במדבר תשפ״ה

00:09 Speaker 1 Good evening, and welcome to tonight's share. Today is, uh, Thursday, Parashat Bamidbar Taf Shin Pe He. And we are Shabbos before Shavuot, and it's also known as Yom HaMiyuchas. So how would you translate Yom HaMiyuchas? The day which we got our pedigree, perhaps. So it-- I, I didn't find this term in, in Chazal to refer today as the Yom HaMiyuchas. Seems to be more a colloquial, a Yiddish expression. And so what you have on the screen is from the Likutei Mahariach, which is a Yalkut on Tefillah. Uh, Tefillah, well, uh, mostly, um, throughout the year, I guess, so, uh, the, the, yeah, yearly cycle. And so he addresses this Yom HaMiyuchas. "Hine yom zeh v'yidden is called Yom HaMiyuchas. Omar gelo befi ha'olam." People are used to saying that this is the day where Yidden were told in the build-up to Matan Torah, "Ve'atem tihyu li am segula." You will for be, be for me a nation. Or like a treasure. The word segula would mean like a treasure. "U'mamlekhes kohanim." And a kingdom of priests. "V'goy kadosh." And a holy nation. "Ve'na'asu bi, beyom miyuchasim." Therefore, Yidden became privileged people, VIPs, on this day. So that's the, uh, that's the, what I, uh, the explanation why it's called Yom HaMiyuchas. By the way, in the Ketuvah, there's a comment on this am segula connecting it with a segul. A segul is a balance of yemin, simol, right, left, and center. Chesed, Gevurah, and Tiferet. A shuruk is, uh, three dots in a diagonal going

02:22 Speaker 1 off in a crooked way. And the, the pasuk which the Ketuvah picks up is on, "Vanoch ch netatich soylech kuloi zera emes." So there, the im bechter, there's, there's in the world, there's the challenge, and that's the, like, the netatich soylech, if I'm not mistaken. There's the challenge of the world. There's the crooked world, and you ha- you, you have to, uh, find your way to find the kedushah. "Kuloi zera emes." So the word emes is spelt with seguls, and that's how the, the, uh, the balance, the desired balance of the am segula, like seguls, or Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet in that balance. Meanwhile, another, another explanation is given. What's so special about the Beis Sivan, that it's going to be the same day in the week as the following Yom Kippur. Because, so, uh, that, you can check that. And Yom Kippur, well, is, so that's the yuchas on this day. It's like a prepare, a preparation in a sense for Yom Kippur. And so we have, this I took from the piyut of the beginning of Musaf of Yom Kippur. "Yom mi-yomim hu chas. Yom Kippur ha-miyuchas." So this is a, a day which has been a day identified, this very special day of Yom Kippur. So, so it's interesting you see that Yom Kippur is called Yom HaMiyuchas, and today is also, has got this connection. I just, since I already have this on the screen, I want to point out this piyut is in the beginning, as I said, of Musaf, the

04:04 Speaker 1 Chazarat Hashatz. And look at the screen, you'll see the first sentence then starts all four, um, phrases with a yud. The next sentence, the next sentence, yeah, is four phrases with a vav. "Avoy, viduy, v'shechenei, v'omirayish." Then the ne-- following sentence is mems, four mems. And then the next one is kof, kof. And so it's basically, it's a ro- remez to the word Yom Kipp- to the words Yom Kippur. And so that's the, uh, remez in this piyut. And if you will look at the, the counterpart in Rosh Hashanah, you'll also see there's a remez whether it's Yom Teruah or something like that, but that's, uh, hidden behind this, this remez. Okay, let's move on. And we're going to look at the question about davening Maariv early. So actually, many years ago, someone asked me, he was not feeling that well, and he's not able to come to Maariv to daven with a minyan. And so is he-- But he's not, it, it was in summer, and we have our, our summer evenings are very long, very late. Is he allowed to daven beyachid from Plag Hamincha? So this is from Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, the Siman Ayin. And he writes, "Umi--" This was a Yid who probably learned Kitzur Shulchan Aruch regularly. This is where he got it from. It says in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, "Umi she-einam itpalel b'tzibor, osur lo l'hitpalel firas aravis kodem tzet hakochavim." The Kitzur is fairly clear that the concession to be allowed to daven Maariv early is given

05:56 Speaker 1 for a tzibor, but not for any, not to on davening beyachidus. Now, just to go back a bit. We have in the Gemara, we have two opinions of Rabbi Yehuda and the Chachamim, where the, the time for Mincha ends at Plag HaMincha, which is an hour and a quarter, give or take, before the end of the day. And so Rabbi Yehuda says, "Until Plag HaMincha is the man Mincha. After that is the man for Maariv." The Chachamim say, "No. Mincha is Ad HaLayla and Maariv is from Layla." So we've got two opinions. Latest time for Mincha, earliest time for Maariv. And the Gemara says, "We're not going to decide, um, totally. We're going to say, 'The Oved K'mar Oved... The Oved K'Rabbi Yehuda Oved V'the Oved K'Chachamim Oved.'" That you have the choice. You can choose to follow Rabbi Yehuda and daven Maariv early. You can choose to, uh, follow the Chachamim and daven Mincha late and daven Maariv b'zmanam. Now, looking in the Shulchan Aruch, Siman resh amud heh, it doesn't seem like you can switch sides d-day, one day after to-- from one day to the next. You have to make a decision. Either you're going to be following Rabbi Yehuda or you can follow the Chachamim, but not to be sw-switching back and forth. How much more so on the same day to, to, uh, to daven Mincha late and Ma-Maariv early that you have a, a business of what's called trei kol ha'de'sasra. You're contruct-- you're contradicting yourself. How can you

