The topic tonight is going to be the importance of keeping Jewish customs, minhagim. And we're talking specifically about minhagim because we know that there are certain things that a Yid has to do because you are obligated to do it mide'oraita, from the Torah. Then there are certain things we have to do which are mid'rabbanan, that the Chachamim, our rabbis, the sages, added certain halachot, and we're obligated to keep it because in the Torah it says: לא תסור מכל אשר יורוך, that the Torah tells the Yidden that you should not turn away from everything, anything that the Chachamim will teach you. So we have to keep what the Chachamim taught us. Those are dinim called mid'rabbanan. But then we have a certain category of things that we do which are called minhagim, customs, Jewish customs. And what we're going to discuss today is the importance of keeping Jewish customs, because there are some people who think that to do a din that's mide'oraita, from the Torah, is very important, even a din which is mid'rabbanan is also important, but to keep minhagim, that is not that important. So I'm going to try to explain, mainly according to the way it's explained in Kabbalah and Chassidut, the specialty of מנהגי ישראל, of Jewish customs. And here we're not going to go into which customs, and there are different customs in different communities, and every community has to follow the custom of its community, but we're talking about the general concept of keeping customs that were established through behavior of Yidden. So we're going to try to explain the importance of keeping minhagim. Now, we all know the famous saying, מנהג ישראל תורה היא, that a minhag of Yidden is Torah. That's taken from a Yerushalmi, which is Gemara. Gemara in Yerushalmi, it says, מנהג ישראל תורה היא. It's actually brought down in different places. Tosafot in one place brings down the expression מנהג אבותינו תורה היא, the minhag of our forefathers, anything that we received from our fathers or that their fathers, and even though it's only a minhag, it is part of Torah. The Rema in Shulchan Aruch, and we all follow the Rema in Shulchan Aruch, says that you're not allowed to be mevatel or laugh at any Jewish custom. Mevatel means not to keep it. You're not allowed to. You have to follow every Jewish custom. And this is written in the Rema, who is the posek, he paskens his dinim in Shulchan Aruch. And we all follow the Rema. The Sephardim follow the Beit Yosef, the Ashkenazim follow the Rema, but even those Sephardim who don't follow the Rema להלכה, but the Rema is is everyone, one of the greatest poskim in in all generations. Actually, there's a pasuk that says, ובני ישראל יוצאים ביד רמה. It's talking about Yetziat Mitzrayim, going out of Mitzrayim, so it says the Yidden went out ביד רמה, with an uplifted hand. So it says in sefarim that this is a hint that ובני ישראל יוצאים ביד רמ\"א, that the Yidden go out with the hand of the Rema. The Rema is so important, and that's what he writes. And I'm just, before I get into explaining it, just going to make a few more quotes of places in halacha where it talks about the importance of keeping the minhagim. The Maharil writes in הלכות יום כיפור that you must keep all the minhagim, it's even the minhagim that have to do with a חזן דאוונען for the עמוד and the nigunim that they sing when the חזן דאוונט, you have to keep it. And actually he writes a very scary story about himself. He writes that he was once a חזן on Rosh Hashanah in shul, on Rosh Hashanah, by the around Rosh Hashanah time, and he changed, in the saying of the selichot, he changed from the minhag the way it was in that place. And then, it's even hard to repeat the story, and then on Yom Kippur his daughter passed away, and he said that he feels it's because he changed the minhag. That's how important it is to keep the minhagim. Don't interrupt in the middle. We'll explain afterwards and ask all the questions. So he writes that's how important the minhag is. We find the Chatam Sofer writes in one teshuvah that any person who laughs or is מהרהר, hesitates from believing in the Jewish customs, in the authenticity of the Jewish customs, you have to check him out. There is some kind of apikorsus that's in his mind. And in a different teshuvah he writes that somebody not to keep a Jewish custom is a question of not keeping a דין דאורייתא. And then we find in other ספרים, the Maharam Padua and the Ginat Veradim, different פוסקים, they write that we should always try to find a source to a Jewish custom. If there is a Jewish custom and we don't know where the source is, we have to try to find a source to it. So mitzvah to find a source to it. And in other ספרים they go along with the same idea that it's important to find, the Mahardam, they bring from the Mahardam who says that it's important to look for a source in Torah for the Jewish customs. It's all based on the idea that if Jews behave in a certain way and this is their custom, definitely this is holy. We find in the Gemara that certain things that the Gemara says we don't know how to do, so the Gemara says, you know what? פוק חזי מאי עמא דבר or מאי עמא דבר, go out and look what Yidden do. Because if Yidden do it, then definitely it's right. And when we say Yidden we don't mean any Yid in the street because you could say so many Yidden don't keep Shabbos. We're talking about יידן שומרי תורה ומצוות, יידן who keep mitzvot, and if there is something they do, we know that this is מן השמים that it's supposed to be done that way. In one place the Gemara uses the expression, הנח להם לישראל, אם אינם נביאים הם בני נביאים הם. If Yidden do it, leave it. Yidden are like prophets, and if they're not prophets they're at least children of prophets, like children of prophets. So to keep the customs, customs of Yidden is very, the fact that it's a custom shows that it's something that Hashem really wants. And if we don't find a source to it, the פוסקים say we have to look to find a source. Now here we're talking about minhagim that we could find a source eventually. Even when we don't eventually find a source to a minhag, there is a famous teshuvah of the Rashba, the Rashba one of the biggest ראשונים, he writes that if you see a minhag that's done by זקנים וזקנות, old men or old Jewish women, that they claim that they're doing it because their mothers taught them to do it and their mothers taught, that is something that must be done, and to him it outweighed something that someone showed him was written in one of the תשובות of the גאונים, which is hundreds of years before him. He says to him, a מנהג נשים זקנות, a minhag of old women is stronger than the teshuvah of the גאונים, that's how important it is. That's what a teshuvah of the Geonim is. In the Chavos Yair he talks about it, and in different sefarim, the Maharam Chagiz has all about it, and he writes that if you don't find really a source to it, he quotes the pasuk, based on the Yerushalmi where it