חוקת תשפ״ה

00:07 Speaker 1 Evening. Welcome to today, tonight's Shiur. Uh, Thursday, your Parshah Chukas, Tof Shin Peh He. And we're gonna start off with a first question on our list, and that is in Shabbos Davening. So I have in front of me a siddur called Sha'al Amura Siddur. Sha'al Amura is the, uh, publishing name of one of the part- previously partners of the Eshkol Company. Family's name is Weinfeld, and hence the name Eshkol. But then one of the sons, uh, started up his own business, and he calls... His, his name is, I think, um, Shmuel Yehuda, Shmuel Yehuda Weinfeld. So he hence his, his pen name is Sha'al Amura. So he published a siddur with Nusach Chabad, uh, several years ago. And, uh, in Shabbos, Friday night, where we say, "Va'anhilenu Hashem Elokeinu b'ahavah berotzon Shabbos kodshecha," um, "Bequeath to us Your, uh, holy Shabbos." So he has a note, which when I was working on the new edition of the siddur, I wasn't aware of this, someone brought it to my attention. That in the siddur printed in Bardichev, in the Toaf Kohein Ches by the Mitteler Rebbe, there the vowels are not Shabbos kodshecha, but Shabbos kodshecha. And so he wants to give explanation for that, and I want to explore whether it's Shabbos kodshecha or Shabbos kodshecha, um, and the consequences of this. Well, so in Hebrew, we have a structure of, um, uh, when it's... When one is kind of possessive of the other, so that changes. It's like you've got ketones and ketones pasim.

02:23 Speaker 1 So the change, the word, it changes because it's, um, whether it's just on its own a shirt, or it's a shirt which has stripes. So then it becomes ketones pasim. So the word Shabbos kodshecha. So how would we translate this? Does it mean the Shabbos of your holiness, or is it your holy Shabbos? Now, in English, the, the ti- the, uh, adjective comes before the noun. So we say the large house, the big man, and so on. In Hebrew, it's the other way around. The adjective comes after. Bayis gadol, adam chazak, and so on. Fine. So it is also therefore conceivable that the holy Shabbos, the, the kodesh is... The holiness is the adjective, and it's describing the Shabbos. So therefore, instead of understanding it, the Shabbos of your holiness, we understand this as your holy Shabbos. The fact that the kof, ko, comes after the, the word kodesh is, um, forgivable in Hebrew. And imagine as if it re- it had been written Shabbos ko hakodesh or Shabbos ko hakodesh. What I'm trying to... So you have here in, on the screen, you've got from the Sefer Michlol from the Radak. Before that, the, uh, Rav Shlomo Sofra points out that the wording Shabbos kodshecha rather than Shabbos kodshecha, I believe, is because of that's how it's described in Nehemia. As you can see, the pasuk in Nehemia was, "Shabbos kodshecha ohehdah et olehem." That doesn't change the need for an explanation of how to understand that those, those words. It's just that we've,

04:29 Speaker 1 we've got a precedent. Shabbos kodshecha rather than Shabbos kodshecha is in, in the pasuk in Nehemia. Now, what the Radak says is that in Hebrew, there's often a kind of a, a easygoingness with the order. For example, we have the word keves and kesef. We have nig- nigzarnu lanu, or sometimes we have nig- nigraz, for example. Um, you have salei, sakeil, whatever. He gives various examples, but that's in the sequence of the letters of a shoresh. But then he says also in... Well, let's say, see his, his example, "Vatosem bapuch eineha." So that's a pasuk in Melachim. She put on some kind of, I don't know, cosmetic, mascara on her eyes. So it should really... It real- What it really means is, "Vatosem puch be'eineha." She put this mascara on her eyes. So the base, when it says, "Vatosem bapuch," it should really be, the base is really be'eineha. But that is the, that is the style in Hebrew. It often will switch things around, and it leaves this, uh, for us to work it out. And for example, he brings here, "Bo Mitzrayma olish bo El Yosef." Well, actually- The bow Mitzrayim El Yosef Lishbor. They came to, to Mitzrayim, to Yosef, to acquire provisions. And so on. He brings various examples. And this is... So the editor of the, um, Shi-Siddur Shabsi Sofer wants to say the same thing as over here. That the kodshecha is, is the, is the adjective, and it's as if it had been written Shabbos kodshecha. Now, once,

