Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Bava Basra 39

Bava Basra 39 contains some well needed clarification of the concept of macha'a - protest. Since the commencement of the perek (Chezkas Habatim) the gemara has laid out disputes about whether macha'a must be done in person, the length of time one can occupy and work the field (without macha'a) before having a chazaka of adverse possession and what percentage of the field must be worked in order to justify the chazaka.

On the bottom of Bava Basra 38b (spilling over to the top of 39a) the gemara begins a discussion of how the protest is lodged. It must be done in front of witnesses, but there is a dispute as to whether the macha'a is effective if the witnesses either say that they will not inform the occupant of the field or are instructed not to inform the occupant of the field that there has been a macha'a. At the root of the dispute is the use of the doctrine of chavreich chavra ees beh - literally translated as your friend has a friend. As applied, this means that although these witnesses may not have contact (either by instruction or otherwise) with the occupant of the field, they will tell their friends who will tell others, until the protest reaches the occupant. [Kind of reminds me of that old commercial - they told two friends and they told two friends and they told two friends - my wife Sarah tells me that was a commercial for Pert shampoo.]

Towards the bottom of 39a, the gemara mentions a dispute as to whether R' Yochanan held that the macha'a must be in front of two or three witness. Initially, the gemara attempts to link this machlokes to the position of Raba Bar Rav Huna that anything said in front of three is not embarrassing talk (lishna bisha). The Rashbam explains (what at the time is the position attributed to) R' Chiya Bar Abba as stating that only two is required because the protest will become well known and there will be no danger of lashon hara.

I found this interesting as whether the protest is said before one, two or three, I would not have thought that one making the protest that someone stole his property has committed the aveira of lashon hara. Assuming the statement to be true (otherwise it would be surely motzi shem ra) the protester must be loud and clear that he is protesting the occupancy or he stands to lose his property.

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Erev Yom Kippur Thoughts on Teshuva a/k/a The Second Half of the Drasha

On Thursday night/Friday early morning, I summarized half of the this year's Rabbi Frand Teshuva Drasha. As I was unable to finish before my head dropped, I am continuing the summary in this motzei shabbos post. Same rules as always apply - I have attempted to reproduce these thoughts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand. [Ed Note - Blogger's spell check still was not working, so please excuse typos which I missed].

Rabbi Frand then quoted R' Shimshon Pincus who said that shabbos is an exceptional mitzva. Other mitzvos require an affirmative act in order to be mikayaim them - such as shofar which must be listened to or a lulav which must be waved, or learning torah. Shabbos does not require affirmative steps as Hashem brings it to us and gives us this holy present. Our only requirement is to appreciate the shabbos and prepare for its coming. Rabbi Frand indicated that this actually requires no additional steps - just a cognizance of the purpose of one's actions. The mother may already be peeling the potatoes or sauteeing the onions, the husband and children may be cleaning the house - they just need to realize that they are doing it to make shabbos special.

Rabbi Frand then mentioned a Mrs Ariella Jaffe from Highland Park, New Jersey who has started a program where the house is ready for shabbos by chatzos (midday) on Friday. She explained that her kids used to dread the coming of shabbos as she heard one of her children say - oy tonight is shabbos. She spoke with her daughter and saw through her eyes the scrambling and tension that went into the weekly Friday rush to get ready for shabbos. Now, when the kids come home from school they can relax as the afternoon gets on towards shabbos. Additionally, during the week as the food is prepared for shabbos, the kids might ask - is that dish for tonight or for shabbos. Knowing the great aromas from the week are from food which will be eaten on shabbos heightens their anticipation and appreciation of shabbos.

Rabbi Frand then said to the men that they are not off the hook in the preparation of shabbos. While they may not have the time to cook or even shop for shabbos, there are actions they can take to improve shabbos. Suggestions included: getting a dvar torah ready for the shabbos table (try Kosher Beers on Thursday nights after 11 PM for a summary of that week's Rabbi Frand vort), buying a special game to be played on shabbos with the kids (ours is Simpsons' Life), looking up a medrash in a sefer or listening to music for better zmiros.

Rabbi Frand then mentioned that he had been at a levaya (funeral) for Abe Shmel (unsure on the spelling) who recently passed away in his 90s. When Mr. Shmel came to America he did not have the time to learn Torah in a yeshiva and at the age of 11 he became an apprentice in a bakery. Every Friday morning he would go to work at the wee hours to make the challah for shabbos and as a result he would not have time to prepare a dvar torah. But he always made certain to sing zmiros with energy and fervor. As a result he has left children and grandchildren who are shomrei mitzvos.

