שמות תשפ״ה

00:12 Speaker 1 Welcome to tonight's Shiur, Motzaei Shabbos Parashat Shemos. So, some very interesting th-th-things to discuss tonight. So let's start with the first thing, and that is relating to Kohenim. So, the Kohenim have, have the experience of being under the tallis hearing the berachos, and they're always on the, on the giving side. So now here's the question: When the Kohenim give their, their, the, their tefillah, their bracha, they precede this by saying a certain Yehi Ratzon. And afterwards, they say also a tefillah, Ribono shel Olam. Now, there's also, this is mentioned in Gemara, the Kohenim try to synchronize their quiet with tefillas, which they, they, their prayers. They quietly, they try to synchronize together with the chazan ending, whether it is the end of Modim, "David Shimcha Hanotzeh Halachodos," and they say their last words at the same time. And so when we, as the co-congregation say Amen, we're saying Amen to the, to the bracha of the chazan, but unwittingly, we're also giving an Amen to the bracha which the Kohenim are saying quietly. The same thing is when it comes to the Ribono shel Olam afterwards. So the Kohenim try to synchronize that tefillah to end off to, "Erez Zovas Cholev Vedivash" together with "Hamavorach Et Amho Yisro BaShalom." In this way, that when we say the bracha, we answer Amen, "Hamavorach Amho Yisro BaShalom," unwittingly, we're also saying Amen to the prayer of the Kohenim. That's... There was something written in the Gemara. Curiously, in the Alter Rebbe siddur, he mentions the first one

02:13 Speaker 1 and not the second one. Now, he says that they should-- the Kohenim should endeavor to say the bracha, "Veyarich B'vracho," whatever exactly the words are, that they should... I'm just opening it here. "Veyarich Bo Ad Sheyigmal Hashatz HaBracha." That is in reference to the Yehi Ratzon. But curiously, and I don't have an explanation for that, for the second tefillah said afterwards, they-- the Alter Rebbe doesn't mention that. Be that as it may, we have now the follow, the following dilemma. So Baruch Hashem, the siddur came out and, um, and so one of the Kohen who lives in New York. So he wrote to me, as a Kohen, one of the first things he looked for was what, what, what comment is there in the Birkat Kohanim. So this, um, so th-this is the dilemma. It comes on, on, uh, Yom Tov in Chutz La'aretz by Ashkenazim, that's the only time we do Birkat Kohanim. So now, the... What happens if the, the, the congregation are singing, say, Im Shalom, et cetera. So now the Kohenim have got this three-line prayer, and meanwhile, the chazan and the ke-kehilla are taking longer. So should the chazan say his... Sorry, should the Kohen say his Ribono shel Olam right after Birkat Kohanim? But by this, he will possibly forfeit. He won't have the synchronization together with the, the, the end of the bracha of the chazan. Or should he start it a little later? And the third option is drawing it out un-uh, unrealistically. That it should be,

04:01 Speaker 1 um, right after Birkat Kohanim and all the way till Hamavorach Amho Yisro BaShalom. If that would be a problem, just a little bit of singing, that would be even more so when it would come to, uh, on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, where we have a whole piyut, "Hayom Taam Tzeinu, Hayom Tavacheinu," and it's a much longer... Im Shalom is that much longer. So what do the Kohenim do? So now we're gonna read here from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. "Venohagim Leharich..." This, this is in Siman kuf chaf ches, the Siman which talks of Birkat Kohanim. Just by the way, if you're looking for Birkat Kohanim in the Alter Rebbe's siddur, it's not in Yom Tov. It's in Tefillas Choel. And the reason is because in principle, really, we should be saying Birkat Kohanim every day, as is done in some places in Eretz Yisroel and many Sephardic communities. And there's a shemuah. There's a, there's a-- some kind of tradition that the Alter Rebbe, Alter Rebbe wanted to introduce Birkat Kohanim b'chol yom, and he felt incapable of doing so. But his wish is evident in the siddur, where he put Birkat Kohanim in Shacharis shel Choel. Okay. And that's why also the din of Birkat Kohanim is in kuf chaf ches, which is just after Chazarat Hashatz in kuf chaf daled. Okay. So, "Venogim Leharich B'tefillah Zoi," the Kohen would protract this, uh, this tefillah of theirs. That it should be, "Ad Sheyasim Hashatz B'Im Shalom," to coordinate that they say it together

05:39 Speaker 1 with the-- when the chazan says the end of Im Shalom, so that the tzibbur should be answering for both. "Veim Eino Yochal Leharich Kol Kach," if the Kohen can't drag out his Shema Kol She'einah, so then he should add Adir BaMorim. "Yichavnu Ligmor Im Hashatz..." Yeah. Okay. "Ve-U'vesh Rosh Hashanah U'yom HaKippurim Shema'arichim B'nigunim Hayom Taam Tzeinu- What do you do on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur where there's, the Sim Shalom is dragged out because there's a whole poem of —” Yes, —” So then don't start off your Ribono Shel Olam tefillah right away. Work it out towards the end of the, uh, protracted Sim Shalom of the Chazan. That's when you say it. Now, when, when it came to the publishing the siddur with the, the annotated siddur, there was a need to make a clear guidance on this. And at the time, that was the guidance given, that the Kohenim should follow the advice of the Yashmi SheOmer to start their Ribono Shel Olam tefillah towards the end of Birchat Sim Shalom, even though they're forfeiting it being straight after their Birchat Kohen. Who is the Yashmi SheOmer? So it's none other than the Mogan Avrohom, where you can see here the words on the screen. Then, —” It's curio-- Um, yeah, it is curious, why does the Alter Rebbe kind of call it Yashmi SheOmer? Why doesn't he say it, "Just follow the Mogan Avrohom's psak and finished"? That's a good question, but, um, that seems to be the, the advice. The Alter

