וישלח תשפ״ג

00:00 A good shabbos and welcome to the Shiur tonight, um, Parshas Vayishlach. I would like to dedicate this to the Schlucho, Henya bas Baruch and Dvorah Leah. Her Refuah Shleima needs to be Lamalel Michatava. So she'll be Lamalel Michatava. She'll be able to return to her shlichas, to look after her family and, uh, in good health. We'll go to the first question which we have tonight. The Hemshich to-- In connection with the Yud Dalet Kislev. So talking about a wedding. So it's actually last week, I, uh, officiated a wedding and the ketubah. So the name of the choson was Yisroel Ariel Abe. And someone who prepared the ketubah had written Aryeh, Alef, Reish, Yud with a stroke and then a He. I wasn't so keen about that, and I'd like to share that with you. How do you... And also, the rebbetzin's name, I did not see now the rebbetzin's ketubah. When you write a ketubah, do you-- A name Chaya. Do you write, um, with a He or do you write Ches, Yud with a stroke? So the lower quote you have on the screen is from a Sefer, a series of eight Seforim from Rabbi Yaaov Bar Shalom called Mishpat HaKetubah. And he writes, contemporary, I've met him several times. When you write a ketubah, you should write the names in full without any hyphens nor any apostrophes. Like Shalom should be written in full, Zivya should be written in full. And also not to put in a stroke, let's say the name Tovya,

01:51 not to put in a stroke be-between the Yud and the He or Basya, et cetera, or between the two Yuds of a name, let's say Isaac. One shouldn't be doing that. And basically, in a ketubah, you write the names in full without any, you know, not relying on strokes and that kind of stuff, nor hyphenating. The more basic question here is, is does-- We know that Chaya, let's say, has got Hashem's name, Yud Kei. Certainly, it's a name like Tovya, Tuvya. So the Yud Kei there is alluding to Hashem. And what about a name Yisroel? And so we have in this week's Parsha that Alef and the Alef Lamed is relating to, uh, okay, Elokim VaAnashim, Michoel, Gavriel. Of course, the Alef Lamed in those names is alluding to Hashem. So if you had in a script, a text, and it has the name Michoel, now, for some reason, you need to erase it. Are you allowed to erase it? Are you allowed to erase the Alef Lamed with the name Michoel? Does it have a Kedusha? You've got seven names of Hashem which are not to be erased, like Yud Kei Vav Kei, Adni, Elokim, Shin, Dalet, Yud, et cetera. So we're not allowed to erase Hashem's name, even if it's to correct a text. But if it's a name which includes Hashem's name in it, does it have a Kedusha? So here you have another quote from another contemporary Sefer, the upper quote on that, on the screen, where he says that names

03:29 of people which include Hashem's name, like Eliyahu, Yisroel, family names, even place names, names of Seforim, and certainly words which somehow incorporate a Yud Kei or something like that, do not have Kedusha. And there's no Halakha requirement to hyphenate them. And you are allowed to discard these, these, uh, texts which-- This name, you're allowed to put it in the rubbish. Some are more careful about, like Yeshayahu and Eliyahu, to, to finish off with a stroke. So fair enough that when you are writing in, in a regular document or letter, et cetera, you may... The, um, people of Mahadar to write, um, Yeshaya without a He at the end, just with a stroke. But when it comes to, when it comes to writing a ketubah, we don't want to have any lack of clarity. So we'd write the name in full without any... There we just-- Our emphasis there, it should be clearly legible without any mistakes. Which actually brings to an interesting question. When people write a ketubah and they write the name Sheyichye, et cetera, you know, you have to be careful. You shouldn't give the impression that his name is, uh, Abraham Sheyichye. That Sheyichye is part of his name. That's, uh, can be a little bit confusing. Let's go on to the next question. This is actually, I found very interesting. Someone contacts me and asks that he put up a mezuzah in a house or a shoy, whatever, and he put the mezuzah with a diagonal the other direction. So he

05:18 asks, "Is it okay? Is it not okay?" So the background to this question is that it says in the Gemara that mezuzah should not be put up like a bolt. But then what does it mean, not like a bolt? This is a Mahloket Rashi and Tosfot. Whether it means a horizontal bolt or a vertical bolt. And as a result, La'alocher, which way should the mezuzah be placed, vertically or, vertically or horizontally? So the Shulchan Aruch, as you can see here, paskens that, "Tzu chalikha zeku fa." A mezuzah should be st- be placed vertically. "Orcha le'orech hamizuzah ba'ais." It should be the length of the mezuzah should parallel the length of the doorpost. Second point he makes is that the Shema- Should be the soif haglila, which means as, as you roll the mezuzah, so the, it should be that the Shema should be... As soon as you open it, you'll see the Shema. So Shema is the, the last bit of the roll. In other words, the closest to the opening. So these are two points of Jewishish Shechinah. Then we've got the Rashi lighting, that's the Ramoh, who says, "Yesh oimri," there are those who follow the custom that it's... Well, there are those who disagree and they say the mezuzah should not be vertical, but it should be horizontal. And the Medaktikim make a point of putting the mezuzah at an angle, diagonally. Vechein roey linhoit. That's indeed, uh, advisable, and that's indeed the minhag v'dinay style. So now, here's the question. We've

06:59 got-- We've had two dinim. One is that the mezuzah should be whether vertical, horizontal or diagonal. That's one di-issue. We had another halacha, that the mezuzah should be in a way that you should be able to read it, uh, as soon as you read the Shema, as soon as you open it. Now, all very well. According to the opinion that the mezuzah is vertical, okay, that's straightforward. According to the opinion that the mezuzah should be horizontal, should it be that horizontal with Shema towards the inside, or should it be with the Shema towards the outside? I'm standing outside. If the idea is I should be able to open the mezuzah and right away start reading, so then it makes sense that as I'm standing, coming into the house, the mezuzah should be in a, in a, in a position that I should be able to read it, and therefore Shema should be further away from myself. I should be able to read it. If the mezuzah was placed the other way around, that the Shema is closest to you, that means it's upside down. If you'd open the mezuzah, you'd have to start reading upside down. Therefore, according to the opinion which holds that the mezuzah should be horizontal, it means horizontal and the Shema is towards the inside and al ha-orets. It's, in other words, in a position that you should be able to read it as you come into the house. Consequently, that's coming back now to the minhag, or putting it diagonally.

