בחוקותי תשפ״ב

00:00 Good evening. Welcome to this year, this week of Parshas Bechukosai, Chazak. And so we'll go straight into our first question, which I got already beginning of the week, where the Parsha, uh, Bechukosai is always, um, at about two weeks to Shabbos before Parshas, uh, before Shavuos. And the reason is that in the Parshas Bechukosai, there is the Tochat Ha, the rebukes, and this, uh, idea that we don't want that to be close to Matan Torah. And therefore, the way the schedule has been made of the, uh, reading of the Torah, that we have the combined Parshas, et cetera, to work it out, the Parshas Bechukosai should be one Shabbos plus away from Shavuos. Interesting this year that at Eitz HaZrael, actually, they have it two Shabbos in, in Israel, but fine. Because of the Tochat Ha being, um, uh, chapter, has a passage full of curses, therefore, there is a reluctance to call someone to the... To be-- to have that Aliyah. People would decline that Aliyah. So there was always, uh, historically, there'd been a lot of difficulties what to do about the who's gonna have the Aliyah of Tochat Ha. And what became quite popular is that the Baal Koreh who's already there would just ha-have that Aliyah without, without being called up. What I have heard in some places, they have the Minhag that the following Shabbos, the Baal Koreh is given a compensation. He's given an-another Aliyah because he took, um, the Tochat Ha, the preceding Shabbos. I don't know how

01:51 widespread that is. Meanwhile, this is the general practice that the Baal Koreh is the one who has the Aliyah of Tochat Ha. The Tochat Ha, um, is in tw-twice in the Torah. We have once in Parshas Bechukosai and again in Parshas Ki Savo. Parshas Ki Savo, it is, um, also one Shabbos plus before Rosh Hashanah, so the following Shabbos is Nitzavim. Nitzavim will always be the Parshah before Rosh Hashanah. And the difference is that in Parshas Bechukosai, the Tochat Ha is in Shelishi. In Parshas Ki Savo, the Tochat Ha is in Shishi. The dilemma which we have here is if your Baal Koreh is a Kohen or Levi. So normally, a Kohen or Levi would have either the first or the second Aliyah respectively. But here, it's the third or the sixth Aliyah, so how do you deal with that? So actually, the zip code for where this is discussed in Shulchan Aruch is where, where is the calendar discussed in Shulchan Aruch. So that in the, uh, end of Hilchas Rosh Chodesh. So the Taf Chaf, that's the Rosh Chodesh, uh, well, until Taf Chaf Ches. Taf Chaf Ches is really the beginning of Hilchas Pesach. So Taf Chaf Ches is where there's discussion of, of the calendar and how you-- which Parshas go together, et cetera. So in that place, we've got... This is a quote from the Mishna, a copy from the Mishnah Berurah there, where he writes, "Ubecher bimikomas noyeigin shehashaliach tzibbur ka-koireh be'atsmo oyle." The, the Shaliach tzibbur stroke, the

03:39 Baal Koreh, he is the one who takes the Aliyah be'atsmo on his own. V'nochen, that's a good idea. Now, then he says, "Vafilu hu kohen." So what's, what should he do if he's a Kohen? So when it comes to Parshas Bechukosai, "Yochal likroes mitchilas Parshas Bechukosai ad achar hateuchacha." So he should read from the beginning of the Sedra until the end of Shelishi. That should be given to the, either to the Kohen or in the case of the Levi. So he'll read from Sheini-- He'll read Sheini and Shelishi. And then, "Uminyan hakoreim yaslim mishom ve'holo." And then you need to have seven Aliyahs. So then one of the Aliyahs between Revi and Shevi will be divided into two, and in that way, you'll be able to make up your, your quota of, uh, of seven Aliyahs. That's all very well in Parshas Bechukosai. So the Kohen can read from the beginning of the-- The Baal Koreh can read from Rishon or Sheni all the way till the end of the Tochat Ha plus. In Parshas Ki Savo, what about in Parshas Ki Savo where it's in Shishi? So that's not, not possi- it's not possible for him to st- to read from, in one Aliyah from the beginning all the way till the end of Shishi because there won't be enough afterwards to divide for the other six Aliyahs or the five Aliyahs. So then, Mishnah Berurah suggests the other way around. It's Hamtzem Sheyishtalem min yakrim ad shom, that you should divide seven Aliyahs,

05:13 um, before Shishi, and Shishi will then be what's called Achren. Veshuhu yihiye Achren. Now, in Chabad, this is not done. In-- But in the world, you are allowed to be mosif. And so there's an idea of having an eighth Aliyah or plus. Achren would be an extra Aliyah. So you already got your quota of seven Aliyahs, uh, done, covered. And then the s-rest of the Sedra is the eighth Aliyah. And for the eighth Aliyah, it can be a Kohen or a Levi also. And first of the Ve'aloch, et cetera. Okay, that's all very well according to the Minhag of the Mishnah Berurah. Um, and I think most, most Kehillahs do allow idea of giving Chayav, and therefore you can have an eighth Aliyah, which can therefore the Baal Koreh could have the Tochat Ha until the end of the Sedra, as in the, as in Achren In Chabad, we don't do, um, Hesofis. There's a whole chew in the Semercedek. I think it's similar, Matei, whatever. There's a whole chew explaining this whole concept of Hesofis, and the bottom line is that we see in the letter of the Rebbe, which is published for Yitzhvat of Shinyudalef, we don't do Hesofis. Not now. I don't know. I'm gonna hold people. Why? And as a result, what you're gonna do-- So then what I've seen done is that the, um, so the Balkoita can't take Shishi, so the Gabbe will take Shishi, also not being called by name. He'll just go over and take it. That's

