Removing Mezuzos When Moving Out

00:00 Speaker 1 Welcome to the Halacha Podcast, Laman Yishmu, with Harav Yosef Yishaya 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 Laman Yilmedu, the premier institute for practical Halacha learning.

00:21 Speaker 2 Welcome to our next installment of Laman Yishmu in partnership with Ask the Rav. Let's go straight into it. There's a custom on the day of Hachnasat L'cheder when a child starts learning Aleph Bet. There's a special ceremony where they come to the cheder, and they sit at the melamed, and they lick the honey on top of the letters of the Aleph Bet. And part of that minhag is to have a special cake, which is made with holy words written on it, and an egg with psukim written on it. So the question is, the child is not interested in really finishing this cake and finishing the egg. What are you supposed to do? Now, some people suggest that a simple solution would be to peel off the top layer of the cake. Actually, some suggest that you actually have to make sure that the psukim remain intact, which isn't easy when you put the psukim on top of the cake, and when you peel it off, it should stay intact. But anyhow, be that as it may, peel off the top of the cake. He doesn't have to eat the entire cake. Let him just eat the top layer, which has the psukim on it. Now, how are you gonna get him to eat all the psukim on the egg? You could try to do the same and try to peel off the most external layer of the egg, make an egg salad out of it, whatever it is. So is there really something need to

01:42 Speaker 2 do that? That's question number one. And question number two, he didn't finish the egg on that day. Can he eat the egg the next day? So when it comes to eating eggs that are left ov-overnight, we have a Halacha that a egg-- a peeled egg which stayed overnight is a sakana to eat. So how do-- We altogether have a minhag of having children eat eggs, peeled eggs, which have a psukim that would be normally left overnight. The simple answer would be that, no, you make the eggs in the very morning on the day you take them to the cheder. However, traditionally, the custom was, in ancient days at least, that a child would have his Hachnasat L'cheder on Shavuot. And if it was on Shavuot, they couldn't write on the egg on Shavuot. They had to write before Shavuot. Since they wrote before Shavuot, that means the egg was overnight. So we're back to square one. How could you leave an egg overnight? Now, this question is raised in the Poskim. The Maharcham brings in the name of Maharam, presumably Maharam of Rothenburg. He doesn't write exactly what he's talking about, about children eating peeled eggs. But from the context, it's pretty obvious that this is what he's talking about. And he gives two suggestions why it's not a problem. One suggestion why it's not a problem is because Ruach Ra, the reason not to eat a peeled egg left overnight is because of a negative spirit. This negative spirit, dilma, perhaps... Now, I don't

03:04 Speaker 2 know if perhaps means he's not sure about it, that it was a way of humility. Poskim talk about that, too. But he says, dilma, perhaps, is this Ruach Ra, this negative spirit, does not exist anymore. We have a lot of things that Gemara says is a particular negative spirit, and those negative spirits, we don't know about them anymore, and we're not particular about these things anymore. That's suggestion number one. Suggestion number two is since it has holy scriptures on it, Kizvei Hakodesh, the holy writings on it are the psukim matzil, and they protect this egg, and therefore it's kosher and okay to eat the egg even if it was peeled and left overnight. So the first answer is a difficult answer. Besides for the fact that he says dilma, perhaps, in Halacha, Poskim clearly bring in the laws of sakana nowadays also not to eat eggs that were left overnight, peeled eggs left overnight. There are solutions. It's mixed with other foods, and some people are, uh, um... That's one of the explanations why some people will be makpid to make their egg salad. It was a food eaten in a lot of communities on Shabbos day, and they would actually make it on Shabbos even though there's some Ha-Halachic problems with making egg salad 'cause they didn't wanna leave it overnight. And others say, "No, not a problem. It has salt and onion and oil or mayonnaise," whatever it is. So the, the, the-- But clearly, if it doesn't have anything mixed into it,

