**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT**
Rabbi Eli Mansour and the Torah Center Congregation will be relocating effective this coming Tuesday, Sept. 6th/13 Elul, to Har HaLebanon, at the corner of East 9th St & Ave. S in Brooklyn. We thank Ahi Ezer for the past many years of providing Rabbi Mansour and the Torah Center with a home. Daily prayers and classes will take place in the Midrash on the 2nd floor at Har HaLebanon. Seuda Shelishi lectures will also be at Har HaLebanon and will be given on the lower level catering hall. Rabbi Mansour and the Torah Center wish to acknowledge the gracious hospitality of Har HaLebanon during this hold over period while a permanent synagogue is planned and erected.
Today's Halacha...
The Maharshag (Rabbi Shimon Greenfield, Hungary, 1860-1930) was asked to rule on a case regarding a religious woman who, prior to becoming observant and marrying an observant man, had become pregnant and underwent an abortion. The woman never informed her husband of this incident, and therefore, when she delivered their first child, a boy, the husband prepared to conduct a Pidyon Ha'ben celebration (as is required after the birth of a firstborn male). The woman posed the question of whether or not she was obligated to inform her husband that their son was not a firstborn, so that he would not unnecessarily perform the Pidyon Ha'ben ritual.
Allowing the husband to proceed with the Pidyon Ha'ben would entail two separate problems. The first involves the money the husband would unnecessarily be spending, both for the traditional festive meal and the funds given to a Kohen as part of the ceremony. Seemingly, the wife should be obliged to inform her husband of her past pregnancy in order to spare him the unnecessary expenditures of a Pidyon Ha'ben.
The Maharshag, however, dismisses this argument. As for the money spent on the festive meal, the words of Torah traditionally spoken during the meal suffice to render it a Se'udat Mitzva (a meal involving a Mitzva), and hence the money for the meal is well-spent. And regarding the money given to the Kohen, the Maharshag advises that the parents tell the Kohen that they follow the custom requiring the Kohen to return the money after the Pidyon Ha'ben, and thus the husband will not lose any money as a result of this unnecessary ceremony.
The second problem involves the Berachot that the father recites at a Pidyon Ha'ben. If the child is not actually a firstborn, then these Berachot are Berachot Le'vatala – "wasted," or purposeless, Berachot, which Halacha forbids reciting. It would seem that the wife bears an obligation to inform her husband of her past pregnancy in order to prevent his recitation of these Berachot.
To circumvent this problem, the Maharshag recommends that the wife tell her husband that there is some question in her family as to whether or not her father was a Levi. If a mother of a firstborn boy is the daughter of Levi, the obligation of Pidyon Ha'ben does not apply. If the woman is uncertain whether her father is or was a Levi, then her husband performs the Pidyon Ha'ben without reciting the Berachot. Therefore, by claiming that her father might have been a Levi, the wife prevents her husband from reciting Berachot Le'vatala at the Pidyon Ha'ben. Halacha allows speaking untruthfully for the purpose of maintaining Shalom Bayit (harmony between husband and wife), and therefore the wife would be permitted to make this false claim to avoid having to reveal to her husband her unfortunate past.
However, Chacham Ovadia Yosef, in his work Yabia Omer (vol. 8, responsum 32), ruled that the woman need not, in fact, prevent her husband from reciting the Berachot at the Pidyon Ha'ben, despite the fact that the child is not a firstborn and the Pidyon Ha'ben is therefore unnecessary. According to the vast majority of Rishonim – the Rambam being a notable exception – the prohibition against reciting a Beracha Le'vatala was enacted by the Rabbis, and does not constitute a Torah violation. A fundamental principle in Halacha establishes that Kevod Ha'beriyot – the concern for human dignity – overrides Rabbinic prohibitions. Therefore, according to the accepted view, that Beracha Le'vatala is a Rabbinic, rather than Biblical, prohibition, the concern for preserving the wife's dignity and avoiding humiliation overrides the concern for avoiding a Beracha Le'vatala. Hence, Chacham Ovadia rules, the wife in such a case may allow her husband to perform the Pidyon Ha'ben and even recite the Berachot.
Summary: If the mother of a presumed firstborn son is too ashamed to inform her husband of a past pregnancy, she need not disclose this information to avoid his conducting an unnecessary Pidyon Ha'ben. She should, however, ask the Kohen to return to her husband the money transferred to the Kohen as part of the Pidyon ceremony.
