בשלח תשפ״ג

00:01 Welcome to tonight's Shiur Motzaei Shabbos, Parashat Beshalach, Shabbos Shira. I'd like to also just share with you that last Motzaei Shabbos, as soon as Shabbos was out in Chicago, I, uh, opened the, the Zoom account and was gratified to see some 36, um, views of a recording which I made out of Shabbos. So, thank you for the encouragement and Bezrat Hashem, we should encourage one another to do good things. This week we just come from, we've come from, uh, Yut Shvat, and so I wanna share with you a psak halacha of the Friediker Rebbe. So the question here is about facing Mizrach when the shul has the Aron Kodesh in another direction. So the discussion in Shulchan Aruch is Siman Tsadik Dalet in Derakh HaChaim. What you have here in the middle, the small sprint, is Beis Haknesses where they pay the Aron Kodesh on the south. And everyone in that shul is facing is davening to the south. You are able to daven to Mizrach, even though the kahal are facing south. It's not a question of yuhara, of undue, um, pride or whatever, arrogance. V'lo mishum eiva, not a cause, a cause for enmity. Quotes from Yad Eliyahu. V'gadol echad shom cheilik olam. There's another eminent, uh, authority who disagrees, and he says, "No, you should conform to what the tzibbur are doing." So we have in the Bier Heitev, he brings two opinions whether you should-- whether you can, um, choose to follow the, uh, true, the true direction for Yerushalayim, or

01:58 should you therefore conform? Reading the Mishneh Berurah, so he has-- he qu- he brings this, uh, psak halacha, and he says, "Where you have a shul, whether the Aron Kodesh is on the south, and everyone's facing the Aron Kodesh, even though it's not the right thing. However, one who davens there should daven in the direction where the tzibbur are facing, but he should tilt himself, his pay-- face turn towards Mizrach somewhat." So here we have-- He, he seems to be taking more the view of the, uh, the, the, the second opinion that you should conform with the tzibbur. So here we have a letter, and it's quite unusual for the Friediker Rebbe to write psak halacha in the, uh, in-- That's not so much his style. And so we have this letter of the Friediker Rebbe, and it was to someone to called, um, Um, Murray-- Avram Elia Akselrod, I believe, lived in Baltimore perhaps. But anyway, he writes the following. "Vemaeinei al sheilas," in response to your question. "Im muteh lehispalel," whether you're allowed to daven in a shul, whether the directions are inaccurate. I don't understand your question. Because generally, says the Rebbe, when you build a shul or when you take a house and, um, um, arrange it for, to have it as a shul, so generally you try to work out the, the directions. That it should be the right way, as it says in Shulchan Aruch Tsadik Dalet. And, "V'pirus Mogen David," that's the Taurus V'Shem HaLivush. "Ve vi nu--

03:40 Ve rabbeinu zal her was there." The Alter Rebbe is actually, um, a, a pioneer in this. Um, after the Livush, the Alter Rebbe is a pioneer in this, of working out that you shouldn't just face east, but rather to work out the direction according to where you are in the world with the mathematic, uh, chesbonus, et cetera. And then once you know which is, uh, um, which is the east, then to f-- a little bit towards the south, it shouldn't be mamash, bowing mamash to the east as if you're bowing to the sun. Then the Rebbe finishes off. However, if when it was built or when it was rearranged as a shul, it didn't work out the directions c- as it should be, "Einu shaer ba'shaila." There's no question about davening in that shul, because you can daven di-di-direction where you find is, where you, according to you, is the correct direction to Yerushalayim. And Beis Hamikdash. As mentioned in Bier Heitev, in Sefer Beis, of course, in Gimel. So he's referring to the Bier Heitev that you have the choice to face the right direction. And so there we have an interesting, um, psak of the Friediker Rebbe, that you-- if you're in a shul which is facing south, you should, you, you could, you could choose, ha-kal ponim, to face Yerushalayim re-regardless of where the rest of the tzibbur are facing. All right. You might, you might say that he means like the Mishneh Berurah, Tsadik Ponovizh. He doesn't say that. Okay. Let's

05:13 move on to a question someone asked me this week about why we make a point of having two people either s-- one on either side of the bimah. So this you can see is, Shulchan Aruch, Siman Kuf Mem Alef, the Dinim of Kiryat HaTorah. He says like this: If the shliach tzibbur, stroke, baal koreh, wants to have his-- he wants to read an aliyah. He wants to read the Torah. So there should be someone else standing next to him. So there shouldn't be-- So just like the Torah was given through an agent, through Moshe Rabbeinu, so too we should also, when reading the Torah, it should be somehow with an agent. There should be someone else. So if not for this takana, so then you'd, you could have just one person standing there and reading from the Torah, and that is saying that there should be at least two people at the reading. The Mishnah Berurah now adds that the community is, that the gabbai, or in some shuls they have, they sell the mitzvahs. And so the one who bought the mitzvah for the day, so he's like the one who's dishing it out today. So they would stand by the Sefer Torah, and the one who's del- uh, uh, uh, distributing the aliyas is called the sgan. Let's call it like a, like a gabbai of sorts. And so we'd have three. You, and you'd have the baal kore, you'd have the gabbai, and you have the one who has the aliyah. And

