Yeshiva of Newark Podcast
Bracha at the Men's Mikvah Erev Yom Kippur -The Sochatchover explains Saadia Gaon
you're listening to the Yeshiva of New York at IDT podcast. I'm your host and curator of my a problem people leverage, and I hope you enjoy this episode by 40 years is to go to the McFonnair and get it. It's brought in Shokonara, it's brought in Aloha. There's probably been a resistance to going to the McFon. I don't want to deal with this from a sociology perspective. I really want to talk about it from this Saka Loha, this Chubha from the great from Bornstein, the Abneh Nayser, the Reba of Sakhachov, and really one of the most important place given of the last 150 years. And a great Reba, the son-law of Rachamendel of Kotsk. But before we get into the Chubha, it is something that I think has quite a bit of relevance. The fact that so many people go to the McFonnair on Irif and Kipper, people want to go early, they want to know what time to go, they want to go before the beginning is 30. I had my own situation based on this, what we're going to be talking about today, which was the humra of how you have to get ready for that McFonnair. So this is not what the question of the Chubha is about, but it's relevant to it. We know when a woman goes to the McFonnair, she needs to get rid of all the Kotsitsas that are possible on her body. And that includes anything in her teeth. And as you know, when women go to the McFonnair, it's standard procedure for them to do a good flossing of their teeth before they go in. And if we know from a dental standpoint, people who don't floss regularly and only decide to floss once in a while, they're probably going to have quite a bit of the vestiges of the peridentitis and the blood, which will happen. And it's only when you get used to flossing continuously, can you keep your teeth the way they are? But if someone tells you to floss and you haven't been flossing at all, something urgent could happen, which is what happened to me 40 years ago, almost 40 years ago in Yom Kippur, Erwin Kippur. The reason was, is because I was learning the subject of this Chubha. Not the Abneh laser of Rambornstein's take on it, but the Chipha Ababir Shalayim. He was talking about the issue of the opinion of Rapsajjigo that we're going to talk about that says that when you go to the McFonnair of Yom Kippur, you make a Brahma, a man makes a Brahma. He makes the Brahma, a share condition of sub-bitzivano, a la tavila. That is going to the McFonnair. Now, where does he make the Brahma, does he make it? Before he steps in the McFon, does he make it when he's in the water? That's really a separate question about making a Brahma in a state of being undressed. But the point is you do make a Brahma according to Rapsajjigo said you should make a Brahma when you go to the McFonnair of Yom Kippur. Now, this opinion was attacked. We're going to talk about the attack in a couple of minutes. But I remember when I was 40 years ago, when I was learning about the subject, that Ratsipasak Frank explained that the, according to Rapsajjigo, who was the king, in a sense, he was the one who saved Judaism. He was the person who was able to save, they came, and he became the rashivah of the gonam. They brought him in from Mitzrayam, from Egypt, what we call Egypt today. And he had, he fought down the detractors and the cynics, and he was able to write an important commentary and translation of all Tanakh in Arabic. And of course, he also, of course, was the famous philosopher of the Mes videos. He was really a superstar. In many ways, the rambam and others have overshadowed him, but people who know better of Sajjigo and realize how important he was. And his sock was, "Go to the McFonnair of Yom Kippur make a Brahma." So this way, Rapsajjigo wasn't easy. He had a tremendous reputation. And his opinion was important. Rapsipasak Frank said, "It's clear that Rapsajjus feels that going to the McFonnair on air of Yom Kippur for a man is the same thing, and we'll see why in a couple of minutes, when a woman has to go to the McFonnair." So here I was, freshly married. It was 1982, almost 40 years ago. And I said, "I'm going to be Machpit on the humra of going to the McFonnair, just like a woman will go to the McFonnair. I'm going air of Yom Kippur now to the McFonnair. And I'm going, and I'm going to be Machmair. And I'm going to floss my teeth, which now I do all the time. But in those days, it was something very new for me to do. My teeth were a lot younger, but there was some issues that I obviously had. So I flossed my teeth very, very well before I went to the McFonnair. And I felt very, very, very positive that I had fulfilled. I didn't make a brotha, though, because, you know, but she says, "Well, you know, it isn't the brotha's only indicator how important going to the McF is, that the same way a woman can only be taught her for her man, if she goes to the McFonnair, and she has to make sure that her body really was cleansed by the water. A man needs to do that on air of Yom Kippur as well." So I took all those precautions, and I flossed my teeth well, as well as I knew how to do. During Yom Kippur, however, as I, you know, this was in Mexico City. During Yom Kippur, I started feeling like at night something's wrong here. I'm feeling a lot of pain where I had flossed my teeth. Incredible amount of pain, in fact. I couldn't sleep the whole Yom Kippur night. I was rolling, rolling in pain. The next day I went to the rabbi of the the minion where I was stopping again in Mexico City. And I told him about this intense pain, and he mentioned to me about a dentist who actually was part of the mispottlem, who had an office in his, in his house, which was right near the shore. So I ended up going to this, this man left the shore. He took me up to the office, and he sat me in the chair, and he took a look, he touched with his, with his Yom Kippur dominant here. He was, when everybody's dominating, I'm sitting in a dentist's chair. And basically, he's telling me, this pain, you basically, you hit with the, with your floss, you touched this nerve here. And