מקץ – חנוכה תשפ״ה

00:08 Speaker 1 A good . Welcome to tonight's cheer. Motzei Shabbos, um, Mekubal. Motzei Shabbos Hanukkah. So let's go straight to our... We'll have a couple of Hanukkah, three Hanukkah shailas. Um, when I sent out the sheets on Erev Shabbos, I was sh-short one for the minyan. So Baruch Hashem, we, we got one more shaila, which will, uh, come to the end. Yeah. So all right. So here's the question number one. It's more a, should we say, a Choshen Mishpat question. That there's a, a office party, a Hanukkah party, and, uh, they want to play dreidel. And the employer says he wants to give each person five euro, and then they will play with that money, and at the end, whoever wins, as it goes in dreidel games, whoever wins will go away with that money. So does that go into the worry about gambling? This is the question which they're dealing with. So the term for use, used for gambling, one of the terms we use is mesachek bikuvia, playing with a dice. And what's wrong with that? So we see in Gemara Sanhedrin, it talks about whether that, that a person who's mesachek bikuvia would be ineligible to be a witness, be a possible aider. So one, one, one view is that it's a kind of robbery, because really no sane person comes along and says, "Oh, I'm gonna give away my money." They come along with the illusion that they're going to be more crafty and be able to guess better or whatever, play better.

01:53 Speaker 1 And then, uh, all right, so then they, they, they li-- they, they lose. Okay, they give the money. But bedtsim, that's not their kavana. Um, that's not their primary kavana. And therefore, the money which you get through a gamble is not really a honest money. That's the one, one view. Another view is that people who spend their time on gambling, so they're not really engaging in a, in, in supporting the world in an industrious way. Einan oos can be Yishuv shel Olam. That would only be if they're full-time gamblers. But if they're only part-time, then they are, uh, they've got a, a normal job. But then, so there's this mesachek bikuvia, is playing... Is, is c-gambling is considered a, a kind of dishonest kind of earning. So here we have something mehichas Shabbos. Curiously, this siman is missing in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, as we... Unfortunately, there are a number of those. And here it's talking about on Shabbos, you've got... You have a turkey. Is it okay to have a turkey this Shabbos? Um, and you ha-- And then there's a yichas, who's going to get which part of the turkey. So hamachalik livnei beiso manois b'Shabbos. You're gonna divide the portions of the, of the, uh, roast with the family. You can make a goral, cast lots, and say, "Whoever picks up this lot will get this p-part of the, uh, um, of the, of the, of the bird," et cetera. But they should be of equal sizes, but they shouldn't be

03:33 Speaker 1 different, different sizes, 'cause that's gonna g-be a, a, this of gambling. It says, and there's a second paragraph, "To give a big portion against a small portion," the lottery is who gets the bigger portion, who gets the smaller portion. That's not okay because of kuvia, because of gambling. V'yesh oimrim, the second opinion says, de'im banov ov lev ei soi, with one's immediate family, mutar hatil goral, you're allowed to cast lots, aphillu al mona gdoela keneged mona katanah. Even if, as a result, one is gonna get a larger portion and one's gonna get a smaller portion, b'shush ein makpidim. Within the family, one wouldn't expect that they should be upset if someone got a larger portion of, uh, of, uh, meat than the other. And so that seems to be, uh, the basi-- um, um, basis to be meikel here. That here you're talking about an office, but the employer is providing the money. So it's not as if they are putting down their own money, and someone's gonna go away with someone else's money. There's money being provided by the host for, for the game, and so I'm sure the idea of like a family, there's n- they're not ein makpidim, would be also applicable here. So I told them that's okay. By the way, it's always these by the ways are also always very useful. Casting lots on Shabbos, a raffle on Shabbos, that's not allowed. Afu la'illu ein ha-Yehudi. And that's really quite relevant for, let's say, Shabbos groups. Shabbos or e-e-et cetera.

05:13 Speaker 1 Uh, you give out tickets for boys who, who are davening better in shul. But to, to draw a lottery on Shabbos is not okay. And so you see it very clearly, also how to go about Shabbos because it's a form of a kinyan of sorts. Okay, let's move on. So the following halakha is Meforush Shulchan Aruch, but it took me, um... Oh, before, before we go to that, we have here from the Piskei Teshuva's quoting Meklsenberg Arab saying that he's not worried about mesachek bikuvia with the dreidel playing because he sees that they're all like one mishpacha, and therefore that, that people are not makpid if someone will win more than the other. Um, I'm sure he's not talking about, um, very lucrative sums, and probably he's just talking about, uh, playing gelt, as we say. Okay, so here I was asked this question. A couple, both father and mother, are gerim And they have a daughter. Now, is this daughter permitted to get married to a Kohen? So we know that the Kohen has got various, uh, restrictions, uh, Chalalo, Zoino, uh, Grusho. So a Kohen mustn't marry a Giois because we, we, we don't know what happened, you know, before she was Megaya. But it goes even further. Even if the ba-- if sh-this girl was Megaya under the age of three, and therefore whatever happened would have been, um, uh, not... It would be, uh, how do you say, reversible, et cetera. And nevertheless, a Kohen's not allowed to marry a Giois

