The Living Tradition of Halacha: Wisdom, Leadership, and Community with Rabbi Walter

Transcript

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Okay.

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Well, rabbi Walter, it's back by popular demand.

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I am super excited about this interview to kick the L season off.

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What better way than to invite back someone who the crowds were cheering for?

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Bring Rabbi Walter back, because we only got to hear once from you, but you are a superstar author with multiple books, and this is a topic that I'm excited about today, something that a lot of people don't know but is truly, I'm sure, like you're going to talk about, rabbi Walter, required knowledge for somebody that wants to be a law-abiding, god-fearing Jew, and that is the laws and the parameters of what in the world halacha is and psakh halacha.

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So welcome to the show, rabbi Walter, and it's good to have you back.

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Thank you so much.

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Great to be back.

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Thank you for the invitation.

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So first of all, I'd like to ask are you still in the same?

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You're the rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue of Avastora.

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Still, as of last time we checked.

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I didn't get any pink slips.

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So yeah, in the meantime I'm still here.

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Spent the last six summers is the Mardasar in camp zone, Uras camp, which is a Kirov camp, which is inspiring, as ever.

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Every summer is really terrific to be around people who don't have the opportunity to be in Juru schools throughout the year, so it's wonderful it's close for me and my family to be there.

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Oh, wow, that is that sounds exciting, Rabbi Walter.

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I want to jump right in.

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What in the world?

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Let's kick it off.

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Let's try to go about this interview for somebody that knows almost nothing, build up and then get deeper and deeper.

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But how do you even define the word halacha, and why should I care about it, Rabbi Walter?

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Okay, great question.

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Maybe I'll start with a story or two, if that's okay, let's do that.

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Stories are better.

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Let's do that.

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I think we'll sort of set the stage for your listeners and give some parameters in terms of setting the stage for our discussion.

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One of the great rabbis in the last centuries was Tzipi Esach Frank.

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Tzipi Esach Frank was the Rav of Yerushalayim, the chief rabbi.

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He lived in Geula, the famous Har Tzvi Shul, in the middle of Geula, and a young girl came to him, knocked on his door and showed him what seemed to have been a relatively simple shayla showed him an egg and an egg with a blood spot and seemingly it would be an open and sharp case and it should be problematic and she shouldn't be able to use it to eat it, etc.

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Etc.

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Tzvi Pesach Frank invited her and this young girl and asked her where she lives and she said that she lives in Shari Chesed.

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So anybody knows the landscape of B'rit Yerushalayim knows that to walk from Shari Chesed to Gula or vice versa takes you roughly 20, 25 minutes or so.

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But during the British mandate it was a little bit more complicated, a little bit more dangerous, and Tzvi Pesach Reng noted that and he said to her Mutter and she could use the egg and she should go home and say hi to her parents, to the astonishment of the Talmidim who were there, who were apprenticing him doing Shemesh for Rav Tzvi Pesach, who would have people coming to ask him Shilas.

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So he noted their shock and their astonishment and he said you might be wondering why a pasken l'kula?

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Why I was lenient on a shayla that would seem to be open and shut, black and white, that the egg should be us and she shouldn't be able to eat it.

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So he said, let me explain to you.

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This girl lives in shaykh chesed.

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It's not a close walk, it's not an easy walk and it could even be a dangerous walk.

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There are many rabbanim poske moyeron shaykh.

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The fact that her family sent her to ask me this question means that they were looking for a psak l'kula.

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Clearly there were some financial considerations there and the fact that she was taking that walk and going out of her way to come to me means that there was something implicit in the reason that they were sending her my way and therefore, based upon a number of halachic factors, I leaned l'kula on the shayla.

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That's one story that sort of gives you insight in what it means to paskan eshayla.

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Paskan eshayla doesn't just mean yes or no, mutter, asr, permitted or prohibited, tahar tameh, pure or impure.

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Answering eshayla requires the sixth sense, what sometimes we refer to as the fifth chelg of shulchan arach, and therefore, and therefore financial consideration is one of multiple factors, probably, that we'll talk about today in terms of what Poskim take into account when they answer a shayl.

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Let me share with you one other story which very much, I think, speaks to this point as well.

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One of the great Poskim, gdolim Lamdanim of pre-war Europe, of course, is the Beis Alevi, yosef Dov Alevi Salvechik, the author of the Beis Levy, who's the Rev of the city of Slotsk.

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Several days prior to Pesach, a blacksmith knocked on the door and came to ask the Beis Levy the following shayla Some might laugh at the shayla but asked the Beis Levy is it permitted to use milk for the Dalet Kosos?

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So the Beis Levy responded and asked the fellow did your doctor instruct you not to drink wine?

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Do you have some medical conditions?

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He said no, no, it's not a problem.

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So, basically, levi said well, why would you want to use milk for your dollar cost?

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It was for the four cups of wine for the seder.

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So the fellow answered because I'm in financial hardship.

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Now there's certain constraints I have financially and it's cheaper for me to use milk than it is to use wine.

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So basically Levi left the room and he returned with 25 rubles and he turned to the fellow, to this blacksmith, said here are 25 rubles.

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The blacksmith said I didn't come for a handout, I came to ask a shiva.

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So basically he said I understand, it's not a handout, I'm not getting stuck, it's a loan.

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Consider it to be halva and when you have the money you'll pay me back.

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Blacksmith took the money, walked away, closed the door and on his way he went Listening and overhearing the conversation was Rebetzin Salveichik Beis, levy's wife, who said what's going on.

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I heard the whole conversation.

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He asked if he could use milk instead of wine.

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If he needed wine you could have given him two, three rubles.

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Why did you give him 25 rubles?

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So Be Gilead says you didn't hear what he asked me.

