פנורמה של הלכה 16

00:11 Speaker 1 Good to go. Thanks for joining us and, uh, like to-- before we start, first of all, wishes to a mazel tov to our-- one of our very re-regular participants from Ori Hasadeh, Rabbi Mendel Safran, on the, uh, birth of a einikel to his, uh, his son, Yosef Chaim. And on the other side, also one of our regular participants who's not here tonight, is to Rabbi Avremi Kievman, uh, who on the passing of his father, Rabbi Boruch Kievman, alav hashalom, who I remember in the m-mid-sixties. He was one of our... He was a-- He lived here, was a melamed over here, and so we wish him, uh, Okay. So Baruch Hashem, people are following the, uh, shiur, and there's a recording going out. And so I get the, the, uh, feedback from someone who's saying that he understands the apprehension about Purim, Pesach, and Hakadash. There's a shliach somewhere in the United States, and he wants to do the Purim seudah close to Shabbos, for overflowing into Shabbos. But he was thinking, how about avoiding having challah and just having other foods? Would that, would that solve anything? So I wrote back to him, "I'm sorry, that's not gonna be a solution," because number one, you have a mitzvah of, on Shabbos, to have, to have challah, to have lechem. That it's, uh, so you have the mitzvah to eat b-bread for Shabbos, for seudah Shabbos. The main thing of the seudah is the lechem, and therefore you cannot, uh, do away with having lechem on

02:00 Speaker 1 Kabbalat Shabbos. The other thing is that the whole savurah was, the savurah some mechmirim going back a couple of weeks ago, was that the actual seudah constitutes a hefsek, and it interrupts between the recital of Kiddush. At that time, whilst you're reciting Kiddush, you weren't able to say-- to, to, to eat anything. You weren't allowed to eat anything. That makes that moment a hefsek. Now, that's going to be a hefsek and cutting off the, shall we say, the continuity of your beracha, whether it's for HaMotzi or whether it's for potatoes or rice or meat, it doesn't matter. Anything which is included with the HaMotzi at the beginning of the meal. So this, this Kiddush in middle of the meal is gonna cut short that hefsek, and you're gonna have to make a, a new beracha. So, so that's not a solution, and he would, uh, say that it... And we gave, we gave another solution, and that was that if someone wants to avoid the shailah of Purim, Pesach and Hakadash, if he has one member of the family will eat seudah Purim earlier in the day, come towards the evening when everyone's sitting down for seudah Purim, won't wash. That person won't wash, uh, because they-- and they don't need to because they've already had their seudah Purim earlier. And they'll come the right time, be it, be it Birkat HaMazon or whatever it may be, and whoever makes Kiddush, makes Kiddush. And then this individual who didn't wash will now wash and make

03:27 Speaker 1 HaMotzi. To be motzi everyone is shomtes. And that doesn't seem to be a problem. Okay. Let's go on to the next question, which is a girl... This was a, a girl who's in Eretz Yisrael, I, I'm, I'm guessing. Okay, sorry about that. Okay. So, so the second thing here-- So the question here is, she is in a seminary, and many Eretz Yisrael is-- at the seminaries, they have very often Shabbos off, and she wants to go with-- to her grandparents who live also in Eretz Yisrael. Problem is, well, her grandmother is away. She wants to come with a friend. Well, that represents us a problem of yichud, and so she's asking two friends. So just to explain, yichud with a man with, with two women is also. By night, when, let's say, she even if she would come with two friends, so, so then if she goes to sleep, so then she's no longer a shomer. So what's left is the, the man with the two, with the two girls. So we're still left with a problem of yichud. If there would be f-four girls, herself, another, and three friends, that would eliminate the question of yichud. Because once this, uh, other opinion, a few people who might-- even though they're all sleeping, but there's always the anxiety that the one who is sleeping may not really be asleep. And therefore, with four, that would be, uh, an acceptable deterrent for yichud. Let's move on. This, I got a question from a teacher who's teaching

05:29 Speaker 1 Halakha, apparently, in, uh, somewhere in this country. And she's asking-- one of the several questions is, from what age should boys and girls from separate families be discouraged from playing together? So I can just quote. My wife says very many times in the name of her zeida, "Yingelach mit yingelach un meydelach mit meydelach." That they should be-- keep separating. Each, each little boys should be playing little boy. Boys should play with boys, and girls should play with g-girls. From what age should this be, uh, introduced? So- So, uh, le-let's go one thing at a time. First of all, we have here from Sefer Chassidim. We have here from Sefer Chassidim who says that, "Al ta'ar." Sefer Chassidim is about, from about seven hundred years ago, and the Baalei HaTosfos. And, um, so he writes, "Al ta'arev bonim u'vanos." Don't, don't mix boys and girls. "Pen yachtiu," lest they will come to sin. "Az tismach besulah bemochil levadam." Has a quote, a pasuk. Then the besulah, the virgin, will re-rejoice with the timbrel on their own. "Avel bachurim vezakeinim yachdav." But bachurim vezakeinim, young men and older men can joy, rejoice together. "V'chen yeladim v'yelados mesachekim b'rechuvi seho." We have a pasuk in Zecharyah. There will be yeladim, boys and girls playing in the streets. So he explains yeladim levad, v'yelados levad. Yingalach on their own and maidalach on their own. "V'chen," besulah, we have the pasuk which we say every day in davening. "Bachurim v'gam besulas zakeinim n'arim." So it doesn't say bachurim v'besulas. Bachurim

