נצבים–וילך תשפ״ג

00:08 Good evening. Welcome to tonight's shiur. Tonight is the, uh, Sunday of Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech. And we-- It's going-- we're going into the day of Hayelul. It's a special day in the Chabad calendar, in Chassidus calendar. And I'm gonna share with you, perhaps I've just shared it in the past, Rabbi Yosef Goldstein, otherwise known as Uncle Yossi, once wrote into the Rebbe a remez from a pasuk that Hayelul is a Yom Tov. There's a version of Okay. Let's go on to our first halacha question. So this is a friend of mine who learned in a kollel in Eretz Yisrael. It's a Litvishe kollel, and they, uh, they don't necessarily say Karbonas. You know, we-- before Mincha, we say Karbonas, so that's where you daven on Parashat HaTamid, and we then say Ktoras. In Nusach Ashkenaz, Ktoras is not said on a daily basis, only Shabbos. And the reason for that is that if you miss out one of the ingredients of the Ktoras, then that's a serious thing. And the Ashkenazim were worried that the pressure on the weekday, you might forget to include one of the ingredients of the Ktoras, and hence they only say Ktoras on Shabbos. Shabbos, people are more relaxed and not, not so much pressure, so that's when they have a, "Ein kelikeino" followed by Ktoras on Shabbos morning after our Leinu. So it's for the same thing by Mincha. In Nusach Ashkenaz, there is no, uh, saying Ktoras. So they start on the dot as soon as it's, uh, the, the

05:35 earliest time you can daven Mincha. So I guess someone bangs on the table and chazan starts Ashrei. So my good friend, he, lovsher, so he wants to say Ktoras. He turns to his chavrusa, "Do you mind if we stop the-- our learning two minutes earlier so I should have a chance to be able to say Kt- Ktoras?" To which his chavrusa said, "Hang on a second. If it's too early for Mincha, it's too early for Ktoras." This was a conversation, and so that's how, how we, we... That's, that's what, you know, how it came to, to me. Right. So now, here's the question. You've got the preliminaries of Mincha. Are they the same as Mincha proper? Now, the reason for this half hour, let's explain. M- Then, you know, we've got Hatzos, which is midday. Then the, the sun is at its highest point. And in the Beis Hamikdash, they waited a half an hour after that until they would do the earliest time they would do the Korban Tamid of the afternoon. There should be a little bit of shade, but it should be for sure, there was out of any doubt, that it, it's p- past Hatzos. So un- for the first half hour, it's perhaps not so clear that the sun has passed the midpoint in heaven. So therefore, they waited a full half hour. By then, you could already see the, the shade from the tall walls of the Heichal, of the, of the Beis Hamikdash, and then they were confident

07:06 it's afternoon. So we have this idea that the Korban Tamid is a half an hour after noon. That's called Mincha Gedola. And therefore, also the time for davening Mincha is also set at, uh, as a half an hour after midday. So the question is, again, the preliminaries, are they also included? So could you say Ashrei Korbanos? So here you've got the Piskei Teshuvot who is saying that you shouldn't be saying Korbanos earlier either, um, with nor Ashrei before the ha- the half-hour mark after Hatzos. What about... So then what does our, our, uh, correspondent do about his, uh, Keteres, et cetera? Is it plausible that you should say Keteres after you've finished, uh, everyone's finished davening? Okay, so then you'll wanna siddur and say Keteres after the, after Shemoneh Esreh, after the, after Aleinu. Like, sometimes people come late, they say Keteres, um, later. So would that be okay? So here in the, again, in Piskei Teshuvot, he's telling us if you don't manage to say Korbanos and Keteres before davening, you can say it after davening, as long as it's not too late in the day. So he has a reference to Shaggai HaMeir, and then he re- refers us to Aruch HaShulchan and to Rama Mefano. So let's look at those two sources. I didn't look up the Shaggai HaMeir, um, who does say that the Beis Hamikdash, um, that the Keteres was done after Mincha. So let's, let's take a look first at the other two sources. So let's take a look

08:53 here. Here's in Shulchan Aruch. This is just the end of Shacharis. But it says here, "One should say Pitom Haketeres." Erev of Voeger, Achar Hatfillah. That Pitom Haketeres should be said in the morning and in the afternoon, the evening and the morning after davening, and that's preceded by Ein Keloheinu, et cetera. So here, this is interesting. Whereas our minhag is to say Keteres before Shemoneh Esreh, before Ashrei, the Shulchan Aruch tells us about saying Keteres after. Now, that's actually was the order in the Beis Hamikdash. The Korban Tamid, the afternoon burnt offering, is di- is, is, is slaughtered, and then the Keteres is done. Normally, it would work like this. They would have the Kete- the, the, um, slaughtering and the sprinkling of the blo- blood on the Mizbeach would be done immediately. Then they would be taking it away to the wants-- to the wa- to washing area. They would cut, cut up the, the carcass and, and they would, uh, salt it and skin it, et cetera, whatever, whatever it was. And then afterwards, like an hour later, they would put, put the flesh of the Korban, the, the organs on the, on the, on the Mi- Mizbeach. But the actual, um, Shechita HaTamid, and sprinkling of the blood was, wa- was, uh, done, and then the Keteres was done. So, so it doesn't seem so-- to be so terrible that Keteres should be said after davening. Here we have the Aruch HaShulchan, and he says about saying Keteres before Mincha. But after