says that you should know לא דבר ריק הוא, the Torah is not empty, so he says, uses an expression, if it's דבר ריק, it says לא דבר ריק הוא מכם, it's not empty from you, so he says it means אם דבר ריק הוא, if you feel that it's empty, מכם, it's because of you, because it's your fault, you don't know, but really there must be a lot of depth to it. That's a custom that we know Yidden do. There's an interesting thing, there's somebody who writes, sefer called Sifra Raba, who writes in the name of the Chasam Sofer that the Chasam Sofer told him that he heard from a talmid of the Pnei Yehoshua that he said that his Rebbe the Pnei Yehoshua was writing a sefer to show how all Jewish custom customs have a source in the Torah, but something happened and he couldn't finish it, and he said מן השמים they didn't allow him to finish it, and he said, had he finished that sefer, Mashiach would have come. That's how important it is, that's how chashuv it is, the concept of keeping Jewish customs. Now, obviously we're talking here about customs that's done by Klal Yisrael or even customs that's done by a certain community, but it it's not against the halacha. It's a custom that's approved by Gedolei Yisrael. Sometimes we find, I must mention, certain customs by some people which are narishkeitn. They just came because of some stupidity. It could happen, it has no source. Certainly if it's something that's against the Torah because sometimes we find a custom that's against the halacha. Like they they say all kinds of things. They tell a story that once in a certain city there was a shul that everybody who walked into the shul, when they would come to the middle of the shul they had a custom to bend down. And no one understood where's this custom that in the middle of the shul you have to bow down. And they found out that the shul originally when it was built had a big beam in the middle. And when when you had when you walked to the shul you had to bend down to pass through, and that's how it became. So there are customs like that that have no no meaning, but we're not talking about, we're talking about general customs that Klal Yisrael do or communities do, and customs that were done by Gedolei Yisrael. The other ones, there are some sefarim, especially the Munkatcher would write, writes in one place when someone wrote to him about something he was against, and he said it's our it's our custom, so he said, custom, minhag! The word minhag has the same letters as the word Gehinnom! So you can't rely on it. But that's only such customs that have no source, but we're talking about authentic Jewish Jewish customs, so Jewish customs are important, and as we see in all these sefarim, how important it is to keep it, and not chas veshalom to laugh at it, and to keep the Jewish customs. But so far all this showed was how the sefarim tell us that the importance of Jewish customs.

When we look into Chassidus and Kabbalah, we find that Jewish customs are not only as important as a halacha, we have to keep it, and it's Torah, from a certain angle, Jewish customs have something more than even a דין דאורייתא. Imagine, דאורייתא is the דין of the Torah, of the Chumash. Then we have דרבנן, and then we have the least of all is Jewish customs. But from a certain point of view, Jewish customs have something more than even a דאורייתא. Now, it does not mean, I'm not trying to say, that Jewish customs are therefore more important practically speaking. That means if a person will have a choice, he's only able to do or a halacha of the Torah or keep a custom, one of the two, he can't do both, we'll say, \"Well, if customs are more important than a halacha of the Torah, he's going to do the custom rather to do the דין דאורייתא.\" That's not true. דין דאורייתא is דאורייתא. דאורייתא is the most important one, second to that comes דרבנן, then comes customs. What I'm saying is that when we do keep our customs, there is something there, a certain aspect in it, which is more important even than the דין of the Torah, and the דין of the, and certainly of the דין דרבנן. Now, the first thing we find, I'm not going to go from level to level actually, show deeper explanation, a deeper explanation, then deeper explanation the way it's explained in Chassidus and Kabbalah. The first thing is we find, and that's actually seen in the custom of Chabad, Pesach night, that the seder of the four kushyos, the order of the four kushyos is that the first question that the child asks is מטבילין, why we dip in twice. It's מנהג Chabad, but it's based actually on many sefarim. The Rambam has that seder, the Rif has that seder, the way the Mishnah is written in the Yerushalmi has that seder, in the siddur of the Arizal it's that seder, many more. But anyway, but it's some, most people have a different custom. They start with matzah. But מנהג Chabad is to follow those opinions to say, to have the first question of מטבילין. And the Bavli? Not. The Rabbi asks: why would the first question be מטבילין? If we would look at the importance of the subjects that discussed in the four kushyos, the most important one is the matzah, because the matzah that we eat is מדאורייתא, is from the Torah. Second to it is maror, which is מדרבנן, that's second. Then מסובין, the fact that we lean, that's to show חירות. Then מטבילין, to dip, is the least of all, that's only a minhag. Certainly the first time we dip, when we dip the potato or the the onion, karpas, in the salt water, that's only a minhag. So why would the first thing we mention would be the מטבילין, would be the minhag? If we would say that he asks the questions according to the order of the way things are done, so the first question should be מסובין, should be leaning, because the first thing he saw out of the things that mentioned in the four kushyos is that by kiddush we drink the cup of kiddush, while we're מסובין, we're leaning, so that should be the first. Why is מטבילין the first? And the Rebbe says, I'll tell you why: because there are some people who say that we have to be מחנך our children, we have to train our children to keep מצוות מדאורייתא from the Torah. Also, we have to train our children to keep מצוות מדרבנן, not as much as דאורייתא, but also important, because to keep a מצווה מדרבנן is לא תסור, the Torah says that we have to follow דרבנן. But to keep minhagim, that's not so important for us to train our children, to be מחנך, educate our children. Here we see the opposite. The first thing that we do we ask for מטבילין, which is a minhag, and he says why: because the greatest impression that is on a child is more the minhagim that we do, the customs that we do, more than the הלכות that we ממש do. And therefore, the first thing that he sees and he's impressed is the question of מטבילין. And besides that, minhagim of a yid, the Rebbe explains, is something that makes us different than the גויים. When we do mitzvot, whether it's mitzvot of the Torah, מצוות דרבנן, while we're