ויקרא תשפ״ג

00:07 Speaker 1 A good day, everyone. Welcome to the shiur tonight. Last, uh, for the evening, uh, Motzei Shabbos shiurim, and later I'll perhaps come back to the timing for the future shiurim, but let's go straight into our shailes. Past week experiences. So I was learning a Halacha in Shulchan Aruch which says the following. This is in Tov Mem Beis, Seif Zayin. Talking there, a situation where you've got, let's say, a soup which was cooked with lokshen, assuming that lokshen is chametz. So the soup is a chametz-sticky soup. But there's no visible chametz there. So it's a very interesting situation. You've got a soup which has got a taste of chametz. Therefore, it's-- you're in violation of Bal Yerao, Bal Yimotze if you have... Sorry, you're in vio- If you eat it, you're, you're violating the Israel of eating chametz because we have that concept of taam ke-ikev. It has the taste of chametz as if you have chametz there. And l- yet, you're not oiver Bal Yerao, Bal Yimotze. You're not, um, you're not in violation of visible chametz in your possession because the chametz taste in that soup is not visible. So you've got here a very interesting situation where you have something which is forbidden to eat as chametz min ha-torah, and yet you're not in violation of Bal Yerao, Bal Yimotze of, of possessing it. And so now it says, of course, you have to do-- get rid of it. But then he says, "If you didn't," I'm sorry, just reading here from the

01:56 Speaker 1 text. "If you forgot and you didn't get rid of it before Pesach," and it's now middle of Pesach, and you've got this soup, so you have to get rid of it totally. But don't say a bracha on dis-- of disposing this chametz. Because, because there's no Bal Yerao. Um, does anyone have a-- Can you hear me? Okay, someone said you can't hear. Okay. All right. Okay. So then he says-- Let's read this again. "Don't say a bracha on this bra-- on this disposal because you're disposing of it in order not to, uh, not to eat from it." You shouldn't come to eat. But the actual disposal is not a mitzvah. Therefore, you can't make a bracha al birchas chametz. So here we have a very interesting situation. There's a mitz-- there's a duty to dispose of it, and yet there's no, there's no bracha of Bal Yerao, Bal Yimotze-- No, no, no bracha al birchas chametz because, you know, there's no Bal Yerao, Bal Yimotze. So I was thinking to myself, reading this Halacha, what happens if I go move into a Airbnb during Pesach, and there's, there's chametz there. Uh, I, I don't remember ever being in Airbnb myself, but I would imagine what happens, the previous user, let's say, left a pack of Weetabix. Doesn't know to take it with, so it's left, so it's left there available for the next user. So when I move into the Airbnb, I'm not interested in being kohen. I need to acquire any of the chametz

03:46 Speaker 1 which is there. Of course, I have to do bittul chametz. That's for sure, because there might be chametz lying around, but it, it's not mine. That's what I thought. And therefore, this is my question, which you have on the sheet. If during Pesach, I move into Airbnb premises, must I do bittul chametz with a bracha? And what do I do with chametz which was available for my use? So there's two, uh, questions here. Number one is, do I have to do bittul chametz? Number two, if I do find-- Well, I don't have to look. I don't, I mean, I don't have to search. I see it on the shelf. There's a pack of Weetabix. Do I have to go and, g- you know, flush it down the toilet or something? Now, l- more likely scenario is someone hires a car during Pesach. So cars, as we know, tend to have food left in pockets here and there. And even if the car had been valeted, had been cleaned, but it's very likely that there should be tucked away somewhere a biscuit. So do I have a chiyuv bittul chametz when I hire a car? It means that, oh, possibly, you do have a chiyuv bittul chametz, and I'm just gonna risk saying the same joke again. Don't use a candle to do bittul chametz in the car because you might make the car into a Korban Pesach. Um, but now, come back. I looked around. This is my question. You move into a hotel room

05:23 Speaker 1 during Pesach. Do you have a chiyuv bittul chametz there? It's you're not inter-- And with a bracha or not. So what you have on the left here is from the Sefer Nittei Gavriel, and he writes that if you move into a hotel room before Pesach, you have to do bittul chametz. And if you arrive there during Pesach, you should also do bittul chametz. If it hasn't been done, you should be by the chametz with a bracha. So he's saying you move into a hotel room, you should do bittul chametz. Even in Mechalel Yom. You move into a hotel room, you have to do bittul chametz with a bracha. And his source is- In the Shulchan Aruch, in Taf Lam Med Zayin, talks about in the Gemara, a person hires a-- when there's a, a rental of a room, of a house. So it, it depends who had the keys at the onset of Pesach. At the, oh, sorry, the an-- the night of, of B'diqat Chametz. If the keys were in the, by the, by the tenant, by the... Well, if the keys were by the landlord, so then it's the landlord's Ḥiyuv. If the keys were by the tenant, it's the tenant's Ḥiyuv. All right. But we see here that a tenant has to do B'diqat Chametz. So now I'm asking, if I move into a house for Pesach, if I move into a, to, to, you know, as you say, Airbnb or something, I move... I'm not interested in getting the Chametz. And

