Hilchos Tekias Shofar: Shevarim, Teruah, and Minhagim

Topics

• One Set of Tekiah, Teruah, and Tekiah
• The Tekiah and the Lashon of the Ramban
• The Teiman Teruah
• Minhag Teiman and the End of the Tekiah
• Aruch HaShulchan on the Need for a Kol
• Different Shitos in Tekiah and Shevarim
• Simple sounds and the form of shevarim
• The shitos in the Rishonim
• Rav Henkin on how shevarim must sound
• Legal Marriage and the Need for a Get
• Rav Henkin and the Shevarim
• Rav Chaim, the Chazon Ish, and the Brisker Rav
• Neshimachas and the Shape of the Teruah
• Rabbi Yashiv’s psak on shvarim
• Shvarim as one kol
• Teruah and the Tur
• The Teruah and the Teimah
• How Many Shvarim
• Three Shvarim and the Beis Yosef
• The Chayei Adam and how many truos are needed
• The Marsham and the number of shvarim
• Blowing more than three shofarim
• Shvarim More Than Three
• How Many Teruos
• Kavanah and Repeating the Tekios
• The Bach’s Question on Tekiah After Each Kol
• Reading the Magen Avraham and the Practical Halachah
• The Mishnah Berurah on Baalei Tekiah
• The Bach and the Tekiah Gedolah
• Can One Combine Different Shitos?
• The Peshara in the Shaar HaTziyun
• A personal concern about a chasunah
• Maariv and the minyan

Transcript

# One Set of Tekiah, Teruah, and Tekiah

Okay. Yesterday we discussed that it is possible that one set is min haTorah, which would mean a tekiah, a teruah, and a tekiah. And even if you say that, with the sfeikos, there are three such sets, the rest could still be only midrabbanan. Even the sfeikos are probably only a takanah d’rabbanan. So it would come out that, to be machmir, you would only have to be machmir, according to the klal of the Mishnah Berurah, for a safek de’oraisa. L’chumra, it would be only in one set.

This is a very controversial psak, but it is true. Most people are not going to say this, because keshayfen, you have to be machmir for all the shitos. I agree with you. But if you want to be at the letter of the law and break it down—and I wrote about this b’arichus, though I’m not sure I’ll ever print it, because I’m afraid to print a thing like this—it would come out that, be’etzem, according to Tosafos, only one is min haTorah: a tekiah, a teruah, and a tekiah. The rest are all d’rabbanans.

What makes teruah over shevarim? That itself is a safek; we do not even know what the teruah is, so that also could be d’rabbanan d’halachos. What I mean to say is that even the nine that we say are given—those lines are not necessarily min haTorah, not much that they are min haTorah. That was the first thing I wanted to say.

Nine, even ten, I’m sure. Yes, I’m saying the first. What I mean to say is nine teruos, nine, three teruos with the tekiyos, right? Oh, you mean one set. Only one set, according to Tosafos, according to the shitas Gemara, and Tosafos is paskening like that. So then it would come out that all the chumros are mamash in dinei d’Rabbanan.

# The Tekiah and the Lashon of the Ramban

The next nekudah, which I guess is pretty much where we left off yesterday, is the tekiah. We spoke about the tekiah, that it has to be either a yashar or not a yashar. It is a whole shaila in halacha what it has to be. Then we brought down that some say, bedavka, to split it, a Tashbatz. And then we spoke about a minhag to blow loud l’chatchila.

The lashon of the Ramban, as I told you, was: Sofek kitechilaso, k’ish meirim kolo l’shever. So what do you have from that? Clearly that it is meirim kolo l’shever, right? Meirim would imply that you are going up in octaves. When a person sings, he goes up in octaves. So meirim kolo l’shever should teach me that it should not be a straight note.

I said that perhaps the pshat is a little different: that meirim kolo l’shever means that he is makpid on the note not to go off key. That is what he means, because he says, Sofek kitechilaso. The Ramban’s words are, Sofek kitechilaso, k’ish meirim kolo l’shever. If he says seifa kitechilasa, he does not mean up and down. How would you translate seifa kitechilasa? Seifa kitechilasa means straight, and straight means not up and down. So then it has to mean being makpid on the note that it should be straight. That is k’meirim kolo l’shever.

# The Teiman Teruah

It is interesting: the Teimanim have a whole different way of blowing shofar, rabosai. You will ask, why do we care so much what the Teimanim blow shofar? What does it have to do with us? The truth is that their teruah is brought down in the Geonim, and the contemporary poskim—Reb Elyashiv b’rosham—feel very strongly that we should make the teruah that they make, which we will discuss later. They have a special teruah that they make. It is called the Teiman teruah. You know what it is? Okay, that teruah is a very special teruah. It is called the Teiman teruah, and Reb Elyashiv paskens that we are supposed to do that. So obviously...

# Minhag Teiman and the End of the Tekiah

Basically, they have interesting minhagim in their blowings, and we can take from them. The Teimanim have a minhag that at the end of the tekiah they make a *kol seil*, an ending sound, through *neshifas avir bechozek*, a strong gust of air into the shofar. It is hard to understand what the point of it is. Maybe it is like a period: tekiah, stop; teruah, shevarim, stop. In other words, each sound has its own ending.

They blow, and then after the tekiah they will go... That does something else. That is how you make shevarim. That is Litvish, that is Ashkenazim, and there are different shitos. So that is a whole different shaila, how to make shevarim. They blow a tekiah, okay, stop, then... period. One, or do they do it three times? Then they... Interesting. It has to be for each one. The Teiman minhag is like a period after each piece. We are going to learn that there is a mekor for it, something about it. Okay, we will get to it soon.

