אמור – ל״ג בעומר תשפ״ה

00:09 Good evening and, uh, . To be careful not to say, uh, what day of the yom it is because I want to say a bracha presently. So let's go into our shailas. First one is, we had recently, I think it was two weeks ago, we had a discussion. I'm putting on tefillin and whilst doing so, I've said a bracha, and someone next to me is also putting on tefillin and he says also a bracha. Is my answering amen to his bracha a hefsek during my hanchas tefillin, uh, between the bracha and the shulosh, et cetera? So we went through this and Rabbi Akiva Eger, I saw Mr. Brewer, he takes the stricter view following Rabbi Akiva Eger, which I'd like to share with you. It's a very farshtandike, uh, argument. And he says the following. So we have on the one side, the Ponei Mi'ir says that you can answer amen to someone else's bracha because after all, you are affirming a, a mitzvah of l'niach tefillin, so that's not a hefsek. The Chasam Sofer says you shouldn't answer because, I guess because it's not your bracha, it's someone else's. Therefore, it becomes a hefsek. So he shows that we've got two interesting, uh, sources. One is when it comes to habrich ba'am yisrael b'aaroh. So there's a discussion, should we answer amen to habrich ba'am yisrael b'aaroh? And chabad meaning is to fall silent. The chazan says, "Baruch Hashem, habrich..." He doesn't finish off the bracha aloud so as to avoid the answering of

02:01 amen. And the argument being that the bracha is like a bracha on the Shema, and the answering of amen to the chazan's habrich ba'am yisrael b'aaroh will be a hefsek between your bracha of hamotzi lech and the Shema. Oh, but it's... If you... According to the Ponei Mi'ir, you're answering amen on the identical bracha which you're, you're, you're saying, so this shouldn't be a hefsek. There they give a b'tziteret that it's, uh, no worse than our, um, sh'sholom. L'plei, actually, we are careful about this. We don't answer amen to our... to the bracha habrich ba'am yisrael b'aaroh because of a chashash hefsek. Even more is when it comes to the amen for guf yisrael by shemoneh esreh, which is before shemoneh esreh. So there the Ateret Eger says we should finish off guf yisrael synchronized with the chazan so that not to have to answer amen to guf yisrael of the chazan, which would be a hefsek being guf yisrael between shemoneh esreh, between guf yisrael and shemoneh esreh. So we've got here two l'chor very strong proofs that amen on the same bracha which you are sensitive, which you are en-engaged with, it's still considered a hefsek because possibly because it's not your bracha, it's their bracha. However, they exp-- So Rabbi Akiva Eger does not... D- He doesn't, um, undo the proof. Th- He doesn't give a logic. He-- Because the logic l'chor is, and the Ponei Mi'ir says a lot of logic. He says, "It's, it's the same, the same thing." And

03:34 yet you have here two proofs to the contrary. So, okay. Um, so I guess we should be avoiding answering amen until we have find that answer to Rabbi Akiva Eger's chashash. Okay. I'm going to go on to the next question, and that is about putting up a mezuzah in someone's house, and they are wheelchair-bound, and therefore, they're incapable of putting up the mezuzah. Very happy that I've come round to put up their mezuzah. And they're sitting there and the person says, "Could I say the bracha and you do the banging?" So here is a question of baal ha-mitzvah, the owner of the mitzvah, and the poel ha-mitzvah, who's im- who's im-implementing the mitzvah. So can we, can we, uh, can the owner of the mitzvah retain the bracha even though the implementation is being done by someone else? Now this came up, and oh, well, it's not a fresh question. We were learning a Gemara, a slightly different, we're doing Gemara, Gemara Rosh Hashanah, talking about if I come to someone's house and they are incapable of saying brachas, so they have to do a mitzvah, so I'm allowed to blow shofar for them, and I break the bracha, sh'ma kol shofar, and they say amen, and that's okay. The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah is discussing if they don't know how to say the bracha on the matzah, can I come along to their house and say two brachas, mah tzelech m'haaretz and al achilat matzah, because I cannot make a bracha. You want to

05:19 eat an apple, I cannot make a ha'aretz for you because there's no aravot. Aravot means I'm responsible. You have to hear shofar. I have a mitzvah to make sure that you can hear shofar. Therefore, I can say a bracha on your shofar, you know, on your mitzvah of shofar. But I, I have no mitzvah to ensure that you can eat an apple. Therefore, you want to eat an apple, that's... But I, I don't have a chrayut, I don't have response, I don't have aravot. So the Gemara then says, what happens if the fellow wants to eat matzah as a mitzvah? Can I make the bracha, um, mah tzelech m'haaretz as well as the bracha, uh, al achilat matzah? So what you're seeing there is that the volunteer comes to their houses. He's saying a bracha, and someone else is doing the mitzvah. So that's legitimate So here we want to do the same thing here. But it's a little bit different because in the case of the matzah, it's the, um, it's the, it's the volunteer who's saying the berakhah, and it's the owner who's doing the mitzvah. In our case, it's the other way around. It's the volunteer who's doing the mitzvah, and it's the owner who wants to say the berakhah. So it's the opposite way around. So that's, that's the dilemma. So we've gone through this, if you've been keeping track with our shiurim, we had a story of the f- the Jewish prisoner, and there's a, a shliach visiting him on

06:48 Hanukkah, and there's a glass wall in the visitation room dividing between the rabbi, uh, and the prisoner. And the rabbi managed to get permission to light a menorah in, on his side of the wall, and the prisoner is asking, could he at least make the berakhah on the menorah, which is for him. So this is, this is the question, the same as, the same story as the mezuzah. As the person in the wheelchair unable to reach the door, can the, can the owner of the mitzvah say a berakhah on the action which is being done by a volunteer? So you have on the, on the screen, we have from the Kafa-- um, sorry, from the Ben Ish Chai, where he does allow this. A person who's bedridden, who cannot reach the menorah. You can't... shouldn't bring the menorah to him because it's not the right place. And he says the patient could sit in a... stay in bed and say the berakhah on the, uh, menorah, which is being... going to be lit by someone else. So he says the owner of the mitzvah can make the berakhah on the action done by a volunteer. Now, in the case of the mezuzah, I've mentioned them several times, the Sefer Sha'ar HaTziyun, and he brings this from the Ben Ish Chai, and the Ben Ish Chai, I think, also addresses clearly the case of mezuzah. But then we have the question. With, with milah, why is there a nusach? You look in the Rambam, he has,

