בשלח תשפ״ב

00:03 Someone just sent me a question. Where does it say of the minhag of eating kasha on Shabbos Shira? Has it got to do with the minhag of giving grain to the birds on Erev, uh, Shabbos, sh- on, on giving... Well, we're talking about, we're gonna discuss about the minhag of giving grain to the birds on Shabbos Shira. And so I told him that the minhag is written in Hayom Yom. In Hayom Yom for yud zain. For yud zain Shabbat. It says, minhagain, um, it's a minhagte, it's, uh, it's a minhagte to eat Shabbatsa kasha. Where does it come from? So I have in front of me, this is just, been working just now. Um, there's a Sefer called Hayom Yom Hamagur, and he shows that this is actually a quite a widespread minhag. He gives a reference to Minhag Hamagur, Hayom Yom Hamagur. I did not check it out. Now, they would also have this custom in many kehillahs to have eat kasha on Shabbos Shira because, same idea, because of the man. Uh, well, not the same idea, because of the man, which is the Parshah man on this week's Sedra. And so the man has a certain resemblance, I guess, in our imagination, at least to Kasha. And he gives a reference that, that in the Sefer HaSichot of the Friediker Rebbe, that Kasha was seen as a, as a bit of a delicacy, a nice food in times by gone, in 150, 200 years ago. Anyway, so that's the minhag of eating

01:43 kasha on Shabbos Shira is begi- has got to do with the Parshah's hamon. And let's come to our list of questions, though. Right. So, so what we have here is, I was asked during the week, we have the minhag of quoting from the Maral about giving the, the children seed, uh, to feed the chickens, and we don't do this minhag. So let's read this. Uh, this is from the Sefer HaSichot. It's the one that you have in the front of you. I like to learn things from the source. And so here we have a... So we have here a, uh, quote from the, the, the Sefer HaSichot of the previous Rebbe. Now, Maral Mi Prague was a great ilui. He was like, uh, seen as a great genius in his time. And he was a he was a tremendous genius, so, both in nigla and in nister and in philosophy. He also was a balkush. He had a talent in nigun, in, in, uh, music. A balkush in al ha-chochma. He was talented in all various sciences. Bal midas toivus, refined nature. Ve'al kulam, on top of all of these, ha-mechanech u-madrich nichve. He was a, an educator and a guide. Was hod geheiligt un aingecretzt bay dem Karl Yisroel un Hog Yisroel. And he had, has, has established and sanctified various customs in the Jewish practice. Now, here we go, a, a, uh, a trace of a minhag's trace generation to generation. Der elter zeyde, der Rebbe Temim Chesek. My great-grandfather, Temim Chesek, gezaylt.

03:37 Az zayn dik noch a kleyn kind hot er gehort fun zayn zeyde. When he was a young child, he heard from his zeyde, the Alter Rebbe. Avin er iz geven a kleyn kind hot im zayn elter zeyde. Now, anyone who's read the Zichronos remembers Reb Moshe of Pozen. So the Alter Rebbe, at some stage, met his great-grandfather, Reb Moshe Posner. As we know, he was, uh, uh, uh, he was a very learned person. He was also a wealthy person and, and, uh, et cetera. Dat gezaylt az zayn fortres elter zeyde. So Reb Moshe Posner, the Alter Rebbe's elter, uh, zeyde, says that his, his father's elter zeyde, and they're five, five generations back, who is other, none other than Maral of Prague. Hot geven a minhag. Now, the Maral... So here we have a, a pass down from generation to generation, that the Maral of Prague is, he was the one who instituted a minhag. That Shabbos of Parshas Beshallach. Hot geфagen a heystin. He would call all the Melamedildiki, all the school teachers who teach children, uh, and all the parents. Voz hobn ge-ge-, um, kleyne kinder. Parents of young children, they should gather together on Shabbos Shira af in shulhoyf. On the, to, to the, the yard of the shul. Well, I've never been to Prague, but I presume this is the, the yard of the Alt Neu Shul. Haynt flegt di Maral zogen. And he would then, in front of hand-- In other words, he made a children's rally, and parents there

05:04 also. But he said, "Today is Shabbos Shira. Un a flegt heystin di melamdim." He would tell the melamdim, the teachers, that they should ex-explain to the children the story of Kriyas Yam Suf. And, "Vi di feyglekh hobn gezungen un getant beshas Moshe un alem Yidden, mener un froyen hobn gezungen di Shira os yoshir." That when Moshe and the Yidden were singing os yoshir, the men and the women, so the fir- the birds were singing and dancing. Un di kleyne kinderlekh hobn gerisn peyres fun di Yam Baymer. So the children, the little children plucked fruit from the trees of the sea. Now, I was-- My memory always had it that these were the trees which were growing inside the tunnels, inside the Yam Suf, but that doesn't seem to fit with the record here because they were already outside when they were singing the Shira. So the Yam Beemer could mean trees which are overlooking the sea, the sea. Attenuate. The children plucked fruit from the trees. Own gespeist, the sing and the quantanzedige fegelach. And the children fed this fruit, which they plucked, to the singing and dancing birds. The Maral, flekt heysen, geben de kinder, kleine kinder kashe. So this is the first thing, that the Bal She-- the, the whole st-story. He brought the children to the central place and explained to them about their children back in the day with the Kriyas Yam Suf, how they plucked fruit and fed it to the j-birds who were already participating in the celebration of

