The Living Tradition of Halacha: Wisdom, Leadership, and Community with Rabbi Walter

0:00 Okay. Well, rabbi Walter, it's back by popular demand. I am super excited about this interview to kick the L season off. What better way than to invite back someone who the crowds were cheering for? Bring Rabbi Walter back, because we only got to hear once from you, but you are a superstar author with multiple books, and this is a topic that I'm excited about today, something that a lot of people don't know but is truly, I'm sure, like you're going to talk about, rabbi Walter, required knowledge for somebody that wants to be a law-abiding, god-fearing Jew, and that is the laws and the parameters of what in the world halacha is and psakh halacha.

0:51 So welcome to the show, rabbi Walter, and it's good to have you back. Thank you so much. Great to be back. Thank you for the invitation. So first of all, I'd like to ask are you still in the same? You're the rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue of Avastora. Still, as of last time we checked. I didn't get any pink slips. So yeah, in the meantime I'm still here. Spent the last six summers is the Mardasar in camp zone, Uras camp, which is a Kirov camp, which is inspiring, as ever.

1:31 Every summer is really terrific to be around people who don't have the opportunity to be in Juru schools throughout the year, so it's wonderful it's close for me and my family to be there. Oh, wow, that is that sounds exciting, Rabbi Walter. I want to jump right in. What in the world? Let's kick it off. Let's try to go about this interview for somebody that knows almost nothing, build up and then get deeper and deeper. But how do you even define the word halacha, and why should I care about it, Rabbi Walter? Okay, great question. Maybe I'll start with a story or two, if that's okay, let's do that. Stories are better. Let's do that. I think we'll sort of set the stage for your listeners and give some parameters in terms of setting the stage for our discussion.

2:15 One of the great rabbis in the last centuries was Tzipi Esach Frank. Tzipi Esach Frank was the Rav of Yerushalayim, the chief rabbi. He lived in Geula, the famous Har Tzvi Shul, in the middle of Geula, and a young girl came to him, knocked on his door and showed him what seemed to have been a relatively simple shayla showed him an egg and an egg with a blood spot and seemingly it would be an open and sharp case and it should be problematic and she shouldn't be able to use it to eat it, etc. Etc. Tzvi Pesach Frank invited her and this young girl and asked her where she lives and she said that she lives in Shari Chesed. So anybody knows the landscape of B'rit Yerushalayim knows that to walk from Shari Chesed to Gula or vice versa takes you roughly 20, 25 minutes or so.

2:58 But during the British mandate it was a little bit more complicated, a little bit more dangerous, and Tzvi Pesach Reng noted that and he said to her Mutter and she could use the egg and she should go home and say hi to her parents, to the astonishment of the Talmidim who were there, who were apprenticing him doing Shemesh for Rav Tzvi Pesach, who would have people coming to ask him Shilas. So he noted their shock and their astonishment and he said you might be wondering why a pasken l'kula? Why I was lenient on a shayla that would seem to be open and shut, black and white, that the egg should be us and she shouldn't be able to eat it. So he said, let me explain to you. This girl lives in shaykh chesed. It's not a close walk, it's not an easy walk and it could even be a dangerous walk. There are many rabbanim poske moyeron shaykh.

3:40 The fact that her family sent her to ask me this question means that they were looking for a psak l'kula. Clearly there were some financial considerations there and the fact that she was taking that walk and going out of her way to come to me means that there was something implicit in the reason that they were sending her my way and therefore, based upon a number of halachic factors, I leaned l'kula on the shayla. That's one story that sort of gives you insight in what it means to paskan eshayla. Paskan eshayla doesn't just mean yes or no, mutter, asr, permitted or prohibited, tahar tameh, pure or impure. Answering eshayla requires the sixth sense, what sometimes we refer to as the fifth chelg of shulchan arach, and therefore, and therefore financial consideration is one of multiple factors, probably, that we'll talk about today in terms of what Poskim take into account when they answer a shayl.

4:29 Let me share with you one other story which very much, I think, speaks to this point as well. One of the great Poskim, gdolim Lamdanim of pre-war Europe, of course, is the Beis Alevi, yosef Dov Alevi Salvechik, the author of the Beis Levy, who's the Rev of the city of Slotsk. Several days prior to Pesach, a blacksmith knocked on the door and came to ask the Beis Levy the following shayla Some might laugh at the shayla but asked the Beis Levy is it permitted to use milk for the Dalet Kosos? So the Beis Levy responded and asked the fellow did your doctor instruct you not to drink wine? Do you have some medical conditions? He said no, no, it's not a problem. So, basically, levi said well, why would you want to use milk for your dollar cost?

5:10 It was for the four cups of wine for the seder. So the fellow answered because I'm in financial hardship. Now there's certain constraints I have financially and it's cheaper for me to use milk than it is to use wine. So basically Levi left the room and he returned with 25 rubles and he turned to the fellow, to this blacksmith, said here are 25 rubles. The blacksmith said I didn't come for a handout, I came to ask a shiva. So basically he said I understand, it's not a handout, I'm not getting stuck, it's a loan. Consider it to be halva and when you have the money you'll pay me back. Blacksmith took the money, walked away, closed the door and on his way he went Listening and overhearing the conversation was Rebetzin Salveichik Beis, levy's wife, who said what's going on.

5:52 I heard the whole conversation. He asked if he could use milk instead of wine. If he needed wine you could have given him two, three rubles. Why did you give him 25 rubles? So Be Gilead says you didn't hear what he asked me. If he was asking me if milk could be used for the Dalek Kostas, that means that he clearly doesn't have meat for the Seir because he can't have milk and meat. Basar Becholov had the same Sudah. So that means he doesn't have meat, he doesn't have wine, he doesn't have any of his needs and the family's needs for the Siddarim and for the entire Yontif. If he comes back, he comes back. Another example of Amor Hara Poseik, a halacha who understands that when you're presented with a shayla, it doesn't just mean to answer the question, but it means that there are certain things that are being asked that aren't necessarily being spoken and understood, and therefore that's what a poseik has to do.

6:44 So when you ask me, what is halacha? Halacha means doing what you're supposed to do, following what it is that it says in Shulchan, arach, tur Beis, yosef Rambam, the Riff, et cetera. We could go through all of the Nozakalim, the G'dolei Aposkim and the Klalei Apsak, but really what it boils down to is that there are two aspects. Down to is that there are two aspects. There is that a Jew and a God-fearing Jew and a Jew who wants to abide by the halacha wants to do what it says, and often what it says is not always what you're supposed to do. And therefore, that's when we come into the sort of dichotomy and the balance between asking a shayla, knowing halacha and understanding how to have a relationship with the rabbi and a posek in terms of going about doing what you're supposed to do.

7:26 I'll be halacha. So we really just broadened very much and kind of shattered my dreams as to what it takes to become a qualified rabbi, to get smicha. I mean my brain's leaping to this. Smicha, I guess, means you've been anointed to become a rabbi, you've been knighted and you can answer Shilos. But I guess now it takes a lot more to get Smicha. How does one actually now, if I want to become a rabbi, how do you become someone that's reputable as to also know the back and forth? How am I supposed to be vetted as somebody that is good at interpersonal relationships? How do you add that to smicha? Good question.

8:06 As you point out, historically, the way that it worked traditionally, the traditional form for answering Shilohs was through smicha. Moshe Rabbeinu was Somech, yeshua, yeshua's Kenim, skenuvim, antzhe, knesset Zagadola, and there was an absolute formula for smicha that ended when it ended exactly is a debate in the Rishonim, but certainly smicha, the concept and the construct and the parameters that we have of smicha, of Moshe kibbutar misin, the story of Yeshua and when the passage says in Parshas Pinchas that Moshe was so mech Yeshua that no longer exists. What we do have today is what we call a heta hara that's the way the Ramah and other posts can refer to it that a rabbi who has the skill, the quality, the knowledge to be able to pass Genshelas means that there's a Rav who also is a reputable person, who has his Rabbanim, who gave him a hatahara, continuously passing down a tradition where that individual not only is vetted for their halakhic knowledge, that they know and they understand Gemara Rishon and Psak Halacha, but also that they're an they understand Gemara Rishon and Pesach Halacha, but also that they're an individual who has an understanding, appreciation for Shemesh.