10:34 Mincha, one shouldn't say Parshah HaTamid and Keteres nor Ashrei. And his Hilu Al Zemoid, I don't know how well-known this is, but the Zohar is quite emphatic that it's, it's not, uh, one should not be saying Ashrei after Shemoneh Esreh of Mincha. And as a result, if you are in a rush, um, you might consider skipping Ashrei altogether or saying Ashrei quickly and catching up with the Minyan, but not to, not to consider saying Ashrei afterwards. There is, uh, uh, Mo'ah Pi Kabolah. But meanwhile, he says to say, uh, one shouldn't say neither Tamid and Keteres after Shemoneh Esreh. He doesn't explain why. Now, let's look at the Rama Mefano. Remember, Mah- Nahum Azariah Mefano was-- lived in Italy. He was a contemporary of the Arizal, and he try-- writes here about, uh, s- saying Keteres together with the Korban Tamid, and then the regular, uh, Shemoneh Esreh. Um, and he says that, "Eile Mesayim Gedolim," these, the, the Korbanos and Keteres are great helpers. "Lelamed Saniguryo Al Hatfillah Haba Acharehem" to intercede to, um, to the, for the, uh, welfare of the Tefillah, of the prayer which is followed. So he's saying that saying Kor- Kor- Korbanos and Keteres before helps your davening to be more effective. Continues. One who says the Seder Ha'atomit before Shemoneh Esreh and Krias after and says Shemoneh Esreh in between, so he is missing out in this benefit. So there is, you can see here, emphasis on the Seder or Krias before Shemoneh Esreh, and that is what

12:29 we normally do. I still think that in this case, where he hasn't got the time to do it before because it's within the half an hour before Chatzos... I'm sorry, uh, before, within the half an hour after Chatzos, before the time of Mincha, the Chazal also that should be applying for Korbanos and Krias also not to be said there. Look, so we're looking for solutions. So another solution would be perhaps it's a literature Minyan. But I said pro- the likelihood is that they davening along Shemoneh Esreh. Perhaps whilst you could say, um, Parashat Ha'atomit, et cetera, before they start... I mean, but once they've started Shemoneh Esreh, but you'll be able to catch up. Um, I s- Speaking to the Talmidim today in the, in the Yeshiva Ketana, I was saying I'm not so keen about this idea that, um, Hal- Aveiras HaTefillah should be, uh, paramount in Chabad. But this is the reality is that in literature Minyanim, it's very often that Shemoneh Esreh is very long. And so here's the question. So he says to me, "If I st- start Shemoneh Esreh later than the Minyan, have I still got the privilege of Tefillah Betzibur, or have I lost that? I don't want to lose the, y- you know, the, the, the, the Zchus of Tefillah Betzibur." So s- this comes to another question. This is the question number two on the list. If someone starts Shemoneh Esreh a little after the Minyan, is that still called Tefillah Betzibur? So what you have

14:00 on the screen is from contemporary Sefer called Ish Yisroel, um, specialist Sefer on Tefillah. He starts off in the main text saying that the, that the, uh, congre- congregants and the Chazan should start together Shemoneh Esreh. He actually points here out to an interesting thing about Rosh Chodesh. So in other circles, they put by the Sefer Torah after Krias HaTorah. Then Kaddish is said after Avodah Zarah. Avoda Zarah, Sefer Torah, put back whatever. And then they put on Rabbeinu Tam's. That's in the Hasidish Minyanim. They're not ready for, for, for Mussaf. So a little later, you could bang on the table and everyone starts Mussaf without a Kaddish. Our Minuch is different. Our Minuch is that we don't say Kaddish after Avodah Zarah, and we put the Rabbeinu Tam's without, uh, um, um... And, and then someone bangs on the table and say, "Well, so..." Then, then after we've finished changing into Rabbeinu Tam's and taking them off, then the Chazan goes to the Yomit and says, says Kaddish, which should be preceded by, uh, preceded by, uh, a, a chapter of Tehillim. Should be... A Kaddish should be following after a chapter of Tehillim. Okay. Um, so he's discussing this about the idea that they... When people are davening to be called Tefillah Betzibur, they should start in unison. In the notes, he kind of brings this from various sources, from, uh, from, uh, Mishneh Berurah, et cetera. Then in further, he kind of brings from Igrus Moshe. And even if the people are