08:28 If you want to v'yoitze that opinion, then of course the tilt should be forwards in the form that if it were totally lay, um, um, horizontal, you'd be able to read it. Be'dieved. So this is from, um, you know, my, one of my favorites for mezuzahs, the Sefer Sefat Emet. So he addresses this, and he says, "Be'dieved, if you put it the other way around, it's kosher, but it would be correct to reposition it without, uh, without a bracha." Someone is asking in a pidyon, going back to the previous question, how should you write your name with a-- if you have a name which is, uh, Yisroel or something. Um, uh, I, I, I think there is a slight balance here. Names like Michoel and Gavriel, et cetera, people write normally, as far as I know. S-So a name like, um, perhaps a name which to v'ya... I'm actually not sure. I'm not sure. I, I... Whatever you've been doing till now, obviously is, is good and just continue doing what you were doing till now. Okay, leave that for another time. Okay, let's move on. As, and you mentioned about pidyon, just coming back to that. Some people I heard are particular not to write Baruch Hashem on a pidyon because they're gonna tear it up and put it, I don't... Again, I'm not sure whether that is a standard practice. Okay. So here is next, point three, question three, about kneeling at Moedim. So in the newly published Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, there's no

10:20 mention of any difference between the way we bow, kneel at Moedim to the other three bows. That's interesting, by the way, the Rambam talks about five bows in Shemoneh Esreh, because it's including when we go back by Isha Shalom. By the way, it's in the Gemara, there's four times you bow, beginning and the end of the first bracha and beginning and the end of Moedim. That's bowing. Bowing means bending your back forwards. There's also another thing called kneeling, or perhaps there's another word for that, because I know kneeling sometimes we think is kneeling to the ground. Bending your knees. So here, this is from the Alter Rebe's Shulchan Aruch, and you can see it's in kuf yod gimel. "Ve'al pi ha'asot, sheha'omeir baruch yikra b'birkoch." When you say the word baruch, then you bend your knees. "And be'atah," and with the word atah, you, you, you shtachav, you bow forward. "Atah yispachaku chol ha'achiyyim." However you translate that, that person, when they bend forward, their back, their, their spinal, uh, links are visible in their back, obviously, if they're not wearing a shirt. So there is this idea, al pi ha'asot, that in addition to bowing, there is also bending the knees. And this seems to be an association between the word baruch, which means bless, and berech, which means the word-- is the Hebrew word for knee. Somehow, there's association here to bend your knees when it comes to the word baruch. This obviously leads to that by Moedim, at the beginning of Moedim,

11:55 there's no word baruch there. Moed l'vanachtnu. There's no word baruch, and then there's no point in, in bending your knees. It's a good point, and, uh, I believe that is indeed the lamais. So this has been- Address in the Hiskashrus Journal several times. And here, let's just read what we have on the screen. This is from Number Shin Sadiq, and he writes here that there's a Sefer called Mishnas Chasidim, who was a Talmud of Talmud Harizal and Noach HaLevi. So he writes, in Ovais, in the first brocha, "Yichra gufo, yichra roisho," et cetera. But by Moydim, he says, "Koreia gufo." He doesn't mention koreia roisho. And somehow he says that this seems to support that, uh, there's a difference between Moydim and the other brochas. And ma- main... the bottom line is, "Maiseh koamor berish birchas Moydim," as in Moydim Rabbonon, we only do a bow forward, and we don't, we don't bend our knees. And that seems to be that the whole bending of the knees is based upon a Kabbalah idea that berech and boruch are related, and therefore it doesn't belong at Moydim. I, I, my response to this question was, I, um, I indeed for, for, um, you know, I was also brought up this way. The only problem is that in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, when we included Minhag Chabad, we kept to where it's really documented. To where if it's not, if I don't have a source for it just because that's one of the way I was brought

13:26 up, generally we didn''t include that kind of Minich. So I might, might, might change that, but that's-- meanwhile, that's the, that was the policy was while working on the Sefer. Let's move on. So here is a question that in this day and age where to try to, uh, promote tolerance, religious tolerance, racial tolerance, religious tolerance. So there is an idea of, of, of religious education, of knowing other, other faiths, which is not something which we necessarily are so excited about. On, on the other hand, there is definitely a positive aspect to this. And so the question comes up again and again about having non-Jewish children in a class, coming with a teacher, coming to a, a synagogue to learn more about Jewish faith, which in itself I don't think is such a problem. Um, actually, I think it's a good thing. But what about opening up the Sefer, to open up, um, the, the Aron Kodesh and opening up a Sefer Torah to show them the inside of a Sefer Torah? How far do we go in accommodating our fine neighbors? So here we have... Again. So here we have a quote from... Now I, I decided to address this a number of years ago in the Sefer Nesivim B'sdei HaShlichos. It's available if you want to buy it. It's available in shops. Um, this is volume, uh, u- u- um, volume two. A whole s- so a whole, uh, discussion about ex- opening a Sefer Torah for goyim to see. And you can see

