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Wednesday, March 13, 2024
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Friday, March 18, 2022
Tzav. Three He'aros on Zerizus
1. Rashi in the beginning of the parsha:
צו את אהרן. אֵין צַו אֶלָּא לְשׁוֹן זֵרוּז מִיָּד וּלְדוֹרוֹת; אָמַר רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן, בְּיוֹתֵר צָרִיךְ הַכָּתוּב לְזָרֵז בְּמָקוֹם שֶׁיֵּשׁ בּוֹ חֶסְרוֹן כִּיס (ספרא):
Rashi in Devarim 1:16:
ואצוה את שפטיכם. אָמַרְתִּי לָהֶם הֱווּ מְתוּנִין בַּדִּין – אִם בָּא דִּין לְפָנֶיךָ פַּעַם אַחַת, שְׁתַּיִם, וְשָׁלוֹשׁ, אַל תֹּאמַר כְּבָר בָּא דִּין זֶה לְפָנַי פְּעָמִים הַרְבֵּה, אֶלָּא הֱיוּ נוֹשְׂאִים וְנוֹתְנִים בּוֹ (שם):
Rav Bergman (Ma'amarim here in Tzav) points out that Mesinus in the context of din means moving slowly - as in Brachos 20a,
כי הא דרב אדא בר אהבה חזייה לההיא כותית דהות לבישא כרבלתא בשוקא סבר דבת ישראל היא קם קרעיה מינה אגלאי מילתא דכותית היא שיימוה בארבע מאה זוזי א"ל מה שמך אמרה ליה מתון אמר לה מתון מתון ארבע מאה זוזי שויא:
Rashi there:
מתון מתון - לשון מאתן:
ד' מאות - ב' פעמים ב' מאות כלומר השם גרם לי לשון אחר מתון מתון לשון המתנה אם המתנתי הייתי משתכר ד' מאות זוז:
So what does Tzav connote? Alacrity or deliberation? Rav Bergman answers that there is physical atzlus and there is mental atzlus. A person that is mentally lazy will answer questions by rote. A person that is a mental Zariz will think through the question and the circumstances and quickly review the basis for the psak.
So Zrizus is always speed and alacrity. But in the case of psak, it means to be mentally agile and quick, and to use every iteration of a question as an opportunity to reexamine old certainties.
2. From Reb Yerucham. The word tzivui was used in regard to the exact same dinim in Tetzaveh. Two ziruzim were needed, exactly as the Mesillas Yesharim says in perek 7. I am widely known as something of an expert on atzlus, so trust me when I tell you that the Ramchal is right. Sometimes you decide something needs to be done, and somehow you congratulate yourself on your strength of character as demonstrated by your decision, and the self-congratulatory satisfaction replaces the actual motivation to get it done. The same happens when you begin a project that takes time and work, and after a day or two.....
3. Reb Moshe, in the new Kol Rom, says that the instruction of zerizus is particularly important in the parsha of Olah. A person brings an olah, which seems to yield very little practical benefit to anyone, and it reminds him that our efforts are not tied to our success. The Ribono shel Olam decides what will succeed and what we will have. A person might use this faith, this sharp spiritual perception, to justify sloth. So the Torah says No, whatever you choose to do for a parnassah, don't do it half heartedly. Do it with energy and diligence and focus - with Zerizus!
(You need to see it inside, but I can't quote it verbatim because A, it's copyrighted, and B, even if I decided it's ok to steal someone's hard work, it's not available online.)
Friday, April 5, 2019
Tzav: The Minchas Chavitin
From Rabbi Bukspan:
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Tzav. Influence of Tzadikim, Influence of Resha'im.
1. A Kohen Gadol brings a Korban called Minchas Chavitin every day, including Shabbos. After his death, until his successor is inaugurated, the korban continues to be brought.
2. When something that has no kedusha absorbs flavor from a piece of a korban, the strict laws of the korban will then apply to the chulin.
3. When a piece of a korban touches something that is tamei, the korban becomes tamei. In fact, korbanos are more susceptible to tumah than anything else.
