Shir Shel Yom | Rabbi Dr. Aaron Adler | January 14th 2026

We'll make the announcements first. Um the morning all the shirim today dedicated memory Daniel Ben Davidid and Limud Batram Strauss and Morai Ben Moshe Raiselbat Ysef Mayor Marcus Zakam parents of Judy and Maka Marcus and our specifically throughout the year in memory of Alisha Alisha Zman Zapuna. Right. There's a famous story when the not going to go into all the details when we had a big of having the RV in our house for a dinner and he was going through this. What you do is you look at the swar and he picked out me which is a muser safer and we knew that the r was not a big fan of the mus and he looks at it and he says who reads deser and I said it's my wife safer. [laughter] So she said he said is she related to him like you know why in the world would you have this shi got it as a bach mitzvah present or something. So from that on we refer to him as uncle dest was a great person don't get me wrong but um there's a whole issue about the the mus movement reason I took out the sitter is because we're going to do something for the next few weeks that relates directly to the tail end of our davening some people have nicknamed alenu shabayak as because you have one foot out the door the So if you and after you say then they only say it on Shabbat but here because we have so much extra available time so we say also and ends with so literally you'll get one foot out the sh if you so elen is right after Volion and then you do the supplementary things of andu. Yeah. >> No, I just want to say that I I I always find it very jarring of >> Yeah. >> They don't say kadesh after people are walking [snorts] out the door, >> right? Because they say the kadesh all the pre preliminary kadesh is done. So too for m and they say a perkillum before elenu and they say to kadesh and elenu you're on your own. uh and by also it's and then they say the kadesh and then alenu you're on your own. That's the way to do it in the uh and everybody adheres to their min but we're going to focus on the shy the song that the levim sang in the beta mikdashimdash. So this morning it was yum rivat but as the week doesn't start on Wednesday uh we're going to do it week by week um from yon the shabbat and um I'm not even sure that this one page is going to be adequate just for today's year we may need it to next year as well let's take a look at what the concept of shirata levim is the songs that the levim sang in the beta mikdash on a daily basis And uh there was instrumentation and there was a choir. Um it must have sounded uh beautiful and and and those levim who um who will be musically inclined at the days of the third beta mikdash will be drafted into service. Now you have to realize a ley didn't sit in beta mikdash uh throughout the uh year. The Levim received 48 cities spread out from north to south of Erit Israel because their primary function was education is they would not give an agricultural section of Israel because they would deal with spreading Torah to all the children and adults and that's why they received the maishon 10% of the agricultural produce to live. So that was in a sense their salary. It wasn't stuck. It was there was their salary. Amiswell salaried the levim uh with these. Now that's what they did throughout the year. Two weeks during the year they were on call in beta mcdash which means just as we have today in the army miluim reserve duty. They were on reserve duty in beta mikdash on a rotation basis. So 50 out of 52 years they were not at beta mikdash. Of course they could have shown up but uh they didn't have to go. And when they were on duty of bed mikdash, there were two specific tasks. One was the choir, the shatim and the instrumentation the mission in the fifth par of suka even gives us the listing of the various instruments that they had. One was a khalil. It was a nice flute. uh somehow another electric guitar was overlooked by Rebudani. I don't know but maybe in Bay Leishi uh there'll be uh all kinds of u amplification and so on. Yeah. >> Did they play on Shabbat? >> That is a very very good question. Did they play on Shabbat? Okay. So that's the deals with inf. So why should I tell you the answer? I gave you homework. So we'll see. We'll get to it. Okay, that's going to be that is it's an issue. And the issue basically revolves around is is the is the instrumentation a core component to the singing because you can sing on Shabbat, not a problem. And the music in the musical instrumentation seems only to be a rebbitic restriction because uh to play for me to play guitar on Shabbat is not a biblical violation of Shabbat. What is it? Aim said look many times you have to tune the guitar and you have to change you know a chord a thread so that's called bonet it's called fixing building fixing it's under the concept of fixing so because many musical instruments have to be fine-tuned that is the problem so you may say look I have a musical instrument that never has to be fine-tuned sometimes wind instruments does not but there's a concept in the rabbitic literature called low plug no exception clause if They made a restriction against musical instruments. It's across the board. So that's why we don't play music. And there's another principle that there are no rabbitic restrictions on beta mcdash territory. That the rabbitic restrictions are for us. Why? Because on beta mikdash territory you had the presence of the sanhedrin the beta nagadul and they were the mashkim. They were watching to make sure you do nothing wrong. So if the purpose of a rabbitic restriction is to be the mash at home. So all right, you know, you're not allowed to write on Shabbat. By the way, you're not allowed to write two letters on Shabbat. Writing one letter is only a rabbitic restriction. And