It's an English expression: \"Too many cooks spoil the broth.\" זאגט די Gemara, like a tanya, we learned in a baraita: לעולם הלכה כבית הלל. Always the halacha is like Beit Hillel. והרוצה לעשות כדברי בית שמאי עושה, כדברי בית הלל עושה. If you want to do like Beit Shammai, you can do like Beit Shammai. If you want to do like Beit Hillel, you can do... Wait, sir. Wait, wait, wait. Just started! And then he says: מקולי בית שמאי ומקולי בית הלל רשע. If a person chooses all the kulot of Beit Shammai and all the kulot of Beit Hillel, that guy is a rasha. מחומרי בית שמאי ומחומרי בית הלל, if he picks all the chumrot of Beit Shammai and בית הלל, עליו הכתוב אומר, on him the pasuk: הכסיל בחושך הולך. You're a fool, you go in darkness. You're a fool that way, all the chumrot? Ela, what do you do? אי כבית שמאי, if you do like Beit Shammai, do כקוליהן וכחומריהן, do their kulot and their chumrot. אי כבית הלל, if you're like בית הלל, כקוליהן וכחומריהן, do their kulot and chumrot. This is the baraita. פרעגט די Gemara: הא גופא קשיא! This baraita is a kashya, it's a contradiction. אמרת, first thing you said: לעולם הלכה כבית הלל, forever the halacha is like Beit Hillel. והדר אמרת, and then you said: הרוצה לעשות כדברי בית שמאי עושה, if you want to do like Beit Shammai, you could do. ענטפערט די Gemara: לא קשיא, no kashya. כאן קודם בת קול, כאן לאחר בת קול.

Gemara will say soon that what told us that halachah is like Beit Hillel, a bat kol came out from heaven and said הלכה כבית הלל. So before the bat kol, there wasn't an הלכה כבית הלל yet. So before the bat kol, you could do whatever you want, as long as you don't do just the kolot or just the chumrot, you kind of do everything from once from Beit Shammai or Beit Hillel. Always in Gemara, אין משגיחין בבת קול. Wait, wait, we got to... תורה לא בשמים היא. And לאחר, and then after the bat kol, that's when we said לעולם הלכה כבית הלל. Iba'it eima, or you could say no, הא והא לאחר בת קול, they're both talking after the, both inyanim. רבי יהושע היא דלא משגח בבת קול. The one that says that we don't pasken necessarily like Beit Hillel, goes like is Rabbi Yehoshua, and he says we don't follow the bat kol. אין משגיחין. Where is the story? There is a long Gemara with תנורו של עכנאי, when Rabbi Eliezer had a whole fight with the chachamim about a certain she'eilah in tumah, and he claimed that he's right, and he even brought a re'iyah, he said, I'm going to prove: מן השמים יוכיחו, let them prove from heaven I'm right. And a bat kol came out and said הלכה כרבי אליעזר. And עמד רבי יהושע על רגליו, רבי יהושע got up and made a statement, he said: אין משגיחין בבת קול! תורה לא בשמים היא! We don't look at a bat kol from heaven. So then he said, you know what? אמת המים יוכיח, the river, the well on the side, so the well started turning. They said, this is not how you pasken a she'eilah! Then he said: כותלי בית המדרש יוכיחו, the walls of the בית המדרש will prove. So the walls started caving in. So Rabbi Yehoshua screamed at the walls, said, what are you doing? Told the walls: we chachamim are arguing on the halacha, you're getting involved? Vos mishtust zich arein? So the walls didn't fall, but they didn't get back straight. They didn't fall lichvodo of Rabbi Yehoshua, and they didn't get straight lichvodo of Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, right? Eliezer ben Hurkanos. Yeah, but it's not Yehoshua ben Levi, יהושע סתם. מה זה בת קול? בת קול is a קול מן השמים. מי זה? Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Hashem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu. אז אז הקדוש ברוך הוא לא קובע כלום? לא. לא. לא קובע? לא קובע. השם ישמור. The

