תרומה תשפ״ג

00:11 Good to go. Welcome for the, uh, shiur tonight. Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Trumah. For those who didn't get the notice in advance, I apologize for the change of time. Um, hopefully, be able to keep this eight-thirty time for a couple of weeks. Let's go straight into... Well, first of all, want to express our tefillah for Refuah Shleima for Sarah bat Ida bas Tikva, and for Schneur Zalman HaCohen ben Elisheva, Refuah Shleima. Basro. So the following question, question number one, was put to me by someone who lives in New York, and he gives a shiur in Hayom Yom. And in, I guess, in anticipation of this Hayom Yom of Rov Adar Sheni, where he talks about the berachos of the haftarah. And it says, "B'birchas haftarah," you see on the top right h-hand corner, "B'birchas haftarah, omerim tamid," we always say, "Ne'eman v'rachuman oto," and we say, "Teshia us'sameach." So a little bit of background to those, the two observations. Nine seven six zero two. So what you have on the screen now, we have here on the right side is the first print of the Alter Rebbe siddur which we have, which is from the Tafkof Samech Gimel. That's just about two hundred and twenty years ago. And the second, on the left side of the screen, is from Tafkof Ayin Vo, which was three years after the Alter Rebbe passed away. It's the, the first siddur with the Chassidus, which was published by the Mitteler Rebbe. And so it's... All right, so let's compare. In

02:15 the first edition, we have, "Ki melech ne'eman v'rachuman oto. Baruch atah Hashem, hamelech ha'ne'eman bechol devarav." You are trusted and, and compassionate. "Melech ha'ne'eman bechol devarav." So that's, that's, uh, has the word ne'eman v'rachuman, which if-- my, my research, I, I re-recall that in Sephardi, uh, nusach, it's just ne'eman oto, and Ashkenazi, they have also ne'eman v'rachuman. And here in the second print, you see here, "Ki melech ne'eman," v'rachuman has been encircled in brackets. Then the, before that, there's the nun yud, which stands for Nusach Yosham. This is the old version. So there seems to be... It's enclo-circled in brackets to seem to be saying that that's the old text, but it shouldn't, shouldn't be said. Now, we've got here these inverted commas. Sorry, inverted segol. And that's like a, like an, like we would use an asterisk. "Kein tzorech laimar." That's how it sh-should be said. What does that mean? That's how it should be said. "Melech ne'eman atah" without, uh, without the word v'rachuman. Why should the word v'rachuman be left out? "Mitam shetzorech sheyoimar meein chasima sameach l'chasimah." The style of berachos is that when you've got an ending of a berachah, called the chasimah, the seal of the berachah, the penultimate part of the berachah, that which is just before the chasimah, should be saying similar to the actual ending. And so because it's ki melech... Because the ending is a melech ne'eman, the trustworthy, uh, faithful, whatever the word is, however you translate it, therefore, melech, ki melech ne'eman is

04:23 a reflection of the ending, "Baruch atah Hashem melech ne'eman." So therefore, the ne'eman and ne'eman, that's, they are appropriate there. The aspect of rachamim, of, of compassion, seems to be out of place. That's what this comment is being, is said here. Now, is the comment from the Alter Rebbe? Possibly. We-- I don't know. We know that the Alter Rebbe published the siddur in the, for, in his Tafkof Samech Gimel. That was 10 years before his passing. He wasn't totally satisfied. Lots of things were inaccurate, and he made further corrections. As I said, this is the second edition, which we have on the s- on the, on the screen. It's three years after he passed away. But it's very w- very possible that that's his own emendation. Whichever way, there is this comment in this siddur, which is published by the Mitteler Rebbe, and it says that the word rachuman doesn't belong there. "Vechein hu berambam beseder hatefilah." If you read in the end of Sefer Ha, um, Ahava of Rambam, there's a whole, like a siddur there. And there, it doesn't have the word rachuman. As I said before, in the Sephardi pronounc-- Sephardi nusach, it doesn't have the word rachuman over here. Also, in the Abu Dharr Ham, which doesn't help us because that's also Sephardi. Um, fine, but the Alter Rebbe here, or whoever, this note is referring us to the Rambam and Abu Dharr Ham, who don't have the word rachman. Okay? So that's-- So the, s- clearly, this, this note over

05:59 here is to say that the word v'rachman shouldn't be said. The second part of this note includes... Now look, now let's now compare, well, Alubas Nefesh to the next brocha. Alubas Nefesh to Shiya, Bimhei Rav Yomeinu, and I didn't put it on the page, but in the later editions, and that's indeed the print, but in our print, it's to Shiya or Susamach. We've, we've got the added word or Susamach, which is pretty much unique to, um, the Alter Rebbe's Nusach. And that's what the second part of the comment is. Well, Kamokein, Hanusach, to Shiya or Susamach, this introduction, introduction of the word or Susamach is Mitam Hanau. It's for the very same reason. Because the end of the brocha is Misameach Tzion Bivoneha, causing Tzion with its childr- to rejoice with its children. Therefore, to Shiya alone is not sufficient. You shall save, in speedily in our days, to Shiya or Susamach. You should, um, save and bring joy. So the word Susamach is added so that the penultimate, the Rosomach Lechasimah, should reflect the Chasimah of Misameach Tzion Bivoneha. So again, this is the second part of the comment, that to Shiya or Susamach, that additional word, Susamach, is for that reason of Somach Lechasimah Me'ein Hachisimah. What about in the Rambam? The Rambam, Kosov Nusach Achim Beze Savrachah. This brocha, V'rachem Al Tzion, if you look in Rambam, which he referred to as Hedot Fillah, there the Rambam has said, "Borach at HaShem, Boineh Yerushalom." His ending is totally different. But if you