15:15 here from the captions that there's a story with Chizkiyahu Melech Yehuda. So when Sanherab sends messengers to Chizkiyahu, and then he showed them all his treasures. It says, "Ya'arechu es kalbeis n'chosoi." Chizkiyahu sh- gave them a tour of all the, the treasure, the treasures of the, of the kingdom. And one of the things which is, Chazal say, he showed them the Sefer Torah and the luchos in the Aron, and he was punished for this. Now, as you may remember that Chizkiyahu didn't want... He went... When Yeshayahu rebukes him and tells him, "You're going to die prematurely because you haven't gotten married. Don't... and you haven't set, started a family." So Chizkiyahu said to, to the navi, he says, "That's because I foresee that my son will be a, a, a, a, a, a rosh, a promoting of a darah." So the response of the navi, of Yeshayahu to him is, "Vahadei kavshi d'rachmono lo malach." It's not your business to be dabbling in this, in the hidden things of Hashem. Hashem has got his cheshbonis, the way he runs the world. You have to do your thing. And, uh, what Hashem's plans are, it's, it's not, not your business. So there is this loshon, "Vahadei kavshi d'rachmono lo malach." Why are you dabbling in the secrets of, of Hashem? But there's another angle to this quote of, "Vahadei kavshi d'rachmono." That is that the Teibish that put the Sefer Torah and the Aron in Kodesh HaKodashim, and you exposed it. Who'd asked you to take

17:03 the hidden things of Hashem and expose it to the umos haolam? So that's another an- like as if one was the punish- punishment for the other. At any rate, this is a quote. What you... The second quote on the screen is actually quoted in the article in the Sefer HaShlichos, is from the Sefer Chasidim. And he writes the following: "Ein manichim lenochri liros es hameis ba'chever." One would not accommodate a goy who wishes to see a dead per- uh, body inside the grave, whatever the circumstances are. And then he si- writes the following. There was once... This, this is the Sefer Chasidim. It's interesting style of anecdote stories. There was once a goyishe minister who asked the Yidden to open up the Aron. He wants to see the Sefer Torah. And there was an elder person there, and he said, "Al tiftachu." Don't open it. Don't show him, because this was Chizkiyahu's sin, that he showed, that he exposed the Aron to the ministers of Melech Bavel. So this is obviously on the level of Mishnas Chasi- of, of, uh, Sefer Chasidim, but there is certainly a reluctance- To open up a Aron Kodesh and certainly to open up a Sefrei Torah to show the umas olam. Some will state that this is talking about, uh, Him taking out the luchos from the Aron. The other argument is that this is the most sacred article which we have, so we are exposing the most sacred thing which we have. So there is certainly a reluctance

18:42 here. And, um, if possible, one should avoid it. Certainly say opening, opening the Sefrei Torah, but even to open the Aron. One could, uh... Nowadays, I'm, I'm sure we can find other ways of doing so. For example, if you're doing a, uh, how do you say, a slideshow, video show afterwards or before, you can show pictures of what's going on inside without having to actually, uh, open-- physically to open the Aron and kind of sh-show the curtain, this is what it is. And, uh, we're not gonna open it because it's so sacred. Okay. So someone is asking, do we not march regularly by Hachnosas Sefer Torah? Yes. And that's, of course, that's a Chiddush, and so that's when there's a special celebration. So probably you have the idea of Simchas Torah Shatnes. There's a special protection with intense Simcha that we, we don't have to worry about, uh, exposure. But actually, in the article there, I mentioned that there used to be a custom that when there was a royal visit to the Jewish street, to the ghetto, so then they would come out. The Yidden would come out and greet the king with the Se-Sefrei Torah, with the crowns and the Sefrei Torah, the whole story of Purim Saragossa. Because there used to be a-- Sometimes they would actually to just take out the empty cases and go out and-- the empty cases, and then someone mastered to the king and said that they are bringing out empty cases. And he was coming to

20:15 a visit, uh, for a visit to the Jewish street the following day. And the Shamas or the Rob, whoever had a dream that they should not. This time they should make sure they come out with the, with this, uh, Sefrei Torah and don't take these scrolls out. And indeed, that next morning when the king came, he asked them to open. And had he, had they not had this dream, there would have been a Chilul Hashem. Yeah, so the, the-- It looks like when there was a need, it was done. But, um, it's something which is done with a bit of reluctance. So if it's not necessary, you can avoid it. Right. Let's move on. So that was-- So we're now onto question number five. And that is, someone's asking me about-- to ma- to address about the candles lit in, lit in front of the Amid. Two candles, five candles. So in Shulchan Aruch, it just-- it's written, as you can see here at the top of the screen. "Venoagin lehadlik bahem neiros lechavdo." There's a Minchag to light can- lamps, lanterns in shul to honor. Because I've been to some Sefardic shuls and they've got just lanterns. It's, you know-- The shul across the street, we have a Yem-a Yemenite shul. They've got about fifteen lanterns hanging just, uh, not because they need light, just, just for covert. So in Ashkenazi shuls, we don't see so much the idea of just lanterns just for covert, other than some shuls have a Ner Tamid, and

21:53 that's not necessarily from Minchag Chabad, although we have one in Stamford Hill. Then, uh, the idea of lighting candles before the Amid. So that's where it's kind of remained. These are the candles which you light for covert. How many candles to light? So as you see here on the screen, we have here from Piskei Teshuvas, uh, it's Siman kuf nun alef. If you got the-- it shows kuf nun daled, it's my mistake. So here you have that the Shiniver Tzadik is called-- He's the son of the, the Sansarov. I think the oldest son. So he would have, on the weekdays, two candles. For Chodesh, three. And Shabbos, four candles. The Gra would have always four candles. And others, m-many Polish shuls you see it's, it's four candles. The Minchag Chabad, uh, so we-- here we see the idea of having two candles, we can see in other circles also. But then we have the idea of having five candles. The earliest source for this, in Chabad at least, is from the Rebbe Rashab. And that's what we see here on the-- This is a quote from Sefer HaMinhagim. That during the eleven month where your Avodah is davening at the Amid, he would s- they would have five candles at the Amid. And similarly, a person who's davening the Amid for Yort site would have five candles. And that's corresponding to the five levels of the Neshamah, Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, Yechida. What is interesting that the Rebbe-- Now it's almost Yutza's slave. The first

