בא תשפ״ב

00:00 Good to go. It's an inspiration to see week after week, but it isn't keen to hear another. Okay, so let's go straight through the first question, which, um, the one to the left, this is a dilemma we've discussed before, and I brought it up because I've-- this week, someone sent me the, the picture on the right. So just to refresh your memories, what I, what I said was at the time that in this picture to the left, so the doorway is where the person walks through. That's the doorway. All right, so the upper part over here above the- these shelves, I wouldn't call that a doorway. It's just a window. And so to put the mezuzah at the far end over here, uh, which is not really near where you walk through, would not be the right place. So if this, the narrow part, is ten tefach high, you'd have to put the mezuzah somewhere just near the top of those ten tefach. So that's, that we've gone through before. Here we have a different story where you have a similar, uh, layout. However, the upper part has also got a post. And this was the question, the, the fellow's question. Do we go according to where the arrow points, the, the black arrow, or where he's put the orange, um, the orange marker? And according to what we discussed, c-clearly the place for it is where the orange marker is. That's the, uh, right of the doorway, and that's where it belongs. Let's move

01:33 on. Someone was asking one of our regular listeners, um, asking about, about when you take up the Sifrei Torah, which way do you face? And actually, there seems to be a difference between what's, what's done in the United Synagogue, et cetera, and what's done in Chabad. In Chabad itself, you'll see that it's not so clear. Um, what is written in Masechet Sofrim, that you can see here quoted from the Moreh Nevuchim. In Masechet Sofrim, it says that the chazan should lift the Sifrei Torah when he says Shema, et cetera. When he says Echad, says Gadlu, he should lift the Sifrei Torah. So a slight lift, but it doesn't talk about bowing one direction or the other. Ktzos HaShulchan, Rabbi Chaim Noah, points out that the meaning is that at Gadlu, the chazan turns to face the congregation slightly. If you think of those words, Gadlu Hashem iti, Lord Hashem, together with me. So he's kind of turning to the congregation and, and calling them to join in with him. So that's where the background of turning for Gadlu to first face the congregation somewhat. What exactly did the Rebbe do? Well, we've got here, I've got three sources, and each one's different. And it's not a contradiction. It could have been some years it was like this, some years it was like that. So the first source you have is from Rabbi Zelikson's record, and he says, when Shema-- the Rebbe would say Shema Yisroel as chazan, he would be facing the kohal. When he

03:03 said, Echad, he would be facing the Aron Kodesh. When he said, Gadlu, I guess he continued looking the Aron Kodesh, and he lift, lift the Sifrei Torah. So that's, that's, uh, Zelikson's record. In the Hiskashrus, we have a, a record which says the following. The Rebbe would say all three, Shema, Echad Olekeinu, and Gadlu, all of them, not like the Chiddush Ashkenazim, where he says part towards the Aron Kodesh and turns around, Remem Moshiach, to the, to the congregation. The Rebbe would say all of them facing the Aron Kodesh. So that's the second record. The third record is in a Sefer called Maaseh Melech, which purports to a record, the Rebbe's, uh, Hanogos, and they write the following. When the Cha-- the Rebbe would be chazan, he would say Shema Yisroel, facing the kohal. Um, that's similar to what's written by Zelikson. Amir Echad Olekeinu, lif'omim. Sometimes he'd be facing the kohal, looking towards the north, and sometimes he would be facing mizrach. By Gadlu, he'd be facing towards the Aron Kodesh and lift the Sifrei Torah slightly. So it's similar, but not identical to, um, to what, uh, Zelikson writes. So whichever way you do is, I think, is gonna be wonderful. And, um, so the idea is that, I guess, somehow you are facing the Aron Kodesh, and then you are turning towards the kohal, uh, at some stage, earlier or later. But there's no-- I see there's no clear, um, consensus of what's said. Let's move on. See, one of our listeners

04:41 are asking about netilat yadayim. Now, there's a mitzvah, netilat yadayim, for, for davening, et cetera. And we don't say a berakhah when we do netilat yadayim for davening, but there certainly is a halakhah about netilat yadayim to the degree that there's a discussion in Shulchan Arukh of how far you have to go out of your way in order to obtain water to be able to wash. So the Shulchan Arukh starts off, this is in Siman, uh, starting beis, where he says that the din of having to wash your hands for davening is only if your hands are dirty. But if you don't know that they're dirty, then you don't have to wash them again for davening. There are those who say that you should. Hesed HaDat says that you haven't been, uh, vigilant about your hands being clean, you should have to wash again for davening. Pri Ish El Yadayim Maskonius, he-- because the, uh, your hands are always touching here and there and everywhere. And perhaps you ta-touch, Mekomei Matanofis, perhaps you touch a soiled area. Vechehen Iker. So the halakhah remains that one should wash one's hands before davening. Now, we saw the Rebbe at the end of the Farbrengen. They would bring the Rebbe a bowl of water, and he would wash. There was a tall glass, and he would wash three times before davening Mincha. But that is, I think, Lifnim Mishuras Hadin. Now, din, wash with water. If you have a keli, it's, it's better. Okay. There is the idea