07:46 are end, ending, this is the Rebbe, Alter Rebbe's, or the Rebbe, Maggia is saying, if you're ending with, um, with Misameach Tzion Bivoneha, so then you should have the element of Simcha mentioned in the part just before. So here's becomes very interesting. So for the reason of Somach Lechasimah Me'ein Hachisimah, the word Misameach is added, and the word V'rachamim is omitted. Then becomes very, very interesting. And then we look in HaYom Yom. In Brachos HaTorah, we always say, "Ne'eman V'rachman," so despite the, the, uh, impression that the word V'rachamim is, should be left out, but our minhag is to say, "Ne'eman V'rachman," despite that. Yet, to Shiya or Susamach, that's been, uh, that's been included because of Somach Lechasimah Me'ein Hachisimah. So as I said, this fellow who's a Magid Shiur in New York and says a Shiur on HaYom Yom is asking, what's the logic here? If you're saying to Shiya or Susamach, so why are you saying Ne'eman V'rachamim? You should take out the word V'rachamim, as is poshtut pshat over here in this note of him. So, all right, let's go back to Nusach Ashkenaz. Why Ashkenaz-- why does Ashkenaz throw in the word Ne- V'rachamim, which doesn't seem to be ne- um, appropriate here? Just one suggestion is that the word Ne'eman, which means faithful, does not always have with it a, a positive connotation. Which we said this morning in Nishmas. We mentioned a pos- it's, uh, from a posuk in Devarim, "Choloyim Ro'im V'ne'emanim." Illnesses which are evil and

09:33 faithful. And Rashi says they're being sent on a mission. So there may be a faithfulness where there's something which is undesirable being sent on a mission. And that kind of faithfulness, we're moiche. We're not asking for that faithfulness. A faithfulness with a rachamim, which comes with compassion, yes. But a faithfulness because there has been a decree, a, um, a not good decree, that there should be a faithfulness, that, that faithfulness we're not asking for. And possibly that's why the Nusach Ashkenaz has thrown in, has added the word V'rachamim, that Hashem should-- We want, we want to see Hashem as a faithful king, but also with compassion. And that's why that word was, was put in there. And possibly once it's become the Nusach, um, it's also, just think technically, you can't say, "Ein Oyimim Rachamim." It kind of, it's out of order to say, "No Rachamim." It doesn't, doesn't belong, it, yeah. Um, I saw when the Rebbe would sh- would, uh, edit sichos, et cetera, sometimes, you know, you edit, you cross out, you cross out, uh, the word which doesn't belong there. But sometimes there were words which the Rebbe didn't want to cross out. It's like, uh, so he would circle the word and then make an, a line to the outside and kind of, uh, to omit it. But there are words which you can't delete. You can say it's inappropriate perhaps, but you can't delete it because it, the word is, is, is a good word. So the word Rachamim,

11:11 um, so at, at any rate, that's on a, a, another le- another aspect, another, uh, approach. But the word Rachamim remains there. And the Rebbe should show us just rachamim. Okay, let's move on to the next question. So there's something called tracker, which is a kind of electronic device, which, um, people now, because of the airlines losing luggage, it's become an e- a recent epidemic. So it's popular that people have a tracker which they put in their luggage, and in this way, if their luggage goes missing, so it's got similar to a telephone, like a cell phone, which works with satellite. I don't know exactly, but it's trackable. So this fellow bought himself a new coat, cost him two hundred and fifty dollars or more, and, uh, you hang it up in shul, and there's another Few hundred people there. And it's not necessarily that you're gonna find your coat. So you may, you may... Sometimes someone else will, walks off with your coat. So you put in a tracker. So he wants to know, he's asking, "If I sew in a tracker into my coat, would I be allowed to wear that coat on Shabbos?" So that's, that's the question. Is a sewn-in tracker, uh, considered carrying or not? So let's read. This is from Siman. We have a... Let's read this Halacha in Shulchan Aruch, in Siman shin alef, where he talks about... Earlier, he talks about bells which are sewn in, like it was common in the olden times to have bells

12:53 attached to, to clothing, festive clothing. I remember as a child and going to the carnival in Westcliff and seeing these, these, uh, people entertaining, going around with jingle bells all over their, their, uh, uniforms. So anyway, so then he says, "Vechol ze, b'tach shehu dobra hamutar latzes bo, ve-eh, ve'ein tzorich sheyehi mechubar lichsus, ela micshum ze lashema yaseh lo. Aval im chibur lichsuso dobra she'ein hu oso l'tachshit." If you attach to your garment something which isn't a tachshit. "Ela lehishtamish bo." Rather, you want to use it for something. "Shehu dobra haosu lotzes bo." And for, in itself, there's no, no permission to carry that with you. So then, "Ein chiburo lichsus matir hu lotzes bo." The fact that you sewed it to your garment would not be a permission to allow you to wear it. See, if, let's say, you had a ticket to enter somewhere, a identity tag which, uh, to allow you to, to enter somewhere. Uh, if you'd sew it to your garment, that, the fact that you sewed it to your garment wouldn't permit you to wear, to g- to wear that garment with that ticket to go which, to the whichever, wh- venue that is. "Vaharei hu k'tola shemuftsuk mechsus." And it's considered as if it's detached from the garment, and you basically are carrying it. "D'kivev shehu oso lehishtamish bifnei atzmo." Because this is really an article which you want to use separately. "V'ein hu meshamesh klum laose malbush." It's not serving that garment. "Shehu ein bo tole ga'ar

14:45 baose malbush." So it's not subservient. It doesn't become part of that garment. "Afa'api shehamalbush choshev harbeh mimehu." It could be that the garment is worth, as I said, a, a few hundred dollars, and this ticket may be worth minimal amount, but it's not serving the garment. So therefore, that's not okay. Now, let's come back to the case at hand, to the tracker. Actually, I've been wearing a tracker on my coat for the last 20 years or more. It's a label which says Raskin, eight-eight-oh-two-one-six-oh-six. Um, so that's also a tracker. It's just it doesn't have a battery inside. But it doesn't keep me warm. It doesn't give me cover. It's there just as a, as a tracker. And no one's ever thought about, um, you know, does anyone ask about the shatnes label or the, um, the, the cleaning instructions on a cardigan? Is it called carrying? We don't give it any... It, it has no hashivas. It, it is subservient to the garment. It's there. And I, I, um, want to just... In, in French and in Yiddish, you have an interesting, um... Let's say in Yiddish you say, "Ich trog a mantle un ich trog a valiz." In French, "Je porte manteau, je porte valise." So the word, the same word is used for carrying and for wearing. And so that this can be, can be confusing. What's the di- where... what's the line between carrying and wearing? And this is where what we see here. If it is being transported to use it

