נח תשפ״ד

00:18 Speaker 1 Good book. Shalom Aleichem to all of you. Tonight is Parshas- is Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Noach, tof shin pe daled. I wanna start actually with a dvar Torah. Some, um, time ago, maybe on it, Jonathan Teller, used to live in Stafford Hill, now lives in, uh, Edgeware, gave me two Sidurim of his great-grandfather, who was a rav, and dying here in London about a hundred and twenty years ago. And over Sukkos, I was browsing through them, and I noticed a couple of notes on the margins. Not many. About three or four notes on the margins. One of them I just copied out tonight, so I'm gonna share it with you. It's on the chapter of Tehillim of Yehoshua, Veshes, v'Elioen. We have there- Oh. Have there the words, "Rak be'einecha sabit v'shilumas reshaim tireh." Only with your eyes you will glance and you will see the ending. Shilumas understood as being the ending of the wicked, you will see. So he asks, why is that the choice of words? Shilumas reshaim, which could be translated as the payment for Reshaim. Why not shever Reshaim, the breaking, oines Reshaim, the punishment, soras Reshaim, the su- the suffering of the Reshaim? Why does the... Why does David HaMelech choose the word of Shilumas? Question number one. Question number two, what's the rak? Rak be'einecha sabit. What's the rak only? Furthermore, he could have just said, "Be'einecha sabit shilumas reshaim." With your eye you will see the retribution of the-- for the wicked. Why do you have to have

02:26 Speaker 1 the word tireh at the end? So we've got three questions. Again, what is the... Why the choice of words Shilumas? Secondly, why, uh, why does it... What's the meaning of the word rak at the beginning? And thirdly, why does it have to have the word tireh at the end? So these are the three questions. So he invokes the g- famous Gemara at the end of Gemara-- of, of Taanis, where Akiva, with his friends, with his colleagues, were passing by the site of the Beis Hamikdash, and they see how it was-- The foxes were running over the, uh, desolate site, and they were crying, and he come-- he consoles them. And one of his words, one of his words of consolation were, "If im lo ovrei ritzonai cach," if this is... They how those who violate get away with it, "lo ovsei ritzonai al achas kama vekama," those who fulfill Hashem's wish, how much more so that they will be re- re-rewarded. And therefore, when we look at Reshaim having it good, that that is for us a proof that the Tzadikim will get great schar, and they will ge-get it... Get in a, in a much more complete way. And therefore, when we look at Shilumas Reshaim, as in the reward of the Reshaim, so then that itself is a, a, a lesson how Tzadikim will be rewarded so much more. And that's the use-- the usage of rak be'einecha sabit. Just a brief glance. Even a brief glance with your sechel. Just a little

04:20 Speaker 1 bit. You will already see from the Shilumas Reshaim. You will see tireh. You will see how your reward would be so much greater if you'll have your faith in Hashem, uh, be'emes. And that is with Shilumas Reshaim tireh. When you will see their retribution, their, their, their reward. See, and Hashem is-- pays everyone for what-- for any good which they've done. How much more so that you will be rewarded from Hashem. So this is the Hemshcha pasuk. Rak be'einecha sabit shilumas reshaim tireh. Ki at Hashem machi el yesamto yimenecha. You put your trust in Hashem. Right? And then it goes on. Lo su unah elech aro. You're putting your tra-- faith in Hashem be'emes. So then, lo su unah elech aro, you will not see, you not, not, not be, uh, encountering any evil. May we merit that Hashem should give us the feeling of Bitachon ve'lev shalem, and we should see ach toiv uchesed kol yemei chayeinu. I'm going to go now into our questions. So the first question, timely. A, uh, girl in Sem, in Eretz Yisroel, she's asking the question, if she is... If sh-she hears the alarm and the protocol is that they should immediately go to a protected room. So these rooms apparently are thick, uh, concrete walls with a, a strong door which would be locked from the inside. And she comes to the safe room, and there's a single man there, and she's a single girl So now she's, she's asking, it hasn't happened. She, she's asking if

06:05 Speaker 1 Hashem shalom there is a, a, a, an alarm, and that's what it-- what's, what does she do? Now, actually, it's a very good question. Why so? So there is a concept of we all know there's three aveiras, three sins for which we are not allowed to s- uh, we're not allowed to violate even, even at the pain of death. And they are Gilul Arayos, uh, adultery, incest, et cetera. Shechut Dam, murder, and Avedah Zara. So we've got these three aveiras. Now, there's a famous story of Tamar, who was the daughter-in-law of Yehuda, and when she became pregnant and she was accused of being, uh, unfaithful to her late husband, whatever it may be, to her family, she was being g- going to be burnt at stake. And then she sends a message to Yehuda. She sends the, the signet ring and the staff, et cetera, and allowing Yehuda to choose whether to own up or not. So o-otherwise, she was ready to be burnt at stake. So the question is: Why was she, uh... o-on what basis? So the explanation is given, when you embarrass someone, so it says it's like, it's like a murder because the person, when they get embarrassed, they blanch. They, they, they, they do-- their color drains, the blood drains from their face, so it's a kind of murder. So therefore, just like not to murder someone, one should be ready to have mesirus nefesh not to murder another person. Similarly, not to embarrass another person. That was the logic

