פנורמה של הלכה – וישלח תשפ״ה

00:05 A good week and wel-welcome. Thank you for joining us this Motzei Shabbos Parashat Vayishlach, going into Yud Dalet Kislev, which the Rebbe said there took, this is the day which connected wi-me with you and you with me and us together, and forgotten the rest of the lo-language without our connection with how the Rebbe became connected with Anash, uh, Chabad. The, on the Living Torah tonight, we were seeing all things about wedding anniversaries. So let's go to our first, first point, and that is I was encouraged by, uh, the Shliach in Lugano, Rabbi Yaakov Kanter, to include a Seem on the Rambam. Now, we've just finished Sefer Nezikin. So I'm gonna sh-- That was yesterday, last night, whatever. I'm gonna read Halacha, and I want to, I wanna see what your reaction is. Two, two ships are going through a canal, and they are kind of in a collision course. Um, or not necessarily. They are-- But if they go side by side, one will cause the other to, to sink. Or you got two camels who are going on a steep, uh, incline, and if both of them go across next to one another, they will-- one of them will fall off, or both will fall off. So what's the, what's the rule here? So the rule is, "To'una veshe'eina t'una." If one animal is, or one ship is laden and the other one is empty, so then the, the empty one is pushed aside because of the one which is laden. One which has

02:03 come from afar, and one's come from near. So the one which is from far, um, the one which is from near should be pushed a-away, given pri-- um, and the priority should be given the one which has come from far. If both of them are equally far, both of them are equally laden or not, so then we have to do some kind of compromise. And whoever is disadvantaged, the compromise, compromise will compensate the other one with, uh, you know, mon-monetarily. And that's why it says, "Betzedek tishpet amisecha." So this is, as you see, this is Halacha Yod Beis, and then the, the last Halacha is, is Yod Dalet, which perhaps we'll come to in a moment. I just want to share with you, and I want a dilemma. The dilemma is the following, that Mr. David Ben-Gurion. Should we say Halacha? Um, yeah. And he, this is going back sixty years ago, sixty-five, seventy years ago. He went to Bnei Brak, to the Chazon Ish, and he asks him, "We are two, uh, elements in this country. There are those who are dati, keeping Yiddishkeit, and there are those who are chiloni. How are we going to coexist?" And this is the way the story is told, yeah. To which the answer he gave was, "We've got two boats, and they are on the-- using the same cour- the same course, and one is laden and one is empty." And he says, "We've got a tradition of Mesorah, of Yiddishkeit, of thousands of years, and

03:51 the chiloni camp doesn't have. It's like the empty boat. So therefore, the laden boat has priority over the empty boat. Or the far-- one which has come from afar has got priority over the one which is just a, a, a newbie." That was his response. Um, my, my challenge to you is, as being taught by the Rebbe in how to, uh, view your life, especially, um, in, in relationships, what should be the response to that question? That's my question to you. I suspect, and I'm might be totally off mark, but I'm-- I suspect the Rebbe's response would be more on the lines that actually we are both, we are all Yidden, and although some are more active, some are less active, but there, there are plenty of points where we agree upon, and let's work together on those a- in those areas. I might be dodging the question because it's, it is a huge question. I just-- I'm, I've been puzzled by this, uh, conversation for years. All right. Um, and then the, the last Halacha is, um, all right, about, about hatred, Leshon HaRa. And what could you-- How could it be someone who's a, an enemy of yours? It could be someone who you saw that he did this, uh, something wrong, and, uh, te- he hasn't done Tshuva. And, and he then he says that, that you should be... Even such a person, you should be kind to them so long as they are "Maminim be'iker hadas," because Hashem doesn't want the

05:45 wicked to die. He wants the, the wicked to do Tshuva. That's the end of the Rambam, um, which also possibly relates to the adaptation which we had before. We should "Ruch Rachmana de'sa" and the Rebbe sh-hel- has helped and bezrat Hashem should help us right. So that's the end of Sefer Nezikin, and then we go on to Sefer Kinyan, which I'm not going to do now. So here is a question which came up that a, uh, someone who's running a Tzedakah account, he sees that he, uh, there's, uh, no, a thousand pou-pounds extra unaccounted for in the, in the account. I don't know. Some said some, some, uh, unknown benefactor. Wonderful. But then, then the bank started taking it out back out of the account again. It looks like it was a mistake, that someone had sent money online by mistake, and one-- and now try was retrieving it. So here's the question: If someone gives money to Tzedakah by mistake. Let's say you put in, uh, you put in a, a, a note into the Tzedakah box, and you thought you're putting in a, a fiver, and it happens to be a fifty-pound note. Are you allowed to take it back out again? That's, that's a very practical question. You use a voucher. Now, these vouchers are a little bit deceptive because sometimes they're... it's the same size voucher, same sha-shape, same color, and some of them are, are, are for fifty pence, and some of them are for five pounds. And so you

07:19 put it... and then you observe you made the wrong, the wrong one. So are you allowed to take it out again? That's a practical question. So now what we have here in Shulchan Aruch in the Dinim of Tzedakah that you have on the screen, someone who put aside a sela-- a, a coin for Tzedakah. And then he, uh... All right. Then there are more, and this that's in the Rashi writing. "Bimrot selomar al sela zeh vehoitzit befival acher." He wanted to say this coin is for Tzedakah, and by mistake, he put maybe claimed a different coin. "Havi tos. Ve'eino klum." If he put something for Tze- If he designated for Tzedakah in error, that is-- that's not a, not an issue. In other words, it's retractable. Uh, and then we have the Sefer, which is called Tzedakah Mishpat, a specialist Sefer on Halachot Tzedakah. "Nodat Tzedakah be'tos eino klum." A vow to Tzedakah, which was in error. So that's not binding. And he says, and then Rav Bloi in his notes, he says, "Venira shemadira achroni shebe'tos mitchila." If there was a mistake even from the outset. So then even if it's "bo leyad gabai," even if the money is now in the hands of the treasurer of the Tzedakah, "eino klum," it's also... In other words, a mistake, mistaken done to Tzedakah is retractable. That's, that's the bottom line. Okay, let's move on. A fascinating question. Well, the story here is the following. There is... Someone's asked me. There is advice from the Rebbe

