לך לך תשפ״ו

00:05 Speaker 1 Welcome to tonight's Shiur Shabbos Lech Lecha, taf shin pei vav. Um, we've got lots of interesting things here. Starting off with two items which were recently, uh, released, published of, uh, from the Rebbe. So the story goes like this. You have, uh... There used to be a, a monthly magazine called The Yiddish Heim, and that was published by N she Chabad in America under So this, the Rebbe struck out. So in other words, we don't have a problem of pouring the negel vasser down a sink. I don't know where she got this from. Having said that, is it appropriate to empty negel vasser in a sink where you have dishes? So this, the Rebbe does not address, and she didn't write about this. In a kitchen sink where you have possibly dishes sitting there, you wouldn't want the tame water, the negel vasser water to come into contact with the dishes, then becomes a per-performance. How do you get rid of the ruach hatumah which may have attached to the dishes? The, the next point which she had written also, that if you ha- you have a negel vasser bowl and you want to use it to soak some clothing, for example, so you should rinse it out before doing so, and again, this the Rebbe struck out. And here, then another nice ha'arah of the Rebbe talking about... This is something which the Alter Rebbe discusses in Shulchan Aruch, that the ruach hatumah, the s- the impure spirit, which is, which you want to

03:06 Speaker 1 get rid of through negel vasser, that's got to do with a vacuum. Because at night there is a... During the day, there's the, the, the neshamah, which has got kedushah. During the night, most of the neshamah leaves the body. That creates a vacuum. That invites the, uh, presence of a ruach hatumah from, uh, on, onto the body. And with this is, this is the rationale why you don't need to have... A goy doesn't need to have negel vasser because a goy doesn't have kedushah during the day, and therefore there isn't a vacuum, and therefore there isn't the need for a goy to w-wash negel vasser. When I was in yeshiva in Melbourne, we had a Yugoslavian lady who was not Jewish, and she would every day tell the Russian Jewish lady, "Before you start work in the kitchen, go wash negel vasser." So it's an interesting, uh, situation. And so she had written, "The rule of nature is that unclean spirits are habitually attracted to those places where a holy spirit has been vested. As long as the body, Jewish body sleeps, it's occupied by the unclean spirit." Now, the Rebbe is not very happy about that last line, I guess. It's occupied by the unclean spirit. And the Rebbe has a comment as you see at the bottom of the screen, „Hachoshev Torah kol hayom cholem bemachshavos eileh.“ If you think about Torah throughout the day, you will dream about Torah in your dreams. So how could you say that the body is occupied

04:39 Speaker 1 by the unclean spirit when you see that there can be a, a, and I think there's some, a similar word in Hayom Yom, that if a person is occupied, his machshavah is, uh, in, in kedushah, so those things will be reviewed in his dreams also. So, so the Rebbe not ne- not rejecting totally what she's written, but the way it's presented, the Rebbe, um, took exception to. The second point was, which I'm gonna get to the next, uh, slide, food which is touched by any Jew that did not wash negel vasser should not be eaten. And, uh, hmm, sorry about this. And it has... Let me go to... And, uh, it has absorbed the tumah from the fingers. On this, the Rebbe writes, "Kamo mibnei Yisroel lo yaghin kein." How many Yidden are so careful that not to eat food which has been touched by, uh, before negel vasser? All right, so here what I did bring is from the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, from Siman Dalet. This whole thing about goyim, not to worry about negel vasser wi-with goyim. And then- What about children who are not the age of Chinuch? That the main entry of the Neshamah, of the Nefesh HaKadosh is from the age of thir-thirteen or twelve or ago. That's when they have the mitzvahs. Then we have this famous thing, which the, uh, the Alter Rebbe talks about Chinuch, and he says that once the body is doing mitzvahs, we-- so we have here this... If it is a Chiyuv

06:34 Speaker 1 Chinuch, okay, so they're doing mitzvahs of Midrabbanan. Gam B'mitzvot Smilah. That even the Mitzvot Smilah also, the ba-the baby is doing a mitzvah. And therefore, you're careful to avoid touching of a child on food. From the day of the Bris, Kodesh Yom Olam will be con-considered, uh, very sacred, very holy, very saintly. Fine. So we have here that there is basis to be careful even for a young child not to use the food which they've touched. But somehow, the Rebbe was not happy that they-- that this should be put in the article as a Halacha that it mustn't be used. And I think I've well shared with you, a Shliach asked me that before he manages to get out of bed, his kids have already gotten out of bed, and they've raided the fridge kind of stuff, and, um, or the biscuit tin. And, uh, what does he do? And the kids haven't washed Negel Vasil, and they've already tampered with all the biscuits. All right. So of course, the answer is padlock on the biscuit tin. But fine. Uh, but here you see interesting, the Rebbe is saying, "Kam Obne Yisroel Noia Gin Kein" in, in question. So the Rebbe seems to be a, a dampener on the, on the, uh, on the, um, you know, the, the, the stringency to, to take it that far. And then-- And although she did not differentiate whether, uh, a child or an adult, the Rebbe didn't want this to be pu-put in as a, as a

