Sefirat HaOmer and the Students of Rabbi Akiva By Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

okay uh good morning everybody I hope uh hope you're well I hope uh you had an enjoyable uh y last week again again I think it's especially it was a especially significant day this year as we're going through a difficult mat and uh we're going back to what we were talking about the Mitzvah of counting the Omare and you'll recall that this was in last week's paraa Para and just to review very very quickly you'll recall that there are three regarding the Mitzvah of counting the OM number one is toos inos that says that the Torah commandment of counting the OM is limited to where you bring the barley offering of the OM on the second day of PES uh therefore when there's no bikash and there's no cor the counting of the OM is not required under Torah law it is only a RAB to be what is called mik a commemoration of remembering the mitz of the temple that is opinion number one opinion number two is the opinion of the rambam who actually says that the Mitzvah of counting is the Ora even today and it does not depend on the Corb om so according to the according to the r it would be a mitvah and then I had mentioned the very odd third opinion of raenu who was a disciple of the rash who maintains that the of counting days of the Omare is a Torah commandment even today but the of counting weeks of the OM is only and it's very difficult to understand what the logic of that is but I think I had mentioned to you uh a of the who says that the reason why s is counted in both days and weeks is because s is a count down or count up to shos now shos is both a one-day holiday and a onewe holiday how so it is a one-day holiday because it's a one- day holiday but it's a one week holiday because in the pilgrimage obligation to bring right every person has to bring a Corban Ola on yum but if you didn't bring it on the on Shu house you have six more days to bring it so in a sense it is seven days a week so shos is a holiday of a day and shos is a holiday of a week therefore the Omare must be counted in Daily units and in weekly units but says the the S day dimension of sh is only relevant when there's a bik when there's no basa mikash the only element of shos that remains is the day and not the week so is very beautiful that is why when there's a bikash you have to count days and weeks when there's no B mikash the of Thea is days and the weeks is this is what the explains is the explanation of the unusual of Ru I just want to point out it seems to me thatu might be the explanation of the interesting that some have in counting the OM that where do you put the word b or La that I'm not even you know that's a question of Gea uh so for example uh let's say uh last night right I remember I counted last night so I'm okay all right so last night right so we said it is 28 days it is four weeks in the OM so we put the word b at the end of the sentence but some SP have the custom they put the word after the days and not at the end of the weeks what's the logic of that so I think I I'm speculating that this is based on ra that it is the day count that's a Torah requirement the weak count is only Rabbi so we want to give an extra significance to the day count by positioning the word there now once again uh it doesn't make that much of a difference because everybody's Moda that you have to do it right whether it's bottom line is you got to do it so it's not going to be so relevant in terms of differences but most do in fact like the like the that's is a because the Torah requirement of would only be when there was the Corban of the OM itself and be therefore next year Our Hope and our prayer will be we will have a b mikdash we will bring the Corin om and then among many many other blessings this is only one of many many we will be the Mitzvah of counting of the OM on level but of course that's hardly the only benefit that we'll have uh one question about women do women have to have a Mitzvah have an obligation of counting the OM it is absolutely clear that women do not have an obligation to count the Omare and the reason is this is one of those things that are within the rule there are so many exceptions to the rule but this is covered by the rule and the rule is a Time bound positive commandment a positive Commandment that is limited in time duration such as Suka lulav chaur women are generally exempt from now there are many many many many exceptions there's Kish and there's eating matah there are many many exceptions but these are exceptions to the rule and the rule is nimos so as a result it's very clear that nimos at the same time consistent with our general idea that even a Mitzvah that women are exempt from Asam at least pasin they can do the Mitzvah and they can make the BR the Mitzvah like a lul like a Suka so by the same token they can they are permitted to count the OM and for asham at least they're even allowed to make the however the M brings an interesting that he discourages women from making AA because it is so likely that they might forget the day so it may turn out that they're rendering their blessing in vain now men don't have a choice men can also forget but you know we got to do it but if it's an optional the M of suggests that women should not do