Firstborn is a firstborn from the mother. We have a lot of dinim concerning bechor, concerning the firstborn, but in many cases a firstborn follows the father's first child. But concerning the mitzvah of pidyon haben, it is the mother's first child, because the pasuk says פטר רחם, it's the child that opens the womb of the mother, and that means the first child that's born from the mother. And therefore it is possible for a man to have more than one bechor that should require a pidyon haben. In the times when they had more than one wife, so you could have more than one bechor, and nowadays when we don't, not allowed to have two wives, but if God forbid a person has to remarry, divorced or became a widower and he has to remarry, so then he's able to have a second bechor. So this is basically the mitzvah of pidyon haben, that when a firstborn child has to be redeemed by a kohen, which means that the father would have to give the kohen five shekalim, or another name for the coins are five pluyin, and this would be a redemption for the child. And this is why it's called pidyon haben, pidyon means redemption, this would redeem the child. And this is a mitzvah that's mentioned in the Torah nine times. Throughout the Torah we find nine times where the Torah talks about the mitzvah of pidyon haben. This mitzvah is only if the father is a Yisrael, not a kohen, not a Levi, or the mother also is not a בת כהן, a daughter of a kohen, or a בת לוי. If any of the two come from kohanim or levi'im, then the child doesn't have to be redeemed. That's the exception. In other words, if the child is a Yisrael from both sides, so then the child has to go through this procedure of pidyon haben. There are other exceptions. If a child is born by Caesarean, by C-section, then the child doesn't require a pidyon haben either. And the reason for that is because the pasuk says פטר רחם, if it opens the womb of the mother. And if it was taken out artificially through an operation, then it did not open the womb, and therefore it does not require a pidyon haben. As I said, you have to give five shekalim to the kohen. There's a whole procedure, we find it in the siddur, where you would come to the kohen. Usually it's done at a party, they make a se'udah, a party for a pidyon haben, and you would come, at the party you would bring the child to the kohen, and the father would say, \"My wife the Yisraelit,\" you have to stress that she's not a כהנת or a לוויה, she's not from a kohen or Levi, \"My wife the ישראלית gave birth to this firstborn child, and here he is.\" And the father, and the kohen would ask, \"What do you want better, your child or the five shekalim?\" And the father would say, \"I'd rather have the child.\" He says, \"Okay, so give me the five shekalim.\" So he gives the five shekalim and makes a berachah, and the halachah is you make a berachah on pidyon haben, they also make a berachah shehecheyanu, because any mitzvah that comes from time to time you make a shehecheyanu. Even a Yom Tov that comes from time to time we make a shehecheyanu, so you make a shehecheyanu by the pidyon haben also. How much is five shekalim, that have to be the value of five shekalim in silver as it was in the time when the mitzvah of pidyon haben was given by Hashem? So it has been figured out, based on what the different commentaries say, of how much five shekalim would be. So let me put it into our types of money. When we talk about how many grams of silver you have to give, so it comes out about 100 g of silver. Not exactly, but about 100 g of silver has to be given, and that's the value of five shekalim. Now, they have figured out that using the silver dollars, the American silver dollars, those that were minted up to 1935, so they, five silver dollars are about the amount of money that you need. Why? I even have it written down: each dollar has 26.55 g of silver, grams, and of that 90% is silver, those old silver dollars. So therefore, when you have five of them, you have 119.47 g, which is more than what we need. Any silver dollar that was minted after then, which basically were minted in 19, between 1971 and 1978, they are only 40% silver, and therefore you cannot use five silver dollars. Some people even have a piece of silver which has the weight of silver that you need for a for a pidyon haben. Actually, in Eretz Yisrael, as I understand, they minted a special coin, coins, which are specially made for pidyon haben, made of silver, pure silver, and even says on it pidyon haben, and that's what they use when they come to redeem the children. Question really. Okay, in order to make to do mitzvah of pidyon haben, we have to, as I self-understood, we have to find a kohen that we can be sure he is a kohen. But the truth is nowadays, we're never sure on the person that's a kohen. Nowadays the kohanim are referred to as כהנים מוחזקים, not כהנים מיוחסים. A כהן מיוחס is a kohen which has a clear lineage going back all the way to the true kohanim. Now, most kohanim nowadays don't have that, so they're called כהנים מוחזקים. So al pi halachah it's okay, any kohen, as long as he's accepted as a kohen. A kohen that you is given aliyah as kohen, that is enough to be considered a Kohen for Pidyon Haben. Nevertheless, it is better if you get a Kohen who has some kind of yichus, knowing that he comes he's a descendant of some special Kohen. And there are some Kohanim that have or a כתב יחוס, a certain document that shows their lineage back to certain other Kohanim who were known to be כהנים מיוחסים. There are people who who have documents that they are descendants of the Shach. Shach was a כהן מיוחס, the Shach who lived in ת\"ח ות\"ט, about 350 years ago, and he was a כהן מיוחס. There was a כהן מיוחס that was Rav Rafael Hamburg. He was known as a כהן מיוחס, and there are Kohanim nowadays who they have their lineage going back to Rav Rafael Hamburg. But anyway, על פי הלכה you don't need a special Kohen, but it's better if you have a Kohen who is considered a כהן מיוחס. There were some tzadikim, some great people, who would, if they were bechorim, if they were firstborns, any Kohen they would see, they would do Pidyon Haben again, just in case that Kohen that they used before was not really a Kohen, because in halacha you don't know, they would do it again, and maybe the second one was neither. So they say on the Vilna Gaon they say that he used to always carry around five shekalim in his pocket, and whenever he would see a Kohen, he would do the Pidyon Haben again because he was a bechor, and he wanted to make sure. But definitely there is no requirement for this. As a matter of fact, some even hold that you shouldn't do it, because as if you're showing a safek, you're making a safek on the כהונה, on the priesthood of that Kohen, so therefore you shouldn't do it. But this is basically the idea of Pidyon Haben.

