מטות–מסעי תשפ״ג

00:07 Speaker 1 Good evening. Welcome to the Shiur for this evening. That is, uh, Sunday of Parshas Matos-Masei. So let's go. Before we actually get into the Shiur, you may have heard that Baruch Hashem, a, a young man by the name of Amitai Koplon took the initiative to commit to writing a number of Shiurim. So he took from Tof Shin Pe Alef, he took ten Shiurim and about a hundred questions and put them into a book, and that's, uh, available. It's available on Amazon. Apparently, that's the way to go nowadays, instead of schlepping it from one country to the other. So it's available from Amazon, wherever you are in the world. So you got there the address. And, uh, let's go now into our first question for today. So this actually a question from somewhere in the, uh, Middle East, where instead of what, in sophisticated countries or whatever, where they come to collect the garbage from your house, there they also have a garbage collection, but you have to take it to the dump. So Baruch Hashem, the shulchan there, they have, uh, home help. And at the end of the day, the, uh, the, uh, the one-- the home help, she walks. On her way home, she takes with her a, a, a pack of the, the rubbish, and she puts it in the dump. Now, she's been doing that Shabbos also. So she's got-- It's part of her duty to take the rubbish to the dump. And the question, the shulchan was asking, is it

02:02 Speaker 1 okay for this, uh, helper to take out the rubbish on Shabbos? That's, that's the question. She's doing-- She's not asking her. She's just-- She'll walk out the house with the rubbish and take it to the local dump, which is on her way home. So really, it's not so, not so straightforward. And first of all, we have-- what you have on the screen, you have a quote from Echad Shabbos, Siman Resh Mem Daled. Now, we've got a difference between what's called a kablon and a socher. A kablon is paid for the job. A socher is paid for the time. So we all know that it's okay to take your jacket into the cleaners on a Friday, and you'll pick it up Sunday. The likelihood is that they'll do the work on Shabbos. It doesn't matter. They've got-- So long as you give them enough time to do it before or after Shabbos. The fact that you're not paying them for the time, you're paying them for the job. Okay. So what about having a, a builder who's paid for his time, and he'll be building your, uh, a fence in your front gardens? That's not okay. So that's when you read inside. When is it said that you are allowed to leave a, allow a goyishe contractor to do work for you on Shabbos? When it's something which is portable. He could do the same elsewhere. Off your premises. It's not evident that it's work being done for a Jew. So if you're going-- you're passing

03:52 Speaker 1 by and you see, uh, a tailor is, is doing some sewing, you don't know whether it's being done for a Yid or not. Whereas if he were doing some-- a job which is connected to the ground. Building a house where no one living there. This is landed property. People pass by. They see there's a guy building there. Well, there-- and they know that it belongs to a Yid. So then that looks like he's been-- he's-- that the guy is working for the Jew on Shabbos, uh, as being paid for the working on Shabbos. Is doing about harvesting, gardening. Since that land is obviously is well known that it belongs to a Jew. Since the land where the work is being done is known to be Jews, uh, Jews' premises, therefore, people will come to the assumption that is being-- the work is being done for the Jew. Therefore, even if there's a job, if I own a property, uh, two miles away, Edmonton, still walkable. It's possible for a Jew to be passing by, and it's known that this property belongs to me. Therefore, even if the contractor is paid for the job, not paid for the time, he wouldn't be allowed to do work on Shabbos. So that's true if it's, uh, within the Trum of a, of a-- either within the city or within the Trum of a city where a Yid now living. If I had a, if I had a, a property on, uh, I don't know, the Isle of Wight