9:10 Shemesh means that I sat by a Rav, I listened and I heard and I debated and I deliberated and I worked things out. Now, of course, once somebody has smicha, it doesn't mean that you can just answer Shiloh. Certainly there's a greater level of understanding that's necessary just by receiving a piece of paper or not even receiving a piece of paper. But any Rav has his Rav and Rav has his Rav. So there needs to be an ongoing relationship and a growing understanding of what it is that is being asked of you, like I referred to, from the Bais Alevion, from the Reptipes Achraik, and you could see this from Gedol HaAchron and Menchuvos when they write careful analysis of a Shaila. There are many intangibles that exist in the Shaila and that's the reason maybe we'll talk about it the advantage of asking a Shaila in person, a face-to-face communication, versus answering Shailas either Bixav or more modern technology or communication, whether it's text or WhatsApp or phone calls and the like.

10:06 There are many different parameters, but certainly Yerubisrael Solanta writes that anybody who answers Shiloh has to have two things he has to be knowledgeable, he has to know and he has to be a person who is certainly understanding of Gemara Rishonim and Pesach Halacha. And more than that, you have to be personal and understand the ins and outs and understand what's a din, what's the raisa? What's the rabbanon? What's a minug? How the different kalolei hapsak work, how to balance things. What's a minug? What's a chumra? What's a das yachid? How, when the shulchanarach writes something, articulates something. What does it mean? How do we understand the shulchan Aruch in light of later Psakim, the Sma, the Shach, the Taz, the Mishnabur, the Choshocha?

10:49 There are so many different. I got it. So there's so much going on here, so it gets. One of the things about Halacha that becomes so challenging is that it is you can pretty much, seems like, have multiple opinions on any said question. You could also have different mesorahs and different minhagim, which I know you know a lot about, rabbi. So there's a lot going on. I still want to have that chance to now, now that we know that there's even more confusion now in halakha, because we also have to have the right role and the right understanding of the rabbi. Who's the answerer and the congregant or the said questioner? He also has to ask properly.

11:31 There's a lot going on. I still want to have that chance to now actually define exactly what is halacha, understand who's in charge of this entity called halacha, when the world, this word halacha actually means. To me it means going like. Cholech means to go, but I really try to build it up as clearly as possible here. Rabbi, all I know is that there's the five books of Moses, there's a Pentateuch. Where does halacha fit into all that? Yisro and Parsha's Yisro tells Moshe Benu that in order to execute proper sack, it can't be that Moshe Rabbeinu just has to be the one to answer all Shailas.

12:12 It's an impossibility, it can't help. Moshe Rabbeinu remain responsible to deal with all of Kalal Yisro. So Yisro understood that it had to be a davar gadol and a davar katan. They're heavyweight Shailas and Moshe has to deal with easier, simpler Shailas and a davar kat. And there are heavyweight shaylas and moshe has to deal with easier, simpler shaylas. There's, there's a sanhedrin, there's a bezin, there should be musicanium. So from the time of so, by the time we were given the tag mitzvos and, as sarah said, we needed to know how to do what it is that we're supposed to do. The tar doesn't always define exactly what it is that we're supposed to do. We're coming off of parashahs ake. So the Pasuk says three words. What does that mean? That means you have to bench. So the Torah doesn't tell me what to bench, how to bench? How many passages of the Reisah? How many brachos of the Reisah?

12:52 What's the Reisah? What's the Rabbanu? I thought you were going to say the other one. I thought that was such a cool Rashi last week. It said that you, exactly as I told you, that's what right. But then God doesn't tell us anywhere. This is what Tarshav Baal Peh is all about. And that's why Rabbi Huran Asher, rabbi Rav, Ashi established exactly what it was that the Torah tells us. Like we saw that Chazal were given the ability, the power and the teeth in order to concretize what it is that it says in Tarshav Baal Peh, what it is that it says in the Torah, shabbos Tav. So therefore, by the time of the Mishnayas and the Gemara and the Goenim and the Rishonim, and what the Gedolei Rabbanim had been doing for Dorai Doros is being able to exercise the koach that they have to establish, explain what it is that our Bosham was telling Moshe Rabbeinu.

13:40 That's what the Tanarim and Amorim are doing. And that wasn't even enough, because after the Tanarim and Amorim that's when the codes of Jewish law began the Tanarim and Amorim wrote the back and forth, the dialogue and the communication that took place between the Tanarim and Amorim. But if I just have Shas, so I don't necessarily know what to do and how to do it. So therefore, in the times of the Gaonim Redi, we started seeing chubas and psachim that were written down in order for communities to know what to do and how to do it. And that continues out of Yom HaZev. For the last thousand years, we continue to establish, to write, to concretize and to explain exactly what it is that we're supposed to do.

14:21 Torah tells us kan tzipur, the mitzvah of shiloh hakein. But Torah has three, four psukim parashas kisete about that. So how do I fulfill the mitzvah of shiloh hakein? So you know, you can take a look. Today there are two or three kitzers for it. I'm talking about a kosher bird or not a kosher bird. Is it a bird in your backyard or a bird in your front yard? Where's the nest? What type of nest? What type of? So there are many different factors that need to be taken into account and hopefully a proper post-leg knows how to mirror Torah Shebech Tzav and Torah Sheba Al-Peh in order that it should be an explanation and an exposition elucidating what it is that Torah Shavuot Chassav is supposed to do.

15:07 How come this has me guessing? How come the great Rav Meir and Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi didn't just write down the practical halacha? For exactly this reason that really halacha was supposed to be Torah Shabal Peh. It was supposed to be taught from Rebbe to Talmud and Talmud to Talmud. It wasn't supposed to be written down. The Rebbe who did it on us? He had a hat there. The Pasuk says we were forced to write it down because the Gullas. So write down halacha. So once there's a time of need, let's do it. We could write down the sodos is a time of need, let's do it. We could write down the sodas, but we can write down the exact, absolute, final rulings about everything.

15:48 Now the truth is, why not understands gemara properly? So the piske aloha often mirror what it is and we know. We have klalim and chas, had you pascan machlokes. There are klale hapsak and they're, they're great svarim. In klalei hapsak that described us. The riff has klalim, the Beis Yosef has klalim. The Shulchan Aruch has klalei hapsak. But that begins to water down the process. Some or so of you should be familiar I don't know if your listeners are familiar with this when the Shulchan Aruch of Yosef Kahro codified, the Shulchan Aruch, it was taken to task. It was taken to task, it was met with tremendous, tremendous opposition. How could it be that there's an individual who would attempt to codify, to organize and to concretize all Pesach Halacha into four volumes?

16:30 What's? the problem with that? Why? not so. The Marsha actually explains in Masech HaSot and Av Chav Beis that— that's in your book, right at the beginning. That's in your book. In one of the chapters I think I've heard this Marasha that somebody who does that is called Nambilei HaOlam, is considered to be somebody who is a destroyer of the world. Because the way that halacha is supposed to work, the way that Torah is supposed to work, the way that Tarshim HaOlam is supposed to work, is that there's supposed to be a relationship, really face-to-face communication, like we described them what it was that yisro suggested to mosharbenu. That's the ultimate dialogue communication in terms of how we're supposed to distill what it is that akadosh baruch hu told mosharbenu.