08:09 Speaker 1 Halacha, so to speak. So two things which I want to share with you, Behemshoch to that. I may have shared this before. Uh, on the, uh, left of the screen, you have here a story written by Reb Yehuda Gitrik, Alav HaShalom, and he describes the time when they were in Rostov. This is just after, just, uh, Second World War. Sorry, First World War. Um, Russian Rev-- post-revolution, so they're in Rostov. And because of the w-the w-war, there was a shortage of, of bread and supplies in the bigger cities. And so they are in Rostov, and it was difficult to get hold of bread, and people would line up, get up, go early in the morning to be able to get bread. But the Bochurim, by the time they finished learning Siddhas and davening, by the time they got to the shops, there was nothing left. So they were told that in Voron-Vorontsev Street, there's a Jewish woman who bakes French loaves, and we went to see whether we can buy from them. So then the people who are close to the Rebbe asked the Rebbe, "There are shops, there are stores which are selling Goish bread, pas palta. And there, the Goish, the people, the workers there are Goim. We don't have to worry about Negel Vasil. This Jewish woman in Vorontsev Street, there, there's Jewish workers, and they should be washing till Negel Vasil. So who should we buy from? The Goish store or from the Jewish bakery who doesn't wash Negel Vasil?" And

09:45 Speaker 1 this is Rebbe Rashab's answer. The Jewish workers, yeah, they have a Ruach Hatuma on their hands, but they didn't. But the Goish workers, th-that's, that is Tuma Be'atzmo. That was the Rebbe's answer. Very interesting. So the Rebbe, this, this kind of goes a little bit in line with that vort of the Rebbe, which was how widespread is the Zehirus. So it seems to be a little bit, you know, take it easy. On the other side, this is on the, on the right of the screen. This is from the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch with Minhagim Chabad, and this is a quote from Reb Chaim noin. Now, Reb Chaim noin had the luxury of living in Eretz HaKodesh, and therefore, getting food from Jewish suppliers and fruit suppliers was more accessible. So he writes, "When you buy fr-fruit, so... And you'll-- It's likely that they, they have been touched by people who haven't washed Negel Vasil. So you should wash the fruit three times over." So you go Machneh Yehuda, whenever you buy some, some oranges. So wash from Negel Vasil. Okay? This is what Reb Chaim noin writes. Bread is not usually so practical, so then you should be careful to buy bread from a, uh, bakery, which part of the Hashgacha is that the workers do wash Negel Vasil. And then he says there are those who are careful not to buy any food from someone who's not careful with Negel Vasil. I can tell you, in the matzah bakeries, yes, that is a standard. At

11:20 Speaker 1 least the matzah bakeries I've been involved, um, that they would wash Negel Vasil before they start work, and they don't differentiate from, not so from. Everyone has to wash Negel Vasil. Fine. But, um, so there is, there is a Zehirus there. What is interesting that the Rebbe was not ready to take it to the extreme of, um, publicizing that you're not allowed to buy the food which had been touched. Now, s-someone, I sent out the list of questions on Friday. So, but someone asked me if I could, at the same time, clarify if someone has got very sensitive skin and finds it, finds washing hands difficult, what's the minimum of how much water they need to wash for Negel Vasil. So- Bechlalus, we know that the din of negel vasser until shadayim is primarily, this is, this is general in poskim, primarily is the fingers. The, from the knuckles till, till the wrist. That's a disc-- um, um, machloket in Gemara even. And L'paha we do wash until the wrist, but it's not such a... so strict. And therefore, with the b'shas ha-tkah if someone is, is find-finding washing very difficult, so then one could be mekabel for as an exception to the rule to wash until the knuckles rather than washing the full hand. Okay, let's move on to the next question. And that is, we have one of our listeners is pictured sitting in New York, um, and it's, it's during the Sukkos, and the rain is coming down, and so he's sitting

13:14 Speaker 1 in a raincoat. But what about the food? So the food is under a box. So a couple of points about this. So there is a famous Mishnah in Gemara in Sukkah about if a person is sitting in the Sukkah and his food is in, is indoors. You have here on the screen from Siman kuf reish lamed daled in the, uh, in the Shulchan Aruch. This siman is missing from the Alter Rebbe. Of course, I know... No one's... You don't have to remind me that when it's raining, you don't have to sit in the Sukkah. I, I know that. But the person is sitting in the Sukkah. The question is, is, is he being mekayen the mitzvah? So now it says here in Shulchan Aruch, «mi sheho ya’arosh et re’uvo b’sukkah». If your... Most of your body, your head and most of your body is in the Sukkah. «Va-shulchan chuつ tz’l suchah,» but your sh- your table is outside the Sukkah. «Ve’ochal,» and you ate in that way, «ki’ilu lo ochal b’sukkah.» It's as if you didn't eat in a Sukkah. «Afilu mi Sukkah gedolah.» Even if the Sukkah is very spacious. The fact that your, your, your, your, uh, partake your food outside the Sukkah, that's, that's not okay. «Gzeirah shemah yimoshich achor shulchano.» This is a decree concern you might be drawn to go after your table and go into, um, out of the Sukkah to get to your food. So now, here, your, the box is not in the Sukkah. It's a

