צו תשפ״ב

00:02 First of all, welcome to the shiur for this evening. And, uh, thank you. Some of you have already responded to your preference. Meanwhile, in other words, when we're switching over to after the clock changes, that's not next. Motzaei Shabbos will still be Motzaei Shabbos, but after that, we'll have to do it another time. And I asked whether you would prefer on Sunday evening or Thursday evening. Meanwhile, um, should we say the odds are even? Howev-however you call it. So, um, we'll see. We'll work it out. And whoever can make it, there's always the recording available, so whichever. We'll, we'll see. Um, so this came up during Shabbos. It's not on the list which I sent out before Shabbos. And that is about the nusach of Aneinu. So when it-- On a, on a fast day, we add Aneinu, uh, in so, in the quiet Shemoneh Esreh, it's added in Shome'a Tefillah. But the Cha-- And that's only at Mincha. In Chazarat Hashatz, the chazan says, "Aneinu," between the brocha of Goyel Yisroel and Refaenu, and it's said as an extra brocha. In other words, if normally there's 19 brochos in the Shemoneh Esreh, on a fast day, it's... In the Chazarat Hashatz, it's twenty brochos. So here we have the-- This is the top of the page. You have here the text from the Shulchan Aruch, the first seif of tof kuf samech vav in Eruchaim. Taanis tzibur. The shliach tzibur says, "Aneinu," between Goyel and Refa, and he finishes off, "V'chosen boruch atah Hashem

01:56 ha'oneh le'amo Yisroel be'eit tzarah." He who answers the prayers of Yidden in a time of difficulty. So on this, both the Taz and the Magen Avraham, and then subsequently the Mishnah Berurah, say, "Well, no, the nusach of the siddur is ha'oneh be'eit tzarah." The Prive Godim comments on this, and he says, "Hashem answers the prayer of Goyim also, as evident in the beautiful prayer of Shlomo HaMelech by the dedication of the Beis Hamikdash." It's really a very beautiful, um, prayer where he's asking Hashem, people will pray, will come here to pray and answer that tefillas. And he asks also for-- Clearly, he asks, even if umos ha'olam, if non-Jewish people will come to the Beis Hamikdash, Hashem should listen to their prayer. So Hashem answers the prayers of umos ha'olam, of Goyim also. Therefore, they question the emphasis, "Ha'oneh le'amo Yisroel be'eit tzarah," because Hashem listens to the prayers of, um, Goyim also, if they pray in a eit tzarah. This is now what I find ironic is I've, I've, I've just put on the, on the display here. In the brocha of Shomea Tefila, there's a difference between Nusach Ashkenaz and Nusach Sefard. Nusach Sefard, which is on the left-- Sorry, on the right. That is, "Ki atah shomea tefilas kol peh." Nusach Ashkenaz, which is on the bottom left, "Ki atah shomea tefilas amcha Yisroel b'rachamim." When I say Sefard, I mean Sefard as in Oriental. The Polish Nusach has here typically kind of merged the two nusachos and made it into, "Atah

04:01 shomea tefilas kol peh amcha Yisroel b'rachamim." But I'm not dealing with that. I'm dealing here now with the original Ashkenaz, with the original Sefard. So Ashkenaz, in Shomea Tefila, are saying, "Ki atah shomea tefilas amcha Yisroel b'rachamim." And Sefard are saying, "Ki atah shomea tefilas kol peh." Now, let's look at those sta-statements. I never thought about it before. "Shomea tefilas kol peh" means you listen to every mouth, and that means including umos ha'olam. "Shomea tefilas amcha Yisroel b'rachamim," the emphasis is they listen to the prayers of Yidden with compassion. So now it's kind of the tables are, are, are turned. In Aneinu, Ashkenaz say, "Ha'oneh be'eit tzarah," not mentioning "oneh am Yisroel be'eit tzarah." But in Shomea Tefila, Ashkenaz say, "Tefilas amcha Yisroel b'rachamim." In Nusach Sefard. So in Aneinu, the emphasis is on "am Yisroel be'eit tzarah," and in Shomea Tefila, it's just, "Ki atah shomea tefilas kol peh." If you follow what, what's bothering me here is that the accommodation for umos ha'olam is said in, in both nusachos. In Ashkenaz, it's said in, uh, in Aneinu, and in, uh, Nusach, um, Sefard, it's said in, in Shomea Tefila. So I found that very interesting, and I, I don't really have a, a, um, an explanation because, um, when Shomea Te-- Well, of course, as a yochid, we say Aneinu in Shomea Tefila. So we say, um, um, "Hashem--" We-- We'll finish off, "Poyel ma'asech y'decho ki atah shomea tefilas kol peh." But as they are standalones, we've got here l'chola a bit

05:53 of an interesting conflict, where, uh, one, in Nusach Ashkenaz, they hadavka in Aneinu exclude-- uh, um, including umos ha'olam and Sefard- Um, exclude asylum and sheme-- and shemer tvilla, it's the other way around. Um, so I don't have an answer. Just this is my, uh, ruminations from this morning. Let's start off the list of what we had, um, already published. And someone asks me the following question that we all know that there's a virtue in giving tzedakah discreetly. The idea of, and the Rambam in Hilchot Tzedakah Umatanot Aniyim talks about the various levels, and we ha-- we know there are lots of stories in the Gemara about giving out tzedakah discreetly. On the other hand, we do know that there's virtue davka in mitzvah l'fares them or it's a mitzvah to not keep it a secret and to, to, to share it with others, to inspire others. He's asking for some guidance. Someone-- I'm, I'm not sure whether this is, this is correct. Someone had told him that, that, that if you dis-- hide the fact that you're giving tzedakah, it's actually, actually, I don't know whether it's sinful, but something missing the point. So here he was in a dilemma. He gives tzedakah, he's, uh, not a, not a wealthy person at all, but gives very generously. That's what he told me in quiet. He gives very generously. And the neighbor makes sure that he has a twenty pound, uh, uh, you know, when he, uh, when he has a twenty pound, um, note

