ויצא תשפ״ו

00:03 Speaker 1 Welcome to tonight's Shir, Motzei Shabbos Parshas Vayetzei. And we're going now into the Chag HaGeulah of the Mitzvah Rebbe. So on Shabbos was the Yom, Yom Immat in the Yortsite, and today is the, uh, Yud Sunday is the Chag HaGeulah. And, uh, there's Simcha by Chabad. And so if we go a little bit nostalgic of Habrengen, so you'll understand where I'm coming from. Okay. So I've been asked to s-share stories also as because it's a Melaveh Malka atmosphere. So I wanna share with you a story the following. It was... I once got a call, personal story. I got a call, "Could-- Rabbi, could you please arrange Kaddish on my behalf?" Um, so I say, "What's the story?" Uh, "My rabbi doesn't want to arrange Kaddish." So I say, "Was the relative Jewish?" She says, she says, "No, it was my cat." So I tried to explain to her that as high in Gan Eden as a cat will ever reach, it's reached there already without the Kaddish. Okay. Um, about two years later, it's about half an hour before Shabbos, and the phone rings. I pick up the phone, and I recognize the voice. This time, it's the next cat had died. So let's see. So I asked her, and I started thinking a little bit more about her. And I asked her, "Do you live alone, or do you have a family?" So she lives alone, as I had guessed. Right. So then I understood a bit more why the cat was so important

02:01 Speaker 1 to her. She comes home, that's a bit of company, something, uh. I understand a person lives alone, it's, it's a, some kind of comfort, et cetera. So I said to her, I asked her then, "Do you bench... Do you light a ca-candles for Shabbos?" So she says, "No." So I said, "I want, I want to re-- suggest something to you. That today and every Friday before S- before the T- Shabbos begin, before sunset, you should light a candle. You look a ca- at the candle, and you'll see the warmth of the candle, and this will remind you of the warmth, the warm feeling which you had from your cat." And that's as, as much as I heard from her. So, um, it was just the Hashgachah Protis. It happened to be out of Shabbos, and it occurred to me this should be the response to her question. Okay. I mention this story because I don't know whether how much you follow the other, other Lubavitch news sites, but I got on Friday, someone sent me a clip, and I now saw it on anash.org, a whole, uh, article or whatever clip of Rabbi Chaim Dolphin, who's, uh, they use the word rant, um, about some, someone who spoke publicly in connection with Yiddish Gislave, and he was, uh, talking about he's petting his cat, and he's, uh, how he's lashing out how it's totally inappropriate. So I'm going to be talking about in question number three about someone who owns a cat. And so before

03:42 Speaker 1 I get lashed at, um, for talking about a chassid who has a cat, so I just wanted to address this. Um, and I can see the difference where the circumstances are. Sometimes people do have an animal, a, a, a pet. Could be, uh, in a case where they said if an, a person is lonely, I can understand that. Sometimes it's animal therapy. But overall, it needs to be said, as Rabbi Dolphin said, um, should we say not so eloquently, um, that it's not a Chassidisher thing. A Chassidisher thing is that we, we, we never had, never had, uh, a dog as a member of the family. You read in Chassidisher stories, you have, um, the typical Poritz sitting there with a dog next to him. That was, that was a very goyische kind of family picture. Although cats, uh, seem to be more tolerated in Rabbi, um, Rabbi Mendel Lieberman managed to get a cat into almost every, uh, family scene which he pai- painted. But okay. Also, sometimes people have it for, for, for mice. They have them for a dog for protection. That's a different story. But to kind of adopt an animal as part of your family, that was never a Chassidishe minhag. Now, I just wanna share with you one more story, and the story is the following. I heard this from Reb Gershon Mendel, a Garelik, alav ha-shalom. And the story goes like this. It was shortly after the Second World War, and there were the, there was, um, refugees,

05:19 Speaker 1 and there were unfortunately many, uh, agunahs. It wasn't an agunah. It's a woman who her husband had died. She had no children, and there was a need to do a chalitzo. Her brother-in-law was, was there. And for before she can remarry, so a woman who's lost her husband, and she had n-never had any children with her husband. So then there's a mitzvah of chalitzo or yibum. We don't do yibum nowadays, so it's typically chalitzo. Chalitzo is a complicated p-process where you, where, where they, uh, there's a special chalitzo shoe which is put on the foot or the leg of the brother-in-law And then the, the, uh, Yevamah, the, the lady, the widow, she has to painstakingly untie this, uh, the straps from her, the, the foot, from the leg of her brother-in-law, and then there's the spitting, et cetera. And last thing she says, "Ka kach ye'aseh," et cetera. At any rate, there was a b-- So there was a Beis Din of three Rabbonim. Two of them were Lubavitcher, and one of them was a Litvisher. And there was, uh, this chalitah going on, and the, the woman, the widow, was struggling with the, uh, with untying the straps. So the Litvisher Rav very politely leaned over to help her. And the... One of the Chassidish Rabbonim, I think it was Rabbi Shmuel Sosonkin, or it was, uh, whoever it was, Rabbi, um, uh, um, Pl-Plotkin, whoever it was, he was, he was horrified because the, the chalitah has to be done by her.

