קרח תשפ״ג

00:06 Good evening, and welcome to you all for joining us this Sunday evening of Parashat Ki Tavo for the, our weekly Halacha shiur. Put it in last week, but, uh, still have last chance, so to speak. Not last chance, always a, a , but, uh, for a fundraiser for Chabad in Laramie, in Wyoming. That's where my son Jacob is, who is, who's the, uh, techie guy for this shiur. So if you have a chance, if you're already done, so . If you haven't, . Okay, let's go. That's starting off with Shulchan, and now we're going into our shiur. So question here is that a shliach during COVID bought a closet for an Aron Kodesh because they were davening outside. So Baruch Hashem, COVID is behind us, and they don't need the cupboard for davening. Oops. Oh, start again. So they don't need the, the cupboard for davening, and so he's asking, what can he do with it? Can he use it as a... Can he use it as a closet for clothing, et cetera? So let's take a look in Hilchas Beis Haknesses in Orach Chayim siman kuf nun gimmel. Unfortunately, it's not, uh, printed in the Alter Rebe's Shulchan Aruch. Talks here about selling a shul. So there is a way of selling a shul in a legitimate way, and it says the following. If the shul is sold, the money which is gotten by that remains sacred. But if the shul, shul was sold by consent of ze'ei hatzur ve-ha'ir, the elders of the

02:09 city, and it was in the presence of anshei ha'ir, then that money can be used for whatever. So the sale of a shul, the proceeds, if it's done in a legitimate way, um, the, for b'kitzur, if... So then it can be used for anything. Then it goes on, the Rama, and he says, "Well, hu ha-din lekol divrei kedushah shenizkeru kan." The same rules apply for other items of holiness, holy items. "De-kol ha-geirim basar Beis Haknesses." They all follow the rules of Beis Haknesses. On this, the Mishnah Berurah clarifies. It's not so poshut. He said that which ze'ei hatzur ve-ha'ir be-mamel anshei ha'ir, the fact that the elders of the city, the presence of the people of the city can take the money and spend it on the chulin, for mundane, that's not only Beis Haknesses. That's also true if they sold a bimah or tashmishei kedushah or an Aron Kodesh. Ach mikol mokom yesh chiluk beinayhu. There's a signif- very significant difference between the sale of a building of a shul and the proceeds thereof, and the sale of a, an Aron Kodesh or a bimah. Be-tashmishei kedushah, that if it's a, a... The word perhaps, though, appurtenance of kedushah. Ach be-mutar lishtamush be-deme'im. The money may be mundane. You can use the money for anything. Mikol makom he'em gufo be-kedushah sa'u kai mi be-yad ole ke'ah. But the article remains sacred. So again, if you sell the building in a legitimate way, then that building becomes a mundane building, can be used for anything.

03:56 But if you sold a bimah and Aron Kodesh, be-kedushas ha-guf ninu, because they, as articles themselves, have become sacred, ve'ein yotzu lechulin. So the money, the proceeds, um, are, are chulin. But the art- article remains sacred. Whereas ba-Beis Haknesses, the shul, tashmishei mitzvah, possibly the seats in the sh- the pews, et cetera, mutar lishtamush behen, where, where they are allowed to use them for other things. And he gives a reference to his own commentary further in kuf nun daled, in Mishneh Berurah, and in Bier Halacha. So now we've come here to a interesting distinction. There's a difference between a sold shul and a sold Aron Kodesh. Not on the money side, but on the a- the original article. Does it lose its kedushah because of the sale, or does it not lose the sa- the, the, the kedushah? So he's mimal taking the position that the Aron Kodesh, in our case, does not lose its kedushah. So now I'm g- I'm f- going, yeah, reading here the Bier Halacha in siman kuf nun daled. When we say that the tashmishei, that the, the, you can do a legitimate sale, ze'ei hatzur ve-ha'ir, and that takes away the kedushah, similar to Beis Haknesses. Well, earlier we saw that the Magan Avraham says that lo mechan yesh shum etson, no, no trick works to take out the kedushah of an article, of tashmishei kedushah, appurtenance of kedushah. The, the, all of these tricks don't help to undo its kedushah. And he gives references to a Ramban, Rashba,

05:44 Ritva, Ran, et cetera. The Bier Godol points out that from the Ramban, we get the impression that also tashmishei kedushah will also lose their kedushah by being sold in a legitimate way. So here we're seeing two opinions, whether an Aron Kodesh, et cetera, which is sold, does the kedushah also go away? And here he rationalizes the reasoning of the Rambam, that he says that the kedusha of a shul is like because of a vow. It was committed to become sacred. It was given by the donors to become sacred. And therefore, it would be like a hekdesh, consecrated on condition. And that's why it can be undone, because the condition is the, uh, ta- ma'anshe ha-yu-- ta-ta-ta- zeh hain tu ve'er, mah midanshe here. That's the opinion of the Rambam, that sale of an Oren Kodesh would take away its kedushah. Whereas the other Rishonim don't follow that. What does the Mishne Berura himself conclude? Le'inyan dina, although the Rambam, the Shulchan Aruch do imply that it is okay and the kedushah does go away from the Oren Kodesh through sale in a legitimate way, in Rabu, et cetera. However, it's difficult to rule leniently against the, all of these masters, the Ramban, the Rashba, the Ritva, the Ran, et cetera. So here, the Mishne Berura has taken the view that sale of an Oren Kodesh would not take away its kedushah. But what seems to be, first of all, shisa sarambam is that it does work. Secondly, that all of this is said when it