From Rav Menachem Sachs (Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank's son in law) in his Menachem Tzion
6:20. Kol hanogeia bivsara yikdash-כל אשר יגע בבשרה יקדש. Zevachim 97-the din of yikdash, which requires that you treat the Chulin like Kodshim when it touches (yiga) a piece of a korban, is only when it is bolei’a, when it absorbs the flavor of the meat of the Korban. But later in this parsha, 7:19, when it says that if kodshim touches (yiga) a davar tamei it is passeled, that is even negia be’alma- והבשר אשר יגע בכל טמא לא יאכל, any contact at all. How interesting! אשר יגע by imparting kedusha means that it suffuses the piece it touches, but אשר יגע by tuma means the slightest contact. This is a remez to the effect of contact with an adam kadosh, and contact with an adam tamei— to be mushpa from a kadosh, you have to be bole’ah his torah and mussar. To be mushpa from a rasha, simple contact with him is enough.
6:15. After the death of the Kohen Gadol, the Minchas Chavitin is still brought. In Menachos 51, there is a machlokes; Rav Shimon holds it is paid for by the tzibur, and Rav Yehuda holds it is paid for by the family of the late Kohen Gadol. The machlokes, says Rav Sorotzkin, is whether this korban’s purpose in general is for the kapara of the Kohen Gadol or for the tzibur. He brings a raya from the Rambam in Terumos Uma’asros, who says that the yorshim bring it “avur kaparaso.”
He then goes into a discussion of the achrayos of a manhig, and his responsibility for the behavior of the tzibbur, which goes on until a successor is chosen. His examples are the Gemara in Makos 11 that the klala of the people in the arei miklat is not chinam, because the occurrence of retzicha b’shogeg during the tenure of a Kohen Gadol shows that he wasn’t mispallel properly. He also brings a vort from another rov that it says by Egla Arufa “al pihem yihiye kol riv vechol nega”, which he says means that if the kohanim would have duchenned properly, and given the proper bracha of shalom, such things as riv and nega would not happen, and it was because their bracho was superficial— “al pihem”-- that such things occur.
It would be nice to be able to blame our failings on our Gedolim, but that's not the point and it's just not true. The point is that Gedolim have it in their power to influence their generation, through their teaching and their example and their tefilla. But nothing's going to help unless you pay attention to what they say and to what they stand for. It's requires effort on both parts.
(With this he explains that a kapara for a meis is for the things he is responsible for through grama, and so tzdaka and mitzvos through grama, such as what his yorshim give on his behalf, are mechaper.
Regarding doing something for the sake of the neshomoh of a dead person: see Sefer Chasidim 450 and 1171 that it works, and see there 605 that it only helps to alleviate tzaar but not for reward, and see Beis Yosef OC 621. See on the general topic Shimon Krasner's Shmuel II 2 32 regarding the benefits of kaddish and the such for a meis.)
So between Rav Sachs and the Lutzker Rov, one can say that the lesson of Parshas Tzav is that exposure to Gedolim can make a tremendous difference, but only when there is tefilla and hard work on their part and the desire to change on your part. Exposure to Reshaim, on the other hand, works without any effort at all. That's why after Birkos HaShachar we say והרחיקנו מאדם רע ומחבר רע. If you want to be safe, stay far away. Just looking at a Rasha causes damage-
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Friday, March 14, 2014
Tzav. Poverty and Torah, Selling Chametz Absorbed in Your Keilim, and Iyov's Grave
He then connects this to the Rashi here. Rashi here says that the Tzav was necessary because of the costs involved in bringing a korban-
The Satmerer brings (Medrash Rabbah Shir Hashirim 2:5 and a fragment in Maseches Sofrim 16:4) a Chazal that says that when when parnassa is more readily available people will learn b'iyun, but when parnassa is tight, they will want only Aggadeta and brachos.
אמר רבי לוי לשעבר היתה פרוטה מצויה והיה אדם מתאוה לשמוע דבר משנה והלכה ותלמוד ועכשיו שאין הפרוטה מצויה וביותר שהן חולים מן השעבוד אין מבקשין לשמוע אלא דברי ברכות ואגדה
I understand how the Rov is using the Chazal, I understand the pshat he's saying in the passuk. But I don't understand what Chazal mean that when parnasa is tight people will lose interest in iyun. What does he do with the Gemara (Sanhedrin 20a) that davka when there was little to eat did the madreiga of Torah reach a pinnacle?
