ויחי – חזק תשפ״ה

00:07 Speaker 1 Welcome to all of you joining us tonight, Motzei Shabbos, Parashat VaYchi Hazak. And, uh- You're still not ready. Let's try mute again. Yeah. So before going to, into our עניין of Halakha, I wanna share with you a... That's more of the Hadrush, but something which came my way this past week, where we had, uh, the weekly-- the daily Tehillim. So in this past week, we said chapter ל"ז in Tehillim. Now, there are about eight chapters in Tehillim which are presented al seeder ha-alef bet. The more famous ones are Ashrei and, uh, Kuf Yod Tes, and Chof He, which we say in Tachnun. Then we have Lamed Daled, which we say Shabbos morning. There are also the two small Hallelukahs before Halel. And then we have two more. And one is Perek Mizmor Hes. It also has got some kind of Aleph Bet, not so obvious. And then we have chapter ל"ז. Now, two points. Number one, there's an excellent set of Sefarim called Yashmiach Kol Tiloso, written by Shmuel, Rabbi Shmuel Heber. And he-- It's, it's following the style of the Torah Temimah on Chumash, and is tracing, uh, every Ma'amad Chazal on a Pasuk in Tehillim. Also, according to the Mesora, is, is really an, uh, an, uh, an amazing piece of work. And in his introduction, he tack-- addresses the vari- the various Aleph Bet in Tehillim. And just one more point before getting to the point, and that is that in the minor Loshon, we also say several chapters of Tehillim which

02:29 Speaker 1 have got the Aleph Bet, including Kuf Yod Tes. And one of them is indeed this Perek ל"ז. So you'll be forgiven for never having noticed it before because it's forty Psukim and the Aleph Bet is kind of intermittent. So you can see here, Al Tischar, Betach. Here's Nun in Naara Yisi, Sur Me'rah. Um, then we have Hey, Tzadik, et cetera. So the Aleph Bet is intermittent. But what is interesting is that the letter Ayin does not appear. It came into my attention this past week that someone suggests that the, the last Pasuk, Vayazraim, which the Shoresh of is Ezra, comes to repair the missing Ayin. Now, why are we having this conversation? Well, we have the precedent in Gemara Brachos about chapter, uh, about what we call Ashrei. And Omar de Birchon that Ashrei is missing the letter Nun, and because Nun stands for Naephilim. And then, Alter Birchon says this. So, Omar de Nacha V'Yitzchak, Afi Lehochi Chozah V'Dovid V'Tsomchon B'Ruach HaKodesh, Someach Hashem L'chol HaNaephilim. So the idea of having a letter missing in the sequence of Aleph Bet is addressed there, and its restoration by Someach Hashem L'chol HaNaephilim. Similarly, in the chapters Chof He and Lamed Daled, is missing the letter Vav. Chapter Chof He is not only missing the letter Vav, it's missing the letters Bet, Vav, and Kuf. And in the captions in the Our Tehillims, in the Y- Y- Yitzchak Tehillim addresses that. But the base of Chof He is kind of restored because you have a double

04:32 Speaker 1 Aleph. You have Elech Hashem Nafshi Eso, V'Lechai B'Chavotachti. The missing Kuf is also kind of restored by the fact that you've got two Reish's, Re Ai Oni and Re Ei Oivai. But the missing Vav, well, how is that repaired? So the missing Vav is repaired by the last Pasuk of Chof He, which is Padei Elokim Es Yisro El Mechol Tzarot. And as you're familiar, a Vav interchanges with a Pe in the system of Atbash. The first and last letter of the Aleph Bet is Aleph and Tof interchange, and the Bet and Shin, and as in that sequence, Vav and Pe interchange. So the Pe, Padei Elokim Es Yisro El Mechol Tzarot, repairs the missing Vav. Similarly, in Perek Lamed Daled, Dovid VeShonoso is missing a Vav, but then it finishes off with Podeh Hashem Nefesh Avado, V'Lehi Hashem U'Kol Hachasim Bei. So the, the Pe at the end makes up the missing Vav. Of course, you're going to ask, why is the Vav missing? So for this, I'll refer you to the Sefer Yashmiach Kol Tiloso, Sefer Rabbi Heber, which I mentioned. And meanwhile, I'm going to focus on what I w-- on, on chapter, as they say, chapter ל"ז of Tehillim. Why is there... As you can see, it goes here, Chazainis. You got, you got Naara Yisi, Nun, then Samech, and then it skips to the Tzadik, misses out Sorry, misses, skips to the Pe and misses out the letter Ayin. And then there's the Ayin there. Okay, so this is, this is

06:11 Speaker 1 the mystery. Why is there missing the letter Ayin in Tehillim Lamed Zayin? So we have a, a well-known Gemara in Kidushin Daf Lamed Amud Alef, and that's on the bottom of your screen. Lefichach nikra u'reshonim soferim. Why are the earlier generations referred to as soferim? Now, we translate sofer as a scribe, but the word sofer comes from the root of counting. Shehoyo soferim kal osiyos shebatorah, because they would count how many letters there are in the Torah. And they counted to that degree of accuracy, shehoyo oym im vov d'gochin chetzon shel osiyos shel Sefer Torah. In Sefer Vayikra, as they're talking about the non-kosher, um, species, and it talks about an animal which crawls on its belly. Then it says the Vov of gochin is the middle letter of the, uh, letters in the Sefer Torah. The words Doros Doros, Esei Achatos Doros Doros Moshe. So that's the middle of the words of the Torah. The pasuk of Hizgaluch, V'esaneseh gleh galech, et cetera, in Parashat Tazria, I guess, is the middle pasuk. Chetzon, the middle, uh, chetzon shas pasukim. So far for the pesukim in Torah. Then it goes on in Tehillim. In chapter Pe, we have a pasuk. Um, Yecharsemeno yecharzir me'yor. It will be, um, cut short by the swine from the forest. In the word yor, the Ayin is suspended above the line. Ayin de yor, that Ayin is chetzon shel Tehillim. That's the middle letter of the Tehillim. And it doesn't say which are the middle words of Tehillim. It