06:07 of washing your hands before davening. However, if ain mayim zemanim lefana. If water isn't available, ein sochéch lazé acharei, im ein yodeia she'alav shom nefach. So lechatichila, one should wash hands before davening. If you don't have wa-water available, and you-- but you don't know of any soil in your hands, then you can rely on the first sevara. But then there is an idea of washing your hands, v'chol doveshe menake. Of wiping your hands on a, on a, um, stiff surface, which if there's any grime on your hands, it will come off by wiping it onto that stiff surface. She'eni koyoim moyil apalu yadayim shel hesech hadaas. Even if you had been distracted, just cleansing your hands without washing them is also adequate. She'bsul hesech hadaas u'mishum she'mo mudbak bahen me'at zeh o yitzoyo. What's the worry that you might have some soil attached to your hands, and k'shemenake yiskanku. And when you'll wipe your hands on a, a stiff surface, so then that soil will come off your hands. V'chol zé bitfilah, this is all said for davening. Aval l'talmud Torah, dai be'niko yom be'alma be'chol inyan, afilu yesh mayim zemanim lefana. So for learning Torah, it's not imperative that you wash your hands. For davening, one should try to wash your hands. And if in middle of davening... So here, here was the question. I'm in the middle of davening, and I scratched my head, um, do, do I-- Is it enough to use a disinfectant spray or must one wash hands with water?

07:41 So it would be preferable, but especially, let's say, this was asked by a school teacher. If you're gonna start telling every child every time they start touching somewhere, they have to go and run to the sink, I think your, your class, uh, control is gonna be severely undermined, especially with the younger children. So for, um, if necessary, it's enough just v'chol me-- just, just wiping on a hard surface, that would be enough. But, uh, before davening, it would be recommended to wash with water. Let's go on to next question. Every question is entitled to have an answer. Someone asks, "Do women look at their nails at Havdalah?" So all I can tell you, I don't even have a source for this, but I can tell you what I've seen over the last fifty-something years. That it's not... In Chabad, generally, I have not seen women putting out their hands at Havdalah. There may be exceptions to that. That's okay. Um, it's not a clear halakha. I think it's more a sensitivity of a tznius, perhaps. There are men there for a woman to put out her hand. If a woman would be making Havdalah on her own, I guess she would put out her hands, um, to, to, to, to benefit from the light of the m-- of the Havdalah candle. But like this, when there are men there, it's the general minhag, at least in Chabad, is that women don't put out their, uh, hands to look at them at the Havdalah candle. Let's

09:00 go into something more, more, uh... I was gonna say a bit more meaty. Um, so here the question is the following: What is this business of stuff made in a fleishig, uh, oven? Is it fleishig? Was it not fleishig, et cetera? So the person is asking, uh, "I have biscuits made in a, uh, made in a milky oven. Are they, are they milchig? Because they're made in a milky oven, does that make them milchig?" So what we want to identify is the concept of, um, the concept of ta-- no-nat banot or nosen tam banosen tam. There's a first degree and second degree, and this is what we're looking at. Nat banot. So, um, when you've cooked meat in a kayli, so then that kayli becomes fleishig. When you cook something pareve in that kayli, so then that was-- that's called nosen tam banosen tam. In short, nat banot. So let's read that inside. This is from... We've got two sources in Shulchan Aruch. One is in Siman petes yad deyah, and the other one, um, is in tzadik he. So let's read carefully. Mi hu im ein basar b'tav shil. There's a dish which is cooked, but there's no-- just potatoes, let's say. Rak sh'nisbashlo b'kedei shel basar. This, um, you've got cooked pareve potatoes in a fleishig pot. And then you eat that. You ate those potatoes. Mutar lechol acharon gibino. You are allowed to eat cheese after those potatoes. She'ein bo minhag la'achmir. There's no need to be machmir or waiting for a,

10:46 shall we call it, second degree or two degrees removed of nat bana. Those potatoes cooked in a f-- in a clean fleishig kayli, those potatoes do not become fleishig, and therefore, if you eat them, they do not become... You don't become fleishig or the other way around with, with milchigos. So but then let's read the second source, and that's the Siman tzadik he. Beitzah she'nisbashlo be'mayim be'kedei roch elav. What happens if an egg was boiled in a-- in water, in a milchiga pot? Lasis oysor b'teg artah neged. Say, mutar lasis oysor b'teg artah neged. You can take that egg, which was baked in-- which was cooked in a milchiga saucepan. You can take that egg, and you can put it inside a chicken, like to fill it somehow. Afi lu lechatichila, aval nisbashli b'kedei im basar. If the egg had been boiled with meat, mamash, then you wouldn't be allowed. Then that's the, that's the Shulchan Aruch, but then the Rama. V'yesh machmirin b'tseliyoh u'bishol le'aser nosen tam banosen tam. Now, those who take the view that a second degree, which we've called nat banot, it's the egg which was cooked in a fleishig pot... Sorry, in a milchiga pot. So there's milk into the pot. Another pot into the egg. It's two degrees removed. Two, two step-- phases removed. That's called nat bata-- nat banot. Nosen tam banosen tam. Now, those who are machmir, that you should not put it in the chicken. So again- The had said that this egg is so parve

