שלח תשפ״ב

00:00 Speaker 1 Evening, and welcome to the shiur for this evening, Parashat Shlach. So we'll go straight into our question number one, and that's a hemshacha, a continuation from what we had discussed last week about, um... It came up about, uh, very Nefesh, uh, Al Kol Marah Be-Eretz. So one of our listeners in the United States who listens to the recording asks this question, which comes up every year in Hayom Yom. It's Hayom Yom of Yud Aleph Adar Sheni, and that's, that in, uh, just when you say Tehillim, you pronounce Kol Myon Habach, and when you say bentching, so you say Kol Myon Habach. And so this... All right. So this, this question, why should there be that difference? And truthfully, I never really, uh, had an answer. I'm gonna s- But I'm gonna suggest to you what, what, a little bit more about it. We've gone through this before, where the Kol is kind of connected to the next word. Kol is like it's separated. Before answering this question, I'm gonna ask a more basic question. Why do we say Livnei Korach before bentching? What's, w-why should that chapter of Tehillim? And perhaps more or less basic, you can ch-choose. What is the, uh, meaning of that sentence: Veshhorim, Veshhorim Chayil Lim Kol O Kol Myon Habach? What's the meaning of that sentence? So before we start talking about the Kol and Kol, what's the sentence mean? So one thing at a time, why do we say this? So there is the idea that during Birchat HaMazon,

01:53 Speaker 1 we have a focus on Eretz Yisrael and on, on Yerushalayim in particular, and we can commemorate, we can trigger our memories. A focus on Yerushalayim, either in a way of happiness or in a sad way. Al Naares Bavel is k-k, focusing on Yerushalayim in a weeping way, in a sad way. Shir Hamaalot Vesh'm Hashemes Sh'va Tzion is in a more joyous way. Sh-It's a song, Shir Hamaalot. Livni Korach Misneshivos Hashem Behar HaRe'achot Avei Hashem Sha'arei Tzion, it's another mizmor which is talking about Yerushalayim, so it's a similar idea, like Shir Hamaalot Vesh'm Hashemes Sh'va Tzion, focusing on Yerushalayim in a positive way, and that's connected to Birchat HaMazon, which, don't forget, I emphasized this before, the whole Birchat HaMazon has got to do with Eretz Yisrael. Don't forget, Vechaltho V'Savolto V'Rachto Es Hashem Elokeicha. What? Al Ha'aretz Hateiva. So sh-sh, bentching has got to do with Eretz Yisrael. And so it makes sense that the focus of Eretz Yisrael being Yerushalayim, it has got its special, uh, mention in the lead-up to bentching and obviously in bentching too. So that's why we're saying Livni Korach altogether. The Shoirim Chayil Lim, um, what do those words mean? So I saw in one sefer about six different or six or more, nine pirushim, the Veshhorim Chayil Lim. Now, Shoirim means the singers. What are the Chayil Lim? Does Chayil Lim mean loshon of dancing, like, um, b'mocheil? Uh, does it mean, uh, playing with timbrels, which is, um, also another translation of mocheil. So there are various

03:41 Speaker 1 pirushim on this Veshhorim Chayil Lim. One of the pirushim which I'm, I'm, I'm sharing with you now is from the Meiri. The Meiri lived about 700 years ago, and his pirush was, um, only discovered in full in the, perhaps in the last century. Although it was, he is mentioned in the Shitah Mekubbetz, et cetera. He is mentioned. They say he's n-known to have existed, but his, the manuscript, uh, of his pirush on the whole of Shas was, was, has been published in the, within the, the last century. Right. Now, see, he also has a pirush on Tehillim. So let's read his words: "Oi Nefarish Shekol Myon Habach Hu Ma Mar Ha'om." It's the, the, the, uh, who says Kol Myon Habach? It's the people who are saying this. Vechayil Lim, the meaning of Chayil Lim... That's the Mishnah Sheviit. I'm gonna start the Mishnah Sheviit. Vechayil Lim, he says, "Miloshon Chil Kayeledet," like, cri-screaming out in pain like a woman giving birth. Koloma, to say, "Shoirim L'Tzion Elohim Hamashoirim LeLev Simchasem V'Osham." So you've got the Shoirim, the singers, who are happy and joyous. They got wealth, Vechayil Lim, and then you've got those who are crying out in pain, LeRov Daggosam V'Oniam, because of their anxieties and their worries and their poverty. Kulam Mayonam Bo. They all have their focus on you. On the word Mayonam is also, does it mean, mean like the word Meayim, which means my innards, or does it mean, uh, focus? Whichever way, but it, it certainly means that

05:39 Speaker 1 they've got Veshhorim, that, that the, the way Meiri is learning, that they, it is their focus. The Shoirim and the Chayil Lim, their, their focus is on you. So now, until the Meiri, we sa- we... The word, uh, Kol in this posuk means Kol Myonai, the entire Myonai, my entire focus. Here, the, the Meiri says, "Veshhorim Vechayil Lim Kulam." So the koil is referring to the sharim and the koilelim. Therefore, it's, it makes more sense to read it koil rather than koal because it's not all of mayonai, but it's sharim k'choilim koil, or all, all of the shanfel. It's, it's less literal pshat, but that's the way the Meiri is learning. Now, so therefore, we've got, we've got a legitimate meaning, um, pirush, which should be koil mayonai, bro. Uh, I don't see why that's associated to benching to more than mentilim. I just-- My poshtut pshat is of the hayom hayom, you follow what's written in the siddur. You're davening, in, in the siddur it says, "With the koilim," it's koil. You're saying in tefillim, it's with the kovets, say koal. You follow what's written in the siddur. But, but that, that's, that's, that's how we should behave. Why is it written in the, in the siddur in different... It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, sharing with us another way of understanding the passage. Uh, and so it's, it's legitimate to have, trans-- to, to be aware. Some-someone's asked me, why is it, for example, in the Alter Rebbe siddur, is it-- He