06:01 Speaker 1 There's no hidden, as far as I know, no frum hidden for sure. We're living there. Then if the contractor doesn't work on Shabbos, and I'm not paying him for the time, that might be okay. So coming back to our point here, that I've got here, um, I've got here the, a job. So it's not mamash identical. It's not sh- she's... When sh- this cleaner takes the packet, the bag of, of rubbish, takes it to the dump, it's not, uh, actually doing work with karca. But, uh, she is... Well, first of all, why is, why I'm not okay with it, because she's actually not a kablan. She's not paid for job. She's paid per hour. And it's all, every likelihood that the, the employer will say, "Well, you know, Ivanka, uh, so nice of you. You know, you're, you're, you're schlepping the rubbish. You'll go five minutes early," for example. But even if, if not, she's paid for her time, and therefore she's a Socheir, and so whatever she's doing, she's doing for you. So that, that's on, on one level. The other, the other point is, though, that because she's walking out of your premises, it looks like, uh, you know, it's obvious that it's doing it, they're doing it for you, which is the truth. Yeah? But let's go to one other, perhaps more explicit source in Shechinach, and that is in Siman Shin Chof Hey. And here we're talking about a goyish customer, et cetera. Even if a goy is in your premises,

07:32 Speaker 1 you wouldn't be allowed to g- you're not, not allowed to give them food, only if it's likely that they would, you know, the food which they would eat here. But if you give them other items, which is normal for them to carry out, that wouldn't be okay, because it looks like you're giving them stuff to, to, to, to transport. That's if it belong, if the stuff belongs to you. If it belongs to them, it's their stuff, they're allowed to take it out of your premises, um, because all right, so people are snooping on you. They'll snoop a little bit further. They'll know that, that they were taking their own stuff. And he goes further, what happens if it belongs to the goy, but it was a pawn, and it was, you were like, uh, lent money. And that, also, that wouldn't be okay. If the goy had come and paid up the loan, that would not be okay for him to pick it up. Because, again, because of Marasai. So for a goy to walk out with stuff, with goods from a, the home of a Jew on Shabbos would not be okay, because it looks like you've sent them to... So never mind the previous thing, which y- you could argue is only, uh, relating to land. But to, for a goy to walk out of my premises with a package which is, uh, likely that I sent him to deliver, that would not be okay. Right. I see here on a, one of

08:52 Speaker 1 the messages, the issue was raised with car repairs in a garage where the car is identifiable, um, or identifiable, uh, or vans which are identifiable, used by workers on Shabbos. It has the local kosh- kosher, uh, delivery van. Um, I'm, I'm also not so sure whether one has to make an issue of it, because people know that you, you have the, uh, a van. You have an employee, a van driver, and he does his own thing with the, his, with the van. I don't know how, how, uh, rigid that is. All right. But be- meanwhile, but in this case, where she's actually doing a service for you on Shabbos, taking the rubbish out of the house to the dump, even though it's, uh, you can call it her duties, but it's still, she's doing it for you, and that, that would, that would not be okay. Okay, let's move on. Let's go on to the next question. And this is a family owner caravan, which they use several times a year. They go for a few days to, uh, countryside, whatever, wherever people go with caravans. Otherwise, it's parked in their driveway or the side of their house. And they've got a daughter, teenager, who's, plays music, um, practices. And so she'll sit in the caravan and do her music. So does that me- does that caravan need to have a mezuzah? So, if a caravan had become a permanent dwelling, and this is discussed, interestingly, even fifty years ago by Minchas Yitzchok, where you've

10:34 Speaker 1 got people who can't afford to buy a home, so they'll buy a, they'll buy a caravan, and they'll park it wherever they park it, and they live, and they live there. So that, such a dwelling is, is chayav b'mezuzah. If it's, if it stays in one place, then it's subject, it does, it does need to have a mezuzah. What we have here in Shechinach is a sukkah which is only used for sukkahs. That's a very temporary dwelling. It doesn't need a mezuzah. A bayit sheb'sifino, a, a room in a boat does, does, doesn't need to have a mezuzah. And then we've got here the stalls in the market, but let's not go into that. But meanwhile, a bayit sheb'sifino. So although it could be very well that the sailors use those cabins for weeks on end, but it's really, it's, the, the, the, the boat is traveling, and that's what's, what they, they, they, uh... So it's not, it's not a stable dwelling. So therefore, coming back, if it was a, if a person keeps on, like as a nomad, keeps on moving, that caravan wouldn't need to have mezuzah because it doesn't stay in one place. Even though the person lives... You won't believe it, but I once had a question about a person who had a private plane, and they travel a lot, and they asked whether they have to put up a mezuzah on the plane. Um- The answer was no. Um, but coming back, with this caravan, if the caravan was

