Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Thinking Talmudist Podcast shares select teachings of Talmud in a fresh, insightful and meaningful way. Many claim that they cannot learn Talmud because it is in ancient Aramaic or the concepts are too difficult. Well, no more excuses. In this podcast you will experience the refreshing and eye-opening teachings while gaining an amazing appreciation for the divine wisdom of the Torah and the depths of the Talmud.
Every week a new, deep, and inspiring piece of brilliance will be selected from the Talmud for discussion by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH (Houston, Texas).
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by David & Susan Marbin
00:00 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, texas. This is the Thinking Talmudist Podcast.
00:13 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Welcome back to the Thinking Talmudist Podcast. Previously we discussed the past two weeks. We started the beginning of 29a intractate kiddushin and then now we're at 30a intractate kiddushin and we were discussing the responsibilities that a father has towards his son obligation to teach him torah, the obligation of teaching him skills, the obligation to teach them how to swim, etc. Etc. We spoke about those responsibilities.
00:46
Now the Talmud is going to continue to discuss to what degree we are obligated, as parents, to educate and teach our children. So the Gemara now returns to the discussion of the obligation to teach one's son's Torah. Ad heichon chayav adam l'lamet is b'no Torah. To what extent is a man obligated to teach his son Torah? Amr of Yehuda. Amr Shmuel of Yehuda said, in the name of Amr Shmuel ki go'on zvulun ben dan. One must do like the example of zvulun, the son of Dan, she limdo avi aviv, whose grandfather taught him scripture, mishnah, talmud, halacha and Haggadah.
01:39
Shmuel's ruling is questioned. What Shmuel just said? That this is what he's obligated to teach him. They challenged this from a b'raisa. So and we know that what is meant when it says scripture is referring to the five books of the Torah, not the prophets or the writings.
02:14
So the Gemara says Kizvon ben don. Shmuel means that the obligation to teach a child is like the example of zvon ben don. In one respect, velok is zvon ben don and in another respect it's not like Zvolon Ben Don. How Kizvolon Ben Don? Shalim Do'avi, aviv. He says we have to learn. He says the point that he was trying to make is not what you teach, but who teaches. Who is that Like Zvolon Ben Don? Who did he learn Torah from His grandfather, that his grandfather taught him? So too must all men teach their grandchildren. And in what way? Is it not like Zvon Ben Dan, zvon Ben Dan, that Zvon Ben Dan? In his case, he was taught Scripture and Mishnah and Talmud, halacha and Haggadah, whereas the obligation that Shmuel describes, the only text that must be taught, is actually scripture. Okay, which was referring to the five books of the Torah. So the Gemara challenges this ruling. What was the ruling now? That the father's father? That the grandfather has to teach his grand the Torah. So the Gemara challenges this ruling. What was the ruling now that the father is father? That the grandfather has to teach his grandchild Torah. So is that the case? Does he really need to do so? Ve'avi aviv mimichayev, and is a man's grandfather really obligated to teach him Torah? Ve'atanya, we learned in the B'raisa that this is not the case. Ve'limadetem o's? We learned in the B'raisa that this is not the case. We know.
03:50
It says in the Torah, which conveys that you must teach only your sons and you are not obligated to teach your grandsons. It says referring to your sons. Why does it say'neichem? Because it's referring. It says your sons, not your grandsons. That's what we learned from it. So the Gemara says Then how do you explain and how do you interpret the statement that we say in the Torah you shall make them known to your sons and your grandsons. So by saying your sons and your grandsons, we know that when it says only sons, it's referring to only sons, because otherwise it wouldn't say elsewhere teach this to your sons and grandsons. Right, make sense. Okay, good, we're all on the same page here. Lo marloch shekol ha'melamed ez b'no Torah. This is to tell you that anyone who teaches his son Torah ma le'olav ha'kosov, ki'ilu limdo lo v'livno v'livem no Scripture, deems it as if he has taught Torah to his son and his grandson, and so on, ad Sof Kol HaDoros, until the end of all the generations. The Breisa thus contradicts Shmuel, for it rules that a man is not actually obligated to teach his grandchild. He is only obligated to teach his son and by extension, of his son. It's as if he taught it to the rest of his generation, but he's not obligated to actually teach it to them. The Gemara defends Shmuel and showing that there is indeed a Tanaic opinion that corroborates his ruling.