12:23 that you are allowed to put it into a chicken. The Ramos says no. we should view this, uh, egg, which was ba-- which was cooked in a milchig saucepan, we should view it as slightly milchig and not put it into, um, not put it into this stuffing, this chicken. and that remains indeed the minimum that when we bake stuff, cook stuff in a fleishiger, uh, fleishiger pot. So we avoid using that mamash with the, with the opposite, um, type. If it's a or something, one, one would be make or sometimes I've had the situation where someone has, uh... Let's say there was a, there was a woman who gave birth, and another woman was asked to make supper for them. And so this woman makes pasta, the other one makes, uh, the protein, another one make... And they put it together. Well, the one who made the pasta made it in fleishig, in milchig, and the other one... And so, so what's gonna happen with all that pasta? It's a big family that we're making for. So wh-when there would, when there would be a, a bit of a or something, one wouldn't need to throw it out. But when you're cooking pasta to be served with fleishig, it should be in a pareve pot, um, not in a milchig pot. Okay. I'm gonna look at the chats, as a couple of questions have come in. So number one: what about women making havdalah for women? All right. This is a side question, but let's

13:53 address it. In other circles, not Chabad, um, they are very, uh, cagey, very, um, un, uh, easy about women making havdalah. And in the Alter Rebbe, one doesn't see that. If there's no men around, the women can make havdalah. That's not a problem. Um, then she would also make havdalah with, with wine, or a wish, et cetera. Um, uh, where, where there's a, is a difference is that a woman hasn't heard havdalah, a man would not be allowed to make havdalah just for a woman because the achrayus of a man, uh, uh, there's a safek whether a, a woman has a khiev of havdalah or not. So for a man who's already made havdalah to make havdalah again for a woman, that becomes a problem. But for women to make havdalah for themselves, that is, uh, that's, that's okay. Um, someone's asking, does the Mechaber use the example of putting the egg into a chicken rather than into meat? I, uh, which is, um, which is more a shaylah there, I s-- I don't know. I don't know. But mo-- in other words, it's negel or meisa. In any case, we wouldn't do it. Yeah. So let's read another question here. What about something pareve made in milchy and pareve made in meaty? So here's a question. What happens if you've got two second degree, um, a second degree milchig, and a second degree, degree fleishig? Could you bring them together? Probably, that would be okay, but, uh, we try to keep them separate. Let's

15:27 move on. Now, here I've got a question. Tliach. He's got... Friday night, he's got a, a big meal, and, uh, then the floor also gets its share of the meal. And the next morning, he needs the same room for davening. So he has a non-Jewish cleaner who will come in either Friday night or Shabbos morning, ear-earlier on in the morning, to tidy up the room. Now, instead of using a broom, the cleaner chooses to use the vacuum cleaner. Is that a problem? Do I need to stop her? So let's read this halacha carefully. It is, uh, very sh- a very common question. So here we have two sources in the Alter Rebbe in Siman Resh Ayin, Pe. Here in... This is the lower, um, passage. It's from Siftes. There's something called , an indirect movement. And so muktzeh, you could ask a goy to move muktzeh. Because you would be allowed to move, to move the muktzeh in an indirect way, therefore, the fact that you ask the goy to move it in a normal way, that doesn't matter, because you're only not allowed to ask a goy something which there's no way you could do it. So here he says that... But then he, then he finishes off. To ask the goy to move something which you're not allowed to move, this should only be shared with Bnei Torah. So he says that you shouldn't share this heter because people will take it further and further. So here he said, even though you could

17:12 have done it in a way of heter, and the goy is choosing to do it in a way of isur, he says, it's, I mean, ad din, it's okay, but don't, don't, don't share this. Shouldn't, this shouldn't be publicized. Now then, let's take a look in Sifrei Beis. You got the maid. She's doing-- She's washing the dishes, and she is switching on a candle. She's lighting a candle in order to be able to see the washing the dishes. She's washing the dishes for the Yid. We don't say she's lighting the candle for the Yid. You're not benefiting from this candle or from the dishes either. She's got a job to wash the dishes. Okay. so she's lighting the candle to make life easier for herself. So that's okay. So now we've got two very similar situations. One is that you've told the goy to wash the dishes, and the goy switches on a light, and there he seems to be quite okay to the point that you can even have benefit from that candle. In the second, uh, in, in the earlier quote, which is the Sifteh, in the lower part of the page, he's not very happy about it, and he says, "You shouldn't have the goy doing your jobs in a forbidden way because it's gonna be confusing and people will start being makeup." So looking at this carefully, um, the, the difference is the following. When you ask the goy to do a Devar Hetter, a permitted activity, and they switch on

18:54 the light to be able to do it better, you didn't tell them to switch on the light. You asked them to wash the dishes. The light has not got nothing to do with it. What if I told them to bring chairs from the downstairs to the top floor? So instead of carrying them u-up the stairs, they go, they'll put in the lift, and they switch on, and they, they, uh, go, go up with the lift. Let's say. Whatever it may be. So here, they are doing my actual shlichus. They're doing my actual bidding in a forbidden way. So that's the difference. The, the Sifjut Beis is saying, "I've asked them to do, to wash the dishes," and she's switching on the light. That's a side issue. That's okay. No, no, no restraint on that. Siftez is saying, "I've asked them to do a, a job, uh, of m-moving something, and I could have done it in a permitted way, and they're doing it in a forbidden way. That's not, uh, not advised." So coming back to our question. Could you ask a goy to clean the room, and they're taking a vacuum cleaner? So that's more comparable to Siftez, where he says this should be only taught to Bnei Torah and not to Am Ha'aretz, because otherwise it's gonna get... Am Yisrael HaNochri is gonna become a d- a daily thing. Uh, well, every Shabbats. Now, then we have here a, a piece in Kaf HaChaim. In Kaf HaChaim, this is in shimen- simen shin