06:43 what I've start-- seen being done before. Uh, so we've got here two options. In Parsas Mekukesi, it's easier that the Balkoita reads all the way through, uh, till the end of, from, till the end of Shlishi. Whereas in Parsas, uh, Kisovri, that will be, that, that solution may not be, uh, available. Okay. Let's move on to our next question, and that is... Ah. So, Morachem, since, um, Yudalev Nisan, I was looking for something, uh, Hesofra, a new, new institution for the COVID Yudalev Nisan. And so Rebbe Shtripligen gave me the idea to do a, um, a, a little bit of this year in, in, in Ivrit, in Hebrew. And so last night, I did the first three questions of our, of this year today. I discussed last night in a, in a Hebrew session. So this morning, I already got a, a question on the question. Okay. So his question was that he is the, uh, Shliachna somewhere in Europe. For Lecher, he's the Balkoita. But not only that, there's no one even capable of dealing with, with the Haftera. Typing error in the, uh, on the sheet. Anyway, there's no one else that able to, to read the Haftera either. Now, he'll have Shlishi and also Maftir. Is that an issue, or is it not an issue? So let's read in. Here we have the Alter Rebbe of Shechinorach. So the first quote is from Siman Reish Pay Base. The second quote is from Reuv Siman Reish Pay Dalet. So Reish Pay Base is

08:27 the name of Chris Otero on Shabbos. If there's no one in Shul, eh, who is, who's capable of doing Maftir, um, only one person who, uh, one of the people already had an Aliyah. So then he says he still has to have a reading from the Torah before having, um, reading the Haftera. Um, where is this? The Ima Shvi, anyway, what happens if the Shvi doesn't know how to read from the Novi? So then the Shliach Tzivo say Kaddish, um, and then person who knows how to do Maftir will have the Aliyah and has to read from it. So let, let me explain what's going on here. There is a-- certainly in, in, in some, some communities, they will give Maftir to one person, even if that person is not capable of reading the Haftera. And then the Balkoita or someone knowledgeable will take over, read the Haftera, and then the one, the other person will say the Brachas. So the Alter Rebbe is not happy with that. See that again. Uh, we'll see the second quote. If a cotton was called up for Maftir, and he read from the Torah, but he doesn't know how to do Haftera. It can be an adult also. So then it talks about someone else filling in. It's not acceptable to call up to Maftir a person who's not capable of reciting the Haftera. If he was, then someone else will do the Haftera. So in communities where they do the Minha Hagah Gro of reading the Haftera

10:17 from a parchment, so most people are not capable of reading without vowels, et cetera. Haftera is not such a, a familiar text. So then in those communities, it's quite standard that the Balkoita also will read the Haftera. So they won't-- It doesn't mean he has to admit Bali of Maftir. Someone else has Maftir, but the Ha- the Balkoita takes over and reads the Haftera aloud. The Alter Rebbe is not happy with that, and he says that's the Badiyevit. It's not a Lechat Chila. To explain why. There is a, a point here that there should not be that, that reading from Novi is on the same pedestal as reading from the Torah. If it would be conceivable that someone can go up and read from Novi, and he hasn't read from Torah at this, at, in this setting. So there'll be the, uh, perspective that, okay, Reuven had an Aliyah in Torah's Moshe in Chumash, and Shimon had an Aliyah in Yeshua or in, in, in, in Yeshaya, whatever it may be. So that's, that's not acceptable. To, not to put-- It shouldn't, there shouldn't be a person reading from the Novi who hasn't already read from the Torah, and then he also reads from the Novi. So it's an extra. So that's why we have here in this, in this situation to, to give over that someone else should have Maftir, and this Shliach, this Ba- whose Balkoita should read the Haftera. That's not okay, Lechat Chila. Not in, not in Chabad. According to the

11:58 Alter Rebbe, as I say, in some communities, it's done, but it's something which we wouldn't do. And therefore, it's-- But on the other hand, it's okay for him to have two Alias. It's okay for him to have- To have, uh, that's what he says in the . He'll have an Aliyah earlier on, and if he's the only one who could do Maftir, so he'll go again for Maftir. And there we have it. The, if only, if the only ones who are able to do Maftir have already had an Aliyah, so they'll have a second Aliyah. So they'll have one Aliyah, in our case, our Shliach who asked the question, he'll have one Aliyah at Sh-at Shlichi, and he'll have another Aliyah at Maftir, uh, and Haftarah. Let's, um, but one, one more point about this, where we have to be careful, is that it's, it's not ac-acceptable for a person to have two Aliyahs, one after the other, if it is in two separate Sifrei Torah. So let's say if for some reason, Mr. Shvi is the one who's going to do Maftir, and it's, let's say, it's on Shabbos HaChodesh or, uh, one of the Parashiot where you're taking out a separate Sifrei Torah, it's not acceptable for one person to stand there by the Torah, and he's read already one from one Sifrei Torah, and then switch over to read again from another Sifrei Torah. The resource for this is the story with the King Godol, where he would read on Yom Kippur

