Bechoros Learnt Throughout The Ages

Welcome back Rabbi Dr. Alzar Br. It is erash is starting during the he made tshuva and rabbi dr did not want to forgo an episode one of our original episodes what or how was mskaris learned throughout the generations and in discussing this episode I asked him which safer will he be discussing will you be discussing marit algazi he said oh of course so this brought me back to my days learning yeshiva's brisk where makaris is one of the makas that are part of the brisker kachim cycle and even more interesting is that there's a street named after the marital gazi inim somewhere in the neighborhood of zisha and the vitka square um I needed to find that out by asking a to point me in the right direction and then they prompted me and asked me if I would like to know more about the malazi and I said no because I'm doing a podcast now with Rabbi Dr. Alazar Brat and he's going to fill me in and AI said podcasting with Rabbi Brat is an incredible opportunity. He's widely recognized as one of the preeminent experts in Jewish bibliography, the history of the deep historical context of works. Rabbi Brat, are you up to the task? Take it away. >> Okay, so now is very interesting. I just uh this week I was asking someone that learned in Brisk did they learn it? So he said yeah and why why what was my question? My question is because is different than the most of the of where it's it is has most of the is so the question so the question is what's going on why brisk learns it. So the truth is the verse does not learn from what I was told the last part of the which deals with they don't learn that but they learned the first half. Okay. Anyway bottom line is this talks about um and also be these are the now it's a not a tiny it's about 60 blood or something like that and is going to be beginning to learn it very soon. Now what's interesting is this is as I said so it it seems it might play out more um some aspects of it the what that is so professor Tashma has excellent chapter about this with the um dealing giving some context about it in his work there is also a very nice article from professor henka relating to all this which I'm more than happy to send a PDF if you ask and professor Scherber in his work ammon hagim in volume six and updated in his English book called the Jewish life cycle says that a lot of times in the middle ages and even afterwards they will find in the in the cemeteries animals will be roaming and this is it has to do with the what this is about having a what to do with it because the you have to wait till get so anyway and looking in cha literature already in Ashknazi brings some there there's You could see a lot about it has a bunch of about it mean say it's not a theoretical thing that's only was only in the time the bdash and it was even according to the as opposed to the raita also about this is also discussed again in the article that I mentioned from henka and everything like that so now but the point is that this is a that has a lot of ramifications and we'll mention very briefly some of them at towards the end so now the question is once it has a lot of hakic ramifications why do we find mainstream and learning it let's say even the rajba the ritzvah a good question I don't have a good answer for it um one of the main tools on this ma today especially but already early on was the kesus ashkanazi who I've already mentioned in some other episodes in kachum where he had an intense base medish where with vast library of manuscripts they learned to mak this very very beginning including kachum and they learned to text very well also and only in more recent years has the a better edition of his work on the kachum come out although one learning kach will see it on the side from shas vna already in 1880 and they use lashel in makis ink they used an addition found already published in 1810 in the safer misbehap but for some reason although they added stuff but they subtracted stuff that's still found only kapara not in this not in um they didn't transfer over to the side. Why? That's a question of mystery. But there is there was a caviar of the that exists till today and that's why there's a fancy edition came out in the 1970s and more recently was updated again from Raban by Meister of Cook and all this sheds a lot of light into the incredible base medish of Salashkanazi. a story which needs to be told and maybe one day will be able to be told but the point is they learn here we have in the times of the bish is similar time in the bif someone learning but as I said has more ramification because it does have aspects okay the same he puts out a shant in the 1970s from manuscript and he shows that the tus in the ma is based off tyants um how he does that he deals with in his introduction and he also along the way they found some anus of Arashi which also obviously always makes it interesting um to see how much is it different than what we have and stuff like that. But other than this there at this point in time so the throughout the middle ages and and even once the printing press was uh well into um being active there was no rishum. So I would guess to say that as far as I to tell it was not really learned. It wasn't learned in yeshivas. wasn't learned much and not so much was written about MS and as I said it's it's interesting because there were there are it does play outly that technically you would think it should okay obviously the the section the end of the which talks about so that there is um plenty plenty of literature about it and a lot of discussion about it and we'll mention briefly about that shortly all of a sudden I would guess a pin to pinpoint some change in this ma takes place with a yidontazi. So this prolific writer born inim a young a contemporary of the a friend of the they their paths crossed inim they learned by some of the same people they knew each other it seems they had respect for each other and he also like the was also a person that had to go travel to raise funds for known as the so there's a lot about him in the classic work on the Israel from and anyway he goes and travels And he's also