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Join Rav Shlomo Katz in uncovering מעלת תפילת נשים—the unique spiritual power of a Jewish woman’s tefillah.
Drawing from Chazal, halacha, and pnimiyut, and learning deeply from the Biala Rebbe’s "Zechut Nashim Tzidkaniyot", we explore why women’s hearts, rooted in רגש טהור (innate emotional purity) and holy bitul, move heaven and earth.
Together we’ll clarify classic questions (time-bound mitzvot, obligation vs. essence), learn the siddur through the eyes of our sages, and translate inspiration into avodah that nourishes real life, especially as we enter Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
This series is both a celebration and a strengthening of the women who daven with fire, carry Am Yisrael with love, and teach us how to speak to Hashem with truth.
Alrighty, good morning everybody, thank you for coming. We're learning in the month of Kislev. Is sponsored by the Gantavniks in honor of Eliana's Bat Mitzvah and her 18th birthday, by the Aaron family in memory of Lillian's Abba, Levi ben Yosef. Anonymously for the refuah shlema of שושנה יונה בת אדל.
By the Silver family, memory of בתיה פייגה בת ישראל. By the Finns, for the refuah shlema of HaChayalim HaPtzuyim, דוד נתנאל בן אילה אהובה, צבי דוד בן תמר מלכה, אריאל חיים בן מירב, אחיה בן יעל חנה, ונטף שמואל בן אביבה נאוה. And also by Andrew, Roziel Chaim and Leah Hershkowitz, in memory of Andrew's saba, שלמה לייב בן רפאל גדליה. This week is sponsored by the Rosens in memory of Itamar's mother, Raiza bas Yitzmar, and by Michael and Cindy Levy in memory of דוב בער בן זליג הלוי.
Okay, the pages are going around. Today we have a really special shiur. A really, just another beautiful mahalach of the Biala Rebbe speaking about this inyan of what we've been speaking about, women's davening. And today we're going to go back to a topic that we began speaking about in the beginning, beginning of these shiurim.
And that is the difference between, between מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא, לבין מצוות עשה שלא הזמן גרמא, where we know that the basic halachic distinction is that men are chayav in מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא, time-bound mitzvos, and women are pturot from מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא. The question, of course, always becomes, what happens if a woman wants to do a מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא? And that, and we spoke about this in the beginning like a few months ago. Today we're going to look at it from another a beautiful, beautiful angle. It's a beautiful angle, this whole concept of מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא and where women fall under them.
Because obviously, what's davening? What does davening fall under? What category does davening fall under? Time-bound or not time-bound? Time-bound. Is there a chiyuv for women to daven? So, let's now, let's now go back into the Torah of this Tzaddik and see something very, very important, very, very beautiful.
עוד מעלה מיוחדת יש בנשים. So a ma'alah that we're speaking about with women, shekol ma'avayan, ma'avayan means their ratzon, ivuy.
Their whole what they want to do, הוא כדי לעשות את רצון השם יתברך בלבב שלם. Is to do the ratzon of Hashem with a full, full heart.
שאכפת להן באמת שיתקיים רצון השם יתברך. What does a woman really care about? Really, just in the, I wish we could say that the men are totally on with this, they get more maybe in the pnimius of things, but they get more stuck on a lot of the details that we have to make sure we observe.
But here he's saying that when bottom line is that a woman is, what does she care about more than anything? That the ratzon of Hashem exists in the world, is done in the world. That what Hashem wants is what ends up happening. K'mo she'anu ro'im, like we see, שהרגילות הן תמיד לעשות הרבה מעבר למה שהן חייבות. Women always do much more than they're chayav to do, more than they're obligated to do.
And we're going to say this both halachically and also just tachlis in olam hazeh, they do much more than they're obligated to do. Man is more in tune with like, okay, there's a chiyuv, there's an obligation, I got to do it, and I have to make sure I do it. A woman's way, a woman's approach with this whole world of avodat Hashem is not so much stuck in those things of I'm chayav and therefore I have to do it. And there's a Gemara in Masechet Nazir that we have to address.
I'm going to put it out now and hopefully get back to it at the end. The Gemara in Nazir, I think it says like this, גדול מצווה ועושה ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה. Which means greater is a person that does something they're commanded to do than someone that's not commanded to do something and do it. And we have to figure out how that stimms, how that statement stimms with today's shiur.
Hopefully, we'll get to it at the end. Or, I just messed up this whole shiur right now, I don't know. One or the other. We'll see, we'll see.