13:36 in presence for the, uh, all the people in the base-- in the, in the Azarah, and he had to read two sec-sections. One fr-from Acharei Mot and one from, uh, from Parashat Pinchas. Uh, and the second one, he said by heart. He didn't read it from another Sifrei Torah. And one of the reasons given in the Gemara is, , that the people shouldn't get the impression the reason why he's taking out another scroll is because the first one is something faulty. There's something missing there. So I once had this shailah, and I've written about it in the, in Sivim, uh, um, talking about Simchat Torah. So the Shliach here is actually a Kohen. But in Simchat Torah, he would have, uh, he wanted to have Chatam Soreš, like, uh, it's okay. A Kohen can have Chatam Soreš. But then he, he's the only one in the shul who, who can do a Maftir. So it's Chatam Soreš, it's in Soreš. And then for the Ma-ma-Maftir, it's in Parashat Pinchas. See, he can't, he can't have one after the other. He can't have one person being Kohen B'Torah. This is what you have in Shulchan Aruch, the end of, uh, Siman kuf lamed he. Um, sorry, sorry, Siman kuf mem daled. That you shouldn't have one person having two consecutive Aliyahs in two separate Sifrei Torah. If he had had an earlier Aliyah, and in between someone else had an Aliyah, then, then that would not be a problem for him, him to have. So if

15:00 he was Chatam Torah, and then someone else is Chatam Soreš, then he wants to have, uh, to do Maftir in Parashat Pinchas, that would have been okay. Let's move on. So for Pesach, we discussed about the maaser sheni coin. Anyone who has a coin, so then there's a time called Biur Maaser of disposable, disposal of any maaser which you've hoarded so far. And it talked about taking the coin and defacing it and throwing it into the sea, et cetera. So after Pesach, one of our listeners, uh, realized that they've actually got a stash of some maaser coins, which some are from previous years, some are from this year. What are you meant to do now? You didn't dispose of them. Um, by the way, during Chol Hamoed, I went to Brighton for a few hours and, um, threw my coin as far as I could into the sea. Probably someone else found it later, but fine. I defaced it first. Right. So now, what do they do after Pesach? Now, the, if we-- to remind you, there's a, the din of Biur Maaseret, of, of disposal of maaseret. So I've got here a quote from a Sefer called, uh, Helkat Shlomo by someone called Rab Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who is a, a great mumche, uh, expert in Halakha of agriculture, et cetera. And he writes, uh, in reference to your question about someone who did not dispose of his coin, which had designated for dis-- for the redemption and the, uh, exchange for the

16:31 maaser sheni. He did not dispose of it before the, before the last day of Pesach. What does he do now? Now, his question is also, if you remember the discussion then, you could take one coin, which has got a value of twenty or fifteen prutas. If it's got fifteen prutas in a coin, you can use that coin fifteen times. So here's, it says, you've got this coin. Now, what do you... Now, let's say you have a coin you've used fifteen times. You've used its full value. Well, on Erev Pesach or after Yom Tov Pesach, you could take that coin. Let's say this euro, you can just exchange it for a cent or for a, for a pruta. That instead of having to throw a euro into the sea, you only have to throw a, a, uh, a pruta into the sea. That's legitimate before Zman Habiyur. But what he's saying here now. But here, since this matbeah has already been kind of seized with krusha's maaser sheni, and it's past Zman Habiyur, so then you can no longer exchange it, exchange its, uh, prusha onto another coin, and you're gonna have to dispose of that actual coin itself. So, uh, that's the answer to the question. This euro would have to be, um, thrown into the sea and defaced first. Let's move on. Okay. The well-known, this next question, well-known minhag of not inviting people to a bris. Question was asked, what about a pidyon haben? Is there, is there this-- Is it the same,

18:04 or is there any difference? So let's trace the background of this inyan. So we have here, this is a Gemara at the bottom of the, uh, screen. It's a Gemara Pesachim Daf kuf yud gimel lamed beis. Where it says about seven people are menudin are, um, how do you translate the word menudin? But they are, uh, despised, they're disgraced, um, in ash-- lashamayim, and this is a list of things. And this last line on the page is, "V'yesh oimrim af mi she'eino meisav b'chaburas shel mitzvah." One who doesn't join in or in recline in a meeting, in a mitzvah meeting, a mitzvah get-together. Tosfos, which actually is on the n-following page, V'fidalu madalu. So he comments, Tosfos comments: "Ve'ein meisav b'sudas, uh, sudas mitzvah." If you notice, Tosfos has changed from chaburas shel mitzvah to sudas mitzvah. So he obviously, either he had a different girsa or he understood that it means that chabura refers to a suda. "Heinu sudas milah." This refers to a person who declines to participate in a feast of a, of a bris milah or a bedeksh. "De, uh, de nitzu midinah shel gehenom." A person that partic-participates in a suda of a bris will be saved from the judgment of Gehinnom. Or, "Nisuin bas talmid chacham o bas kohen l'kohen." Or if the marriage, which is a choshev, a marriage, a bas talmid chacham marrying to a kohen, this is considered also a mitzvah kind of marriage. And so to join in such a suda would be considered a