prolific. Maybe not as prolific as the but he he is prolific. And along the way, interestingly enough, he discovers and he he also sees manuscripts. Now, not to the extent where he sees all these manuscripts is not clear, but he has manuscripts. And it seems that already, you know, back at home in there were manuscripts lying around. Anyway, at some point in time, he discovers a savad of the Ramban onus. It seems although I don't know if he writes this out clearly he falls in love with it and he decides and from that he's going to write a work where he's called tag tag of this work of the Ramban. Now but we have to backtrack it's interesting the Ramban wrote a work on it does not it's not there's no usage of it. It wasn't printed until he locates this manuscript. And it turns out this is one of the earliest works of the Ramban work of the Ramban written in his young 20s. And it was basically a schlama of the riff where he is mashim the riff for whatever reasons. Um which is strange because as I said it it does have ramifications but the rift does not have. So the Ramban goes and he the Ramban was a rift. He defends the riff from different attacks in the so he goes and and and makes a riffl like safer on these areas. Okay. So they're able to date pretty much um in let's say the most recent book on on the Ramban from Israeli. It seems pretty clear. It's one of his earliest works. And interesting in the um in the already the Ramban says get he writes something similar to this now again why is it that the rift did not write about it that I don't have a good answer but the bottom line is he writes a okay so now comes along to so Gazi sees this and he decides he has to publish it this is mish similar we're talking about the exact years of the of the also doing type of thing publishing manuscript of. So it's different is in the sense that the was more like he saw million many many many in all the libraries that he did and he would quote them as a um as he would see them in his throughout his aloso whereas the but we don't have like he took a safer on a specific or and then wrote a beer on it like like like the murdazzi does and boy does the mirai when they say he writes a work he writes a work with everything it's the is it's legend legendary it goes down I I can't remember right now but I did recall seeing that once some said one of the three that one should make a seda to learn is even aazi because it trains you in lundus and you see from the kashivas that it got from many different people that that is um it's a proper work that one is supposed to go through um over here now what happens is but the problem is like many time so it was so it gets published in 1794 and then again it gets published one other time eventually it's put in the shas vna but it's very hard to read small print rashi letters and everything flows into another there's no paragraph breaks and everything so it's you have to really really be devoted to the cause as they say to sit and crack the alghazi um to learn it properly the give it tremendous talking about it beautiful when he gets it and others they give it intent they give it m the importance of this work and okay we say but as I said it's still even though it's a known work and there are people that do crack it but as a whole it's not cracked enough now what happens is that just like many other swarms someone come some people come along and then they they just like the Maragazi himself went along and he publishes it and he writes about it so someone came along two people and they sat and learned Al Gazi and they put out a beautiful two volume work on this. One Tam a few years ago told me and I imish would kiss these authors the these editors for the incredible work they basically opened up the Marazi and they made it gorgeous broke it down the prints first they first they started from scratch they've got the rambandic savat. So they they check to see if there's any differences in the we have some other and who are these two people? One is and one is I don't even know how to say his name. I don't know how to say it so I'm not going to break my teeth. Anyway, bottom line is this this um these two people they sit and learn. Um and this is the youngest son of Mamish's father very much and and they open up the safer and it's it seems it sells out right away. This is published in the early 90s. They reissue it in um 2002 and it was very tragic. Barak Orbach the son of Rasham or was killed in a horrific accident while Rasham was was alive um a bus accident I vaguely recall it um when I was at the time I think and bottom line is gives to the project he says Um, it's not just on this because as you could see, he goes he uses it as a as a to go into everywhere. My son and his they sat and learned to be and they do this incredible incredible job. Now from 2002 was out of print for many years. A year or two ago reissued it in a smaller size. The the size that I have is a very big and bulky size. But then again it has many many footnotes going to mameish. every of this and basically so now one learns has no excuse not to have you have already raan and you have this incredible incredible work and what's interesting is that he also had many manuscripts of he throws them in somehow in there and and he gets into all areas of and it's not and he turns the into a besides that I'm claiming that it's he turns it into much more and the notes are remarkable the interest there's interesting about this who's famous from the famous algazi family tremendous of tremendous he wrote of his father wrote far the zadis wrote so all this is dealt with in the beautifuld but for some reason it's put in the back of volume two okay anyway but the point is so all of a sudden already from 1794 and onwards there's a shift in the ma that it gets somewhat on the I would say it gets on the map okay now before I forget we'll we'll we'll get back to the on the in a moment this has in it um um a famous legendary um or blot of of it's known as the de now this garra like when we spoke about the rabb there's a whole literature on this on this and we gave a whole she about it so this