According to the Rav, it's not even an issur, and nevertheless the Yidden continued keeping it, so it's a neder. So it's a neder, it's a de'oraita, so he wants to say it's even worse. Yeah. Huh? A neder that Klal Yisrael accepts. I'll give you an example: למשל Maariv. Okay, I'll answer you in a second, just Maariv. So we know that תפילת ערבית רשות, לכתחילה when the חכמים made the תפילות מעריב was not a chiyuv, reshut, but it says the Yidden were mekabel upon themselves as a chiyuv, and now it's a chiyuv. Why? Because it wasn't a yachid that was mekabel, the tzibur was mekabel, and then there's a דין ציבור לא מת. The tzibur of now is exactly the same tzibur as it was always. There is no such thing as the tzibur dying. Individuals die. Tzibur is a geder of the כלל. The Gemara, I always bring this Gemara, the Gemara in Horayot, the Gemara says that when they built, בנוגע, yes, no, it doesn't mean every shul. No, no, no, that's not. The tzibur means ציבור כלל ישראל. It sure did, Klal Yisrael accepted it, there's never a difference. Now it's hard to say that tzibur accepts, but the Gemara says that it what it says in Tanchuma when they built the second Beit HaMikdash, they brought a קרבן חטאת. And the Gemara wants to know, why did they bring a קרבן חטאת? And the Gemara answers, because in the time of the churban by Nevuchadnetzar the Yidden bowed down to avodah zarah, so they had to bring a korban of avodah zarah. So the Gemara asks, but they're different people, 70 years ago, this is completely many most of them died, and the din is חטאת שמתו בעליה, a chatat that the owners died is has to die, you can't use the chatat. So the Gemara answered, it was tzibbur and ציבור לא מת, the tzibbur is the same. So mimela if the tzibbur is the same it helps, so when the tzibbur is mekabel, it has a din of a neder, and then mimela, that's why תפילת ערבית רשות, it says now we have a chiyuv, and to a certain degree the chiyuv of Maariv could be a certainly a stronger chiyuv than others.

I'll give you another example: it's not even derabbanan. Take lemashal, it says בנוגע a niddah, so med'oraita she doesn't have to wait שבעה נקיים, only זבה, not a niddah, doesn't have שבעה נקיים. It says that Rabbi made that you have to wait six days, and came החמירו נשי ישראל על עצמן, that the women took a chumra upon themselves, all the women, and they keep seven days. And that's a chiyuv. No one could say, you okay, you don't have to keep seven days because because החמירו על עצמן, they make a kabbalah, so this kabbalah has a din. Now he's asking גדול המצווה ועושה יותר ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה. Of course if you're commanded it's much stronger than if you're not commanded. Now, there are two, looking at it from two perspectives: on one hand, if a person wants to show his ibergegebenkeit, is giving himself over to the Eibershter, that's more when you're not commanded. Because if some, give you an example, if somebody a slave, servant of somebody, does everything he's told to do, fine, he's a good guy. Then there is a higher madrega, a guy who says, \"I wasn't told, but I know that my master would be happy if I do this and this,\" and he goes ahead and does it, then that shows ibergegebenkeit, his love to his master even more. That's why the

Gemara says in פסחים על מה אבדה, על מה חרבה ירושלים, why was ירושלים destroyed? שהעמידו דבריהם על דברי תורה. They did everything על פי תורה. So the Gemara says, what's wrong with that? So if they have Torah it should get destroyed? And the Gemara answers, yeah, they only did על פי תורה, ולא עשו ולא עבדו לפנים משורת הדין, they didn't do anything more. And עד כדי כך, is the problem that for not doing more than the halacha that you deserve to be destroyed? The question is, but they didn't have to! But this shows that they didn't really care about the אייבערשטער. They never never had to do whatever they're told. So that's a maalah if you're not mitzvah. Then there's another thing: a mitzvah connects you to the אייבערשטער, which is something that you on your own can't do. Nobody could do on their own, because we and the אייבערשטער there is אין ערוך. It's impossible, it's impossible for a human being to connect to the אייבערשטער. We are גבול, we're מוגבלים, we're limited, it's finite, and the אייבערשטער is infinite, the אייבערשטער is בלי גבול. How could we connect? So we takeh can't. The אייבערשטער could connect us. Since he could do anything, כל יכול, so he could connect us. So any mitzvah that the אייבערשטער gave us, he commanded us, so he is bringing us to him. So we connect ourselves to the אייבערשטער. If we're not