06:45 Speaker 1 yet I have a Ḥiyuv B'diqa, and he's saying even with a Beracha. So let's read how this is... Now, this is the Alter Rebbe, but also the Magneh Abraham says something very similar. "Gam ha-socheir ḥayav l'vatel," you're renting a room. Even if you moved in, uh, after Pesach. Uh, uh, "L'sheyad shekonah habayis b'echad me-ha'derochot shetsrich chitzuka nikne be". As soon as you become the, um, legal occupier of that premises, "Zechok kam keim bechametz she-ozav shomer hamaskir". As soon as you move into that hotel room, you become the owner of the Chametz which the owner had left there. "She-areik var if kiro hamaskir." The owner, the landlord, had left there those with-- that, that Weetabix. As far as he's concerned, it's Hefker. "V'chol zeh ha-hefker hamunach bebayis hamuskir le-socheir zocher be-hasocheir." When you move into rented premises, and there are Hefker items there, they become yours. So therefore, when you're going to... So this example of the Airbnb, and there's a packet of Weetabix there, and that's available for you to use, then as soon as you get the key and you go in, it becomes yours, and therefore you have a Ḥiyuv to dispose of it. And the same thing, uh... So there's two issues. Ḥiyuv B'diqa, number one, and also Ḥiyuv Birur to dispose of any Chametz that you find there. And you'd make a B'diqa with a Beracha. And the same thing would be the Ḥayav with a car. If you, uh, are going to do B'diq-- Uh, well, if you find any

08:28 Speaker 1 Chametz in the car, for sure you have a Ḥiyuv to dispose of it. And, um, the Ḥayav, you should be making a B'diqa with a Beracha, but okay. Let's, let's leave that as a question. Um, right. A couple of things that come to mind. If you... Uh, in a hotel room, a typical hotel room, you open up the fridge, so then you'll see their beer, et cetera. I don't think that's the same as the Airbnb with the beer, the Weetabix. Because in the hotel room, they have their attack beer, but then that's not yours. That, if you want it, you're gonna have to pay, and when you check out, they will check, uh, you know, and get your credit card. You take-- You had a glass of beer, uh, uh, a can of beer. That's-- You're gonna pay for it. It's not yours. It's not Hefker for you. You still should get rid of it, as in tell them, "I don't want it. Take it out," because you don't have Chametz in your premises. You might come to have it, but you don't have, you don't have to do Birur on the beer. Yeah, like that. You don't have to dispose of the beer. You can tell the, uh, the, at the desk or the whatever, "I don't want it. Take it out." Whereas in the case of the Air-Airbnb, that Weetabix was available for you. It's Hefker for you, and it's yours. It's too late. The other scenario is you're traveling on a plane,

10:00 Speaker 1 Chalamoied, Pesach, and you dozed off, and they brought you a, you, you wake up, and there's a Hermolis meal there. And you open it up, and it's got a, a nice, um, roll there. Yeah? Now, here's the problem. It's already yours. You have to, despite the, um, no, you know, stat-- the, the fa-fasten seatbelt sign, you're gonna have to quickly take that roll and flush it down, um, you know, at the back of, the back of the plane. Okay, let's move on. May we use mushrooms on Pesach? So what you have on the screen here is from the Pesach guide from the late Rabbi Romb Blumenkranz. Uh, this is from 12 years ago, about, 11 years ago, but, uh, probably it's the same, same story. Basically saying that mushrooms are generally rooted on grain. They pla- make a, um, a bed of grain, malt, whatever, and the mushrooms are spawned somehow to grow from there. So does a mushroom which grows from Chametz, does it have the status of Chametz? All right, we can argue, we can say, "Well, this mushroom is a separate thing." You can argue about that, but it's certainly not Mehadrin. And therefore, mushrooms, um, unless they have a Hechsher, they shouldn't be used on Pesach. Um, right. And he's quoting here from some Israeli publications that mushrooms should not be grown-- should not be used on Pesach because they grow on Chametz. Let's go on to the next thing, and that is... Someone ask me a question. Uh, I'm gonna

11:44 Speaker 1 just give a little introduction. On Thursday or Friday, a Shliach from a particular town in Europe was on the phone to me. Last Friday, his, M-Mrs. Shliach was out of town, and so Rabbi Shliach is in the kitchen making sure there's enough cholent for the students. But he, uh, he tell-- there's a, there's a regular worker, goyishe worker, who helps in the kitchen, uh, we- every week. Uh, and he tells her, "Put in so much beans, and put in so much potatoes, and put in this, put in that." And she c- puts everything in the slow cooker and adds the water, and then she plugs it in, press switches on the-- press switches on the electricity. And there was a cholent for Shabbos. Then afterwards, he realized, oops, if she switches on, then it is Bishul Akum. It was-- the cholent was cooked by a goy. That cholent is already no longer here, but the pot is here. So, what do you do with the pot which was used for cooking Bishul Akum? So, this is machalek of the Rishonim, but the Halacha in Shechinat HaChaim is that you have to kasher. If something was used and for cooking, and it was Bishul Akum, so then you'd have to... Say, for example, if you had a cleaner, fried an egg in your fri-frying pan, you'd have to kasher the frying pan. Bishul... If eggs are, um, Bishul Ak-- If you make a... A goy makes eggs, Bishul Akum. Okay. So how you gonna now kasher

13:26 Speaker 1 the, uh, the insert. The insert, by the way, as you know, and they usually-- the insert of these, uh, slow cookers is, is ceramic. It's, um, made of clay or earthenware. Generally, there's the approach that you cannot kasher earthenware. That's the, the Torah. There's a law, you know, the Gemara. "Hatorah hi idor kli cherus she'eino yotzim m'dei deifia l'olam," that a kli cherus, an earthen keilim will never release, uh, fully through kashering. Yet, there are circumstances of... There, there is an opinion, one of the early Rishonim, his name was Rabbi Yitzchak. He wrote a Sefer called the Itur, and he is the only one who holds this, that although the Torah says you cannot kasher kli cherus, earthenware, that's once. But if you do it three times, it will work. Generally, we don't pasken like the Itur, but there are cases where we do rely on the Itur, and one of them is Bishul Akum. Since Bishul Akum is a din derabbanan, therefore, the, the Shechinat HaChaim allows kashering Bishul, um, um, earthen keilim, clay keilim, which we use for Bishul Akum. You can kasher them with, with, with the, like the Itur, by dipping them in three bodies of boiling water successively, and you can... That's how you can kasher kli cherus from, from Bishul Akum. This Itur is also used in the case of, let's say, you have a, a family who were not Shomer Torah mitzvahs, and they became, now, well, they can now turn their ki-kitchen kosher. They've got expensive china,

