R’ Chaim and His Chumash Seforim (Part 1)

Welcome back, Rabbi Dr. Elzar Brut. It's been a while, but it's nice to have you, especially because we're going back to one of our most important series, the series on the of Kanye. And even though is already not with us a good couple years, but there's so much content that's still being created, but there's some of his classics that we not we have not even gotten to. And I think this series, I'll call it a miniseries within the greater Kany series is going to be about Kanye's. Um, I'll let Rabbi Brat talk about them. I know of one time of the which I'm sure many others know about. There probably some others that Rabbi Brut could share with us. But as always, we have to mention our anonymous sponsor for the whole ofki series, the ongoing series sponsored anonymously have an aliyah. Without further ado, I would like to introduce my partner, Rabbi Dr. Alzar Brat. >> Okay. Thanks for the introduction. It's been a long time since we've done already. So okay. So [clears throat] we're towards the beginning still of the cycle of learning kish. We're in the beginnings the first few paraches still of boratious. So what I'll be saying tonight and the next few episodes will be relevant um as we'll see. So Kyvski like as we've already learned through the various episodes wrote on all areas of Tyra. One area that he wrote about was Tyra Tan. So his famous work is time in the crow and there's some other works and through the next few episodes we're going to discuss them and what we can learn from them in all different aspects. So first is just to mention um besides the time of the was there's a work called which we'll discuss at length we also spoke about his bryce which is an early work but it focuses on the parishes of truma and there he goes intense in depth in those parishes of the mishkan and the the biguna but there's other works relating to with number one is that like everything else time in the as we'll see in a mish briefly um it developed it was started as small and eventually today if you want to go buy a timera there's a time of decra then there's three volumes on the mcgillis already and after he was nif they put out a time decor on hillm now to me just to throw out there the works on millis Esther are incredible [clears throat] and on rus these the even if you have an old standard time from a few years back there's tons and tons of material because basically he spent most of his time on PUM learning and then and this was the per materials that he wrote. Now there's also in recent years the Dasita series which is a collection which is a whole team of people gathering from all his letters that he got the thousands and thousands of letters. So they've put out already a bunch of volumes on I don't know how many they plan on putting out if they plan on doing 52 volumes similar to um who also the mlugger is already coming to an end which is multiple multiple volumes of manuscripts. So we'll have KVski one bookcase another bookcase's bookcase but there's also famous farm that came out already in his lifetime um a few volumes and some other volumes by people that were they have a close kesher kvki and some of them were put out already in his lifetime these are conversations that they have with him somewhere at the shabas table and in all of them there's plenty of valuable material um in them besides for this and this relates to kish as we'll see also is there's notes that he published in his lifetime on medish rabba and relating to all this we'll see how madrashim his notes on the madrashim and the work safer hayashar that kineski also allowed them to publish his notes in his lifetime about this work so now to begin the time of the when's it first published so it seems it's published the first time in 1969 as a small work um part of the and um he publishes says it over there in the first introduction he writes something to the effect like this that he has he didn't look into it properly to see if what he said is true however and some are direct um and then he also went ahead and and publishes some other contraum and that's now today known as the which we spoke about already back in season one. Um he publishes it with stuff from his father. Um okay now that's the first introduction. This is published back in 69. Um in the sh of the safer which we also pointed out many times he gives a little more insight to the safer. He says So this is a thing that a theme that we've mentioned numerous times with his vast of every sing of all over the full gamut of kerakula bavi madashi kazaw um so he uses it to weave together to piece together all different And we're going to see how it plays out um like it did in many other things. Already in the first episode when we spoke about his work on the Rambam, we saw how he used his vast to show and demonstrate thousands of makers for the Rambam. So he does this in 2. Okay. Fast forward 1973 about he publishes it a little more updated um as its own safer. Um then again in 1987 um and each time he added stuff um okay now in these in these versions his father went through it in one of the places I saw that his father told him to take out certain stuff obviously I would love to see what those materials were that his father felt he shouldn't publish and why his father felt he shouldn't publish those pieces and if they ever came back into the final edition that was published in 19 in in 2000 and um 12 in in the latest time of the Quran. Now at one point for most of the time the time