So tekiah, and then the thingy, then the teruah, then the... That is right. But the tekiah, the teruah, and the tekiah are the same, just with the thingy. That is right. That is a different shaila, how to make the tekiah. They have their own ways of making everything. What you are talking about is the thingy, this nekudah.

# Aruch HaShulchan on the Need for a Kol

Aruch HaShulchan says, based on the Ramban, that the Ramban says that it was *meirim kolo l’shayer*, so it has to be allowed. You see clearly, *ka’adam k’ish meirim kolo*. When a person is *meirim kolo*, he does not sing; he is *meirim kolo*. It is loud, right? So the Aruch HaShulchan, in siman Taf Kuf Pei Vav, se’if Yud Gimmel, says that if you *kol lachash*, if you use a kol which is low, you are not yotzei. You are not yotzei with a *kol lachash*.

Now, I do not know what he means. Does he mean *kol lachash*, that it is blown very low? I know Rav Zimbal blows very low. I noticed. I thought it was something interesting. Sometimes he does not have koach; he does not have the strength for it. When does he blow? No, he blows. He is about to... He blows. So it comes out like this here. So maybe that is what the Aruch HaShulchan means: it is not good. A dilma, maybe the Aruch HaShulchan means something else. Maybe the Aruch HaShulchan means... Is that here? I do not know. What do you call a *kol lachash*? Do you mean *lachash* means, God, if you blow low it is no good? It means the baal tekiah has to be the guys who get red in the face. Our people blow the mamish. Does he mean that, the Aruch HaShulchan, based on the Ramban of *ki ish meirim kolo*? Or does the Aruch HaShulchan mean... I cannot even do it. Good. I do not know. I do not know. *Yesh l’ayin* what the Aruch HaShulchan...

# Different Shitos in Tekiah and Shevarim

Okay? So we have over here different shitos. We have over here so far that tekiah has to be what? It has to either be straight or not straight, or it could be not straight, or it has to be not straight, or it has to be in two parts. That is what we spoke last year. And now we are learning that there is also something called a kol. Some say it has to be louder; it cannot just be a quiet kol. And some, which is a pashut pshat in the Aruch HaShulchan, or maybe all the Aruch HaShulchan means, is that you cannot have just the blow of air; you have to have some kind of a kol. I guess he is learning from the Ramban that it has to be *ki ish meirim kol l’shover*, that it has to be something.

All right. Now, it is important to point out that the sefarim have many, many shitos on how to make shevarim. Sefardim and Chassidim both make the shevarim...

# Simple sounds and the form of shevarim

Simple sounds. Simple sounds. Simple sounds, okay? In Lita, they made *tu-u-tu, tu-u-tu, tu-u-tu*, like this. That is the way they do it in Lita, okay? Even in that minhag, there are two ways to do it. Some do *u-tu*, or one is *u-tu* and one is *u*. *U-tu*. Very big nafka mina.

So again, either it is... or... that is *tu-u-tu, tu-u-tu, tu-u-tu*, or... one second, *u-tu*, or... okay? So you got it? So let’s see. Tekiah straight. That’s straight. You want to have it a little stronger, because the Aruch HaShulchan says it is no good. But that would be that it changed in the middle. My real disapproval would be very unhappy with that, because it changed in the middle, not *pashut yashar*.

We said that some blow, and some blow and then hook it at the end. Okay, we spoke about it. So the shevarim is either straight, or that is *tehu, tehu, tehu*. Some do *tehu, utu, utu*, and some do *tehu*, and some do *tehu*. What is the nafka mina?

# The shitos in the Rishonim

So first let’s get the shitos. In the Rishonim, there is no reason and no mekor for *tehu, utu*, or *utu*, or *tehu*; it is all *tehu, tehu*. And the Ra’avad is pashut, because you see that the tekiah might turn into a shevarim, so you see clearly that the shevarim is the same as the tekiah, just smaller.

There is conflicting testimony about Reb Chaim’s shita. Some say Reb Chaim held peshutim, and that is the minhag ha’olam, to make simple ones. Rav Soloveitchik from Boston said that Reb Chaim used to make peshutim, very simple. *Emet Bracha* says that from the Brisker, but it is different. It is not even clear what *Emet Bracha* means. They quote *Emet Bracha* one way; you look, he says something else. I know the *Emet Bracha*. We’ll get to it in a few minutes. Al kol panim, avei sai, Rav Henkin—well, that’s it. What the *Emet Bracha* means, it is a shaila what the *Emet Bracha* means. Okay. Rav Hamaranchik, Brisker Rav’s talmid.

# Rav Henkin on how shevarim must sound

Rav Henkin said that even if you make simples, you have to be careful that it is *derech anacha*. It cannot sound like a tekiah. You know, a tekiah is simcha. It is a simchadike kol: *u’skatem, u’vyom simchaschem u’vmoadeichem, u’skatem*. This is a happy sound. That is a happy one. So if you are going to make the shevarim, that is no good.

So Rav Henkin says it has to be done *derech anacha*. Again, why? *Derech anacha*, because the shevarim has to be *derech anacha*; it has to be a broken cry. It is a cry. If you do it as a small tekiah, you see what they are all trying to get around: is it a shorter tekiah? If it is a shorter tekiah, then it is a tekiah. Then it is a peshuta. Or maybe it is a cry. If it is a cry, Rav Henkin—this is a beautiful psak.

Habaisai, the olam does not know who Rav Henkin was. Henkin was the gadol hador. He was the Ramoisha before Ramoisha, you know that. Many things Ramoisha held differently than Rav Henkin, and in kavodish, Rav Henkin did not pasken. He was not paskening. Rav Henkin shined paskened, especially in yoni gershin and these things. Rav Henkin held that if you have a marriage in court, you need a get. You know that.

