מטות–מסעי – חזק תשפ״ב

00:00 Speaker 1 Evening and welcome, everyone, all participants, to today's Shiur. Today's evening, Parshas-- Thursday of Parshas Matos-Masei. We'll go straight to our first question. Last Friday, I got a call from a, uh, Shliach who had prepared a big cholent for his Shabbos guests, and then realized that the potatoes are sourced from Eretz Yisrael. And then he realized, she'aylah of Shmittah. That's besides the question as well. If it wasn't Shmittah, then it'd be a problem of terumos and maasros. But here was a she'aylah of Shmittah. Now, I want to make this clear that Shmittah is, is, is meant to be eaten. The food of Shmittah is there for everyone to be able to eat. However, so then it's, it's-- That shouldn't have been a problem. Here there's another problem, and that is with sefichin. And that only got to do-- only it relates to vegetables, not relating to fruit from a tree. So let's read this halacha in Rambam. I didn't bring it from the Shulchan Aruch because we don't have, um, detailed halachas of Shmittah in Shulchan Aruch. So here we go. "U'midivrei Soferim, sheyehiyu kol hasefichin asurin b'achilah. Mid'Rabonon, they impose an issur on sefichin." Which means if you have-- Last year, you planted tomatoes, and this year, tomatoes are growing. How did they grow? They grow by themselves, yeah. So that was sefichin. In Yiddish, they use it translated Wiederwuchs, the regrowth. And Chachamim saw that farmers were having very generous quantities of it grew by itself. And because, you know, there was, there was

02:27 Speaker 1 sus-- very, very suspicious. And they understood that there was some fishy stuff going on it-- about it, and they made an issur on any-- the, the types of things which you need to replant every year. And you say that they grew by itself, so that's got an issur sefichin. That's got an issur mid'Rabonon. You're not allowed to, not allowed to eat it. So again, oranges, avocados, which grow during Shmittah, so they will have kedushat shvi'it. But vegetables which grow during Shmittah, not just they have kedushat shvi'it, but there's an issur achilah. Mid'Rabonon, you're not allowed to eat. Let's finish off this piece of Rambam. "V'lama gozaru aleihem?" Why did the Chachamim forbid the, uh, eating of sefichin? "Mipnei ovrei aveira," because of those who were violating the halacha. "Shevayedek v'yizra et hu b'kitnit vezeroa negina." You shouldn't go and plant grain and beans and other, uh, garden vegetables. "U'shechsodeh ba'seiser." They'll do so discreetly. "Uksheitzmach." And when it grows, you know, they will say, "Oh, hey, what's sefichin?" They'll say, "They just grew by itself." "L'fi hak, asur kol hasefichin matzrim chin b'shvi'it." Therefore, Chachamim forbade us to eat any of those kind of, uh, things, uh, which, which listed if they grew on Shmittah. So the potatoes, well, it's as I'm saying, in addition to the issur of-- well, to the kedushat shvi'it, which is one can handle and, and one can eat it and just not, just not, uh, just be careful with the peels, et cetera. Kedushat shvi'it is something which one

04:15 Speaker 1 can deal with. But, but, um, sefichin is something which you cannot use. I'm not saying that you can go and buy Shmittah produce, as in oranges or avocados, from the supermarkets. You shouldn't be doing that. That's because of shelo hilchaza yadei ovreı aveira. Not to-- There's a issur to trade and by us-- by patronizing. So we are supporting the people who are vi-- the, the, the people who are not keeping Shmittah. But the actual fruit, if someone did buy avocados where it's from, they are, they are kedushat shvi'it, so then you'd, uh, be allowed to eat them. By contrast here, the case of the potatoes, there's a issur derabanan to have those potatoes. Uh, the potatoes were in a cholent, as I mentioned before. The cholent also had a chunk of meat and, uh, unfortunately, I would say that you would not be lab-- able to eat the meat either because it's got issur derabanan mixed in with it. And l'chore even I would say you'd have to kasher the pot. Okay, let's go on to the next question. Here, let's go. So here I had a conversation earlier in the week with someone who's going on holiday somewhere in, uh, somewhere in England. I don't know exactly where. But it's-- This is the-- taken from, I guess, from Google Maps or something. And if you wanna look at the map, there's at the top here where I think there's number one, that's where he is, his, uh, his holiday home is. Number two is

05:58 Speaker 1 where he is, uh, where there is a minyan. Uh, and he, during his holiday time there, he would love to join the minyan for Shabbos. The problem is of lichum. And that is, you're not allowed to walk two thousand amos beyond your dwelling. And now, in, in a city, it's not a problem because you can walk the whole town. But here, it's in, very much in, in, uh, countryside. And so there's no houses. So he's only got a limit of two thousand amos. And the, there's the, uh, there's no direct-- You can't walk through directly from the, the, as a crow flies because there's a field in the way. Um, so there is a road which is pointing, this, this, um, line made of little balls. That's the road. Now, some time ago, I'd written an article and published it in the Tribune about walking from Borehamwood to Edgware. And in that article, I had discussed the concept of alachsin. That when you have a, uh, uh, you're allowed to walk two thousand amos, that means two thousand amos square. You can walk east two thousand amos, and you can walk south two thousand, two thousand amos. You can also walk the diagonal of that square, which means another forty percent, another two... It's actually two thousand eight hundred amos. Now, this concept of alachsin comes up in two forms. One is when you're measuring the limits of a city for the eru. And so that the, the, the city is, is first measured and

07:48 Speaker 1 then squared, and you can walk, uh, beyond the city to the c-corners of the square. But then we have the individual who is somewhere in the sticks, and now he's, wants to walk two thousand amos. So actually, he can walk two thousand eight hundred amos because he's saying, "Listen, I'm allowed to walk the diagonal of my square." So he was looking whether that would solve his problem, that he should be able to walk from his holiday home to the minyan by virtue of the concept of the alachsin. So he started measuring, and he wanted to know. He's not a rabbinical student. He, he wanted to know where I got this concept from, that you can m-choose your own alachsin. And I spent a lot of time with this, uh, person. And luckily, he sent me the map. And the problem is, even with the extra eight hundred amos with the alachsin, the problem is it, that he'd have to go down, as you can see, go, uh, this, the road is k-kind of too far out. If it'd be a straight road, it would've been possible to work with the alachsin, possibly. But, uh, the fact is that he couldn't go th-in a straight line. So actually, though, he spent a lot of time, to his credit, and he worked, found out that there is a farm somewhere in between where his holiday home is and the, uh, and the, the minyan. And he's planning to, I guess he's in, spoken to them, to the