07:05 Speaker 1 It mustn't be anyone else helping her. So he saw this dayan helping the woman doing the chalitah. He says, "Burdyak, burdyak." So Burdyak is, um, I'm not familiar with all the colorful words in Russian, but it's not a compliment. And so then there was a whole tumult. Hayitochim that the, the Rav called the other dayan. He called him a Burdyak. And someone comes over to him. He says he shouldn't have spoken this way. That, that, "Ados, if you would have understood what happened there, we will say, 'Echt gezagt a Burdyak.' If you had..." At any rate, so I don't know. I mean, the, the passion which Rabbi Dolphin has on this issue, perhaps I should also have that passion. But, um, just, just to make it clear that that's not minhag anash midais, midais, uh, you know, from all the generations. And the inyun of having pets, pet dogs, et cetera, has become unfortunately, uh, more and more popular in, in, uh, religious circles. And, uh, I think it is appropriate to say that lo hayini osot bimkomenu. It's not Chassidishe minhag. Someone's on the fringe, okay, but it's not something which is, uh, should be seen as a positive development in our community. Um, I think that's enough said. Let's just go on to our agenda, and I'm gonna come back to the cat later. Okay. So point number one of our list. So if a Chutznik visits Eretz Yisrael in this period, after the seventh of Cheshvan until the fif- the fifth of

08:42 Speaker 1 December, whatever it is, this Thursday, I believe. So there's the time when Eretz Yisrael, they switch over and start saying Ve'aseinu halemota. That's after the seventh of Chesh- of Cheshvan. And then we in Chutz La'aretz wait till around the fifth of December. So what happens if someone from England visits Eretz Yisrael? What does he do then in his Shemoneh Esreh, and what does he do on his way back once he's come back home? So, um, so you, you get kind of different answers. Some Poskim will tell you that once you've started saying Ve'aseinu halemota, you have to keep on saying it, and others say that you, um, you go there and you say it, and you come back and you stop. So I'm gonna just share with you what we have here in, uh... So step by step. We have... Well, let, let's start here. Here's an answer of the Rebbe. The Rebbe refers to the Birkei Yosef and other Ra-- most Acharonim say that, "Kol echad yinheg keminhag hanusach mekom bo heve." You follow the practice of where you are currently. So in Eretz Yisrael, you'll say Ve'aseinu halemota. In Chutz La'aretz, you'll say Ve'aseinu beracha. "Vechein kosa v'kosa shulchan." So says the Kosa shulchan. Okay. Um, now, so let's go and see this Birkei... He quotes the Birkei Yosef. What you have on the top of the screen is in the Shulchan Aruch, we have a, a commentary in the margin called the Shaarit Shulchan. So here he quotes, "Vekosa Birkei Yosef, a

10:21 Speaker 1 Ben Eretz Yisrael who's in Eretz Yisrael at, at zein Cheshvan, and he started saying Ve'aseinu halemota. And then he goes to Chutz La'aretz. So once he's started, he shouldn't stop." Now, he's talking clearly about a Ben Eretz Yisrael. He's not talking about a Ben Chutz La'aretz. So again, someone who's in Eretz Yisrael, and he started saying Ve'aseinu halemota, and he continues. Yeah. Yes. Okay. That's just a little bit different to what we saw over here, um, keminhag hamakom bo heve, but fine. That's all about Eretz Yisrael. Now then we, the Rebbe referred to the Kosa Shulchan, Rabbi Chaim Noah. So let's see what he has to say in this, on this topic. Ben Eretz Yisrael, who happens to be in Chutz La'aretz, or Ben Chutz La'aretz happens to be in Eretz Yisrael, he should follow the minhag of the w- the w- his local pla-- um, where he is at the moment. He then says, "Veim hischiel," if you started just, um, asking on E- in Eretz Yisrael on the seventh of MarCheshvan, and then you left the country, left Israel, you should continue kevn Eretz Yisrael. See, the impression is he doesn't differentiate whether he is a Ben Chutz La'aretz visiting or Ben Eretz Yisrael who has then left the country. See, there, that's where it's coming from, that even a Ben Chutz La'aretz who visits Eretz Yisrael shou- and starts saying Ve'aseinu halemota should continue doing so even as he's come back. Let's go on. Now, this on the screen is the, is