Rabbi Frand then quoted a vort from the Or HaChaim Hakadosh on "v'shamru bnei yisrael es hashabbos...l'dorosam bris olam" He said that v'shamru does not mean guard. He connected it with the line about Yosef and his brothers where it is written in Vayeshev - "v'aviv shamar es hadavar" - Yaakov knew what was transpiring. If you watch out for shabbos and have an awareness and desire for it, you can insure your children will be bnei and bnos torah as it will be a bris olam.

Rabbi Frand quoted from R' Mattisyahu Solomon's new sefer (I did not catch the name) that we are living in dangerous time for raising children. How do we protect them --- show them a proper shabbos. He quoted a gemara that said that anyone who keeps shabbos properly, even if he worships idols like the generation of Enosh, Hashem will forgive him. The Taz asks - how do we understand this? If the person did not do teshuva, how is he forgiven and if he did do teshuva, than that is the cause of the forgiveness! He answered that worshipping idols caused a permanent stain on a person's neshama. However, by properly keeping shabbos along with doing teshuva the stain can be erased.

Rabbi Frand then told a story from the book "the Lilac Bush" by Mrs Judith Cohen Mandel Novak. She grew up in a town in Hungary where her father was the Rabbi and his father before him had been the Rabbi. She recalled the wonderful zmiros at her family's shabbos table as she sat and sang with her many sisters. When the Nazis invaded Hungary, she and her family were deported to a concentration camp. She was the only member of her family to survive. After the war, she and some others from her town decided to take a train back to see what was left. While on the train they were all conversing and becoming increasingly bitter about the trip. They decided that when they got to the town they would go and stone the shul because they were angry at Hashem and this was His house. Mrs Mandel picked up a stone and was about to throw it, when she had a flashback to her parents' shabbos table. She realized that if she threw the stone, she could never have another shabbos like that again. She put the stone down.

I apologize again for not being able to complete this post on Thursday night, because the closing of the drasha was quite powerful. Rabbi Frand said that as we enter Shabbos Shuva we can fix our shabbos and our souls by deciding that this shabbos will be different. The next shabbos is the first day of Sukkos and we can welcome the shabbos warmly in our sukkah. The following shabbos is Shemini Atzeres and we can also incorporate shabbos and yom tov. By that time we will already be three shabboses into our new cycle, building towards our next Yom Kippur.

Gmar Tov.

Thusday's Thoughts on the Teshuva Drasha

The following is a brief summary of part of Rabbi Frand's Teshuva Drasha which was broadcast this week. I have attempted to reproduce these thoughts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand. [Ed Note - Blogger's spell check was not working, so please excuse typos which I missed].

Rabbi Frand began by talking about recidivism -- that people may do teshuva and then slip back later. Later, when we start the teshuva process anew, we will get a little voice saying why bother starting teshuva if by sukkos we will already be backsliding.

Rabbi Frand then gave a suggestion as to how to be able to keep our teshuva - start keeping shabbos. But wait, aren't we shomrei shabbos and how will this help since it has not stopped us from backsliding. Also - what is the connection between shabbos and teshuva?

Rabbi Frand then told a story about a friend who was involved in five car accidents over a period of time. The insurance company wanted to drop them from the policy. The insurance agent then said to the company - four of the five were not their fault don't drop them. The insurance company said that they had "bad karma."

The people then went to Rabbi Weinberg and asked about the accidents. He decided that the accidents must be a form of skeela - a punishment. Rabbi Weinberg asked about the goings on in the house. He was told that erev shabbos they were running around until the last minute. Rabbi Weinberg said it must be for chillul shabbos. Not that they were violating shabbos, but the running around and accepting shabbos at the last moment was problematic. Rabbi Weinberg told them to accept shabbos 1/2 hour early and to sit and learn during the time. The accidents stopped. The insurance agent asked to have them reinstated as the problem had been "a religious issue." The company agreed.

Rabbi Frand then mentioned a Gemara in Shabbos where R' Yochanan says that if the Jews keep two shabbosim k'hilchasan the moshiach will come. However, the Talmud Yerushalmi on Taanis contains a statement from R' Levi - if the Jews keep one shabbos k'tikna the moshiach would come.