07:16 Speaker 1 says, "Lo sosar," and then in brackets, "Nusach acher al tosir." And there's about seven or eight different places where the Alter Rebbe brings, um, two pe-- two pirushim, uh, two, two, two, two geselts. What's the reason for him giving two ge-- After all, you're only gonna do one. But it is legitimate that you should know whilst you're saying this pshat, but you should note that there's another pshat, and then if it's okay to have both pirushim in mind. That's why he, he brought those, the other pirush, to have that other way in mind too. Okay, let's move on. Um, question, common question. It's, uh, hot weather, lots of sun. People are asking about wearing sunglasses on Shabbos in, in Eretz Yisrael. Now, what about glasses? Never mind sunglasses. We-- Everyone who-- Hard-- Very, very, very few people today don't wear, uh, glasses on Shabbos out of prumkeit. This is something which had been discussed in, you know, for a hund-- the last few hundred, a cou-- a few hundred years. Glasses have evolved. They used to be, um, less stable. Now, they... But, well, the glasses are not garments. They don't keep you warm. They don't give you cover. But they do fall into the category of what we call tachshit. They are an accessory. Uh, in, uh... When I teach the halachas of-- In, in class, I teach, um, the halachas of carrying on Shabbos or not carrying on Shabbos. I point to, point out, I point out that the word in Yiddish, trogen,

08:53 Speaker 1 can mean trogen a mantle and trogen a, a packel. Or in French, porter manteau, porter valise. So it's the same word used for carrying, for wearing. So how do you... If I've got a pendant, uh, around my ne-neck and it's got a pen, am I wearing the pen or am I carrying the pen? So th-th-there is this, uh, subtlety. How do you define carrying and wearing? So broadly speaking, I would say that carrying means I don't have my fulfillment now, I have my fulfillment later. I'm having it with me so that I should have it later. Wearing is that you have your fulfillment here and now. I know there are gonna be exceptions to that in halacha even. Wearing a raincoat because it might rain later or to carry, to wear another coat because someone else wants a coat. I know. But broadly speaking, I'm saying that's to define, are you wearing, are you carrying? So wearing reading glasses, teshuah, is carrying. That's not allowed. But when you're wearing glasses, char, or for long distance, et cetera, they are actually being worn. They're not, you're not carrying the glasses because-- You're not wearing them because you need them later. You have them on you because they are enhancing your management of your skills of, you know, walking the street, et cetera. Uh, if that's the explanation why... So sunglasses would become, I'd call them a tachshit, which is legitimate to wear on Shabbos. So now, let's come now to the, um, to the sunglasses. The

10:31 Speaker 1 same logic would apply to sunglasses too. That they are enabling you to be comfortable as you're walking in, in the street where there is, uh, exposed to the strong sunlight. Having said that, the consensus of poskim, contemporary poskim, is not to wear sunglasses on Shabbos in Eretz Yisrael. I'm reading here from the Shemirat Shabbos KeHilchasa. "Vishkefey shemesh regilim," regular sunglasses. "She'adam markev ba, ba-gulei lehogen al einav." The person would put on his eyes le-- um, to protect. "Mepigios karne shemesh meham," from the sun rays. "Ein lotzes," says, "beEretz Yisrael," one should not wear them in Eretz Yisrael. "Mich-" including, he says, those clip-on, um, glasses which would clip onto your regular glasses. So what I've seen, having done a little bit of, uh, looking around, is the poskim don't, uh, um... They, they, they say not to wear sunglasses. Their main concern is that you may come to slip them off, um, let's say in this change of weather, et cetera. So you may be tempted to slip them off, and as a result, you don't wear, uh, sunglasses on Shabbos. If you are particularly prone to, to the, uh, the sun rays, well, then the likelihood is that you'll have a pair of glasses which have got, um, light sensory change of color, and those may be worn on Shabbos, as what we call them, photogray, whatever. Those are, are maybe worn on Shabbos, and the reason being that the coloration, the ca-- well, the change of color is something which is not permanent.

12:08 Speaker 1 It's gonna become more intense in sunlight, and as you go inside, after a couple of seconds, it's gonna start fa- You know, f-fading away. Let's move on. Okay, so someone asked me this week, could I explain the parameters of Kibud Av Va'em of a Ger to their biological parents? Obviously, the Ger has made very significant choice, um, going away from the culture of his parents. And now, so what's the relationship now? So here we have Mishneh Torah. It's in the end of Halachas Bechi... Um, called Kibud Av Va'em. It's in the Reshimim, Alef, Yod Heh. "Ger Ose L'kalel Aviv Hagoy." A Ger may not curse his father. "U'L'hakoseso," not to strike him. "U'Lo Yevazehu," not to, uh, abuse him. "Shelo Yomer." Why should a Ger not do so? Because "Shelo Yomer Bonum Bekedushah Hamur Al Kedushas Hakallah." There will be the perception, aha, when he was a Goy, he had to respect his father. Now, he became more religious, therefore he can be more, um, abusive. That doesn't, doesn't look right. So there-- And then, then there's another point which is, uh, which is brought in Poskim. The Rambam doesn't-- Isn't it Rambam says, um, um, "Kibud Ksas," a little bit, little bit of respect, um, in some way. Rab Moshe Feinstein in Igros Moshe, um, says there should be some kind of at least... There's a term in, in Hebrew, "Kofri Tovah," which means that you are, um, you are, uh, neglecting. How do you say, um... Like, you know, you don't-- You're showing