this was, this is probably a root canal that was waiting to happen anyway, when you pushed it through your flossing. And that's what's going on here. Okay, so I got to, what can you do? Well, he says, we're not going to do anything on Yom Kippur about this. But the rub of the shul said that if I was in such pain, that I would be allowed to get a shot in my mouth of, of, of, of some sort of Novakay. So they shot me through of Novakay, and I was able to somehow make it through, till after Yom Kippur. And all because I wanted to be Makhmir, this way, and I ended up spending, instead of having a, you know, a wonderful Yom Kippur meal, and then, enjoying myself after Yom Kippur and feeling great, I ended up, of course, going in for my first of many root canal surgeries, emergency done, on Lixa Yom Kippur. So this topic has a lot of significance to me. Let's say you put it that way. The topic of how much you have to be Makhmir, I'm going to the Makhmir of Yom Kippur. And what is the humra of Rafsad Jigam? This is the topic of the, of a rumborn sign, also deals with. Now, it's quoted, of course, in the tour, and the tour writes that Rafsad Jigam says, "Bali lassom nulid vohirafjim kupurmovarakh watsvila." So it sounds like, as you're weaving the mikvah, in other words, as you're still in the water, make the brachah, because now I guess, you know, you shouldn't make the brachah beforehand, just like a lady, maybe you make the brachah while you're in the water. Of course, if I don't eat all the arrosh, my, the, the, the tour's father, the rush writes, Ain't the bar of Nirim Bizet. It doesn't make sense to make a brachah. It's no better than another mitzvah that we have coming up this month, which is taking the arrova. We know that there's a minag, the VM, to take an arrova on the seventh day of Sukhus, what we call Hoshan Araba. In fact, that's a nickname for the arrova, sometimes called the Hoshanah. That's sometimes the, the nickname for the arrova in Khazal's mind. So Hoshan Araba is the big day of taking the arrova and shaking it and beating it. There's no brachah, the grachah, the grachah says. Why not? Well, the grachah says it's a minag. Even though it's a minag, then the VM thought was a good thing to do. They said it's just a minag to do. Now, in the, we're not talking about necessarily the Bizet mikvah, we're talking about taking an arrova everywhere, just that we take an arrova. So the grach says, in fact, you pick it up, some people say you hit the arrova on the ground, you pick it up, you hold it, but no brachah. Why? The grachah says it's only a minag, you don't make a brachah on a minag. So the grach says, I understand it's a beautiful minag, go to the mikvah, but don't make a brachah. It's a minag. Let's go to the mikvah, Arif and Kippur, we're about to, Yom Kippur, we're going to talk to God, we're going to be able to, should be Tahar. Now, let me explain something here. We're not really Tahar completely, right? Because the Grishanam have already established that we're all tummy to my space. We all, in a sensually, live in a world that we've come into contact with people who are dead, and people who have touched people that are dead have come to come into contact with us, and we don't have the paraduma to make ourselves Tahar. But as we know, there is perhaps a shame Tahara from that other reality, that sort of like the polar, both the cousin of death, which is the cousin of death is, in a way, semen and sex, meaning there's either, either people have had sex to create life or to keep their life going. And that, of course, means that with ejaculation comes Zera. And Zera, if you're if you're about Kerry, if you're Motsi Zera, you become about Kerry. Or let's say, it wasn't through sex, it was just what we call a nocturnally mission. Okay, I love that term, an nocturnally mission. Anyway, one of the great euphemistic, Tomyotic euphemisms that you hear all the time, about an at an nocturnally mission, and therefore, he becomes a bell Kerry. Somehow, you know, they say, I guess if you say nocturnal, it sounds like a little more scientific. Anyway, the point is, or as you know, or as they said, or as kids used to say, you know, you had a wet dream. The point is, in any of those situations where there was an ejaculation, you're Tomy. What way? You're called about Kerry, and you go to the Mikla in order to somehow take off that tuma in a sense. We know that even in the time of Ezra for many hundreds of years, this was a takana that you weren't allowed to, and again, there's a question of how it developed. I don't want to get to all the details now where it started and how it continued, but eventually became a situation where people that had been involved in sexual activity of any sort of ejaculation type of situation, they were not able to learn or dive in before they went to the Mikla. That, of course, was the mission of Grojas, and other places throughout Shoss. And it makes sense to perhaps establish some sort of minag for Yim Kippur. Yim Kippur, at least, you go back in a way, and you want to be on a higher level, and therefore you go to the Mikva, the Altareb in his Shoshanar says that, obviously, when you go into that Mikva or Yim Kippur, part of what you should think about is that you're meeting God, and part of it is the fact that you want to re-become a new person, but part of it is what you should go in. That's why you go three times, is you dunk yourself the third time and say, "This way, I'm free of carry, at least, in a certain sense, for too much carry, and therefore, I want to be able to now go and dive in." Okay. That's the reason why people were doing it. It's a minag. It's a nice minag, but you don't make a brokhana minag. So the Soshanar, or the Amnesia, says, but that's not the only person who says it. It's not just Rashad, you go, "Uh-oh." Let me do that. Let me take that back. Ah! He says, "Piseifr tanya rabbossi kosiblevarik." So I found other Rishonim, who say, the Soshanar says, that you should also make a brokh. Now, the point I'm trying to make here is that, first of all, all right, it's not just Rashad