20:14 lamed zai, which is Faradi, obviously, and he writes the following. "In Eretz Yitzharim, in Egypt, the custom was that the goy she made or, um, whatever, servant, would wash the floor, the tiled floor on Shabbos, and he would also squeeze out the, the mop with which he wipes the floor, so that he squeezes it out, and then he puts, absorbs more water in the mop, and he con-continues, he mop-mops the, the floor." So l'choire, the guy is doing mopping, which is not allowed on Shabbos. And he says, "One could be melamed zchus because he's doing ad d'yated enough. She is doing it to make life easier for himself, because really, he could wash the floor with lots of water. Um, and they would, in, um, in Israel, it's very common. They've got what they call the spongia or magav. They've got this rubber fin. So what the Kaf HaChaim is saying, since he could have used a, a different... He could have used a, um, a kamach bedekas. He could have used some other sweeper, some, um, a, a straw broom or something. But he wants to use a mop because it makes it easier or whatever. So then he says, "One can allow this." Now, what he's saying is basically, in a way, a little bit contradicting what we just saw in the Alter Rebbe. Again, the goy is doing your bidding in a forbidden way. And he's saying that they used to do it there in Mitzrayim. Uh, he's, and he says, because

21:45 they had an alternative to do it in a f- in, in a permitted way by using a, a, uh, a rubber fin or of sorts. So that's his justification. So, uh, according to Alter Rebbe, but that's not, uh, poshet. Better let them be living in blissful ignorance rather than tell them they're not allowed to and they'll continue doing this. So we got this Kaf HaChaim, who seems to be quite tolerant of what's going on, of asking the goy to clean the floor, and the goy cleans the floor with a mop. Um, so, so now if you... Again, the Alter Rebbe does not seem to be happy about it. Um, Kaf HaChaim is, is more lenient. Perhaps here because it's a communal, um, activity, one can be more lenient. Now, then, they mentioned this last night again with the Piryei Shool, and one of the rabbonim there raised a prod-- a question. There's a whole business which is called Absha Miltsa. It's creating a noise. So this is, so let's come back to our question, and then we'll come back to the, to this, uh, Absha Miltsa. Is it okay for the cleaner to take the va-vacuum cleaner? So you've told her to sweep the floor, and she's decided to use the vacuum cleaner. It doesn't seem to be such a strict issue because she could have done it in a Devar Hetter. Here we have a whole discussion about putting wheat grain into a mill, and the mill keeps on turning automatically. So the first

23:12 shita here, which is Similation Beis, you are allowed to put wheat in, and grains of wheat into a mill before Shabbos, and it continues grinding. Ah, it's your, it belongs to you. And people hear the mill grinding because people know that gra- mills grind on their own. They won't suspect that you've done it, uh, on Shabbos. Now, those who disagree with this, the, the others object to this, where there is a noise which is produced by the Melacha. If there's a noise which is being produced by this activity, then that's not okay. Because it's, it's a disgrace for Shabbos people. It's not saying it's a violation, but it's a disgrace for Shabbos. People will get the impression that Shabbos is, uh, ha- started on Shabbos. So here we have a new concept, that if it's producing a noise, if the activity, even though it may be permitted per se, but if it's producing a noise, then it's not, uh, appropriate for Shabbos. If there's no established Minig to allow it, then one can rely on the second, on the, on the later. One should follow the strict, strict Tsara not to allow the mill to continue on Shabbos. Unless there is a loss involved, then you can rely on the f-first Tsara. So coming back to the vacuum cleaner. I know the vacuum cleaner i-in a sense is actually worse. Here we're talking about a mill which was working from before Shabbos and continues grinding into Shabbos, and we have a problem of, of the

24:51 noise being a Zizil Shabbos. Here we have an actual, uh, goy actually switching it on on Shabbos. And so people are hearing the vacuum cleaner working on Shabbos, so it does look like a Zizil of Shabbos. So, um, not very happy about it. What should I say? All right. Let's, um, look at the couple of comments here in the chat. So does the hoovering on the floor apply to homes too? If she chooses to, uh, move out me, so must you stop her? So what we're seeing here is that there's certainly one should, one should stop her, yes. It's not appropriate that in a Yiddish house, there should be, uh, the noise of a vacuum cleaner being emitted on Shabbos. Yeah. Um, right. Let's move on. Right. Last week, we had a discussion about the hazzan who goes back three steps, and he rely-- He doesn't go back three steps at the end of Shemoneh Esreh because he relies on the three steps at the end of Kaddish to Skabol. And we said last week that if there is, for some reason, a switchover of chazzanim, um, by Asher Walitzin, then the hazzan who stepped down from the Amid, he should then, at that point, he should take three steps back, or perhaps right after Shemoneh Esreh. But he would have to have his three steps back, and he can't rely on the Kaddish and the three steps of the one who takes over. But then I've, I've mentioned last week that when you... If

