בהעלותך תשפ״ד

00:08 Good evening, and welcome to tonight's shiur, uh, after a, uh, week's interruption. We'll start right away with our shailas. And the first one, which I have here is, someone contacted me. They have a child who has a wheat allergy, uh, gluten, a gluten problem, and therefore the question is, when it comes to Kiddush. So there is a concept of Kiddush B'mokom Seudah, that when you make Kiddush, it's imperative that you have, uh, a bit of a meal together with the Kiddush. And the question here is, does the-- do-does something like rice cakes count for Kiddush B'mokom Seudah? That's really the question. So looking at the screen, we have here from Siman Resh Ayin Gimel, that's the dinim of Kiddush. And so we'll see how this develops. So although in the Gemara, it says, "Kiddush B'mokom Seudah." Kosvu Hageonim, this is the Shulchan Aruch from Yosef Caro. Dahoda ein Kiddush ela b'mokom seudah. Yes, it's imperative that the Kiddush has to be associated with a meal. That doesn't necessarily mean a full meal. Afilo ochal devar mu'at, even if he ate a small amount. O shoso kos yayin or drank a bit of wine, that also counts for Kiddush B'mokom Seudah. V'geim et seudah sheb'mokom acher. So you can have, basically, here you'll have your kid-- your, uh, let's say, you're in shul, you had a Kiddush, you have a bit of food there, and then you can finish off your meal elsewhere. I don't see your screen. Um, okay, try again. Share screen. There we

02:18 go. Thank you for that. Right. V'geim et seudah, so that's the idea. You can have your Kiddush, let's say, in one location, and you'll have a bit of food there, and then you'll go to another place, and you, you don't have to make Kiddush again. Then the Shulchan Aruch adds, V'da-- goyim, v'davka ochal lechem o shoso yay. That which we've said, you don't have to have a full meal, but you have to have a bit of bread or drink wine. Aval ochal peri rotz, but if you just had some fruit, lo. That's not enough. For Kiddush B'mokom Seudah, fruit is not gonna be enough. So we've got a bit of a spectrum. We've got here... We've got here on the one hand, bread, which is perhaps the most substantial food. And then we've got on the other hand, we've got fruit, which is like a-- kind of a snack food. And so it says, it has to be bread, but not fruit. What about something in between? What about porridge or pasta? What about, uh, cake? What about, uh, meat, um, potatoes? Th-that, uh, that's not clearly addressed in the Shulchan Aruch. So now we've gone to the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, who says the following, almost a repetition. The Geonim taught us that the-- that which it says, ein Kiddush b'mokom seudah, it doesn't mean you have to have your full meal there, even if you had a kazais. Which is clearer than the Shulchan Aruch, which says devar mu'at. And it can be

03:59 a kazais of bread or m'chameshet min hame-hameini. It can be from the five grains which warrant mazons or a revi'it yayin in addition to Kiddush. But meanwhile, what we're seeing from the Alter Rebbe is that the... not only lechem, it can be also chameshet min ha'dagan, and therefore you can also be-- have Kiddush B'mokom Seudah with some pasta, with some porridge. That's also count-counting for chameshet, for, for a Kiddush B'mokom Seudah. What about rice, which is our original question? That's not... Well, it doesn't look like it from the Alter Rebbe. Perhaps it doesn't have enough hashivas to call it Kiddush B'mokom Seudah. But you know what? This person who's got an allergy, it's not only a question what they do, where can they have a rice cake in shul. You're saying this person who cannot have, uh, grain because of a glu-a gluten allergy, let's say they have also a problem with drinking wine or grape juice. Then you're saying that basically they can't fulfill mitzvah Kiddush because whatever they're gonna have is not gonna be fulfilling the Halakha criterion of seudah. All right. So in this particular instance, we see that later Poskim say that they address this and say, well, no, this is for the pisukei sh'vuos, that a person who's unable to have dagan, unable to have all the five grains, nor to have a glass of, a revi'it of wine or grape juice, can also have other foods, other cooked foods, and that's gonna be their equivalent of their mazon, of

05:38 their meal, and use that for Kiddush whether night or day. In that, so therefore, something like potatoes, um, et cetera, would count for Kiddush B'mokom Seudah in this circumstance. However, there is a preference to use orez, which is normally translated as rice, because it is, after all- The berach on orez is mezonot, although we don't know whether the orez is millet or, or rice, but it, it... The orez, whatever it is, is a more ieniaver and more stackable kind of staple food. Therefore, it would, in this circumstance, serve for kiddush mevadik. Or alternatively, that's interesting, about tamarin, figs. The Gemara in Berachot repeatedly says that figs are mezoni. They are nourishing, and therefore, they are kind of a close substitute for, for, for grain, for mazon. Okay, so that's the... So to summarize that, a person who does have a, an allergy to the regular five grains would be able to yayin kiddush mevadik with something like a rice cake. Okay. So one of our listeners asks the following question here repeatedly, including Yoventia, "Do I have to give maaser on this or give maaser on that?" And, "Isn't maaser today just an optional minag?" Now, very good question because when we read about maaser in the Torah, let's talk about maaser of the harvest. And within that, the maaser rishon is given to the Levi every year, and the maaser every, uh, uh, four out of the six years of the, uh, the seven-year cycle, the second maaser is actually taken to Jerusalem. That's