you go and who has this strange opinion, the Soshanar says. I found it in other Rishonim as well. Later, even then, the Rush. So they seem to think making a brokh is a positive thing, and you should make a brokhana. Over Yish of Koshazar, so how do we answer the Rush? The Rush has, seems to have a good question, you make a brokhana minag. There's another place where we make a brokhana minag, and that is Hallel on Rishkodish. Now, if you dive in in a sparti shul, a shul of spartan, they will not make a brokhana for Rishkodish, because you don't really say, you know, it's only a minag to say Hallel. The Gamara says that it was a minag that started in Babylonian boville. There was a significance of what Rishkodish is about to say Hallel. I mean, think about why would you say Hallel on Rishkodish, right? What happens on Rishkodish? Oh, we've got to be Mahalo, all right? The moon always comes in the right place, right? We don't say Hallel on a phenomenon that are just naturally, right? But anyway, the minag did develop whatever the idea behind it was, but it was only a minag to say Hallel on Rishkodish. Still, we know that Ashkenazi make a brokhana. Why? So Tosufus in Suka deals with this question. Why it's become our custom and our sock to make a brokhana on Rishkodish, Hallel. Even though based on the Gamara in Suka about the Arava, there is no brokhana. So Tosuf says, Shiny Arava, the Natilaba Alma, an Arava, taking an Arava without the idea of what the rabbis came up with. Outside of the Beisamikdosh, there was no idea of putting that Arava anywhere, there's no Miss Beyach. Without this minag developed, the act of picking up an Arava, picking up what we call the Hadasen, it's just an act of picking something up. If it wouldn't be what the minag invested in it, the act itself had no significance. Outside of the Beisamikdosh, the act of picking up an Arava or taking it and using it in part of your job, it means zero. Okay, so they invented this minag. We don't make a brokhana. You want to follow the minag fine. Don't say, God, you commanded us to follow it. God's probably happy that you have nice customs. But you don't invoke God's name and say, this is what made us special, and we're making a brokhana. Mashaan came Halil. Right, Halil perhaps logically doesn't necessarily jive with rich footage. But somehow, the minag and bubble was, we want to celebrate the moon, we want to celebrate not the moon, but we want to celebrate the fact that the calendar keeps on going. The fact is that Jewish people testified to that. There's something sublime. Okay, that's the idea behind it. That's not enough to make a brokhana, Zetoshu says. What you can make a brokhah is, is because they elevated something that in itself was not just a nice thing, but a mitzvah in itself. What mitzvah was that? Well, you're learning. You're Cory Bitora. Waving a willow is nothing. But saying the words that Deborah Melach made, put into to him, is a mitzvah of Lima Natura. It's reading the Torah. You're reading things that are not just divinely inspired, you're reading part of the Torah in the Vietnamese soup. It's all part of God's Torah. So, even though it's true, you made brokhana Torah in the morning. But at least this act is objectively a mitzvah without the rabbis, without the custom people coming and saying, "Oh, please, it's a nice custom to do." So, the act itself, again, is significant and is a mitzvah act. The minag is not what made it a mitzvah act. Okay, that is what Tostus explains why Ashkenazim, who we follow. People who are Ashkenazim follow this make a brokhana. And the reason is, even though they're going to make a brokhana minag, this is a minag that strengthens a mitzvah. Now, it's the mitzvah of studying the words of Teilben, the mitzvah of studying Ta-da. By the way, Rishwamazim and Arabakh, and I mention this all the time. It's one of my favorite things to say when we talk about Teilben. When we say Teilben, somebody's ill, or whatever it is, Rishwamazim says, "It's the study of the Teilben that's important." To just say words of Teilben, did you don't know what they mean? That's not what could really save the person you're saying to Him before. The whole Teilben is meant to be studied. It's meant to be learned with your heart, of course. It's not the same thing as dissecting a chuva and ribous or a difficult question about shatnas or something like that. But it's about learning. And since it's about learning, you should always seek Teilben whenever you say it as an adventure in learning the idea that you're talking about, that the words are talking about and knowing what the public means and analyze it. Therefore, how well is definitely like you're studying Torah in a way, or speaking Torah and understanding Torah of what you're saying, so therefore you can make a Brakhon. So the Anasar now says, well, that could be what Rifsadya Gom believes is true by Teilah's carry. Now, why? What was this minag that Ezra came up with to make sure that even though you're still Tommy Tuma's mace and from some other reason, and I'm going to make you Torah. But because, generally, let's say, if you touch, let's say another type of Tuma, Tuma Sheritz. So Tuma, a dead, dead Sheritz, you come back with dead Sheritz, you're now Tommy. So you go to the mikvah that night, and as you go to the mikvah during the afternoon, and by night you become Torah. The very first Mishman Brakhos talks about how you become Torah at night after going to the mikvah in the late afternoon. Going to the mikvah during the day after you had, after you ejaculated is not going to, is not going to make you Torah anyway. And even if there would be no Tuma's mace around, you would still have to wait till the evening. This was a way to get it into your brain that you're about to study Torah, or daven, or pray to God, and going to the mikvah is going to make your learning and davening better. That's what the Gomorrah says. The Gomorrah says that we know that whenever you study Torah, it has to be similar to the way we stood at Mount Sinai, the way we stood at our sea life. And we know we stood