# Legal Marriage and the Need for a Get

If you have a legal marriage, we spoke about this, you need a get. Reb Moshe did not hold that way. But Reb Moshe used to pasken to make a get together with Reb Henkin. There were a few cases where he said that a get was needed. So the sofer and everyone else would go through and make a get, and the get was because Reb Henkin zeig a pasken. That was the get. He held—not that Reb Henkin held. We’ll speak about it in a long shmooze. Reb Moshe’s ta’anah was that it is not so; it applies only in certain cases.

# Rav Henkin and the Shevarim

Okay, this, rabosai, is Rav Henkin. So remember: you learned this here, and I don’t know if you’ll hear it anywhere else, that even if you make the shevarim straight, what do they have to be? Derech hanachah, which means Rav Henkin’s shevarim are like a moan. Moaning. It has to be moaning. Let me tie. So we just did this. Chaim officially did it this way. Hagah, they say, the Briskers say that it is done this way, so let’s do it. That is what everybody does, okay.

Ashkenaz is tuhutu, which is... But there are two ways to do that. Even that, there are two ways to do it: either like I just did it, or it’s... right? That’s the... or... or utu or tuu. Utu? No, it’s a big machlokes. Either it’s te’utu. You know what it is? ... Right? Take. No, it’s getting, it’s getting because I’m... Okay, ready? Oh, that was like more. Or? Or? It’s a peykin. No, Rav Henkin is cry. Oh, that’s interesting. Interesting, huh? The olam doesn’t know that. You know what it is? The olam never sat and went through all the different sheets in the Rishonim. You go through the sheets. Awesome, we’ll discuss that. Not bad, not bad.

# Rav Chaim, the Chazon Ish, and the Brisker Rav

Okay, now listen carefully, rabosai. So Rav Chaim... the Steipler, Rav Chaim either did pshutim, like I said. Rav Henkin said that if you do pshutim, it has to be derech hanachah; it has to be cry. Moedim Zmanim says in the name of Rav Chaim that Rav Chaim did utu—utu, not tu, but utu. That’s right. So then it is a shaila what Rav Chaim did.

The Bostoner, the Bostoner Soloveitchiks, say Rav Chaim did simples. It is in the kovetz that they give out. They say there that... The Radasha uses every Shabbos. Between... which one? You want to say he uses this one? He says, treif, treif. Is it live? You can find out. It’s too much of a machlokes. Next. Which one? Next.

The Chazon Ish and the Kehillos Yaakov also say utu. So Reb Chaim, according to Moedim Zmanim, is utu. Chazon Ish and Kehillos Yaakov is utu. Okay? The Brisker Rav didn’t do utu; he did tuu, and I’ll explain to you why. There is a whole problem of meriah mitoch shever. It’s a whole sugya. Do you need meriah mitoch shever, or don’t you?

The Chazon Ish held that you specifically need meriah mitoch shever, which means that when you blow the shvarim, it has to lead right into the teruah. It has to lead right into the teruah, like this. It has to go from the shvarim, and with the same breath, I guess. That is a whole different shaila of the shimachas and the shimachas. If you hold the shimaachas, the Chazon Ish held it has to be meriah. It is a very famous Chazon Ish. It is so beautiful the way they were medakdek in every nekudah, because they held that it leads. They held that the shvarim...

# Neshimachas and the Shape of the Teruah

If you hold neshimachas, the pshat is that this is how a person cries. So if you do it that way, the Chazon Ish wants neshimachas like this: from the shvarim, after the shvarim, you have a little continuation. It is meriah mitoch shever. You did not stop. That is the point. It is called meriah mitoch shever, because it is meriah mitoch. The teruah has to come from the shever.

Why not? Some people do it. It is called meriah mitoch shever. That is the Chazon Ish. The Brisker Rav held that you are not supposed to have meriah mitoch shever. So if you have it like this, you are going to end up with a hundred keilos, right? And then you continue with the teruah, then it sounds like meriah mitoch shever. So what you do is you do not do u-tu, but tu-u, because u is not a shvarim. Right, what is that? That is u-tu. So that would be meriah mitoch shever. So you do it the other way, says the Brisker Rav. That is not a shever. The u part is not the shever.

It is basically going up and going down, right. The tu, u-tu, and then blowing is called meriah mitoch shever. That is because he held the sugya is not meriah; he held that the yesod of the neshimah is not meriah mitoch shever. Think about it. Let us say it is shvarim. You stop. If you think about it, a shvarim is a stah. So then it is meriah. But if you do tu-u, u is not a shever. U is not. That is the regular shever. Avada. Sure, it makes it—yeah, avada.

Think about it. Why not the u? Stam pashut shever is a smaller tekiah. It is a smaller tekiah. I know, but it is also finishing off. Right, so obviously we do not care about this chumra. The Brisker Rav was afraid that if a person goes to u-tu—that is the only problem, tu-u. Right. Right, so in other words, the tu part is the shever. So when the tu part is the shever, the teruah turns into meriah mitoch shever. So it is better to blow tu-u instead of u-tu.

You take a look at the— Which one is the higher part? Tu-u. So u is the lower? The lower. So which one is the shever, the lower or the higher? Oh, the lower. No, the high part. Why is that a shever? Because that is the— This sounds like a shever, the lower part sounds like a shever. That is not the way you blow. You blow very short. Can you do it? Oh, that is... Okay, those are three simple ones. Ashkenaz is... Tu u-tu. Tu u-tu. Okay, so you heard the tu u-tu. That is Ashkenaz. That is how Lita, officially Lita, did that. That is called krias Lita. That is called krias Lita. All of Lita did it this way. The Mir, the old, it is krias Lita.

