תצוה תשפ״ד

00:35 A gut shabbos. Welcome to tonight's Shiur. Motzei Shabbos Parshas Teratzaveh. This tonight's Shiur is dedicated by, uh, Pinchas. I think it's actually Pinchas Yaakov. Um, Rabin, in memory of his late brother, um, Chaim Shmuel Mendel ben Moshe Ahavah Shalom, otherwise known as, uh, Michael. And we wish Pinchas, um, long life and good health, along with all the family. And may the memories, the wonderful memories of his late brother be an inspiration for all the family and a beracha for all the family. I'm going to start off with some feedback from last week's Shiur. Number one, we had a discussion about money, uh, dollars or coins received from the Rebbe, and whether making them into jewelry makes a difference. Does laminating a dollar bill into a... Does that make a difference? So that was last week's discussion. So I had a couple of people pointed this out to me, I'm gonna go share with you, and I want to just share with you, it's good to know where to find things. So there is a, an app called Rebbe Responsa, which you can see on the screen. Um, they have curated some five thousand letters of the Rebbe which were originally written in English. They're not translations. They were written and sent off in English. And a couple of people brought to my attention the following letter. So it's a letter, as you can see, written to a Miss Malka Friedman. The date is Taf Shin Lamed He. And it's the time when the Rebbe had

02:40 launched, the Rebbe had launched the Mivtza Neret Shabbos Kodesh, Mivtza Ner shel. And it looks like the Rebbe had offered an incentive that whoever commits herself to light Shabbos, a c- candle for each Sha- Sha- Erev Shabbos, we'd send a dollar or a coin. And this Miss Malka Friedman looks like she asked, asked the Rebbe, inquiring the significance of a dollar bill in connection with the candle lighting campaign. The follow-- What follows is a, um, fascinating two-page letter, two, two full pages in English. The end-- A PS is on the third page. And the Rebbe talks about Mitzvot Bechalal and about, um... And then he goes on to the particular mitzvah of Hadlakas Neris. And at the end, so and, and while-- and the, and the union of Tzedakah associated with Hadlakas Neris, that's the whole original of the letter. All, as I say, in, in English, and you can look up the, the or- or original on that app. Meanwhile, the PS is in connection with the above, says the Rebbe, "I want to emphasize a very important point, namely that however important that dime or dollar bill is, it is still muktzeh and not to be touched on Shabbos and Yom Tov like any other money." So a very clear answer, I mean, position of the Rebbe, that he gives a dollar, that dollar remains muktzeh. That doesn't take away from when it's been modified through, uh, made into a piece of jewelry. I don't think that's, that that's the issue here. It's

04:24 as, as it is, the simple halacha is that it's muktzeh. Now, it's very interesting because one of our regular listeners wrote to me that he was, years ago as a bachur in yeshiva and the mashpia said, "Rebbe's dollar, Rebbe's dollar is not muktzeh." And it's like, you know, how it, it's kind of levels of Chasidishkeit. How can you say a Rebbe's dollar is muktzeh? Yeah, muktzeh is the, uh... But then you can say, "No, the Rebbe gave you a dollar because he wants the, like, dir hamit a toin. He wants a dollar, not, not to be something, um, oysvel. It's something, it's a dollar, which is so..." All right. Anyway, however your, your Chasidishkeit goes one way or the other, but here you have a clear answer from the Rebbe that the dollar as it is, is going to be, is going to be muktzeh. If you modify it through plastification or laminate, whatever it may be, there's room to discuss that. The Rebbe's sort of talking simply shall we say face value. Let's go on to the second point which we discussed last week. And we, we're talking about the Rebbe's loshon. I threw in a comment, and, uh, I'm very grateful for at least four or five people who came back with sources about this and discussion. I, I mentioned how the Rebbe talks about the mata m'asarat rochim, and how we have this Gemara in Sukka Daf, uh, Dalet Amud Beis and Daf He Amud Alef talking about the Shechinah mei'eyalom... What

05:53 was the loshon here again? Mei'eyalom le'alot hashechinah lemata m'asarat rochim. That was the loshon which we had here. Um, my discussion last week Was where Tosfos says that the wall of, for tentfochim or for Shabbos is also derived from this ohrin v'karpores. And my question was, but the ohrin and the karpores are inside the kodesh kodashim, which is in any case reshus hayachid. Before going further, I just wanna share with you an interesting thought. Well, last week, the quote from the, uh, from the Alter Rebbe siddur was the idea of reshus hayachid, the, the ein reshus harabim lama lama asar. Above tentfochim, there's no pr- no issue of reshus harabim. Just bring that down. So I'm just mulling in my mind. We've got two dinim of tentfochim. We have the din of ein reshus harabim lama lama asar etfochim. We have a separate din that in order to establish a reshus hayachid, it has to have a mechitzas, it has to have a, um, walls around it which are tentfochim high. Of those two t-dinim, are they interdependent? I never thought about it till this past week. But there seems to be a logic here that the walls of the reshus hayachid are to ward off the reshus harabim. And since reshus harabim is oileh ad atsarah. So in order to establish reshus hayachid, you need to have walls of asar etfochim. I see a, a certain logic there. Although they are ostensibly, you could say they're separate dinim, I believe they are connected, which

08:01 fits very well in our discussion. So now let's move on to the feedback. So as I said many, many times, the Rebbe spoke about the geulah lamata me'asar esfochim. And I asked, what's the, what's, what's, what's the, uh, significance of that? So several people pointed it, pointed it out to me, um, including the, uh, the chosson, uh, has to have special mention. So the-- In Tov Shin Lamed Zay, in Yud Shevat, at the end of the farbrengen, the Rebbe addressed several questions which are, uh, put to him personally. One was before-- The one before this is about why does the Rebbe often say becholi, becholi. And he talks about styles of people speaking, of Rebbe speaking. For example, I think he mentions that the Mitteler Rebbe has a style of vedal, vedal havein. Every second paragraph finishes off with vedal. Anyway, so the behemesheft of this, the Rebbe talks about his usage of the term of as-- lamata me'asar etfochim. So I'm just gonna read a little bit from this, um, from this sicha. As I say, it's Yud Shevat Tov Shin Lamed Zay, Motzei Shabbos. So in-- The Rebbe connects this with, we have a Gemara which says, kol kol haketzin, all the dates for when the geulah has, was predicted to come, they've all come and gone. Ve'ein ha'davar et ol de'el ha'bitul. So what are we waiting for? So the Gemara says, we- uh, the-- teshuva. So what is, what is basically being said? That the geulah is already here, but it's