at our sea, and of course we'd separated from our wives, and it was scary too. Not only did we go to the bikvah, so to speak, or we weren't involved in any sort of sexual activity, we also were scared because we talked about it, of course, in yesterday's Davening. If you were reading the Brakhos of Shofrot, we talked about Maimid Arsenai, and that's what it was about. Maimid Arsenai was scary. Maimid Arsenai was something that puts you in a great sense of seriousness, and that's the way every time you open up learning and start learning, you should have, as much as it's fun to learn. You should have the sense that you are in a way receiving Torah from God. It's almost like Arsenai again. So just like there was the year of Aressus of Bizia, we're scared, we're shaking and quaking, a person who's had an external emission, a wet dream, who's had sex? There was an involvement in fantasy in his brain that he needs to somehow recalibrate from, because that's what it comes from. If a person is thinking about lepers and thinking about dying constantly, he's probably not going to be having any wet dreams or having ejaculations or having sex. It's because he had to get into a mindset of fantasy and fun, and that, in a way, Ezra saw, and objectively so, is really a contradiction to serious learning. It's called Kaulus Roche. So basically, going to the mikfah itself was not some true Ezra demanded and made it oster. He and his best and made it oster to work Torah unless he went to the mikfah. You couldn't dove unless you went to the mikfah. But the idea in itself was something, just like Hallelujah in itself is the Psukum of Tanach, the idea of going to a mikfah, which we know represents Tahara. That change of your mind will make your learning better. That process, even though it doesn't necessarily make you tar at this moment. But we know what objectively what a mikfah's power is. We know what it's supposed to be doing. We know what that means in your brain when you go in there and you take your clothes off and you go in there, we know that what sort of mindset it puts you in. And therefore, when you learn after that, you will learn it a different way. So the Salkantrupper says that ah, below Takana, Ezra, milsarabosa, even without Ezra's Takana, it will change you. Even if Ezra and his best and they're not turned it into something ironclad, if someone on his own had decided to do that, it's objectively a way to disconnect yourself from the fantasy sex games that you were involved in, or whatever it was, and now you're in a different state of mind. And that is definitely an advantage in your learning, because you're going to little mode be era. You're going to learn now with a fear of God. And as the Psukum says, giluberada. Yes, it's fun to learn, but I'm still shaking because this is extremely serious. This is the word of God. I'm trying to connect to. And that's something that you need to be able to have that, that myth experience, that's what Ezra understood, and everybody understood even before that, was objectively a way to shake the sort of the worst of the cobwebs out of your head. But the fantasy is out of your head, and then now you're ready. So it says, especially when it's talking about Medabra, you're about to speak in front of God when you don't. It's the most important thing in the world. Your children, your Parnossa, you're coming to speak in front of God, because you realize God isn't control, and he can take care of things for you, and he can arrange things, and you know what, what, what, and he knows who you are. So of course, you have to have that seriousness when you speak in front of God. Now, even though it's objectively, it was positive, before Ezra's time, we call him a como, you move to Wilmo below Tvila Gante. Before Ezra came along, it was understood that this is probably a good thing, it made sense. But if you didn't want to do it, of course, you could go and learn and dab, and even without it, your learning would probably be a little bit on the, in a lot of the serious side, the way it should be. So your learning and dabbing would be a better learning and dabbing. The Ezra Tiki and she also Wilmo'd was probably below Tvila. So Ezra made it awesome. But Ezra's, what Ezra did was put, put the power of the Sanhedrin behind something that was already a act that was mitzvil-like. That's what the Soviet Trevor is saying. Now, we know that over a couple hundred years, people tried to accrue to it, they tried to fulfill it and live it. But eventually, after the base of Mictus was destroyed, about 400 years later, after it was probably, it lasted probably about 600 years. So everybody went to the Mictus before they dabbed and then learned. The rabbinical opinion was that we have to cancel this, but to the tibusa, they canceled going to the mikvah. Why? So one reason was, we shouldn't bit till peer of irivia. One reason was, people said boy, then we should have kids. Oh boy, if we have sexual relations, I'm gonna have to run to the victim before I can learn and dabbing. Eh, I've got the headache. So the point was, people saw that there was an effect of this takana. People were not having children the way they should. Another reason was, who bit till tongue of tire. That was on the opposite side. Yet people who said, you know what, look, I guess I can't learn. So they would have sexual relations, but they would basically not learn because I'm not going to go out to the mikvah. So that's like a mile and I got to go wait and then wait for my towel and this. I'm not doing that. So there was a lack of, it was bit till peer of irivia. The people were not learning. So because of that, the rubbing said, all right, we're canceling it. Now, and that's the way it's been. So we can now, Ezra's takana is gone and we can learn and dabbing without going to the mikvah. But onion kipper, it came back. Somehow onion kipper, the minute was, you know, that was a good idea that it was, even before Ezra was good, it was a minute. So you know what the minute is, the minute, if you want to follow the minute, go to the mikvah of him kipper. So again, see