I would like to be begin by talking about the Meraglim to discuss something that is not in the Parsha, something very much missing. The discussion of the Parsha is a discussion of whether Klal Yisroel should go forward and do battle to enter Eretz Yisrael. There is a discussion of the fruits of the land, of the cities of the land, as it says in 13:19 (הַבְּמַחֲנִים, אִם בְּמִבְצָרִים).
Why does a Yid move to Eretz Yisroel? A Yid moves to Eretz Yisroel because of Kedushas Eretz Yisroel, because of Eretz Yisroel being such a unique place on the globe. That seems to be missing from the entire Parsha, the entire discussion. Nobody talks about Kedushas Eretz Yisroel as being the necessity for Klal Yisroel to enter Eretz Yisroel. That which is missing is the biggest Kasha of all.
The Arvei Nachal in this week’s Parsha answers the question but he prefaces it by discussing a Kasha on last week’s Parsha. Last week we learned about Klal Yisrael moving from place to place in the Midbar as it says in 9:20 (עַל-פִּי יְרוָר יַחֲנוּ, וְעַל-פִּי יְרוָר יִסָּעוּ). They took apart the Mishkan and moved and put together the Mishkan again in a new location. The Kasha which is already mentioned in the Gemara is that the Melacha, the 39 Melachos are learned from the Mishkan and the Melacha of Soseir which is taking something apart, destroying the building which is one of the Melachos on Shabbos, is only considered a Melacha if in the language of the Gemara a person is Soseir Al Minas Livnas Mimikomo, someone destroys a building in order to rebuild in its location. The Kasha is that in the Midbar where they took apart the Mishkan they did not take it apart to rebuild it in the same location. Since we learn all Melachos from the building of the Mishkan how could it be that there is a Melacha of destroying. Soseir Al Minas Livnas Mimikomo, destroying in order to rebuild in the same spot, if in fact that never happened in the case of the Mishkan.
Chazal answer that which it says in last week’s Parsha in 9:20 (עַל-פִּי יְרוָר יַחֲנוּ, וְעַל-פִּי יְרוָר יִסָּעוּ). That they actually did take things apart and put them together again in the same place. They were travelling in a desert. Wherever Klal Yisrael encamped was a place of Kedusha, was a place of holiness. The Gemara says that even in Chutz L’aretz (even when one is outside of Eretz Yisrael) in a place that is designated as a place for Davening or Learning, a Bais Hakneses or a Bais Hamedrash, he is considered as if he is in Eretz Yisrael.
It says in Devarim 11:21 (לְמַעַן יִרְבּוּ יְמֵיכֶם, וִימֵי בְנֵיכֶם) that a person has Arichas Yomim if he is in Eretz Yisrael. R’ Yochanan commented as it says in Maseches Berachos 8a (16 lines from the top) (אמרו ליה לר’ יוחנן איכא סבי בבבל תמה ואמר למען ירבו ימיכם וימי בניכם על האדמה כתיב אבל בחוצה לארץ לא כיון דאמרי ליה מקדמי ומחשכי לבי כנישתא אמר היינו דאהני להו כדאמר ר’ יהושע בן לוי לבניה קדימו וחשיכו ועיילו לבי כנישתא כי היכי דתורכו חיי) that there are people who get old in Bavel because of the Beracha of (למען ירבו ימיכם וימי בניכם) because of the blessing of having long days. Because these people are in the Shuls in Chutz L’aretz and when somebody spends time in a Bais Hakneses or a Bais Hamedrash in Chutz L’aretz it is like he is in Eretz Yisroel. Wherever Klal Yisrael encamped in the Midbar they were at a place of Learning. Klal Yisroel learned all day, they were all in Kollel. Moshe Rabbeinu taught them what he had learned at Sinai. Wherever they went was (עַל-פִּי יְרוָר יַחֲנוּ) was a place where there was a little piece of Eretz Yisroel, they took it with them and therefore it was Soseir Al Minas Livnas Mimikomo. They destroyed in order to rebuild in another location but the other location was the same Kedushas Eretz Yisrael location.