Some shtaros of Mechiras Chametz say that they're also selling the taam of chametz that's balu'ah in their Keilim. I've heard some that said that our parsha is the source for this minhag: that either the bliyos create an obligation of תשביתו or that you'd be over on בל ימצא, just as you would if you had a תערובת where the chametz was נותן טעם.
I say piffle. There is absolutely no reason to sell the flavor of Chametz that is absorbed in Keilim. Even if we were to learn the din of Klei Chatas is to avoid coming to nossar, that wouldn't apply to Chametz. This is stated as a fact in numerous places:
Reb Akiva Eiger
the Chazon Ish, and again here
Mishna Berura 447 sk 4
Brisker Rov Maaseh HaKorbanos 8
Rav Sternbuch
So if you want to sell the bliyos in your keilim, go ahead, as long as you don't sell the utensils themselves, which would create a requirement that you are tovel them when you buy them back. It makes no sense, both from a halachic and a legal-sale perspective, and it's מוקצה מן הדעת, but it doesn't cost you anything.
3. Someone pointed out to me this morning that we ought to be celebrating the discovery of what pretty clearly appears to be the grave of the famous Iyov. As you know, there has been a terrible controversy regarding the Goloventzitz construction site in Beit Shemesh. Rav Sternbuch paskened that there are no Jewish graves there and that construction may proceed. Despite that psak, a group, with a long and hallowed tradition of delusion and wildness, decided that there are Jewish graves there, and, as is their tradition regarding persons with whom they disagree, while showing all due respect to the Av Beis Din of the Eida Chareidis, they violently and vituperatively oppose construction. It was pointed out that there can be only one explanation for this dispute: The Gemara (BB 16a) brings shittos that Iyov was a Jew, or that he was a non-Jew, or that he never existed at all. In the spirit of אלו ואלו, the explanation is very simple and clear: the Goloventzitz site is the true grave of Iyov. It is the kever of a Jew, it is the kever of a goy, and there is nothing there at all.
4. Here's something else from the Satmerer, something unexpected and that I find difficult to understand.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Tzav: Drasha for Sheva Brachos (#4) The Korban for Newlyweds.
Rabbeinu Bachay in Parshas Tzav says (second column sixteen lines from the bottom) that newlyweds bring a Korban Todah. He says that anyone that experiences a special joyous event should bring a Korban Todah, and in particular he says that a Chassan and Kallah should bring this korban. Most importantly, Rabbeinu Bachaya is telling us that when the passuk in Yirmiahu (33:11-12) says that people will once again bring the Korban Todah, it is referring to the beginning of the passuk that talks about the joy of the Chasan and Kallah, and the passuk means that Chassanim and Kallos used to- and someday soon will again bring- a Korban Todah.
I understand that the exuberant Chasan and Kallah would sing הוֹדוּ אֶת ה צְבָאוֹת כִּי טוֹב ה כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ. But the idea that Chasan and Kallah bring a Korban Todah is interesting, because we usually associate the korban with having survived some mortal danger. The Gemara (Brachos 54b, and see Rambam 10 Brachos 8 and OC 219:1) specifies four people who are obligated to bring this korban, and all are people who were saved from danger. In fact, this idea is reflected in our Tefilla. One who was saved from this type of danger makes the Bracha Birkas Hagomel. For general celebration, you can bring a shlamim or an olah, and the appropriate bracha is She'hechiyanu. So it's interesting that Rabbeinu Bachay says that a Korban Todah is brought to celebrate a joyous occasion. More importantly, why does Rabbeinu Bachay single out being newly married as the archetypal circumstance of bringing the Korban Todah?
Until someone is married, he is imprisoned by limited emotional horizons. He suffers from the astigmatism of egotism; he has no idea what it means to care for someone else more than he cares for himself, he lacks the basic understanding of what it means to be a fully realized human being, he is in danger of being emotionally stunted, a Wagnerian Nibelung. So, despite the Orwellian undertone, getting married really is like being liberated from prison.