08:54 about saying chapi- chapter tw-twenty of Tehillim, and then after that, repeating the, the pasuk of Yah Hashem beyom tsur again. And what's it all about? And I recognize this. This is in the context of a woman gi-- who is pregnant. So let's read this. Baruch Hashem. There's always someone who we know who's at this stage. So, all right. So, um, the Rebbe writes here, this is in Sefer... Th-this is from a Kuntres, a, a small booklet of Minhagim Chabad in matters of pregnancy, birth, and Pidyon Ha... Be-be-Brit and Pidyon HaBen. Actually, this had, uh, the Rebbe saw it. This was by, by Rav Tof Shin Nun, and the Rebbe made one or two comments on the booklet. But meanwhile, we have here from the letters of the Rebbe that in Krias Shema Shalamit, in the Shema before going to bed, to say before the Brocha of Hamapil, to say the, to recite the chapter of Tehillim, number twenty, which is Lamnatzeach Yancho. When you finish the chapter, repeat the pasuk Yancho again. And when you're saying it, or just before you're saying it, have in mind, "Yehi ratzon mipnei Hashem Yitbarach," may it be God's will. "Ki'eilu ki bein kol hakavanot sh'ashoyach lesazer," as if I had all the relevant kavanot, re-relevant intentions. So there's something here about Lamnatzeach Yancho relating to a pregnancy and a pra-a prayer that it should go well. And there's some deeper kavanot. So of course, curious people want to know a little bit more. So here you have, there's

10:32 a Midrash called Midrash Tehillim. Everyone knows that because that's what the Bar Mitzvah by Misad is, the Midrash Tehillim. Right. Another name for that Midrash, by the way, is called Midrash Shocher Tov. And that's because this Midrash is dedicated to the three Seforim of Iyov, Mishli, and Tehillim, which is the abbreviation is Emes. They are unique also that their, their style of, uh, of trop, of cantillation, is unique to th-those three Seforim. But anyway, that, so that volume is called Midrash Shocher Tov. Uh, the beginning, it's got the pasuk of Mishli, I believe. But anyway, so here we have T-Midrash Tehillim chapter twenty. "Yan Lamatzeach Mizmor LeDavid. Yancho Hashem beyom tsurah." Hashem should answer you in the day of t- straits, of difficulty. And this relates to, uh, "imo yonech be'tsarah." When Hashem says, "I am with Yidden. I'm with him in his, in his suffering, in his, in his difficulty." And so he has here the following. Why is Hashem with Yidden beyom tsurah? Sez a Yudon. Mashal, a woman who is pregnant, and she got into a tiff with her mom. And so now they got s-such a... So the mo- the mother went upstairs, and she's downstairs, and she's screaming in her bi-birth pangs. And the mother is upstairs, and she hears the daughter screaming in pain. So she's also screaming. So the nei-next-door neighbors say to her, um, "Why are you crying? Why are you screaming?" I mean, y-y-you know, um- So she answers, "My daughter's is suffering in pain. How

12:11 can I not... I can't bear her pain. My, my daughter's pain is my pain." And you have a similar idea when it says by the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. It says, "Hashem calls for bechiyum mispaid," for weeping and, and, and, and, and, uh, mourning. And its angels say, "Hashem, ois vecheh b'makomei, by you is, is a, a place of joy." So he says, "My, my, my residence has been d- It's not my house that's been destroyed. Um, evo yo nechem etzar." Okay. So the, the first of all, we've got here, the Yan Hashem B'Yem Tzoror is the empathy and the emotional of a woman who's pregnant, that the relatives feel-- empathize with her. Then we have a further connection. We have here, um, the next entry here. It says, "Yeshvu Yeshua Kohen." There are nine psukim in this chapter. Corres- In the chapter twenty, there's nine psukim corresponding to the nine months of pregnancy. And the expression, like we have Mishona, which we say in Selichot, "Se man de'ona lechayos al masbo." The Hashem who answers the, the, uh, the, uh, woman who's delivering on the birth stool, who Yan Yasco, and he should answer that tefillah of all Yidden. So the, the, uh, the Yan Hashem B'Yem Tzoror. So you got here a woman going through pain and is, is helped. So that is kind of a, um, a key to the general in Yan Hashem B'Yem Tzoror, and that seems to be the connection, at least on the level of Drush. I

13:51 didn't check further in the level of, of Yisroid, but on the level of Drush, that's, uh, the, the connection. Um, I'm just wondering, wondering whether it's okay to say a joke. All right then. If it's out-- If it's inappropriate, you'll forgive me. But I was re- just reminded of this. So there is, uh, there's two neighbors, and they got a party wall. And one side is just screaming and yelling. The w- and the wife is, is like really, uh, uh, non-stop. So one Tuesday night, the neighbor who's suffering and then all this noise, he starts singing. Tuesday night. So the neighbor, the other neighbor, the, the suffering husband says... He sees him and says, "What, what's mitamol?" Tuesday night singing Shalom Aleichem. So he says, "I prefer to hear my, uh, Shalom Aleichem than your Es Es Chaiem." Okay, let's move on. Um, okay. Now, here are a serious question. So you have a, uh... You have question-- You have differences in Halakha between Ashkenazim and Sfardim. That's perfectly okay, you know. Like we had with Sham and Besulal. All right, that was resolved to where practically. But, you know, Ashkenazim and Sfardim, each community follows their ruling. There are areas where Ashkenazim are more lenient than Sfardim. There are areas where, where Sfardim are more lenient. That's okay. Here's the question when one comes to the other's house. So I'll, I'll give you both examples in Bishul. So we have a rule that yesh Bishul acha Bishul bedovorlach. That if a liquid, if a