07:38 Speaker 1 say this man is Mincha and man for Maariv? Either you're following Chachamim or you're following Rabbi Yehuda. Nevertheless, this is certainly the widespread Midrash Ashkenaz that they do. People come to shul and they daven Mincha, and then right away they daven Maariv, and they don't worry about this, uh, obvious contradiction because they say, uh, "Otherwise, we won't get our minyan together." Now, let's read here from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. This is in Siman tsadik, first Siman of Tefillah. He says, "Maariv, you should be waiting until tzeis hakochavim." Sh- The, the, the leniency to daven Maariv early is only because of the toelei hatzibur. The, uh... It's, it's difficult to belabor, if that's the right word, the co-the, the community. It's not gonna be possible to get them back again for Maariv. If they're going to go home after Mincha, you're not get them, get them back for Maariv. "Avel ha'mispalel b'yochid tzrich... Ha'mispalel b'yochid," you're davening on your own, "tzrich l'hispalel b'zmanam." So he s-seems to be fairly clear also that the concession to daven Maariv early is only b'tzibur, not b'yochid. Now, um, the Alter Rebbe in, in one of the t'shuvahs is the... As you may know, the Alter Rebbe introduces a special type of knife, farshiqita. The halafim farshiqita. The Alter Rebbe introduces a thinner, thinner metal, which can be, uh, honed in a, in a more efficient way. And in a t'shuvah, he talks about the halafim, and he says, "Although these halafim are saying this is better, is that

09:35 Speaker 1 not casting aspersions on the halafim of, uh, the previous, uh, of, of people till now?" See, there's that... He dismisses that problem, and he says, "K'moshe b'zman ha'acharon of late we've been machmir on Chodesh and on, on tefillas aravis b'zmanam." That's what the Alter Rebbe says. So of late, it's become common to be-- to daven Maariv b'zmanam. I'm not sure what the reason for this is, for this change. It could be that because people were perhaps previously living more dispersed, a more agricultural society, and then when it became people were living more in towns, to come, go home from, after Mincha and come back for Maariv. If you're living in town, it's not such a big deal, whereas if it's coming from the field, it would be a bigger thing. I wonder whether it's got to do with lighting, having streetlights. I'm not sure. But the, the Alter Rebbe certainly does encourage the ending of tefillas aravis b'zmanam. Um, and there is also in the Tzemach Tzedek, in Piskei Dinim, what happens if a person does have a minyan b'zman... Sorry, has a minyan early, and he asks the question, "Should I daven Maariv at eight o'clock whilst it's still light, but I'm davening with a minyan? Or should I wait till nightfall and daven without a minyan, but b'zmanam?" So it's the dilemma, which is more important, to daven b'zmanam or to daven b'tzibur. And the Tzemach Tzedek says that actually tefillah b'zmanam is, takes, takes precedence, and therefore you can choose. You can

11:19 Speaker 1 choose to daven Maariv, um, beYachidus on time rather than davening with the tzibur earlier. Okay, that's another discussion. But meanwhile, we're seeing here... Sorry, I just tried to put my phone on, on flight mode. Okay. Yeah, it's in flight mode. Right. So where are we holding? Um, no, it's okay. Comes on... And this, the Alter Rebbe is coming from the Shulhan, from the Magen Avraham, who's quoting the Shulhan. And he says in Ashkenaz it's common to daven Ma'ariv early, as mentioned in Siman Yesh Lamed He. Then he says a yachid who lives in a village or someone who's traveling would have to wait until Tzeis Hakochavim. So what we're seeing is that like the Kitsur has said, that the concession of davening Ma'ariv early is because of, uh, in order to enable Tefillat Betzibur. Even with that, I would say if a person is unwell and therefore they need to g-go to sleep early and et cetera, would still be allowed to rely just like this, you know, you make her to allow Tefillat Betzibur. So the Sefer Hachinuch, it would also be... That's why I told this gentleman years back, um, that he should be... He's allowed to, for his medical needs, uh, he's allowed to daven Ma'ariv early. Actually, I've just been in conversation with a shliach in Anchorage. It's not in Anchorage, in Alaska, about Zmanim. Uh, if you think we have late nights, um, so find out over there and, uh, Chatzos is about, uh, no, Tzeis Hakochavim was something like...

13:22 Speaker 1 No, not Tzeis Hakochavim. There's no Tzeis Hakochavim. Shkiah was some- like eleven something. Plag Hamincha was nine thirty. Right. Um, okay. Having said that, the Mishnah Berurah doesn't seem to take that view, and he's saying that the objection for davening Ma'ariv early o-on your own is only if you daven Mincha late. In other words, we have said before that to have Mincha and Ma'ariv one after the other, both after Plag Hamincha, is a contradiction. Is this a response to this? You say, "Well, for a Minyan to able, to enable Tefillat Betzibur, even as a contradiction, that's okay." So that, living with the contradiction, that is where a yachid shouldn't be, uh, o- uh, um, allowed. But if the yachid would daven Mincha at seven o'clock, six o'clock, or earlier, and wants to daven Ma'ariv at eight o'clock, then that should be okay. Again, so we're seeing here a yachid can't daven Ma'ariv early. So which concession is it? The fact that he's following Rebbe Yehuda, or the fact that for a Betzibur it's been allowed even to have a, a con- a contradiction. That contradiction won't be allowed for a yachid. So th- what you have for now on the screen is from the, uh, Piskei Teshuvas. The Magen Avraham in... Although the Magen Avraham there was Siman Tsadik, we're not gonna... In Siman Resh Lamed Gimel it looks like that the objection is only if he davened Mincha after Plag, then he can't take the, make the concession of davening Ma'ariv until after nightfall.