commanded, you're doing like a great thing, but that פרט is missing. The word mitzvah, which is צוותא וחיבור, is missing if you're doing it on your own. So there are two things: there is from the connection to the אייבערשטער, and then there is the expression of one of a person how much he loves the אייבערשטער. That is more if you do extras. So, but if you're mekabel as a neder, then there's a chiyuv. מיסוד ההלכה you're mechuyav in a neder. When it says a minhag reached that high a level, then the tzibur, because the tzibur is Then then the tzibur, yeah. Yeah, that's why he says that the דוגמא that he brings in Likutei Torah: Sukkot we know is זמן שמחתנו, שמחת יום טוב. שמחת בית השואבה is a lower madregah, because it's not even, ניסוך המים is not even mentioned in the Torah, it's הלכה למשה מסיני. Hakafot is only a minhag. Where is the biggest simcha? There's a bigger simcha in שמחת בית השואבה than שמחה יום טוב, and hakafot by Yidden there is a bigger simcha than that. Why? Because it says that this minhag which you're not commanded shows much more in your connection to the Eibershter, knowing that you you know that the Eibershter is happy about it, and how do you know the Eibershter is happy about it? The fact that the Yidden accepted as a minhag is the best re'ayah. The Gemara says, הנח להם לישראל, אם אינם נביאים הם, בני נביאים הם. Yidden are What If Yidden make up something then you know it's the Eibershter wants. Or the Gemara says, פוק חזי מאי עמא דבר, עמא דבר, whatever, however you want to taytsh. So go out and see what the Yidden, cuz Yidden טרעף צו. Yidden have a chush to טרעף צו to what the Eibershter wants. But they still were not commanded. So legabei them, it shows more if you do something extra. Legabei the tzavta and chibur, that's what גדול המצווה ועושה ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה. Anyway, so here he says that we're telling the אייבערשטער, חדשים גם ישנים, even the new ones we keep. What's peshat the new ones? The old ones are what what the Eibershter told us, the new ones are what we accepted upon ourselves, and both of them we keep. אמר ליה רב חסדא לההוא מרבנן, so Rav Chisda said to one of the חכמים דהוה מסדר אגדתא קמיה, who was teaching אגדתא there. So he asked him, מי שמיע לך, did you hear חדשים גם ישנים דודי צפנתי לך מאי היא? Did you hear, what does it mean, this pasuk, the new ones and the old ones, my friend, the אייבערשטער, we hid for you, we're doing, what does it mean? אמר ליה, so he said, I'll tell you. אלו מצות קלות ומצות חמורות. You have the lighter mitzvot and you have the stricter mitzvot. So which one is which? So likhora the the old ones are the stricter ones. Then in the stricter ones there are more details which are not so strict, that's next step. אמר ליה, so he said, no. וכי תורה פעמים פעמים ניתנה? What do you mean, old and new? The Torah was given before and later? There's one Torah, you can't say this is called this is old new, this is called new. אלא הללו דברי תורה והללו דברי סופרים. Old ones is called de'oraita, and the new ones is called דברי דרבנן, cuz the רבנן טאקע came later, and the Rabbanan made new dinim. דרש רבא, so רבא דרש a derasha. מאי דכתיב, it says in פסוק, ויותר מהמה בני הזהר, my son, Shlomo HaMelech is saying, קהלת, שלמה המלך is saying, more than this, my son, be careful, עשות ספרים הרבה אין קץ, from making many sefarim unlimited. By the way, this דרך אגב this tells you don't not everyone sure has to write a sefer. It says עשות ספרים הרבה אין קץ. There's no limit and it's not good, cuz it says We'll see in the Gemara in a second, but I'm saying pashut. Like it says, the same thing when you daven to the אייבערשטער, it says don't don't talk too much. It's a pasuk also Shir HaShirim, in Kohelet, it says the pasuk says, I don't mean to talk outside, even davenen, don't make some people make up their own It says, אתה בארץ, אלוקים בשמים ואתה בארץ, על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים. Talking to the אייבערשטער, ah? Kohelet. So then talk very little, which means imagine you go to a king and you want to ask him for something, you're going to prepare exact words not to say any extra words. Imagine a guy will come in and start pludering, start talking, you know, king this, he's like Like you talk to your friend and try talk too much and you try you think you're explaining more what you're trying to say. He'll throw you out! What are you, meshuga, or this? Talking to the אייבערשטער: אלוקים בשמים, ואתה בארץ, על כן יהיו דבריך מעטים. So here we say the same thing. עשות ספרים הרבה אין קץ. Hazaher, like be careful from asot, but then here he taytshes different. He