06:48 he goes into detail. The sgan is k'viyachol, um, representing Hashem, because he is the one who's giving the instructions who should, whose aliyah is to be given to. The one who's reading the Torah, he is like the agent, like, uh, he's like Moshe Rabbeinu here. The one who's oler to receive the aliyah, he is like Klal Yisrael, who are receiving the Torah. So that's his profile of why you have three: Hashem, Moshe, and Klal Yisrael. He goes further. That's the quote. This is quoted from the Levush. He goes further that there are at an early minute to have a minimum of three standing by the Sefer Torah. He quotes from the Sefer Sofrim. But there there's, he gives a different reason. And there he says it's inappropriate there should be just a single man standing by the bimah. Rather, there should be one to his right and one to his left, k'neged ha-avodah, corresponding to the avodah. Now, okay, so we've got here two reasons. One is Hashem, Moshe, and Eden, or corresponding to the avodah. What I found remarkable is in today's Parsha Chumash, where it talks about, um, Moshe Rabbeinu standing, sitting in prayer, actually, and he has, uh, Aharon and Chur on either side of him. And Rashi says something to the effect that on a Taanis Tzibur, open the Rashi. So at a Taanis, we make a point, well, we'll discuss in a moment we, if we do, but that there's that idea of having three people leading the davening on

09:02 a Taanis. And since they were fasting, therefore we have three people. Now, the, this is brought in Shulchan Aruch Siman Tov Kuf Samech Vav, that of having three people, two on either side of, one on either side of the chazan. Then they say that that would be true back in the day when only the chazan would be saying the davening, and everyone else was joitza through listening. Nowadays, that we all, everyone's saying the slichas, or everyone who only can is saying the slichas, so therefore this profile of having the reader being flanked by two people doesn't apply. That's how, um, the mefarshim say in Siman Tov Kuf Samech Vav. But meanwhile, we have this idea of, of three people. Separately, you have in Hilchos Yom Kippur, in, I think, Sof Resh Yod Tes, for, um, for Kol Nidre. By, uh, but there, the Alter Rebbe doesn't use this idea because of Taanis, which as he, for this reason just said, is obsolete. But he says the idea of hatoras ha-dorim, that you should have three, and that's why we have three people with the Sefer Torah. So that's another aspect of it. Now, as I was r- looking, I was trying to see, is there a connection between the three people for tefillas Taanis, as in Rashi, and the three t- people for Krias HaTorah? So l'chaim, it, it doesn't seem to be connected. Three people Krias HaTorah is one thing, and three people for, for, uh, Taanis. They may, they may be connected. It

10:30 might be the idea of someone making a statement B'rabim on, speaking B'rabim should be, have the kind of the support of another two people to, to s- to support his message, so to speak. But then I just saw in the Torah Shelemah just tonight, "Va'yhi yodov emunah ad voi ha'shamesh." So he says that Moshe invokes the zechus of Avrohom, Yitzchok, and Yaakov, because it says, "Va'yhi yodov emunah ad voi ha'shamesh." So emunah alludes to Avrohom Avinu, because it says, "Vehemin bashem va'yachshaveh letsadok." Ad voi alludes to Yitzchak, um, in reference to whom it says, "VaYitzchak voi m'voi be'er lachai roi." Yaakov, vo- ha'shamesh alludes to Yaakov, where it says, "VaYitzchak lo ha'shamesh kasheh ov ha'es pruel," et cetera. So he, he, this Midrash says that Yaak- that Moshe, when he is davening, he's invoking Avrohom, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. Well then, if that's the case, then perhaps there is a connection between the three people for Aliyah L'Torah and the three people at the tefillah of a Shliach Tzippur on a Taanis. That's all Derch HaDrush. LaHalacha, um, what? LaPo'el. And about having four people, when, uh, there are others who say ab- about having four people, in other words, the two oilim and one on either side. Gemara says this, but the Mishnah Berurah brings it again. So to summarize, the Shulchan Aruch says at least two people. Mishnah Berurah brings that Mincha is to have- At, at Pri Estator to have three people. And generally, we try to have one on either side, just

12:19 in case that the balkona happens to have an issue. Right. Let's move on. So here's an interesting question. What do you do in Psukei D'Zimra if you're called up to the Torah? Do you... Well, as normally when you have an Aliyah LaTorah, you'd say quietly along with the Shliach Tzibur. But if you are in the middle of Psukei D'Zimra, where you are a little bit limited, should you be reading along? So let's just read the sources, and then let's discuss it. So the first source you have over here is from Taf kuf samech vav. Sorry, from samech samech vav in Kriyas Shema, where it talks about if you're called up to the Torah in, during Birchas Kriyas Shema, where you said, "Eh, Abbas Elan," et cetera. So there it says you should be oelah, and that's because this whole is-- this is based upon just like the Mishnah says, "Bavsiki mipnei hayir mipnei hakavod." Taam, mitshaki. Now, sho-sho-- To answer, "Shola mipnei hayir mipnei hakavod." So by extension, we also have this idea of answering mipnei ha- mipnei hayiro, to answer Kedusha, et cetera. If you're called up to an Aliyah, say, during Birchas Kriyas Shema, you should go up, but you should not read along with the chazan, with the balkona. Ve yehi smocheh, you should rely on those who say that you can rely on listening to the chazan, as discussed in Hilchas Pri Estator in kuf mem alef. And certainly, you shouldn't interrupt to say to the chazan about Mishaberach what to

14:02 say, et cetera. So that's in Hilchas Kriyas Shema. Then we have now in Hilchas, now, Psukei D'Zimra. What you have the second quote here is from Ksesa Shulchan, and he writes, "Don't call up, l'chatchilah, someone who's in Psukei D'Zimra, unless it's a Kohen and there's no other Kohen, or a Levi if there's no other Levi. V'rashai likros belacha sh'mekore." You are allowed to read quietly together with the chazan. So, uh, not liking Birchas Kriyas Shema, Psukei D'Zimra, he said you are allowed to read with the chazan. In Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Siman chaf gimel, he's-- again, he says the same thing. Don't-- Don't call up someone in the middle of davening. Um, "Im omed beKriyas Shema omed bebirchas sem omed bebirchas ha-bruchos. Aval lo yikro im ha-koreh ela yishma." I'm sorry, I think this quote is not there. It's-- I think it's further down. I think it says in the same if, chaf gimel if yud, that even if it is in, uh, Psukei D'Zimra, you shouldn't be reading together with the koreh. I have to check that again later. So, so here's the, here's, here's, here's the question. What's the meise? Do you say... In the, in the back of the Kehillat Siddur, you have that whole table of where-- of, uh, what to interrupt for. So there it says, uh, like some say you should read, some say you shouldn't read. Leaves it a bit open. So let's now understand the shtickel de-lomdus, so to speak. There's basically three levels in Hafsaka in davening.