doing the mitzvot, we're different. A goy doesn't do the mitzvot, we do it. But the rest of the time, most of the day, we're equal, you can't tell the difference between us and a goy. The minhagim, those are the things that make our daily life different than than the goyim. And he doesn't give examples, but I'll give an example, for instance, wearing of a yarmulke. Wearing a yarmulke is not a halacha. Well, now it is a halacha, now that it became that distinct which Jews, Jews do, you must wear it. But originally when it started, it was only a minhag. Even wearing tzitzit, from the Torah you don't have to wear tzitzit. The Torah says only if you're wearing a garment with four corners, you must put in tzitzit. But don't wear a garment of four corners, then you don't have to have tzitzit. It's a custom. It says also it's important, it's like a halacha, and these are the things that make the difference between us and goyim. And therefore, the Rebbe says to train children, and the four kushiyot is a part of the chinuch of the children, we have to remember that מטבילין is first, because what shows the child that אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים that we were chosen out of all the nations, those are the customs, and that's why the customs comes first. So here, this is a very practical explanation in the importance of customs, even more important than halachot, from a practical point of view, because this makes an impression. And this is something that shows that we are different, the way we behave, it's not only when we do the mitzvot, because the customs are a general behavior. So that's why it's important. This is very practical. But I'd really like to go a little bit deeper into explaining על פי חסידות and על פי קבלה what is the importance of customs, why they're more important than other the other things. We find in Chassidut explained concerning the this, it says that originally תפילת ערבית רשות. To daven Maariv was not an obligation. We know that the חכמים established three tefilot, Shacharit, Mincha, Maariv. The way they made it was that Shacharit you had to daven, it's an obligation, Mincha is an obligation, Maariv, רשות. If you want to, you daven, you don't have to daven. It does say that, from so many years that the Yidden accepted upon themselves to daven Maariv, it already became we accept now it's an obligation, but essentially it's, רשות means if you want to you could do it, if you don't want you don't have to. And it says in Chassidut and Kabbalah that it is because in Maariv we see, not because, that's another, but in Maariv because it's only a רשות we see something more than you see in the other tefilot. Maariv is greater than Shacharis and Mincha. From a different angle we always say Mincha is the greatest because Mincha is the middle of the day. See Shacharis is before you start your day, Maariv is when you finish, Mincha is in the middle of the day, so you have to tear yourself away from whatever you're doing and daven, so that's something great, while Shacharis you don't tear away, it's before you start your work, Maariv is after you finish. So from one angle we takeh say Mincha is greater. But then it says that Maariv is greater. And one of the things in which it's greater is because it's reshus, it's something you don't have to do. Now I'll explain why. Because you don't have to do it and you never and you nevertheless do it, it's greater. Why? And this is what it explains. The concept of tefillah, which means prayer, also means connection. We all know that. The word tefillah means connection. In Hebrew, the word tefillah comes from the same shoresh, the same root as התופל, which means to connect, or in Chumash we learn, why did she call him Naftali, his mother? Because נפתולי אלקים נפתלתי, I was connected to my sister. So the word Naftali, tefillah comes from connection. Tefillah is a time when we connect with Hashem. Now when we connect with Hashem, there are two sides to the connection. There's Hashem's side that He connects with us, and then there is our side that we connect with Him. Tefillah is mainly our side of the connection. We daven to Hashem, we communicate with Him, we connect ourselves to Him. There is His connection to us, but tefillah is mainly when we connect ourselves to Him. Now when we connect ourselves to Him, when we do something that we have to do because He told us to do it, so as much as here we have our connection to Him because we are doing what He asked us to do, but nevertheless, the point here is that it's something that He wants and He told us to do. So we're listening to Him. We're keeping what He said. So there is not so much of us involved. Even if we say we give ourselves over completely, so we're being mevatel ourselves to Him, but basically we're mevatel to do what He asked of us. So we're taking what He's giving us and we're really really doing it. But when we do something that we're not obligated and it's our choice whether we want to do it or not, and nevertheless we do it because we know that this is something that He wants, here the connection from our part is much stronger. We show our connection to Hashem by the fact that we are doing something that we want, even though He didn't ask me to do it. Practically speaking, if someone asks you to do something, let's say a father asks a child or a master asks a servant, or an employer asks his employee to do something, and you do exactly as he asks you, that shows that you're trying to be close to him, you're trying to listen to him. But imagine if, okay, imagine if you are doing more than what he asked you to do, something he didn't even ask you to do, and you're doing more. That shows how much you love the person. If you just do what he told you and you really do it the way you're supposed to, that also shows how much you're trying to be close to him, you're trying to do what he says. But if you do something he didn't even ask you, but you know in your mind that he would like it to be done, something good, when you do that, then you get closer to him. This is the whole concept why lifnim mishurat hadin is so important. It says that to do more than the halacha requires is something very important. So much so that the Gemara says that why was the Beis Hamikdash destroyed? Because the Yidden did not keep, it says, lifnim mishurat hadin, they didn't do extra. First the Gemara says, you know why it was destroyed? Because they did everything according to the din. So the Gemara asks, what was wrong with that? They did everything according to the din, so is a reason for the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash? The Gemara says yes, what it means is they did everything according to din and not more. They never did anything beyond the halacha. So is that so terrible that because of that the Beis HaMikdash should be destroyed? So the Chassidus says yes. If you don't do anything more, that shows that you don't really