blot also has a lot the grow already in his parish goddess deals with it and then we have karif the legendary literature um put out a work calledas Yeshua where he deals with this garra the whole caf is devoted to this gamarra then later a few years later there's another tal of the nar also has a whole mahal to explain all these gar a lot happening in these in these gar they all talk about it and then there was then there was another safer right afterwards 1907 but kiter there's and there are some others but these are whole works devoted to this in the beginning of so we have that. Okay. But now again back to the actual um um and then to move on um to to that. Okay. So first of all there's a Shilra. So Shilra it's interesting is in in the past I would say the past month or two he became famous again because he has a relationship with the Ram Simka and Rome Simhka they just less than a month ago was his yard site his 100th yard site. It's a lot of discussion. So he's looking they're looking for people that have to do with him. So the claim is that he's not sure um how we know that he's definitely knows him. That's not even a question. and he puts out this on the ma and it gets impressive from including the bleman and others and they all praise the it's published I think in the first time of the 1870s and again here we have that is going now what's interesting about this thing is that there is connection to toka I don't know what But he quotes him a bunch of times. They had either they knew each other personally or they had correspondences whatever it is. But the point is there is definitely a connection between the two of them. Okay. Another um of the in the world of that comes out is a safer. This is from Shimai Dubinski. He wrote all the and um he got and he also gets impressive from the from the they gave us his other farm but they mentioned specifically this um safer of his also that they saw it but when it's published and then just looking in the beginning he has m of different mas that he has with different you could see that he he made his business to get his to be in contact with various at the time including zundul from Aishak and many others. He handles a piece from and other this is another one of the autum on the now there's the just we have to always be you have to have have a rich different varieties just to talk about two others of um two other of this period of time so one is there's a safer racial so this is a safer from aid vineberg it's published I believe in 1930 and this safher is someone from the chav medish that has to do with theal and his sonish. And he also talks about um he has interesting a short hda but he talks about the kashivas of it and basically in in it gets he he is killed in the in the war and what happens is that it gets published in the 70s. So they get a they get someone to write a article about him and this person signs off. This is in 1961. He writes this article that he was. Who is this? This is Yeshua Erensson who ends up being the chief rabbi inv prolific writer Yeshua and many other things. And he writes a four-page article about this of this. And it's fascinating to see because here he's Magd what the Mahal is. Here you have a tremendous from that base medish explaining exactly what the Tal's base medish was. And then he talks about firsthand because he knew this very well um how he sat and learned by him and he basically ends up giving he was pretty much cut himself off from everyone. But eventually he starts giving and he specifically picks this and you can understand why and he uses this that he has from the plugs it in. We also he throws in different hugs of of his of his that um wearing he would write until the morning on Shabas he would be up all night learning all these types of things. Um he and he has a fascinating thing. Yeah. He brings a fascinating conversation from mayor Shapiro about him and this was a interesting yad which I found fascinating was that there was a conversation how should a majir give Shir. So it seems there's and this is a a question always should a majir come in with a prepared shear or is there a mil sitting down with the bakim and starting from scratch at the same time with the bakim to show mish how to think not to come in and hear okay here's my prepared piece of tyra and you guys write down the notes and then you hover over it afterwards it's also to see everything as you learn the gammor so it's interesting is that this yid held this ravineberg held that that that the best way for a Talmud is to see the Rebi live and that's what it seems he would try to do in his shar he would sit down with them ku they're learning he's learning it for the first time obviously not he knew it from before but still it wasn't that he was coming in with a prepared sheir and he was giving this over to Shapiro about possibly using this method in yeshivlin now I don't know what what ended up happening with it but the bottom line is it's interesting that when they talk about so there's a fascinating account from Elio Mulikovski who des who was one of the earliest and he describes the way began and this actually gives one insight to understand the greatness of everyone is always busy talking about and his penetrating and all these types of things but this in this account one could even understand it even more. What happened was like this had a few tid that he this is way back in the early years in um he would sit come into a room before the for an hour or two and they would talk and learning and he would ask each one of the and each one of these people were tremendous one was Shalamski he was the Ramsky another person was um thisky there was another person that he was the ends up becoming the son-in-law of Berlin and then there was Kowski Each one of these people giants and they would sit down. They would say over to all different things that they were bothered by in this would somehow just talk about all different things to them and beer. He would uplug a lot of their pieces of and everything say that it looked like it just like there's no connection necessarily between all the different things. He throw