07:36 in his pocket, he'll give it to someone at the door. And when he doesn't have a twenty hour, nine, a twenty pound note in his pocket, the neighbor makes sure no one comes to the door. So it works that way. So very interesting. But he, he was asking, how do we deal with this? So I looked up a sich-- a sicha of the Rebbe talking about-- one of the sichas of the Rebbe talking about giving tzedakah, um, and addressing this inyon of giving tzedakah in private or in public. So let's read through the sicha. Um, sorry, the reference on the, on the notes is, is, is, uh, the wrong reference. Do all that later. So, "Ve'ovd hu ha'yikar," that giving tzedakah, "behesed umeratzim kemum gam poshut." You can't compare giving tzedakah because you have to or because you want to. And there is-- comes a point when the person is so wants to, his, his whole mitzits, his whole being is. You look at this person, you see he's a tzedakah person. He's a person who lives with giving tzedakah. So then the Rebbe continues in this sicha and he says, "Ay, there is the idea of hatsnea leches im eleichecha." There is, um, idea of being discreet, and that is indeed a great virtue. "Ve'ad kedei chakach" to the point where this is the pasuk, I believe it's in Malachi. Does Hashem want to have all your, your animal offerings? The greatest thing which Hashem has from which you can give is hatsnea leches

09:11 im eleichecha, to walk discreetly. However, says the Rebbe, since the people around you are likely to think that you're not contributing, and they will take the cue from you not to contribute because they'll see a Jew as a, a id mechubad, an honorable person with a full beard, and he's wealthy, and he's not participating in this tzedakah thing. So they can think, "Ah, this is a s-- this is a, a sign, a guidance that joining into this contribution, this fund, is not for honorable people." Therefore, it's important to give tzedakah in an open way so that other people should learn from you and follow your example. And that's the idea of mitzvah l'fares them oseh mitzvah. That there's a mitzvah. The Rama, Rama brings from the Rashbo that there's a mitzvah to publicize those who do, who perform, uh, um, mitzvahs. And if you want to do hatsnea leches, so then you can do more in addition to this. Um, in addition to what you're giving out in public, then you can also do more. Kohen, Kohen can do twice as much in a discreet way. So what exactly is the balance here? So I think what the Rebbe is saying in the-- at least in this context, is that when there is a, a, uh, a public collection for a particular inyon. Let's say there's a, a charity, and they have an option to give anonymously or to give, uh, to give, uh, to, to write your name. If you think that by putting

10:54 your name down, you're going to encourage other people. They'll say, "Oh, if so-and-so gave so much is a proof that I should also give twice as much," whatever it may be. So then it-- here, this is the Rebbe is saying, "Don't, don't keep it a secret." There's a, there's a-- here, there's a, an appeal, and by people seeing that you've also contributed, they will be, uh, encouraged. That doesn't mean that because you give someone at the door twenty pounds that you have to announce that. That, that, that is-- there is, uh, certainly remains the mile of hatsnea leches. But when there is a communal effort, so then you should also be, um, evidently part of that communal effort. That's the way I understand the Rebbe's, uh, vort here. Um, and I'm sure there's, there's more to be said about this, but, uh, the idea that you can give, uh, publicly and still can give privately, separately, and, uh, but not, not to be missed, not to be obviously, um, missing out from a, a public, uh, um, fundraiser. Let's move on. So here I got a-- someone in, um, okay, don't look at any... I want-wanted to blot out the-- you shouldn't see the blur the names. Never mind. He won't mind. He sent me this ketubah. He made a chasuna this week, last week, and he asked me, can I check over the ketubah, which I did, and I said it's okay. He sends the ketubah to be printed by, uh, you know, on

12:24 fancy paper. A ketubah is, after all, a chasuna document. And the printer says, "No, it's not okay. You can't print it this way." So he says, "I'm asking, he said it's okay." He says, "I don't care. It's wrong, and you can't print it this way." And really, I, I, I, um... And he was-- Actually, he was right, and I'm gonna explain to you why. Which just reminds me, uh, to-- a, a story which happened on my street. Two doors away, our Hamisha neighbor went away for Pesach, and they loaned the house to an, to a young family. And they went away, they went out during the day, and they slammed the door shut with the keys inside. And, um, so now they're locked out. Well, sure, there were children inside, but they were locked out of the house. There was one window on the third floor, or in England, we call it the second floor. But either way, it's not exactly something you can climb up without a ladder. So, around the corners, there's a Hamisha guy, a Hamisha builder, who has two long ladders on top of his van. So let's go and borrow his ladder. So he says, "No, you can't, you can't use-- you can't borrow the ladder on Yom Kippur. You're not allowed to." Why not? Even if it-- Even if, let's say, it's a klal shomlei torah issur. Even if it were a hammer, if you need to use it, you'd have to-- i-it's not muktzeh. No, you're not allowed