12:13 Speaker 1 like an alternative, uh, uh, like a long-term dwelling. But my, my assessment of this situation is not so. The, the caravan, they did not buy as a music room for the young- the young lady. They bought it for recreation to travel. That's the primary purpose why they bought that caravan. The fact that they... when they, when they... not on the holidays, and the girl uses the place for practicing music, I think that's very much a secondary and afterthought. And therefore, I'm looking at the primary purpose. It is made for travel. It's not made for dwelling. That's the purpose of it, and therefore it does not need to have mezuzah. There are-- Well, there are, in many places, in Amsterdam, but even over here, you have people who live in houseboats. Those which are moored there, and they stay there for, for months and months on end, perhaps even for years. They've even got wired electricity to them. Those are required with mezuzah. Uh, right. Um, right. And, you know, 30 years ago, they even had phone lines. Nowadays, they don't because, because everyone's got mobile phones. Right. Let's move on. So then the third question which I have is I don't have any, uh, anything to show on the board. So the young lady, she's earning money and very, um, piously putting aside maaser of her earnings into a separate bank account. And in s-- Well, now, truth is that one should not be hoarding maaser money for a long time. It should be distributed,

13:55 Speaker 1 uh, without too much delay, bearing in mind there are plenty of needy people out there. And so therefore, one shouldn't be hoarding maaser money. But it could be she has a particular purpose. Could be, you know, long-term, a plan. Whatever it may be, that's, that's a separate discussion. Meanwhile, she's got this, let's say, a thousand pounds, five thousand pounds in her maaser account. And wisely, instead of putting it in a current account, which doesn't attract interest, she puts it into a, a, uh, savings account, which does attract interest. So now who does the interest belong to? Does the interest belong to tzdakah, or does the interest belong to the, the, uh, to the young lady? So now... I see there's, there, there... Someone's asking about the hangover in, uh, the second question. A, had a... So question number two had something about the pews. That's from-- That was, uh, a mistake. It was, it was left from the previous week. Well, let's come back to the maaser money. So, good. Uh, so let me ask you the question. If, chas v'Shalom, her-- this account is hacked, and the money was emptied, does she still have a duty of giving maaser? Who does-- So whose responsibility is it? Now, you know, in Halakha, you have neder and nedava, the difference. Areh alai, areh zoi. My understanding is you have an account for your tzdakah money. It's still your money. You've got still not, not only discretion where to put it, but it also, it's still your

15:41 Speaker 1 money. It's just that you have wisely put it aside, but it's still your money. And therefore, I believe that the account, the, that the interest generated is yours. That's, that's my, my feeling about it. Bec-because it's still your money, it's still... You have a chayas. Therefore, it's still your money, and the money gen-- any income generated would still be yours. What you want to do with it, you want it to go to Limmud Hatorah, that's, that's okay. But strictly speaking, I think it's your money. Okay. So now I've got a question from a fellow who's traveling, and he's in an airport. And there's a, there's a minyan. Wonderful. He's going to pray. It's a srou. It's some airport, some foreign country. And so he joins the minyan, and instead of facing Mizrah, the minyan, some of the leaders of the minyan, decided to face the opposite direction. Because if they would face Mizrah, they would be in the view of... It would be, in their view, a lot of other people and, uh, lack of tznius this time of the year, uh, especially. And so he's asking the question: Is it legitimate to face not Yerushalayim in order to be able to focus on your davening better? That's, that's the question. So what we have here is, this is from the Piskei Teshuvas. The siman for which direction to face in davening is siman tsadik daled. And if it helps, it just came to my mind now. I like to have like a mnemonic to

