במדבר תשפ״ג

00:09 Speaker 1 Evening, and welcome to the Shiur. This is, uh, Sunday of Parshas Vaymidbar. Let's go straight into our questions. So the first question someone asked me is, he knows that if you're not able to daven with a minyan, there is encouragement to daven at the same time as the minyan. As equally, there is a value of, if you can't get to the minyan, but to daven in a shul where, where people daven. So now he's got this dilemma where it's either one or the other. He won't be able to daven in shul with a minyan. He can either daven at home earlier at the same time or at the minyan, or he can daven in a shul later without the minyan. So he's asking which is priority. So let's read the Halakha in Shulchan Aruch. This is in Siman Tsadik. So first of all, the value of just getting these points in, in, in, in place. The im hu onos she'ein yachel, having to discuss the virtue of praying in shul, then he said, with a, with a tzibur, with a m- with a commu- congregation. If a person is unable to get to, to this shul, then she'tash choychli. Let's say he's feeling feeble. Ah, af al pi she'ein hu choyel. He's not necessarily on the level of be- bedridden, but he's not, not feeling so, uh, energetic. Im hi af sh'lo la'aseh ha-sora b-b- et ha'eilov, and he's not capable of getting a minyan together at home, yesh lei lechavin l'hispalel beshalal sh'hatzibur mispalalim.

01:58 Speaker 1 Then he should try to zone in to pray at the same time when the congregation are praying b'beit hak nesses. So you're davening at home because you don't have the energy to go to shul, but try to daven, m- means particularly Shema and Esther. Try to kind of synchronize that you should be davening at the same time as the minyan at the congregation in shul. Shehi eitz rotsin, because that's an auspicious time. Ve'ein t'filaso nitches. And your t'fila, your prayer will not be rejected. Af al pi she'aino mechabel v'rotsin k've'beit, uh, beit hak nesses. It's not the same as davening in shul, but the fact that you are synchronized, you are davening at the same time as the tzibur, your t'fila, your prayer won't be rejected, although it's not at the same level as davening in the shul. So that's one value of davening at the same time as the minyan is davening in shul. Then we have a second value. Mi shehu be'ir venana v'hisparel matzibur. Someone who's local and he didn't manage to get to shul. Vu mispalel b'yochid l'chachash shekvar komu kol hatzibur. T'filas b'beit hak nesses. He's davening on his own, and the tzibur have davened already. Af al pi chen, yesh lei hispalel b'beit hak nesses. He should still endeavor to daven in a shul. Epnei shehu makom kavua umeyuchad l'tefilas hatzibur. Because this is the location which is designated for communal prayer. U'tefilas ishel adam nishma as shul. And the person's prayer is listened to when it's said in

03:47 Speaker 1 this holy location, as was discussed earlier. Plus, v'gam m'pnei shehakadosh Baruch Hu matzu b'beit hak nesses. There's a godly presence in the shul. She'namei elehim nitzova ad as keel. God is present in the godly congregation. Koloima b'beit moi'et sh'lo. He takes the word ei- ad as as in moi'et, the meeting place, where, where, you, y- y- you're not meeting to daven. Ha-kashat, the k'viyochal d'shechina is there. So now, looking at these two expressions, that the shul is a eitz rotsin and your t'fila is not, uh, uh, you're davening at the same time, eitz rotsin, your t'fila isn't rejected. Here he says, "If you're davening in a shul, your t'fila is a heard." I somehow feel that the language used for davening, the value of davening in shul is more powerful. That his t'fila is listened to, not just his t'fila isn't rejected, his t'fila is listened to. Um, so that's-- I'm, I'm more inclined to say that davening in shul at a later point is more valuable than davening at home at the same time as the minyan. However, in the Piskei Teshuva, he quotes Reb Shlomo Zalman to says the opposite. He says here... Well, let's start over here. He says, um, "There is the importance of davening at the same time as the minyan. That's not a justification to skip parts of davening to be able to catch up with the minyan wherever they may be." It's-- But then he says that, "Davening t- at the same time as the minyan is greater

05:36 Speaker 1 than davening in the shul, uh, uh, um, on your own. Therefore," he says, "it's preferable to pray at home at the time of the shul, rather than to daven in the shul on your own when there's no congregation." Now, this is Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. It is-- I, I checked it up. In-- There's something called Halichot Shlomo. These are like what was, what we in Lubavitch language would call, um, Anochi Bilti Muge or something, of Talmidim who heard things from him. Um, it doesn't bring any real proofs there. And so, all right. Um, as I say, I'm more inclined the other way around, but whichever way you do your, you know, your... Both of them have got value, yeah? Okay. Let's move on. Um, number two. Okay. So here's something, uh, I, as you may know, I had a, a grandson born last Sunday. The bris was meant to have been today. It, it didn't happen because the baby was jaundiced. But, uh, BeEzrat Hashem, it'll be Bizman HaBó. Whenever it's gonna be, it's gonna be Bizman HaBó. But meanwhile, I've been working on a, on a manuscript from, written about, um... It was written about 19- about 1860. In that, in that, in that region. '68. In 1880. It's, uh, that's when it was written. And, uh, it's a collection. It's about 400 pages of, uh, collated from different foreign sources, comments, explanations about tefillah. So, because of the bris, and the imminent bris, I, uh, selected from the manuscript the following. So there

