משפטים תשפ״ב

00:00 Good to vlog. And, uh, Shavua tov u'melachim shalom. I was away for a week, and, uh, it was actually very, uh, encouraging to meet people in, in New York. Several people came over to say that they, uh, follow the recordings, and, uh, Baruch Hashem. So let's go down. First of all, I, um-- We're gonna-- we have a, uh, a request for a refuah shleima for Nachum Ber ben Malka. Things are progressing slowly, but, uh, it still needs rachmei Shamayim. And we also have better news from Shaul ben Yehudit. Baruch Hashem, things have stabilized. But, uh, again, we wish him a refuah shleima. That's Shaul Wilhelm the shliach in, in, uh, Oslo. Let's start out here. So for those who are listening, if they want to send in questions, the, uh, email address is, uh, dayan@lubawitchuk.com. And so now let's go straight to... I was walking on Shabbos morning somewhere in Crown Heights and some Empire Boulevard or whatever, and someone stops me, and he says, "Sir, I've got a shailah." So he says, "What happens if someone-- What happens if someone ate-- He ate some cake and also had some of the shiva saminim, of the fa-fa-- they say, the fruits for which one would normally have to say al ha'etz v'al pri ha'etz. And it came to-- He said, al hamichya, and he forgot to include the fruit. Does he have to repeat the bentching?" So in other words, in the regular full bentching, there's no detail. In Birkat Hamazon, there's no detail. In

01:56 what we call brachot in shaloosh, we've got three options. We've got the detail of al hamichya v'al hakol, of, uh, for, for, um, cake, cos-- uh, um, pasta, et cetera. Or we have al haperes for peres ha'etz. And then we have the option of, uh, al hagefen. So how crucial is this detail? If you did not mention the detail, are you not yetser your birkas-- brachah achronit? That is the question. So he was more of the persuasion that if he didn't say the detail, it doesn't matter. My, my i-immed-initial reaction was that it, it, it does make a difference. It makes all the difference. So afterwards, I had the opportunity to look this up, and this is from the Sefer Piskei Teshuva, which I've men-mentioned many times. And this is in Siman Res Tes. So if you've got your Tes Bas, it talks about mistakes in brachah achronah. So we can read that inside. Im ochal kamo minim veshochech lehazkir kulam. Very much our question. One ate various, um, species, and he forgot to enumerate all of them in the brachah achronah. So now, he in the footnotes compares this to, let's say, uh, you know, on, on Yom Tov. You can sometimes get carried away. If Yom Tov coincides with Shabbos, and if you did not say mekadesh haShabbos vi-shabaso nismach, you just said Yom Tov, are you yetser? So there we have a, uh, a rule that if you mention Y-Shabbos at any stage, then you would be yetser. And even though you

03:32 did not mention in the end of the brachah, if it was mentioned at any stage, so then you would be yetser. So he wants to use a similar idea for the brachah me'ain shaloosh. So let's, let's read that further inside. Sorry. Im itchilas habrachah ve'samach lechasimah. If at the beginning or towards the end, oy bechasimah or in, in the ending, there's three, three slots where you mention al hamichya v'al hakol or al peres. So if you mention the specific one, at least one of those places, yotzu rechivah savrei dechizimah, he does not need to repeat. Im tofas atzmo ishen shto'am l'toda. If he realized the mistake before he said borach at haHashem, he should go back and, and say, say it right. But then he says, veim lo hizkiram, if he did not mention all, all details, neither in the pesicha, not in the opening, not in the penultimate part, and not in the ultimate part of the brachah, then he's gonna have to repeat. So again, if he'd said, b-- he had, he had fruit and grapes, and he said al hamichya, al v'al hakol, and all the way through do not mention peres, well, then he's gonna have to go back and say again, brachah achronah al haperes, al ha'etz v'al pri ha'etz and al haperes. The next piece is actually quite interesting, which, um, with the-- In the Gemara, it says that wine has got a certain nourishing value similar to mezonos. Also of all fruit, tamri, um, dates are also identified

05:08 in Gemara as zayni, as they are nourishing. On that basis, he says here that if a person had, had wine and mezonos and did not say al hagefen, but wine is included in mezonos by a stretch. Similarly, if he had mezonos and dates. So mezonos, the dates are by a stretch included in, uh, mezonos, and therefore in those two, uh, cases, you would not have to repeat the brachah achronah. Uh, in other cases, you would. Okay, so this is-- Well, let's move on to the next question about a mezuzah. So someone sent me this question. We have a halacha in Shulchan Aruch that at what stage do you have to put up a mezuzah? So if, it says here, Shulchan Aruch, Siman Res Peh Vav in Yoreh Deah. That's the upper quote. Hab moosech habayis b'chutz la'aretz. If you are renting In Chutz Laretz. If you are just in a hostel in Eretz Yisrael, you are, uh, exempt from mezuzah for the first thirty days. Whereas if you rent at, in Eretz Yisrael, then you are obliged to put a mezuzah immediately. Okay. The question here is, does leasing fall into the category of rental, or is res-leasing like a purchase? You can buy a lease for ninety-nine years, whatever. Does that, does that-- is that counted like a rent? Because in a way, it's, it's, it's not a freehold, so it's a b- like a rental. On the other hand, it's, it's long-term. It's... So really, we need to go back to the questio--

06:50 to the-- to, to understand why is there the leniency, why is there this, um, leeway for the first thirty days not to have to, not to have to put up a mezuzah. That's really what we have to analyze, and then that will answer our question. So some say it's because a-- up till thirty days, the tenant is not so confident. He may, he may terminate, he may not be happy with the new, new move. Um, so this is what this, this, this Sefer, which I'm quoting here, is from someone called... It's called, uh, Piutser Pischei Mezuzah, something like that. Um, Pischei Sha'arim. So there's, uh, two fellows, one of them called Schechter. Uh, it's an American Sefer, but, uh, I'm going through, um, Hilchas Mezuzah. And he writes, "If you rented a, a, a h-house with a chozah, with a contract called a lease, since you cannot back out, he takes the view that you do have to put a mezuzah im-im-immediately." So in a sense that a rental is a little bit of a question mark, but whereas if you have a lease, which is a long-term contract, then you're not gonna back out so quickly, and as a result, it's the same as, as a purchase, and you do have to put a mezuzah right away. He mentions a bit of a, uh, hesitation on that. I would just want to add another point. You know that the Min Chabad is, it's written in Sefer HaMinhagim, um, numerous letters of Rebbe, that where