05:38
Shmuel said his statement in accordance with another Tana. He didn't say it on his own thought. He has another Tana that he's backing it up on Detania. It was taught in Abraes.
05:52
The verse says you shall teach them to your sons, which we say in our Shema thrice daily. We know our sons From where do we know that? It's also referring to your grandchildren. He says we learn it from that verse that says that you shall teach it to your children and your grandchildren, if so. So why does it only say your sons? Does it only say your sons, b'nei chem, v'lob'no sechem? It's to convey that one must teach his sons, but one is not obligated to teach his daughters. This latter b'raisa thus rules that one must teach his grandchild. Hence we have found Shmuel's position to be supported by a tana, where the tana is saying yes, indeed, you are obligated to teach your son and your grandsons, but you're not obligated to teach your daughter, which is why it says b'neichem, specifically to your sons, because there's no obligation for a woman to learn Torah. There's a difference between a woman learning Torah of course Jewish women are of the most educated women in the world, just so happens to be but they're not obligated to. There's a difference between being obligated to and being educated.
07:10
Okay, rabbi Shubin Levy extols the significance of learning Torah with one's grandchildren. Rabbi Shubin Levy said call him a lamed as ben beno Torah. Anyone who teaches his grandchild, his grandson, torah Scripture, deems it as if he has personally received the Torah from Mount Sinai. Shememar, as the verse states. And right next to it, the Torah tells us as the verse states ועודתם וונחו ונבונך, and you shall make them known to your sons and your grandsons. וסמיך ל, and right next to it, the Torah tells us יום אשר עמדתו לפני ה' ה' ב' חורף. Right next to that verse, it says the verse the day that you stood before Hashem, your God of horror, is mount sinai. It's one of the names of mount sinai. So what do we see from this? We see that it is such a high level that when a father learns torah with his son, when a father learns torah with his son, it's as if he's receiving the torah at mount sinai. And our sages say this that the vision of seeing a father and a son learning is like the vision of Mount Sinai. If you ever want to see Mount Sinai, see a father and son learning and you'll see Mount Sinai.
08:37
An episode involving Rabbi Shua ben Levi underscores the point. Rabbi Shua ben Levi. It once happened that the point Rav Echia Bar Abba, ashkechei L'Rab Yeshua Ben Levi, d'shodi Disna Areishe. It once happened that Rav Echia Bar Abba encountered Rav Yeshua Ben Levi, who had hurriedly thrown a sheet upon his head V'ko mamtei le'li nuka le'beik nishta, and was bringing his grandchild to the synagogue for his Torah lesson. So he just grabbed the towel, threw it on his head and ran with his grandchild to get his Torah lesson from the synagogue. Amar Le, rabbi Chieb Rabe said to him what's going on over here? See, he said Amar Le. He replied back Is it a small thing to fulfill that which is written, that you shall make them known to your children and grandchildren? And right next to it it says the day that you stood before Hashem at Mount Sinai, at Chorev. Do we not see from here that teaching Torah to one's grandchild is tantamount to receiving the Torah at Sinai? So the Gemara continues. So the Gemara continues.
09:56
Therefore, thereafter, rabbi Chieb Rabe established the custom not to taste umtza in the morning. The custom not to taste umtza in the morning, umtza is a name given to a small piece of roasted meat customarily eaten for breakfast. That's what people used to eat in the morning. He wouldn't eat that in the morning, ad demikri li'inuka v'mosfe, until he had read with his grandchild what the boy had learned the day before and had taught him an additional verse as well. So he made it a custom that he won't eat in the morning till he teaches his grandchild Torah. The Gemara recounts a similar practice by another Amora, one of the other Amoraic sages Also, rabbi Baravhuna had the custom not to taste in the morning Until he had brought his grandchild to the study hall.
10:53
Until he didn't do that, he did not eat why? Because you get hungry. You start thinking one second why am I not eating? That's something which is a natural need, a natural need, a natural urge of the body. So I need to eat, I need to. So if you hold yourself back until you do a certain task for example, the halacha says the one is not supposed to eat before prayer Prayer is not necessarily a natural thing, but if you block prayer, block the natural thing which is eating until you pray, so you'll remember to pray every day. So it's an important thing, it's a good, it's a good method of discipline. Everybody wants to eat, everybody needs to eat. But if you say, you know what, I'm not going to fulfill my spiritual responsibilities till I'm not sorry, I'm not going to fulfill my physical needs till I fulfill my spiritual responsibilities, that is a very good method of maintaining a proper discipline for spiritual matters. So I think it's an amazing. It's an amazing thing here.
