פנורמה של הלכה 32

00:02 Speaker 1 Good evening. We'll start the Shir now. Start off with a kapitel tilim, kapitel chof for, uh, various including Hannah, Yenta, Rivka, Bat Shendl, and Refua Shlema. Lam natziach mismel Dovid. Ya'ancha Adonai beyom tzarah. Yusagelcha shem El HaShem v'leYaakov. Yishlach ezricha mikodesh umeziyon yisadecha. Yizkor kol min chesycha velascha yadeich neseh lah. Yiten lcha cheilevecha b'chol atzascha yemaleh eranenah v'yeshosecha uveshem Elheinu nidgeil. Yimaleh Adonai kol mash'olecha. Atah yodati ki yesh i Adonai mashihi ya'aneinu mishme'a kodsho. V'yigores yesh ei yamino. Eila v'recheph ve'eila vasusim u'anachnu beshem Adonai v'heinu nazkir. Heim ha'koru venafolu vanachnu kamnu va'nis edod. Adonai yeshiam elochai ya'aneinu hayom kor'einu. Stop it. Um, sorry, I didn't update the f- the first, uh, slide. And Baruch Hashem, the Shliach Zalman Shimon, uh, HaLevi was already home p- before Shabbos. That was, um, part Balaloscha, and we're now in Parshas Shlach. So let's move on. Before I start the Shir, just want to bring to your attention that we're going to be having a fundraiser, uh, charity, uh, this coming week, and we're doing one for the, uh, Kollel. So if you get a call, uh, from someone about, uh, donating, so much appreciated. So, teshukah in advance. So now let's move on. Okay. A little bit of feedback and, uh, from, from last week's Shir. We had a lot of discussion about rising by Ofrei Chaleinu, um, for the Neshama Yeseira, et cetera. And I did mention, I think, that there are those Sefardish Sefarim who say that there's no Neshama Yeseira or, uh, on, on Yom

02:17 Speaker 1 Tov or that there's no procedure for Kabbalas, um, Kabbalas, uh, Yom Tov. That there's no tefillah like we have a Kabbalat Shabbos. And therefore, they say that there's no point of st- rising by Ofrei Chaleinu. So someone, one of our listeners, actually from, uh, overseas, because he listened to the recording, so he sent me that in Sefer Minhagim, there's a slight change from the quote as it is in the Hayom Yom. So you can see here, Beis Sivan in the Hayom Yom, that's on the left, Ofrei Chaleinu v'Kabbalat Shabbos ba'amida. But then how it's quoted in Sefer Minhagim, that's the, uh, the last line on the right side of the column page. Ofrei Chaleinu chulo v'Kabbalat Shabbos v'Yom Tov. So in case we-- V'amida. So this question has already been addressed that the Rebbe-- And, uh, this is in Sefer Minhagim, and the understanding is that when Rabbi Groenwald, alav hashalom, worked on the Sefer Minhagim, everything was, was mugia to a degree. And so presumably, this is an addition from the Rebbe or just an observation. And I think most of us, if we're used to getting up by Ofrei Chaleinu on Shabbos, we also rise by Ofrei Chaleinu on, on Yom Tov. But really, I would going to come to, uh, my question, which I have on the list. Why indeed is there a seder of Kabbalat Shabbos? And we have a, the L'chodoidi with the, uh, L'chanunan, which are obviously later innovations. The six kapitelach of from L'choda-- from L'chanunan through till

03:55 Speaker 1 Hashem olam, the second Hashem olam, they are attributed to the Rab- Rabbeinu Cordovero, the Rebbe of the Arizal. The kapitel, um, I said, l'chafetz olam, misber Dovid, hallel Hashem ne'elim. That's-- The Arizal emphasizes it, um, heavily. L'chodoidi, we know is from Shlomo Alkabetz. So they are relatively recent innovations. But the idea of going out to the field was already in the Gemara Shabbos. We have the famous, um, uh, Gemara, which he says, "Erev Shabbos, he would go out to the field, and he would say, 'Boyichalo, choy bevacha, poya, arpana de'ma'arba shabata.'" The Chasanim, um, repeat that in the Maimon, which they say, "V'chodocha s'nel chodoidi." So the idea of going to greet the Shabbos, the procedure of greeting the Shabbos, is already mentioned Gemara. Therefore, the question is, why is there a procedure for greeting Shabbos? Why is there no procedure for greeting Yom Tov? And the, uh, the answer which-- I, I haven't found this anywhere, but the answer which I'm suggesting is, we know that the Gemara says there's a difference between Shabbos and Yom Tov. Shabbos mikadash ove kaimo. Shabbos is sacred without our input. It's, it's already, it's already sacred. The Habrisht have made Shabbos, and Shabbos comes, it, it's sacred already. Yom Tov, is-- Yidden make it kodesh. Yisroel de'inu de'kadshinah lezmanim. Yidden makes-- They sanctify the zman of Yom Tov by establishing the month. Uh, the Rosh Chodesh, the Rebbe says then that's how they establish the calendar, and that makes the kidosh haYomim Tovim. On that basis, um,

05:30 Speaker 1 that's why when it comes to Yom Tov, we say, "Hamikadesh hashabos v'Yisroel v'zmanim." That's what the Gemara says. But Shabbos is mikadash ove kaimo. Shabbos is k-kodesh in any case. So we can't say, "Mikadash Yisroel vaShabbos." But the zmanim is mikadash Yisroel v'zmanim. The Habrisht makes Yidden kodesh, and then the zmanim are kodesh. So fine. So Shabbos is given mil'ma'alah. So where's our input? So we go and do a Kabbalat Shabbos to relate to the-- to, to welcome the Shabbos. Yom Tov, we don't have to do an action on, on, on, a, a, to be Mekabel Yom Tov because we already made it-- w- we, we Mekabel the whole Yom Tov is because we made it. It's the... In other words, the-- if there's a need for a Melamtta or Ma'ala input, it has already been there by the Kedusha of the Rosh Chodesh, which was established by Bes Din. I just want to share with you another nice piece of feedback I just got now. Um, last week we had a question about putting a Tallis on top of a, a Siddur. Do you remember? So it was one of our questions last week. So someone writes to me the following. "Once I was in Crown Heights, I needed to borrow a Tallis. A friend said to me, 'Here, you can have the Rebbe's Tallis.' What did he mean? Once, the Seven Seventy went to be excused, and he left his Tallis on his Siddur. During that time, the Rebbe passed by and moved

