Adhering to the Masorah

A Jew lives with a sense of history. History is a source, perhaps the primary source of emuna. For that reason the Torah accentuates Zecher l'Yetzias Mitzrayim somewhere so much and for that reason a Jew lives with a sense of history. He does so for another reason as well, and that's because a Jew lives with masorah, a Jew lives according to masorah. We have one masorah which goes back to Moshe Rabbeinu on Har Sinai and we have another masorah that's even more ancient, a masorah that goes back to the Avos, that goes back to the Bris Bein Habesarim, to the Bris Avos. So I wanted to just talk a little bit tonight in, I apologize, a rather random fashion, not as systematically as the topic deserves, but just for literally a few minutes tonight and then maybe בלי נדר בעזרת השם at some point we'll come back a little bit more systematically. We think of masorah as it were as a Jewish concept, and obviously that is true as Jews we're uniquely molded by masorah. But according to Chazal, masorah is not only a gezeiras hakasuv as it were, it's something which is a davar muskal. You're all familiar Rashi in Parshas Re'eh, in the parsha of meisis u'meidi'a, quotes the Sifrei. The posuk says כי יסיתך אחיך בן אמך and he tries to persuade you to incite you to be over avoda zara and the posuk includes אשר לא ידעת אתה ואבותיך. So Rashi quotes the Sifrei and comments and says

דבר זה גנאי גדול הוא לך שאף האומות אין מניחין מה שמסרו להם אבותיהם.

It's a natural instinct that a person looks to masorah for guidance and that masorah shapes and molds a person's behavior, a person's outlook. And masorah, just to state the obvious, one can't leapfrog and connect up with משה קבל תורה מסיני leapfrogging over all the intervening generations. The connection that we have to masorah is משה קבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע ויהושע לזקנים down to our generation. Maybe just to mention randomly a few marei mekomos to illustrate and concretize a little bit what we're talking about. The Rambam very famously in perek yud of Hilchos Shemitta v'Yovel talks me'inyana d'yoma, calculates when the Shemitta year should be according to the way he understands the inyana. Tells you which year this is, I think one of the main sources, maybe the main source when we know when the Rambam was writing Mishneh Torah because he tells you so according to this cheshbon, so this year is Shemitta. In halachos gimmel daled, he tells you, makes a calculation when Shemitta is, and then he says

אבל כל הגאונים אמרו שמסורת היא בידיהם איש מפי איש שלא מנו באותן השבעים שנה שבין חורבן בית ראשון לבניין בית שני אלא שמטות בלבד בלא יובל.

That they didn't count Yovel during that 70-year interregnum. between Bayis Rishon and Bayis Sheni, they only counted the cycles of shmita, but they didn't they didn't count the fiftieth year as a non-shmita cycle year. vechen mishecharev ba'achrona, and after Churban Bayis Sheni the same thing. לא מנו שנת חמישים אלא שבע שבע בלבד. V'shnas hashmita, the Rambam continues, ידועה היא ומפורסמת אצל הגאונים ואנשי ארץ ישראל. And on this, the Rambam concludes, I'm skipping around here. And on this, the Rambam concludes:

אנו סומכים וכפי חשבון זה אנו מורים לעניין מעשרות ושביעית והשמטת כספים,

like the Gaonim against me, says the Rambam,

שהקבלה והמעשה עמודים גדולים בהוראה ובהן ראוי להיתלות. שהקבלה והמעשה עמודים גדולים בהוראה ובהן ראוי להיתלות.

And in this context it means בין לחומרא ובין לקולא, right? Which year is shmita is l'chomra and is l'kula. The other year is not shmita. This year is shmita. Another מראה מקום עניינא דיומא, I couldn't find it now to look it up, but I think it's the first teshuva in the שו"ת רב בצלאל אשכנזי where he talks about the status of peiros nochri in the during shmita year. And says that in very... you'll take a look, I think I think please check that I'm that I'm referencing it accurately. Going back to the Beis Yosef that that one is not supposed to... he's not talking about the heter mechira, he's talking about peiros nochri, he's not talking about that just to avoid the confusion. Peiros nochri without without the the mechira before shevi'is year. It was an Arab-owned Arab-owned field. That there's no kedushas shevi'is and and that you and that you're not supposed to be machmir. You're not supposed to be machmir. And and the whole teshuva is written against those who are who are coming lehachmir b'mokom that the established practice is lehakel. I think Rav Moshe has a somewhere in Igros Moshe, I think there's a teshuva, I think it was about I think he was asked about corn. That someone asked him what's the status of corn, maybe it's maybe is it a shaila of chametz or something. And Rav Moshe responds very very forcefully and says we have a kabbala what the chameishes haminim are and and you can't question kabbala. We live off of our mesoros. Again, בין לחומרא ובין לקולא. In his essay Vayo'anes al HaTefila, so the Rov poses the question, he he writes as follows:

ההזדקקות לאלקים בשיח ותחנונים נראתה בעיני חכמי המסורה כפעולה נועזת והרפתקנית.

Davening appears to be something presumptuous. Seems to be a chutzpah.

איך יכול האדם בן תמותה שהיום הוא כאן ומחר בקבר לגשת אל מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא.

So what what drissas ha'regel, what what entry does a a mortal have in in in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu? So the Rov says that there there were three answers, there were three responses, three pushbacks to that as it were philosophical challenge to the appropriateness of tefilla. The second one is is relevant to us.

