לך לך תשפ״ג

00:00 A good . Hope you can see me. I'm now in Jerusalem in, uh, by Simcha. In a place, Chabad, it's actually looks like a seven seventy on the outside. And, um, Baruch Hashem, I managed to get here. Uh, so before now back to Motzei Shabbos, I wanna share with you on Thursday. Thursday evening, I met... I was at a full day conference, uh, seminar of Rabbonim. And at the end of the seminar, a fellow comes over to me, he says-- he offers me a ride home. He lives in Rehovot, seminar was in Tel Aviv, and I was staying in Lod. He says it's on the way. Very well. And he turns out that he's a boy from South Africa. He's been living in Rehovot for many years, for eighteen years, whatever. And he says-- tells me the following story. That he is, he was discovered to Chabad, to Yiddishkeit and to-- through the in, uh, in, in Johannesburg, particularly Pinny Hecht, whose mother is actually from London. And as he finishes high school, he right away packs up his bags and he's gonna go to England on the way to, uh, to Israel. He wants to make some money perhaps, whatever it was. And Pinny Hecht gave him a telephone number of a Lubavitcher in London so that he will be able to have someone to get help him with the Shabbos, et cetera. He comes to London with a couple of-- his friends were not terribly Shomer Shabbos. And, uh, then he puts his

01:59 hand in his pocket, he's lost the paper. He doesn't know what to do, and it's getting closer to Shabbos. He's taken up residence somewhere in Kensington, and he doesn't know anything where he's gonna get anything for Shabbos. And then he's in King's Cross station, and he sees a black hat somewhere towards the end of the, of the s-the station, the subway station. And he goes over to the black hat, introduces himself. And the fellow says to him, "Wow, that's very interesting because just two weeks ago, I got a telephone from Ca- from, from South Africa that I should expect a young lad who's coming here to London, and I should help him out." And it was the-- it was Rabbi actually Menachem Huniq whilst he was still living in Stamford Hill, and he was able to... The amazing how they met in King's Cross. This was the, the name on the paper, paper which he had lost. Brought it to his house and he, um, he would come week after week for Shabbos. And he said he remembers the the, the, uh, atmosphere. And it really was a turning point in making him so much more involved, uh, with Yiddishkeit, with Chabad. And today he is Lubavitcher German with a, uh, you know, families in, in, in Rehovot in the-- There's a lot of-- quite a few, um, English-speaking people there. He says he actually listens to the shiur regularly. Um, so there we are. So that's a Motzei Shabbos of an amazing practice. Okay,

03:48 let's start off with our shiur and struggling a little bit with all different bits and pieces. But the first thing we have here, um, did I share with you the screen? Not yet. There we are. So the first thing, the, the-- it doesn't seem to be coming up. Story is that someone sends me a picture of a screen, uh, sorry, of a doorway, and the bottom of the doorway is straight, the upper part of the doorway is, is, um, an arch. So he is asking about where to put up the mezuzah and, um, so basically the story is like the fo-- is the following. There's actually a sorry, a shainim, whether we say the top of the arch is all doorway. Where do we-- Where, where in other words, where do we switch? What is lintel and what is doorway? Let's see if that And, and so we have here a sofu-- where at which, which what height to put up the mezuzah. And the, the, um, the, the, the resolution here in this particular case is, if the straight part of the doorway is more than half the overall height, so then we should put it on the straight part. So let's-- to clarify that. Normally, the mezuzah is put in the top third of the doorway. Bedieved, if the mezuzah is more than halfway up, it's kosher. So if the straightness of the archway is halfway up or more, then I would say to put the mezuzah on the straight part of the

05:50 doorway, even though it might be just about your waist high. But fine, that's going to be-- that will be kosher, um, because it's more than halfway of the overall height. If it would be, if it would be higher than that. If the, the, if, if the, um, bow, if the arch would start lower down than that- That actually would be much more problematic. How would, uh, how would you work it out? Um, it seems to be very odd to put a mezuzah on a, on a curved surface, on a, uh, like it's m- partly horizontal as well as being vertical. Okay. We'll go on to the next point, and that is... I think pr-probably if I can't see it on my screen, you-- I'm sure you can't see the s- the, the, um, shared screen either. Let's see it. Let's try again. Um, close it. Let's see if I can get it on again. No. Okay. Let's, let's move on with the share meanwhile. And the next question is about a, a, uh, Shliach calls me. He has someone who became now more involved with Yiddishkeit, Baruch Hashem. The problem is that his, um, he had a circumcision performed by a female practitioner. Baruch Hashem, she was Jewish. Uh, so here's the question. Is a bris performed by a, um, by a, uh, Jewish woman, would the bris be a valid bris? And actually, it looks like that certainly Bedieved, the bris would be valid, and so no need to start doing what's called Hatafas