13:50 to borrow a ladder. Not allowed, on Yom Kippur, not allowed. So I, I had said it's okay, and then they came back, "No, it's not okay." He's right. He's right because there's a whole discussion in, in, in, uh, in, in Mishnah, in Gemara, that of all things, a ladder must not be carried through the street. A tall ladder, uh, should not be carried through the street on Yom Kippur, that people shouldn't say that he, he's carrying the ladder to fix his roof. So of all things, a ladder is, is-- it may not be, um, may, may not be carried. So we had to find a goy to carry the ladder. And then once the ladder was in place, then the goy was too timid to climb the ladder. So we found a Yid who was, who was brave enough to climb up the ladder once the goy had put it there, and, um, got in and, uh, you know, opened the door. Okay, so coming back to-- So I'm just comparing that story, which is useful in itself. But the-- comparing that the printer, he knows his job, and he says it's not okay. And the reason for this is because hakal shoriy v'kayom was spelt correct but put in the middle of the line. Which means that some, uh, uh, c-a crooked person could, in the part, first part of that line, until the words hakal shoriy v'kayom could write in something. He could write, he could say, uh, "And on condition you, that

15:16 you also, uh, give two million dollars to so-and-so." Whatever it may be, they can put in anything there, and, and it's then going to be endorsed with hakal shoriy v'kayom. You know, you can say it's in print and handwriting, but that's, that's the halacha, yeah. The halacha is that hakal shoriy v'kayom should be in a way that there's no space for inserting, uh, anything which shouldn't be there. And therefore, yeah, the printer was absolutely right. Hakal shoriy v'kayom should have been at the beginning of the line, and, uh, which was duly done, and chasuna took place with shalom. Okay. And, um, just to confirm that, by writing a ketubah. There's an eight-volume set on writing ketubahs. I don't have the sefer. It's on my-- I do have it on the, uh, computer, called Mishpat Haketubah by, uh, Bal Shalom. Uh, and he writes the following. Let's just read his text. He says, "One should be careful not to create a gap on the last line of the shhtar, of the document, by putting the last, the words in the middle of the, uh, line, because that arra-- leaves space on the right and, and, and on the left. And then the signatures of the witnesses could be ineffective. And therefore, the last line has to be to, uh, justify to the right as the rest of the shhtar." Which now as I'm talking, I'm just now thinking of some ketubahs which I've seen and been involved in the past. They sometimes now make them, um,

16:47 decorative in a, uh, in a shape as if like in a ball getting narrower and narrower, whether this would apply in that instance. But there you could say that you can see the, the, uh, natural or, or the design of the line. It's going in, in, in that form. Perhaps there it's a different story. But let's move on. Um, I wanna just share with you, I was once at a, uh, a wedding with a place where very few Frum people were there. And the only, one of the only people who could sign the shhtar who wasn't a relative of the choson or the kallah was someone who couldn't write his name in Hebrew. So, um, so then perhaps I've told this story before. What they did, they, they, uh, they made a dot-to-dot, and he should be able to make a dot-to-dot and sign his n- name, uh, in Hebrew. Now, actually, that is not really valid. In a case of a get, that would be allowed because a get is of an urgency to-- If the woman needs to, uh, be released from, from her husband, and, uh, we never know where he's gonna be next. So therefore, they're allowed doing that kind of shtick. But in this case, uh, which is a ketubah, that, that alone was not okay. The truth was, this was somewhere in Spanish, um, in South America somewhere. He actually signed his name in Spanish too. So the, uh, Hebrew dot-to-dot Itself wasn't valid, but it was a Kashrut

18:13 because he had signed his name also in Spanish, which is, which is perfectly okay. Let's move on, though. All right. So we were learning this past week in Gemara Eruvin. We were talking about garments, and it came up about a, um, there, as far as I remember, it's talking in the context of perhaps of, of, uh, Muktze possibly, um, or the Kabbalah Tumah. And it came through my mind, uh, about using a thin gartel for a Kinyan. And sometime-- but by Chasan usually, the Mesadek Kedushim will bring a cl-a clean cloth, uh, for the parties who are committed themselves to do a Kinyan Sudar to lift up this cloth. And I've seen sometimes people say, "Why do you need that? You can just use a gartel." And it says, indeed, in the Gemara there, in Eruvin, it says that tziltsel, uh, which means a thin ribbon. But it's because it's been made as a, uh, as a beged, as a garment. Although it doesn't have the minimum of three-by-three finger breadth or six centimeter square, but it's also considered a garment. So I was just curious to compare. That's talking about, uh, the Kabbalah Kabbalah Tumah, and here we're talking about doing a Kinyan. So I just looked up the Nitei Gavriel, which talks about, um, this, I read, about officiating by a wedding, and he writes the following. "One should be Mehader to take a, a, a cloth which is three by three etzbaots, and therefore one should avoid using thin garments which don't--

19:47 like a, like a gartel. Some say that it is okay, even though it doesn't have, uh, the shir. It is quite common that people will use a thinner gartel, but he does recommend to use a, uh, a proper cloth which has got a shir of gimel or gimel. So, you know, if I have that with my, with me, I'll use it. If I won't, then I'll use a gartel. Let's move on. I've actually seen some people even saying use a pen also counts, but I prefer to do things more traditionally. Okay, um, the next thing which we have on our list, which I don't have a slide for, is a guest brought us on Friday night. A guest for Friday night meal brought us a box of chocolates. May we enjoy the treat on Shabbos? Now, I think we once discussed this in one of these shiurim, and there is the Alter Rebbe, I mean, the beginning of Sheini Yutches, if food was cooked on Shabbos, that's called Ma'aser Shabbos, and you're not allowed to eat it until after Shabbos. Um, it depends. The person himself who did it, it's best, um, uh, after Shabbos, but for everyone else, after Shabbos, you're allowed to use it. But, um, so that's if the, the food was cooked on Shabbos. But what about things which were carried? So the Alter Rebbe in Siman Taf Eh-hei talks about food which was carried beyond the Tehum. And he says that's okay to use because the carrying from beyond the