23:24 time I had the zechus to see the Rebbe was the night of Yutza's slave. That was, uh, before my bar mitzvah. And the Rebbe would say Kaddish. So the first time I saw the Rebbe, he was saying Kaddish in the corner of the shul upstairs. The corner as in on the right, not where near the door where the Rebbe would come in for Kiryat Sefer Torah on weekdays. But it was in the far right, Mizrach Doron, and the Rebbe was saying Kaddish. It was about, about, I don't know, approximately ten days in the year where the Rebbe would say Kaddish. Perhaps thirteen days in the year, he said Kaddish. And apparently, the days when the Rebbe said Kaddish, he asked that there should also be five candles at the Amid. So if there was an Tachir and the Re-- then someone that was davening would have normally with two candles. But this is I heard in the name of Rebbe Gurene and also in the name of Rebbe Halich of Slangeror, that the Rebbe would want five candles at the Amid whenever there's a Tachir who's saying Kaddish, even though he's not actually the Chazan that, on that occasion. Let's move on, and that is question number six. So question which no one asked me. This one's my own question. What, what is the priority? If you ha-- there is LeChatchilah, you should light Menorah shortly. Our Minhag is to light it shortly after sunset. Other circles, they wait till after Nacht. But it says,

24:53 "Mishetishka HaChamah," and there's a whole discussion. Mishetishka HaChamah, does it mean the beginning of the Shkiyah or the end of the Shkiyah? But be that as it may, but we light Menorah. The Gemara about how long can you light the Menorah. Asher Tichrah, Ad SheKal Yaitzu Leglol Et HaMeridoy. That's when there's this, these people, the subnation of the Talmudoy Talu would go around selling wood. And about half an hour after, after nightfall or after sunset, after that, it's, it was considered too late. So the Chadchilla, we try to light within that, uh, earlier, within that time, shortly after sunset. Now, what's the story if the husband, let's say, can come home and light on time, but his wife has got a job and she's supporting the family, and she can only get home at 5:30, six o'clock. Should he light the Menorah on his own without her, and then she'll come home and see a put out Menorah, she's rude, so she wants to light again, she can do again. Is that a good idea or is it better that she should-- that he should wait for her, light the Menorah late, and then, and, and wait for her wife, his wife to come? So my feeling about this now, um, not, I'm not gonna say that's how I did when I was in this position myself thirty-nine years ago. But the way I understand now, a few more white hairs since then, that you have in the Rambam, it says, if you have a

26:22 dilemma, you have only one candle, and either use it for Shabbos candles or Hanukkah candles. So he says, you should give priority to Ner, Ner Shabbos because the idea of Shalom Baz is more important than Pesha Minisa. And then he brings how in the case that the Hashem would allow his name to be erased, to be written and erased in order to bring about harmony between husband and wife, and the mission of the Torah is to bring Shalom to the world. And therefore, that we had, we learned recently in the Sikha of the Rebbe discussing this Rambam at length, but the idea of Shalom Baz is more important than Pesha Minisa. And therefore, if there's a question of compromising on your Hiddur Mitzvah or Ner Hanukkah in order to make sure that your wife isn't upset, even if she doesn't say so, so Ne-Ne-- so then it's correct to, to, uh, to, uh, compromise in Ner Hanukkah in order to increase in Shalom Baz. In addition to this, we have the Rambam in Siman Tof Ayin Reish Beis or Tof Reish Ayin Beis. You'll see in a moment why it was a difference. Yesh Omrim, uh, those who say that nowadays that we light indoors, Ein Sorech Lehaz-- Lizor Lehahad Igdalu Min Hashak. The whole timeframe of waiting, don't, don't light too late, is not relevant nowadays because we're lighting indoors in any case. He says, Makom Kochu Tov Lizor Gam Bizman Hazeh. One should try to be careful, but it's, it's not so, such

27:52 a big deal if you're going to delay. So if someone would ask me this question, I'd tell them to, to, to wait till the h-wife comes home in, in order to enhance Shalom Baz. Now, as I just mentioned, the Siman is Tof Reish Ayin Beis. Tof Reish Ayin-- Ti-Tir Av can be read, you should be st- you should be hungry. Rav is hungry. Tir Av, you'll be hungry. And this is the question. You're hanging around till your wife, uh, comes home. Are you allowed to eat su-supper before she comes home? Um, you're gonna be hungry. So, uh, that, that's gonna be a problem. Yeah. So that they-- In the Shulchan Aruch, it's written, Tof Ayin Reish Beis, which means Tir Av should be Gishmek, should be pleasant. But, uh, instead of Tir Av, you should be hungry. So here's the, a practical question. Should, uh, if he is waiting an hour, an hour and a half, is he allowed to, uh, have supper whilst he's waiting? So here, again, this is from Mesivta Bizrat Hashems volume Beis. This is, um, a more, uh, extreme case. Someone who's traveling during Hanukkah. It was the question where someone's traveling to Manchester. By the time they get back, is he allowed to eat before Ner Hanukkah, which is gonna be from London to Man-Manchester to London, whatever, whichever way, it's about a four-hour journey, um, approximately. So normally, you're not allowed to eat before Ner Hanukkah. You're allowed to have a, to eat more bealma. You're allowed to