of the Qur was in back of the Bishkan eventually it becomes its own safer. Um now a lot of the additions of the safer were with and eventually became its own safer. So today as I said already if you want to buy the you have to buy the you could buy the migillas you can buy as its own safer and the rest of the works. Okay. So always um I'm fond of uh mentioning so first we I always say and is written by so he's writing about the from the first time he talks about it when he says it sounds like some type of a downplay um of of publishing the safer. Okay. So we've quoted numerous numerous times in his lifetime already. It came out of safer about his from the family. It's called so over there originally talks about the first time it was his mother. It has materials of um the they mention also um the stipler going through it. Fine. Um, now it it says over here that they write that didn't know why his father took out these pieces and even wrote that down. So I obviously would love to have that inside. Anyway, he puts it out to the Why does he put it out with Bryson? Because there was some type of thing, you know, like he doesn't want to the back of the Bryson. He's going to put out his his some of his. So there's a famous story and they bring it over here also. And that's the story with that um he he had a safer he put out first even though the seems was ready much earlier. So without getting into all the details of the exact story but the point was his father I think told him first put out then the something the fact you become known as aid um the is more famous than the but don't worry it's it has its name in the right proper place in the yeshiva world with unbelievable kashivas the mashma gets his mish up there so I don't so I don't know if he has to worry he had to worry about Let me see. >> And the arame is known as the arsame. >> Yes. [laughter] Yes. >> That's what he's called. Is called not the >> right. So because his father was nervous like some fathers are. But in the case of Bvarim um um today are part of the cannon um um without Roy for its own few episodes. Not for now. now but the point is someone must have told him so that's why it was like put on the back you know it's a back of the again this is going with my ready in the yeah now fine so the question is number one right away does is there any feedback do we know any feedback already back in 1969 about it so if you remember way back in uh previous episodes we started spoke about the correspondence between still active and leading cla. So in these incredible letters we see already back immediately after 1969 when he gets a copy to he writes a bunch of kfski. Okay. So, Ra Kfski um and I of course, you know, it's always fascinating to see they're handling a and a target over there and all different, you know, and a dict over there. Fine. Ser and all different other things. So, Khani writes him back back in 1969. Thank you so much for your um spending time to look at my safer. Fine. Few years later um um uh he writes him again. Now this time this is already going to the um as I already mentioned there was a bunch there was a new edition. This is this is in the second edition of Kki's time in the Qur. So, so writes to him. I'm going to send you a bunch of arus. Some are big, some are not. And he sends him mish a bunch of aris. You could tell he went through the safer very carefully. Over 20 aris about it. Then he says, um, even though it might sound like I'm giving you cororet, I'm crit being critical of something, still please answer me, etc., etc. Fine. So Rhyki writes back to him immediately say literally a week later he says any the what's his greatest wish that should look at their that's what you're doing so of course I'll answer you and he answers him a bunch of things fine and then again the next week writes to him again a bunch of and again he replies to him um and don't um again he's apologizing for shar kite don't worry about it and Um at the end says and I'm more than happy to have more point is already right away in Ben you know these these people as I already comment to them they live not so far from each other but they communicated um they didn't have phones probably maybe both of them didn't even have phones at that time and even though it's only the 1970s you know it's before emails for us and everything they didn't have WhatsApp this is how they communicated and learning and barm a few years ago this was published okay now I would like to suggest after spending a lot of time going through the whole time in the now obviously I did not learn every single piece and I'm only waiting for the five volume set that's going to come out the next few years sponsored by some which is going to be mafarish every tag tag and every mim that probably will happen and shortly as it started to happen with some of this we've pointed this out but my my take is like this it's not a random work it's someone who learned Tanakh well over time an investigation of the library that he's quoting is going to show us certain things as well as the style of the various pieces as I'll mention we know from the ofki that he will learn every day not only And this work is first of all time has not only pieces on daft tyrus once he was working on sometimes he would throw in a few more pieces. So when they broke it up when they so originally this tyra then was the nak pieces were only found at the end of each para but then when they they started made it into fancier safer so to speak so they made it separate so