פנורמה של הלכה 6

00:00 Speaker 1 A good and a good . Going into, uh, we're celebrating in, in, uh, Kislev. So we'll start off with something f-about the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe's pot-put mainly three sefer. We have the Alter Rebbe, uh, who published the Tanya, and the Alter Rebbe wrote the Shulchan Aruch, and then the siddur. And like the Rambam, we have the Rambam wrote the Sefer Halachot. This is the Mishneh Torah, and he has the Moreh Nevuchim which is in, in Machshava. The Alter Rebbe also has these two, these two sefer in the Tanya, which is in Machshava, and the, uh, Shulchan Aruch, which is the Halacha. But then the Alter Rebbe has a the siddur, which is a combination. It's, uh, Mishneh Torah and, and, uh, Halacha. It's, uh, it's somewhere in between Nigla and Nistar. But let's take a vot here. Someone asked me this week, someone from Toronto, and he asks the question that in the siddur we have in the , we have the br- we have the, uh, wording is . Take a regular siddur, an Ashkenaz siddur or Sefard siddur, says or . He's asking why isn't the Chabad siddur is the, uh, wording ? So what you have on the left of the, of the screen is from a siddur, which is about thirty years before the Alter Rebbe. Perhaps a bit more. A siddur based Rabbi Zalman Hena, and I believe the Alter Rebbe used this, a very siddur, a very accurate siddur. Um, between... He was like a, a master

01:51 Speaker 1 of dikduk in his time. A contemporary of the Baal Shem Tov kind of. And Rabbi Zal-- Rabbi Yaakov Emden was a major opponent of his. There were a lot of polemics between the two. But anyway, this is the siddur which I'm g-got this from. And then we have here at the bottom of the page on the left, we have here the, um, from the same siddur, uh, from... This is from the Alter Rebbe siddur from, uh, which was fo-found a few years ago in the library in, in, in Moscow. Uh, this is of the first print of the Alter Rebbe siddur from, uh, the Tofov Samach Gimel. Um, okay, so what we're seeing here on the right of your page is, so we have... Again, the question is why rather than ? And the answer is it's very much Alpi Kabbalah. And that is that equals a, a gematria of Hashem's name. We have Hashem's name, um, Yud Kei Vav Kei. That's twenty-six. And if Yud Kei Vav Kei, as you can see over here, is spelled Yud Vav Dalet Hey Yud Vav Yud Vav Hey Yud. That equals seventy-two. So we've got here, um, a Yud Kei Vav Kei. That's the Shem Ayin Beis. Now Slach, Samech Lamed and Ches, is ninety-six. That would be Yud Kei Vav Kei, the Ayin Beis, plus the Yud Kei Vav Kei in, as, as, as simple. So that's twenty-six plus seventy-two would bring you to ninety-eight. So that's what he's saying here in the first line, that

03:28 Speaker 1 Slach is a, is a remez to the Shem Yud Kei Vav Kei. Now let's take a look at the Shem Ehekiel. By the way, I remember he, uh, hearing a tape. The Rebbe said instead of saying Ehyeh, we, he said Ehekiel. So let take a look here at the word Ehekiel, and then we look at the word Mertzalon. Or let's go first Mertzalon. Mer-Mertzal is forty, forty-eight, fifty-four. Fifty-four, eighty-four. Eighty-four plus now is now a hundred and fourteen, a hundred and sixty-four, uh, uh, and a hundred and seventy. So Mertzalon is a hundred and seventy. Now let's take a look at those words. Aleph, Hey, then Yud and a Hey. So that's... Aleph is, um, a hundred and eleven. Then the two U-- two Heys is fifteen and fifteen, so that's brings you to thirty. And Yud is fifty. So fifty and a hundred and eleven. Sorry. No, that's right. Yud is twenty, and Hey, Hey is fifty. That's fifty. Fifty and a hundred... Oh, oh, so that brings you to a hundred and, and sixty-one. Then count the letters. Aleph, Lamed, Peh, Hey, Yud. Hey, Hey, Yud. Yud, Vav, Dalet, Hey, Yud. So you've got here in the Shem you've got ten letters. So the gematria of these four, uh, words is a hundred and sixty-one. Then the, uh, there's actually ten le-- uh, ten letters that brings it to a hundred and seventy-one. So that is the parallel of Mertzalonu, which is a hundred and seventy. Mertzalel is seven-- hundred and seventy-one. Basically,

05:08 Speaker 1 what we have here is clearly a Kabbalah, um, how do you say? Uh, intervention. That we want to have here in this Slachlanu, we want to have a remez to the Shem Yud Kei Vav Kei and the Shem Ehyeh. Um, and therefore we have Mertzalonu rather than Mertzalonu. And so that's to bring out to, to share with us that, the, that, the gematria. That's the purpose of this spelling. Why is the Shem Ehyeh got to do with Kapparah? That I, I looked around and didn't find clearly. Possibly you have the idea when Hashem says to Moshe, "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, I will be with them in di- moments of difficulty." So then that possibly relates to the concept of Kapparah. I want to just bring in another, another thing since we're talking about words in diyuk in the davening, and this is something which un- I notice many people slip up. Goim el chasod un toivim, koinei hakol. The vav is not missing by mistake. The vav of v'koinei, which as you can see in the previous quote over here from the Zalman Henner siddur, v'koinei, that's in standard Nusach Ashkenaz, is v'koinei, and I think Nusach Sfarad also. And yet we have here koinei. The, and there's, the Kabbalah here is that the word v'koinei or koinei is a remez to one of the 13 attributes of rachamim, of Hashem's mercy and compassion, the last one being v'nakeh. So, in the back of the Shulchan Aruch, Chelek Erychaim, or Chelek Alef of Erychaim, there's a