07:45 Speaker 1 v'gam besulas. Boys, lads will join in the-- will rejoice on their own, and besulas will rejoice on their own. But "zakeinim n'arim," then that's okay. Uh, "zakeinim n'arim gam l'rabos noshim levadam," whatever that last line means. So anyway, we have this emphasis of having separation. And, you know, if you think about how much the Jewish community at large is spending, the frum community is spending to have separate schools. And because, because we-- It's so important to us that there should be this separation. And for parents to allow their children to play with other children, um, indiscriminately without, without being sensitive to this, they are actually, uh, they're causing-- They're, they are, they are kind of pulling the, pulling the rug from under this whole, whole zechus. This whole careful, uh, how do you say? Expenditure and e-effort for Kedoshim Am Yisrael is, is lost by, by, by being, uh, careless about it. So I just want to use this opportunity, um, to encourage this, like this, this business of ged maidalach a maidalach, yingalach mit yingalach. And if you want to ask what age. So in the Nitte Gavriel, which you have on the sheet. So, uh, Nitte Gavriel has got a Sefer on yichud, and there he, he gives a, a, uh, he says approximately from the age of six. That's what he was, uh, uh, recommending. Um, someone's suggesting v'gam in the pasuk. L'rabos noshim. Uh-huh. Bachurim v'gam besulas. Uh-huh. V'gam is noshim. Okay, thank you. Let's move on. Okay. So someone sent

09:32 Speaker 1 me this new-news item. It's in the Manches-- I don't know which. I think it's in the Manchester Pa-Paper. Um, talking about kashrus supervisors zooming on bugs. And if you can see there, and you have-- it has-- the lab has a digital microscope which pr-provides up to one thousand times magnification. And they're offering their services to the community. And so what exactly-- does that mean we have to be worried about such minute presences in, in food? And so let's take this carefully. So the next thing we're gonna have here is a quote from the Sefer HaRocha Shulchan. It's Yoreh Deah siman pet alef. So he says, "Yesh mishekosav b'shem chacham ha'teva." There are those who've told me to, who have written in the name of, um, scientists, whatever, whatever, whatever the exact term is. "Hamistakel b'echuzkus ha'magedeles." If you use a, an, a magnifier. Sheko inspekktiva. I'm not sure whether it's a magnifying glass or a, a microscope. And you look in, in, uh, chometz, in vinegar. You'll see it's full of bugs. And no one worries about eating vinegar or drinking vinegar, yeah. Because... Oh, he goes into detail on that. Then he says, "I heard that with water, especially rainwater, it's full of tiny little, little, little creatures which you can't see them with the naked eye." I heard from someone who had, he said he's, he's checked thou- hundreds of times, thousands of times in water. And there's all different types of things in water. How do we drink water? And he says

11:20 Speaker 1 that Torah didn't forbid something which the eye does not see. Because the Torah was not given to malachim. And because actually, he says, the, uh, scientists will tell you that the air is also full, full of tiny, um, little creatures. Tiny, tiny creatures. And when you open your mouth, you're swallowing loads of them. But it's, it's in order, he says. Um, if it's something which the eye cannot see, it's not, not an issue. "Amna b'ma sheha'ayin yichel liros." That's the second last line. That which the eye can see. "Afilu neged hashemesh." Even if it's only visible in sunlight. Or not, doesn't mean mamash direct sunlight. That's actually, um, blinding a bit. It means- Negative shemesh. If you have a dark min hadak, have a sheretz gomek. It can be very, very small, and that's called a sheretz. I picked up this evening, I have a sefer called, um, Bedikas Hamosoin, Bedikas Hamosoin Kahalacha from Rab Moshe Vai, who's one of the contemporary experts in, um, the whole business of, of checking for bugs. So he writes here the following. According to experts in optica, in optics or whatever, so a person who has a regular, uh, good, good eyesight, from a meter away, he can see a dot the size of point three of a millimeter. And from a distance of ten centimeters, you can see a dot which is the, the size of zero dot zero zero three. One can see. So what, what's, what does this tell us? That sometimes you have things

13:11 Speaker 1 which are very... What, what, why do you need to have magnifiers? If you cannot see anything, then you, you know, you, you're okay. If it-- if you do see something, a small dot, but you don't know what it is, that's when you do have a chiyuv to check it out. And that's, that's what these magnifiers are, are for. So I don't know whether the a thousand times magnification, I didn't work out the maths. But the, the issue is more, if you do see something, then you do have a chiyuv to check. Someone's wr-writing here. Um, let's take a look at the co-comments over here. Why do rabbis use magnifiers to look at their ears? Okay. So the answer is that when you see something and you're not sure, and so the magnifier helps you confirm what you're seeing. And then sometimes it really is, there's a dramatic change between what you see before the magnifier and a-after magnifier. But often you'd also be able to establish it's just a fiber and not something biological. So it helps, but it, it's not-- that, that's not, not, not, not the main issue. Someone's writing, "There was a mice in New York some years ago. Find m-microscopic creatures in the tap water, and some people went to the extent of installing special filters in their..." Of course, they, they... And, and the, the, the answer to that is, that the ones who were machmir were saying that the creatures in the water were visible to the naked eye.

14:40 Speaker 1 That's really what, what the whole, uh, issue was about. But if it's not visible to the naked eye, then it's not a, not a problem. Okay, let's go on to something, um, easier. When it comes to bugs, it's such a, such a difficult field and, and it changes from country to country and et cetera, et cetera. Very difficult field. Okay. A-and it's very serious. It's, uh, to, to dismiss it out of hand, it would be, uh, not very clever. Okay. In the Alter Rebbe's siddur, he t-goes into details about... This is someone sent me a, a list of questions about tzitzit. So netzitzral. And so the Alter Rebbe in the Shulchan Aruch does not say what size is the minimum size for tzitzit. But then the Alter Rebbe, in his lifetime, published a siddur. The Shulchan Aruch, it was published posthumously. When the sh-- in the siddur, he publ-he published, uh, w- the Halachos, and there's a compendium of Halachos on tzitzit. So if you see the first line, a person who's, uh, God-fearing should wear tzitzit, and should wear talis koton, and should be open from the sides, and shouldn't have any, any sleeves. And then he goes on that it should be an amah wide, and it should be an amah-- a, a square amah in the front, a square amah in the back. And then towards the end over here, it says, "Uboze mikayim hamitzvah ledivrei hakol." So I want to emphasize this. The Alter Rebbe is not s-- that there are