Gemara says the story, the famous story: there was a machloket in שמים, in מתיבתא דרקיע, between the מתיבתא דרקיע and הקדוש ברוך הוא בכבודו ובעצמו, in a נגע, a שאלה of a נגע. And they argued. Imagine, they argued with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So then they said: nu, who is going to pasken? מאן נוכח? Rabba bar Nachmani, cuz you can't pasken up there, you pasken down here. And Rabba bar Nachmani פסקנד not like Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So he went up there to pasken? He went up there, I mean, died, yes. Later the next day, the next day one of the chachamim met... He died? He went up and they brought him down again? No, no, he died. בת קול הוא אותו מין מדרגה... Yeah, בת קול is a דרגה in... I know, but, but peshat... הקדוש ברוך הוא דרגה... שמים... Torah, next day he found Eliyahu Hanavi, one of the Tannaim, and asked Eliyahu Hanavi: Mai avid HaKadosh Baruch Hu? What's the aibershter doing? So he answered: the aibershter is smiling, and laughing, and saying, having nachas: נצחוני בני, נצחוני. My children won over me. The aibershter gave over the Torah to the Yidden's's hands, but you have to follow His rules. The moment you go against the rules, that's Conservative, that's Reform. But if you follow within His rules the way the aibershter said, and you, so we can pasken down here. When it says היושבת בגנים חברים מקשיבים, it says that, so the Midrash says the peshat: the people היושבת בגנים in the yeshivos that פסקנינג דינים, who are the chaverim that come to listen? The malachim. I, up there they learn Torah all day. It says in the נשמות למעלה, what do they do? They learn Torah all day, but they can't פסקן דינים. The aibershter gave over to פסקן דינים to us. נו, אַז צוויי חכמים קריגן זיך, both of them know the rules, they're both taking the rules, and there's a halachah how you pasken: בתר רבים, הלכה כרבים, whatever the aibershter gave, and the aibershter says: \"נצחוני בני, נצחוני.\" When the when the malachim come to the aibershter and ask him, \"When is Rosh Hashanah?\" the aibershter says, \"I don't know. Let's go down and hear what the בית דין של מטה did, what they decided to make Rosh Chodesh and that's what it'll be.\" The aibershter gave it over. It says that it's the aibershter's Torah, but the way to come to a conclusion the aibershter gave over and אין משגיחין בבת קול. Now the truth is, כי תורה לא בשמים, the truth is it's not so pashut. He wants to say, I think it's Margolios, there's a sefer called שאלות ותשובות מן השמים. There was this Rabbi Yaakov of Corbeil, one of the Baalei Tosafot, he used to sometimes have she'eilot, and he would before he went to sleep write a tzetel next to his bed, and he woke up and there were answers מן השמים. And then there's an whole ספר, שאלות ותשובות מן השמים. That's the famous place where it says his tefillin was came k'seder. This was written 800 years ago. So in the, I think Margaliyot gave out this שאלות ותשובות מן השמים with the hagahot there. So he asks a she'eilah, how could he פסקן מן השמים when it says אין משגיחין בבת קול? So he wants to come up with an idea that Rabbi Yaakov of Corbeil held that you could פסקן מן השמים. He wants to even say, I think the Shem HaGedolim, in the Shem HaGedolim he says that the Raavad holds that you could פסקן מן השמים. The Raavad, cuz there's a few places in the Raavad on the Rambam where he argues against the Rambam and he says, \"How do I know this? כן נגלה לי בסוד ה' ליראיו.\" That's how I got it, as a secret from Hashem. \"Is he still פסקנינג? It still comes from...\" No, he's not פסק cuz he cuz he he looked through the halachah. He פסקס, that's what the Eibishter says. \"Rabbi Eliezer, he he he had a פסק, but then he had somebody to back it up.\" He had everything, sure, but the הלכה כרבים, you know, there were rabim against him. He was the only one against all the chachamim, so the halachah is not like him whether he likes it or not. Same thing with with with Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabban Gamliel when they had the whole fight. One of the fights was about that Rabbi Yehoshua made a cheshbon when Yom Kippur is, and Rabban Gamliel made a cheshbon differently, and he was the nasi, so they made יום כיפור, and he was upset at Rabbi Yehoshua, and he told Rabbi Yehoshua, \"I command you to come on the day that you claim is יום כיפור, to come to me with your wallet, mit di shtekn. With a stick you come.