תשובת בית אפרים על ברכת כהנים בכל יום לבני אשכנז

1

In this post בעז"ה we will analyze the תשובה of the בית אפרים (או"ח שאלה ו) regarding why אשכנזים don't perform ברכת כהנים daily. In the main text of this post, we will present the body of the תשובה and in the footnotes I write some of my comments. A further discussion of the material presented here will בעז"ה appear in a future post.

2

As of the writing of this תשובה, the current מנהג is at least 500 years old. תשבץ קטן (הנהגות of the מהרם of Rothenburg) mentions in passing that ברכת כהנים is no longer performed daily.

This is confirmed by the כל בו (סי' יא) who also writes (סי' קכה) that "we don't perform ברכת כהנים daily because of טורח ציבור [1]".

So, as well, paskened מהריל [2], and the אגור [2] and the דרכי משה [3] and the רמא [3] and the טז [4]; and even though the מגן אברהם frowned upon the רמא, still is seems from what they say that we should not budge from the מנהג.

Even the בית יוסף, who, in other places, is מבטל מנהגים, here he does say to do so, because he himself agrees (says the בית אפרים) that where such is the מנהג, don't be מבטל the מנהג, as they accepted a חומרא upon themselves to טובל, and since at least there is no formal איסור, as the בית יוסף himself agrees, who can possibly be strong enough to be מבטל the מנהג, even were they to be as great as the בית יוסף? Rather, since the מנהג was established by ותיקים (so the בית אפרים assumes) and was practiced in the presence of גדולי הראשונים (the מהרם of Rothenburg, his תלמיד the תשבץ, the כל בו, the אגור, the מהריל, the רמא, the לבוש, the טז, the מגן אברהם and all other גדולי הדורות until our generation) no one made a move about it.

Not only that, says the בית אפרים, even if the reason were to be entirely hidden from us, and certainly there are reasons, and there is no formal איסור, we must listen to what they say and we mustn't change [5].

3

The בית אפרים then goes to great lengths to prove. based on a סוגיא in כתובות דף כד, as well as רמבם in  איסורי ביאה פרק כ הלכה א that כהנים today are only ספק כהנים, unless they have כתבי יחוס.

Now, the גמרא there says that a זר who performs ברכת כהנים is עובר an עשה. This being the case, how can we ask a ספק כהן ספק זר to perform ברכת כהנים and be עובר an עשה?

Not only that, but they will end up making a ברכה לבטלה!

4

Additionally, a זר who blesses is עובר an עשה for a ישראל to be blessed; and ברכת כהנים must be face to face, so where a ישראל performs ברכת כהנים, he is not face to face with the כהנים, so it is obvious that כהני ספק cannot offer a ברכה as a result of 3 איסורים: only a כהן can offer a ברכה; a ישראל is commanded to receive the ברכה from the כהן; and ברכה לבטלה.

5

At this point we reach a simple problem: if we assume that all self-identifying כהנים are possibly זרים then how can we ever perform ברכת כהנים at all? This is especially problematic for those who do so daily!

בית אפרים answers that those who performs ברכת כהנים daily have a חזקה that they were indeed כהנים and no one necessarily took that חזקה away. However, once we've already stopped performing ברכת כהנים daily we lost that חזקה, and we can no longer reinstate it.

As for בני אשכנז who perform ברכת כהנים on יו"ט, they do so as a זכר, just so that the idea and concept of ברכת כהנים should not be forgotten. [6]

6

Now, the reason why בני ארץ ישראל ומצרים kept their חזקה is because they were not tossed around from place to place over the course of גלות, as opposed to אשכנזים who were expelled from one country to another so for them there is significant concern of יחוס mix-up.

7

Lastly, there is an issue of זלזול against our predecessors: many גדולים מחבבי מצוה who were כהנים such as שארית יוסף ,שך ,סמע never thought to change the status quo.

8

A further analysis of the בית אפרים's thesis will be presented in a future post בעז"ה.

[1] טורח ציבור would not seem to be a valid reason to disregard a מצוה. I am puzzled why, according to this reasoning, ברכת כהנים would be the first section of תפלה that must be canceled, as it is the one portion of תפלה which is דאורייתא

[2] (מהריל (תשובה חדשה כז suggests that the reason why ברכת כהנים is not performed daily is because the כהנים have a מנהג to טובל, and in the winter season it is too cold to so. (בית יוסף (או"ח סוף סימן קכח, however, points out that טבילה prior to ברכת כהנים is a חומרא; inability to perform a מצוה in the best possible way should not prevent the מצוה from being performed at all.