the similarity to how well, the same way how well was always a positive thing. Anyway, it was already like a mitzvah. The minag developed in bovel and then it spread to say how well and everybody should be doing it. If you're part of the Babylonian and then the Ashkenazi community, you should be part of it. So everybody started saying how well, Ashkenazi is even stronger. Everybody says how well, first of all, the question is you make a brokha, so you can make a brokha on the minag because the minag is backing up something which was inherently a mitzvah in itself. So that's what happened on air of him kipper. The minag came back to do it on air of him kipper and it was a minag on basically a mitzvah. The minag of the mitzvah of being in a state of a mental clarity and readiness for God. So therefore, the same way we make a brokha on how well, that's for Sadie Gon's reason, he says, from making a brokha on going to the mikvah. Okay, so now this is what happens when you come up with a good idea. Because when you come up with a good idea is what about the people who disagree? Well, the rush disagrees. The rush, as we know, as a tourist says, no, it's different. So what's the difference between how well and going to the mikvah? So he says, so the soccer chubber explains why. He says that kon mitzvah shayna siyos and gamar mitzvah, so anemavarachalal. Now, let's say that you're involved in the mitzvah act, but it's not really finished. For example, we know one of the most beautiful things in the world, one of the most beautiful things in the world is to be able to put your own sitzis on. One of those beautiful things in the world is to be able to put sitzis on your baguette. It's a beautiful thing, a sitzis on your baguette. But you don't make a brokha on that. Even though it says gedeland tasilah, you should put gedeland. You should put these strings onto your clothing. You don't make a brokha on that. Why? So the rush explained, the balayateis was explained, and everybody says the reason why. Because the mitzvah is to wear the baguette. So as you're sitting there, attaching it, you don't make a brokha. I'll see a sitzis, because even though you need to do that act of, you might think, well, I got it put sitzis on there, the mitzvah comes later, the fulfillment of the mitzvah is later. So you don't make a brokha on the making or the attaching of the sitzis. It's only when you actually enclose your, so you actually put the sitzis on your body that you make the brokha. Now, no one's denying that instead it's a beautiful thing to attach the sitzis. But that's not the end of the mitzvah. So you don't make a brokha on something that's only a part thing. You only make a brokha is meant to be followed by a completed act. So going to the mikfas, which is what Raphsad you go and says you should make the brokha, that's only a hahana. It only prepares you for the learning taira that you'll beat but to hire later. So doing this will make your learning much better. But you don't have to make a brokha on that. Okay, so that is his reason to explain the rush. So now he's got, again, once you start, you see, this is this is really the the spiral thinking that flows inevitably that when when it's it's part of the Tomyudek thinking, but but here the the sitzis is inhabiting and using his ideas and now inhabiting both sides. Right. What's the reason why you would make a brokha. Okay, that's it. Okay, so now we're going to save the person, you know, make a brokha. Okay, you know, why? Because nothing's not going to mar mitzvah. Oh, now one second, you know, you always make a brokha, even if it's not a, it's got to be a complete mitzvah itself. What about the reason why you make a brokha when you wash your hands in the morning? Well, it's all in the sitter. I mean, what mitzvah did you do? The mitzvah to wash your hands was a mitzvah before the babanah made before you eat. That's the takanah of the Tila Sidhyam. But the idea that you wash your hands when you wake up in the morning and make on the Tila Sidhyam, why would you make that brokha? And yet everybody makes that brokha. So this was something that was dealt with one by the other one of the other great reshones of the rasbuh. The rasbuh explains why. And the rasbuh says, "what's the reason?" The rasbuh came up with this idea that the idea of why we wash is because a man, a woman, we have service of God that needs to be done. We're not kohannan, but we serve God in so many ways. We've gotten in a way our soul back. And therefore, the same way of kohannan, starting the day in the basamiktosh, washes from the special basin, keor, and now he's ready to do our vodah. It's wrong for him to do its puzzle before he washes his hands. We all have a vodah that we do all day and coming out of sleep. And therefore, we need to wash our hands like a kohannan. Now, if the rasbuh says, "that's the reason why you make a brokha." And everywhere around the world, everybody makes a brokha for the titulism that I am. And one second, Daveneser said, "based on the why we don't make a brokha on citzus, you don't make a brokha on a hensher. You make a brokha on something that's finished. Well, washing your hands in the morning makes your avodah better during the day. Right? Similar to what the reason why Rasagya said, we were talking about why you go to the mikvha on air of him kippur, because it's going, right? Because it's going to make your learning and davening better on him kippur. But it's the learning and davening that's the mitzvah, not the process. So, why is it that we make almighty was he dying? Why is that you make almighty was he dying in the morning then? How will you make the brokha because it's a mitzvah. And you complete the mitzvah when you say the psukha mafala. When you say those psukha, I have now fulfilled the mitzvah of learning this part of the Torah. So, I made a brokha. I made a brokha because there was a minute to say it, and that what the action I was doing was in itself a complete mitzvah. What is the complete mitzvah of going to the mikvitz about what I'm going to do later? Well, what about when