they already he he felt that every time it's published he has to add something new. So you know that go kangasky pops out another few pieces of ty puts it in there. So the point is that we're seeing over here a remarkable display of his bikus which we've spoken about already from the first episode and I'm going to put it in context how this plays out. Again we also see incredible originality and as he he emphasizes in the sh and in his introduction shot oriented he's definitely veryoriented and we're going to see certain types of questions that he's very concerned with. Um but at the other on the other hand I feel that he's holding back and part of the holding back is he didn't want he didn't want that he's gonna go down as you say he was putting in his was you look in the pictures you see what he learned he spent hours and hours learning the researching it the piles of when he used to sit in so it's not based on you know that he sat for four hours let's say and he had piles of and everything But as we'll see, we'll see more about it shortly. Lash, a friend of mine told meek's name is one day he went over to Kvski and he told him it's about a certain piece in time in the in the where you bring down a medish um a far out medish. So um he told them why you bringing out such a a medish. It's very simple. There is a target on the on the right over there in the Pac. So now and we're going to see rakowski knew fine. So he so keski smiles at him from ear to ear and tells him why does it bother you that I quoted the far medish instead to say this wasn't a thoughtout work at that time that's what his memory remembered so he was using in the piece of tyra but it's not like every puk or every piece in this thing he sat down he went to his library similar to what he did and he had the piles and he was checking everything it was more like oh he remembers a ramban and the next time he when he updates the piece he remembers ai and he remembers a say that that that's more how he looked at it. But but there's like something as I what I'm trying to bring out it was a it was done in not to be of someone sitting and learning um many hours a day. Also we see it's like a fascinating thing. These are pieces of that he on one hand it says somewhere in one of the places says he he came up with this stuff during laning. Now it's yua the stipler. Taka came up with materials for his birka's parents during laning but that's more gamatrius and stuff like that to hear this like fascinating pieces it's it's it's so hard to believe on the other handki we're f we are seeing over the many many episodes that he was unbelievable about kishan underrated so to speak in this aspect so he for him it was easy to come up with this type of ty but okay now it could be that part of the nud also was he only spent a limited amount of time learning He had letters to answer as we said every day he had letter letters he had the to do and he had his bigar that he wanted to do. So he didn't want to take away from his bigarum to work on a time a massive type of parish on whereas let's say the mal or the mash we just mentioned they felt was even the one of his time of his time he printed in his lifetime say so there's different kish I don't know how to recon I don't know exactly you know we need to have a conversation with kki about this but anyway bottom line is after everything is said and done if you look carefully through this work I'm going to demonstrate we can see how one can learnish by highlighting various things so I don't have an answer when he learned but he but he obviously did it over time now many discipler they learned not only that they both were very so they they they didn't just like do it in like hey got to be got to get that school in they learned when they learned it they learned it but again We don't have anything from this type that we do have is is gamatri and we also have nmuzen but we don't have like even a type of work in a letter as the stipler was known for many years as the for many yeshiva so he had millions of letters published beautiful letters in about which is famous that he was actually against a lot of the mal already then forget about what he would say today so in one of the letters he says what about learning. So he says you should do um afterwards after you do the tarum you should do rashi as much as you could if you have time learn extra some extra but again you don't see an exact time amount how much time you should spend and so here it's relative to make some general remarks and to move from here to explain what's going on and especially have been neglected for centuries on different levels and for different reasons. Today I'm not going to trace all aspects of it. It's a it's worthy of many different podcasts, but I'm going to mention just a few different over here and then plug it in with moving on with it there was a very that lived in a Ravis name was monk. He wrote a bunch. He wrote a lot prolific and the name is Chu and he grad also in all aspects of an um and he has a chuva inf where he talks about learning. And in the course of his chuva, he says that he he gives credit that at one point in more recent years relatively the to blame on why and has not come back into the system so to speak is because of because in that period of time the 1800s and onwards they learned to too much and any time someone would be learning or especially Na'vi they would suspect him of minus. So from there on it became a thing that we stay away from. So yes you learn and in