This משנה was said by ר' אלעזר בן שמוע. He lived in the fourth generation of תנאים. רבי was his תלמיד. The גמרא describes him as being a ת''ח השמח יותר מכולם". He lived a very long life. When asked why he was זוכה to live so long, he said that whole life he was זהיר in כבוד הבריות.
מדרש רבה One time, he was on a טיול at the river’s shore. He saw a broken ship in the water and saw a man bobbing in the water. He saw that the man was still alive and he saved him. He took off his coat and covered the body. He carried the body to his home and nursed the man back to health. He gave him some money and returned the man to his city. After many years, the man became great in the Roman government. The government made terrible decrees against כ''י. When ר' אלעזר heard who was responsible for it, he went to the Roman. The Roman recognized him. He got rid of the גזירה and gave him money and ר' אלעזר went back בשלום. It says in קהלת, "שלח לחמיך ע''פ המים..."- if you do a good act, it will come back to help you later on.
The first part of this משנה is an אזהרה to a רבי.
רוח חיים He connects the three parts of the משנה: the nature of a person is to be מקיל בכבוד אחרים. But we must be מכבד others, even more than they deserve. We see from here that every person should be praised more than they deserve. This way if you fall, you will give him the כבוד that he really deserves, but not less.
רע''ב יהי כבוד תלמידך...- משה ר' said, "בחר לנו אנשים". He was משוה the כבוד of his תלמיד to his own כבוד.
רש''י יהי כבוד תלמידך- בדין הוא, it’s obligatory. We know"לכל אדם מתקנא חוץ מבנו ותלמידו" , because he is an extension of yourself. Therefore, a תלמיד טוב is a source of נחת to his רבי. The תלמיד is the סיבת כבוד of his רבי, therefore the רבי must be מחזיר the כבוד to his תלמיד.
ר' ירוחם ממיר "גדולה שמושה של תורה יותר מלמודה"- it is more important for a תלמיד to be משמש his רבי than למודים. Why? Because it’s תורת חיים. If a תלמיד is serving his רבי, the רבי can ח''ו become a בעל גאוה. Therefore חז''ל made a שמירה- יהי חביב עליך תלמידך יותר מגופך.
ר' נחום פרצביץ gave beautiful שיעורים, but he was handicapped. One time, his תלמידים were lifting him out of his wheelchair and he kept saying, "נישט מייענע איז דייענע". He told them that he said this to remind himself as they were rising him that the honor isn’t for him, it is for ה'’s תורה.
ת''י סז- sometimes, the תלמיד in connection to the רבי is as if the רבי found a pearl in its raw state. The תלמיד still has a thick shell, but the רבי polishes it and then its brilliant light can shine forth. Sometimes the רבי has to bring out the beauty of the תלמיד. Therefore, he must pay close attention to the words that his תלמיד says so that he could see what his תלמיד needs to get rid of and what he should build on. Then the רבי will polish him to the utmost, until he can learn from him, as ר' חנינא said, "הרבה למדתי מרבתי ומחברי יותר מרבותי ומתלמדי יותר מכלם", therefore a רבי must respect his תלמיד.
ר' עקיבא איגר’s sons were preparing a compilation of his שאלות and תשובות. They wrote in the הקדמה that their father instructed them to delete the title "תלמידך" from the letters because he would never call anyone his תלמיד, כי מי יודע מי למד יותר ממי?
ר' חיים וולזין came to visit the גר''א on an ערב שבת. The גר''א was having difficulty understanding a certain piece in גמרא and ר' חיים explained it to him. The גר''א said, "הרבה למדתי מחברי ומתלמדי יותר מכלם".
ר' שלמה קלגר מחנכים must remember to teach their תלמידים the מידה of הכנעה- to be מקבל מורים. This is the יסוד of a yid because it trains him in accepting עול מלכות שמים. So a רבי can’t be מותר on his כבוד. יהי כבוד תלמידך חביב עליך- you should be מחביב the כבוד they give you so that you can raise them to be עובדי ה'. A parent is not a friend to their child. There is a line which can’t be crossed.
ר' אלעזר בן שמוע used to sit in the middle of a circle with his תלמידים around him. He was always there before his תלמידים so:
1. They shouldn’t have to move for him.
2. They shouldn’t have to wait for him.
ר' יצחק אלחנן ספקטר, the ר''י in קבנא, was once fahering a boy who traveled for many days to come take the faher. The first thing he asked the boy was if he eat and or slept, and when he heard of the difficult and lengthy journey, he immediately went to prepare food and lodging for the boy before fahering him.
In ר' חיים וואלזין’s ישיבה, there was extreme poverty. Some boys didn’t have shoes, and the winters were very fierce. The בחורים wanted to buy ר' חיים a present, so they bought him a pair of boots. They noticed though that he only wore them when the snow was extremely high and he would shovel a path so that those without boots would have an easier time entering the בית מדרש.
"וכבוד התורה כמורא רבך"- what is the מקור for this?
רע''ב אהרן called משה "בי אדוני" even though he was his younger brother.
The פסוק in משלי says "הוקר רגליך מבית רעך". Why? Because familiarity breeds contempt.
Story- מיר boys and the policeman. ר' ירוחם said that he seriously thought about closing down the ישיבה- how could you allow your friend to go alone with the policeman in the pitch dark. You might have been afraid, but imagine how afraid he was! If would be כדאי to close down the ישיבה if the בחורים don’t show each other respect.
Concern and care are part of כבוד חברים. You aren’t a true friend if you don’t have a deep care and concern for your friends.
ת''י What does it mean to have כבוד with your friends? Not to disagree or contradict them in a hurtful way. Don’t disagree for the sake of a disagreement. Think of how you give it over- that makes all the difference.
עבודת פנים Why does the תנא compare the כבוד necessary for a friend to the כבוד necessary for a רבי? He’s not equating the amount of כבוד that should be given. But there is a common thread here- the same way you aren’t מכבד your רבי so that he will respect you in return, you shouldn’t be מכבד your friend so that he does the same for you.
בינה לעתיים "הרבה למדתי מרבותי ומחברי יותר מרבותי"- you learn more from a friend than from a רבי, so a friend takes on the שם of a רבי. You must show him כבוד and there even has to be some measure of יראה.
מהר''ל What’s the connection between כנסי' לש''ש and the ענון of כבוד חברים? The כנסי' will only be מתקיים if the people have כבוד for each other.
The גמרא speaks about the סורא and פומפדיתא and the כבוד חברים there:
1. When someone walked into the room, everyone would stand up.
2. When there was a מיתה and someone among them tore קריעה, they would all tear.
So אחדות is another strand of כבוד.
We see the opposite by ר' עקיבא though. All of his תלמידים were נפתר in the days between פסח and שבועות. Why? Because they had an עין צרה, they couldn’t fargin when someone else got ahead in לימוד תורה. קנאת סופרים is when you’re מקנא the thing, but they were מקנא the hole person. They didn’t have אחדות. So they all died from whooping cough, which effects their throat which is where the תורה comes from.
גמרא "שקר החן והבל היופי אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל"-
1. שקר החן זה דורו של משה ויהושע. רש''י- שעסקו תורה הרבה.
2. והבל היופי זה דורו של חזקיהו. רש''י- שעסקו בתורה יותר שבדקו מדן ועד באר שבע ולא מצאו תינוק או תינקת שלא היו בקיאים בהלכות טומאה וטהרה.
3. אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל זה דורו של ר' יהודה בר אלעי. רש''י- שהיו ששה תלמידים מתכסין בטלית אחת ועוסקין בתורה- they were so poor, but they didn’t use it as an excuse. They learnt מתוך הדחק.
ר' חיים ש. You can only have six people under one טלית if they are sharing and giving to each other. They reached such a great level of אחדות here like they had by הר סיני- where כאיש אחד בלב אחד.
ר' עקיבא saw his תלמידים dozing off. He asked, what did אסתר see that allowed her to endure being married to such a רשע? She correlated herself with שרה. שרה lived 127 years and now she is ruling over 127 provinces.
1. How could ר' עקיבא be teaching to students who were dozing off? They weren’t sleeping because they were bored, they were disconnecting because ר' עקיבא was teaching them things far beyond their reach.
2. How is ר' עקיבא drawing them in with this correlation between אסתר and שרה? He was showing them that there is never anything too elevated from where we stand. A person should hold on to the one thing they can you to connect themselves and reign themselves in.
3. What is the פשט in this correlation? אסתר was in the lion’s den- אחשוירוש was an anti- Semite and a scary person. But אסתר didn’t disconnect. She searched to connect herself to something very celestial and draw herself in. She connected herself to the fact that שרה lived 127 years, and rose above all of her trials and tribulations. אסתר connected herself to this and rose above everything she was faced with.
When ב''י were נהנה from the סעודה of אחשוירוש, the שטן showed ה'. ה' made a גזירה on them to destroy them. אליהו saw this and ran to the אבות and משה. They asked him if it was sealed with טיט or blood. If it is sealed in mud, it can be repealed. But if it is sealed in blood, it can’t be. What is the difference between טיט and blood? טיט represents earth, גשמיות. As long as it is not a part of them and is just גשמיות, it can be repealed. But blood is נפש, symbolizes רוחניות. If it is a part of them, it can’t be repealed.
ר' חיים ש. By מתן תורה, it says כאיש אחד בלב אחד. This is אחדות. So why does the תורה write בלב אחד by this ענין of אחדות? It’s not enough to have just a superficial fondness. The תורה requires that כבוד חברים is in your kishkes, that it comes from the depths of your heart. There shouldn’t be any animosity. You must make sure that it’s a relationship of כבוד and love.
It says in פרשת בהר, "לא תרדה בו בפרך ויראת מאלקיך". פרך means something which cheapens a person. רש''י says that a master may not make his servant to unnecessary tasks which will be מזלזל the עבד. This means even if the servant will never no, that’s why it says "ויראת מאלקיך"- ה' will know whether you really needed it or not.
The איסור here is to make the servant do something you don’t need, thereby cheapening him and even if he doesn’t know that it’s for naught that he toiled.
כבוד חברים is in your heart, you must really feel it in your heart.
"זכור את אשר עשה ה' למרים בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים". There seems to be a כפה ל' here, בדרך and בצאתכם. When you were leaving, it was a time of ecstasy that you were leaving bondage or you could say that maybe מרים wasn’t thinking straight because she was hurrying. But ה' didn’t overlook it. And even thought she spoke about her brother at a time of שמחה, ה' didn’t excuse her. There are no תרוצים what so ever!
You may have the deepest חשבונות, but it doesn’t matter. If you hurt someone, you will pay for it. "ורבת בנים אומללה"- one with many was left with none. פנינה was a צדקת. It pained her to be mean to חנה, but she did it so that חנה would daven harder. Tampering with someone’s feelings, no matter what your חשבון is, is like placing your hand into a burning fire- there are repercussions for your actions.
In the days of the אמוראים, it took a very long time for people to travel. So when someone would go learn, they would go learn for many months. ר' רחומי used to learn for a long time, and he would come home every ערב יו''כ and stay through סוכות. One year, he came home early. Since no one was expecting him, he went up to the attic to learn. He got so busy and he forgot to come down. His wife, who was expecting him, was looking for him and she began to cry. Suddenly, the roof collapsed and ר' רחומי died. We can’t say that this is an עונש מכ''מ, but we can learn out from here that there is a חוק טבעי ומציאותי- if you hurt someone, there will be an effect.
ר' יוחנן was an old man and he had eyebrows that covered his eyes. ר' כהנא once got a מכה to his lip and it healed into a permanent smile. One time, ר' כהנא had to ask ר' יוחנן a question in person. They had never seen each other before. ר' יוחנן thought that ר' כהנא was laughing at his eyebrows and he was very hurt. ר' כהנא died and came back to life again. This is baffling- ר' כהנא didn’t do anything, it wasn’t his fault that his lip was like this and ר' יוחנן thought he was mocking him. Although he didn’t do anything wrong, ר' כהנא was the גורם which made ר' יוחנן downtrodden. If there is a flame, there will be a repercussion.
בנימין caused his brothers to rip their clothing when the גביע was found in his bag. He was innocent, but he was a גרמה על גרמה. Years later, the עונש came out in שושן- מרדכי, the descendant of בנימין, ripped his clothing. We can’t control what isn’t ours to control, but we could have a התבוננות in כבוד חברים (this will lead to זהירות).
רע''ב ומורא רבך כמורא שמים- it is comparing יראת הרבי to יראת ה' and it brings down the following פסוק- "אדוני משה..."- יהושע told משה to kill אלדד and מידד.
ב''י were all complaining together that they only had מן. משה couldn’t deal with this anymore. He told ה' that he can’t do it anymore, so ה' told him to appoint seventy זקנים and he’ll do the process of אצילות- transfer of the nobility of משה onto the seventy זקנים. משה took seventy- two pieces of paper. On seventy he wrote זקן and two he left blank. Everyone wanted an equal number of זקנים from their שבט, so they did a גורל because it’s משמים. משה called on the ראוים, but two people didn’t come. אלדד and מידד didn’t come because they felt that they weren’t ראוי. Immediately they began to be מתנבא. גרשם בן משה heard this and came to tell his father what they were saying-
מ י א ב נ ת מ
כ ה ל ג פ נ ש
נ ו ק ן ש ו ה
י ש י ו ח
ס ע ם
יהושע was there and he said this פסוק because those who are מורד in their רבי, it is like they are פוגע in כבוד שמים.
Sheet V שמעון העמסוני was explaining all the "את"s in the תורה. When he got to "את ה' אלקיך תירא", he said that you can’t attach anything else to יראת ה'. His students said that maybe everything else he said is invalid. שמעון העמסוני said, the same way I got שכר for explaining everything else, I got שכר for stopping here. ר' עקיבא said that the "את" here comes to include יראת ת''ח. Why? Because through them we come to יראת ה'.
טור "כשם שאדם מצוה בכבוד אביו ויראתו כך הוא מצוה בכבוד רבו ויראתו ורבו יותר מאביו שאביו הביאו לחיי עוה''ז ורבו מביאו לחיי עוה''ב ואמרו חכמים ומורא רבא כמורא שמים"- a person must have a greater measure of כבוד and יראה for his רבי than his father.
גמרא סוטה "וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי"- a man from בית לוי (עמרם) went and took יוכבד, his aunt. "... שהלך בעצת בתו. עמרם גדול הדור הי'. כיון שגזר פרעה כל הבן הילוד היאורה תשליכוהו. אמר לשב אנו עמלין עמד וגרש את אשתו ועמדו כולם וגרשו את נשותיהן שלמדו כולם ממעשיו שגדול הדור הי'. אמרה לי' ביתו אבא גזרתך קשה משל פרעה 1) שפרעה לא גזר על הזכרים ואתה גזרת על הזכרים ועל הנקבות 2) פרעה לא גזר אלא אל עוה''ז... 3) פרעה הרשע ספק גזרתו מתקיימת ספק אינה מתקיימת. עמד והחזיר את אשתו, עומדין כולם והחזירו את נשותיהן שלמדו כולם ממעשיו שגדול הדור הי'". ר' חצקל לווינשטין- weren’t there people who didn’t agree with this? We see from there that they were מבטל their דעת to the דעת of their רבי. From this second לקוחין, משה ר' was born. We see from here that they were זוכה to גאולה because they listened to their רבי.
ר' מנדל מורא insinuates a התרחקות. When a relationship requires awe and fear, it requires distance מפני כבוד. אהבה insinuates התקרבות. A relationship with a רבי is compared to the צבא השמים- the moon gets its light from the sun. When the moon moves close to the sun, it gets overshadowed and its light is less. However, when the moon is far from the sun, its light is greater. So too a תלמיד- there is a התרחקות because of the built in כבוד, and he is influenced greatly. When he crosses that line though, there is no השפעה and his brilliance doesn’t shine forth.
At the סדר, a תלמיד who is at his רבי doesn’t lean. A son at his father’s table does lean. R’ Foyer asked his father-in-law, who was also his רבי if he should lean or not. The רבי said, I consider you my son, but our primary relationship is a רבי- תלמיד relationship. He will gain more from this kind of relationship.
גמרא שבת "דרחמים רבנן הווליה בנין רבנן דמוקיר רבנן הוו ליה חתנוותא רבנן. דדחיל מרבנן הוא גופי' הוי צורבא מרבנן. ואי לאו בר הכי הוא משתמען מוליה כצורבא דרבנן"- someone who has a love for רבנים, he will merit having sons who are תורה sages. If you honor and respect רבנים, you will merit having sons-in-law who will be ת''ח. When you fear the words of רבנים, you yourself will become amongst the fire of תורה and become a רבי yourself. If he is incapable of becoming great in תורה, his words will be accepted by all like the words of an erudite ת''ח.
חז''ל י''ח קללות כלל ישעי' את ישראל ולא נתקרבה דעתו עד שאמר להם המקרא הזה- ישעי' said over to כ''י eighteen cursed conducts that the world will experience before משיח. When he reached the eighteenth, which is the lowest, he calmed down. Why? The darkest point is before the break of light. ישעי' saw that they can’t fall any lower than that so he calmed down.
ישעי' sheet This is the eighteenth- every person will say דעות on the other person (how they should have done it…) and the youth will be arrogant and won’t accept the חכמה of זקנים- אילו שקנה חכמה. There will be no מורא הרב and everyone will say דעות on each other. רד''ק- another קללה is that they won’t be able to be subservient. We challenge our parents and מורות. Everyone will be a boss and say דעות and criticize their friends. The youth will say דעות on the חכמים.
רד''ק They won’t be מכניע to people of authority. It can also mean that someone who is מנוער מן המצוות will be מתגאה over those who are full of מצוות, like a רמון is of its seeds. And someone who is נקלה- a person that even the חמורות are קלות for him will be מתגאה over the נכבד- a person that the קלות are חמורות for him.
מהרש''א This doesn’t mean a literal נער or זקן. It means in terms of תורה. ישעי' calmed down when he said this. This קללה is the greatest of רוחניותדיק depravity of man. They can’t fall any lower and the גאולה must come.
Sheet V כ''י is compared to a bird- just like a bird can’t fly without its wings, so too כ''י can’t do anything without their גדולים.
"רב שמוחל על כבודו..."- because if he is מבטל his כבוד, he is מבטל his השפעה on כ''י, thereby being מבטל the קיום of כ''י.
ת''י סט- the מצוות of ה':
1. You can’t question them even when your מחשבה isn’t מתקיים (like the דור of עמרם). We must always remember "שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד". We must always walk around with מורא שמים saddling us. You can’t correct your רבי, even if you think you know better and even if you aren’t in from of him.
2. An אמתה תלמיד is someone who always does what he thinks his רבי would do, as if he is in front of him. If you question your רבי, you are questioning the שכינה.
3. A person must be מחשיב his רבי as if he’s more than a regular man.
גמרא- you can’t sit in his seat and you can’t stand in his place if he has a specific place for davening.
Before חרבן בית שני, there was a מצר around ירושלים and the Romans didn’t let anyone leave. They cut off the food and water supply. The גדולים felt that it was time to go out and negotiate. ר' יוחנן בן זכאי collaborated with אבא סקראי, the head of the בריונים. The בריונים didn’t want to let anyone leave ירושלים, they wanted to fight. The only person they let leave was a מת. So ר' יוחנן בן זכאי pretended to be dead, and he told אבא סקראי (his nephew) to keep them away from him. The בריונים really wanted to check and make sure that ר' יוחנן בן זכאי was dead, but they were משיג the ענין of מורא הרב וכבודו, and since אבא סקראי didn’t want them to pierce the body they didn’t.
It says in מסילת ישרים that הנהגות of טחיסות כבוד הרב are תולדות of the מדת הגאוה which has a negative effect on people. It turns the חכמים backwards and makes their דעת foolish. Even the young בחורים who barely know anything are מתגאה- they think that they are as great as their חכמים. Even the בריונים understood this and were מוסר נפש because of it.
Monday, May 30, 2011
פרקי אבות- משנה יא
ר' אלעזר בן יעקב lived in the fourth generation of תנאים. He was one of the students of ר' עקיבא.
Sheet I כ''י will be as many as the sand of the sea which can’t be counted. Characteristic of sand- you can dig and form it, but it will always return to its original form. כ''י also has this תחונה. Like sand, they are חוזר לצורתם. There will be generations where ב''י are small in number, but we will always return to our original צורה of רבוי. To prove this idea, look at the Holocaust and see how we are thriving today. It says in ויקרא, "לא מאסתם ולא געלתים לכלותם"- this is a הבטחה that ה' will never make us so dirty that we will be cast away.
יא רע''ב פרקליט- an advocate, a מלאך who is מדבר טוב on כ''י.
קטיגור- a מלאך who is a prosecutor. קטיגור- קורא תיגר- he calls out a טענה (ט and ת are אותיות מתחלפות). The פרקליט is also known as סניגר- שונא תיגר (ס and ש are אותיות מתחלפות).
ר' יונה תשובה is the סור מרע and מעש''ט is the עשה טוב. תשובה and מעש''ט are כסריס- כטריתים= shades. Shades are a מגן. תשובה and מעש''ט are a מגן from the פורענות- מכות וחלאים. פורענות come from עבירות. In order to ward off the פורענות, we need תשובה and מעש''ט.