08:29 if a father, if a... The Chatam Sofer says, "Asher kidshanu bemitzvotav v'tzivanu al hamilah." If it's the father, it would be the berakhah lo-on lomar es habeen. Ashkenazim don't make the difference, but the Rambam makes that difference. Rekh tsadik sh'elah. All right, so now there's a father, he can't do the brit himself. So he's appointed a shliach. Why shouldn't the father say, "Asher kidshanu bemitzvotav v'tzivanu lomar es habeen," and the mohel gets on with it? If I can make a berakhah on, on you, on your banging the mezuzah on my doorpost, so I should make a berakhah on you being... doing the brit on my son. So why does the... why is there two nusachot? So this is one of the strong proofs that when you have an owner of a mitzvah who's delegated the mitzvah to another person, that the other person, the one who's doing the mitzvah, should say the berakhah, not the owner of the mitzvah. Those are the... one of the primary proofs which is brought to, uh, against the, um, the Ben Ish Chai. I'm not totally sure about this because possibly the mitzvah done by the father, lomar es habeen, is not being done by the sh- by the, uh, mohel. I think the Shakh says this. There's a mitzvah that your son has to have a brit. That is being done. But the mitzvah that you should circumcise your son, that is not being done by a shliach. That, that, that... There's a certain, uh, relationship which he

09:55 doesn't have. And you can't... The famous ksos. Can I make a shliach to put on tefillin? Says, "Yeah, sure, but it's on his head." I can make a shliach for an action. I cannot make a shliach for it's my head. That I cannot delegate my head. And I know no one would want it, but never mind. Um, there's, there's no... The shlichut doesn't apply here. Shlichut is for an ac-activity, not for a passive s- for a state of being. So I can make you a shliach to put on tefillin, but the passive state, it's in my head, that's not an action. That's a passive state that I cannot delegate to a shliach. So if you say there's a mitzvah to make a, a brit for your son, so possibly that doesn't really get included, and, uh, all right. That's why a lot of people attack a mahadar if they are, uh, capable. They'll do at least the hitakh because there's a s'vara, there's a... then the proper shlichut here. There's a shlichut for the, uh, one part of the mitzvah, not for the other part of the mitzvah. Having said that, so therefore, it could be that's why, uh, there's a, there's a notion of the, uh, when the mohel does, it's al hamilah. When the father does it, it's lomar es habeen. It's a different... It's another angle of the mitzvah which is not delegate. Which now brings us to actually in the Gemara. In the Gemara Rosh Hashanah, we have, uh, the, uh...

11:23 At the back of the Gemara, you've got the Rif, and on the margin of the Rif, you've got the Shiltei Hagibborim from the Shu"t Aboyaz, lived about f-four hundred years ago, perhaps. And he, one of his... He quotes... It's like, in other words, like, um, short comments on the, on the Rif. One of his m-um, very common sources is the Ri'az. So you may have heard the name of the Rid, who was Rabbeinu Shaya D'Tehrani. Tehrani is somewhere in Italy. Don't ask me the, uh, the coordinates. And he had a grandson also called Rabbeinu Shaya. I don't know whether they knew one another, but they, this, the grandson also lived in Tehrani, and he's known as the Rabbeinu Shaya Acherin zal. And therefore, in short, the Ri'az. So the Ri'az is quoted in the Shiltei Hagibborim, and he says although you can delegate, you can make a berakhah. When doing someone else's... When you can make a bracha, someone else is doing a mitzvah. They don't know how to say the bracha. You can say the bracha for them. But he says, "She'einu yochal levorech al milas bno lecha al chaveroi, al milas bno lachnis hu bevris." Like, someone's doing a bris, and then he does not say the brachos. So can I say for him, "Lachnisoi bevrisah shel Avraham Avinu"? He says he can't delegate that because it's, you know, because he doesn't... He says, "You're not mechuyav in this, in, in, in this, uh, milo. Therefore, you can't delegate." It's interesting chidush. Meanwhile,

12:56 so this, so this is, this is my discussion here, uh, about delegating. So to summarize that point, can you delegate? Can you delegate the mitz, the action, and keep the bracha? That's the question. As I say, Ben Ish Chai says yes, and in that case, the fellow behind the glass in the prison could say a bracha. Others disagree with it, and obviously, it's not s- it's not so clear. Um, now, we're talking about the mitzvah of Bris, Bris Mila and the bracha. And so here we saw that you sh- can't delegate the bracha lechnisoi. What happens if the father is not present? So here you have the Rambam, and he says, "If there's no father, the bracha lechnisoi is missed out." Yesh mishe'oimer. There are those who have said that you should say it. Who? Bezdin Echad Mina Ham, one of the people, o-one of the people present. Ve'ein ro'e laseh shekein bechal. The Rambam has got... Is quite strict in the Yonom of Brachos. For example, they hold that women, according to the Rambam, can't make a Bracha Shfar on Lulav and Sukkah, et cetera. Okay. The Rambam says n- says no. However, look on the bottom left. We have here from the Ramoh. Im ein avi haben etzel hamil. If the father is not present, then yesh mishe'oimer she'odom acher mevorach bracha zoi. And the logic to that is, she'harei bezdin metzuvin lemoloi. You say it's not my business. There is a mitzvah, there's a duty on the collective. The collective Klal Yisrael