06:32 Speaker 1 once we've, uh, k- said that it's not a mechuber, it's not a tafal. The Shabbos is not tafal to the Kodesh. It makes more sense to read as Shabbos kodshecha. But because we've got the precedent in the Pasuk Nehemia, so it remains in the, with the Pasuk rather than with the comments. Okay. But, uh, the, the, the translation of that, that phrase is not the Shabbos of your holiness, but the... your holy Shabbos. And Shabbos is the main word here. Fine. Now, that also, to me, explains a little bit more. So, uh, which before I go further. So the, uh, uh, as the Shaila Murray does point out, there is a print in Tov Kof Ayin Ches, which has Shabbos, um, Shabbos kodshecha. But before that print and after that print, it remains Shabbos kodshecha, and that's because we've got the precedent in the Pasuk. But the understanding of it is as if it were written Shabbos kodshecha, your holy Shabbos. That explains for me a little bit more why on Shabbos Mincha. Now, Shabbos Mincha, we have the development that instead of a Yanuchuvot or Yanuchuvot, the feminine or the masculine, we have a Shabbos Mincha, a Yanuchuvot. It becomes plural. And because of that, there had to be a change. Instead of Shabbos kodshecha, it had to become Shabbos, Shabbos kodshecha. And so there are those who question. Since it's, they saw this as a, as a Smichus, so why is it Shabbos kodshecha? It should be Shabbos kodshecha. And what I'm answering

08:20 Speaker 1 now is that really, in principle, it should have been Shabbos kodshecha also, but we've got the Pasuk. There, we don't have a Pasuk, and therefore it remains Shabbos kodshecha, your holy Shabbos, which is in concept more correct. I just... As I, I, I sent this out this afternoon, so I got a little feedback. One from one of our... Well, somebody read my, my list of points, and he says that in the Shaila Murray siddur for Kiddush, for Friday night, it says, "Shabbos, Shabbos kodshecha, b'yavo u'rotzin chatan." Now, uh, I wanna just share with you that I'm a shtikel mechutan with the Weinfeld's. And a couple of years ago, I was at a Sheva Berachos with the Weinfeld family, and, um, it came up. This very point came up. And they, uh, as far as I remember, they accepted that it wasn't correct. It... In... When we have in the davening, Shabbos is vehanchalenu b'yavo u'rotzin Shabbos kodshecha. That's a pause. Therefore, it's with a segol. When it's in middle of a sentence, it's not Shabbos kodshecha b'yavo u'rotzin, Shabbos kodshecha b'yavo u'rotzin. That's because in, in, in middle of a sentence, you wouldn't have the, the, the, the meseg to bring it down to Shabbos kodshecha, Shabbos kodshecha. Which brings me, me inyan, le inyan, that on, at Kiddush, at, on Yom Tov. I'm just trying to find this over here in the siddur. Now, my late father-in-law, Rabbi Zidlikal Avrohom, I noticed that he would say in the Kiddush of Yom Tov, he would

10:00 Speaker 1 say kodshecha, although in the siddur it says kodshecha. Um, not as if he was, you know, so much into dikduk. He p- Ob-obviously, he did receive that from earlier. So I'm, I'm, I'm reading now from the siddur. Um, we have in our siddur, "Umeyade kodshecha, besimcha v'sosin hinchaltanu." Now, the same objection, it's the middle of a sentence. And therefore, it would be more logical to have a umeyade kodshecha, besimcha v'sosin hinchaltanu. And he, he actually did it that way. Uh, and in the new edition of the siddur, I have actually sources of where they do have umeyade kodshecha rather than umeyade kodshecha. In Shemoneh Esreh, it's umeyade kodshecha, um, because it's a pause there. But in Kiddush, where it's the middle of a sentence, it should be umeyade kodshecha, besimcha v'sosin. So much for the dikduk for those who love it and for those who don't. We're going on to the next topic. Okay. Um, so someone asked me. He, he sells tallisim. And what he's noticed, that a lot of people locally are buying tallisim online from elsewhere. And he's asking, "Is that, uh, correct, or should they be buying locally?" Of course, it would make more sense if the people, if the customers would ask the question rather than the, than the vendor, but fine. Meanwhile, that was the question. So you have, you have a concept of... Well, this is in, you have this in front of you. In the Altar Rebe's Shechinach, Dinim Mechira. Everyone's familiar with the concept, oiconoi miyad

11:40 Speaker 1 misecha, that one should give preference to buy from a Yid rather than from a Eino Yehudi. Well-known. There are also other preferences, priorities, but whatever the word is, in selling or dealing with. So let's take a look at what we have on the screen. So it has here, it's Sif He, Halachas Mechira. One who's selling land or a house, and there's two customers, and both of them are ready to pay a s- similar price. And neither of them is an immediate neighbor to the no din of bar mitzvah. So then you've got two buyers. One of them is local and one from the same town, one is from further afield. So then, um, so Ben Ira Koidem, the one from the local city is, has priority over someone from another city. Both of them are from the same city, from your city. One of them is a neighbor. So then the neighbor takes priority. What the exact definition of a neighbor, and it's not next door, I'm not sure, but let's move on. Then we have, if one of them is a close friend and another neighbor is not such a close friend. So then you give priority to your friend over your, uh, neighbor. And so it goes, goes on for various. You know here about giving priority to... And therefore, the same thing applies by buying, selling, and one should give the business to someone close by, yoshvei iroi, rather than people from another city. The question, coming back to the basic thing,

