כי תבוא תשפ״ב

00:00 Shalom Aleichem. A good Erev Shabbos. And, uh, this is being rec-being recorded, uh, in New York. And I apologize for the fact that we-- I didn't manage to do the recording before traveling, uh, yesterday. I was hoping that I would be able to get some Wi-Fi in the airport, and that didn't work out. So let's, uh, go straight to the shiur. So I want-- just wanna share with you what motivated me to go now to be in, in New York, where to be the oil for Shabbos tzlichas. So in, uh, Sefer HaMinhagim, it has the following. On Erev Rosh Hashanah, every, everyone gives over a pidyon, pidyon nefesh on behalf of himself and his, on behalf of his, his family. They give this pidyon to the Rebbe, who be-blesses each one with the So there's, uh, this idea of bringing a pidyon to the Rebbe be-before Rosh Hashanah. I just want to also emphasize the, what may not be so, um, expla-explained so, so, so, um, so commonly, is the word pidyon is to redeem. And simply, traditionally, someone would give a, a tzadik, would give a, would give a, uh, a written bakasha, which in Yiddish would be called a kvitel. With that, they would give an amount of tzedakah. And the, the idea was that you give a tzedakah, and that should be the pidyon, that should be redeeming. If there has to be some redemption for you, well, you've given the tzedakah. So when you do write a pidyon, it's not just

02:17 that you write the names and, and, and Avor Bnei Base and names of your family, but you also give a tzedakah amount on behalf of yourself and on behalf of all your family. So here there's a difference between people who live close or those who live, live at a distance. And so I've many, many times had this question to earlier, do we live close or do we live at a distance? Here's an interesting ticha from Tof Shin Yud Dal, Tof Yud Shvat. And the Rebbe's fabregene, obviously, somewhere in, in, uh, Brooklyn. And he says how this, the fact that the fab-- we, we are near the place of the resting place of the Rebbe is significant. When you go to the tzion, when you go to the resting place of the tzadik, so then you have extra help. But even when you don't go to the tzion, but you're nearby, there's also the assistance because you're able to go near to the tzion, which is nearby. As Chazal say that you can't compare the person who has bread in his basket, pas pesalo, to someone who doesn't have pas pesalo, doesn't have bread in his basket. So the Rebbe is saying that the mere fact that you live close to the tzion, that in itself is, is, uh, gives you an upper hand. Third paragraph, koloma, as to say, the one who has pas pesalo, the one who has bread in his basket, is not as hungry as the one who doesn't have bre-bread in

03:53 his basket. So that means that the bread in your basket means that you are able to have less taiva, to, to, to weaken your passion. And same too here. The very fact that there's a derech haavodah of being able, it's an accessible avodah of going to the tzion of the tzadik in the Nasia HaDor, that in itself weakens the opposition, that weakens the obstacles of the leov masay of the opposite, because the leov masay is aware if they'll start making tamav et zech stark on question, it'll start making too much trouble. So then we will take the, uh, counter atta-attack by going to the tzion, which will be m'vatel et mitzri'us totally. So the Rebbe uses here a whole, explains a whole advantage of living close to the tzion. And, um, when, if you live in, uh, a hundred miles away, is that called you live close? Uh, a thousand miles, it's, it's a bit of a matter of perspective. So, um, that was my kind of kochdin. I would like to exercise the fact that we are relatively close to the tzion. It's something which living in London is all right. It is a, it is a flight, but it's not as far as others. It's an easier journey than people are from other parts of the world. And so I wanted to utilize that and came, came for, came for Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah to be at the tzion of the Rebbe. Let's go to our question. The first question we have is

05:37 someone asks me, "In the beracha of rifaenu, we, we ask for healing, and towards the end, the ending of the beracha, Baruch atah Hashem, rofe cholei amo Yisrael. Hashem heals all the ill of Yisrael, the Jewish nation, the Jewish people." And so he's asking the question. Hashem, the, the fact that Hashem give us healing is not restricted to Am Yisrael. So why is the emphasis here of Refe hale Am Yisrael? This is even more emphasized when you look at the beracha of Asher Yotzar, which also ends off with beracha Hashem, but there it says, Refe chol basar omafril asis. He heals all flesh. Therefore, we come back to the question, why in this beracha is there the emphasis of Refe hale Am Yisrael? So the answer is, which I looked around and it's actually the one who sent me the question, sent me various answers, which I think this is, uh, uh, I'm satisfied with this, this answer. There are be-behakkdim, there are berachos of praise and there are berachos of pleading. Birchas Hapesach and Bircha, um, and Bakasha. So Asher Yotzar is certainly a thanks. It's a berach of thanks. And so we acknowledge Refe chol basar omafril asis. In Shmoneh Esreh, the middle brocha is from Ata Chonen through to Sh'ma Koleinu. They are, they are bakasha, they are request, pleadings. And so we're asking, in Refaenu, we're asking. Now, i-in the, uh, the, what you see in the lower quote is from a Sefer called Pirush HaTefillas from Rabbi Yehuda bar, ben,

