פנורמה של הלכה 31

00:05 Speaker 1 Good evening. And we'll start off with some Tehillim and Psuka, and then we'll start the Shir. Particularly, I want to, uh, point out we have the Shliach in Dublin, Rabbi Zalman Lent, who is, uh, in hospital due to COVID, and we wish him a refuah shleima. So his name is Zalman, Zalman Shimon HaLevi ben Chana Rivka. Refuah shleima kariva b'sei'ach sh'orcher Yisroel. We'll do chapter chaf, and chaf nun. Lamnatzeach mizmor l'David. Yah, Adonai v'yem zoro. Yisagev chol shem elohei Yaakov. Yishlach ezrakha mikodesh. U'mitzion yisadeka. Izkeh kol m'kesecha. V'eiloscha yirash nesela. Yiten lacha chilvavecha. U'chol asascha yima lei. Neranan v'shoscha. V'shem Eloheinu nidgel yima lei. Adonai chol mishalescha. Atah yodati ki yeshi Adonai meshiacha. Yaanehu mishmeha kodshe. V'goro es yeshi yaminoi. Eila v'rechev, v'eila v'asusim. V'anachnu b'shem Adonai Eloheinu nazkir. Tehi m'koro u'v'napolo. V'anachnu kamnu v'nis eidot. Adonai yeshiao ha'melchi anenu v'yem koreinu. Halelu Yah. Halelu ha'eil ha'kodshe. Halelu hu b'kir uzrei. Halelu hu b'goroisa. Halelu hu k'rev gudlei. Halelu hu b'tzega shefa. Halelu nuhu b'neihu l'chinuch. Halelu hu b'sefer mochel. Halelu hu b'min ha'ugam. Halelu hu b'tzal tzeis shoma. Halelu hu b'tzal tzeis rua. Keil ha'neshamot. Halelu Yah. Halelu Yah. Also, I'd like to mention that tonight is Rabbi Sodach's yahrtzeit, so the Tehillim, Eli, Nishmaso. Right. So now let's start the Shir. So someone asked me this question about neshamah yasara. So we know that it's mentioned in Gemara, that this idea on Shabbos, a person has an extra nesh- neshama yasara, an extra spirit, an extra soul. And this is explained in, in

02:14 Speaker 1 Halakha and explained in Kabbalah. The c- the practical question is that there is a custom that when it comes on Friday night by Ofrei Soleinu, to rise, to sit, to stand up, to, as if to greet the neshamah yasara. And the person was asking, "What about Yom Tov? Does this apply to Yom Tov?" So let's first look at what is this neshamah yasara. So there's two angles. One is on P... Niglah, and one is more in, in Kabbalah, in, in, in, in Derech HaSod. And in the Kotzike Hazchelek, uh, lamed alef, Parashat Skisi, so the Rebbe discusses this at length. He's more discussing the Halakha side. And basically, it means that on Shabbos, a person is more relaxed because there's no pressure, and therefore, that's the neshamah yasara. It's a sen-sense of relaxation, uh, tranquility. Yom Tov, because you're allowed to cook on Yom Tov, therefore, there's a Tosafot which says, and the author Rebbe brings it, "Ei neshamah yasara klal." There is no neshamah yasara, whereas the Rashbam says that there is a bit of a neshamah yasara, and this is to explain why on-- when Fri- when Motzaei Shabbos goes into Yom Tov, about having, uh, besamim. So normally, we have Fri- Motzaei Shabbos, we use the besamim, and the explanation is because you've, you're de-leaving the delight, the relaxation, the tranquility of Shabbos. And so, there's a certain, uh, shall we say, grieving. And the nesh- the besamim is meant to kind of give you a boost at that moment. When Yom

04:03 Speaker 1 Tov is on Sunday, so we make a Havdalah, Yak nuhaz, so we-- but we don't, we don't include the besamim. Why not? Why don't we, when Yom Tov is on, on, on a Motzaei Shabbos, why don't we use besamim? So here, we have two approaches. We have the approach of the Rashbam, who says, "Instead of besamim, you've got a whole Yom Tov meal. Why do you need to have besamim? You've got something, you've got something much more than that. You've got the Yom Tov." Tosafot says that no, that, um... And, and, and, and Tosafot says that there, there is no neshamah yasara on Yom Tov, et cetera. Okay. So here, we have... That's, that's Al Pi Niglah. The, the neshamah yasara is a, a sense of tranquility. Al Pi Kabbalah, obviously, there is an extra neshamah. That's very clear in the Zohar, et cetera. And as we are familiar, the neshamah comes-- it has various levels of the neshamah. There's nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chaya, yechidah. And the way it's explained in, in Kabbalah is Friday night, by-- when the Kabbalat Shabbos is the g-greeting of the nefesh. And then by, at Borchu, the, before, before Shema, is the greeting of the, of the ruach. And then on, uh, at Ofrei Soleinu, Sukhas Shleimecha, that's the greeting of the neshamah, of the neshamah. And this is all on the Tzad, uh, Hanukve. And then Shabbos by day, again, there's nefesh, ruach, neshamah. And one of the stations of the, uh, neshamah yasara is nishmat, nishmat chaya.