it on the other hand the Min I believe the predominant Min is that if a woman wants to count the OM she is allowed to do so and again ashaz maintain even with the bra the reason I say asaz because it is important to remember that uh the actually Pas that if a woman does a like she gets reward but she does not make a because she cannot say that God commanded us so according to If a woman takes lul she would not make a if a woman sits in the Suka she would not make AA this is what's far to maintain except for morans who follow the Rama here but ashim follow the view of Rama who in turn follows the view of rabenu rashi's grandson who does maintain that uh even if a woman is doing a mitzah she's not obligated to do she can still say the because the statement that God has Sanctified us with his Commandments is a reference to the Jewish Nation as a whole it is not a reference to the individual person you know if you would say it which we don't say so perhaps you could argue a woman doesn't have a she can't say those words but given the fact that it's in plural aeru he Sanctified the Jewish people of which I'm a part so this is a big M this is a very very important makus generally and this would have repercussions regarding as well but at least for the ashim unless you go with the that a woman is going to forget a woman is allowed to count a woman can make a br now I'm not sure if if this is two weeks ago I don't remember I had mentioned I think a very very interesting Hala in the name of the Basi the Basi was the first of the salvic who was the r of brisk he was Rim's father uh and although the so-called brisker D of learning was kind of invented by raim so the B is technically not within the brisker Der of learning but quite literally he was grandfathered in so uh within within the brisk tradition the Bas is admitted they allow the B to be studied even though his d uh is a little is a little by the way one of the things that you know raim uh had the sweetest temperament raim was amazing in terms of MOS one of the things that got him genuinely angry was when anyone ever suggested that he was deeper than his father in learning uh he was deeper than his father in learning again it's not for me to make any judgments at all that I'm not going to make a judgment in that but that is the one thing that genuinely made R very very upset if there was any intimation of disrespect for his great uh great father on the other hand the Basi also had a TR you could imagine a tremendous tremendous I mean how could you not with his son R and he once said a beautiful thing he said you know the difference between my son and me somebody comes to me and they ask me a gavala question a real deep complicated great question and I give a real deep and complicated great answer he says everybody everybody walks away happy the one who asks the question feels so brilliant that he came up with such a good question and I'm happy because I came up with such a brilliant answer says that's me you go to my son R someone asked him a question R through his analysis shows there was no real question to begin with if you really he says so he says nobody's happy I didn't ask a question I didn't give an answer he says he says so that's the difference between R and me the B says I answer questions shows there was no question to begin with in fact often people have the is very deep but if one understands and gives an answer your feeling often is I don't understand what the question is now I mean now that I now that I see the approach I don't even see what was bothering me five minutes ago that was that was but the B said a very big and again if I said this forgive me but I'm going to add a little bit um friend AR sent me something that that s I'm going to add a little bit to it uh and that is you know when the basy became the r of brisk know people think uh we that everybody in Europe you know in the golden age uh before in the 19th century before World War I everybody was a g everybody was a sadic everybody knew Shas there were quite a few that did indeed but the truth of the matter is in big cities like brisk and vilna there were plenty of Jews who were natur religious uh there were Communists there were secular zionists there were bundists and then there were MOS masim themselves is a very very broad range you had masim who were but believed in secular education you had masum that were gur so when you call somebody a masil you really don't know what he was because there were righteous musilim so to speak and there were musilim who were Mish anti anti Tor legam but the musilim wanted a meeting with the basy they were not very happy because they thought they would get a modern Rabbi they thought they would get a progressive Rabbi one who went with the times and they wanted to talk to the Bas to kind of set him straight so they sit down and they say you know uh times are changing uh Jews are being integrated in general civilization we need a yish we need a rabbi we need a Hal same things you hear today that is flexible that adapts to the times that changes accordingly he says are you the right man for this job so the basically says oh sure sure sure I have many many leniencies in I many Kos that earlier rabbis were not even aware of so they got excited they didn't expect this wow