09:29 Speaker 1 farm, uh, o-owners, the farmer, and he's gonna put his box of matzah, uh, there at the farm. And that will, that, that, that farm is within two thousand amos from where he is. And then from the farm to the minyan, it's more than two thousand amos. But there, he can use the benefit of the alachsin. So in, the point of the idea, Eru of lichum, is that where your box of matzahs is, that's your residence. From there, you are allowed two thousand in every direction. Plus, you can, once you've got every direction, then you can choose to, uh, then you can take another, uh, the diagonal of that squ-of, uh, that square. So in looking at the map here, two thousand to the west, two thousand to the south. Now, from, from his house to the, or sorry, from the farmhouse to the shul is more than the, uh, lichum Shabbos, as in two thousand amos. But by the benefit of alachsin, he's able to get there. If you look at the figures, he's, he's put here that the, he's measuring nine sixty being two thousand amos according to Chaim Nor. And then the diagonal here is ten fifty. That's over two thousand amos. But because of the benefit of alachsin, then that, that becomes le-legitimate. So, uh, it's a complicated thing, and I, I've spent a lot of time on it. But, uh, it's, it's valuable to know. Um, what's very helpful is when the customers are more educated, then you can get better

11:11 Speaker 1 solutions. Okay. Um, now I'm looking here. There's someone on the previous point talking about shmita. Whilst it says, like, the comment reads the following. "Whilst no gezera was made on fruit, probably others, this was more difficult to hide. Nowadays, surely fruit from outside Israel has the same status as sefarim." No, sorry, not at all. The difference is that vegetables need to be replanted every year. They don't grow by themselves, hardly. And therefore, the Chachamim made the Isur on sefarim because of the surreptitious replanting and claiming it grew by itself. Fruit of a tree grows year in, year out. Perhaps the quality may be slightly different because of pesticides, et cetera, but it grows year in, year out. You don't need to do melacha to have fruit growing year in, year out. So therefore, there's no need to, uh, apply the Isur of sefarim, uh, to pri ha'etz. Let's move on. So that's about Chum Shabbos. And here is, uh, just one of the Achronim who says this, uh, point, and this is an interesting point. That whereas measuring the square for a city... So normally, we'd, we would opt to use Ribua shel Olam, that the north, um, would be the north of the world and the s- east would-- and therefore, the Alachson would be a diagonal. It would be like northeast or southeast, et cetera. Um, by, by contrast, for a yochid, to choose which way, he can actually choose which way he wants his Alachson to be. And so he can choose

12:52 Speaker 1 his Alachson, uh, if you... Let's, uh, so let's come back. If he wanted to use his Alachson from this, from the, uh, farmhouse and to be able to go to where I'm pointing now, beyond that square, that would be legitimate. But then if-- Once he chooses his Alachson in one direction, he ch- he loses the flexibility to go, uh, in other parts. Once you've, you've chosen the, the, the, uh, extra forty percent in that direction, so you've limited yourself in other parts of, uh, you know, your, your freedom of movement. And that's... We were looking at, um, putting the Eruv on the si- road of-- on the side of the road somewhere halfway, and that didn't help because of, uh, not being able to, um, stretch the Alachson, um, in all different directions. You can only choose one direction of your Alachson. That's the point which is being said over here. Let's move on. Okay, um, some people have asked, if the son does need to make Havdalah, uh, during Tisha B'Av, does he make the berakhah on besamim? And the answer is no. You don't make the berakhah on besamim, just like the rest of us are not gonna indulge in besamim because it's, uh, of the, of the in- it's an indulgence. So too, those who do have to make Havdalah should not be making Havdalah on, uh, should not be making a berakhah on the besamim. Now, about the psukim of Hinei Kehillat Yishrael Osei. This is interesting. Now, in Cha- in

14:28 Speaker 1 the welt minhag is, uh, hinei-- the psukim of Hinei Kehillat Yishrael Osei are not said on a, uh, Motzae Yom Tov. In Chabad, we do say those psukim. The, uh, the Rebbe would make Havdalah at the end of the fabrengen on Motzae Yom Tov, and he would say, "Hinei Kehillat Yishrael Osei." So that's no question. That we, we say, "Hinei Kehillat Yishrael Osei," and these are berakhahs as we're going out from the Shabbos and, uh, also Yom Tov, going out into the week. So we're taking-- saying they were su- psukim of berakhah. The question is about saying the berakhah, the Hinei Kehillat Yishrael Osei on Tisha B'Av. Or so then, Motzae Tisha B'Av, yes, because again, you're going out into the week. So you, you say the psukim of berakhahs. But if a person making Havdalah on Tisha B'Av, then... Now, the Tisha B'Av says not to say the psukim. Uh, I would, I would say that possibly that should apply even according to Minhag Chabad because, um, it's not, it's not a, uh, it's not like a Motzae Yom Tov. You're going-- It, it is a time of, uh, where things are suppressed, you know. And therefore, perhaps the psukim shouldn't be said. Right. Um, someone asked, "Is-- What should we use, a wine or davka chamar medina?" So although we don't drink wine during the nine days, but, uh, if you need to-- for Havdalah, we, we would make Havdalah on wine during the nine days. Um, some poskim say davka to use

16:04 Speaker 1 chamar medina for Havdalah if a person has to make Havdalah on, on Tisha B'Av. Others say you can use wine. So generally, uh, we have a rule that the Sofek D'Rabbonon is the kula. Um, someone's saying he was instructed to use grape juice. Fine. Um, Sofek D'Rabbonon, the kula, and therefore, if you want to use wine, you could. If you wanted davka to use, um, chamar medina, well, make sure it's a qui- it's, uh, you know, it's qualified as chamar medina. Um, I saw somewhere about somebody who's using milk, and I, I really don't understand, um, about how, how milk can qualify as chamar medina. Um, it's a kind... The chamar medina means the, the kind of, uh, drink which you'd invite someone over for a drink. So it's a bit of, has a bit of chashivus. Let's move on. So, a bit of a confusion here. There's a minhag in, uh, Beis HaOvel Rachmana Litzlan, that after Shacharis and after Mincha or after Maariv, depending whether Ashkenaz or et cetera, um, to say a Kapitel Tehillim, to say Kapitel Mem Tes. So now, where does this minhag come from? Before, before where the minhag come from, the question which came my way was, when it's a day when Tachnun is not said, particularly it was relevant to a Friday afternoon by Mincha. So some have a minhag of instead of self saying Kapitel Mem Tes, to say Kapitel Tes Zayin. And so what is the Chabad minhag on that? So now let's trace the