07:25 Speaker 1 was a, someone by the name of Sharshavski, who was... He, uh, this Yidel, Yidel Sharshavski was a, a, he taught Talmud in a seminar which was, uh, under the Maskilim, the Enlightenment. I'm not sure whether it's Kovno or somewhere in the Litwa. And he challenged the expression which we have at a bris, where we say, um, we mention, we designate the chair. We say, "Ze ha kisse shel Eliyahu Hanavi zechu l'toiv." And then we say, "Eliyahu malach habris," the angel of the covenant. "Hineh sh'locha lefanecha," behold, yours is before you. And then we say to, we say, "Amoda limini ve'azor beni," stand on my right and support me. So there is a, he, this, uh, Sharshavski, he has a problem with this language because we shouldn't be praying to malachim, to angels. This be pos-possibly also, uh, how you say, colored by the malach- the, the Maskilim having a, a problem with anything which they don't really see with their eyes. As we know, even the story with, uh, Shimon, Shimon of Zamot, which is also a town in the Litwa. Shimon of Zamot comes to Zveladi or Liozno, and he, he meets the Alter Rebbe. I think it's Tetov Kuf Nun Bet. And, uh, Alter Rebbe asks him about how does he teach the children about when Yitzchak finds out that Yaakov has taken the brachos, and how the Gehenna opens up under his feet. And, uh, and he says he doesn't want to tell the children frightening things. And the Alter Rebbe kind

09:10 Speaker 1 of sassed him out. But this is, uh, typical for, for the, for Maskilim. But then, then this, that, that was his problem. But he, he professes they had a problem. How can we pray, uh, and, or make an offering to Eliyahu as a malach? So this, s- the response is written by someone by the name of, um, he, he, he signs his name as Sar Ho HaDulomi. So I did some research last night. He was a, a scholar. More scholar than a Talmid Chacham, as in more, like in language, that kind of stuff. His son wrote a Sefer which is very popular in the Litvish yeshivas called Marcheshet. But the father was a little bit kind of... So he used his scholarl- his scholarliness to rebut the, the Maskilim. So he's, he fought them on their territory, so to speak. So he says that you, that, that, that's, this, uh, the, uh, he explains what's being said over here, uh, at the, at the bris. So he explains at length. This is, as I say, it's about a hundred and, uh, forty years ago, hundred sixty years ago. He explains at length how in, uh, Jewish communities, there would be, at the back of the shul, there would be a small passage, a small doorway, and that was called the meleitir. And that was where the baby boy would be brought in for the bris. And the kovaterin would come to the door on that small, on the outside, and the kovater would be on

10:47 Speaker 1 the inside and take the baby into the bris. On the back wall, they would have a special chair. It was a double-seated chair, well-padded, and it was designated for Kisse shel Eliyahu. That would be normally suspended on hooks on the western wall, on the back of the shul. When a bris would be taking place, so the shamas would take this chair off the suspended, uh, hooks, and he would bring it into the middle of the shul where the bris is gonna be held, where it would take place, and the people would stand around. So it says in the Zohar that it's important not only to have a chair for Eliyahu, but it's important to say, to designate, this is the chair for Eliyahu. And this Zohar is quoted in the Shulchan Aruch, that it's important to designate the chair orally. So what he says is, it is this, the, the shamas who says this first phrase, "Ze ha kisse shel Eliyahu zechu l'toiv." That's the shamas' piece. Then the mohel starts gearing up for his work, and he says, you know, he realizes that he's, it's a very, it's a risky thing which he's undertaking to do. So he says, "Lish'os kach v'isi Hashem." Please, Hashem, protect me. I have hoped-- I'm hoping for your salvation. And you're-- I, I'm d-doing your mitzvahs. So he's going to carry out the mitzvah of the Bris. Therefore, he says . Now, the m- Sandek is now comes over, and he is told you have to sit at

12:38 Speaker 1 this seat. There's two, there's two padded seats, one next to the other, and the S- the Sandek is obviously uncomfortable to sit on the seat of Eliyahu. So, so he notices there's two seats there. One is for Eliyahu, one is for him. He say, he says to the... I'm addressing the Eliyahu. I know you're present here. Here is your chair. I'm not sitting in your chair, I'm sitting next to you. Then the father, then the Mohel turns to the father who is trembling at the side, and he says, "Well, actually, come over and stand next to me." Father is c- The, the father is called by the Mohel to stand right next to him. and to empower me. Endorse me. Give me, and as you see many times, the M- the Mohel will say, will say to the, the father, uh, "Make me a shliach." So this is what he's saying. is not an appeal to Eliyahu Hanavi to support the Mohel, but rather it's a, it's, it's calling the father to stand next to the Mohel and to em-empower the Mohel. S-see, then the f- then the . Now the father is now standing and, as I said, in trepidation. So he again says . Now this pasuk is not in Nusach Chabad, not in Alter Rebbe's Nusach, but in other, in, in Nusach, this pasuk is said again. But the first time, as you can see, it's the full pasuk. That's said by the Mohel because he's gonna carry out the mitzvah. The

14:23 Speaker 1 father is not doing the mitzvah personally, therefore, he just says I'm hoping, Hashem, I'm want-- I'm hoping for your salvation. Then that's his trepidation. Then he switches to the positive and he says, I'm rejoicing for your statement, as one who's found a great, um, spoil, a great, um, fortune. So his, his prayer and his, his simcha at doing the Bris. The Kohal respond, and they say two pesukim. In reference to the anxiety of the father, the pa-- the community, the congregation present say, Great peace for those who love your Torah. And they will not be, uh, stumbling. So they, he-- you're worried about a mistake happening, um, so it'll be, it'll, it'll be okay. And the fact that you are rejoicing, that you are bringing your child into the covenant of Abraham, indeed, happy is the one who's, you know, chosen and can be brought closer and g- come closer to Hashem as well. So this is how this, uh, Sar Ha'adulami, how this, uh, how he, how he rebuts the concern. And he explains at length how what happened. That originally this was all done, it was... people knew what to s- each one knew what to say, and he says that perhaps it was em-embroidered on the padding of the chair. That this was embroidered. And it did not say who says what. And when the printers later came in the, uh, advent of printing, they didn't realize that these are pesukim said by different people, and therefore they put them all in

