Zaycher Lichorbun, Zaycher Limikdosh | Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz | July 7 2026

Okay, good morning. I hope you're well. Apologize a little late. Uh so there are two things I want to do today. Uh we are continuing with the uh chubos of the Rambam regarding minhagimila. And last week we looked at two things. We looked at the question of standing for the recitation of sadros versus just sitting and we also looked at the yudgimido to 13 attributes of of mercy. You'll remember that the Rambam's opinion was one should not if you are sitting for the rest of the Torah reading you should not stand up for the aseros because you may be giving the wrong impression that that's the only part of the Torah that was given by God and therefore the Rambam said if you sit you should sit throughout if you stand you should stand throughout but do not >> follow >> nobody that's correct nobody does follow the Rambam's opinion and Mosha Feinstein has a chuva that says says that since we do stand for other parts of the Torah including the shiratay the oyashir so that negates that particular problem but he does recommend which is the custom anyway that you start standing a fewukim before and remain standing a fewukim after so you're not giving prominence to that was one thing the raam said and that's a very interesting chuba because it is against the prevailing practice the rambom's idea of not standing at all uh the second issue uh the Rambam addressed I'm just giving a very quick review was whether it's proper during the laning which happened this last Thursday to for the congregation to recite hashem hashem before the before the balor and the ramam said the raam didn't particularly appreciate it didn't say wonderful wonderful he said you can do what you want uh it's not user and it's not an obligation so he said if they do it they do it if they don't do it they don't do But um I would say that we would explain it we meaning generally we would explain it in a more positive vein. I mean the Rambam stance is basically one of indifference to it. But we would say that when we are reciting the midot of rakamim we want to involve the whole congregation uh turning to hashem in that way. So it's kind of a using creator as a prayer, right? We normally separate from creator, but there'll be certain times of the Torah reading where we are misht as a toe. As I say, the Rambam did not uh imbue this with spiritual significance, but lisa many say that's the case. Uh the next issue, the final issue which I'm going to elaborate on today is how do you count the yudimitos? If you remember uh the Rambam actually says that the first Hashem in other words it's not that right what does the verse say by the vavore hashem God passed his divine presence in front of mo and he called out and the way we read it is that's the colon that's the stop and the 13 mid begin hashem hashem and it's counted twice uh the raam actually says it is not counted twice because the first Hashem is not connected to the list. It's connected to the verb right before it. So the way you read it is Hashem Hashem. Hashem passed by Moshe's countenance and Hashem called and then it begins Hashem tale because the Rambam says now again the Trump does not support that. that the tamim do not support that reading. But the Rambam says that's logical simply because how could the same word repeated twice be treated as a distinct mida. Now obviously what that means is that the Rambam would be one mida short because he's eliminating the first hashem. So the way the Rambam answers it is he has to add something at the end. Right? This is logical. You take something away in the beginning, you got to add something at the end. Now in our typical list which begins from the first hashem the last mida is vin he will cleanse you he will exonerate you now the words right after that is lo we don't we don't we don't count that as a mid of but the raam says actually not that way the word n the verb n can have two meanings in biblical Hebrew it can mean cleanse exonerate, purify, or it could mean like ethnic cleansing. It could mean to eradicate. So, vin is God will cleanse you and purify you from sin. Lo means he will not utterly destroy you. So the way you count it therefore is the n is number 12 l y is number 13 and we start counting from the second hashem. Now again obviously we we don't follow the Rambam here either. Number one we read Hashem Hashem we read it as as two different midot and I'll explain that in a moment and we end it with we don't end it with low in that way. So again uh the Rambam is not the that we follow but it but it is an interesting exercise in the paranut in the explanation of the of the verses that the first Hashem at least according to the Rambam and he brings earlier commentators before that say like him uh do not uh do not start with that. Now I had mentioned there are many other opinions as well. I don't want to get overly confused confusing and confused. There are I think as I mentioned 13 different ways of counting the 13 meetups of of rahim. So there are many many many many different interpretations but the only two that the Rambam discusses here is the standard interpretation that the first Hashem is mida number one and vin is ma 13 versus the second hashem is meter number one and ma 13 is the low yak right those are the and that's the opinion the Rambam favors la we favor the the first opinion so I want to digress a little bit and I do want to talk about the principles of mercy in a more general way because they are they are indeed very very pivotal. uh they are certainly uh the