06:50 Speaker 1 even if she was Megaya under the age of three. But here we're talking about the next generation. Is a Kohen allowed to marry a Bas Ger Ve'Giis? So this is actually the Machlokas in, in the Gemara between different Tana'im. And some say that it's imperative for a Kohen to ha- to marry someone who is me-me-um, me am O VeYisroel. So someone who's got some Jewish blood in them and, and therefore, uh, if there's no, no Jewish partner anywhere along, that wouldn't be okay. Um, the Halakha is not like that, but that remains the standard. So let's read that in Shechinat. So Ger SheNasa Giis. If a Ger marries a Giois and they got, they gave birth to a daughter, she should not LeChatchilah get married to a Kohen. Uh, and even if it's the thir-third generation, even everyone's Heroso LeDas VeKidush, everyone's, uh, keeping Torah mitzvahs. Im Nisnes LeKohen Lo Yeseidsei. If she was married to a Kohen, doesn't need to divorce. BeYneh Botzard Echad Shel Yisroel. If there's some input from a J- uh, uh, from a Yisroel, whether it's a Ger who married a Yisroelis, or Yisroel SheNasa Giois, saying from then on, the child is, the daughter is Mutar to a Kohen LeChatchilah. So, to sum this up, that Ger SheNasa Giois, that child is not permitted to a Kohen LeChatchilah. They shouldn't make such a Shidduch. If they are already, um, married, they wouldn't have to divorce because the Halo-- the Ike Halakha is there is no... It's not called Zoino

08:40 Speaker 1 or anything like this. So LeChatchilah there is a, there's a Humrah to avoid such a Shidduch. This is similar, you have a case where a, a Jewish woman is married to a non-Jewish man and has a daughter. So that daughter is called Paguma LeKohuna. She's got a non-Jewish father, is Paguma. Uh, this is, um, no, not, not suitable for a Kohen. If they got married, they remain... They're allowed to remain married. And, um, if they are in a relationship would the Rav be allowed to be Misadei Kidushin. So then there are Poskim who do permit that o- because they consider that already a Bedieved, uh, particularly Rav Mossas, um, who was from Morocco and later in Shalaim. He would permit if they were, uh, it's not a, not a k-k-recommended relationship, but if there was already a relationship, he would be Matir to make, uh, to be Misadei Kidushin. Okay. Let's go to a totally different topic. And this is that someone warmed up fleishig sausages in a milky tray. Nope. That doesn't sound a very good Shidduch. But what happened was they, they put in grease... It was on a l-layer of greaseproof paper. So does the greaseproof paper prevent the meaty flavor from the sausages to... From being absorbed into the metal tin, which is, as I said, is a milchige tin. So we have a principle in Halakha, A, there's no transmission of taste, Mikli LeKli BeLo Rotef, from one container to another contai-container when there's no fluid in between. So you

10:34 Speaker 1 could have a milchige pot full of s-s-semolina, milky s-stuff, and you have next to it a pot which is cooking a cholent. I'm not recommending this. I'm not recommending this, yeah. Just saying if it happened, the two pots are touching back to back, the foods remain kosher because the milky taste and the fleishig taste do not cross from one to the other, from one pot to the other if there's no fluid between the pots. If it was wet on the outside, that would be a different story. So on that basis, what I have seen is what ha- if it had been silver foil, that you'd put a layer of silver foil, and then you'd put, let's say, warmed up a K- a, uh, kugel in a, in a milky tin, but there's a layer of silver foil. So does that kugel become milky? The answer is no, because the layer of silver foil is gonna separate and in, and not allow the transmission of flavor from the milky tin through to the kugel because there's no fluid. I'm, I'm assuming, yeah. Assuming it's dry, under the silver foil is dry. So then you use that principle of Mikli LeKli BeLo Rotef. So now our question is, does greaseproof paper serve also as a barrier So in the Sefer Psakim Echurves, he quotes from Rav Elyashiv, he wasn't sat-satisfied. I, I, I didn't, I didn't follow his logic. Why should greaseproof paper be less of a barrier than silver foil? Especially since Halakha sees metal as

12:34 Speaker 1 porous. Now, then in the same piece, in the Sefer Psakim Echurves, he quotes from Rav Shlomo Kluger, and this is from his Sefer Ha'elef Lecha Shlomo, where he talks about a cloth. A, a cloth which had absorbed, let's say, milchig, and now it's dry, and now this cloth is holding a fleishige pot, and the pot is hot. So he says it's not a problem of transmission because there's no fluid. So he's, he's saying that a cloth prevents, uh... Well, it doesn't, doesn't allow taste to come, come through. It's not identical, but, uh, really, I'm, I'm not, I'm not happy, happy with the chumra to say it doesn't transfer. The poel, the person said that they, they, the wife threw out the tin in any case. All right. This is just good for the lamdas for the discussion. Um, but min ha'din, I think it would, it would serve as a barrier. Let's move on. Okay. So on Thursday, I got two questions from a father and son, who will remain nameless, and it was similar question. And to one, I said yes, and to one, I said no. So to explain what happened here. Father was on his way to shul, and he calls up, and he says, "If I don't have a minyan tonight in shul, do I light the menorah with a bracha or without a bracha?" So I told him to light without a bracha. The son is on his way to be lighting, lighting a menorah somewhere in the town square,

