פנורמה של הלכה 25

00:06 Speaker 1 Good evening. We'll start the shiur now. And, uh, we'll start off with saying Kapital Chof for, uh, Azunidra Refua Shleima, particularly I mentioned last week, Chana Yenta Rivka bat Scheindel, Baruch Hashem, has improved and, uh, we hope to see a Refua Shleima. Um, Lamnatzeach Mizmur David. Just a mistaka for her. Her chutz. There we go. All right. So let's start off with our shiur and start off with some business left from last week. Last week, we had a discussion about croutons and whether croutons are chamotzi or mezonos. Uh, I know a little bit more this week than I knew last week about croutons. I was in touch with, actually, with the, um, Sova Foods, and I've-- they put me in touch with one of their mashgiachim who has very kindly sh-shared me, with me information. Sometimes it says on the croutons, it will say, I, um, I'll say the... He wrote it for me in Hebrew. Sometimes it says just, um, salat or salads. Sometimes it says salat u'marak, or here it says soup and salad. Now, that's going to have a difference for Shabbos, that when it says salad, then it's not suitable for putting in soup on Shabbos, in, in a kli yainei because we have a issue of, of, uh, Bishul Achar Afiyah. When it says soup and salad, that means it's been fried, deep-fried, and therefore it can be put, well, it ne-need then be maybe placed into a kli sheini of soup. And what was more, I was not so,

02:34 Speaker 1 um, concerned last week about the bracha, about the, uh, issue of Shabbos as much as the bracha. Why, if you take a piece of bread, cut it into cubes, why does it become mezonos? And it was pointed out to me after the shiur last week that on the packets of the croutons it says, "Birchas HaMezonos." So I was curious to find out on what basis that is. Okay. So let's move on. So number one, I know it's a lot of text here. Here, this is from the Alter Rebbe's, um, Sefer Birchas HaNehenin. The, um... So let's look, just look at the red writing. It talks here about bread, lechem ofui shel nisbashal bekdeira. If you take bread and you put it into a, into a, uh, pot of food, it's cooking, it still remains chamotzi. And then skip two lines. El im ken nimche halechem babishul. Unless the bread inte-- di-disintegrates in the process of cooking. So if you take a whole... That's why we make a chamotzi on what we call French toast because it's still, although it's been fried, but it still retains its texture. But then skip down to the fifth line. V'im lo nishar bo kazayis nisbatal miderabbanan legamrei. If it's been broken down to less than a kazayis per piece, then it's lost its status as lechem. V'afilu nishar, nirah sheyesh alav toar lechem. Even if it still has got the texture of bread. Ei nirchoshev toar. It doesn't, it's not, that's not called appearance of bread. Umevorchim alei baruch

04:14 Speaker 1 min hamazon omai, um, omai engimol. So if bread, regular chamotzi bread, has been put into a pot and, and been cooked, so be-- even if it retains its texture, but because it's been c-c-uh, cooked and it's less than a kazayis, so then those pieces become mezonos. Then, um, it goes further. That's when it was disintegrated because of cooking. The next, um, v'yesh omrim that if, if before the cooking, you pirade hapars leprusis ktanos, you chopped up the bread into small pieces. Even if nirah sheyesh alav toar lechem. So then that, that also makes it into mezonos. So basically, what's, what's happening here is if bread is brought, cut into small pieces, less than a kazayis, and cooked, then it comes down to mezonos. And that's... So the deep-fried, the deep-fried croutons are definitely mezonos. That, that seems to be f-um, pretty clear. What bothered me is that looking online, et cetera, that a lot of these croutons are not, they're not made, um, into... They, they're actually baked again. They are put into an oven. It's just chopped up bread. So again, you've got here some croutons we said are for, for soup, which means that they've been deep-fried. If it's just for salad, then that means it hasn't been deep-fried, and still it may say on the, on the, on the, on the, uh, package it's mezonos. So we're still a little bit, we're not out of hot water yet. Uh, hot oil. Um, look, let's... So on the left, we have here from

06:03 Speaker 1 the book, I think it's called Brachos or Brachos on Food by, um, by Bodner. So he writes here, "Packaged cr- croutons sold in grocery stores are made from, from bread, made as... baked especially for the production of croutons, therefore the berachos mezonos." Then he goes into when it's put into salads, making two berachos, So the, the q-question which I... we're still-- I'm, I'm asking, it's regular bread and it says that because the bread has been baked especially for the production of croutons, therefore it's mezonos. And what, what's the explanation for that? So I s- I, I believe that the explanation is what I'm going to s-say now. So in other words, I'm speculating what these rab- rabbonim in the various hechsherim, why they decided that croutons are mezonos. So now we've got here, this is a quote from Shulchan Aruch, uh, ba-ba-ba-bachabar, kuf samech ches. And those who learn Alter Rebbe's, uh, Sefer HaChassidim in its entire base. We've got, uh, one of the three categories of mezonos is something called pas haba'o bekisnin. The word pas haba'o-- the term pas haba'o bekisnin has got three explanations. The first one is pas she'asu k'mun kisin. It's bread made like, like a pouch. Shememalin oysoy dvash osuke, which is put, filled with sweet stuff, honey, and goyim nuts. In other words, something like a strudel. So it's a, it's a, a regular pastry. So let's say kokosh, babka, where it's a regular... It can be a challah, a challah dough, but then you put in lots