05:47 Speaker 1 So again, it's welcoming another aspect of the neshamah. Fine. And now, the question is, what about Yom Tov? So in, in Kabbalah, in the, in the Zohar, it says there's a neshamah yasara on Yom Tov, even on Rosh Chodesh. Fine. What we have in front of us is, uh, we have three seforim here. One is a sefer called They're All Sefardis seforim. The Sefardim are much more into Kabbalah than Ashkenazim, especially translating Kabbalah into what you have to do now, what you shouldn't be doing now, et cetera. So this is the source. This is the Sefer Shalmi Hagiga. Um, and this is quoted on the margin of the Shulchan Aruch and the Chayei Adam. He quotes this from this sefer, but I, I got the original sefer. So, all right, it's telling us this is like, this is where it come, this meaning of st- rising by at... when saying, And he quotes from Chaim Talaji, who was in Turkey. Let's go on to the next question. A pract- much more down-to-earth question, and that is about a teacher asked me this question. She's teaching halakha, and what's the story about packages arriving on Shabbos? So I thought her, her question was of, of tehum. That the package which has arrived on Shabbos, Amazon or whatever, it may have, uh, arrived from beyond the tehum. So here's an interesting point. A lot... I'm sure a lot of you, uh, uh, know one of my pet stories is about the, the fellow who his luggage didn't

11:17 Speaker 1 arrive on time on Erev Yom Tov, and it was going to be brought by the airline to the house on Yom Tov. And I had a whole parsha about being a mechtzat tehum. But when, when post is brought, delivered, so the issue of tehum is not a problem. The reason being that imagine if there's a shop which get, get a delivery for their own people. Uh, is a Jew allowed to have benefit from the fact that a goy brought for his own, for his own, for his goyishe customers, he brought from mechtzat tehum. So a Jew is allowed benefit from it, so long as it's not rove, whatever, um, Yidden, r-roving customers are Yidden. So the fact that goy brought from mechtzat tehum is okay because he brought it for the Goyim, and we're allowed to have benefit. On that basis, contemporary poskim, now here, this is from Shabbos Geoncha. He quotes recent poskim. They're saying the postal service- When they bring delivery from BeChutz La'aretz into the Tehum, they're not doing it because of the recipient. They, they're doing it because, uh, they, they... it was sent, et cetera. Then, then they are-- they're delivering many other packages. So they don't see it a-as, as being Hu V'bishvilo m'chutz la'aretz. They see it as being brought, um, for Rov Goim, and therefore you're allowed to have benefit from it. So let's read this, this, um, quote from Shmirat Shabbat KeHalacha. Uh, a package which is brought from chu-in chutz la'aretz, because there's no delivery

12:47 Speaker 1 or post in Eretz Yisrael, I guess. If a d-package was delivered in chutz la'aretz by the post on Shabbos, and not because you had-- not because the sender had insisted that it should have to be delivered on Shabbos, so then you are allowed to benefit from the contents, even if it was brought from mechutz l'chum or, you know, about, about, about mechutz l'chum. What about it was brought from Reshuth Harabim, et cetera. Um, it's not a worry. Even though Reshuth Harabim gemara. In the sefer, one of the sefarim which talks about this, he says, um, I think it's, um, one of the sefarim, he says, "You're asking about the, uh, mechutz l'chum, and what about the train and the engine?" Which, you know, is-- They're stoking the, the steam engines. He says, "Not a worry because it wasn't done for you." So all right. So I res-I, I responded to this teacher that a package which comes from mechutz l'chum by the post, you are allowed to benefit from it. So then it turns out her question wasn't that. Her question was about opening the package. Are you allowed to use the contents? Well, you have to open the package. Are you allowed to? So before going into the whole pilpul, I just want to say, uh, Dvar HaPoshet, which I wrote back to her, to her, to her also. We all were brought up that a package has arrives on Shabbos, you wait till Motzei Shabbos. Why? Naase V'nishma. But, well, well, meanwhile, that

14:12 Speaker 1 is the, the, uh, general position. So let's-- This is a quote. The first quote is from the Alter Rebbe in Siman shin zayin. So he gives you a story. A Goy brought a sealed package, sealed letter, and the Yid can't open it. He's allowed to tell the Goy, "I can't read this letter when so long as it's sealed." And the Goy will open it on his own accord. And he says, "Why is that okay?" Because the Goy... Look in the brackets. The Alter Rebbe says, "The Goy thinks that part of his mission of delivering the letter is to open the letter also." Without going into a discussion about the Amira l'Nachri side, but what we are seeing is that there is a problem of a Yid opening a letter. What's the problem? Is it because of tearing a seal? Is it because of, uh, tearing letters? It's not so clear. Um, let's now-- Then when the next quote is from a Sefer called Ksav HaShulchan, and it's quite straightforward. He says, "You're not allowed to open a sealed letter, but you are allowed to tell a Goy, 'I can't read it so long as it's sealed,' and the Goy is allowed to open it for you." So we're seeing here that certainly to open, let's say, the question was something like a Chabad magazine arrives and it's got a shrink or it's got, um, a plastic envelope, plastic seal. Are you allowed to open those things? And so the position is no, that you're not

