Saturday, April 04, 2009

a sampling of Rogatchover chakiros on inyanei pesach

With apologies for not elaborating on these ideas, here is a quick sampling of Rogatchover chakiros on inyanei Pesach from the haggadah:

1) zman -- A) does the start of pesach create an issur on chameitz for eight days, or does each second of pesach create a new shem issur? (Rambam paskens that one gets malkos for buying chameitz of Pesach -- it is not a lav hanitek l'aseh because each second is a new shem issur and one cannot correct the issur which has already passed). B) shetach vs. nekudah -- is there a chiyuv matzah year-round which we can only be mekayeim on pesach, or does the zman of pesach create the chiyuv anew each year.

2) chomer/tzurah -- is the idea of biyur chameitz to nullify the tzurah of chameitz or the chomer of chameitz (machlokes R"Y and Chachamim whether sereifah is required).

3) poel/nifal/peulah -- A) achilas korbanos: there is a mitzvah in the act of eating (peulah), for the meat to be consumed (poel), and for the effect of avoiding nosar (nifal); B) mitzvas milah: there is a mitzvah in the act of cutting (peulah), in the person becoming mahul (poel), and in avoiding the smel areil (nifal) -- nafkah minah: hatafas dam bris for someone born mahul, or would a person who is moshech orlaso need another milah; C) achilas matzah/ maror -- balah matzah yatzah because although there is a requirement for ta'am matzah, the act of eating is an end in itself; swalling maror is not a mitzvah because the halacha of feeling the taste is not in the act of eating but in the effect (nifal) that must be produced.

4) peulah hanimshechet -- food cannot be consumed after afikoman because the eating is a peulah hanimshechet; the act recurrs continuously as a result of the taste that lingers.

5) issur atzmi -- is chameitz a cheftza shel issur or is it the zman of pesach that places it off limits (nafka minah: machlokes R' Shimon and other Tanaim whether chameitz she'avar alav haPesach is an issur d'orasya).

6) klal vs. ribuy pratim -- A) is the mikdash a single klal inclusive of its keilim or is each kli a seprate prat that is required to create the klal of mikdash (see Rambam/Ramban in Sefer haMitzvos whether the menorah, shulchan, etc. are counted a seperate mitzvos or are included in the general mitzvah of binyan mikdash; B) is a zimun or tzibur a quantity of pratim or a seprate new qualitative klal (this is the machlokes Tanaim in Brachos 4:5 whether the nusach of zimun changes with the addition of more people or not [i.e. if zimun is a qualitative entity, one cannot have more or less of it]).

Some other ideas that you Briskers may be familiar with:

6) gavra/cheftza -- is chameitz an issur gavra or an issur cheftza (interesting nafka minah: is a chatzi shiur chamietz created before pesach mitztaref with a chatzi shiur created on pesach; nafkah minah as well whether there is bal yer'ah on a ta'aroves chameitz -- is the ta'aroves a cheftza of chameitz or a seperate issur gavra to eat).

7) two dinim: hallel of chanukah and purim is a mitzvah derabbanan of keriah; hallel of pesach night is hallel of shirah and a chiyuv d'oraysa.

If I whet your appetite you still have a few days to get to the seforim store...

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:16 PM

    5) NAFKA MINA WOULD BE HAVING YOUR CHOMETZ IN ISRAEL AND YOU IN THE US YOU SELL IN NY AND GO TO CALIFORNIA
    get back chometz it is still pesach for you

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  2. you should have mentioned this before I bought my new haggada for the year :-).I guess there is always next year, although hopefully next year we will be in Yerushalayim hearing shiurim from the Rogotchover himself.

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  3. Anonymous10:45 AM

    1a - tosfos holds that it's a lav shenitak l'aseh.