07:26 called maaser shini. It's the year three and year six, where the second maaser is maaser oni. So the idea of giving a tenth to poor from the harvest only twice, two out of, uh, six years. So that's really not a source for the mitzvah of giving maaser. We do have what's fascinating is that Avraham Avinu, when he went to battle, "Vayiten li maaser mikol," we have also... And while that wasn't a harvest, it was a battle. We also have Yaakov Avinu, where he says, "Vechol asher titen li aser aseren lo." Again, he was going to Haran to work, uh, by, by Laban, and he also talks about the idea of maaser, and not again about, about a maaser of a harvest. So the concept does exist in Torah, but it doesn't say it's a mitzvah. So here we have in Shulchan Aruch, in this Siman Ches, where he talks about how much tzedakah you have to give. Really, you have to give as much as the poor need. If you can't afford to cover the needs of the poor who are co-- who are, um, soliciting, then you have a limit, a ceiling. You are allowed to set a ceiling of a twenty percent, a ch umesh of your, uh, that's mitzvah min hamuvchar. And if that's too much for you to... Then the midat bedek is once-- is one tenth of your earnings. So this, this is the way it's presented in Shulchan Aruch. And all right, so whether the mi-- whether there's a

08:56 mitzvah to put aside a tenth, a tenth of your earnings to give away, that it can be possibly it's on the level of minag indeed. But here, the way it's presented in Shulchan Aruch is the other way around. There's a mitzvah of tzedakah, and that's a mitzvah min haTorah. There's a mitzvah of , whatever the pa-passuk is. There's a mitzvah of tzedakah of helping another, who is in need. Then the question is, how far do you have to go? So the mitz-- the, the concept of maaser is actually here making, making you able to manage the mitzvah of tzedakah. When you have a mitzvah of tzedakah to help needy people, how far are you obliged? So then there's a ceiling limit. Now, you can say, "My ceiling is, is ten percent. My ceiling is twenty percent." So instead of saying, "Is the m-- discipline of putting aside a tenth, is that min haTorah or min haminag?" Let's look at the other way and say, "We are being confronted continually with solicitation for tzedakah, and therefore we have a mitzvah min haTorah of helping him." And the maaser is helping us to gauge that. So therefore, when someone says, "Am I obliged to give maaser on da, da, da?" So the question is, because I'm being solicited, now is that part of my obligation? Is it in, in... Or is it beyond my ceiling? That's really the question. So it still remains a, a very, um, relevant question even for the mitzvah min haTorah because the

10:25 budget of maaser is actually allowing you to say, "Well, I've re-- I, I reached this limit, and I've fulfilled my duty." Okay, let's go on to the next question. Very interesting. We have a... I met actually on, on Shu-- on... About two weeks ago, three weeks ago, there was a young man here in, uh, visiting from the States, and he's doing a lot of research in why is it the Ashkenazim do not have birkas kohanim during on a daily basis. Which is the practice that's a mitzvah min haTorah. It should be on a daily basis. And what's interesting is that the Alter Rebbe is reportedly wanted to introduce this. It was three things that he wanted to introduce, but he didn't succeed. And one of them was the birkas kohanim habechol yom. Compare this to a story about the Vilna Gaon, who also, or earlier obviously, because he's, uh, that much older than the Alter Rebbe, earlier. Although him, he, he passed away in the lifetime of the Alter Rebbe. So the Vilna Gaon wanted to introduce birkas kohanim. And on the day when it was scheduled to be introduced, there was a major business where he was... And he was actually arrested. He was taken into prison for something, and it never materialized. So it, it, there's... In other words, there seems to be something min hashamayim to prevent the reintroducing, um, birkas kohanim on a daily basis in chutz la'aretz. Meanwhile, well, that's by Ashkenazi, but as far as the image is done.