As the Netziv says, the Korban Todah is brought על שנחלץ מצרה; literally, the word צרה means travail, but it is related to the word צר which means tight and constrained. So the best translation would be that the korban is brought on the occasion of "release from confinement." That is certainly an apt description of marriage. נחלץ מצרה means that he was granted expansion, an expansion that unbound him from his isolated strait.
That sentence deserves to be emphasized. על שנחלץ מצרה means that he was unbound from his strait of isolation. This is the foundation of the Korban Todah, and it is a perfect description of what marriage can give us.
People often talk of marriage as being bound, restricted. Chazal tell us that marriage removes our bonds, it frees us.
UPDATE, JUNE 2014
I recently prepared to speak at a SB, and said this over to my wife, Malkie shetichyeh. She pointed out that I should emphasize something that's evident in the Gemara, especially in the way I'm learning the Gemara. People naturally think of marriage as being bound, restricted, tied up. You lose the freedom you had as a single, you have to answer to someone that knows what you're doing, you become responsible for someone else's welfare, and so on. There is definitely an aspect of lost freedom when you get married. But Chazal are telling you exactly farkert. The passuk the Gemara in Sotah brings is (Tehillim 68:7)
אלהים מושיב יחידים ביתה מוציא אסירים בכושרותThe Gemara is darshening that the end of the passuk refers to Yetzias Mitzrayim; kosharos are chains, or it means Springtime, when the season is pleasant. The first half of the passuk refers to marriage, and the Gemara says that the passuk teaches us a hekesh, an equation, between the two halves of the passuk. So the passuk is telling you, you think marriage is a shibud? You're wrong. The marriage that the Torah envisions is liberating, just as Yetzias Mitzrayim was a the great liberation of Klal Yisrael. I just have to find a good way to explain how marriage is liberating. I do explain it here, but I think it can be done better.
Note: Besides the Korban Todah, in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, a Chassan would come to the Beis Hamikdash especially on Shabbos, because on the east side of the structure there was a gate made of white glass through which only newlywed men would enter. When people would see a man come in through that gate, they would all bless him, saying "He Who dwells in this house, may he bless you with sons and daughters!" (From Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer 17. Although there is no mention of this gate in the Mishna in the first perek of Middos, which enumerates and describes all the entrances to the Beis Hamikdash, it is mentioned in Maseches Sofrim 19:12.) As it says in Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer, even though now we have no Beis Hamikdash, we should do the same when the Chassan comes to Shul on Shabbos.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Tzav, Vayikra 7:12. Korban Todah: Man was created to struggle.
Part I
(Based in part on the Ksav Sofer, Beis Halevi, Tzidkas Hatzadik)
The Korban Todah (Todah meaning gratitude or acknowledgment) is an offering that one brings when he lives through a life-threatening experience. Chazal (Brachos 54) say, for example, that four events create an obligation to bring this korban: recovery from illness, release from prison, finishing a trip through the desert, and reaching land after a sea voyage.
Tehillim 50:23:
The word 'yechabda'ne'ni' would normally be written 'yechabdeini'. It seems to have a superfluous "nun". The Medrash (sort of like the Gemara Sanhedrin 43b) says that the double ‘nun’ tells us to double our appreciation, to offer “kavod achar kavod” to Hashem. What does that mean, Kavod achar kavod, honor after honor? A person who is saved from a danger and brings a korban todah should recognize that even the tzaros were intended for his benefit; he should praise Hashem for both the tzaros and the yeshuos, the danger and the salvation. This is why the end of the passuk says be’yesha Elokim”-- the salvation of Elokim. But Elokim is midas hadin, the trait of strict judgment, not mercy! The answer is that when the person looks at the gezeira of the midas hadin, and he is “sahm derech”--that is, that it makes a lasting impression on him and he is chozer beteshuva or it is memarek his aveiros, then he will see that the Elokim itself is part of his yeshua.
Sanhedrin 43b:
The Medrash in Vayeisheiv (brought in Rashi there) says, Tzadikim should know that life is not about tranquility and peace. Life is about conflict and tests, and we are expected to bravely face them and overcome them. Not only are we expected to win our battles, but when we do win, we bring a korban today and thank the Ribono shel Olam for testing us. Ke'sheim she'mevorchim....
