When to Count Sefirah When Davening Maariv Early?

00:00 Speaker 1 Welcome to the Halacha Podcast, L'maan Yish'mu, with Harav Yosef Yeshaya Brown, Marah D'Asra and a member of the Crown Heights-based Din. This podcast is brought to you by the Ask the Rav platform in partnership with L'maan Yilmedu, the premier institute for practical Halacha learning.

00:22 Speaker 2 Welcome back to L'maan Yish'mu. And we're gonna go through a couple of interesting questions that we got over the most recent time. So a question that people ask and was recently came in again is about Soves Zman Kriya Shema. Shema needs to be recited at a certain time in the morning until three Halakhic hours in the day. If someone missed the time of Kriya Shema, the Gemara says, this is a, a-- something which is wrong, it cannot be rectified. Some missed Kriyat Shema Shel Shacharit or Kriyat Shema Shel Arvit, whether Kriya Shema in the morning or at night, this cannot be fixed. But the question is, is there still some form of rectification of fixing it? So it so happens to be that in Shulchan Aruch there are two-- brought down two opinions, the Machloket Rishonim, whether Kriyat Shema has Tashlumin. Tefillah, we know if a person missed davening, so when it comes to the n-- if it was Beshogeg, if it was accidentally, not Bemeizid, not intentionally, then when it comes to the next Tefillah, he can make up and he davens two Shemoneh Esreis. He davens for this Tefillah, and then he makes up for the previous one. Does such a thing apply with Kriyat Shema too? So there is actually a discussion in Rishonim. There are some Rishonim that maintain that the same thing applies with Kriyat Shema. So what does it mean when we're told that if someone missed out Kriyat Shema, Lo Yuchal, this can, this cannot be rectified? That's

01:47 Speaker 2 if it was deliberate, they argue. But if it was accidental, then maybe that could be made up. And how do you make it up? When it comes to subsequent Kriya Shema, so let's say if you missed the morning Shema, then at night he will say the Shema for the night and then make up for the Shema in the morning. Is there a point in doing this? What's the Halacha? So if you look up in Halacha, you look up in the Shulchan Aruch and the Alter Rebe Shulchan Aruch and the Mishne Berurah. So the, the accepted opinion is VeChen Ikkar, this is the primary opinion, that there's no way to make up Kriyat Shema. This cannot-- You can't make up for it. There is, however, a minority opinion says you could make up for it, but it's very important to understand. When we talk about that you could make up for it, that doesn't make up for the Averia of missing Shema. Shema is a Mitzvot Aseh Min HaTorah, and the Torah did not give an allowance to make up for it. Mid'Rabbanan could be the rabbis insisted he should still do something to make up for it, which is a bit hard to understand, but it's clearly that is the case. This is explained in the Hagahot on the notes on the margin in the Alter Rebe Shulchan Aruch and explained even more in the Mishne Berurah. This is a Mid'Rabbanan, a rabbinic thing. You're not making up the mitzvah of Shema. There's something else

03:00 Speaker 2 that you accomplish that you still will have the Kabbalat Ol Malach Hashamayim. I mean, the obvious question here is, if you're saying Shema after the time that in Shulchan Aruch it says that whenever you're davening, if it's even after Zman Kriyat Shema, you could daven. It's still the time you could daven Shacharit, still say the Shema. And Lo Hifsid, it's K'koreh Betamishna. K'koreh B'Torah. It's like you're reading Torah. You're not losing out anything. So what could be the problem of saying it later K'koreh B'Torah? Obviously, the disagreement here was not if you could say Shema later. The question is if there's any obligation, there's any meaning to it. So we pasken there's no meaning to it, but there is an opinion that says there is some substance to it. The Aruch HaShulchan says-- writes that we never heard people ruling on this opinion that says you should make up the Shema. And indeed, it is what is well known that people that miss out Shema, unfortunately, it's a terrible thing. They need to teshuvah for it, and, um, it cannot be fixed up. And it says even if you do teshuvah, it doesn't really fully rectify the problem. But, um, there's no such thing as making up for it. I-I will, however, mention that the Chesed Le'Halachim writes, and he's not the only one that writes it, that's MiYot Tov, still it's better that because there is a Machloket if you can make up for Shema or not. So MiYot Tov, best would be to

