ויקהל–פקודי תשפ״ג

00:00 Speaker 1 A gutten Rutsch. Welcome to the Shecht night's Shir. Motzei Shabbos, Vayachal Pikudei, Parshat HaChodes, Chazak. It's also, uh, well, it's been pointed out to me it's the first yurt site of, uh, the Levi Paris, should be a for his family. Um. Gashmiyus, b'ruchniyus. I'm actually now in, uh, Bournemouth for Shabbos, and I wanna share with you a, a which I'm still, still, uh, very excited about. And that is that this past Shabbos-- Sorry, this past week, there was a conference of Rabbonim in Vienna. The theme of the conference was about how to, um, to-- strategies to, uh, um, about intermarriage and how to di-diminish this terrible tragedy of, of intermarriage in the Jewish community. And I was asked to be one of the main speakers, halakha things, really very much to share with a lot of the kind of stuff which we have discussed here at the shir, you know, over the, over the last few y- few years. And so... All right, so I was slated to give two, three shiurim, and on Monday evening, I go to the airport in Gatwick, and I'm traveling very light, so I don't have to do any check-in. And I come to the-- Just before the flight, which is when I Wizz Air, and they're typically delayed again and again. Just about half an hour before the flight, people are going over to, to, to the chair, to, to the flight, to, to, to board. And there's two lines. There's the non-priority and the priority. I did

02:16 Speaker 1 not pay extra for priority, but the priority line was quiet. So she calls me over, looks at my passport and says, "I'm sorry, your passport has less than three months validity, and we can't let-- we can't let you onto the plane." So I start saying, "I uh, I've got a conference, I'm presenting." Calls her manager, "No chance." Okay. I call up, I call up Heshi Vogel, ask him perhaps he's got a bit of pull. I call up the organizers in Vienna about... They can pull, pull something off. No chance. Okay. The line's getting v-very, very thin. And something got into my head. I walked over to the non-priority desk, showed my passport, and she says, "Oh, you're almost expired. You can go on the plane." So I walk onto the plane, and I'm ch-chittering because I'm worried that any, any minute they're gonna say, "That tall guy with the, with the black hat, he's gone through without permission, and we're gonna get into trouble for letting him onto the plane." Kid sir, got onto the plane, and then on the plane, I called up the organizer, asked him to write a pidyon to the Rebbe that I shouldn't get into trouble at the other end when I get to Vienna to immigration. And the plane was delayed again. And so I was on the plane, and I wrote also a pidyon to the Rebbe. And I also made an online donation as to make pidyon. A pidyon means that you have to give money for

03:56 Speaker 1 stuck also. So I did that all on the plane. And then towards the end of the flight, I'm saying Tehillim. And then as a mamish on the line of the passport, I'm saying, uh, Oz Yoshir once and twice. And then I walk through to go present my passport. Looks at it, turn the page, gives me a stamp, and lets me in. But, uh, it was really, um, quite a traumatic experience, and I was very excited that they wished to help, that I should be able to get through. It's like a little bit, uh, Uh, it was a zchus to be able to present by this, uh, kinus. Um, and there was a zchus harabim to be able to present at the kinus that, which allowed me to go through. Um, okay, now let's see what's going on here. Something wrong with the presentation. Um, let's see. There we are. Okay. So as I was saying, the other thing which I wanna share with you, that was just like a little gamble. It's Motzei Shabbos, zechut shymas. So as I said, the, the, um, theme of the kinus was about intermarriage, and we heard some very, uh, ter-- you know, very worrying statistics of the, the rates of intermarriage. And on Wednesday m- Wednesday morning, so I was meant to be speaking about, uh, halakhas, which are spin-offs of a case of intermarriage. But a, came, came through my mind an interesting, uh, halakha I wanna share with you. The story is, if a Kohen had,

05:40 Speaker 1 rachmanu litzlan, an accident and his finger got cut off. So there's a kind of, there's a kind of surgery which this can be, you know, sewn back together and, uh, to a degree, it, it can be, uh, it can be saved. The shiur is like this, that a severed limb has got a tumah of avem in hachai. If a, if a limb is severed from a living person, so then that... And then now, it's so interesting because it went through my mind. This is the da-- It was, I remember this Rashi in Nazir, and in, and the Daf Hayomi just last week, this was the Daf of the, uh, you know, they learned this Daf Mem Hey in Nazir. And so there, there's a whole discussion about Aver Min Hachai. And there's a din about a Kohen is allowed to, if, uh, wife passed away, he's allowed to be metameh to his, his wife, et cetera. But if it's to, to an organ, so he wouldn't be allowed to because, uh, that's the, that's this discussion about ein hametameh le'evareha. So coming back, so Rav Shlomo Zalman was asked, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach was asked if a Kohen is allowed to have this surgery because after all, the, uh, the limb, the severed limb is t- is, uh, uh, uh, tamei, is tamei. And by him having the operation, so he's connecting, he's touching the severed limb. And Rav Shlomo Zalman comes up with a brilliant answer, and he says, in Hilchot Shabbos, the Shemen,

07:20 Speaker 1 Shin Chof Ches talks about the circumstances which you're allowed to do various things to save a life and to save, uh, from illness. And there's a, there's a level called Sakanas Eiver. If there's a danger of a loss of a limb, someone is allowed to violate an Issur d'Rabbanan. That's the Halacha in Shin Chof Ches. He says, nowadays Kohanim are tamei in any case because they've come into contact at some stage, so most Kohanim are tamei in any case. So a Kohen is tamei in any case. To make himself more tamei, tamei, according to many Rishonim, is Issur d'Rabbanan. If you were to try to make yourself tamei, it's a Sefer HaChinuch, even today. Nothing to do whether you're doing Averia, not doing Averia. A Kohen mustn't make himself tamei, mates. But if he's already tamei, to make himself tamei again, so the Rishonim says it's, it's not also in HaChinuch, it's only d'Rabbanan. Okay, so therefore, being, making yourself tamei to, uh, a limb is Issur d'Rabbanan. To save a limb, you're allowed to violate Issur d'Rabbanan. So Rav Shlomo Zalman says he's allowed to have the surgery to connect his limb back. That's Rav Shlomo Zalman. So years ago, I learned this Rashi in Nazir, and I saw where we can find a different solution to this question. So let's read the Rashi inside. Ve'einu metameh le'evareha. The, the husband may not be metameh to the limbs which, uh, would have been severed, uh, from the So, I'm, I'm taking from this Rashi