taytshes like this: בני הזהר בדברי סופרים יותר מדברי תורה. Be careful more with the derabbanan more than the de'oraita. שעל אלו עשה ולא תעשה, ועל אלו חייב מיתה בידי שמים. By de'oraita, not everything you're חייב מיתה for. Certain things you're חייב מיתה. Certain things you're חייב כרת. Certain things are עשה, certain things are לא תעשה, you don't get מיתה for it. But here, by derabbanan, you're חייב מיתה בידי שמים. Why? Cuz the pasuk says, כל הפורץ גדר ישכנו נחש. Anybody who goes a פורץ breaks גדר is a גדר is a fence. Now a גדר, a fence, that refers to the derabbanan, cuz all the dinim of the derabbanan are like fences to a de'oraita. And the pasuk says, פורץ גדר, if you break the fence, ישכנו נחש, a snake will bite you and he'll kill you. This shows that derabbanan for any איסור דרבנן you're over, you deserve to be bitten by a snake, which is worse in a certain way than a de'oraita which not every de'oraita that you're over you get you get killed. Agav there's another pshat, is a this is obviously a a derash, it's not a real What's נחש? נחש is three words: נידוי, חרם, and שמתא. These are three expressions for a חרם. When you put someone in חרם there are three levels. There's one level called נידוי, one called חרם, one called שמתא. So if you're over on דברי חכמים, פורץ גדר, ישכנו נחש, you will get nidui, cherem, shamta, which is also which is equivalent to dying if you get secluded, separated from Klal Yisrael, and it's it's not No, but that shows. The fact, how do you know which maaseh is more chamur than the other? The onesh. How do you know which aveira is, take even a d'oraita, we say, oh this you have to be very careful. Why? Because this is a איסור כרת. Kippur is a איסור כ- Shabbos! That's a איסור ממש, that's a איסור סקילה, that's worse. I, who cares about the punishment, that's what it is! The punishment shows on the חומרא עבירה, it shows how strong the mitzvah is and how strong the aveira is. Sometimes it's not even good to be so... My zayde told once in Katrinaslav, the city where he lived, there was a guy, a freier guy, that kept the store open on Shabbos. Even so, most of the freier people, you know, on Kippur everyone closed. He didn't close on Kippur. Why? He once learned in a yeshiva. He says, I know Shabbos is more chamur than Kippur! So if I'm open on Shabbos, why should I be closed on Kippur? אה, talmid chacham! חכם עדיף... Yeah, yeah! Like a talmid chacham also! על פי הלכה, Shabbos is more chamur, and we're open on Shabbos, so Kippur... But anyway, so here also, if you see that the punishment is נחש, so means that the Eibishter will send chas v'shalom a נחש, so that shows it's very important. What is מיתה בידי שמים? Uh? What is... Here, מיתה בידי שמים is the נחש. How מיתה בידי שמים? A person dies at a young age. Karet, like karet. Yeah, it's two things. There's karet, there's מיתה בידי שמים. Karet is 60, before it's 50, and מיתה בידי שמים before 60. But that's changed, karet has changed because... That's a different, yeah. The issur is still there. The chumra of the issur is still there. It's just the punishment, because we get יניקה from קליפה. What was the reason why people used to get karet for an aveirah, and they actually died early? Because by doing this aveirah, they cut themselves off from Hashem, so you can't get chiyut. There was still a רושם left over, but by the time you come to 60 or 50, he died. But nowadays, unfortunately, we get our chiyut since the world is so low, we could get our chiyut from קליפה. So the people who continue living after 50 and 60, and they did all kinds of איסורי כרת and everything, is because their chiyut comes from the other side, מסטרא אחרא. Uh? Yeah, whatever קליפה gets a drop of kedushah, they have. But they, l'poal, they are קליפה. And they only exist because of a little bit they get of kedushah. But now they are קליפה. Their source is kedushah. In pashut, in פשוט פשט, how else do they exist? There's nothing in the world that exists without Hashem. Hashem makes it exist, so it's there. But l'poal, it's against the Aibershter. I tell you, a person is chayav That's what he said in Iggeret Hateshuvah, that's the whole biur that he gives there. The whole biur in Iggeret Hateshuvah is he has a kashya. If these people should die by karet, how come nowadays we see that they're living, and they live by אריכות ימים ושנים בנעימים, ושמחה, right? Like, I guess you could say maybe they became poor, and they, the Rebbe explains why the Alter Rebbe adds בנעימים, because you could say עני חשוב כמת, a סומא חשוב כמת, no, they live gantz geshmak, בנעימים, they have everything that they need. So he