have a feeling, you, from your side, don't have a feeling for him. And the same thing when it comes to mitzvos. Mitzvos is also connection with Hashem. The word mitzvah, just like we said tefillah means connection, mitzvah means צוותא וחיבור, connection. So there are two sides to the connection. There is the side of Hashem, that He gives us a mitzvah, and when we do it, He connects Himself to us. And then there is our feeling in the connection to Him. The our feeling part of the mitzvah, if it's a mitzvah that we have to do, then our part is there, but not as much as if we do a good deed that we didn't have to. We know it's good, and Hashem will be happy, and we didn't have to, and it was our choice. That's even stronger. And that's why there is no contradiction here between this and that famous מאמר חז״ל that they say, גדול המצווה ועושה יותר מאינו מצווה ועושה, that if someone is commanded to do something is greater than if you do something that you're not commanded. And here I'm trying to say that if you do something that you were not commanded to do, that's greater, that shows more. The answer is very simple: That's what I've been explaining, depends from which side. In connection there are two sides: There's the connection from Hashem's side and the connection from our side. The connection from Hashem's side is greater when we do a mitzvah that He told us to do, because when He told us to do it, in it you have, we call it, the כח הבורא, we have the power of the Creator, who could put into the mitzvah something so special, beyond any limitations, because He's not limited. So a mitzvah that He gives has much more than anything that we could do. So if we do something on our own, we'll never reach that high level within Hashem as we could reach something that He told us to do, because if we try to reach it on our own power, we could only go to a certain level, as much as we could go. We are נבראים, we can't go higher. We can't go beyond our source, ourselves. Always the famous mashal, you can't pick yourself up by pulling yourself by your ears, because you can't get out of yourself. So whatever we do on our own will never get out of this framework. But if Hashem tells us to do something, then that's unlimited. But that's only looking from that point of view. But when we're looking from the point of view of how much feeling of connection there is to Hashem in what we do, in our feeling, so when we do what we're supposed to and that's all, there is a level of connection. Sometimes there is even very little. Some people would do what they're supposed to feeling that it's a burden and feeling bad, why should I do it, but, nebech, what can I do? Sometimes you have a servant who does, or a worker who does for his master, and every time he does it, he's upset, he does it anyway, certainly there's very little connection there. Even if you do it while you're happy to do what you're told to do, but as long as you're doing what you're told to do, so again, there is not as much of yourself in it. But when you do more than you're told to do, then you have much more of yourself. And that's why תפילת ערבית רשות, מעריב being something that you're not obligated to do, has something more than the other tefillos, because you daven Maariv, not, and you have a choice not to daven. But you know Hashem likes it, and you daven, then you show how much of yourself you're putting into it. And that's what minhagim are. Minhagim are things which you don't have to do. See, when you do a דין דאורייתא, you have to do it, the Torah said so. דרבנן is something that the Torah did not say, so it came from within דרבנן, but still we have to do it. The Torah said לא תסור מכל אשר יורוך, you have to do it because the חכמים said and the Torah says don't turn away what you have to do. Minhagim are things, basically, that the חכמים never told us to do. These are just Jewish customs, things that are done. These are things that came from Yidden themselves. We know it's something good, because as we said before, if Yidden do it, then we know הנח להם לישראל, as we said Yidden are like נביאים, and if they do it, we know this is something Hashem likes, Hashem has nachat from, Hashem wants, but you don't have to. And nevertheless, we do it. This is a maalah over doing things that we have to do. So it's not only that it's important to do customs, but by doing customs, we have something more. That's why we find an interesting thing: בנוגע שמחת תורה. Sukkos, Simchat Torah, we know this is where it says in Chassidus that there is a מצוה מדאורייתא, מדאורייתא from the Torah to have שמחת יום טוב. Yom Tov, to be happy. Whether it means to drink wine, in the time of the Beit HaMikdash with korbanot, but it's a mitzvah from the Torah. To be happy: ושמחת בחגך, you have to be happy. Then we have שמחת בית השואבה. Sukkos is Yom Tov, on Sukkos you have something in addition to the Yom Tov: שמחת בית השואבה. שמחת בית השואבה is connected to the pouring of the water, the drawing of the water that was used for pouring of the water on the mizbeach. That's not written in the Torah. It's הלכה למשה מסיני, it was handed down from Moshe Rabbeinu orally. Then we have a third thing, comes to Simchat Torah we have hakafot. Now, שמחת יום טוב is מדאורייתא, שמחת בית השואבה is only it's also from the Torah, but it's not even written in the Torah, it's only handed down orally. Hakafot is basically only a minhag, it's called מנהג הקפות. The Zohar uses the expression נהגו ישראל, the Yidden have a custom on Simchat Torah to dance with the Torah, and the Zohar says by doing this, מעטרן ליה לספר תורה בכתר דיליה. By doing this we add a crown to the Torah. Imagine, we add a crown to the Torah by doing hakafot. It doesn't say that we add a crown to the Torah by keeping the mitzvah of the Torah, any other mitzvah or the mitzvah of שמחת יום טוב. And we takeh see the fact is by Yidden, שמחת יום טוב is very you're very happy. שמחת בית השואבה, you're even happier, it's greater simcha. Nothing comes to the simcha of hakafot. And somebody who doesn't understand the thing so deep, who didn't learn chasidut, might ask: why? Why hakafot, which is only a minhag to dance hakafot, why is that a greater simcha than שמחת יום טוב, which is a דין דאורייתא? The answer is because if it's a minhag, there is something more in this minhag than we have in the דין דאורייתא or דין דרבנן. There's something there because it's something that comes from with us that we don't have to do. Then there is a deeper explanation, and we're going to go on a few levels of explaining the maalot of having of doing the minhagim. It says so far explained that the maalah of a minhag is from our side. From Hashem's side, who is called the מצווה המצוה, the one that commanded the mitzvah, as far as he's concerned, if you command it's greater. But from our side, to show our connection to Hashem, from the mitzvah we call it, the one that's commanded, there is something special in minhagim.

