Piyutm and other Liturgical Changes | Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowits | October 6 2026

Thank you everybody. Good good to see you. I hope um the yumm were inspiring. We're joyous and as uh Josh just said uh we're now entering ordinary time. But the real test of yamim toim is whether you can take the yum into ordinary life. Other than that yamtiff is just a yumptiff. Uh used to say uh we often say we've been through a yumptiff cycle but has the yumptiff cycle been through us? have we become elevated and the like. So is the litmus test. One could even make the argument is the most important month of the year precisely because there are no yim to by the way the idea of marsh which commonly means bitter that's the folk etmology but many do connect to the bibl a biblical term for rain drops of rain. So as a result it's a re to the rainy month the beginning of the rainy season. So you're not in Apicorus if you don't want to call it bitter. We have another interpretation of of of Mar. Uh anyway, um I do want to talk a little bit about uh the last thing we were talking about in the Rambam and then I want to take it to something connected but the Rambam does not address this particular issue. Uh I want to say I want to blame the Rambam for essentially killing out a whole industry. Right? We have certain technological developments that just eliminate, right? When when you had digital photography, Kodak went bankrupt. The great company Kodak uh which based everything on film kind of just eliminated. Uh when Netflix started on the online, you know, um Blockbuster, all the big video stores, at least in America, they just got eliminated. So sometimes whole industries got eliminated overnight. So I want to blame the Rambam for eliminating the concept of spartic putim. Before the Rambam, Schlommo Iben Gabaral, many many other Spartic poets composed a huge Rudvi the Abenezra composed a huge number of Putim that were inserted at all sorts of points in the Dabin in the middle of Beros Keshar in the Khazar Sashhats and the like. uh and uh they're are very very famous PUM a few of which have survived most of which have not survived uh at all uh and uh these were not just again I want to emphasize these were not just for yam no they were for the including uh they were for special occasions in a Brit there would be inhates porim as I bar mitzvah sorry I know they didn't do but uh all all sorts of occasions now the sheet of and sajon not only composed many of these putim he was one but he did something even more than that something even more than putim because putim are simply additions to the existing liturgy he actually changed brahas for so for example the arva Friday night he rewrote the braha of mariva raim so there are pim that are added and then there's literally revisions of raot for special occasions. Rambam took the position that number one it is totally improper to change post Talmudic changing the braot so Rav sajon's innovations he totally threw away although with a great deal of respect I think I pointed out that he couldn't just say the Rambam didn't like pitim anyway he said poets whatever he he would often make fun of them he would never make fun god forbid of rifon rivson was too big of a god Oh, to make fun of but the Rambam says if you can avoid saying these additional braot or these new braot don't say it and visa v the pim which we're not changing braot but we're adding passages the rambom took the position it is a forbidden interruption in the brahos of schma and a forbidden interruption in khazar and therefore the raam says if you're going to say them say them after now the truth is the raam 's words became so universally accepted amongst sparik communities that essentially there are no put in beros keshma and there are no pim in khor sash everything is said afterwards so I maybe I shouldn't say he killed off the industry the putim still had their place but they were totally relegated to after khazar sash and the rese of kairo took who normally follows the ram anyway took exactly that position So the very very rich pyonim literature of the sardim again ravi uh the ebenezrao ibn dabal rav mosha benezra who was related to the ebenezra saja gaon a few other gaonim as well uh simply largely got disregarded or at best were salvaged towards the end of dabing after the khazar yeah >> so come you know the in there in the Ashkanazer for both and there's a host of these >> no no so I'm going to get to Ashkanazm in a moment that's why I mentioned spardim so the Rambam again was accepted as the final definitive postk uh for spardim because rase kairo essentially remember kairo had a funny rule I've mentioned it a number of times uh he stacked the deck really ravioseph kairo decided in deciding Halaka he would go with the two out of three rule. He identified three halik authorities that he considered to be the greatest of the great the riff rait kasi the Rambam and the rash and he would be the based on the two out of three rule. Now that's really stacking the