12:14 Question here is, we have here a rabbi somewhere in Europe. Well, Israeli tourist, the Kohen, he knows in Israel every, every morning he goes over for Birkat Kohanim. Say he's gone over to the Aron Kodesh. He's standing in front of Aron Kodesh. So what do we tell him? "No, no, no, go down." Or do we say... Or do we accommodate him? So before he's gone, you can tell him we don't do it. But once he's there, this is the question, and I couldn't find this in contemporary Sefer Torah, what do you do now? But what we do have a similar precedent, and that is on Yom Kippur at Mincha. So normally during the weekday and Shabbos, we-- they-- even in Eretz Yisrael, they would not do Birkat Kohanim at Mincha, the reason being that people with their lunch, with their dinner, they will have a glass of wine, and once you've had wine, a Kohen's not allowed to Duchan. Because of this, Birkat Kohanim is not done at Mincha, with the exception of a, a fa-fast day when Birkat... When the f-- it used to be the Mincha on a fast day, the Mincha was done very late. Therefore, it was, it was clear that it's... And they're fasting, uh, and it wa-- That's why we do, uh, nowadays, we have on a, on a fast day, at Mincha also we say, the Kohen, the Chazan says, "The Kohen ienia ve'yevarechecha." On Yom Kippur, Mincha is a little bit earlier, and therefore the position is

13:46 that you shouldn't, that they shouldn't have Birkat Kohanim although they're fasting. Then it says, "Yehein shochen alav," in Siman kuf chaf tes. If a Kohen She'ovar, he violated this, uh, ruling that he shouldn't be going. V'al al duchan. He rose up, went up to the platform at Yom Kippur Mincha. Since it's a dovo yadu. Everyone knows she'ein shom shichris. Everyone knows it's Yom Kippur. Everyone knows drunk wine today. Arei zeh noise karpol. He should... On-once he's up there, he should do Birkat Kohanim. Ve'ein ro'id midin oy soi. We don't tell him to step down. V'nei chashad. We don't want to arouse suspicion. Shelo yomru parsu lu. People shouldn't say, "Ah, you saw he was told to go down. He must be there's something wrong with him." Ulekach ho yadu. And indeed because of this, it's Minag in, we-- in Minchas Elu that at Mincha, the Chazan on M-- at, on Yom Kippur does say, "Eleken velokeavi senu." Um, even though the, uh, if there were Kohanim, et cetera, we wouldn't encourage them to do Duchanim because of it, uh, similar to the rest of the year. But if kimshi olo lo yedid. So here we have a precedent that a Kohen has gone up to the Duchan. He shouldn't have because it's contrary to the, to the, uh, to the Mincha, contrary to the, to the, uh, practice. And nevertheless, once he's up there, uh, ein ro'id midin oy soi. So I would say the same thing applies here. This Israeli visitor has come up,

15:20 and he's really standing in front of the Aron Kodesh. So even kimshi olo lo yedid, which also means, therefore, if the Chazan knows what he's doing, then he's going to also have to, um, step... do, do the prompting. Yevarechecha, yevarechecha, etc. Right. Um, bit of a surprising thing, but that seems to be that we're quite a strong Halakha, um, kimshi olo lo yedid. Let's move on to the next question. So here we have a Shliach who has a Bar Mitzvah boy, and he doesn't want to do the Bar Mitzvah on a Shabbos because of the associated Hillul Shabbos. So instead, he wants to do it on a weekday. Works out, though, that the boy's birthday is on Friday, and the request is, "Can you do the, uh, Aliyot HaTorah on Thursday?" Now, his... Be-behind his question is that certainly in the Sephardic world, it is accepted to give a... an Bar Mitzvah boy to give an Aliyot HaTorah. Therefore, he's asking, "Can he do it on Monday-- on, on Thursday?" So here we have two sources. One is in weekday Kriyat HaTorah, one is Shabbos Kriyat HaTorah. In the weekday Kriyat HaTorah, it talks about you have to have ten adults. Um, it doesn't talk about the actual Aliyot. Then we have in the Shabbos reading, it says that you can... that anyone makes... Anyone, any per-person can make up the number, the quota of shivah of seven Aliyot. Can be even a woman or a child who's already knows who, to whom he's blessing,

17:02 the chatasem. However, it's a mipne kavad hatzibur. It's not done that a woman should, uh, should have an Aliyot HaTorah. Meanwhile, a Kohen can have an Aliyah. So now in the Kaf HaChaim, he comments on this, and he says that which a Kohen can have an Aliyah, that's talking about on Sh-on, on, uh, Shabbos, where there's seven Aliyot. But on Yom Tov and other days where there's less than seven Aliyot, a Ish or a Kohen would not be eligible to have an Aliyah. That's the consensus of the Acharonim, a, because of Olas Shabbos. And he says also that according to the Arizal, um, that the... That according to the Arizal, he seems to have said that that which a Kohen or a Ish is allowed for it to be Olah, that's only for the seventh Aliyah. I didn't look into that too carefully. Meanwhile, though, this does not work for Mondays and Thursdays. It only works for Shabbos morning. So no, tha-that wouldn't work. Okay. Now- If you remember, going back to a couple of weeks ago, we had this discussion about someone who had eaten bread, and they had lotion, mentioned alamichya, and then had, said, "Ach, alamichya for lotion." Then you realize, "Well, I di-I didn't bench for the bread." Went through a whole thing what he should do, and I mentioned that he should wash and have another p-piece of bread, achazais, and then bench. Basically saying that you're not yoitzer as a sofer, whether you're yoitzer with alamichya instead of the

