מדוע הרבי נמנע מלתת הסכמות לספרים?

00:01 This is Ygress, and today we are going to discuss the Rebbe's reticence, or I guess the right word is outright refusal, to write approbations for books. There is an old custom, especially when it comes to publishing Jewish books, excuse me, to fill out the front section of the book with letters of approbation, also known as haskamos, from big rabbis who say that you're wonderful and that your book is wonderful. Naturally, keeping with this tradition, many authors approach the Rebbe asking for haskamos, and he always said no. I collected something like thirty letters, maybe forty letters, where the Rebbe says no. He says no a lot. Uh, we'll be looking at a very small sample of them today. So the Rebbe says no. What the Rebbe does not say, however, is why he refuses to write haskamos. So am yitzhak Hashem, after a brief overview of some of the times that the Rebbe refused to give his approbation to various works, all for more or less the same relatively vague reason, we'll spend the second, se-- the second half of our shiur today trying to figure out why the Rebbe won't give approbations to books, even ones which he clearly supports. So first, a smattering of letters where the Rebbe does not give approbations. They're gonna all read somewhat similarly, but each one's its own adventure. We have here, this letter is labeled Yud, Tav Yud Daled. It's from the year Tav Shin Lamed Beis, and we're just gonna read the sections that we need because

01:08 as you can see from the top of our open tabs on the screen, we have a million letters to look at today. So just brief excerpts. Number one, over here at this letter, the Rebbe says, "Nach nebekash es li chasid," after asking your forgiveness. "Hineh api negeh rav kam kedushas marech emehamer," based on the custom of my, of the, my father-in-law, the Friediker Rebbe, "she'ein neis dema haskamah," that he has the custom not to give haskamos, not to give these approbations. "Veledem l'chibur m'tamim muvanim," and he does this for, uh, he does this for reasons that are known. Uh, he does not give approbations, and it's for tamim muvanim, known reasons, reasons that I don't know, as I'll tell you in a moment. But he says the reasons are known. "Eib yadi lameles la-chashas b'zeh ve'ita es li." He says, "Therefore, I am unable. It's not within my hands, not within my capabilities to fulfill your request, and I ask for your forgiveness." The Rebbe then says, "Certainly, uh," "Certainly in the Holy Land, may it be rebuilt speedily. Certainly you'll find there many people who are willing to look at your book and give their opinion on it." But as for me, the Rebbe says slash implies, "I can't." So in this first letter, what the Rebbe says, and you'll see this as a recurring theme, it is the custom of the previous Rebbe, the Friediker Rebbe, that we do not do haskamos, and therefore, I don't do haskamos. I'm not going to write

02:17 one of these. Uh, defending the Rebbe, which is quite easy, obviously, if the Rebbe says the Friediker Rebbe said it, you're gonna find it in writing somewhere, ideally. And here we have at least one letter from the Friediker Rebbe where he explicitly says he doesn't give haskamos and gives, in my opinion, a hilarious reason why he doesn't. The letter is labeled Heih Kuf Ayin Zain. You'll see what I mean by funny in just a moment. Here's the, uh, just one line from the Friediker Rebbe. Once again, that letter is labeled Heih Kuf Ayin Zain in the previous Rebbe's letters. You'll find this in Chelek Yud Daled of the Friediker Rebbe's Igress. And there he says, "Uvedavar haskamah," regarding approbations. "Hineh divrei Rishonim zecher livrachah, zecherim livrachah, ein tzrichah laskamah." Uh, regarding the words of the Rishonim, meaning if it's a legitimate prior source in Torah, I'm not gonna write a Mishnay-- I'm not gonna write a haskamah on Mishnayis or on the words of Rashi. So if it's the words of the Rishonim, if it's the words of, that have been established as, you know, solid sefarim that are part of our canon, "ein tzrichah laskamah," then nobody needs a haskamah from me, right? Nobody needs an approbation. "Kam oven hakalah," as everybody understands. "Uvedavar shenitzach haskamah," and something that needs a haskamah, "Hineh ani," "Hineh misach amizav k'teach," and I wanna stay far, far away from that, the previous Rebbe says. So the previ-previ-- the previous Rebbe's line is that if you, uh, if