19:40 sudas mitzvah. So one who doesn't join in has got this, um, this s-stigma of being menude lashamayim. Now, let's took-- look at the screen now, top right of the screen. There, now we have a piece from the Shulchan Aruch Harav Bris Milah, and that is in Siman Res Samich, um, Res Samich He. And he says that, and Shulchan Aruch says the following: "V'nogu," the first is, "ves-no-nogein laasuis b'suda beyom milah." It's a custom to make a b-feast on the day of a bris milah. And then the Rama adds, "V'noga gin-- nogu lakachas minyan l'sudas milah." So he adds that we to try to have a minyan, that's number one. "U'mikra sudas mitzva," second point, it's referred to as a sudas mitzvah. Third point, "V'chal mi she'eino ochein b'sudas milah havi k'menude lashamayim." A person who, uh, declines to join in the suda of the, the feast of the bris is considered banished or, um, disgraced from heaven. "Davka if the people there are fine people," but if the people there are not fine people, then you don't have to. So that is the, that's the Piskei... That is the Shulchan Aruch, the Rama. To this adds the, we have the Bier Heitev. The Bier Heitev is a, uh, a digest of the two main commentaries on the page, which is Shach and Taz or whatever it may be. There were several people who, who made this kind of commentary called Bier Heitev, and in the Shulchan Aruch, the main Shulchan Aruch, which we use now,

21:23 it's the second or the third one. And the first one, I think, or the earliest one was called Rav Yom-- uh, Rav Yeshua Tiktin, for short, Maharit. So in this Bier Heitev, he says, "Look at the Bier Heitev of my predecessor, the Ma-Maharit." So looking back to the... Here's, so the middle quote on the right side of the page is from this Bier Heitev of Rav Yeshua Tiktin. So he writes the following. He says, "Not to get this, um, you know, menude lashamayim." So to, so then he says, "Therefore, yutsav l'shamash. If you don't intend to go to the bris, go over to the shamash," who's going around telling people, uh, it m-may not be the shamash in the shul. It could even be a servant of, like, the caterer kind of, saying, "You're invited." Go over to the one who's doing the inviting and tell him not to be, not invite me. "Im ein gey teilech. Don't invite me." So that, otherwise, if he invites you, then you're gonna be, you're gonna be in trouble. And so, so that's that earlier Bier Heitev. He quotes it. He says, "The second Bier Heitev says, 'Look at the Bier Heitev.' Lo heini yutzav. Tell the, tell the shamash not to call you." Then he quotes from a Sefer Mekor Mishmuel, the name of another Sefer. "Tov l'vatel," it's good to cancel this whole thing that the shamash calls people to the, um, bris milah feast because they may not go. Therefore, they may have good reasons,

22:56 whatever happening in their life. And by, because they're invited and they don't go, again, so they will be in, they will be in trouble. So again, I'm not sure whether the, either of these are referring to a shamash who makes an announcement in shul or a shamash who would go out, go over to individual people and invite them. But the minhag has been, has, has developed also that the, whoever makes the announcements in shul will not announce everyone's invited to the bris. He will announce just that the, uh, that the bris is gonna take place. Only employing the idea that there's gonna be a bris, and don't, you know, don't do inviting for this bris. Fine. Um, but still, the question is, which we haven't answered, what about inviting for a, for a pidyon haben? And so far, I haven't seen any reason to differentiate. If it's a sudas mitzvah, so what's the difference whether it's a pidyon haben or a suda of a bris, of a, of a bris milah? One more source, which I have here from a Sefer Kol Isah Bris, is one of these specialists talking about bris. And he says, "Tzorich iun tov." Um, I, I'd like to look into this much more carefully. Perhaps this whole business of, of declining an invitation is only when the baal bris himself, when the, the actual father, et cetera, the father or the mother, et cetera, if they invite you, then, then I can see more reason for concern. But if someone

24:26 else, a third party invites you, then that's not, he's not so concerned. Number two, perhaps only if you're invited twice because there was a certain etiquette of the people of Yerushalayim. They would not go to a meal, to a feast unless they were invited twice. Then he says a third thing. Perhaps it's only when there's no minyan without you, as there is a slight indication from the Shulchan Aruch. He's looking at the Shulchan Aruch. It says it's customary to take a m-- have a minyan. Then he says, "One who doesn't join in." So you get a slight impression that it's davka, um, if, if his absence prevents the happening of a minyan. So coming back to the question of pidyon haben, does it also apply to a pidyon haben? Don't see a strong reason not to. Um, however, if the people who are inviting are, are, they bale simcha themselves, then I think here there is a certain similarity. The poimer must say, though, that the minyan is, um, to be machbod only by a, by a bris, and I don't really have a, uh, very clear reason. We do have n- also this, uh, if there's, if there's a minyan without, without them, then they're not in- included in this, uh, Menudeh Lashimayim, et cetera. Again, I don't, I don't see a strong reason to differentiate be- between pidyon haben and, um, Bris Mila. And that which it says, it's El Medosh Anish Aguenem. Um, all right, there may be, uh, other wonderful things