deck because the truth of the matter is the Rambam and the riff agree around 95% of the time and the rush is always the odd man out. Uh so essentially the two out of three rule will strongly strongly favor the Rambam. That's part of why the Ramar wrote his additions to the Shanor because the Ramar represented the Ashkanazic tradition and the rush was an Ashkanazi POS as it were. So basically it's fair to say uh that the is largely based on the Rambam and uh the anti-ot idea of the Rambam got carried over in to this day this mak does not have in the I don't I don't mean uh what we often call if it's not is simply Ashkanid it's really it's ashkenaz with some little additions so it's very misleading uh is a separate a separate okay now when it comes to Ashkanazim life is very very different as we as we experience and that is Ashkanazim retained by Ashkanazim I mean Poland Germany there actually two main branches of Ashkanazic no there is what is called Ashkanaz Hamaravi Western Ashkanaz which is essentially Germany and even France and then there's Ashkanaz Misrai which is not Spartik is Poland Poland so so basically it's Germany Poland they have very very different and then you have variations Hungary Czechlovakia Austria but essentially uh these different countries will follow either the western Ashkenaz or the eastern Ashkenaz in both Pututim remained very very very very strong and these Puim once again were not limited to Rashashana Yam Kipper they applied to the Shalim uh they applied to Shabaso they applied to Roesh they applied to Britz they applied to the Shabbat of Aassna and even the Shabbat after a special things for the three weeks special things for the counting of The omare and then a miscellane of special shabba toad. Shabasius had its putim. Shabas shouba had its putim. Shabas kazon had its putim. And these putim are huge. They cover every bra in the bases of shak and then the khazar either shak or both. In fact uh it's It's a m rashashana. We associate put with rasher. Rashashana actually has fewer pim than the for various reasons. There are certain putim that do not appear in the rash in. Now what happened is that eventually put died off largely in ashkanaz as well. But it took several centuries till that death occurred. meaning spartim stopped reciting put in those times already from the Rambamak which is already the the late 1100s 1200s Ashkanazim whether it's Poland or Germany we began dropping the putim really in the 19th century not so long ago the 1800s it started in Lithuania in Russia Germany the yakasha still holds on to a lot of them a lot of them. And that's why if you go to a show like Briers or a uh a Yakusha show, I'm always torn. I mean, I'm told some people tell me I'm not supposed to call uh German Jews Yakis. It's considered to be insulting. Other people tell me there's no other people tell me there's no problem. So, I I I I'm not really sure. I apologize if this offends anybody or offends the audience. Yeah. >> The theorum that we used to have before Arts grow. Yep. >> There are two kinds that I'm thinking of. They were full in the middle of >> 100% correct. Um yeah, in the history of the Englishspeaking >> moxur not even English. Okay. Okay. But but you had Yeah. You had um the burn bomb which largely did not have putim. Then you had the Adler moxer which had many many potim and then of course the rattleheim and the heenheim and the avodes Israel many many many andos and the like but in the 19th century for for whatever reason it's not even clear exactly why more and more put dropped uh the inkilot there are no that are said and certainly roes three weeks that's all gone uh some of them have survived in rashana yam kipper davening but even they even they are only a fraction of what was originally there so uh I know I've mentioned number before uh professor Danielle Golmidra was a from person a great great great great expert in liturgy and he put together ashkinazic msorim for rashana yam kiper and the Shel actually the shelter gum were finished by his son-in-law uh Raviona Franco Rab Dr. Gman was nifter and he tries to put together all of the different Putin what they said in Poland what they said in Germany what they said in Hungary what they said in France amazing amazing uh different types of diversity and uh Dr. Frankl writes in the introduction with a very touch of sadness. He says of in the mak of sukus as we just had sukus and he says uh almost none of this is said anywhere. So my moxer should be regarded sadly as a historical remembrance of what the katila once was uh which is more or less extinct today. Again, you could see the sadness in his words. So, the putim are extremely beautiful. There are so many illusions to midrashim. You can get a real Jewish education by looking at the putim. Uh their words are very very difficult. The illusions are very subtle. But if you have a good uh commentary, a good parish, uh you can actually learn a tremendous amount. and the Ashkanazic Python and Rabbi Alzar and you know many many others