17:10 Because we were unable to do that and because of dispersion, because of galos and because of pogroms and death and destruction, the crusades and the inquisition, so a lot of the mesorah and Klal Yisrael was lost and, as a result, we needed to define, to identify and to articulate exactly what the final Pesach Halacha was. Now the Pesach Yitshuvah actually writes that, even though the Marsha says that writing and organizing and concretizing Pesach Halacha L'maysa, like the Tanoim did in the Mishnah, is considered to be destroying the world. Psalm halach al-maisah, like the Tanoyim did in the Mishnah, is considered to be destroying the world once they're now Nosekelem on the Shulchan Aruch and there are commentaries and super commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch, we now understand the background in terms of what the psalm halach is.

17:53 The problem with simply writing the bottom line is that's very base and it's very elementary and we can't understand the complexities and the background of where the psach halacha is coming from. So if you're just reading a simple psach in Shulchan Aruch, so you're missing the boat and you could be somebody who really doesn't understand and appreciate the background then you're just issuing piskah halacha. It's going to water down halacha and it's not allowing the richness and the nuances of halacha to come alive. So therefore, once there were no sekelen and super commentaries commentaries written on Shulchan Aruch now there's a tazen zashach and yoders, a magen avram and a tazen magen avram. There's a sman, a drish and a prisha. So therefore we could start to understand the background much, much better and therefore Shulchan Aruch became much more widely accepted.

18:37 I got it. Have you ever heard of the theory or the idea that the reason why just the minimum klalim, the general principles of halacha, just that was written over was because the hector, the permission to write down Torah, was given over only what was needed, so we could only give over the minimum amount, but any extra would be prohibited. Have you heard of such a theory? I think it's what we've been discussing, that really, and this is so lost today because we find ourselves in the Golas and everything is written down which is necessary today, and Chuvah Sferm have, you know, been critical in terms of distilling and explaining and issuing Peske Halacha for a thousand years, from the Rishon to the Hronim to contemporary Poskem.

19:22 But really that's not the way it's supposed to be and people don't understand that. That's not the way that it was intended. It was intended to be, like the Mishnah says in Havos, that there's supposed to be an oral communication from Rebbe to Talmud, from parent to child, and that's really the way it worked. That's always the way it worked, and only because of the loss of Masorah that changed. So therefore, yes, on a certain level, even the Mishnahis were written very terse. But when that didn't even work, ravino Ravashi had to come and they had to elaborate and clarify and even once the Gemara was written, we needed to be shown to explain what it was that the Gemara said and that continues and continues.

20:03 So the increasing of literature and the more of it is, almost sadly, like a sign of the times. I would say both. On the one hand, it's awesome because the proliferation of Sfarim and Psak Halacha speaks to the fact that Klal Yisrael is so interested in the intricacies and the minutia of Halacha, is so interested in the intricacies and the minutia of halacha. Like I just pointed out, there's an entire sefer written on halachas of kan tzipra. there's an entire sefer written on halachas of ksiva sefer tozah On lashon hara. Absolutely so. That goes to show that Klaus was very, very interested. Arguably, the average balabas today is much, much more knowledgeable than the average balabhatim of hundreds of years ago and thousands of years ago.

20:49 We have access to so much more literature and information, understanding and shimrim. So therefore, it's an amazing thing that Klausel is saying explicitly, implicitly we want to learn, we want to understand, we want to do what's correct. Mitzach, yes, there is a certain limit and a certain problem, because really we shouldn't be. We could talk about this. We shouldn't be answering shyness from opening up. But kids are safer. That's not the way it's supposed to work. There should be a rough environment. We could talk about that relationship. Okay, we'll talk about that. so we'll talk about that, because I know that there's a lot that goes into that and, um, I also have. I'd love to hear your what you were talking about a little bit before we started this interview and I was going over some of the notes from your book. It's very clear, your perhaps a very important message that needs to be heard about halacha, and I can't wait to get to that.

21:36 I want to start now with so now we have Torah must be written down, and we have the Mishnah and we have the Gemara. So I believe there are three titans, or maybe it's a fantastic four great scholars that are the Mount Rushmore for lack of a better metaphor and analogy that is in charge of halacha, that is in charge of halacha. The big ones, as you put it, seem to be the Rambam Maimonides, the great Riff Riff, yitzchak Alfasi I think both of those are from Spain the Rush I don't know where he's from, but I know he's in the back of my Gemara and then the Tour, who writes a lot of some.

22:18 I guess they're found in every single bookshelf. I don't really know much about the tour at all. Actually, um is that it's the rambam, riff, rush and tour. Those are the pillars of halacha rabbi. A pretty accurate statement. Yes, certainly, the riff and the rush and the rambam of the tour are the go-to and, uh, the default, the, the backbone of psychological why do we need four? why do we need four, did they? Why couldn't just Rambam do it, and everyone would live happily ever after. So the truth is it's not exactly four and indeed the Bais Yosef himself says that he looks to three of those four. He looks to the Riff, the Rambam and the Rush in terms of identifying Psaak Halacha. And he writes in his introduction the Bis Yosef, which is Rebbe Yosef Kar, ultimately from the Beis Yosef emerged the Shulchan Aruch, is that any time two out of three of those giants take one position he's going to pasken like that.

23:09 Now, more often than not, the Beis Yosef paskens like the Shitzes Arambam. However, the Rambam traditionally is the Psak of Sfard and that's the Machaber, the Shulchanach, and the Ramah bases his Psakim more on the Balei Tosvos and the Rush. So very often we find that there's machloks in between the Rambam and the Rush, or the Rambam and the Riff against the Rush and the Balei Tosvos, so that really gives a picture. Where did the Rush live, as opposed to the Riff and the Rambam? So the Rambam was a great Egyptian rabbi, the Riff was Reb Yitzchak al-Fassi was a great. That's where he was from, fez and from Morocco, fez right, and the Rosh and the Balei Tosos were of Ashkenaz, descent France, provence, germany, and therefore there are different approaches in terms of how they're going to deal with Psak Halacha based upon who they're looking to.

24:05 And the Rambam is the Psak of Sfard and became the Psak of Sfard of Egypt, mesopotamia, eretz, yisrael and in those areas, while the Rosh and the Balaitosos became the Psak of Ashkenazim very, very regularly and very often those who are familiar, those of you who are listeners, are familiar from understanding you know Gemara realized that very regularly there will be makhlokas between the Rambam and the Tosfos. There will be a makhlokas between Tosfos and the Rambam in terms of how they understand the Gemara and that ipso facto is going to create very often makhlokas between the Mechaber and the ramah. That's sort of the broad strokes in distilling how one will see a shulchanach.

24:48 If you see a machlokas between the mechaber and the ramah, 99 or 9 out of 10 times the mechaber, the Rabbi Yosef Karol's psak, which is a psak of Sephardim, will be based upon the rambam in the Rif and the Ramah in his Głos, in the Shulchanach, who based his Psakim upon the Rosh and other Balaytosos. That's more often how it boils down. Fascinating I see often in Ashkenaz. So I mean I guess let's get into that. So we have those three main players, the three main, those that codified Halacha the Rif. Well, they all took different approaches towards halacha right the riff. I believe he piggybacked on the Gemara and kind of made an easy-to-read summary of halacha of the Gemara.

25:34 Am I correct with that? That's what he wrote to differentiate between the way that the, the rambam and, let's say, the rush worked, as opposed to the riff and the tour, is that the rambam really gives just the bottom line. The rambam, which is the challenge of learning the rambam, is the reason why there's so many more forshmen, the rambam, the maga mission, the cast of mishnah and the lack of mission. Most prominently, it's because we don't know and the rambam didn't explain to us where he was coming from. So therefore, that's the reason we need major no Sekelem commentaries and super commentaries in the Rambam. So that's all the Rambam did. The Rush similarly did that. The Rush just gave us the bottom line without really getting into the background. So the Rambam and the Rush share that common denominator in just giving us the final bottom line, psakalach, without explaining where they were coming from.

