וארא תשפ״ה

00:08 A guten voche. Welcome to next year. Motzei Shabbos. Motzei Shabbos Parshas Vayeira. And we have a whole list of questions. Interesting, interesting things. So let's start with the first one. And that is, I got a question from a shliach somewhere in Russia, actually. And, um, his question was he doesn't-- That he won't manage to finish off Tehillim on Shabbos morning, Shabbos Mevorchim, Mincha Chabad to say the whole of Tehillim, Shabbos Mevorchim. He won't manage to say the whole of Tehillim. So he's asking me, what's preferable? Would it be preferable that he says it next Shabbos, or he perhaps goes ahead Friday night? So just to discuss this a little bit. So there is... I know that there was someone by the name of Rebbe, I think Moshe Levitt. Not Moshe, his brother. Forgotten his first name. He was a-- He lived in Crown Heights, but he, he was a shamas in a shul in East Flatbush. And he would walk every Shabbos to East Flatbush and back, and he found he just didn't have the time to do the whole of the, uh, Tehillim because, uh, of his walking. And the Rebbe advised him, Yechidus, that he should, whilst he's walking, you know, I said today by the Chiddesh, there was this old joke that Dovid HaMelech did a very smart thing. He took lots of bits of the davening and put them into a sefer and added a few other bits and pieces, and that's how he made the Tehillim. So there's lots of

01:49 Tehillim which are familiar. So he said the Rebbe told him, to Rebbe Levittov, "Whilst you're walking, you'll say the parts of Tehillim which you are familiar with, and then whatever. And then when you find a, you know, a quiet, uh, moment when you can sit down and say Tehillim, so you'll fill in the piece-pieces which you left out." That's one thing. Now, then, when I was in New York for the Kinus Hashluchim, someone came over to me, and he says that he... He told me a couple of feedbacks on what he's listening to the shiur for the recordings. And he told me that the-- in Chicago was a Rabbi Schusterman. And Rebbetzin Schusterman, she was a, a Krinsky, a sister of Reb Yudel, zal avohar. And she was-- she asked the Rebbe what she should do about saying the whole of Tehillim. And because she was a Rebbetsin, so people came to the shul, and she would engage with them, so she wouldn't manage to finish the Tehillim on Shabbos morning. So her, the Rebbe advised that she should say Friday night. She should g-make a-- give her-herself a head start on Friday night. So I was very pleased to hear that because, um, my wife was even more pleased to hear that, um, that there is leeway to, to allow that. We'll, we'll see in a moment why I'm-I was concerned. At any rate, um, but then this shliach, his name is Rabbi Kirsch. So his father, well, lived from when... He's pa-passed away

03:17 recently, but he lived in South Africa. Very tzidkus dikayid. And he'd asked the Rebbe the same question. And the Rebbe told him to say whatever you can this Shabbos, and whatever you don't manage, you'll say next Shabbos. So you've got here a variety of solutions. One, and, uh, I told him, "If that's what your Rebbe told your father, so follow that." So we-we've had three solutions. One is, um, whilst you're walking. One is a head start Friday night, and one is to make up next Shabbos. Um, it just also comes to mind that when Rabbi Lew went to Greenland, it was in the year of his-- when he was saying Kaddish. And when he went to the Rebbe before he went, before he, you know, went, he kind of brought up the question, "What should he do about the Kaddishim?" I'm not... I might have mixed up. It might have been a different event. But he-- It was during his year of avelus that he, um, had to go somewhere, and he wouldn't be able to have a minyan for Tehillim. And the Rebbe at first was-- hesitated as if to perhaps it's not, not an issue altogether. But then the Rebbe said, "You know what? When you get later, you could be mashal and make up the Kaddishim at a later date." All right. Having said all that, what's the hesitation? So you can see here on the screen, we've got here from the Ba'er Heitev. That's in Siman Resh Lamed Ches. Ner HaChaim

04:44 talks about Krias Halaylah. Ein Likrov Mikra Balaylah. You should not be reading Tanakh without appearance. It's just reading Mikra shouldn't be done by night. On this, the, uh, Mishnah Berurah in his Shaar HaZion says, "Kosov Ba'er Heitev SheEin Likrov Mikra Balaylah." The Pri Megadim says you are allowed to read Mikra, and even for the Machmirim, Lesh Bo Ze Is Sura. It's not an asu to do it. It's just that it's better to do Mikra by day, by day. And you have... He brings a Midrash to support this idea of Mikra is a daytime activity rather than nighttime. For us Chabad, so we have here from the Sefer Minhogim. Yodua. Yeah. It starts off with this. Yodua. It's well-known. And so that's the well-known. I've given you some sources in the Siman Resh Lamed Ches. Obviously, I, I believe it's sourced in Ariza. Um, I have also a sefer called Birurei Minhogim from Rebbe, um, from his Sharab Shabsi. It's gone, gone, gone out of the mind for a second. He lives in, uh, in Twass, and he's written a whole, uh... In his sefer, there's a whole ten pages about this possibility. So Yodua SheBalaylah Hocheil Mi... Uh, Shabsi Fridman, his name is. Yodua SheBalaylah Hocheil Mitzeh Seker Chov Umatat Chachas Tzos Halaylah. From, from the emergence of three stars until after midnight. Ein Olam Tehillim. We don't say Tehillim. Bechal zeshi' Tehillim Hachodshi, including the, the daily portion according-- as it's divided according to the month. Aval Olam Ishur Chumash VeTanya. Tanya is not