16:21 elsewhere, then primarily that's called transportation. If its fulfillment is now, as you are wearing it, so then it is not transportation, it is wearing it. So yeah, the, the, the, the... Well, it's not transportation. Therefore, the ticket of, and washing instructions is not being transported, that you need it somewhere else. It is there. It's been kind of a, it's an accessory of the garment. It b- it, it's tafal to the garment. But I'm taking this a little bit further and saying the same with the tracker. It's not there to take it anywhere else. It's there to be able to track your coat in case it gets lost. If it were different, if you're gonna say it's to track the person, that might be a different story. But if it's there to track the coat, then it's tafal to the coat. It's sewn to the coat. Obviously, then it's there to track the coat. Uh, I think it's, it is okay. Interesting. On Friday, someone sent me an, a, a, uh, email asking about wearing reflective straps on Shabbos. Let's say you are in a place where the street lighting is not so good, and therefore you are, you want to wear reflective straps. Is that called wearing or carrying? So according to the logic which I've just shared with you, I believe there's, th- that's also acceptable because the r- the, the, the strap's there. You're not wearing the straps because you need them somewhere else. You're wearing the straps to protect you as you're

17:53 walking in the dark. By contrast, things like spare buttons, um, someone's putting on the, on the, on the c- on the, uh, chat. P- uh, a spare button is basically, uh... Well, you buy a coat, and it's got a certain style of buttons. If one of them gets lost- It's gonna be possibly difficult to find a matching but-button, so the kind-- the manufacturers kindly give you, uh, spare buttons. And the best way to, to store them for the eventuality that you lose a button is that they're sewn to your coat. But really they're being stored on your coat. So the way I was brought up is that you remove spare buttons before Shabbos. As a bocher, I think, I once, uh, realized on Sh- Friday night in seven seventy that I had a spare button on my shirt, and I asked Rabbi Marlowe, alav ha-shalom, and he said, uh, "Take off your shirt before you leave seven seventy. Put it somewhere." And then, uh, I walked home without a, without a shirt. Um, but wore a jacket, so it wasn't... Then, um, just last night I said this over by, in davening, after davening. So someone told to me, uh, that he remembers once outside seven seventy, Rabbi Marlowe saw his jacket. His coat was open, and he saw he had a few spare buttons there, and he told him, "You can't walk in the street with those buttons." So Rabbi Marlowe was very, very machmir. Personally, and then now looking in contemporary poskim, the,

19:26 the Art poskim, the more the Litvisher poskim, would say that a button has got no hashivus. I would arbitrate and say that a shirt button doesn't have much hashivus because they are, th-th-they, it's not, not very often that you'd need to use that spare button, and they, and they tend to be, at least the shirts that I wear, the buttons seem to be fairly similar. So they're not so precious to me. By contrast, if you have a, a more specialized type of button, so then that is more hashiv to you, um, if you are the type of person who likes to have matching buttons. And therefore, I would say make a point of removing them before Shabbos. Uh, someone's pointing out that the wearing the reflective straps would be possibly also an issue of saknas nefashos. Of course, depending on where you are, that would override any consideration. Right. But it's always nicer to know that, that it's permitted rather than just having to be doycher, et cetera. Right. Let's move on. Um, so here was a situation which it's just as well that I, um, that I don't answer the phone on Shabbos because I would have been stuck with this one. So someone had in someone, I've forgotten who it was even, but it was on Sh- last Shabbos, and the gabba called up. For R'ee, he called up someone who is a Levi. So now, as is well-known, the Ragats dover, he, the, he, although he was q-quite lenient with the Temimim

21:01 to give them smicha, but he insisted that they should know the dinim of Krias HaTorah because everything else you could take time and look it up. But a Krias, a, a problem middle of Krias HaTorah, everyone's standing and waiting. So here we have a question about Krias HaTorah. Yeah. So it's, uh, Mr. Levi is called up for R'ee, and what do you do now? So this is from the Mishne Berura, samek kuf lamed he, the dinim of Krias HaTorah, seif lamed he, seif kaf lamed he. He says, "If the Kohen or Levi were called up later on in the sequence of the aliyas, if the, they are able to-- it's possible to give them maftir or acharon. So then you should a-ask them to stand by the side of the bimah, and they will, uh, or, you know, on the bimah, whatever, and have them wait there, and then they will be given the, uh, the acharon or maftir. If that's not possible, then, kevan she'kol haloyedim, once it's up there, you tell him to stay, and he will take R'ee, and this is what Mishne Berura is saying because actually the M- the Shulchan Aruch, as in Rabbi Yosef Karo had said, "Once you've done Kohen Levi Yisroel, you can then call the Kohen later." The Rama writes that Ashkenaz don't do that, but then the Rama himself has said, "V'mokom tzorech zdchak", when you, when you're stuck, then you can rely on the first Seforim that a Kohen could be given a, a,

22:36 an aliyah later on in the sequence of aliyas. So again, so this fellow that Mr. Levi has called up for R'ee, if it's possible, if he's able to do a maftir, if your shul does an acharon. So those are the options. Those are the, those are, those options are available. If your shul doesn't do acharon, as in Chabad, we don't do acharon. If you, if the person is not capable of doing maftir or if maftir, let's say, is already booked for someone, you know, for some other, uh, important thing, so then you'd, then you'd ge- allow them to continue. Now, let's say in the first instance that you are giving, calling up someone else for R'ee because Mr. Levi is able to do maftir. So then the next question is, do you call up the replacement by name, or do you just, uh, ask someone to go up without being called by, up by name? Do you do another Yamui for the, for the new Mr. R'ee or not? So now this comes to also that same siman, kuf lamed he. Some say that if you... So this is the Shulchan Aruch. Some say that if you called up a l-- if the chazan, that is the gabba in this sense. If the chazan called up the Kohen or Levi and is not there, so lo yikra le-ach ba-shem. The next fellow who's taking the position of the Kohen or Levi who's absent should not be called up by name. Mishum pergom shel rishon. It