12:06
Our obligation to learn Torah is, yes, for ourselves. That's a very, very important obligation. It's very clear in the Torah we're all obligated to learn and to teach ourselves Torah, not only with that, which is why we're all here today to learn Torah but not only is that obligation on us to learn Torah for ourselves, but to teach Torah to our children and to our grandchildren. And that's an obligation. And anybody who merits to have a child has the beautiful privilege to teach them Torah, and anybody who merits to have a grandchild has the beautiful privilege to teach their grandchild Torah, and anybody who has a great-grandchild has the beautiful privilege to teach their great-grandchild Torah.
12:54
A verse is expounded concerning the obligation to Torah study. Omer Rav Safra, meshumer Rav Yeshua ben Hananiah, rav Safra said, in the name of Rabbi Yeshua ben Hananiah, yeshua was the son of Hananiah. And what does he say? What is the meaning of the verse that says and you shall teach them thoroughly to your children. What is it referring to? I'll take revishinantim don't read it vishinantim, and you shall teach them thoroughly. Elo v'shilashtam. Rather change a letter and instead of v'shinantam, change one letter and make it v'shilashtam. And what does that mean? And you shall divide them into thirds. Understood this way, the verse conveys the following concept Le'olam y'salesh odam shnosav.
13:48
A person, a man, should always divide his years of his life into thirds Shlish b'mikra, spending a third of them in the study of Torah. Shlish b'mishnah, a third in studying the Mishnah. V'shlish b'talmat, and a third of his study in the study of Talmud. The Gemara asks that it appears impossible to calculate when a third of one's years has passed. How do we know. We don't know if we're going to live 100 years, 120 years or 69 years, like the Rambam, or 36 years, like Ramchal. How do we know? So, how do we know how many years to divide up to make it into thirds? Nobody knows the length of their life and therefore, how do we know how to calculate a third, a third, a third?
14:42
Safra teaches. His teaching is needed only as regard to days, that is, one ensures that he spends a third of his life studying each area of Torah by dividing the days of every week into three groups. So either you can do Sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, and then Shabbos review it all, either you can do Sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, and then Shabbos review it all, or you can do every day. You can have a third of your day Torah, a third of your day Mishnah, a third of your day Talmud. But I think there's something much more important that we need to focus on here. Is that Mishnah, according to some ignorant people out there, oh, that's just, that's the rabbis. Or Talmud, oh, that's just a story. Or Midrash, it's just Midrash. No, that's Torah. The Mishnah is Torah, right, the Talmud is Torah, and that's why we have this special class. This special class is for us to realize. We've been learning hundreds and hundreds of classes together and one of the things and this is why we started this, this entire series we're doing it now for almost what? Seven, eight, nine years, we've been studying Talmud together every Friday. Why do we do it? We do it because it's important for us to realize that all of Torah is sourced. All of Torah is sourced. Can you do me a favor? Can you pass me that big sign over there on the side? And, for those of you who are watching this video, we're going to show you in a presentation so that you understand. We're going to review this again so that it's important for each and every person to understand this. Thank you so much. Okay, so here we go. This is the pyramid I like to call this pyramid of our Torah and the giving of the Torah. I'm going to move the microphone so you can listen as well, so okay. So here's the pyramid.
16:45
Now, in year 2448, from the creation of Adam and Eve the Jewish people were at Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. It was a national, public revelation where the entire Jewish people witnessed it. They saw, they heard, they experienced the revelation at Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments were given to the Jewish people. Okay Then, if you see it's one big mountain, right, because everything the halacha says, the Talmud says, everything was given to us at Mount Sinai. It wasn't released till a later date. The release date was sometimes not delayed, but it was given at the right time.
17:30
Okay, so now all the green section here is what we know as the written Torah Tanakh, the Torah, the Nevi'im, the Ketuvim, which is the Torah, the five books of the Torah, the prophets and the writings, a total of 24 books, and over here we have all the years, exactly when they were written, when they were given to the Jewish people. This is the written Torah. Anytime you hear someone say, oh, but it's a verse in the Torah, it's referring to anything in Tanakh. Okay Now, moshe had a journal, aaron had a journal. Aaron had a journal, his children had journals, all the sages, the elders, the prophets, they all had journals. Those journals were all collected by Rav, yehuda, hanasi, Judah the Prince, the leader of the Jewish people in his generation, and he assembled it all into six orders of the Mishnah. There are a total of.