17:25 Speaker 1 remember. Tsad, which means side. Which, which direction to face. Siman tsadik daled. So he writes that face, um, that you-- when, when, when davening, one should be facing a wall, and there shouldn't be pictures on the wall where you're, where you're davening towards. And you shouldn't be facing a place where you'll be disturbed for your davening. Let's say you've got a window to the street or a, a, a door where people are passing by. And even if, as a result, you won't be davening towards Yerushalayim, because the yishuv hada'at, the, the focus during davening, is more important than facing towards Yerushalayim. So- I, so I believe that the, that the leader of that minyan was, uh, correct in facing away from the human traffic and focusing towards the wall, even though it meant not towards Jerusalem. This brought-- brings me to the next point, which is that one who says here, he says the following: "What happens if you're davening in a shul, and the shul are davening not towards Jerusalem, they're davening to a different direction?" So you should not daven different direction to the shul. Then he goes a little bit further. "Don't-- Uh, even if as a result, you'll, you'll have, uh," Don't daven away from the shul, away from the shul direction, even though as a result you'll be able to daven better. Now, right, that's just another detail. But actually in Stamford Hill, there are several shuls which instead of the more tr- common facing east, they are facing south.

19:18 Speaker 1 So they're davening towards the London Bridge and towards North Africa, et cetera. Well, it can be for South Africa also. But it's, it's not towards Jerusalem. And so I occasionally when I've-- when I'm-- didn't manage to daven in Lubavitch, so I will go to one of these places, and I, I have this dilemma. Do I face south or do I face east? So actually, this question is discussed in the Bier Heitev, a commentary in the Shulchan Aruch. He brings two opinions, and this is from Mesoret Yesh Suchim, volume base. One who comes to a place, uh, or tzipora, pl- davening not towards Jerusalem, some say you should daven nevertheless down towards Jerusalem. Some say you should not, um, do different to what the tzipora are doing. So now, davening your-- towards Jerusalem, don't worry about your looking, uh, arrogant or people say, "Oh, you're davening different direction." The Bier Heitev says so in the name of the Yad Eliyahu, the name of a sefer, that it's okay to daven towards Jerusalem, even though it's different to the shul. Then we have a reference to the Igrut Kodesh of the previous Rebbe, which we'll read in a moment, uh, from the next slide. But there's-- so there is one opinion to daven towards Jerusalem, despite that the kehillah are davening to a different direction. There are those who say you should conform with the tzipur, and that's the other opinion in the Bier Heitev over there. And the Mishnah Berurah takes that view. Al-al tifrosh min

21:02 Speaker 1 hatzibbur or something. So even though they're not davening towards Jerusalem, but you should do what the tzipur are doing. So what we have in front of us now is a letter of the previous Rebbe to a Hasid by the name of Reb Avraham Eli Akselrod. And he writes the following. "You're asking a question about davening in a shul where the directions are not correct. I don't understand your question. Generally, when a shul is built or when a, a house is requisitioned for a shul, then we generally-- one generally would try to make sure that their directions should be the right direction as discussed in Shulchan Aruch, Siman Tsadik Dalet and uvaBirur Sh'Mogen David." That's the older name for the Taz. So his volume, his Pirush, Tur Hazohar, is his commentary on Yeradayah. His commentary on Orach Chayim was called Mogen David. You may have seen sometimes Sephorim referring or called Mogenei Eretz. So the-- there was a time where the Orach Chayim volumes were known as Mogenei Eretz because they had the two commentaries of Mogen Avrohom on the outsi- outer margin and Mogen David on the inner margin. So the volume was called Mogenei Eretz. So that's what the Friediker Rebbe referring, the Mogen David is the Taz. The Alter Rebbe-- So he writes, the Friediker Rebbe writes there, "Alter Rebbe discusses at length about how to establish directions from various countries, from, you know, from where, where you, where you are towards Jerusalem, Beis Hamikdash. And then he says if perhaps to go

22:38 Speaker 1 a little bit more south so that-- because let's say from where the Alter Rebbe lives, facing east, you're not gonna get you to Jerusalem. Therefore, he says you should veer somewhat more toward the south. Then he, uh, then the Rebbe finishes off. If when they built the shul or when they pur- uh, bought this dwelling, they didn't work it out properly, the directions. Bechol zer, there's no question whether you're allowed to daven there. You can daven in that shul because you can daven to the direction which according to your understanding is towards Jerusalem. And he gives a reference to that, Bier Heitev, Siman, Siman, you know, that's Siman Tsadik Dalet, Sifkot Gimel. So the, the Rebbe, the Rebbe seems to be saying here, Friediker Rebbe, that you-- if, even if the shul are facing a different direction, it's okay for you to daven towards Jerusalem. Now, of-- there can be different degrees of how out, you know, how wrong direction it is. Happens to be the ones at Stamford Hill, I can tilt a little bit towards my left, and therefore I'm, I'm facing, um, facing Jerusalem without being too, uh, different to what everyone else is doing. It would be more difficult if the, the Orient Kodesh was mamash on the west, and everyone pray facing one way, I'm facing the other way. That would be more problematic, but, uh, okay. Right. Let's move on. So what's, what happened over here? That last week on Thursday was a fast day, and it's one of