04:18 Speaker 2 be concerned with the opinion that says that you could make up for it and still try to do this makeup. After all, there are two opinions, and it's not even clear which one is the Halacha in Shulchan Aruch. There are poskim that say that the Shulchan Aruch didn't rule conclusively which one is the Halacha. They say the Halacha is like the opinion that you should make up for it. The Alter Rebe, however, says not-- that's not the case. Chen Ikkar, the main opinion is according to the opinion that you can't make up for the Shema. He does write this in parentheses, which maybe weakens this slightly. But again, Halachically speaking, we can't make up for Shema, but there's room to go and do so to fulfill an opinion that says rabbinically there's an obligation to do so. It's not for the Brachot of Shema, that's for the, the Shema itself. The Brachot you for sure can't make up. The Alter Rebbe says that clearly. Now, if a person would be following this opinion, so let's say he's davening Maariv, and now he wants to make up for the morning Shema. So this is something which was interesting. When should he say this extra Shema again a second time? Should he say the middle of Shema? Say the-- the middle of Maariv? Say the Shema once and the Shema a second time? Or should he wait until after Shemoneh Esrei? So if you look in the Mishne Berurah, he says, Takeif Achar Maariv. The words Takeif

05:31 Speaker 2 Achar Maariv imply not after Kriyat Shema Shel Arvit, but after he finishes Shemoneh Esrei. They didn't want people to do this in middle of davening. After Shemoneh Esrei, the Chesed Le'Halachim talks about the reverse, where a person missed out the night Shema, he fell asleep. This happens unfortunately. A person wants to do the Shema and daven an early minyan, and he has to say again Shema later. People accept early Shabbos, whatever it is. So it wasn't nightfall. You have to say again Shema, but he fell asleep, and he didn't say Shema, so it's over. Can't, can't make up for that. But if you want to be concerned with this opinion is that the Chesed Lalon, Lalof Achad Tefilah Shacharit. Again, not Achad Kriyas Shema, Achad Tefilah Shacharit. Again, this should not be done maybe because of Hefsek, maybe because of saying Shema twice. Uh, but it seems like they're telling us that we should do it after we finish Shmoneh Esrei. M-- Talking about early Minyanim, I wanna bring up another topic which people ask. So this is a question that shluchim often ask as well. A shliach is asking the-- In the shul, he has an early Minyan, what does he do with Sefiras HaOmer? So let me explain clearly how this works. If you open the Alter Rebbe Shulchan Aruch Siman tof pei tes seif yud beis and seif yud gimmel, the Alter Rebbe brings two opinions. There's an opinion which is brought down in Tosfos Menachos that says that Sefiras HaOmer could

06:44 Speaker 2 be done, you don't have to wait till it's night. It could be done bein ha'shemashos, between sunset and nightfall. Even though this is a time zone which is twilight, it's a safek layla, it's a safek yom. Could be it's the past day, it could be it's the upcoming night. So how can a person come and say, "Hayom sheni yom," when maybe it's still the previous day? So because Sefira is DeRabbanan, any doubt when it comes to a rabbinic... We hold like the opinion of Sefira nowadays is DeRabbanan, is rabbinic. Any doubt in a rabbinic matter, we could be lenient, and therefore we could be lenient that when it's already after sunset, it's already considered night. That's one opinion. There's another opinion that says that l'chatchilah you should never go into safekes. Even by DeRabbanan, you don't go into the enter a, a, a zo-- a doubt zone, and if you have to wait till it's actual nightfall, till three stars emerge, then it's layla v'aden, then it's absolute night. Midaktachim, those that are pious and particular about their behaviors, they actually wait until it's night. In pr-previous times, there was a lot of early Minyanim for Ma'ariv, but those who were pious, they used to wait and have a late Minyan. V'chen rayah l'chol adam asher the right thing for everybody is to wait until it's night. But the minhag clearly is the hamon, the population, the minhag was no, they could count already bein ha'shemashos. So now what happens if you're davening in a

