The Rambam and Minhagei Tefilla| Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz | June 30 2026

Uh today's share has been dedicated anonymously Shimon may indeed the nish have an aliyah. Uh so the particular unit that we're looking at we started looking at it last week are some very interesting chubos of the Rambam regarding the procedure in Besset the procedure of prayer different minimum about prayer last week you'll recall without repeating it at length the Rambam's very interesting innovation regarding Khazar Sashhatz that the Rambam was concerned that too many people were talking during Musaf of Chavez So the Ramba made an enactment that instead of having a silent amid followed by the will start the repetition right away and those who are able to dav in will dive in silently along with the kazan and they will stop for kadusha and those who don't know how to read there will be y which was the original justification of so according to that minog the kazan actually did not d a silent amid Again, let me point out that the Rambam does concede this is not the optimal way to do things. This is not the takana of Kazal. Kazal made a takana of a silent followed by a repetition. But the Rambam felt it was justifiable to cancel the initial silence in order that there shouldn't be talking. It just and the Ramba mentioned a few considerations. Number one, uh it is a desecration of God's name uh for people to be talking in schol and coughing and walking around. Number two, it also means that the people who needed to hear the kazan for the repetition thinks it's not important because they see the great sages uh walking around and talking. And number three, the Ramba makes the point it is a in the eyes of the non-Jewish world who look at the way Jews behave in a schol and they compare it to the so-called reverence that they may have. In fact, years ago, I remember reading a very fascinating article in Jewish action. a woman was comparing uh the way a typical schul is versus the reverence that you have when you're watching a classic movie like Casablanca. She had mentioned it was very very funny. She had mentioned that uh she was watching Casablanca in one of those old movie houses and whenever anybody would whisper or or say anything immediately be sh got to be quiet. uh you're watching Humphrey Bogart, you know, it's it's he says and then she com then she compared it to the to the sh and there nobody nobody had any problem. But so the Rambam pointed out that there's a not only in the intrinsic behavior of not respecting the house of God which is bad enough but aashem in the eyes of the non-Jewish world who thinks if this is the way Jews behave they don't they don't really rever so because of this the Rambam thought it was justifiable to quite literally change the way the repetition would be done. uh this was mainly for Shabas Musaf because even today by Musf people get restless and they're kind of ready to leave. Now what's interesting is though that this is actually kind of an extra innovation. For example, in the Mishna Torah in the Rambam's compendium he does not even mention this. He just says the straightforward of a silent amida followed by a repetition. So this was an ad hoc kind of emergency type of rule that the Rambam promulgated. He did not want to enshrine it as a permanent but as I indicated last week the tanim to this very day because of their great great difference and respect for the Rambam actually do incorporate this. If you go to Besset, at least many of them, you will actually see that the musaf of Shabbat is very very different. They don't do a regular silent followed by a repetition. Yeah. >> Do you know how long a service? >> Well, you know that that that that is very true. Uh you know, now just like there are some rabbis who I I I plead guilty to it whose drusher may have been long. So it also depends how long the priest wants to talk. He also gives a homaly or or a sermon. But the service itself is very short. And you know this is an interesting problem. I don't know if I should call it a problem. Uh Jewish services are are much longer than than most religions. It is very true. So Muslims pray Muslims pray five times a day but each prayer is five minutes. You know it's not a not a long thing. uh we have uh even a fast shak is going to be a half an hour that's a fast shak and then shabas of course it's going to be much longer with Torah reading uh it is an issue meaning uh it's nice of you to be you want to look for the uh find always find a defense uh for Jews and that's that's a good thing but the Rambam was concerned with the potential and that is why he changed so it's a very very interesting concept. Uh and again don't confuse this with the where the only says three three uh that's for lack of time whatever it is this was a full a full which is why I think the way people paraphrase the ra is incorrect they say the Rambam got rid of he did not get rid of he got rid of preceding sashhats with a with a full silent