18:34
If you look at the Mishnah, there are 63 tractates and six different orders, exactly when it was given to the Jewish people, when it was sealed. And these are the description of the six orders. You also have Midrash, which is the behind the scenes of what was going on. So, for example, you have Adam and Eve. The Torah only gives us that much information, because the Torah, every word, is limited. The midrash is the whole backstory, all of the parts that are not included in the Torah but are hinted to in the words of the Torah, with the specific words that's in the Midrash, and the same thing, the Kabbalah. Kabbalah is the secrets of the Torah, all hinted to in the Torah, derived from the letters of the Torah. Now you have the Mishnah. The Mishnah is 63 orders sorry, six orders, six meaning sections and 63 different tractates. Now, what are those six sections? It's divided up.
19:35
All of our oral Torah is divided up into six different categories. What are they? Zerayim seeds, dealing with agricultural rules and laws for foods and blessings. Moed holidays, which is Shabbos, and Jewish holidays. Shabbos is considered a holiday as well, so that includes Yom Kippur, rosh Hashanah, sukkot, pesach, shavuot. All of those are included in Moed, in holidays, and there are 12 tractates in that 11 in seeds. Then we have women's issues dates in that 11 in seeds. Then we have women's issues, all issues relating to relationships and women, like a ketubah, like a divorce document, like a get, like a kedushin, which is the commitment between a husband and a wife seven tractates in that section. Then we have Nezikin, which is damages, which has 10 tractates and that deals with civil and criminal laws. We have number five, which is Ketchum all matters of holiness and that is offerings and dietary laws are all in there. There are 11 different tractates. And then we have Taharot, which is purity, and that's all. The temple service, spirituality and family Purity is all in, and there are 12 tractates in that section, a total of 63 tractates.
21:00
Now the mission is written in code. It's not so easy to always understand what the mission is referring to, what's going on, get the research, get the background. So, while Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was still alive, the rabbis got together and they said this is brilliant. We need to explain what it is that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi embedded into this Mishnah. We have to decipher the code of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi's teachings. So what did they do? They started writing the Talmud and there were two different areas where the sages were living. They were living in Babylonia and they were living in Israel, not in Jerusalem. It's called the Jerusalem Talmud, but they actually weren't. They were in Tiberias, where it was written, and Sfat, which is not far from one another, and they were writing the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud simultaneously in two different areas. There are 37 books of the Babylonian Talmud, 39 books of the Jerusalem Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud is a little bit easier to read and easier to understand than the Jerusalem Talmud.
22:03
And then the Rambam did an unbelievable job. What did the Rambam do? The Rambam did an unbelievable job. What did the Rambam do? The Rambam went through the entire Torah, the entire Mishnah, the entire Talmud, and then came up with the conclusions of all of those discussions. So what happened?
22:24
Imagine the following the Mishnah says the Torah says something, the Mishnah puts it into an example and I'll give you one, the first example in all of Mishnah. And then the Talmud starts attacking. What are you talking about? What's your source? Give me proof, you know? Back and forth. Okay, the Rambam takes the conclusion of that discussion and puts it as halacha, halacha. This is the way, this is the conclusion. You don't have to go back the whole, all the conversations back and forth and all the proofs, rambam just gives you bottom line. Tell me what to do, how do I wash my hands? When do I recite the Shema, et cetera, et cetera. Facts, one after another. And we have Jewish law that's the Rambam in the purple area here, which is Jewish, which is Halacha, the Jewish law.
23:11
And he wrote the 14 books of the Yad HaChazakah, the Yad. What is Yad? Yad means hand. Very interestingly, we mentioned this before that how many bones do you have in your hand? 14. Take your hand, bend and you'll see. Count the bones you have one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three and one, two and in total you have 14 bones in your hand. That's the Rambam is saying. That's the hand of Halacha, the hand, 14 sections of the Rambam's Halacha.