07:52 Speaker 1 of, of, uh, Tamar. And this is-- We've got various stories in gen- over the generations where people were ready to suffer terribly not to cause embarrassment to someone. Now, the term in, in Halakha is Avizrayu. Avizrayu means the accessories. It's used now in modern Hebrew. A-a-um, Avizar would mean, like, uh, the bits and pieces or tools, whatever it may be. But the word Avizrayu means the accessories. So we've got the primary three sins of Avedah Zara, Gilul Arayos, and Shechut Damim. Then we've got the associated things. Now, there's a famous... Now, the-- I was explaining this to the boys last week in, uh, in class. So there's a famous story that Reb Mendel Chaim. Reb Mendel Chaim was, um... I, I have to share with you. Reb Mendel used to talk about Reb Mendel Chaim, um, you know, him, uh, uh, tremendous, uh, praise of Reb Mendel Chaim. He was a brilliant man. And I'm gonna come back to the point. Reb Mendel Chaim, one time there was a meeting of the guy-- of the, the leaders of Russian Jewry, and it was a closed meeting, only for the mamash, for the It was so, you know, Chaim Brisker, perhaps Rav Kovetsky, whatever it was. And the Rebbe Rashab was there, and Reb Mendel Chaim was with him. He was a young man. So someone turned to him. We agreed only, you know, only the top brass are gonna come in. So he says, "This is my left hand. This is like my hand. This

09:33 Speaker 1 is..." Reb Mendel was a, a brilliant man. He became Rav in Nieżyn. There's a whole story how when there were, uh, the proposition of, of Rabbonis in Nieżyn came up, and it would be with votes, et cetera, et cetera. And the Rebbe Rashab went sp-especially to Nieżyn to kind of to campaign to get Reb Mendel in. It was, uh, he was really very, very, uh, a very special person. At any rate, I'm not sure the exactly year, but there were pogroms in, in Russia. And when... Actually, Nieżyn is near Ukraine. There were... I was there. By the way, the Mitteler Rebbe is buried in Nieżyn. So there were pogroms in, in, in, uh, in Ukraine. And he was kind of caught in the, in the street. There was, there was a pogrom. And the local vicar offered him to come for refuge into the church. Said, "Here you'll be safe." And Reb Mendel refused, and he was sadly killed by the pogo-- in that pogrom. So you have this idea. Well, going to church doesn't mean he becomes a Christian, Hashem shalom. But it's, it's part of it. So it's, it's a que- it's a valid question. Does... So here now, Yichud. Yichud is part of the family, should we say, of the Issur Giluy Arayos. And hence the question. So I didn't answer off the cuff. That's okay. I wanted to look into it. But I'm pleased to share with you. What you have on the screen, as you can see, is from the

10:58 Speaker 1 Sefer Nite Gavriel. Yichud in the, in case of Pikuach Nefesh. He's more talking about going to an ambulance, you know, et cetera, with a single driver. But it's the same, same question, yeah. So there are those who say, "Delo nidcha mishum de'avea bizrayu de Giluy Arayos." That Yichud would not be allowed for Pikuach Nefesh because it's a, an accessory associated with Giluy Arayos. However, Yichud d'Rabonon, if it is d'Rabonon, that would be permitted. However, there are those who are more lenient and say it is allowed. Okay. So now... So here she's a girl, unma- an unmarried girl. An unmarried girl, Yichud of a Pnuya. That is a din, that's a Issur d'Rabonon. An unmarried woman to get a, to, uh, to have a state of Yichud is a Issur d'Rabonon. And therefore, we have here the second, we, we have the second line is saying if it's Issur d'Rabonon, it is permitted. Are you going to ask what about she's a, uh, unmarried girl, she's never gone to Mikveh, therefore it's a Issur Nidda. The answer is that Issur Nidda Is, i-it doesn't make it an issue of yichud min hatorah because it's a issue which can be resolved. As a mikveh, it can be resolved. Whereas, uh, if she was a ishisha, it would be... This question would be stronger. I want to perhaps point out another thing that the issue yichud is more about the concern of seduction rather than, than forced, uh, uh, um, happenings. So anyway, so for an unmarried girl,

12:36 Speaker 1 this yichud rabanon, that would be permitted for her to go into the room and be in a state of yichud. Um, then there's a second opinion which says even, even as yichud sh'toirah, so if it's a married woman and, and her husband isn't in town, that could be, uh, a more serious matter. But still, push comes to shove, the halakha is gonna be that it would. Okay. Um, I think I might be, have got it wrong, but the story is not in Tinies, but in Marcus. I didn't, I didn't look it up. Sorry. Right. The story of Rabbi Hiva and Yisgal Beira. Now, I just want to, uh, perhaps I think it's an important point. It's always uncomfortable to, to, to discuss, but I think it's important to discuss. About forty-five years ago, there was a, a terrible story in W... In, uh, of a woman from Williamsburg who had gone to some department store, Bloomingdale's, whatever it was, some department store, and possibly she was married to a Kohen. The, the, the lift boy took her down in the lift to the basement, and he did what he did, and then he, he m- he murdered her, and her body was found with the garbage. At the time, there was a whole big tumul. And it was the... it was, uh, said that by the rabbi at the time that the, the, um, Nosrim Sitkonyas should be, uh, be, um, told that they're not mechuyav to have mesirus nefesh in such an event. They're

14:12 Speaker 1 not mechuyav to give up their life. The reason being that we have the story with Esther. Esther HaMalkah, it says Esther was, had, um, relations with Ahasuerus even though she was married at the time to Mordechai. And it says, the Gemara says, "Esther karka oylem po ishah." She was passive. She wasn't, she didn't initiate anything. And therefore, in the passive state, one doesn't... she doesn't have to have mesirus nefesh. At the, uh... When, when Mordechai asked her to go to Ahasuerus, and then she says, um, she's very worried. And she's... One of the things which she said, the way it says in the Gemara, she says, "Till now, I was oinas. Then, then, then I could come back to you. But if I go willingly, offer my re- being, being close, uh, willingly, so then I'm no longer an oinas, then I won't be able to come back to you." That's the way, um, the Gemara explains Esther's conversation with, with or his messages with, with Mordechai. So anyway, it's something which I'm uncomfortable to discuss, but I think it's something which, as I understand then, it was felt it w- is important that it should be known that this, that a woman does not have to be mesirus nefesh in such an event. Let's move on to the next question of more, much of a positive thing, that we have now also associated with the, with the, uh, war. Um, many, many soldiers are asking for tzitzit. And I guess they need more than