15:10 Speaker 1 But then the Magen Avraham had, had said, yachid, a dor be- every individual is living in a village. So, and he said they have to wait till nightfall. If you're traveling, you have to wait till nightfall. That seems to be regardless of when you daven Mincha. So he wants to... I find a very big Dechike. He wants to say it means that he's allowed to wait till nightfall. Normally, you have to, you should try to... Even if you're davening at home, you should try to synchronize. You should daven the, to time of the Betzibur. But if you're traveling, then he doesn't need to. He can wait till nightfall. I don't accept that Pshat at all because, um, why should he not be... What's the difference? Say he's traveling or he's in a village, um, so why, why should he not daven ear- I mean, if he's allowed to daven early, why should he not daven early? I, I, I don't understand. Okay, let's move on. Unless he means daven early and, and, and to do Mincha. I don't, I, I don't understand his, his, his Pshat. Okay, let's move on. So m- but to summarize what I've said is there is, there is a, uh, uh, hesitation of a yachid davening Ma'ariv before, before Tzeis Hakochavim. But when there's a, a pressure or whatever may, may be the pressure, then there's room to be lenient. As I said, in people living in places like Alaska or in Iceland, et cetera, um, where it's, it's... To

16:40 Speaker 1 wait till Tzeis Hakochavim, et cetera, is, is, uh, prohibitive almost. So then one, one would be Meikel to say they can daven for Plag Hamincha. Let's move on. So someone contacted me and asked me about the trop. The trop is the Yiddish word for tune, and we have on the bottom of the screen, we've got two Kochos publications. One is the Chitas, and one is the back of the Siddur. I know it's a little bit ahead, but okay. In Parshas Pinchas, I don't know what stimulated the question now, but that's, that's not my problem. He asked me a question, so I've got another question for tonight's lesson. Um, so I'm happy with that. So in the Chumash, it has talking about Kozbi, "Hamoko, Vayem Hamagefo Al Dvar Pe'er." So it's got Hamoko is spelled, is, is Vav Heh. The tune is what's called a Mercha. Whereas in the back of the Siddur, where the reading for Parshas Pinchas on Mondays and Thursdays, it's got a different trop. It's Hamoko, Vayem Hamagefo Al Dvar Pe'er. So they've changed the vowel, the, the tune. Here it's a Hamoko. Uh, it's, well, it's a T- Mercha, and the other one is a Tevir. So there's, so he's asking what's, which one's right. So- Everyone's right. Yeah, because you've, you've got, you've got going back hundreds of years. Now, on the right, you've got here this... I'm not sure whether this is from the codex. I don't remember. But here is a, a tikun, a Chumash from a hundred

18:24 Speaker 1 and fifty, two hundred years ago, and there is mercha tipcha, hamukah, veim hamagefah. Another one also from a hundred and fifty years ago. So, there's mercha tipcha. And then on the left of the screen, you have from, uh, the Sidur Shalo. The Sidur Shalo was publish-published not by the Shalo himself, it was published by the grandson, published in Amsterdam, tov ayin zain. Tov ayin zain, that's, um, just over three hundred years ago. Yeah, about three hundred and eight years ago. And as in almost now a standard in Chumashim, the Sidur Shalo, uh, I once was in Jewish college library. I saw an original of it. It's like two Likkutei Toras. So, uh, but, you know, it's very convenient to have Kriyat HaTorah at the back because you're standing in a shul and you don't have to find a Chumash because at the back is your Sidur. So, yeah. So, it has there, "V'al daar korsbi bas nesim midyona choysom." Now, it's a little bit blurry, but I think it looks like a tvir. Hamukaho, veim hamagefo advar peh. Yeah. Now, the, the trop under the word veyom seems to be, uh, just a meseg, not a, not a, a trop at all. And that's also supported by the fact that there's a makaf. Just for those who don't know what a makaf means, it's the hyphen which connects two words. And so, many times in the Torah, there will be words which don't have an independent tune, and they are kind of connected to the

20:02 Speaker 1 following word. And so, that's where you'll have a line. This is not in the Sefer Torah, but this is in, uh, the, the, uh, printed editions. You'll have that, that, that, uh, hyphen, the makaf. Uh, like the difference between eis and es, just while we're at it. When-- How does the balkor know, is it eis or es? Well, es would be typically no trop, and it's got a makaf connecting it, uh, with the next word. Whereas if it's an... If it's on its own, it's eis. Uh, and so... All right. So, here we have the makaf with the veyom hamagefah. So, the word veyom doesn't have a trop, and it's connected to the hamagefah, the word afterwards. Here, this other edition, you, you can also see how this is, uh, the... One of the masters of this whole kind of field called Masorah is the Minchas Shai. I think his name was, um, Nuretzi. Uh, anyway, this is from a print of about three hundred and fifty years ago, and you see again, the, the word has a tvir there. Hamukaho, veim hamagefah. Okay. I want to just... So, there's two traditions. One of trop. Th-th-th-that's, that, that's, you know, that happens. First of all, bottom line, what do we do? What is the balkor meant to do? So, we have, uh, Masorah and, um, Rabbi Shusterman, alav hashalom, who was the balkor by the Rebbe. Uh, certainly a Baal Masorah and a dayyan. And so, and he wisely recorded himself on the, uh, the