26:21 I thought the rush gave a little bit more, didn't he? More than the Rambam, Sometimes a little more lengthy right. Certainly more than the Rambam. But the riff those familiar with the riff that's clearly an extrapolation of the Gemara and the riff goes to the Gemara. The riff will take out a lot of the agadah of the Gemara and a lot of the, let's say, much of the back and forth and the dialogue between the Amorim and the debate. And I'll give you the bottom line, but it's working and it's written al-piseder ha-Gemara. So a lot more background. Therefore, the Rambam is challenging in that respect, because you don't always know where the Rambam is coming from, as opposed to the rift, where we do understand, where the Rift's bottom line Halach is coming from.

27:07 This makes so much sense. Before I just was heard over from the great Chafetz Chaim, he actually said that laymen or working men should, if they don't have time to study all of Shas, they should study just the riff. I think there was something similar said by the Vilna Gon, because that gives almost like a summary are many Mepharshim written on the rift, including most classically the Rand and the Muqayyosef and others, in order to shortline and to streamline the dialogue and communication, and the makhloksim and the gemara.

27:52 You get to the meat and potatoes, let's say, without all of the background and the lumbus, which is critical and important to understanding. But the rift explains how he gets to, uh, gets to where he's going, so that's very, very important as well I found that as well, like it's sometimes if I want to sound smart, so when I like, sometimes if it takes me a long time to get through, like breaking my teeth on a masajda, but then I want to give over at the seum, like after we finish, a small little summary of the masajda. Sometimes I'll just go through and you can just all the parts of the Rift. You can almost see every Halachic topic and extrapolated law and almost summarize the entire tractate just by studying the Rift.

28:34 Yeah, the Rift certainly does that and in Halacha. Actually, the tour is very similar because what the tour did is that the tour organized. So that's the next thing. That's the fourth rabbi. So who is the tour? If he's not part of the big three, what is he? So the tour is the son of the rush and the tour collects the Pesachim of the Gedoli Rishonim, including the Rambam, the Riff and the Rosh and other of the great Ashkenazi Rishonim, and the tour usually, usually follows the psak of his father, the tour but very much leans on the Rambam as well. So therefore, if the person is following the rush, you might as well rush Correct. But he also will very much cite almost verbatim, very regularly, the shitas of the Rambam.

29:17 And if one learns the tour so as opposed to the riff which is written, I'll say there, along the chronology of the gemara and the tractate, that's being learned, the tour does it I'll say there you know what we would call of halacha or haim or edeyach or shemishmon or mezer. That organization really began with the tour. And if you learn the tour, a particular simen or a particular section in halacha, what you'll get is the compilation and the organization and the conclusions of the G'dol Ereshonim and that becomes the springboard for what the B'Siosef is going to do to Paschan Halacha L'ma'isa. So if in a particular simen or sif the tur will quote a Rambam shita like this the Rav shita is like this, the Rosh Hashita is like this, the Rosh Hashanah Sheet is like this Tur won't necessarily be Machria, the Tur won't come to a Halacha conclusion.

30:07 Very often we'll say the Psak is like my father or it's understood in which direction he's going. But that became the basis of many, many to understand what, the broad strokes of what the Gedoli Rishonim and Poschim are saying, and from there the Bais, yosef, the Pask and the Lacha, based upon one of the three, like we said, the Rambam, the Reh for the Rosh. So now we have the tour, which seems to be well accepted as the go-to Lacha because he's drawing from everyone, and the tour the super commentary on the tour is the Bais Yosef. The base Yosef is authored by Yosef. Cairo lived about let's say what? 500 years ago. Yes, he is going to be the monkey wrench in all of this, if pardon the expression, he has authored a great deal on Halakha.

31:02 I know of the Shulchan Aruch is his, his. I know that the base yosef is his. I know that the kesaf mishnah that's one of the super commentators on the rambam is his. Can you help put into perspective all of the different needs that were met by all of the just voluminous literature that was put out by the great Rebbe Yosef Cairo? Rebbe Yosef was a giant. Rebbe Yosef lived in Tsvas, amongst the Chachmea Kabbalah of Tsvas, in the 1600s, as you pointed out. And Rebbe Yosef, cairo did something that was arguably changed you know rabbinic and Jewish history forever arguably changed. You know rabbinic and Jewish history forever Because what the Shulchan Aruch did and, as I noted, was met with enormous opposition because it was so different and even though the tour already began to compile and to organize halacha, what the Shulchan Aruch did was makhria, he paskent, and he wrote and articulated for posterity what exactly a Jew should do.

32:01 So if there's a shiit of the Rambam, the Rosh and the Riff, and the tour compiles them all and puts them together, the Shulchan Aruch, based upon his say for the Beis Yosef, which was the running commentary on the tour, based upon either two out of three of those post-kim which we mentioned the Rambam, the Riff and the Rosh the Beis Yosef said this is the psak and this is what's supposed to be done. And that became an enormous, enormous sefer, which is the basis. The tour Bais Yosef is halacha tour Bais Yosef. Yeah, the tour is the tour and the Bais Yosef is the commentary on the tour. And then the Shulchan Aruch, which was written by the Bais Yosef Rabbi Yosef Karo is based upon his commentary. The Bais Yosef on the tour became the Shulchan Aruch.

32:44 So his why did he write the Shulchan Aruch if he already wrote his halacha of the Bais Yosef? The Bais Yosef is much longer, much lengthier. It also cites very, very directly from the Poskim, the Rambam, the Rif and the Rosh, and therefore it's a shorthand book. It's sort of like the cliff notes, the bottom line, the end-all, be-all of what you have to do. So if a person is not a scholar and can't go through the Rambam, the Rift, the Rush, the Tour of the Bais Yosef, so I can skip all that and go right to the Shulchan Aruch and every Jew will know what he is supposed to do. And that's exactly what the Shulchan Aruch where Yosef Kar writes in his introduction to Shulchan Aruch. By the way, your listeners should be aware that it's very important. Each of these great Rabbis wrote introductions to their Sfarim and explained to us exactly what they were doing.

33:28 So much of what I'm sharing with you is based upon the introductions of the Rambam, the Rift, the Tur, the Beis Yosef, the Shulchan Aruch. They explained exactly what it was that they were doing. In my book, actually in the back, Listeners, I've got to interrupt Rabbi. Listeners, all this is printed in the back of Rabbi Walter's book. You don't need to buy all of the Bais, yosef and Shulchan Aruch. Just buy Rabbi Walter's at least one of his three books and you're going to get it all. Sorry for interrupting you, rabbi. No thank you. Just a quick plug there, I apologize. You were telling us all about the need to go to the Shulchan Aruch, which is a summary and the point of it. He writes in his introduction. He writes this in his introduction the point of the Shulchan Aruch.

34:10 Yeah, absolutely. But this was exactly the point that was met with opposition and contention because the colleagues and the Rabbanim who challenged Rav Yosef Kar said that that's not the intent of what it was that halakh is supposed to be. It's not just supposed to be. You know. You open up a book and you know what you're supposed to do. There's supposed to be a lot of complexity and color and understanding of where the halakh is coming from. And if the Shulchan Aruch just writes one line, you're missing what does the Gemara say? What do the Rishonim say, what's the Machlokas, the Rambam? And you're missing all that. And that's actually exactly where the Vilna Gon entered, writing his classic Bir HaGorah on.