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  4. Anonymous,

    The Rambam disagrees. See R' Chaim's approach in his sefer on the Rambam

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  5. Anonymous7:04 PM

    1b has to be zman because if not it is not a Mitvas aseh SHAZMAN grama
    4)Forgot to do Hesiaba do you do it again or if your hungry cah you eat more Afikomon (A semi stira in Mishneh Berurah)

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  6. Anonymous12:11 AM

    Pesach and Birchas Yitzchak
    Pesach is a time for questions, so I will go through the Parsha of Birchas Yitzchak and then Pesach and find the connection between them. First let us see the Parsha
    1) Rivkah tells Yackov go bring two goats and you will give it to your father and thereby receive the Brochos.
    WHY TWO GOATS?
    2) Before giving the Brochos to Yackov the Torah says that Yitzchak drank wine the Targum Yonsan Ben Uziel adds that the angel Gavriel brought the wine.
    WHAT IS THE SIGNIFIGANCE OF THIS WINE?
    3) Eisav walks in and demands the beans Yackov cooks for his fathers Avielus for Avraham, when he eats them the torah says he first ate “Bread”.
    WHY DOES THE TORAH TELL US ABOUT THE BREAD HE ATE?
    4) Back to Eisav Chazal say the day Avraham died Eisav did 5 (some say 3)sins they are he was:1) בא על נערה מאורסה
    2)Killed Nimrod
    3)He was כפר בתחיית המתים
    4)he was כפר בעיקר
    5)He sold the בכורות.
    They are all easy to understand besides for בא על נערה מאורסה being that before receiving the Torah there was no חופה or קידושין and by non Jews there still is no such thing?
    HOW WAS HE בא על נערה מאורסה?
    5)Now we get to the ברכה itself the wording seems very strange, first why מטל השמים and not גשם? Why דגן ותירש and not יצהר?
    WHAT IS THE SIGNIFIGANCE OF THESE ITEMS IN THIS ברכה?
    Now we can get to the Pesach Questions.
    1)What is the significance of the egg on the קערה?
    2)What is the source and significance of stealing the אפיקומן?
    Now the one word answer and the connection that will Blow you away. The answer is the word "Pesach". The whole story of the stolen ברכות happened on Erev Pesach and Pesach night. Now we will address the questions one by one and see the two concepts collide.
    WHY TWO GOATS?
    Here the Pesach Yesod begins, that is one for Korban Pesach and one for Korban Chagigah.
    WHAT IS THE SIGNIFIGANCE OF THIS WINE?
    Our Pesach Yesod continues it was the 4 cups of wine he was drinking so the Angel had to bring it.
    WHY DOES THE TORAH TELL US ABOUT THE BREAD HE ATE?
    HOW WAS HE בא על נערה מאורסה?
    Here our Pesach Yesod Gets into the Details. These 2 have to be combined as it is a question and its answer. Let me explain the way he was בא על נערה מאורסה was by eating the “Bread” otherwise known to us as מצה on Erev Pesach as it says in the Gemara Yerushalmi in Pesachim and brought in Tosfos in Bavli. That האוכל מצה בערב הפסח כבא על ארוסתו בבית חמיווהבא. That is because of course that at the Seder we make Sheva Brochos before eating the מצות .So the Torah tells us about it because it was the way we know Eisav did the five sins when Yackov gave him the beans and then Matzoh for later, he went and ate the Matzo first hence making him a בא על נערה מאורסה.
    WHAT IS THE SIGNIFIGANCE OF THESE ITEMS IN THIS ברכה?
    The Ramban in His Sefer אמונה ובטחון answers with our Pesach Yesod. He says on Pesach we are judged on טל and not on גשם and therefore the ברכה is for טל, we are also judged on תבואה therefore he said דגן and finally תירש because in the future the Jews will drink the 4 Cups.
    And now we follow through with our Yesod and Go the other direction by illustrating how things we do at the Seder actually represent this connection. Lets go to the Pesach Questions.
    What is the significance of the egg on the קערה? Now this one is easy it is Avraham’s Yahrtzeit the egg represents the Avielus for Avraham.
    Now, we have the second question.
    What is the source and significance of stealing the אפיקומן?
    It comes from Yackov stealing the ברכות from Eisav. It has a whole other level we tell the חכםa Halacha that אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן why this Halacha? The answer illustrates the connection between Birchas Yitzchak and Pesach once more it was this Halacha that Yackov used when stealing the ברכות when Yackov brought the Meat from Korban Pesach Yitzchak was no longer able to eat because אין מפטירין אחר הפסח. We know that Yitzchak told Eisav “Go Prepare me food so I can eat and Bench You” .This means now that Yitzchak cant eat Eisav’s food he cant give him a ברכה..Then too throw in one last connection from Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld When Eisav came in and asked for his ברכה his father told him בא אחיך במרמה ויקח את ברכתך and if you calculate the Gematriah of במרמה it is exactly אפיקומן. וד"ק
    (Sources are יד יוסף,שנים מקרא,כמוצי שלל רב)

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