theim said, don't even write one letter because if you write one letter, you might come to write the second letter and then you're already in bad shape. But went further and said, don't move the the pencil or pen on Shabbat. Right? There's no isser negia is for women, right? That there's no is of neg of touching muks on chabas. You can touch muks on chabas. You're not to move muks on chabas. So if somehow I could levitate the pen on chabas and have it right, most probably I didn't violate mukah if I caused it. But I'm not even sure about that. Not even sure about that because with regard to pets so except for domesticated pets at home where most postkim most say they're not mukah uh balim animals are muka on Shabbat. And there are some pkim who say that if you whistle to a bird and the bird starts flying away you violated moving uh moxah because you caused the bird to move. you cause something of muka to move. So then I take back what I just said about levitating the pen. That could be an act of mosa if I had such an ability. But um you can write a bitzvah talk on this or bach mitzvah talk on this and you know about the about mukah. So with regard to uh playing instruments there should actually be no reason that they wouldn't be able to play the musical instrument on Shabbat even if for all of us that is a rabbitic prohibition. But in beta mikdash there are no zer. It's called anva mikdash. There's no rabbitic restrictions on bet mikdash territory because of the u the supervision of the sanhedrin the betagado. But the gum nevertheless zeros in on another detail. What you're allowed to do on Shabbat even something that's a biblical violation slaughtering an animal. I mean that's clearly a a a violation. But the Torah says on Shabbat you shall bring the following as a mus and every day you have to bring the there are things in beta mikdash that do not tolerate postponement. You have to if you don't do it on that day you missed it. It's finished. It's gone and forgotten. So those things do um allow you to do them on Shabbat as well. So even though slaughtering an animal is forbidden on Shabbat, obviously it's one of the 39 prohibited activities biblically, but in the beta mdash it's called the positive mitzvah negates the negative mitzvah and it's one of the 10 examples that a said in one breath. The famous one is even in the we have it there. It's flipped because the author wanted the shin for the name Schlommoat. That's one of the reasons other reasons too. We won't get into it now. We taught it. We actually did it last year. Why? But anyway, the um the idea of that if you violate Shabbat, it's a it's a capital punishment defense. Shabbatim and on Shabbat you shall offer the two animals for the mus was said in in one breath to teach you that the positive mitzvah of offering these on the day of Shabbat. You can't bring a mah for Shabbat on Sunday or Monday or Tuesday. It has to be on Shabbat. So it overrides the violation of fine. So that that's the by the way. So too with right and the gar says so we know that you can have a brit on Shabbat you can have a brit on you can have a brit any day if it's the eighth day that it says even if it's on Shabbat if it's the eighth day but if the brit was postponed for whatever reason without getting into details and they make the brid on the day nine or day 900 doesn't make a difference So at you can't schedule the Brit for Shabbat. You can't do that. I once had in BVA when we had a dormatory and the kids didn't exactly like to be in the dormatory. So one Shabbat two Shabbat they were with the yeshiva one Shabbat they were home it was Shabbat there was then it became Shabbat Shabbat low and then it became Shabbat Shabbat low Shabbat lalo and you know they always wanted out. So one kid on our shabas that we were in the dormatory asked for release because there was a brit in the family. Okay. you know, yeah, you have to let him out. And out of just out of curiosity, I said, "Oh, so the baby was born last chabas." So he said, "No, no, no. It was a preeie." I said, "Hey, the preeie. There's no bridan chabas. You're in the yeshiva for shabas. Next time, think of something better." You know, we have to know that of what postpone Shabbat only something that cannot be deferred. So if you take for example a le woman gave birth, she brings a kban. Who said you have to bring it on Shabbat? you can bring it on Tuesday so you have to delay it to right the equivalent of today's go but um I can prove to you what the how how correct the r was that only on critical moments in you know endangering life situations life endangering situations you bench go because and not every single flight that landed safely and everything was fine the r didn't believe you had to bench go for that you think in beta mcdash every single time that people today bench go they would have offered a corbanto there would have been a backlog it would have been a longer traffic jam than on journikovski street today there's a is they didn't do that you brought corbantoa for the four situations of literally being in sakat your life endangering situations so that doesn't have to be done on Shabbat that's why Ashkanazm don't say misa on Shabbat because it wasn't brought on Shabbat and that's the Reason by the way that Mor is not set on PES, not even on Arab Pes because some of the the breads the DI people just started were and you have to have the opportunity for theim to eat theim throughout the duration of the permissible time and if you brought it on Pes it would go into the night of PES and obviously you can't eat it's the night of PES. So therefore they never offered a ones. Forget about and that's why Ashkanazm delete mad from PES until after Pes. Yeah. >> You forgot you're doing as good as me. >> Bench go bail on Shabbat if you