07:38 Speaker 1 Rebbe brings it, we follow that advice. Now, I want to just give a little bit of support to this idea of, of delaying saying the Ribono Shel Olam in order to facilitate that it should be to get the benefit of the omein going together for the Kohenim's tefillah. So, um, we may have discussed this before. The standard Chabad Minich in the last se- half a century or more, more, seventy years, eighty years, has been at Shabbos Mincha. So we have-- We finish off Krias HaTorah. Now, normally after Krias HaTorah, there's a Kaddish. But here, after Krias HaTorah, you're gonna start Shemoneh Esreh, and there's no significant tefillah in between. So you've got one Kaddish, which is trying to serve two purposes. And so I'm not sure what's done in other communities, but the Chabad Minich, there is... Well, it's written in Sefer Minhagim that in middle of Gelilah, towards the end of Gelilah, the Chazan starts Kaddish and finishes, says it slowly, and by the time it's finished, the Sefer Torah is already in the Aron. Familiar stuff. In the new edition of the Siddur, you'll see a whole chapter in the Miluim tracing how this was, was done in earlier generations, two hundred years ago, a hundred and fifty years ago. There were changes in this, which are... I don't want to spend the time now. It's like... But anyway, then, then it came around to five sheen mem tes. The last couple of years of the Rebbe's —” leading by Farbrengens, and the

09:33 Speaker 1 Rebbe changed here. Now, to explain, the, the Rebbe's Farbrengen, so the Rebbe's sitting on a platform in the middle of the shul. The Amud and the Chazan, uh, et cetera, of the Chazan is towards the front, and the Aron Kodesh is towards the front of the shul. In those last couple of years, to make it easier for the Rebbe, so the Rebbe's Farbrengen would start at one thirty. Farbrengen would finish two and a half hours later, approximately. So instead of the Rebbe having to go from his place to the front of the... When the Rebbe had Yortzeit, sorry. When the Rebbe had... Perhaps even other times also. But particularly when the Rebbe had Yortzeit. Oh, no, no, this was every, every, every Shabbos. They made a say there that they brought near the Rebbe's place on the raised platform in the middle of the shul. They brought the Amud, and they brought them, the, the, the Bimah. And Krias HaTorah, instead of being to the further front, was there, right there near the Rebbe's place. So when the Rebbe was Chazan, he had Yortzeit a couple of times a year, so he would say he would, instead of this kind of saying Kaddish whilst Gelilah is being done and drawing out the Kaddish until it's, the Sefer Torah reaches the Aron, the Rebbe changed this, and he started saying Kaddish. He waited for Kaddish until the Sefer Torah is all the way in the Aron. And the, the, the, the reason, the pashtes is the

11:10 Speaker 1 practicalities. That, uh, because you're talking about a, a long distance from the Rebbe's place all the way to the front of the shul, and to say, to take the Kaddish so long that the Sefer Torah should make its way from near the middle of the shul all the way to the front of the shul, go to the, into the Aron Kodesh, that was an undue, uh, un-unreasonable, um, la-lapse or t-time, time lapse. And because of this, the Rebbe said, "You know what? Forget it. We're not gonna do the Kaddish right after Krias HaTorah. We're just gonna have the Kaddish at the beginning of, of, uh, Shemoneh Esreh." Now, someone, Shpitz Chabad, is gonna tell me that there were also occasions where it was in the small shul upstairs and/or something like that, where it, it, the, the, the dramatics just, just given weren't that way also in those last couple of years, but the Rebbe did change. Does that mean it's a halacha l'Rabbim that we should change what's written in Sefer Minhagim from what's written in Sefer Minhagim? I don't think so. I think it's in the, the Rebbe, in his circumstance, felt he should change, but he didn't tell us to change, so keep to... But what I'm, what I'm bringing this all about is- That you have here a similar situation where do you link the Ribono shel Olam right up Yichas Keranim, or do you say, "You know what? I can't. It, it, it's not practical, but it's gonna take so

12:32 Speaker 1 long, and I want to get the benefit of the Amen, and therefore I, I, I'm gonna start later." So I just see a certain similarity between the two. Right. Let's move on. So here is a question which I got last week from a Shliach somewhere in France. And he says that in... They had a Fabrengen, as they have very often, and uncharacteristically, they ran out of, um, spirits, um, the Gashmius. And in the past, they had a, a, a goy was going through a gi-giur, and they would sometimes kind of hint to him that it would be helpful if there would be a little bit more of the white stuff. Um, are you allowed to ask a goy, uh, to go and get some more Mashke to be able to continue the Fabrengen? And needless to say, I'm not talking about irresponsible drinking. I'm talking about when, which is Hefkerus, and it's not something which we'd advocate. I'm talking about Mashpia who's working well with a Chevre, and he feels that the Fabrengen would go effectively another, another half an hour or another hour, whatever, he would be able to make, effect changes in these young people. So, and he, and he needs, uh, he needs the, the... That's, that's the fuel to be able to get there. So is it, is it justified to ask a goy to go around the corner to the local supermarket and come back with sup- fresh supplies? Now, this is actually written in Shulchan Aruch, in Siman Shin