\" And he came. He couldn't help it, and he felt very bad. As far as he was concerned, he was מחלל יום כיפור. Now on the way back he felt so bad, he passed by Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva said to him, \"What are you so sad about?\" So he told him the story. He said, \"Don't be sad, because even if he's wrong, he's right! Because we learn from a pasuk by קידוש החודש, it says, לכם, אפילו אתם, אפילו שוגגים, אפילו מזידים, even if they made a mistake, if the בית דין פסקנד, that's Rosh Chodesh, that's Rosh Hashanah.\" So he answered him, \"עקיבא, נחמתני! עקיבא, נחמתני! You made me feel better.\" But we see all these places that the אייבערשטער gave over the Torah to the hands of the אידן to use what He gave us, not chas veshalom to make anything new. \"What about the Shulchan Aruch, didn't he have a maggid...\" Not to pasken halachot, not to pasken halachot. הגם

there are places where it says, when when you say תיקו, we have she'elot that we don't have an answer, so the velt taytsh, I mean it says in sefarim, תיקו is a ראשי תיבות, תשבי יתרץ קושיות ואיבעיות. The question is how could he, how could Tishbi, Eliyahu Hanavi, because he's a navi he could pasken? So some answer, it doesn't mean he'll pasken as a nevuah. Eliyahu Hanavi was a big, big talmid chacham, a big gaon, so he'll sit down and work it through. But then why do we need Eliyahu Hanavi for? We could have anybody. No, it will come from nevuah, but how can you pasken from nevuah? So the answer, the Rebbe explains this, that the answer is you can't pasken from nevuah, but if after you hear the nevuah you sit down and you look it through and you al pi seichel agree to the nevuah... \"...right.\" So what's the purpose of the נבואה? The נבואה guides you which way to look. I don't know, should I look this or look, but נבואה comes, and I say, \"I know I have to look this or this way.\" So Eliyahu HaNavi is going to פסקן as a פסק דין of a רב למטה. Based, not based, guided by the נבואה. The Rebbe answered the same thing, it says in in Biurei HaZohar from the Mitteler Rebbe, it says that all the Tannaim va'Amoraim, anybody who פסקנד anyone, any din down here is because he saw למעלה that למעלה in עץ in קבלה in ספירות in אצילות this is the halacha. So you have a שאלה, how can you פסקן because you see in אצילות? So he says, it doesn't mean that they פסקנד because they saw it in אצילות. They saw it, although in ענינים of למעלה רוחניות, so they took that and took it into their head, and they looked thought about it, and looked it through, and came up to a decision that way, the way they did. So it's... \"What did you say about Margolies also? Who was the...\" What's that? But the Rabbi Yaakov MiKorbil... \"MiKorbil, yeah.\" Margolies wrote the הערות, you know, he's asking. \"Oh, yeah. Yeah, why couldn't you say that about him?\" Maybe you could. Yeah, so maybe takeh good, yeah, yeah. \"Eliyahu HaNavi was one of the מסורה before you had...\" Right. So why does it have to be him? He's the one that's going to bring Mashiach, he's... כן, no, he had he had yeshivot after he went up למעלה. Tanna Devei Eliyahu! It's a Tanna Devei Eliyahu Rabbah, Eliyahu Zuta, a whole מעשה. \"Were you allowed to carry a cane on Yom Kippur?\" Carry? No. To use it? \"Yeah.\" No, he didn't need it to walk, like he was allowed to walk. He carried a cane out of kavod, you know, like a chashuv whatever it was. \"Rather than a cane to walk.\" No, if you can't walk without a cane, you're allowed to carry on Shabbos, yeah. But his case was his cane and his wallet. His wallet with his money and everything. \"Did they put Rabbi Eliezer in חרם and that was...