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Okay, friends, we know that
once every 7 years
Mekate Shavasanam Tasa Shmita
on
the beginning of the year
the king would gather the people
together and read from the safer Torah
the men, the women, the children
and
this mitzvah was performed on a wooden
platform in the Azara
and it was known as the mitzvah of
Hakhel.
And in more contemporary times, the
question arose
should that mitzvah be somehow
commemorated? Okay, we don't have a base
hamikdash, we can't go to the Azara.
We don't have a melech
but should the mitzvah of Hakhel
be commemorated or remembered?
Should it try to be recreated or do we
say no, we don't have a mikdash, we
don't have an Azara, we don't have a
melech?
Judaism is not about empty rituals.
So
we can't do something like that.
So it's very interesting.
Rav Yitzchak Isaac Halevi Herzog
in Psakim Uk'savim on Orech Chaim
volume 2, page 428
he says something interesting.
Why did we never
recreate the Hakhel mitzvah?
He says it's clear in my opinion
that the generations before us were
worried for stirring up the nations of
the world.
Because the mitzvah of Hakhel was
connected to the melech.
And our forefathers were always afraid
that maybe if we would recreate the
Hakhel mitzvah it would be deemed like a
national aspiration for sovereignty and
it raise the ire of the nations of the
world and would put us in jeopardy.
And for this reason, says the Rabbi
Isaac Halevi, he in his opinion, that's
the reason they refrained from making a
commemoration for Hakhel in the times of
the Romans, even after we came back to
Jerusalem or even under Muslim rule. We
were afraid of
what
message recreating such a mitzvah would
send.
So,
Rabbi Herzog supported
the recreation of the mitzvah of Hakhel
as it was endorsed by Rabbi Yechiel
Michel Tukachinsky in the Sefer Eer
Hakodesh Vehamikdash Chelek Daled where
he praises
this minhag. On the other hand,
the Chazon Ish said, "You're not allowed
to."
Chazon Ish writes in his letters, letter
210,
"You cannot. You're not allowed to."
Um
By the way, the Admor of Darag tried to
recreate the Hakhel mitzvah
uh to restore it. He even wrote a sefer
called
He wrote it anonymously.
It didn't end up
uh it was not a successful project.
Rabbi Shach in his letters
also uh vehemently opposed
the attempt to recreate or even
commemorate
the mitzvah of Hakhel.
By the way, there is a custom
some have on Hoshanah Rabbah to read
from Mishneh Torah.
Rabbi Elyashiv said, "You're not allowed
to."
Rabbi Elyashiv said, "You're not allowed
to."
Just as an aside,
somebody uh he was once asked whether
somebody who does it needs to be matir
neder
and Rabbi Elyashiv said, "Since it's not
permitted,
you don't have to be matter things that
are not allowed in the first place.
So,
you know, the that's somewhat that's not
exactly the midst of Hakhel. That's more
uh a minhag of
um
that some communities have. Rebel Yoshiv
uh did not support it. He said it was
prohibited.
Rav Shach
uh was against the Hakhel. Or not only
um
recreating it, but commemorating it. He
says when it became
a widespread in the newspapers and in
the letters,
um
that there was going to be a big
gathering at the Kotel Hamaravi, and
they were going to call it Hakhel
as a dugma of the midst of Hakhel that
we have in the Torah might say shnas
hashmitah on Sukkos that the women, the
children, and the king would read from
the Torah l'maan yishme'u, which was the
purpose of the mitzvah. Rav Shach said,
"Chas v'shalom
to make out of the mitzvahs of the Torah
a
dugma
or a ceremony.
Cuz you're not fulfilling the mitzvah.
There's no melech. So, you're not
fulfilling the mitzvah. So, what are you
doing? Answer is, you're making a
ceremony.
You're going to make a ceremony
out of the mitzvahs of the Torah? What
the mitzvahs of the Torah are some kind
of religious ritual? We don't have
ritual in Judaism. We have divine
dictate that if be if it's fulfilled in
the manner in which the Almighty
ordained, then it has value, and it
connects us to the creator. And if it's
just if it is not fulfilled in the vein
in which Hashem commanded, it has no
meaning and no value.
Um
we have no obligation to fulfill any
mitzvah, not to read the Torah, not to
listen to it in such a fashion. Rav
Shach said it's an issur gamur.
It's a bizayon.
And it's a disgrace to the Torah. Anyone
with even a uh
spark of yiras Hashem
will recognize
that uh this is the correct position.
So, you this machlokes
is not just an isolated machlokes. It's
something that has uh much further
reverberations. In general,
you know, to commemorate something
that's not being done in the traditional
way, but it's merely being fulfilled to
remember a practice,
it does that have value? On the one
hand, Rav Shach The Chazon Ish said it's
ossur. We don't know why he said it's
ossur. No reason is given.
Rav Shach felt it was prohibited because
what it's doing is it's taking
the mitzvah
that is
divinely given to be fulfilled in a very
specific technical way
and saying, "Well, even though we don't
have the melech and we don't have the
azarah,
we're we're going to create a ritual out
of it." Judaism doesn't have ritual.
It's stripping the Torah content, even
though you're reading from the Torah,
but it's hollowing out the
the mitzvah from its
details and it's making uh a ritual as
if uh you know,
similar to what they have in England for
the king. The king doesn't have power,
but there are still guards and soldiers
and they're wearing certain costumes.
Doesn't have inherent meaning. It's just
uh
pomp and ceremony. In Judaism, we don't
have empty pomp and ceremony.
But on the other hand, other gedolim did
feel
that
mere gathering of the people
to hear words of Torah
is an awe-inspiring experience.
That true, we don't have a melech and we
don't have an azara,
but to publicly read Torah
in front of such an impressive audience,
it
infuses
the community and our wives and our
children with a a greater degree of
yiras shamayim. So, they would say it's
not pomp and ceremony. It's not empty
practice. This the spirit of the of the
mitzvah could still in a way be
accomplished and it it could have a an
effect on the Jewish people
and it could bring people closer to
Torah.
So, the question is, okay, you could
bring people closer to Torah, but still
on the other hand, the those who have a
respect for the mesorah, the Jewish
people, those who have respect for the
punctilious details of mitzvahs,
they they feel that this is um
in a way
sacrilegious. It's a lack of of um
reverence for the the details of the way
mitzvahs were given. It's a very
interesting machlokes and it is not an
isolated case. There are other similar
situations and it's kedai to know that
uh
uh you know, there are there are
various viewpoints on this particular
issue. There were the Chazon Ish and Rav
Shach
opposed it, but as mentioned, the Admor
Reb Chaim Kanievsky, Reb Herschel
Schachter supported it.
And if you bear with me, one more shiur
on tefillah.
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