15:42 There's a level where it's all red, all red lights. Shemoneh Esreh, in the middle of a short bracha, in the middle of Chameish Habrachos, in the middle of bentching. It's no interruptions at all. That's, that's, uh, that's one level. Then you have the level of Birchas Kriyas Shema, and there you're allowed to answer dovor shebekedusha. So kedusha, the, the essentials of kedusha, omei shmirabo, um, borchu, things which requ-require a minyan. So those you would interrupt in the middle of Birchas Kriyas Shema. Then we have the le-- the, the, the le- the, the least level is Psukei D'Zimra. Anything which is a chiyuv. Anything which is a chiyuv, you interrupt, you're allowed to interrupt for. So, amen, any bracha, you'd interrupt for middle of Birchas-- uh, middle of Psukei D'Zimra and, all right, whatever else goes into that category. There's a whole specialist Sefer called Hefsek Betfila. A very good Sefer. How do I know it's a very good Sefer? Because it went through a second print. A, a, an updated print. Uh, if it's not a good Sefer, it doesn't, uh, doesn't, doesn't come out a second time. Kol ponim, a very good Sefer by Rav Gav Lemberg. Al Kol Ponim. So there are-- They, they, they, they, this hierarchy. Here, the question is, reading along with the balkona, what level is it? Is it a level like dovor shebekedusha, or is it a dovor shechaivo, or is it not even a dovor shechaivo? Perhaps it's just a, a minek tov. So where does it

17:14 come from, this reading along with the balkona? So this goes back to the Rosh, who asks a question. This morning, you got up in the morning, and you said Birchas Hashachar, and you said Birchas HaTorah, yeah? And then you came to shul, and at one fortunate moment, you, "Ya Moi," and they called you up, and you said again the same bracha. What's the question? You said the bracha already. What's, what's happening now? Why are you making a bracha on your Aliyah LaTorah? He said, "What's the, what's the, uh, uh..." Years ago, in the times of the Gemara. So you're, you're, you mean it. Now it's a special privilege that you are actually koreh baTorah betzibur. Before, you, you, you're own to read the Torah. Now you're standing up, you're reading betzibur. That's all very well back then. But then, n-once it became the seder that instead of reading on your own, the balkona leans for you. So we're back to the question. What's, what's, uh, what, what are you making a bracha again for? Well, this a- for the-- because of this question, the Rosh says that when you have Aliyah LaTorah, you should read along quietly with the balkona. So you're reading Berabim. Comes along the Maases Ben Yomin, who was, uh, perhaps a generation after the Ramoh, one of the very early but prominent Achronim, and he says, "I don't understand. You're saying that what? You're reading Berabim. What privilege is it to stand Berabim and whisper? Well, if you're reading Berabim, you're

18:45 Chastei. But if you're, you're not reading aloud, you're reading, you're whispering. So why, what's, what's the privilege that you're making a Bracha on this?" So what's then, it was back, so back to the question, what's the Bracha for? So here comes a major, major Chidush. What's the, what would happen if you have a, a shul where there's only one literate person? All the rest are wonderful people, but they'll just sit at the side and twiddle with their thumbs, and everyone, and only one is able to read from the Torah. So then he has seven Aliyahs. So he has Rishon, and he says a Bracha everyone after. He goes Sheini, and on and on. He goes Shlishi, and on and on. Yeah. And he goes through seven Aliyahs. He takes seven Aliyahs, Rishon, and Bracha, and he says, "Make 14 Brachas." This is brought in the Temach Tzedek, a similar Lambadei, Erechayim, why we don't do Heshafes. Say, according to the Maases Ben Yomin, when you make a Bracha Aliyah LeTorah, it's not for you, not because you're learning. You're just saying the Balkonim's Bracha. Therefore, the Balkonim has seven Aliyahs. You know, he shouldn't be taking a Heshafe. You know, I had seven Aliyahs. I want to have an extra one. You look. Okay. That's, that's, that's the Ma, Ma, the Mahalak of the Maases Ben Yomin, which makes also a difference, for example, whether could a blind person, Chamal Etzlan, have an Aliyah LeTorah. So according to the Rosh, according to the Rosh, it

20:11 seems to be, uh, a, a problem. Why could he, and what's he making a Bracha? He's not reading from the Torah. He's not able to read the Torah. According to the Maases Ben Yomin, he's not making a Bracha on his reading. He'd make a Bracha on the Balkonim's reading. The Temach Tzedek then brings a Svara that even according to, to explain the Rosh, although I'm not reading Berabim, but I'm standing in a position as if I'm reading Berabim, something, something like that. Well, having said all this, the, the, uh, Chir to read quietly with the Balkonim doesn't seem to be a very strong Chir. Although the Rosh does say to do so, Maases Ben Yomin disagrees. It doesn't, it seems to be Tachtikosophic, I'll call it, L'chol HaPoches. And therefore, I'm more inclined with the position of not saying along with the Balkonim, especially since the Alter Rebe in his Siddur was overly conscientious of Bracha L'Batola and Hefsek, which is the reason why we don't say Beshamru, which is the reason why we don't, um, announce Yalavi Yove in the night of, of, of Rosh Chodesh, and various other things. Alter Rebe was very conscientious, kind of akin to Bracha L'Batola of Hefsek. Therefore, if there's a child here of Hefsek, I'll take the view of, of not being Maofsek. And you, you, it's, you generally would do the same as B'chas Krishma. By the way, this is perhaps a little, uh, as far as I remember, the Kitzur Shechinach is more lenient than