12:01 Speaker 1 the Birkei Yosef itself. So here we have where he says, "Just follow your local minhag," where w- the minhag of where you are. Then we have the next piece. Then Eretz Yisrael, who is in Eretz Yisrael and starts there, and then he goes to Chutz La'aretz. He shou-- Since he started, he should continue. «Yehe lei moishech min hagever, yina, yirshal kemini b'ne Eretz Yisrael.» So despite him saying, "Follow the minhag of where you are," but once you've started a Ben Eretz Yisrael, he continues to say the same talmudo, unless he's a chazan, obviously. Let's go on. Now, this is from the Piskei Chofetz. He writes the following, "A Ben Chutz La'aretz who visits Eretz Yisrael, when he's there, he should say talmudo. When he goes back, he should stop saying the same talmudo." And although the Bis- the Beis Yosef had said that the jumping back and forth is «ichuchavei tlula» that's on notes of twenty-seven, that j-- He-- Let's go back. We see that lashon here. «Dlo lehevi kechuchavei tlula.» It shouldn't, it shouldn't be just a joke, switching back and forth and back and forth. So the Beis Yosef, he was referring to a Ben Eretz Yisrael who, who left the country. But a Ben Chutz La'aretz who visited and came back to his hometown, th-then he should just say the same berakhah. This he quotes from the Divrei Yatziv, that's the Mekubal Shen Berakov, and the She'agah Mefarshim, Schneebal, and Minch- Mincha Zekhor. So he's bringing three contemporary poskim who say that

13:45 Speaker 1 if you've just visited Eretz Yisrael for a few days, whilst you're there, same talmudo, you come back, back to a same berakhah. Just to add a little bit more to that. If you see that he qu-- he then quotes, «Ve yesh oimrim». Now, those who say that once you started, you should continue saying the same talmudo, not in the same ber-- not in Birkat Hashachar, but in Shemoneh Esrei. And then he should say, «Kenusa khanal». What's Kenusa khanal? He says like this, "You're in Chutz La'aretz, you should say, "The same talmudo livrakho, be'artzenu hakadosho, ulkhol hamakom as atzichem lekakh." That's rather, you know, rather long text and a whole new innovation, and it's to be said in Shemoneh Esrei. So no one seems to be saying that he should continue saying the same talmudo in Birkat Hashachar. So just to summarize, and this is what we wrote in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, um, although generally the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch is, I mean, uh, what, what we've added is Mir Hogeh Chabad, but based upon this letter of the Rebbe, there was written there and also this Piskei Chofetz that a Chutznik who visits, uh, Eretz Yisrael, whilst he's there, says the same talmudo. Once he leaves the country, he joke-- he switches back to the same berakhah until the end of the week. Right. Let's go on. Question about... Someone asks, "Is it okay to leave the Negel Vaszer bowl with, um, before you go to sleep to put it under your bed?" I can

15:14 Speaker 1 understand the reason for this. This is, I'm sure you've had the incident of children or adults knocking over the Negel Vaszer and, and, and then you washing your carpet kind of thing, and so it's safer if it's under the bed. The thing is that we know that the Gemara talks about that putting food under the bed is going to endow them with a ruach ra. So does, um, ruach ra help for Negel Vaszer, or does it... So this is actually, there was a, a rav in... Where was he? Did not... Was it, um, perhaps it was in Podovitch, actually. His name was Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabino-Rabinovich Toimim. Short, in short, the Aderes. Great Goan just over about a hundred years ago, and he writes this question. If you have kept the water underneath a bed, is that going to help to remove the ruach ra, which is required, which is, uh, uh, accomplished by washing Negel Vaszer in the morning? Because it says in the Gemara that stuff under the bed is against the ruach ra. So even though the bedieved, there are those who say that you don't have to dis-- um, get rid of it. Well, though in that, well, generally we are machmi, by the way. If you had food under the, under the bed, et cetera, we generally would say don't use it. There are those who are meikel. But perhaps they're not going to be effective in removing the ruach ra. So to the, the bottom line re-remains that we