So maybe don't remember what I just told you. We'll, we'll see. That's a good question. Is this at all related also to the stage of life? Like I'm just wondering, is this just an overall thing or like, you know, this happens when you're younger, then...
you have to be very sensitive with defining the term, older stage in life. So what I have to be very, I fall into this trap all the time. What do what is older stage in life? 25 as opposed to 15 or 75 as opposed to 35. Which one? Yeah, I'd say the last one.
Okay. You said it. You said it, not me. No.
No. A good question, but no, no. We're talking here about the the etzem, like the an essential foundation of the of the Nukva, of the of of of the feminine. Okay.
They're always used to doing things much more than just what they're obligated to do.
וזאת משום why is this like this?
וזאת משום שרצון השם יתברך חשוב להם what Hashem wants to be b'chlal in the world. Not just specifically from them, but the bigger picture of Ratzon Hashem. Not just the Ratzon Hashem of, you have to do this mitzva.
But the bigger picture of what the world, what Hashem wants the world to look like. What the, yeah, what Hashem wants the world to look like has has this chashivus by women in such a profound way.
ולכן גם כאשר מניעות גדולות נקראות בדרכן Therefore also when there's these tremendous menios, these these tremendous obstacles that are in front of them, אינן מבטרות לעצמן ואינן אומרות נואש. There's no yiush.
There's no despair.
כי בגודל מסירותן בנאמנותן because to the extent, the greatness of their mesirus nefesh and their loyalty to this bigger picture of what Hashem wants there to be in the world, אינן רואות לפניהם אלא את רצון כונן. This is a beautiful thing. The Baal HaLeiv is saying what woman sees in front of her always is what does Hashem want this world to look like.
And that's how that's how women are po'el. Just what does Hashem want this world to look like.
ומחפשות הן לעשות את שליחותן בכל דרך, and therefore they seek a way to fulfill their shlichus in any way possible.
וזו מעלת האישה שהיא עושה גם כן כשהיא פטורה על פי דין.
This explains how a woman has women approach Yiddishkeit, even regarding things that al pi din, halachically, there's no obligation to do. And yet, if if imagine like I got up in shul on a Friday night and I said, women, I want you all to know, none of you have to be here. Right. Exactly, there'd be a bunch of, you know, a bunch of that coming out.
And? And not? No. Meaning like the the response would be, and what are you trying to say? Right? So it's interesting, a man would hear that, be like, really? I'm out of here. I'm not chayav? Oh, so you should have told me this, right? The way a woman and a man look at a chiyuv versus a ptur is a completely different way of of taking in our our our, you know, everything that comes out of such a statement.
כי לא תנוח ולא תשקוט עד שתמלא את רצון כוננה ובנפשה הדבר.
She will not stop. No matter, לא תכבה בלילה נרה. She will not stop until that the ratzon of Hashem in the bigger picture is fulfilled in her life. u'v'nafsha hadavar.
You know, u'v'nafsha hadavar means, bless you, is that her her her her kiyum, her existence is dependent on this way of looking. All right. Did everyone get pages? I just want to know. Yeah, everyone everyone has.
Okay. Because I I want, now we have to be looking inside. We're going to learn an amazing Gemara over here.
ביסוד גדול זה יש לנו ללמוד ממה שאמרו במסכת חולין.
We're going to learn what we just said based on the Gemara in the tractate of Chullin Daf Zayin.
על רבי פנחס בן יאיר שהיה הולך בדרכו לפדיון שבויים. His inyan, we see this by certain tzaddikim, that their whole life's mission, aside from being rabbonim, mashpi'im v'chulu, they would always be very mis'akesh on redeeming people that were taken into captivity. Sound familiar? So, pidyon shvuyim back then wasn't, it wasn't like what we're experiencing today.
The pidyon shvuyim is that people would just constantly be just be like picked up, taken into captivity, and then that's the way they knew they could the authorities would just get a lot of money. This happened all the time. Pidyon shvuyim. We see this from the not just in the time of the Gemara, we see this also very much by for instance, I think Reb Nachman, Nachman of Chernobyl, the Me'or Einayim.
The Me'or Einayim was very big on this as well. His inyan, pidyon shvuyim. because it was happening all the time. Just sweep people off the street, say you got to stay in.
And then there's certain tzaddikim who said this, our whole inyan is the mitzva of Pidyon Shvuyim. So he's on his way to perform this mitzva of Pidyon Shvuyim, ונחלק הנחל לקראתו, and a river that he had to cross suddenly split for him. Umashma, you would learn from here, כי משום שהיה עוסק במצות פדיון שבוים היה בכוחו לשנות סדרי בראשית ולבטל את כל המניעות העומדות בדרכו. You would think.