Now, Pidyon Haben, as we know it, and as it's accepted by people, starts with the mitzvah of redeeming the bechor, redeeming the firstborn. But in truth, this is one of the last stages concerning a bechor. The last thing that we do, last thing that's there, is the redemption of the bechor by giving the five shekalim. But really, we have to look a little bit before that. Why do we have to do this redemption? And what is the greatness, the specialty of a bechor, of a firstborn, and where did it start? And the truth is, the first stage is, a bechor is holy by nature, from birth, from the beginning of the creation of the world. There is a Midrash, Midrash Rabbah it says that Adam Harishon was a bechor. Adam Harishon was like the firstborn, he was the bechor of the world, he was the firstborn of the world. He wasn't born, but he was the bechor of the world. And therefore, Adam Harishon was the one that brought korbanot, he was the one that brought sacrifices to Hashem. And it says in the Midrash, an interesting thing, that when he put that when he went to bring the korban to Hashem, he put on the בגדי כהונה גדולה, the garments of the Kohen Gadol, because he was like a Kohen, he was the first Kohen Gadol. It says that Hashem made for Adam and Chavah, it says Hashem made כותנות עור, He made a shirt, garment made of skins, but says in the Midrash this was the בגדי כהונה גדולה, the garments of the Kohen Gadol, and he was like a Kohen Gadol, and the reason it was, it says, because he was like a he was a bechor, he was the first. In the Sefer Torah that R'' Meir, R'' Meir d'Tana R'' Meir had, the word כותנות עור, which means a garment of skin, of leather, is written, was written not with an עין, the word עור with an עין which means leather, but with an אלף, which means light. The garments that that Adam Harishon wore were like garments of light, because that those were the garments of the Kohen Gadol. But basically what I'm trying to say here is that the concept of the specialty of a bechor, of a firstborn, started yet with Adam Harishon. all the way from the beginning of the creation. It says in the Maharal, Maharal miPrague writes that a bechor, who is a firstborn, is to a certain degree similar to Hashem. Hashem is the beginning of all being, and a bechor is a beginning of his family. And this all started from the beginning of creation. It's not something that happened later. And we know Yaakov Avinu tried very hard to become to get to buy the bechorah, to buy the rights of a בכור. That's why he bought it from Esav, because of the specialty of a בכור. And because a בכור was special all the way from the beginning of creation, that's why, whenever it came to bring a korban to Hashem, it was the bechorim, the firstborns, who had the right to be the kohanim, to be the priests to Hashem, because of the specialty of a בכור. Then came later on another stage in addition to the original kedushah, holiness, and specialty a בכור has, and that was by מכת בכורות. By מכת בכורות, when Hashem said he is going to kill all firstborn from Mitzrayim, he passed over the firstborn of the Jews. So a miracle took place concerning the Jewish firstborns. At that point, there was another stage, a new kedushah, that came down onto the bechorim, onto the firstborns. And this is explained actually in the mefarshim in three different ways. One way is because they were vehicles for a miracle, therefore they got more kedushah. When a miracle of Hashem happened with them, then automatically they became holier. Another pshat is, Hashem made them holier in order to be able to protect them. Since they were in Mitzrayim and Hashem wanted to protect the firstborn Jews versus the firstborn Egyptians, so Hashem made them holier before. He made them holy, so it would, because they were holy, then he was able to pass over. And another pshat is that because they were vehicles through who there was a Kiddush Hashem, because the fact that they were saved, this sanctified Hashem's name, because everyone saw, \"Look, these firstborns died, these stayed alive.\" That itself they were a כלי, vehicle, for a Kiddush Hashem, that itself brought the kedushah into them. But this is all in addition to the original kedushah. In other words, it wasn't like people think that the kedushah, the greatness, the holiness of a בכור started from מכת בכורות. It started all the way from the beginning. It's just that by מכת בכורות, this became even stronger. And the Ramban says that from מכת בכורות on, they were obligated to be the kohanim. We know that always the bechorim, the firstborn, were the ones that served to bring the sacrifices, but they weren't obligated, they didn't have to. They had the privilege, they had the right because they were special, but there was no obligation upon them. From מכת בכורות, Hashem put an obligation on all firstborn that they are the ones that have to be the ones to bring the korbanot. They were obligated. And as a matter of fact, it even says in some sefarim that not only were they obligated to serve Hashem, it became forbidden for them to work in secular things. That's how holy they became. They became basically, it says, like nezirim. Like a nazir, there are certain restrictions a nazir has, a person who accepts upon himself not to drink wine and to have long hair to become a nazir, and because of that he has certain restrictions, certain things he can't do, these bechorim got certain restrictions, things they can't do. They weren't allowed to do, they weren't allowed to work. They became holy. And that's something that took place at the time of מכת בכורות. Before that, as holy as they were, but this was not something that stopped them from doing דברי חול. So this is all concerning what Hashem did. Hashem