24:08 shouldn't be casting aspersions on the pedigree of the Kohen or Levi who's absent. People will hear, "They called up Mr. Kohen, Yamui, so, uh, uh, uh, Ben Aaron HaKohen, and then they called someone else. That means that he's not a real Kohen." So because of that, s-concern not to ruin his pedigree, therefore, we call up, we tell the, the r- this, the one who steps in for the Kohen or Levi is not called up by name. Now, then we have here, this is, um, from the com- one of the commentaries on this, Hefer Sha'arei Efraim. He's quoting from the Shvus Yaakov. The choy of this maori, of not calling up the substitute by name, is only with the Kohen or Levi, who by, if you call, the, i- it, the, there's a concern that people will say, "Oh, they're not a real Kohen, not a real Levi." But are they Yisroel? What would they say? They're not a Yisroel? I mean, what's, what's, what can, what's, what's the, uh, what's the hesitation? Therefore, he's-- But then he finishes off, but min hakama mekoimes, she'gam beYisroel im ein yoshon, Nevertheless, in many places he says that this is standard. If, for whatever reason, the one who, who is meant to be given the Aliyah isn't able to have the Aliyah, so the one who replaces them, it, it goes up without, uh, being called up by name. Okay. So whichever way you do is, is fine, but th- that seems to be, uh, a, a common

25:38 practice. If necessary, someone else will step in without being called up by name. Let's move on to the next. Here's a very interesting question. A shliach somewhere in, somewhere in Europe. I've forgotten where. And all right, you, you want to put on tefillin with people. Wonderful. And not everyone's got the same size head. So let's say you take your tefillin, and your, the girth o- of your, your tefillin strap is larger than the size for this, for this, uh, young man who's ready to put on your tefillin. And so the question is here, are you able... If you can look at the picture, are you able to pull on the bottom part of the right strap in the way to shorten the girth of the tefillin strap? In this way it will fit them. But meanwhile, it's, it's going to be hanging, it's gonna be left loose, if you understand. You've pulled it, and n- now you've got a loose loop over there. Th- As you may know, the way to adjust tefillin would be to also open the, th- that same s- strap from the back and to pull and put, and it's a whole... It takes a few minutes to adjust tefillin to size. And then after you've used it, then you're gonna have to adjust it back to, to your size, et cetera. So it is a, a bit of a deal. And therefore the question is, could you just simply pull the s- the upper strap away from the knot in

27:10 a way that it's going to shorten the girth and then put on the tefillin that way? So this is the practical question, and let's look at the question in, in . The question here is, does the tefillin have to be secured on the head by means of a knot? We have a concept of a , the tefillin shaliach should be tied. On the tefillin shel rosh it just says, , et cetera. Is it imperative that the tefillin should be secured by a knot? Now let's step b- uh, to side to the tefillin shel yad. You know that there's a way, the Ashkenaz kesher, it's got a loop on the inside of the shel yad, and then you pull it like you do a U-turn, and then you start wrapping towards yourself. That's Ashkenaz. What would happen if I had Ashkenaz tefillin, and instead of doing a U-turn, I started r- rolling the straps as I, as we do, as Sephard do? But how does the tefillin remain firm? Well, if I do it two, three times, it's gonna remain firm on, on my, on my arm, on my arm. So does, do- is it imperative that the tefillin has to be secured on the arm by means of a knot? Or if it's secured... So th- this is, this is pretty evident that it says in the Torah, . And therefore, the securing of the tefillin to the arm has to be by means of a knot. So we have Chabad style, we have the

28:46 Ashkenaz, Sephard, but all of them, it's the knot which is facilitating that securing of the, the bias onto the arm. What I have on the screen is fr- actually from Sefer HaNusachim Mesecth Ashli Vchel Gimmel, and I've dealt with this very question. Well, it's just someone asked me this week, that's why it's on the list of questions. And here's, this is from two sources. From Maharsham, Brissiner Rav, and he's concerned about the people adjusting, making the tefillin kesher in a way that's easy to adjust. And he's saying if that's, that's undermining the permanence of the knot. And also the Bu- the, the, um, the Mishneh Brurah also has a similar complaint. He says that people have started making the kesher of the shel rosh in a way that's easy to adjust, to make less effort if you need to enlarge it or r- to, to, um, or to, to make it smaller. And he says he doesn't like that because then it's making it into a loop. Uh, we know also that the Avnei Nezer wasn't happy with the idea of adjusting the knot of the shel rosh, and the Rebbe disagrees with Avnei Nezer, and he says that v- since you're doing a, a mitzvah with it, that gives it a permanence. He uses the idea, you have mitzvot se'achareai, you have the idea that the Gemara asks about the Mishkan, that, well, you call, it's called building, but it's, it's a, it's a, uh, it's a portable pre... It's a pre, uh, how

30:25 you prefabricated, it can be taken apart. And the Gemara says, given since this is al pi Hashem yisu, al pi Hashem yachnu, command of Ki Tod on me. The Mishkan is under the instructions of, of Hashem when to be, when to be, um, encamped. And therefore, it gives it a certain permanence. Just also reminds me, I've perhaps said this before, but I heard from Reb Hillel Pevzner, alav ha-shalom. He, uh, rav, rav anash in Paris. He also was the founder of a, uh, schools called Sinai Schools. And he once to, uh, ca- He took the full responsibility of, of fundraising, et cetera. And he once, uh- In kind of expressed his frustration to the Rebbe that he sees boys who go in, and they go out after, let's say, seven, eight years into school, and it's, th-there's no trace. There's no Yiddishkeit stuck to them, and he was finding, finding very frustrating. And the Rebbe said to him, so he told me, "I have to have my slogan was the state in Tanya was this." You, I have to tell you what's written in Tanya. When a mitzvah is done, it's got an e-eternity to it, which lasts forever and ever. So the Rebbe uses this idea, the eternity of a mitzvah, to say, therefore, don't call it a temporary knot. You're doing a mitzvah, it's permanent. I, gosh me is adjusting it, but it, th-that's why the Rebbe disagreed with the, with the Avnei Nezer, who had a problem with adjusting the shalosh. But

31:55 what we are seeing, des-despite that, the, but there is an ins-- the insistence that the shalosh has to be also secured with a kesher. It has to be tied. It has to be at, um, tightened around the head by means of a knot. What I have a problem, therefore, is that when this is pulled loose, then it's not being secured on the head by means of a knot. It's being secured by, by a, by a loop rather than by a knot. Therefore, I, I don't think that's okay. Okay, let's move on to the next point. Um, so here, someone sent me a photograph of a piece of some kind of, uh, jewelry. And if you look carefully, you see it's like, it looks like a mezuzah, and it's got the letters shin, daled, yud, which are the, it's one of the names of Hashem. Um, and, uh, actually on, on, on the outside of a mezuzah, we have this let this same shin, daled is written in the gap. It's on the other side of the gap. We have Shema and then Vehoyom Shemoyach. The word Vehoyom is inset. And on the other side of the inset, on the other side of the parchment, the three letters of shin, daled, yud are written. That's besides the other na-the, on the other side of Hashem Wekel. Hashem is also written upside down letters. But meanwhile, this is the mezu-- So there's someone who's made here a piece of jewelry made of gold or of some sort.