The reason, by the way, did any of you ever hear of this? It's a pretty nice, important episode that happened in our tradition, no? There was another sea that split, right? A little, little, little river split. You would think it's because, oh, he's busy with such an important mitzva. Therefore, he's able to change the order of creation by having water suddenly part and split.
ולבטל את כל המניעות העומדות בדרכו, and because he's dealing with such a holy mitzva, that's what caused everything to change and remove all obstacles.
But the Biala Rebbe is saying, no, we have to actually learn the Gemara inside and look at it inside to understand what the story is really telling us. It's much more than that.
אכן יש לדקדק בלשון באמרו שם בגמרא. Now let's go inside.
רבי פנחס בן יאיר שהיה הולך בדרכו לפדיון שבוים. So again, Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair was on his way to go and redeem captives.
פגע ביה בנהר גינאי. He reached this river called the Ginai River.
Amar lo Ginai, River Ginai, חלק לי מימיך ואעבור בך. Split your waters and I could pass through you. Amar lo, the river said to him, אתה הולך לעשות רצון קונך ואני הולך לעשות רצון קוני. You're going to do what you think is retzon Hashem, and I'm doing what's retzon Hashem.
What's, what's the river saying about itself? What was the retzon of Hashem when God created me to be a river? To just flow, to be a river, shouldn't stop being a river. What was he really saying?
אתה ספק עושה ספק אם אי אתה עושה. It's not sure. You're not sure you'll be able to be matzliach in what you're doing, there's a doubt.
Maybe you'll, maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't. Ani vadai ose, I'm definitely doing what Hashem wants me to do. You're not sure if you'll be able to be matzliach, but I know for sure that what I'm doing is what Hashem wants me to do. Amar lo, so Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair says to him, oh really? Okay.
Remember, he's talking to water, just putting it into, right? Amar lo, אם אי אתה חולק, if you don't split the waters, גוזר אני עליך שלא יעברו בך מים לעולם, water will stop flowing through you forever and you'll stop being who you are. Chalak lo. And then the water split. Fascinating story.
Now, can any of you already see where he's going to take this? Or not yet? It's a, it's tzarich iyun. This is a good lamdisha learning right now, this is very good. Could be a shtoch. It could be a shtoch, but it's definitely not where he's taking it to.
We're taking it to somewhere really, really chazak. Yesh lehavin, let's understand over here.
שהרי הנער טען טענה נכונה. Was the water wrong with what it said? Ma pitom? The water is stating facts.
Ta'an ta'ana nechona.
שהוא ממלא תפקידו בודאי. He's for sure doing what he's supposed to be doing, the water is definitely doing its job. It's being, it's being itself, the way it was created with the purpose of its creation.
ואילו רבי פנחס בן יאיר ספק אם יזכה לקיים שליחותו. But Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, it's a doubt whether he'll be zoicheh to actually do his mitzva of what? Lifdot et hashvuyim. He doesn't know if he's going to matzliach or not. You know, our lives are are like this quite often.
Like sometimes we know I'm definitely doing what Hashem wants me to do by what? By, I would say by staying at home and taking a fruit and saying a bracha, I'm for sure doing what Hashem wants me to do right now by eating this kosher food. It's a kosher food, I'm saying a bracha. But the world is much more complicated than that, right? So Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair sees a mitzva that needs to be taking place, and he goes out even though he's not sure that he's going to be matzliach, but he said, but he feels with such what we call in Ishbitza language takifut, which means like conviction, that what he's saying to the water is the right thing at the moment right now. Whether he's going to get to do the mitzvah of pidyon shevuyim or not, he's saying it with complete conviction.
Velechora, next page, velechora. Tzadak ha'nahar beta'anato, the water was right when it said sheken hu haklal because really this is the rule.
אין ספק מוציא מידי ודאי. This is very interesting, has a lot of halachic ramifications.
Someone that's in a status of safek can't be motzi someone that's not in a status of safek regarding a certain mitzvah. Zot omeret, if you're not, if it's not clear if you're obligated to do something, you can't be motzi. I don't know how to say that in English, but you understand that in Hebrew, right? You can't be, no, we have a listen, we have a lot, a lot of chevra that are learning with us, a lot, that they ask me all the time to really lachzor al milim, to repeat words that to us are clear because we were in a Torah world, but there's so many hungry, beautiful souls that are learning with us that that are asking for like a bit more help with certain phrases that for us are are barur. So I actually I'm asking help, how would you say to be motzi someone? To fulfill the obligation for someone else.
