Torah Podcast with HaRav Borowski

Right before Hoshana Rabbah a man in Eretz Yisroel called with a shailah. Rain was expected over Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, which in Eretz Yisroel are one day, and he was leaving to spend Yom Tov at his parents' house. He wanted to take his sukkah down before he went. The Mishnah says gamar le'echol, lo yatir es sukkaso, and the Rishonim give three different reasons for it.

In this episode:

- Rashi's ta'am, that the whole day is still for sleeping and learning in the sukkah, and why the Tur and the Mishnah Berurah bring only his reason

- Whether eating in a sukkas chaveiro is a tza'ar, and whether a son at his parents' house is echad mi'bnei beisam

- The Ran's chiddush that a person needs a sukkah kol shiv'a: a mitzvah of binyan sukkah or only a hechsher mitzvah, and why you are pocheis bo daled al daled

- Reb Shlomo Zalman and Rav Elyashiv on the Ran, the Meiri's bizuy mitzvah and prikas ol, and the Chashukei Chemed on taking down the s'chach in the rain

- Why the Torah begins with Bereishis: the Ramban on the geirushin of Adam HaRishon, the Dor HaMabul and the Dor HaFlaga, and ki ba'avodaso yinchaluha

Sources: Mishnah Sukkah 48, Rashi, Ritva, Rema OC 640:4 and Mishnah Berurah, Tur and Mishnah Berurah OC 666, Ran, Divrei Menachem (Rav Menachem Mendel Kasher), Gemara and Rashi Makkos 8, Rema OC 624, Tosafos, Minchas Shlomo, Orchos Ish (Rav Elyashiv), Meiri, Rabbeinu Yonah, Semag, Rabbeinu Chananel, Chashukei Chemed (Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein, Sukkah 48), the Gra on the Rashba. Machshavah section: Rashi (Bereishis 1:1), Ramban (Bereishis 1:1 and 1:10).

An apartment building in Washington D.C. with no place to put up a sukkah, so the meals are eaten in the shul sukkah. Rav Hai Gaon was asked about exactly this case, and he answered that one makes the bracha there but is not yotzei his chiyuv. That answer opens up what the mitzvah of yeshivas sukkah for all seven days really is, beyond the k'zayis of the first night.

In this episode:

- The Rambam's "ochel v'shoseh v'dar," the Rema's "yashen u'metayel," and what metayel actually means in a sukkah of zayin al zayin

- The sukkah takes the place of the dining room, living room and bedroom, but not the kitchen, and whether to set a tablecloth in the house

- The Ramban on "kol ha'ezrach b'Yisrael," and why the shul sukkah earns a bracha but not the mitzvah

- Why we make leishev basukkah every day of Sukkos but no bracha on matzah after the first night, and whether the other days carry a real chiyuv

- Sukkah or lulav when you can only have one, and whether a family member building the sukkah is mitzvah bo yoser mib'shlucho

Sources: Rambam Hilchos Sukkah 6:5-6, Shulchan Aruch and Rema OC 639, Hilchos Chag B'Chag (Rav Moshe Mordechai Karp), Mishnah Berurah, Pri Megadim, Eliyahu Rabbah, Mateh Efraim, Rashba (Beitzah 30), Sifra with Raavad and Rashash, Ritz Geiyas citing Rav Hai Gaon, Magen Avraham citing the Maharil, Tosafos Rabbeinu Yehuda MiShirleon (Brachos), Abudraham (Birkas Sukkah), Ba'al HaMa'or (end of Pesachim) with Gilyonei HaShas (Sukkah 27), Chasam Sofer OC 639, Rav Shlomo Eiger (Sefer HaIkkarim), Ritva (Sukkah 27), K'tzei HaMateh, Pri Megadim 624-625. Machshavah section: Ramban (Emor 23:42).

On the first night of Sukkos there is a chiyuv to eat in the sukkah that no other night of the Yom Tov carries, learned from leil Pesach through the gezeirah shava of tes vav tes vav. The rishonim argue over what that limud brings along with it: the shiur, the zman, and whether it holds even when the rain is coming down. And when it does rain, a family and guests are sitting at the table waiting to eat.