major the most important part of Sikhos uh on Yam Kipper in particular the Yimitos are invoked over and over and over again uh primarily in Mariv well that's that's an interesting point about the Yam Kipper service I'm going to digress on a digression for a moment uh you know yum kipper mariff is is a very unusual service because normally in every m Even rash you know you you finish shimona and then you say uh all right aleno you're basically finished after the amida and there is no repetition of the shimona esray uh but the one exception where the arvis is fundamentally a different type of service is the night of yam kipper where after we finish the amida and there's still no repetition of course we have what are really it's a service you people don't always realize because they're singing and maybe special but essentially the yamiper myv service is saying the same types of that we've been saying for and for what we were saying before Russana you have putim and the putim are followed with the yudimo midos so essentially what we do is we're saying at night now the emmesis and maybe you might even remember this uh the original ashkanazic minog Because every single service of yam kipper had there were in the khazar sashhats of shak and there were in the khazar sash of mus and there were in the khazar of now we also say you understand it's really of as opposed to afterwards the of arvitz because there is the after. So what happened to the and in fact those of you that might remember this goes a long long time ago those of you that are students of English language makorium. So there is the art scroll and now there's Korin. There's there's Corin. There is art scroll. There is Burnbum. Okay. Who remembers what the moxer the the the most popular English moxer was before the burnbomb? It was the Adler. The Adler. Now the Adler moxer actually came out of Great Britain. And it was very very amazing because the Adler matxer the translations are so difficult to follow but they they they hired like poets to deliberately try to duplicate the Hebrew meter in the translation. So they translate the puteim as rhyming poetry which is quite creative and quite interesting but the convolutions of the of the words are so crazy that you can barely barely follow it. But this is the famous Adler moxer. When I was growing up, pre-b burn bomb even, uh the Adler moxer was the standard moxer in a young Israel synagogue or whatever it is. Um now the Adler moxer actually does have for Shakris, for Musaf, for Mina. And the oracan who wrote at the um end of the 19th century already decrieded the fact that in Lithuania and Russia and Poland the sleos were dropped except for arbita and he decrieded it. He said it was a very bad thing. Now obviously the reason it was dropped is lack of time. I mean it would have I mean I mean the way it is now uh young kipper we den most of the day. Uh the breaks are not very long. I mean imagine if the young kipper davening would be increased by around uh 33% by around one/ird it would be a very very difficult thing so eventually the sleigh did get dropped but not without uh opposition as I say there were gdole Israel that were very against it okay that's just a little digression about um there is there was he's not alive anymore but a very uh very uh great uh scholar who was also from and uh Dr. Dr. Danil Golmidt, you might have heard of him. He was a professor at Hebrew University and he put out what you might call actually his son-in-law finished it because he was nif before he finished it. But he put out the definitive set of forashiper and the uh and he emphasizes this is not for synagogue use because he puts in like all of the pudum that were ever said by any congregation. this was said in Berlin and this was said in Cologne and this is the min of the Italians. You know, you you can't you can't use it to dab because there is no sh anywhere that says everything that's in that mer. But you would be quite quite amazed at the richness and the variety of potim and uh that were maintained. So he puts in all of the of every minog that ever existed among Ashkanazm not not among and I I I I remember looking at the yipper page for theos where he he refers to the different minimum. So he has a list. This was said in Galitia. This was said in Austria. This was said in Poland. And one of the listings is this was said in the Besset Hayashan of Prague. I'm not sure which that's the moral show or not, but he says but they had their their own house that were not said anywhere else in the world of Bessa in prime. Okay, that's a little digression on a digression. Uh but putting it putting it aside the centrality of yimidos inos is very very apparent. In fact the yudgidos preceded the putim. If you go back to the early times of the gonimin before this poetry was written basically just meant we recited the yudgiml um of we then said some biblical verses and then we recited the yudgiml of rakim as well. theim the poetic thing which people think is theor of that was actually added later. The yudimidos is by far the but because the yudgimidos are considered to be very very holy they can only be recited with a minion. So if people ask the question if I'm ding without a minion can I say the answer is you can say but you do not say there is an exception if you want to read it like you would read verses from the Torah with the with the so you can lane theim but they're not really said as part of the prayer they are devorim shebik ducha uh because these are the midot of raim These are the attributes of the of the shina. Now the garan rashana goes through the