13:23 Speaker 1 economy Adam Yisro, which is the most relevant for us. And the question is, and actually Minchas Yitzchak, which I've put a reference to, uh, in the notes. Minchas Yitzchak lived in Manchester, later in, uh, Tsestrov. He was Ra-- a Haredist. But he was asked, uh, you know, got Jewish grocery shop, and then you got, uh, opens up a supermarket, a, a, a chain, a chain store opens up in the same area. And of course, they are able to sell at much lower prices because they buy in huge quantities. Is there a duty on people to, on the Yidden to keep on patronizing the Jewish store, even though they can get the same products much cheaper at the, uh, at the, the chain store? So here you have, uh, on the screen what... So that there is the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat, uh, was taken by Rebbe Yaakov Meir Stern of Neberak, and he used this as a basis for what he calls hi-his, his Yalcut on Halachas, you know, money matters. And the, uh, the Alter Rebbe's, uh, Halachas Choshen Mishpat is kind of more the ethical. I call it the Aracha'im of Choshen Mishpat. So, uh, the, so the Rebbe Yaakov Meir, the Imrei Yaakov, he published a very beautiful volume with a Yalcut of various, uh, commentaries on this. And so now he writes that numerous Poskim say that even if the... Here we got two buyers. One is, um, Beni Yisroel and one is not. Even if the Nochri is

15:03 Speaker 1 ready to pay more, you should still sell to the Yid for a lower price than to Nochri for more. And, um, and the same thing when it comes to buying. You should be ready to buy from a Yid even though it'll cost you a little bit more. Um, the source for this is when it says in the Gemara, uh, about lending money. And lending money to a Yid without ribbis should be given priority to lending money to a Goy with ribbis, which obviously means that there is a, going to be a, a, uh, difference in, in money. And still, Torah expects us to give priority to a, to a, to a Yid. Okay, but then here's a very important rider. Avel ze davka. This is only when the difference between the two prices, the two, uh, profits, is dover mu'et b'levat. If it's a minor difference between one and the other, then you should be machdim Yisroel and Nochri. But if it's not a dover mu'et, it's a dover gadol, then you don't have this duty to, to, to, to give preference to a Yid. Uh, so therefore, that goes back to the supermarket story that if they... It might be on one product. It might be, um, a minimal difference. But if you do a whole shopping, uh, trip, uh, spend however much it may be, fifty, sixty, a hundred, two hundred pounds, and so, and then the difference between one, uh, s- shop and the other is gonna be quite significant, then you

16:38 Speaker 1 don't have a chiyuv to patronize the Jewish store, uh, if the difference is gonna be significant. You might get better service by the Heimische store. Well, that, that's gonna be your cheshbon. How do you define a dover mu'et? I think it's very much up to the person in, in the, the, uh, the spender. Is that, uh, difference significant to them? Then it's a dover... It's not a dover mu'et. If it's not so significant, then it's a dover mu'et. Right. I see someone's put on here, um, main chat. I can't see the message. No. Okay, let's move on. So someone asks me, can we make a siyum Sefer Torah, ha'noss Sefer Torah, siyum Sefer Torah during the three weeks? So this seems to boil down to a difference between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim, because as you can see on the screen, we've got here from Siman Tov, Kuf and Alef, about from Rosh Chodesh of not making weddings. And then that's the Ram- the Mechaber. Then the Ramos says, V'norgan lo hakmir, not to make weddings from Shiva Asar B'Tammuz all the way through to Tisha B'Av. So until Rosh Chodesh, the Mechaber doesn't have a, doesn't object to making chasunas. Therefore, it would be the same thing when making a, a Simcha of ha'noss Sefer Torah. According to Ashkenazim, it would follow lechayei the same rules. And also, it's not so meforshem, but here we have a letter of the Rebbe The manner of the midova, you're talking about the Hachnasat Sefer Torah, and,

18:19 Speaker 1 uh, the, the, the oppor-opportune occasion would be Ben Hametzorim or right after Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av. So the Rebbe says the second Sefirah, that it should be already in the nine days. Mushalele is for sure not okay. Also, during Ben Hametzorim, that means from Shavuot and Tammuz until Rosh Chodesh, also le- yesh lis anyen bedavar. If you look into it more carefully, is it possible to find a more appropriate time? Megal galil zechut l'Yom Zichron. We look to do something of merit on the day of merit. So the Rebbe doesn't give a, an outright no. Uh, he does seem to be though not so, uh, enthusiastic about doing it in the three weeks. And, uh, as you see, it's-- it happens to be that the person who asked this question, the donor, is actually a Sephardi. So for Sephard-- But it's, it's a done-- Is, is the, the Hachnasat Sefer Torah is to a Beis Chabad. So does the minhag of the donor prevail or does the minhag of Chabad prevail? I feel that in this, it's a Chabad institution, you should follow Minhag Chabad, and looks like the Rebbe is not so keen, and so try to find-- arrange it outside the three weeks. Okay. I'm going on to another point, and that is I had recently a conversation about te- tefillahs in Aramaic. Okay. So we know that, uh, it says in Shulchan Aruch, it says Siman Kuf Aleph, you have it on the screen. That you can daven, Hashem, you can pray