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If he was asking me if milk could be used for the Dalek Kostas, that means that he clearly doesn't have meat for the Seir because he can't have milk and meat.

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Basar Becholov had the same Sudah.

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So that means he doesn't have meat, he doesn't have wine, he doesn't have any of his needs and the family's needs for the Siddarim and for the entire Yontif.

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If he comes back, he comes back.

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Another example of Amor Hara Poseik, a halacha who understands that when you're presented with a shayla, it doesn't just mean to answer the question, but it means that there are certain things that are being asked that aren't necessarily being spoken and understood, and therefore that's what a poseik has to do.

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So when you ask me, what is halacha?

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Halacha means doing what you're supposed to do, following what it is that it says in Shulchan, arach, tur Beis, yosef Rambam, the Riff, et cetera.

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We could go through all of the Nozakalim, the G'dolei Aposkim and the Klalei Apsak, but really what it boils down to is that there are two aspects.

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Down to is that there are two aspects.

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There is that a Jew and a God-fearing Jew and a Jew who wants to abide by the halacha wants to do what it says, and often what it says is not always what you're supposed to do.

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And therefore, that's when we come into the sort of dichotomy and the balance between asking a shayla, knowing halacha and understanding how to have a relationship with the rabbi and a posek in terms of going about doing what you're supposed to do.

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I'll be halacha.

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So we really just broadened very much and kind of shattered my dreams as to what it takes to become a qualified rabbi, to get smicha.

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I mean my brain's leaping to this.

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Smicha, I guess, means you've been anointed to become a rabbi, you've been knighted and you can answer Shilos.

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But I guess now it takes a lot more to get Smicha.

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How does one actually now, if I want to become a rabbi, how do you become someone that's reputable as to also know the back and forth?

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How am I supposed to be vetted as somebody that is good at interpersonal relationships?

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How do you add that to smicha?

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Good question.

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As you point out, historically, the way that it worked traditionally, the traditional form for answering Shilohs was through smicha.

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Moshe Rabbeinu was Somech, yeshua, yeshua's Kenim, skenuvim, antzhe, knesset Zagadola, and there was an absolute formula for smicha that ended when it ended exactly is a debate in the Rishonim, but certainly smicha, the concept and the construct and the parameters that we have of smicha, of Moshe kibbutar misin, the story of Yeshua and when the passage says in Parshas Pinchas that Moshe was so mech Yeshua that no longer exists.

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What we do have today is what we call a heta hara that's the way the Ramah and other posts can refer to it that a rabbi who has the skill, the quality, the knowledge to be able to pass Genshelas means that there's a Rav who also is a reputable person, who has his Rabbanim, who gave him a hatahara, continuously passing down a tradition where that individual not only is vetted for their halakhic knowledge, that they know and they understand Gemara Rishon and Psak Halacha, but also that they're an they understand Gemara Rishon and Pesach Halacha, but also that they're an individual who has an understanding, appreciation for Shemesh.

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Shemesh means that I sat by a Rav, I listened and I heard and I debated and I deliberated and I worked things out.

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Now, of course, once somebody has smicha, it doesn't mean that you can just answer Shiloh.

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Certainly there's a greater level of understanding that's necessary just by receiving a piece of paper or not even receiving a piece of paper.

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But any Rav has his Rav and Rav has his Rav.

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So there needs to be an ongoing relationship and a growing understanding of what it is that is being asked of you, like I referred to, from the Bais Alevion, from the Reptipes Achraik, and you could see this from Gedol HaAchron and Menchuvos when they write careful analysis of a Shaila.

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There are many intangibles that exist in the Shaila and that's the reason maybe we'll talk about it the advantage of asking a Shaila in person, a face-to-face communication, versus answering Shailas either Bixav or more modern technology or communication, whether it's text or WhatsApp or phone calls and the like.

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There are many different parameters, but certainly Yerubisrael Solanta writes that anybody who answers Shiloh has to have two things he has to be knowledgeable, he has to know and he has to be a person who is certainly understanding of Gemara Rishonim and Pesach Halacha.

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And more than that, you have to be personal and understand the ins and outs and understand what's a din, what's the raisa?

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What's the rabbanon?

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What's a minug?

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How the different kalolei hapsak work, how to balance things.

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What's a minug?

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What's a chumra?

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What's a das yachid?

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How, when the shulchanarach writes something, articulates something.

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What does it mean?

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How do we understand the shulchan Aruch in light of later Psakim, the Sma, the Shach, the Taz, the Mishnabur, the Choshocha?

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There are so many different.

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I got it.

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So there's so much going on here, so it gets.

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One of the things about Halacha that becomes so challenging is that it is you can pretty much, seems like, have multiple opinions on any said question.

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You could also have different mesorahs and different minhagim, which I know you know a lot about, rabbi.

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So there's a lot going on.

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I still want to have that chance to now, now that we know that there's even more confusion now in halakha, because we also have to have the right role and the right understanding of the rabbi.

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Who's the answerer and the congregant or the said questioner?

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He also has to ask properly.

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There's a lot going on.

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I still want to have that chance to now actually define exactly what is halacha, understand who's in charge of this entity called halacha, when the world, this word halacha actually means.

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To me it means going like.

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Cholech means to go, but I really try to build it up as clearly as possible here.

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Rabbi, all I know is that there's the five books of Moses, there's a Pentateuch.

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Where does halacha fit into all that?

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Yisro and Parsha's Yisro tells Moshe Benu that in order to execute proper sack, it can't be that Moshe Rabbeinu just has to be the one to answer all Shailas.

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It's an impossibility, it can't help.

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Moshe Rabbeinu remain responsible to deal with all of Kalal Yisro.

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So Yisro understood that it had to be a davar gadol and a davar katan.

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They're heavyweight Shailas and Moshe has to deal with easier, simpler Shailas and a davar kat.