In I Shmuel 16:11-12 David Hamelech is described as
So the passuk in Iyov (5:7), כִּי אָדָם לְעָמָל יוּלָּד וּבְנֵי רֶשֶׁף יַגְבִּיהוּ עוּף, is not a curse; it is Hashem's will that we overcome challenges and win battles. Our name itself proclaims this purpose: Yisrael-- ki sarisa- vatuchal. Having faced the challenge, and having overcome it, we thank Hashem for both, "al hamilchamos ve'al hayeshu'os." (Beis Halevi on Az Yashir Moshe.)
Finally, eight or nine days after leaving the front, I had my wound examined. In the surgery where newly-arrived cases were examined, doctors with huge pairs of shears were hacking away the breast-plates of plaster in which men with smashed ribs, collar-bones, and so forth had been cased at the dressingstations behind the line; out of the neck-hole of the huge clumsy breast-plate you would see protruding an anxious, dirty face, scrubby with a week's beard. The doctor, a brisk, handsome man of about thirty, sat me down in a chair, grasped my tongue with a piece of rough gauze, pulled it out as far as it would go, thrust a dentist's mirror down my throat, and told me to say ‘Eh!’ After doing this till my tongue was bleeding and my eyes running with water, he told me that one vocal cord was paralysed. ‘When shall I get my voice back?’ I said. ‘Your voice? Oh, you'll never get your voice back,’ he said cheerfully. However, he was wrong, as it turned out. For about two months I could not speak much above a whisper, but after that my voice became normal rather suddenly, the other vocal cord having ‘compensated’. The pain in my arm was due to the bullet having pierced a bunch of nerves at the back of the neck. It was a shooting pain like neuralgia, and it went on hurting continuously for about a month, especially at night, so that I did not get much sleep. The fingers of my right hand were also semi-paralysed. Even now, five months afterwards, my forefinger is still numb — a queer effect for a neck wound to have.- George Orwell, from "Homage to Catalonia", where he describes his hospital stay after being shot in the neck.
The wound was a curiosity in a small way and various doctors examined it with much clicking of tongues and ‘Que suerte! Qye suerte!’ One of them told me with an air of authority that the bullet had missed the artery by ‘about a millimetre’. I don't know how he knew. No one I met at this time — doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients — failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and survives it is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all.
UPDATE, DECEMBER 2011:
I found that the Oneg Yomtov, in his Hakdama, brings a very relevant Maharit as follows:
אמר בתפילתו כי אף שהוא עבד ה' בן אמתו, יליד ביתו ולאמקנת כספו, כי הוא אביך עשך ויכוננך, וברא אותנו יש מאין, וכל
כוחות הגוף והנפש הנמצאים בנו הלא הוא יתברך אשר נתנם לנו, וכל קיומם כל ימי היותנו על האדמה, אך ממנו יתברך, כאמור
"ואתה מחיה את כולם". ובדין היה שלא נוכל לעשות גדולה או קטנה נגד רצון הבורא יתברך. כי איך נרים יד ורגל לפעול פעולה המתנגדת לרצונו אחרי שכל כוחות ותנועות האיברים שבנו וחיותם הוא מרצונו, והתנועה הזאת היא נגד רצונו.
אולם זאת היא מנפלאות תמים דעים לתת לנו כח לעשות נגד רצונו בכדי שתהיה לנו לצדקה כי נשמור לעשות כל אשר ציונו.
וזהו שאמר "פתחת למוסרי". שאני אסור בעבותות רצונך לבלתי סור מהם ימין ושמאל מחמת שרצונך הוא כל חיות
וכוחות נפשי. ואתה פתחת מוסרות האלו ונתת לי כח לעשות נגד רצונך. ועל כן אמר "לך אזבח זבח תודה ובשם ה' אקרא", שעל ענין זה אזבח זבח תודה, כי קרבן תודה הוא לשון הודאה, ואין ענין הודאה נופל אלא על מה שאדם יכול לכפור ומודה בו, כי רק זה נקרא הודאה, אבל מה שאינו יכול לכפור לא מיקרי הודאה כמבואר בחו"מ (סי' פ"ז) לענין מודה במקצת. ולזה אמר אחרי שפתחת למוסרי לעשות נגד רצונך לכן לא כן אנכי רק אזבח לך זבח תודה ובשם ה' אקרא, להודות כי הכל ממך עילת כל העילות וסיבת כל הסיבות)
1. Great Unknown pointed out that in the Gemara in Sanhedrin, which is similar to the Tanchuma, the Gemara uses the double nun to mean that one who shechts his yetzer hara honors Hashem in both this world and the next; there, Rashi explains "todah" to mean "confession," like every viduy on an aveirah.