14:19 Speaker 1 Chof He. So let's read the words of the Shulchan Aruch. Siman Shin Chof He, Sif 10. That's the chapter in Shulchan Aruch which talks about benefit from the Melachas done by a Goy. So first of all, the first line. It's become standard per-permit, it's standard permit to say to a Goy to f- to fetch beer or She'ar Devorim or other things to aim Tzedakah Shabbos, which are needed for Shabbos. Through a, not a Mamash Reshus Harabim. Through a small street, whatever, which is not a Reshus Harabim. So they would ask a Goy to do an Isur Derabonon, to carry stuff through a Karmelis. Some would say they, they, they, um, condone or the, whatever the word is. They, um, and they said it's okay because the Tzorche Shabbos qualifies Dvar Mitzvah. And for Dvar Mitzvah, we have the, the rule, is permitted. To ask a Goy to do an Isur Derabonon is permitted. Then it goes a bit more, some details, some technical details. Don't give him money. Uh, don't take it directly from his hand. The Alter Rebbe then adds in brackets. He seems to accept this. That this leniency, leniency is only followed by beer and similar. Now, look at those words. Beer on Shabbos is a Tzoidech Gamor. To manage a Shabbos meal without beer, it's, it's... That's a Doichech. That's a bit of a Doichech. But other things which are mere indulgences, just extras like Payos and an extra kugel or an extra, or a gallah or whatever, then those are

16:19 Speaker 1 not called a Dvar Mitzvah. Okay, very interesting. So now you have a, that beer for Shabbos. You run out of beer, you'd be allowed to ask a Goy to go and fetch through a Karmelis. So let's understand a couple of points here. First of all, I tried to explain to my class in the, um, the Babitz Senior Girls School. Um, do you need to have beer at the table for Shabbos? Now, just flash back, any of you, flash back thirty years ago. Was it common to have water on the table? For Shabbos meal, you'd have lemonade. You'd have cordial, uh, diluted with, you know, whatever. You'd have something like that. Water? That wasn't, that wasn't a normal thing to have at a... Then it became, oh, Perrier or something, but... Or perhaps in France, they used to have this Evian. But it-- I don't know. I, when I was brought up, I, I can say that, you know, to a degree. I was brought up to a degree. Um, so we, we'd have, uh, on Shabbos, we'd have some kind of flavored drink to have just plain water. Now it's become, you know, water's become the, the in thing. Okay, fine. So I'm just trying to understand when he says to have a Shabbos meal with no flavored drink, it's, it's a Doichech Chassid, yeah. Okay. So that's, that's okay. So now if you have a Heder to ask a Goy to bring Shaychor, to bring beer, I think how much more so is it...

17:55 Speaker 1 A-and that's called a Dvar Mitzvah. How much more so Mashpia is for bringing with to-- with, with, with, with, um, Korovim and, and getting somewhere to take it that little bit further. Um, with... And, and he needs to have the supplies. It certainly is a Dvar Mitzvah. We are gonna ask. That's all very well in the Karmelis. But in... That's a Karmelis because a Mol De Shtetlach they had- A couple of thousand people, even a bigger town had a hundred thousand people. Nowadays, our cities are huge metropolises with, with millions of people, and therefore this ain lan, ain lan reshus harabim today is a, is not a very good excuse. There's a sevarah to say because you have so many hundreds of thousands of people in the city, and therefore they... And they're using the streets, so even though not a single street has got, um, six hundred thousand users on a daily basis, but you combine the, the, the general population who are using the streets on Shabbos, very likely that you'll have shishim ribu and more. So I'm not happy to rely on that we have a-- that our streets are a karmelis. But on the other hand, this-- When I ask this, uh, Jean, Jean-Pierre to go around the corner to the supermarket, I'm not asking him to have him come back with a whole crate. That's what we're talking about. It's not simple steria. I'm just asking him to go and bring a single bottle. Now, if he'd carry a crate

19:22 Speaker 1 from around the corner, so then I can understand he'll have to stop on the way. But if I ask him a single bottle, he can take it nonstop. Now, to take from Reshus Hayochid through Reshus Harabim and put it down Reshus Hayochid, that's the Isur Derabonon. To take from Reshus Harabim and put-- To take from Reshus Hayochid and stop in Reshus Harabim or to take from Reshus Harabim and to put in Reshus Hayochid, that is the Isur of Chaitzo or Ach Nosa. But to take from Reshus Hayochid to Reshus Hayochid via Reshus Harabim without stopping there, that's Isur Derabonon. Therefore, what I'm asking Jean-Pierre to do, um, is an Isur Derabonon. So we're back to Shvitz Shvutz, the Sech Mitzvah, and therefore it is, uh, permitted, of course, um, be-in b'shaa tzarkah when you, when you run out of supplies. Let's move on to the next question. So some time ago, we-- I think we did talk about this. It came-- Someone came up, came up again about sitting on the ground. You know, if you... You may remember we had a discussion about where it talks about the Kohanim sleeping in the Beis Hamikdah, and it says, "Veha, um, pirchei kehuna ish kisoi be'eretz." And what does it mean? Do they literally sleep, sleep on the ground, or did they sleep with clothes? We had, we had that discussion. So someone had, um, um, asked me this business of not sitting directly on the ground. Has it got to do with aveilas, or just

20:56 Speaker 1 generally is it not a recommended thing to sit directly on the ground? So going back to... This is the Kaf HaChaim, and he brings, first of all, the Birkei Yosef. This is Tov Kupnun Beis in the Dinim of Tisha B'Av, and he brings one, but then Birkei Yosef brings from a Shaar Arye. I've looked up for this, and I haven't found the actual Shaar Arye, but he talks about Al Pi Kabbalah, not to sit directly bekarah. Rather, you should... Beside your clothes, you should have something intervening. And so, okay. Then the Sh- then the Shaarit Shuvah brings that the Mariel, who lived about five hundred years ago, that he... It says that he, he would sit with a, an old, worn-out, um, coat, so not to ruin his, his, his regular clothing. Seems to be that he did sit directly on the ground. Then comes up the Kaf HaChaim with a, I think, a brilliant resolution. He says that perhaps there's no, no, no, no, uh, dispute here. There's a difference between on sitting on soil and sitting on stone. The kpedot, the, the issue of not sitting down on the soil, that's where it is moi- got moisture, et cetera. That's where the Shaar Arye, et cetera, says not to sit directly on the soil. Whereas the Mariel, where he sat down, he was sitting, sitting on a floor which had, um, stone, um, had stone slabs, and that's not a problem. Now, meanwhile, what I-- what he, he mentions in the, you know,

