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The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 6,804 words · 38:30. Press a time to hear it said.
0:00 This is a very great virtue: if it's possible to put on a nice, pleasant little show — whoever has people for it — or to arrange for a few family members to dress up, or for someone to come and knock on the door. It gives the children a nice illustration, it makes them happy. It's a mitzvah, as much as possible, to help them stay awake on this night, so that they sit and learn and occupy themselves with Torah, and with the Haggadah — to speak as much as possible of the miracles and wonders of Hashem, blessed be He.
0:28 This is an important thing, very, very, very much so, and a great virtue beyond measure. So it's worthwhile, as much as possible, and with Hashem's help the great blessing will come. I said, about this night, what is most fitting to learn: Midrash Tanchuma on Parshas Beshalach and Bo, Midrash Rabbah, midrashim, Midrash Vayosha, Midrash Az Yashir, all kinds of midrashim, the Mechilta on Parshas Beshalach and Bo, Shir HaShirim with the commentary of the Or HaChaim, things...
1:12 to learn things connected to the Haggadah, midrashim and aggados that tell of the Exodus from Egypt. There are so, so many midrashim today, even children's comic books where you actually see the Exodus from Egypt, and to sit with the children and show them: "Look, children, look, look — now the Jewish people are leaving Egypt." To let the children draw close and feel that closeness, really like that.
1:38 With the Imrei Kadosh of Strelisk, Rabbi Uri, may his merit protect us — every day he would... You know that in the view of the Machzor Vitry, the Song at the Sea too — some also say that, along with the Exodus, the splitting of the Sea of Reeds counts as the Exodus — as in, are these still miracles that were done in Egypt, or new miracles, so that this is the Exodus and that is a different remembrance. So the view of the Machzor Vitry is that this too is included in it — Rashi's student, Rabbi Shmuel of Vitry.
2:07 So there is a very great virtue: the Imrei Kadosh of Strelisk, Rabbi Uri, every day, in the Shacharis prayer, when he would say the Song at the Sea, he would lift up his trousers and walk with the students in the beis midrash from side to side, and they would say the Song at the Sea while walking in the shul. That is what he did every day. The Song at the Sea, standing: they would walk and circle — the Song at the Sea — circling in the shul, and lifting the hems of their trousers and of the coat, as if to feel that they were really, as it were, in the water.
2:39 Although in the real miracle there was no need for that, because they had no water. You remember we learned that for the Jewish people the sea split, and there are the depths. After all, if the Jewish people walk and the sea is split, they would cross and at once, Heaven forbid, fall into the deep. That's dangerous. So what did Hashem, blessed be He, do? "The depths froze in the heart of the sea" — the deep froze and became one solid mass.
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3:04 "The depths froze in the heart of the sea." On that ice it is impossible to tread. If they tread on the ice, it will be painful for them. So He made grass for them, and over the grass He paved it for them with mosaic stones, precious and costly gems, which led them along. That is how the miracle was. And the waters froze, and reached up to the sky, with twelve gates, and so they saw everything that was done within the sea, and the miracles and wonders that were done for our forefathers.
3:33 So there was not exactly a need to lift the hems, but he did it in order to illustrate and to recall that there was water — not because it was really so. Do you understand? That is how one should recall this. And it also wasn't in a straight line; afterward it's as if they came out on the same side, like an arc, like an arc — the Tosafos say that it was like an arc. And the waters reached up to the sky.
3:58 That is, the waters rose — not three meters, not ten meters — when the sea split. It was a wall, truly up to the sky. When you lifted your head, you would see the water rising upward. It was all like sapphire stones. The frozen water — it all became like sapphires. It was something not of this world. To tell of the Exodus until daybreak, or should there be a little time for hisbodedus in the middle of the night? — That is excellent. Whoever can learn — I said — on this night, this is the most important night of the year to be awake, and to make the effort to be awake on it, more than on Hoshana Rabbah and more than on the night of Shavuos. — Yes, but to set aside time for hisbodedus, or... — Because to learn on this night, every single moment, is a mitzvah from the Torah: to speak and talk of the miracles and wonders of Hashem, blessed be He.
4:45 In terms of virtue, in the view of the Sages, this is the greatest virtue on this night. — On the seventh of Pesach there is also something to it. — On the seventh of Pesach too, of course, but the Seder night is the most important: to learn as much as possible, until sleep seizes a person. And I explained that if a person is awake and wants to learn, he may be lenient and drink coffee or tea after the afikoman, even though we taste nothing after the afikoman, so that a person stays with the taste of the afikoman in his mouth.