14:55 Speaker 1 separate, separate thing. But I still would say that sometimes you have a gezeirah, it doesn't give a reason. Here, the gezeirah is spelt out because shemah yimoshich achor shulchano. In this case, the box is not big enough for him to climb into the box, and therefore, to say that shemah yimoshich achor shulchano, that would be ashtikah chidush to say that. Therefore, I would say you don't have to, you don't have to dismiss, um, on, on this, on these grounds. It's, it would be mekayem mitzvah Sukkah. Now, the other question, which I think is more of a, more of a concern, are you allowed to do this? Te- it's only Shabbos and Yom Tov during Sukkos. And Baruch Hashem, in this part of the world, we rarely have such heavy rain during Sukkos. But in New York, when it rains, it's, it, it comes down heavy. Um, curiously, uh, possibly because of... I don't know. Well, they... Many people there don't bother making Sukkah roofs, which is almost standard, uh, in this part of the world. All right, so now, is it okay to take a box from somewhere and put it on your table to use as a shelter? We once had, a few years ago and during COVID, we had a discussion about taking an umbrella and using it. And, oh, even if you have your umbrella open before Yom Tov or before Shabbos, could you take an open umbrella and put it up as a shelter? As far as I remember, the answer

16:29 Speaker 1 was no. And here, the, here's a b- question. I have a box sitting somewhere, um, and now I pick the box up, and I put it on its side in order to create a shelter. So I've made an oyhel. So that should not be okay. Now, this is, this... I, I've written about this a few years ago, and then also I saw in the Piskei Teshuva, he talks about something similar. And some say, some, some ma-make this point, but then they have the big question. You have a few times mentioned in Mishnah something called a psachtah. Psachtah is a large, a large, large bowl, and it was used in the Beis HaMikdash if there was something which is a tumah or something, koif alav psachtah. And it says in the Mishnah, shloish devarim oisim meshamhes. So a psachtah was a big dish. On Yom Tov, Shabbos, you couldn't move the muktzeh stuff, so they would cover it with this, with this bowl. And also, if you hind-- if you realize you have chametz in the house during Pesach, and it's Shabbos, so the chametz is muktzeh. So it says you cover it over with a, with a c-container, with a psachtah. Now, how big is this psachtah? So Rabbi Chaim Noah actually goes into detail. It says that it contains fifteen se'ah. It's a very large container. And as a result, he works out that it's thir-thirty-five, um, thirty-five centimeters high, whatever, something like that. Or is it thirty-five, uh, it's... I don't remember exactly,

18:13 Speaker 1 but it's, it's, it's more than a tefach high. And therefore, you have this question. Now, how can you say you mustn't take a ‹hechalian› cover it over? It says, says the Mishnah, . Before, before we get into the answer to this, do you know, um, for cream cakes. See, some people have a, a, a dome to cover a cream cake. Cream cake is, you know, multi-layers with all the cream and all the pachkarai. And then there's a kind of... It sits on a pedestal of some sort, and then there's a dome. Now, the dome is more than a tefach. So Reb Shlomo Zalman was asked this question, and he says the following: Between the top of the cake and the dome is less than a tefach. Therefore, it's not a problem of oyal tefach. when it's a whole cake. But when you cut off a few slices, so then the empty part, there is a tefach. It... The Tevilah says, "I'm not interested in that coverage over there. I'm only interested to protect the cake. The other part is, you know, mechitzah, I'm not interested." That's Reb Shlomo Zalman. So I'm coming back now to the psach ter. The issue here is only when you create a shelter of a tefach. When you have a case of the shereetz or when you have a case of the chametz, are you interested to give it a, an, a, a clearance, a tefach of clearance above the, the, the unwanted thing? Not interested. You're interested to cover

19:40 Speaker 1 it. I'm not interested. Therefore, I don't see that as a strong enough raya. Um, because, uh, they're not interested. But here you're taking a box, and you want to have space for your, for your tomatoes and cucumbers, or whatever else is there on the picture, and, uh, and the ja-jar of honey, and you want to have space. You want to have a tefach. So you can't compare it. So there, I, I see this as a concern. A similar concern, I heard some people take a chair and put it on top of the table, so the chair should be a shelter. You're creating oyalah. It's a, it's a shver zach. Um, yeah. Sorry, I'm not offering sympathetic, uh, solutions for those who are sitting, uh, in the, in the rain and having their Seder Shavuot. Yeah. Well, do like the astronauts do, and, uh, eat out of tubes or something. Okay. Um, they say it's very easy to sit in London and talk about it, but fine. Um, let's go further. So someone asked the following question. If there is a din that a woman who's married should have her hair covered, what's, what's the status of if, if, uh, their hair has been removed with some kind of laser treatment, and so that area, there's no hai- no hair growing there. Does that hair, hair, hair-- that area have to be covered? So here's... There's, there's the... My understanding about it is the following. There are areas which are darko eliyahismachusa. There are parts of