04:24 Speaker 2 clearly the Halacha is you can't leave eggs overnight. And the Alter Rebbe brings in Halacha also, so we don't follow that position. Um, Tosfos talk about this also. One of the Rish-- The Rishonim in Masechtas Bava about Yom Tov, about grinding spices on Yom Tov, grinding onions, eggs, onions, a few things, garlic. And part of the sevara why you should be able to grind it on Yom Tov is because you couldn't grind the garlic before Yom Tov because there's a Ruach Ra if you leave it overnight. So in Halacha, it's accepted it is a Ruach Ra nowadays as well. The question was about the second answer. The second answer could be a legitimate answer, and that could indeed be that that's the reason why it's okay. Clearly, the minhag was that the child's Hachnasat L'cheder was on Shavuot. That was the normal thing. Today's day and age, we don't follow that minhag in most places. And if they did it on Shavuot, they couldn't write the words on Shavuot. They had to write it before Shavuot, so it was left overnight. Now, there are Rishonim that wrote that a k-kid should not even eat the food. If the kid doesn't eat the food, there's no problem to begin with. They made a cookie and a egg, but they never gave it to him to eat. They-- In fact, in the Reb Yehuda Hachasid, it's written in his name that he said it's a bizayon. It's inappropriate that a kid should eat these psukim. But the

05:36 Speaker 2 other Rishonim that do talk about him eating the psukim, the, the egg and the cake with the psukim on it, so it was left overnight. We have to rely on the second answer that the Holy Scripture protects it. So we do have such a principle in many places of Shomer Mitzvah le'hiot dor v'ra, that if you're doing something for a mitzvah, you don't have to worry about negative consequences. This is clearly of a mitzvah. But the Maharcham doesn't write Shomer Mitzvah. He writes because of the Holy Scripture. It's not exactly the same answer. When we talk about the rule of Shomer Mitzvah- He could have just said it's for a mitzvah. He says, "Kisvei Hakodesh matzilm," holy scripture protect. So the-- Did he rely on that answer together with the first answer, that there's no ruach rah nowadays? Is it similar to the theme of Shehecheyanu mitzvah? When it comes to Shehecheyanu mitzvah, posek can say that we don't rely on that. Lechatchila, lechatchila, don't go and peel it in advance. If the, if the Echad Echad, Echad Echad, you have to peel it in advance. But if the Echad Echad is on a regular day, indeed today's day and age when we do Echad Echad are not on Yom Tov, we-- the common custom is not to peel the egg the night before. So to leave the egg for the child to eat the next day, that goes back to this question, can we, can we rely on that and just let him eat

06:48 Speaker 2 it? I will mention that the Chidushei HaShem, a pish on the Mark, he brings slightly differently the text, which in the name of the Mark and the Maram, he doesn't say, "Kisvei Hakodesh matzilm," and he says, "Diyus Shalim, ksav adiyus shalim," because there's writing in it, therefore it's okay. He doesn't say because it's holy writing. It seems like it's the same idea that you can have eggs mixed with salt, onions, other foods. You can also have egg if it has ink on it. That ink is-- means it's not plain egg. That's a totally different approach. And in other posekim we don't find this approach. But the truth is that I'm not convinced that the entire premise that the kid has to eat the entire egg and cake is actually accurate. Because for a child to eat a large cake is-- which has quite a few psukim written in it, and Hashem Yerachem is more psukim than what we traditionally do, it's almost impossible for a kid to eat all of that. And none of the posekim say you have to give it to him over the next who knows how many days. It seems like you gave him the cake on that very, very day, and he ate it. Which kid could eat so much? And to suggest that they actually peeled off the... The posekim didn't mention the idea of peeling off all the letters. And the same with the egg, highly unlikely the kid ate all of that. You wr- you wrote the

08:03 Speaker 2 e-- on the egg, you wrote on the cake, and then he ate whatever he can eat of it. So I'm not convinced there's a chiyuv to go and convince and force a child to finish all of that. About forcing the child, there's a Sefer Tal Udis that discusses, no, that if a child doesn't wanna eat, we make him eat from it because it's important for his psichas halev, for him to, to, to learn Torah. But that's to eat some of it. Who says it's to make him eat all of it? I'm not convinced that is the case. Any-- let's move on. I haven't found any traditional source that says he has to eat the entire egg and the entire cake. Um, if the kid is willing to do it, great. If he's not willing to do it, to, to make him crazy, it sounds a-- as far as I'm concerned, it sounds a bit far-fetched.