06:48 Kriyas Yam. Maral, flekt heysen, geben de kinder. He would then instruct that the children should be given kashe. Zey zul varf un fad die hiner, that they should scatter the kashe to the chickens. Un fegelach and other birds. Az ikor ain tzu die yam peyres. Vos die kleine kinderlach hobn gespeist die fegelach. In remem- in remembrance of the, the fruit, these, uh, sea fruit, whatever that means, which the ch- little children fed the fegelach of birds back by Kriyas Yam. Norden, and then the Ma-Maral would give a broche, uh, he benched all the children, and also the, he would bench the parents that they should be able to, that they should merit to bring up their children to Torach up masantef. So this is a fascinating, um, very detailed minnuh, you know, um, record of a minute going back to the Maral. Now, then we look at the Mogan Avrohom on the left side of your page. Yesh noyagin los sei schitim veshabes shiro lefnei haifis. Now, those who have a custom to feed the birds wheat, grain. Ve'eini nochin. Not right. On Shabbos Shira. Sha'arei eim zey nosin elecha. The aim is Yosef shelocheh dibro eilos Shabbos. So he, he brings up those, there seems to be such a meaning. Now, the Maral is probably about four hundred and fifty years ago, and the Mara-Ma-um, Mogan Avrohom was about fifty to eighty years before the Alter Rebbe. So he was, he doesn't rec-- he doesn't register this minig, but Sheym ha-Maral. He just heard,

08:32 he said, "There is such a minig," and he has a problem because we should not be feeding, um, on Shabbos. We should not be feeding animals which are not our personal responsibility, uh, because that would con-- be, be considered an excessive effort, so you shouldn't be feeding them. So he says that you shouldn't do it. Let's read further. Ve'yei-- Ve'chein sh-- Now, this is the quote from the Alter Rebbe. This is in the same, the same place with the Mogan Avrohom. In, um, Simen Shir Havdaled. Ve'chein she'or oifis dechayes hagdeles babayes. Domestic animals or birds. Pitiru letrayach letoelem hem zeh semayim. You are allowed to, um, spend the effort to feed them water or, or, uh, food. Mechneyshem iz in osen olecha. Domestic animals or basic birds, they're your duty to feed, and therefore, you're allowed to, uh, make the effort to, to, to provide them the food. Then he says you should not be feeding water nor food to devoid him. So if you have bees. Veloilei sheoyna sheyvoch. Or yonali, if you've got a dovecot, which would mean you'd have an outside structure, and the budos would come and go, et cetera. Vafilo lahashlich lefnehem oser. Even not a great effort, even just to scatter in front of them is also not allowed. Mechneyshem iz in osen olecha. They're not your, uh, your-- You're not obliged to feed them. Sheyoid sim ochlem basade because they f-manage to feed very well on their own out in the field. So here we have a difference

10:07 between domestic birds and, and birds of the wild that domestic birds you are allowed to feed on Shabbos, whilst birds of the wild you should not be feeding. Yesh noyagin, then the Alter Rebbe continues, and this is the Mogan Avrohom. Yesh noyagin lossei schitim lefnei haifis bashabbos shiro. There are those who have this custom to feed grain to the birds on Shabbos. Shiro ve'ein zeh navheh ninochrin. And this is not correct. Sha'arei ein mezuni sehem olecha. Okay, so this is where we have here, on the one hand, we have this tradition that the Maral did instruct to do so, and yet, lepoel, we don't do this. And here is an answer of the Rebbe. As you can see, the date is Taf Shimim Ches. And the Rebbe, this is in the bookl- there's a book called Heichal Menachem, three volumes, and later it's now also in Shuachan Menachem. It looks like there was a discussion. I didn't check the background to this, um, but it looks like there was a discussion of the Rebbe about the meaning of giving the children to scatter grain for the birds on Shabbos, shiro. And the Rebbe says not to publish it. Ki kaniri nishtakah ha'minigah legamri. Because evidently, this minig has become totally obsolete. And k'shem shemitzvah chulu, cach chulu. The term, uh, which he's, um, saying in sh-in short, k'shem shemitzvah loima dover hanishmo, cach mitzvah sheloido-loima dover sheeinu nishmo. I think that's what he's referring to. So, um, what do you mean, mitzvah dover? So what's

11:49 he worried? That, that you'll tell them, then they st-start feeding the birds? Okay, it doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't spell out. Lepoel, he says the minig is obsolete, and better, better not talk about it. But that's in Taf Shimim Ches. Then we have in Sefer Sichas Taf Shimim Tes, then where the Rebbe said the following: Although the Friediker Rebbe told the story, we haven't seen that this should be the custom to do so. One of the reason could be, as the Alter Rebbe says, that it's not correct because we don't have the responsibility to feed those birds. Because Pasuk like Meged Avraham, not like others. The Mitaysus Shabbos says, since it's the Shemitzah, therefore, one doesn't have to worry about it. So we keep to what's written in Shechanach. The main point which is the Rebbe said apparently then is, we are menu elu, it's not common that we should have our own chickens. In other words, we don't have our own domestic birds which we have to feed. So when the Maral told the children to feed the chickens, well, then it looks like it was very common for people to have their own chickens. And so the likelihood is that as they came to the Shulhoif, perhaps there were chickens there or the children had their own homes. So they fed the, the chickens, which was, which was Mizoni Sehem Alehem. But, uh, that's the-- But for, for us, which we don't have, so we don't, uh, follow this minhag of feeding the,

13:16 the birds on Shabbos. Now, I have heard of people saying, "Well, put out before Shabbos." And I must say that as I walked through the streets this morning, I noticed on some walls or the front of the houses, I noticed crumbs, and probably, um, it was got to do with this. But I, I, I ca-- I couldn't find that in a reliable source, so I didn't copy it. Okay. Now, here we have one thing leading to another, like a quite a funny situation. One of our, uh, regular listeners owns a cat. Possibly they've got mice, so they need to have a cat to keep the mice in control. Well, the cat is a Psastik, one of Psastik Alamden. Every time the Balabos goes to the fridge to ca-take out a shikul snack, the cat is there. Uh, it says, the, the cat has apparently understood that there's a din of feeding the animals before the humans. Therefore, every time, he has a Psastik, he invites the dog. So here, he asks, you know, "Is the cat right? That every time I have a snack, I have to give the cat first, or is it only when I have a proper meal?" That's, that's the beard of the question. So it's funny, but it is a, it's a, a serious shailah. So the first thing which we have over here is from the Sefer Chareidim. Sefer Chareidim was written by a contemporary of the Arizal. How do I get to the Sefer Chareidim? Because the Halakha,