16:14 Speaker 1 different opinions. He's not saying that the other opinions don't exist. He is saying that to be jotzer divrei hakol, then you, uh, it has to be, uh, an amah al amah in the front and amah al amah in the back. The Rashis which allow us, uh, which, which, uh, when we say a smaller amount is, is good enough, and the Alter Rebbe wants to be, um, divrei hakol. Then the Alter Rebbe says, "Ubektanim shihigiu lechinuch." A child who's the age of chinuch. Dehaynim miben shesh shanim, from six years old until ben yud gimmel, to thirteen. Efshe l'hokel lismoeich al da asur imri. One can rely on the opinion who says that enough in amah al amah b'vadt. So realistically speaking, what the Alter Rebbe is saying here, um, very, very few people follow. The simple reason is that the width of a ch-- the shoulders of a child is less than an amah. It's about half an amah. Whatever. And so to have a talis koton which is so much wider than the child, it's going to be very uncomfortable for the child. And so I don't know of anyone actually today who, who follows this guidance of the Alter Rebbe of the talis koton of a child being amah al amah. Now, then the question is, actually even Rab Chaim Noah, who lived sixty years ago, says he hasn't seen people being machmir to have such a width for a child. So then the question is, if so, so how can you allow a

17:49 Speaker 1 child to make a bracha? It's possibly going into a question of a bracha levatala because it's not fulfilling, the child is not fulfilling the mitzvah. So I don't see it's such a big issue because, as I said, the Alter Rebbe is not saying that's the only... Well, on the other hand, the Alter Rebbe is giving this, uh, this psak, that one should be seen is there. So, okay. So that's the question. Alter Rebbe says it should be amah al amah, and it's not. So how you allow the child to make a bracha. So there's a safer from Rav Hendel, the Rav of Chabad in Migdal HaEmek, and he writes a svora that like a melamed is teaching children. And so when he's teaching children, he can, he can, he can say berachos as he's teaching the children. So when a child who doesn't have a full-sized housecoat is making a beracha, so look at it as training. He's training to say the beracha. It's okay. I'm a little bit, um, um, not totally confident with that, but fine. Okay. Why I'm not confident? Because, uh, how long does it take to tr- to train? To say that for years, the boy, every time he makes a berachos and the tzitzit is training, I'm, I'm more, more inclined to say we'll be relying on the, on the, uh, lenient opinions that it, it could be a smaller sheer possibly because the children... We-- It, it very important. Very important that child should be comfortable with, with

19:12 Speaker 1 the tzitzit. We don't want the child should feel he has to wear this thing which he's uncomfortable with because that can have also, Chass veshalom, a negative consequence. Let's go and look at your, uh, comments over here. I'm gonna read through. So I'm told KL Birdy has a mashgiach who has extremely good eyesight. He's also a jeweler, has been able to spot bugs with his naked eyesight that other experienced mashgiachim did not. Ilan, uh, uh, Grossman asks, "Ein, treize sain gesunt. What's the halacha in this case?" So in other words, some people can see, some can can't see. Din Antray said that when this mashgiach is doing the bedika, then the bug is a bug. When another mashgiach is doing the bedika and doesn't spot the bug, then, uh, then it doesn't exist. Okay. Um, there is a fascinating loshon of the Alter Rebbe in Simon-- In Yoreh Deah, Simon Kuf Tzadik. And it says, "Ha'torah," um, "Ha'torah livnei adam nitna v'lo le'etzim v'la'avonim. U'cheshein shoeil v'ein mevakesh." Something on those lines to say the Torah was not given to stones and, and, and, and, and wood. The Torah was given for people. And in a sense, the shailah only becomes a shailah when it's asked by a person. So that seems to be the svora similar which Radain Antray, zal ho'mer refuah shleima, what he's saying here. That it sounds a bit strange. It seems to be not objective, but subjective. Yes. And, and when, when this person can see it, so then it

20:58 Speaker 1 exists. If the other person cannot see it, then it doesn't exist. Yeah. That's possibly true. Yeah. Okay, let's move on. Um, wrapping the shamash around the tzitzit. Clockwise or anti-clockwise? I must a-admit that until Friday, when I started looking at this question, I'd never really paid attention that there's any question about which way. And we all know that there's a difference between Ashkenazi, Ashkenaz and Sefard-- and Sefardi, which way one twists the ritzuus, uh, the, of the tefillin around o-the arm. The Ashkenazi minhag is to roll the tzit- the ritzuus inwards, and the Ashken-- the Sefard minhag is to roll the ritzuus outward. Some poskim say that this has got to do with turning to the right or turning to the left. Think of the Ashkenaz way of pulling towards yourself. So in a sense, it's like turning to the right. And so this posek says that he should-- Dafke should follow the nusach, the Minhag Ashkenaz, because when you're meant to be turning, you should be taking a right turn rather than a left turn. And that is be- going clockwise. Uh, wait a second. Wait a second. In this context, it's clockwise. Depending if, uh, for you or for the l- onlooker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we've got here different shitas, um, which way we, uh, by the tefillin. But my, my take on this is that since, I mean, I'm in Chogim, and rov mechabrim don't say a word about which way to twist a tzitzit, so just relax. It doesn't