16:11 Speaker 1 one stretch, and they're all said together. All right. That's interesting, um, explanation. Now, just a couple of points here. One is that actually in the Zohar it says that the Mohel, as far as I remember, the Mohel says, and then the Kohal say, . In some Siddurim and in some Minhogim, that is observed to this day. Um, in our Siddur, there's no distinction, which is, which is interesting. And, um, that's one point. The other point is, I want to say that I remember as a child that my father would u- although our children was a Mohel, and there would always be two chairs for the Sandek. And for the, for the Sandek and for Eliyahu, two separate chairs. And then at some stage this changed, and that was because a letter of the Rebbe from winter, Taf Shin Yud Aleph, um, 1951, wha- around then, the Rebbe says that he remembers he was at a Bris in Warsaw, and the Mohel was a Polisher, and he, as far as he remembers, that there was one chair. Okay? Now, just about seventeen years ago, Yehoshua Mondschein, Alav Ha-Shalom, my cousin, sent me... I, my, that was when my first grandson was born, and he sent me something which he found in my grandfather's files, in his archives. My fa-grand, my grandfather, Rabbi Aky Veysiv, was a Mohel in, in Eretz Yisrael. And in Iyar, Taf Shin Yud Aleph, uh, about three months after that letter of the Rebbe, my Uncle Dovid, who li-- was a, a

18:06 Speaker 1 bochur in New York, he writes to my Zayde in Eretz Yisrael that today there was a Bris- By a grandson of Eli Yaakov, that's Rabbi Rosenfeld, who runs the seminary in Slaw. That was-- He was born then. And the Rebbe was the sandek. And the mohel wanted to use one chair, and the Rebbe said to use two chairs because that's how it's mashma-- If I remember in, in the Shul or something. I, I can look it up. The Rebbe, in other words, contrary to what the Rebbe had written a few months earlier, that he's more inclined to say that it should be one chair. The Rebbe himself, when he was sandek, he says there should be, be two chairs. So that's, that's, you know, I, I, I would... When, uh, when someone asks me, I tell them to use two chairs. Now, what I know that Rabbi Eli Lando, who lives in Bnei Brak, and he's, uh, active mohel, as well as many other wonderful things. So his, his take on this is to have two chairs, but then to cover them with a blanket or something, and that way that the two chairs are kind of connected as one. Which now, having read this whole article from a hundred and forty years ago, a hundred and sixty years ago, describing the Kisse shel Eliyahu as it was common in, in Litva, in Belarus, et cetera, to have a, a, a, a, uh, a double-seated chair and two-- clearly two separate pads to separate one

19:34 Speaker 1 for Eliyahu and one for the, for the, for the sandek. So it kind of ties in. See, if you don't have a special Kisse shel Eliyahu, but then to have, to have t-two chairs and one chair kind of, kind of i-in one. All right. So enough discussion of that for the moment. I'm sure we'll get some feedback on that, but, um, okay. Let's move on. So someone was asking, one of our listeners in the United States, he's asking about walking in front of a, uh, sensor, which is gonna switch on, switch lights on. And now it's very common in, in b-buildings, apartment buildings, uh, that they have lights which go on as you go in and out, and what's the story for Shabbos? So what's-- what you have on the screen is from Rav Padva, Zecher l'roche Rav Henoch, and from Rav Ovsner. But they're not talking about lights in buildings, they're lo- talking about lights on the street, where someone would put up a light sensor as a deterrent for thieves. And when you pass and walk the street, then you sometimes activate those lights. That's what they are, uh, addressing here. So he writes here, this is Rabbi Ovsner. They both, both say sim-say similar stuff. If you're just walking innocently, and you're not as if you're doing anything in order to cause a melacha to happen, and it just happens, so long as you have no intention to go to this point in order to activate the light, then that's not called

21:16 Speaker 1 a melacha. And he says, um, it's not melacha at all. Okay. And don't compare this to doors which are activated by sensors with an electric eye, because there, of course you want the conseque-- you want the result, that the door should open for you, and that's not allowed. Here, you're just walking on your merry way, and there's a, a sensor which is picking up. You have no interest in it at all, so that's, so that's okay. And ag- and I think he does say, well, that's talking about where, um, you have no... Well, he doesn't say here necessarily where you have no option. I think Rav Padva does say that. In kosheh lehi mona milada derachav. If it's difficult for you to avoid using that route, then you are allowed to use that route. So that's, that's the basic position that, uh, if you, if, if that's the only route you can get to or from your destination or your home, et cetera, then you're allowed to pass by, so long as you don't... Now, having said that, I've been asked this question several times. What about someone who wants to buy or rent a place in a building, and in that building, there are sensors? So he asks, "Is it okay for me to move into this building where I'm going to have to be activating sensors every Shabbos?" So it's certainly not l'chatchila. It's not an advisable s-setup. Problem is that some, you know, uh, that like we all know, sometimes it's very

23:01 Speaker 1 difficult to find accommodation in bigger cities. Uh, it's very difficult to find something. So it's not, it's not a l'chatchila. Then i-inside a... You know, going, going inside the corridor. To say that I don't care for the light going on or not, well, I actually had the, uh, experience. I was somewhere in Switzerland at someone's-- in a, in a, in an apartment building, and there it wasn't with sensors, it was with push buttons. By every floor, there's a button to push to activate. And I walked down the stairs in pitch black, and I missed a stair, fell over. Baruch Hashem, I survived. But, um, it, it wa- it was, it, it was dangerous, yeah? And so a little bit of light is actually very important to have. So to say I don't need the light is, is not really true. You do need that light. So if there is, in the corridor, m-minimal security lights, there's like a small glow, and then when you pass by, then it activates the bigger light. So as far as safety is concerned, your, your, your safety concerns are addressed already by the m-minimal light. The comfort, the extra light was okay. That's, that's, uh, that's, um, that's, that can be ignored. You can say, "I don't need it." But if it's pitch black... So then what happens if it is pitch black, there is no e-extra security light? So sometimes, um, when people are in such a situation, I advise them to put up their own battery-operated lantern