24:15 Speaker 1 these shuls which I'm amazed the people who come regularly to shul to keep up the minyan, they're not necessarily fasting, but they, they are loyal to keep up the minyan. So now it turns out you've only got four people fasting. What do you do about Krias HaTorah? What do you do about saying Uneinu? And it's important to emphasize that the ru- the rules are not identical. The rules for Uneinu and the rules for, rules, rules for Krias HaTorah. Bearing in mind that Uneinu is an extra beracha on behalf of the tzipur, whereas Krias HaTorah, the one who has the Aliyah, he's saying the beracha. So that's why it's a little bit different. So now let's read inside. This is again from Mesoret Yesh Suchim, volume base. So the comment here is that sometimes, um, there's no ten fasters in shul, that's different to regularly, say, if you've got a roev minyan. When it comes to, to f- to fast days, the Shulchan Aruch requires 10 people are fasting. If that is the case, the chazan should not say Aneinu as a separate bracha, because you don't have a minyan of fasters. Instead, it should be incorporated in Shemoneh Esreh tefillah. Like if you had forgotten to say it by, between Ga'al Yisrael and Ga'al Chayei, you'd incorporate it in Shemoneh Esreh tefillah. So here too, when you don't have a minyan of fasters, so then say Aneinu in Shemoneh Esreh tefillah, and you finish off, "Baruch atah Hashem ha'oneh le'am ha'yisrael beis sorro ve-Shemoneh Esreh

26:01 Speaker 1 tefillah." You'd incorporate in the chazimah both of those, both i- both items. And at Mincha, on a fast day, we normally say Birchat Ganim, um, "Al ha-kdesh v'al hakodesh." There's no minyan of fasters, don't say it at Mincha. Then we have, if there are three people who are fasting, and there are other-- there are seven who would have loved to fast, they can't manage, so they've been eating small amounts, then you can say Aneinu with a bracha. Now, we've gone through this in the past, and the background is the story with the-- there was a, a, uh, plague in the times of the Tzemach Tzedek, and he writes a letter, I believe it's to his son, Rabbi Yisroel Noah, who was a, a roev, a rebbe in Nieżin, and he was-- the rebbe, the father says to the son, "You must not fast." He was a weak, uh, constitution, "You must not fast, and other people also shouldn't be fasting because of the weakness and that could, together with the plague, it'll make them more vulnerable." But he says-- There he writes, "If there's three people who are fasting, and the others who are-- there's another seven who are eating small amounts, then you'd be qualified to have 10 people who are fasting, and you could say Aneinu as a separate bracha." That's all about Aneinu. So Aneinu, it seems to be quite, uh, rigid. On the other hand, the advantage is, by Aneinu, you can throw it in, in Shemoneh Esreh tefillah, and that's,

27:34 Speaker 1 that's a no-risk option. When it comes to Krias Hatorah, then if there are three people who are fasting, and you-- they can have those three aliyot, then that would be legitimate. Okay? So the Krias Hatorah, you can have three fasters, and each one of them, one of, uh, well, the three aliyot will be given to those three. So now someone's asking if one of the people who's not gonna finish the fast. As far as I remember, if he's still fasting, he still counts for the, uh, for the quorum, even though he may not. Certainly, you know. So for Aneinu, he still can say, "B'yom tzom tamid ineinu." Uh, I think so. What's interesting now that we're discussing it, what happens if it's at the morning and he's not even gonna f- fast even half day? But I'm not sure what the answer is. I'd have to look into it again and look around, see whether there's any comment in poskim on that, you know, thing. Right. Let's move on. And number, number six. So I got a call on Thursday morning. So a fellow is asking, he's working in a hot kitchen. He's ac- actually a mashgiach. And he says, "I won't be able to last the day if I don't drink. I just can't, I can't manage." So, so kind of the question is, does-- should he go to work? Should he take off work? That, that could be... Well, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't like to consider that a mashgiach kashrus