13:54 Speaker 1 lack of appreciation. An ingrate. To, to-- So what there should be-- But the degree of not to give the impression that you're ungrateful. Bearing in mind, one of the reasons for the mitzvah of Kibud Av Va'em, one of the, uh, brought in, in, in Rashonim, is the, uh, the parent has brought you into this world. Usually, the parent has also spent a lot of effort in bringing the child up and feeding them, et cetera. But even if not, but the parents had the choice to bring the child into the world, and therefore one should be, uh, show appreciation. My whole existence is, is thanks to my parents. Um, so there is this, uh, even in the, in the case of a Ger, there is an inyan of appreciation and certainly not to be, uh, coming across as being ingrateful or ungrateful. Um, someone asked me, "What about when, uh, there's a non-Jewish father and a Jewish mother? What's the story then?" So this is not discussed in Mishneh Torah, but I would imagine it's the similar logic. It shouldn't be. I wanna-- Being, you know, showing mitzvah shouldn't be an excuse for disrespect. Let's move on. So here, someone, uh, sent me a pic-a picture of a pendant which his wife received as a gift, um, some years ago. It's pro-probably made of silver or perhaps of gold, and it's, uh, Shin, Daled, Yud, which is obviously one of the seven names of Hashem, Shem HaMforashim. So in case, in case you think pendants of

15:36 Speaker 1 names of Hashem is something new. So here I have a text from, it's a Sefer Mishnah Sefarim, and he writes the following: "Those silver plates which are put on, which children should wear around their necks, upon which are etched holy names of Hashem, or psukim, even if they're done through engraving and even if they were done by a Goy, they need to be put in genizah, in, in Sefer." Source, Rambam, and then Maharash Dam, Rabish Muwal of Modena, and Rish-- Uh, uh, Dvar HaShmuel. That's, uh, Shmuel Abuhav, who lived in, in Amsterdam, I believe, uh, about four hundred and some years ago. Um, "Umilse Debstavru," and the logic is that thou-those plates of silver were made for inscribing the, the, of course, the, the name. And therefore, it becomes... The whole pl-silver plate becomes, um, subsidiary to the Hashem's name. And therefore, you can't start clipping off the silver around it, um, because all of the whole, the whole plate has become consecrated, so to speak, to the Shem. And therefore, you'd have to take that whole silver plate and put it in genizah and not just s-snip off bits and pieces. Okay, so that's-- So the concept of having a something holy, and I guess parents wanting to give their child protection, uh, and therefore making such a, a, a pendant. So it's, it's, uh, it's, it's happened many, many years ago. I still felt that this, in this case, the fellow is asking, "Can I... I don't-- My wife doesn't like it. Can

17:26 Speaker 1 we give it in to a jeweler to have it, um, and they'll use it?" One of them will probably melt it down. So two things. Number one, the Shem is not written in a normal sequence. It's not written in the order of Shin, Daled, Yud. Therefore, I don't see that it should have, um, uh, it should have a kedushah Hashem. Incidentally, when a sofer writes Hashem's name, he has to write it in the correct sequence. He has to write first the Yud, and then the He, and then the Vav, and the He, et cetera. Um, but that's, that's a separate inyan. That's the way he writes it. But here we're talking about the actual presentation of the letters is Shaloh Ksidron, and therefore, I don't see it has kedushah. Here comes another very interesting question. Do-- Does a letter on its own, suspended in the air, is that called writing? Who is writing only when letters appear on the surface. So, for example, the, uh, you've got-- you remember the Aleph-Beit soup years ago? Um, Osem used to have an Aleph-Beit soup. I haven't seen it in years. But is there a question of eating those Aleph-Beit locks on, on Shabbos? So as far as I remember, it's not a problem because letters, Oisios Perichos, if letters are just floating around and not attached to a surface, that they're not, not called writing. This also relates to playing Scrabble on Shabbos, which I'm not gonna go into the whole discussion. They're just loose letters on

19:00 Speaker 1 a surface. Um, so, um, so there are Poskim who say that loose letters which are not on a surface is not called writing altogether. Therefore, that would-- according to this, that wouldn't-- this wouldn't be called writing. Very interesting. What this hinges on is there's a discussion in, in Gemara and Tosfos, Michalkos Rasha Tosfos. When you put on your-- whether the, the, the Shin, Daled, Yud of the Tefillin. So the Shin is, uh, is a, is a letter on the surface of the, of the Shalosh. The Daled is the way the knot is made at the back of the, uh, in the neck. The Yud is in the s-the stra-- the, there's the two S of the Shalayad. Are they called Oisios? So, you know, there's Shin, Daled, Yud. Well then, if it's Shin, Daled, Yud, are you allowed to un-untie the knot, Mechikes Hashem? So Tosfos says it doesn't have the status of Hashem, therefore there's not a problem of Mechikes Hashem, of, of erasing Hashem's name. And this is kind of underpinned with this idea that the Daled of made of Yud Tsures doesn't really become Hashem because it's not writing on a surface. Um, so using the-these two smarots together, number one, apparently, I think on its own that's enough. That, um, just Ois-- Um, that, that because it's not Al Ha-Seder, it's not a Shem altogether. But separately, I also have this idea that if it's not on a surface, that may not be considered Kasav. But here, if you have the

20:30 Speaker 1 notes, I've given a reference to Encyclopedia Talmudis, volume, um, Lamed Beis, where the, on the entry of Kasav, and there, this point whether Oisios Perichos, in other words, without a surface, whether that's called writing, is actually seems to be a discussion in Poskim, is not unanimous. Okay. But the first point I think is adequate. That you would be allowed to give it to a, um, silversmith and, um, a silversmith will do what they want with it. Let's move on. Okay. So, um, I got this question from a Shliach in Australia. My brother is a Mohel, he lives in Australia. He was in his place, and they came to a discussion about Mikvehs. And my brother told him, and he, the Shliach wants to check with me, uh, he, that, that I take the view of, and there's no, uh, no rush to change the rainwater periodically, uh, and, uh, to use the English expression, if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Um, and my concern is that when you want to... See, um, um, um, when you have a Mikveh, the main element of the Mikveh is obviously the rainwater. You see, you have... I'm giving here the, shown here on the picture the structure of a Chabad, um, the Rebbe Rashab style of a Beis Al Gabbe Beis. Um, then very often you'll have another, uh, what we call a Oitsa. You'll have another reservoir of rainwater. And when you want to change the, the rainwater in the Beis HaTachta, in the Beis, the