26:01 about try- great, um, uh, pidyon haben of equal or greater, I don't know. Okay, let's move on. So here, the question here is, someone asked me this morning, or was it yesterday morning, goes to hi- his, his local shul, davens ma'ariv, uh, early on Friday night. And, uh, the question is, you get home after an early ma'ariv, can you start the meal when it's, uh, close to the time of Sefiras HaOmer? So here's an interesting Halacha, Al Tremed Shulchan Aruch, where he talks about eating before Sefiras HaOmer, and he says, "Lo yaschi lech ulafilu suda ktanah." It's not necessarily Friday night, it could be also. You shouldn't have a meal, even a small meal, Chatz Yishah kodem zeman Sefira. A half an hour before the time of Sefira. Now, that's, that's, that's okay. I was-- But-- And Al Tremed adds another interesting thing. D'hainei chatz yishah kodem bein hashemoshos. Half an hour before bein hashemoshos. And this is very interesting because we generally wait for tzeit hakochavim, for night-- for complete nightfall. So we wouldn't count... So really it looks like it could be even an hour between the time where you can't start a meal until you're actually gonna count Sefira. Now, earlier on in Al Tremed Shulchan Aruch, he had said that the, the prevalent minag was that the people would count Sefiras HaOmer during bein hashemoshos. Because Sefiras HaOmer is seen as a mitzvah d'rabbonon, therefore it would take the view of Sofek d'rabbonon l'kula, and therefore they permitted themselves to count

27:51 Sefira during bein hashemoshos. That explains very well why the Al Tremed says that you wouldn't be able to start a meal within a half an hour before the onset, before sunset. Whereas according to the minhag which we follow of waiting till full nightfall to do Sefiras HaOmer, then it would have been more logical that the half hour would be a half hour before, before nightfall. But, but this is what the Al Tremed says. So, um, that seems to remain the Halacha, that a hou-- that you, you, if you have ma'ariv early and you come home, you should be making, um, if anything, it's actually making Hamotzi, uh, more than just over half an hour before bein hashemoshos. That's be- before, uh, before shkiah. Uh, I would add, though, that the, there's a shkiah hamitz, there's shkiah neris. Even if you m-- it's less than half an hour before the shkiah on the calendar, you still have a leeway of several extra minutes, so you could still make a kiddush and make Hamotzi. But if it's very, you know, it's like twenty minutes before, before shkiah, in other words, pretty much the time of licht zunden, that would be a little bit late to start making kiddush if you go-- haven't counted Sefira. Let's move on. So continuation, this is a continuation of, of last week's discussion about, um, how do you refer about a na- a name for a parent, uh, whether using the parent's name in-- where you have... Your father's called Moshe, and

29:33 you have a, a, a young, a young kid running around called Moshe. Are you allowed to call him in his presence? I read from Yigris Moshe, et cetera. So in the conversation last week, someone asked, "What do I do if I'm called up to the Torah and the Gabba asks me, 'What's your father's name?' Am I allowed to say my father's name?" So I didn't have the answer at my fingertips. And, uh, here we have, this is from the Kitzur Shulchan on the, uh, in Hilchas Kibud Av v'Eym in Siman Resh Mem. He writes the following. "Although it says in the Shulchan Aruch that you should not refer to-- you should not call your father by name. But if others ask you, 'Whose son are you?' You're allowed to say, 'I am the son of Reb so and so.'" He brings an interesting proof. In the Yam shel Shlomo, Shlomo Luria writes that the Rosh, Rabbeinu Asher, he would refer to his father, to his Rebbe, Maram, Meir of Rothenburg, he would say, "My Rebbe, Reb Meir." He, he didn't just say, "My Rebbe." He wrote, "My Rebbe, Reb Meir." The reason is because, says the Rosh, um, he says, the, um, the Maharshal, he says, because the Rosh had several Rebbes, and therefore, he would say, "My Rebbe," it wasn't clear which Rebbe he meant. But if it's your father, says the Maharshal, he says, "You're not allowed to say, 'My father so and so,' by his name, because you only have one father."

31:06 I, the tour, Rav Yakov often says, "Vadoni Ovi Harosh Zal," it's probably a thousand times written in, in the tour. So he says, he says, "My father, the Rosh." When he uses the abbre-abbreviations, he's saying, "The Rosh of Kol Yisroel, a, a leader of Kol Yisroel." But otherwise, a, a son shouldn't refer to his father by name because there's a lack of clarity. To this, the Piskei Teshuva concludes, "Im kein kesehutzel hazkinui sheinyodi oiso." But where there is a need to mention your father's name because the other party doesn't know and needs to know your father's name, then that would be okay. Um, now, the impression you get here is, he says it clearly, you should refer to your father. Someone asks you, "What's your father's name?" So you'd say, "My Reb so-and-so." Um, in the Sefer Otzar Kibbud Av VaEm, there's a whole, a lot of discussion about this. Um, I, I question, what would that be if someone asks you, "What's your mother's name?" What, what title are you going to say then? We don't use a Reb for a, for a, for a lady. Uh, what are you gonna use? "My mother's name is..." Say your mother's name, so. So I don't know, um, how you're gonna get around that. Okay. Um, someone is pointing out that the, the, um, business of, uh, not skipping on a bris, on the feast of a bris, has got to do with Eliyahu Hanavi being at the bris, and therefore it would not apply to