29:18 Speaker 1 should take off work. What do you, what do you expect? Who should be mashgiach in the, in the, in the kitchen? Uh, you can't have a goy doing the hashgacha, yeah? So it's imperative it is there. Right. Um, so the question is, are you ob- obliged to fast even though it's gonna cause you to become ill? So let's-- I was discussing with one of the rabbonim here, that's the way he looked at the shailah. Are you obliged to fast even though it will cause you illness? So generally, for a mitzvah, one should be, um, be obliged-- feel, feel obliged to pay a lot of money to do a mitzvah, and also not to do an averah, to pay a lot of money not to do an averah. How does it work with a fast day? How much do you have to sacrifice to be able to fast? So a parallel to this is a, is, is a... Here's a story. This is a sefer called Besamim Rash, attributed to the Rosh. And the question is that a woman is unable to handle the morah. They-- It's-- She-- They, they only have the horseradish, they don't have the lettuce, and if she'll eat a kazayit of that horseradish, she'll be ill for a, a, a day or two, be bedridden, and the whole Yom Kippur will be ruined. Is she obliged to do so? So to which the Ro-- the, the answer is given that sh- one is not obliged... Although one is obliged to spend

30:56 Speaker 1 a lot of money to do a mitzvah, one is not obliged to do a mitzvah and become ill as a result. And he says, for example, we see a choile is exempt from sukkah, even if there's no danger associated. And it is not, that's not only by sukkah. That's just one example. The Torah is given for chayim, and the Torah is to be pl- pleasant ways, and therefore... And then he says one more point. There's a mitzvah to be healthy, to keep yourself healthy. And if you are engaged with one mitzvah, therefore you put over another mitzvah. Whichever way you, whichever you turn it, he's saying clearly that you're not obliged to do a mitzvah and cause yourself thereby to be ill. And therefore, the same thing with a fast day, to say that you should not drink, and therefore become weak, and therefore, uh, not nec- not obliged to do so. Uh, you could say shouldn't go to work. I don't know whether, whether, I don't know whether that, that is, in this case, mechirah option. Also, I don't know whether it's a person is ob- obliged. This is, this is really where I'm coming from. Is a person obliged to take off work to be able to fast? That's, that's really what's, what's, in my mind. I'm not sure whether they have a totally clear answer to that. Someone's commenting on the previous discussion about whether there is leeway for a non-fasting person to have an Aliyah on Mondays and Thursdays. That would

32:36 Speaker 1 be, first of all, you're talking about at Shacharis, and I think that's more a bediaved if they're already called up. I don't think you'd call them up with a chatichilah, um, if they're not fasting, because the reading is a different reading. It's a, it's a reading of a fast day. It's not the reading of, of the regular Mondays and Thursdays. Okay, let's move on. So now we have question number seven. So someone has a, an office of sorts, providing some kind of service, and asking whether on Tisha B'Av, do they have to close, or can they remain open? And, uh, probably, the likelihood is the customers will also not be Jewish, at least for the morning. So what we have here is from Shechinach, Tov Kuf Nun Dalet, in Erachim, about places where the people do, do work on your own Tisha B'Av. Um, it's permitted, whether it's not, it's not permitted. Tamim Chacham shouldn't be doing work on Tisha B'Av. And then he says, "Afir devemoche sh'nad," Shechinach says. Even if the local custom is that n- not to do work on, not to work on Tisha B'Av, "Al y'dei mutar, al y'dei ein Yehudi, afir deveveisi." It's permitted to have work continued to be done in your own house, even in your house, if it's being done by a, by a ein Yehudi, by a non-Jew. The main thing here is that if working is a distraction from the f- from the, uh, aveilus, from the grieving, from the mourning, or else... But