14:11 Speaker 1 and he says, "If I don't have a minyan, do I light with a bracha?" So I said yes. So trying to be consistent, yeah. So now here you have on the screen, you have from Shulchan Aruch, um, Siman tof, reish, ayin, alef, and it talks about this chidush of the lighting a menorah in shul or making a bracha. This is, it is amazing chidush, really, because there's no mention at all in Gemara, nor in Rambam, Rif, et cetera, in the earlier Rishonim, there's not a single mention about the lighting menorah in shul. This is something which was introduced, uh, evidently about eight hundred years ago. Once it became, um, was phased out, people lighting outside their houses, as was the original takana. They stopped lighting outside because of intimidation from their, uh, unfriendly neighbors. And as a result, the whole public profile of the menorah was lost. And it seems as a result of this was instituted, okay, we can't light in our front, in our front garden, in the front gardens. We'll light in shul. We'll have the public, the pub-public event will have in, in the shul. Mincha, Ma'ariv, et cetera. And okay, very nice. And then the chidush is you make a bracha on it. Madlikin, mevorchim, and not only Ashkenazim who make a bracha on the minhag of, of, uh, Hallel on Rosh Chodesh. But even Sefardim who say, "Ei mevorchim al ha'minhag," and yet also they, they also make a bracha on the menorah lit in shul, which is very,

16:00 Speaker 1 very interesting. Yeah. That the madlikim mevorchim. This is the Shulchan Aruch, Rabbi Yosef Karo. All right. Then he has like this. When nogeiin lehadlik bebeit knesses, the time for lighting in shul is between Mincha and Ma'ariv. Some have the minhag to light on Friday before Mincha. I actually had a call on Friday. Someone say, "I won't be able to get, to get a minyan earlier on. It's not gonna happen. Should I light in shul? Um, we'll have Mincha the normal time, which is just after licht zinden." So I said, "Yes, but light before Mincha rather than after Mincha." People still, they straggle into shul, you know. It's gonna get ve-very tight. You light it before Mincha. Now, that's what he's saying here. You light it before Mincha on Friday. Now, here we have the Bari Heitiv quoting Magen Avraham. If it's close to dark, to, to nightfall, yeah, to shkiah, and there's not a minyan yet, mi ykaborcha. You can light as a pesukah min iso, k'sheboim achah klal beit knesses, because the people will come later. Okay. If you don't have a minyan now, they'll come later. Now, that's the Magen Avraham quoted over here. On the left, we have the, uh, Shaar HaTshuva, who quotes Rabbi Yaakov Emden in Maaruch Shiah, who disagrees, and he says, "You have to have ten people present." Okay, so that's my... This is where... What happened here. When the father asked, "I'm going to shul, and if I don't have a minyan, do I light with a

17:38 Speaker 1 bracha?" Now, if he didn't... He wasn't gonna have people coming, uh, not minyan at the beginning, uh, unlikely any more people would come in his, to his shul later on. Therefore, I told you, you're not gonna have a minyan, light without a bracha. The son wants to light in, in another part, in, in another city, in another... But in, in a, uh, in a place, in a ci-- in a public place. There's no minyan now. There's gonna be a minyan later, very likely. There'll be a... Doesn't mean there have to be a minyan at one time. But there's gonna be ten people passing by. Fine. So you can make a, you can make hadlakat menorah with a bracha. So it's not imperative that the minyan have to be present. Yakov Evdim won't be happy about it, but fine. The Mogen Avrom is, uh, very reliable as far as we're concerned, and that he says you can make a bracha on Hadlakas Neris in, um, in the shul, even though you don't have a minyan on the understanding that the minyan will be arriving subsequently. Um, we'll later come to the discussion, do Goyim count for the minyan for Pesukim Hadlakas Neris? That's, that's, that's, that's the, uh, that's the one who made up my minyan. That's the question. Who made up my minyan? I was walking home Friday night, and one of my neighbors, having passed by in the Beis Lubavitch in Stamford Hill, got this beautiful Menorah standing about, uh, ten foot, fifteen foot,

19:05 Speaker 1 I don't know. You need a cherry picker to get up. Really, and a stunning piece of architecture. Very beautiful piece. And there's these flames burning, so all, uh... Anyone passing along on Stamford Hill sees this Menorah, says, "No, if I'm... Is the mitzvah of Pesukim Hadlakas Neris for Goyim." So, uh, so we'll get to that. Okay. Let's go on to our fifth question, and that is, does a food thermostat need to be toveled before use? So the s- the earliest four which I have don't talk about food thermostats. Is a f- is a food ther-thermostat used in preparing food? If it's just to test that the food is, um... If it's just... If it's re-reached a certain temperature as far as, um, steriliz-sterilization, whatever it is. So then you can say that this... It's, it's monitoring, but it's not making the food. But apparently, professional chefs will use a thermometer also in, in the process of preparing the food in... When to add, I don't know exactly. So it looks like it's not just to monitor the t-temperature, um, whether it's heated, you know, enough, but also as part of the processing of the food. And as a result, I'm seeing that the, the general... and the general take on it is that thermometer, food thermometer is considered a Keili. It's a tool used in preparing food, and on that basis, it should be toveled. Obviously, there's a question then, if it's going to s- be immersed and water is gonna seep in, then that

20:56 Speaker 1 will ruin your, uh, LED display or whatever it's called, the digital display. On the other hand, if they are made for working over a steamy pots, I would imagine that they are certain to have, have a certain degree of protection from, from steam, et cetera, penetrating. So some, some of them don't say anything about im-immersing. Kol Ponim, it should be, it should be toveled. Some say that withi-without a bracha as a Sofek. But, uh, what I would like to just add, if you are concerned, and there is a, an opening for a battery where that's where the worry... where the water would seep in, I think it would be, um, okay to take a piece of sellotape, sticky tape, and cover over that part and just leave it there. Just leave the sticky tape there. Sticky tape is a Chatziça if you don't want it to stay there, but if you don't mind it staying there, so just leave it, leave it be. When, when you have to change the battery, okay, then you'll peel it off. Um, yeah. So that seems to be the position to tovel it, but without a bracha. Can you tovel just the part which goes into the food? That would say, like, if you've got a, a plastic-handled knife, do you have to tovel the plastic? And the answer is in... yes, you do have to tovel. You have to tovel the whole Keili. And with electric i- um, let's say, electric appa-appliances, you tovel the whole thing. You