09:36 Speaker 1 the following. That when an organ is severed and cannot be restored, it's got a Tumah Aver Min Hachai. But if it can be restored, it doesn't have the Tumah. Therefore, when you're talking about coming back to our topic about the, about the intermarriage, et cetera, and people talk about you being detached from Yiddishkeit and like a severed limb. But the truth is, we see that with due engagement, the, one is able to revive these people, bring them back to Yiddishkeit. Therefore, don't call them detached. Don't call them tamei. On the contrary, because they are, they, through a, a, appropriate, um, approaches to contact, they can be brought back to Yiddishkeit. Therefore, they are-- they remain a, a part of Klal Yisroel, and it's our, our privilege to be able to bring them back. Just if I may say, also a word of the Baal Shem Tov, I may have said this before. Um, Yored hayom be-oniyos oyser malacha bemayim rabim. The conference was on, on, on Yom Tov Beis. That's a Tehillim in Yom Tov Beis, chapter kov ve' kov zayin. So Baal Shem Tov says the following: Yored hayom be-oniyos. There are those souls who come down to this world, be-oniyos, which literally means a boat, a ship, but also the word oniya means in, with grief. Ta'oniya ve'oniya. There are those neshamas which come down to this world, and they have no support system, neither their parents nor their, their surroundings. They are like a sh- a boat on the high seas with,

11:18 Speaker 1 with no, with n-no safety at all. So these are the yored hayom be-oniyos. Oyser malacha bemayim rabim, those who do labor in the great waters, is the, the lifeboat crew. Those who have the privilege to go out, out, out into these, these raging seas, and to be able to save, to salvage these neshamas and bring them back to safety. And that is said to the Rabbonim at this kinus. That's the privilege of, uh, the Rabbonim in these small communities, particularly. But whoever is-- That's said to anyone. Anyone who's there in the, in the front line is one of those, oyser malacha bemayim rabim, to help bring Yidden back tachas kanfei hashchinah. Okay, so that was a Halacha-Haggadah combination. Okay, let's go on to some, uh, dry Halacha. And so now we have a question. Someone wrote to me that, you know, we, we're Chabad, we're very particular, but Chabad Hasidim, you're Shammai. We're particular on Pesach for even the tiniest speck of chametz, and it's mentioned in the Bar Hetep, in Hilchas, in Hilchas Pesach, that if, Beshem HaArizal, that if one is succeeds to avoid ingesting even the tiniest speck of chametz during the year, one is protected not to do s- commit sin during the year. We still have B'chir Chaf. It's okay. But it's, it's a, it's a protection. That's the explanation for the extreme hidurim which are familiar in, certainly in, in Hasidisha circles. Not only Chabad, in so many, many Hasidisha circles, extreme hidurim for Pesach. So all right. So

13:05 Speaker 1 one of the things is about n-not using manufactured g-goods as much as possible. Which I wanna say, it's not a, um... I think I said this before, it's not a perfect science. I will use Kedem wine, but I won't use Kedem apple juice. It's the po- possibly in the same factory. But I can manage without apple juice, so I don't have apple juice. I have, uh, uh, I have a homemade. I can't-- I'm, I'm not capable of making my own wine, so therefore the, the wine, I buy. I buy matzahs also, by the way. Um, I don't make my own matzahs. Some things which you-- I can make on my own. Actually, I'm, I'm not being honest. It's my wife who makes them. The things which you can make at home, so we make at home. All right, so this fellow doesn't want to buy coffee from a manufacturer. He wants to make his own coffee. Fine. I, I respect that. But the, the, the, um, there's equipment. Don't ask me more details. The equipment for roasting and for grinding. So someone's had an idea. Buy the stuff, buy the equipment, uh, uh, online or whatever, and then after Pesach, you'll return it and say, "Yeah, I, I don't, I don't, you know, I don't need it. It, it didn't work properly," whatever. You can give it back. You can-- Nowadays it's, uh, you can s- I don't know whether, whether it's changed a bit, but there is this idea that you can, you can

14:23 Speaker 1 give back goods which you're not happy with. So is that ge-- is that legitimate? Is that legitimate to buy a piece of equipment with every intention of giving it back and getting your refund after, after your Pesach? So here we have a Halakha in Hilchas Oino. In the Alter Rebbe's Sefer Hachinuch, in, uh, Cheshon Mishpat, there is a din of Oino, which means harassment. You're not allowed to harass another Yid. And it talks here about, Heinoos Devarim. Then we have here in Seif Chof Ches, Vechein Lo Yomar Lecha Vere. One should not approach his colleague, his fellow, to say, Becham Motim Kichefez Zeh. How much, you know, this car, how much you, how much would you, uh, accept for the car for sale? Hu Eini Chafetz Leknos Sot. And you have no intention of buying it. Oy She'ein Lo Domem. Oh, you don't have the money. Edo Shekavanos Lo Hates Es Chavero. He's just pulling the guy's, pulling the guy's leg. He's just, um, having some... He's, he's, uh, you know, he's building up the fellow's hopes. And then, V'achakacha Shelo Yikneh. When he transpires he doesn't buy the article, Yachir Chavero SheNiskaven Lehat Oseh. So then the other fellow will recognize that you are just, um, having some enjoyment of, at his expense. VeYeitzer Lo. And he will feel oppressed. So this is a form of harassment, to offer, to, to start engaging that you want to buy something, and then you don't buy. It's a form of harassment. Now, arguably, with the online