21:27 Speaker 1 our body which are normally covered. So most people have hair, and they cover it, and, and that area is, is darko eliyahismachusa. It's, it's normally covered by, by a frum person. So that area, you happen to have used some trick to remove the hair, doesn't matter. It's darko eliyahismachusa. It has to remain covered in any case. Where it could make a difference is if the, the-- if this person has exceptionally low hairline, and they use laser to remove the part which is lower than the, the norm, then you can say, "Listen, Rov Nosim don't have hair there at all." So it's ein ma-- it's not a place darko eliyahismachusa. She, her hair, but she doesn't have the hair because she's removed it. That would be a solution, I think, just for the exception. It wouldn't be a solution, um, broadly. Now, the idea of there are women who are particular to cut their hair short, but that's, that's... The issue here is that it shouldn't stick out from... The hair shouldn't come out of the tichel and shouldn't be co- should be visible if it's longer. But if it's c-cut short, so again, uh, that area needs to be covered and, uh, uh... Right. So the, the, so the removal of the hair helps only when it's a not normal place for hair to grow. Right. Let's go on to the next question, and that is that there was a bris. And the Kohen should make biris Rael, and they gave the name Yankel, Yaakov.

23:07 Speaker 1 Then after the bris, the mother says to the father, "You know, I actually wanted to give another name in addition. A Yaak-- I wanted to go and call him Yaakov Yehuda because I'm so happy that we have a, now a child who's healthy. So I want to give the name Yehuda also," which was, you know, of thanksgiving. This is after the bris, yeah. They've already given the name. So they're asking, should they add this name or not? Should they now somehow formally, informally add this name or not? So my, my response was, you don't. Um, you, you just leave the name as it was given. Um, actually, one of my sisters is called Chana, and my mother, alav shalom, wanted to name her after a cousin of hers. After my mother lost her parents in, in the blockade, in, in the starvation in, in, uh, Leningrad. So this Chana, um, she had tremendous mesirus nefesh to take my mother and her sister, musia, alav shalom, to take them to the hospital, and that's how they were saved. And she, she, she had her own two children who were, who were, uh, um, retarded, whatever, mentally unwell, and she neglected her own children to save my mother and her sister. And so her name was Chana Dvoira. And my mother gave the name Chana, and later realized there was another name, but it... my sister's name remained Chana. Adaya, Lecha Mishna Tevis. So this is the quest-- this is a very similar question. So here you

24:51 Speaker 1 have... There's a Sefer on all about names by the late Rabbi Zusha Wilhelm. The name of the Sefer is Ziv Hashamus. Ziv is Rosh Yeshivah, Yeshaya Zusha Wilhelm. So very useful Sefer, and he gives a reference to what you have on the screen. So Sefer Brit Olam, of course, the Sefer Brit Oves, which I didn't manage to locate. Sometimes a father has mentally prepared. He's gonna give this name, and it comes to the, the, the Bris and whoever makes the Bracha, "V'karash rabos Yisroel," and he says a different name. So then he says, "That's what happened. Leave it that way." It's not a mikreh chas v'shalom. It's not a, a mistake. It's... That's-- This name is the shayresh of neshamah. This child is the name, the rebe-- the way the Rebbe's to put it in your mouth then. And he quotes the passage from Breishes, "V'chu lashi yikra ha'adam nefesh chayo hu shmo," that the name of a, of a person is... This is... The Rebbe spoke about in the last years about the idea of a bit of a, a kind of a Nevuah. The parents have a kind of a Nevuah to give the n-the name, the appropriate name for the child. And therefore, uh, he's taking this point and saying, "That's the name which you gave. That was the Ruach Hakodesh, the Nevuah, which came at the time. Leave it the way it is." Interesting that sometimes you only realize, uh, many years later, sometimes it comes the next generation, you wanna

26:20 Speaker 1 make a Shidduch, and you find the Choson's the same name, um, as the name which they want to give you. And now there would be a whole gesheft to add another name. Like this, it's, it's not your name and, uh, Shalom Al Yisroel. Yeah. I know of someone who's, who's known as Yehuda Aryeh Leib. I'll just switch myself off. Yeah. His name is known as Yehuda Aryeh Leib. And he was given a name after the Rebbe's brother. The Rebbe's brother was Yisroel Aryeh Leib. But at the time, he's going back, it's more than fifty years ago, it wasn't... Details were not so well known. See, they gave him a name, Y-Y-Yehuda Aryeh Leib. Yeah. And he stayed that way. He said, "All right, fine." Right. So here's the next thing. I, I, I tried to word it carefully 'cause I never know. I wrote, uh, "Duty to reimburse for damages caused is there only so there towards those who are Torah observant." So the story happened like this. A friend of mine in the Holy Land was g-got into his car out of a tight spot in a car park, and he overestimated the amount of space he had, and he lightly touched another car. And he's not sure whether... It, it wasn't... The car wasn't in perfect condition in the first place, but he was worried that perhaps he did cause damage. He would normally, in such a circumstance, he would have taken a piece of paper and written his name and, and, uh,