22:29 Speaker 1 don't have to tovel the whole wire, but you have to tovel the whole tool. So that wouldn't, that wouldn't be enough. Right. There's a... Tevilah's got to do with a total, a total immersion. So, uh, Tevilah is Bital. Okay. So again, this is a fairly, uh, obvious question. Obvious answer. But someone asked me, so I looked it up, and I'm sharing it with you. Can you, can you call up to the... for Maftir and Haftara a child who's under Bar Mitzvah, a boy who's under Bar Mitzvah? So that's clearly written in Shulchan Aruch, Siman Resh Peh Dalet. A Katan Hayodea Likros. A child who is able to read. SheYodea Leechto Choos Yes B'Toiv. Who's able to articulate the letters well. Veyodea L'mi Mevorchim. And is also aware to whom his blessing when he says a bracha. Yochol Lehaftir B'Navi. He is allowed to, is qualified to also do Maftir and Haftara. There are Yesh Nogeiim Silsul then the author comes to Yechezkel, uh, which is on Shavuos and, um, the Shirat David on Shvuas Shal Pesach. Okay, and then the Shavuot. But in otherwise, in principle, it's okay for a Katan to do Maftir. The question then is why is it not popular? Why... I mean, you can probably count on your fingers how many times you've seen this happen in Ashkenazi community in the last, uh, thirty years, yeah. That's a, that's a good question. Possibly that there's, there's, uh, people are not so reliab-reliant on the articulation of the child. You see, we

24:12 Speaker 1 want to become Bar M- Bar Mitzvah. The, uh, being articulate is not always something to write home about. So, um, po-possibly that's the Chesbon. I'm su- I'm sure I've told this before. Why is it that in Chabad, the Haftara, the Maftir is the Aliyah which the Rebbe has, and as a result, it becomes a Chashuveh Aliyah. So the whole story, I, I, I told it, but I'll tell, tell it again, that the Boyaner Rebbe meets the Friediker Rebbe, and they had this, this, this... They discusses, discussed this, and the Friediker Rebbe says he has about seventy pages w-written about this. And the Boyaner Rebbe says, "I've got a suggestion." Okay? So he says, the Baal HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe, he was the youngest Talmud by the Midrash HaMagid. And because he was the youngest Talmud, he was given Maftir because you can give Maftir to the youngest, to the youn-younger one. So he was given Maftir when he was by the Magid. When he went home, out of his kashtres, he wants to kind of, uh, remember his, his, uh, stay with the Magid, so he, he ch- he prefers to go to, g-go with Maftir because that's how he was known by, by the Rebbe. So the Alter Rebbe really liked that shot. Okay. Um, I just wanna just throw in that when I was twelve years old, I had a, uh, whatever. I had a chaver. By bar mitzvah, I had a chaver who lived in Paris, and he used to learn before

25:51 Speaker 1 bar mitzvah. And apparently it wasn't so uncommon that back in Russia, that boys who were capable would sometimes learn, uh, perhaps on Monday and Thursday, whatever. But it was... It seems to have been, um, accepted. Although when you read this for him, as it seems, as, as we, as we have now, it seems to be str- um, unheard of. But that, I'm just telling you that was the fact. Okay, let's move on. So here I get a question. If in middle of a meal, someone comes and shakes your hand. You go to the door, someone... In the middle of a meal, open the door, and someone shakes hands with you. Now, that person hasn't washed Netilat Yadayim. Does that, does that, um, contaminate your hands to say, "Oh, I'm gonna have to wash Netilat Yadayim again 'cause I touched someone's hands"? So this comes into a whole question. Why do we wash Netilat Yadayim? Is it because of tumah or is it because of grime? So we know that the original, you know, takanah of Netilat Yadayim was for, to do with tumah. And Stam Yadayim is, um, is shniyet l'tumah. That Stam Yadayim, because your hands touch this and touch that, therefore, they've got a minor tumah, and that minor tumah would cause tumah to become possible. And therefore, you wash Netilat Yadayim, you can have a, um, you, you, you'd be able to eat the tumah safely. But then this takanah of Netilat Yadayim somehow spreads, and it's not only for eating tumah,

27:38 Speaker 1 and which is only for Kohanim. It also applies to Yisraelim and when, even when it comes to Chulin. So what's the reason for that Netilat Yadayim? Why was it expanded? And it seems to be there's a certain element of, of cleanliness as well as tumah in the strict sense. Because if you think about tumah, in most of our houses, there are going to be implements which are tamei meis min hatorah. Because if you came back from a levaya and you touched something before... Well, and you're still tamei meis, so that item has become tamei. Um, it's, it's got a din of rishon l'tumah or a-a-avi, um, ava tumah. And yet we don't worry about this because unfortunately we don't have a way to... We don't have the solution for it. We don't have for our tumah, um, et cetera. So we're, we're, we're, we're not sensitive to inyon of tumah as such. What are we sensitive to? When it comes, you scratch your head, your scalp is a bit sweaty. So you wash Netilat Yadayim after that. It's touched under your shirt. Your body is, is, is sweating. So it's a bit, a bit grimy. For that, you have to have Netilat Yadayim. But when you, when you touch someone who's... They just came in from the cold, their hands are dry and, and you touch their hands. There's no tumah. There's no, there's no sh-shmutz as such being transmitted. There's no need to wash Netilat Yadayim again. So let-- but let's, let's read what