15:43 chicken soup is cold and you reheat it, it was cooked already. But reheating chicken, chicken soup is considered Bishul. That seems to be very fairly accepted across the board. The Ashkenazi position on this is, if it's cooled off, but-- And if not, Yad Seled is, but it's not too hot to touch, but it's still gishmak. It still has a warm soup. The language being lo nitstan in legamri. It hasn't cooled off totally. Then the Ashkenazim will allow you to warm it up again. So let's, let's picture this. You have, let's say, a wide old-fashioned blech, a tin cover on your stove. And there's a burner here, a gas burner, which has a light. So here it's a hot, a hotspot. I know hotspot now means something totally different. Yeah. Um, and then you got further away, it's gonna be cooler. So it could very well be you've moved your soup further away, and now it's not boiling hot. It's warm. Now, to move it back to the hotspot, is that okay? So according to the Ashkenazim, lo nitstan in legamri. Yeah, I'm not talking about taking it from the fridge. I'm talking about from... it's from a warm spot. It's still on the same blech, just to move it to a hotter spot. So according to Ashkenazim, that is okay. According to the Sfardim, that's not okay. Now, what is fascinating here is that the Sfardim, although the Mechaber says, he says clearly, "Yesh Bishul acha Bishul bedovorlach." Same as Ashkenazim, reheating, taking a chicken

17:21 soup out of the fridge and putting it on the stove is, is, uh, or on a bl- or on a hot plate. He also agrees it's not okay. But there seems to be a little bit of latitude here, uh, on the Sfardi side. And that is, let's say if a food is mostly foo- solid and with a little bit of liquid, like a cholent, which usually... I know cholent is not a Sfardi food. But, uh, something similar, which is a majority of food and a little bit of liquid. So some Sfardi Shaposkim will allow, Rabbi Vadya particularly, would allow you to put it onto a hot plate, um, perhaps when the hot plate is off. Because he says, uh, because the Machlik is the Rambam and then, um, um, who holds it. Ain Bishul acha Bishul bedovorlach. All right. And then it's, it's, uh, uh, who says it's called a li- liquid? Actually, it's called a solid. So he, he makes this combination, allows you to do this. Some side of Shapell's scheme are quite rigid about this and pretty much the same as Ashkenazim, but you have this. Then also putting on food on a hot plate, which is... Now it's seven o'clock in the morning, the Shabbat morning, and it's gonna switch on at eight o'clock in the morning. Are you allowed to put food on there? Which is like a grammar, it's not direct. So there is some latitude here where the Sephardim will allow, where it's not mamash taking cold food

18:43 and putting it onto the, onto the hot plate, cold liquid, but it's either not totally, not... mostly not liquid, or that it's not on now, it's gonna go on later, Sephardim will be makul. So you have things where the Sephardim are makmir, some things Ashkenazim are makmir. Here's a question, when you have As-Ashkenazi in a Sephardi house or As- Sephardi in Ashkenazi house, when the food there being served is not according to our or your community's protocol, are you allowed to en-enjoy the food? That is the question. So, um, what you have here is from Yalkut Yosef. This is from Reb, um, Yitzchak Yosef and, who was the chief rabbi, the Sephardic chief rabbi till recently, and is largely psakim of his father, Rav Ovadia Yosef, where he says, when... if the roei v'tav sh'lo yofesh, e-even though it's got a lot of gravy, let's say, that's considered a tav sh'lo yofesh, and therefore you are allowed to warm it up again. Others disagree, and it has to be mamash dry like schnitzel or a rice. Um, but that's the Ashkenazi position. Right. So that's, that's, that's the first point. But then he has... That's in Sif Nun Hey. In Sif Nun Waw, he has a story of Ashkena-- of a Sephardi bocher in a As-Ashkenazi yeshiva, and they are reheating the soup, which was in Lo Nitzan LeGomri. Does he have to be object and can he, and can he... On the other extreme, he's allowed to enjoy it. So basically, he says, because

20:24 there's so many factors which you have in, in Halakha, what's called a sfek sfeka. Could be, first of all, there's this opinion which says it's okay, even though we don't pass it like that opinion. But there's another factor which is said according to that factor, it's okay. And you have those two factors or more, that is, is, is, allows it. So that's why he's-- that's his psak, that it is okay, where he's not allowed to ask them to warm up the food, soup because he would not be allowed to do it himself. But if it's done already, he's allowed to have benefit from this. And I would say the same thing the other way around when the Ashkenazi is, is in a Sephardi home and the food has been warmed up in a way which Ashkenazim wouldn't rely upon. But there is a Rambam, the Rambam says, "Ein Bishol Ach Bishol Bedavaro," and there may be other factors, so there's, there's room to be lenient on that. Bediad avod. Okay, let's move on. Interesting question. Uh, I was actually very impressed with this question. Fellow has bought a metal nozzle, which is an extension to his tap in his kitchen. You can see it. He sent me a photograph. He's asking, does this tap need to be toveled? Not the ta-tap, the, the nozzle. Does it need to be toveled? So you look in Shulchan Aruch. Now, where's the address of Hilchot Tavilas Kelim? So that is in Siman Yereideia, Siman Kuf Kuf. And there

21:51 you have it. There are more. He says, a, a barzel ku-- a-if you have a g-a grinder which has got a metal piece, that needs to be toveled. And so too, mashbochos shel barzel, metal funnels need to be toveled. Oy habrozos shel barzel, or metal taps need to be toveled. Um, if I see someone taking a kitchen tap to the local Kelim Mikvah, I would have to say, "Shachiyan." No one tovels taps. Even be-be-- Yeah. And the reason is because it's m'chuba l'kar kah. It's not a keli. A keli means something which is portable. A tap which is plumbed in is, is, uh, does-- is not a keli because it's fixed. When the Ramoh says, "A brozos shel barzel," apparently in those times, their taps would be something which you'd attach to this barrel and take it out. It'd be some kind of spout. So that's not what we're talking. This, this, what you have, this nozzle, uh, which, uh, we have on the screen, is something we can see it's fixed to the tap. It have... On its own, it's useless. It's only serving as an extension of some sort to the tap. Not sure why. Perhaps it's got some, a spray at the bottom. I'm not sure. But it's certainly useless on its own. It's only of any benefit when it's m'chuba l'kar kah, and therefore it does not need to be toveled. Let's move on. Okay. So here we have a time... This is the time of the year. Um, in the

23:24 Jewish calendar, it's Hanukkah time, but in the Goyshe calendar, um, there's another event which is happening. And this, in his town, he says that there's s- very nice Shamas candles available just this time of the year, and they are obviously made for, for, uh, celebration of a Christian festival. Is it okay to buy those candles? So there is a principle in Halakha of Ein Hekdesh la-Avodah Zarah. There is nothing... Something which is designated for Avodah Zarah is not, should we say, seized by that. It doesn't become bound because of a designation. If it's used for Avodah Zarah, that's bad news. But if it hasn't been used, just the mere designation does not make it asur. And that's what you can see here from the Shevet Halevi from Rav Wosner about these small candles. Nice, they... nice for Shabbos candles, but they are designated for church, um, service. That's actually written on the packet. Is that disgraceful to use, um, for, for the Shabbos candles? For that matter, the Sukkah decorations, which are, are, are made for decorations of, uh, trees, yeah. Not Sukkah. Um, so is, is... And he say, "Well, is that okay or not okay?" So he, he says, "The fact that it's merely designated for Av-Av-Avodah Zarah, that doesn't make it asur because of Ein Hekdesh la-Avodah Zarah." And even to use it for a mitzvah, it's not considered dis-- the, um, most... not considered despicable.