18:41 full benching. That was the... So someone sent me a message, "Hafliv ofele. How come you don't, you didn't remember, how come you didn't mention there's a letter of the Rebbe about this?" So there is a lotion in the Gemara, shemo shochachto shemo lo lamalto. It happens to be that I had in the past seen this, but it slipped my mind, and that's, that's, uh, you know, human. Uh, but we're gonna look at this letter of the Rebbe. Yeah, it's a letter of the Rebbe. It's actually written to the late Reb Michoel Lipska, who was the first shliach of the Rebbe, and that was... He was in Meknes in Morocco, and it looks like he had somehow asked the Rebbe about this. And so that's on the top of your screen. Looks like this was the question whether you're yoitzer with alamichya instead of birkas hamoz. So the Rebbe says it's quoted in the Sefer Likutey Meir and the Sefer Birkas Yaakov. They both quote Mi'ikrei Ha'adad. Mi'ikrei Ha'adad is, uh, Dovid Trani, who lived about two hundred years ago, perhaps a little bit more, and he has a volume of s-siman tes if lamed vo. And the... Also from Teshuvas Shai, a Sefer which is Hungarian posek from about a hundred and fifty years ago. And both of these say, If you said alamichya instead of benching, full benching, you're not yoitzer, and it's imperative that you repeat the f- and you say the full benching. That's what the Rebbe is seeing in these malachim.

20:30 And he says, I do not have immediate access to those sefarim. He didn't have Ohel Yocheved, which we Baruch Hashem have today. I-i, a-apparently their reasoning is uh, because it's imperative that in benching you include the themes of brisk, brisk and in the abbreviated form of m- and shalom, which we call alamichya. Those points are not included, and therefore, even bediaved, you're not yoitzer with alamichya instead of the full bench. So I looked up these two sefarim, this Likutey Meir, very interesting malachut, and he indeed, he refers to the Teshuvas Shai and the Mi'ikrei Ha'adad, and he says... But he does not give the reason. He just says you're not yoitzer, um, and with alamichya instead of birkas hamoz. Whereas in the other Sefer, Likutey Meir and Birkas Yaakov, he does say that you're not yoitzer because eiuv bris veloylah. He quotes... So the one reference was to the, as I said, to the Mi'ikrei Ha'adad, and you can see that on the screen. This is to the left of the screen, where you say that he quotes from... He's also a malachut, and he's quoting from a Sefer Shaalos U'Tshuvus Ogurah Boholcha, who says that if you'd said alamichya instead of, uh, full benching, since you didn't mention bris veloylah, you're not yoitzer. The other source is the Teshuvas Shai, which is to the right of your screen, and there he does not mention bris veloylah. He just says, if you remember then when we had this discussion, that there is also an abbreviated

22:21 benching for workers. That they are allowed to merge the second and the third bracha. So chazon they say in full, and then noide lecho and rachem, they merge into one bracha. So he says, if it would be okay bediaved to say alamichya instead of the full benching, so why do they have to have that form of, um, merging the second or third bracha? Why didn't they just do um, He said, "Ai, that's not good enough." So having said that, and so we've seen here that several poskim say quite clearly that you're not yoitzer with alamichya instead of benching. So then this fellow says, "Just do the benching, finish." Um, but the other side of the story is that there are actually Rishonim, and especially Chabad, something which said by Rishonim is given tremendous, tremendous, uh, recognition and tremen-tremendous respect for words of Rishonim. So we have here, this is from the Sefer Beis Moshe. He's quoting from the Re-Reb Aharon Halevi, who was a contemporary of the Razbo, and his Talmud, the Ritvo, that they write that if you said, you are yoitzer. And they're go-they're... They will say, although it's imperative to say bris veloylah, that's in the format of the full benching. But once it's in the condensed form, uh, you can ignore the fact that you missed out bris veloylah. All right. So once we have here machloket of Rishonim. So Rishonim say you are yoitzer. So just to say bench again because you didn't say bris veloylah, but the other Rishonim