29:11 Speaker 1 we have here on the screen from the Piskei Teshuvas in Siman Kuf Sif Sech Beis. Um, so he says here, "If someone... If you've just washed Netilat Yadayim and your hands are still wet, and then someone touched your hands, then you're gonna have to do it again." That's true. But it's only once your hands are wet. But if you have already dried your hands after washing, then when someone else will touch your hands, they will not... Your hands will not become tamei. Not only that, if the person who touches your hands has got wet hands, and even if their hands are wet because of Netilat Yadayim in, it's, uh, halfway through, they will not undo your Taharat Yadayim. Again, if in middle of the process of taharat, of your Taharat Yadayim, if that, that process was aborted by someone touching your ha- the, the water on your hands, then you have to go, go back again. But if you're, you finished, you completed your Taharat Yadayim, what you'll touch something, uh, a tamei thing, is not going to undo your Netilat Yadayim. Whereas if you go into a middle of a meal, change a nappy, then you've touched something which is dirty. You're gonna have to wash Netil-- certainly if you've burst into the toilet, et cetera, and you wipe yourself. So then you're gonna have to wash your hands into Netilat Yadayim again, but without a bracha. That's another discussion. Having said, therefore, shaking hands with someone in middle of a meal does not

30:47 Speaker 1 warrant a rewashing of your hands. Then he goes on, he says, "Yareishum," now people are medakdek not to touch, um, other people's hands, um, if they're wet. And then some people are mashum, even, um, go all the way not to touch during the meal another person's hands Um, perhaps they will be wet and, and et cetera. But that's clearly on the level of a chumra. I mean, chadin, you see, is quite, um, uh, clear that shaking hands with someone in middle of a meal does not warrant, uh, re-redoing a netilat yadayim. Now, I'm going to confess that sometimes I come to a simcha, and I've washed netilat yadayim, and before I've even made motzi, I'm going from the sink to my place, and sometimes people come over to me, I want to wash netilat yda-- I want to... They want to shake my hands. Say, "Hi, Shamolech," and I'm in the middle of... You know, I don't want to be distracted between my netilat yadayim and hamotzi. So I've got this kind of, this posture, you know, um, please leave me alone. Um, but also I can't respond to them. And I think people understand that language. I mean, chadin, that's not a problem. Chadin, I would be out to shake hands because, as I said, I've already completed my taharat yadayim. It wouldn't be a problem. I-- But I wouldn't be able to respond, and w- and aleichem shalom, and I wouldn't be able to say, um... Yeah. Okay. Let's move on. Okay. So

32:20 Speaker 1 then we have number eight is... So we don't have it on the screen, but... Okay, there we are. Okay. So here's a question about... Someone asks me, "When sniffing a teabag before use, should I say a beracha for the fragrance?" So the rule here is the following. That if you pick something up because you want to enjoy the fragrance, then you make a beracha, an appropriate beracha. And if it's an edible, so then if it's edible mamash, then you make a beracha, nosein riach tov, et cetera. Um, if it's cloves, there's a safek whether cloves are considered edible or not, and therefore we say mevarech min ha'etz u'mirbev. But that's when you're picking it up just to, to, just for the, for the fragrance. But you pick up an apple, you want to eat the apple, the vi-- Meanwhile, you enjoy the apple, you enjoy the smell. For that, you don't make a beracha. In other words, when your main focus is, is the eating, then you don't make a beracha on the side benefit of the smelling. So that's the answer with the sniffing a teabag, that you don't make a beracha on s-sniffing a teabag before use, especially if you're trying to sort out which one is it, and which flavor herb tea you want to have. So, but it's really for... You're picking it up for taste, not for smell. Therefore, you would not say a beracha. L'chatchila, perhaps you should avoid it. It says, the Alter Rebbe says, um, one should

33:59 Speaker 1 avoid consciously smelling a food which you're about to eat because of this. Some say you should make a beracha, so l'chatchila you avoid, uh, smelling it. But if you did, you don't make a beracha. Okay. All right. So now point number nine. So last Motzei Shabbos, I was in Chicago, and, um, my daughter organized that I gave a shiur for a group of shluchis ladies. And so something which I ca- which is a, uh, my, my pet topic is the inyonim of Nusach HaTefillah, et cetera. So I had a slideshow showing them background about the Alter Rebbe's siddur, et cetera. But meanwhile, came up the following very interesting question. Talking about the Alter Rebbe kind of sorting out between Ashkenaz and Sefard, Nusach Ashkenaz and Sefard. So where did they start? Where did the difference between Ashkenaz and Sefard start? So, uh, what I, I did say is that we have a, uh, idea that there's twelve, t- there were twelve nusachos, one for each shevet. Um, so then one of the ladies there asked the following question. Who established the Nusach HaTefillah? Well, the Nusach HaTefillah was established by Anshei Knesset HaGedolah. We have this in the Rambam in Hilchot Tefillah. In the beginning, he says, at the end of the seventy years of Galut Bavel. So then the Yidden, they were speaking a very, uh... Is there a word in English, pigeon? Which means a, uh, kind of an, a, a incomplete language. Pigeon English. So they were u- speaking a pigeon, uh,