22:52 Speaker 1 make any difference. That's, that's my take on it. Uh, okay. Al-although there are mahadarim, so fine. You know, there's the, the Torah is big and there's room for everyone, but fine. I want to address here something else a bit more in, in detail. And that is, here you have on the picture, you have four styles of wrapping tzitzit. And let me explain something. There's a concept called chulios, which means rings. It's units. And in the Gemara, in Yominachis, Bryce or whatever, it says, "Ha'poches lo yifchos mim shiv'ah o'sheva. Ha'moysif lo yosif yud gimel." To have at least seven chulios, seven units, or to have maximum to have thirteen. Seven corresponding to the seven heavens, and thirteen is the seven heavens which with the, including the spaces in between them. So now you're gonna ask, what's tzitzit got to do with heavens? Well, if you look in Rashi, in, in, in Chumash, in the, in the Parashat Shelach, he says, "Techelet, the, the, the rakia," et cetera. But the techelet is to remind you of the rakia. So therefore, it's, it is very apropos that in the tzi- in the tzitzit, we have that connection with the union of, of, of, uh, the, the rakia. Now, so the, in the, so then we, we don't have f- um, even s-seven chulios. We only have four chulios. Some meforshim say that that was in the times of when they had techelet. Then they would have seven or up to thirteen chulios. Now we don't have techelet, so

24:28 Speaker 1 therefore we keep to just four chulios. And then there's different, different ways. But the way we do it is seven, eight, eleven and thirteen. So you can see the top picture, seven ri-- uh, circuit- circuits. Eight in the second one, eleven and thirteen. And altogether that makes up thirty-nine. Well, so then there's, there's, there's a Chabad style of making the, the tzitzit. And in this, there, there's, there's some variations. So the second picture is the typical Chabad style of every three circuits, then one kind of pulls it tight. Um, there's a... One s- thread it through and pulls it tight, and then another three and then you pull it tight and so on. So I've got-- I don't know how well this is going to work o- on the Zoom, but I've prepared some tzitzit over here from an old tallis. Um, where's my camera? Can you see anything? It work? Okay. So what we have over here is you've gone round three times and then pulled it. And then that-

25:48 Speaker 2 I'm asking if you stop presenting, then we can see your picture larger.

25:54 Speaker 1 Uh-huh. Okay. Fine. So, so there we are. So the, the, um... So we had th- s- this idea of it going round three times and then being pulled tight. According to Toisfis, that is called the kesher. I'm supposed to just mute that, um...

26:24 Speaker 2 I was trying to mute myself.

26:28 Speaker 1 Thank you. Okay. So according to or, or the way we make our shorim, we make five sets of double knots at each... Yeah. Double knot here, double knot here, double knot here. Five, five double knots. According to the Mordechai coming from the Ba'al HaToisfis, by doing three around one another and then pulling it tight, that's a kesher. So you already achieved a kesher with that. Similar like you think about the lulav. You wrap around and you pull it tight, that's also counted as a kesher. In that way, in Min Chabad where we've got... Now, if we're gonna forget about the double knots in between. I- imagine they don't exist. We've got here 39 circuits, which means 13 sets of three. Each one of them is got a kind of kesher. So by having those 13 circuits, 13 thir- 13 chulias, we've fulfilled that which it says the Gemara of . So we've got the 13 circuits. In this, there, there w- was a time where they did it different to the way we do it today. The way, the common way which is done as- is, is what you see over here, the second drawing. It looks like bef-- in the times of the Rebbe Rashab and, and earlier, they did-- when they did, they did a, a, um, without doing this pulling it tight each time, they would just pass through the thread. Do three, pull the thread between the three and the four loose, um, strings, and then continue. So they would make

28:10 Speaker 1 a distinct separation between every three, but not with a secured type of knot. That was, it was how it was done till then and then there was, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago perhaps, the name Chonya Marozov. Chonya Marozov, he came up with this idea of doing this securing knot which we have, which is co- come followed in Chabad today. So again, they used to have a way of separating each three by passing the shammos between the three and the, and the four threads between each set of three. Between each chulia. Chonya came up with an idea of separating each three by, by securing it similar way to some Sephardim do it, of securing by, by l- pulling it, the thread through o- on itself. Now, then there is another way which kind of is a combination of the two. And that is between every three, which you s- you, you secure the, the three and then you pull the thread through and then do the next, next group and, and so on. So my Zayde, alav ha-shalom, had heard about this and he was keen to get... He was-- That was his nature, um, trying to f- um, find out, you know, get to the bottom of things. So he prepared such a tallis katan with this kind of tzitzit, and he presented it to the Rebbe, and he asked the Rebbe, "Right or wrong?" And so the Rebbe, um, sent him out. Uh, the Rebbe did not give him a committal answer,

29:46 Speaker 1 like, "Try to the Rav," or something. And he gave him also $18, thanking him for the tallis katan. So, so what, uh... Now I, I didn't know all the... I knew this thing with my Zayde. Then years later I heard this thing about from Mendel, Reb Mendel Marozov about his father. So now I understand what's going on here. It is important to us that every three rings should be separate from the next three rings. There is that emphasis. But, um, which way they should be separated, whether it's through the thring- the thread going through or because each one is, is, is secured separately, that is not so, uh, essential. Um, so long as the, a, the one, there is a s- Each, each three should be s- separate. I want to just add, I wrote about this years ago in the Kfar Chabad, and this is about... Not in Kfar Chabad, in the, uh, Hiskashrus journal. And then someone, some, a couple of people told me how they had also been taught in a similar way to my, what my Zayde taught me. But then one person told me that the person who made the tzitzit for the Friediker Rebbe was told that when you do the, the chulias. So the, the one and the two, yeah. There's, in the first set, there's three, three, one, and then it goes two, three, three. So the one and the two should be as close to the kesher as possible because effect- they are, they're essentially one,

31:03 Speaker 1 one, one chulia. And similarly, in the third one and the fourth one, he ends up-- the eleven ends up with two and the, uh, thirteen starts with a one. So that two and one, those two and one should be as close as possible to the kasher so that they should be as close to-- as possible to one another. Okay, that's what I wanted to, um, clarify on these tzitzits.