06:47 Speaker 1 whole page of comments on the Nusachat Tefila from the Vilna Gaon. And there, he says it should be davka v'koinei, because he doesn't want to take the vav as in koinei, and the vav here is a vowel. It's not-- You don't hear it. It's not a consonant. Therefore, the, the Gra doesn't want to ha-count that into the remez of v'nakeh. The Alter Rebbe doesn't follow that. The Alter Rebbe says, "A vav, which is also just a vowel, can also make up the remozim." And therefore, the vav of koinei, the vowel vav of koinei, makes it correspond to v'nakeh. That's, that's fine. And that's the same thing which is done over here. The mechaylanu. It's taken the vav of mechayil, and this is, this is not the Alter Rebbe, this is really Alter, you know, from the Ari Z"L. The vav of mechayil makes up the gematria of a hundred and seventy. So it's okay to use the vavs, the vowel letters, to make, to make up the gematria when necessary according to Kabbalah. Okay. That's, that's just a bit of the, the behind the curtains of the siddur. Let's take a look what someone's asking. Someone's asking, it's worrying that we change bits of tefila to alter the, he-correct Hebrew to fit in with the gematrias. Okay. Yeah, if it would be a, a ma-massive intervention. Okay. It's a very minor intervention. And I was looking this week's sadur. Um, you have some-- I, I pointed here in the, in the title of this thing.

08:16 Speaker 1 That line over there is called a makaf. That is when you have two words which are joining together. Not, that's not in the Sefer Torah, but in, in Dikduk, you have this, this makaf which, which joins two words together, and it will take the vowel. So really, the original word is mechayil. But when there is a, a kind of a shortening of-- It's a brief, it's this shortening of the space. Mechaylanu, the makaf makes-- Then it takes away the oy and diminishes it to o. So that's, the makaf has reduced it to mechaylanu. So mechaylanu is not incorrect, it's just as if it is giving a bit more emphasis. Like we have also in, in the variations in davening, kol ha'chayim, kol ha'chayim, al kol mashé beró, al kol mashé beró. So you sometimes have this change. It depends a little bit on how the, the sing-song of the words is. Like we have actually even lahavdil in English, is it advertisement or advertisement? It can be the same word, and it's i-in different, uh, dialects, it's going to be, the emphasis is slightly different. So here, the dialect which has been chosen here is to conform to the Kabbalah. Okay, let's go on to something which is Halacha LeMa'ase. Um, tonight we switch to, um, the saying Tal uMatar Livracha. And, uh, many people ask the question, it's one of the only things in our calendar which we follow the civil calendar rather than the, uh, the, the, the calendar which of the Jewish

09:42 Speaker 1 calendar. So the reason for switching to start asking for rain has obviously got to do with the need for rain. And the need for rain goes according to the seasons. The, the, uh, cal-- the, the sun, the s- the cycle of the sun has got four quarters. You've got the solstices, uh, where you've got the longest day, the shortest day, and then you've got the equinoxes, which is where the day and night are equal. And these are called in Hebrew, they're called the tekufot, the four tekufot. So you've got Tekufat HaAviv, Tekufat, um, then you've got Tekufat Tammuz, Tekufat Tishri, which is the, uh, I think it's called the vernal equinox. And then we've got Tekufat Sivan, which is, uh, I think it's called the au- well, I'm perhaps mixing up. Then you've got where it's going, going into the, the depth of winter. The rule for switchover for saying Tal uMatar is sixty days from Tekufat Tishri. In other words, from the sols- from the, well, equinox around Yom Kippur time, around, so, so, I mean, Sukkot time. From that equinox, sixty days hence, that would be the time to switch over. Now, you might start looking at the calendar, look at when the equinox was and say, "It doesn't actually fit for tonight," which is the, uh, the sixth, the sixth of, uh, of, of December. Uh, the e-explanation for this is, actually, if you look at a, a sefer from two hundred years ago, you'll see it's talking about the fourth of

11:10 Speaker 1 December, uh, and, or fifth of December, and it's kee-keeps on creeping later and later. The reason for this is because the actual cycle of a year is three hundred and sixty-five days and, um, how does it go? Um, i-it's, it's twel- It's something about, um, whether it's a full six hours or just a little bit less than six hours. And because of that, uh, slight, uh, inaccuracy, which is, that's the qu- what's called Tekufat of Shmuel as a, as, as distinct from Rav Adi or the, the, uh, astronomical one. There's a slight margin where the, the calendar which we're following is a little bit longer. And that, that, how do you say, discrepancy has accumulated over the, over the years, and therefore, the beginning of, of, uh, Tekufah, of, of, uh, saying the Tal uMatar has become Gradually, later and later in the winter, someone made a calculation that if -- no, that in forty thousand years, uh, we'll be saying Ma'asei Antal Mot or Er-Erev Pesach. But, yeah, BeEzrat Hashem. Okay. Uh, this follows, this follows Babel, obviously. Uh, we, we can manage with rain much earlier. We do get rain much earlier, but we, uh, everywhere outside of the State of Israel just follows Babel. And that's what also interesting, that even the Southern Hemisphere also follow Minhag Babel regardless. Um, let's move on. Um, and, uh, someone's asking that we-- then we have a worry that Pesach might be not in, not in Chag Ha'aviv, not in the Chodesh Ha'aviv, you mean.