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09:12 Speaker 2 Moving on to another shailot. This shailot comes up so many times, all the time, and it's coming up again, about people leaving their homes, taking off their mezuzahs. People spend a lot of money on a mezuzah, and we have big homes, there's quite a few mezuzahs, and now they're leaving their rental, and they're going to a new house, and if they have to leave their mezuzahs there, that's, that's a fortune of money. So the halacha is, so brought in the Gemara, and paskina shel Shulchan Aruch, that you're not allowed to take off a mezuzah from a house when you leave. The Gemara says some horrible story that happened where someone took off the mezuzahs and the terrible things that happened to his wife and kids. What's the reason you're not allowed to take off the mezuzahs? So there's a common misconception that somehow it has to do with the fact that you're supposed to be nice to the person living afterwards in the, in the house. The next Jew is gonna be living there, you're supposed to supply him and do Ahavas Yisrael and give him a mezuzah. That's not the simple reason. I know one of the Achronim do mention the idea of Lifnei Iver, that if you don't leave there a mezuzah, it's a form of a stumbling block, but that's not the pashto reason. The reasons that are brought in the Rishonim are, number one, you're harming them. Not having mezuzah is mamash considered harming. Taking off the mezuzah, the Perush writes,

10:24 Speaker 2 you're mazik b'yadaim, you're directly harming them. You're creating danger in this home. The other explanation is, already-- the, the Goonim already bring this, the Shilters, you're taking off-- these mezuzahs were serving for a mitzvah, and now you took them off, and now these mezuzahs are laying there without being used for a mitzvah. It's a bizayon. It's actually embarrassing for the, for the, for the mezuzahs that they should not be serving for a mitzvah right now. During the interim time, it's not using-- being used for a, for a mitzvah. Another explanation, the Ritva says, "You're removing the Shechinah from the home." I, I would put it in other words, Yidden don't take mezuzahs off homes. It's-- That, that's, Rachmanus Lan, what Goy would do, they would take mezuzahs off Jewish homes. We don't take mezuzahs off. That's not the kind of thing that we do, and it's considered a sakana doing that. The fact that we harming the person 'cause he doesn't have a mezuzah, how is that different than any house that when they move into the house, first the house is built, and only afterwards you put a mezuzah, and there's a short amount of time from when the house was built till they put up the mezuzah. The Rechem HaKadosh says for the Rechem, as the Sefer HaGolish said, let's see. He asked this question of the Gemara, and he says this is very, very different. A tr-- typical house does not have a mezuzah, fine, and then you put a mezuzah later.

11:41 Speaker 2 But here, once there was a mezuzah, the minute you take off the mezuzah, all the mazikin, all the negative forces, all the harm gets absorbed and comes to this house. We could put it just slightly differently. When there was kedushah before and we remove the kedushah, that makes much more ne-negative koach. Another way of saying it, this house is worse 'cause it already had a chiyuv mezuzah. Therefore, there's more, more potential of chesed, of that, of harm. So we have multiple reasons for this halacha. The only exception to this rule is when a Goy is moving in, not because it's A goy doesn't have the mitzvah of mezuzah because there's a concern that the goy will not appreciate the mezuzah. The mezuzah will resembling baby Zion, will become disgraced 'cause he won't be respectful to the mezuzah. If a person knows for a fact that a mezuzah will be disgraced even if a Yid lives there, then he shouldn't leave a mezuzah there. If he knows for a fact a goy will live there and the goy will treat the mezuzah respectfully, then he should leave the mezuzah there. It has to do with the fact whether the mezuzah will be disgraced or not. So people have this question and they wanna know how can they get out of this so-called problem, I'm not allowed to take off my mezuzah. So some people suggest if I make a stipulation when I put on the mezuzahs that I can take them back, that's nonsense. It doesn't

12:53 Speaker 2 help. All the reasons that we mentioned apply, whether you made a stipulation, you didn't make a stipulation, you can't take off the mezuzahs. It's an expense. The-- You're not wasting mezuzahs. You're not wasting money. Those mezuzahs are staying on this home. Y- 'cause you-- there is a home which has a mezuzah on it, has nothing to do with you. Now the question is, can I get my money for it? So there are more paskins that, yes, the next door-- the next neighbor that's moving in has to pay you. There's two separate issues. You're not allowed to take off a mezuzah, but he has to pay you. Some place write the lotion tov l'shalom, but in my rights, chayil l'shalom. Now if he has to pay me, that might create a very strong chetzer because if the guy is not willing to pay, the Ritva writes very clearly, many paskins say this, that if the guy is not willing to pay, then I'm allowed to take the mezuzahs. He has an obligation to pay me. If he's not paying me, I'm taking my mezuzahs. I'm giving him a choice. Either you replace these mezuzahs with your own... I'm not allowed to take them off and tell him, "I'll take them off, you put your own." No. I leave my mezuzahs there, he comes and puts his own and gives me back mine. Option one. Option two, he wants to keep my mezuzahs, he pays me for the mezuzahs. Some paskins suggest a solution, you could put

