As an introduction, I mentioned that at the Avi Avi Haben's pidyon, forty eight years ago, in the basement of MTJ on Chol HaMoed Pesach, Reb Moshe told my wife that she should say the words זה בני בכורי, because it is all talui on her, not on the father. Nobody else does this, but this is what Reb Moshe told my wife to do. I said that I never thought to ask him why the din of יכיר would not suffice, but I speculate that even though it would, as we pasken that yakir applies to all aspects of the status of the child, Reb Moshe preferred for the mother to say it because lemaiseh she is the ikkar of the din of pidyon, not the father. The father can patter from pidyon, and the chiyuv in on him, but the etzem chiyuv comes from the mother.
Then the drasha. I mentioned three questions.
The Biur Halacha (656 DH אפילו מצווה עוברת) asks on the din of chomesh from the Gemara in Kiddushin 29b of הוא לפדות ובנו לפדות that it is clear in the Gemara that it's talking where that is all the money he has, not that this is the only chomesh. Why doesn't the rule of עד חומש apply to patter him from pidyon? The Chazon Ish mentions and discusses the question in 143:3.
The famous Rema that there is no din shlichus by pidyon haben.
It would be possible to answer the first question by saying that pidyon is a simple shibud, and of course there is not din of chomesh on a shibud mammon, but that is diametrically incompatible with the Rema.
Finally, what does it mean for the kohen to say מה בעית טפי?
I said that the Kohen's question reveals the yesod of pidyon by the bechor. The kohen is asking, what is your life going to be about? Are you going to spend your time with עמילות to accumulate wealth and status and power- the five shekalim- or are you going to spend your life doing everything possible to raise you children to be gedolei torah and mussar and leaders of klal yisrael? Mai bo'is tfei, what is your life going to be about? Now is the time to decide. If that is the yesod of pidyon, then there is no limit on what you should spend, and you can not do it al yekei shaliach. Sure שלוחו של אדם is כמותו, ober a tatteh iz er nit, especially this kind of tatteh.
I mentioned that I once asked this baby's father, Yaakov, who his rebbi muvhak is, and he looked at me puzzled, and said, "My father. Of course." Of course of course, because his father learns with him every moment he can spare, and so he does with his other children. He pours every bit of his koach into their growth in Torah and Yiras Shamayim. That is what the Pidyon Haben is about.
I said the story of the Ostrovtzer Rov, who was a famous parush. He never ate during the day except on Shabbos and Yomtov. It was said that he fasted for forty years. Someone asked him, but they say that a person who eats from seudas pidyon haben it is כאילו he fasted 84 taaneisim, so why not take advantage of that? The Rov answered that that just means that eating at a pidyon haben is כאילו he fasted for all the aveiros where Chazal use the expression כאילו.
כל הכועס כאילו עובד עבודה זרה
כל אדם שיש בו גסות הרוח כאילו עובד עבודה זרה
כל המספר בלשון הרע כאילו כופר בעיקר
כל האוכל מצה בערב פסח כאילו...
מי שמתגאה כאילו כופר בעיקר
He said that this expression is found 84 times, and it is for those כאילו aveiros that eating at a pidyon haben is כאילו he fasted. But for real aveiros????
I don't know about that rule of כאילו, but one כאילו I do know, and that is the כאילו in Kiddushin on daf lamed.
אמר ריב"ל כל המלמד את בן בנו תורה מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו קבלה מהר סיני שנאמר "והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך" וסמיך ליה "יום אשר עמדת לפני ה' אלהיך בחורב"
That כאילו you can be sure of, and it is something you see in this family, and the Ribono shel Olam should give this young father and his family the siyata dishmaya to see his son learning from his father as he learned from his father.
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