03:21 what you're writing is so legitimate, it doesn't need a haskamah, and if it's not legitimate enough and it needs a haskamah, I'm not giving it a haskamah. And that's sort of the Friediker Rebbe's philosophy. I don't know for sure that that's what the Rebbe's referring to, but he does say that is at least one reason that he doesn't give haskamos. It certainly is well established the Friediker Rebbe, I believe, did not ever give a haskamah. I have another letter to show you. This is Tav Shin Yud Ches. Uh, other of Tav Shin Yud Ches, the letter is labeled above, Peh Daled, and the Rebbe writes, "Mashkasav b'din haskamah." You wrote to me about the haskamah. Let me make this one a little bit bigger. We're old men. We need our eyes. We need help with our eyes. "Mashkasav b'din haskamah. Ariya dua she'ein zeh mineg beis harav." The Rebbe says here it is known that this is not the custom of Beis Harav. So he's once again invoking the custom of the Friediker Rebbe. That is that, uh, specifically, the not just the Friediker Rebbe, but Beis Harav saying that it is the rule of the seat of Lubavitch, that if you are a Lubavitcher Rebbe, you don't give haskamos. "Uminhag avoseinu bi yadeinu." The Rebbe says this is the custom of our forefathers that is in our hands, which is a language that is used by the Talmud and by many sources to say we don't depart from custom once it's firmly established. So

04:20 the Rebbe's saying, "I can't." "V'af radasha ein lazman kram hakla'al." And the Rebbe says specifically, "There's no time. I don't have time for it anyway." "Lain besefik ve'ad dorash." I don't have time to look into your book as much as I would need in order to give a haskamah. So the Rebbe's giving sort of two reasons here. Number one, it is the custom of Beis Harav that we don't do this, and number two, I don't have time to do it even if I could do it. "Ve'eitzes," furthermore, the Rebbe says, "ve'ikkar hu etzli," and this is the main reason, uh, from my perspective. "Asher b'chol makim minei anavas ha'de'rav ana." The main reason I can't write a haskamah on your book, the Rebbe says, I should have told you at the beginning, maybe I should have highlighted the upper part. This is a book on Eruvin. The Rebbe's being asked to give a haskamah to a book on Eruvin in this letter. So the Rebbe says, "Ve'eitzes ve'ikar hu etzli." The, uh, further reason and the main reason in, from my perspective that I can't give you a haskamah is personal. "Asher b'chol makim minei anavas ha'de'rav ana. Hu, uh, admor hazaken." That is the Friediker Rebbe. Excuse me, the, the Alter Rebbe, the Baal Hatanya veShulchan Aruch. That is, in all places, we are dependent upon the rav of the place, and that is, of course, the, uh, the Alter Rebbe. He's the rav of us. "K'neige dach ka'kirav." Uh, and therefore, we have

05:19 to certainly keep like his custom. "Uvezeh kemuvin gam mashkasav Shulchan Aruch shalo, de'ayam ein ha'erev m'shul mechitza." He makes it very clear in his sefarim, that is in the Shulchan Aruch Harav, that the ocean, that the sea does not work as a wall when somebody is making an eruv, and apparently the author of this book had made the claim that it does. And although he had legitimate positions to rely on, the Rebbe says, "Your book in particular I can't give a haskamah to because your book speaks out against a position of the Alter Rebbe, and obviously I can't do that." So the Rebbe in this letter gives three pseudo reasons for why he's not gonna give a haskamah. Reason number one is that it is the custom of Beis Harav. Re-reason number two is that, uh, is that he doesn't have time to look into it properly. And reason number three is that this particular book speaks out against a position of the Alter Rebbe. So the Rebbe says, he says, "Ve'ikar hu etzli." That's the main reason I'm not gonna write you a haskamah. Although the Rebbe does not dismiss the book, he seems excited about it. He has some notes on it as the letter goes on. The Rebbe certainly is not going to write a, a, a haskamah to a book that has a position in it that disagrees with the Alter Rebbe. This is an interesting letter. I pulled this one out because it has a fun side point. I put,