16:41 Speaker 1 don't leave the Negel Vaszer bowl with the fresh water under the bed because of the concern of it acquiring a ruach ra. It's not gonna be much use for Negel Vaszer in the morning. So that's, that remains. Okay. So here, the next piece, actually, the story with the cat is a fascinating, uh, uh, shailah. So the story is like this. This, uh, young man or middle-aged man lives alone in a small flat, and he has a cat, and he's concerned that when he goes out of the flat on Shabbos and he closes the door, he's effectively trapping the cat in the apartment and is doing issur of capturing an animal, which you're not allowed to capture an animal on Shabbos. This was his question. Now, this, I-I think it's, it, it is a very good question because as you can see at the bottom over here, his source, Shulchan Aruch, it says, «Chosul dino keish ar chayyah», that a cat has got a din of a, another chayyah. So that's where he's coming from, and that's where he was concerned. Is he doing something wrong by closing the door when he leaves the house? So, um, so this is in Siman Shin Tes Zayin, and it talks about domesticated animals, and it differentiates. It says the following, «Chayyah voif», if you have a- What would be called a wild animal, an animal of the wild. Doesn't mean a fierce animal. A deer, for example. If you've got your pet deer in your house or a

18:20 Speaker 1 bird. You've, you breed deer in your house or in your or you've got geese, you've got chickens, you've got doves. If you would... Now, you've got, let's say, you've got a, um, in your house, you've got... Or in your garden, you've got these, these animals, and you then trap them. So he says you're potter. You're not, that's not-- you're not guilty of trapping. Now, here's a fascinating explana-explanation. He says they are already trapped. If they were doves which live in the, uh, attic or something, no, they are more, uh, um, they are more free birds. But here, look at the here. the birds which are bred in the house, since by nightfall they're gonna come back to their cage, and then when they come at night, it'll be easy to cat- to catch them. Um, um, because when they come home at night, then they're not going to ru-run away. They want to have their, uh, their supper or their bed. Therefore, even when they're not in the, in the cage a whole day, they are considered not, they're not considered free animals. Yeah, fascinating, uh, explanation here. Since when nightfall comes, they will be easy to trap. Therefore, even during the day when they are at large, it's... The trapping them is not also . Right. But then he says, you're not allowed to. What would that mean? To chase one of these animals or birds and to chase them into a narrower place where it'll be easy to catch them, then y- that

20:08 Speaker 1 would be also . So again, the animal is at large in your yard, and then if you chase it into a narrow spot where it's now gonna be easy to catch it in a, in a, without any effort, without any agility, that's considered trapping. He then goes on and says, Ah, then he goes on, he says... Sorry. He differentiates. This is only but behemoths, but an behemoths as in cows and, and, and sheep and goats, for example. And perhaps, perhaps a, a donkey would also go into this ca-category. Perhaps a horse also. Perhaps even a dog might come into this category. Uh, g- animals which are but more domestic animals, which are then you are allowed to trap them even . So if your, your, your, uh, sheep has gone for walkies in the street, and you go and, and you manage to ca-- it has on a le-a lead, or you put a lead on a, a string on it, and you bring it home. You're not guilty of trapping. It's so domestic that it's not trapping. But the because their nature, they're more free birds or free animals. And although they are domesticated somewhat, but to, to, uh, to, uh, narrow them into a, into a small spot, that's considered trapping. On this, the Mish-- says that in this respect, the, a, a cat is considered more like a deer or like a bird, that it, it doesn't... It's not . It's more, uh, elusive than a, a, the, like a... More elusive

21:58 Speaker 1 than a sheep or a cow, and therefore you wouldn't be allowed to trap it into a narrow spot. Unless, yeah, as was discussed before. So therefore, the question is a very good question. To, to, uh, somehow p- uh, chase a cat into a narrow spot is, would be . So now he's asking the question: What about closing the door? So now, earlier in that siman talks about closing the door. It talks about . If you have... Your door was left open, and a deer ran into your house, and of course, it said, "Oh deer," yeah, of course. And then you... But you closed the deer on the deer. Um, by the way in, in, in German, the word for animal is tier, yeah. Tiergarten in Berlin, I saw once. So all right. So you, uh, if you close the door on the deer on Shabbos, you'd be guilty of trapping. Then it goes into detail. What happens if there's one already trapped and someone else sits next to him? Doesn't matter. That's, that's... But meanwhile, we have here that closing a door is considered trapping. So therefore, he's got a question, a good question. If you're not allowed to trap, uh, not, not allowed to trap the cat, is closing the door on the cat considered trapping? So two things. So now the Mishnah Berurah says, this is the Mishnah Berurah Halakha. It's earlier on in the siman. And he says that the Isur would only be when it's in a, a narrow spot. If