21:52 Speaker 1 whole of, uh, the whole of the Torah, and it's available online. So, he reads with a, with a, with a tvir. Hamukaho, veim hamagefah. Now, that's, that's what I, I could, I could hear him. Okay. So, that's bottom line. Um, Masorah is to read it with a tvir. Now, the next point is that whether you read it one way or the other has an influence on the following word. And I for... Please forgive me if I'm telling you stuff which you know already, but there are some people who don't know out there. Um, I actually was just, um, I was... On Tuesday, I was in Kraków for a conference and, um, a shliach somewhere from Kyrgyzstan, uh, his wife learned in school here. We're friendly whenever we meet. He says, "Thank you for the shiurim." He, he was following, you know, he listens to the recordings. But, so I'm just putting it out there. Now, the, the... In, in Dikduk, we've got six letters, right? Ashkenazim, four letters, which have got the option of being hard or soft. Beis or veis, pei or fei, uh, tof and sof, um, and kof and khof. The Sephardim also do a difference between gimmel and jimmel, and daled and daled. But Ashkenazim somehow lost that art. Now, so we've got what's called beget kefes or begad kefas. These are six letters, which could be called, uh, degusha, emphasize, strong, or refuya, means soft. And one of the rules in this, uh, dynamic, whether they're gonna be hard or

23:38 Speaker 1 soft, is the prece- the, the letter at the end of the preceding word. So, when the preceding word ends with one of those four letters, aleph, he, vav, yud. What's special about those four letters? That they are letters which are not necessarily phonetic. They can be vowels. Like in the word, "Vayera," the aleph, you don't hear the aleph sound. But without the aleph, you would have pronunc- pronounced it perhaps, "Veer." So, the aleph gives it the vayera. And nar with a he becomes naro. You don't hear the h sound. And sim-similarly, the vav is a, is a vowel besides having the v sound, but it'll act as a vowel. And so to the yud will also, um, not as prominent, but also the yud will... Let's say in the word, "Elov." So, the yud, you don't hear the y sound at all. So, the yud is there, otherwise it would be elu, and becomes elov. So, you've got those four letters, which are sometimes, should we call them silent letters, and they're acting as vowels. So, that's their affinity. Uh, I don't know the, how do you say, the science behind it, but when a word finishes off with aleph, he, vav or yud, the following word, if it's one of the six letters, begad kefas, the wo-word will be, uh, it will be a soft letter. So, pointing where I am to hamukaho, veim hamagefah. So, so then the hei of hamukaho, the end of hamukaho, influences the beis to become a vav. So

25:20 Speaker 1 just one more, uh, element in this discussion. When we say that ahevi influences Begad Kefas, that's if the le-- if the two words are connected. But if they are separated, then the influence, uh, doesn't, doesn't ha-take... There's no influence there. And in this, we have to understand in the, in the trop. The trop has got... Some trop are putting on the brakes, and some trops are, are, are, um, are causing the flow. In Medaktekim language, they are called malachim and mesharzim. The malachim are those who put the brakes on, and there are greater malachim and smaller malachim. So, Asnach and Seif Pastic are the biggest malachim. But then you've got also, let's say... And then you've got the other ones are called mesharzim, servants. So give you the example. Dargo, tvir. So dargo is the flow, and tvir is putting on the brakes. And, and so, and so let's say Tlicha Katan and Tlicha Golor, one is a, a mesharzim and one is a malach. So now, by we-- if we... The one with the merkavot, the merkavot is like a, a, a mesharzim. And therefore, with the word hamukah, with the merkavot makes the beis into a vav. Now, if however it is a tvir, so then the following letter, as you can see where I'm pointing, ehwe hamukah. So then the following letter should be a beis and not a vav, and that's how... That is correct here. So far, so good. So that's one influence of the, um, the tvir will make

27:10 Speaker 1 a difference. If it's a tvir or a merkavot, whether it's a beis or a vav. But then there's a little bit of a, a difficulty here that if it's unusual to have a, a phrase with, uh, the, the veyom hamagefah should have been a merkavot tvir. If you have hamukah pause, so then it should be a... It's more correct that, yeah, it should be, um, merkavot tvir afterwards. But that's not the case. As you can see in the various prints, they've got veyom hamagefah, they've put a, a meseg. Uh, now, now this I find... This is an anomaly, and this is the last thing I'll share with you about this because those who don't dabble in this will probably find this, uh, technical and boring. Um, and that is that this I have on the bottom, uh, towards the left, bottom left of the screen from the Tikkun Barditchov, which I've spoken about a few times. And here he has hamukah veyom hamagefah. He's got a merkavot tvir. I, I, I'm happy with that. But two problems with that. Why is there a makaf? If the, if they both have their own trop, there shouldn't have been a makaf because the makaf is to dispense with an own, an own, its own trop. It's depending on the, the following word. And number two, if it's... Here we've got hamukah, so then the beis should have been a... It shouldn't be a vav, it should be a beis. So, uh, with all due respect, I think

28:48 Speaker 1 it's in-inaccurate. Okay. And as I said, I'm not going to belabor the issue any further, even though I've got a shortage of questions for today, but nevertheless, y'know. Okay. So, and the, the Mesoraa, as I said, is, uh, we have for another shusterman to pronounce, um, with a, with a tvir. The rest of it, um, um, I haven't managed to trace any further confirmation one way or the other. What else do we have here? Okay. Since we are already talking about Parsha Pinchas, you know there's a story of the, um, Darshan who only had one drash. Uh, you heard the story before. He had only one drash, and it was got to do with Parsha Korach. And he would be traveling from town to town, and then he comes to, uh, he'd come to... He'd have a little poodle or something, and the poodle would start barking. And then he'd say, "V'zot ha'rosh ha'zevi Korach. Now that I'm talking about Korach, now I, I want to share with you advatava Korach." So you've heard the story before. Now, since we're already talking about Parsha Pinchas, now someone actually, um, picked me up on what I mentioned last week in passing. I mentioned the name of my father-in-law, Ravi, um, Sudak Alav HaShalom, about Zimri trying to protect Moshe Rabbeinu. We were talking, if you remember, we were talking about the ti- the tip of the Challah being the, the peak. The peak energy being the, uh, the target, sh-shall we say, of the chitzonu of