wow you're going to tell us like some great leniency like you know you can drive and Sh or whatever it is so B Le said here is a great I have in and it's about everybody knows the that if you skip a day of the Omare you can no long longer count with the BR again just to be sure just to review this very quickly uh last night I was supposed to count day 28 and I did not I can still count today without AA and if I counted today without a braa tonight for day 29 I can resume with a braa right that's the but if I forgot day 28 lagam meaning I did didn't count it last night and I didn't count it the rest of today I still count the OM but I can no longer make a br I have to hear the braa from somebody and if NE I have nobody to hear the braa from I just count without a br now what is the basis of that the basis of that is the Sha is the opinion of the Bal hilos gados one of the own him uh Anonymous we actually don't know his name but he's he he wrote a book called so he's called the bag and uh he says that since when the Torah describes the counting of the OM the Torah uses the word toot complete perfect if you miss a day your counting is no longer going to be complete so according to the bah let me explain something you actually wouldn't even count because your counting is not complete but here is the thing Moston argue with the and say you count with so really the extremes are the following bah says if you miss a day you don't even count most say if you miss a day you count with a most the compromise position is this we like most that you have to count but since according to the bah it would be a blessing in vain so we have a rule that says whenever you're in doubt whether you should make a bra you don't do it so I want to make it very clear the idea that you count without a braa is actually a compromise because of an unresolved m in Theon meaning according to the bah you wouldn't even count and according to Moston even if you miss a day you would count with a we are for the bah not to make a but we're also for the other opinions that you have to do a mitah so we do the mitz without this is Common Place this is a common rule in that if you're M if you're obligated to do something you do it without a this is called now here's what the B this is not the B this is this is regular but says the B the following this is my there is a Mitzvah to count days and there's a Mitzvah to count weeks these are two separate Mitzvah now the Mitzvah to count weeks is actually not the way we do it you see we actually every single let's say day 27 so we said it's uh today is the 27th day that is 3 weeks and six days according to the actual the of counting weeks only requires the end of every week meaning day seven today is the seventh day which is one week day 14 today is the 14th day that's two weeks meaning when it's day 13 you don't have to say one week in six days so the of of weeks is only seven times during SP 7 14 21 28 30 um 35 35 yeah 42 49 so says the basy let's say a person messed up and didn't count the sixth day of the owner so he can no longer make a braa on the counting of days because his counting of days is not complete he didn't count 49 days but as long as he didn't forget day seven he could still make a Braha every seventh day he could make a braa on day seven day 14 day 21 day 28 day 35 why because even if he's not fulfilling toot on the days he can fulfill toot on the weeks which actually means he gains seven bras he missed a day gets seven so the B says to the m this was not the type of leniency they were looking for this this did not interest them in particular but he said you see I'm a I'm a person who has has like okay but be as it may it is a very very very fascinating Kish of the B that toot can exist on weeks even when cannot exist on days but again sent me a sh from who went through a lot he said over the Bas of Ley and he went through a lot of criticisms of the Bas of Ley uh he basically uh he kind of digressed a little bit he first of all he made the basic argument which is a very good argument and that is it's not possible that the earlier authorities agreed with this otherwise they would have said it I mean if the shul says you miss a day you cannot make AA if the would be every week you could make a br he would have said it so this is a very good example that by negative implication it's not just they didn't mention it it must have been they didn't agree with it because if they would would agreed with it they would have mentioned okay that that's one point and then he had a he had a point he wanted to argue that the Bas Ley had forgotten something uh because he quoted a when mentioned the tour and uh rasher said that uh apparently the basally didn't remember the exact reference of the Torah because something was inaccurate okay so he then went into an interesting digression that's just very nothing to do with our topic per se but it was a digression in which he says some people attacked him how dare he say that the basy forgot something how can you talk about a God that he forgot so he went into the idea that forgetting is part of life nobody is immune from forgetfulness mosu self had forgotten uh some and then he had mentioned a fascinating thing uh he says take the vagon like the vagon like the greatest of of Torah