uh and and the like. So as I say the Rambam killed off Putin form a bonusim kind of held on to them uh well into the 19th century and the German kahilos still have somewhat of a strong attachment to many potim but in Nus Poland and by the way and Ashkanaz both in Israel and America unless you're a yak shash is nus Poland right so when you're dabing a regular Ashkanazic sitter it is technically eastern Ashkanazi uh because Nusk Poland for whatever reason became much more dominant than Nusk Ashkanaz Maravi uh and therefore you can compare it if you look at for example if you look at the gold m for sukos he'll tell you the pim that are said in Maravi and the putim that are said in misra which is Poland and then when you look at the art scroll moxer that does have the putim but it says it at the end not said by a vast majority of congregations you will see that the art scroll they don't they don't indicate it but the art scroll puts Poland they're not so which means art scroll goes with Nusk Poland to the extent that they add Pim at all which they typically do at the end of the moxer saying most shs don't don't say this yeah >> comment on the sl of the vag >> yes yes and this is a major factor the vil nagine more or less took the very similar position to the Rambam that put Marra Heek and that is probably why in Lithuania Leita was the first country that kind of dropped the Putim. It may have been because of the influence of the Rambam. In fact, you may influence of the vil nagon. Um although it's true the vilone suck were not always accepted even in Lithuania and even in vna but since this is a matter where the vil nagon is being makeo a kind of convenience like they say with people always follow but not when machmir I think the vagon is a similar thing. Oh, the villagon says I can't say put I'll drop ignoring of course all the other great theon had in so many other areas of the who was a great great great pose in Lithuania the actually decries the fact that the putin were being dropped and he criticizes it he says it's a tremendous aid but even he seems to indicate that this was something that could not be stopped. Now let me point out in addition to potim the yum kipper has an an interesting feature and that is solos. Now sikos is a genre of pot but has a very uh specific structure. It's always followed by the yudimot of etc. Now in our present yum kiper makur we say at two points we say in arvit after the amida because there's no repetition and we say in the repetition but if you look at an old mer you will see that they added in shak in mus and in mina And the says for sure you have to have in every prayer of and that also just got tossed. It got tossed. Part of why it got tossed uh to give a spiritual reason is that in the yeshiva world where they tried to emphasize a slower davining a dvening of more kavana you had to sacrifice quantity for quality. The basic idea was if you had to add all of these things uh you couldn't fit it in a single day unless you dab much more quickly. So the yeshivot made a judgment that we will eliminate a lot of these things in order to focus on kavana and that's that's kind of the shamay rale uh but as I say that doesn't necessarily explain the wholesale abandonment in other places. Now uh to give you a more recent example even more recent than which initial is also right if you're used to um the two days then is kind of a blur because you're like throwing uh you know it's like a cholant you're throwing everything into the pot. You have hakos and you have yiskar the same day. It's kind of a cognitive dissonance. Uh the one thing that the men gave us ramanas for is cohelis. This is very interesting because cohelis is supposed to be read shabbat but when there's no sukus is on shabas. So you you will notice initiat which is shabas in init we read it the first day. So I don't know who established that but apparently they had that on on a day that's also we shouldn't also throw in cohellet which is a huge book and it's also a very depressing book in some ways. So it was felt that well let's move to day one instead of day eight. But in kutzar kohhelith was not read on day one. Cohelith was read on. But ones the one thing that we have according to almond minimum is we have gashim which is a p written by razerat gum. So number one theatum that we recite is a fraction of the whole. If you look in older makurim, you'll see that this was quadrupled or quintupled or sexupppled much much much bigger than we said. We say literally the tip of the iceberg. But but in the standard Ashkenazic practice, even if you were only saying a limited gash, it was said in Khazar. I'm not sure if you experienced this but in the yeshivas based on the minute of the vil nagon felishim is recited before khazarash uh simply because of the vagon's position that these put were considered to be an interruption in a way it's kind of antilimactic because you know uh the kazin puts on a k and the kazin says kadesh in a very solemn niggon which made sense if this was a prelude to