15:35 not davening Mamash in, in tandem, but it's still called Tefillah Betzibur. Because even if they started together, the likelihood is that this one is by Atah Kodesh. The other one, other one is by Refaenu. So they're not gonna be da- davening Mamash in sync with one another in any, in any case. So if it's a little bit earlier, a little bit later, he feels that it still could be... That they're j- collectively davening a similar time, that should be called Tefillah Betzibur. He refers to Birkei Yosef from Rabbi Yosef, Achiezer from Shlomo Zalman, Sefer Chochmah from Rabbi Stern. And where they're su- suggesting that so long as you begin your Shemoneh Esreh whilst the Tzibur are on for the Bro- the first Brocha, so then you've started with... You're davening with a Minyan. And possibly if the Tzibur are during the first three Brochas, there, there seems to be a certain latitude that e- even if you don't start Mamash with the Tzibur, start a c- uh, um, a few moments later, you still have the privilege of Tefillah Betzibur. Um, having said that, that might be good enough for Parashat Ha'atomit, which is half a page. But for the whole of Torah, which is, um, another, another over two pages, that probably wouldn't work. And therefore, I'm, I'm left with the o- the option of leaving it for after, for after Aleinu. Right. So that's answering, uh, question number two. And then we, uh, the question's about Krias HaTorah. I don't remember whether we

17:07 ever did this on, uh, the, on this year. And this is a question which is in many Botei Chabad, that they do have people who are-- who would come for Shacharis, and they'll stay for Mussaf. Then you've got also JFK, as is known, they are the people who come just for Kiddush. And then you want to keep them a little, a little longer to be able to do, to do Mincha. So in winter, you can daven Mincha by twelve thirty, so then that's, that, that works. But in summer, when the earliest you can do Mincha is, let's say, um, uh, gone one o'clock, one thirty, to hold on to these people, and they're not gonna come back necessarily for Mincha later in the afternoon. So here's a question. Can I do... So just to sit around twiddling their thumbs as, uh, a- as well entertaining as the rabbi may be, but, you know, this, everything has a limit. So perhaps if we can start Mincha, uh, with Krias HaTorah. We can do... Start fifteen minutes before Zman, we can start Mincha with Ashrei and, and Krias HaTorah. And then we'll-- may work it out that, that Shemoneh Esreh will be started on the dot of, of, uh, of Mincha Gedola. So there is legitimacy to that. Um, someone once wrote a whole, uh, a whole article about this. Um, well, a couple of things. When the, the Minchas Yitzchak talks about this, he talks about on, on Taanis, the fast of the, uh, of Asara

18:51 b'Tevet, so the tenth of Tevet. If that's on a Friday, and he lived in Manchester at the time, and it's a very short afternoon, and Mincha includes Krias HaTorah. So there was a request whether they could start Krias HaTorah, Ashrei and Krias HaTorah, during that half hour after Chatzos, and then do Shemoneh Esreh after Chatz-- Um, after the ha- you know, half an hour mark. And, uh, Rav Weiss in those circumstances did allow it. In other words, although Mincha per se has to be only a half an hour after Chatzos, but Krias HaTorah, which is a preliminary, there is room to allow it within the-- for that half hour. So that's... There is, so there is room to be mehikel and the same thing about Chabad, et cetera. Now, in this article, which I'm referring to, written by Rabbi Avrohom, uh, Sternberg. So he's pointed to the fact that he's noticed in Seven seventy also people doing Minyanim for Krias HaTorah during that half an hour. So I just want to share with you that it's this idea of rushing right after Musaf to do another Mi- to do Mincha, to be able to... What's the point? The point is that you go home, then you can relax. So in the Ma'atney Efrayim, in the Ma'atney Efrayim, in the dinim of Rosh Hashanah. So he, uh, complains about this new fad of people doing Mincha right after Musaf. Most people go home for Seudas Yom Tov. Now, those who stay on to do Mincha, so

20:29 that they should be able to eat, relax, and they'll be able to, um, uh, relax until Musaf, till, till Mincha. He says that's not, not-- they're not doing the right thing because meanwhile, they're rushing through Mincha. Um, you could say perhaps Mi- Musaf was so long and so late, but he's, he's concerned about this, this fad. So now in our shul, actually, we do have on Rosh Hashanah a Mincha right after Musaf, and that is because there are several people who want to go to hospitals, et cetera, on Yom Tov. Um, uh, shofar, Nef, of course, that's a wonderful thing. Um, okay. Uh, but idea of m- doing Mincha right after Musaf without, without a break, without, uh, Kiddush, et cetera, it's, uh, seems to be, uh, rather giving into a Balabatisha pressure to be able to come, come home and just, you know, un-unwind, et cetera. Um, now I want to say another point here. Here we have Mishneh Nora from the Alter Rebbe in Sefer HaResh Sadig Beis. At Mincha, before Krias HaTorah, we say the Pasuk, "Va'ani sfi losi". Why do we say this? Because this is following on from the previous Pasuk about the people who are sitting at the gates and they're singing and drinking beer. And then it says, "Va'ani sfi losi", said David to, to Hashem. Rebbeinu Shelom, our nation, this nation is not like the other nations. The other nations, they drink, and they get drunk, and they have, uh, uh, partying. Whereas we, even though we