34:51 The Shulchan Aruch was coming to show the sources of Rav Yosef Kara and that was really his goal and you can take a look at his introduction as well, and you can take a look at his introduction as well. I have this circled in my notes. I'm dying to know everything about the beer haqqara, this pirish, because the shulchan arh and the tour these are in yeshiva, these are the go-tos. This is anyone who wants to get the flavor. I mean, I'm still enamored every single time I open up the Beis Yosef. Just the fact that he can put all that into a paragraph, summarize something that took us six months to learn. And there it is in one paragraph. It's just beyond. And he didn't even live that long ago. And then the Vilna Gon, living 300 years ago, wrote a commentary.

35:34 Rabbi, whenever I look down and get excited because everything of the Yeshiva movement is from the vilna gone, I can never understand one line of what the vilna gone's commentary on shulchan ar has to say so. So the vilna, gone of course, wrote very terse, um and very, very minimally, uh, and that's the way the grub worked. And the grub wrote on kola tarakula. There was almost no area of rabbinic literature that the grub didn't touch or didn't write on, from tarasha wasab toassav to Tarshav Al-Beth. The key, if you want to know, if somebody wants to know, if they understood the Shulchan Aruch and understood the suggah that they were learning, is learning a B'era Grah.

36:16 That's gold, let's put that on a billboard. Why is that? That's gold. Why does it make any sense? What the Gra did, in very few words and very few sentences, was to explain the entire sugya with the Gemara, with the Rishonim, and it'll explain to you, very terse, exactly where the Shulchan Aruch's Psak Halach is coming from. And if he disagrees with the Shulchan Aruch, he'll make that sometimes clear and sometimes less clear, and that takes a lot of scholarship to understand how to learn the Gra and there are many greats from written on the B'yara Gra but the goal of the B'yara Gra and the truth is this is the goal of the Gra in almost all areas of his writing is to show how everything comes back to Torah Shebech Zav.

37:00 Everything comes back to a word, to a pasuk or to a line in the Gemara and therefore if a person is able to understand what the girl writes, let's say on a Sif and Shulchanah, the girl writes Harambam delo kehatoisvas al pi menachos yudala. Those five words sum up the entire sukkah. So if you understand what the girl wrote, that means you understood the gemara, you understood the Zemach Lachas v'shonim, you understood that there's a Zemach Lachas v'shonim, you understood how the shulchanach is paskening and you understand if the grah agreed or disagreed with the assertion of the shulchanach. So the b'yar grah is critical, critical, critical.

37:44 See many dolan uh, for example, the panamera. If somebody would ask him a shayla he would look at the shulchanach and the grub. The grub was like his kids are safer, because if a person understands the grub, you understand the entire sogyal. And there are many, many classicals from that written on the grub, the mess, like eliezer, for example who wrote these works on the grub? the mess is one of the classic works which was written on the Ville-Nagant. His name escapes me right now. When did he live? I mean after the grow About a hundred years after the Ville-Nagant and it's a running commentary opening up the Ville-Nagant because the grow wrote so, bekitzer. So the aliyah, as it does, and what other Sfarm on the Gara did, is to open up and to explain what the intent of the Gara was.

38:27 The Gara didn't have time or interest and he was really tarshabach peh at the greatest. You want to understand what I'm saying, you have to work, but not everybody has that ability and therefore many Sfarm have been written from Gadol, israel, trying to explain what it was exactly that the Gra is doing. And, as I said, if you understand the Gra, you understand the Sorgia. Just to follow up Shabbat. That makes a lot of sense. Now we have an obsession with Rebbe Yeruchim L'Vovitz of Yeshiva Asmir here on this podcast, mostly because it's a Musar podcast. But I remember reading about him that he spent eight years preparing to become a mashkiach. So he became well-versed in the Talmud when he learned in Kelm and in Raden with his—it was in Raden, actually underneath the Chavetz Chaim and with his good friend and his chavrusa Rav, naftali Trupp, and they spent eight years learning Gemara and Rashi.

39:25 I don't remember if they learned Tosfos. They learned the Shulchan Aruch and they learned it with the Be'er Hagra and I always never knew why they learned that, like how they could get anything out of it. But I mean, obviously it makes a lot of sense now that you're saying that. It's also just in regards to Elul. I was just lurking up the laws of of it's in simon 581. What is that? Tough um, kuf, pay aleph, I think um. And they're all talking the all the no, say calum in the tour. They're all explaining that elul is a special time and the words of the bear hagra read something like Mordechai Rish, the Sachta Rosh, hashanah, the Ritva Shom.

40:07 And then he writes at the end, nehem Yimei HaRotzo, something where where I think that's really where all of el comes in and I was never like I think there's some sort of gold mine there in the villanagone of el ozma. I wrote on what that means of days of want who wants what. But either way, now I have a. It's gonna have to be another podcast. So now we have the tour and we have the viragra, and you have me fascinated. So where does our good friend and our original standing up for Ashkenaz Pesach, the great Ramah, come in? When does he overlap with the Bechaber being the Beis Yosef?

40:48 Does he write on the Beis Yosef? I know that he writes the Ramah on top of the Shulchan Aruch. Where does Rav Moshe Isser list the great Ramah come into this? Her work was not actually on the Shulchan Aruch. Where does Rav Moshe Isser list the great Ramach come into this? Her work was not actually on the Shulchan Aruch, it was actually on the tour. You're correct. The Ramach wrote a sefer called the Darche Moshe and the Darche Moshe is a running commentary on the tour. And what the Darche Moshe did was to point out what the Ashkenaz Rishonim has it on a particular Psak Halacha. If the tour didn't note what some of the Balay Tosos, the Manech, the Agudah and other Gedoleh Psak of Ashkenaz, that was the goal of the Ramah. So if the Ramah disagrees with the assertion and the Psak of the tour or the citations of the tour, the Derech Emhe will make that very clear.

41:35 And more often than not, if you move a generation later to the Sefer, the Shulchan Aruch and the Ramah, it's very clear that they are coming from exactly what they wrote in their Surah on the Bais Yosef and the D'rachim Moshe. So what the Ramah does on the tour with his D'rachim Moshe is exactly what the Ramah does on the Shulchan Arach and that is point out psak halacha for Ashkenaz where it differs from what the Mechabra says. So the Ramah is not going to write on every single sif of the Shulchan Arach, because there are many times that the Ramah will agree with the psak of the Shulchan Arach, the Rambam, the Rish and the Rosh. But if there's ever a point where the Ramah understands that the Shulchan Aruch didn't take into account the psak of the Gedolei Ashkenaz or the rush enough, that Dakimosh will make that very clear and therefore it will be articulated.

42:25 In the Shulchan Aruch the Ramah is called the Mappa. The Mappa is sort of like the cloth, the tablecloth, the covering on the Shulchan Aruch, because without the Ramah so an Ashkenaz Jew can't properly execute Pesach Halacha just by relying only on the Shulchan Aruch, because then you're missing all of the Gedolah Ashkenaz. So therefore, what we're left with if you open up the Shulchan Aruch is that you have the Shulchan Aruch, which is the backbone of all Halacha, and any time there's a difference between that which the Shulchan Aruch says, then the Ramah will make that very clear. And therefore, when a Rav is issuing a Psak Halach, he has to know is he answering a Sephardi, is he answering an Ashkenazi? To know if the Ramah, more often than not, is actually being machmir on the things that the Shulchan Aruch says. And therefore a Rav also has to know are the chumras of this particular Psak of the Ramah something that everybody has to follow?

43:12 Are there exceptions to the rule? And therefore that again gets back into what we started with, the complexities of issuing and paskening halakh al-amaysa? So I think there's one last step here, which is most people that I know that learn halakha. They're not necessarily learning the base yosef, or they're not necessarily learning the shulchan arach with the ramah, but they're obsessing over the commentary and the halakhic work called the Mishne Brura. And if they're not learning that, then they're learning the Aruch HaShulchan. So what exactly are those two and how do they differ and where do they fit into this large picture?