didn't bring the >> Wow. See you have a London here. >> She's good. She's good. Rifka on the ball. Why do we bench go on Shabas if you would not have been able to bring the on Shabbat? So first of all despis okay so you see that reading a perkillum is not bringing a corban that's one thing and the idea of corban bkata go which supplants the the offering of the corban toad in bottom line it's not a corban but it was instituted to be done during creat to Torah with the law in the presence of the largest crowd because it's not something that you need a minion for as what's called a is a category of things that can only be done in a minion for example that you need that's but there are a few other things that the recommends in front of 10 but it doesn't have to be a minion of dasha But it's a different category. It's called in and the greater crowd the better it is. The more the marrier the better bigger crowd. And there's no question that even many more people came to on Shabbat that would come on any day in the weekday even if it's on a Monday like next week right that's for sure hands down. I mean that's why I'll even add to this the So, so they um they the bait would announce the first U.ja, United Jewish appeal. Everybody had to cough up a and they gave a month to do it because on Nissan they needed in the coffers monies from the new monies that came in to purchase the public offerings from Nissan onward. So you give a month, it's a reasonable amount of time. So Beth and Shad made such an announcement. Now, just to remember that act, we have parachalim, but we don't read it oneshar in the middle of the week. It's always the Shabbat beforehad. And the reason is because if we want to remember a public announcement, you better do it when the public is there. And that's on Shabbat. So I think that the idea of birkat which by the way can be done for by a creator of Monday Thursday also and can also be done not in the context of uh creator if there's no possibility you get 10 people together um and this is what was of the opinion that because it's not a dash but but the second category of melik he could entertain the thought that maybe in front of 10 women a woman can say birkat go and we I find uh that many times women prefer saying the go in front of 10 women than getting up in shul and making a little bit of a spectacle and saying go but again I'm not prejudging now I'm just saying that there is such a possibility uh in a dasha that wouldn't work at all but in a boa situation there's a possibility of considering women as the 10 that will make up the number pretend for brigat to go. So I don't know if I answered you I spoke a lot now the u that that the the the reason is that we want the larger crowd so that's going to override you know linking it to you know forbidding it because you can't you can't forbid saying a braha and here the braha becomes expanded in a larger crowd. Okay. So now we have the shahim mikdash. Let's um so and if somebody wasn't musically inclined, what would that ley do? He's on duty for two weeks and they they start singing and you'd rather not have this guy in the choir because uh he's just so offkey and um okay so there's another job and that is to be the honor guard. I was going to say door man share but that's that's a you know he's it's an honor guard. I mean, Marf and I were in London just two months ago and Mar said maybe we should see the changing of the guard. Well, we decided not to. We decided we're not going to see the changing of the guard. But many tourists go to London among other things like it's a it's a thing to see the changing of the guard, right? You have to know exactly what time to come. But um there was an honor guard at Beta Mikdash. And we'll see in a second. The author of the safer says because it's done by mortal kings as well and what's done for mortal kings we should have no less honor for a kadosh bul and his palace if you want to call the bet mikdash god's palace so it is an honor god what exactly did they do there they stood there so if a ley was u not mutually m musically gifted so he would be uh the honor god and now I'll just digress for a Uh today the only thing that we have for the ley is we give him the second aliyah. But the roof pointed out that the ley getting the second aliyah is not because there's any particular sanctity to the tribe of the levim. The kohan who are all levim as well as you know enjoy sanctity vikashm in parhat it says vikashm they have enjoy a special sanctity and that's why they get the first aliyah. Now the ruff said why do we give the ley the second aliyah we give the second ley second aliyah is because the cohane is also a ley. So then why don't you give Mr. Coen who just got the first aliyah the second aliyah cuz he don't want somebody to perhaps say who came late to shul ah [clears throat] Mr. Cohen's getting the second aliyah I guess he's really not a cayenne we are very very careful not to create a scenario that anybody might suggest that this fellow is not a cayenne. So that's why we don't give a cayenne rai kamishi sheii in any other aliyah and the only aliyah other than the first that we'd give a cayenne and for that matter ley is maf because maft is not an aliyah at all by the way it's just an add-on when >> or aaron and the reason or is because you have to have seven aliot so if alien gets the eighth aliyah they know he's not getting a a real he's a real aliyah But it's it's just an add-on. It's a supplementary aliyah. So everything goes. Uh and the only other time you can mess up with this is on some because then all bets are off and and you can just you know do it as you wish. Even though some schuls each time they go over they look for a cayenne but that means the kay's getting the sixy. That's really what it means if if they