Scholars who knew every single thing in every part of the Torah so he pointed out there are nine times at least that he found in the Von's commentary to the sh where he says a certain conclusion and then he says afterwards afterwards I found in the tosos the opposite so rasher says quite logically what does it mean afterwards it can't mean that oh I learned the toos afterwards he certainly had learned the toos a million times so what does he mean afterwards I saw that tosa says differently than me it could only be that he had forgotten at the time now again I'm I'm frankly even almost scared to even say that I'm just if I wouldn't be quoting somebody else I I wouldn't say it in a million years uh the villain of going forgetting I mean it's almost impossible I'm not sure I can believe it on the other hand it's a pretty good di what does it mean afterwards I found in toas right it's not like like you know I might say something and oh I see later to you know says the Von knew all of this Eli even the vag things can be forgotten so he said that it's not you're the only one is the only one but be it as it may we again as says we probably do not like the B but it's a fascinating to differentiate weeks and and and and days okay now let me switch gears a little bit if we ask ourselves is the OM period a happy period or an unhappy period there is nothing in inic to the OM that would make it unhappy the says that the original intention of the OM days were days of sim days of anticipation days of looking forward to Matan Torah in other words this is not an unhappy period This is a or this would have been or should have been a happy period And yet all of us know that there are various mourning customs that are associated with the OM now where do they come from so here it's very very important that you differentiate between different sources there is a talmudic source and there is a Gonic source and it's important to keep in mind what is derived from what the garas gives us the famous story The Beautiful story of rabaka Ben the great RAB AA that RAB AA was an amoret he was an ignorant Shepherd he didn't even know how to reads and he was in the employment of a wealthy landowner by the name who had the nickname of calba Sava cbaa in Aramaic means a satiated dog a dog that's stuffed and the Goran G explains he was so hospitable that even if you were a dog you would walk out stuffed as anyone that has a dog nose that dogs are Never full dogs can can eat without limits and yet he was C even the dog walked out of full so that wasn't his real name actually we don't know what his real name was but kba saua was what he was known as uh so he was considered to be a righteous person he was considered to be a charitable personas and he was very wealthy and uh he employed Shepherds to take care of his flocks and AKA was one of his Shepherds and his daughter Rael fell in love with RAB AKA was attracted to RAB AKA saw greatness in Rab AKA and she wanted to marry him and her father was absolutely abhor God forbid you know he could get the best guy in Lakewood or whatever it is you know uh he gets this amus this ignoramus so they got married and uh CBA saua was so incensed that he made a net he made a vow that she would get nothing of his property so from being you know a daughter of the wealthiest family in Jerusalem she was living in abject poverty abject poverty they were living in a barn uh they were lying on straw mentions RAB AA would pluck the straw out of her hair and then at some point you know the story she sent rabaka to learn Torah and he went he started Ed with the first graders whatever the whatever theer system was then he was there for 12 years without even visiting her it says it's recorded and then he comes back after 12 years he overhears her speaking to a neighbor where a neighbor says to what type of husband do you have who leaves you for 12 years and she said I wouldn't mind if he'd go back for another 12 years RAB AA heard that and according to the story he went back didn't even say hello now we read a story like this and it's very very hard for us to understand he couldn't have a cup of coffee he couldn't say he couldn't say hello so let me give you two explanations I think neither explanation will satisfy you totally but two interesting perspectives perspective number one is from rarin Cutler raran Cutler used to say all the time that one time 24 is much greater than 2 time 12 and that is there's a certain critical mass if I learn an hour then I take a break and then I learn another hour so although I learn two hours that's not the same as two consecutive hours critical mass the Kish writes I myself have never experienced this in my life maybe one one day in my life maybe I would have it but he talked about what it is like to learn 12 hours straight without interruption and he literally describes it as you know being in heaven being Ina he says at some point your Nish like is literally not in this world but it only comes after time and the said it typically takes three hours to get into it now how many times do we learn three hours straight not that often says so we don't even we don't even you know have a taste of any of this but rarin said RAB AA had 12 years of continuous learning he now pays a visit but he didn't want to give any