15:43 Speaker 1 one pair of tzitzit because the change, et cetera. So there's become a whole shortage or a whole demand, should we say, of tzitzit. And they need to be braided in by, by people. So a woman asked me, is she permitted to join in in the braiding of the tzitzit? So here we have from the Alter Rebbe Shichon Oroch in Yud Dalet, it's, uh, in Seif Beis, that he first says a woman is eligible to, to braid tzitzit into a garment. She can become a ben Yisrael. Then there's a second opinion which says just like a woman can't write, write tefillin, so the same thing, she shouldn't be making tzitzit. Bottom line is that the halakha is that a woman could braid tzitzit. However, it's better l'chatchilah to go according to the latter svara. So it's, toiva l'chatchilah. That's, that's quite a, a, how do you say? It doesn't, doesn't make it a ma- major issue. It makes it a minor issue. Toiva l'chatchilah. So if there's a shortage, one could rely on having women putting their tzitzit. What I would suggest also is that if there is a need and we want to bring in women to be, uh, braiding tzitzit, if a man would do the first chulio, which means the first double knot and si- seven circuits and a second double knot. So if the ma- ma- man does the first chulio, then that's already got a minimum of... It's already a kosher tzitzit, and whatever else is done is, is extra. And

17:11 Speaker 1 if necessary, that could be done by women also. Let's move on to the next question. Nothing to do with, uh... This has got to do with ice cream wafers, so nothing to do with the Mechama. So someone's asked me, an ice cream cone. Now, firstly, he asked about the berakhah. If the ice cream cone is not sweet, just bland, do you have to make a se- a separate berakhah on the cone? So the, uh, answer on that is no, you don't have to. If the ice cream cone is sweet, then you make a berakhah on the ice cream cone separately to the ice cream. But if it's b- a very bland thing, that doesn't need a berakhah. That's how contemporaries... Then he asks, "What about pas akum? If it's from a non, uh, Jewish factory, it, it... Does, does a wafer..." So my first reaction was that it has to be pas Yisrael. And then he writes back and says, "No, it's not so pashut," which I s- uh, he- he's right. And the question is like this, and actually I, I googled to see how wafers are made. So it is actually a very ruddy batter And you can see how the, it's, um, this very thin runny mixture, very thin. It's a thin mixture which is poured onto a surface, and then that's how it becomes these thin wafers. So here the question is: Does a runny dough, does that beco- acquire the din of pas to become subject to, um, pas, pas

18:43 Speaker 1 akum, et cetera. So there is a... This is discussed and alluded to somewhere in the Shulchan Aruch. The discussion is, is siman kuf yud ah, kuf yud beis. That's the din of pas akum. And there's a shach which seems to be saying that if it's a b'li ol racho, there's no din of pas akum. However, other poskim disagree with this, and here you have the Aruch HaShulchan who says, "B'chol she'b'li los racho, r'sholya yede mashkim, mafir anasis b'machvas hava gam kin hava lechem." Even if it's a runny mixture, uh, it's not fried, it's made in, in a dry pan, then it would be called lechem. Also, it's relevant in k'veya sudar. If you have a lot of mazonit. We all know this, that if you have a li- a co- a considerable amount of, of mazonit, it becomes chametz, yeah? So what happens if you have a very generous amount of wafers? Would it become chametz? So there's, so you look in Alter Rebe's Shulchan Aruch... Sorry, not Alter Rebe, Siddur. In Seder Bichasaneinim, where he talks about the three types of mazonit, of truknin, and rachmanius, and pasul b'bichsanin. Then he also talks about terisa. Whether terisa is, um, considered lechem when there's k'veya sudar or not, and he, he brings both opinions. So there are those who say that because it's a runny mixture, it never becomes pas by definition. Others do take the position that because it's becoming a finished, uh, like a cracker or something, the end product, the fact that

20:16 Speaker 1 it was a runny mixture doesn't matter, and it's still m- it's still a pas. So the question whether it's pas for, uh, k'veya sudar or for, for pas Israel, it's the same question. So, but coming back to our question, does an ice cream wafer need to be pas Israel? So you could take the view that since you're talking about an issur d'Rabanan, therefore you can rely on the lenient position that it doesn't need to be pas Israel. Uh, yeah, that, that you can, you can, if necessary, re-rely on that. On the other hand, on the other hand, as Chassidim, we are more mehader, and ice cream wafers are not exactly a, a, a necessity in life. We can manage, you know. It's not a, it's not the kind of thing we have to start finding coolahs for. Therefore, if ne- uh, where, where possible, it should be pas Israel. If it's not possible and there is, for whatever reason, you needed to, uh, um, serve wafers, then yesh la'maaleis rach to not be pas Israel. In any case, when there's no pas Israel, Ma-Ma-- pas, uh, Israel metsuyah, there's a heter to do, to use pas, pas, uh, palter. Again, as far as I know, all our thousands of shluchim, bechol mokom she'he, do not... V'lo zeh alazain gezunt. I, I believe they do not rely on this, that because there's no pas Israel metsuyah, they can use pas palter. As far as I know, they're all making sure to have pas Israel. Um, let's