08:19 even when renting, we put up a mezuzah immediately without a bracha. And then after thirty days, we take down one mezuzah, check it, possibly change it for a better one, and then make a bracha, and have with that in mind all the others. That's the Min Chabad. Now, one of the reasons for this is not so well-documented. One of the reasons for this is that the Sheshitas HaRosh is that the exemption of thirty days doesn't mean the first thirty days of a long-term rental. It means if you are renting for up till thirty days. But if you are renting for a longer term rental, even, let's say, for two months, so then... Or thirty-one days. So the Rosh says you have mezuzah right away. So that's where Min Chabad is, is kind of the literal understanding of the Shulchan Aruch is that you have an exemption for the first thirty days. So I'm, in respect of that, we don't make a bracha, um, when we put up mezuzah right away. But in recognition of the Sheshitas HaRosh, we put up mezuzah right away, so we should, that we, uh, that we do have a mezuzah there. It goes even more interesting because, um, if the first thirty days was an absolute exemption, um, if it was an absolute exemption, you can ask a question. You put a mezuzah, um, you have ten doors in a house. You put up ten mezuzahs, at the end of thirty days, you took-- without a bracha. At the end

09:48 of thirty days, you took up one mezuzah to check it and, and replace it with a better one, whatever it may be. What about all the other mezuzahs that were put up? Why don't we say it's, um, now, you know, be, be, be, you know, be psul. If you were to then, why don't you have to take up those, those mezuzahs off and put them back again? So that's an interesting question. But now if, if you're looking at it, it's more, it's more a, a, uh, uh, how do you say, uh, i-it's no pressure, so to speak. It doesn't mean that it's psul if it was put up during the first thirty days. Um, so the point, you don't, you don't have to take off the other mezuzahs. You just take off the one and have the... Uh, it's, in, in order to take a bracha, you, you, to make a bracha. You can't make a bracha, you know, just sitting with your arms folded and say a bracha mezuzah. You have to do a ma'aser. So that's where you take one off, and what's your, what's your justification for taking it off? I mean, it's, it's doing fine. So you take it off to check it, perhaps put a better one. That's justifying for taking it off and putting it back on again. And then once you're doing your ma'aser, so then you can make a bracha, and that is covering for all the mezuzahs. Let's move on to the next question. Um, yeah.

10:55 Okay. So on Sunday morning, last Sunday, I gave a shiur in Crown Heights. In-- Actually, the same shiur twice, two groups of people, about ma'aser of, of earnings. And one of the yesodahs which we discussed, what can you do with your ma'aser money? So of course, the primary use of, usage of ma'aser money is for tzedakah, but there is also permission to use it for a, a mi-a, it's a mitz-mitzvah need, so long as it's not a, um, a chiyuv on yourself. It's not, you're not absolutely bound to do that. So you cannot buy a mezuzah for, uh, with, with your ma'aser money because you have mitzvah to put, put a mezuzah. You cannot buy an Esther, uh, and so on. You can't buy... You can't spend your ma'aser money for things which is a, a chiyuv upon yourself. So, but if it's a hidur mitzvah, well, then it's voluntary. So then you could use, possibly. And therefore, they, they were asking the question, which I didn't answer at the time, "Can you-- You can buy Esther for fifty pounds." But you want to have a fancier Esrig. Can you use your Mauser money to pay the difference between a simple Esrig and a Muhudika Esrig? Because that extra amount is, is a Hidor Mitzvah, it's not a Hir. So, neighbors to health. But, uh, as in many things, we've got different opinions. And this Sefer, which I have in front of you, is from a Sefer called Psokim Utschuvahs. Now, not to be confused

12:33 with his father-in-law, who wrote a Sefer Piskei Tchuvahs. So the son-in-law is focused on Yoreh Deiah, has published so far two volumes, similar style, and they're called Psokim Utschuvahs. And he has a section on Staka. So he writes the following. Yesh Oimrim, there are those who say that even though you're not allowed to buy a personal mitzvah article with Mauser money, you could use the Mauser money for Hidor Mitzvah because you're not bound to do that. It's, it's optional. And, and now, there is an idea of Hidor Mitzvah Atshlish, that there is a kind of mitzvah, kind of a duty that you should, uh, allow yourself an extra third above the additional, above, above the basic price. So he says, for example, if you could have bought an Esrim for sixty dollars, so then Hidor Mitzvah Atshlish means to spend another third, which means a third of sixty is twenty. So you should be spending eighty dollars. But anything beyond eighty is considered not a Hir at all, and therefore you would be allowed to use your Mauser money, anything beyond the eighty. That's the first opinion. The second opinion says no. When we say that you can use Mauser money for voluntary mitzvahs, that's talking about putting someone else's mitzvahs there. Uh, the things which are not, not a personal, not for personal use. Let's read the words inside. Yesh Oimrim, that this, buying a more expensive Esrim would not be acceptable because it's, it's an article which you're the o- the sole user.

14:05 Like, you're to fill in your Arba Minim. So, to use your Mauser money for a Hidor Mitzvah, but you are the sole user, you shouldn't be using Mauser money. Where if it's an, uh, a, a, a Hidor Mi- a, a, as I say, a voluntary mitzvah, but it's for the communal use or be shared, that's okay. But, uh, but if it's just for yourself, that, that wouldn't, that wouldn't, wouldn't carry, um, that wouldn't be ac-acceptable. Okay. Um, what then would say, I would say there, if that's the case, if you are, if you are a, in a position that you're gonna share your Arba Minim with numerous people, then it would be justified to use your Mauser money to, um, to up the quality of your Esrim, which you're gonna be sharing with members of your community, et cetera. Okay, let's move on. Okay. Um, a strange thing. I come to New York. There's a few times people have come over to me and observed how, uh, what I did when the Chazan started Shemoneh Esreh. I have a little problem. I, I didn''t spend enough years in the, um, in the reading class with Rabbi Shroks of Lashalom. So I daven Shemoneh Esreh a little bit q- slower than the, uh, regular Minyanim or my Chao, my Psukot Hazimra. So it very often works out. Um, Baruch Hashem, here we have a nice, uh, um, steady Minyan with a steady pace. But then, then it's, it's a bit quicker. So very often, the Chazan