22:27 Speaker 1 in passing, "Vechein mashma midrshiva ga'be Moshe veyikchu even." Now, in fact, it says, "By Moshe Rabbeinu, they, by the battle, so they took a stone, and Moshe Rabbeinu sat on the stone." Oh, he sat on the stone. Is that right? So the, so this is the answer. Sitting on a stone is not a problem. Sitting on the soil, that's where we have something Al Pi Kabbalah, and that's not appropriate. So I, that's, I just want to answer that question. Is this diyuk or not sitting directly on the ground got to do... It's got nothing to do with aveilas. It's something which there seems to be some kind of concern that of, uh, being unhealthy or not ruach roah sitting on soil. Whereas sitting on stone, that's not a problem. I see there's a couple of points here in the chat. I'm just going to look at them. Um, you're asking about this chap, Jean-Pierre. No. Of course, if he had been magaya, we'd not ask him to do this. Um, he's not. He al- wasn't magaya, and he was happy to, uh, to be helpful. Perhaps also, he had also had a couple of drinks, so that would lubricate him not to be, uh, too stiff about it. Or they just find a Jean-Jean-Pierre on the street. Right. Um, someone's asking, Yaakov Avinu slept on the ground. Very good. Very good. Okay. Good question. Okay. We're gonna move on. Now, number three. Now, that was number three we've already dealt with. Number four, can you

24:03 Speaker 1 give your knives for sharpening to a non-Jewish craftsman who's got his grindstone, whatever? So on the one hand, we've gone through this, I think, not so long ago, that there's no transmission of taste from kalee to another kalee without fluid in between. So if you have a hot milkig pot touching back to back to a hot fleishig pot, and this has got milk in, and this has got meat in, there's no transmission without flavor. That's, by the way, a bediaved, not a lehatchilah. Fine. So now sharpening... Now, just this morning, the, this, this fellow has sharpened a knife which was taken from a shawarma place to novellos of Trevos and Chazefetz. And now you guys are gonna be sharpening, sharpening your knife. Is there-- Would there be a, a transmission of taste from the Chazer knives into the stone? And then when you sh- when he sharpens your kosher knives, a transmission from the stone into your knife. Now, this is, this is the dilemma. Now, then I saw some make a comment that when you sharpen a knife, you usually need to add a little bit of liquid. My father, Al Shalom, when he sh- when he's, uh, as a shochet, when he, when he would sharpen his knives, he always puts a little bit of liquid on the stone to, uh, to work. It works better that way. Someone to say that's only a little bit of liquid, it's not really significant. Okay, so we've got here on the screen from a Sefer.

25:41 Speaker 1 You can see Sefer HaKashrus. It's very, very much a contemporary Sefer. Uh, a little bit Netilat Yadayim, but that's okay. So he says, "Ratzui shel lo lishtamesh," it's, it's preferable. It's recommended not to use the same Mashchezes, the same sharpener for sharpening milky knives and, um, fl- meaty or parve knives. So he's recommending not to use the same sharpener for both. Interesting. That's, that's how far he goes. But, um, how much more so is there room to be Makmir on a c- with a commercial sharpener, which probably gets to a much higher temperature, um, and with, uh, with, and the other side of the, uh, use is Treifus Mamish. I think there is room to be Makmir not to give them to sharpening to a Goishia, um, craftsman. Right. Let's go on. So here's an interesting thing, and someone sent me a question. They're making a Bar Mitzvah and asking on Shabbos, are they allowed to use whipped cream to, uh, decorate cakes, whatever, ice cream? So for those who are not familiar, I don't know whether it's available in this country. There's something called... You can go, you can get whipped cream in a canister, and you-- It's got a nozzle, which has got a star shape in the, uh, top of the nozzle, and you press this nozzle, and it comes out a, a, uh, length of cream from the, uh... Like, like whipped cream comes out. So in the Shmiras... Now, let's go back. Are you... If you take eggs and you

27:29 Speaker 1 whip them together with sugar, you're going to create a cream, whipped cream of some kind of, uh... Are you allowed to do that on Shabbos? Some people like to have whipped cream of some sort in their coffee. Would you be allowed to whip that to make a, a froth on, on Shabbos, et cetera? So without going through all those details, I'm just reading here from Shmiras Shabbos KeHilchosa, where he says you should not use on Shabbos a spray which turns, transforms the obvious liquid inside it to become a Mimarach Mutzak, which means a, a more, uh, a more solid kind of spread on a cake. So this is pretty much what we're talking about. He says there's a problem of Nolad. Inside the canister is a liquid and this pressure, and then somehow that pressure works that when it's released, it comes into a whipped cream. So instead of having to go whip with a, with a, with a whisk, it comes out with the pressure. It becomes, it becomes a cream. And so he says that that's m- making a new status, um, either Boina, but he says he's worried more about Nolad. It's a new identity. Now, don't use Tea Tree face wash to decorate your cake. But it, it won't taste so good. But this, this BeHazroha Pratis in this week, this came to the house, and you press this nozzle, and it also comes out as a cream. By the same token, they're not using a whipped cream spray to... because