made them holy in the beginning of creation, then he made them even holier at the time of מכת בכורות. Then comes the next stage of what is expected of the human being to do, concern to the bechor. And that is, because the bechorim are holy, there's an obligation upon the people that they have to separate the bechor and make the bechor holy from their end, which is similar to a similar din, but not exactly. Just like we have a bechor, a human being, a bechor, a firstborn child is a bechor, so too we have a בכור בהמה. The firstborn animal, the kosher animal, plus also from a donkey, is actually holy. And the firstborn kosher animal had to be brought as a sacrifice. It was given to the kohen, and brought as a sacrifice to Hashem. But there, there was a din that the that the calf that was born, the owner had to say that this is a bechor and it's holy. In other words, it was holy from birth, but there was a halacha, there is a din on on the person, that the person has to be מקדיש, מקדש בפה. He has to actually say that this is מקודש, which means, in addition to the original holiness that's there from birth, the person has to add kedushah by saying. Similar to that is concerning a firstborn child, even though there is no halacha that the person has to say when the child was born, have to say kodesh, there's no such halacha, but nevertheless, there is a din that you have to separate it. Now, it's very hard to know exactly what this means. Practically speaking, what do you have to do? But nevertheless, if you look in the Rambam, the Rambam says you have to separate the child as a separate entity to be special. The child is considered special not only because of birth, you have to do it. And then comes the real mitzvah, which as I said before, that's the end of the of the stages, that you have to redeem this child from the kohen by giving the kohen the five סלעים, five שקלים. And by doing that, you have finished the obligation of the of the father concerning the child of the kedushah of bechor.

Now what is the reason why there is this mitzvah of pidyon haben? Why do we have to redeem it? We said that we went through the stages of how it started, where it went, but what is the reason why do we have to redeem the child? When we look in chumash, we find basically, when we look through the parshiyot, two main טעמים, two main reasons why we have to do the mitzvah of pidyon haben. Now first reason is, as we said before, is the ענין of Yetziat Mitzrayim and מכת בכורות. Since Hashem saved them at the time when He killed all firstborn of the Egyptians, Hashem gave us a mitzvah to redeem this child. Actually the Chinuch says that the mitzvah of pidyon haben, the Sefer HaChinuch is a ספר that gives reasons, as much as possible, to all the mitzvot. So he says the reason for pidyon haben is to remind us of the miracle of Yetziat Mitzrayim and מכת בכורות, which basically is similar to Pesach. The reason we have the mitzvah of Pesach once a year, a week a year, is to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. But in addition to that, we have many mitzvot which fall under the category of זכר ליציאת מצרים, to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. Actually on Shabbos even, one of the reasons for Shabbos is not only to remember the creation of the world, but it's to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. In Kiddush, Friday night, we say זכר ליציאת מצרים. There are many mitzvot which are זכר ליציאת מצרים. So the mitzvah of pidyon haben is a זכר ליציאת מצרים. It's to remind us of the of what happened by Mitzrayim with the מכת בכורות. But as we said before, it doesn't just mean to remind us, but at that time there was actually another level of kedushah that was put onto the בכור because of מכת בכורות. So when we have the mitzvah of pidyon haben now, it's not only to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. We connect it because there is a special kedushah that's on this child because of Yetziat Mitzrayim, because of מכת בכורות. So that's one major reason why we have to do pidyon haben. If you look in Chumash, the Chumash repeats it many times. But then there's another reason. Pidyon haben happens to be one of the מתנות כהונה. There are different presents that a Yisrael, a Jew who was not a kohen, has to give to the kohanim. For instance, תרומה, you have to take off a certain amount from the grain and you have to give to the Kohen. Then you have ביכורים, the first fruits of the seven kinds, you have to give to the Kohen. ראשית הגז, the first shearing of the sheep you have to give to the Kohen. You have חלה that you have to give to the Kohen, which is the first of the dough. So so many things you have to give to the Kohanim. בכור בהמה, the first animal that's born has to be given to the Kohen and he brings it as a קרבן. פטר חמור, we mentioned before, the donkey that's born, a firstborn donkey, has to be exchanged for a sheep, and the sheep has to be given to the Kohen. But it's interesting that we see in all these מתנות כהונה, we see a similarity. They're all the first. תרומה is the first from the crop, ביכורים is the first from the fruit, ראשית הגז ראשית הגז is the first from the shearing, חלה is the first from the dough, פדיון פטר חמור, everything is the first. And it says in the Sefer Hachinuch and many other sefarim that the reason we have to give the first is because when we give it to the Kohen, actually the Kohen at that stage is a representative of Hashem. So really we're giving it to Hashem. And what this is supposed to show that we know that the first of our labor, the first fruit of our labor has to be given to Hashem. Why? Because we know that whatever we do and whatever we gain by what we do is only because of Hashem. So it's only right to