How can we reconcile the two statements? The Gemara in Shabbos says keep the shabbos according to the halachos of what can or cannot be done for two weeks and the moshiach will come. But if (like the Yerushalmi) we keep a perfect shabbos - it will only take one shabbos.

In sefer Beraishis the chumash tells the story of Kayin's punishment for killing hevel. Hashem tells him na v'nad you will be banished but with a sign, and then Kayin leaves Hashem. The Medrash says that on the way out, Kayin bumps into Adam. Adam asks where are you coming from? Kayin answers that he had just spoken with Hashem and had done teshuva and I made a deal with Hashem. Adam hits his forehead and says I did not know that teshuva had this power. Adam then went and wrote the perek of Tehilim - Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbas.

Rabbi Frand then asked three questions about this medrash: (1) did Adam not know about teshuva? (2) How does one make a deal with Hashem and (3) What is the connection with shabbos?

The Nesivos Shalom (Slonover Rav) explains that Kayin was afraid for his soul - that Hashem was banishing him into the physical world - what will happen to my neshoma? When Kayin asks - everyone who finds me will kill me - he means that his soul will be vulnerable from all the physical temptations of this world. Hashem answers - I will give you a lifeline - and He gives Kayin an Os (sign).

The Medrash Tanchuma notes that something else is an Os - Shabbos is an Os for the Jews showing their bond with Hashem. The shabbos Os will be what can save your soul from the world, Kayin is told. Adam knew about teshuva, but he did not realize that it had the strength to fix the soul. This was the deal cut between Kayin and Hashem -- that he had to survive the week and its temptations and then shabbos would come and fix his soul.

Rabbi Frand mentioned that we all have a neshoma which came from the kisei HaKavod. Now, our souls are in this world - the land of the physical. But we have the shabbos which can fix the damage caused by this world.

Rabbi Frand then said that perhaps this is what the gemara meant by saying that shabbos was equal to all the mitzvos. Indeed a different gemara states that Hashem said to Moshe I have a present in My treasure house and shabbos is its name. Go and tell the Jews the power of shabbos.

Rabbi Frand then told a story about a woman in Irvine, California. She attended the small shul where a colleague of Rabbi Frand's was the Rabbi. This woman was a true giyores who had even studied in Israel. She would come every shabbos afternoon to the shalosh seudos in the shul and when they got to the line in the yedid nefesh song - "my soul is sick for your love" the woman would cry. Why? Because her soul knew that in a matter of half an hour it would be forced to reenter the physical world. Thus she wanted the soul to be healed by shabbos, as the next line in the song is kel na refa na lah - she wanted her soul to be healed as well.

Rabbi Frand then told a story from R' Soloveichik's prior teshuva derasha. The Rav said that in his town in Europe there was Mojitz shteeble where they would sing songs for long periods of time at shalosh seudos. The Rav recalls that someone used to sing long and loud and fervently. The man then approached the Rav and asked him do you recognize me? The man said to the Rav - I am Yankel the Trugger (Porter). The Rav explained that he did not recognize him as all week long he was Yankel the Porter, but now he looked like Yankel the Prince. The Rav asked once, at a time well after shabbos was over - when will we daven maariv? Yankel responded - do you really want the week that badly?

Rabbi Frand then made reference to the old movie theatres where they would start the movie with a newsreel. In 1933 they showed a news reel which included the wedding of the daughter of the Munkatcher Rav. The footage showed the pagentry and elegance and included a message from the Rebbi, given to the Jews of America. He told them keep the shabbos - and not just to go regularly to shul and then out to work. This will keep you safe.

Rabbi Frand then said that although he is a misnaged and has been in a litvish yeshiva for 45 years and puts on tefillin with a bracha on chol hamoed and eats gebruchtz, he is jealous of the way chasidim keep shabbos. He made specific references to those in New Square in NY or Belz in Israel. And while we don't need to be like them in order to keep shabbos properly, all that we can do we should do, so that our souls will be in better shape before next Yom Kippur.

How do we improve our shabbos - its knowing that shabbos is more than just sleeping, eating and praying. They have a program for ba'alei teshuva - "turn Friday Night into Shabbos." We need a program "turn Shabbos into Shabbos." The problem is that shabbos comes every week so we take it for granted.