[3] The רמא (both in דרכי משה and in שו"ע) says that the reason we do not perform ברכת כהנים is because there is a requirement for the כהנים to be happy and today our minds are too preoccupied with making a living to be happy. The problem with this reasoning is that the רמא does not offer any source for such a  requirement.

[4] The טז does not offer an independent פסק to only perform ברכת כהנים on יו"ט. I am unsure to what פסק the בית אפרים refers.

[5] This would not seem to be in line with the דרך ההלכה. We do not simply follow פסק blindly in all situations, rather, we are enjoined by the very nature of the process of פסיקת ההלכה to give and take, ask questions, and, where we feel ourselves competently qualified, to disagree wherever we perceive the truth to be different than how it is being presented to us. Indeed, this is what the בעלי המסורה engage in on a constant basis throughout all of שס ופוסקים! Such being the case, I don't understand why the בית אפרים is suddenly changing his approach from the approach of the מסורת ההלכה.

[6] This would not seem to be a satisfactory justification for the אשכנזי practice, if, as the בית אפרים said before, it is אסור for a זר to perform ברכת כהנים.

An Interesting Crossover of מנהג אשכנז and מנהג ספרד(ים) Cont'd

In a previous post, we discussed a tune for אדון עולם which was used by both ספרדים and אשכנזים.

ישראל Strauss shared with me that Chazon Frankel (Official Chazon of KAJ from 1949 until his retirement in 1989) often used the very same tune for אדון עולם as well. Chazon Frankel grew up in Hamburg, which was host to a sizable Spanish-Portuguese community; presumably he would have picked it up there and "imported" it to KAJ.

מנהג אשכנז and מנהג ספרד(ים) An Interesting Crossover

Mendy Meyer shared with me that a commenter on his website pointed to two renditions of the identical tune for אדון עולם, which is sung in אשכנזי pronunciation here and ספרדי pronunciation here.

This tune was composed by David Aaron de Sola, Minister (rabbi/Hazzan) at the Bevis Marks Congregation in London. It was also used at the Portuguese Shul in Amsterdam. It would seem (my guess) to have been "borrowed" by the אשכנזים in Amsterdam, from where it spread to אשכנזי communities elsewhere.

Amsterdam, of all communities, would be an easy breeding ground for such cross-cultural influencing, as the city was host to historically active אשכנזי and ספרדי קהילות. (See, for example, here and here)

See here for a slightly alternate rendition by דניאל חלפון.

טעם למנהג אכילת מאכלים חלביים בחנוכה

1

רמא (או"ח תרע:ב) brings a יש אומרים (כל בו ור"ן) that one should eat cheese on חנוכה, because part of the נס was effected through יהודית who fed the enemy general cheese, thereby putting him to sleep and killing him.

Until now, we have seen that there is a מנהג to eat cheese as a direct זכר to what יהודית accomplished. לבוש, however, adds that the זכר is not specifically eating cheese, but rather falling asleep as a result of eating cheese.

2

All of the above is assuming that the aforementioned episode was contemporaneous to the גזירות preceding the נס חנוכה. However, בן איש חי [1] disagrees and says that this story was not connected to נס חנוכה. Rather, he offers a different reason to eat dairy, namely, that Antiochus outlawed [2] שבת,  ראש חודש, and ברית מילה. The first letter of חודש, the second letter of שבת and the third letter of מילה combine to spell חלב.

3

בני יששכר (מאמר ג סי' מב) offers a different reason, namely, that the Greeks wanted to eliminate observance of the תורה from כלל ישראל, so in that way חנוכה is like a new giving of the תורה, and just like on שבועות there is a מנהג to eat dairy, [3] so too on חנוכה.

[1] I was not able to figure out how to navigate a בן איש חי in order to locate this reference, however it is identified as being on page 44 by R. Abraham Chill in The Minhagim (Ktav 2018; chapter on חנוכה, last footnote).

[2] The purpose of outlawing ראש חודש would seem to have been that without קידוש החודש there would, by extension, be no ימים טובים.