Sheet Read the חזון איש story. The סניגר protected him against the קטיגורים.
"אחת" seems to be extra. It comes to teach us:
מאירי סניגר= 329, קטיגר= 328. After a person dies, he comes on his יום הדין before ה'. All a person needs to be saved is מצוה אחת. The גמרא in עירובין tells us that a person should live with the following mantra- "חטף ואכל חטף ואשתי דהאי עלמא דאליזן מיניה כביא הילולא דמי"- grab and eat, grab and drink because this world is like a banquet. Eat and drink because there will come a time where the opportunity will be gone. Chap every מצוה because it may be your last.
ילקוט שמעוני A person has three beloved connections in his life:
1. His family
2. His money
3. מעשיו הטובים
When he is dying, he summons his family and asks them, "הצילני מדין המות הרע הזה", and they answer him "אין שלטון ביום המות"- we have no sovereignty after you die. Next, he summons his money and asks, "הצילני מדין המות הרע הזה". His money answers, "לא יועיל הון ביום עברה". Lastly, he calls upon his מעש''ט and they say to him, "עד שלא תבא הרי אנו מקדימים לך שנא' והלך לפניך צדקיך"- your מעש''ט will go before you and save you.
לב אליהו Every yid must keep 613 מצוות. Attached to this חיוב, a person should choose a מצוה אחת that he is deeply attached and will be מוסר for it. He is זוכה to a פרקליט אחת, the greatest פרקליט, מלאך גבריאל.
Someone who can’t separate himself from a certain עבירה, he creates for himself a קטיגור- שטן. ריש לקיש says, "בתחילו יורד לפתות האדם לחטוא", and after he convinces you to do it, he goes up to ה' and is a קטיגור against you, and he comes back down and wreaks havoc.
ח''ח This לשון is used in order to teach us that we should keep each מצוה with such איכות- quality as if it’s the only one. You should do it completely and invest your entire heart into it במחשבה הנכונה ובשמחה. Then you will get a מלאך מליץ that is חזק and גבור to be מגן upon you ביום הדין. If you do an עבירה with געשמעק, you going to create a מלאך who is strong in a bad way. Depending on how you do the מצוה is what type of מלאך you will create. If you do it כמצות אנשים מלומדה, you will get a crippled מלאך.
חתם סופר ירידת הדורות is not in חכמה but the לב- הרגש of the מצוה. We now serve ה' with a לב אבן- without פנמיות. We live in a generation of reverse Muranoism.
מהרש''א "בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך..."- someone who does a מצוה in this world gets a פרקליט. We know that "מצוה גוררת מצוה". How is this? The מלאך that you created helps you. The same applies for an עבירה.
בינה לעתים "תשובה ומעש''ט כתריס לפני הפורענות"- when you do a מצוה , you create a מלאך מליץ טוב in that specific area. When you do תשובה and מעש''ט, a person creates פרקליטים כללים to protect him.
כוכבי אור What is the difference between מצוות and מעש''ט? They aren’t equal. "מעש''ט אין כונתם לשמירת התורה בפשטות אלא חובות העומדות מעל לחובות הרגילות"- מעש''ט are the obligations which stand above usual obligations, for example:
1. "כמה גדולה מעשי חייא"- did the חיוב of teaching תורה, but he went above and beyond. So מעש''ט is our חובות. Doing them in a great way shows אהבה and a connection to ה'.
2. "שאני ר' יחזאקל דבעל מעשים הוא"- you do it in the best possible way, not just to get away with it. This shows that you love to do it.
Why does it say תשובה before מעש''ט? To show us, "גדולה תשובה ממעש''ט". חז''ל tell us, "במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדין...". Why? Because when you severe your connections with something, it is very hard, therefore תשובה is greater then מעש''ט.
"אמר ריש לקיש: גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כשגגות. גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כזכויות. כן מיראה, כן מאהבה"- תשובה is so great that when you do it מיראה, your חטאים במזיד become חטאים בשוגג. When you do תשובה from אהבה, your חטאים במזיד turn into זכויות. יראה is a lower מדרגה because you do it because you’re scared, not because you have it in you and you want to do it. אהבה is a greater level because you feel the desire to keep the מצוות within you.
There were seven things created before the world. One of them was תורה, "הסתכל באוריתא וברא עלמא" and one of them was תשובה because:
1. It’s למעלה מן הטבע- above the concept of time and place.
2. The world needed תשובה before it was created, it can’t exist without it.
מדרש "שאלו לחכמה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה להם חטאים תרדף שנאה"- when they asked intellect what the עונש of a חוטא is, it said that sinners should be chased by hate. Why? Because חטאים diminish טוב and are מרבה the רע, so they get רע.
"שאלו לנבואה (מדת הדין) חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה להם נפש החוטאת היא תמות"- נבואה said that he should die because your נפש is only here to be used למען ה'. So if you’re not using it למען ה', it must be taken away.
"שאלו לתורה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה לו יביא אשם ויתכפר"- he should bring a קרבן. But what if you’re living in גלות or there’s no בהמ''ק?
"שאלו להקב''ה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה לו עשה תשובה ויתכפר"- ה' said that he should do תשובה.
It says, "בראשית ברא אלוקים"- in the beginning ה' wanted to create the world במדת הדין. But ה' knew that the world couldn’t have a קיום that way. So he was מקדים the רחמים and set דין up as its partner as the פסוק says, "ביום עשה ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים"- both מידות. תשובה is because there is רחמים that is כלו רחמים.
The פסוק in תהלים says, "טוב וישר ה' על כן יורה חטאים בדרך". יורהmeans teaches. He doesn’t just give, he also teaches about תשובה, He teaches us how to implement it into our lives.
מלאכי sheet ואשובה אליכם- מוסג of ס''ד. If you take the first few baby steps, ה' will pull you over the hump.
מדרש sheet Open up for me a small opening. It must be the size of the eye of a needle- pierces through and through. You must be sincere and then ה' will open up for you.
רמח''ל Surely the קיום העולם is רחמים. It wouldn’t exist without it. But you may say that there is punishment. There is no מדת הדין that exacts punishment on a person. If it was from מדת הדין:
1. It would happen immediately, without a waiting period.
2. It would be with full fledged potency as is appropriate for someone who has the audacity not to listen to what ה' says.
3. There would be no תקון for the חטא.
Really, how can it be that someone can undo something that was contorted? If a person murders or is עובר on זנות, how can he go back? Can you really remove something you did from reality? ע''פ טבע you can’t. But:
1. We are given a grace period, don’t get destroyed right away.
2. The עונש itself isn’t to a point of destruction.
3. תשובה was given to the sinner as a חסד. When you remove your רצון to do bad, it’s as if you are removing the מעשה.
It’s like a person who made a vow and regrets entirely that he made it. He longs that he had never done it. You must feel the צער and suffering for what you did. By uprooting the רצון, you are uprooting the מעשה and you are granted כפרה. It says in ישעי', "וסר עונך וחטאתך תכופר".
ר' יוחנן הסנדלר is also mentioned in this משנה. He speaks about כנסיות. He was one of the תלמידים of ר' עקיבא. He came from אלכסנדרי', מצרים and that’s why he was called סנדלר. Others say that he was a shoemaker, so he was called by his profession.
מדרש כנסי'= כנס קה- a gathering for ה'. So if it’s a כנס קה, doesn’t it for sure have to be לשם שמים? We see from here that even if it’s a כנס קה, for a דבר מצוה, it is possible for it not to be לש''ש. It is only לש''ש if people have the correct conduct. The הנהגות between the people should be ישרות, with no personal נגיעות or בקוש כבוד.
ר' יונה כנסי'- אסיפה. So what makes it לש''ש? למען תורה ומצוות. What isn’t לש''ש? If he’s motivated by recognition and prestige. If when you make a כנסי' you’re doing it for the sake of your own כבוד, it’s not good. If you’re doing it לש''ש, everyone is working towards one כלליותדיק goal. But it you’re doing it not לש''ש, everyone has his own personal goal in mind and it won’t have a קיום because you’re not working together. It says, "רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת ה' היא תקום"- everyone in his heart has a different מחשבה. But when you’re working למען ה', היא תקום.
ת''י It can still be לשם שמים even if the essence of the כנסי' was for חול, with no שיכות to קדושה:
1. If the people involved act properly with each other
2. If the מחשבות are pure.
Such a כנסי' will be סופה להתקיים, meaning that:
1. The people within the כנסי' remain connected.
2. The עצה they had set out to do is still being done.
ה' has נחת רוח from this.
ר' חיים עוזר This is a סיבה and מסובב- the cause is סופה להתקיים and the effect is כנסי' לש''ש. If it was מתקיים, then obviously it was לש''ש.
גר''א "ותקרבון אלי כל ראשי שבטיכם וזקניכם ותאמרו... את כבודו ואת גדלו"- this is a כנסי' that was לש''ש. This was by מעמד הר סיני. It was נתקיים because everyone had ד''א. "ותקרבון אלי כלכן ותאמרו נשלחה אנשים לפנינו"- this one wasn’t לש''ש. When they approached משה to request מרגלים, they approached בערבובי'- ילדים דוחפים את הזקנים, זקנים דוחפים את הראשים". From the beginning, there was a חסרון in ד''א, from the beginning it was doomed to fail. For the forty days that the מרגלים were in א''י, ב''י had to wander forty years in the מדבר until everyone from that generation died.
אבות רבי נתן כנסי' לש''ש- אכה''ג. Whatever they were פועל we still have today. When something endures, it is proof that it was done correctly. ושאינה לש''ש- כנסת אנשי דור הפלגה. They were אפיקורסים. How could you say that their entire wrongdoing was gathering שאינה לש''ש? "ויאמרו הבה נבנה לנו עיר ומגדל וראשו בשמים ונעשה לנו שם פן נפוץ על פני כל הארץ ונעשה לנו שם"- they did it because they wanted to be recognized for their act. They were on a quest for גאוה and כבוד so it poisoned their endeavors and they became a כנסי' שאינה לש''ש. Had they not had that מחשבה, it wouldn’t have turned out like that.
The תורה wasn’t given to the מלאכים, it was given to בני אדם and בני אדם are בעלי נגיעות- their judgment is tainted by personal מחשבות and inclinations. So even when a person wants to do something לש''ש, the יצר turns him toward bad. We must be cognizant towards this. Therefore, before every פעולה, a person should proclaim his goal and he should do it verbally. He should additionally daven a short תפילה that the יצה''ר shouldn’t stop you and lead you to become ensnared in the net of personal נגיעות.
Sheet I כ''י will be as many as the sand of the sea which can’t be counted. Characteristic of sand- you can dig and form it, but it will always return to its original form. כ''י also has this תחונה. Like sand, they are חוזר לצורתם. There will be generations where ב''י are small in number, but we will always return to our original צורה of רבוי. To prove this idea, look at the Holocaust and see how we are thriving today. It says in ויקרא, "לא מאסתם ולא געלתים לכלותם"- this is a הבטחה that ה' will never make us so dirty that we will be cast away.
יא רע''ב פרקליט- an advocate, a מלאך who is מדבר טוב on כ''י.
קטיגור- a מלאך who is a prosecutor. קטיגור- קורא תיגר- he calls out a טענה (ט and ת are אותיות מתחלפות). The פרקליט is also known as סניגר- שונא תיגר (ס and ש are אותיות מתחלפות).
ר' יונה תשובה is the סור מרע and מעש''ט is the עשה טוב. תשובה and מעש''ט are כסריס- כטריתים= shades. Shades are a מגן. תשובה and מעש''ט are a מגן from the פורענות- מכות וחלאים. פורענות come from עבירות. In order to ward off the פורענות, we need תשובה and מעש''ט.
Sheet Read the חזון איש story. The סניגר protected him against the קטיגורים.
"אחת" seems to be extra. It comes to teach us:
מאירי סניגר= 329, קטיגר= 328. After a person dies, he comes on his יום הדין before ה'. All a person needs to be saved is מצוה אחת. The גמרא in עירובין tells us that a person should live with the following mantra- "חטף ואכל חטף ואשתי דהאי עלמא דאליזן מיניה כביא הילולא דמי"- grab and eat, grab and drink because this world is like a banquet. Eat and drink because there will come a time where the opportunity will be gone. Chap every מצוה because it may be your last.
ילקוט שמעוני A person has three beloved connections in his life:
1. His family
2. His money
3. מעשיו הטובים
When he is dying, he summons his family and asks them, "הצילני מדין המות הרע הזה", and they answer him "אין שלטון ביום המות"- we have no sovereignty after you die. Next, he summons his money and asks, "הצילני מדין המות הרע הזה". His money answers, "לא יועיל הון ביום עברה". Lastly, he calls upon his מעש''ט and they say to him, "עד שלא תבא הרי אנו מקדימים לך שנא' והלך לפניך צדקיך"- your מעש''ט will go before you and save you.
לב אליהו Every yid must keep 613 מצוות. Attached to this חיוב, a person should choose a מצוה אחת that he is deeply attached and will be מוסר for it. He is זוכה to a פרקליט אחת, the greatest פרקליט, מלאך גבריאל.
Someone who can’t separate himself from a certain עבירה, he creates for himself a קטיגור- שטן. ריש לקיש says, "בתחילו יורד לפתות האדם לחטוא", and after he convinces you to do it, he goes up to ה' and is a קטיגור against you, and he comes back down and wreaks havoc.
ח''ח This לשון is used in order to teach us that we should keep each מצוה with such איכות- quality as if it’s the only one. You should do it completely and invest your entire heart into it במחשבה הנכונה ובשמחה. Then you will get a מלאך מליץ that is חזק and גבור to be מגן upon you ביום הדין. If you do an עבירה with געשמעק, you going to create a מלאך who is strong in a bad way. Depending on how you do the מצוה is what type of מלאך you will create. If you do it כמצות אנשים מלומדה, you will get a crippled מלאך.
חתם סופר ירידת הדורות is not in חכמה but the לב- הרגש of the מצוה. We now serve ה' with a לב אבן- without פנמיות. We live in a generation of reverse Muranoism.
מהרש''א "בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך..."- someone who does a מצוה in this world gets a פרקליט. We know that "מצוה גוררת מצוה". How is this? The מלאך that you created helps you. The same applies for an עבירה.
בינה לעתים "תשובה ומעש''ט כתריס לפני הפורענות"- when you do a מצוה , you create a מלאך מליץ טוב in that specific area. When you do תשובה and מעש''ט, a person creates פרקליטים כללים to protect him.
כוכבי אור What is the difference between מצוות and מעש''ט? They aren’t equal. "מעש''ט אין כונתם לשמירת התורה בפשטות אלא חובות העומדות מעל לחובות הרגילות"- מעש''ט are the obligations which stand above usual obligations, for example:
1. "כמה גדולה מעשי חייא"- did the חיוב of teaching תורה, but he went above and beyond. So מעש''ט is our חובות. Doing them in a great way shows אהבה and a connection to ה'.
2. "שאני ר' יחזאקל דבעל מעשים הוא"- you do it in the best possible way, not just to get away with it. This shows that you love to do it.
Why does it say תשובה before מעש''ט? To show us, "גדולה תשובה ממעש''ט". חז''ל tell us, "במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדין...". Why? Because when you severe your connections with something, it is very hard, therefore תשובה is greater then מעש''ט.
"אמר ריש לקיש: גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כשגגות. גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כזכויות. כן מיראה, כן מאהבה"- תשובה is so great that when you do it מיראה, your חטאים במזיד become חטאים בשוגג. When you do תשובה from אהבה, your חטאים במזיד turn into זכויות. יראה is a lower מדרגה because you do it because you’re scared, not because you have it in you and you want to do it. אהבה is a greater level because you feel the desire to keep the מצוות within you.
There were seven things created before the world. One of them was תורה, "הסתכל באוריתא וברא עלמא" and one of them was תשובה because:
1. It’s למעלה מן הטבע- above the concept of time and place.
2. The world needed תשובה before it was created, it can’t exist without it.
מדרש "שאלו לחכמה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה להם חטאים תרדף שנאה"- when they asked intellect what the עונש of a חוטא is, it said that sinners should be chased by hate. Why? Because חטאים diminish טוב and are מרבה the רע, so they get רע.
"שאלו לנבואה (מדת הדין) חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה להם נפש החוטאת היא תמות"- נבואה said that he should die because your נפש is only here to be used למען ה'. So if you’re not using it למען ה', it must be taken away.
"שאלו לתורה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה לו יביא אשם ויתכפר"- he should bring a קרבן. But what if you’re living in גלות or there’s no בהמ''ק?
"שאלו להקב''ה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה לו עשה תשובה ויתכפר"- ה' said that he should do תשובה.
It says, "בראשית ברא אלוקים"- in the beginning ה' wanted to create the world במדת הדין. But ה' knew that the world couldn’t have a קיום that way. So he was מקדים the רחמים and set דין up as its partner as the פסוק says, "ביום עשה ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים"- both מידות. תשובה is because there is רחמים that is כלו רחמים.
The פסוק in תהלים says, "טוב וישר ה' על כן יורה חטאים בדרך". יורהmeans teaches. He doesn’t just give, he also teaches about תשובה, He teaches us how to implement it into our lives.
מלאכי sheet ואשובה אליכם- מוסג of ס''ד. If you take the first few baby steps, ה' will pull you over the hump.
מדרש sheet Open up for me a small opening. It must be the size of the eye of a needle- pierces through and through. You must be sincere and then ה' will open up for you.
רמח''ל Surely the קיום העולם is רחמים. It wouldn’t exist without it. But you may say that there is punishment. There is no מדת הדין that exacts punishment on a person. If it was from מדת הדין:
1. It would happen immediately, without a waiting period.
2. It would be with full fledged potency as is appropriate for someone who has the audacity not to listen to what ה' says.
3. There would be no תקון for the חטא.
Really, how can it be that someone can undo something that was contorted? If a person murders or is עובר on זנות, how can he go back? Can you really remove something you did from reality? ע''פ טבע you can’t. But:
1. We are given a grace period, don’t get destroyed right away.
2. The עונש itself isn’t to a point of destruction.
3. תשובה was given to the sinner as a חסד. When you remove your רצון to do bad, it’s as if you are removing the מעשה.
It’s like a person who made a vow and regrets entirely that he made it. He longs that he had never done it. You must feel the צער and suffering for what you did. By uprooting the רצון, you are uprooting the מעשה and you are granted כפרה. It says in ישעי', "וסר עונך וחטאתך תכופר".
ר' יוחנן הסנדלר is also mentioned in this משנה. He speaks about כנסיות. He was one of the תלמידים of ר' עקיבא. He came from אלכסנדרי', מצרים and that’s why he was called סנדלר. Others say that he was a shoemaker, so he was called by his profession.
מדרש כנסי'= כנס קה- a gathering for ה'. So if it’s a כנס קה, doesn’t it for sure have to be לשם שמים? We see from here that even if it’s a כנס קה, for a דבר מצוה, it is possible for it not to be לש''ש. It is only לש''ש if people have the correct conduct. The הנהגות between the people should be ישרות, with no personal נגיעות or בקוש כבוד.
ר' יונה כנסי'- אסיפה. So what makes it לש''ש? למען תורה ומצוות. What isn’t לש''ש? If he’s motivated by recognition and prestige. If when you make a כנסי' you’re doing it for the sake of your own כבוד, it’s not good. If you’re doing it לש''ש, everyone is working towards one כלליותדיק goal. But it you’re doing it not לש''ש, everyone has his own personal goal in mind and it won’t have a קיום because you’re not working together. It says, "רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת ה' היא תקום"- everyone in his heart has a different מחשבה. But when you’re working למען ה', היא תקום.
ת''י It can still be לשם שמים even if the essence of the כנסי' was for חול, with no שיכות to קדושה:
1. If the people involved act properly with each other
2. If the מחשבות are pure.
Such a כנסי' will be סופה להתקיים, meaning that:
1. The people within the כנסי' remain connected.
2. The עצה they had set out to do is still being done.
ה' has נחת רוח from this.
ר' חיים עוזר This is a סיבה and מסובב- the cause is סופה להתקיים and the effect is כנסי' לש''ש. If it was מתקיים, then obviously it was לש''ש.
גר''א "ותקרבון אלי כל ראשי שבטיכם וזקניכם ותאמרו... את כבודו ואת גדלו"- this is a כנסי' that was לש''ש. This was by מעמד הר סיני. It was נתקיים because everyone had ד''א. "ותקרבון אלי כלכן ותאמרו נשלחה אנשים לפנינו"- this one wasn’t לש''ש. When they approached משה to request מרגלים, they approached בערבובי'- ילדים דוחפים את הזקנים, זקנים דוחפים את הראשים". From the beginning, there was a חסרון in ד''א, from the beginning it was doomed to fail. For the forty days that the מרגלים were in א''י, ב''י had to wander forty years in the מדבר until everyone from that generation died.