07:33 was consecrated, should we say indefinitely. But if it was clearly consecrated only for a temporary purpose, as in the case of this cupboard being purposed for an Oren Kodesh, then it was clearly a temporary, um, dedication. And therefore, I would venture to say that everyone would agree that it can be, then when it's no longer in use for the Oren Kodesh, it can be used for mundane stuff. And just to make it a bit more mehudar, to be, uh, to, to also that they told the shliach to give a five dollars, let's say. It was a question from the United States. He should give the cha-- It would blo- ask, the cupboard belongs to Chabad. Give Chabad five dollars, and then you've bought out the Oren Kodesh. It now belongs, become, becomes chulin, and then you can use it for clothing, et cetera. That would be, according to the Rambam, would be legitimate in any case. And even if not, so then because it was consecrated obviously only as a temporary measure, therefore it should be okay, perhaps even without the, going through the redeeming it. But that's just an extra. Let's move on. Now, in another shul, this shul is now a shul somewhere in, uh, central Europe. And the shul's been standing many years. And over Shavuos, the ladies noticed that they were getting bitten from apparently wormwood in the pews. And so being traumatized by these, uh, by this infestation, the old, uh, furniture. So they've decided that it's time to dispose

09:13 of the old furniture and really revamp the, the, the ladies' section in the shul. So now the question is, what do, they do with all the wood of these old pews? They're not going to be usable for anything. Can they be used, in other words, for furniture, they, they're useless with the infestation on top of it. But can they be used as firewood? So here what we have in also the same siman in kuf nun gimel. When the Anshe Hakfar, when the people of a village will sell their shul, they can sell it as a, in, in, in, in, how you say, uh, indefinite, min kar olam, and the buyer may do with it what he wishes. Not allowed to use it how-however, for a bathhouse and et cetera. But if it was sold with shiva tuva evar mavin asher ir, then it's permitted to use it even for such, should we say, uh, you know, uh, whatever, uh, things like the, the, the bathhouse. Okay. So back to use it for, for, for firewood seems to be definitely legitimate. Now, they could sell the, these pews for a nominal sum and then whatever, whatever money they can fetch. But then it would take away the kedushas Beth Hakneses. They can, they could be used, the wood could be used for firewood or, uh, like bring the barbecue, whatever you want. That would be, that would be legitimate. Right. Third question here is, I mean, I teach in the girls school here, the top classes,

10:56 and we had a discussion. We know, uh, it's very common that people tear open packages, packaging of food on Shabbos. So what's the story about opening a package of a magazine or a package of an item of clothing which arrived? Now, we're not going to go into the question of where it came from, chutz l'tchum, et cetera. Let's say it had arrived before Shabbos. We just, they just, just didn't get around to opening it. Are you allowed to tear open a package of non-food? So of course, the girls said because it's food. And so I challenged them. Y- Food is not a heter to do melacha, because we're not allowed to fry eggs on Shabbos. So why should be the fact that it's for food be per- a, a, a heter to open up, to tear open a package? That was my question. And I said, "I'll do some homework," which I'm sharing with you. So now, this is from the Ksav Sofer Shulchan, from Rabbi Chaim Nora. And I got to this address from the Sefer Shabbos Kahalacha, which is from Rabbi Chaim Nora. Rabbi Kosiel Forcas, as I understand, his fourth volume on Hilchot Shabbos is dealing with this area of, uh- Of, um, one of the, uh, chapters deals with building and opening containers, et cetera. So he writes the follow... This is Rabbi Chaim Noy. He writes that it's evident here that you're not allowed to open a letter. That is, is to mid'rabonon, or demolishing. You're demolishing the letter. Even

12:32 though it's what's called a binyan gorua. It's not like a solid structure. It's something which is more flimsy, because the seal on the envelope is not so strong, and therefore it should be compared to the barrel, which has what, gotten, gotten cracked and then stuck together with tar, which is discussed in siman shin yud daled. And therefore, just like you're allowed to, the Mishneh says you're allowed to break open a barrel. What's called, Tosafot calls it a mustiki. It's stuck together with a kind of glue. In order to feed your guests with the, um, with the, uh, figs which are inside there. So while the same thing should be with opening an envelope. And if it's tied with a, a string, but also tying with a string is not a, a strong structure, therefore it shouldn't be considered demolishing by opening it. The answer is, now that heter of breaking open the barrel to get o- out the figs is only k'sheyesh betzeidei Shabbos. You want to feed your guests, and you've got food in this barrel, so you're breaking open the barrel to, to feed your guests. Giving food on Shabbos is called soledes Shabbos. So we're not, th- it's not a question of melacha. We're talking about an isur d'Rabonon. And when there's a need for Shabbos, then it's permitted to break it open. Conversely, opening a letter is not seen as soledes Shabbos. Although sometimes there is l- heter to read the content of a letter, but nevertheless, it's not seen as

14:14 a need for Shabbos, and that's the reason why one wouldn't be allowed to open a letter, even by asking a goy to open it for you. Even though demolishing such a keli perhaps would be permitted if it were necessary. That is, if it's soledes Shabbos. But if it's not soledes Shabbos, then, uh, that's why you wouldn't be allowed to open a letter on Shabbos. He then continues, says, "If there is a soled gadol, if there is a great need to use this item inside the le- the letter, uh, the envelope, or inside the, the, the plastic nylon packaging, then you would be allowed to ask a goy to open it, because that would be k'shvitz d'shvitz, asking a goy to do isar Rabonon, where there's a great need is permitted." And he quotes here for the Shaar HaTshuva that he says that people tend to permit this opening of packages through Goyim, um, but a Yid wouldn't be allowed to. And he says, "With a goy, even if not a soled gadol is also meh." Okay. So meanwhile, what we've got the answer to our question. What's the story about opening a, a, a magazine, which is tearing open the plastic? So since the reading of the magazine is not called a soled of Shabbos, therefore it wouldn't be allowed, whereas tearing open a packet of Bamba is considered a soled Shabbos. Okay? Well, that's the basic drift over here. Let's read a little bit further. Now this is from the Alter Rebbe, Zichronero. And