08:07 Speaker 1 says, Vehu rachum yechaper oven is chetzoy di pesukim, is half the halfway line for the pasuk. Before going further, these cheshbonis are apparently not... don't f- don't match the numbers as we though- know them today. If you make a count, you'll come to a different result. And in the recent journal, Orayos Roel, there's a certain Rabbi Meisels from Montreal who writes a fascinating article explaining, um, uh, what the, what, what these cheshbonis are. And last night, I saw also in another, an earlier Sefer also addressing the accuracy of these, these, these figures. But that's, that's not relevant for our discussion. Meanwhile, it says in... that the letter Ayin is the central, is the middle letter of the Sefer Tehillim. What is the significance of that? So you look in Mashal, Hirush HaGodes, and it tells you that the Ayin stands for Asof. And Asof is the Hazir Miyar. Asof is the Hazir, the swine of the forest. And there is a well-known Yiddish expression, kosher chazer fishel, which means when someone professes to be pious and puts on a show of piety and inside he's corrupt. And so this is the chazer has got split hooves but doesn't chew the cud. It doesn't chazer. It doesn't repeat. It doesn't regurgitate its food. That's why you say you're not kosher because you don't chazer. But it sticks out its hooves and it says, "Look, I'm kosher." So this is... and in- inside it's corrupt. It says that Asof, he was, uh, he was, he was guilty

10:07 Speaker 1 of adultery, et cetera, in a, uh, in a very c- corrupt way. But then he said, "I don't want to get married before forty like my father got married at forty." So he was putting on a show of piety when in- inside he was corrupt. So the Ayin stands for Asof, and the Tehillim is the antidote to Asof. That's how the Mashal explains. So that's why the Ayin, the Ayin kind of is, is, is, um, reduced, and it's the mission, so to speak, of Tehillim to reduce the influence of Asof. Okay, now that we know that the Ayin in Tehillim is, has got a, can allude to Asof, that could explain why the Ayin is missing in this particular chapter, Lamed Zayin. Now, I do not have the c-facilities to check whether Lamed Zayin is halfway between the beginning of the Sefer and this Hazer, uh, Hazer Miyar, which is in chapter, um, chapter Pe. I didn't, I haven't, I haven't managed to check that. But it is, it's somewhere around there. But look at the treuchen of chapter Lamed Zayin. Do not Al Tiskhan Bemraim. Do not, um, be jealous of the wicked. Al Tikanah Beoshe Avlo. Don't be jealous of those who do, who, who do, um, the evil crookedness. So it's, it's talking about a relationship with the wicked, not to have or not to be worried, et cetera. Whatever it may be. But it's, it's certainly addressing the Rashaim and the relationship t-towards the Rashaim. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that

11:50 Speaker 1 there should be here a, uh, a, uh, downplay on Asof, and that's why the letter Ayin is mes- left out. But as in the other three instances where the m-- the omission is r- is repaired in some form. So then the Ayin comes at the end of cha- the chapter and not at a Ayin at the beginning of the pasuk. But Vayazraim That the, instead of Asov it becomes Azer of help and support to Eden. One final thought on this, uh, non-halakha discussion. And that is that we say the Pasuk V'hu Rachum at the beginning of Ma'ariv. It's got thirteen words corresponding to Yirum Mizrachamin. Some forshem say that because we do not have the Korban Tamid, as we do have as the, at, at Shacharit and Mincha, Ma'ariv, there is no Korban to atone. That's why we invoke the V'hu Rachum, V'lo Yashchis, there shouldn't be des-- cause destruction. Now, it, it becomes now very, very interesting. If the Vayazrim at the end of Lamed Zayin is the antidote to the Ayin of Asav, and instead of Asav, it should be Vayazrim to help Yafaltem to save from the Rashayim, well, then it makes perfect sense why this, this, this Pasuk also is put in Ma'ariv, at the beginning of Ma'ariv, following on from the Pasuk of V'hu Rachum Yichaper Avon V'lo Yashchis to then before the three times Hashem Yishia to have this Pasuk, Vayivazim Hashem Vayafaltem. Hashem should, will, will, will help and, um, bring salvation. And just at this point, just