22:11 have drunk, yet we come back for davening. Va'ani sfi losi. Therefore, this has been instituted for Krias Ha-- before Krias HaTorah on Shabbos afternoon to thank Hashem that we are not like the people who, uh, other nations, other, uh, cultures who indulge in, in, in, in, in, in, uh, enjoyment and drinking a whole day. And even us, even the Yesh Ivchronos, even those who are not so learned, nevertheless, we've come back to hea- to hear Torah. So to say, "Va'ani sfi losi" is, is a, is a privilege when you come back. Uh, I'm wondering whether you could say that if you stayed, if you did M- Mincha right after Musaf, perhaps you should miss out that Pasuk, "Va'ani sfi losi." It's out of place because you're doing it in order to rush rather than, uh, despite that you've had, you've had your meal already. One more point about that, and that is that in Sefer Minhagim, it tells us about having an interval on Yom Kippur between Musaf and Mincha. And it says, "If possible, at least three-quarters of an hour." So what's the Cheshbon? Why does there have to be an interval between Mincha-- M-Musaf and Mincha? So in Chazal, they talk about Moshe Rabbeinu at the time when there was the battle, I think it was with Amalek, and he hel- holds his hands up in prayer. And there is an idea that not to-- that one should not hold your hands in, in... Should not be holding your hands in prayer for

23:45 more, for three hours or more. In the Kisvei HaAriza"l, this idea of a three-hour maximum prayer, uh, session connected with the Mishnah in Berachos, which talks about Hasidim Harishonim, who would, uh, spend an hour before davening, an hour davening, an hour after davening. So this idea of a, a three-hour maximum because the Meruchin Atzmon, whatever that means in Kabbalah, d- doesn't last for more than three hours. Now, if Musaf, Yom Kippur, it was just close to three hours. If you then go into M- Mincha, so then it's going to be overstepping the three-hour, uh, time limit. And therefore, there's a preference to davka have a pause between Musaf and Mincha so as not to overstep the three-hour, uh, time session. Okay, let's move on. Right. So here we have a... About drinking. If someone has to drink on Yom Kippur. Of course, first of all, you understand that drinking even a small amount on Yom Kippur is a, is a, uh, an Averia. There's a Machloket in Gemara between Reb Yochanan and Reb Shlomkish. In Gemara Yoma, that's the last chapter, talks all about the fast. And is Chatzot Shiur Min HaTorah or Chatzot Shiur is Mid'Rabbonon? Is having less than the, the punishable quantity, is that forbidden, min hatorah midrabbonon? Rish Lakish says it's midrabbonon. Rish-- Rab Yehuda says it's min hatorah. So to eat a small... Or eat or drink a small amount on Yom Kippur is, is min hatorah. Nevertheless, when there's a case where a person can't handle the fast and

25:39 they do need to eat or drink, so then there's an idea of mitigating the Avera. Because having a larger amount would be, um, punishable with Karet. Whereas a smaller amount, less than prescribed amount, would be, not be, wouldn't, wouldn't be punishable. It's also min hatorah, but it wouldn't be punishable. So what is the prescribed amount for food? It's the size of a date, kesefas hagaz. And for drink, it is meloi lugma. Now, generally people translate meloi lugma mean full cheeks. Um, I challenge you to find anywhere else where the word lugma is used for a cheek. I looked up to the dictionary, and it seems to be more like a gulp. A full gulp. Right. Comes along in the Gemara. So a full gulp. How big is a gulp? How much can you gulp in one go? Says the, says the Yehuda HaMachmori, "Lo meloi lugmo mamash." Don't talk about a full gulp or a full mouthful. "Ela kol she'ilo yasel kenul l'tzad echad." If you can push it to one side, "Ve ye'ro'a k'meloi lugmo." It does... It looks as if you've taken a f- Have, have a full cheek or a full gulp. Now, reading further in the Gemara, you see that meloi lugma... So we've got meloi lugma and k'meloi lugma. Meloi lugma is more than a revi'it. K'meloi lugma is much less. How much less, we'll discuss in a moment. But meanwhile, so I have here this measuring cup, if you can see. And I tried to fill up as much

27:23 water I can fit in my mouth, and then I emptied it into this, my measuring cup. And it worked out, I think it was something over, uh, about a hundred and ten, ten mils. Now, the Gemara does say very clearly that this goes according to each person. The... Whereas by food, there's a shi... A standard shiur of kesefas. When it comes to drinking, uh, then it's meloi lugma is according to the size of the person's mouth. So no proof one to the other. Meanwhile, so we've got meloi lugma, as I said, is, um, over a revi'it. According to Rab HaChaim, a revi'it is eighty-six mil. As I said, I measured about a hundred and ten mil. That's well over a revi'it. Not quite sure how it is, but fine. Okay. Then we've got Rab HaChaim Noi trans- translates this, and he says that... He... This is quoted in Nittei Gavriel, Rab HaChaim Noi. That exactly to work out what does it mean that you can push it to one side and it's visible. K'meloi lugma, um, is a bit difficult to work out. And he says what you can do is fill up as much as you can, bulging cheeks and all, then empty your mouth of water into a glass and then divide it in... halve it in half. And that is going to be, um, the pochos m'meloi lugma. So a half of as much as you could fill your mouth with. Again, I tried this, and as I said, mine was a