24:07 will say that you are yoitzer. And therefore, I th- uh, despite the letter of the Rebbe who says the reason of the-this sefarim, but I think once we have on the, on the table, we have Rishonim who say to the contrary that you are yoitzer, it would be more prudent to, to have the, have another piece of bread and s-say the full benching on that basis rather than just bench again. Let's move on. Now, gen-this is general policy when it comes to halacha, that if there's... There are sources which are discovered which were not, um, known to the earlier poskim, then we have to take those, um, those discoveries into consideration, at least l'chum. Okay. Um, I was, I was last over, over Yom Kippur, I was in New York, and I was a bit disturbed about seeing several, uh, Lubavitch Hasidim wearing a wristwatch on Yom Kippur. Now, we don't wear a watch on Shabbos. That's because of the hashash. It might be considered, uh, it might be considered carrying because a woman wears a watch at, as a fashion item. Men generally, unless it's a very exceptional circumstance, but generally men wear them as a piece of equipment to tell the time. So let's say if I had an obsession, I needed to know the weather, the, the, the humidity. And so I need to have a barometer with me the whole time. So I put a, a barometer on a wrist, on a strap and keep it on my... It's, it's, you

25:45 know, it's, it's nonsense. Uh, it's a, it's a tool which I happen to keep, uh, with me because I've got an obsession about this. So because ma-many of us are obsessed to know the time, so we have a timepiece which we have on our, on our wrist, but it could be seen as carrying this timepiece. And that's the basic reason why we don't wear it. The humor, we don't wear a watch on Shabbos. But what about Yom Tov? So I did a, I did a search actually. As I said, I have access to Otzar Hachochma. I did a search in the Chabad library, which is about three thousand volumes or more, Sha'on Yom Tov. And I came up with these various quotes which are on the screen. Possibly there are some other sources. Now, the earliest source I have here is actually from a diary of my Zayde. The publisher wrote his name as Yomanosh Reb Yosef Yitzchak Raskin. Sorry, his name was Yaakov Yosef. Um, that's why I'm, I could be called Levi Yitzchak. He took care of the Rebbe's father, and that's probably the inspiration for my name, but his name was Yaakov Yosef. Never mind. So he writes in his, uh, memoirs that it was in the year Tof Rech Peches in the, uh, autumn, early autumn of nineteen twenty-seven. The Friediker Rebbe had been released on Yom Yerushalam, Yom Yerushalam, but the condition was he leaves the country. And so this was scheduled. He would leave right after Sukkot, Zuchag, whatever,

27:21 of nine- of nineteen twenty-seven or Tof Rech Peches. So my Zayde writes that his father, Chaim Tzinn Raskin, sent telegrams to all his children wherever they lived. And his son-in-law, it was before Katzen Elberg, "I command you that you have to come to Leningrad for Yom Tov. It's gonna be the last chance they're gonna see the Rebbe because the Rebbe leaves the country, and they're gonna be stuck in, in Russia." So he commanded them, and they, they, they followed, and they came. I heard this actually from, from my Zayde. Also, he told me about this. And they came, and it was-- They came to Leningrad for Yom Tov. The place was so packed that they, even the, the, the siblings, the brothers couldn't even get over to one another. They could see eye contact from a distance, but they couldn't really, uh, even communicate because it was so packed. Meanwhile, my Zayde writes, "I was stand-- The Rebbe was sitting at the head of the table, and I managed to find a spot just opposite the Rebbe." And a couple of points I should remember. The Rebbe was speaking about why people wearing watches on Yom Tov, and he, he, um, spoke disparagingly about this. And I happened to have my watch in my pocket, and I couldn't find... I was so embarrassed with myself. I, I, I, you know, I couldn't, uh, I didn't know what to do with myself. So in Yiddish, it's a bit ambiguous. In Yiddish, the word turogen can mean

28:52 to carry or to wear. And possibly the Rebbe was talking about turogen azegue, and my Zayde understood it means having the watch, even carrying it in your pocket. Okay. And this is really why I would like to, um, which I don't have a clarity, is the, I mean, one, uh, even not to carry one in your pocket at the speed. But okay, this is one, uh, one item of history. Second one is, you can see here on the left of your screen, and this is from the year Tof Rech Peches in nineteen thirty-one. Again, Tishri time, and it was Simchat Torah. And the Rebbe says, that's the Friediker Rebbe says, "Well, you shouldn't wear a watch on Yom Tov." And everyone was wearing Yom Tov, thinking that Mutters, Yom Tov, you're allowed to carry. On Shabbos wouldn't wear a watch. But whoever, Rebbe said, whoever is wearing a watch should take it off and put it down on the table. And after Yom Tov, they will be able to redeem their watches from Temple Treatment. They'll be able to get them back. So again, and, and here it looks like they were wearing watches. But he was quite, quite, quite abrupt about that. Then the third thing, which is not on the screen, I heard from Rabbi Lew that in the early years, there was a very devoted Chassid of the Rebbe by the name of Reb Yankel Katz, who lived in Chicago, clean-shaven, uh, very, very devoted. He actually had a signed book of