5:13 But if a person has a need, and he really wants to stay awake, and he wants coffee to wake him up so that he can learn midrashim and strengthen himself more, one may be lenient about drinking coffee, so that he can be awake and learn Torah all night. Now, Yes. Yes. We leave the taste of the afikoman like that.
5:44 Should one try to? Yes. It is a great virtue. Again, we are speaking in terms of virtues and importance: we don't drink and don't eat anything after eating the afikoman, so that the taste of the afikoman stays in a person's mouth — nahama d'asvasa, the bread of healing. Now, I explained a few tricks that can be done with the wine. For the four cups, we said, one can take the numerical value of "kos", a cup: 86 ml. 81 is possible, but 86 is better.
6:11 Don't take a large cup, because on Pesach we have "most of the cup". For whoever wasn't with us last night, when we spoke about this before the Arvis prayer: you take a smaller cup and check for 86 ml. You can check it with a baby's bottle — 86 ml — pour it into a small cup and check. It is better to use a small cup and not to drink from large cups, because that would require you to drink most of the cup from a large cup. A proper cup is 150 ml, according to the measure of the Chazon Ish.
6:46 We can use a goblet, a cup of 86 ml — that is enough. Don't use a cup made of sections that has to be joined and assembled, unless it is from before Yom Tov. You set down this goblet, use it, and drink the cups while reclining. It is a very, very, very important thing to be careful about this and to pay attention: to lean on an armrest, chairs with an armrest — it can be with a small pillow that you put there — and to lean the body and recline in that way, and that is how to drink the four cups.
7:20 Now, a person who finds it hard to drink the wine — one can mix into the wine a little, a drop of water. One can mix: cooked red wine, uncooked red wine with a little grape juice. One can make one cup with a little cooked red wine. To take the most cherished wine of all, the very finest wine that a person has. One can divide it among the four cups; one can take two like that, and make another one more diluted with grape juice, with grape juice, to dilute them a bit, so that there is some of this and some of that.
7:55 It is possible to do that. But you also have the virtue that it is good wine, and also a bit easier to drink, and then it can make it easier for you. Yes, but of course, I will also explain what to do, I will also explain what to do, what can be done. I explained yesterday: one can take a liter-and-a-half bottle, take grapes... In Tractate Sanhedrin, page 70, it is written: "Do not look at wine when it is red" — wine that resembles blood.
8:23 The wine's appearance should be reddish. That is very important. And in Bava Basra, page 97, in the Chiddushei HaRamban, he says about wine — although white wine has its own virtue, and its healthfulness too, and also its quality — some say it is more than red wine — yet it is invalid. For kiddush too? No — at the outset it is permitted; one may use white wine, yes? But we use red wine: "Do not look at wine when it is red" — wine that resembles blood. Sanhedrin, page 70; the Chiddushei HaRamban on Bava Basra, page 97, explains the difference between red wine and white wine. And white wine — it is better not to use it.
9:03 Now, wine — one can combine them, to drink wine with grape juice — there is no problem. Now, another very important thing that is worth paying attention to: one can take a liter-and-a-half bottle of water, and for its bottom third — pour out the water, put the water into another jug — to put in the bottom third: take grapes, squeeze them, and soak them inside the bottle, pour water over them until it reaches the top, so that a third of it is grapes — even put in a little more, to be stringent, so that it ferments faster, so that there is abundant fermentation.
9:43 And after three days, this water is forbidden to a nazir; a nazir is forbidden to drink from it, and the law of this water is the blessing "Borei pri hagafen". What's the problem? Put it outside. So that it sours a little, just a bit. It will have the taste of the vine, a real taste. And this is the lightest and the most diluted thing whose blessing is "Borei pri hagafen"; its law is like wine, and it is the easiest for people who have diabetes, people who are diabetic, people who have a problem drinking four cups, people who have a difficulty and cannot.
10:21 After all, it's once a year — there is Purim, to drink a little, and Pesach; it's not so terrible. We choose a good, fine wine, a costly one, that a person has — we open it precisely at the table on this night, when the Holy One, blessed be He, is with us at the table. One can be lenient in this and do that: put out that wine instead of using this trick. One can do this trick, but for a person who is really weak, who says: "Listen, I can't drink, I can't drink wine" — they can't do anything — then one can give them this.