29:23 have a little bit, a nibble, less than a kebeo, less than, um, well, twice a kezayis, yeah. Uh, other foods, you can have other foods, that's okay. But if, but if it's Mizaynes, so how much? See, you should, uh, you should, um, remain, um, how do you say, abstain from having less than a kebeo in, in one, uh, moment, in one go. If you can't manage, if it's really, uh, then you can, you can eat normally because you are, uh, you're going to light when you get home, and you're not in a position to light now because you're in the middle of driving and from, uh, from Manchester to London, et cetera. So back to the fellow who's waiting for his wife. So he wouldn't be able to have, to have proper supper. Could have a bit, a coffee and cup of soup, some biscuits. That, yes, a little nibble, that would be okay, but not to have a proper meal. So he'll, yes, he'll have to be patient on that. So a bit of, bit of Mesirus Nefesh. Okay. Someone is pointing out here on, for a Yortzeit, on Shabbos, we use five Yortzeit candles. Surely, it is ignorance that some light Yortzeit candles on a weekday. You mean by lighting five candles. It could be, but, uh, I know in seven seventy, they had five candles, five Yortzeit candles. So it could be it's just the Har Chovah. I don't know. Right. Let's move on. So in this country and in, in many,

30:59 um, we-western, well, countries, the government encourage you to give, uh, Tzedakah, give t-charity, and they tell you that if you Give X amount of money and y- they will give back the tax to where you gave the, uh, donation. There's various systems. In France, they have one system. America, another system, but the principle is the same. That the, the, that the tax comes back. All right, so you've got these little systems here where you have vouchers and you, you put in X amount of money, and then you'll be able to s- uh, distribute a little bit more because of your, your tax return. So someone's on this system and they wanted to type in the, the online donation of 80 pounds, and they pressed another zero. So they pressed 800 pounds. So they've put 800 pounds in the, uh... You can't get your money back once you've put it in. There's no- no one to talk to. So now they ask, "Okay, I can manage that, but can I put this maes- put the, this..." I- it was 80 pounds maeser for the past month. Could I put the other 720, the extra, could I put it on credit? Can I have credit with maeser, basically. That's the question. Can I... This was made a mistake. What happens if someone comes to me and I have, uh, someone who I feel very s- strong sympathy for. I don't have enough maeser money now. I'd like to give them more. Can I give them maeser on

32:21 account of earnings in the future? So basically, the answer is yes. Now, let's de- let's deal with that. That I kind of give maeser in advance. So this is from, again, one of my favorite seforim on tzedakah. Tzedakah u'Mishpat. And he writes, "After you've made your cheshbon of maeser, it's advisable to have a special wallet where you'd put your maeser money. Personally, I have a separate bank account, and so the maeser goes into that bank account. And so you put your maeser money aside, even though you don't have clients to whom to give it right now. So you'll have this as your budget. Your maeser is your... People o- often get confused. What's maeser and tzedakah? Your maes- your, your maeser is your budget for giving tzedakah. So you have, uh, your account or your wallet. You put your maeser there. Now, if you've given... It says, "If you've given over tzedakah al cheshbon ha-maeser," if d- let's say after six months or after a month, whatever, you make your cheshbon of maeser and you realize, "Wait a minute, I have, I've already given beyond the cheshbon. I gave already. This one, I gave 20 pounds, 50 pounds tzedakah." So then it comes at the end of the month and you say, "Okay, I should be putting aside 150 pounds for maeser, but I already gave five- 50 pounds for tzedakah." And so, all right, so now instead of putting aside 150, I'll put aside 100, 100 pou- 100 pounds, et cetera. And if you

33:49 actually given, that he writes further, this was relevant to us. If you actually turns out you've given more than you should be putting down in the, in the maeser account, so then you can deduct this from the maeser for the tkufa habo for the future. So it's okay to put aside money. Sorry. It's okay contribute money to tzedakah on the cheshbon, on the account, for future maeser. That's legitimate. In this case, here it was a mistake. They p- put the money t- into, into this charity account. Um, it, it probably, probably is retrievable, but instead of going through the whole thing, and if you get... If you put by mistake money into tzedakah, uh, w- it was a r- a real mistake, as far as I remember, you are allowed to take it back. So here, it's not a question that you're not allowed to take it back, but it's, it's, it's simpler. Just, okay, we'll dedicate it for future maeser. And so I felt that's just, that is legitimate. Right. Um, let's move on. So here's a question, question number nine. And this is that a Jewish fellow is a locksmith, and he works for a non-Jewish firm. And last week, he was given a job to go to this and this address to fix a lock, and he did the job. Then he... It actually turned out to be a church. He didn't ask the question was he allowed to do the job. He did the job, and now he's asking. He was

35:25 paid. Probably he was paid not just a salary, but paid... Or perhaps not a salary, just paid for jobs which he does. And now he's gone and he received payment for fixing the door of a church. Is he allowed to keep the money? Should he give it for tzedakah? He's asking the question after the fact. This is his question. So looking in Shulchan Aruch and Yoreh Deah, in the Dinim Aveida Zara. So he writes, "We have the halacha." It's actually a Mishnah Aveida Zara. "Also livnos im ha-goyim kipah shemamdin bo elilim." One should not be joining in with goyim in building the dome, which is over the, the idol. So the way it's described in the Mishnah, he's, he's, he's, uh, he does join in the building of the overall hall. But when it comes to the dome, which is celebrating... In other words, the building is to accommodate people. The dome is to celebrate the idol. So he, it's okay for him to do the building overall, but not the, the, the dome over the idol. That's where he should withdraw and say, "I can't, uh, join in with this." Then it goes further in Shulchan Aruch. Clearly, if he did build it, and even if he actually made a, an idol itself, schar ei mutar. He's allowed to keep the money. He's allowed to use the money. And he goes further. Aval bo in lechatchilah, he's allowed to build the tractor, the hall or the chatzir where there is the dome. That is,