21:21 Tehum, we're talking about Yom Tov, is an Isur D'Rabbanan. Because it's an Isur D'Rabbanan, therefore it's okay to use this stuff which was carried. Which implies that if it were an Isur Min HaTorah, Melacha, then even though it didn't change. There is a, in Siman Sheini Yutches, Mishnah Brurah brings from the Chay Odom, a svara that since carrying doesn't change the article, it's not as if, uh, it was an egg and now it became an omelet. It's the same article brought from A to B. The Chay Odom is a bit, um, inclined to be Mekil to, um, if it was brought Bashogeg. But from the Alter Rebbe, we have, I get the impression that the Alter Rebbe takes the view that because the Melacha De'Rabbanan was done of carrying it through Reshus Harabim, then you wouldn't be allowed to use it until the end of Shabbos. Um, I, I have written, you see in the notes here, a reference in the Sivim B'teish Lichas, Volume Two, page two twenty-eight onwards. There's a long discussion about that, and so it can be taken from there. We'll go on to the next question, and that is, um, also this week, which came up this past week. We had, um, Antanet Esther and came-- I, I had the-- I was, uh, called up for Shlishi, and it was, uh, going through my mind, what's the story? When, when it comes to Kriyas HaTorah and there are the various Psukim which are said aloud. So there's three Psukim we

22:54 have in the, in the Rishon. , And in Shlishi, we have , and then we have . So we have three Psukim where the Sibur join in. Now, here is the Mishnah Brurah in Siman Taf Kuf Samech Vav, as you can see. And he writes that the, when the people join in and say , and they say , they are saying this as a plea, as a prayer. "Please, Hashem, um, retract from your anger," et cetera. Whereas the , the one whom has the Aliyah, the and the , they should not say the Psukim along with the congregation. When the, when the congregation have finished saying those Psukim aloud, then the Chazan says the, those Psukim aloud, and alongside with him, the one who has the Aliyah. So this point that the Chazan should not say it with the Kahal, but say it separately, and there's a certain rationale added here, that they are saying it as a prayer. You are saying it as re-as reading a record as it is in the Torah. So it's two different things. So the source of this is in the Sefer Hasidim. And so can read here at the top of the page, when Vayichal is read on a fast day. The Chazan, who is the reader, he will fall silent. He will fall silent until they have said those, those relevant, those Psukim. And he continues the second line. The congregation are saying those Psukim as a prayer. They are saying it as a supplication. He is

25:15 not pleading now. He's just reporting the record. This is what Moshe did. He's relating what happened. So here we have... Now, if you noticed, the opening line. He does not talk about the one who has the Aliyah. He has. This is in this print. In other prints of the Sefer Hasidim, it has. They put in a verb to say there's two people, and that's where the Mishnah is following. Ha-oy, there's, there's two people. There's the one who has the Aliyah and the chazan. So this is-- There's, uh, two ways of learning the Halakha here. I have in my hand a, uh, a journal called Meged Yo- Mimeged Yerachim. Now, this is from the-- There's annual. There used to be. S-Since COVID, it hasn't happened, but there used to be every year, a Yarchai Kallah, a, like, a conference of Rabbonim in Kiryas Joel in Upstate New York. And the, uh, p-the, the, the, uh, the droshas, the, the pilpulim which were presented were then published in these journals. So one year, I-- that's what came through my mind. Rabbi, uh, Moshe Bogomilsky, zal zayn gezunt. He, he spoke about this topic. When does the... This very question. When does the one who has the Aliyah say the psukim, with the chazan or with the kohal? He pointed out that, first of all, it was-- it looks like... Observers said that they saw the Rebbe would say Hashem, Hashem, start off with the tzibbur, and then say it slowly and continue along with the And he

27:15 then pointed out another thing. There is a concept of altif reish min hatzibbur. So if the tzibbur are saying Hashem, Hashem, kel rachum ve-chanun, so you should be joining in with them. So that's the one side. On the other side, perhaps you should be saying, um... And then there's the, uh, he goes into the whole pilpul. When you have an Aliyah, you make the bracha. Is the bracha for, for your reading, but you're not really reading in public. In the olden times, originally, people would have an Aliyah, they would read in public. So understand, you said Birkat HaTorah in the morning, and then you have an Aliyat HaTorah. So you're, you're making a public reading. For this, you're making a bracha, but you're standing there standing silent. Or even if you're saying it, um, very quietly, so what? But why are you making a bracha on this? Therefore, some poskim learn sha'at that you are really making a bracha for the chazan. It's the chazan who's saying aloud. Instead of him saying the bracha seven times over or three times over in a, in a, in a, in a weekday. So then you're doing the brachos for him, but really, the hero is really him, and you are really just part of the congregation just saying the brachos for him. If that's the case, then you should say the, you should say these psukim along with the congregation. Then there's another opinion of poskim who say, "No. Well, you are standing up there. I mean,

28:32 I know you're not, you're not projecting your voice. You're saying it quietly. But you are saying it quietly in a profile as if it were a public profile. And for this, you're making a bracha." So according to this, you're, uh, you're making a bracha on your standing there and your reading. If that's the case, then you should be saying together with the chazan. So actually, he goes through the, um, different ways of looking at it, and there's merit in both ways. And as I say, he's, um, the observers said that the, uh, the Rebbe would be noyek to say at least Hashem, Hashem, which start off with the tzibbur, and then go on, uh, say it slowly, and to join on, uh, join in with the chazan. Um, does that mean that that's halakha for everyone else? Lov davka, but just it's, it is certainly, um, interesting. Now, um, I see here someone's putting a question about before we're speaking about chocolates. What about a guest who brings chocolates and carried them in an area where there is an eruv? If there is an eruv, then you're allowed to use them. Yeah. Someone was-- I, I, I really put this question because someone asked me, "If someone brings chocolates on Shabbos, do they have to serve them?" I s-- Well, my response was, "You are the balabos in your house. You set the agenda, and no one who brings stuff to your house should-- You shouldn't feel beholden that you have to put things on