keep revis so so can get m and that's because or ley for that matter and that's because the creator ends with the end of the laning and the proof is we say kadesh the kadesh is before maft so maft is just an add-on and actually it was originally just for him to read the ha the from from the whether it's from Yeshua or whether it's from or whether it's from your ma amos whatever it comes from it comes from. So what happened was can you imagine some people were balent they were insulted they were insulted these seven guys get to Moshe and I only get on can you imagine such a slap in the face imagine Jews having such an opinion >> can't imagine >> can't it's hard to imagine hard to imagine right so as a to to to to plate this guy who's reading dyra. We said all right we'll give you a few at the end of the par that we just read that we just read because what it was we would reread the last three and you can say the guy will make a mish for you and everything. Ah wonderful, wonderful. Then you know later in history maft became like the superior right you know the and and the weird thing is that you trained the bar mitzvah boy for maft where he could you should give him because maft he could have gotten when he was 10 years old and my uncle shul ra I got maft when I was 10 and 11 and 12 because you're allowed to do that you're allowed to you're allowed to give somebody who's already arrived at the age of and knows how to read he can get maft there's is not an issue at all. This is not a it's not a liberal stance. It's it's al you can give a katan maft. But the bameitz boy the week before his bitzvah he also could have gotten maft. Now he's mitzvah. Give him give him ravi give him an aliyah that he couldn't get the week before because the reason why we do it is because in his opportunity to teach him how to lay. That's what that's why we do it. But um you know people they make a whole thing about the yard site you know they want maft after maft and then there's this whole thing that because the maft person was insulted that they only gave him so not only we're going to give him a few at the end of the para to read but we'll also give him musf that he has actually first rights to be the for and there are many shuls by the way where the final who has maft he just continues you know your kokan he continues musf maft musf So in 1969, same year of this uh this sther here. So my mother had a mal shalom saying shalom on my mother already. She had a cousin who was married um to to a fellow his name was Sam Rosenberg and he was a trustee at the Bethl Shul the big sha kivitzki davin but I'm talking already in the days of khazen in boro park and this this cousin this distant cousin came over to me with a little card and and it was shabas khaneka we came to hear the kazin because a lot of lot of stuff to do if you want to hear a good khazin shabas khaneka and he came over me with a little card. It said maft. He's giving me maft shabas khan in this 1,700 people shul. And he told me that when they go says mishak, tell them $100. And he said, "Don't worry, I'm going to pay it." You know, like he's not going to stick it on me because for $100 I was going to say, "No, thank you." Like didn't need the maft. It's fine. So I get maft. I love to have Tyra from it's unbelievable right every is unbelievable this special it's a about which became the symbol of the state of Israel by the way based on that from so um okay I said finish the at the end you know you belt it Shabbades Shabbat, right? And I turn around to Mosher and I go musf [laughter] mus, you know. So he gave me this frown like get out of here fast. He didn't have to say anything. I just looked at his face and I knew I wasn't Dominic Musf that I was [laughter] I mean a little sense of humor. My gosh. >> Yeah. >> She's so important. >> I I'll tell you in a second. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah, I just wonder is is there any inyan if there's no cohane is there any inyan to call up lei cohen >> stole my good so the question is if there's if the reason we're given the cohen the cohen first because of kadusha and the ley not because of sanctity there is a book called kaduclei and that's the but the ley doesn't have he's avar he's a chosen shvet but not a sanctified shvet so you'll give the ley Because the cayenne is part of kohuna because the cayenne is also a ley but because of the problem that you don't want to suggest to anybody who may have come late that Mr. Cohen is getting the second aliyah. Maybe he's not really a cayenne. So you give another ley. So the other ley is just representing the of ley with a kohan part of ley. Now because to answer this question is to because the first aliyah that a israel can get isi. So the ley man is still up there right because that's the way it is. You get an aliyah you wait till the subsequent aliyah. So it's very nice. So the first possibility was usually from a strict point of view to give the r of the shul every shabas to give him shishi. Now that's not done in many shs many time because the rabbi can wave that cavote but if he doesn't wave that cavote and and if the rabbi of the shul is getting an aliyah for whatever reason he ought to geti not profamishi shishi. So that's how it started. Then in theic world what happened was the rebba used to get shishi and then the guy who got ravi that was a big kavot because the rebba is still up there right okay and then the guy who got kamishi the rebba is still walking down the steps from his alias that was something so who is always great because it's the aan it's the end you know that's a nice cover in itself so who lost out shishi nobody wanted to get shishi because it was slap in the face so the rebas tried to correct that and they told the gabayam to give them shi. So it actually