21:51 the Alter Rebe about saying things in, in, in the Lechal HaTzur. The Alter Rebe compares Lechal HaTzur to B'chas Krishma, and the Kitzur Shechinach compares it to Psukah de Zimra. Someone here is putting on the que- other questions. Why does a Kohen, when there's no laybie, say the Bracha twice? Because he's taking another Aliyah. They're very simple. Right. Let's move on. Sad story. An old man, 70s, whatever, passed away. And at the Taharah, I get a call from the, from the Shliach there. At the Taharah, they see that the person never had a Bris. So he's asking the surgeon, "Should I do a Bris now in the Taharah room?" Et cetera. So you have here a din in two places in Shechinach, in Siman Reish Samech Gimel, in the dinim of, of, uh, Milo, and in the din of, I've forgotten which number it is, in, you know, Chas Aveilus, et cetera. A child which passed away before he became eight days old. Maalin Oisoi Al Kivroi. They won't do a circumcision at the grave, but Tzur Oi B'kona, with a, with a rock or with a reed, one would not say a Bracha. The source for this is in, in the, Devar HaGaonim. So it's not in the Shas. It's, but it, it based upon a Midrash that Avraham Avinu stands by the entrance to Gehenna, and anyone who has a Bris, he will not let him go into Gehenna. However you understand that, but that, that's how the, the, there's this Midrash. And

23:35 therefore, that this child also should come to, sh- should, should have the, um, Bris Mila, even though it's not a mitzvah as such. What was the question of the Shliach? He probably saw in various sources a debate in this case, where you have here, "Godol shal..." This is the second quote here. It's from a Sefer, Oitzer HaBris, which is like an encyclopedia on Hilchas Milo. He writes, "Godol shal lo nimal b'meizit." An adult who never had a Bris willfully. So yetz, yesh oymim shemaalin oisri al kivro. Some say we'll do the same thing. So although the Shechinach talks about a child who died before eight days old, but the Shach says it could be even in under the circumstances. It just, just didn't work out to have a Bris earlier. It could be for health reasons, whatever. And so he's taking it further. Even if the Br- the omission of a Bris was willful, still one would do the Bris. And he quotes here from a Sefer Yad HaLevi, um, Zadai Cheshero, "Ve'yesh shepik p'chu bo zer." Now, those who challenge this, they were not so sure. There's a Mohangar, I should say, for Koines HaBris. And even himself, he's also not so sure about his objection, especially in, um, in the, this question came in actually from Germany, which has welcomed many, many Yidden from the former Soviet Union. And so therefore, I felt that probably the omission of the Bris in this case was because he was brought up, born in communist, uh,

25:08 Russia, and wasn't able to have a Bris then. And, uh, all right. So it's, it's, it's, "Ve'geda tinik shnishbo," in this respect. And, uh, I, I felt there's no, no harm in following the lenient position to be able to give him a bris at least then. Let's move on. So here we have a picture somewhere, I don't remember, somewhere in United States. Don't remember. So he, he essentially he's moved into a new place, and there's lots of these, uh, doorways, these archways. Do that. Does e-every one of them have to have a mezuzah? So it's interesting that I actually spoke about this in Crown Heights on Monday morning. I gave a Shiur and a Kollel there, and I mentioned about a Sicha of the Rebbe about explaining what is a door and what's a doorway and what's a, what's a lock and what's a key. And Bas Gucha Protes, the Sicha which was published for this Shabbos from Yud Shevat, Tov Shin Lamed Vau, was the very Sicha which I was quoting from memory. The Rebbe explains, you have two rooms, so they're two separate, two separate entities. You want them to be able to connect, to be connectable, so you make a doorway. Once you made a doorway, so they, they are, they are, uh, exposed to one another. But you want to have the choice whether it should be one room or two rooms, so you put up a door. Then that's-- When you're there, you have the control. Whether it's one room

26:44 or two door-- or two rooms, you have to stand by the door and make sure it's, it's closed or open. But what about when you're away? For this, there is a idea called a lock. And to control the lock, you have a key. The Rebbe's explaining what does it mean, a key? That you have the control of the room, even while... You have the bal dabash-baldabashkite of the exposure of this room or the inner room, even whilst you're away. I suspect, although it doesn't say in the, in the Hanoha, I suspect that the Rebbe had been presented a key for something, you know, it's a building or something. And the Rebbe was talking about the significance of a key. Then he explains the idea of a key in Avodas Hashem, that you can talk, and I'll just briefly. You can talk, you can encourage a person, let's say, to give a loan to someone. You can encourage a person to give a Chet Chetover to another person. Or you can encourage the person to have Almas Esro. And Almas Esro, therefore, automatically, whether it's a loan, whether it's a, a Chet Chetover, they come together. So he's talking about you can have a, a key which is a key to several items. So that's the Rebbe's e-explanation in, in Avoda, the application of a key, um, which is a, in particular in Hakuda, which includes various Inyanim. So upon in coming back to, to our, our, our, our discussion, the idea of a doorway is