06:18 uh, if we have ex-- Yeah, I think we'll have time. I'm gonna show you the full side point of this one. Alef Tav Tav Lameches is the label of this letter. This is a letter from the yen-- from the year Tav Shin Yud Beis, Yud Beis Elul, Tav Shin Yud Beis. And we start off nice and simple. The Rebbe writes, "I was pleased to receive your letter from Tes Dayen HaHamav. You tell me that you're hoping to put out in print a certain book." They didn't write the name of the book. With all of the honorifics. That is that, uh, in there you include some of the things that you said by the Hesped, by the eulogy of the Friediker Rebbe. And the things that you said on his Shloshim. And you're asking for a Haskama from me for this book. And the Rebbe writes, "This is not what-- This is not fr-- of my profession and of my custom." It's not what I do. To give Haskamas to books, especially when it comes to Drasha books, books that are not about Jewish law or not about, uh, primary sources, but instead Drasha books. How do I explain Drasha books? Sifrei Drash, books that take an idea and then using your own words, explain an inyan in Avodas Hashem, a way to serve Hashem. And then the Rebbe explains a little bit about Sifrei Drash that isn't the topic of our shiur today, but I just-- I wanted to show this to you because it's,

07:28 it's beautiful in my opinion. The Rebbe says in this paragraph, maybe we won't read it inside. I'll just tell you what he says outside, but you can read it. It's on your screen. The, uh, the Rebbe says here that there's a big difference between Sifrei Halacha and Sifrei Drash, Jewish law books and Drasha books. Jewish law books, the Rebbe says it doesn't matter so much if your fear of God does not come before or exceed your wisdom, which is kind of a wild thing to say, but the Rebbe demonstrates it in this paragraph. You can have people who write good-- I don't think you can have somebody in the Rebbe's opinion who, uh, who doesn't keep Jewish law writing a Jewish law book, but they don't have to be the most upstanding people in the entire world, the Rebbe says, to write Jewish law books. In order to write a Jewish law book, you have to know what's going on. You have to have a basic respect for the text. But as far as your actual, uh, Lishma, as far as your actual intent, it doesn't really have to be perfect. But then the Rebbe says that when it comes to Sifrei Drash, uh, when it comes to these Drasha books, it really does matter. Let me just read that part inside for you. Let me see if I can find just that piece. This does not apply to Ninina Drush. Since the point of a good Drasha is to increase people's fear of Hashem

08:29 and increase their service of Hashem. The outcome must be fitting to that, and therefore the person writing it has to be somewhat pure of heart and pure of intent in a way that even people who write books of Halacha don't have to be. That has nothing to do with the Rebbe's refusal to give the approbation. The Rebbe very clearly separates those two ideas. But it's just noteworthy that when a person is giving a Halacha shiur, they don't have to necessarily be perfect. If they're giving a Drasha, they better be perfect. That's very much what the Rebbe is implying in this paragraph. Maybe we'll get to do more on that later in a separate episode. I have a letter here labeled Beis Tav Kuf Lamed Gimel. It's from the year Tav Shin Yud Daled. And here the Rebbe writes just very simply, "It is known that there's a custom of Beis Harav. That, uh, we have the custom in Beis Harav among Lubavitcher Rebbes, that we do not have the custom to write Haskamas for books or for, I don't know, notebooks, collections, uh, small notebooks, small books. As is known, Chazal said, the sages said, 'We are not to change from the custom of our forebears.'" So the Rebbe cites this as a custom and seems to really mean it. He really feels this is a custom. I thought this one might be interesting to some of you who enjoy Shaalos and Shuvos. Rav Menashe Klein, uh, who wrote the Mishnah Halachis, uh, he asked

09:38 the Rebbe for a Haskama and he got the exact same answer. The Rebbe writes, "Regarding Haskamas Yidduish, it is known that this is not the custom of Lubavitcher Rebbes. This is not the custom of Beis Harav. I ask for your forgiveness." This letter is la-labeled Ches Tav Tav Kuf Ayin Ches. It's from the year Tav Shin Chaf He. And the Rebbe says, "It's known the custom of Beis Harav with all the honorifics that was established by the Friediker Rebbe that we don't give Haskamas for several reasons." And once again, he does not give us those several reasons. Once again, uh, I ask you for forgiveness. In this letter labeled Ches Reish Nun Zayin, the Rebbe says, "It is known and it is famous that this is not our custom." In this letter labeled Ches Kuf Pe Gimel, the Rebbe says, "You wrote to me about Haskamas. He goes, "What can I do? What can I do? It's not the custom of Beis Harav. I can't do it." The Rebbe says, "I, I, I think we talked about this in person, and I told you I couldn't do it, so now I guess I have to repeat myself in writing, and I once again apologize that I can't." It's not just in letters. We have it in at least one ma'amar. We have it in a few ma'amars, but I just pulled one ma'amar for variety. Uh, the Rebbe says in response to Yechnan Gurari, who asked him about publishing, uh, about-- asked him about a