further Interruption he wanted there to be a continuity the Kish gave a famous musle if it takes let's say you have a big pot of water and it takes 30 minutes to bring the water to a boil after every 29 and 1 half minutes you shut off the flame have it cool down and then start it up again you can do 29 and A2 29 and A2 29 and A2 you can do it a 100 times but if you don't have 30 consecutive minutes you're not going to get a boil critical mass that's raran Cutler's understanding of why rabi AA took this extreme measure there's another shot that says the following actually I like this because this puts a bit of a human fa face on it rabaka knew that if he would stop for a cup of coffee he wouldn't have had the heart to go back he wouldn't what he wouldn't have had the heart to go back he would have seen he was aware of her suffering he was aware of her deprivation he was aware of everything she's going through and her poverty but she wanted him to go and without her permission he would not have been allowed to do this at all but he would have broken down had he let himself had he let himself be opened up at that point he wouldn't have been able to go any further you know it's interesting let me just mention something um reaba did have children he did have children we know that he had a son and he had a daughter so at a minimum we know he had a son and a daughter let me tell you an interesting thing about about reab aa's children or Bea's daughter and this once again is a speculation I don't have a proof for this no I can't okay you know I I okay I mean all right doesn't stay I have a misshapen head um yeah the gamorra discusses when the gamorra discusses the Mitzvah of getting married so it mentions there was a certain rabbi who never got married his name was benazzi and benazzi who was considered to be very very great in learning centuries later when abay wanted to describe what he was like when he had a clear mind he said I am like Ben aai today so hundreds of years later Ben aai was the epitome of Brilliance Ben aai after learning all of this about getting married he said what can I do Tyra I have such a desire to learn Tyra I can't get married I can't take on the role my connection to Torah is too strong I can't give it up we used to call in Yeshiva when I was in Yeshiva many years ago so we had older Bachelors so we used to call them members of the benazzi club he says what can I do I love Torah learning so much and the like toos Springs the following actually benazzi was married he got divorced and who did he marry reab aa's daughter they got divorced now end of story nothing no other information is given but here is my speculation that has absolutely no Source at all so don't ask me for a source this is a guess and a speculation if I'm Ben aai and I just want to learn and I realized that marriage by definition involves you know being involved in a home and the like but I got to get married it's a Mitzvah so I want to look for a woman who will make no demands on me whatsoever hard to find so I look around and I figure hm rebi aa's wife let him go for 24 years maybe AA has a daughter like mother like daughter if I want a wife who will not expect anything of me who will simply free me up she's the best bet what went wrong the daughter saw what her mother went through and she was again she was of course she was righteous I'm not God forbid I'm not saying that but she was not going to live that way she didn't want to live she didn't want to live like her mother lived this is often the case with rabinal families the daughter doesn't want the way the parents were living so that's my little speculation why benaz I separated but be as it may Reb AKA went back for another 12 years and after those 12 years 24 years altoe he was now the greatest Rabbi of Israel he came back 24 years of learning 24,000 students 24,000 students you know the largest Yeshiva in the world today is how you count it it's either Mir here or Lakewood in America and you're dealing with 7,000 8,000 Max 8,000 is the largest Yeshiva in the world RAB aiv had 24,000 students and he comes back Rael is living in poverty she's Rags she comes to greet him the students think she's crazy they don't know who she is they kind of want to protect Reb AA from the crazy woman and Reb AA utters The Immortal words all that I've learned and all that you have all that I am and all that you are Shah is hers so from a woman standpoint Rael looks at her life that was full of loneliness deprivation poverty having to raise her two children more or less by herself and now she sees how everything was worth it beautiful all of the success all of the Torah all of the talim that because of her her husband became the greatest of the gdm the greatest of the leaders and can you imagine the tremendous joy in her heart now let me just say there's a an interesting second part of the story at this point CBA saua after 24 years finally regrets that he put his daughter through so much he does not know this is his son-in-law but he made a vow and the is you can mat in uh a net could be mucher either by going to a Baston of three that's what we do today or technically according to although we don't follow it you can go to a a very expert Rabbi we don't do this today but could match so he figured this AKA