07:54 Speaker 1 of chocolate in it, and chocolate and sugar, and that makes it into mezonos. That's one form. Vehema niknev-nikraim riskilias deal chashu. Now, if anyone knows a bit of Arabic or, or Ladino, I don't know which language that is. Um, I'm learning. That's the first pirush, that pas haba'o bekisnin is a, that pas haba'o bekisnin is a pouch filled with tasty stuff. So the word kisnin comes from kis, that is a pouch. The second translation is, veshemeforashim, that it's a dough which is made with a mixture instead of just water. It's made with honey or oil or milk or other... So it's a, a flavored bread. So he says, if it's a strongly flavored bread, he says that, that nikar, ta-the tam of the, uh, ba-tavlin nikar be'isso, the taste of the flavoring is felt in the dough. That makes it into mezonos. So that's what we rely upon for our cakes and biscuits and, um, possibly a lot of crackers, that they're made with, um, they're made with, uh, shortening, which, which it makes it into mezonos according to the second opinion. Then we have a third opinion. Vyeshemeforashim. I'm skipping the, the Rashi writing. Vyeshemeforashim shehi pas bemitubel es bein shee emitubel. It doesn't matter whether it's flavored or not. She'osyin oysoy. Here it says, ke'ovin boykuk kachin yaveishin. It's like a thin cracker. The chosisin oyson, and they are nibbled. Veheima nikron bisconis. Now, I looked up whether the word biscuit. I didn't manage to trace it to where the biscuits comes from

09:44 Speaker 1 this, this conis, but it looks like it's a thin cracker which people would typically have at the end of the meal as an extra, just a nibble. Now, that's the third opinion. It's the opinion of Rav Hai Gaon quoted in the Orach. The Alter Rebbe in Beis the Sefer HaChassidim doesn't bring this. This is the basis why Sfardim have the minhag on our regular matzahs. They say, all year round they say, "Boredim me mezonos," because of the shitah of Rav Hai Gaon which we just read, that this is called kachin yaveishin, these thin crackers. It's not a normal bread, and they make, uh, mezonos on it a whole year, and on Pesach, they make hamotzi. The Alter Rebbe, I s- my, my hunch is that the Alter Rebbe b-didn't bring this opinion because this is the, uh, the ham- if it's hamotzi on Pesach, it's hamotzi a whole year. Be, be that as it may, but this is the basis why something like pretzels. Pretzels are made with flour and water. Why is pretzels mezonos? Because no one ha- makes it for a, a meal. It's a kind of thing, it's just a nibble. And similarly, perhaps breadsticks, perhaps, um, s- chow mein. These are things which people don't have as a, as a, a meal. They have them as a nibble, and it's baked lechatchilah that way. Now, coming back to the croutons. No. See, you have here, actually, the croutons, I saw some s- some clips. It looks like leg- regular loaves of

11:14 Speaker 1 bread. The, they say that they, it, they don't taste like regular bread. Perhaps they're not flavored the way, like leg-regular bread. I don't know exactly the difference. They say it does, it would not taste like regular bread. But it's this picture, it looks like a regular loaf of bread. Goes through a slicer, a dicer, whatever it may be. So what they're saying is, "I made this bread as an unfinished product. I made it in order to create these nibbles called croutons." So just like you've a- you've accepted that something like chow mein, it's, it's just a nibble, and therefore it's mezonos. So this, the croutons, which they, they, it's part of a process to become, um, to become just a nibble food, and therefore it's mezonos. That, I believe, is their, their, um, their smadah. Now, I see on the chat, someone's asking, "What about Rakusen's crackers? Would they also be..." They, they write on them. On the packet, it's written that they're mezonos. Personally, I'm not... I, I'm uncomfortable with it because- If it's a five-inch square, it's hamotzi. And if it's a two-and-a-half inch square, it becomes mezonot. I, I don't know on what basis you could say that. Um, that, that I find difficult, but there, there is room for it. As you see, something which is clearly made just for a nibble, and especially the way I've explained it now, it makes a bit more sense to me why they're saying that the, um, the, those small matzahs are mezonot, because