13:40 Speaker 1 Tacher, um, uh, the Eibisher shall help the, uh, the hostages. They should have a Yeshua, um, Bekorev Mamash. Okay, that's what I wanted to share with you at Divrei Hagoda. Um, I'm going to go now on to the next point. But before that, I saw that on the chat there was a few points. So, Davenedcha. Um, right. So, s- sort of Arya Freeman, um, is telling us that the middle letter, that's what actually this article writes, that when it says that V'gochen, the Vov of V'gochen is the middle letter, it refers to the middle letter of the enlarged letters in the Torah. You have a whole Aleph Bet of large letters in Tanakh and a whole Aleph Bet of small letters in Tanakh. And so the Vov of V'gochen is the middle of the large letters in the Torah. That's one of the explanations given. By the way, if anyone wants to read the full list of the minor and, uh, and l- um, larger letters in Tanakh, if you have the Rambam, uh, edition of, um, Rambam Leom at the end of the volume of Sefer Ha'arvo, he has the full list. Right. Um, uh, Mendel Safrin is saying that the Pasuk that begins with Samech has an Ayin. So, yes, uh, let's go to that. So this, it's got the Ayin once, twice. Okay. Okay. And V'lo Ya'azov. Okay, fine. And then, but then you have another Ayin. All right. And you've got another Ayin. Okay. Um, fine. So now let's go on

15:26 Speaker 1 to our, our questions. So on F- this past Friday, because, because they... of the fast, so then there was a major international concern what to do about Kiddush, et cetera. So there's two concerns. One is that, well, two different s-scenarios. You have that some Kehillahs in, in New York and at Yisrael, by the time you've finished Ma'ariv, it's almost the sixth hour, the seventh hour. So then you have the dilemma. Do you daven Ma'ariv early so that you could eat, um, and make Kiddush before the seventh hour? Or do you daven Ma'ariv on time and, um, not wait, um, and make, make Kiddush during the seventh hour? That was a dilemma which Rabbi Ashkenazi and, uh, Rabbi, R-Rabbi Ebroyan, et cetera. It was s- I, I was, um, I mixed out of that one because it wasn't relevant in this country. We finished Ma'ariv about five o'clock, and so there's plenty of time to, uh, to get home and c- make Kiddush long before the sixth-- the seventh hour started. But the other, the other question, which is, which I was, uh, asked by several shluchim, you know, in the... some of the Botei Chabad, they have Ma'ariv, Havdalah the same time. We're not going to go into the practical reasons why, but it's six o'clock is Ma'ariv, let's say, and then followed by a Sedes Shabbos, whatever it may be. So fine. So he says, "The fast finishes quarter past five. I have Ma'ariv in my shul at six o'clock. Do I have to,

17:20 Speaker 1 uh... Can, should I daven Ma'ariv on my own and make Kiddush, or should I, uh..." This, this was the discussion. And so on the spur of the moment, I said, "It's okay at the time of the end of the fast to make Kiddush and that you'll daven Ma'ariv later." And my backing to that was that I know that in Manchester, the late, uh, Rav Weiss, the Mincha Zitzchak, so he would join the Minyan earlier on. Because in Man-- For those who are not familiar, uh, in, in other parts of the world, in Manchester, in s- the height of summer, to daven Ma'ariv with Mizmanah, you're talking about eleven PM. Not really so comfortable to s- a-after that, to come home and start eating Sedes Shabbos. So he would have this Minchah of, uh... I'm sure he wasn't the only one, of joining the Tibur for Kabbalas Shabbos, let's say seven o'clock or something, whatever Plag Mincha was, and then- He would after Kabbalat Shabbos, he'd... Whatever. He would go home and have his Make Kiddush and have his Seudas Shabbos. And then eleven o'clock, possibly got a minyan together. They davened Ma'ariv with Mizrach. So by Mirzav Rav Poshet, it's not a problem to make Kiddush before, before Ma'ariv if necessary. It's not, it's not a, it's not a Seder, but in an exceptional circumstance, it's okay. So just to reassure myself, I, I looked this up in the Piskei Teshuves, and he writes the same thing. You can make Kiddush before Ma'ariv. Now, here

19:06 Speaker 1 he's talking about making Kabbalat Shabbos early, possibly because he's talking about to do Kabbalat Shabbos even after-- even before sunset, and then you'd make Kiddush. Um, but in this case, I didn't see such a, a problem to make, to make Kiddush before Kabbalat Shabbos. It's Shabbos in any case, yeah. And now just one point that b'chlal to eat before Ma'ariv, once it comes the time of Ma'ariv. So here you have in Shulchan Aruch, it says in Siman Resh Lamed He, Osu Lechaschil Leichol, not allowed to start eating a meal. This is Shabbos or weekday. Not allowed to start eating a meal half an hour before the time of Kirshat She'aravis. In other words, time for Ma'ariv. On that, in Mishneh Berurah, which you see also on the screen, he says that you shouldn't eat before Ma'ariv, and that's because you might forget. Um, but he sa- um, he said, but he said, "Te'im Habialmo." He says, "Leichol Kimat," eat a little bit of small meal, no. But Te'im Habialmo, just to taste would be okay to... And Minei Peiros or even Pars KeBeitzah. So therefore, for those people who did want to make Kiddush before davening Ma'ariv, it would mean Kiddush, a cup of coffee perhaps, to have a few biscuits, but not to have a generous amount of food, um, of, of, of Mezonos. And of other foods, you could have a more generous amount. That's as much as I wanted to address about this question. And now we're going to go on to