29:56 the table because they brought them. You are the balabos. If you do, the I think the Whoever it was. In your house, you are in control. Whether you do want to serve or not, you shouldn't, you shouldn't feel that you have to serve. If you want to serve-- They were-- I think possibly they were thinking because the person put it on Shabbos. If they did, don't use it. If they don't use it, then perhaps the person was doing a tircha on Shabbos, um, which is not, not being used. Uh, uh, still, I, I just feel that a person, Leo said, in the, uh, to quote the Megillah, "Leo is called ish soyr ve'vesoy." It's your house, and it's very nice you have guests, but ultimately, it's, it's you are the one who is, uh, deciding what's being served or not. Let's move on. Okay. So here, m-prim afternoon, I get this call, and there i-- You know, in the Torah, we have various kri ksiv. We've got words which are written one way and pronounced differently. Sometimes the pronunciation is starkly different. In the Torah we have words like that. Usually, it's very, um, minor difference. But then this was a minyan. It looks like everyone was following in handwritten Megillas. So no one corrected the balkona. He said, he says, "Va'hi Be'omrom." And he-- and you're meant to pronounce it K'omrom. So now, after the Megillah, everyone's gone home, and someone realized, oops, they didn't-- the balkona said Be'omrom, not K'omrom. In other words,

31:31 he said the way of the ksiv, not the way of the kri. So this is his question. Do they have to now tell everyone, come back to shul and hear it all over again? All right. So we have in Shechen Aruch, in Hilchos, um, Kriya haMegillah, siman tof, reish tzadi. Says the mechaber, ein medakdek in b'tor u'yoiseh. If you make a, a mistake in the Megillah, it's not-- we don't, don't, one doesn't have to make a fuss about it. This is based upon, uh, we'll, we'll see in this story in the Gemara in a, in a, in a moment. V'yesh oimrim. Some say that this laxity is only b'tos shehaloshn va'inyan echad. It's only when the language and the context is the same. Ka'ahu uvde de trei talmidei de have yas ve kamei de rav. It's a story in Gemara Yerushalmi. There were two talmidim sitting in the presence of Rav. Chad kori Yehudim, ve chad kori Yehudim. Because in the Megillah, um, uh, several times, the word Yehudim is spelt with a W. And the W would imply that you should read it Yehudim. So one read it, but it's, it's a kri ksiv, and the, the, uh, correct pronunciation is Yehudim, not Yehudim. And they-- one read one way, one read the other way. V'lo yahad de rav echad minayhu. And Rav did not correct either of them. Didn't say you have to go back. So here we have a source that a minor mistake, one doesn't need to repeat. Aval tos acher

33:17 lo. But if it was a, a more significant mistake, then that laxity wouldn't be applicable. So the Mishnah Berurah adds, like yoshev and yoshav. Or you made omad. Yoshev is sitting in the present tense. Yoshav, he sat in the past tense. That would change the pshat. So now this comes back to the question here. K'omrom v'omrom. Does that change the pshat? So you could read it in English, when they said to him on a daily basis, as is said to him on a daily basis. I think that as and when are so close that they don't-- it's not a significant change. Similar to the diff-- I mean, the difference over here is a beis and a, and a chaf, but it's-- But then also in Yehudim and Yehudim, it's also an extra Yud being, being put, put in there. So my inc-- my inclination was to say that y-they are yoitze. Although you could, uh, s-um, you know, dig in and say the mechaber, the Shechen Aruch says, haloshon v'inyan. I looked around in, in me'lah-- in a contemporaries' forum. I couldn't find anyone who addresses this question directly, the kri and ksiv question, uh, um, which is, uh, slightly different pronoun-- uh, different wording or, or different, different letters here. Um, you could say loshon v'inyan. It says inyan, it's like, the inyan is the same. The concept is the same. You could arg-argue that the loshon, the word, the, the actual wording is slightly different. But b'klal, here we're talking about a din

34:56 l'chora. It's not a din de'oraisa. I know it's de'v'kabbalah, but it, uh, it was ab de'eved, and so remain that, uh, they were yoitze. But, uh, there is room to, to, uh, be mechaber. Okay. Reb Mendel Safen is asking a question. If the guest had brought the, uh, the, the cho-- box of chocolates through a karmelis, would the halakha be different? Probably one would be more lenient then, yes. Because the, the emphasis there is because it's a din, um, um, de'oraisa. Okay. Uh, so I've got a call. Um, before we go further, coming back to this, um, someone asked me on Friday or Thursday. We have in Megillah several pesukim which we repeat, and that's because of-- There are different nuschos, different versions, let's say. Uh, so the particular one which he mentioned was, "L'harog u'labed, v'l'harog u'labed." So we repeat that. "L'harog u'labed, v'l'harog u'labed." That's because there's a, a, a doubt whether the vav should be there or shouldn't be there. In Hebrew, when you have several words in sequence. So there's different ways whether you have to put a, the vav be-before each, uh, each one, or you can manage without the vavs. And this, I think, I think that Ibn Ezra at the beginning of Shemos talks about this, that it's okay to have Reuven, Shimon, Levi, v'Yehuda, or you can have Reuven, v'Shimon, v'Levi, v'Yehuda. There's, there, there, there's, there's-- You can have Reuven, v'Shimon, Levi, v'Yehuda. There's-- It's, it's optional to have a vav or not. I'm talking about