14:42 have a duty to have this child have a bris. So when I'm doing this, and I'm, I'm using those... the word collective, Bezdin is, is the, is responsible to implement the responsibilities of the collective. Does that make sense? There's a mitzvah on Klal Yisrael that who-- But who's gonna do it when we implement it? So you've got the judiciary, the Bezdin. It's their duty to get it happen. That doesn't mean that the fellow, the sandek, it says... The Polin says that it's the sandek would say the bracha in such a case. It doesn't mean the sandek has to have a special settle from Bezdin to, to... It means that he's, he's there. And on behalf of Klal Yisrael, you'll say that we have a collective mitzvah, lechnas et habris shel Avraham avinu. Okay. Uh, in the notes, I, I commented, what about a case of, of a bar mitzvah? Does the, uh, if there's, if there's no father, uh, what happens to the Bracha Shephatorani? So the Bro- Brocha Shephatorani is actually not recorded in the Gemara, and that's the reason why we don't say the Bracha with Hashem's name. We say just Brocha Shephatorani miyein haShloshah, although there are those who say it with the... But that's our meaning, b'lo Shem u'Malchus. So now, if there's no father, should the mother say it? So this is what's written in the Piskei Chosid. The mother wouldn't be saying this because, um... Well, he doesn't go into the explanation. By contrast, I was surprised to see,

16:30 and the, and the practicalities are interesting because normally it's said by the Sefat Emet, and normally the mother would be behind the mechitza, so it's rather impractical. But, um, in those communities where a woman says Birkat Agomel, perhaps says Heichal Torani also. Okay. Meanwhile, the, the, um, Nittei Gavriel does write that the mother should say the bracha. And he then, then in note Lamed Heh, he brings here from a commen- commentary on the Rambam, Lev Mevin. I apologize, I didn't look up these before Hashem. Also, Pesach Advir. And he says the mo- the mother, um, is she's got the duty of the Chinuch of her children. So I found that a little bit surprising because generally we say the mitzvah of Chinuch is on the father. He's saying that the mother has a Chiyuv. Now, I m- I men- I went through this yesterday. As you know, I do a rehearsal in Hebrew on Wednesday night, and someone pointed out actually that, one of the participants, that in the Sicha of Emor, Parashat Hashavua, in Tov Shin Nun, the Mugdike Sicha, and the mis-- If you have the Sefer Sichas or the Israel Duyos, you'll see that the Rebbe goes in at length to explain how the mitzvah, the mother does have a mitzvah of Chinuch. So although I, uh, didn't, um, go, go through all the technicalities, but he quotes from the Shalah that the m- there's a mitzvah, that the mother does, does have a mitzvah of Chinuch. And, um, all right. And,

18:12 and, and the Rebbe brings from, I think from the Shalah, that m- the majority of the Chinuch is actually done by the mother rather than the father. In addition, the mother's approach for Chinuch being through Avodah Um, is, is something which, which, uh, is much more effective nowadays than a chinuch, which would be perhaps in a more rigid way. Um, I mentioned last night, which, uh, which I remember a sicha, that was before I looked up the sicha in, in, uh, Tafshin Nun. The Rebbe had commented on this about does a mother have a chiyuv of chinuch. And it was like as if to say one day, one fine day, there's a big meeting of Rabbanim. And they make a new takana. They make a takana that the father has a chiyuv of chinuch. Till then, the father didn't have a chiyuv. And now, you should know, Rabbi Weiss, from now on, you have a chiyuv of chinuch. Wonderful. Imagine if they make that such an announcement. And to all the ladies, they say, um, kosherveladies, uh, nesheiv, noshim tzitziyonios, you should know from now on, you have a chiyuv to be mechanech your children. It would be a joke. It would be a laughing stock. They've been, that's, that's their whole raison d'être. It's been the whole time. They've been mesenefesh, all their energies in being mechanech their children. To come along and say, oh, we have now a hakhamia made a takana that the mother has to be mechanech their children. That's, that's,

19:37 that's, wasn't, it didn't, it didn't, it didn't need to be made. That was the approach then. Okay. So, I just see here that there's two shitas about this. And certainly the mother does have a, a privilege of chinuch. To say that she has a chiyuv, okay. To say that therefore she should say shepterani meonesh halozer, that's, that's a technical question. Anyway, and even after the Rebbe says that she has a mitzvah, to say that therefore she's, uh, got a punishment for, for et cetera, that, that, that's questionable. Okay. Let's go on to the next question. And that is a very contemporary type of question. Many products now come along with a QR code. And when we open packages on Shabbos, so we're careful not to tear through the writing. So, I was asked this question. Do I have to be careful to avoid cutting and tearing through the QR code? Is QR code considered writing? It's a very interesting question. Um, what, in my mind, a QR code is, doesn't say anything. It is a, an, uh, it, it is, um, it enables you to use a camera of some sort to read it. And you can, of course, you get information out of it. But it's unintelligible as it is. So, is a, is a script which is unintelligible, but it is usable. It, it is, it can be developed through the appropriate tools. Is that considered writing? So, the closest we have is a fascinating thing in Yerushalmi. Talks about people who had

21:25 a certain trick up their sleeves. If I wanted to convey to you a secret message, so I would write it on a piece of parchment, papyrus, whatever. I'd, I'd write it with gall, gallnut juice. I wonder if that's the wrong thing. It doesn't matter. It was some kind of invisible ink. And it dries. There's no, there's no trace. Then the recipient receives it and then pours ink over it. And then you can see where the ink is more absorbed, less absorbed, and you can read the message. So, says the Gemara, Reb Yochanan and Anrish Lokish both agree that that's equivalent to ksaval gabi sikra, to writing with black ink on top of red ink. Vechayiv, and you'd be punishable for writing. Um, this is not what the Gemara says, but let's say if I would take a wax candle and write with a white wax candle on a piece of paper, write something, and then you'd pour some, uh, watercolor paint. So, where the wax candle's, uh, so before you couldn't see the writing. Now, it's become, the writing has become visible because you put stuff around it, and it's, the, that, and it's, something similar's happened over here. So, the one who pours the ink over the invisible ink and now has developed the secret message is chayiv. What about the one who did the first part? So, this is, this is from the Piski Achur, as you can see. He asks, what about the one who did the first invisible, uh, writing? Is