17:55 Speaker 1 minhag of saying Kapitel Mem Tes. So what you have on the right of the m- of the screen is from the, what's called, Be'er Hagolah, from Rab Moshiach Rifkes, and it's on the margin of the Shulchan Aruch. I think it's similar here. De'ah, Shin, Tzadik, Vav. I think it is. Now, so it's on Gimel. And he writes the Minchas Achronim. The Minchas Achronim is to say a Hashkava, which is like El Malei Rachamim, and they would say before Ma'ariv, and in the morning, they would say Kapitol Mem-Tess and Tzidka Din. And that would be said every after-- every Tefillah, and that's, uh, an ancient Mincha. Mincha Tikin u'Vatikin. Where did it come-- So this is, this is the Minchas Achronim, as Rabbi Moshe Rifkas writes. Where does the Kapitol Tav-Zayin as an alternative come in? So I, I corresponded about, about this with Rabbi Lady Garelik, who's put out a, a Madri Chonenu Chasaveilus, and he does have some notes about this. Now, and he, uh, shared with me a letter which he received from someone called Rabbi Yaakov Chaviv, who lives in Eretz Yisroel and is the, uh, big Talmid Chacham. He's written, uh, a Sefer on these Zinyonim of A-A-Ahavah V'Ahavah. Um, and what he s- he, he, he traces the history that, that Rabbi Moshe Rifkas lived in Vilna. But in the year, um, Taf Tes Vav, there was a, uh, the Jewish community were, were, were, were, uh, exiled, were driven out of Vilna. At that time, he found, he found

19:39 Speaker 1 his way to Rotterdam in Holland, and he spent some time with the Chacham, Rabbi Yoshaya Pardes- Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pardes. And it looks like it was then that he picked up the Minchas Achronim, and that's what he's writing here, "VaYisi Poi." He's living in Vilna. Where there's Achronim in Vilna. It's this he wrote whilst he was living in, uh, Rotterdam, the Minchas Achronim to say Kapitol Mem-Tess. Now, the-- you see here, Kapitol Mem-Tess and Tzidka Din are put together. Apparently, there's a difference between Sephardim and Ashkenazim about saying Tzidka Din on a day when Tachnun isn't said. Where the Sephardim would say Tzidka Din regardless, and therefore they did not have any difference between yes Tachnun or no Tachnun. It would always be Kapitol Mem-Tess and always have Tzidka Din. Ashkenazim don't say Tzidka Din on a day when Tachnun is not said. It looks like because of this, oh, no Tzidka Din, then should we take, take Kapitol Mem-Tess. And so the earliest record we have of, of substituting Kapitol Tav-Zayin, Kapitol Mem for Kapitol Mem-Tess, seems to be about eighty years ago or something. In the earliest record, I'm not saying it's the earliest it happened. And that is in the Sefer, the classic, um, kind of most modern, uh, classic, well, uh, uh, just b-before modern, is the Sefer Yeshurun for Rav Tukachinsky. So he mentions this Mincha, this, uh, Mincha in, in Shalom, et cetera. Okay. So we have here a Mincha of saying Kapitol Mem-Tess. It is also in the Torah

21:11 Speaker 1 Or Sidra, uh, published by Rav David Lavud. So that was published in-- more than a hundred and twenty years ago. So at the back, he adds Kapitol Mem-Tess, t-which is said in the Bes Or, but he does not me-differentiate whether it's said, um, on a day of Tachnun or not. Now, on the left of the screen, I've put here a note which I, I included in the Sefer, uh, Nesiv Ha-Meshoulech Chelek Beis. So that there we have that some have the Mincha to substitute-

21:42 Speaker 2 Call from-

21:42 Speaker 1 Mem Tav-Zayin. And then, however, n- there's a couple of sources, Chabad sources. Number one is during the, uh, when the Friedrich Rebbe was, was in Avelus, I think it was Taf Shin Beis or Taf Shin Gimel. So then, uh, the Rebbe makes a note that they said Kapitol Mem-Tess also in the morning and in the, uh, at Mincha, also on Friday, but not on Shabbos. In Taf Shin Mem Ches, it's noted here that they did not say Mem-Tess on Friday afternoon. And then it's also noted elsewhere that in Taf Shin Yud Beis, when the Rebbe was sitting Shiva for his brother, um, so again, they didn't say Kapitol Mem-Tess. And the way it looks like is, now this idea of substituting Tav-Zayin for Mem-Tess did not find its way into Mincha Chabad. So it's either Mem-Tess, Tachnun or no Tachnun. But then we're seeing that on Friday afternoon, it isn't said at all. Although in the Taf Shin, in the Rosh Chodesh for Taf Shin Gimel, it was said, but then we've seen that the Rebbe-- by the Rebbe, it wasn't said. And so, okay, that seems to be the, uh, bottom line, is on the Shvisen not to say it at all. Um, now, Rabbi Garelik has, uh, some kind of theory why there should be a difference why other days when Tachnun isn't said to say, um, Mem-Tess, and why Friday afternoon should be different. But okay, let's move on. So here I got an, a question also last Friday. A Yiddishe boy