19:59 Speaker 1 in any language. That's really when you're davening, um, the tzibur, which is so interesting because you hardly hear a tzibur davening in English. But okay. Beyochid, you shouldn't da-- you should daven in Lashon Hakodesh. Because the Malachei HaShareis, they don't recognize other languages, and the yochid needs to have a malach, meilitz. Malach to kind of present that his tefillah should be accepted. A tzibur does not need to have a meilitz because it says, "In keel kav b'velo yimos," when there's a Rabim, Hashem will not despise that tefillah. On this, uh, so this is in Siman Kuf Aleph, in Hilchas Tefillah. At this point, in the Mishneh Berurah, he says, "Therefore, a beyochid should not say Yikum Purkan. Either you-- Show Yikum Purkan." That's what the Mishneh Berurah says. And there seems to be support for this. This is, as you see on the screen, from the Ohr HaTzaruah, Rabbi Yitzchak of Vinn. Um, I th-think he's a father of the Ravyoh or the son of the Ravyoh, but from that period. And he writes that why do we say Yikum Purkan in Aramaic and Kaddish in Aramaic, although the Malachei HaShareis can't handle it? It's because it's said with tzibur. So according to this, Yikum Purkan, uh, on your own should not be said. But you look in our siddur and it says, "Before the second Yikum Purkan," there's two Yikun Purkans. One is a prayer or a br- blessing for the Talmidei Chachamim, the other one is for the call-- the, the, the community.

21:42 Speaker 1 And so it has in the Alter Rebbe's siddur, "Hamispalel beyochid b'beis," or something like that, "should, uh, should not say the second Yikum Purkan, nor the Mi Sheberach of Kol HaKodesh Hazeh," which clearly implies that the first Yikum Purkan should be said even beyochid. Now, in the siddur, which was published recently, I'd written I hadn't found a source before the siddur, before the Alter Rebbe to make this, uh, distinction between the first and the second Yikum Purkan. And I looked into the standard sources, Shulchan Aruch, Siddur Yaakov Emden, and I didn't see any point, any, any comment. Or also Rabbi Dovid Henich siddur, I didn't see. But having searched now, I came across the-- This is from a siddur printed in Frankfurt, Tov Nun Zayin. That's, um, a year before the Baal Shem Tov was born. Now, you can try to wade with me-- struggle with me with this language. This is the old Yiddish script. In old Sforim, they used to have a, not the kind of script which we use. It's not Rashi. It's another script which was used for the Yiddish in, uh, in, in various Sforim printed in that, that period. "Die leit, die och-- uh, die oif yeshuvim voynen, die nit in, in minyan mispallel zayn, um, vel nit" something. Um, uh, they shouldn't, they should not say the under Yikum Purkan, "och nit Mi Sheberach." Um, I hope I got it right, but it approximately seem to be saying that. That the, that the second Yikum-- If you're in

23:31 Speaker 1 a small town where there's no small village, whatever, there's no, there's no minyan. So don't say the second Yikum Purkan nor the Mi Sheberach. So the minhag which the Alter Rebbe writes about not saying the second Yikum Purkan, im-- And of course, then you do say the first Yikum Purkan, seems to be quite widespread. And it's also in later siddurim. After the Alter Rebbe, I saw it in the Numa siddurim, the Munkacser siddur, and, uh, the Buchacher siddur. So it seems to be-- Althou- so-- Although the Mishneh Berurah said, "Don't say Shemu Yikum Purkan," but that does not seem to be the widespread minhag. And we're back to the question. How do you handle the fact that Malachim, uh, can't handle a tefillah in Aramaic? So someone shared with me the Svara. To say that Yikum Purkan is not a tefillah, but it's a bracha. So here you have on the bottom of the screen from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, Siman Resh Pe Dalet. That's just after Krias HaTorah. After Torah. And he talks about n-saying, um, nis-- um, some kind of, um, Makeil Malarei Rachamim. Now, bracha for the oysvim tzibur, and the minhag to say Yikum Purkan. And then he adds, "Ve'ein bechol zeh misom isur techinah beShabbos." This doesn't fall into the isur of pleading on Shabbos. "She'ein zoi techinah, ello bracha." It doesn't qualify as a, as a techinah, as a plea, but as a bracha. And that's why you're allowed to say it on Shabbos. So this, uh, correspondent

25:10 Speaker 1 of mine wanted to say the same-- to use this distinction also vis-a-vis the union of Aramaic and Malachim. To say that which you need to have the Malachim to elevate, and, uh, therefore Aramaic is a problem, that's for a tefillah. But if it's a bracha, then it's okay, um, to say it in Aramaic. And I asked him, "What's the svara in your mind to differentiate as far as Malachim? Why do Malachim-- Why do we not need Malachim for brachos, only for tefillahs?" So he said a svara, and I'm gonna give it over. Okay. That there's a difference explained in Chassidus very much. The difference between bracha and tefillah. Tefillah is to reach out, to, uh, to be a new rotsa. So tefillah has to be oila. The bracha is more like the idea of, of there's a pool, and there's a resource, and you're instructing, you're kind of directing that to the recipient. Yaakov Avinu gives a bracha to Menashe and Ephraim, so there is a resource which is allocated to Menashe, a different resource to Ephraim, and he is kind of bringing it down. So it's-- But it's, it's a different, different, um, union. Union is a nice word. It's like, uh, abstract, you know. Um, all right. So that's, that's, that's the, the svara. And which, which explains also what-- when I wrote about this in the siddur, the same poskim who say not to say the second yukon prakon, say when it comes to selichos, when you're saying selichos on your own,