To fulfill the obligation for someone else, thank you. So a safek, meaning someone that's, it's not clear whether they are, they have an obligation over a certain matter, they can't fulfill the obligation for somebody else, and that's what we call motzi, meaning that we remove, we we we bring them under the the wing of the mitzvah. What's a good example of that?
אין ספק מוציא מידי ודאי? A female making kiddush for a male. Yeah, so that's a very big one.
Kiddush for huh? A woman doing a kiddush for a male. Right? Motzi is a different, a different subject I don't want to get into right now. But yes, kiddush is a good one. What's another one that could be? Havdalah? Havdalah could be also be one, yes.
Zimun? Zimun definitely is one. Just like davening for them. Davening for the amud, which is a very, very shayach one for, especially what we're learning with the whole concept of davening. There are a lot of these things.
There's a lot. These are halachic categories. So the sea is saying to רבי פנחס בן יאיר, I'm a vadai, I'm certain, I'm obviously doing my obligation, you're in the status of doubt, of safek. It's not clear whether you're going to fulfill the obligation of the mitzvah that you took upon yourself.
ומה תשובה ענה לו רבי פנחס בן יאיר? What's what was רבי פנחס בן יאיר's answer? So here we have the Maharsha. I believe it was his yahrzeit this week. The Maharsha was, he really is like a chasidishe Rebbe, but he's a peirush on the Gemara, he's in the back of the Gemara. And the Maharsha's peirushim are always very much, they're not so, they're esoteric more than they are like most of the parshanim, the commentators on the Talmud, which are more trying to just take certain laws and explain them legally.
And the Maharsha always goes to the depth of things. So the Maharsha says like this.
כשהעושה דברי מצוה מתוך רצון ובחירה, when a person does a mitzvah out of will and out of choice, out of free will, גם אם יש ספק בדבר, even if there's a doubt regarding their probability of doing what they're trying to accomplish, אם יעלה בידו להשלים מצוותו, עדיף הוא, that type of person is adif מי שעושה את מעשיו בלי בחירה. That type of person is better, it's rather them than a person that is doing their things without bechira, אף שהוא בודאי יעשה מצוותו, even though for sure that person that's acting without bechira is fulfilling their mitzvah.
What did the Maharsha say over here right now? Does a man fall into the category of the river over here? No. Because a man has bechira, he has a bechira to fulfill a chiyuv. A river doesn't have bechira to stop being a river. This, right? That's what this Gemara is really telling us.
So you can't say this, because if you say this lashon, if you take this Gemara and said, and this is the difference between man and woman, it wouldn't work. Because then you could say, well, a man is coerced because he has an obligation, right? Therefore, a woman who doesn't have an obligation but wants to do it, that's more important and greater than a man fulfilling his obligation. But we're not talking about water, we're not talking about rocks, we're talking about human beings. The point of this Gemara is to teach us something else about the beauty and the holiness about a woman who is not begeder a lot of mitzvos that there's a chiyuv on them, and if it's a, and it's a safek.
There are a lot of mitzvos, it's a safek whether they're obligated or not. But there's bechira. When you choose to do something that you're not halachically obligated to do, the Maharsha says that's much greater than something that has no bechira but does it anyway because, and they fulfill the mitzva of the way Hashem wanted the world to be created. So now let's go even deeper.
What is the Maharsha really telling us right now about davening? So far, I mean, we could, we could obviously read ahead, but I'd rather us kind of like take our learning and, and hopefully, you know, show that we're holding with it. What is the Maharsha saying about a woman over here? What do you think? That's a greater, it's a greater level because if she's not obligated to do it and she chooses to do it. What, what's the key words here that the Maharsha is saying? Look back inside. Yeah.
Ratzon u'bechira. Ratzon u'bechira. The ratzon, what you choose to invest your, your kochos in. You see, this goes back to our whole like tikkun me too conversation.
When you take things that you have no obligation to do and you tainah that it's an obligation to do it, you completely miss the point of, of the beauty of what you're doing. Because if you tainah that the things that you weren't obligated to do are really obligations, we're living in a new world and now it's an obligation, what are you removing from the power of your Torah u'mitzvos? Ratzon u'bechira. Because then if you're obligated, oh, really? You're saying that you're obligated to do everything that like equal rights and all these things? You don't realize ech his'tabacht. You got yourself in a whole, in a whole world of trouble right now.
Remain in the realm of safek because the beauty of mitzvos of doubt, the beauty of mitzvos that are done from that place where it's not necessarily a chiyuv, the Maharsha says are the most beautiful things in the world. So it's a little dangerous though when you say, yeah, I mean to take to like women who want to let's say put on tefillin or something like that, if their mindset is that I don't have to but I really want to. As opposed to, I have to. 100%.