12:40 Speaker 1 that's what they're made for. Right. So then, so someone is pointing out here, what happens if you have leftover challah and you cube it and spice it with oil and bake? Well, that will remain a hamotzi unless it is deep-fried. So homemade, so this, that's a very important point. Thank you. Um, so commercial croutons would... There's room to say that they're mezonot. Yes, I've explained that. But if you take your leftover bread and cube it, unless you de... If you deep fry it, it becomes mezonot. But if you just put it into, um, uh, just put it into the oven without deep-frying, then it remains, um, it remains hamotzi. D- Bread pudding is, is... Thank you, um, for that, um, text. Bread pudding becomes mezonot because when you bake bread pudding, it, the bread becomes mushy. One of the definitions is that the water in which it's soaked, this water turns whitish. It changes the color of the water. So the bread pudding is mezonot. And alamot nose gefirtzach. Yeah. Right. Okay. Let's come back to this, um, quote from, uh, it has here, "For homemade croutons." There you have it there. It become, it become hamotzi. And now, he's also now going into, he's saying that if you're having it in a salad, he's not very happy that you should say just one berachah on the whole salad. He's saying that you should make a mezonot on the croutons and the appropriate berachah for the salad or the soup. Okay? That's similar to what

14:11 Speaker 1 we discussed last week. Let's move on. Right. Now, briefly touched on last week, but want to, to give it a little bit more time. What is the situation where you have a salad made of cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocado? Just let's keep it simple. And so there's 30-- a, a third of each. So none of... All right. So what-- do you have to make a separate berachah on the avocado, or do you say the majority is, is hardomo, therefore the berachah is hardomo? What I'll tell you is the following. The, um, the sim- a similar question could be with a, a fruit salad, where it's common we have a lot of fruit which are ha'etz and some fruit which are hardomo. Let's say you've got five different fruit in the salad. Three of them are ha'etz and two of them are hardomo, or vice versa. So the, the Achronim, Reb Shlomo Zalmen, the Rav Elyashiv, um, Reb Zita, Baal Shew, I see them all quoting, quoted as saying you make a, the berachah of the majority. But I'm, I, I... My logic doesn't, doesn't ex- doesn't, doesn't... I, I is not comfortable with this. I'm not in... When I'm, when, when I've got a mixture and you say, well, the, normally we say the one which is more important prevails. But if they're all equally, kolom ahuvim, kolom berurim, kolom gibarim. I love all of them. I love all of the foods. So then when you say we're going according to the majority, and the majority

15:48 Speaker 1 becomes the overarching, the, the balabos, it becomes the dominating fish. So what, what, what we're trying to establish, a halacha, whether it's, it's a ha'etz or hardomo, we want to establish what is the ichid pleasure here. I'm having a food. What is the main food here? Is it banana? Is it pineapple? Is it apple? Is it, is it nuts? That's... I, I want to establish the food. So what you're telling me, that the majority of the salad is ha'etz. So what? I want to know what is this food. And therefore, I, uh, my feeling about it is that a, a fruit cocktail, or in this case with the, um, with the salad with, with the avocado, that when you've got n- There's no ba- There's no majority. You've got three minorities or five minorities. But okay, be that as it may, what happens if you have just two minim, ha'etz and hardomo? So here we have two quotes. One is from the Chayei Adam, and he says, "When we talk about a mixture," says the Chayei Adam, "V'davka she'eb inyan she'ein ham aat nikar." When we say the majority of the mixture is going to decide. Again, they're both equally kolom ahuvim. They're both equally appreciated. So then we have to follow the majority. So he says, "That's only if the minority is not noticeable." So therefore, in a case where you've got larger cubes or whatever pieces of tomato, cucumber, and, and avocado, so the Chayei Adam would say that you have to make

17:18 Speaker 1 two berachahs. The Mishnah Berurah, by contrast, so he writes, "Vafilu kol min v'min omed bifnei atzem hu nikar, nami bo sarov asdinam." The Mishnah Berurah disagrees, and he says, "Even in the salad where each item is recognizable on its own, you still would say the majority prevails." The pri- the Mishnah Berurah is much later than the Chayei Adam, obviously, but he's quoting from the Pri Megadim. So here we've got two shitas in Poskim. What is the status of my, um, of, of a mixture of larger pieces where you can recognize each piece individually? Is the berachah ha'etz or hardom? Is, is it, is it one food and therefore the majority, um, prevails, or is it two separate foods because the pieces are separate, are, are distinct? So this is, in all Poskim we have this debate. Then what is the Alter Rebbe's opinion? So really, it's not clear what the Alter Rebbe's opinion is. And, uh, I've, I've seen- I've spent a lot of time this week seeing different meforshim. The Misger She'arim learns, um, one way, and the, uh, there's a Sefer called Likutey Bahir it learns another way, and it's... And, and more recent, uh, commentaries also. I'm, I'm just quoting here from Rabbi Berel Levin, who's, zal zayn gezunt, is a brilliant man, and he's, he's got a Sefer called Shiurei Halacha LeMaaseh. And he writes, "Shnei minei maachal sheer v'k'dei leoch lan yachad." If you've got two foods and each one's got a separate bracha, and you've mixed them to eat