14:07 Speaker 2 your cheaper mezuzah, and that's a common approach that some people do. But for some people, that's also a fortune. I could tell the person, "I want my money." And if he doesn't pay the money... So the Chayei Adam says, although it's not clear this is indeed the halacha, that if the person doesn't wanna pay, you're allowed to take them, he says, "But if there's hefse meruba, if it costs a fortune of money," which indeed usually mezuzahs in a home is a lot of money, you could rely on this opinion. You could easily rely on this opinion. Just like paskins say if a person is going to another place where he won't be able to find a mezuzah. So he has two choices. Either my new house won't have a mezuzah, not because he doesn't have the money for it. He won't have a mezuzah in the new house. He's going to another pla-- an island. There's no mezuzahs there. So either the new house won't have a mezuzah or the old house. Obviously, it's better the old house not to have a mezuzah. He's only taking it off in order to be able to put it on in a new home. So the Chayei Adam uses the same logic and he says, "If I won't be able to be makayim the mitzvah of mezuzah, I'm allowed to take off the mezuzah. Likewise, if I'm gonna lose a lot of money, I'm also allowed to take it off." At the fact, the fact that there are

15:09 Speaker 2 opinions that say to begin with, the issur is only because you're taking it off and not the mezuzah, I'm not gonna serve a function. But over here, I'm right away gonna put it up in my new home. So that's another support to the why it should be okay. Besides, I'm trying to protect the person that's moving in there. He shouldn't have harm. Instead, he's having the averah of gezela, which is also an averah. And if he's not paying, who says he's b'klal gonna have a mitzvah? It's a mitzvah abah averah. So these are all reasons why if the person is not gonna pay, there's good argument that I'm allowed to take it off. Moving on to the next question. In the Siddur, in Kirsh Al HaMita, at the very, very end, there's a small par- paragraph, Ribon Olam. It's not printed in all the Siddurim. It's printed in our Siddur, but not every one of them. And in this Ribon Olam, it's, it's a prayer to be able to wake up at chatzos. So for those who do Tikkun Chatzos, this is a, a beautiful tefillah. Those who don't do Tikkun Chatzos, commonly people who don't do Tikkun Chatzos and don't wanna wake up at chatzos and are not planning to wake up at chatzos, they skip out those few words in the tefillah that says, "Help me that I should be able to wake up at midnight." But there's another part in this tefillah where in the tefillah it says, "Purify me from all

16:18 Speaker 2 my sins, from all impurity." Now the question is, do we say this tefillah on Shabbos and Yom Tov? Now, in our Siddur, it talks about different parts on Natzer and Shabbos and Yom Tov and some parts of Kirsh Natzer on days when we don't say Tachnun, but it doesn't say a word about this Ribon Olam, and the implication is that this Ribon Olam should be said on Shabbos and Yom Tov. One way to look is look in the Machzor. In the Machzor for Rosh Hashanah, they printed this Kirsh Al HaMita with the Ribon Olam implying, you know, Rosh Hashanah we don't mention sin. In some ways, this might even be worse than Shabbos mentioning sin on Rosh Hashanah. We don't even say Avinu Malkeinu chatanu lefanecha. We don't-- Well, Shabbos we don't say Avinu Malkeinu at all. But we don't mention anything to do with sin on Rosh Hashanah, and this Ribon Olam is found there in the Machzor. But the truth to be told is that in the early prints of the Machzor, this is in the-- only in the later editions they add this. In the Machzor that the Rebbe published, there was no Kirsh Al HaMita for Rosh Hashanah at all. There, there is a Kirsh Al HaMita for Yom Kippur, where Yom Kippur you're allowed to mention sin on the one hand, but on the other hand, in Kirsh Al HaMita, we actually don't say Al Chet on Yom Kippur. We say Al Chet about Yom Kippur, but in Kirsh Al