In this episode:

- K'zayis or yoser mi'k'beitza, and why the Mishnah Berurah wants us to be choshesh for the other rishonim

- Whether lechem oni, matzaschem and the zman of chatzos carry over from matzah to the sukkah, and whether honey on the challah is a problem

- Why the Rema says not to eat from chatzos on Erev Sukkos, earlier than Erev Pesach

- Rain on leil rishon: kiddush in the sukkah, shehecheyanu without leishev, and how long to wait for the rain to stop

- The Sha'ar HaTziyun on guests and aniyim, and the issur of ba'al te'acher

- Why Parshas Emor and Parshas Pinchas list sukkah and the daled minim only after closing the moadim

Sources: Tosafos (Brachos 49), Ran (Sukkah 27), Ritva, Tur, Shulchan Aruch and Rema OC 639:3 and 639:5, Darkei Moshe, Pri Megadim, Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Halichos Shlomo, Moadim) citing the Yad Eliyahu, Mateh Efraim 625, Taz, Rashba, Biur HaGra and Maaseh Rav, Chayei Adam, Mishnah Berurah and Sha'ar HaTziyun 639:67. Machshavah section: Vayikra 23 (Emor), Bamidbar 29 (Pinchas), Medrash on v'samachta, Vayikra Rabbah (Emor), Ramban (Emor).

In perek zayin of Hilchos Teshuvah the Rambam writes that since every person is a baal bechirah, he should be mishtadel to do teshuvah and lena'er kapav me'chet, so that he dies a baal teshuvah and merits chayei olam haba. One sentence, and four kashos: what bechirah has to do with it, why "yishtadel" when teshuvah is a chiyuv, why the ikar seems to be lifnei misasav when perek beis says teshuvah gemurah is miyad, and how olam haba can be the reason when perek yud calls avodah al menas lekabel schar a lower madreigah. In this Shabbos Shuva drasha the Rav works through each one.

In this episode:

- Why the Rambam says one must do teshuvah even from deos ra'os, when Hilchos Deos only asks us to keep recalibrating to the derech ha'emtza'is

- What being b'tzelem Elokim means for the world a person builds with his own actions

- Schar mitzvah mitzvah and the Ramban's pshat in al menas lekabel pras

- Ya'azov rasha darko ve'ish aven machshevosav, and the shofar's call of uru yesheinim mi'shnaschem

- Konam einai b'sheinah, mehalech k'omed, and a mussar on davening with chiyus

Sources: Rambam Hilchos Teshuvah 7:1-3, 1:1, 2:1-2, 3:4, 5, 10; Hilchos Deos 1; Avos 1:3; Yeshayahu 55; Nedarim (konam einai b'sheinah); Shabbos (mehalech k'omed, Ben Azzai) with Tosafos; Rebbe Akiva Eiger. Machshavah section: Gra on tzelem Elokim, Reb Chaim Volozhiner, hakdamah to Shir HaShirim attributed to the Ramban, Reb Leibele Eiger.

This year Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, and that changes the day from the inside out. There is no shofar. The tefillah runs five, six, sometimes eight hours, so the two Shabbos seudos are squeezed into what is left of the afternoon — and mitzad Shabbos a third seudah is still owed. The Mateh Efraim's answer is to take the one seudah you planned and split it into two, which the Rema in siman Reish Tzadi Aleph would rather you not do at all.

In this episode:

- If davening ends at two o'clock, how do you fit shalosh seudos in — and is splitting the morning seudah in half a genuine hefsek or a berachah she'eina tzricha?

- Forgot Retzei, or Ya'aleh V'yavo, at shalosh seudos — do you go back and bentsch again?

- Why do we say Zichron Teruah instead of Yom Teruah on Shabbos, and b'dieved, if you said the wrong one, are you yotzei?

- Who was ever permitted to blow shofar on Shabbos after the churban — and what happened when the Lev Ivri tried to bring it back in Yerushalayim in 1882?

- Why is there no Avinu Malkeinu on Shabbos, and may a person ask for his own private needs on the Yom HaDin at all?

Sources: OC 291 (Rema, Mishnah Berurah, Kaf HaChaim b'sheim the mekubalim), Mateh Efraim Hilchos Rosh Hashanah, Ashrei Ish OC vol. 3 (minhag Rav Elyashiv), OC 588:5, OC 581:3 with Sha'ar HaTziyun s"k 35, Pri Chadash, Magen Avraham, Mishnah Rosh Hashanah perek 4 with Rashi, Rambam and Rif, Rosh (beginning of perek 4), Ir HaKodesh V'HaMikdash (Rav Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky). Machshavah section: the Ran and the Gra on the zman of Selichos, Medrash on briyas Adam HaRishon, Pesachim 118a with the Maharsha, Nefesh HaChaim sha'ar aleph, Avodah Zarah 8a.

The second shiur on inyanei Elul, a week before Selichos begin Motzei Shabbos Parshas Nitzavim. It starts with the four minhagim of when Selichos start — Rosh Chodesh Elul, the Sunday before Rosh Hashanah, Tes Vav Elul, or only in Aseres Yemei Teshuvah — and then works through the practical questions that come up every year: what hour of the night, what happens when a man has only one of the two options, and what a person who walks in late is actually obligated to say.

