חוקת תשפ״ד

00:08 Good evening, and welcome to tonight's Shir. Tonight is-- this evening, that is. It's, uh, Thursday of Parshat Chukas. As it's still light, I would suggest that we say a Kapitel Tehillim for the, uh, Refua Shleima for Chaim Rafael Ariel Ben Shenah Dina, and then we'll put in Stacker, and then we'll proceed with the Shir. So if you're ready to join me, we'll say Kapitel Chaf, and we'll put in Stacker, and then we'll start with the Shir. Lam natzeach mizmor l'David. Ya'ancha Adonai b'yom tsorah. Yasagech Hashem elohei Ya'akov. Yishlach ezrakha mikeidesh, u'mi'tziyon yisa odecha. Yizkor kol minchasecha, v'iloscha yeda she'naselo. Yiten lecha chilvavecha, v'chol atzosecha yimale. Neranenah b'yeshu'asecha, ushem eloheinu nidgeil. Yimale Adonai kol mishalasecha. Ata yodati chi yoshiya Adonai mashi'cha y'anehu mishmei kadshei bigevurus yesha yeminai. Eila v'rechev, v'eila v'asuisim. Anachnu beshem Adonai eloheinu nazkir. Hei ma kor'u venafalu, anachnu kamnu vanis'uidod. Adonai yoshiya hamelach y'aneinu b'yom kor'einu. Just a moment. Put them on in Stacker, and we'll start. So, Baruch Hashem, the campaign for the, uh, printing the siddur is going very, very well. We're holding by fifty... with including pledges over fifty thousand, so just about ten thousand short of our goal. Bezrat Hashem, should be able to, be able to enjoy the sefer very soon. Okay. There we go. Thank you for all those who have participated and in advance for all those who will participate. Let's now start the Shir. Okay. So in last week's sedra, we have this story with the, uh, people were complaining that-- about the leadership. And

02:40 Hashem says to, um, Moshe to take a stick, a staff from each of the nes-of the, uh, nesim of the tribes. And they... And then they put them in the Kodesh HaKodashim, the inner sanctuary. And the one whose chosen, his staff will produce blossoms. And indeed, the following day, they come in, and Moshe goes into the Ohel Mo'ed. Vehenei parach mateh Aharon, the staff of Aaron has blossomed. Leveis Levi, on, on behalf of the tribe of Levi. Vayotzei ferach, vayotzetz tzitztz. It had produced a blossom and whatever the other digi-detail, details are. Um, vayigmer shkedim, produced almonds. I'm not dealing now with the pshat. I'm dealing with the trop, with the tunes. So we have a whole, uh, language of tunes, the symbols of the tunes. And what's curious here is on these two words, vayotzei and vayotzetz, you can see this, each one has got two tunes. You've got under the vayotzei, you've got a maapach, an mercha, and then also on the vayotzetz, it has also, um, a munach and a mercha. And puzzling, what are these? Not-- These are not in every chumash. This is from the Torah Truma, as you can see. And in the footnote in the Torah Truma chumash, he writes, "Beis ta'amim." So you've got these, um, whatever you call these little circles. See, he, he, he says that this got... This, he's acknowledging there's two, two notes on each word. So some of you, uh, uh, are probably interested to know what does it mean to have

04:32 two notes on the same word. And we're all familiar that we have in the Aseret Hadibrot, the Ten Commandments, there we've got two sets of notes. We've got what's called ta'ama earlyin and ta'ama tachatin. One is dividing it according to pesukim, and one is dividing it according to commandments. And therefore, the five pesukim of Shabbos become one huge long pasuk, and Lo Sisrot, Lo Sisnoch become each one a separate pasuk. That's the ta'ama earlyin, or they are divided according to pesukim. Well-known. Another place where we have two lots of ta'amim is back in Parshat, um, Vayeshev, or somewhere around there. Vayishlach. Vayishlach, and somewhere around there. It has there the story where Bilam, sorry, where R-Reuven ostensibly slept with Bilhah. And then we have here a Hey, a gap in middle of the pasuk, and Vayiyov ne'yakish nem osor. Now, there again, you see under Reuven, you have two tra-- two, two notes. There's a zokef katan and a revii. Then you have on Vayishkav, a zokef ka-- a zokef gadol and a pashta. And on Bilhah, we have mercha, uh, tipcha and a pashta. And we have there on Oviv, we have both a zokef katan and asnachto. And on Yisroel, we have both a sof pasuk and asnachto. So we have this idea of having two sets of tunes on the same, uh, words. And again, you're gonna ask the question: how do you deal with it? So let's first deal with the one over there, and then we'll come back to our

06:14 topic. And that is that the-- we have this gap in middle of the pasuk. So there's gonna be two ways of reading the pasuk. Is it rege-- um, is it-- are we going to kind of respect that gap and make the end of the pasuk where the gap is? This is, I think, the only place in the Torah we have a gap in middle of a pasuk. Um, or are we going to read the whole pasuk as one flow and disregard that gap? So that would make the difference of how the trop would work. So if it is, um, if it's... One way would be, "Vayeilech Reuven vayishkav es Bilhah pilet geshur viv vayishma Yisroel." Then, then that's when you make the-- when you make that gap as breaking up the pasuk. Or it's you're not going to respect that gap, and you're going to read the whole pasuk as one flow. "Vayeilech Reuven vayishkav es Bilhah pilet geshur viv vayishma Yisroel." So then you're going to have, uh, the one set of timing is going to be as, as, uh, the pasuk, as if it ends by Yisroel, and the other set of timing is going to be that the-- that the vayishma Yisroel is just the middle of the pasuk. Okay. Having said that, let's come back. What is the rationale for the two sets of timing here in Parshas Korach? And furthermore, you never have a mercha followed by a zoqef qatan. That never happens. You have, um, a munach. So that