26:20 a person, you forgot Ya'aleve Yavo, and he's using the Chazarat HaShatz as his private Shemoneh Esreh. So then it says, in Shecheneruch, he has to go back three steps, and he can't rely on the ones at the end of Kaddish. And he asked, "I don't understand why. If a regular Chazarat HaShatz, you can rely on the three steps at the end of Kaddish to Skabol, why can't you rely on the same three steps when you forgot the Ya'aleve Yavo and it's for your own Shemoneh Esreh?" So the Alter Rebbe doesn't spell out the reason, but the Alter Rebbe is, um, quoting from the Levush, and the Levush does go a little bit more in detail, and he says, "Even though you have the Kaddish Sholom ahead of you." Now, this-- Let's go back. This concept, this Halakha, that the hazzan who forgot Ya'aleve Yavo and is using the Chazarat HaShatz for his own Shemoneh Esreh, he has to take three steps back. That is traced back to the Zman HaGaon. It goes back a thousand years plus. That's it on the record. Question is: What's the reason for that? So the Levush says that first you have to do... If you-- If you view the Chazarat HaShatz for your own Shemoneh Esreh, then you have to first take leave, so to speak, from Hashem for your own prayers. And then once you've kind of taken leave on behalf of your own prayers, then you come in, and you'll say, "Take leave," so to speak, on

27:36 the prayers which you said for the tzibbur. So that's the, uh, that's what he's saying, that, that, that as, as a hazzan going back, he's, he's on beha-behalf of the tzibbur, but if he has his own tefillah, then he has to step back for his own tefillah. Okay. In the Levush, there's a commentary by the, um, the Toisfos Yom Tov. This is called Ka-Ka-Kamol Boshi Yom Tov. This also, this is not in the Gelem Eys. It's just, uh, the Pilpul of Yalma, and he really is not very impressed with the whole thing. This business of there's a hazzan and he's relying on the Kaddish after, the, the three steps after to Skabol, but when he's doubling his own, he has to take his own three steps. He says the whole thing is a bit, how you say, uh, not so... He's not very imp-impressed. And then he brings a different reason, that in the Bes Yosef, he says that, really, once the ha- the hazzan has ta-taken three steps back for his own tefillah, really, he doesn't need to step three, three steps back altogether. He's saying that the hazzan doesn't need to take three steps back. That's it. The fact that he goes after Kaddish, that's because of Kaddish, but not because of Shemoneh Esreh. So this is what he is saying, that a, uh, that the Chazarat HaShatz doesn't require three steps back. That's his app-app-appoint. Okay. Right. Um, let's go back to the chat. Right. Um, right. Someone's mentioning about if the

28:58 goy is using hot water. Using hot water is actually my least problem because the issue of using hot water on Shabbos is because it's gonna activate the boiler, and that is an indirect cau-cause. It's called psikreish. Therefore, to tell the goy to use hot water, I'm, I'm not worried about that at all. It's like asking the goy to open the door of the fridge, and then you know the light's gonna go on. That's okay. Uh, that's, that's, that's, that's okay. But let's go on. How about where the cleaner mops without being asked? She sees this as part of her job. Yeah, but she's, she sees it as part of her job. She's doing it for you. Uh, you see when we saw that if it's a Shaas HaChak, we-we've seen that there's a Machin L'Chati. We can go back to those, those Litaitnes. Um, we're not, we're not talking about, um, after milk, so we, we says here, um, , especially if there's someone who's unwell. For a Choile, for sure, you can, um, bring in the heter of Amira L'Nochri L'Shech Achile. So that someone who's unwell, one can be make full, and that's why I was also not so worried about, um, for a tzibbur. You can say it's called, um, Tzarchit tzibbur. No, it's not so, um, clear. Okay. Um, right. Let's move on. Let's go on to the next point. Now, last week, unfortunately, the, the Zoom went down for a little, and I think it was these two, uh, questions.

30:22 And so if you did hear it, I apologize, and, uh, if you didn't hear it, well, I'm addressing. So someone asked about mezuzah cases. Do mezuzah cases need to be put in Shemos or in Genizah, in Bosm Echadash? So here we have a clear Halakha in Simin Shin... Sorry, Shimin, Simin Kuf Nun Daled, where he talks about Tashmishe Kedusha. You've got Kedusha, which is Hashem's name, is written on a piece of parchment. That's Kedusha. Tashmishe Kedusha means the appurtenances which are, um, serving the holy i-arte-i-items. So then we have here Tuchshe Sforim, a cover for holding Sforim, a cover for, for mezuzah, the straps of the tefillin, the bimah for the Sefer Torah. And he says all of these, :"Yesh beham kedushah," all of them do have kedushah, "otzar cheligon zon," and w-if they are out of, uh, commission, then they should be put in genizah. So a, a mezuzah case should be put in genizah. Um, the other point which I discussed last week is about burial of Sefer. And so, uh, that s-so as one of our-- one of my, uh, contacts, he was under the impression that burial of Sefer is similar to the burial of, uh, of a Niftar, where we say, "Al efid atav, al efid, efid asher toshav," that there is an idea that it should decompose. And I told him it's actually just the opposite. With a, with a Niftar, Baminon, so then there is the idea that the body should be al-allowed to decompose. But when we're