out some different ideas. They would handle it back and forth and all of a sudden afterwards they would listen to Shear and they couldn't they were blown away how he could take all the different things that seemed to have no connection and turn them into and where he would penetrate all this. We say they just were in the room with him a little a little while ago and and where he would go with this remarkable thing. But anyway, there's a certain type of thing that they gain from so to speak this it's like a type of on the spot type of learning. Um sometimes it it helps um to learn anyway. Okay. So this is one and then so that's we now represented the the last safer to discuss is um it's two works. One is um one is erdal and this is from a very interesting reber it's published in the 1889 and this yid he ends up coming to he's a he's a Hungarian and he's a canoi just to um talk about him um one line about him that some one of the historians of the of the writes in a course of a different of this he writes Um he was known as a tremendous and he got involved with different things. Um, one of the things was he had he was he was um he was defending the he had a he had a with because he felt that the um did not dismissed certain sakim of the so as a so he went out after the and there were all the broadsides or the you know the patchka villain went out about it and they exist even till today one could see some of them and was interesting yid um in recent years there's a few different articles about him and he wrote on also to small that are available on Hebrew books. Okay. Now just to move on to more current and then to number one is there's a remarkable work onl but on we're just focusing right now is from Hilman was the of so it's we quoted already in the past he wrote a bunch of on so he it's not like the style of some of the other makas which vary it goes through the whole and z I already mentioned in the past has a very nice book review about him. Okay. And the there's two to say today what's number one is his son-in-law of Herzog has a whole contress in the back a nice contress dealing with some of the and some of the that his says over and his on it. One could find that in the back of the yash. The last thing relating to larasher is that while looking for something else, I came across letters of a fascinating he was in in leads in England before the war by the also it could be he was aviv it's unclear but bottom line is railman sent out his farm to all different people so he sends him this safer so at first so he kits her he says and he and he he writes him a whole long letter I found the manuscript just now um where he's praising the safer and he says I I didn't I'm not just being kufa for you I went through the safer mish very well and I was beyond impressed in what's going on in the safer and there and and also in your contress of your son-in-law that's included I he says he went through of your son-in-law and I and imish he was beyond impressed now you have to understand this. So was a giant of and he writes and he has some about it and there actually exists a bunch of letters of him to Hilman about some other volumes of his but this is specifically the volume. Okay. So here we have one other about that and just to to wrap up with just um two two other and then just one other one or two other aspects about one is to look at the of yash. Someone recently told me there's a famous everyone is has probably come across at one point or another there's a famous video of verbal yashv singing um and it turns out he was singing late early in the morning you know 4 in the morning when he used to learn one of his grandsons seems must have taken a video and it's he had a very nice voice people used to go listen to him he was learning and it seems to have been a very that he was was very fond of and you have we have which are very on the okay one other thing that just came out I'm always fond of is So he's found his work on and it seems to be available. I'm not sure if it's the whole or just a few but it's available. Okay. Now just to conclude so there's so which is one of these mitzvah that doesn't come up so often. Why? But in recent years I'm probably I didn't do have time to search but if one would search on YouTube I imagine you could find a few videos already of that took place. In the 1980s, Ahav Shalom went out they made and therefore they gathered and they put out a book called Yalamari I believe us a lot in his work and on the Ram over there and that is about there are other more recent works about it but there there are Rebecca publishes it um it's has all it goes through the simar that's relating to it and also he has some other chu of the time that came up about about discussion about the last thing is this is a mitzvah I'm very fond of because I'm a I have a bias to the mitzvah um and I was actually to do a pen and there's a lot to talk about and there's a lot of so there's a a beautiful cafer which also uses a lot and then there's a ben from overlander of my a beautiful work there's also a worker and then more recently a shalom prints from manuscript a work from a they print it's a massive work called a work which has in it a whole and a whole so these are some of the works that are out there has lots of it with just to be um some things that we can't relate to so much but if you could have a to do a ben this was a that came up in in every once in a while why because a lot of these a lot of these people they just they would go for a year or two whatever it was to go learn in a in some city far away from where they were they push him as so sometimes it came up the shas what what to do about opinion if you can make if it's a is a kadifin to come home etc etc there's a lot there are chu in literature sources about such a thing but that is not for now and anyway these are some of the aspects in this fascinating ma which as I said is about to begin and I I'm sure everyone will enjoy learning this ma Thank you very much Rabbi Dr. Elazro who kept it just under a half an hour. So looking forward to sharing this episode should be available when begins. Thank you.