31:24 Speaker 2 Sorry, it's perhaps for me to type. Um, Rabbi Greenglass showed me his tzitzits, and they have the loop, the chullias, on both sides. Not just one loop going on the side, on both sides.

31:36 Speaker 1 Okay.

31:36 Speaker 2 And he said that Chaim Arouth did that for the Friediger Rebbe like that.

31:40 Speaker 1 Okay. You'll have to, uh, send a-- share us a photograph of it if you, if you have such a, uh, sample. All right. Well, I'll, I'll meet you next. You'll explain, explain to me this. One of these things that's just difficult to even, even, you know, with the picture, it's a bit more schwerer. Okay, let's move on. Let's move on. Okay. So this is a shailah which I got mamash on Friday. Derabben Shlita Holfen. I was worried whether I'll have enough material for this year. We'll see. The Derabben Shlita Holfen is, uh, on Friday. So one of the, uh, shluchim here in, in, uh, UK, he was preparing, Baruch Hashem, he has three Sifrei Torah. And as he's rolling the Sif-- the, Sifrei Torah to the right place, and that's, uh, as we know, it's an important thing. It says that, uh, you're not allowed to be goyal on Sifrei Torah. But, see, bro, I'm saying this and I've said it before, but it's important not to-- that one should not keep the tzibbur waiting. It's disrespectful for the congregation to keep them waiting whilst you are getting your act together. And so you should be rolling the Sifrei Torah in advance. Um, there are those Ashkenaz-- old, there's old Ashkenaz minhag which would be, have-- that they would do it actually in the morning during Psukim deZimra, and it was called Kipusim, Kipushim. Uh, the, the-- in other words, finding the right place in the Sifrei Torah. That was done during, um... I just

33:09 Speaker 1 find it very difficult how a Yekkish mind could cope with this kind of thing going on in the middle of davening. I, um, I don't know. Unless, unless I'm more Yekkish than the Yekkes. I, I would find it very, very disturbing if it's done in the middle of davening. So it's meant to be done in advance, and so he did the right thing. He was do-doing it in advance on Friday. And as he's rolling the Sifrei Torah, so one seam comes apart. Or perhaps he found it was already, um, um, ha-partly torn, and so he rolled it on further. It wasn't the place where he needed it for Prias HaTorah. But he asked, is he allowed to use that Sifrei Torah for, uh, Shabbos morning, where he needs to have three, uh, Sifrei Torah in the chazara. Because we had, um, Mishpatim and, uh, Sholdesh and Shkalim. So here we have, this is in Hilchas Sifrei Torah. Siman Reish Ayin Ches, Sif Gimmel. "Im nikra reiv tefiroh shabein yerio leyirio." If most of the stitching between one sheet of parchment and the next has been torn. "Ve'adayin mechubarois." But they are still attached. "Bechamesh o shesh, uh, tefirois." And they're still attached with five or six stitches. Shel kayamo, permanent stitches. Kosher. So the mechaber has said, so long as you've got a minimum of five or six stitches, so then you're okay. Now, the story which I asked the shliach then to, to, uh, to-- He said it was actually a little bit more

34:47 Speaker 1 than halfway. I didn't ask him to start counting how many stitches. But because what you have at the bottom here is the Taz. To resolve on the commentary and, and, and the, on the, on the Shechinach. He disagrees with the mechaber. He disagrees with the Shechinach. Who's, the Shechinach is based on the Turim HaSadeish and he disagrees with this and he says, "No, it has to be mechuber. Reiv. It has to be majority attached." In order to be called a sefer, it has to be majority attached. And if not, you're not allowed to read with it. Read, read from it. Then that's the Taz. And then the other side of the page, you've got the Shah. The Shah, uh, had a later addendum, which he calls Nekudat HaKesef. Dots of silver. And the Nekudat HaKesef, he argues with the Taz, and he supports the position of the Shechinach. And therefore, he said, "You are allowed to." That if there are five or six stitches, you are allowed to. The Piel, if it would be, if they would have only the one Sifrei Torah, then there would perhaps be a need to be more lenient. Here, Baruch Hashem, they had two other Sifrei Torah. And also to roll from Mishpatim to Shkalim is not a big tircha, it's a, a f-few seconds. Therefore, I told him he shouldn't use that third Sifrei Torah because, uh, because, uh, it's certainly not, not, not, not, uh, not unanimous. It's interesting. So where does it come that there's five

36:25 Speaker 1 or six stitches? Well, what's the, what's the cheshbon of five or six? So someone to bring various sources, like Abay Tumah V'tahara. You have if a garment is torn, does it, does it lose its tumah? So then Adam HaForşim say, "What's it got to do with Tumah V'tahara?" Here, it's not by tit-- by, by the Sifrei Torah, it's not just it has to be one sefer. There are re-- there are di-um, directives. That stitching has to be done dafka with sinews. It's, it's, it's not just, uh, that they have to be one. It has to be joined in a particular way, and therefore, it has to be joined. The, the, the majority has to be joined. That's what some of the portions say. Then there's a Chasam Sofer. Chasam Sofer is quoted on, on the, uh, on the page in the Shechinach. Chasam Sofer, he has an interesting explanation. Tell me, is it five or six? Why is the Mechaber quite ambiguous? Make up your minds. So he says the minimum amount of stitches on a page, on a seam, the minimum is ten. So five or six. The question is, if five-- if there are, if there are six stitches, that means it's mostly sewn. If there are five stitches, it's not mostly sewn, but it's not mostly separated either. It's like, uh, borderline. Is the h- emphasis it has to be mostly sewn, then you have to have six stitches. If it, the emphasis it mustn't be mostly separated, then five stitches is