10:53 It looks really diluted; it already looks like a sort of Tropit juice drink, it looks like... It takes on a look of... such a thin look. It doesn't show; one really has to look closely at its appearance. And one can use it as wine — actually say "Borei pri hagafen" over it and everything — and use it. This, of course, is only for people who find it really, really hard. It is not recommended to do this, but it is possible; it is indeed a solution.
11:22 For the blessing of "hagafen" — just as it is forbidden to a nazir, so too it is permitted for drinking for each one of us. Tractate Eruvin, page 43, where the Gemara says: "I am hereby a nazir on the day the son of David comes" — he is forbidden every day, except on Shabbosos. I'm just finishing. What is the question? What is the question? What is the question? — I heard eighty-four... fifty mitzvos on the Seder night — the Gra.
11:48 Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. The Gaon, and Maaseh Rav. Look, your grandfather, may his merit protect us, was a grandson of Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. A few important things that one must be careful about. The stringencies and the fine points of Pesach are of the utmost importance. Rabbi Yaakov of Marvege writes, in Responsa Min HaShamayim, section 71, that whoever is meticulous on this night — not only on this night, throughout Pesach, all the stringencies and precise details and everything one should be stringent about on Pesach — when one is meticulous, a person's days and years are lengthened.
12:19 As he is meticulous and wants to fulfill the mitzvos of Pesach properly — know that there is a great virtue in this. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev says that the sweat and the effort a person has in exerting himself, in getting organized, in putting things in order, in cleaning for Pesach — this pardons and erases all his sins and transgressions. There is very, very, very, very, very great virtue and importance in this. What? When is that? Yes. His learning right now, too?
12:44 What? The learning too? What's that? Even if it's only the cupboards... — Everything, everything. And in baking matzos too — our master the Arizal. — Right, that is very important. Any sweat of a mitzvah is a very great virtue. Another important thing: there is a very great virtue, since it is after chatzos — that is the greatest there is: to exert oneself over the matzah on the Seder night.
13:09 Another very important thing: the afikoman. You should know that the Shechinah rests upon it. Afterward it is called the amulet of the tzaddikim. There were many tzaddikim — the Rebbe of Bluzhov, who blessed Rabbi Aharon Roth for children; Rabbi Aharon Roth was with him and was blessed by him for children. And Rabbi Aharon Roth, may his merit protect us — it was one of the things considered the amulet of the tzaddikim, for the tzaddikim would not use amulets or hold by them. Rabbi Aharon Roth would always take a piece of the afikoman and keep it with him for safekeeping, keep it on him.
13:44 He says that it is a very great segulah. Many holy men practiced this, because the Shechinah rests on it. — You gave some out to us. — But it is a very great virtue. All the matzos in general that are there, everything that is on the table on the Seder night — the Shechinah rests on it; there is a very great virtue in it. — What do we do with the one from last year? — Keep it, keep it. — Do we put hyssop on the table? — What? Hyssop, yes, hyssop. It is fitting to put hyssop — but hyssop, not ordinary za'atar: real hyssop, dried hyssop leaves, or to put actual hyssop.
14:15 Usually one puts the hyssop, and beneath it one puts salt. That is what we see was found with King Shlomo. King Shlomo, at his meal, or anywhere — on his table there were bundles of hyssop, and they would put salt. Hyssop is a plant; there are several opinions as to what hyssop is. Desert hyssop — which kind of hyssop. Is it— What? Today, in our times, it is identified with za'atar, but there are quite a few opinions as to what hyssop is.
14:44 Whether the hyssop of the time of the Mishnah is our hyssop of today? I don't know. We can't really know. There are sefarim that deal with plants, and they bring there some seven to eight opinions as to what the kinds of hyssop are. The more precise hyssop is the desert hyssop. What is the desert hyssop? It is sharper in its appearance and in its smell than the ordinary za'atar that we have.
15:14 It may be that there are also several kinds of za'atar. The za'atar of our day, the spice, is more diluted. It isn't... in a za'atar blend it is ten percent, maybe. There's almost none in there, right? Za'atar — they take it partly from the hyssop, but the real hyssop — it is hard to use it as a spice. I don't think they use it as a spice, because it is very, very sharp and bitter, and its smell is harsh — harsh not in the sense that it isn't good, but in the sense that it is dominant; it is very, very strong.
