Hello chevra and welcome back to our pre-Pesach mishnayos series as we continue learning mishnayos related to the time period leading up to Pesach. Tonight we are going to focus our learning on mishnayos related to how far did the Bnei Yisrael, how far did the Jews travel in order to get to Yerushalayim for Pesach. Remember Pesach you were obligated to bring a Korban Pesach every Jew and so as most Jews who were going to be olei regal they were going to come up to Yerushalayim, right there's a mitzva to come up three times a year, but certainly Pesach when you had the added mitzva of bringing a Korban Pesach they would make sure to get to Yerushalayim and in fact anybody who lived close by to Yerushalayim was certainly obligated to get to Yerushalayim. So we are going to focus tonight on two mishnayos really: one is in Masechet Pesachim, Perek Tes, the ninth chapter, Mishna Bet, and also we will focus as well on the mishna in Taanis, Masechet Taanis, Perek Alef, Mishna Gimel. So first we will begin with the mishna in Pesachim and the mishna there is telling us that those who live too far away may not necessarily be obligated to bring the Korban Pesach on the original Pesach, rather if they were too far away then they could bring it on Pesach Sheni. There was a make-up date in Iyar, right the fourteenth of Iyar, you can made had a make-up date, it's the only mitzva that really has a make-up date and you would go and bring the korban there if you couldn't be in Yerushalayim. And so the question then is what is that distance? And so in Masechet Pesachim, Perek Tes, Mishna Bet, let's read it together, we see like this: איזו היא דרך רחוקה. What's considered being far away so that you don't necessarily violate the mitzva of not bringing a Korban Pesach? So the mishna says: Min hamodi'in velachutz. From the, from Modi'in and outwards which is about fifteen mil, it's about a four or five hour walk from Yerushalayim. If you were further than that then you were not obligated necessarily to bring the Korban Pesach, meaning you didn't violate the mitzva. And the mishna continues: Ukmidatah lechol ruach. And the same distance all around. So if you were to put Yerushalayim in the center of a circle and extend a line all the way out to Modi'in and create another circle, the, the radius of the circle is the distance between Yerushalayim and Modi'in, that would be the distance, that would be the circle from which you didn't necessarily have the obligation to come closer. Now that's divrei Rabbi Akiva, that's Rabbi Akiva's opinion in the mishna. However Rabbi Eliezer omer, Rabbi Eliezer says: no, in fact as it relates to specifically this idea that if you are nearby you must bring a Korban Pesach, it means: Me'askupat ha'azara velachutz. It means that as long as you didn't cross the threshold of the Azara and you're outside of it, the obligation doesn't arise, meaning you did not violate that. And amar Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Yose comes to support Rabbi Eliezer and he says: לפיכך נקוד על הה'. There, that he's commenting that there is a dot in the word rechoka in the Torah and then he says that because it has that emphasis on the dot: לומר לא מפני שרחוקה ודאי. The extra, the extra dot is telling us: don't think I mean necessarily that you are very far away, certainly far away, אלא מאסקופת העזרה ולחוץ. That in fact as long as you were outside the Azara, outside the Beis Hamikdash, you didn't necessarily need to enter into the Beis Hamikdash in order to obligate yourself to bring the Korban Pesach. Now I will note by the way that here the reference to Modi'in is interesting, you'll remember for, for those of you who have learned Masechet Chagiga, in Chagiga there's this interesting halacha that the klei cheres, the earthenware vessels that they would sell for use in the Beis Hamikdash in order to ensure that they were tahor, so long as you bought them within the radius from Modi'in back towards Yerushalayim then you can assume that they were produced in a pure way and that they remain tahor. So it's interesting that both the derech rechoka and the ruling regarding klei cheres being tahor all are from Modi'in. And as you can see on our graphic here, on our picture, that you see the pilgrims coming, you see the people being olei regal, they're about to get to Modi'in and as soon as you cross into the border you see the gentleman there selling the klei cheres because he knows that people will buy from him because they can rely on it that it is tahor. So the mishna in Pesachim however is focused on, you know, what I would call relatively being close to Yerushalayim and But if you now turn our attention to the Mishna in Masechet Taanit, it tells us something different, and it tells us about how far did the Jews actually travel, and that's why it's relevant to our series on Kaf-Tet Adar, ערב ראש חודש ניסן, because here we find, we'll see that it was common for the people being olei regal to travel up to fifteen days, if not more, but no less than fifteen days. And let's see why. So the topic of the Mishna in Masechet Taanit is really talking about when do we begin asking for rain? When do we start davening for rain, where we say ותן טל ומטר לברכה? And we know that we change to משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם in the bracha of Shmoneh Esrei called Ata Gibor, and then in Bareich Aleinu at some later date we change to saying ותן טל ומטר לברכה, which is actually asking Hakadosh Baruch Hu Hashem to bring rain. And especially in Israel it was very important because the rainy season is not that long; it starts in Cheshvan and somewhere between Purim and Pesach it's over, and you rarely see rain after that. So it was very important to have the rain in the right period of time. So the Mishna in Perek Aleph, Mishna Gimmel tells us בשלושה במרחשון שואלין את הגשמים. On the third day of Marcheshvan you start to ask for rain. And so if you're davening in shul or whatever and you would start saying ותן טל ומטר לברכה in your bracha. However, Rabban Gamliel omer, Rabban Gamliel says it's not exactly the third day of Cheshvan, rather beshiva bo, you wait until the seventh day. And the reason he gives is very intriguing. He says because חמישה עשר יום אחר החג, because the seventh of Marcheshvan is typically fifteen days after Succos, after what we call Shemini Atzeres. And the reason we want to wait till that day is כדי שיגיע אחרון שבישראל לנהר פרת. Because he says, well, people were traveling for Yom Tov, they were coming to the Beis Hamikdash, and it would take them that time, fifteen days, for the Jews who were coming from outside Eretz Yisrael all the way to the Euphrates River, and in order to make sure that those Jews got home before we start davening for rain, we don't want it to start raining on them while they're traveling. And so therefore he said let's wait a few extra days so we can make sure that those people are home. And as you can see back in our picture, there's a sign that says Nahar Prat fifteen days behind and these Jews were coming from to be olei regal, they've been walking already for fifteen days, and now they see Yerushalayim in the distance and it's only fifteen mil away from the border of Modi'in. And you'll note by the way there's a little sheep in the front of the picture, that's our maaser behema animal. You'll remember that the maaser behema animals were brought to Yerushalayim as well in order to bring them as a korban for the owners to eat. And with that we conclude our series of Mishnayot related to the twenty-ninth day of Adar, ערב ראש חודש ניסן. Keep learning.