28:02 that you've got two separate functions. You've got, let's say, you've got a lounge and a dining room. Two separate functions. And you've got a doorway. Sometimes you want to have them connected and sometimes not, but they're two separate functions. Sometimes you've got a door frame, but both sides are actually identical function. That doesn't really qualify as a doorway. It might be look, sound a little bit Ader Hadrash, but that, that is the concept here. That are the... Is the, this door frame, is it setting apart one part of the, uh, building from another part? If so, yes, it's a pesach. If it isn't, it doesn't really qualify as a pesach. Now, that's more in, in Svara. Now let's take a look. This is from the Sefer Pisvai Shari, a contemporary Sefer, or it's a Pisvai, it's something like that. All right. So you can see this is the drawing which I copied from the Sefer, which I have on, on the Yoetz Hachochma, and it's almost like a photograph of the, uh, building with-in question. So he writes the following in two places. He says, "When you've got a pesach, which is made for going in and out," Finish off Ach Tzadikim and you take off your tefillin or your whatever, you take off your tefillin and you realize that you're wearing your R' Benetams for Shacharis. So now what do you do now? Do you... Of course, you're gonna put on Rashis, but do you make a bracha? So let's read this. Now, what

31:20 I have here is from a Sefer which, uh, there's a s- small, like a paperback Sefer on the Natil Sidim, published by someone called Yomtuvnatal Bronshpigel. I'm not sure which year it was, but it's, you know, pre-war publication. It's got like a, a Bir, like a Likut on the Alter Rebbe's Sefer Birchas HaNaharin. And at the back, he's got what's called Likutim Nechutsim. And here he has this paragraph. This I remember from years ago. I seem to recall that the Rebbe, that, that Rabbi Groner has a quote from the Rebbe about this, to follow the Munkatcher, which we're gonna get to in about, in a moment. I did not trace this, um, quote from Rabbi Groner, um, in the last couple of, you know, just now, but that's just from memory. So let's read the, the text here. If one put on R' Benetams with a bracha in error because he thought that, he thought that they are the Rashis tefillin. So look up the Sefer's Cheile Avram in the name of the Sefer Samchaye, and the Sefer Chaim Shoal, which is from the Hidor, who says that you should put on Rashis with a bracha. Divrei Chaim, that's the Tzanzero, says, "Kabbalah bekiyat kol hachsidim" from Lublin, um, "she'ein tzorach l'vorach," do not say a bracha again. And he says, "I would differentiate whether it's a person who normally puts on two pairs of tefillin, then he should not make a bracha on the second tefillin." Because when he puts on the first ones,

32:53 he had in mind the other ones also. One who, ein dar cheile honiyah, one who is not used to putting on two tefillin, so two sets of tefillin, then he should. So if it's just a regular balabos who by mistake took, you know, he came to shul, um, someone says the R' Benetams tefillin. So he says, "By the time R' Benetams will get to shul, I'll be finished davening." You heard the joke before. Um, so in that case, he would not, he, he would have to make a bracha on the Rashis. Whereas if he normally puts on two pairs, says the Tzanzero, that you, he would not make a bracha on Rashis. Notwithstanding, we have here the Minchas Elazar. Now, Minchas Elazar, the Munkatcher Rebbe, who is a generation later, so to speak, after the Tzanzero. And, uh, he paskens, like the Samchay, the Chamshai, Chamshoal, that even if you are used to putting on two sets of tefillin, nevertheless, you should... It's missing a chaf there. It said, "Bechol zeh," you should be saying a bracha. Y- However, if as you're putting on the tefillin in the morning before Shacharis, you put on your tefillin before you even said Ejab Mekoyman, you realize, "Oops, I put R' Benetams instead of Rashis," then since you haven't interrupted even with davening, then you take them off and put on Rashis. But if you already started davening, so then the davening is a hefsik between your bracha, which you said on the R' Benetams, and your mitzvah

34:26 of putting on tefillin. So b- b- bottom line is that if you have finished davening, for sh- the psak remains, like the Minchas Elazar, that you should say another bracha on the Rashis. If you realize as you're putting them on, so then you take them, take off the R' Benetams, put on the Rashis. At the end of davening, put on Rashis, um, to put the R' Benetams again, because you want to say Shema and all that. Let's move on. Now, I don't remember who even asked me this question. It was also d- during the past week. And asking about which way to rotate at duchaning. So let's read from the Alter Rebbe's Sicha Norach. Siman kuf-chof-ches is the dinim of Birchas Koyanim, and the Alter Rebbe writes the following. "Ki shama chazirim paneihem," when the Koyanim rotate, where the b'tchila, when they are... At first, when they s- they're facing the, sh- the heichal, the Aron Kodesh, and they rotate to face the people. "Bein besof," or at the end when they finish their bracha, and they turn away from facing the people towards the Aron Kodesh, "lo yachziru el ha'derech yomem." They should rotate to the right. Namely, that they're facing to the east. Then they should rotate to the south, and then to the west, and then they should turn to the north, and then back to facing the Aron Kodesh. So which means they should be rotating clockwise. So then we have here a reference to Tzemach Tzedek, in Siman samach zayin,

36:10 that's talking about Hadlakas Neiros Chanukah, the famous machloket, whether to light from left, left to right or right to left. Then he great quotes here from Tzemach Tzedek in the Chiddushim. That he quotes here that there are those who say that you should actually rotate to your left. Even though the Beit Yosef says that they are toi'im, "La'ni ha'deiti de'vorei rehem nechoinim." Indeed, the Minuch Habad in Bo Yev Sholom is like the Tzemach, the latter words of the Tzemach Tzedek, to rotate anti-clockwise. Those who remember back, um, came back Kodesh Chazisiha standing by the Rebbe. So the Rebbe would, at Bo Yev Sholom, rotate towards the Aron Kodesh. In other words, turn to his left, and then rotate. In other words, he would rotate anti-clockwise. So we have here- Different opinions. And just to explain the approach of the Semach Tsadek, where he says one of the explanations in the Semach Tsadek in, uh, Jedushim, in Yuma, he says the following: If you would rotate clockwise, so now your f- your first movement was with your right foot. Now, picture yourself. I'm not gonna do this on Zoom. My camera is not gonna focus on my legs as I show, I, I illustrate, unless I stand on the table. Not, not gonna do that. So now, as you are rotating clockwise, you're going to take your right foot and move it backwards. If you're going to rotate to your left, so then your right foot will move forward. So here is the question. On the