30:24 Speaker 1 Klipa. And I mentioned in passing that also Cosby, that she was aiming to seduce Moshe Rabbeinu, and Zimri kind of interceded to protect Moshe Rabbeinu, and that's why he sinned Hashem Shemai. So the, uh, our listener listening to a recording somewhere in Toronto, so he asked me, where did it come from? So here you have it on the screen. It's from the Sifra that how, um, they came, the people of the tribe of Shimon come to Zimri. And he's... This is after many people are being killed for worshiping, bowing to the Baal Peor. And then he gathered twenty-four thousand people of his tribe, comes to Cosby, and he says to Cosby: "Will you be, uh, will you, um, oblige me?" And she says, "I'm only going to aim..." This is how I found it. I remember the, the So, Zimri says to her, "Afa ani rav hashevot. I am the leader of my tribe." And she, and she already listened to that. And he, then he said, "I'm actually greater than Moshe because I'm from the second tribe, from Shimon, and he's from the third tribe, from Shevet Levi." And then he continued with the story. So this is... This first part that, that Zimri, that she was a-aiming for the godol and Zimri kind of negotiated with her, that he is instead, that's written here in the Sifra. And then this is a sefer which I found on, on, on a search. And he writes the following, that, uh, what was, was Zimri worried?

32:28 Speaker 1 He was worried that if Moshe would succumb to her seduction, then that would be a terrible calamity for Klal Yisroel. And then he adds in brackets, this is, is-- That's why Zimri deserved to be punished because he had, um, he had hirhur achar rabah. He was, he was, uh, entertaining that Moshe Rabbeinu would be capable of sinning, uh, and is vulnerable. And one who has such thoughts about his Rebbe, of the, um-- Think his Rebbe is vulnerable as such, is chayav misa. So, so whilst he did have a kavanah l'Shem Shamayim, but he was wrong in having that, uh, in that, that concern altogether. Okay. So just since we're talking already about the beginning of Parshas, um, Pinchas with Cosby. So I also brought that up on the screen, but especially behemshech to what was discussed last week. Right. Now, someone has asked me about the Mishebeirach, which we say at the end of a Seder of a Bris Milah. So we have here Mishebeirach, and it says, uh, w-we'll commit to give tzedakah l'bikur ha-chim. And he's asking, w-w-what's the source? And is this a standard nusach? Uh, so I actually did a lot of time, spent a lot of time searching for this. Now, and I did not find it in necessarily in, in standard siddurim. Even I've looked up the Sefer called, um, um, is it Chei Bris or something like that. Um, like a standard Sefer on Milah. He mentions about making Mishebeirach, but he doesn't give a nusach. Um, so

34:20 Speaker 1 this is in our siddur. It's not in the first print. So as we have it now, the first print was printed in the life of the Alter Rebbe. It's not there. What you have on the screen is from Kapust, Tov Koftzadik Beis, fifteen years after the Alter Rebbe's passing, approximately. And so it has this nusach of gila bikur cholim. And the association of bikur cholim with, with, with Bris Milah is obvious because Avraham Avinu, uh, by his Bris Milah, that's when Hashem comes to him in bikur cholim to visit him. So that's, uh, that's the association. There is a Sefer, Rav Yaakov Emden, as you know, famously published a siddur called Amudei Shamayim. And then afterwards, he published a small Sefer called Nigdol Ois. And in there, it's like a addendum to the siddur. He has Seder HaMilah, and there he has tzedakah talmud Torah, something like that. Just whilst we're looking at this, as I said, this is not from the Alter Rebbe. It's from a later edition. But in Torah Or siddur, there's something very curious here, which I noticed only recently. Now, normally, when we have an abbreviation, whether it's abbreviation of one word, of two words or three words, we have just one pair of inverted commas. Can you see how Poini bin Poini has got two sets of inverted commas, which I find, uh, curious. Um, okay. All right. Nothing more than that. Nothing, uh, huge. Let's move on. So someone asked me, one of our listeners this year regularly

36:03 Speaker 1 from Eretz Israel, asking about using, using cloves in... for besamim. Now, the Minag Ashkenaz... Now, let's, let's, let's, um, explain. There is a opinion of making a brach on a fragrance on Motzei Shabbos. Yes, that's written in the Gemara. There are various brachos on fragrance. If it's a food, then... And you pick it up not because you want to eat it, but because you want to smell it. So then the brach is ha-nosein reich teiv ha-feiros. If it's a, a herb, it's borei isi besamim. If it's a woody substance, borei atzei besamim. If it's something which has, which is, uh, neither, it's, it's not even... If it's from animal source, so like animal food, um, food from animals. We say shehakol nihiya bidvaro, which is a generic nusach. So if it's a besamim, which is not from a herb of at all, so then we would say boreh miney besamim. So boreh miney besamim is the generic berachah which covers all type. And if you're y- if you don't know the right berachah and you said boreh miney besamim, whether it's a food or whether it's a herb, or whether it's a, a, a, a, a stick, it's all gonna be good. You're going to say boreh miney besamim. Now, um, the Sephardim, I believe, are much more into having fresh herbs on Motzae Shabbos for besamim. They will... I remember going to Mo- Moses' shop, alav ha-shalom. Uh, that's the- him as well as the shop. Um, on Motzae Shabbos, he would be open