07:43 Dam Bris. The, the, the, the bris is a valid bris. Let's start. Can you see the screen now? The shared screen. Is that... Can you see it now? Because if you can't... Okay. That's the, that's the archway which we talked about. And you can see here how it's, I think, approximately halfway. You can-- don't see the full, uh, full picture. I would also venture to say that up till a f- couple of, up till three Tefachim, when it veers inwards, would also be counted as the vertical, and so the vertical would probably go up say a little bit further, then certainly it's more than half the height. Uh, where did I get my Psak from? So here you have, um, from the Sefer, Sefer Chayyei Hadar, a specialist Sefer on Tefillin, talking about this whole discussion, and he says, "Eich Hadikim Hamezuzos BeYosher Veyagei BaYud Tefach." If the vertical part, the straight part, is ten Tefach or more, so then we'd say that the th- the, the round part is the Mashkef. And he says, um, "Therefore you should put it on the straight part." Okay. Let's move on. And that was here. The Shulchan Aruch talks about doing a bris, having a, a woman. It says if a woman does a bris, it says, "VeAfilu Am Eved Ishah VeKatan Is Kasher." In the, "VeYesh Oumim DeIshah Lo Tamul VeChen Nogin Lahadir Achar Ish." So L'Chatchilah, of course, we would have a ma- a man to be the Mohel. Is it this-- Because this is

09:23 discussed in the Gemara, whether the, whether a woman has the inyan of... Do we say that they, because of Hadikla Al Yusroel, and Klal Yisroel have the Mitzvah of Milah, therefore they, it's, ish u'kesh damo, or does she not? And therefore, the Halacha is that it is a valid bris. But, um, L'Chatchilah, as we know, we would go for a, a, um, a, um, male to be a Mohel. Okay. Now, here the question which was re- is relevant to me at the moment. Eretz Yisroel switched from Petach Sameh Beracha to VeSaint HaLemotar on the seventh of Mar Chesvan. Whereas in Chutz La'aretz, in most places, as far as I know, we start later, um, fifth of December, if I'm not mistaken. So now, when I'm coming to Eretz Yisroel, do I say VeSaint HaLemotar or do we say VeSaint Beracha? The same question would be the other way around. If an Eretz Yisroelnikah, um, citizen would visit Chutz La'aretz. So, so there we, uh, there we have. This is a note from the New Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, and the ref- the reference here is Shulchan Aruch, but it's also other sources, and let's read through this, through this, uh, straight and carefully. A Ben Eretz Yisroel, someone from Eretz Yisroel who comes to Chutz La'aretz, and if he came before Zayin Mar Chesvan, then it turns to Zayin Mar Chesvan, so he's got a field in Eretz Yisroel. The community here, as in, in London, whatever, doesn't need to ask for rain. He's got a

11:07 personal need, and therefore, he doesn't include it in the Beracha of Mevorach Hashanim. Instead, he c- includes it in Shem Eit Tefillah, where you can include any personal Tefillah. However, ot saru Zayin Mar Chesvan. If he would come to, uh, to Chutz La'aretz now, once it's already started, saying VeSaint HaLemotar, Mamshich Lisher Bibirchas Hashanim, then he would continue saying VeSaint HaLemotar in Mevorach Hashanim. Unless, obviously, if he's a Chazan, so then in the Chazarat Hashatz, he would follow the Minag HaAmokim and just say VeSaint Beracha. Coming back to the other s- direction. Ben Chutz La'aretz HaBo LeEretz Yisroel. If a Chutznik is coming to Eretz Yisroel, Yi shal Bibirchas Hashanim. He should ask for, he should say VeSaint HaLemotar in Me-Mevorach Hashanim, which I've been doing for the last few days, apart from the last twenty-four hours. Um, well, Ma'ariv I did. Uh, yeah. So same, saying VeSaint HaLemotar. U'Chashav Chozer L'Chutz La'aretz. When I come back to So then I will switch back to saying the same berakhah until such time to the fifth of December, where everyone in Chutz La'aretz also switches out. Here's the next question which came up in the past week. We're gonna have less questions this week because I was, uh, traveling, etc., so, um, didn't manage to put together as many, uh, in your name as usual. So here's a story that a shliach somewhere in, um, in Europe. So he actually was o- officiating at a wedding last week, this past week here in Eretz Yisrael. So