22:11 Speaker 1 Mikveh, you'd, um, then be able to release water from that reservoir, and it should come in. Um, but it, how to release that water, uh, into the Mikveh, if you don't know what you're doing, you can actually be r- ma-making it worse. I remember once by Knesset Hashluchim, he gave me a cat. He's not Chabad, uh, but he's, uh, he did, and he, um, spoke at the Knesset Hashluchim. He's an expert on Mikvehs, amongst other things. He lives in Boro Park. And he told of a story. There was a place where there was a Mikveh. Well, there was several Mikvehs. And the Rav boasts how he makes sure so that all the water, when he, when they refill the Mikvehs, he makes sure there's a Hamshacha. There's an idea that the water should be, be trickling over in a, a porous surface. So it has to be Dakarka Harai Livlai. So this fellow, listen to this, he made-- he took a shoebox, and he put in the shoebox, he filled it with sand. And then he put the... Well, whatever the box was made of plastic, but it was a, a box which he filled with sand. And all the water which would go into the Mikveh would pour into this box of sand and then overflow into the Mikveh. He had effectively made all the water going to the Mikveh Pasul, because the box is, is, is like a bucket. So all the water he'd... So he, he was, "Oh, making, making Hamshacha." He

23:36 Speaker 1 had ruined the Mikveh by, by u-using his, his bucket with sand. It would have... So if you don't know what you're doing, you can actually make it worse. So, uh, ba-- That's, that's one, one piece of advice. But then, let me explain something. We have here the basic rainwater. A, a regular Mikveh, not Chabad, will have a pool of rainwater side by side to what we call the Beis Hatfilah, where people actually immerse. Obviously, when people go into the Mikveh, the water level rises, and water will flow from... If the, if the opening is, uh, if the Hashak is open. So there will be water flowing from the warm Beis Hatfilah into the Hashak, into the, in, in the Mikshame. As that person goes out, well, then the water will go down. So then water from the side well will go into the, the Beis Hatfilah. That's gonna be... And so, uh, there's gonna be exchange of water, uh, inevitably. And that's, they, they said... There is this concern that there's some citizens of Rashain, in particular, the Rav, who is concerned that if the original water has been exchanged for other water, and that, that's-- So then... And you don't have forty Se'ah of the original rainwater, so then you have a problem. The most Poskim don't worry about this. They say, "Most, uh, Mikvehs which are side by side do not have a mechanism to protect for this." The Chabad style of having Beis Al Gabbe Beis does have a natural protection because

25:11 Speaker 1 the water at the bottom will stay at the bottom, and on the top, and usually also the, the fact that the water in the upper level is, uh, warm water. The water at the bottom level is cold water, so that also encourages that it should not be an ec-- interchange of the water beneath to the water above. So really we could relax and feel confident that there is no exchange of water. Nevertheless, there is the niggling concern that there may be a little bit of exchange between the upper and the lower. And therefore, some, some Rabbonim are recommending you should change the rainwater once a year, let's say. I'll tell you, uh, b-besides my if it ain't broken, don't fix it, um, concern, I, I have a fundamental question here. What statistics are you building on? Why are you telling me to exchange that water once a year? Why not once a month? You don't know. You're saying, "Well, there may... is a little bit of exchange." You don't know statistic. I'm gonna give you two examples of, uh, dealing with statistics. One example is we know that for a, a street to become a Reshus Harabim D'Rabbanan, so there's the opinion of Rashi and many Rishonim, that it's, if it has six hundred thousand daily users, that's a Reshus Harabim D'Rabbanan. I'm not telling you anything new at the moment. My question to you, where does this Yishum Libi become? Diglim Midbar. That was the population which used the public area between the camp

26:53 Speaker 1 of the Edom to the, uh, LeMachaneh Leviyah where Moshe Rabbeinu lived. Okay. So there were six hundred thousand. Yeah? Um, there were no younger people. What about the Bnei Levi? They weren't counted from twenty to sixty. They were counted from thirty days old. Yeah. Uh, so we don't know exactly. Um, what about the women? So why didn't you say, why didn't you say six-sixty, six hundred thousand? Say two million. Why it's not by two million? By, uh, extra three million, extra one and a half. We don't know. We don't have a figure. We have one figure, and that is Yishum Libi, and that's what we work with. We work with the statistic which we have, even though it's obviously not totally accurate. But that's what we have, and that's what we work with. Similarly, I'm gonna give you another example. I have here a, a, uh, let's say a, a knife, and this was dipped into a, a, um, a boi-- a boi-- a, a, a pot of hot chazer, of lard. It was dipped in, took it out. So now it's treif, yeah? Five minutes later, I dip it into a bowl of chi-chicken soup. Hot chicken soup. So now is the chicken soup kosher? So we're going to start saying, "Well, if the chicken soup has got sixty times the mass of this knife or the, the part which went into the water or into the soup, then what we-- So then we'll say it's Botul Yesh Libi. If it doesn't have sixty

28:24 Speaker 1 time the mass of this, um, piece of metal, then the chicken soup will be treif." Yeah. Well, no. Now, I'm, I'm gonna ask you. This was put into the chazer. How much chazer is there in this mass of metal? There's metal here. How much chazer can it-- This is, let's say, a, a two cubic, um, uh, centimeters of metal. Is it solid full of lard? It might be a fraction of it, but how big is that fraction? Is it a quarter? Is it a tenth? I don't know. So I can't work with that. I'm going to have to therefore say, "I know there's a piece of metal, it's absorbed chazer. I don't know how much. I'm going to work with the data which I have." So let me just give you two examples of where I can't work with a nebulous data and therefore to say that because the water in the lower one inevitably, it, it trickles up and down, I don't, I, I don't know. I can't work with that. And okay. Um, just one more point is that, um, I don't know whether we discussed this before, but there was a Lubavitcher Rav in-- who's, who was a couple of years in, uh, Buenos Aires, I believe. And he had conversations with a professor, was into physics and trying to explore this idea, does the, does the lower water, the upper water interchange. And there was a corres-- He sent in his correspondence to the Rebbe. This professor was, did various experiments