[3] In greater detail, where משה רבינו went to שמים to receive the תורה, the מלאכים tried to keep it for themselves. One of משה's claims against them was that the מלאכים ate בשר בחלב at אברהם's home, so they were therefore no longer worthy of the תורה being theirs. אברהם in fact did so purposely, in order for משה to have this claim. This is (one reason) why we eat dairy on שבועות. Since נס חנוכה is כעין נתינת התורה, therefore 'ה orchestrated the נס חנוכה to be partly effected by dairy, resembling the original נתינת התורה.

ברכת כהנים בכל יום כפי מנהג בני אשכנז

 1

There is a מצות עשה for כהנים to bless כלל ישראל daily, using the specific text of the ברכה which they are instructed to offer at the original ציווי of this מצוה. This מצוה is for generations, meaning, the מצוה always applies. (See במדבר ו:כב-כז and מפרשים on פסוק כג particularly.)

This being true, we must be puzzled at the practice of אשכנזים (outside of ארץ ישראל) who only perform ברכת כהנים on יום טוב. In this article, we attempt to trace the origins and development of the אשכנזי practice and offer what justification we can therefor.

2.1

We begin with the רמא (או"ח קכח:מד):

נהגו בכל מדינות אלו שאין נושאין כפים חוץ מבי"ט משום שאז שרוים בשמחת י"ט וטוב לב הוא יברך משא"כ בשאר ימים אפי' בשבתות השנה שטרודים בהרהורים על מחייתם ועל ביטול מלאכתם. ואפי' בי"ט אין נושאין כפים חוץ מבתפלת מוסף שיוצאים אז מבית הכנסת וישמחו בשמחת י"ט

The רמא is assuming a requirement of שמחה in order to fulfill the מצוה. Because in these {European} countries people are preoccupied with their livelihoods, they lack שמחה, so the entire מצוה is completely unfulfillable. We therefore should only perform ברכת כהנים on יו"ט, where people are generally experiencing שמחת יו"ט, so the שמחה requirement is satisfied.

The רמא does not offer a source in שס for the requirement of שמחה, so צ"ע why this is sufficient grounds to seemingly do away with a מצות עשה.

2.2

We next turn to a תשובה of the מהריל (חדשות סי' כא): the מהריל was indeed asked this very question, namely, why, in אשכנזי communities, there is not ברכת כהנים daily if, after all, it is a מצות עשה ; -?-  and he answered that the כהנים have a מנהג to טובל prior to ברכת כהנים, and in the winter it is difficult to טובל every day. (In Oriental/Mediterranean climates this would not be a significant problem, which would explain, according to this reasoning, why ספרדים indeed perform ברכת כהנים daily.) Therefore the מנהג developed to only perform ברכת כהנים on יו"ט. Another reason offered by the מהריל is that daily ברכת כהנים would cause people to lose work. Whereas, on the other hand, if a כהן is not formally called to ברכת כהנים, he is not עובר the עשה.

In response to this תשובה, the בית יוסף (או"ח קכח:מד) says the מהריל pushed himself to justify the custom of his place, but he did not, indeed, sufficiently justify it that it should be able to stand its ground, because טבילה before ברכת כהנים is a חומרא which leads to a קולא, and the מהריל pins what is stated on what is not stated, in that טבילה before ברכת כהנים is not mentioned in the גמרא, and if they were נוהג to טובל, why, as a result of not being able to do so, should they be מבטל 3 מצוות עשה each day? And even though the כהנים are not עובר an עשה if they are not officially called to perform ברכת כהנים, still, better they shouldn't טובל and rather fulfill a מצות עשה. The בית יוסף there also praises the בני ארץ ישראל ומצרים who do perform ברכת כהנים daily, even without טבילה.

באר היטב adds to this: וכך ראוי ונכון לנהוג בכל מקום. (This is especially out of character, as באר היטב normally summarizes the נושאי כלים on the given topic, without adding significant independent comments.)

On this the דרכי משה (שם ס"ק כא) criticizes the מהריל for considering the primary reason why אשכנזים don't perform ברכת כהנים daily, namely causing people to miss work and thereby to be lacking in שמחה, to be secondary, while regarding the secondary reason, namely lack of ability to טובל, to be primary. The דרכי משה here would seem to be consistent with the רמא in שו"ע that we mentioned previously, in which case, again, the same צ"ע applies, namely, there wouldn't seem to be a דין of שמחה that prevents the fulfillment of the מצוה.

2.3

(מטה משה (סי' קצט offers a reason that in some places the gentiles create disturbances during ברכת כהנים.