16:18 Speaker 1 purchase, there's no, there's no human being who's being harassed. There are people on one end, there are people on the other end. No one's, no one's gonna lose any sleep about this. Um, but I think actually it's, it's, it goes even-- it's worse than this. No normal supplier will sell you a piece of equipment knowing that you have no intention to keep it. It costs them. There are overheads. It costs them money to process your order and re-process the return. All of that costs money, and you are using them without, without, uh, com-- you know, com-- without them profiting from this, the transaction. So I, I see it as Gneiva rather than as, um, rather than as harassment. I see it as Gneiva, as, as using something which there's no way they would have, uh, a-a-agreed to it. Unless, unless there is a possibility in your own mind that if you do like it, you will keep it, then okay. Then, then, then that's legitimate. Then so you're taking it on, on approval, that's legitimate. But if it's clearly I've no intention of keeping it, the intent to give it back afterwards, I think it's si-simply dishonest. Um, someone's pointing out there's another aspect here. Well, you know what? You're buying this piece of equipment. You never know, perhaps there was another Chacham earlier on who bought this AP equipment and put it, sent it back and tried it out with some chametz. Yeah, well, um, I guess that you'd recognize on the packaging whether

17:54 Speaker 1 it was ever opened before. Uh, and it was, yes. Uh, it may have been used with Devorim HaAsurim. Let's move on. So here, someone asked me last Friday night. For some reason, his toddler's yarmulke was left in shul, and he wants to know whether he can put a yarmulke under his yarmulke and walk home- Bringing home his toddler's yarmulke to, to the house. So here we have, this is from Siman Shin Alef, which talks all about carrying on Shabbos and wearing, what's called wearing, what's called carrying. It's come some-- It's come up some of these things recently, um, when we talked about the tracker, if you remember. That came up in this, this siman. And so it says here about a, a woman should not be wearing a, uh, a, a, a garment to protect her, her, uh, her sif, her tichel. She's got a nice tichel, and she doesn't want it to get, uh, uh, uh, spoiled by the rain. To wear a garment to protect a garment, that would not be okay. If she's wearing it to protect herself, then that is okay. Then we have, uh, about wearing... to wear a hat on top of a hat. So you are allowed to wear a hat on top of a hat to protect from rain because that's a Derech Malbush, provided that one is deeper than the other. So that's very common that we are accustomed to wear a yarmulke, and then we wear a hat on top of it, and we walk

19:24 Speaker 1 in the street wearing both, one on top of the other. But the, the, uh, key words here are Derech Malbush because that's a normal behavior, normal way of dressing. So in the Piskei Teshuvos, on the same siman as Shin Alef, he, uh, talks about this, and I'm just quoting these couple, these couple of lines. The word couple was not a pun intended. Um, "Avel lo leches bishnei kippos," to-- I don't know why it's not shnei, not shtei. To wear two kippahs, "o bishnei kovaim," or two hats, one on top of the other. That would not be okay. "kei v'she'ein hu regilus bekach," since it's not a normal behavior, "az sa davor." That would not be okay. It's actually, this is like what a toddler, young man shouldn't do that. He can take off his own yarmulke and leave it in shul and wear his toddler's yarmulke home. That would be possibly okay. Um, right. Now, in the notes, in the notes, uh, of the Piskei Teshuvos, he mentions that his own father, the Ayla Rebbe, wears two yarmulkes. And I heard from Reb Ariel Zev Ropnen that his, his father-in-law, the late, um, Shalom Ber Eichorn, was a meshammash. He, he was at an attendant of the Friediker Rebbe. He was a Kohen. And, but the Rebbe, the Rebbe never called him by his first name. He called him Eichorn. He didn't want to call him Shalom Ber because that was the father's, the name of his father, the Rebbe Rashab. Called upon him when

21:01 Speaker 1 it came, Yud Shevat Tov Shenud at the Tara, when the Rebbe passed away, the Rebbe, Rebbe passed away. So they saw that the Rebbe was always wearing two yarmulkes. So there isn't an inyun. So, and, and the-- coming back, the, the Piskei Teshuva says those who normally wear two yarmulkes, they could wear two yarmulkes on Shabbos also because that's their Derech Livushe. If that's the normal thing. Here we're talking about wearing two, a second yarmulke for transportation, not for your wearing. What's the reason of wearing two yarmulkes? So this is, is a ha'arah. Well-known, this idea of shetei machifim. Um, and there's a ha'arah somewhere in the memoriam of the Friediker Rebbe about wearing two machifim, wearing two layers of, of covering. Uh, I don't remember the, the details of the ma'amar. I, I do know it's the idea of shetei machifim. You have machif achor, machif haroch. I don't remember the, the, the cabalistic explanation. But there is an idea, as we know, that Sidum generally do make a point, especially for davening, but even for Bracha, to have two-- to have a hat and a yarmulke. And so by having two yarmulkes, that's also an alternative to being careful about shetei machifim. I mentioned before, it's the-- Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Paris, if I'm not mistaken, he would very often be wearing a, a, a tissue underneath his yarmulke for this idea of having shetei machifim. Someone's pointing out here a, a rain hat for a woman to protect her sheitel. So if