a certain level in the in the yeshiva system but very not as with the same emphasis as other things. He says um so he writes and he's talking about the 60 the 50s 60s7s. It was in that period of time not anymore. There's no good excuse not to be learning it today properly. Okay, but obviously there's a lot more to say if someone's looking for a you want to know if you could learn today. So who was in the time of man and who was a person who battled. So he has a chuva and he says he was asked He says he talks about the famous that is also part of this conversation and what's what's going on and he says but one or two hours in these areas for us Americans this was a thing that he wrote about spoke about very often and you could find throughout his writings that are published that's been published which is basically a systematic shar that he gave on and he deals with this question and then speeches he gave and he and he would encourage the learning of and now again I'm not telling the conversation today is not about changing curriculums it's more about adults when you're older already and you're your own person so you should make time you have to make time and that's part of what's possibly going on between on some level but I'll just quote one lam from Kamnitki in his speech that he gave at one point in the 70s he's talking about and he says unfortunately too many of us are also outfitted with child-sized conceptions of kumish from which we never divest ourselves we continue to understand as according to our training but we have and then he goes on we have grown up since and so must our understanding of the personalities and events of kish mature There's unbelievable levels and layers going onish and interpretations of kazal and it should be done and kameki um I believe I believe I read once said why he was to learn was because he wasn't a r son so he saidim sons were in were not able to learn this is ver can be verified through various autobiographical accounts in different in whether you were even in for sure if you were caught learning and you were a good person, they still said they would the raid would get out. Oh, he's a masc. So, on some level was able to get away with it because he wasn't a rough son. So, there weren't so many eyes on him in this small little keyetl. So, he was able to get away learning already at a young age. Okay. So, these are some general um some general remarks and just to mention um a few more brief archists. Number one, there's an incredible work which was a bestselling work for years and years in Yiddish called the Nephesh. So was eventually translated in our generation one time into um Hebrew. Incredible Musra safer. Over there he talks about all different things in a beautiful way in a way not in a harsh way. And one of the things he has about is and and he he quotes in the famous Mishna and he talks all about it and he says that basically if you don't have the fundamental basics in Tanakh it has a major effect um down the line and this is Yua the primagadim the great primagodim who all of khal from when his work came out and study it whether you don't move without the primagodim in fascinating ing series of letters that are found in the various additions especially in the edition. So he was known again what this even means he was also a RV but sometimes he's called a mikra he was a tutor he was a teacher for for children whatever don't worry about it it's not for now but he was also a fan and as we know from the primadum what he was point is he emphasized the of learning and this is something he emphasizes in in a work another work from a a great Mhammed who spent years educating um people in he was a Talmud clearly from influence from possibly an actual Talmud from but an Talmud. He wrote a incredible safer called a safer that was used by many um how to educate their kids 13 14 years old and he also at length talks about the great importance of learning and interestingly enough parts of this was censored out in recent years and then it was put back recent years and the whole story behind that is not for now but the point is there's numerous numerous iss to learn the learning just because people always complain I don't throw out there recently I was looking I came across across the also said you should learn make sure to be an expert in Tanakha Clear writes also and they write about him also about his inh and how he was he was to be um every day to have a seder in it that and that and it's very important one has to know this area of Tyra and how important it is so now forki is the same way so now way way back in the early episodes of Kanyevki I mentioned that he was influenced by four great people and we could find all different things of him will go back to these four people his father his uncle the Mishnabura and the vagin so these four people they were his like heroes and and everything goes back to that he's copying or has something to do with um things that come from them so as I mentioned already learning and on this level and putting out this time of the so although in time of the taka brings pieces from the khaz stuff that he spoke to him or he heard but we don't have works of the kazesh on on this area the stipler too even though again we have materials from the stipler over here in this safer but we don't find this same um type of level that we have by him over here in in the time of the that we find by the stipler who was his rebi forum in his early years. So was the stipler. So we find in the that