23:14 he considered having written? So, Rav Falk, Zechariah Levrachah, he has a lot of discussion about this. And he says, look, look in the Gemara. It said that the one who pours the ink on top of the invisible ink, here on the top of this gallnut, uh, juice, it's like writing with black ink on top of red ink. Oh, that means the first one is also liable. He says it's ksaval gabi sikra. See, if I'd written the first one, did with sikra. The second one, second one we did, we did, uh, with black ink. All right. So, that means that both of them are chayiv. That's what Rav Falk learned from this Gemara, which is, uh, I think quite, uh, convincing. Okay. So, if you write characters with invisible ink, then that would be considered writing according to, um, yeah. That, that, that might tell you that if you put in place, um, the, if you put in place the ability to develop a, a message, it's considered writing. So, then you would say the Q- QR code is also writing. I don't, I don't necessarily buy that all the way because with the Rav Falk, he wrote. He wrote a, a word, letters and words. He wrote a message. Of course, it's, it's, it's, uh, not visible. Let's say you still write with, if you write with, um, lemon juice, and then you put it by the heater. So, then the lemon juice will now turn brown. So, if you see, but the, but the

24:51 writing is there. But the QR code, it's, it's, it's, it's one step more removed. There's no writing there at all. There, there is, there is a way that you can, you can, uh, develop it. It's like you to have, let's say, um, that was one. You'd have a, a, a tape recorder, tape recording. You had Hashem's name on a tape recording, and then someone wants to erase the tape. Is it considered erasing Hashem's name? And I believe the general approach was no, it's not considered... The, uh, a, a tape recording is not writing. And r- or even though you can develop from it a message, but it's not considered writing. So, uh, I, I wouldn't... If it were a Isur DeRáis, I would, I would, uh, certainly be more careful. Here we're talking about not making the QR code. We're talking about tearing through it. And te- uh, what is here, Mechir Mochek. Mochek Min HaTorah is only if it's Mochek Amenas Lechtav. If you're erasing with the intention to use the space to write a new message. Mochek Shelo Amenas Lechtav. Tearing through letters is clearly an Isur Derabonon. And therefore, I think here, because we have enough room for doubt whether this is called writing or not, one could take the, the policy of Sefek Derabonot LeKula, and therefore, uh, not to have to worry about tearing through the QR code. Someone put a message here in the... Right. Um, let's move on. Okay. So, one of the Chabad Shuls here in London

26:40 had a very Hosh of a visitor, and he was at a, uh, prime Talmud of the late Rav Soloveitchik from, uh, YU, from, uh, yeshiva Yitz-- Yeshivat Chochon. And he mentioned... He asked, "What is Chabad Minhag by Hosh-Hoshana?" So the Minhag is we have the, uh, procession around the Bima. Before that, someone takes out a Sefer Torah and stands at the Bima in the center, and then Rosh Hashanah Rabbi, several Sefer Torah. Takes out the Sefer Torah, and, and then at the end of Hoshana, everyone's done their circuits, and then the Sefer Torah is brought back. He starts... In Chabad, we'll start singing Hasheam Sameach, okay? And then the Sefer Torah is put back in the Aron, and then everyone says, "Labandaz kolam ha'oretz ki Hashem hu ha'elokim ein od." Yeah. So he asked what-- whether that's indeed Chabad Minhag too. He said, "Yeah, more or less." And then the, the Rav Koch Shliach Rav showed him in my siddur, quoting this from Orot Minhagim Chabad, et cetera, that that's indeed our Minhag. What's the reason for this Minhag of putting back the Sefer Torah and saying Labandaz, uh, kolam ha'oretz only thereafter? So this person had said that because till now, Hashanes has got, um... Okay. At, at this point, we're sending a message to the Amei HaOretz. Labandaz, all the nation of the world. We don't... The Torah has nothing to do with them. It's a message to Amei HaOretz, but not Torah. And therefore, we close the Aron Kodesh, and we say,

28:28 Labandaz kol Amei HaOretz. Um, put the Sefer Torah back, close the Aron Kodesh, and then we say Labandaz kol Amei HaOretz. All right. That sounded very interesting. And obviously, someone like myself was intrigued to see-- to trace this a little bit further. And, uh, I would not be able to find this on Shabbos. Um, I found here the Sefer HaRecheach. The Recheach is from the early Baalei HaTosfot, or by that period. And he, he has in the Sefer HaRecheach Hagadol, he has the Minhagim, and he now talks about Rosh Hashanah Rabbi and talking about taking out seven Sifrei Torah, and with each one, uh, do a Hoshana. Uh, no, sorry. Um, but keep in mind, so now it's, I'm mixing up. There's th-those who say for after each Hakafah to put one Sefer Torah back. But that's not the general Minhag. All the Sifrei Torah are kept out until the end, and then all the Sifrei To- Sifrei Torah are put back. But then he says, "Ve'achakach machzirin ha'torah l'mekoman, ve'omdin lefaneha arei nakodish pasuch, ve'omdin lemaan b'kolron lemaan daas ve'achakach kadesh." So one slight change from what this eminent, uh, Talmud Chacham was saying. He says, "Davka the Aron Kodesh is left open, and only after the Pasuk is finished, then we close the Aron Kodesh." So this business of, of, of isolating the Labandaz from Umech Sh'Olam doesn't fit. Why, why do you have to leave the Aron Kodesh open? I... What is the hesber? I don't know. And I, I looked around