Rashi in Sanhedrin-
2. Eli told us that there are many sources that indicate that one who brings a korban Todah must say "vidui," though exactly what the viduy contains is unclear. (I believe that the organizing principle for Eli's mekoros is the machlokes that will become clear in a moment.)
Taanis 23, re: Chony Hame'agel. הביאו לי פר הודאה and Rashi says להתודות עליו (however, it seems from Rashi there that it was Shlamim, not Toda; see Gevuras Ari and Maharsha there). See also Mitzpe-Eytan there.
Rashi Iyov 33:27 -- יעשה שורות של אנשים כשניצול מחליו ויתודה ליוצרו
Rashi Divrey-Hayamim 2:33:16 "ויזבח עליו זבחי שלמים ותודה" - שהביא קרבן תודה והתוודה להקב"ה שהשיבו לירושלים ולמלכותו
Rashi Hulin 12 says that אשר כופר בהם refers to Shlamim. Same in Hulin 130 and Erchin 21. All say that even Shlamim has an aspect of Kapara, thus probably requiring Viduy (compare with Rambam Maase-Hakorbanot 3:15)
So, it seems Toda requires Viduy also. This could go either way: Viduy might just mean "to acknowledge", like in Viduy Maaser, which is a strange kind of Viduy, saying לא אשמתי, לא בגדתי. So the Viduy in Toda is just acknowledging the טובה coming from Hashem. Or we could say that there is an aspect of Kapara in Shlamim, and maybe in Toda too, unlike the the Tanchuma. At least be-derech drush one could argue that the two are not that far away: being thankful requires acknowledgement of not being worthy of what you got. That's why we say "הגומל לחייבים", not just out of Anava, but this is actually part of giving thanks.
Nafka-Mina to this drush is that the Viduy of תודה, even if we accpet it's a Viduy על חטא, does not require תשובה.
3. I said that...
It is certainly clear in the context of the Modim in Shmoneh Esrei that the word means acknowledgment, just as 'appreciate' means to recognize and to be grateful. מודִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ. שָׁאַתָּה הוּא ה, and then נודֶה לְּךָ וּנְסַפֵּר תְּהִלָּתֶךָ עַל חַיֵּינוּ הַמְּסוּרִים בְּיָדֶךָ. and וְעַל נִסֶּיךָ שֶׁבְּכָל יום עִמָּנוּ. And of course, the expression is to be "מכיר טוב," to recognize the good that was done for you.
I wonder, though, if someone recognizes that he got a valuable gift from someone, but doesn't feel or exhibit gratitude. He is technically מכיר טוב, but in the real sense, he is a כפוי טוב.
4. Then, great unknown said...
I rather thought that if i gave you enough time, you would back into the gemora in megilla: i.e., the limud that modim comes after avoda from zoveach todah. in fact, there rashi says: אחר זביחה תן הודאה
an extensive study of the connection between vidui and hoda'ah can be found in r mattis wienberg's patterns in time on chanukah, based primarily, iirc, on the sefas emes. i however do not have either available to me to verify that.
5. Then I said...
I wish I thought of the Gemara in Megilla, on 18a. The Gemara is talking about the order of the brachos in Sh'moneh Esrei, and it goes like this:
Rashi there:
6. I said....
Eli, I just read your comment more carefully. I agree. A sense of entitlement is incompatible with hakaras hatov. A craftsman is not makir tov for being paid for his work, and a malveh is not makir tov for being repaid. Actually, a malveh probably is.