already um the told them that his father taught him and without rashi because he held you have to know but again not in this level. So where does it come from? So do we know anything about this is interesting question. So in the work that I'm very fond of quoting time and time again son he says that his father was on chabas he didn't learn what was his on chabas he would sometimes learn with others in rashi and he says he was harbor on each and he would say them over and there are people was writing in those days in the 1930s that did know what the said I'm tired. So now the question is so where does it come from? So as I've mentioned in the past numerous um things relating to Kfki are easily traceable back to the fourth influence on him and that is the great villag. So without going further without go sorry so without further ado let's discuss the and what we could see and plug it back in with so first of all in all the whether in the regular pieces are and also I said there's also we see an intense learning of and of now there is certain aspects of learning that we find in G and then the people influenced by him that you don't necessarily see a major emphasis by but we'll but let's begin in the famous letter to his children he said to them make sure that they should learn the children of the grow when they talk about their father they say the first thing he held was you have to be baky in his anakmer writes that he knew everything and he was mafarish This is what he's talking about the great Zag. So not only was it but it was also now just to show this in the famous work from about the Talman of the brother. So it talks about one time a vart that the bra set over in the sheir on safer and he was busying it and um and he was spending the story go part of the story was that he wasing over the ver that the rebiqual spent time on developing in the now we have the it was published many years later so we see it wasn't just learning the it was learning the one of the First works of the GR published actually the first work is a mish it's not stap someone has some nice and stuck it to mish no it's a work on mish a theme tons of things are happening in this incredible incredible work this is someone spent time learning this of of and we see this again and again in various works of of the there were many that were missing um some we have Today's in his work maps out all about this and we see this in his just to mention briefly is Talmud Rivlin who published a work has about and in one at least one of them we find and this I said in front of the he was um he added the following. So we see here with his rabbi in Plus the famous magged who was known to have tremendous and the also we have from him on in his we see to make sure you should have a and with and we see this again and again the and others says you should make sure to learn with the point that I'm bringing out is that a thing of a real serious deal of learning it. Again, I'm not saying how much time, but of learning it is found clearly of great emphasis in Bersh and as it's known um which is going to be the subject of a different a different podcast to mine the val and where it came from which is also rooted in all this what did when they learned every day for 15 minutes a half hour. Okay. Now in the learned he was in the maps to understand and all these works were published from the we see also and now so these first of learning well is rooted in the grow and I believe Raeski got it from that and even the maps which plays out in Raki's work and as we're going to and even in some places is also rooted in this another thing that we find as you're learning credible incredible without getting into who wrote the tag whether whether it's all these names and what they refer to but was crazy into these and he uses them throughout his works especially in the so do we find anything about this in the gray marriage answer is Yes, his husband on on his father. He mentions goes out of his way. He would say it out loud and we find um in various works of his um an intense eon and quotations from Taramunlas and knowledge of the other Tagum and Bal. We find this in other people um that come from the Bagw most notably in Ramagra's writings and in the Nativ's writings even wrote a work on Tarum that's been published. So this also um is something found that is into tagamunlus. Again I'm not saying that is in every piece of tagamulus but the the the whole concept of also is found in the base medish of the now there's a work which we'll discuss short in the next episode called that is also interested in and he has and where he has it from as a source. So he's taking it to a new level but this is only based on new discoveries that was to have in our lifetimes. Now another thing is something which we spoke about in the which is a auda as follows. learning through Kfki's one sees I noticed time and time again that he has pieces where he deals with and mal he'll say he'll note that in one place this spelling is in one place it's mal and with tremendous and dozens of times he has beautiful mostly shadow oriented to explain this he say he's very into the So back in the so first the quote number one says we're talking he says that it's meant to there's there's stuff going on behind this was aware of the but already in earlier work um we see this and there was actually a lost medish um that in the times of the that quote called the rash brings it down talks about it. He quotes and some other about it but in recent enough years