amida there was indeed a full sash shots and that is why they were able to say kadusha and uh because they were spartim in Egypt they did berasco on him as well. I mean again as you know just to remind people Ashkanazim do not do berasanim uh during the week around Shabas outside of Israel Ashkinazim only they only do berasanim on the mus of yamto however on the other hand even in dokasan every day and that was the Rambam's min uh to digress for a moment although it's not something that the Rambam discusses here uh the source of the Ashkanazic custom not to do Birkas Kohanim except on Yamtiff is actually a very problematical custom. Birkas Kohanim has nothing to do with Yamiff. There's a mitzvah that kohanim should bless the people at least when there's a minion. So why did the Ashkanazic custom uh begin to discontinue this? So the truth is the Rama records the custom and he did not create the custom. I mean he's recording the existing custom and he gives a very very strange reason. He says kanim requires that the coain be bima coen must be joy in joy because only a joyous heart can can be a conduit for blessing. And in we are not basim except onto uh we're grouchy the rest of the year even on shabas uh int we have a bit of now this is a very very difficult reason because it is so subjective I mean listen there are going to be kohanim who are in good moods all the time and there are going to be people who are grouchy even on yam I mean to try to say we don't do a mitzvah because you make a general ization that people are not during the week but they're basic others suggest which is also I mean every reason is difficult others suggest a difficulty that there used to be a min although it's not required that ghann would go to the mikvah before they would den because they treated it similar to a temple service and at some points in Germany Poland Russia it was very difficult uh to necessarily have access to mikvah. It was winter. It was cold a lot large part of the year. But again, that's very very difficult because going huh obvious obviously women went to so women had to had to had to cut a hole in the ice or whatever it would be. But the point is going to the mikvah is at most a heed. It is not a requirement. So to say we're not going to do a mitzvah because we can't do the frosting on the cake is also not a logical argument. So because of this the vil nagon who was a very very independent post vagon did not just follow the vil nagon wanted to reinstitute daily daily basanim uh in vna now you have to know that the vil nagon was not the rav of vna that va did not have a rav for hundreds of years uh the vil nagon uh did not even din in the main sh of vn the vil nagon had what was called the employs a private minion and he needed permission of the Kahila to maintain his private minion and the minhagim of the Vil Nagon were not the same as the minhagim of Vilna. VNA was a community that existed hundreds and hundreds of years before the Vil Nagon and they already had many of their minhagim but the Vnagon was given permission to conduct services in his little clo as he saw fit. So he wanted to reinstitute Berkas Coanim every single day. That was absolutely not the custom in the B Knesset of VNA. But what happened was every time he wanted to do it, some accident happened. A fire broke out or whatever and he concluded that minim Hashem was saying he should not go against the Rama. He does not have the right to go against the Rama. So the vilon never really I believe he never even instituted it once. It never even happened once that they dens during the day because things always happened. Now after the Vil Nagon's death as you know Vil Nagon himself uh wanted to make aliyah to Erit Israel and he left Vilna but for mysterious reasons that are still not totally understood he came back without ever coming to Erit Israel and there's all sorts of speculations as to why that happened but as you know the Talmid of the Vagam many of them many of them did come Hiushim and the Ashkanazic foundation The Ashkanazic thought this Friday were here first. But the Ashkanazic foundation of what is called the old Yishov Aishan, the pre-Zionist religious community of Yushayam were the Tomid Hagra. Rivlin, for example, which a very prominent old Yami family are the Tomidam of the of the Grats. In fact, the last president before Herzog Rivlin was is a descendant of that of that family to Tomid Ara. And they built many of the uh neighborhoods outside of the old city walls whether it's Maya Sharim Shiva Yamin Moshe I mean they they physically built it the had a whole sheita that even the physical construction inel should be done by sadikim you don't get Arabs to do it you don't get non-religious Jews to do it so they laid the plumbing and everything and everything else so the reason why it became the min of mainly to every day even though that was not the minig is the talmid of the gr wanted to follow the min that the gra wanted to do in vill and inel they were able to do it because the spartum were already doing it so the spardum wouldn't beat them up because they were simply f so spartum can look at it and saying oh I'm glad that you are doing uh what spardim do uh that's the better but they weren't doing it because spartum were doing it they were doing it because that was the hakra of the gr now and then of course yushim spread so it started in shalim and then it spread to other parts of Israel but if you are familiar with the gal up north so you have say tavaria so there they do have a strange min that's kind of an unknown min anywhere else that is they only They don't do every day. They do musf of shabas. Musf of shabas. Now that's a very very strange point because the only two minimum that are recorded in is you either den every day or you den in the mus of yum. There is no min that says you only on chabas. So where you get that from is that was kind of a compromise because if indeed the nucleus of the Ashkanazic yishv of are the tidum of the grow the nucleus of the yishv uh in the gal are the talidum of the balmto that there were many tidum of the balmto who made aliyah and they settled up north. So they actually had no interest in dling every day. They wanted to follow the Minug of the Alterheim. They wanted to follow uh the Minug of of Poland. But the Spartan were putting a bit of a on them that they should come along. Uh so what happened was there was a compromised position of dening on on Shabas. It's a very very strange idea. And then what happens in the course of years is uh everything gets mixed up. So even invat you'll find some minion every day uh etc. Because as it were things do get mixed up and populations move. Uh right in fact this was a controversy in Beamesh regarding which is not from the gra but as you know the minimum is that we do benching 40 minutes before in most of the world is between 18 and 20 minutes before but the min is 40 minutes. So when they started like with the siren in Beame Ramat Besh and Bamesh 40 minutes before there were a lot of people who were very angry they say you're bringing you uh to be besamesh is not Jerusaleam why do we have to do 40 minutes so things expand you know just like uh expands to be bamesh I would also say bak expands to there are different of the kaz that for example the khaz before some that you're not allowed to use electricity from the grid on Shabas meaning even if you turn it on before Shabas because you have Jewish workers who might be working in power stations so you're not allowed to benefit so in Veneak was very very naf that you have to have generators and the like uh private generators and don't work off the grid because you're benefiting from the shabas of workers the minimum was to be make this meaning there was never a concept of needing generators or etc. they didn't have generators. But now, if you're familiar with the the Araim in in the community, more and more are investing a lot of money in these generators. So, Ben Barack is uh moving right. So, moves to Beamesh and Ben Barack moves to so there's a lot of crosspollination, cross fertilization for the good or for the for the bad. Another example is okay. the the cook was controversial in all circles. But I mean uh forget about the hra of selling to the go. Let's just talk about pure produce that is grown by non-Jewish farmers not not through the but so the is that does not have any of the laws regarding throwing it away. The minute is has that you have to eat it in the proper way. You can't throw it away. Uh and that had been a dichotomy for hundreds and hundreds of years. And yet you'll find more and more that will not be so again I'm not referring to the that's a separate controversy. I'm just referring to pure that many of will not apply this because they follow again part of it is I don't want to get overly political was it was the popularity of Rafim Keski Rafim Kineski became uh in the last decades because of his greatness kind of the place where everybody turned to and everybody went to uh because of his godless and Torah it happens to be Rafim Kvki is the nephew of the Kazanh so so every of kineski is based on the so's became more prominent in they used to be uh you know 30 40 50 years ago. Yeah. >> Oh yes yes yes 1000%. No no there's there is absolutely no question that does not have laws. That that's that's not a controversy. The controversy is within Israel. So the min of bin alish was there is the kadusha of and the minus for hundreds of years was there was no kadush and even the which are very strict routinely mu there is no problem again is a different problem because there you're deliberately selling the land to a guy that that's a separate issue but the underlying idea of even the iscept it uh as a permissible uh alternative onita. Yeah. >> Well, uh yeah, I mean I follow the uh although I I can't call myself an old shami. I haven't haven't been here that many years, but I basically follow the minus of both yak and using using electricity from the uh from the grid. But you know that doesn't um that doesn't mean you have to you should follow it. Let me just tell you if you ask what I found so that's what I follow. Okay. So that's a little bit about birkas. Remember going back to the Rambam uh since there was a full sash. So ma they had kadusha and they had birkat co because in mitim they did dan every day the ram followed of course the min of now the so as I say the ram has a number of different chuvos about minhagim of tila and I'll tell you once again I'm going to make a general point because I'm not going to flesh it out now so it may be a little vague but the rambom had a real problem was almost an emotional problem that he was grappling with and that is the Rambam's over overall orientation was he didn't like put he didn't like the poetic additional uh add-ons to the he considered them to be interruptions he considered them to not be appropriate because Khazal and the Kessus Abdullah enacted a synagogue ritual he also was concerned with the fact that it took a lot of time and there were older people he writes who need to go home and need to eat. So the Rambam was not a fan of the genre of Pututim that had already existed in his time. The Python are even before the Rambam and the Rambam really didn't like them. Didn't like it. Problem was he was confronted by a huge authority of tremendous reputation who kind of did like Putin and that was Rafaj. Rafajon you may know was around 200 years or so before the Rambam. He was not alive in the Rambam's time but Rafson was a big person a person of immense immense reputation and in fact Rafajon wrote a sitter a compendium of fact that the two main sided from the Gonim that are the source of our sitter are Ravon and Rabajon they are somewhat different but these are two the two makorotes of our sidila and the problem is rebaja gong is filled with all sorts of poems. He wrote quite a lot of poems quite a lot of putim that he put in to the middle of in the middle of keshma and all sorts of things. So the raan really has a problem. The Rama really doesn't like pim but he keeps on being asked what about what about this what about that and the Rambam you get the impression he doesn't like stuff either but he can't say that the kind of the language that he used to dismiss other people's withone he has a certain uh yus of respect and I I could see between the lines maybe I'm being overly psychoanalytic here But I can see between the lines the Rambam's tension. It's actually very very interesting. He's kind of tense. He doesn't want to say Rafajigon stuff is wrong, but he actually feels it is wrong and therefore he kind of fudges it. He says, "Well, say it quickly or maybe maybe say it after Davening or or even suggests ways of changing the order of things so the P doesn't become dominant." But he but when it comes to other p him he simply dismisses it and says ah skip it it's not worth it and the like so this is an interesting issue I have to say that you know even contemporary rabun face I mean sometimes there may be gdole that issue certain pronouncements and a rab or a teacher may feel it's not a correct approach for their shouldn't talk about trade secrets here but for their students or the like but we have to be very careful we have to speak with great great respect and you know we can't Smiths the pronouncements. So it was interesting to me to see that the Rambam himself who of course was a guttle of the highest caliber the Rambam himself felt that very pressure when he's dealing with the putim of Rafajon. So uh was was a great poet and he wrote many many pim uh in biblical Hebrew that was his style that he incorporated in the sitter at various places where you're normally not allowed to be moxik uh those pum are largely not said today but there are in the sitter of raja rivajan okay but the particular issue I want to talk about today and maybe we'll get to two issues uh issue number one is the Rambam has a very interesting short chuva about standing up during Torah reading for the now as you know the sadro the ten commandments however you count them actually how do you get 10 is not so simple because different commandments are composites the truth is the Torah never uses the word the words uh ten commandments that would have been orim that's not what it's orim is the actual word does not appear either. It appears in the masculine. So it means the 10 statements and a statement could comprise a number of mitzvah. For so for example the second dur has four or five different commandments. There are actually close to 15 or more depending how you count it commandments in the aseras. Uh the other point I like is I remember that uh Ted Cppel if you remember him he used to be a famous reporter on ABC. So I I I don't remember what this was after poet but he once said you know it's called the ten commandments not the 10 suggestions which is also also good but okay uh but be be it as it may as you know the aseras appear twice in the Torah