well he didn't know it was but this Rabbi has 24,000 students he certainly must be a great expert I'll go to him to get my vow anold now when you an vow you have to be able to express that you made it under a mistake so you typically would say had I known a certain thing right let's imagine even a simple case let's imagine I made a vow I want to go on a diet I'm never going to eat chocolate again which you shouldn't make the vow and you come home and your wife if say you're a man who made the vow husband made the vow and your wife made a great delicious chocolate cake now it would hurt her very much if you wouldn't eat the cake because your motives are totally the Sham shayam of course so you go to a Bas and you say you know if I would have known my wife would have gone to the trouble to make the cake I wouldn't have made the vow so the Bas can mat The Vow that's called a p p is an opening so RAB AKA asked K the following if you would have known that your sonin would it become a would you have made the vow so he said of course I wouldn't if I if I would have known he would know how to read I wouldn't have made the bow so AKA said mucher mucher everything's much and then they revealed themselves and uh Kaba made his wealth available and the remainder of their lives they were comfortable Rael died a short time thereafter ra did not live that many years and in fact this is the tragedy of Setta om the 24,000 students of reab AKA that he accumulated after the 24,000 years of Torah study all of them died in the period of time between pesak and Sh once again I will only speculate because I don't have the I don't have dates here but it seems to me that that that might have killed ra because I know Rael died shortly thereafter it could very well be I mean imagine what's going on she lives a life of deprivation she finally sees the great blessing that her efforts accomplished and then all of that is destroyed how much how much can you take how much can you take she did die shortly thereafter reik had a second wife he actually married a Roman princess who converted to Judaism a Mata he says he got wealthy from that so so in terms of uh he had two that ultimately brought him brought him wealth but he always considered Rael to be the reason for everything that that he achieved now here's the thing I want to say the gamorra tells us the 24,000 students of RAB AA died yeah the gamorra tells us they died between p and Sh the gamar even tells us spiritually the reason why God took them out of the world and the spiritual reason is they did not show proper cavod they did not show proper honor proper respect for each other and therefore they could not be the Torah leaders of the Next Generation God took them out however this is what the gamarra does not say it's important to recognize this the gamar does not say that therefore we observe mourning restrictions during the OM the gamarra makes no mention at all of any type of aess restrictions thear just gives us the story of RAB Aus TM their death in the days between pesak and Sh and the spiritual reason for their death they did not show proper COV zela so what is the mcor what is the source that during the Omare periods we don't get married we don't take haircuts it is not from the talmid at all it is from the gonum after the talmud the Goon wrote chos and it is recorded in the works of the gim the following and even then it wasn't the it says mot there are some communities where to commemorate the deaths of the students of rabi AKA during this period no they established a custom not to get married not to uh cut hair now the G didn't even say it was a they just said later what happened was it gradually spread so it's important to keep in mind that although mourning during the Omar period is based on a talmudic story The mourning itself is not a talmudic rule it is a post talmudic custom that spread in K Israel in the time of the gonum I'll discuss in a few moments what days of mourning do you have but as a result the nature of the spher period was unfortunately transformed from what would have been a very happy period And by the way that Dimension should still exist to one which commemorates the deaths of the students of RAB AA now people ask the question okay 24,000 people is an awful thing of course it's a tragedy but to be brutally Frank we've had worse whether it's Holocaust Crusades communities being destroyed why would it be that after 2,000 years actually more than 2,000 years no no a little I'm sorry a little less than 2,000 years because because really it was re was after the Corban but why would it be that I'm still making a deal about the T RAB AA again not to diminish the tragedy but it's a tragedy like many many tragedies why would I have all of this Aus because of T Raba so there are two answers answer number one is it's not just numerically 24,000 people rather this was virtually all of the teachers of Torah of the Next Generation meaning to say the whole survivability of Torah was hanging by a thread indeed the Mor tells us that after he lost his students he managed to have five more talm everything we have is from five TM so this is not just you know this is worse than the Holocaust in the sense because if God forbid we would have lost the abil the transmission of Torah to the Next