12:56 Speaker 1 Yeah, that, that is a concern, and that we'd better have the Gaon of Shlomit and Sanhedrin coming back to sort out these discrepancies. Right. Let's move on. Um, someone asked, this is a shailah because of the, the lockdowns. People are asking the shailah about lighting a menorah, uh, in a studio to be broadcast on national media. May you say the brocha as normal? So I want to address this. The public menorah is relatively a new minhag, which goes back, let's say, from about, about forty years ago, perhaps forty-five years ago. And y-y-- those-- And the various people have written about this and, uh, perhaps questioning it. They-- I, I've written about this in the Sefer Nesivim Besder Shlichus Volume Aleph extensively, basically to explain that we, we have the concept of the menorah lit in shul. And the Muf-- the, the Poskim go to pain, at pains to explain that no one is yotzer from the m-menorah in shul. So if so, why are you lighting it in shul? So one of the reasons they say is pesamim is. But actually, there are numerous Rishonim who say that the menorah is lit in shul for the benefit of those people who, for some reason, whether because they don't have the money, or they don't have the house, or they don't have the Sechor, whatever it may be, they may not be lighting a menorah at home. And like this, they will be yotzer with light-- with the menorah lit in shul. And now, before you

14:28 Speaker 1 start jumping up and down in, in protest, the question is, the very person who lights the menorah in shul, he has to go home and light menorah again with a brocha. Discuss this. Es shechiyanu, ot shechiyanu. But he, he has to make-- light again at home. He's not yotzer. And so therefore, one has to understand a bit, a bit more, um, subtle over here. It says in the Gemara, "Horoya ner Chanukah m'forah ek shasan is la'av od." A person who's walking in the street and he sees a ner Chanukah. So Rashi says in the Gemara in Gemara Shabbos, it means a person who doesn't have-- for some reason, he doesn't have a menorah. He doesn't even have a house. And he sees a ner Chanukah, so he is yotzer. He, he's, he is not fulfilling his chiyuv, his personal obligation. But he is participating in the pesamim nisa experience. He's seeing a menorah. He's remembering Chann- the opinion of Chanukah. So he's, so shall we say, on the receiving end. But he can make a brocha, she-asans la'av od. What seems to be by the menorah in shul sins the people who see the menorah will be on the receiving end of pesamim nisa. We are able to make a brocha, shasan is la'av od, no such a thing. So are we allowed to make a brocha, shekiyanu b'mitzvotav u'mitzvot avotanu, lehadlik ner Chanukah, to provide the, the, uh, those who are out there that they should be, be on the receiving end of the

15:48 Speaker 1 pesamim nisa. So v'omer d'varim amorim. So therefore, in a shul, you light a menorah, and people, uh... There's no one there who's not gonna light at home. Okay, we'll say it's because of minhag. But if there's someone there, so he's yotzer. He's yotzer in the opinion of pesamim nisa. Though that same reason, that same logic is valid for the menorah in the public square, the only difference is that mefarshim say that the lighting of menorah in the Beis-- in shul is zecher lemikdash. You cannot, uh, pick holes in that one because, um, you know, what about, what about, um, the d-- what about tonight? What about, I mean, every day? The zecher lemikdash should be every day. But be that it may. The, one of the things that zecher lemikdash is which side of the shul you should light it. Why we light it in shul in the morning by halal as well as by night. It's a zecher lemikdash. Because they lit the menorah in, in the morning also according to many mefarshim. But the, the, basically, the menorah in public, um, spaces has got a... The precedent is this, the menorah which is lit in shul, and that is for the same, very same logic. Because there are people out there who are going to see the menorah, and they will be exposed to the, the experience of pesamim nisa, therefore, we can make a, make a brocha. This is all very well if you're talking about a menorah which is tacha with

17:06 Speaker 1 flames and with, um, with which, uh, you know, a wick and a flame. You can make a brocha on that. But here, if someone will be turning on his, uh, his computer, and he'll see that in this and this place, they are lighting a menorah, but he is seeing it through the screen. He can't make a brocha, shasan is la'av od, saying over a screen. Can't. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it doesn't, doesn't, doesn't, uh, doesn't seem right. And, uh, and as a result, the person's making menorah. I said, "Well, I've told people, if you wanna make a thing on the sc-- on Zoom on the TV, light menorah at home or in your shul if you have, um, a, a, a, a, a shul. And light menorah there and put that on the screen." But in a studio where there are no other people there, so the only exposure is via the media, so make a brocha without Hashem's name. Borachu Hashem eleh chelimo lecha olam. The chazanis is okay. You can say it with chazanis. Don't, don't, don't deprive the chazanim of their, um, broadcasting, their, you know, um, how you say, room with chil bigroinam. But, um, but, uh, but no, a brocha shouldn't be made on, on, in a, in a studio. So now I want to s-so-- Joe, let's look at another thing. Looks like it's not on the, on the list of questions. But fine, doesn't matter. Here's-- It's on the screen. What about meno-- lighting menorah with a

18:28 Speaker 1 gas lamp? Isn't it beautiful, these gas lamps that you buy from camping shops. Very beautiful light. Uh, it's almost looks like a fluorescent light. As you say, it's too good, it's too good. Um, it's not okay as far as-- the Anias Di is not okay for lighting menorah. But the s-- the reason is, if you take apart this, this kind of lamp, you'll see that inside there is a little bag. There's a cloth bag sur-surrounds, surrounds the flame. There's a small flame. You don't see the flame. The flame warms up the inside of the bag. The bag is impregnated with particles, which when they become hot, they start glowing. So the gas lamp, you don't see a flame. You're seeing a gl-glowing particles, and that doesn't count as a for light in the menorah and therefore that's not valid. Although it would have been very convenient, but it's not valid for, for, um, for lighting menorah, Anias Di. I know some people say it's okay, but I, I'm, I need to be, uh... As far as I understand, it's not okay. Okay. The next thing which we have on the list is about a menorah in a public pl-- Um, oh, so someone's lit menorah in his own, uh, uh, salon, in his dining room with his family, and then he's got his front of his house is onto the street. So this is dur-- the picture is taken during the daytime. But he wants to light the menorah again on the street, so the

19:51 Speaker 1 passersby should be able to, let's say, um, should, should be able to see the menorah. Very nice. So he asked me that if that's okay. So I said, "Actually, if you first light the menorah outside, you've fulfilled your mitzvah, and there's no point of saying a berakhah again when you go inside." In other words, the original mitzvah was to light Al Pesakh Beis Yehudit Bachutz. To light menorah outside. If you've lit your menorah on your, in your front yard, so you've done the mitzvah as it was in the original mitzvah, and there's no, no justification to, for you to go back into your dining room and light menorah again. On the other hand, if you first light menorah inside, so you've done the menorah for yourself. Uh, you're not, you're not-- you haven't fulfilled the idea of Prisum Min Yisro. In other words, if you light the menorah outside, you've done Prisum Min Yisro, and you've done fulfilled your personal chir. If you first do your personal chir, you missed out on Prisum Min Yisro. Then you are allowed to light it again outside in order to project the idea of Prisum Min Yisro so that people should pass by. He asked whether you need to have a minyan. So actually, uh, in the, uh, Mishnah Burah, he brings from Rav Yaakov, from Rav Yaakov Emden. On a Friday, when do you light menorah in shul on Friday? So normally, we try to have a minyan in shul when we light the menorah in shul.