27:59 Speaker 1 telephone and stuck it to the window screen. But to his mazel, he didn't have pen and paper, and so, so he drove off. And there... But he took a picture or whatever of the, of the number plate, and then he contacted the police in his, uh, town if they could identify who it is, who does the belong-- this car belong to, and he wanted to, uh, approach the owner and say, "If I caused you damage, I'll reimburse you." So as you know, in Eretz HaKodesh, they're also, I believe they call them Bnei Dodim. They're also our cousins, Bnei Yishmael, who live there. It turns out this car was... belonged to one of the Bnei Yishmael. So now he's asking, "Do I have a duty to, uh, to make contact with that person and say that I, I'm the one who, who, um, made contact with your car, and I'll reimburse you?" Or can he just, uh, forget about the whole story? This is the question. So it's actually Rambam, which we'll have been learning now, Hilchot Nezikin. It's not such a clear story. So let's take a look what you have on the screen. "Yesh oimrim," there are those who say that you're, "mazik a, a Nochri v'yoda'im, you have a chiyuv to pay." And one of the references actually to Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch in Siman Taf Mem in Hilchas Pesach, that, "Mazik v'yoda'im, you're chayav." Others say, others compare this to a loan. And if you borrowed money and the-- not, Chilul Hashem,

29:39 Speaker 1 by not repaying, there is room to not do the mitzvah of, of paying, paying your debt. So you can see here it's, it's, uh, he quotes here from the... This is from the Piskei Choshen. Minchas Chinuch, numerous places says that the nizkei akum yeopotu even mil- even mazik v'yoda'im. It's like, all right, so you owe him money. So like if you owe him money, you could, um, if you can evade, you can evade. So the same thing with the nezakes. And yeah, there seems to be others who disagree with this, quite a few. Now, the other, the other point was... So the, the... It's not so clear that you can just walk away. The other point was that he was concerned if he would inform the owner, the owner might start, uh, monopolizing on this and making more stuff into the chesbon that he owes him for this and for this and for this. And, uh, now, but that was one, one concern. And bechalal, he wasn't even sure whether he was mazik. So to say with... And gants, and there's no shailah. There is a shailah, but because of this various freakers I said, you know, then, then don't, don't, don't, don't pursue it. Right. I w-was actually very impressed with his, uh, ehrlichkeit, which he wanted to, to follow this through. Right. Let's move on to number- Seven. Yeah. So someone's asking, someone called me a-about adding water to wine, and does the berakhah remain hagafen? So here you have in Siman reish

31:17 Speaker 1 daled that wine which has been diluted, even if there's more water than wine, it will remain hagafen if it's strong wine. Then how much, how far could you go? So if it's... If you could even have one to six. Echad me-shisha. But, uh, one, he says, "Echad me-shisha." Now, echad me-shisha is a bit ambiguous. Does it mean one, that the wine is one and there's five of water, or is it one and six? So to spell that out clearly, so the Alter Rebbe continues, Sheyesh be-maim v'ov part m'kamotzu. So it's one... Again, there's six times water and one time wine. And he says, once it's exceeded that, there's more than six to one, then it loses the hagafen, even if it's strong wine, because then it's w-water. So what we're seeing until then, depending on how strong it is. So you, can you add a little bit of water to wine? So, yes, as long as it remains a, a, a wine taste, yes, and it's still hagafen. If it tastes... Not that it has a remote taste. It tastes like wine. Now, then still, it's still okay. Now, there are those who say that wine producers add water to the wine. Now, Kedem deny that, as far as I remember. The French grape juice, which it says on the bottle a hundred percent pure, means what it says, that they do not add water to the production. And the one who I spoke to on Friday or Thursday, also, he's actually a Rav who

32:57 Speaker 1 gives a hechsher on wine, and he says they don't add wine. So it's, it's, uh, it doesn't seem to be standard practice at all, the, of adding water into wine production. I know someone might, um, prove me wrong, but that seems to be it's not so standard. So there is room to add a little bit if you need to, so long as it has a taste of wine. Now, I'm curious here. This, uh, you have on the screen, the Piskei Teshuvos. He writes that the Pri Megadim is concerned about adding water to our wines, which are not so strong, and you shouldn't go more than roiv. But Beshas Satrach, he says, you can add five parts of water to one part of wine. Now, where did he get this from? Where does five against one come from? Si- we've ta-talked about six parts of water against one part of wine. That's written in the Gemara. He comes up with something five against one, uh, which he doesn't give a, a proper source. Um, now then, another practical thing about grape juice. So there are those who say grape juice is so weak you can't add anything. Others disagree, and they say so long as it tastes, um, you're allowed to add also with grape juice, un- and so long as it's roiv, pure grape juice. What's the difference? Everything else you can go according to roiv. Here also you can go accor- according to roiv. V'chein aba dabar. Indeed, if you're, if necessary, you can