24:44 Speaker 1 out in the corridor, if possible. In that way, they have a minimal amount of light, and then they can ignore the, the, uh, the sensors going on. I've also been told, this, uh, I, I haven't checked it out myself, that if you walk very slowly, then the... it's not gonna activate the sensors. But that I haven't checked out. Someone's telling me that the Chief Rabbi was staying in Buckingham Palace last Shabbos. They provided a servant to walk in front of him to trigger the lights, Okay. Fine. Yeah. Very well. Let's move on. Let's move on. There's a separate discussion about using electric, uh, electric keys, which you touch a pad and it opens the door. These electronic pads. That's, uh, that's, that's more complicated. They say you mamash. But on, on the other hand, there's no fire happening. I remember once we had a conversation with Rav Padber, Rabbi, the ...</ , and he was trying to be marty with the Kalachayad. Uh, let's, let's move on. So someone this week asks me, "Can you give me a little bit of background about the difference in the way we wrap our tefillin, as a wrap around the arm, where there's a difference between Ashkenaz and Sfarad Hasidim, et cetera." Interesting. The Ger Hasidim, they keep to the Ashkenaz minhag of turning the, their tzitzit inwards rather than Minhag Sfarad, which is turning the tzitzit outwards. So this is you have here. You have in the Misht'be'chura, in Siman chaf zayin. The Alter Rebbe doesn't even

26:31 Speaker 1 address this, as far as I can see. But meanwhile, he says that the Rabbi Yaakov ben Chaviv, who was the Rebbe of the Bais Yosef, he says that the kasher needs to be on the inside of the tefillin, closer to the heart. But where the tzitzit goes into the loop, that, that is, that is beyond, like further away from the heart. And that's the, that's the, uh, Sfarad style, that you've got the loop is where the tzitzit goes through is on the far side, so to speak, of the tefillin, and then they do a, what we call a U-turn, and put it down, and as a result, they are rotating the, the, the straps outwards. The Darchei Moshe says it's actually better that the loop where the tefill- where the tefillin strap goes through is going to be also on the inside, near the heart, along with the keshet. So that... And then he also questions about Halakhahs Gedolos, that the tying should be close to the heart. And he also quest- uh, gives another reference. So we've got here two, two path, two, uh, methods, whether the, the loop is on the far side or the loop is on the inside. Well, the advantage of the Sfarad style is that the Yud, as in the kesher, the knot of the shaliach, because it's being pulled, the, the pull is away from the bo- uh, body, so that's pulling the knot towards the, towards the, uh, box of the tefillin. And it's very strong language

28:09 Speaker 1 in the Zohar that the Yud of the knot should not separate, be separated from the box of the tefillin. So the Sfarad style is pulling the knot closer to the, to the box. The Ashkenaz style has the advantage that the, uh, tightening is closer to the heart. Okay? So these are the two sides of it. Now, in Chabad style, we have both advantages together because we have the knot is on the inside, and we tighten it there. So you have... And, and then we, then we work outwards. So we, we're, we're tightening the... As we wrap the, we make the first shin on the arm, we're actually tightening the kesher, the Yud, to the bias. Uh, and I have seen Ashkenaz tefillin where the sofer has made with a, uh, gid, with a sinew, he made a string to tie the knot to the ball- to the bias, because otherwise it would be pulling away. So these are advantages for either way. There's another aspect here, which before Shavuot that we have a style in Halakha that whenever you turn, you should turn to the right. So when you are... You know, relevant to Hanukkah, et cetera. So when you are turning the tefillin inwards, so you are actually turning from the left to the right, from your left arm towards your right. Whereas if you're going outwards, you're going from the right to the left. Then he quotes here from the Kuntz Maharia. But actually, you know, when we write Hebrew, we are starting

29:55 Speaker 1 from the right of the page, and we are walk- and we're writing, moving towards the left of the page. And since tefillin, we have , that the tying of the tefillin is compared to the writing. So since in writing you go from right to left, therefore, it's also okay for the tying to go from right to left. But then, so here you're seeing the different views, and as I said, this, the Minhag Sfaradim is to tie outwards, and Ger, in this respect, in this aspect, they have s- clung to the Minhag Ashkenaz. Someone is saying here that Shlomo Zalman said... It probably means Shlomo HaMe'ach. Um, someone said that the Farbrengen, the Misnagdim wrap inwards towards themselves, and the Hasidim wrap to, to, and wrap out. Think about someone else, that's why you're wrapping outwards. Yeah. That's... I've heard that before. That's obviously more of Derech Hatzachas. But here we're talking about in Halakha. So this is the, this is the background. Um, the advantage of Minhag, of, of making the tightening closer in, that's the advantage of Minhag Ashkenaz and Chabad also have that. The advantage of Minhag Sfarad is that you are- Pulling the knot to, or to be touching the bias. And again, that you have, say, in Chabad, you know, in Chabad style, you're actually having the best of both. Um, not only in this, in many things, but fine. Let's move on. So someone asked me about piercing a carton or sachet, well, you can see the sachets over here,

31:33 Speaker 1 uh, of a drink, and it's, it's got a-- it's made of a thicker plastic, but at, there's a particular point where the plastic has got a hole, and inside there's a bit of silver foil, probably also a little bit of plastic also, but much thinner, and it comes along with a straw, if they still exist in the British Isles, and you, uh, you, you better push it through. And so, I, and the, this is also true with the small cartons, like the mini, um, orange juices, et cetera, apple juices. So are you allowed to open those on Shabbos to put the... Now, to explain what the shailah is here, there's a Mishnah in Shabbos, and it talks about a barrel which has got dates. And it says, "Shaver od hamachavis," a person is allowed to break open his barrel in order to... He wants to say to his guests, "Come and enjoy the stuff inside." "V'lo vatir lecha v'lo asis lo per," he shouldn't have intention to make a neat opening. So that's the, that's the, you know, the, the, the, uh, idea that you shouldn't be making a neat opening. That's why, for example, to tear open, you know, where the cartons, the bigger cartons, where the more, should I say, unsophisticated ones, it says you should pick up the fold over, and then you... It has a dotted line. It says, "Tear here along this dotted line." Well, to do that on Shabbos is not okay because you are making a neat opening.