09:45 in a higher level, and it has to come. It, it, it, it's been delivered, but lama lama asar etfochim. It's, it's not, not in a tangible way. What we were looking for is that the geulah should be in a tangible way. Let's read further. Then the Rebbe refers to the Gemara in Shabbos that, uh, that above tentfochim is not called the reshus harabim. The concept of reshus harabim is only within, in the lowest tentfochim. Says the Ari z"l, now he's different to the board which we had before from the, uh, the siddur, that reshus harabim is olam ha'dipruda, world of division. Reshus hayachid is the focus on Olam Ha'Atzilus and a wo-world of Achdus, and because it's connected to the Eibishter who is one. And the Rebbe finishes off, "Had I not added those words, lamata, the geulah should be lamata me'asar etfochim." So you could say that the geulah has been, is, is here already, but it's lama-- It's, it's, it's in a spiritual sense. It's in lama lama asar etfochim. The Gemara says, kol kol haketzin. Therefore, the Rebbe is saying, "Therefore, I needed to emphasize, I need to emphasize that I'm not satisfied with the geulah, which is lama lama asar etfochim." Because Gemara says it's already been then. Navaz, I want to, I want to see the geulah lamata me'asar etfochim. And he quotes the famous conversation of the Rebbe Maharash with the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek. That the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, that, that 56hez was, was, uh, purported to be

11:22 a year of the, of the, of the geulah. It should have to come. So at the end of the year or beginning of next year, whatever, the Rebbe Maharash asks his father, "What happened?" So the Tzemach Tzedek said, "It was printed in Likutei Torah." So to which the Rebbe Maharash said, "geulah kipshute." Okay. Someone's pointing out perhaps the Mashpia felt that the Rebbe's words only applied to a dollar which had lost its value, money value, having been exchanged for stock or given instead. I don't know. Could be. Could be. Hakaponim kipshute is when, when... A-as I mentioned last week, what's the, the-- There's no real need for a person to move a Rebbe's dollar on Sha-on Shabbos. Uh, you know, it, it's koide vemkoime menuh. Wherever you have, you have in a safe place. And, uh, in a weekday you're metaled for it as much as you need. Okay. The other point is, and this is fascinating, that as I'm, I'm call-- I started with this Gemara, which says that, "Meolam lo yordo shin lamato leolu Moshe v'elo lamore." So there's this divide, that the Shin doesn't come b- within the tent of the Ohel Moed, the ground, and Moshe didn't go up. Now, we've got the famous Midrash. Everyone has learnt a bit of, a bit of Hasidus, even just learnt Sichas. So you know that there's a whole moshal of, uh um, Malchus Romi and Malchus, um, Suria, and there was a, a divide between these countries, and they're not allowed

13:03 to cross the border. And then came a time where they took away the border controls, and they allowed that Elionim yedul et hach, toinim tachinu yalulu. Elionim Romi, and the way the Rebbe Rashab once in a maamar. Romi means like Rom high, and Suria means rancid, uh, s- bad smell. So there's, there's the Romi and the Suria. There's the Elionim and the Tachtonim. And until Matan Torah, there was a divide between the Elionim and Tachtonim. After Matan Torah... So then, Ech Matan Torah. Vayeid, when the Rebbe Hashem says, "Ani hamaskil", "I will start." Vayeid Hashem al har Sinai. There's a Shin that comes lamato. U'Moshe ola lamore. So how does that match with this part-- with this Gemara that Lo yordo shin lamato, v'lo ola Mo-Mo-Moshe yo'lamore? Yeah, so this is, this is, uh, a glaring question, and this has not come through on the copy which you have on... But in a, um, in several sources. A couple of people sent me that in the Rebbe Mahrash-- Sorry, the Rebbe Rashab is, has a maamar ab-um, about Matan Torah, and towards the end, he brings this. This is in Sefer Ma'amaryum Torash mim gimel. Um, and pei beis, pei beis. Talks about this. It's also in Torash mim daled. And my son-in-law in Chicago sent me also, he sent me the reference to Torash mim gimel, but also in the Ragatchover. In the Ragatchover, Al Hatorah, Tzofnas Paneach Al Hatorah. So he has, he has a, uh, a volume on Devarim. He has a

14:45 whole study... Oh, oh, sorry, not a study. He has ha'aras on the Moreh Nevuchim, Moreh Nevuchim. In those ha'aras, he ref-- there is a mention. Ragatchover mentions the shita of Rab Yoichi, and he says, "But mash'einken l'didan, we don't pasken that way." In other words, this, uh, view of Rab Yoichi is not unanimous, and it looks like that the Midrash, which was mentioned before, Elionim and Tachtonim, it disagrees with Rab Yoichi. And in the maamar of Torash mim gimel, the Rebbe Rashab seeks to reconcile between the two sources. But the Pashtes, this idea, the meolam lo yordo shin lo, lo yar-lo yardo, um, shin lamato, that's not so... That's not necessarily the, the broad consensus amongst the, uh, Chazal. It looks like other, other sources say differently. I-- He says this. The Rebbe Mahara-Rashab tries to explain it. Okay. Let's now move on to something, uh, lamata b'Shevat Torach. So actually, when I was in, in the summer, I was in-- by my son in Wyoming, and I saw this, the-- They get these, these frozen balls of dough, and you take fifteen of those balls, you put them into a wet baking tin, leave them to thaw, and then they kind of rise, and then they blend, and then it looks like and it tastes like a very good challah. Very, very good. So now, another shliach somewhere, uh, who also uses these frozen balls of dough. In America, perhaps in England also, you can buy them. In America, in the small places, they,