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And there are heavyweight shaylas and moshe has to deal with easier, simpler shaylas.

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There's, there's a sanhedrin, there's a bezin, there should be musicanium.

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So from the time of so, by the time we were given the tag mitzvos and, as sarah said, we needed to know how to do what it is that we're supposed to do.

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The tar doesn't always define exactly what it is that we're supposed to do.

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We're coming off of parashahs ake.

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So the Pasuk says three words.

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What does that mean?

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That means you have to bench.

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So the Torah doesn't tell me what to bench, how to bench?

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How many passages of the Reisah?

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How many brachos of the Reisah?

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What's the Reisah?

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What's the Rabbanu?

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I thought you were going to say the other one.

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I thought that was such a cool Rashi last week.

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It said that you, exactly as I told you, that's what right.

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But then God doesn't tell us anywhere.

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This is what Tarshav Baal Peh is all about.

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And that's why Rabbi Huran Asher, rabbi Rav, Ashi established exactly what it was that the Torah tells us.

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Like we saw that Chazal were given the ability, the power and the teeth in order to concretize what it is that it says in Tarshav Baal Peh, what it is that it says in the Torah, shabbos Tav.

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So therefore, by the time of the Mishnayas and the Gemara and the Goenim and the Rishonim, and what the Gedolei Rabbanim had been doing for Dorai Doros is being able to exercise the koach that they have to establish, explain what it is that our Bosham was telling Moshe Rabbeinu.

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That's what the Tanarim and Amorim are doing.

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And that wasn't even enough, because after the Tanarim and Amorim that's when the codes of Jewish law began the Tanarim and Amorim wrote the back and forth, the dialogue and the communication that took place between the Tanarim and Amorim.

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But if I just have Shas, so I don't necessarily know what to do and how to do it.

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So therefore, in the times of the Gaonim Redi, we started seeing chubas and psachim that were written down in order for communities to know what to do and how to do it.

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And that continues out of Yom HaZev.

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For the last thousand years, we continue to establish, to write, to concretize and to explain exactly what it is that we're supposed to do.

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Torah tells us kan tzipur, the mitzvah of shiloh hakein.

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But Torah has three, four psukim parashas kisete about that.

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So how do I fulfill the mitzvah of shiloh hakein?

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So you know, you can take a look.

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Today there are two or three kitzers for it.

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I'm talking about a kosher bird or not a kosher bird.

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Is it a bird in your backyard or a bird in your front yard?

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Where's the nest?

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What type of nest?

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What type of?

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So there are many different factors that need to be taken into account and hopefully a proper post-leg knows how to mirror Torah Shebech Tzav and Torah Sheba Al-Peh in order that it should be an explanation and an exposition elucidating what it is that Torah Shavuot Chassav is supposed to do.

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How come this has me guessing?

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How come the great Rav Meir and Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi didn't just write down the practical halacha?

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For exactly this reason that really halacha was supposed to be Torah Shabal Peh.

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It was supposed to be taught from Rebbe to Talmud and Talmud to Talmud.

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It wasn't supposed to be written down.

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The Rebbe who did it on us?

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He had a hat there.

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The Pasuk says we were forced to write it down because the Gullas.

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So write down halacha.

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So once there's a time of need, let's do it.

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We could write down the sodos is a time of need, let's do it.

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We could write down the sodas, but we can write down the exact, absolute, final rulings about everything.

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Now the truth is, why not understands gemara properly?

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So the piske aloha often mirror what it is and we know.

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We have klalim and chas, had you pascan machlokes.

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There are klale hapsak and they're, they're great svarim.

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In klalei hapsak that described us.

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The riff has klalim, the Beis Yosef has klalim.

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The Shulchan Aruch has klalei hapsak.

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But that begins to water down the process.

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Some or so of you should be familiar I don't know if your listeners are familiar with this when the Shulchan Aruch of Yosef Kahro codified, the Shulchan Aruch, it was taken to task.

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It was taken to task, it was met with tremendous, tremendous opposition.

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How could it be that there's an individual who would attempt to codify, to organize and to concretize all Pesach Halacha into four volumes?

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What's?

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the problem with that?

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Why?

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not so.

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The Marsha actually explains in Masech HaSot and Av Chav Beis that— that's in your book, right at the beginning.

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That's in your book.

00:16:39.116 --> 00:16:48.697
In one of the chapters I think I've heard this Marasha that somebody who does that is called Nambilei HaOlam, is considered to be somebody who is a destroyer of the world.

00:16:48.697 --> 00:17:02.302
Because the way that halacha is supposed to work, the way that Torah is supposed to work, the way that Tarshim HaOlam is supposed to work, is that there's supposed to be a relationship, really face-to-face communication, like we described them what it was that yisro suggested to mosharbenu.

00:17:02.302 --> 00:17:10.823
That's the ultimate dialogue communication in terms of how we're supposed to distill what it is that akadosh baruch hu told mosharbenu.

00:17:10.823 --> 00:17:30.625
Because we were unable to do that and because of dispersion, because of galos and because of pogroms and death and destruction, the crusades and the inquisition, so a lot of the mesorah and Klal Yisrael was lost and, as a result, we needed to define, to identify and to articulate exactly what the final Pesach Halacha was.

00:17:30.625 --> 00:17:42.785
Now the Pesach Yitshuvah actually writes that, even though the Marsha says that writing and organizing and concretizing Pesach Halacha L'maysa, like the Tanoim did in the Mishnah, is considered to be destroying the world.

00:17:42.805 --> 00:17:53.815
Psalm halach al-maisah, like the Tanoyim did in the Mishnah, is considered to be destroying the world once they're now Nosekelem on the Shulchan Aruch and there are commentaries and super commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch, we now understand the background in terms of what the psalm halach is.