06:50 Speaker 1 the Tallis off the Siddur. So the Rebbe was particular not to leave a Tallis on top of a Siddur." Okay, thank you for that, Dov Bekline. And now let's go on to the next piece of feedback, which is about, um, Kaddish after 50 years. Now, I was thinking about it, it's quite rare. Uh, it would have to be exceptional circumstances for a person to, uh, live-- to be able to say Kaddish for 50 years after their parents. Not so rare, unfortunately, but it's, uh, it, it-- most people, uh, it, it wouldn't be the ca-the case. Me. Yes. I, I, I was thinking about you, actually. Um, yes. Um- But that-- Dan, I heard it was for a grandparent. Ah, okay. Okay. Oh, that could be. Um, now so someone-- so on again, one of our listeners, um, from Riga, uh, in Latvia. So he, he says that when he- Liberal speaks to him. When he came to, uh, to, uh, Riga, he met a man from Dvinsk. And if you may know that Dvinsk is, uh, another one of the, the prin- big cities in, in, in, uh, Latvia. This fellow remembered the Ragachover. Ragachover Goan, who was the Rav in Dvinsk. And he asked the Ragachover... He had asked the Ragachover till when does he say Kaddish. So the Ragachover had told him up till 50 years. And then he writes to me that Rav Shir Korff, I didn't check this one, but Rav Shir Korff was a Maarach Yomim, and he would say

08:27 Speaker 1 Kaddish. And, and his-- apparently, his mother died when he was very young, and he said till about 100 years old, he was saying Kaddish for his mother. So possibly that what you're saying, Barak, is probably the, uh, point here. That for a grandparent, perhaps, um, where it would be more of a question. And, and what they do say is in, yeah, in communities where they have priorities for Kaddish. In other words, they only have one Kaddish at a time. And so a person would come for a grandparent would, uh... A person would come for a grandparent would have less of a priority, and that's probably where this kind of saying, "No, you can't make after 50." I, I can understand where it comes in because, uh, you know, it's, it's at the expense of someone else. One, one last point which I have is of the Rabbeim, the only one I can think of, the Rabbeim who outlived a parent was the Tzemach Tzedek, who his mother died when he was about three, four years old, and he himself lived well, well into his 70s. So he would have this in Shaar HaNegel Hamaaser, but I don't have any, um, knowledge what actually he did. We know that the Rebbe would set K-Kaddishim many, many years later for various relatives. Um, so all right. I see in the chat two things. One person says he's, he's, um, been saying Kaddish for a grandparent. As I said, nowadays, you can say... You're not, you're not infringing

09:51 Speaker 1 on anyone. No, no one's gonna stop you. Um, someone now is asking, "Can saying Kaddish for a grandparent or great-grandparent have a negative effect, Chas v'Shalom?" I don't think so. I, I don't think that... Well, from what I've, you know, I've seen, I don't see any negative side of it. There's no . I don't see any, any negative side of it. And what we've seen is that even if they haven't been many years in, in Gan Eden, they still benefit from the fact that the Kaddish or some Ma'aseh Tovim are, are being done for them. We'll come back to Kaddish in question six, where we have a question about saying Kaddish for a non-Jewish father. But let's come back to, uh, our feedback from last week about mezuzahs in offices and schools, which we discussed a little bit about mezuzahs in, in, uh, such places. And so the question is a, a storeroom. It says in the Gemara, in Gem- I mean, Halakha, that a, a storeroom, a machsan in modern Hebrew, I also... They use that word, is chayav b'mezuzah. So then every office has got storage of files, et cetera. Every school has got stock. So every, every p- every place which is a, a shop, these all-- all of these places have storage areas. So shouldn't they be chayav b'mezuzah because of the storage? So I wanna share with you... I've told you, um, one of my favorites for him on Hilchas Mezuzah is the Sefer Sechel Tov. And now he quotes

11:24 Speaker 1 the following. He writes here in Siman Resh Peh Vav that in Shulchan Rav Natrunoi, he's one of the Goanim, he says it's-- the impression one has is that when it says it's an oitzar, a storeroom, and requires a mezuzah, that means a storeroom which is adjacent to the house. In other words, it's an extension of living quarters. It does not mean a, a storeroom which is further away, which is not used on a regular basis for the, uh, for the household. Um, not everyone agrees with this towards, towards the bottom of the page. In other words, some, some disagree, and they say that you do have to have- So it seems to be that one should be at a, in a shop or any such place, one shouldn't be making a bracha when putting up the mezuzah. We do put up mezuzahs, but we wouldn't make a bracha when doing so. Let's move on. Um, right. So someone asked me last Shabbos. He asked me, "What's the story about the-- behind the Jewish name of Alexander?" And it's well-known, a bit of, um, a, a tradition with Alexander, the, the... You know, Alexander the Great. In Gemara, he's known as Alexander Mukdun, of Alexander, Macedonia. So this is from a Sefer called Sefer HaQabbala, attributed to someone called the Rav Abraham Ben David. Um, there were three Ravs, three Abraham Ben Davids, so this is the earliest one. Ibn Dawid, if I pronounce it correctly. He writes the following. I'll, I'll just read it for