16:41 they... As far as kashrus is concerned, they're perfectly okay. And here's the question of, of... So they're asking, "Do they have to take challah?" So now a dough which is... Actually, you can see this on the screen. In Gemara Pesachim she lamed. If a goy makes a dough, if-- or he owns a dough, and if there's a Jewish baker working for a goyishe, um, proprietor, and if it, it's the ownership of the goy, it's patur of challah. And the other way round, if it's a Jew's, uh, dough, even if it's actually the work was done by a goy, it is chayav b'challah. So it's got to do with ownership. So then therefore, the Pashtes, there's no question of a chiyuv challah. Now, I'm presuming that the balls of dough were in the factory, were made into one massive mass of dough, and then broken down into smaller balls and then frozen and, you know, packed, et cetera. So there was a dough made by a goy. At that moment, it's patur min hachallah. And therefore, it's not going to come back into a chiyuv challah at all. There's a hypothetical question in my mind. What would happen if a goy made small amounts of dough, less, let's say, made just one kilo? If the ba- original batch was just a kilo, and then a Yid came and took those small batches of dough and then made them into a large batch, where you can argue, "Well, it was never patur min hachallah because it-" You

18:26 know, you have a discussion in the Mishnah, let's say if a, if a, uh, dough was... Oh, well, let's talk about grain. There's a certain stage, meruach, where grain is kind, the maises, et cetera. If that maturation happened in the possession of a goy, then there's no chiyuv challah or no chiyuv of matzah. But if, if it was small pieces, so there was no maturation for the mitzvah of challah. Therefore, if that maturation is done in the hands of a Yid, actually there is a chiyuv challah. Anyway, that's, I say, clearly hypothetical because I'm sure that the factory which makes these balls of dough make them into a large, uh, in a large batch. Therefore, there is a status of, uh, a, a dough which is chayav challah in its potter because it's owned by a goy, and therefore that's not going to be resurrected at a later stage. Before I forget, I want to also go one, one point which was discussed in, uh, prev- previous year or two, two shiurim ago, and that was about saying berachos with the little children who aren't, uh, who aren't clean. And I mentioned about the kedusha v'beracha, and if there's no... Now, um, I apologize for the distress that some, uh, dedicated nursery teachers had from this, uh, position. And it is felt in the, in that, in that, that field of education that you do need to teach children humun at a very early age. What I just would like to then, if you want

20:12 to call it backtrack, and say that usually, I mean, I asked, usually the children, once they're toddlers, most of the time they are clean. No... And when, when they're... So then that's not a problem. It's talking about when we know that the child isn't clean, then, uh, it would be, it wouldn't be appropriate. But if, if, but, but bashes, most of the time they are clean. Occasionally, okay, they need to be changed. Okay. Um, so then, then one would be able to teach them berachos, unless you know that there is, that they're not clean, which probably in any case you'd change them before, uh, going to the next thing. Okay, let's move on. Now, common question about a woman wants to be able to, whether to go to shul on Shabbos morning, or she wants to do other activities, and she wants to employ a babysitter. So there is a cos- question of paying the babysitter, and that is called schar Shabbos. So if it would be a non-Jewish babysitter, there's no problem to employ a goy on Shabbos. There would be a problem of paying them on Shabbos. To leave an envelope for the goy to take before they leave. You have a, um, a waitress, and to leave an envelope on Friday night, and they should take it before they go. That is a problem because you're, you're paying on Shabbos. But we're talking about here, um, talking about whether they can earn money. A goy can earn money on Shabbos. A Jew

21:48 mustn't earn money on Shabbos. The simple solution is havlah, where there's a package deal. The person supplies their, their, their services in a package which include Shabbos and weekday, and you pay for the package. That doesn't always work. And let's say, in this case, this babysitter is not available and not needed during the week, just on Shabbos morning. So havlah isn't a solution. So how can we get around it? So I'd, on the phone, I'd said two solutions. One is to give the money not as a, as not a set charge, not a set fee. It's given more as a tip. And because it's more on a casual basis, so then that would be okay. The other thing I said was that you can give the, the babysitter before Shabbos, give her twenty dollars, whatever it may be, and you give it, and give her this money as a loan. Then after Shabbos, you say, "You know that loan? Forget it. Don't worry about it." So she's, she, she's not earning money, but the, the loan is being waived because of her rendering services on Shabbos. So having said that, I looked further, and Baruch Hashem, we have this shiur, and it gives me, uh, the urge to look things up and before sharing it with the, with the tzibbur. So now in the Piskei Teshuvas, he actually quotes this heter of waiving a debt. And he says that although the Tahilat Gadol, who was a Rav in Bardichev about, I don't know, a hundred

23:36 and twenty years ago, he allows that. But other poskim, including Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, do not subscribe to that. And they say that having your debts waived is another way of actually earning money, and that's not okay. That's still called schar Shabbos. So that avenue is, is not available according to many contemporary poskim. So then we've only got the other option, and that is of, of, um, giving it as a tip without... If it's a ca-- if it's, and again, if it's someone who's no relationship to you, just coming in, so then, uh, that's also gonna be a bit of a sham. If it's someone like, like a, uh, a close family member, a niece, a sister, or whatever it may be, who would do it as a favor also. Perhaps not every Shabbos, but they would do it as a favor occasionally. Therefore, if they do it now and you give them a tip, that would be legitimate. Okay. That's as much as I can say about that. Let's move on to the next thing. Okay. So here we have a game called Sudoku. Is it Japanese or something? Anyway, usually it comes that you get a printed square, which has got two numbers in various positions, and somehow you have to use your keppel to work out how you can make with the other seven digits between one and nine, how they should, uh, b-equal the same number, uh, horizontally and vertically. I'm one of the, uh, poorest experts in Sudoku. Uh, I