אבות רבי נתן כנסי' לש''ש- אכה''ג. Whatever they were פועל we still have today. When something endures, it is proof that it was done correctly. ושאינה לש''ש- כנסת אנשי דור הפלגה. They were אפיקורסים. How could you say that their entire wrongdoing was gathering שאינה לש''ש? "ויאמרו הבה נבנה לנו עיר ומגדל וראשו בשמים ונעשה לנו שם פן נפוץ על פני כל הארץ ונעשה לנו שם"- they did it because they wanted to be recognized for their act. They were on a quest for גאוה and כבוד so it poisoned their endeavors and they became a כנסי' שאינה לש''ש. Had they not had that מחשבה, it wouldn’t have turned out like that.
The תורה wasn’t given to the מלאכים, it was given to בני אדם and בני אדם are בעלי נגיעות- their judgment is tainted by personal מחשבות and inclinations. So even when a person wants to do something לש''ש, the יצר turns him toward bad. We must be cognizant towards this. Therefore, before every פעולה, a person should proclaim his goal and he should do it verbally. He should additionally daven a short תפילה that the יצה''ר shouldn’t stop you and lead you to become ensnared in the net of personal נגיעות.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
דינים- הפרשת חלה
הקדמה "וידבר..."- theמצוה of הפרשת חלה here.
There are many הפרשות which have to come off- תרומה, מעשר… There is an additional תרומה here that is given to the כהן. All the other הפרשות are to acknowledge the ברכה that ה' bestowed upon our land. הפרשת חלה is a different kind of הפרשה – it’s not a ברכת השדה, it’s a ברכת הבית. It may happen that you will have bounty, but there will be people with nothing to put on their table and vice versa. So my personal הצלחה is established through הפרשת חלה. When a person does הפרשת חלה, he brings הצלחה into his own home. The שיעור for הפרשה is an עומר because in the מדבר, every person got עומר לגלגולת. Everyone got a perfect עומר-ה' would check up on everyone to make sure they had what they’re supposed to. This is השגחה פרטית. So הפרשת חלה is acknowledging what I personally have.
There are two angles to this מצוה:
The כהן is supported through this.
What I personally gain.
There is no limit as to how much to give, but something has to remain to the one who made it. Both the כהן and the giver are vital to this מצוה.
א הפרשת חלה is a מצות עשה, a חיוב that we have. הפרשת חלה is very similar to the קדושה of תרומה. A זר may not eat it. Any זר who eats תרומה gets severely punished. Only the כהן and his household (including his עבד) can eat תרומה and from הפרשת חלה. If a ישראל is at a כהן’s house, he still can’t eat from it.
ב Only something made from the חמשת מיני דגן is considered a לחם. Something made of rice or corn flour isn’t included.
ג Two conditions which would make the מצוה of הפרשת חלה a דאוריתא:
"בבואם אל הארץ"- when רוב ב''י are in א''י.
"מלחם הארץ"- kneaded in א''י.
In חו''ל we have neither condition, but חז''ל gave us a חיוב in חו''ל as well. Nowadays in א''י, they don’t have the whole חיוב, but the מצוה is much more חמור than in חו''ל.
ד In חו''ל, if you forget to be מפריש, you may still eat from the חלה, but you must leave over for after שבת (because you can’t be מפריש on שבת). You leave over the שיעור for הפרשה plus some more. You can also be מפריש from something after something is baked, but in א''י, you can’t eat from something until you are מפריש. הפרשה also applies to cookies.
ה משה said to כ''י, "ראשית ערסתיכם"- they all got עומר לגלגולת, therefore חז''ל tell us that if you made a dough that fills up the volume of an עומר, you would have to be מפריש. How much is an עומר? The volume forty- three and a half eggs would displace, which is a tenth of an איפה. If you fill the same amount of space with flour (poured in a normal way) and level it, that would be how much you need to be מפריש. Some say this is eggs with their shells and others say it is just the interior. If I don’t have that amount of flour, there is no חיוב of הפרשה. If I don’t have that amount of flour, but after my dough rose it now has more volume, it doesn’t make a difference. You can’t cut down on your recipe so that you won’t have to do הפרשת חלה.
ו How does this translate for us? There are different sized eggs and חז''ל say that in the old days, eggs were possibly double what they are today, therefore there are חלוקי דעות. Up to a certain amount, you aren’t מחויב because it doesn’t fall under any דעות. Up to about two and a half pounds, eight cups, is definitely פטור from הפרשת חלה. The most widely accepted שיעור is the חזון איש’s- from five pounds and up, הפרשת חלה is required with a ברכה. From two and a half to five pounds, you do הפרשת חלה without a ברכה. For anything more than five pounds, you make a ברכה. The מנהג הישן in ירושלים was three and a half pounds for a ברכה.
ז Sometimes a recipe may call for multi grains. You may not have enough of anything individually, but together they equal a שיעור, so you do הפרשת חלה. In regard to חמשת מיני דגן mixed with קטניות, ask a שאלת חכם. For example, wheat and rice combined- if you can taste the wheat, it does combine for a שיעור. חז''ל recommend that if you could do something to be מחייב the עיסה, you should. If you are baking many things, they teach us how to combine dough so that you can do הפרשת חלה. Combining dough is called צירוף. When combining things, you must combine things that are שיך to each other, like two cookie doughs. You can’t combine a cookie dough with a bread dough. Once you do צירוף, the two doughs have already been joined and you can do the הפרשה when they are not physically together.
How do you do צירוף?
נשיכה- take two batches of dough. You put them close enough together that when you pull them apart, one will bite from the other.
צירוף כלי- make them within the sides of the same כלי. They don’t have to be touching, but it’s preferable that they should be. You can do this with a cloth or towel. If you have two doughs on a garbage bag and you can’t move them, take a tablecloth and drape it over so that they’re within the same closed space. If you have two bowls and you want to cover them, make sure that the cloth doesn’t sag in middle, making a separation.
A dough that became מחויב through צירוף must have הפרשה before you can eat from it, even in חו''ל. You can also be מצרף baked goods. צירוף can happen by mistake, but once it’s joined it’s מחויב for הפרשה and you can’t eat from it before you do הפרשה. Once something had הפרשה, it can never be joined to make something else ראוי for הפרשה.
Certain things by nature can’t be joined together:
Dough belonging to two different people. Since you are מקפיד על תערובתם- want two separate things, they can’t be joined. If you aren’t מקפיד על תערובתם, they can be joined.
When doughs are very different from each other, they can’t be joined.
If you have dough which you are going to bake at separate times and use on separate occasions, some say that you can’t be מצרף them. If you bake them all at one time and then put them away, you can do צירוף.
Sometimes, even if you make one large dough, you can’t be מפריש:
If it belongs to two different people who are מקפיד על תערובתם. If you make one large שיעור, but דעתו לחלק עיסה- you are dividing it up as dough into many portions, you can’t be מפריש.
Let’s say you are making a large flakey dough and you want to make knishes and pastries out of it. This concept of דעתו לחלק עיסה, that you are going to divide it up, some as dough will be made into one thing and some as something else, so they are now very different. Some say that it may not need הפרשה.
If you make a large dough, but you only need some of it now, the rest you will put away and bake later- some say that you don’t have to be מפריש.
ח The תורה didn’t give a שיעור of how much you should be מפריש, but חז''ל gave a suggestion- "1" ⁄"24" , a חשוב enough שיעור to give to the כהן. A baker was given a different שיעור by חז''ל- "1" ⁄"48" .
ט Two reasons that we don’t give הפרשת חלה to the כהן today:
They are all טמא. הפרשת חלה דאוריתא would be אסור to be eaten if the חלה or the כהן is טמא. הפרשת חלה in חו''ל is less חמור, but we haven’t had טהרה in years so it doesn’t apply.
There are some people who think that they are כהנים, but really there is a mistake and they aren’t. So since we don’t know who is really a כהן, we don’t want to be מכשיל a זר to eat from הפרשת חלה. So we burn it so that no one should be מכשיל.
This is why you don’t have to give so much- because it’s not going to anyone. It would even be enough to pinch a drop off, but the מנהג is to be מפריש a כזית. A זר can’t have הנאה from הפרשת חלה. He can’t use it to feed a fire, he can’t even have הנאה from כילוי- burning the חלה. A כהן would be allowed to be נהנה from a fire fueled with הפרשת חלה. If you lit the fire when a כהן was present, then even if he leaves you wouldn’t have to put it out.
י- יב "לחם הארץ"- we learn out from here that:
It’s thick and not a loose batter
It’s baked, not cooked or deep fried
If it has either the first or second characteristic, it’s definitely bread. If it has neither characteristic, even if it has enough flour, it doesn’t require הפרשה, for example fried sesame chicken. If you would bake it though, it would require הפרשה. If you have the second characteristic, even without the first, it needs הפרשה. But if you have the first characteristic and not the second, for example a thick batter that’s fried, it’s יש אומרים. If you made a thick dough and had in mind to fry it, there’s a חלוקי דעות if it’s לחם or not, so according to some you would be מפריש without a ברכה. If you made a חלה dough, and you were going to bake it, but then you ended up making garlic knots and frying them, you still do הפרשה. If you make noodles out of a thick dough, since it doesn’t look like לחם, there is a חלוקי דעות- some say that you are מפריש without a ברכה and others say you don’t need הפרשה at all. Lukshen kugel does bring up a שאילה.
יג שבעת המשקין - category of liquids which come up, have specific הלכות.
Two הלכות regarding הפרשת חלה:
If a dough has as its liquid none of the שבעת המשקין whatsoever, it is questionable whether הפרשת חלה applies at all.
Additionally, it can’t be מקבל טומאה at all, and this lands you with a problem- you must give it to the כהן.
You can’t burn this and you can’t give it to the כהן, so what to do you do? You must mix in a drop of water or any other of the שבעת המשקין into the ingredients. You can’t wait until it’s dough to add it, because then it’s too late. Now, you can be מפריש and burn it.
יד Our batters and doughs today are מחייב בהפרשה. So even if it’s a cake batter you would be מפריש if it’s a big enough שיעור. But batter needs הפרשה after it’s baked, because until then it doesn’t have the צורה of לחם. Let’s say you don’t want to cut into something, you could put some batter in a separate כלי and bake it and you’ll be מפריש from that after it bakes.
טו Once it’s dough, it requires הפרשה, but you could be מפריש after it’s baked.
טז When you are מפריש, you precede it with a ברכה, "להפריש חלה ", and some say "להפריש חלה מן העיסה". Some say that it is preferable to stand when saying the ברכה . Don’t be מפריש until after the ברכה or at least if you cut it off, don’t have in mind that you’re being מפריש. First say the ברכה and then have in mind that you are being מפריש.
When you do your הפרשה, you make the ברכה, remove a piece of dough, put it down and then say "הרי זו חלה"- you can say this in any language. You could think this, but it is better to say it. You have to put it down before you say it so that the piece that you put down is for theהפרשה , but whatever is left on your hand or the knife isn’t part of the הפרשה . If you would say "הרי זו חלה" while the dough is still in your hand and you touch the rest of your dough, you are mixing הפרשה in with the rest of the dough and you have a problem.
In חו''ל, if you make a large enough dough that’s חיוב בהפרשה, you don’t need all the dough to be together בשעת הפרשה. There are some situations where חלה has to be taken בהיקף- when all of the dough is in the same parameters in front of you:
עיסת א''י
עיסה שנתחיבה בחלה ע''י צירוף
In order for it to be מן המוקף, the כלים must be touching each other, but not covered. Situation where you could to היקף, but you don’t have to: if you are making two sets of חלה. You have two bowls of five pounds in front of you. You could do הפרשה on each. But if they’re the same doughs, you could take one הפרשה. To do this, it has to be מן המוקף- put the two bowls touching.
After you say the ברכה and "הרי זו חלה", you say a "יהי רצון" (same as at the end of ש''ע) and other תחינות. One can be מבקש at the time of הפרשת חלה. There is a very nice יהי רצון for כפרה, פרנסה…
יז אדם was considered חלתו של העולם because he was made from עפר מן האדמה and חז''ל say that ה' was מפריש from the earth all over. חוה was מקלקל him, therefore the woman of כ''י were given the opportunity to be מתקן the חטא of חוה. The חיוב is on the owner of the חלה, but the husband usually gives it over to the wife. You should ask your mother one initial time if you have authorization to be מפריש when you bake. If you are afraid that the dough is going to be forgotten about or your mother won’t have time to do it, someone else can be מפריש.
יח If you buy bread from a גוי, it doesn’t ever have the חיוב of הפרשת חלה because it belonged to a גוי. But if you have a yiddishe bakery, the bread is מחויב בהפרשה. If you buy bread from a bakery where you have a חשש that they don’t do הפרשה, you must be מפריש from what you bought without a ברכה.
There are many הפרשות which have to come off- תרומה, מעשר… There is an additional תרומה here that is given to the כהן. All the other הפרשות are to acknowledge the ברכה that ה' bestowed upon our land. הפרשת חלה is a different kind of הפרשה – it’s not a ברכת השדה, it’s a ברכת הבית. It may happen that you will have bounty, but there will be people with nothing to put on their table and vice versa. So my personal הצלחה is established through הפרשת חלה. When a person does הפרשת חלה, he brings הצלחה into his own home. The שיעור for הפרשה is an עומר because in the מדבר, every person got עומר לגלגולת. Everyone got a perfect עומר-ה' would check up on everyone to make sure they had what they’re supposed to. This is השגחה פרטית. So הפרשת חלה is acknowledging what I personally have.
There are two angles to this מצוה:
The כהן is supported through this.
What I personally gain.
There is no limit as to how much to give, but something has to remain to the one who made it. Both the כהן and the giver are vital to this מצוה.
א הפרשת חלה is a מצות עשה, a חיוב that we have. הפרשת חלה is very similar to the קדושה of תרומה. A זר may not eat it. Any זר who eats תרומה gets severely punished. Only the כהן and his household (including his עבד) can eat תרומה and from הפרשת חלה. If a ישראל is at a כהן’s house, he still can’t eat from it.
ב Only something made from the חמשת מיני דגן is considered a לחם. Something made of rice or corn flour isn’t included.
ג Two conditions which would make the מצוה of הפרשת חלה a דאוריתא:
"בבואם אל הארץ"- when רוב ב''י are in א''י.
"מלחם הארץ"- kneaded in א''י.
In חו''ל we have neither condition, but חז''ל gave us a חיוב in חו''ל as well. Nowadays in א''י, they don’t have the whole חיוב, but the מצוה is much more חמור than in חו''ל.
ד In חו''ל, if you forget to be מפריש, you may still eat from the חלה, but you must leave over for after שבת (because you can’t be מפריש on שבת). You leave over the שיעור for הפרשה plus some more. You can also be מפריש from something after something is baked, but in א''י, you can’t eat from something until you are מפריש. הפרשה also applies to cookies.
ה משה said to כ''י, "ראשית ערסתיכם"- they all got עומר לגלגולת, therefore חז''ל tell us that if you made a dough that fills up the volume of an עומר, you would have to be מפריש. How much is an עומר? The volume forty- three and a half eggs would displace, which is a tenth of an איפה. If you fill the same amount of space with flour (poured in a normal way) and level it, that would be how much you need to be מפריש. Some say this is eggs with their shells and others say it is just the interior. If I don’t have that amount of flour, there is no חיוב of הפרשה. If I don’t have that amount of flour, but after my dough rose it now has more volume, it doesn’t make a difference. You can’t cut down on your recipe so that you won’t have to do הפרשת חלה.
ו How does this translate for us? There are different sized eggs and חז''ל say that in the old days, eggs were possibly double what they are today, therefore there are חלוקי דעות. Up to a certain amount, you aren’t מחויב because it doesn’t fall under any דעות. Up to about two and a half pounds, eight cups, is definitely פטור from הפרשת חלה. The most widely accepted שיעור is the חזון איש’s- from five pounds and up, הפרשת חלה is required with a ברכה. From two and a half to five pounds, you do הפרשת חלה without a ברכה. For anything more than five pounds, you make a ברכה. The מנהג הישן in ירושלים was three and a half pounds for a ברכה.
ז Sometimes a recipe may call for multi grains. You may not have enough of anything individually, but together they equal a שיעור, so you do הפרשת חלה. In regard to חמשת מיני דגן mixed with קטניות, ask a שאלת חכם. For example, wheat and rice combined- if you can taste the wheat, it does combine for a שיעור. חז''ל recommend that if you could do something to be מחייב the עיסה, you should. If you are baking many things, they teach us how to combine dough so that you can do הפרשת חלה. Combining dough is called צירוף. When combining things, you must combine things that are שיך to each other, like two cookie doughs. You can’t combine a cookie dough with a bread dough. Once you do צירוף, the two doughs have already been joined and you can do the הפרשה when they are not physically together.
How do you do צירוף?
נשיכה- take two batches of dough. You put them close enough together that when you pull them apart, one will bite from the other.
צירוף כלי- make them within the sides of the same כלי. They don’t have to be touching, but it’s preferable that they should be. You can do this with a cloth or towel. If you have two doughs on a garbage bag and you can’t move them, take a tablecloth and drape it over so that they’re within the same closed space. If you have two bowls and you want to cover them, make sure that the cloth doesn’t sag in middle, making a separation.
A dough that became מחויב through צירוף must have הפרשה before you can eat from it, even in חו''ל. You can also be מצרף baked goods. צירוף can happen by mistake, but once it’s joined it’s מחויב for הפרשה and you can’t eat from it before you do הפרשה. Once something had הפרשה, it can never be joined to make something else ראוי for הפרשה.
Certain things by nature can’t be joined together:
Dough belonging to two different people. Since you are מקפיד על תערובתם- want two separate things, they can’t be joined. If you aren’t מקפיד על תערובתם, they can be joined.
When doughs are very different from each other, they can’t be joined.
If you have dough which you are going to bake at separate times and use on separate occasions, some say that you can’t be מצרף them. If you bake them all at one time and then put them away, you can do צירוף.
Sometimes, even if you make one large dough, you can’t be מפריש:
If it belongs to two different people who are מקפיד על תערובתם. If you make one large שיעור, but דעתו לחלק עיסה- you are dividing it up as dough into many portions, you can’t be מפריש.
Let’s say you are making a large flakey dough and you want to make knishes and pastries out of it. This concept of דעתו לחלק עיסה, that you are going to divide it up, some as dough will be made into one thing and some as something else, so they are now very different. Some say that it may not need הפרשה.
If you make a large dough, but you only need some of it now, the rest you will put away and bake later- some say that you don’t have to be מפריש.
ח The תורה didn’t give a שיעור of how much you should be מפריש, but חז''ל gave a suggestion- "1" ⁄"24" , a חשוב enough שיעור to give to the כהן. A baker was given a different שיעור by חז''ל- "1" ⁄"48" .
ט Two reasons that we don’t give הפרשת חלה to the כהן today:
They are all טמא. הפרשת חלה דאוריתא would be אסור to be eaten if the חלה or the כהן is טמא. הפרשת חלה in חו''ל is less חמור, but we haven’t had טהרה in years so it doesn’t apply.
There are some people who think that they are כהנים, but really there is a mistake and they aren’t. So since we don’t know who is really a כהן, we don’t want to be מכשיל a זר to eat from הפרשת חלה. So we burn it so that no one should be מכשיל.
This is why you don’t have to give so much- because it’s not going to anyone. It would even be enough to pinch a drop off, but the מנהג is to be מפריש a כזית. A זר can’t have הנאה from הפרשת חלה. He can’t use it to feed a fire, he can’t even have הנאה from כילוי- burning the חלה. A כהן would be allowed to be נהנה from a fire fueled with הפרשת חלה. If you lit the fire when a כהן was present, then even if he leaves you wouldn’t have to put it out.
י- יב "לחם הארץ"- we learn out from here that:
It’s thick and not a loose batter
It’s baked, not cooked or deep fried
If it has either the first or second characteristic, it’s definitely bread. If it has neither characteristic, even if it has enough flour, it doesn’t require הפרשה, for example fried sesame chicken. If you would bake it though, it would require הפרשה. If you have the second characteristic, even without the first, it needs הפרשה. But if you have the first characteristic and not the second, for example a thick batter that’s fried, it’s יש אומרים. If you made a thick dough and had in mind to fry it, there’s a חלוקי דעות if it’s לחם or not, so according to some you would be מפריש without a ברכה. If you made a חלה dough, and you were going to bake it, but then you ended up making garlic knots and frying them, you still do הפרשה. If you make noodles out of a thick dough, since it doesn’t look like לחם, there is a חלוקי דעות- some say that you are מפריש without a ברכה and others say you don’t need הפרשה at all. Lukshen kugel does bring up a שאילה.
יג שבעת המשקין - category of liquids which come up, have specific הלכות.
Two הלכות regarding הפרשת חלה:
If a dough has as its liquid none of the שבעת המשקין whatsoever, it is questionable whether הפרשת חלה applies at all.
Additionally, it can’t be מקבל טומאה at all, and this lands you with a problem- you must give it to the כהן.
You can’t burn this and you can’t give it to the כהן, so what to do you do? You must mix in a drop of water or any other of the שבעת המשקין into the ingredients. You can’t wait until it’s dough to add it, because then it’s too late. Now, you can be מפריש and burn it.
יד Our batters and doughs today are מחייב בהפרשה. So even if it’s a cake batter you would be מפריש if it’s a big enough שיעור. But batter needs הפרשה after it’s baked, because until then it doesn’t have the צורה of לחם. Let’s say you don’t want to cut into something, you could put some batter in a separate כלי and bake it and you’ll be מפריש from that after it bakes.