yudimidos and the gumaran rashashana has what is an extremely anthropomorphic that means human characteristics anthropomorphic description of god. It says mame. This teaches us that God put on a tallet like a shalakor. And God called out to Moshe the 13 attributes of mercy. And God said that whenever your children are are in trouble, they shall do this arrangement and I will bring them a Yeshua. I will bring them a salvation. So there's a beautiful powerful thought from the aladosh who says the following. Note that Hashem does not say when your children are in trouble and they recite this order. It doesn't say it uses the word. So says the what Hashem is really saying is not the recitation but when they implement in their conduct in their interpersonal behavior to follow the Hashem Hashem that brings the Yeshua. You see the is uh now that does not deny the power of the recitation but the divine promise is premised on emulation. This is what I call the double emulation theory and that is when we imitate God, God then imitates us. We imitate God's attributes of mercy that turns on those attributes and then we or the world benefit from them. Uh if any of you have ever learned and I hope you have and if you haven't you should the very beautiful gem of a safer called tor dvorra the palm tree of dvorra the palm tree of dvora tor dvora is a is a small book it it is somewhat cabalistic but not not heavy kabala uh written by the great makubal ra mosha corda called the ramach ramak modera was one of the mukbal uh he was a little older than The ar they knew each other. I mean the ar was only in in soil for two years and the ramach died six months after the Arizal came here. So they actually were connected for six months and the Arizal considered the ramach to be at least his teacher to some degree. They have very different systems of cabala. Interestingly enough, the Ramach is uh actually called the Rambam of Cabala because the Ramach tried to um encapsulate cababalistic thoughts in a very rationalistic philosophical structure even though you would think it's almost a contradiction. So in his uh seafair well he wrote he wrote many swarm including a 17 volume commentary on the zor that was not printed till centuries after his death. But his primary cababalistic safer is Parardes Remonim. Uh that means the orchard of pomegranates. Uh which is a pretty large book over a thousand pages. And he tries to systemize Cabala in a very orderly massuda almost rational type of system. So that's Cordovarian Cabala. Uh Laurianic Cabala is a very very different. It's much more free association. It's nonlinear. Uh it creates a much more contradictory and um you know full of contradictions in steros. Uh and Laurana Cabala became the main trend although certain of the alterb brought back some of the Cardavarian Cabala. Uh be it as it may one of the great little treasures of the Ramach that is still learned today is a book of ethics called Tomer Devorra. uh and you can get it in English translation. You can even get translations online. And the Torah Devor is all about how do you emulate the 13 midot of raim in order to bring down God's mercy into the world. And uh many people who look at tor say it actually changes their lives in a in a practical way like learning to look at people with kindness, learning to care, learning how not to get offended, how to overcome resentments. It's a small book and again as I say it ultimately is a cabalistic book but I would call it a relatively light cabala. the the ethical teachings can be very well understood even without all of the cababalistic explanations that's there. So um in the European yeshivas tor devor was often studied during the month of of el and even today in fact today there may be a renewed interest because I've noticed over just the past few years there are more and more translations and uh in the world of it's very interesting there seems to be certain ideas hit people at the same time when a given thing is translated there will tend to be like five translations coming out at the same time it's almost as if there's a certain wave that hits people from Hashem that inspires them to do a certain thing. I know myself, you know, I wind up uh writing a lot of huskamos for English books mainly. Uh and I noticed that um I often will get a lot of books on the same topic. So, Hakar Satov was a big one. So, uh I did Hakura Satov one thing then another one. So, what I do I shouldn't say is that I kind of plagiarize myself a little I mean if I wrote uh a long hakkar sat husk for safer one what am I supposed to do for safer so I you know so I change details and I acknowledge the unique features of the safer but the overall general message I I I I am not ashamed maybe I am ashamed but I will admit that I do plagiarize myself because if I'm making a general point about the importance of gratitude that should apply across the board to all five books at the same time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So, so you're you're Yeah. So, you are correcting me. I was a little inaccurate. Meaning the following. The Torah Devorra is not directly based on the midos in the Torah, Hashem, Hashem, Kale. It is based on a prophetic rendition of the 13 midos, which are based on Mika, the end of Mika. Mikamoka, who is a god like you? No. Say and that we say inash. And you may notice that above those words in small print will be the biblical the the Torah's and it shows you how each word corresponds. So, so you are correct. The devor technically is not an exposition of it's an exposition of but it ultimately boils down to the same thing