33:02 Speaker 1 And I'm sure you have had the experience of a not, of a messy opening, and then that's a shlula for having orange juice all over the tablecloth. So making a neat opening would not be okay. That's what Mishnah says, "V'lo vatir lecha v'lo asis lo per." So here, this was, this is the kind of a question. Is this considered making a neat opening? And here we have from Rav Forchheim, zol zei gezunt. He's got a published four-sforum on Hilchos Shabbos, and the fourth volume has a whole chapter about opening containers, et cetera, et cetera. And so he writes the following. There are con-- uh, drinks, drink cartons, and they have a hole, and it has silver foil. And when you want to drink, you pierce the silver foil with a straw or something. So he says, "You are allowed to do so on Shabbos." And then he goes, he s-so, all right, then, then he talks about other things, but fine. So Rav, Rav Forchheim says it is okay, and I guess he's taking the view that this is not a neat opening. And, uh, all right, so there, there you have a heter. Fine. The common question is about dishwashers, and you find the, uh, utensils of one type, uh, in, on, in the other, in the other side. In the, there's a milky in the fleishig, fleishig in the milky. Now, I know that there's soap in the dishwasher, but apparently the first couple of minutes, there is a stream of boiling hot

34:43 Speaker 1 water without soap, and that's where I'm worried. So again, many times people ask me to mix up in the sink, and my first question to them is, "Did you use washing up soap?" And if that's the case, then I can relax because there's a concept called, "Taam pogum lo s'tam nifgam." A taste which is tainted does not make... Or, or an unpleasant taste does not make things stre- treif. Therefore, dishes which are mixed up in a bowl of, of, of hot water with, with soap is not such a problem. Bedieved. I'm not talking-- we're not recommending this, but I'm talking about bedieved, it's not a tre-- that doesn't make it treif. The problem here is, let's say you had a, a, a knife which w- had been used for cutting pizza, and it's got cheese on it, and next to it there's a spoon which was used for, for, um, gravy, and they're both next to one another, and then there's a hot shower which makes a shishup between the two. That's, that's where the problem is. Right. So let's, so the, it, it... What I have here on the screen is for a sefer called Pesakim Uts胡vers. Now, I've mentioned many times Piskei Ts胡vers, and that's on Orakhayim. And his son-in-law has, has done a similar kind of work on Yoreh De'ah, several, several sections, and just the last few years, very useful. And he writes the following. If fleishig or milky dishes were washed in the dishwasher one after

36:10 Speaker 1 the other, um, ask a, a shailah, generally it's not a problem. If the, uh, if you had meat and milky dishes washed up in the same time, um, and there wasn't sixty times in the water against the kaleim, then it should have hagalah. Uh, but he says, if they are kaleim which cannot be kashered with the boi- boiling water, like porcelain... I'm middle of a shiur now. So then you can be makeil, but the kaleim did not become aster. So again, if it's cutlery, so the recommendation would be to kasher. If a fleishiger, um, uh, knife was fou- was found in the milky dishwasher, so all right, kasher it. No, none, no, no big loss. If it's ki- if it's, um, porcelain or china or whatever, which cannot be kashered, then we're going to rely on, on various- Uh, arguments to say that perhaps because of the soul, perhaps because of the, um, that is cliche-ny, whatever, there's gonna be various Chesbonos, that b'divrei it's, it's, it's gonna be okay. Right. Let's move on. So someone asks me, "Do you-- Does a married man in Chabad make a bracha on the tallis cotton?" So before I got married, I would wear... I would hand a tallis cotton, I would switch it in the morning and make a bracha on the tallis cotton. But once I got married, so then I would make a bracha on the tallis every morning, and I didn't make a bracha on this, on the smaller tzitzis, on the tallis cotton,

38:09 Speaker 1 because I'm making a bracha on the, on the tallis. So explain a little bit more. The Nusach Habracha, we've got in, in the Tehillos Hashem siddur, we've got a Nusach Habracha, Al Mitzvas Tzitzis, and a Bracha Lehisadei B'Tzitzis. In the original Alter Rebbe's siddur, it does not have the bracha Al Mitzvas Tzitzis. There's no bracha for tallis cotton. And this goes back actually hundreds of years earlier, where the, the Merib Yosef Caro, he doesn't ha-have a bracha of Al Mitzvas Tzitzis. In the Gemara, there's a bracha, Lehisadei B'Tzitzis, and to the point that there are Goeyim who say, "Aha, you see, you have to do a tafil," and that's why we... when we put on the ta-tallis, we wrap around. But this Nusach Habracha of Al Mitzvas Tzitzis didn't exis-t-- It's not mentioned in the Gemara. It's first mentioned about perhaps seven hundred years ago, whatever. It's, it's a relatively recent innovation. So when you have no option because you're not going to do wrapping because your tallis cotton is too small to wrap, so then the words mentioned in HaYom Yom, um, so then you'd make a bracha Al Mitzvas Tzitzis. But if you are going to make the bracha Lehisadei B'Tzitzis, so then include the tallis cotton with your bracha on your tallis cotton. So I've mentioned this before, I think, on this, um, um, sheer, that on Friday afternoon, the Klal go to Mikveh, so I take with a change of clothing, and I take with a ta- a tallis cotton, especially

39:48 Speaker 1 for Shabbos. Like everything else, it's changed for Shabbos, so the tallis cotton's also a special one for Shabbos. And I'm not gonna wear a tallis afterwards. So then on Friday afternoon, I can make a bracha on the new tallis cotton. I make a bracha Al Mitzvas Tzitzis. But other than that, I don't. And, uh, this is my understanding, but there are those who have disputed this. And they're saying that where you read in HaYom Yom, it's only talking about if you had to di-divvy and put on your tallis right away, but if it's a long interval between putting on the tzitzis in the morning, you should make a bracha on the tzitzis. Okay. So now I'm going to read here, someone sent to me this article, this piece from the article in Chabad. This is talking about the re- the late Rav Hadakov and where he goes into Yechidus, into the Frieda Keneva just before his kasena. And one of the things discussed in Yechidus was about wearing a tallis cotton when you s- when sleeping. So Hadakov says to the Rebbe, it's now several years that he's, he's accustomed to wear a tallis cotton when he's sleeping. Um, just bear in mind, Rav Hadakov was not from a Chabad background, and therefore, whereas Hasidim wear a tallis cotton when, when they're sleeping, it's not so common by, by, uh, non-Hasidim. And therefore, that was, I guess, part of the discussion. And Rav Hadakov is saying that it's now several years that he wears a