23:20 Speaker 1 is going off with some of his mates off to, uh, Holland for a holiday, and they are in-- staying in Amsterdam in some hostel, and he wants to go to shul on Shabbos morning. Beautiful. Happens to be there's a river between him and the shul, the kind of closest shul, there's a river. And there's no bridge, but there is a ferry which is laid on free for, for, uh, you know, tourists, et cetera. Doesn't cost anything. You just come along, you're on the boat, and then go across the, the river. And he's asking the question, "Am I allowed to go to shul, uh, with this ferry?" Now, my first question in return was, "Who are these other lads who are going with him? Are they Yiddishe boys? Are they Shomer Shabbos?" And even if they were J-Jewish, apparently, they were not Shomer Shabbos. So my tendency was here, let's get this Jewish boy away from those boys as much time as possible, on Shabbos at least, so he'll do much less Chilul Shabbos by being away from them than being with them. So that was my motive here. But-- So there's two issues here. One is a-about motorized vehicles, et cetera. I don't know how the, the ferry works. Are you allowed to go onto a tram or et cetera. But what really caught my attention is about not going onto a boat altogether on Shabbos. And here we have from Siman Reish. Now, this Halakha is discussed in Reish Mem Ches and in Shin

24:53 Speaker 1 Lamed Tes. Two places, um, about going onto a boat on Shabbos. Now, this is an extension of the issue of swimming on Shabbos, that you're not allowed to swim on Shabbos in case you may come to make a float. So by extension, you're not allowed to go on a boat on Shabbos. So let's take a look here. We have a story in the Gemara in Shabbos, um, daf kuf lamed tes, about a f- one of the chachomim, he went on Shabbos afternoon, he went to the local, uh, river, and there was a ferry there. And he sat down in the ferry, and, um, he fell asleep. And then an hour later, he wakes up, and he's on the other side of the river. And he got out of the boat, and then he checked out his, uh, his orchard. And they asked him, "What's this going on the boat?" He says, "I was just, I was just dozing off. I was just, you know, sunbathing," whatever. And they told him, "No, that's too obvious. It's obviously that you're using the boat." So we see here that there is an issue of going onto a boat on Shabbos. And when a person, let's say, is on a cruise, et cetera, and they're traveling, uh, long distance, and the ship is leaving port on Shabbos, so the solution there is you go onto the boat out of Shabbos, and you, you stay there for the onset of Shabbos, a koin shvisa, and then you can go back

26:16 Speaker 1 for the night. And then you go back in the morning, you go onto the boat, and then the boat goes on its merry way, and you join them. Um, now, so it looks like you shouldn't be going onto a boat on Shabbos. And so some poskim want to say that the reason, the need for the koin shvisa is because the ship is going beyond the tehum. But the way the Alter Rebbe presents it over here is even if the boat is only traveling within the tehum, you wouldn't be allowed to go on the boat on Shabbos. And, um, un- un- unless you were there before Shabbos, which is not the case over here. So this is, this is my problem. It was Erev Shabbos, and I was a little under pressure, and I said that there are poskim who permit it. And so here you have in the Shaarei Teshuva, both in siman reish mem Ches and in siman shin lamed tes, he brings poskim who allow you to use a ferry to go to join up a minyan. And it was quite a common thing in smaller places where they couldn't get a minyan together without people from the various villages, and sometimes needed a boat. And those places, some of them would actually be koain shvisa before Shabbos, and then they would come on Shabbos across with the boat. Um, but then, there are, you can see here, highlighted, that the Shov Yaakov, who was a little bit before the Alter Rebbe, he

27:44 Speaker 1 writes that you can, you can, uh, that even, even without koin, koin shvisa, the koin shvisa is only for tehum. But, um, as far as going to a boat and crossing with a fer- ferry, um, if it's, if it's, uh, o- operated by Goyim, that would be okay. And what, uh, his-- either Gemara says you wouldn't be allowed to go onto a, a boat. So he says that if it's for tzidkat mitzvah, then you would be allowed to. So here we have a heter. I don't know whether the Alter Rebbe would agree to the heter of tzidkat mitzvah. But we do have a, um, eminent poskim who allowed a tzidkat mitzvah to go onto a ferry. And so, as I said, I had here a motive to get this boy away from his non, uh, well, not necessarily inspiring for yirat shamayim, uh, chaverim, and to have him go to shul. Now, let's, let's just go to the next. Before people come away and say, "Oh, I, you know, the, the, uh, halacha, was it you're allowed to go onto a ferry on Shabbos?" Well, I do wanna share, share you, with you from Piskei Teshuvas about generally using public transport. And it's far-fetched that another person is going to make the, the transport work that har- that much harder. It's, it's merely in a car, you take another passenger, so it's, so it's diverting the energy. Instead of moving faster, it's, it's slowing down. And then the driver will press on the, on the

29:20 Speaker 1 accelerator to go a bit faster. Um, but with, with an electric, uh, with a tram or the, an elevator, these things, you're not going to draw any more energy by having another person on. And yet, that's mishum zuhl b'kiddush Shabbos. It is degrading for Shabbos to use any of these things. And therefore, the consensus is not to use public transport, even for tzibur. And he says, for people who are not frum yet, and they are beginning to become frum, so then if they're using public transport, okay, uh, one should be, should be more tolerant. And just, uh, there's the issue of carrying the c- the tickets, et cetera. I remember back in the, in the '80s that, um, in, in Russia, so in Moscow, there were many baal teshuva, and there's no, there was no c- concept of a Jewish area. People were just plonked wherever the, uh, the authorities decided to put them. And so some people had to walk, were walking two hours or more, um, from wherever they were to sh- to shul. And here, there was a difference between Chabad and the, uh, Litvisher baal teshuva, that the Litvisher did allow them, at least on Yom Tov, to use the, the public transport. Whereas in the Chabad baal teshuvas, were, were walking those long distances, even on Yom Tov, not to use the public transport. So there is a-- no, there's no, uh, free ride to use the, um, to use the public transport on, on, on Shabbos or Yom Tov.