30:32 checks with blank, blank, so blank, where the sums were blank, and it was in the Rebbe's, uh, drawer. And when the Rebbe, uh, when he needed a sum, he would have the freedom to fill out the, uh, amount and sign the check. I'm sorry, the check was signed and, and bank the check. Uh, apparently, the Rebbe would also speak to him regularly, weekly on the phone. And he, this Reb Yankel Katz never spent Yom Tov at home. Every Yom Tov, he was in New York. And he would join in the meals upstairs in the 3D club's apartment. Uh, and so it was one Pesach night that the Rebbe asked, "Does anyone know what the time is?" It was custom for the Seudat night to finish, had to have the Hafrayat HaMotzi-Chatzot. And Reb Yankel Katz says, "It's ten to one." And the Rebbe looks at him, he says, "Reb Yankel, Ɣt rokht a zeyer Yom Tov. You're wearing a watch on Yom Tov." And he says, "No, no, no, no." On, on the wall in the, in the, uh, in the dining room there, there was like a thermostat for the heating, whatever. And in America, the thermostats also have a little watch there. So he was able to see that. Okay, that's the third one. The fourth piece of information is we have, uh, in Tov Shenued Base in 19, uh, 1951, yeah. And the Rebbe is bringing the Sukkah, and the Rebbe wanted to know middle of bringing what the time is. So

31:56 Reb Meir Harlech, who was standing nearby, I presume it's Reb Meir, it's just Reb Harlech, it could be his father. But he said, "Rabbi Harlech was standing nearby. He took off his watch and he gave it to the Rebbe." And the Rebbe says to him, "Do you not know that in Lubavitch we don't wear a watch on Yom Tov? From now on, you should not wear a watch." Perhaps it means on Yom Tov, I presume. So this is a... We've got these various things. So what is the reason for not wearing a watch on Yom Tov? And, you know, um, the people from Eretz Yisroel, because they are used to living in an Aroof the whole time, so they-- for them it's much more common, even on Shabbos, to wear watches. But, um, so they say they're in the fatzlohas we don't have. Is the, is the reason because of the worry of carrying? And therefore, there shouldn't be a difference whether you're wearing a watch on your, on your wrist, actually wearing, having your watch in your pocket would be even more of a shailah of carrying. Or is it because Yom Tov is meant to be lamal ha-mezman. Is it a more ethical or is it more a technical question? I don't have a clarity, um, but what I did see, I did a little bit more research, and this is on the left of your screen, you have from the Sefer Sde Chemed, which is an encyclopedia of Halakha published by, uh,

33:16 Cheski Medini, and it was reprinted by Chabad in around 1950. So he writes here in the beginning of his, uh, de-dealing with the beginning of Yom Tov. He asked, "Are you allowed to go out on Yom Tov with a watch which is in your pocket? Is it considered... Because Yom Tov you're only allowed to carry if you have a need. Is that considered a need to know when's mealtime, uh, um, etc., or not? Because you can, you know, you can guess, so what do you need it?" So he refers to a Sefer called Chinan Vechistah, uh, a contemporary of his, who said it is okay. He's more inclined to say it is okay to ca-carry a watch in your pocket. And he continues to say, whenever you have a safek and you fo-- and then you're, you're entitled to follow what's common practice, ma amra dabar. And we see very kosher of a people who are wearing their watches on Yom Tov, and therefore it looks like it's considered a solech chitas. So already now I'm seeing that there is a diyu, there's a discussion in amongst poskim, is it okay or not okay. That seems to be the background for the Minich Chabad. You know, dos vos mitornischt. Chabad is this attitude. Dos vos mitornischt, tominischt, dos vos mimer. Is that-- nit al mo daf mit dos haben. Seems to be that a, a con-- more a Halakha consideration. And therefore, once... I'm, I'm leapfrogging. That once you say not to wear a watch

34:50 on Sha- on, on Yom Tov in the street, how much more so that you shouldn't carry it in your pocket. Because when you're wearing it on your wrist, there's more reason to say, "Oh, it's like a piece of jewelry." Uh, whereas in your pocket, it's clearly carrying. So yeah. So that's a bit of a new discovery for myself. Let's move on. Yeah. By the way, Rebbe Rashab was also particular not even to carry a machzor for Tashlikh because whatever. I'm sure the other people did, but okay. Now, we also had a recent discussion about keys on a Shabbos belt. And the conclusion which I came to that was, uh, to, to join the, the, uh, keys to become part of the belt, it's imperative it's done before Shabbos. It shouldn't be done on Shabbos. So not that this is ne- this is gonna add any clarity to that discussion, but here's this. Someone sent me this manuscript of the Rebbe. And this is a letter actually to Reb Mordechai Safran. If you know where he lived, it says he lived in Manchestershire. We would say he lived in Manchester, yeah. So the Rebbe had written this extra comment at the end of the letter, and the letter, his main letter was written to him in English. He was then a, a teacher in the King David School of Manchester, and he would do receive a Shabbos, and he had described how some kids are to avoid carrying, he said, um, carrying the key on Shabbos.