albeit with some differences one in parasra when hashem actually gives it to us and the other when Mosher Rabenu is reviewing matan tora he reminds them of what those commandments were and they are stated with some differences. Maybe a later time we'll talk about talk about that. Now I do want to correct a a common misperception. Many people say oh okay Isra and thean is theer of the second lus and some of the differences might be explained by that. Well the truth is some of forum do say that. I'm not going to deny it but alipik that's absolutely not the case because when moherenu is describing the sados in thean he is describing the same matan tora as meaning he is talking about the first luos okay so he's this is not the second lucos he is khazering he is reviewing the story of the first lus I mean just read theukim you will see that okay but As you know the custom is some people do stand for all of Torah reading that's the min of yeshivos but most people sit for Torah reading but when it comes to the sadibros we stand up because uh that is when you know God spoke to all of Ami Israel 600,000 three million people alto together and that's a very common minute probably in every show you go to to the if people are not standing for all of laning they will stand upbras the Rambam. Now obviously this was a well-known custom even in the time of the Rambam and the Rambam writes a chuva that that is a custom that should be cancelled. You should not stand up for the sados if you are not standing up for the rest of the Torah. Why is that so? So the Rambam brings a proof from a gammorra in mus braos. The gumorrah in mas braos says that in the ba mikdash as part of the there were prayers in the basa mikdash too. They would recite the dibbros every single day and then the garra adds they wanted to institute such a custom everywhere. They wanted to make the recitation of the part of the but theim decided not to. So people shouldn't say only the ten commandments were given by God by showing a public to one part of the Torah over another part of the Torah. People might think oh the ten commandments are from God the rest of the Torah Mosher Abeno made up. And indeed today a lot of people will say um I only keep the ten commandments although um Rabbi Emanuel Feldman he should be well was rabbi in Atlanta for so many years now his son is the rabbin. Rabbi Felman's living here. Uh Rabbi Felman used to tell the story that when he was a rabbi in Atlanta, there was a congregant not religious who would come to him all the time, a southern woman, and she just wanted to smoo with him. And you know, he said he enjoyed talking to her. He had no problem. But one time he was very, very busy. So he was a little a little grouchy. So she came in, she always had a standard line. She would say every time she came in, she said, "You know, Rabbi, I'm not as religious as you, but I do keep the Ten Commandments." And normally he would just smile and nod, but that day he was a little grouchy. So he says, "Oh, yeah. What about commandment number four?" So she said, "What's that?" So he said, "Remember the day of Shabas to keep it holy. Do you keep the ten commandments?" if she doesn't keep shabas, which means when people say they keep the ten commandments, they usually mean they keep the second five. Hopefully, I don't kill, I don't steal, I don't commit adultery, um I don't give false testimony, I don't covet it. The truth is that's a hard one to keep. I'm not sure if people can even say they I'm not jealous of anybody. That's not the easiest commandment to keep. But his point was that even the statement, I keep the ten commandments, you know, is not always going to be true. But be it as it may, the Rambam says, you see from the Gomorrah that you're not supposed to create the implication that one part of the Torah is more important than another part of the Torah. And therefore, the Rambam says if I'm sitting for Torah reading and I stand up for the Ten Commandments, I am creating that very impression. And therefore the Rambam says it is actually proper to either stand for everything or sit for everything but not to stand Bafka for the Seret. Now, Rev Mosha Feinstein hundreds of years later in in recent generations has a uh chuva uh in which he defends the prevailing custom and he tries to answer uh the Rambam and he makes the point I'm not sure how strong the point is but he makes the point well listen uh we do stand up for other things in the Torah the yashir and we also stand up and he says you should do this you stand up several verses before for the sad and several verses afterwards. So you don't stand only for the aseras. So he and uh there are also good reasons to stand up. I'm not standing up because the aseris are more important but I am standing up because these were heard directly by God. I mean after all the ten commandments are in fact different because most of the Torah we did not hear from Hashem. Most of the Torah we heard from Mosher Rabenu who got it from