07:42 bar, ben Yakor, one of the, the Rishonim. Not sure exactly which t-which, uh, period. And he says, "Baruch ata Hashem, Refe hale Am Yisrael. Al shem shetzorich letzarerf ha'chole ha'yodua im she'ar ha'cholim." When you are praying for someone, you should also include, you should include them with other chole. So always when we, we, um, make a Mi Sheberach, we specify a name, and we say, um, "Be-shech she'ar chole Yisrael." He should be healed along with the other of Eden who are, uh, uh, ill. And that's based upon the Gemara, as you can see at the top of the page, in Berach-- In Beracha, uh, in Berachos Chaf Tes, where it says when a person... That's actually talking about Tefillas Haderech. You're traveling on your own, and you're saying the plural, apart from the one word of titneni, all the rest we, we speak in the plural. And that is because of the advantage of davka, uh, invoking on behalf of the tzibbur, that you should be, uh, helped as part of the tzibbur. So the, the, in the beracha of Refaenu, we're asking for refuah. Although we don't... In the tef- in fixed text, there isn't obviously a, uh, a specific name we could have, be having in mind. In many siddurim, in Refaenu, they have, if they have a, they have any special extra paragraph or they have a couple of lines, if you're asking for someone specific to include in the beracha of Refaenu a specific name. But even if not, the, the

09:25 beracha of Refaenu is asking for refuah. And so when we ask for refuah for a particular person, we are including them at the end of the beracha, be-shech she'ar chole Yisrael. Hence the Baruch ata Hashem, Refe hale Am Yisrael. Having said what I just have said, I would like to... Forgot to, to prepare it onto the, uh, screen. Now, there is a letter of the Rebbe that when you daven, when you do want to mention a chole, it's preferable to include that davka in the beracha of Sh'ma Koleinu rather than in the beracha of Refaenu. So if you do want to, uh, mention particular name, um, sh'ach refuah shleima le so-and-so be-ben bat so-and-so. Be-be-shech she'ar chole Yisrael. You do that in the middle of Sh'ma Koleinu rather than the middle of Refaenu, which is, as I said, min ha'ga'ola, we do it in Refaenu. But the Rebbe's, uh, guidance is to say it in, in Sh'ma Koleinu, which is another discussion. I think we once discussed it in this forum. Okay. So here, the ne-next question is Prusbul. As we know, on the, uh, Shmita is a time to waive debts, outstanding debts. And to overcome this, so that the pe- the poor people should get loans rather than find just excuses. So Hillel instituted idea of Prusbul, and that is to be able to give your debts to the best that they should collect them. And best are allowed to collect the de-debts. They're not phased by the mitzvah of Shmita, of Shmitas,

11:13 um, uh, Shmitas Kesafim, of, of waiving debts. So here's the question: When do we do the Prusbul? And we, uh, in Chabad, will have done the Prusbul at Erev Rosh Hashanah, the past Erev Rosh Hashanah. As the Alter Rebbe writes in the Shulchan Aruch, we've done the Erev Rosh Hashanah, uh, w- before Chanitzah. And now, do we do it again? So what's going on here, the background over here is that we have a Machloket ha-Rishonim. Particularly what's relevant to us is the Rambam and the Rosh. The Rosh, he says that there's two levels in the waiving of debt for Shmita. Because he sees in one passage, it says, as you can see in this quoted passage here in the second line of the lower text, "Lo yiggeis es re'ehu ve'es achi ki korosh mitah lashem." As soon as it's shemitah, so you're not allowed to demand your collect-- uh, your, your debts. So the waiving of debts is at the beginning of shemitah. But then elsewhere, we get the impression of miketz sheva shanim, at the end of seven years. That's when shemitah comes in. The wai-- So when is the waive of debts? From the beginning of shemitah or from the end of shemitah? So the Rosh, he differentiates, and he says, "There is one level of you not demanding payment. There's another level that even if the borrower comes and offers to pay, you should say meshamed oni. That I, I, um, I waive this debt." So the Rosh says you're not allowed

12:58 to demand even from the beginning of shemitah. This-- Because it says, um, lo ki korosh mitah lashem. So then you're not allowed to demand. If the borrower offers to pay, then during shemitah, you can accept the, the, the pay- repayment. After shemitah, you'd be bound to waive the debt unless you did a prozbul. So according to the Rosh, one would need to make a prozbul before shemitah, because otherwise, during shemitah, you wouldn't be able to collect your debt. According to the Rambam, however, there are no such distinctions. And according to the Rambam, the shemitah is at the end of shemitah. How he deals with the passage is a separate discussion. But meanwhile, the Rambam holds that shemitah means the end of shemitah. That the shemitas kesafim, the waiver of debts, is from the end of shemitah. And so according to the Rambam, during shemitah, you are able to collect a debt. It's only after shemitah that you can't. So according to the Rosh, there seems to be, um, no point in making a prozbul at the end of the seventh year because you can't give over to bezdin what you can't do yourself. The idea of prozbul is before it, before it goes out of my hands, I'll give over to bezdin. Once it's gone out of your hands, you can't give over to bezdin. So according to the Rosh, you can only do a prozbul whilst it's still in your hands, which is in the sixth year. According to the Rambam, you can charge