33:25 Uh, not sure how, how, how. It's pure gold. Doesn't matter. It's got here Hashem's name, shin, daled, yud. So there's two questions here. One is about wearing this in a... Using and going to unclean place, toilet, et cetera. The other one is whether you're allowed to wear it altogether. So I mentioned the Sefer before. A Sefer which specializes on the Yonim of Seamus, et cetera. Sefer called Ginsey Hakoides. You can see here on the note here, the name. So he writes, "You're not allowed to write Hashem's name on utensils, cloths. If one did write Hashem's name on a Kalee, one would not be allowed to use that Kalee." And he mentions about taking, cutting off that piece and putting that piece into Genizah or putting the whole thing into Genizah. Other sources seem, seem to tell me that the whole thing becomes kind of, it's, all this, in this case, the whole thing would be Tafal to Hashem's name, to the shin, daled, yud. And therefore, you wouldn't be allowed to use it for mon-- It's got, gives it a Kedushah, and we wouldn't be allowed to use it for mundane purpose. The other point, which is that you're not, wouldn't be allowed to put on one of Hashem's names, and if you did, you wouldn't be allowed to use it, and certainly you wouldn't be allowed to go with it into a Beis Hakesef. So, uh, that seems to be that this, uh, whoever is doing this is, is not doing, uh, Pishuk, you

34:52 know, Pihalach. They shouldn't be producing this kind of stuff. But really, you can't really, you can't use it. You can't sell it for the, um, value in, in precious metals either because it would mean Hashem's name would be erased by melting it down, which wouldn't be permitted. Let's move on. Okay. Somehow this came my way. That someone writes to me that years ago, she heard a shiur of mine where I said you are allowed to read recipe books on Shabbos, and she wanted to have some clarification. So, um, g- before we go into these recipe books, kind of someone's asking, "Can it be worn under the shirt?" And the answer is, well, um, there's two issues here. One is whether it can be worn in a way that it's covered with a double cover. I'm not sure whether under the shirt is then that it does solve it, but, uh, it does, it is like you can have, let's say, if you need to go and, uh, have a, a Sefer with you, if a double cover, then you would be allowed to take it with, um, possibly. But, uh, here there's another thing. That you shouldn't use something which is sacred for mundane need, for mundane fulfillment. So you're using, uh, something which has got Hashem's name. You know, I, you know, and I just digress for a moment. I've said this b- a couple of times by a Bar Mitzvah, uh, the Rosh. Why is it that if you're wearing Tefillin, you know,

36:16 this says you have to have Kedushat Haguf, and that's why you don't give a Tefillin to a young child because they can't look after their, their body to be, uh, clean the whole time. It doesn't say that by holding a Sefer Torah. It doesn't say that you have to, you know, you have to have Kedushat Haguf to hold a Sefer Torah. And the meaning of the answer is that the writing, the, the wearing the Tefillin is as if the Tefillin Parashat were written on your own body, as if you are the parchment for the, for the, for the Tefillin. It happens to be, it's done with a box, with the straps, but it's really, uh, the famous word of the Alter Rebbe, Elok Tefillin SheBeResh, that, that it becomes, the Tefillin becomes part of you. SheBeResh, not AlHaResh. So it becomes part of you. And that's why, because I'm the parchment of the Tefillin for Hashem's name, therefore, I have to have be in a state of Kedushat Haguf. So coming back to this, um, this piece of jewelry has got Hashem's name. So it's got a Kedushah. So it shouldn't be used for a mundane purpose, just as a piece of jewelry. It would be considered disgraceful to use something sacred as a piece of jewelry. That's how-- that's what they, that Sefer just said. Okay, let's move on about reading material on Shabbos. So there is a concept of, of Shatoreh Hedyotis. One shouldn't be reading mundane stuff on, on Shabbos. But let's

37:35 read carefully. Yeah, see, this is from the Shmiras Shabbos K'Hilchosa. Says, "Min Hadin, you would be allowed to read the news in the newspaper, but you wouldn't be allowed to read advertisements." For the American listeners, they're advertisements. "And, um, also not to read sales, purchase, um, job offers." Then he has about Hilchos Bishul, guidance on how to do cooking also shouldn't be read on Shabbos. So now in the note, Rav Neuwirth in his Shmiras Shabbos K'Hilchosa, he says, "Why shouldn't you read cookbooks on Shabbos?" Because there's a concept of Metzo Heftsacha. You shouldn't be pursuing your mundane needs. Now, if I was a car mechanic, I would save a lot of money. Um, but if I was a car mechanic, I would be reading manuals. Now, would I be allowed to read a manual of, um, for my car on Shabbos? It's, that would not be allowed because it's Metzo Heftsacha. I'm reading how to fix this, how to, uh, et cetera, um, which wouldn't be allowed. So think of a cookbook as being a guide how to do cooking, which you're not allowed to do on Shabbos. So for that reason, one shouldn't be reading a cookbook on Shabbos. Now, then he quotes from Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zatzal, who says that possibly the, the cookbook is not so much telling you how to light a fire and how to put a pot on the fire. It's telling you how to put this ingredient together, that ingredient, that to make it to, uh, give