gash because felas gash is a very important prayer but here it almost the picture doesn't really make a lot of sense. We say with all of its solemnity and then the kazan says you know the uh the very emotional kind but you know we kind of finished that we kind of finished that already. is kind of uh doing something connected to something that inut or some places in our cell comes after this kadesh and here we've already said it so it's a little a little bit strange but to answer the question this is because of the shita of the vnagon as as you know particularly in many of the minhagim of what is called the yishaashan the prezionist religious community in inlay is based on the minhagim of the vagon and this would be his minimum that you try to minimize the now obviously that's not complete because we do have some that are inhat would have approved of that but we do say much less uh because of his influence okay so I just wanted to point out that uh putim have been kind of abused uh but the Rambam killed them off very early. Ashkanazam kept them till kind of the middle of the 19th uh century. Okay. Now I think it's safe to say generally if we had to generalize that the Rambam was very conservative, small C conservative when it came to lurggical changes. We have the Talmud, we have the Nessus Abdullah, they gave us our braos, they gave us ouros. We're not supposed to fool around with that. We're not supposed to add, we're not supposed to change. And that's why generally every time some shila came up about an unusual braha, a new formulation, the Rambam's almost instinctive response was don't go there. Go with the brahos that that we are given in the tomud uh and and and the like. So I want to give you one example of a very interesting lurggical change that is not connected to but it still represents a lurggical change of some significance and that is the forra uh whether it's in the ninth day or whether it's init the eighth day that makes no difference. So as you know the ka of Torah or marriage is the last para of the Torah and we finish the Torah. We do finish the the Torah. By the way I got to tell you a beautiful story. Let me digress. I don't want to forget my main point. Uh you know we have two honors uh when we finish the Torah. We have Torah who finishes and bes who starts. So I'll tell you a story. There was a story uh they say about either yeshiva bakim and yeshiva orum with the rebi that they were not dancing on simra they refused to participate so the rashiva or the rebi whoever it was went over to them and said why don't you dance with the Torah why don't you rejoice with the Torah so they said rebi we don't deserve to dance with the Torah you know we don't learn it the whole year that well we're not so connected so all of a sudden when it comes to fun and games we're supposed to dance with the Torah We're not so connected to the Torah. We don't deserve to dance with the Torah. So the Rebi said, "You're making a mistake. Let's consider the two alos of Torah and braces." At least among maybe this is a that this is not aic story. The greater cavote is toraasan tora is given to the roshiva. It's given to the biggest etc. and bracious is a lesser honor. Although it's maybe the opposite. So what's the difference? So he says is a celebration of what you accomplished. We finished the Torah. So as a result you give it to the person who accomplished the most the were celebrating the accomplishments of bracious is not celebrating an accomplishment it is celebrating the potential to go on the potential for new growth that no matter what the past is it is a new beginning so the rashiva said to the tidim maybe you're not ready for but for gracious you certainly are. It's a new year with new potential. You can rejoice as a brac even if you're not yet a okay that's a little digression but be be it as it may. So it turns out that zabra is the creassor. What is the horra for zabra? It is the first perk of Yahosua which makes perfect sense because the end of Zebra is Mosher Abenu dies and the beginning of safer Yoshua is after the death of Moshe right Moshe Hashem Hashem tells cross the ardane so it's a natural connection right the first peric of Yeshua is naturally connected to the end of Zabra Now, so it makes sense. Certainly makes sense. Problem is it contradicts the Gmorrah and Makus. The Gomorra and MHill lists the different Torah readings for all the Yamim toim and we follow that that list of course and it also lists the ha for these special cases. And the Torah that it gives you format but every day is about blessing the people on which was the last day of the dedication of the Ba Mikdash and sending them home. So at some point that ha got dropped in favor of Yahushua and his KGA the Gomorrah. So Tyus does point out that although our minog is to be mafir in safer Yoshua, it is connected to Gomorrah. And apparently the innovation and change occurred in the time of the Gaonim. And he records that it was done by Rafon. But still uh you do have a real problem here. And the