It's a very, you could take any of these things. Like, I don't know. Meaning because if we grow up we don't, like it's not something that's done, so. Right.
I know, but. Right, but, but like if someone really wants to do it. Like they get together, I don't know. No, no, no, no.
The Rebbeson is not telling people now to... Sorry. No, no, I'm just saving you. We're starting a new movement.
The truth is that's what we're really doing here. But I'll tell them here. We said 10 years. No, I'm just saying like, if someone's really doing it for like the right reasons, like for them, that's like their most like inner ratzon of their heart, like what's stopping? I guess that.
No, I don't know. I'll try to, I'll try to explain. It's really not allowed. No, I'll try, I'll try to, I'll try to explain this on a hashkafic level, not on a halachic level.
On a hashkafic level. Not definitely not. On a hashkafic level, like, like, I've said this many times over here and I'll say it again over here. There are a lot of different shuls in Efrat.
A lot. Some shuls do things that we would never do here. I'm so happy they exist. Why? Because certain people, they need certain things, obviously within the framework of halacha, okay? I'm going to be very clear about that.
But certain people need certain things that that won't happen in a, in a certain shul like ours or other shuls v'chulu. But why does it drive us crazy so much that other people sometimes have this need, this inyan to do a certain thing that to them, they really is coming from this place of what you're, I think what you were saying, that it really is so important to them. Right? Again, within the framework of a of a certain halachic world. And that's where the, in the, in the milchamos that we have amongst people within religious sectors, it's so sad to me.
What do you care so much if someone is doing something, not that's against the Torah, but that you say is not the way that we most of us hold today? Why does it drive you so crazy? It says a lot about your own Yiddishkeit. It says a lot about your own Yiddishkeit, your own paranoia, your own insecurity, your own uncertainty. And I've said this like, sometimes I, I, and I've said this to each group of the kollel members that come in, I say to them in the beginning. And I, because I want to shock the system right when they get there.
I don't know if your husband... like right in the beginning I say to them, Chevre, you know, it's we have something, we have a clear derech here in the shul. It's very clear. We we have a very clear hashkafa.
Everyone's invited to come and join what we're offering. Not מי שבא איך שבא, whatever you want to do is fine. There's a derech, but I am so hap I've sent people to daven in a different shul, not because I don't want them here, but because I know that certain things that they want is really important to them, it exists in another place. I'm I'm so happy that it exists.
I really am. Again, within the framework of halacha. So this goes back to the question of when you really, really want to do something leshem equality, you'll never ever ever ever be matzliach in the big picture. Because that's not, forget Judaism, it's not humanity.
I even would take away the word equality from the picture. These are not even things we're dealing with. The questions always come down to Ratzon Hashem. Have you mevarer, have you clarified for yourself, what is really the ratzon of Hashem? How do we, the Tanya Ba'al HaTanya tells us, how does someone how does someone find out what the ratzon of Hashem is in this world? Like how do I know what Hashem really wants? It's a it's a trick question because the answer is so simple.
How do I know what God wants? Guys, I I I already told you the answer. Basically it's it sounds like a really tricky, deep question. it's a deep question, it's not. It's a very, very, very simple answer.
No? I I'm not going to say it. The Torah. Please. Yes, you learn Torah.
Why? Because Hashem transmitted his will through the Torah. It's not so Now we forget like, you know why? Because they never told us this when we're learning Torah growing up, so it's not ingrained in our system. But imagine if like the way we were taught Torah growing up is we're learn it's like when when when a husband wants to know what would make a wife happy or a a child wants to know what makes a parent happy or a parent wants to know what makes a child happy, any relationship. You know, so how do you find out? They tell you.
The guessing game never works. We don't have to play a guessing game with Hashem. He transmitted his ratzon ha'elyon, his supernal will, within the Torah and all the gufei halachos that are in it. And you learned it, הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולא בה.
So therefore, to go back over here right now, was it Hashem's will for women to do certain mitzvos that they're not chayav to do? Yes. Yes. Yes. Was it Hashem's will for women to do certain mitzvos that they're not obligated to do? Yes.
Was it Hashem's will for women to be obligated in certain mitzvos that men are obligated to do? No. So you see? But we don't, you have to build this up. You have to understand this on a hashkafic level, that there's a reason why Hashem didn't obligate women for time-bound mitzvos. Why? Go learn.