21:11 Speaker 1 But on a Friday, let's say especially if you're having Mincha early or whatever, so there may not be necessarily ten people in shul at the time, and it's getting close to Shabbos. And so he says, "Light the menorah without ten people." It's not crucial to have ten people when you light the menorah for a public menorah. So long-- Because there will-- people will be passing by. They'll reach... They'll come later. So it's not crucial to have a minyan. It's preferable, but it's not crucial to have a minyan when you light the menorah. So he'll light the menorah outside. Uh, because of COVID, he won't, uh, ha-- make a special time for people to gather, but people will pass by, uh, even and will have an issue, and, and that's, that's, that's okay. You could make a berakhah on that. Okay, let's move on. Someone's asking, "Is pomace," I hope I'm pronouncing it right. "Is pomace oil, olive oil, equally acceptable for the menorah?" So I want to say very simple that we're talking now clearly in the area of Hidur Mitzvah, because you can light the menorah with, with, uh, wax candles. You can light menorah with paraffin, uh, whatever it may be. There-- You can have the various mater-- various fuels. But we've-- There's a preference to use the-- to use olive oil because that was, it was in the Beis Hamikdash. So we have here a Mishnah. This is a Mishnah in Menachot. There's three types of olives, and each one produces three

22:31 Speaker 1 types of olive oil. And you got the first olive is from the top of the tree, so it's well exposed to the sun. You squeeze it, you push it aside of the basket. And then we have the next one, you put on, um, uh, weights, um, of a, a beam or, or stones. And then that's the second quality. And then and then the third thing is when you-- if you grind it, you produce, produce oil, that's the third quality. And then it goes through all the difference, the different levels of, um, quality of olive oil. First of the first, second of the first. There are different levels of where the s-- olive, olives grow. At the top of the tree, middle of the tree, bottom of the tree. More exposure to the sun, less exposure to the sun. So these produce different qualities oil-- of, of olives, and therefore different quality oil. And the one which is only produced after crushing is the least quality. The pomace oil, apparently, from my, uh, reading of it, up on it, is that it's produced by a chemical reaction. They put in some kind of chemicals into the-- I don't know what the word in English is, but it's the, like, the dregs equivalent of, um, of making wine. Here, it's from oil. They squeeze out olives, and they add some kind of, um, chemical, and that stimulates that the, the oil should flow out. So it's not top quality olive oil. It's the le-- it's, uh, the

23:55 Speaker 1 least quality olive, olive oil. Uh, it is valid, but it's-- If you wanna say it's mehudar, no, it's not the be-best, best mehudar. It's the least mehudar amongst olive oils. Um, uh, Mr. Odd is adding here that he wouldn't use pomace, um, oil for food purposes. As I just mentioned, there are, um, there are chemicals, and you're mentioning that it might be carcinogenic, which obviously wouldn't be a good idea to, uh, to, to put in your salad. Okay, so that's the pomace oil. Let's move on then. So we're not there yet. Okay. Right. Very, very important point, and that is the, uh, the question of, of a, a question of muktzeh because Chabad minhag, not only Chabad, many Hasidim have the minhag to light the menorah davka on the other side of-- It says in the Gemara, the, the, now that, um, that-- the Gemara, Midrashim, that you have the mezuzah bimin, menorah be-- m'smora l'mezuzah bimin, and and is mezuzah b'mitzvahs. You-- The-- There's the emphasis of having the menorah on the opposite side of the mezuzah. I had the, uh, privilege of learning with the late Rav Padwa, zal, alav ha-rachamim. I once went to him Chanukah. He lived on Kaisle Road, um, I can't remember which number it was, but he had a, where the room where you learned, which was the back room, there's a doorway which kind of went to a balcony which overlooked the garden. And he put his menorah there, at that doorway, which was, no one can

25:29 Speaker 1 see it, not even from the gardens. But he followed the same as Arminic, to light the menorah in the doorway rather than by the window. There's also, there's a famous answer of the Rebbe about why we don't light the menorah in the window. There was the Rosh Hashiva in Torah V'Daz, Rav Shalom Moshe Ber Rifkin, Rav Ber Rifkin. And he lived on the corner of Eastern Parkway and Brooklyn Avenue, in that big building. He lived over there. And the Rebbe passes by and he sees how his menorah is in the window. And the Rebbe says, writes to him, I think writes to him, whatever, but it's published. One of the reasons why we don't light in the window, if you have the more old style menorahs, which would be like a, like with a back. So the back would be, if you light the menorah, it can be visible. The window is not visible to the inside. That's, he gives a couple of reasons. But the simplest reason is we want to keep to lighting the doorway. So that's the Menikin in any case. I'm not going to go into the details now. But the question has become for Shabbos. Especially if you've got toddlers in the house. What I did see is that even if you have a doorway which doesn't have a door, and therefore the mezuzah there is not according to everyone. According to the Rambam, you don't need to have a mezuzah if there's no door. But for as far as