15:58 before that, we're going to read a quote from the Nittei Gavriel, and this is in his volume about Yom Tov. He says, "You are allowed to open a letter or an envelope on Yom Tov." And one of the sources is actually in the Alter Rebbe's, Zichronero. And you can see that, um... Sorry. I think it's Sof Kofeed Tes. I don't have the reference in front of me. So you have the following. It says, "If a goy brought a letter on, to a Yid, he delivered a letter on Yom Tov, and the letter is sealed. So the Yisroel, the Jew, is allowed to open the le- envelope himself, because the idea of demolishing is not really relevant for keli, even though this very same act of opening the envelope would be forbidden on Shabbos, midivrei Sofim. However, on Yom Tov, it's not so strict, and you would be allowed to open that envelope. Provided," he says, "that there's no emblem, no image, and no letters, 'cause then demolishing that would be isur av meis. Okay. Let's then read one more thing, which Nittei Gavriel actually refers to a letter of the Friediker Rebbe. And this is a letter, as you can see, it's in volume yud aleph of the Friediker Rebbe's letters. And he writes to a devoted Chassid, whose name was Reb Hilal Zlatapolsky. And he writes to, the Rebbe writes, "Your two letters I received. Both of them are toichim, meaningful, uh, got kind of, uh, um, value-valuable content, and many details which I

17:44 found very interesting. And I want to express to you just briefly. The first letter I received on the second day of Yom Tov, and I opened it because that's the minhagim bebeis abba. That's the custom back in my father's home, that we would open letters to, uh, uh, um, to see whether there are matters of urgency. Not matters of urgency for implementation, but in yonu shel machshavah, matters which are relevant to thinking about, because machshavah tovah, a good and appropriate thought beito-" To think, in other words, the Rebbe thinking about the needs of the Hasid, nechudsari, is, is, is important. Vehu beherges Hasidi omed. You, Reb Hillel, with your deep Hasidisha sensitivity, will be able to understand the, the herges, how it's, it was important for the Rebbe and valuable for the Rebbe to open up that letter on Yom Tov. So here we're seeing that they would-- he would open letters on Yom Tov. And he writes further, "I was happy that I opened it on Yom Tov. Besides the living, the live content, ref-reference to Yoni Hasidus, which brought me a, a double simchas Yom Tov." Um, there was a specific settel, which I'm not sure what that refers to. Then, um, the, the... Then he says, "With wholeheartedly, I blessed you, that Hashem should give you success in your, in your Yoni Hasidim in an amazing way." And, uh, okay. So the kids, uh, what we're seeing here, here is that we're as opening packaging on a Shabbos, if it's not food,

19:36 and we were-- unless it's really called a tzayрах, but otherwise we would by default say it's not a tzayрах, and we would not open packaging, neither a magazine nor of clothing. The same thing would be permitted on Yom Tov. I'm going on to the-- someone's-- a couple of people have been asking for some clarity about the cheese, the Chevington cheese. Is it six hours or one hour? As we know, there's a chumrah, which was introduced by Marami Reb Beyar Rothenberg, who lived about seven hundred years ago, and then it's become about that treating hard cheese similar to the w- w- the way we would treat meat, just like hard meat has a strong taste, a lingering taste. Well, so does cheese, hard cheese. And just like meat can ha- has a crumbly texture, which... Well, well, kind of. It, and it can get stuck between the teeth. Similarly, hard cheese has got also a texture which can get stuck between the teeth. So I'm just gonna read here. There's a, an annual publication by the Kehillah here called Hakol, and they write the following. "There have been numerous inquiries rega- concerning the requirement to wait six hours after eating various types of yellow/hard cheese and cheese product before eating meat." They quote the Shevet Halevi of Rav Vosner, who writes that, "Since it's not possible to know exactly which cheese is considered hard, it's correct that one always waits six hours after eating cheese, and many poskim rule likewise. There have been requests from the

21:22 public to mark hard cheese packages with production dates in order that people can know if the particular cheese is six months old, as cheese does continue to mature after packaging and therefore classifies as hard cheese. But cheese producers have not been able to accommodate this request, as it would require extensive changes to their packaging and marking equipment." He then says, they write, "Halloumi, mozzarella, ricotta cheese produced under kashrus supervision do not require a six-hour wait. The reason for this is because these cheeses are packed within a week or two of production and have a three-month sell by date. The requirement to wait six hours doesn't apply to soft cheese, even though the best before date longer than six months, as they do not age in the way hard cheese does." So what we're seeing here, this is the policy of the kashrus here, um, that to consider generally the, uh, whether it's cheddar or whatever, to consider those cheeses as hard cheeses and therefore to require a six-month, uh, sorry, a six-hour wait afterwards. Um, I'll, I'll, I'll, and I'll address that a little bit more in a moment. Just here we have on the margin, we have the Shuvar of Rav Vosner, who says, "I'm also, I'm inclined, I, I generally am machmir on this." And that's because there's, there's all the different types of cheeses. Some of them are young, less than six months, some of them more. And you're gonna have to have a whole calendar to keep track, and that's gonna

22:57 be quite impossible to keep, to do. And therefore, we should generally keep, be machmir with hard cheese. Uh, in any case, some mach achronim say that even it's less than six months, it's, one should be machmir. A couple of points. Number one is that the six-month, um, process, nowadays, what, what used to take six months can be done today in a few hours with a chemical, um, in-influence. So the, what it, it doesn't need to take as long. So the six months itself, it's, it's not so clear. That's on the one side. On the other side, for sure, people are, are aware there are, even after meat, there are those who wait less than six hours, are those who wait one hour, those who wait three hours, are those who wait five hours and a bit. So there are, there's room to be make a-- in even after meat. And therefore, where there is a need, one could possibly also take a more lenient position with a-after cheese, because after all, it's a chumrah built on a chum. Um, one, that's one other point is that if the cheese... I said the reason why the cheese has got a, a, a parallel to meat is because of its crumbly texture and its linger-- long lingering taste. If you take grated cheese and put it into a soup, then it, the taste is diluted, the texture is lost, and therefore you would not need to wait six hours after such a soup. You'd only have to