36:29 They're putting it on their handkerchief. You know, you know what handkerchiefs are. You go to antique shop, you might be able to find an, a handkerchief, yeah. These cloth squares. Today, they ma-- they don't exist, yeah. So now the Rebbe writes to him, "Mazki b'michtavai." You mention in your letter, "Sheyes koshrim b'Shabbos Kodesh es hamafteach b'ksei hamitpachas hagurah." Are those who are tying the key at the end of their- Belt or cloth, uh, handkerchief. The way you're describing it, it's forbidden. And so you should consult a local rav for more detail, and the Rebbe gives him then, uh, mentions about another letter which he just received. All right. So what exactly was the problem the Rebbe had with these boys' Shabbos belts? Is it because it's the end of the chag, of the end, and it's not kind of a, a link in the chain? Is that the point? That seems to be the point, because why does he emphasize the biksei? If it was a p-problem with the tying, he should have said the problem just, just the fact that they're tying it on Shabbos. Tying it not on Shabbos is a question. See, it doesn't-- that doesn't seem to be the point, and that's actually going a little bit... If, if that, if what I'm saying is true, that seems to be diminishing the point which I said before that's imperative it's done before Shabbos. If the problem is the positioning where it is in the belt, not necessarily the fact that it's

38:10 being tied on Shabbos. So that means that, that would have been, um, forgivable. It's just the fact it's at the end and not in a key, sorry about that pun, position. Okay, um, right. Let's move on. Let's move on. Okay, so one of our listeners sent me... It, it was actually very rewarding to be in New York and actually in Los Angeles also, and to meet people who listen to the recordings. One fellow in Los Angeles says to me, uh, "You sound much better in double speed." I said, "Well, okay, I had to go to Los Angeles to hear that." But, um, someone sends me a, a, a message. We had this discussion about boys, uh, bro-brothers hearing their sisters singing. And it wasn't very clear. We came back to it a second time. So let's look at it more carefully. He's asking, um, first of all, he's asking the Alter Rebbe seems to say that kol zemer, there's a certain bit of leeway on even kol zemer. So let's read the, the here. This is Timonaim He, uh, if I'm not mistaken. It talks about listening. The sound of, of a singing of a woman, whether ma-married or unmarried, is considered erva, and it's an exposure. One wouldn't, wouldn't be allowed to say Shema, say Bracha, daven in the pre... Or say, to, to divrei Torah in presence of that exposure. But a woman speaking, that's more regular, more common. But that's not considered an exposure. That's okay. Now, the way this questioner read

40:11 was, if it's called and saying that, uh, that, that, therefore there should be some leeway on that. I don't think that's the way to read the, the, uh, passage here. He's saying like this: singing is not allowed. A speaking voice is allowed, even if it's a married woman and not your wife. That's also not a problem to hear her speaking and you're davening, that's not a problem. Then he adds a new point. Even if it's a singing voice, if you can focus on your davening in a way that you are not paying attention to the singing, then you'd be allowed to continue davening. So that the kol zemer is not continuation of kol di b'ro or esh al esh. It's a new point, that if you can ignore the singing, then you are able to continue davening. We have this in a regular base, on a regular basis. We have in our shul, we have, um, a girls' school on the upper floor, and we're on the ground floor, and happens to be at it's nine-thirty when, when we're davening, or nine, quarter past nine, whatever, the girls are singing or davening, and if it's, if the windows are open upstairs and downstairs, so we can hear that. But if we are able to focus on our davening, not on the, on the singing, we're allowed to continue davening. That's, that's one point. Um, now, I did quote two sources, and one source was from the Kloizenberger Rebbe in his Divrei Yatzik. And there, he

41:49 had been talking about only about the father-daughter relationship. And since there is a heter of affectionate contact between father and daughter, therefore, hearing her singing is also not a, not an issue. So again, two issues. One is whether you're allowed to say divrei Torah, then you wouldn't be allowed to. But is it considered a, an indecent exposure? Say, if it's a father and a daughter, then that's allowed. That's what the, the Kloizenberger is saying. That doesn't talk about brothers and sisters. Then I go to the other source, which is from Rav Fisher, who says that if it's rov yol boi, brothers and sisters, and since every Shabbos they're singing, he's, he's, he's meikel on, he's, he's meikel on brothers and sisters. But that does not really, and I have, have to confess, it does not fit with the Alter Rebbe's definition here. Uh, he doesn't-- He only allows kol-- rov yol boi for dibur. He doesn't allow kol rov yol for singing. So, so there are those who are meikel, but I don't think that fits according to the Alter Rebbe. And so I think I, I, um, stand corrected by the one who questioned that. Uh, what's the next point here? Is there-- It looks like possibly I'd said that there, there are poskim who allow affectionate contact between siblings, and that seems to be... He's asking if that's contradictory to Shulchan Aruch. So again, the leeway which we're seeing from Rav Fisher is about listening bro-brothers and sisters singing together as mires. He