The problem is there is no makor for this. So Rabbi Yosef comes and says they have a particular raya from a Ramban, you know, Rav Moshe...

# Rabbi Yashiv’s psak on shvarim

My name is Matt. I think he is busy with this. He is the author of all this, based on the Drashos HaRamban. Rabbi Yashiv has a psak that because most of this is not from the Rishonim, and the only thing that is from the Rishonim is mashma that it is simples, if you blow litfisher shvarim after davening, you have to blow the regular shvarim.

“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s a psak. They don’t let us do it in the beis medrash. You have to go to the tiny one, the regulars. Because it’s a... I don’t know what it is. Yeah, because Rabbi Yashiv said that those are the ones it says in the Rishonim, the pshutim. That’s the pashut Rishonim.”

I’ve seen that even in Westgate, people hang around and they ask. So let’s go again. You ready? Let’s just, for the sake of chazarah—I thought we’d already be finished with all the shitos by now. Okay, you ready?

“Okay, Rabbi Yis, answer. Before my lip turns into a... to watch. Ready? What would you say? No good, the key, right? That’s why. That gets your clock. Went off key. See, I can’t do it with this one. Why is it broken? Show it low, man. What’s cracked? Perfect, right? Okay. Regular shvarim. Normal. Normal shvarim.”

Let me just tell you a big yesod. When you blow, you can’t do what I’m doing now. When you blow a bugle, they teach you that. A bugle is a kind of horn. It has to be b’nachas; otherwise it swells. I’m doing it stressfully because it’s a shiur, because I’m trying to quickly get this one and that one, so it’s hard. I know. I’m just saying: if I blow, it’s not this. It’s calm and beautiful. I’m just trying to quickly get everything out. That’s tu-tu-tu. That’s u-tu. And then there’s tu. Okay, let’s move on.

# Shvarim as one kol

There is an interesting minhag, Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz, that they have shvarim which are actually made from one kol. Shvarim is actually one kol. We have the shvarim, tu-tu-tu-tu. Shvarim, tu-hu-tu-tu-hu-tu. Tu-u, tu-u, tu-u, or u-tu, u-tu, u-tu. Four, so far four. And Rav Henkin is how to do a shvarim b’derech hanach.

Shorshei Minhag Ashkenaz brings an interesting minhag that it is actually all one kol with three sounds in it. It is one kol. And I just did it well, by the way. I’m happy I did it. I never tried it before. You heard it was all one thing, but had... It’s very difficult, but that’s what they break down in the shita.

# Teruah and the Tur

Rabbeinu Yashiv paskens, like I told you, that those who blow litfish tekios after the tefillah should blow the straights, because that is mashma in all the Rishonim. How about the teruah? Okay, how about the teruah now?

“Straights.”

Okay. They don’t have to do the litfish after davening.

“What? No, you need to do litfish after davening. We’ll see, we’ll see, we’ll see.”

How do teruos—so the Tur brings down that teruos are kolos ketzarim, tekufim, zeh lazeh, one after another, quickly, da-da-da-da-da-da. I don’t know why, but for some reason it sounds much prettier when it’s really fast. I don’t know if there’s any reason for it; it just does. Technically, I don’t see why it can’t be slower also. I don’t—

# The Teruah and the Teimah

That’s short. It’s not big enough for a—sorry—not big enough for a— It’s not. I’m telling you, very carefully, think about what I’m telling you. The truth is, it’s very complicated, because you have to know how much koach is in each one. But technically, it’s the same one, just slower. It’s the same thing, only slower.

I think it’s harder to do slowly, no? That’s how I would find it. You blow; it’s slower, a little stronger. It’s good. For some reason it’s done quickly. And the truth is, I never understood it, because I don’t know anybody who cries like that. If the whole idea is yelulei yalil—people cry—so that’s slower. I asked this to many people, l’chairah, right? If you want yelulei yalil, I don’t know who is yelulei yalil like this, but for some reason the minhag became that they do it, mamish like a machine gun. I don’t know where that comes from.

In Teiman, which is called the Sefardishe Teimanishe teruah, Reb Elyashiv says you should do it after davening, because azoi is mashma in the Geonim; it doesn’t have different— but they do it. It’s a shaking, a kol ro’id, meaning a shaking sound, but it’s one. It’s one tekiah that has many bumps in it. That’s their teruah. It’s called a teimah, and Reb Elyashiv says that after davening you’re supposed to make this.

Now I want to tell you something interesting. The Geonim say to do it that way: one straight sound, that’s ro’id, like a shaking. If you look at the teimah in the Shulchan Aruch, the Shulchan Aruch HaMekutzar says that the olam doesn’t know how to do it, because what do they do? They do it with their hand, because it’s very hard to do. And he says you’re not yotzei if you do it that way. It has to be either through the breathing, and b’dieved through the tongue.

I really don’t know how to make one long. In other words, it has to be one straight sound, but they usually do it with the hand. I’d rather do it with the ear this time.

What? I’d rather do it with the ear this time.

So you shake?

No, I was helping myself with the shake, but they do. But the fact is, if you do it with the shaking, he says you’re not yotzei. You have to do it with the ear. I was studying the teimah in the Shulchan Aruch. Sharabi—what was his name? Not Sharabi, Katzabi, the famous—okay.

L’maaseh, like I told you, Reb Elyashiv says that you have to make this teimah. You know when? Lefachot b’yom rishon, at least the first day, because since it’s d’Oraisa, you should go b’machmir and do the teimah.

# How Many Shvarim

Okay. Now, rabosai, let’s discuss the shiur. The shiur. More rabosai say one or thirty. It was shor, and now it’s two. Shor, two. Now, rabosai, let’s discuss how many of each. How many of each? Okay, here we go.

