Yoma 53b
Why We Extend Our Right Hand First for Shalom
Part of Ein Yaakov · 12:42
A short aggadic piece on a student's proper way to leave his rebbi, the direction of exit from the Temple, and why the right hand is offered first in greeting.
Audio Transcript
king and you're running back. משל לתלמיד הנפטר מרבו, a mashal a talmid leaves his Rebbe, אם חוזר לאחוריו, if you run right back, דומה לכלב ששב על קיאו, like a dog who vomited and he's running back to his vomit, and it was it's not not nice. So you got to go back and stand a little bit till you come back front. So on דעות it says you should stand till the chazan gets to kedushah, or al kol panim until חזרת הש״ץ, so Why do we do that? I guess in the shul are packed and you can't do that, so you go back. Try to do this on 770. Go back then. Go back and wait! 770 also. You don't see other people doing that either. I know. It's one I was going to say it's one of those things that people are not makpid. Mistama there's a good reason, I don't know. תניא נמי הכי, it says in a ברייתא, המתפלל צריך שיפסיע ג׳ פסיעות לאחוריו, a person davens has to go back three steps, ואחר כך יתן שלום, and then you say שלום, ואם לא עשה כן, if he didn't do that, ראוי לו שלא יתפלל. Better he shouldn't have davened, because then you ruin like the whole davening. This shows kavod to the Eibershter, going back. And if you don't go back, means you don't care about the Eibershter, it's no kavod, so the whole thing is nothing. Is this the beginning of the davening? This is after. Saying shalom. It shows like Well in the beginning you go you back up you From the yells, but here he says which after you finish. Who are you saying shalom to? To the Eibershter. Yeah. Well which way do you give? משום ר׳ ישמעאל אמרו, in name of Rabbi Yishmael they said, שנותן שלום לימין ואחר כך לשמאל, you give shalom to the right, then to the left. Why do we do this, no? See, what does right mean? שנאמר, it says, מימינו אש דת למו, the Torah was given from His right hand, because the right hand is חשוב יותר, so you have to go to the right. Then there's ואומר, another pasuk says, יפול מצדך אלף, the Eibershter sends protection to the Yidden, and from your side will fall fall thousands, ורבבה מימינך, and from your right side will fall tens of thousands. So which one is stronger? The right. So we see that the right is stronger. פרעגט די Gemara, מאי ואומר, why do we need the second pasuk? The first pasuk tells you that the Eibershter gave the Torah with His right. So the Gemara says, וכי תימא, because I would think for the first pasuk that the reason He gave it with the right, not because right is better, אורחא דמילתא הוא דאיניש בימין, it's normal that people give, like if you're a righty, you give with the right. That's why תא שמע, you had to have the second פסוק, know that the right is takeh stronger. יפול מצדך אלף ורבבה מימינך, tens of thousands fall on the left, on the right, and only thousands on the left. רבא חזייה לאביי, רבא saw אביי, דיהיב שלמא לימיניה ברישא, that he said to the right side first שלום, because he learned when it says here, like you have to give שלום to the right. אמר ליה, so he said to him, so אביי, מי סברת, what do you think?
לימין דידך? Your right? או לשמאל דידך? On your left? First your right? כוונתי I meant, לשמאל דידך שהוא ימינו של הקב״ה, give first to your left. Go to the left, and then that's the right of the Aibershter, because the one across you, your left is his right. And then later, you give to your right, which is his left. He's facing you. Yeah. אמר רב חייא בריה דרב הונא, רב חייא the son of רב הונא, חזינא להו לאביי ורבא, I saw that אביי and רבא, דפסעו להו שלש פסיעות בכריעה אחת, that when they made the three steps, that they were bent. They were bent once and walked back while they were bent. Yeah. What about Kaddish? But they go the other way? It's done opposite. What about Kaddish though? I don't know. I think it's to make it to show the difference. That's for parshat to show that to to be madgish that by Shemoneh Esrei, since you're leaving the presence, by Kaddish it doesn't say you're leaving the מלך, you're not. To show that there is, I'm just saying my own sevara, I don't know if it's true or not. Chashivut of the Shemoneh Esrei mistama. Yeah, to be madgish the chashivut of Shemoneh Esrei, so, you know. This is מנהג Chabad, everywhere else is the same way, seems so. In Kaddish, yeah, we do the same way. See the Gemara here doesn't bring it, but the Gemara talks about the tefillah, later we'll talk about the tefillah of the Kohen Gadol.
