בראשית תשפ״ב

00:00 Good to vlog. Welcome to the News Man, the Yankee of Holla Fladarke. So, as Hashem, Matzah Shabbos. And as the days get a bit shorter, I'll be able to start a little bit earlier and make it easier for people to do, go to Malva Malkas v'chola. So, let's go straight to our first question. That is about why Chabad does not say Megillas Koheles. So, here you have a letter. This is what the person who asked me the question sent me. So, it's a letter addressed to Rabbi Krinsky. How many years ago? That's 50 years ago? No, 40 years ago. Whatever. No, 50 years ago, yeah. If you have the time, greatly appreciate your telephoning me. I understand that Chabad has discontinued the reading of Shir HaShirim on Passover, Ruth on Shavuot, and Kohelet on Sukkot. Is that correct? If it is, what is the reason? So, it's a rather strong-worded question that Chabad has discontinued the practice. So, Rabbi Krinsky obviously showed the letter to the Rebbe. And the Rebbe responds, number one, with a question mark, exclamation mark, circling the word discontinued. This is not as if we have discontinued. It's something which it's never, it's, it's never been, um, an issue. It never been a customary in Chabad. And not only in Chabad, but also in other communities also, it has not been customary. And then in brackets, the Rebbe says, For more details, should ask Rabboni Chabad. Okay. So now I was put in a bit of a, a position that I

02:15 have to find an answer. Someone asks such a question. Is, um, Emes, I'm going to disappoint you. I don't have any major, um, giluyim on this. What I'm gonna share with you is we have from the Oitzra, um, Minhogi Chabad, written by the late Reb Shua Monshein. So the minhag of saying the Megillas, Shir HaShirim on Pesach, et cetera, this is something which is, um, minhag Ashkenaz. It's mentioned in the Ramon, in Hirchas Pesach, in Hirchas Sukka. Um, so the Rab Beis Yoser doesn't mention it. I'm not sure whether, whether the Sefardim have this minhag or not. I, I, I didn't manage to establish that. But I did see that it isn't mentioned in the Abu Darham, which is obviously a Sefardish Sefer. So, so the f- that's the first point, that it is mentioned in the Alter Rebbe's Shechin Aruch as minhag, no yhagiv's minhag. Reb Chaim Noah, who lived some 76, 60, 70 years ago. 70 years ago, about, yeah, 65. So he, um, notes that according to the Chabad minhag, we don't. We only learn Shir HaShirim and the other, um, Megillas. And then he further notes that in note, in point gimel, there are some Chassidish communities which do ra- read Shir HaShirim, not in a public way, but each one on their own. But as our minhag, and that's also the Polish minhag of, of Ger and other groups, there's no set minhag of reading Shir HaShirim on Pesach. And so, and then he has, in Viznitz, they do Shir

04:09 HaShirim. This is really, so this is really on, on Pesach rather than Shavuot. But this minhag of reading the Megillas is not so established in the Chassidish community, which Emes, though, I'm not satisfied with all of this because we are Ashkenazim. And so I'm trying to picture what happened, what a, what particular-- how did it happen if there was a, if Chassidim originally were sound like, like Ashkenazi Shirim, and then th- there was a switchover. Was, was, uh, that they stopped saying Shir Ha-- and these Megillas Berabim. Um, the Rebbe is suggesting that there were K- Ashkenazi communities which never had it also. I'm, I'm sure he means Ashkenazi communities. Kol Ponim, so it's, this seems to be widespread amongst various Chassidish communities that they do not have a kviyus of, uh, doing the Megillas in public. Okay. Uh, Kol Ponim, it's not as if it's a new thing on, uh... Rabbi Mendel Safran adds, he was in Ger on Shabbos Kalamed, and they didn't say Koheles or Adam HaZmiris. Okay. Let's move on. Next question we have is about ice cubes. Hmm? No, sorry. The crockpot. Okay, yeah. So the question is, "On Shabbos morning, I see that the cholent in the crockpot needs more water. May I lift the cer- ceramic pot off the metal base, bring it to the Shabbos urn to top up the cholent with water, and then return the pot to the base without setting it down?" So what we have here is what's called in Halakha terms, chazora.

06:00 To take... All right. So let's explain. To take cold water and put it into the cholent is absolutely forbidden because it'd be cooking the cold water. Comes to mind now, when I was a, a bocher in Kfar Chabad, we had a shir from Rav Grossman, Rav Yisroel Grossman, alav hashalom. And he told a story how a, on a Shabbos morning, you know, it's Yisroel, people have these dod shemesh, these solar heaters. And someone had taken a glass of water from the dod shemesh, from the, uh, solar heated water, and put it into the cholent. And he'd asked the child whether he did the right or the wrong thing, and Rav Grossman had said that solar cooking is not called cooking. Therefore, when you let it in... Well, sorry, when you, when you poured in hot solar heated water into a cholent, instantaneously you cooked it. And so you are, are, are, of cooking on Shabbos, and you weren't... Well, he said you're not allowed to eat the, the cholent. That was, that was, that was with the solar. Now, taking water from, and, ta-taking wa-wa-water from the urn and putting it into the cholent. So really what it is, is you're taking hot food away from the source of heat and putting it back, albeit into a different pot. Before it was in the urn, now it would be in the cholent pot. But it's basically what you've done is chazara. Now, in order to be allowed to do chazara, so one of the conditions

07:32 is that the, the fire has to be kugrufo ktumo. It has to be s- a suppressed fire. So in the times of Chazal, it would, it would mean raking out the, any embers in the stove, or it would mean scattering soot or ash on the embers. So there's a statement of distancing, that you don't ne- you don't intend to waken up these co- these coals, these embers. That's what we do with a blech. We cover the fire, and that's the, the, the blech which we cover the fire is a statement that we're not going to, uh, try to revive the fire, make it any bigger. That's what the, the blech is for. Nowadays, probably most of us have switched from blechs to, uh, which cover the stove, to one of these plug-in things. But again, the-these are a statement that we're not cooking. We're just keeping food warm. And so this, this is the equivalent of the blech, and therefore chazara is permitted. Now, chazara is permitted. Now we're reading from the Alter Rebbe Shlita, Siman Reish Nun Gimel, several conditions. One is, od be yodea, that if you would take a cholent off, when I put it back, let's say, so it has to be that you're still holding the pot. Um, another thing is that, v'lo pinu hatav sh- hatav shel l'deira acheres. You could, uh, have to... You shouldn't. The Moshel, if you took a, a pot of soup and you want to now pour it into a small pot and put

09:03 that smaller pot back onto the, onto the blech, that would not be allowed according to the Alter Rebbe. Because it, the, one of the conditions of chazara is it has to be in the, uh, it should not have been put into a different container. That's because the second container is, it's cold. It's, like, off the fire. It's like a new beginning. Here, in the case of pouring water, mitzva, into the cholent, so you're taking it from the urn, which is a kli rishon, and you're putting into the cholent, which is a kli rishon, and therefore that is allowed. The problem here is about using a glass or cup. Are you allowed to pour from the urn into a cup, and then take that cup of hot water and pour it into the urn? Now, I want to clarify something. This line of lo pinu hatav shel l'deira acheres is a discussion in the Gemara, in, uh, Eruvin, in the Gemara Shabbos, and it's a question which is not resolved. And the Alter Rebbe takes the stricter view, that if you, to move it into a different container, you wouldn't be allowed to put it back. The Mishnah Brurah takes the more lenient view, and he says you are allowed to. So according to the Mishnah Brurah, it would be okay to pour from the urn into a glass and use that glass to pour into the, into the cholent. According to the Alter Rebbe, that wouldn't be okay because once you've reduced it from kli

10:31 rishon to kli sheini, you wouldn't be allowed to put it back into a kli rishon. So that's where the, that would be a, uh, that would have been an issue. So now let's, let's, um, let's come back. So in order... Now, now, now we talk about a crockpot. Nowadays they come, there's a metal outer housing, and then there's an inside ceramic insert, and the cholent sits in the ceramic insert. And you want to take out the ceramic insert, and you want to, um, bring it under the urn, and then you wanna put it back. So then you need to have the equivalent of a blech. So what I told this person is, "You're gonna have to put a thin layer of silver foil inside the housing." So that should be like a cover over the- Power of a cholent. Uh, that one should be a cover to the, uh, the, the normal way of cooking. When these removable inserts came on the market about 30 years ago, 40 years ago, there was a discussion. Perhaps it's called hatmona. Perhaps the housing is so close to the ceramic, uh, insert that it's considered like it's been wrapped. Bedovei haMoshe veHevel. And I believe Reb Shlomo Zalman was actually mechaber, but generally it's been accepted that you can use them, and it's, uh, because there's a little bit of space between the housing and the- And the ceramic. Okay. Uh, but if you put too much silver foil, too, too few, too, too many layers of silver

12:11 foil, then actually you're getting into a problem of atmonut, because there's go- there's gonna be, uh, no space, no air space between. So that's why it's just be a thin layer of, just one layer of silver foil will be enough. Now, then raises another question. If the cholent is fleishy and the, and the urn you like to keep pareve because you want to also use the hot water for a coffee with milk. So that raises now another question. So we've gone from a , we now go into yoreh dayah. So this does raise a problem. Now, in the lower part, you have here a quote from the Sefer Shabbos Kahalacha of, uh, from Reb Yoel Kosiel, um, Forkash. Because Alter Rebbe, which I see, you see here, doesn't really address so clearly about moving water into the-- adding to the cholent. It's not so clear in Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. Just talk about chazara, putting the same thing back. So that's why I quoted from also from Rav Forkash, and this is a generally accepted thing, also in Shmirat Shabbos KeHilchasa, about pouring. But he emphasizes, like I said, "You should pour directly from the urn into the, into the pot of cholent." Which then, in his Sefer, he also has a discussion, what about the milchig-fleishig, about the fleishig-pareve question. So what he suggests is that there should be a distance, vertical distance between the cholent and the, the urn, so that the steam of the cholent, the rising steam of the cholent shouldn't

13:53 reach up to the, to the tap of the urn. I'm not sure how you're gonna work that out. And what I've suggested to others is that if, uh, if your... the lid, let's say, of your pot of cholent, or in this case of your, uh, crock pot, if your lid is, hasn't got any little holes as sometimes pots, lids of pots do have. But if it's, you know, but if you take that lid and turn it upside down, it becomes like a little kalí. So, but it doesn't really give off much steam. So if you wanted to add water to your cholent and the, and to avoid the problem of, of rising steam, take the lid of the cholent and, or the lid of the crock pot, upside, turn it upside down, use that as the... and it's got the quality, uh, and the status of a klitish. Use that to fill up as much hot water as you need, and then use that for pouring into your cholent. Okay, let's go on to the next point. Next question, and that was about making ice cubes. So, how-- Let's go, go, ask the more basic question. Is there an issue of making ice cu-cubes on Shabbos? Now, in Gemara, they didn't have-- they don't talk about making ice cubes on Shabbos, but, um, they do talk about taking ice and making it into liquid, into water. And there they have an issue of moleid, or creating like a new entity. Before it was ice, and

15:25 now it's water. So there's different opinions there about whether it means even... One says, even if you just left ice in an empty container, an empty jug, just ice, and the water-- and, and the ice di- um, dissolved into water, you wouldn't be allowed to drink that water on Shabbos because it's moleid. Another opinion says it's only if you actually... the issur is only when you actually start stirring it with a, a beater of some sort, you know, that you are manually making it into water. Be that as it may, there is an issue of, of, of dissolving ice. So the Tzemach Tzedek, um, in Kohelet Mayakov. See, he raised in a problem with making ice on Shabbos. Like it's, if there's an issue to make from ice into water, it follows that there should also be issue for making water into ice. So the Tzemach Tzedek is l-like the first, I think, one of them, probably one of the most prominent voices to object to making ice on Shabbos. And the consensus later poskim, later, um, uh, disagreed with him. And the way Moshe of Shmirat Shabbos KeHilchasa writes, "If it's not necessary, if there's a great need for, you know, running out of ice, it's important, then you would be allowed to make ice, but it's something which one preferably would avoid." That's talking about Shabbos. I just actually received a journal called Pe'alim LaTorah, and I saw an interesting comment that Hashem Baruch, Hashem Baruch Shimon, who's the son-in-law of the, of

17:03 the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek also didn't mean it with full, uh, full, uh... He just saw there was a problem of, of some other mishkil. He raised it as an issue, but not that he was totally convinced that it's asur to make ice on Shabbos, which is an interesting piece of information. But now we're dealing with Yom Tov. And I said to someone, "Tell me, to take flour and mix it into with, with eggs and put it into an oven and make a cake, you are allowed to on Yom Tov. And to put, uh, water into a fridge, into a freezer to make ice, they say you're, you're making a new thing. And flour into a cake is not making a new thing?" I found it very difficult to accept, just on pure balabatish hasvara, to say that you can't make ice, and you are allowed to make a cake. Well, it's not practical to make cakes nowadays. We're, Baruch Hashem, we've got all the machinery to make it easier in the weekdays. But you could, I mean, al pidin, you're allowed to make a cake on Yom Tov. So meanwhile, I'm looking here at Siman Totaf kuf yod alef in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. And talking about the opinion of using incense, burning incense on Yom Tov in order to impregnate. So to impregnate a fragrance to garments on Yom Tov is not allowed, or just even to burn incense in a house is not allowed on Yom Tov. The reason for

18:29 this is because the Aha- the, the Melachas on Yom Tov are only permitted if they are Lechol Nesh- Lechol Nefesh. As it says in the Torah, "Ach Asher Yehi Ochel Lechol Nefesh." So it has to be Hanoah She'ovah Lechol Nefesh. Burning incense was not called a Hanoah She'ovah Lechol Nefesh, which is-- I want to just throw in a very interesting comment. We know that on Shabbos we're not meant to take medicines for a minor condition. Why not? Shema, you shmek someone, you might come to grind. On Yom Tov, you might think, "Well, Yom Tov you're allowed to cook food, so why can't you take medicines freely on Yom Tov?" So the answer is no. Medicine is not a Hanoah She'ovah Lechol Nefesh. Making medicine, you wouldn't be allowed to make on Yom Tov because it's not a Hanoah She'ovah Lechol Nefesh. It's not that everyone likes to have aspirin every day. It's not She'ovah Lechol Nefesh. You wouldn't be allowed to. And because of that, you're not allowed to take medicines on Yom Tov unless it's for a, uh, the same as Shabbos. The second day of Yom Tov, you can take medicines freely. The issue of, of, of taking medicines on, on Yom Tov is, is, um, for Yom Tov Sheni is, is suspended. You're allowed to take medicines on second day of Yom Tov. But the first day, the same as Shabbos. Let's come back to our point. Now, here the Alter Rebbe talks about, in this Seif, using fragrance to impregnate a

19:54 fragrance into food. Into-- Uh, he says like this, "Osul Ashan Peres Kadesha Yikra Turaya Chaboishim." You're not allowed to-- You're allowed to impregnate a flavor which is going to make the food more tasty. If your purpose is only to give a, a fragrance to the food, that you're not allowed to. As he says, "Efishe Osul Oheled Reyach VeYom Tov VeDovash Ohelo Boy Reyach." You're not allowed to impregnate a fragrance, whether to a garment or to food, the, um, uh, on Yom Tov. "Hamoyed Dov Achados Korin Vulo Istimalacha Chadosh." It's got a resemblance to Melacha. And even though Melacha is a Mutel Tzorich Achilah, but since creating this fragrance is not a Tzorich Ochel Nefesh Kol Kach VeEiner She'ovah Bakol, it's not a kind of benefit which is, uh, enjoyed across the board. Therefore, you're not allowed to do it on, on, on, uh, on Yom Tov. So again, to impregnate a f- a, a fragrance along with a flavor to food is permitted because it's Ochel Nefesh. To impregnate a flavor-- Sorry, just a fragrance, and you're not interested in the flavor, that would not be okay. So to be Moyed a, a, uh-- So if it is Ochel Nefesh, then Moyed is permitted. Ah, okay, very good. If Moyed is permitted for Ochel Nefesh, so I'm allowed to make ice cubes. Yeah. I think it's, it's, it's very, very straightforward. Once you tell me that Moyed is permitted Letzorich Achilah, then you're allowed to make ice cubes. And here on the side you have,

21:44 uh, from the, um, the Piskei Teshuvas. He talks about it. He brings various, um, Poskim and he, he makes this connection. If you see here, um, he, he-- By forty-eight. They say it's not a problem to make, to make ice, and he quotes here, Al Pi HaMisber, SheChonar ChaRav. Um, see some-- It says, "Shut SheChonar ChaRav." See in Taf Yod Aleph Zei Zin and Kudra Sachran. So to make ice cubes on Yom Tov, I feel, um, is, is definitely not a problem. Let's go on to our next question. Oh, so now coming back to Rachmana D'Onan. And if you remember, we, we were discussing about does it-- Why is it i-i-in the Selichos for, um-- Why is it in the Selichos on Hatanis and not in the Selichos, uh, before Rosh Hashanah? So I actually made a mistake that looking at other Selichos, it is there. So here you have this piece, "Mishonah Lavram Avinu, Mishonah L'Yitzchak, Mishonah L'Yaakov, Mishonah," the whole list of Mishonah. At the end, in other Selichos, it then continues after, "Mishonah L'chol Hatzadikim V'Chamimim V'Rachmana D'Onan." So it's there. And that's in the s-- in all the Selichos. Not Chabad Selichos Yesod VeHem Shir Tu. In continuation from Mishonah goes into Rachmana D'Onan, which you can think-- I-if you think of the words, it's a n-- it's a natural follow-on. Take a look in Chabad Selichos. After Mishonah, L'chol Hatzadikim V'Hasharim, skips. And this is not my discovery. I noticed that, uh, Rebbe, uh, Rebbe Manshin in his, uh, Yotzter

23:36 Simcha Chabad. After the Rebbe says that our Selichos is based upon Sl- Nusach Lita Raisin V'Zarmut. He says, "But I notice there's a few differences between Chabad Nusach and the V-- and N-Nusach Lita Raisin, uh, Raisin V'Zarmut." So now I'm intrigued. Our Selichos are following Nusach Lita, and here Rachmana D'Onan is omitted. Now, what's the difference between the Selichos by Hatanis and the Selichos before Rosh Hashanah? The difference is in the Selichos by Hatanis you've already said Tachnun earlier. You say Tachnun, and then you go into Selichos. Selichos before Rosh Hashanah. So then there's Tachnun at the end of the Selichos. Although in Chabad it says, "Ein Nuf Lin Halpneim." Remendal in Mi-Minag Leeds. In the philosophim. Yeah. So the Velp Machsumay, it has, it has a philosophim over here. So-- And then it goes Machiomas. Okay. But that's the-- But coming back to our point. What happened? Why did Chabad take out this Rachmana D'Onan and the Rebbe restored it by singing it afterwards, but not, not in the Selichos? Well, I'm, I'm-- You know, it's a mystery. So whilst I was looking around, I came across the following piece from Reb Pinchas Koritz. Now, Pinchas Koritz is a contemporary of the Alter Rebbe. And the famous story where he came-- comes to the Maggid is a title of a Bitush, uh, page of Chassidus Valgerenzach. And he was very upset, and the Alter Rebbe made a whole mashal with the, uh, pearl, with the gems from the crown of the king. That whole

25:16 story starts with the Pinchas Koritz. So Pinchas Koritz, uh, there's k- several . There's Likutei Pinchas, I think. There's Imrei, um, Pinchas, and then there's Noam Elimelech Tzufim. This, this concept actually comes up in all three. How do I know? Because the computer found it in all three , but it, it's, uh, very similar content. In fact, several comments about Selichos. So I'm gonna read inside. Start the Selichos with Ashrei, which are words of praise, as it says in the Gemara that . You start first with the praise, and then you sta- go-- First, the first three broches are praise, uh, Ashrei Nesara. And then you have Atach Ru and you ask for, uh, . Then he goes on, because the Satan fill his first praise and then supplication so too in the Selichos. There he starts off with Ashrei, then there's the Selichos. Now, then he adds another point. We're talking about this which he mentioned before requires a degree of Mesirat Nefesh. That's why towards the end of Selichos there's Nefilat Apayim where you-- where, where, when like, when you-- like we do it every day in Tachnun. Did I miss out something? No. So if you read it, this is also brought in Chabad Hasidus. You have the various levels of davening and Shemoneh Esreh is . But Nefilat Apayim is-- in Hasidus is a-- in Chabad Hasidus is . That is the, the c- the, uh, level of, of, of awareness or commitment or whatever you want-- whatever one word you

27:29 wanna use. Nefilat Apayim is a moment of total Mesirat Nefesh. And therefore he says, just like you have that after Shemoneh Esreh, the Nefilat Apayim, you have the same thing at the end of the Selichos, you have Nefilat Apayim. That is, uh, perhaps that is the, uh, the, um, most extreme moment of the Selichos. Then after having had Nefilat Apayim, then we go from below upwards. Therefore, after the Selichos-- I'm sorry, after Nefilat Apayim, then there's . Because Nefilat Apayim is Mesirat Nefesh L'misamamish. Because Nefilat Apayim is like he's ready to m-mamash to, to, um, giving his life for Kiddush Hashem. is like, uh, like a, a slumber and therefore it's-- you're waking up a little bit. and you have the Mechinet HaRechemim because the Malachei HaShos won't deal with Targum. But then he says you go back to Targum, which he doesn't explain that. But let's, let's come back then. What the Rebbe Pinchas Koritz is saying. Tachnun, uh, you got, you got Selichos and the, the, um, the, the most intense part of the Selichos is this part over here, which is Nefilat Apayim. Once you are in that, in that, that extreme, then comes, comes the Targum. That explains why it doesn't belong. The, the Targum belong before it doesn't belong there. It's the Targum is after the Mesirat Nefesh L'misa in Nefilat Apayim then starts going up Targum, and then you go up, then again you get to the Malachim because they don't deal with the Targum however you deal with

29:18 it. But what I find fascinating here is, um, and if someone out there can, can, you know, corroborate or, or, or f- d- d- d- Is this the only-- Is it only Chabad? Is it any-- Are there any other Hasidus Haselichos which-- And I s- what's so strange is that a Chabad Minuch should be based upon a in, in, uh, in, uh, Pinchas Koritz's Seforim. But, uh, you know, they, they all got, got from the same source. As I have another fascinating story about the, the Pinchas Koritz, uh, with the Rebbe, um, but perhaps another time. Uh, uh, because I didn't prepare the screen for it, but if I-- if, if someone definitely wants, next week I will, I will share this story of Rebbe Pinchas Koritz, uh, um, and . Okay, let's move on. Um, okay. I have now two questions about g- uh, g- g- geir. Number one, I was asked the question, does a geires who gave birth, does the child require a Pidyon Haben? No. So of course, your mind starts thinking because it's called Peter Echad BeYisrael. So you might have thought, "Oh, geires, is that called Peter Echad BeYisrael?" So here you have in the Shulchan Aruch, it's in the Shin Hey, in Pidyon Haben. It talks about a shichcha which was, um, r- released on a g-- um, a woman who was-- a nochris who was misgayer. Um, and even if they were pregnant when they were magayer, then the child requires a, a, uh, a, uh, a

30:53 Pidyon Haben. So when we say, "Peter Rechem biYisroel," if she was Jewish at the time when the baby was born, so then it's called a Peter Rechem, and there's a Chir Pidyon. Now, in the Tas, I think it is, on the side, which you see at the top of the page. And this is to d- to exclude from the opi- opinion of Yosi Haglili, who says that if a woman... Oh, what would happen if this Geodess had had a baby before she was Megayer? So Yosi Haglili says, "Well, this is the first Peter Rechem biYisroel." And this, this Halakha is not like a Yosi Haglili. Again, Yosi Haglili says, "Gave a birth before, it doesn't count. Now it's a Pe- for her first b- birth as a, as a, as a, a Yidish lady." The Halakha dis- disagrees with that. The Halakha is that if she had given birth before, so then it's not called a Peter Rechem. But, um, if this is her first child and she never even had a miscarriage, um, so then it's called... It, it... And she gives birth, then it's then the Izakhiv of Pidyon Haben. Let's go on. Oh, so then another question someone asked me, it was actually Thursday night. Is there a gay or his father, his mother passed away, is there anything which Torah would kind of recognize, that he can do in the merit of his father? And my, my, uh, gut reaction was, there's nothing to talk about because Geshem is like, "I

32:32 have nothing. And, uh, so the people are being, you know. So the day after-- the morning after Simchat Torah, so some people, uh, might be a little bit late. And then we have Birkat Kohanim. And Birkat Kohanim is not at Musaf. That's because the Minig Yisroel is to have a Kiddush be- before Hakafos, before, uh, Krias Hatorah. And by a Kiddush, you might have a little bit more than a Revius of wine. And therefore, the Kohanim, to avoid the Shayleh of Duchning when they are inebriated. So the Kohanim do Duchning at Shacharis. Now, in case you have a question when this started, is this a, uh... And we're going back to the other one, uh, this question. Is it, is it a Chabad Minig? It actually is quoted in the Levush. Levush is going back about four hundred years ago. So it seems to have been a well-established Minig of m- making, uh, Kri-- Um, um, um, Birkat Kohanim is done at Shacharis because of the Kiddush before Hakafos on Simchat Torah by day. So now the question is that our, our, uh, uh, Yedidenu, he's, he's, he's a little bit behind the Minyan. He's in Birkat Kohanim. They are on for Birkat Kohanim. Does he answer the Birkat Kohanim? And the answer is, uh, that we've got three levels. We've got a level of Minhag, we've got a level of Din, and we've got a level called Davor Shebe Kidusha. Answering Borchu Boruch Shemo is Minhag. Answering an Amen on a Bracha, on a

36:44 regular Bracha, someone makes a Bracha on an apple, to answer Amen is a Din, to answer Amen. Then we've got those in Yonim, which are Davor Shebe Kidusha, which are only, uh, can only be done with a Minyan. So Kidusha, Borchu, Krias Hatorah. So these things which are called have got the most power- the powerful status that even in Birkat Kohanim, you'll answer those things. So if you have Birkat Kohanim and you are-- they're, they're saying kedusha, you join in for kedusha, just the e- essentials. Bor-- Kadosh boruch hu im elech. Moedim, you'll say, "Moedim enanu lach." And boruch hu, you'll answer boruch hu. And similarly, Birkat Kohanim can only be done with a minyan. And therefore, to answer Amen for the Birkat Kohanim is a and therefore you can answer, um, Amen to the Birkat Kohanim. Interesting that what I've got here in front of you is a quote from, um, the Sefer Yishai Yisroel, which is a Sefer specializing on tefillah. And he has a question, what about the berakhah, Allen. And he's not so sure about that. Now, it's very interesting because when someone has an Aliyah and they say, you do answer Amen. That's called a . So why is the berakhah which the Kohen says before he says, you know, the, the, um, Birkat Kohanim, that's also only a, uh, . But it's, it's, it's slightly different because there it says that there the main thing is the Bi-- that's the, that's the main . He's saying the berakhah. Here,

38:29 the Birkat Hamitzvah is like a sideshow. The main thing is the Birkat Kohanim itself. So anyway, the Birkat Kohanim itself, definitely you answer Amen. The here he raises a little bit of a, a doubt on it. So now someone asks, does the Hazzan for Musaf on Simchat Torah say Birkat Kohanim? The answer is yes. Does say Birkat Kohanim. Um, perhaps I should share it. I, I got a question which I didn't want to put, uh, on, on the thing. Is pouring water on the Hazzan, is sort of washing the talus and sha- on, on Yom Tov. I said I, I'm, I'm, I'm shocked at the question. First is davening, and you're pouring water on his head. I, I just found it, um, you know... He said it's, yeah, it's not, not so, uh, it's not so uncommon. But, uh, so I, uh, I didn't address that question. But meanwhile, what I have seen is that the Hazzan says, um, the, the and very often Simchat Torah people join him, "Ay, ay, ay, ay." They make a kind of-- There is obviously a certain degree of, um, . And one thing which I remember is Tov Shin Lamed Ches. Tov Shin Lamed Ches, there was the Fabregen. The Rebbe was, had, uh, and, and, and it was, um, Simchat Torah in the afternoon. There was a Fabregen. And it was a Fabregen by the regular place where the Rebbe's Fabregen would be, but the Rebbe wasn't there. The Rebbe was in his room. And Shlomo Aharon

40:05 Kazanovsky spoke then. And Aharon Kazanovsky was about 80 years old at the time, and he was very well-proportioned. And, um, he spoke and he said that the day before or in the morning, sorry, he had Chazzak-- every year he was Hazzan by the Rebbe, by-- for Musaf or something. And every time they would do Es Sholom. They would turn him over. But because this morning he had davened in the Rebbe's-- just outside the Rebbe's room, and so therefore they didn't turn him over. And therefore, he insisted at the Fabregen downstairs when, when that they should turn him over for Es Sholom. So it just, just tells me that the turning over the Hazzan for Es Sholom is a out of, out of minik. I don't think it's exclusive to Chabad, but he insisted not to be mevater on this chutz or be turned over for Es Sholom. Okay, let's go on. Someone asks me about why, why are we using the opportunity of, of Birkat Kohanim such Es Rotzen. Why is it the time for, um, talking about dreams? So I wanted to say two things. Number one, dreams are very-- Well, a lot of dreams are garnished, yeah. But sometimes dreams are significant. And sometimes a dream is a message from a, from another, from another level, and the dream has got a p- powerful message. I would just want to share with you a, a . When my son Mendel got engaged, so the night before we went to the oil, I met

41:40 my mechutan, Rabbi Alperin of, uh, Brazil. And the first thing I, I, I'd never really spoken to him before. But he asks me, "Did you, did you learn in a kollel in London?" So I said, "Yes." I said, "Why do you ask?" So his mother had passed away some six years earlier, and he often had dreams where his mother would come and speak to him. When my son Mendel was in Brazil meeting with the kallah. So on Shabbos morning, he-- Yossi Alperin has a, has a dream and he says, "It's his mother." And his mother-- He says, "Mommy, do you know we have something happening in the house. What's going on?" So she say-- he says that Chaya-- by the daughter, Chaya, she's meeting with a bocher. "What's the bocher's name?" "His name is Mendel Raskin, uh, from London." So in the dream, his mother says to him, "Is he a son of Itcher Raskin who was sent by the Rebbe to kollel to be a shliach in a kollel in London?" Now, he had never known-- He didn't know me as Itcher Raskin. He didn't know about the kollel. Didn't know anything about it. And she'd asked him-- That was the first thing he asked me when he met as mechutan him. "Did you, uh, learn in a kollel in London?" Now, here you have in front of you a letter from the Rebbe when I came back to London after being a couple years in kollel. And- I wanted to continue learning and

43:14 there was no Chabad, um, framework. And I'd asked the Rebbe about learning in, uh, one of the local kollelim. So here you see on the screen, "Beman heleshe loso, yilmod be kollel hamas im be'iro." In response to your question, you should learn in a kollel which is a suitable kollel in your town. Mas im gam bozei brackets suitable also in this feature. Sheyuchal lehamsich ba'avodas hakodesh bemesis Chabad shebe'iro. That you should be able to continue t- um, your holy work in the Chabad institutions in town. This is the letter. All right. So coming back. So she-he had a dream about-- And so, yeah, I mean, I'm just giving you one example of many, and everyone knows stories about messages coming through dreams. So dreams are a powerful thing, and sometimes people do get anxious. And so Bichaskoinim is, is, is, is, uh... Okay. So now here you have interesting st- piece from the Sefer Noam Elimelech, a contemporary of the Alter Rebbe. And he talks about the inion of samech and mem. Mem ve'samech shebeluchos benese hoyo oymdim. And he goes to a whole discussion because it says by trumo that midor, midor, um, ayin yofe. If you're a generous person, you give echad meiar boym. If you are a stingy person, ayin ra, you give echad meshishim. You got mem and samech. And he connects it with mem samech beluchos hoyo oymdim and he says there are two types of tzadikim. If you're mingy, why are you giving anything? No, there's two types of

44:50 tzadikim. There's a ta-tzadik who deals with, only with the good, and the tzadik who deals-- ayin roa means he deals with the bad. So there we have. Roma l'hatsa-- ayin ro is a re'emes for the tzadik who looks at the-- to sweeten the dinim roim, the, the evil. And that's, which means echad meshishim. The idea of bitul meshishim. Um, al derech the Isav BeSefer. Why do we say, "Babichas koanim, derebenet shel olam chalom cholamti"? What, what's, what's got to do with dreams with bichas koanim? And the answer is, sheha chalom hu echad meshishim benevua. Because a dream is one-sixtieth of a nev- of, of prophecy. And a koanim is nevua, is kullo nevua. That's why you're not allowed to look at the koanim because the shin is on their hands. Therefore, we say the rebbenet shel olam at bichas koanim to annul the chalom in sixty. The chein hatzadik who's able to sweeten dinim, he is sweetening them in their shoresh. Venim tzoim bateil hameshishim. So this is-- He's saying that this idea of bitul meshishim, fascinating. About ten years ago, a bit more, was published in the Kfar Chabad magazine that someone had found a, a, um, Noam Elimelech which belonged to the Mitteler Rebbe. And there's ten comments, ten remarks of the Mitteler Rebbe in-- on the Noam Elimelech. And one of them is a comment of this piece, where the Mitteler Rebbe adds, "kishishim oisios bibichas koanim." In bichas koanim, you have rechecha yoyis of the sixty letters. And the sixty letters

46:31 is g- g- le- lending itself to the idea of bitul meshishim. And so if there's some, uh, evil which needs to be gotten rid of, it should be bitul meshishim. That's the connection here. Just to throw in, that's why we also say by night, "Baychishim shel amito. Kinemitoshel shlomoh, shishim giborim saf mimlo." That's two tsukim there which each has got twenty, uh, together is twenty words. We say it three times, so you got sixty words. That's again the shishim giborim. The shishim giborim alludes to the sixty letters of, of, of, uh, bichas koanim. Also, the, um, Yoshev Vesaseh. Call shir shel b'goim tihiye ki at Hashem achas, the sixty words. And again, it's there. The shir shel b'goim means it's, uh, to ward off, um, harm. So again, the idea of sixty is to ward off, um, a, a negative inion. And just want to remember-- remind you also in tof shin nun beis, at the beginning of Yochetes Adarishim, the Rebbe spoke about that there's two months of Adar, and they got sixty days, and he was trying to invoke the inion of bitul meshishim. And for-- And then there was the tragedy with Mrs. Lapin. And then there was afterwards was Chaf Zayin Adar. But the Rebbe was trying to do, uh, bring in to invoke the concept of bitul meshishim. So to summarize, why do we say, um, why do we say, um, the rebbenet shel olam of bitul evil of chalomos at, at bichas koanim? Because there is this power of

47:53 shishim which is able to be mevatal an undesirable, uh, phenomenon. Okay. Okay. Um, we're running a bit la- la- um, low on time, but we have another couple of minutes. Okay. So here, this shail is from a nephew of mine who's in Australia. And-- Just before we go further. So you asked about Musaf and why is it different to Mincha. Musaf is a Seder of, uh, um, we follow the normal Seder that you have bichas koanim and, uh, we don't. We just-- On Simchat Torah, you'll, you'll, uh, you'll just-- The chazan just says it without, without the, without the koanim. By Mincha, it's, it's-- In other words, Mincha is a zman shikrus. It's, it's after the meal, and therefore it's normal for people to have drunk a bit of wine. Therefore, we don't have bichas koanim by Mincha. Musaf, you're saying Musaf on, on, uh, Simchat Torah, possibly in Sefard you're right, it should have been missed out. But we're not going to start tampering, um, on our own, on our own, uh, yeah. Okay. So now coming back to this question from Australia. He's say- He is a, you know, a Chasidishe Yinger man, a Landishe Yinger man, and he wants to-- I mean, there's no minyanim there. It's, uh, you, you can't get more than five people together. It's, uh, a crazy situation. But meanwhile, he, you know, he's-- he wants to be able to t- use a mikveh, uh, for, you know, hilas ezra. So he bought a large tank. And you

49:25 know how we have in the loft, sometimes people have these water tanks, something like that. And he cut out a hole of it in the bottom and put it in somewhere in a-- I guess where there, where there's a stone floor and, and g- glued, put in some cement. In this way, to the, to the-- I-is it, is it okay? So, so, uh, here, let's take a look. For-- This is from the Alter Rebbe's, um, Takanas HaMikvah. Now, just to fill you in, we know that the Alter Rebbe, towards the end of his life, the last-- he said there were, there were three things which he believes are special zechuyos, special merits, uh, which he has, and one of them is that he introduced warm mikvahs. And to explain. The mikvah in the olden times would typically be built near a river, and they would dig out a hole, um, near the river, and there would be a channel. From the water of the river, from the river, would fill up the mikvah. And as, as beautiful as they would make this, this hole, perhaps even have a, a, a hut over it, but it-- the water would be, would be cold. And even if you pour a few kettles of boiling water, it wouldn't keep. It would, it would... Because the, the ground around it is so cold, so the water would, it would ne- And, and, and if the water is freezing cold, that means whoever toivels in the mikvah is going to

50:58 toivel in haste or not go to the mikvah altogether, or chas v'shalom or they'll toivel in haste and not do a proper tevilah. So although Chazal said you shouldn't toivel in a hot mikvah, Chazal discouraged toivel in hot mikvahs because they didn't want people to confuse the mikvah with a bath. This is for taharah, this is for hygiene. Two separate yinonim. But the Alter Rebbe saw in, in Russia in his time, with the, the, the, the climate, the weather, the weather, especially in the winter, that it was, it was a takanah gedolah that you should be able to have warm mikvahs. But how do you do this? The Alter Rebbe devised a whole system of making a wooden floor and then making a wooden crate. And the wooden crate sits on the wooden floor instead... So you dig out the hole, and then in this hole, you put in a wooden floor, and then you put a wooden, uh, wooden walls, and then you allow the water from the river to seep through. Once the water has seeped through to a certain level, then you pour in a few kettles of hot water. Now, because the body of water is in wood rather than in, in earth or in, in, in stone, so therefore, the, the, the water would re-remain warmer for a more reasonable amount of time. This is the Takanas, um, uh, Hamikvah of the Alter Rebbe. You can look at Shulchan Aruch in the back of Yechas Daatuh. It's, uh, two pages.

52:21 He, he goes into the details. So here we have one piece. This is a copy from the sefer of Rabbi Levi to Tikun Mikvaos, but the lashon is the Alter Rebbe's lashon. "V'ha'azir ha'omen v'osher hateivah." You should caution the craftsman who's building this crate, "Shelo yechaber et hashulaim el hatzfonos." You don't, don't connect the base to the wall. "Ad she'yaseh neker t'chilah b'katzei hashulaim sheyihi tahat hashlivis." He actually says, you can make a crate with a floor. First, you have a, a floor built in at the bottom of the, of this pit. But then you make this crate. But before you put the floor connected to the walls of this crate, make sure that there should be a large hole in the bottom of this, in this floor. So that, "Shebichtah shelo yihiye alav tolei ha'otrayos keili me'uylam." It should never be, never have had the statuses of keili. Ah. So now, that's-- So now we hit-- someone raised a problem. If you take this large, uh, water tank, plastic water tank, it was a keili. The fact that you cut it out, but it was once a keili. So here, why does the Alter Rebbe take this chumrah? So there are Reshonim. The Rambam says clearly that this would be kosher. If you take a barrel, cut a hole, put it on the ground, cement it, Rambam says it's kosher. But the Raavid says it's not okay. And he said, Raavid and the, and the, the Rosh, the Ritvo, there are several Reshonim who

53:51 say there's two issues. One is you're not allowed to-- that a mikvah mustn't be made with water drawn by a bucket. That's called bain she'uvin. That's possible. But there's another thing, not to toivel in a keili. Ach ma'ain o bo me, me, me-- Ma bo, well, it has to be bekarka. It has to be-- A tevilah has to be bekarka, not in a keili. So the Raavid maintains that even if you cut a hole in it, it's still called tevilah bekeili. So it could be that it's not a valid thing. Now, here we have the Alter Rebbe in Siman Peh Ches in the Chasam Sofer. He talks about, um, tevilas Ezra, and he says, um, that to toivel, it has to be, "Ha'boim tzor bekarka," he adds in brackets. That the forty se'ah to be have a tevilas Ezra has to be in the ground. So this is the ta'anah that taking this barrel, this, this, this tank and cutting out is still not fulfilling because it's, um, it's, it's, it's, it's not be- it's not beka- it's not bekarka. I still felt that in the circumstances, first of all, um, you know, the shtiel is Rambam is that it's valid. Number two, the- there is a sevarah that the fact that you have cut a hole and put in cement, and in that way it's connected to the ground, it should also be counted bekarka. And therefore, of course, it's not a lechatchilah situation. But I think in the circumstances as they are, um,

55:23 that this would be acceptable. Um, let's move on. Mm. I think I'm gonna have to skip that because we're running short on time. I just want to finish off then, uh, about Ya'aleve Yoveil. And this is one of the benefits of having this shiur, Berabim, that if I make a mistake, someone can correct me. So now I was corrected on, on what I said by the last shiur. I remind you that Sar Beracher asked me, it was the end of Yom Tov, the first days of Yom Tov, on Wednesday night, and he davened Maariv, and he forgot to say Ya'aleve Yoveil in Ratzon. Now, if you forget Ya'aleve Yoveil at Maariv- On Rosh Chodesh, you don't have to repeat Shemoneh Esreh. But if you forget the Halleviav at Ma'ariv, the Halel Ma'ariv, you do have to repeat Shemoneh Esreh. This boy, he had forgotten Halleviav in, in, in, in, uh, in Ritze. He included it in Ma'ariv. And then he asked the Shaila, is he yoetz or does he have to repeat the Shemoneh Esreh? And I told him he has to repeat. And so someone, uh, Re-Rabbi Meir Zurki, I've mentioned his name several times, he put-- he, he directed me to the Sefer Hilot David, it was, uh, Rabbi Bardichev, and the Koch Sachstark and the Malter Rebbe. And what we're seeing in various places, in the Malter Rebbe's Shemoneh Esreh actually, in the end of Ichos Pesach, that, let's say, uh, when you have Yom Tov and Shabbos together, it's-- uh, people

56:50 get confused. And let's say you didn't do the ending, Boruch... Hamotzi bread Shabbos mi sheo v'azmanu. You just said, "Mekadesh Ish Ohev Azmanu." If you mentioned Shabbos somewhere in the middle, that's good enough. Or if you mentioned at the-- you only said, y-let's say, let's say it's on a Yom Tov, and you didn't do the Yom Tov davening, you did a, the Shabbos davening. But you said Halleviav as if it was Halel Ma'ariv, and you mentioned, you didn't mention the Yom Tov. So what we're seeing here is that if you mention the Yom Tov or, or the Shabbos, or even if it wasn't in the right place, so Bedieved, you are yoetz. So, um, so this is where you see the Hilot David is writing, "Gam Mashma Mitvorov" is referring to the Derech Hachaim, that he thinks that it's only if you, uh, mention Ba'avodah and Shevet Z, but if you mention Moydim, um, you're not yoetz. "Lo Yadati Hu Min Olon," he says, "I don't see any, any reason for that." On the contrary, he takes the view that l'chatchilah, of course, he should have gone back to Ritze and said a Halleviav in middle of Ritze. But Bedieved, if he said it in Halleviav in middle of, um, in middle of Moydim, uh, you know, where we say Al Hanissim, so Bedieved, he is yoetz. He doesn't need to re-repeat the Shemoneh Esreh. So all right, so Baruch Hashem. So now we've, we've, you know, you know, Adam Omed Al Halakha Ein Kenich

58:08 Shelo. So now we've learned a new Halakha, and so we'll finish off the shiur with this, and wish you all a, uh, a Gut Rabot and a Feilige Yankee of Halakha L'Darche. Chazak Chazak.