36:59 so the rest of the premises, he's allowed to build. But the dome, he shouldn't be building. But he says, even if he did build the dome, so then the schar, he's allowed to... The, the beväges is mutar. So the understanding here is that Aveida Zara itself is also ba'al hanuah. But the wage which he gets from being paid for doing something for Abed Azara, that's a little bit indirect, and therefore, he is allowed to keep that money. So that's what we see very clear. He's allowed to keep the money. Is he allowed... If you would ask the question, is he allowed to fix the door? The Chareid, what we're seeing here, is allowed to build the hall, the chatzer. So, the Chareid should be allowed to fix the door also, if he was asking the question. Although my first reaction was that he should d- turn down the job, but, um, possibly that would be also allowed. Right. Let's go on. So, here, someone asks me a question. This is not a Halacha question. It's more, uh, a, um... On the Siddur, why we have in the second beracha, we say, "Mashiv haRuach umerid haGeshem." Oh, I missed out something. I missed out the question about avocados. I'm getting this quite a bit, that people are making online orders with Tesco or other supermarkets, and make an order, and then there's a delivery of avocados from Eretz Israel or peppers from Eretz Israel. So, actually, I made a mistake when someone asked me about peppers,

38:39 and I thought that by, by now it's for sure that they're not from, from Shmita, because for, for vegetables, the switchover is already from Rosh Hashanah. So I was skeptical whether you could get peppers now, which are harvested before Rosh Hashanah. But I saw in various, uh, media that it's only after Hanukkah or something. I saw one place said Yud Kislev. So, all right. So now it's already past Yud Kislev. So, uh, so with, with vegetables, the-- one has to check out, check whether that vegetable could still be from before Rosh Hashanah. With the avocados, so then the, the, the, the problem here is a different problem. It's not a question of Shmita. Because if it's just Shmita, you can eat them and just be careful with the peels not to throw them away, because there may be some edible re- remnant on the, on the peels. So you leave the peels in a bag, leave it to rot, et cetera. The problem which I did not manage to find, um, on, you know, online or anything is about Orla. And that's not only for the, the year of Shmita, it's every year. The kind of fruit. Orla doesn't apply to vegetables. It applies to fruit. The kind of fruit which is-- goes through a lot, a lot of replanting, then every, every time it's replanted, unless it's done with proper supervision, it means that Orla has to start again. So let's say grapes. Grapes, there's a lot of replanting going on with grapes. So,

40:13 if you'd bring me g- grapes from Eretz Israel, and you ask me to take from a meiser, I'd say, "I can do that, but I have a bigger problem, and that is Orla." The grapes are a tend... is a tender, uh, uh, tender tree of sorts, and a lot of replanting. And if it's not done with a hashgacha, so then when they take from a nursery, you take a sapling and start a, um, and replant it, then you'd have to, um, count three years of Orla. And the problem here is that in Eretz Israel, the non-frum farmer cannot sell his Orla grapes because, uh, well, certainly not in a frum market, so that's... So therefore, what he simply does is, instead of throwing it in the bin, he'll send it for export. What that means is that if, let's say, there's a particular fruit which is three percent, the statistics are it's three percent in Orla, well, actually, for the export, the Orla is gonna be a much higher proportion. And therefore, this is this anxiety. And I don't have enough d- data. But there is this anxiety that stuff which does have a significant proportion of Orla, then we would, uh, not be able to eat it at all. And so the person asked me, "What should they do with these avocados? Eat them, give them to a goy, or throw them in the bin?" So, if they are not Orla, then the avocados are from Shmita. If it's Shmita, you can't give them

41:44 to a goy. You can't throw them in the bin. If it's Orla, you can't eat them. So we don't know exactly. Is it Orla and Shmita? We don't know. So therefore, the only thing I could say is don't do any of those three. Just hold onto it until... Or hold onto those avocados. You can't give them back to the shop either. So just hold onto them and, uh, and wait till they become inedible, and then you'll throw them out. If you keep them outside in the shelf on, on the, on the, um, how do you say, on a windowsill outside, and leave them there and, uh, you know, nature will ta- take care of them. That's all I can say about it. Um, of course, we have, we have a... Someone's putting here a... There's a, um, connect, a connect, uh, how do you say, a link that in kosher.org, it says peppers till the end of March. An avocado of '23. Avocados, middle of July. I saw this. I'm not... And, and I find it very strange. Why should it be all the way till twen- till March, which is Pesach time, or almost? Uh, what does it mean? These peppers are, uh, were, are kept in, in cold storage from before Rosh Hashanah until March. I find it difficult to believe. But, you know, they know what they're talking about. Okay. Thank you. And you're saying there that... Wait a second. You're saying there avocados. But, uh, here I have another problem with

43:11 this list, which again, I don't have data. They're saying that after July, you are able to eat avocados, so they're not worried about Orla. They're only worried about Shmita. And, uh, some people who are in-into kashrus have told me that there is, there is a high incident, a really significant incident of, of orla with avocados, that we shouldn't be using avocados without a hechsher. So I don't know what to answer. I did, I did try, um, to do some research. I didn't get any-very far. Okay, let's move on to question number 11. But thank you for that link. Um, for... Oh, it was a direct message, so that's the, uh, link is from www.kosher.org.uk/shem-itta-dates. Okay. Thank you. Let's go on to our last question for-- on our list for tonight. Thank you. Um, why is it in davening, in the second beracha we say, "Mashiv ha-ruach v'mered ha-geshem," and in the ninth beracha, we say, "V'sameach tal u-matar." What's the difference between geshem and matar? We translate both of them as rain, so why is there a change of the word in between one and the other? For those who didn't realize, we've switched to v'sameach tal u-matar, yes. About a week ago, we've switched to same, v'sameach tal u-matar. That was from the fifth of December, I think. Right. So we have here two sources which address this. One is the Aruch HaShulchan, and the other one is the Malbim. So let's first read the Aruch HaShulchan. This is in Siman Kuf Yod Daled,