25:29 don't know. I never really... When I was, you know... Let's say, I want to tell you a story. The Alter Rebe, the Alter Rebe, when the Midrash Elagut needed to have a Baltakea. So he asked which of the Talmidim is offering to, he wants to, and whoever, whoever wants to teach the Midrash Elagut Baltakea. So, uh, the Alter Rebe offered his services, and then the Magut teaches him all the Kavanas of Tkiat Shafer. At the end of having taught all the Kavanas, so the Alter Rebe says, "But I don't know how to blow Shafer." "Well, I was never, I never, I never, I never got the kind of kid who took a Shafer without playing around. So I never learned how to blow Shafer." The Magut says, um, kind of was, uh, "What, what, what, what did you, you know, get, you, you misled me." So he says the whole story with Moshe Rabbeinu. And Moshe Rabbeinu, after all the Giluim, she says, says to the Eibish, "Well, I'm, you know, I, I can't speak in public." Anyway, so when I was a Ingela, Sudoku wasn't around. So Mamela, that's my apology for not knowing. Kol Ponim, so you have this, this, uh, game, and it's instead of having printed text, you have here tiles. And you have here, as you can see, a booklet with 100 puzzles. And you're going to take one page, and you're going to take the, the, the prescribed numbers, two numbers from the book. You're, you're going to put

27:01 them in place. And then you'll, you know, you'll sit down and work out your puzzles. You put all the tiles in place. So the question is, can you do this on Shabbos? So now you can ask the same question, can you play Scrabble? The difference is that Scrabble is usually, uh, incur-- You, you have, uh, write scores because there's different values of whereabout on the board you can manage to create a word and how big a word. And usually Scrabble, I believe, also you play with another person. And therefore, there's scores. And as a kind of game which involves writing down scores, is it, it shouldn't be played on Shabbos. Sudoku, I understand you play on your own, not with someone else. I might be totally o-off on that one. But, um, I, I don't know whether it's a minim to write down anything, uh, scores. Kol Ponim, if, if it does involve writing scores, that is a problem. But otherwise, is filling in the squares with these tiles, is that called writing? So here we have from Sheminis Shabbos Kol Ponim. He's got a whole chapter on games. And he says that if it's putting stuff... Like, let's say a jigsaw puzzle. So if you have the pu- If it's just loose pieces, they don't stick together, then such a puzzle may be played with on Shabbos. You tip it over, the whole thing falls out. That's not a problem. Then you have these adult child, um, jigsaw puzzles, the ones with a thousand

28:31 pieces, and you spend ten hours putting it together, and then you hang it up in the wall. So anyway, those serious games, so those, those puzzles, uh, you shouldn't be allowed, you're not allowed to play with them on Shabbos because the pieces stick together. So basically, the concept of writing or drawing is an image which is being formed, where you've got letters stuck into a surface, or in the case of a jigsaw, you're creating a, uh, you're creating s-an image with pieces stuck together. When they're just loose, you can tip it out, and the whole lot falls out, then that is not a problem of Kasiva. Now that's permitted. I'm just gonna look at the, the chat here. I see two people have, um... Someone's asking, "Could you ask the ba-babysitter to prepare stories?" That's an interesting question. Yes, could be. I mean, if, let's say, uh, like a balkona is paid for his time for preparing. So if the babysitter is, uh, depending on the age of the, of the children, if it's the kind of thing which they do nee-need to prepare something, that would, that would be okay. Someone's asking whether the boiler would be a problem. No, boiler is not a problem because it's not for delayed use. It's you're taking a piece which you want to use now. So that's, that's okay. That's not a problem of boiler. Now, I just want to, before going off to the next thing, and that is a ha'arah, which I may have said

30:02 before, but not everyone, uh, who's here now was in previous time. And that is that we say in Da-- in Benching, Let's say Hashem Elekenu. Let's say, Let's say, no, um, Say, we have to say, no, Hashem Elekenu, um, Be-um, Be'yom HaShabbos Hazeh. Now, in the Nusach HaRambam, it's Be'yom Hamanoyach Hazeh. The Arizal took exception to the lotion of Be'yom Hamanoyach Hazeh, and he's so, um, strident about that, he uses the word, that, uh, term, Manoyach Hameoretz Hayah. The father of Shushen was, was the one who says he was a Hameoretz. Not going to the detail of why. But-- And he says you use the language of Be'yom Hamanoyach Hazeh. So it's, it's, it's an, it's a Hameoretz. It's an ignorant type of, uh, expression. Very, very strange. So- One of suggestions to say is the following. That Shabbos, Shabbos is a day of devotion to Hashem, Shabbos Hashem. And Shabbos is a day where you have a day, d-d-day off. You work, uh, slogging a whole week here working so hard. Comes to Shabbos, you relax. See, if Shabbos is just a day of relaxation, that, that is, that's Am Ha'aretz. That's, that is... It's true, but it's, it's not what Shabbos is a-about. Shabbos is, you have menucha. From the physical, then you can foc-focus on the spiritual. So one could suggest that that's what the Ariez"l is saying. Focus on Shabbos Hashem rather than on, on the Yom Menucha saying. Let's move on. Right. So someone asks me, number six is... So