31:48 talking about Sefer, so then we, Dafke, put them in a protected container, and there's two Madregas and the two levels in this. If it's something like mezuzahs and tefillin, so they will be put in a, um, an em, uh, in the, Shekhinah talks about putting them in a earthenware container. Nowadays, they'll use a strong and sturdy plastic, which will be, uh, able to withstand, uh, seepage, et cetera. And other seforim, et-et cetera, um, w-we're more lenient, and we're allowed to bury them, but they should be bu-buried in plastic, in, in plastic bags. And what I've seen is, even if you're putting your Sefer into one of these large, uh, skips, which they take away the Sefer and bury it, um, it's ideal that you should put everything in plastic bags because they, those who deal with it don't necessarily put everything in plastic bags. So you should put them in plastic bags to protect the, uh, Sefer, that they shouldn't be, um, directly exposed to moisture, which will then ruin the Hashem's name, which is written in, in the, uh, on those texts, et cetera. Okay. Now, again, one of our regular listeners, he listens to the recording, but he asked me to clarify what's going on with the three steps back. Do you do-- Which way-- When, when you go three steps back, which way you bow, to the left or to the right? So let's read. This is from, um, is it Kuf, Kuf? Yeah, somewhere around there. Okay. "Venosen shalom techila lismole."

33:23 When you step back, you first bow to your left. "Shehi yemin Hashchina." You bow to your left, and the reason why you bow to your left, because you are facing the She-- uh, Kivyochol, Hashem's presence. And so you're bow-bowing to the right of the Shechinah. Once you bow to the left, then you bow to your right, which is the left of the Shechinah. So when you say, "Oseh shalom bimromav," you are bowing to the left. And when you say, "Hu yaaseh shalom aleinu," you bow to the right. And, yeah, "Yiten shalom bimromav, shalom aleinu ve'al kol Yisrael, ameen." Okay. You step back, your three ste-steps, and as you're ready, step your three steps back, then to your left and then to your right. Then he adds also about bowing forward. "Od yikare, ohd sheyiskarev, yiten shalom lismole." Right. Um, "Vehergilu lislach avos achakech lifnei Hashem, ke'evod haniftar meirav." So the left to the right and then forward. That's the minhag which is mentioned in Shekhinah. Now, then comes, uh, the second quote is from Sefer HaMinhagim, and that's why there's a-- w-I suspect why this, uh, fine fellow got confused. In Sefer HaMinhagim, it says, at the end of Kaddish, you bow, "Ve'esa mir, oseh shalom," so Kaddish, "Oseh shalom bimromav," you bow to the right. "Hu" in the middle, and "Yaaseh shalom aleinu" to the left, and the end of it, you bow for-- straightforward. So here we've got a, a clear, uh, change between bowing at the end of your own Shemoneh Esreh

35:04 and bowing at the end of Kaddish. By your own Shemoneh Esreh, you're bowing to Yemin Hashchina first. When you're saying Kaddish, you're bowing to Yemin Hatsibur and to the left, Kivyochol, of the Shechinah. Um, I have a source somewhere that an idea that Kovod Hatsibur somehow becomes an even greater value than Kovod Hashchina, and therefore, you're bowing to the right of the Tzibur rather than the right of the Shechinah, Kivyochol. So this is, this is where it gets a little bit confusing, but that's, that's the difference. In your own Shemoneh Esreh, you are bound to start off to the, to the right of the Shechinah, which is your left. And, and at Kaddish, you bow to your right, which is the right of the Kohal, which is the left of, obviously, of the Shechinah in front of you. Um, in this itself, there are different minhagim because this is the way it's recorded in Sefer HaMinhagim, but we know that the Rebbe himself was no different to what is recorded here. It would be, "Oseh shalom bimromav," rather than, "Oseh shalom bimromav, hu yaaseh shalom aleinu." So there was-- there is the idea of right and left, but the actual position, which words are said in which position, the Rebbe did different to, um, the way it's written in Sefer HaMinhagim. And if someone asks you, uh, asks me, "Which way should you do?" So I'll say, "You know, uh, whichever way you do, you're a tzadik." If you are a Kabbalah Tzelnik, you'd say

36:27 that do what's written in, in, uh, in Sefer HaMinhagim. That's the instructions. If you are a, uh, a Mekusher, more in Aveh more than Yireh, then you do what the Rebbe did. Whichever you're doing, you're doing fine. Um, let's look at the couple of points over here. Right. Why do we bow to the right and then to the left by the Chadoidi? Okay. Um, I have a whole, um, da, um, article about this. When you go... Well, bichlal, you should be, you should be, um, be maktim. You should be first dealing with the right and then to the left. By the Chadoidi, you turn around to the back of the shul, and you first bow to the right, then you ba-bow to the left, and that's in, all in a circular motion In earlier years, apparently, the Rebbe would start-- he would turn around by the Chabad clockwise. And the years which I remember, he actually turned around anti-clockwise, and he would turn around, as in, in his place, he would turn around to his left, looking towards the Aron Kodesh. And if you're taking the anti-clockwise motion, then you first come to the right, and then you come to the left, if you think about it carefully. Um, this whole gesheft about which way to turn is actually discussed in Shulchan Aruch about the Kohanim. When they stand-- when they go up for dukhaning, and they're standing in front of the Aron Kodesh, and they should turn around to face the kahal to give