34:25 Speaker 1 ca- ca- add a little bit of water, a minority of water, even to grape juice, and it's still considered by pri hagafen. Whilst we're already talking about this, about one to six, I want to sh- to share, to, uh... The one to six ratio is very interesting. We have the Shabbos is one to six of the whole week. But you have in a couple of areas of Halakha, when it comes to cheating, when you've overpriced or, uh, undercharged, so there's a shir that up till one-sixth is, is, um, can pass. If it's more than one-sixth, then, then it can dis, um, then, then the, then you can claim that the, the sale is not a valid sale. It's bitul meikar. So you have the, the ratio of one to six. Then you have another totally different area, and we've, I think we've discussed this before. If you make, if you make, um, if you make, let's say, um, biscuits, and it's combination of flour, and there's also coconut in the flou-- coconut, and there's other things. Uh, there's sugar. At what rate it, it... when it comes to a shir of kazais, et cetera, how do you work out the shir? So there's a shir of kazais b'kedei achilas prass, and this comes in Hilchos Pesach. If you... Now, no one does it today, but it says, it discusses it in b'kedei, in Hilchos Pesach. If you made a dough, and one, uh, uh, within a kedei achilas prass, which is, uh, s- three eggs.

36:04 Speaker 1 There's a kazais of wheat flour, let's say, and there's three egg, um, um, um, measures of other material. So then the kazais dominates, and the whole thing becomes hamotzi and yo, yoitzah mitzvas, mitzvas matzah. So you have here the kazais, which, which one-sixth, or one, one against six. A presence of one against six controls and dominates. So it's so interesting where you have in Hilchos Chayim Noah, and you have in Hilchos, uh, Birchas HaNehen in the matzah, kazais b'kedei achilas prass is one against six. And here in wine, it's one against six. So it's very interesting how that shir of it's about fourteen percent is enough of a presence to, that it should not be over, should not be ignored in the, in the mix. Uh, just interesting, uh, observation. Okay. We'll go on to the next question, and someone's asking about the minag of Of ha-having a square, amor al am. I know we've discussed this in the past, but someone asked me, I'm going to revisit it. So you have a siman in, in Orechaim about making a zecher l'churban. And we have here, it says that there's... After the churban, we have a takanah that, um, when you-- if you have a building and you're doing the sid, you know, some kind of lime, and you should leave an amor square opposite the doorway without, without, uh, sid. And so you do see in some houses, they are particular. They, they do leave a, a blank area near the, near the front

37:50 Speaker 1 door as a zecher l'churban. Now, before you start saying it's not minhag Chabad, so there's a letter of the Rebbe Rashab. Sorry, it's not on the screen. There's a letter of the Rebbe Rashab to, uh, he was away from home, and I think it was in Rostov. They-- He was in a place called Sloviansk, tof, tof Reish, ayin, ches. And there were builders in Rostov who were preparing the house for them to move back, and he tells them to, the, the, the contractor to leave... They should tell the contractor to leave a, a square amor, uh, whatever, un-unpainted, whatever the words were exactly. So the Rebbe Rashab was particular. But y-yeah, the, the other side is that you look around in the houses of Anash, you hardly ever see it. Now, it's not only Anash, it's also, you can see in the Mishnah Brurah, and he writes, "Vehi nei bizman eino leino hag uleshair." So it's not so widespread, and it's only mamash a mute to do so. And, uh, possibly, possibly that the din is only talking about sid. Now, he says sid means, he used the word gips, or that's gips is this thing which you make, um, uh, a cast from, alum, whatever it's called, which is that kind of material. That's where the takanah is. But if you take paint or something, then it doesn't fall into the exact definition, which is discussed at the Gemara, and that's another limus chus why people are not so particular. Right. Let's move on.

39:27 Speaker 1 So someone was, uh, here in London for the first days of Sukkos, and then he was halameid. He was traveling with his family to the United States, and we're gonna come back kind of after Sukkos. So before he left, he dismantled his sukkah, and someone asked him, "Is it okay to dismantle a sukkah?" So this is something which I have written in, uh, in the Sivan Chelek Beis. So let's read what we have here. The schach of the sukkah. Now, this is, uh, on the one hand, the schach of the sukkah, even the walls, have got a kedusha, which means that for the whole, the, the, uh, the whole of Sukkos, you mustn't use them for anything else. So it's sacred. On the other hand, where if you... Sometimes you build a sukkah just for, let's say, on a campus, in a park, and it's only for the day or for two days, and after that you don't, you don't have no need for it. And sometimes you have more than that. You're going... You are, uh, obliged because of your agreement with the, uh, the landowner that you have to take it away. So you are allowed to demolish the sukkah if ne-necessary. The materials you mustn't use for anything else. You can use it for another sukkah. But they have... Their, their materials are, have got a kedushas sukkah till the end of Sukkos. So where did this come from? This is from Rav Gestetner in the Sefer L'horos... In his Shu't L'horos