34:19 Speaker 1 if a goy is doing it, it's not a distraction from my, my aveilus, therefore it's permitted. So that's okay. Um, I have been also asked about traveling. How strong is there, how much of an issue is there about traveling on Tisha B'Av? And I have answered that it says in Shechinach, in Kitzer Shechinach, not to go for walks, even on Erev Tisha B'Av afternoon, if I'm not mistaken. Certainly on Tisha B'Av, not to kind of distract yourself from the focus of Tisha B'Av. And certainly I felt that trav- going to the airport and catching a plane, et cetera, is, is, I think is a major distraction from the other things which- Call from zero two zero eight eight zero zero five eight zero six. Call from- So that, that would be a problem. Then in addition, traveling by plane, traveling by plane, there's also a risk of dehydration. And with al- also the running around, it's not a good idea, even any, any fast day. But certainly on Tisha B'Av, because of the focus, um, on aveilus, or distraction from aveilus, it's not appropriate. Let's move on. So now, listen, I'm, I'm, I'm really struggling with this, and perhaps we'll come back to this again. Now, I think we discussed this not so long ago. There is a term that soif kosel, that the end of a wall becomes like a d- a, a, a door post. In order to be a high potential, so you need to have a door frame, a doorway. So,

35:58 Speaker 1 uh, you can see this picture towards the upper right. So you've got here three walls, and now the walls end off, and they somehow create a doorway. So that's sort of- Call from zero- That is arguably high potential. But then you've got the other way around. You've got here a recess. So you've got corners on either side where the recessed wall and the side wall meet. And this is called... So the poskim which I've seen of, of late, say that does not qualify as a door frame, as a doorway. The meeting of the walls here, that what I thought was called soif kosel. No, I said that soif kosel is the end where it leaves, uh, when it comes, ends off as a, as a, you know, there's, there's a, there's a, like a doorfr- door post. But where a corner where two walls meet would not be qualifying as a soif kosel and wouldn't have to have potential. So someone sent me this week- These diagrams is from a, a contemporary Sefer, as you can see. So, so here you've got where you've got a passage, and it opens to a wider room. Or here, um, this similar setup. And they are suggesting that they do have to have mezuzahs where the corridor meets the larger room, even though there's no... It's just the corners of the wall, or the two corners meet- the corner where two walls are meeting. So I'm really quite puzzled. I'm not sure how we deal with this. According

37:41 Speaker 1 to, as I said, according to what I've been reading recently, the, this kind of structure does not count as, uh, count as a safe coastal to be high mezuzah, and yet others seem to be saying that it is high mezuzah. So, b'neider, I'll try to do more research on that. Let's move on to another person asked me this week, and it's u- useful for now, today is Sunday, and this coming Shabbos is Chazak. And so at the end of the Aliyah, of the last Aliyah of Shabbos before Maftir, last Aliyah, so it's Chazak, and everyone joins in and says, . Now, not only... So our, our meaning is that not only does the congregation say so, but also Chazak is said by the one who has the Aliyah. So Chazak, Chazak, we need... And this is also written, uh, if I'm not mistaken, it's written Hayom Yom. But meanwhile, Chazak, Chazak, Chazak is also said by the owner of the Torah, and it's said before the Bracha. Now, what you have here is a conversation. This is the Rebbe's record of his conversation with the previous Rebbe, and this is in Chodesh Av, Tof Shin Alef. So it had been Shabbos Matos Mass'ei, was the early days of Chodesh Av. And the day after, there's a discussion about yesterday's or two days ago's Kriyat HaTorah. And the Rebbe, as in the previous Rebbe, had said that it's said even the one who has the Aliyot HaTorah also says Chazak between the end of the reading