29:10 Speaker 1 of Molid. I think the same thing would apply with, with this Tea Tree stuff or similar. If here it's obviously a liquid, as you can see on the picture. When you press, it comes out as a frothy, uh, liqui- uh, as a frothy cream. So then also that, that shouldn't be used on Shabbos. Okay. That's besides the other issues of using cream on Shabbos or Mamarach, which is another, another discussion. Generally, we don't use creams on Shabbos because spreading the cream comes into the Melacha of, of smoothing the surface. Let's move on. Now, okay. So in, in, um... There's a, there's a j- a journal which comes out every few weeks called HaOres Latzibburim, and someone there challenged what I had written in one of the Sefer of Nesivim B'Shalichutz. So I'll tell you what it was. It was, there was one of our Kehillah, his wife passed away, and he was living alone. So it come, this comes the issue, what do you do about benching licht and coming to shul? Now, as I think in many, many shuls, Mincha on Friday is shortly after Licht Zinden. So if Licht Zinden with this Shabbos was at four minutes past four, then our official time for four, four minutes past... Four minutes past four, yeah. So the official time for Mincha was ten minutes later, fourteen minutes past four. Okay. So he's gonna light candles, let's say four o'clock, and he's gonna come to shul, and he wants to daven Mincha. Now, the question is-

31:04 Speaker 1 If you Mekabel Shabbos, then you can't daven Mincha afterwards. Here we have from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch in Siman Res Samlach Gimel, . When you Mekabel Shabbos, so you-- then it becomes Sha-maybe, maybe, then, then it becomes as if it's night. She shouldn't daven Mincha after benching licht because once she's made it, made it Mincha Shabbos, it's now, it's now night. You can't have Mincha at night. Although the light is still, you know, the sun is still shining, but okay, fine. So now my question is the following. A man does not Mekabel Shabbos by de-by default by lighting candles. The woman, yes. The man, not. But the Alter Rebbe does say, this is the words of the Alter Rebbe, the same, same address. You light your candles, you have to be Mekabel Shabbos L'Alter. Now, L'Alter can be translated immediately or very soon. And the way in, in, uh, Kodash Achron, he says much less than a Shiur Hiluch Mil, much less than eighteen minutes. And so the general advice is, if a man lights candles, he should be Mekabel Shabbos within ten minutes. Well, same thing, if a woman lights and makes a condition not to be Mekabel Shabbos, it's also limited. You can't just light Shabbos candles then go, go check your email and sh-you know, go, you know, sending WhatsApp messages with Huldah or, or jump into the shower. You light the Shabbos candles, it means you are accepting Shabbos, whether immediately or nearly immediately. So now the Alter Rebbe does

32:56 Speaker 1 say clearly that if you light Shabbos candles, you have to be Mekabel Shabbos Lialter. So now I have timed this gentleman has lit his candles at four o'clock. Ten past four, he's in shul. Okay, no problem. He's safe and dry. He's not gonna do any Melacha now. Mekabel Shabbos. Doesn't say anything. Can he daven Mincha if he's been Mekabel Shabbos? That was the dilemma which I raised there. So this, this fe-- this, um, correspondent there in the Ha'oras HaBerurim, he says there's a difference in Kabbalah Shabbos, a whole Chiddush of the Alter Rebbe, between Itsum shel Yom and just ev-ev-refrain from Melacha. If you Mekabel Itsum shel Yom, then it's, it's all the way. But you can be Mekabel Shabbos kind of partially. You Mekabel Tosfo Shabbos to refrain from Melacha, but it doesn't come become fully Shabbos, and there's differences there, uh, discussed there. So where he says, where he says, Dayan Raskin has written in his sefer even, even with Tosfo Shabbos without Itsum shel Yom, also you can't have Mincha, and that's... Where does he get that from? So I'll tell you where, where I'm coming from. We-- What we're saying is that a woman who's da-- who's been Mekabel Shabbos, she has to... She can't have Mincha afterwards. Then you say a man has to be Mekabel Shabbos within Lialter. So if a woman's Mekabel Shabbos precludes her davening Mincha, so the man's Kabbalah Shabbos also precludes him from davening Mincha. That was my problem. And you want to say whether

34:29 Speaker 1 it's this level or that level, I can't, I don't know, I don't know. But he said that a woman can't, so why should a man's Kabbalah Shabbos not preclude him from davening Mincha afterwards? That was my problem. And the answer which I, uh, which I gave was... And I'll come to the answer in a second. In the Alter Rebbe siddur, where he t-talks about so, so, um, so s-s-seder Shabbos. He's so concerned about people doing any Melacha after Shkia. But he says about Mincha, Nir Gefal. There's Rabbono, et cetera. So he's, he's tolerant about Mincha late. Well, not, not, not, not Lachat Chilah, but, but he arid... He's, he's tolerant about that, and you don't have to be moiche. So my, my, my suggestion was the following. What's the problem of davening Mincha afterwards? You've just said the Shabbos Kodesh. So you, so you've said it's Shabbos. So the same mouth you said it's Shabbos, and now you're davening Mincha on a weekday. It's what's called three collar disaster, two contradicting voices. When the man who lost his wife, he's gonna light Shabbos candles at four o'clock. At ten past four, he will be sitting there twiddling his thumbs. He's not gonna say anything. He's not gonna say, "Hareini Mekabel Shabbos." And therefore, the, the contradiction is not so glaring because it's a Machshava. Machshava now is Shabbos for me. But, but de jure he hasn't said anything, and therefore, you can still daven Mincha. That was the solution I ca-came up. So I never

