BSD

Brochos 12b (3) – 13a

Elul 12, 5786.  08/27/2026

Short notes and links on topics discussed.

1 – The 5 (or 6) reasons for choosing פרשת ציצית to fulfill the daily מצווה of זכירת יציאת מצרים.

2 –  The famous מחלוקת if this מצווה is just once during the day, or one needs to say it again at night.

מתני’ מזכירין יציאת מצרים בלילות א”ר אלעזר בן עזריה הרי אני כבן שבעים שנה ולא זכיתי שתאמר יציאת מצרים בלילות עד שדרשה בן זומא שנא’ למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל

ימי חייך ימי חייך הימים כל ימי חייך הלילות וחכ”א ימי חייך העוה”ז כל להביא לימות המשיח:

3 – Reb אלעזר בן עזריה says that he ‘like a seventy years old’  when in reality he was only 18.

In addition to all other explanations there is one from the מקובלים that his נשמה was a גלגול of שמואל הנביא who passed away at 52. Thus the number 70.  Here.

4 – The various versions – גרסאות in our גמרא and the unique oldest (completed in 1342!) handwritten ש”ס now in Munich. Here. Here. Here.

The phenomenal work of Reb Rafael Nathan Rabinovitch

In 1862, hundreds of years after the invention of printing, Rabbi Rafael Nathan Rabinovitch was able to see the actual Munich Manuscript of Shlomo ben Shimshon in the State Library of Munich. From that moment he decided to dedicate his life to comparing the famous manuscript with later printings of the Talmud in an attempt to increase knowledge regarding the different versions of the text of the Talmud.

The overall aim of this project, to which he dedicated more than twenty years of his life and which was published under the title Dikdukei Sofrim (“דקדוקי סופרים”), was to present to the readers and scholars of the Talmud the changes, adaptations and omissions in the ancient manuscripts, the lost treasure which printing—in its propensity for textual consolidation—abandoned with the generations.

 5 – The other מצווה pertaining to זכירת יציאת מצרים – on the first night of פסח.

We discussed

• The difference of these two מצוות, as enumerated by the Rebbe in his הגדה.
• Why is the פסח one counted as one of the תרי”ג מצוות and not the daily one?

6 – We concluded the פרק where at the very end there seems to be a response to a question (and he answered to him) but the questionnaire’s name is not mentioned!

We discussed as to who was the narrator of the ש”ס.

See here Tosfos חולין ב, ב.