טו Once it’s dough, it requires הפרשה, but you could be מפריש after it’s baked.
טז When you are מפריש, you precede it with a ברכה, "להפריש חלה ", and some say "להפריש חלה מן העיסה". Some say that it is preferable to stand when saying the ברכה . Don’t be מפריש until after the ברכה or at least if you cut it off, don’t have in mind that you’re being מפריש. First say the ברכה and then have in mind that you are being מפריש.
When you do your הפרשה, you make the ברכה, remove a piece of dough, put it down and then say "הרי זו חלה"- you can say this in any language. You could think this, but it is better to say it. You have to put it down before you say it so that the piece that you put down is for theהפרשה , but whatever is left on your hand or the knife isn’t part of the הפרשה . If you would say "הרי זו חלה" while the dough is still in your hand and you touch the rest of your dough, you are mixing הפרשה in with the rest of the dough and you have a problem.
In חו''ל, if you make a large enough dough that’s חיוב בהפרשה, you don’t need all the dough to be together בשעת הפרשה. There are some situations where חלה has to be taken בהיקף- when all of the dough is in the same parameters in front of you:
עיסת א''י
עיסה שנתחיבה בחלה ע''י צירוף
In order for it to be מן המוקף, the כלים must be touching each other, but not covered. Situation where you could to היקף, but you don’t have to: if you are making two sets of חלה. You have two bowls of five pounds in front of you. You could do הפרשה on each. But if they’re the same doughs, you could take one הפרשה. To do this, it has to be מן המוקף- put the two bowls touching.
After you say the ברכה and "הרי זו חלה", you say a "יהי רצון" (same as at the end of ש''ע) and other תחינות. One can be מבקש at the time of הפרשת חלה. There is a very nice יהי רצון for כפרה, פרנסה…
יז אדם was considered חלתו של העולם because he was made from עפר מן האדמה and חז''ל say that ה' was מפריש from the earth all over. חוה was מקלקל him, therefore the woman of כ''י were given the opportunity to be מתקן the חטא of חוה. The חיוב is on the owner of the חלה, but the husband usually gives it over to the wife. You should ask your mother one initial time if you have authorization to be מפריש when you bake. If you are afraid that the dough is going to be forgotten about or your mother won’t have time to do it, someone else can be מפריש.
יח If you buy bread from a גוי, it doesn’t ever have the חיוב of הפרשת חלה because it belonged to a גוי. But if you have a yiddishe bakery, the bread is מחויב בהפרשה. If you buy bread from a bakery where you have a חשש that they don’t do הפרשה, you must be מפריש from what you bought without a ברכה.
דינים- טבילת כלים
א If you have a כלי אוכל which belonged to a גוי, it has טומאת נכרי. When a ישראל buys it, he must get rid of the טומאת נכרי and bring it into קדושת ישראל, just like a גר must go to the מקוה to get rid of his טומאה. The הלכות of טומאה and טהרה are חוקים. This is what it is referring to in the תורה- after מלחמת מדין, they got a lot of metal. There are six metals which could be taken as שלל and there are different ways to purify them.
ב ב''י couldn’t use them for any of these three reasons:
1. This was because if the מדינים used the כלים for מאכלות אסורות, the כלי absorbed it and when you use it again, it will give off treif. Therefore, you must כשר it.
2. Maybe there’s טומאת מת and it will be מטמא the food and anyone who touches it.
3. Any כלי נכרי that is reposed by a ישראל, you must remove the טומאת נכרי.
ג Anything that became treif through בליעה, the way it became treif is the way you כשר it. So if something became treif through fire, you must כשר it with אש. It says in the פסוק, "וטהר"- you must additionally dip it in water. It also says, "אך במי נידה יתחטא"- if it became treif through טומאת מת, you must כשר it with the אפר of the פרה אדומה. רבותינו darshen from here that the size of a מקוה for טבילת כלים is forty סאה.
ד Even though we learn טבילת כלים from הכשרת כלים, anyכלי from a גוי must be טובלed.
ה There is a מחלקת if this is a חיוב דאוריתא or just a דרבנן learned out from a פסוק. Most פוסקים hold that it’s a דאוריתא.
ו You can’t use a כלי before it’s טובלed, even temporarily. The אסור to use a כלי without טובלing it is an אסור דרבנן. So if you would use a כלי without טובלing it first, it wouldn’t make the food אסור and חז''ל don’t make it אסור to keep non- טובלed כלים in your home. Something that is for one usage only, you don’t have to טובל it.
ז A כלי that is hard to טובל must still be טובלed. Something which you have used many times and thought was טובלed and it later find out that it wasn’t, you must טובל it before you use it again.
ח A כלי must have all four requirements to require טבילה. Sometimes, people טובל without a ברכה because there is a ספק if one of the requirements is there or not. The four factors are:
1. What the כלי is made of.
2. What the כלי is used for- your intended use.
3. If it was bought from a גוי.
4. If it actually belongs to a ישראל now.
ט What the כלי is made of:
1. זהב
2. כסף
3. נחשת
4. ברזל
5. בדיל
6. עפרת
These are definitely מחויב to be טובלed.
There is a חלוקי דעות for other metals which aren’t mentioned. An aluminum pot, for example:
1. Some hold that it’s דאוריתא.
2. Others say that it isn’t דאוריתא since it’s not mentioned in the פסוק.
3. Some hold that it’s a דרבנן.
4. It might not require טבילה at all.
Because of this, many people טובל without a ברכה. ר' משה holds that it is a דרבנן. If you have a mixture of different metals, you go according to the רוב, so you must check out the proportions. כלי חרס, עץ, אבן and rubber don’t require טבילה at all.
י Glass isn’t in the פסוק, it can be formed and welded just like metal through אש (they can both be melted down). So glass requires טבילה דרבנן and you make a ברכה. Crystal and Pyrex are also a type of glass, so they also require a טבילה דרבנן and you do make a ברכה.
יא כלים made of plastic can also be melted, therefore some hold that plastic should be טובלed without a ברכה. The more widely accepted מנהג is not to טובל plastic.
יב There are some כלים where you can’t tell it they are חרס or זכוכית, so you טובל them without a ברכה.
יג A thin aluminum pan made for one use:
1. It wasn’t made to be used permanently, so it’s not a כלי סעודה and it doesn’t require טבילה.
2. If you intend to reuse pans, you must טובל them without a ברכה.
3. Since they can often be reused, טובל all disposable pans.
יד Something that doesn’t require טבילה and is coated in a material that does require טבילה- if the coating comes into contact with the food, it needs to be טובלed. If it comes into contact with the food but has no purpose, it doesn’t require טבילה.
טו Something coated on the inside probably requires טבילה. If the coating is on the outside, it definitely doesn’t require טבילה. According to some, if only the inside is coated, you טובל it without a ברכה. However, if the inside and outside are coated, it’s מחויב טבילה with a ברכה.
טז However, since some do question this, we טובל porcelain without a ברכה.
יז Sometimes you have a metal כלי with a coating so that the food shouldn’t come in contact with the metal. For example:
1. Enamel pots- made of metal and has a substantial coat of enamel.
2. Teflon pots- substantial coating so that the food shouldn’t come in contact with the metal.
You טובל these kinds of כלים without a ברכה because of the ספק. Sometimes you may have a כלי painted for decorative purposes, but it’s not a substantial coat. This paint is בטול to the כלי, so it gets regular טבילה with a ברכה.
יח If the main part of the כלי is made out of something that requires טבילה, you must טובל it. But if most of the כלי is made of plastic, it would still be מחייב טבילה with the following two conditions:
1. The כלי isn’t functional without the metal.
2. It must come in contact with the food.
יט A knife with a plastic or wood handle needs טבילה with a ברכה. A peppermill made of wood with a metal grater also needs טבילה with a ברכה.
כ Sometimes you have כלים made of two components that can be put together and taken apart- you would only have to טובל the metal part.
כא Things which you mash and grind with, you only need to be טובל the metal blade. But a metal part not used for chopping doesn’t require טבילה.
כב Only something considered a כלי סעודה requires טבילה.
כג What are כלי סעודה?
1. Something you eat or drink from.
2. Something you cook, bake, roast or boil either in or on.
3. Things you use to prepare the food with.
כד If you have a כלי that holds another כלי which comes into contact with the food, it doesn’t require טבילה. The grates over your flames don’t require טבילה and neither do your oven racks. If you do put food directly onto your oven racks, ask a שאלת חכם. If you have a metal כלי that holds only wrapped items, you don’t have to טובל it. But if you have a כלי that you always spread a napkin on it (for example a metal breadbasket), it still requires טבילה.
כה Covers that come in contact with food do require טבילה. This is because when you cook, often steam rises up and comes into contact with the cover.
כו There are certain things which aren’t considered חיוב בטבילה even though they may come in contact with the food:
1. Can opener
2. Bottle opener
3. Corkscrew
כז There are certain כלים which are debatable among the חכמים since they are needed for preparation, but aren’t the final step. So they are questionable:
1. חליף- the knife of a שוחט. It gets טבילה without a ברכה.
2. Needle used to sew stuffed meat- you טובל it without a ברכה because you use it for preparation of the food, but it’s not the final step.
3. Meat/ fish grinder
4. Coffee grinder
5. Kneading כלים
6. Vegetable chopper
7. Peeler
Sometimes, however, graters or peelers can be used as the last step in the הכנה of fruits and vegetables, so they would require טבילה.
כח Something used for the storage of food, something you don’t bring to the table to serve from and something you don’t cook from, you טובל it without a ברכה.
כט Something becomes a כלי סעודה according to what you are going to use it for, not what it was manufactured for. Examples:
1. Kitchen knife used for crafts.
2. Scissors that you use for food.
ל If something was never owned by a גוי, it doesn’t require טבילה.
לא If a ישראל buys a כלי made in a yiddishe factory without a middleman, he doesn’t have to טובל it, even if all of the worker are גוים. If you bought something in a yiddishe store, you must check back to make sure that it was never owned by a גוי, otherwise it will require טבילה.
לב If you don’t know whether the factory owner was a גוי or a yid:
1. If you don’t know and there’s a chance either way, even if the area it came from has mostly yiddishe factory owners, you have to be טובל it without a ברכה because of the ספק.
2. If it comes from an area where all of the factory owners are גויים, you need to be טובל it with a ברכה.
3. If it comes from an area where most of the factory owners are גויים, you need to טובל it with a ברכה, whether there is a goyish middleman or not.
לג If the כלי doesn’t belong to you, you don’t have to be טובל it. So if you rent a כלי from a גוי, you don’t have to be טובל it. But if you borrow a כלי from a Jew and he didn’t טובל it yet, it does require טבילה before you use it because it was already מחויב בטבילה.
לד If you are a guest at someone’s house and they weren’t טובל their כלים, it is אסור for you to eat from it, and you must ask a שאלת חכם about what to do.
לה If you buy food in a כלי that hasn’t been טובלed, you may eat the food. Some won’t eat it straight from the כלי, though. And some won’t put the food back into the כלי , though some will if the כלי is glass.
לו How do you טובל a כלי? It needs to be a spring or מקוה that has a שיעור of at least forty סאה. You can use an ocean too.
לז The entire surface must be covered at once in the water at some point. So make sure there is no חציצה- blockage and that it’s clean. What do you do if after you are טובל it, you find some dirt? If the חציצה is something you would want to get rid of and you would’ve wanted to pull off, you should טובל it again. But if you don’t care, then בדיעוד it’s fine. Let’s say before you were טובל it you took off rust and it left a mark, or you tried to get off some rust but it didn’t come off, לכתחילה it’s ok.
לח You must remove stickers and adhesive first. But some stickers are meant to stay on so that’s ok.
לט You must טובל the whole thing at once, you can’t do half and half.
מ If you have a כלי with a long neck, you must make sure that the water will get into it and fill up so that all the surfaces are covered. Also, don’t put in a cup upside down because the water won’t reach the top edges. A כלי that folds up, you must open it entirely before טבילה.
מא You need to טובל the entire כלי, even if it’s not completely made of a material which requires טבילה.
מב It’s better to טובל a disassembleable כלי assembled, but you could do it disassembled too.
מג When you hold it, hold it loosely so that water can get in on all the surfaces. Or you fouls wet your hand with the מי מקוה so that when you touch the כלי, it will be wet from the מי מקוה. It’s best to switch hands while you are holding it so that the water can get in.
מד It is ok to put it in a basket with holes so that the water can get in but be careful that you don’t have something heavy or pack it tightly because then it won’t rise up or get water in between. You could put a כלי into the מקוה by tying a rope around the handle and fishing it out. But don’t tie the rope too tightly so the water can get in.
מה If a כלי needs to be kashered and טובלed, first kasher it and then טובל it. If you טובלed it first, it’s a ספק if it’s ok, so you must kasher it and then re- טובל it without a ברכה.
מו Generally, the ברכת המצוה is said before you do the מצוה. So you make the ברכה before you are טובל. You say "על טבילת כלי" for one thing and "על טבילת כלים" for more than one. If you reversed the ברכות, it’s ok. If you forgot the ברכה and were already טובל, you don’t say it again because then it would be a ברכה לבטלה.
מז When you are טובלing something which doesn’t require a ברכה, it is better to wait until you have to טובל something else which does need a ברכה, and you would say "על טבילת כלים". If you can’t wait, you should make a ברכה without the שם ה'- just think it.
מח טבילה doesn’t require כונה. So if something falls in by mistake, it’s a valid טבילה.
מט A קטן can’t do טבילה unless an adult is watching, and the קטן should say the ברכה. If an adult isn’t watching, it requires another טבילה.
נ A גוי can’t be טובל for you unless an adult is watching. But even if you are watching, this isn’t לכתחילה because you can’t say a ברכה on his טבילה. So in the case where you can’t do it alone, do a few and say the ברכה and then he can do the rest. It’s worthwhile to get the מצוה.
נא Even if you have used a כלי in the past by mistake without טבילה, once you are aware of it, you can’t use it without טבילה.
נב An electrical כלי needs טבילה even if you are worried about ruining the mechanism. If the appliance doesn’t come in contact with the food, for example a toaster where you place the food on a tray, you would only have to טובל the part that comes in contact with the food. Even if by accident the food may touch a different part of the toaster, it’s ok.
נג Some appliances need to be completely immersed. So you may protect the electrical part by lightly covering the electrical vents without it being a חציצה. How?
1. You could wet your fingers with the מי מקוה and lightly stuff them up the holes.
2. Take a cloth which you wet with the מי מקוה and lightly stuff them up the holes.
3. You can tape up the holes- this is not לכתחילה.
If you can’t be טובל the כלי in any of these ways, don’t be טובל.
נד Hot water urns, electric griddles, waffle makers and popcorn machines all require טבילה. If you let them dry out for a few days, they will usually be fine.
נה Some מתיר pop- up toasters because the food is ראוי for אכילה even before it is toasted.
נו If you need a certain כלי, but it is impossible to טובל it, you can either sell it or give it as a מתנה to a גוי and then you can borrow it, even on a permanent basis. You should ask a רב how to go about this. Or, you can break the כלי in a way that it isn’t usable as the כלי and then get a ישראל to repair it- now it’s a new כלי made by a ישראל so it doesn’t require טבילה.
ב ב''י couldn’t use them for any of these three reasons:
1. This was because if the מדינים used the כלים for מאכלות אסורות, the כלי absorbed it and when you use it again, it will give off treif. Therefore, you must כשר it.
2. Maybe there’s טומאת מת and it will be מטמא the food and anyone who touches it.
3. Any כלי נכרי that is reposed by a ישראל, you must remove the טומאת נכרי.
ג Anything that became treif through בליעה, the way it became treif is the way you כשר it. So if something became treif through fire, you must כשר it with אש. It says in the פסוק, "וטהר"- you must additionally dip it in water. It also says, "אך במי נידה יתחטא"- if it became treif through טומאת מת, you must כשר it with the אפר of the פרה אדומה. רבותינו darshen from here that the size of a מקוה for טבילת כלים is forty סאה.
ד Even though we learn טבילת כלים from הכשרת כלים, anyכלי from a גוי must be טובלed.
ה There is a מחלקת if this is a חיוב דאוריתא or just a דרבנן learned out from a פסוק. Most פוסקים hold that it’s a דאוריתא.
ו You can’t use a כלי before it’s טובלed, even temporarily. The אסור to use a כלי without טובלing it is an אסור דרבנן. So if you would use a כלי without טובלing it first, it wouldn’t make the food אסור and חז''ל don’t make it אסור to keep non- טובלed כלים in your home. Something that is for one usage only, you don’t have to טובל it.
ז A כלי that is hard to טובל must still be טובלed. Something which you have used many times and thought was טובלed and it later find out that it wasn’t, you must טובל it before you use it again.
ח A כלי must have all four requirements to require טבילה. Sometimes, people טובל without a ברכה because there is a ספק if one of the requirements is there or not. The four factors are:
1. What the כלי is made of.
2. What the כלי is used for- your intended use.
3. If it was bought from a גוי.
4. If it actually belongs to a ישראל now.
ט What the כלי is made of:
1. זהב
2. כסף
3. נחשת
4. ברזל
5. בדיל
6. עפרת
These are definitely מחויב to be טובלed.
There is a חלוקי דעות for other metals which aren’t mentioned. An aluminum pot, for example:
1. Some hold that it’s דאוריתא.
2. Others say that it isn’t דאוריתא since it’s not mentioned in the פסוק.
3. Some hold that it’s a דרבנן.
4. It might not require טבילה at all.
Because of this, many people טובל without a ברכה. ר' משה holds that it is a דרבנן. If you have a mixture of different metals, you go according to the רוב, so you must check out the proportions. כלי חרס, עץ, אבן and rubber don’t require טבילה at all.
י Glass isn’t in the פסוק, it can be formed and welded just like metal through אש (they can both be melted down). So glass requires טבילה דרבנן and you make a ברכה. Crystal and Pyrex are also a type of glass, so they also require a טבילה דרבנן and you do make a ברכה.
יא כלים made of plastic can also be melted, therefore some hold that plastic should be טובלed without a ברכה. The more widely accepted מנהג is not to טובל plastic.
יב There are some כלים where you can’t tell it they are חרס or זכוכית, so you טובל them without a ברכה.
יג A thin aluminum pan made for one use:
1. It wasn’t made to be used permanently, so it’s not a כלי סעודה and it doesn’t require טבילה.
2. If you intend to reuse pans, you must טובל them without a ברכה.
3. Since they can often be reused, טובל all disposable pans.
יד Something that doesn’t require טבילה and is coated in a material that does require טבילה- if the coating comes into contact with the food, it needs to be טובלed. If it comes into contact with the food but has no purpose, it doesn’t require טבילה.
טו Something coated on the inside probably requires טבילה. If the coating is on the outside, it definitely doesn’t require טבילה. According to some, if only the inside is coated, you טובל it without a ברכה. However, if the inside and outside are coated, it’s מחויב טבילה with a ברכה.
טז However, since some do question this, we טובל porcelain without a ברכה.
יז Sometimes you have a metal כלי with a coating so that the food shouldn’t come in contact with the metal. For example:
1. Enamel pots- made of metal and has a substantial coat of enamel.
2. Teflon pots- substantial coating so that the food shouldn’t come in contact with the metal.
You טובל these kinds of כלים without a ברכה because of the ספק. Sometimes you may have a כלי painted for decorative purposes, but it’s not a substantial coat. This paint is בטול to the כלי, so it gets regular טבילה with a ברכה.
יח If the main part of the כלי is made out of something that requires טבילה, you must טובל it. But if most of the כלי is made of plastic, it would still be מחייב טבילה with the following two conditions:
1. The כלי isn’t functional without the metal.
2. It must come in contact with the food.
יט A knife with a plastic or wood handle needs טבילה with a ברכה. A peppermill made of wood with a metal grater also needs טבילה with a ברכה.
כ Sometimes you have כלים made of two components that can be put together and taken apart- you would only have to טובל the metal part.
כא Things which you mash and grind with, you only need to be טובל the metal blade. But a metal part not used for chopping doesn’t require טבילה.
כב Only something considered a כלי סעודה requires טבילה.
כג What are כלי סעודה?
1. Something you eat or drink from.
2. Something you cook, bake, roast or boil either in or on.
3. Things you use to prepare the food with.
כד If you have a כלי that holds another כלי which comes into contact with the food, it doesn’t require טבילה. The grates over your flames don’t require טבילה and neither do your oven racks. If you do put food directly onto your oven racks, ask a שאלת חכם. If you have a metal כלי that holds only wrapped items, you don’t have to טובל it. But if you have a כלי that you always spread a napkin on it (for example a metal breadbasket), it still requires טבילה.
כה Covers that come in contact with food do require טבילה. This is because when you cook, often steam rises up and comes into contact with the cover.
כו There are certain things which aren’t considered חיוב בטבילה even though they may come in contact with the food:
1. Can opener
2. Bottle opener
3. Corkscrew
כז There are certain כלים which are debatable among the חכמים since they are needed for preparation, but aren’t the final step. So they are questionable:
1. חליף- the knife of a שוחט. It gets טבילה without a ברכה.
2. Needle used to sew stuffed meat- you טובל it without a ברכה because you use it for preparation of the food, but it’s not the final step.