13:16 Speaker 1 you. "The second generation of the Anshei Knesset HaGedola," which is the, the leadership at the beginning of the second Beit HaMikdash. So you had the first generation, you've got Ezra and Nehemiah. Then we have the second generation, Shimon HaTzadik, which is mentioned in Pirkei Avot. And he writes the following. Um, that, "At the time the kingdom of Persia was destroyed by Alex- Alexandra, the King of Greece." Greece, Macedonia, you can, you know. I f- I just wanna point out, I noticed that they spell it Alek- Aleksandros. Not like we pronounce it, Alexander. They've got the S before the K. So Alex- Alexander comes to Yerushalayim and after he destroyed Persia, he wanted to destroy Yerushalayim and to r- the, to exile the people. And this was 40 years after the Beit HaMikdash, the Second Beit HaMikdash had been built. Shimon HaTzadik goes out to the king, and when the king sees him, uh, he greatly, um, applauds him and he, um, he's very, very respectful to him, and he grants him his request that he shouldn't destroy the Beit HaMikdash. And that's the following. He says that, "Shimon HaTzadik says, 'Please don't destroy the Beit HaMikdash, and not, not to exile the people.' And the king followed his thing, his, his, um, accepted his request and gave the instructions to do so. The ministers were s- very surprised. They knew that he had intention to destroy the city. Why did he, uh, check back and t- t- backtrack, which he had never done before? And

14:57 Speaker 1 he says," and this is quoted in the Gemara, "that when I go to battle, I see a mirage. I see a image identical to this person who's leading me to, to victory in my battles. Therefore, when I saw him," and Gemara says a bit more detail. He bowed that... Alexander bowed down to, um, to, to, uh, Shimon, uh, HaTzadik. Meanwhile, um, Sh- Shimon HaTzadik had requested to, uh, to leave, uh, to leave be the Beit HaMikdash and Yerushalayim, et cetera. So as a, as a bargain, he offered the following. That any child will be born to him or to the Kohanim for that year, they will name that child Alexander and, uh, and that's one thing which he gave to him. Another, another gift of Shimon HaTzadik at the time was that Jews would, their, in their documents, the dating would be from the, uh, Alexander Mukdun. And actually, if you look in Rambam, he always talks about Minyan Shtaris. Several times in Rambam, you've got, gives the date of Minyan Shtaris, and that is, looks like it's from this time that there was an agreement that Shi- Shimon Ha-HaTzadik had given this respect to Alexander, that Jews would, in their documents, they would identify it so many years since the reign, uh, of Alexander. So that's the story behind the name, the, the fact that Jews use the name Alexander, and it goes all the way back to the time of the Second Beit HaMikdash. Okay. Let's go now into, um, into the next

16:36 Speaker 1 question we have here. And that was a question of someone who backed into... He's, he was leaving the car park or a hospital. So it wasn't, uh, necessarily a Jewish-owned car whom he, uh, uh, touched. And he, um, he by mistake, he slightly, he touched the other car slightly. The proof to that being that he, a bit of his, the blue paint of his car was on the red door of the other car. He, uh, took a photograph of the number, of the number plate, and now he's asking, does he have a duty to trace the owner of the car which was damaged to offer compensation? It's not a big damage, but it is a damage. And here becomes the question, is a Jew who caused damage to a, a Ein Od Yehudi, does he have a duty to pay, to pay the damages? And here it's really, uh, it's not really traceable. So it's not, you know, not even so much a question of Chilul Hashem. It's just that, uh, is it the right thing to do? And so the, on the right of your screen, this is a quote from the Sefer Piskei Choshen, where he has quoted others who are lenient on this. But then he says, "The Shaagas Aryeh, the Choch Yaakov, the Beit Meir, and the Shulchan Aruch Harav, they all seem to hold that one who damages, uh, ir to a goy is ha- is obliged to pay." And, um, right. So where is... Well, how does it come

18:12 Speaker 1 in Al Trei Bet Shulchan Aruch? So this is in Hilchot Pesach. So let's read the Halacha in Hilchot Pesach. Um, so here we have the following. See, if you'd... If the, if a goy had, uh, entrusted a Yid with a, with, with his chametz, and the Yid had, had not accepted achrayus. And now just to get familiarized, we've got three levels of liability in Halakha. You've got a liability of a shomer chinam, who's only liable if he was reckless, careless. You've got a liability of a shomer sachar, who's liable if it gets stolen. But if it was a beyond control, he's not liable. Then we've got the liability of a shliach, who's liable even in the case of oines. So let's say, let's, let's call it A, B, C. So if the Yid had accepted this chametz of the goy, but he did not take rela- re- um, re- liability on the level of B and C, only on level A. And it says, even if the goy is a alom, who's a tough guy, and he will have to pay if, if the Yid doesn't, uh, give back the goods, he'll have to pay. Nevertheless, since the Yid did not accept responsibility, so then it's not call... He's not considered liable, and the chametz which he has is not kashru. So had he taken liability, full liability, so then even though it's not his chametz, because he's liable, so then he's... it's as if it's his, and he's possessing chametz on Pesach. But if

19:54 Speaker 1 he didn't take, um, full liability, so then he's not liable. So he's, he's, then he's not called the owner, and therefore is not called al chametz shel avadam b'Pesach. So now, let's take a look, though, in the margin. He writes the following in the margin, in this little note. "Even if the Yid did accept to look after it very well, k'derch Hashemim, and he said, "If I will be careless, I will have to pay." So in other words, he's taken on liability as a shomer chinam. Ein zer ki nikra kabbalah sachrayus. The fact that he took responsibility of, of, of be- if, if he's careless, he'll have to pay, that doesn't mean he's adopted the responsibility of the goods totally. That it should be nachri keshuloi. Ki ven shiki kabbalah vachrusot. The fact that he took responsibility in the case of recklessness doesn't make him an owner in Halakha. El oz ein nikra kabbalah sashmir b'vad. He's taken responsibility as a person to take care as a guardian, but not that he has a, an ownership of the article. So now, the Alter Rebbe adds here in the definition, shehapishaya hu k'mazik b'odaim. So there's a difference here. If he had taken it with full re- liability, full responsibility, so then it, in a sense, is adopted. It has become his. And if he o- has it over Pesach, he's, he's, he's violating possessing chametz on Pesach. When he says, "I'm liable, that if I'm reckless, if I'm careless, then I'll have to pay," that