22:30 Speaker 1 it's just to protect the sheitel, that would be a problem. But the advice given is to have the, the, the rain hat extending over the forehead and over the neck in a way that it's protecting not only the sheitel, but it's also protecting the body, and therefore, it's not a problem. Let's move on to our next question. That's question, um, four, and that is about a lady who's pregnant, and because of this, she's finding, she's finding drinking grape juice an ordeal, which she's not looking forward to, having to have four cups of grape juice. So the question is, how much of an ordeal does one have to endure to be able to, to, to fulfill the mitzvah of Arba Kosos? So there's a famous notion here where you have in... This is the first quote, is from Tov Ayin Beis. Second quote is Tov Ayin Gimel. So here we have that a person's, Chof Alef in Tov Ayin Beis, that a person doesn't drink wine throughout the year because they can't stand the stuff or because it's harmful to them. Nevertheless, they should push themselves to drink four cups of wine the night of Pesach. We have the story of Reb Yehuda Ben Reb Eloi, who would drink four cast-- cups of wine on Pesach, and then he had to, um, gird his sidor, means his, his, his, um, something like his, um... What's it called, the side of the mouth? Um, whatever. He had to-- He, he endured suffering for, for the next couple

24:09 Speaker 1 of months for Shavuot. Then we have-- That's in Simen Chof-- In Simen Tov Ayin Beis. In Simen Tov Ayin Gimel, it's talking about moror. And you can see here at the end of Sif Lamid Alef, it talks about a person who cannot have moror. So it says about having just having a few nibbles, just L'zaycher. Then he says, "Avel chayav adam lidchok et atzmo," a person should push themselves. "L'kayim mitzvot hakhamim," to fulfill the mitzv-- Thank you. The word for "stoma" is temples, okay? Uh, but the, the, um... One should push oneself to fulfill the mitzvot hakhamim, to eat a full kazait of moror, even though it's gonna be painful. And what the sheer of kazait is for moror is discussed later in Tov Peh. Okay. So we do have here that a person should be ready to endure some degree of suffering to, in order to do the mitzvahs. So, on the other hand, there can be a beyond how much they can handle. And then what I would say, what, uh, my, my response to this, uh, request was, first of all, try to get a small cup. So you can get a cup of whatever, a hundred gram or a hundred milliliters or even smaller. Go down to seventy-five if necessary. I know Rabbeinu talks about eighty-six, but there are more recent poskim who have reduced the size of reve'es to seventy-five milliliters, and that's based upon current, more co-- more up-to-date research about the dirham, which is mentioned in the Rambam,

25:49 Speaker 1 and which-- in other words, which were the items which the Rambam was using, which coinage was the Rambam referring to. And r- more recent discoveries have indicated that it's actually smaller than it was believed until now, and therefore they've reduced it. So first of all, to have a smaller cup. Second thing is to have, um, to have, to s-- look for, to look for a, a grape juice which is not so sweet. There I'm sure there are different types, so one can do a bit of, uh, research and find a less sweet one. Thirdly, when you drink, you don't have to drink the whole cup. Rov kois, majority of the cup, or actually majority of a reve'es, that's enough. But the main thing which I wanted to share was that I would suggest that r- after having had her grape juice for each of the cups, she then drinks a glass of water. And hopefully, the glass of water will serve to dilute the, the taste of the grape juice, both in her mouth and in her body, and th- that way protect her from, from the enduring, um, undue pain. Let's move on to the next question, and here is a story that someone wrote to me ear-earlier in the week. Yeah, someone's asking, "Can you dilute the grape juice?" I'm not so sure how much you can dilute grape juice. The, it, it-- there is in-- with wine, the Gmo-in the Gemara's times, they were allowed to dilute, I think it was five

27:28 Speaker 1 parts of water to one part of wine. It was still considered wine, still kept the taste. Question is, how much do you, how much can you dilute grape juice, and it's still ca-called wine? See, grape juice doesn't have any alcohol practically, and therefore what, what are you-- Is it still called grape juice once it's diluted? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not sure about that. That's why I didn't suggest that. But the-- I think physically, whether the water is added in a cup or added afterwards by drinking a glass of water afterwards, I think biologically it'll have the same effect. So I prefer to go that way rather than diluting the actual grape juice. Not because I think they add water to the grape juice. As far as I know, it's not. That's not the case. When it says a hundred percent grape juice, it means there's no water added. But I'm, I'm just worried whether it'll lose the status of, of, of a wine by adding water, and I don't know, I don't know how to guide on that. Okay, so here someone is asking about in the, i-in a particular Chabad house. So there's a visitor or a local who has a Yortzeit or something, and he came a little bit late, and, and, um, so he didn't manage to take o- take the omud for, for, uh, Hazaras Hashats for the, uh, first part of davening. But he asked to switch over. He should do Asher Yotzar and say the Kaddish after Asher Yotzar.

28:57 Speaker 1 So the Shliach was brought up in Crown Heights, had never heard of such a thing, switching over by Yortzar. Then he's all concerned, and then he sent me a whole, a whole, uh, whole Parshah, a whole thing of a, a, um... So, uh, a particular Rav, which he di- didn't have the name attached, who's saying that the Kaddish, Tiskabel, Tiskabel Slaso means that the prayer should be accepted. Who said that prayer refers to Hazaras Hashats? And therefore, it should be the Chazan who said Hazaras Hashats. He should be the one who should say Tiskabel Slaso, and therefore it's inappropriate to switch over. No. So first of all, so, but the Mincha Avilon is actually clearly that it is done. Now, for-- the lower quote is from Nittei Gavriel. The earlier quote is from the Mishna Berura in Bier Halacha in Siman Kuf Lamed Bet. Siman Kuf Lamed Bet is just at the end of davening. And there he talks about the extra Kadesh, Sh'sheh, Sh'vuyim, et cetera. And then there has-- there's a whole very long entry in the Bier Halacha about how to negotiate when you have several Chayavim to say Kaddish. Who do you give Kaddish? The one who's a local, the one who's a visitor, the one who's a Shlishim, and the one who's a Yortzeit. It's a whole, whole, the whole, the whole, uh, hierarchy there. But there, there he says... Then that's all more about Kaddish because then-- nowadays it's, it's hardly relevant because in most communities it's accepted that