14:55 which, which is about feeding animals before yourself, is in Hilchas, um... well, it's Hilchas Sudar, et cetera. It's in Kukuf Samech Zayin. And on the margin of the Shechanach, you've got the Baheitem, and you've got the, uh, Shaarit Shuva, and they refer to this Sefer Chareidim. So here we have. He quotes from the Gemara Brochas, "Os Sheyitam Koidem Machol." You should eat a machol behemta. One should not taste food before giving food to your animal. And you have the poster, "Venasati Eisim Vesot Chelevim Techo, Vochalta Vesevot." That's what the Gemara says. And certainly, one must not cause pain to animals, uh, directly. And then he says the following, "Amase Hoya Bedoy Reinu." We have a contemporary, Maise Harav HaMekubal Hagodol HaBitz V'Hashkinazi, otherwise known to us as the Arizal. And at one stage, the Arizal looked at a particular Talmud of his, and he said to this Talmud, "I see a mark on your face that you are guilty of Tzaar Baalei Chaim." So this Talmud was upset. The only-- Well, he didn't know what, what he's done to bother the animals. Then he came home, and he realized that his wife would not feed the chickens on a regular basis in the morning. Instead, she'd let them go and feed in the street. So then the husband said to the wife, encouraged her to prepare a bird feed from bran, whatever, with water every morning. And once this has been put in place, um, he had not, he had not told the Arizal what

16:43 he'd done. But, uh, some, some short time afterwards, it looks like the Arizal looked at him, and he says, "Sora Voincha, your sin is no longer there." So this is a story with Arizal, and they quote this in the, in, in, in the, uh, in the Pasuk, they bring this story. After this, the Talmud told the Arizal what happened. "Venidre Sheze Onof Mi Mitzvas V'Holachta Bidrachov." Now, he adds that this mitzvah of giving... Now, here's the important point. Is this a Mitzvot De'Raysah? This idea of giving your animals before yourself, is that a Mitzvot De'Raysah? "Ve'Ze Onof Mi Mitzvas V'Holachta Bidrachov." This is a branch of the overall mitzvah of emulating Hashem's, uh, compassionate ways. "Peshu Mahu Rachum Af Atah Rachum." Just like the Hebish is merciful, you should be merciful. And it says, the Hebish, "V'Racham Av Kol Ma'asav." So it's an, it's a, it's obviously an opinion of Rachmonus. Of Ra-- Of, of, of care and compassion to the animal, not that you should be eating, and they are, they are, uh, Nebuchstarving. Right. So that's the, that's the, uh, one source. That's the source of the Chareidim. Here we have something very interesting. This Halakha about feeding the animal first comes up in two places, one in Gemara Brochas, one in Gemara Gittin. In Gemara Berachot it says, "Asur le'odom sheyoichel kodem machal, she'yiten machal lebehemto." You mustn't eat. In the Gemara Gittin, "Omer viyuhu de'omarav, asur le'odom," same person, "Asur le'odom sheyit oim klum." So we have a change in the

18:35 wording between asur leichel and asur lit oim. If you notice, the Charedim had said also she'asur lit oim. And numerous Rishonim bring the term asur lit oim. Here, however, the Alter Rebbe says, um, "Shelefish asur leichel kodem sheyiten lebehemto." Not allowed to eat before you feed your animal. The Chida is taking the, the mahalach of the pasuk, of the, I mean, after all, it's based upon a pasuk of, uh, "V'nosati esei v'sarch levem dechevo," and then, "V'ochalta v'savat." It's got to do with achila. What's the difference between te'ima and achila? So a snack up till the shir of a kabeio is considered a te'ima. That's why you can eat it outside the sukkah. Achila means a more, uh, settled type of achila, and that's from a kabeio, a oido, and onwards. So one could take the view that the Alter Rebbe says it's got to do with achila, not with te'ima. In addition, the Rabbeinu Chaim of Emden takes the view that the, this, uh, doesn't, this, this mitzvah, this halacha, doesn't apply to cats because they are quite capable of running around and feeding themselves on the street. And therefore, you don't have to, uh, feel such a responsibility to feed your cat. So there, there, if one wants to find a smach lakula, there are, there are these two bases. On the other hand, there's a famous story of a Hasid who used to always walk to Lubavitch. Whenever he went to the Rebbe, he walked. Even as he got older, and there

20:26 was an opportunity, and people offered him a ride on the wagon, he says, "No." He's worried he'll come to Eila Meamis, and they'll come there, you know, about the fact he went, uh, in the hesban for the merit of going to the Rebbe. And then the horse will also say, "Wait a minute, I also to, uh, have a cheilei, and you're going to the Rebbe. I was part of, part of the, uh, the merit of your going to the Rebbe." Of course, I will be able to say, I will be able to defend myself and say it's nothing to do with the, the horse. But I don't want to go to a din tore with a horse. I want to avoid having a din tore with a horse. So, um, it may be worth just, uh, putting a bit more food earlier on in the day. And, um, unless you, unless you're worried that your cat is getting, getting overfed, and it's not healthy for the cat, there's a poshut atah rachmanus, you're not giving them, uh, extra food. And under zach. But then, you know what I mean? You have a cheilei, but, uh, yeah. Right. Let's move on. So, the next thing that I wanted to address is about Shechiyanu on fruit. And that is obviously to do with the inyan of Chamisha Asar B'Shvat, which is on Monday, Rosh Hashanah le'ilon. Le'ilon or le'ilonos, there's a note of the Rebbe that they can't, they seem to become Rosh Hashanah le'ilonos, although the