15:40 Speaker 1 allowed to. Ah, what's the difference between that and, and opening a package of food? I actually just picked up a new volume of Rabbi Farkash's Shabbos Kahalacha, Rabbi Kasiel Farkash. And in this volume, he actually talks about opening containers. It's, it's part of, uh, the way it's on for. And he's just kind of questions what's the source of Shabbos. How, how is it really a source of Shabbos that you should, uh, read that magazine? That's, that's what his-- that's his basis why you shouldn't be opening. So bottom line is that we, whilst we do open packages of food, and sometimes we'll even open it at a seal and we'll rely on that the seal was, um, the adhesion was for a temporary nature. So we'll rely on that for opening packages, but we won't rely on that for opening reading material because it's not, uh, defined as source of Shabbos. If you want to read it further, in, in, as I say, Shabbos Kahalacha, he has a, um, a few pages discussion, but that seems to be the, the general position. Um, right. Whereas on Yom Tov, actually, it's more lenient. Yom Tov one would be, uh, be more-- would be allowed to open, um, a similar kind of package. All right, let's go on. Okay. So here is a shaila, which I got from a Shliach somewhere in Eastern Europe, and they are building a community center, which I understand would include a shul. And they, the city have given them a permit, but

17:26 Speaker 1 they have to finish by a certain date, and it's taking longer than the original plan. And so they're now quite pressed for time. The company, who are the building company or contractors, they again, they are saying, "It's taking too long, and we have to finish on time." And they want-- They're, they're working on Shabbos. It's not their-- They're not asking. Originally, the agreement was, the contract, that they shouldn't be working on Shabbos, but they're working on Shabbos. And, um, he's asking how much, how much does he have to put his foot down to stop them from doing so. It's a question of cost, et cetera. So now, let's put down a, a, a principle here. There's a difference in Halacha between a Socheir and a Kablan. A sogeh means you're paying the person for their time. A kablan is you're paying them for the job to be done, whether... and they can do it in their, in whichever time they choose. That's not your, uh, your worry. And so we all know that you can give your car into a, uh, mechanic on Friday, and you'll pick it up on Monday. The fact that he's gonna be hacking away at your car on Shabbos morning, you don't worry. You're not paying him for the time, you're paying him for the service, which is gonna take so much time. And but when he does it is his choice. The thing is that that heter, unless you give your clothes to a clear, dry cleaners and you

18:57 Speaker 1 pick it up a day later, you don't worry because they're doing-- you're paying for the job. That only works on mobile objects. Bemichubel hakarka, in other words, um, in property, in, in, in real estate. If it's within a chum Yisroel, where another Yid would pass by and see there's work going on. So it's asur to have work done on your premises. We all know that. And, uh, the reason is because of Maras Ayen. People will see there's a, um, um, you know, development being worked on Shabbos, and they might suspect it's, that the person-- that the workers were paid by time rather than by, by, for as a contract for the, for the job. So now... So I, I, I really, uh, when he asked me this question, I felt very sorry for him. I thought there's no way to be metiv. But then looking at Shechinorach. So let's read the following. This is in Siman Resh Mem Dalet, the Alter Rebbe's Shechinorach. There are places that the kohal, that the community hi-hire Goyshe workers. They pay them for the job, not for the time, and their job is to clean up, clean, take away the, the, the, um, garbage from the street. And the Goy does it. He sometimes works on Shabbos also. What's the isur of clearing garbage? I'm not sure even. Is it because of Muktzeh? I'm not sure. And so at any rate, you have a Goy who are doing work for you on Shabbos, and some say it's okay because

20:24 Speaker 1 kipan yisparim bema'davor. It's well known that this kind of job is not paid by the hour, it's paid for the job, and therefore it's not a problem. There's no Maras Ayen. So now we go down to the second paragraph. Oh, so now we go to the second paragraph. Amitam ze yesh lehatchil. For this reason, we can allow also a Goy to build a shul on Shabbos. If it's in a place where it's well known that houses are built by workers who are paid for the job, not for day, by day workers. It's not like, I don't know, like a gardener, perhaps you're paying per hour. But, um, I apologize to any gardeners who I've insulted just now. But if it's a, a person who's paid for a skilled job. Usually, you pay them for the job, certainly in the way of a contractor. Shehadricha levadoi. Some places they are. You have the Adricha, who's like the man, the overall manager, and he's got day workers. There is a problem of Maras Ayen. But if it's normal for work to be done by, for the contractors for the job, then one could allow this. One could, uh, ignore the fact it's being done on Shabbos if it's a Beis Haknesses. And he continues, that should only be allowed beShas Hadchak. Kegoyim sheyesh chashash. There's a concern that if it's not done in time, it may, the whole project may be, uh, halted. Shelo beShas Hadchak. Very important point here. If it's not a Shas Hadchak, so