15:44 is, is about to start Chezrah U'Shashah, so now I'm about to start the quiet Shemoneh Esreh. So what do you do then? Do you daven together with the Chazan, or do you... And, and then you say Kedushah, kind of incorporate it in your davening. Or do you wait by, by, um, the, um, the Kamer Chabad Elim. Um, do you wait there, say Kedushah, and then join, then you start davening your quiet Shemoneh Esreh. By the way, Tosfos mentions that Rabbi Natam used to da- wait by, by, by, you know, by, um, Shir HaDasha. He used to wait there. Looks like the Minyan didn't wait for Rabbi Natam. Um, so, uh, in good, good company. So actually, before reading inside, someone noticed I, I waited. I didn't join the, join, you know, to, to, to, um, do a tandem ride with the Chazan. I told him, actually, I would have preferred to do a tandem. But, but I, I was worried, and I was actually, my con- worries were confirmed, that this Chazan would say the Shemoneh Esreh so fast that I wouldn't be able to keep up with him during the first two berachos. So then I'd be, as they say, Korech Mikan and Mikan. I would, I'd just try to stay with him. I can't keep up. And then, okay. But let, let's read this carefully. What are, what are the options? Um, we-- All right. Let's, let's, before addre-addressing this, I'll just, on the chat, someone raised the question, can you use Mauser

17:16 money to buy Tefillin for an Einikel? Very good question. Um, if you can't afford it otherwise, I think you could. If, if you can't afford it, and they, the Einikel's family can't afford it from their regular funds, then you could use Mauser money. But, uh, if, if, if it's affordable without using Mauser money, then one shouldn't. Okay. So now, here we have from the Alter Rebbe of Tzion Harof. This is in Siman Kuf Tes. And he writes the following. , If you did start Shemoneh Esreh at the same time, for whatever pressure, you start a Shemoneh Esreh together with the Chazan. So, , when you come to, when you, you're saying Atah Gibor together with the Chazan, and it comes to Kenakdishoch or Nekadeish, Kenakdishoch Ashkenaz. Yoimer imo ibemilo be Milo konus hakudushe keshu oimer. You're going to say every word which the Chazan says in tandem. She'af she'einach yocheid oimer kedushe b'tefilah, say. Uh, in, in your quiet Shemoneh Esreh, you're not meant to be saying Kedushe. Keshehu oimer im shliach tzibur, einenu k'yocheid. When you are saying in tandem with the Chazan, you, you're ac-actually upgraded. You are a, a tandem Chazan. V'chen yumah, he says, also you should say HaKeil HaKodesh together with him and Shem haTefilah, and goes through the whole thing. Okay. Then he goes further. Vechol zeh, the second paragraph. Vechol zeh k'shemuchrach lehispalel miyad meshum svicha smichas gulul l'tefilah. This is only acceptable if you are, uh, urged to daven immediately. Eh, uh, because you already said Gal

19:01 Usral, you have to start Shemoneh Esreh right away. Oi mipnei sha'ah sho oi vares. Or because it's getting late, and to wait till later, you might actually miss some haTefilah, et cetera. Aval im ein ein muchrach. But if it's not a pressure. Lo yasgdil hamashliach tzibur, v'lo yomer im ein nusach hakdusha. If it's not a pressure, then you should not do this tandem job to say the Kedushe together with the Chazan. Lafi, and this is where it's, uh, it's, uh, tricky. T'chatichila, tzorich lishtok vlishmo'a nusach hakdusha mipnei shliach tzibur. What the re-- the correct procedure would be, you listen-- The Chazan says, "Nakdish yach." Gentlemen, join us in sanctifying Hashem's name. Nakdish yach na'aritzu. And then in response to the prompting of the Chazan, "V'lanus acharon kodesh, v'baruch v'yimlech v'vad." Always should be responding to the prompting of the Chazan of those three psukim, Kodesh, Baruch, and Yimlech. But the other bits, we shouldn't be saying. When you're gonna do-- go in tandem with the Chazan, so you're gonna also say those other bits too. And therefore, it's better to avoid this tandem arrangement. So now let's take a, take a look at what the Alter Rebbe would say. I've got-- On the page, I've got here two copies of Kedushe. One is from Siddur Torah Ohr. The other one is from Siddur Tehillat Hashem. So the Olam is more familiar with Tehillat Hashem. So here, Nakdi-- What he's saying is that the Chazan should be saying, "Nakdish yach tilbe korzel zevi Omar," and the

20:38 Kol, the Chazan. Then we respond, "Kodesh, Kodesh, Kodesh" to him. The Chazan says, "L'umasom v'shabchem b'yoimrim." We respond, "Baruch Hashem HaKadosh." The Chazan says, "V'dibikei kodshicha," and we respond, "Yimlech Hashem melech." That is one minhag, which is mentioned in Shulchan Aruch in Siman, I think, kuf, kuf heh, the Sefer of, of Kedushe. As you see in the Torah Ohr Siddur, there's no instructions. If you look in Shulchan Aruch... So what, what the-- meanwhile, what the Alter Rebbe is saying is, these-- If you're gonna say in tandem with the Chazan, you're gonna have to say, "L'umasom v'shabchem b'yoimrim." You're gonna have to say, "V'dibikei kodshicha." Certainly, you have to say, "Nakdish yach." And that's not the normal, um, uh, practice, and therefore, better to, to ju-to wait by-- before Shirachadosho and respond just those three psukim. In Siman kuf, kuf heh, as I said, the Alter Rebbe brings a minhag HaAri z"l to say all of this. To say, "Nakdish yach," as we all... That is the common minhag, or at least literature minhag that everyone says, "Nakdish yach." But if you go to, uh, Polish Yeshivish Midrash, you hear L'mo-- everyone's saying, "L'umasom v'shabchem b'yoimrim." Everyone's saying, "V'dibikei kodshicha." Actually, the Ari z"l had this minhag, but he said those things b'lachash. He would say, "L'umasom" and v'di-v'dibikei kodshicha, he would say them b'lachash. Now, those who say that the Rebbe would also follow that minhag Ari z"l, to say those pieces b'lachash. So therefore, to sum up, if you are saying all of these