30:35 Speaker 1 several people say Kaddish at the same time, and therefore there's no competition who's gonna say Kaddish. But, uh, there's still competition of who's gonna be the Chazan. If a person is capable to be a Chazan, it's a, uh, it's ad-- uh, it is, you know, it's a privilege to be a Chazan when he's, uh, in the year of Aveilus, Nechama Isalav. So here we have in the Mishna Berura in Bier Halacha, he says the following. "Avel Yimcholem Shnehem Lispel Lefnei Ha'omed. If both..." Candidates are able to lead the davening. Now, this is a very important point that, you know, the omid does not belong to the oval. The oval-- The omid belongs to the congregation. And for someone to push himself to take the omid contrary to the wishes of the kahal, it's, it's not acceptable. On the other hand, sometimes the, the kahal are going to just swallow. They're not gonna make a fuss. But it's really one should be asking permission from the kahal before taking over the omid. So you've got here two people, both, both capable and both acceptable, and so you got two candidates. cast a lot. One of them should be chazan until Asher Yovotzi'un, . And the other one will take over Asher Yovotzi'un. So this is already-- And I'm sure the Mishnah Bava did not invent this themselves. This is something which is probably going back hundreds of years, that this was the resolution. When you had two candidates for being chazan, so one would be for

32:22 Speaker 1 the first part of davening, and the second one would take over by Asher Yovotzi'un. Ah, you're gonna ask, Tiskabo. The-- What about Tiskabo? So the answer is, my, my simple answer is the following. The chazan, as I said, is not, is not-- it's not his private business. The chazan is there to represent the kahal. And therefore, when he says Tiskabo Tzeloson, uh, when he was the chazan, it wasn't even his own davening. It was the davening of the kahal. And therefore, when he says Tiskabo Tzeloson, the, the prayer of the kehila. So if someone else takes over and he says Tiskabo Tzeloson, so what? What's the difference? It's they're talking about the communal. In addition, um, I'm asking the question. At Maariv, we don't have Chazarat Hashatz, and we say Tiskabo Tzeloson. So what's that talking about? It's obviously talking about the quiet Shemoneh Esreh. And therefore, I don't see a, a, a cause for concern about this. As I say, I'm, I'm-- The Minag Olam is definitely that switchover by Asher Yovotzi'un is acceptable. Why did he not see this in Chabad? Because in Chabad, it's much more, in the, the separate Chiyuvim, there's much more a tendency to start mustering separate Minyanim. You can complain about it, but I'm just telling you that's the fact. He's brought up in Crown Heights. He's never seen this idea of switching over, um, because as I said, people would just manage to br- put together another Minyan. But in, uh, places where that's not an option,

33:58 Speaker 1 so the switchover is apparently quite a common, um, solution. Right. Let's move on. Someone's saying that, um, the Kedem do add water. That may be, but I'm talking about grape juice, which as far as I know is, is, is-- I've seen this in, in various publications, that grape juice does not have added water, especially like the French grape juice. It says, it says on it a hundred percent pure, and that is to vouch for that there's no water added. Okay, let's move on to now next question. And that's question number six. A man, for some reason, not because-- it wasn't because of illness. It was something, something else. And, and he added a name. So now he asks me, does he have to now update his wife's Ketubah? Of course, he said, can I doubt I have my Ketubah. It's not his Ketubah, it's his wife's Ketubah, yeah. Do you have to update it? And actually, this is not such a, um, rare situation. Now, I'm, I'm going beyond that, of course, in the case of a, a Choli occasionally, but Ad Hashem, and if he, Baruch Hashem, as Hashem recovers, so then that, that is gonna be relevant. But let's say now it's quite a common thing in Lubavitch. You have people who are-- have several daughters, and their name is Menachem Mendel, and they finally took looking for, for a Shidduchim. And every, uh, you know, every second candidate, you write to Menachem Mendel. So you, you, them-- Now, there's a Meistek. Uh,

35:37 Speaker 1 uh, you don't have a son-in-law and a father-in-law with the same name. So I know of a couple of prominent Chabad Chassidim, um, Rabbonim, Mashpiyim, who added another name, whether it's Meir Menachem Mendel or Moshe Menachem Mendel. They added another name. This is gonna become the question. Do they have to now make an adjustment to the Ketubah? So this is what you have in front of you. Actually, I, I'm sure we've addressed this in the past, but it's come up again. And so I was short of how much material I have for this this year. So okay, so I'm sharing with you again. Some people weren't here last time. Okay, so this is from the Sefer Mishpat HaKetubah. This is written by Reb Eliyahu Bar Shalom. I, uh, I've met him a few times, son-in-law of Rab, Rab Avadya Yosef, and it's a specialist series on Ketubots. On the-- And so one of the thing, he writes here, "If a man or woman added a name after marriage, say, there are different opinions. Some say you'd have to, um, write a new Ketubah. Others say it's not necessary because the Ketubah is testifying of the event, the ven-- events as, as they were at the time of marriage, and that was true. That was his name at the time of marriage." He concludes the following. If sometimes the added name doesn't seem to click, then don't worry about it altogether. If the new name is now appended with the old name- So then you write