21:54 lashon, lashon of the Mishnah is Rosh Hashanah le'ilon. The Rebbe talks about, I think it corresponds with his father. But meanwhile, I think it's worth just spending a couple of minutes explaining in simple terms, what does it mean, Rosh Hashanah le'ilon? Who, you know, what does it mean? So, there, there, there is, in, in Halakha, it's significant to establish when a, where, which year a fruit belongs to. So, for example, in Maaser, so you've got Maaser Rishon, which is given to the Levi. But then there's a ma- the second Maaser. So, the six years of a, of harvest. So, you've got, I mean, then it's seventh year Shemitah. This is the sixth year of harvest. So, year one, two, four, and five, the second Maaser is Maaser Sheni taken to Yerushalayim. Years three and six, it's going to go to, uh, the Maaser Oni is given to the poor. So, we need to know whether it belongs, this, this fruit belongs to this year or that year. And whatever blossomed before, before, uh, Chamisha Asar B'Shvat belongs to the preceding year. Whatever blossomed after Chamisha Asar B'Shvat belongs to the coming year. Similar with Orlah, it's much more complicated, but the, about the working out of the three years, the first three years of a fruit tree. So, also there you have a, a, a, uh, significance of, this, this becomes the, the date of the, the end of the third year of the other fruit. What is more interesting though, perhaps, what is this

23:40 signi- why, why dafka this date? What's the 15th of, of, of Shevat? What's got to do with it? So, the lashon of the Gemara, which is quoted, I think, here, is Sheyachoyel ve'yotzi el Rosh Hashanah, or Daf Yod Dalet, I think it is. Choyel ve'yotzu roy gish meishon. Ve'ola hasraf be'ilonis. Ve'nimsu haperes choyntim meato. Okay. Why, I'd like to explain, I may not be able to show it very clearly where I got this from. We've, we've discussed it, not perhaps a few months ago. There's a difference between vegetables and trees. Vegetables have got short roots. Trees have got deeper roots. And therefore, the fortunes of your tomatoes or your whatever, your lettuce, is very much on the current rain. By contrast, the fortunes of your fruit tree, because they've got deeper roots, they can draw on reserves of water fr- from, from months be- behind, be- before, and because they're deep in the ground, and they can still draw on those reserves. So, you've got the annual rainfall. The main annual rainfall is from Cheshvan time till about, till about Pesach time. By Tu B'Shvat, we've gone past the, the midpoint. We've got most of the rain of that year has already come. As a result, until then, we could say, "Oh, this fruit, it's still relying on last year's. It's, it's, it's not necessarily identified with this year because it's still relying on last year's resources." Anything after Chamisha Asar Bishvat is then, is, is, is then, uh, attributed to the resources, as in

25:39 the rainfall, of this year because most of the rain is now here. So therefore, that's, that's the switchover. It's got to do with the, the majority of the rainfall expected for that year is by now here, so therefore it's, it's a fruit of this year, not of last year. Um, I once had a-- I think I've told this before, but never mind. I was once, Friday night, and, um, yeah, I've told this about. The avocados. In the middle of the Chad Gadya, I realized that I'd taken maaser of the avocados, and they were Israeli avocados. And I'd taken maaser before Shabbos. And in my, um, my wisdom at the time, I thought that, "Oh, it's the Ashanah Shalishis, and there's no need for tr-- for maaser sheni," which is a whole thing with the kor and all that. Then, in the middle of the Chad Gadya, I realized, "Wait a minute. The avocado, it might be now Ashanah Shalishis, but those avocados started growing last year, and therefore they are subject to maaser sheni." We didn't do maaser sheni. We can't eat it. We-- I came home, they were already mixed into eggs. Whatever. They were put aside till after Shabbos. Right. Um, so that's the story here of the Chamisha Asar. One, one last point. We all understand that we're talking here about rain as a, as a, uh, the cycle of the seasons. The cycle of the seasons is not dependent on the lunar cycle. It depends on the solar cycle. That's the

27:02 davar ha-poshet. So how do you have a, a date on the-- in the-- during-- in, in our calendar, which is a lunar calendar. Obviously, it's not, um, mechuben mamash. It's approximate. And we see that there's a difference between Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel. So to speak, they chose ro-round figures. Bet Shammai, they ch-chose the Rosh Chodesh, whatever the reason they chose. But let's say that's a significant point in the calendar is the Rosh Chodesh. And similarly, the full moon is also a significant point, and that's why Bet Hillel cho-chose Festival, um, Bet Sivan. Although, of course, it may not be ag-- uh, reflecting exactly the, uh, the solar cycle or the seasons. That, that's not a problem. Okay. Let's move on. So now we have now a more practical question. Shehakol. So let's read the first. Here, this is from the Alter Rebbe's Sefer HaChasanenim. "Haroyeh pri chadash shemischadesh mishanah le'shanah." If you see a new fruit which is, uh, it's an annual, it's a new-- it's renewed annually. "O yafilu sh'teih palmishanan." It could be a... I'm gonna get this wrong. Biannual. Um, anyway, it's a fruit which happens twice a year. So that also warrants a Shehakol. "V'neineh biрыoseh," and you are excited to see it. So then really you should say the berakhah Shehakol when you see it. "Ha'fril yire'eh uvyad kaveir uoyal ilon." Even when you see the new fruit on the tree or in someone else's hand. "Im einu neineh biрыoseh ein im havorakh al sh'as achil." If you're not

28:45 so excited when seeing it, then make-- you, you make the berakhah when you eat it. "L'po'el," this is, I think, later he mentions that the minhag has become that we make Shehakol only at the-- when we eat the new fruit. Fine. But what is important is that it has to be "miskhadesh mishanah le'shanah." It has to be a fruit which is kind of dated. I w-- didn't mean the pun. Um, it, it was-- You, you look at it. Oh, it must be that we, we've, we've, you know, we've come to a certain stage in the year. Now this p-- fruit is available. And that really has raised a problem for, you know, all these exotic fruit. I, I wouldn't know the difference. Uh, uh, when you show me this, this, uh, unusual fruit, I don't know whether it's last year. I mean, and, and it's, it's, it's, it's not a seasonal thing as far as I know. It's only, uh, when, whenever you're ready to pay another, uh, you know, a premium amount of money for a, a little fruit. So that doesn't make it a Shehakol. Um, I mean, this you have in front of you, the Piskei Teshuves. It's, here in Eretz Yisrael, it's, it's a little bit easier. Um, things which are growing in, let's say, he says, uh, which will grow in the greenhouses, they are available the whole year. Bananas are available the whole year, so you don't make, don't make a Shehakol on, on banana. Apples are available the