22:10 pieces, then there's no hesitation per se to do a tandem job with the Chazan. If you normally would not say those pieces, then that's where the Alter Rebbe says to not to say it with the Chazan. Say, uh, wait before, by Shirachadosh and say it then. So really, it depends what your minhag is. If you would normally say the, uh, everything, then there's no reason not to say it together with a-- in tandem with the Chazan. But I said, as I said just a few minutes ago, that's only if the Chazan and you are going to follow at the same pace. But if the Chazan gonna race ahead, then you may as well just wait and say just Kodesh, Baruch, and Yimlech, uh, and Amen HaVe'keil HaKodesh. Um, a couple of points here. You know, someone is saying, "I thought it's better mitzvot tefillah b'tzibur." To say-- Now, I think you're saying that it's better mitzvot tefillah b'tzibur to say it together with the Chazan. That might be true. It sounds like answering is better than tefillah b'tzibur. So what we're seeing here is the, the Alter Rebbe is not so keen on it, but that's because of that minhag of not saying the pieces, "L'umasom v'shabchem b'yoimrim" and, uh, "V'dibikei kodshicha." If you normally do say them, then yes, I think you're right. If the Chazan is a, uh, not a rushing kind of guy, but is saying it, um, patiently, as patient as you, then it would be better, I think, to say

23:29 it together with the Chazan. Yeah. Okay. Now, I had a, a, uh, an email this week from-- I was actually quite chuffed. From-- It was from, uh, Rabbi Broin, uh, one of the, one of the senior rabbonim in Crown Heights. Um, who's, uh, I've noticed before, he's, uh, got a, a, an amazing recall. Um, and he, he somehow had heard that I'd spoken about, um, feeding pets. You know, if you remember the discussion last week about the-- or was it two weeks ago? Um, about the cat who would come every time the owner wanted to take a snack from the fridge. The cat was there also because, uh, it has a din k'de'ah. Uh, and I mentioned that there's two Gemaras. One in Gemara Gittin and one in Gemara, um, uh, Berachos. One says you're not allowed to lit 'oim, you're not allowed to taste before feeding your animal. The other one says, also lecho. And I pointed out that the Alter Rebbe brings the girsah also lecho, and therefore, it's only a meal, but, uh, just a little snack, you don't have to give priority to your cat. So he pointed out three references. One is in the Kutta Torah. There's actually a maimer in the Kutta Torah, uh, on the-- It's in the Ɣukrim bet tes amud beis. On this-- Uh, the b-beginning of the maimer is about not allowed to eat, uh, before feeding your animals. And then we have in the Likkutei Torah, we have this bracketed, um, comment. These are

24:57 most likely from the Tzemach Tzedek. We know the Tzemach Tzedek added many hagahos. And the Alter Rebbe had quoted the lashon also lit 'oim. So the Tzemach Tzedek comments, "That is indeed the girsah in the Gemara Gittin, daf samech beis amud alef. And that's also the quote in Magen Avrohom, Kaf Tzadi Heh Zayin. I think it's Kaf Tzadi Waw. Whatever. The Siah Yossef brings a girsah shiyocha, and that is indeed the girsa in Brachos daf mem. So the Tzemach Tzedek has already pointed out this difference of whether it's also lit oim or also lecho. And Rabbi Broin also gave me two other references. One is to the Kutha Sikha, samech zayin, page 73, horah 10. Another place in the Sikha, which I found in the Perus Menachem, volume mem, page 298. So the, the change of the two girsot is mentioned in all of these three places. I wrote to him, does that, do you have any indication which way is more reliable? So he says, no, I just, I just shared with you these maram komas, which he says, kanir de ishtamita sei. And he was absolutely right. I didn't know those maram komas, but okay. Just to add, I had an extra smichas that, um, a svara that since a cat can go and feed itself outside the house also, therefore, you're not so bound to feed them before, uh, before feeding yourself. And, um, yeah, let's move on. Okay. Did I? What's that? That was five, that was number six. Okay. Again,

26:25 I was, I was, I had a kliach somewhere in Florida, and the story is like this. They have a mikvah. This mikvah was built by a local talmid chacham, and it was a men's mikvah. But now they wanted to, for whatever reason, make it also kosher for a mikvah for noshim. And so they brought out someone to check the mikvah, and the person raised a problem. The problem is, which he raised, is the siphon. In order to empty the mikvah, so they want, they've installed a system as a pipe which goes down to the bottom of the mikvah, and it goes up over the sides of the mikvah, goes down to a well of some, or drain, which is lower than the surface, the bottom surface of the mikvah. The way physics work is that the water starts draining out of the bottom of the siphon, although of this pipe, and that will make a suction and start emptying the mikvah. Now, in order to control that, so at the bottom end of the pipe, in the, near the drain, there is a tap. So now, the, the, there's, there's two concerns here. One is a mikvah mustn't be leaking. A mi- mikvah mustn't be zochelim. It mustn't be flowing. It has to be, the water has to be static. So I was quite comfortable to say that this water is static, it's not moving. There's another question, though, whether the water is being supported by dovor haMakabol tumah. In times bygone, mikvahs were built

28:11 with a drain, a plug hole. Like you have in a bath, the bottom, there's a plug hole. So mikvahs were built that way, and they would s- they, and, but the problem is, how, how can you b- block that? If you're gonna use a dovor haMakabol tumah, then it means the whole mikvah is being supported in place. The water is being supported in place by dovor haMakabol tumah, which is not okay. So they use a, a wooden bung or some other things. I only saw this once. I was once, I visited a mikvah in Germany. I don't remember, I think it was a place called Reutlingen or something. Whatever. Um, and they had a mikvah. I don't know how old it was, but there was actually a plug hole in the bottom of the mikvah. And, um, that, that, that's, you know, that's, th- that's the way they used to do that. And so the plug, which is plugging the b- the, the outlet of the mikvah, must not be, that plug mustn't be a dovor haMakabol tumah. So now, is the siphon, the fact that the bottom of the siphon has got now a, a, a metal tap or a, could be plastic, whatever, it's a keli. Let's say it's a metal tap, just to make it, uh, for argument's sake. Does that make that the water in the mikvah is being supported by that tap? So I, I was, I was not convinced at all about, about this being a problem, because I