06:27 a question. Chumash also you're learning with a Pirush, so you can do that also. But if you didn't manage to do it by day, you can do it by night. But Tehillim, the recommendation is to make sure to be said before, before, um, dark or after Chatzois. The exceptions are the Vad BeRosh Hashanah, Ases Metushar, Yom HaKippurim, U'Hashanah Rabbah. So this is-- these are the ex-- the exclusion, uh, from this Inyan is you can say, uh, Tehillim Balaila, et cetera, during the Ases Metushar and Hashanah Rabbah. Hashanah Rabbah itself, we have the-- about Tehillim, we have a switchover. Now, we do Chumash until Chatzois, and we do Tehillim after Chatzois. That's the bracket over there. So that's the-- these, these are the sources about the, the, uh, apprehension about saying Tehillim by night, and hence it was a big Kiddush for me, and I'm happy to share that. The Rebbe did give this Rebbe and Shusterman, um, the go-ahead to say Tehillim in advance by night. Okay, let's go on to the next thing, and that is about a Chosson putting-- having ash. Now, this is something which is written in Shulchan Aruch about the-- in the Minhogim, which are Zecher L'Chorban, that when we have a moment of joy, we also remember the Chorban, the destruction of Beis Hamikdash. And as a result, uh, we have various Minhogim to remember that. And so one of the Minhadinionim which is written in Shulchan Aruch is about putting Eifer B'Mikom P'er, that Tefillin are called P'er,

08:08 or glory, and Eifer the same letters, and, uh, Losson Avilitzim P'er Tachat Eifer. So the Chosson puts a bit of ash. So I was just by a Chasuna this week, and there's a Chasuna organizer, and he had a little tub with some ash ready, and I said, "It's not our Minhag." So I just want to tell you where I get this from. So what you have on the screen is from the memoirs of the late Rav Chadakov. He got married, I believe, in Riga, and, uh, he went into the Frederick Rebbe, whom he was working for also, and the Rebbe gave him some guidance. So one thing about as a Chosson walking around alone, he shouldn't go allow-- a-a-around outside alone. He should be accompanied by someone. And the Inyan of not walking alone is Inyan Ruchni. Okay. Um, I asked whether to put ash on the Rosh Chosson. Omah Shelo. No. Then he also... The very famous thing about, um, about the, the putting a, a, a, uh, silver or gold spoon. This is Behemshich about some Minhag of treading on the foot of the Kallah. And then he says that the-- in, in as an, as an alternative, it seems, that they should... When they go into the... Go into their house, there they should put a silver or go- um, a spoon or gold spoon. On gate is Ariber, and you tread-- step over it. Um, not to tread on it, but Ariber gain, to tread over it. Okay. We'll discuss that

09:44 in the Far Past. But this is... If someone asks me, "Where do I get it? It's not Minhag Chabad to put on ash." So I have it from Rabbi Chadakov's, um, memoirs. He wrote it down. He's a fairly reliable person, as far as I know. Uh, in the notes of the editor, so they put their reference to Nittei Gavriel, et cetera. And he says that we rely on the Bes Yosef, who says we have Zecher L'Chorban when we yoetz with breaking the cup. And then he has a reference to the Bier Halacha in Siman Taf Kuf Samech. The Bier Halacha is from the Mishnah Berurah, but it's very, very, very of, of Zecher L'Chorban, but it's his, um, very, very short. He doesn't address this directly. Just generally, he says all of these things which are Zecher L'Chorban, some of them we don't do. Okay. So we, so we have sources. And there are lots of things which not everyone is particular about Zecher L'Chorban. Whatever reason. I mean, how, uh, how consistent do you see in a community that you have a, a blank patch of Amal Amo, um, in front of the entrance as you come into the house? It's not so widespread in, uh, in our community at least. Although there's a letter of the Rebbe Rashab where he talks about it in instructions to his family. But somehow it's, uh, it doesn't seem to be standard, uh, in, in some communities. So some things are-- ha-have been dropped for some whatever

11:18 reason. And here especially you see a logic that at the Chuppah we do break the cup, and so the g- the glass, and that's the Zecher L'Chorban at that moment. Okay, let's go on to the next point, and that is about saying, so saying Brachos in the morning. So every morning we say there's eighteen, nineteen Brachos, then Birchat HaTorah. And those Brachos are acknowledging, from Anesi and Sechaavino, is acknowledging the experience which you go through. You go, uh, you, you... I'm able to stand up, you open your eyes, e-et cetera, you go get, get dressed. So here the question is: What happens if you didn't go through those experiences? So let's say you, uh, you're still wearing your pajamas. So do you say a Bracha Melbusha Romen? Or you slept in your clothes, in your day clothes. So again, you didn't go through the experience of Malbush Haredim, et cetera. So, V'Yesh Oelimrim, this is in Siman, um, Mem He. That's where the dinim of, uh... Sorry, Mem Vov. V'Yesh Oelimrim, that even if you personally did not go through the experience of being chai to do this bracha, you still say the brachas because you're thanking Hashem, Borei nei'esh, that created the tor cha-eylam. And nevertheless, a blind person doesn't make Hech Evrim because he's personally missing that. Then he says it recommended that you should go through the motions of being, um, im efshali. So I'll just give you an example as I'm reading this now. If you don't wear leather shoes... So

13:00 you still say the bracha shel zal ikol tzarki, which has got to do with shoes, but it would be a preference to put on your shoes before saying brachas im efshali. Okay, fine. Now we're gonna read from the... This is from the Shulchan Aruch. Now we're reading from the Siddur. Kol habrachas halalu. Mevorech, all of these brachas, that's from hun- This is after Elekai Nashama, before Hanes anasech vivino. All of these brachas are, you say those brachas, even if you weren't obliged to do, personally to do them, because going She'neha kol halaylo, if you're awake a whole night, and you didn't change your clothes. Then he goes on, some details. Im neya kol halaylo, if you were awake a whole night. V'lenes chayav bahen, ei ne mevorich elo ach shayal lamud ashacha. So you wanna say a bracha on shoes only after dawn. You wanna say a bracha on clothes, you're wearing clothes the whole time. Behech evrim, you were awake the whole night. After alot hasachar. Why, what's alot hasachar? Because that's when most people, when-- well, not most, many people are going to arise, and therefore after lamud hasachar, minhag shel oylem. Okay. Then he goes further. Av od yoshan ba layla, if you did sleep. Ven is chayav bahen, and you were obliged to do this bracha to-- because you had this experience. Yochel havorich mi yad she nis chayav bahen, provided it's after chatzos. And therefore, if you were... And then he goes, if you're awake a whole night and you