39:28 Speaker 1 before he says his Brachah. So first of all, it, it says, the reason b'klal why one says Chazak, Chazak, v'nischezeh is lichlol atzmo im hama'aminim hapshutim. To, to somehow include oneself with those who have simple emunah. And he says, Sor Chali is loshon kor zeh bebach. Now, this, this, this, this seems to be a quote from the Bach, Bayis Chodesh, which is a commentary on the Torah. I did do a search in various ways, and I did not come up with this loshon, so I don't know. Uh, the editors of the, of the Sefer also didn't find it, so never mind. But the Chazak, Chazak is, "Let us be strong," and lechaschil sefer chadash. Actually, the Chazak is expressing a wish that we will forge ahead, and we'll start a new Sefer. We're finished Bamidbar, we're gonna start Devarim. That's what the Chazak is saying. We're gonna keep on, keep strong, and we're gonna keep on striving. So when the previous Rebbe said this, that Chazak is like a preparation for the next Sefer, so then I asked, says the Rebbe, Al shelo sim ken. So then the saying of Chazak is unrelated to the Kriya of today. And don't compare it to, let's say, if you've already made a Bracha hamotzi, and you say, "I see melach, bring the salt." Because the salt is enabled to eat the bread, therefore it doesn't count as a Hefsek. But to say that Chazak is to have the end, give the impetus to start the next Sefer,

41:18 Speaker 1 so why is it not a Hefsek? That was the Rebbe's question to his father, not the previous Rebbe. And on this, the previous Rebbe answers, "Kol HaTorah sh'mo ishav sh'la kodesh baruch hu." The entire Torah, it's written in sources, is names of Hashem. This, uh, everything is names of Hashem. HaRachashava would say, this is the previous Rebbe's quote, HaRachashava would say, in the base of Bereshit, till the Lamed of Yisroel is all one word. It's one long word. And then he says, he compares it to the Shofar of Rosh Chodesh. I don't understand what that, what that's got to do with it. But meanwhile, he's saying that the whole Torah is one unit. Consequently, don't worry about, about it being a Hefsek, because you're saying, "I've finished Ba- Bamidbar, and I'm talking about Devarim." But Bamidbar and Devarim are all part of the one Torah, and therefore, Chazak, that we're going to learn Devarim, is not a Hefsek between Bamidbar and the Brachot said thereafter. That's what the, also the editors there explain in the, in the footnote. Then he has his last note over here, that this inyan of Chazak, Chazak, v'nischazek, so the both the Mashal and the Ramoh made a lot of fuss about this, of the saying Chazak. Eltere poskim, we're talking about veteran poskim, who make an emphasis on this announcement of Chazak, Chazak. So just, this was for me a, a new insight. The Chazak, Chazak is gearing up for the next Sefer, and it's not a problem of

42:53 Speaker 1 Hefsek because it's all, all, all one Torah, all the names of Hashem, and it's, therefore, it's all one, uh, one topic, so to speak. Finally, I'm going back to the discussion which we had last week about the, the Kesher, which was published last week of the, of the Rebbe's tefillin. Now, I, I want to show you what I've-- I, I, uh, I'm going to perhaps, if I can, I'll show a video of how it is done. But meanwhile, before I tr- risk that, I'm going to show you what I've done. This is my, my, my personal tefillin, and the lower one is my Rabbeinu Tam's, which I have not changed yet, and the upper one is the Rashis tefillin. What's happened over here is, if you're following what-- where I'm pointing the arrow, there's a difference whether this, uh, vertical strap is started by going from the bottom upwards or from the top downwards. Now, the more common way is to start off going upwards and then folding down, whereas the Rebbe's approach was starting from the top. As you can see, that strap over there has gone through the top, then gone down, and then gone, gone to the side. Um, it took me a while to absorb what's going on there. I'm gonna show you a video, if I can, and that is r- made by someone called Rav Moshe Klein. No. Let's try to get out of this. Um, hold on. Go back again. Try again. Click. Okay. Can you still see

44:51 Speaker 1 this? Right. Now, there we are. Is it coming up? Okay. Um, doesn't seem to be coming up. I guess you can't be online and do things at the same time. Uh, anyone who's interested, tell me after this year, send me, uh, a WhatsApp, and I'll be happy to share with you the video of Moshe Klein, um, in New York. So he, um, analyzes and he shows exactly how this kesher is different and, um, you'll be welcome to see it. So that will-- The mini video is another five minutes, but fine. Uh, I'm gonna stop with this and wish you a good evening and, uh, we should meet always in good health. Kol tuv.

46:00 Speaker 2 Go ahead.