21:47 Speaker 1 move on. Okay. So one of our dedicated listeners asked me about wearing a gartel or carrying, taking a gartel into a beis hakessel. So, um, several years ago, I published a sefer called Nesiuim Ve'shelishas volume two, and there was written that you are allowed to enter into a bathhouse, a mikvah, or beis hakessel wearing a gartel. Uh, you are... That's what I wrote, that you are allowed to. And in the notes you have here that going with a tallis into beis hakessel, you're not allowed to. Um, and then it says that you, um, the, the garments which you use for serving the, uh, the go-garments which you use in the kitchen, you use, you shouldn't use for serve, as a waiter to serve your master. So if, so it's not so much the space, but as much, it's more the, um, what you do whilst you're wearing it. You shouldn't wear it whilst you're doing something which is, which is, uh, how you say, not, not respectful. Having said that, so someone then sent me after that was printed... You know, th-this is the, this is the downside. When you print something, so then it's too late. Then someone sends you a correction, and this, this is already in print, yeah. Okay. But you know what? The, the other side of it is like this. If I hadn't printed, I would have remained with the mistake. Like this, I printed it, someone corrects me, now I can correct it. Okay. So now someone sent me...

23:14 Speaker 1 This is a, a sefer called Vehoi Ninim Be'sefer Sacher. This is the, the Morristown Yeshiva over many, many years would publish the Ha'aras, Ha'aras Ha'tmimim. Parallel to the Ha'aras Ha'biyur published by Altere, you had Ha'aras Ha'tmimim coming out from Morristown, and these were the main, uh, kind of way, you know, main kovatzim where, you know, the Rebbe would often answer in the farbrengens. And so they put together all the answers of the Rebbe which they had received over the years, and they put it into a whole sefer called Vehoi Ninim Be'sefer Sacher, plus a few other tidbits and letters, et cetera, which weren't pu-published elsewhere. So here we have Rav Zalman Vilshansky, who was Rosh Yeshiva in yesh- in, in Morristown. So he says two things. Number one, he heard from Rav Leibel Bistritzky, alav hashalom, who heard from the Rebbe that you shouldn't enter the beis hakessel with a gartel. Does that mean you shouldn't be wearing or you shouldn't, that you shouldn't even carry it in? Now, go- that we can learn either way. But meanwhile, not like I had written simply that you are allowed to go in with it. No. The, the... One should not go in to beis hakessel with a gartel because it's, uh, uh... We wear a gartel because it's meyukha l'tefillah. It's like hikonen l'kradas HaKadosh to prepare yourself to meet, like, to speak to Hashem. Therefore, it's disrespectful that the same thing should be happening in a, in a place which is not a respectful place.

24:36 Speaker 1 The second point which is wr- uh, with, he, he writes is that, um, in the sa- at the same event, and this my same conversation with Rav Leibel Bistritzky, he said that the Rebbe had told him, or does it mean the Rebbe at the same event told him. The Rebbe told him that you... A kittel. Now, we wear on Yom Kippur, we wear a kittel. Now, normally when you buy a kittel, it's open all the way down like a coat, all the way down to the floo-- uh, from top to bottom. And the Rebbe told him that the kittel actually should be s- um, closed at the lower half in a way that to wear it, you have to pull it over your head. So when I got my k- my kittel, that's over 40 years ago. So, um, someone pointed out, this out to me that it should be, that you, it should be that it... Like a night shirt, that you have to pull it over your head, not open all the way down. So I took a needle and thread and sewed the, um, the lower half. That, and since then, every time I have to pull over and take it off. But okay, so that's, you have this source. See, now Motza'i Shabbos, I think there's a meaning not to sew, so you can leave it till tomorrow. Okay, let's move on. Um, let's move on. Yeah. Okay. So here I have a question from a shliach actually in France that

25:57 Speaker 1 he has a Beis Chabad, and Shabbos afternoon they have, after Shab- after Mincha, Maariv, Mussaf, they have a farbrengen. And sometimes a bit of the farbrengen leaves a reshim on the floor. So then, and people are gonna come to Mincha, and they're going to see, uh, we won't go into all the details. So he's keen to have the place tidied up, presentable for Mincha. So you have a femme de ménage. He has a cleaner who comes in. What if the cleaner takes a mop or takes a machine? Are you allowed to ignore it, or do you have to intervene and say, "No, you can only just use a, a broom," et cetera. So there is a, a klal, which I don't have on the screen. There's a klal in the Dinim HaMirer LeNochri. And by the way, if someone wants to have a list of the, um, p- parameters of HaMirer LeNochri, in Yesivath Machneh, uh, B- Beis Shlishis Chelek Gimel, you have nine or 10 rules of when a Mirer LeNochri can be, is, uh, the chiyuv for that. So one of the chiyuvim is if you tell the Noch- the goy to do a job for you, and it's a job which can be done in a permitted way, but the goy chooses to do it in a forbidden way. So that's something which is tolerable. They're doing it for their own benefit, for their own convenience. There's two levels in this, and that is, now let me clarify. There's one is you

27:25 Speaker 1 ask the, the, uh, woman to wash the d- to wash the dishes, and she switches on the light. W- she could have washed it in the, in, in, with less than a light. So she, she... That's, that, that's, that's one level. That's, that's straightforward. It's not a problem. There's another thing. You tell her to, um, to schlep chairs from A to B. And instead of taking them on the, up the stairs, she uses the lift. So then the difference is that the melacha that she's doing is to, i- carry out your mission. She's doing it in a forbidden way. That's different to when she's doing your mission in a permitted way. She's just putting on the light to make things easier. So there the Halacha is a little bit more restrictive about it, but there's still, there's room to be mad. Okay. So now you're asking her, her to clean up the, to clean up the room, and she's taking a, a, a, a, uh, a mop. Is that okay? So what we have here is the, the, this discussion in Shulchan Aruch is in Siman Shin Lamed Zayin. There it's talking about sweeping, sweeping the floor, and there's the worry that you might level, there might be cracks between, uh, the floorboards or whatever it may be. It might be mashbira gumos. But anyway, that's pa- that's the main discussion, which I'm not going to go into. Nowadays on our in, in our indoors, it's hardly an issue. Meanwhile, meanwhile, the Mishnah Halachot brings