The truth is it says in chasidut that even from Hashem's side, there's something more in minhagim than we have in מצוה דאורייתא, even. Because sometimes there are certain things, using a mashal of a person, that a person feels is too big and too strong, and that's why the person will not ask you to do it. Sometimes there are things that a boss will not ask his worker to do because he feels it's too much, it's too strong. He will not ask a child to do. This is a mashal by Hashem. It says in chasidut that when Hashem, there's certain things which are right to do, like תפילת מעריב it says, רשות. Hashem didn't tell us to do it because it's such a high level that it didn't come down, so to speak, in the form of a tzivui, in the form of a commandment. Or like another expression: sometimes there are things that have to be done, and if you don't do it, who knows what's going to happen. So you tell your son, you tell your child, you tell your worker: you have to do this. And then there are things that if it's not done, iz nisht gefarlach, but if it's done, it gives you a lot of pleasure. And the pleasure you get is even greater than the pleasure that you get from the things that are done, because the things that are done that have to be done, since it has to be done, it doesn't give you pleasure. You have to eat you have to bring the guy food, otherwise he'll die! So that's something is no pleasure. But when you bring more than what you have to, you give extra, you give dessert, things that you don't have to, that's That's where the pleasure comes in. And by Hashem too, the minhagim, which are things He did not command us, it says why, because they are such a high level that can't come down into a form of a tzivui. These are things that don't really have to be done, and they represent something more than what is essential, and that's a greater nachat to Hashem. It says this לגבי מעריב in chasidut. It says this לגבי, just another example, Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin. Says in chasidut wearing Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin is a much higher level than wearing Rashi's tefillin. To be exact, Rashi's tefillin is connected to מוחין ד... דאימא, which is בינה, ספירת הבינה, they're all connected to the מוחין, to the brain of אצילות. But Rashi's tefillin is connected to בינה, Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin is connected to חכמה, and חכמה is much higher than בינה. And because of that, there is no obligation in halacha to put on Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin, because it's such a high level, it says. It's something that reaches into the depth of Hashem that cannot come down, or Hashem did not want to put it down into a form of a tzivui. And it says this is by תפילת מעריב. Maariv is not a tzivui because it comes from such a high level that was not, did not lower itself into a tzivui to us. And if you daven maariv, you reach in that higher level. If we do the minhagim, which are not a tzivui, not something that we're commanded to do, we reach a higher level. חביבים עלי דברי סופרים יותר מדברי תורה. To Me, more important is the words of the derabbanan than the words of Torah. עריבים עלי דברי סופרים יותר מדברי תורה, גישמאק to Me, Hashem says. I enjoy more the derabbanan. So it says, why? Because the derabbanan is also something Hashem Himself didn't command. The derabbanan, who are part of Klal Yisrael, were the ones that came up with it, and Hashem agrees to it, and Hashem says, do it. But since we see Hashem agrees to it, obviously, it's something Hashem wants. But nevertheless, He never told us to do it. So it says, that shows that it comes from such a high level where Hashem did not tell us to do it, because it's beyond telling. Minhagim are even more than that, because minhagim, there is no ציווי at all. See, at least for the derabbanan there is a commandment to listen to the rabbanan, so when we do a derabbanan we're keeping the פסוק לא תסור. Minhagim we're not even keeping that. So that shows even more from which high level these minhagim come.

Then we go a deeper step in explaining what is the specialty of minhagim according to Chassidut and Kabbalah. We know that Hashem created the world for one purpose, and anyone who touched a word of Chassidut, this saying of the Chazal is on his tongue: נתאווה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem had a desire to make a dwelling place for Him in this low place, in this low world. Hashem wanted this to be a place that's low, and nevertheless, in this low world there should, we should bring Godliness in, we should bring a dwelling, make this into a dwelling place for Hashem. Which way do we accomplish this inyan of making this world a דירה בתחתונים? Basically, it's connected to the fact that we have bechirah chofshit, the fact that we have free choice. Imagine if we wouldn't have free choice what we do, then it's not a pashut that Hashem that makes a דירה בתחתונים, now Hashem is doing it. If we do mitzvot, which brings Hashem into this world because Hashem forces us to do it, so we're not doing it, Hashem is doing it. Hashem is making, He's just using us! But it's not when we say Hashem wanted a דירה בתחתונים, He says He wanted us to make a דירה בתחתונים. How do we do it? Because we have free choice. So we're doing it, we could have chosen not to do it. So we're making, not Him. If He would not give us free choice, He did it, and then He didn't have to do this, He could have lechatchilah brought Godliness in here by Himself. Why didn't He do that? He wants us to do it. So it's through free choice. Free choice expresses when we do a mitzvah out of free, with free choice, that we could have not done it, that shows how much we did it. Now, the truth is, when we do a mitzvah, as much as we have free choice, but since Hashem told us, I want you to do it, there is a commandment there, so there is not as much of us accomplishing it, because we are listening to Him and we're doing His ציווי. And even the derabbanan, which is not what He commanded us, we ourselves did it, the chachamim amongst us told us to do it, but He's backing it by a pasuk, so again, there is His commandment here, there is not as much as us. דירה בתחתונים means that we do it, there's something that we bring Godliness into the world. Where do we do it? Things that Hashem did not command us to do it, and we Yidden decided to do it, and that itself proves that Hashem wants it, but never commanded us to do it, that's where we reach to accomplish the real, real דירה בתחתונים. That's where us is involved. דירה בתחתונים again means that Hashem wants us to do it. The less it's from Him and the more it's from us The more we're accomplishing His the mission of דירה בתחתונים. And this is