41:17 Speaker 1 tallis cotton when he goes to sleep. The Rebbe asks him, "What do you do about the bracha?" So Ravi Hadakov answered that, "I don't make a bracha," I guess because he was using the same tzitzis day and night, and therefore, it's not a new garment, so you can't make a bracha. So the Rebbe says to him, , the minag of which, uh, uh, which means by, by his minag is to remove the... before sleeping, to remove the tallis cotton of the daytime and to sleep with another one, a nighttime one. In order that you shouldn't have a dilemma whether to make a bracha in the morning. And the reason why you wear tallis cotton at night is not to be, um, naked without a mitzvah of tzitzis. Now, this is how it's written in Chabad. Now, if you read this article, you get the impression that the Rebbe is saying to him that his minag is to change his tallis cotton every night. To switch over from night and for day. Now, the same article is written in an, a, a, a, uh, tsuro, like a diary, which was published by the Hadakov family for a family wedding going back twenty-two years ago. And it's published, it's called, um, Ateres Sukanyim, and it has the same Yechidus. Now, let's read this in the, in the, uh, the other version. "I told the Rebbe that it's been several years, many years, that I've been sleeping with a tallis cotton. The Rebbe asked me, What do I

42:50 Speaker 1 do about the bracha on the tallis cotton?' So I said, 'I don't make a bracha.' So he said to me, 'Ets lom ho yu no yagin.' By them, they used to have the custom to switch the tallis cotton by night for a different one." Now, there's just, there's just very minor change here. Ets lom ho yu no yagin, or ha minag ets loihu. Very... Well, they seem to be minimal, but it's very different, different wording. One is saying his personal minag, the other one is saying this was our custom. You are a, a bocher before you married. And when I was a bocher, the minhag which we had at Chabad back, back in Lubavitch was that they would, they switch a tallis cotton for night. So just those words are slightly different, and so at Slonim or Yenaki that does not mean that, that, that in Gemara has to switch his tallis cotton every night, and, uh, kind of still remain with the minhag of, of, uh, in Gemara, once he's making a bracha on tallis cotton, he doesn't have this worry that he can make a bracha on tallis cotton. Someone is, is clarifying, Rabbeinu, I think. Rabbi Chadakov was born in Besenkovich. His father was a Hasid, but his chinuch was not Chabad because the family's... the father's company relocated him to Latvia. Okay, so he was brought up in Latvia, therefore he didn't necessarily... It was, it wasn't a given that he would be wearing a tallis cotton when sleeping. Okay. So

44:25 Speaker 1 that's a bit of clarification on that. Let's move on. So here on Friday, someone's asking me, his wife is going to stay overnight in hospital with a child, and so she's able, she's able to be... go in and out. The question is, what does she do about Neret Shabbos? So she's asking perhaps she should light at home and then get into the car, and then come to shul. And, you know, light at home al tnai, not mekabel Shabbos. She can hi- light at a friend who lives near the hospital. She can ask someone to light, uh, candles for her in another house. Asking whether any of those things are advisable. So let, let's read this first of all. The Rebbe Shuchan Aruch, Siman Reit, Halacha Gimel. And this is based upon a Halacha in the Gemara about lighting candles on Erev Shabbos. "U'velvad shelo yikdim ve'shelo ya'char." Not to light too early and not to light too late. So not to light too early. "V'eid hayein gadol." If you're gonna light too early, so then it's not evident that you're lighting the covered Shabbos. Obviously, lighting too late is, is, is risking Chilul Shabbos. If you do want to light early, and you want to be mekabel Shabbos, then that's okay. Because you are mekabel Shabbos right away, that's not called lehaktim. Again, if you're lighting early, and he said, "Provided it's after Plag Hamincha." So you can light early if you're already mekabel Shabbos. So then your lighting is associated with the Kabbalah Shabbos.

46:16 Speaker 1 But if you're gonna light candles, and then you're gonna go and continue doing the laundry or whatever it may be, so then it's... that's what the Gemara says, "Lo yakdim." Don't do it too early because you're not ready to be mekabel Shabbos. And that's in Sefer Va, but later Sefer Zayin, the Alter Rebbe goes back to this, and he says, "V'divra hakol tzorich sheyekabel Shabbos lealter acharei hadlakah." Lighting, even though you can light in circumstances where the condition not to accept Shabbos, but it has to be that shortly thereafter, you're going to be mekabel Shabbos. You're gonna cease from work, either yourself or someone else in the family, someone is going to accept Shabbos shortly after this lighting. So if this woman is... wants success, for her to go into the car after lighting, not being mekabel Shabbos, well, yes. If someone's gonna stay home and be mekabel Shabbos as a result, that would be a possibility. But if there's no one mekabel Shabbos, so for her to get into the car, and it's gonna be 20 minutes drive, then she cannot ki- light Shabbos candles at home. Now, how long is lealter? So the Alter Rebbe in the Kuntres Acharon has, "Harbeh pochos m'reva shor," much less than a quarter of an hour. And Bachayim Nora says approximately 10 minutes. So that's the general guidance. If you want to be mekabel... If you want to light candles and not mekabel Shabbos, but you want to get into the car or something, if it's 10