because the mikamoka itself is by the way though to make this a little complicated uh since the ramach was a mubel he follows the counting of the makubalim and the mukbalim which is a third opinion don't count either hashemss they start from kale and that's why in the Mikail Kamoka that's number one. So the correlations may vary from shittita to shittita. Uh but the the ramach uh is following the order. It's interesting. We call it the order of the but obviously it's not just the order of the because the ra was before the but the order of the mubal that you start from kale. Okay. So the yudimos are extremely extremely uh important. So I want to mention just a few how oras and the give me this. We're not going to go over every single one. What's the difference between Rah and right? Those are good questions. But let's take the first two Hashems. So the first two Hashems. So remember the Rambam's whole argument is we don't count the first one because that just goes Hashem called. And yet Raben Tam says we do count the first two. We count the first one as well. And he brings a very excellent proof. His proof is from an explicit garra in mas rashashana. Now the gmorra in rashana does not explain all theos but it gives you explanations of a select few and among the explanations is the hashem. Why are there two hashems meaning they're both the garra says why are there two of them? So the garra has a dr the garra says when I say hashem I mean yb the name of mercy. So it says, "I am Hashem who shows you mercy before you sin and I am the Hashem that shows you mercy after you sin and you do cha." So both of them are mid of but the first mid of ismad the second mid of raim is that's what the gammorrah says so the gmorrah is a very strong proof that the hashem hashem are counted as two mid of the question then becomes why do I need why is that even necessary? So there are two answers that are given. The rush answers that Hashem knows the future. So if Hashem knows you're going to do sins, he might as well take you out now. So wasn't there a I think there was a movie I remember years ago uh where they somehow could predict uh future crimes that where you're being arrested for the crime you're going to commit, you know? uh in next week etc. Uh so Hashem certainly could operate that way. So the mid of he waits until we commit the offense. >> Minority right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Minority right. Right. That thing about uh we're arrested you for the murder that's going to happen in two weeks. Okay. Whatever it will be. So that's what the rush says. The Maharal says a bit of a different answer. He says, you know, even if you're totally pure, you had no demand on God that he give you life. Meaning to say, the fact that he gives you life is raim is mercy. So you could you could accomplish, you can do mitzvah. Now, it's true that the mercy of having life is a bit of an ambivalent mercy. Do you remember the famous Gomorrah that says that for 13 years B Shamay and Basil were debating is it better for man to be created or is it better for man not to be created and the Gomorrah's conclusion is it would have been better had we not been created. Now that we're created we got to make the best of it. So you may you may get the impression oh so God didn't do me any favors. So, but the but the short answer is um of course listen if it would have been better for us not to be created God wouldn't have created us. I I mean what's the what's even the meaning of the statement? God doesn't make mistakes. The answer is God created us because there's a tremendous potential for good. But this is a r a rofful reflection on the fact that we often don't take advantage of the opportunities. So based on our choices maybe we would have been better off not being created. But objectively the upside potential is certainly much much greater and that is the mercy of being given life uh even without before you commit sin. That's of now I'm going to be very very selective. I just want to point out some highlights. Now then you go on with the list and it mentions Hashem is abundance in kindness the and abundant in truth. So the moral asks a very good question. Why is truth a mid of truth if anything means you get what you deserve? Is God gives us beyond what we deserve. So MS seems to be connected to mid. So why? So yes, there is a miden that sometimes operates. We're not denying that. But why would you place it in a listing of the attribute of mercy? So here is what the moral says, but I'm going to explain the moral with a mushel. Uh which the moral doesn't use this mushel, but I I take it from the academic world when I remember the days when I used to mark blue books. Awful job. Okay, so here's the thing. Let's imagine you have a teacher who's a very very demanding grader. So typically students get C's or lower. It's extremely hard to get a good grade with this fellow. Uh but a student works really really really hard and studies and works and works and works and works and is really prepared to do a good job. Most of the other classmates don't bother because they feel it's a foregone conclusion that no matter what they do, they're not going to be successful. Well, for some reason, this professor has an epiphany one day and he decides to be a good guy. So he comes in after a hundred students give him their blue books and he says to them, "You know, I've decided I've been too tough. So I tell you what I'm doing. I'm throwing out all of the blue books. I'm giving everybody an A." Now, here's the thing. 