37:56 Speaker 1 also not mostly separated. That's Chasam Sofer's, um, analysis of, of the words of the Mechaber. But th-th-you know, then just another, um, factor in all of this is that if it would be not in the same sefer. I didn't ask that detail as again, again, because I didn't feel the need to be makeil when you have two other sefarim there and minimum tur Chadaseh Bura. If it had been in another sefer, there's more reason to be makeil because it says in the Gemara, why don't we ein koil b'sefer-- ein koil b'sefer bechumshin m'pnei kevodi hatzibur. Really, we could have done... We could have one scroll for Breishes and one scroll for Shemos, and et cetera. Why don't we do that m'pnei kevodi hatzibur? And on that basis, we fi-find in various areas of, of Sulin that if it's in another sefer, another, uh, uh, b- uh, se-- uh, pa-part of the five Chumashim, one is more lenient, um, in these halachas. So that's what Rav Aryeh is writing to me, o-our, our, uh, on in-house sofer. He quotes from the Keses Hasofer, which is a sefer specialis-specializing on soferis by the Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried who's the author of Ketzot Hachochmah. He says, "If it's more than half split in Breishes, it's okay for Kriya and Davening." The Kriya is in Breishes. All right, thank you for that, that re-re... But again, I would have to check in the Keses Hasofer whether he's saying that as a, as a mechila or he's saying that when you

39:28 Speaker 1 don't have another sefer Torah. Anyway, um, so then he, the shliach got back to me. He says that he, uh, accepts the psak and he was, uh, grateful that I was able to show him this psak. But he was a bit concerned because he had hyped up his people. Today is a very special Shabbos, that there's going to be three sefer Torah, and it would be a little bit of a letdown when the people would come and there'd be only two, be two sefer Torah. So could he take out the three sefer Torah and then it would come to actually which sefer Torah will be used, he will be able to say, um, perhaps the right expression is pull the wool over their eyes. Uh, they wouldn't notice the difference which one's being actually used. So I wasn't very happy about this because there is a concept of not being matriach a sefer Torah, not schlepping a sefer Torah from place to place. It's not respectful. Well, I said I, I, I ga-- made a peshara with him. I said, "What you'll do is at the opening of the Aron Kodesh, all three sefarim will be taken out. And then, but when it comes to procession, the o-- two will go, the other one will be put back. And at that point, so that's not a major tircha. And then that will be an opportunity for you to educate the people who came to the shul to say that there is a concept of a

40:50 Speaker 1 sefer Torah. It has to be shown in such and such a way, and I gave him the references. And so see this as an opportunity of educating people the correct way." Okay, let's move on. And there is expression, "Bol lalamed v'limtzolamed." You, you think you're, you're teaching, but actually you're learning also. So Baruch Hashem for the fact that the shiur is being, uh, you know, a big audience, Baruch Hashem, live, and then there's a, there's a recording. So I'm getting feedback from people who are, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm touched that they're listening. But anyway, we had this discussion, if you remember this picture. It was last week or two weeks ago, and whether that passage is a, a shish ha-yocheit. And we said it's only got two walls, so it's not a shish ha-yocheit. And I'd suggested to put a vertical lechi, so vertical pole over here. And so I'd slipped up, actually. Um, you know, I, I admit I'd sli-slipped up between the dinim of mevui and the dinim of chatzer. And they are two separate halachas, and chatzer is strictum than mevui. And so let's learn this shi- halacha in Shechinach. So this is from shim-shimon-- the Alter Rebbe's Shechinach, siman shin samech yud. "Lo hitiru begimel mechizes v'lechi o echad o koira tza rechova tefach." The three walls and a lechi or koira is only bemevui. A mevui is like a long passage, a alley. "Ad ochatzeh shpirutzo b'meluah b'ruach reviah." Let's say if you have your front yard. Yeah. Maybe

42:30 Speaker 1 we have our, our houses. In London, it's like a style of Bayit Vegan. You have a house and a garden. You have a garden, a garden in the back, a garden in the front, Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem, we have this harchova. Um, so you've got your garden in the front of your house. If you have two walls on either side of the garden, but the way it meets the, the pavement is totally open. So there, a lechi is not gonna be good enough. There, it has to have a pas ruchov dalet tefachim. Either a panel which is four tefachim wide. And then he says it should be on one, one side of the opening. And if you want to do something on either side of the gap- And provide the gap is less than ten amos. It doesn't necessarily add, uh, detail. It's enough to have two strips which are even minimally wide, and they have to be ten tefachim high. So back to our passage over here. So then we'd have to have... to make this allowable as a chutz, we'd have to have on both ends two vertical strips on either side. Sorry about that. Two vertical strips to create two, uh, one over here and one over here, and the same at the other end. And in that way, you're creating, uh, this area has got four mechizes, and then it would become a ​​​​risha sayach. Okay. Let's go on to the question which we had. Okay, this is... Hmm, okay, not

44:08 Speaker 1 there yet. So last week, we had a discussion about a, uh, shliach somewhere in Scandinavia who needs to employ a new cook, and she's Jewish, but she's not fully shomer Shabbos, but she would be embarrassed to do, uh, to violate Shabbos in the presence of the rabbi. We went through that the whole discussion. Is that a reason to, to say that then, that they're not called the mehale Shabbos befar hesher? And if you remember last week, we had a quote from a Sefer saying that it's a difference whether they are violating Shabbos be- in a derabbanan or with a de'rabbanan. If they are violating Shabbos be-b'dei'rabbanan, it doesn't help that they only-- that they will refrain in the presence of Adam Choshev. If they're violating it derabbanan, then it would be okay. So the Habrister helps that the same kind of shailer comes up a-again this week. So this is again from a different part of the world. Also, Chabad House, and they have a Jewish girl who is, uh, I don't know, she's living with them, or she's very, very Hamish. She's spending many, many hours with them, and she keeps kosher, and she's starting to keep Shabbos, which means she's not keeping Shabbos at the moment. And they've observed that so- in the pres- in their presence, she doesn't violate Shabbos, but she'll sometimes she'll-- they've noticed sometimes she'll go out somewhere, and she'll smoke a cigarette. Okay. Listen. Habrister will help. She'll, she'll, uh... That, that will also become, uh, as But