29:51 Speaker 1 with colors, with ink going up and down. And the Rebbe says, uh, the Rebbe rejected it a-a-a-again and again on different, different levels. One of these things, very interesting. Says, "You put a cup of... You have a cup of tea, and you put a tea, tea bag, and you leave the tea bag, and you don't move the tea bag. You will see that the brown will stay at the bottom, and the top will be clear. It doesn't interchange. It st-stays put. Um, at least for a reasonable amount of time." I don't remember the, the, the detail, but you-- And certainly when there's a, a, a wall separating that, there's just a little opening. So the interchange is, is, is really, uh, not such a-- Now, I want to add one more point. I know that most of the people in here don't deal with operating mikvahos, but it's, it's, uh, many of the stuff I'm talking about is mostly, probably it's just like a casual interest. But here we've got the guidance of the Rebbe Rashab to Reb Yaakov Landau, um, about building mikvahos. This is actually in Sefer HaMinhogim, and the Rebbe Rashab talks about having, uh, this, uh, floor with a manhole cover. And then he says about, um, when you have the rainwater coming in- He wants to have that there should be an overflow of the rainwater above the, the dividing floor. So there should be, in other words, rainwater in the upper level, too. Now, just to keep it simple

31:24 Speaker 1 as, as much as I can, there's a din of how do you make pasul of water, how do you make it kosher? Perhaps we've touched it before. One is through hashaká, that the two bodies of water touch, k-k-kiss. That makes them kosher. There's another method which is called zriya, when the non-kosher water is implanted into the kosher water, uh, into the... Then it makes it kosher, zriya. Okay. Now, in the-- looking at this mikvah on the picture, the Chabad style, you pour water into the upper pool. How does it become kosher? Because it's connected by that hole. Yeah, in the manhole you see there's a, there's a hole over there. Whatever the size of the hole, it doesn't matter. There's a, there's a hole somewhere in the floor. Tefach, altefach, whatever. There's-- the, the, the two bodies are touching. Very good. But that's hashaká. That doesn't have the other form, the quality of zriya. So the Rebbe Rashab says, "You know what? When you fill this with rainwater, I want the rainwater to be a couple of inches above the surface. So when you're gonna pour the rainwater into the mikvah, into the beis hatbilah, it's gonna fall into rainwater. So when your r-city water is gonna fall into the mikvah, it's gonna be a zriya. Not, not only hashaká, it's gonna have a zriya." Now, the Rebbe Rashab ev-evidently was again and again asking about the weather. He looked at, had a barometer on his desk. He wanted to know there's enough rain. Why

32:50 Speaker 1 did he need to, need to have so much, you know, why was there nee-need for such a supply of rainwater? Was it because he wanted the mikvah to be emptied and re... and, and, and refilled, as some suggest? I have a different suggestion. Not because he wanted to re-em-empty the whole beis hatach, but he wanted that every time you empty the mikvah and you want to clean it, so you're gonna have to empty till the bottom. Till, in other words, till the bottom of the upper le- upper level. Before you refill it with city water, you're gonna have to have a couple of inches of rainwater each time, and you'll have to know how to do it, how to pull out the bung, et cetera. So in order to every time you refill the mikvah after cleaning it, you have to have a few inches of rainwater, so you need to have a generous supply of rainwater in your reserve tank. So that's why he was concerned and conscientious that there should be an ample supply of rainwater, not for switching the beis hatach, but for the maintenance of the, the beis elyon to be able to have the facility of zriya. Our Rebbe introduced a, an alternative to the Rebbe Rashab's idea. And the Rebbe writes in a letter, if you could work out that the, the tap water could fall straight into the hole, into the connecting hole. In this way, you'll achieve zriya. So instead of the Rebbe Rashab's method of having

34:15 Speaker 1 a couple of inches of rainwater above the, uh, floor, the Rebbe has an alternative. You don't need to have a, um, a, a few inches every time, which is, as you can s-understand, each time it's emptying it and et cetera. It's, it's, uh, just, uh, it, it's a difficult thing to, to achieve. Instead, you have the ra-- the t-tap water falling directly into the nekvei hashaka, and in this way, you have a zriya. Okay. Now, I must tell you that Rav Pevzner, Rav Hillel Pevzner, was very, uh, u-uneasy about this takanah of the Rebbe, um, because if you are trying to, uh, avoid the exchange of the wa- of the original rainwater, so the last thing you want to have is the water pressure, you know, sh-jetting onto the, uh, onto that hole, which is going to cause an interchange of water. I mean, this is a good question, and, um, I know someone has done a lot of research to, to answer that question. But meanwhile, that's, that's the, you know, these, these are the, the facts which, uh, which we know. So, um, to sum up, is there an urgency to re-change the water once a year? I don't see the urgency. Um, if you know what you're doing, so, and, and you want to, uh, you want to, uh, exchange it, exchange it gezuntehheit. But if you're not s- you're not so orfay and, uh, et cetera, I don't think you should feel guilty that you haven't changed the water in 10

35:45 Speaker 1 years. Um, you know, and as, as, as is well known, the mikvahs, there have been mikvahs which, uh, a generation ago, which they had the same water for, for many, many decades. They didn't, uh, decades. All right, let's move on. I know I might get some stick for this, but fine. Um, I must say, just to finish off, both Rebbe Berel Levin in his book on mikvahs and Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Feigelsstock, Rebbe of Satmar, uh, they both do recommend exchange the water. Um, but they, again, they don't give clear guidelines what should be the, uh, definition when you have to do it. Okay. One of our listeners heard that, you know, we talked about not rolling a Sefer Torah barabim, and this is halacha in, uh, Shulchan Aruch. Ein golin Sefer Torah b'bet tzibbur m'pnei kevod hatzibbur. One should avoid rolling the Sefer Torah in the presence of the tzibbur because it basically, you know, it's disrespectful. You're asking them to twiddle your thumbs while you, while you're doing it. Um, now, what's, what's quite remarkable, though, is that on Shabbos Shekalim, which is always not far from Parshas Ki Tisa. Um, so, uh, uh, the Parshas HaShavua is, is very close. Um- And yet we take out two Sforim, two Sefer Torah for Parshah Skolim, which is interesting why-- It takes it-- So, um, if that's the case, even just the rolling of three, four, um, sheets of, of, of the, uh, parchment is already considered a Tirchat HaTzibura. So then he's asking a