29:01 hundred and ten, by Mia it was about fifty-five. Um, and with the boys today in sc- in the, in the cheder, we did a... Called a couple of volunteers, and one, one, one had a bigger amount than the other. But that would be the shiur of half a, half a, um, a full mouth. And it's less than a revi'it by most people. By, by most people it's gonna be significantly less than a revi'it. Probably be... would be in the region of forty or fifty mil. By myself it was fifty or something mil. For some people it'll be a bit smaller. Okay. What I found, though, something else very interesting. So this is... We're talking about, uh, the, the maximum amount to have, uh, in one go. Forty mil is about the size of an egg cup. Let's go, though, something else. There is a concept of a window. If you have small amounts within a window, it's considered a one unit. That window called k'deachilas pras. Um, if you have small amounts beyond that window, then they don't combine. It's not considered one, one, one session of eating. Now, what about... Well, that's with food. We've got the din of k'deachilas pras, about the time it takes to eat a certain type of... amount of, of, of bread. What about for drinks? So we have here small sips drunk within a certain timeframe would be considered together like one drink. That's only if, now let's read this carefully, if you didn't tarry in drinking from

30:32 the beginning to the end of that amount more than the time it takes to drink a revi'it. But if you spent... If you... It took you longer to drink that amount of drink, more than the time it takes to drink a revi'it, then they would not combine. I'm gonna discuss this in a moment, uh, a little bit f- more carefully. Now, those who say no, that it's, it's... The window is the same as for food, that is our k'deachilas pras. So we have it two ways of when we're talking about what is the window for drink. Is the window, let's say, four minutes? Four minutes, that's nine minutes, whatever it may be, of Kriyas Shma. Or is the window Kdesh Shias Revius? Shias Revius, I wouldn't give it more than five s- five seconds. And according to the first opinion, you could have less than an egg cup, wait ten seconds, have again less than an egg cup, and again ten seconds, again less than an egg cup, and you'd still be, um, would not be in violation of, of a, of Isokores. The Pual he says like this. "La'inyan halakha yesh lehakmir lechatchilah lifzek isvor ha'acharain. Lahalakha when should labim achmir lechatchilah." According to the second opinion, and that's why we... Generally, if people ask for advice as far as drinking on Yom Kippur, we talk about a nine-minute interval. But what we're seeing here, I just... This is the first time I noticed it. Lehakmir lechatchilah, which means that if it's going to

32:09 be difficult, push comes to shove, you could actually rely on the earlier opinion, which is the much more lenient opinion. That so long as that there is an interval of ten seconds or whatever that may be, Kdesh Shias Revius between one small amount and the other, you're still, uh, not in violation of Isokores. So, so that, that's... I found that very re-- help-helpful. If people can't manage, people do have to drink, and they can't manage to wait four minutes, et cetera, then they could have, uh, wait ten seconds between one gulp and the next, and they're still within, uh, this, you know, they still, still, still haven't, haven't done Isokores. Right. Let's move on. Okay. So here is a question, totally different topic. So here you have a Parshah of Tefillin. This is a Tefillin Shel, uh, Sheliad, where you have the four Parshas in one scroll. And instead of the... In, in Rashis, the last one is Ve'hoyem Shamoiah. In Rabbeinu Tam's, the third Parshah is Ve'hoyem Shamoiah, and the last one is Shema. Now, the question here is, as you know, there is, in the Sefer Torah, there are gaps. And there's, they're what's called Psukos and Stumas. Sometimes you have a gap which is from middle of a line till the end of the line. That's called a Psuko. It's like open to the rest of the world. Sometimes you've got an enclosed gap and where you have a, a, a gap, and then there's another word or a few words at

33:55 the end of the line. So the gap is enclosed. That's called Stumo. Now, in the Tefillin, the Parshas are each one is a standalone. So then you can't really, um, follow totally the Psuko and Stumo structure. And yet... Well, let's, let's go a little more detail. Ve'yidabe Ve'hoyo ki viyocho end off with a Psuko, so they're not a problem. The end of the Parshah is open to as much as you want. Shema begins with a Psu- with a Psuko, and therefore Shema can start at the beginning of the line. Shema ends with a Stumo. So in the Sefer Torah, it'd be Uvish orecho, and then there'd be another word or more at the end of the line. So that gap would be a stopped gap rather than an open gap. Ve'hoyem Shamoiah is also, is a Stumo at either end. So Ve'hoyem Shamoiah is typically written inset. And in order to... So let's now read the Shechinach. Um, it starts off with saying all the Parshas of the Tefillin. This is Lamed Beis, Saf Lamed Vav. This is the Mechaber. All the Parshas of, should start of Psukos, apart from the fourth Parshah, which is Ve'hoyem Shamoiah. They should be s- It should be Stumo. And if it's not done so, it's Pasul. So that means that Ve'hoyem Shamoiah should start off inset. There are those who say it's okay. Medinis elu, even Ve'hoyem Shamoiah starts at the beginning of the line, fine. Well, the Chen nagas, back to the Mechaber, that Kadesh Li, Ve'hoyo