08:00 would-- Normally, you'd read the, "Vayitzei Perah vayore, Vayitzei Perah vayor, Vayitzei." That would go, but you wouldn't have a mercha over there. So what does it mean here, beis tamim? So I was intrigued, and I'm sure some of you, if you noticed that, were also-- would also be intrigued. And so where do we look? So one of the classic commentaries on this kind of question would be the Minchas Shai. So let's say like a commentary not on Peshat, but a commentary on the ne- the vowels, on the, on the, on the tunes, et cetera. So he comments on this, and basically without going to all-- reading all the details, he's basically saying the following. You have words which are mil'el and some words are milra, which means do you put the emphasis on the last syllable or on the second last syllable? So for looking at the pasuk here, "Vihineh," it's not "vihine," it's "vihineh." That's mil- mil-- That's milra, which means at the end, at the last syllable, that's where the stress is. Whereas in the word, "Be'ohel Ohedes," you wouldn't say, "Be'ohel Ohedes." It's "Be'ohel Ohedes." So the stress is on the penultimate, um, syllable. So these are the two options generally, mil'el or milra. The o-- the, the last syllable or the second last syllable. When I try to teach this to kids in school, I tell them, "You know when it's cold-- Sorry, when it's raining, you should take an umbrella." And, you know, "What's an umbrella?" Then you realize, "I'm

09:45 an umbrella." Okay. So you understand it's a... But the way you put the stress actually ma- you know, whether it makes-- whether people understand what you're saying or not. So in Hebrew also, you have where the stress should be. What's the Minchas Shai is saying, these co-- these, um, t-- these merchas on the "Vayotzei" and "Vayotzeis" are not really there to give you a tune. They're just to emphasize that instead of saying, putting the stress at the end of the, the word, it's to bring the stress to the earlier part of the word. So it's not "Vayitzei Perah," "Vayotzei," "Vayotzeis," but ra- rather it should be, "Vayotzei Perah," "Vayotzei," "Vayotzeis." So it's kind of to bring it mil'el. But he has-- I'm not sure exactly. I'm sure out there, there are some people who are able to help you on that. He says it's like as if it's somewhere in between. Um, he gives a couple of other examples. So you have in Parshas Va'eschanan, "Hashoma'om." So you don't say, "Hashoma." It's "Hashoma." So there's-- it's unusual that the word Shoma is a mil'el. Then we have in, uh, Yeshaya, "Oirev Cheled" rather than "Oirev," and "Goyder", "Goder" in Yechezkel. So again, you have here where perhaps it's a bit of an unusual structure, but the-- there are these exceptional cases where the emphasis is brought earlier in the word, and he's saying that... So I think the word here in the Torah three, where it says beis tamim, having understood what we just said,

11:29 it's not really shnei tamim. It's actually just a symbol to, to tell you to go mil'el rather than milra or something in that nature. But it's not to have two tamim mamash on the same word. Whereas in the case of the story of Vayeilech Reuven, there it's actually two options, and the same thing where you have the Aseres Hadibros. You have to decide whether you're going to do Tama Eliyahu and Tama Tach, and there's clearly two tamim on the, uh, on, on those words. Whereas here, it's not really shnei tamim. Okay, let's move on. So papaya fruit. Someone asked me this past week, "What is the brocha on papaya fruit?" So- There you have on the screen, you have a picture of a papaya tree. And what you have on the left of the screen is from a Sefer, a specialist Sefer on Brochos called Shari Habrocha. It's a tropical fruit, he says. A tall trunk. What's curious about it is that it's hollow. The trunk is hollow. The, the, the, uh, what's more curious is that whereas usually fruit are growing from branches, here the gr-fruit are growing from the trunk. Um, these are the curious things about it. Uh, in earlier times, it looks like these trees would be more commonly lasting only about five years or something. Nowadays, they seem to be able to last longer, um, even fifteen years. So the question is, is this a borei pri ha'eitz or borei pri ha'adama? That's gonna be one question. The other question

13:13 would be, is it a tree in relation to orla? Fruit of a tree are forbidden for the first three years. The papaya actually produces fruit within the first year. So that is-- makes it quite untypical as a tree. So does it, uh, count as a pri ha'eitz or pri ha'adama? So- Call from Azrael. Call from Azrael. So we have here, uh, again from that Sefer Shari Habrocha. He's bringing a host of poskim, where he brings from the Ben Ish Chai in his Sefer Rav Pe'alim, who takes the fact that it's a hollow trunk to downgrade it, that it's not a proper tree. This-- It reminds me a bit of the banana tree, that it also is, is like not a, a proper tree. Uh, it says it, he says it'll last for three or two or three years, and then it di-dies. But th-that seems to have been perhaps in Baghdad. But okay. Um, so these are... Generally, the-the-there is a ambiguity about, about it. B'di'eved, if you'd said borei pri ha'eitz on a papaya, you wouldn't say the brocha again. But l'chatchila because of the doubt, you'd say the brocha borei pri ha'adama. Now, I want to bring your attention to the Alter Rebbe in Simi- in, in Pirkei Sanhedrin, in Perek, Perek, um, Perek Vav. And here he talks about what's the definition of a tree in relation to borei pri ha'eitz. So this is the middle of a discussion, and he says that is when you got branches growing from the trunk,