10:58 Haskama, asked the Rebbe about writing a Haskama for the Sefer Toldos Yitzchak Isaac Mehomel. Uh, Yitzchak Homel-- Isaac Homel. Um, which is published as Toldos Yitzchak Isaac by Chechem and Achim, it seems. Yeah? Uh, I don't know. I'd have to read that a second time to figure out what's going on there. But anyway, meforsim, the Rebbe says, "The Rebbe says that, uh, it is meforsim. It is, uh, famous. It's well known that we do not do this. I don't do this." He goes, "On the other hand, meforsim, and it's at the same time it's also famous that we appreciate people who write books like this." The Rebbe gives him a bracha saying, "It's very well known that we appreciate these books, very well, very well known that we want people to write down these sorts of stories. That said, you're not getting a Haskama from me because I, I don't write them." Which shows, I think what this ma'amar shows very clearly is that even when the Rebbe very openly agrees with the book and very openly wants the book published, he's still not writing a Haskama. So one of the reasons absolutely cannot be that the Rebbe doesn't agree with the book. Whatever the reason is, it's not that. We have a ichidis, and then we'll go into some possible reasons. Here's the ichidis. This is the ichidis that, uh, somebody said, um, Somebody had asked for a, uh, for this individual to write an English translation of the book Maayan shel Torah. And,

12:01 uh, he asked me, this person told the Rebbe, to do the translation. And, uh, so I wanna ask about the, uh, translation. I'd like a Haskama. So the Rebbe says, it is well known, "Yedua mikavar be'shmayah hamavuer." It's known from the free of the Rebbe, "She'ein nuag la'aseh haskamot lasfarim." We don't give, I, I, I-- That we do not give haskamot. We don't do approbations for books. "Vene'eg ani kamehu," and I have the custom just like him. I act like he does. "Ach b'mashé kasha b'malachtechem, b'malachtechem, meleches ha'tirgum atah raban nachan v'teveh devar shemeshichim be'zeh." So the Rebbe says, however, when it comes to what you're actually doing, translating this thing, to the contrary, it's very good, it's appropriate, it's very good, and you should continue doing it. This is another very clear example of the Rebbe saying, "I approve of your book. I want your book to come out, but I'm not writing you a haskamah for specific reasons." And that sort of leaves us wondering, what is the specific reason? Your best guess would've been, or my best guess would've been that this is an avoidance technique. You know, if we don't like the book, we're not gonna write a haskamah for it. We don't wanna tell you no. So the custom is we don't write them. But, uh, if you had that assumption, you go back into the letters, you see in quite a few cases, the Rebbe makes it very clear that he supports the book. Maybe not the Eruvin one

12:59 in all of its details, but, uh, the Mishnah Halakhot he seems to be supporting its publishing. Many of these books, the Rebbe seems excited about the fact that they're coming out, encourages the writers that they're coming out, and says he won't write a haskamah because of a custom or because of reasons that are known or for many reasons. So I wanted to spend a little bit of time together explaining what some of those reasons might be. I have, I think, uh, five guesses. None of them are confirmed. So starting here, up until now, we were doing the Rebbe's letters. Everything is completely true the way the Rebbe says it. Starting now, we're gonna make some guesses, but the guesses will all be text-based. So, uh, here's my guess number one. Guess number one is actually to look at our prior letters. If you look back at the Eruvin letter, uh, where the Rebbe explained why he's not doing it, he says, "Ufrat asher ein hazman k'ram klal." He goes, "I can't give you a haskamah because I don't have time. "La'in b'sefer k'fiyad darash." I don't really have time to look at the book properly. Uh, he also strongly implies that in his letter over here. Let me see if I can pull it up again. I don't know. I'm not gonna find it quickly, and we gotta keep things moving. Uh, in more than one of his letters, the Rebbe implies that the reason why he's not writing a haskamah is because he doesn't