37:32 Speaker 1 question. On Mondays and Thursdays, he-- they have a, a Sefer Torah, which they use Mondays and Thursdays, and on the next Monday, you have to roll it to the next Sefer Torah. See, does he have to take out that Sefer Torah in advance to put it to the right place, so they shouldn't have to roll it just those couple of, of, uh, of, uh, sheets? That was his question. So having done a bit more research today, I see that some Rabbonim actually for, um... They, uh, when it came to Parshah Skolim, they said, "You don't need to take out two Se-- two Seforim Torah. Take out one because the-- there's no Tirchat HaTzibura. It's right nearby." But be- be- be'mkhilas choidom, certainly the Minchas Yisroel is not so. The Minchas Yisroel is to take out two Se-Sefer Torah. By and large, that's the Minchas Yisroel. Well, you could say it's because, uh, shalai, um, you know, lei plum. Since when you do a, a different Parshah from Maftir, usually we take out another Sefer Torah. So don't do Kuntzem. We take out one for Parshah Skolim also, although it's really not so necessary. But having said that, coming to the Monday and Thursday and having to, um, to, to, um, worry about rolling it, um, a couple of sheets, it mamash is a few seconds. I don't think it's, it's necessary to worry about it. Well, he did say, "Well, perhaps on Thursday, he should roll it to-- for next Monday." Well, that's the same.

38:52 Speaker 1 That's-- That he haven't gained anything. There's no difference whether the tzibbur have to wait till the beginning of the Krias HaTorah or the end of Krias HaTorah. But really, I don't think it's, it's significant. The, the rolling of, uh, uh, from one Sefer Torah to the next is, uh, is not significant. It's only on Parshah Skolim because of lei plum, where you generally have the Mincha to switch-- to, to have two Seforim Torah. Um, someone's pointing out we've-- that you find the lower ber filled with a lot of hair. Um, yes. De-definitely that you should be maintaining the lower ber. If you are-- I mean, and it's important that the lower ber should be maintained, and that means from time to time, you lift the manhole, and you check what's going on there. You could find hair. You could sometimes find dirt also, which finds its way there. Um, you can use a vacuum cleaner to, to clean it out. And another thing is important. Don't ask me details, but there's something called Legionnaires' disease, which affects water which is staying in one place. The way to control it with-- is with some kind of chemicals, whether it's chlorine or something. Of course, you have to maintain the ber ha'tachtom, but I'm not talking about maintaining. I'm talking about exchanging the water, which is a much bigger job of, um, emptying it and having a, a reservoir and et cetera, et cetera. Uh, Rabbi Nomen is pointing out, surely taking-- using two Sforim takes more

40:20 Speaker 1 time than a short rolling, an extra Hagbah. Yeah, that's one way of looking at it. Meanwhile, you have another guy. You can s-- You can sell Hagbah to another person. Um, it's another kibud. Um, a-and meanwhile, it's, it's, how you say? It, it's a tumul. You, you, you, you read the sifris where the Rebbe talks about we take out three Sforim, and you make a mafta gantsa tumul. Uh, instead of, uh, doing it discreetly, you can make, uh, you know, um, basically kim halach berogesh. We're doing another Parshah. It, it, it deserves to have a bit of tumul about, a bit of, bit of noise. Okay, let's move on. Okay. Um, so the next thing we have is about selling stuff on your website. If you have a website which is selling stuff, it's-- must you close your website for Shabbos? So before websites were invented, there were vending machines, and the question was, well, if I had a vending machine in, in a train station, and it sells cigarettes, um, chocolates, whatever it may be, candies, am I allowed to have my, my vending machine on there on Shabbos? This is addressed in the Sefer, Charles of Shulors Maharsha. He was a rabbi in Szombathely in Hungary pre-war, and he says that's okay. Um, the reason is that you're selling a product, whether the people buy the product before Shabbos or on Shabbos or after Shabbos, doesn't matter to you. Therefore, he doesn't see that as, as, uh, trading on Shabbos. It's, uh, it's

41:53 Speaker 1 available. But so I tell you, that's his, his, his, uh... Um, now let's come to the, to the, uh, the website. The websites are even less than a te- vending machine. If it's-- If you, let's say, you're selling furniture. So what's the shaat? Your, your website is like a post box. You have a post box where people can drop in an order, and you'll fulfill the order after Shabbos. So the website is also like a post box where people can put in an order. That, that should be okay. It says that, uh, Ma-- the Ha-Ha'machmir, yeah, is recommended to Rabbi Machmir to close down completely on Shabbos. But in, uh, in essence, um, it's-- if it's just a post box to-- where orders are, are arriving, that would be okay. There are different-- There's a different type of, of, uh, website which sells information, sells music, um, uh, whatever it may be. But you-- it's charging for the, uh, browsing. It's making money on the browsing now. That's a different story. That's a bit worse because you are now charging money for Shabbos time. And that's in-- besides the Inyun of, of, um, Mekach uMemkar, of sales on Shabbos, you have here an Inyun of Schar Shabbos. You, let's say, you wouldn't be allowed to charge rent- For Shabbos alone. Uh, how do you have a hotel open on Shabbos? So you-- It's included, the package. Also, there's sheets and the food, et cetera. But if you had, uh, an item just, uh, just the