21:34 Speaker 1 doesn't n- doesn't, doesn't equal ownership. Because why does a person who's reckless have to pay? He says, "It's k'mazik b'odaim." It's all... It's not as if because at the time when he was, took on the shmirah. At the time when you're reckless, as if now you're going and taking a hammer and smashing it. But it doesn't mean ownership. That's the, that's the difference here. A greater form of liability, that commitment equals ownership, a partial ownership, um, um, a marginal ownership, and therefore you'd be in violation of possessing chametz. But taking a liability in the case of, of, of, uh, peshi or carelessness, that means I'm taking responsibility that I won't take a hammer and smash it up, and therefore that doesn't, doesn't make him a, an owner. Since this whole context is talking about a Yid who's taken cha- chametz from a goy. So that tells you that the Alter Rebbe is taking the view that if you damage a goy's goods, then you are liable to pay. That's, that's basically what the Piskei Koshen is bringing. So what we're seeing here is that a, a Jew who damages, uh, the, uh, property of a non-Jew should have, should feel obliged to, uh, to, to, to make good the damage. Someone points out that there could very well be a, a, um, CCTV, which would be an element of Chilul Hashem, uh, especially as he's, as the driver in this case stopped to take a photo. And certainly if the, even if there's no Chilul

23:08 Speaker 1 Hashem, the fact that you offered to pay is an element of Kidush Hashem, which is certainly a, a laudable thing to do. Um, right. Now we have another point here. Under English law, we have here one of our, uh, legal advisors, that in, under English law, you actually have a duty to report such a thing, and therefore, Dinim DeMalchusa, you'd, uh, you'd be obliged to pay. Thank you for that. Okay. Let's go on. Okay. So here, one of our, one of our re- regular listeners... This is, uh, mixed up six and seven, but fine. One of our regular listeners asked, uh, asked this shaylah. Sometimes when you get, uh, food stuck between the teeth in a cavity, and before benching you didn't rinse out your mouth, and later you pick with a toothpick perhaps, and now there's little bits of food in your mouth. Do you have to make a bracha, or do you say it's included with the bracha which you said before? Or do you have to spit it out because otherwise you're eating without a bracha? This is really the question. You've got bits and pieces in your mouth. You didn't say a, um, and you've benched already. Does, do you, would you need to make another bracha before swallowing those bits and pieces? Right. So now, Baruch Hashem, we've got Sefarim which deal with these, all these questions which, uh, come up. Now, there we are. So that's in the lower quote, quoting from a contemporary posek about the pirurim, about

24:40 Speaker 1 the crumbs which are lift, left in the mouth after Birkat HaMazon. No worry to swallow them because the Birkat HaMazon is not considered a seal of Be'ez Chadash in relation to the pirurim because you didn't, you, you... All right. Let, let's explain this. Let me ask you the following. Let's say I had, on my table, I had, um, some yogurt, and I had, uh, let's say ice cream. And I had enough ice cream, let's say, and I made boreh nefashot, but I still want to have more yogurt. Or the other way around is more likely, yeah? Now, say I made a boreh nefashot on the one food, but I still want to have more of the other food, and they're both the same beracha. Does the fact that I've said boreh nefashot on the one food mean that I cannot, uh, eat further without making a new beracha? The answer is no. Even so, again, you've got here the ice cream and the yogurt, and you made a beracha. We'll switch it around, the more logical one, yeah? You made a boreh ha-beracha because you didn't want to have any more yogurt, but you still want to have a bit more ice cream. So you don't have to make a new beracha because the fact you made a boreh achronon the one does not mean a siluk. It doesn't mean a departure from the other. Um, and you shouldn't be doing that because that would-- because by doing so, you're gonna have to make a

26:04 Speaker 1 boreh nefashot again for the ice cream. That's true. But, let's say one shouldn't do it, but the boreh is sheino does not get cut off by the fact that you made a boreh achronon. That's the point which is being said here. The fact that you made a boreh achronon the food which you've eaten, and you've still got bits and pieces in your mouth, your original beracha still remains in effect for those bits and pieces in your mouth. That's the point which is being said over here. And he quotes that several, um, other poskim also write. He went from the Bachachero, which we mentioned many times. «ומה שבפה יכול לבלוע אחרי ברכה אחרונה». Even though you already said a boreh achronon, that which is in your mouth, he says that you are allowed to swallow it, and you don't have to make a new beracha. So that's good to know. Okay, let's co-go to the next question. Uh, so we missed out a question. Uh, so we have question s- uh, six on the list, and that is a woman asked to say-- asked the shaliach, and a woman asked him to say Kaddish for her father. For her non-Jewish father, sorry. That's, that was the problem. Is there a point of saying Kaddish for a non-Jewish person? Now, to lighten the, uh, atmosphere, I once had a question on-- It was-- A woman asked me, "Can we arrange Kaddish for her lo-- Her rabbi doesn't want to do a Kaddish for this one." And so

27:40 Speaker 1 it was, "Not, not Jewish?" She says, "No, it's actually our pussycat." Um, her cat had died, and she was very close to the cat. And, um, so I tried to explain to her that as high in heaven as a cat can ever reach, this cat has reached there already. It doesn't need a Kaddish to be elevated any higher. Uh, a year or two later, I got another time, a call from-- I then-- I recognized the voice. It was the same lady. The next cat had died, and it was about half an hour before Lichtsinden. And then I started thinking a bit more seriously that this woman... I asked her, "Do you live with a family?" "No, she lives alone." Okay, so I started realizing that this cat was a very sh-close form of comfort and companionship. And so I understand a little bit more, and she's a little bit more what, uh, why she was so important to her. So I said, "You can't do a Kaddish, but tell me, do you light Shabbos candles?" And she says, "No." So I said, "Well, I would s-recommend that you start lighting Shabbos candles. And whenever you look at the candles, and you see the warm, the warm light of the candles, you'll remember the warmth which you had from your cat. And, uh, it will be a, you know, you'll remember that warm feeling." So that's the last I heard of this lady, so. All right, so coming back to the Kaddish for a non-Jewish father.