21:51 Speaker 1 then one shouldn't allow such a thing because of Achil Hashem. Because the Goyim won't allow a church to be built on Sundays, and we're allowing, uh, our place of worship to be built on our holy day, so it doesn't look right. So, so shelo beShas Hadchak, definitely we, we make. And that's why the agreement was originally not to work on Shabbos. But I think the way he's described it, it is a Shas Hadchak, and it is a contract, um, kind of, kind of job. And on that basis, one can, one, one can, you know, just ignore and let them continue their work. I'm gonna look at the chats, a couple of points which you just raised here. Why is opening the envelope Mikvah Chabad permitted on Yom Tov? Okay, that's got to do with Binyan BeKeilim. Um, well, the bag is a Keili and so on Shabbos, we take a strict view of yesh, um, yesh Binyan BeKeilim. For Yom Tov, we take, we take a, a more lenient view. If you want, as they say, you can look it up in the, um, in the Shabbos Kahalacha, if you can get a hold of it. Okay. Right. Right. Let's, um, let's move on. Okay. So I got this question here earlier in the week of two, um, uh, Choson and Kallah. It turns out the Choson's mother's name is Yehudis, and the Kallah's name, mother's name is Yehudis. So you got Yehudis and Yehudis, uh, who are, uh, mechutan, mechutanastis. Is there an issue?

23:34 Speaker 1 So we have here, you have on the top of the page, Tzafoas of Yehuda Chassid. I'm not sure exactly when, but Yehuda Chassid was in the time of the Rishonim, one of, perhaps one of Baalei HaTosfot. And in, he has-- We have two Sephorim of his, as far as I know. We have the Sefer Chassidim, and then we have separately, Tzafoas of Yehuda Chassid. And there's a lot of speculation. Perhaps Tzafoas of Yehuda Chassid was written just for his offspring, not for everyone. But a lot of things we are, we do follow, Tzafoas of Yehuda Chassid. So this is in, reading from Tzafoas of Yehuda Chassid. Schnei Bnei Adam, two people, sheshem, who have the same name, lo yisdavku yachad beyiladeihem. They shouldn't make a shidduch between their children. Sephorim. Chei lo yasun yisun schnei yoldim yachah. It's probably the same thing. Zeh safek o lezarer l'chol Adam. In the report here, the record, it's already a safek whether it's for only for their, their offspring of a Yehuda HaChassid or for all people. Kimedu melecholo olam yesh lizo. And then there's added in a bracket that I think it does apply to everyone and one should be careful. So we have here a source of avoiding, um, well, of being concerned about a shidduch where both mechutanastis have the same, same as mechutanim have the same name. Mechutanim. What about mechutanastis? Is it the same thing? So here we have a letter of the Rebbe, and it's cut out from a longer letter. And

25:08 Speaker 1 he says about a man who says he's met with a girl and the, the, the, uh, and they were-- they had agreed to a Gilchestva, and then it was canceled, et cetera. And the Rebbe, uh, in the middle of the letter recognizes the fact that the two mothers have the same name. And there's an older sister of the kallah who was and wasn't married in between. But negia lepoel, if the older sister has already been, uh, a shidduch or she's mocha belev hashalem, the S- the Rebbe writes, "Kedai lehosif shem lemi shehi mei hai imos." One should add another name to one of the two mothers. "Ki lo yaani bemichtavoi sheshem eem hoal mo ve shem imo shavoh." I see that your name and your, uh, fiancé's mother's name... Sorry, your mother's name and her, her father's name is the same name. So the Rebbe is recommending they add a name. I recently just picked up a Sefer. Show you. Just got it just this week, last week. A Sefer Agur Bo Halacha. This is from Reb Mordechai Farkash, a son of Reb Yisrael Farkash. He's a shliach in Belgium, in Washington, um, State, Seattle. And in one of his articles there, in one of his tshuvahs, he write, he writes about this. Because it's not such a well-known thing, and a lot of people do- don't worry about having the same name for, um, mechutan, mechutonet, mechutanistus. Okay, it's, it's zogen gezunt. But he, he does-- towards the end, he brings a couple of,

26:42 Speaker 1 a few people who the Rebbe, one was Raitsis, um, where the Rebbe said that, uh, that it was her name was Yehudit. His, his wife's name was Yehudit, and the mechutanist name-- Rebbe said to add Altar Yehudit. So the Rebbe, to several people, gave this guidance that one should add an- another name, that there shouldn't be the two mechutanistus or mechutone for that matter, which is much more obvious, um, not having identical names. If one's called Shloime Zalman and one's called- The choson and the father-in-law ... and one's called Sh- and one's called Shloime Chaim, that's not a problem because they're two separate names. This is obviously, uh, much less known than having daughter-in-law and mother-in-law having the same name or a choson and father-in-law having the same name, which people are, are, are much more, um, um, you know, conscientious about. But there is this thing also. Okay. Now, talking about chasanus. So now we have someone who's making a chasanah just a few days after Tisha B'Av overseas and there's traveling involved. And what about all your clothes? Can you wash clothes the day after Tisha B'Av? Now, Tisha B'Av this year, since Pesach was on Sunday, so Tisha B'Av is also on a Sunday because al tahat, the first day of Pesach is the same as the day of Tisha B'Av. So after a whole week of, of nine-- a whole nine days of not, not, not doing laundry, there's a lot of laundry and, uh, they want to take clean clothes