35:35 ki viyocho, Shema, all of them start at the beginning of the line. The end of Kadesh Li, the end of Ve'hoyo ki viyocho, you have a large gap. On the Soif Shema Ein Manichin Chalok. But you would not leave a large gap after Shema because you want to have that it should be a s- um, it should, it should be a, like creating a Stumo of some sort. Ve'im Manichin, if you do need to leave a gap, it should be less than Kadei L'choutef Tes Oisis. It should be less than a shir of nine letters. This is all so that the gap at the end of Shema should Ki Viyocho be close to the beginning of Ve'hoyem Shamoiah. There is a difference here between the Taz and the Alter Rebe, how to work out the end of Shema and the beginning of Ve'hoyem Shamoiah to be a Stumo. I don't want to go into that too carefully now. Meanwhile, we have this problem that the Sofer, instead of doing a Vish orecho close to the end of the line, let's say under the word Einecho or under the word Bein, he start... He, he finished off well over nine letters. Yeah. Well over, it's like more like fifteen letter spaces before the end of the Parshah. That's, that's the question which was asked. Is the other Tefillin, uh, okay or not? So here, as we saw in the Sh- Shechinach, it says at the end of Shema, you should not leave it blank, and it

37:03 should not... If you do leave a blank, less than the amount to write nine letters. So now it was, that wasn't followed. So is the Parshah kosher? I think, um, I mean, I know we're not... Most of us are not soferim. I think there is value in learning a little bit about the intricacies. When you look at the Parshiyos, it's a beautiful writing and, uh, it's... Yes, it's a, a piece of art, but it might be possible, yeah. It's, it's-- There's many more things in, in sofas than what meets the eye of the, of amateur. I'm talking about myself too. Ve'im manichim hu parchas. Now, now here's the biya halacha. This idea that there should be a gap after Shema. Lovely yikuv v'ko'omar. It's not imperative. Rather, d'l'chatchilah sviralei. That's l'chatchilah, the Shulchan Aruch says it's not, not right to leave a large gap. Because by leaving a large gap, that would be the way to ensure that the next chapter following it should be a psukah. Aval b'di'eved, after the fact, even if there was left a gap three times the word Asher or Asher. Asher, Asher, Asher, three large letters. Still, lo inis battel shem stumah, that does not disqualify as V'hoiem Shamoiah be- not being a stumah at the, at the beginning because V'hoiem Shamoiah is gonna be inset in any case. And therefore, V'hoiem Shamoiah doesn't become possible because Shema ended off early in the line. So the Mishnah Berurah says it's b'di'eved, it's okay. One more point is that in

38:44 a Rashi's tefillin, it would be Shema and V'hoiem Shamoiah would be the following column. In Rabbeinu Tam's I mentioned, it's Shema at the end and V'hoiem Shamoiah is the previous column. So it may be less of a, an issue on the fact that there is this large gap. Um, honestly, I did not, uh, ask around. I tried to do a bit of homework on this. Um, I think that the Sofer was... Shouldn't have done what he did, but, um, even, even if it's Rabbeinu Tam. But b'di'eved, it is kashru. Okay. Let's move on. So here I have a question, number six, and that is a father and a daughter are home alone. They live alone, which is okay. And the father wants to bring over a male guest to stay overnight. Is there a problem of yichud? And the answer is yes, there is a problem. Although a father with a daughter, no question of yichud. But when the father's asleep, so then there is that man and, and a girl, and there's no shomer. Uh, if there'd be two people sleeping, then they would be shomerim because you're looking at one yishuv sleeping, then at the other one. You can't be confident with two people sleeping. So, so two sleeping shomerim work, but one sleeping shomer isn't. So this is what you have here from the Niteh Gavriel on the laws of yichud. When you're... Even when you have a shomer who would be obviously, uh, would not allow anything untoward to happen in

40:26 their presence. Um, nevertheless, by night, that wouldn't work. You'd have to have two shomer. Okay. Um, right. Let's move on. So here we have a question of a family, um, shluchim. And they have someone, uh, a girl who's actually shluchim in Ukraine, and they have a girl who's with them for Shabbos. And this girl has gone through, uh, serious, um, you know, serious trauma. Trying to get back to my picture. Now, wait a minute. Someone's... Yeah, okay. So whoever put on those scribbles, can they take them off? I wouldn't have to bother with it. Um, so now their question is, can they make a cake which is like a large letter, um, digit eight? And this should be for, to entertain this child on her birthday to make a fuss of her. So is there a issur of cutting up the cake, which is, is it like erasing writing? So I told them that's not a problem, and the explanation is writing means letters stuck to a surface. That's what writing is. But loose letters which are floating around, which are not stuck to a surface, that would not be called writing, especially if it's only one letter rather than two. Minimum of, of, of, of a message would have to be two letters. And this you can see here, my source in the, um, in the, um, Piskei Teshuves. So he writes here, when you have baked goods which are a letter or, um, a, a picture, that's not called writing because it's not