15:47 Hyssop has special powers. The ashes of the red heifer too — in the whole procedure of the red heifer they used a bundle of hyssop. Hyssop has power, and it has a very great segulah to drive away harmful forces and bad things from a person. And King Shlomo — it was always found on the table of Shlomo the king: a bundle of hyssop and salt. They were always there like that on the table. Today, the salt we have is also chloride — not exactly the same salt. Only Himalayan salt, the pink one — that is a salt that is closer to the reality, to the real thing.
16:24 Salt is not really that white-white color, as it was. Snow white — that too is mixed with all kinds of chemicals, things like that. It is not so healthy; it is also called "the silent killer" — salt. Salt is not so healthy. When they went up the ramp, they would salt the meat and throw it onto the altar: "On every offering of yours you shall offer salt." Salt is very, very important. It has its virtue and its special power, and everything that it brings about — making things fit for us to eat, and Yoreh De'ah, section 69, on the koshering done by salt, when it causes the blood to come out of the meat.
17:02 Salt has great virtue and importance. We use it for many things. In Tosafos, in Berachos, page 40 — there is so, so much virtue and very great importance in it. That is true, but one still has to understand that, for the great segulah — when they want to use the Omer salt, or the segulah of what is put on the table — it is better to take coarse salt, and not that fine salt, those tiny grains, which is more processed. You take coarse salt — coarse salt is just a little bit bigger, you see small crystals of salt — and put between one and three spoonfuls in a small bag, and that is called the Omer salt. Or if one also wants to leave it on the table with a bundle of hyssop, for the segulah.
17:48 The Gaon Rabbi Chaim Palagi writes that the Omer salt has the law of an expert's amulet. You simply take the three spoonfuls of salt, hold in the right hand this salt, and count the Omer with it throughout all the days of the Omer. After that it takes on a special power, like an expert's amulet. Between one spoonful and three spoonfuls, between a spoonful...
18:15 You don't need more. You can also do a lot — look, with me, every year they give me a sack of salt to hold, in order to give it out to people. It is an expert's amulet. Rav Palagi writes that it has the law of an expert's amulet, to remove all evil afflictions. Salt has a great many special powers and a great many virtues. I have an amulet of the salt, my Omer salt; I have been keeping it for close to twenty years now.
18:42 It is the same salt; I count over it every year — the salt. It stays the same. Can one make a new one every year? To make a new one every year? Excellent — make a new one every year. Salt is very, very good. Salt has a very great virtue in it.
19:07 It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. I am saying again: it is good to take salt crystals, and that is a virtue as regards its special power. All right? What? No, no, that is never done. With this, it isn't done. That's it. It has a kind of blessing and a very great segulah upon it. One must — it is written — be careful not to put it down on the ground.
19:36 Meaning, perhaps, that one shouldn't treat it lightly, or not... And if it falls, is it invalid? — If it falls, it is not invalid; it is only about a person treating it lightly. If a person, as it were, treats it lightly, or holds it or feels that way... And if it happens to slip from a person, he picks it up, says "Ana B'choach", and puts it back in his pocket. That is enough. He says all of "Ana b'choach gedulas yemincha tatir tzerurah" — the holy Name that appears in Kiddushin, page 71, where Rashi says it is the Name of Forty-Two.
20:07 We explained on Shabbos: the Name of Forty-Two, the Urim and Tumim. The Urim correspond to the Name of Forty-Two; the Tumim correspond to the Name of Seventy-Two. In the counting of the Omer we have in mind the Name of Forty-Two, corresponding to the Urim and Tumim. These Urim — that is the Name of Forty-Two, "Ana B'choach" — and one holds and grasps the Omer salt. There is a very great virtue, as our master the Chida writes, in saying "Lamenatze'ach" in the shape of the Menorah, with all of it facing a person's face, and saying "Lamenatze'ach binginos mizmor shir" and so on, and saying it like that: "May G-d be gracious to us and bless us", and so on — the whole psalm.
20:46 It is a very great virtue to be careful to count the Omer with great intention, and to shed all of the "mashcha d'chivya", the serpent's skin — all the bad things, all the... to become pure and holy, to enter the fiftieth gate of kedushah, and to rise and ascend to very great levels. And of course, from the moment we arrive at the Seder night on Pesach, we rise and reach great levels.