רבותינו התירו את התפילה לא רק משום העובדה כי אי אפשר לו לאדם להתקיים בלי תפילה אלא גם מחמת נימוק אחר יש לכך תקדים היסטורי. אנו מוצאים כי האבות משה רבנו והנביאים התנפלו לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא בתחינה שוחחו עמו כאשר ידבר איש אל רעהו גילו לפניו את מצפוני לבם והטריחוהו כביכול להזדקק לצרכיהם טענו וגם תבעו אם כן יכולים אנו לסמוך על מנהגם של אבות האומה שניגשו אל האלקים והתרפקו עליו. העובדה ההיסטורית לא ניתנה לסילוף, תפילה היא מוסד ישן נושן ביהדות.

Now obviously this this topic is a very very broad and and nuanced one and and where we're skimming the the surface but it's crucial to to understand that that we have a masora which is thousands of years old and it's a masora which which guides us, it's a masora how to behave, it's a masora how to think, it's a masora how to approach Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's a masora to be cherished and it's also a masora to be preserved and transmitted with a tremendous sense of responsibility and kovid rosh. Rabbi Taub was telling me he he read the following read the following story. The Wurzburger Rav, he was a contemporary of רב שמשון רפאל הירש. Like רב שמשון רפאל הירש, very active in trying to fight and counter reform in Germany and again kayaduah they they were the two sort of leaders of different approaches in terms of how to try to how to counteract reform in Germany. So he was Rav Bamberger, he was Rav in Wurzburg. So Rav Shmuel Salant, the Rav of Yerushalayim, spent Shabbos there. So the Wurzburger Rav used to wear, the reform rabbis in Germany picked up from the galochim, they used to wear robes like the galochim do. So the Wurzburger Rav used to wear used to wear robe like the reform rabbis did, go one step further like. Then also in his shul the bima wasn't in the middle, it was towards the front. That had the same same links in the chain how that happened. So Rav Shmuel Salant is there. The Wurzburger Rav was a very very big talmid chacham. Shmuel Salant is there then doesn't say anything, he's there for Shabbos. So Rav Bamberger says to him, maybe maybe Rav Salant has some questions he wants to ask me? Any questions? No, no questions. It's a wonderful Shabbos, enjoyed it very much. He says to him, no, you must you must you must have some questions. No, I don't have any questions. He says well I want to tell you something anyway. He says mistama he says you noticed the way I dress on Shabbos, mistama you noticed where where the bima was in shul. So I just want to tell you what the background to that is. I thought about it and I thought that I could have more of the hashpa'ah on the ba'alei batim in the community to prevent the spread of reform if if I would do this. So first of all I went to my Rosh Yeshiva and I asked them is it an eis la'asos, does he agree with this hora'as sha'ah for the eis la'asos? And and he was maskim. And then I fasted for three days before I did it. He was a Jew had a sense of masora. So avada avada chachmei hamasora it's part of the job to know how to implement the masora in different times and places and and that's part of the nuances that we haven't touched on, it's part of the much broader discussion and and picture. But the point is it has to begin with a cherdat kodesh, it has to begin with with with cherishing, with with realizing that masora guides how we act, how we think, how we approach Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And when something phenomenologically seems to break with a masora, so the kovid rosh with which it has to be entertained and the hachra'ah has to be submitted to the. to giants of the generation is something which a person will naturally recognize if he has a sense of masorah. Unfortunately, the sense of masorah today is not always what it should be. Once a certain aberration, once a certain break with a masorah is introduced into a handful of shuls, so it becomes משה קיבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ל fill in the blank, and elu ve-elu, it's a minhag like this, it's a minhag like that, and then everyone decides with which minhag they want to align themselves. First of all, he was mevatel himself, he himself was an adam gadol, he was mevatel himself to his Rebbe and then he fasted for three days out of the pachad that he had because he knew he was changing something. Again, only as a hora'at sha'ah, he wasn't saying that this is right le-dorot. As a hora'at sha'ah, and even that was

במורא בזיע ברתת ובאימה. תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב.

Moshe commanded the Torah to us. It's an inheritance for Klal Yisrael. Itachen that there's an additional level of meaning as well. I think the Rav used to call attention to the line in the Rambam's hakdama to the Yad Hachazaka where the Rambam writes when he's beginning tracing the shalsheles hakabala, how Moshe Rabbeinu מוסר תורה ליהושע וצוהו עליה. And it's clear that the Rambam is quoting from the pasuk in Parshas Pinchas where Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu וצויתה אתו לעיניהם. And it's clear that ve-tzivisa is in the sense, I think the English word we would use is to give someone a charge. Right, you give someone a charge, it means you're entrusting them with a mission. And that ve-tzivahu aleha means that Moshe Rabbeinu said to Yehoshua, it's your job, you're going to be the, the chacham hamasorah of the next generation. And ve-tzivahu aleha, וצויתה אתו לעיניהם, the way Rashi of course learns differently pshat in the pasuk. But the way the Rambam learns pshat in the pasuk is that Moshe Rabbeinu charged Yehoshua with transmission of the masorah. So on one level, the masorah is transmitted by the elite few who are chachmei hamasorah. But on another level, all of us participate in that transmission of the masorah. And יתכן לפי דרכו של הרמב"ם תורה צוה לנו משה means not only that Moshe Rabbeinu commanded us the Torah, but he charged us with the Torah. He entrusted us with the Torah, he charged us with the Torah, gave us a charge to, again, not just to observe, but to transmit, to preserve as well and to transmit. And that's a sacred, sacred trust, and it requires an appreciation for what that trust is and then a devotion to maintain and to live up to that trust.