14:40 a debt. You can collect a debt during shemitah. And therefore, you can and should make a prozbul in the, uh, at the end of the year of shemitah before shemitah ends. So this is, according, again, so according to the Rosh, prozbul was previous era Rosh Hashanah. According to the Rambam, the shemi- the prozbul is done this era of Rosh Hashanah. So in case there are loans which were extended during this past year, well, according to the, according to the, uh, you don't have a solution according to the Rosh, but you do have a solution according to the Rambam, and that is to, to, to make a prozbul. Now, what you have over here is, um, from the Ohel Menachem Chabad. I'm just quoting from the Luach Ohel Chabad, which writes that you should make a prozbul also at the end of the shvi'it, of the seventh year. He writes that era Rosh Hashanah, taf shin chaf, the Rebbe did make a prozbul, and some other years. Um, then lamed daled and mem alef, he didn't. But then he writes, era Rosh Hashanah, taf shin mem ches, the Rebbe did declare the prozbul, and he explained himself that, um, he wants to be yotzei deya, that you should be making a sh- a prozbul at the end of shemitah. And then Rebbe Menachem Mendel, alav ha-shalom, he refers us to the Shalsheles Hayachas. At the be-beginning of Luach HaYom Yom, the Rebbe, um, included biographical details of each of the Rebbe about the significant, um, um,

16:29 projects which they did at particular times, landmark, uh, uh, events. And, uh, the, uh, his, his own, his own biographical sketches weren't there until many years later, uh, when they reprinted, I'm not sure exactly which year. But someone was given-- They wanted to update the HaYom Yom, and they included biographical sketches of the Rebbe, and the Rebbe was makir. Um, I remember someone pointing out that all the years that the Rebbe was, was studying, um, in, in Paris and in, in, in, in, um, in Berlin, uh, the, those details are not mentioned at all. All it says there is, yo-yom, lo med bahashma smado shkid. He was just devoted to learning Torah diligently. Um, and but then in the bi-- uh, the, in, in, so Menachem writes in taf shin mem che-- end of taf shin mem ches, um, which is a mistake. It's, uh, taf shin mem zayin. There it says there that the Rebbe was measor they should do a prozbul in the end of shvi'it. Olam lo motzinu mokhel lechvi'it zot. He doesn't find a where did, a sicha, the Rebbe said you should make a prozbul. He doesn't, doesn't-- He couldn't find this on record. But here you have on the left, you have here the piece from the HaYom Yom, which I say was mugah from the Rebbe. And the, uh, the last line of mem zayin is meoor sheyomer nusach haprozbul gar besof shana shvi'it. He does arouse, says prozbul Um, at the end of Shemitah, which is like

18:14 this Erev Rosh Hashanah. And, um, well, the fact that he turned around by Haftarah and Darim and says, "Let's do a prozbul," says a prozbul, well, that's perhaps what it means, that he was 」。 And so the maestro, after all this whole discussion, "Yes, do you make a prozbul this year again, in addition to what you did last year?" The answer is yes. And for men, it's fairly simple that you're going to, uh, at the end of Haftarah, the Darim and Shoel, you'll say the Nusach HaProzbul. For women who don't have, uh, that opportunity. So, I think, as far as I remember, in the Hey Mishaluach, Adas Luach or other luchas probably have a, a, uh, Nusach HaProzbul, and you can fill that out, fill that form in, and I guess this is some way where you should deposit it. Okay. So here I have a question, point, question number three. There's a Yid who has a, uh, significant amount of guests each Shabbos, and so wisely, instead of his wife slaving all the time, so they have a, a goyish helper. Comes in on every Friday, helps prepare, helps, uh, serve, helps clear up. And at the end, uh, deserves everything, and she ear-earned her money, wants to get paid. So what they've been doing, they've been pairing, preparing an envelope with whatever she's entitled to for, for the three hours, let's say. And there's an envelope with cash. And when she's finished, she takes the envelope and goes, and says, "Good night." Is

20:05 that acceptable? Just to make it a little bit, uh, you know, interesting, it can be also in the, in the summer. It could be that, that the time, by the time the, um, she, she leaves, it's, it's, they gave them-- They start Shabbos early, but it's still, it's not dark yet, and she may, may go on her way. So does that make things any different? So why, why is this a question? Because you can say, "Listen, I'm doing nothing. I'm not paying them. I'm leav-- I left the envelope from before Shabbos, and they're taking the money." So here we've got two sources where to say it's not okay. I'm gonna go, first go down to the second source, which is from the Shmiras Shabbos K'Hilchosa. That is in chapter Lamed. Lame-Lamed Gimel is, uh, the newer edition. The older edition, it's chapter-- It's paragraph, sorry. It's paragraph Chof Tes, but it's chapter Lamed, regardless. And it's talking there about employing the services of a goy on, on Shabbos. So he writes that after Shabbos, you're allowed to pay the goy for the effort which they did on Shabbos. But you should not pay them with money on Shabbos itself. Even to point, take-- to, to show the goy the, where the money is, the g-goy should take the money on their own, is also not allowed. So that's, it says clearly you wouldn't be allowed to do that. And similarly, I mean, this is, that's in Shmiras Shabbos K'Hilchosa. The upper quote is from the