43:32 Speaker 1 item itself, whether it's, uh, a property or a, um, portable thing, it doesn't matter, you're not allowed to charge money for Shabbos time, and therefore, you wouldn't be allowed to, um, have an-- you wouldn't be allowed to operate an internet station which is, um, providing a service which is charged for the time on Shabbos. There's another interesting thing which is, like, more complicated, is when you have, uh, any, any, um, purchase which goes through you, if any of your users goes and buys up the purchase by a third party, you will get a commission. That becomes, um, also it, it becomes a bit pro-problematic because it could be an issue of, of Skaras Shabbos. If you are making money by the fact that people are using you as a, as a conduit to get to something else, that could be a question which is beyond our discussion for today. Let's move on. Um, another thing which is question eight, um, buying stuff on eBay. So to buy something where the sale is gonna happen on Shabbos, so Rabbi Keaveh and others are of the view that you wouldn't be allowed to have a sale happening on Shabbos even though you're doing nothing. This is in the, uh, comes into the discussion about when interface deals with Shabbos, can you do a mechiras comments on Friday that it should actually kick in on Shabbos? So Rabbi Keaveh holds that's not allowed because you're not allowed to have, um, a, you're not allowed to have a, a

45:04 Speaker 1 purchase happening on Shabbos even though you're doing nothing. Uh, in the, uh, Marshag, he quotes the Rabbi Keaveh, talks about a property which is up for auction and the, you, you, people put in their bids, and the executive management of the, of the, of that property will have their meeting on Shabbos, and whichever bid is successful will have bought it. So he says that you have a, you have a problem because effectively, if you win the bid, you've bought a Shabbos. So putting in a bid on eBay, and it's going to complete on Shabbos, so then that would be a problem. Now, I, I, I, I, I don't remember if I've ever used eBay. There, there's the other way around, selling stuff on eBay. So again, you don't designate the final day of Shabbos. But there, there, there is apparently another option of the buyer buying it now and shortcutting, not having to go through the auction. That does raise an interesting question because then they could be buying from you on Shabbos, but then perhaps there's no difference to the, uh, to the vending machine which if they choose to buy on Shabbos but you haven't, you, you put it up for sale, they can do it earlier or later. So possibly that's not a problem. Okay. Um, difficult stuff. Okay. So now because this past week in the Rambam of three days, uh, three Perakim a day, we, uh, we're learning about Brochas on food. So someone sent me a qui-a question. There

46:38 Speaker 1 is the idea when you've got a mixture of foods... So if you have a preference, which is the main one, which is the subsidiary one, then you make the Brocha on the main one. So if you have an egg and avocado salad, so you're gonna have to, um, to consult with the Nefesh Habamis, which is the main thing, the avocado or the, or the egg. And therefore, you'll make a decision whether it's basically an egg salad with a bit of avocado to flavor it, and therefore it's Shachak. Or it's an avocado salad, but you've got a bit of egg to flavor it, and therefore the Brocha of that salad is on eggs. So that, that, that's all right. Then, then if you, if your Nefesh Habamis doesn't give you enough information, so then you go according to the majority. The Roiv will decide what the majority component, and that will decide what Brocha it is. Um, exception to both of these is that when they're in the mixture, there is Mezonos. And Mezonos mostly, unless it's there just for holding stuff together, like in gefilte fish, et cetera. Um, but if it's, Mezonos is there for taste, um, then for taste, for texture, whatever. For taste, let's keep it for taste, yeah. So then the, even though it's a minority component, the Brocha is Mezonos. So now he, uh, this fellow writes to me that he remembers that in, um, around Tov Shin Mem Zayin. No, sorry, Tov Nun Zayin, possibly. There was a tragic

48:06 Speaker 1 case in Caron, Caron Heights that a, an elderly Bocher by the name of Shloimo was murdered. Uh, I think it was a Shabbos even. And in his memory, they established Sudas Shloimo in Seven Seventy. And Sudas Shloimo makes a big challenge every, um, well, in honor of every Shabbos. And there are many people in Seven Seventy who don't necessarily have a home to go to. So he's just Tov Shin Mem Vavan told. So, okay. And Shloimo Fishman, his name was. Hashem Yimucham Zichro. Thank you. And, um, so they, they made this, uh, this challenge. And, um, Rabbi Marlo was the Rav at the time. And incidentally, someone pointed out to me that Rav Marlo's Yahrtzeit, but this was just this past week on Chof, um, Sivan. So Rav Marlo has ruled that the challenge is Mezonos. Now, interesting how things, um, evolve. So someone sent to me a message that there was something more to it because, you know, when you make Kiddush, you have to have Kiddush with Mokom Suda. Kiddush Mokom Suda, uh, would normally mean that you have some cake or some, some crackers or something. It has to be, um, a Mok-- or you can have a revi'a of wine. But Rav Marlo was, was, he was interested that the challenge itself should be Mezonos, therefore that's Mokom Suda. That, so at any rate, so he, Rav Marlo had said that that challenge was, um, Mezonos. Why was... So this is our, our, our question. Why is the challenge Mezonos? So

49:44 Speaker 1 the question that was sent to me was possibly it was because of the Kishka. Now, Kishka for, uh, um, those who are not sure what it is, it's like a long sausage kind of, uh, body which is, uh, a tube, a sleeve perhaps, stuffed with some kind of, um, mixture with flour and something else. Don't ask me any other ingredients. The only thing I do in the kitchen is eat and, and bench. Um, fine. So that's what the Kishka is made of. It's a Mezonos thing. It's put into the challengein its sausage form. Um, but I, I, I didn't feel that that's considered mixed in to be able to dominate and t- and to, and to define the beracha for the cholent. The cholent is made of beans and potatoes, and you've got a, a sausage sitting in it, which is clearly separable. And now, on, on the bottom of your screen, you have here, um, from the Dinim of Boiled. Now, let's say on Friday night, you wanted to take out a lump of meat from the cholent because you want it not to disintegrate perhaps, whatever it may be. It's not a problem of boiled. So if you had, let's say, uh, the opposite, if it was, let's say, a goulash, and you start picking out another piece of meat, another piece of meat, and put it into another container. If you do that Friday night, not because you want to eat it now, but because you want to keep it for

51:10 Speaker 1 later, that is sort of boiled. Because even taking food from food, ochel me-ochel, if it's for achas man, if it's for delayed use, it comes into this sort of boiled. But if it's a large chunk of meat which is not mixed in, it's not... It's, it's, it's clearly standing o-- standing apart, then to take out that large chunk of meat from the cholent, uh, to put it aside, is not a problem of boiled. So the boiled means the opposite of hataras. It was in a mixed-up state, and now you're separating it. So therefore, on that, on that basis, I'm looking at this kishka sitting in the cholent. Um, I'm just-- I'm using my imagination. I haven't looked into the pot directly. Um-

51:50 Speaker 2 I'm sorry, but this was not the Metzias.