15:10 and the branches produce the leaves and the fruit. Uh, and they, they are not-- The leaves and the fruit are not produced from the stu- from the, uh, trunk, which is the hard element. But minim etzim rakim, the kind of soft trees where the fruit and the leaves come from the trunk, those are not defined as a tree. By the way, for example, a palm tree does not have branches as such. It's got fronds, but there's no branches as most trees would have. And that's actually, by the way, why it's called a lulav sheyesh lo lev echad. It's only got one heart. The palm tree has got only one center. Let's come back. So here we're seeing that the fact that the fruit grow from, directly from the trunk, that is a reason to say it's not a tree. However, this is not a solid proof. For the reason be-the reason being because the Alter Rebbe has said, "minim etzim rakim." He's talking about trees which are very tender. So possibly something like a creeper. Um, that kind of tree, um, I'm not... Thinking of things like raspberries, possibly. That kind of-- But the kind of tree which is not a, um, not a strong, uh, sub-substance. Rather, it's, uh, quite, quite, um, I don't know what, flimsy is not quite the right word. That's what he's talking about. That the fact that the fruit grows straight from the trunk rather than from branches, that would make it not a tree. If the-- there's a

16:56 strong trunk, as is said in the case of a palm tree, the fact that the fruit grow from the t- from the trunk in a palm tree is not a reason for it to be a pri, borei pri ha'adama. It still remains a eitz. So that, this alone, the fact that the, the fruit grows straight, straight from the trunk is not reason enough to make it into borei pri ha'adama. But the fact that it's a hollow trunk, and the fact it doesn't last very long, these are perhaps the more important factors in that definition. Um, then he finishes off, but if you have berries which grow on a ilon gomor. So then, like a, like a yagedes, black cherries, then the brocha would be ha'eitz. Okay. It's just interesting, halacha protis, that our first discussion was about a pasuk of ometz pereh ometz sitz, talking about, uh, blossoms and trees, and the second question's also about that. And actually, our third point, which I have-- I don't have a slide about it, but that is someone asked me this past week also about a blackberry bush. So reading that last... A blackberry bush is a, uh, a bush which doesn't necessarily grow tall, but it does last from year to year. And the question there was, if it's in the way, are you allowed to fell it? Are you allowed to cut it down? Because the Torah does forbid us to cut down a fruit tree. Uh, it comes under Baltashris. So are you allowed

18:30 to remove a, a blackberry bush? So I did look around. I didn't see any, any source to be, um... to say because it's a bush, not a tree. As they say, if you could eat blackberries, the brochra would be hoets. The problem is that blackberries are heavily infested, and therefore, they're not really edible as such for, uh... for me. You could make them into juice. Again, that would also be not so Poshet La Halacha to start-- us take, to take blackberries and, and, and, um, puree them, and thereby any bugs there would become also a bottle, but that would be going into Isur of Ein Mevatelin Isur L'chatchilah. So I think I've gone through this before. For us to take infested fruit and make it into a jam, we're not allowed to do that because Ein Mevatelin Isur L'chatchilah. We're not allowed to, uh, nullify a, an Isur. Whereas if we buy the same blackberry jam from a Goysha manufacturer, so they did the botteling, and that's okay. So we're allowed to buy it from them. So what I did see, I looked around, and so there's a, there's a sefer all about in yonim of health and, uh, in Halacha. Um, so there it talks about taking down a fruit tree. What if the fruit of the tree are typically, uh, wormy, i-inedible? So even there, some of the poskim say that's not a reason to justify removing-- felling the tree. So what can you do with this blackberry bush? The-- Um, sometimes we

20:17 talk about the idea of selling the tree to a Goy, and the Goy will take down the tree, um, so to speak, on his own accord. That, we wouldn't rely on that big-- on alone. That's obviously a, a, uh, shtick. Another word for shtick in Hebrew is haroma. So haroma would be allowed when it's Isur Derabonon. When there are other factors, you would r-use that, that, um, um, method. Possibly, you could say because the fruit are inedible, and therefore it might be an argument to say, "Okay, it's inedible in any case, and it's a nuisance." And perhaps that would be a way to allow selling it to a Goy, and the Goy takes it down. But for us to cut it down directly, that would be, uh, actually a problem. I see here, as someone, Binyamin, is mentioning, there are many cases of Nasek Ochar. It must be very unusual that an extra Berkhah is added. Yeah, you're absolutely right, going back to the first, uh, point. That there are many times where a-- the, there are-- The, uh, emphasis is pushed from the last syllable to the second last syllable. So why davka here does it have these, these extra, uh, the double trop? Um, yes, I fully agree with you. That's a bit of mys-mystery to me. Um, it may be that way he, he-- The Michah Shai was saying is like it's somewhere in between, which I don't understand what he means. Perhaps that might be the answer to your question. Let's

21:47 move on. So last Motzei Shabbos. So in one fine Lubavitch shul, the chazan, uh, perhaps because it was Rosh Chodesh, he felt it was Yom Tovdik, but he went straight after Ma'ariv and Motzei Shabbos and said, uh, Kaddish Tiskabel. And forgot that, you know, to-- So you say half Kaddish, and then we say Vehen Oyam, um, and Yoshuva say so. And then Rata Kaddish, and then we say Rata-- Then we say Kaddish Tiskabel. So what happens now? What happens-- In other words, he said the, the, the, the later Kaddish, he said earlier. What happens-- What Kaddish does he say later or if at all? So here you have from the Piskei Teshuvas, who's in Siman Reis Sadiq Heh, the Dinim of Ma'ariv and Motzei Shabbos. And he says that if he did say Kaddish Tiskabel at the first, the earlier slot, so then afterwards, he should say, would say Vehen Oyam. And then he'd say Kaddish Shalem without Tiskabel, as is indeed the case, um, both, if I'm not mistaken, the night of, uh, Purim, where we first learn Megillah, and then there's our Rata Kaddish. So then that's-- We say out of-- Rata Kaddish is said Kaddish without Tiskabel. And then there's also Tishah B'av, but that's also for another reason, because of Soson Filasi. But there is-- So th-this is what he advises. However, he says, if he does say, if he insists on saying Kaddish Tiskabel the second time, I got it wrong the first time, let me get it right the