24:34 wait one hour. What about a pizza where it doesn't... Well, the, it, it, the, it does, the cheese is melted. You could say it doesn't have the crumbly texture. That's possibly true. The lingering taste, I think, does apply, and therefore not so straightforward to be make a... As I say, there is, there is a bit of room, so depending on how, how much, how much you can manage. I know there was a time that Rabbi Herzog, zain gezunt, boruch shlama, that, uh, when the yeshiva were having, uh, pizza for lunch, he wasn't, he wasn't tolerant of them having, um, supper within six hours of that lunch because, not to be mechadelik, and that's the position which is taken over here. I know that in other places they're more lenient about this, but that's the position which is taken over here, and you see Rav Oznia takes the same position. Let's move on. Right. So here I've got a question about, um, is... If I lend someone... Wait a minute. What's going on here? Okay. Let me jump around a bit. Can I, if I se- lend money to another Jew, and then can I now sell the debt to a goy who will then charge ribbis? So wh- what the, what the story was is the following. That there is a Jewish broker, and he has funds from various sources which he lends out, and s- subject to availability, he has a Jewish customer who wants to borrow money. Sorry. I'm just gonna close the

26:27 door. He has this Jewish customer who wants to borrow money, and he only has Jewish lenders. So meanwhile, he'll lend the Jewish money to a Jewish borrower. But then the understanding is, at a later stage, when he will have a non-Jewish lender available, so then the debt will be transferred. Instead of owing to the Jewish lender, it'll be owing to the non-Jewish lender, and then ribbis will be payable. So this was a question. Is that a, um, a, an acceptable thing? Because I- I'm just seeing that somehow the Jew is, is cau- is bringing the, the debt which is owed to him, the Jew, the, the lender, is causing that the borrower is, uh, going to have to pay more for his loan. And I'm, I'm just... I'm a little bit worried because it's, it's, you know, it, it, it's asking for trouble in a way. Someone owes me money, and I, um, I can't get a penny. I've s- s- lent him £10,000. I can't make any more on it, so I've got a simple answer. Well, subject to availability. I can find a goy, and I explain to this goy that this is a very reliable borrower, can prove to him he's very, very reliable, and I'm selling you this loan. I'm gonna sell it to you for £11,000. And you- -will charge over the given period, and you'll charge ribbis, and you'll get £13,000. So I'll be making more money by, by selling it to a, a, to a goy who can

28:22 charge ribbis. So it, it was me. So I s- I wrote to my, uh, ribbis consultant, who said, "I've got a simple solution. Instead of going through this, w- on the day where the goyishe lender is a- ready to advance that money, he should advance the money to the Jewish borrower. The Jewish borrower will pay off his Jewish lender, and he'll now owe the money to the goy. In other words, terminate the first loan. The loan from the goy will terminate the first loan, and now he'll owe money to the, to the, to the goy, and, uh, and he'll, he'll pay ribbis." And that way, there's no con- there's no continuity problem. It's not that the, not that the Jewish lender has enabled the goyishe lender. So that's what I advised. Uh, I think it's fairly straightforward. Uh, and the, uh, person who asked the question was very happy with that solution. But, yeah, I put it on the list of questions, and Rabbi Zerkin in, in Florida saw the question, and he pointed me in the direction of the Sefer Bris Yuhdes. Bris Yuhdes is a pioneer. Pioneering work of Rabbi Yaakov Looy. It's a pioneering work on the topic of ribbis. And he actually addresses this situation, which I didn't find before. I'd looked in a different Sefer on ribbis. He says, "If a Jew is, um, owed money, one Jew to another, if the lender sends the, sells the promissory note to a goy and the goy will now charge ribbis, charge

30:04 interest, the Jew who lent the money, who sold the contract, if he still holds, um, he, he, he himself responsible, he guarantees the payment of this loan, then that's forbidden because in a sense he's still remaining the lender, and therefore this, his ribbis is, is forbidden." But then he seems to be saying that you could sell. That's, that's probably more often the case. If you have an, a, a... Someone owes you money, you may sell that document. This... You may sell the debt for more than... For, for less than its face value. So if he owes you £10,000 and you're not worri- you're worried whether you'll ever see it again, and you sell it to a goy for £9,000, and, um, that would be okay, even though you take responsibility for it because it's actually going down rather than up in value, and therefore there's no question of ribbis. So that's interesting. So he does allow- Selling the, selling the debt. But I think what this, my, uh, consultant advised is, is I think, fairly straightforward and avoids the question. You can just terminate the first loan and then start up a- w- well, by means of the loan, the new loan from the goy. Let's go on to another interest question, and that is, we're not allowed to charge interest to a goy. Sorry, to a Jew, sorry. Fellow, fellow Jew. Lend money... I lend him 1,000 pounds, I'm not allowed to get back 1,001 pounds. I'm not allowed to get any money extra.

31:41 And obviously, there is always a concern whether... Are people taking, taking advantage of, of this and failing to pay on time. So are you allowed to introduce a penalty, that if the person doesn't pay on time, then they will owe more money? So if they, they borrowed 1,000 pounds, if they don't pay on time, it'll be another 100 pounds, et cetera. So that in itself is questionable, but certainly the Alter Rebbe... This is from the Alter Rebbe Shneur Zal, and he talks about if it wasn't a straightforward cash, it was more provision of goods. The, the... Someone has put down money for goods. He's given 1,000 pounds for goods to be delivered in due course, and he says, "If you don't deliver the goods, um, according to the agreed date, so for... By defaulting on the date, you're gonna have to pay a, a, a penalty." So that is permitted. So, so it's different. It's not, it's not money for money. This is goods, and goods we know can fluctuate. So there is a... He, he, he put down money. The, the buyer put down money. In other words, he... In a sense, he lent money. He gave her 1,000 pounds in advance for goods. And if the, the, the goods would be delivered late, he would, he would be entitled to a, to a bonus. The Alter Rebbe says here that which you are allowed to add a penalty is when the penalty is for provision of goods and were not delivered on time.