39:11 it a better taste. Therefore, he says, it's possibly more a science and learning information, uh, more so than actually guidance how to do Melacha. It's just in telling you, it's teaching you how to make food more tasty. On that basis, so he's kind of finding a little bit of a Limud Zchus for that. It's, that you would be allowed to read it. Um, so, so there is, so there is a little bit of, um, leniency in there. But the, the Poshteh Psak which Rav Neuwirth does put down is that one shouldn't be reading cookbooks. I don't know whether he's talking for men or for women. Um, or in other words, for people who do cook or don't, or just, uh, the consumers of the cooking. Um, I'm not sure. But let's move on. Right. Here's a question which, uh, very sad question, which is sometimes it comes a point where a shul is no longer viable, and what could you do with that premises? That's unfortunately happened many ti- many times. And so this is from Siman in Shulchan Aruch, Siman Kuf Nun Gimel, where it talks about, um, sale of a shul, and it should not... That whether the buyer would be allowed to use it for making into a bathhouse, um, tannery, um, mikvah, et cetera. So things which, so it says, it shouldn't be, it shouldn't be sold for those disgraceful purposes. So let's say to use it to sell a shul, and it's gonna be made into an abattoir. And certainly,

40:52 if it's going to be made into something like a, um, Chillul Hashem, there's a, a disco venue or something like that. Then what about Michah selling it to a goy? One should-- Well, what, goy gonna move in? Is that considered also disgraceful use? Let's say there's a shul within an, an apartment, and th- there's, for some reason, they wound up that shul. Can it be sold just as a dwelling for just, uh, uh, for an individual wants to move there? So they say also that would be considered a disgrace, and certainly to sell it for a place of worship. That's the general gui-guidance. And in the note here on this Piske Teshuvas, he says, "If it's to be sold for a place of worship, is even more, is worse than these other, uh, purposes." And he refers us to Igros Moshe. Um, and he says that it's actually very disgraceful. And we see in the Gemara, it says a story, Rabbi Yosef in the Gemara Yevamos Sadi Lav, Rabbi Yosef Ben Kisma. For sa- He was passing by a particular place, a shul, which had been, the people had been not behaving appropriately. And he says, "Tomeini Ani Im Lo Yihiye Beis HaKnesses Zeh Aveida Zara." I would be surprised if this will not be transformed into a place of, of Aveida Zara worship. So, so what he's seeing in this, that this is a form of punishment. If it's, if it's, if it's gonna be, gonna be used as a, as a, as a

42:25 abattoir, that's not an Onesh. But if it's... It's not a punishment. It's okay. It's, it's wrong. It's disgraceful, but it's not a punishment. But if it's gonna be used as Aveida Zara, that's really would be seen as a, as a, as a punishment. That, so that's the first point which Rav Moshe writes. Then in Siman Mem Daled, he, uh, discusses Veshas Hadchak, if it is sold to an agent. Uh, then, then the agent will possibly sell it to, um, to, to a, to a place of worship. So that, that's the way I- it's, uh, that's one way around it. If it's sold to a middle, middleman, and then that per- that, that middleman sells it to another, to another party. Uh, practically- Uh, I would refer anyone who has a shaila to some- something, someone like the London Beis Din who, uh, have unfortunately lots of experience in this, and they certainly have a procedure, uh, which is acceptable in halacha. Let's move on. So this week, this weekend, there is something going on in New York. It's called the C-Teens, um, Shabbaton. Baruch Hashem, kleyn harah, th-three thousand young people coming for a Shabbos. And one of the volunteers asked the following question in connection to this about hanging up posters. You have events here, there, and, uh, all over Crown Heights. You've got different, uh, different venues being used for the Shabbaton. And so if you have a, a poster and you want to hang it up, are you allowed to use zip

44:08 ties, whatever you call them, wire, uh, well, you know what I'm talking about, yeah? Those things which have got, uh, teeth, and they have a, a eye. You put the th... And you put the little tongues through the, the, this eye, and they can go one way. It's a one-way street. You can't, you can't pull them out again. There are similar kind of things which are used for bracelets in hospitals that... An identity, uh, tag with a similar, uh, idea, and this is what's being discussed here in the Shemiras Shabbos KeHilchasa, whether such a thing would be allowed to be put on on Shabbos. So he says, um, "Ochen azikonim." Now, this is, this is what we call zip ties. So azikonim. Don't expect to find the word azikonim anywhere in Shas. It's obviously a new word. It's like with, with... It's got, like, teeth which kind of seize upon one another, and you cannot separate it. So he says you are allowed to use them. And he's quoting here from Rav Elyashiv, shlit"a. Now, zichrono livracha. And he says it's not comparable to sewing because you're not connecting separate pieces. Now, so just to clarify this, what is the question here altogether? We call them zip ties, and we know what tying means. You're taking string and connecting two things by, by putting a rope and then making a knot. See, that's connecting. I suspect that even though Rav Elyashiv is permitting this, he's referring to a bracelet around the wrist or similar, where

46:01 it's not connecting two things to one another. It's just the bracelet is, is on itself. I think our case is more, more of a problem because it's actually connecting, let's say, the, the poster to a pole or something to some, some part of the, the building. So it is, it is tying one thing to the other. And therefore, I suspect that even Rav Elyashiv, who was meikel with the, with the bracelet, with the, the identity bracelet, wouldn't be so keen to allow the use of zip ties on Shabbos, and that... So this is from the Shemiras Shabbos KeHilchasa. And the other note here is from the Piskei Teshuves in Siman shin yud zayin talking about not tying. He says, on the one hand, he says, "" It's, it's, it's a very... It's a permanent kind of tying, even though it's not tying in the literal sense of making a structure, of tying ropes one over the other. But it's... He says, he, he still says it is, after all, it is a form of tying. Um, would it be the same with Velcro? I think not, because Velcro is easy to separate, and therefore it's doesn't, doesn't... This is, this is pretty permanent. It's, it's... You can only... Once you've put the zip ties, you can't open it. You're gonna have to cut through the, somewhere else on, on the, on the plastic. Let's move on. So, someone asked me this week about using a silver dish for mayim achronim. I seem to remember

47:40 that we once discussed this a couple of years ago, perhaps. Um, Baruch Hashem, I've managed to do my index going back to about two years, but I, I didn't know. It must have been more than two years ago. Um, you've got the link on the, on the weekly sheet now. You've got a link to the index, so you're welcome to enjoy it. It's a Google document. Uh, this is from Sefer HaSichos, and, in tof shin beis. Uh, they wanted to serve the Rebbe, the Prediker Rebbe, mayim achronim with a silver dish. And he says that they, once the Mithaler Rebbe asked the Alter Rebbe, "What will be the concept of mayim achronim in the Ohel Levi in times of Mashiach?" Because by then, there will be no longer the tumah, the, um... There will no longer be the ruach hatumah. And, um, and therefore, what will, how, what will be, uh, the inyan of mayim achronim? And the Alter Rebbe answered, "The mayim achronim will be for those who are oysik in inyonim olam haBa, those who are ga- engaging in mundane inyonim in a pure way." So I think what he's saying is that there won't be tumah, but there will still be mundane activities. And so the mayim achronim will be to purify from mundane engagements. And then the Rebbe said, "Damos, in the times of Mashiach, then we'll be able to use mayim achronim with a silver keili." So what he's basically, he's saying that the mayim achronim is, got to do