21:12 There were other holy tzaddikim who had this practice — the Chiddushei HaRim of Ger, and the Amud HaEmes of Kotzk, and many holy men — who would take kvitlach, prayer notes, and burn them with the burning of the chametz. That is, all the troubles of the Jewish people — a person has a problem, a trouble, a problem, or anything not good that he has — he takes it, writes down the problem, and burns it in the fire. If a person has troubles, problems, harmful forces — he writes it down and burns it in the fire.
21:41 This is a very, very great virtue for one who wants to bring about salvations. Yes. Generally there is a segulah to put one clove, salt on its right side, the hyssop on the left side, and to wrap it up.
22:06 That is as a segulah against evil afflictions, the evil eye. The salt and the hyssop are more correct, more pure; but the garlic — anything that is very strong has the ability to neutralize and drive away bad things. There are a great many bad things today, harmful forces that are created as a result of sins, iniquities, transgressions.
22:34 Every day there are one thousand and twenty-five harmful forces that are nullified from a person as a result of the bedtime Shema. The Beis Yosef, in section 239, on the bedtime Shema — among the reasons he brought: "Say it in your hearts upon your beds, and be still, selah" — that one should fall asleep amid words of Torah. But whoever studies the words of our master the Arizal, and the kavanos of the Shema of our master the Arizal, the bedtime Shema — he will understand that there are awesome kavanos in the bedtime Shema, to destroy and nullify the harmful forces that a person has.
23:07 When there are very, very strong and sharp things, like salt and hyssop, a bundle of hyssop and things like that — they have the power to drive all the bad things away from a person. And it is not for nothing that, in order to purify the impure, they use a bundle of hyssop and "living water into a vessel"; they would dip the bundle of hyssop in order to sprinkle on a person, so that he could become pure. With the ashes of the red heifer they used a bundle of hyssop to turn a person from impure to pure. The bundle of hyssop prepares the way for that. The bundle of hyssop, in terms of...
23:43 there is something of a special power in it, which the Torah established. And everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, established in His Torah and in His wisdom is not for nothing. It is not for nothing. Mustard seeds and hot peppers as well? Za'atar with salt — that is good, I said, that is excellent. King Shlomo had on his table all the time a bundle of hyssop and salt.
24:08 According to the hidden wisdom, this is a great virtue. There is hyssop, hyssop exists, hyssop exists. I am saying again: the hyssop — there are several opinions as to what hyssop is, but the well-known hyssop that is by now widespread today — they say that this is hyssop — it is a hyssop that is a kind of plant; it has leaves, rounded ones; it is strong, and it goes like... It doesn't have... it has a color, it has a color — it doesn't have that sort of green color; it is a bit like lavender in its color.
24:44 Hyssop, hyssop. But the za'atar, the spice itself — it is surely mixed with all kinds of things, because it has a very strong smell. So you need to find out, everywhere, where you are going. Whose home are you a guest in? And to be careful with the light as with the severe: what is the kashrus, what is the place. Also, one must — there is a person who is Ashkenazi, who comes to the home of a Sephardi, and the Sephardi cooked kitniyos and things like that in the pots — it is permitted to use the utensils, but no — of course they should clean the pots, so that there are no remnants of kitniyos.
25:31 It is permitted to eat food that was cooked in pots in which kitniyos were cooked, for example. So in that case it is permitted — if they cooked potatoes in a pot in which kitniyos were cooked. All right? They made tomatoes, a pot of tomato soup, in a pot in which rice was cooked before. An Ashkenazi is permitted to eat from this tomato soup; it is not real chametz. One needs to know to check: what is the community, what are the customs, what comes up on the table.
25:59 In a place where one is a guest, one must check beforehand, so that a person does not mistakenly eat things that are forbidden to him, as is brought in 453 — in section 453, in the Mishnah Berurah, in the Shaarei Teshuvah. The letter of Rabbi Shimshon? — The letter of Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli: he writes that it is read on the eves of Pesach. "On the eves of Pesach" means the eve of the fourteenth — also the eve of the fourteenth of Iyar, and the eve of Pesach.
26:27 If you look in my sefer — I brought there a very, very, very beautiful explanation of the letter of Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli — and that is still abridged; there is much, much more to expand on, because the letter of Rabbi Shimshon is very sealed; it is very closed and very hard to understand. But whoever remembers — over many years I explained the letter a great deal and taught it in public so that people could understand, and I answered all kinds of questions that people asked about the things they did not understand there.
27:00 So we expanded on this in the sefer; the explanation is there. It is a truly special explanation — also on the life story of Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli. Here it is with me, in the sefer. In the sefer on Pesach. So it appears there. It is a great virtue, yes — it is a very great virtue.