backfired because shishi then became the glorified aliyah. They became the glorified aliyah and and and and and noti but okay. So that's how do it. They um they say a story in the bratz of bish in in sharim they stop by shishi and they call up nakman. Now died 250 years ago and they call him up for sheishi and they just wait and then thera continues laning. >> So because because he's he's getting shi cuz he's getting shishi. So then some tourist saw this and he says that's nothing. Let's see them give him hagba. That was shishi big deal. Seeing shishi do hagba. That would that would be something you to see. So with all kidding aside, the the the Tam of the community should get the first aliyah and um Braenu Tam who Rashi's grandson and he wasn't a Coen or Ley. So he got shishi every single Shabas one Shabbat he was in the middle of Shiva. So even though a person in a in the middle of Shiva is allowed to leave the B a and come to shul on Shabbat but he does not receive an aliyah. But he raenotam instructed the gabi to call him up for shishi even though he was an oale in shiva. Why? Because what you what you there is aut on shabbat but only private aut but public aut is is does not express itself. That's why you don't sit but but you're allowed to console somebody on Shabbat. There's even a for for forum for Shabbat. So that that's proper but let's just say greetings you know an o is one of the hardest to keep when you're sitting shiva you're not supposed to say hi how are you shalom or good morning it's a hard thing you have to restrain yourself but just just like on tishab but on tishab if somebody doesn't know and says good morning to you you're allowed to respond good morning so so too if some you during shiva comes to shul on shabbat so you don't greet people with shabbat shalom but if somebody says shabbat shalom to You can say Shabbat you can repeat you can res you know respond to that Shabbat shalom as well. So because shalom is a private matter it's not something of a public spectacle. So that detail of the laws of audo on Shabbat but uh and that's why you don't have to give an aliyah because many people get aliot many Shabbat go by you specifically don't get an aliyah. So it's no big deal. But um Rabeno Tom felt that if he doesn't get Schlishi when he's there it's going to be a public spectacle because hey why isn't he getting shishi ah because he's a novel and that's exactly what he didn't want and therefore he instructed the rabbi to give him shishi as he always got shishi every single Shabbat. It was very interesting. There was a rabbi in Farakawway who was my predecessor in Long Island City, Atoria. Very fine rabbi. I didn't mention his name. Rabbi Goodman Izzy Goodman. And um a very very fine rabbi. And um he he was in Noville. We actually taught together also in the same high school. And he asked me a sha he was in in Schlushim. So in schlim um even on Shabbat you don't sit in the same seat and Oville moves I move from one side to the other during for Shabbat and Yam Shabbat after he can go back to the regular seat. So you know rabbis in America they sit all the way up there's a rabbi seat and the president seat and the kazan seat and the vice president seat and so on. So he asked me he says how should he handle this after the shiva until schlushim if he sits in a different seat that's a public spectacle. It's almost like Raben if he doesn't move then you're gonna have people in the sh they're gonna say the rabbis in Amaritz he doesn't know that you don't sit in the same seat on so I told him I think I know some people in your sh whatever you do half the sh is going to tell you you did it wrong whatever you do >> I mean half say you did it right so you're okay so you know what he did he took his chair up there and moved it a little bit so on the one hand he had the sensation that he moved on the other hand for people sitting afar it you know he didn't really change his place he tried to work it out as a type of compromise the only problem is when you say moving it's out of four amote and four amote is 6 to 8 ft I mean some people think that if they just seat this seat next to them seat behind them sit in front of him that's called changing the seat it's not true mo kavoua is a radius of four amote forot. So if some you come to shul and somebody's sitting in your seat and there's a seat open next to him, don't give him a hard time and say it's my mo cava. Just sit in the next seat and it's also mokum cavo. It's okay. It's okay. I know some people are particularly attached to their if you know if it's not that seat you know. All right. So so now we have the two tasks of the levim. Yeah. >> Right. So let me get through your question. Good. So, so the question was um if there's no cohes so what we do is we give a Israel bim cohen and then you just give anybody else the second aliyah and the guy calls him up so Beny Ben ply sheny sheny because he's not a ley obviously but you can give a ley that first aliyah but there not only is no um uh need to but the r is of the opinion preferably not to and why not to give a ley that first aliyah if there's no he says if there's a need to the guy has yard sight you're going to give it to him fine but if you have a choice to give another is the Israel in Israel you should do that and the reason is because people will erroneously think that the reason why you're giving Mr. Ley aliyah number one because of some sanctity and that's not true and that's not true and and he said that the only reason we give Ley the second aliyah is not because he's any a sanctified tribe he's not we're doing it because the cayenne is a sanctified tribe and he now is representing shad levy that's all so the ruff did have that opinion what >> there's no ley then gets two [clears throat] >> he gets two