As far as the issue of Choni Hame'agel's korban that Eli brought from the Gemara in Taanis 23a, Eli also brought the Gvuras Ari on that Gemara. Here's someone (Zivchei Efraim, a sefer on Zevachim,) who brings the whole Gevuras Ari and the Rambam:
He holds the Todah was a simple Todah, that Choni was saying "Ribono shel Olam, thank you for the fine rain You sent. We've had enough."
Reb Yosef Engel says the same thing in Rosh Hashanna 30a.
7. Then, I remembered that R' Chaim Brown had written about a very similar matter some months ago at Divrei Chaim. The bottom line of the discussion there is that there's a machlokes Bavli and Yerushalmi whether Mizmor LeSoda is about the Korban Todah or just about the concept of Vidui by other korbanos, or viduy in general. He brought Yerushalim Shevuos 6b in the Vilna print that says it refers to the vidui of Korban Chatas, and he connected this Yerushalmi to a Magen Avraham in OC 51:10. I brought the Bavli in Shevu'os 16b that it was sung when a person brought a personal Korban Todah.
8. Then R' David Guttman of the Yediah blog brought the Yalkut Shimoni in Tehillim 100 that says that the word Todah means admission, and the Otzar Hatefillos on Modim that says that because Modim means 'admit,' that's why the next word is vocalized "sha'ata" (meaning 'that') instead of 'she'ata' (meaning 'because'.) I think that even though the Abudraham clearly agrees with that, it's wrong anyway.
The Abudraham: says that you have to say modim yourself, you can't be yotzei with a shliach, because it's kabalas ol malchus shamayim, and KOMS can't be done with shlichus. If it was thanks, it would have no connection with KOMS. He must hold it's not Thanks, but rather acknowledgment.
But I think he's wrong. It means Thanks. My proof is from Sotah 40a, where it says Modim....ahl. Ahl means 'for.' Modim for....doesn't make sense if it means acknowledgment, but it makes sense if it means thank you for....
9. I later saw that the pirush on the side of the Yerushalmi there, the Tzion vi'yerushalayim, in Shavu'os brings that this is indeed a machlokes what Mizmor LeSodah refers to, and he brings from a sefer Magen Giborim that it's a pervasive machlokes (Radak and Rashi in Tehillim, the Tur and the Beis Yosef in OC 281, and so on) whether it refers to the Korban Todah or the concept of Viduy, and the mefareish says Ha, he didn't remember this Yerushalmi. But I say that he should have realized that the Tanchuma also says like the Bavli in Shavu'os, and he should have brought the Gemara in Sanhedrin that is like the Yerushalmi.
10. I sent a letter to Eli, saying the following:
11. So: If you hold like the Yerushalmi in Shavuos and the Bavli in Sanhedrin, you can go ahead and say Mizmor Le'Sodah on Pesach. According to them, it has nothing to do with the Korban Todah, it's just about the concept of Viduy. It might be hard to agree with, but you can't argue with the Gemara.
And so that's the mussar haskeil of this piece. Astonish your friends and neighbors, say Mizmor LeSodah aloud on Pesach, and tell people it's because you hold like the Yerushalmi in Shavuos and the Bavli in Sanhedrin, and that the Tanchuma has no halachic status. It's wrong le'halacha, but it's no worse than saying "she'hotzi lechem min ha'aretz" (Brachos 38a).
12. An interesting addition: when we make a birkas hagomel, we say "hagomel lechayavim tovos shegmalani kol tov." After knowing the above, the odd insertion of lechayavim makes wonderful sense. Vidui and Hoda'ah.
13. And here's the prize. Thanks to Eli who noticed it right before the Tanchuma I brought down:
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14123&st=&pgnum=291
Second to last line.
UPDATES NOVEMBER 2014.
14. I have been told that Rav Hutner on Chanuka says that in Modim, the word Hoda'ah changes meaning. מודים אנחנו לך, שאתה הוא means admission, or declaration. But נודה לך
ונספר תהלתך means gratitude. He says this is true throughout the words of tefilla- מודים שאתה means admission, and נודה לך means thanks. This would seem to apply to the Modeh Ani we say in the morning- that it means admission, not thanks.
15. There's a great Medrash Rabba in Vayeitzei (71:5) that goes like this:
I'm not sure how this fits in, but I have to have it here: