ויחי תשפ״ב

00:06 Speaker 1 Coming together to be And so I was asked why... That's the Berakhah of Yaakov to, to God. What's it got to do with the Shema? So, the source for the saying this pasuk in the Shema is in, in Kisvei HaAriza"l. Now, within Kisvei HaAriza"l, you've got the Rab Chaim Vital and in Pri Etz Chaim, this is not mentioned. But then we have a Sefer called Mishnas Chasidim from Rav Noach HaLevi and the Alter Rebbe was very, very, uh, uh, very much in praise of the Mishnas Chasidim. Whatever he says is from the Ariza"l. At any rate, in the, in the, um, Mishnas Chasidim, he says this pasuk of God Gadud, and he says it's got a Gematria of three hundred and ten, you can mark carry, et cetera. Um, but on a simple level, I would like to find a, a better Pshat or a simpler Pshat, because if it's just because of Gematria three hundred and ten, I'm sure we can find Tanakh-

01:42 Speaker 2 Yeah, that-

01:42 Speaker 1 -other Pesukim which have three hundred and-- Uh, Gematria three hundred and ten. So what's, what's, uh, uh, other Chapshat. That's other HaRemez, other Chasid, other Chapshat. So I think what could be the Pshat is that throughout the day, we go out and doing Ya'avod. We are engaging with Olam HaZeh, Bilur Hanitzutzis, and then we want to come back, Shleimus, without, without damage. Be with, with, with, with more gain than loss. So God Gadud, you Gadol of all your good. Okay. That we-- Throughout the day, we've been spending energy out in, in the, in the street, in, in, in Olam HaZeh, and it should come back with Shleimus. And that's what Rashi says, "Of all your good." Okay. It'll come back without any losses in battle. We have a similar kind of thing, which we have in Kiddush Levana, where we have T-- Um, Tipol Alei Moslachacha bigdol Zecha, uh, uh, uh, you know. And, and then we say that pasuk back in, uh, um, Yosef Oholfuch. And that's, um, the source for that is actually in Masechet Sofrim. And it seems to be the same idea of t- of engaging with, in battle with the enemy, Tipol Alei Moslachacha, and it should come through unscathed. Okay. Let's go on to our next question. It's a very difficult topic, but I was asked this and, uh, if I do-- If someone is a little bit hurt, um, I apologize if I say something out of order. But it's, uh, unfortunately quite a common question, and, um,

03:20 Speaker 1 I'd like to address it. This was a question about after-- If there was a miscarriage, which means if a child was, uh-- If a woman lost a child during pregnancy, does one give a name for the child? So let's take a look here in Shulchan Aruch. The same Halakha appears in Shulchan Aruch, Hilchot Mila, in Siman Res Samach Gimel. And it also appears in the Dinim HaVavel in the Siman Shin Nun Gimel. But we'll have here from Hilchot Mila. So that's at the bottom of the screen, which you have in front of you. Tinok Shemes. Kodem Shehigia Li-lio-liois Ben Shemona. If a child tragically died before reaching the age of eight days. Malin Oiso Al Kivrei. They, uh, do a circumcision at the grave. Betzar-- Betzur Over Kone. With a, uh, rock, with a, uh, reed. But, but in Pasuk it doesn't have to be. It means that, that it could be if they don't have a knife, that they can do it with something else. Veyein Mivorchim Al Hamila. No Bracha. Aval Mesimin Lo Shem. They do give the child a name. Lezecher. It's not Lazochor, Lezecher. It's given a name. Sheyirach-- Uh, uh, for remembrance. Sheirachamu Mina Shamayim. Veyichya Betchiyas Hammesim. This is a, uh, to-- That's a reminder that the child will have a name to be called back by Techiyas Hammesim. So now that we see that giving a name has got to, to do with Techiyas Hammesim, so then becomes the question, what about if it's, um-- Here, the Shulchan

05:09 Speaker 1 Aruch is talking about a child was born and then passed away before the eighth day. What happens if it happened-- If there's a miscarriage earlier on in the pregnancy? So here we have a Yerushalmi, um, which says the following. Meim Oseiktana Yisroel Chayim. There's a Yerushalmi in the end of Sh- Perek Dalet of Shviis. From what stage would a child come back to Techiyas Hammesim? So the first one, Rebbe Chad Oma Mishi Yevoleidu, once they're born. The other one says, "Mishi Yadabru," from when they start speaking. And they bring a pasuk and tell him, "Yavo Yagir Lamnu Lot." One says, "Okay." And then, then we have, "Zera Avdenu, Yevdenu Yeshupah." So when is, when is, when is Yeshupah, when he's able to speak. Then there's another one telling him, "Sheme, Rebbe. Meim Ishuhu Yodea Lanis Oma B'vei Sakneses." It says, Apostle Read the word amunim, amenim. When you can say amen. Then there's another Tamon Amri, they say, "Mishi Yemoilu," for whence he had the bris. Brings Apostle. "Avodun Amri Dehocha Amri Mishi Yevoleidu." As soon as they're born. But that's similar to the first opinion which we had before. "Revelo Zoimer Afilu Nefolim." Even a nefel, which is a, a... So obviously, a nefel here does not mean a child which died within 30 days, because that's Mishi Yevoleidu. Afilu Nefolim, even earlier. Uh, even a fetus, which is, uh, never, never, was never born alive. She'neomar, says Apostle, "Kunetzure Yisroel Lohoshi." And he reads the word netzure, netzire Yisroel Lohoshi. That as soon

07:05 Speaker 1 as they are, uh, uh, formed and ready, they will come back into Tchiyas Hamessim. This same discussion, which is in the Gemara, but in the Yerushalmi Yadi, as I said, in Shriis Perek Dalet, is also in the Bavli in Sanhedrin Daf Kuf Yud Omed Beis. So that's on the top of this se- this screen. "Yitmar Koton Meemos Shebolo Olam Habo." From what stage will a child merit to come to Olam Habo? Rebbe says from he's born, the other one from when he starts speaking. Um, and he brings the Pesukim. I didn't compare exactly the names, et cetera, to the Yerushalmi, but it's obviously very similar. And then we have, "Yitmar Ravino Omar Misho Shenizra." From the moment of insemination. She'neomar zera yavdan. So already right all the way back from the very beginning of the child, already if, uh, that ch-child, even if it doesn't m-mature to, to, to be born, et cetera, is already meriting to be coming to Tchiyas Hamessim. Okay. Before going further, I want to share with you that Rabbi Wrightport of Borough Park, the Babaz Cheh, uh, great Talmud Chacham, he put together a kuntres on, uh, he calls it Netzer Matoi, a kuntres of chizuk for people who have gone through a, uh, the tragedy of a miscarriage. Uh, and, uh, he- it's given out, uh, um, free of charge. If anyone wants to get ahold of it, well, if you have a contact in New York, I have some-- I've given, given out some of them to people

08:52 Speaker 1 over here. Um, okay. I want to also share with you a story. Going back about 35 years ago, there was a, a family here in London who they had a baby, and the baby was born with, um, major, major, uh, issues. There was like the inner-- the vital organs were outside or something. It was, like, really not viable at all. And unfortunately, I mean, predictably, but unfortunately, the day-- the baby did not survive more than a day or two. At the time, they wrote to the Rebbe to inform, and the Rebbe told them to ask a Rov a shailah. To consult with a Rov. So here is a din in Hilchas Aveilus, where it says that-- talks about a child within 30 days, uh, where if a child, child di-dies within 30 days, one doesn't, uh, observe aveilus, even if he lo- seems to be fully developed. But then he says, "If you are sure that he's, has been, uh, fully developed, full-term, then there are-- there, there's a svara that you should be, um, observing aveilus." At any rate, this was, this wasn't relevant at all because this child was totally, uh, not, not, not viable, unfortunately. But what I just now heard about following this conversation is this discussion. The mother told my wife sometime later. She, she said and advised me. Remember, Arthur, you can talk louder. The mother said to my wife some while time later. At the time, I told them not to light a yahrtzeit candle, a memorial candle.

10:46 Speaker 1 And so they, uh, reluctantly, she first-- at first, she was a bit upset that I deprived them of this, uh, Inyan of having a zikaron. But later, as a few months passed, she actually was very grateful because she said, had it been there, it would have been reminding her of the trauma day in, day out. And like this, the not-- by not having a, an, a zikaron, it was able-- she was able to, to come to terms with the situation and go. So there is-- I'm, I'm addressing this because I've, uh, uh-- there are sc- the, the old school of thought was very much suppressing. The more contemporary school is to give some kind of recognition. The actual shailah which I was asked was that the, the parents want to dedicate some sforim, uh, for, uh, in, in merit of a, an unborn child, which di- now died during pregnancy, and they wanted to give a-- put a name. Zicher this name. So this c-- this is, this is where I was, I was struggling with. So what we find in Shulchan Aruch, giving a name to a child which had been born. If the child, uh, w- did not get born, we don't have a source for giving a name. On the other hand, the svara of needing a name for Tchiyas Hamessim- Seems to be true as, as now that we've estab-established even if it, the child, it doesn't, um, mature, even that, to that level also will be merit to. The Cheilech

12:27 Speaker 1 needs a name. Now, here's another interesting point. When you say give a name, which name do you give? And the, the Poskim talk about whether to give a n-a f... You see, normally one doesn't give siblings the same name. You don't have two children of the same parents with the same name. So if you're going to give-- if you're gonna... if they're gonna use a name, then they won't be able to use that name for a future, uh, future sibling. So therefore, some Poskim talk about using a, a rather unusual name. But this I've s-certainly never heard that every time, Cha vasalam, there was a miscarriage, which can be several times, to give, each time give a name. It's, it's definitely not, not the general Minich. But I was told in some communities, they do give a name even for a miscarriage, which as I say, this is not the, the, the broad dominion as far to, as far as I know. Um, but I, I still, I, I still felt that Lamechech they will give a name, but they're, they, the, the Eibishter kind of guides each thing the way it should be. And when, once there's a birth, then it becomes more public knowledge, and then there's, there is the Nechama from other people. And with the way this was developed, they, it was aborted earlier on, aborted. The Eibishter aborted it. But then it's, it's, it's something which the Eibishter created that it should be something which a private thing. And therefore,

13:55 Speaker 1 I felt that the publicity of putting a, a dedication with a name, et cetera, I felt that that's going beyond what's advisable. I'll be, uh, I don't know, know, you know, hard and fast Isur, but I felt it was not advisable. It's something which is, which is, uh, within, and, uh, of course, there are, um, probably some kind of groups which can s-give support to one another. But overall, it's something which is, is not, not promoted and not advertised, um, as when, in, in... as when it would had been, uh, after a regular birth. So that, that's as much as I could say. So I'd really... I, I did advise them not to dedicate Seforim with a name, uh, for an unborn child. Um, Ebishar health, we shouldn't have to, um, talk about this, and those who have gone through this, Ebisher should give them the strength to, uh, to move on and have Brocha and, and, and Simcha, uh, with their families, et cetera. Okay. Here I was chi-- a-asked a question about a w-woman, a mother who had just given her child some meat or chicken, and now they want to put the child to bed. And the Minigir said, "You give him a bottle." I said, "Can you give them a bottle of milk?" I'm talking about milk, milk, not, um, soya milk. "Can you give them a bottle of milk shor-shortly after the, um, having had Fleishigs?" I think it bears mentioning that this whole idea of having to wait between

15:32 Speaker 1 Milchigs and Fleishigs or Fleishigs and Milchigs is a Minhag Toyiv. It's mentioned in the Gemara about a particular person who said that he, in comparison to his father, is like vinegar, the son of wine. Because his father, if he ate meat today, he would only have milk or cheese only tomorrow, the following day. And he, I wait from one meal to the next. And here comes the whole, um, Machlokis between Rambam and Tosfos. What does it mean from one meal to the next? And Rambam understands it as six hours, Kasheh Shoesh. And Tosfos says it can be even, you finish the meal, you decide to have another and, and, and to start eating again. So then that would be, Tosfos doesn't require waiting. He just requires it should not be in the same meal. And then the Minag Ashkenaz, which is both in and , is to wait an hour. And then you've got the Yekeish Minag, three hours, but the Sh-and the-- Ramoh brings a mi-minag of waiting an hour. But all of this idea of waiting, the Torah doesn't say... The Torah says you mustn't have them cooked together. But if they are one after the other, that's on the level of Minag Toyiv. Minag Toyiv, which is a Halacha. No, not... But it's, uh, that's the level. So now, just to make things simpler, I remember that, that Rabbi Berlinov, who is Rav in Bnei Brak, a colleague of mine, uh, so he, um, in his Sefer Shaarei Mishor, he has a,

17:07 Speaker 1 he got-- he has a whole discussion about this. And just to make things simple, we have here a table, what he, um, sums up, right, where he writes, "Up until the age of two, there's no need for waiting between meat and milk. Just to make sure that the mouth is clean, there's no meat ar-around the mouth, and then, then you could give them a bottle." Then he goes in more details. Then from three to five, he advises to wait three hours. And from six to seven, he builds up to si-to four hours. And from the age of eight, at the age of eight, he advises five hours. And from nine through bar mitzvah and onwards, obviously, to, uh, have six hours. And when there are particular, um, difficulties with, with giving that, waiting that long, so he has on the other columns. You know, his last column, he says, "If a child who is weak and needs to have meals all this, when the meal times are so close to one another that it..." So he has more details about that. But certainly, in the case of this little child who is under the age of two, there's no din of... no, no, no requirement to wait. And just, uh, make sure that there's no traces of, of, uh, chicken or meat around the mouth, and then, uh, you can give them a bottle. Certainly, if it's until a few minutes later, that, that would be okay. Okay. One of our reg-regular listeners had a

18:35 Speaker 1 shailah. He's a rabbi in a shul, and one of the important things is that, that when people come to shul on Shabbos morning, is that they, uh, should be able to have a hot, hot cup of coffee or a hot cup of tea, or perhaps they use it for the Kiddush, I'm not sure exactly. But he's one of those people who he, he's the rabbi and also the one who makes sure that there's hot water. So now he's asking that till now he's been, uh, i-i-is-- to switch on the kettle, you know, this urn, to switch on, uh, uh, a-after Shacharis about, you know, nine o'clock in the morning, it means it's boiling for many hours, uh, unnecessarily. So could he come just before Shabbos and switch on the kettle, and then it'll boil on, boil on Shabbos. By the time they need it, it's, it's, you know, by Shabbos morning, it's gonna be ready. Because to come in the afternoon, especially to make a special trip to the shul to switch on the kettle with an extra, um, um, tircha, et cetera. So here we have Halakha. This is in Shulchan Aruch. That's in, uh, where is it in Shulchan Aruch? In Siman Res... the last Seif, I think it is, in Resh on Daled, where he says, "Asur liten mayim samuch lechashechah l'toch kedeira hakavuah betoch ta'an habesa choled." He's talking here about the oven. Now, you remember the, the old-fashioned fireplaces. See, it looks like that fireplace wasn't for cooking. It was

20:17 Speaker 1 really for keeping the house warm. So that's besa choled. In the, the house in, in winter, they had the, uh, uh, house where they were-- it had the fireplace. And so they would have also there a receptacle for water, and that was there, uh, they would use that for washing dishes, you'll see in a moment. So even to put it... So it's not for cooking, for drinking. It's just for, for dome-domestic purposes. Now, mind, um, Ms. Tracy, bring me a glass of water, please. So it says there that, um, it says in Shulchan Aruch that you shouldn't put cold water into this fireplace. "Ele im ken yesh shuchus sheyuchlu lizchamin chatzi, uh, chimumo mibe'eidei ha'yam." Unless there's enough time for the water to boil at least halfway before Shabbos comes in. "She'afshah kavanos shel lo tiboke ha'kedeira." Uh, really, you've got this re-receptacle in the, in the fireplace, and if it's gonna be heating on empty, it might crack. So you're not really interested so much in the water. You're interested in just to protect it from cracking. "Mikol mokom k'im shechoves gam kinbemayim halolot sh'yizchamu k'dei lehoteyach bahem kein b'Shabbos." But since you're also gonna use this water likely for washing dishes on Shabbos, "k'mushah derech lehoteyach bahem," it's com-common to use them for washing dishes. "Yesh lo chush lashamyachata b'gechalem." There is the concern of you might come to stoke the, the, the coals. So what we're seeing is, we all know that in order to leave food to be warm at, at,

22:08 Speaker 1 on Shabbos, so there is something called grufo ktuma. That if the fire has been raked out, then or been covered, then you can leave food. It should cook on Shabbos. I'm gonna tell you a story. I once came to Manchester for a Shabbos, and the bocher in, in the yeshiva, in the Manchester Yeshiva at the time, they had a cook who would work during the week, but Shabbos, he stayed with his family. And there was a bocher, it was his job to make sure that the food is ready on the blech, et cetera. It looks like the bocher had gone on a mivtzoim, and he come-- he came back and realized that the soup was, uh, sitting in the freezer in a massive block of ice. So he quickly whipped, you know, uh, uh, whipped it out of the freezer, put it on one fire, two fires, whatever. But by the time, by the time Shabbos comes in, there's still ice floating. And so, so he, uh, was meayes. He turned off the fires. Nish. What was hakebid halakha? The halakha is, if there's a blech, he could have left it on the fire with the blech, because once you put a blech there, you could even put raw food, and it'll cook. I want to say, we don't do that as a, as a practice, um, because it-- I'll tell you in a... Why, why it's, why it's a dangerous thing to do. If, let's say, this was, let's say, in Manchester, this was

23:33 Speaker 1 in winter. If at-- he put it up on, on, on, uh, just at three thirty, beginning of Shabbos. If, let's say, at five PM, someone would lift that... If someone would lift that, uh, lid, they would not be allowed to put it back. If there's still-- If it's not, not, um, uh, fully warm, then putting the lid back would be hastening the cooking. So that's a mirshal. So for sure, it's not, not advisable to do that. But, but that, that w-would-- In the exceptional case, that would be okay to put a, to-- be-because if there's a blech. Coming back to our, our situation. Here we're talking about putting, uh, a, an urn. There's no blech. There's no grufo ktuma. This is the... Grufo ktuma means it's not cooking in the normal way. There's a siman to... It's not the normal cooking. I know you can say, where is the possibility of shemiyachati? Where-- How will you be able to stoke it? On the other hand, there's a Takanas Chazal that you mustn't leave raw food to cook on Shabbos unless there's some change of covering the fire or similar. That's not here, and therefore, that's not possible. This, th-this is... So therefore, the question re-- Unfortunately, the answer to this ra- the rabbi who, uh, wants to make sure there's the hot water, he wouldn't be allowed to switch on the kettle just before Shabbos, the urn just before Shabbos. What I did advise him, he did ask me whether you're allowed to switch it

24:57 Speaker 1 on by a time switch. That it should switch on, let's say, seven AM, and by nine AM, it's going to be, uh, boiling. Seven AM on Shabbos. And again, the answer to that is no. That you're not allowed to have food. If you're not allowed to do it before Shabbos, for sure you're not allowed to do it on Shabbos, that the food should cook onShabbos. That's, that's the contemporary psak, that you wouldn't be allowed to do it. On the other hand, since we're already talking about using time switches, I advise to use a time switch, that it should switch on an hour or two before Shabbos, and then an hour before Shabbos, and then by the time Shabbos comes in, it's gonna be boiled and there's no problem of leaving it, um, to, on, on, over Shabbos. Can you use a time switch to switch it off on Shabbos? Let's say, by the time, uh, the usage of that kettle has been finished, to switch it off. That, that would be okay. That would be acceptable. To use a time switch to switch it off would be okay. To use a time switch to switch it on would not be okay. Someone is asking here, "Isn't our samovar like having a blech because you can't see the element?" Well, the truth is, you can't see an element, um, you can't see the fire in the element either. The word is like this. Now, what, what about the Moshel? Do you need to have a,

26:17 Speaker 1 a blech on a ceramic hub? You remember the old ceramics which were not see through. So the, the, the Magen Avraham talks about the mantelpiece. You've got the fireplace. On top of the fireplace, there's a shelf, and there's a place where you can put stuff to warm up. And he says, there also you, you cannot put. If it's a derech to use that, that surface for cooking during the week, therefore you have to have a, a change that the Shabbos, it should not be the same as the week. So the word is, it has to be different to the way it... It has to look unusual. Now, that's, that's, uh, the ikar. I see here Rabbi Levitansky from Sumy is saying that his Zayde, Rabbi Hendel, alav ha-shalom, from Montreal, would make sure we put a sign on the hot samovar, on the hot water samovar, Shabbos Kodesh as a siman not to add water on Shabbos. All right. I'm sure that's... I mean, I suspect that's on the level of hidur mitzvah. Okay. But meanwhile, certainly to, to switch on, that it should, uh, switch on cold water that should boil on Shabbos, that's not acceptable. Okay, let's go on to the next question. And that is, going away from Hilchot Shabbos, and here, interesting question of ribbis. Before we go to, to this question, someone is asking, "Is the, if the gas light under the blech was forgotten to be put on, may one ask a goy to light it just after Shkiah,

27:49 Speaker 1 early Bein HaShmashot, the soup in the pot is cold?" Uh, good question. I think it would be okay because hamir erla nochri is permitted bein hashm- bein hashmashot. And since it's got a blech, so then, as I said, with a blech, you're allowed to leave it, uh, to boil on, up on Shabbos. Um, how hot, hot, hot does the water have to be? We just read in Shulchan Aruch, chatsi bishul. All right, let's move on. So here's an interesting question. We have a local shliach, erliche Yid, and likes to do favors. And a friend of his, supporter, says he's... Perhaps it was a weekend. He needed some ties. You know these zip ties where you con- uh, which, which you connect, uh, wires together or you connect, uh, fences together. Whatever these, you know, people, people who are a bit younger know what these, what we're talking about. So he needed a few ties, and, uh, this shliach, he, he puts up sukkahs, he puts up mezuuzot. He has, uh, in his toolbox, he has a few ties. He said if he gave him 15, 20, whatever. A few days later, he gets a packet of 100 such ties. Thank you very much. He gives him 100, a whole packet of 100 ties. Chamais mit ribbis? So let me, I, I want to explain something. If I lend you some chairs, and you give back the chairs, and you give me a c- uh, an extra box of chocolates, that's okay. But if I give

29:28 Speaker 1 you £100 and you give me back the £100 with a box of chocolates, that's not okay. What's the difference? Why is it that if we're lending chairs, you are allowed to get a, a benefit, and when you're lending money, you're not allowed to? The difference is, when I lend you chairs, really I can lend you, I can even charge you rent for the chairs. The reason is because chairs is subject to wear and tear. Chairs, clothing, doesn't matter, yeah? When I lend you... In Hebrew, we've got two different words. We've got hashalah and halvaah. When I lend you equipment and you give back the same equipment, so then it comes back, but meanwhile it's been t- it, it's schlepped around, it's been, there's a little bit of wear and tear, and for that, I'm allowed to charge you money. But when I lend you £100 and you give me back 100, not the same £100 I have, meshi, somebody used it. You give me back £100. The, the £100 you give me back to me are exactly the same power as the £100 I gave you. There's no wear and tear. And so therefore, there's a problem of ribbis. For the same thing, when, let's say, if I would lend you 10 gallons of petrol, and next week you give me back 10 gallons plus a bit more. There, we have a problem of ribbis because the petrol is the same petrol. It's, it, uh, it's not as if there's wear and tear. So whenever

30:52 Speaker 1 there's a, when it-- So when you are lending the usage of something, you are entitled to get payment for that. But when you're lending a commodity which is going to be consumed and be replaced, that's where there's the issue of ribbis. It says entirely clearly, um, um, um, um, um, you know, even by, by food applies, it applies in every Ribbis. So therefore, the question is here, a very, very, uh, legitimate question. That he gave him, uh, ties, and he's giving him back different ties, obviously. He's re-he's replacing them. And he gave him the, he gave him the, the Chabad Shliah gave him fifteen, and the fellow gives him back a hundred. So the question is, it's certainly a very legitimate question, and that's why I felt it was worth discussing. I want to go a little bit further on this. In the Dinim of Ribbis, there's a concept of Seor BeSeor. That Mid'Rabbonon, I'm not allowed to lend you a quantity of commodity, and you'll pay back the same q-quantity, let's say a few months later, because of the worry of the change of price. If, let's say, I gave you today a loan of fifty, uh, fifty l-liters of petrol. On, on the understanding that you will give me back, two weeks' time, you'll give me back fifty liters of petrol. Unfortunately, the likelihood is that between now and two weeks' time, the price of petrol may go up a little bit. And so therefore, when you give me back the fifty liters

32:32 Speaker 1 of petrol, it's the same petrol, same q-same, uh, energy you're giving back, but the price has gone up. So therefore, I, I gave you something. How much if, you know, I'm, I'm frightened to ask how much is fifty liters of petrol today. Uh, it keeps on going up every, every couple of days. Um, but it might be another pound more, two pounds more when he gives it back, and that's a problem of a Seor BeSeor. So there are ways around it, but there is this concept of Seor BeSeor. So now, here we have a Din of Shechu Nerach in Yeredeia. The Dinim of Ribbis are in Yeredeia. So this is Kaf Lamach Beis. Seif Alef says the Ramon. "Yesh Misheoimer" at the top of the page. "Yesh Misheoimer de-mutar lit-lilvois ki kar lechem be ki kar lechem ke madbia shel kesef. De-amecha de-dova mutar v'lekapti v'ni od la-dodi bo ze vechein naagin lo." So, the question is, neighbors, can you go to a neighbor and borrow a loaf of bread, and tomorrow you'll give back a loaf of bread. So probably might have been Seor BeSeor. Is that then an issue? And the Ramon says, "Don't worry about that." Because people say the, the, the change, the difference is so minimal, people don't worry about it. So he, he, he dismisses it. Which is interesting because Ribbis is, who's, uh, if the Abish is worried, well, even, even if both the lender and the borrower are, are happy to do the Ribbis and still not

33:59 Speaker 1 allowed. But the Pol, he says it's okay. Here, we, that doesn't help us in our situation because it wasn't as if he gave him fifteen tires, he gave him back seventeen tires. Here, it's like a, it's a glaring bonus which he gave back, which therefore it, it... Even with neighbors, that would not be okay. If you had a neighbor and you lent your neighbor, um, five eggs, and they give you back seven eggs or even six eggs, that would not be okay. Right. So, Rabbi Overland is pointing out that really, I mean, the Shliach, he wasn't even lending. True, I'm gonna get to this. He wasn't even lending. He was just giving, and, uh, the fellow gave it back. True. But even if it, let's say, it was lending, and this is why I want to discuss it. There, when... There's, there's, there's three levels in Ribbis or perhaps more. There's what's called the Ribbis DeRaisa, and that's called Ribbis Katsutza. Ribbis Katsutza means that when I lend you the money or the, the, the commodities, and I stipulate that it, to, it will be returned with X amount of extra, X amount of bonus. That's called Ribbis Katsutza. I give you a hundred pounds, that in, uh, two weeks' time you'll give me a hundred and ten pounds. That's Ribbis Katsutza, and that's also Min HaTorah. Then we have, like we had before, about a, a, a commodity, and it comes back, it might be, um, um, uh, increased in value. Some als- there

35:25 Speaker 1 can be other arrangements where I lend you money, and I say, "Well, if you make some profit, I'll sh- get a share of the profit." Something like that, but that, that could be an un... When the, where the rate of, uh, in, of, of increase hasn't been predi- um, agreed from the outset, that's called Ribbis Shenas Ktsutsa. Then we've got Ribbis, um, Mukdemas or Ribbis Mucherez. You got the guy around the corner, you want to borrow from, uh, money from him, and you go before and you bring him a box of chocolates. Or after you receive the loan, you pay back the loan, you come back, "Thank you very much. It was so helpful. Here's a box of chocolates." Or whatever it may be. So that's called Ribbis Mukdemas, Ribbis Mucherez, and that's sh- pure Esu D'Rabonan. It's a Ribbis D'Rabbon. So now let's come back to this fellow with the zip ties. Even if it had been a loan, it was, um, it was, it was, uh... And now he gives back, it's maximum, it's Ribbis Mucherez. Okay. Now, we have the following Halacha. That again, this is in the Shechu Nerach Yeredeia. It talks about the difference between a private person, a private loan between two private individuals and Tzdakah money, et cetera. "Kol Ribbis D'Rabbonon mutar b'moeitz shel yesoimim oy shel hepdish anim oy talmutot shel Beis HaKneset." Communal money or Tzdakah money may be lent for on the terms of Ribbis D'Rabbonon. "Vechein naagin lo hokel. Afal gam deyesh machmirin de-inu

36:59 Speaker 1 mutar rak b'bezdin." But you certainly have here room to be Makel, that since the lender, it wasn't- The Shliach's personal stuff. It's the stuff from his, uh, Chabad activities, which is a, a communal endeavor. So then it's, it's Momem Tsibbur. So then it's, uh, , et cetera. It's not a personal thing. It's not M-M-Me'odam Lechavera. It's from a communal thing. There, Ribis Derabonin is, is, is permitted. And certainly therefore, so as, uh, you've mentioned, it, there wasn't a loan. But even if you are gonna call it a loan, the repayment, and you're gonna call it Ribis, it's gonna be Ribis Mucherez. And by, by Ribis, by, by, um, Momem Tsibbur, that is permitted. Someone points out about different size eggs. Yes, I, I... as I was researching this, it came up. Someone said, "Let's say you lent a, a neighbor three potatoes, and they came back, and weighing th-three potatoes. Do you have to start weighing up whether the three potatoes which were returned are, are not more than the potatoes which you gave?" And they, they, you know, just relax a bit. Um, people count them as, as well, it's three potatoes. There was no deliberate, uh, increase of bigger potatoes instead of smaller potatoes, so just don't worry about it. Okay, let's move on. So now we are having another question, back to Shabbos, where a family member took the cholent off the fire, and they thought... because they thought it was the soup. It's Friday night. I'll say the Mincha. Friday night,

38:31 Speaker 1 you serve soup, and Shabbos day, you serve cholent. And the pots, uh, don't have labels on them. This is cholent or this is, this is, uh, I, I have no idea for some pronesty. I make labels. Cholent pot, a soup pot. Al kipponim, it wasn't-- They, they, they then took off the cholent pot thinking it's the soup, lifted the lid, see that, and they see that it's the cholent, and without thinking too much, put it back on. So they have already put it down on the counter, and we know that when-- that there's the, the rules of Chazara. The rules of Chazara of... in other words, of when you take food off the heat to put it back on the heat on Shabbos, there are various conditions. The reason for this, for these conditions, it should not be Nira Kimivashfor. It shouldn't look like you're doing an act of cooking. And so there's various conditions. Before going to those conditions, the most important one is that the food which you're putting back is Mevushal Kol Sar Chayim. The food has to be fully cooked because otherwise, if you're gonna put back food which is semi-cooked, so now you put it on the fire, so you're gonna, you're puttinG... You're, you're causing it to, to cook, which definitely would not be okay. In, uh, Shemiras Shabbos KeHilchasa, he has actually a whole discussion about putting back a cholent. And in Eretz Yisrael, it's common to put in for, for meat, for the cholent, to put in

39:58 Speaker 1 a piece of chicken. So the chicken before Shabbos is fully cooked, but the... what about the bones of the chicken? By night, the bones of the chicken are, are, are hard. By-- If you put it back, by tomorrow, they're gonna be soft. I, no one is interested, or most people just throw about the bones. So there's a whole pilpul there about putting back a cholent which has got chicken bones in it. But let's keep to the, the other conditions which are applied to every food. One of the conditions is Od BeYado. You have it still, hold it in your hand. And the other one i- another one is, when it's done, it hasn't cooled off. Another one is, um, Da'ir Le'achaz, that you had in mind. So this family member took it off. Two things. Didn't have in mind to put it back and actually had put it down. So Rabbi Akiva Eger says, "The fact that a guest who wasn't the owner of this did not have in mind to put it back, it's not, it's not their, you know, it's not their call to decide whether to put it back or not." Therefore, if, if a guest took the pot off the fire without in mind to put it back, that doesn't make it as if put it back. But if you put it down, well, it's down, it's on the table, so then... Okay, having said that, so here we have from the Sefer Shabbos Halacha, where Rabbi Forchheimer, he says it

41:16 Speaker 1 quite, quite clearly, um, or we'll see. Um, and, and let me explain something before reading inside. I said before that it has to be Od BeYado. It has to be still in hand. And if you put it down, you can't put it back. In Gemara, there, one says, "Od..." That so long as you haven't put it down on the floor, Al Gabi Charaka. Put down the floor, that's a complete distraction. But if you put it down on the table, you are allowed to put it back. There is a second opinion, even if you put it on the table, it's also you shouldn't put it back. So here's a Bedi'eved, and there's room to say that since it wasn't put down Al Gabi Charaka, just on the table, on the k- on the kitchen counter, that you are allowed to put it back. Uh, and so that's, this is what Rabbi Forchheimer is saying o-over here. Before, he spoke about if a guest took it off. Now, he says, "Vechein Ha Din Gam Im Hu Atzmo Not Tal B'Toas K'Deira Ha Mu-Ha Muedes Le'Suda Acheres." If you had taken off the pot, which was really for the next meal, "VeLo Hoya Bedaid Ta'lach Zi," you took it off. As, as in this case, you took it off. You thought this was the cholent. They say you thought it was the soup. It turns out it's the cholent. "VeChoshva SheMuedes Le'Suda Za," you thought it's the, the soup for tonight. It turns out it's the cholent for

42:28 Speaker 1 tomorrow. And he says, "Even if you put it down on the table," fill it in the bracket, he says, "then you're allowed to put it back." And as I said, because there are, there, we can rely Bedi'eved, you can rely on the opinion that so long as you didn't put it down to the ground, you are allowed to put it back. Then he says there are those who say that LeChatchilah, if possible, you should put it, um, on another... Let's say you take another tin, let's say a baking tin, put it on top of the blech, and put this on top of it. If it's, uh, that's, um, a, as a recommended hidur. Right. What would happen if a person had violated the Dinim of Chazara? Then here we have in Reshjim Ochah Dalet talks about- Whether the, the food would be also too hot to, to... He says, "Only if it's mitzlamed beyof aloy. If it doesn't become any more tasty, then you would be allowed to benefit from it." Um, and th-the further discussion. But, uh, coming back, we, uh, saw that, uh, the Meiser that you, that you-- they would be allowed not only Last week, we had a discussion about, um, Bishul Akum. If a goy makes baby cereal, and I mentioned how I don't think it's a problem because it's ein ela shulchan orachim. Now, as this triggered a question in one of our listeners, where-- what's the correct procedure for making baby cereal on Shabbos? And they asked whether