37:53 the brochas. And we have an expression called poino ishat, poino leyu al yomin. When you turn, you should turn to the right. And here there's a fascinating bir of the Tzemach Tzedek which says that when you turn to the right, if you would turn on your, on the spot to the right, you're going to step back with your right foot. If you're gonna turn to your left, you're gonna step forward with your right foot. I'm assuming that you're using your right foot for the first mo-- um, uh, step. So again, if you're turning to the, to your right, clockwise, you're gonna step backwards with your right foot. If you're turning to the left, you're going to be stepping with your, with your, um, you're gonna step forward. So the Tzemach Tzedek has the interessante, um, uh, he assesses the following. Better forward to the left than backwards to the right. That's the Tzemach Tzedek's take on it, and there are different places the Tzemach Tzedek about this. A few places he talks about this. But that seems to be what the Rebbe was following in the later years, which I remember. He would, uh, by, well, Chabad, he turned to the left. And as I say, when you're ready, you're facing the back of the shul, bowing to the right would be sooner than bowing to the left. The yuga al hasida rather than ma'avira lamitzvas. Um, let's go down further on the, the chat. We were told that for Kaddish Yatom, you bow to

39:14 the right first. Yes, so it's, when you, it's Kaddish Yatom or anything which you're doing on behalf of the tzibur. The Kaddish Yatom is really a tzibur act. It's just that. We're given the privilege to the Yatom to say it for the zechus of the, of the niftar, but it is, it's a tzibur act, and therefore we bow to the right. Um, you may notice also in Chabad, the minute when you have a Leil HaTodah. So when you have a Leil HaTodah, you bow slightly to the right, although the Ramah says you should bow to the left. So we've got a, a few, few places where we bow to the right when you are doing, acting on behalf of the kahal. Finally, uh, what do you mean the right of the kahal? He is not facing them. No. The chazan is in front of the kahal. He's representing the kahal. So therefore, he is, when he bows to the right, is the, the right of all the people behind him, of the whole kahal. That's, they're all looking towards Mizrah. So when he bows to his right, it's the right of the kahal. Let's move on. Right. Someone asked me this brief question. Um, someone's, uh, getting a donation of a Sefer Torah. Beautiful. And someone had told him that you shouldn't write that the Sefer Torah is a matana. You should write it's a nedava, but not write it's a matana. And he asked me for some clarity on that. And I really didn't

40:31 know what he's talking about. Um, I did do a little bit of research. Um, there is a business in Shulchan Aruch not to give a Sefer Torah as a matana to another person. Reuven should have given the Sefer Torah as a matana. Like, you shouldn't sell a Sefer Torah unless you're desperate, et cetera. You shouldn't give a Sefer Torah as a matana unless there's very special re-re-reasons. But people giving a matana to a shul, I don't think that's comes into it. But what I would want to say is that we do-- when you-- when a person has a zechus and he writes a Sefer Torah, so one, one should not be giving the Sefer Torah to the shul. Rather, they should loan it to the shul. The reason being that the mitzvah of Sefer Torah, if I wrote a Sefer Torah, then gave it away. So then I don't have the Sefer-- I don't have the mitzvah anymore. I've given it away. I mean, they asked the question, let's say if a person wrote a Sefer Torah, and tragically, there was a, a, esreife, it was destroyed or was... Does, does they have the-- do they have to do it again? So is the mitzvah to write the Sefer Torah or the mitzvah to have a Sefer Torah which you have written to own it? So therefore, this is what you see here, and there's a whole Sefer from, uh, Rabbi, um, Gavriel Sina, Nite Gavriel. He's wrote a whole volume on Achanut HaSefer Torah.

41:43 And he's saying here that, um, that when you give a Sefer Torah, you should not give it in as an outright gift. You should, rather, you should be giving it to the, to the kehillah, that they should be allowed to use it. And, um, as a result, it means also technically that if at a later stage, the owner, the true owner would, uh, uh, want to take it back, they would be allowed to. I seem to remember, I didn't find it. I seem to remember, uh, somewhere the Rebbe recommending someone to draw up some kind of contract even. But I, I looked for that and I couldn't find it, but probably someone will, um, share that with us at a s-later stage. Let's move on. But there is this idea that this, you, you should not be, you shouldn't give the Sefer Torah to the shul. It should be a loan to the shul. Right. Finally, we have our last, um, question. Gone through our list quite quickly th-this time. Okay. So last week, we had a story about a, uh, um... If you remember, there was a, a patio, and there were four doors overlooking a swimming pool. And I mentioned then the Shulchan Aruch, quoted the Shulchan Aruch, which says that if there's no door post, uh, in between... Sorry, if there is a doorpost, there's no, no, um, hinges. Here we have the Shulchan Aruch in Orach Chaim. If there's a doorpost-- Sorry, there's a doorway, and it's been divided with a