29:02 Speaker 1 My first reaction was that it's, i-there's no point in saying Kaddish for a non-Jewish father. And, uh, then I did look around, and I saw Reb Avadya Yosef in his Sefer Yehava Daas, Chelek Vav Sin and Samech. He has a lot of-- a long discussion about s- uh, about, um, Ka- Kibud Av. Does a-- Let's say he's talking about a ger. Does a ger have a duty of Kibud Av to their biological parents? Kibud Av, Kibud Eim. And you have the famous Mishnah, "She'oviv heivi leolam l'chai olam hazeh. And, "Or avo heivi lechai olam haba." Ultimately, this person is responsible for having brought you into this world and, and, um, provided for you probably at a, to, to a certain degree. And therefore, there's a, there's a, uh, a sense of, of, uh, of gratitude, which is expected. And then if they are instrumental in you being here and you doing Devorim, good, good deeds, so then they will benefit from it. So although Halakha, you say that the Gershonist guy is like Koten Shenolan, doesn't have any family ties. But the idea of being rewarded for bringing this person to this stage, into this world, et cetera, is still on, is, on, on, is, um, is legitimate. And on that basis, he also concludes that it is legitimate to say Kaddish for such a parent. Now, I'm, I'm just thinking, again, going back to the Kaddish story, uh, from before. If this, uh, half a dozen people saying Kaddish at the same time, I

30:45 Speaker 1 don't see how much Kiddush Hashem you are achieving by saying the Kaddish. Well, yeah, there's something, but, um, that's what we're doing. I can see it much more when there's a community, there's no one saying Kaddish, and then someone steps up to say Kaddish. So then there's Ramash in your Kiddush Hashem. Now, I, I'm, I'm saying this because I sometimes end up davening in a non, non-Chabad shul. And one of his, uh, how you say, convenience minyanim. And I see that, uh, after Aleinu, it's not so well observed to say Kaddish after Aleinu. If there's no chiyuvim, everyone just packs out. And it says in the Ramoh, it says that one, that, that the, in the She'em Hameorach, I mean, kflamed, ah, kflamed beis, that, that if there's no one to say Ka- no chiyuv to say Kaddish, Kaddish should still be said achar meis de-alma. One should still be saying Kaddish after. There are meisim in the world, and the, the Kaddish can be a, a, a credit to, you know, for them. So I'm, I find, just find it interesting. Um, I'll just-- Since I'm mentioning this, the, at the back of the Chabad Tehillim, there's a l- a letter of the Rebbe. The first-- There's, there's about 30 pages approximately of a koives b'chtavim of the previous Rebbe about the importance of saying Tehillim. But then at the end, there is a two-page letter about Kaddish after, uh, after, um, Sh'shaliyin and Kaddish after Kaveh and after Aleinu. My shver, Rosh Yeshiva,

32:18 Speaker 1 Rabbi Sudak, he told me the-- he told what, what, what was the, what's the background to that letter. So in 770, there's also, if you can say, convenience, uh, minyanim. So there's minyanim after minyanim, but this is going back in Taf Shin Tes Ayin approximately. There was a Chassid by Rab- by the name of Rabbi Zalman Duchman, and he would sit for a-- he was obviously in retirement age, and he was in 770. And he would go from minyan to minyan, and he would say Kaddish after, uh, uh, a-a-after Sh'shaliyin, after Kaveh, after Aleinu. And people said, you know, "Rabbi Zalman, you know, lo zav. What, you're not davening in our minyan. Why are you, you know, belaboring us with all your extra Kaddish?" So Rabbi Zalman, nigel freil sach, and he wrote into the Rebbe and asked, "Is it the right thing or the wrong thing?" And you see that that's the background of this letter. So addressed, I think, to Rabbi Zalman. And the Rebbe tells him that it is a, it's the rec- correct thing because al pi-- Oh, he doesn't have a name here. Um, but it is the correct thing because al pi kabbalah, you've got the Kaddishim are, are part of the yeridas, uh, going down from Atzilut to Briah is, is from there. And then we, it's Briah. In fact, Olam HaBriah is, is, uh, Olam Atzilut. And then after that, you have Olam HaYitzirah, and that's, like, um, Sh'shaliyin. And so the Kaddish is between Yitzirah and

33:38 Speaker 1 Atzilut, and so on. So the Kaddishim are, are there for a reason. And so even if there's no chiyuvim, that's the, the, the gist of that letter of the Rebbe. Even if there are no chiyuvim, the Kaddishim should be said. And certainly, if a Kaddish is said there, so it is achieving the Inyan of Kiddush Hashem. Kiddush Hashem, the Kaddish Shemeiv Haravim. And that, by the way, that's got to do with this week's sedra. Ve'ata yigdal nokoach adni kashe dibartah leimo. The word koach is 28. Is, and that's, you've got the, the number 28 is very significant. The Kaddish, there's, there's a couple of 28 words or twen- I think it's 28 words from, um, Yesh Mei Rabah to Lamdur Baolmah. And I think in also in Yesh Mei Rabah to Mevorach, there's 28 letters. And that's because the Inyan of Kaddish is Ve'ata yigdal nokoach adni. It is mentioning and invoking the koach, the greatness of Hashem. And so that's why the number k-chof Ches comes in there again and again, because that's what a Kaddish is all about. Yehay shmei rabah mevorach. That the Habis, his name should be... Well, the one way of reading it, Yehay shmei rabah. The Habis, his name should be Rabah or Yehay shmei rabah mevorach, different ways in Rashonim. But certainly, the Inyan of Kaddish is to e- to exalt the Hashem's name. And if there's no one saying Kaddish, and you step up and say Kaddish, that's the Inyan of Kiddush Hashem Rav. Okay, let's move