14:28 heard a tarnegol, you heard a c- a rooster crowing, you can make the bracha nes anasech vivino. Now, I'm picking on, on these words, ven is chayav bahen. You went to sleep, and you woke up, and it's now after chatzos, and you had gotten undressed, and you got dressed. So ven is chayav bahen. So then you can say the bracha, hanesu anasech vivino. Um, you can say the bracha, hamalbush ha'olamim. But if you-- even if you slept, and you weren't nis chayav bahen, so then it looks like you have to wait till lamod hasachar because that's when minhag shel oylem. That's my understanding. And therefore, my-- the way I understand is if you wake up before alot hasachar, and you don't have a rooster around the corner, so then don't say the bracha nes anasech vivino. And if you're not wearing leather shoes, don't say the bracha, she'asani kol tzarki. And if you're still wearing pajamas, don't say malbush haredim, and so on, un-until alot hasachar, and then you can say those brachas, minhag shel oylem. That's my understanding on those words, im yoshen ba layla, ven is chayav bahen. Then you can say the bracha, mi yadin is chayav bahen. So if you went through the experience, which is acknowledged in this bracha, you can say... So this fellow who asked me, he said, "What happens if you said it earlier? I forgot." And he said it, he said the, the brachas. So I said, "But you ever don't say the bracha again." Because

15:51 Rabbi Berel Levin, who was a tremendous talmid hokham and, uh, especially in Halakha, published so many sefarim in Halakha. And so he addresses this in his Sefer Ha-Or, in Dover Shalom. And he says, "Mipashas halosha nireh she'ba ze ha'yochel levoreich afill ha'koydem erayim." He understands that you could make a bracha, um, for the rooster even before erayim. But Rabbi Chaim Noah says otherwise. When he says, "My impression is that people would get up early, and would say all the brachas, and they even-- even they didn't change their clothes, and even if they didn't hear a rooster. And there were many Hasidim who, uh, just fall, fall asleep at the table by a, by a sefer. And then when they woke up in the morning, they didn't say Birkat Hasachar. So he said, "Well, you can't prove it as a solid proof," but that's, that's his in- his inclination. So therefore, if a person already said those brachas, I would say, listen, some people say yo yotzer. But lechatchilah, I'm, I'm not convinced, and I would say leave them for la'alot hasachar, and, um, say, say them after alot hasachar. Let's go on to the, the fourth question, and that is a boy who was born after shkiya and before tzeit hakochavim, was born in twi- during twilight. When does he become bar mitzvah? So here you have this in Siman Nun He. Siman Nun He talks about minyan, and therefore, all the questions of who is eligible to make up a minyan come up in

17:28 Siman Nun He. Just got to do with Kaddish. You need a minyan for Kaddish. That's how he comes in. Im hu yo ben ha-shmashot be'et haleida. If the... It was twilight during... When the bi- the baby was born. Then you know lei la'asafek. V'as li la'chumra be'chol dvor shemeida raye. So you'd go sfeika d'rayei sa'lachumra, and therefore, he, for din dayeira, he would not be bar mitzvah till the following day. Um, reading in this, you could say, "Well, if it's to make up a minyan, then that's not a din dayeira. It's a din derabona. Perhaps it should be more lenient." Um, but I believe that's the general mahalah, that a ben haShmashot's birth, one takes the following day. Um- And certainly when it's got to do a Bris on Shabbos, for sure you'd, you'd be machmir, but all right. That's another discussion. Okay, let's move on. So here, someone asks me that he's walking in the street, and there's some dog's excrement, and he asks whether he's allowed to say a brachah, a davar shebiktusha. So I want to discuss this a little bit, a little bit carefully to understand where we're coming from. So we have, you have the pasuk in Chumash where it tells us that when Yidden would go to, uh, a camp, to encampment. Uh, you know, the word campaign is from the same, same shoresh, the word in French, where a field is a, a champ, a field. So on the back, we're going out in a battlefield. So you

19:06 should be careful, mikil davaron. That's really... By the way, when the Rebbe was very concerned about, um, the drafting of girls into the army, in the Israeli army, this was one of the things which was very concerned that the bank-- the kedusha samachneh, you want to have that the Shechinah present there, and therefore to be very careful that there shouldn't be distractions from kedusha. Anyway, so there it first talks about if a person has, uh, something, an incident of personal, uh, impurity and goes to mikvah. Then it says, "Ve'yod tihiyeh lecho michutz la-machaneh ve'asasa sheomech..." You should have a place, a venue for relieving yourself outside the machneh. "Ve'yoset tihiyeh lecho al az inecho." You should have also with your equipment, you should have a, a piece of some kind of spade of sorts. And when you are, are gonna relieve yourself, then you're gonna use the spade and cover what you, what you, um, um, re- you know, left there. And if that's just to finish off. "Ki Hashem elokecho misalach bikenef machanecha." Because God, Hashem, your God, is with you in the midst of your camp. "La'atzilcho," to save you, "velos ei tzo'avecho lefanecha," and to put your, place your enemies in front of you and make them vulnerable to you. And, "Veho ye machanecha kodesh." Your camp should be pure. "Ve'lo yira becho." Everybody should not see something disgraceful. "Ve'shov me-acharecha," and that will cause the divine presence, "kiviochl," to go away from there. So this is where we're coming from. Whenever

20:35 we want to mention a davar shebekdusha, so we have to be careful that there shouldn't be something which is contradicting the kedusha samach-- the kedusha or kedusha samachneh. So this is, there's two areas. One is tzniyus, as in, uh, exposure of hu- humans, and that's one, one area, one siman is Shechinat Chein, I think it's siman ein hey. And then we have also about, um, sorry, uh, human, human waste. So then here's, here is the question, what about animal waste? So that you have here in Shechinat Chein. It's written beforush in Shechinat Chein in siman ain tes. I just felt it was kadai to discuss where the whole question comes from. So the Torah tells us very clearly that human waste would be, um, an objection to the presence of the Shechinah. But here, Shechinat says, "Tzoias kelev," the waste of a, a dog, or you have a chazir. If we place skins in them to work the skins, then you have to keep a distance like from human excrement. "Ve'im la," if not, "dinom k'mish tzoias she'ar behemah chayah ve'eyuf she'ein tzorech l'srach m'hem klal." You don't have to keep a distance from the object. "Ein bohem riach." They, there could be if there's no objectional s- smell. But if the, if the smell it doesn't bother you, just the presence, the presence alone is not a problem. "Im yesh bohem riach, ein tzorech leharchik, ela sheyichra ha'riach ve'lo yayase." If there's a smell, you keep a distance, the smell shouldn't bother you. I