38:07 one hand, rotating kol panim she'ata po'neh li'ad achyomin, there is a priority to rotate to the right. But if rotating to the right means going backwards, and rotating to the left means going forwards, is forwards to the left is preferable, according to the Semach Tsadek, forwards to the left is preferable to, to, to backwards to the right. That's, that's his maskona. He brings proofs to this. One of them is, he talks about the Kohanim going on the Mizbeach. The olah ve'cheves she'fonah la'sovev. And then you come up, and you go to the side ramp, and you go along the sovev. As you come to the corner, so then you con- you want to go from the southern side to the eastern side. So you're gonna have to turn to your left, unless you do a full rotation on, on, on the spot. He also goes into the Kohen Gadol as he enters the Kodesh HaKodashim between the two curtains. The kids say that Semach Tsadek takes there the view that, um, to rotate to the left rather than to rotate to the ri- to the right. That's when you're rotating on the, on the spot. When we go around the Bima, we go to our right, and we go around the Bima anticlockwise. But when you're rotating on the spot, then you'd rotate to your left. Uh, if you want to read this up more carefully, in the siddur, which I published all those years ago, it's now taker time, about almost 20 years ago.

39:43 In the Chofetz, there's a whole section about by, uh, about, uh, rotating by Bo Chalo, and th- this is discussed in more detail. Of late, you have a, I've quoted him before, there's a Sefer Shulchan Kohanim from Rav Yisroel Yosef Hendel, the Rav of Lubavitch in Migdal HaEmek, he's a Kohen, and he says the minhag HaKoh- minhag is today of the Kohanim indeed in Chabad to rotate to the left, in other words, to rotate anticlockwise. So, uh, I, I mean, I've never seen this. I'm, you know, I'm under the tallit when they do that. Well, that's what he's saying. That's the, their minhag. Okay, fine. Let's move on. Someone asked me a question this week about Kidush Levana, if it was done before day three. If it was done before day three, is it valid? So in the, uh, Mishneh Berurah, the Dirshu edition, in Siman Tov Chovot, they quote Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach to say that you are yotzer, number one. Number two, in Shechinat Olam, it talks about minimum of day three. But I'd like to emphasize that that is day three from the moled, not day three on the chodesh. And if it's day three on the chodesh, and the moled was a day or day and a half before, so it's past day three. Yeah? So it could very well be what you, if you're asking, "I've made a Kidush Levana before day three," it may be actually it was already day three. It has to be enough that you should,

41:19 you should be able to appreciate the light, benefit from the light, which is, nowadays with, with all the artificial light, is difficult to picture. But, uh, ein, ein v'orchim al nesach sheyehi, yehi os ule'or. You have to have ha'noor from the or, or haLevana to be able to make a bracha. Um, interesting, some people, I don't know why, people are asking me a question when I was now in New York about making a bracha Kidush Levana during the day. During day, sometimes you can see the moon during the day. Um, and the halacha is clearly that you'd have to have benefit from the moon, and it's unlikely that you would have ha'noor from the or haLevana. In the, in the, in the later part of the month, you can see the Levana. That's, that's how it is, I think. The later part of the month, it's in the morning. In the earlier part of the month, sometimes it's in late afternoon. Either way, so long as there's, there's daylight, you're not gonna have bene- benefits from the light of the moon, so you couldn't say Kidush Levana then. Let's go on to the next question, and that is, someone is asking me about, um, about the rattling of coins in the pushka. And someone who's irritated by the noise of the pushka put a piece of cloth inside. And someone else comes along and says, "It's, uh, you know, it's a violation of yesadei hadaas." The p- cr- cr-- the, the, uh, the noise of

42:46 the pushka is, is mamash, uh, you know. So let's, is there a, is there a source for it? So what I'd like to say is that I well, my personal experience is that people who are hard of hearing don't realize the amount of noise they make when they clash around with a pushka. Uh, and I'm trying to chap a rain before they lose their hearing completely. That they shouldn't realize that, you know, it is, it, it could be for people who do hear well, so the clanging of coins, uh, can be quite irritating, or the shuf- shuffling of coins So, yeah, you do it for a minute, you do it for ... But, uh, to make a whole avoider of it during Sukkat Zimra can be quite disconcerting to other, uh, people in the shul. But the, the ... But there is a source for it, yeah? So here we have this. This is in Baal Shem Tov Al Hatorah, quoting from Midrash Pinhas. P- that's from Reb Pinhas Koritz, who was, uh, Talmud of the Baal Shem Tov and the Talmud of Chovot, so to speak, of the, of the Mizrachi Maggid. In Beit Rebbe, it's quoted that the Alter Rebbe saw Reb Pinhas Koritz as a shikker Rebbe. He learned from him, particularly the middah of, of anivus. Uh, Reb Pinhas Koritz was... had a tremendous middah of anavah, and Alter Rebbe, um, l- learned this from him. That's how it's quoted in Beit Rebbe. Right. So now, this is-- Be- it was