25:16 So he says, "Ein lechach mir klal," he says it's okay. Interestingly, you have the, the Rav Breisch who was in, in, uh, Zurich, in Switzerland. He was asked the same question, and he says, "Really? It's not even for the mitzvah, it's only for the Shabbos." That's not really the part of the mitzvah. Therefore, it's really not really a problem. But L'maase, he says, hiddur mitzvah, not a hiddur mitzvah. Therefore, even for a Shabbos, he, he discourages it. Very interesting. I just wonder whether the fact that Rav Breisch lives in Switzerland, which is, I think, a Catholic country, and Rav Vosner lives in Eretz Israel, so it's easier for Rav Vosner to dismiss it as gornisht. And Rav Breisch, who's-- comes every, every December, he sees the scenery on the street is changing, and, uh, so he may, may have been more sensitive to it. So he's not so keen. So midadin, it is okay. Is it a hiddur? Well, you have here, um, a different-- difference of opinion between these two. Let's, let's move on to the next thing. Okay, so here's someone who's traveling on Hanukkah, and he's gonna... What that means is, he's going to go on a plane one evening of Hanukkah in the United States, and he's returning to the friendly shores of the United Kingdom, let's say, six, seven, eight in the morning. No chance of him lighting menorah in Lon-- in, in England. He lives about two hours' drive, his, his ways in the United States. It's two hours'

27:03 drive from the airport. To catch an evening flight, it'll be very difficult to light and be there to be in time for the plane, which is, let's say, seven thirty PM. So is there... Well, let's, let's look at the possibilities. If there's something called Plag Mincha, which is about an hour b- uh, q- and a quarter before sunset, and we have here on the, in Shulchan Aruch, the text says, let's read the Mechaber. One should not be lighting the, the candles for Hanukkah before sunset. And then he has, Okay, that's another whole parasha. Beginning of the Shkiah, the end of the Shkiah. How many minutes of light? The beginning of the Shkiah, but... And that's why we put in for fifty minutes, not for thirty minutes because of that dilemma. So we start light it earlier, and we make sure there's enough fuel to last, uh, even according to the later, uh, opinion. Okay. There is an opinion. If he is torud, if he is preoccupied, uh, at the evening, so he could light the menorah from Plag Mincha, and provided he puts in enough oil that it should last until the time where people, you know, to, to... While, while people are still on the street. In other words, till the half an hour after Shkiah or after . So you have your if it's possible, if the time allows, to light menorah at his host after plag and then race to the airport. That may or may not be, uh, possible, depending on

28:39 the, on the, on the s-situation. Here's my problem with this. When you light the menorah at Plag Mincha, have you fulfilled the mitzvah now, or is it contingent upon it being a light until nightfall or n-until Shkiah? May I ask a s- a question? If you did light the menorah after plag... Now, normally, if you light the menorah, menorah goes out. The halakha is you're not mechuyav to rekindle it 'cause you've done the mitzvah, even though it didn't last a half an hour. If you lit the menorah after Plag Mincha, and you're on your way out, you see it's gone out. Do you have to rekindle it? Have you fulfilled the mitzvah? Another variation on the same question. There's a berakhah which you can say on, on seeing Ner Hanukkah. If someone sees Ner Hanukkah after Plag Mincha, before Shkiah, can they make the berakhah, asher nisan la'asein? In other words, is, is the Ne- lighting for Plag Mincha, is that fulfillment of the mitzvah, or is it contingent upon it being in existence in the right time? And that's when you really fulfill the mitzvah. You lit it early, but the mitzvah is done when it happens. Here's my question. It's all very well if I would leave my house after Plag Mincha, and I leave my menorah at my house. I've done my mitzvah. I've had my menorah. I'm not there, but my menorah is burning at my house. That's fine. But when I was in a hotel or by a, by a,

30:10 a kind host, as soon as I leave the house, that's not my house anymore. So if I lit at my, my host a Plag Mincha, by the time Shkiah comes, it's not my house anymore, so I haven't lit at my house. So what's the point of lighting there if it's not, it's not... I haven't fulfilled the mitzvah. That's my, my problem. So m-there may be a way of arranging it. It should be your house, making some kind of con... Do you know? Uh, I don't know. It's, it's, it's a d-difficult one, yeah? Um, well, I did see there, there is an article in The Orayta's Royal. Someone writes mamash about this scenario, um, some Rabbi Chaim Oberlander. Um, he talks about lighting through a shliach, et cetera, but he doesn't raise the point which I just raised. There is one possibility of lighting in the airport. Now, I think I've discussed this in the past. Is light-- Is there a... Can you fulfill the mitzvah by lighting in the airport, if not your house? So the, the, the Minutah Gavriel and the Tzemach Tzedek both take this view that having to be mamash at your home is not crucial to the mitzvah. You can be yotzer the mitzvah of Ner Chanukah even if it's not mamash your home. Let's say the Chizkuni talks about a person going camping overnight in, in the, in the open air. Can they light Menorah there? So he holds you can. Even though it's a Ner Ish Habayis, that means