00:17:53.815 --> 00:18:04.622
The problem with simply writing the bottom line is that's very base and it's very elementary and we can't understand the complexities and the background of where the psach halacha is coming from.

00:18:04.622 --> 00:18:13.180
So if you're just reading a simple psach in Shulchan Aruch, so you're missing the boat and you could be somebody who really doesn't understand and appreciate the background then you're just issuing piskah halacha.

00:18:13.180 --> 00:18:19.401
It's going to water down halacha and it's not allowing the richness and the nuances of halacha to come alive.

00:18:19.401 --> 00:18:27.821
So therefore, once there were no sekelen and super commentaries commentaries written on Shulchan Aruch now there's a tazen zashach and yoders, a magen avram and a tazen magen avram.

00:18:27.821 --> 00:18:29.701
There's a sman, a drish and a prisha.

00:18:29.701 --> 00:18:36.676
So therefore we could start to understand the background much, much better and therefore Shulchan Aruch became much more widely accepted.

00:18:37.278 --> 00:18:38.157
I got it.

00:18:38.157 --> 00:18:59.847
Have you ever heard of the theory or the idea that the reason why just the minimum klalim, the general principles of halacha, just that was written over was because the hector, the permission to write down Torah, was given over only what was needed, so we could only give over the minimum amount, but any extra would be prohibited.

00:18:59.847 --> 00:19:00.777
Have you heard of such a theory?

00:19:01.397 --> 00:19:22.385
I think it's what we've been discussing, that really, and this is so lost today because we find ourselves in the Golas and everything is written down which is necessary today, and Chuvah Sferm have, you know, been critical in terms of distilling and explaining and issuing Peske Halacha for a thousand years, from the Rishon to the Hronim to contemporary Poskem.

00:19:22.385 --> 00:19:26.557
But really that's not the way it's supposed to be and people don't understand that.

00:19:26.557 --> 00:19:29.450
That's not the way that it was intended.

00:19:29.450 --> 00:19:37.836
It was intended to be, like the Mishnah says in Havos, that there's supposed to be an oral communication from Rebbe to Talmud, from parent to child, and that's really the way it worked.

00:19:37.836 --> 00:19:43.741
That's always the way it worked, and only because of the loss of Masorah that changed.

00:19:43.741 --> 00:19:47.165
So therefore, yes, on a certain level, even the Mishnahis were written very terse.

00:19:47.165 --> 00:20:02.482
But when that didn't even work, ravino Ravashi had to come and they had to elaborate and clarify and even once the Gemara was written, we needed to be shown to explain what it was that the Gemara said and that continues and continues.

00:20:03.084 --> 00:20:07.410
So the increasing of literature and the more of it is, almost sadly, like a sign of the times.

00:20:10.535 --> 00:20:10.855
I would say both.

00:20:10.855 --> 00:20:24.744
On the one hand, it's awesome because the proliferation of Sfarim and Psak Halacha speaks to the fact that Klal Yisrael is so interested in the intricacies and the minutia of Halacha, is so interested in the intricacies and the minutia of halacha.

00:20:24.744 --> 00:20:28.007
Like I just pointed out, there's an entire sefer written on halachas of kan tzipra.

00:20:28.027 --> 00:20:31.048
there's an entire sefer written on halachas of ksiva sefer tozah On lashon hara.

00:20:31.390 --> 00:20:32.470
Absolutely so.

00:20:32.470 --> 00:20:35.573
That goes to show that Klaus was very, very interested.

00:20:35.573 --> 00:20:49.765
Arguably, the average balabas today is much, much more knowledgeable than the average balabhatim of hundreds of years ago and thousands of years ago.

00:20:49.765 --> 00:20:51.509
We have access to so much more literature and information, understanding and shimrim.

00:20:51.509 --> 00:20:55.882
So therefore, it's an amazing thing that Klausel is saying explicitly, implicitly we want to learn, we want to understand, we want to do what's correct.

00:20:55.882 --> 00:21:04.186
Mitzach, yes, there is a certain limit and a certain problem, because really we shouldn't be.

00:21:04.186 --> 00:21:05.096
We could talk about this.

00:21:05.096 --> 00:21:07.847
We shouldn't be answering shyness from opening up.

00:21:07.847 --> 00:21:08.632
But kids are safer.

00:21:08.632 --> 00:21:10.518
That's not the way it's supposed to work.

00:21:10.518 --> 00:21:12.042
There should be a rough environment.

00:21:12.042 --> 00:21:13.355
We could talk about that relationship.

00:21:13.355 --> 00:21:14.378
Okay, we'll talk about that.

00:21:14.539 --> 00:21:20.384
so we'll talk about that, because I know that there's a lot that goes into that and, um, I also have.

00:21:20.384 --> 00:21:28.064
I'd love to hear your what you were talking about a little bit before we started this interview and I was going over some of the notes from your book.

00:21:28.064 --> 00:21:36.496
It's very clear, your perhaps a very important message that needs to be heard about halacha, and I can't wait to get to that.

00:21:36.496 --> 00:21:44.069
I want to start now with so now we have Torah must be written down, and we have the Mishnah and we have the Gemara.

00:21:44.894 --> 00:22:00.403
So I believe there are three titans, or maybe it's a fantastic four great scholars that are the Mount Rushmore for lack of a better metaphor and analogy that is in charge of halacha, that is in charge of halacha.

00:22:00.403 --> 00:22:18.573
The big ones, as you put it, seem to be the Rambam Maimonides, the great Riff Riff, yitzchak Alfasi I think both of those are from Spain the Rush I don't know where he's from, but I know he's in the back of my Gemara and then the Tour, who writes a lot of some.