15:08 Speaker 1 expensive china set. And so the Poskim, Rabbi Joseph and others, do allow the following. There is a shitah of the Chasam-- of the Chacham Tzvi, who says that all keilim, if they're left for twelve months, they lose any treifas. There's no, no treifas after twelve months. We don't pasken like him. Then we've got the Itur who says you can kasher kli cherus three times. We don't pasken like him. But when the two come together... So you got it's been twelve months, and you're kashering it three times. So in that you'll allow for the baal teshuva who has beginning to, to keep kosher, kosher, to kasher their earthen k-keilim. They've got a Wedgwood, whatever it may be, fine, um, ch-china, to allow them to use it instead of having to discard. Okay, so this is a little bit of background. So now comes along a person and says, "How about I've got expensive china, and I want to use it for Pesach, and it's been twelve months plus since it was used. How can I kasher it with three times in boiling water?" That was the question. Is there leeway to kasher china for Pesach? So here, let's see what we have in Alter Rebe Shechinat HaChaim siman tof nun alef. That's the long siman all about kashering keilim. And he says, "Ve'achshav od eis ha'achronim," nowadays, "nargil kol yisrael lo lehishtamish b'kli cherus li b'chanudoshem." We, for Pesach, we use new, designated for Pesach. "Avel kli cherus ha'yeshonim," but used earthen keilim, "af lo lehishtamish

16:51 Speaker 1 bahem b'chametz lo lehimbech zaynin," even if they're only used with cold. "Ei mishtamshiin bahem b'Pesach af lo b'zaynin." Even if it's just used with cold, we wouldn't use them for Pesach. That's the minhag. So certainly not. There's no kasherings. So you ask, "Why not?" The s- answer is very simple. This family have got this, uh, set of china from... And it's, uh, very valuable. You tell them it's treif. It has to go to the bin or the second-hand shop. Here, they've got chametz diklike keilim, and they say, "I want to use it for Pesach." Don't use it for Pesach. I'm telling you to throw it out. I'll tell you, use it for chametz. There's no waste. Use it for chametz. There's no, there's no, there's no loss of money here. All right, you'd like to have it for Pesach. You'd like, but it doesn't... I'm not telling you to... The Halakha is not dictating that you have to d-discard it. Use it for a whole year, so it's done. There's no loss involved. Therefore, the bending backwards to accommodate would be done for it, not, not, not to throw it out, but to make it for Pesach. Use something else for Pesach. Kol turei. That's, that's, um, my understanding about it. Let's move on. Right. Now, a lot of people are asking how about the, the sold chametz that, uh, how, um, how should, how it should be partitioned off, et cetera. So what's the story? L- what's, what's happening? We're selling chametz. And then

18:18 Speaker 1 the sold chametz is sitting in my cupboard, is sitting, uh, under the stairs, is sitting in my shed. It's not mine, it belongs to the goy. And I don't have any responsibility if it gets stolen. Actually, you know, it's stipulated on the start that the goy has to pay for the electricity, et cetera. It's his responsibility. What would happen if there'd be a power cut and all the chametz would g- g- get ruined? Who would be... So according to the letter, the goy would be responsible. It'd be his loss. At any rate, let's not go there. Meanwhile, it says the following: if a goy left chametz in your possession, he w- he left it in your house without your permission, and you don't wanna start up with him, just go throw it into the street. You have to e- erect a barrier of ten tefachim high between you and the goy's chametz which is in your premises, that there should be a heckler, should be a, a recognition, a reminder, you shouldn't violate, these are chametz, and you shouldn't come to use it. So there's an idea that if a goy's chametz in your possession has to be behind a mechitza of ten tefachim. And it goes in a bit more detail. This mechitza has to be made bedov havua. It has to be made, well, from a, a permanent kind of, rigid kind of substance. It's going to obstruct the passing through. Not from a sheet which is just hanging. So because you can

19:48 Speaker 1 walk th- under the sheet. So we have here a special din, that chametz of a goy in, in, in, in, i- in the premises of a Yid, it has to be sectioned off with a screen. And that screen has to be rigid, not just a hanging curtain. So if you wonder h- if you have chametz in one side of the house, one side of the basement, just covering with a, with a, with a sheet would not be enough. So often people ask this question, and I ask them a little bit, "What is it which you have under the sheet? Is it just some toys which you couldn't be bothered making Pesach dik?" Okay, for that, okay, cover it with a sheet. But if it's real chametz, whether it's food or drink, but it's, it's, it is bonafide chametz, then just covering it with a sheet is not gonna be enough. It's gonna have to be, um, behind a, a wall of sorts. If it's in a built-in cupboard, let's say you have your built-in kitchen cabinets, even if they're not ten tefachim high, I w- I've got, you know, chazbainis to say that that is okay. But, uh, if it's in a, in just in a box or freestanding, whatever, and doesn't have the height of ten tefachim, then no, that's not, uh, gonna be adequate. Now, this also answers, I get this the whole time, "Can I sell one drawer in the freezer?" Making a whole freezer Pesach dik. "But I want to keep