Returning now to the Meraglim. In the Parsha of the Meraglim we do not find that they had to go into Eretz Yisrael because of Kedushas Eretz Yisrael. Says the Arvei Nachal, because wherever they were camped in the Midbar wherever they settled they were in a place that had Kedushas Eretz Yisrael. Because the Shuls and the Batei Kenisios and Batei Medrashos and every single location had Kedushas Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, the Miraglim said we are not missing Kedushas Eretz Yisrael. Let us stay here in the Midbar. The discussion centered around practical things, the fruits of the land, the fortified cities, and Kedushas Eretz Yisrael was never an issue.
Obviously this is a tremendous Mussar to those of us who are here in Chutz L’aretz, who are not moving to Eretz Yisroel. We can still have Kedushas Eretz Yisrael when we enter a Bais Hakneses or Bais Hamedrash something we do faithfully. We have to appreciate the Chashivus of it. We all find that it is easier to learn in a Shul or Bais Hamedrash than to learn in one’s home or to learn in one’s place of business. It is not for naught that Chazal say the Bais Hakneses or Bais Hamedrash has Kedushas Eretz Yisroel. It is not just imagination it is real. When you pull yourself away you are tired, you are exhausted, you don’t feel like going to learn, when you get to the Bais Hamedrash the Kedusha there can awaken a person (of course the coffee helps) but the Kedusha there invigorates the person to give him energy to be able to absorb the Kedusha in his learning and his Davening in Shul.
Agav, I will mention, that the same Kasha with which I began in Parshas Shelach is one which disturbs me in Parshas Vayechi. Yaakov Avinu asks to be buried in Eretz Yisrael. Rashi in 47:29 (אל נא תקברני במצרים: סופה להיות עפרה כנים (ומרחשין תחת גופי) ושאין מתי חוצה לארץ חיים אלא בצער גלגול מחילות, ושלא יעשוני מצרים עבודה זרה) gives us 3 reasons because of the 1) Kinim (lice), 2) the Egyptians should not make his body into an Avodah Zora, and 3) so that he not suffer the pain of Micholos of travelling to Eretz Yisrael at the time of Techias Hameisim. Rashi there too seems to be missing the Ikkur reason, the main reason. Why does a Jew wish to be buried in Eretz Yisroel today? Because of Kedushas Eretz Yisrael the holiness of the land as it says in Devarim 32:43 (וְכִפֶּר אַדְמָתוֹ עַמּוֹ). We say that the land of Eretz Yisrael is a Kapparah. It is strange that Rashi doesn’t mention this as one of the reason for Yaakov to be buried in Eretz Yisrael. That is Tzorech Iyun it is a Kasha with which I will leave you.
Let us move on to other points in the Parsha. We learn in this week’s Parsha that the Peiros of Eretz Yisrael were larger than the Peiros of Chutz L’aretz. This is an interesting thing. The Gemara in Maseches Sotah 48a (17 lines from the bottom in the Mishna) says (רשב”ג אומר העיד ר’ יהושע מיום שחרב בהמ”ק אין יום שאין בו קללה ולא ירד הטל לברכה וניטל טעם הפירות) that after the Churban Bais Hamikdash the Tam was removed from the Peirus of Eretz Yisrael. Hatam Nitna L’peirus there is still some taste. But the taste that the fruits of Eretz Yisrael had at the time that the Shechina resided there at the time that there was a Mishkan and a Bais Hamikdash, that was something else. What we remain with is just a shadow of what it once was. We understand this. The Jews are promised entry into Eretz Yisroel to eat as the Posuk says in Devarim 8:8 (אֶרֶץ חִטָּה וּשְׂעֹרָה, וְגֶפֶן וּתְאֵנָה וְרִמּוֹן; אֶרֶץ-זֵית שֶׁמֶן, וּדְבָשׁ). How excited would you be if I told you come with me we can go someplace and eat figs, dates, and pomegranates? We don’t see the great advantage of eating pomegranates, or dates, or figs. We may like them but they don’t stand out to be a promise for which you should want to travel to Eretz Yisroel. Obviously, they once had a greater Kedusha. It may be that that is why the Peiros of Eretz Yisrael are smaller today. Because after the Churban (וניטל טעם הפירות) Hatam Nitlah Mei’hapeiros the quality was taken perhaps the size as well. This would answer why the Shiur of a Kizayis appears from Chazal to be bigger than the olives that we eat today. Many people ridicule that and say eat the size of an olive. It may well be that the Shiur of a Kezayis as measured based on the other methods of measurement that Chazal employ is larger because the olives were larger. As a matter of fact the Gemara in the beginning of Maseches Sukkah 5b (6 lines from the bottom) says (שיעורין דאורייתא נינהו דכתיב ארץ חטה ושעורה וגפן ותאנה ורמון ארץ זית שמן ודבש ואמר רב חנין כל הפסוק הזה לשיעורין נאמר). The fruits are the Shiurim. What does it mean that the fruits are its Shiurim? What do you mean its fruits are the Shiurim? The world has fruits those are the Shiurim. Perhaps its fruits the fruits of Eretz Yisrael when the fruits were indeed larger in the time of the Bais Hamikdash those are the fruits that are Shiurei Eretz Yisrael.