42:37 on a, on a, on a paper or any other surface. Therefore, it doesn't... It's not called, uh, tsura. It's not called writing, and it's just a sha... It's a shape, but it's not writing. Therefore, you would be allowed to cut it up, and you would be allowed to break it. Let's move on. The next question was about a chosson who's getting married this week, and he's, um, asking what happens about selichos. If it goes to Selichos, does it affect it? Their Selichos doesn't affect his Selichos. So looking at the, um... Again, we're going to the Nishan Gavriel. Give me a second. So you... Here we have our grace. Shouldn't be so fussy, but anyway. So he, he writes that despite the presence of a Chassan or a Bal Bris, Selichos before, before Rosh Hashanah said regardless. But in the... He says, um, "Ein Omerim Tachnun be'Selichos." They wouldn't say Tachnun in Selichos. Now, for Lubavitchers, we don't know what that's talking about. But towards the... In, in their world, towards the end of Selichos, there's a section which is said, and people put their heads down on their arms like we do in Tachnun, Shacharit, and Mincha. And that's this piece over here, "Va'yomer David el God," followed by "Rachum V'Chanun Chatasi Lefanecha." That is the Nusach Ashkenaz, uh, Tachnun for every day, and that appears at the end of Selichos. So what the Nishan Gavriel is saying, when there is a Chassan, so the rest of the Selichos would be said, but that piece

44:49 at the end of Selichos, which is effectively Tachnun, that would not be said. Now, in our Selichos, as you can see here, it says, "Ein Noflim Al Panehem." All right, we don't have this meaning of putting their head down. The reason for this is, I think we discussed this a couple of years ago, and that is because sometimes Selichos is said very early and it's still night. And there's a concern we don't say Tachnun at night because Tachnun is arousing Dinim. And so we don't say Tachnun, um, at a time of Dinim. And because of this, that's also of... Although we'll say th- tho- those words, but we won't be, there won't be Nefilas Ap- Ap- uh, Apayim to avoid saying Tachnun where it's still night. So as a result, in the Chabad Kimach, it's... This is just... This is, this is said, but not in the form of Tachnun, so therefore I don't think it makes any difference in, uh, as far as we're concerned, we just continue as usual. Right. That was, um, question number eight. Question number nine, I know you may have gotten, um, the, the first edition which had, uh, questions seven and nine were identical. My apologies and my, uh, thanks to two people who pointed out the, uh, mistake already on Friday, so I was able to correct it before Shabbos. Uh, so my question number nine is the following. A family is hosting Sheva Berachos over Shabbos. Friday night, they've got all the food on, well, hot

46:25 plates. Would they be allowed to... They've got, wisely, they've got some non-Jewish waitresses. Are they allowed to ask... Well, are they allowed to somehow, um, indicate to the waitresses that they would, they wouldn't be upset if the, uh, the hot plates were unplugged and put away? So to tell a goy to do something which you're not allowed to do, you know, we know there's a concept called Amira l'Nochri, which is not okay. Then you've got this... We all know that there's this kind of playing around and not saying directly and beating around the bush, and that seems to be a, a well-known heter. Well, what are the parameters of that heter? So the, uh... Let's read this carefully. And what I have in fr- on... What you have on the screen is the following. Interesting. As you know, the Alter Rebe wrote the Shulchan Aruch. This he wrote in his you- younger years. He was about 30 at the time. But later on, I'm not sure the, the dates for this, he writes what's called Mahadura Basra, a later version. And this is at the back of the Shulchan Aruch. There's several pages of s- densely packed small writing, very complicated stuff. And one of the things which he deals with e- extensively in the Mahadura Basra is about the parameters of what can be asked, uh, from a goy or not. So let's... Now, what I have here then is a someone by the, by the name of Rav Yair Lemberg. He took the

48:01 Mahadura Basra, and he analyzed it very carefully and made notes and comparative comp- comparisons, et cetera, between the original Shulchan Aruch and the conclusions of Mahadura Basra. So this is what I've taken from that Sefer, from the back of the, that volume. So let's read carefully. In the Shulchan Aruch, it's written the following. "If a goy brings a sealed letter..." He brings a sealed package, a sealed letter, and he understands that it's part of... That he should open the letter, breaking the seal. You don't have to tell him not to, because he thinks that part of his mission to deliver the letter is also to open, to open the seal. And so who's paying him to deliver is the sender. Who's paying therefore to open the seal is also the sender. So when he breaks the seal for you to be able to read the letter or to read, use the package, so he b- he's under the illusion that he's doing so for someone else, not for you. But if he knows he's doing it for you, then that would not be okay. You know? So this is the Alter Rebe, Rebe is saying here that when a goy, even by their own volition, are doing things for y- a melacha for you, you'd not be allowed to tell them. You'd, you'd not be allowed to allow them. You'd have to be mocher. Tell them, "Don't do it for me." That is the position of the Shulchan Aruch, that if the goy knows he's