31:55 this is number seven on the screen, but number six, about opening and closing Pampers before Shabbos. Now, just for those who are not familiar, Pampers are disposable nappies in English, and they have tabs. Well, there was a stage when they have tabs, and those tabs a-are... Have got sticky, sticky surface, and you wrap the nappy, the diaper, around the child, and you stick the, the tabs in place. And then when you want to teach the child how to say a berakhah bechol, so you take, you unstick them and you, uh, yeah, and you, and you take off the tabs and c- So now, uh, some, some, uh, contemporary poskim s-s-advise that the Pamper, these tabs have to be disconnected, opened up before Shabbos and then stuck in place, and then you can use them on Shabbos. So this is a, I can imagine, another thing to do for a m- young mother. Erev Shabbos, she has to take a bunch of na-- uh, uh, diapers and unstick and stick. And therefore begs the question: What's all of this about? So the background to this is that sticking is a s-- is a, is a tolda of, of sewing. The melakhah, one of the Melakhah Otzarot is toir, is, uh, sewing. What about a temporary stitching? Something which was sewn only for short-term. And the moshol, the precedent of this is that before shoeboxes were invented, a shoemaker made a pair of shoes, and he sewed the two shoes together. And as I bought myself a

33:43 new pair of shoes, and Shabbos morning, I want to go to shul, and, uh, well, if the two shoes are stuck to, to one another, it's not so convenient to get to shul that way. And so I want to separate them. Now, that stitching of the two shoes together was obviously for a short-term. And therefore, so Rabbeinu Yoyel, one of the later Rishonim says, "You're allowed to do so, but you shouldn't do it in front of Am Ha'aretz because they will see... They won't know the difference between one unstitching and another unstitching." But that's the way it's brought in Shulchan Aruch, that you're allowed to unstitch a temporary adhesion. How long is called, uh, a temporary? So I talked about, uh, cobbler making a pair of shoes. You could say, "Well, this is a, a, a cobbler made a pair of shoes." Perhaps it means you took them in for repairs to, uh, to, to, for, for a short-term. It's not so clear. So the, the, um, advice to open and close those tabs of the Pampers is that instead of it being a long-term adhesion, it should be, uh, it's, it's... By having opened it before Shabbos, it's only a short-term adhesion. Therefore, it's less of a problem to open them up on Shabbos, to use them on Shabbos. That's, that's the background to it. Uh, in the notes, if you have the sheet, you can see a reference to the Sefer Shabbos Kaleha from Rav Forchheim. He discusses this in his fourth volume.

35:08 I don't have a picture of it because it's not Ohel HaChochma. And there he, he discusses this as a hidur, as a chumra. And in the notes, he says actually that Rav Shlomo Zalman himself, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, to members of his family, uh, had told them it's not really necessary. So there is... Whilst there are, there is some value in doing so. If you have-- If you've been doing so till now, fine. But it's, it's, uh, you, you have to have the chataras nedarim to stop doing so. But if n- if it's g- you're finding it difficult to, not mechuyav to, uh, to take on this chumra. Let's move on. So this is a question someone asked me. She goes out of the house and left a non-Jewish babysitter. She didn't ask me about leaving a child with a non-Jewish babysitter. That's a separate question. But meanwhile, she's asking about the bottle of milk in the, in the, in the fridge. So we're looking here in Shulchan Aruch, as you can see, in Siman kuf yud tes. And it says the following: "One who leaves a..." Now, there's a difference. We know about the idea of sending food with a goy, so you would need to have, um, seals, et cetera. That, that's common knowledge. What about when you go out of the house and you leave a goy in your house? And so it says here, Shulchan Aruch, in the same Siman after Basar Sheb'Chalav and Zalman Ayin, et cetera. So it says,

36:41 "If you have stuff in your house, foods, shedvorim, that if they had been exchanged for something else, there would be Issur Ta'arah." So let's say a piece of meat or something. So if you're going in and out, and you didn't say that you're leaving, whatever, for a long time, then you don't have to worry, even if there may be benefit for them in changing But if you say, "I'm going for a while", then it's as-- But hey, if there's no benefit from the exchange, mutar b'chol. If the goy would not benefit from exchanging that food for another food, for a treif of food of the equivalent, there's, there's no... It's not a, a problem. Lo yehashin on shemer hechelif la'achshilai. What does he gain switching this for that? There's a bottle of milk. Well, he emptied it, uh, and used that, that your-- the kosher milk, and then refilled it with, with, with non-kosher milk. Eh, ein leha nagad. Now, there's a couple of points here. First of all, that the opening of this halacha in Shulchan Aruch is if the exchange is something which is Isur Torah. Milk is not a Isur Torat. Uh, goyishe milk is not a Isur Torat. Um, it's, it's a derabanan. Of course, the concern is 'cause it might be from a non-kosher species, but the actual isur of chalav akum is definitely is a derabanan. And at the end of the Shulchan Aruch says, end of the Sif says that if there's no benefit, mutar b'chol inyan. Now,

38:08 the la- this last phrase, mutar b'chol inyan, is-- leaves a little bit of ambiguity. Does it mean it's mutar b'dieved or even l'chatchila? So I have a Sefer called Halchos Binyomin on-- who on this point, he just-- he's, he mulls over whether it's l'chatchila or b'dieved. So I'm, I'm not totally sure. Um, there's r- certainly room to be mekil because I said it's not Isur Torat. We're talking about derabanan. And there's a possibility of saying that it's even mutar l'chatchila. You can, you can take it that way. There's a room to be machmir possibly. I'm, I'm not so comfortable when-- You know, there's one, one, one situation where you leave a goy in your house to clean the floors. They have no business going into the fridge. So then you come back, you see everything in the fridge is exactly the way you left it. I have no problem with that. But in the case of a babysitter, and you want them to give the child breakfast or something, or they want to have their own, make themselves a coffee, you told them, "Use this cup, not those cups." Fine. But the, the, the, the, uh, bottle of milk is not g- gonna be the way you left it. And the-- So if it's stuff which you're leaving in their care, and it's not gonna be the way you left it, there's no, there's no, how do you say, tvias ayin. I'm more anxious about leaving them, them to... Un-unless there's a case of yoetzet