33:20 If it's for money, even if it was with a proper kinyan, a proper commitment, that if you don't pay at this time, uh, you would have to pay more. Uh, even he said, um, «אף על גב דאומא לה haraini chayav lecha,» even if... Uh, he, he says to, to increase, to ha- add on a penalty for non-payment of m- of money, of advance of, of funds, that would not be allowed. He calls it a «haroma» ribbis because the bottom line is that the lender is getting back more than the amount he had va- he had, um, lent, and therefore it comes under, uh, it comes under ribbis. Perhaps not min haTorah because it's not totally, um, predicted. I'm not sure exactly, but that would not be okay. And s- also the Alter Rebbe continues there to talk about even if it was for goods, there could be a one-off penalty. But to say that every m- for every month, uh, that y- you, you're delaying, the penalty's going to be increasing, that also the Alter Rebbe says clearly that that's not okay. All right. Let's move on. The next question we have is number seven. Can a... So we have a... So this is a such a typical Chabad house question. So you have a minyan, and you've got your precious... Someone's asking, "Is a, a charge for additional paperwork allowed?" I believe that is okay, but then that's no gain if it's actually being spent on, on administration. So then at the end of

35:02 the day, the, the, the lender is not getting any richer because he had... The extra charge is gonna go for administration. Let's say it can be like sometimes if a bounced check, et cetera. Well, it doesn't come into ribbis. That's, that's a different story, yeah. Right. So now here is a, this Chabad house question, that you have six people who are davening. You've got four who are, uh, making sure they have a minyan. Yeah, they're, they're the minyan men. Of the six people who are davening, one davens extremely slowly, and he actually only manages... He, he doesn't daven the whole davening. He can only... He only manages, at this stage in his life, he does half the davening. So can he be the sixth of the minyan? So if you know this fellow only goes up to «מבורך השם» and then he steps back. Does he make up the six? Interesting question. Um, I'm just gonna read here the beginning of ךד. It says, "After the tzibbur have completed that tefillah, then the chazan repeats the davening." Why is there repetition of davening? In case there's someone who doesn't know how to daven, so then he'll hear the repetition of the davening as yoitze. One who's capable is not yoitze. So it's, it's like a such an interesting development here. The Chazarat Hashatz is for the «לא חשושי מועד ציבור תפילתם». Now, if this fellow is, uh, uh, only does till bo- boruch h- boruch hashem, okay. With that, he's finished his davening Is it

37:05 essentially he has to say the whole davening to allow, allow Chazzan Shas? I'm not sure. Um, and especially as I say, the whole purpose of Chazzan Shas is like for this kind of fellow who is not able to daven, uh, on his own, and therefore he'll listen to Chazzan Shas. So I'm not sure whether that should be an impediment to join him to be one of the six for your Chazzan Shas. Let's move on. Okay. So here we have a t- a July question, June, July question when we've got the very long days, as you-- I'm sure you've noticed. And the further north you go, the shorter the night becomes, and even further north, there is something which is called the midnight sun. So in Leningrad, when I was in Leningrad some... Was it? Over 30 years ago. So I was... This time of the year, but, um, we went there, it was just after Yud Beis Tammuz. And Licht Sinden was quarter past eleven. It's somewhere around like nice long Shabbos afternoon. But that would be... And, and, uh, in, uh, in Leningrad, you have what's called the White Nights because it, it doesn't get dark. It, because it stays light enough that you can read a newspaper on the street through tho-those eleven nights in the sh- you know, the, the height of summer. But further north was what's called midnight sun. So there's this young man who's traveling to a place called Svalbard in northern, is it Norway? Somewhere around there. It's

38:46 seventy-eight degrees north of the equator. And there's... So I asked him, first thing, "Does the sun set or not?" So he says, "No, it doesn't set." You've got nor- the midnight sun. So what's, what, what... And he says, actually, he says he's not going there for Shabbos. I said, "Well, one of the things you're going to miss, missing out is, is Kirshama Shel Harvis. There's no night, so there's no mitzvah of Kirshama Shel Harvis." Then according to Rabbeinu Tam, you can be yotz Kirshama Shel Harvis from Plag Amincha. So therefore, you can say Plag Amincha is, is, uh, normally it's an hour and a quarter before sunset. So now, because you've got a twenty-four-hour day, so one and a quarter, quarter hours becomes two and a half hours. So therefore, nine thirty is already Plag Amincha. The problem is that Rabbeinu Tam, his shkiah, uh, is much later because his... Therefore, your Plag Amincha of Rabbeinu Tam is much later than the Plag Amincha which is generally accepted. And therefore, even according to Rabbeinu Tam, if you go all the way according to Rabbeinu Tam, we haven't solved anything. Meanwhile, we have here on the screen, you have a letter of the Rebbe where it addresses this question about a place where the day or night lasts more than twenty-four hours. I remember once, um, traveling somewhere with either Meir Poznes or Zangerson, and we had this conversation. And he was asking, "If it doesn't, if it doesn't get dark, who says that there's a