37:14 Speaker 1 at the bottom of the ketubah, you'll have an, a, an addendum that the husband, in the presence-- That the husband, um, declare in the presence of two witnesses. He said that he f- now, now has an added name or her name has been added, and henceforth is gonna be known as such and such, and the witnesses will s- date and sign that addendum, and that's, that's what should be done. That's the second thing. And what happens if... Now, the-- When there's two, two ways. There's a way of adding a name, and there's a way of switching names. If it's, if the old name has been dropped and now is known under a new name, so then indeed they should change the ketubah because now this current, the current, the cu- the old ketubah will be unenforceable because no one knows him with this name. I've mentioned this before. The word shtar comes from the root of shoiter, which means like a policeman, enforceable. It's imperative to a shtar, to a document, that it should be enforceable. And if he's not known with that name, then that actually does call into question the validity of the ketubah. We go on to the next, uh, question, and that was about a wedding. And they... At the wedding, the chassan places the ring on the finger of the kallah. What happens if the chassan and/or kallah are left-handed, do they do these motions with their left hand? So, interesting. Well, first of all, let's just go for a

38:52 Speaker 1 moment. Why does a chassan give a kallah a ring rather than anything else? So one of the explanations for this, um, one of the explanations for this is that generally the assets of a married woman are, well, belong to the husband. So what's the point of him giving her anything when it becomes hers? But because it stays, it stays his, rather. If he gives her something which is mamash a personal item, then that's, that's to-totally hers. So he gives her a ring, which is a personal item rather than just, uh, something valuable or a piece of equipment. Therefore, um, therefore, that's why a, a ring is given. So now we have here, this what I have in front of you is from, there's a whole volume called Dine Yeter, which is all about lefties. When, when do lefties get treated like everyone else, or when are they given special, spe-- you know, switch over treatment. So he writes, "If the chassan is a lefty, he should give the ring with his left hand. If the kallah is a lefty, she should accept the finger, the, the, the ring on the finger of her left hand." And then he quotes here the Sefer Nachlas Shiva. He says, "The Nachlas Shiva is one of the primary sources for, in matters of chasunah." He really, particularly, he's more into documents. He's got a, a very detailed explanation of the ketubah step by mamash line by word for word, explaining why this word is spelled this way and why

40:44 Speaker 1 we, we, we... The phrases used this way. So that's the Nachlas Shiva. But he has here also a comment about why the ring is put on the finger. Why don't you just give-- So he says like this. "Normally, it's common when a person wants to point, they will use their index finger," and that's, so therefore, that's the most prominent kind of, if you wanna say, protrusion from the body, which is gonna be, draw someone's eye is a, is a finger, a pointing finger. Therefore, that's why the ring of kiddushin is going to be placed on the index finger more than other fingers, and dafka on the right one, which is gonna be more active in when it comes to touching and pointing, et cetera. And therefore, he says, "If the woman will wear this wedding ring on her hand and on this finger, people will see that she is a married woman, and they'll know that she is a mekudeshes, and they will not be starting bothering her to, uh, offer her a shidduch," et cetera. Okay, that's... We're not going to the practicalities of whether it's gonna deter or whether she wants to be deterred, that, that's a, a side issue. But meanwhile, there is this idea of having the, the ring on the index finger being the most prominent area where it would be placed, and therefore it follows. You know, this, this Sefer Dine Yeter says, "Therefore, it makes sense that the lefty, a woman who's a lefty, would put it, have

42:15 Speaker 1 the ring put on her left hand, the finger on her left hand, because that's the one, that's the hand which is gonna be more active and more, therefore more noticeable. Therefore, it should be done. The ring should be, uh, put on the left hand." Um, Mr. Kore is pointing out that sometime, many times, the Ein Hayyim is added when someone is very ill. Do you put this on the matzeivah? So the answer to that is, if the person recovered from the illness, this is written in the She'elot U'Teshuvot, in Ma'aramot. If the person recovered from that illness, then that sta- that name remains as their name. If they sadly did not recover, then it's not included, um, for posterity. Let's move on. So here, someone's asking about a name, Michoel and also Simch-Simchah. Michoel, Gavriel, actually, Yisroel. How do we deal with... It's got-- These are names with Hashem's name in them. So do they have a kedushah and, uh, both in speech and in, and in, uh, in script. So we know that, that there are seven names of Hashem, which, um, if they are written, we mustn't erase them. Yud-hei-vav-hei, Adni, Elokim, Kel, Shin-daled-yud, Tzevaot. Um, which has-- I think I said five. Okay. Shevuot has a list. Yud Kei. And what happens if a sofer made a mistake, let's say, missed out a word and put Hashem's name there, one of these seven names, and in order to get the text right, he's going to have to erase. He can't erase that.

44:11 Speaker 1 And that's gonna be-- it may be necessary to cut off a whole, a whole section of the, of the sefer and put it into shemos because y-you can't erase Hashem's name, even if it's for the purpose of, of repairing and completing the text. So what about an... As if it would be somewhere in the text, uh, a name Eliezer, which Eliezer means Hashem, Eli, my, my God, Ezer is a helper, and so on. You've got so many of these names which have got, uh... Which is clearly have got a, a, Hashem's name incorporated. And what would happen if the name Eliezer was written and the sofer has need to erase it because missed out a word. Is he allowed to erase such a, uh, a word? So this is the... Just, in other words, a, a, a personal name, a human name, which incorporates God's name. Does it have a kedushah? So what I... I remember reading this. Clearly, that's not a problem. I'm, I'm-- I spent some time on Friday and even lots of Shabbos trying to find it. I, I'm, I'm... I even, I think, uh, uh, I think we've discussed this in earlier shiurim, but I couldn't find it on my index either. May have been a bit, bit earlier, maybe, uh, um, more than two years ago. Meanwhile, this is from a sefer called Tashbitz. There's-- I mentioned before there's two Tashbitz, and this is, uh, Shas Bet Sod, and he writes in, uh, siman kuf-hei in zayin that you have