12:56 he was brought-- he flew out to Eretz Yisrael, and he prepared. He'd sent me in advance. He sent me the ketubah and the, the, the place and the names of the chosan, the kallah, etc. It was all done fine, and it's gonna be in some kibbutz at six PM. He is-- it's a, it's about f- four o'clock in the afternoon, and it turns out, three o'clock in the afternoon, it turns out that the Erez gonna be in that kibbutz, Erez, at six PM. At six PM, it's gonna be already night. So the date which was written on the ketubah was the wrong date for six PM because the date switches at sunset. Sunset, night, night, whatever, it says a chav, whatever. You couldn't-- So it, it would be wrong to use, to sign. You wouldn't be able to sign the ketubah the way it is. So we have here two... Well, the first option is to write a new ketubah. But that seems to be he doesn't have a spare ketubah available, and so there's two options which can be done. Either is to change the date in the ketubah or the to change the location. And so we went this... I, I think this, they're, they're pretty much, uh, a bit of a toss-up. I don't think they're much difference. So you change it from the name of the, um, um, moshav or the kibbutz and changed it to Tel Aviv. Used some Tipp-Ex. Now, what is important that whenever you do any mis--

14:27 whenever you have correct a mistake on a ketubah, you're gonna have to endorse it. So this ketubah is a shetar. I'm just gonna throw in. As you know, I lo- I love etymology. So where does the word shetar come from? The word for shetar comes from the word sheit, sheit, sheitim, sheitim. Enforcement. Shetar has to be enforceable. And if you come along with a shetar which has a, some messed up, some, some, some crossing out, etc., so it's... The bank won't honor a check which has got a cross, a crossing out unless you counter-sign the change, and then they will, if you're lucky, they'll, they'll let it through. And similarly with a ketubah, if there is a correction which has to be made, so then the correction should be done at the bottom or either on the margin or at the bottom of the ketubah, and you write this and this word or this and this line. This word was crossed out and was, uh, ex-exchanged for the, for this and this word or the name. So we changed, crossed out the name of the, uh, of the kibbutz and instead put in, um, Tel Aviv. And at the bottom was written on this and this line, the word Kibbutz Foloni was crossed out and so instead we wrote Tel Aviv. And underneath, the witnesses who signed the ketubah also signed again to endorse that the, the, uh, that the, uh, that the change was done properly. And I, I can just tell you for

16:03 myself, um, before when I, uh, used to do things with Rebbe Menachem Hackner, alav ha-shalom, so he would always give me the ketubah to check, and I would f-find his mistakes. But since he doesn't do that anymore, so I'm finding my mistakes, but I'm finding them too late. I've had a few times it was, uh, mamash at the chuppah, and there's a mistake. And, and the, the solution is to, to give it to someone else who doesn't, doesn't have the, uh, confidence that, "Oh, it's all, it's all okay. I've done it already. Spent so much time on it." To-- You give it to someone else to proofread. And so I'm just saying those, those, uh, rabbonim out there who are also in the same position. So if... And again, we've had this. This was discussed, one of the, uh, discussions at the session, at the, um, seminar on, on Thursday, um, was, was about this, this topic about the ketubahs. If you have a spare ketubah, which is recommended to have a spare ketubah with you, then you should have that with you and, uh, and, and you should use that. This is only when you don't have a spare ketubah. Um, there was actually an interesting discussion. What happens if comes to the, uh, chuppah and there's no ring? They forgot the ring. Can you, um... What, what, what do you do about that? There's a whole thing. If you borrow a ring, well, it's, that, that's very questionable because they re-- they're not