31:00 Speaker 1 As I say, in this circumstance, there was a- Special, uh, reason to be more lenient. What I-- Meanwhile, I saw another interesting thing, that in this piece he says, also talks about using lifts, which in America they're called elevators, uh, or escalators. Not to use them on Shabbos. And even, you know, even those, those ones which are made for Shabbos, they're made for people who are, uh, frail, et cetera. But for, um, for people who sh- A-a-again, because of zrizus for Shabbos, to avoid using the elevators. Yes, we know that elevators sometimes, you know, they go... Right. Now, just some-someone made a comment about using milk for Havdalah. That's, the Rebbe has, has actually a comment in Ig- in Igros Kodesh that, uh, not to rely on that. Okay, let's move on. Okay, so this week someone consulted me. There's a, um, a couple. Sh- he's, he wasn't Jewish, and she is Jewish. And he's just gone through Giyur, and they're planning a wedding. And so now the question is, do you have a whole week of Sheva Berachos, or is it just the one day? So let's, let's just scroll to the next slide. No, it's not here, not here. Okay. Oh, sorry. To the left of the screen. So the Halakha, as it is in Yoreh De- in Even HaEzer samech beis, ad kamar b'vorichin berachos. They're talking about the, um, Sheva Berachos, et cetera. If it's a, a widower who is marrying a widow, in other words, a second marriage for both

32:36 Speaker 1 of them, so the beracha is only said on the first day. If he is a bocher, although she is an almanah, so he is-- For him, it's the first wedding. For her, it's not. Or if he, for him, he's an almanah, he's a widower, but she is a basula, she... So then one would have Sheva- Shivas Yemei Hamisha. One would have a, a full week of celebration. So in this case, they've been married before in a civil marriage. Da-da- the details don't bother me. And so she is definitely not a basula. Now, the fact that he was married in a colloquial sense but not in Halakha sense, does that me- make him a bocher or, or do you say, do you say because he's a ger and therefore he's like a bocher or not? So this, I-- Th-th-someone had told them that they have seven days Sheva Berachos, and I was-- I disagreed. And here I have a source from, as a Sefer, contemporary Sefer, Kitzur Nachlas Yitzchak. And he quotes in, in... He writes, "A goy and a goy-a." And a non J- non-Jewish couple or with a gay-a, it's only one day Sheva Berachos. And then you might have argued that perhaps because he's ne- he never had a Jewish wedding, therefore he's called a bocher. But he quotes here from the Shevet HaLevi from Rav Ozna zechro l'vracha that, no, it's maximum it's just the one day because he has been living a ma- married life. And therefore, uh, it's, it's, uh,

34:04 Speaker 1 only, only the one day. Rabbi Lou is making a comment here. I'm just going to r-read it. "In USSR, I believe the non-Lubavitch allowed men to go to the metro on Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot for the mitzvahs which are m'deoraita. Lubavitchers stayed in Malacha if they could, and if they couldn't, they would walk." Okay, thank you, Rabbi Lou, for that, uh, piece of history, which is, Baruch Hashem, it's history. Let's move on. Right. So in this week's Rambam, in, it's, uh, the three prakim, came up here, the lashon, that the eidekidushin at a wedding do not have to be designated. You don't have to tell them, "Atem eidai." In other Halakhas, let's say if a person says, "Oh, I o- I owe you... I, I, I confirm that I owe you ten thousand pounds." That might be just, uh, joking. So therefore, for that to be binding, he'd have to say to the witnesses, "Atem eidai. I'm, I'm appointing you as witnesses to my admission." Otherwise, it's just not, not taken seriously. So the Rambam is saying here that when it comes to Kidushin, it's not necessary to designate their witnesses. They see it. They are witnesses. It doesn't have to designate them. However, uh, and that actually is brought in Shulchan Aruch in Siman samech. Sorry, um, it's brought in Shulchan Aruch in Siman mem beis. That didn't mean Kidushin. Samech beis is Birkat... is a Birkat, uh, uh, Birkat Nisuin. Right. However, what is-- The second quote on this page is from a

35:49 Speaker 1 Ram Mitz. Um, Ram Mitz perhaps. And he has in Siman kuf tes, a long tshuva going through step by step, the, uh, the procedure of a wedding and, um, the kesubah, et cetera. And many, many details of what we do today by chuppahs are traced to this tshuva Ram Mitz. So what's normally done is, by the chuppah, the Rav is, uh... Well, the Gabai will say, you know, "Rabbi." And the Rav will take the g- glass of wine, and he'll make the beracha, Sheha'chahbaru pri ha'gafen. And then he will say the beracha, Shekesher banim be'tzo pairus v'al ha'aros, the long beracha. And then the chosan kallah are given a bit of wine to drink. So what he writes here, after he said the beracha, after chosan kallah have a drink, a sip, then he takes the, um, the bat baser kidushin takes the ring and shows it to the witnesses, and has the witnesses confirm that it's worth a prutah. And he says to the witnesses, they should make sure to see how the chosan puts the ring on the kallah's, uh, finger. And they sh- they should also hear the chosan saying, "Harey at mekudeshet li," et cetera. Um, the lower quote is from the- Kitzot Shechinorach. Now, uh, recently it was brought to my attention that in the Feldman edition of the Kitzot Shechinorach, at the back, there's about eight pages which were a- added by... Rav Feldman was given, um, from a grandson of Rav Shlomo Ganzfried. It was a yahrtzeit. It

37:32 Speaker 1 was just this week. Um, Rav Shlomo, um, so, uh, Shlomo Ganzfried's grand- grandson gave Rav Dovid Feldman, uh, a kuntres of, uh, of, of several pages which should be added to the Kitzot Shechinorach. It's only in that print. It's not in any other edition of the Kitzur for the moment, and it's very, very useful. Rabbonim who are Masadic edition, he's got a lot of very useful guidelines over there. And meanwhile, he says, again, the idea of saying to the chassan kallah, "These are the witnesses and none other." So, just to point out the point which I'm saying, the, the chidush in the Maraam mintz is how after the bracha, only then does the Rav identify who the witnesses are. Normally, we do that before. Um, when the Rav is called up and before he makes the bracha, we already announce so and so are the witnesses, and then some have introduced a term, these are the ones and none other. These are the witnesses and no o- other. That wasn't the, uh, standard announcement in Chabad or in many other kehillahs. This is... But I'm just finding it interesting how Rav Dovid Feldman also says, "But this is not an announcement. This is saying to the chassan kallah, these are the witnesses and none other." Now, um, why is it important to designate the witnesses, although the Rama says it's not necessary? Well, typically, who's under the chuppah? Chassan kallah, parents, et cetera. Um, there may be, nearby, there may be family members. None of