08:01 Speaker 2 shul, they are davening an early Ma'ariv, they don't wait till it's nightfall. You wanna be a midaktik, you wanna wait till it's nightfall. What do you do? So the Alter Rebbe paskins, as do the other poskim, that you should count along with them. To wait until it's nightfall, you might forget. So you count with them, but count without a berachah, and stipulate as following. Stipulate if I'm gonna forget to count later at night, so I'll-- at least I'll be yotzer now. I'm relying on my current Sefiras HaOmer. If I don't forget to count later, I'm clearly having in mind that I don't wanna be yotzer with the current Sefirah. What does it mean I don't wanna be yotzer, but you counted? So even according to the opinion that mitzvah is ein tzrich es kavana, you don't have to have intention when you do a mitzvah, and therefore if you had intent-- you don't have intention to be yotzer, who cares? You didn't need intention. But if you're clearly stipulating, you're having in mind that you don't wanna be yotzer, we call that hipach kavana, kavana hafchis. I clearly don't wanna be yotzer. No one can force you to be yotzer when you don't wanna be yotzer. So therefore, you could have in mind that if I remember at night to count, I don't wanna be yotzer now. And then later when it comes at night, you could actually count with a berachah. So that's the right thing for the shliach to do in this early

09:11 Speaker 2 Minyan in town. He should count along with them without a berachah. Have in mind that if he remembers at night, then he doesn't wanna be yotzer now, and he'll later by night count with a berachah. And if he doesn't remember, he was at least yotzer now. But if a person didn't make any stipulation, even if he didn't make a berachah, he counted without a berachah. He didn't even answer Amen in other people's berachot. He should not... Even if he didn't make any stipulation, if, if he remembers to count later at night, he can't make a berachah later at night because bein ha'shemashos is a safek. It might be treated as night, and maybe he was yotzer already. First of all, he was yotzer because mitzvot ein tzrich es kavana. According to that opinion, you don't have to have intention. Intention here, intention there, you're yotzer. And even those who say mitzvot tzrich es kavana, when it comes to mitzvot DeRabbanan, mitzvot DeRabbanan, according to many opinions, for sure you don't need kavana according to all opinions, and therefore he's yotzer automatically just by saying Sefirah. More than that, even if he doesn't say Sefirah, he's there when the people are saying Sefirah, and he had no intention, and he heard other people saying Sefirah. If you say mitzvot ein tzrich es kavana, by the very fact that you hear someone else counting Sefirah, you fulfill the obligation. Now, this is very important. A person comes to shul, he's planning to daven later, and people are

10:25 Speaker 2 counting Sefirah. By hearing their Sefirah, you are automatically yotzer if you say mitzvot ein tzrich es kavana. Unless you clearly have in mind, "I, I have intention not to be yotzer." It's not just, "I don't wanna be yotzer." If you think, "I don't wanna be yotzer," that's not enough. You have to have intention, "I have intention not to be yotzer." It's the opposite, hipach kavana. Well, how do we listen-- How do we go and ask someone, "What's today's Sefirah?" I mean, he usually doesn't answer us. He usually answers about yesterday's Sefirah. But even if he answers us, I'm-- 'cause when I'm asking, I'm clearly having in mind that I wanna count af- right afterwards. That's part of my intention. The reason I'm asking him, 'cause I'm not being yotzer with him, I'm making my own Sefirah. And that's the Het of the Divrei Nechemya says how you can listen to the Chazan's Sefirah. I'm listening to know what to count, so that means I'm clearly not being yotzer. That's like hipach kavana. This is all if it's bein ha'shemashos. Before bein ha'shemashos, there's no such thing as counting Sefirah. Even if on a Friday we have a very, very early Minyan, there's no such thing as counting Sefirah in shul. Everybody should count Sefirah at home because bein ha'shemashos, there's an argument that you could be yotzer Sefirah 'cause it's a safek DeRabbanan. But before bein ha'shemashos, before sunset, there's no such thing as counting Sefirah. If somebody counted Sefirah before bein ha'shemashos, so he

11:40 Speaker 2 should count again later, but he doesn't make a berachah if it's already after Plag Haminchah because there are-- there is such a thing as an early Minyan from Plag Haminchah. Although Ikra Din is that it's not considered night, only for davening but not for anything else. But still, there are those that rely that it's considered night, and therefore, if a person counted from Plag Haminchah, then he should count again later, but he shouldn't make a berachah. If a person counted bein ha'shemashos- And he's fulfilled the mitzvah. But since he wants to be medakdek and be yotzer the shita that says you should wait until nightfall, so if you already counted then you can count again after nightfall without a berachot. We personally don't have any stipulations.