God. The aseros we heard directly from Hashem. So there is a certain importance to it. So Mosha defends the Minug and as you know the Minug is uh to stand up but it's very very interesting that the Rambam was actually against it and he wrote a chuga opposing the Minug of standing for the Asser. Yeah. What if person may have particular way belief system think this is right but yes >> and he finds himself doing the other way what is he do >> in other words if they're if they stand up you mean >> yeah yeah so so so I want to stand native >> yes so I'm not I'm not sure what the Rambam would say about it but but I would say generally the Rambam in other places emphasizes very much not to create a mlocus we do find that the Rambam was asked about other customs which we'll to which he felt were not proper but he said if they're doing it in the shaw you do it also not to create dissension or makus so I would say that you do what the congregation is doing now I think in a modern shaw today though well well let's take both scenarios if everybody is standing and you're sitting that looks very bad people might might be offended so you should stand on the other end if everybody is sitting and you stand I think that causes less offense because people often often stand up, their back is hurting or or whatever it is. So, so I might I might differentiate between standing when everybody's sitting versus sitting when everybody else is standing. I I I think the second one is more likely to create a little bit of of tension. For example, people ask this question about kadesh. You know, Ashkanazim generally stands for kadeshardim. I don't mean the reciter, but sit for kadesh. So, people often ask if you're an Ashkanazi, uh, should you sit for kadesh or can you stand? So, I I tell people, listen, I mean, people stand all the time. Even Sparta might stand if they're not comfortable or whatever it is. So, I would still suggest to stand. On the other hand, uh, a sparty perhaps should not sit in an Ashkanazi show. So, I don't know. I mean, that's just a difference that appears to me. It may not be correct, but I I would make that difference. By the way, one other thing about the ten commandments, uh, the isser that the Rambam is talking about is only to give them public recognition. In fact, in many sided, if you look at the end of chakras, there actually is the sadra. Some people do have a custom of reciting them every day and as long as it's not part of a communal prayer, it is actually considered to be permitted because that's a private recitation that is not a public declaration of the seabour. Yes. >> Say again. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. That that that is a good question. But the truth is um this is a big mahloim according to Rashi based on the Gmorrah we only heard the first two from Hashem that that's very true according to Valvi we heard all 10 so so it would depend on those views uh the Rambam seems the Rambam in the seems to say we heard we heard all 10 uh so there is a mage but you are correct according to Rashi the logic of standing for the whole thing because we heard it from God actually would not be true because we only heard the uh the first two. So, so that is the first chuba uh that the Rambam talks about. A very interesting chuba which uh we do not follow but nevertheless uh >> the first two then sit with >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That the first two. >> Right. Right. Right. Yeah. That that would be Yeah. There you're gonna you're gonna alienate everybody. Some people like that. you know, you do something that nobody nobody likes. Yeah. >> Uh that could be a source again. I mean I I mean obviously this the stance of the Jewish people at Matan Torah was Amida. We did stand we did stand and some look at uh reading about Matan Torah as a reenactment of Matan Torah itself. That would be the the logic of it. But the Rambam felt that the concern of not glorifying one part of the Torah over the other overrid even even that concern. Now the next thing the Rambam talks about is yet another min that's very widespread. And in fact um we're going to have this on Thursday the fast of the 17th of Thomas although we pray that perhaps there will not be a fast this year if the ba mikdash comes and that is we know that the ka of a fast daysh is the only except exception although mka also has this ka is remember is after the mosher raenu prays to Hashem to forgive ami Israel and not to destroy am >> I didn't hear you I I thought I was but okay anyway so we read where Mosher Raenu is praying for the and again in a tinus s we read it both in the morning and at Tishabove has a different reading in the morning but even on tishabove we read it at min. And uh the highlight of the ka is when Hashem teaches Moshe the yud giml mid of rakamim the 13 principles of not principles 13 attributes of divine mercy. Hashem, Hashem, Kale, Rahan. And uh as you know, if you've been in Shaw, you know that the custom is that