00:22:18.573 --> 00:22:28.758
I guess they're found in every single bookshelf.

00:22:28.778 --> 00:22:29.741
I don't really know much about the tour at all.

00:22:29.741 --> 00:22:30.965
Actually, um is that it's the rambam, riff, rush and tour.

00:22:30.965 --> 00:22:31.768
Those are the pillars of halacha rabbi.

00:22:31.768 --> 00:22:32.369
A pretty accurate statement.

00:22:32.369 --> 00:22:41.147
Yes, certainly, the riff and the rush and the rambam of the tour are the go-to and, uh, the default, the, the backbone of psychological why do we need four?

00:22:41.388 --> 00:22:42.577
why do we need four, did they?

00:22:42.577 --> 00:22:45.181
Why couldn't just Rambam do it, and everyone would live happily ever after.

00:22:46.116 --> 00:22:51.622
So the truth is it's not exactly four and indeed the Bais Yosef himself says that he looks to three of those four.

00:22:51.622 --> 00:22:56.944
He looks to the Riff, the Rambam and the Rush in terms of identifying Psaak Halacha.

00:22:56.944 --> 00:23:09.278
And he writes in his introduction the Bis Yosef, which is Rebbe Yosef Kar, ultimately from the Beis Yosef emerged the Shulchan Aruch, is that any time two out of three of those giants take one position he's going to pasken like that.

00:23:09.278 --> 00:23:12.917
Now, more often than not, the Beis Yosef paskens like the Shitzes Arambam.

00:23:12.917 --> 00:23:25.229
However, the Rambam traditionally is the Psak of Sfard and that's the Machaber, the Shulchanach, and the Ramah bases his Psakim more on the Balei Tosvos and the Rush.

00:23:25.229 --> 00:23:36.616
So very often we find that there's machloks in between the Rambam and the Rush, or the Rambam and the Riff against the Rush and the Balei Tosvos, so that really gives a picture.

00:23:36.636 --> 00:23:39.061
Where did the Rush live, as opposed to the Riff and the Rambam?

00:23:39.563 --> 00:23:47.238
So the Rambam was a great Egyptian rabbi, the Riff was Reb Yitzchak al-Fassi was a great.

00:23:48.000 --> 00:24:05.207
That's where he was from, fez and from Morocco, fez right, and the Rosh and the Balei Tosos were of Ashkenaz, descent France, provence, germany, and therefore there are different approaches in terms of how they're going to deal with Psak Halacha based upon who they're looking to.

00:24:05.756 --> 00:24:29.082
And the Rambam is the Psak of Sfard and became the Psak of Sfard of Egypt, mesopotamia, eretz, yisrael and in those areas, while the Rosh and the Balaitosos became the Psak of Ashkenazim very, very regularly and very often those who are familiar, those of you who are listeners, are familiar from understanding you know Gemara realized that very regularly there will be makhlokas between the Rambam and the Tosfos.

00:24:29.082 --> 00:24:41.878
There will be a makhlokas between Tosfos and the Rambam in terms of how they understand the Gemara and that ipso facto is going to create very often makhlokas between the Mechaber and the ramah.

00:24:41.878 --> 00:24:48.583
That's sort of the broad strokes in distilling how one will see a shulchanach.

00:24:48.583 --> 00:25:04.750
If you see a machlokas between the mechaber and the ramah, 99 or 9 out of 10 times the mechaber, the Rabbi Yosef Karol's psak, which is a psak of Sephardim, will be based upon the rambam in the Rif and the Ramah in his Głos, in the Shulchanach, who based his Psakim upon the Rosh and other Balaytosos.

00:25:04.750 --> 00:25:06.678
That's more often how it boils down.

00:25:07.540 --> 00:25:09.701
Fascinating I see often in Ashkenaz.

00:25:09.701 --> 00:25:12.638
So I mean I guess let's get into that.

00:25:12.638 --> 00:25:19.198
So we have those three main players, the three main, those that codified Halacha the Rif.

00:25:19.198 --> 00:25:24.076
Well, they all took different approaches towards halacha right the riff.

00:25:24.076 --> 00:25:34.931
I believe he piggybacked on the Gemara and kind of made an easy-to-read summary of halacha of the Gemara.

00:25:34.931 --> 00:25:35.757
Am I correct with that?

00:25:35.876 --> 00:25:49.144
That's what he wrote to differentiate between the way that the, the rambam and, let's say, the rush worked, as opposed to the riff and the tour, is that the rambam really gives just the bottom line.

00:25:49.144 --> 00:25:55.740
The rambam, which is the challenge of learning the rambam, is the reason why there's so many more forshmen, the rambam, the maga mission, the cast of mishnah and the lack of mission.

00:25:55.740 --> 00:26:00.621
Most prominently, it's because we don't know and the rambam didn't explain to us where he was coming from.

00:26:00.621 --> 00:26:05.509
So therefore, that's the reason we need major no Sekelem commentaries and super commentaries in the Rambam.

00:26:05.509 --> 00:26:07.281
So that's all the Rambam did.

00:26:07.281 --> 00:26:08.621
The Rush similarly did that.

00:26:08.621 --> 00:26:12.886
The Rush just gave us the bottom line without really getting into the background.

00:26:12.886 --> 00:26:21.240
So the Rambam and the Rush share that common denominator in just giving us the final bottom line, psakalach, without explaining where they were coming from.

00:26:21.842 --> 00:26:24.227
I thought the rush gave a little bit more, didn't he?

00:26:24.227 --> 00:26:26.815
More than the Rambam, Sometimes a little more lengthy right.

00:26:27.436 --> 00:26:28.601
Certainly more than the Rambam.

00:26:28.601 --> 00:26:38.037
But the riff those familiar with the riff that's clearly an extrapolation of the Gemara and the riff goes to the Gemara.