give Hashem part of it, and not just part of it, the first part. And that's why we have to give תרומה, ביכורים, and חלה, etc., etc., in addition to the fact that this was actually the parnasah of the Kohanim. Since the Kohanim did not have any land, they did not have any, so what did they, can they make a living from? So Hashem said there will be different מתנות כהונה, different presents that the Yisrael will give him. But that's their side, but from our side the reason we have to give it is because we have to show to Hashem that we give our first fruit of our labor, we give to Hashem. And the same is with a בכור. The בכור is the firstborn child, and really the firstborn child has to be given to Hashem. And that's what we do. We give it to Hashem, and how do we show that we want to show we give it to Hashem is by פדיון הבן, by giving the money instead, but this is a form of showing that we give to Hashem the firstborn child. These are the main two reasons that we find concerning the מצוה of פדיון הבן. But then there are more, maybe we could call them minor reasons, things which are written in the sefarim why there is a mitzvah of pidyon haben, or rather I wouldn't use the term why there is a mitzvah of pidyon haben, but what is accomplished when we do the mitzvah of pidyon haben. I wouldn't say they are reasons, but nevertheless these are things which are accomplished by doing the mitzvah of pidyon haben. And I wrote down a list here. Number one, one of the things we see is, it says in the Zohar, and many people wouldn't even know this, that when the firstborn child, when he is born, when the bechor is born, there are two רשויות, two domains or two things which take control of this child. And he calls it רשות החיים and רשות המות, the control, the right of life and the רשות of death. And by doing the mitzvah of pidyon haben, the Zohar says, we actually redeem the child from that רשות of מות, of death. We protect the child, otherwise it says in the Zohar there is the רשות of מות on the child. So it comes out that not only do we, by redeeming the child, it's redeeming him from Hashem, which is from the one side, we also redeem the child from what we call the מות. And the different sefarim write, like for instance the Chida writes that by doing pidyon haben, we guarantee that the child is going to live, otherwise there is a danger for the child. And there are different sefarim that bring stories. Sefer Chassidim, Sefer Chassidim is a sefer written by Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid. Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid was from the greatest of his time and of all generations. Lived about I would say 900 years ago. Even though he's called Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid, it's not hachassid that we call now, a chassid, this chassid, that chassid, he had the title chassid in his time because he was from the greatest in his time. So Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid tells a story in Sefer Chassidim. He says there was a story with a bachur, he says, that got very sick and he almost died. And he kept on screaming, \"Redeem me! Redeem me!\" and no one knew what he was talking about. Till someone thought, \"Maybe let's give him a pidyon haben. He was a bechor, a firstborn, maybe didn't have a pidyon haben.\" They gave him a, they made a pidyon haben, and right away they saw a change, and he lived, he says, for another 25 years. There's a sefer called Ruach Chaim written by one of the big mekubalim, Fla'ji. He writes also about a child, not a child, a person who was dying, and the doctors gave up their hope, and he writes, the one that writes the sefer says, \"I didn't know what to do, and then I thought, I know he was a bechor, maybe he didn't have a פדיון הבן. So I gave him a, made a פדיון הבן, and right away he was cured, and he lived many more years.\" There's a sefer called Mar'eh HaYeladim where he tells a similar story, that there was a person who was dying, and he had a chizayon, he saw a vision in his dream that this person did not have a פדיון הבן. So he gave, made a פדיון הבן, and he lived. And many other stories in different places where we find concerning how פדיון הבן saved a person. So this is one other reason or one other thing that we accomplish by doing the mitzvah of פדיון הבן. Then we find another thing. It says in a Midrash, and if we'll have time later we'll discuss maybe this in more length, that when they sold, the brothers sold Yosef Yosef was a bechor. He was a bechor of Rachel, because as we said before, here we're talking about a bechor, not of the father, but of the mother. So he was a bechor of Rachel, and since Rachel was the main wife of Yaakov, so he was the main bechor. He came to Lavan mainly for Rachel, and she was his special one. So Yosef was special by by Yaakov. So when they sold Yosef, they sold Yosef, it says in Chumash, for twenty kesef. Twenty kesef adds up to five shekalim. So since they sold the bechor of Rachel for twenty for five shekalim, that's why we have a mitzvah to repent, to do teshuvah for what they did, and that's why we have a mitzvah of פדיון הבן. Then we have another reason, which says in different sefarim: whenever we talk about, we use the term when we talk about the evil forces of the world, we talk we use the term kelipah. The word kelipah really means a shell, and the reason we use it is because a fruit has the fruit and the shell. You have the good part and the bad part. Now we know always it says that קליפה קדמה לפרי. When the fruit grows, the shell grows first, and then comes the fruit. The firstborn child, since it's the first, has a certain kelipah in it, a certain shell. It says that, and this mostly come from kabbalah sefarim, that