21:49 Ateret Paz, Sefer Hachinuch, actually, Hilchot Yom Tov, talking about, um, purchase. And it says that, um, the goy would not be allowed to pay you. No, you wouldn't be allowed, sorry, you're not allowed to pay the goy for a purchase on Yom Tov. Let's say they brought you some, some delivery. You wouldn't be allowed to pay them on Yom Tov for the d-- for that food. And emphasizes, even if you show the goy where the money is, the goy should take the money on their own, though that wouldn't, also wouldn't be, um, allowed. Because it is obviously a form of mechah chomenka. It's a form of, of tr-of trade. So what we're seeing, and that's why I refer to the first source to this. Our first, Shmiras Shabbos K'Hilchosa talks about, um, hiring person. Here it's talking about a purchase, but it's the same, the same principle. The fact that you are paying for goods or for services, and the payment is going from your ownership to a goy's ownership on Shabbos, that's not okay, um, because of the issue of doing trade on Shabbos. I know that, um, in the case where you-- a patient needs to have a taxi to get back from hospital, so minhag is to be more lenient to show if they, to, to show the goy where the, where to take the money from. Um, I guess there you have no choice. But really, that's not an, uh, not an, uh, acceptable solution. Really, it should be that the

23:25 payment should be settled after Shabbos. The other, uh, uh, I didn't manage to address ca-ca-carefully what happens if you've started Shabbos early. So generally, if you've started Shabbos early, so then there is something that you can still ask. If I Mekabel Shabbos at six o'clock, let's say, I can still, uh, ask a, a goy or even a Yid to do a melacha, uh, after I've been Mekabel Shabbos until, until Shabbos proper. Why I hesitate is there may be a difference in this, whether you've Davened Ma'ariv or not. Because the Ateret Paz whole discussion, that it becomes, uh, Me-me-his, uh, his Mekabel, Itzu Mitshalyoyim. So I didn't have a chance to look into this, whether in this respect, the fact that the goy is taking the money on their own, w-if it's before, it's before sh-sunset, but you've already Davened Ma'ariv. So I'm not sure at this moment whether it would be acceptable to do this. So what do you do with the, uh, paying this, um, helper? I guess you're gonna have to give that, give them the money be-- They should take the money, um, before, before, before Shabbos begins, on the understanding that they will stay for the next few hours, and next week, if there's anything. If they, they, if they work more hours, so you, um, put in more money next week to pay out for what's, what's owing. Let's go on to the next question. And someone asked me, "Does a swimming pool require a markeh?" Possibly this, we had

25:12 a discussion last week or two weeks ago about a markeh around a factory roof, and I guess that stimulated this question. Does a bathing pool need a ma'akeh? Does it need to have a, a, a, a railing around it? And I saw... I did a bit of a search on this, and I saw several that said, "Sure, it needs to have a ma'akeh. It's in safek, and therefore it needs to have a ma'akeh." Now, I want to explain that a ma'akeh would have... If requiring a, a, a ma'akeh around a pool would mean a fence around the pool itself, that means immediately around the pool, there's a fence. In my humble opinion, that is actually dangerous because it's typical when you use a pool, that if you are-- want to get out of the pool, you don't necessarily go to the steps, the end of the pool. You may be a little bit exhausted, then you go to one side of the pool, and you hold onto the railings. You may jump out of the pool over there. Uh, that someone should not be able to get out of there because there's a railing, they're gonna have to go to the end. That's actually, I think, uh, not that-- certainly not the way pools are used. Typically, a pool has got open space all the way around, and, yeah. So on the, on the-- So it doesn't have a ma'akeh. Does it have safety? Sure, it has safety. The, the-- To enter the area, you

26:38 have, you have, uh, safety measures. But the actual pool doesn't, doesn't... It's not, not... The design does not have a immediate fence around the pit, which is called a pool. And so I was pleased to find in this Sefer, which is a specialized Sefer on, on ma'akeh, Sefer called Sisah Ma'akeh. So he writes, "Brichat Shechiyah, a bathing pool or swimming pool is not the same as a ditch in middle of the street or in middle of your property, which does need to have a ma'akeh." If you have a well in middle of your garden, you'd need to put up a ma'akeh. A, a, a swimming pool does not require a ma'akeh. Of course, there's a, there's a geder, there's a fence around, a surrounding fence to pro-protect. Yeah, but that's not immediately next. Now, now it's obv- ob- absolutely imperative. And the same thing, a mikveh. Mikveh does-- Usually, mikvehs do have a built-up fence, but it's not a, not a chiyuv to have a built-up wall around the mikveh or a railing. It's not a chiyuv. You can have it an open mikveh. Um, of course, you need to have safety. If it's gonna end up being a public place, you'd have security measures. And I've seen some places, uh, they would have the handle to the mikveh door. They have it high up so that a toddler, a young child wouldn't be able to help themselves to go into the mikveh, and then, Chas v'Shalom, would be in danger. So, yes. Uh, so