43:38 doesn't talk about affectionate contact. And so let's take a look. I know it's, uh, we've gone through this, but lack of clarity. Let's make it a little bit clearer. It says here in Shulchan Aruch that embracing any of the aroyus, even like an elder sister, uh, an adult sister rather, uh, an aunt is, is a dovid meguneh, and he says it's devar isuru. It's forbidden master tipshin, with an exception of father to daughter and mother to son. Then he goes on to talk about further, uh, lishon imo bekir bo sor, where he discusses more detail. But the-- what's quite clear that the leeway for affectionate contact is only father to daughter, granddaughter, et cetera, in the vertical, uh, um, line, but not, not, uh, lateral to brother and sister. Let's move on. So someone asked me just, uh, was it yesterday? If we finish a couple of minutes early, that would be okay. And someone asked me just yesterday that what happens if a lefty put on tefillin on his left arm. So let's say I go miftzoim, and there's a gentleman who's agreeable and amenable to put on tefillin, and I put a tefillin and on his left arm, then it turns out that he is a lefty. So do we have to put on tefillin now again on the right arm, yeah? That would be right, wouldn't it? So, but pashtus, if I had, hadn't looked this up, I would have said, "You're not yoetz at all if you put it on the

45:24 wrong arm, and therefore you'd have to do it again with a bracha." However, I'm seeing here in Siman Chof Zayin, in Piske Teshuvas, where he's bringing that there are Rishonim who say that bedieved you would be yoetz, uh, if you put-- if the lefty put on his tefillin like anyone else. On the left arm, there are poskim who say you would be yoetz. So therefore, to correct it, you would put on tefillin again, but it would not be, uh, warranted to make a, uh, make a new bracha because possibly the first way was also bedieved yoetz. Mentions also about Mekubalim being, um, taking the view that you ignore the left, leftness, although we... The Poel know, as far as I know, we don't follow that. Uh, so but there is room to say that the lefty is yoetz, uh, when tefillin was placed on his left arm. Therefore, to make another bracha would not be, uh, warranted. Let's finish off and just say that Baruch Hashem, the campaign for the publication of the siddur is, uh, Baruch Hashem, getting through to a lot of people. The-- You can see here it has eighteen out of... Some eighty, um, out of sixty thousand dollars have been raised. Actually, the, the true figure is the pledges are substantially more. But whoever wants to join into this, so you have here, uh, I can send you a link, but you have here on the top of the screen, behot.org and slash dedicate slash product slash HPSRH. I'm not

46:59 sure what HP stands for, but SRH obviously stands for, uh, Siddur Rabbeinu HaZaken. And, um, looking forward to be able to, uh, celebrate that it's be, be, be published and be able to reach to the shelves or to the people's reader to read it. And Jagdol Torah Veyader, wish you... Those who have given, I'm very grateful. And those who haven't given or are able to give, so, uh, look forward. And I wish you all a very good evening with Shabbos. And I, uh, I gave this shiur yesterday, and I said we should have a Geulah Shlema, uh, all Yidden, including the hostages and, uh, et cetera. And so someone wrote to me, "It should be... You should say Geulah Amitis or Shlema," because some people think that, uh, the fact that they're Yidden living in Eretz Israel itself is already called a Geulah. So we should be zoche to ge-a, a Geulah Amitis or Shlema. And I just want to add that I, I had a call this evening from a Lubavitcher bocher who is going into Aza in the next few hours, and he was ex-strictly instructed that he has to wear his helmet for the next twenty-- for the next forty-eight hours. So until I finish, there's no removing of his helmet. So he's asking me about tefillin shel rosh. Is he, uh, is there any point of putting the tefillin on the helmet? Told him there's no point in doing that. Um, but I did wish him that he should succeed in

48:35 his mission and come back. Along with all his chaverim, they should come back, um, healthy and well. And, um, so Shimon ben Yoel, along with all the, uh, uh, acheinu bnei Yisroel who are in Eretz Torah, should be delivered from the Eretz Torah, and we should see a Geulah Amitis or Shlema, veMoshiach Tzidkeinu, bimhera b'yameinu amen. Yasher koach. Mazal tov