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12:55 Speaker 2 Okay, let's go on to a different question altogether. A lot of people asking-- ask questions about cutting down trees, which is a very, very complex shailan halacha, and it involves the Sakana of Reb Yehuda HaChasid. And a lot of poskim say that this is the type of question that you have to ask three rabbonim, and all of them have to be mattet it. Now, but often people ask a question about a dead tree. Now, the original Mekotet seem to talk all about a live tree. And clearly, a dead tree sh-really shouldn't be a problem. Is there a problem even with a dead tree? Do you have to ask three rabbonim and get a special heter? So the, the answer is that there's a difference. This is one of those cases, there's a difference between dry halacha and taking into account the din of a sakana. According to the dry halacha, a person is allowed to cut not only a dead tree, but even a fruit tree if it dried up and right now doesn't bear enough fruit, or even a fruit tree if he needs to expand his living space because the value of living space is much more than the fruit. But poskim say that even when it's mutar al pi halacha, we have this in the Alter Rebe Shulchan Aruch. We have a section called Shemitah's Guf nefesh, and he gives you all the haftaya when you're allowed to cut a tree. And yet the poskim say, including our Rebbe in quite a

14:13 Speaker 2 few letters, not to rely on what it says there. This is a sakana issue. Halacha was talking about the halacha part and not the sakana part. And therefore, poskim say that you should not cut a tree unless you get a special heter from a Rav with s- where they tell you sell it to a goy, and the goy should be the one cutting it down. V'chulu, v'chulu, but this should really require hasgama fli rabbonim even with a dead tree. Now, where do I get this even from a dead tree? This comes from a Piskei Tosfos, Maseches Pesachim that writes that if somebody cuts down a ilon srak, a tree which doesn't bear fruit, he will not see yasim beracha. The Gemara says, kossei ilon es toves. The Gemara writes in Pesachim, einero yasim beracha leolam. And Tosfos learns it's obviously not talking about a fruit that's a, a fruit-bearing tree, 'cause then you're not allowed to. It mean einero yasim beracha. It's talking about it's a tree that doesn't bear fruit. Some people say maybe because last sadlavi it's going to give fruit. Some people give that explanation. Because when Mashiach comes, the, the-- all trees will bear fruit, therefore you're already taking away that possibility of fruit. But whatever the pshat is, um, so Tos-- that's why it says, einero yasim beracha, even though it's not because if it would be a fruit-bearing tree, that's the law of the verse of Bal Tashchis. The poskim that writes beze halashon as the Darkei Teshuva brings

15:30 Speaker 2 from Sefer Kel Yesyak that writes, "Afilu ilon srak oso." Tosfos allowed to cut even a non-fruit-bearing tree. "Vim katatzo einero yasim beracha." There's a case that in Meches Yitzchok was the Rav Yerushalayim. He was a person who the tree was causing him allergy, causing problems of breathing, and he was very, very machmir. It was a tzadik gadol, and he's only allowed if the dayanim of the beis din will agree and he sells it to a goy and all that kind of stuff. Quite a few poskim write this, um, as a case. One of the contemporary poskim talk about where the trees fell and-- because of the snow, and still there's a yitzur involved in removing it. So e-even where the tree is totally dried up, there's no isur, poskim were, were machmir. Now, some-- there are clearly poskim that are meikel, but it's one of those things the person should not take chances and get-- make sure he has a full, proper fledge-- pro-full proper heter. Okay, moving on to a different topic altogether, a Hilchos Shabbos issue. There are different opinions about reheating foods on Shabbos. According to the strict halacha, if something is wet, then we hold that yesh bisul achar bisul devar halach. If something is wet, once it cools off slightly, once it's natzaan legamriy, it's cooled off enough that you can't eat it as a hot dish. If it's reheated, that's considered cooking on Shabbos. Now, cooking on Shabbos, I'm not talking about a gezeiras chakhamim called chazarah. He now