28:13 Speaker 1 with them. So what's the story? So now t-let's take a look here from Shulchan Aruch. This is in the Dinim of Tisha B'Av and Ben Matzoh. So we have here tof kuf nun chess towards the end of the Dinim of Tisha B'Av. It says, "Be-Tisha B'Av le'eit ha'erev." On Tisha B'Av, towards the evening, on the ninth of Av, towards the evening. "Hitztzu esh baHeichal." That's what where-- that was when the fire was ignited, uh, s- in the, in the, in the Nisraf, the fire in the Beis Hamikdash caused, uh, uh, was started at, uh, Tisha B'Av evening, um, allow after-- late afternoon. "Ad shkiyas ha'chamah be'yom ha'aseeri." See, it burned. The Beis Hamikdash burned for practically a whole twenty-four hours. "Mipneich zach, min ha'koshel shel lelechel bosor shelishtis yayin be'leil aseeri ve'yom aseeri." So there is a min ha'kosher to... It's advised, commanded minchag to avoid, like we avoid meat and wine during the nine days on the Sefardim, Shvuat Shachalvai. So the same thing should also be continued on the day after Tisha B'Av until, um, the, the who- the whole day, following day. Then we have the curious lashon, the Rama, which we follow. As Ashkenazi, we follow the Rama. "Ve'yesh machmir ad chatzos hayom velo yotzer." Now, there are those who follow this, but only, and that's Ashkenazi minchag, that the, uh, or the restrictions of the nine days will be observed until, that would be, this year would be, work out a Monday at midday. Right. So that's, that's the first

29:51 Speaker 1 thing that we're seeing here, that there is an extending of nine days to the day after Tisha B'Av. But it only spells here out, it only spells about bosor ve'yayin. There are other restrictions about haircutting and washing clothes and bathing. Are they included or not? So M- Mr. Brewer, et cetera, does bring that it should be extended also for, um, f- f- quote, quote from Maharshal actually, that the restrictions which are extended after Tisha B'Av also include bathing and washing clothes. However, I have here a quote from, uh, the late Rav Wosner who says that tzorech, one can take the lenient view. So here's obviously a tzorech. A family, uh, are traveling, um, for a chasanah. So there is a tzorech here. I know before we were a little bit, um, circumspect what's called tzorech Shabbos, but I think we all agree that traveling with a whole family, uh, is, it is a tzorech to have clean clothes. Uh, kaman hu da, but it's, you can take with dirty clothes and wash them when you get there, but it's, it is a legitimate tzorech and- Well, one can l- take the lenient view because, as I say, the Shulchan Aruch talks about the extension of the nine days to the 10th. He's talking about boser ve'ayin and, uh, about bathing and, and, and washing clothes. It's not so clear, so the tzorech can take the lenient view. And a d- an additional point is that because it's a chasuna. And the other quote which you

31:25 Speaker 1 have here is from the Magen Avraham, and it talks about during the nine days. And it says that when, when, if for the tzorech mitzvah, one would be able to do some preparations during the nine days. And so the second and the, uh, last line, "V'lo chen ohegu lasis bigodim chadashim l'tzorech n- nisuin." He says that although we don't make a chasuna during the nine days, obviously, but one would be able to sew new clothes in order to prepare for the chasuna. So, so here we have two things. We have here bechlal ha'tzorech, especially since it's tzorech for a chasuna. So there is room to be makeal, to be, to be able to do the laundry, uh, even on Motzaei Tisha B'Av and certainly on the Sunday. Um, sorry, so Motzae-- Certainly on the, uh, yeah. Even Motzaei Tisha B'Av, which is Sun- uh, um, Monday night, and certainly on the Monday. Right. Let's go on to the next question which we have here. Um, is someone who's, uh, from Beis Chabad, and, you know, they clear away, and there's tallisim and the s- and the siddurim. Uh, is it okay to put tallisim on top of siddurim, on top of Sfarim? And the, the answer is we have to un-understand we've got terms in Halakha called tashmishei kedusha and tashmishei mitzvah. Tashmishei kedusha means that they have, uh, the Hashem's name written in them. Tefillin, mezuzahs, Sefer Torah, these are called-- That, that's the kedusha. It's got Hashem's name. And you've got the accessories

33:02 Speaker 1 to it, maybe called tashmishei kedusha. So tefillin boxes would be called tashmishei kedusha. A tallit does not have Hashem's name in it, and therefore a tallit is not called tashmishei kedusha. It's called tashmishei mitzvah. And because of that, so we have here a very clear distinction between Sfarim like the siddurim, which have Hashem's name in hundreds of times, and tallisim, which are tashmishei mitzvah. And so what I have here in front of you is a quote from a Sefer, Ginzei HaKodesh, all about shames. "Ein lehaniach tashmishei kedusha u'cheftzei mitzvah al gabbi sifrei kodesh." One shouldn't be putting, um... He says, he's talking about tashmishei kedusha. Even to put tefillin on top of it, but certainly, uh, cheftzei mitzvah. Uh, one shouldn't be putting a tallit on top of Sifrei Kodesh. That wouldn't be in order. I want to just, uh, add another thing. You know, some people like sometimes, uh, to tease a child, you know, a little bit. And I'm, I'm not saying that's a good idea, but sometimes they take a tzitzit and put it in their ear and the chin is-- starts tickling the child. So you're not allowed to do that with tzitzis because the tzitzis is, is, is, has got a, uh, it's tashmishei mitzvah. So whilst it's still operational as, as a, as a mitzvah, one wouldn't be allowed to use it for a davar sh'cholin. Once it's, once the tzitzis are no longer usable, then they have no kedusha. But whilst they're still in use, you're not allowed