44:05 Speaker 1 a goy can make it. But let's first talk about ourselves making, uh, baby cereal on Shabbos. The explana-- the-- what is the i-issue here? I mean, one is about Bishul, but then you have eight sub units. You have Kloshaini, takes off the problem of, of Bishul. Kloshaini, Kloshlishi. The other issue is about Losh. Losh means, Losh means... The word is, in Hebrew is, uh, in English it means to knead. Kneading. Kneading a dough. Um, the-- what is, what is making a dough? You have a powder, and you add a, a, a liquid, and now the powder, the, the liquid kind of triggers off a, a stickiness, and the powder now becomes a mass. That's what a kneading is. So, there's a discussion in Gemara, Shliyose zeh gibuloi o shliyose lo zeh gibuloi. Is the mere adding liquid to powder, is that the act of making the dough, or is it the, is it the stirring, the mixing, which makes it into a dough? These are two suarots in the Gemara. As a result, to, to, to keep, to play safe, for making a baby cereal on Shabbos. So, so the first point is that you're not going to make a thick dough, a thick paste. It's gonna be a, a, a more runny type of d-- um, a mixture. And then we're gonna have two changes. One in the combination of p-a powder and liquid, and one in the form of mixture. Because we've got two suarots. Whether it is the mere combination of liquid

45:43 Speaker 1 and powder, if that's the melacha, or is it the stirring which is the melacha. Therefore, L'maaseh, we're going to make a shinui in both. Both in the combination and in the stirring. So, that's what you're having from She'ar Shmuel. Shabbos klal, klal chas, peh kes, siftes, which goes into the detail. But if, let's say, normally you'd first put the powder and then the liquid. So on Shabbos, you'd first put the liquid and then put the powder into the, into the, uh, bowl. So then, then you combined the liquid and powder in an u-unusual form. Secondly, when it comes to the stirring, where normally you'd stir in a circular motion, here instead, you just do criss-cross, uh, in an, in an unusual form of stirring. So that's, these are the two com-- two, um, requirements to be allowed to make, uh... Actually, three requirements. First of all, it should be not a thick mixture. It should be a, a bit runny. And secondly, you combine the flour or something, whatever, the powder and liquid, in the opposite to the normal seudah. And the other thing is, the stirring should be done not in the normal way. Um, someone's pointing out I missed out question seven. Thank you. Um, it's because I don't have a slide on that. Right. So following off our discussion last week about snow being muktzeh, et cetera, and I'll ask the question: What about shoveling a path in the snow? So, I spent some time looking at this. There is a very

47:13 Speaker 1 good Sefer, series of seforim actually, written by someone called Rabbi Dovid Ribiat. I'm sure many of you have this seforim. Uh, it's called Thirty-Nine Melachos, and, uh, excellent piece of work. And he does talk about this issue of shoveling snow. He lives in America, so he understands what we're talking about. And he does-- He, he says it's not okay to shovel snow. The, one of the main issues here is, is leveling the ground. Now, here's an interesting point. I was thinking about leveling the actual path, the bricks or the tarmac. He says, furthermore, and, uh, I was learning through this topic with Rabbi Lieberman, and he pointed out that the Alter Rebe takes this view that when ice gets attached to a building, the ice becomes part of the building. If so, it's possible when the snow is a little harder, it-- then it's become, it's become the ground. And if you're gonna start scraping it, so you're actually... It's as if you are scraping cement. It makes no difference. You're scraping, uh, um, earth. It bec-- The ice has become part of the ground, if-- once it's become a little bit harder, and therefore, uh, that would be, that would not be okay. If it's still quite loose, perhaps there's more room to be makeh, but, uh, it doesn't seem to be very, uh, promising. The simple answer is, you ask, ask a goy to do it. As we had the story last week with the Alter Rebe, when they told the goy to,

48:36 Speaker 1 uh, clear off the, uh, snow from the sukkah. And, um, yeah. Let's go on. So next week, it's, uh, um, the twenty-fifth of, uh, December is, uh, with Shabbos, and so we have the Mincha of Nittel. And Mincha, Mincha Yisroel in the European countries, not in the, uh, the Muslim dominated, dominated countries, um, to not... The Mincha of not learning Torah the night of Nittel, from nightfall until, until midnight. And, um, by the way, the word Nittel, if you're not awa-aware, is, comes from word of, uh, Na-Natal. Natal, which means a natal, like you have natal, which means birth, and it's got to do with the birth of Yoshke. And this is a Mincha already going hundreds of years, and that, uh, p- that, that we don't have regular learning on the night of Nittel. So I remember once the Rebbe speaking about this, and he said, "Amol, it used to be, uh, people would keep the, the buttons which had fallen off their shirts or their kapotes. They would keep for Nittel night, then they would sew on all the buttons which fell off, uh, during the year." But that's so, uh... You know, the, the old jobs, you leave for Nittel. But if it's Friday night, then, then it's, uh, a bit of a waste of an opportunity. But the, the poiel is that, uh, our Mincha is to, uh, refrain from learning even when it comes on the Friday night. Uh, in the Sefer Nittel Gabriel, the, well, the volume on Hanukkah,

50:04 Speaker 1 he's got about eight chapters on Nittel. And he, he writes there that that's what you have in front of you, and that, uh, even when it's, occurs on Shabbos, it's also the Mincha of Nittel observed, and even not to do Maariv Sidra, and the Tzadikim who would have a Tish normally on a Friday evening would not do a Tish on, or, or, or coincide with Nit'el. Um, there is a difference between the-- what we've-- we follow 25th of December being Nit'el, being, uh, and the, the Polisher would, would go some-someday in early Decem- in early January, because that's how they, in their countries where the Goim would observe, uh, Ni- um, whatever. That-that's their Nit'el. But we, we, we follow the local twenty-25th of December. So yeah, so y- y- Nit'el would apply and so prepare yourself. You can read stories, you can, uh, you know, there are other things besides with, with, you know, not Limud HaTorah. That would be okay. Yeah. So that's the-- that's about the Nit'el, so fine. That someone asked, so I wanted to address that. And finally, we have our last, uh, point for tonight. Finish a little early. So one of our listeners asks, "Why is it that..." Uh, someone's asking if, uh, stories of Rabbeim. I think so. Uh, uh, I think it's okay. Um, the late Rabbi Berel Levy, alav ha-shalom, he would travel to Russia on occasion for, ostensibly for his, uh, kashrus, uh, interests, for supervision, but he would meanwhile also meet with Yidden,