36:09 Speaker 1 said that you, that you can't daven Mincha. On the contrary, looking for a way to justify that you, you can daven Mincha, even though he has already, uh, bound by Issure Melacha because he didn't say so explicitly. Um, I said this over last night. One of the pre-- those present wasn't so convinced about the solution. Uh, if someone has a better solution, fine. But, uh, that is the problem which I was dealing with. A man's Mekabel Shabbos, um, shortly after he's lit candles. How do we, uh, justify his davening Mincha then? Um, those who may ask, "What did the Rebbe do?" Well, I'm not sure, but I know that for many, many years, the Rebbe would daven on Friday quarter past three. It was, uh, the same time as Mincha every day of the week, was Friday also. That's-- I'm, I was-- I don't think I was ever there, but, uh, I was told that that was the Mincha by the Rebbe. Okay. We're going to go on to another couple of points. Three points, actually. Number one, talking about base. Well, you can-- Well, it came to, um, a place called Base Ale. And really the question was, a Melamed in Cheider in his learning Chumash with the children, should they say Beis Kiel or can he call-- Because they came to the place called Beis Alef. So now, I brought last week from a Sefer called Eliyahu Rabba and others who said that Beis Alef as a name of a place does not

37:35 Speaker 1 have Kedusha. So, um, so that, that... So that, then, and that means it's relevant for the Sofer. As they're sitting and writing a Sefer Torah, and when a Se-Sefer comes to write Hashem's name, he has to stop and say... I don't know if he stops, but he, he, uh, says something to the effect, "I'm writing this in the name, Kedushas Hashem." So when the Sofer comes to Beis Alef, does he have to stop and write this Alef Lamed with Kedushas Hashem? And then Eliyahu Rabba says he doesn't. So now a s-- one of our listeners in Montreal who listens to a recording, I believe is also a Sofer, a Rabbi, uh, Weissfish, Rabbi Levi Weissfish. He sent me some references on this, and actually, I n- I never knew that this Sefer ever existed. There's a Sefer of the Rambam. Can you see on the screen? Biur Shemos Kodesh VeChol. Never heard of such a, uh, such a work of the Rambam. The Rambam, we know in the Sefer Mishneh Torah, has got a lot of detail of how to write a Sefer Torah, but this is going through the Chumash and take every Shem, every time, is it Kodesh or is it not? 'Cause you know when Ya-Avraham meets the Malachim, and he says, uh, um, he mentions, "Ad-Adonai," does he mean my masters, as in the visitors, or is he referring to Hashem, and so on. So there are ambiguities sometimes. And the Rambam here has got Beis Kiel Kodesh. See, he says

39:13 Speaker 1 in Parshas Vayeitzei, the name of the place Beis Alef. Now, um, then someone to say depends that one is Kodesh, another place is not Kodesh. It's not so, not so straightforward. So to say that it's, it's, it's got no Kedushah, it's, it's not so straightforward. Now, but then comes another question. Then comes another question. Barry is pointing out whether written on one line or two lines. Okay then. When you're learning, when, when you're learning and it comes up Hashem's name in learning, is it correct to say Hashem's name to pronounce it or not? So actually, in the Siddur, I have a comment about this, comment of the Rebbe, um, about saying, which is in Sefer HaMinhagim. When you're saying Kagavna, So Kagavna is you're just, you're just reading a piece of Zohar. So should you pronounce Hashem's name properly, or do you say, ? Or do you pronounce it as you would any other part of davening, you pronounce it Hashem properly. So the Rebbe's comment is, that when you're reading this in the Zohar, you say the . You do pronounce Hashem's name. There's a, there's a difference between Hashem's name in Kagavna and stem a Shem, Hashem's name. You're learning Gemara Brachos and Baruch Atah Hashem, whether you say Hashem's name there. And the Alter Rebbe talks about learning Brachos, whether you shouldn't pronounce Hashem's name when you're learning Brachos in Siman Reish as well, unless you're learning with children. Learning with children, then you can say Hashem's name. So we're gonna get

41:08 Speaker 1 to that in a moment. I just want to digress for a moment. The Alter Rebbe says there in Reish as well, when you're teaching children, you can say Baruch Atah Hashem, Hashem's name properly. When you're teaching adults, you shouldn't say Hashem's name. But in Hilchas Sefer, Siman Taf Peh, Dalet Taf Peh, well, somewhere around there, the Al- the Rebbe, Alter Rebbe says there, when you are teaching an adult to do a mitzvah, you pronounce Hashem's name properly. Very, very important. You go on Mipnechululav, you go on Mifneh Shofar, you go on Mifneh Teffilin, and do you have to stop making and backing when you're saying Hashem, when you're saying the Bracha? Or can you say Baruch, say the name very properly. And so according to what says, everything over there, you can say Hashem's name properly because you're teaching an adult to say a Bracha . So that then you can say, you can teach to say Hashem's name as the teacher, and he'll say word, word to word after you. Okay, so now let's come back, back to the Melamed in the class. So this is the Birkei Yosef. writes the following. You're allowed to teach children the Brachos with Hashem's name. But when an adult is learning Torah, so you should not pronounce Hashem's name in the Brachos which come up in your learning. So then the Chiddush brings almost a contemporary. The was almost a contemporary of his, and he says, the Chiddush says that you're learning Ge-Ge-Gemara, and it has a

42:52 Speaker 1 Bracha. You can say Hashem's name in the Bracha normally. And the Chiddush is not impressed. He says it's not, there's no, um, strong evidence for that. In other words... And that's indeed when we're learning Gemara Shekun Arach, and that comes up with the Bracha, we say Hashem. We don't say Hashem's name properly. The senior, the veteran Rabbonim in Eretz Yisrael, shelo le'azkir Hashem kikriyosoi. When you're learning Torah, you don't say Hashem's name whilst during the learning. Okay. So, so, so to sum, sum up this. Normally when we're learning, we don't say Hashem's name. What should the Melamed do when he's learning with children, beiseil, should he say it? There is mokim to bimaykol, as we saw last week. Some say it doesn't have kedushas Hashem. There's mokim to bimachmir and say, "I don't want to, um..." You know, that, that has a kedusha, as we see in the Shitas HaRambam. And then, meaning, the meaning is to bimachmir when we're learning not to, um, not to mention, um, Hashem's name properly. Um, okay. I always forget how to get rid of this scribble on the screen. Just gonna do it. I have to just relax and go on to the next thing. Okay. All right. This is Rabbeinu Weissfish sent me also in reference to our discussion, um, about the gap before, or the lack of gap before Vayechi. So the view which we had taken was, forgot who it was, um, that the Hiddah, yeah, last week we went through a Hiddah, says really