you wash in the morning? So, on that he says, comes out and says another caveat of the difference, and this is it. The reason why you wash, you make a brokha when you wash in the morning is because you in order to do a voda, in order to actually do mitzvos, right? Like a cohen, let's say the cohen. The cohen cannot do his avoda in the base of mikdish, whether it's slaughtering or whether it's sprinkling blood or whenever he's doing it. He cannot do that unless he washes his hands. The mitzvah is the sprinkling of the blood, the slaughtering, they're taking the pieces to the mizbeah. But since washing is essential, and he can't take those pieces in the bay before until he watches, so the mitzvah that he does later intellectually and really begins when he does the actions that are necessary to perform them. So, even though it's only, as we say, in Lush and Akodesh, for the mitzvah, but if it's a haksha that's impossible, then you need to do this, and that there's no way to actually go in and serve in the base of mitzvah unless you wash your hands before. And we see ourselves as miniature kohannim every single day, so we would not be able to do anything the same way the kohannim can't do anything unless they wash their hands. The mitzvahs, all the mitzvahs that we are doing during the day in the way, start when we wash our hands. So, that is like an act of a, that's like, that's like a mitzvah in itself. The mitzvah's already started. When it comes to citzahs, it's when you wear it, but you can probably have someone else, you don't have to put the strings on there, someone else can do that as well. So, it's not essential, here's another idea. When you have an act that's inherently, the preparatory act is essential for this to go on, so even the preparatory act gets the identity of the mitzvah that's being done later. And he proves it from a number of gimars that by the cutting of the omer, we know that you're allowed to cut the the barley of the omer. You're allowed to cut the barley of the omer on shabbos, even on shabbos itself. If the second day of peso could be shabbos, and you need it to have the fresh barley in order to offer up on the second day of peso, the cutting of the barley itself is a mitzvah. Even if you have barley that it's already been cut, the katir itself is a mitzvah, the gmara says, which is not the case when it comes to, because you, other things that you have to get ready for a carbon, the sirasa omer is a mitzvah. And even though the mitzvah is really only when you bring the omer, but it starts essentially when you're cutting this because it needs to be freshly cut, you cannot bring it unless you have this freshly cut omer. And therefore, it starts from this moment. So he says here, too, the, the, um, the aboda in a way of every Jew, when he washes his hands in the morning, starts from the moment he, um, he washes his hands in the morning, because it's impossible to, to do a vote without it. So this is a complete act in itself. And that's why you can make a brochaun the tea with your time. But let's go back to the Valcari, the person, our young kid per person, who is going to the mikvah. Why is he going to the mikvah with Talmud Tohar of Attila? Okay. It definitely is possible if he had not been engaged in sexual activity that he wouldn't need it. The mitzvah is the experience of Tohar later. Well, you could, you only need the mikvah to countermand the fantasy ejaculation part that you were into. But if you never had that part, you don't need the mikvah. So it's not like, oh, I can't have Tohar of Attahara unless I go to the mikvah. That's not true. So therefore, even though for you, this guy needs it, but it's not that going to the mikvah is the only way you could ever fulfill the state of Tohar of Tohar of Attahara. He says it's similar to, for example, plowing a field for the sake of the owner. That's not a mikvah. You don't have to plow the field in advance. Like if you know it's going to grow by the time Sukvah pays off comes. Oh, I'm going to plow this field on Shabbos. I need to plow it. You know what? There's no mikvah in the plowing. Katsira needs to be done. But going to the mikvah is only for someone who has that problem. But if you never had that problem or fun or whatever you want to call it, you don't need the mikvah to achieve that state. So therefore, once again, it's not essential in the mitzvah. It's not that the mitzvah of learning Tohar on the level of our sea night of seriousness needs mikvah. So if that's true, once again, the question would be, that would be now the reason why you don't make a brochah on going to the mikvah era of Yum Kippur, because it's only a minag and we don't make a broch on a minag unless it's essential we have mitzvah in itself independently. And that's the reason why the rush disagrees is they're beside you going. But now he's explained it so well, they're beside you going sort of needs to be understood. In fact, the answer needs to be understood, right? Because, you know, as well. So he says that, so he says, wait, the truth is, is that I could probably come up with a reason why you would make a brochah. We know that because why would anybody say you make a brochah on going to the mikvah on air of Yum Kippur? Well, we know, and this is where he's thinking here in a little bit of a different way, we know that you make a brochah on slaughtering an animal. Now, slaughtering an animal is technically, it's not a fulfillment of a mitzvah. If you don't want to eat meat, you don't have to ever slaughter in your life. And yet we make a brochah every ritual slaughter, every showcase makes a brochah. And the reason is, is because we make a brochah on a matir. No, the Torah says it's also to eat meat before Shrieta. And the only way you can eat meat is by slaughtering it ritually in a proper way. Let me say it even better. And if you would not slaughter it in a ritual way and start eating the meat, you'd be considered you would be done in a vahira. You would be eating trafe, you're eating in a vahira. So this is matir. This is what allows you to eat meat. We make brochahs on