18:59 Speaker 1 them together. "V'chol min nikah bifnei at ba," in the mixture, they are recognizable separately. "V'lo nisbash lu yachad," and they haven't been cooked together, which then would, that for sure would make them into one. "Nechluk bo zeh poskim." So he acknowledges that there's a machloket poskim. "V'da asra beinu nir shetzorch levorach al kolech benyfrad." According to the Alter Rebbe, he's got some brilliant pilpul why, how he comes to this conclusion. Um, but the, the bottom line is he says that one should make a separate bracha on each one. So coming back to bottom line with the salad, tomato, cucumber, and avocado, and each one is recognizable in the mixture. So according to, um, the way Rabbi, Rabbi Levin is, is, is, uh, weighing it up and the, and, um, that, that one would make a separate bracha on the avocado and then make a separate bracha on the tomatoes or cucumbers and enjoy the rest of your meal. Okay, let's move on. We touched briefly last week, not, um, not so briefly, about an issue relating to ribbis. And I just want to clarify a very important point. And the way I put the question is, this is not-- this is my own question, but it's just to bring out a point. Working in the accounts office of a non-frum Jew, and I'm confronted with a, um, to process charges to a Jew which would involve him having to pay ribbis. Am I, as the worker for a, for a non-frum Jew, am I allowed

20:32 Speaker 1 to process that account? So I was speaking to the boys on Sunday in school, in the, in the yeshiva ktanah, in the cheder. Asked them, "What if you were a travel agent and J- and Jack Levy comes into your, um, into, into your shop, and he asks, 'I want to book a, a trip to Dubai on Saturday morning.' Are you allowed to sell a, a Jack Levy a, a ticket to travel on Shabbos?" That is a, that's a question of mesaya, of lifnei iver. Actually, here with ribbis, facilitating ribbis is even more serious, and we'll see in a moment. Okay. So this is from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch on Halachas ribbis. And he's, you see it's Sif Gimmel. He says, "You're not allowed to lis'asek bein lo v'o malva b'ribbis." You're not allowed to be an agent, a go-between. "V'chol misho yesarus al beinayim," one who is an agent, a go-between, "os yesiya asei ach mehem." Or if you assisted either borrower or lender. Or you know, I'm working in a little bit of the halva. So you give them an, an address where to go. "Harei zeh oiv mishum lifnei iver lisereis lisereis michshol." Then by facilitating, so then it's a, it's a lifnei iver of, of, uh, which is this week's parasha, I believe. "Im hoyu naase bil odoy," if the person could have managed to g- do the loan without you, still, there's me- media, also midir soferim, "maachazik yadeha b'aveira." There's assisting. There's facilitating, which you couldn't been m-- they

22:00 Speaker 1 couldn't have managed without you. That's lifnei iver min hatorah. If you're facilitating when they could have managed without you, is is haRabbono. But the more important point is the next, next paragraph. "Umesh naso eid beinayim," one who acts as a witness. There's a loan and it needs a witness. So you are part of, you're facilitating the deal. "Oi orif," if you are a guarantor for the borrower. "Vechehen hasofer," or if you are the secretary to write up this document, which is going to be ch- charging ribbis to another Yid. "Oiv b'lo yasaseh shel torah." All of the, the... These are, are worse than the one who just introduced and walked away. Here, they are actually facilitating a loan, which is gonna be charging ribbis. "Oiv b'lo yasaseh shel torah. She'naema," it says in Poskim, "lo sisimun olov neshech." You should not be im-imposing neshech, a, a ribbis charge. "Afilu hoyu malvei bil odem." Even if you were the loan would have happened without you. But you should not be facilitating the charge. "Lo sisimun olov." You shouldn't be placing the charge. Therefore, coming back to the, uh, the imaginary situation, which I'm sure it's not so far-fetched, of a frum Jew working for a n- for a non-frum Jew who is charging ribbis to a Jewish client. I think you're not allowed to process that, that, uh, that account, that, you know, that, that, that charge. Um, if there is a heter, make sure it's a very solid heter because we're t- talking here about

23:29 Speaker 1 a isim min hatorah. Let's move on. Okay. Friday, I got this, uh, picture on my WhatsApp. As you can see, it's, uh, wholemeal flour, which doesn't sift terribly well. And then you see towards the top there, um, some... I know what it's, what it's called in English, but it's, uh, it... I guess when it's alive, it crawls, and so it's not kosher. And it was obviously in the flour before, before the baking started. Well, let's go back. One, two. Okay. So now after baking, I see that there is infestation in the flour. Does that make the challahs which are baked treif, so to speak, also? So I'm, I've got here a, a quote from a Sefer called HaKashrus, and he w- says the following. That's Sif Yod Alef. "Botzeh shehu chaneh," you've prepared a dough. Or you, "Lechem shel lefa shem kemach shelo ovah nipui." Or bread which was from a flour which was not sifted. "Im nosa me'oso kemach," if they, if there's leftover, "beked es hanishar," you check the leftover. "Nimtzu noki," if the lest-- So if you bake without sifting, and then you check the flour afterwards and it's all clear, you're okay. "Nimtzu bo afilo teva'as achat," but if you found even a single worm in the leftover flour, so then, "yesh oysrim oysa bachil." So then that would reflect on the whole dough. Now, he actually... That's not mamash the case over here. They had actually looked through, not sifted, but they had looked through the flour, so makes it