36:04 Speaker 1 Hebrew, and the way the Poskim described it, whatever. They, they were, they, they were, uh, they, they had their language pretty messed up. It's like, you know, uh, our Yinglish, Y- Yiddish, you know, uh, mix up with a bit of Hebrew there. And so their, their language was a bit mixed up. They weren't able to daven in a articulate way. And because of this, the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah, who was the leadership, the spiritual leadership at the beginning of the second Beit HaMikdash, they formulated a Nusach HaTefillah. In this way, people could, uh, they could daven in, in a succinct way rather than, um, being stuck with unable to express themselves properly. Now, if that's the case, so she's asking, how do you get twelve nusachos? Because- Unfort-- as we know, the, the Twelve Tribes, ten of the Twelve Tribes were exiled some thirty f-years before the destruction of the First Beis Hamikdash. They were exiled by, uh, Alexander of Macedon. Uh, and, um... Oh, no, no, I'm mixing up. By Sanherv. Got my history m-m-mess up. Alexander of Macedon is the beginning of Bayis Sheni. Um, but they were, they were made, made by Sanherv, and he exiled twelve, ten tribes. So you had only two tribes. By seventy years later, the beginning of Bayis Sheni, so you really only have Yehuda and Binyamin. So what's this business about twelve Nusachois? So that was the question. And the way I understand is, and we'll perh-spend some time, um, kind of absorbing this, that the Antecedents

38:04 Speaker 1 of Second Temple, they set down the, the main, should we say, rubric. And yeah, there could be nuances. Different nuances and different, different, uh, aspects could be added, um, and those additions would be different for, one for each tribe. That's, that's my, my answer to you. But where do we get this business of twelve Nusachois? So this is originating from the Arizal. And curiously, where is it brought? I wanna g-go through this carefully. This is brought in Siman Sameches. In the Magen Avrohom, he quotes the Arizal, and the Alter Rebbe brings it there also. But I want to explain a little bit, why does it, why is it discussed over there? So we have there the Shechinach, Rabbi Yosef Karo says, "Don't throw in piyutim in Yoitras." You've got Yoitra Eh, don't put in piyutim. Apparently, in Nusach Ashkenaz, you have lots of extra pieces. Um, some are called Yoitras. Those are the most well known to p-people like myself. Then you've got other parts which are added at a later point in... because Yoitras in Yoitra Eh are the first berachah. Then you've got parts which are called Zulosois, which are added in, uh, just before Ezras, et cetera. And it was, in Ashkenaz, it was very popular to have added pieces. And so the Shechinach, Rabbi Yosef Karo is, is against it. And Minag Ashkenaz is to save them. It is at this point where the Magen Avrohom brings from the Arizal. So now let's read what he has here. "Atfilos atbon, da

39:58 Speaker 1 o shinuyim rabim in siduri atfilos. Minag Sfarad, Minag Catalonia." I think that's a region of, of, um... It's, it's a region of Spain which has been trying to become independent, but meanwhile it isn't. And Minag Ashkenaz, other places, they mention Levantine and, uh, Italian and et cetera. "Hine be'inyan hazeh omer li moi Arizal, moi Rebbe, the Arizal." This is Rabbeinu Chaim Vital writing. There are in heaven twelve windows corresponding to twelve Shevatim. And each Shevet, each tribe, their tefillahs go through their unique gate. And that is the, and you look in the Sefer Yechezkel, you talk, you see there about twelve gates. And ve'hine ein sofer. If the, if all the tefillahs of all the tribes would have been e-equal, there would no be, you know, be the need for these twelve windows and gates. Rather, each gate is a separate path, and the tefillahs are different. And therefore, you need to have the gate which is suited for your tefill, for your Shevet. And therefore, each one should, should cling to their Minag, Minag avotaisov. They don't switch Minag. Then he... Right. Now, one, one point which comes up a little bit later in this, in this piece from the, um... This is from the Shaar HaKavanot, but that they quote, they, they say that there r-was a Rebbe Elazar of Kalir, Rebbe Elazar Kaliri. And the Alter Rebbe, quoting Magen Avrohom, says Rebbe Elazar Kaliri was in the times of the Mishnah. The proof to that is that he makes Yoitras only for

41:57 Speaker 1 day one, not for day two of Yom Tov, which means he lived in a time where they only had one day Yom Tov. And so he was, like, on the level of a Tanna. And therefore, then they say when he composed a particular poem, there was Poshet fire. It was like, uh, the, the Kedushah of Rebbe Elazar Kaliri is saying is, you know, take it very, very seriously. And this relates to the Arizal's, the Arizal's attitude to p-piutim. We see the beginning of Pri Eitz Chaim. The Arizal did not want to f-- um, read the various poems of later poets, including, um, Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Gabirol, et cetera. He didn't feel that they were written with Al derech ha-emes, that they were, uh, how you say, uzgehalten in English. But they were consistent all the way with Al Pi Kabbalah. Whereas Rebbe Elazar Kaliri, he saw him as, as being authentic Al Pi Kabbalah. And therefore, the, the, the piyutim of Rebbe Elazar Kaliri, um, which interestingly are more popular in Ashkenaz and Israel- So, so those things, Rebbe, that the Arizal went for, the piyutim of Rabbi Elazar Kaliri, but not the other piyutim. Okay. So meanwhile, we've got here the twelve nusachois, twelve, w-which is twelve shvatim. We've seen that from the Arizal. Let's go a little bit later. So now we have in front of you is from the Mizrachi Maggid. Now, this is not written by him himself. This is written by, by a talmidim. Perhaps it is written by himself