39:36 zenichnas, where you can c- you come in any time, then, right, that, that itself is a disincentive for any, um, mis-misconduct. Okay. So now we're going on to the question number eight about interrupting between shel yad and shel rosh to say modim anachnu Lach. So now-- So someone sent me a contradiction. There is a, at the back of the siddur of many Kahot siddurim, both Israeli and American, there's a table of where, where, where you are in davening and what you want to interrupt to say. So that was compiled by the late Rav Yosef Yitzchak Edelmann alav hashalom. Then there's someone l-later, this, this, this already probably been nearly 30 years already. Maybe more. Then comes along someone, a ga-- a talmid chacham by the name of Rav Yoel Lemberg, and he published a Sefer also alav hashalom called Hefsek B'tefillah, and he's published it a couple of times. In his later edition, he discusses this. Then you have a Sefer, which this is... The person asked me the question. There's a Sefer called Sheveach Yakor. Sheveach Yokor, however you pronounce it. So that's Rav Shmuel Horovitz, who is more known for his volume, Sheveach Hamoyadim. And he's published a couple of other... He's a son of the late Rav Chaim of Shkenda. So Shmuel Ben Chaim is Sheveach. So in the earlier editions, he had written that you, between shel yad and shel rosh, you can be mafsik to say modim anachnu Lach. But in his later editions, he says you should not be

41:34 mafsik. So there's been some development over here, and I just want to go through what's happened over here. So now in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, Siman Chof He, he says you should not interrupt between shel yad and shel rosh to answer what's called Dvar Shebichdushe or, um, omen shel Rabo, et cetera. In the siddur, he says you should interrupt to answer. So, and that is what we're going to read from the siddur. Yeah. This is from the Halchos Hilchos Tefillin in the siddur. Afal Pi kein. Although you're not meant to interrupt between shel yad and shel rosh, if you heard Kadesh, u-u-borchu, Kedusha between shel yad and shel rosh, you are allowed to be mafsik to answer them. Ay, afal Pi. There's goyim borchu acheres al shel rosh. If you interrupt between shel yad and shel rosh, you're gonna have to make a new bracha on putting on the shel rosh. Well, never mind. The fisha yesh oimrim shemebachim leolam al shel rosh, al mitzvat tefillin. Achan lo yida min taym. Minhag Ashkenaz is always to say al mitzvat tefillin. So you're saying, "Oh, you interrupted. You have to now make another bracha." You know what? There are plenty of fine Yidden who say every day a second bracha. Well, it's not so terrible that I'm causing myself to make another bracha. Ay, afshon ein linu kein l'chatchila. We don't say a second bracha on the shel rosh because safeik brachos lehakel. But here, when it comes to- Causing what's called not a brachah

43:10 levatalah, but a brachah she'aino tzrichah. You can rely on that opinion that you always should be saying Al Mitzvat Tefillin and shelo livotel me'aniyah d'var shebikedusha, not to have to drop in answering d'var shebikedusha. D'var shebikedusha is typically those things which are said only with a minyan as in Kadesh, Boruch Hu, Kedusha. So you clearly hear the Alter Rebbe enumerates three things as d'var shebikedusha, Kadesh, answering Kadesh, answering Boruch Hu, answering Kedusha. He does not mention Modim. Now, later on in this Hilchas Tefillin, the last few bits are more related to Kirshon. And there the Alter Rebbe says that if you are in middle of Birchas Kerishon, let's say you are by Yoitzer Or, by Hame'ein Olam, um, whatever, in the middle of Alos HaOlam, you should be mafsik to answer Kadesh. Uh, that's just the two parts of Kadesh, Omain Shebeirachah and Omain Avdam Mibe'olam. You should be mafsik to answer Boruch Hu. You should, uh, be mafsik to answer Kedusha, not the full Kedusha, but just the three pesukim of Kadesh Baruch and Yimloch. That's a chiddush. He says Yimloch is also part of Kedusha. And then he says you should also answer Modim Anachnu Lach, just the three words. Ah, so in the context of responding during Birchas Kerishon, Modim Anachnu Lach has been given equal footing to d'var shebikedusha. That's to interrupt into the middle of Birchas Kerishon. Here we're talking about interrupting between shel yad and shel rosh, which is going to cause that you have to make another brachah

45:00 on the shel rosh. Now, you can take it either way, and that is where the earlier, you know, writers, l- like the Shev Achikari in his earlier position was saying, "Well, since in the context in Siman Samach Bet in the didim of Hefsek in the middle of Birchas Kerishon, Modim Anachnu Lach has given equal footing to b- to d'var shebikedusha, therefore the same as regards between shel yad and shel rosh." The later position is saying, "No." And what you have on the screen, we're just gonna have a quote from the Sefer Hefsek B'Tefillah. Now, I've written here, it's from the Taf Shin Samach Tes edition, because in the earlier edition, which I have, it doesn't talk about this. But in his later edition, Rabbi Lemberg writes that the fact that the Alter Rebbe does not mention Modim, whereas later on he does mention-- he puts Modim together with Kedusha and Boruch Hu. So that seems to tell us that no, between shel yad and shel rosh, you don't answer Modim Anachnu Lach. No, it's, uh, by the way, it's, it... Why are you putting up Tefillin just in the middle of Chazarat Hashatz at that point? Well, never mind. It's, it's not, not such a common thing at pe- at least for people who try to come to a minyan on time. Um, so yeah. So the, the point being said here is that although elsewhere Modim Anachnu Lach does have the same, uh, value, but in this-- in, in here, we don't have a