44:14 once on Erev Yom Kippur, and they wanted to stop the f- fact the people were sitting with the koras, with the metal bowls. They were s- in other words, the people were sitting there and, and Erev Yom Kippur, people would give tzedakah, pidyon haben, etc. So people were sitting there with their metal dishes to collect coins, and the gabboim wanted to, to stop them sitting there. Mach mas bilbul tefillah, because it was disruptive to the davening. But Sivha HaBaal Shem Tov, Sivha HaBaal Shem Tov, shelo levatal. Baal Shem Tov says not to dis- not, not to disrupt the, the co- coin collection. Sivha HaBaal Shem Tov, that's the Motzei Shabbos, that's Sivha Baalshem Tov. Shepam achas nishchashu haklipot rachmon litslan. One time, there was a, there was a, uh, a intense movement of klipot. And, and al yodei hakishkushim hamois beErev Yom HaKippurim, nispaldu haklipot kulam. But through the clanging of the coins on Erev Yom Kippur, so that caused the, the klipot to be, um, to, to be b- broken asunder, et cetera. So, fair enough. So there is-- So is there merit in the idea of the clanging of the coins? Is there something to it? Yes. Um, and does it break through the tefillah? Yes. Does that mean it has to be done every day? And, uh, what's the shir? Actually, it should be the whole time. Farshat tzechter has-- everything has to have a, a, uh, a shir. And so the, the s- the source is on Erev Yom Kippur and

45:54 a yotzim min ha'kal. But, uh, in a way that it should be, uh, that is disruptive. Saf k'saf, you know, we have... There, there is a Hasidish expression, which I remember once when we were shluchim going to Australia. So we had a farbrengen with Reb Meir Chwibel, alav hashalom. And he told a story, "Oh, Bekele, Bekele, heylik bistu, abish mekish mekt from dir." To explain that in, in, in, uh, in, in a Poshteh sprach, a Molekezeiten, a farmer, a Yiddishe farmer, he has a, a goat, and the goat gave birth to a firstborn male. The firstborn is bechor. So bechor has got a kedushah. It's got such a kedushah that you mustn't, you mustn't comb it. You mustn't scrub it, because you mu- you scrub it, you might make a, inflict a, a, a damage, a b- a blemish on it. So you've got this animal. It's, it's d- never has a bath, and it's never, never groomed. So it's, it's sacred. It's a sacred goat. But you can imagine if an animal never has a bath, if a human never has a bath, if an animal never has a bath, so, so the expression is, heylik bistu, abish mekish mekt from dir. You may be sacred, but, uh, still you might have an offensive, um, odor. So there are things which are holy, but when they have-- everything has to have... be in proportion. Yeah. And if it's disruptive, we, you know, bringing children to shuls. It says you bring children, but you don't

47:31 bring children to shul, but you're gonna disrupt the davening. So the fact that there's been a, an, an exceptional instance of Erev Yom Kippur, that doesn't justify, uh, disrupting people's davening on, on a daily basis. Uh, all right. And I think, I think this, even with a piece of cloth inside the, the tzedakah pushka, there's still gonna be a bit of clanging noise because the coins will bang against the other. Medemer. Midyoetz zein afiru dos. Yeah. I mean, there, there's a separate question about the klal, about people going around in the middle of davening and, and, uh, a- and I, I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, I'd be very, um, hesitant to, to make any steps to stop such a thing. Although I can, I can see the, the, the merit in that. But, uh, on the other hand, to stop people collecting tzedakah is, is, um, something which I'd be very hesitant to do. Let's move on. So number ten was last week, I mentioned about the project, um, someone's doing with boys under bar mitzvah, making tzitzits. And then once they become bar mitzvah, those tzitzits are, uh, chatrila, zar la'chatrila, which they shouldn't be wearing the tzitzits that were ma- made by a cotton. So Rabbi Simon, or, um, Rabbi Yossi Simon here, zevir Hashem, in, in, uh, northwest London, he left me a message last Motzei Shabbos after he had heard the recording. And he says what they have done is a g- good idea. That, you know, actually, it's a good

49:14 idea. That they would-- When they do the project with the boys to teach them tzitzits, so the madrich does the first chulya. He does the first double knot and the first seven circuits, and then again a double knot, and then teaches the boys to do the other three chulyas. And really, once you have the first chulya, then for sure you can even make a bracha on it. It's a kosher p- p- pair of tzitzits. Meanwhile, the boys will do the rest of them. They'll get their training and their chibas Hakodesh by doing that. But meanwhile, the- there's no question of, uh, on the kashrus of the tzitzit, which I think was a very helpful idea. We go on to question number 11, and that was, again, we were talking about walking between Shaliyah and Shalosh, between putting on the Shaliyah and Shalosh. I quoted last week, I believe, from the Munkacser, from the Sefer Muka Orech Haim. And I, I recall that it was not so, um, carried away with his lamdas. And then someone sent me to a, a few references in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, actually to the contrary, that... And we'll read this inside. So this is in Siman, uh, this is in Siman Ches. So the references on the sheet which I gave out on Erev Shabbos are slightly wrong. It should be Siman Kuf Dalet and Kuntres Acharon in Siman Ches. It's the Kuntres Acharon He, but let's read this inside. Here, the Alter Rebbe talks about if a

50:41 person put on a Talis Koton, and he made a bracha on the Talis Koton. When he goes to shul, he puts on the Talis, he'd make a bracha again, because walking from home to shul would be a Hefsek, and have to make a new bracha when he comes to shul. Even if he had not chatted in between, nevertheless, the Shinui Mokom, the going from one location to the other, is considered a Hefsek. He says further, even if he wanted to put on the Talis Godol at home, but he put on the tzitzit, the small tzitzit, with a bracha. He went out of the house and he came back in. So again, he would-- the Shinui Mokom, going out of the house, would be a Hefsek and warrant another bracha on the putting on of the sh- of the Talis Godol. The relevant part to us is, "Avod lim lo yotzome pesach beise benotayim." If he hadn't left this house between this Talis Koton, Talis Godol. Even if he put on the Talis Koton in one room, and he went to put on the Talis Godol in another room, in the same house, you do not need to make a new bracha, since they are under the-- they, since they are one house. So walking from one room to the other is not called a Hefsek, if he's not Mafsik with talking about other things or, or et cetera. So he's... And, and in the Kuntres Acharon, which is alluded to here on, on He, he,