28:53 Speaker 1 here, you can see it on the screen. He brings from Rabbi Yaakov Castro. So Rabbi Yaakov Castro, I looked up, was a contemporary of the Be- Rabbi Yosef Caro and the Arizal. He actually, he, he was a Rav in Mitzrayim, and he did go up to... He met the Rabbi Yosef Caro in, in Tzfas. At any rate, so he, he puts on record. So on the lower part is the actual, the Sefer Kol HaYa'akov from Yaakov Castro. It's not, not so easy to read. So the upper, uh, is, is the Tafeh Chaim, where he's quoting the, the, um, Ya- Ya- Yaakov Castro. And he says the following: "In Egypt, in the Eretz Zeraim, it was common that they would, uh, have a goyische maid or, or ma- a manservant would wash the floor, which had, you know, flooring, and they would use a, a, a shmatta, and they would f- wiping the floor, and they would s- wring, wring it out and then put it down again. And they would mop the floor and then with a, with a rag and et cetera." So L'chaim, that's a problem, yeah. So he writes, "V'yesh l'ha'amad alei muzchus," that one could condone this, the practice because the goy is making it, he's just doing it to make his life easier. Because he could actually wash the floor with lots of water and then sweep it with a straw broom. But he wants to do it quicker. That's why he's using the shmatta. That's num- reason number one.

30:33 Speaker 1 Number two, better that the women should be acting in, in error unwittingly than they should do so knowingly, they should, um, sin knowingly. So he, his one, he, one explanation in Londres, and one is they're not gonna listen in any case. Better let them do the, do as they wish, uh, as they're doing. So that's the Yaakov Castro. Let's just read on the other side. You have here from the Mishnah Berurah- Where he writes that the washing of a floor, a wooden floor, as we do today, besides the issue of leveling cracks, there's another issue to do it. Be-be-besides these, the actual washing. The All right, let's come back. So we have here a heter that when the goy has an alternative to use a straw broom to wash the floor, and then instead chooses to use a shmatta, that would be okay. Now, I told this to this shliach in France. He says, "Well, actually, that's not so convenient over here." In Is- Eretz Yisrael, the way the houses are built, Baruch Hashem, I've never checked out what the, the houses are in Yisrael, but they, the way they build houses in Eretz Yisrael is stone floors, um, you know, stone tiles, ma- uh, granite tiles. And in the corner, there's a plug hole, and you wash the floor with lots of water. Then you use a sponger, uh, and this rubber squeegee kind of thing, and you bring the water to the corner, and that's how you wash the floor. So when there

32:17 Speaker 1 is that option, so then the goy has got the option to wash in a permitted way, and the fact they're using a shmatta is therefore al- allowable. But if it's, you don't have that kind of facility, you don't have that kind of floor, you don't have this drainage in the corner, and you don't even have... And, and you don't have this sponger, this squeegee kind of thing either, so then this heter doesn't seem to apply. So therefore, this, we're a bit s- struggling, yeah? So we have a heter from Kaf HaChaim from the Ari BiAnka, uh, Castro, but that would only be where there is an option of doing it in a permitted way. Where there is no such option, we have a bit of a problem. Okay, so that seems to be our problem. I, I have now then... Still, we have here the other heter, Therefore, it's, he said, uh, let's say he said Rabona. Okay, Melacha She'isi, whatever it may be. And therefore, to ask a goy to do it, the Zurch, the Zurch Mitzvah is permitted. I'm saying this because he's not the only one who has this. And we've all been in very Hashgacha places, and we've seen that earlier in the day, the place was an absolute tip, and later in the day, it looks presentable. And obviously, someone had come in and done it. Um, so I'm just being Melamdus on the, the... Uh, what I did tell, um... S- So if someone's pointing out that when you

36:25 Speaker 1 wipe the mop on the floor, you're squeezing it. That's true. But, uh, what I said before, you don't need to use the mop to get the water on the floor. You could take the bucket and throw water on the floor. Therefore, it's, it's, it's possible Bederech Heter. You could just sprinkle water on the floor. And so the fact that you're using the mop to do so, again, that's your choice. Kol Ponim, what I told the Shliach is that it's better to avoid it. But if it looks really, uh, uh, very unpresentable, then and it's a Chilul Hashem, et cetera, then yesh Al Ma'alisach to allow the goy to, to, um, to use a mop. Okay, let's move on. So here was one of the Rabbonim of this country- He had a-- he asked a question about if a, an error is found in a Sefer Torah in the middle of the Toichacha, in the middle of the forty-two journeys in Parshas Mass'ei. You heard that there's a mouse that you don't put... You don't, um, switch the Sefer Torah in middle. I wanna just say before going to the detail that about thirty years ago, I think, perhaps a bit less, we were approached by a company who does computer checking for Sefer Torah, and we took the, the Sefer Torah, which we had in regular use. They were put through computer checking. And if before then, it was every few weeks another mistake was found. Baruch Hashem, since then, the finding of a mistake