99 out of the hundred students are going to be very, very happy. But the one who really really worked, even though he's getting the same grade that he hoped he would get, he worked to get an A and now he's getting an A. So what is he complaining about? He has his A, but his efforts are not being acknowledged. They're not being appreciated. He is just lumped into everybody else. And a person wants to crave a certain recognition for the work they put in, for the sacrifices they put in. So here the moral says going back to the moral this is a very nice God often not always but God often judges us with such a degree of mercy in which he gives us breaks that we don't deserve. Now let's say you're a person who deserves the break. Now God might have had the attitude I'm not going to bother to examine you because I've decided to have mercy. So I'm going to I'm not going to look. But that hurts the person who worked. So em means the following. God will treat the undeserving with. But for those who earned it, he will treat them with truth. Meaning he'll read your blue book. He'll look at your life and somehow when you get your reward, it will not be the same type of thing as everybody else who is getting the reward of you will get the reward based on em. And that is a different type of feeling. Again the analogy to the blue book. your God will not ignore your posit positive attributes even if God is judging without regard to how positive people people behave. So the moral says that is a great mid of because God will be troubled whatever that means to examine your good deeds even though it's not necessary for the final great but he will acknowledge the work and the sacrifice that you've done. Okay. Now let's then go on to the last meter number 13. Number 13 the way again the with Tom not the Rambam is n God will cleanse you. So the Garan Rashashana does ask Aasha that it says God will cleanse you and then it says lo he will not cleanse you even though we don't read that but that's in the P. Now if you remember just a few moments ago the Rambam himself gave an answer to that by aish that the word has different meanings in the two phrases. The first v is he will cleanse you and purify you. The second low is he will not destroy you. Right? So that's how the Rambam understands understands it. But once again the Talmud gives a different answer. The Talmud raises it as a question. God cleanses me. God doesn't cleanse me. Which is it? That's what the Rama had his answer. But the gives a different answer. The Gumar's answer is it all depends on you. If you do chuva, he cleanses you. If you don't do chuva, he does not cleanse you. And that would explain why we don't read read the last one because the last one is not a mid of according to this because that simply says without chuba you don't get forgiveness. Okay. Now Maral asks a turns out therefore that mida 13 the last one is making the same point as mida number two. The second hashem right the first hashem is I am the god of mercy before you sin. The second Hashem is I am the God of mercy after you sin and do chuva. Now if number 13 says God will exonerate and purify you if you do chuva v right like rebain of time is number 13. Then how is it different than the second hashem of mida number two which is also acknowledging the power of chuva. So here the maral gives an ingenious answer which will also not comport with the as we practice it but this is his his idea. He says there are two types of chuva a person can do. One type of chuva is a total life transformation. I have sins. I wasn't keeping chabas. I wasn't keeping kosher. I wasn't doing mitzvos. And I've decided to turn my life around and become a different person. that might be called the chuva of a total transformation. But sometimes there is what you might call only a peacemeal partial chuva in which you're not really disengaged from things. I mean this in fact this may be something that most of us face a person who does chuva and lashhara. Okay. So you do chuva and lashara but we continue to occasionally speak it. We continue to do things wrong. uh or a person might do chuva on some aotro and not on other a let's say a person decides they're not going to smoke they don't keep shabas but they decided they're not going to smoke on chabas anymore and they do chuva on not smoking but they still will turn on their computer or you know there's a phenomenon have you heard of this phenomenon it's very very sad it's sounds a little funny but it is actually very sad it's called half Shabas. I don't know if they still use the expression. Apparently, uh, teenagers in the New York, New Jersey area who are from modern Orthodox homes and they go to, you know, Jewish high schools, you know, probably coet high schools, but they go to them. So, they are shabbat. They do keep Shabas. But not texting on Shabas is just too too difficult. So, they keep everything on Shabas except texting. they will text on shabas and uh when they're asked if they keep shabas they the expression this is an expression is I keep half shabas uh again it's very very again it's very very sad I mean it's sad on a lot of levels it's sad because of shabas and it's sad because of the addiction I mean listen I I had rabam who were very very very heavy smokers and they did not smoke on chabas and you know you you don't do Okay. Uh so let's say a person does cha on things but they have these a they still do. So the moral says the following the first or the second hashem I am the god of mercy when you do chuva means even that's referring to the chuva of total transformation. When you totally turn your life around I will accept your chuva. But the midote I then