answers that nowadays you could get chayut from klipah. Yeah, they'll get, Hashem will take care of them. But in this, no, but the kashya is, in this world, they should have died because there's no source of chayut. There is a source of chayut, they get it from klipah. Does that also apply to this מיתה בידי שמים, when you over, when you go against the, the rabbanan? Yeah, it could be, could be. It doesn't affect you as well because of the klipah, which would Yeah, mistama, mistama. Now, שמא תאמר אם יש בהן ממש מפני מה לא נכתבו, then you could ask, if it's יש בהן ממש, the derabbanan, it's so important, why weren't they written? Why were they given later and not written in the Torah? That's what the pasuk adds, אמר קרא עשות ספרים הרבה אין קץ. In other words, don't do too many sefarim. So now let's see how he taytsh(t) the pasuk. He taytsh(t) the pasuk like this: ויותר מהמה בני הזהר. More than the Torah, you should be careful. In other words, from derabbanan you should be careful even more. And then he also darshens that the same pasuk gives you an answer: so why wasn't it written? Because הזהר מעשות ספרים הרבה אין קץ, be careful from writing too many sefarim. Which in practical sense means, pashut, not everything could be written. Imagine if everything would be written, you'd have a chumash that's ten times the size. I mean the Eibershter made it so that certain things are written, certain things are not. They're working on it, though. Every year, you see more and more books. Yeah, the Frankel Chumash with all with all the perushim. Okay, then there's another pasuk. The pasuk says ולהג הרבה יגיעת בשר. What does that mean? אמר רב פפא בריה דרב אחא בר עולא, ואמרי לה משמיה דרב אחא בר עולא, means like this, melamed, this teaches us, שכל המלעיג על דברי חכמים. Anybody who laughs from the words of the chachamim. The word lahag is l-h-g. A ה and an ע sometimes interchanges, because they're all from the same motza, motza. You have ה׳ מוצאות הפה, מוצא, same מוצא, ה׳ מוצאות הפה, you have five places of the mouth. Certain letters come from the lips, certain letters come from the throat. בומ״ף! בומ״ף, yeah, שפתיים. ב, ו, מ, פ. אחה״ע הגרון. א, ח, ה, ע come from the throat. Aha! Especially the Sefardishe way. Aha! When we say a ח, you know, ה and ח, ע, everything has to come from the throat, yeah. להג, לעג. And that's, so that's why a ה and an ע interchange. So when it says ולהג הרבה יגיעת בשר, he taytsh't said לעג. Instead of להג, לעג means you're laughing. Laughing at what? At דברי חכמים. Because it's all בהמשך to the פסוק before, where the פסוק before we said talks about listening to the חכמים. נידון בצואה רותחת. What's he get punished with? In גיהנום, you're burning in boiling צואה. Because if it says לעג הרבה יגיעת בשר, what's the what's the יגיעת בשר that comes that comes out of the בשר? That's the צואה. And לעג, if you laugh, you get יגיעת בשר. אמר ליה רבא, so רבא asked him, מי כתיב להג? לעג להג כתיב. Does it say לעג with an ע? It says להג with a ה. And he doesn't want to darshen the ה and the ע interchange. So he taytsh't different. להג מלשון הגה היגה. כל ההוגה בהן, פארקערט, הגה like והגית בו יומם ולילה, if you learn in it, טועם טעם בשר. If you learn דרבננדיקע דינים, the more you're involved in it, you taste the taste of basar. Now basar, I guess, is the example of the most geshmacke things. Most tasty thing, right? Now, if it was written nowadays, you'd write ice cream, I guess, I don't know, but those days, I guess, a good The Gemara says, on on Shabbos, you have to have tray ta'anug. What's the ta'anug? בשר שמן ויין ישן. So, בשר שמן, so he says, if you really work under the Rabonim, you get a geshmak in it, if you And obviously, he seems to be saying more than with the d'oraita. The derabbanan has the ma'ala of so so. תנו רבנן, the רבנן learned, מעשה ברבי עקיבא, a story with רבי עקיבא, שהיה חבוש בבית האסורים, was in jail, היה יהושע הגרסי משרתו בכל יום ויום. And this person, יהושע הגרסי, used to serve him every day, it was his משרת. והיו מכניסין לו מים במדה, and they used to bring him water in a certain measurement. פעם אחת, and this was like, באמת illegal, they were supposed to bring him a certain amount, and really, what they used to do, used to bring him more water than than than they allowed. פעם אחת מצאו שומר בית האסורים, so one time the guard Could Looks like it. One day one day the guard met the guy who was carrying, אמר לו, he says, היום מימך מרובין, you're bringing too much water today. שמא לחפור בית האסורים אתה צריך, oh, you're probably using the water to dig under and and gonna escape. שפך חציין והניח חציין, took half of the water and he poured