If this is true, then wherever the gentiles leave us alone we should indeed perform ברכת כהנים daily as we are commanded to. Additionally, what occurs in some places would not seem to be a sufficient explanation for all אשכנזי communities.

2.4

We now turn to the ערוך השלחן (או"ח קכח:סד), who is by far the most outspoken critic of the אשכנזי practice to only perform ברכת כהנים on יו"ט. Here is his response to the רמא quoted above:

והנה וודאי אין שום טעם נכון למנהגינו לבטל מצות עשה דברכת כהנים כל השנה כולה. וכתבו דמנהג גרוע הוא. אבל מה נעשה וכאילו בת קול יצא שלא להניח לנו לישא כפים בכל השנה כולה. ומקובלני ששני גדולי הדור בדורות שלפנינו, כל אחד במקומו רצה להנהיג נשיאת כפים בכל יום. וכשהגבילו יום המוגבל לזה, נתבלבל הענין ולא עלה להם. ואמרו שרואים כי מן השמים נגזרה כן

ערוך השלחן does not specify who it was that attempted to institute daily ברכת כהנים, however, משיב דבר (ח"ב סי' כד) informs us that the גרא planned to institute ברכת כהנים daily and he was imprisoned on charges of illegally sending funds to א"י. Subsequently, ר חיים וואלאזזענער officially designated a specific date as the formal start of daily ברכת כהנים and half the city, including the shul, burnt down. Upon reflection, they saw that there is some secret in the descent of השפעת הברכה through ברכת כהנים while the precise reason is, as yet, unknown.

2.5

The same critical view as the ערוך השלחן is expressed by שו"ע הרב:

וכל טעמים אלו הם ליישב המנהג, אף שאין בהם כדאי לבטל מצות עשה של תורה

3

In conclusion, there is minimal (at best) halachic basis for the אשכנזי practice in חו"ל to only perform ברכת כהנים on יו"ט. However, those who have tried in the past to change the status quo have been clearly punishes from Heaven.

והלואי שכולנו נתקבץ מארבע כנפות הארץ לארצנו, ונזכה לברך ולהתברך כמו שמצווה עלינו בתורתנו הקדושה בקרוב ממש אמן

Credit is due my rebbi ר דוד Cynamon for suggesting this topic and directing me to many of the relevant sources.

Appendix

There is a vast material of Responsa literature dealing with our very topic from a variety of angles and perspectives. בע"ה they will be discussed in our next post(s) at great length.

There are, as well, theological questions raised by the phenomenon of apparent Heavenly disapproval of קיום המצות which require an elaboration of their own. ובס"ד נגיע לזה בעתיד הקרוב

Future topic suggestions from readers and the general public are welcome.

לקט מנהגי ימים נוראים - ב

3 points not directly related to each other

1

In my last post, I mentioned (in the last footnote) that the congregation sits during תקיעות דמיושב in KAJ. This is a mistake, which ישראל Strauss thankfully caught me on: the congregation does indeed stand as is (to my awareness) almost universally practiced; the מגביהים holding the ספרי תורה sit, as opposed to other קהילות where the מגביהים return to their seats and the ספרי תורה are placed on the בימה.

This is, however, the practice at the Portuguese shul in Amsterdam [1].

(The reason why תקיעות דמיושב are referred to as דמיושב even though the congregation stands for the duration of those תקיעות will בע"ה be the subject of another post in the future.)

2

The פוסקים (specifically the מחבר and שו"ע הרב או"ח תקצ:ב ועיין מ"ב שם) describe the שופר sound as a wail. I have frequently wondered why the sound is described as such, being that most (if not all) of the תקיעות that are blown by the average בעל תוקע resemble a beep rather than a wail.

I later came across a recording of תקיעת שופר at the Bevis Marks shul in London. (Perhaps this series of תקיעות was staged on a weekday for the purposes of the recording or perhaps a gentile recorded on יו"ט itself.)

Here is a link to the recording:

http://www.londonsephardimusic.org/files/Music/RH/01c_WS2_ShofarBlowing.mp3

For a alternate form of "wailing" תקיעות, see here:

https://www.chazzanut-esnoga.org/high_festivals/RH-parasa.htm

3

Over the years I have observed many people experiencing only one emotion during ראש השנה, namely, a seriousness in awe of יום הדין. Indeed, there is certainly what to be serious about and this point does not need me to say it. Even a superficial look at such source texts as ונתנה תקף will cause such a feeling. I only point out another aspect of ר"ה which is perhaps frequently ignored, or, at best, not focused on, and that is, that aside from the seriousness and severity of יום הדין, there is an additional 'theme' to the יו"ט, namely the joy [2] of crowning הקב"ה as King of the world.