3. Meat/ fish grinder
4. Coffee grinder
5. Kneading כלים
6. Vegetable chopper
7. Peeler
Sometimes, however, graters or peelers can be used as the last step in the הכנה of fruits and vegetables, so they would require טבילה.
כח Something used for the storage of food, something you don’t bring to the table to serve from and something you don’t cook from, you טובל it without a ברכה.
כט Something becomes a כלי סעודה according to what you are going to use it for, not what it was manufactured for. Examples:
1. Kitchen knife used for crafts.
2. Scissors that you use for food.
ל If something was never owned by a גוי, it doesn’t require טבילה.
לא If a ישראל buys a כלי made in a yiddishe factory without a middleman, he doesn’t have to טובל it, even if all of the worker are גוים. If you bought something in a yiddishe store, you must check back to make sure that it was never owned by a גוי, otherwise it will require טבילה.
לב If you don’t know whether the factory owner was a גוי or a yid:
1. If you don’t know and there’s a chance either way, even if the area it came from has mostly yiddishe factory owners, you have to be טובל it without a ברכה because of the ספק.
2. If it comes from an area where all of the factory owners are גויים, you need to be טובל it with a ברכה.
3. If it comes from an area where most of the factory owners are גויים, you need to טובל it with a ברכה, whether there is a goyish middleman or not.
לג If the כלי doesn’t belong to you, you don’t have to be טובל it. So if you rent a כלי from a גוי, you don’t have to be טובל it. But if you borrow a כלי from a Jew and he didn’t טובל it yet, it does require טבילה before you use it because it was already מחויב בטבילה.
לד If you are a guest at someone’s house and they weren’t טובל their כלים, it is אסור for you to eat from it, and you must ask a שאלת חכם about what to do.
לה If you buy food in a כלי that hasn’t been טובלed, you may eat the food. Some won’t eat it straight from the כלי, though. And some won’t put the food back into the כלי , though some will if the כלי is glass.
לו How do you טובל a כלי? It needs to be a spring or מקוה that has a שיעור of at least forty סאה. You can use an ocean too.
לז The entire surface must be covered at once in the water at some point. So make sure there is no חציצה- blockage and that it’s clean. What do you do if after you are טובל it, you find some dirt? If the חציצה is something you would want to get rid of and you would’ve wanted to pull off, you should טובל it again. But if you don’t care, then בדיעוד it’s fine. Let’s say before you were טובל it you took off rust and it left a mark, or you tried to get off some rust but it didn’t come off, לכתחילה it’s ok.
לח You must remove stickers and adhesive first. But some stickers are meant to stay on so that’s ok.
לט You must טובל the whole thing at once, you can’t do half and half.
מ If you have a כלי with a long neck, you must make sure that the water will get into it and fill up so that all the surfaces are covered. Also, don’t put in a cup upside down because the water won’t reach the top edges. A כלי that folds up, you must open it entirely before טבילה.
מא You need to טובל the entire כלי, even if it’s not completely made of a material which requires טבילה.
מב It’s better to טובל a disassembleable כלי assembled, but you could do it disassembled too.
מג When you hold it, hold it loosely so that water can get in on all the surfaces. Or you fouls wet your hand with the מי מקוה so that when you touch the כלי, it will be wet from the מי מקוה. It’s best to switch hands while you are holding it so that the water can get in.
מד It is ok to put it in a basket with holes so that the water can get in but be careful that you don’t have something heavy or pack it tightly because then it won’t rise up or get water in between. You could put a כלי into the מקוה by tying a rope around the handle and fishing it out. But don’t tie the rope too tightly so the water can get in.
מה If a כלי needs to be kashered and טובלed, first kasher it and then טובל it. If you טובלed it first, it’s a ספק if it’s ok, so you must kasher it and then re- טובל it without a ברכה.
מו Generally, the ברכת המצוה is said before you do the מצוה. So you make the ברכה before you are טובל. You say "על טבילת כלי" for one thing and "על טבילת כלים" for more than one. If you reversed the ברכות, it’s ok. If you forgot the ברכה and were already טובל, you don’t say it again because then it would be a ברכה לבטלה.
מז When you are טובלing something which doesn’t require a ברכה, it is better to wait until you have to טובל something else which does need a ברכה, and you would say "על טבילת כלים". If you can’t wait, you should make a ברכה without the שם ה'- just think it.
מח טבילה doesn’t require כונה. So if something falls in by mistake, it’s a valid טבילה.
מט A קטן can’t do טבילה unless an adult is watching, and the קטן should say the ברכה. If an adult isn’t watching, it requires another טבילה.
נ A גוי can’t be טובל for you unless an adult is watching. But even if you are watching, this isn’t לכתחילה because you can’t say a ברכה on his טבילה. So in the case where you can’t do it alone, do a few and say the ברכה and then he can do the rest. It’s worthwhile to get the מצוה.
נא Even if you have used a כלי in the past by mistake without טבילה, once you are aware of it, you can’t use it without טבילה.
נב An electrical כלי needs טבילה even if you are worried about ruining the mechanism. If the appliance doesn’t come in contact with the food, for example a toaster where you place the food on a tray, you would only have to טובל the part that comes in contact with the food. Even if by accident the food may touch a different part of the toaster, it’s ok.
נג Some appliances need to be completely immersed. So you may protect the electrical part by lightly covering the electrical vents without it being a חציצה. How?
1. You could wet your fingers with the מי מקוה and lightly stuff them up the holes.
2. Take a cloth which you wet with the מי מקוה and lightly stuff them up the holes.
3. You can tape up the holes- this is not לכתחילה.
If you can’t be טובל the כלי in any of these ways, don’t be טובל.
נד Hot water urns, electric griddles, waffle makers and popcorn machines all require טבילה. If you let them dry out for a few days, they will usually be fine.
נה Some מתיר pop- up toasters because the food is ראוי for אכילה even before it is toasted.
נו If you need a certain כלי, but it is impossible to טובל it, you can either sell it or give it as a מתנה to a גוי and then you can borrow it, even on a permanent basis. You should ask a רב how to go about this. Or, you can break the כלי in a way that it isn’t usable as the כלי and then get a ישראל to repair it- now it’s a new כלי made by a ישראל so it doesn’t require טבילה.
תוכחה לתלמיד צעיר
This was written in 1940, in the middle of World War II, by R’ Dessler. He was the ר''י of Gateshead, and then Ponevezh. He is famous for his ספר, מכתב מאליהו.
He loves his תלמיד in a spiritual way, more than just physically. He feels like the תלמיד is ממש like his own child and he loves him. Since he loves him so much, he knows that the מוסר is coming מתוך אהבה.
We don’t like to hear מוסר, but we must understand that the people who love us give us מוסר because they care.
"טובה תוכחת מגלה מאהבה מסתרת"- it is good to get outright מוסר when it comes from love deep inside.
We see how to be a רבי- he hints to his תלמיד, to try and let him understand on his own.
ר' דסלר had צער- I wrote such a long letter and you know that it’s not easy. However, you didn’t write back one word of thanks. Not because I need your thanks, but because I love you. Are you going to be an ungrateful person? חז''ל say, "כל הכופר בטובת חברו לבסוף כופר בטובתו של ה'"- anyone who denies the good their friend does will deny the good ה' does.
You started your letter without any thanks, and all you said was that I forgot to answer one of your questions.
ר' דסלר says that if he would compare your letter to ארי’s, you would see how lacking your letter is of הכרת הטוב. But maybe he shouldn’t compare! Comparison is very good, it pushes a person to grow. Because we are so fragile today, we can’t take comparisons. You must know your students. ר' דסלר knew his תלמיד and he had a lot of faith in him.
He says that it’s impossible that you have such a חסרון in ד''א, and I know my words mean a lot to you so how could you not thank me?
ר' דסלר reread the letter to try and read between the lines. He decided that the תלמיד must’ve been busy or בצער when he wrote the letter. However, it’s a huge חסרון to have בלבול הדעת. If you have בלבול הדעת, the יצה''ר will rule over you.
In מצרים,פרעה made them so busy with work so that כ''י wouldn’t have time to think about גאולה. This is a prototype of a person and the יצה''ר. ר' דסלר told his תלמיד , usually you have a large portion of מנוחת הנפש (the opposite of בלבול הדעת), but now you are so confused that you forgot to thank me.
We think that we can’t control the world around us. But we have tremendous control- we can’t change the world, but we can control ourselves.
Why didn’t you write to me about your friend who is becoming not frum? I know you’re straight in your heart and you have אמונה, but bad friends are dangerous even to the best people. "הרחק משכן רע", not only if you’re a weak person. Had you read my letter with proper intention, it would have been impossible that you would not have responded something about your friend because it was of interest to me. This is a further proof that you had בלבול הדעת.
Therefore, because I love you, I found myself obligated to give you מוסר. Know my child, this is not the right way to be an עבד ה'. Watch out from בלבול הדעת, it destroys עבודת ה' Be מחזק in yourself a feeling of הכרת הטוב. This will enrich your life. ה' will give you הצלחה and you will became close to Him and be a ירא ה'. He’ll give you your חלק in His תורה, He’ll raise you high and He will exalt you more and more.
Be at peace, my beloved one. It should come upon you ברכת שמים from now and forever. Send regards to your brother and family, ה' ישמרם ויצילם (very applicable because it was during WWII). I who signs off with great love, your רבי, א א דסלר
The fact that ר' דסלר remembered to send regards to his brother and family shows that he didn’t have בלבול הדעת.
He loves his תלמיד in a spiritual way, more than just physically. He feels like the תלמיד is ממש like his own child and he loves him. Since he loves him so much, he knows that the מוסר is coming מתוך אהבה.
We don’t like to hear מוסר, but we must understand that the people who love us give us מוסר because they care.
"טובה תוכחת מגלה מאהבה מסתרת"- it is good to get outright מוסר when it comes from love deep inside.
We see how to be a רבי- he hints to his תלמיד, to try and let him understand on his own.
ר' דסלר had צער- I wrote such a long letter and you know that it’s not easy. However, you didn’t write back one word of thanks. Not because I need your thanks, but because I love you. Are you going to be an ungrateful person? חז''ל say, "כל הכופר בטובת חברו לבסוף כופר בטובתו של ה'"- anyone who denies the good their friend does will deny the good ה' does.
You started your letter without any thanks, and all you said was that I forgot to answer one of your questions.
ר' דסלר says that if he would compare your letter to ארי’s, you would see how lacking your letter is of הכרת הטוב. But maybe he shouldn’t compare! Comparison is very good, it pushes a person to grow. Because we are so fragile today, we can’t take comparisons. You must know your students. ר' דסלר knew his תלמיד and he had a lot of faith in him.
He says that it’s impossible that you have such a חסרון in ד''א, and I know my words mean a lot to you so how could you not thank me?
ר' דסלר reread the letter to try and read between the lines. He decided that the תלמיד must’ve been busy or בצער when he wrote the letter. However, it’s a huge חסרון to have בלבול הדעת. If you have בלבול הדעת, the יצה''ר will rule over you.
In מצרים,פרעה made them so busy with work so that כ''י wouldn’t have time to think about גאולה. This is a prototype of a person and the יצה''ר. ר' דסלר told his תלמיד , usually you have a large portion of מנוחת הנפש (the opposite of בלבול הדעת), but now you are so confused that you forgot to thank me.
We think that we can’t control the world around us. But we have tremendous control- we can’t change the world, but we can control ourselves.
Why didn’t you write to me about your friend who is becoming not frum? I know you’re straight in your heart and you have אמונה, but bad friends are dangerous even to the best people. "הרחק משכן רע", not only if you’re a weak person. Had you read my letter with proper intention, it would have been impossible that you would not have responded something about your friend because it was of interest to me. This is a further proof that you had בלבול הדעת.
Therefore, because I love you, I found myself obligated to give you מוסר. Know my child, this is not the right way to be an עבד ה'. Watch out from בלבול הדעת, it destroys עבודת ה' Be מחזק in yourself a feeling of הכרת הטוב. This will enrich your life. ה' will give you הצלחה and you will became close to Him and be a ירא ה'. He’ll give you your חלק in His תורה, He’ll raise you high and He will exalt you more and more.
Be at peace, my beloved one. It should come upon you ברכת שמים from now and forever. Send regards to your brother and family, ה' ישמרם ויצילם (very applicable because it was during WWII). I who signs off with great love, your רבי, א א דסלר
The fact that ר' דסלר remembered to send regards to his brother and family shows that he didn’t have בלבול הדעת.
אגרת הרמבן
רמב''ן
• ר' משה בן נחמן
• He lived from 1194- 1270.
• Was a ראשון, and a contemporary of רש''י and the רמב''ם.
• He was a cousin of ר' יונה’s and their children got married to each other.
• He was born during the רמב''ם’s life and outlived him, so sometimes, you will see that the רמב''ם doesn’t answer back to him.
• He lived in גרנה, Spain. At the end of his life he went to א''י.
• He sent this letter to his son. The letter was sent from עכו to קטלוני'. This was a personal letter, but it became public.
אגרת הרמב''ן-
This letter was sent from עכו to קטלוני' to his son to encourage him about ענוה. The רמב''ן told his son to read this letter once a week and teach it to his children. He said they should know it by heart in order to train them from the time they’re young in יראת שמים. The רמב''ן says that at the time you read it and try to be מקיים it, ה' will answer him. Someone who reads it and internalizes it will be saved from צרות and he’ll be a בן עוה''ב.
It says to train a child from the time they’re young. This teaches us that חנוך starts from when a child is old enough to understand, but יראת שמים starts right away. Even if a child is too young to say a ברכה or שמע, you should say it for them. You must jumpstart children from the time they’re young.
It starts with the word "שמע בני...''- listen my son to the מוסר of your father and don’t forsake the תורה of your mother. It could be that the רמב''ן wrote a salutation, but we don’t have it. What we have starts with this פסוק to show us how important it is to listen to parents. When they give you מוסר, it’s only for your own good. The only time you shouldn’t listen to your parents is if they tell you to do something against the תורה. Here, אביך can mean ה' and אמיך can mean כנסת ישראל. There are certain things which כ''י do and you should to them too.
It says, "תתנהג..."- we must speak gently. This is really much more important than we think. It includes the decibel level and tension in our voices. It says, "לכל אדם ובכל עת"- to everyone at all times. We must find the weak link in the chain which would cause us not to talk nicely and work on ourselves not to get tense at them.
Three types of pressures:
1. Physical pressure-
a. Not feeling well
b. Hungry
c. Woman who just gave birth. In the time of the בהמ''ק, a woman had to bring a חטאת after she gave birth in case she said something she shouldn’t have when she was in pain.
2. Emotional pressure-
a. Sad
b. Bad mood- this is not a license to be not nice to people. You must either get out of your bad mood, or tell the person that you’ll talk to them a different time.
3. Time pressure- when you are short on time, you are often mean to people, especially on ערב שבת. Story- ר' מאיר saw two men fighting on ערב שבת and he stopped them. This happened three times. The third time, a voice was heard saying, "וי שהוציאני ר' מאיר מביתי"- this was the יצה''ר. After the third time, the fighting stopped because after you keep putting the יצה''ר down, he doesn’t come back. We see from here that the שטן comes when there’s a fight. The שטן and the שכינה can’t stay together. ר' עקיבא says that a man and woman, איש ואישה, when they are בשלום, ה' is with them. However, when there’s מחלוקת, ה' isn’t with them and אש comes down and consumes. It also says מביתי- this shows us that the שטן makes the house his territory.
If you do this, you’ll be saved from כעס. It’s a bad מידה that makes people sin in many ways:
1. You hurt someone physically.
2. אונאת דברים
3. Embarrass them.
חז''ל say that someone who lets כעס take over him, "כל מיני גיהנום שולטין בו". Why? Because when you get angry, you do so many bad things and you get punished for all of them. It says, "הסר כעס..." and חז''ל say that רעה= גיהנום. How do we know this? It says in משלי, "וגם רשע ליום רעה", and רעה= גיהנום. So if you remove כעס, you’ll remove רעה, which is equal to גיהנום.
חז''ל say that someone who has כעס, it’s like he served ע''ז:
1. ע''ז is listening to a different authority than ה'. When you have כעס, you’re listening to your יצה''ר.
2. When you get angry, you forget that ה' is running the world. Whatever bad happened was meant to happen and whoever brought it onto you was just the שליח. However, we must all remember when we are the שליח, "מגלגלין זכות ע''י זכאי...". חז''ל say, "צדיקים לבם ברשותם ורשעים ברשות לבם"- the שכל of a צדיק guides his emotions, but a רשע’s emotions are led by his heart.
Why didה' make כעס? It can be used for the good. It’s a passion inside of us which can be used in two areas:
1. נגד רשעים- when bad is being done.
2. In חנוך- children will see how important something is based on the passion showed toward it. Does a mother get upset when a child dirties his suit, but not when he misbehaves in school? Passion towards something teaches the importance. The danger of כעס is that it’s like a fire- once you light it, it can’t be controlled. Therefore you must not let it overtake you. It says in מסילת ישרים that you must have " כעס הפנים ולא כעס הלב"- you must have total control. How do you know if you’re in control? When you can be upset for the moment and then move on.
If you don’t have כעס, ענוה will move in. ענוה is the best מידה. When you have ענוה, you’ll have other מידות טובות. It says, "והאיש משה ענו מאד". רש''י explains this to mean that he was a שפל וסבלן. If a person is humble, he has patience. Impatience comes from גאוה. So, if you don’t have כעס, you’ll have ענוה.
If you have ענוה, you’ll have יראה.
לדבר בנחת ← כעס ← ענוה ← יראה
How does ענוה lead to יראה? It says, "הסתכל בשלשה דברים...":
1. מאין באת- מטפה סרוחה
2. ולאן אתה הולך- רמה ותולעה
3. ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון
ה' doesn’t want us to think "כוחי ועוצם ידי..." because when we get full of ourselves, we don’t see ה'. The sun is so powerful and the moon isn’t. But sometimes, the moon can block the sun. Sometimes, something blocks so that we can’t see ה', and we begin to think that the הצלחה we have is because of us. The more ענוה you have, the more you’ll see ה'. It says in דברים, "אנכי עומד בן ה' וביניכם"- the אנכי of a person blocks him from seeing ה'.
We are so small and insignificant, but ה' put some of His greatness into us. So we do have greatness, but we must put into perspective how small we are, especially in contrast to ה'- ה' contains everything! We call ה', "המקום". ה' is מקומו של עולם ואין העולם מקומו- everything is in Him. So, certainly the heart of a person can’t understand ה'. A human being can’t fathom why ה' does what he does. When a person says “I don’t understand why ה' did this”, he is implying that he understand everything else. In the ח''ח’s time, there was a man who went insane and ran around naked. Thirty or forty years earlier, he was a landlord and he kicked an אלמנה and her יתומים out of his home because they couldn’t pay the rent. The ח''ח said that this is the cause of his insanity. The ח''ח says- I didn’t expect to ever understand ה'. If once I understood, it’s unbelievable.
Also ה' says, "הלא את השמים...". We should try to understand, but we shouldn’t think that we could. When we think of these things, תירא מבוראך- we will have יראת ה', ותשמר מן החטא- you will be careful not to be חוטא.
מכתב אליהו sheet- in the תורה, we have the מצוה of "לא תחמד"- don’t want that which someone else has. Some hold that until you actually take the thing from someone else (this includes paying for it, but the person doesn’t want to give it to you), you aren’t חוטא. Others hold that you are חוטא even with the מחשבה of wanting it. But how can one be expected to control their thoughts? Because thoughts are controllable. If you see a bird flying, you may think that it is wonderful to have wings, but you won’t be חומד them because it’s impossible for a human being to have wings. So you are only חומד what is in your realm. Also a peasant isn’t חומד the princess in marriage because he tells himself that it’s impossible for him. So you can control your heart with your mind, it all depends on how you think. So we must look at things differently- everything in this world are just כלים to serve ה'. Every person was given the כלים he needs to accomplish his mission. So if you weren’t given a specific כלי, it’s because you don’t need it.
So if you have יראה and don’t want to be חוטא, and just want to serve ה', you will be שמח בחלקו. We think that being שמח בחלקו means that if we want something and can’t get it, we’ll work on ourselves. But really, being שמח בחלקו starts with not wanting it.
So if we live with ענוה, to be humble in front of other people and be ירא ה', then רוח השכינה וזיו כבודה will come down on us and we’ll get חיי עוה''ב.
Someone who has גאוה thinks that he is better than other people. He is מורד במלכות שמים because he is showing off in ה'’s royal clothing, as the פסוק says, "ה' מלך גאות לבש". We have no right to be בעלי גאוה because we fall short. Only ה' is perfect.
What can we be מתגאה over?
עושר:
Don’t be such a big shot, it’s not you,ה' gives it to you. You must remember to thank Him for it. Once you have money, you must use it. So:
1. Be humble.
2. Thank ה'.
3. Use it.
"ה' מוריש ומעשיר"- ה' makes people rich or poor. Don’t think that it’s you, ה' gave it to you. This פסוק was said by חנה- ה' made her have children and פנינה lose all of her children. She recognized that it’s all in ה'’s hands, it wasn’t that some people can have children and others can’t.