39:07 Speaker 1 them are valid witnesses. And there's... I can just tell you, uh, standing under the chuppah many times, the photographer is the, the... He's the Masadic edition. "Move here, move there. You're blocking my camera." It's, it's not so easy for the observers to see the chassan putting the ring on the kallah's, uh, uh, kallah's finger. Unless you tell them, "Come forward and, and see what's going on," most people don't see what's going on, and so that's not good enough. You need to have people to actually see. So, yeah, sure, the Rama says you don't need to designate them. If they saw it in, in, in passing, that's, that's fine. But practically speaking, you do need, do need to call them over so that there should be a takan tukar witnesses to see it. Okay. So it's not a machloket with the Rambam, it's just a practical consideration. Right. Um, let's move on. Okay. Last Shabbos, I spent, uh, in Golders Green and walked over to Heichal Menachem, and Rabbi Gedalia, um, Leibum was giving a shiur about Binyan B'keilim, about opening containers. And, uh, unable to restrain myself, whatever, I, I shared with him, I shared with the, uh, with the people at the shiur a question about a fridge door which came off. A freezer, actually. Now, the, the, the fridge, uh, the freezer, the body of the freezer is made of metal, and you've got a hinge which is screwed into the top and screwed into the bottom, and then that's got a spindle,

40:49 Speaker 1 and, uh, the fridge, freezer door rotates on that spindle, which is supported by those screws. Happened to be, but my freezer, the bottom of the freezer had rusted to the point that the bottom hinge fell off. And there's a term in English called Murphy's Law, loosely translated in Yiddish as af tsu lokhes. This happened on Shabbos. And so I've got Shabbos, the freezer door has come off. Am I allowed to put that freezer door back onto it, into position? Now, the freezer has got a-- The door has a gusset, this rubber, um, this rubber length all the way around the door. Inside that gusset, there is a, a ma- a, a magnetic strip, and that's what keeps the door closed. So, really, you could just, uh, ph- physically put the door in place. The magnet would hold it in place, and your food wouldn't get ruined. Um, so are you allowed to do that on Shabbos? So, af tsu lokhes again. Rabbi Leibum says that he also had the same thing a few years ago. Uh, the, the freezer door came off it- his hinges, and he had the same question and was struggling to find an answer. So, so let's look, look at the Halakha. Now, we have here a, a source in Shin Yud Gimel. Alter Rebbe's Shechinach, Shin Yud Gimel, Sifrei Zayin, talking about lids or doors of a piece of furniture. So, there's a... The Mishnah talks about the lid of a box which has become detached from the box, from

42:23 Speaker 1 the chest. That, that lid is not muktzeh. So, Sifrei Zayin, Alter Rebbe continues, that's all if it's from a portable, from a portable piece of furniture. But if it's the door of a, uh, of something which is attached to the ground, whether it's a, a pit or something, uh, a cupboard which is built in. He talks about it here, a, a chicken coop. So then you would not be allowed to take off the door, put it back. And because it's mechubar lakarka, because the door is attached to a building which is attached to the ground, therefore, there's, is an issue of building and demolishing by taking away and putting back this door on the other ground. Therefore, he laments the fact that by big celebrations in summer, people sometimes lift off the windows off the hinges. With a goy doing so, that's also not allowed. Because since removal of the windows is a chirchatos, therefore, um, because it's so shaman as livnos. It's not as if you're demolishing for no purpose. You intend to put it back. Therefore, you wouldn't be allowed to even tell a goy to remove the windows from the door, from the wind- for the win- the, you know, the window, uh, pane, whatever. It wouldn't matter. From, from the, you know, the hole in the wall called the window. In the footnote, they have a reference there to Siman Reish Nun Tes, where here the Alter Rebbe seems to say a little different. Where the Alter Rebbe says that putting

44:04 Speaker 1 back a door, I mean, Hatora Ein Issur, putting back a door is not an Issur Min HaTorah. To put bricks is a, a Misah Min HaTorah. But a door, putting... That's, that, uh... It's not Mamash the building, and therefore, putting back a door is not Issur Min HaTorah. This is Rabonon. Possibly there's a difference between a window and a door, and that, uh, putting back a, a, a, a, a door being perhaps more portable, and therefore it's less an indigenous part of the building, and therefore, removal of a door, putting it back is the Rabonon. A window being more part of the wall, therefore is a Issur Min HaTorah, because otherwise you have a contradiction. Here it says, Achai of Chatos, and here it says it's, uh, it's Rabonon. Okay. So we have here removal of a door or putting back a door, uh, to a building. So it might be Issur Min HaTorah, it might be Issur Rabonon. Now, what-- Now we're talking about, we're not talking about building. We're talking about a, a freezer. A freestanding freezer. If it's a built-in freezer, then, then it's, it's Keilim Hamichubarin Hakarka. But in Sif Yuchas, the Alter Rebbe says that if it's a large Keili, that it's, it's got a capacity of forty Siah, which is an ama by ama by three amas, it's, then it's considered like Kareka. Now, a typical fridge, five foot high. It's your shoulder height. It measures sixty by sixty. So then it's got a Shira of forty Siah, which

45:41 Speaker 1 is ama by ama by three amas. Now, before you start arguing, what about... Is the internal capacity, what it-- Is that forty Siah? But here he says, Im Had Fanus, that the walls, the thickness of the walls also contribute. So we're talking about the external dimensions, not the internal capacity of the fridge or freezer. So a, a large-ish, you know, medium to large fridge or freezer does have a Shira of forty Siah, and therefore the door is considered a door of a building. And that makes it really, really a problem. To, to put back the door onto the fridge or freezer would be a question of Achai of Chatos. Now, according to the Ari, then according to what he says over there in, in, in Siman Reish Nun Tes, it still remains that Isah Rabonon to put back a door. I'm saying this, that, you know, you come... You got these doors on spindles, which you could lift off. Well, you're not allowed to lift them off on Shabbos or put them back on if it's part of a building. Um, that comes into an Isah of, of Boine. So now we're struggling now what's, what's the story with the freezer. One, one redeeming factor I would like to say is the following. That to fix a freezer is you need a screwdriver, some, perhaps some other tools. To use the gusset and the, the, the magnet to fix the freezer, that's not the normal way of fixing a freezer. It's, would be considered Boine