How many shvarim are you supposed to blow? Everybody knows? Nu? Three. Who said? How many shvarim are you supposed to blow? Okay, three. What happens if you did two? So you would say, obviously you’re not yotzei, right? Two less.

The Beis Yosef brings down, siman taf-kuf tzadi, divrei ha-maschil kasav Rekach, that you need three, and anything less than three is no good. A peledike zach. The Maharshal says that’s not true. The Maharshal in Das Torah says, I hold that technically you can have two and you’re yotzei b’dieved. Lechatchila, l’chumra, we say three, but really you could do two.

What’s the mekor? Because as they state in the Rekach, the Rekach in siman reish beis brings from his father that all you need is actually two. Where does it say three shvarim? The Gemara says three. The Gemara says, yelulei genuchei ganach, yelulei yalil.

# Three Shvarim and the Beis Yosef

Depends whether you are a babitchke: then you krechtz a lot. If you are not a babitchke, you do not krechtz three times; you krechtz once, oy vey. Maybe a second time, oy yoy vey. It is not a good kasha.

The Beis Yosef brings a raya from the Rishonim, from the maaseh d’megensa. What happened there was that they blew four shvarim and then began the tekiah. So you see clearly that you need three. It is a shaylah where the mekor is the maaseh d’megensa, a story in Megensa about a particular blowing. The Beis Yosef says that from there we see that you need three, and three is the number. Okay. Good? Yeah, rabbeisai, good? Yes, good?

Two? Yeah, but you are yotzei with two, huh? Rakeach. What is the nafkamina? I will tell you the nafkamina. If a person went and blew two, and then he wants to blow three because he knows the Beis Yosef and the world blows three, and then people are going to start yelling in the middle, start throwing stones at him, right? So he goes back to blow three. Tell me something: no good, because you are already yotzei. If you are already yotzei and then you blow a second time something that you do not need, it is called a hefsek. You know that if you go back to blow just because you were not yotzei, that is not a hefsek. But if you were already yotzei and you go back to blow just for ch’ves vases, just for comfort, just for chumras, no. It is a pirushei Chayei Adam. I will prove it to you, and I will tell you what the Chayei Adam says.

## The Chayei Adam and how many truos are needed

The Chayei Adam says that you people do not know this. How many truos do you need? Nine? No, you do not. It is not true. People do not know this. There are two days in Shulchan Aruch. One day is that you need three. The other day is that you need nine. The Mishnah Berurah says that since it is a shaylah, b’dieved you are yotzei with three. So it is a machlokes Rishonim. L’chatchilah, since there is a second shita, you should do nine.

I hold that this is why people are not makpid to sit and count. I do not know if you notice, but a lot of people just blow, and whatever comes out comes out. Have you ever seen a guy go and make one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine in his mind? You are worried about the length? No, no, that is not the pshat. You know what the pshat is? Because you are yotzei anyway. I hold it is emes la’amito. You want to know the reason why? Nobody counts, because the feeling should be nine. Good.

So why should you not be careful? I am not telling you that you should not be careful. The reason people do not sit there counting one, two, three, four, five, six, seven is because, let them. Who is stopping them? I am just saying the reason why the baal tokeia lets these blow whatever teruah is because technically you are yotzei with three. Let us say you did three. Now you want to do again to do nine. It is a hefsek, and you are not yotzei, and you have to start over again. So with all your chumras, up the Chayei Adam, you have to start the whole set over again. You made a hefsek. You made the Chayei Adam. Start over again. You do it tekiah first. Start again: tekiah, teruah, tekiah.

What if you do like fifteen, twenty? Maybe my lip is a little better now, here. Yotzei. So what happens if I went—ah, ah, ah, ah, that is it. No good. If you meant to blow teruahs, it is no good. We are going to learn a little bit more about this Chayei Adam. You try to blow three teruahs, you were yotzei according to the Chayei Adam. And then you go to blow nine because you know that people are going to throw you off and not let you blow the next day: hefsek. You have to start over again. Okay, we will get back to this in a few minutes.

## The Marsham and the number of shvarim

Sakal panim, how many shvarim? According to the Beis Yosef, you need three. According to the Marsham, how many do you need? Nine. The opposite. According to the— I am sorry, according to the two. According to the Marsham, you are yotzei even with two. According to the Marsham, if you did two—no, yotzei. Finished. According to the Marsham, finished. Do not go back. What is wrong with the Marsham? There is something wrong with the Marsham. It is an interesting mashal. It is interesting, good to keep in the pocket.

## Blowing more than three shofarim

Now, could you blow more than three shofar? This is if you blow less than three shofar. Could you blow more than three shofar? If you look at Shulchan Aruch, siman Taf Kuf Tzadik, se’if gimmel, you could. You are allowed to blow more than three shofarim. Many Rishonim do not say that way, that shofarim is bedavka three, bedavka three. If you look at the Drashos HaRamban, he brings many shitos that shofarim is bedavka three. So the Mishnah Berurah in siman Taf Kuf Tzadik, se’if katan yud alef says that since there is a machlokes haposkim, we should be choshesh l’divreihem not to blow more than three. So you should try not to blow more than three shofarim. You have it, Rav Yoel? And if you have it, if you can read it, read it. Nu? Yeah? Nu? Siman Taf Kuf Tzadik, se’if katan yud alef.

So you learned two chiddushim now. One chiddush is that you are allowed to blow less than three, technically. And then there is another shita that maybe you should not be blowing...

# Shvarim More Than Three

More than three. Yes, you knew this? Okay.