However, we don’t really believe this. Someone who doesn’t have פרנסה, ה' made him like this. It’s not that he can’t do anything right. People who can’t afford what everyone can feel embarrassed because people look down on them and think there’s something wrong with them. People who have a lot of money, it’s because ה' wants them to, not because they’re doing something right. משל- man in the forest who thinks that it was his shot that killed the lion, but really there’s a hunter in the trees. In קדושין, it says that a father should teach his son אמנות קלות ונקיות. But it doesn’t specify which job because אין העניות מן האומנות ואין עשירות מן האומנות. ר' דסלר says that a person shouldn’t do less השתדלות than he’s ready for. This is not because if he does less ה' won’t be able to provide for him, but because it’ll decrease his אמונה. Why do you have to do השתדלות ? It’s a קללה from אדם- you must do something to get your money. Some people think that the more השתדלות they put in, the more money they’ll make. But this isn’t true. It’s a קללה, we should do as little as we could. משל¬- man on wagon who holds his burden the whole time, he’s such a fool! נמשל- ה' is helping us along, the question is what we’ll be able to handle. We must be careful so that it doesn’t lead to כפירה. People can take high paying jobs for themselves, but must realize that it’s not because ה' can’t do it otherwise. This idea liberates a person, because he realizes that it’s not him.
כבוד:
The only real כבוד is כבוד התורה. כבוד belongs to ה'- "העושר והכבוד מלפניך"
1. It belongs to ה' and He gives it out to people.
צרות even out the differences between people. The only כבוד that stays is כבוד התורה. Someone could have been a גבאי and someone else could have been a beggar before the Holocaust, but when they were put in the concentration camps, they were all the same. Let’s forget our differences now, before the צרות come.
2. You must be humble because it’s not you.
3. We must be grateful.
4. We must use it, because if we don’t, we’re worse off than before. We should use it for ה'.
חכמה:
If you’re proud of your חכמה, remember what it says in איוב, "מסיר שפה..."- the speech of believers and the understanding of the elders ה' takes away. If the wrong words come out of your mouth, it’s a humbling and healthy experience. When you say the right thing, realize that ה' put those words into your mouth.
If you see someone without חכמה, realize that it could have been you. The most powerful message is when you see someone who used to have חכמה and lost it, then you realize that it’s not here to stay and that if ה' gave you a mind, you should use it to the utmost for Him. R’ Gifter was a phenomenal speaker. At a certain point, he got sick and couldn’t talk. We see that if ה' doesn’t want you to have it, you won’t. We don’t know how long we have it for. We have so much חכמה that we take for granted, so we don’t even thank ה' for it. Alzheimer’s disease teaches us this lesson. It’s a scary type of forgetting- a person doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to do with a telephone!
Everyone’s equal in front of ה'. He gives gifts to whoever He wants. In His anger He knocks down the high people and if He wants, He raises the low people up. So be low and ה' will raise you up.
How can you become an ענו? Behave like one. ספר החינוך- by the קרבן פסח, it says that you can’t break the bones so that it will remain hole and the גויים will see that we don’t disrespect their ע''ז. According to the ספר החינוך though, it’s to show our אצילות. We don’t break bones to get inside the meat. So we act like royalty and it will affect us- we will feel the royalty.
We know that "אדם נפעל כפי פעולותיו" and "החיצוניות מעורר את הפנמיות". So when we want to change, we should act in the way we would like to be. You can take the cruelest person and put him in charge of giving out צדקה and he’ll become gentle.
So we should act with the posture of ענוה. The פסוק says, "יען כי גבהו בנות ציון...". So don’t stand above everyone else, but think elevated thoughts. Don’t look at a person when you talk to him. Today this is considered a sign of disrespect or dishonesty, so instead you should drop your eyes every few seconds.
Respect every person. If he’s richer than you or smarter than you, respect him because ה' chose to give it to him. You shouldn’t think of your wealth the same way you think of his wealth. But if he’s a poor person or less smart, think that he’s a bigger צדיק then you because his חטאים which would come from these lacks of resources are only שגגות, so he’s more of a צדיק then you. If he has so few כלים, he must be very close to perfection. The חזון איש stood up for retarded people. So we don’t know who is a bigger צדיק- "כי אדם יראה ללב ואדם יראה לעינים".
A human being operates in three areas:
1. Speech
2. Action
3. Thoughts
In all three areas, at all times, speak and act like you are before ה' and it’ll change the way you think.
קש''ע sheet- The first thing you must know is that you’re before ה'- this is a כלל גדול בתורה. The way a person sits, moves and what he does when he’s alone isn’t how he is before other people or a king. When a person is before a king, he is so careful with what he says and does- everything is measured. ה' says, "אם יסתיר איש... אני מלא". When a person remembers this, he’ll be humiliated and act properly.
Additionally, not only the way we relate to ה', also with other people- if you know that ה'’s there, you’ll act differently with other people. We will speak differently and act differently- even in private you’ll sit tzniusly. Additionally, you will control your thoughts. The ח''ח said that if everything we thought was written on our foreheads, we would be so embarrassed. How can we control our thoughts? Think about what you’re busy with. If you’re busy with good things, that’s what you will think about. You can’t think two things in your head at the same time. So if you have a bad עיצה in your head, you can drive it out by thinking about something else.
ודבריך- everything you say will be said differently to others because you are before ה'.
You don’t have to be embarrassed, just be humble.
Don’t shout and yell at people, be like an עבד לפני רבו. Especially don’t yell at your parents, even shout across the house at them.
Be careful to learn תורה so that you can follow it- ולא עם הארץ חסיד. If you don’t know because you don’t pay attention and learn, it’s not an excuse.
When you finish learning, see what you can do to fulfill what you learnt.
Search through your actions every night and morning.
When you daven, try and remove all foreign thoughts from your head. You must prepare yourself to daven. The חסידים and ראשנים used to wait an hour before davening to prepare themselves. משל- being pushed into a pool (flailing until you compose yourself) vs. diving into a pool. "הכון לקראת אלקיך ישראל"- prepare yourself to meet ה'. How?
1. Thoughts
2. Dress- men put on a hat and gartel, woman should make sure they are dressed appropriately. You should dress respectfully. The more you put in, the more you get out.
Sheet-
1. כונה- visualize a target with a bulls eye and your goal is to hit it. You must remove whatever would blow your arrow off course. What is כונה? פירוש המילים. You must know what you are saying. There are other levels of כונה, but we only have to do פירוש המילים.
2. עבודה שבלב- the פסוק says, "ולעבדו בכל לבבכם". חז''ל say on this, "זו היא עבודה שבלב זו תפילה". Why is it called עבודה?
a. Everyone struggles with כונה.
b. It replaces the עבודה of the בהמ''ק- "ונשלמה פרים שפתינו". The אכה''ג set up תפילה because they saw that one day there will no longer be a בהמ''ק. The בהמ''ק was what united all of כ''י. So instead of a place which unified everyone, they established an action that would unify everyone. תפילה is the בריח התיכון of כ''י.
We learn out the times of when to daven from:
a. Morning- "וישכם אברהם בבוקר"
b. Afternoon- "ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה לפנות ערב"
c. Night- "ויפגע [יעקב] במקים ההוא וילן שמה"
3. עיון תפילה- we say this in אילו דברים. This is one of the things that you can’t get enough שכר for in this world. It is one of the three עבירות that people do every day (in addition to אבק ל''ה).
4. "בחרבי ובקשתי"- the פסוק says, "אשר לקחתי מיד אמורי בחרבי ובקשתי". אונקלוס explains this to mean בצלותי ובבעותי- with my prayers and בקשות. תרגום is telling us that our תפילות are our weapons. The פסוק says, "הקול קול יעקב"- our כח is our voice. Our davening is as powerful as the greatest weapons. תפילה is like a קשת- the closer you pull it to your heart, the further it will go. There are two different kinds of תפילה:
a. Of the אכה''ג- it’s like close combat. It will still work even if you don’t have כונה because the words themselves hold power.
b. Your own, personal words- it’s like shooting an arrow. If it goes even a little off, you will miss the target.
5. מתפלל- it’s a התפעל word, you do it to yourself. Through your davening, you are working and changing yourself. The דברי שבח we say are speaking about ה', but you are really speaking to yourself. We say that ה' is the רופא חולים, not the doctors. If a person has to be sick, it’s because it’s for his best. So why would he daven not to get sick? Because the גזירה was on him, but now that he’s a new person, the גזירה is no longer on him.
6. חסידים הראשונים- they waited an hour before davening. We don’t do this, but before we daven we should think preparatory thoughts.
7. להשמיע לאזניו- בדיעוד, you are יוצא just by saying the words. But really, you should hear yourself.
8. There are three places where you must have in mind what you are saying:
a. פותח את ידיך
b. שמע
c. First ברכה of ש''ע
9. עצות- certain עצות which may help you:
a. יהיו לרצון- at the end of ש''ע, we say יהיו לרצון- we tell ה' that we hope He likes what we’ve been saying up until now. This is an embarrassing statement. If we have remember that we’re going to have to say this at the end, we’ll be more careful with what you think about. R’ Shalom Shwadron said there was a man whose mind was wandering so far and he was in a fruit market and he thought someone was beating him up, but really he was just saying סלח לנו.
b. עמידתו- how you stand. You should stand in a respectful way, in attention, and by ש''ע you should put your feet together. Why?
i. "ורגליהם רגל ישרה" (ישעי')- the מלאכים have their legs together. We want to be like מלאכים because their life’s תפקיד is to be an עבד ה'.
ii. Standing with your feet apart is standing in a position of strength. When you stand with your feet together, you are showing you are being מכניע yourself to ה'.
iii. The idea of having your feet together is that you stopped. You aren’t going anywhere, it’s just you and ה'.
c. ישיבתו- how you sit. It is better not to cross your legs. You should sit in an upright position, you shouldn’t be comfortable- this keeps you thinking. Story- ר' משה became great because he didn’t bring the גמרא to himself, he bent over the גמרא- the more you put in, the more you get out.
d. מקום מיוחד- in shul, you should have a specific seat. This seat even has specific דינים- a son can’t sit in his father’s seat. You don’t have to have one, however a specific seat will help when you daven. It’s as if you’re making a tunnel to ה'. If you change places, you’re making multiple tunnels, thereby making your connection to ה' weaker.
e. זמן מיוחד- a set time helps with your כונה.
f. סביבה טובה- don’t daven where you are going to be distracted.
g. להסתכל בסידור- look in your סדור. Someone once asked for a סגולה and they were told to look inside by bentching.
h. תפילה פרטית- your own personal תפילה, which you can say in שמע קולנו. You can ask for anything, in any language. By the other בקשות, you can ask, but it has to relate to the ברכה and be said in Hebrew. If you need small things, who else are you going to ask besides for ה'? Nothing is too small or petty for Him. Certain things really shouldn’t be important to you, but if they are, only ה' can help you. The משך חכמה said the תפילה set up by the אכה''ג is like a חרב- it’s sharp in itself and it doesn’t need much direction. But an arrow depends on the aim- the כונה and power you put into it.
Booklet:
מה- the ח''ח gives a guarantee for תפילה: you must look in the סדור, and definitely by ש''ע. But this doesn’t mean that you’ll be 100% protected just from looking in. עצה- think about what every paragraph is saying before you start it. This isn’t a big delay, it’ll just take a few seconds. You shouldn’t say the ברכות as הרגל, you should think about it. It should come בזריזות and בשמחה. Not only is it ד''א, it’s also כונה.
מו- if you catch yourself and see that you haven’t been having כונה, how can you keep yourself to still have כונה? משל- a girl is selling vegetables in the marketplace. A bully causes all of her vegetables to spill and they are being grabbed. A פקח tells her to grab what she could, too. נמשל- we are the girl and the יצה''ר is the bully. We should grab whatever we could. We get lazy and lose a lot of תפילה, but we should grab what we could and not get discouraged.
מח- ר' משה says three things:
1. Look into the סדור.
2. Remove all foreign thoughts before davening.
3. Think about something you saw in nature and be appreciative of ה'.
k. אם בא מחשבה זרה באמצע התפילה- postpone the thought and get yourself on track. Don’t keep davening with something else on your mind.
With everything in life, think before you say anything in this life of הבל הבלים, and then we won’t be חוטא. You must think before you do anything, and then you won’t be חוטא. Think before you speak, act and react and your davening will be pure. There will be no weights hanging it down- it will be clear, clean and directed. If you aim right, it’ll be received on the other side. It says in תהלים, "תכין לבם (כונה) תקשיב אזניך (קבלה)".
שם עולם-
The ח''ח wrote about anything he saw a problem in. This ספר is for people with no children and for people who lost their children in a רוחניותדיק way.
There is ירידת הדורות. Some people refute this and say that we are so much smarter and more civilized that the previous generations. Proof of this are all the חכמות we have that they didn’t. They could have made these, but it wasn’t necessary. Now that it’s necessary, it was invented. משל- תלמיד who understands in the beginning is smarter. The earlier generations knew, but now that we don’t get it, it has to be explained to us. It is talking about אמונה- as it dwindles, the inventions keep us on track.
1. Telescope (Galileo)- people always knew that ה' sees you, but after a while this recognition got a little weaker so ה' made the telescope, allowing people to see far. "אם יוצר עין לא יביט"- if your eye could see so far and ה' created it, don’t you think that He can see far? It says in פרקי אבות, "דע מה למעלה ממך... עין רואה".
2. Telephone (Alexander Graham Bell)- all of the sudden you could hear someone in the next city, country and even in outer space! People don’t really think that ה' hears them, but "הנטע אוזן הלא ישמע"- if you could hear far, can’t ה'?
3. Photography- before, all you could do was tell someone about something in the past, but you couldn’t show them. Now, you can age, but a picture never changes. This is how it is in שמים- when you go up, you will see a picture of everything you did wrong.
4. Phonograph (Thomas Edison)- a person could be separated from his voice- you could keep someone’s voice even when they’re gone. A person could even be dead and you’ll still have his voice!
The ח''ח said, "דע מה למעלה ממך "- do you want to know what’s going on in שמים? ממך- through yourself. ה' gives us things down here to help us understand.
Read this letter once a week and don’t do less than what it says and you’ll be following the ways of ה'. If you do what it says, you’ll go to עוה''ב that is set aside for צדיקים. If you read this letter, everything you ask for will be answered.
• ר' משה בן נחמן
• He lived from 1194- 1270.
• Was a ראשון, and a contemporary of רש''י and the רמב''ם.
• He was a cousin of ר' יונה’s and their children got married to each other.
• He was born during the רמב''ם’s life and outlived him, so sometimes, you will see that the רמב''ם doesn’t answer back to him.
• He lived in גרנה, Spain. At the end of his life he went to א''י.
• He sent this letter to his son. The letter was sent from עכו to קטלוני'. This was a personal letter, but it became public.
אגרת הרמב''ן-
This letter was sent from עכו to קטלוני' to his son to encourage him about ענוה. The רמב''ן told his son to read this letter once a week and teach it to his children. He said they should know it by heart in order to train them from the time they’re young in יראת שמים. The רמב''ן says that at the time you read it and try to be מקיים it, ה' will answer him. Someone who reads it and internalizes it will be saved from צרות and he’ll be a בן עוה''ב.
It says to train a child from the time they’re young. This teaches us that חנוך starts from when a child is old enough to understand, but יראת שמים starts right away. Even if a child is too young to say a ברכה or שמע, you should say it for them. You must jumpstart children from the time they’re young.
It starts with the word "שמע בני...''- listen my son to the מוסר of your father and don’t forsake the תורה of your mother. It could be that the רמב''ן wrote a salutation, but we don’t have it. What we have starts with this פסוק to show us how important it is to listen to parents. When they give you מוסר, it’s only for your own good. The only time you shouldn’t listen to your parents is if they tell you to do something against the תורה. Here, אביך can mean ה' and אמיך can mean כנסת ישראל. There are certain things which כ''י do and you should to them too.
It says, "תתנהג..."- we must speak gently. This is really much more important than we think. It includes the decibel level and tension in our voices. It says, "לכל אדם ובכל עת"- to everyone at all times. We must find the weak link in the chain which would cause us not to talk nicely and work on ourselves not to get tense at them.
Three types of pressures:
1. Physical pressure-
a. Not feeling well
b. Hungry
c. Woman who just gave birth. In the time of the בהמ''ק, a woman had to bring a חטאת after she gave birth in case she said something she shouldn’t have when she was in pain.
2. Emotional pressure-
a. Sad
b. Bad mood- this is not a license to be not nice to people. You must either get out of your bad mood, or tell the person that you’ll talk to them a different time.
3. Time pressure- when you are short on time, you are often mean to people, especially on ערב שבת. Story- ר' מאיר saw two men fighting on ערב שבת and he stopped them. This happened three times. The third time, a voice was heard saying, "וי שהוציאני ר' מאיר מביתי"- this was the יצה''ר. After the third time, the fighting stopped because after you keep putting the יצה''ר down, he doesn’t come back. We see from here that the שטן comes when there’s a fight. The שטן and the שכינה can’t stay together. ר' עקיבא says that a man and woman, איש ואישה, when they are בשלום, ה' is with them. However, when there’s מחלוקת, ה' isn’t with them and אש comes down and consumes. It also says מביתי- this shows us that the שטן makes the house his territory.
If you do this, you’ll be saved from כעס. It’s a bad מידה that makes people sin in many ways:
1. You hurt someone physically.
2. אונאת דברים
3. Embarrass them.
חז''ל say that someone who lets כעס take over him, "כל מיני גיהנום שולטין בו". Why? Because when you get angry, you do so many bad things and you get punished for all of them. It says, "הסר כעס..." and חז''ל say that רעה= גיהנום. How do we know this? It says in משלי, "וגם רשע ליום רעה", and רעה= גיהנום. So if you remove כעס, you’ll remove רעה, which is equal to גיהנום.
חז''ל say that someone who has כעס, it’s like he served ע''ז:
1. ע''ז is listening to a different authority than ה'. When you have כעס, you’re listening to your יצה''ר.
2. When you get angry, you forget that ה' is running the world. Whatever bad happened was meant to happen and whoever brought it onto you was just the שליח. However, we must all remember when we are the שליח, "מגלגלין זכות ע''י זכאי...". חז''ל say, "צדיקים לבם ברשותם ורשעים ברשות לבם"- the שכל of a צדיק guides his emotions, but a רשע’s emotions are led by his heart.
Why didה' make כעס? It can be used for the good. It’s a passion inside of us which can be used in two areas:
1. נגד רשעים- when bad is being done.
2. In חנוך- children will see how important something is based on the passion showed toward it. Does a mother get upset when a child dirties his suit, but not when he misbehaves in school? Passion towards something teaches the importance. The danger of כעס is that it’s like a fire- once you light it, it can’t be controlled. Therefore you must not let it overtake you. It says in מסילת ישרים that you must have " כעס הפנים ולא כעס הלב"- you must have total control. How do you know if you’re in control? When you can be upset for the moment and then move on.
If you don’t have כעס, ענוה will move in. ענוה is the best מידה. When you have ענוה, you’ll have other מידות טובות. It says, "והאיש משה ענו מאד". רש''י explains this to mean that he was a שפל וסבלן. If a person is humble, he has patience. Impatience comes from גאוה. So, if you don’t have כעס, you’ll have ענוה.
If you have ענוה, you’ll have יראה.
לדבר בנחת ← כעס ← ענוה ← יראה
How does ענוה lead to יראה? It says, "הסתכל בשלשה דברים...":
1. מאין באת- מטפה סרוחה
2. ולאן אתה הולך- רמה ותולעה
3. ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון
ה' doesn’t want us to think "כוחי ועוצם ידי..." because when we get full of ourselves, we don’t see ה'. The sun is so powerful and the moon isn’t. But sometimes, the moon can block the sun. Sometimes, something blocks so that we can’t see ה', and we begin to think that the הצלחה we have is because of us. The more ענוה you have, the more you’ll see ה'. It says in דברים, "אנכי עומד בן ה' וביניכם"- the אנכי of a person blocks him from seeing ה'.
We are so small and insignificant, but ה' put some of His greatness into us. So we do have greatness, but we must put into perspective how small we are, especially in contrast to ה'- ה' contains everything! We call ה', "המקום". ה' is מקומו של עולם ואין העולם מקומו- everything is in Him. So, certainly the heart of a person can’t understand ה'. A human being can’t fathom why ה' does what he does. When a person says “I don’t understand why ה' did this”, he is implying that he understand everything else. In the ח''ח’s time, there was a man who went insane and ran around naked. Thirty or forty years earlier, he was a landlord and he kicked an אלמנה and her יתומים out of his home because they couldn’t pay the rent. The ח''ח said that this is the cause of his insanity. The ח''ח says- I didn’t expect to ever understand ה'. If once I understood, it’s unbelievable.
Also ה' says, "הלא את השמים...". We should try to understand, but we shouldn’t think that we could. When we think of these things, תירא מבוראך- we will have יראת ה', ותשמר מן החטא- you will be careful not to be חוטא.