20:39 Speaker 1 already shluchim are concerned about Purim, and Purim this year is on a Friday. And so for this Shliach, it's a, it's a first time he has such a Krias on this. It's new, a relatively new Shliach. So how do you do it? So many shluchim are, uh, have done this in the past, that they make a marathon. You make a Megillah reading, and then where before or after Megillah, the men, uh, will put on tefillin, and you start the meal, and then the meal is Seudas Purim. And then it comes Ner Tzindon, so the ladies bench licht. And then after, after Shkia, then you make, make Kiddush, Poios Mapo Mekadesh, and then it goes on to a, um, into a Shabbos meal. And also, by the way, if you share enough, uh, uh, l'chaim, so then you also solve the problem of Eden driving home because, uh, they won't be in a position to drive home. Okay. So now... So here's the question about what's called Poios Mapo Mekadesh. What does, what does this mean exactly? So just to go through this s-simply. So we have here from Shulchan Aruch Siman Resh Ayin Alef that when, uh, now when it comes Motzei Shabbos, if you're middle of Shalosh Udos and it spills over, you can-- you're allowed to continue your meal. But if you started a meal on Friday, and it goes into Shabbos, you're not allowed to continue your meal because of the Chirch Kiddush. So you have here, Chacham forbade us to ta-eat,

22:15 Speaker 1 taste anything, even water, once the time of Kiddush has arrived. But you don't have to c-completely abort the meal. Instead, you can make Kiddush in middle of the meal, and then you continue with the meal, and in that way, it's Kiddush Bemakom Seudah. So at a given point after sunset, you'll stop and make Kiddush. And in order to show that this is the covered Shabbos, so you'll now... You-- He says you spread a cloth on the Shulchan, you cover the, cover the challahs primarily, to show that the pa-- that the bread now is brought to covered Shabbos. Hence the expression Poios Mapo Mekadesh. So you'll make Kid-- You'll cover the challahs and make Kiddush. Now, if you've had wine, that's Sifju D'Alef. If you've had wine earlier on in this Purim Seudah, so then, then you don't make a Bei Pri Ha'gafen because you still have an op-- Bei Pri Ha'gafen, which is so to speak in operation. Then what about Hamotzi? So there's two opinions. Should you say Hamotzi because there was a moment where you weren't allowed to eat bread that creates a Hafsek? And there are others, no, who say that, uh, you, you can't say it. You sh- don't say Hamotzi because... So as a result, Sofek Brachos Lehakil. So it's gonna be a very unusual thing. You're gonna st- make Kiddush without Hagafen, and then you're gonna take up two challahs. I've never seen this, yeah. Um, there's a story with Berel Olenik, alav hashalom. He came into the Rebbe

23:44 Speaker 1 and said that his wife, after giving birth, she stood in the Cheder Sheini in seven seventy, and she, she said Birkat HaGomel. And the Rebbe in mirth said to him, "Did the Bochrim say Shehecheyanu?" Um, so now, here, I've never seen this Poios Mapo stuff, but to stand up there and to have to hold up two challahs, or to stand, sit, and not to say Hamotzi, and so it looks a little bit, you know, to me, it looks a bit strange. Uh, at any rate, and then you also have a Baal Nefesh who say that... Baal Nefesh, his, his guidance is that he sh- he should, uh, avoid this scen-scenario, um, because of you getting into a Sofek whether you should be making Hamotzi or not. All right. Having said all that, so there is, there is the room for this Eitzah of Poios Mapo Mekadesh, which would mean starting a meal on Fri- on Friday and starting your Seudas Purim, and it goes into Shabbos, and a given moment after Shkia, you make Kiddush and, and Lechem Mishneh. What I did recommend to the Shliach is, uh, you could... If you personally eat your Seudas Purim at eleven o'clock in the morning, so you've been yoitza Seudas Purim. So then you could be, comes, comes the evening, you know, before Sh- before Shabbos, you've done your Megillah, you're done now, um, and you get all the men to sit down and the women to light the candle, et cetera. And then after Shkia, then

25:14 Speaker 1 you stand up make Kiddush. Now, you didn't have any wine, and you didn't, didn't have any Motzei before. So you could then stand up and make Kiddush in the normal way with a gaufen, with, with, uh, you know. And then it'll come to, um, Hamotzi. So you'll go and wash, and you'll make Hamotzi, and it'll look perfectly normal. They will be in middle of the meal. You'll be just now starting your meal, and that's, that's perfectly okay. Um, Bechalal, is this a Lechu D'chila Bechalal? This is another question because it's not so straightforward to start a meal just before Shabbos. Yeah. You should be-- shouldn't be affecting the appetite for your Shabbos meal. So this is not, it's not a Lechu D'chila, Lechu D'chila. We're talking about you engaging with Yidden who otherwise will have, have very little Purim experience, the mitzvahs of Purim. So you're doing it for this. You may-- You're, you're being Makeh in this, but it's not a Lechu D'chila, Lechu D'chila. Right. Um, when would you Daven? So that's a good point, and that is that in this Poras Mapah se-scenario, you don't have to stop to Daven. You can continue your meal, and when you finish the meal, then you Daven. But yeah, that, that probably, and, and practically also, if you stop your meal to, to do Maariv, that's probably the end of your Seudah. Um, did... Someone's asking, didn't the Rebbe himself do Poras Mapah? I don't know. I know that in the earlier years, it was