26:53 Speaker 1 you should miss out the paragraphs, "Machir mase, mase machir..." Towards the end of selichos, there's a, uh, couple of paragraphs in Aramaic, and they say you should skip those bra-- those paragraphs when you're davening beyachid. So why yukon prakon yes, and machir mase not? Now we have a shtikel explanation. The machir mase is a prayer. It's a tefillah. And therefore, if you're beyachid, you shouldn't say it. Whereas yukon prakon, which is a bracha rather than a tefillah, and not rather than a tefillah, it's okay to say beyachid. That's what I can suggest. Um, just if anyone has the, uh... If you want to, in, in the new of-- newest volume, Nesivim B'Halacha U'Minhag, I have there a, uh, comparison of different selichos, whether you say machir mase at the end or a different tefillah in Aramaic. But ein cha-am bochim le, le'charech boze. Let's go on to the next topic. Next question. So davening, someone's asking, we, uh, have very long, very long days at this time of the year, and so some people can't handle it, so they daven ma'ariv with an earlier minyan, ma'ariv after, after plag, and they're relying on Rebbe Yehuda. Someone's asking about Minchas Chabad about this. Now, we do have the idea of, first of all, what's Minchas Chabad to daven b'zman? Well, you know what? Minhag is you can go, "Puk chazi ma ayam ha'dabar." You see what people are doing, and, uh, for years, that's what we've been doing. We've been davening ma'ariv b'zmanoy. Even on Friday

28:32 Speaker 1 night, where it's a huge, uh, tircha, and it does obviously cause, uh, difficulty to have your family, uh, not being able to stay awake for the Seudas Shabbos. But that's what we've been doing all these years. So therefore, to ask what is Minchas Chabad, so the minhag is that we daven b'zmanoy. Sources, okay. So we have in the Alter Rebbe's teshuvah, when he talks about the zakhinu melotoshim, about he introduced a new way of making the chalafim. And so to-- in, in response to the charge, "Oh, you're gonna make a change of chalafim, you're casting aspersions on previous generations." So he says, "That's not such a problem." And he gives two other examples. He says, "Kimoi, of late, people are going to appear more particular to daven ma'ariv b'zmanoy and to be careful about Chadash." Um, so he's not saying it's a Minchas Chabad. He's just saying that's the minhag to be more careful about ma'ariv b'zmanoy. Possibly, I pa-- may have said this theory befo- in the past, that when people started living more concentrated rather than being more spread out, so the whole reason why people daven ma'ariv early is because it's difficult to get a minyan back together for ma'ariv. But once people started living more concentrated, that became less of an issue. People could come back to shul for ma'ariv, and therefore it became that m-many kehillas started davening ma'ariv b'zmanoy. Meanwhile, we have here on-- This is from the Tzemach Tzedek. Uh, so here the dilemma is, is there-- is

30:10 Speaker 1 it better to daven ma'ariv early with a minyan or to daven ma'ariv b'zmanoy b'kehillas? Now, there are those who don't have an option. Those who are rabbonim in kehillas who daven ma'ariv early probably don't have an option, especially they may sometimes have to be the chazan also. So we're not talking about that. We're talking about someone who has the free choice between one and the other. So what should he do? So here we have from the Tzemach Tzedek. This is from Chidushei Hashas. And mamash on this first page, on the, uh, second side. "Avel mi sheroitzu linaglis palach rishon o tefilas aravis achizei sachachovim." One who wishes to da... So he's talking about, um... So he says, "lashoy linoken." Although you could-- There's-- You have here- Um, the Minchah and Ashkenaz is broadly to daven Maariv early in summer at least, yeah. And then to rely on Kirshner, uh, Shel, Shel, Shel Mitvah for it to be Yotzer Shema. So he says that's for someone who's used to davening Maariv early before Tzet HaKochavim. The one who wishes to daven, say, daven and say Kirshner is permitted to do so. And he brings a proof. He brings a proof from Shechinat Hachaim petez that Afilu b'lo asarah odif v'if ami. They're talking about if the minyan are davening Shelo Bizmanoi, says, "Better to daven b'yachidus than to... b'zmanoi than to daven with a tzippur Shelo Bizmanoi." So he says, you see that v'if ami matir m'spar b'yochid. And so therefore he says here too, to