26:52 Speaker 1 this is concerned, it's okay to have the menorah in such a doorway. I have my house, I have a doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. There's no door there. And we have the menorah over there on the opposite side of the mezuzah. The question is what happens on Friday night if it is in the doorway and you've got little children and you're worried about moving it. You're worried about them bumping into it, et cetera. Or you worry because you want to close the door. It's getting cold. This time of the year, it is sometimes a little cold. So we all know there's a concept of bosses of Davor HaOsor Mutar. We know that we put the challahs on the table so that they should be there at the onset of Shabbos as well as the candlesticks so that in case you want to move the table, you should be allowed to because it's the bosses of Davor HaOsor Mutar. So when you've got on the same surface a Davor HaOsor, a Davor HaMutar, then the surface does not become Muksa. It's not so poshet. There's several factors which one has to take into consideration. First of all, when we say you want to move the table and you're allowed to move the table because it's got the candlesticks and it's got the challah. Why are you moving the table? Because you want to use the table. Here, why do you want to move the table or the chair, whatever it may be? Because

28:10 Speaker 1 you want to protect the menorah. You want to protect. So then the purpose is there normally it's for the motive is a Davor HaMutar. Here, the motive is the Chareid of Oz. Second point is that when you've got challahs at the table, the table is for eating. So, all right. So then the challahs are at least as important at the table as the candlesticks are. But here, you've got a little table just for the menorah. The fact that you put a little challah, nobody's going to eat at that little table. They're not going to eat the challah at the table. So that doesn't really become a dominant factor to counterbalance the menorah. Now, the next thing is that when we talk about bosses of Davor HaOsor Mutar, what's important is that the Davor HaMutar has to be of equal or greater value. Value doesn't necessarily mean money. It has to be of greater importance than the Davor HaOsor. Which is interesting because challahs, so normally we say in Shekinah, that you have the flame and the challahs. What's the muksah? The muksah is the flame. So what would you prefer? To have a flame and go hungry or to have challahs in the dark? You have that choice. I think I would go for to have my sandwiches in the dark. That's between flames, between light and challahs. But you know what? My candlesticks, I bought them one time. Yeah, my wife's candlesticks. They're quite expensive. I think if it's $700, I think I'd skip

30:04 Speaker 1 supper for $700 or $1,000. So I'm looking now, instead of looking at the flames, the candlesticks, the candlesticks, which is looking in Shekinah, they were simple things, clay candlesticks or whatever. They weren't expensive, delicate items. One would use them for other things also. As a little container for trinkets. Our candlesticks, our expensive candlesticks, we wouldn't use them for anything else. So I think they come under the category of muksah machmas kasorin kis. So they are a big muksah. So you have to counterbalance not only the candles, the flames, but you have to counterbalance the candlesticks also. Well, so you're going to put something down. And then what are you going to put down? Let's say you're going to, you know what? You're going to put down on your little menorah tray, you're going to put down a mechumayid. Oh, the mechumayid is going to be the counterbalance. You know, in my house, I've got about 75 mechumayids. For Hashem, souvenirs, for bar mitzvahs, it's a double choshev. Of course, it's got holy words in it, but to say that it's got a counterbalance to the presence of the menorah, it's schwachemizes. So the, the, uh, putting something... And I'm saying this also because it's also relevant for the sh-- people pick up the Shabbos tray, uh, the, you know, the chal-- uh, the, um, the candlesticks by putting a candy on the, on the, on the tray, which is, uh, very, very questionable because of what I've just said. Does it, uh, why are you

31:35 Speaker 1 moving it, and does the thing which you put on it, does it counterbalance? Um, I was brought up with you never move them. Just stay-- they stay there for the whole of Shabbos. At any rate, so moving the menorah with the table, um, um, because you put a dove header is highly questionable, and I would say simply just instead just do, uh, moving it kilachayat. Move the table. If you need to move it out of the way, move it. Push it with your foot. Slowly move it out, out of the way on this, in, in, in a safe place. Do it kilachayat, and that's permitted. Mukza, it may be moved kilachayat. That's the simplest solution which I can come up with. Okay. Okay, let's move on. Um, a-another Hanukkah question. S-- uh, two people asked me. One fellow called me up. He has a balabos who's traveling to, uh, to, uh, Thailand. Middle of Hanukkah, he bought tickets, and he's traveling to Thailand with the family for holiday. After all this lockdown, as you say, if you want to go on a holiday. But he's didn't realize it'd be middle of Hanukkah. He's leaving the town. He's leaving about twelve o'clock at day, eleven o'clock by day till he gets to the airport, et cetera. He arrives in Thailand, let's say, seven o'clock in the morning. So there's no way, uh, and I don't think Thai Air appreciate people lighting, uh, menorahs on there, you know, in the kitchen there or something. I don't think

33:09 Speaker 1 that's gonna work. And someone else called me. Again, he also, his son is in, in America, in Detroit, whatever, coming once he has a, um, has a, um, uh, able to come home for a few days for Hanukkah. He bought the cha-- this ticket during Hanukkah. So he's got traveling from Newark Airport. The flight is at five PM. He's gonna arrive in, in Europe. He's gonna arrive in, in the morning. So what's he gonna do about menorah? Uh, so in Newark, I asked to try and find out. Perhaps there's a shul in Newark. He could, perhaps he could do a, they may get a minyan or even, even if not, can, the, the shul might have facilities to light a menorah, which is in itself questionable, but fine. But this fella going to Thailand. So then the question is like this. It says in the Gemara story about someone who is, uh, in Germany who was married, and he was in yeshiva away from home, and he says he doesn't need to p- to participate in the menorah lighting here because back home, his wife is lighting. So I'm looking into the question like this. So someone is traveling from Ukraine to Thailand for, for a, for a vacation. How about if he asks a neighbor of his, a friend of his, "Do me a favor, and this and this time, go to my house. Here, here's the key. You light my menorah in my, in my, in d- in my house, my window," whatever