34:57 Speaker 1 on. Come back to our list of questions. So we'll go on to... Someone asked me this question. I don't really understand why it was-- why they asked the question, but fine. I don't always ask the question why you're asking a question. Um, it's their, it's their prerogative to ask questions, and my job is to answer. So they asked whether they can change this type of talis cotton to a Chabad talis cotton. So just to explain what this is, as you see, this talis cotton has got one hole in the fabric where the tzitzit threads go through. The next page, we can see here, the Chabad style would be-- on a talis cotton, there's two holes. And so his question was, can he switch it from a one-hole, um, uh, style to a two-hole style? Now, uh, the answer is obviously you can. Now, I want to s-explain a couple of points here. Number one, since we're already talking about this, to wear a, a, uh... What fabric should a talis cotton be made? There is a preference to wear a talis cotton made of wool, especially on Shabbos, because there are poskim, particularly Marami Ruttenberg, who holds that, uh, other... You're not mekayem the mitzvah of tzitzit with other fabrics unless the threads of the tzitzit are made of the same fiber. So if it's a cotton garment, you'd have to have cotton threads. Uh, they're not very, uh, popular. And so there is a preference to wear a talis, uh, a cotton made of

36:34 Speaker 1 wool. The other point which I want to say is that the tzitzit should not be s- hanging straight down. They-- It's important that they, the, what's the lashon of it? Makah al hakeren. That the first part of the tzitzit, namely of what I'm pointing to with my, the cursor now, that first part should be touching the corner here. Um, well, it's not possible with this style, and that's why there's the advantage of the other style, where if the tzitzit start by these two holes, so then the first chulya, the first, uh, braid is, is touching the- The corners of the garment. In the, the business of having one hole or two holes, so it's a the idea of having two holes goes back to the Itur, who was a contemporary of the, of the Rambam or perhaps earlier, of having, having two holes. And if you think of the words, , the tzitzit should be out, should be on the, above the, on top of the garment. So in this style, the tzitzits are on the, in the front, so they're on, not hanging away from the garment. Um, let, let's read this Yesh Oimrim. Now, those who say that you shouldn't make tzitzits the way we do them, rather you should make two holes in the garment, and you should put the tzitzits through in one hole and bring them out through the other. the halokh is not like them. That's the opinion of the Itur. One who wants to be should do so

38:11 Speaker 1 only with a tallit cotton, which is not so visible. Um, if you-- Otherwise, it looks a bit like, uh, showing off. So this is actually going back to the Arizal. The Arizal, um, advises to be cotton to have two holes, and in a tallit gadol, it would be with one hole. Now, in Chabad tallit gadol, in order to avoid this, that the tzitzits are hanging straight down, the Alter Rebbe introduces to make another little hole on the side so that the tzitzits should be suspended from the side rather than hanging straight down. And the shamas is introduced after the double knot. The shamas is introduced there so that the tzitzits should be kept to the side, uh, and hanging down from the side rather than hanging straight down. I think we once discussed this a while back. No. Pardon? Lots of people pull the tzitzits to the side- Right ... without a second hole. Okay. If you, if, uh, I- Oh, I can't show it ... equally, equally, lots of people don't. Uh, people are not even aware. Mr. Brewer is a little bit more lenient about this, but this idea of is something which, which one, one should keep to . That's right. Um, so with one hole, it's more likely to fall out of, out of place. Um, one other point, since we're talking about the two holes, is that the Alter Rebbe, and I chose to address this a bit more because, because it's this week's center is about the Parshat Tzitzit.

39:39 Speaker 1 Now, the Alter Rebbe writes about, about these two holes, , slightly at an angle. Now, if you go to any other, uh, other, other Hasidim who wear tzitzits with two holes, the two holes are, are parallel. They're like a . It's only in Chabad that the two holes are at a, at a diagonal. And the reason seems to be why the diagonal is put in place that way, so that the tzitzits should be veering more towards the corner and away from not, not being freely hanging towards the inner part of the beggar. So they should be kind of being steered towards the keren. Um, before going to the next, uh, slide, I'm just looking at the chat. Reb Itzklik Safra used to say Kaddish regularly. He once didn't, and they asked him why he didn't say. He said because the person had died. I'm not sure what the point is. Okay. Um, yeah, but I mean, people pay for people to say Kaddish. Right. Yeah. And that, that, that coming back, Taka, to this case with this woman who asked about Kaddish being said for her father, her non-Jewish father, the tzdaka, that she, she would give the, give the shliach, uh, money for tzdaka, and that would be the zechus for her non-Jewish father in, uh, in Olam HaEmes. True. Right. Let's go back to our list here. Oh. So now I wanted to address... As I said, I wanted to address a couple of points about tzitzits. What's the, what's the reason for

41:17 Speaker 1 the sta- Chabad style of tzitzits? So just to bring your focus, I'm going to go, go back to the previous tzitzits. Now, there it goes round and round and round. And the Minag Ashkenazim is seven circles, circuits, eight circuits, 11, and, uh, 13. But it's just the Ashkenazi way is just seven simple circuits. The Chabad style is much more complicated. It's every three, and then it's pulled through. Uh, the string, the thread is pulled through, and it's ma- secured. And another three, and it's pulled through. And there's this, this, uh, a whole interesting arrangement. It takes it much, make it much longer to make Chabad tzitzits. But what's the reason for this? Okay. So now the reason for this is apparently the following. On the top, we have a Braisa from Gemara, in Gemara Menachos in Daf Lamed Tes. It says the following. That we're talking about which means sets of rings. And it says, . Sorry, . You should not have less than seven rings, seven sets of rings, seven units. And you shouldn't have more than 13 units. Why is that? Why a minimum of seven, um, um, sets? corresponding to the seven heavens. and you shouldn't have more than 13, . Between seven heavens, there are six spaces. So six and seven equals 13. Look, I will fig-- I... If in case you are being concerned, why all of a sudden is tzitzits talking about heavens? If that bothers you, so I'll, I won't keep you in suspense till, uh, till Shabbos.

