Community Magazine December 2012

v 3 Volumes of Berakhot Coming Soon! To order your set or to sponsor a volume, please contact: Edmund Shammah: 732-433-0014 Yalkutyosefsakaedition@gmail.com American Friends of Haketer Executive Committee Adam Azrak - Steven Ashear - Stevie Goldman - Michael Missry - Joey L. Mizrahi -Soli Mizrahi - Raymond Saka - Morris E. Sasson • Shabbat 1 • Shabbat 2 • Shabbat 3 • Hanukkah • Purim • Pesah • Sefirat Ha’omer/Yom Tob/ Shavuot • Ta’aniyot/ Tish’a Be’Av • Yamim Nora’im • Sukkot Y alkut Y osef the saka english edition This column will, with Hashem’s help, become a regular feature of Community Magazine. We hope to present to the readers an interesting debar halakha each month, based on HaKeter Institute’s Yalkut Yose f Saka Edition. The Talmud states (Shabbat 21b): Mitzvat Hanukka ner ish ubeto – each household must kindle a light for Hanukka. The mitzvah is to kindle lights at home: there is no hint anywhere in the Talmud or the Midrash of a mitzvah to kindle lights in the synagogue. Nevertheless, many Rishonim (Hamikhtam, Kol Bo) testify that this is an ancient custom, and most of the Poskim added that we are to recite the blessings when kindling the lights in the synagogue. This practice needs some explanation. The Talmud states (Sukkah 44a) that no blessing is to be recited when observing a custom. Rabbenu Tam (Tosafot ad loc) explained that this does not contradict the practice of Ashkenazic Jews to recite a blessing before reciting Hallel on Rosh Hodesh . Reciting Hallel is a significant act even when recited as a custom and therefore it warrants a blessing. In contrast, the custom of beating the arava on the ground on Hosha’na Rabba is much less significant. It was only in regard to such minor customs that the Talmud ruled that no blessing is to be recited. Rambam ( Hilkhot Berakho t 11:16), however, ruled that no blessing is to be recited over any custom, including reciting Hallel on Rosh Hodesh . Ribash (responsa #111) explained that we are allowed to recite blessings when kindling Hanukka lights in the synagogue in the same way that we are allowed to recite a blessing over Hallel on Rosh Hodesh . This is a fine explanation for Ashkenazic Jews, but we follow Rambam’s ruling, as we find in the Shulhan Arukh (O.H. 422:2). If so, how do we reconcile our practice of reciting blessings when kindling Hanukka lights in the synagogue? The Aharonim offered several ways to resolve this issue. Harav Eliyahu of Vilna and the Peri Ha’aretz wrote that when a custom is established as a way to enhance pirsume nisa, publicizing the miracle, it warrants a blessing. There is a precedent for this – we recite a blessing over the Hallel recited in the synagogue on Seder night since it is our way of publicizing the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt. Kindling Hanukka lights in the synagogue is certainly an act of pirsume nisa especially nowadays when most people kindle their own Hanukka lights in the privacy of their homes. Harav Obadya Yosef ( Hazon Obadya ) offered another possible resolution for this. He suggested that the Talmud ruled not to recite a blessing for a custom if that custom is an invented practice, such as beating the arava on the ground or reciting Hallel on Rosh Hodesh when there is no real basis for it. The act of kindling Hanukka lights during Hanukka, however, is certainly the act of a mitzvah. The custom to kindle them in the synagogue is not less than an extension of the existing mitzvah. As such, it warrants a blessing as well. A similar explanation was offered by the Hata n Sofer (Vol. II).