passed away, so therefore, he could give Semikhah, and therefore, there's no hecher of what the Rambam writes that all the Hakham can get together. Now, some bring a hecher. What's the Rambam's hecher? They s-they say we find in, in the Gemara, the Gemara in, in Eruvin, mem gimmel lamed beis, says we find that Eliyahu HaNavi is gonna come to Beis Din HaGadol. In other words, he's first gonna come to announce that he's here in Beis Din HaGadol. And based on that, if Eliyahu HaNavi is gonna come to the Beis Din HaGadol, so there has to be somehow a Beis Din HaGadol. How is there a Beis Din HaGadol? How is there a Sanhedrin? So we must say that somehow the Sanhedrin was made-- reinstituted beforehand, and that's how we got to this Sanhedrin HaGadol, this Beis Din HaGadol. And that's the Ra-- one of the rayyes that the Rambam

16:17 has that we could renew it on our own. And on this, uh, we find, uh, the Rebbe in the Likutey Sichos, uh, chelek tes, parashat Eirech, alef. Uh, it's page one zero five in Ha'arah seventy-four. So the Rebbe actually gets into the Radvaz that we mentioned before and, and gets a li-little bit into it. It's a little bit of longer Ha'arah. And amongst the things the Rebbe points out that we have to say according to the Radvaz, who said that Eliyahu-- the Radvaz, one of the things that, uh, the Radvaz said was that Eliyahu is gonna come and reinstitute Semikhah na'at, na'at deHakhamim. So he says that we must say that the Radvaz would learn this Gemara, that when it says, the Gemara says, "Beis Din HaGadol," it doesn't mean Sanhedrin. Beis Din HaGadol in this Gemara means the biggest Beis Din. It's a name given for the biggest Beis Din. We call it the Beis Din HaGadol, the biggest Beis Din that's, uh, that, that, that's there. But it doesn't mean that they necessarily have Semikhah. It just means he's gonna come there and they're gonna-- meaning you have to come to the Beis Din, that they're gonna have to check out to see, you know, if it's taka true, um, and so on. But the Rebbe adds on there, uh, um, although the Rebbe starts off saying that you have to say, "Yesh l'imer l'had Radvaz al kapanim," that Beis Din HaGadol in Eruvin mislav davka means that they have Semikhah, but the

17:40 Rebbe's adds on later that, "V'lav hachi yesh l'imer," that even not according to Radvaz, seemingly the Rebbe's implying according to others as well, uh, even according to Rambam, that it, that it doesn't mean that they necessarily have Semikhah because why do they need Semikhah? They don't need s-- in other words, for Eliyahu coming, there's no, there's no, th-th-there's no point that they, they, that they would need, uh, Semikhah. And therefore, the Rebbe learns, and others also as well learn, that Beis Din HaGadol doesn't necessarily mean Sanhedrin. In fact, others say Beis Din, Beis Din HaGadol means that in place of the Sanhedrin, but not necessarily that he's gonna come before a Sanhedrin and, and so on. So we are back to our question that seemingly, according to the Rambam, Eliyahu will come before Mashiach comes, the way the Rebbe learns it. Um, but nevertheless, the Rambam is saying that he won't be able to give Smichah for some reason. We have to understand why. So to get a little bit back to the Truma Zadekhen that we mentioned before. This Truma Zadekhen we mentioned says about the wife of Eliyahu Hanavi, whether he can-- whether she can mar-remarry or not, whether she's considered an Almanah. So this Truma Zadekhen is actually brought in the Darkei Moshe, Even HaEzer siman yud zayin. It's also in the-- brought in the Beit Shmuel there. It's brought in the Bar Heitiv there, and it's seemingly brought to many poskim there, and we don't find that, uh, anyone really argues

19:17 whether the wife of Eliyahu has the din of an Almanah. That's, that's number one. Number two, we find in, in, in Moed Katan chaf vav amud alef. So the Gemara over there is discussing about Kriyah. Kriyah-- about ripping Kriyah when, when someone passes away. And Gemara asks, "Where do we know that you do it from about, uh, you know, parents? And where do we know that you do it about for, for a, a, a Rebbe, for, for, for, for one's teacher?" And we say, the Gemara says, "We learn it from the pasuk. It says about Elisha when he sees Eliyahu was taken away, so he screams out, 'Avi, avi rechav Yisrael ferashav.'" Right. So it says, "Avi, avi." So there we see that you s- you, that you rip Kriyah on somebody, on leolenu when somebody's parents have passed away. And then it says, "Rechav Yisrael ferashav." That's talking about his teacher, the Elom DeTeira. So from there, we see that you rip Kriyah. So on that, your Shlakish asks Reb Yochanan, "One second, Eliyahu was still alive. So why, what are you, what are you ripping? Wh-wh-what type of raya is it from there?" So Reb Yochanan answers, "Since it says, 'Velo yera hu ot,' in the pasuk." So it says, "V'gabei didei kemeis dami." V'gabei, Elisha, he was considered as if he passed away, and therefore he, he ripped Kriyah. So on the one hand, we have places that imply that Eliyahu Hanavi was alive, and he comes, um, um, um, uh, and