49:33 doing it for you, you're not... You'd, you'd have to stop him. In the Mahadura Basra, it's evident that he, you don't have to stop him, and the reason being, when it, it... W- Because you don't have immediate benefit from that melacha. So let's explain. If the goy wants to light a fire for you to have light or for you to have warmth... Well, warmth is another story. He wants to l- light a fire for you to have light, then you have immediate benefit, and that's not allowed. So even if he comes, plays own volition, "Can I switch on light for you?" And you say, "No, don't. Please don't." Even though that means you're just gonna sit in the dark. But if the goy asks the other way around, let's say, to switch off the light or to switch off the hot plate, you don't have benefit from the off hot plate, not directly. Of course, uh, you may have a benefit that is gonna be, um, the pressure in the room is gonna be less, less heat in the room. There's going to be, uh, your bill will be a lower bill, but those are indirect. You don't... So, so the difference if he switches on a light, that you're not allowed to, uh, allow the goy. You have to say, tell them not to. When, when it comes to switching off a light or switching off a heater, uh, at, or a hot plate, you're not allowed to tell them to do it. But

50:57 if they understand that you'd be happy for them to do it, and they do it, that is allowed. So therefore, they are allowed to, uh, you'd have to tell them, "We don't need the hot plates after the meal is served." And, um, if they choose therefore to s- to, to unplug them, you can, uh, allow them to do so. One, uh, last point which we have for today, and that is the feedback about the gluten-free matzahs. So a couple of people, um, got back to me on th- about this. One of them actually contacted Rabbi Royd, who is the mashgiach, um, I believe on be- behalf of Manchester Beis Din, who gives the hechsher on, on the Rakuzens in, in, uh, their Leeds factory. And he had said that they are mezonos and no way are they hamotzi. So I was curious what he's talking about. So I, I actually spoke to him on the phone, to Rabbi Royd, um, and he explained to me that the oats in these crackers are not made into flour. Imagine it's rolled oats, and they are perhaps chopped a little bit smaller, but they're never made into flour. Therefore, the whole pilpul which we had last week of flour with flour, it doesn't really even... It, it, they, as far as their perspective is that it doesn't become oat flour. It's just like chopped oats. And because of that, it doesn't... Even if you'd say the, the, the oats is the main thing, it's not a flour, therefore

52:36 it doesn't become a bread. So to say, does the oat flour prevail over the maize flour? There is no oat flour. And as a result, they are of the opinion that it doesn't qualify as bread. Which is frustrating because the one who asked me this question was asking whether they could use it for lechem mishneh. They want on Shabbos to be able to use this for lechem mishneh. According to the, uh, Rabbi Royd, it's not, it doesn't, it, it doesn't, it doesn't qualify as lechem. So, um, and he said there are other products, gluten-free matzahs which are available on the market. They're much more expensive. But this was a little bit of a misunderstanding, and it never really fulfilled what the b- the Beis Din were looking to get a product which will help celiac, uh, sufferers to, uh, have something for lechem mishneh. This does not qualify. Had they instead used oat flour, then that would be a different story. And then that goes, comes back to the whole pilpul which we had last week, whether, uh, whether the oats would kind of prevail over majority of other flours, or they would just hold their own volume, and you'd have to have a kazayis of oats rather than kazayis of the, of the mixture. One last point on that. Another one of our, uh, listeners tells us, Rabbi Lee, a shliach in, in Cambridge, uh, UK, so, uh, has some people who, in family who do have celiac issues. So they would use, make

54:15 a, a bread with fifty-one percent of oat flour. It wasn't so convenient. It was runny. And he was concerned whether it becomes hamotzi because the way Halakha describes a dough is that you can knead it with your hands. And d- uh, oat flour doesn't lend itself to becoming, uh, to be kneaded as such. So he says then they found a recipe where he can make a dough which he could handle and shape before baking, and that seems to be, uh, appreciated. And so he's, uh, offering that if people do have this need for getting, um, a, a, uh, an oat or a gluten-free recipe for, for, uh, making challahs, et cetera, he's happy to share, uh, the recipe with them. And so there you are, Rabbi, Rabbi Lee in Cambridge. I'm sure it's not so difficult to find his contact details. And the last thing which we have was this, well, this, I'm gonna still leave it as a, as a question because we're waiting for people to come back with answers. What do you know of a connection between the dates of Tisha B'Av and Shemini Atzeret? It could be some cross over, whatever. Is, do you see a, do you know of a connection between these two dates? I'll leave that. And, um, I was challenged. I did not guess the answer. So there you are. Uh, you're welcome to send in and the, the, uh, the address to send in your answers is thebabitzshul@gmail.com. Wishing you a good, good night and, uh,

55:52 ze yearach simatova. God.