a matir. Because this is the way this a vahira goes off. The a vahira of eating trafe, eating a dead animal is removed by this process. So what was the original Takanas of Ezra? The Takanas of Ezra was we are making it osser to learn Torah and Daven. That's the first thing they said, because Torah needs to be super serious. It's more than just a good idea. We're going to make it osser. And this is the way you allow yourself your matir by going to the vahira. So you can make the same way you make a brochah on Shrieta. In the time of Ezra, before of Sadhigo, for 600 years, everybody made a brochah before they went to the mikvah. If they were making brochahs at that time, they were making brochahs, even going to the mikvah. Because even though it's the learning later, that's the real fulfillment of the mitzvah, Ezra actually made an isir. And the isir, the kim of the matir, the taking away the isir, is the reason why we make a brochah. But that isir is gone away. Ezra's takana is gone. There's no longer an isir to learn Torah. So that's why the rush says, I don't understand what Sadhigo says. You should make a brochah. I would have made a brochah too in the time of Ezra before. I'm making brochahs on, as we saw before. I will make a brochah on a tearless idayim in the morning. But I'm not, but going to the mikvah, an air of him kip, or even though it's a nice minna, you wouldn't make a broch on it. Because it's not the end, it's not the minna, it has to attach itself to something like hallel. There the rush would say, you make a brochah, like all Ashkenazi posts can say, because that's in itself the complete mitzvah. But here, it's just to learn Torah bema, that's not, the learning Torah comes later. So, what is the reason to recite you now? Why did recid you say you should make a brochah? So he says, recid you must hold that the minnaag was not just, it's a good idea. The minnaag that was instituted, created in Israel. The Yomah kipurim am minna komoshitikan Israel. Komokan am minnaag mitzvios yomah kipurim shalayyah, spawal kipurim shalalbatar but tumaskari. They created a lotase. They created a minnaag, the minna created a lotase. And now, he doesn't go as far as Rapsipasath Frank, who I mentioned in the beginning of the issue. Sfipasath Frank says that when they canceled Ezra, they canceled him from 364 days or 353 days except Yomkipur. I did not see the sakotra of the Rambornstein, the Ammanes are saying that. Maybe he means that I don't see it in the words. Sfipa, and this is what influenced me 40 years ago, was what Rapsipasath wrote, was that the takkondov Ezra was canceled except for Eir of Yomkipur. That's why I felt, oh, it's the takkondov Ezra. I got to be muck on everything because it's Ezra's takkona and Ezra's takkona is viable on Eir of Yomkipur alone. Every other day, it's been canceled but takkona is back with all the issourin that the Ramborn and Greg just like Muqsa in the second day, if you don't have anything else, then you wouldn't think of violating. You have to go to Sfipasath Frank, because you have to go to the Miqvan Eir of Yomkipur because otherwise you can't learn taro, otherwise you can't dauvin because you're a bulkary and you won't be able to dauvin on Yomkipur or learn, and it's also for you to do it unless you do it. He doesn't go that far to say it goes back to Ezra, but he does say that it has the same dynamic as Ezra. A minag that made learning us and he says he has approved to this from another minag of going to the Miqra. We know that according to the Torah, a woman is allowed to have relations with her husband after pregnancy, even though blood is coming out of her body. And it's called Don Tohar. So as you know, it's seven days after seven days for a boy, 14 days for a girl in the beginning of Partra Caesarea. So let's say for a boy, 33 days afterwards, after the first seven, she goes to the Miqva after the seventh day. They have the bris on the eighth day, and even though there might be bleeding going on, that is called Don Tohar, and she's not Tommy, and she could continue to have relations with her husband. I feel like it, but you can. There became a minag, however, to be machmir as far as that goes. All right, there's a minag that's mentioned even in Chazau. It was a minag that women treat it like neither, okay? They treat it like neither. What about, however, after they finished bleeding during that post pregnancy period, would they make a brus on when they went to the Miqva? It's only a minag. Without the minag, they could have had relations with their husbands earlier. Right? In fact, there were women who actually went to the Miqva twice. They went to the Miqva after the first seven or 14 days, and then they go to Miqva again later. Why would they make a brus? When they went to the Miqva, the second time, it's only a minag to treat it like Dom Nida. Why would they make a brus? You don't make a brus on a minag. So I'm so fursessed because the minag made it user to have relations. When the minag is an iser, not just a Hanhaga to do, the minag actually was very encompassing. It said, don't you have relations with your husband while you're still bleeding from the pregnancy, even though according to the Torah, that blood is not considered Nida blood. But once they made that iser, so now, I'm following the tradition. That's the tradition. To call this user. It's user for us to do this. What's the mitzvah, al-Titoshtara simecha? So, the rasadya going understood that the minag that arose on Yom Kippur was, that it would be user to dive in and learn. Before you went to the Miqva since, you had had Tumas Kari. You had had Kari from before. Now, that is the opinion of, now he's explained, how you could have the sma'k locus. What did he do? I don't believe he felt you should make a brokha. However, the saka chubber in a halokha that comes up, of course, in the Gomarun Yuma. Gomar says that if a person sees Kari in one of the last pieces of Gomarun in the Gomarun, the time's of the person having an eternal emission on Yom Kippur. So, what should happen on that? What should you do? So, Enshohanara, quoted