37:46 Speaker 1 across the street from Meish Labovich, Moses' supermarket, and he had, uh, some sprigs of, uh, of mint or something in his lapel pocket. And, uh, whether it's, whether it's hadassim or whether it's, uh, sp- The, the mint is called in Arabic is na'ana. Whatever it may be, and they would make the berachah the appropriate berachah. Ashkenazim perhaps are not so, uh, uh, tuned to having fresh herbs in Eastern Europe, so we're not so knowledgeable about what berachah you make on this one, what you make on that one. And so it, it comes to Nusach Ash- Minhag Ashkenaz, you just make boreh miney besamim regardless. Motzae Shabbos, rest of the week, learn your, learn your berachahs properly, but Motzae Shabbos, it's boreh miney besamim regardless of what it was. But then, you know, if you can, get it right to get it right. So if you can get an authentic boreh miney besamim, so then use that or h- combine that. So here we have a 800Z, the berachah, the, the similar about besamim, boreh for Motzae Shabbos. So the Alter Rebbe says, this is quoting from earlier sources, um It's commended, uh, commendable to add m- some myrrh, spelt in English M-Y-R-R-H, I believe, which is, um, I believe similar to musk, which is coming from, um, uh, from a musk ox. It's, uh, but it's, uh, from an a- a- from an animal source. And so that is a boreh miney besamim. So the Alter Rebbe is saying, "You've got some herbs, you've got

39:35 Speaker 1 some other stuff. Okay. Then they may be boreh atzei, boreh ismei. Put in, add in a piece of, of myrrh somehow, and if a piece of that, and that will justify saying boreh miney besamim." And then that's, then, then you don't have the... There's no concession here. You actually said the right berachah, boreh miney besamim. Very good. Now, now let's read the Mishnah. A lot of what I've just said is also in the Mishnah. And although he says, although normally and during the week, they should say the appropriate berachah. But Motzae Shabbos, you just say boreh miney besamim because the Hamon Am get confused. And so, okay, I can, I can, I can relate to that very well. But then look at this piece now. It's better you should take from besamim something which is a authentically boreh miney besamim. That's the same thing as the myrrh which the Alter Rebbe had mentioned. Or negela, or cloves. Uh, you may know the word clove means a nail. If you speak French, you know clou is a, uh, nail. And what's fascinating is that in Yiddish we have the word negela, means the nail, the fingernails. That's hence nail vase. But some... In, in our Russian Yiddish, a nail which you bang on its head is p- is called a tzirok. But in, in more Polish Yiddish, they'll call it a negel. Um, nagel, et cetera. And the clove, because of its shape, it's like a vav, a long, a long piece, and it's got a

41:21 Speaker 1 wider head, so it's got certain resemblance to a, uh, to a nail. Therefore... And that's so strange because the Hebrew word is tziporen, and tziporen is the n- fingernails, and yet it's called nai- It's called zi-- And it, it, it's got, it's called, uh, cloves, a negela, because of its resemblance to a, a nail which you bang with a hammer. And, uh, I don't like the combination of nails which bang in your hand, bang your nails with your fingers because it's gonna be quite, you know, painful. Um, at any rate, but the m- m- Joking aside, the Mishnah has thrown in here an alternative. Is it musk? Okay. Pism or negela or, or cloves. But then he... Look at how he pre- presents this. Now, I'm, I'm bothered about this. I'm not gonna give you an answer because I don't have one. Um, I've been around for a few years, and we, uh, tend to use cloves for... There, there seems to be widespread minhag to use cloves for Motzae Shabbos for, for, for, for boreh miney besamim. Now, that doesn't fulfill what the Alter Rebbe says, uh, to use a musk. On the contrary, but it does fulfill what the Mishnah says. And so we've got the... Why are we not... Well, perhaps musk is not so available. Could be, I don't know. Um, perhaps maybe other reasons, I don't know. But meanwhile, what's the berachah on... What's the berachah as the Mishnah says is he, he... It's not unanimous. Now, look at over

43:03 Speaker 1 here. This is from the Alter Rebbe's Sefer HaChinuch L'N'ar. If you have a food which is not edible on its own, only when it's mixed into other stuff, is that a food? So the examples are cinnamon and tziporen neglach and cloves. They are used as, as a spice. They are used, but they're not edible. You don't, don't eat... Unless you've got a toothache, you want to stop, uh, your, your pain in your teeth, you don't bite into cloves. Uh, as a, as a painkiller, it's very good. So now he says-- So what some say it's a food. Others say you can't eat it on its own. Therefore, the beracha is He's finished Shmoneh Esreh. If a chazan forgot to say Halleviyovot at Shacharit, and everyone was busy focusing on whatever, and the chazan forgot to say Halleviyovot, no one corrected him, and now it's finished Shmoneh Esreh. Does the chazan have to now do another Chazarat HaShatz and get, get it right this time? And the, the answer says no, because Mussaf is ahead. Since he'll get Mussaf, he'll mention the Yom Tov or Rosh Chodesh in Mussaf, so he doesn't need to daven, do a Chazarat HaShatz again for Shacharit. So then that's, that's an earlier, uh, psak. And then later poskim say, "Well, if a chazan can rely on Mussaf to make up for the missing Halleviyovot, so yochid, at least after his daven Mussaf, doesn't need to daven Sha- again Shacharit for, for having missed Halleviyovot. So again, if a yochid missed