29:35 felt that the moment that water is not going anywhere, it's not even pushing. When you'll release the tap, then the first body of water at the bottom of the, the lower end of that pipe will empty out, and then it will create a suction. It'll create a vacuum and a suction, et cetera. But at the moment, there's no suction. It's just, it's, it's sleeping. So I didn't feel there's any problem. But I, uh, but since someone raised the question, so I did write an email to Rabbi Eli Landau in, uh, Yisrael, and he confirmed that it is a concern. So I told the shliach, "We have to, we'll have to do something about it." But then afterwards, I had a bit of time. It was a bit of an rush, so that's why I went that way. Now I have a bit of time. So what you have in front of you is from a sefer called Piskei Mikrois, which is written by Rabbi Yaakov Bloi, uh, who's written numerous brilliant seforim, Ribris Yehudah, um, uh, Choveh Tsador, Piskei Choshen. So he quotes here from a sefer, Taras Yom Tov, and a sefer, Chesed Yehoshua. Taras Yom Tov was the Helmut Zuroff. The Hel- uh, the Chesed Yehoshua, I did look up. It's a recent, um, Hungarian roff, um, where they talk about this, this suction, this, this siphon. And He describes how it works. And the Chesed Yehoshua says he doesn't see a problem of mamid through a mechabel tumah, the fact that you

31:12 use a tap. Because the tap is only to, um, to stop the release of air, that it shouldn't, shouldn't start the, the, the siphon, the siphoning. Yeah. So Rabbi Beloi writes in his brackets, "Ktsa sorch iyun she'ein hai aveh yotzei ela yedei meshicha. Ve'im eili shekvar moschach veyischilu hamayim lotzeis, im ken nireh shehu may midas hamayim shelo yetz." So he's, uh, Rabbi Beloi is not so confident about this. And then the Taras Yomtuv is not happy about this. So what I'm seeing is that my, my initial com-- position seems to be the same as what this, um, Chesed Yehoshua is saying. That, that at this moment, there is no, there's no flowing, there's no suction, uh, and therefore it's okay to have that tap there. But it's, since in mikveh you try to do l'kol ha-almah to avoid shailas. So this is what in the Sefer, um, Ptschei Mikva'os, he brings here from a Rav Minsberg. He has a whole kuntras of a Rav Minsberg who was a, um, very involved in designing mikva'os. And they do, do, do, they advised to do it the following. Same idea that you have a suction and you have a pipe to the bottom of the mikvah. Now you have a little sump where the number seven is, and you have the outside pipe goes lower than the surface, the bottom surface of the mikvah. But what you're gonna have is at the top, where it has the number four, you're gonna have a, a tap. When you

32:54 open that tap, that's going to allow air into the system. When the air is in the system, then there's no suction. So then there's no pumping. No, no siphoning gonna happen. When you want to empty the mikvah, you're going to close tap number four. You'll then open tap number two, and that will fill up the pipe, um, all the way. It'll fill it up with water. Then you'll close tap number two, and then nature will find its way that the bottom of the, uh, the lower end of the pipe will start emptying, and it'll start sucking the... So what this whole system of putting in an extra two taps. One, a air pipe. Uh, two, he calls it shoiver vacuum. Shoiver misber as a shoiver. He calls it to break the vacuum, so that's number four. But to, to-- There shouldn't be a vacuum at all. And then once you do want to have a vacuum, you're gonna, you pour in water through this, um, number two, and then the vacuum's gonna start working. So I recommended that they should do this as... Meanwhile, I asked, "What... Can we use it until that's installed?" I felt that it is, it is valid. Um, it's a kosher mikvah. That way it was, it was built by whoever built it. Um, it's a kosher mikvah, but l'rav chademilcha, you, you make it l'kol ha-almah. Let's take a look at... Someone's put something on the, um, notes here. Are you not supposed to say moedim and amen to

34:24 Shemoneh Esrei tefillah? So, okay. You're go- We're going back to if you are, um, not davening with a minyan, you're a bit behind, and you're holding by, um, as you say, um, Shulchan Aruch, et cetera. During Birkat Sh'ma, you may answer the first, the three words of moed v'hanachtanu lo. You also answer amen to the brach of Shemoneh tefillah. Does that mean you're gonna have to wait? You know, sometimes you might be in a bit of, a bit of pressure on time also to have to wait till the chazan goes to Shemoneh tefillah and then esh to start your quiet Shemoneh Esrei. Uh, there may be something in that, but, uh, probably subject to how much time you have available. Let's move on. Okay. So here, I was at the Ohel on Wednesday morning, and someone saw me, a, a senior rav, and he tells me that the last Shabbos, they, their tenth man disappeared during Krias HaTorah. And I'm going through this, probably, uh, some of our listeners have this, um, from time to time, so it's worth revising the halakha. He's asking, should they have said Kaddish? So let's read. This is a quote from the Shaarei Efraim. Shaarei Efraim Z'seichu. Um, Shaarei Efraim is a, uh, specialist sefer on Krias HaTorah. He writes the following. Ein koren b'Torah at yishram asura anashim yisro eliel. You have to have 10 male adults, Jewish. And, um, a child under the age of bar mitzvah doesn't, doesn't make up your minyan. If you started with