31:41 it's one light for the family. It doesn't mean it has to be a, a bricks and, and, uh, and what. So you can light in the m-in, in the airport if you ha- if you have the, the opportunity. Um, a couple of years ago was publicized a story of a judge from New Jersey or something, that he passed by the Rebbe, and he told the Rebbe that he had lit Menorah in JFK by the Chabad stand, or perhaps in, in, in Ben Gurion. But he had lit with the Chabad stand in the airport, and the Rebbe, Rebbe was kind of pleased about this. He said, "Oh, that's, it's, it's legitimate," yeah. So I'm wondering whether you can go to perhaps the smoking area, 'cause in the airport if you start lighting candles, you will possibly get a hefty fine, probably miss your plane also, um, which is gonna cost you a lot of money that way too. But if you go to the smoking area, in any case, there's not a bunch of lady gays there in any case, so th-there'll probably not be such a problem to light a Menorah there, um, if that's, if that's available. If there's a Chabad, uh, stand there, Misnamit, they've got it worked out to eight C also. I don't know. In these fancy lounges, perhaps they'll allow you to light a, a birthday cake with some candles there. Uh, I don't know, but it needs a bit of creative thinking. Right. So here's a question. Chasunah. Person

33:04 making a Chasunah and is asking what would be... They-- Davka here they want to actually have an extra day of Sheva Berachot. Usually people want to do the Chasunah that have one, uh, shorten the Sheva Berachot. Here, Davka because they want to go to the country of the, uh, Choson and make another Sheva Berachot there. So gaining another day would be actually in their interest. So what is the, what is the guideline? When do you say, um... Well, say if you do a Chupah in the afternoon, that's called day one. Say if you do a Chupah on Tuesday afternoon, so then next Monday is the last Sheva Berachot. If you do a Chupah at Tuesday night, so then that's already Wednesday. So then next Tuesday is the last Sheva Berachot. So Tuesday by day. So where, what happens if the, if the Chupah is at bein hashmashot? So here you have a, it's very clear in the Rama, "Ve'elu shivas hayomim matschilin miyad le'achat sheva berachot shebeirach boreh shem." Which means at the moment, the last of the Sheva Berachot, just before the Choson smashes the glass, look at the clock then. If that's already night, if that's already tzeit hakochavim, then you have now another seven days, and the Chupah doesn't count as one of the seven days. So you can... You'll have it now. If, if it would be somewhere middle of bein hashmashot, so then you could still say, well, the Sheva Berachot under the Chupah finished, and so the Sheva Berachot,

34:34 the seven days started whilst it was still before dark. So that's a Safek. Perhaps that would... First they would count already. The day of the Chupah would count already. But if you managed to do the Sheva Berachot, or if that's how it worked out, that the last of the Sheva Berachot was after night, then for sure you have now a full, well, seven days or seven, six and a half days, however you work it out. But the day of the, of the Chupah does not count to the Cheshbon. Uh, it's straightforward, but it took me, uh, a bit of searching till I found it, and I guess it would be worth sharing. Right. Let's go on. We have some very interesting things coming up. Um, but meanwhile, let's go on to our next question. Renting out. A person owns property. Is he allowed to rent out his premises for the use as a church? So now there's one thing about benefiting from the church. There's a thing about facilitating. There's another Halakha which comes in here, and that is about giving a house for Avodah Zarah or having an Avodah Zarah brought into your house. So here you have in Shulchan Aruch, as a kaf lamet in Yoreh De'ah, as a kaf nun alef in Yoreh De'ah. "Av ve'moker shehitiru lehasikir." Even if you are allowed to rent out a house to a Goy. "Lo hitiru elo le'otzar vechayotzer." We're talking about renting out for storage. "Avel lo ledira," says the Shulchan Aruch. You wouldn't

36:19 be allowed to rent out a dwelling to an Oved Avodah Zarah. "Mipnei shemachnis letoichoi elilim bekeva." Because he's gonna bring in his Getzkus, he's gonna bring his, uh, images, et cetera, his idols, and then they're going to be parked there on a, on a permanent basis. So you are giving, uh, accommodation for Avodah Zarah. That's what the Mechaber, Rabbi Yosef Karo writes. Says the Rama, "Veha'idna," nowadays, "nagula haskir afla dira." The Ashkenazi community certainly do have... That's Halakha Lema'aseh. Many Ashkenazi people own properties, and they're rented out to Am Ha'aretz, yeah. We know that. Um, and why is it okay? "Ki v'she'eino gin lachnis Avodah Zarah b'batei." Oh, brings Getzkus to their house. Says the Shach on the mar- on the margin, he says, "What? Who brings the geckos to their house?" Of course, they do. People pe-have devout, uh, Avodah Zarah nickers, and they bring geckos into their house. To say that they're not so sincere is a bit shalach. So he comes with another Hashem. He says, he says like this: Although that we hold that schirus, that rental, when you rent out something or when you rent something, it's not yours. It's, it, you know, it belongs to the landlord. But in civil law, if you rent out a prope- property, then it's, it's like it's sold for that time. So let's say if I rent out a property and then my own property, my own accommodation falls through, can I go to my tenant and say, "Uh, hello. I don't have,

38:12 I don't have a roof o-over my head because my house collapsed. Get out of my property so that I should be able to have where to live." So in, in Halakha, I have a, I have a leg to stand on. In civil law, that won't work. He'll say, "It's not got a contract. Um, do what you want," but, uh, it's, uh, I rent it. It's, it's... You can't retract. So therefore, he's saying that the rental in civil law is a more solid... It's like a purchase. Therefore, it's not your house. It's his hou-- It's the re- tenant's house. That's, that's the position which the Shach is suggesting here. That the goyish tenant owns the property, and therefore he's not bringing Avodah Zarah into your property, it's in his property. That's what he comes up with. Not so, not so glatt, yeah. I don't understand why all of a sudden are you respecting the civil law when Halakha, it is your property. So the fir- person who a-asked me this, he sent me actually a link to some... one of these, uh, websites with the Chabad institution, and they, and they say you can rent it out through a, through a third party. So to sell through a third party, no. You s- you sell the property to an agent, and then the agent will sell it to the, to the Goyim, and they'll use it as a church. That may be there's room for that. But am I... I'm, I'm taking the po- position that