27:29 Look at the explanation; it is very, very wonderful, it explains things nicely, with summaries. I very much love — in everything I teach, I always love to clarify it and explain it in a simple way, so that whoever learns can understand. ...and King David. Right. It is very important that there be understanding, that people be able to understand. And this one? Yes, this is hyssop. Yes. Yes, this is hyssop. It is sharp.
27:56 It has a special smell, a smell — it has a noble, very special smell. It has a texture like that of sage. Right, like netted sage; its leaves have that kind of texture, and it has a very wonderful, very special smell. Good, tzaddikim. Now, regarding... One may, yes. — May one say the small highlighted Names? — One is silent and has them in mind.
28:27 He says a sort of half. Yes. No. It's over. It depends for whom. For example, if there is a rav of a community — if there is a community rav, or a great rav, who forgot — for the sake of his honor he is permitted to count again, so as not to shame him. Yes, one can be lenient; a rav like that who forgot to count one day — one can be lenient.
29:02 Is the mitzvah to count the days, or to count the weeks? The Behag and the Tosafos — it is a dispute. Good. So, so then. Now, of course, to search for the chametz, as we said: not to speak at the time of the blessing. Pay attention: from the time of the blessing, when one searches, until the end — to check inside the car, and inside the house, and inside the rooms.
29:33 The gabba'im will come to check, with Hashem's help, here in the shul. One says the blessing once and searches — one does the search, as we brought in the name of the Mordechai. Now, another very important thing, regarding Erev Pesach itself, the Fast of the Firstborn: to make a siyum on a tractate. You have time now — whoever can finish small tractates, which can exempt him from Tachanun, only if he understands. And to take part in a siyum of a tractate — it is very important that there be a tasting of wine or of something, as part of the siyum. When one makes a siyum, there needs to be a tasting — over wine, or to say a blessing over something, since the siyum takes effect on that. So the custom is to say "hagafen" and then drink from it. And then, taking part
30:17 in a siyum of a tractate — when a person has finished a tractate, he should be careful to drink or eat something that is connected to the siyum of the tractate. So we said: a parshah that a person finished is not considered enough to exempt him from the fast. A Chumash — when a person finished a Chumash on its own, with Rashi, a Chumash with commentaries; Mishnayos with the Bartenura and Tosafos Yom Tov; a tractate of Mishnah with the Bartenura and Tosafos Yom Tov, with understanding, truly a complete understanding of the tractate — this can exempt him from the Fast of the Firstborn.
30:51 And Perek Shirah...? It is possible — a whole part of the Zohar, for example; a whole volume of the Zohar that a person finished. Bereishis, Shemos — it can exempt. The Book of Yehoshua, the Book of Shoftim — yes. Yes — not by mere recitation. The Book of Shoftim, the Book of Shmuel I and II, Divrei HaYamim, both parts.
31:21 Finishing a book — of course with an explanation and commentaries, or some degree of understanding — exempts both from Tachanun and from the Fast of the Firstborn. It also exempts from Tachanun. I said. What is that? No. All of them together — that is possible. All of them together. Because it is really short, and there needs to be a siyum.
31:48 Tractate Kinnim is possible. Tractate Kinnim. Two chapters. — Three, three chapters. It can exempt a person. But it must be with understanding. It is a very difficult tractate. "I want to finish it with commentaries." — You can: Kan Mefureshes, by the tzaddik of Greiditz, Rav Guttmacher. One can learn it. It exempts — if you learn it, yes; it exempts from Tachanun too. Tractate Tzitzis, Tractate Gerim, Tractate Sefer Torah — these minor tractates can exempt from Tachanun. Derech Eretz Rabbah and Zuta — from Tachanun it exempts; it can exempt from the Fast of the Firstborn if a person learns it, though — learns it, not just recites it.
32:28 If you learn it — you really learn, understand the tractate, and learn it from beginning to end — it works. But this is not a tractate that a person reads and understands, unless he is a Torah scholar. In the area of these halachos. — In the area of the halachos, fine. It exempts from Tachanun too; it can exempt from Tachanun. Once again: it doesn't go by whether you understand on your own.
32:57 There needs to be understanding — understanding, where a person learns and finishes. He needs to have command of it, to understand at least 60%, 70%. Not to learn something by just reading it, to recite something and say "I finished a tractate", yes? Tractate Horayos is possible, which is thirteen and a half pages. And then, once a person finishes it, he has made one siyum; he now has one more small thing — he finishes it, and with that it is done.