23:19 second time. So there's also-- There are those who take that view. Gives it-- In, in the footnotes, he gives us a reference to his own words back in Kuf Lamed Beis. He's talking at Shacharis, where again, we have a similar situation. It was after Tachnam, before Asher Yovotzeun, and the Cha-Chazan said the full Kaddish over there. So he said Kaddish Tiskabel before Ashrei. So then the advice is that after Asher Yovotzeun, he'd say without Tiskabel, because Tiskabel Tselochan means you want the prayer should be accepted, and that is primarily referring to the Shemoneh Esreh. So once Tiskabel Tselochan has been said, there's no point in saying it a second time for the same Shemoneh Esreh. That's the position of the Sefer Beth Shlomah. Others disagree with him, and that's why he says that really that's his, his advice. Second Kaddish should be without Tiskabel. And if you want to Davka say Tiskabel, there are those who will allow you to do so. Let's move on. So Sunday was Rosh Chodesh, and a young lady was getting onto a plane on Sunday evening, and her skirt needed a couple of stitches. So there is a Minhag of not sewing on Rosh Chodesh, and the question of the mother asked: "Is there any shortcut on that?" Sorry about the pun. Okay, so now let's take a look. This is in Hilchas Rosh Chodesh, Siman Tof Yod Zayin. And it says here in Shulchan Aruch that Rosh Chodesh w-- is a day where you are allowed to do

24:56 labor. There are women who have a custom not to do so, and that is a good Minhag. It's a praiseworthy Minhag, custom not for women not to do Melacha on Rosh Chodesh. And if the Minhag is to, to, to some Melachas they do and some they don't, so you follow the Minhag HaAmakim. So the concept that women take a day out, a day off of their, their duties on, on Rosh Chodesh is well-documented here. The history of this is a tribute to, to the fact that the women declined to participate in the con-- the collection of g-- of, uh, gold for the golden calf, and therefore, they were rewarded with a Yom Tov of Rosh Chodesh. By the way, I've mentioned this before, the Rosh Chodesh mussaf starts off with Rosh Chodesh im l'amcha nosatu and Roshi chodesh avrochel. Rosh Chodesh im l'amcha nosatu, Roshi chodesh avrochel, uh, referring to, um, a... And you've got the three tefillahs of, uh, that kind of correspond to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. And then we've got Mussaf of Rosh Chodesh corresponds to Rochel. Okay. Um, also women have got a, you know, of a monthly cycle, and therefore the monthly Yom Tov is also a, a women's Yom Tov. So there is a concept of women abstaining from melacha. Cooking is allowed even on Yom Tov, and certainly Halal Moed, and certainly Rosh Chodesh. But the kind of things which you wouldn't do, what exactly is the definition of what isn't done? So we're looking at the precedent

26:36 of Halal Moed. And so... Sorry about the pun. Um, so about not, not sewing, weaving, and not, uh, doing the laundry. These are the basic areas which in times bygone, in addition to the cooking, they would be the main duties of a woman at home. And so Rosh Chodesh would be a day off of those pressures, and, um, she'll, she would be able to relax and perhaps write a letter to her family in another city or whatever. That would be one day a month where they'd have, uh, a bit of free time. Perhaps go to the park, whatever it may be. Okay. So what exactly is the definition? So there seems to be a bit of a precedent comparing it to Halal Moed. So that coming back to this question about sewing a repair on-- making a s-- a minor repair on Rosh Chodesh, I-I'd like to just say that my mother, Leo Shalom, used to teach, teach sewing at the, uh, Lubavitch school here, the g-girls' senior school. And the girls knew whenever it's gonna come Rosh Chodesh, there's going to be a break in that, uh, schedule, and then she would do cooking with them or some other thing. But, uh, that was part of the chinuch, that you know that Rosh Chodesh, we don't do sewing. Fine. So now coming back to... So l-looking at, um, Halachas Halal Moed, and that's the value of discussing this, this dinim of Rosh Chodesh and the dinim of Halal Moed. If a c-- If a

28:04 button has fallen off, are you allowed to sew back a button Halal Moed? So when... I'm reading here from Rav Forkash's Sefer Halal Moed Halachas. He says, "When the absence of the button is a nu-- a nuisance in relation to wearing the garment, or you're embarrassed to wear this garment with a missing button, and you don't have another garment or equivalent to, to, uh, switch to wear a different gar-- piece of clothing." So then, so it's, it is important for you to sew that button back. So he says you can do so with a shinui, with a change. And he's actually quite generous in the amount of exchanges he expects you to do. Number one, if it's got four holes, as many buttons do, then you only stitch through two of the four holes. If it's just got two holes, or some of the other type, the cloth-covered buttons which are in, got like a loop at the back. So he says you should sew it in a loose way, in a way that, that, uh, after Yom Tov, you're going to take it apart and re-- and restitch it. So he says that the actual sewing should be less firm than usual. He also says use your left hand to sew, or to sew it in a slightly off position. So he's quite, uh, machmir here that s- even sewing a button should be done with several shinuyim. And so if that is the precedent, I mean, not necessarily the case, but if you