Let us move on. We have in this week’s Parsha the Mitzvah of Challah. I would like to talk about a practical occurrence, a practical Shaila something that comes up regarding Challah. The most common Shaila a Rav has today is when a woman is baking at home, she separates Challah and puts it aside and later finds that the dough that she set aside as Challah has somehow made its way back into the bread, the Challah, the cake that she is baking. What do we do? The woman is Mattir Neder. She revokes her designation of Challah retroactively and the Challah now is not Challah and she separates Challah once again from the food even after it is baked one can still separate Challah.
I saw an extraordinary Chiddush of Rav Chaim Kanievsky in the Derech Emunah Cheilek Bais which is Hilchos Teruma Perek 4:186. There he brings an extraordinary Chiddush B’sheim the Chazon Ish as Halacha L’mayseh. That is in such a situation where a woman or any Shaliach separates Challah, she is actually separating Challah from the dough which is legally the dough of her husband. Her husband in affect makes her a Shaliach to separate the dough. Zogt the Chazon Ish and this is based on earlier sources that the person who has to be Mattir Neder is not the woman it is the man because it was his Shaliach that separated the Challah. Since this is a Chiddush, an issue of question, the Chazon Ish says that they should both be Mattir Neder or the woman should make her husband a Shaliach. The only person who can be a Shaliach for Hatoras Nedarim is a husband for a wife. So then the husband can be Mattir for both of them. This is an extraordinary Chiddush but this is the Psak that is brought there in the footnotes from the Chazon Ish.
Many of you have already come to me and I have been Mattir Neder for the wife alone. I would point out that the Piskei Teshuva in Yore Dai’a 331:6 B’sheim the Chasam Sofer says that it is enough for the woman alone to be Mattir Neder. Nevertheless, when we have the Psak of the Chazon Ish and the Sefer Milo’o Omer which is quoted there, that the husband should be Mattir Neder as well, in the future Bli Neder that will be my practice.
The first question of the week is on the end of the Parsha which is course Parshas Tzitzis. The Tzitzis have 8 Chutin (8 strings). Rashi mysteriously says (פתיל תכלת: על שם שכול בכורות. תרגומו של שכול תכלא. ומכתם היתה בלילה וכן צבע התכלת דומה לצבע רקיע המשחיר לעת ערב. ושמונה חוטים שבה, כנגד שמונה ימים ששהו ישראל משיצאו ממצרים עד שאמרו שירה על הים) that these 8 strings symbolize the 8 days from Yetzias Mitzrayim until Kriyas Yam Suf. The is a Pele Atzuma the splitting of the sea was on the seventh day of Pesach as Rashi himself says in Parshas Beshalach 14:5 (ויגד למלך מצרים: איקטורין שלח עמהם, וכיון שהגיעו לשלשת ימים שקבעו לילך ולשוב וראו שאינן חוזרין למצרים, באו והגידו לפרעה ביום הרביעי. בחמישי ובששי רדפו אחריהם, וליל שביעי ירדו לים, בשחרית אמרו שירה, והוא יום שביעי של פסח, לכן אנו קורין השירה ביום השביעי). There were only 7 days from Yetzias Mitzrayim to the splitting of the Yam Suf inclusive. Therefore, it is Tzorech Iyun Gadol what is Rashi saying (. ושמונה חוטים שבה, כנגד שמונה ימים ששהו ישראל משיצאו ממצרים עד שאמרו שירה על הים). Perhaps somehow the Halacha when you make 8 Chutin and one rips and you are left with just a little bit of the 8th Chut that it is good enough may somehow be connected to the fact that there were 7 days. Somehow a little bit of the 8th day. I don’t know how to make the Cheshbon but this is a Tzorech Iyun on Rashi.