49:25 with tumah, and we don't want to celebrate tumah, and therefore wouldn't use a silver keili. The Alter... The Prediker Rebbe is not the only one who took exception to using silver for mayim achronim. And here is from the Piskei Teshuves from Siman kuf peh alef, and he says it's customary to have a simple and cheap dish because the water goes into the dish, is the portion of the sitra achra. And he quotes in the notes there several, the Tzanzer Rebbe, et cetera, some Chassidishe, um, Rebbes, et cetera, who also had the same, um, uh, problem with using a silver dish for mayim achronim. What should you do if you have one? All right. Use it as a sweet dish. I don't know. Okay. Um, I, I've been... Someone's wr- writing he was a silver Mayim Achronim dish from Eretz Yisrael, and the instruction says not to use it with water. Okay. Very useful. Um, right. Now, coming back, I missed out number eight, and the reason is because, uh, the que- number eight was about mixing tuna flakes with mayonnaise, and I've gone through this before. Someone asked me this week, and that's why I want to discuss it again. The common... I, I, I believe it's not so well known. There is a melacha called losh, which is kneading, creating a dough, and that's, let's say, you take flour and add water, and you're creating a mass, and that is a melacha which is forbidden on Shabbos. So when you've got loose particles, and

50:58 by adding a, some kind of binding agent or releasing a binding agent. Like, in the case of flour, you, you're releasing a stickiness in the flour. That's con- considered losh. So adding mayonnaise to loose flakes, and now they're gonna become a mass. That would be a problem, uh, to do on Shabbos. Uh, I did... The reason why there's no s- no, no, uh, it's not on the screen, I... It's in Rav For- Forkosh's Sefer, Sefer Shabbos Klal Halacha, Chelek Gimel, chapter Chof Beis, ch- um, paragraph Ayn. It's not... That Sefer is not on the Otzar HaChochma, and therefore I wasn't able to copy and paste it, but, uh, he writes quite clearly not to do so, um, neither with mashed eggs nor with, with tuna. Okay. Thank you, Rabbi Mendel, for reminding me. Let's move on. So last week, we had this shocking, uh, discussion about davening after a farbrengen being a question of being, davening when you're tipsy. So someone contacted me and said, "Is it possible that there's a difference between, uh, uh, uh, uh, slum drinking and drinking when it's part of celebration of Shabbos, part of celebration of Simchas Torah, et cetera? Does it make a difference?" I wasn't so impressed with that suggestion, but actually he, uh... I was mocher him to the Maharshal says this, Rav Shlomo Luria, who was a cousin and a contemporary of the Arizal. And we'll look at this, uh, carefully now. Just o- one point, and that is that we all know that the,

52:41 this widespread minag, mentioned already in the Levush, who lived also about four hundred and something years ago, of on Simchas Torah we do Birkat Kohanim at Shacharit, not at Musaf. The reason being that before Hakafot and, and, and Krias Hatorah, it's customary to have a Kiddush, and we don't want the Kohanim to be, uh, doing Birkat Kohanim when inebriated. So it's interesting. We're not... We are concerned about Birkat Kohanim. We're not concerned about the people davening. I didn't... You know, why, why... So, so, uh, evidently, there is a tolerance for- Yeah, I came to you one aft- There's a, there's a tolerance for davening, even if it's, uh... You know, there are, there are post some drinking. So this you have on the screen. This is the Maharshal or Shlomo Luria in his... He's got a Sefer on the Shas called Yam shel Shlomo, and it's more like Psokim. Uh, all right. So he writes the following. If Shlomo, possibly, the, the Chachamim did not forbid this l'chatichilah, only on a weekday because you could, after having had a drink, you could wait until the wine dissipates, the effect of the wine dissipates. But if it's a day of Yom Tov, the mitzvah to rejoice and hetzi u'rehem. Yom Tov is a time also to, um, celebrate in a, in a physical way, which mean with, with f- food and drink. Therefore, perhaps he's, this is suggesting that the... Since the tefillah is a valid tefillah, uh, and therefore HaKadosh Baruch Hu will accept our

54:21 tefillah since you're sameach b'tov lev, you are s- rejoicing. Hashem is samecha. And then he brings the Midrash on the pasuk, "Va'anise filosi l'cho Hashem eis rotze." We say on Mincha, Shabbos at Mincha, after Asher Rotzihu, we say the pasuk, "Va'anise filosi." So Chachamim say, "What's the significance of that pasuk?" It says in pasuk in Tehillim, "Yasichu bi-yoshvei shaar minet rotsay sheker." That I will be chatted about by those who are sitting by the gates and those who are singing after a bit drinking of beer or, uh, strong, strong alcohol. And the next pasuk is, "Va'anise filosi," says David before Hashem. Ribono shel Olam, this, uh, this nation is not like the other nations of the world. The other nations of the world, when they drink, they get drunk, and then they, they go, go wild. But we are, we're not like this. We have dru- we have drunk. In other words, we've had our Shabbos meal. We've had our... We've had to drink. And then we come back to shul. We should daven Mincha. Va'anise filosi. I'm now davening Mincha. So the Va'anise filosi is kind of saying, "Although I've, I've had, um, I've had a drink, and still I'm davening." So the Maharshal is, is quoting that. Now, it's not a solid proof because it could be, yes, you've had a drink, but you had a rest, so you come back and you're a bit, a bit groggy perhaps, but you still pull yourself out, and you go back to shul for Mincha.