the firstborn child draws all the zuhama, he calls it, all the impurity that's in the body of the mother, somehow gets into into the child because it's the first child. And therefore, by doing a pidyon haben, we get rid of all this זוהמא, and the child is clean again, and there are no problems. That's another reason given. Then we have another reason, that this is a for kaparah, to forgive Chava for her sin. Chava was the one that ate from the עץ הדעת. And in order to forgive for her sin, we have to have a mitzvah on the firstborn child. And that's one of the reasons why it's only by males, not by females, because other reasons would not explain why if a girl is first, why doesn't she have a pidyon haben. But this reason makes sense, it says, because a male is connected more to the mother, and the female is connected more to the father. That's what Rashi says, that's what the Gemara says. So therefore, the first real connection to the mother, which represents Chava, is the first child. And therefore, the first child needs this special redemption, because that is a kaparah for what Chava did with the חטא עץ הדעת. And then we have another reason, mentioned different reasons that are brought down in different ספרים. It's all based on a pasuk that we say, says yeah, if you don't mind, הן בעוון חוללתי. When a person is born, person's birth starts with an act that can involve sin. Not that, God forbid, we're saying like l'havdil the goyim would say, right? Not like other religions look at the act of bringing children into the world as low and impure, etc., etc. On the contrary, we know it's holy. But it's possible that the person's ta'avot, the person's personal desires, should get involved, and that has an effect on the child. Usually the firstborn child is the one that comes from when the person is the youngest, and when you're the youngest, then the ta'avot are stronger. So the child that's born has more of involvement of the ta'avot, of this desire that's there. And in order to get rid of that, there is this mitzvah of pidyon haben, by giving the five shekalim to the kohen, which really, as we said before, means giving the five shekalim to Hashem. By doing that, we clean the child of any possible negative thing that might stick to the child, by almost all the figures that we're talking about.

But so far we've been saying on pidyon haben reasons of getting rid of certain things which are not good, but there are different explanations in Chassidut. See, the other explanations are in different ספרים, but we know that Chassidut and Kabbalah usually look at things from a positive point of view. So there we see that not only pidyon haben to get rid of klipot and things like that, but it is to bring even a greater kedushah to the person. Being that a bechor is the first, and as the Maharal says that we said before that the bechor is similar to Hashem. Hashem is the ראשית המציאות, he calls it, the beginning of all beings. The bechor is the first born, the beginning of the family, so he has a great kedushah. And we know that this essence of the neshamah is connected to the essence of Hashem. That's why it's called yechidah, the word yechidah means single. It's something that's single, and Hashem is single. And it says we say in the הושענות on Sukkos, יחידה ליחדך, it's for the יחוד, for the unity of Hashem. So what connects to the unity of Hashem? The יחידה שבנפש, the fifth level. And as we always learn on Yom Kippur, we have five tefilos, we daven five tefilos, Maariv, Shacharis, Musaf, Minchah, and Neilah, and Neilah is the fifth because it's כנגד, it's parallel to the fifth level of the נשמה. So we give five shekalim in order to be ממשיך a higher level from the essence of Hashem. We know that in the name of Hashem we find four letters, יו״ד-ק״א-וא״ו-ק״א. But we know that the four letters of Hashem's name, being that they are letters of his name, are already a level where there is a limit. The whole concept of a name, a name is a description. Every name is a description, describes something. The moment it's a description of something, automatically it's a limit, you're describing a specific thing. So it says that, it says in the Zohar, that any name of Hashem, including the name of Hashem which is שם הויה, יו״ד-ק״א-וא״ו-ק״א, which is called שם העצם, the essential name, שם המיוחד, the specific name, שם המפורש, I don't even know how to translate it in English, the clear name, whatever it is, even that name, which usually means Hashem himself, but being that it's a name, already does not represent the true essence of Hashem. What does represent the true essence of Hashem? So we know that by עשרת הדברות, what did Hashem say? Hashem said אנכי הויה אלקיך, I am Havayah, Hashem, your God. So אלקיך is already the name אלקים, which is a lower level. Then before that he said הויה, יו״ד-ק״א-וא״ו-ק״א. But before that he said אנכי, I. So it says in the Zohar that this word אנכי, I, refers to the essence of Hashem, such a level that cannot be described in any name and in any title and anything, just I. And we use the same title when we speak to Hashem. When we make a berachah we're speaking to Hashem, and what do we say? ברוך אתה הויה אלקינו מלך העולם. So we also start off speaking to ברוך אתה, you. We don't even call him by a name, you, there is a level which we can't describe with any name, we say אתה, just like when he speaks, he says I, when we speak to him we say you. And then we say ברוך אתה, then we say הויה, then אלקינו. הויה is lower than that, אלקינו is even lower than that, then מלך העולם, which means the King of the world, is even lower. But there is this level which is beyond the שם הויה. On Yom Kippur it says that's the level that shines, and that's connected to the level of