22:07 just, uh, want to share this clarity that... And here, an animal waste is not included in the issue of, um, of kedusha samachneh. I made the mistake myself years ago and, um, was machmir on this, and then Rabbi Moshe Katzenelnbogen, alav ha-shalom, he corrected me that it's... Animal waste is not subject to this whole thing of, uh, kedusha samachneh. Okay, let's go on to the next point, and that is number six. Now, someone asked me, "Did anyo- anyone really ask this question about shadchanis?" A parent asking for shadchanis. So I don't make up the shailas usually. This is, this... And this wasn't made up. Uh, so here's the... This is what happened. There's, uh... And of course, I'm not gonna divulge any details. So there's mechutan and chasanah, and somehow he's getting kind of, um, vibes from the other side that, um, they sh- they should be given some kind of shadchanis. Because the idea of the shidduch came from the mechutanista, and, uh, therefore, and perhaps she's a, a bit of a part-time shadchanite also, and therefore kind of dropping these little, um, me-message, kind of reminders. So he asked me, "Tell me clearly yes or no, is it?" So here we are. I just wanted to put him on, but I, I, I sent him this clip. This is from the Sefer Shidduchim... Sorry, Sefer Hanissuin Kehil Chasam. And the source is from a Sefer Chut HaShoni, which is, I believe, from the Chavas Yair, in other words, about four hundred years ago.

23:52 And so I'm gonna read what it says here. "Parents of chosan kala who engaged with the shidduch of their children, they do not count as shadchanim when it comes to paying shadchanis." Even if... Now, here the question is, if there was a shadchan and a parent, and the parent was, was doing a lot of what shadchanim normally do, could they say to the shadchan, "You know what? You did fifty percent, I did fifty percent, and therefore I can deduct fifty percent from the shadchanis money." So that doesn't count. The sha- shadchan gets the full amount regardless of the fact that the parents had done a lot of shadchan role. That's the point which is being said here. And the way, if you look over the page, you see also the shadchan is a, how do you say, an agent, a mediator between two parties. The parties, they have an interest. They feel a duty, and they have an interest to make or find a shidduch for their child. And it could even be in another setting. If, if it's not, it isn't a child, it's a immediate relative, whatever the circumstances are. But they feel a duty to arrange, to find a shidduch for their, for their... Someone who's close to them. So then, and then they have someone, a mediator between the two to, to the other side. But the, the, the party, the, the parties who are, I don't know what the English word is, but the, the ones who are the interested

25:27 parties who need a mediator, they don't take shadchanus. They are, they are the interested parties, so the shadchanus is to mediate between them to, to kind of... to bring them together and work out terms, whatever it may be. So very clear that an immediate relative, certainly a child, where it's a par-parent's duty to do what they can to find a shidduch for a child, for sure they do not have any claim for shadchanus, um, for they having succeeded to find a shidduch for their daughter because... or their son, whatever it may be. Okay, um, question was asked, I had to answer it. Okay. And I'm sure that I'm not the only one who was asked this question. Right, um, so here's a question. Someone who is actually very in- unusual story, is married to a non-Jewish woman. Shomer Shabbos, davens possibly three times a day, but he's somehow unable to disconnect from his non-Jewish wife. Is-- Do, do we give him Aliyah to Torah? Now, so this is from the Sefer Nesivim B'Halachos where saying, stating that some poskim see the fact that a man has married a non-Jewish woman, that means he's dropped his Yiddishkeit totally, and therefore you shouldn't give him Aliyah to Torah. And you've got here a list of sources. Mishag, Micha Yitzchak, Igros Moshe, et cetera. And Igros Moshe says you can give him psicha. Well, and, and then here they have a... if zain. Certainly in Chabad houses, in, you know, in Chabad of places, they don't keep to

27:18 this. And, and it's important to note that this is not a clear-cut Halakha in Shulchan Aruch. This is a advice of poskim, and then... and they understand that someone who's married out has dropped his Yiddishkeit totally. That is not necessarily the case nowadays, um, and if they're coming persistently, they're coming regularly to, to shul, et cetera, so you wouldn't say they've dropped their Yiddishkeit. It's just they are in a circumstance they can't get out of it. So one-- I don't think one has to be, um... Well, one, one can look at it differently. So if you give Aliyah to Torah, I think there's, there, there's grounds to be made. You have to also be sensitive what's going to be the repercussions in the community, et cetera. Um, so there's... it's ele dyon ele. There's, there's room to decide one way or the other. Um, the person should be a chazan I think would be, um, even more of a question. Maybe, uh, give him Aliyah, that's for him. But to ask him to be the le- the leader of the community and to represent the community, so I don't think that's, that should be, um, should be allowed. Not, not as... not with an absolute source, but you see that the... that this is the tendency of the poskim. They look at it quite very strong, and we understand that very, very well. Let's move on. Okay. So someone's asking that they have a... someone's, um, friend who had a baby girl, and people are