The Chazon Ish held that there is no such thing; it is wrong, not true. One may blow as many shvarim as one wants, and they were not makpid on this. In the Beis Medrash of the Chazon Ish, they all break down. In the kuntres *Din of Minhagim*, the famous kuntres *Din of Minhagim* from the Chazon Ish, it says clearly that the Chazon Ish was not makpid on this Mishnah Berurah. Ah, *posik baser*? Okay, we are not going to get into that.

The Grach and the Briskers, bedavka, blow more than three. They have to do everything a little differently. They blow four, bedavka, four short ones. If you look in the *ma’amar*, he brings down that the Briskers bedavka blow four. You know why? I cannot explain it to you in one sitting; we will be here until tomorrow. It has to do with the *shiurim*, how much each *shever* has to be to be *l’kabeid* the *teruah*, *l’kabeid* the *tekiah*. It is very complicated.

They hold that if you blow a fourth one, it equals the *teruah*, even though the chiddush is a *peledige chiddush*, because it should be in the three. If you hold that *shvarim* are three, then in the three it has to reach the *shiur* of the *teruah*. They hold that you can blow a fourth one, because to be *yotzei* that day, *b’emes*, you are allowed to blow more, and then it reaches the *shiur* of the *teruah*, which is the *shiur* of the *tekiah*, which is the *soter*. It equals it. That is what they say. *Shiur tekiah k’shvarim, shiur teruah.* We will get to the length; I remember the length, the whole sugya. It has to do with the length. *Mameila*, the Briskers blow four.

# How Many Teruos

Now, rabosai, let us learn an interesting halacha. How many *teruos*? We just said that this is a machlokes. One dayah in Shulchan Aruch, siman Taf-Kuf Tzadik, se’if gimel, is that how many? Nun. The great Reb Leizer, Reb Leizer Gadol, nun. How many *truos*? Tes. And the other sheetah is gimel, no? So one sheetah is that it is tes, and one sheetah is that it is gimel.

I told you, the Mishnah Berurah, sif katan yud-ches and sif katan yud-tes, says *machria l’chatchila* tes, *b’dieved* three. People do not know this. People do not know that *b’dieved*, if you blow three *truos*, it is good enough. You knew this? Of course not. If you saw a guy blow three like this—ready? Here we go—you look at the clock, two shvarim. Why did you blow two shvarim? I have never seen that. You never saw that? Why not? It is a *pirush Mishnah Berurah* that it is okay. What is wrong with it? I have never heard it. *K’maisa*, you knew this? *Pirush Mishnah Berurah.* You knew this. You are aware of it. Okay.

# Kavanah and Repeating the Tekios

If he does not do it *b’kavanah*, does he have to start over also? If he did it *b’kavanah* only for three, that is when he has to start over, right? If he did *b’kavanah* for three, *yotza*, no? No, I am saying: what happens if then he goes back to do it again? What happens if he does not do it *b’kavanah*? You are mechadesh another mashal. From now on, you are saying the shiur and I am on vacation. You ready?

The Chayei Adam, I told you, speaks about this problem. What happens if you started with three and then you do nine, it could be a hefsek. So there is a me’iri k’Maharsham. The Maharsham in Taf-Kuf Tzadik, se’if ches, says that on the first day, when tekios are d’Oraisa, then it is *mitzvah tzrichas kavanah*. Therefore, since he was not mechaven to be yotzei, but it was a mistake—the three, he made a mistake, why is he blowing three? Because he probably botched it, right? He made a mistake—so you are not yotzei, and therefore you were not yotzei. Therefore, if you go back and blow nine, it is not a problem.

But on the second day, which is only derabbanan, we pasken that it is *ein tzrichas kavanah*, and therefore if you botched it, do not go back and blow nine. What is ... *kavanah*? I agree with you, but I hear. It is a *she’eilah*. *Kavanah*? ... Yeah, because *sof sof* I was mechaven to be yotzei the mitzvah. You did not mean to do this; you meant to do it right, and it did not come out right. It is a *shogeg*, *machshav*.

Okay, rabosai, this is what you are talking about. What we are mechaven—I was mechaven to do nine, and by mistake I botched it. So *b’yom rishon*, that is d’Oraisa, *b’tzrichas kavanah*, so therefore you go back to do the nine, says the Maharsham. *B’yom sheini*, it is *ein tzrichas kavanah*.

I say that if you are going to call it *ein kavanah*, then it is the worst type of *ein kavanah*, because you botched it, and there is no difference between Yom Tov Rishon and Sheini. The *ein kavanah*, there is a difference between the d’Oraisa and derabbanan, so we do not have the *shem mitzvah*. Right. So this you are doing with *shem mitzvah*. So the other type is like *misasek*, because you did not mean to do it; then there is no difference between a d’Oraisa and derabbanan in that type. You are saying it is like a *misasek*.

# The Bach’s Question on Tekiah After Each Kol

If it is like a maaseh, it is kavanah. But even if you want to say it is not kavanah, it is more like mesasek, right? It is not lishmah kavanah; the mesasek should make it first. I hear, I hear, I hear, I hear, I hear. Up at the mashabb is the mashabb? Who is going to be cholek on the mashabb? Okay.

Now, rabosai, I am going to teach you a peledige shtikel. You ready? I am going to blow you the Bach’s shtick. Here, you ready? Here comes the Bach’s kashya. Ready? Okay, call out, call out. Kiya. Kiya. Don’t get any good ideas, right? No? What are we doing next? Shofar. You are going to tell me it is another tekiah, right? Yeah, sounded like it. The Bach says that after every kol comes another tekiah. Wow. And then another tekiah. Every kol ends with a tekiah. Tekiah, tekiah. Why tekiah? True tekiah. Tekiah again. It is four tekiahs in a row. Is that part of the count of the hundred?