real problem is number one, the Gonim can normally not argue with the Gomorrah. And number two, why would they replace it? So I want to share with you a very intriguing hypothesis of the mesh of the orame. And by the way, this year is the 100th anniversary of his of his death. A number of places including I mean or is the name of Ramier Simka's safer on the Rambam. Uh so a number of places are holding special u not celebrations but special kinim in memory of of but in the me offers a very fascinating hypothesis. You know that ka satur had two different minhagen. Our min is we finish the Torah every year. But the original minog of Israel was the Tyra was finished every three years. Now the way that worked was the reform movement. Many reformed synagogues try to hold on to the three-year min, but they do it, they don't do it the right way. What they do is uh one week they'll read one-third of para spacious, the next week they'll read one-third of paras, the third week they'll read one uh onethird of paras. That's not the way it worked. They didn't skip parios that way. The three-year cycle was let's say they would divide paras bracius into three sections. So braces was read over three weeks. Noah would be read over three weeks etc. So the min of Israel was to finish the Torah over three years. Now actually a little bit more than three years. Now exactly when that worked out is not so simple. Uh some say that uh the cycle would be completed on Shivuos. Some say the cycle was completed on yum kipper. But the point is when you're operating with the three-year cycle, obviously the annual holiday of had nothing to do with Torah. See, we make a big mistake when people think, why is there a holiday called? People think, oh, because we celebrate finishing the Torah. That's not true. Uh in a three-year cycle, you weren't finishing the Torah. says a holiday because it's a holiday and the fact that there are two days in the diaspora is just like every that has two days in the diaspora. we happen to later give it a second name but in the doning it's just okay we have to understand this that although we do celebrate finishing the Torah that is not the origination of the holiday and on a three-year cycle you were not finishing the Torah on every year for sure not and even every third year not because the cycle was or some some other day. And yet the says the ruling of the Gomorrah that the satra on Torah is is not because you were finishing the Torah. That just happens to be the Torah. Meaning even on a three-year cycle where you were not finishing the Torah I mean right everything is apart right every just like um the first day of suk you read para on it was which is appropriate because we're leaving the yum no we're leaving the holiday season we hope that God is blessing us so we read the blessings that Moshe gave You see the point? In other words, it's a very different way of looking at it. The original reason why was the creas of Shini is not because we're finishing the Torah. It's because the theme of Braha is appropriate to Shini. That's when Schlom gave us a braha. Misha gave us a braha. Of course much of Z and other but we read about the braha meaning is the culmination of the yim where we ask hashem for braha. Okay. Now, it is only when they transitioned from the three-year cycle to the one-year cycle and they decided that Simka's Torah would be the Catra Zea acquired a second function as the completion of the Torah. Meaning the ka of Zeissra existed even when you were on a three-year cycle. But its significance as finishing the Torah only occurred when it went to a one-year cycle. And eventually what happened was not without Maklo. The three-year cycle of Erit Israel got killed, got extinct. And even in Erit Israel, they went over to the one-year cycle. Now, as late as the Rambam studied, the Rambam lived in Egypt. And there were a group of olim for Israel who started their own sh and they wanted to keep the old three-year cycle in Mitim and the Rambam excommunicated them. The raam said user asser user user user and the same way he fought against the carites he fought against this kahila even though these were religious Jews but he did not allow this custom to take place. So now the measma says the following beautiful insight. Yeah. Now the says a beautiful beautiful incident when was not the conclusion of the Tyra because you were operating on a three-year cycle and it simply was the appropriate crea for Shmini. The reason it was read on is because of the theme of braha. So what is the appropriate ha tora? The theme of braha the ha tora that talks about giving us a braha upon conclusion of the dedication of the ba mikt. But once we transitioned to a one-year cycle instead of a three-year cycle, Zotra acquired a second function of completing the Torah. Ah, so at that point Rabbi decided the original decision for the ha to Torah of Schlomik is less applicable now because once we're finishing the Torah which talks about the transition in leadership we then switch to Yeshua. So he