17:39 giving it to you, and so the chosan hasn't given a ring to the kallah. So what about, um... So they actually told a story that if Schloime Zalmen Auerbach would come to a chuppah, he had a spare ring in his pocket just in case it would be forgotten. Okay. Um, I see now there's a few chats, um, which I haven't been paying attention to. So let's, let's look at those chats and respond to them. So someone is pointing out that Sippora did a bris for her son. That is true. Um, well, yes. There wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't their mitzvah at the time, mitzvah in our Torah. It was something that perhaps the, uh, you know, before Bat and Torah, perhaps things were different. But anyway, there's this Halacha thing, Gemara. Right. Someone's pointing out there's a difference in this. Gabriel has a-another take on the... The, the-- And the, the, uh... Someone actually, uh, called me last week. He was netzer straw, and he had in chakras, he'd said it was Saint Brokken. He asked me, "Does he have to repeat this from Esther?" And I told him that whatever you did, there's another opinion to rely on it, and you didn't have to daven from Esther again. We were talking about Lechu Drocha. This is, this is, uh, one approach. Um, again, let's go down. Tippex is not a good idea, uh, as it can be removed. Better to strike out. Thank you. Yes. Um, and, and you say just strike and add

19:07 the correction. It looks not, not so nice, but you're probably right. Um, someone's asking, "In Yeshna Hamok-- Im Yeshna Hamok, remember Oysah, Kenyan Oysum." So what happened? They made-- They changed it to Tel Aviv, and at four o'clock in Tel Aviv, they did the Kenyanum. And this way, they didn't have to change the day, the date that it was valid. And so they did the Kenyanum. That's the general Chabad Minik, that we make the Kenyanum earlier in the day. The general. Uh, it's, it's, it's-- The Rabbe Jalmishun used to do that on a regular basis. He would do the Kenyanum at two o'clock or three o'clock in s-- in, in Shul, and then we come to the Ksu-- to the Chabad Sponim, that was already the Ksura was also signed and, you know, done and dusted, so to speak. Uh, and even though by the time the Chuppah would come, it would be a different date, and that would, uh, that was, that was valid. And actually, the, the late, uh, Rav Ashkenazi of Chabad, he had a very interesting, um, argument why it should definitely be done like this. Because the power of the star, the date of the star is only the last minute of the day. So if you make it, uh, a, um- Hello. If you, if you, um- More. If you, um... So, so, so really, if the date is the, of the night of the Chuppah, the full power of that star is only gonna be the following night.

20:44 So they're, they're going to... That night, they don't have a valid Chuppah. So that was his argument why you should definitely do it this way, that they go to the Chuppah and the, the, uh, the Chuppah is ready, enforceable. Right. So that, that, that... I'm just gonna close the door. So I think I've answered the question, how does changing the date make the, uh, changing the town make it valid? That because they made the, the, um, s- the signing was done during the day in Tel Aviv. Right. Let's move on. Thank you. Um, it's really, uh, so nice that we were able to keep up the sheer, even though there's hundreds of thou-thousands of miles away. Let's move on. Um, right. So someone asked me a question about using a ladle. Now, there are foods which are called Kale Habishul, and that means that they, they become cooked even with not much intensity, not much heat. And a Klisheni, although Klisheni ain't named Habishul, but Kale Habishul are, uh, are gonna get cooked in a Klisheni. A classic example of a Klishe-- of, of Ka-Kale Habishul would be a baked food, so matzahs. Let's say to take pieces of matzah to put them in a soup. So that is called... That we, we wouldn't put matzah in a Klisheni because being Kale Habishul, the matzah would cook in the, in the bowl of soup. So for this reason, we would use a, uh, Klisheli. Does the ladle count as a Klisheni, and therefore the soup