You will ask me, where did I find this? Besides the fact that it is in the pirush of the Bach, I am not going to remember it. See the page. Look in the Magen Avraham. Peldige Magen Avraham, Tav Kuf Tzadi-Daled, se’if katan beis. והמנהג, he says, the minhag is ליל הושענא רבה על ג' שברים. You see, the minhag is to tekiah strictly three shvarim, v’tzarich gimel shvarim, milvad hakol aruch she’osim b’sof hashvarim. Besides the three shvarim, that extra long kol. Shegam b’truah, prove it to you, because even on the truah you do this kol aruch. Im lo asa kein, lo yatza. So if you did not make the truah, but the last truah you made into a tekiah, you want to be yotzei truahs. So you need tekiah, shvarim, tekiah, truah, tekiah — Bach minhag.

You saw it? You see they bring on the bottom over here, at the end of the Magen Avraham and in se’if katan beis, you see on the bottom the minhagim? Read it. People think it is a chumra. Oh, it is l’maaseh, it is mashma that after the tekiah not, right? So I went to look up the Bach. For some reason, the Magen Avraham does not bring this cheilek in the Bach, but the Bach says after the tekiah also. And I would have rather he had that. You know why? Because since he tries to prove that the last shvarim is shvarim and then there is a tekiah, and the raya is from the truah, the best raya is from where? From the tekiah. Because otherwise what? You are blowing a long tekiah, a tekiah, then in the tekiah blowing another tekiah — that is one tekiah. What else? Why do you have to do that? I will explain to you soon why you have to do it. It is not a meyadik. Did you know this, Reb Leizer? You knew this? Why? What is the raya from the truah? The raya is, you see from the truah, and al korchach the truah is not that the last truah is a tekiah, so therefore it has to be you finish the whole truah and then you blow a tekiah. So too by the shvarim, you blow the whole shvarim and then you blow a tekiah. The shvarim has to be, and then the tekiah. Why? And then—why? Okay, we will get to it soon, but that is about it.

Tekiah, tekiah, tekiah. Not according to the Magen Avraham, he does not bring this, but let us see with the Bach. Tekiah, tekiah. Shvarim, tekiah. Teruah, tekiah. Tekiah, tekiah. Why? I did not have to do that for teruah. That is why. Otherwise, you say by teruah that it is not that the last one is the tekiah, the last shever. That is what he is saying. Of course not. So by the shever you need three, because by the shvarim you only technically maybe need two. It is like I keep on explaining to you, because by shvarim technically you only need two. So even the last shever, make the last shever, and then you blow a tekiah. Like I said, the Bach says clearly that even the tekiah needs. So why is it that way, rabboisai? Why? V’mani kunta, v’mani kunta.

Now let me just tell you: do we pasken like this Bach? No, we do not. Who said? The Machatzis HaShekel brings down— Okay, okay, so let me talk, give me a minute. It is going to ruin it. The Machatzis HaShekel brings down that that is not what the Magen Avraham means. The Magen Avraham meant that the kol shever acharon is actually the tekiah. That is what—

# Reading the Magen Avraham and the Practical Halachah

You thought that’s what it means? Yes. But you read it not that way, so I just read it. There are two ways to read that Magen Avraham. So Rav Moshe says: you didn’t read the Magen Avraham correctly.

So Rav Leizer, Mr. Chalamda. Mati Afraim paskens l’maaseh that l’chatchila you should not make it the last kol, but if you did, you are yotzei. Technically, a person can make a tekiah at the end of the shevarim. Instead of the last shever, you make a tekiah; instead of the last teruah, you make a tekiah. Okay.

The Mishnah Berurah brings this Pri Megadim — I’m sorry, the Pri Megadim and the Magen Avraham — and says that we do not have this minhag; we do not do this. Taf kuf tzadik, seif katan lamed aleph: we do not do it. He brings the Magen Avraham and the Pri Megadim that we do not have this minhag. So that is where you came and said, we do not have this minhag.

But is Reb Shlomo Kluger big enough for you? Reb Shlomo Kluger says that we do have this minhag. If you look at Reb Shlomo Kluger on the Pri Megadim, he says, vanachnu nohagim kein, that after every tekiah and after every shevarim and after every teruah, we blow a tekiah. Rizik, ah? You knew this? Okay.

# The Mishnah Berurah on Baalei Tekiah

The Mishnah Berurah discusses that there are certain baalei tekiah — in seif katan lamed aleph — who, at the beginning, blow a tekiah for the teruah. They start off the teruah like that. Like this. That’s how they start off. So the Mishnah Berurah asks: you know why they do it? Because they do not know how to do it properly. They push not good baalei tekiah. He says, yesh baalei tekiah... Read it. Go ahead. I don’t want to call anybody out. Let the Mishnah Berurah call people out. Lamed aleph, go ahead, no? ... Marim Techeshevet. He did this. He spoke about Marim Techeshevet. He did this, yes. ... Yes, yes. No? Yes, there’s not nechshal l’sfarim? Yes, no? Yes, eino mumcheh b’melachah zo. The last thing. Okay.

# The Bach and the Tekiah Gedolah

What is the pshat in the Bach that after everyone you blow a kol? I said a pshat years and years ago. This year I saw it in the Teimaner Shulchan Aruch. This year I was so happy to find it; I added it to my notes. No, zog pshat. Remember we said over from the Ramban: it is k’adam ha-meshayer. When you sing, have you ever noticed how you end off a song? You end off with a long... Avraham Fried is very good at that stuff. You notice that at every song he ends off... The last thing. The last thing. It was a big shtick. All the musicians stopped doing it. They stopped. Okay.