30:18 whole year. Pears. He says, "Tomorrow, available nuts." Um, then he says-- This is interesting. He says that oranges, although they're available the whole year, but you can recognize the difference between the fresh ones and the old ones. Okay. I mean, if you're is-- living in Eretz Yisrael, probably you know that difference. We don't have... I mean, I, I wouldn't know the difference. So I wouldn't say a Shehakol on an orange. But in Eretz Yisrael, they are more sensitive to this. So what do you have? He says you have grapes, peaches, plums, et cetera. But really, it depends very much. Is this something which is out of season and now has become available? Then you can make a Shehecheyanu. If it's something which is for, um, available the whole year round, then you could not make a Shehecheyanu. Certainly on, on dried fruit, there's no point of saying it, it'd be a Bracha at all to say Shehecheyanu, because there's no, no evidence of it being n-a new fruit. Um, he mentions here guava, the, the vanilla's cherries. I mean, it's fresh cherries, fresh, um, figs, um, pomegranate, blackberries. You know, I don't know if that's what he means. Blueberries and wa-- um, a watermelon or melon. I guess in Eretz Yisrael, these things are, are sometimes available, sometimes not. And he mentions, uh, also about, uh, p-pineapple, kiwi. Uh, but really it, it's very much, you know, you have to make your own decision. Ha-has this been available throughout the year? Then it doesn't warrant

32:01 a Shehecheyanu. If it has b-- has been available... Sorry, if, sorry. If it has been available the whole year, then it doesn't warrant a Shehecheyanu. If it hasn't been and now it's become available, then you can make a Shehecheyanu. Right. Um, one last thing. We just get this star fruit. Now, when I was in Brazil, um, about eight years ago, apparently the, the star fruit there were Gishmak. Star fruit here, they are... I don't know about you, but I didn't find them appealing at all. Uh, a-a-after pouring a few layers of sugar, perhaps it becomes edible. Why I'm saying this, um, besides saying that I'm the youngest in the family, um, Zinic. But, um, the point which I wanted to say is that, um, a Shehecheyanu has to be an enjoyable fruit. If it's something which is, uh, an ordeal to eat, that does not justify say, Shehecheyanu. Yeah. To me, Shehecheyanu is, is obviously a statement of Simcha. And so, so oh, it's exciting. But if it's, if it's not exciting, then it doesn't warrant Shehecheyanu. Okay. Go on to new question. This, I got a q-question from, uh, someone at Eretz Yisrael who works in editing, and he's looking at this chart at the back of the Siddur, which is, as mentioned a few times, the Siddur, uh, Tilas Hashem, was published by Merkaz Linyan HaChinuch. If you remember, many of the Siddurim have the numbers, uh, for the lines. Because just as it's to hell with your teachers, it's, "Well, it's this

33:44 line, that line." And so it's very much a Chinuch-oriented, orientated Siddur. So they have this chart at the back of the... The word is hierarchy, but the... How Torah is handed down from Har Sinai, and then you've got Tanakh, and then we have, um, the Zohar. He brings in... Well, he brings it there. Zohar, Midrashim, Shisha, Siddur, Mishnah, and then Braisa and Tosefta. So he was asking-- His impression was that Tosefta precedes the Braisa, and here the, the chart has Braisa before Tosefta. Now, as I'm looking a bit more carefully, I can see that in the chart they have the Braisa earlier on. You can have here the Mechilta, um, and then you've got the Sifra was put together by Rav. The Sifri, and that's Yiddish, and the, uh, correct term would be Shaor Sifrei Devara. The other two. You've, you've got Sifra Devara and the Shaor Sifrei Devara. So Sifra and Sifrei. Um, they are also known as Braisa, and so they've put them earlier on. So on the left here of our sheet, we have from the back of the Gemara, we've got, like, this guidance for the, uh, the rules of Gemara, et cetera. And he tells us the definition that Tosefta is the overflow of the Mishnah. And when you learn in Gemara, it has the word tonor. That would be a code that this is a Tosefta. A Tosefta means addendum. And he says, generally, that would be the Halakha like a Tosefta. The Braisa is from Sifrei, which were

35:34 put together after the Mishnah, Rabbinic, and Oishio, et cetera. So looks like he, he's got a valid diner. My understanding, though, is that the Braisa are records of, of, of... In, in Halakhah, taught in both Midrashim, Yeshivas, throughout the period of the Mishnah. And then later they were compiled and edited. So we've got the Braisa called the Mechilta, we've got the Braisa called the Sifra, but the actual material is from early on. And so we've got the Braisa is an earlier body of knowledge, body of information, and then it's compiled into-- Some of it is compiled into Mesilath Yesharim, and that is, is probably right. That those are later than the Tosefta, um, which is written by Rab Hiya. Rab Hiya was, uh, a Talmud of Rab Yehuda HaNasi, Rabina HaKadosh, and he saw the need to kind of sup-supply the Talmudim with parallel texts to the Mishnah to an- to clarify and to, to, you know, to make it a little, little bit more text to explain things. So it looks like the actual material of the Braisa is from earlier on, although possibly the actual formal Braisa is, is, uh, w- is actually later than the Tosefta. Let's look at the chat. Rabbi, uh, Safran is asking, "If... Is this if the food is available only-" What about if there was, if, if he was there when it was itself, can you make a sh-- N-no, it, it-- So it has to be that this fruit was not available. Not... It doesn't matter