25:26 Speaker 1 a little bit easier. But just the halakha is that if you do find infestation after having baked and you didn't sift the flour before, then you'd have a problem with the, with the, uh, all that which you baked already from the same batch. Let's go on. Um, right. So here's the... This is very interesting, Shaila. Last week, on Friday, I was sitting in the Beit HaMidrash. I'll come to the text in a moment. Um, I was sitting in the Beit HaMidrash and a woman, uh, calls up and asks, "Does a meat thermometer need to be toveled?" Uh, the, the, the, uh, question is a little bit more interesting because the meat thermometer has got a dial at the top, and it probably says about 50,000 times over the packaging, "Do not immerse." So anyway, if you've put that into the, into the mikvah, if water penetrates into the mechanism, it may affect its, its functioning. So there's a reluctance to tovel it. But meanwhile, does a meat thermometer have to be toveled? So here's the answer. We have here, this is in Simon Kuf Hof in Yeriddeah, talking about tevilat keilim. A knife of a shochet. So, for there are those who say or a knife, a knife which used for skinning animals, some say it does not need tevila. The Ramon says, "Well, yes." Some say it does need to be toveled. Then it's recommended you tovel it without a beracha. Then he says, the metal rollers which are used for perforating the matzahs.

27:04 Speaker 1 They make them, the dough shouldn't rise. So, well, what's the, what's the, uh, common denominator? A knife of shechita and the, the rollers piercing the matzahs. The, the thing is that both of them are u-used in processing food well before it's up to being ready to eat. It's not like a baking tin, you put in raw food and it comes out edible, and pots and pans, et cetera. Here, a knife of shechita, it's used earlier, but it's not gonna... It's not ready. Um, it's not used for ready to make, to eat food. The same thing with the matzahs. The, the rollers are made, are used only before. That, that seems to be a common thing. So then the question is, if the Ramon is saying, "Well, nevertheless, you should tovel the shochet's knife," why doesn't he say you should also tovel the metal things which are used for making the matzahs? And the answer is that a shochet's knife, although it's made for an early stage, but it could be used for cutting food. And therefore, you should tovel it. By contrast, the rollers for the matzahs, they can't... There's no, there's nothing else you can do with them. They're only... That's a tool only made for an early stage of the, of, of the matzah baking process, and therefore On this basis, a, a meat thermometer is used for checking the, to the, whether it's, it's di- what, what the... How, how well the meat is done, but it's not, it's not used for

28:41 Speaker 1 actually preparing the food at all. And, and as a result, when I looked, uh, looked around and that's the, uh... Obviously, you won't see this in seforim of, of, um, 30 years ago. Uh, but the c-contemporary, uh, rabbonim take the view that you don't need to tovel it on this basis because it's, it's not made to prepare the food and it's, it's in, it's engaging in an earlier stage. Okay. I see here a question. I see here a question. If I'm not mistaken, ribbis is only for personal accounts, not corporate, which is why Jewish bankers could charge interest. Don't need to mention out loud. No, sorry. Um, the... If you go to a Bank Leumi or something like that, you will actually see a heter iska, um, displayed in the, in the hallway, and that's the way it would work. Not, not because what does it mean a corporate account? A corporate means a group of people. I mean, imagine just about this. Imagine if you have Mr. Baker and Mrs. Baker open up a limited company and it's a bakery. And they, um, and they, and, and it's open on Pesach because it's not them, it's the, it's the limited company. So it's a, it's a shut first, it belongs to them. The, the halakha doesn't really recognize a, a company which doesn't have people. Ownership means people. So, no, a, a Jewish bank, a Jewish bank would, to, to be able to charge ribbis to fellow Jews, would have to have a heter

30:17 Speaker 1 iska. And there are, there are heter, um, heter, heter iska, which are, um, compiled especially for banks, and that all their dealings, lending and borrowing, is under, uh, heter iska. Okay. Now, let's go on to some really savory, uh, geshmake shaila. So this is a story about locust. Now, we, we, we did learn recently that there are locusts which we are allowed to eat. So what happened in one community here in, uh, the UK, a young lad had been to Eretz Israel and he, uh, he picked up a tub of locusts with a hechsher. And he brought it back to town. And on Shabbos morning at the Kiddush, he's offering everyone, uh, you know, have a ta-taste of a locust. So what's the story? Is it, is it okay or not? So the, uh... So let, let's go through the Halacha Shulchan Aruch, Siman Peh He. Simanim cha chagavim kol sheyesh beh arba raglayim ve'arba knafayim. Four legs and four wings, and it's got, um, the wings cover the majority of the body. It's got a few descriptions. And then, then it says, "V'ach she-" if it has all the simanim, it should be, also it has to be known as chagav. "Osh yesh lahem masoret shishmei chagav." There has to be a tradition that this is called a chagav. Fine. So that's the Shulchan Aruch. Shulchan Aruch says it's okay, as long as we know it's a chagav. So here we have the Taz. "Ve'ach sh'ovo lo yagin shlo lecho shum chagav afi lu