28:16 in the footnote, he writes, "In a boreh, you'd need to have a, a regular... a pit, a ditch. You'd need to have a, a surrounding barrier right nearby." And that's the reason why you need to do that, because people don't expect. They're walking in an open space. They don't expect that there should be a, um, an open hole there. Therefore, it's dangerous. But a pool, uh, if there's a pool in the middle of a garden, no one's gonna miss it. It's, it's so open that it's, it's not a question of... It's not dangerous as in it might be overlooked. So again, so the mitzvah of ma'akeh does not apply. Does it need to be, uh, have protection? Of course, no question about that. Okay, we move on. So one of our listeners asked me about, about someone having a cup of coffee. He comes to Maariv to show and, uh, the shul has a generous tearoom, and so he makes himself a coffee, and he has, starts having coffee, and then they daven Maariv, and then he continues having his coffee after Maariv. Does one need to make a new bracha because you're daven in the middle of eating? So what we're seeing over here from two sources, we have from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, Siman Kuf Ayin Ches. Then we have the specialist Sefer Shaarei Habracha. So let's first look into the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch of Kuf Ayin Ches, Sif Zain, where the Alter Rebbe says that if you, in middle of

30:06 your meal, went out to, um, for... You paused and you come back, you don't have to repeat HaMotzi. Even if you went to shul to daven and you were there for a while, so long as you hadn't distracted yourself from coming back to, to resume eating, then you don't have to say HaMotzi again. The fact that you daven in the middle of the meal is not called a hefsek. Even if it was, like, imposed upon you because it was so late that you'd have... You couldn't leave davening for later, you still, um... And even though do-- whilst you're davening, obviously, you can't eat whilst you're davening. That is not called... That doesn't count as a hefsek. When you bentch and after bentching, you have to make a bracha agafen. That is because when you bentch, that means it's a withdrawal- Of eating and drinking. And therefore, when you're gonna resume drinking, you have to make a new, a new berachah. But davening is not a, not a withdrawal. It may be a distraction, but it's not a withdrawal. Therefore, after davening, you can continue with your, uh, what you're eating even... And you don't have to repeat the berachah. Now, in case you'd start differentiating between hamotzi and other berachahs, so that's why I-I'm supporting myself with the... Well, he writes here in this Sefer, Shaarei HaBerachah, that tefillah is not called a hefsek. And he says, the end second line: "Ve'ein chiluk bein seudah shelech ba pat ba ve'ein shelo ba pat." It doesn't

31:47 matter whether you are having a, a full meal with bread or whether it's not. It's, it's just, uh, um, oth-other foods. So davening in middle of a cup of coffee does not, um, disqualify. It does, does not interrupt, and you can resume your coffee after your davening, um, when you don't, don't have to re-repeat the berachah. So now, the same person asks, what about one of his people who is drinking water, let's say, in middle of davening? So here we have this question. So there's davening. You daven with your mouth, and it's, it's one fa-faculty, the being, being able to speak. And then there is another thing of ingesting, ha-having a, a drink. Does taking a drink kind of constitute a hefsek in middle of your daven? Are you allowed to have a sip of water in middle of davening? We all know that that's not the normal behavior, normative behavior. But the question could be, if someone has a particular need to, to, uh, drink water very frequently, would they be allowed to sip water during Shemoneh Esrei, etc. So looked around, eventually found this Sefer, Avnei Derech. It's not very often. I don't know. I didn't find many, uh, many pe-many poskim to discuss this. But the Sefer Avnei Derech, chapter-- in, in volume Yud Gimmel, he's got a three-page discussion on this, and he brings a note from the Shemi. He brings Rav Yehuda Yosef, who addresses this, um, about drinking tea or water in middle of Shemoneh Esrei, presuming that he

33:55 said a berachah before boreh she'amar. So he, um, says, "Well, you know, you shouldn't be pausing between Sheliya and Shelishit. Even if you don't say anything, you shouldn't be doing any, uh, distraction." But he thinks that Shemoneh Esrei is not as common or not as strict, and therefore, he says, "If it's not needed, not re-not needed, certainly it's not appropriate. Where it is necessary, um, you could rely, and you could co-continue sipping." And then he gives a reference to a discussion elsewhere whether it's okay to write in middle of your davening, to write something down. And so he seems to be saying that if you are allowed to write in middle of Shemoneh Esrei, so then you should be allowed to do other activities. Just like writing doesn't constitute a hefsek, so too, uh, sipping water isn't a hefsek. Um, so here, this is really an intri-interesting question. Does... Do other activities other than, uh, the... We unders-we all understand that dibbur is a hefsek. To talk in middle of Shemoneh Esrei, to talk about unrelated things is, is a no-no. That's, that's all. We all understand that. Question is, uh, other activities, other than speaking, would they constitute a hefsek? So, here we have in, in Derich-- In Hefer Rosh Hashanah, we have the... Alter Rebbe talks about in Timat Hofko, Sadek Beis, Sif Yud. Alter Rebbe talks about in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, we have this, the blowing of shofar in middle of Shemoneh Esreh. Is it okay for the chazan himself