43:40 Speaker 1 because it looks a little bit like a written answer to a question. In-- But it could, could be written by a talmid. In reference to the fact that there's different nusachois in tefillah. And you're asking what you should-- what-- You're, you're asking how you should you behave. So I told him, , I can't really explain him in writing, but it's known that there are twelve... Thirteen. There are thirteen bows in the Beis Hamikdash corresponding to the thirteen gates of the Beis Hamikdash, and they are alluded to in Yechezkel. In the fut-future Sha'ar Ruach, et cetera. And the twelve gates is one gate for each shevet. And the Beis Hamikdash Shalmato is corresponding to Beis Hamikdash Shlomo. So therefore, the Beis Hamikdash Shlomo, there's a gate for each shevet, as discussed in Kisvei Arizal, and the bowing is corresponding to that. In a, in a tefillah, each one should be able to go through their sha'ar. And each sha'ar has got its special combinations. Then there's a Sha'ar Hayud Gimmel. Someone who doesn't know which shevet he belongs to, and how does he enter the royal, uh, yard, uh, courtyard? For this, there's a thirteenth gate, and that corresponds in the Yud Gimmel midras achmim, the thirteenth one is Vedake. And that kind of is, when you say almost like an English skeleton key. It's, it's the one which can... Is it can, it can do a-any of them. And which is... And the Arizal, the . So the Arizal, he taught a path for those

45:26 Speaker 1 who don't know their shevet, and he made this nusach, which is Melukim mikama nusachois ki yadu alei bekium. So what, what I'm bringing out here for this moment is, so whereas in the Arizal's writings, as in the Sha'ar Hakavonis, it only mentions about twelve shvatim, and that's what the Mogan Avrohom brings, and that's what the Alter Rebbe brings in Siman Sameches. Now we have something new. We have something called Yud Gimmel Sha'ar, the thirteenth gate. That's, that's news to us, yeah? And this, this is the, uh, this is the solution, kind of. The, the solution to everything is the fact that you've got the thirteenth gate, and whoever doesn't know their, their, their shevet, they go in the thirteenth gate. Now we have in front of you is relating to Chanukah. We have here from the Mitteler Rebbe in the Sefer Ne'em itzvot ve'teirot. And he talks about these various gates. And he says, "Then there's the thirteenth gate," and that's the gate facing the east, and it's kolel all the other twelve gates. And anyone from any shevet could go through that gate because it's incorporates them all. This is the fact that we have two changes in tefillah in different regions. Sephard, Ashkenaz, Poland. The Arizal, he composed mikola nusachois kefi hanusach sheyuchal la'alot kol shevet. The Arizal made a merger of the various nusachois that anyone of any shevet should be able to mer-- to, um, um, come through that, that, that path because now kol Yisroel mu revavim because it's now

47:21 Speaker 1 all mixed up. We don't know which shevet we belong to. The, the Arizal made th-this, this combination. And then he has the next piece. The Antikenes HaGedolah, this is a tricky piece. The Antikenes HaGedolah, they instituted eighteen berachahs in Shemoneh Esreh, and that should be sheyekhel kol ha'shvatim vehu sha'ar hayud gimmel. See what he's saying over here, something, something totally new. He's saying that the Shemoneh Esreh, that's the sha'ar hayud gimmel. What, what's the different nusachois in other parts of davening? That's what he seems to be saying. But the Shemoneh Esreh, Antikenes HaGedolah, that's the sha'ar hayud gimmel. The Arizal, tikun benusach habrachot shelifne kirshat. So it is even re'u ve'kedem lohen, and similarly, the Arizal kind of consolidated a, a, a, a, uh, how you say, a sha'ar hakolel for the other brachahs. So in Shemoneh Esreh, the sha'ar hakolel, the sha'ar hayud gimmel was already explained in Antikenes HaGedolah. But for the rest of davening, the sha'ar hakolel is what was c- was put together by the Arizal. Very, very interesting. Now, um, not, not an easy topic, and there's lots been written about it. Um, I have in my hand, you can see, I have a Sefer called Filas Chaim, and, uh, this was written actually by someone called Danny Rimer, um, used to be of Harrow, um, many, many years ago. And he wrote a, he writes a major study about this to understand what's this sha'ar hayud gimmel, et cetera. Now, historically, the Chasam Sofer was not very, um, impressed

49:10 Speaker 1 with the transition. The Hasidim switched from davening Ashkenaz to daven Sephard. That is Chuvas Chasam Sofer, where he picks on what's written to Sefer Likutei Amorim. Likutei Amorim doesn't mean Tanaim. It means Likutei Amori for the Mizrachi Maggid on this piece which we, we just had. And what did the Arizal... It say he, the, the, the Chasam Sofer is saying the Arizal taught, uh, um, um, Sephard because he was a Sephardi, or he was brought up as a Sephardi. And so he objects the, um... Chasam Sofer objects to the switchover. So then we have the, the Tzanzer Rov, Devrei Chaim. So he, he, um, challenges back the Chasam Sofer, um, rejecting the points of the Chasam Sofer. And then we have a talmid of Chasam Sofer, Maram Shik, who comes in to defend his Rebbe, the Chasam Sofer. And then you've got the Minchas Elazar, the Mugatcher, who comes back, and he follows Divrei Chaim of Tzanz Rov, and he shows, for example, I was just reading this last night. For example, to say that, to say that, that we're davening Nusach Sfarad is not true. Because, for example, take a Sfaradi Shasidr to Cantor Shabbes. Don't say, don't say to Cantor Shabbes. They, they start sort of L'Moshe Tziviso. You look in the original Nusach Ashkenaz and Nusach Sfarad. And it shows there's many Inyonim in our davening. Let's say original Nusach Sfarad, Boruch Shomar got loads of words. Boruch Shomar in Nusach Ashkenaz has got eighty-seven words. And here again, now the Rebbe