34:34 Speaker 1 to use them for, for other things. Okay. Now, let's go on to our next question. Uh, where we are? Here we are. Okay. Now, this is interesting to Hashgacha Protis. We have a couple of minutes. I, this week, was adverti- was, was, was, um, published a story about a, a gvir who went by the Rebbe for dollars. Uh, fr- He's from France. And the Rebbe gave him a dollar, and he said, "An extra dollar for the school which you're building." Turns out he was building a hotel, a massive hotel in Nice, and the hotel would include a school to train people to become, uh, in, in, in the, how do you call? In the catering business, in the restaurant business, in the hospitality sector. And then the Rebbe said to him, Rebbe said, "You should make sure to have mezuzahs on all the doors in the hotel. You build the hotel, you have mezuzahs on all the doors." He went back to France. He just told the story apparently recently. He went back to France, and he continued with this project of building this massive hotel. And it did not work. It did not work out very well, actually. The b-business seemed to fail, and he had borrowed a lot of money. A lot of people's investments were put into this project. And he looked like he was, he was bankrupt, and his house was repossessed. His father bought his house from the banks, whatever, so that he sh- he shouldn't, uh, sh- could be

36:22 Speaker 1 totally, uh, lo-lost. But he was, uh, he was-- And now he, he says he had to meet as an aud-an auditor, like a government auditor, to see that there hadn't... Because with all of this money, there were already murmurs that he had embezzled money and used it for other things. So he was really very, uh, neg- very, uh, how you say? Um, he, he, he, he was very pessimistic on how this would turn out. And after s- months, finally, this auditor comes to the hotel, and he comes into his office. And on the walls of the office, there's all these pictures of-- Well, this, he's, uh, obviously was a very rich man at some stage, and he's met all different dignitaries. And he has even a picture of him together with the president of France. They're all, uh, all, uh, on, on the wall. And there's also a big picture of the Rebbe. And this inspector, this auditor comes in. He's looking around, he stops. He looks at the p- he looks at the mezuzahs, and he looks at the picture of the Rebbe, and then he's got this big sheaf of, of papers. And this, this, uh, balabos, this businessman is waiting for the, you know, to be, uh, for the ton of bricks. And the fellow says, "You know, I see there may have been a bit of mismanagement. But with, with better management, I think this, this project could be saved, and I'm going to recommend to the government that they pump

37:57 Speaker 1 in a bit more money into the project so that it should be, you know, be viable again." He was, so he's totally shocked. And he turns to the, the auditor and he say, oh, he was very grateful. He asks him, "What made you come up with that, uh... How did you come to that conclusion?" So he says, "I'll tell you. I'll, I'll tell you. I'm also Jewish. And my wife and I were born in Vienna, in Austria. And by the war, we managed to flee, to run away from, from there. We, and we dropped all, anything of Yiddishkeit. But when I came here to the hotel, I saw all those mezuzahs, and I knew what they are. And I saw this holy, picture of this holy man, and I thought, you know, the fact that not you had just one little mezuzah, you put mezuzahs all over the hotel. I saw, I noticed that. I, such a person like you, a m- you might, a religious person like you can't be a, an embezzler. Couldn't be. And that brought me around." And, and then the fellow says, um, "I think it's time that my, my wife and I will also start becoming more active with Yiddishkeit." So, um, so the, this businessman, he says how the Rebbe back then, when he recommended to put up those mezuzahs, he had foreseen how this would be hatsalah for, for this fellow, for himself, and also will be an avenue to bring back a couple from, an Austri-

39:27 Speaker 1 this Austrian Jewish couple who had gone astray, and to bring them back to Yiddishkeit. That's... And, I mean, since then he has reestablished his business. He was, continued to be successful. I don't know his address. In case you're asking. Meanwhile, this is our yochah protest because before I heard the story, I had this question on, on my desk. What is the story about a Jewish-owned property and there's a non-Jewish occupant? And I've, I wrote on this, on this sheet, if you have, let's say, a suite of offices, and you have, let's say, a bookkeeper in your, in your business, a non-Jewish b- bookkeeper. It's his office, dedicated office. Does that door need to have a mezuzah? Could be the same thing. I have a, I have a, an au pair, a live-in carer, and they have a room in, uh, my house. Does that room require a mezuzah? And I was thinking, does a Jewish owner of a hotel need to have a mezuzah on all the rooms in the hotel? So now we have a halacha towards the end of Yoreh De'ah mezuzah that a partnership between a Yid and a goy is exempt, is, is exempt from mezuzah. It's a shared door which is shared by a goy and a Yid. That door does not require a mezuzah. Some say it's patum in Hatorah, and some say it's patum mid'Rabanan. So the goy, shelo yomer chofim hoitz li. The goy shouldn't say that the Jew is putting these things to cast some kind