48:23 Speaker 1 that Halleviyovot Shacharit, but then daven Mussaf, he does not need to repeat Shacharit again because b'di'eved, his mentioning in Mussaf is going to cover. So let's read this inside. He's finished Shmoneh Esreh. He has to repeat Shmoneh Esreh. If he forgot Halleviyovot, he have to repeat Shmoneh Esreh, even though you have still Mussaf ahead of you. If he did not daven Shacharit again until he davened Mussaf, then he doesn't need to daven Shacharit again because If a chazan is allowed to rely... Almost l'chatchilah. It's b'di'eved. Yeah, l'chatchilah, b'di'eved. A chazan is allowed to rely on Mussaf, which is ahead, a yochid is allowed to rely on the Mussaf after the fact. So now, by me telling this fellow to daven Mussaf and then to daven a second Shmoneh Esreh at Mincha to make up for his missed out Shacharit seems to have been wrong. Because once he's, uh, davened Mincha, then he doesn't have to make up for the missing Halleviyovot Shacharit. So there was... If a... Yeah. And so indeed, this you have on the pl- on the screen from a sefer which specializes in tefillah. It's called Ishei Yisroel. It's like on par with the Shemirat Shabanon, Chachmat Shabanon. It's very similar style. At any rate, if you forgot it's Rosh Chodesh and you davened only Shacharit, and y- and, and you didn't say Halleviyovot, and now you realize at Mincha, "Oops, I forgot. I clean forgot that it's, um, Rosh Chodesh So then he says, actually, do the other way around. Daven

50:19 Speaker 1 twice Mincha, and then daven Mussaf. Do your Mussaf after Mincha. Because if you daven Mussaf first... So then, well, he's, he comes from another angle. If you daven Mussaf first, then we have, uh, um, another question that normally you can only m- do a ma... How do you say? A compensation tefillah only in the following tefillah. If you forgot Ma'ariv, and you realize by Shacharis, you can daven a second Shemoneh Esreh Shacharis. But if you forgot to daven Ma'ariv, and you only realize by Mincha, but by ma... By Shacharis, you had not made up the missing, uh, tefillah, you cannot make it up later. Min ha-din? All right, Tfilat HaDevah, but... So the question is, if you would daven Mussaf, does now that make a Hefsek, that you can't daven a second Mincha because, uh, Mussaf is a Hefsek? Now, that, that is not such a problem. As you can see here from, uh, this is now the Didim of Hashlom, if you forgot a tefillah. And let's read this carefully. That the concept of Tashlumin, that you can daven an extra Shemoneh Esreh to make up for what you missed, is only for at the adjacent tefillah, then following tefillah, if that's the right word. Sorry, not adjacent, but following tefillah. The closest one. If you missed Shacharis, and if you missed Shacharis, and you missed Mincha, you can daven twice Ma'ariv, for that's gonna make up for Mincha. But y- that... You're missing, you're missing Shacharis is, um, cannot be made up. Then

52:08 Speaker 1 he says, if you didn't daven Shacharis on Shabbos morning, you can daven Mincha twice, even though you've davened Mussaf in between, because Mussaf doesn't seem to interfere. So that doesn't seem to be such an issue. Okay. Uh, so at any rate, what, so what, a-a-again, so if this, this person has this question. He forgot Ya'aleh Veyavo at Shacharis. Um, it seems to have... It would be better that he should daven Mincha first. It's all Beyachid. He's living on a, on Shlichas. He's living on his own. So da-daven twice Mincha, and then to daven Mussaf afterwards. Right. I just want to add one more thing, that Rav Moshe Katzenellenbogen, who lived in London for many years. He was... He spent many years in, in, uh, the Gulag, in the, in the, uh, prisons in Russia. So he, uh, at some stage... No, no, wait a minute. This was... He ha- He had been ill, and he was hospitalized, and possibly even not conscious for a few, a good few weeks or perhaps months. And when he woke up, he davened Shemoneh Esreh again and again and again and again, many times, Tfilat HaDevah. So because although we hear it says that only Tfilat HaSmucha, there are those who disagree, and they say you can daven, uh, Tfilat HaTashlumin at a later date. And so he, he choi- chose to do that, um, also for what he missed in Russia and also, uh, what he missed during his illness to make up for the missing tefillahs. Right.

53:46 Speaker 1 Um, no. There we are. Right. So many people are asking the question about, uh, davening Ma'ariv early, the beginning of Shavuot, making Kiddush early, and, uh... All right, so we have this Chumrah of not cutting short the Temimot. As I mentioned at the beginning of Sof Tzadik Dalet, not to cut short the forty-nine days of Sefira. And therefore, it's a very widespread Minchag of not davening Ma'ariv early on the first night of Shavuot and not doing Kiddush early. Sometimes it's... In some places, it's a huge, it's a huge, uh, problem, and so they, they, they rely on the more lenient opinion that it's not an issue. It's a Chumrah of Gedolei Acharonim. So generally, it, it is respected, but there are places that they are lenient on that also. Question people ask is what about Lichtzinden. When a woman lights candles, is there a issue of her lighting candles early? Should she perhaps wait till nightfall to light the candles? Because like, what's the difference between Kiddush and candles? And same thing with the Shehecheyanu. Is it bringing... Is it cutting... By saying Shehecheyanu at candle, at candlelighting, is that cutting short the, the, uh, the forty-nine days of Sefira? So what you have on here, on the, on the screen is actually from my, uh, Sefer Netiv Midrash Shichras, Volume Three. Have a chapter about Hadlakat Neret, I think. And we have here a note which, uh, says that, uh, also on Erev Shavuot, Shehecheyanu is said at candlelighting, and you don't have to