The second question of the week is: There is a Shitta that nowadays that we don’t have Techailes we should not wear Tzitzis at all. That Techailes is M’akeiv Es Halavan. This is the opinion of Rebbi in the Mishna and the Baal Hamor Paskens this way. However, we L’halacha Pasken like the Chachamim and we all wear Lavan we all wear the white Tzitzis despite the fact that we do not have Techailes or at least most of Klal Yisrael for most of its history has not had Techailes. There is a Chumra and there are Machmirim who will not wear Tzitzis out in the street on Shabbos and it is based on the Shitta of the Baal Hamaor. They argue and say according to the Baal Hamoer that Tzitzis must have Techailes and therefore, the white strings would be carrying on Shabbos. It says in Shulchan Aruch that if you have Tzitzis that are Posul, the strings are Posul it is considered carrying when you wear them out in the street and those strings don’t belong there.
They argue the same thing here. If you hold that Techailes is M’akeiv Es Halavan, on Shabbos wearing the Lavan itself would be carrying. Ad Kan Chumra Zu.
I have a Kasha on this for a long time. It is true that when Tzitzis are Posul one is carrying. Nevertheless, even if in Shamayim they Pasken like Rebbi and one needs Techailes, nevertheless wearing 8 strings that are white should not be carrying. This is because carrying is based on what people consider a Tachshit (something that people think belongs on a Beged). Even if it were an erroneous Psak and they hold like the Chachamim nevertheless it cannot be carrying it is no different than any design a person has on a Beged which is the way he intended it to be. Therefore, this Chumra which is well known in Brisk circles in Eretz Yisrael seems to be technically inaccurate.
I would like to be begin by talking about the Meraglim to discuss something that is not in the Parsha, something very much missing. The discussion of the Parsha is a discussion of whether Klal Yisroel should go forward and do battle to enter Eretz Yisrael. There is a discussion of the fruits of the land, of the cities of the land, as it says in 13:19 (הַבְּמַחֲנִים, אִם בְּמִבְצָרִים).
Why does a Yid move to Eretz Yisroel? A Yid moves to Eretz Yisroel because of Kedushas Eretz Yisroel, because of Eretz Yisroel being such a unique place on the globe. That seems to be missing from the entire Parsha, the entire discussion. Nobody talks about Kedushas Eretz Yisroel as being the necessity for Klal Yisroel to enter Eretz Yisroel. That which is missing is the biggest Kasha of all.
The Arvei Nachal in this week’s Parsha answers the question but he prefaces it by discussing a Kasha on last week’s Parsha. Last week we learned about Klal Yisrael moving from place to place in the Midbar as it says in 9:20 (עַל-פִּי יְרוָר יַחֲנוּ, וְעַל-פִּי יְרוָר יִסָּעוּ). They took apart the Mishkan and moved and put together the Mishkan again in a new location. The Kasha which is already mentioned in the Gemara is that the Melacha, the 39 Melachos are learned from the Mishkan and the Melacha of Soseir which is taking something apart, destroying the building which is one of the Melachos on Shabbos, is only considered a Melacha if in the language of the Gemara a person is Soseir Al Minas Livnas Mimikomo, someone destroys a building in order to rebuild in its location. The Kasha is that in the Midbar where they took apart the Mishkan they did not take it apart to rebuild it in the same location. Since we learn all Melachos from the building of the Mishkan how could it be that there is a Melacha of destroying. Soseir Al Minas Livnas Mimikomo, destroying in order to rebuild in the same spot, if in fact that never happened in the case of the Mishkan.