43:53 Mosaic of halakha. So the truth is that there's even a lot between the Shulchan Archanorma and getting to Mishra and the Archa Shulchan. That is, commentaries on the Shulchan Archanorma, including those that I noted. In Archaim it's the Taz and the Maganavram. In Yardeah it's the Taz and the Shach. In Chosha, mishpat it, there are commentaries and super commentaries. The Prima Gauden, the Vilna Gaon are all commenting on the Shulchan Arach. So therefore you're left with the Psakim of the Shulchan Arach and then the Taz and the Shach and the Ramagin Aram and the other Gedoli Haposkim are arguing, debating what it is that the Shulchan Arach said. Do it is that the Shulchan Arach said, do they agree?

44:38 Do they disagree? And they're bringing out the rich machlokas that exists in Mishnayas and Gemara. That continues with the Shulchan Arach and the two in the Beis Yosef, the Mishnabrura used all of the G'dolim. This is what the Mishnabrura writes in his introduction as well. The benefit of using the Mishn place between the writing of the Shulchan Archan, the Ramah, up until the Havetz Chaim died in 1933. All of those Svarim and the Mishnubur HaHavetz Chaim collected all of that and, based upon 200, 300, 400 years of written rabbinic literature, the Mishnubur HaHavetz Chaim makes it very clear how exactly one should Pascha. Now that doesn't mean it's easy to open up a Mishnubur and Pascha and Halach HaMaisa, even though the Mishnubur L'Chavetz Chaim understood that his Sefer should be used.

45:23 Halach HaMaisa, that's clear. But nonetheless you have to know how to learn Mishnubur, mishnuburah and how the Mishnuburah writes, and there could be that there are klalam also. I write about that in my Sefer how to learn the Mishnuburah and how the Mishnuburah is indicating how he's paskening. That takes a lot of understanding. But the Mishnuburah for most is considered to be what we would call the post-Lake Akron. He's sort of like the, the final end-all and be-all. That's not to say that we don't agree with everything that the Mishnah Brewer says. The Chazanesh argued with the Mishnah Brewer and there are many psakim of the Mishnah Brewer that we debate and we haggle.

46:04 But the godless of the Mishnah Brewer to write a running commentary on all of or HaChayim, which includes the psakim of hundreds of Gedolah, a post-kimah 500 years before, is a Sefer that has to be taken with significant weight. And Gedoli Yisrael over the last 100 years really made the Mishnaburah what it is today and that's the reason that we, at least in the world of Ashkenaz, look to the Mishnaburah with extraordinary weight. And look to the Mishnaburah, so what's the Aracha Shulchan then? Aracha Shulchan was written a little bit before the Mishmur. B'yichil Mechalisk Epstein was the Rav of New Arctic and as opposed to the Mishmur, which was a running commentary on Shulchan, racha Shulchan wrote a separate Sefer and what he does differently is actually that he summarizes a lot of the background to the Psak Halacha.

46:51 So what the Mishmur doesn't do is exactly what Racha Shulchan does is that the Rakhash Valkan will go back to the Gemara. He'll review the Gemara and the Rift of Rambam and the Rosh and the Torah and the Bais Yosef and the Shulchan Aruch and the Nosek Really yeah. And then he often will say can't say always, but the Rakhash Valkan was much more innovative and creative, very big nechadesh. In a very interesting interview I'll point this out. Rabbi David Feinstein and Rabbi Reuven Sheikha were asked to discuss the differences between the Meshubun and the Racha Shulchan and they noted both that their father looked to the Racha Shulchan more because the Racha Shulchan was a practicing Rav, as opposed to the Chavetz Chaim who wasn't, and therefore he said the Chavetz Chaim is more machmir, but the Rechashol, who was a practicing rabbi, he's the rabbi of the city of the Nebaritic.

47:40 His psakim have to be taken with significance because he was dealing with people. Now you could see that Rebbe Moshe, throughout his life, began to look to the Mishnabur more as time went on in America, but nonetheless it's a significant difference between the Mishnabur, by the way people might not be familiar, was written with a group and there was peer review. The Mishmur had Chaburas who were learning together suggah and they worked together through the suggah. Khashoggi was a Rav who was writing independently and he was going out there and he didn't necessarily have that same level of peer review, if we were to say like that. And he often says many, many great, great chidushim, oh wow, wow review. If we were to say like that and he's often says many, many great, great solution, oh, wow, wow.

48:21 I remember hearing one time that it was once the, I think the chavetz chayim had a son-in-law who died young maybe, and they would learn together and he was a brilliant genius along with his father-in-law and and they were poured over one topic or one line in the Mishabura for like eight hours how to word the writing for that one halacha, so that every single part of the halacha could be encompassed inside of that one line. The Mishabura had a son, rabbi Yeleib, and he writes a biography of his father. It's found in the Kol Kisvei Chavetz Chaim. It's called Tumustiuk no Shel Aviv, and there he has some examples of how exactly the Mishneburu was written.

49:03 And certain sections of the Mishneburu were written and clearly it was taken with enormous seriousness and it wasn't written in Seder Aleph Bez Gimel Dal Hevav. There were different sections that were being worked on at different times and come out first, uh, but, but there were groups that were working on the sughis, that were learning them, and then that's how the mission was written that'd be interesting just to do a whole podcast on the history of how the mission of brua came to be and how it came to be written and how to learn it. Um, so let's. I want to move now to uh, to part, which is now that all the information is available and accessible. We've pretty much just relatively replaced a Selah Harav, unless we're going to pour out our hearts and emotional problems to them and complain that we don't get the shlishia aliyah.

49:59 What exactly is the point of of uh high paying a rabbi? I could just you said it yourself. Yeah, no, you said it yourself. So the mission tells us to say which the rishonim and the mishnah is, and others learn that you need a rabbi and you need a rav to issue and to pass skin for you. I'll start with a story. Maybe I'll show you another story. It just happened just the other day, the same day, two shaylas that came my way. One woman called me with something which was very complex and complicated. Unfortunately, it was too late. It was after the fact, she didn't call me in time. This wasn't a simple treifus shayla, it wasn't a yardei or chayim shayla. It was something much more complicated and complex and it was a very good example, unfortunately, of somebody who didn't ask a ravashayla and made a tremendous error, and it wasn't the type of thing that was so easy to clean up right away.

50:47 So it's not that just open up a book. Not everything is written in a book and there are a lot of other areas that need to be taken into account and that wasn't On the flip side. The very same day, a woman called me and before engaging in a particular matter, she asked to Shaila, and that allowed me to sort of bring out other issues and allowed me to share information with her that she wasn't even privy to, she wasn't aware of. And when she asked me, shaila, I was able to point out two or three other very critical components that she should address and that you know the stories we started with with Bais Alevi and the Har Tzvi, with Tzvi Pesach. So and I could follow up now.

51:29 So when you develop a relationship, it was Abliyashiv who pointed out that it's not just a shaylan or tshuva, it's not just a cold question and answer, but there's a shoyel and a meyshev. There's the questioner and the respondent. The famous tshuva is the sholomeshev at Nothausen. There's not just a simple question and a black and white answer, but there's the person asking the question and there's the rav who's answering the question. There's so many nuances and complexities in every Shalila that comes up. If you want. You know, a good example of this might be. You know, I think most understand that if you trafe up a kli haras, an earthen, well porcelain dish, so there's nothing you can do, it's stuck, you're lost, you have to throw it out, unless you're a machzer to the kifshon, you return it to the kiln.