ascend in greater and greater mercy. So the last mida is I will accept your chuba even if it's partial and defective. And listen to how the mar interprets the gor right the gmorrah says that's the gor. So I translated that to mean different people. God will exonerate the one who does chuva. God will not exonerate the one who doesn't do chuva. Says the maral. No, no, no, no. It's talking about the same guy. And the way you translate it is, I will cleanse you from what you did chuva for even though you will not be cleansed from what you didn't do chuva for. It's not two different people. It's the recognition of partial chuva as still counting. And therefore the moral says that even though we start the mida count from mida number one, the first hashem, the 13th mida is vo. See this is different than the ram. According to the ram's count, vake is number 12. Lo yak is number 13. according to the moral n is number 13. Yeah. So and moral tak says therefore when we recite the yimos we should end with the words. So it's the same at least the ending the ending is the same as the ram but not for the ram's reason. Maral does start from the first hashem but he considers the 13th mita to be vin partial chua. Now some say this may be the explanation of two metaphors for chuva that are you water water metaphors of chuva that are used in the cra. One is I will sprinkle upon you waters of purification and you will be purified. Now that is a metaphor for divine forgiveness but it's borrowing from par aduma because paraduma you mix the ashes with spring water and it's sprinkled upon you and it purifies you. God says I will throw that water over you. Again that's a metaphor. Now there's another mash from yah. We actually read it last week of Torah. Mikvah is hashem. Now the standard translation of mikvah Israel although it's unusual is that mikvah and tikvah are the same. Meaning God is the hope of Israel. Mikvah Israel but are made on the fact that a mikvah normally means a collection of water mikvah. So it says just as a mikvah purifies those who are impure who is our mikvah and if we do chuva he purifies us. So according to this we have two different metaphors of water. We have the water of the parah and we have the mikvah. So some of foreim say the moral I I don't think makes this connection but it fits the moral very very nicely. What is the difference between mikvah and parad mikvah requires total immersion. Even if there's one hair above the water it's invalid. I mean that's why we have a balanet that's why I have a mikvah because everything has to has to be under parad on the other hand you're not drenched with water. drops are sprinkled and even if one drop one drop hits you that's enough to purify you. So once again, mikvah is the deeper chuva of total life transformation and that's the highest level of chuva to be sure. But even in inferior chuva where only a little bit is changed a little bit is changed that's already enough to give you a level of purity. And the moral says that's the difference between the second hashem which is total shuva and the last that and this is an important lesson because sometimes a person feels I'm not ready to be a shabas let's say so you're telling me not to smoke or to smoke only in the bathroom there's alo all sorts of levels here you know what use is that what's the use I'm a shabas I don't keep this the short answer is as says there is no such thing in spirituality that is so small and insignificant that it doesn't count. So if you're going to go to the movies Friday night, you're a college student, make kdish before you go to the movies. Don't have the attitude, what's the use of my making kdish? I'm going to go to the movies. The answer is because you made kdish. Aos don't cancel out mitzvah. That's an important thing to know. We don't basically say, oh, you have 10 mitzvah, 10 aos, you're down to zero. The raam writes, these are separate calculations. No, there's accountability for aos, but the mitzvah that you do are mitzvah. never say because I do some things wrong I shouldn't do other things right and this is a this is actually an approach to a lot of things this is an approach to intermarriage this is an approach to gay marriage obviously uh we're not in favor of gay marriage of course but just because somebody has a gay marriage also doesn't mean they shouldn't make kidish Friday night uh and put on fill in what does one have to do with the other they they tell they tell the story about the vill that's interesting you know the vill when he was younger uh would wander from place to place. He felt anonymously he felt this would be a capora etc. And there's all sorts of stories of him solving famous mathematical problems whatever it was but he was incognito and at various points in those days in Europe you really needed I mean even to go from city to city you needed papers you needed identification you needed all sorts of things you didn't you didn't have the normal mobility even within a country that we assume that you know you have today so there were a number of times he was thrown in jail he didn't have the right identification so one of the stories was he was thrown in in prison and his cellmate was a big burly Jew who was there for murder which is unusual. Jews generally specialize in white collar crime uh not not so much not so much crimes of violence but this was a violent a violent Jew. So they bring water uh there um to the to the prison cell and the villagon is using the water to wash his hands for to eat bread and he notices this guy is not washing his hands and uh he's just eating the bread. So the