43:14 Speaker 1 When it comes Shabbos, you'll learn Rashi. And Rashi talks about the tallis- And he says, "Why was the kn- color techelet chosen? Because of techelet hoy mar yam. Vedar yam hoy mar rakia." And so it's the tzitcit is lamaan tizkru. It's, uh, to, to remind you of the Eibishteen, uh, and, of course, the Eibishteen is all over. But in a sense, when we say Avinu shebashamayim, it's, in other words, beyond our comprehension. So we-- That's why I attribute Avinu shebashamayim, however else you explain it. But the idea of heaven is something which is , you say, yashamayim. So that's the idea of why the tzitcit are there to remind us of heaven. So that's the seven or thirteen. And now you ask the question, why do Ashkenazim, or Sephardi for that matter, why don't we have nowadays seven or thirteen sets of rings on our tzitcit? So here again, we have a quote from the Alter Rebbe Shlita. It says, "Bizman shehoy yoztz techeles." When techelet was, was, uh, was being observed. So then Chachamim said, "Shelo yivcho," not to have less than seven chuliyoes, seven sets of rings corresponding to the seven heavens. Because techelet hoy mar rakia, he brings this thing, this explanation. Vehen tiknu, and they said there should also be a kesher at the end of each, each one. Ah. Veachshav sheein lanu techelet. But now that we don't have any techelet. Now, unfortunately for most of us, techelet is obsolete. There's an explanation in Kabbalah why techelet is, is, isn't

44:49 Speaker 1 available. We're not gonna go into the Radzina whole story of people wearing techelet nowadays. But meanwhile, by and large, most Ashkenazim, and Sephardi for that matter, don't have techelet. Einanu, because we don't have techelet, therefore one doesn't have to worry about the minyan hahuliyoes. One doesn't have to marry out, don't have to worry about the seven sets. Elom beminyan hakshorim, and not the number of knots. And I can understand now that we've associated the idea of techelet to heaven, then the idea of the seven has got to do with techelet. So if you don't have techelet, then you don't have to have the emphasis on, on seven or thirteen. Fine. Okay. So that's the explanation why Ashkenazim at large don't have, um, seven chuliyoes at least. Now let's take a look at the Chabad style. Um, when we say the word of a kesher. First, the first point. The idea of a kesher. Normally, we think of taking two threads and interlocking them and pulling them tight. How about what we do with our lulav? We take a band of, of lulav leaf, we wrap it around, and then we tuck it in. That's also a type of kesher. It's not necessarily a kesher which you'd be in, in violation of Shabbos for, but taking something, wrapping it around and tucking it in is a form of kesher. And there are of the Baalei HaTosfot who say that the kesherim for tzitcit is not double knots as we do them. The kesherim of tzitcit means

46:13 Speaker 1 wrapping around and s-pulling it through and pulling it tight. So therefore, each one of these, uh, chuliyoes which you're seeing here on the screen. And let me point to it with the cursor. Each one of these, one, two. Each one is another kesher. And if you look at it, in Chabad style, we've b-by dividing the thirty-nine circuits into thirteen groups, so we have fulfilled the idea of having thirteen chuliyoes. This is the reason for this, uh, for this chesbon that we should actually be able to have thirteen chuliyoes, even though we don't have techelet, but we still want to keep the thirteen chuliyoes, as it's mentioned in Gemara, lo yosif al shloshes. I heard-- Someone wrote to me that he heard in the name of the Friediker Rebbe that he advised the one who's making tzitcit for him that this one and the two, when you make the tzitcit, they should be as close as possible to one another because they are really from one set of three. And the same thing in between the third and the fourth one. The two and the one should be as close to possi-as possible to the kesher, so that they should be seen as, as, uh, as one set because it's-- each set is made up of three. Okay. Um, fine. Let's go on to the next point. No. Ah. So now... This question is actually not a fresh question, but I, I like to have a minyan of questions every week. So I brought up a

47:51 Speaker 1 shailah which Rab-- the late Reb Elazar Kalm of Tiefenbrun. This must have been about fifteen years ago, twenty years ago. He called me up on Motzae Shabbos. He had listened to Havdalah, and he had answered Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo. Was he yoitze the Havdalah? So this is a question. We know that generally, we, uh, i-when we are listening to a bracha, so after bracha to Hashem, we answer, we respond Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo. And then after the end of the bracha, we say Amen. But if it's a bracha which you intend to be yoitze, let's say if your custom is that the women at the Shabbos table don't make their own bracha hamotzi, so they listen to the, uh, the baal habayis making hamotzi, and they say Amen. They don't say Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo. Also, if you are a mesader kiddushin, so one of the very important messages you should say to the chassan kallah and to the chuppah that you are gonna be yoitze for my bracha, and therefore don't say Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo. Fine. What happens if you did answer Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo? So this is a bit of a discussion. Now, on the right margin, we've got here a quote from a, um, from-- This is the Shaarei, Shaarei Teshuvah. Um, I think it's in Siman Reish Gimel. Uh, he says the following. "When one wants to be yoitze from someone else, you should listen through carefully from beginning to end, and don't answer Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo, because