31:56 Speaker 1 be... If you want to keep to the Minchah like to, like Rabbanon, to daven Maariv davka Bizmanoi, not like Rabbi Yehuda, so then you have permission to do so. So it's not a, not a shegatz for not davening with that minyan. Um, what I did say is stay with the Minchah. Stay and you're done with Minchah, they're done Maariv. So we stay at least for Borchu and answer then. Yeah. Right. Let's move, move on. So here's a question. I have a, a premises, Chabad house, and, uh, there's a room within, in our, in our premises, which there's a group who want to rent it to make a, a meeting. They want to make a Shabbat afternoon meetings. They want to use my premises. Then I realize they're paying rent, but that means they're paying rent for Shabbos. Are you allowed to charge rent for Shabbos? So this is the concept of Schar Shabbos. And people... I, I, I'm, I'm, I want to und- discuss this because Schar Shabbos doesn't necessarily mean because you do any work. You're not allowed to earn money for Shabbos time. So there's even a discussion, how can you earn interest on your savings in the bank, uh, on the day of Shabbos? So the answer there is that the day for interest is from midnight to midnight. Therefore, it's not just for Shabbos, it's after Shabbos also. Fine. But coming back, so in, uh, in Eretz Yisrael, curiously, they've got something called tsimron. Tsimron means that people have what we'd

33:36 Speaker 1 call Airbnb kind of thing or similar. You can just rent a room. They don't provide anything else. You just come and rent the room and, um, so you're paying for use of your room on Shabbos. So, uh, how, how is it, how is it justified that they should be accepting payment just for Shabbos? So the answer is usually that, uh, your, your rental of your tsimron is you come Friday afternoon. And so it's included that in Schar Shabbos, there's a concept called haflag. If the contract includes Shabbos and non-Shabbos, then that's okay because it's, uh, Shabbos and non-Shabbos in one unit. So if the unit of rental is including a Shabbos and Friday, so that's called haflag. That's not a problem. But what happens if it's, in our case, it's just a meeting of five to six p.m. on Shabbos afternoon, so there's no haflag there. So this is from the Piskei Teshuvas. Um, it's from the Sinat Chinam. He says, "Let's say you're providing, you're providing something, some food." So what I suggested to the, to the, uh, one responsible for this Chabad house, that with the rental of this premises for this meeting, make it that part of the contract is also that you provide, uh, bottles of water. And for the bottles of water, you're allowed to charge, and therefore it becomes haflag. That's the same thing with mikvahs. What's the heter for, for a mikvah to take money for Shabbos? So again, uh, if they are, if they are providing stuff,

35:15 Speaker 1 it's not just the rental, not just the time. There's some other costs which are involved, then they're allowed to charge for that, and therefore in, it, you know, it goes as a package. Um, and that's, that's the answer. Okay. Let's move on. So someone was asking me about coming summer, and he had some, uh, uh, a balabos who he's in contact with who is going to some hotel of sorts for a vacation. And he, and he can't... And he wants to use the pool for mikvah, but he wouldn't be able to use the pool the way we go to mikvah, um, without anything on at all. He'd have to wear a bathing suit or in English we call swimming trunks. So, um, I was surprised to find this, but this is from a Sefer called, um, it's called, uh, Yichim Tzoya, published in Be- Belgium about twenty years ago. So he writes that where, um, bemokom shetoval bebreicho, he says, um, where the owners of the premises will, will not allow you to use the pool without wearing, uh, uh, swimming trunks. So then you'd be allowed to use it, and you'd be allowed to take them off, and it's not a ma'are of tznius. Now, every one of us has learned Gemara Yoma, uh, at some stage, and it talks there about wading through a pool or a river to go and greet your Rebbe on Yom Kippur. And what happens to your clothes? Obviously, they're gonna get wet. And so there seems to

37:00 Speaker 1 be permission to... When that's not the kavana, then that, that would be okay Um, and then he says, in the notes here, he says that you'll be allowed to take off the, uh, the wet garments. When like it says, it says in the Gemara about a woman, Maremes, she can make a trip. She, she goes and wades through and with her clothes. And, um, meanwhile, she's traveling also. We don't say it's Psik Reisha she's gonna squeeze. So you can remove them also. So there seems to be a Hater. Now, this is very interesting because generally we'd say absolutely no. And on the left of the screen, we've got from Igris Moshe, where he talks about using a pool on Shabbos, and he says if you're wearing a bathing suit, that's definitely not, not okay. And that's in addition to Bechal Alemin. We learned recently in Sin Shin Chavov about not bathing in cold, even in cold water, even without clothes. We don't bathe on Shabbos. We don't use it, even without clothes. And with a bathing suit, he says, for sure it's not okay. So, all right. So what remains then is that if it's for, for swimming, for entertainment, so then the answer is no. If it's just for Tevila Fetara, so there is a basis to be Marty, uh, and you can see that on the screen. Um, right. Let's move on. And that is about Heter Iska. So it came my way this week. There's a group of in Galai, two are