55:25 Speaker 1 worry about it cutting short the Temimot of, of Sefirat HaOmer. And without going to whole pilpul, you have a reference to an article of Rav Gershon Steinitz, who's a Rosh Yeshiva in Detroit, uh, published in Or Sameach, uh, i-i-issue number Tof Shin Tsadik Tes. So that's good. He, he, he explains this. And, um, also when... Just, uh, the simple thing is that if you'd say, "By Hadlakat Neris VeYom Chag HaShavuot," as there, "L'hadlik Ner Shalom Chag HaShavuot," that might have been an issue. But you just... It's more generic than that. And, um, and therefore, it's not, not seen as cutting short the, um- The, the Tmimim of, of S-Siar Sefer. I've got one more thing. These... So these, uh, these are eight points which are on the list, uh, which I sent out. I know I sent out one list which was a, uh, an incomplete one, then I sent out a second time. I just wanna share with you something which I've shared a couple of years ago, but it's, it's, uh, come up again. And, um, yeah. So the- here's... This is a letter which was published about four years ago in the back of the, one of the Sichas. And this is a question about the preference to say Baruch... To write. When you write a letter, do you write Baruch Hashem, or do you write Be'ezrat Ha'malach, which stands for Be'ezrat Hashem? And I answered briefly that we, um, we write Baruch Hashem, but I would like to explain it a

57:00 Speaker 1 little bit more. So, «האם בצורך ליה es בראשית כל דבר שכותב?» Um, and, uh, first of all, should you put at the beginning of each article which you publish? And secondly, is there a preference to write Be'ezrat Hashem, with the help of Heaven? So the Rebbe answers, «מקור המנהג לכתב». The minhag, uh, the source for the minhag to write Baruch Hashem is in Torah V'Elyahu. There's a Torah V'Elyahu. It's a Braisa. Um, it's not so clear there, and we'll discuss it in a moment. «שברשום היראה כל זה». And the word over there is the inyan of saying a Bracha to Hashem. You want to start a project, give a Bracha to Hashem, and that's what Baruch Hashem is. Be'ezrat Hashem is not a Bracha to Hashem. It is, um, it's, say, with the help of Heaven, but it's, it's not a, a Bracha. And so the preference to say Baruch Hashem is, as I said, from Torah V'Elyahu, when you start off a project to give an acknowledgement, a Bracha to Hashem. Then, «מנגד» he says, if you have the question, is the, the Rebbe says about Be'ezrat Hashem. Uh, he says it's not a preference over the Baruch Hashem. «ומה יציר על». You see Gedolei Israel writing Baruch Hashem. Now, in, in, in all honesty, there are many Mamarim which have start off with Be'ezrat. And so this has to be worked out what's the, what the Rebbe's saying here. Possibly more in letters it's Be'ezrat, and more in perhaps Mamarim it's Be'ezrat Hashem.

58:51 Speaker 1 I'm not sure. But meanwhile, the Rebbe is saying, um, we see that Gedolei Israel use Baruch Hashem. Now, then why do, why do many, uh, circles prefer to write Be'ezrat over Baruch Hashem? So there's a hesitation. Perhaps Baruch Hashem is Hashem's name. Baruch Hashem. And then if you write a piece of paper or a letter or whatever, and then it's gonna end up in the, in, in the, in the garbage, it's gonna be disgraced. Therefore, some want to say, "Don't write Baruch Hashem because it's got a Kedushah to it." And indeed, the Raguchover has this point also. He's worried that Baruch Hashem has got a Kedushah to it, and you can't throw it into the bin. Uh, I've written a Smarnah that the Rag- Raguchover, being of Chabad origins, may have said Baruch Havayah. And so Baruch Havayah is, is Hashem's name. Havayah is what is a spell, another spelling of Yud Hei Vav Hei. Whereas, uh, Hashem means the name. Now then, so let's read what the Rebbe is saying over here. «ומה הדיפוס ישנו להביטוי שמיא לגבי השם?» What preference do you think there is in mention- invoking Be'ezrat Hashem over saying Baruch Hashem? Actually, says the Rebbe, the word Shamayim may actually have more, uh, if you... And I think that was the Rebbe's saying. If you are concerned of the sanctity of that statement, possibly Be'ezrat Hashem has got more Kedushah than Baruch Hashem because, um... Now, I looked when this letter was published. I was curious what the Rebbe's alluding

1:00:31 Speaker 1 to, and possibly he's referring to, let's say, in, in the, uh, context of Nedarim. A person makes a vow, Nedar La'Shamayim. Nedar La'Shamayim would mean his vow to Hashem. Sacred, uh, Kodesh La'Shamayim or something in those, in those lines. Shamayim would, would be understood as referring to Hashem. Whereas if you just say Baruch Hashem, the name, it doesn't have Kedushah. So there's two points here that Be'ezrat Hashem actually may be a, a, uh, have some kind of Kedushas Hashem in some way. Um, on, on the other hand, it does not have the element of Bracha, whereas Baruch Hashem has the inyan of Bracha. Okay. Um, to... I'm, I'm finished with this. Just one apology. The fact that you didn't get... Some of you didn't get the, uh, list in the mail, that's because I finished this off this afternoon, and the one who normally sends it o-o-out to everyone, or to many of you, let's say, on my list, is, um, someone who's now on a plane to the United States for Shabbos and Yom Tov. And so that's my apology for it not being delivered in good time. And meanwhile, I'll wish you all a freilech Shabbos, a freilech Yom Tov .

1:01:57 Speaker 2 Amen.