26:43 Speaker 1 done by the Rebbe's Fabregens and also in earlier generations in Lubavitch. Um, although there was a reluctance. As, as far as I know, I never heard that the Rebbe himself was Poras Mapah Mekadesh. And later years, it was phased out. Right. Um, so we come on to the other question about, well, how late in the day can you have Seudas Purim? So you have here on the screen, this is from the Sefer Ha-Nissim Be-Stei Ha-Shlichas Chelek Beis, where I had written that you could-- it's you, you, you on Friday to have the Seudas Purim earlier in the day, and you are, but you at least before Shoah Arzis, before three-quarters of the day. Before last quarter of the day. Now, in the Ramoh, he writes that you should have the Seudah in the mi- in the morning. So where did I get this about Shoah Arzis? Well, the Alter Rebbe in Siman Reish Mem Tes talks about, about, uh, that the issue of eating a meal on, on a Friday really kicks in from the last quarter of the day. That was the basis of this being Makeh. So now, here on the screen you have from Reb Chaim Noah, also ta- he's talking about a Bris meal or, uh, et cetera, which is on a Friday. And he says about starting the meal before Shoah Arzis. He quotes then the Mishnah Berurah who says that you should have it in the morning before da- before noon. And Mishnah Berurah is drawing from Hilchas Purim,

28:18 Speaker 1 that like the Ramoh in Hilchas Purim says to have the meal before midday, so the same thing should be a Bris Mila, which is on a Friday. To which Reb Chaim Noah says, possibly Seudas Purim is more, um, is more s- more reason to be Machmir because Seudas Purim involves, uh, Sichos, and people take, uh, uh, Chaim Lipsumim be Puria. And therefore, there's more concern of it getting out of hand. And therefore, the advice to have it in the, in, in, uh, first half of the... before noon, that doesn't necessarily, um, necessarily apply for a, um, a Seudas Milo. But meanwhile, we do see that the Ari is showing him. We have here, uh, the Ramoh, who is saying, and this is based upon, uh, Minhogim of Rabbi Isaac Tirna, where he says the Seudah on Purim on Friday should be Be'Shacharis. Be'Shacharis means before midday. So you've got here Rabbi Isaac Tirna, one of the, um, prominent sources of Minhag Ashkenaz, that of Purim on Friday to have the meal before midday. But surprisingly, we have also, um, no less a personality than the Maharil, who is one of the most prominent voices in Minhag Ashkenaz, and he says, Seudas Purim, you sh- you can start Somach L'Mincha. Um, and so he, he's, he's saying, in other words, till the last quarter of the day, you're allowed to start the meal. So if someone wants to rely on the, uh, on the Maharil, Yesh Leha Min HaShamayim. Okay. Let's move on to something totally

30:03 Speaker 1 unrelated, and that is, I know we've done this before, but it's come up. Someone sent me a-- these photographs whether you're allowed to make, um, whether you're allowed to make these into jewelry. So are they allowed to melt... Sorry. Are they allowed to melt them down? So they're, they're gold apparently. They're allowed to melt them down to use to recycle into... Now, the one to the left has got a, an artist's impression of Moses and, um, some kind of lettering there. I don't see a problem in melting that down. The middle one, the Asera Sadibris, is not my concern, uh, but the Shin Dalet Yud at the top, that wouldn't be allowed to be melted down, um, because it's Hashem's name, not allowed to disgrace Hashem's name. Now, the one to the right is, I think, uh, meant to be Shin Dalet Yud and, um- Therefore, I-I'm not so s-sure. It looks like a dalet or a vav, but if it's a dalet, then you wouldn't be allowed to melt it down. Okay. Yes. Now, someone raised the question about Al Hanissim. So if you don't make a break, as in... In other words, if you do this Purim sudar overflowing with kiddush in the middle, going into Shabbos, and it comes to benching, you'll say Al Hanissim and Ridze, and that's okay. And if you want to look up in the Nesiv HaMiste hanilchas, that's been discussed over there, um, and also elsewhere about the Pri Hadash talking about similar s-situations where you've got

31:46 Speaker 1 Yom Tov on a Friday going into Shabbos, and he says you should say Ya'ale veyo'eiv and Ridze even though your, your s-- the, the Ridze for Friday night is said before the Ya'ale veyo'eiv of Friday afternoon. And he still says you say the way it is in the siddur. Uh, if you make the break, um... Now, once if you, if you, if you make a break and daven Ma'ariv, that's what your question is. If you daven Ma'ariv in middle of the meal, then you shouldn't be saying Al Hanissim in benching, as far as I remember. Okay, so that's that. That's what we have here. Where does it say you're not allowed to erase Hashem's name? So here you have a similar issue I involve. Also, law... not... It's forbidden to erase even a single letter from one of the seven names which mustn't be erased, and also the letters which are suffixes. So the chaf in Eleichecha, or the cha-chaf mem of Eleichem, the suffixes. Um, whereas a prefix would be the... It would be more lenient. And, and he, he lists the seven names, and one of them is Shin dalet yud. Okay. I'm going into... The next point is a very, very simple point, but if someone asked me the question, possibly other people also have had the same-- made the same mistake. And this is, this is actually somewhere in Eretz Yisrael, and it's, uh, it's, uh, a kind of river brook, um, from... And it's toveled kalim in this. So I