40:12 change of day? Does it... Well, perhaps it's a, it's a day which lasts, you know, eighty hours. Who says that it's changing, the dates change?" But the Rebbe doesn't take that view. He says, "Does it go according to the hours, et cetera?" And the Rebbe says, "Poshet Adovor," that in these places also, you're going to count hours, and you're gonna have twenty-four hours a day. And Shabbos, it begins everywhere on the same... Everywhere which it's the s- it begins the same in all the places on the same longitude. Now, the Rebbe's letter, uh, comments are very short. He refers to Sefer HaBris, which was the Talmud of the Vilna Gaon, who wrote all about the yonim of nature, et cetera. Uh, the Rebbe says he doesn't have the Sefer. You can also look, by the way, in the Tiferes Yisroel and the end of the first chapter, Pe'er Hakovrochos, he talks about this. But how, what does the Rebbe mean by all the places on the same longitude is the same beginning of Shabbos? Which is difficult to understand because our Shabbos started, uh, on, at nine, Licht was here nine PM, and we are not that different a longitude to Glasgow. And probably Shabbos last Saturday started in Glasgow, yeah, and this Friday, probably more like, um, nine forty or something because of the, the being a higher latitude. So the, in the comments, we have, we have this additional explanation. What we mean is that in the midnight or midday is gonna be

41:53 the same all along that longitude. So the moment of midnight in London and the moment of midnight in Glasgow or the Shetlands is gonna be approximately the same. Because I'm not talking about the difference, you know, from east to west, but it, it, br-broadly speaking, it's gonna be the same. All the places on the same longitude are gonna be the same, the same, uh, midnight. And therefore, the, if you go back to, you know, you, as I said, in Glasgow, let's say Shabbos started, um, quarter to ten, and in Shetlands, it was quarter past ten. You go further north, you're gonna be that Sha- that, that midnight is when Shabbos starts. And then Shabbos is going to end. Again, last Shabbat, this Shabbos, we finished ten thirty, seventeen thirty-six or something. Further north, it went to finish off at eleven. Further north, eleven thirty. And even further north, it finished at midnight. So therefore, what, what is being said here is that you're asking these places just so, so far north, where there is no suns- the sun doesn't set, but that you can work out the switchover from one day to the next by knowing the longitude. And therefore, from midnight to midnight, that's going to, that's going to be your- -day, that's gonna be your Shabbos. In the summer and in the winter, when those months where it doesn't... there's no sunrise at all, so then it's going to be from mid- from twelve AM, from twelve noon until twelve midnight, until twelve,

43:26 twelve noon, till twelve noon the, the following. You'll have a long Motzei Shabbos. Of, of course, you should add a little bit for safety on either end, but basically that's the answer. So, well, then what is this? Boh, I told him, you know, go to... he's going there to such a place, he's gonna miss out. Um, he didn't ask me about going, he just asked me what I should do about, about mitzvahs. And mid- the midnight would be the switchover of the date. That would be... He's, he's not staying there for Shabbos, but that would be when Shabbos starts and Motzei Shabbos ends the twenty-four hours later. Let's move on. So here's a question, one of our local people here, son became Bar Mitzvah, and he asked the question, he got all these book tokens, et cetera, Amazon vouchers. Does he have to give maaser on the book tokens and the Amazon vou- vouchers, et cetera? So here's the following, uh, the vor. Now, maaser is also for money which is given as a gift. Unless it was given for a very specific purpose, perhaps we discussed this in the past, but if money was given as a gift, then one should be giving maaser. Now, young men get married, young men, men and women, obviously, and they get a gift, a, a, a pack, a, a, uh, set of cutlery. So they needed to buy cutlery, so instead of them going to the shop and buying cutlery, so now they got it in, in

44:56 a gift box. How much does a bo- a, a set of cutlery cost? Let's say it cost £100. So what's the difference, bottom line, whether they received a box of cutlery or they received it as £100 in cash? The point is they've got now... They, they were going to spend the £100 on cutlery, and so now they've got the £100. They've got the... they got the cutlery itself. Well, that's a savings on their budget. That kind of gift is subject to maaser. But what is if they are given something which is way beyond what they would have budgeted for, what they have planned for? It's, it's nice to have, but it, it, it's not a thing which they would have bought 'cause there's no savings there. That they don't have to give maaser unless they sell it. And this I'm taking here from the Sefer Tzedakah u'Mishpat. It's a specialist Sefer on Hilchot Tzedakah. And he says, "If you receive a gift which you would have bought anyways, so then you should give maaser." And they're using the term Mishtarshei. It's been a savings on your budget. If you receive an article which you would not have purchased, even though you're now enjoying it, then Mishtavar is saying it's logical you don't have to give maaser accordingly. So now, um, now, just to take this a little bit more complicated, if let's say I'm out of a car and I need to buy a car, so there's a local raffle or... and you pay, put,

46:20 put it down and you can, can win a car, and I bought the raffle. I didn't buy the raffle, by the way. But if I bought the raffle and I won the car, and it's a car worth £10,000. So do I have to give maaser on £10,000? Or I would not pay £10,000 for a car. For me, for my needs, £3,000 is enough for a car. So then I've got this... Yeah, it's amazing. I, I enjoy it. It's like, it's like a car, yeah. But my savings on my budget is £3,000. So therefore, my maaser should be £300 rather than, than £1,000 because I got a more expensive car, because that was beyond my budget in any case. Therefore, unless I sell the car and get it into cash, un- until that su- such time, I would not have to give maaser on that which is beyond my, uh, anticipated budget. Let's go on. So here we have a story with a Jewish man, woman for that matter, who works with special needs children. And, um, they're not Jewish, these children. And they take them around for walks. Uh, and they... to also part of their duty is to take them into, uh, the local McDonald's or something. They should have something to eat and... So is that okay? So my question to the one who, you know, p- put, w- to ask me the question, to the Rosh, to the Shliach, asked him, "When the worker brings the kids to the McDonald's, does he