17:01 Speaker 2 put things back on the fire even when there's no cooking. This is mevashal b'Shabbos chiyuv skil ulkar is actual cooking on Shabbos. But there are poskim that for whatever reason are lenient in reheating liquidy stuff, particularly amongst Sefardim, strangely, although the Sefardim should be the one that should be the most machmir. So person's coming, eating in a house, either they have a-- eating in their own house or someone else's house. In their own house by their parents. And there are people that are much more lenient, and they'll reheat food on Shabbos and put it on the fire. Even if they put it on top of the pot, it's not gonna help if it's actually gonna become yotzei. Let us say in terms of the isur of bisul, that might remove the isur of chazarah, of putting things back on the fire, which is mid'Rabana, but actual cooking is a problem. And here the te-- the liquid cooled off, it's considered cooking. So some poskim-- This is a interesting question 'cause I hold it's asur, the person I'm staying by holds it's mutar. Am I allowed to eat in his house? Can I eat his schnitzel? He rewarmed his schnitzel. Schnitzel has some liquid that's still attached to it. If it's wet enough that it can impart l-wetness, that's considered tefeich hamazla tefich. That would be considered wet. Al treib zolosh nizih. You can only heat up something she'ein bo shom la'ach luchitz kal. That has zero moisture whatsoever. Even if it's dry, if it will

18:19 Speaker 2 dissolve when it's heating up and liquid will ooze out of it, it's also a problem. So some places can say, not a problem. You're not doing it. He's doing it. You're not even asking for him. It's mutar. Some people say, no, you're not allowed to ask him. But if he did it, he's not allowed to prepare for me also. But if he did it, I'm allowed to benefit from it. There's a strong reason to argue that if a person did it for him, I'm allowed to have benefit from it. Because b'chalal, even if a person cooked for himself, a person cooked, there's a contradiction in the Alter Rebbe between what the Alter Rebbe writes in Siman Shin Yud Ches and what the Alter Rebbe writes in Siman Shin Yud Gimel. In Shin Yud Ches also, it is not clear what the Alter Rebbe's position is about after the fact if it was cooked, if it's asur b'di eved. So that's where, because it's something that dover sheyesh matir nafil chatil, we have a klal that some, if there's some that some say it's permissible, then there's no knas, there's no penalty. So we're talking about this is not a, this is a knas of ma'aseh Shabbos, a penalty because someone did something on Shabbos. So over here, where the person holds that it's mutar, there's much more room to be lenient, especially taking into account, like I said, there's a contradiction in the Alter Rebbe. These positions follow the opinion, which is very difficult to

19:42 Speaker 2 understand. That ruba yovish, if most of it is dry, it's considered like a dry food. In this case of safek, because the person holds like a position that's lenient, on top of that, you see there, there, there, there's an opinion that holds yes b'shlach bishul, there's an opinion that holds ein b'shlach bishul. What's the accepted position in our circles? That we're lenient so long that it didn't cool off completely. So what does that mean? If you hold yes b'shlach bishul, then even if it's still hot, there could be a problem of bishul, b'shlach bishul once it goes down the temperature of ya'atz aledet bo. If you hold ein b'shlach bishul, then even if it cooled off completely, it should be permissible. The Ramah gives a pshat that's been our minhag, that when it's lo nitatan legamrei, if it didn't cool off completely, then it's okay. What's pshat? This pshat, there's different ways how to learn pshat. I don't want to go into how lamdis over here. Is it that we hold primarily we hold ein b'shlach bishul or we primarily hold yes b'shlach bishul? If we say that we, our position really would be that ein b'shlach bishul, it's not a problem, we're just being machmir, that's another argument for leniency over here. So again, when it happens, when a person himself does that, that's a different story. When a person who holds that it's mutar does it and I'm eating in their house, there's definitely grounds for a leniency.

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21:24 Speaker 2 I'm going to move on to a different question altogether. Not a very well-known halacha. I'm not sure why. In some circles it's more known. In other circles it's less known. The halacha is if a person finishes Shemoneh Esrei and there's someone davening behind him, he's not allowed to take back three steps. So you have to stand where you are and don't go back three steps. You stay in your place. So what happens now that you're staying in your place? Do you say it's a shalom? You don't say it's a shalom yet? You're standing there and the guy's davening a lange Shemoneh Esrei. He's davening very, very long. There once was, someone was once asked why he's not getting married. It says, Ben Shemoneh Esrei l'chuppah. By the age of 18, he's supposed to get married. He says he's davening a lange Shemoneh Esrei. He davens, he has a very, very long 18. So back to our topic. So this person's davening a long Shemoneh Esrei, the person behind me. The chazan already got to Kedusha. You're supposed to go back to your place for Kedusha. If you did go back three steps, you're supposed to go back to your place. So much so, another halacha which is not so well known. You're supposed to wait when you take back three steps on a significant amount of time until the chazan gets back to Kedusha. And if you're davening privately without a minyan, you should wait the amount of time that it would have taken the