49:23 Speaker 1 by listening, it's as if you're saying. And if you're saying a Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo, it could be a hefsek. It's a hefsek. And you are also altering the format, which was established by the Chachamim." Then he says, um, Birkei Yosef quotes from Sheshanim L'David. Sheshanim L'David, I think, is from Reb David Pardu, um, who, who disagrees with this and says it's okay to answer Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo. Reb Mendel, um, Safra, your father, alav hashalom, had a sefer which has all explanation of all the simanim in the Gemara. You know, it says, uh, siman, uh, for, uh, this and this siman. And he had a sefer. Do you remember such a thing? Um, I think it's written also by Reb David Pardu. You have the back of the Gemara. You have the Tosefta,the Chassid Dovid. There's also-- He was apparently a brilliant gaon, a prolific writer. So, so he apparently says before the Hiddar, as you see. So he says that, no, there's some-- And I, I believe that some Sefardim have the minhag that they do answer Baruch Hashem regardless. Be that as it may, in Ashkenazim, we-- when we yoitze a bracha, we don't answer Baruch or Hashem. We still haven't answered Reb Elazar Kalman's, uh, question about Havdalah. So now we have on the left side of our, of our screen, we have here a quote from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, from Siman Kuf-Chof-Dalet. That's the dinim of Chazarat Hashatz. It's Sif Beis. "Uchen bechol makom sheshomeia bracha umiskaven

50:54 Speaker 1 lotzei yedei chivasa bishmia ose." Whenever you hear a bracha with the intention of being yoitze, could have been kiddush, Havdalah, or Birkat HaPeah of the mitzvot. There could be a bracha on food. There could be a bracha on mitzvot. "Lo yaane Baruch Hu, Baruch Shem." Whenever you are, are being yoitze by listening to the bracha, don't in-- don't interject Baruch Hu, Baruch Shem. "Sheharei shomeia keoneh." Because when you're listening, it's as if you're saying the bracha. "V'yosel hafseg beemtsa bracha." You're not allowed to interrupt in middle of the bracha. Then the Alter Rebbe adds this, his own-- This is a chidush of the Alter Rebbe, and it is in a bracket. Now, many times, the Alter Rebbe's chidushim are enclosed in brackets. "V'efshar sheafilu bedi'eved lo yotzu yedei chivasa." So we saw on the other side of the page that there was a machloket of poskim. The Alter Rebbe says perhaps you're not yoitze. "Ki v'she--", if you answered Baruch Hu, Baruch Shem. "Ki v'shemafseg bein Hashem l'malchus v'davar she'eino mitikun chakhamim." Because there's a seder of Baruch Ata Hashem Elokeinu Melech Ha'olam. And if you put in something unrelated between Hashem's name and Melech Ha'olam, so that's a hefsek with something which doesn't belong there. "Harei ze mishane miMatbeia shel tovu chakhamim b'brachot." So it's very similar to the expl-explanation of this Dvar Shmuel, that, uh, it's-- you're altering from the alter-- from the, uh, uh, set format of the chakhamim. But here, the Alter Rebbe has changed a little bit, and he said,

52:38 Speaker 1 "I have a problem specifically between Shem umalchus." "V'cho lo hazi l'Rav ben Shlomo." So at the time-- So this was the p-- this is the dilemma. You, you-- It's, it's an hour after Shabbos. It's not gonna be fine. I-i-if you're not sure whether you're yoitze Havdalah or not, it's not gonna be easy to find an hour after Shabbos someone who hasn't heard Havdalah is gonna make a Havdalah for you. It's unlikely. So, um, I re- I relied upon this di- dikduk over here, this diyuk, to say that he had answered Baruch Hu, Baruch Shem at the end. Baruch Ata Hashem hamavdil bein kodesh l'chol. So he'd answered Baruch Hu, Baruch Shem at the end. According to the diyuk of the Alter Rebbe, the problem of bedi'eved would only be in the first six words of the bracha, in the opening of Baruch Ata Hashem Elokeinu Melech Ha'olam. But if it's at the end, it doesn't seem to be, uh, a reason to be worried of bedi'eved. And you see others say y-y-yoitze, so one bedi'eved and one can be yoitze. Just finish off, and I want to share with you, um, what we have here. I mentioned earlier that we have a fundraiser, best I share, this coming week, and, uh, this coming Sunday and Monday. And if any of you get a call, please, um, respond generously. And we should, uh-- I wish you all a good Shabbos, and we should sa- share simcha and gezunt and naches Talmud Kal Yom. Chol. Someone is

54:07 Speaker 1 saying here that, that he thinks the minhag of Tammuz 9 to answer kiddush, Baruch Hu, Baruch Shem at, at, at kiddush. Okay. Um, someone else is writing here, um: "How did the people in ancient Israel associate the color the sea? They may have never seen it." Um, well, if they came from Yisrael, they'd seen the sea. Um, well, possibly. I don't know. Um, "Sometimes you see people making their own brachas on besamim and the candle, even though the rest of Havdalah, they are being yoitze. Is this corre-- is this correct or a mocking for this?" Yes, there is that, um, the general minhag, uh, Chabad is that, that there's a kind of a concern that listening, we don't pay so much attention. I'll repeat that in case you didn't hear the first time. Um, we don't always pay attention properly. And as a result, when someone says, "Boré mi dibesamim," you may not have been listening properly. And therefore, we say the bracha ourselves, besamim and, and, and, uh, boreh minei haraichin, we say the bracha ourselves rather than being yoitze because of although al pi halacha, it would have been better, berov am ha'das melech, to be all yoitze from one, the one bracha. But the reality is, and that's not only Chabad, in other circles also, it's recognized that people's concentration is not so strong. And therefore, there is encouragement to say your own bracha where, uh, where it's possible. Okay. We'll have to discuss that another time. Gut. Chol to our gutten

55:38 Speaker 1 Shabbos.

55:42 Speaker 2 Shabbos gut, Shlomo.

55:43 Speaker 1 Shabbos.

55:46 Speaker 2 Shabbat shalom. Shabbat.

55:49 Speaker 3 Shabbos. Shabbat.