40:55 Speaker 1 of spell on me. Be that as it may, when it's a partnership between a Yid and a goy, then that doorway does not need to have a mezuzah. Then we have, this is a quote from the Sefer Chevel Sador, which you may be familiar with from Rabbi Menachem Baloy. Aval im hayisroel bailev, vehayah kum socher, ein aperet. He may lays down a psak, which I struggled to find, but I finally found this. If the Yid owns the property, and you've got a goy who's just a tenant, so then that's not a reason to not have a mezuzah. I don't really think it means when you've got a property out, you know, uh, which is, uh, just for rent. But if you have, you are occupying a property, and there's a goy who's occupying part of that property, um, who's renting from your room, that door should have a mezuzah. And I was a bit surprised because I wonder what happens. What do all these Yidden who own hotels, what do they do? And Baruch Hashem, there are Yidden who own hotels. What do they do about having mezuzahs in all those rooms unless they have a goyische partner, which probably is quite common, and that takes off the chiyuv of a mezuzah. But here I was, that's why I was, uh, excited to hear, to read this story about the Rebbe saying that, that he should have mezuzahs on all the doors in the hotel. Okay. Sofrim. You know, let's just say, you know, let's

42:17 Speaker 1 get, get ready some more mezuzahs, hopefully, huh? All right, let's move on. Um, right. Just a couple of points left. Someone, let's just, uh, someone, uh, wanted to buy a house. And the say there is, you put down a, a, uh, a, a deposit. And normally the understanding of a deposit is that if the, the... Well, so what happens like this. The house is, let's say, a million. You put down 100,000. And y- y- the idea is that i- by, by this and this date, you'll come up with the other 900,000. And if you don't, then, then that's the pashut is that you forfeit the deposit. What if it happens if both parties are Yidden? Does, does, does the... And, and he tried. He thought he was, Shmuel, um, um, Reuven thought he'd be able to raise the, um, the mortgage. But it came to, to, to the time to completion, he wasn't able to. So now does he forfeit the, the, uh, £100,000 which he's put down for, for a down payment for a deposit? This comes into the concept of Asmachte. Asmachte means if I, if I say that this and this happens, I'll give you so much money. I commit myself. So generally, we say a commitment like that, Asmachte lo kano. It is not kaine. Um, the issue here is that here you've got a, a maise with Dinim DeMalchusa. In Dinim DeMalchusa, of course, the way I understand, I'm not a lawyer, but I understand that actually if you, if

44:05 Speaker 1 you don't complete in time, you can say goodbye to your, to your, uh, down payment. So but here it's between two Yidden. Do, do, are they bound by Dinim DeMalchusa? Can the, can the own- the, the vendor say, "According to Dinim DeMalchusa, the money stays with me."? So this is a difficult one. Um, so let's just now read. Here again, this is from Rav Buloy. One, he says like this. One who put- "One who puts down a deposit for a purchase." And the buyer says, "If I'm going to retract from the purchase, my down payment, my deposit is waived. You can keep it." And he did not complete. He, he, he backtracked. This is how the Mechabber says. That the Moiche says, "Okay, okay, he can keep it." Because the deposit is, is... This is, in a sense, worse than Asmachte. Asmachte says is, "If this happens, I will pay you so much money." Here it's worse. I've already put the money in his hand. Says the Mechabber, "Since you've already p- you said you're gonna waive the, the, the, this money, and the money's already in his hand, you meant it absolutely seriously." And the, the, this is the Ramos. The Ramos says, "No, he does have to... The, the vendor has to give back." Because he, when he, when the, when the buyer put down that money, he did not, he wasn't anticipating that he wouldn't complete. And therefore it's Asmachte lo kan. Now, this is where the money has actually been given

45:50 Speaker 1 into the hand of the, of the vendor. Here, and I, again, as I say, I don't know. It's not my... I'm not a, a lawyer. I understand it's, normally this money is put in third party, in the hands of a third party. In, by the, by the escrow, whatever. And if it's completed, then it goes to the vendor. And if it's not completed, et cetera. So here's, it's, it's, it's, in a sense, the buy- the buyer who didn't buy is in a slightly better position because he hasn't actually transferred the money. He's put it into the hands of a third party, and he hasn't surrendered the money. So as far as I understand, the Minig amongst Haimish Yidden is that one would, uh, res- give back the down payment. Of course, there, there may be costs which should be deducted. There may be losses. There may be because you put down the down payment and I lost another buyer. There can be consequential losses. And of course, that would, that kind of compensation would absolutely be in order that the vendor should be compensated for, uh, those consequential losses. But to, to, just to, to keep that £100,000 because, nebach, the, uh, buyer wasn't able to, uh, come up with the full money in time. So as far as I understand, the, the, the- would be not to follow Dinim DeMalchusa, and that he should be able to, uh, ask for his deposit back. But, uh, as you see, it's not such a straightforward Halacha.

47:29 Speaker 2 I, and we, we actually discussed this some years ago.

47:32 Speaker 1 Okay.

47:33 Speaker 2 And we came up with a formula that there should be a penalty clause-

47:37 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm

47:37 Speaker 2 ... if the buyer does not, uh, complete on time. So it wasn't a, a ribbis. It wasn't, um, because especially the penalty clause wasn't, uh, 10%, uh, each week or something like that. It was, uh-

47:52 Speaker 1 It went up

47:53 Speaker 2 ... an amount. No, it was an amount, uh, depending on the number of weeks, but it didn't relate at all to the rate of interest.