39:48 renting it, it's, it's still yours. And I find it very str- very difficult to accept that I should be able to own a property and knowingly... And it's not like it's a private person who might bring or might not bring. Here it's, it's for Avodah Zarah, and so I d- I don't see a, uh, an easy way out of it. In the Darkei Teshuvah, which is, uh, on this part of the Shulchan Aruch. So he brings here a couple of stories where people were lenient somehow in this, and, uh, they rented out their properties, and lo osa lehem yofe. They, they, they lost their, their, uh, their fortunes, um, unfortunately, by, by... And he attributed to the fact that they cut corners on this, uh, Halakha. Okay. Tattoos. Crazy, crazy thing. You go around, you think people th- people think that Hashem gave them doodle paper. Um, so now you have your Mishna. Oh, so, so here's the, here's the question. The question is, there's a young lady who become a Baalas Teshuva, and she has tattoos, and she's worried. She's not married yet. She's wants to get... She wants to get engaged, get married, and I don't know the details, but it could be the tattoo is not just, you know, Arsenals or Spurs or something, but it's something, um, more, more objectionable, which might be an affiliation to a-another, another person. Might be something, something really offensive in a future relationship. And she's asking what can sh- Is she... Is there a way

41:35 that she can, let's say, do another tattoo on top of the current tattoo to obliterate the old tattoo? So that's the question. So I said clearly there's no obligation. There's no obligation to remove a tattoo. There's a issur to make a tattoo, no obligation to remove it. But here's the Mishna in Marcus. One who draw-- makes a, a kosos, kosos veskaka. If it's just writing without etching or etching without ka-- Um, with writing, I'm not sure how that works. That doesn't... That's not punishable. Ach shiyuchtev viyakakeha. There's a writing, and then it's going to be somehow etched into the skin, um, in, with, with ink or et cetera. Says Rabbi Shimon ben Yuda in the name of Shimon, "Eini cha vershiyuchtev shom Hashem." It's only if he writes a name. Now, some say this means a name of Avodah Zarah. He can write a name of Avodah Zarah, only that kind of tattoo is punishable, but any tattoo about anything else is not punishable. So we've got here two opinions. Whether when it says... Because he says, it says in the Torah, "Ochos veskaka uleset nivochem." Do not have a tattoo. "Ani Hashem." So possibly the objection is, why are you putting in a, a name of Avodah Zarah? That's the objection. Whereas the Tana Kama, the first o-opinion, he seems to be saying any tattoo. How does... How's Halakha paskened? Like the Tana Kama or like Rabbi Shimon? So interestingly, the Rosh and the, the Rif and the Rosh, they take the more lenient

43:14 opinion. It's only punishable if it's a name of Avodah Zarah. The Rambam paskens like the first opinion Nevertheless, the Rambam says when he talks about tattooing, first of all, where will you find it? It's gonna be in Hilchot Avodah Zarah. And he says it's the derech of the, of the idol worshipers to make images on their skin or make, make them to write on their skin. Now, before going to the next point, to... I just want to add another point. Um, that it's not clear whether the Issur of tattoos in Mi HaTorah is only with writing or also with images et cetera. Because it uses the word kasovas, and kasova can be dafka writing, which means a, an intelligible message. You might say that a picture is also a message, but it's not so clear. Now, here's the que-question which came up, and this is from the Sefer Nishmas Avraham, which is a Sefer which specializes in Halakha, uh, interface with medicine. Rav Batri, Rav Ezra Batri was asked about a woman who, for whatever reason, her perhaps through chemo, um, her b-eyebrows-- She has no eyebrows, and she wants to have... I think there's, there's a special word for it. Perhaps braiding or something. She wants to have with a tattoo that she look like she has eyebrows. From a little bit of a distance, you don't see the difference. Is that okay? So he says, yes, it is okay. And what is, what's his, um, argument? No writing, and it's covered up. But

45:00 he is... You see, he says it's okay. In my simple language, I think it's the Issur of... If you take it beyond the Avodah Zarah, the Issur is to mutilate. As I said, Hashem didn't give you doodle space on your arms. He gave you a body and respect it. But here it's a restoration of there's a damage there. There's something which is not okay. So to restore, to make it look m-natural, I don't see that as a mutilation at all. So that was Rav Batri. He did allow this. There's someone by the name of Rav Boruch Shraga, some ten years later, and he wrote an article to the contrary that you're not allowed to do this permanent makeup, et cetera. Ippur Hakavua, which is done through i, in needles, and it's under the skin. So he says he had discussed this with Rav Avadia, with Rav Elyashiv, Rav Fishel, Chaim Kanievsky, and they all said it's not okay. So here you have Rav Batri says this is okay, and then you've got someone disagreeing. Then the Nishmas Avraham he quotes from Rav Avadia, and he says, "Although Reb Boruch Shraga disagrees with Rav Batri, and he said so that it-- and he says not okay, and he says in my name, but after looking through the Poskim, et ce- et cetera, my, my conclusion is that if even if it's done, never mind if it's mamash a medical need, but if even it's just for beauty, it's also not so terrible. But to la'chaso ulatashteh

46:43 tzalekes. To cover and obliterate somehow a... To distort a scar. Let's look at a horrible scar, and to put in something which is going to now, it's not-- won't look as bad. Or la'hashlim to give back the image that there's hair in the eyebrows. Yesh lehok, hoiles lehok ela v'chad chila. So Rav Avadia concludes that you are allowed to do that restoration work. Um, so now coming back to our q-original question. To put on another picture where there's was a picture, I would say no. But to somehow, if there's a way of a tattoo which is going to obliterate the, the, the... that which is there, I think that there is plenty of room to allow, as you see that it's, um, as I said, there's a Cheshbon that it could be it's dafka Avodah Zarah, dafka Avodah Zarah, Shema Avodah Zarah, Dafka Kasav. Um, and here it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, a form of restoration to take away something which emba-is embarrassing. So that would be okay. Let's move on. Um, okay. To two or three Nekudos which are on feedback. Mm, no, not so far. Oh, oh, all right. Before I go on to the, the next point, what about writing on your skin? So I've had one of the teachers in the, uh, school, sometimes some girls write on their skin. They write on their hand with a pen, and then they wash it off later. Is that allowed? Is it not allowed? Sometimes doctors in middle of, uh... and they have