44:53 where he talks about the switchover of the tal-- um, mashiv haruch v'mered ha-geshem. And he says, "V'yesh bo ze she-ayel." I have a question. Why is it behaskarah? In the second beracha, it's haskarah. We're not asking for rain. We're mentioning, we're praising Hashem, that Hashem provides rain, and there we use the word geshem. On v'shalo, in the ninth beracha, where we're asking, v'sameach, there we use the word matar. So he writes the following. Geshem is when it comes down from heaven, which is, it is above, and it comes down from heaven. As it says, "Im yimalu ha-avim geshem," if the clouds will be filled with rain, with geshem. And also, by the mabul, by the flood, it says, "Vayikra leha geshem min hashamayim." So he, he seems to be understanding that the geshem is from a higher level physically, in heaven. Whereas the matar is associated close to, from clouds close to the earth. As we have the words, "Ve-tar artzechem," sameach la'aretz. We have a, "Matar laynitach artzah." So the impression is that it's closer to the earth, and he sees the association of matar with eretz in several pesukim. And then he quotes this pasuk, which we have down here from Treosor. "Ve-geshem..." No, no, sorry. That's a different pasuk. "Ve-geshem matar, ve-geshem mitros uzai." That you have the combination of geshem and matar. That first it's geshem, it's higher up, and then it comes closer to the ground, and then it comes to, becomes matar. So sometimes there are exceptions, but anyway,

46:36 that's what he's saying. Therefore, in the, when we're talking about praise, we're talking about gvuris geshomim, there we talk, we use the word geshem, which is the rain higher up. And V'shalo, where we're asking about the rain, where we're asking for the rain to come down to the earth, there we use the matar. The matar is de-describing the rain as it's closer to the, um, to the earth. So that's the, that's the, uh, um, Aruch HaShulchan. The Malbim, as we know, one of his specialties is dealing with synonyms. In the Malbim, on Chumash, he has, in the introduction to the volume of Vayikra, he's got a whole, a whole, uh, sefer. A small sefer. Well, quite a good, uh, significant sefer called Ayalas Hashachar, and there he's dealing with synonyms. With, in Hebrew, the word for synonym is shemus nerdafin. So here the Malbim writes, "There's a difference between geshem and matar. Geshem is natural, which comes from the vapor coming from the earth, coming up from the earth, and matar is ha-hashgacha yi, hagba min hashamayim." It is coming, the hashgacha coming from heaven. I really-- And, and it seems to be just the opposite of what the Aruch HaShulchan said, because Aruch HaShulchan said geshem is higher up and matar is closer to the earth. And here he's saying the other way around, that geshem is actually born from evaporation, and matar is coming from, uh, from heaven. Higher. Read that as it may, I, I don't really have a very clear answer.

48:19 I did look around in Chasidus. I did not find a cr-- a, the, this, this, uh, how do you say? The syn-the synonyms of geshem and matar, I didn't see being addressed at all. We have another couple of minutes. I'd just like to share with you something which came up over Shabbos. And that is that in Yismach Moshe, on Shabbos morning, so we have Yismach Moshe b'macnas chelko, and it says, "Ushnei luchos avodim chorid bi yodo." He brought down two stone luchos, two la-- tablets of stone, and he ha-he had them in his hand. In, in which they were written shemas Shabbos. it was given to his ownership, so to speak, or trusteeship, and then he shared it with us. But, uh, then I saw there's a Pirush on the Siddur called From Reb Yehuda Bar Il'ai. So he act- he says that whilst the Luchos had the writing on them, so the writing helped, uh, lifted the Luchos. It made it lighter. Like we have the idea that the Aron was able to carry its bearers. Call from- So, so similarly, the, the Luchos, the, when the writing is on the Luchos, the Luchos were light. Call from Bobby Pooh. And Moshe Rabbeinu was able to hold the Luchos with one hand. So he says it's a deal. The, the with just in the single hand. When the Yidden have sinned and then the way it's described in the Gemara, that the writing, the s- the, the engraved letters disappeared, and then all of

51:12 a sudden the Luchos are just solid tablets. Then they became so heavy, . Then they became-- he had to hold them with two hands, and they were too heavy for him to hold in two hands. And then he cast them, and he breaks the Luchos. So the way, uh, Reb Il'ai is saying, the is when they were intact, and then he was actually able, able to hold them both in one hand, which is remarkable because they were, they were six by six tefachim, which means, uh, quite large. To be able them in one hand is, uh, just physically, uh, even with just... N-not talking about the weight, just the shape is, is quite very large. One other thing which, which was, since I was looking at this, I was thinking, which Luchos are we talking about? Is it the first Luchos or the second Luchos? And what struck me is Shabbos. It's written in the Luchos, Shmiras Shabbos. Now, in the Aseres Hadibros, as it's recorded in Parshas Yisro, it says, . In Parshas VaEschanan, it says, . So which one was written on the Luchos? The Ramban says it was written Zochor, and Sh- Shomer was kind of the Torah Shebe'al Peh. And Moshe Rabbeinu told the Yidden, he told them also Shomer. But how does he explain what it says here in the , which seems to imply that the word Shomer was literally written in, on the Luchos? So I don't know the answer to that. I'm also intrigued that on Shabbos