Rabbi Frand then told a story from a Rabbi Bender. (Rabbi Frand stated parenthetically that he was jealous of Rabbi Bender and Rabbi Wein who always meet people while travelling and hear interesting stories. Rabbi Frand said he has been travelling a lot recently, but no stories other than someone telling him he was wearing a "heck of a big hat"). Rabbi Bender was travelling on a plane and was learning. A Roman Catholic from Topeka, Kansas came over to talk to him and asked - Do you have shabbos? Where the wife dresses in her finest clothes and and the best dishes are served and singing abounds? Why did he ask? Because this man had seen a shabbos by a neighbor and wanted to know if others had one like that as well.

So how does one fix their shabbos? If you want to do a better mitzva you need to learn about it and prepare for it. This can include coming to shul a little early, not talking about week day type things on shabbos, not reading chol publications, not saying "if it weren't shabbos..." and not davening at the first minyan which rushes to end shabbos the earliest.

I will b'n attempt to summarize more of the derasha in another post over the next few days.

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Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Bava Basra 32

Bava Basra 32 continues the discussion of R' Nachman's position that a beis din can reverse its prior holding. As part of this discussion, the gemara mentions a dispute between R' Elazar and R' Shimon Ben Gamliel in relation to a person who was a kohen and then his lineage was questioned. Subsequently, one witness came and said that he was of proper descent, but then two witnesses came and testified that he was a ben gerusha or ben chalutza. Later, another witness came and testified that the kohen was of proper lineage. R' Elazar took the position that we do not restore the kohen to his position, while R' Shimon Ben Gamliel ruled that he is restored.

The gemara then attempted to explain the dispute between R' Elazar and R' Shimon Ben Gamliel as dependent on whether we are concerned that beis din will be damaged as appearing to be flip flopping. R' Elazar would thus rule that since there are already two witnesses who have testified that the man is of tainted lineage we will not accept a later arriving single witness, while R' Shimon Ben Gamliel is unconcerned with the image of Beis Din.

The concern about the image of Beis Din and the kiddush/chillul hashem possibly created by the act of changing a ruling reminded of a story Rabbi Frand told in his pre-Rosh Hashanah shiur last week. Rabbi Frand mentioned that he had been invited to speak at a learning camp in the mountains where his son was a rebbi. Rabbi Frand then mentioned a story he had been told about the camp.

Originally, the camp had wanted to open on a property in a different part of the mountains. When they inquired about the property, they were told that they would need a variance in order to open. When they applied for the variance, the town set the matter down for a public hearing. Once news of the hearing got out, so many residents of the Town wanted to speak that they decided to hold the hearing in the school auditorium.

The hanhala of the camp related that when they arrived at the meeting they were the only ones not wearing tattoos. The meeting started and each speaker got up and stated their disapproval for the camp as it would bring traffic, parties, loud noise and drinking.

Finally, the director got his opportunity to speak. He first passed out a schedule to the audience and explained the program - the day would begin with prayers followed by talmud study, meals, some sports and more talmud study with later prayers. When he was done speaking, the audience all rose to clap. The town official who was chairing the meeting then said that his son was married to a Jewish girl and their child was Jewish. The official said that he hoped one day his grandchild could attend the camp "wherever it will be located."

Although the Rabbi had walked into a hostile situation where he was clearly not wanted and was unsuccessful in changing their minds as to whether they wanted a camp, he had created a kiddush hashem and this is all we can ask for.

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Monday's Special Edition - Belated Thoughts on Rosh Hashanah

Due to some family and life commitments last week, I was unable to post a vort from Rabbi Frand's Thursday Night shiur. With apologies to you sports fans, I would like to summarize a few thoughts from last Thursday's pre-Rosh Hashanah shiur. Same rules as the usual Thursday post apply - I have attempted to reproduce the vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

One of the points discussed in the shiur dealt with the portion of the selichos entitled machnisei rachamim. R' Frand quoted the Halichos Shlomo (R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach) who asks - who is the tefillah said to? The tefillah gives an appearance of davening to the angels, yet it is prohibited to pray to angels.

R' Shlomo Zalman answered that people need to understand that they are not praying to the angel. Much like when a person goes to pray at the grave of a tzaddik -- we do not pray to the tzaddik, we pray that he goes before the kissei hakavod to ask for us. Similarly, in machnisei rachamim we ask the angels to do their jobs - each angel has a job designated by Hashem, some of which are to be the ones who carry our tefillos before Hashem. The purpose of the tefillah is to ask the angels to do their jobs and carry our prayers to Hashem.