52:12 he-- this Alter Rebbe goes into detail about this, that merely walking inside, in, within the same house, certainly within the same room, is not called a Hefsek. So that seems to be taking away the ta'ana of the Adam Muka Irachaim from last week. Um, I just want to add here, since, um, in, in the Dinim of Bedikat Chametz, there's a difference between the Alter Rebbe's, um, text in the Shulchan Aruch and in the Siddur. When you have various members of the family who are going to each do Bedikat Chametz on behalf of the, the head of the family, and they're gonna be doing in different rooms. So the Alter Rebbe in the Shulchan Aruch says they should be Bedik a little bit in this house before they go to other houses. In the Siddur, he says they should be Bedik in this space, in this room, before they go to other rooms. And that is because this idea that several rooms in the same house is not a problem of Hefsek, because they are all under the one roof. That is a Chidush, as far as your memory is from the Ran. It's not necessarily unanimous that they... Uh, and, and therefore, in the Siddur, he took a stricter position that they should, instead of going to another room before doing the further Bedika, they should do a bit of Bedika in the same room, another corner, and then they'll go to other rooms. In this way, they've started doing Bedika in the same room,

53:49 uh, where they heard the bracha, and therefore the Shinui Mokom, even Mecheide Lecheide, doesn't apply. As I'm reading this today, I'm curious if the Ran says, "Shinui Mecheide Lecheide bebayis echad," is contingent if you had da'as to go from room to room. Here, the Alter Rebbe doesn't say that it's contingent that he had da'as. Well, you might say it's assu-assumed, since he's got his Talis at home, he had intention to put on the Talis, therefore he doesn't have to mention. That might be the explanation. I don't know. All right. Let's move on. And, uh, our last question for tonight, and that is about tugging y-ears. So last week, I mentioned someone had asked me for the source of saying, "Lish'ot chachavisi Hashem." When you have a sneeze, to sneeze, so sh-as I showed a Mashal and I showed, um, Mishne Berura last week, where that, where the person sneezes since before Yaakov Avinu. Person would sneeze, and they would pass away, um, right away. So there's become a minhag of when a person sneezes to say, "Lish'ot chachavisi Hashem." So one of our listeners asked me, "What about this minhag about pulling of the ear?" So we have here a couple of quotes here. One is from a Sefer called Maaseh Melech, which traces the Minhogim of the Rebbe. And he says, "Yesh omdim that he would-- the Rebbe would pull his ear upwards." And when he, and when, and saying, "Lish'ot chachavisi Hashem." And in the note there, they have that the Rebbe, the

55:25 Friediker Rebbe, told him to do so. And, and some say that they, they, they, they, they saw the Rebbe not doing so. Uh, "Adain soach i-ino beer." Here is from the Sefer Yemei Melech, which is quoted here, that the Rebbe was once in the presence of the Friediker Rebbe, and he sneezed. And this, the, the Rebbe, the Shver, told him that the minhag is to pull the ear upwards and to say, "Lish'ot chachavisi Hashem," and to do it by the side of the ear. Now, since the Maaseh Melech says you should, "Atsach iano beer," I have a cousin in Smolensk, a shliach of Smolensk, Rebbe Levi Munschein. So he sent me a link to a r-r, a, uh, an article of his late father, Rebbe Shure Munschein. And, uh, he, he, when he's, when he, he goes through this and several times he says, "This day, this day." Then a few days he noticed that the Rebbe did squeeze, didn't, didn't pull his ear. And it wasn't, it wasn't, Rebbe didn't always do it. Um, but just one, one last thing. What's the, what's the ear got to do, what's it got to do with it? Uh, I remember, I remember once your father telling a whole story, uh, about a lion, about a lion. And the, the, the punchline was that someone using the ear of a lion. And the end of it, it was, this was in Camp Kanio Stroll about 45 years ago. And the end of it was the guy brings

56:45 the ear, he says, and the guy says, "What's ear?" Okay, difficult, huh? So, um, but what's the, what's the ear got to do with it? So, L'shuoscha kivisi Hashem is, in Targum, is L'furkonoch saboris Hashem. If you take some Nusach Ashkenaz siddurim, I think in, in Tefillas, uh, HaDerech, they say L'shuoscha kivisi Hashem back and forth. And also they say the Targum, L'furkonoch saboris Hashem. So, kivisi and sabor is the same word. We have the word in, I don't, I, I don't remember where it is. The Rashi, I didn't look it up. So, our Shabbos is a short day. Um, l- lem, lsaber eso ozen. lsaber eso ozen. The Ebrish, the, they talk about lsaber eso ozen, to, to tell the ear, in a way to speak. It talks about the Ebrish, their hand, et cetera, or, uh, similar things. So they say, Rashi says, lsaber eso ozen, to inform the ear in a way it can, can, can hear. So, we've got here the word saboris, which comes up in L'shuoscha kivisi Hashem. And the ear is lsaber, and possibly the word lsaber also is related to the word besora. And so we'll finish off with HaRahman yishlach lonu, say, Eliyahu Hanavi. It's Motzei Shabbos, Eliyahu Hanavi. Yevassel lonu besoris toivos yeshuos v'nechamos. Hagut haRach.