29:31 want to take a precedent from, from Halal Moed, would you be allowed to make this, these couple of stitches in Halal Moed? Really not so, not so straightforward at all. Possibly, if it were a pressing need to do a couple of stitches, but looser than, than, uh, normal, and in a way that it's not a complete repair. That's what it seems to be. There may be room to be more lenient on, on Rosh Chodesh because it's on a level of minhag whereas Halal Moed is a din, but, uh, okay. So much for this point. Let's go on to, um, interesting question. Sorry, um, it's all these puns. Now, um, so here's the case. I g-- Actually, I gave a shiur online to a group of people on Sunday about ribbis, and then I get this next... And the next day, I think, I get this question. So what's the question? Two shluchim, and one says to the other, "You know, I'm a bit low on cash. Could you lend me a hundred dollars?" So the other shliach happily says, "No problem. Here's my credit card. Go take out cash with my credit card." Now, the way things work with, with drawing cash on credit cards, apparently that's one of the difference between a debit card and a credit card. When you draw cash, it's not free. You know- With a debit card, it's free. Um, but with a de- credit card, they charge a three percent or something. So what's actually going to happen is,

31:16 let's say the borrower who got ninety-seven dollars out of the machine, and so then... And he's paying a hundred. Or he actually gets a hundred out of the machine, but the lender, he's gonna have a charge on his account for a hundred and three dollars. And so now, either way, when the borrower gives back the money, is... His question is, is he allowed to cover all the costs of drawing the money out of the machine with a credit card? That's really the question. Because his, his cre- is he allowed to pay his lender more than he received on loan? And that's normally a problem of ribbis. So ribbis interest, there's another term in Halakha, agarnota. It's paying, paying for your patience. I've got your money, and you want me to... You want-- I'm, I'm asking you to be patient for your money to get back to you. And for this, I'm paying you a fee for your patience for your money. So when there's a time factor, that's where ribbis comes in. But if there's no time factor, there are costs, processing costs, but not, not time-related. So those do not qualify as ribbis. And therefore, the borrower is allowed to reimburse the lender for those costs. So I'm gonna read from a contemporary Sefer called Terumas Ribbis. It's chapter five, um, um, Gimel and Daled. So he-- I'm gonna just read straight into English. "Expenses which are related to the carrying out of the loan, those expenses should be borne by the borrower, including,

33:15 let's say, it will be sending the money from A to B. Well, it may sometimes cost a, uh, a transfer, may cost a bank transfer, uh, making a bank check, um, et cetera. Office costs which are related to the, to the loan." So these, these costs, these are processing costs, and the, the, the borrower should bear those costs. Then he says, furthermore, that if the lender actually draws cash from his bank in order to be able to lend the money, and the bank charges just for the withdrawal, not because of time, just for the withdrawal. Or, I don't know whether this still exists, but let's say a check would cost twenty-five pence for, to, to, to draw a check. So who pays for that twenty-five pence? So again, this we're saying, these are processing costs, and they sh- they may be borne, they should be borne by the borrower. So it's interesting. I remember years ago, we had this conversation with Rav Ephraim Padwa, zal havne, Rav Ephraim. And he wasn't so co-confident about this. He was saying, "What's the difference whether you took the money out of an ATM machine, or you took the money out from under your, under your mattress? You gave me a hundred dollars. Why should I be paying you a hundred and three dollars? What's my business where you got the money out?" Um, but here they're saying, and, and to the contrary, the fact that these were expenses related to, to releasing that money, those expenses may be

34:58 borne, and therefore should be borne by the borrower. So this seems to be the, the common, uh, s- uh, psakan, you know, way of, of, uh, ruling on this. Okay, I see there's a couple of chats here. Let's go back. So, right. Could a ma-- Should he ask... She could ask a man to sew it for her. That's a brai- brilliant idea. Yes, could ask a man. It probably would be an amateur job in any case. Um, right. Right. And so someone's also asking, "Is the reason for these extra stitches for purposes of tzitzit?" Possibly. I don't know what. They, they didn't ask me, um, they didn't give me the details. Yes, that would certainly be more reason to, um, be makeil, as we find, for example, even a moshel, if a woman f- has a problem with hair sticking out, um, sort of in front of, of her tichel or a sheitel, well, she'd be allowed to trim that hair and fail on by it. It may be... Sometimes we... There is this hair tear because it's for tzitzit that the rules are, are, are, uh, are different, more lenient in order to carry out, um, you know, to keep, be more careful about other areas of Halakha. Okay. So now, just this, um, yesterday. So someone, he went out of miphsat tefillin. He found a Yid, and he put on tefillin with him. And as he's wrapping his, the retzuah around the, his, his, uh, hand, he sees on his palm there's an

36:40 indecent picture, uh, not tznius-di picture. And he wraps the tefillin around him, and then afterwards, he came to the, in the Beit Midrash perhaps, and he was chatting. And someone told him, "Well, you shouldn't be putting on tefillin on a tattoo, which is an indecent, uh, picture." Now, this question of putting on tefillin on a tattoo- And it's, and indecent tattoo is discussed, like as far as I can see, in two contemporary sources. One is in the Sefer Sha'ar HaTshuvah Minchas Yitzchak from the Rav Weiss from Manchester, and that's in chapter g-- in volume Gimel, Siman Yod Aleph. He there is talking about a, an, uh, immodest picture. And he said, he, he's, he's concerned that by having that picture exposed, he's, uh, going to be having immodest thoughts, in-inappropriate thoughts. Okay. And he talks about finding ways to cover it and to have small Tefillin somehow that should be minim-minimizing the exposure. So that's in the Minchas Yitzchak. And here we have in front of you is from the Yalkut Yosef from Ra- the Rav Oroshi, the Sfardishe Rav, Rav Oroshi, Rav Yitzchak Yosef. So he addresses a... Well, someone who has a cross, um, on his, on his arm. So let's read over here. A Baal Teshuva who has on his hand or on his arm, he's got a tattoo of a cross or similar. He's embarrassed to put on Tefillin on his arm because the, uh, the tattoo will become exposed. So then he says he can put on Tefillin in a