22:40 bowl count as a Klisheli? So this is a lot of discussion, both in Yerodea, in the Didim of Basta Mecholev, et cetera, and also in Hichas Chabas. And there is an approach that if the ladle has been left inside the large pot of boiling hot liquid, so then the ladle itself becomes a Klisheli, and therefore your soup bowl is only Klisheni. And so the question which I was asked was, what about a ladle made of plastic, silicon, which has now become quite popular? Does a silicon ladle have the same din as a metal ladle, or do we say no? Because, uh, silicon is, is made of a, a plastic, et cetera, it doesn't have the same, uh, heat conductivity as does metal. So although I didn't find this question directly addressed in contemporaries forum, but I did see in Ralph Forkash's Sefer on Hich-- on, uh, Chabas Halacha Chelek Alef. So he talks about using a hot cup, a polystyrene cup, and dipping that into a boiler bo-- a bo-- a soup pot, and using that to serve. And so he, what he says is... So what he says is that the, the hot-- the loss-- What, what's the difference between Klisheni and Klisheni? About the walls absorbing heat, and therefore can the metal absorb... The walls are the fanusa of Mechamemoes. The walls absorb the heat. So he says, "And, and therefore re-radiate heat." That doesn't happen with plastic. It may, uh, it may, of course, it becomes hot, but it's not the kind

24:41 of material which is going to radiate heat. And therefore, it doesn't have the same status of becoming a Klisheni. Sorry. Yeah, by, by being steeped into the, the, uh, the actual Klisheni. And so on that basis, yes. So really, we're, we're talking about several Sfakas, um, the Kula. And one, one, one can rely on that a plastic ladle would become a Klisheni, and therefore your soup bottle is a Klisheli, and you'll be able to put matzah in the Klisheli. Let's go on to the next question, and that is about, shiny, and therefore your soup boiler is So I did not get-- Then that solved the problem. There was no conflict about who's gonna get Maftir because, um, I wouldn't get Maftir in any case. So, okay. So Baruch Hadar Ali, and I'm saying that back in London, we generally do give a permit for Voice of Maftir, although this is, the Rebbe says it's allowed Dafke. And I would get, I got Ali at Mincha, and I was gonna do it next Shabbos. And then it got delayed from Parshas Vayechi all the way to Parshas Yisro. And then it turned up some, a meshulach from Eretz Israel, who also had Yaotzeh that Shabbos. So he had the Maftir upstairs, and I went to the down, the youth minyan downstairs, and Baruch Hashem survived, and, you know, here to tell the tale. Okay, um, let's go on to one last question on our series, uh, on our list. Um, okay. Before that, I want to

31:53 share with you another, another experience here from Avmalcha. So on Thursday morning, I took the train from Lud to, to, um, to Yerushalayim. I wanted to be by the Kosel. And I went to Davve Shalom there. So I took the train at seven o'clock in the morning, whatever, and I had to change in Tel Aviv. And I'm sitting down on the platform, uh, on a bench, and I hear a c-- a man and a woman speaking in English, elderly pe- elderly couple. So yeah, h-hello, and turns out they are brother and sister. She is, uh, from San Francisco, and he has been living in Eretz Israel for the last thirty-five years. She's just come for a visit. We got onto the train, and I, uh, sat near them, and I put on tefillin with him, which he was agreeable, and afterwards, he was telling his sister how this is a blessing. She's asking, "What are those tefillin?" She didn't know what they are or what's, what's inside them. Interesting conversation. Meanwhile, he says that he has, um, he had a connection with Chabad back in Berkeley when he was a, when he, when he was a young man. And he mentioned he me- he knew, um, Rabbi Citron, who had a red beard, and, um, and Rabbi Drizin. Rabbi Drizin, uh, he says he was a young man, and he remembers he was, had a, he had a, he was born in Israel. Yeah, and I, you know, I, I know Rabbi Drizin vaguely. But,

33:25 uh, then I'm going to, I go to the Kosel, and I try to organize the minyan. And, um, as we were talking about the barcode last week, about the tallis stripes, I look around, and I see from a distance, I see a Chabad barcode tallis, and it's none other than Rabbi, actually, Rabbi Drizin is, was there at the Kosel at the same time. So within half an hour of meeting this couple who he had been involved with in Mekareh, the, the man, then I see Rabbi Drizin. I didn't manage to go over to him, well, 'cause by the time I finished davening, he had gone on his way. But, uh, again, I saw this was very interesting Ashkach HaParates. Let's finish off with the, the last question on our list, and that is that actually Yechia in, in London asked me that in his area, there are people who, men have been coming, possibly in the summer, been coming to Kabbalah Shabbos, but unfortunately, they're not Shomer Shabbos as yet. And therefore, they're not gonna be able to come for Kabbalah Shabbos at a, at, at the correct time, which would be four o'clock, four thirty, you know, as we're going into the win-- into the winter. And so, on the other hand, he doesn't want to lose these people. Is it, would it be wrong or right to make a minyan for them at six PM? He would make a minyan b'zmanoi and do kiddush and have perhaps a little fabrengen, whatever it was,