33:29 And then he has exempted himself from the Fast of the Firstborn. Now, one can also do a small tractate; one can do Tractate Horayos, one can do Tractate Kinnim, one can do the Book of Yehoshua, the Book of Shoftim — to finish. Here, you have from this Motza'ei Shabbos until Wednesday. The Shulchan Aruch also exempts — one section: Orach Chaim, Yoreh De'ah — you finished it — Choshen Mishpat — you finished one volume, one section — it can exempt a person. A person finished one section with commentaries, in depth — he understands it all, or doesn't understand it all, but at least he has command of it, remembers it, learned it properly — it exempts.
34:12 A person who has a tractate that he is finishing tomorrow, and he wants to save it — he can, with the Oral Torah. But with Yehoshua — if a person says he will learn Yehoshua or learn Shoftim — he cannot, because with the Written Torah, one finishes. The Book of Yehoshua, Chumash Shemos, Chumash Bamidbar — you finished? You have to make the siyum right after you finish. You finished yesterday — that's it. Tomorrow you finish the Chumash. The difference is with the Oral Torah: with the Oral Torah I can go back and review, so I can still review the tractate, and I will make the siyum afterward. A person who knows a tractate by heart — he can go over it in thought; that too is a siyum.
34:54 A person who knows a tractate by heart can review it and go over the tractate in thought, by heart. — If he knows the Mishnayos of the tractate by heart? Not that. One needs the Gemara too. All of Tractate Berachos — he knows the Mishnayos. — If he knows all of Tractate Berachos by heart, truly all of it, it exempts from Tachanun, it exempts from the Fast of the Firstborn, if he goes over it in thought. He doesn't have to. I am saying: if you know it all by heart and you go over it in thought from beginning to end — By heart, yes — to say it out with the mouth.
35:25 "For they are life to those who find them" — do not read "to those who find them" but "to those who say them out with the mouth". That is possible too, yes. He heard it — every day a person drives in the morning and hears a Daf Yomi shiur. The whole way he is focused, listening to the Daf Yomi shiur; he hears the tractate through to its end in the car — he hears the whole shiur and he takes part — and if he finishes it, it counts for him as a siyum of a tractate. The whole Tanya — regarding chassidic sefarim: if it brings a person joy, and it brings a person very great joy, and he toiled and labored to finish the Tanya, and he understands it, and he learned the Tanya from beginning to end, and he toiled and labored over it —
36:06 it can exempt him from Tachanun. He finished the whole Tanya — but not the fifty-three chapters alone: the fifty-three chapters together with Iggeres HaTeshuvah and everything, to the end, Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah and everything — and he finished it all and learned it with understanding and in depth, properly — that can. The sefer Likutei Moharan of Rabbi Nachman, from beginning to end — he learned it with commentaries, with explanations, and it brings him joy, it gives him satisfaction, having toiled and labored and finished this sefer — one can be lenient with this too.
36:39 But I— Sifra DiTzniusa is very difficult. Sifra DiTzniusa... Sifra DiTzniusa — I can't tell you about that. Look, making a siyum on a sefer — the point of it is that a person has joy and satisfaction, and he feels that he has finished a sefer that he understands, and he has come a very long way to this siyum.
37:05 He understood, he toiled, and now it is in his hand: "Fortunate is he who comes here with his learning in his hand." Now, he learned this sefer — this Sifra DiTzniusa, a very, very difficult sefer... And if he remembers and learns and knows it... Sefer Yetzirah too? So come, Etz Chaim too... let's move on, no problem. So it is any sefer that a person toiled and labored over? — That is important. — What? Any holy sefer that a person toiled and labored over? — I don't want to start dividing up sefarim now; I didn't want to get to that point.
37:39 Use the names I mentioned, where one can be lenient in a particular case, all right? But the best and the most correct is only a siyum of a tractate — an actual tractate of the Talmud, or Tractate Berachos in the Yerushalmi, or Chagigah in the Yerushalmi — the Yerushalmi is possible too, the Yerushalmi, which are sometimes shorter and easier — or to learn a tractate in the Bavli; that is possible.
38:07 Good, tzaddikim. That can be too, yes... excellent. Good, very well. May everyone have good tidings, a good and blessed week, a kosher and joyous Pesach, salvations from Heaven, a healthy life, and all the good bounties.
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