21:22 Speaker 1 one drawer and wrap it with black, black bags, and that'll be one, one drawer will remain chametz dik." So I'm not, uh, not, not, I'm not a- agreeable to that because I don't see the mechitza of ten tefachim. I know it's got a black bag, I know that, but it doesn't... If there's a halacha of ten tefachim... Whereas if you'd say, "I'm gonna sell the whole freezer," although it's a u- a fridge-freezer unit, so the whole freezer will be closed and with, with, uh, tape, whatever, okay, then, then, then possibly you have the ten tefachim. But just one drawer within, I'm, I'm, I'm just... Actually, I'm-- I don't know. I... So perhaps I shouldn't be asking the question, but I'm, I'm, uh, curious. What is it that people are so desperate to hold onto that they have to sell the chametz of this one drawer? What is it? Is it bread, that they're desperate they won't be bread after Pesach? Is it a soup? What is it exactly which people are-- seem to be very, um, concerned that they have to s... You know, the whole c- sale of chametz was instituted, as perhaps I've mentioned before, a fellow is on a boat, on a ship, and he's worried he, he has his chametz supplies, and he don't-- won't have anything afterwards. So then he sells it to a guy on the ship. You know, commercial interest. You've got a brewery. You've got a whole, a whole shop, I understand. On a domestic level, I

22:39 Speaker 1 can understand if you've got a stock of whiskey, uh, it's gonna be, uh, um, you know, y- you don't want to rush through it Erev Pesach. That I can understand. But, um, food-wise, what, what is it? So what's, what's the desperate-- Why can't you just get rid of the stuff? I'm confused to have stuff in the freezer. I, I don't... Whatever. Um, don't, uh, don't ask me now. But, um, I am curious, what is it that people are so desperate to, to, um, to sell in chametz? And, and just to clarify, kitniyos, for example, is not chametz. So if you've got a pa- a packet of peas, frozen peas, you're allowed to keep it. All right, you want to, you want to lock it away, it's not chametz. You're allowed to have it in your possession. Even, even, even a soup which is cooked in, in, in chametz kaylim, is also not chametz as such. I'm not gonna... I'm not advising you to have it, but I'm just saying that, that it... I'm, I'm just curious why the, the people are-- seem to have quantities of chametz which they are, are, are somehow, um, need to sell. Okay, fine. Next. So here we have a s-- This is a quote from Rav Landau, Rav Yankov Landau, and his recollections of the few-- the, the, uh, Erev Pesach when he was in Rostov with the Rebbe Rashab. So it's printed in Otzar Minhagim Chabad, been published earlier. So he writes the following: "One time, the Rebbe

24:12 Speaker 1 Zalshain Hasara said to me, 'We need to do bedikas chametz in the kitchen, the Pesach kitchen.' They had a room which were designated for cooking for Pesach. This was the eve of Rosh Chodesh Nisan. The room had been already prepared, I mean, made k- kosher le Pesah, and we'd brought in the wine and other stuff. Then the Rebbe Rashab said, 'But they didn't clean the walls.' So he wants they should take it out and take out the, the, the wine, whatever, and clean the room again. After cleaning the room again, so the Rebbe said, said to me, 'We need to do bedika.' So I went into the Rebbe and asked him, 'What's this bedika?' So the Rebbe says the following, 'Biklal, when you prepare a room before Pesach, for Pesach, al pi rov, gen- mostly people then forget completely to do bedikas chametz there. And even if they do bedikas chametz, it's with a-- it's a bit deluded. Menatze chuav, you delude themselves, because it's already all different things there, and therefore the bedika is not gonna be a, a, uh, successful, not gonna be-- g-g-go properly. Here, there's the onions, and here is basically whatever the stacks of stuff, the supplies in the room all over them. And therefore, um, you're gonna do bedika. As far as you're concerned, this is already Pesach bedika room. What are you doing bedika for? Therefore, he says, "When we were back home, I was, um, mostly not home, uh, before Pesach, and I would write a letter

25:52 Speaker 1 to Nachman," who was the, uh, the home attendant, the mashgiach, "that he should be voiding the room when they make the room Pesachdik, as they did know when a person is traveling." So the Rebbe Rashab, this is in Rostov, but he's saying that they also back in Lubavitch, before they moved to Rostov, that the room which was going to be made Pesachdik for the Pesach kitchen or the Pesach supplies. So then once it had been cleaned adequately for the transfer, for Pesachdik, uh, stuff, for Pesachdika use, they would do bedikas chametz before the actual switch out. So, um, I asked the Rebbe, he says, "But the one who's traveling, he has to do bedika because he won't be able to bedik at the right time. But here we can do the bedika on the night, on the night, on the night of bedikas chametz." So the Rebbe again said, "But then the bedika on the night of bedikas chametz in this room is going to be a deluded bedika, and therefore you should do bedika before without a bracha." So here we're seeing very clearly the Rebbe Rashab's position. And someone sent me today that there was published also from Rav Broyans, z"l, um, echoing this idea, that if you are taking a room and making it Pesachdik, then you should do bedikas chametz, um, once you've, uh, satisfactory clear-- cleaned it before you start putting in your, your Pesachdika stuff. Just to take this one step further, then what about the fridge, the freezer?