43:01 amud. If they are, the hinges divide the doors from one another, then they need two mezuzahs. But if the hinges are to the far ends and the middle, there's no hinges there, then the post doesn't divide them because it's just there For ornamental purposes. So he's asking, bang, is... Look. Well, he's got here, and this, this is on the l-left of the picture. He's got here three panels. The middle panel is actually rigid. It doesn't move at all. The two outer panels both open and he's asking, well, since there's no hinge towards the center, does, can, does, does it require two mezuzahs or is it all one pesach? I felt that is a bit, um, stretched to say that a sep-separation of a meter of a solid, uh, solid glass should still be called all one doorway. Um, there he's talking about you have, uh, a double door, and in the middle there's a post. Now, he says, okay, it's, it's, uh, but it's all one doorway. Some even say that the two doors, when they close, they cover the post. But here, I think they are clearly two separate doorways and therefore would need to have two mezuzahs. So this was, uh, one, one communication. And the other one, someone asked the following. Someone's asked the following. This is a, a balcony overlooking... I, I have no idea. People send me, uh, you know, emails. You have no idea where it is. Looks like a nice place. And, um, what the story here is,

44:33 and I'm showing this because it's a very common mistake. We have here three panels. In this case, it's the middle panel which moves. You can see the handle on the, uh... You can see on the picture, you can see the handle. It's only this one which moves. These outer ones, they're rigid. They don't move at all. So where does the mezuzah belong? Does the mezuzah belong, uh, at the far end of this whole, uh, glass, uh, doorway or does it belong just by the gap where you walk through? And as I've made it very clear, I think, so far, that a glass wall is a wall, and therefore the mezuzah doesn't belong at the far end. It belongs at the right of the doorway of where you walk through. As you walk through, you should be able to touch the mezuzah right within it. It should be within a tefach of where you walk through. The other question, though, which this, um, which this doorway asks, or it raises the question, is which side should the mezuzah be placed? Should it be facing... The mezuzah has to be on the right as you enter. So you can enter the house to the balcony or can enter from the balcony to the house. So which way should the mezuzah go? So as I mentioned before, the co-the concept of heker tzair, the da-the way the door swings. So if this door would swing inwards, if this door was not a sliding door, but it just, it

46:01 actually swings into the house, well, that would tell you that the mezuzah should be put on the right as you come from the balcony to the house. If it would swing out to the balcony, then we'd say we'd put the mezuzah on the right as you go from the house to the balcony. That's mainly Chabad. In other minhagim, I know that there are gonna be a different pesakim on that. The story here, though, is that this is actually not a swinging door, it's a sliding door. So I have used the, um, pesak of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, where he says when you've got a sliding, a, a track and the track is going to be either on one side... It's either on the inside of the fixed panels or it's going to be outside of the, of the, on the fixed panels. So the Rabbi Akiva Eiger says, just like the room where the hinge is placed is called the interior, similarly, the room where the track is placed, that's called the interior. So I think the... My impression is, in this case, actually, the track is on the inside of the outer, of these two panels, in which, in which case, the mezuzah would be on the right as you come from the balcony to the house. Now, of course, you're gonna ask the question, how do you get to the balcony? It looks like quite, uh, high up. That's a good question on the whole Chabad, mahalechu heker tzair. But that's, that's the opinion

47:22 of Chabad. We'll cover in more detail in a moment. Uh, I see here, uh, in Hashabbos from Karasik, he has an exception why w-women don't look at their nails during Havdalah. Oh, thank you, Rabbi Singer. Going back to what we had earlier about women not looking at, uh, their nails at Havdalah. There's a two-volume set by Rav Yosef Yitzchak, uh, Yosef Karasik. Yosef, I don't know, Yosef Yitzchak. It's a great name. They said it was Isaac. Um, and he, he says, you could say that he addresses this question over there. Thank you. And BeEzrat Hashem, I'll add the reference to the, to the, uh, to the sources when, when we send out for after Shabbos. No, for, you know, for later for the recording. Okay. Um, so now here there's a letter of the Rebbe where he says that, . That when we would follow the dictate of the heker tzair, the way the door swings, even on a balcony, um, where the only way you can get to the balcony effectively is from one of the rooms. And the question, again, is, how do you get there? So the answer is you climb through the roof, whatever. And Rabbi Landau from Bnei Brak, uh, apparently has directed, um, explicit directive from the Rebbe Rashab about that. the Rebbe writes to this person, they, so you're familiar with seven seventy. So on the... As you come from the street to the right of seven seventy, there is the, an open area, and that's where the

48:58 sukkah is placed, uh, over sukkahs. And there is a balcony jutting out, where the chuppahs are usually done there also sometimes. So there's a, a balcony jutting out, and that's the balcony from the, um, apartment of the Friediker Rebbe, um, on the second floor of seven seventy. In English, we call it the first floor. And the Rebbe is saying that the mezuzah over there was placed, the way it was placed, according to the way the heker tzair is. Um, I, um, I don't remember now which way it swings, inwards or outwards. The Rebbe is saying that the pesak of that mezuzah was according to heker tzair, and that's where he's basing this, that would go according to heker tzair for, um, for, uh, uh, even on a balcony. All right. So that's it. We'll finish a little bit early and wish you all a gut voch, and ales azain gezunt. And the, those who are not well should have a refuah shleima.