40:52 Speaker 1 Nosson. He says you would be allowed to undo a sukkah during Sukkos. Um, right. The question might be, is the dismantling of the sukkah involving a melacha, which therefore halameid, you shouldn't be doing melacha unless it's a tzorech halameid. That, that is a, a separate discussion. Okay. I want to now... Perhaps we'll finish a few minutes early, but here's the following. We had a lot of discussion last, last week about a sukkah... Sorry, a tallis which is worn out or talis katan of worn out. What can you do with it? And are you allowed to just wrap it up and put it in the recycle? And I showed last week how there's a machlokos about this, and from the Alter Rebbe, it looks like you are able to do it, to wrap it up and dis-dis-dispose of it. I want to just share with you the following. Unfortunately, today I heard that Rav Shimon Hershler, uh, passed away. Rav Shimon Hershler, uh, was a, a marbit torah here in London for the last few decades. He would give a daf yomi shiur in the vision. It's a shul just up the road from Bais Lubavitch. It's, I don't know, six o'clock in the morning. He would have a big turnout there. Uh, this is going on for twenty, thirty years or more. Now, when he was a bocher, he went into Yechidas, and he, he, he asked the Rebbe about the Inyan of, um, it says that the, the Rebbe would quote so often that

42:39 Speaker 1 Amos, Amos, that Hashem tevash Moshiach, Amos haKehasi mar, and he said, "L'cheshia futza mina secha chutza." And so, but if you read the full report, he said also the, that, "L'cheshia futza mina secha chutza, v'ya-v'yeidu lasis yichudim kamoischol." The people will be... Or something like that. They will be able to do yichudim like you do. So he asked the Rebbe, "You're making hafacha about the Inyan futza mina secha chutza, but what about the yichudim? The people mo- who knows how to do yichudim?" And the Rebbe kind of said that, that yichud, and that's, that's for those who know how to do yichud, and that's for up to them. So I don't remember exactly the thing. But then there was one line, as Zevi and I Rebe-Rabbi, uh, um, Hishler would copy the Rebbe's accent. As Zevi de Altar Rebbe is nit mechaleh, zein mir echad nit mechaleh. Like the Altar Rebbe does not dis-differentiate, we're also not differentiating. I'm saying this in the context of how you read this, uh, Sefer Shulchan Aruch. It's Altar Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, but it's the same in the, in the, uh, Mechaber in Rebbe Yosef Karo. He says that tallit, tallis shel mitzvah which have, um, balu, have, have worn out. So then you void the latzim im hehem. You don't do anything with them, and you're not allowed to use them for wiping, you know, in a dis-- in a dis-- uh, despicable way, tashmish megunah. Zo zerok hem kol me'aleh. You can throw them away, and they

44:12 Speaker 1 will di-di-disintegrate, whatever. Now, here the Mishnah Berurah wants to say it means when you've removed the tzitzit. And I'm, uh, I'm, I'm saying the Altar Rebbe writes it. He-- Zo zerok hem kol me'aleh. He doesn't say. Altar Rebbe nit mechaleh, zein mir echad nit mechaleh. Okay. Now just, uh, very, very interesting. The-- everyone-- You look at where this halakha comes from, and this is from, uh, the Beit Yosef brings it from the Ran in Shabbos Peh Kodzayin. Now, please follow with me the piece of Gemara in Shabbos Peh Kodzayin. Now, Shabbos Peh Kodzayin is nothing to do with tzitzit. It's hilchas muktzeh. So here on the right of the screen is from the Rif. Quoting the Gemara, Omar Reb Zeira, Omar Rav, Shiray pruzmos o sulatalt lamdesh Shabbos. The remnants of pruzmos are muktzeh. Am haBayit matir matlonyos she'ein bohen sholosh al sholosh. We're talking about shmatas which are less than three, um, uh, it's a boreis square, and they're unsuitable lo la'nim u'lo la'ashir. Good one. Pirush pruzmos. What are pruzmos? B'loi shel talisus. Worn out talisus. As he gives a reference to Gemara Sukkah, Rav Amram, Hasidah put, put techeiles on the, uh, pruzmo-- on the talisus of his family. Okay, so now we have shirai pruzmos are worn out, the remnants of talis. Next. Now, here's the Ran. Chosav ha-Rav. So you got the Rif, and then the Rav comments on this, Yofe piresh hagoyn. The Rav was-- compliments the Rif that it be b'loi shel talisus, that the meaning of pruzmos