36:05 10 men and one of them left, then you finish your quota of aliyas. If it's a weekday, you do three aliyas. If it's Shabbos, you do seven aliyas. If it's Yom Tov, you'll do five aliyas with the brachos, but no chishafos and no extra aliyas. But then here's, uh, it gets a little bit more interesting about maftir. You would not do a maftir. So, erach yom ru kaddish achak tir. So you, what you're going to do is, you're only gonna have seven aliyas. The maftir is not going to be, uh, neither Shabbos nor Yom Tov. So you, I guess you wouldn't take out the other Sefer Torah for, for a maftir or wouldn't open it for, for maftir. Um, and you're just gonna say Kaddish after Krias HaTorah. And Haftar is considered a separate unit, as Haftar is said without the brachos. But he does say you should say Kaddish after the Ha-- after the Krias HaTorah. Uh, so the, the, the, uh, that's like the end of the unit. The Kaddishes are considered at the end of the unit. In the notes in, uh- In the Shaarei Efrayim, he does bring from the Birchos Yosef, from the Chiddah, who is a little bit hesitant about that, but, um, he himself, obviously, paskens that the Kadesh is part of the, uh, unit of Kriyas HaTorah, and therefore, you would say that Kadesh. Okay. Fairly straightforward. I didn't have a chance to look up the whole, um, machloket of the... Why, why, why the Birchos Yosef

37:33 isn't, isn't concerned. Um, well, didn't get... Didn't, didn't manage to get around to it. Okay. So here we have a question, which one of our, our kliyak here in England actually asked me this week. Um, he first asked, "Can you sell letters in a Sefer Torah to a prospective ger?" So I, I answered, "Yes." Then he says, "What about an outright goy? Can you sell letters in a Sefer Torah?" Now, really, um, really, the question here is, what does it mean when you sell letters of a Sefer Torah? I understand that if it's an ownership, I would be very loath to have a goy being a partner in a Sefer Torah. Even though perhaps, halacha, it may be legitimate. Uh, I didn't find any, any, uh, clear indication. But, but is, is... When you buy a letter in a Sefer Torah, what exactly is it? What are you doing? So we know that the Rebbe very much encouraged the inyan of a, um, buying a letter in the Sefer Torah, but it's an old Jewish minhag, and the Rebbe has a fascinating, uh, explanation. Now, if you want to know where it is, it's in Chabad Sicha chron date in Parshas Vayelech. How are we yotzer? Most of us haven't written our own Sefer Torah and don't necessarily have plans to do so. So how are we yotzer the mitzvah? So the Rebbe says a fascinating, uh, um, explanation. When you have, let's say, back in the day, where they only had one esrog for

39:15 the whole town. So how did it work? The esrog has to be your own. You can't have a, a, a esrog in partnership. The answer is, the moment when you took the esrog, it's, it's granted to you totally. So the Rebbe says a similar idea of Sefer Torah. What's the Sefer Torah for? Sefer Torah is for Kriyas HaTorah. So the understanding is, each person, as he has the Aliyah to Torah, at that moment, the Sefer Torah is his. So his... He has the ownersh-ownership of the Sefer Torah for that moment, for those two minutes which he has his Aliyah. In that way, he, he, he owns the Sefer Torah. Now, that's, that's the Rebbe's, um, chiddush in that long sicha. And towards the end, he says the following, . Now, we will appreciate how, um, valuable it is, the idea to purchase a letter in a communal Sefer Torah. The Rebbe had used this concept. The Beis Din kind of a-allocate this le- the, um, the Sefer Torah belongs to you at the time you have your Aliyah. That... The idea that you own the Sefer Torah at the time of your Aliyah, that is valuable, uh, valid. You haven't contributed, but the, the, uh, uh, communal Sefer Torah is designed with the idea that each person, as they use it, it is theirs for that, for those two minutes. But now, if you bought an os in the Sefer Torah, you've ac-kind of, kind of done something, personally contributed to the mitzvah of writing

41:07 the Sefer Torah. It's not like you're getting a mitzvah, um, just snatching it, a free, a freebie. If you write a Sefer Torah, you, y- so you are as, as if you personally received it from Har Sinai. So reading this, what is the Rebbe saying here? He's not... It... I don't think he's suggesting that you buy a letter, you are a partner. He's saying you are a contributor. If that's the case, if you're just a, if it's just a contribution, so then I don't have a strong objection to the g-goy buying a letter in the Sefer Torah, but I certainly would not recommend it just out of hergus. But legally, you know, strictly speaking, I don't have a, a, a strong objection, halacha. Now, w-whilst we're already talking about this, another shliach spoke to me during the week, that he's, uh, he's got a donor for a Sefer Torah, and, um, he's been offered a finished Sefer Torah. Finished Sefer Torah. So now, when you want to do the dedication, normally you have people are called over and fill in the last letters. So the sofer, the, the sofer who sold him the Sefer Torah, he says there are those who allow you to erase some of the letters, and then you can give the honors to people to fill in. Which I felt very... I, I, I was shocked here. I think that's very, uh, inappropriate. To start taking a kosher Sefer Torah, disqualifying it in order to dish out kibudim, I felt that

42:40 was totally in-inappropriate. And you can give other kibudim, give, give hagba's and glealos and hagoshes and, and whatever. You can do kibudim without having to, uh... Now, the, the... My, my other hesitation was that if the person who you're going to give this honor is, is, uh, n-not in any way a shomer Shabbos, then you have a problem. He's... Whether, whether he's filling in the letters is a kosher, uh, a kosher, uh, mech... Is it actually a kosher ketavah? Because- Of his status. In addition, bichlal, people go over and they, they, they, they take the pen and they start writing. Do you know what you're doing? You know there's a difference between dropping a drop of ink and moving a pen. When you move a pen, that's called writing. If you take the, the ink, the pen, the quill, and you just drop a p-- a drop of ink, that's not called writing. So, so in addition, it's, it's such a complicated thing to, uh, and, and I think it's just simpler. You have a kosher sefer Torah. Don't, don't try to, uh, be a chacham and get all of these people to write letters in the sefer Torah. It raises problems. As you can see, I've got here, um, from the Nittei Gavriel, where he has a person who's not a shomer Shabbos. We-- one shouldn't really give them a, an opportunity to fill in letters of the sefer Torah. And then he says, "What happens if you have no choice about it?" So,