33:20 Speaker 1 asked him, "Does this, does this water flow only when there's rain or even when there's, uh, or the whole year round?" He says, "No, it's only when there's rain." Well, if that's the case, I told him the tevilah is not a valid tevilah because rainwater is only kosher as a mikvah when it is standing, when it is, uh, what's called ashboilen. That word mikvah means an, a, an accumulation of water. If it were spring water, mei maron, then it's kosher bezoeichalin even if it's flowing. But if it's mei geshomim or float-- or, or, um, um, melted snow, so then that kind of water is not kosher in the running state, only if it were static. Uh, so unless you made a diversion, made some kind of, um, um, um, a pool, but as the-- it's flowing down s- down, down the, uh, downstream, this is not kosher as a mikvah. Right. Let's move on. So here's a question which came up in our... We're learning Gemara Rosh Hashanah, and there's a sugya of bal ta'acher. Bal ta'acher means that when you've made a vow, a pledge, it's the, uh, original thing is talking about a korban. You, you pledge the korban, and if you don't bring the korban in time, and you delay it, and particularly if you delay it three Yomim Tovim, Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, so then you're in violation of bal... lo ta'acher le'shalom. The Torah says you should not delay. So now here comes the question with, with Tzedakah. The Gemara

35:02 Speaker 1 says Tzedakah also, delaying of giving Tzedakah, is also included in bal ta'acher, in not delaying. So let's read how it's brought in Shulchan Aruch. And it's... Oh, so what was my question? Let's say someone has a close relative or something who is, uh, a case, a Tzedakah case, and they help them. And this young man or woman will, in the next few years, hopefully get married. Uh, find a shidduch and get married. And I've been helping them the whole time from, you know, very m- my resources. Can I ho-hoard my maaser money and put it aside? And when it comes the day, when it comes the time, they said to make this chasuna, which I'm going to use. So can I hoard my maaser money for that occasion? That's really my question. I think it's a very practical question. Um, or are you not allowed to hoard maaser money? That's really the question. So we have here on the, on the, in the Shulchan Aruch, siman res sham, nun zayin, ches Tzedakah. Tzedakah is like any other neder. And if a person makes a pledge, so then he has to give it right away. If he doesn't give it right away, he's in violation of bal ta'acher. Because the, this, the bal ta'acher by Tzedakah is nothing to do with Yomim Tovim, because it's nothing to do with the Mizbeach, with the Beit HaMikdash. And therefore, since there are poor people, uh, available, so to speak, so then if you made a pledge to give

36:38 Speaker 1 Tzedakah, and there's poor people, so then you mustn't delay it. If there's no poor people, then you put it aside. And then he says... Now, and this middle part is from the Ramah, and then we go to the third part from the, again, from the Maharshal, from the Shulchan Aruch. Bedafra, bedafka bemaprich Tzedakah stam. If I put aside money for Tzedakah, then if I don't give it over, um, immediately, so then there's a bit of a problem of bal ta'acher. Now, this is very, very relevant for all of us. It is permissible to put aside money for tsadakah for distribution bit by bit. So again, when we said that a person makes a pledge for tsadakah, and he doesn't give it right away, he's over Bal Ta'acher. That's when he put it to stam. Put aside money for tsadakah stam. But if, which is many of us will have, uh, an account or a purse where we put tsadakah money there, and then when people come, uh, so you'll give them... You don't empty the purse. You give them how much you feel is appropriate, and then you'll give it, and another... The next person you want to be able to distribute to other people also. Um, so then that you're not in violation of Bal Ta'acher because you're going to distribute it . If you... Then he has about if you had in mind to give it to the Gabboai Tsadakah, and they're going to make it, change it into, um, change it into

38:14 Speaker 1 larger currency. Another story. Okay. But meanwhile, we do have the heter to put aside money for tsadakah to give it bit by bit. But that does leave me with a question. What about hoarding? To put aside large amounts, and meanwhile, there are other aniim which coming your way. Um, so that seems to be a question. I'm, I'm, I'm speculating that if you would put it into a separate fund, which is, uh, clearly designated for the benefit of those, of those needy who you have in mind, and it's put aside already, then that, that might be a way of, of, of solving that problem. So instead of leaving it in the, your regular account, and then why aren't you giving it to other aniim who are coming to your door? If it's put into a dedicated fund for the, this particular beneficiary, then possibly in that way, you've avoided the Inyun of Bal Ta'acher. What I did see, um, I'll see in a moment. There's a Sefer from Rav Chaim Kanievsky called Derech Emunah. Now, what he's done, he's taken the Rambam Hilchot Sefer, Sefer Zera'im, and he's made it like a Mishnah Berurah style. And so the top is the version of the Rambam, and underneath are his practical notes. So he writes here advice when a person starts in putting aside maaser money. They should have in mind that the money which they put aside should not have the status of tsadakah until it's given to the ani, um, uh, um, handed over. Because

40:00 Speaker 1 otherwise, you have this problem. If you're gonna have money put aside and, uh, you don't give it to aniim, you are getting into, uh, worries of Bal Ta'acher. Okay, um, let's move on. So someone came my way and asked me, "What's the source of not going to the same, uh, Kever, same grave twice in the same day?" So this we have here on the screen is from Tzvvos Rab Yehuda HaChasid. Um, and Tzvvos Rab Yehuda HaChasid, this, this is the Makkah. He doesn't, he doesn't have a Makkah earlier. Not to go to the Kever of the sa-- of the same person twice in a day. Rather, you should... Whatever you need to say, say the first time, and if you want to come back, you come back tomorrow. Interesting. Um, you know, you sometimes wonder, you went to the Ohel, and, uh, yeah, and then you realize, "Oh, I didn't... There was something I, I forgot to mention." And so you want to, uh, go back. There's . It was that you, that you didn't mention it, and, uh, okay, you come, you come back next day. But not, not to come back, um, right after, "Oh, I forgot something." If you forgot your umbrella, you are allowed to go pick it up. That's okay. Um, but we're talking about going back for, for prayer. There's... Malachim say this. Okay. Um, w-- Now, two things. One is... Two last things. One is that last week we had about egg rolls and how the pastry of