what it is. Minhagim is something that comes from within us. And that's why the Zohar says by the minhag of hakafot, that's where we make a crown to the Torah. A crown represents something on top. It's higher, it has more even than the Torah. How could we say a minhag is stronger, is more than the Torah? Yes! A minhag, when we do it, is more of fulfilling the wishes of Hashem from one angle. I'm not saying chas v'shalom that a person should, if he has a choice like I said before, he should do a minhag rather than a halacha, because Hashem commanded us, we have to do it. And on the other hand, if a person doesn't do a minhag, he's not over on an aveirah like when a person doesn't do a mitzvah d'oraita. But when we do do the minhag, we accomplish something that you cannot accomplish through keeping the commandments. Basically, this is similar, let me give you an example, this is similar to the difference between a tzadik and a baal teshuvah. We know a tzadik does everything correct, a baal teshuvah is someone who didn't, and then he changes. We know a baal teshuvah is greater than a tzadik. Gemara says, the Rambam paskent, במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד. Where tzadikim stand, where baalei teshuvah stand, tzadikim can't stand. What's so special about a baal teshuvah over a tzadik? So there are all kinds of explanations in halacha, explanations in chasidut. One of the explanations is that a baal teshuvah accomplishes more דירה בתחתונים. To accomplish making the low world into a dwelling place for Hashem is done more by a baal teshuvah. And the way it's learned simply, when we learn Chassidus, Chassidus says this, or we learn Chassidus, the simple pshat in Chassidus is like this: A tzadik only is able we all by doing any mitzvah, we elevate parts of this world, but we only could elevate things which are not very, very low. We could only elevate things which are permitted. You can't do something wrong. You can't eat חזיר. So you never could elevate חזיר. חזיר is something that's lower than a regular animal. So we could make a דירה בתחתונים through eating things which are kasher, but a real תחתונים, to really lower yourself to go all the way down and elevate that, we can't. But a baal teshuvah does. A baal teshuvah did all these terrible things, he was there, and then he elevated by doing teshuvah, he changes it all over for mitzvot, that's how he makes a greater דירה בתחתונים. True, but there's another pshat here. Besides this, there's another way of explaining why a baal teshuvah accomplishes more דירה בתחתונים. The reason is a tzadik does everything that he is told to do. So basically, it doesn't come from him. Certainly he does it, and he has a choice not to do it, but basically all he does is following instructions what he is given. It doesn't come so much from within him. A baal teshuvah, he decided to do teshuvah. The person decided, it's something that comes from within the person. And we just said before that דירה בתחתונים is accomplished what Hashem really wants is that we should do it. A baal teshuvah is more we than a tzadik. But still, even by a baal teshuvah, it still comes from Hashem because after all Hashem commanded us to do teshuvah. Okay, this is a person who who till this moment didn't care about what Hashem said, and nevertheless he decided to do teshuvah, that shows that it comes from him. But still it's not so much because after all, he is fulfilling the commandment of Hashem to do teshuvah. You know where really we find a person accomplishing real דירה בתחתונים the most? A ger. A goy who is מתגייר, a goy who converts. A goy who converts did not have to do it. There is no commandment on this goy that he has to convert. And nevertheless, out of his own free choice and will, without even having to do it, decided to convert. That's where you really have the person's effort מלמטה in accomplishing דירה בתחתונים. So as much as we don't encourage gerim, but if a person is מתגייר, it says after he's מתגייר, you got to tell him, look how lucky you are. We could tell him that it's you who is accomplishing דירה בתחתונים. That's why we find in Pirkei Avot that Ben Ha Ha says, this person called Ben Ha Ha says, לפום צערא אגרא, and according to your effort, that's how much reward you will get. The more effort, and effort means the more of yourself you put in, the harder it is for you, the more you have to work with yourself, the greater it is. Why did he say it? Because it says Ben Ha Ha was a ger. That's why he was called Ben Ha Ha. He didn't want to write his name out, but הא, the הא is a remez, a hint to Avraham and Sarah, because Avraham is the father of all gerim, and Sarah is the mother of all gerim, and Hashem added a הא to the name added a ה to the name of Sarah, so ה ה is a remez for Avraham and Sarah, and they then became the father, the parents of all gerim, so he was called Ben Heh Heh. And he said לפום צערא אגרא. Another reason he says his name was also Ben Bag Bag, and Bag Bag is a ראשי תיבות abbreviation, ב' ג' ב' ג', בן גר בן גיורת. And ב' ג' together, ב' is two and ג' is three, two and three is five, so it's a ה. ה is five. So Ben Heh Heh and Bag Bag are the same person. But he's the one that said לפום צערא אגרא, because a ger is mekayem this ענין of דירה בתחתונים, of having the תחתונים us accomplishing what the Eibershter wants. Similar to this ענין of גירות is this ענין of minhagim. Because minhagim, as I said, is also part of us, something that we do, we don't have to do it, in other words, it's no halacha that we have to do it, because if it's halacha, it's not a minhag. Minhag means we don't have to do it, not mid'oraita, not mid'rabbanan, and we on our own do it, so we are accomplishing דירה בתחתונים. It definitely gives Hashem pleasure, because we know that it's the right thing to do, so Hashem wants us to do it, but we don't have to do it, and nevertheless we do it. So, this is how we accomplish דירה בתחתונים even more. Now, we have a few more minutes, I'll go a step deeper. There's a step deeper in Kabbalah and Chassidus in explaining the greatness of minhagim. Now, this is a little bit more abstract. When we talk about דירה בתחתונים, השם wanting a dwelling place in this world, we always connect it to the statement, סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה. The end of the מעשה, the end of your action, is what came first in your thought. And always given a mashal, when a person builds a building, or a person, so the first thing is you have in your mind, the person wants, someone takes a contractor to build a building, he has in mind what the building should look like. He wants a mansion, he wants a building, and then they start building it, and it takes time, and it takes time. So, finally, when he comes to