44:06 you should... Whatever. He gives you some advice. But really, it's something which is not, not, not halachically at all. Okay. Um, someone asked me something on it on the chat. Many who write a sefer Torah loan the sefer Torah to the shul. Um, right. Right. That's a very valid point. Um, a couple of weeks ago, we did discuss that when you have a privately owned sefer Torah, when they give it to the shul, they don't give it outright as a gift. They just lend it to the community. And so, that's a very value-valuable point that the Rebbe's chidush here, that there's a communal sefer Torah, and whenever you have an aliyah, you are acquiring the sefer Torah for those two minutes of your aliyah. That's only if it's a communal sefer Torah. But if it's actually privately owned, so then you're right, that, that would-- you would not have the ownership for the time of the aliyah. You know, you could still have an aliyah in someone else's sefer Torah. But yes, you're right. This, this chidush of the Rebbe was only, it's only valid, uh, if it's a communal, uh, a communal endeavor to write the sefer Torah. Okay. Um, the, the owner, Barry, you wrote something about the soferis. Bichlal, when it comes to soferis, I tend to, uh, try to shy away and say, "Go to the professionals." So, I'm gonna do that about the sec-- uh, your second chat. Let's, um, go on. I had this very beautiful question from a

45:37 young man in somewhere in Ukraine or somewhere. It was from the Eastern, uh, one of those countries. Email, and he writes in actually quite a good English. He writes, um, that he tends to stay a few hours daily in shul. Does a bit of learning. He's foreign there. But also, he'll, he'll do some stuff probably on his phone, on his laptop, um, make some phone calls. And he's asking, is it okay to be doing these activities in the shul, these mundane activities, or should he move to the ezras nashim or somewhere else outside the shul? There's other rooms in, in the building. So, his question is, what, to what, what degree of kedusha, et cetera, um, my behavior in shul, how, how careful do I have to be? So, let's take a look. Um, here we have in Shulchan Aruch, Siman Kuf, Nun Alef in Yoreh De'ah. "Batakina se'as avot midroshes ein noge'im bahem kalos reish." In a shul, one should not be beha-behaving in a frivolous way. "Schoit u'hitul," cracking jokes. "Sichum bateilah," yapping away. "Ve'ein shoichlim ve'shosim bahem," nor to be eating and drinking. "Meskashtim," to, um, I don't know what that means. Uh, putting on my makeup. I don't know. Whatever it may be. "Ve'lo metaylim bahem," just, you know, um, unwinding. "Ve'lo nichnosim bahem vechamo mipnei hachamo o vekshomo mipnei hakschomim." You shouldn't be using your shul as a shelter from the weather. Then he says the following: "Ve'talmidei chachamim ve'talmidei," however, the scholars, "mutarim lech v'lishtei bahem midroichak," they are

47:14 allowed to eat and drink in the shul out of pressure, because otherwise it's going to be, um, taking away, dis-distracting them, them from their learning if they have to, every time they want to have a drink or something, to have to go out to the beit ha-midrash. Therefore, they are allowed to eat and drink in the beit ha-midrash. And then the others, there are more, "Az v'yesh omerim debeit ha-midrash af filash lo lemidroichak sh'or." Even without pressure, it's, it's also okay, beit ha-midrash, as distinct from a beit knesset. Then he says, "Ve'emei chashiv u'mechon shbonot," you shouldn't start doing there your accounts, your personal accounts, unless they are accounts of a mitzvah, tzedakah, pidyon shvuyim. All right. Now, of course, there could be the objection to the objection, and that is that our shuls are bichlal, altz nai, we have fabrengens in shuls, and we don't-- We, we, our shuls don't have the full kedushas beit ha-knesset. Fair enough. That's, that, that's a, a valid point. Nevertheless, now I'm going over to the Pesukei Shuvus in, on that piece of Shulchan Aruch, it's Siman Kuf, Nun Alef. And he says, "Bizman einu yesh lehadgish," one should emphasize, one shouldn't be sitting reading newspapers, Haredi newspapers, uh, in, in the beit ha-knesset or beit ha-midrash. Then he goes a whole thing about te- um, cellu- cellu-, um, uh, cell phones and smoking. And then he, uh, goes towards the bottom, he says, "A person shouldn't say, 'Haloi rabim vetovim she-ein makpidim bechol zeh,' " of his

48:39 hiddush of his Sichum Bateilah. I see many, um, fine, upstanding members of the community who are not so particular about, um, beit ha-knesset, et cetera. So he says, "Machshavot hevel hehem. Ve'aderaba mocheem she-ein hanoshim mishtadel is ish." So, he does encourage to, to, um, even in our contemporary types of shuls, to be careful and to be respectful of those premises. And so, yeah. So, my re-- advice to this young man is actually, yes, that, um, if it's just ad hoc for a minute, but if it's going to be spending a while doing mundane stuff, then b-actually better, um, not in the shul. Now, my-- I, I, I told him I'm not sure about the status of the beit-- of the ezras nashim. Does the ezras nashim have the status of a shul? After all, it's also designated for prayer. Um, the fact that it's not made for minyanim, but I don't know if that makes a difference. Um, I remember there's something in, in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch in Hilchot Yom Kippur about sleeping, in Shul of about sleeping in ezras, in ezras nashim instead of in the ezras anashim. I didn't have a chance to look into it more carefully. Um, but if it's a side room which is not in-- which is not the ezras nashim, that way, obviously, would be better. All right. My last thing which I want to share with you today, tonight, is, uh, on Tuesday night, I was at a, uh, chasunah. Rabbi Levi Sudak married off

50:02 his son. The chasunah was in Monsey. And it was-- I was a bystander. So, all right. So, um, the, for the kiddushin, you call up two witnesses. and then after the kiddushin is done, so then the ketubah is read. And then after the ketubah is read, the ch-is-- the chassan gives it to the kallah, and in some places, they have the minhag to-- That, that's, um, done in the presence of edim, of the witnesses. So one of the witnesses had stepped down from the platform where the chuppah was taking place, and they asked him, "Well, you're not gonna stay, uh, up to see the, um, trans-transfer of the ketubah?" So he says, um, "Well, don't, don't know." I said, "Ask the, the, uh, Masadic kiddushin." I said, "The Masadic kiddushin said it's okay." Okay, fine. So here are-- My training is from, um, uh, procedures a lot. I saw how Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch would do it, and he would be particular to get the witnesses to, to, uh, to see the transfer of the ketubah. That doesn't mean that that's necessarily minhag Chabad, but that's, that's what I was used to. So what I have here in front of you is from a sefer from Reb Mordechai Farkash, which is a madrich for siddur kiddushin. It's a, a manual for, uh, running a kid-- a, a chasuna. Um, so he writes, after the reading of... Now, by the way, why do you read the ketubah? Because a star, any star, any document, before