27:26 Speaker 1 The freezer needs a... You need to do bedikas chametz in the freezer. There's lots of crevices in the freezer, and espe- if you've got wire, wire shelves, for sure there's sometimes stuff stuck between. So bri-- and you need to do bedikas chametz on the freezer. So when do you do bedikas chametz? Gotta be the, when the night, but it comes erev Pesach mamash, it's gonna be full of, uh, hopefully, of, of stuff for Pesach. So once you've made the, the freezer Pesachdik, before you start putting in stuff for Pesach, so that's when... That's, that's the time when I'm called into the kitchen to go and do a bedikas chametz in the, in the freezer, whether with a, with a, a torch or with a candle. But to do bedikas chametz in the freezer before, um, kind of clearing it for putting in Pesachdika stuff. Hope that's clear. Let's move on. Um, right. Uh, so here I got a, a shailah that someone know he-- a shliach, he knows someone who's traveling to Japan on a Friday morning. Now, as we know, if you're traveling to Japan, due to the time difference, by the time you're going to arrive in Japan, it's going to be Shabbos. So he's gonna-- he's asking the question, this guy who's going on Friday, this Friday, next Friday doesn't make a difference, can I give him a box of matzah? It means that on, at the, at the... On arrival, he's going to be, in addition to his regular luggage, he's

29:05 Speaker 1 gonna have another item, which is a box of matzah, and he's gonna take it from the hou-- from the airport to the car, from the car to the hotel, et cetera. So I had a similar question, perhaps a bit more extreme, several years ago. Um, uh, 10, 15 years ago. A lad who was duly con-- duly, um, inspired to put on tefillin every day, and it's like an hour before Shabbos, and he calls up his shliach rabbi at campus, rabbi, and he says, "Rabbi, I'm going tonight to Holland for 10 days, and where I'm going to be, there gonna-- no chance of borrowing tefillin. Should I take my tefillin with?" While he's traveling on Friday night. Now, this is, this is the kind of shailas which you only get in Lubavitch, yeah? He's, he's, he's traveling Friday night, he's, uh, and he's puts on tefillin and is asking whether he should take his tefillin with when he travels Friday night. Now, the question in a different form existed even the First World War. You had Yiddisher soldiers, and they had their backpack of their essential supplies and the tefillin. And if they are sent on a mission on Shabbos, they take their pack with them. Do they take the tefillin? So the Chofetz Chaim says that they should. The difference is that there, there, the essentials, which is pikuach nefesh, and they're taking the tefillin with, so it's part of a package. So the tefillin's not on its own. It's kind of the, the ca-carriage

30:43 Speaker 1 of the tefillin is kind of exonerated by the, by the, uh, by the pikuach nefesh stuff, supplies. Here, in the case of this lad who's traveling to Holland, whatever he has there is probably not pikuach nefesh. Um, and therefore, there's nothing kind of to say, "Oh, it's great he's taking essential stuff. Therefore, he can take the tefillin. There's no hetter." So I, I, I actually, uh, said that he should not advise him to take film. Maximum I would say is, tell him I cannot answer such a question. If you, if you go on to tell him, "Don't take the film," tell him, "I can't answer." And coming back to the same thing here. To tell-- To give a person the matzahs, and you know that he's going to carry them on Shabbos in a way which is pro- which is forbidden, I, I think is a, is a problem because you are, uh, you are adding. He's-- Like this, he'll be carrying twenty kilos, and now he's gonna carry twenty-one kilo on, on Shabbos in a forbidden way. So we shouldn't really be giving people stuff to carry on Shabbos. It might be a bit surprising for some, but that's, that's the feeling I have about it at the moment. Okay, let's see. Someone on the chat says, "Do we say a brocha on b'rikas chametz, checking the prepared freezer, kitchen, even if that's two weeks before?" The answer is no. You never make a brocha on b'rikas chametz other than on the night of

32:03 Speaker 1 the-- going into the fourteenth or later. So we had the Airbnb, et cetera, that would be during Pesach might be to make a brocha. But if you do b'rikas chametz earlier, and thanks you-- thanks for asking that. No, you would not make a brocha earlier than the, than, uh, the four-- the eve of the fourteenth. So it's a b'rika. And the same thing, a person who's traveling, doing a b'rikas chametz, they would do a b'rikas chametz but without a brocha because it's not the time which was instituted by the Chachamim. Thank you. Let's move on. So here, someone was asking about what's the time for-- about... Oh, so here, here, here's the following question. There is a time which is called tzet ha-kochavim, which is when three stars are visible, and in this we know that there's a difference in our other poskim. The Alter Rebbe has an earlier tzet ha-kochavim time than other poskim. Generally, for Ma'ariv, let's say, we will f- we follow the Alter Rebbe's zman. As we know, it's, uh, for Shema, et cetera, it's considered night. But when it comes to Motza'i Shabbos, we've always kept to the, what we call the shtot zman, the, the later time, um, which is, could be even twenty minutes later. When it comes to lighting candles the second night of Yom Tov. So bearing in mind that second day of Yom Tov, min haTorah, is a weekday. Therefore, you could not do something, a melacha, on day one for day two. So therefore,

33:50 Speaker 1 the general meaning is that lighting candles the second night of Yom Tov will be at the time of Motza'i Shabbos, if it were a Shabbos. Yeah. So here it becomes an interesting anomaly. You look on the calen- our calendar, it says that tzet ha-kochavim is ten to seven. Then it says candle lighting is ten past eight. Sorry, ten to, ten to, ten to eight, and it's ten past eight. It's a difference of twenty minutes. In a public Seder setting, twenty minutes is a lot of time. And so they're asking, do we have to wait, um, to start the Seder until ten past eight when tzet ha-kochavim was ten to eight? This is, this is the dilemma. So the earliest one who we have who addresses b'klal this inyan, this is the introduction to the Prisha on the Torah. He talks about his mother or his mother-in-law and how she was a knowledgeable person. And she writ-- he writes that, that when it comes to second, the night of Yom Tov, the second night of Yom Tov, because of Sefik HaDe'ah, you can't, uh, prepare from one day to the other, then they would light only after, after Ma'ariv time. The first night, y- you'd light-- She's encouraging to light it at, uh, as, as we do. Most, I think nowadays, most of us light, uh, the women would, would light at the beginning of Yom Tov at, at same, same as for Friday. But then here, let's read. This is on the Nite Gavriel. So