31:59 Speaker 1 beyoda sheshmei chagav lefí she'ein anu bakim beshmei se'im." The Taz says that e- nowadays we do not eat locusts, even though we know that it's called a, uh, chagav because we're not, we n- we don't rely on our, on, on our knowledge. We, we assume that it's perhaps it's not really a chagav. Now, so then we've got then the Teimani community who can tell you with a fact, they say, "Well, for sure we eat chagav." And they als- and I've heard that some of the, these locusts have like a, a kind of a, uh, dimple on the back, which looks like a ches. And they say, "Oh, that's the siman that it's a chagav." So the Teimani community do eat chagavim. They, they have, they have a tradition. Then in Morocco, also in many communities, they would eat, uh, locusts. They would eat chagavim. So now it becomes the question, is the Ashkenazi community not eating because of unfamiliarity? So then can we then say, "Well, okay, but now we've met our Teimani brethren, and therefore their cha- their bikyus should be permitting us to eat the chagavim." So this is now we have a second quote from the Shulchan Aruch, and that is in Siman Peh Beis. So let's read that carefully. Im sh- That's really talking about birds. "Im she'or makom she'ein lahem masoret yecholen leoch lei al smach makom sheyesh lahem masoret." So there's one region which do not have a tradition. There's another region which do have a tradition. Can the

33:32 Speaker 1 ones which don't have a tradition enjoy the food based upon the masoret of another region? "Yesh mishe'oseh veyesh mishemati veyesh lo chashndi dibrei ois." So the Shulchan Aruch is saying very clearly there's room to. There's ar- there's an, a valid argument to say, "Well, they've got a biki- they've got a masorah. You can t- you can piggyback. You can take, uh, uh, from them." But he passed to the Mechaber says, "No, you can't rely on, on the dibri, um, you can't rely on someone else's masorah." So as Ashkenazim, w- we have a mas-- In our masorah, it, it's, it's, our masorah is saying that, that we're not confident about, about chagavim. You're confident that your, in your community that's okay. In our community, it's not okay. Um, I d- spent-- Someone sent me a couple of articles. Some- one article by someone called the Rabbi Dr. Slifkin, who is all for promoting, uh, that it should be okay. And then I saw other articles which are, are not so poshit. And one of the things I see is that the Or HaChaim HaKadosh, Chaim ibn Attar. So he lived in Morocco, and he, in his... He's got a Sefer on Yoreh Deah called Pri Toar, and he's very, very strong that it, not Chas v'Shalom, you shouldn't be, uh, eating the locust. It's not reliable. So even amongst the Moroccan community itself, we see Bil'uri Israel, the Or HaChaim HaKadosh was, uh, Ben, the, the contemporary of the Baal Shem Tov. So he, he's, he's

34:59 Speaker 1 very much against it. And certainly, it's something which we should discourage. Those communities which do, fine. You know, that's their, that's their masorah, and, uh, that's fine. Let's move on. Right. Oh, this is like a very interesting question. That someone asked me that there is this national census, and the national census also includes a question, um, about religion. And we know in Torah that when it comes to counting Yidden, it was done through a Maaser Shekel. In later generations, in, in Nach, we see about using sheep. There is a, a reluctancy to count. And it says a whole thing with, with, uh, David HaMelech did make a count, and it was like a, if we may use the word obsession, and Yoav tried to dis- to stop it. And then there was a magefah. It was, it was... So we have a string. We, and we don't count Yidden. That's why by a minyan, we want to count, we count to HaSheim Samecho. Um, uh, yeah. We, that, that's, that's how we count to avoid counting. So here's a question. Is counting in a, in a census, um, going to be an issue? So I'm gonna come back to the Halacha side. I want to sh- look at the, the, uh, two stories which, one which f- give me this, the, uh, the prayer, the, how do you say? The oomph to say that af- you absolutely have to answer yes, and you have to write you're Jewish. When the Rebbe, here there's a story