50:50 Speaker 1 followed, um, and they-- we-we're following here in the Nusach Ashkenaz. So to say that, that we're davening Nusach Sfarad, that's not really true. It's a combination and it's s- it's a, how you say? Selecting parts of davening which are going to be, uh, which, which are going to be if, if Nusach Sfarad is Ois Gehalten according to the teachings of the Arizal, taking tha-that, those parts. In Nusach Ashkenaz, there's more Ois Gehalten, it'll follow that. Okay, um, I think that's enough of a discussion of this topic tonight. Um, so as I said be-before, mm, I was walking home on Friday night and someone asks me, "Is there a mitzvah of Pirsumei Nisa to Goyim?" So you have in Siman kuf reish ain vav, I think. It talks about a person who's in a town where there's no Yidden there. He's the only Jew. So it says he should still light the Menorah because he has to have Pirsumei Nisa for himself. That's not written in the Shevu'ot. The reason is given in the Mishnah Brurah. But what happens if they are... So here, here, this is the question, yeah. So you can... Now, this is in again in Pitchei Teshuva, uh, but this is Siman kuf reish ain alef. And he says, "If you're a place where there's no Jews at all, you have to have a Lechatzerot because you have to see notitz." Some say there's no point of putting them outside because there's no Pirsumei Nisa for Goyim. That's his-- apparently, Igros Moshe

52:19 Speaker 1 also takes that view. Um, Vayesh Choylim, and they say that Pirsumei Nisa amongst Goyim is a mitzvah. As it says a posuk, . Now, the, the, the, the glaring question is, we know that the part-- the Gemara says, um, how long does the Menorah have to burn? And it says, . Until the Tamir Doi, those, these peddlers, these lowly peddlers would stop roa-roaming the streets. Doesn't that seems to suggest that the mitzvah of Ner Chanukah is to communicate to them too? And so that's indeed what you have here, um, I see in the Sefer Shevus Yitzchok, and he quotes from Maharal Yashiv. So I managed to look up the Sefer Shevus Yitzchok. You have it on the screen. Maharal Yashiv, Shalita, Shamaiti, Ve'Pashat Masma. The Tamir Doi, these wood peddlers, wood fire, um, um, firewood peddlers, they would hang around in the streets later than their Jewish customers. And since the Tamir Doi is until they stop loitering the streets. So he's taking very clearly that it is, that this Maharal Yashiv is saying, Mayum is-- makes sense. It's, it's a real... Uh, uh, relates to Goyim. Then we have also here the Sefer Oras Teshuva, who's a, uh, a grandson of Shimon Sofer, a grandson of the Chasam Sofer. And he says one again, same question. Someone's in-- amongst Goyim. So he says, They'll ask, "What's, what's all this about?" And then they'll hear, and he quotes this posuk . You see there's a difference. Here's there it's . I didn't look up the

54:13 Speaker 1 posuk. Right. And then this is, uh, really very cute. Now, this is back to the Pitchei Teshuva. So now he says, after he quotes Maharal Yashiv that it is, uh, the Pirsumei to Goyim, Pirsumei Nisa to Goyim also. Today, nowadays, that you have Yidden in, in, um, far-flung places, or they're traveling there because of their business, and perhaps they're not even Shomer to their mitzvahs. Ner Chanukah, uh, it's, it's a good thing to light outside. Well, hein, for those who are lighting outside. a Yid will see this and will be in this Oras Teshuva. as is well known, se-several events that Yidden were inspired by seeing a Menorah. Uh, in most places in the world, there's no Sakana to had-- uh, to light a Menorah amongst Goyim. So you would have thought that this is, uh, from some Lubavitch, Mirzoym literature. This is from the Sefer Pitchei Teshuva. All right, he's not talking about lighting a Menorah in, in a city square. He's talking about lighting y-your own Menorah in a place where it's visible and, um, so he's... Well, he's, he's... Two points he's saying. One is that there is a Inyan of Pirsumei Nisa even to Goyim, and that's the-- which the Erliach, uh, which the, um, is the, you know, Oras Teshuva is saying, the posuk from Yechezkel. The idea of, of Kidush Hashem in the eyes of the Goyim. In addition, there is the, the likely benefit of having an effect on Yidden to be Meorot them to, um, return to

55:49 Speaker 1 Lechei Kavim ShebaShamayim. So with that, I'll end tonight's shiur and wish you a Lichtige Freiliche Chanukah, and wish you to hear, uh, Besuras Tovas, Chanukas Beis Hamikdash Hashlishi with Moshiach Tziddkeinu uMehera Beyameinu, Amen.

56:07 Speaker 2 Yeshua Amen.

56:10 Speaker 3 Yesh Koach.