29:04 saying, "You have to make a kiddush in this. You don't make a kiddush," da, da, da. It's going to be... It's important for the future of the child. And so they're asking two things. How important is it to make a kiddush? And number two, can they make an event during the week after Shabbos? So what you have on the screen is from the Sefer Shaar HaChaparis, from Shmuel Horovitz, zal zangia sunt, about the minhag. Well, you all know the minhag of making a kiddush after a baby, uh, girl, to thank Hashem. That's what the kiddush is for, to thank Hashem for, uh, the birth of this child. And it's an opportunity for the com-- for the other people, the community, to wish the parents to merit, legadla l'torah chuppah u'masse u'tevim, to bring up this child Torah chuppah, masse u'tevim. And he writes about making the kiddush on Shabbos. Okay. Um, I'm sorry I did not look up that note, number seven, where he says it should be done on Shabbos, uh, so I might get this wrong. Then in, in the notes, he brings from the Horen Steipler. The Horen Steipler said he was, um, married to a grandchild of the Tzemach Tzedek. So he... there's a story about him, about that, um, about the importance of making a kiddush to have the merit that ten Yidden will give, will give the brachah, zecha zain legadla Torah, chuppah, masse u'tevim. And one time, a father came to him with a complaint or the problem

30:34 that he can't find a shidduch. He's finding it difficult to find a shidduch for his daughter. And the, this Horen Steipler Rebbe said to him, "That's because you didn't give a kiddush when she was born. And like this, you prevented your daughter from having, um, the, the, the shidduch. Therefore, this next Shabbos, you provide a kiddush, and people should give you the blessing then like by the birth of a daughter." In other words, zechem Torah, chuppah, masse u'tevim. He did so, and indeed he was helped bekotov. And he gives a source, a Sefer, a Yona Halachas. I don't remember who the Sefer is. Okay, so you have there, there is this source. Does it have to be Dafke Shabbos? I don't know whether it has to be Dafke Shabbos. He writes it should be. Um, if there's reasons... Well, I'll have to look at it more again, more carefully. Um, I know there's many shluchim. Dafke avoid making a Kiddush on Shabbos because they don't want people, uh, their well-wishers to drive in, and therefore they make, uh, an event on a, on a Sunday or a Mon- whatever it is, they make another day and not to, to avoid Chilul Shabbos. If there's a mile of making it on Shabbos, the mile of avoiding it in Chilul Shabbos is probably a greater mile than making it on Shabbos. Okay, um, I see there's a few questions in the chat, so I'm gonna open that. So someone's asking about, about, uh, going back to the

32:02 shoes. Sheasli Kol Tzori. Why do we not say the Bracha Sheasli Kol Tzori and Tisha B'Av and on Yom Kippur, which is Chabad. Other communities do say. So, um, yeah. So when we say the, the whole world, Minchagas shel Olam, do we mean Goyim also, or do we mean Dafke Yidden? That's a famous discussion. Um, obviously, the Alter Rebbe is Minchagas shel Olam, means Minchagas shel Olam from, from, uh, of Yidden. And therefore, since on these days, they were-- uh, the Minchagas shel Olam is not to wear shoes, therefore we don't say those Brachos till the following day. Whereas, uh, Oval in Shiva Rachmana Lidlan does say the Bracha Sheasli Kol Tzori because of Minchagas shel Olam after Chatzoes. Someone's asking about this. Is the constant smell on a farm a problem for davening? That's an interesting point. Now, I've been told, and if you go to farms, you'll probably be able to corroborate one way or the other, that the, uh, the sense of smell and the offense of a bad smell lasts for about five minutes. After a while then, after that, you kind of just get... It doesn't bother you anymore. You've got these people working in fish shops a whole day, and it doesn't bother them. You go in, it's-- you've been assaulted with that smell, and after a few minutes, it doesn't bother you. Now, doesn't bother you may not be enough of a heter for davening. Um, perhaps even it doesn't bother you, if it still smells, that's a

33:39 good point. I guess you have to-- gonna have to find then somewhere a little bit away from the, uh, the smell in a way it's not so, not so offensive. Right. Um, likely publicizing the Shinuch issue prompted to others. Okay, let's move on. Number nine. So this is a question which s-someone brought to my attention about a young tree, and it was lifted from where it was growing and replanted, um, it was replanted elsewhere. Do you have to now start Orla, the three years of Orla all over again? So if you had taken the sapling, the young tree, without any soil, and then you replanted it, that's for sure you'd have to start counting years of Orla all over again. But here it was moved with enough soil that it was able to be sur-- to survive. So do you have to count Orla? By the way, it's good, good to know that the din of Orla applies to a potted tree also. It daf-- it doesn't have to be in the ground. Even if it's growing in a lot, you have a fruit tree growing in a pot, the dinim of Orla apply there. Okay, so the, the... In Eretz Yisroel, I know that when the farmers want to replant from the nursery, they want to replant a tree out in the orchards, they ha-- uh, if they have a Hashgacha, they have to tell the Mashgiach, and the Mashgiach will come out. They, uh, particular how to, to replant in a way that

35:22 Orla doesn't come in again. So now let's read. This is from the Sefer, um, Darche Emunah. Now, this is Chaim Kanievsky, alav hashalom, took the Rambam Hilchot Zroim, and he made it in a style of a Mishnah Berurah, where the top is the Ram- Mishnah Berurah, and underneath, he's got these Horot. So he says, writes the following. "U'keshe maavirin et han'tzitztzim an han'kuvim." When you're moving a plant pot which has got holes at the bottom, "yesh li zoher shelo yaaviru baoto shel mateches." It shouldn't be placed on the back of a, a truck, back of a lorry which has got a metal bed. "Kehai gavno dehavi kemafsik haya niko," because that is disconnecting its kind of connection to the ground through the air. "Ve'akim ho'oto nokuv kedin," if the, the floor or the bed of the truck was perforated, then mutu, that would be okay, or to use a trolley which has got, um, holes. So that's what they do nowadays in Eretz Yisroel. If they would be transferring a plant, a sapling from the nursery to the fie- to their field, to the orchard, they would use a, a trolley which has got... which is, uh, open at the bottom, so that there's, uh, there's an air connection between the soil. They are also particular not to ca-- not to go over concrete. If there's a, if there's gonna be a concrete path, so then that's also a moment where there's a disconnect between the plant and the soil, and then might be a