Generation there wouldn't have been Judaism so we got to recognize what a tragedy this was that's answer number one but answer number number two is the following it's not simply mourning about a tragedy if the issue would be mourning about a tragedy so we have bigger tragedies but rather it's meditating and contemplating the reason for the tragedy they didn't show proper honor proper respect I'll discuss shortly what that would be so what does it mean when I mourn the students of reab AA I'm not just mourning deaths but I'm remembering what was the and how does that apply to me the the hatred the polarization the disunity the lack of respect the lack of regard so therefore this is not just mourning for the sake of mourning this is mourning for the sake of rectification for tikon to fix it remember rers says a beautiful thing the word cavote right kavod honor respect RSE writes that the Shish of cavod is CED CED is heaviness ESS in other words kovot when I show covod to you it's not a matter of politeness etiquette rather I look at you and I see your significance I see your weight yeah I'm not referring to body weight but the notion is when somebody has opinions that you value so we actually say that person is a heavyweight that person has gravitas that person is weighty so R first just points out that kavod is not external politeness kot is seeing significance within the person and he explains we can assume what does it mean RAB aka's students didn't show kavod to each other we don't have to assume what they pushed each other out of line they called each other idiots we can assume that if I would have a video and I would see their behavior it looked perfectly good they were doing exactly the way you're supposed to behave they were not rude they were not pushy they were not insulting they were not denigrating but in their heart they looked at each other and they said ah I have RAB a and maybe because of RAB I have RAB a I don't need you I don't learn from you there's nothing you have to offer and that's why you see people say there kind of opposite things going on here on one hand we're supposed to prepare for Mator that's the original meaning on the other hand I mourn because of the students of RAB AA that's an opposite thing it's not opposite it's all the same because part of how you prepare for Matan Torah is to see the good in others to have is and C and they were taken from the world even though you might say well do they deserve to die for that maybe they didn't deserve to die but they couldn't be the Torah leadership right a Torah leadership that does not recognize the good in every Jew cannot be leaders they were taken because they just couldn't be the leaders of the Next Generation and it's so paradoxical because RAB AA was the one who taught [Applause] is the it's so fascinating that this is the this is the criticism of the students of of of RAB AA right so this is why we have AAS now here is the thing that the gim say the gim say that the minog of AOS is not to get married and not to cut hair doesn't say anything about music so where do we get the idea of not listening to music during the OM so people will ask me often people have a more modern bench they'll ask me with a bit with a note of defiance where does it say in the that you're not supposed to listen to music during the Omare so you'd figure it got to be there somewhere but no it actually is not there you won't find it so the person has this triumphal smile therefore it's m I say well not really the reason why the does not say you're not allowed to listen to music during the OM is because the says you're not allowed to listen to music the whole year to remember the sadness of the tragedy of the Temple therefore there's no reason to mention anything about the Omar or the nine days or the three weeks for that matter so rosha Feinstein writes according to the strict is forbidden to listen to music the whole year but we are lenient on it because this is something that would have been too much of a hardship so the poim are lenient but at least during the Omare or the 3 weeks we should try to follow the that should apply the whole year so this is fascinating this actually actually means there is no special iser of music during Spa the eer of music during s is the eer that would apply the entire year which our Min is not to not to follow but for certain periods we follow the the that that we would optimally do the whole year it's very very interesting and that's why the G do not mention music as a spher of restriction now as you know and I'm going to go over this very very quickly and maybe next week I'll elaborate it a little bit a little bit more the morning period does not necessarily match up with the whole spher period the SPH period is 49 days the more morning period might only be part of that and we have many many different customs of the morning period for Reb aasum let me mention quickly five or six I may may lose counts custom number one is the Aral now the AR's custom is very simple he does do 49 days some say like Bomer is a break some say not but 49 days that's mug number one Min number two you start the second day of PES which means the first day of the OM and you go through now this will be a little unfamiliar you go through LBA om you keep 33 full days and