38:43 Speaker 1 learning about Heter Iska, and they would have been taught that the common Heter Iska is not acceptable according to the Alter Rebbe. Now, in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, which was published by Kahos, which I was involved with. That Simen Samech Vav talks about Heter Iska. And we have their note that one should not mention in the document, in the agreement, a monthly or weekly, um, additional amount. That for every month you hold on to the money, it's gonna cost you extra. And because of this comment, on the following page, where it has the Nusach of Heter Iska, and there, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch writes that for each month I hold on to the money, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll give you more profit. So here was a comment that Nisach Hashta Dil Kamon is not in accordance with the Alter Rebbe. Lamai Se Yesh Lehisiaitzim Rabbonim Meira Hero. So now... So this is, this is being said here that the regular Heter Iska form, which says, um, a monthly, um, a monthly profit in-instead of Chas Alum interest is profit, and they say that, that is okay. And here, we've got here that is not okay. Now, I remembered I had this conversation with, mentioned his name before, expert in Lechus Ribbis, Rav Shabshi Tayar, who is in Melbourne. Now, when I was in Melbourne, uh, some eleven years ago, we had this conversation because I'd written about this in one of the others forum, and he said, "No, that's not the Pshat." And although

40:36 Speaker 1 the Alter Rebbe does object to putting in increments, timely increments, but there's, that there's different forms of Heter Iska. Um, a-and it's that the, the, the objection which the Alter Rebbe has there in Sif Mem Alef is talking about when he's, he's committing himself to add extra amount per month for profit. There is a different method, and that's the Heter Iska, which is pretty standard today to say like this. Really, um, I-I'd be entitled to, to have, uh, a proportion of the profits week by week, month by month, but I'm not interested in breathing down your neck and to know exactly how much profit you did make, you didn't make. If you give me a, a fixed amount, then I'm not gonna breathe down your neck. And that's, this is a different type of resolution to, to being paying, uh, something extra without it being Ribbis. Now, actually, you have here, he showed to me, um, Rabbi Tayar, in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, you have the Misger Sa Shulchan. He writes, "Mash Kosov Razash." The Alter Rebbe writes in Sif Mem Alef, Sif Mem He, quoting the Taz, that you shouldn't be doing monthly increments. "Hos Hashani Hoso Shekosiv V'derech Chiyuv She Nischayiv HaMakabbal Liten Dova Kotsev Lechol Shavua Im Yiye Revach." That's where he makes him, obliges himself to give X amount per, per week. That is, the Alter Rebbe sees as a form of Ribbis. But where it is that he would have been entitled to, uh, to a, a, a flexible amount

42:37 Speaker 1 of, of profit, and he doesn't want to bother with that. And therefore, he says, "Give me a flatter, a flat rate instead of, uh, what's gonna fluctuate. I'm gonna have to bother with it." There, he says, "You're allowed to make a, a set payment per month." Um, and I asked him, "Does he have it in writing?" And Hashgacha Protis, he just did write this up in the Ha'aros Hatvimim in Melbourne, which for some technical reason didn't come my way. He objects to the way it's written in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. And he says that, that, that the-- there's no difference, according to the Alter Rebbe also agrees with the method ofheter iska, which is the generally, uh, used form, and that's okay even though it has monthly increments. So I just wanted to share that with you. Um, anyone who wants to have a copy of his, his article, I'm very happy to send it to them. Um, and, and, well, he's got support from the, the, Misgeres Hashulchan. Although he says that, that what I've written actually has got basis in the Sefer Bris Yehuda, which is Rav Beloi, who was, uh, expert in Hekhs Ribis. But he says it was a misunderstanding of his, and according to the Alter Rebbe, Alter Rebbe, this is no different to other poskim who do allow a monthly increment. Um, Hekhs Ribis is a very complicated topic, and therefore reiterate. The Maiser Yesh Li Siasim Rabbonim Meah Heruah, find a Rav who does under-- understands the details

44:18 Speaker 1 of Ribis before making a, uh, a move on that. Okay. Um, I think we had some... No. Right. Two last points, and one is that I had-- I'd writ-- I'd spoken about this, I think, two weeks ago, about a fellow who lends, who lends a colleague of his, lends him, let's say, ten thousand dollars. And he says to his borrower, "By the way, don't forget my son-in-law is making a charity for his Beis Chabad next week. Don't forget about the charity." And I'd said that that isn't okay. Uh, I didn't say you have to reimburse, but I felt, I felt that wasn't appropriate. So someone wrote to me challenging me, "Why are you only making up new Isurim?" There wasn't... So it, it wasn't a direct payment, and it wasn't even a direct, uh, outright statement. So what you have on the screen here is on the top is from the Rambam, Hekhs Malveh V'loveh. Um, HaMalveh Es Chavero. There's something called Ribbis Devarim. And the Rambam writes, what does it mean, Ribbis Devarim? You shouldn't... You, uh, Lo Yomar Lo, Da Im Bo Ish Ployni Mimo Ke'im Ployni. Um, make sure to know whether so-and-so arrives in town. Ki Lo Yimar. Shetechabdo Ve'sachilo Ve'saschehu. Ribbis Devarim is, says the Rambam, be, be in tune if someone, if this so-and-so comes to, to your town, intimating that I expect you to, to host him. That's so similar to our question here, that I'm saying to my le-- my borrower, um, "I'm not telling you anything.