35:28 Speaker 1 the second night of Yom Tov, we wait till nightfall because you can't prepare from day one to, to day, day two. Some say that you are allowed to light close to nightfall because it's getting dark. But then he says, "But if you've got the electric lights on, there's no need to light candles now." Let's say it's seven, seven thirty. You don't need the, uh, there is adequate light to ca-- to manage, so why are you lighting candles now? It's not for now, it's for later. Well, then that's a problem of preparing from one day to the next. So... All right. So what I did answer to this shluchim who, uh, asked me is, I said like this, that there's a zman of tzet ha-kochavim. Uh, so then what-- Here was a question. Could they perhaps start the Seder and then do lighting candles at ten pa-- Let's start the Seder at five to eight and light the candles at ten past eight. I felt that was, like, very strange. By-- When you make Kiddush, the candles already are lit. So I said there is room to be makil. That let's say you have the zman of tzet ha-kochavim, and give it another five minutes. And after that, they could, they could, they, the women could light the candles. And although it's a little bit earlier than the time which is lit- written in the calendar, but I felt this, that it is, it is permitted to light a little bit earlier. Um, and we're not

36:58 Speaker 1 talking about, chas veshalom, when it-- the first day is Shabbos going into Yom Tov. I'm talking about if Yom Tov to Yom Tov. So from the zman of tzet ha-kochavim, which is, let's say, in this example is ten to eight. Let's say five to eight. You have a little bit of a twice, twice Yom Terumah, and then you could light the candles and, and then go straight into the, uh, meal. That's all for the Seder night, yeah? Um, 'cause the Seder night you can't start early, much early in any case. When you've got two days Yom Terumah, and we're jumping ahead perhaps for the last days of Yom Terumah or for Shavuot, what happens if you are having the second meal an hour earlier? People are having Ma'ariv early. Let's say the second night of Shavuot, they'll have Ma'ariv early, and they're having the meal early. What do you do about lighting candles? So I would say you light candles before you start the meal. The fact that you, um, and even though the Halacha says it's going to be lighting candles at ten past, ten past 10:00, or something like that, but if you're starting the meal at nine o'clock, so you light candles before you make Kiddush for the second night. Okay. That one perhaps we'll come back to that when we, when it gets closer to that time. Um, right. When you... Someone's asking, "When you do the Bedika early, apart from the Beracha, do you deliberately put in some wrapped Chametz?"

38:13 Speaker 1 The answer is no. No, no pieces. It's, you're looking for Chametz, yeah, but you're not gonna put in the wrapped Chametz or anything like that. It's, it's just pure, simple </i>Chai of Diggas Chametz</i>. Not with the other, for want of Yiddish, although another word, all other pitch of kiss with the bits in it. It's, um, just to make sure, you know, with a candle or with a torch to make sure that there's no, no, no, uh, crumbs left there. Let's move on. And here was a question that a community loaned a Sefer Torah to another small shul, and it was reported that they, they had found a, a So bottle bitul will take away a problem, but it will not give a status. It will relieve a problem, it will not give a status. So I'm giving my own example. Let's say you have a mezuzah which was written by a goy. Perfect, yeah? You have a mezuzah written, you know it was not written kosher. Looks perfect, but it's, it's no good. And it's now mixed in amongst another fifty, sixty, a hundred mezuzahs. Does it become kosher? It's, it's, it's not that it has a isur on it, and the isur is gonna be dissolved. Here it has to have a status, it has to have Lechem, Lechem, Lechem Mitzvah. And M- Mitzvahs, and it's not gonna become, it's not gonna become kosher. It's not gonna become Lechem through bitul. Bitul's gonna take away a problem, it's not going to give it a

41:47 Speaker 1 status. And therefore, the mixture of the Sefer Torah is not gonna make the kosher, the not kosher one kosher. It's not kosher. So bitul, the bitul doesn't really work. In this particular instance, though, my feeling was that the person who had said that they'd found a pesul was not so reliable. And they said they found a problem, you know, perhaps they... And, and, and, and just adding, and we've discussed this more than once, the posi- the position of the Rambam, not in Sefer Yad. The Rambam in a Teshuvah writes that a pasul of Sefer Torah is kosher for reading. When it says if a Sefer Torah is missing a single letter, the Sefer Torah is pasul, that means that you have forfeited the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah. Like if you have one letter missing in a mezuzah, the mezuzah is pasul. So here, there's a mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah. If you have one letter missing, it's pasul. But who says that Kriyat HaTorah has to be with a kosher Sefer Torah? The greatest proof to this is, it says, I think, in Maimonides, I think, "We don't use a Chumash as in a scroll of Vayikra Vamidbar. </i>Ein Korim B'Chumashim B'Tzippur M'Nekudat Tzippur</i>. You don't use a scroll just of Vayikra to do Kriyat HaTorah because it's disrespectful to the congregation. If it's just got Vayikra, it's got eighty percent missing. And you say the only thing is because it's, it's a Kovod HaSefer. So that, that the Rambam's, uh, argument

43:16 Speaker 1 is that a Pos-- a sefer Torah which is missing a letter does not disqualify it for Kirat HaTorah. Therefore, I'm combining two points over here. One is I don't fully rely on the report that it's Posul. The second point is that even if it is Posul, that doesn't mean you can't do Kirat HaTorah. Let's move on. Um, someone's asking the following: We can do B'dias Hametz by day in a place other than home without a Bracha. Right. Well, normally, ideally, B'dias Hametz should be done by night. So let's say if you've got an office, and, you know, even if you're not doing the B'dias Hametz on the night of B'dias Hametz, you're doing it a, a day before. Perfectly-- preferably it should be by night. If for whatever reason you cannot do by night, then you do it by day. Also, if there's lots of natural light, you could do B'dias Hametz by day. But generally, B'dias Hametz should be done by night. Ir-irrelevant whether it's a Bracha or not. Someone's sending me some, uh, information about the growth of mushrooms. Um, well, obviously, I'm not going to start looking it up now because I don't want to keep you all guys twiddling your thumbs whilst I'm looking at a website. So look, thank you. I'll look it up later. . Right, let's move on. All right, so this is another source which is addressing this very question. Um, . You could read the Sefer Torah because of Sefek Sefeka. Perhaps it's not in this