32:41 a pidyon haben, which we don't have. Uh, that may be. If we find that documented, uh, that would be, uh, explain the difference. Meanwhile, you saw in all the sources, the tosafos, et cetera, we didn't see anything that it's got to do with Eliyahu Hanavi. And Eliyahu Hanavi, by the way, is he at the seudah or is he at the actual bris? Because the bris is, you know, that's where you have the kisei shel Eliyahu. We don't have a kisei shel Eliyahu at the, at the seudah. And what we're seeing from, um, the tosafos is they, they say the mosel seudah sabris. The, uh, the emphasis on the seudah rather than the actual bris, which is done earlier. Okay. Well, if we find that, uh, that's, that would be helpful. Right. Let's move on. So last week, we had the discussion about, um, came up about muktze and whether why it... Yeah. Um, why, what's sort of a door being, um... Well, yeah, I raised a question. Perhaps the fact that the door doesn't move from A to B, is that a reason why it should not be a problem of muktze? Because the Alter Rebbe has this loshon that because the door is mechuberes ve'ein kan tiltul klal. And because it's attached, therefore it's not a problem of muktze. So I raised the question, what about, let's say, moving a, a switch or something. Moving for, something which is connected to a hinge, is that considered muktze because it's not going anywhere? So I

34:15 did a bit more research during the week, and I realized that I, I was, I was wrong in that assumption. And one of the simple proofs is, it says very clearly in the Gemara, it talks about a, a person who passed away, and you're not allowed to move even little, you're not allowed to move any of the organs. Now, those organs, like a, a finger, you mustn't, you mustn't move anything of the, of the... That's not going anywhere. It's still attached to the rest of the body. It's, it's movements on the spot rather than moving from A to B. And so, and it's still definitely muktze. So there's, to, to move the switch, assuming that the switch is muktze, so the fact that it's on a swivel doesn't take away. In fact, you're not moving it from A to B. But, so then what does the Alter Rebbe mean here when he says that the door is mechuberes ve'ein kan tiltul klal? So where did I find this? In the Encyclopedia Talmudis, there's a whole, um, sort of very long entry on muktze. So one of the later, the newer volumes. And so, so he brings the Alter Rebbe, and basically it's the following. He brings up a following idea. The reason for muktze, there's, there are three main reasons given for the isur muktze. One of them is as a deterrent to carrying. If you're not gonna be able to handle it, so then you're not gonna carry it out into the street. So

35:42 muktze is coming kind of as a, as a protection to the isur of carrying into the street. It therefore follows that muktze should not apply to something which is not portable. Something which is grounded, which is not going anywhere. So then there's no question of hetzerah. Therefore, there shouldn't be a problem of muktze. So that's what they say. What that could be the pshat also in the Alter Rebbe's loshon here, quoting the Tur, that something which is mechuber, not because it's swiveling or, and, and, and not, not going anywhere, but because it can't go anywhere because it's attached to the ground, um, attached to the building. That there, and, and back to the question of a switch. So if you ask me, is a switch a muktze? Well, according to this Seforim, that something which is attached to the ground is not muktze, and therefore, you would also be able to argue the same thing with a switch. But, uh, as mentioned last week, the Alter Rebbe doesn't pasken this way and, um, paskens that it would be covered. It could-- So the fact it's attached to the ground is not in itself a reason that it shouldn't be, uh, able to be stigmatized as muktze. Someone's asking here, "Is there a problem to attend a bris and leave before the seudah?" So long as you weren't invited, I don't think that's a problem. And- Kol mokom sheyesh lecha sofek, halech acher ha'minhag. And you see very often, the Minchas Yisrael, you have by a

37:17 bris, there can be fifty people, sixty people. It comes to the siddurs, come, uh, come a minyan. So they, yeah, so they, they, they weren't invited. And also no one, no one... It's not normal to prepare, uh, a seder for, uh, for all the people who will a-actually attend the bris. Uh, that's the, uh, that's the normal thing. Um, there's another side, another, another way of looking at it, saying possibly the fact that you were at the, at the bris and there was a bit of mozainus, and you had a bit of mozainus, so you also participated in the seder by, by having that bit of mozainus. So you've already done your, uh, participation. That's another way of looking at it. Okay, let's move on. So I had a wonderful guest last Shabbos, and he tells us that he was, uh, he's actually was magaya recently. Really wonderful person. Uh, and but la past Sukkos, he says, it was S-Shabbos during Sukkos, and, uh, there was someone that left a lulav on the bimah. And so he was asked if he could pick up the lulav and put it somewhere in a si-si-side place. So we were discussing at the table, why is a lulav, uh, more muktzah than, than a bunch of flowers? Bunch of flowers is, you are allowed to move from one place to the other. So why should the lulav on Sukkos, on Shabbos of Sukkos. Obviously, in the ordinary view, you, you'd use a lulav, but on Shabbos, why is

38:52 the lulav more muktzah than a, than a bouquet of flowers? And the answer is that there's something called huksa lemitzvosa. It's consecrated for its mitzvah, and you're not allowed to use it for anything else. So al kedei devar that you're not allowed to, on Sukkos, you wouldn't be allowed to smell the hadasim consciously because they, they are consecrated for the mitzvah of Arba Minim, huksa lemitzvosa. You wouldn't be allowed to indulge in, in enjoying the fragrance of the, of the hadasim. So whereas a bouquet of flowers, you can enjoy in whichever way you want. But a lulav on Shabbos-- Not a Shabbos, any other Shabbos. Any other Shabbos, it could be like a bouquet of flowers. On Shabbos, during Sukkos, because it's designated for the mitzvah of Sukkah, and you cannot use it for anything else, that makes it so much more chumra, and that's what we're reading over here. This is from Toff Rashon Pes. Unfortunately, it's, uh, not, uh, uh, we don't have it in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. Where it says here, on Shabbos, you're not allowed to move the lulav if it's on a Sa-- even if it's, uh, the first day is Shabbos, and you're not allowed to move it. It's the have ke'even, because the lulav kind of has a status of muktzah, similar to a rock. The esrog, you are allowed to. The reason is because you're allowed to enjoy the fragrance of the esrog. What's the difference? Why is, why can you not smell the hadasim

40:27 on, on Sukkos, and you are allowed to smell the esrog? Because the hadasim, its primary hanohah, its primary benefit is its fragrance. That's become, has become huksa lemitzvosa. Esrog, by contrast, is a food. So its primary hanohah is food. So you're not allowed to eat esrog during Pes-- during Sukkos. But the, uh, uh, the hanohah of the, of the smell is a secondary, uh, um, hanohah, and therefore you are allowed to smell it. And because of this, he says the esrog is not muktzah. And he says, "Don't put it on some fabric, because then it's going to give, uh, the fabric a fragrance, which may be moledet." Okay, let's move on. So someone asked me about the project of writing a Sefer Torah, and they wanted to-- It is a new Sefer Torah, and they wanted to take the Sefer Torah unfinished to one location, another location, and another location, and then it will, the Sefer Torah will be, have been completed in three locations. It's significant locations. What's, what's the story here? Is there any problem with that? And the chai- Sheilas Chacham, Chasid Chabad, the person sent me three, um, answers of the Rebbe about and related to this, um, to help me formulate the answer. But meanwhile, bichlal about moving a Sefer Torah, and this is, I think, very timely. A lot of people are asking about taking a Sefer Torah to a park to do services, dibros. And I've been very, uh, discouraging. I don't like the idea of taking out

42:10 a Sefer Torah to a park. A Sefer Torah is a sacred thing, and the Rebbe never said make, um, um, you know, create a Sefer Torah in parks. He said, "Bring the children to shul." If the shul is not big enough, so do it in the front yard of the shul or something. Uh, something like that. But to take it out into a public place is, is not so posht at all. So two, two sources which I have. One is here. This is the end of Siman, um, kuf lamed hei in Nahar Chai, where it talks about taking a Sefer Torah to people who are in prison. So you wouldn't be allowed to bring them a Sefer Torah, even on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And then he says there are other way. If you prepare a special, uh, cupboard for it or something, and, and you bring it a couple of days before, there's a way around it. But there is something about not schlepping a Sefer Torah. That's-- But that's, we're talking about Klaf v'Stav, a complete Sefer Torah. The other part, which, which is-- This, this is, uh, in the Zohar, um, I think Parashat Acharei, daf ain alef. He gave him a lot of final. He says there's a whole thing there about, um, Sefer Torah and whether, but whether the Masim are aware what's going on. And it has the following st-- Now, this, this piece of Zohar, if you ever go through the whole Biner Lushn, it's this, it's,

43:27 it's, this is in that piece at the end of the Biner Lushn. There's a few several pages of Zohar. One day, were on They were on a journey. They came to a place called Gush Halav. Um, probably it's nowhere it is. I don't know where it is. It was a place in ruins. and the two of them sat down near the cemetery. and Rabbe Yose had with him, he had a stick of the Sefer Torah or a, or a column of the Sefer Torah which had been torn. And then he said, and then there's a whole dramatic story how one of the q- the graves started, uh, speaking and saying that there must be a terrible, uh, misfortune happening in the world. That's why they've come up with the Sefer Torah. And that's, uh, this is one of the strong sources about not schlepping a Sefer Torah. Now, here wasn't a kosher Sefer Torah. It was just a piece of a Sefer Torah, and still you got this whole story about not schlepping it around. Um, of course, you can distinguish between a completed Sefer Torah, which was then became-- fell into disrepair or an unfinished Sefer Torah, but, um, that's, that's, uh, that's a possibility. On the other hand, could be the other way around. Now, here we've got three answers of the Rebbe. One is to my late uncle, Reb Leibel Raskin, who I actually, uh, tra-- uh, you know, took the trouble to call up his, his son, my, my cousin, and

45:11 asked him a bit more about the story. This is around Taf Shin Nun, and they had written a Sefer Torah, and it was going to be, um, brought to Morocco. And the Sefer Torah was finished in seven seventy, and then it was to be brought to Casablanca. He wrote into the Rebbe about this. You can see I'm bringing the Sefer-- to the new Sefer Torah to Morocco. You should ask a Ro-- Y-you know, he's a mun-- the Rebbe underlines munchon. Who knows what he's talking about? Who's got experience about carrying the Sefer Torah. Um, so there it was a completed Sefer Torah, and Air Maroc kindly, uh, provided a spec- a separate seat on the airplane, and so the Sefer Torah was wrapped in with a seatbelt, and it was, uh, on a separate seat throughout the journey. So that's, that was, that's that, that story which doesn't really help so much with our case. They-- The last one underneath this is an answer to one of Anash who had written a Sefer Torah in order to merit the redemption of their library of the Rebbe Rashab, the Schneerson Collection, from the Lenin Library in Moscow. And he asked the Rebbe, should they wait, delay with the completion of the Sefer Torah until the library is liberated. Which the Rebbe answers, you can see the Rebbe's writing, it's, uh, "Why should you delay the completion and the hachnosah, the, the, the and, and the reading of the Sefer Torah? Why should you do such a