44:41 Speaker 1 it should have been a Parshah. Now, it was to say that because of the Rem or Ramos and that's why there's no gap. So he's, then therefore, if there is a shikal gap, he says it's Nishgefela, yeah? So in this Sefer, Otzer Hazmani, he quotes Sefer the Chasam Sofer. And very interesting. Can you finish off Kriyas HaTorah where there's no Parshah, no gap? So he says, "Kosov maaloso she'ein lehafsik Parshah im lo sheyesamen bo osei maimit." You can't stop if there's no Parshah. But you see that the end of, but the end of Ayigash, the end of Vayechi, there's no Parshah. And still you're allowed to stop there. So the Chasam Sofer wants to prove from this it's okay to, um, that, that, that, that, that there's no gap here at all. As we've said, it's, um... Oh, I've found the eraser. So there we go. Sorry. Okay. Right. Let's go back. So we have here a, a, um, different opinions about whether the gap at the end of, or the beginning of Vayechi, or the lack of gap, how to regard this. As I said, the Chiddosh says it ought to be a gap, and it's just not there because of the Remez. The Chasam Sofer says there's no gap there. Okay. We're gonna move on, and that is the last thing which we have on the agenda for tonight. Again, you know, you publish stuff and then you get, um, you know, uh, you get people upset. It's, you know, that's, that's, that's

46:16 Speaker 1 how it goes. Um, you know, as I've said before, everyone makes mistakes. If you publish your mistakes, then you might get them corrected by someone else. But if other, if you don't publish, then you stay with your mistake. Okay. So now this is, uh, look, look what happened over here. This is in the new siddur, yeah? By the way, there's, there's generous margins, so you can put, you can write on the side, you know, ze ein ein ochoin or something. Okay. So now the question was the following. There's a Minuch Chabad that at Birchas, when the Chazan says Birchas Koyanim, not Koyanim. When the Chazan says Birchas Koyanim, which is every day at Shacharis, at Musaf, et cetera. So the Rebbe was very visibly, um, you know, he would look at the... He'd turn, instead of look in the siddur, he turns to his left to look at the Chazan quite intently. And he complained once why people look at him and not at the Chazan. Now, this meaning of looking at the Chazan at Birchas Koyanim has got its source in a Sefer Yoffo LeLev, uh, and it's brought in Kav HaChaim. Now, they reference that Kav HaChaim to the Kuf Lamed Dalfis Dror in his Kuf, Kuf, Kuf Hof Zayin. And I've discussed this in, in the Sivim B'Sefer Chabad volume one. Okay. My question was, uh, f-first of all, why are you looking at the Chazan? The reason is because like Birchas Koyanim, it's meant to be ponim el ponim. It's a

47:44 Speaker 1 bracha. And so we, other, most other communities don't say amen. They say, "Ken Yiratzen." We say amen because we see the bracha said by the Chazan as a bracha, and therefore we say amen. And we look towards the Chazan as to pay attention. I'm receiving a bracha, so I pay attention to receiving the bracha. Okay. So now my question was, in an L-shaped room. Now, are you meant to look in the direction of the Chazan? Or, and so you could be, you don't look at direction, but meanwhile there's a wall in the way. Or do you have to move over and to be able to have view of the Chazan? So yours truly wrote, "Nireh shetzorach liruit hashatz." Perhaps we even discussed it on this shiur. It's not just enough, it's not enough to just look in his direction. And where would the, the problem be? There's, either there's a crowd in the way, or there's a wall in the way. And where, how do I know that... So here my, here's my dilemma. Looking in a direction and there's a wall in the way, is that called looking in that direction? So my s-source was in Mishnayos Midas. It talks about all the walls of the Beis Hamikdash are tall walls, with the exception of the eastern wall, and that was lower because the Kapora Aduma is done on Har Hamishkán, Har HaZeisim. And when that's done, the Kohen has to be able to see, Piskhu Shel Heichal has to be able to see.

49:11 Speaker 1 And there it says, "Noichech pnei hayom," or something. So there you see that if there had been a wall, and he's looking the direction, behind this wall there is a... That's not good enough. He has to have the, a, um, direct view of the Piskhu Shel Heichal. That was what I'd written here. No. So, so th-there's, someone wrote to me, he got the Sefer, and he started challenging me, and I tried to, I tried to, um, to, um, to support my position, but I'm, I'm capitulating. I'm gonna share with you what happened over here. First of all, to say that when there are people in the way, that's a problem. You know what? By the real Birchas Koyanim, if it's a big shul and there's dozens of people in front of you, you don't have f-face to face with the Koyanim, and that's not a problem. So the people in the way are not a problem. So th-this quasi Birchas Koyanim, where it's looking at the Chazan, can't be more Chamur than the real Birchas Kohanim. Yeah. So having a call in the way should not be a issue. What about a wall? So now let's go through this. Um, now in the... on the bottom of your screen, you have here from the Chofetz Chaim. He published a series of three volumes, I think, called Likutei Halachos, and it's kind of the style of the Rif, uh, on several Masechtas. And he writes the following. This is in Gemara Sotah Daf Lamed Ches, which