45:43 Speaker 1 meanwhile, she's, she's not, not keeping Shabbos even with the Isim HaTorah. And now, if she wants to cook something in the kitchen, does it become Bishul Akum? And do you have to insist on lighting the fire? And we have to understand this is a very sensitive situation. We don't want to make a person feel that they are being ostracized or being, uh, you know, um, looked as a goy. It is a very sensitive thing. So for one thing I got Rabbi Zurchin in Western Florida sent me that this distinction between derabbanan and de'rabbanan is actually also brought in Mitzvah Tzedek. Mitzvah Tzedek, uh, you have it in your, uh, in the notes. Mitzvah Tzedek in Ebner Ezra. So if simulation and test. That's the first sufrein cheilik gimel of Ebner Ezra. Tzedek says this same word, that that which we say, if they're embarrassed to do a malacha in the presence of Adam Choshev, they're not called Mehale Shabbos. That's by Isad Rabbonan. There, he's talking about someone who is meant to deliver a get. And, uh, and someone said that he's, he sits in the shop. He sits in a-- Any, anyone here speaks Russian? Kabak. What is a kabak? My impression is it like he would be sitting in a shop and he, you know, some perhaps, uh, he had some kind of, uh, krechmer, like a, an, uh, a pub, and he would sit there and the goyim, he had a goyishe worker, a bartender, who would be so, um, they, they

47:16 Speaker 1 would be actually taking the money, and he would be sitting there. So he, he claimed that he do- he doesn't do anything. He's just sitting and watching. So meanwhile, that's part of the discussion over there. But what we're seeing here is that the, that this-- if there's a difference now in this question of Mehale Shabbos, if they're doing a de Raa or derabbanan. Now, smoking cigarettes is the pastis and is a de Raa. Lighting a cigarette, et cetera, is, is, is a de Raa. And so the- therefore, you... a bit harder to be make. Another thing is, last week, I mentioned that there's a swara to say that someone who is a servant in your house is not a problem because there's no, uh, kirav with a servant. This person's not a servant. This person is like a, is like a, like a friend, so to speak. So it makes more of an issue. Now, I got another email from someone who's saying that if the whole reason for Bishul Akum is because of intermarriage, but this woman is allowed to marry into Claudius Royal. So what's the problem? This, this, this, this, uh, uh, question is already raised in the Piscatawa in the beginning of, uh, Isim Kafir Gimel, and he does-- he dismisses it because Bishul Akum is an early exegeter, and, uh, it's also because of... for, for other reasons. LePoil, that itself is not good enough. So what I did tell the Teldish Shliach is try to avoid it, that this

48:40 Speaker 1 person shouldn't be doing any cooking on their own. Let's say if she wants to make a, she wants to make an omelet for herself for breakfast, you say to her, "Oh, I love making omelets. This is my pastime. You cut the salad, and I'll make the omelet for you. Tell me how you like it with, you know, mu-mushrooms, et cetera. But I, I'm really a specialist in making nice omelets." Find a, find a way in a nice way, but to try to avoid. But the avid one would be mekel, but l'chatchilah to avoid that, that person doing cooking for themselves on, uh, in your house, stuff which would be a clear question of visual outcome. Let's move on. So then also last week, we had the discussion about the Minag of plucking grass when leaving a Beit HaChai. So someone sent me that their, that their, their Rav Ushpol says there's a difference on the day of when you don't say Tachnan, you-- that it doesn't apply. That Minag of plucking gla-grass doesn't apply. So just one thing at a time. First of all, who's Rav Ushpol? Rav Ushpol was the-- he was a Hashaverov. He lived in Boro Park. He was the Rov of the Anshe Lubavitch Shul in Boro Park, and he was the Rov of the Chevre Kadisho of, uh, Agudas Chassidei Chabad in New York. And he published a manual called Darkei Chesed. And this is a quote from the Sefer Darkei, Darkei Chesed. And he's talking about Chevre Kadisho stuff.

50:12 Speaker 1 When he say-- quotes the Sefer, Sefer HaChaim,published in Tov Shin Lamed Tes in Sulzbach in Daf Ayin Tes. And he mentions there is Oy Kosuv Shom. This is the next second quote. "Veyome she'ein odom mataachin ein tol shomas savim." When you don't say Tachana, one doesn't pluck grass. So I was intrigued. I mean, no Sefer, no Jewish Sefer were printed in Sulzbach in Tov Shin Lamed Tes. I'm, I'm pretty sure of that. It wa- so it's a mistake there. It wasn't Tov Shin Lamed Tes, which was seventy-nine, yeah. Um, so it's a mistake there. So-- and so I, I did and I was like, you know, I had to get this one. I had to find it, the Sefer HaChaim. Um, I found a Sefer printed in Sulzbach in Tov Kuf Nun Alef, and the pagination is slightly different. So he probably, possibly had a different edition. But this is what I found. In the Sefer HaChaim, which is a Sefer all about Chevra Kadisha stuff, and it says the following. "U'cheshein odom mataachin." When one doesn't say Tachana, ein odom tzidka din, v'lo kadesh. One doesn't say tzidka din, which is, um, patur tom impoloy. One doesn't say the kadesh. He means the long kadesh. The one with otzar al chet aschatato. V'ein odom hamito. There is a, a minhag which is brought in Shulchan Aruch on the way to the levaya to stop and start again, um, seven times. V'ein odom hamito. On a day which one doesn't say Tachana, one doesn't