47:44 Speaker 1 minutes or less between, you know, from here to, to your destination, that would be okay. But if it's significantly longer, then that would not be an option. Now then, the other option about lighting at another home. So what's, what's the point of going to another home and lighting it? It's, it's ke'ilu, uh, uh, as if you're saying, "I have to, uh, give an offering of light, of candles for Shabbos." There's no offering here. It's, it's not a Korban. It's a din of, of, of lighting up and giving a, giving a, giving a, an atmosphere to the place which you're gonna be for Shabbos. So lighting in someone else's house and going away doesn't really make sense to me. Um, and certainly to ask, "Oh, someone, can you light some like extra candles in your house because I'm, uh, I'm in the hospital?" It's, it, it doesn't have any, uh, that doesn't make any sense to me. What I said is make a bracha on the electric. In... You're going to be with your child in the hospital. Before Sh- before Shabbos, you'll switch on the electric lights, and you can make a bracha on the electric lights. Generally, of course, that's not the recommended thing. We do it to keep to the traditional lights. But if there's no option other than lighting, uh, no other option of lighting a naked flame, so then you can make a bracha on electric light. I mentioned this before, that Rav Zalman Schimon himself, when he was in hospital,

49:05 Speaker 1 so, uh, he made a bracha on the fluorescent light, which was next to his bed. And he said, he says that to other people, and he, he did say himself too. Let's move on. So here's a question about a man lighting Shabbos candles. So someone's asking, "Is there a point in him covering his eyes when he lights the candles?" So why is... And at first, I thought, well, I mean, it's not imperative for a man to be mekabel Shabbos. But really, what's the reason for covering the eyes when, um, saying the bracha? So the, the, the explanation is basically that normally a bracha is said before the act of the mitzvah is done. And that's the Sephardim. Like indeed, they make the bracha before lighting the Shabbos candles. The Ashkenazim have got... They're anxious that the bracha is a kind of declaration of mekabel Shabbos, so therefore they leave the bracha for after the lighting. But on the other hand, how do you accommodate that the bracha is before the m- before the act? So the answer, the explanation is that benefiting from the light, that's the main thing. Not the act of lighting, but the appreciating the light. So they make... They, they, they light it and cover their eyes, make the Bracha, and then open their eyes. "Oh, it's light," and appreciate the light. That is the explanation of why Mincha Ashkenaz is to cover the eyes and they- for saying the Bracha. Now, if that's the case, if a man is lighting,

50:40 Speaker 1 and he's making the Bracha after having lit, so it's the same thing. He wants to make it a Bracha Overtly, you understand. And i- i- if he, once it's done and the, the lights are opened, what's he making a Bracha on? So he covers his eyes. Now, the c- But the more, how do you say, basic question, is it imperative for a man to, to make the Bracha after the lighting like a woman does, since this idea that Kabbalah Shabbos comes along with the Bracha. But men are not necessarily Mekabel Shabbos. This is a w- a woman's thing, she's Mekabel Shabbos with the Bracha. A man's thing is possibly because men go to Shul, et cetera. Could be whatever the explanation is. But it's not imperative that a man's Mekabel Shabbos with lighting. So why shouldn't a man be making the Bracha before? Make the Bracha, and then you light it and finish. So this, now, Rab Chaim Dor, he's reading into the Alter Rebbe that a man should also make the Bracha after lighting, like a woman. Um, which what I have on the, on the screen here is from Reb Nissan David Dubov's book on, on candle lighting. But actually this is the same in various recent Chabad works, where they have the same reservation. It's not so evident that the Alter Rebbe holds. Because when the Alter Rebbe says about this Mincha, making the Bracha after lighting, he switches to the feminine, and it possibly is just talking about the Mincha women,

52:09 Speaker 1 but neces- not necessarily the case of men. So I, I gave this over on Friday night, and someone asked, "What would you do if, uh, I, I was, you know, in that position?" So I said, "I would actually say the Bracha after lighting," and I'll tell you why. The late Rav Ashkenazi took the view that whilst you can light, uh, candles for Shabbos on condition on not to accept, but if you say, "Asher Lecha Nidresha Shabbos Kodesh," you add the word Kodesh, Kodesh is the expression of Kabbalah Shabbos. And once you say, "Lecha Nidresha Shabbos Kodesh," it doesn't help to make a condition. That was his, uh, his, he, he, that was his a- approach. And, um, therefore, if I'm gonna use the Chabad nusach of Lecha Nidresha Shabbos Kodesh, then I would do all Melacha before and be Mekabel Shabbos too. Um, which is also an interesting Ha'arah. What about if there is a case where someone wants to get, like, light al tonight and then get, get into the car? Then perhaps they should be keeping to the Veltish nusach, just Lecha Nidresha Shabbos, and not add the word Kodesh because of this vort of Rav Ashkenazi. Possibly, I did not look it up recently, possibly in the, this, this Sefer of Mashalit, Philo Minich, possibly he addresses this in detail. Right. Right. We have now just one, two points left, and one is first, the fact, you know, we had a discussion why is Ovad Tziyon said at Mincha on Shabbos. So

53:46 Speaker 1 Rabbi Meir Zirkind brought to my attention, there's a Sefer called Tanya Rabosi or Tanya Rabosi. It's, uh, one of the later he's showing him, and, um, about filler, et cetera. And he says the, after... It used to be that after davening, there would be a shiur and people would learn, uh, Nevi'im, et cetera, and then they would learn Mishnah and Talmud. And then when poverty became more rampant and people couldn't afford to spend so long after the Shemoneh Esreh to start learning Torah, uh, such a long time. So therefore, they kind of made a minimum. "You know what? We'll just say two psukim of Ovad Tziyon, and he's always been seen." Which is like a little bit of a, kind of like reading a bit of Torah. And so that was like the m- the mini shiur after, after Shemoneh Esreh. Now, on Shabbos and Yom Tov, where people are not going to work, well, then we can keep to the learning Torah. We have a whole Kriyat HaTorah. And Kriyat HaTorah, as you know, in, used to be translated into Aramaic between p- each pasuk. Now, you might take money and still that, uh, to, until today. And therefore, this is, now this is the point, point which I found so interesting. We don't need to do Ovad Tziyon at Shakhris and Shabbos and Yom Tov. The Ovad Tziyon is to make up for the shiur, but we've got the shiur. We've got Kriyat HaTorah. So we don't have to say, uh, two psukim.