44:55 Speaker 1 Chumash. And even if it is, you can rely on the Rambam who says you could read Kirat HaTorah from a Posul Sefer Torah. Okay, um, almost finished our agenda for tonight. I was last week in, uh, another community. It was-- last week was Shabbos Parashat HaChodesh, and so it was one of those days when we have two Sifrei Torah. And this question of when you have two Sifrei Torah, we do the switchover, we bring the second Sefer Torah on the Bima, to the Bima, and then Kaddish is said. And actually, even when you got three Sifrei Torah or, or, or Shabbos Chanuk-- Um, sorry, no, no, no, no, no, a Rosh Chodesh of Chanukah, even when no Kaddish is said, but when you switch Sifrei Torah, so there's a say that you put the second Sefer Torah on the Bima before taking away the first, before Hagbah. That is in a sense to say, "I not want-- I don't want to leave the Bima vacant as if there's, uh, there's no Sefer Torah." You-- There's, there's this kind of relay that the word is. That was an overlap. So you bring the second Sefer Torah to the Bima before you take away the first. My question is, which side do you put the second Sefer Torah, to the left or to the right? So in our shul, we've always been doing, as far as I remember, been putting on-- The new Sefer Torah is put to the right, and the older Sefer Torah is to

46:25 Speaker 1 the left. But I did a, um-- I looked up, and here in Piskei Teshuvos, he quotes here from Rav, um, Rav Nasher Klein to, to put it on the left, to put the new one on the left. So let's read this inside. So this is quo-quo-quote from the Shulchan Aruch, that we take the second Sefer Torah, we put it on the Shulchan, as in the what we call the Bima, before Kaddish, and Kaddish is said with both Sifrei Torah on the Bima. And then he says you put the second one to the left of the first one. It should be closer to the Bal Koirah. Otherwise, it'd be a question of Mavar Al Hamitzvos. I don't really understand what he means that it should be closer to the Bal Koirah, that, that-- Otherwise, well, mean-meanwhile they're gonna do Hagbah, take it away. And then there will be, there won't be any question of Mavar Al Hamitzvos. So why, why, why-- I don't see why he has a problem of having to put it that way. So he writes, he's the only one who, uh, who's quoted in various Maharktim to put the second Sefer Torah on the left. My challenge to this is, we have here, this is a Mishnah, Mishnah in, in Sukkah. But they have it in else-elsewhere also. On every Shabbos, there would be a switchover of the crew of the, uh, the, of Kohenim who were on duty. You have the, um, Botei Avos, et cetera. Mish-- You have twenty-four Mishmaros.

47:55 Speaker 1 The family, the tribe of Kohanim, so to speak, are divided into twenty-four groups. If you, uh, noticed in the Kinnus, one of the earlier parts of the Kinnus, as it goes through the names of the, the twenty-four groups of, of Mishmaros and which town they lived. And, uh, they're mentioned a few times in the Mishnah. Not, not in much detail. But there would be a switchover on Shabbos. Every Shabbos, there was another switchover, and that is the, the Lechem HaPanim, the twelve loaves which are on the table inside the Heichal, in the, the sanctuary. They're switched over, and they put the fresh ones, and the old ones, which were there for the past week, are now taken out, and they are distributed to the Kohanim who are on duty that day. So it says here that the incoming would take six loaves and the outgoing would take six loaves. So they would divide the twelve loaves between the two groups of the incoming, uh, group of Kohanim and the outgoing group of Kohanim. And the other says actually, , the incoming group is given seven. And the outgoing group takes five. So there's a privilege given to the incoming over the outgoing. Then there's another da-detail. There's one Cheshbon here is because they, they lock the gates. On that day, they're gonna be locking the... Well, that Cheshbon, that's the Leviyim, not the Kohanim. All right, fine. I don't remember the detail. But meanwhile, it says, . You have the Azarah. You got the north

49:39 Speaker 1 side and the south side. The north side is the more sacred. That's the area of . And the south side is the less sacred. So they would-- The dis-this distribution of the loaves of the Lechem HaPanim of the incoming was done on the north side, and the outgoing would be done on the south side. So what I'm seeing here is that the incoming is given greater privilege than the outgoing. So that's why I'm thinking that the Sefer Torah should be placed on the right because of the chashivus of the incoming Sefer Torah, um, over the outgoing Sefer Torah. But, uh, as I say, I- the only one in the Poskim who addresses this is this M- M- M- Menashe Klein in his-- Rabbi Menashe Klein in the Mishnah Halachot. Um, and I'm, I'm curious to know what other communities are doing. And, uh, yeah. Someone is writing here, "Perhaps the bimah referred to, the biskeit shul was wide enough to do Hagbah and leave the Sefer-- Sefer Torah." That's another issue of wh-whether you have it on the, um, by, during Hagbah. But for sure, we have a, a Shu"t Chen-Roach that says you have to bring the second Sefer Torah before the first. No question about that. All our question is, on which side you pl-put it. Okay, another couple of minutes, and I wanna share with you the following. Okay, so this is-- It's not on your, your sheets. I-- And added just to make up the minyan. So, uh, another Ha'arah. And,