vil nagon says to him you know before you eat bread you have to do your diet. So the guy starts laughing. The guy shows the villag his gigantic burly hand says, "These hands break necks and strangle people. You're telling me that God cares if I pour water on them before I eat bread?" And the villagon says, "What does one have to do with the other?" Says, "Yeah, for murder, you'll get you'll be accountable for that. But do you think that pes you from the t? you still got a dut mitzvah you can do. He said that don't think that my sins are so great that my mitzvah don't count. And that's an important lesson and the moral gets that from these the second mida versus the 13th mida and the idea of the chuva and I'm adding the chuva of mikvah versus the chuva of being sprinkled with paradum. Right? So that's what I wanted to mention about the yudi mumidos. Now I want to mention something that may absolutely shock you and it shocked the Rambam as well and that is the Rambam was asked about a certain custom uh that the Shabbat after the Shabas after in after Torah reading there was a special that the would recite with Hashem's name uh thanking God for the gift of bridal virginity. Uh now let me explain a little bit about this is a braiden. Uh God had planted a nut in Ghana and the nut remained intact until the right time for it to be opened. Blessed is Hashem who preserves the holiness of Israel. Now this may sound utterly outlandish but indeed there is a background to this braha and that is it's not in the gumar. There is no such braha in the garra. thanking God that your wife is a virgin. Uh but uh it is brought down in the Bah. The Bah we've mentioned before, Bal Hilos Gadolos Hiloskadolos was one of the first cif that was um written after the Gomorrah and the actual author of the hill. So the safer is not called bahag the safer is called gdelot and the author is called the balot gdelot and it's abbreviated bahag and bahag is a very very well recognized authority toos uh quotes the bahag very very often the rash many many now in truth the actual author of the bahag is somewhat it may be anonymous there are two possibilities One is a man called Rebi Shimon Cayara. The other is Rebi Yu Doyon. They they seem to be the two candidates for it. And you remember we did talk about the Bahag a few weeks ago when we were talking about counting the 613 mitzvah. The Bahag is the first one who attempted to enumerate the 613. And the Rambam didn't like that listing and uh the Rambam wrote the whole safer mitzvat to kind of give you a different way of counting the mitzvah. That was the bahag. Now in hilos um marriage in the bahag he actually writes that after a person marries a virgin and determines that there is blood on the sheets from the bleeding of theman he should recite the bra with hashem's name goes who planted a nut in ganed and that nut was preserved that nut was not cracked until such time blessed is Hashem who preserves the holiness of Amis. Now the bahag does not say to do it publicly very very true but the bahag does make such a braha or at least I don't I don't know if he created it but he he says there is such a a braha and optimally the bahag says it should be recited over a cup of wine you make brigen and you also smellim and you say and you make the go now after the first consummation of the marriage assuming the wife is is in fact a virgin. Now at some point and it's not clear how and this is called birkaspulum the blessing over virginity at some point and this is not from the bahag itself at some point this morphed into a public ceremony where the shabbat after the wedding the katan after he was called to the Torah just like you make borani a go he would make the birkulim in a minion uh and people would answer would answer. So the Rambam was asked without reference to the Bahad per se probably because of the Rambam was asked what he thought about this custom. So the Rambam made two interesting points. First of all the Rambam saysly since such a braha is not in the Talmud you're not allowed to say it. It is a bra of and you are taking God's name in vain. And that makes no difference if it's public or private. The Rambam simply says don't make brahos that I made up later. I think I mentioned last week and I will mention in later shore that the Rambam was against the gonic innovations in Brahos. You don't add brahos. But the second point he makes is doing it publicly is a total total violation of properneas proper decorum proper der and any person with theat shamayim and refinement would not even think of making such a brah. So these are two different points. The first point question the braha even privately and the second point was shalom how could this be made a public a public declaration. So uh so lisa what's interesting is so the rahama basically said no such braha god forbid don't say it nevertheless at the end of the day uh this braha not publicly not publicly but privately is actually brought down in the in some say it with hashem's name some say it without hashem's name but at the same time commentaries bring down that the marshall and other great postkin not not to say it I I believe the prevailing custom is that it is not said uh but you know that might be from ignorance I'm not sure but but uh as far as I know I don't recall any teachers uh telling uh their talent to say such a braha but it's interesting that in Alexandria and in Cairo the minute was to do it publicly which is quite quite quite astounding and the Rambam says god forbid that's a behavior that cannot be countenance okay you all have a wonderful week and we'll see you