37:55 Speaker 1 in the Sefer Torah has re-- become a, a very rare event. Now, that point number one. So if you have a Sefer Torah and it hasn't been computer checked, is it... But it's, it's so interesting because there's some mistakes which were simply because, let's say, Al Keh Yesro Nikra Or Leinu, and is that spelt with an Alef or with a He? Uh, and there was such kind of mistakes because, perhaps because we don't speak Hebrew as a, as a spoken language. Whatever it may be. So the, the computer picked up those mistakes. But the second point is, in the Halachas of, in Siman Kuf Bet Gimmel, if a mistake is found during Krias HaTorah, there are, there are vari-various opinions. There are those who say that you have to switch the Sefer Torah in middle of the Aliyah and finish off in the Kasher Sefer Torah. There is an opinion which says you don't have to... You, you, you can finish off, as they use the term, pull over to the hard shoulder as soon as you can. You can finish off the, uh, unit which you're doing as soon as, as soon as you can in the Pasuk Sefer Torah. You can make a Bracha Achronon on the Pasuk Sefer Torah, and then you'll switch over between Aliyahs. The reason for this is there's a, it's in a T'shuva Saramba, and the Mordechai passes like this, that the Pasuk Sefer Torah, it's got a letter missing, means it's possible that you're not Mekayem Mitzvas

39:30 Speaker 1 Sefer Torah. Like you have a mezuzah with a letter missing, you're not Mekayem Mitzvas. Mezuzah says a Mitzvah to write a Sefer Torah, it's got a letter missing. But what's that got to do with Kriyas HaTorah? Who says Kriyas HaTorah has to be with a Kasher Sefer Torah? The proof to this is, it says in the Gemara, Ein Korim BeChumshin. I think we've gone through this before, but never mind. Ein Korim BeChumshin BePnei Kavedat Sefer. They used to have a Sefer BaMidbar, Sefer Vayikra. Ein Korim BeChumshin, you can't use a, a, a scroll of Vayikra because of Kavedat Sefer. Yeah, you know, a scroll of Vayikra happens to have eighty percent of the Torah missing, and the only problem is Kavedat Sefer, which tells you that it's not, that the mi-- the din of Kriyas HaTorah is valid even in a Pasuk Sefer Torah. And therefore, therefore, if you find a Sefer-- a made mistake, which ju-justifies that you have to switch Sefer Torah, but you can still finish off the unit which you're doing, uh, um, in, in the Pasuk Sefer Torah. You can make the Bracha Achronon in the Pasuk Sefer Torah. Now, this is an opinion of the Mordechai, as I said, and there is a T'shuva. That's a Mah Tzedek, which was published only about forty years ago from, from, from manuscript, where he follows this opinion. Therefore, I'm, I'm just saying it, it's which, uh, uh, in, in Yesiv Meshiach L'chash got a synopsis of that. In volume one, a

40:52 Speaker 1 synopsis of that T'shuva, that it, it's, it makes life much easier. At any rate, here we have two quotes. One is from Rab Chaim Noah, and one is from the Derech HaChaim. So here we have the d-- the upper one is the Derech HaChaim, and he writes the following. "If it... If the mistake is within three Psukim near a break." So one of the rules of Aliyas is that you cannot make a break within three Psukim before or after a, where there's a gap of a Psukah or Stumah in the Torah. So he writes, "If it's two Psukim or less near a Parashah, finish all." So then you'd have to read till the Parashah, and you don't, certainly don't interrupt the middle of a Pasuk. And then you have elsewhere, other, there's also criterion where you're not meant to interrupt the middle of a session. So you, let's say, you're not meant to end off on a negative point. So you, you read on till you find a positive point in the Pasuk Sefer Torah, yeah. Um, by the way, there is a Chumash which is called the Slavita print, which is a contemporary Chumash based, based on the Slavita print, where it has a, a code where you are allowed to inter-- uh, put, um, make a break or not. Wherever you cannot make a break, the d-- the two dots are in gray. Where you can make a break, they're in black. So it's just useful if you're... All right. At any rate,

42:29 Speaker 1 so now that is in Derech HaChaim. So he says, where you cannot pause and you cannot take a break, so finish off that unit. Now, then we have here in Rab Chaim Noah, in Siman Peh Alef, I think it is, in Mesilas Yeshorim, wherever it is, in Mesilas Yeshorim, he writes the following. Let's say if it's Shiras Hayam, in middle of the Yoshi-- Os Yoshi, we don't break in middle of the Yoshi. Middle of the Sefer Divris, we won't take a break. In middle of the Toichacha, he doesn't differentiate whether it's in Parshas Achrei or Parshas Kisavo. In middle of the forty-two journeys, in, in Parshas Mass'ei, we don't take a break. So, um, so he says in all of these, if you would... Now, he says, he refers to Derech HaChaim, Siman Peh Alef, where he says that you should finish off in the Pasuk Sefer Torah as he follows the Mordechai. According to the DeMeRaMo, that you have to switch into the kosher Sefer Torah. But as I've said, I w-we would follow the Mordechai, that you'd finish off that section in the Passover Sefer Torah, make a berakhah. So that's-- th-this is, this is the background. So those... There are a few areas where you would not pause in the middle. And, um, so if you found a Se-- a, a pasuk in the Sefer Torah, at that point, you'd finish off that, that, that unit, uh, and t-till the end, make a berakhah achronit on that, uh, uh, and then, and

43:45 Speaker 1 then switch Sefer Torah before the next aliyah. Um, right. I just want to say that in the... I read recently, in the back of our Siddurim, there's the, there's the Kriyat Sefer Torah for Mon-Monday and Thursdays. Going back in Tosafot Lamed Zayin, Tosafot Lamed Heh, when they prepared the new print of the Sefer-- of the Siddur, that's when the English translation came out. At the same time, the Hebrew side was over... A whole overhaul. At the same time, they also added the Kriyat Sefer Torah at the back of the Chumash for Mondays and Thursdays. And when the job was near, near ending, so, uh, was it, uh, uh, who-- one of the gaboyim, one of the maskim with-- in the car with the Rebbe, they told him about this, and the Rebbe asked, "What did they do about the Mem Beis Maftoir?" Because the Velt, when it comes to Parashat HaMasei, they only read the first bit. They don't go through the whole forty-two journeys. In Chabad, we are particular, we read the whole lot. And perhaps in earlier editions, they hadn't managed it. And here, uh, Tuvia Silberstrom was working on it, and he managed to, um, locate a, a, uh, suitable, you know, uh, text to be able to put in the back of the Siddur, also the Mem Beis Maftoir and Parashat HaMasei. And the Rebbe was very grateful. He said, "HaGr"a SheKoYach" for the fact that they included the Mem Beis Maftoir. Now-nowadays, it sounds like, uh, uh, uh, you know,