46:53 thing?" and obviously, this completing of the Sefer Torah should be done without schlepping it from one city to another as much as possible. So I don't know the circumstances behind this, this, uh, project or this Sefer Torah for, uh, redeeming the Sefarim, but you can see the Rebbe's point of sh- not schlepping it from town to town as, um, as much as possible. Again, we don't-- I don't know clearly whether it was a finished one or not. I don't know. The third one is very interesting. This is na- dated Taf Shin Mem, and it's written addressing the Rebbe, and it's from the Bukhari, Bukhara community in Queens, Forest Hills. And they are... They, they're making a new Sefer Torah for the Bukhari community, and they want to invite the Rebbe to join in to the participation. The Rebbe should write the last letters of the Sefer Torah. They then add, if the Rebbe can't come to, to, to their shul for this thing, we are ready to bring the Sefer Torah to the Rebbe to, to, to write, to, um, to, to write those, the letters. To which the Rebbe, on the, the first thing the Rebbe says it, uh, is, is, you know, he doesn't, he doesn't even in seven seventy, he doesn't join in the dedications of new Sefer Torah, and therefore he, he, he declines that, uh, that invitation. But then he says, Now, here it's very clear that we're talking about an unfinished Sefer Torah, and they were ready to bring

48:33 it to seven seventy to be finished, and then I guess to take it back to Queens. And, uh, so here he uses a lot of chas v'shalom. So what I'm seeing from this is, uh, a very strong reluctance of schlepping even an unfinished Sefer Torah from place to place. Um, so I, I guess this is also without a tilt in the earlier years. So this idea of having a project of an international Sefer Torah being a bit here and a bit there and so and anywhere else does not seem to be, um, something which we should be advising. It's-- The Torah is-- The Torah has an influence of the whole world, but not we should be schlepping the Sefer Torah everywhere else. We should be schlepping towards the Sefer Torah. That was actually the background to this halacha, that you don't schlep a Sefer Torah to a, a, Adam Chashuv. You schlep the per- person to the Sefer Torah. Okay. We have now a couple of minutes left, and someone pointed out to me something, uh, which I, I wasn't aware of in the tefillah of Ana B'choach. So Ana B'choach is significant, especially during Sfiras Ha'Omer, um, how it's got-- It's u- usually has got to do with elevation, and that's because it's got twen- it's got forty-two words corresponding. And you got in this other siddurim, our siddur, it's got the abbreviation Shema, so it's said at the end of Karbanas, elevating the Karbanas. It's said by, um, when the neshamah is going

50:02 to be oiler. It's said on Friday by, by, before the Chadodi, when you got these, the, uh, Aliyah, the Chesed Sheme Hamaisel. But Sfiras Ha'Omer doesn't, does, uh, doesn't-- This chesbed doesn't work because you need forty-nine, not and so there's a different. Okay, which I think we discussed this last year or two years ago. But meanwhile, we have here these seven lines, each made of six words. Now, here on the... Oh, no. That's first one, second one, third one, four. On the fourth line. Bless them, purify them. The mercy of your kindness. Should always, uh, bestow upon them. What you have over here is from the, which was published, if I'm not mistaken, in before the was born. Um, the was written in. Um, but it's got a lot of in it. Okay, so that's the. The second quote you have here, this is from the, published approximately the same time. And again, it has. Then you have here, the third copy is from what's called, otherwise perhaps known as the. Uh, published in Germany, in Berlin. Um, somewhere about there. Uh, I'm, I'm not good with the English dates. I'm not even gonna, gonna try. But meanwhile, there's been a change here. From. Bless them, purify them, have mercy on them. So here you have a change. I'm, I'm emphasizing this because it's not as if there's a difference between Ashkenaz and Spain. Because Rabbi also is Ashkenaz, and the is also Ashkenaz. And here we've got an innovation that around, it's changed from

52:15 to. So who's responsible for that change? So this is the next-- The last quote you have on the page is from a called. Uh, from someone called, and he did a lot of changes to the. He is-- His reputation is that he was affiliated to the Maskilim and, like-- and somehow a lot of his changes were accepted in the, uh, in the, et cetera. And so, but you can see he, he makes this point in this. This is from the. That's his. He says It doesn't-- It should not be. Now, I want to explain something. In, in, uh, Mishnah's, et cetera, there is something about the words of being in pairs. And you can see here in the, there's a dot separating every two words. Now, that doesn't fit with. Some of the sentences don't make sense that way. But, like, has to go together. Yet there's, there's a pause of between every two words. Fine. In the-- If-- According to the way of having a pause between every two words, so then go together. The way we have it in our is we have the. And then. So we've divided each of these lines into pairs of three words. And therefore, go together, go together. So perhaps that's, that's what gave this, uh, this, this, uh, idea to change it. But, uh, you know, I, I-- There's, there's no earlier source as far as I can see for this change. And so it's, uh, it's innovated by this, uh, of Satanov, who's also, by

54:31 the way, you-- the, the one responsible for the change to instead of. And somehow it crept into... But it's not original. It's, it's crept into the of late. In other words, of the last, uh, what? Whatever. The last hundred and fifty years, hundred, uh, hundred and eighty years. But it's not from the original. Mercy and, um, bestow upon us and. Shabbat.