Chapter 1: What are Chatzotros and their significance during war?
Today's Semen HaLach HaTap we're going to do, I spoke about it in my shul this past Shabbos, Chatzotros in times of war. A friend of mine told me that he was at an army base and two rabbis showed up in uniform, citizens hanging out, they take out a bag and they pull out two giant silver trumpets and they blew the trumpets, they blew the Chatzotros at the army base.
So my friend wanted to know, is that a thing and where does that come from and should we be doing that? So it is a thing, it's a Pasuk in this past week's Parsha, actually, that says pretty much beferish, that that's what you're supposed to do.
The Torah in Parsha Ba'aloscha says, that one of the reasons that we blow the chatzot is to gather the people together by the Pasachol Moed, and then also, furthermore, that that when there's a war that happens in your land, and there are enemies that are attacking you, so you have to blow the chatzotzos, and therefore...
Chapter 2: What biblical references support blowing Chatzotros in times of war?
you'll be remembered by HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu will save you from your enemies. And then third, that the third is in times of Yom Tov, in times of great times, when you're bringing karbanos, that we're supposed to blow chatzotzos as well. So essentially, three distinct times that we blow chatzotzos.
To gather the people to travel, that was particularly in the Midbar where that happened. Second, at times of war and tzara. And third, at times of karban that are brought at a time of simcha. So the question is, there are many questions, but fundamentally, there is a discussion we've shown, how many mitzvos is that? In general, whenever you have
so many layers, you always have to wonder, is it a single mitzvah, is it three different mitzvahs? So the Rambam in his Sefer HaMitzvahs counts it all as one mitzvah, whereas the Tashbites in Zoroarkia quotes Rolbag that there are in fact two mitzvahs, one for times of Tzara and one for times of Simcha. What about the first one?
He said that there were three things that were mentioned in the Torah. Well, the first one was unique to the Midbar when they needed to travel and they needed to go. So that's not a mitzvah L'doros, and anything that's not a mitzvah L'doros You're not going to count.
So the other two are mitzvahs l'doros, that in times of tzara and in times of karban, in times of moed, when we're bringing karbanos, we blow chatzotros. Now, the Magamishnah wonders how the Rambam can count it as one mitzvah, considering that one is for tzara and the other is for simcha. So you would think, those are two opposite things.
So you would think those are two entirely different circumstances. How could that be the same mitzvah? So in the Merkeves HaMishnah, he explains the Chatzotzos ala Karban are part of the Mitzvah Savodos Leviyim, what the Leviyim do in the Beis Hamikdosh, B'Sha'arim and B'Shira.
So just like you have Leviyim who are M'Sha'arim, who are gatekeepers, and Leviyim who are M'Sha'arim, who are the music makers.
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Chapter 3: What are the three main occasions to blow Chatzotros?
So the Chatzotzos is part of that Mitzvah. And that's why the Rambam counts... Only one extra mitzvah of Chatzotros, because this is just part of the Yavod HaSalavim in general. Problem is, it doesn't seem from any Pasuk or any Sugya that it's the Levim who blow the Chatzotros. So it's not clear what he means by that, that it's part of the mitzvah of the Levim.
We don't even know that it's Levim necessarily that blow the Chatzotros. In fact, it doesn't seem that it's a mitzvah on the Levim. So in the Sefer Mayan HaChachma, he says that, no, no, Chatzotros are part of the mitzvah of Karbonos.
meaning the chatzotzos that they would blow at a time of simcha, it's just like a karbon has nesachim that are brought with the karbon, but you'd have wine libations and different types of things that go together with the karbon, oil and mincha that goes together with the zebach, so the chatzotzos are like nesachim, it's an add-on to the karbon, you bring karbon, so you blow chatzotzos together.
with the karban. The problem with saying that in the Rambam is that if you look in the Rambam, the Rambam starts the mitzvah of Chatzotros by first describing how we blow Chatzotros by moados, by the karbanos, and then says, And also, on top of that, we also blow Chatzotros when it comes time of war and times of tsarach.
So that's a little bit difficult to say that the Rambam really learns that the Chatzotzos that you blow in times of joy are really just part of the mitzvah of carbon. It's not the mitzvah of Chatzotzos. And the mitzvah of Chatzotzos is really the mitzvah of war. That's not what the Rambam says. When the Rambam lists the mitzvah of Chatzotzos, he starts with... that they blow by the karbanos.
The third approach is that of the primagadim. The primagadim says that what chatzotzos are meant to do is to focus us toward HaKadosh Baruch Hu, meaning to elevate our level of kavanah. And that happens in good times and it happens in bad times, meaning it essentially turns the volume up on our emotions.
