365 —שליחת קונטרס לל"ג בעומר, תמיכה בשלוחים, והבהרות הלכתיות

B"H, 16 Iyar 5708.

Haraha"ch vavaha"ch iy"a nu"m etc. Yitzchak Dubov

Shalom u'Vrachah!

Enclosed is a booklet for Lag BaOmer, and without doubt you will merit to share it with the public. I hope that in the near future our emissaries, the Avrechim Haraha"ch etc. Poizner and Boimgarten, will visit your country and also our camp. Certainly it is unnecessary to ask you to help them as much as possible in fulfilling their mission; this is only to encourage and enhance your support, both personally and by influencing all those you can affect in this matter.

In response to your questions from your letter of Erev Shabbat Kodesh:

a) Regarding what you wrote in the Haggadah with Likkutei Minhagim u'Taamim p. 35—that the place for halachic rulings is in Shulchan Aruch and not in the Siddur—and you question that many rulings were written by the Alter Rebbe in his Siddur: I concluded there "and only order practices are taught here," because there are two types of laws in the Siddur: (1) Entire sections that the Alter Rebbe composed to include in the Siddur as independent units. These are concise legal rulings on common matters relevant to everyone, which should be available even when one does not have Shulchan Aruch at hand. These are called Seder (as written in Shaar HaKavanos ch. 1 sec. 4), or Halachos. It may be that even Hilchos Birchas Kohanim are included here. (2) Individual practices (not full laws) related to saying a specific prayer or blessing (see Shaar HaKavanos that all Hilchos Krias Shema should be printed at the beginning of the section together). In the Haggadah, however, the Alter Rebbe did not write a section but only brought necessary practices to know at the time of action. This is what my note in Likkutei is based on.

b) I quoted in Hayom Yom p. 45 that Bedikas Chametz is always after Tzeis HaKochavim—plainly; you question that there are distinctions made in Shulchan Aruch. As written in Hayom Yom's introduction, I brought there not laws but customs of Chassidim based on those of our leaders or their instructions. The accepted custom is as above—always after Tzeis HaKochavim—and there are several reasons for this. The most convincing to me fits my approach: our custom is to greatly extend Bedikas Chametz—and I did not copy this detail into Hayom Yom because I never heard a specific measure for it. See Sdei Chemed section Choshen Mishpat vol. 5 sec. 16 who quotes Magen HaElef on Hilchos Pesach siman tov-bet discussing at length the words of the Alter Rebbe above in Kuntres Acharon Orach Chaim siman taf-lamed-alef.

c) In Tanya end ch. 42 it says that bowing during Shemoneh Esrei after having already accepted upon oneself G-d's kingship verbally during Krias Shema serves to accept it again through action. You question that Berachos (21a) says prayer does not contain Malchus Shamayim (the yoke of Heaven). The explanation: In every mitzvah there are primary elements and secondary ones; specifically regarding prayer, speech is primary (see Tanya ch. 38), followed by thought (see Kuntres Acharon ibid., s.v., "to understand what is written in Shehei"). Action within prayer is only secondary upon secondary; therefore Chazal said there is no Malchus Shamayim—in speech, which is its essence—in prayer. This becomes clearer since the Gemara discusses Ezra's enactment, which was specifically about matters of speech (see Berachos 20b as found at Sinai; see Tosafot). This also clarifies a difficulty raised by the Gemara (Sukkah 26b): Let us say Rabbi Yehuda holds a baal keri may not put on tefillin? Thus—the bowing during Shemoneh Esrei being an act of accepting Malchus Shamayim has no connection at all with Ezra's enactment; its inner reason is that Ezra's decree applies only to matters of speech—which can be explained according to Chazal who say that sanctity of language and sanctity of organ correspond with each other (at length in Raavad Hilchos Kedusha chs. 11 & 17; Shelah Shaar HaOtiyot letter Shin etc.).

Summary

The Rebbe encourages active support for shluchim and clarifies halachic questions regarding practices found in Siddur and Haggadah, customs around Bedikas Chametz, and nuances about intent and action during prayer as discussed in Tanya.