48:31 to write down, uh, in middle of s-surgery, whatever. They have to write down something. They might write down on their hand. So he talks about this. This also the Nishmas Avraham, the same, in the same area. And he brings various opinions. So it's writing without etching into the skin. Is that any... Is that Issur at all? So he writes the end of this. He writes... He brings, brings for opinions, but it says, Rav Shlomo Zalman said, "Muto lechad chila," to write with a pen on your skin. Ve'ein bo sefilu isha derabona because it doesn't last, and your intention is to wipe it off in a short while. And not compare this to Ktiva on Shabbos, which you're not allowed to write a temporary Ktiva. Of course, it's not an ideal behavior, no question. As I say, if you think your, your, your ar- your hand is, is, is doodle space is, uh, not respectful of its, its, of, of Tzelem Elokim, et cetera. But to say it's any Issur Halakha, it's not a... It's, it's not us. Okay. So now it comes to mind two instances where we see of writing on the skin where it's, where it's, uh, it's, it's, it's... It should be done. Number one is , but you have the Didom of Tzaras. So you have a whole thing about a person who's got an affected area, which has become very white, and that's Tzaras, and it goes to the Kohen, et cetera. And it says, "Vehizgire sanega shivas yomim." Vehizgire,

50:01 which means he should lock up. So the way Rashi learns, Vehizgire is he puts the person in quarantine. But the Rosh says, "Shetsori khlases roishim svivos lesimen lirosYou'll take a pen, and you'll draw a line around the affected area, and then next week you'll see whether it spread. So he takes, takes the word for hisgir, not... He says, you don't see anywhere they have to put the fellow in quarantine. The hisgir means the hisgir, like the word misgeres in modern Hebrew is a frame. That's all he means. That's, that's the Rosh. The other part which I wanted to share with you... Someone points out that doctors usually wear gloves and they write on the gloves. Thank you. That's true. I should hope so. Um, the other story is in Shearis Yehuda, and that is from the Alter Rebbe's brother. Now, without going into the detail, but in Hilchos Niddah, there's a, a measurement called a shia gris, the size of a bean. And what exactly the size, it's very negel halakha. What, what is the size of this be-bean? And it's got to do with also the Hilchos of Tzaraas. It's an area of six by six hairs. That would be the size of, of, of the, of the gris. And there was an earlier mathematician, Posik, who wrote a Sefer called . The name now is out of my mind. He wrote a couple of others for him. At the back of his Se-his Sefer, he's got diagrams from Euclid, uh, on, on

51:43 mathematical diagrams, . So he gives a certain measurement. So now the Alter Rebbe is-- the Alter Rebbe's brother is describing that one time the Alter Rebbe wanted to work out solid exactly, you know, what's the measurement. He told me, he told me to shave off the hairs on my arm, that the... A-a-ah, these hairs shouldn't disrupt to the pores where the hairs grow. And then to put the mechuga, we normally translate a compass or a something, something, a measuring tool, and to work out exactly the area of six hairs, including where they, they come from, the, the pores. And then he told Reb Reuben the Sofer, his expert Sofer, who was very expert in measuring with a compass, et cetera, and to make a square around these six hairs. Then to make a circle within the square, and that brings you to the measurement. Now, if there's someone here who speaks Russian, here's the word. This is a pitatsok, yeah. It's either pyatek or pitak. I don't remember. I've got it-- I know I got it wrong once. I don't, I don't know which is the way it's right. It's a five-kopik coin. And that's the, uh... It works out that the, the circle within that square was the size of a five-kopik coin in the times of the kesarit, of the, uh, tsarina. Um, and that's the measurement. And from-- And he always kept with him, the Alter Rebbe always kept with him this coin to be able to use for if a shaila

53:25 would come, he'd use for measuring. So here you see the Alter Rebbe, um, instructing to, to draw on the hand to work out the, the, the shia gris. Exactly what is this five-kopik coin? Is it twelve millimeters, et cetera? There's been a don-- a lot of discussion about this, and there is Rav, Rav, um... First of all, you have in the, the publication from the Kollel, I think came up with it on the K'din Atara. I think there it says twelve millimeters. But then Rav, uh, oh, Rav Forcash came up. He made some re-research, came up, I think, to fifteen millimeters because they built Zog as nineteen millimeters. Then there's someone, a shliach in Gold Coast called Nir, Rabbi Nir Gorevitch, and he's published several seforim. And he made a whole research to identify what exactly is this coin, which coin is it exactly, and he gives the... He works out exactly what the measurement is in millimeters. You can... able... You can check it up what size it is. I don't remember exactly. Seventeen or whatever it may be, but he's got... made a research exactly, uh, which coin it is. Okay. Couple of more interesting things. Okay. Um, this is very, very interesting. If you remember, we had the discussion about a gentleman who took a bottle of carbonated water and poured it, uh, on a, a couple of drops, and his, um, neighbor in shul got upset with him because now you can't use the rest of the bottle. You remember that

55:13 discussion last week? And I, uh, I questioned where does it come from that there is a, any stigma to the water in the bottle or the cup from which you have poured. I questioned that last week. So a, an eminent Talmid Chaham, and I'm very grateful to him. His name is Rav Eli Poltorak. He writes to me on Friday morning, "I heard that you're looking for a source for the stigmatization of the water from, from, um, Mayim Achronim, of the, of the pouring Mayim Achronim. It's a Gemara." Wow. It's a Gemara in Horayot daf yud gimmel amud beis. And it says there, you have it on the screen, there are five activities which will cause forgetfulness of one's earning. One is if you eat from the food, from food which a mouse has eaten from. Or if you eat from food which a cat has eaten from, or if you eat the heart of an animal, and if you eat olives, and if you drink water, shel shiurei rechitza, the remnants of, of bathing. I did-- I'm not keeping count of the five, but this is the Gemara. But here you have mayim shel shiurei rechitza, the remainder of water from bathing. Nu, so now you can say when you're washing them into mayim achronim, so the water in the cup is the shiurei rechitza. So here you go. I'm sure some of you have seen this, that some people when they... in a mikveh, when they come to the sink, and if someone has,