51:52 Speaker 1 Oh.

51:52 Speaker 2 The Metzias was not, was done like, uh, like a-

51:55 Speaker 1 Oh

51:55 Speaker 2 ... kishka, kishka. This is a kishka bashem amosho. This was, um, poshet hakugel or what. This was, uh-

52:03 Speaker 1 Ah. It was mixed

52:04 Speaker 2 ... mixed. This was mixed with the whole cholent.

52:07 Speaker 1 Oh, oh. So now... Oh, it's for sheyt meniyt. Okay, thank you. Thank you, uh, Taryag. Um, so he's saying that the-- actually, the kishka was well-mixed into the cholent. If that is the case, then it makes sense why it was, um, uh, why it made the whole cholent Mezonos. I had thought of a different, a different, uh, explanation, that the cholent would have barley grains, and barley grains, although a whole barley grain is, um, is very pri hadomo. But once it becomes mushed and sticky, et cetera, um, so contemporaries for him say that makes it Mezonos. So I was thinking that perhaps if, if it... Instead of the, um, the kugel, the, the kishka being the, uh, factor to making Mezonos, it was the, um, the barley. But all right, thank you for clarifying that. So long as... Say, if it was well mixed in, then obviously it does become, makes the whole thing Mezonos. Uh, even though probably you could pick up a chunk of, uh, um, this kishka separately, but it's, since it's m- well mixed in, it'd probably be similar to what I said about the goulash meat being well mixed in, therefore that is called hataras and makes the whole thing back to the o- o- um, kishka would make the whole thing Me- Mezonos. Right. One last thing, and that is, um, we had this discussion about Baruch Hashem, answering Amen after Baruch Hashem Leolam. So one of our listeners, um, who is listening to the recording, so he's in

53:37 Speaker 1 his position, he often davens in the Nancha Chabad Shul, and, um, till now, he has been saying Baruch Hashem. I'm sorry, has been answering Amen. Does he have to do Hataras Nedarim for if he wants to stop? So here, I told him that you don't need to. You have in the Shulchan Aruch, in the Dinim of Nedarim, about a minek tov. So if you had done so, if you've been-- and that's a minek isur. You, you've been avoiding something consciously. Um, if you didn't real- you had personally made a mistake. You thought it's asur, and now you found out that it isn't asur, it's just that people don't do it. Oh, but yeah. But so, so then you are allowed to stop without Hataras Nedarim. Second opinion says you should do Hataras Nedarim. Ramoh, the Paskins, the minek is for Arishaina. So basically, the point here is, if you, um, have been doing something which you're worried about a neder, but if you're doing it under the illusion that that is the Halakha, and now you realize that the Halakha is not so, so then you don't need to have neder-- Hataras Nedarim to change your practice. Two other things came in about this. So someone sends me from, from Florida that Rabbi Citron, who is in actually in LA, uh, once asked Rav Zalman Schimon about the Bar-- Amen of Baruch Hashem Leolam, and Rav Zalman Schimon had advised him, "If you take the beracha of Hashkiveinu and say it slowly until he hasn't

55:06 Speaker 1 finished Hashkiveinu, when they finish Baruch Hashem Leolam, this way, he doesn't have to worry about, uh, answering Amen." Um, I guess for Rabbi Citron, that is a, a good solution. Many of us, uh, don't daven as slow as that, and so that one won't necessarily solve our problem. The other, uh, reference I was given is to the memoirs of the late Rav Mottel Schusterman, and he, uh, had his print shop somewhere in the Brownsville or whatever it was. And when his father passed away, he would daven at the Amud in a local shul, which is an Ashkenaz shul. So in the winter, I guess, so he, uh, go there, and they would-- he was discussed with the Rebbe, and, um, the Rebbe said, "If you're davening, if you're davening in that shul, you should follow their nusach. Um, but Baruch Hashem Leolam, in my riv, is a problem, and you should ask a Rav what to do about Baruch Hashem Leolam." So Rabbi Schusterman says to the Rebbe, "Ich bin do." I mean, "I'm here." I mean, "Why should I go to a Rav? I'm right here. You can be-- you can answer me." So the Rebbe says, "Ask a Rav." So it looks like the Rebbe didn't want to, uh, give him a psak, what to do. And he worked out that one of the mispallelim would, um, one of the other mispallelim would finish off Baruch Hashem Leolam aloud, and then he would say the Kaddish. And, uh, I was told that, that

56:31 Speaker 1 one of the Rabbonim in Edgeware also, uh, also advised Lubavitcher guys davening his, in his shul that they should do s-something similarly. And his, his, uh, background to that was that just like Chabad doesn't say Baruch Hashem Leolam, the Vilna Gaon also is of the opinion not to say Baruch Hashem Leolam. And, uh, that would be the same advice that you'd, um, if you're a chazan in a non-Chabad shul. So obviously, we actually, we're skipping to, from one thing to the other. One is about answering Amen. The other one, if you, as a chazan, should say Baruch Hashem Leolam. So you should try n-not to, um, because of it, Al Teva, Chutzatz, um, you know, Chashash Hefsek, et cetera. And about the Amen, that what remains that it is a concern of Chashash Hefsek, um, and therefore, um, try to avoid, uh, answering it. And, uh, so that's what we have for tonight. And I wish you all a guten Shabbes, and thank you all for participating. And, uh, you should be in good health. Al tif-