47:56 pay from his own money and then get reimbursed, or does he use their money?" Or they get... It can be a credit card or something of the, of the care management. So it turns out it... well, he doesn't have to use his money. He uses... he spends the money of the, of the, of, of the institution. And I said, "That would be okay." So here we have, this is a... it actually was a surprise to me, that they have here, Bes Yosef is saying that just like you're not allowed to trade in non-kosher food, you also... which is also in our Torah, so too you wouldn't be allowed to buy non-kosher food to give it as a gift. So if you have a goyishe client, to buy them a piece of ham as a gift would not be allowed, just like you're not allowed to trade in ham. And that's what we have over here. All right, this is the, uh, that goes into buying to feed your workers. But here's an inter- interesting Chidush. And also to buy, uh, to give as a gift is also kind of included in the isur of buying, of trading in non-kosher food. All right. But, um, uh, and here you have in Shulchan Aruch buying non-kosher food, which is also in our Torah. So to buy, uh, a box of chocolates which are cholov akum for a goyishe client or goyishe acquaintance, that's not a problem because that's isur d'Rabanan, cholov akum. But if it was something

49:26 like ham or something, which is also in our Torah, then you wouldn't be allowed to buy it for a c- for a client as a gift, and nor would you be allowed to buy it to feed the workers in your canteen. That's what the Ramoh says. Uh, we've discussed this some, some while a- ago. And, um, the Shach is more lenient about this. But at any rate, but in this, this, uh, in this instance, the problem is solved that it's, it's, uh, that they're not buying it at all. Wine also is, uh, generally is a isur d'Rabanan, and therefore you would be allowed to buy a non-kosher wine for a non... for a, for as a gift for a goy. Then it becomes a question about maaser ayin, whether... that you can have to think about. Oh, that's an amazing question. How about buying for a homeless person? Yes, I've this before. I think that's how perhaps it came up. There's a homeless person, and you want to... You, you're feeling, um, sorry for them, and you've got... There's a McDonald's or something, some kebab or, um, a kiosk right nearby. To, to... so to... for you to buy it, to give it to them, that's, that would not be okay. You could give them the money. I, I understand you're worried that you give them the money, they're gonna spend it on drugs. I understand. But to actually buy them a piece of, um, something which also been our tire would be a problem.

50:47 As we just saw that, yeah? You saw to buy it. Although you may, may argue that the giving, the giving of the gift here was more whether there's a need to give a gift. Like sometimes in business, there's a need to give a gift. Whereas giving a homeless person, you can say it's not comparable to trade because it's just an act of generosity and not, not an act of, uh... it's not like comparable to trade. There might be an argument to say it's okay. All right. Um, good question though. We'll leave it at as a question. Right. Hasana. Gold rings. So with Min Chabad, to use a gold ring for under the chuppah. What about white gold? So this quote here is from the Sefer Meshalichas volume three, where quoting that we are minag to use a gold ring. But if the chosan or the kala insist on a white gold one, I wouldn't make a problem about it. But I, uh, would... Th-there is the... but there is a recommendation to have yellow gold. Okay. Now, just to look at a few notes over here. There's a Gemara in Yoma, which talks about the pan used by the Kohen Gadol, which is made of gold, and it says usually it was a yoreh, it was a green or a yellow type of gold, and on this day, it was a red gold. And then the Gemara goes into detail. There's seven types of gold. And then talks about Zohar Mufros, okay. That there's a

52:25 gold which is Mufros. And this is interesting because the word paz generally is understood to be gold. But Rashi says that paz refers to margolias. Zohar Mufros, compared to paz, it, it glows like a pearl. That's pretty much like white gold, which has got a more a pearly color than a yellow color. There is a Sefer which specializes, a whole Sefer of three hundred pages about gold in Tyra, and the Sefer is called appropriately Ha-Nechamadim Mizor. And he discusses that at length. Um, it's published by actually, uh, he's from England originally, someone called Rabbi Denderoff. And I write here that some Rabbonim have, uh, uh, come to an idea that you'll take the white gold ring and dip it in yellow gold, and it'll last for a few months, and then it turns into white gold. I personally am not very keen to do this kind of de- because I think it's a deception. Um, just, yeah, I, I, there, I, I... There is something about... Uh, here we have that Rabbi Groner is saying that there is some... that there's a... that the Rebbe said it should be davka yellow gold. And okay. So we have some sources that there is something about having yellow gold. Again, um, someone then... Here's a note here about rose gold. Rose gold not being okay, some saying because it's got a proportion of copper mixed in. Well, so what I'm told is that also yellow gold, eighteen karat, means that it's got twenty-five percent of other metals.

54:13 Therefore, you know, that, that in itself is not such an issue. But yes, there's Rabbi Groner is quoted saying in the name of the Rebbe that there is something about davka using yellow gold. So it's recommended, but it's not a reason to, to insist, I think. Uh, it's not a written halakha of the Rebbe. Um, davka to have, um, yellow gold, which is all right. It's just a recommendation. We're almost finished for today. Um, someone's asking about saying Kadesh when there's no chiyuv. So this is from a letter of the Rebbe, which is published in the back of the Tehillim, of the Chabad Tehillim, Ohel Yosef Yitzchak. And the main... there's a whole Kovetz Michotovim of the previous Rebbe. And then there's this letter of the Rebbe, I think from around Taf Shin Yod Zain, around then. And the letter was written to Rabbi Zalman Duchman. I think I've told this story before. But he would go in seven seventy, and by every minyan, even there were no chiyuv him, he would be saying the Kadesh, after Shush Arjom, and after Al Kavi, and after Alenu, and after Tilim. And people were getting a little bit, um, uh, um... Well, you know, why, why... You know, leave us alone. There's no chiyuv. Let's, let's just finish off davening. Why are you coming with all your extra Kadeshim? So he wrote to the Rebbe, and there's a long letter of the Rebbe, and this is kind of summing up. Rebbe says, "Yes, al data, you should