it out, and he only left half. כשבא אצל רבי עקיבא, came to רבי עקיבא, אמר לו, he said to him, יהושע, אי אתה יודע שזקן אני, don't you In other words, he asked him, why did you bring me so little water? Don't you know I'm old? וחיי תלויין בחייך, my life is dependent on your life. In other words, you don't bring me enough water, I'm not going to live. So why did you He thought that he, פשוט, was neglectful. He didn't care to bring enough water, or he spilled it out. שח לו כל אותו המעשה, so he told him the whole story. Huh? אמר לו, he said to him, תן לי מים ליטול ידי, so he said, you know what, give me the water that you do have, I'm going to wash my hands. אמר לו, he says, לשתות אינן מספיקין, there's not enough here to drink. ליטול ידיך מספיקין, in other words, to drink, and to and to wash your hands, it's not enough. And what should you really do? If you don't drink, you're going to die. If you don't wash your hands, okay, so you'll be עובר on a איסור דרבנן that you have to do נטילת ידים. But big deal. פיקוח נפש. פיקוח נפש is דוחה כל התורה כולה. אמר לו, so he said to him, מה אעשה שחייבין עליה מיתה בידי שמים. What should I do? If I don't do it, I'll be over on a issur derabbanan, and as we said before, you're chayav mitah bidei Shamayim, a snake will bite you. מוטב שימות מיתת עצמי, better I should wash, and not die from that. Die my I'll die if I don't drink. ואל אעבור על דעת חבירי, I should not be over on the Chachamim's words that they said you have to wash netilat yadayim. Yeah, but it's a from here, it's one of the re'ayot that if a person wants to give up

his life even for any aveirah, even for a derabbanan, you're allowed. Like, this is a din that you have to give up your life for three aveirot, right? Right. Everything else, no. It's a machloket. The Rambam says not only you don't have to, you're not allowed to. If a person wants to give up his life for שמירת שבת, you're not allowed to. The Rambam says, if you give up your life in order to keep Shabbos, you're committing suicide, you're not allowed to. Most of the Rishonim, most, I think the Rambam's only one not, say the opposite. You don't have to. The other three you have to, this you don't have to, but if you do, קדוש יאמר לו, that's the lashon, you're a kadosh. And they bring all kinds of, this is one of the re'ayot they bring. That even for a derabbanan, he was ready to give up his life, and he was allowed, because if he wouldn't be allowed, then what are you doing here? אמרו, they said, לא טעם כלום עד שהביא לו מים ונטל ידיו, he didn't taste, he didn't eat anything. He brought him the water, he washed his hands. וכששמעו חכמים בדבר, when the Chachamim heard, אמרו, they said, מה בזקנותו כך, בילדותו על אחת כמה וכמה. If now that when he's old and his health is much frail, he was like this, imagine how tzadik he was when he was young. ומה בבית האסורין כך, and now that in jail he's like this, בביתו על אחת כמה וכמה.

אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל, בשעה שתיקן שלמה עירובין ונטילת ידים, when Shlomo Hamelech made the takana of eiruv and netilat yadayim. It's a derabbanan, but who which of the derabbanan made it? Shlomo Hamelech. יצתה בת קול ואמרה, a בת קול came out and said, בני, אם חכם לבך, if your heart is so smart, ישמח לבי גם אני, I will also ואומר, another pasuk said: חכם בני ושמח לבי ואשיבה חורפי דבר, \"My son, be happy and you're smart and you could answer anybody who complains, you can answer.\" Because of this was by this big mitzvah of נטילת ידים. It shows how it is. That's why it says you should be very careful in נטילת ידים, even though it seems like it's a small mitzvah, small thing, but you have to be very careful. There's a famous story with there was a guy went to the Korean War. He went to the Rebbe. He was drafted. A frumer guy was drafted. So he asked the Rebbe for a berachah. So the Rebbe told him that you should try to keep every mitzvah that you can, but one thing you have to keep, that's נטילת ידים. Before you eat bread, you have to wash your hands. Which על פי הלכה is the opposite. It says that when you go to war, it's one of the things you don't have to keep. But the Rebbe told him, \"Make sure to keep נטילת ידים.\" And during the war, during the middle of the war, there was one time he was sitting there with a whole group of soldiers, and they opened their sandwiches or whatever they had to eat. And he was trying to be careful because the Rebbe said, and he went far, far to find water. And when he walked away, a bomb killed every single person there, and that's how he was saved. I know, that was Yeah, I heard that. I heard that. Okay, ready?