leas if there's no ley so we say yam bim lei and the same coin so question is why don't we just call up some Israel. So why do we give? Because the cayenne is also a ley. That's why the cayenne is also a ley. So that's why we give him the second aliyah >> kind of a different coin. >> No, because then somebody's going to suggest that maybe the first cayenne wasn't a real cayenne. So that's that we take we take that into consideration throughout. Just make sure that nobody, you know, is going to make a mistake on the identity of Mr. Cohen that he actually is a coin. I mean they say a story of um of a stranger who came to town. You know the first thing a gabi asks a stranger in town and believe me it happens to me often because I travel some of you know that I travel. So um the first thing that a gabi does ask ley right. So somebody told me to respond no no shi maft [laughter] [snorts] as the as the response. So sometimes I actually tell that to the copy as a joke and I tell them it's a joke. You know, you don't have to give me anything. And all of a sudden, you know, they take it seriously. No, no, no. I didn't mean it, you know, like to say that. So, so, so this guy was asked Ley. So, he thinks to himself, nobody knows who I am. I'll tell him I'm a cayenne. Okay. And I'll get the get many ali rack in the alias and everything. Fine. So he lives in this neighborhood for 35 years and gets many aliot in 35 years and he ends he dies when he dies and so on and the shama goes up to shine and says look you know I know you lied for 35 years on this and you're going to get 12 months of gehenn so the guy's caught red-handed and what's he going to do it it was true you know so he accepts it and he goes after 12 months as nama comes out and a kadosh before says and now another 12 months another 12 months I did my fine you I understand I was wrong and everything. So says for all the times that you took that second [laughter] so now you get a >> you're going to get another 12 months but sad though listen you know Jewish oaks if not for Jackie Mason you know where we would be you know Jews would have died from depression a long time ago right said all right okay so so today we're talking about Levim. So I don't know was wasn't supposed to be standup but um the name Salvetic in Hebrew if the R would have heasized his name it's a nighting gale. Now this I know from Abshalam Kor Dr. Donor who was uh who was is great linguist and uh and and so on. He has show on on Gal and he used to be the the moderator for the Tanakh very knowledgeable very knowledgeable. He once came to remote to uh to our school, the local school, the Mamakati, and he did a program about names, family names. He got a hold of the list of anybody who had any affiliation with the uh school. And he begins as if he doesn't know anybody there. His first question is, what is the connection between Salivic and Adler? And everybody cracks up. They laugh. Everybody, why is it why is he beginning with that? You know, he he makes it like uh you know, some just added a head kind of thing. So the answer was both are birds. So Adler I know is neer is eagle. I know that but I didn't know that salvetic was a a nighting gale. Nightingale is a singing a singing bird a singing bird. And if you would take nightingale or salivic and Ira says it's zamir the bird that's called a zamir from the word zamr. The word zamir song. So we had a president of the Israel Supreme Court, Professor Zamir. He was born a Salvatic and um and the reason Salvetics were called Zamir or Salvatic for that matter because they were Levim. They were Levim. So it became a name of a family of Levim singers even though Dv readily admitted and believe me we knew it was not particularly gifted musically. So you know he once commented about what he would do in the third beta mikdash. So he said to be the door man was zak he he felt he was too much of a and it would be an infringement of his dignity. Can you imagine is used in the context of a to return a a lost object. Now, that's a mitzvah. So, even if you're a big, you're not exempt. But what if the lost object is and you know it's there. You see you see um a a kid uh playing ball, you know, on the street and the ball goes under somebody's car and uh and it's in Alfoot uh yesterday that was full of snow and slush and and to get the ball you have to get down and crawl under the car and and you know this guy this man is a big and everything in Yiddish we say is it does to do something like that and the actually says you know what you don't have to do it. It's called that doesn't mean he shouldn't call somebody else to do it but he doesn't have to be the one to do it. So the concept of zak means doesn't mean age doesn't mean an old man means somebody I know that the employed that on y when the kanim went out to so went out to wash the hands for him he didn't go out he didn't go out and because of that so I tell the gentleman sitting next to me in shul whose name is president of Israel yet that he doesn't who's a ley that he shouldn't go out to wash the hands of the I said I don't think you should do it and and he doesn't do it there's um he got from me so the the the rough was questioning whether him being a chaire the doorman at beta mikdash would be a a problem of zakim fodau and he thought it would be a problem and he was he was grappling with what he's going to do in the third beta mikdash but I was present in the shir when he figured it out and that was um when we were studying the laws of yam of the avod of of the coal and yam kipa. So we had three days of shirim each year was 3 to four hours long. After three days, we had to bring in, by the way, a gamorra of Yumipo, a Rambaim and two, one Ashkanaz one to compare the poetry of the Amitzk of the Ashkanaz and the Atakon