20:58 he's alive, and that's why as we had the whole last year explaining why Daf has to be Eliyahu 'cause he's considered someone who's, who's still alive throughout the generations, and he can know what's going on and so on. On the other hand, we have seemingly rayahs, and some of them are, are-- seem to be muskum in poskim, um, that he's not considered alive. So I found, um, Rabbi Silverberg, and he has a sefer, Matnas Yein. So Matnas Yein chelek heh siman yud gimel. He discusses this question, um, based on the question on, on, on the Rebbe's shita in the Rambam. And he wants to say that there's two things. There's how Eliyahu is the Gabe himself, and there's how is El-Eliyahu is connected to other people, his kesher and his yachas to, to other people. In other words, so there's Eliyahu mitsad himself. He-- Eliyahu never died. Um, and he comes down, and he's mitznavesh. He encloses himself in his own body, and he is able to come down and pasken dinim and, and so on and so forth. So v'gabei Eliyahu himself, there's, there's no difference. And therefore, he is different than, than, than, than, than other people and the other tzadikim. Nevertheless, at the same time, um, Gabei, other people, how he's related to other people, he is different because only Eliyahu could come and enclothe himself in the body sometimes yes, sometimes not. But v'gabei, how other people are relate to him, he, he's not considered, uh, uh, uh, alive. And midayak

22:40 in the, in the Gemara, it says, "V'gabei didei kemeis dami." V'gabei Elisha, it was as if he, he passed away. Um, and the same thing we s- have about, about, about, about, about his wife. He's saying, "V'gabei her." He's, he's, he, uh, um, um, um, he doesn't act-- Truma Zadekhen doesn't actually-- the Truma Zadekhen says, uh, as, as, as the Darkei Moshe brings it, uh, brings from as we find about, uh, about Ish DeSha, Rabbi Shimon Levi, who also says he went, went chayai legan Eden. Uh, it says, "Lo mikri eishes ish, ele eishes malach veshari lehi nosse." It doesn't say clearly that he passed away. He just says he's considered a eishes malach, and eishes malach is allowed to marry. And the same thing over here, we say, "V'gabei didei kemeis dami." Meaning that there is how he is for himself, and there's how he is for, for other, for other people and how other people relate to him. And therefore, when it comes to Smichah, there's two ways of looking at it, right? Smichah has to be Smichah going all the way back to Moshe Rabbeinu. But is this need of having Smichah going all the way back to Moshe Rabbeinu, is that a din in the person giving Smichah or in the person receiving Smichah? So looking at it, the person, if it's the person giving Smichah, so then Eliyahu Hanavi, the Gabei himself, he's alive. He never died, and therefore, Eliyahu can still pasken and so on and so forth. But

24:06 if we say that Smichah, the din of Smichah, has to be the person receiving it, has to receive it from somebody that receives it from somebody going all the way back to Moshe Rabbeinu, then it could be v'gabei didei kemeis dami. V'gabei, v'gabei him, v'gabei the person receiving it, he doesn't have the full halachas. We do have to relate sometimes. We do ri-ri-rip Kriyah. Eli-Elisha did rip Kriyah. His wife could remarry. So v'gabei this other person, it could be he's not yet-- he's not considered somebody that he's able to receive Smichah. In other words, you have to be down here. It has to be somebody that's alive, that was mekabel from someone who was mekabel from someone who was mekabel, and he's not receiving from that person. Therefore, v'gabei didei maybe could meis dami, and therefore, he wouldn't be able to give Smichah. And therefore, you would have to have other people to give the other chacham together, come together in order to give, in order to renew, um, in or- in order to renew Smichah. Now, the, the truth is that during this, this whole controversy of the, of the,of the, of the, of, of about the Benei Reuven, they-- first of all, they haven't been around, and second, how, when, when exactly are they gonna come, and so on and so forth. It's not really clear that that... those two are viable options. Although the Rebbe does not ask. Although he asks on the two other options of the Radvaz, he does

26:54 not ask on the first one about Eliyahu coming, and that seems to be most hold that seemingly Eliyahu can be the one that would give smichah, um, and that Eliyahu chai, uh, kipshute in all, in all aspects. Nevertheless, uh, to answer how-- why the Rambam, what's the heck from the Rambam to say that the chacham can come together and they would be the ones that renew smichah. So we brought that some explain that, that the, the, that the... even if you say that Eliyahu will come before, but it could be there's how Eliyahu is alive for himself and there's how, how other people relate to Eliyahu being alive or not. And it could be that hagufa is why, why the Rambam says that it c- won't, that won't necessarily be Eliyahu, it can't be Eliyahu, and therefore, we have to find another way of how smichah can be reinstituted. And that's why the Rambam holds that the chacham could come together and renew smichah, and that is why the Meribei Rav, relying on this Rambam, renewed, uh, smichah. When we for the coming of Eliyahu Hanavi, the mevaser degulah speedily in our days.