This point is not Chasidic in nature (as perhaps could be assumed). I will point out to you a מעשה רב of the גרא [3] in which this idea is illustrated:

אדמור (הגרא) שמח למאד בעת תקיעת שופר, כי כך אמר שצריך להיות ברוב שמחה וחדוה, כדוגמת המדינה שממליכים מלך ומעטרים אותו, כך אנחנו בתקיעת שופר ממליכים להקב"ה

Indeed, at שלמה's coronation, a שופר was blown, at which point the nation said יחי המלך שלמה and they were שמחים שמחה גדולה [4].

[1] https://www.chazzanut-esnoga.org/high_festivals/RH-parasa.htm

[2] Only a quick Google search is necessary to observe what elaborate festivities are conducted at the coronation of a monarch, and indeed, at the inauguration of democratic leaders as well.

[3] אות רו

[4] מלכים-א א:לח-לט

לקט מנהגי ימים נוראים - א - תפלות קודם תקיעות דמיושב

We will investigate the origins of the מנהג to say תפלות before and (בע"ה in a future post) after תקיעת שופר.

1

שולחן ערוך (או"ח תקפה:א-ב) only mentions the ברכות of לשמוע קול שופר and שהחיינו.

Yet, the practice of first saying מזמור מז seven times is (to my knowledge) universally accepted and, indeed, printed in אשכנזי מחזורים worldwide. Where did this come from?

The standard repositories of מקורות למנהג אשכנז (such as משנה ברורה, מהריל, and the like) do not mention such a practice at all.

Only מסכת סופרים (יט:ב) mentions, in a vague way, that on ראש השנה we say תהלים מז:ב כל העמים תקעו כף. The placement of this פסוק and whether the entire מזמור is intended in this statement or not is not clear. [1]

Upon further research, בס"ד I found in (טעמי המנהגים (מנהג תשטז a reason why we say מזמור מז seven times before תקיעות, and that is, that the מזמור has (together with מן המצר until ומשפטיך למדני, which we will בע"ה discuss at another opportunity) 587 words, which is the gymatria of שופר with the כולל. (Here is not the place to elaborate, but the כולל is a feature of gymatria which allows gymatrias to be 1 number off.) [2]

ר אלכסנדר משה לפידות offered a reason [3] that we say the מזמור specifically 7 times, namely, because 7 times correspond to the 7 skies [4].

Another reason, offered by מטה אפרים [5], is that אלקים is mentioned seven times in the מזמור, and by saying the מזמור seven times, one ends up saying אלקים forty-nine times, corresponding to the 49 levels of טומאה, as well as the converse 49 levels of טהרה, and through this the דינים are sweetened.

This is the מנהג of ישיבת טלז [6], as well as בית מדרש גבוה [7].

According to מנהג הגרא [8], we don't say any מזמור before תקיעת שופר. This is the מנהג in KAJ as well [9].

[1] Credit is due to ר אהרן Lopiansky's מחזור עליות אליהו for bringing this source to my attention

[2] The (בני יששכר (מאמרי חדשי כסלו טבת writes regarding the practice of the מקובלים to often add the כולל where needed, that there is a מסורה relying on the פסוק of אפרים ומנשה כראובן ושמעון יהיו לי (בראשית מח:ה); the gymatria of ראובן שמעון is equal to אפרים מנשה with the כולל.

[3] quoted by מנהגי ישרון סימן קמד

[4] אכמ"ל, but see ריש לקיש חגיגה יב:ב

[5] אות נ, and see אלף המגן שם ס"ק ה ושם כמה טעמים על פי הקבלה

[6] מנהגי ישיבת טלז אות נה

[7] נוהג בחכמה פרק ו אות כד

[8] מעשה רב (אות רו)

[9] related to me by ישראל Strauss, email correspondence 9/15/2022

As an aside, תקיעות דמיושב are indeed מיושב in KAJ. The congregation (including the מגביהים holding the 2 ספרי תורה) sits, while only the מקריא (who is the רב) and the תוקע stand.