45:40 Speaker 1 human names. Tzuri Shaddai was one of the, uh, what you... The, um, Miraglim, I think. Or one of the Nesiim, um, that the father was called Tzuri Shaddai. Emanuel, which means God is with us, Eliyahu, et cetera. Um, of course, they are, are, are referring to Hashem. They are human names. They do not have kedushah. Uh, actually, as I was researching, I came along with the name Odelia. And Odelia, apparently, I don't know whether it ex-exists in, in, in English, but Odelia means, "Ode, I will thank," Le Yud Kei to Hashem. So I can understand parents are excited, very grateful to Hashem that they have a new baby, and they gave the name Odelia. But it's a human name, therefore it would not have kedushah. He gives a reference to the Gemara Pesachim, um, where it talks about the name Yedidiah. And it says that if Yedidiah is written Yedid Yud Kei, then the Yud Kei will have a, a kedushah. If it would be Yedidiah as one name, like Shlomo HaMelech, one of his names was Yedidiah. So then it would have, i-i-- Like, if it's one name, it, it would be, um... If it's not-- without, without a gap, then it would be, it would be, um... Then it would not have kedushah. Then you could... So another few examples. Amiel, Ammi Shaddai, and Tzuri-El, Tzuri Shaddai, Gamliiel, Pod- Podotzur. Podotzur, well, that's-- I don't see why he brings that in. Pro-probably for the Gamliiel. Or Podayel. So all of these, the Yerushalmi

47:23 Speaker 1 says they shouldn't be divided, but then they are, they are per-- human names, not-- and they do not have kedushah. The, uh, Ari is pointing out about the name Beis El. That's more of a complica-- uh, more, more difficult because there it's written as separate. It's written, written separate. So therefore, the Meis, as far as I remember, it's still you can say Beis El if you mean the name of the town, but that's gonna be more complicated because i-it is, it's, uh, the Alef-Lamed is written on its own. Now, just towards the end of Shabbos, I saw the following quote in the Sefer Taama Haminhagim, which I'm gonna read with you. He writes the following. In the Sefer Yesdivrei Shaul, that's from Rav Shaul Nathanson. In his... That's a commentary on, on God's Hashas. So I saw it inside, where he quotes from Rav Yisroel MeBruno that one should use the names. About Eliyahu, just say Eliyah, uh, Gedalia. Gedalia, then he says that it should be just, just use two letters of the Hashem. I don't really understand what he's saying. Somehow to avoid using three letters of the Hashem. I don't fully understand what he's saying, actually. Um, what I could say, tell you is that in writing, we generally try to, uh, mitigate this by, let's say, um, the name Chaya. So we've gone through this recently. We were talking about in a subah. But generally, in general writing, we'd write the word Chaya with a stroke. Eliyahu, we'll usually write Alef-Lamed-Yud

48:55 Speaker 1 with a stroke and, and so on. Gedalia. Generally, we do avoid writing the, the Yud-Kei in the name or alternatively putting a dash. Um, but it's not... Certainly in the name Yisroel, it's not common for people to put a dash in. That's maybe a, a minority, but it's, it's-- Halakha, it's not necessary. Um, the name Yehuda. So it's some people write the name Yehuda, they'll write Yud-Vav-Daled-Alef. Again, to avoid because it's got the le-letters of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. But these are Lifnim Mishuras Hadin and Min Hadin, they do not have kedushah. And, um, so, so this coming back and then pronouncing. Uh, can you say Refael? People do say Refael. Although, yes, people they will say Folie. And Eliezer, there's a tendency to say Lazer. There may be, uh, this is Lifnim Mishuras Hadin. So there may be, uh, so looking at this name, Ma-Ariel, for example, perhaps you use the word... It's called, called Ari rather than Ariel. It's not a problem to say Ariel, but there may be a hidur to use, um, just part of the name as that sensitivity to, um, avoid saying Hashem's name when, uh, you know, not warranted. This is a separate discussion about names of Malachim, that we don't, we don't pronounce names of angels and, um, uh, in, in, in-- That's the whole thing about people ask about the, um, name when you say Zvodio by the be-- at the end of Hallel. But, um, that's the reason that we don't want to s-- When we say a

50:41 Speaker 1 name of a Malach, we're summoning the Malach. And if we didn't mean it for, uh, in, for prayer, then we can i-incur, uh, the upset of the Malach for being summoned for nothing. So that's about names of Malachim. Apart from names of Malachim which are common human names like Michoel, Gabriel, Rafael, Casriel, these names because they are common, uh, commonly used for people's names, that's not a problem. But if it's a Malach name, so let's say Matat. We don't say the full name of Matat, we'll say just M-Matat and so on. We just say part of it. On the other side, like Samech Mem, we just say just Samech Mem rather than the full name because we don't want to invoke a Malach, um, by name, uh, without the proper, uh, proper justification for it. Right. You're saying that Ari is pointing out it can raise issues with Gitin. Okay, I'm going to ex-- recuse myself. That's the right word. I don't deal with Gitin, and so there's a rule that, um, persons a-aiming it there, but Gitin, the condition should not be engaging with that. I don't deal with, with Gitin. Um, I sleep better wi-with that approach. Okay. Now, a couple of more things left on the list, and that is number nine. Is there an issue about... Now, that we know there's an issue about blocking a window or a doorway, and that's attributed to Yehuda HaChasid. So someone's asking, what about a chimney? Now, this particular case which was asked to