36:55 chiyuv Orla again. Now, all of this is, these are all on the level of chumras, and because there's a po... If there's the plant has got enough soil to live on, it's not disconnected from anything. It's a li- it's a living plant. So the, that's the meaning of LamhaChachmi. Now, there's a general rule that Safek Orla in Chutz La'aretz is mutar. So therefore, my answer to the, this question was that once it was replanted, you can rely on that it had enough soil to, to survive, and because it's Chutz La'aretz, you can be makeil. So although LeChatchilah, the advice would be as described over here, not to put it, not to disconnect it, uh, not to put something, a layer which, um, which disconnects it from the soil. But Bedieved, in Chutz La'aretz, you can be makeil. Um, someone asked... Now here, the story was a bit... Someone that s-sa-- he says, a woman he knows, her pa-- husband passed away, and she, she kn-he knows about the meaning of not using the shoes of the deceased. Um, some people have got to, to take the, make a, make a point of taking the... If you throw a pair of shoes into the bin, perhaps someone will pick up the, the, uh, the shoes from the bin. So you put the right shoes in the bin today, and the left shoes you put in the bin tomorrow, uh, or whatever, a few days later, in a way that they won't come together. Okay, right. What's

38:29 happened is that this woman has been going through various crises in her, uh, in her home, this, this widow. And the Shliach is asking, does it make sense to say that this has got to do with the fact that we have these, these shoes at home? So, well, that's, that's, that was the question was put to me. My answer, if you think... I don't want to keep you in suspense. Um, I, I told him that, that, uh, that, that the presence of the shoes in the house, that's not the problem, and we don't understand Ruchniyusika things. Tell the woman to, that she should write to, ask the Rebbe for a Bracha. She should make Hachlot Hatoiva, and that should be the Keli for the Bracha rather than going all, you know, these, these Derachim, which is not the kind of thing which, at least in Chabad, we don't dabble too much in this kind of stuff. So, but the source of this business about the shoes, you can see on the, on the screen, uh, is from, this is from the Kaf HaChaim. In, this is in Yoreh Deah. It's in the Kuftza Zayin, where it talks about Inyan of Sakona. So we have here, don't wear, one should not wear the shoes of the deceased. A Maiseh BeEchod, they gave him the shoes of a deceased, and he wanted to give them to a poor person, and he was told, "VeHa'avta Recha Kamocha," why are you giving it to a poor person? Sell them

39:50 to a Nochri, so it shouldn't be a Sakona for a Yid. And the money you should give to a, to the, give the money to the Ani. It's from Sefer Hasidim. Um, and it goes on to, a Goy will buy it, and you wear it for himself, but not that he should resell them further. So you can see there is, there is this concern that not to wear the, the, the shoes of the, of the Niftar. In the Sefer Shmiras Guf U'Nefesh, he's got a whole chapter about this. Some say it's only if the Niftar was wearing them at the time he died, et cetera. They're different, but the Pashtus, it doesn't seem to be that way. There is a, a Minig of not, um, using those shoes. Okay. But to say that therefore, since the shoes are in the house, therefore that's the explanation for the, for the s- for the, uh, crisis in the house, I felt that's going a bit, bit far. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, get rid of them, get rid of them, but... Just perhaps digress on this a little bit, that the Inyan of, of Chalitza. The Mitzvah of Chalitza is as if to say that the Niftar leaves, uh, a presence in this world. That's in the shoes, and that's the, the Mi- the Mitzvah of Chalitza, of removing the shoe from the, uh, widow in a way as to release her from the continued presence of the deceased in this world. There may be a Halacha background to

41:21 this, uh, or whatever, Kabbalah background for this Minig which is mentioned in the Bahiyudha Hasid. So someone's asking, is it only shoes or other cl-clothes? No, it's only shoes. This Kapayta is only about shoes. And as I just said, that may be relating to, uh, the Inyan of Chalitza, which has got to do with shoes. Right. Let's move on to number eleven. So a, a young, a Bocher sends me from the Eng- the English translated Siddur. You have this annotated Siddur, it's, Baruch Hashem, been very popular. And it has by Kiddush, glance at the Sha-Shabbat candles, then say Yom Hashishi. So this boy is writing, you can see he's writing beneath. I'm not sure I've seen, seen this instruction anywhere else. So I don't know if it's written differently in a different location, but I notice a lot of people look at the candles by Savri Maronon. That's one point. So where do you look, when do you look at the candles? And second thing he asked, he's seen, uh, are you meant to lift the Becher, the, the cup of Kiddush, by Savri Maronon? Doesn't know where he got it from. He'd like, wants to know if it's a thing. So for the second thing, I said, I don't know of a Minig to lift the cup by Savri Maronon. It could be some people like to do that by, um, at Havdalah, by, um, the words, when you say the words, um, Keis Ishuras Esar. So I know that many people do have

42:55 the Minig, well, kind of acting out the words of, uh, Keis Ishuras Esar, lifting the cup. Okay. But, um, main, the main thing I wanted to focus is on the first point about the Minig of looking at the candles. So looking around, this brought me to the Rebbe's Haggadah. So in the Rebbe's Haggadah, he writes, you start Yom Hashishi. Because the, although it's not, it's not in the... The Yom HaShishi is, is not the m- It's the end, last two words of the passage. By Yom HaShishi ve chu lashamaim, is Rosh Chodesh Yud Heh Vav, okay? That's why we say those words, Yom HaShishi, okay? U'cheshemaschil, when you start Yom HaShishi, yitein einov b'neiros. You should look at the candles. U'beshas birchas hakidush b'chais. When you say the, the brocha of kiddush, you look at the cup. And this, the Rebbe gives a reference to the Ramoh in Yichas Shabbos, siman res ain alef, Sif Yud. So, the Ramoh brought this source, the Minag HaMeril of looking at the candles. And then he says, when the dinim of bir-- of, of Kos Shel Brocha, there's a din to look at the cup. Yitein einov bo. To reconcile this, he says, earlier on, you look at the candles, and later, you look at the cup. So that's why he... This is the Ramoh. U'cheshemaschil, uh, y-yitein einov b'neiros. U'beshas hakidush b'chais, you should look at the cup. K'mei b'kos shel brocha, as in the Kos Shel Brocha, v'chein nirah li. That is m-- That's his reconciliation.