22:40 Speaker 2 chazan to get to Kedusha. So it's definitely a minute or so. But if you went back three steps right before Kedusha, you go back right away because Kedusha you should be staying in your place. So although normally you're not supposed to go back right away, you're supposed to wait. But if it's Kedusha's happening, Kedusha is supposed to be said in the original place, not where you step back. A lot of people make this mistake. They take back three steps and they know there's such a thing. A person's not supposed to walk back, walk by when you took three steps back until you go back to your place. So they don't want a person to walk by. So they run right away back. We're not supposed to do this. You're supposed to kelev she'val ki, it says like a dog going back on a spit. You're supposed to wait. The only time you're not supposed to wait when it's coming Kedusha. But here, I didn't have a chance to take three steps back yet because someone is behind me davening Shemoneh Esrei and now it's coming Kedusha. So what should I do? So the answer is as follows. If it's another going to take, it's not going to take a long time till a person finishes Shemoneh Esrei. So wait a bit and then you'll take three steps back. You'll say it's a shalom and everything will be fine. If you know it's going to be a long, long wait and I want to be able

23:45 Speaker 2 to answer Amen in Kedusha. So you could separate your feet, not go back. And once you separate your feet, you're allowed to answer B'chuluk Shemoneh Amen Kedusha, any holy matters. If you really need to, you could go take three steps to the side, not right parallel to the person. That's also another heter. And while you're waiting over there, you're allowed to continue davening. You're not allowed to, you're not allowed to do unnecessary talk. You separated your feet. You can continue davening. You can say holy stuff. Can't talk Dvarim Mateim. The Alter Rebbe writes even after you took three steps back between the quiet Shemoneh Esrei and the Chazan Shemoneh Esrei, the Chazan Zamida, you shouldn't be talking only in Yoni Hatzfilot Racher, only matters of davening. Certainly you didn't even take three steps back yet because you're waiting. You just separated your feet. Separate your feet so you're not the same level as Omid Lefnei HaMelech. You could say other religious holy davening stuff, but not just some idle talk. Interestingly, the Friediger Rebbe related that the Rebbe Rashab would, when he would come after the first Yiud L'ratzon, he would separate his feet and not go back. He doesn't explain why he did that. It could be that the Rebbe Rashab finished way after the rest of the minyan and therefore they were already doing Chazar Zarschat and he wanted to be able to answer different things than Chazar Zarschat. This is a speculation. I don't know this for a fact. Talking about Shemoneh

25:06 Speaker 2 Esrei, I'll go to another question connected to Shemoneh Esrei. This is a question I'm getting from a yeshiva. There's a bachar. He davens slower than the rest of the minyan.So comes matan Shabbos, the minyan is davening, and after maariv, they have Havdalah, but he's still Shemoneh Esreh. He's gonna miss out on Havdalah. So should he stop in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh? Can he pause? Can he just listen to Havdalah and be yoetz Havdalah? It's very hard to go find-- go schlep, find wine, and hear Havdalah afterwards, make Havdalah afterwards. They don't have a lot of wine in the yeshiva. Can you hear Havdalah in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh? So the quick answer is there is room to be lenient, but that's not the right thing to do. Lechatchilah, you should not rely on hearing Havdalah in the middle of your Shemoneh Esreh. There's a discussion about Krias HaTorah. You don't wanna miss out Krias HaTorah and you're in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh. Should you stop and listen to Krias HaTorah? Again, the short, quick answer to that is no, you should not be doing that. We have a discussion about this on one of the questions on the website with all the different reasons why you should be able to, why you shouldn't be able to. And the bottom line is you're in the middle of shFach isha mechuchem, it's not appropriate to stop praising the Aibishter for you to be yoetz Krias HaTorah. Now, for Amen, in the middle of