says it's not that Rafigon is ignoring the Gomorrah. Rafigon's insight was that the Gomorrah's choice of haftra was based on an older cycle that had gotten replaced and once you replace the cycle the Torah should reflect the significance of that change here that's the beautiful idea now you know the kakma was the ra in dinsk dinsk was a town in Latvia and very very fascinatingly although Dinsk did not have a real yeshiva but in the early decades of the 20th century till they both were nifer dinsk had two rabb on him who were the gdole hador mamesh they had rab mayor simra koen who is the rav of the ashkinazim there were no smarts but then they had the rugach he was born in rugachv ra yose frozen who was actually he was But uh who was the rav of the and the rug gone if you ever heard of him was an extraordinary uh genius. I mean they both were but ruggage was u I shouldn't say a little crazy but but he he he behaved in very very unusual unusual ways. If you ever saw a picture of him, you'll see his hair is very wild. And the story goes he never wanted to take a haircut because of the Bal Torah in having his head uncovered for a while. Uh they say that when he lost his wife, he was learning regular Gomorrah during Shiva. And when someone said to him had the to say to him, you know, you're not supposed to learn regular Torah during Shiva. So they say he said, but but this is a bit bit of an exaggeration. They say he said, he says, I'm willing to go to Gehenn uh for learning Torah because my not learning Torah is a bigger gem for me than whatever gem Hashem will give. Now the truth of the matter is he had a mural. The shi actually says that if a person is in total pain if he doesn't learn Torah and is allowed to learn so isn't simply violating the rug had a makur in but the personalities of Rair Simka and the rugg were totally totally different although they were very good friends was maton he was very patient very gentle very softspoken the rug was stormy, tempestuous. You wouldn't want to get into an argument with him because he would throw a million proofs about every single point. They say Raarin Cutler who in his early 20s was already a great Rosha and a brilliant brilliant person. He very much wanted to talk to the Rugachv in learning but he was afraid to come as a Rosha. The Rugashva would cut him up. So he disguised himself and he said he was simply a businessman who learns a little bit and the ruggage was actually very kind to Balabatim because he he understood that they weren't at the highest level. So he was not too hard with them. So Rarin Kutler told the ruggab some of his great great great and the rugg gave him the highest complimentar said he ever got and that is you know for a working man you're not bad. He said and raarin said that was the greatest greatest chev I don't know how true it is that got smika from the rug. Okay. Now the reason I'm bringing this up is that the rug independently of the metma makes a very beautiful point that ties into the mesh beautifully. So they're on the same wavelength and that is it's hard to notice how many alias you have onto because everybody gets called up. But let's assume you were you didn't have the custom that everybody has to have an aliyah, right? Everybody has you just want to do the yumptiff reading. So yumptiff I'll talk about the fact that was shabas this year is a little different but let's say regular y let's first assume simra is on a weekday. So the ka satyra of yamto are five alos and then a mafia. Now if you notice the way the alias are are broken up in zamishi the fifth aliyah concludes before is not of the five alias. It's almost like a ma added to a maft. We have a maft but is a separate aliyah. So even a minimalist without everybody getting an aliyah is five aliot andra. Now you might ask that that's unusual. If you're going to have zra as your ka and you're going to read five alos then logically kasan tora should be the fifth aliyah. I mean that's the log. You finished the para. So the rugver says the following. The division of zebra into five alos is a reflection of its original status. Uh before we were on the one-year cycle and in the original status, you didn't finish the Torah. Meaning did not finish the para. There was no reason to finish the para. Why would I read about the death of Moshe if I'm not finishing the para and I'm simply reading it because of the braot the crea of zabra ends when the braos are finished which is before the ali and therefore the five alos is the original division of zeiss habraa before we went on to the one-year cycle and it became the and because of that is not among the five ali it's five ali plus that's a beautiful proof's hypothesis uh that was the Torah reading even before you were finishing the Torah and we didn't even read about we didn't even finish the Torah in its original in uh incarnation. Right? So I think the rug is a very very nice addition to raka. By the way used to say about the rugach people think the rugach has such a great memory. Yes he doesn't