34:28 Speaker 1 it may be. "Light, light my menorah for my money and my, for my oil, and do it on, on my shul. Is there any value in that?" So you have in the Gemara, it says his wife lit the menorah for him. So there's a safer specializing in hilchas traveling. It's called . It's written by Reb Betzalel, Reb Betzalel Stern, who wrote this, the . He was a, for a number of years, he was the rav of the Kehillah in Melbourne, and he was very sensitive to traveling and the complications, especially, you know, dateline and stuff like that, and being in different time, time zones. He's very, uh... So he specialized in this area. But he ta- he takes the view that it does not work to have someone else other than your wife. If, if someone was staying home and they light your menorah, you're yoetz. But just to have your menorah lit and you're not there, so you're not yoetz with that. Listen, uh, he does not bring any proof to that. So what I would say is there's no, I mean, the, the on-- there, there no chance of them lighting in the plane. Uh, if this is going to... Th-this might work, it might not work. So, uh, no, no, uh, hard and fast answer on that. Uh, that's, I mean, it, it, it can't do any harm if, if then someone else will light the menorah on their behalf. And this way, possibly they are yoetz because their menorah has been

35:53 Speaker 1 lit in, in their, in, in their premises. All right. Let's got to anon... So someone's asked what should the shul Beis Chabad do for, to facilitate this person? uh, we're lighting menorah in a, uh, I know, but that, that they're not yoetz from the menorah in shul. The Alter Rebbe said in Tanya, which you had a couple of days, when the chazan goes to the Yamim and says, "Kedushe," so the omshus basod is yoetz Kedushe. But I don't know whether they're yoetz the menorah. If they don't see a menorah, I don't think they can be yoetz without seeing the menorah. If there is, as I said, back to this in, in Newark, if there was a, a place where there's a public menorah in Newark, at least they could be yoetz to the, what we said before, the idea of seeing a So, as you see, it's got here, it's, it's Warburtons, which is a national company. It's not a, a Jewish company. It does have, uh, LBD, I think. And as we know, the LBD doesn't necessarily cover for the questions of Bishul Akum. So therefore, they're asking the question, is it a question of Pas Yisroel or Pas Akum, et cetera. This was the question. So I was curious. He says gluten-free. What grain is used here? So it's apparently they use ri- rice, rice or maize. They use other grains not from the Chameshes Min Dagan. So therefore, it's clearly in Shulchan Aruch that this does not come under the gather of

37:53 Speaker 1 Pas Akum because it's not made from those grains. But the, the story doesn't stop there. This question is, what about Bishul Akum? In other words, the Halacha of Pas is more lenient than Halacha of Bishul. So, for example, the concept of Pas Paltar, the fact that it's made by a commercial baker, is permitted by bread. It's not permitted by, uh, according to most Poskim, it's not been permitted by other things. The reason for that might be that bread is, uh, a staple, much more of a staple than baked beans or, or, uh, cooked potatoes. Much, it's more, bread is more of a staple, and perhaps because of that, the Chachamim allowed you, allowed us to use Pas Paltar, but they didn't make that concession. It could also be that cooking involves more ingredients. Bread is a more simple product. Whatever the reason may be, but there are greater concessions in Halacha for Pas than there are for Bishul. So having confirmed that there's no problem of Pas because it's not made from any of those five grains, we still have to deal with, is it subject to Bishul Akum? The rules of Bishul Akum are, there's two main rules. It has to be something which is inedible raw, and it has to be something which would be served at a fancy do. It's, it's, um, Olah al Shulchan Melachim, lelaafes es hapass. Would it be served at a fancy do? So my, my little bit of research into crumpets turns out that at least in

39:35 Speaker 1 England, it's a chashuve food, and it would be, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be out of place to serve crumpets at a fancy do. So then I do see that there is a concern of, of, uh, Bishul Akum. Um, there are-- So, so now let me just see the, the, uh, questions over here. Someone's poising, pointing out that LBD have a special mark for Pas Yisroel products. Well, this, they wouldn't have to mark. This doesn't need to be Pas Yisroel, but I want to know whether it's called Bishul Yisroel, and that's where I have a little, uh, I have a problem with this. Okay. The next question is coming back to Hanukkah. Uh, is asking, would electric lights work for Hanukkah? Unfortunately, no, because this is possibly going back to, um, maybe to the Bais Yitzchok who lived in, in the Raven Lodge before the war. He, um, he talks about electricity. Hanukkah has to be a wick and a, a oil, uh, and a consumption of that, that form. Electricity is a different type of flame. Electricity is a friction type of fire. It's doesn't, does- doesn't, doesn't resemble the Menorah of HaMidrash. So electric lights. Again, uh, for a zecher, it's a nice, uh, zecher, but it doesn't, uh, um, work. Uh, so Gershon's asking, toast in the crumpet, does that help? Unfortunately, I don't think so because it's, once it's already become roil achilah, the fact that you take it afterwards and toast it is not going to undo. Once it's kind of

41:00 Speaker 1 been qualified as, as a Bishul Akum, toasting it later doesn't, is not gonna undo that. So, yeah, I, um, so I, I really, I don't have a, a satisfactory, uh, you know, heter for this, uh, product. Let's move on. Someone asked me a totally different question, nothing to do with Hanukkah, and that is about, um, can, can, may cat litter be switched on Shabbos? So, if you have a cat, um, so now there's a litter, which is where the cat will relieve itself and then if it's, uh, it's made to absorb the bad smells, but let's say you only realize on Shabbos there's a bad smell. So I would say it is muktzeh. Cat litter is muktzeh, but then we have this famous klal that God will kovod, kovod habriyos. Shelo chas v'shalom, shelo chas v'shalom, that a kovod habriyos, a respect for human life or human dignity overrides the isur, uh, an isur d'Rabanan. So if the presence of the cat litter is offensive to y-- to our presence, so we would be allowed to empty it and, uh, if necessary, refill because otherwise the cat won't, uh, you know, might, might decide to leave something somewhere else. And therefore, I would, it would remain that l'chatchilah, no, not to do it on Shabbos. Switch it before Shabbos. But if on Shabbos it's in an area where you are using that area and it's bothering you, so then we could re-rely on the concept of kovod habriyos to allow you to, to switch it

42:39 Speaker 1 on Shabbos. Let's go on to the next question, and that was, um, like I'm switching the order. Point eleven was sweeping. A couple of day, well, last year, two shiurim back, we spoke about sweeping and about a broom. That is, sweeping outside is forbidden because you might fill in the cracks. Sweeping indoors is permitted. So then someone's asking, what about if I have an internal, uh, tiled floor where there's grout? Is there, um, there are like slight grooves. Is that a problem? So this is from the Orach Shulchan. So from quoted in . And he's saying that what we say, um... Mendel? Mendel, not in here. Sorry.

