דינים- הקדמה

Many of our הלכות are said straight out in the פסוק but many come from תשבע''פ or are learned out from תורה שבכתב. In the רמב''ם’s ספר הלכה, משנה תורה, he explains how הלכות got passed down. He goes through the forty דורות of מסורה from משה until ,רב אשי who wrote down what got passed down in the גמרא. So the גמרא‘s פסקי הלכות are very binding- they’re really from משה and הר סיני (heard from ה'). These forty people were great people and were responsible for passing down מסורה. רבינא ורב אשי were the last דור of אמוראים and were חותם the גמרא in בבל about one hundred years after ר' יוחנן did in א''י. The גמרא brings down a משנה (called מתניה) and then goes into a discussion which elaborates on it. The page of גמרא also has the פירוש of רש''י and בעלי תוספות who explain the גמרא. (They are ראשונים.) The גמרא explains the משנה and adds what relevant גזירות have been instituted. But the גמרא was not a ספר הלכה, but a ספר that explains תורה שבע''פ. Even the new גזירות in תשבע''פ are still מסורה because really it’s written in the פסוק and חז''ל knew how to figure it out. Also in the גמרא it says גדרים to prevent you from being נכשל. So these גדרים are not דאוריתא but have been instituted as a קיום of the פסוק, "ושמרתם את משמרתי"- we must guard against being נכשל. Even though it’s not דאוריתא, we have a חיוב דאוריתא to listen to חכמים- "לא תסירומכל דבר אשר יגידו לך".

משנה was not the only חבור in the time of the תנאים- also they were מחבר the מכילתא and other מדרשים. But that was all up to the אמוראים. In the time of אמוראים, only ר' יוחנן and רבינא ורב אשי were מחבר the גמרא because they were the last who had the כח of מסורה.

At this point, all ב''י were close enough to be under the same הלכות- they were in א''י and בבל. But then came the סבוראים- a short תקופה during which בבל’s ישיבות closed and was much מלחמה and traveling routes were closed off. People ran away. There was a lot of chaos so therefore had no real חבור. Then came the גאונים and suddenly ב''י were spread all over so there was a massive change in how הלכה was transmitted. Life was no longer centered around תורה. There were צרות and מלחמות and ב'י lived far away so you didn’t have many ב''י learning together in ישיבות. So the general public didn’t know the הלכה because so few people learnt and understood the חכמים and they were the ones who transmitted the הלכות. The פסק הלכה didn’t spread, so the גדולים would make תקנות just for their area, so not everyone had the same מנהגים anymore.

The פסקי הלכה after חתימת התלמוד was so different. There was no longer a grand סנהדרין who everyone listened to, therefore the מנהג from area couldn’t be enforced in another area. Additionally, we do not necessarily go along with the earlier פסק as apposed to the later פסק as they did before חתימת התלמוד because the earlier is no longer any closer to סיני. Anything up to חתימת התלמוד you must listen to but the פסקי הלכה that came after may not be for us to follow because we hold otherwise.

ר' גרשם was the leader of the whole אשכנז but not ספרד. He was the מאור הגולה but his פסקים didn’t reach ספרד. He realized that there were some practices that led to problems so he used the כח of חירם- excommunication to stop them. He instituted חירם on:
1. השגת גבול- going into someone else’s property or encroaching on his rights.
2. Reading other people’s mail.
3. A man can only marry one wife- ע''פ דין, you can marry as many wives as you want. ר' טרפון lived in a time of drought, so he married three hundred wives so that they could all get food- he was a כהן and got תרומות. This was something very new and difficult for
people to get used to. This doesn’t apply to ספרדים though.

After the סבוראים came the גאונים. Now, people started to get very distant. They tried to be מגלה the תעלומות because:
1. The גמרא is very deep.
2. It’s not written in a spoken language- was written in ארמית. This dialect was no longer spoken anywhere, so it was difficult for people to understand.
Their דרך הלמוד was ספרים of שאלות and תשובות. They wrote חבורים of איסור והיטר so that if you can’t learn גמרא, you will still know what to do. But by now, our צרות have overtaken us and we don’t know how to learn so very few people can understand the works that the גאונים simplified for us, and of course the גמרא and previous works are even more difficult.