17:30 Speaker 2 HaMita, where there's-- generally a person could say Al Chet on Kirsh Al HaMita. It says in the Siddur that if a person wants to say Al Chet, he should go to the tefillah of Yom Kippur, and he could find there the Nusach Al Chet to say on a regular Kirsh Al HaMita. But the Friediger Rebbe was asked about saying Al Chet on Yom Kippur. He said, "Al Chet Yom Kippur you say only when you have to." You don't say extra Al Chets, not during Kirsh Al HaMita. So I don't know if we can prove from the Kirsh Al HaMita of Yom Kippur when we say this Ribon Olam, we don't say Al Chet, but it's okay to mention sin. So we can't bring much proof on the Yom Kippur, but the minhag is clearly that we say it on Shabbos, and the Mashbir of Shlomo Chaim Katzenel gave over this was the minhag. And the argument is because we don't say clearly the word sin, chatoyim, avoinus. It's a tefillah that Hashem, she purifies from tumah and from sickness. Tumah and sickness is not the same thing as averos, but just And we're not exactly being mezavah, we're not confessing, and that's why it should be okay. Moving on to another question. The Alter Rebbe writes in Shulchan Aruch that in a shul where they count Sefirah early, and you don't know if you should join them for Sefirah, you shouldn't join them for Sefirah. He gives you a whole plan how to do if

18:50 Speaker 2 their Sefirah is not exactly in the right time. But that's not what we're gonna be talking about. The part that I'm, that I'm ask- gonna ask the question, Alter Rebbe talks about if you listened and heard other people counting Sefirah. And he throws a comment there that if somebody in the community, whether the entire community heard one person, the minute you heard them saying Sefirah, you are automatically yoitze Sefirah with their Sefirah, even if you weren't planning to be yoitze. What's the argument that you are automatically yoitze Sefirah? Because there's a machloket if mitzvot tzrich is kavana, mitzvot ain't tzrich is kavana. If you have to have intention when you do a mitzvah or you don't. In mitzvot d'rabbonon, there's even a stronger argument. Almost everybody holds... Well, some people say that according to everyone, ain't tzrich is kavana. Sefirat Haomer nowadays, according to most people, is d'rabbonon 'cause we didn't have a Korban Omer. So if a mitzvot d'rabbonon doesn't need kavana, whether you intended to be yoitze Sefirah, you didn't intend, the minute you heard Sefirah, someone said, "Hayom hayom ha'chodesh ha'omer," you weren't planning on being yoitze. It doesn't matter, you're automatically yoitze. And even the Alter Rebbe says, even if you had in mind and you said, "I am not planning to be yoitze," ein ani b'metzikav l'atzes. You're thinking that, "I don't wanna be yoitze," that's not gonna help you. You're automatically yoitze. Unless you have in mind, "I am planning not to be yoitze." Notice the subtle difference. I'm

20:11 Speaker 2 not planning to be yoitze, or I am planning not to be yoitze. So every time you pass by a shul and they say Sefirah, that could be a very, very serious problem, and it seems to be that's what it says in the Alter Rebbe Shulchan Aruch. So close your ears, don't listen to their Sefirah, go somewhere else. Daven with their minyan, go ahead. When you ask-- That's one of the reasons why when you ask someone what today's Sefirah is, he's supposed to tell you what yesterday's Sefirah was. Why is he not supposed to tell you what today's Sefirah is? 'Cause the minute he tells you what today's Sefirah is, he told you he's fulfilling the mitzvah, whether he intended or he didn't intend. What about if he answered you, you could still count Sefirah? Why? One second, but I heard his Sefirah. He could be yoitze Sefirah even with shemayah, even by hearing from him. The answer is because when I asked him, my plan was at the very time when I asked him that I'm going to say Sefirah again, 'cause that's the reason I'm asking what, what's tonight's Sefirah, to know what to say. When he answers, he wasn't clearly having in mind when he's answering that he's planning to do Sefirah later. But when I'm asking, I'm asking in order to count Sefirah right now. So my intention right now is I am not being yoitze, and therefore it's okay to ask him, and even if he answers me what tonight's Sefirah