35:47 to be the baal tekiah? So, in ear-earlier times, where the chazan would be saying the tefillah be'al peh, so then there is a concern that it, it may... The blowing the shofar may distract his thread of mind, and he won't be able to concentrate. It's not recommended. But if he is confident, and certainly if he has a siddur, so then it's okay for the baal tefillah to also blow shofar. What, what you have here under, um, highlighted: "Lefishah hatkiah ein hahefsek la'avod tefillah." Blowing a shofar in middle of davening is not a hefsek. Why? Because there is a seder of blowing shofar. Al seder habrachot. On Rosh Hashanah, there's an inyan to blow shofar together with the Shemoneh Esrei, with the eight malchiyot, zechorot, and shofrot. "Im ken od tzeddechat tefillah." Therefore, the blowing shofar is needed for the tefillah. It's not a foreign, uh, intruder to your davening. It's actually totally relevant to, absolutely relevant to your tefillah. Okay. See, here's very interesting. You're blowing shofar. It's not tefillah. You're not, it's not, it's not, um, mouthing words. It's blowing shofar with... And it's actually using an instrument, a shofar. If it weren't tzeddechat tefillah, then it would be a hefsek. So if, if blowing shofar, if it weren't tzedakah fillah, it would be a hefsek. So sipping water, uh, would also, um, lo chilo be a hefsek, unless it's tzedakah fillah. So if it's tzedakah fillah, otherwise the person can't continue davening because they're getting... So then, yes, there is a, a, be'mokima

37:31 tzedakah, as Rabbi Avadia said. If this is tzedakah, one can be meikel, but I, um, I was arguing not because it's not a hefsek, but because it's connected to your davening. Um, now, when he, he mentions about writing, I remember reading, I think in Monchin's, uh, Migdal Oz, that the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, he would have in var-various places in his room, he'd have a pen and paper. Sometimes, even in the middle of davening, he'd be, uh, something would occur to him and a thought, and instead of being distracted, "Oh, I have that thought I have to remember," he would write it down, and later, I guess he would, uh, come back to it. So, um, so he was, he didn't see any problem of writing down something, uh, no, writing down a note in middle of, uh, middle of davening to be able to come back to it later. So, so what I'm saying here is that... Or I'm suggesting that writing is not a hefsek with fillah altogether, because it's a totally different, uh, part of your, di-di-different function. But, um, possibly drinking, uh, like blowing shofar, in, in essence is a hefsek. Something which you do with your mouth, and it's an interruption to the tefillin which is on your mouth. Therefore, it in its essence is a hefsek. But if it's a, a hefsek which is needed to be able to continue davening, or it's, it's to enhance the davening, that's when, that's when it is justified. Let's go on to

39:14 our next question. Um, so here, someone sent me a picture of a packet of bra-bran, oat bran, and it's made int-into a bread of sorts. Now, the bran is the outside of the grain, of the wheat. You have the inside is the white, and that's made into white flour. Then you got outside, you got the husk, and that is, um, well, it used to be that that would be separated and be, be given to the animals. Then you have wholemeal flour, where they grind it all together, the white and the, and the brown, and that's where you have this brown flour. And, uh, nowadays it's considered, uh, much healthier because it has, it's higher in fiber. So, but then you have another system where you've got just the bran and none of the, the gra- the, the, uh, wh-white stuff. And obviously, it's higher in fiber. It's not as tasty. So is that hamotzi? Uh, is it good for lechem mishneh? So already going back about 70 years ago, we have the Rav Telushkin. Rav Nissan Telushkin was a rav in New York, and he published a sefer called Tohoras Mayim, which basically is, um, about mikvah. At the end, he has some other bits and pieces. So he has a chapter about breakfast cereals, and he talks about, uh, cornflakes, and he talks about All-Bran. So the Kellogg's All-Bran was around already 80 years... 70 years ago also. And he writes that the berachah on All-Bran is shehakol because it's, uh, it's not, not

41:13 considered, uh, human food. And this you have here on the screen, we have here from the Sefer Piskei Teshuvas, Siman Res Ches. So he writes that the chelek kapseles shel hadagan, the waste part of the bra... of the grain is berachas shehakol. Therefore, the bran of the, uh, of the grain, of the wheat grain, he says, kimat ein bo heem ta'am veheem ke'etz be'alma, has hardly a taste. It's like a, like, tastes like wood. And therefore, you got these various healthy foods which are made with, um, just with bran, the berachas shehakol. If they are a combination also with flour, even wholemeal flour, so then, um, that would be okay. Then it would be mezonots. So, so then we have, I saw two, uh, I looked up two things. One is, uh, Rav Vosner in Shevet HaLevi, he was asked about this, and he says, "I find it difficult that they make a, a food of bran without any of the white flour, um, without any proportion, any percentage of white flour." He found it difficult to believe. And if it, if that is the case, it would be shehakol. But then at the end, he says, "I, I managed to get more details of the food that you re-referred, uh, uh, asked about, and I saw that it does co-co-contain flour." So this is a little question about the facts. Are these... Uh, is it just the bran, or is there also a proportion of flour? And that would also be reflected in the