In this episode:

- Rav Moshe was asked about a place where it was dangerous to be out after chatzos — may they say Selichos early in the night, and why does he call it a hora'as sha'ah that has to be written down and not turned into a heter?

- Chatzos halayla or ashmores haboker — is one the l'chatchila zman, and if the yeshiva davens at 7:30 and you get up at 7:00, is that enough?

- Ashrei and the Kaddish before the Yud Gimmel Midos — do they also have to wait until chatzos, and if you came late, do you say Ashrei or catch up to the tzibur?

- The shatz wraps in a tallis at night like Hakadosh Baruch Hu was misatef b'taliso — does he make a brachah, and why is it better that someone else hand it to him?

- A minyan in an avel's house or the beis knesses — where is tefillah more mekubal, and when is going to the avel the right thing anyway?

- Why the ba'al tefillah for Selichos also davens Shacharis, Mincha and Maariv — hamaschil b'mitzvah omrim lo g'mor on a tefillah that is a mitzvah bifnei atzmo?

- Vidui on Motzei Shabbos before chatzos — the one thing everyone starting early has to be careful about.

Sources: Tur OC 581, Shulchan Aruch and Rama OC 581, Rambam (Hilchos Teshuvah, and Hilchos De'os), Abudarham brought by the Mateh Efraim, Magen Avraham OC 565 s"k 5, Igros Moshe OC 2:105, Mateh Efraim, Aruch Hashulchan OC 581, Halichos Shlomo (Yomim Nora'im, Tishrei; and Tefillah), Sefer Mishmeres Shalom, Taz, Shaarei Efraim, Levush OC 581, Darkei Moshe, Chasam Sofer, Kovetz Halachos, Likkutei Maharich, Minhagei Maharil, with mesoros quoted b'shem Rav Elyashiv, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky. Machshavah section: Rosh Hashanah 17b (and Rashi, daf 17), Maharsha, Maharal (Be'er Hagolah, Be'er Daled), Ramban (Parshas Mishpatim), Rabbeinu Bechaye (Parshas Ki Sisa), Tomer Devorah (Ramak), Gemara Shabbos on "ani v'hu," and a mesorah b'shem Rav Moshe Shapiro.

We're a week and a bit into Elul, and the shiur goes through siman 581 from the top — the minhagim everyone keeps without necessarily knowing where they come from. When exactly the tkias starts, whether it's once a day or twice, what happens when the shul has no shofar or no ba'al tokea, and where L'Dovid Hashem Ori sits in davening once Barchi Nafshi and Anim Zemiros are also on the table. The second half turns to the machshavah: why the remazim of Elul all point at tzedaka and ichud, and what that has to do with kabalas malchuyos on Rosh Hashanah.

In this episode:

- Tkias shofar by Arvis — does the Chayei Adam's "likras erev" mean Mincha, or is it Maariv mamash like the Mateh Efraim, even on Motzei Shabbos?

- Your shul has no ba'al tokea by Shachris — do you blow b'yachid, do you catch it at Mincha, and may a katan be the one to blow?

- Tashrat every day, or Tashrat-Tashat-Tarat, or 30 kolos on Rosh Chodesh — and why the first day of Rosh Chodesh is the nekudah?

- L'Dovid Hashem Ori: until Yom Kippur, Hoshana Rabbah or Shmini Atzeres, before or after Barchi Nafshi and Anim Zemiros — and why minhag Frankfurt and the Gra don't say it at all?

- Why "u'mishloach manos ish l're'ehu u'matanos la'evyonim" is a remez to Elul — and how becoming a "lo" is the hachana for malchuyos.

Sources: Tur OC 581, Shulchan Aruch and Rama OC 581, Mishnah Berurah (incl. s"k 2), Magen Avraham, Chayei Adam (Hilchos Rosh Hashanah), Mateh Efraim, Bach (end of the siman) and Sefer HaAruch, Levush, Igros Moshe OC 4:21 os 9, Ma'aseh Rav (Gra), Nimukei Orach Chaim, Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer, with mesoros quoted from Rav Moshe Sternbuch and Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky. Machshavah section: Be'er Heitev 581:10 quoting Minhagei Maharil (Hilchos Yamim Noraim), Shem MiShmuel (Parshas Shoftim), Ba'al HaCharedim on Megillas Esther, Chasam Sofer, Rambam (Sefer HaMitzvos mitzvah 173, Hilchos Melachim), Megaleh Amukos.