Chazal answer that which it says in last week’s Parsha in 9:20 (עַל-פִּי יְרוָר יַחֲנוּ, וְעַל-פִּי יְרוָר יִסָּעוּ). That they actually did take things apart and put them together again in the same place. They were travelling in a desert. Wherever Klal Yisrael encamped was a place of Kedusha, was a place of holiness. The Gemara says that even in Chutz L’aretz (even when one is outside of Eretz Yisrael) in a place that is designated as a place for Davening or Learning, a Bais Hakneses or a Bais Hamedrash, he is considered as if he is in Eretz Yisrael.
It says in Devarim 11:21 (לְמַעַן יִרְבּוּ יְמֵיכֶם, וִימֵי בְנֵיכֶם) that a person has Arichas Yomim if he is in Eretz Yisrael. R’ Yochanan commented as it says in Maseches Berachos 8a (16 lines from the top) (אמרו ליה לר’ יוחנן איכא סבי בבבל תמה ואמר למען ירבו ימיכם וימי בניכם על האדמה כתיב אבל בחוצה לארץ לא כיון דאמרי ליה מקדמי ומחשכי לבי כנישתא אמר היינו דאהני להו כדאמר ר’ יהושע בן לוי לבניה קדימו וחשיכו ועיילו לבי כנישתא כי היכי דתורכו חיי) that there are people who get old in Bavel because of the Beracha of (למען ירבו ימיכם וימי בניכם) because of the blessing of having long days. Because these people are in the Shuls in Chutz L’aretz and when somebody spends time in a Bais Hakneses or a Bais Hamedrash in Chutz L’aretz it is like he is in Eretz Yisroel. Wherever Klal Yisrael encamped in the Midbar they were at a place of Learning. Klal Yisroel learned all day, they were all in Kollel. Moshe Rabbeinu taught them what he had learned at Sinai. Wherever they went was (עַל-פִּי יְרוָר יַחֲנוּ) was a place where there was a little piece of Eretz Yisroel, they took it with them and therefore it was Soseir Al Minas Livnas Mimikomo. They destroyed in order to rebuild in another location but the other location was the same Kedushas Eretz Yisrael location.
Returning now to the Meraglim. In the Parsha of the Meraglim we do not find that they had to go into Eretz Yisrael because of Kedushas Eretz Yisrael. Says the Arvei Nachal, because wherever they were camped in the Midbar wherever they settled they were in a place that had Kedushas Eretz Yisrael. Because the Shuls and the Batei Kenisios and Batei Medrashos and every single location had Kedushas Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, the Miraglim said we are not missing Kedushas Eretz Yisrael. Let us stay here in the Midbar. The discussion centered around practical things, the fruits of the land, the fortified cities, and Kedushas Eretz Yisrael was never an issue.
Obviously this is a tremendous Mussar to those of us who are here in Chutz L’aretz, who are not moving to Eretz Yisroel. We can still have Kedushas Eretz Yisrael when we enter a Bais Hakneses or Bais Hamedrash something we do faithfully. We have to appreciate the Chashivus of it. We all find that it is easier to learn in a Shul or Bais Hamedrash than to learn in one’s home or to learn in one’s place of business. It is not for naught that Chazal say the Bais Hakneses or Bais Hamedrash has Kedushas Eretz Yisroel. It is not just imagination it is real. When you pull yourself away you are tired, you are exhausted, you don’t feel like going to learn, when you get to the Bais Hamedrash the Kedusha there can awaken a person (of course the coffee helps) but the Kedusha there invigorates the person to give him energy to be able to absorb the Kedusha in his learning and his Davening in Shul.
Agav, I will mention, that the same Kasha with which I began in Parshas Shelach is one which disturbs me in Parshas Vayechi. Yaakov Avinu asks to be buried in Eretz Yisrael. Rashi in 47:29 (אל נא תקברני במצרים: סופה להיות עפרה כנים (ומרחשין תחת גופי) ושאין מתי חוצה לארץ חיים אלא בצער גלגול מחילות, ושלא יעשוני מצרים עבודה זרה) gives us 3 reasons because of the 1) Kinim (lice), 2) the Egyptians should not make his body into an Avodah Zora, and 3) so that he not suffer the pain of Micholos of travelling to Eretz Yisrael at the time of Techias Hameisim. Rashi there too seems to be missing the Ikkur reason, the main reason. Why does a Jew wish to be buried in Eretz Yisroel today? Because of Kedushas Eretz Yisrael the holiness of the land as it says in Devarim 32:43 (וְכִפֶּר אַדְמָתוֹ עַמּוֹ). We say that the land of Eretz Yisrael is a Kapparah. It is strange that Rashi doesn’t mention this as one of the reason for Yaakov to be buried in Eretz Yisrael. That is Tzorech Iyun it is a Kasha with which I will leave you.