יחידה, as we said before. On Yom Kippur it says in the pasuk: לפני הויה תטהרו. You will become clean, clear, clean, pure. לפני, I mean before הויה, but Chassidus says what it means is higher than הויה. Because as long as you're connected to שם הויה, you're only connected to it's a very high level, but still a level which has a certain limit. לפני הויה, that's the level which is called five. That's why שם הויה has four letters, and this is like the fifth, the higher level connected to יחידה. And this is the level that we are mamshich, we bring down to the בכור by giving the five שקלים, the five שקלים will mamshich the level above הויה. We find in a pasuk by Yosef after he gave the Egyptians the seeds and he told them to plant, and he bought their fields, and then it says whatever they planted, he said ארבע הידות יהיה לכם, four parts should be with, to you, והחמישית לפרעה, the fifth one should be for Pharaoh. Because he bought their fields, and when he gave them back the field, he says now you owe a share to us because this is really ours. Actually, this is where the whole idea of taxes comes from because it really belongs to the government, so you have to give a share to the government. And their taxes were 20%, a fifth. In Zohar it says that the word Pharaoh sometimes represents Hashem, because Pharaoh means revealed. But says the Zohar: דביה אתפרעון כולהו נהורין, a level where all lights are revealed. So Pharaoh is Hashem, and what does the pasuk say? ארבע הידות יהיה לכם, the four shares are yours. But then חמישית, the fifth level, that's the highest level. So here we see again the highest level that is called the level five. Four always represents, using the terms of Chassidus, סדר השתלשלות. Everything in the world is divided by four, into four. We have four worlds, אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה, as we learn in Chassidus and Kabbalah. Pesach is full of four. Four cups of wine, we have ארבעה בנים, we have four sons, we have four קושיות, there are four redemptions. There's many things that divide into four, but it's all סדר השתלשלות. The whole universe is divided into four. The four are דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר. דומם are the unmovable objects, the plant life, the animal life, and the human race. That includes everything. Then we have four elements: אש, רוח, מים, עפר. Fire, wind, water, and sand. And this includes everything. So השתלשלות or creation and everything concerning creation is divided into four. When we talk about a level למעלה מהשתלשלות, higher than creation, the true essence of Hashem, that is referred to as the fifth level. That's why it says in Chumash by Matan Torah, it says five times the word קול, five times, so it represents the fifth level. And this is the level that says that נמשך, that comes down to the world on this בכור when you give the פדיון הבן, the money for the פדיון הבן. Which is similar to Avraham Avinu. We find Avraham Avinu had two stages in his life. There was a time, first stage, when he was called Avram, and then later he was called Avraham. And there's a big difference. Before that, it says Hashem didn't speak to him in the same way, only במחזה, only through a vision. Later on, Hashem spoke to him through נבואה, וירא, all kinds of things. After he became Avraham, that's when he had the mitzvah of milah, which elevated Avraham to a very high level. Basically, there are two levels. What letter was added to Avram's name? The ה. And the ה is the fifth level, this is five. And by a בכור is the same thing. When you give the פדיון הבן, you're ממשיך on this child the highest level, this level of five, because he is holy anyway. Not everyone is זוכה to such a high level, but because he is holy anyway, as we said before, and there's an obligation on the people even to make him holy, that's why you bring it down. On this child specifically, and this is through the five Shekalim. As I said before, if there will be time, I will try to discuss for a moment, for a few moments, that Midrash, when it speaks about the בכור of Rachel that was sold, which was Yosef, for five כלויין, for five Shekalim, that's why we have the mitzvah of giving five Shekalim. The truth is, that same Midrash mentions something else also. The same Midrash says that because of that, we have a mitzvah of מחצית השקל, of giving a half a shekel every year, which we just did, the minhag of מחצית השקל on Taanit Esther. So what's the connection of מחצית השקל to the selling of Yosef? It says like this: they sold Yosef for five shekalim. How many people were involved? Ten. So each one gave a half a shekel. So in order to forgive for what they did then, we also have to give, each one of us has to give a half a shekel. So it comes out there are two mitzvot that came as a result of the selling of Yosef: that everyone has to give a מחצית השקל, and that you have to redeem for five shekalim your firstborn child. Now the question is, we understand why מחצית השקל would come as a result from selling Yosef, because מחצית השקל, as it says in Chumash, is a kapparah. כופר נפשו, it's something that you give to redeem yourself. You do something wrong, you have to redeem yourself. So for what they did, which seems to be wrong, we have to redeem, so all the years we have to give מחצית השקל to redeem the aveirah, to have a kapparah of what they did. But Pidyon Haben, we keep on saying, is a holy thing. How can a negative thing be a reason for something holy? Because of what they did, that's why we have to give Pidyon Haben? Pidyon Haben, we just said, is a המשכה of kedushah, we bring down holiness, and a result of what they did, we bring down holiness into the world? Because they sold Yosef, which was wrong, so to speak? Obviously, it's not so. Let me