51:46 Speaker 1 and he would, um, he would have, uh, make videos. Videos. Those were the times with a little cine camera. And he would come to the Rebbe and would come-- apparently Nitel night, he would come with a cine camera and re-re-replay the movie for the Rebbe to see, uh, the way the Yidden in Russia had been. Um, and there's people which are-- someone to speak to the Rebbe, ask him for brachos, so that he would bring that on a Nitel night. Obviously, not on a Friday night, but he, he-- that was, you know. So in other words, what I'm saying is, the idea of asking whether they can have stories of the Rabbeim, it doesn't mean it has to be Nitel, Nitel's man. You can use the time for, um, for productive things, but just not Limud HaTorah as such. Someone's asking, "Does the concept of Nitel Nacht, um, exist in Eretz Yisrael?" Uh, I guess you'll have to find out. If you're in Eretz Yisrael, you'll ask locally. I think it depends, uh, more by Ashkenazim than by Sephardim. Yeah. All right. Um, so, so one of our listeners asks about in the morning brachos. So we say a bracha, we say a bracha, um, "Hanotzen lasach livino," thanking Hashem for the fact that the rooster has, um, crowed and woken me up. And then we say a bracha, "Pakeach ivrim." I open my eyes, I say, "Pakeach ivrim." And sometime later, I say a bracha, "Hamevaref sheynai me'einai," who has removed slumber from my

53:12 Speaker 1 eyes, my eyelids. Why are they separate? Why are these two brachos-- Why is the, "Hamevaref sheynai me'einai" moved all over there, or, or, or that much later? So the answer is that it says in the Gemara when you do-- w-when you get dressed, wake up, et cetera, it says, when you wash your hands, you say, "Al netilas yadayim." And then when you wash your face, then you'd say the bracha, "Hamevaref sheynai me'einai," that you thank Hashem for the... So that's got to do with the washing the face. It's two separate things. One is the washing their hands and ear-earlier in the time of the Gemara would be, they would first open their eyes and then wash their hands. Nowadays, uh, well, we say the bracha first, washing the hands, and then the bracha for, um, opening the eyes. But the washing the face, washing the, uh, washing the eyes would be a later stage, which that's why it's a separate bracha. What-- So, I mean, a, a mystery. How does the bracha of "Hamevaref sheynai me'einai," how does that flow into the end of the, the, the, the second part of the bracha all about, uh, chasdin tovim, et cetera? That's a bit of a mystery. Fine. Um, right. Rav Naftali is pointing out that Rabbi Sedeq, alav ha-shalom, would often on Nitel Nacht, again, doesn't apply this year, but perhaps it does with the Polisher one, um, show videos of the Rebbe for the, uh, for the Polisher crowd over here. Um, before I

54:34 Speaker 1 finish, I had an interesting question. Someone asked me about a fast day. And you get up before dawn to be able to eat something before the fast. Should you be saying She'asa li kol tzori ki? So I understood as this question, the person had under-- had, had misunderstood the directive in the siddur. It said in the siddur that on Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur, we don't say the bracha She'asa li kol tzori ki. And this person had understood that that applies to all fasts, which is not accurate. The Tisha B'Av and the, the-- Let's explain. She'asa li kol tzori ki, we have a couple of minutes. She'asa li kol tzori ki relates to the fact that we have the, uh, idea of wearing footwear, leather footwear. Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av, we don't, we don't wear, uh, leather footwear, and therefore, we don't say this bracha. That's according to Minag Chabad. Other communities do say it even in Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur, but that's another discussion. Why is the bracha so indirect, She'asa li kol tzori ki? Well, you could not say, "Baruch ata Hashem Elokeinu melech ha-olam sheboro lanu min ha-olam ve-sandalim," because it's not true. The Hamish didn't, didn't create shoes, didn't create sandals. The Hamish gave us the idea that we could take leather and create them into footwear to protect us, our, our, our shoes. So therefore, it's like a lit-little bit, uh, indirect. She'asa li kol tzori ki. Fine. Um, I'm sure the Meforshei I, I feel are giving

56:06 Speaker 1 a bit more discussion to this. But, uh, so it's on Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur, we don't say this bracha. Other fasts, when you're allowed to wear shoes, that's, that's okay. So now, I want to, uh, clarify something. When you-- If you get up early, before, before the, um, you know, before dawn, et cetera, then you can only say the brachos if you actually had the experience. So if you say brachos later in the day, then you can follow Minhag shel Olam. Since even though you yourself didn't have this experience, but since Minhag shel Olam, then you can say the bracha. So let's say if you, um, slept with your clothes, do you say the bracha, "Malbish arumim"? So if you-- If it's after dawn, well, most people already by then have gotten up and dressed, so it's Min-Minhag shel Olam, then you can make a bracha, "Malbish arumim." But if you're getting up before dawn and you're not changing, putting on new clothes, you wouldn't say, "Malbish arumim." So similarly, with the bracha, She'asa li kol tzori ki. If you get up before dawn and you want to say, "She'asa li kol tzori ki," you'd only be allowed to say that bracha if you actually put on leather shoes. If you're just wearing slippers, so you wouldn't be able to say, "She'asa li kol tzori ki," um, until later, until dawn, when then, then you can say, "Al pi Minhag shel Olam." So that's just an extra, uh, idea. And, uh, I wish you

57:35 Speaker 1 all a Gutte Woche and everyone to be in good health. ...</b