Go learn, don't look for an easy answer. There's a sea of halachic books on this and hashkafic books on this. But without learning it inside, it's so easy to leave all al pi regesh, to act based on emotion and look at what's happening, the trends in the world that have, let me tell you, the world trends like 6, 7 are really filled with chochma ila'ah, so really bringing tremendous amounts of wisdom to the world. Go back into the Torah and see, well what what what what is what is beneath all of this? Like what what's what's beneath all of this? So again, a woman has an a very deep innate place of wisdom, mekashring herself to the ratzon of Hashem, to the way Hashem wants the world to look.
Does Hashem want women to be chayav in mitzvos that men are chayav in? No. Does Hashem want women to still be able to do certain mitzvos that maybe they're not chayav in? Yes. Now, we still go back to Zahava's question, because you could then have the issues that you brought up. Tefillin is just one of them.
Even going to the shul and being a chazanit, like. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, then you can't. No, no, because then we have a halakhic status of אין ספק מוציא מידי ודאי.
That that's not a question. Women of the Wall. Sorry? Women of the Wall. And Rosh Chodesh.
What about them? No, I'm just thinking about them, you know, for a while. Of course, of course. But like I, I know, but, and I was thinking about them from the beginning of the shiur obviously, but why are you thinking about them? In what context? I'm thinking, listen, they come, they want to thank Hashem, they come with a lot of ratzon, they love Hashem and whatever. But I mean it's not the halakha that women are singing in front of men.
I mean that's for sure not. It's not the halakha. But hold on, look, this is my answer to everything you said right now. No, but I'm just, אני לא נכנס לזה.
You know, they they seem so sincere, you know, and they they sing beautifully and whatever. But it's, you know. They sing beautifully, therefore it's a, it should be a... It's okay, but I don't know, you know.
I I'm not, I'm not gonna go into it. I have a pure soul too. I'm not saying that. Everyone has pure neshamas.
Everyone has pure neshamas. No, for sure. But I. Everyone has pure neshamas.
But it annoys a lot of people though. You know, they and I, you know. You're really pushing me to say something I don't want to say. No, no, I'm not telling you to say.
No, I'm thinking in my own mind, you know, every time I see it I don't know what to think, you know. And I just feel sad though. You know, you know, you know, you know when they would stop doing it like that and doing it in a much holier way? When the behemas from the men's side would stop acting like behemas. Absolutely.
I often feel like some of the Haredi women come out looking shocking. You know, they yelling and screaming and performing, and these are singing, you know, like angels and whatever. I'm thinking like, six million Jews were killed, we have, surrounded by enemies, and and this is where we choose to focus our our our disgust.
יש פה בעיה מוסרית.
It's it's it's crazy to me. It's crazy. And I I understand it. Meaning I understand where that energy and that anger towards them comes from 100%, because they're not so tmimos, achoti hayekara, at all.
Mamosh? They're not. They're they're they're not so tmim. They're they're not it's not so tmim. But however, the whole the whole the whole issue is is, if you learned inside, and you really learned la'omek, and the difference between מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא, all all the stuff we're speaking about, when you learn it inside, it develops a place called bittul inside of us, where it's really not about us, it's about what Hashem wants.
And when I look, when I observe, like when I go to when I look at Yiddishkeit with the mindset of what does the Ribono shel Olam want, and then I start learning with the with the notion of, oh, he he transmitted through the Torah his ratzon, my experience and understanding of dvar Hashem is so much more meduyak and refined and filled with love. Couldn't they have that? They could. Yeah, Lisa. I'm not sure if this is where you're going.
Neither was I. Well, I was just gonna jump to where I heard the Women of the Wall being brought up. I'm just trying to figure out the connection, but I I did not bring up the Women of the Wall. You're definitely better than me because you said they are all good intentioned.
I don't know if that's... It's just my rebbe says, always with the glasses on to look through. But By the way, there's plenty of men's stuff that men do that's not filled with good intention either. I'm assuming where you're going to pull it back in maybe is that we're talking about the difference between obligation and intent.
And like, you know, a lot of times, we were saying before, yes, many people, sorry, specifically women, they have this this craving, this this desire, this connection to do mitzvos that aren't theirs, including tfillin and and other things that maybe aren't written on our side. And if the, and there are, we can find space, maybe not always in a shul, but you know, there is space within halakha to to do those mitzvos and to feel that connection that the women are craving. But it's not always their obligation. And some people are doing it just because I can do it too, I can do it too.
Like, but you can't we can't, like I'm saying as a musician, we can't really you know judge. We can't, we can't, we can't. I think intention... I think what you're saying is it's a lot of intent versus obligation.
Listen, there there's so much to say on the matter and I don't shy away from it. I say it very, very, you know, openly and clearly what I what I believe and and the mesorah that I'm, you know, have have have been nurturing and hopefully trying to as as an example say. The problem with today's day and age, more than any other era is that you could listen to the stuff that I've said right now for the last 10 minutes and say that I'm either a charedi meshugena or that I'm completely off my liberal mind. Right? It boils down to how much do you really want to know what the ratzon Hashem is and not what do you think.