00:26:38.037 --> 00:26:48.410
The riff will take out a lot of the agadah of the Gemara and a lot of the, let's say, much of the back and forth and the dialogue between the Amorim and the debate.

00:26:48.410 --> 00:26:53.045
And I'll give you the bottom line, but it's working and it's written al-piseder ha-Gemara.

00:26:53.045 --> 00:26:54.367
So a lot more background.

00:26:54.367 --> 00:27:07.074
Therefore, the Rambam is challenging in that respect, because you don't always know where the Rambam is coming from, as opposed to the rift, where we do understand, where the Rift's bottom line Halach is coming from.

00:27:07.094 --> 00:27:08.980
This makes so much sense.

00:27:08.980 --> 00:27:24.123
Before I just was heard over from the great Chafetz Chaim, he actually said that laymen or working men should, if they don't have time to study all of Shas, they should study just the riff.

00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:52.390
I think there was something similar said by the Vilna Gon, because that gives almost like a summary are many Mepharshim written on the rift, including most classically the Rand and the Muqayyosef and others, in order to shortline and to streamline the dialogue and communication, and the makhloksim and the gemara.

00:27:52.390 --> 00:27:59.732
You get to the meat and potatoes, let's say, without all of the background and the lumbus, which is critical and important to understanding.

00:27:59.755 --> 00:28:19.397
But the rift explains how he gets to, uh, gets to where he's going, so that's very, very important as well I found that as well, like it's sometimes if I want to sound smart, so when I like, sometimes if it takes me a long time to get through, like breaking my teeth on a masajda, but then I want to give over at the seum, like after we finish, a small little summary of the masajda.

00:28:19.397 --> 00:28:23.928
Sometimes I'll just go through and you can just all the parts of the Rift.

00:28:23.928 --> 00:28:34.416
You can almost see every Halachic topic and extrapolated law and almost summarize the entire tractate just by studying the Rift.

00:28:34.436 --> 00:28:37.653
Yeah, the Rift certainly does that and in Halacha.

00:28:37.653 --> 00:28:42.758
Actually, the tour is very similar because what the tour did is that the tour organized.

00:28:42.778 --> 00:28:43.601
So that's the next thing.

00:28:43.601 --> 00:28:44.403
That's the fourth rabbi.

00:28:44.403 --> 00:28:45.326
So who is the tour?

00:28:45.326 --> 00:28:47.682
If he's not part of the big three, what is he?

00:28:48.255 --> 00:29:08.265
So the tour is the son of the rush and the tour collects the Pesachim of the Gedoli Rishonim, including the Rambam, the Riff and the Rosh and other of the great Ashkenazi Rishonim, and the tour usually, usually follows the psak of his father, the tour but very much leans on the Rambam as well.

00:29:08.265 --> 00:29:12.449
So therefore, if the person is following the rush, you might as well rush Correct.

00:29:12.449 --> 00:29:17.031
But he also will very much cite almost verbatim, very regularly, the shitas of the Rambam.

00:29:17.031 --> 00:29:31.915
And if one learns the tour so as opposed to the riff which is written, I'll say there, along the chronology of the gemara and the tractate, that's being learned, the tour does it I'll say there you know what we would call of halacha or haim or edeyach or shemishmon or mezer.

00:29:32.377 --> 00:29:34.625
That organization really began with the tour.

00:29:34.625 --> 00:29:53.885
And if you learn the tour, a particular simen or a particular section in halacha, what you'll get is the compilation and the organization and the conclusions of the G'dol Ereshonim and that becomes the springboard for what the B'Siosef is going to do to Paschan Halacha L'ma'isa.

00:29:53.885 --> 00:30:07.501
So if in a particular simen or sif the tur will quote a Rambam shita like this the Rav shita is like this, the Rosh Hashita is like this, the Rosh Hashanah Sheet is like this Tur won't necessarily be Machria, the Tur won't come to a Halacha conclusion.

00:30:07.501 --> 00:30:11.521
Very often we'll say the Psak is like my father or it's understood in which direction he's going.

00:30:11.521 --> 00:30:25.006
But that became the basis of many, many to understand what, the broad strokes of what the Gedoli Rishonim and Poschim are saying, and from there the Bais, yosef, the Pask and the Lacha, based upon one of the three, like we said, the Rambam, the Reh for the Rosh.

00:30:26.147 --> 00:30:39.358
So now we have the tour, which seems to be well accepted as the go-to Lacha because he's drawing from everyone, and the tour the super commentary on the tour is the Bais Yosef.

00:30:39.358 --> 00:30:43.247
The base Yosef is authored by Yosef.

00:30:43.247 --> 00:30:45.601
Cairo lived about let's say what?

00:30:45.601 --> 00:30:47.300
500 years ago.

00:30:47.300 --> 00:31:02.500
Yes, he is going to be the monkey wrench in all of this, if pardon the expression, he has authored a great deal on Halakha.

00:31:02.500 --> 00:31:06.877
I know of the Shulchan Aruch is his, his.

00:31:06.877 --> 00:31:07.740
I know that the base yosef is his.

00:31:07.740 --> 00:31:10.727
I know that the kesaf mishnah that's one of the super commentators on the rambam is his.

00:31:10.727 --> 00:31:23.027
Can you help put into perspective all of the different needs that were met by all of the just voluminous literature that was put out by the great Rebbe Yosef Cairo?

00:31:25.159 --> 00:31:26.222
Rebbe Yosef was a giant.

00:31:26.222 --> 00:31:32.488
Rebbe Yosef lived in Tsvas, amongst the Chachmea Kabbalah of Tsvas, in the 1600s, as you pointed out.

00:31:32.488 --> 00:31:39.958
And Rebbe Yosef, cairo did something that was arguably changed you know rabbinic and Jewish history forever arguably changed.