when the Kazan when the balor reaches that point, the congregation says out loud, a kale ra and after they say the yudimos out loud, the balor then reads theim from the Torah itself. Right? This is a a minog Israel. Uh and apparently you see how old a minog it was because it predated the Rambam. The Rambam was asked. Is this an appropriate Minug? Are you interrupting the Torah reading by these types of responses? Should we just not have should we not just have the balor read these verses and that would be it. So here the Rambam is a bit pariff. The Rambam says actually no reason to do it. But it's not an aa if you do do it. So if a congregation does it, you can do it. If they don't do it, don't push for it. So this is an example of what you might simply call neutrality. The Rambam did not consider this to be a significant min. But the Rambam did not consider this to be a prohibited min. And therefore it is something that is allowed. Now I want to digress for a moment because the next point the Rambam addresses which is really a digression but it's a very interesting point is how do you count the 13 attributes of mercy because there are actually surprisingly you'd be very surprised there are many different ways of counting the midt and in fact I have a sair that actually says there are 13 ways of dividing ing up the 13 mas 13 different combinations and the like and the Rambam was asked about divvying it up and he has a very interesting shittita which once again is not the way we pass it and it is not reflected in our reading. So first let me just mention the general uh statement that he makes and then we'll get into details perhaps we'll have to get into the details next week in more detail. Let's look at the list. Hashem, hashem. So the standard counting is the following. Hashem, hashem, even though it's the same word, counts as two. Kale is three. Ra is four. Is five. which is longsuffering is six. Abundant in kindness is seven is eight. Not he keeps kindness for 2,000 generations is nine. No, he bears our rebellious sins is 10. Pesha are despiteful sins is 11. Is inadvertent sins. That's that's 12. uh vin and he will cleanse us is 13. That is the neat and easy way of getting the 13 mid of but it presupposes that you count hashem hashem as two. This is how we pas and that is why when we read the midos we always start with hashem hashem and the only question is how can the same word represent a distinct mid of soar itself gives you a dasha hashem is y that's god's name of mercy so we darian I am the god of mercy before man sins And I am the God of mercy after man sins. And they do chuva. This is a mash. It's a gor. Now the rishim on that Gorrah asked the question why do you needim before a person sins? What is the mid of I am the God of mercy? So there are two answers to that question. I'm sure there are more than that but there are two that I know. Answer number one is given by the rush. And the rush says that even though this gets us into the whole mystery of God knowing the future, even though God knows the future and God knows I'm going to sin, he keeps me alive and does not take the future into account. That itself is a me of raim. That is what the rush says. The Maharal gives a bit of a different answer. The Maral's answer is that even without sin, God giving you life is mercy. The fact that you're alive, the fact that you're put into the world in itself is an act of mercy. Meaning independent of any punishment for a or the like. Okay. Be it as it may, the Gomorrah and Rashashana is a very powerful confirmation of Rabenu Tom's counting that Hashem Hashem counts as two because the Gumar itself gives a distinct connotation. The first Hashem is the second Hashem is now again obviously we have to explain. I mean all of the synonyms need explanation too. I I'll I'll probably do that next week. I'm not going to do that today. But the Rambam brings that he differs with that because you have to look at the words before it says Hashem. God passes his divine presence past Moshe and God calls out. Now, where do you put the colon or the period? So, like and the way we d it's God passed and God called and what did God call. Hashem that's how learns. You know how the Rambam punctuates the verse very different. God passed by Moshe and God called put the colon after Hashem and then Hashem started saying Hashem. So the Rambam says the first Hashem is not a mid of the first Hashem is simply the subject of the verbra. So instead of saying it repeats the subject of course that that makes it superfluous. Hashem, Hashem, Hashem. So according to the Rambam, so the Rambam makes this point. Even though it's okay to recite the Yudgimidos out loud, you start from the second Hashem. Now the big problem is >> okay. All right. So the big problem is you took out one of the 13, right? So the question is, how do you count it? So the Rambam says the following. You have to add something because it actually says the last meter says low is the 13th meter. Now the