51:38 it is given over, it should be read. So, um, it's not nesiah, but a get. Before it is signed, the witnesses read through the whole thing, and any document, before it's signed, should be actually read by the, by the people who are gonna sign it. So the reading of the ketubah is part of the... Well, we don't, we don't sign it then. Some people do. We don't sign it under the chuppah. But it's before the trans-transfer of the ketubah, it's g-to be read. That's part of the procedure of, of documents. So, l'achar hak... Then there's a separate issue. Tosafot in Pesachim says that the reading of the ketubah creates a, a, a, uh, a, a pause between the first part, which is a, a erusin and that b'priya guffin, and the second part, which is the nisuin, and that's why-- Because we say twice, b'priya guffin. And he sa-- Tosafot says that the reading of the ketubah creates a hefsek. But let's come back. So after having read the ketubah, the ketubah is then given to the chassan, who gives it, in turn, he gives it to the kallah. There are those who hold that the reason for giving it over to the kallah is to fulfill the opinion of the poskim, that a star is o-only got a validity when it's given over to the beneficiary of that star. So you have a sign, you have a signed document that so-and-so has committed so much money to so-and-so. But if it's not trans-transmitted, if

53:03 the document is, is, is not in the hands of the beneficiary, so then it's, uh, then the, then the, the commitment hasn't happened yet. That's the sevarah which is being said here. Others say no. Once it's signed, it's immediately committed. Therefore, since there are those who say that there's no power to the star until it's actually transferred into the hands of the kohen, therefore, there are those who say that the edim should see the transfer, how the chassan gives it to the kallah. Uh, and then it is recommended that the kallah should then be giving it to someone else to look after for her because the kallah's got many other things to deal with besides holding onto the ketubah, and so usually we advise her to give it to, uh, someone else. Now, there we are, and he gives a reference to the Tashbitz. And then he said, "Many are not concerned about this," and he gives a reference. Also, Niti Gavriel says that most people are not concerned. But here I'm going to come, come back to the Tashbitz. The Tashbitz, his name is Rabbi Shimon ben Zemach Duran, um, one of the late Rishonim. In my recollection that Semak Tzedek quotes the Tashbitz, um, I didn't do a search, but I, I... He quotes him very, very often, gives a lot of attention to this Sefer Tashbitz. Um, there's actually, to be careful, there's two Sefer Tashbitz. One is, uh, this Rabbi Shimon ben Zemach, and then one is, I think, Rabbi Shloshitz

54:27 ben Sadiq. There's a Sefer Tashbitz, uh, called Tashbitz Katan, a small Sefer of Minhagim. S-um, and then we've got the Shulchan Tashbitz, uh, which we have over here, both connected to Parshat Terumah, because we have the Kehilot Tashbitz. Well, it's actually Parshat Tetzaveh. Um, that's the, the... But the name, their names are both Shimon ben Sadiq. Um, so in the Tashbitz, Shimon Shin Alef Beit He alef Gimel, he has a long several pages, long chum of several pages d-to going through the ketubah and explaining kind of phrase by phrase why, what's the significance of that phrase. But then, uh, he writes the following. It doesn't say anywhere in the ketubah that, "Kosavnu vechosamnu ve'mosarnu." The witnesses do not affirm that they've given over. "Avol nohagu shehachassan moseh beyad hakalah lifnei ho'edim haketubah." He writes that the custom is that the chassan gives it over to the kallah. Now, then on the second, uh, column, then the Tashbitz writes, "For the actual main body of the ketubah, the main fund, the, the main commitment of the ketubah, there's no need to have giving it over to the kallah because tnai bes dinu. And even if you hadn't written a ketubah, the commitment, it's bes dinu, have applied that duty to give at any case." And then he says, "Midunya, that has already become, um, owned or committed from the moment of the kinya." But then he says, "Avol le'inyan Tosafot shehi matana." But they have-- in the, in the ketubah, there's various elements. There's the main

56:05 ketubah, there's the nadunya, and then there's toistris. He says that is called matana, and that doesn't become hers until she gets the star. And therefore, if he dar zoi, then the minhag to give over the ketubah, but if nehu aidim from the choson to the kallah. And then he goes, goes on, he says it's machloket between the Riff and the Rambam and other Rishonim. And he, again, he says, in order to, to take heed of the Riff and Rambam's position, therefore the minhag is to give it from the, in front of aidim into the hand of the kallah. As I said, this is not universal. And, um, in some places, the choson doesn't give it to the kallah at all. Sometimes it's given, um, to someone else, uh, one of the family. So it's, it's not universal. As I mentioned over here also, it's not a universal minhag. But on the other hand, there is, uh, ample, uh, yesod and makir for it, for that it should be done, and obviously a minhag in some places. And so, uh, yes, it's, it's not a minhag shostus. It's got a very good yesod that one should be, uh, giving it over from the choson to the kallah. Um, all right, we'll stop with that. And, um, just to finish off something which I didn't manage to digest properly, but I still wanna share it with you. The sicha which was published for this week from Yuchvat Tov Shin Lamed Heh, has a little discussion, sich-- I

57:27 think sicha Lamed Gimel. Is it Melev haMalka? Is it with a, uh, with alef or with a heh? Is it the king or the queen? And it has there a few references, um, and the Rebbe explains the two sides of it about the meaning of, of, um, Melech and Malkah. What, what exactly is Shabbos? Because by the Chadodi, we say Shabbos Malkah so. But then we have in Alter Rebbe Shlich Norov in Nichas Melev haMalka in Siman Shin, he says, "The Lavish is haMelech." And so there are a few places in this Rebbe Sichas where he, um, addresses this question is, are we referring to the Shabbos as a Melech or as a Malkah? But as I say, I didn't manage to absorb the Rebbe's explanation over here. And so I'll leave you with the, uh, undigested, uh, uh, um, reference. And I wish you all a gut Voch, and, um, gezunterheit called-