30:04 in several sources. There's a Sefer called Otzar Hoshana, various commentaries. This whole Minhag is, is not very well recorded. So it's very interesting. I show you this. You're talking about for six hundred, seven hundred years ago, and we're doing exactly the same thing, and it's hardly recorded anywhere. Uh, in the Sifrei HaMinhagim, the K'tav HaAriach, e-et cetera. Um, Noam Elimelech. I looked. I didn't-- I couldn't find it. So, uh, this is an appeal. Anyone out there, um, perhaps anyone's got the Hoshana book by Ardskrol. Um, they might have some comment over there, and, uh, I'll be grateful for some further insight. Right. Um, we also say these Psukim by Shir shel Yom. And that's really, in a sense, after davening, we're going away, away from shul out into the street. And so we have those pesukim, "Beis Yaakov l'chubeinecha b'Hashem ki kol ha'am yechel ish b'Hashem elokov." It's something to... And that's the Olenu Shabeach also. Before we go out to the street to emphasize, to internalize that we're different. See, "Hem ishtachavu la'heival u'le'rik, u'lecha anachnu karev ishtachavim." And so also that's the, the, uh, the, the preliminary, uh, to, to, uh, Shir shel Yom, especially in Nusach Ashkenaz, which was said a-after Olenu, is in this, the mindset you're about to go out to the street and to emphasize the "Ma'amadas kolamei ha'oretz" perhaps. But we hear before it says, um, "V'yu v'areis uskenantan b'Hashem karev b'Hashem." We, we, we have a closeness to Hashem. The "Ma'amadas kolamei ha'oretz" is different. So, okay.

31:48 I, I say this because, uh, people ask the question, when we say Shir shel Yom, um, on, on... Is it, how is it, on Rosh Chodesh? I don't remember. Well, Shir shel Yom when w- on Tisha B'Av, on the afternoon. So we started with Shir shel Yom. Do you say Beis Yaakov? And my feeling is that you don't, because the Beis Yaakov is, is when you're gearing up to, to leave the shul. Here, you just have come back to shul in the afternoon, and so you say Shir shel Yom, but you don't say Beis Yaakov. Okay. Um, all of th- these points are in the siddur, uh, w-written in, uh, in a, well, in a beloved place. Now, here we have something very interesting. So I got this question yesterday, and it's ask-asking why in the siddur did I not point out the difference that, um, that in many siddurim it has, "Oho yo oy ha-chalvono ka'er haChamo u'ka'er shivas hayomen." So take a look over here. "Vehi oy halvono ka'er haChamo u'ka'er shivas ymei Bereshis." So he was asking why did I not comment on that. So the answer is that I was looking at the Alter Rebbe, and I was looking at Alter Rebbe's sources. I wasn't really focusing on later sefarim, and I wasn't aware of this difference. So I, I'm looking only at Alter... To tr- I'm trying to trace the Alter Rebbe's sources. And so just like-- Meanwhile, this, this whole piece became very, very interesting. In the siddur, siddur,

33:38 before the Alter Rebbe, you have the Shalo siddur, which was published תכב, three years before the Alter Rebbe was born. We have the Reb Yaakov Emden siddur printed the same year the Alter Rebbe was born. They do not have this piece of, "Mizos oylem min habmidbar," the yehi rotzon. That piece is not there. It's not in the Kitzur Shalo, which was published, um, fifty years earlier. And so in earlier sources, I couldn't... And th-this whole piece is not there. The earliest source I came across is in a, um, a, a sefer published in the year תקיב, when the Alter Rebbe was seven years old, called Birkat HaChodesh. It's a small kuntres. I saw this. How do I get to it? In the, in the siddur, the bear siddur called Avodat Yisroel. So there he says that the detail, he says he saw this in Birkat HaChodesh. Oh. So I looked up at this Birkat HaChodesh. So this, this, so th-this whole paragraph is not in the earlier siddurim. It's only in the f- in the fifty years before the Alter Rebbe publishes his siddur, approximately, where this is, uh, comes up. Um, if any of you know of a safer called Chemdat HaYamim, uh, I looked up there also, and it's not there. So it's something which was real- clearly introduced closer to the Alter Rebbe's times. So now we have in this, uh, um, prayer, after we have this pasuk, and then we have, "Vehi rotzon milfanecha le'malis pegimas halavona," that the indentation, the,

35:19 uh, the, the reduction of the levana sh- in size should be filled in. "VeLo ye'boshu miyot," it shouldn't be diminished. "Ve yehi oy halvona." We have, "Oho oy halvona ko ay chamo," the light of the moon should be like the light of the sun. "Ka'or shivas yemei Bereshis," like the light of the seven days of Bereshis. And so, as you see in a moment, that in other, in later siddurim, after the Alter Rebbe, you have a wow added here, "U'ka'er acham." So that's what we're-- I'm trying to, uh, explore. And this is based on a pasuk in, in Yeshayah, which we'll see presently. Now, this afternoon, I went into a, uh, mesmadresh. I was looking, uh, I wanted to actually see the newest edition of the Rekiah, and I wanted to see whether there's any cross-references on the previous quote, and they didn't f- They had, they had no other cross-references. Such a thing I would have expected would be in other Sifrei Hamanhogim. No mention at all. But meanwhile, I saw, I, I saw a safer on, on Birkat Kodesh Levanah. I was looking the shelves till I found the right safer. So I saw that one of the s- I think it says there, Rosh Yeshivas, I believe Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik did not want to say this piece, "Lema'alis pegimas halavona." Because w- if the levana is going to be filled in, that means we're not gonna be able to do a calendar anymore. Our whole calendar is going-- is contingent upon a,