26:19 Speaker 2 davening, you're allowed to answer Amen. That's praising Hashem, and you're praising Hashem. In Pesukim DeZiman it says Amen is part of Pesukim DeZiman. But in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, you're not supposed to stop. You're supposed to stop to hear Kedusha, that it says, and that's a machloket. So we do a compromise. We just listen to Kedusha. We don't say Kedusha 'cause there are those that say you shouldn't even be hearing Kedusha. But to stop at Krias HaTorah, what, what's the point of stopping for Krias HaTorah? Now, Havdalah is better than Krias HaTorah 'cause Krias HaTorah, who says you're obligated to begin with? The tzibur is obligated. Havdalah is your obligation. On the other hand, Havdalah, who says you have to hear now Havdalah? Krias HaTorah right now, the tzibur is obligated, and you're a part of that tzibur. Krias HaTorah, you're mechuyav to listen when Krias HaTorah is happening. Krias HaTorah is part of davening. Havdalah is a personal obligation which has nothing to do with davening. It doesn't belong in the middle of davening. Why are you stopping Shemoneh Esreh? 'Cause you wanna be yoetz Havdalah, so it's not the right thing to be mafsik. It actually is a question if you're gonna be mafsik, stop and listen to Havdalah, shemeah ke-oneh. Listening is as if you're saying, so maybe it's even considered a hefsek. So al pi halacha, a hefsek is only when you motzi mipiv, when you actually verbalize words. If you're not saying anything else, it's not really considered a

27:27 Speaker 2 hefsek. This is one of the examples that they bring when it says that a good thought, Hashem counts as an action. A negative thought, He doesn't count as an action. So the posek can bring an example for this in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, when you hear Kedusha. It's a machloket Rash and Tosfos if you should stop for Kedusha or not stop. So we follow a compromise. We stop to hear Kedusha, but we don't answer Kedusha. So the positive part of it, as if you said Kedusha, that's counted. That's a good thought. That's counted as an action. The negative part that it's a hefsek, that's not counted. That's like in between. But that works for Kedusha. That doesn't work for Havdalah. You're in the middle of praising Hashem, you don't stop for any other mitzvah right now. It could even be there's an argument that says that maybe you won't even be yoetz Havdalah 'cause if you can't make Havdalah, you also can't be yoetz Havdalah. In the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, you're not allowed to make Havdalah. So since you're not allowed to make Havdalah, you, you don't have an ability to make Havdalah, who says you can be yoetz through someone else when you can't even do it yourself? So like I said, while there could be room to be lenient, in practice, this should not be done, and find a way to hear Havdalah later. And finally, I'll finish with a question which I got this week. A family is going through

28:33 Speaker 2 the manuscripts of, of the Yrusah of their, uh, parent or grandparent, and there's letters and, and the question is, these are private letters. Is the family allowed to read this? Are they allowed to publicize it? This issue came up particularly with different f- public figures, and there was discussions about how to deal with their letters. Is it allowed to be made public? Is it not allowed to be made public? Are other people allowed to read them? We have a cherem hakadmonim from Ravenu Gershom that you're not allowed to read someone else's letters. You're not allowed to be megaleh sisrich chaveiro. You're not allowed to be likroik sefar chaveiro, read letters that other people wrote. But it's not clear what this cherem is all about. What's the status of this cherem? Does it apply to someone that passed away? I'll ask another question. Does it apply to someone who's not Jewish? Is there an issur to read seemingly-- It's not under the regular rule of geneivah 'cause it's a cherem of Ravenu Gershom, so it's not geneivah. If we would follow the rules of geneivah, so gezel goy, you're not allowed to steal from a goy. You're not allowed to read a private letter from a goy also, but it's not the regular... Although posek can compare it to shoel shalom mi-daas, borrowing without permission. They compare it to geneivas daas, deceiving g- stealing, stealing a person's secrets. Mafzik, it's a form of injury. Ve'ahavta l'reicha kamocha. The person doesn't want you to do it. Lo

29:59 Speaker 2 salech rachol. But it's hard to say they have the technical halachic aspects. Some of those aspects might apply to someone that passed away. Some of them might not apply. So the right thing is, since the, the, the letters belong to the family, the family should appoint someone who's a trustworthy person to look at the letters and to see which letters are okay and will not harm the person that passed away. There's a, there's a issur not to say cherem, osa cherem hakadmonim, not to say lashon hara al hameis. There's no issur of lashon hara of people that passed away, but it's a cherem hakadmonim. It's a terrible thing to do. So honoring other people's reputation is important even after they've passed away, even if it doesn't fall exactly under the exact technical rules of geneivah and mafzik, et cetera. It's still a form of ve'ahavta l'reicha kamocha, and therefore, like I said, someone should be appointed to read and to see what's-- Some, sometimes there's things that are relevant for the public, sometimes there are things that are not relevant to the public. But starting to publicize it, that wouldn't be the right thing to do. Besuder stevus, kol tov.

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