47:15 Speaker 1 Kila Chayat. And here we have in Siman Shin Zayen, uh, in Seif Yud Beis. So let's read here. This is all, we're talking about asking a goy to do something, um, a Melacha for you, if he does it in a normal way. If the goy does it in an odd, in a not normal way, even if it is a Shvus Gamur. Mutar Le'asot, Isah Sois Soi, Afilu Al Yedei Yisroel B'makom Tzar. That to do an even Issur DeRabo, B'makom Tzar, you're allowed to... A Yid is allowed to do this. Now, this, I've said this many times. For example, um, to, if a Makom Tzar or a p- a patient in hospital to, um, to pa- walk past a sensor which is gonna s- open the door, et cetera. So if you do it Kila Chayat, that would be acceptable. So let's say, um, if there is a sensor, you need to get into the ward or get out of the ward, whatever, to walk backwards. So you're activating the sensor. I know that. You do it Kila Chayat in, in a No- in a Shloka De'ech Achoyal. That is permitted B'makom Tzar. V'yesh Oimrim Shehu Hadin B'makom Hefsed. Some say that that's also permitted in a pl- case of a loss. V'yesh Lismoch Al Divreihem B'makom Hefsed Gadol. Where there's a significant loss, you can rely on that. And this, uh, reference to Shin Amad Vorbe is talking about, um, about a gutter which has become blocked with, with leaves. So how do you normally

48:54 Speaker 1 clear a gutter? Well, you use a plunger or something. And here, there's a Gemara in Shabbos about pushing y- standing in the gutter with your foot and somehow pushing the leaves and, and, and, and, and, and releasing. The gutter should r- have the water be able to go through. So that's, so that otherwise the gutter's gonna go overflow. It's gonna cause damage. So here we have B'makom Hefsed, Hefsed Gadol at least. So then we are permitted to do even a Melacha DeRabo, Kila Chayat. Certainly, I, I suspect that this Din of more than forty Siah being considered a building, it's not so clear, and I would think even the Machmirim, it's a Din DeRabonon. And therefore, if it's a Hefsed Gadol. Now, this you have to, um, assess. This you have to assess. You got now the freezer is now open. Uh, is there a Hefsed Gadol by leaving it open? First of all, what are the contents? Are the contents, um, perishable? If they're going to, um, be defrost, there's gonna be Hefsed Gadol. What I don't know, besides about, besides the, um, besides the contents, if you leave a freezer motor running and it's gonna be, uh, left open, it might actually ruin the freezer, which for most of us would count as a Hefsed Gadol. Although you might be, uh, welcoming the that it's got, on its, uh, on its merry way. If it's really rusted at the bottom, maybe time for replacement. But, um, if, if, if, really, the bottom line

50:24 Speaker 1 here is, if to put back that, that door in its place with the magnets, if that is to protect you from a hefetz of godel, then I think we have a heter over here, um, as I said, from here, Siman She'eisai. Let's move on to our next point. Um, right. So last, um, no, I'm just jumping ahead. Two points here. Some of, point nine is on my list. Oh, before we go into point nine, someone asked me about fridge magnets. Very interesting. Whilst I was doing research about this, um, fridge door, I saw in, this is one of the contemporary very good seforim of Shabbos, it's Orchas Shabbos, three volumes. And there he mentioned about a, um, a suction hook. Many people have got suction hooks for towels, et cetera. So he writes, if a, if your hook is attached to a fridge, si- side of the fridge with a suction, that's called, no different than if it was screwed in. It's called, called a binyan. So to put it back, to re-suction it, if that's the right word, that wouldn't be allowed on Shabbos under the Isur of Boiner. And put, and then also the hook which fell off is mukza to the end of Shabbos. Okay, let's go on to the next thing about, someone asked about what's the story about, uh, Tisha B'Av in the Krias that it says this year, Yafech L'simcha. Um, and Tisha B'Av is actually on Shabbos, and delay, the fast is de- is, is deferred to Sunday.

51:54 Speaker 1 What, when do the restrictions on learning begin? Do they start on Friday afternoon because it's Ches, Ches Tisha, Ches, Ches Av already then, or is it on Shabbos morning, Shabbos afternoon, et cetera? So there are different opinions, and certainly the majority of the Poskim have no problem on the Friday afternoon. It's, it's Erev, Erev, so to speak, Tisha B'Av L'maase. On Tisha B'Av, I'm sorry, on Shabbos Tisha B'Av itself, so the, uh, Luach Kol HaChabad writes that, you know, Chaim Noehm, said on Shabbos, one should keep to learning Dvarim Hamitorah. So really, that's not such a big issue because we're noheg to learn, um, Chassidus, we're not, we, we, we're noheg to learn even when, uh, one shouldn't be learning Dvarim Hamasamechim. The reason of this is, it says, to learn Sefer Musar is allowed and because it's, um, it's kind of chastising the person, and therefore one would be allowed to learn Chassidus also. In, uh, in the Luach, um, Meiri Shiur for Rambam, the Rebbe addresses in such a Krias, he says, "What, when do you learn your Shiur Rambam?" So the Rebbe says you should ask a Rav. So this is once in every several years, there's a, there's a Herut to ask a Rav a Shaila. So, all right. So the, the Rebbe didn't want to pasken himself, but L'Chore, since it's something which you do on a d- daily basis, a Shiur, Shiur Rambam has become a daily basis. So yes, there's, if there is a basis to be Matir,

53:34 Speaker 1 a Limud which is done on a daily basis should be allowed even in a time of, of grieving, uh, and therefore that would be Mutar. Um, the Hashash of Pikudi Hashem Yeshorim Mesamchei Lei, that you'll be, get very excited because you found something new in the Rambam, probably for most of us is not such a, a, uh, likely scenario, and therefore we can learn the Shiur Rambam, um, on Ra- on, on Shabbos. Shabbos, even on Shabbos afternoon, if you didn't manage in the morning, you could still do Shiur Rambam. And same thing with Chitas. If you didn't manage in the morning, you'll do it in the afternoon. Um, you won't, you won't because you're Chofech L'simcha, but fine. Then last week, we've been speaking about whether a woman should say the Bracha, Borei Ma'areh Aish. So one of our li- our listeners, someone whose name is Reb Leibel Wexler, probably listening to the recording, he writes to me that he heard from Rabbi Chaikin, zal zangen, that he heard from Reb Zalman Teibel, alav ha-shalom. Reb Zalman Teibel had been present at Havdalah in the house of the Friediker Rebbe, and Reb Zalman Teibel said that after the Rebbe made Havda- the Bracha Hagofen on the wine, so there, whoever it was, perhaps someone else was making Havdalah, but then, um, the Rebbe took the box of the Besamim and made a Bracha and, and smelt it. Then he gave the box to his mother to smell the Besamim. Then the Rebbe made the Bracha