have a great memory. He just reviews kola toraula babami every month. So uh anything he remembers he learned within the past month. So, what's the big what is the big uh what is the big deal? Um just as another aside, the ruggage had uh a minog when he would answer questions on postcards or whatever it would be. Uh he would just give you mara makos. He would just give you references. See this, see this, see this, see this, see this, see this, see this. And to this day, to this day, there are full-time column whose job is to try to decipher the meaning of those references because they are not self-evident references. Now, you'd ask him about Shabas and he'll give you a citation having to do with kaducian and you don't even see the connection. So there are right the rugby goes from A to Z without spelling out the intervening links in his thought. So there are full-time think tanks that are trying to figure out the linkages uh in his analysis right just didn't have time um okay it was very unusual I mean as I say he u did not learn anyone uh he did not even accept the as an authority it says the only person he respected so to speak was the Rambam and he he lived his life based on the Rambam and he said the Rambam was his pose and everything. So again, it's very um unusual in many many in many ways, but this is the hosa that he makes. Um okay, so that's what I want you to show you the idea of the lurggical change, the three-year cycle. Uh and of course uh the idea of also reading gracious that is a that is a later minute of the middle ages that that was not known in the Gmorrah. uh the garrain never suggested that uh you read voracious ones that was a later minute and not everybody not everybody agrees with it I mean there are some physicians who say it's a bra of it's not the para of is the para and then we have a mafia from paras and anything else you can read it but how can you make a braha on it it's like reading something that's not the ka so those became later minimum that became widely accepted in Khloe Israel. Also the idea of everybody having an aliyah and even the idea to save time people can you know many people can have an aliyah at once it's possible. Uh these are later minhagim and all of them were questioned and all of them were controversial at the time but they became widely accepted. There's even an interesting discussion in Halaka about monetary liability for damages during hakavas. I'm not sure if if anyone had to experience this, but let's say somebody rips your jacket, they're dancing around, or breaks your foot, god forbid, uh those things can happen. Uh is there monetary liability for damages that are incurred during hakavos? So many postkim say no. And they they adopt an idea that in secular law would be called assumption of risk. Hey, you know, you're putting yourself it's like you know you play a sport. You're putting yourself in high-risk situations. So you know that these things can happen. So it's as if you're signed a waiver in advance. So again the post can discuss um liability uh for damages during a couple. So apparently this must have been a problem uh otherwise the chubos would not would not be uh would not be discussing it. Okay. So this is again I'm just bringing this in. The Rambam does not address this but I'm just bringing this in as an example of this lurggical change. And the truth of the matter is in spite of the Rambam's conservatism uh we do see that the inyan of was a more flexible type of system than other areas of that even though but we do find that in there was a certain amount of improvisation and the like I mean listen even the Rambam the Rambam was bucking a trend yes the Rambam's became very definitive But the Rambam is confronting a whole universe of all of these changes that were made and Gdole Israel before the Rambam did not consider that to be a problem. Another area where there's been a lot of change are the laws of aut many many customs in the observance of morning that are recorded in the Gmorrah that the reishim already said we don't do today. For example, they used to have something the morning says it laavd that sounds somewhat similar to an Irish wake in laavd uh it says you know we drink four cups of wine at the sed it actually mentions in a's house there was a ritual where they would drink 10 cups of wine uh in nikam they would have a toast a prayer may god comfort you may god comfort amrael may god comfort all the people and each each each was a toast with a glass of wine N based on a that says give strong drink to he who is lost and wine to he who is bitter in spirit and there actually was a concept that the drank a lot of wine and the people around him drank a lot of wine the gam already say we don't follow this today because it led to people getting drunk and inappropriate behavior but Still, it's it is always an amazing thing as a student of it's always an amazing thing when whatever the reason you're taking something that is described in the Gomorrah and you're simply saying we don't follow that anymore. I