\" Yeah, after that. That's right. \"Why, cuz he, he...\" Because he still, he still didn't agree. He continued to pasken the way... Anyway, so the Gemara says one place, what, asks the shaila: here it says halacha is always like Beit Hillel, here it says if you want to do like Beit Shammai. So one teirutz is, is one is before the bat kol and after bat kol, or you could say the one that says, even after the bat kol, he doesn't care. אי בעית אימא, another pshat. הכא קאמר, this what he meant. He didn't mean Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel specifically. He used them as an example. כל היכא דמשכחת תרי תנאי ותרי אמוראי דפליגי אהדדי, whenever we find two תנאים or two אמוראים argue, כעין מחלוקת בית שמאי ובית הלל, like מחלוקת שמאי והלל, לא ליהביד, then we say לא ליהביד כקולי דמר וכקולי דמר, don't do the kulot like him and the kulot like him, ולא כחומרי דמר וכחומרי דמר, also both chumrot, don't do that. אלא אי כקולי דמר וכחומרי דמר עביד, if you want, you could follow this person, do all his kulot and all his חומרות, אי כקולי דמר וכחומרי דמר עביד, do his kulot and do his chumrot, but you can't do both kulot or both chumrot. So the halacha doesn't follow one person, makes Whoever we Right, whenever we follow the halacha. After the halacha All this is before the halacha was pasken. Before the halacha is pasken, all kinds of But it's after the halacha was pasken, or by Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, or or or other הלכות, what the Gemara has כללים, are followed, then no one could argue. But lichora, I want to just say something else. It says that since there's the בת קול, so the one, Rabbi Yehoshua says we don't care about the בת קול. What about the other opinion? Care about the בת קול? In other words, סוף כל סוף, we פסקן אין משגיחין בבת קול. And the Rambam says that that's why אין הנביא רשאי עוד לחדש דבר. The peshat is, the Gemara says in a different place, the reason בית שמאי, הלכה כבית הלל, because they were רוב. They were רוב, they were the majority. So that's why. And takeh, one day when Beis Shammai became the majority, gekhapt a 18 גזירות they made that day, because they were רוב. Yeah, 18 גזירות and they're חומרות like Beis Shammai. So be'emet, it's in the הלכה, it's a halachadige reason why you pasken like Beis Hillel. Wasn't really a vote, that thing? Didn't didn't they close the beis medrash, not let everybody out? Was like a coup? It was more than that, yeah. It was a real coup. Said in Yerushalmi. But anyway, l'poel, they turned out to be רוב. So the the בת קול came and was mechazek what we saw that were the רוב. But really, it's not based on the בת קול. You can't base a הלכה on the בת קול. But בנוגע this this Eibershter מחלוקת, מתיבתא דרקיע והאייבערשטער, דא זאגט חסידות, Rabbi Moshe is saying it, but דא זאגט חסידות, that it says מתיבתא דרקיע, the מתיבתא up there against Kudsha Brich Hu, Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it refers to קדוש וברוך. Chassidus, it says there's many מדרגות למעלה. You have different עולמות. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in the madregah, it says קדוש וברוך, this is זו״נ, and, נו, מלכות, it's so in Kabbalah, in Chassidus it explains how there could be a machloket, whether there is a big maamar in Likkutei Torah. So I

want to tell you that there is a letter from the Rebbe about this, and at the end of the letter, the Rebbe writes that, I just want to mention that there is a דרוש גאוני, a a דרוש גאוני, a a how would you translate it, a genius דרוש, a brilliant explanation by the Malbim on this inyan. אבער דא זעט מען די מופת פון חסידות. After you look that brilliant explanation he has, and you compare it to what's said in Chassidus, here you see the chashivut of Chassidus, how much. Yishar koach. Yishar koach. How you doing, kid?