When he went out of the קדש הקדשים, he would say a small tefillah. And one of the things he used to say was that the Aibershter shouldn't hold back the rain because of the people who are in a trip. The world needs rain. People are on a trip, they don't want it to rain, so they daven to the Aibershter, He should stop the rain. So the Kohen Gadol would ask, Aibershter, don't accept the tefillah from the עוברי דרכים, from this passers-by, when the world needs rain. So the Gemara tells us, that חנינא בן דוסא הוה קאזיל באורחא, he was on a trip. Chanina ben Dosa was from the biggest tzadikim. It's interesting, even though we don't find Chanina ben Dosa his Torah, the Rebbe says in in we just saw it now in the Likutei Torah. Shoftim? Not that, the the other one. The Rebbe mentioned that that Chanina ben Dosa, we don't find any halachah from Chanina ben Dosa in the Gemara. He was a what? Tanna. Tanna, yeah. He was such a, you're saying tzadik, his צדקות, he was a The stories of miracles we find from Chanina ben Dosa. I don't know who's there, I don't know. So, what's on the street? שדא מיטרא, it started raining עלי, on him. אמר לפניו, he said to the אייבישטער, רבונו של עולם, רבונו של עולם, כל העולם כולו בנחת, everyone is fine, cuz raining is good for them, וחנינא בצער? And חנינא is בצער. פסק מיטרא, the rain stopped. כי אתא לביתיה, when he came into his house, אמר, he said, רבון העולמים, אייבישטער, כל העולם כולו בצער, the whole world has צער, וחנינא בנחת? I'm I'm okay cuz I, but the whole world is missing rain. אתא מיטרא, it rained. Cuz his words pashut had an impression l'maalah. אמר רב יוסף, said Rav Yosef said, מאי אהני ליה צלותיה דכהן גדול לגבי דרבי חנינא בן דוסא? What did the tefillah of the Kohen Gadol help compared to Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa? His tefillah was the Eibishter shouldn't accept the tefillah of the people who take a trip. So we stomp people, but Chanina ben Dosa, his tefillah didn't work. Because Chanina ben Dosa wanted the rain should stop, the rain stopped. He was a תנא גדול? Yeah. Yeah. That's why he says, כל העולם כולו ניזון בשביל חנינא בני. When when was when was he? Was he same with Who were the other Tannaim around when he was? It says even who is the shver or who was the eydem, somebody... Second Beis Hamikdash. Yeah, but who was who what time was he? I mean, there's there's we even know who is one of the shver the... By the end. Who was the shver? I don't say there who is the eydem? I mean from I mean the other one is the more famous one, no not famous, the like Rabbi Akiva? He was... I don't remember. Wikipedia? Look it up. Yeah. Chanina ben Dosa. Seder Taharot. Can't you find it? It'll tell you by the end of the second בית המקדש, we know this is second בית המקדש. Yeah, but just don't remember who he was which who were his friends or who was... And he was in Eretz Yisrael? Yeah. תנו רבנן: מעשה בכהן גדול אחד, there's a story with a כהן גדול, שהאריך בתפלתו, that davened long when he was in the קדש הקדשים, ונמנו אחיו הכהנים ליכנס אחריו, and they got worried so they decided let's go inside see what happened to him. התחילו הם נכנסין, as they started going in, והוא יוצא, he went out. אמרו לו, they said to him, מפני מה הארכת בתפלתך? Why'd you daven so long? אמר להם, so he said to them, קשה בעיניכם שהתפללתי עליכם, what is, do you feel bad? He goes, I davened about on you, ועל בית המקדש שלא יחרב, and I davened בית המקדש shouldn't be destroyed. אמרו לו, they said to him, אל תהי רגיל לעשות כן, don't do that. שהרי שנינו, we learned, לא היה מאריך בתפלתו, it says clearly in the Mishnah that he was not מאריך, shouldn't daven long, כדי שלא לבעת את ישראל, not to scare the Yidden. It's interesting, his tefillah is so great, but nevertheless not to scare the Yidden, not to make the Yidden feel bad is even more than that, more important than that. We we learned that the other day. When yesterday or something, that just he said a short prayer when he came out. That's what the kaparah is... Like you said it. Those words were... One is for רבי יוחנן בן זכאי תלמיד? Oh yeah? So you just find that. Early early on. So it's time of the churban. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was the nasi at the time of the churban. Does it say father-in-law or son-in-law? Somebody that's why I think if I remember correctly somebody that's on Wikipedia? No, what does it say? Okay. It says it, \"No halachot.\" No halachot. Mostly aggadot. Aggadot. But the few aggadot that are told about him are out of out of this world. Says, כל העולם כולו לא ניזון אלא בשביל חנינא בני. The whole No, not No halachot in Gemara. How is that possible? Says, יצא ובא לו דרך בית כניסתו. He went in the Kodesh HaKodashim. When he went out, he went the same way he came in. That means he didn't turn around and walk out with his back. He walked backwards. He walked, you know, מנא הני מילי? Where do we know this from? אמר רב שמואל בר רב נחמני אמר רבי יונתן: אמר קרא, the pasuk says by Shlomo HaMelech. It says, ויבא שלמה לבמה אשר בגבעון ירושלם. Shlomo, this was before the Beit HaMikdash was built, came to Givon. The Mishkan was then in Givon. So he came to the במה in Givon Yerushalayim. מאי ענין גבעון אצל ירושלים? What do Givon it's Yerushalayim? What Givon is not Yerushalayim, what do you mean he went to Givon Yerushalayim? אלא מקיש יציאתו מגבעון לירושלים, wants to compare when he went from גבעון to ירושלים, similar לביאתו מירושלים לגבעון, the same way as he came from ירושלים to גבעון. מה ביאתו מירושלים to גבעון, פניו כלפי במה. When he went to גבעון, גבעון was the Beit HaMikdash, Mishkan then, was the במה. So when he went to גבעון, he was facing גבעון, facing the במה, כדרך ביאתו, that's how you go in. אף יציאתו מגבעון לירושלים, so when he left to go out from גבעון to ירושלים, פניו כלפי במה. He didn't turn around, he just walked like back, like this, כדרך ביאתו. וכן כהנים בעבודתם ולוים בדוכנם, so too when the kohanim go in to do the avodah, and the leviim go to do the duchan, the singing, וישראל במעמדם, those are the Yisraelim that there were the אנשי מעמד. Right? They used to choose certain people to stand from the Yisraelim to stand in the Beit Hamikdash at the time when the korbanot were brought. So too כשהן נפטרים, when they leave, לא היו מחזירין פניהם והולכין, they didn't turn the face around and go, אלא מצדדין פניהם והולכין. And they just turned to the side and went. I mean, they had to look back, look because they have to see where they're going, but they didn't turn around completely. They went to the side. Kind of what they do in the Sephardi when they leave the shul. Like that. Like sure. You went out from yechidus, you go back that way. In the cemetery it's done. In the cemetery you leave, they do it on kever. When you leave a kever, I always. Here by the Ohel we do that anyway, on the kevarim, it's for them. Turned his back, right? Yeah. Never want to leave. At the hakafot of the hoshanot, the chazan would go and the Rebbe was behind him. So some of them felt very uncomfortable. He has to go ahead, so I know some of them used to go like this, behind him when you walk like this, to the side. Side. Not to leave with your back to the Rebbe. Yeah, that's what it says here. וכן
תלמיד הנפטר מרבו, a talmid goes from his רבי, לא יחזיר פניו, don't turn your face around, ויצא. אלא יצדד פניו ויצא, to turn to the side and go. כי הא דרבי אלעזר, like רבי אלעזר כי הוה מיפטר מדרבי יוחנן, when he would leave רבי יוחנן, so like this, whenever he would separate, כי הוה בעי רבי יוחנן למיזל, when רבי יוחנן wanted to go, הוה גחין וקאים רבי אלעזר אדוכתיה, רבי אלעזר would stand up and bend down, and would stand that way, עד דהוה מיכסי רבי יוחנן מיניה, until רבי יוחנן left and he wouldn't see him anymore. כי הוה בעי רבי אלעזר למיזל, when רבי אלעזר wanted to go, הוה אזיל לאחוריה, he would go backwards, עד דהוה מיכסי מיניה דרבי יוחנן, until he wouldn't see רבי יוחנן, and then he would turn around. But he would go back that way. Okay. I wonder who switched, why do you think they switched around that? I mean, this way they put it together, this seder here in the Gemara, it's not really, it's a better seder...