mean, that's a that's a daring type of statement that seems to be against the way uh normally uh normally works. Also there was a ceremony after the burial in which the avail would stop seven times and sit and different prayers of comfort uh would be given and we don't do that right so in ais I think you'll actually see uh orif one of the laws of ais is the ael's head is supposed to be covered with a veil covered with a veil is manaz that's not The bed is supposed to be turned upside down. It's not done. So, I don't have a a grand theory to give you other than pointing out that certain areas of were considered more amunable to change than other areas of. Meaning sometimes the is is fixed. Other times uh in liturgy and aut flexible of course this gives rise to another thing again a digression but another area of change is uh conflicts between kazal and science I'll give you the famous example one famous example the gammoran shabas tells us that you are allowed you know we we know that one of the malos of shabas is you're not allowed to kill kill something can't kill an animal can't kill an insect. It's one of the 39 or but is a so the Gmorra says you are allowed to kill a shabas are life. Why? Because the is of only applies to species that reproduce sexually. from male and female. Lice do not reproduce sexually. They reproduce from the spontaneous generation through rotting food or whatever it is. Again, spontaneous generation was a widespread belief in the ancient world that some life is generated from the decaying of matter, rotten food or whatever it would be. Because when food rots, you see flies. So it was thought there was spontaneous generation. Now khazal are using this as a basis to allow something that would otherwise be forbidden. Now when they invented the microscope, Leven hook whatever the I guess the uh 17th or 16th century. So they discovered that there is no spontaneous generation. There is a Mr. and Mrs. Laos that are you know getting married and the like which means it would seem it would seem that Kazal made a scientific error. Now now here's the problem. It is not so controversial to say Kazal make errors in science. That's actually an old approach because when it comes to science, they were not bal Masura. They were very learned people, but they were like the scientists of the um so it's not a conceptual problem that Khaz can make a scientific mistake. But the problem is this. When the scientific mistake impacts on aic judgment, you then have a big problem. Meaning if they simply gave a scientific observation that we think may not be true today, it is not a courses to say they made a mistake. That's an old mahalik that the Rambam himself endorses as well as Rambam. But the problem is when you have the intersection between science and does the change. if the science changes. So this is I mean to be very practical can I kill a lice allow on shabas. So the truth is shortly after the invention of the microscope there was a safer a big encyclopedia of written by Ravitzk Lamparanti who was an Italian rav it's called not to be confused with Rafutner's padit and uh this was an encyclopedia it's still still it's still in print it's still available in which he actually said in light of the new science it is no longer permissible to kill a because if based it on a certain assumption which is no longer true or it's understood that it was not true the has to follow the mits. Now the problem with that is that he's basically saying that all of those centuries of people killing lives they were shabas because they didn't have the right science. So the Mishna Bur and other post can more or less say that even if the science was wrong the haka does not change and that's based on the idea that hala is not based on actual reality it is based on perceptual reality and that is if it appears to the naked eye that there is no sexual reproduction then hakically it is deemed deemed to be a product of spontaneous generation even if factually that's not true an amazing thing halaka is based again the same idea that you can eat uh I don't want to take away your appetite you know uh but your bread and your food and your cookies and everything are filled with all sorts of insects microscopic beings etc but the Torah doesn't prohibit microscopic beings so too the definition of is based on perceptual reality not actual reality. Therefore the does not change and this is true in a lot of areas. Let's take fillin the fill in have to be perfectly square. Now if you examine something with a compass or a microscope you might see that you don't have perfect 90deree angles. Maybe it's a 91 degree angle or whatever it is, but the naked eye is halically enough. The Torah was not given to angels, right? So, as I say, that's a different type of change. Uh, does haka change when scientific understandings change? That's a separate type of type of issue. Yeah, >> yes, that you that's exactly right. Exactly the same thing. Okay. Anyway, wish you all well and uh a goodashan and saying good venter.