55:49 That could be. But, uh, he, he, he, he invokes that idea. Right. So now, of course, the, the difference between Kohanim and everyone else, uh, Kohanim is to do Birkat Kohanim when he's intoxicated with a, with a revi'it of wine. It's, it's, it's much more subtle and much more... In a way, in other words, he, the, it's stricter because even a little bit of intoxication is gonna be a problem. Whereas for davening, it's only when they are, uh, already tipsy. But now let's read the Alter Rebbe. Also, this is in Siman Tadek tes. And let's read this carefully. One who, uh, is shosri. We said last week, shosri and shikker. Shosri means a bit tipsy. It doesn't mean that he's, you know, uh, galloping around like a, I don't know, like a horse. So a person who is a bit tipsy should ca- wait until he feels that the wine has, has, um, dissipated. He says, therefore, nowadays we're not so careful about this, that we would da- daven even though one had... One would daven even though he had, had a revi'is of wine or more, because our wines are not as strong as the wines back then. Certainly, if you're davening from a siddur, so then don't have to worry about a little or a bit of, um, intoxication. And even if you're davening by heart, it's also, it's not such an issue. If otherwise you would miss the time of davening, and this is the important point. «Ki ven-she’ach shov ein onu,

57:19 ein mechaven kol kach bit fillah,» which is also the Maharshal said this, but the, uh, the Alter Rebbe didn't bring both points. The Maharshal had said a difference between Yom Tov and weekdays, and he said another thing, that nowadays people are not mechaven, not so fo-focused in their davening in any case. And the Alter Rebbe does not buy the heter of the Maharshal that because it's Yom Tov, it's okay. But he does take this, uh, approach, that if one is a little bit, uh, since we're not mechaven so strongly, so well in any case, therefore a little bit of tipsiness is not a reason not to daven if otherwise you're gonna miss mant fillah. By contrast, if a person has really, uh, lost their marbles, so then he's not ki- not able to daven, to speak to a melech, then he wouldn't be allowed to daven. And it says it's so severe, it says if he's oved avodah zarah, and if he did daven and then he's, you know, uh, come to, he would have to daven again. But so that's, that seems to be the answer, that because now the, this is what the hemshich of the Shulchan Aruch, so since nowadays we're not mechaven so much with fillah, therefore there is a tolerance for a minimal, uh, intoxication to, or to tipsiness that one sh- would be allowed to daven. Right. Um, someone's asking, "Ma'iv after Purim, HaRav?" So yeah, if you manage to get to shul, I, I would s- I would

58:39 trust that you are not shikker legamri, uh, because you, then you wouldn't find your way to shul. Right. Let's, um, our last thing on the, on the li-list here was last week we had a discussion about do Go-Goyim have the koach of fillah. I know I'm, uh, almost overti- over time, but I hope you will, uh, forgive me for overstepping the, the hour limit. So here is, so Rabbi Meir Zurkin sent me two sources. One is a Midrash here, and it says a Midrash that you, you, avodah z'racha v'avodah zarah is kroy-- is near and far, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu is far and near. Well, what does it mean avodah zarah is near and far? Well, the avodah zarah, the idol, is in his house. It's near. And what, what does it mean it's far? Because he'll cry out to it, it doesn't answer, so it's far. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is far and near because from here to heaven is a, a distance of five hundred years, uh, of, of walking. So k'yachol, uh, the, the Hebrew says far, so to speak. Yet HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and yet it's, he has k-HaKadosh Baruch Hu is close because a person davens, and he has thoughts inside his heart, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu is right there listening to his prayer. As we have the pasuk, which we discussed last week, "She'mirat fillah, o derech hakabos yevayo, yevayo." Said David before Hashem. The Ribono shel Olam, when the Amot haOlam come to daven to you, don't answer them

1:00:10 because they're not coming with sincerity. First, they go to their, their, their idols, and they pray to them. And when they don't answer them, then they see in their stark, and then they come to you. Therefore, you shouldn't answer them. That's what it says in pasuk, "Yishavu u've'ein moshia. Al Hashem v'lo ono." Yishavu, they will cry out, and there's no salvation. Uh, they, and they cry out to Hashem, and He doesn't answer them. So he explains what that pasuk's saying. "Yishavu la'avodah zracham." First, they're crying out to the avodah zarah. And then, and that, oh, that's, that's to no avail. Then they come to you. Then, "Ana Hashem v'lo ono." Then Hashem says, "You come now to Hashem." Then Hashem just doesn't listen. That was David's plea to Hashem. Whereas Eden, when they come, they ask Hashem, they, they, they daven straight to Hashem. Therefore, "B'chori aneni," okay, it says, "Hashem should listen to their prayer." So what I'm seeing from this Midrash, actually, is actually in a way supportive. That if a Goy davens, and is doing avodah zarah, and then turns to Hashem later as an alternative, then that's where the David is saying that Hashem should not listen to their prayer. But if he's shever mitzvahs, you know, he keeps shever mitzvahs, Bnei Noach, et cetera, he's turning to Hashem in sincerity. So then the tefillah of a Goy would also be listened to. Um, one last point, which also he, there, by Zurkin, sent me this article. This is by someone

1:01:35 called Rabbi Chonon Prince, and he's published several volumes of Shalosh Aharon's called Avnei Derech. I saw a few volumes on the shelf in the shul over here the other day. Um, anyway, he, he, he was asked a question about publishing a siddur for Bnei Noach. It's a five, five pages. He, he does, he cer-certainly takes the view that the, there is a koach of fillah for Amot haOlam. However, his conclusion is not to publish a siddur. It's, in other words, they want to pray, yeah, but not to formalize it. Let, leave it informal. Let, let them, I guess, let them do their own things. I know that there was, we've discussed this once in the shiur, um, a while back, that when someone wanted to put together a kind of Shulchan Aruch for Bnei Noach, and the Rebbe says something that he doesn't want that a Goy should say, that you're not dictating to them exactly what to do. So inspiration, yes. Dictate, dictating exactly what to say, what not to say, et cetera, let them, let them do their own thing, and, um, yeah, we'll do our thing. As they have the pasuk, which we say every morning and davening in the weekdays, "Ki kol ha'amim yeichodu ish b'shem elokeiho, ve'anachnu nelech b'shem Hashem Elokeinu l'olam va'ed." I wish you all a gut Shabbos, and we should have Besuras tovos, kol tov. Besuras haGeulah v'Yom HaNavi. Koach. Amen. Thank you very much. Very interesting. I gained from it. Thank you.