41:36 Speaker 1 the egg rolls was made from, um, flour and water and a bit of spices. And my impression was that those egg rolls are hamotzi because the filling's not a sweet filling. It's a savory filling. So someone pointed out, "So I, I got only the packet. They didn't let me... They didn't send me the packet. You know, I couldn't sample the stuff." Um, that's the problem with getting questions over email, that you don't get the samples. So now, um, so someone in, in the United States said to me that actually if you read... See the full packet, it says there's two options. You can bake those things, or you could fri-- deep fry them. And obviously, if you deep fry them, then the berakhah is mezonos not hamotzi. Okay. So just to clarify the egg rolls in case you were worried about that. And now we're gonna finish off our last point for tonight, and that is, um, about someone that contacted me on Friday or the Thursday about a Sefer Torah which has by Vayechi, it has a gap of a couple of letters. And so is that okay? Is it not okay? Now, we all know the Rashi at the beginning of Parashat Vayechi. And because once Yaakov passed away, then the Eden's, uh, eyes were, were, um, blinded, so to speak, from the suffering. Okay, and there's, there's various pelushim. In, in Torah Sheleima brings four different, uh, reasons. But everyone uses this word, Parshah Stumah. Just to clarify that the Parshah Stumah,

43:21 Speaker 1 uh, in the Sefer Torah, there are gaps. And when the gap is open till the end of the line, so then that gap is called a Parshah Pesukah. When the gap is in middle of the line, there's words at the beginning and words at the end, and there's a gap in the middle, that's a Parshah Stumah, which is a... it's a gap, but it's a b-- gap which is enclosed. But here we're talking about a total n-no gap at all. So here you have, um, there's a Shuvah of the Alter Rebbe. This is the first Shuvah in the ser-series of the Alter Rebbe's Shuvas, and is talking about the gap, the gaps in Tefillin. Uh, I'm not gonna go into the whole, whole Parshah. That wasn't the plan, but we went to, yeah. The, the... you have the, um, the little gaps at the end of, um, Shema and the beginning of Vayechad. How exactly to work this out, and the Alter Rebbe disagrees with the Taz. But meanwhile, in that conversation, which the Chabad is saying that there's no gap at all. So not like a Parshah Stumah, which means there's a gap of a couple of, of three letters or something, uh, at least in middle of the line, or nine letters. The Parshah... In Vayechad it's Stumah Gemara. That's the Alter Rebbe's loshen. Okay. So now here's the question. B'di'eved, or is it even l'chatchilah, et cetera. So a sofer had written a Sefer Torah, and he had made a gap, uh,

45:07 Speaker 1 s- or a couple of letters by Vayechad. So at first my, uh, knee-jerk reaction was that it was wrong, um, because we... I know this loshen of it's Stumah Gemara. And, um, I have to, uh, be that I wasn't totally, uh, I wasn't totally right in that, um, as you'll see. So first of all, looking... So the, on the top of the screen is the Tikkun which I have in my house, and it's... I thought a very good Tikkun. He actually even advises the sofer how many letters there are in the line, and there's an average amount of letters. And then if this is more letters than usual, less letters than usual. And so here you can see it has... it doesn't, uh, there's no significant gap between and Vayechad. So there's no gap, uh, uh, more than any between other... anywhere. So that was my impression that, that there's no gap. Now here, going further down to the left, also a contemporary Tikkun, which I found on the Ohel. But here you can see that they made a gap. Then you can see the same advice of making a gap. This is, uh, is a, a, a Chumash printed in Wien, but in Vienna, where it says, "No gap, but space of one letter." Then I have a Tikkun printed in Amsterdam, um, also about a hundred and fifty years ago. And here, here you see that they've left a gap. And then we have this print of a Chumash printed in Warsaw, uh,

46:51 Speaker 1 a hundred and twenty years ago. Again, it has here, you can see the asterisk. It's a Tikkun, Tikkun Chumash. And it has here a little, uh, like a little c-circle, and that leads you to the comment over here. Parshas Vayichi, no gap at all. But there is a space of one letter. So they are all advising. So contrary to that first Tikkun, which has no gap at all, here you've seen several Tikkunim. And so I asked, uh, Rabbi Tifferen, I heard from my father, Allah show them, that the Tikkun, B-the Bardichever Tikkun was a particularly reliable Tikkun, and Sofrim would, would really, uh, go, go for that. And so he sent me this photograph also from the Bardichever Tikkun, the same, very same words. So what I'm seeing is there's certainly many, uh, Tikkunim which have a Masorah that although it's a Stumah Gemara, and still it does have a space of, of one letter. Now, my experience as a on Mondays and Thursdays, they were always struggling to find where Vayichi starts, and because they ne-never noticed the gap. But as therefore, I was surprised. But there, there you see that there are those who say that, um, that you do leave a gap of one letter, et cetera. And what we have on the screen, and this is from the Sefer Chaim Shoal from the, the Chiddush. So it's Shivas. Um, Siman... Where is it? Um, Siman ein daled sub, uh, um, Siman sif he. So here was the following scenario. There's a