38:28 q- in a side room, in a quiet place, and then pull down his sleeve, and it wouldn't be so visible. The Sha'ar HaTchag, he says if that's not possible, he does allow him to put on Tefillin on top of his sleeve, but in which case, uh, he'd put on the Shaliach without a Beracha and just make a Beracha on the Shalosh. There is a Rashbo, uh, um, a Teshuvah of the Rashbo who says a person who's got a problem with catching colds, uh, and therefore wants to put on the Tefillin on top of a thin, uh, yarmulke, which he can... The, the feeling of the Tefillin comes to the, through to the scalp. He says that that would be okay. So not everyone agrees. So if that's-- If there's no option of putting it directly on the arm in, in a more discreet way. So he says he would be able to put it on top, on to- on top of his sleeve, and okay. Um, but what, what we're seeing is that they don't have a problem. As far as Chatzi Za is concerned, uh, it's not a problem because the, the tattoo is inside the skin. Yes, it is a-- Of course, it's not a pleasant thing, but, uh, right. So if it were the case of a Baal Teshuva, then this becomes a question, do they have to remove the tattoo? There's no Chiyuv to remove a tattoo. But, uh, it would be, um, advisable if it's possible, with not too much

39:53 pain, to, to blur it perhaps. You know, it's an interesting question. Is blurring a tattoo making another Aveira, or is it, uh, not an Aveira? I d- I don't know, actually. So I'd hesitate on that. Okay. So, but there's no Aveira for him to put on the Tefillin, to put on the Tefillin with it. And, uh, okay, he'll wrap the Tefillin. In the case here, it was on the palm of the hand. He doesn't have to put the Tzitzit mamash on, on the, uh, on the tattoo. He can put it earlier. But if, if push comes to shove, it, it is okay to put on the, uh, Tefillin on the, that tattoo as, as offensive as it may be. Okay. One of our regulars asked me the following question. Uh, he goes often to other, to Hasidisha shuls and probably Galitziana shuls. And there they make Kiddush Shabbos day with a small glass of Bramfin, of whether it's brandy or whiskey, and that's what they make Kiddush on. Okay? So there's two issues here. What about making Kiddush on something which isn't wine? But the, more the question is about the volume. So we have here, on the screen you have from, um, we have here from the Mishneh Berurah. This is Mishneh Berurah in Siman Resh Ayin Gimel, I believe. And he talks here about even if you're using Chamar Medino, which you're using an alcohol, not wine, it has to be a Revi'it. And you have to have Mevushal, which means, uh, the

41:32 majority of a Revi'it. If you can't m-manage to drink a Revi'it or Revi-- or Mevushal and you only have a strong alcohol, then there's an option of passing it around so that between the various people present, the, the Mevushal majority of a Revi'it is, is, has been drunk. Okay. So that's, that's the, uh, Mishneh Berurah is-- just doesn't accept this. As I say, this business of doing Kiddush on a small glass of, of, uh, Bramfin, this is like the Polish, Galitziana custom, and we'll come to that soon. But the Alter Rebbe doesn't bring it, the Mishneh Berurah doesn't bring it. So can we be Yotzer? So really the answer would be, according to our Mesorah, no. Um, now here in the... You can see on the screen, we have here from Ksav V'Shulchan Reb Chaim Noah bring from the Maharsham. The Brazhiner Rov brings from various Gedolim. This is the Tamim De'ah Magid, who they, they did allow making Kiddush on Shabbos by day with a small cup of, of, uh, Bramfin. And, and he says, "Pashut She'ein Lismochal Ze," that we shouldn't rely on that unless you have, uh, no other option. Okay. So the answer basically is that no, we wouldn't rely on that. Where does it come from? Where does it come from, this business of making Kiddush on a small glass of, of Bramfin? So here we have in Siman Resh Yod. The Taz says- Nearly the yains that the sh-- the yain sorof, alcohol, the strong alcohol, which we have

43:14 locally, is not included in the need to have a reveis, because it's really... It's not... You can't. But it's not normal to drink a, a reveis, which is a volume of one and a half eggs of, of a strong whiskey. It's not normal to drink so much. He obviously didn't live in Russia. Um, so now, you know, in Russia, when I was there forty something years ago, it was like cans of Coke. You had cans of vodka. It was sort of... Yeah. Anyway, um, and therefore, he says you'd go according to the quantity, which would be a normal drink for most people. And since a shot glass would be a normal v-volume for most people to have of whiskey, therefore, he says that's enough for Brocha Achronah. And consequently, also they want to use that for Kiddish. That's the position of the Taz, who says that the, the, uh, strong alcohol, kind of because of its intensity, it-- that makes up for the volume. Then Mogdavrom, by contrast, this is in Simin, uh, Kuf Tzadik, where the Shulchan Aruch had said that the sheer of wine is, it's, some say it's kazais reveis. So he says here, some want to say that on yash, on yain sof, on alcohol also, um, even less than a kazais would be, uh, enough for a Brocha Achronah, because even with a little bit, that already, uh, is kind of, uh, enough to calm you down. And he, the Mogdavrom disagrees. He says you need a sheer of reveis,