13:58 really have time to look at it carefully. So one possibility, which is certainly not the only reason, but should be on the books, one of them-- He says, "Kam, kam tamim," many reasons. One very clear reason is the Rebbe doesn't feel he has enough time to look at these books carefully and, uh, determine whether they are worthy of a haskamah or how to write a haskamah. This certainly could have also been the concern of the free of the Rebbe. It's possible that part of this custom came from not having time to review books. Our Rebbeim are very busy people. They are not book reviewers. Don't worry, I'm not gonna leave us there. That just-- It shows up in some of the letters, so we have to mention it. Uh, this is a se-- This is a letter from the Rebbe that is labeled, uh, "Beis Taf Reish Mem Ches." It is not about the Rebbe not writing haskamot, believe it or not. You'll find this in volume nine of Igrot Kodesh from the year Taf Shin Yud Dalet. And here the Rebbe writes about what a haskamah is supposed to do. And I thought maybe if I read that, that would shed light on why he's not doing them, and I think maybe it does. The Rebbe says here, "Takana ayin simelot nimshelet fisus farim." There is a, uh, there is a custom that goes way back that we do not publish books. "Yemach yimach haver," no matter who the author is, "libli haskamot," without

14:53 putting approbations in them. As I'm sure you all know, the Alter Rebbe, who is, is definitely a me-- "Yihye mishi yihye machaber." I mean, that is the ultimate machaber. Uh, the Alter Rebbe got haskamot to his book, to his Sefer Tanya Kadisha. So the custom is no matter how special you are, you always get haskamot. "Ve'atam pashet." And the Rebbe says, here is the reason why. The reason is very simple why people get haskamot, why they get these approbations. "Ki kol ben adam al litet," because anybody can make a mistake. "Ve'al kol peshai meshgiach tikchasei ahavat atzme ve'emunat beseich al atzme." And about these mistakes and these, uh, inaccuracies, a person's own love will hide them, and his own faith in his own mind will hide them. And therefore, since "adam karov etz al atzme," that's not the lashon the Rebbe's using here, but it's my lashon. Since people are biased in favor of themselves, they can't know for sure that they're right about everything. So it makes sense to make sure that they find mistakes, that they send their book out to other people who don't love them as much as they love themselves. "Ve'af il g'dayei Yisrael ve'chad medaramei timim." Even in the g'dayei Yisrael, even people who are one in a generation, "cham isiatse meshehu lemechames dam becheir ken yusiph shipsiku b'p'sak din." They would still ask, uh, the advice of others before they would give out a p'sak din. I believe there he's citing the famous stories with Rebbe Ashi and

15:57 the butchers, uh, where even he asked for extra advice before giving out a p'sak din. So the Rebbe's saying here the entire reason for a haskamah, for these approbations, is to find out if you're wrong, to have somebody basically check your work. And essentially, an approbation is sort of like getting an editor. And I think that plays into perhaps a little bit of maybe one of the many reasons why our Rebbeim are not keen on giving approbations is, number one, they would have to have time to look through the entire book and tell you whether you made a mistake. And, uh, number two, them giving the approbation is them saying you didn't make a mistake. So I admit it's perhaps just bedaradachafsha. I'm saying bedaradachafsha. One reason might be that our Rebbeim are hesitant to put their names on books saying that they didn't write, saying, uh, "I confirm everything in this is accurate. I confirmed. I looked this over." When on one hand, they don't have time for it, and on the other hand, even if they did have time for it, do they really want to be playing that role of being the source that comes into the book and says, um, "This book is accurate from beginning to end"? That's perhaps another reason. Uh, this one, that wasn't so much a guess as much as a statement. Uh, this one is a straight up guess, but I saw this and I wanted to show it to you. Uh, the Rebbe mentions that

16:58 his father gave a haskamah one time. That his father gave a haskamah. Reb Levi Yitzchak, uh, gave a haskamah to a Haggadah, and I don't know who wrote the Haggadah, but he mentions it in the Sicha. And look how the Rebbe mentions this in the Sicha, and look what the Sicha say, uh, in edited Sicha. The Rebbe says, uh, let me just get you the makar so people can find it later. It's, uh, "Leil Beis Dechag HaPesach of Taf Shin Yud Ches." And the Rebbe says, "Ilu kar al ha'anaseh yam v'lo b'nusache becharav ha'dayyin." One of the classic dayyenu's, uh, one of the dayyenu's is that if God had split the sea and not taken us through on dry land, it would have been enough. And then the Rebbe says, "Kedem chag HaPesach hevihu li Haggadah sheyesh aleha haskamah shel, uh, avi amer, uh, zecher livrachas." The Rebbe says, before Pesach, somebody brought me a Haggadah that has an approbation from my father, from Reb Levi Yitzchak. And in that Haggadah, they explained the expression, et cetera, et cetera. The Rebbe goes on to use that explanation. Uh, the Rebbe seems to feel that a Has-- that a Haggadah that has the haskamah of his father has a special authority. The fact is, the Rebbe's citing this Haggadah for one reason and one reason only, at least in this sicha, because his father put a haskamah on it. That almost to me begins to imply kind of, kind of bederech hefsher, that putting a haskamah