מכתב אליהו sheet- in the תורה, we have the מצוה of "לא תחמד"- don’t want that which someone else has. Some hold that until you actually take the thing from someone else (this includes paying for it, but the person doesn’t want to give it to you), you aren’t חוטא. Others hold that you are חוטא even with the מחשבה of wanting it. But how can one be expected to control their thoughts? Because thoughts are controllable. If you see a bird flying, you may think that it is wonderful to have wings, but you won’t be חומד them because it’s impossible for a human being to have wings. So you are only חומד what is in your realm. Also a peasant isn’t חומד the princess in marriage because he tells himself that it’s impossible for him. So you can control your heart with your mind, it all depends on how you think. So we must look at things differently- everything in this world are just כלים to serve ה'. Every person was given the כלים he needs to accomplish his mission. So if you weren’t given a specific כלי, it’s because you don’t need it.
So if you have יראה and don’t want to be חוטא, and just want to serve ה', you will be שמח בחלקו. We think that being שמח בחלקו means that if we want something and can’t get it, we’ll work on ourselves. But really, being שמח בחלקו starts with not wanting it.
So if we live with ענוה, to be humble in front of other people and be ירא ה', then רוח השכינה וזיו כבודה will come down on us and we’ll get חיי עוה''ב.
Someone who has גאוה thinks that he is better than other people. He is מורד במלכות שמים because he is showing off in ה'’s royal clothing, as the פסוק says, "ה' מלך גאות לבש". We have no right to be בעלי גאוה because we fall short. Only ה' is perfect.
What can we be מתגאה over?
עושר:
Don’t be such a big shot, it’s not you,ה' gives it to you. You must remember to thank Him for it. Once you have money, you must use it. So:
1. Be humble.
2. Thank ה'.
3. Use it.
"ה' מוריש ומעשיר"- ה' makes people rich or poor. Don’t think that it’s you, ה' gave it to you. This פסוק was said by חנה- ה' made her have children and פנינה lose all of her children. She recognized that it’s all in ה'’s hands, it wasn’t that some people can have children and others can’t.
However, we don’t really believe this. Someone who doesn’t have פרנסה, ה' made him like this. It’s not that he can’t do anything right. People who can’t afford what everyone can feel embarrassed because people look down on them and think there’s something wrong with them. People who have a lot of money, it’s because ה' wants them to, not because they’re doing something right. משל- man in the forest who thinks that it was his shot that killed the lion, but really there’s a hunter in the trees. In קדושין, it says that a father should teach his son אמנות קלות ונקיות. But it doesn’t specify which job because אין העניות מן האומנות ואין עשירות מן האומנות. ר' דסלר says that a person shouldn’t do less השתדלות than he’s ready for. This is not because if he does less ה' won’t be able to provide for him, but because it’ll decrease his אמונה. Why do you have to do השתדלות ? It’s a קללה from אדם- you must do something to get your money. Some people think that the more השתדלות they put in, the more money they’ll make. But this isn’t true. It’s a קללה, we should do as little as we could. משל¬- man on wagon who holds his burden the whole time, he’s such a fool! נמשל- ה' is helping us along, the question is what we’ll be able to handle. We must be careful so that it doesn’t lead to כפירה. People can take high paying jobs for themselves, but must realize that it’s not because ה' can’t do it otherwise. This idea liberates a person, because he realizes that it’s not him.
כבוד:
The only real כבוד is כבוד התורה. כבוד belongs to ה'- "העושר והכבוד מלפניך"
1. It belongs to ה' and He gives it out to people.
צרות even out the differences between people. The only כבוד that stays is כבוד התורה. Someone could have been a גבאי and someone else could have been a beggar before the Holocaust, but when they were put in the concentration camps, they were all the same. Let’s forget our differences now, before the צרות come.
2. You must be humble because it’s not you.
3. We must be grateful.
4. We must use it, because if we don’t, we’re worse off than before. We should use it for ה'.
חכמה:
If you’re proud of your חכמה, remember what it says in איוב, "מסיר שפה..."- the speech of believers and the understanding of the elders ה' takes away. If the wrong words come out of your mouth, it’s a humbling and healthy experience. When you say the right thing, realize that ה' put those words into your mouth.
If you see someone without חכמה, realize that it could have been you. The most powerful message is when you see someone who used to have חכמה and lost it, then you realize that it’s not here to stay and that if ה' gave you a mind, you should use it to the utmost for Him. R’ Gifter was a phenomenal speaker. At a certain point, he got sick and couldn’t talk. We see that if ה' doesn’t want you to have it, you won’t. We don’t know how long we have it for. We have so much חכמה that we take for granted, so we don’t even thank ה' for it. Alzheimer’s disease teaches us this lesson. It’s a scary type of forgetting- a person doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to do with a telephone!
Everyone’s equal in front of ה'. He gives gifts to whoever He wants. In His anger He knocks down the high people and if He wants, He raises the low people up. So be low and ה' will raise you up.
How can you become an ענו? Behave like one. ספר החינוך- by the קרבן פסח, it says that you can’t break the bones so that it will remain hole and the גויים will see that we don’t disrespect their ע''ז. According to the ספר החינוך though, it’s to show our אצילות. We don’t break bones to get inside the meat. So we act like royalty and it will affect us- we will feel the royalty.
We know that "אדם נפעל כפי פעולותיו" and "החיצוניות מעורר את הפנמיות". So when we want to change, we should act in the way we would like to be. You can take the cruelest person and put him in charge of giving out צדקה and he’ll become gentle.
So we should act with the posture of ענוה. The פסוק says, "יען כי גבהו בנות ציון...". So don’t stand above everyone else, but think elevated thoughts. Don’t look at a person when you talk to him. Today this is considered a sign of disrespect or dishonesty, so instead you should drop your eyes every few seconds.
Respect every person. If he’s richer than you or smarter than you, respect him because ה' chose to give it to him. You shouldn’t think of your wealth the same way you think of his wealth. But if he’s a poor person or less smart, think that he’s a bigger צדיק then you because his חטאים which would come from these lacks of resources are only שגגות, so he’s more of a צדיק then you. If he has so few כלים, he must be very close to perfection. The חזון איש stood up for retarded people. So we don’t know who is a bigger צדיק- "כי אדם יראה ללב ואדם יראה לעינים".
A human being operates in three areas:
1. Speech
2. Action
3. Thoughts
In all three areas, at all times, speak and act like you are before ה' and it’ll change the way you think.
קש''ע sheet- The first thing you must know is that you’re before ה'- this is a כלל גדול בתורה. The way a person sits, moves and what he does when he’s alone isn’t how he is before other people or a king. When a person is before a king, he is so careful with what he says and does- everything is measured. ה' says, "אם יסתיר איש... אני מלא". When a person remembers this, he’ll be humiliated and act properly.
Additionally, not only the way we relate to ה', also with other people- if you know that ה'’s there, you’ll act differently with other people. We will speak differently and act differently- even in private you’ll sit tzniusly. Additionally, you will control your thoughts. The ח''ח said that if everything we thought was written on our foreheads, we would be so embarrassed. How can we control our thoughts? Think about what you’re busy with. If you’re busy with good things, that’s what you will think about. You can’t think two things in your head at the same time. So if you have a bad עיצה in your head, you can drive it out by thinking about something else.
ודבריך- everything you say will be said differently to others because you are before ה'.
You don’t have to be embarrassed, just be humble.
Don’t shout and yell at people, be like an עבד לפני רבו. Especially don’t yell at your parents, even shout across the house at them.
Be careful to learn תורה so that you can follow it- ולא עם הארץ חסיד. If you don’t know because you don’t pay attention and learn, it’s not an excuse.
When you finish learning, see what you can do to fulfill what you learnt.
Search through your actions every night and morning.
When you daven, try and remove all foreign thoughts from your head. You must prepare yourself to daven. The חסידים and ראשנים used to wait an hour before davening to prepare themselves. משל- being pushed into a pool (flailing until you compose yourself) vs. diving into a pool. "הכון לקראת אלקיך ישראל"- prepare yourself to meet ה'. How?
1. Thoughts
2. Dress- men put on a hat and gartel, woman should make sure they are dressed appropriately. You should dress respectfully. The more you put in, the more you get out.
Sheet-
1. כונה- visualize a target with a bulls eye and your goal is to hit it. You must remove whatever would blow your arrow off course. What is כונה? פירוש המילים. You must know what you are saying. There are other levels of כונה, but we only have to do פירוש המילים.
2. עבודה שבלב- the פסוק says, "ולעבדו בכל לבבכם". חז''ל say on this, "זו היא עבודה שבלב זו תפילה". Why is it called עבודה?
a. Everyone struggles with כונה.
b. It replaces the עבודה of the בהמ''ק- "ונשלמה פרים שפתינו". The אכה''ג set up תפילה because they saw that one day there will no longer be a בהמ''ק. The בהמ''ק was what united all of כ''י. So instead of a place which unified everyone, they established an action that would unify everyone. תפילה is the בריח התיכון of כ''י.
We learn out the times of when to daven from:
a. Morning- "וישכם אברהם בבוקר"
b. Afternoon- "ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה לפנות ערב"
c. Night- "ויפגע [יעקב] במקים ההוא וילן שמה"
3. עיון תפילה- we say this in אילו דברים. This is one of the things that you can’t get enough שכר for in this world. It is one of the three עבירות that people do every day (in addition to אבק ל''ה).
4. "בחרבי ובקשתי"- the פסוק says, "אשר לקחתי מיד אמורי בחרבי ובקשתי". אונקלוס explains this to mean בצלותי ובבעותי- with my prayers and בקשות. תרגום is telling us that our תפילות are our weapons. The פסוק says, "הקול קול יעקב"- our כח is our voice. Our davening is as powerful as the greatest weapons. תפילה is like a קשת- the closer you pull it to your heart, the further it will go. There are two different kinds of תפילה:
a. Of the אכה''ג- it’s like close combat. It will still work even if you don’t have כונה because the words themselves hold power.
b. Your own, personal words- it’s like shooting an arrow. If it goes even a little off, you will miss the target.
5. מתפלל- it’s a התפעל word, you do it to yourself. Through your davening, you are working and changing yourself. The דברי שבח we say are speaking about ה', but you are really speaking to yourself. We say that ה' is the רופא חולים, not the doctors. If a person has to be sick, it’s because it’s for his best. So why would he daven not to get sick? Because the גזירה was on him, but now that he’s a new person, the גזירה is no longer on him.
6. חסידים הראשונים- they waited an hour before davening. We don’t do this, but before we daven we should think preparatory thoughts.
7. להשמיע לאזניו- בדיעוד, you are יוצא just by saying the words. But really, you should hear yourself.
8. There are three places where you must have in mind what you are saying:
a. פותח את ידיך
b. שמע
c. First ברכה of ש''ע
9. עצות- certain עצות which may help you:
a. יהיו לרצון- at the end of ש''ע, we say יהיו לרצון- we tell ה' that we hope He likes what we’ve been saying up until now. This is an embarrassing statement. If we have remember that we’re going to have to say this at the end, we’ll be more careful with what you think about. R’ Shalom Shwadron said there was a man whose mind was wandering so far and he was in a fruit market and he thought someone was beating him up, but really he was just saying סלח לנו.
b. עמידתו- how you stand. You should stand in a respectful way, in attention, and by ש''ע you should put your feet together. Why?
i. "ורגליהם רגל ישרה" (ישעי')- the מלאכים have their legs together. We want to be like מלאכים because their life’s תפקיד is to be an עבד ה'.
ii. Standing with your feet apart is standing in a position of strength. When you stand with your feet together, you are showing you are being מכניע yourself to ה'.
iii. The idea of having your feet together is that you stopped. You aren’t going anywhere, it’s just you and ה'.
c. ישיבתו- how you sit. It is better not to cross your legs. You should sit in an upright position, you shouldn’t be comfortable- this keeps you thinking. Story- ר' משה became great because he didn’t bring the גמרא to himself, he bent over the גמרא- the more you put in, the more you get out.
d. מקום מיוחד- in shul, you should have a specific seat. This seat even has specific דינים- a son can’t sit in his father’s seat. You don’t have to have one, however a specific seat will help when you daven. It’s as if you’re making a tunnel to ה'. If you change places, you’re making multiple tunnels, thereby making your connection to ה' weaker.
e. זמן מיוחד- a set time helps with your כונה.
f. סביבה טובה- don’t daven where you are going to be distracted.
g. להסתכל בסידור- look in your סדור. Someone once asked for a סגולה and they were told to look inside by bentching.
h. תפילה פרטית- your own personal תפילה, which you can say in שמע קולנו. You can ask for anything, in any language. By the other בקשות, you can ask, but it has to relate to the ברכה and be said in Hebrew. If you need small things, who else are you going to ask besides for ה'? Nothing is too small or petty for Him. Certain things really shouldn’t be important to you, but if they are, only ה' can help you. The משך חכמה said the תפילה set up by the אכה''ג is like a חרב- it’s sharp in itself and it doesn’t need much direction. But an arrow depends on the aim- the כונה and power you put into it.
Booklet:
מה- the ח''ח gives a guarantee for תפילה: you must look in the סדור, and definitely by ש''ע. But this doesn’t mean that you’ll be 100% protected just from looking in. עצה- think about what every paragraph is saying before you start it. This isn’t a big delay, it’ll just take a few seconds. You shouldn’t say the ברכות as הרגל, you should think about it. It should come בזריזות and בשמחה. Not only is it ד''א, it’s also כונה.
מו- if you catch yourself and see that you haven’t been having כונה, how can you keep yourself to still have כונה? משל- a girl is selling vegetables in the marketplace. A bully causes all of her vegetables to spill and they are being grabbed. A פקח tells her to grab what she could, too. נמשל- we are the girl and the יצה''ר is the bully. We should grab whatever we could. We get lazy and lose a lot of תפילה, but we should grab what we could and not get discouraged.
מח- ר' משה says three things:
1. Look into the סדור.
2. Remove all foreign thoughts before davening.
3. Think about something you saw in nature and be appreciative of ה'.
k. אם בא מחשבה זרה באמצע התפילה- postpone the thought and get yourself on track. Don’t keep davening with something else on your mind.
With everything in life, think before you say anything in this life of הבל הבלים, and then we won’t be חוטא. You must think before you do anything, and then you won’t be חוטא. Think before you speak, act and react and your davening will be pure. There will be no weights hanging it down- it will be clear, clean and directed. If you aim right, it’ll be received on the other side. It says in תהלים, "תכין לבם (כונה) תקשיב אזניך (קבלה)".
שם עולם-
The ח''ח wrote about anything he saw a problem in. This ספר is for people with no children and for people who lost their children in a רוחניותדיק way.
There is ירידת הדורות. Some people refute this and say that we are so much smarter and more civilized that the previous generations. Proof of this are all the חכמות we have that they didn’t. They could have made these, but it wasn’t necessary. Now that it’s necessary, it was invented. משל- תלמיד who understands in the beginning is smarter. The earlier generations knew, but now that we don’t get it, it has to be explained to us. It is talking about אמונה- as it dwindles, the inventions keep us on track.
1. Telescope (Galileo)- people always knew that ה' sees you, but after a while this recognition got a little weaker so ה' made the telescope, allowing people to see far. "אם יוצר עין לא יביט"- if your eye could see so far and ה' created it, don’t you think that He can see far? It says in פרקי אבות, "דע מה למעלה ממך... עין רואה".
2. Telephone (Alexander Graham Bell)- all of the sudden you could hear someone in the next city, country and even in outer space! People don’t really think that ה' hears them, but "הנטע אוזן הלא ישמע"- if you could hear far, can’t ה'?
3. Photography- before, all you could do was tell someone about something in the past, but you couldn’t show them. Now, you can age, but a picture never changes. This is how it is in שמים- when you go up, you will see a picture of everything you did wrong.
4. Phonograph (Thomas Edison)- a person could be separated from his voice- you could keep someone’s voice even when they’re gone. A person could even be dead and you’ll still have his voice!
The ח''ח said, "דע מה למעלה ממך "- do you want to know what’s going on in שמים? ממך- through yourself. ה' gives us things down here to help us understand.
Read this letter once a week and don’t do less than what it says and you’ll be following the ways of ה'. If you do what it says, you’ll go to עוה''ב that is set aside for צדיקים. If you read this letter, everything you ask for will be answered.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Political Science- Chapter 1
Principles of Government-
• Harold Laswell defined government as who gets what, when and how.
• In any nation, government is made up of:
1. Institutions
2. People
3. Process that is used to create public policy.
• What is public policy? The system set up to maintain authority and control over society
Purpose of Government-
Every nation has goals that they would like to implement into public policies. The US has goals. Our goals were set up in the preamble to the constitution by our founding fathers:
1. “Form a more perfect union”- form a nation where the states have enough power, but not too much that a strong central union can’t exist.
2. “Establishing justice”- set up reasonable and fair laws.
3. “Ensuring domestic tranquility”- preserving public order.
4. “Providing for the common defense”- providing an army and navy.
5. “Promoting general welfare”- provide services to the nation.
6. “Securing the blessings of liberty”- providing individual freedoms.
Forms of Government-
Greek philosopher Aristotle classified government by the number of people ruling:
1. Anarchy- rule by none.
2. Autocracy- rule by one
a. Absolute monarch- usually inherits his position.
b. Constitutional monarchy- inherits his position but is limited by the constitution or code of law. Sometimes, he is a figurehead.
c. Dictator- someone who seizes power and maintains military control.
3. Oligarchy- rule by:
a. A few elite or socially high people.
b. Theocracy- religious leaders.
4. Democracy- rule by the people
a. Direct democracy- every single person votes on every single issue.
b. Representative democracy- I choose someone to represent me in government.
Theories of Government-
Who has the real power and influence over decision making?
1. Traditional democracy theory- government by consent of the governed.
2. Pluralist theory- special interest groups compete in the political arena. Interest groups are powerful, sophisticated groups that represent a certain cause. They compete with each other and work things out with each other.
3. Elite theory- the wealthy, corporate leaders or military leaders are running the country.
4. Bureaucratic theory- the bureaucrats are the people in power who are running the country.
5. Hyper- Pluralist theory- when the government is made of so many interest groups pulling in so many different directions that nothing gets done.
Origins of American Government-
1. Early influences of American government-
a. Greece- first democracy.
b. Rome- first republic.
c. English influences-
i. Magna Carta (1215)- Watershed Event- this was the first time that the power of a monarch was limited. The Magna Carta was forced upon the king by the nobility. The Magna Carta is sometimes called the Great Charter. It guarantees the nobles:
1. Right to a trail by jury.
2. Protects them from arbitrary taking of life, liberty and property.
3. Promised due process- a fair chance- under the law.
ii. Parliament- advisory committee. Over time, it became a law making body.
iii. Petition of Rights (1628)- it extended the Magna Carta to the commoners. It further limited the king from:
1. Taxing without Parliament.
2. Declaring war.
3. Marshall Law during peace time.
4. Gave people the right to trial by jury even if they criticized the king.
iv. English Bill of Rights- in 1689, the Glorious Revolution took place. It was a bloodless revolution- King James was ousted and William and Mary were put in his place on condition that they sign the Bill of Rights. It guaranteed:
1. Free parliamentary elections.
2. Fair and speedy trial.
3. No excessive bail or excessive punishment.
4. Right to petition.
5. No taxation without consent.
6. The monarch may not suspend the law.
d. Philosophers:
i. John Locke- government by the consent of the governed. He had the Social Contract theory- the government protects the natural rights of a person. If it doesn’t do so, it’s to be removed. Thomas Jefferson used these ideas when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
ii. Baron De Montesquieu- he believed in separation of powers. He felt that England was so successful because the power was divided into branches.
Colonial Experience- was from 1607- 1776. The American colonies were in a continuous state of political development. England treated them with a policy of salutary neglect, therefore the colonies had time to practice self government. The governments were based on their parliamentary heritage from England- it was based on the ideas of:
1. Liberty
2. Equality
3. Limited government
Every colony started with a charter- permit from the mother country to run a colony.
Most of the colonies wanted self government. Two examples of self government were:
1. Virginia House of Burgesses- was a lawmaking body. This was the first experience with a representative democracy.
2. Mayflower Compact- an agreement by the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower to be self governed. They had a democratic system of government.
Difficulties with England:
England left us alone for many years. We had a mercantilist relationship where England provided manufactured goods and we provided raw materials and a market for the goods. England took care of our defense and we took care of our internal affairs. For many years this was a grand system.
The turning point in our relationship was the French and Indian war- 1756- 1763 (aka Seven Years war). As a result of the war, England began to tax the colonies more heavily because they felt that since war is expensive, we should help fill the treasury. They began to enforce old taxes and institute new ones:
1. Sugar act
2. Stamp act
3. Townshend act
The colonists protested and war broke out- Boston Massacre. England continued to tax the colonists by means of the Tea act. The colonists acted out in the Boston Tea party and as a punishment to the colonists, the British placed the Intolerable act.
The colonists decided to meet to decide what should be done. In 1774, all the states aside from Georgia sent delegates to what later became known as the First Constitutional Congress in Philadelphia. They sent the Petition of Rights to the king and agreed to meet again.