45:17 Speaker 1 a bit laughable. There's-- W-what's the big deal? In those days, I mean, Tuvia Silberstrom, his budget for his work was, uh, a budget from Giver HaRachakol, was for a pencil and some note paper, kind of, and an eraser. He, he really... And, uh, where, where do you get, uh... So he had to find, there's some Shamers, some old Chumash, whatever, and he was able to find a, a matching text for the Mem Beis Maftoir, and the Rebbe was grateful for that. Okay. Ma'ase from Motzei Shabbos. Okay. Let's see. Um, so Shliach is asking me about teaching Alef Beis to a, a, a kid. The father's Jewish, the mother's not Jewish. They know that the child's not Jewish. Are you allowed to teach them Alef Beis? It's a simple question. And here you have a quote from the Sdeh Chemed. Um, he's giving... A quote from the Zohar. One who's not circumcised, and you give even a small letter of the Torah, it's as if you're destroying the world. Sefer HaChareidim, you're not allowed to teach an, uh, Olam HaKedoshim even one letter. Shalom. It's Mahamir, Shecheh, Rebbe, Gabbai. You don't teach even a l- even a Alef Beis to a Goy. Now, we know that the Alef Beis, we're so fussy about the Alef Beis, teaching the children, come here, it's Alef, Oh, because we know that the Alef is... The word Alef has got a Kedushah, et cetera. So for us, the A-Alef Beis is, is not just a language, it's not just letters,

46:38 Speaker 1 uh, characters. It's, it's got a Kedushah to it. And because of that sensitivity, that it is, that Alef Beis has got Kedushah, especially, I see there's some Soferim here on, on, uh, online. There's so many, there's so much Ca-uh, Kabbalah, Sodus in the Alef Beis. And so, uh, yeah, one shouldn't be teaching Alef Beis to a Goy. Ah, they can go and get it. They can go to, uh, Lingophone or Berlitz or whatever. They can... Online, they can teach themselves. No, no, no, that's not, uh, that... We don't, don't have control of that. But for us to teach a Goy Alef Beis, it needs to be said. Okay. Um, so someone has a-another question. Someone's asking me, everyone knows the Mishnah in Shabbos, that one should not go s- go to the bathhouse, um, Tsomel Mincha. So he's asking, well, every, every Friday, we're going to the... We men go to the mikveh and they haven't done Mincha. Yeah. So this is in Siman Reish Lamed Zayin, towards the end of the first part of Yoreh De'ah. And so now, this is from the Mishneh Berurah. He says, "We re-- You know what? We... It's okay. We can rely on the Sha- the Shamas. You know, he, he goes around and calls everyone to the shul. So then that's... And that's the basis you can go, uh, the Friday afternoon because the Shamas will cause you-- call you to the, to the shul." Okay. But where he says, "If there's no Shamas calling you to

47:58 Speaker 1 the shul, then that's, that's their problem." And actually, they had a Sefer called Ma'aseh Rav, which is, um, a list of the Hanhogas of the Vilna Gaon. And one of them was that he would actually daven Mincha. On a Friday, he would go daven Mincha earlier and go afterwards. Unless it were he went to before Chatzos. But yeah, if he went after Chatzos, he would first daven Mincha. Okay. But most of us don't have that, uh, luxury of being able to get together a Minyan on a Friday afternoon before going to Mikveh. It's, uh, I think, quite impractical for most of us. What's useful to know is that the reason for not going to Amer Chatzos Mincha, so says the Gemara in Shabbos, Shemo Yes Aluf, you might faint. So, and our... So this is, you have a quote from Abayashu that may I say, in pointing this out, that our, our Mikvehs do not have that degree of, of, um, of, uh, steam, et cetera. It's not very common that people should faint in Mikvehs. Uh, and therefore, that, that would be... Therefore, it's okay. Okay? So that's... So relax on that one. Just when I was a learning in Chabad, those who remember the Chabad Mikveh, there's a big dressing room, and then there's the room where they... With the showers and the, and the pools. And there was an old man, uh, who had suffered, who suffered from epilepsy. And it was a Friday afternoon, you know, like an hour before Shabbos,

49:23 Speaker 1 and he had, uh, epilepsy, an epileptic attack just at the door between the two rooms. That means all the people in the showers couldn't come get dressed, and all the people getting dressed couldn't go to the, to the Mikveh for whatever. Okay. Um, let's move on. So where are we holding? We have one, one, uh, one last question. So here's a Shliach. He is making a function in a, uh, place where there's no kosher caterer n-nearby. So the kosher caterer is gonna come probably hundreds of miles with a tru- with a, with a, with a van, with all the, his equipment, and he's asking a question. He's making a hotel. The hotel has got lots of glassware, glass dishes. Is there a way that he would be allowed to use the glass dishes of the hotelinstead of having to schlep the kosher dishes from hundreds of miles away? That's, that was the question. So how, how, um, how strict are we as with glasses? Now, this in the past, people have asked more about drinking glasses. That's, that's upsetting. It's not a problem. They could use the hotel's drinking glasses. And don't ask me about the fact that, about toiveling. They belong to the goy. They don't need to be toiveled. But, uh, here's a question about, about dishes. Dishes means that they use them for serving non-kosher food, and now to use them for kosher. Now, let's read. Here is in Siman Taf Nun Alef. Now, the dinim of kashering kalim appear in