52:25 Speaker 1 me was that they had moved into a house and already the chimney stack had been largely removed and-- But there was, there still, the, the chimney itself had been blocked. So there is a, the union of the, this, this page, this, this, this concern is when there has been a passage from one room to the other. There was a window or one room to the other to the outside. So then to block up that passage, so the ruchos which had used that passage, and now you're blocking their access, so you're, they, they can be upset. And we know that we're particular about this. I mentioned this in the past when, uh, at some stage in, upstairs in seven seventy, when they put up a, a wall between the, the small, the small and the, and the ti-tiny shul. The upstairs is a small shul, and there's a, the cheder sheni. And a particular time, they put up a, a, a separation between the two. It used to be windows. And the Rebbe was concerned about it and told Pinche Halberstam, zangya tzum, to make sure that there's a, a hole drilled through. So we are particular. But what about chimneys? Is a chimney the same as a window and a, uh, a doorway? So there is a safer called King Yonteira from the Rav of Strasbourg who says it's not a problem. I did not manage to look up inside, but I did look up the Sefer Shmius Hagud HaNefesh. He specializes with all this

53:57 Speaker 1 kind of stuff, and he's not so, not so excited with that header. And actually, I, um, think if that's the logic that the ruchos, uh, have a, a access. So chimneys, I don't think are any different. But in this case, it had been blocked already. To start having to unblock it, and was even done b-before, I don't feel, feel it was a need to start, um, you know, um, breaking through, especially if it was done before you moved in. Um, so but, uh, I, I believe that there is a, a bit of a concern there. But, uh, someone, one should leave-- If, if it does come up, one should leave some kind of opening or s-vent. Um, right. Finally, the last thing which we have on our list for this evening is about, about, um, can you... In Chabad, we, for Pesach, we only use vegetables or, or fruit which can be peeled. Can you use unpeeled vegetables or fruit in cooking before Pesach? Now, on the one hand, uh, uh, you know, the wine which I have, as I mentioned before, I use Kedem wine, and i-it's used with unpeeled, it's made with unpeeled grapes. Had the grapes been peeled, you wouldn't have red wine. So my wine is made with unpeeled grapes, and then it goes through a filtration, et cetera, and I'm not worried about it, yeah. So my, my, um, my, my balance on this is if you're going to make a food before Pesach, and it's gonna be pureed in

55:42 Speaker 1 a way that there is no visible peel, so then we're going to go for Brit Ben Shishim, et cetera, before Pesach. And that's, you know, one of the advantage of, of cooking before Pesach is that the, everything, that they, you have the facility of Brit Ben Shishim. But let's say to take a zucchini or what we call in England, or we call again zucchini, we call, um- Whatever. Uh, where's my cup? So, um, frustrated. Um, so to, to, to cut them up and to put them in a salad and put them into the freezer, then during Pesach, you're taking it out, and you've got all the peels there, and it looks-

56:21 Speaker 2 Courgette.

56:21 Speaker 1 Courgette. Thank you. So, um, that I would say no. In other words, if it's not gonna be visible, not gonna be noticeable, then yes. If it is gonna be visible, then don't, don't-- Even from before Pesach, I would say no. Is it perfect? I would say before the, the Humus of Pesach are not a perfect science and just, just my, uh, my own balance about this. I wanna finish off, and I have a couple of minutes. I wanna finish off about the sale of Chametz. And I, I-- as th-this, this conference in Vienna, I, uh, presented, uh, a, for the Rabbonim to be able to do their own Mechiras Chametz. And I said to the Rabbonim, "If you are able to do a Sidur Chilushin, you can also do a Mechiras Chametz with you. If you prepare yourself properly, you, you learn how to do it. It's, it's not, it's not a, such a difficult thing." And I'm concerned about-- I, I, I receive the people, the, the, the Chametz which is sold online. And the, the way it is set up is all-- It's, it's legal, it's kosher halakha. But actually, if, if people put in too much information, then in the printout, you can't see the information because, because they've put on, you know, too much, and it doesn't come out in the printout. And I'm not, Chas v'Shalom, saying that... But it, it, I-- there is definitely a value of doing Mechiras Chametz in person or speaking to the Rav and telling

57:58 Speaker 1 him where the Chametz is, and you may get some guidance whether this is a legitimate way of putting away Chametz. If it's not, so people sometimes will come along and say they want to sell one shelf in the freezer, and they know that, um, well, now they know now, but that, that, that, that would not be okay, and so on. I think we discussed it in the past. So I'd look-- I'd like to encourage people to do Mechiras Chametz, um, in person, or if you can't make it in person, make a phone call, et cetera, rather than just, um, doing it in a totally impersonal way. Of course, if you are embarrassed to, for whatever reason, to, to make it in person or you can't make it, so do it online. But it's, it's not-- It's, it's second best. Finish off, that's-- I'm told the story how the Rebetzen Chana, the Rebbe's mother, in her memoirs, she describes how her husband, the Rebbe Levi, was, uh, before Mechiras Chametz was very tense. It's a very big-- It's a great responsibility. But, um-- And so-- And then afterwards, he was relaxed once he had-- once he had sell, sold the Chametz. It is, it is a concern. It is a right of responsibility. Just to finish off with a Reb Mendel Futerfas story. Reb Mendel Futerfas told me that when he was in Siberia, there was a, a job in the, in, in the Gulag of c- of taking the trees and putting through an, an

59:28 Speaker 1 electric saw to make them into planks. And this was a very dangerous job because, because at a slightest slip, sometimes there could be a jerk, and the per-person holding the plank could be thrown to the ceiling. Sometimes they slip, and they could cut their fingers off. And Stalin, in his, uh, in his kindness, had also sent surgeons to the Gulag, so people would take their fingers and run back to the, to camp, and the surgeons sew them back. people were not so excited with this job, but Reb Mendel said he actually liked this job. The reason being, he said, "The kuntz is you take that log and hold it firm, and you run it through, and you hold it strong and firm, and nothing's gonna happen." And what I said to the Rabbonim on, on, uh, Thur- on Wednesday is same thing with the Mechiras Chametz. It is a responsibility. Prepare yourself properly, hold it firm, and you'll be able to run it through without any mishap. Wish you all a and a and we should see the . Amen.

1:00:41 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:00:44 Speaker 1 Yeah.