52:15 So Ramosha's a tshuva about a family who were returning to Yiddishka, who were coming from and they had a very expensive set of porcelain of china. And the question was you know, potentially the rabbi asked Ramosha addresses this question and in amazing form, as Ramosha who knew Kol HaTarkulo, pulls out chuvahs and psakim of the Rishon Meshit of the Chacham Tzvi and others and explains that what that means is that we're concerned that this family won't proceed in their tshuva and they're not going to be come from.

53:01 We have to take out from the deck of cards all possible kulas in order to help this family get where they need to get. So it doesn't say that anywhere. How do you know that you have to be a post-leg moveok to be able to distill and to know how and when to issue kulas and which kulas to rely on, and the concept of Takanas HaShavim and when you could be Meikul for Balei Tshuva and when you could be Meikul for one person, meikul for somebody else. That takes a lot, a lot of scholarship and discussed and understanding what's what's a, what's a, what's a, what's a, and that requires so you, so a person needs to have a rub.

53:48 I got it. There's a mishnah, and also there's a lot more that goes into it, more than just the letter of the law. Um, uh, what, what are some some wise advice you would give for somebody that is selecting his rabbi? So the most important thing is having a relationship with the rabbi and being open and honest and developing that relationship, sort of like a good general practitioner. A doctor understands not just the specific issue that's being asked but understands the bigger picture. There's the lungs, there's the kidneys, there's the heart. There's so many things to take into account. A Rav understands who the person is. Who's asking the Shiloh? Is this a Baal Tshuvas?

54:29 Is this not a Baal Tshuvas? Is this a person who's struggling with mental health issues or not? Are there emotional psychological disorders? Is this a person where their financial considerations need to be taken into account? These are all factors in issuing a psach halacha. So, yes, there's mutt and there's asa, there's tar and there's tame, but there's also sheila and achuva and ishoel and ameshev. And knowing the background and the factors financial considerations, emotional psychological disorders and the gamut of issues that this person is struggling with dealing with, you know, is in his parents' home, who are not from, might have a different psalak alacha than if he's home in his own house where he's able to run things his own way. Today, just you know, a balas chuva called an 11th grader in a public school and asked me a shayla.

55:13 So what I told her is not what I tell one of my Bala Batim in Shul, because she can't do everything and it's an impossibility, and we want to get her there. So, therefore, you have to be very careful in terms of saying what to say correctly, appropriately and, of course, being familiar with all the Psachim. And to be a good question, askerer, that just means being honest, like I just got to tell Rabbi all the different Not necessarily the more knowledgeable you are, the better your questions are right. Like Hazal say, or wherever the saying comes from, a person asks a good question. That means you understand and you appreciate. Whenever I teach, I tell people that part of your knowledge base is not to answer a Shiloh, but to be knowledgeable enough to know when to ask a question.

55:56 So therefore, the more knowledgeable you are, the more you can ask an intelligent and educated question. So therefore, anybody who's learning, and whatever it is that you're doing, the more you know, the more you know how to ask, what to ask, when to ask. Many people aren't asking Shilohs because they don't even know what it is a Shiloh. Many people who are asking Shilohs are the people who really do know, but they just don't know the bottom line. So therefore, it's critical to be knowledgeable, to be learning, but you can't ask in a Shiloh from a Kitzur Sefer. You have to know how to use Kitzur Serm too, and that's a whole separate discussion. I take it that you're not so in favor of people just learning halacha in maybe the said in a shorthand pamphlet, of learn Hilchah Shabbos in one minute or all of Hilchah's Erev in one minute.

56:44 It seems, maybe, like you're not such a fan of that, rabbi. Look, nothing is black and white. There are certainly benefits to the enormous amount of Kitzus from that existed both in Lashon HaKodesh and in English, and not everybody has the benefit of learning Hilch HaShabbah's B'in for four years. So you know the English set of, let's say, simcha Budim Kon and Hilch HaShabbah, six sound volumes, has created a revolution and a renaissance in learning halacha and understanding halacha. So I'm certainly a big proponent of that. But a person has to develop over time and hopefully will grow from point A to point B to point C. There are many times that somebody asks me Shaila, so I will rely on a Kitsa Safer. But you have to know what the Kitsa Sarma is quoting and you look up the primary sources that the Kitsa Sarma is quoting just regularly.

57:26 I can't say there's more than four or five times a week where I'll look in a Kitsa Safer. I'll look something up and the more you know the better you'll be able to issue a responsible psalak halacha to the person that you're speaking to. I want to ask controversial Rabbi. I want to ask controversial maybe one or two questions and then we'll let you go. Otherwise we'll never let you go. So I once got in trouble when I was a kid because I asked my dad if I could go out past my curfew and my dad, as the sages say, is a bit more midas hadin than midas harachamim, even though my dad is also midas harachamim.

58:16 He said no, it's past your bedtime and, son, you got to march it right upstairs and go to bed. So then I decided I'd ask my mom, because my mom is much more Midas Harachamim not that she also doesn't have a Midas Hadin inside but I was going for a second opinion from my leaders. But I was going for a second opinion from my leaders no-transcript that once you ask a shayla to a chacham, to a rav, to a posek, and he says that it's a shayla, you can't go to another Rav to ask the same Shalom.

59:14 That's prohibited, that's Asar. Why? Explicitly prohibited? Explicitly prohibited? That's the big machlokas. We've shown him why and that's going to have ramifications and applications. I don't think we could go into that now. But that's the sugi of Chacham Sh'asar, that's number one. Now if one Rav said it's mutter, it doesn't say that I can't go to another rav to ask and I want to be more machman that it should be asr. That's not prohibitive. But I think what you're asking and what many people are confused by is what we would call, let's say, shopping around for a psach, and that becomes much more complicated and, yes, it does lead to confusion. I will say that if you look in Shuvahs, you know you will see that there was rabbis who asked questions to multiple Rabbanim.

59:59 So if you make it clear at the outset, this is a question I'm going to ask a lot of people, so that is not necessarily prohibited. But if I'm asking a Shaila from one rabbi here and one rabbi there, it's really creating a conflict and a lack of confluence in a person's piské halacha, the same way I can't pask in, you know, svarti one day and Ashkenaz another day. There has to be a mesorah and there needs to be uniformity in piské halacha. And it's a big challenge today, because people aren't necessarily finding one person to ask. Now, on the other hand, not every rav is an expert in in all areas, and there's a Rav who's an expert in Gittin, there's a Rav who's an expert in Shabbos, there's a Rav who's an expert in Yeruday and there's a Rav who's an expert in.

1:00:53 So, yeah, we have to go to experts in different areas, but more often, sif way, it's ussered to ask different rabbis the same question, or different questions, not necessarily, but one thing is for sure that if you ask a rabbi a question and the psach is less, you can't ask another rabbi a lakot. I don't think that it's even that novel or that new, but it's interesting. Justin, in five years now, oh, we celebrated our. I celebrated my fourth anniversary just a couple weeks ago. I had an interesting thank you. Thank you, rabbi. I had an interesting observation that out of all of my 30 friends, or from my year in Yeshiva, everyone kind of moved up levels together and, thank god, almost everyone is married and and maybe has a child or two and starting out in a starter home or in a basement.

1:01:49 I observed, and I'd like to hypothesize, that those that were able to stay inside of the walls of Torah for a longer period of time are those with a Selech HaRav that have a clear-cut rabbi. There's no look. The Mishnah says twice a Selech HaRav. It says once a Selech HaRav is talik min asafik, make yourself a rabbi and you won't have doubt confusion. And it says so. It says twice in the first paraka of Mishnah. So they're showing him a dress. Why it says it twice? But I think the point that you're making is that that is not necessarily the, but it's the of giving a person direction, organization, clarity, how to live your life.