55:04 Speaker 1 on the flame, but his mother did not make the Bracha on the flame. And that, that, that, that I don't have any, any problem with that because, yes, throughout the year, regularly, when men are making the Bracha, Borei Ma'areh Aish, it's not the Minich for women to put out their hands, and certainly not to make the Bracha separately. The Yotzer with the Borei Ma'areh Aish, they Yotzer by listening. Our scenario is talking about when a woman makes, uh, Havdalah on her own, and there's no men, no man present, then she would be making the Borei Ma'areh Aish, and she would put out her hands to, to, to, uh, you know, to see her nails as the Minich is for the Bracha, uh, Borei Ma'areh Aish. Finally, um, so I, last week spoken about use of a Goyrol. And we, I, I read this piece of Shulchan Aruch where it said, "Ein Shoylim B'Chozim B'Chochovim." You mustn't consult astrologers for advice. "V'Lo B'Goyrolis." You shouldn't be consulting, um- Lot, casting lots. Now, I took the liberty of understanding this of, let's say, to flip a coin and to say whether I'm going to ho- on holidays to Brighton or to Bournemouth. To make a decision by casting a lot. So one of our listeners, again, is on the, uh, recording. He says a very interesting story. That Rabbi Weinberger, alav ha-shalom, once spoke about... He was, he was one of Lubavitch's, uh, most successful fundraisers. And he once told over one of his tricks of the

56:41 Speaker 1 trade, possibly even the name of the rabbi. And that is, how d- how much do you ask? When it comes to the ask, how much do you ask? So he says, "I have, I have in my pocket three pieces of paper. I'm, I'm guessing, you know, the, uh, the spectrum. How m- how much is the le- least I should ask, the most I should ask, et cetera. And I put these three pieces of paper in my pocket, and then I take out a paper, and whatever it says on the paper, that's how much I, how much I ask." So he, he was making basically a decision, uh, based upon a goral. So yeah, very interesting. Um, it just my luck that the, uh, on the, uh, on the, uh, on ask.org when they put the, they, they take choose one juicy question, they put this as the, as the, uh, advertising line for the shiur. Say, uh, can you flip a coin and make a decision? Um, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to retract on that one. And here, having, you know, to revisit this. And here we have a tshuva from Reb Shlomo Kluger. Now, I heard from, from my wife's uncle, Reb Mendel Azimov, beshem... He'd heard in the name of Reb David, Reb David, um, Reb David Haredoker. Beshem the Rebbe Rashab that, about the Reb Shlomo Kluger be- being one of the very reliable poskim. Reb Shlomo Kluger is sometimes quite, uh, you know, radical in his interesting, uh, in- innovative.

58:12 Speaker 1 And the Rebbe Rashab, uh, said his... So I call upon him here. He has the following. We'll give it a couple of minutes. I know we're running a bit late, but sometimes we finish early, so we'll finish another minute later. So here, uh, to explain how do you make a goral to choose who's gonna have the kaddish. We discussed this last week. And the Shab" brings from the Tosfos that you can't consult goralis. So he says, "What it means asking a goral means to, like, to divine the future." Like people ask an astrologer, "What's gonna happen?" So also to use a goral to divine, to find out, is this person going to survive? Will I recover this lost item? So that is where you wouldn't be allowed to consult a goral to divine the future. And instead, you should rely on Hashem. But in order to, to toss up, to decide one way or the other, so he says that's definitely okay, and that's doesn't, have nothing to do with tromтия. And he brings a proof from the fact that they would make the goralis in the Beis HaMikdash, who does which role. And, um, we have in the Mishnah in Shabbos talking about casting lots. Which child is gonna get which piece of the, of the, uh, of, of, of meat, et cetera. Um, so you shouldn't be doing that, casting lots on Yom Kippur. You shouldn't make a raffle on Yom Tov or Shabbos because of a kinyan. But otherwise, you're allowed to

59:39 Speaker 1 make a, cast lots who gets what. And then you have, in this week, last week's sedra. The Amisha wouldn't tell us to do a, a goral which, which wasn't okay. Um, therefore, he says it's not a, not, the making a goral not a problem. Now, last week, I differentiated between a goral to just to, to sort out between two people and a goral to, uh, to decide your own course of action. Obviously, Rav Shlomo Kluger disagrees with that, and he understands that they're both, they both fall into the same category. It's using a goral to make a decision. What he's basically saying is, "You need to make a, a decision now what to do, A or B, go this road, that road. For that, you can use a goral." If you want to use a goral, not for a course of action, but to kind of to, uh, find out information for the future using a goral as a form of, as, um, foretelling, that he says that's n- that would not be okay. So, uh, all right. So now can you flip a coin according to him and, and make a decision? Is it Brighton or Bournemouth? Um, according to Rav Shlomo Kluger, you are allowed to. And, uh, yesh al mi lismoach. I wish you all a good evening and a good Shabbos.

1:00:50 Speaker 3 Can I ask now?

1:00:51 Speaker 1 Yes.

1:00:52 Speaker 3 Dov Gefen speaking. Um, the potato thing I understand, but it's not treif. Why kasher the pot?

1:00:58 Speaker 1 Because it's, it's a derabbanan. Like, if it's, uh, if it were, let's say, uh, if it were cholov akum.

1:01:05 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:01:05 Speaker 1 So you'd have to kasher it. So it's, it's a derabbanan.

1:01:06 Speaker 3 Yeah, cholov akum is cholov akum, but the potato is just a potato. You can't use it because it's schmeckt or whatever.

1:01:12 Speaker 1 Once, once it's got a issue of derabbanan, it's diff- it's, then it's, uh, it's also to, it becomes also. It's like, it's... That's how I think. Um, I, I might be wrong, but that's what I, my understanding is. Um, perhaps next week we'll revisit it. Okay. Gut Cholov.

1:01:27 Speaker 3 Hazwell.