00:31:39.958 --> 00:32:01.707
You know rabbinic and Jewish history forever Because what the Shulchan Aruch did and, as I noted, was met with enormous opposition because it was so different and even though the tour already began to compile and to organize halacha, what the Shulchan Aruch did was makhria, he paskent, and he wrote and articulated for posterity what exactly a Jew should do.

00:32:01.707 --> 00:32:21.641
So if there's a shiit of the Rambam, the Rosh and the Riff, and the tour compiles them all and puts them together, the Shulchan Aruch, based upon his say for the Beis Yosef, which was the running commentary on the tour, based upon either two out of three of those post-kim which we mentioned the Rambam, the Riff and the Rosh the Beis Yosef said this is the psak and this is what's supposed to be done.

00:32:21.641 --> 00:32:28.371
And that became an enormous, enormous sefer, which is the basis.

00:32:28.615 --> 00:32:30.554
The tour Bais Yosef is halacha tour Bais Yosef.

00:32:30.974 --> 00:32:34.266
Yeah, the tour is the tour and the Bais Yosef is the commentary on the tour.

00:32:34.266 --> 00:32:41.143
And then the Shulchan Aruch, which was written by the Bais Yosef Rabbi Yosef Karo is based upon his commentary.

00:32:41.143 --> 00:32:44.028
The Bais Yosef on the tour became the Shulchan Aruch.

00:32:44.755 --> 00:32:48.123
So his why did he write the Shulchan Aruch if he already wrote his halacha of the Bais Yosef?

00:32:48.615 --> 00:32:50.963
The Bais Yosef is much longer, much lengthier.

00:32:50.963 --> 00:32:59.176
It also cites very, very directly from the Poskim, the Rambam, the Rif and the Rosh, and therefore it's a shorthand book.

00:32:59.176 --> 00:33:04.523
It's sort of like the cliff notes, the bottom line, the end-all, be-all of what you have to do.

00:33:04.523 --> 00:33:18.500
So if a person is not a scholar and can't go through the Rambam, the Rift, the Rush, the Tour of the Bais Yosef, so I can skip all that and go right to the Shulchan Aruch and every Jew will know what he is supposed to do.

00:33:18.500 --> 00:33:20.625
And that's exactly what the Shulchan Aruch where Yosef Kar writes in his introduction to Shulchan Aruch.

00:33:20.625 --> 00:33:23.070
By the way, your listeners should be aware that it's very important.

00:33:23.070 --> 00:33:28.380
Each of these great Rabbis wrote introductions to their Sfarim and explained to us exactly what they were doing.

00:33:28.380 --> 00:33:35.128
So much of what I'm sharing with you is based upon the introductions of the Rambam, the Rift, the Tur, the Beis Yosef, the Shulchan Aruch.

00:33:35.128 --> 00:33:37.477
They explained exactly what it was that they were doing.

00:33:37.477 --> 00:33:41.601
In my book, actually in the back, Listeners, I've got to interrupt Rabbi.

00:33:41.641 --> 00:33:45.163
Listeners, all this is printed in the back of Rabbi Walter's book.

00:33:45.163 --> 00:33:47.527
You don't need to buy all of the Bais, yosef and Shulchan Aruch.

00:33:47.527 --> 00:33:51.549
Just buy Rabbi Walter's at least one of his three books and you're going to get it all.

00:33:51.549 --> 00:33:52.731
Sorry for interrupting you, rabbi.

00:33:54.756 --> 00:33:56.883
No thank you.

00:33:56.923 --> 00:33:59.236
Just a quick plug there, I apologize.

00:33:59.236 --> 00:34:05.587
You were telling us all about the need to go to the Shulchan Aruch, which is a summary and the point of it.

00:34:05.587 --> 00:34:06.730
He writes in his introduction.

00:34:06.730 --> 00:34:09.623
He writes this in his introduction the point of the Shulchan Aruch.

00:34:10.175 --> 00:34:11.056
Yeah, absolutely.

00:34:11.056 --> 00:34:25.318
But this was exactly the point that was met with opposition and contention because the colleagues and the Rabbanim who challenged Rav Yosef Kar said that that's not the intent of what it was that halakh is supposed to be.

00:34:25.318 --> 00:34:26.460
It's not just supposed to be.

00:34:26.460 --> 00:34:26.963
You know.

00:34:26.963 --> 00:34:28.836
You open up a book and you know what you're supposed to do.

00:34:28.836 --> 00:34:36.958
There's supposed to be a lot of complexity and color and understanding of where the halakh is coming from.

00:34:36.958 --> 00:34:42.126
And if the Shulchan Aruch just writes one line, you're missing what does the Gemara say?

00:34:42.126 --> 00:34:44.759
What do the Rishonim say, what's the Machlokas, the Rambam?

00:34:44.759 --> 00:34:45.963
And you're missing all that.

00:34:45.963 --> 00:34:51.119
And that's actually exactly where the Vilna Gon entered, writing his classic Bir HaGorah on.

00:34:51.119 --> 00:35:01.143
The Shulchan Aruch was coming to show the sources of Rav Yosef Kara and that was really his goal and you can take a look at his introduction as well, and you can take a look at his introduction as well.

00:35:01.184 --> 00:35:02.628
I have this circled in my notes.

00:35:02.628 --> 00:35:12.699
I'm dying to know everything about the beer haqqara, this pirish, because the shulchan arh and the tour these are in yeshiva, these are the go-tos.

00:35:12.699 --> 00:35:14.784
This is anyone who wants to get the flavor.

00:35:14.784 --> 00:35:17.762
I mean, I'm still enamored every single time I open up the Beis Yosef.