48:01 Speaker 1 Okay.

48:01 Speaker 2 So one week it would be 5%, next week might be 10%, next week would be, uh, 7%, something like that.

48:08 Speaker 1 But it would not... But it wouldn't grow.

48:11 Speaker 2 The amount would go up, but it wasn't a fixed amount.

48:14 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

48:14 Speaker 2 And it wasn't related to either the rate of interest that the banks were charging-

48:21 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm

48:21 Speaker 2 ... or anything else. It was just-

48:24 Speaker 1 Like a penalty of sorts.

48:25 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.

48:26 Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Right. Baruch Hashem, we have some qualified, legal advice. Um, finally, we have our last thing on for tonight's Shiur. And that is, uh, I got this call the other day. Two or more Yidden went out to an expensive restaurant and they bought a bottle of wine. A very expensive wine. I, I can't believe it, a bottle of wine costing £1,000, but it looks like this was one of those. And the better wines are, uh, are not Mevushal. And the Goyische waiter helpfully takes the bottle and takes it to the side and use a corkscrew and opens it up. And now, so they got this... They call up in behalah, in shock, to their rabbi, who calls me. Are they allowed to drink this wine in the restaurant once the Goy has already opened the bottle? So obviously, we know that if a Goy touches wine, it's called, um, Yayin Nesech or Stam Yeinom. We don't drink it. So let's read a couple of, um, pieces in Halacha. First one is from Siman kuf chaf hei. Um, not all Goy klich shel yayin. If a Goy picks up a, a container of wine, and he raised it, and he poured the wine, even though he didn't stir it, he didn't put his finger to stir the wine or he didn't shake the bottle, whatever. The wine which he poured out is forbidden for us to drink. Because it was his energyreleased the wine, moved it from the

50:16 Speaker 1 bottle into the cup. For that matter, and what's left in the original bottle is also assur mishum nitzuk. Let's give a minute about nitzuk. Nitzuk means that the stream, um, you may know that electricity can travel upstream also. It can... A connection with water, if you, on, onto a wire, it can, it can, chas v'shalom, cause electrocution. And, I mean, in hilchos, uh, in hilchos yayin nesech, there's a similar concern that the, the, the, uh, issur of the wine in the cup will go back up the stream into the bottle. Okay. Now, the second point which we have is from the Shach. And the Shach is in, um, somewhere nearby, and he says, "Uledan hakol shori bemokim hefetz." Although we-- that's the overall principle. If a goy pours wine, it's assur. But if there's this loss, and certainly a significant loss, although I wonder how significant 1,000 pounds is for people who go to, to spend 1,000 pounds on a bottle of wine. But fine, um, but there is a hefetz. "" All right, let's, let's explain something. Um, there's the issur of drinking, and there's the issur of hanoah. And the, the yayin nesech in this ma'alot of the Gemara was not only assur to drink, it was also bahanoah. Here, the Mechaber is saying it's not assur bahanoah, it's only assur b'shishiyah. Says the Shach, when there's a significant loss involved, when the verdict was that it's only assur b'shishiyah, we may take the view that akum bizman hazeh, that the goyim nowadays

52:08 Speaker 1 are not wor-worshiping kochov v'mazalot in the, in the... as they used to be. And therefore, it's surely ach b'shishiyah, the wine is permitted even to drink. So that was what I answered, uh, on the phone, that since here is a significant loss, so if it's a smaller amount, so then one would take the view that if a goy touches the wine and lifts it up, then it's assur. But, um, if it's a significant loss, then it is assur. Uh, then, then it is mutar, which perhaps I've told this story before, but you have another minute. We have a couple of people who haven't heard the story. I had this call a few years ago, and it was a shliach in California. Uh, it was about eight o'clock in the morning, about two o'clock in California, or perhaps, uh, whatever, that kind of time. And it was two days before, a day before Rosh Hashanah. And the goyische chef had been preparing for 50, 60 people at the Beis Chabad, and, uh, had put in trays of meat into the oven. But before doing so, he took a bottle of wine and poured the wine over all the, um, all the chickens, all the, all the portions of meat before putting it in the oven. And for some unbeknown reason to me, the wine was not mevushal. So now, does that make all the, the, uh, all that meat assur? So, looking at what we've just said now, if he just poured the wine from the

53:34 Speaker 1 bottle, as we see from the Shach, it's a quite significant loss. One would be, uh, it would be mutar. But then someone told me that the professional chefs, their minhag is that when they pour wine, they put their finger to give it a bit of a biological taste. They put their finger, and they scatter it with their finger. If that was the case, so then, uh, they, they, they... I don't see a heter for it, and it would be itakha assur to have benefit... To, to, sorry, to, to eat the, uh, the meat. It'd be mutar bahanoah, but it'd be assur b'achilah. Okay. Um, that's it for today, and I wish you all a, a guten Shabbos, a refuah complete, and, uh, geulah shleima rapid.

54:20 Speaker 3 Shabbos, yes, shabbat shalom.

54:21 Speaker 1 Kol tuv.