43:00 taste. Then in the Piskei Teshuvas, he refers to a, a tshuva of the de-the, um, Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, who's now the av beit din in, in Ed HaCharedim in Yerushalayim. Used to be known as the London Illui. Um, so Moshe Steinbuch, he, uh, he finds it-- He says, "When we say something's not normal, it's not, it's not, not human food, really. So if that's indeed the case, the majority of, you know, the population will regard it as animal food, you're right. But things, norms can change. And if indeed food from bran, from bran alone becomes a common food, uh, for, for humans, then we should say it is, it is a human food, and then the berachah should be hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz." So really, though, uh, that's an interesting thing. So according to him, he would disagree with Rav Tzemach Dinelstein, I guess, because All Bran, which is sold in, in shops, is obviously not to feed cats and dogs. It's made... It's sold for humans. Uh, I can tell you my own, my own experience, it's what, what he says here. It takes, it ta-it doesn't have any taste. It's ke'eitz ba'almah. That was my feeling last time I had All Bran on its own. But if you enjoy the taste, uh, if it is palatable, so then, uh, perhaps it is, does become a zeinus. So but really to, to, to answer this question, is it, uh, if they make these challahs... Now, now the, now the question which I was asking

44:45 for lechem mishneh. If the challah's made just with oat bran, without any flour, um, that would be questionable whether you make hamotzi, and therefore, I think whether it's usable for lechem mishneh. If it's got even a small amount of, of flour, but it just effec-en-en-enhances the taste to some degree, then it will become hamotzi or bazainus regard... Depending on the recipe. Okay. Got a call last Friday, and the call was that he had... The caller's asking, he has been caring for years for an elderly gentleman who is now in hospital, and the prognosis is that he doesn't have very long to live. And it was Erev Shabbos, and they're not sure whether he'll make it, uh, till, uh, over the weekend. And his question was, "If I get a call on Shabbos," the person, the person is totally, uh, with it, as a way, you know. They, they, they are aware of what's going on, con-totally conscious. But, uh, so would he be allowed to go by taxi, by mini cab into the hospital to be with this person at his last moments? Is that something which justifies chilul Shabbos, amirah lenochri? I was a little bit, uh... I didn't-- I wasn't sure how you answer. Because normally, we talk about pikuach nefesh. We talk about doing something to address the needs of the patient. And so, well, amirah lenochri, he was like his... And it was an interesting situation. I asked around. I was told that this is the pshat. It is okay to

46:47 have a goy drive you to the hospital. And the explanation, which I understand now, is we have halacha, and that you have from the Alter Rebbe, Shulchan Aruch, Shin Chof Ches, if you test that a, a person who is bedridden, even if they're not in danger, you are allowed to use the services of a goy to look after their needs. So here's an interesting twist. In our case, we're talking about a, a person who is ill, obviously. Uh, on the other hand, it's not as if you're going to give them physical relief for their needs, but you are gonna give them tranquility. And so I feel that that is tzorech hacholel. It is a need, and so it's, it's, it's a different type of relief. But that relief would be a, would be to... In order to provide that relief, it would be allowed to have, do amirah lenochri. It would be allowed to, um, use the services of a goy. So in the case of taking a taxi, that would be okay. And we've gone through this in o-other times. The Alter Rebbe has this position that for a cholel she-ein besakakah, I am allowed to do something k'hilachah yad. You know, we are allowed to do even melachah m'natot in an unusual way. So the actual use of the taxi to go to the hospital, that's okay because amirah lenochri. How do you call the taxi? So then you'd use your knuckles or something to press the phone, uh, and call. So you,

48:24 you do use k'hilachah yad. Um, perhaps we discussed this, um, before. I actually, this past Shabbos, I had reason to go into a pharmacy, to the chemist for someone who needed some plaster. It was, uh, a bit urgent. And so it's this, uh, Boots on Stamford Hill has got automatic doors. So the door opened, uh, because another person, a non-Jewish person, walked in, so I walked in with them. But then to go out, there was no one in a rush to leave the, the shop, and I was in a rush to come to, to, to, you know, to what I went in for. So how do I go out of the, the shop with these automatic doors? So as I get closer to the door, I started walking backwards, activated the sensor, um, k'hilachah yad, and then went on to find the, uh, person to whom to help, which is why I had gone to the shop in the first place. So I'm just sharing this with you, the idea of, um, doing something for a cholel she-ein besakakah, uh, to do it in a way of k'hilachah yad, which is, that is okay. Pesachim number nine is, um, we are very, very aware of the rising costs of energy in the UK, and the government have provided some, uh, grants for, uh, to help people pay their energy bills. So someone's asking me, he gets this money from the government to help with the energy bill. Is it considered an income to have to

50:04 put aside maaser? And he's, he's really concerned that if he puts aside maaser, he's going to be struggling to pay his energy bill. So, um, we have in front of you is from the Sefer Tzedakah or Mishpat, which is a specialist sefer on, uh, tzedakah, and he writes, "If someone's given-- been given money to pay for medical needs or a family member or a marriage of a member, does he have to give a maaser?" You can say that the money was given to him with... specifically for this medical need or for this, uh, simcha, and so the, the, um, Chevre Lev, whom he's quoting, says, um, he does recommend to give maaser from, uh, co-corresponding to this, this, uh, a tenth of this, this, uh, grant. Then he goes on, um, he says, "If you were given an amount with the clear understanding that you shouldn't be took-- taking maaser, then you, you can't, um, give maaser." Basically, what, what's being said over here is that, let's say if there's something, uh, a project which you would not be doing, and someone gives you money to do that project, so then you don't have to put aside maaser. I was just on the plane yesterday and, uh, a man from France, we, uh, met at the... In, in, in JFK we met, so he has a chi-child who has special needs, and, um, and someone likes this child and gave, gave a ticket for the, for the, for the child to go to visit, to