00:35:17.762 --> 00:35:24.746
Just the fact that he can put all that into a paragraph, summarize something that took us six months to learn.

00:35:24.746 --> 00:35:25.929
And there it is in one paragraph.

00:35:25.929 --> 00:35:27.938
It's just beyond.

00:35:27.938 --> 00:35:29.103
And he didn't even live that long ago.

00:35:29.103 --> 00:35:34.226
And then the Vilna Gon, living 300 years ago, wrote a commentary.

00:35:34.226 --> 00:35:47.027
Rabbi, whenever I look down and get excited because everything of the Yeshiva movement is from the vilna gone, I can never understand one line of what the vilna gone's commentary on shulchan ar has to say so.

00:35:47.088 --> 00:35:55.432
So the vilna, gone of course, wrote very terse, um and very, very minimally, uh, and that's the way the grub worked.

00:35:55.432 --> 00:35:57.077
And the grub wrote on kola tarakula.

00:35:57.077 --> 00:36:03.224
There was almost no area of rabbinic literature that the grub didn't touch or didn't write on, from tarasha wasab toassav to Tarshav Al-Beth.

00:36:03.224 --> 00:36:14.980
The key, if you want to know, if somebody wants to know, if they understood the Shulchan Aruch and understood the suggah that they were learning, is learning a B'era Grah.

00:36:16.275 --> 00:36:18.083
That's gold, let's put that on a billboard.

00:36:18.083 --> 00:36:18.695
Why is that?

00:36:18.695 --> 00:36:19.195
That's gold.

00:36:19.195 --> 00:36:20.237
Why does it make any sense?

00:36:20.378 --> 00:36:36.969
What the Gra did, in very few words and very few sentences, was to explain the entire sugya with the Gemara, with the Rishonim, and it'll explain to you, very terse, exactly where the Shulchan Aruch's Psak Halach is coming from.

00:36:36.969 --> 00:37:00.728
And if he disagrees with the Shulchan Aruch, he'll make that sometimes clear and sometimes less clear, and that takes a lot of scholarship to understand how to learn the Gra and there are many greats from written on the B'yara Gra but the goal of the B'yara Gra and the truth is this is the goal of the Gra in almost all areas of his writing is to show how everything comes back to Torah Shebech Zav.

00:37:00.728 --> 00:37:16.467
Everything comes back to a word, to a pasuk or to a line in the Gemara and therefore if a person is able to understand what the girl writes, let's say on a Sif and Shulchanah, the girl writes Harambam delo kehatoisvas al pi menachos yudala.

00:37:16.467 --> 00:37:20.324
Those five words sum up the entire sukkah.

00:37:20.324 --> 00:37:34.539
So if you understand what the girl wrote, that means you understood the gemara, you understood the Zemach Lachas v'shonim, you understood that there's a Zemach Lachas v'shonim, you understood how the shulchanach is paskening and you understand if the grah agreed or disagreed with the assertion of the shulchanach.

00:37:34.559 --> 00:37:44.416
So the b'yar grah is critical, critical, critical.

00:37:44.416 --> 00:37:45.581
See many dolan uh, for example, the panamera.

00:37:45.581 --> 00:37:47.849
If somebody would ask him a shayla he would look at the shulchanach and the grub.

00:37:47.849 --> 00:37:52.186
The grub was like his kids are safer, because if a person understands the grub, you understand the entire sogyal.

00:37:52.186 --> 00:37:58.746
And there are many, many classicals from that written on the grub, the mess, like eliezer, for example who wrote these works on the grub?

00:37:59.146 --> 00:38:04.056
the mess is one of the classic works which was written on the Ville-Nagant.

00:38:04.056 --> 00:38:07.884
His name escapes me right now.

00:38:08.625 --> 00:38:09.427
When did he live?

00:38:09.507 --> 00:38:18.900
I mean after the grow About a hundred years after the Ville-Nagant and it's a running commentary opening up the Ville-Nagant because the grow wrote so, bekitzer.

00:38:18.900 --> 00:38:27.902
So the aliyah, as it does, and what other Sfarm on the Gara did, is to open up and to explain what the intent of the Gara was.

00:38:27.902 --> 00:38:32.356
The Gara didn't have time or interest and he was really tarshabach peh at the greatest.

00:38:32.356 --> 00:38:43.425
You want to understand what I'm saying, you have to work, but not everybody has that ability and therefore many Sfarm have been written from Gadol, israel, trying to explain what it was exactly that the Gra is doing.

00:38:43.425 --> 00:38:46.244
And, as I said, if you understand the Gra, you understand the Sorgia.

00:38:49.157 --> 00:38:50.280
Just to follow up Shabbat.

00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:51.063
That makes a lot of sense.

00:38:51.063 --> 00:38:58.175
Now we have an obsession with Rebbe Yeruchim L'Vovitz of Yeshiva Asmir here on this podcast, mostly because it's a Musar podcast.

00:38:58.175 --> 00:39:04.860
But I remember reading about him that he spent eight years preparing to become a mashkiach.

00:39:04.860 --> 00:39:25.905
So he became well-versed in the Talmud when he learned in Kelm and in Raden with his—it was in Raden, actually underneath the Chavetz Chaim and with his good friend and his chavrusa Rav, naftali Trupp, and they spent eight years learning Gemara and Rashi.

00:39:25.905 --> 00:39:26.331
I don't remember if they learned Tosfos.

00:39:26.331 --> 00:39:35.681
They learned the Shulchan Aruch and they learned it with the Be'er Hagra and I always never knew why they learned that, like how they could get anything out of it.

00:39:35.681 --> 00:39:39.521
But I mean, obviously it makes a lot of sense now that you're saying that.

00:39:39.561 --> 00:39:52.068
It's also just in regards to Elul.

00:39:52.068 --> 00:39:52.931

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