43:22 Speaker 2 No,

43:24 Speaker 1 Okay. Um, says that So says, the meaning is it's allowed to do some sweeping indoors. Uh, we, we, we do allow sweeping the floors indoors. because our floors are . The word which is used for a floor and means consecutive. If you have all the floorboards one after the other, consecutive, that's a, a floor, a proper floor. Therefore, one cannot make a . One should not say, "Oh, don't sweep a floor indoors. Perhaps you'll have a floor indoors which doesn't have a, a, a, a, which... a proper floor." Then he says, everywhere in normal practice in houses, it's not like, you know, the mud hu-huts which had floors made of earth or sand. Our floors are made with, with floorboards. That's before the carpet, wall-to-wall carpet. Don't worry, the differ- no difference whether it's wood or, uh, wooden floorboards or me- um, stone, uh, tiles. We don't have to worry about the little gaps between one tile and the next. when it comes to sweeping, to say that you're gonna do sweeping to fill up that crack, those type of cracks, that's not an issue. because the space between one tile and the next is so minimal, therefore you don't have to worry about it. So you hear, you have very clearly the question. The good question was asked by the, the and he says an indoor floor, even if there are slight gaps between the tiles, but that's not an issue to worry about. Let's go on then. Um, let's go on to the

45:34 Speaker 1 question ten. I'm going into the slightly wrong order. About is there a worry of coloration, of coloring when it comes to using a teabag? So I was brought up that you prepare tea essence before Shabbos, and you have a little, a , you have a little, um, kettle. We had, uh, actually a ceramic one which sat on top of the urn, and we-- that was prepared before Shabbos, so I just follow and prepare tea essence before Shabbos. But I know many people don't do that, and they rely on using a . And then someone's asking about the coloring of the bag, and though, so you can have coloring from tea. Uh, it can be a fruit tea, so it's more colorful, more attractive color. Is that, is that an issue? So here what we have in front of you on the screen is from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. It's from and it's, it's, uh, in, in the and he's saying here the following. A, a, a ra-- a rag which people don't normally color, don't dye it to, to change its color, is not a worry of wiping your hands and coloring it. Well, let's skip to the next, the next piece. He says, if you'd say... So there is mention in Shulchan Aruch about if a person's got a cut, about using a, a, a cloth which is gonna be colored by the blood. So the Alter Rebbe says here, and it says she's, uh, it should be also for her to pa-

47:11 Speaker 1 place a to place a cloth there to absorb the, the, um, the bleeding. Like you're not allowed to put a, a, a uh, a garment on a wound, on a to absorb. But the clearly in talks about putting on the, putting such a pad in place to absorb the, uh, the bleeding. has discussion whether it can go out with the pad to the street, but no one's worried about, about about coloring the pad. the reason must be it's been designated for absorbing the, uh, the bleeding. So the Alter Rebbe lays down here a clown, that if it's something which is for this, this purpose of getting soiled in use, then you don't have to worry about, about coloration. And so therefore, the teabags are for making tea, and afterwards you throw them out, and therefore one doesn't have to worry about the coloring of the teabag. That's what I managed to find so far. Okay, let's go on to the next question, which is a child born . A child is born. The word in English is translated, um, twilight. Twilight means between the two lights. In between the lights. You've got the light of the day, which is the, the sun, and then after the sun sets, a little while later, the star, the stars are visible. Uh, the moon, the beginning of the month is vis-- is even, um, visible before sunset. The end of the month, the moon is visible in the morning, but not earlier in the evening, ear-early evening. Anyway,

48:52 Speaker 1 that's what is. The shamas means the servant. The sun is a sh- a servant by day. The, the moon and the stars are the shamashim by night. And you've got this time between which is . We're not sure whether it belongs to the day, doesn't, whether it belong to the night. The child, child is born then. So now we've got this question about celebrating a birthday, which is not really a major, uh, Halakha question. It's a celebration. But, uh, still every-- we want to have guidance in Halakha. So the important birthday will obviously be the, um, bar mitzvah. So now the question would be, you know, in Chabad, the meaning is that a boy starts wearing tefillin two months before the bar mitzvah. But some kehillahs, they wait till the day of the bar mitzvah. So now, if he's born to twilight between not this year, yeah? So then does he put, start tefillin on ? So the because why is it ? It's not bar mitzvah. is about the one constitutes a minyan. So it talks there about a child becoming bar mitzvah. So there says, when you have this so you'd have to go to which means you'd have to say the boy should wear tefillinday before. Because even though it's only a safek, but you have to start the day before. And therefore, coming back to this question also with birthdays, so one would have to celebrate the birthday the day earlier rather than the day later. Two other two points

50:36 Speaker 1 which are connected to this. Very often people ask about a yortzeit. The end of life could also be sometimes on the shabison, but it can be also ben ashmoshes. And there also, I follow the view, again, as discussed in Poskim, that to take the earlier of the two, the earlier of the day rather than the later day. And there it's a simple logic, which is because of the zikaron. The nifter is waiting to be remembered. It shouldn't be that the day has passed and the nifter is saying, "Why didn't you remember me?" So if it's a day earlier, it's okay. If it's a day later, then there can be that someone over there has been worrying, "Why haven't they remembered me?" Okay, one more point, which is, I think, a very important point. The moment of birth. So they tell you in the hospital the baby was born at this and this time. What exactly is called birth? They are saying when they're not sure exactly how they define. But halacha, once the baby has put his head out of the cervix, is that yatzer roshe? Yatzer roshe is really called born. Some Poskim want to say even if the cervix is so dilated that you can see the head, might also be considered already a nolad. Now, that makes a massive difference. Halacha, if a baby is born, let's say, on Friday evening, even let's say 10 minutes after birth, I'm throwing numbers, yeah? Shortly after ben ashmoshes. You say it was born after