37:16 whether you've eaten. Let's say if I haven't eaten potatoes for six months and now I eat a potato, I cannot say shehecheyanu because the fruit itself is not a dated fruit. It has to... The shehecheyanu fruit has to be something we saw before the lashon. Yeah, I'm, I-I'm wondering, when I went to Brazil and I ate some of these fruit which I've never seen before, does that warrant a shehecheyanu? For me, I've never seen this fruit, but it wasn't, you know, on, on the basis of pri chadash. It wasn't a pri chadash because the pear is available the whole year round. Um, so I'm, I'm not sure about that. Let's move on. So one of our listeners asked me the question, I'm gonna put it next to the Brisa story. Why do we say Rabbi Shmuel every morning, um, after Ezrat M'chaim and before, before Hiddur? After all, mainly Ezrat M'chaim, and you can say it's about Karbanot. Karbanot's got to do with davening. But then you've got these 13 policies of how you extrapolate. You tell them, "Yeah, that's very interesting, but what's that got to do with davening?" Of course, it's a good question. When I was about Bar Mitzvah, Rabbi Tzadok HaCohen of Shalem encouraged us to buy the Sefer HaBudar Ham. And Budar Ham is perhaps the, the classic Sefer of Birkat HaTorah from the Rishonim. You know, my, my most of respect is for him. Um, date, about seven hundred years ago, possibly six hundred and fifty years ago. Anyway,

39:14 uh, so he has actually... He, he goes through the 13 Midrash Rabbi Shmuel, and it gives examples to explain how each one would work. But that doesn't answer the question well, how does this come into the davening? So what you have here is a quote from Seder Rav Amram Gaon. Rav Amram Gaon is from around, uh, eleven hundred years ago, a bit more. Uh, the, from the period of the, towards the end of the Geonim, I believe. And he is the, uh, compiler of the first, the earliest siddur, which we know of, as far as I know. The Seder SheKarzavnu Likrei Betzav. The Seder which I've shown you to read the Mikra as it serves, Thelishnois VeEzrat M'chaimon, to revise the Mishnah of Ezrat M'chaimon. The Lidroish Rabbi Shmuel, and to extrapolate with the words of Rabbi Shmuel. Kach Motzu VeShalsheulus. This is, we have a tradition from, in, in responsa of earlier Geonim, and that is indeed, Mi Mikol Yesrov BaAspamia. Aspamia, I believe, is Spain. This is the meaning of all written, Aspamia. Verayo Min Hai. Or what, where does it come from? What's the proof? The Omar of Safra, Rabbi Shimon of Shuv and Hananiah says in the Gemara, "Maid Ichsiv Veshinantom Al Tini..." The word Veshinantom, "Al Tikra Veshinantom Ela Veshilashtam." Read it as if it should say, "You should, you should do in triple form." Le-Olam Yashlish Odam Shnosov. A person should divide his years. Shlish B'Mikra. A third of his years he should devote to studying Tanakh. Shlish B'Mishnah.

41:05 A third he should devote to studying Halakha. Shlish B'Talmud. And a third to vo- devote to the extrapolation and the development of Halakha. Ein Vashinan. Then the Gemara asks, um, "Miyoda, uh, Ka, um, Sh-Shanyo Kamecha." I don't know how long you're gonna live. How can you start making this budget? "Mi Shani LeTzrich L'Yom." There is an idea of each day dividing your learning into Mikra, Mishnah, and Talmud, and that's what we're doing every morning. We're saying the, um, Karbanot, which is Mikra, and we're saying Ezrat M'chaim, which is Mishnah. And Rabbi Shmuel is a, like the beginning of, so to speak, they're giving you the rules, at least, of, of, of Talmud. Of course, there's deeper reasons. On the Ari Z"L, there's a, there's a parallel drawn between Yad Gimmel Midat Harachamim and Yad Gimmel Midas Chattern Midreshes Bohen. Um, this, uh, in Chazal, it's talked about this, this correlation, but that's another discussion. Someone is asking, Rav Naftali is asking, "Does the term Bryce means a statement of the Hakhamim which was left outside the Mishnah?" Probably that's correct. The word Bryce means outside. So it wasn't incorporated, the Mishnah, so it remained outside. Yes, probably. Let's move on. Okay. Um, let's move on. Right. So this is, this fo- this question is probably to do with the fact that we're going to the Pinhas HaShluchim, and there may be women who are, Baruch Hashem, pregnant, and they're going to be in New York, and they would like to go to the Ohel. And

42:53 there is something about a pregnant woman not going to a Beis Olam, hence the question. Actually, this whole business of women not going to a, to a, uh, to a Beis Olam, to a cemetery during pregnancy, has not got a very strong, uh, it's not very well documented There's a Sefer which I've pr-quoted before called Shmiras Haguf Vehanefer. And he says possibly it's de-- based upon this lotion of the Sefer Shevet Musar. Uh, I, I confess that I don't l-look at the Shevet Musar very often. I don't have the Sefer, so I looked at the... Actually, I found it very beautiful Sefer. And there is a Pelek Chaf Daled, which is all about Nashim, and it's still actually a remarkable statement where he says that when a, a woman does, uh, her avoda, um, although she doesn't have mitzvot such as bangroma, et cetera, various, but she's-- there's no difference in Madrega, in Ruchnius between a man and a woman. If, if you do your right thing, it's exactly the same, um, which is, which I... It's a refreshing thing to read. But meanwhile, he has, uh, later on in that chapter, it's quite a long chapter, so he has about, um, during pregnancy. Gamti and Zereres, Bmei, befr-- b'mei im buro. A woman should be particularly careful when she is pregnant not to enter places of tumah and places where there's a reyach ra, where there's a bad smell, because the child is formed according to her experiences. And he brings a whole story,