36:33 Speaker 1 that's printed in, in Yemei Melech. When the Nazis, Imach Shamom, entered Paris. So they made a, a, a, uh, a list of all the citizens to know their, their, uh, ethnic and, um, origins and their religion. And it was obviously what their, that purpose was. This is in 1940 or '41. And it was by then, the extermination of Poland Jewry was happening with full intensity. When the officers came to the house of the Rebbe, the Rebbe wasn't home. And because of the danger, they were told that he was... They gave-- He was-- They were given an ambiguous answer that he's Orthodox. Orthodox, uh, is ambiguous, yeah? So then when the Rebbe came home and found out about this, he rushed without any delay, he rushed to the office where the records are being taken, and to everyone's shock, he told them, "Write down that I'm Jewish." So he didn't want to be, um, be listed even as a doubt whether he's Jewish. Now, perhaps this is the inspiration to which the Rebbe had a story with his father, with the Rebbe Levi. So this is Yekaterinoslav, and this is the year when he was arrested, which is, I think, nineteen thirty-nine, thirty-eight, thirty-nine. It was before Pesach that year, and there was a census. And one of the questions which were asked was about faith. Now, this is in communist Russia, Stalinist Russia. And the question was, "Are you a believer or not a believer?" Rebbe Levi was the rav of town. He saw that

38:22 Speaker 1 people were hesitant. So Rebbe Levi went a whole shturm, a whole, a whole campaign. And in public, he said in shul with, in a thunderous way that it's forbidden for a Yid to avoid this question. Whomever who denies answering this question, he is denying Bemalkut Shamayim. And it says later, he went from shul to shul, um, this is the year before he, th-th-before, before he was arrested. So when a Yid is asked, what is... When you, when you see a census and you're, they ask what's your religion, of course, you have to answer your religion. And you have to say that you are a Yid. There's no question about that. Then you have the question, does it, uh, going to the question of, of, of accounting Yidden. Okay, so now the poskim which I did see addressing this are poskim addressing the community in Eretz Yisrael. And so here we have, what about a, a national census in Eretz Yisrael? Before reading that, I want to s-show you a, an interesting observation. Even when the Yidden count, were counted with the Maaser Shekel, there was never a full, um, thorough and reliable number because Shevet Levi were not counted with them. So we have a number of six hundred thousand three hundred, um, whatever it is, six hundred three thousand, but Levi's not included. The Yidden, the rest of the Yidden were counted from twenty to sixty. The Bnei Levi were counted from the age of thirty days. So they had never really, between the

39:56 Speaker 1 Leviim and the rest of the Klal Yisrael, you'd never have a, a clear number of any segment of the population, how many actually, how many members there are. It's always gonna be a little bit of a guesswork. So coming back about the, the... This is from the Sefer Biskishuvus about counting Yidden. That would also be if it's only, even if it's just written. And, and then it talks about the It's almost the same question. Yuda was born in Russia, and he was born as a lefty, but he was, he was forced to change to become a righty, to, to write with his right hand. So now he writes with his right hand and everything else now he does with his left hand. So the question is, which side is he-- which, which arm does he put tefillin on? Is he a righty or is he a lefty? So now in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch it talks about the other way around. Yeah, look at the... Let, let's read the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. Because let's go back a little bit. We've got two opinions, whether the criterion is your ability to write or the criterion is where you have strength. Because we've got one pasuk, "Uch'shartom al yadecha uch'savtom al mizuzas bisecha. Yad ha-choseves hi yad ha-chocheres." The hand with which you write normally, that's the hand which should be putting-- which should be r-tying the tefillin. Therefore, since you normally write with your right hand, so then the tefillin are tied on the

44:11 Speaker 1 left hand. And then it's got to do with the hand which writes. Then we have in Parashat Acharei Mot, I think it says, "Yad cho" is spelled yud, daled, chaf, he. Yad chei. The tefillin should be placed on the weaker hand. So usually it goes together. The hand which doesn't write is the weaker hand. But what would happen if you've got the stronger hand doesn't write? You write, write with one hand and you- your stronger hand is the other one. Um, the Alter Rebbe had a grandson, a great-grandson called the Reb Baruch Shalom. That's the Rebbe's elter elter zeide. And Reb Baruch Shalom was born without fingers on his right hand. And of the Alter Rebbe, just before he passed away, he said to the Tzemach Tzedek, his grandson, "Is there anything you want to ask?" And afterwards, the Tzemach Tzedek realized he should have asked about what should he do about his oldest son when it will come to tefillin. Because he was eight years old at the time. What would happen, wha- what should he do for tefillin? So, so, so, so, and, and here we have the Alter Rebbe in Shulchan Aruch says the criterion is writing. The Tzemach Tzedek has got long tshuvahs, two or three tshuvahs, where he says the criterion is strength. He disagrees with the Alter Rebbe, although he doesn't mention the Alter Rebbe by name. So here we've got two opinions. So they are-- in the Shulchan Aruch, we have both opinions in, in the earlier poskim.