And that can only happen through learning and davening over it. It can't you cannot get clarity on these matters unless you learn and you daven over what you learned. There's a reason why the Torah says, and this is a pasuk that's for everybody, ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם. There's a reason the Torah said this.
That means you cannot allow yourself to be led by your heart and your eyes. And you're thinking, why not? That's it's the most purest thing in the world. No. There's a reason the Torah says ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם.
Why? Because it's so easy to draw your heart towards that which it already feels inclined to be connected to, and definitely, על אחת כמה וכמה, with our eyesight as well. Yes. So I think if we sum it up, I think it We didn't sum it up yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay. I see it that Hashem gave woman more power because of the way he created woman, that they have this feeling that they need to do more. And he's like, I'm not even going to give you guys these mitzvos. Like you guys do what you're feeling at the time.
Which is what I think, I don't know what you said at the beginning in terms of ages, maybe when you're a young mother dealing with all these children, you don't feel like the davening is the first thing that you're going to be doing in the morning. But then when you're in a different stage in life and you feel like that's really what I want to do, like we have that leeway. Whereas men don't have that leeway. Hashem gave them the mitzvos, this is what you have to do.
I I feel like based on that and everything else here, I have to share with you a story that I don't think I've ever shared before, but I think it's like it fits perfectly to how I experience all of this. But it was a shocking moment. I was in, I was doing a concert in Kansas City. And it was a Sunday afternoon.
And it was some kind of like a barbecue festival or something. It's Kansas City, what else are you going to do? That's what they're going to do. It was a, it was like, I think it's the shul that our good friend Ari Klastor was was davening in when he was much younger and and Josh Weitzman, I think. I think, well, I thought it was, put it like that.
You'll understand why. The rabbi announced before, right before davening, right before the concert, there'll be a mincha in the beis medrash. So me and at the time I was with my I had a Lubavitcher guitarist with me, one of my soul brothers. Doesn't look like that anymore, but he's still just as zise and holy.
But he was with the garb and everything and we went to the Sunday afternoon to daven Mincha in the beis medrash, right? So it was a very, I was it was the middle of a tour. It was a, I was missing home. I was away for a few days and I was I was going to fly back home the next day. A lot of regashot, a lot of feelings, v'chulu, and we start davening.
And I felt mammash like kavod, a big amazing moment. And then it was time for chazaras hashatz. And I guess my eyes were closed the whole time because then when it came to kedusha, I I heard next to me, נקדש את שמך בעולם כשם, I looked right behind me, there was a woman standing right next to me because I realized there was no it was a I didn't realize. I had no idea.
Maybe it was one of these conservative I didn't ein li musag. And my knee-jerk reaction is, oh my God, this is this is what am I going to do right now? I also I can't move my it's kedusha, right also. But wait a second, but but this like, and it was a woman in her in a higher I have to, it wasn't a 30-year-old, it was probably like mid-70s, ma shekaze. Right? And but then I said to myself, how many frum women go to a minyan on a Sunday afternoon for mincha? I had that thought came by, right? So obviously, you can't live like this and and change rules of places based on that hergesh of it, because I felt like, wow, this is so like, I'm so happy that I have this this this side of me that's like can look at that and be like, this is gevalt, right? This is so heimish.
But then the other side of me, yeah, but it's not it's not our derech. And that's okay. But it's also, I'm going to what In the name of Hashem, there are people that would look at her, in the name of God, and look at her and start saying what a what a chillul Hashem, what a bizayon, you know? I don't have anything to do with that world at all, especially especially after the six million, especially after October 7. I mean, this was like 15 years ago.
The this all it it leads us back to like this place of while we're while we're sharpening our understanding of things, never look at another group or any other person that does what they do in order to figure out for yourself what is emes and what's the Torah telling you. Because it'll never it'll never help you. It'll never help us. Learning is not, I'm learning something so that now I could judge somebody else.
Mah pitom. I'm learning just to know what the ratzon Hashem is. And he started this whole piece off by saying that in in their essence, women have that on a very strong, strong way. But when a woman tries to be like a man, they lose that thing that makes them so clear and and and chazak in this same exact area.