36:58 a, a moon, which is waxing and waning. And then we have a mitzvah of Kiddush HaChodesh, and then we have a mitzvah of Ibara Hashanah because the cycle of the moon is different to the cycle of the sun, and therefore, we have a whole, whole, a whole calendar. The malice give us hell of honor, then the, then the mitzvah is gonna be obsolete. So he didn't want to say this piece because it's praying for mitzvah to become obsolete. Okay. My-- Fine. So now what you have on the screen is the following. The top one is from Biryak of Emden Siddur, as you can see, Siddur Amudei Shamayim. Amudei Shahar Shamayim, Biryak of Emden. So his cad- his Birkat Halevona finishes off with the Omar, but that's the Tonet Veyereh B'shmayel. Hilkoch Lemrina Meumet. That's the end. And you see there's a Kadesh there. That's the end. Then one of the Siddurim closer to the Ti- Alter Rebbe's times, I mentioned it before, Rabbi Zalman Henne, or Henne, however you pronounce his name, and he publishes a Siddur. This is published in Tov Kuf Lamed Zain, published in Prague. And he does have... Now, he, he, he says, "You should shake the Bigod, the, the, uh, the, the hem of your clothes to get rid of the klippot, V'hu So Yigod L'vanaira. And then you should say, Vayima, yeah. In the Alter Rebbe's Siddur, Vayina Shelo Bigod comes afterwards, yeah? But, but him, he, I guess he had been Mekabel from earlier, and they had stopped

38:28 there. So he-- And that was the Vayina Shelo Bigod. But then there's a new thing which has been added, so he adds it in. And he has now the Malach Pigim B'salvono, V'ayovono K'archamo K'oshivas Yemei Breishes. So he brings this tefillah, and you see it's K'oir HaChamo, K'oshivas Yomim, I mean, without the Vav. The third quote, the third copy is from the, as I mentioned before, the Avodat Yisroel, from, um, um, this is a, a Yekisha Siddur. It's got two Nusach, Nusachos. You've got Nusach, Polan Nusach, Polan Nusach Ashk'naz, but the dic- the dictum is pretty much the same. And there you have the Vav is added. Oior Honok, Oior Chamo, U-K'oshivas Yemei Breishes. So want to look at that. So now let's take a look. We have here, this, here's the posek in Yeshai. Ohoio Oir Halvono K'Oir Chamo. That there'll be a time where the m- s- light of the s- moon will be like the light of the sun. V'Oir Chamo Yir Yeshivas Ayim. The light of the sun will be sevenfold. K'Oir Shivas Hayomim, like the light of the seven days. Now, here's the question: When does this moon become the light like the sun, and the sun leapfrogs to become sevenfold? Or does it mean that the moon will be like the sun, and you know about the sun. The sun will be not like it is now. The sun will be K'Oir Shivas Yemei Brei- Yayom. So if-- and if you take that approach, then there's no need, I

40:10 think, for the Vav. V'hi Oir Halvono K'Oir Chamo, which the Oir Chamo will be K'Oir Shivas Yemei Breishes. There's no need for the Vav there. And so someone at some stage, as they say, it's, it's after the Alter Rebbe's times, somewhere in the, in the, uh, Tov Reish, uh, Chofs, or somewhere around then. Sometime after the Alter Rebbe, someone introduces a change, and this became very popular in, in so many other Siddurim, but, uh, it's certainly not in the earlier sources. And, okay. Uh, as you see, I'm intrigued. And so now I look up meforshim on the posek of Yeshai, and I pulled out also the Oir HaTorah. The Tzemach. Because the posek of Oio Oir Halvono K'Oir Chamo in my mind comes up often in Chassidus, and therefore I was curious to see what the Tzemach Tzedek has in Oir HaTorah on, on, uh, on Yeshai. So in this, this is in the fir-- There's three volumes of Oir HaTorah and Nevi'im Zukim. And the first one has a long, uh, several pages on this. VeZeleshion Haklippos. Um, the Sheklippos is a commentary on the, on the Nach, and from Reb Shmuel Laniado, and I've, I've noticed, noted that it was published in Ven- Venice, Tov Yud Zion. Okay. So he's-- So the Tzemach Tzedek is writing over. I fo- fo- found the actual klippos also on the computer, but it's easier to read from the Tzemach Tzedek. So now he writes that these psukim are referring to the Osid, that the world will

41:53 be, um, com- re- perfected as it was in the time of creation. And therefore, the sun, the moon and the sun will be the same size. As we know at the beginning of creation, Vayaaser Elokim et shnei hame'oros hagdolim. So like this moon was the same size as the sun before Hashem-- before it's complaint and it was diminished, so will be the Osid. And therefore, the meaning of the posek is that the year, the shia, Oir Chamo, um, umimen novin. And now it's telling us how big the sun will be, and from this we'll understand also the size of the moon. Chizeh vezeh shavin k'amur, because the moon and the sun will be of equal size. Okay. So therefore, having seen all of this, I see that there's no need to have the extra Vav. If they thought that there's... Perhaps the one who act- added the Vav was understood that the moon will be like the sun is now, and the sun will be, uh, I don't know, perhaps that's what they understood. I don't know. But, uh, it-- I don't see the need to start tampering with it. One last point, and I mentioned before, this Rav Sol-- Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, who was a bit concerned about mitzvot kiddush ha'chodesh, et cetera. And indeed, the Rebbe also speaks about this in Tov Shin Mem Daled, and he, he refers to this posek of Oio Oir Halvono K'Oir Chamo- And so then how will be the whole inyan of the Rebbe where he says

43:23 that the whole inyan of the need to make Ibur Hashanah also will fall away. The reason why we have... The moon is a smaller body, and therefore, it has a smaller cycle. The sun is a bigger cycle. A bigger body has a bigger cycle. I'm just... This way I understand what the Rebbe is saying. Once the moon has got the same size as the sun, it will have the same size cycle also. And therefore, there will be, uh, no need to have Ibur Hashanah to kind of, um, to, how to, how to match up the mo- the lunar year to the solar year because both bodies will have the same speed, the same or, um, same, I don't know, s-similar orbit, et cetera. So not only the on, uh, and so the question is also what's the, what's the Kiddush Levana? What's this? What were the... There, there, there is no waxing or waning. So that's it. So the Rebbe talks about this, and he says possibly this is talking about the later Tikkun. This is re- a recurrent theme in the way the Rebbe resolves many questions about prophecies about the time of the Geulah and, uh, to say that there's two periods. There's an earlier period where Olam Haba is like Olam Hazeh, and there's a later period where, um, where things are in a, in a totally mi- uh, uh, unnatural form. And therefore, this Olam Haba will apply in the later period. To answer the Moshe Soloveitchik's question then, there's a