Let us move on to other points in the Parsha. We learn in this week’s Parsha that the Peiros of Eretz Yisrael were larger than the Peiros of Chutz L’aretz. This is an interesting thing. The Gemara in Maseches Sotah 48a (17 lines from the bottom in the Mishna) says (רשב”ג אומר העיד ר’ יהושע מיום שחרב בהמ”ק אין יום שאין בו קללה ולא ירד הטל לברכה וניטל טעם הפירות) that after the Churban Bais Hamikdash the Tam was removed from the Peirus of Eretz Yisrael. Hatam Nitna L’peirus there is still some taste. But the taste that the fruits of Eretz Yisrael had at the time that the Shechina resided there at the time that there was a Mishkan and a Bais Hamikdash, that was something else. What we remain with is just a shadow of what it once was. We understand this. The Jews are promised entry into Eretz Yisroel to eat as the Posuk says in Devarim 8:8 (אֶרֶץ חִטָּה וּשְׂעֹרָה, וְגֶפֶן וּתְאֵנָה וְרִמּוֹן; אֶרֶץ-זֵית שֶׁמֶן, וּדְבָשׁ). How excited would you be if I told you come with me we can go someplace and eat figs, dates, and pomegranates? We don’t see the great advantage of eating pomegranates, or dates, or figs. We may like them but they don’t stand out to be a promise for which you should want to travel to Eretz Yisroel. Obviously, they once had a greater Kedusha. It may be that that is why the Peiros of Eretz Yisrael are smaller today. Because after the Churban (וניטל טעם הפירות) Hatam Nitlah Mei’hapeiros the quality was taken perhaps the size as well. This would answer why the Shiur of a Kizayis appears from Chazal to be bigger than the olives that we eat today. Many people ridicule that and say eat the size of an olive. It may well be that the Shiur of a Kezayis as measured based on the other methods of measurement that Chazal employ is larger because the olives were larger. As a matter of fact the Gemara in the beginning of Maseches Sukkah 5b (6 lines from the bottom) says (שיעורין דאורייתא נינהו דכתיב ארץ חטה ושעורה וגפן ותאנה ורמון ארץ זית שמן ודבש ואמר רב חנין כל הפסוק הזה לשיעורין נאמר). The fruits are the Shiurim. What does it mean that the fruits are its Shiurim? What do you mean its fruits are the Shiurim? The world has fruits those are the Shiurim. Perhaps its fruits the fruits of Eretz Yisrael when the fruits were indeed larger in the time of the Bais Hamikdash those are the fruits that are Shiurei Eretz Yisrael.
Let us move on. We have in this week’s Parsha the Mitzvah of Challah. I would like to talk about a practical occurrence, a practical Shaila something that comes up regarding Challah. The most common Shaila a Rav has today is when a woman is baking at home, she separates Challah and puts it aside and later finds that the dough that she set aside as Challah has somehow made its way back into the bread, the Challah, the cake that she is baking. What do we do? The woman is Mattir Neder. She revokes her designation of Challah retroactively and the Challah now is not Challah and she separates Challah once again from the food even after it is baked one can still separate Challah.
I saw an extraordinary Chiddush of Rav Chaim Kanievsky in the Derech Emunah Cheilek Bais which is Hilchos Teruma Perek 4:186. There he brings an extraordinary Chiddush B’sheim the Chazon Ish as Halacha L’mayseh. That is in such a situation where a woman or any Shaliach separates Challah, she is actually separating Challah from the dough which is legally the dough of her husband. Her husband in affect makes her a Shaliach to separate the dough. Zogt the Chazon Ish and this is based on earlier sources that the person who has to be Mattir Neder is not the woman it is the man because it was his Shaliach that separated the Challah. Since this is a Chiddush, an issue of question, the Chazon Ish says that they should both be Mattir Neder or the woman should make her husband a Shaliach. The only person who can be a Shaliach for Hatoras Nedarim is a husband for a wife. So then the husband can be Mattir for both of them. This is an extraordinary Chiddush but this is the Psak that is brought there in the footnotes from the Chazon Ish.