the restrictions are lifted L the 34th day of the OM again that's not so familiar but indeed the sh brings brings this Min which means L Bomer does not have any special kivas it is simply the last day so Min number two is second day of pesak through L and after that everything is M Min number three which is a very familiar Min is second day of P until the morning of LBA om and the morning of LBA om all the restrictions are lifted and from then on it's going to be much uh this year things are a little different we have an extra leniency this year because since L om is on Sunday so it's ajacent to chabas so shabas when L is right after chabas you are allowed to get a haircut on Friday not Thursday night but you're allowed to get a haircut on Friday but unless but if L Bomer is not on Sunday then you would not be allowed to get the haircut to log B in the morning in the day in the daytime so that's mug number three Min number four uh is that you don't have any a at all in the month of Nissan and you start your AES and you go fromes until three days before sh until not including the third day of that gives you 33 days and LBA om is Aus which means you you can get a haircut on like Bomer but you got to continue afterwards U minog number I what number four I don't know I'm losing my count uh number five is you don't have a ones you start after Roes that means you lose two days so you have to go until hey with LBA om as a Asus okay so these are all the different Min hug now the one thing you cannot do and everybody tries to get away with this is you can't say I start my AOS ones and I stop it at LBA om uh can't do it that way meaning if you start ones you got to go until giml giml gim three days before if you start after you got to go until he is us the only header to stop your Aus after LBA is only if you started the second day of PES now there are actually more minhagim it's so interesting there are so many diversity of minhagim uh so here one of the questions that people ask all the time uh is can I change my Min hug depending I mean let's imagine the following let's imagine that I keep the a restrictions from the second day of PES but I'm invited to a Roes or vice versa let's assume that I keep AES and I go until gim and I'm invited to a wedding the 35th day of the OM at a time in other words where I'm still keeping SP so people ask the question this way the way they ask a a question typically is can I switch my aut this year I'll still keep 33 days of mourning but can I switch my aot to be able to go to a wedding so here I want to share with you a beautiful chuva of R mosha Feinstein which is a very big Kish and not everybody agrees R mosha says you don't have to switch Avil it at all because he says there are only two things that are ushered during SP and a third thing was added the two things that are user is you're not allowed to get married and you're not allowed to cut your hair and then we added music in light of the is of Music the whole year rosha says the only iser of SP is to get married there is no iser to go to a wedding therefore as long as the Katan and the kala are making a permissible wedding because for them it's not SP you can go now if they're doing an impermissible wedding in other words they're violating then you shouldn't go because you're participating in a sinful wedding although even then there's a Shiloh but but certainly if the wedding is permissible for them you can go but then of mosha says but wait a second okay there's no problem with my going to a wedding got it but what about the fact that I'm listening to music there is at least a minute of not listening to music here so mosha says like this this ties into his earlier point if the iser of listening to music is an extension of the iser the whole year that never applied to a which is a Mitzvah so the same way you can go go to a during the with music and go to the during SP with music as long as I'm not transgressing the AA of getting married during so mosha says I can go to the wedding I can listen to the music oh but then he has a third thing but what about if I'm a little unkempt and I would like to cut my hair now there are you do have a problem there is an issue to cut your hair during you're a so here MOS has yet another he says listen since there's a mitvah to be if looking more presentable would make them happier or to put it the other way if not looking presentable they would be a little bit distressed there's no is of cutting your hair so says now here's the a lot of people think in order for me to go to a wedding I got to change my Aus and extend my SP he says no you can if you're invited you start from the second day of PES you're invited to AES wedding you can go and you can still end your a on big because we're so used to the idea you're not allowed to go to a wedding during s he says no you're not allowed to get married as long as now if you want to get married uh and the time that you're a then then you have to talk about changing mhor him that'll be a procedure that you have to go to a rabbi and say you know can I change my minut but is that the common scenario that people ask the Sha they're invited to a wedding he says you do not have to change anything it's a very very uh important to be aware of okay you all have a good good week