44:55 whole discussion about whether you have to... whether you bury a person with a kosher, uh, tzitzit or not. And there's a whole discussion about mitzvot being batel to los of lavo. And the Rebbe has this, uh, fascinating, um, uh, sicha which was published, Ma'amanch, in the last years. And, and that was that what does it mean? The Abarbanel wants mitzvot. So what does it mean? There's gonna come a time, uh, he's gonna change his mind? No more mitzvot? What's the point? And, uh, especially if you're talking about mitzvot being Ramach Avodah Zarah or Shevet Achim and, uh, if, if... So, I mean, the Abarbanel is gonna chas v'shalom change. What does it mean? And the Rebbe's approach there is that the mitzvot will be happening. We don't have to, we don't have to worry about it. The mitzvot will, Abarbanel says it will happen whether you like it or not. It's gonna happen, and therefore, you don't have to worry about it. Whether you're burying with tzitzit or without tzitzit, it's going to happen. And so the, what the Rebbe is saying, at the moment, we have a choice whether to do mitzvot or not. And the Moshe of Mashiach, I guess also to some degree, in the later period, the mitzvot will, mitzvot will be happening, um, regardless. We don't need to... There won't be a bechira, and there won't be a need for a bechira because it's gonna, the Abarbanel is gonna be happening. On that basis, I think, um, we can say

46:27 we can also still daven Lamalchut Begimot Ulevona, and we... Then because there's two stages. There's a phase of, of, uh, of tachit chiyuv mitzvot. What will happen then, like you tear off the tzitzit from the Shetat Achirim. You can also daven for Begimot, Lamalchut Begimot Ulevona. Right. Um, where are we holding now? So that was that. Oh, I'm going back to backwards. Okay. What else do we have? Right. That's a piece of Zohar, um, on this, in your inyan of, of Olam Haba. Um, but I'm, I think I'm just gonna go further. I thought because it's, uh I shouldn't have said that. Um, so, um, yeah, I thought that because of the Yom Ha'Eulot perhaps we should learn a piece of the Zohar, but it's, uh, not such an easy piece to learn. Okay. Now, a couple of things left. One thing, one is someone asked me, the same fellow asked me about the Asher Basmeamim, asked me, he noticed in Chabad sometimes by Fabrengen, people will use the same cup for Kiddush without rinsing it in between. Now, in the dinim of Birkat Hamazon, which we discussed last week, one of them is that it should be shot of, it should be rinsed. And we are very particular that before making Kiddush, and we saw the Rebbe was very particular to rinse the cup, and the Rebbe would also take a tissue and wipe it inside and outside. Um, so there's an inyan of rinsing the cup before Kiddush. So now if you use

47:55 someone else's cup, is there an issue? Now, so this is... What you have on the screen is not from Siman Kuf Peh Gimel, which is Birkat Hamazon, but it's from Siman Kuf Ayin, Dehelek Es Basuda, et cetera, and it says you should not drink from a cup and giving it to someone else to drink from Yitples LaKonos Nefashos. And, uh, I'm thinking a lot of us are, are concerned about germs, et cetera, and so we wouldn't, right? Um, I, I must share this with you. First time I was in Russia, if you wanted to have a drink on the train, there, there were these, um, dispensers. They didn't have disposable cups. They had a bunch of glasses, and you went along, you use a glass. And the next guy uses the glass. It wasn't... You just use the same glasses as, as the other, uh, other person. Uh, I guess it's one way for population control, but never mind. Um, so now in the Piskei Teshuva, he mentions here, By Kiddush, it's customary drink from a cup, and then we give someone else to drink from the cup also. So it looks like we're not so concerned about this, um, sharing a cup. And I'll particularly watch, which I sent this, the question out. We have here a s- a story which the Friediker Rebbe says, as you can see, it's top right, it's, I think it was Pesach. He says the following. Friediker Rebbe said, "There was one time a Chassidishe Fabrengen, and my

49:23 father was present. And a ch- one Chassid was given a cup which another person had drunk from. And the s- the recipient took the cup and rinsed it out, and only then did he drink from it. My father, the Rebbe Rashab, was upset about this. And it was then he said the Maharich Alsu, which was said Simchat Torah Taf Lechi Nantes. As you all know, the Sefer Maharich Alsu is all about, uh, the lack of, uh, of dealing with, with strife and lack of Ahavat Yisroel. And he's saying here that this was triggered by witnessing how... Possibly it was more detail, you know, personal detail. But this Chassid had, uh, aversion to drink from the cup which the other Chassid had drunk from. So here it's, like, become very interesting that whilst you in Shulchan Aruch, um, that you, you shouldn't be sharing cups, so to speak, and yet there seems to be a Hasidism, uh, flexibility on that. What else do we have here? Okay. Last week we had a long discussion about saying Mishebeirach for the Maftir, the one who has Maftir. And I told you last week I looked all around and as a famous lotion, um, я гад далеко от соса алтамин. So I can say the same thing. I looked everywhere, but I did not look in the Sefer Shaarei Efrayim, which is the classical Sefer on Kriat HaTorah. So you can see here in the Shaarei Efrayim Sha'ates, um, um, Siftes, where he says, "After the Maftir has been