44:33 Now, then we have the Alter Rebbe in the Shulchan Aruch, and it's also the same place in Sif Yud Tes. U'ches... And he talks about, you start off Yom HaShishi ve chu lashamaim, Rosh Chodesh of Yud Kei Vav, okay? U'cheshemaschil in tov yitein einov b'neiros. So when you start. What does that mean, start? You start Yom HaShishi. And he says, "What's these... What's... Why do you look at the candles?" Because ner is two hundred and fifty. Twice two hundred and fifty is tw- is five hundred, and that is refuah for someone who has been walking quickly. Because it says if a person walks with very wide strides, so it deprives him of one, uh, out of five hundred from his eyesight, and that's restored by the candles of Friday night. So that's the remez and the minhag of looking at the candles. Aval b'shaas birkas hakidush, tzorech yitein einov b'chais. But when it's birkas hakidush, you should be looking at the cup. Now, the, so the Rebbe's, the, the Alter Rebbe and the Shu- the Ramoh seem to be very similar. I'm just intrigued what happened here. Why does the Rebbe in the Haggadah refer us to the Ramoh, when usually he refers us to the Shulchan Aruch? And looking, even reading it more carefully, the notion of birkas hakidush. The word birkas hakidush is the Alter Rebbe's lotion. U'beshas birkas hakidush, whereas the Ramoh said beshas hakidush. So the Rebbe has in front of him, he has the Alter Rebbe, and he has the

46:06 Ramoh, and he uses the lotion of the Alter Rebbe, yet he refers to the Ramoh. What is clearer in the, in the lotion birkas hakidush? You shouldn't think it means just bore pri hagafen. Birkas hakidush means the long brocha shekiachadnu. So again, if you look at the Ramoh, beshas hakidush b'kos. Could say perhaps it means b-b-b'dihagafen, but birkas hakidush is clear. It means the brocha over the long brocha in addition to b-b-b'pri hagafen. So I'm, I'm... I don't have an explanation why the Rebbe refers to the Ramoh rather than the Alter Rebbe. But meanwhile, we do have a clear source for this minhag as it's lit-written here, glance at the candles, at the Shabbos candles, and to say Yom HaShishi. Um, let's move on. So last, was it last week or two weeks ago, we had a discussion about a man who, uh, he lives alone, and he lights candles, and then he comes to shul. And I, I said I had a problem that you're meant to be Mekabel Shabbos within ten minutes after lighting candles. Although a man doesn't have to be Mekabel Shabbos right away, as a woman does, but it has to be close by. And therefore, I had the, the problem, what happens with Mincha? By the time he gets to shul until they start Mincha, it's more than ten minutes. He may be Mekabel Shabbos. Therefore, like a woman's Mekabel Shabbos by lighting candles, and therefore she can't daven Mincha afterwards according to the Alter Rebbe. So the same

47:47 thing would be a man. He's Mekabel Shabbos. That was the discussion last week. So someone wrote to me that this idea that, um, when you light candles al tnai, you have to be Mekabel Shabbos, um, l-alter shortly thereafter. It's only if you're m- lighting the candles long before zman. But if you're lighting the candles just before zman, then it's okay. You don't have to be Mekabel Shabbos. Ten minutes doesn't matter. This, the ten-minute margin is, it, it doesn't apply. I, I'm, I'm not so happy with that. And so I do have... I saw in the Sefer N- from Rav Gedaliah Oberlander. He has a Sefer, Ner Shabbos. He brings this, and he seems to be accepting this. I don't understand this. And that is, you have a margin of an hour and a quarter from Plag Hamincha before sunset, and that's the time when you can choose to be Mekabel Shabbos earlier or later. As we know that in the wi- in the summer, we have a challenge that some people want to s- be Mekabel Shabbos at seven o'clock, and you can't before seven thirty because it's before Plag Hamincha. But from Plag Hamincha until sunset, all of that time is potential Kabbalah Shabbos. Where do you draw the line, close or far? W- How, how... Is it half an hour earlier? Is it that close, or is it far? I don't know where you're get-- No, you're, you're telling me a new thing. That th-this idea that it's, if it's, um, close to

49:29 Shabbos, then, then let's say twenty minutes before Shabbos, you say, "Oh, it, then it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be Mekabel Shabbos after ten minutes." But if it's half an hour before Shabbos, then it does have to. Where do you draw the line? I don't really understand this. So Rav Oberlander, in his Sefer, he gives us two references. One is to a Sefer Nezer Yisroel. And he brings this idea that you can make, um, a tnai. You can make a condition, a stipulation not to be Mekabel Shabbos. And he brings from the Alter Rebbe, She'tad le... kodem shiur tosfo Shabbos. Um, sorry. She'tnai zeh mah ani bemakom hatzorech. Mekabel kem ein lo lechas nos. ein lo im ken abba yikabel Shabbos somuch lahath lakoso. That's what the Alter Rebbe says. If a woman, let's say she has to go somewhere and do melacha, she wants to light candles before she leaves the house, then it's imperative that the husband mekabel Shabbos, uh, if sh- instead of her. And then he brings this mesah shiur tosfo Shabbos. If it's before the shiur of tosfo Shabbos, it doesn't, doesn't help. I'm just gonna go to the second source, and then we'll discuss it a little bit more. Now, this, the first one, as I said, this is Sefer Neziah Yisroel, which is, which, you know, be- before the war seems to have been a very popular Sefer. It's quoted a lot in Sheminat Shabbos Kol Kasa and others. Then we have the Minchat Shabbos, which is