56:57 like left a half full mug of, uh, water, they will empty it out and then fill it again. So they, they're taking a shiurei rechitza. All right, someone else has washed this. This is leftover water. In the Sefer, in the Sefer Shemiras Guf VaNefesh, he has a discussion about this in I think the siman mem tes. Does it mean the shiurei rechitza in the bowl where the used water is, or does it even mean in the bowl-- in the cup where the water was... the jug where it was poured from? All right. But that's, that's, that's debatable. But here's the fascinating thing. So Rav Polterak says, you... And Rabbi Akiva Emden, he says that mayim achronim is, is included in this, shiurei rechitza. So I look up Rabbi Akiva Emden, and I see he doesn't say it. Look at this. So he says... This is Rabbi Akiva Emden in the back of the Gemara, which I found on the, on the com-computer. What does it mean, the leftover of bathing? Bathing of the whole body, bathing of the feet. But bathing, but netilat yadayim. But the water of washing hands, miboeli. I'm, I'm questioning. I'm not sure. So I write to Rabbi Polterak, "Where did he talk about mayim achronim here?" On the... He says, In other words, I understood Rabbi Akiva Emden. He said, "Your body, all right, it's greasy. You're, you're sweaty. Your feet. But your hands are clean. So now you're saying mayim achronim is worse." But he says, "Wait a minute.

58:28 Look at Rabbi Akiva Emden." He says, . So he has a different version of Rabbi Akiva Emden. They're both in contemporary prints, yeah. Can you see the difference on the screen? The first one just says, "Mayim of netilat yadayim miboeli." I'm not sure. In the other one, he says, Rabbi Akiva Emden is not sure. For sure, that's the same as bathing, and the water, the leftover water, mayim achronim is not okay. So this reminded me of the Hayom Yom of Friday, that if you hear something, uh, loshon hora about someone, you have to be upset. Either the one who's accused is guilty, or the one who made up the story is guilty. So someone here has tampered with Rabbi Akiva Emden and put in words which he didn't say. Then, to his credit, Rav Polterak dug up the manuscript of Rabbi Akiva Emden. Look here on the screen. This is, this is... These are... This... With a thick pen. These are the words of Rabbi Akiva Emden. Fascinating. He managed... Rabbi Akiva Emden lived in the time of the Baal Shem Tov, and somehow his, his, um, manuscript on it, his mar-- on the margin of his Gemara are available, and Rav Polterak dug those up. So that's not... nothing conclusive. I just found it so exciting that he was able to trace the, uh, this manuscript. So netilat yadayim is not so clear. And as I say, does shiura, shiurim mean in the used water? Does it mean that which remains in the cup

1:00:41 above? Is also debatable. I wouldn't rush to, um, to throw away that bottle of carbonated water, but I think I'm, I'm, I'm ready to concede there is something about it. And we saw last week people were saying Rav Nissim and Rav Milo, et cetera. So l'chatchila, yeah. L'chatchila, to be careful not to pour mayim achronim directly from a jug which... or a bottle which you want to drink the rest. What else do we have here? Oh, then about removal. If you remember last week, I wished my grandson Nachman, um, mazel tov for his birthday, and we talked about cutting off the layer of cake which had Nachman written on top of chocolate, on top of cake. And a couple of people said, "How can you remove that?" I suggest to cut... just cut horizontally and, and put that till after Shabbos. So probably ask is boeler. To cut off the slice of cake, which... because you can't eat the word Nachman on Shabbos, is boeler. Now, listen to this. What about Friday night to take out from the cholent? You want to take out a large chunk of meat because if you leave it overnight, it's gonna disintegrate. So you want to take out the, the, the chunk of cholent. Sorry, the chun-chunk of meat, a large chunk, and put it aside. You don't eat it now. So it's, um... So is it a problem of boeler? And the answer is it's allowed. Because berur means when there's a jumble, when there's a con- state

1:02:13 of confusion, and you, you un- you unravel, you unjumble the situation. That's called berur. But when it's, when it's distinct, that's not a problem of berur. Um, therefore, the same thing, to t- cut off a slice, that's besides the fact that you're allowed to take off the cream of the milk with a little bit of the milk also, it's n- really not a question of berur. Um, right. So now the last thing, I know I'm going over time, but, uh, okay. So about toiveling. And we mentioned about toiveling, um, nine times or so this opinion, and there's this Sefer on, on Dinim of Shofar. Shofar L'Chatzotz. So he had heard that Reb Mendel Tenenbaum, who blew Shofar by the Rebbe, was told by the Rebbe to toivel nine times like a fish. Poshut, which means like, you know, like crouching and like a fish. Like a f- like, like a fish crouching. Well, poshut means crouching and like a fish. Three times. And he compares this, so cute, to means a straight sound like the fish. It's like a straight, horizontal. And then the is a bit, you know, that's like crouching. And then the fish again, it's... See, and he compares to the three like a fish and crouched and a fish. Now, the, the thing is, and I, I wrote to him this evening, that I remember the opposite, and that is, and, uh, uh, I've heard this a few times. I want-- But I wanna share this with you. This is in,

1:03:55 in the Sefer HaMazkir about Reb Leibel Groner. So, um, once he went to the- with the Rebbe to the mikvah, it's after Yud Aleph of the first year, and, um, when the Rebbe came out of the mikvah, the Rebbe says, "For sure you'd also like to toivel in the mikvah where I just toiveled. I've left a towel for you. And then you probably want to know how to toivel." He says there's various opinions how many times to toivel, and is nine tevilas. Poshut, dag, poshut. So the word poshut means, again, crouching. So crouching, l- horizontal and crouching. So you have here, uh, so that it's not so poshut what are going to be the, the nine tevilas. But, uh, Rabbi Labin actually got, got back to me tonight, and he said possibly he got it wrong, and possibly this Masorah of Reb Leibel should be more reliable. But then his whole, uh, comparison to is unfortunately, uh, is... It, it doesn't, doesn't remain a- after that. Okay. That's what I have f- to share with you tonight. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And, uh, I wish you a wonderful week. Next Motzaei Shabbos, I will be, im yirtze Hashem, out of the country, so I hope to pre-record, um, a shiur so that you shall be able to enjoy it for, um... Well, Motzaei Shabbos is going to be the Inspire, um, conference Melaveh Malka, so to listen to it at your leisure. I wish you all a, uh, a

1:05:27 and, uh,