the end product, that is exactly what he had in mind. So סוף מעשה, the end, is מחשבה תחילה, that's in the beginning of his thought. The same thing by Hashem. In מחשבה תחילה of Hashem, in the first thought of Hashem, is the סוף מעשה, is the end, is the דירה בתחתונים, the end of this this world דירה בתחתונים. But then it says in Chassidus an interesting thing. Sometimes as a person, this is going to sound a little strange, what I'm going to say. Sometimes a person has a thought of a building, let's use this an example, a building in his mind, he wants a certain building like this, and then they start building it, and they come to the end product, and the end product is better than what he had in his mind lechatchila. So, sometimes he'll look later, he had in mind a beautiful building, but in the end it came out, he had more. It says the לשון, he had more hatzlacha than he even thought במחשבה תחילה, than he thought before. It could come out that the bottom line is even better. Now, this is in gashmiyut. So, it says the same thing is by Hashem. Hashem's מחשבה תחילה, first thought, was that we should do mitzvot and make a דירה בתחתונים. But then there is a level which is before the מחשבה תחילה, something that's within Hashem's, not even in His machshavah. מחשבה תחילה means Hashem's mind already when He decided to think about what's going to happen further down. But then there is something which is within Him which never even entered the level of מחשבה תחילה. And that is the hatzlachah of coming out later even more than was in the מחשבה תחילה. And it says that's the minhagim. Because what He said in מחשבה תחילה were the mitzvot. Minhagim are something that He didn't tell us to do. So that's not something that was His in His machshavah. מחשבה תחילה is the beginning of all the mitzvot turned out into this world. And the minhagim, it says k'viyachol, as if we could say, this is Hashem's hatzlachah. This is not just Hashem accomplished what He wanted. Hashem's hatzlachah, Hashem being matzliach and being lucky even more, successful, even more than what He planned k'viyachol, k'viyachol, because it's not chas v'shalom He didn't plan to, is the minhagim. Which means here it's not, see, by a person the pshat is that he never planned, in his mind it wasn't there and it turned out to be. By Hashem, you can't say that, but what it means is, it's within Hashem in a level even higher than what we call מחשבה תחילה, than His machshavah that He had techilah, but it's within Him. So the minhagim that we do which we're not mechuyav to do, affects, touches not the מחשבה תחילה, the first first thought, but a level even on top, beyond the מחשבה תחילה. That's the hatzlachah. And that's why the Frierdiker Rebbe said, Simchat Torah, once by a farbrengen the Frierdiker Rebbe said that Simchat Torah, all the gates are open, and he mentioned three gates: שערי אורה, the gates of light, שערי ברכה, the gates of blessing, and שערי הצלחה, the gates of hatzlachah, the gates of success. The Rebbe asks all kind of kushyot and he explains, that or, light, is something that has nothing to do with the receiver. Light, there is a light that shines, and whether there is a receiver or not, makes no difference. The light shines to wherever, shines even place of garbage where no one needs it. Light. The main thing is that one, if the source of the light shines, that's the giver. A bracha, the main purpose of a bracha that the receiver should get something, you give a bracha to the receiver, that's the mekabel. And hatzlacha is even more than that, that the mekabel is even more, like we said before, that hatzlacha is when the person or the bottom line, when the bottom end is even better than you expected the bottom end to be. The bottom end is the mekabel, the receiver, the thing that came out, and this is even more. Simchat Torah, we have all three. Simchat Torah is, it's a continuation of Yom Tov, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret, which is a din from the Torah. It itself is a דין דרבנן. And then we have hakafot, which is a minhag. And the Rebbe says these are the three things. D'oraita is something that the Torah, Hashem gave us the Torah, and He wants us to do it, but that's something that came from above. Derabbanan is something that the Rabbanan added. This is where we feel already that there is something that the mekabel, the receiver has. But the hatzlacha, the hatzlacha, the gates of hatzlacha, that's the minhagim, and that's the minhag of hakafot. That's why hakafot are so special. But from here we take out this thing that מנהגי ישראל are something very special, and there are some people who really make fun of it, this is only a minhag, this is only this, this is only that. It it is not. Now, we shouldn't confuse, sometimes there are נארישע מנהגים, like I said before, so that they're not really minhagim, but if they're authentic minhagim, and even if they're minhagim of a certain community, it has to be kept. Now that doesn't mean that a person can't change his minhag. Normally you just can't change your minhag. It's true, you belong to a certain group, you can't. If you accept upon yourself the authority of somebody, another person, like give an example, if a person was not a Lubavitcher, I'm just using an example, and becomes a Lubavitcher, so you say, can he change his minhagim? Sure he could, because now he accepted upon himself the authority of the Rebbe of Lubavitch, so now this is his Rebbe, so you follow. And we find that was done throughout all generations, when people became talmidim of certain Rebbes, they accepted the minhagim of their Rebbes. The best proof is time of the Baal Shem Tov. Any person who became a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov and accepted his minhagim, changed from a previous minhag. Because before there was no such thing as a minhag of Chassidim. Changed from the previous minhag. And there were thousands and hundreds of thousands of tzadikim and and and Chassidim and great people, because you're allowed to. But you can't just decide, I don't want to do a minhag, that you can't. Because a minhag, not only is a Torah, and it's as important as other parts of Torah, but it has all these מעלות. And therefore, we have to be very, very careful of minhagim. And this is why it says that what is important right before Mashiach, the concept of minhagim. Because minhagim reach to such a high level, and that's the level of Mashiach. And I think that's the peshat what that person in shul said, that if he'd finish the sefer to show all the minhagim, their source in Torah, how important they are, and people would start doing it, this itself would bring Mashiach. ועל כל פנים we should try to do it, and do all the minhagim, and we will bring משיח בקרוב ממש.