50:51 Speaker 1 talks about Birchas Kohanim. He says, "The fact that the Kohen draws his tallis over his face, that doesn't interfere with Mak- Ponim El Ponim." But he makes the following observation. If there is a r-- a, a Amud, the Chazan's Amud is a tall thing. It's bigger than a person is. It's taller than a, than, than, than a person. Six foot, uh, tall, and you're a short Kohen. Um, . You're going, you're going up the front of the Shul. Don't block it. Don't stand with the Amud blocking you from Ponim El Ponim because that's interfering with your Ponim El Ponim. Okay, so we've got here that he says that something in the way, a wall of sorts, would be an interruption to your Ponim El Ponim. Okay, so now I'm seeing... I seem to be getting some support here. Now, now let's go now to the Gemara. This is Gemara in Berach-- Sorry, Sotah Daf Lamed Ches. Pshito-- He's talking about Ponim El Ponim. Pshito Arichi Be'apei Gutzu. If you've got tall ch- tall chap and you are shorty, Lo Mafsik here. That's not a Hefsek. It'll be your Ponim El Ponim. And before I should say, what are you doing? What, are you gonna start sorting out people in Shul fo- in size? Um, then he says, Teiv O Lo Mafsika. A box is also not a problem. What do you mean a box? How tall is this box? Mechitza Mai. What about if there's a wall in the way? Even a steel barrier does

52:30 Speaker 1 not interfere between you and the Father in heaven. So even if there's a wall in the way, so it's not a Hefsek. See, if that's the case, where the real Birchas Kohanim, then, then let's say going back to my L-shaped. Forget about the Chabad Minyan. You're looking at the house. Looking at... Talking about real fair dinkum Birchas Kohanim, and it's an L-shaped room. Do the people in the L shape have to move over, or is it enough that they stay where they are and just Ponim El Ponim, and they've got X-ray through the wall? So it says here, . This is brought in Shulchan Aruch. Let's go down. The third quote. . Even a steel wall is not a Hefsek. Okay? So you can stand in the L shape. Then, then we have how it's brought in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. So behind, there's a wall which is interfering, and they still have to face towards the Kohen. Very, very interesting. These, these five words, you know, is n-not brought in Shulchan Aruch. Let's go back to the Rambam, how he brings this. He brings this. Very clear. There's a Mechitza between the Kohen and the Mizbachim. So here you're seeing very clearly contrary to what I'd said. You're seeing that it says even if there's a wall between them and the Kohenim, so long as they're looking towards the Kohenim. So you see here that looking towards the Kohenim was even if there's a, a wall in between, it's still called Ponim El

54:30 Speaker 1 Ponim. Now, the Chofetz Chaim, again, in the same Sefer, he says, Now this is the bottom of the page there. He's suggesting that the wall between the, yeah, between the Kohenim and the, and, and the, and the people is a low wall. Well, but is Mafsik and there's a Ponim El Ponim Hakohanim. So the Chofetz Chaim wants to suggest he's talking about a low wall. Then he says the Kesef Mishneh struggles with the Rambam. This is the Kesef Mishneh. Um, too much for me to handle at the moment. But meanwhile, he's struggling with this. See, that's the Chofetz Chaim, but it's... With the way the Alter Rebbe brings it, it's very clear that there's a wall and the Ponim El Ponim despite the walls in the way. So contrary to my, uh, hypothesis based upon the, the, the Mishneh in Porah Adumo, about Porah Adumo, the Mishneh in Midas, it looks like facing a direction, even if there's a wall in the middle, in between, is valid. Now, this gentleman who sent me this, uh, comment, he also kindly gave me a reference to . Um, the Rebbe Velvel of Brisco, which actually in time, in time we mentioned him a couple of weeks ago, came up about the Rebbe's thing about, um, a brocha for the miracle, um, with, with Antebi. At any rate, the Rebbe mentions him in the Sicha by name. So his chidushim on the Rambam in his Porah Adumah. He addresses this whole thing, and Bekitze he says the following:

56:28 Speaker 1 By the Porah Adumah, it's not ju- it's not enough direction. There, there is an inyan of Pnei Oil Moed, and it's actually they have to be able to see into the Oil Moed. In fact, they can see the outside of the building. That's not good enough. It has to be able to see to the inside. And so basically there, it's the inyan of Re'iyah. Here, there's the inyan of ponim, direction. Ponim el ponim, direction can be also through a wall. But when it's the inyan of Re'iyah, then obviously there has to be direct view. And if you ever learned the Gemara Yoma, it talks about the whole fascinating chizbun where the Mizbeach is in the way. And actually, from the Haram- Hara- Har HaZeisim, to be able to see into the, into the, um, Pesach Oil Moed is all of... There's a window of only about a square ama or two square amas. That's the whole visibility which is left after the, the Mizbeach, which is nine amas high, which is in, in front of it, um, works out with the steps, et cetera. So really, the, the, uh, view is very, very small, but it's imperative. That's how the Bil- he ex- explains. It's imperative to s- that when he does the Porah Adumah, and that's, you know, the whole fascinating thing. The Porah Adumah is done via bachutz. It's out there, but its face is a- all the way in and is looking Pnei Oil Moed, and that's how he achieves the taharah.

57:51 Speaker 1 That's what I have to share with you tonight and, um, wish you a, a gut Voch. And we should hear besuras toivos, Yeshuos uねchomos ba'chol Yisroel, and especially ba'cheinei Bnei Yisroel b'Eretz HaKodesh. A gut Voch.

58:03 Speaker 2 Amen.

58:04 Speaker 1 Ach gut Voch. Shkoyach. Gut Voch. Shkoyach. Thank you very much.