23:47
In the Mishnah Torah, which is the review of the Rambam's halacha. In the Mishnah Torah, which is the review of the entire Torah, the Rambam even writes that if you only learn the Mishnah Torah, you have all of the Talmud, all of the Mishnah and all of the Torah included in it, summarized everything with a practical how-to, with the sources for everything. Then, about 300 years later, rabbi Yosef Karo wrote the Shulchan Aruch, which is the things that are. Rambam wrote about everything, even things that are not practical today. For example, we don't have a temple. Rambam wrote about it.
24:22
What Rabbi Yosef Karo did? He says let me put together just the things that are practical today so it's easier for people to find and to make it relevant to today's people. So Rabbi Yosef Kar did that, and then his pen pal, rabbi Moshe Israelish, the Ramah, was going to do the same thing. One was Sephardic, one was Ashkenaz. And he says you know what, just send me your copy and I will write the Ashkenaz input so that we only have one book of Jewish law, not multiple. And there's the Shulchan Aruch and you have the Ashkenaz and the Sephard combined in one book. Then you have many, many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of books of Jewish law.
25:02
But one of the most common is one that was written less than a hundred years ago by the Chavetz Chaim. The Chafetz Chaim, who lived in Raden, put together an even more simplified book of the Shulchan Aruch and it's called the Mishnah Brura, a clear Mishnah, and this is the basic formation of all of the areas of our Torah. Okay, so now, when the Torah, when we talk here in our Talmud about the responsibilities of what we need to learn, now we know what we're talking about. We're talking about it says they learned Torah and they learned Mishnah and they learned Talmud and they learned Halacha and they learned Agadah. Agadah is all of the Kabbalah and the Midrash, the rest of the story.
25:49
All of this was taught to our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents by their parents, and this is an incredible thing. Now, how do we know that the Torah that we are studying here today at the Torch Center is the same Torah that was given to Moses at Mount Sinai? And now we're going to turn to slide number two, and that is we have over here and you're welcome to get a copy here at the torch Center or you're welcome to email me. We have an unbroken chain of the Torah transmission all the way from Moses at Mount Sinai receiving the Torah from God at Mount Sinai, all the way to all of us sitting here today at the Torch Center. And the Torah that we teach is not my Torah. I don't own the Torah. It's the Torah that I was taught by my rabbis, by my parents, by my grandparents, and this is the Torah that we are transmitting, hopefully, to the next generation. So, my dear friends, that's a little bit of a background, so that we are transmitting, hopefully, to the next generation. So, my dear friends, that's a little bit of a background, so that we are all on the same page and we all understand that this is not stuff that's made up by a bunch of rabbis God forbid but actually it is our Torah that was given to us at Mount Sinai, given to Moses and then given to all of the generations Moshe Kibbutz, torah Mishinai, the first mission on ethics of our fathers, teaches us that the Torah was given to Moses at Mount Sinai and then transmitted to the elders, and so on and so forth, all the way to us here today. Okay, my dear friends, let's continue now.
27:26
The Talmud now continues and says a new topic of discussion Lefikach nikru u'reishonim sofrim. Because of this reason, the early sages were called sofrim, those who count. Shahayu sofrim, kola osiyus shebatora. They would count all the letters of the Torah. Shahayu omrim. They used to say vav digachon, the Torah. They used to say Vav de Gachon, the letter Vav of the word Gachon.
27:56
Chetion shalosios shalatorah represents halfway point of the letters of the Torah scroll. And that is where is that? In Leviticus, chapter 11, verse 42. And we open up our Chumash to Leviticus, chapter 11, verse 42. And here we go. It's in middle of Parsha, at the end of Parsha Shemini, and it says over here, it's in middle of Parshash, at the end of Parshash Shemini, and it says over here, amazing, amazing, you want to see something really incredible?
28:39
Kol holech al gachon, from anything that goes on its belly and everything that walks on four legs up to everything with numerous legs among all the creeping things that creep upon the earth. You may not eat them for an abomination. They are numerous legs among all the creeping things that creep upon the earth. You may not eat them for an abomination. They are Gachon is belly. The letter Vav of that word is a larger letter than the rest of the word. That letter is exactly in the middle of the Torah. That means half the Torah is before it and half the Torah is going to follow it. And this is noted here from this Talmud. From this Talmud.
29:22
The letter Vav in the word Gachon is written in an elongated form in the Torah scroll. Why? The early sages who were called sofrim, those who count? Because they would count the words and letters of the Torah and provide numbered lists of the Torah's rules and principles, such as the 31 labors. Noted that the elongated Vav of Gachon is the midpoint of the Torah's letters and this is from tractate Kedushin 30a that we are discussing right now and that's all in your Schattenstein edition, interlinear Chumash, my dear friends Highly recommend that. So that's what we have from that letter, from that word Gachon.