18:06 on a book almost makes you sort of the author of the book. Otherwise, why is he taking the time to cite it? And lest you think I'm pulling this out of thin air, the Rebbe does have in Ma'amarim Mesiba a similar conversation that sort of implies that. Somebody asked the Rebbe, I would have to look up who exactly this is, but somebody asked the Rebbe, you'll find this in Ma'amarim Mesiba, volume one, uh, page one thirty. Somebody asked the Rebbe if his father ever published any books, and the Rebbe says, "No, my father did not publish any book." And then he says, "Did he arrange any writings to be published?" And the Rebbe says, "Nope, he did not do that either. Didn't arrange handwritten documents for publication, uh, but there are some reshimas, uh, and his notes on many, many, many, many books." And then the last question this person asked the Rebbe is, "." Does your father have a commentary on the Haggadah? And the Rebbe says, "." He does have a perush, uh, which we, which we ultimately did get. So the Rebbe says he didn't write a Haggadah, but he did give a haskamah on a Haggadah, and the Rebbe seems to give that sort of a-- almost like a his father kind of status. So one of my thoughts, this is bederech hefsher completely something that I completely made up, please dismiss it. The Rebbe seems, at least in this context, to almost attach the person who gave the

19:10 haskamah to the book in a meaningful way, and perhaps our Rebbeim don't feel that it's appropriate to take that step. That is a total guess. I have here one time where the Rebbe told somebody why he wasn't giving a haskamah. I don't know if this is across the board, but it's at least one example of us knowing for a fact why the Rebbe doesn't give haskamahs. This one is, uh, was sent to a Rav Hutner, who was a, sort of a, I guess, like the second in charge to organizing the Encyclopedia Talmudit, the, uh, Talmudic encyclopedia, which the Rebbe was very involved in, and which, to be perfectly honest, although the Rebbe does warn Rav Zevin that he doesn't give haskamahs in a letter that I did not show you, he does go on in that letter to do something almost like a haskamah. I would dare to say the closest the Rebbe ever ge-- came to giving a haskamah was on the Encyclopedia Talmudit. The Rebbe was clearly very excited about it. When he was asked to give a haskamah on the Encyclopedia Talmudit by this Rav Hutner later, though, in the mems, the Rebbe answered as follows. The Rebbe says, it's, uh, minor written in handwriting on the side, but here is the text zoomed in. "After asking for your forgiveness, this is not the custom at all in Visherav, as is famous." And by, by now, it's famous to all of you, too. We've seen like a hundred letters. Um, "

20:15 ." The Rebbe says, "Perhaps this is one of the reasons for the minhag that has gone on for generations that we don't give these haskamahs. Because if we did give such a haskamah, it would require us to, number one, give a reason. ." That is, first of all, we'd have to explain why every-- why we didn't give an-- why we didn't give haskamahs to any of those books up until now, the people who submitted to us previously. So, uh, number one, if we give a haskamah to a book, we have to explain why we didn't give haskamahs to other books. And two, um, uh, that would also obligate us, it would be mechayav, it would obligate us to give haskamahs to future books. So the Rebbe says here one reason, I don't know how fungible this reason is, but one reason not to give haskamahs, and perhaps the Rebbe says this is one of the reasons that the minhag has gone back so far among Rebbeim not to give haskamahs, is that every time you give a haskamah, you have to explain why you didn't give haskamahs to other books, and you also begin becoming obligated to give haskamahs to future books. I have one more possibility for you, and this one I did not come up with, up with at all. This is by Rav Boruch Oberlander, who's the shliach in Budapest, and he wrote a, um, in Khevtsa Artzos Ube'urim, one of these, uh, you know, one of these, uh, Khevtsim that, uh,