that's not so merciful means he cleanses you. Lo means he doesn't cleanse you. Well, not cleansing me is not a So here is the the Rambam says the word or can actually have two different meanings. It can mean to be purified and cleansed. It can also mean to be eradicated. Now I'm going to clean up clean up the earth. So it has two different meanings. The first van which in the Rambam's is number 12 means God will purify you. The means he won't destroy you. So therefore the Rambam takes out the first Hashem and he adds. So that would make a lot that makes a lot of practical differences. Number one uh you start there's the should say and then we start and at the end right so this would absolutely change things uh as I say obviously uh the minaf is not not like the ra and uh the kazan just says says, "And we start with Hashem." And the rash says, Yeah. Yeah. I have Okay. So, uh so the truth of the matter is in the L they are joined. So actually the truth is the fact that we interrupt it is against the now in terms of Hashem alav. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to I'm going to have to I'll check it to be sure. And the reason why it's hard to remember is because the the the shalik the valkor at that point doesn't really read it with the truck. The valkori reads it with a special special nigum. So I have to go back and see what the actual what the actual truck is for that. Um yeah u and by the way this that that itself is a very good point. People think that the purpose of the trump is musical. Uh that is not true. Uh the purpose of the trump is punctuation. uh it is the equivalent of period, semicolon, comma and var exclamation point and the like. The music is simply surfacing the punctuation. And my proof for that is the following. The gammor itself says that tamim were given to Moshe Mi. Now what does that mean? It can't mean that the musicality was given to Mosha Minai because we have Ashkenazi Tmani. they sing it differently. So obviously the musicality of Torah reading was not given to Moshe because that's why we have different traditions. The only thing that was given to Moshe is the punctuation system and that then becomes musicalized if there's such a word and that can depend on different congregations and the like. So we teach Trump all wrong. I mean uh we teach by mitzvah boy or whatever uh how to sing which of course is necessary but in reality it is a punctuation system which is why indeed when it comes to this type of question is the hashem going on or is it going on that the trap is actually the most important place to look because that indicates the punctuation of the sukim themselves. Okay. Um, I have more to talk about this. We we'll leave the rest for next week because I I do want to talk about digress a little bit to talk about the mid of because the truth of the matter is uh there's even more ways to count it. The Arizal just I'll mention two more. The Arizal doesn't count the Hashem's at all. Uh because the first hashem is like the Rambam God called and the second Hashem is a sentence that says Hashem is the following. So he doesn't even count the first Hashem and he counts the first of the 13 mitos from kale. So he's missing two. So he has to kind of make it up. And then there's a final shittita uh I think it's the Mamaros who doesn't even count kale. Hashem, Hashem, Kale, and he only starts from Rahim. So, he's missing three, right? So, at some point, you're gonna have to figure out how to how to do this. But, as I say, the prevailing consensus is that of Raben, Rashi's grandson, who starts with the first Tashem. And if you do it that way, you have a very easy 13. But the only downside with is you're cutting off the low anatam stops it as we do in our reading. We stop it after van even though you're splitting a single and a single phrase down the middle. So we'll talk a little bit more about this just to give you some some background. >> Hashem. Yeah. So that's a problem. So that that would be a problem under >> Yeah. Yeah. So that so that supports that you're not connecting the hashem to the >> there's a what >> there's a but nevertheless there's a zak that that in other words uh yeah yeah and it's a different puzz right uh right the puzz before vayikra is is a self puk right isn't that right I'm not sure what do what do you have under under vayra let me just see what you have Let me just look at this for a second. Okay. It's one puzzle. Hashem. Yeah. Yeah. The trump the trump clearly supports uh that uh on one hand there is a there is a line after the first hashem. On the other hand, uh the trump under the word vayra is clearly a separating a separating time. It's not vayraem. So I mean it's not the first time that theim of vishonim do not match up the trap. I mean that is a kasha and a problem but you you will you will encounter that that sometimes even in rashi sometimes explanations do not match up the the time themselves. Okay, you all have a wonderful week and pleas a a good meaningful time.