51:40 Speaker 1 indulge in that. V'ein tol shomas savim v'ein maspidim. And one doesn't pluck, um, uh, grass, and one doesn't say hesped. So why I was-- why, why I was bothered about this, and why I was so desperate to find the, the source for it. The, the, you know, the-- we have Baruch Hashem, people who followed the Rebbe very, very carefully, and they wrote down details. And the Rebbe would re- go to the Ohel at least twice a month. And one was on Erev Rosh Chodesh and one was Tes Vo. Erev Rosh Chodesh happens to be the afternoon ein odom mataachin. Tes Vo includes Tes Vo Shebeshvat, Tes Vo, Tes Vo Adar, which ein odom mataachin. The Rebbe also used to go on Lag BaOmer, ein odom mataachin. So there are many occasions the Rebbe went when ein odom mataachin. And the people who write the observations of what the Rebbe did, they say whenever the Rebbe left the Beis HaChaim, he would be plucking g-grass. The, the minhag of three, three, three times and throwing over the shoulder. He always-- And they, they never mentioned that there's a difference between ein odom mataachin. And what should be the difference? Why should it be a difference between where you ein, ein odom mataachin and ein odom mataachin? So what we're seeing now, at least in the Sefer HaChaim, that it seems to be on days where ein odom-- They're seeing the plucking grass as part of ein odom mataachin, as a part of a tachana, a pa-

53:13 Speaker 1 expression of tzar. So let's take a look. Now, what you have on the le- on the right side of the page, a quote from the Beit Yosef in Siman, um, Shin Ayin Vof. And he says here, they bring from the Kol Bo when leaves the Beis HaK vors. One would pull out, um, grass with, with earth, and you throw it on their head in the way of tzar. And then they would-- And it quotes a passage from Iyov, how they threw dust on the air, on their heads, and then they washed their hands. So what we're seeing is that the plucking of grass is after a, a levaya, would be seen as an expression of tzar. Then there's a separate-- There seems to be a difference between plucking, uh, uh, af-after levaya and then some may be visiting Beis HaK vors. Now, I mentioned last week we say the passage, "V'yotztu me'ir kai'sefer aretz." We say, um, "Azach u'ki ofar anachnu." It's not-- It's more an expression of, uh... Well, azach u'ki ofar anachnu is an expression of tzar. V'yotztu me'ir kai'sefer aretz is an expression of faith in tziyas hamet. And therefore, if it's got to do with tziyas hamet, so then it's got nothing to do with ein odom mataachin, ein odom mataachin. So therefore, that's why I'm, I'm-- I'd like to say that, you know, according to Ben Chloe Monach, the, the, Darkei Chesed is quoting from a Sefer, and that Sefer is talking in the context of a levaya. That in

54:31 Speaker 1 cl-- That they-- and they would be pulling on, on, on the-- O-offer Alroishum. In their minhag, they didn't do it. But in the minhag which we have of visiting Beis HaK vors and, uh, pl-plucking, um, grass on the way out, that would, uh, wouldn't make a difference whether you say tachana or not. That's-- And you came near on the Asnei Zohar. Yeah. Certainly, I mean, the, the fact that you're going, going back to this young lady who's going around the corner to, uh, to smoke a cigarette. Of course, she's being sensitive. That's very true. But lepoel, uh, is she, is she a shemes Shabbos or not? That's, uh, sh- there are people on, on the street who see. All right. Let's, let's go our last question, which we have on the list. Um, so last week we've discussed about being metzarf a cotton, Bashar Satchak. So if there's leeway to be metzarf a cotton, why is there no leeway to be metzarf a woman? So number one, to be metzarf a woman would be a question of, of, of, yeah, you have mechitza. And we have mechitza for a reason. We have mechitza for a reason because people have got yetz-- y- uh, the yetzer tov and yetzer, the other yetzer, and they are d-d-attracted, distracted, and that's why we have a mechitza. So to have a woman in the room to make up your minyan would be a, uh, a, a-- would be undermining the purpose of having a mechitza, number one. But I

56:00 Speaker 1 think a more important point, and that is the Torah, uh, acquitted a woman from the mitzvot asei shehazman grama. Mitzvots which are time-linked, many of them, there are exceptions, but most of them, a woman does not have that pressure for the simple reason that she has a mitzvah, the greatest privilege of mechanech her children, um, looking after her family. And so then you have a situation. There's a small shetl, and they, they, they're short of a minyan. And it can be, uh, it can be actually three times a day. Yeah. Epsekhan she's, she's gonna be running away from leaving her children. Not because they're pressured, she has to be back at the minyan. Leave her alone. She has her greater privilege to bring up her family, and that's the Habishtah gave her that zchus and that privilege, and she shouldn't be distracted from her avodas hakodesh to do even such wonderful things as making up minyanim. Let her carry on with her avodas hakodesh, um, undisturbed, and, uh, let, let the men get their act together, um, on their own. Okay. I'll finish off with that and, uh, wish you all a gut Voch and a freilechen ador. Um, Moishe-- It's not mission, only mission Yichnas Adar. Not only the first day you have to be happy. The Rebbe takes a point of day-to-day should have to be Moishe in the simcha. So each one of us should find ways of being Moishe basimcha day-to-day and, um, Moishe oneself and be Moishe for the people

57:22 Speaker 1 around us. A gut Voch.

57:24 Speaker 3 A gut Voch.

57:25 Speaker 4 Gut Voch.

57:26 Speaker 5 Gut Voch.

57:29 Speaker 3 Gut Voch.

57:31 Speaker 1 Gut Voch. Gut Voch.