45:32 Speaker 1 And the Alter Rebbe says the main thing is going, uh, according to writing. Then, now here the Alter Rebbe continues, "Ba'med v'or ha'amurim," when do we say that it is writing? "K'she'noyled hitar yad." If he was born a lefty. "Avol im achar kar higil atzmo lichateb bismo eleh." If he's, was born a righty and then he trained himself to write with his left hand. "Bechol shar kol ma'aseh bo'es be yamin," but everything else he does with his right hand. "Ein dinah ke'iter." Don't call him a lefty. So again, we've got here, we've got two functions, writing and everything else. He has changed over, but only changed over for writing, not cha-- semi tran-cha-changed over. Semi cha-cha-change. Then he says, then we'll say no. Since he still has his strength in his left hand, so he's still called a lefty. "Elamanich al smol kol od," no, so again, since, since he still has his strength in his right hand, he's writing with his left hand. His strength is his right. So a semi-transfer, trans, ch-change is still retaining his original status. "Avol im higig atzmo al atas kol ma'aseh bismo." But if he effected a change that he d-- instead of being a righty for writing and for strength, everything now is on the left side, then he is a lefty, and he will put the tefillin on his right arm. So this is just the opposite of the situation which we, which I'm, which I, I was, uh, facing. Here we're talking about a right-handed

47:08 Speaker 1 person who trained himself to write with his left. Our situation is the opposite. He's a left-handed person who trained himself to write with his right hand. Is he now a righty or a lefty? This is our question. Yeah. So it's not explicit in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. So now I've looked at two seforim. One is Shevet Ach Yakar or Shevet Ach Yikar, and the other one is Dinai Itur. So let's read the Shevet Ach Yikar which, which they're, they're basing on the Tzemach Tzedek. So he says like this, "A lefty who trained himself to write with his right hand, but he can still write with his left hand. Most of his activities he will do with his left hand." So you see what's going on here. He can write with his left, and he can write with his right. Everything else. So there's more weight to the left hand, yeah, than the, than to the right. And therefore, he says, he should be-- he's a lefty. Even though he can write now also with his, uh, right hand, but he's a lefty, and he should put tefillin on his right arm. But then, but then he should also put on, after davening, he should put on, um, a-another shel yad on the other arm. The other, the other source is a little bit less, uh, uh, less clear, but this is what, what I, I believe remains. That in, in, in-- that's talking about where he can write with both hands. So then he,

48:40 Speaker 1 he remains a lefty. In our case, and this is what I asked the person today. In our case, this fellow who was brought up in, in Soviet Russia and forced to write with his right hand, can he write with his left hand? If he can, we instruct because he has a business of two tefillin, two, two shel yads. But if he cannot write with his left hand, only with his right hand, so then according to the Alter Rebbe, he is a right-handed person, and he puts the tefillin on his left arm. Right. I have... I know it's, uh... I have one more, um, thing on my list, although it's not on your list, it was, came up later. The-- Perhaps I brought it up e-earlier about the National Lottery symbol. And I got something in one of these, um, advertisers. The National Lottery is funding their activity, which is, uh, very nice of them. And the National Lottery symbol is crossed fingers. So I wrote to them. I wrote to the organizer saying that, um, I'm questioning whether a Jewish organization should be ad-advertising a symbol of crossed fingers, which is clearly a Christian, uh, beha- practice, as if to in-in-invoke a better mazel, and especially when they're thinking about a lottery. Who's gonna win the lottery? The one who's crossed his fingers is gonna have a better, you know, uh, a better mazel to, to, to win the lottery. That's, that's the thinking there. So he wrote back to me. He says, uh, that,

50:06 Speaker 1 um, he says that, that, uh, "What about the Union Jack? And what about Rabbi Sudak, alav ha-shalom, who received the OBE?" so, um, and then he gives a reference to a teshuvah of Rabbi Joseph Feinstein. I looked it up the other day, I forgot which number. And there he talks about in the, uh, he talks about postage stamps. A postage stamp which got a tzaylem on it or a gadol on it. And he says it's okay. And so I wrote back to him, with all due respect, I, I understand those are national things, um, national symbols, et cetera. Here it's a bit... I think it's a bit stronger. Here is, it's, it's a practice which Christians are doing as act, as an act of faith. And I said, I know you say, you know, I'm not, I'm not talking about kabbalah dati, I'm not telling you. I'm just telling you, you know, it's something which we should ask a shailah and whatever they will, you know, whatever your own rav will pass can be that as it may. But I've just felt that it's something which should be brought up and, um, and, and addressed. Okay, that's the rest of my, my list. And, uh, so we're finishing a little bit late and a little bit early. I said 10 to 9:00, but, uh, it's now five to 9:00. Okay. So a zeit alle gezunt and a guten Shabbos, and we should meet in good health. Todah rabah.

51:19 Speaker 2 Shabbos, shalom.

51:21 Speaker 3 Shalom. Good Shabbos.

51:22 Speaker 4 Shalom. Good Shabbos.

51:27 Speaker 5 Shabbos, shalom.