52:14 Speaker 1 ben ashmoshes, the baby is born Shabbos, you have to make Shabbos bris. Before you rush to do that, consider perhaps the baby was considered born a little bit earlier, 10 minutes earlier, perhaps 15 minutes earlier. So although the report is saying the baby was born 10 minutes after ben ashmoshes, it might be, halacha, the baby was actually considered to have been born earlier. And that would mean the baby was born on Friday or chash Friday, and then you might be very similar to making the bris on Shabbos. So therefore, I wouldn't rush to a pask on such a thing. So, and coming back to the birthdays. So following this approach, it looks like when you have a baby born ben ashmoshes, one should actually consider the first of the two days, of the two options, the earlier one should be the day of celebration. Let's go for our last question, which we have today. And that is coming back to the, we discussed last week about the minig of adding water to the wine, meziga sayayin. So apparently, Rabbi Zelikson had spoken about this, and he sent me where his quote was from. So this is a sikha from Tov Shin Lamed Zion, as you can see. And it's talking about the Rebbe's ha'ores and the Zohar. The Rebbe would be discussing the regular fabrengins, the notes of his father, Rebbe Leivik, on the Zohar, the two volumes of the Kutulei Yitzchak. And the Rebbe would speak about them, and that's how he was mechai

53:53 Speaker 1 and mechai in the Inach Kibud Av. And so it talks about the Zohar of lo ylor and lo ylor and lo as in alef and lo y with a vav and lo. And then he says, he's just going to focus on the piece that's relevant to us now. The noch is dor der inyan from va'yovei lo yayin va'yeish. So that's last week's sedra. Yaakov brings the wine to Yitzchak to drink. And the Zohar says that this has got to do with inyan of zo. And it says in the Zohar that Yaakov brought the wine already blended. It was already blended with water. And it wasn't wine which was chai, which was raw, neat. Because yayin mozuk, wine which is diluted, has got the mile, has got the advantage over wine which is neat. As we see in the halachas of kiddush, that there's an advantage of using diluted wine. And this is the inyan of yayin mozuk, the wine which is being blended with water, is the idea of tiferes. So you have a combination of chesed and gevurah that comes together as inyan of tiferes. It leads to the minyan from gevuras mumotokas, the inyan of gevurah which has been sweetened and been tempered, et cetera. So the Rebbe spoke about this. But as I mentioned last week, what you could see, I mean, someone wanted to suggest that the bit of wine which is left in the cup, because you rinse the cup. The little bit of wine which is left in the

55:23 Speaker 1 cup serves to dilute the wine. As Ashnas, I think, said it would be first to have the wine and then to add the water. It's these are mentions about adding water by no de la cho. But we saw by the Rebbe, they brought the cup to the Rebbe and he took a tissue, a napkin in American, and he wiped it from the inside and the outside. And then he passed it, left it on the table for Rebbe Mendel, God bless his soul. And then Rebbe Mendel would pour in the wine. We never saw the Rebbe adding any wine to the, any water to the wine. So as I said last week, it could be that, mentioned Shukenor, that our wine is actually better without diluting. It could be another thing that maybe already wine added in the production. The poil in Chabad, we haven't seen this minik. Others, you know, everyone, Konaro, Naro, Pashte, each one follows their minik. Mendel Safen is pointing out that this inyan of Miziga Sayyan is this week's Torah. Right. And Rav Gershon is pointing out that old wine was like liquor, which was a very strong kind-- which needed diluting, whereas the modern wine is, is much more mild, and therefore it, it doesn't need to be diluted. I just wanna finish off. I've got another minute or so. Um, I had a phone call from a person who some of you might recognize. Uh, he lives in Israel, Nachlas HaChabad, and he's been struggling financially for many, many

56:42 Speaker 1 years. He's been here several times come, uh, Purim time and other times of the year in Pashut Vey. And he's, he's been served a notice of eviction of his house in, uh, in Nachlas HaChabad. He's just pleading Pashut Vey, Zohar HaMachafem Rachmanus, um, to help him out. Um, so he's-- anyone who does want to contribute to help him, so you have Reb Eliezer Kesselman, um, who lives on Elm Park Avenue, number eight, Elm Park Avenue, or Shmuel Chaim. They are both are in contact with him, and they would accept any money which is given to them. They will send on to help him, um, to, uh, to relieve him from his current predicament. And, uh, I wish you all a, uh, Shana Tova Uvetucha, Hatzlacha, Tzidka, Uvlimada Hatzlacha, Yasem HaKosemu, Hatzlacha Shidduim, and have Hatzlacha Shenachos from our children and from our families, and a little bit from ourselves also, and the Rebbes of an Unz Habon Nachas. And so I wish you all Es Vaduyas V'Hilus. We now in, in half an hour are starting the, uh, Inspire, uh, conference, and BeEzrat Hashem we'll hear from the Shluchim in, in, uh, in Oslo and in Helsinki and in, uh, Copenhagen. So this year we have the, uh, Scandinavian taste for the hour of, of Habrengen, and I'm sure everyone will find it very, um, inspiring. So I'm gonna leave you time to, uh, oyston diluvushim, oyston yenemiluvushim. So a guten roch halamin and a guten, a guten yom tov. Call to- Shkoyach. Guten yom

58:09 Speaker 1 tov. Shkoyach. Guten roch. Shkoyach. Guten yom tov. Thank you, Rabbi.

58:15 Speaker 3 Shkoyach.