55:38 say these Kadosh Kadeshim, which are customary, even though there's no chiyuv. Namely, the Kadesh after Shush Arjom, the Kadesh after Kavi, the Kadesh after Alenu, and not only that, but also the Kadesh after Tilim, which has been established to say after Shacharis." Now, I want to, want to say a point here. What is exactly the Kadesh Yasom? Is it the tzibbur indulging in the needs of the yasom to say Kadesh, or is it that the k- the yasom is fulfilling the need of the tzibbur to have a Kadesh? So b-broadly speaking, it's the latter. There are slots, there are junctures in davening, the Halacha, the Kabbalah. At these junctures, a Kaddish is said. The privilege and the, the, the, of, of the, of the, of the, uh, yosem is that they are given the privilege to say this Kaddish, that this should be a zechus for the deceased parent. But it's really, it's a, a need of the tzibbur to have a Kaddish said there, and that's what the Rebbe is saying here. That even if there's no chiyuv to say Kaddish, but it should still be said, uh, if there's someone who's eligible to say Kaddish, because it's part of the, this, this stages in davening. Having said that, just the opposite is the story when it comes to Mishnayas. Mishnayas said after davening is here the other way around. That the yosem wants to say an extra Kaddish, and the tzibbur are indulging with the yosem to hear another, a bit longer davening,

57:17 say, another s- another, um, minute because he's gonna say a Mishnaya, a Mishnayal out, and Hanania, and then he's going to say a Kaddish. So here's the other way around. And practically speaking, where there is no chiyuv, so then there's no point in a volunteer saying, "You know, I'm gonna also say Ka- Mishnayas and Kaddish." That's not necessary. If you have a chiyuv, or you have to be b-by ilu nishma someone, okay. But if there's no chiyuv, then there's no point in adding a Mishnaya, saying Kaddish afterwards. For those who, uh, don't remember, in the years when the Rebbe, until Mem Ches, the Rebbe didn't daven Shacharis with the minyan, but he would w- well, he would come out to Mincha. And there were days where the Rebbe said Kaddish, about, uh, eight days in the year, whatever, the Rebbe had dates for various relatives. And if he hadn't, if it wasn't a Monday or Thursday, it was a, a, another day of the week, the Rebbe would come in before Mincha, and he would say a Mishnaya and Hanania, and say a Kaddish before Ashrei. And that way, he made up for the missed Kaddish from the Shacharis. Then after Mincha, he said the thing again, Kaddish. But that was clearly, as I say, that's clearly the t- the, the yosem is saying a Mi- a Mishnaya in order to be able to say Kaddish in, uh, for the elevation of a neshamah. I was asked to address one last point, and that is

58:43 about weddings on Gimmel Tammuz. So if you-- Let's look at this for a minute. This, what you have in front of you, is from the Hiskashrus mag- in a journal, weekly journal. I think it's number Taf Tsadik He. And he writes here that in the month of Cheshvan, Taf Shin Lamed Ches, one of the shluchim, which the Rebbe had sent as bochurim to Eretz Yisroel, he was getting married, and he wrote to the Rebbe to become a chasan, and he gave, gave various suggestions of when to make the wedding. One of the various dates was Yud Shevat, and the Rebbe crossed out that date, and he says, "You know my opinion. Beheft b'chi efsheri, to make the chasanah as soon as possible." So they got engaged in Cheshvan. They're writing to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe w- doesn't want the chasanah to wait all the way till Shevat. It's too long. That's, that's... Now, does that mean the Rebbe had a problem with m-making a chasanah on Yud Shevat? Um, but then he doesn't say that. He says just to make the chasanah sooner. But then in the notes... See, what's the, really, what's the question? On a yahrtzeit of a parent, one doesn't go to a chasanah. The night of a yahrt-- the eve of the yahrtzeit of a parent, one doesn't go to a chasanah. So here to make a chasanah on the, on the, on the Rebbe's, on the Rebbe's yahrtzeit, is that appropriate or inappropriate? So now he writes here that

1:00:11 in the letters of the Friediker Rebbe, we have a ri- a, a mention of a chasanah of one of the Talmidim on the first yahrtzeit of the Rebbe Rashab in the year Taf Reish Pe Alef. The year 1921, one year after the Rebbe Rashab had passed away. And the first yahrtzeit, which is in this respect of s- of observing a yahrtzeit. The first yahrtzeit's specifically significant. That's the note here. And yet there was a chasanah, and the Rebbe doesn't make any mention of it. And he says many in the, of the Talmidim in Lubavitch, um, Chein Nogor Rab Matmidim Lubavitch Atzmo, that they would participate or even make, arrange a wedding on the Beis Nissim. So it was, it was an accepted thing to make a chasanah on the yahrtzeit of the Rebbe Rashab. And so what he's saying is it's-- So what I'd just like to say is the following, just to fi- to finish off. If I have a few dates available, so it may not be my priority. I prefer perhaps another date. But the reality is that in, from, um, fro-from Eretz, there's a limited amount of halls, and o- slots when to make a chasanah are not so easy to get, to get hold of. And to start delaying chasanahs, and that's why, you know, a lot of, a lot of things which we didn't used to in chasanahs on that, tha-those times, nowadays we do make chasanahs because all of those reasons are not reasons to delay a chasanah

1:01:39 more and more. And therefore, uh, therefore, th-that's obviously the, the fact that there are chasanahs, um, a relative of mine made a chasanah on Gimmel Tammuz. Uh, it was Beis Tammuz going into Gimmel Tammuz. Uh, and my uncle David, alav hashalom, was very chasidei Hasid. He was there at the chasanah. It was, uh, it, it is- Wasn't happening ... it's, uh, not necessarily the ideal, but there is a chasanah. Um, if there is a chasanah, it's be- it's being done, done then because of the limits o-of, of dates. And, um, maybe Hashem will help in that there should be each, uh, there's actually a chasanah of a very, um, fine Y ingerman this, this coming Beis Tammuz. And we wish him and his future kallah, uh, his kallah, future wife, uh, should be a binyan adiad, ad shom yevaruch, and should be, be with mazel and bracha. Kol tuv. Wish you a good night, and a good chodes. In good health. Good chodes.