So if a person is feeling a sense of joy, Chatzotzos is meant to turn the volume up on that joy, to feel the joy in a more intense way. And if what we're feeling is a sense of trepidation, a sense of tzara, a sense of looming danger, so the Chatzotzos are meant to turn the volume up on that, that the concept is to turn the volume up on our... on our emotions.
And therefore, it can be the same mitzvah, even if it's about two opposite things. Because the whole point is not about whether you're happy or you're sad. The point is that you have a din of chatzotzros that elevates whatever emotion it is that we're feeling. It fits very nicely with the Sefer HaChinuch. Sefer HaChinuch says that what's the reason for the mitzvah of chatzotzros?
He says, Mishar she'e mitzvah, that it's in order to have our Kavanah be complete through the vehicle of the Chatzotros the Abenezra Rav Asher Weiss quotes in Abenezra that says the purpose of the Chatzotros is really to bring to mind meaning we tell Hashem we have an enemy attacking So we blow chatzotzos to sort of be mazkir takarosh baruch hu. Remember when else we blew chatzotzos?
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Chapter 4: How do different scholars interpret the mitzvah of Chatzotros?
The sounds that they make mimic a cry. That's what the Gemara says in Rosh Hashanah. The Shevarim and the Truos, it's meant to sound like someone who's crying. So, It's a form of tefillah. So again, so it says the Orch HaShulchan, why don't we do Chatzotros b'zman haZeh?
Chapter 5: What is the debate on the number of mitzvahs related to Chatzotros?
Because they used to do it during the six extra brachos that they would add into the Shema Nesrei. We don't add those six brachos to the Shema Nesrei, so we have no context within which to do it. Rav Asher Weiss is not super pleased with this approach because the six extra brachos we add into the Shema Nesrei is the Dind Rabanam. Chatzotros is the Dind HaRaisa.
How do you just punt on the Dind HaRaisa when you have, just because we're not doing, we no longer are no aid, a particular dindra banan. I mentioned this to the other night, and he said, something's missing. He also thought it sounded a little bit strange to say that we would give up on this mitzvah da reisah. A third approach is out of the Ritva.
The Ritva says, we don't blow Chatzotzos because we don't have Chatzotzos. Meaning I might say, okay, let's blow Chatzotzos. So everyone, take out your silver trumpets. And you didn't bring one to camp. You don't even have one at home. We don't have Chatzotzos. Which, what's the difficulty with that Ritva? So make one. It's not so this is not like major technology to make a silver trumpet, right?
Make one. What do you mean we don't have chatzotzos? Maram Shik has a Sefer HaMitzvot. Maram Shik was a Talmudic Samsofer, so he has his own Sefer HaMitzvot, like a Melchizedek style Sefer. So in Mitzvah Shin Peihei, he asks, why don't we just make them? What's the Ritva talking about? And he says, it must be that we don't know the proper measurement to make a kosher chatzotzos.
How big do they have to be? How wide do they have to be? How narrow at the mouth? We don't know. We don't know what the proper measurements are. Maybe that's why we don't have chatzotzos. Rav Asher Weiss does not like this one either, because he says, l'chora, the reason we don't know the proper measurement is because there is no proper measurement. Never anywhere in Shas does it say,
Is there a sugi about how big or small chatzotzos have to be? You know what there is a sugi about? How big a shofar has to be, right? There are sugis about details of what a shofar has to look like, what a shofar has to be like. You don't have such a sugi in Shas about how big or small chatzotzos have to be, probably because there is no shir of chatzotzos.
Now, there is a Machlokas Rishonim if they have to be made, if being made out of silver is Ma'akev, similar to Chatzotzos to Moshe, or not, or it's not Ma'akev, but there's no Akpad on the size and the shape of the Chatzotzos. You need to have two. The Seferi says you have to have two Chatzotzos Shavim, two identical Chatzotzos. That's easy enough to do.
You use the same form to pour the silver, to make the, I mean, I wouldn't know how to do it, but let me say it. It seems easy enough to do, that someone who knows what they're doing, they can make silver candlesticks, and they can make two of the same that are much more nuanced and intricate. I'm sure they can make two chatzotzos.
A fourth mahalech as to why it's not done b'zman hazeh, Rav Moshe, Negros Moshe, or Chaim Chedekal, says, They can only use the very same Chatzotzos that you use for the Karbanos, which we don't have nowadays. We don't have Karbanos nowadays.
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