36:40 in, in, in style of writing, in, in expressing yourself and speaking. So here we have l'hashmid. It can be l-- in, it can be correct in, in, in the writing to say, "L'hashmid, l'harog, u'labed," or, "L'hashmid, v'l'harog, u'labed." Both of them are correct in, in, uh, in, in, in style. Both are acceptable styles. Question is, what was actually the tradition? What was actually written by, uh, Chiknes Dovid, et cetera, back in the times of Mordechai V'estar? So because we have a dilemma whether it should be ve or without, with, with all, so we say that poss-- those two words twice. Um, in davening, in the B'may Mat-- B-B'mei Mordechai Vester, so then whoever composed that tefillah can choose to put la'areg or, or ve'areg. It doesn't matter. It's, it's... So the, the person was asking why in sh-- in Megillah we, we repeat that phrase, and why in, um, in Al Hanissim we don't repeat the phrase. And the answer is, in Megillah, we have to say exactly the way it was, uh, written down back then, and we have a dilemma, so we say it twice. In the Shemonah Esreh, it's the style of whoever composed that tefillah, and then it's okay if it's slightly, if it's one way or the other. Either way is okay. Let's move on. Um, guy-- someone who-- one of these, um, very kind people who, a b-big Balt stock himself, but also on Purim distributes significant sums. People raise, uh, um, money. Baruch Hashem, myself, last, I don't

38:13 know, twenty or some years, people give me money for, um, Matanos L'evyonim, and I was able to, uh, distribute three thousand pounds because people had given me some more, some less, and we were able to distribute that on Sh-- on, on, uh, Purim. And so the question was, the money which you're giving to this poor family is going to be, um, unreasonable that it's the amount which would be for the use on Purim. It's way beyond their-- what, what they would spend on Purim. So is it-- does it make sense? So should Matanos L'evyonim be geared to their Purim expenditures, or can it be, uh, giving them a, a, a larger sum, which would be, you know, up to them to use for later? So, it's interesting also, earlier in the week, last week, someone asked me, people give him, this is an-another person, people give him sums for Matanos L'evyonim. He runs a Chabad house. Is he allowed to put some of the money, let's say fifty percent to the Chabad house and fifty percent to give out to poor families? I says, "No, you're not allowed to do that." If people gave you money for Matanos L'evyonim, all of that goes for Matanos L'evyonim. Um, they said, "If they give me just a push-- tzedakah pushka." If you have a tzedakah pushka, then you can do what you want with it. They give it to you, but if they give it to you clearly for Matanos L'evyonim. And this we have clearly in

39:37 the Shulchan Aruch. You see, Siman tof, heh, tsadi, daled, sif beis. "Ein meshannim m'oseh Purim l'tzedakah acheres." The money given for tzedakah-- for, for, for, uh, for Purim should not be given for other things. You can't take Matanos L'evyonim money. The gabbi can't take that money and use it for fixing the ayaluv or fixing the mikvah, et cetera. "Vedafka hagaboi. Aval ha'ani yochal la'asos bo ima sheyetze." But the poor man himself is allowed to use that money for what they wish. They don't have to spend the Matanos L'evyonim on Purim. They can spend it on other thing. They can put it aside. So my son-in-law in, in, uh, Detroit, in, in, in Chicago, he sent me that a, a k-- a similar halakhah, which you have in Siman reish, mem, beis in Hilchas Shabbos. It says, if someone was sent-- was, was received some food for Shabbos, he shouldn't use it on Shabbos. They shouldn't use it on weekday. Someone sends you, uh, food for Shabbos. So it's recommended you shouldn't use it on Friday. But after Rebbe, as in bracket, it's af midat chassidus. Al min hadin ein issur ba'davar. But min hadin, there's no issur to use that food at another occasion. And he gives a reference to Tosefta heh, tsadi, daled, which is our halakhah. Now, the recipient has, has a, a choice whether to, um, use it then or not. Now, if you remember last, this came out of the continuation of last week's discussion. What is the shir of Matanos

41:06 L'evyonim? Is the shir of Matanos L'evyonim a prutah or the shir of a meal, a meal's worth? I mentioned last week that the Aposkim would say it's the shir of a meal's worth, which is, uh, we mentioned a, a couple of pounds, whatever it may be. So my son-in-law says, "But whenever the Rebbe spoke about how much Matanos L'evyonim is, he mentioned invariably he would say a prutah, without saying there's another shiur." And I said last week, the Mishnah Berurah, um, put it, uh, that brings from the ritual, the shir is a prutah. Now, thinking carefully, if you say the shir of Matanos L'evyonim is the shir of a meal, so then you've limited Matanos L'evyonim for, for just to be used on Purim. By saying that Matanos L'evyonim is a prutah, you're saying it's a gift you should give the poor. What he does with it is up to him. It's not, it's not to feed him on Purim. So in a sense, by saying that Matanos L'evyonim is a shir of a meal, in a sense, you've kind of limited that the Matanos L'evyonim is, is, is just for Purim. Whereas by saying that Matanos L'evyonim is a prutah, so then, uh, then it's, i-it's, it, it is allowing this, which is being said. He can use it for anything. And I... You know, the Gemara says that when, when Purim occurs on Shabbos, as it could be, if your Purim's on a Friday, it's in, in, in, in Yerushalayim, et cetera. In