52:00 be at the Ohel. So I'm just thinking now, does... would he have to put aside maaser? No. If he was... If someone gave him a few hundred euro so that the child, this child should be able to travel, if he wouldn't get the money, he wouldn't travel. There's no need to put aside maaser on that. If there's something which you would have to, which you would find ways to do this project, you'd struggle, yes, and you borrow, whatever, and then you deal with it. Then, and you get, you get money towards it, then that's considered an income. So my, um, my response to this is to that the government grant for your energy bill is an income and... because if they hadn't give you the grant, so then it would probably be struggling to find that money elsewhere or perhaps you'd find other ways of... But it's, it's, it's a... I, I do see it as an income, therefore maaser should be included. What I would say, though, is that it depends whether they give you cash in hand or they pay directly to the energy company. And so instead of you getting a bill of two hundred pounds, you get a bill of, let's say a hundred and fifty pounds, so you never got the fifty pounds. The fifty pounds was kind of given at source. In that case, you wouldn't have to give maaser on the fifty pounds because you never got it. So, um, I have written about this years ago in

53:30 the, uh, the Sefer Bester Shlifas in Volume One, that if there's, like, an income which is not received directly, it's, it's kind of clearing a debt which w-would have come your way and it was cleared at source, that isn't counted as an income and you wouldn't have to give maaser. So perhaps that would help, um, person who's asked to make things a little bit easier. What we have finally, our last point here is, I was in conversation recently with one of our regular listeners, and he had just moved into a new house. You know, new as in for him it was new. And in the, in the garden, there's a pl-- an apple tree. It's fairly new, newly, newly planted. And he was asking, "Do I have to worry that it's more... less than three years old and the apples on the tree are orla?" To which I answered that in Chutz La'aretz, safek orla is mutar. So if it could be it's three years, could be less than three years, you are allowed to have the benefit of the doubt that it's less than... That it's more than three years and you're allowed to have the fruit. Then I said to him, "Never mind the question of orla. Check about kilayim." And that's... I'm... Just now we're learning in Rambam in Hilchot Prachim Ule'ioyim. We're learning about the mitzvah of kilayim, and that's what triggered my memory and then included it in the shiur. Um, it's... I've mentioned this in the past that typically

55:15 when you buy a, an apple tree from B&Q Garden Centers or whatever, uh, ga-gardening center, look carefully, and very often it is the... it's an apple tree, but the rootstock, the root of that thing is actually from a different species. I believe they often use quinces, um, that they will have the apple tree, the apple, um, the, the top is apple, and the bottom is a different species. That's to make it stronger, whatever it may be. We're not allowed to plant this. To plant such a tree is a, is a sin in our Torah. And further, here we have this halakha in the end of siman yod dei, assimilation saday hey. Also, lekayem hamurkev kilai. We're not allowed to maintain a grafted tree. The fruit which is born from it is okay. Even the one who violated it, did the grafting, is allowed to have the fruit. You're even allowed to take a twig from this tree and replant it. But you're not allowed to maintain a grafted tree. So I told this fellow, look at your tree and see whether it is a grafted tree. And sure enough, he gets back to me. It's almost certainly a grafted tree. How will you recognize this? You look towards the bottom of the tree and you see whether there is a continued line of the trunk. Or do you see that there's like a bulge where the bottom of the tree, there seems to be a combination of one thing with another. And don't ask me

57:09 more details because I haven't checked it out personally. I'm just telling you what I understand. And that would mean that it's a grafted tree. And you wouldn't be allowed to hold it. So you could have a tree even several years old, a fruit tree, and it's a grafted tree. Then Ha'alok would say you have to remove that tree. But it's so interesting because on the one hand, we are so machmir not to remove a fruit tree. And here, if it's a fruit tree which is kilaim, it would be actually a mitzvah to remove it. In the Shechin Harach, in the Piskei Shevu'ah, of course, from Chasam Sofer, he was asked from Hungary where there are places where people, where it seems to be very, very common that people would plant vineyards which were, the Muslims would plant vineyards which were, or other orchards, nuts, combinations of nuts and peaches, whatever. And so it would be lots of murkovim, lots of grafted trees. And so whilst the Shechin Harach takes the view that if you have a grafted tree, you do have to uproot it, Chasam Sofer shows some poskim say that you would be allowed to leave it be. See, that's a limuz chus that if you have a big investment in a whole vineyard and it's all murkovim, then there is a Chasam Sofer who is kind of melamed chus to leave it be. But certainly, lechatchilah, that wouldn't be the correct approach. And if you have such a grafted tree, I'd say to

58:50 remove it. And if you want to be yotzer, ask the goy to buy it from you. They shouldn't be your own tree. But it's something which one shouldn't maintain in one's possession. Okay, that's the end of today's list. And bes Hashem, I wish you all a guten Shabbos and an inspiring selichas and ksiva vechasima tova, shana tova.