46:36 source for that. And going back, the Beis In Shechinah he says you shouldn't interrupt at all. Here the siddur is a chiddush, you should interrupt for d'var shebikedusha. Well, ein lcha ba'yosem echidushai. Right. Uh, let's see a couple of points. Minuch Sefard also to bench on shel rosh. Um, okay, um, you might be right. Um, it's a machloket between, uh, in, in Baal HaTosfot, uh, Rashi HaTosfot, I believe. Uh, I didn't know that the Sefardim also say a brach on the shel rosh. It may be also amongst the Sefardim there'll be difference-- different communities which way they follow. Okay. Thank you, though. Right. I rec- I recently wrote a letter rec- wrote a letter of recommendation about a particular Rav that I wrote that he's baki also in Minhag Sefardim as well as Minhag Ashkenazim. In today's kind of communities, people are coming from all over. It is a valuable thing to be familiar also with the Minhag HaSefardim, Piske HaSefardim, et cetera. Let's move on. So here, someone asked me, he'll-- he's on shlichus in a small place, and he doesn't have company for Kiddush Levana. He's a married man. He has his wife. And so who else, when at Kiddush Levana, you turn around, "Yoima lechavere shalom aleichem, aleichem shalom," three times. Usually, you know, in a Heimishe community, you go out and the, the whole minyan is outside, and you-- it's shalom aleichem to three different people. Here, he doesn't have another J-Jewish man to say shalom aleichem, and his wife is

48:24 asking, "Is it okay to say shalom to his wife?" To say shalom to his wife. So there is a concept of ein sholaim beshalom ishok lal. We have this from, uh, it's brought-- It's written in the Gemara. It's brought in Yeridiah. One should not... A man-- It's not tzniut for a man to, to, um, go out of his way to greet, say shalom to a woman, even through a shliach, even through, um, a husband. It's considered a certain, like an, a, a, an intrusion, uh, in conflict with the concept of, of tzniut. Um, you can ask the husband how she is, but don't, uh, uh, well, however, whatever the details are. So there is something about, uh, say about giving shalom to a ishah, to a woman. Now, actually, there's another lashon, which I didn't do my homework properly, lahakdim, not to be makdim shalom le'ishah. And what we've seen by the Rebbe's style of writing, whenever the Rebbe writes to a woman, so the beginning of the, of the letter, instead of shalom u'bracha, it's bracha v'shalom. So it's a, a deliberate change not to be makdim v'shalom, but to say first bracha and then shalom. Kol bonim, this, this, this concept, there's actually, I found in doing a bit of research, a whole-- a Sefer all about, uh, yonim of tzniut. There's a whole chapter about the yonim of, of, uh, shalom le'ishah. But it certainly does not apply to one's own wife. It's not a problem to say shalom to one's own

49:59 wife. Um, you know, it's... It's there. That has to be shalom. It's obvious, yeah? But, uh, to say shalom, it's okay to say shalom, yeah. Um, in-- I once heard a diyuk. In our siddur, we have havos shalom shel bein od lo-chaveiro venishto. In other siddurim, it's hav'as shalom bein od lo-chaveiro. In ours, it's shel bein od lo-chaveiro venishto. So I once heard a pshat that-- What's the difference? One is to bring harmony between husband and wife. The other one is there is a shalom. The shalom shel bein od lo-chaveiro venishto. There is a shalom there, but it seems to be a little bit hidden, so it needs some therapy to bring it out. So that's hav'as shalom shel bein od lo-chaveiro. Kapo nim, let's come then, uh, in, in this, uh, context. In-- So you have the Piskei Teshuva, which is, I think, worth, uh, reading. That's a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Siman Chof, Alef in Yoreh De'ah. He quotes the Ritvo, and he's talks about this inyun of the Shem Shamayim, the, the way of behavior of tznius. One should behave in the Shem Shamayim. And so he q- quotes from the Ritvo. Hakol efidat v'yirat Shamayim. Hakol kefi mash ha-oma a-od makir be-atsmo. You have to also be aware of your own, your own, uh, inclinations, et cetera. If you feel that-- Im makir be-atsmo she-yetzer ha-ra nitna, vakof o floy. A person who feels that his, his drive is actually totally under control. Ve'ein ma le-tinur be-libo klal, and it's

51:43 not going to stimulate any, uh, improper thoughts, et cetera. Mutla lehistakel o le-dabbeir imo erva, ve-lish'ol beshalem eshes ish. So it's okay for him to look and to speak, et cetera. Um, and he quotes the story of Rav Yochanan who would sit by Sha'arei Tzvilo, et cetera. The, uh-- It brings a couple of stories where some of the Chachamei HaGemara seem to behave in a way which would be, uh, um, not considered tzniusdic, um, nowadays. And he says that they were in such a level. There's a famous one who said that they-- That he, he has no thoughts, no improper thoughts because of that exposure. And he finishes off, of course, Ein ro'eh lechokel bozeh el ha-chasid godel. Don't, you know, to, to rely on, on this hetter. Say, "It doesn't really bother me." There are-- A person who's known to be a chasid godel, but, but most of us, um, should be concerned that it, it, it would be mo'eh on improper, improper thoughts. Let's go on to the couple of chats here. Um, isn't there a story where the Rebbe didn't want to say if he was mafsik between Sheliya and Shalosh, the Ameshmei Rabo. There is-- I didn't know about the Rebbe. I know that there is, and I've discussed this in the past, there is a letter of the Friediker Rebbe to the Mashpia in Vilna in around nineteen forty-two. So this is during the Second World War, and Vilna, uh, at that time was still not, um, not under Nazi

53:29 control. And it says something about not being mafsik between the Sheliya and Shalosh, but it, it, it seems to be wr-written in code. Because here you can see the Alter Rebbe clearly says you should be mafsik. And then there were later, uh, from Rav Greenglass, et cetera, there's been-- there have been... I've got notes about this. There are those who said that, that you shouldn't be mafsik between Sheliya and Shalosh, and they had the-- the Friediker Rebbe. But I believe that that was-- Kapo nim, it seems to be that that was in a particular-- It was a conversation which meant more than just at face value. Right. Right. And the last one which we have on our list for tonight is about saying Shalom Aleichem in Kiddush Levana when there's no one else there. So I, I must share with you that when I was forty years ago living in Crown Heights, it was the last night of Kiddush Levana. I lived on the fourth floor, top floor of the-- this apartment building at the corner of Kingston and Montgomery. And I went onto the roof, and I said Kiddush Levana, and then came to Shalom Aleichem. It's about two o'clock in the morning, three o'clock. And I looked down, and there's some bocher or young man walking along Kingston Avenue going down. And I holler down, "Shalom Aleichem." And no response. Again, and looks up. There's some meshuganah at the top of the roof shouting Sha-Shalom Aleichem. There's, "Zorg Shalom Aleichem, Shalom," Whatever. Okay.