R' Shlomo Zalman then quoted a Magen Avraham on Shulchan Aruch 61:7 that a person who is praying shmoneh esrei by himself - does he finish shmoneh esreh with "oseh shalom ..v'imru amen?" Who is there that should answer amen. The Magen Avraham answers that everyone has angels who watch over him and they are the ones that should answer amen. Thus you are saying to the angels - do your job and say amen.

Another example is the Shalom Aleichem prayer which is said Friday Night - how do we say Barchuni L'Shalom - do we ask the angels for berachos? R' Shlomo Zalman answers that we say to the angels - you who are appointed by Hashem to give berachos - do your job. This can also be seen from the language of the Shalom Aleichem - they are first malachei hashares and later malachei hashalom. The famous ma'amar chazal says - when the angels first come in they look to see if the house is in order, if it is, then the angels give a beracha. Here the angels have come in and are acting in the capacity of malachei hashares. We then say to the angels, now that you have come in and see that things are in order - do your job and give us the beracha Hashem asked you to give.

Rabbi Frand said a number of other vorts which I unfortunately don't have time to summarize here. I hope to detail some of them on other occasions. But I did want to repeat at least one other vort said about the end of the year. The gemara in Megillah notes that Ezra had set up that we always read the klallos in Bechukosai before Shavuous and those in Ki Savo before the end of the year. The gemara explains that this way the klallos will end with the year - the new year will not start with a mention of klallos.

R' Frand then menitoned that people now say to each other at the end of the year - tichleh shana v'kililoseha - let the year end with its curses. R' Shlomo Zalman was not happy with this since in saying this, the person is kafoi tov - rejecting the goodness, since there were certainly good things in the year. Furthermore, R' Shlomo Zalman had problems with the people who printed the phrase in calendars - since this is printed before the year is up and one could be deemed as opening their mouth to the Satan.

R' Frand then quoted the Tollner Rebbi (my b-i-l Doni would be proud) that the word tichlech is that the kilallos should have a tachlis - there should be a purpose in the klallos.

R' Frand then mentioned that the past year had more than its share of klallos starting with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and many other events which created the current economic crisis and with it quite a few chilluilei Hashem. R' Frand then said that to counter act this, one must go out of his way to make a kiddush hashem and that the opportunities to do this can be found in many places in one's daily life. R' Frand even gave the example of getting off a flight and giving up a thumbs up to the pilot and saying good flight. When R' Frand does this in his obvious Orthodox Jewish garb - he makes a kiddush Hashem, even though the person receiving the thanks does not even know him.

We too have many opportunities in our daily life to make a kiddush Hashem and it is up to us to do our best to make the klallos a tachlis and a purpose which can be corrected in the new year.

Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Bava Basra 25

Bava Basra 25 is one of those dapim which make you wish that you had more time to learn. Its chock full of interesting aggadita which could really be developed if you had a few weeks. I would like to discuss a few brief points in this post.

As a tangent on the discussion of where a person could build a tannery without having its pungent aromas overwhelm the town, the gemara discussed the direction one should face when praying.

R' Yehoshua Ben Levi in applying/interpreting R' Akiva's statement about the location of a tannery said that we should be thankful to the anshei kinesses ha'gedolah who set the location to face when praying as west - since the Shechinah is there.

The gemara then brought numerous opinions that the Shechinah is everywhere, before reciting that R' Sheshes (who was blind) asked his servant to face him in any direction except east because the minim had taught that one should face east.

Tosafos (d'h Lechol) asks the obvious question - what about the gemara in berachos which recites that we should daven facing Yerushalayim? Tosafos answers that these amora'im hold like R' Yishmael that the Shechinah is everywhere, while the ones which say to face west hold like R' Akiva, and only R' Chanina holds like the gemara in Berachos that one should pray facing Yerushalayim.

I can't resist a daf which laughs at you (to use a term coined by R' Daniel H and myself when we were learning daf yomi while I was still in law school). The bottom of Bava Basra 25 contains a ma'amar of R' Yehuda in the name of Rav about a pasuk in Ha'azinu (32:2) which is used as a proof (according to Rashi d'h Ya'arof) that Moshe compared the Torah to the four winds. Just as the world cannot continue without the winds, the world could not exist without Torah. The concepts are truly deep and I will leave it to the reader to attempt to understand the meaning beneath the attributes of each wind mentioned by R' Yehuda.

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