51:00 a commentary on the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Minchat Shabbos. So he refers us to the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, where he says, Ein lo lechasnois tnai ze. A woman wants to light candles on condition not mekabel Shabbos, but it's im-imperative that the husband then would have to be mekabel Shabbos shortly after her lighting. Otherwise, it's going to be, um, you have to put it out and light it again, lekovod Shabbos. Okay, now we know. Ve'ayin Devar Chaim bedin hachnosat Shabbos. And, uh, uh, Devar Chaim, from Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, from him that you get the impression that within the shiur of tosfo Shabbos, which is seventy-two minutes before three stars emerge, then you can make a tnai. And if you may, if she can make a tnai and the husband doesn't have to be mekabel Shabbos. But if you light them before the shiur of tosfo Shabbos of seventy, what do you say, seventy-two minutes, then the condition doesn't help, and then he has to be mekabel Shabbos right away. So all of this became, became very suspicious to me, and I'm gonna explain to you what's bothering me. There is the shiur of Rabbeinu Tam, and there's the shiur of the Geonim. That you've got seventy-two minutes is the span of Ben Hash... Of, from, from the sunset until it's to-totally pitch black. Rabbeinu Tam has his shiur towards the end of that seventy-two minutes. The Geonim have their sh- their, um, their Ben HaShosha at the beginning of that, of that seventy-two minutes. So when

52:39 he says seventy-two minutes before stars emerge, he's, he's obviously going according to Rabbeinu Tam. That you have, um, you have the shiur of Rabbeinu Tam, and you have some fifteen minutes before that is, is... It's, it's ready. The sun has set already, but it's still voluntary to be mekabel Shabbos. That doesn't work for us because we're going into the Geonim and your, um, your, your zman for Kabbalah Shabbos is from Plag Hamincha, which is an hour and a quarter before, before sun, before sunset. And I just have here the Devar Chaim on the screen also. You can see that he's clearly, um, he says, let's have a couple of minutes. He says, um, fifty-eight minutes before this zman, as you mentioned before, is the time of tosfo Shabbos, where it's your choice whether you want to be mekabel Shabbos then or not. If she wants to light m'Plag Hamincha. Now, if you've got seventy-two minutes, Plag Hamincha is, is seventy-five minutes. Whatever. You know what? I'm g-just gonna leave it. I'm, I'm just really not confident with this whole thing of saying that, uh, that, um, if it's close to the zman of, of, of, uh, beginning of Shabbos, then this stipulation of the Alter Rebbe of having to be mekabel Shabbos miyad, they say it doesn't apply. Um, I really don't feel it's, it's got a, a proper source. They say these other... The Devar Chaim is following Shiur of Rabbeinu Tam. Okay, uh, what do we have else? Oh, about the egg rolls.

54:15 So someone... So, so we... At about th-three weeks ago, someone s-had sent me a picture of egg rolls where the pastry, it seems to be a hamotzi pastry. It's filled with e-egg or some other filling. And I'd said, according to the Alter Rebbe, if it were baked, if you have a regular dough baked, the fact it's filled with savory food rather than with sweet food does not make it mezonot. So if it's a, a hamotzi pastry filled with nuts and raisins, then that would make it hamotzi. That would make, make it mezonot. So kokosh or something like that would be mezonot because the filling reduces it from a bread to become a snack food. Um, whereas if the filling is the ki- like a knish, the kind of stuff which you'd have a-at a meal, meat or whatever, so what's the difference whether you have the bread with the meat, uh, meat separately, or you have the bread, the meat inside the bread? That's still meal stuff. And that's the difference for pizza. The, the fact that you have a dough and you have, um, and you have cheese. So according to the opinion that says any filling reduces from hamotzi to mezonot, so pizza would be auto-automatically mezonot. But if you say that it's, uh, it's only a sweet filling which reduces it to mezonot, so pizza, the, the base, if it's a hamotzi dough, would be, uh, pizza would be hamotzi. So, and indeed, so now someone tells, sends to me a message

55:37 that he used to live in Borough Park, and he, he, um, he was told that the s-stores which are selling pizza, and they have the hishtalshel from the hisgahatus, they were told to make the pizza dough with milk. And they didn't want to rely on fruit juice because fruit juice is, especially, you know, many times it's reconstituted. They've taken, um- concentrate and added water to it, and they, they weren't happy to rely on that to make it mezoinus. So he found it interesting that these Achdus Hercher, uh, were following like the Alter Rebbe that for a pizza dough to be mezoinus, it'd have to be, um, you can't rely on the cheese. It'd have to be made with milk or something like that. I told him I'm really not surprised. First of all, it's a Mehadrin. Uh, uh, you know, they, they, that's their mission is a Mehadrin Hercher. And especially in the, in the Satmar crowd, there's a, it's very great reverence for the Alter Rebbe's Shechinach Roch. And therefore, I'm not surprised that they have accepted this Chumrah of the Alter Rebbe, um, that, uh, to make it Hamotz, to make it mezoinus, it'd have to be, uh, the dough itself would have to be made with fruit juice, and the, the presence of cheese on top of it baked with it wouldn't be enough to make it mezoinus. Finally, uh, this is my last thing for this evening, and that is we had this discussion about using, giving your knives to a

57:01 Goyshe, um, tool sharp- knife sharpener. So someone's sending me the following. The same machine is used... This is from CRC, I believe, from the Chicago Rabbinical, um, Congress, whatever it's called. So, um, so it, it writes the following. The same machine is used to sharpen the clean kosher and non-kosher knives, and the friction created by the process does heat up the knives somewhat. If that heat would be above Yad Soledesbury, there would be a potential for belias to transfer between machinery and the knives. However, in tests which Rabbi Neustadt from the CRC performed in one sharpening company, the sharpening wheel and the cooling water where that was used were consistently cooler than a hundred degrees Fahrenheit and were not hot to the touch. As such, it appears that this does not pose a serious concern. And I believe I said something similar, um, that it's... I'm talking on the level of a Chumrah, a Mehom- a Hedur, Min Hadin, there is room to be Mekel, but it would be a Chumrah to, um, keep them away from, from the Goyshe things. Right. Um, right. I think that's enough for tonight, and I'm gonna wish you all a Gut Voch, and if you have Besuras Tovis and Besuras Hagaula, Mashiach Tzidkeinu Bemheira, Yomenu Hamish. Amen. Yasher koach. Amen. Gut Voch. Well, someone's just asked, can we, um, sharpen