explain. Why do we have two things we have to do to forgive for what they for they did to Yosef? Wouldn't one mitzvah be enough? Why do we need מחצית השקל and also the Pidyon Haben? Let's look at it like this: מחצית השקל is the amount of money that each one gave, that each one got, I'm sorry, not gave, got, yeah, yeah, yeah. Each one got a half a shekel. The five shekalim is how much Yosef was worth. In other words, when we look at five shekalim we look at Yosef's part of it. Yosef was sold for five shekalim. When we look at the שבטים's part, the brothers, how much did each one get? Each one got a half a shekel. In other words, there were two things that took place when they sold Yosef. There's something that took place concerning the brothers, and something that took place concerning Yosef. What took place concerning the brothers was something negative: they sold him. What took place concerning Yosef was positive, and from that came out a positive thing: the mitzvah of Pidyon Haben. What was positive that they sold Yosef? Well, we have a lot of things, but the Zohar says like this: Yosef had to The Yidden had to go to Mitzrayim. Hashem had said earlier that they will go to Mitzrayim. Why did it have to go through this form of the brothers selling Yosef and the whole thing? Why couldn't it be done a different way, without them selling him? So the Zohar says the fact that they sold Yosef, they took him, threw him into the pit, sold him as a slave, they were koneh him, they acquired him as their slave. The moment he became he was owned by his brothers, he never, ever could be owned by the Egyptians. And that was the source of the redemption. Had they not sold Yosef, then the Yidden would come to Mitzrayim, they would be under the control of the Egyptians. They would be like all other avadim, and all slaves in Mitzrayim could not leave Mitzrayim. Because they came through Yosef, and Yosef was acquired by his brothers, so Yosef was an eved of his brothers. The whole Mitzrayim became avadim to Yosef, because he became the משנה למלך, and mimela there was never a real, real concept of slavery fallen upon the Jews, because he was sold by his brothers. So it comes out like this: that looking from the perspective of the brothers, they sold him and they did something wrong, so we have to have a kaparah, we have to forgive for that. That's why there's a mitzvah of מחצית השקל, which is a kaparah. But looking at it from Yosef's side, the fact that Yosef was sold, that was not a negative thing, on the contrary, that was the source of the geulah. That's why the Yidden were able to be saved later, because they never really, really belonged to Mitzrayim. Why did they not belong to Mitzrayim? Because Yosef did not belong to Mitzrayim. So as a result of that we have the mitzvah of פדיון הבן. פדיון הבן is the mitzvah to show that the child belongs to Hashem, and by doing the mitzvah of פדיון הבן we bring even more kedushah unto the child. This came as a result of the fact that Yosef became he became an eved to the brothers, which means now he belongs to people who are tzadikim, and mimela as a result of that we have the mitzvah of pidyon haben. I want to just add one more thing: that the mitzvah of pidyon haben, it says in sefarim, reminds us of Mashiach. Because pidyon haben means the redemption of the son, and we know that we are called בנים אתם להשם אלקיכם, we are children to Hashem, and we are not just plain children, we are the firstborn child. When Hashem sent Moshe Rabbeinu to Paro, he told him, בני בכורי ישראל, my firstborn child, I want you שלח את עמי, let them go. So he referred to the Yidden as the firstborn child. So we are bechorim, and pidyon haben means Hashem will redeem us from galut. And that's another reason for pidyon haben: to remind every single Yid of the pidyon haben that Hashem will do. We know that Hashem does all the mitzvot that he told us to do, in a different form, but he does the mitzvot. It says in Midrash that Hashem is not like other kings, they tell other things, people, what to do, but they don't do it. Hashem does what he tells us to do. So he does the mitzvah. How does Hashem do the mitzvah of pidyon haben? He does it by taking the Yidden out of galut. And the more we do the mitzvah of pidyon haben, the more we're מעורר, we awaken Hashem he should take us out of galut. I remember, this goes back many, many years, י\"א ניסן תשכ\"ב, which is 1962. There was a farbrengen י\"א ניסן, that was the year of the Rebbe's 60th birthday, and the Rebbe by the farbrengen farbrengen made a siyum on the Gemara Pesachim. The end of Masechet Pesachim talks about pidyon haben. The Gemara talks about Pesach, but the end talks about pidyon haben. And the Rebbe spoke a lot about it. פשוט, על פי נגלה, he had a whole pilpul, but then at the end, he spoke the meaning of that Gemara that deals with פדיון הבן על פי חסידות. And he applied it to Hashem taking the Yidden out of galut, and he spoke about the whole question in the Gemara if you make Shehecheyanu or not, or who makes Shehecheyanu, all applied to Hashem taking out of galut. And the way the Rebbe was crying then about the Yidden going out of galut in connection to pidyon haben, hardly ever did we hear the Rebbe cry cry so much about the inyan of the Yidden going out of galut. And this is not lately, this is תשכ״ב. Then the Rebbe was crying about the Yidden going out of galut, and all in connection of pidyon haben. Now that so many years passed from then, we are much closer to Mashiach, and the Rebbe said that he's on his way, he's coming very, very soon, so certainly we hope and we are sure that Hashem is going to fulfill the mitzvah of pidyon haben and take His firstborn child out of galut and bring us to ירושלים עיר הקודש.