42:23 Makov- Makov, Purim is on Shabbos. So then you have what's called Purim Meshulesh. Some things are done on Friday, some on Shabbos, some on Sunday. So one of the things which are done on Friday rather than on Sunday is Matanos L'evyonim. And Gemara says, because the poor, the whole year, they're waiting for, they're waiting for the, when Matanos L'evyonim. It makes sense that, uh, if, if Matanos L'evyonim is only to be used on Purim just for one meal, I find it difficult that they are looking forward a whole year excitedly when's Purim gonna come for one meal. Whereas if you're gonna say that the more is Purim can be a, a sizable sum. I, I know it's one prutah, but one prutah of one person and, uh, and people can give more, and they will give more, and it can be for many people. So then they will be able to receive a, a substantial amount, and that will tide them over for, for a significant amount of time. And that makes sense that the oni is looking forward, when will Purim come, and he'll have an, an injection of cash. Okay. I see here on the chats, if I'm not mistaken, the Rebbe explains in the Sicha of Purim, the inyan of tzedakah on Purim is different, and the mitzvah is creating simcha for those ani. A later date has missed the simcha. Nu, so, the-- I understand perhaps your question. The answer is, the fact that he receives the money on, on Purim,

43:47 whether he spends it on Purim or not, it doesn't matter. Tell someone he's won the pools. You'll see simcha. Ah, he's not be able to-- He, he won't be able to spend it all today, but the person receives, and now he's got-- He had the pressure and a worry, and now he's got an amount of money. This is, this is simcha. That in itself is a simcha. Um, someone's asking, can maaser money be used for matanas lavonim? The answer, basically, no, because you can't use, um, maaser money for something which you're required to. But once you've given your minimum matanas lavonim, you're given the first two prutas, all the rest you can use maaser money. So the minimum, you should not be using maaser money, but anything beyond the minimum can-- you can use maaser money for matanas lavonim. Let's move on. Um, right. So in passing, we had the discussion last week about boiler and, um... Oh, we were talking about this, this, um, French press coffee thing. And in passing, I mentioned about removing a teabag, and a couple of our listeners from the recording were, uh, a bit surprised what I'd said, so they asked me to revisit this. So I'm gonna go... Here, again, this is from Shabbos Kahalacha, from, um, from Rav Farkash, and he writes the following. I-- Taking out the teabag from the water. The mere taking the bag out of the water itself is not boilor, and that I discussed last week, that taking a chunk of

45:24 meat out of a cholent is not boilor because they are so distinct from one another. Whereas taking little pieces of meat out of a goulash for a later use, that would be a problem because they are-- there is a, a state of jumble or con-confusion. So unjumbling a confused state, that's boilor, but when things are clearly distinct, that's not a problem of boilor. So lifting the bag itself out of the water in itself is not a problem of boilor. But there are those who raise the question that they say that you shouldn't do it directly, like you normally pull out the string in a weekday. You should do it with a spoon, not to take it out on its own. And he says the reason, because if you're going to t-- lift the teabag, and as you're lifting it, there's gonna be drips of essence dripping out from the teabag, and they're gonna drip back into the cup. So then it's as if you've strained these, uh, drops of essence from the, the, the, uh, tea leaves into, uh, and you'll use this kind of a strainer, which is the teabag. Others are not worried about that either because you're not interested in those few drops. Your tea is strong enough. So those who say you, you can just remo-remove it normally. But, um, others say you should lift it out with a spoon, which is a point which I mentioned last week. Um, but beyond that one doesn't need to be machmir. Um, someone's

46:47 put on the chat, how much is the minimum in, in pounds? So, um, what I mentioned last week, the minimum is, well, now we've gone back to the shir of pruta. I mentioned last week, the shir of pruta is one and a half pence, uh, approximately, and therefore, um, with three pence in English penny, m-money, you'll be yotzer matanas lavonim. Um, o-one and a half pence to, to ani, yeah. To... Right. Let's now, um, go on to the, uh, question which, again, I received after the, um, the, the agenda was sent out. So I received this question. Here is one of our shluchim, and he was busy all Purim reading megillah, one after the other, and he made a late, uh, megillah reading and, uh, by then he had lost his voice. Says-- They say he's in middle of reading the megillah, and he just can't go further without a, a sip of water. So can he, um, stop megillah and make a bracha and have a glass of water? And he's also worried, he was worried. He called me on Friday. Also, what about Shabbos, in middle of Krias HaTorah? Could he have a sip of water in middle of Krias HaTorah? So really, he, mamash, he saved me from a, from a predicament because I had a problem in that it says, "Shloshim yom lefinei hag," thirty days before Pesach, we have to start talking about Pesach. I didn't have any, any questions about Pesach. All of this was going back about Purim

48:26 and, uh, Taanis Esther. Didn't have any questions connec-connected to Pesach. So the Rebbe Sheyer holfen, and this, this, this question connects with Pesach because we have in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, it says about bedikas chametz, and he, talking about making a bracha on bedikas chametz and simchat olam et beis, and are you allowed to talk during bedikas chametz. So in Seif Zayin, you have the text on the, on the screen. "Vamedvorim amurim," that which we have a problem of hefsek. "Ki sheasach kodem shehiskel livdo." If before you started the bedikas chametz, you made a bracha, then you start talking about unrelated matters. "Aval im sach leach shehiskel livdo," if you did speak once you've started the bedika, you're in the process of bedika, "ein tzorch laach zed havarich." You do not need to re-repeat the bracha. "Kei von shekvar hiskil b'mitzvah shebeirach aleha," because you're already in the process of the mitzvah. So you've got a mitzvah of bedikas chametz, which takes half an hour, two hours, whatever it is. Once you are-- And he later on, he compares this to a person who makes a bracha leishiv basukkah, and he's sitting in the sukkah, and whilst he's sitting in the sukkah, he's doing a mitzvah every moment. He, he talks about last year's, uh, last year's snowy weather. Nothing to do with the sukkah. It doesn't matter. It, it doesn't-- Because it's in between the bracha and... Like you make a bracha, barech pure eats, and you eat an apple. Whilst you're middle