44:32 which I don't want to read over. And towards the end, we have it, I, I'm, I'm highlighted again, "Ra v'teshev b'mei iburo b'meko mikdushev ataarah." She should spend her time during the months of pregnancy in places of purity and, and holiness, like, uh, shuls, et cetera. And also to look at Tamid HaChachamim, Hasidim, V'anshei Mei'ese, Heredi, V'Etere. So all of these things are encouraged. So to go to a regular cemetery, that's, listen, that's the Minagas Yisroel, and, uh, we understand it's a makom of tumah. Although there are no shamas there, but there's a, there's a tumas me'es, which is, uh, an extreme tumah, the mo-- the most extreme tumah. Um, now, I have a Sefer called Minhagim V'Hanhagos, um, L'Chasidi Chabad. Um, here we are. I know it's back to front. What can I do? But, uh, so he quotes from Rav Ashknazi, zichrono livracha, also that a woman should avoid going to Kivrei Tzadikim. Um, having said that, I don't know what the Minag is in New York, but possibly he is talking about Kivrei Tzadikim in Eretz Yisroel, where many times, like, you go to Har Hazef, you have to pass through many kivurim, et cetera. Last time, since last time I was there, I would, uh... So you are exposing yourself to other kivurim also. Here by the Rebbe, the, the arrangements have been made to the point that a Kohen could go through and is considered, um, separated from the tumah of the kivurim, and so I think that would be

46:15 adequate for a woman to be able to go to the Ohel. Um, again, I don't know what the Minag is in, uh, in New York, but for a woman who's m-made the effort to go, come from overseas, for sure one should be mekil. And there's, uh, there's a general attitude, which we've seen, uh, from the Rebbe, that when it's, when it's, uh, otherwise gonna be a whole, um, tzar, a whole, uh, um, uh, how you say, upset, if they cannot go, one should certainly take the lenient view. And then you have the po-positive side. What does it say here in the... You should p-p... spend time, uh, botem knisius, botem midrashas, relating to Tamid HaChachamim. So spending time at the Ohel, obviously in a tzniusdik way, but it's, really it's a exposure to a very powerful kedusha. Uh, and I think, uh, one, one could go along with that. Fine. Let's move on. Uh, oh, thank you. Um, someone writes the following: "When I was in New York with my wife, I asked Rabbi Klein if my wife could go to the Ohel. He said, 'Yes.' And to double-check, I asked him if he would allow his daughter to go, and he said, 'Yes.'" Okay, very good. Thank you for that. All right. Um, you just reminded me. We had, um, we had a Thur... Now, someone asked why do I have only eight questions. Actually, uh, uh, my apology is, on Thursday night, we had, well, I unusually put together the shiur. We had

47:48 a shiur on kashrus for, um, for shluchas. And the main presenter was Rabbi Pink, but I was also involved. And, um, talking about when sometimes peoples ask, "Would you yourself eat it?" And I said, "Although it's none of your business what I eat." But, uh, actually, I appreciate that, because when a shlucha asks me, "Would you yourself rely on that?" She's saying that, and I, I agree. We're just as frum, we're just as chassidish, and therefore, there's no difference. If it, if it's something which is, uh, you know, you don't, don't bend the rules for me. I want to be just, just as frum as you. That's, that, that's basically what they're saying. Um, I w- I want to just share with you, though I know there are shluchas who are listening now, and some will listen later. It-- There was a point raised that Rabbi Pink said in the name of Rav Landau that the, uh, fruit juices produced in Europe, one should be able to use them without hesitation. Obviously, obviously not if it has grape juice, but overall, the fruit juices are often made from concentrate, et cetera. Whereas if they're made under hashgacha, he was more concerned because then there might be an issue of eym habatlim is lehachat chila. So that was what Rabbi Pink told over the name of Rav Moshe Landau, alav hashalom. So one of the q-- people asked a q-question, "What about the equipment?" Because we know that there's a problem of steam used for cooking,

49:21 et cetera. And if the same steam is circulated from one part of the plant to another, so then that's contaminating. If it's a, if it's a treif part of the factory and a kosher part and the same steam is circulated, that creates a problem. So if the, uh, the same factory is used for milk and for, for fruit juice, then you have a problem with the steam or the circulating steam. That was the question which was asked, and the an- no answer was given, um, on Thursday evening. So I want to give the answer. I asked Rabbi Yosef Landau, zol zayn gezunt, and he said that the prevalence of fruit juice plants also producing milk is, it's prevalent in America. It's not prevalent in Europe. Therefore, um, one needn't worry about it. That's, that was his answer. Chaim Azimov is writing,there's a famous loshen of, um, someone asked the Rebbe about going halamoid to the oil, and he says, "If you're going to a Beis HaChoim, then you shouldn't be going halamoid. If you're going to the Rebbe, then, uh, then you don't have to worry about it." Okay, yes. So I think we're on the same page. Fine. Let's go. What else do we have here? Um, right. This, what you have in front of you is a fragment of a Sefer Torah, which you can see the inscription on the side, which is the bottom of the, of the frame. This fragment of Torah scroll was found in the great Choral Synagogue,

50:53 survived the siege of Leningrad, 1941 to 1944. Unfortunately, I have a special connection to because my late mother's parents and her brother and sister perished in that, in that siege. Um, so the, this is a frame. They found this yudya. Actually, the yudya, this, uh, this sheet of the Sefer Torah looks fairly good condition, but it was put on display in a, some Jewish center. That Jewish center, for some reason, is no longer operational, and they've given this fragment, this frame to the local Chabad Shliach. And the Shliach is asking a question, "Am I allowed to leave it on display, or do I have to put it in genizah? Do I, do I have to wrap it up and put it in Sefer Shimus?" And we discussed last week that the Sefer Shimus would-- here would have to be a much more durable container. You can't just put it in a regular plastic bag. It would have to be in a durable plastic container that it shouldn't be, um, damaged by moisture, et cetera. So when I, I heard this, when I saw this question, it triggered in my memory that there's indeed a discussion about this in Igros Moshe, which eventually I managed to trace. And so this is a letter of Rabbe Moshe Feinstein, it's Chelek Daled in Abeharechaim. Simla Medches is writing to his son-in-law about a Sefer Torah, which, um, part of it-- I guess it's a similar thing, which a, a fragment which is on display. And he has a