Yes? Then there is no pidyon haben. But it depends what month and how the child was, what the halachot. Here we didn't go into any halachot of pidyon haben. But if she had a real miscarriage, then the child that is no pidyon haben. But pidyon haben is really a mitzvah on the child, but since the child is small, father does it. But it's a mitzvah on the child himself. The question is who does it, so whether if there are different opinions whether the child should wait till he becomes a bar mitzvah and then do it himself, or should the beit din do it? And there are different opinions, I don't want to get into she'elot here. The mitzvah originally is when the child is still small, meaning after the child is thirty days old, meaning thirty days passed. You cannot do pidyon haben till the thirty-first day, but if it's not done then, then it has to be done later. Now if the father doesn't do it, many hold that the child should not do it while he's a katan, while he's under bar mitzvah, should wait till he becomes a bar mitzvah and then he does it himself. Huh? Because the pasuk says \"מבן חדש\". But the reason, so the simple reason is because till thirty days the child is still in the category of a נפל. We don't know if the child will really live. And it says that בכלל, על פי הלכה, till thirty days we're never sure. After thirty days, that's when the child is considered a complete child. By בהמה? No, there it's smaller amount, that's eight days... But that the nature is that there the נפל is a smaller amount. Yes? If the Torah says he shouldn't do it, then the Torah protects him. The Torah says. According to those opinions, they bring proof from the Torah, yeah. Yes? If he's a Levi or she's a Levi. The father or the mother, right. For instance, in my case, my son didn't have a pidyon haben because my wife is a bat Levi. Saved myself five dollars. It has to be the first one that opens the womb, פטר רחם. So the question is if a miscarriage was something that's considered a child or not, that's a lot of halachot. Yes? Okay, that's a very good question. He was acquired by his brothers and then they sold him, but the din is if you sell a slave to chutz la'aretz, to outside of Eretz Yisrael, then the sale is not really one hundred percent valid in halacha. By a slave, right. Even by a goy slave. Yes? I spoke on the beginning. Any kohen. Better is if you know the kohen has a יחוס that you know for sure, but על פי הלכה now all kohanim have a din of כהנים מוחזקים, they have a chazakah, and therefore, any kohen that you use. But I mentioned before that some people would redeem themselves a few times to make sure that it's for sure a kohen. Huh? Well, the person who Usually, a kohen, the way it's done, not because of any halacha, it's just more convenient that a kohen who knows that he does pidyon haben goes around and always has five coins, and he sells it to the father, and then the father gives it back to him. And some people have their own. As a matter of fact, some people specifically get their own, and later they buy it back from the kohen, because they want to keep it as you know, as a zecher. Yes. Why is there a custom to put the baby on a silver tray? Any mitzvah that we do, we try to beautify it. So we put it on a silver plate, tray, some people put on jewelry, things like that, just since we're doing a mitzvah, to make it look nicer, a hidur mitzvah. Yes. What happens if this is not done? What's the status of the child? It has no effect in halacha. Child if he not have a pidyon haben has no negative status, like the child is a ממזר, the child is a is a פגום, child could be a חלל from a kohen, there's nothing like that. I remember the the question that Yeah. I don't want to go into that, but that's a very a lot of מפרשים ask a question: how do you say to the kohen, how does the kohen say, \"You want your child or you want the money?\" As if he has a choice. There is no such thing that if you don't give the money, you have to give the baby away to the kohen. The דין is you have to give five שקלים, whether you like it or not. It's just a formality, so to speak, to show that he's doing it willingly, but not that otherwise the child doesn't belong to him or something. And there is nothing on the status of the child if you don't do a pidyon haben. It's just an aveirah. The father has an aveirah, and when the child grows up and doesn't do it, the child has an aveirah. The Alter Rebbe has something very, very strict. He says that if you don't do pidyon haben, it's not a one-time aveirah. Every second that you don't do it is another aveirah. It's on the kid or on his Well, when the kid is not bar mitzvah yet, it's on the father. When the kid is bar mitzvah, it's on him. He has every second is another aveirah. Something very strict. All right. Thank you everybody for coming