44:49 because there's wines also which are stronger. And now, now there are foods which are strong foods. And with a little bit of that food, you can also have y-yishuv hadaas. I'll give you an example. You have a b-- one piece of chocolate. It's less than a kazais. It, it, uh, it does help. And still, you wouldn't make a Brocha Achronah on one, one, uh, piece of chocolate. Unless you don't... Uh, you'd only make a Brocha Achronah if you have a kazais. Okay. So we have here, does a small amount of vodka, et cetera, uh, justify a Brocha Achronah or not? And therefore, does it have a, a bearing for Kiddish? And we have Machlukis, the Mogadav-- the Taz, the Mogadavrom. So the Galitziano Minuch is obviously following the Taz. What's the Alter Rebbe's position? So here again, you have from the Alter Rebbe in VeChehsaneinim, Peh Ches. And he says you need to have a reveis for Brocha Achronah. He says even it's a mashke chorif vechozap. Even it's a sharp and a strong drink that most people would only drink a small amount, a small amo-amount of it, as in the case of whiskey or, or vodka. Uh, he says that doesn't make a difference. Um, it doesn't make it, it doesn't make it into, uh, justifying Brocha Achronah on a small quantity. There are those who say that with wine, a kazais. Um, f-- let me, let me finish on that point. That because of this, one should make a point, if you're

46:13 drinking wine, either to have less than a kazais, which is like, let's say, half a small shot glass, or to have more than a reveis. Because if you have somewhere in between, you're getting into a, a dilemma. Does, uh, uh, are you obliged to say a Brocha Achronah for that amount? So either have a little bit less than a, a kazais or a reveis or more. Okay, let's move on. So we have here a question. So Baruch Hashem, tremendous hus that the, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch came out with Minhogi Chabad. And, um, so now we have here in Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, someone asked me about the, uh, the, the, about saying Shechehianu. So here in Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, it says that it's customary to avoid saying Shehecheyanu during the three weeks. Therefore, one shouldn't purchase or, or start wearing a new garment because those activities would warrant saying Shehecheyanu, which you could say nowadays may be different, but okay. If you have a pidyon haben, so then you would say Shehecheyanu for the, for the pidyon haben. Shelo hilach mitzvah mitzvah, not to leave the mitzvah to go sour. What does he mean by that exactly? I'm not sure. Uh, does he mean that to say, "Do the pidyon haben on time, and to leave the Shehecheyanu for a week or two later," is that what he's suggesting? I, I would doubt that he means the savorah of delaying the pidyon haben, because that's a mitzvah m'nar Torah. Uh, to... And you miss a day,

48:09 you're, you're delaying a mitzvah m'nar Torah. So I'm not sure. Either way, he says it's expected to do the mitzvah now, so you also have to do the berachah, uh, Shehecheyanu now. Then coming... So we got Shehecheyanu on new clothes. Shehecheyanu on a, an occasion as a pidyon haben. And what about on new fruit? Fruit which has come of... Is, uh, in, in s- now into season. It was out of season, now it's coming into season. Do you make a berachah Shehecheyanu? So al pri yesh lechokil levarch Shehecheyanu veShabbos. So he says on Shabbos you can, or on the weekdays, if you won't have this fruit after Tisha B'Av. So these are, these are the points we're focusing on for the moment. With a fruit, there's a leniency on Shabbos or on a weekday even, if it won't be available after Tisha B'Av. In the notes here, we added the Minuch Chabad to say Minchagenu is to not say Shehecheyanu even on Shabbos. So now the question is, according to this Minuch Chabad on not saying Shehecheyanu on Shabbos, what about if a new fruit is available and it won't last till after the three weeks? Can you make a berachah on that, especially on Shabbos? So, so w-there's two points over here. Not to say... A-about that you can say on Shabbos or for a fruit which won't outlast till after Tisha, Tisha B'Av. And what... Is our chumra on both points? So not so clear. Let's take a look in the Shulchan Aruch.

49:49 This is in Taf Kuf, um, Mem Tes, I believe. Taf Kuf... Sorry, Taf Kuf, Nun Alef. So the Shulchan Aruch writes it's good to avoid saying Shehecheyanu during this time, whether it's on a fruit or on a goat. Pidyon haben, yes, because of not missing out on the timing of the mitzvah. Then, Ramo adds a fruit which won't be available after Tisha B'Av, you are allowed tohave it during the three weeks. So, the story's not so clear here. What we do see in the Nosie Keilim, in the commentaries, that although the Poskim said that on Shabbos during the three weeks you can say Shehecheyanu, the Ari Z"L objected to saying Shehecheyanu during the three weeks. Think about the words, Shehecheyanu vkimanu lazman hazeh, that we have lived to this moment. Of course, everyone, uh, is grateful. We're grateful that we are alive and we're... But the-- to say that I'm, I'm, I'm enjoying the fact I have this time of the year, the times of the, the, uh, the three weeks, is not an enjoyable time, and therefore it's not, not appropriate to say Shehecheyanu lazman hazeh. So the objection to saying on Shabbos is sourced from the Ari Z"L. And that's the main thing which is being brought here from the, from the Sefer HaMinhagim, which the Rebbe wrote. Um, this is, in other words, the Rebbe wrote the Minig in, in, uh, a kontras on, on Rashima's on Echah. But, um... well, then it was put into Sefer HaMinhagim. The Rebbe's main

51:32 thing is that if there's a doubt about saying Shehecheyanu on Shabbos, so the-- we all follow the Ari Z"L, we don't say Shehecheyanu on Shabbos. What is the Mincha Chabad in case of a fruit which won't be available till after Tisha B'Av? That, uh, that is not, not clear, and that's why the note is keyed to the part of Shabbos. That's number one. Number-- A couple of points about this. Nowadays, to, to tell me that a fruit will not last till after Tisha B'Av, and therefore you have to say Shehecheyanu now, is kimat, uh, not, not, does non-existent. Baruch Hashem, we've got fridges, and fruit keep very well in, uh, in the fridge for another couple of... can keep for a couple of weeks. So to tell me it won't be available after Tisha B'Av, and therefore you have to have it now, uh, doesn't, it's a schwache. It's not, not really, um, very convincing. The other point is that generally, the whole idea of making a Shehecheyanu on a fruit which was unavailable and now it's in season, there's not that many fruit which that would be true. Many, many fruit are, because we import stuff from... uh, uh, many, many fruit are available, you know, throughout the, the whole time. Uh, you have to have a bit more knowledge of what's going on on the market, whether something, it has now become in season. There are things like cherries, as I say, they are available, and they're not so available. Uh, but a