46:16 Speaker 1 I'm just telling you my son-in-law's making a charity, um, and use your Sechel," kind of thing. So here we have from the Sefer Toras Ribbis, a contemporary Sefer, where we have the Malveh, the lender, is not allowed to, uh, expect Ribbis, um, Devarim, to expect the Loiver to say, "Oh, ge-ge-keep me in the loop if so-and-so arrives to town." It's just Devarim. To ask for that information is Os. Then it says, "Ve'also LaMalveh to say to the Loiver, to give instructions, you know, if so-and-so comes to town, make sure to honor him, to, to provide him, to host him." That is Ribbis Gemara, he says, because you've given instruction. Then he says, "Even if you don't say Befesh, you just inform him that so-and-so is coming here, and the Loiver understands that you are intimating that he should host him, um, even though you might have done it anyways. But since you're doing so, you've got, you've gotten here the heads-up from the lender, and the Malveh, the lender, is relying that the borrower will do so because he borrowed money. That is also Mishum Ribbis Devarim. So let's not call it Ribbis Ktzutzo, Ribbis She'eino Ktzutzo, but at least it's Ribbis Devarim. And it goes back to the basic principle that the Torah tells us you lend money, don't expect any financial return. Uh, you get back your money, but no other favors, no other extras are, are gonna come with it. And so that's how it come... I'll say commentate, it's not okay,

48:04 Speaker 1 so let's call it Ribbis Devarim. Okay. The last thing which I have here is that last week we had discussion about, um, a man who's, um, very frail, elderly, and he struggles with benching. It takes him an hour to bench. Possibly, he dozes off in the middle, whatever it may be. Lived all his life a Frum, a Frum life. And so, and they offer him to have Mizrach as his bread. He says, "No, I'm Kavea Sudar." And it's so difficult because, you know, he's... On the one hand, he's, uh, he's with it and remembering that, uh, Halacha, that Mizrach as bread is not an Eitzah. Um, and then, but he physically is now not, not, not able to manage with the schedule. So, um, so they were asking whether it's okay for to do Halach Michio instead of the full benching. That was the discussion. So I c-- I had a couple of feedbacks on this. One is, this is from the, uh, the we-website of Rav Broin. So he's got an excellent website called Ask the Rav, and probably there may now thousands of entries there. Very, very good. So this is... Someone gave me this link. And so here you have a shortened be-benching. It'll make life easier. I don't know whether the person being used to a regular Seder will, will, uh, find this more disturbing or easier. I don't know, but it's, it's out there. So that's one option. Someone's asking, or suggesting also about saying B'rich Rachmana, which is just

49:51 Speaker 1 a one line. But possibly this man is not up to that. He's-- still wants to bench as he's used to all his life. Um, which again, this is a suggestion. Um, and then finally, this person suggested, the second person also, there's a certain app available which has this... Well, which will read the Seder aloud. So then that would be able to be at whatever speed you want, and the person could hear the tefillah being said and say it along with the, the, uh, the talking siddur and be able to manage to say it, um, their benching, uh, supported in that way. I'm just sharing those ideas because it's probably not unique to the one who asked me the question. So there you are. Okay, I'm gonna stop at this. I'm gonna wish you all a good Shabbos and, uh, we should hear Besuras Tovos. Sh-Shabbos Menuchah. I think I've said this before, um, well, I'll share to you in any case in another couple of minutes. The Rambam has the nusach yom hamonayach hazeh. Uh, yet in our, in our siddur, it's not called yom hamonayach hazeh. Shabbos is called yom haShabbos hazeh. And the Arizal comments-- he objects to you calling it Shabbos yom hamonayach hazeh. He said, "V'simanach am-- monayach am haaretz haya." So it's, like, very strange though. It's Am Yisrael, nusach, yom hamonayach hazeh, and then you have such a sharp term from the Ari-Arizal, amonayach am haaretz haya. To which I want to say the following, that in Shabbos, you

51:35 Speaker 1 have two aspects of Shabbos. You have Shabbos as a yom m-m-m-menucha, and you have a Shabbos, a Shabbos Hashem, a day of reaching up and being more spiritual. If you see Shabbos as just a time to put your feet up and to relax, that's a more, that's a, a, a, a maratzyish Shabbos. If you see Shabbos as a Shabbos, a day of, of, uh, devoting more time to our Avodas Hashem, that's a Shabo- that's a Shabbos Hashem. So when Arizal says, "V'simanach mone-moneach am haaretz haya," don't look at the Shabbos just as a day, a break from your pressure. You should see a Shabbos, um, you should see it as a day of reaching up and higher, and it should have a Hashgachah Tovah on the entire week. A guten Shabbos.

52:24 Speaker 2 Good Shabbos.

52:25 Speaker 3 Shabbos.