So the רמב''ם wrote a ספר that is short and concise and gives the final פסק with no discussion so as to simplify the הלכה. The רמב''ם was so clear when he wrote his ספר, but we are holding 800-900 years later so for us it’s often hard and difficult to understand. He created this ספר so that they’ll need nothing else besides for this ספר and the תורה- that’s why it’s called משנה תורה.

There are 613 מצוות in the תורה:
1. 248 עשה- correspondent to the רמ''ח אורים.
2. 365 לא תעשה- correspondent to the מנין ימות החמה.

After all this which was documented in the רמב''ם’s ספר, there were more מחברים of ספרי הלכה and גדולי הפוסקים:
1. ראשונים-
a. ספרד-
i. ר' יצחק אלפסי (רי''ף)- he lived from 1013- 1103. He came from Fez, Morocco and ended up in ספרד. He wrote a פירוש on the גמרא. At his time, he was considered one of the sources of הלכה.
ii. ר' משה בן מימון (רמב''ם) - he lived from 1135- 1204 and he wrote משנה תורה.
iii. ר' שלמה בן אדרת (רשב''א)- he lived in the 1300s. He was also one of the גדולי פוסקי ספרד.
b. אשכנז-
i. רש''י ובעלי התוספות- wrote a באור on the גמרא so that you could understand the הלכות.
ii. רבינו אשר בן יחיאל (רא''ש)-he lived from 1250- 1327. He was the פוסק הדור in אשכנז and his פסקים are similar to רש''י and the תוספות because he got his שיטה from them.
iii. ר' יעקב בן אשר (טור/ בעל התורים)- he lived from 1280- 1340. He was the רא''ש’s son. He wrote a major חיבור in הלכה called the ארבע טורים- only has applicable הלכות. It is divided into four sections:
1. אורח חיים- deals with regular, day to day מצוות. They do no usually require פסקי הלכה because you don’t usually have to be דן the situation.
2. יורה דעה- הלכות כשרות, רבית, נדרים.
3. חושן משפט- monetary הלכות- דיני ממון, נזק.
4. אבן העזר- הלכות of marriage- .כתובות, גיטין, קדושין
2. אחרונים- started in the 1500s, around the time of גירוש ספרד. The famous פוסקים were:
a. ר' יוסף קארו (המחבר)- he left Spain, then went to Turkey and then א''י- during the תקופה of מקלבים. He was מחבר a lengthy פירוש on the ארבע טורים- called the בית יוסף. It was hard to find the הלכה למעשה though, because he went through all the discussions. He also wrote a more concise חיבור- the שלחן ערוך, which is basically הלכה למעשה. It follows חכמי ספרד and sometimes differs with אשכנז.
b. ר' משה איסרליס (רמ''א)- he wrote what אשכנז needed to know. He lived in Krakow at the same time as the בית יוסף. He wrote a lengthy פירוש similar to the בית יוסף’s with the דרך of אשכנז- it’s called דרכי משה. The concise shortened חיבור of הלכה למעשה is called הגה- מפה.
There was a lot more written on the שלחן ערוך. Then, in the 1900s, the ח''ח wrote the משנה ברורה, which is based on the שלחן ערוך and the רמ''א. The קצור שלחן ערוך is a daily guide to regular הלכות- it’s not a shortened version of the שלחן ערוך. The קצור שלחן ערוך doesn’t פסקין הלכות- it goes through the order of the day and months. It was written by ר' שלמה גאנצפריד.

Where do מנהגים come in? It says in the פסוק, "ואל תטש תורת אמך". חז''ל learn out from these words that one shouldn’t forsake מנהגים. מנהגים are really serious and very binding. One may even need הטרת נדרים to change a מנהג. For example, if someone doesn’t hold by eating gebrokst on פסח, it’s אסור for him to eat it. When one gets married, she assumes the מנהגים of her husband.

"לא תתגדדו"- when a גוי grieves, he cuts and maims himself. We have an איסור not to do this. But not just in a physical sense- one shouldn’t break himself up- make מחלוקת, even if you feel that it’s לש''ש.

Story- ר' נחום waited to light חנוכה candles until his wife came home because he said that שלום בית overrides lighting candles at the best time.

Story- there was an אבל davening for the עמוד during ספירה. He had forgotten to count ספירה, but ר' משה said that he should still count with a ברכה. When questioned about his פסק , he said that the man would be embarrassed because everyone would know that he had forgotten to count ספירה. כבוד הבריאות coupled with the צד that you can count with a ברכה even if you forget was the reason he פסקיןed like this.