Many of you have already come to me and I have been Mattir Neder for the wife alone. I would point out that the Piskei Teshuva in Yore Dai’a 331:6 B’sheim the Chasam Sofer says that it is enough for the woman alone to be Mattir Neder. Nevertheless, when we have the Psak of the Chazon Ish and the Sefer Milo’o Omer which is quoted there, that the husband should be Mattir Neder as well, in the future Bli Neder that will be my practice.
The first question of the week is on the end of the Parsha which is course Parshas Tzitzis. The Tzitzis have 8 Chutin (8 strings). Rashi mysteriously says (פתיל תכלת: על שם שכול בכורות. תרגומו של שכול תכלא. ומכתם היתה בלילה וכן צבע התכלת דומה לצבע רקיע המשחיר לעת ערב. ושמונה חוטים שבה, כנגד שמונה ימים ששהו ישראל משיצאו ממצרים עד שאמרו שירה על הים) that these 8 strings symbolize the 8 days from Yetzias Mitzrayim until Kriyas Yam Suf. The is a Pele Atzuma the splitting of the sea was on the seventh day of Pesach as Rashi himself says in Parshas Beshalach 14:5 (ויגד למלך מצרים: איקטורין שלח עמהם, וכיון שהגיעו לשלשת ימים שקבעו לילך ולשוב וראו שאינן חוזרין למצרים, באו והגידו לפרעה ביום הרביעי. בחמישי ובששי רדפו אחריהם, וליל שביעי ירדו לים, בשחרית אמרו שירה, והוא יום שביעי של פסח, לכן אנו קורין השירה ביום השביעי). There were only 7 days from Yetzias Mitzrayim to the splitting of the Yam Suf inclusive. Therefore, it is Tzorech Iyun Gadol what is Rashi saying (. ושמונה חוטים שבה, כנגד שמונה ימים ששהו ישראל משיצאו ממצרים עד שאמרו שירה על הים). Perhaps somehow the Halacha when you make 8 Chutin and one rips and you are left with just a little bit of the 8th Chut that it is good enough may somehow be connected to the fact that there were 7 days. Somehow a little bit of the 8th day. I don’t know how to make the Cheshbon but this is a Tzorech Iyun on Rashi.
The second question of the week is: There is a Shitta that nowadays that we don’t have Techailes we should not wear Tzitzis at all. That Techailes is M’akeiv Es Halavan. This is the opinion of Rebbi in the Mishna and the Baal Hamor Paskens this way. However, we L’halacha Pasken like the Chachamim and we all wear Lavan we all wear the white Tzitzis despite the fact that we do not have Techailes or at least most of Klal Yisrael for most of its history has not had Techailes. There is a Chumra and there are Machmirim who will not wear Tzitzis out in the street on Shabbos and it is based on the Shitta of the Baal Hamaor. They argue and say according to the Baal Hamoer that Tzitzis must have Techailes and therefore, the white strings would be carrying on Shabbos. It says in Shulchan Aruch that if you have Tzitzis that are Posul, the strings are Posul it is considered carrying when you wear them out in the street and those strings don’t belong there.
They argue the same thing here. If you hold that Techailes is M’akeiv Es Halavan, on Shabbos wearing the Lavan itself would be carrying. Ad Kan Chumra Zu.
I have a Kasha on this for a long time. It is true that when Tzitzis are Posul one is carrying. Nevertheless, even if in Shamayim they Pasken like Rebbi and one needs Techailes, nevertheless wearing 8 strings that are white should not be carrying. This is because carrying is based on what people consider a Tachshit (something that people think belongs on a Beged). Even if it were an erroneous Psak and they hold like the Chachamim nevertheless it cannot be carrying it is no different than any design a person has on a Beged which is the way he intended it to be. Therefore, this Chumra which is well known in Brisk circles in Eretz Yisrael seems to be technically inaccurate.