52:44 we have various themes, and there is the Shabbos as in the negative, not to do Melacha, and there's a Shabbos to focus on the oneness of Hashem. The night Shabbos is more negating. You're going, you're stepping away from the mundane act-- from Melacha, mundane activities. The day Shabbos is more the focus on the, the positive side of Shabbos, the unity of the, of Hashem. That's why in Lecha Dodi, when it says, , it's not just Shomer comes before Zochor to be able to make the acronym for Shalom Aleichem, uh, Shalom Aleichem, but it's also because by night, the emphasis is more Shomer more than Zochor. But if that, if that whole Mahalik is correct, why in Shemoneh Esreh of Shabbos day, why is there the emphasis on Shmiras Shabbos? Why not Zechiras Shabbos? And when it comes to Kiddush, we, we do say, "Zochor yom hashabbaton." So that seems to be the theme. Shabbos, um, day, by daytime, seems to be emphasis on Zochor, and yet here in the Nusach HaTefillah, there is the emphasis on Shmiras Shabbos. So, um, what I, I do-- I did see someone saying that between Shomer and Zochor, even if you're not on the level of Zochor yom hashabbes, but at least Shomer is more basic. But it still doesn't really answer why the emphasis here in Shab- Shabbos Shacharis on the union of, uh, of, um, Shomer. I just want to finish, finish up. We have another couple of minutes. A, a thing which I've written years ago,

54:20 and that is that when we lift the kos for Kiddush, so it says in, in Gemara, kos shel beracha should be lifted a tefach. And it's written in the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh also, kos shel beracha should be lifted a tefach. And yet, there is, in the Zohar, there's a source of it being lifted as erez, which is three tefach. And there's a horror in the back of the, uh, Tehillim. In Chabad Tehillim, there is a long horror, a beautiful horror of a rebbe. I don't want to go into the whole detail. Talking about the three tefach versus the one tefach. Perhaps we discussed it once. So my own theory is that interesting that in them, there's a din of kinyan, and one of the way of acquiring something is doing hagbah. And some places, some poskim say hagbah is one tefach. Some po- poskim say hagbah is three tefach. So the way Rashi learns, if I'm not mistaken, he says hagbah is three tefach. Why three tefach? Because until three tefach distance, it's still lovot. A sp- a gap of less than three tefach is considered a closed gap. So you have to lift up the te- the article three tefach in order to make sure that it's not attached to its way it was before. Tosfos says it's enough, um, hagbah as a tefach. Hagbah is a statement. To say, "My statement, this is yours." So I have this theory that the, the, uh, lifting of the cup is reflecting these two minhagim of

55:40 one tefach or three tefach. It depend what you're trying to make. Is it-- Are you trying to make a, a positive statement? So then say, "Da afa tefach." If you want to negate it's not connected to before, then you should be lifting the cup three tefach. Friday night, you make Kiddush, so we are no longer to do Kiddush standing. So as-- If you're standing, typically, your kos is gonna be three tefach away from the table, up, up from the table. Shabbos day, we saw the Rebbe, uh, by the Fabregen, what he did in private is another thing, but you don't have to lift it at, um, three twachim. If you're sitting, you don't, no one lifts the te- the cup three twachim from the table, as far as I've seen. So by day, it's lifting a tefa. Friday night, it's the inyun of s- of, of, of negating, as I said before, it's negating Yemos Dem- de'Malacha. Now, for Friday night, you need to have three twachim, like the Akinya HaGbor is, it's not lovot, it's not connected to the weekday. So Friday night, you'd have the Kas three twachim. Shabbos by day, where it's a more a state, a positive statement, inyun of, of, uh, the, the Achdus of Hashem, of Zocheh, therefore, it's enough to lift it a tefa. All right, but that just comes back. So why then, in Shemoneh Esreh, do we have the emphasis on, um, on, on, on Shomer? So I don't have the answer. All right, so, um,

56:58 I think I'll still be able to fall asleep tonight. Um, someone's asking, "Why in Ma'ariv do we say Zechel HaMa'aseh Bereishit?" And I, I'm, I'm not, I'm not in Shacharit. So it's well known that the, uh, the, the, the three, the three themes of Shabbos, you've got Zechel HaMa'aseh Bereishit, Zechel HaYitzias Mitzrayim, and Matan Torah, and then Yemos HaMashiach. And so the emphasis by night is Zechel HaMa'aseh Bereishit. So that's why we say Vaychulu. It's a passage about Ma'aseh Bereishit. By day, Shabbos Shacharit, we don't say Zechel HaMa'aseh Bereishit because there the emphasis is on Yitzias Mitzrayim and Matan Torah. That's why it's also in Kiddush. And also Shemoneh Esreh, we are, we are echoing Matan Torah. That's the emphasis. Shabbos by day is the inyun of, of, of Zechel HaMatan Torah. And then Shabbos by Mincha, which is got to do with the Remez for Yemos HaMashiach, we can't say, uh, we don't say Zechel HaMa'aseh. We don't say Yismechu at all because we're gonna all celebrate when Mashiach is here. So we don't say Yismechu at all. The question remains with what about Musaf? Uh, the only thing which I can answer is, I don't have a, a proper answer, but in, in Nusach Ashkenaz, they don't say Yismechu at Ma'ariv, nor at Shacharit. It's only at Musaf. So Musaf, the original Yismechu with the full text, Zechel HaMa'aseh Bereishit, is kept at Musaf, but that's not an adequate answer either. So all right. Be'ezras Hashem, one day. Meanwhile, I wish you a

58:23 Gut Voch, and be well, and we should meet in, in good health. And, uh, Simchas Olam Al Roishon with Moshiach. Moshiach Tzidkeinu will solve all these questions. One time, um, Rabbi Gutnick was with the Rebbe, and he asked the Rebbe something, and he said, "Moshiach," about something about Moshiach coming on Shabbos or something. "Moshiach will answer the question." So Rabbi Gutnick says, "But I thought," he said, "Yo, I know he's gonna answer all the questions." So the Rebbe answered, "Moshiach will answer that question also." A Gut Voch.