21:27 students put together. He put together a discussion of something slightly related, which is whether it is forbidden to, uh-- whether there's such a thing as hasagas gevul, whether you can encroach on another person's property by publishing books that they told you not to publish. So if, uh, I publish a set of Mishnayos, the custom, as we'll see in a moment from the writings of the Tzemach Tzedek here, and with this we're going to conclude. The custom was once that a print house, you know, they wanted to keep proprietary rights over the things they printed. So a print house would print like a set of Mishnayos, and then they would put out in front of that set of Mishnayos, "No one else is to print these Mishnayos for ten years." And a, a lot of Rebbeim thought that was, including the Tzemach Tzedek, thought that was a little ridiculous. And the Tzemach Tzedek comes out very strong saying that there actually is no halachic grounds for forbidding somebody else from publishing something that's already been published. The language he uses is there's no such thing as hasagas gevul, encroachment, when it comes to publishing holy books. Uh, Rav Boruch Oberlander uses this to explain why he thinks bederech hefsher the Rebbeim don't give haskamahs. But why don't we do it, why don't we do it properly? Uh, I have the page in front of you of his, uh, of his write-up, and he says this. The Tzemach Tzedek, when he was, uh, answering about the argument

22:28 that was going on between Slavita and Vilna, the two major publishing houses at the time, uh, he answers in Shut Yere'dea of kuf tzedek heh. And the Tzemach Tzedek says, "Bedin deGemara, you can tell from the law of the Gemara, gam halecha shamayim k'seferim lamdlit tnedas, that when it comes to holy services, such as seferim, people who write Sifrei Torah, mezuzahs, tefillin, et cetera, lamdlit tnedas, cheider rebbes, vechi ayav na, adaraba, to the contrary, makpidim sheyaknu seferim vefeishi yisro al zemiza. We not only don't put things in place to prevent competition between them, we actively encourage competition between them because we're hoping that the jealousy that they will have between them will g-- and the fear that they have of one another will give us a better product." So when it comes to holy work, we specifically don't put these protections in place because if I will put words in the Tzemach Tzedek's mouth, we want capitalism to do its job. Uh, if cheider rebbes have rules preventing them from competing, then they won't always try to one-up their-- try to, try to up their games. Um, and if the seferim aren't able, if there's rules that one sefer can't open up next to another sefer, then you won't get the best mezuzahs. So we actively encourage competition in these areas. "Vim kein," says the Tzemach Tzedek, "laya rai klali ten haskamah ve'issur al shaar matpisim shema'sirim hakinas hasseferim, hu hefek din deGemara." And says the Tzemach Tzedek, "Therefore, it would make no sense to

23:36 put a haskamah," note the word haskamah, an approbation, "and an issur forbidding on the front of these books, forbidding people from publishing them in the future, because this is the opposite of what the Gemara wants." Now, the Rav Oberlander goes on to say and to demonstrate, it's a long essay, but I wanna summarize it for you, to demonstrate that haskamahs used to be less about you're great and your book is great, and a lot more about you're great, your book is great, and I'm forbidding anybody else from publishing it in the future. Uh, he makes the claim, and it's an interesting claim. I'll read his own words down here. He says, "." He says, "I think I understand based on this why the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbeim after him refused to give haskamahs to books, refused to give these approbations. Ki l'date ein la'aser al matpisim acheirim es vas hasasefer. Because if the main function of a haskamah is not really to say you're great and your book is great, but to forbid other people to print it for a certain period of time, and if it is the opinion of the Tzemach Tzedek that that is not something you are allowed to do, it wouldn't make sense to give a haskamah." So his theory is that one of the reasons that our Rebbeim have hesitated to give haskamahs is because they are doing so in honor of the Tzemach Tzedek, who forbids the idea of putting a haskamah in the front of

24:41 the book, saying that you're not allowed to print any more of these books for a period of time. Uh, and he says, "." This is one of the main reasons why people asked for haskamahs, so it was a main reason to say no to them. And he does point out that we have one haskamah the Tzemach Tzedek did, right? The Tzemach Tzedek himself gave one approbation for the Ohr Ganuz, and in that sefer, he makes it very clear that he likes the mechaber. He gives , praises the author. He also informs the reader that he himself bought the book, but he does not mention any issur of hasagas gevul. He doesn't put in the approbation anything forbidding other from publishing, sort of speaking to that point. So that is a extra theory that, uh, the Rav from, the Shliach from Budapest put together. So in conclusion, what we saw today is we saw a number of letters. I'm telling you, I showed you, I think, maybe even fifteen letters. Uh, I literally have in the book, in the thing that I'm going to upload, im yirtzeh Hashem, to, uh, the Google Drive, where you can see them all inside. I'm gonna give you, like, thirty or forty letters. There's just a ridiculous number of times where you can pull out from a letter the Rebbe saying, "It is minhag beis arav, well established. I can't tell you why, but there are many, many reasons that we don't give haskamos." So we first of all