In May 1775, delegates from every colony met again at the Second Constitutional Congress in Philadelphia one month after the battles of Lexington and Concord. The Second Constitutional Congress became America’s first government. It:
1. Set up an army- George Washington became a commander in chief.
2. Borrowed money from:
a. France
b. Netherlands
3. Set up a monetary system.
4. Made treaties.
5. Wrote the Declaration of Independence- was mainly the work of Thomas Jefferson and based on the works of John Locke. It can be divided into three parts:
a. Our theory of government- government is a social contract and is here to protect our natural rights.
b. Our list of grievances
c. Formal declaration
6. Articles of Confederation- laws written by the Second Continental Congress. The Articles reflect the colonists’ fear of strong, central government. The Confederation was like a league of friendship among the colonies. They didn’t want a repeat of King George, so they limited the power to a strong, central government.
The government could:
a. Borrow money
b. Create an army
c. Declare war
d. Set up a postal system
e. Sign treaties
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation:
a. Didn’t have the power to tax
b. Couldn’t draft soldiers
c. Couldn’t regulate commerce
d. Had no executive or judicial branch- no one to pull everyone together.
e. Nine out of thirteen states were needed to pass the Articles of Confederation.
f. Every state was equal, regardless of population.
g. Every state had to agree to make an amendment.
These weaknesses allowed states to concentrate on their own power. The states were taxing each other. Some states made their own treaties and printed their own money. Some states refused to listen to Confederation laws.
Successes of the Articles of Confederation:
a. 1781- led to the end of the Revolutionary war.
b. 1783- Treaty of Paris- brought about a successful end to the Revolutionary war.
c. Land Ordinance Act of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance Act of 1787- system of allowing new states to enter the union.
The government under the Articles of Confederation was a failure. It couldn’t deal with the nation’s problems. Chaos and violence broke out. They met in Mt. Vernon and Annapolis, but they still couldn’t work out the problems. It took Shays’ Rebellion to wake people up.
By Shays’ Rebellion, the farmers rebelled because they lost money and land. The wealthy landowners got hysterical that the mob would take over so they decided to meet and attempt to amend the Articles of Confederation.
Fifty- five men from all the states besides Rhode Island met in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention. They were all from the elite of society. They realized immediately that the Articles of Confederation couldn’t be fixed and that they had to start new. They decided that the new government would be a republic and run on a federal system where both the state and federal government work together. Additionally, the new government would have three branches of government. Many men came with plans, but the Virginia and New Jersey plans go down in history.
The constitution was full of compromises. Three of these compromises:
1. Great Compromise- this was an argument over representation. Should the people be counted by population or by state? They decided to compromise with a bicameral legislature:
a. Upper house/ Senate- two representatives for every state.
b. Lower house/ House of Representatives- number of representatives is based on population.
2. Three- fifths compromise- how should slaves be counted? The North felt that slaves shouldn’t be counted for representation because they’re not people, but they should be counted for taxation. The South felt that they should only be counted for representation, but not taxation. The compromise that was agreed upon was that three- fifths of all the slaves are counted for both representation and taxation.
3. Commerce compromise- the North wanted the government to regulate business. The South didn’t want the government involved because they were involved in exports and they didn’t want taxes. They also didn’t want the government involved in the slave trade. The compromise was that the government can and will regulate trade, but not tax exports. Additionally, for the next twenty years, the slave trade was not to be touched.
Ratification of the constitution-
On September 17, 1787, the delegates signed the constitution and it was then sent out to the state legislatures. Nine out of thirteen states had to ratify the constitution for it to became the law of the land.
Debates raged in many states- the Federalists vs. the Anti- Federalists.
1. Federalists- were led by John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. They wrote a series of eighty- three articles defending the Federalist view called the Federalist Papers. They were signed with the pen name “Publius”. The Federalist Papers supported the constitution and gave us insight into the founding fathers’ thoughts. The Federalists:
a. Believed that the constitution should be left as it is.
b. Stressed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and stressed that we need a strong central government.
c. Felt that a system of checks and balances will protect us.
d. The government in the constitution protects property rights.
e. Felt that we don’t need a Bill of Rights because the constitution itself limits the government.
2. Anti- Federalists- were led by Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Samuel Adams and George Mason. The Anti- Federalists felt that the new constitution gave too much power to the federal government at the expense of the states and people, therefore a Bill of Rights should be added to the constitution to protect people’s liberties. They wanted fewer limits on people’s participation in government.
It took two years for the constitution to be ratified.
The constitution details the:
1. Structure of the government
2. Power of the government
3. Duties of the government- relationship between the power of the federal government and the states.
Basic principles of the constitution:
1. Limited government- the US government is limited. The constitution is the supreme law of the land and no one is above the law.
2. Popular sovereignty- people rule, people are the source of power.
3. Separation of power- power is divided amongst three branches of government. Each branch has its own duties, and is controlled, restrained and limited by the other branches.
The Constitution-
The constitution begins with the preamble. The preamble is the opening paragraph which lists the nation’s goals:
1. “Form a more perfect union”- form a nation where the states have enough power, but not too much that a strong central union can’t exist.
2. “Establishing justice”- set up reasonable and fair laws.
3. “Ensuring domestic tranquility”- preserving public order.
4. “Providing for the common defense”- providing an army and navy.
5. “Promoting general welfare”- provide services to the nation.
6. “Securing the blessings of liberty”- providing individual freedoms.
The constitution has seven articles:
1. Legislative branch. This article has ten sections:
a. Congress- all the power of the Legislative branch is held by Congress. Congress is composed of the Senate and House of Representatives.
b. House of Representatives- in order to be elected, one must be twenty- five and a US citizen for seven years. He stays in office for a term of two years. The House of Representatives organizes itself however it wants and chooses the speaker. The House of Representatives also has the power of impeachment.
c. Senate- there are two senators per state. In order to be elected, one must be at least thirty and have been a US citizen for no less than nine years. Senators serve for a six year term. Senate serves as the jury during impeachment trials. The vice president is the president of Senate. He doesn’t have a vote unless there is a tie.
d. Discusses congressional elections- congressional elections are decided by every state.
e. Rules and procedures of the House and Senate- the House has many more rules.
f. Payment and privileges- salary is not written into the constitution, but it must be decided by the law.
g. How a bill becomes a law- the bill is presented to either the House or Senate. It is then referred to committees who vote, change and switch…
h. Powers granted to Congress:
i. Coin money
ii. Borrow money
iii. Bankruptcy laws
iv. Make money
v. Copy write
i. Powers denied to Congress:
i. Can’t suspend the writ of habeas corpus
j. Powers denied to the states:
i. Can’t coin money
ii. Can’t declare war.
2. Executive branch-
a. President- must be thirty- five, born in the US and a citizen for fourteen years. He serves a four year term.
b. Powers of the president-
i. Military powers.
ii. Makes treaties
iii. Appoints people
c. Presidential duty- to make sure that the laws are carried out.
d. Can be impeached.
3. Judiciary branch-
a. Federal courts and judges- they serve for life depending on their good behavior.
b. Authority of court- over who the courts have jurisdiction.
c. Treason- a treasonist is someone who declares war against the US.
4. Relations among states-
a. State laws and records- every state must honor other state’s laws- “full faith and credit”.
b. Rights of the citizens- citizens of one state are treated the same as citizens of another state.
i. Citizens are entitled to the privilege of another state.
ii. Extradition- if a convict runs to another state, the state must send him back.
c. Admission for new states.
d. Federal guarantee to the states.
5. Amending the constitution-
a. 2/3 of Congress and ¾ of the states. This has been done for 26/27 amendments.
b. 2/3 of Congress and a special convention held by ¾ of the states.
c. National convention suggested by 2/3 of Congress and then either approved of in ¾ of either state governments or state legislatures.
d. 2/3 of Congress and ¾ of the states agree to have national conventions.
e. Informal amendments-
i. judicial review. Began with Marbury vs. Madison in 1803. John Marshall was presiding over a case in which Marbury asked Secretary of State James Madison to give him his contract that Adams had given to him. Marshall used judicial review and said that the law is unconstitutional.
ii. Executive action- the president can take emergency action and make a change for the moment.
iii. Legislative action- Congress can pass laws that can extend the powers of the Constitution- elastic clause.
iv. Customs- political parties, for example, weren’t written into the constitution but they have evolved and are here today.
6. Supremacy of the national government- the federal government and constitution are supreme- above the state, and everyone must show their loyalty.
7. Ratifying the constitution- 9/13 state need to ratify before it goes into effect.
• Harold Laswell defined government as who gets what, when and how.
• In any nation, government is made up of:
1. Institutions
2. People
3. Process that is used to create public policy.
• What is public policy? The system set up to maintain authority and control over society
Purpose of Government-
Every nation has goals that they would like to implement into public policies. The US has goals. Our goals were set up in the preamble to the constitution by our founding fathers:
1. “Form a more perfect union”- form a nation where the states have enough power, but not too much that a strong central union can’t exist.
2. “Establishing justice”- set up reasonable and fair laws.
3. “Ensuring domestic tranquility”- preserving public order.
4. “Providing for the common defense”- providing an army and navy.
5. “Promoting general welfare”- provide services to the nation.
6. “Securing the blessings of liberty”- providing individual freedoms.
Forms of Government-
Greek philosopher Aristotle classified government by the number of people ruling:
1. Anarchy- rule by none.
2. Autocracy- rule by one
a. Absolute monarch- usually inherits his position.
b. Constitutional monarchy- inherits his position but is limited by the constitution or code of law. Sometimes, he is a figurehead.
c. Dictator- someone who seizes power and maintains military control.
3. Oligarchy- rule by:
a. A few elite or socially high people.
b. Theocracy- religious leaders.
4. Democracy- rule by the people
a. Direct democracy- every single person votes on every single issue.
b. Representative democracy- I choose someone to represent me in government.
Theories of Government-
Who has the real power and influence over decision making?
1. Traditional democracy theory- government by consent of the governed.
2. Pluralist theory- special interest groups compete in the political arena. Interest groups are powerful, sophisticated groups that represent a certain cause. They compete with each other and work things out with each other.
3. Elite theory- the wealthy, corporate leaders or military leaders are running the country.
4. Bureaucratic theory- the bureaucrats are the people in power who are running the country.
5. Hyper- Pluralist theory- when the government is made of so many interest groups pulling in so many different directions that nothing gets done.
Origins of American Government-
1. Early influences of American government-
a. Greece- first democracy.
b. Rome- first republic.
c. English influences-
i. Magna Carta (1215)- Watershed Event- this was the first time that the power of a monarch was limited. The Magna Carta was forced upon the king by the nobility. The Magna Carta is sometimes called the Great Charter. It guarantees the nobles:
1. Right to a trail by jury.
2. Protects them from arbitrary taking of life, liberty and property.
3. Promised due process- a fair chance- under the law.
ii. Parliament- advisory committee. Over time, it became a law making body.
iii. Petition of Rights (1628)- it extended the Magna Carta to the commoners. It further limited the king from:
1. Taxing without Parliament.
2. Declaring war.
3. Marshall Law during peace time.
4. Gave people the right to trial by jury even if they criticized the king.
iv. English Bill of Rights- in 1689, the Glorious Revolution took place. It was a bloodless revolution- King James was ousted and William and Mary were put in his place on condition that they sign the Bill of Rights. It guaranteed:
1. Free parliamentary elections.
2. Fair and speedy trial.
3. No excessive bail or excessive punishment.
4. Right to petition.
5. No taxation without consent.
6. The monarch may not suspend the law.
d. Philosophers:
i. John Locke- government by the consent of the governed. He had the Social Contract theory- the government protects the natural rights of a person. If it doesn’t do so, it’s to be removed. Thomas Jefferson used these ideas when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
ii. Baron De Montesquieu- he believed in separation of powers. He felt that England was so successful because the power was divided into branches.
Colonial Experience- was from 1607- 1776. The American colonies were in a continuous state of political development. England treated them with a policy of salutary neglect, therefore the colonies had time to practice self government. The governments were based on their parliamentary heritage from England- it was based on the ideas of:
1. Liberty
2. Equality
3. Limited government
Every colony started with a charter- permit from the mother country to run a colony.
Most of the colonies wanted self government. Two examples of self government were:
1. Virginia House of Burgesses- was a lawmaking body. This was the first experience with a representative democracy.
2. Mayflower Compact- an agreement by the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower to be self governed. They had a democratic system of government.
Difficulties with England:
England left us alone for many years. We had a mercantilist relationship where England provided manufactured goods and we provided raw materials and a market for the goods. England took care of our defense and we took care of our internal affairs. For many years this was a grand system.
The turning point in our relationship was the French and Indian war- 1756- 1763 (aka Seven Years war). As a result of the war, England began to tax the colonies more heavily because they felt that since war is expensive, we should help fill the treasury. They began to enforce old taxes and institute new ones:
1. Sugar act
2. Stamp act
3. Townshend act
The colonists protested and war broke out- Boston Massacre. England continued to tax the colonists by means of the Tea act. The colonists acted out in the Boston Tea party and as a punishment to the colonists, the British placed the Intolerable act.
The colonists decided to meet to decide what should be done. In 1774, all the states aside from Georgia sent delegates to what later became known as the First Constitutional Congress in Philadelphia. They sent the Petition of Rights to the king and agreed to meet again.
In May 1775, delegates from every colony met again at the Second Constitutional Congress in Philadelphia one month after the battles of Lexington and Concord. The Second Constitutional Congress became America’s first government. It:
1. Set up an army- George Washington became a commander in chief.
2. Borrowed money from:
a. France
b. Netherlands
3. Set up a monetary system.
4. Made treaties.
5. Wrote the Declaration of Independence- was mainly the work of Thomas Jefferson and based on the works of John Locke. It can be divided into three parts:
a. Our theory of government- government is a social contract and is here to protect our natural rights.
b. Our list of grievances
c. Formal declaration
6. Articles of Confederation- laws written by the Second Continental Congress. The Articles reflect the colonists’ fear of strong, central government. The Confederation was like a league of friendship among the colonies. They didn’t want a repeat of King George, so they limited the power to a strong, central government.
The government could:
a. Borrow money
b. Create an army
c. Declare war
d. Set up a postal system
e. Sign treaties
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation:
a. Didn’t have the power to tax
b. Couldn’t draft soldiers
c. Couldn’t regulate commerce
d. Had no executive or judicial branch- no one to pull everyone together.
e. Nine out of thirteen states were needed to pass the Articles of Confederation.
f. Every state was equal, regardless of population.
g. Every state had to agree to make an amendment.
These weaknesses allowed states to concentrate on their own power. The states were taxing each other. Some states made their own treaties and printed their own money. Some states refused to listen to Confederation laws.
Successes of the Articles of Confederation:
a. 1781- led to the end of the Revolutionary war.
b. 1783- Treaty of Paris- brought about a successful end to the Revolutionary war.
c. Land Ordinance Act of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance Act of 1787- system of allowing new states to enter the union.
The government under the Articles of Confederation was a failure. It couldn’t deal with the nation’s problems. Chaos and violence broke out. They met in Mt. Vernon and Annapolis, but they still couldn’t work out the problems. It took Shays’ Rebellion to wake people up.
By Shays’ Rebellion, the farmers rebelled because they lost money and land. The wealthy landowners got hysterical that the mob would take over so they decided to meet and attempt to amend the Articles of Confederation.
Fifty- five men from all the states besides Rhode Island met in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention. They were all from the elite of society. They realized immediately that the Articles of Confederation couldn’t be fixed and that they had to start new. They decided that the new government would be a republic and run on a federal system where both the state and federal government work together. Additionally, the new government would have three branches of government. Many men came with plans, but the Virginia and New Jersey plans go down in history.
The constitution was full of compromises. Three of these compromises:
1. Great Compromise- this was an argument over representation. Should the people be counted by population or by state? They decided to compromise with a bicameral legislature:
a. Upper house/ Senate- two representatives for every state.
b. Lower house/ House of Representatives- number of representatives is based on population.
2. Three- fifths compromise- how should slaves be counted? The North felt that slaves shouldn’t be counted for representation because they’re not people, but they should be counted for taxation. The South felt that they should only be counted for representation, but not taxation. The compromise that was agreed upon was that three- fifths of all the slaves are counted for both representation and taxation.
3. Commerce compromise- the North wanted the government to regulate business. The South didn’t want the government involved because they were involved in exports and they didn’t want taxes. They also didn’t want the government involved in the slave trade. The compromise was that the government can and will regulate trade, but not tax exports. Additionally, for the next twenty years, the slave trade was not to be touched.
Ratification of the constitution-
On September 17, 1787, the delegates signed the constitution and it was then sent out to the state legislatures. Nine out of thirteen states had to ratify the constitution for it to became the law of the land.
Debates raged in many states- the Federalists vs. the Anti- Federalists.
1. Federalists- were led by John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. They wrote a series of eighty- three articles defending the Federalist view called the Federalist Papers. They were signed with the pen name “Publius”. The Federalist Papers supported the constitution and gave us insight into the founding fathers’ thoughts. The Federalists:
a. Believed that the constitution should be left as it is.
b. Stressed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and stressed that we need a strong central government.
c. Felt that a system of checks and balances will protect us.
d. The government in the constitution protects property rights.
e. Felt that we don’t need a Bill of Rights because the constitution itself limits the government.
2. Anti- Federalists- were led by Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Samuel Adams and George Mason. The Anti- Federalists felt that the new constitution gave too much power to the federal government at the expense of the states and people, therefore a Bill of Rights should be added to the constitution to protect people’s liberties. They wanted fewer limits on people’s participation in government.
It took two years for the constitution to be ratified.
The constitution details the:
1. Structure of the government
2. Power of the government
3. Duties of the government- relationship between the power of the federal government and the states.
Basic principles of the constitution:
1. Limited government- the US government is limited. The constitution is the supreme law of the land and no one is above the law.
2. Popular sovereignty- people rule, people are the source of power.
3. Separation of power- power is divided amongst three branches of government. Each branch has its own duties, and is controlled, restrained and limited by the other branches.
The Constitution-
The constitution begins with the preamble. The preamble is the opening paragraph which lists the nation’s goals:
1. “Form a more perfect union”- form a nation where the states have enough power, but not too much that a strong central union can’t exist.
2. “Establishing justice”- set up reasonable and fair laws.
3. “Ensuring domestic tranquility”- preserving public order.
4. “Providing for the common defense”- providing an army and navy.
5. “Promoting general welfare”- provide services to the nation.
6. “Securing the blessings of liberty”- providing individual freedoms.
The constitution has seven articles:
1. Legislative branch. This article has ten sections:
a. Congress- all the power of the Legislative branch is held by Congress. Congress is composed of the Senate and House of Representatives.
b. House of Representatives- in order to be elected, one must be twenty- five and a US citizen for seven years. He stays in office for a term of two years. The House of Representatives organizes itself however it wants and chooses the speaker. The House of Representatives also has the power of impeachment.
c. Senate- there are two senators per state. In order to be elected, one must be at least thirty and have been a US citizen for no less than nine years. Senators serve for a six year term. Senate serves as the jury during impeachment trials. The vice president is the president of Senate. He doesn’t have a vote unless there is a tie.
d. Discusses congressional elections- congressional elections are decided by every state.
e. Rules and procedures of the House and Senate- the House has many more rules.
f. Payment and privileges- salary is not written into the constitution, but it must be decided by the law.
g. How a bill becomes a law- the bill is presented to either the House or Senate. It is then referred to committees who vote, change and switch…
h. Powers granted to Congress:
i. Coin money
ii. Borrow money
iii. Bankruptcy laws
iv. Make money
v. Copy write
i. Powers denied to Congress:
i. Can’t suspend the writ of habeas corpus
j. Powers denied to the states:
i. Can’t coin money
ii. Can’t declare war.
2. Executive branch-
a. President- must be thirty- five, born in the US and a citizen for fourteen years. He serves a four year term.
b. Powers of the president-
i. Military powers.
ii. Makes treaties
iii. Appoints people
c. Presidential duty- to make sure that the laws are carried out.
d. Can be impeached.
3. Judiciary branch-
a. Federal courts and judges- they serve for life depending on their good behavior.
b. Authority of court- over who the courts have jurisdiction.
c. Treason- a treasonist is someone who declares war against the US.
4. Relations among states-
a. State laws and records- every state must honor other state’s laws- “full faith and credit”.
b. Rights of the citizens- citizens of one state are treated the same as citizens of another state.
i. Citizens are entitled to the privilege of another state.
ii. Extradition- if a convict runs to another state, the state must send him back.
c. Admission for new states.
d. Federal guarantee to the states.
5. Amending the constitution-
a. 2/3 of Congress and ¾ of the states. This has been done for 26/27 amendments.
b. 2/3 of Congress and a special convention held by ¾ of the states.
c. National convention suggested by 2/3 of Congress and then either approved of in ¾ of either state governments or state legislatures.
d. 2/3 of Congress and ¾ of the states agree to have national conventions.
e. Informal amendments-
i. judicial review. Began with Marbury vs. Madison in 1803. John Marshall was presiding over a case in which Marbury asked Secretary of State James Madison to give him his contract that Adams had given to him. Marshall used judicial review and said that the law is unconstitutional.
ii. Executive action- the president can take emergency action and make a change for the moment.
iii. Legislative action- Congress can pass laws that can extend the powers of the Constitution- elastic clause.
iv. Customs- political parties, for example, weren’t written into the constitution but they have evolved and are here today.
6. Supremacy of the national government- the federal government and constitution are supreme- above the state, and everyone must show their loyalty.
7. Ratifying the constitution- 9/13 state need to ratify before it goes into effect.
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