50:04 of eating the apple, you can talk about other things. Between the bracha and the first bite of the apple, that's where you have a problem of hefsek. So the same thing with the mitzvahs. Once you've made the bracha on Krias HaMegillah, so then the fact that in the middle of the megillah, you will stop to, to, to, uh, for a sip of water, make a bracha, so that's not a, uh, it's not a hefsek. It does not invalidate your bracha. He did mention because he was c-- he's concerned about having to drink during Kriyas Hatorah, he would make kiddush before, before, um, Kriyas Hatorah. After Shakra, he'd make kiddush, and then he'd be have-- wouldn't have a problem of, uh, sipping, if necessary, during Kriyas Hatorah. Uh, of course, uh, it would be advisable if you tell the people that he's done kiddush, not to teach them a not good example of sipping stuff during, uh, Kriyas Hatorah before kiddush. Um, right. Now, certainly, it's not recommended to interrupt in middle of megillah. What we're saying here, it's not a hefsek. It doesn't invalidate. You don't have to do new brachos. Here we have in Shulchan Aruch, the Alter Rebbe, before I go back to the Shulchan Aruch in the top of the screen, the lower part. The Alter Rebbe, he, he refers to Tov Kup Salig Beis. That's in Hilchis Tekias Shofar. That once you've made a bracha, and you started off the tekias, and in the middle of the tekias between one, one

51:24 tekia and the other, you made it, you made a mafsik, y-you don't have to make the brachos again. But let's come back to, you know, 'cause that was Tov Kup Salig Beis, and the top is from Tov Reish Salig Beis. So here, the Mechaber says, Shulchan Aruch says, "Koros serugin." If you read the megillah in with intervals, the haina shel posak bo vesho, you s- you stop the middle or took a pause, ve'ach akach azal lamokoim shel posak, and then you resume where you left off. Afi l'sho k're ligmesh hakula. Even if the pause was so long that you could have finished the whole megillah, yotzer, you're still yotzer. In Shema, it talks in Hilchot Kriyas about this kind of hefsek, but here he says you are yotzer. Um, afi l'soch b'ntaim, even if the pause was not just a silent pause, you also were chatting, also it doesn't invalidate your reading of the megillah. Mi hu goyarim bemishas soch b'ntaim. However, one should reprimand whoever talks in the middle of the megillah. One should reprimand them because it's not the right thing. It's a distraction, et cetera. But, um, but min haddin, you are yotzer, so back to the question. If he, he, he, well, he can't continue, he should be able to, um, stop and make a bracha. So last night, I do my rehearsals in sh- in, uh, we have Friday night, a mini sheer after ma'ariv, and one of the, uh, present, uh, Tamid HaChachamim raised a question. When you-- We've

52:53 gone through this not so long ago, I think. On water, one only makes a bracha on water if you are thirsty. But if, let's say, a person has to swallow a pill and a, uh, tablet, and they need to have some water, for that water, you don't make a bracha because you only make a bracha if it's, if you're, if you're thirsty. So he asked the question, if a person is not thirsty, he's just, he's parched. Uh, when he's, he's-- in other words, his, his throat is hurting him. Is that called drinking because you're thirsty? So I felt, um, it was a double hapashut, that it is, it's the same thing. So, uh, this morning, I used-- I took out... This was last night. This morning, I take-- took out a Sefer called Shaarei HaBracha, who talk-- Actually, it says that this question has been raised. I think the Sefer, Oz Nidberu from Rabbi Yomim Zilber raises this question, but the-- it seems to remain that that is indeed the halacha. That if you are-- The word is, if you're drinking water, let's say, just because your doctor's told you you have to have so much fluid in your body every day. So you're drinking, you're not thirsty at all, but you have no benefit from it. But, but here, it's giving you relief. It's giving you, um, uh, your, your feeling, a strain in your throat. It's giving you a sense of relief. It's giving you a hanu'a. So that would be, uh, justified

54:11 to, um, make a bracha. So I was pleased that I was able to, uh, corroborate that. Right. Um, I see here that someone is ma- wr-writing. There's a couple of points here on the chat, and we'll finish off with this. Oh, some long chats here. I don't know whether we can manage everything. Serugin is a style of writing where the pesukim were not written in full, but only the first word and each letter on which... I, I, I don't think that's what he means over here. Here, it means serugin as in the reading, not in the style of writing. Um, right. So this is you asking about the bracha, which we just addressed. Finally, you have here regarding forwarding matanos l'evyonim to those, um, that come to your Chabad house. What will be the status of the gift aid, um, be? Assuming that you can claim it down the line, is it designated for aniim, even without not Purim by the time it comes, or can it be absorbed into the Chabad stock? Um, good point, and I believe that the, the, the government, um, refund or whatever you want to call it, um, is, is not, is not part of the matanos l'evyonim. They've given you, um, let's say twenty pounds, and that twenty pounds of matanos l'evyonim, the, uh, the extra money which you get, get come from the government. Um, really, uh, they, they, they could even ask for it back, but they've given to you. I'm not talking about in halacha,

55:34 but, um, I think that belongs to the Chabad house. Um, right. Okay. Um, we'll stop with this and wish you all a gut voch and, uh, Mar bimah simcha. And, um, as I said, and then for the next week, I'll see. Perhaps we'll do this shiur a little bit later, perhaps quarter to nine, if we-- I feel like eight thirty is a bit too tight. And, uh, but after that, we'll still have to decide, um, which way, whether we go to Sunday evening or, uh, Thursday evening. But, uh, thank you all for joining us, and look forward to meeting you in good health. Call later.