50:59 Speaker 1 two places, in Hilchas Pesach, Siman Taf Nun Alef, and Yoreh De'ah in Siman Kuf Alef. But in, Yoreh De'ah is quite scant, and they say, "Look in Hilchas Pesach." So here we have the Shechinach, Klei Zakuchis, glassware. Even if they're used for long-term storage, even if they're used for hot, they do not need to be kashered, because glass doesn't absorb. And therefore, it's enough just to rinse them off, to wash them up. So this is the shita of the Mechaber, of the Shechinach, that just rinsing, washing the glass well is enough because glass does not absorb. So that means you could take chametz dike glasses, chametz dike glass dishes, and you could use them for Pesach just by washing them over. This is Hilchas Pesach, yeah. However, we have here the Rama who says, "V'yesh machmirin v'yomin diklei zakuchis lo yimehana lehu hagola," even hagola lo yimehana lehu. Others are, take the other extreme, and they say glass does absorb, and it's compared to like china, like earthenware, which you cannot kasher. So glass also cannot be kashered. "V'chen ha'minhag v'Ashkenaz u'vemedinos eilu." This is the Ashkenazi minhag not to kasher glassware, not to use gla- chametz dike glassware on Pesach, and not, not even to rely on kashering. So on, on Pesach, that's, that's clear that we do not kasher. Ashkenazi will not use glass, glassware from chametz. Question is, what about for other issurim? Could you use glassware from, from, uh, milk and meat? Can you have, um, yeah, could you have the

52:57 Speaker 1 same dish glassware for befreishiks and milchiks? Could you, and, and again, if you got it, got it from goyim, et cetera. So, so this is not so clear. There is a Sefer called... Now, when I said clear about the glassware, that was not an intended pun. Um, the... Actually, I, I've always wondered, and perhaps I'm, I'm totally, uh, out of order in this, but if glass does absorb taste, why does the glass not change color? I would imagine that the taste has got the color with it. The substance which has the taste would have a color. If it's absorbed, it should change the color of the glass. But it might be, who says so? Perhaps the taste is, is colorless. I don't know. Um, meanwhile, see, this is a Sefer called Sefer HaKasherus. It's a contemporary Sefer, which is used, uh, widely in Eretz Yisrael by Kasherus authorities, and he writes the following. "V'nei Ashkenaz," for other issurim, "are meikel to be marche, v'al taf Pesach not." So whereas according to the Shechinach, according to Yosef Caro, glass doesn't need to be kashered. It's c- It's, just rinsing is good enough. Here he's saying for other issurim, V'nai Ashkenaz would be meikel to kasher. Um, so coming to our question, it would be... And what I, what I, what I, what I did say to him is, if you're talking about toughened glass like Duralex or Pyrex, those everyone... It's, it's generally accepted you cannot kasher because they've got some extra ingredient there, whether it's

54:41 Speaker 1 cheres or metal, but Pyrex and the Duralex would not be kashered. But when it comes to, if it's other types of glass, then you could kasher. Um, the, the one who's machmir on this is Maharram Schick. Now, there's a Sefer called Hagolas Kalim, specialized about the dinim of, of kashering kalim, and he lists all different opinions about this, and he quotes the Maharram Schick here. It's in Yoreh De'ah Siman Kuf Mem Alef. And he, he says, "We have the idea," as mentioned in Gemara, "about a lev, the heart of a, an animal is not bereleya because it's smooth. And, and yet it's bereleya de'klipa." So the same thing with glass. Even though the, the claim is that glass is smooth, therefore it doesn't absorb, but it is, it is bereleya at least de'klipa. But then he says you can, he, he says you could, if you bought ka- kalim from a goy and they may have been used for non-kasher, you could kasher them. And he says, interesting, you should put a... By pouring hot water, and you should put a, a, like a spoon inside. As you may know, um, that, uh, sometimes you pour boiling water, and it cracks the glass. But if you put in a spoon, it somehow manages to, uh, deflect and protect the, um, the, the glass from breaking. So he says do that and kasher it with a... So he, he also is machmir through, uh, kashering. So, uh, is it worth it? I don't know. But it's,

56:15 Speaker 1 uh, there is room to be meikel to kasher glassware, um, for, for, you know. All right. So let's, so let's just, uh, go. Someone asked me, um, "Can one tell stories from Chumash to non-Jews to connect to current events to influence their religious hashkafahs?" Okay. The answer is that you, generally it's accepted that to teach goyim Torah Shebichtav is permitted. And we have the famous idea that Moshe Rabbeinu inscribed the Torah on the, on these, in the Shivim Loshon, that the goyim should be able to read, to learn the Torah from. So that's Torah Shebichtav, um, but not Torah Shebe'al Peh. Uh, and yet they can learn Torah Shebichtav, and they can learn it in their language, I guess. That's an interesting question. Uh, but when Moshe Rabbeinu put, w- wrote it on the rock with the, with the Shivim Loshon, the Chareid would means, it means in, in their, in their script also. All right. So that's, that's it for tonight. Um, and we'll finish off with that tefillah, which the... So here is, um, Maharram Schick. You can see here. Um, we'll finish off with the tefillah. We should hear, um, Yeshuos and the Besuras Tovos. The Shvuim should return home safely, and all our, uh, chayalim should, uh, carry out their mission successfully. And, uh, should be Shebichat Hashem Shalom Ba'aretz U'Schavtem Eim Achrit. Hagut ha'voch.

57:45 Speaker 2 Hagut ha'voch.

57:46 Speaker 1 Yeah.

57:47 Speaker 3 Good voch.

57:48 Speaker 1 Good voch. Good voch.