Does that make sense? Does that shtim? Yeah. I just kind of want to take us back to what we were learning a few weeks ago was yibum specifically, that the woman not having the obligation, but the woman desiring it so much. It's so much about that ratzon, that even though Hashem's not obligating you to do something like... Because if the obligation was on the woman, right, then the way that that holy mitzva of pru u'revu would come to the world would either stop happening, because people have a hard time with their God complex and obligation versus not obligation, or the manner in which it would be done and brought to the world, something would be missing from it.
Some kind of a cheishek would be missing from it. Because the nature of a person is that when you're commanded to do something, you have less cheishek to do it than if you weren't commanded to do it. Right. Nachon.
And he's actually and later in this chapter he's going to go back davka to that mitzva of pru u'revu to bring forth this this deeper understanding of things. I just want to say, I know that these things are stretches and I know that you know, some places there'd be people would say like, why in the world would a man be teaching these these things? And I'm and I'm it's not me that's teaching it to you. This is, I'm giving you a sefer from a Chassidishe Rebbe that's dealing with these things. So just to keep that into context.
So I just want to finish, just for the a few minutes we have left, to finish explaining this Maharsha inside, the third paragraph. Omeik hadavar. Boom.
כי הנהר שהוא זורם בטבעו, a river that flows naturally.
הוא מוכרח בדבר, אין לו בחירה.
אינו עושה את עבודת קונו מתוך רצון ובחירה. The ocean, the river is not fulfilling the its the Godly will through any place of of ratzon and bechira, like, I choose this, I want this. It doesn't have that.
שאם מאיזה סיבה שהיא יפסיקו המים לזרום, because if for whatever reason happens and the water stops reaching the place of the river, ינוח על מקומו בשלום כי לא אכפת לו באמת רצון השם יתברך. Would the river go have to go to a psychiatrist? Oh, water stopped flowing through me. I don't know what to do. Who's my, what's my real identity? No.
No, it wouldn't, right?
ודבר זה מוריד את כל And he says, and because that's the reality, דבר זה מוריד את כל ערך המצוה. Therefore, because that's the truth, then the value of the mitzva of fulfilling God's will by just being yourself without ratzon or bechira diminishes the value of the mitzva that it does.
מה שאין כן, רב פנחס בן יאיר שעשה את ציווי השם יתברך מתוך בחירה. Pinchas ben Yair did what God commanded him to do from a place of choice.
היה ברור אצלו, he knew, כי לא ינוח ולא ישקוט עד אשר כלה הדבר. He wouldn't stop for a second until he fulfilled the mission that he set out to do, גם כאשר היו עומדים לפניו קשיים ומניעות, even when, also when all the hardships and and obstacles are before him. Why?
כבר היה מוצא דרכים אחרות איך למלא את שליחותו כראוי. He would have figured out another way how to do it properly.
וזה עיקר כבוד שמים. This is the ikkar of what it means to to have kavod honor and glory for the heavens, שכואב לו לאדם באמת that you're really in pain, if what? If...
אם לא יתמלא רצון השם יתברך. If, if the ratzon of Hashem won't be fulfilled is what pains you.
And not if what? This is important. Like what really bothers you is the fact that the ratzon of Hashem is not being fulfilled or that what? Your ratzon. Your ratzon. And here we can go back to all the examples given before and continue to really delve deep, deep, deep into this.
It's a very, it's a very interesting conversation. It's a hard conversation for certain people. But with enough trust and love, there's, there's room to continue to explore these things and we will. They just, the last three lines here.
ומשום כן ספק מצווה של בעל בחירה, therefore, the doubt, like a mitzvah that's a safek, whether whether they're obligated to do it or not, or if they'll be able to do it or not, of someone that's a baal bechira, someone that has choice, עדיף מודאי מצווה של העושה מהכרח. That is more adif. It's more preferable than the mitzvah of someone who's doing a mitzvah that they're obligated to do, but they have no choice.
ועל כן, בכזה אופן היה ודאי נכון שהנהר יסיים את תפקידו.
Therefore, of course the water should stop being functioning as the water if it was preventing Pinchas ben Yair to do the mitzvah that he's doing out of choice.
ולא ימנע מאדם בעל בחירה לקיים את שליחותו. All of this was really a hakdama for next week's learning. So it's not a shtick to try to get you to come back.
I'm being serious. No, I want you to understand. This is just, this was the opening, everything we learned is the basis for where we're going to take this learning next week and it will be really looking even more up front at the things that were brought up in today's shiur and I'm glad that everything that was brought up. And just have patience with it and, and, and you could always text me during the week if there's questions, specific questions, and I, I'm not gonna, I can't promise I'll get back to you right away but if you, if you really want to, you know, continue this and just figure out like things that are irking, then, b'ezrat Hashem, we'll have place for that as well and we'll continue this next week, b'ezrat Hashem.