21:23 Speaker 2 is, I don't have to worry. So everybody asks the question on this Alter Rebbe, "What do you mean? We're here in shul, the chazan says the berachah, says the Sefirah, and then we're counting Sefirah. So how could we count Sefirah after we heard the chazan's Sefirah? We're automatically yoitze." That's the question people ask, and they relate that one of the-- It was a psak Sefirah Rebbe, I think it was the Gerrer Rebbe. He would close his ears when the chazan said Sefirah. Some people say you should say when the chazan makes the berachah, say Baruch Hu U'lech Shmai, implying that you're not yoitze. But the truth is the Divrei Nechemiah on the Alter Rebbe Shulchan Aruch asked this question. He writes, "Ma'asim bechol yom," it's the common meaning that we make a-- the community makes a berachah after they heard it from the chazan. And he says very-- It's the same as asking someone. When you hear lifi tumoi, that's the lashon of the Alter Rebbe. In passing, you heard someone saying Sefirah, you're yoitze automatically. But when you're clearly asking someone in order to count, likewise, when you're listening to the chazan in order to know what to count afterwards, so your intention right now is to count right afterwards. And indeed, this is the answer that many, many later Acharonim say, but the first person that already wrote this was the Divrei Nechemiah. The Rashbi is the source of this halacha that you automatically yoitze when you hear from someone else. He's talking

22:37 Speaker 2 about when you hear from a chazan, but it seems like in the Rashbi's time, that wasn't the common custom that the chazan counted and then everybody counted. And nowadays, that's the meaning. The chazan says loud the berachah and the Sefirah, everybody listens what's the right Sefirah, and we follow. When we're listening in order to know what to count, then it's nev- never, never gonna be a problem. There was-- There's, uh, one of the later Acharonim write that maybe that's the reason for the minhag that in some shuls the rav would count 'cause the rav has a minhag l'chatchilah. He doesn't wanna be motzi everyone. Okay, that's another whole discussion. Could the rav-- Could it work when... Do I have to have kavana I don't wanna be yoitze? Clearly. Or it's enough that the person that's saying is having kavana not to be mimotzi. I don't wanna go into the whole arichos. How hefech kavana, kavana chafchis, how this works. Clearly, you don't need kavana, but if you have kavana not to be yoitze, then you can't be forced to be yoitze. So can someone else have that kavana too? C- we could talk about that's a, that's a lange arichos and a lange lamdus, and I don't wanna go into that particular shailah right now. It's a bit complicated. But that, that is, um, uh, one svara why there's a minhag that the rav would count. Chayim Dovid, the Ketzos Hashulchan writes that one pashut way to avoid this whole entire problem, you should in

23:53 Speaker 2 advance, in the beginning of Sefirah, have and make a Hatanah that whenever someone says Sefirah and you're hearing Sefirah, you're feiderish don't wanna be yoitze. So you spell it out very, very clearly. Once you spell it out, it's never a problem. And likewise, when we're hearing Sefirah from a chazan, also not a problem, as we mentioned, 'cause that's, right, that's the minhag. That's the sayer. The sayer is that someone says Sefirah, and we listen to know what to count. Like I said, in the name of Divrei Nechemiah, that really wouldn't be a problem.

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24:49 Speaker 2 Talking about Sefirah, a very, very interesting question. The question I was asked was, someone was in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, and shachat dvart, he started dreaming. In the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, he hears the chazan saying Sefirah, so he started saying the berachah. And right after he said the berachah, oi, he's in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh. But now, if he's in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, he said the berachah, maybe he should continue and count Sefirah, otherwise the berachah will be l'vatalah. So there's a similar question, it's not the question that I received, where someone was in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh and he realized that he didn't count Sefirah yesterday. If he's gonna wait till after Shemoneh Esreh, he's gonna lose a day of Sefirah. Can he count Sefirah in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh? This question is a much easier question because there's no heter to stop in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh in order that you shouldn't miss out a day of Sefirah. No such heter. You missed that, you missed out, that's your problem. But original question that I asked where he already made a berachah, now it's a question of a berachah levatalah. So c- do we let him once he made this berachah to go and count Sefirah now in the middle of, middle of ma'avod Shemoneh Esreh. The klal in being mafsik b'tefillah, you're not allowed to stop in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh only if it's a question of sakanas nefashos or it's nega'ah for