52:23 fascinating discussion. Is, is it, is there a chiyuv to bury it in the ground? Or, or if it's kept in a respectable position, is that also a-adequate? And he takes the view, first of all, that if it is kept in a respectable position, then there's no chiyuv of genizah. The whole genizah is because you don't want it to, to be disgraced. But if you're keeping it in respectable place, that's, that's okay. So having this sheet on display is not disrespect. Then he asks a very interesting question. Okay, and th-this is actually, uh, um, and even a psychology. Is, is showing that you are a victim, is that a disrespect to yourself? Interesting question. So now you've got here this fragment of a Sefer Torah, and people will look at it, and they'll see how the Nazis, im achshavom, disgraced it. Is that considered respectful, or should it be actually suppressed, should not be shown? That's, that's, that's the question which he... That's a fa-fascinating question. And he says, "We shouldn't be inventing our own definitions of bizoy," first of all. But then he brings a shtikkel rayeh. We have in Maseches Middos, we have the-- there was a roo-- a large chamber called Beis Hamikdash. And off this large chamber, Beis Hamikdash, there are four small chambers in each corner, one in each corner. And it says the northeastern one was where the Chashminoi people took the stones of the Mizbeach, the altar, which had been defiled by the Malchi Yavan, by the Greek, Syrian,

54:16 uh, um, um, oppressors. That Mi-Mizbeach had to be taken apart. So wh-- And they built a new Mizbeach. They'd used it possibly for Avodah Zarah. I'm not sure exactly what the, the history is. But they had defiled that Mizbeach, so they had to remove that Mizbeach, which is made of stones, and they built a new Mizbeach. So what did they u-use, do with the old stones? They had this room where they, um, concealed those stones. And so Rabbe Moshe suggests that they didn't conceal them, that they should be out of view. On the contrary, they actually put them there out of the way, but it was actually that people should see these stones, and they should s-remember the atrocities of the Yevanim and to be thankful to Hashem who saved us from them, from them. And Baruch Hashem, we are in a, we, we now, you know, such a, such a much, much better position today. And so i-- that's his view, that, that it's, that showing that there has been, uh, victimization of Yidden is actually not a disgrace for Yidden at all. And therefore, he feels that it's okay to keep it on display. It's a fascinating insight. Um, towards the end, he writes that the, apparently the Goish priest who had salvaged this, this, uh, scroll, he wrote some kind of provenance on the, on the, uh, scroll which he's, which Rabbe Moshe's talking about. And he writes there that heaven and earth fell apart, so to speak, and God's word prevails.

55:52 So that's what the, what the Goish priest wrote there. That was his kind of assessment. It was such a holocaust, and yet the word of Hashem prevailed. So Rabbe Moshe says- My impression is he did not mean, uh, Yoshke. He meant Hashem. And so he, he felt that, that, that you can leave that as it is. So that's the thing for Riboshia. Finally, we've got a couple of minutes coming back to the mezuzah situation, which we discussed, um, last week, and now we've got a bit of a clearer picture. If you remember last week, the impression was that the middle panel doesn't move. That was, uh, misunderstood. Um, actually, the middle panel also moves. As you can see, these two doors open inwards. So it's a dou-- Basically, what you have here is a double door, uh, opening and a single door opening. Now, then I mentioned last week that if the post... I mentioned that, um, the, the Aroha Shucha says if the post between the doors is less than a tefach, then it's okay. Then, then you don't have to have a, a, uh, an extra mezuzah. So the shliach measured this, and it's it's just, you know, just on the margin. Is it a tefach or not a tefach? Eight and a half centimeters. Ei-eight. Somewhere, somewhere around there. So I, I responded, listen, the Mach Shuchan Aruch says that if there's a separation of hinges, which there, uh, is over here, as you can see. There's a separate hinge here, that

57:39 makes it a separate pesach. Aroha Shucha came up with a chidush that if it's less than a tefach, you can ignore it. I'm not even sure whether it's less than a tefach. It might be a tefach. On those grounds, I said, "Listen, put up a second mezuzah." And so, um, so this is, this is on the outside, and this is on the inside. So there we are. Um, I think so, yeah. So there we have, uh, the, the double door. No, that's the single door, and that's the double door. Yeah, so you need, need to have one mezuzah lechayim. Uh, let's go on the-- Let's look on the outside. The mezuzah, since the doors swing inwards, so the mezuzahs should be on the, on the right as you go in. So therefore, it should be one mezuzah over here and one mezuzah on this, uh, panel over here. Now, it is preferable to place the mezuzah in what we call within the halal haPesach, within the, the doorframe. Within... But it may be that it's gonna be awkward to fit onto that. This, this panel which I'm pointing to, this door, door post, is probably, uh, just about one centimeter or less in depth. It's gonna be a bit difficult to fit a mezuzah there. And so in the absence of that possibility, then we all can put a mezuzah on the front of this, uh, pa-panel, and that will, uh, will, will serve the purpose. Here, you can put it on the side, um,

59:03 and if possible, within the halal haPesach, although you could say the whole thing has got a, uh, um, a tzurus, a tzurus haPesach. Okay. Um, that's it for this evening, for this, um, Motzaei Shabbos. Next, this coming, uh, week, I am planning to go, uh, to, um, to New York to be... I haven't been by the Rebbe's, uh, dal dames for the last two years. I'm looking forward to going there. And so I hope to be able to prepare, uh, a shiur. It depends where, where the shales come in. If they don't come in, nothing to, I got nothing to say. But if the shales do come in and I manage to put something together. So I'll, uh, Rebbe, Hashem provide you a link, uh, in time before Shabbos. And, uh, meanwhile, I wish you all a healthy week and gesund and naches.