46:13 Speaker 1 means worn out talis, that they are muktzeh. V'ha'areini mosif al dvarav. Now, I think this is the Ran. It might be the Rav, I don't know. But meanwhile, whoever it is, is, uh, I'm gonna find you. V'ha'areini mosif al dvarav. That which you say that a worn out talis is muktzeh, dake be talisus shel mitzvah. M'pnei she'adam boidel-- It's a talis, uh, which is dedicated for a mitzvah, you wear davening, et cetera. M'pnei she'adam boidel mehem. A person keeps their distance from using it for anything else. Vi'ein eireitzet l'mekaneh achatz me'abehe. He's not gonna use them for wiping himself in a, uh, disgraceful way. V'lo l'yachedus u'latashmish hamuguneh. He's not gonna use them for any other dis-disgraceful, um, purpose, like cheis as a shmatta for the floor or for, uh, the counter. Therefore... El-- So what do you do with it? Elo she'ozer kemein kol. So a regular garment which has worn out, old vest, underwear, old shirt, you might use them to clean the windows or the floor, whatever. But the old talis, you're not gonna use them for latashmish megunah. Elo she'ozer kemein kol. So you're gonna discard them, and they're gonna disintegrate. Abel she'yudei b'god mecheirim, but remnants of other types of clothing. Mutar letaltelon. So all right, a shma-- a, an old shirt. Not wearing as a shirt? Oh, fine. L'guri m'cheres k'tano. Dechazit l'kaneh b-b-beitino. Like if you had a, a shard from a pot, a, a earthen pot. The, the shard you can use for scraping something. So the

48:00 Speaker 1 same thing, uh, an old, an, uh, torn up shirt. Okay, so the scraps are useful as a shmatta for, for wiping. That's what the Ran says. Okay. So now let's go back and read that halakha. Talisus shel mitz-- Now, uh, and as I said, the Mishnah Berurah, and let's, let's go down. Um, the Mishnah Berurah says, "Oh, you mustn't use it for tashmish she'eino, sh-hamuguneh." But for she'eino muguneh, for a n-not a, for a not a disgraceful, uh, usage, you are allowed to use it. Sorry, that's not the pshat. Very simple. He's talking about the din in muktzeh, and the worn out talis is muktzeh. Why? Because it's nothing to do with it. If you can use the worn out talis for another use, for tashmish, uh, which is not muguneh, so it's not muktzeh. The, the, the, the, uh, the vorish is-- the Ran is saying that why, why does Rav Zeira say the shirai pruzmos are muktzeh? Because you can't do anything with it. Muguneh. Uh, uh, what, what do you do with the shmatta? No one's gonna take a na-- a talis which is balu and use it as a curtain. It's, it's, it, it, it's not suitable for that in any case. But if you, you think, "Oh, I'm allowed to use it as a curtain. I'm allowed to use it as a tablecloth." It's-- Lo yodal al da such a thing. Why the practically? Not because it's a not, um, uh... Could be halakha also not. But that's-- When he

49:33 Speaker 1 says not allowed to use them for tashmish muguneh, the context is that you're not gonna use them for anything. Now, if you remember, we discussed this, went through this last week, that, um, that usage, when it has in the hilchas Chanukah, it says, "Don't count money in front of the, in front of the, the, uh, menorah." What's, what's, and what's so terrible about counting money? So nevos using a menorah near Chanukah for something mundane is a bizoy mitzvah. So any use which you'll use with the worn out talis will be a bizoy mitzvah. Now, so just, so now let's read the halakha again. And I asked last week, what's this adam boidel ve'atzmehem? What does it mean? So he's making a statement. Tallit is a mitzvah sheb'alo and worn out tallit, you've got now leftover, whether it's a hole or pieces, it's whatever, but it's a point that it's no longer wearable. So a person's not gonna use them for anything. And what would you use normally with worn out clothes? You use them as shmatas. You're not gonna-- there's nothing you can do with them. So it's, it's brought in from hilchas muktze is brought into hilchas tzitzit. That what you can do with them that you, you're going to discard them. That doesn't say... So therefore, the whole discussion with the tzitzit, without the tzitzit, et cetera, I think it's all irrelevant. He, he's saying clearly, once it's no longer usable, then it, uh, it-- you are allowed to... You're not allowed to

51:11 Speaker 1 throw them in a, in a disgraceful way, and that we saw last week that, um, to throw them with the tea leaves and with the chicken bones, that's not okay. But that the Alter Rebbe talks about the threads of the tzitzit. But I'm saying the same thing applies to the tallit. You can wrap them up in a res- respectful way and to put them in a recycle of clothing. I know not every house has a recycle of clothing, but if you have a recycle bank in your area, you can put them in a bag and put them in the recycle and, um, and y- you're-- and that y- yeah, there's no bizayon in there. You've, you've done the right thing with it. Okay, that's as much as I have to share with you tonight. And I want to wish you all a gut Shabbath voch.

51:55 Speaker 2 Amen. Gut voch.

52:01 Speaker 3 Shabbath voch.

52:04 Speaker 2 Shabbath voch.

52:07 Speaker 3 Shabbath voch.