26:09 Speaker 2 the davening. You're allowed to even stop in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh and ask a shailah in halachah because it's nega'ah for your davening right now. Even if a melech Yisroel, a shor beshalomo, there's a king asking how you're doing, you can't answer him. You're omed lifnei hamelech, you're standing in front of the king. They call you to the Torah, you hear Kaddish, Kedushah, you hear a lightning, a thunder. You don't answer for any of these things. You don't answer for any mitzvah. The Pri Megadim in his Sefer, Orchos Chayim, asks the question at the end of the first day of Sukkos, a mitzvah m'deoraisa to shake lulav and you're davening mincha, can you stop and shake lulav? He's also-- He seems like you shouldn't stop and do that, but he's also not talking about a hefsek where you actually say something. You're just shaking lulav. That's not even saying something. We do find one case where, where you're allowed to stop in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh for a mitzvah, and that is a Kohen. If there's only one Kohen and he was called up to go duchan, he's gonna lose on a mitzvah aseh tzelach l'chohekes, so he's allowed to go and duchan. Now, Alter Rebbe paskens, the Divrei HaChaim, Chafetz Chaim, he says he's gonna be ovel a mitzvas asei v'kosev v'chu, he's allowed to stop in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh and do Birchas Kohanim. But over there it's different. Birchas Kohanim is part of Shemoneh Esreh. We actually do Birchas

27:20 Speaker 2 Kohanim in the middle of Chad Gadya as a sheyaach to davening was-- they were kovei in davening. That's why the chazan is allowed to answer Amen to Birchas Kohanim in the middle of his Shemoneh Esreh. So we, we don't find too many places where there's a heter in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh to stop. Sometimes you have to stop people from a isur and you have to save a Rav. There's such kind of cases. There's a tumah. There is one exception. There's a ritvah that says that if you by mistake said, "Baruch ata Hashem" in Shemoneh Esreh, and then you realize, "Oi, I forgot to say meridei geshem. I said meridei geshem in the summer." I'm not gonna go through all the details of the cases. So-- And you're already fi-finishing the berachah. Just say, "Lamdenu chukecha." Say, "Lamdenu chukecha," you won't have a problem. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, all the later poskim bring this ritvah. The early poskim didn't even bring this ritvah. The, the Shulchan Aruch, the Alter Rebbe, the-- they didn't even see such a ritvah. This ritvah, they didn't have this ritvah. But later poskim bring this ritvah. But some-- a lot of the people ask, "What kind of heter is there? What? You're allowed to learn in the middle of davening?" Baruch ata Hashem lamdenu chukecha is a pasuk. What's your heter to learn in the middle of davening? You're allowed to talk in the middle of davening? And if you talked and you said, "Lamdenu chukecha," b'mezid

28:30 Speaker 2 you should go back to the beginning of Shemoneh Esreh. The ritvah does say this. The question is in what cases we follow this ritvah and when we don't follow the ritvah. But here, clearly, the reason you're saying, "Lamdenu chukecha," 'cause you-- otherwise, you say-- you would say, "Baruch ata Hashem." But that's not a proof to our case. The ritvah did not say because you shouldn't have a sha'ah of a berachah levatalah. That's not the only idea. The idea here is you're trying to pr-- save your davening. You need to say meridei geshem. You're not supposed to say meridei geshem. You need to say ve'eisan tal umata, whatever the case is. You need to say al biveyayv and you're messing up your davening. I need to fix up my davening. And when I say baruch ata Hashem lamdenu chukecha, never mind, that is part of praising Hashem. Baruch ata Hashem lamdenu chukecha is part of davening. Teach me, Hashem, Torah. It's not like stam, I wanna protect my berachah levatalah. I'm gonna say, "Nehe yu yimech aleihem." What is nehe yu yimech aleihem have to do with Shemoneh Esreh? Totally nothing to do with Shemoneh Esreh. So you can't prove from the lamdenu chukecha that you should be able to do something else. It's a very important mitzvah of Sefirah. It's a mitzvah that you wanna stop on berachah levatalah, but I don't see how you can prove from that case even this ritvah is a big chiddush to say lamdenu chukecha, fix up your mistakes