So the Shulchan Aruch says that this is the pshat in the Bach: the Bach wants that after every tekiah you end off with a shevarim. Because the minhag Avraham is a shaylah how to learn it: do you do it separately, or is it the last part of the shevarim? Every shever you end off with a... Ah, like the singers. It’s gevaldig. You know how beautiful it is. You don’t even have a shir... You don’t have to have the shir. No, no shir. It should be a long... I just want to tie into one thing, rabosai. It’s possible that that is the pshat in the tekiah gedolah. Where does the tekiah gedolah come from? I wrote to Reb Chaim Kanievsky: where does it come from? What’s the point of making the tekiah gedolah? That’s the pshat. You end off. It’s like Adam ha-meshayer, this Ramban. That’s how I said it, but this year I saw he says it in the Bach.

# Can One Combine Different Shitos?

Okay. L’maaseh, one more last thing. Could a person go and start taking all the different shitos? The reason why I hear better in what you’re saying than in the Bach is because they only end off that way at the end of the song, not after every little piece. He wants every piece, every piece. That I’ve never seen. But it depends. It could be in his days. No, no, it could be Avraham Fried in those days would sing like that. After every piece he would end off that way. After every shtickele he would end off... The Lord. Okay.

The last and final zach: could a person come and say, you know what, these tekios I’ll make u-tu’s, and then I’ll make tu-u’s, and u-tu’s and tu-u’s, and maybe I could do it, divide a hundred with all the different shitos? Makes sense, right? Especially, I told you, all you need is nine koilos min haTorah; the rest is midivrei soferim. Okay.

So I have a shtikel raya, because there is a machlokes by nashim achas and shtei neshimos. So what do we do? The Shulchan Aruch brings an eitzah: you split it. So maybe every time you have sfeikos, you could split it. L’maaseh, the Ramo says that the minhag is to do everything b’neshima achas, but the Shaar Tziyun on the bottom says—

# The Peshara in the Shaar HaTziyun

Tonight, Toivi likes the peshara very much. You saw the chartzin on the bottom, Neshimachas, Tof-Kuf, Tzaddik, seif daled, quickly. I know they’re going to kill me with the mareh, but I can’t help it; I’ve got to finish, yes, yes?

So the Shaar HaTziyun says—it says it’s yafeh, a beautiful peshara that he says. So maybe we can always make these pesharas.

I told you over from Rabbi Yosef yesterday. Rabbi Yosef says that after tefillah, what you have to do is blow the regular shvarim. For those who make the Ashkenazishe, the Litvishe shvarim, the ones, tu-tu-tu-tu-tu. It’s not tu-u, tu-tu-tu, okay? It’s different sheets, different ways how to do it. We weren’t here. Okay, good, good, good.

So we said that even though it’s not in the Rishonim, Rabbi Yosef therefore says the right way to do it is tu-tu-tu-tu-tu, three, tu-tu-tu-tu. That’s the right way to do it, the way the Chassidim do it, right. So he says do that after davening. Chayra, why do it after? Do it by splitting them, yoshev, and do them that way. The teretz is that you see you can’t split. Whatever you do, you have to do straight through the hundred. Then afterwards—only from Rabbi Yosef.

Chayra, otherwise, why can’t you split it? The velt splits in the... yeah, they do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you asking yeshiva? Oh, oh, oh, that’s what I want. How come you don’t do that? He tells me they do do it. Okay, listen to me carefully. Maybe you could split also the different shvarim. I don’t know.

# A personal concern about a chasunah

Okay, listen carefully, rabosai. Listen, listen to me carefully. I was fighting with myself all day today. I have a chasan tomorrow, a talmid of my yeshiva. He’s not moichel me; he’s mevatel that I should come to his chasunah. I can’t work it out that quickly. It’s for next Thursday night. He’s makpid. I can’t give shiur... I’m still thinking maybe I’ll cancel. He’s my... I don’t know what to do, and I think he’s right. A bachur from the yeshiva, he learned by me for years, and I can’t not come to his chasunah.

So, rabosai, can you promise me there’ll be a minyan for Maariv at least? Or maybe you guys come to learn. Maybe someone wants to say a shiur. I don’t care. It’s all good for me. Reb Leizer? Reb Moshe? No, no. Yeah, can we divide the times? Everybody will say? You have to give a shiur. Maybe someone else wants to divide; you’ll say half, someone else a partial. Could we function as a chavurah? Could we? I’ll come at 4:59.

Okay, rabosai, please, because otherwise I’m going to feel sick for a few days from this. I’m going to feel very guilty about it. I’m very crazy with shiurim. I’m very crazy with shiurim. It’s a big thing. I’m a Long Beach guy, you know, Long Beach, you know that. By the way, I couldn’t get over the vort, aveirah mitoch ches, aveirah... not rizik. It’s next Thursday.

# Maariv and the minyan

Okay, rabosai, we can daven Maariv. You can make, but again, don’t blame me with Maariv. Okay, we’re trying to put together a minyan here for the yahrzeit, and so if you can be here... just the beginning. We have four sections. If we don’t have a minyan, we can’t have it, so, you know, it all together. You know what I mean? We’ll discuss, we’ll discuss.

Probably... she’s not going to go. Are you... probably yes. Not probably. I’ll... She’s not going to... Oh my God. How many are open? How many kids do you have? I don’t know if we got... I have three. But could you tell me something? Are we having a minyan? I don’t know. It doesn’t look like it. Yeah, tomorrow. Tomorrow. Oh, we have a minyan. We don’t. I think we will. Why not? Why should we have?

Okay. You. Rabbi, you understand me. Tomorrow night I have no choice. I have no choice. So you’ll say a little bit, come. Rabbi, you’ll say a little bit. I have to be a minyan. I think I’m going to be here. First, second... I just... I don’t think I... I told him, I’ll send him a tzaddik...