51:22 Speaker 1 and, um, there are in-- among the students who are also listening now or to the recording, and I'm a little bit puzzled here. This is in Siman Tof, Ayin Heh, Sif Yud Ches, talking about Korech. It talks here about-- Korech is you're fulfilling Mitzvah of Maror. According to Hillel, you're only fulfilling Mitzvah of Maror when you have the Korech. Therefore, you should not chat bedavar she'ein hu b'inyan ha-seda. You shouldn't re-- talk about stuff which is unrelated to the meal from the beracha al achilat matzah until after Korech, so that the beracha of al achilat matzah and the beracha of Maror should be included for Korech, according to Hillel. Then he says, "If you did talk bedavar she'ein hu b'inyan ha-seda, then bedavar she'hu b'inyan ha-seda, and again, dezah harishon le-asiach tzum u'mamnoch u'makpid not to talk about stuff which is irrelevant to the seda and from al achilat matzah until after rafiq Korech. I'm asking a simple question. There's a mitzvah of matzah, there's a mitzvah of Maror. And so I understand you shouldn't interrupt about unrelated things between matzah and matzah, between Maror and Maror. So the beracha should be-- What's the chicken soup got to do with it? I'm talking about if I'm-- If b'inyan ha-seda, so between, between the beracha al achilat Maror and having, having the Korech, am I allowed to talk about the chicken soup? It's, it's allowed because it's b'inyan ha-seda. But it's got nothing to do with the mitzvah. So why is it again and again, four

53:11 Speaker 1 times in this Sif, b'ein-- b'inyan ha-seda? We should have been talking about b'inyan ha-mitzvah. Maror, matzah, whatever. Why is it b'inyan ha-seda? That was what bothering me. It's been bothering me for years. What occurred to me, and, um, uh, if someone's gonna demolish it, it's okay. Just a thought. The seda on the night of Pesach is part of the celebration of Pesach. So it's not-- Uh, if you talk about the chicken soup or the dessert, or you're talking about whatever it may be, what was gonna be served tonight, all of that is celebrating Pesach. And therefore, it's not in-- It's not talking about whether Spar-Spurs beat Chelsea. It's talking about something got to do with the mitzvah. That's got to do with tonight's mitzvah, whether it's matzah or Maror. The whole meal is also b'inyan ha-mitzvah. The loshon b'inyan ha-seda, by the way, I looked it up. It's in the Alter Rebe Shu"t in the Mechaber also, in the, uh, in, uh, Yosef Caro writes also this word, b'inyan ha-seda, and probably from earlier also. But I'm just suggesting that because this night is a night of celebrating the, uh, Yetziat Mitzrayim, so the whole meal, even the not matzah or Maror stuff, is also m-a m-a mitzvah, and therefore it doesn't constitute a hefsek. Uh, but yeah, l'chatchila, we said that even if b'inyan ha-seda, l'chatchila, you should avoid. But if you did, it's, it, it, it's-- it wouldn't be a hefsek. Just, I'm gonna finish off and share with you. We watched the,

54:47 Speaker 1 um, the, the, um, Living Torah tonight, and we saw again and again the Rebbe was asking a child, "Did you prepare the kashe? Do you know the four questions?" And then he says, "Does the father know the answers? Do you know how to-- Do you know the answer?" And I was in Vienna last week, and Rabbi Schneebaum from Edgware, he told of a very c-cute vort about the, the, the Ben Ish Chai saying, "Ma avodas is lachem?" And we say, "Vamarta zevach Pesach hu laShem." So he explained, obviously, in a way of Derch HaChassidus and remez, et cetera. Ma avodas is lachem, the child is saying, "Tati, I see you're so, uh, excited. You're wearing, you know, your-- You're so enthusiastic. Such an avoda. I'm, uh, I'm not used to seeing you so enthusiastic. Ma avodas is lachem?" Vamarta, so you say, "Zevach Pesach hu laShem." The word zevach means to cut in half. Like to shech, to cut in half. Pesach, you're gonna like this. Pesach is-- Peh is eighty. The half of eighty is Mem. Samech is sixty. Half of Me-- Samech is Lamed. Ches is eight. Half of that is Daled. That's Lamed. Half of Pesach is lamed. Lamed yom if nearchak, thirty days before Pesach, you start re-learning about Pesach. And then it's thirty days and it's lama to learn. So when you learn before Pesach, you spend the time before Pesach, that's the father's answer. I didn't just land in, in, in the Seder, you know, without preparation. You ask

56:33 Speaker 1 him, "How am I enthus- enthusiastic?" So the answer is, "You have to spend time preparing for the Seder." And so that's going back what the Rebbe had said, and again, that's what I'm taking from the Rebbe saying to these people, to the fathers, "Do you know what to answer?" We have to, in addition to preparing, you know, uh, uh, chicken soup, we also have to prepare to know what to answer to the, to the children, to the, the-- What's, what's the message you take away from Pesach? So, so now we're, we're ready. We have less than lamed yom, but to use a sp- when you have a spare moment or find a spare moment to prepare something to, uh, um, to share at the Seder with your family. Wish you a Gutten Vorach and, um... Oh, and I have to ask you, I, I want to have a vote whether we switch to Sunday night or to, to Thursday night. So I'm going to-- I don't know what a straw poll is, but I'm going to send out the Blinader. This coming week, we'll do it Thursday in any case. But for the summer after Pesach, do we do a Sunday night or a Thursday night? And I'll ask you, and please respond, what's your preference, and, uh, we'll go with the majority. Kol tuv. Hag Sameach.

57:54 Speaker 2 Thanks.

57:55 Speaker 1 Shavua tov. Gut Vorach. Gut Vorach. Shavua tov. Vorach. With a little help from her wife, Gail