52:59 lot of these more exotic fruit, um, they-- for the amount of money you pay, you can get them probably throughout the year. They're, they're really questionable whether you could say Shehecheyanu altogether. Okay. Let's not go into that. I'm-- As far as I remember, there is in Igrot Moshe a discussion about that and, um, if that was in America, if in Europe, it's in England for sure, everything is imported. Well, m-many, many fruit is imported, and so it's just a question where it was imported from. Let's go on. What do we have left here in our list? So we have here two more points on the list. One is about Hamapil. So we had a discussion last week and quoted from the Sandzer Rav about the importance of saying Hamapil, um, and not being too worried that you might not fall asleep. Now, there are others, um, there are other communities, uh, some perhaps Galitziana communities or others which don't say Ham- don't say Hamapil with a, with a full beracha because of the concern, um, that you might not fall asleep. I saw that in the Sefer HaMinhagim of Israel Tyra. And I have a, a recollection of hearing from my Shver, alav hashalom, in the name of Rav Pikarsky, also about some, uh, some apprehension about saying the beracha Hamapil in case, uh, you don't fall asleep. But as I say, as I said last week, it's in the siddur, it's there, and, uh, we don't have any guidance to the contrary. So if

54:34 a passage is there, it should be said. Right. One more point, and that is about feedback on, uh, on u-using hot water from an urn in a non-Jewish hotel. So last week, we had this discussion whether I'm staying in a non-Jewish hotel and there's an urn there. So the ones which are by the bars and they're opening the, uh, uh, their, their, uh, dis-wa-hot water dispenser. I felt that wasn't a problem at all because it's just psik reisha, et cetera. Um, but I'm talking to ask the goy to do it. But what about if there's an urn and you want to serve yourself from an urn? And I mentioned about the idea of Shema Ya'avve bischviloi, that we-- if a goy has cooked stuff for himself, but he knows that you're also interested, we're concerned that he may cook extra for you. So he asks, and understand, the bo-- uh, kettle was-- the urn was boiled, and now you've taken a, a glass of water. So who's-- When he put-- When the goy is going to come and look at it and put more water in, is he gonna put it for you or for, for, for the, uh, for the goy? You've already had your, had your, uh, serving of hot water. So interesting point. And the truth is, though, even in the precedent, we're talking about, let's say, the goy is baking bread or something, and there are Jewish customers. And so there also, you're, you're buying from what he's already made. But

56:04 the concern is that he'll think that, "Oh, I have Jewish customers, and therefore I have to make more hot water, more bread, etc." So it may not necessarily be that the next time he fills it, he's gonna fill it for you. But overall, he knows there are Yidden in the hotel, and so there are, there are more customers who want to have hot water. So he may be, um, at some stage, be adding cold water to boil because he wants to accommodate his, uh, the Jewish guests as well as the goyishe guests. And therefore, um, I think the Shema Yisrael still remains. What do we have here? And so for those who have joined us l-later, so Baruch Hashem, I said at the beginning of this year, the fundraiser appeal to print this, uh, BeEzrat Hashem, this set of, uh, three Seforim on the Sukkah. It's going very well. We're-- Although you see on the screen forty-two, uh, thousand Baruch Hashem, we're-- there's pledges which will, um, pass fifty-two. Um, so thank you everyone who has participated. There's-- You don't have to participate in a large amount, whatever you can. But, uh, thank you. Those who will participate, BeEzrat Hashem. So thank you, and we should be bezechah to see this, uh, coming out, the Koreh and, uh, Yagdol Torat Yadir. Thank you for joining us. Wish you a good Shabbos. And, uh, I'm going to say one last thing. What's come to mind now. Today was the yurt site of Rabbi Tzion Shemtov, who

57:37 many of us knew. And I remember one vort from him, which I'm gonna share with you now, and that is, what is the difference between a Zois and a Mvuhol? What's the difference between a person who is... How do you translate the word Zois, by the way? So, Rabbi, um... I just saw a letter just last week of Rebbe, a Mezuzah and a Mezurazin. That you give energy to those who are energetic. So what's the difference between a person who's energetic and a person who is in a rush? A person who's in a, in a rush is running, and a person who's energetic is running. So he would say the following. A person who is in a, who is, um, a Mvuhol, he's rushing. He's rushing to the mikveh. He's rushing to the davening. He's rushing through davening. He's rushing after davening. He's rushing. He's rushing the whole time. He's rushing. A person who's a Zois is rushing to mikveh. He's rushing from mikveh. But when it comes to davening, he does it thoroughly. So the difference between the Mezuzah and the Mvuhol is in the unimportant build-up preparations. These things, they look the same. When it comes to the things which are important, so the Zois actually gives it all the proper attention and thoroughly. A guten Shabbos, and we should hear Besuras HaShabbos, I mentioned before. Refuah Shleima to Chaim Rafael Aryeh Lei Ben Shenah Dino. We should hear good news from Eretz Yisrael. Acheinu Bnei Yisrael Shivyo V'Tzoroh. And we should have,

59:11 we should see the Geulah Shleima V'Chasdenu Eineinu V'Shuv Chol Hatzion B'rachmin V'Simchas Olam Al Reishon. Amen. Amen. Yasher koach.