51:06 read, then you say, uh, then you give a Mishebeirach for the Maftir." So he says very clearly that the Mishebeirach is done for the Al HaMaftir between the Maftir and the Half Torah. So whereas last week we had a discussion about Birkat Agameal. So Birkat Agameal is not such a standard thing. It does not every week, etc. Therefore, there's still room for that question. But when it comes to, uh, Mishebeirach, so the Gaboim would do this every week. They're doing the right thing. They, they do the Mishebeirach between. Okay. Almost finished. And, um... Right. And we're holding. Got that tool. Sorry about that. Right. Almost finished. Then we had... If you remember, I also, I told you that I looked up in the, uh, Sikha from Tov Shin Chaf Gimel, and, uh, he gives a reference about Birkat Agameal to Sefer Torat Chayim. If you remember, I said that in the... I found there were about twenty-three volumes on the same title, Torat Chayim. So I wrote to the editor and says, "Which Torat Chayim was it?" He says, "No, it's Toidad Chayim." And so it's a, it's a Sefer on Birkat Agameal, which is the Birkat HaTodah, thanksgiving. And Chayim obviously stands for the Vechol HaChayim, Mechol HaYam Yeshur UMidbar. So there's a whole Sefer dedicated to the Beracha of Birkat Agameal. And there he has-- And then the, uh, the reference gives us to the following in Sefer Toidad Chayim, that y- that when it comes to Agameal, and you are the last

52:55 of the, uh, that reading, so יש מברכין קודם יאמר הקדיש. And there are those who say it after the Kaddish. וכן רוהולנו. So that's what the Rebbe in Tov Shin Chaf Gimel promoted, that Birkat Agameal should be said after, uh, Kaddish. Okay. What else do we have here? We have also about... So last Friday night, that, that's the, uh... I review some of the points which we say here. And last Friday night, um, I said over about the adding water to the, to the, to the wine, which I haven't seen. So Rabbi Landau, Rabbi Yosef Landau says, "What are you talking about?" His, his Zayda and his father, they would make a point of adding water to the wine, but that because they had wine which had no water added to it. But, uh, our wine has got wa- wi-wine added already, so therefore we don't bother with adding water to the wine. Okay, fine. Um, good to know. You know, it's... How do you know what's going on in everyone's, everyone's houses? But most of our wines is commercial wines, and a bit of water's been added in the process. Finally, finally, this is, uh, about... We had last dis- last week a discussion about the Seder of taking off the Tefillin. And meanwhile, I became then intrigued when we put on the Tefillin, why do we have this interesting Seder? We put on our arm till the wrist, till the ha- till the hand, then we stop there. We put on the Shalosh,

54:26 then we go back to the hand, we do the last three rings. Around the finger, then we go back, tuck it, tuck it in. So I was intrigued what's the reason for that. So in Shulchan Aruch, I couldn't find it. So here you see the fo- Now, the Rebbe does cite it in the Siddur, but in the Shulchan Aruch, he doesn't say this clearly. But look here, this is the Shulchan Aruch, Siman Chaf Het, Sif 21. אחר שקשר שיתד על זרוע. You really put דייג this של יד there. You should put the ro- Shalosh on. קודם שיכרך הרצועה סביב הזרוע. Put on the Shalosh right away before you start wrapping around your arm. Put on the Shiyad just as on this firm on your arm. Put on the Shalosh right away. Says the Magen Avraham, uh, from the Arizal, we have that the Arizal would wrap around the arm before putting on the Shalosh because he saw the wrapping around the arm being the part of the mitzvah. He did it standing. Okay. So meanwhile, we have here from the Arizal to do the seven circuits around the arm before the Shalosh. The way it comes in Shulchan Aruch is the following. Now, the Rebbe Shulchan Aruch, post the Magen Avraham, you put in the Shiyad, and you do the seven circuits because that's also part of the mitzvah. But the things around the finger, that, that's, uh, leave it for later. Well, well, it doesn't, it doesn't address it beforehand. In the Shu- In

55:49 the Siddur, he says about the Seder of after you put on the Shalosh, then you do the ones around the finger. But now here you have, there's a s- a series of eight Seferim called Even HaSho'yam, which is taken from the Kisvei Arizal and put them in a order of the Shulchan Aruch. So this is from that Sefer. The order of putting on the Tefillin, this is from the Sha'arah Kavanas, from the Ariza. First put on the Shalyad on your arm, and then wrap, cover your arm with a Talus, so that the Hanoch Has Tefillin should be discreet. And if you remember, I've said this before, how I saw Rab Sadia Lieberov pulling down his sleeve over his Tefillin, Shalyad, before putting on the Shalrosh. And in the Sefer Ashkav to the Rebbe, Rav Rivkin Alabas Shalom writes the same about the Rebbe Rashab, um, in his time. And then he says, after you wrap the seventh around the arm, then you put on the Shalrosh. And then, once the Shalrosh is in place, Oz yiten kidushin, shehu soet krichas ha-etz bah ha-em soi, ha-nikra amo. Then, the put on the Tefillin, you wrap around, it's like an act of kidushin. And as you know, many people have got the meaning to say the Pasuk, Veirastich li le'olam, Veirastich li betzedek uvmishpat, uvechesed urachman, Veirastich li be'emuno. The word Veirastich three times. Uh, although Chabad, we don't say it. Okay. You know, as the Rebbe once said about the, um, the Animamis. And the Rebbe,

57:21 whatever, something to that effect. Because we don't say it, doesn't mean we don't relate to it. We s- we don't say the Pasuk Veirastich, but it's, the inyan is true. So now, here is a bit more detail. After you put on the Shalrosh, shehu balo. The Shalrosh is considered like the husband. Then he gives the yiten lo haba kidushin. The husband gives the wife the kidushin, and that is giving the, putting the ring, the, the, the straps around the finger. That's like the, the, the husband giving the kidushin ring to the wife. Um, yeah. That's what I have for you tonight, and I'm gonna finish with that and wish you a, an inspiring Lag BaOmer, and, um, Yadai Hu Rashbi, nis mecholov v'shasat chag. We are, uh, we are in shasat chag, medav homa d'geulah, v'meheira b'yomeinu mamash. Amen.