of the Spire to show that the Atakan followed the laws of the Rambam and the poetry of the Amits Kak followed the authors of the tovote, the Balatvo, the Ashkanaz, which is brilliant analysis and so on. After 3 days of almost 12 hours of Shirim, he closes all the books and in 12 20 minutes he summarizes what the coal would do from morning to night on Yamipa according to every view. According to every view and after he finishes he breaks out with this great smile and he says, "Please invite in the coadal and I will prep him. I will teach him what to do. I finally figured out my task in the third beta mikdash. He's going to be the private tutor for the coal for the avoatipurim. Not bad. Not bad. How many of us have given even a moment's thought? How many kohan levia are here? Have you given some thought as to what you're going to be doing in beta mdash? My only even closely related to that was when I asked an elderly kav of mine and he's really a wonderful person here in he. promised to be my co-en for Corbin Pesak because I said I don't want to wait online and [snorts] I needed proteexia and he said he's going to get me in in the back door and uh we we have a deal already and he's still every time I meet him he's he tells me y we're still I'm still on I can still phys physically think I can do it even though at age 50 was retire mandatory retirement age but he's going to fudge it his his passport and whatever he said he will do my so I'm I'm looking forward forward to that. >> Is it clear? Is it clear that there are going to be carbon in edition? >> Well, that's that's a shear in itself. Shir in [laughter] itself. Let's say going to Rambam the answer is yes. Okay. Mim carbonote. But even if the other animal corbon won't be there will be a problem with coroness unless you think that it's going to be tivol. It's going to be you know lamb tasted uh >> something that tastes better. >> It tastes bad. Right. No genetically processed or whatever. Okay. listen that you'll need a Sanhedrin to issue a ruling. Okay, but uh let's stand by. There's a carbon pes. Okay, let's see source number one and then we're going to collect the pages because we're going to need this. So now we know a little bit about the levim. This background was important by the way from the author of the inhat is going to talk about the tasks of the ley. Now, when do we find out in the Kumish that the Ley tribe was special? >> Where in the Kumish do we find out? Because this is paradak that's in the middle of where you have pigen for the coin and you have all the masarish for the ley. You have all kinds of things about Levim. It's true. Kitisa, you find that they're special because the Shvet Ley apparently didn't serve the Ael and they were the ones drafted by Mosa to be the militia to kill out the 3,000 plus who did serve the Ael. Okay also send I think too he >> so Yakov sends Yehuda to Mitra, >> right? Maybe adding to something else. >> The ley and sea doesn't have a very positive posture. He's there with Shimon with with and takes the rap in and so on and and and and Shimon not even mentioned in the Bot Moshe and where exactly is Shvet Shimon on the map. It's it's a real pro problem because eventually they got a sim. This is a question that Bravo Benuan and others deal with about the it could have been it was it was it was a shvet that was never locked into a particular geographic zone but they were moving around a little bit. Uh so it's possible that south of Shvet Yehuda or the area of Bereva was Chev Shimon at certain time and that's why the municipal council is called Matear is called Benyamin Besimon rather Ben Shimon of the area of all the ishuim in and around Bereva are called Ben Shimon. Fine. That could be. But um Ley never got a Ley gets 48 cities. Now when we read about the 48 cities, it comes up very positive that they're going to be the teachers of Torah. As I said before, nothing negative about that. So Jacob when he said it seems to be a curse like you're not getting a you know you're not get you're going to be all over the place you're not going to be attached to one place but it turns out that most probably had something a little bit more positive in mind uh about shvy and and the question is where do you see it in sephid you actually don't but what does show up in the beginning ofot you see that shvy is special because they're the clue how could moshan and walk around and knock on the door of parro. My gosh, aren't they slaves? They should be slaves. All the other slaves are being whipped by either Egyptians or the chudin, the coupos. They were couples. We read it in Schmalt and they came to Moshe and they said, you know, you you got worse. The minute you show, who asked you to come? The minute you open your mouth, it got worse. Philip Israel. So, so you had Levim walking around and they're not serving. They're not slaves. They're off. Why? Because they were the clergy. And the Egyptians had a lot of respect for the clergy. A lot of respect. And where do you see that? That's the reason in the end of Brashid when um the when Yoseph nationalizes all the fields, he does not nationalize or tax the kohanim. the co the the the priests of the pagans, the coim of the pagans were not for tanks because that was ironclad law. The clergy is the clergy, you know, they they they got parking spaces and they got tax reductions and and and and they had respect for the religious clergy. And these same Egyptians who enslaved Ben Israel let Ley off the hook and Mosha and Aaron were able to walk around freely. And the Torah says, you already know there's something special here going on with the birth of Mishraenu of this family. This is not a standard family here. So how does Sephashmote open up and Ley is special? Who gave the Egyptians the idea that they're going