29:32 Speaker 2 in davening. But that's fixing up your davening mistake, not something else. The only one other heter is that we-- sometimes we have an idea that kiven shetfulah so movsek es, that since a person already stopped davening, already made a hefsek, maybe he's allowed to go and continue the hefsek even further. We have a din if somebody has gas that came out of him, he says a special tefillah, Ribono Shel Olam in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh. So-- And the reason Rashi explains, 'cause he already made a hefsek 'cause gas came out of him, so now he makes an extra hefsek. But over there it's also different. Since gas came out of him in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, he was mevazeh et habrishtar. He now has to apologize for that like a person standing in front of the king. So the chatrilut, they made this say that, that during Shemoneh Esreh, that's a de-o masaken. Since he already made that hefsek in davening to fix up the problem. But w- that wouldn't necessarily-- Normally, if a person makes one hefsek, we don't let him make more of a hefsek. You're allowed to say kaddish baruch and yimlich in the middle of k- birkas kriyah shma. You're not allowed to say the rest of it because sh- even though you already made a hefsek. So to me, it seems like it wouldn't be a heter to say the berachah. And even though it's a berachah levatalah, which is a sha'ah if it's a derabanan, that wouldn't

30:37 Speaker 2 be a heter to do that in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh. I'm just gonna finish off with one final question. Question was, made a promise to my cleaning lady. Made a promise. I told my cleaning lady I need her for three hours. I wanna change to two hours. Is that okay? You have to keep your promises. So the emes is cleaning lady is a very interesting mystery because everybody complains that the cleaning ladies, they tell you they're coming on Sunday, and they end up not showing up. So if that's the say that they don't show up whenever they tell you, who says you have to stick to your original amount? You don't need her for three hours. You changed your mind. I'm not talking about chas v'Shalom not keeping your word. But you change your mind, you don't need that anymore. But there's a befeir that Gemara in Brachos-- in Bechoros. The Gemara says that there's a din, you're supposed to keep your word. A Yid is supposed to keep a word. We learn it from a pasuk, Shemos says, "V'lo yasu avlah." There's a concept called mechusrei ha'amanah. You're not trustworthy. We can't force you in a besdin because you made a commitment, but you need to keep your word. But the Gemara says that this doesn't apply. It applies from Yid to Yid, but not when talking to a Goy. Like, Goy, there's no such concept that you have to because you said, "Okay, I change my mind." And since there's no such

31:36 Speaker 2 concept, therefore you're not mechuyav to stick to this. Even nowadays that there's Goyim that are very cultured, et cetera, and some of the halachas do not-- the Gemara says that by Goyim don't necessarily apply nowadays. But there's no requirement in secular law called hein tzedek, that you say a word, you need to-- that you're bound by that and you-- if you can't change terms and conditions. So the Rama doesn't bring this halacha that this doesn't apply by Goyim. They talk about why the Rama doesn't bring it, but the halacha remains that that is indeed the halacha. Sometimes it could be an issue of hil Hashem. Generally, it's not a hil Hashem because they also know the idea that you said and you change your mind. We often-- even though you have a chiyuv on your-- from your perspective, let's skip your obligation to the Goy. You need to keep your word, but since you chatzila didn't have in mind that in halacha, if you made a decision, you have to keep gamur b'libo. A, a pious person, this was a decision, he'll stick to his decision. But since you knew the chatzila that you're saying it to them, they don't necessarily keep their word, so you were not gamur b'libo. Even with a Yid sometimes they had to when conditions and circumstances change, right? So obviously-- Now, we're not talking about you could say three hours and you mean two hours. No, you change your mind, conditions have changed, um, there wouldn't be an issue

32:51 Speaker 2 when, when it comes to Goyim. There is a shail if a chlal of a Goy has to keep his word. There's a sicha of the Rebbe where the Rebbe talks about how Yaakov, the reason why Yaakov married two sisters, Rachel and Leah, because once he promised he's going to marry Rachel, he has to stick to his word and marry Rachel. The Rebbe mentions elsewhere that even though it's not part of the Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach, it's common sense you have to keep your word. That's halacha that the Goyim have to-- what the Goyim have to do. But since it's not part of the structure in the business world, it's not normally accepted that you're mechuyav. If you say something, you have to, you have to do it. And especially like I mentioned, the cleaning lady industry, it's pretty common that they know, yeah, you say one thing today and then you change your mind tomorrow. So al pi ha-din, it wouldn't be a problem. Kol tov.

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