30:13
The letter Vav is the middle letter of the Torah. Darosh Darosh, the words Darosh Darosh, chetzion, sheltevos, and when we get to the words of Darosh Darosh, which is also in Leviticus Leviticus 10, 16, that is the middle words of the Torah, not letters, words of the Torah. Ve'hizgaloch and the verse that begins with the word ve'hizgaloch, shel psukim. That is the middle of the Torah in verses. If you count the verses, that's the middle of the torah in verses. If you count the verses, that's the middle verse. And that is in middle of psalms, psalms 80, verse 14. That is the middle of of Psalms, psalms 80, verse 14. That is the middle of the book of Psalms. Vehu ra'achum, michaper avon and the verse vehu ra'achum, michaper avon, which is from Leviticus 13, 33, is chetziad p'sukim represents the halfway point of the verses in Psalms. Why does it say Leviticus, sorry, psalm 78? That's so, it's.
31:36
This is, by the way, without computers, without technology. You have to understand that our sages were such intelligent, smart people. They didn't have twitter or x or facebook or all these terrible distractions that we have today. They were completely immersed in Torah study. They did have Yetzirah back then. Yetzirah wasn't invented in the 21st century, but they had less distractions that they allowed into their lives. They protected themselves. So what did they do? They learned and learned and learned. You know one of the great sages of the previous generation.
32:13
When he would test someone on how well they knew a certain tractate of Talmud, he would ask them so how many times does it say the name Akiva in the entire tractate? How many times? And they would know how many times. How many times does it say this? And that I have an uncle who's a very, very brilliant man. He lives in Haifa. He's one of the rabbis of the city of Haifa and you can blind test him on any tractate of Talmud.
32:46
I remember I took my brother's-in-law to him. They didn't believe me that he was that great. So I said, okay, we said any Talmud. We took out a Talmud and we told him what Talmud was, he says already, you gave me the answer. Right, but what do you do? He does what's called needlepoint testing. Basically, you can read him any line in Talmud. Don't tell him what page it's on. Don't tell him what track date it's on Any line in Talmud and he will tell you exactly where it is. But that's not the pinpoint one. The pinpoint one is you tell him, you put your finger on top of the book, so you just go like this, okay, or like this, and you say on page 14B of this and this track date, what does it say on this line? And then you'll open it up and it'll say exactly the words that he said.
33:37
My brothers-in-law were going nuts. They could not believe that there's a Jew today who's alive, who's so brilliant and studied so much Talmud and studied so many times that he remembers his Talmud so carefully. I don't want to that he remembers his Talmud so carefully. I don't want to. Just so that you understand.
33:54
There are many people today who are crazy about nonsense books as well, like Harry Potter, lahav, dil, alef, alf, yavdos, never to compare between holy and unholy. But there are people who read it thousands of times and they can tell you on every single page exactly what word shows up and when it says this guy's name or that gal's name. It tells you exactly where on the page it's, on the third line, whatever all the details. That's dedicating our brain to nonsense, that has complete insignificance in our life. But immersing ourselves in Torah, the wisdom of Hashem's language, a language that perfects our character, a language that perfects our relationships, a language that perfects our relationships between us and Hashem, and us and our fellow human being, that's a worthwhile language to invest in.
34:59
Rabbi Yosef seeks to clarify the first of the above statements. He says what are you talking about? The vav of the word gachon is the middle of the letters of the Torah. So he says, rabbi Yosef inquired the Vav of the word Gachon, said before, to represent the midpoint of the Torah's letters. Is it part of the first half of the Torah or the second half of the Torah? Which one is it why? Why is that a question? Because we know we'll continue here. The Gemara now says Amrulei.
35:40
They said to him Nisei sefer Torah v'imninu. Let us bring a Torah scroll and count its letters and we shall find the answer. Milo oma rabo bar bar chano. For in regard to a similar question. Did not rabo bar bar chano once say lo zozu mishom ad shehiviyu sefer toro mnom? That they did not move from their places until they brought a sefer Torah and counted its letters? So too, let us do the same.