25:42 established very, very clearly that our Rabbeim and our Rebbe says that he's doing so mainly because it is the custom of prior Rabbeim. So our Rebbe, the Friediker Rebbe, going all the way back, don't give haskamos. And, uh, we spent the second half trying to figure out why, and we came up with a couple possible reasons. One reason that is very much taken directly from the Rebbe's words is that there's no time to look at the book properly. And since haskamos, as we saw in that other letter, are meant to check if something is accurate, almost like one pesuk checking with other poskim, uh, you would-- you really would need time to sit down and look through the book entirely. Uh, putting a haskamah on a book is almost like saying you've edited it. It's almost like saying you've looked it over and approved it. And given that, number one, they don't necessarily have time for that, and number two, even if they did, who says they would want to? It makes some sense for our Rabbeim not to give haskamos because our Rabbeim do not understand haskamos as being friendly greeting letters at the beginning of a book implying they skimmed it, but as being the real deal. You know, something saying, "I looked over this book, I read it thoroughly, and what's in it is correct," and they either don't have time to or are not willing to put that in the front of books. That was one reason we explored, and I

26:37 think that one is so text-based that we can essentially say that one is part of it. That is definitely part of it. I think we demonstrated that. The other ones are a little bit more of a guess. The ones that are a little bit more of a guess, as I showed you from Rav Yitzchak, that the Rebbe seems to attribute special qualities to a Haggadah that was given the haskamah from his father. Uh, and then when asked, "Did his father ever write a commentary on the Haggadah?" The Rebbe says, "No, but he did give an approbation to one." And to me personally, this meant that the Rebbe sort of assigns the book that has a haskamah from an individual as the work of that individual to some degree. Obviously, the Rebbe is not saying that because the-- his father wrote a haskamah to a Haggadah, that that Haggadah was written by his father, but he's also not not saying that. He draws a line that brings them very close together, and perhaps our Rabbeim don't want that kind of authority, that kind of connection to these, uh, to these books, even if they're books that they approve of. Uh, by the way, one thing that we absolutely rejected was the notion that they don't give haskamos because they don't like the books, because we saw multiple books with the Rabbeim, uh, like the book but still won't give the haskamah. Uh, another reason that we saw inside that was at least on one occasion definitely

27:35 what the Rebbe said is what he said to the, uh, to one of the collators of the Encyclopedia Talmudit, that giving one approbation would mean explaining why they hadn't given approbations to other books and would also mean explaining-- would also mean giving approbations in the future to future books. So that absolutely is one reason. And the last reason we saw is the one posited by Rav Oberlander, that perhaps the reason why our Rabbeim don't give haskamos is because a haskamah was not always just an approbation where you write at the front, "I approve of this book, and I approve of the author," but it was always understood to also include a statement saying, "I hereby refuse to let anybody publish this book elsewhere because of the rules of Hasagas Gvul encroaching on another person's property." Uh, given that the Temach Tzedek so explicitly says that that's not a valuable thing when it comes to publishing books, that when it comes to kinah sefarim specifically, when it comes to holy work, we don't worry about encroaching on one another's property. We're very happy to have competition in this field. Given that the Temach Tzedek doesn't want that value in the world, and given that that's what haskamos generally do, it is Rav Oberlander's theory that our Rabbeim did not give haskamos in deference to the Temach Tzedek's position that haskamos inherently do that, and that's not a particularly good thing to do. In any event, we explored something like five reasons, I'm-- I lost count, of,

28:39 uh, uh, why our Rabbeim don't give haskamos. I think it's still completely unclear why the Rabbeim don't give haskamos. We have a couple reasons, but he says for many, many reasons. He says because of the minhag of our forebearers. I-I don't know exactly why. These are some possible ideas. In any event, one thing I do know for sure is that if you would like a haskamah on your book, do not ask our Rabbeim. They will absolutely say no. But maybe it's worth asking them anyway, because in a lot of these letters, they say, "I'm not giving you a haskamah," and then go on to give you a bunch of corrections and footnotes anyway. So let me revise that. If you would like a haskamah on your book, do submit it to our Rabbeim, but don't expect a haskamah. All right. That's it. Thank you all very much.