the past hundred years various additions and discoveries of this medish or parts of this medish have been discovered and makes use of this. So this nakudish of the also which is already going back from but it's found in the it's takes this to a whole new level in this cafer so what's it what's it coming from so I also would like to suggest this is also rooted in the base of the we discussed in the shitten in is very important how to spell names of giten and plays out something known as the messyra which is there was a special messiah given over and how it was given over and what it's given over is beyond the scope of today but basically how to spell all different things in the Tyra and it's it's how to write a and it's as I'm saying over here to how to be all types of so so the was very into this and um he look at the and the trap and there's a shell somewhere. So, what's in the over here? And then he says, we're talking about the let me tell you this a few other times mentioned. Let me explain to you what's going on in those and a few times you'll find these but these and the of the but more but they're found dozens of times. So, so I'm saying is it's coming from the base man gave to um sorry work on so he says you're working on and through looking at it and was from the work that you're about to publish. Now what about the in all this? So shraga son-in-law of the GR in the ado published in in the early years after the Gira massive work on the which is one of the themes that it deals with is because as I said it has to do with how you write to he brings a whole thing about how this was so important that the was in any um and he was tons of different Similarly says he was and he had all different based on so this whole of the serious I'm showing again and again throughout is safer is this also could link back to the it's also true that so you don't need this particular one but since everything else is linking to the it could be it also has to do with the now we also see in the work um of Kyki intense work about Rashi. Now that's bread and butter for any person rash. So tons of times he'll show you the mus of a rashi. Where is that coming from? Is massive and medish um and all the different that we'll discuss later on. And then there's the and in the we have galore raan. So again, it's not a work systematically to be mafarish ramban. But you see someone that knew Ramban by heart and whenever it's necessary, there's Ramban. Interestingly enough, in the letters that I quoted with now that they begin their relationship with what is what are these what are these handling? So you see that you have to know the now you'll ask when how much time how much time in the day are you supposed to learn how to learn that's you have to ask your own but it's clear he um was into learning the Rambata we already spoke about his his relationship with zakanal that came out in you know a bunch of volumes in our lifetime it's still coming out as we speak quotes So it was he has an intense um it's the data but it's again there's I'm being mas that it's the it's not the same that like the you could see in the pictures even if I'm learning we know how he wrote it it was sitting on every single thing it's every region so the vert doesn't have oh there's but throughout the work time and time again you see he was learning this and eventually he would plug it in to this work of timra. Now this is the um um the first episode that to to of this as you called it a miniseries and and the idea that I'm trying to bring out is as follows learned whether it was how he wrote his perish and how much time he spent on it and whatever but looking at it very carefully we could see that at some point in time one has to find time to master and use and learn the Tumin, Rashi, Ramban and other and through this he used it to become beyond creative and create um he used this data that he learned over all the years and as I said I feel that he got it from the vagun now in the in the next episodes my my what I'm going to show is high to to point out some of the farms that he used that were more interesting that are somewhat very interesting actually as we'll And then to plug into to give us an understanding of some of the verts and some of the that he said showing certain styles certain things that he's concerned with and then to conclude with a thing that Raeski became very famous for and that is he became the pik about names people wanted to know names um if you can use this name in naming a person um it actually plays out loyal and giten how to spell it but which names are you allowed to use which names are you not allowed to um and all different types of questions relating to this and here the Tyra is is galore and is galore. It's amazing to see what he used his vast knowledge from learning his through his and more for this also and we'll we'll have an exploration in depth of the names and all the different things with and the like. Okay, so that's that for this is the conclusion for the first episode of the series. >> Fascinating. So looking forward to the next episode or two. Once again, we thank our anonymous donor who dedicated this of course check out alazar bratgmail.com and I don't know if you were on here since you've done it but Brat has given his spim on David Kamki and Yo Green who were two prolific writers and each focused on different areas. Worth taking a listen at musings of a book collector found on your local podcast apps and available if you search in the old website as well.