Hasn't the Rebbe... Yes? ...wear what they wore before they wore a certain color... Yeah, not talit, no, not talit and tefillin. Not talit. Not talit, not tefillin, the Rebbe always said to change. No, the just the garments, which is not even a minhag, but that they should stay with their, yes, shtreimel, this, yeah. But what if someone has a a jacket that has four corners? Still, for a... not a kapote, I'm talking... That's how much the slit is. If the slit is more than 50%, you need tzitzit. Oh, it's more than 50%? Yeah, but if it's less, it doesn't. A regular jacket. See, the kapote is more than 50%, that's why one corner is round. One corner is round, so it shouldn't require tzitzit. Aren't the minhagim for the snags under the...? Minhagim, it's fine, I never heard the word minhag of a snag. Different communities have different minhagim, yes. But if they're minhagim, if they're minhagim that were established by their klal or by gedolei Yisrael, sure they have to keep. Unless they become Lubavitcher. Yes. Why is it in Taamei HaMinhagim, they give reasons, and those that have this minhag should keep it. It's a segulah for parnasah. I think it has to do with the key to parnasah. There's a key that you put in the key... I think it comes the first, I don't know the first, the Zidichover has some kind of biur on it. The Zidichover, and the kavanos, in Taamei HaMinhagim they have it. Did the Rebbe talk about it in many maamarim? The Rebbe talked about it in many...? Never! Never heard the Never heard the I never heard the Rebbe talk or saw the Rebbe mention it. It is clearly not a minhag Chabad. It is became lately all Lubavitcher women started doing this: they put the key, and toiveh alle brochos, zol zayn hatzlachah, zol hobn parnasah, alles. To say that this is a minhag Chabad, any person, any Lubavitcher who comes from a Lubavitcher family from before, before, had never heard of this. I myself never heard of this till I'd say 15 years or whatever years ago when people started talking, we got mixed with other, it's not it's not a, but nevertheless, there's nothing wrong, and if it becomes a minhag, it's a minhag. If it will spread, yes. But so far, it didn't spread so much. It didn't become a minhag, but if it will become, it becomes a minhag, yes. Yes. I wonder who started it. I hope not. clearly a minhag. So, I don't know how far it dates back. One thing we do see that that in some communities it dates back very, very far is from the Teimanim. That's the best re'ayah. Because like this, they they from Teiman, they call it Teimanim, but Teiman is a community that dates back to the time of the בית המקדש, some even say the time of the בית ראשון. I don't know if it's true, but definitely dates back to the time of the בית שני. And they have their minhag is to wear So, it's definitely a minhag that they have. In Russia and those areas, there was no such minhag. In Poland, Hungary, there was a minhag. It's only a minhag. Now, this is one of those that if it's a minhag of your place, you have to wear it. And if a person doesn't, I would say he's a shaygetz. If a Satmar chasid cuts off his peyos, he's a shaygetz. If he wore Why? No, that's, see, that no. See, if a No, if a Satmar becomes a Lubavitcher, I don't know, that's a different story. Then he should If a Satmar not become a Lubavitcher, decides to cut off his payos. But if a Satmar becomes a Lubavitcher, I wouldn't advise him to do it, but l'mashal, there's a letter somebody asked the Rebbe, a בחור who became a Lubavitcher, and he used to wear a gartel to daven, Lubavitcher בחורים don't. So he asked the Rebbe should he do it. So the Rebbe said, \"Why should you take it off?\" And then he writes to him, \"If you want to, you could take it off, but you have to be מתיר נדר.\" Have to like התרת נדרים, you have to It's like a נדר, because you do something good for three times, you have to take take off like to be nullify your vow. But he didn't say don't do. He first he said, \"Why do I don't want you to do,\" but he gave a place to do it, because it's They wrote another reason why they shouldn't do it is because the people who they were associated before shouldn't claim, \"Look, you became a Lubavitcher, and you became less.\" That's one of the reasons, maybe. But in themselves, farkert, there's some guys who davka wanted to change their hats because they want to associate be closer to like the Rebbe. So that I'm saying if if their minhag is and they stay with their minhag and they change and a guy doesn't do it, that's so that's an עוולה. So this פאות מנהג dates back in certain communities very long, certain communities now, I don't know. Where does a shtreimel come from? We know where it comes from. 200, 300 years ago, all aristocratic goyim would wear shtreimlech. It was everybody's, everybody wore it. What happened, the goyim became modern, and they took it off. Yidden never followed the modern, the modas, the modern fashions, so they kept it, and it stayed. Not copy! That's the wear, that's that was the בגד of people. We wear a coat, the goyim wear. We're not copying anybody. The Jews wore Jews wore because it was cold, whatever, but Jews wore this בגד, this was this was the בגד of people. Chashuv, I mean, more intelligent people. I don't know why, that's how it is, yeah. Why copy? Who says we're copying? Not copy! They came to a certain place, and this was the בגד, not because of goyim, this is because it was cold, they wore. How come we wear a coat? When did we start wearing a coat? In the מדבר they wore coats? I don't know, they wore this I'm saying the same thing, shtreimel is a certain hat. This was the hat that they wore in that place. This this was this was later. Originally, this was the בגד of all people. Yeah. Yeah. No, they didn't change to the goyim, they took the minhag, not the minhag, the what was garments of that place. Like I said, when did Jews start wearing coats, nu? Wearing pants? I don't know how this became, but not because they copied the goyim, they wanted to follow their fashions. It was just more convenient, it was for the weather, whatever it was. So they put on the garments, and this was the same, all the people wore the same garments, there was no such thing as a Jewish garment or not. And then they became more modern, and we stopped, yes. There are some that write that it's a שאלה you shouldn't do it, דרכי אמורי, but it definitely has great sources in in ספרים and everything, sure. And it's Who accepts it, though? No, now now everyone does kaparot. Those people that don't do כפר- Sefardim don't? Rabbi Gross doesn't permit it. No, okay, could be that some places don't have the custom. Those people that don't do kaparot now, many frume yidn, is because they're lazy, they don't want to get up so early, or because it's hard to get, then you why you have to find a chicken, and so, not because If you'd have a chicken in your house, that they would do it, too. They would have it available right then and there, most people would do it. So, it's a custom, it has a lot of sources. A lot of sources dating back very, very long ago. It's a Shulchan Aruch! In Shulchan Aruch, Shulchan Aruch, which is the source of everything, says מנהג כפרות. One סימן, chapter, is the title is מנהג כפרות. It's a minhag, it's not halachah, but that minhag is a minhag that's accepted by by yidn, that's for sure. Okay. Thank you, everybody.