55:13 Speaker 1 We've got a, a whole Kriyat HaTorah. So that's why Ovad Tziyon is not said at Shakhris and Yom Tov, and Shabbos and Yom Tov, because you have a whole Kriyat HaTorah. Therefore, instead, but it's said at Mincha, it's said at Mincha because not to miss it out altogether. Now, he points out also, Rabbi Meir pointed out that on Yom Kippur, we don't say Ovad Tziyon at Mincha. Whenever we have a Haftarah, we won't say Ovad Tziyon then. Because the, if the, if the idea of Haftarah is to read psukim from Navi, so then when you're doing an actual Haftarah, you don't have to say Ovad Tziyon. So at, uh, indeed, at Mincha on, on Yom Kippur, we don't say Ovad Tziyon. Instead, we have it at Neilah, which I find a very interesting, uh, Ha'arah Coming back to the previous thing, if a man lights, does he cover his eyes? So again, if you're going to first light and then say the berakhah, then you should cover their eyes. If you're going to first say the berakhah and then light, then you don't need to cover your eyes. And I'm more inclined to say that you do it just like you saw your mother doing and, uh, your wife doing, et cetera, that you light and then you say the berakhah. That's what Prime Noah says, and, uh, although there are arguments the other way around. One last thing, and that is we had our discussion about Seder Shlishis is the Rebbe's farbrengen. Um, Seder

56:38 Speaker 1 Shlishis or Seder Shini, et cetera. So Rabbi Shrol Noyach Vogel, who's an old classmate of mine, he heard the recording. He says he, he looked up his diaries, his, uh, from the Rebbe's farbrengens, and Shabbos Beshalach, Taf Shin Mem Vav. There were many bottles of, you know, uh, mashke which the Rebbe gave out to people. And when the Rebbe finished giving out to everyone... And by the way, I'm, I am, I underlined the word Beshalach because that's where the Parshah where we're talking about the mon, talks about, um... Yeah, that's the basis of the Seder Shlishis. Anyway, um, the Rebbe finished-- Then he finished his cup, which is, uh, als- filled with Smirnoff, and after the Rebbe had his drink, a full cup of Smirnoff, then he started coughing a lot, and people felt very uncomfortable. What can they do? And the Rebbe told the Rabbi Mendlik to fill up his cup with wine, and everyone's looking. And then the Rebbe turns to Reb Yoel Kahn and tells him, "Nu," and he says, "To sing Bnei HaCholeh." And at that point, the Rebbe had the glass of wine, finished the cup of wine, and then more or less finished his, the coughing, uh, calmed down. And it came to the last bit of the, uh, nigun of Bnei HaCholeh. They were thinking of sing-singing it over again. So the Rebbe indicated with his hand, they should sing over again, and they sang it with chazz. Okay, that's the story of Beshalach Taf Shin Mem Vav.

57:59 Speaker 1 I'm not sure that that's when I was there. But anyway, then Rabbi Mendy Wilhelm, who was in Shlichim in, uh... He's a Shliach in, in, uh, Uzhgorod, Ungvar, in, in, in Lithuania, in, um, Ukraine. His wife is Paris from here, from, from Stamford Hill. So he says there was a, uh, he, he's a bit of a back... Another information. There was a Yid from Ishalim, not a Hasid. For some reason, he had to be in Crown Heights for that Shabbos, Beshalach Taf Shin Mem Vav. He was curi- He was keen, where can you have a Shabbos meal? Most people would, wouldn't eat a Shabbos meal because going to Rebbe's farbrengen. They sorted out they should go by someone who, they have a meal by someone who eats the Shabbos meal before the farbrengen. But then he had a problem with Seder Shlishis. They told him, "We can't help you." After the farbrengen, they said to him, "You see, in your merit, there was a, a mini S-Seder Shlishis because the Rebbe had an extra cup of, of, of wine, and he told them to sing Bnei HaCholeh." Obviously, it was to be motzi you that they, they should have a Seder Shlishis. Uh, he then, Rabbi Shrol Noyach, sent a message to a certain group. I just find this fascinating how there's these people are, or who know all this information. Uh, do you remember when the Rebbe had, sang Bnei HaCholeh at the farbrengen? Besides Yud Alef Kis Lev Taf Shin Zayin, Mechondel Teves

59:15 Speaker 1 Taf Shin Kaf Gimel. And so Rabbi Meir Zeligson says it was several times the Rebbe left the farbrengen. As they were singing this nigun, uh, Semachnotic writes, Shabbos Bereishis, the Rebbe, uh, put on his glasses and they were singing Bnei HaCholeh. Also Shabbos Shuva, the second farbrengen. And so Chasonya, Shabbos Bereishis, Taf Shin and Daled. Uh, all right. And then Yossel Librov says Shabbos Mishpatim Taf Shin Mem Ches. That's the week after the Rebbetsin passed away, and I was there for that Shabbos. Perhaps it was that Shabbos I was there. And then Michoel Zeligson says, um, Hazinu and Shabbos, uh, Taf Shin Kaf Zayin, it was a Hazinu, and that Shabbos Shuva, Shabbos Bereishis, Kedoshim, and Taf Shin Lamed Alef in Parshas Tissa, and Vayelech, Taf Sh- Taf Shin Lamed Beis, and, um, many other times. And Yossi Lu says it was in Parsha, in Yeri'at Chismach. So listen, uh, it's on... It was all on Shabbos, so there's no recording, so, uh, whatever. It's... I just, I find it fascinating how people have got this, uh, you know, record of all the details of when it was, but it was, uh, apparently not so rare. But okay. All right. I hope you enjoyed that, and I'll wish you all a good night, and we should have Besuras Tovos, Kapo. Thank you.

1:00:30 Speaker 2 Bye now.