by the tour, it says that that we, quoted by the tour and based on the random, that since Tfivas Ezra has become buttled, you don't go to the Miqva on Yom Kippur, because it's also to wash yourself on Yom Kippur. Now, obviously, you can wipe away that area, but you don't put your whole body into the water, because Ezra's Takanah was buttled. Now, the tour and the random both say that it's a time based on the Gomarah, that in the time of Ezra Takanah was still extant, people who had had an eternal emission on Yom Kippur would actually go to the Miqva, because it was also for them to go learn or dive in or be part of the Yom Kippur service unless they went. And that wasn't a violation of the law, you're not supposed to wash yourself on Yom Kippur, because washing was meant just because you want to like enjoy the washing. This is in order for you to be able to learn and dive in. Now, you still might enjoy the water in the Miqva anyway, but that's really secondary. You're not allowed to wash yourself in a way that gives your pleasure, but here, the reason why you go to the Miqva was because otherwise you couldn't learn or gov it. So that's what people did, that people did have an eternal emission Kippur they went. Okay, what about today? What we would do today? Now, if what we're saying is right about Versaigone, then if it was true Erevium Kippur, it's for sure true Erevium Kippur, right? If Ezra, let's say what somebody said before in the name of C. Pessah Frank, that the Takanah of Ezra is still extant on Erevium Kippur. Well, it's for sure, extant on Yom Kippur. If the point was, we want you to be able, we are making it awesome for you to learn and dive in, unless you go to the Miqva. So for sure, if it happens on Yom Kippur, right? Because the whole point was, yeah, so you would be able, based on that, to go to the Miqva on Yom Kippur if this occurs. We know that the Rabbi Rumbornstein, the Sakha Trevor, wrote on the side of his Shoshonara. They found it after he passed away. He wrote the following. He said that even though the Shoshonara says you shouldn't go, you should just wipe it off. He said, he wrote, in the book that Rabbi Noutan wrote called Safer Ayoshar, he actually says, that you are allowed to go. And he said, I found it in another Rishon, the Rokayach. And then he writes in parentheses, there is even a Chuvis Maril, the great Ashkenazi Posek, who writes that it really depends on who you are. If you generally feel like you don't dive in, you can't dive in right, unless you go to the Miqva, you would have a right to go on Yom Kippur. And then he quotes the Mi'iri. Now, you have to realize that this type of encyclopedic knowledge of Rishonim, we expect it from the Chavacchaim, from the Lithuanian world, the Abinezer was similar in that. He loved finding these Rishonim, and he worked on them, he developed it, and then he quoted the Mi'iri as well, which normally was not, normally, the Mi'iri did not make it into a Galah in the same way, but he does quote the Mi'iri, and this is the Mi'iri that he quotes. He just says, the Mi'iri also writes that. The Mi'iri says if a person happens to have an eternal emission on Yom Kippur, and he wants to go to the Miqva, he wants to become Tahar. So, Buddha. So, although the Mi'iri was not known as a world Posek in the same way, the Abinezer quotes him along with his other research to justify going to the Miqva on Yom Kippur itself. And it might be, of course, that, again, I'm sure everybody goes there, Yom Kippur, did he make a broch or not? My sense is, is that, my sense is, is that he didn't. He just, because he explains, he tries to explain to why he would make a broch. But that doesn't mean he disagrees with how significant it is, how important it is, and that the the Mi'nag is extremely strong. And because of that, I guess, whether, you know, through COVID restrictions or not, a new person might be scared. Last year, people were scared about going. I think the idea behind it is the essential one. And that idea is that we need to go through some sort of process, and we have to try to get our brain where it needs to be, because the Davening and learning, it is something that's essentially different. We as human beings are affected by this. We are affected by this change. You know, I'll put it in a very grub way. You know, they say you have to go out to a gym to really work out properly. You could have exercise equipment at home, and I know during COVID, you know, people bought them like crazy. But there's something about going to this place, this place that has a name, the workout room, the health club, the gym, of going there, and involving yourself in this new thing. Yes, that's what I'm about. Leaving your house, or even if it's in your backyard, and going and putting yourself into this place that you know is meant for Tahara, is definitely a way to, for you to come to terms that there's something serious happening. When you're on the treadmill, you realize, yeah, I got to get that weight out of your on the recumbent bike. I got another mile, because you know how essential your health is. I think in the same way a person has to realize that speaking to God, praying to God on your kipper is something that's so different. And there's no question to me that this subject matter is something that is definitely comes out of a Hasidya Shamain said of how important it is to speak and talk to God and what that means. But I think for all of us, Hasidya Karnat, the ideas of doing something physically different and special, should make us, despite the lines and the spite of the waters clear or not, it should make us want to embrace this as a time tested means of achieving some sort of clarity, of thought of, as the Asir says, yes, it's a happy time. But Gila Baroda and the reason why you have that, is just because you heard the cold literary sound. It's also because of what you did beforehand on air of your kipper. Thanks for joining us for another episode from the Ishiva of Newark at IDT podcast. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app, so you don't miss a single episode.