48:41 Speaker 1 Sefer Torah that the Parshah Vayigash finished near the end of the line. There was a couple of letters left, space. And then the next line, they, they left two letters at the beginning of the line, and then they started Vayichi. So this is really getting to a bit more of a problem, that they've created a Pa-- So when, when you... when there's meant to be a Parshah, a gap in the Torah, and you don't put in a Pa-- a, a gap, then that could be making it Pasuk. And here, the other way around also, where you sh-- where there shouldn't be a gap and you put in a gap, that could be making it Pasuk. So then he, then he writes the following. H-although, um, that Ha-HaRav HaShalem, Rav Moy-- I think it's Rav Moshe di Lonzano. Rav Moshe Lonzano is one of the masters. Like you've got the Minchat Shai, s-was, was someone called Norezi. So you got the, uh, um, Rav Moshe di Lonzano in his Sefer, Oh Torah, is like, uh, a code, uh, going through the whole Torah, w-how to spell each letter. E-each word, sorry. So although Rav Moshe di Lonzano says not to leave a half Sik at all, however, Minaggah kol ha-soferim is to leave a, a letter, a gap of one letter. So this is very interesting. So now we're seeing two Minhagim. The Rav Moshe di Lonzano, who lived about four hundred years ago. Um, so he's saying no gap all. The Chidday is testifying that

50:17 Speaker 1 the Mincha Sofram is to leave. So that's one letter. But now it's-- here's not just one letter, here is like a little bit more than that. So here the Chidday comes a very, comes up with a very, very interesting, um, explanation. Um, wait a minute. When you say, "Loma Parshas Zei Stuma," what's, what's the question? Why-- Who made the Seders? The Seders were made, created by Ezra. The Torah is written, you know, by Moshe Rabbeinu. The Abraham tells him what to write. So there were no Seders then. So what's this question, Loma Parshas Zei Stuma? There was... Why should there be a Stuma? Is it... W-why, you know, why should there be a gap there? There was, there was no Seders. Perhaps the Seders starts, uh, whatever, you know, earlier or later. So he says, "No, no, no. Be'etzem, this should have been a Parshah. Because the fact that by Ezra they made... That the, the new reading starts from this point is because logically it should have been a gap. And hence the question, Loma Parshas Zei Stuma? It's a question why, when the Torah was given in M-Michzar, why was there not given a gap here? And the answer is that there should have been a gap. But because of, and it start Mayim, because of Remazim. In other words, he's saying, uh, logically there should have been a gap, but because of Remazim, there shouldn't be. There's no gap. Now, let's say you have in Torah on... Let's say I'm just giving

52:01 Speaker 1 an example. The word VaYishokehu, and it's got dots on the word VaYishokehu. . What happens if you have a Sefer Torah without dots? Or you have an "... and there's dots. What happens if you didn't put in the dots? Is the Sefer Torah Pasul? So the rule is that when a Sefer Torah is written, the letters are spelled out correctly. But some of these Remazim stuff are left out, the Sefer Torah is still kosher. So it says the Chidday, Be'etzem, it is a Parshah. No. Why is it no Parshah? Because of a Remez. Okay, so it's missing the Remez. It is a Parshah, but it's... Yeah. It should have been a Parshah. Why is it not there? Why is no Parshah? Because of a Remez. So it's not like a regular, uh, made a Stum HaStam in middle of where there shouldn't have been a, a, a gap. There ought to have been a gap. It's only there because of the Remez. That's, that's to say he, uh, that's his way of, of farinfering, of, uh, of, um, allowing that the Sefer Torah remains kosher. That... And then he quotes also from a Sefer Admos Kodesh that Ein Ze Ikuf. But then this Sefer Admos Kodesh says, "Just use it this Shabbos, but afterwards make sure to fix it." Then he says, "I saw, uh, someone else who says it's Pasul, VeEino Yesh LeMachlis." So just to turn into, just before leaving you with a wrong impression. The Chidday is talking about a much bigger

53:29 Speaker 1 gap than what we've seen here of Ois Achas. He's talking about a gap of four letters, lchaim, or, or more. So they... He... Then there's a whole Parshah. Again, we're playing, but we're getting to the puns again. Um, but, uh, but, but this Masorah, if that's the Masorah, then okay. We... And, and don't, don't think one has to do anything about it. Whereas here, there, if it's a larger gap, then, then there's room to make sure to be Metaken. I'm going to see here what Rab Arya is writing here. Um, and he says in, in Ma'hasibit three, he mentions VaYachi as a Stuma, while the Rambam doesn't, yeah. Um, Sofram normally leave two letters space. Well, that's a little bit different to what is written Ois Achas and these various things. Okay. Um, three letters would be problematic indeed, because that would mean Mi-Mini Stuma. Right. Um, first comment, full Stuma mentioned in the Sefer again, Ma'hasibit three. Okay. Um, that's too much code for me for one, uh, for one evening. I'm going to stop here. I wish you all a, a Guten Motza Shabbos, a Guten Voch. And, uh, wish you here Simchas, uh, Besuras Tovus, Yeshuas V'nechomos, um... . Amen.

55:00 Speaker 2 Amen.

55:00 Speaker 3 Amen.