1:02:39 So, yes, it could be you have one rav who has shayim as two. It could be you have another rav who gives you hadrach and direction. More often than not, and sometimes it's the same person, sometimes it's two different people. Yeshiva has a rashiv and has a mashkiach. So there are a lot of different combinations in terms of how a person can, should are a lot of different combinations in terms of how a person can, should and will live their life appropriately, but certainly having direction and having a masorah and having a rabbi, um, these are all pieces that allow klaus to have the continuity that it does today so we've totally taken away the idea or even it was going to be one of my wacky business ventures of summarizing all of tour shulchan, arach, gemara, rambam, riff, mishnabura, taz shach bach, and arach has shulchan into artificial intelligence, creating like a robot that would know it all, and then I would master all that and put it into a bot and then sell it for 99 bucks a month.

1:03:40 You're a rabbi from AI, so we're saying that pretty much now. That's not going to be a very good product. The problem with that and I get this question all the time. You know, many, many Jewish websites have asked the rabbi, right? So what do I need a rabbi for? I could live in Timbuktu and just ask the rabbi. The answer is like we've described, that if the rabbi doesn't know you, you're missing an enormous part of the halachic process. And the same thing is true with AI. You could type in your question, you could get an answer and the answer might be relatively thorough, but you're missing the intangibles. What about the financial considerations? What about the emotional, psychological disorders? What about the financial considerations?

1:04:20 There are so many different elements. Balchuvah, you know where are you, who are you? Where are you headed? You know there are enormous amounts of complexities that need to be taken into account. Chumrah Akula, ikar Adin. All of these things are not going to be able to be addressed properly because you're only looking at it as a she'il and a tshuva question and answer, not as a sho'el and meshuv the questioner and the respondent. I'm going to tank that business idea, sorry. Last question, rabbi, I promise. So I have 30 minutes a day. I can learn halacha. Now I'm overwhelmed. What should I learn? I have 30 minutes a day. I can learn halacha. Now I'm overwhelmed. What should I learn? I have 30 minutes a day. I wake up davening. Let's say I'm davening at 7 o'clock if I'm on time.

1:05:02 Otherwise I'll hit up the 7.30 if I make it to that one. But either way I get a half hour before davening. I can learn halacha. What should I learn? That lets me know how to act as a proper Jew. I don't think there's a one answer response. I think it depends who you are. I was moving the rabbit. I wouldn't say that. It depends who you are and where you're holding your life. I think it's different if you're single or if you're married, you know, if you have a home. There are issues of kashrus, there are issues of ta'as and mishpacha. I'm married, I have a home, I have two children and I want to know law. So it probably depends again who you are. How are you spending your time If you're a businessman, so, are you familiar with Halachas of Choshe Mishpat?

1:05:48 Are you familiar with Schiras Payalim? Are you familiar with the Halachas of Shotfos? Maybe you need to learn Havas Chesed. That's an area that's critical. One book Abay. What's the one book I could get? That the best idea that obviously there's a lot of good ones Is it. Mishnebura. Would you advise or? Hasholchan? Not necessarily either. That's the truth. I think for somebody like that it could be. It depends what works for you. For one person, it might be the English shorthand book you know, the kosher kitchen. That might be what you need today. For somebody else, it might be the shorthand book on Hilch HaShabbos. For another person it might be going through Mishnah Brewer. The most important thing that needs to be said is there's no one trick and no quick fix.

1:06:28 And Bez V'shashem we have till 120, and a person needs to set up a seder hayom and needs to set up a schedule and needs to set up goals, and you can't finish everything in a day, and not a week, and not a month and a year, and not in five years or in ten years. But the same way we're going through whatever it is Mishnah Yesen Gemara and whatever we're trying to accomplish and finish. The same thing is true in Halacha. A person has to systematically set up a system in all areas of their learning to make sure that they're getting somewhere where they're supposed to get. So I can't tell you if, if, if I knew you, maybe I could tell you, and that's where I could tell you that this is an area that you need to be focusing on, because I see the shahazir asking me you're, you're, you're missing it, you're not getting Hilchashabas at all or you know you're not saying the right brachas.

1:07:16 So therefore, you know, knowing the individual and knowing where the person is and who they are and what they can do and how much time they have, should certainly play a role in knowing what you should be learning. But there's no question that G'dol Ha'Aposke, the Mishn Barayetzin's introduction, that a person should be halacha, person should learn practical halacha. Person has to know halacha and hopefully we'll be able to fulfill dvar Hashem zuhalacha. That's the goal, that's what we're here for. Psiata Deshmayah, we'll all get there. Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. Oh, my goodness, Rabbi, I have so many more questions. I'm going to have to let you go, otherwise I'm not going to make the Mincha. That's the last one before nightfall. But out of your three books, we've only touched on part of the chapter.

1:08:02 So the audience this is not a paid promotion. This is an honest person that likes when things make sense and you can tell that a lot of effort and wisdom is inside of a book Definitely the audience it's me talking for myself should buy the Making of Halachic Decision. And there is an entire another conversation that I hope we'll have which we didn't even touch on customs. We didn't even touch on minhagim and where that fits in, and there is another book from Rabbi Walter about that. But hopefully we will wait to talk about that in the coming weeks, if not months, whenever it is that we get Rabbi Walter back on the program. Rabbi Walter, thank you for your time, Thank you for gracing us with your wisdom and much haslacha to you and to your entire family and community.

1:08:50 Great talking to you, as always, and I'll be back next time. Amen, Amen. I really. I enjoyed that. Like I could have kept going and going, and going. It's a topic that people are very, very taken by Anytime I speak about this and it causes a lot of discussion and questions. So I hope your hope, your listeners will tap into it. What do you think? Don't I dwell too much? I knew that you wanted to maybe get on to part two more. Yeah, but you know what you want to do. I trust you. You're a pro, I'm not going to. You know what I mean? Right, this rabbi thing. Rabbi Lezevnik, I'm presidential states and Lakewood. Here it is.

1:09:32 Every time I call him, he's quickly, he's accessible. The main thing I forgot to say is it makes me feel like I have a place. The rabbis inquire, he inquires about my whereabouts. So even all my friends are in basements and they're diving at a steeple. So they have a diving, they have a minion. There's no, they don't have a Mokom Kavua, they don't have someone who asks about. Like I was going to go to Miami, maybe start. If you introduce the podcast, start with that. That's such a thing that you just said. This is a big, big problem in Lakewood. I know firsthand that there's a lack of rabbinic leadership and people are lost. So I don't know. If you do an outtake, an intake, whatever you call it, that might be a great way to start, because it's missing today.

1:10:17 I know that, rabbi, you're a big believer in this idea. One of the best Marimba Komos I found on this is it was a good convention at the beginning, like when Rabshneir Cutler, I think Rabaran's father, when he was in charge. He made a psalm Back when they were saying don't open restaurants, what's the one thing that Lakewood needs? He said that no shul should open in Lakewood without a ruff, otherwise it'll take us down. I think Rybiakov Kamenetsky famously said a shul without a ruff is a boar burshosa rabbit. So we got to find a way to. I'm still recording, so I got to find a way to put that in. Yeah, that's, that's. You know, I could start with that, but these are all. These are all critical things. These are all big things and I think the communities are beginning to realize that more and more the importance of having a rough.

1:11:03 So I hope this will help in small parts in getting us all there. This is good. I went to another community and it was just a disaster what was going on, but there was no rabbi. That's why the loudest balabash wins. Yeah, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. I'm happy you're realizing that, I'm happy you're saying that and you should make that clear. Very, very critical. Okay, this is going to have to be the trailer or the outtake, but now my hands are up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah, I would start there for sure. Okay, it's the word of if you're interested, I have a podcast for Shiloh the week podcast. If you want to link it, send everything what that will do is it shows people how you get from A to B very much.

1:11:48 Send over the links to the podcast, send over all the information, and I'm going to link everything and make a trailer for it and put it in the bottom. Thank you, rabbi.