36:17
Omer l'hur of Yosef said to them. He said they to whom you refer were well versed in the knowledge of deletions and additions and were therefore able to accurately tally the Torah's letters. We, however, are not as well versed in such knowledge and therefore cannot make this calculation. What is he referring to? So we know that there are, there are times that things are written in the Torah but they're not pronounced. There are times that they are not written in the Torah and they are pronounced, for example, it'll say. It'll say it'll say I don't remember example offhand, but imagine if there's an. We said Nisim, for example. Yes, in the end of Exodus we mentioned this in one of our Parsha Review podcast episodes that the Yud of Nissim is missing.
37:16
Why Hashem took it out? Because he didn't want his name associated with the leaders of the tribes that were delaying their gift to the temple. They were delaying it. They said oh, because we're going to give the big stuff that are left over. We'll make sure that the accounts are clear. But Hashem knows the nature and Hashem knows what the real motivation was. And Hashem knew that the motivation was really just a delay tactic, a way, a form of procrastination. And Hashem says I don't want to be involved with procrastination. So Hashem takes his name out, his letter out. The letter Yud represents the name of Hashem, but you still read it as if the Yud is there. So do you include that Yud or do you not include that Yud? Oh, that we don't know. We don't.
38:11
At least, the great sages that the Talmud here is referring to says they knew exactly how to count with the yud, without the yud, with the letter that's there or without the letter that's there. They knew exactly how to count that. Another question concerning the tallies of the sofrim who were the sofrim, those who counted? And they knew every letter and every verse and every word of the Torah Boyer of Yosef. They inquired further which is the word that we said is the midpoint of the Torah's verses? Is it from this side of the Torah, the first half of the Torah, or the second half of the Torah? The first half of the Torah or the second half of the Torah? Amal Yabai Yabai said to him Psukei miho leisulim nuyeh Verses at least we may accurately tally. Let us bring a Torah and start counting them. We'll see. We'll be able to decide from our own reading, because that we do know Meaning, just so that we understand. Anybody here know every verse in the Torah. Anybody here know exactly it's unbelievable the level of their education, the level of their commitment to Torah study. Rav Yosef replied to them and he said we don't either know the exact, precise knowledge of the added and or deleted verses. We likewise are not versed in the correct boundaries of scriptural verses.
39:45
The Chioser of Achabar Adah, forewinner of Achabar Adah, came to Babylonia from Eretz Yisrael. Omar bemaarava paski le lehi kra le tlosa psuke came to Babylonia from Eretz Yisrael. He said that in the West, which means in the land of Israel, they divided the following passage into three distinct verses and God said to Moses Behold, I shall come to you in the thickness of a cloud. Since we lack expertise in this verse, it is impossible for us to accurately count the Torah's verses. So we are going to stop here for today, but I want to share with you.
40:29
Before we went live, we were talking about the importance of knowing how the Jewish people are distinguished from the nations of the world, and that is that in the land of Israel, we are dependent on rain. We don't have an overflowing Nile, we don't have a solid source every year for our livelihood and for our success, of our crops. It's only by the blessing of Hashem. If you ever wonder why, you know it's like. Some nations follow the lunar calendar, some nations go only by the sun, some go by the moon. The Jewish people, we have a combination of both.
41:15
If you always see, it's never simple how the Jewish people do things. Why can't we just have it simple? Why can't it just be straightforward? Like the Muslims, they have 30-day months. That's it. So sometimes the Ramadan is the middle of the winter, sometimes it's the middle of the summer, sometimes it's in spring, sometimes it's in fall. Because they don't adjust for the sun calendar or the moon calendar by us. Pesach is always in the springtime, always, always. It says so in the Torah. By the way, sukkot is always in the fall time, in the beginning of fall. It's amazing how accurate our calendar is, but it's never going to be simple, because that's not the type of people we are.
42:04
We're the type of people that are always seeking the connection with Hashem and there's a proper way to connect with Hashem. It's not always going to be one plus one equals two and that's why we have a Torah. The Torah gives us guidance. The Torah shows us how to connect to the Almighty in the proper way. My dear friends have an amazing Shabbos and I hope and pray that we all merit to be like the sages that we learned about today in our Talmud To learn all of Torah, to learn all of Mishnah, to learn all of Talmud, to learn all of Halacha, to learn all of Haggadah, so that we know the proper way to serve Hashem. Hashem should bless us that we should always be proper servants of Him. Amen.