to be special? The selection of ley officially comes in bahal because what happens is the the ones who are originally endowed to become the the the servant the servants of beta mdash would be the firstborn theim and the kadim makes a flip and takes the levim instead of the bkar. So something still remained about the bor pigeon ab and so on. But but that task in beta mikdash was lost. There's still one thing left. If koanim we have birkim every morning and there's no ley to wash the hands of the cohain who is supposed to step up and wash the hands of the cohen theor firstborn. So there's still something a it's called in in biology a residual organ. something is left from from you know something is left from the ancients and and and the Bur still has some status that connects him to the auditions even know who gave them that idea obviously from the days of Yoseph it was already inculcated into the hearts and minds of the Egyptians that there's a family one out of 12 Ley was special. They're the clergy. So the kumish tells us nothing silent. And um I will thank Raos Mosha Likenstein who's now one of the great Russia Shiva at Yeshiva son of our great Rabar Likenstein. Many many many years ago he drew my attention to the first chapter of the laws of idolatry in the Rambam. The Rambam gives us the history of idolatrous. How did it come about? How did it happen when man Adam and and then Cayenne and and and uh and Sh and and and all the way to Noah they knew there was a pro in the world. When did it start that they started serving trees and stones and celestial bodies? How did this happen? Ram gives us the history of the evolution of idolatrous practices. He says what happened was in the generation of says from the word um the opposite of uh of of of holy it's sacriiggious. They they made God's name in profane of sorts. What does that mean? What does that mean? that they felt sincerely that they were so humble and small. Who are we to talk to God? Kadoshu is everlasting and so on. We're just nobodyies. We're nobodyies. So who are we? We're going to talk to a kadosh. Perhaps we can use an intermediary. And if a kadoshu created the sun and the moon so I'm gonna use the sun of the moon as a operated call an operated call. We used to have this with for international calls right you you weren't able to use dial direct but you need an operator assisted call. You needed an operator to get the call over to the other side. Then eventually it was this and that. Then eventually the operator lost his job fine because everything is direct. But they felt that it would be operator assisted. We'll get the message to our bahul by praying and serving the sun and the moon, the stars, the tree, the stones, whatever. And they will take they are servants of God because they were created by God. Fourth, fourth day of creation, the sun and the moon were created. So they'll, you know, bring it over. They'll move it. They'll move the move it over on our behalf. And then with time that part of them of the celestial bodies moving it up to got forgotten and the sun and the moon became the final station and the deity itself. So Rama says this is how idolatrous practices began. It began in stages. First it was similar to the when in when said all most of the parim said this wasn't idolatry they didn't say this was they wanted that that message should get but we couldn't put our fingers on God you can't see him you can't hear him you can't touch him in our five senses he's not there so let's have anel that's going to represent and we'll talk to and say it's when the writes you know he writes it with it's not avoid it's not like their Elohim is it's notesh so he doesn't have to have but if he says he has to have because it's kesh for sure it's kesh So the Ram says that Yakov appointed Ley as the Roshiva that's the term that he uses as the Roshiva of the family to take the tradition of Abraham and Yeitak and guard it carefully and bring it down to the generations later even if the generations later may perhaps forget it. And Rabenu alludes to this initu they kept the Brit and that's why only Levi had Brit throughout the ordeal in Mitim and that's why atam they had to do Brit for all of Isel in order to qualify them to eat the pesbo the uncircumcised could not eat. So why didn't they have Brit before? because they didn't have Brit. They forgot the Brit for whatever reasons they didn't have Brit. But Ley kept the Brit and you see that with Moshabenu coming into Mitraim and Tipor doing the Brit on Gerom and so on. So that was kept but the others the so ley was this was the n was the shvet that was the designated shvet to to guard to be the guardian of Torah and that's why they received the mission of education of Israel and that's what Jacobu meant they're not going to have their own agricultural portion init but they're going to be spread out throughout Israel in 48 cities And they will be the educators of the people. This is the task of a ley. So any anybody here a ley by the way? Any ley? We have ladies but we don't have leies. No ley >> one. Oh sh we have a ley y. So this is the task of the ley. So if you happen to have a family name Ley, you might be a Ley. But as mentioned previously in previous Shurim, the name family names are no indicators 100% because they took the mother's name sometimes in Poland and Russia to evade the local draft and so on. So that doesn't mean you're a lady, but you might be a Ley if your name is Levi and Lavine and Leavinsky and Levenson and and all these uh names even Seal which is Scan Levy. So you have yeah you know seals are usually levium as well and and so on but doesn't have to be ley it doesn't have to be ley please hand back the pages we're going to do this this was the introduction to sheer shallim we got to the word levim