34:51 but then to do another minyan at six PM for those people who, uh, sadly aren't able to come on, uh, on, on time. Or is it morally wrong? Is it that you're, you're publicly accepting that they say that they're Mechal Shabbos? This is his dilemma. And I remember that there had been a Rebbe, an answer of the Rebbe, uh, something in connection to Canada, Montreal, whatever, and here I did manage to find this. Now, this is from a Sefer called Shlichus Kehill Chasa. Shlichus Kehill Chasa is about a five hundred-page Sefer, a large volume, um, and it's put together all different answers, whether in Yehidish or in letters, uh, etc., of the Rebbe to Shlichim. And so they have this piece. It's a letter here from Rabbi Chadakov to Rabbi Mordechai Fisher, who was a Rav of a shul in Canada. And this is in Chaf Gimel Ches, and I didn't notice this before. The date is actually, um, in the name of the Friediker Rebbe. This I didn't notice before. The name of the Friediker Rebbe, um, Chaf Gimel Ches ventov shin yud. And so this Rabbi Fisher had asked about this minyan, a late minyan. So let's read the, um, the text here. Asachiv is this power, but see, but Bizman Harogel Etz Leinu, the Kabbalah Shabbos, the set minyan at the normal time, which is Somach Letchilas Halail, shortly after nightfall. Ein L'vatel, don't cancel that. L'chen Yomei L'baalei Batim, Asheb Yicholtam Laveh Bizman Haseh, to the people who are able to

36:43 come that time, the earlier minyan, Sheyavo Yuris Palalu B'vais Achneses. Gam Im Yitstarchu Lis Pal Shom Biachidus. They should come to Davin in the shul, and even if it's such a small, uh, crowd that they would not be able to have a minyan, but still come- Have your bizmano minyan. You have your bizmano minyan, that should be, uh, go ahead, even if you don't have a minyan. So there you're making a very strong point there, that the minyan should really be bizmano. But Yachadim Ze, together with this. Yachadim Ze, together with this. What's the place? Ah, Yachadim Ze, Yesader Oid Minyan Beleil Shabbos Kodesh, Besho Acherez. To also organize a second minyan at a later hour, Avor Eile She'einom Boim El Minyan Harishon. So this is actually, I thought it was HaRav the Rebbe, it's HaRav the Friedrich Rebbe. Now, he says, "Yes, do, m-make a minyan bizmano," which in this case, Baruch Hashem, is not a problem, "and make another minyan later," and to, to, to, to do, to, to that. And I'm just gonna finish off in the Rebbeitzen Chana's memoirs, which is not identical to this case, but she talks about on Yom Kippur in Yekatrinoslav, now Dnepropetrovsk. So the, the, Hazon Rebbe Leivick was the Rav there, and there were people who never had to go to work on Yom Kippur, and they had an early minyan for Shacharit, a very early minyan for Shacharit. And then they would come, at the end of the day, they would come from Ne'ilah.

38:33 I'm not sure whether it was in time or even after the fast. But Rebbe Leivick would down with these people, with these, these people who never had to work on Yom Kippur, and he would g- and, and they were fasting, and they came back to shul. And Rebbe Leivick would come home after the end of the Taanis, and he was m- molly his pilus. He would say, "Ieden, such mesirus nefesh, um, that despite they have to go to, to work, but they're still f-fasting and they're not missing on coming to shul." And he was from molly his pilus. So they were-- It's not identical to this case, but, um, there is some resemblance. And Bezrat Hashem, my feeling about this, um, I think this is corroborated with, if there is a way to have the door open, have, keep the door open. Um, Bezrat Hashem, in time, uh, they, they will, they will, uh, become more Shomer Shabbos, et cetera. But they have to keep the door open as much as possible wherever a-and, uh, welcome them. And Bezrat Hashem, they all, Yorei Aleihem Ruach Mimorim. I wish you all a gut Yovoch, and we should meet in good health and, uh-