55:03 So now, what do you do when you're on, uh, on your own? Do you say Shalom Aleichem? So now we have this finally been published, the fourth volume-- Oh, no, the sixth, whatever the, the volume of Piskei Teshuvas on Halichot of, of Mishnah Berurah. And there he says that you should say Shalom Aleichem even if you're on your own. And he-- But he's kind enough to give us his source, and that is the following Sefer called Likutei Mahariach. The Mahariach is someone called Rav Yosef Chaim Friedman. And he published his Sefer probably about a hundred years ago, a little bit more perhaps. Very popular Sefer. Nice Likutei, three volumes. Al Sidat HaTefillah, Al Sidat Hashulchan, Arvei Rachamim. Very well-known Sefer, and it's been-- As you can see, it's been published. This has been newly re-typeset. So I looked it up, yeah. That's important when you have these melachim They do hard work, but they work swiftly, and sometimes they, uh, you know, they write things, uh, slightly different to the source. So now here he writes the following: The nusach of the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch and the Aruch HaShulchan, the Tzitz Kovo Vienna, and of the Levush is actually they have to say shalom olecho in the singular. The common nusach is to say shalom aleichem in the plural, and that's also in the Matti Moshe with the Talmud of Maashal. And as we see also, here he says, "If you're giving shalom to three people, you say shalom aleichem. If you don't

56:49 have three people, and you're saying three times shalom to one man, you should say shalom olecho." And you see here that's the lesson of the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch. However, he says that the meaning is even to a single person, you say shalom aleichem. And indeed, not only at Kidush Levanah, but generally when we greet someone, we use the plural shalom aleichem. Now, that is probably influenced from the Yiddish. Perhaps, you know, Yiddish German. You know the word taych? The word Yiddish taych actually means Yiddish Deutsch, Jewish German, Judea German. At any rate, so in the, in the more respectful way, if someone who you'd say instead of du, you'll say ihr. You'll say the plural. And consequently, in, uh, H- in Hebrew, when you, you say to a certain person, you know, in a respectful way, you say shalom aleichem. Then he brings from the Eliyahu Rabba. The Eliyahu Rabba is a commentary on the Levush. And he-- The Eliyahu Rabba quotes from the Ariza that the kavona by saying shalom aleichem is to bring-- that there should be harmony between the sun and the moon. Now, as we know, at the beginning of creation, there was a, there was a, uh, the complaint of the moon. You can't have two kings u-sharing the one crown. And then as Hashem says, that's a, that's... All right, go ahead. The Levanah had to-- The moon had to dimini-diminish herself. Now, and then in Kidush Levanah, we say there'll be a time, as it were,

58:46 the moon will be the same as the sun, et cetera, et cetera. So then there will be a harmony between the Cham and the Levanah. So the Ariza is saying that the shalom aleichem is alluding to peace between the sun and the moon, and therefore it's okay to use the plural. So although the Pasht is you're saying shalom aleichem to the man standing next to you, but it's okay to say aleichem because it's also referring to, alluding to the sun and the moon. And indeed, the Eliyahu Rabba quotes from the Ariza to say shalom aleichem. Okay. Now, with all due respect, he does not, has not said here that if there's no one there, you still say shalom aleichem to the sun and the moon. He-- That doesn't, doesn't say it here. He's just saying that that is kind of the behind the obvious of the shalom aleichem to the man in front of you, next to you. There's also, uh, the, the plural is referring to the Cham and Levanah. All right. So what do you do when you're Ramish on your own? Now, if it's... You don't do Kidush Levanah on a Friday night in any case, yeah? Because it's Chilul Shabbat. So you only do it on a weekday. So pick up your phone and call up someone and say shalom aleichem over the phone. There's-- Problem solved. Okay. Um, let's see what we have here. Right. If there's no one else, say Shalom to Kidush Levanah. And so, so this is,

1:00:13 this is the question. I'm, I'm finding it strange, but... Okay. Is there some loophole about being able to say Kidush Levanah tonight? That, that's a separate question, so we'll deal with that in a moment. Um, someone's pointing out in French also, uh, you have the difference between tu and vous. Thank you. True. Right. Um, is it better to say Shalom Aleichem on the phone? I think that, yes, definitely. You can say Shalom Aleichem over the phone. That's not a problem. I think that that would be a better solution than, than, uh, just standing there saying it to the Levanah. Um, right. So you-- So about-- Just to finish off, Rabbe Gershon, you asked about, um, saying Kidush Levanah after the mid of, of the month. So in these calendars, they have Sof Zman Kidush Levanah. However, there's a story which is written down by Rav Lando, Oliver Shalom, Rabbe Yaakov Lando, in the year Taf Reish Ayin Vav, possibly. Sorry, Ches, I don't remember. It's in, it's in Rus- it's in Rustov. So it must be Ayin. So anyways, got it all written down and how it was Pesach, and it was like the Rebbe Rashab did not want to make Kidush Levanah the second night of Pesach. It says wait till Motzai, Motzai. And that was going to go the night going into Yahrches. So I've written about this, uh, in the forthcoming siddur. There's a whole article about that. But, uh, that I take that-- I follow that, that when, for whatever, if

1:01:41 let's say you weren't able to make Kidush Levanah, uh, to, um, last week, I'd say you could still make a beracha tonight. I wish you all a Gut Voch, and can say also a Gut Chanukah, and Mar Bim B'simcha, and, uh, L'simchas Olam Al Rishon, till B'yas Moshiach Tzedekeneu Mehiru Venu Lamanch. Kol Tuv. Gut Voch. Thank you. Gut Voch. Thank you. Gut Voch.