23:35 Speaker 1 it's a , if it's a large space, or it's a bird which is already used to, uh, to your place, where it's only Isur derabanan to narrow on it. He's saying quotes from the Prnim Gadol that the, the animal which is in Meila, what we said before, narrowing it into a narrow spot, that it would be also derabanan. But closing a door is not as Chomer. That's... The Mishnah Berurah says it's okay. So number one, it's okay. Yeah. Because he said that closing the door is not a direct, uh, engagement with the animal to trap it, therefore he says it's okay. And then I want to share with you one more thing, which I find, found also, also as doing research, and that is from the Helkas Yoyov. So the Helkas Yoyov lived in Poland pre-war. Uh, I remember Rabbi Mentlik mo- quoting him in his Shiurim. Possibly he had even met him, um, in pre-war Europe. Uh, anyway, he says the following. You're open, you open the door, and you're standing in the door. At that moment, the animal is not free to run out because you're standing in the way. And therefore, when you close the door, you haven't trapped because when the door was closed from before Shabbos, the animal was, was, was, how do you say, uh, was restrained. Yeah. Whatever restraint it is, but it was restrained. When you open the door, it's not as if the animal's at liberty to run away because you're in the way. Therefore, it,

25:13 Speaker 1 it hasn't been set free, and therefore the fact that you closed the door, you haven't restrained it because it was restrained the whole time. That's how he comes up with a second, um, with a, with a, with his explanation. With So therefore, on two counts, I would say this fellow is allowed to leave his house. Number one, the Mishnah says that closing the door is not a problem, uh, for an animal which is free within the house. And number two, the fact that you're standing at a door is, uh, also means it was never released, and therefore it's, uh, not a, not a problem to close the door. Had you had the, let's say, the summer, you'd left the, the, the, uh, the back door open and the animal was free to run into the garden and come back in, and then you... before you leave for Shacharit, whatever, you go to Shul, and you close the doors, um, then that could be according to the, the, the, uh, , that wouldn't be a solution. Whereas according to Mishnah, that would still be okay. Yeah. I think I once discussed a couple of years ago a different story about a neighbor of mine who has rabbits. They have a hutch, and rabbits. And in this part of the world, we also have foxes. And the, the foxes will, will sometimes take a rabbit for supper, uh, and it wouldn't come back. So they wanted to know whether they're allowed to close the hutch on Shabbos,

26:37 Speaker 1 not so much to trap the rabbits, but to protect the rabbits from being, uh, preyed upon by, by the fox. Okay. Let's see what we have in the hatch. In the... sorry, in the chat. Wasps and bees. Okay. I'm not sure about the Morristown thing. Um, okay. Let's move on. So yeah, w-w... all right, let, let's leave those, those questions closer to Succoth, yeah. About wasps and bees. That's when they become popular. Uh, okay. Let's move on. The next question on our sheet is, uh, can I hang up a sh- when you... a, a, a sheet, a chart with on the inside of the door of the Aron Kodesh. Which actually, by the way, in Stamford Hill, we have that on the downstairs Shul. I picked up once at a such a chart, and I hang, I hung, hung it up, um, without thinking too much about it. But someone asked me the question, "Is it okay or not?" Well, now we are restricted. We don't put anything in the Aron Kodesh. It's only things which are very, uh, you know, appropriate to be put in the Aron Kodesh. So let's say in the Litvisher world, they have the Megillas of Yeshaya and Yirmiyahu for, for Haftarah. Would those Megillas be, uh, put in the Aron Kodesh? And I believe their practice is not to. The Aron Kodesh is just for the Sefer Torah. All right. The silverware goes with the Sefer Torah, but, uh, to put other stuff in the Aron Kodesh is not

28:14 Speaker 1 so okay. So here's a question. When the fellow goes, uh, was honored with Psichra Sa'arron, he goes over with his siddur, and he puts it down inside the Aron. Is that okay? And the answer is that in this, in this respect, whatever is Mekubal, whatever is normal, normal behavior, so we're going to use a principle that when it was consecrated, it was consecrated allowing that kind of usage. So if it's nor-if it's normal for a person to go for Psichra and put a siddur in this, in the Aron Kodesh whilst... So for that, there is an allowance for that. And so by the same token, to put up a chart with Pri Charei, since it's a c- I think it's a fairly common thing, um, it's not worse than the siddur, so I think that's okay. I once was giving a Drasha, and I was standing by the Bima, and I put my hat on the Bima. And someone came over to me afterwards and says, "You know, you shouldn't be putting your hat on the Bima because the Bima is designated for the Sefer Torah." It's true that we put on the Bima, we have... sometimes we put Sfasim, we sometimes have a Tzedakah pushka on the Bima. That's true. But that's because that's normal. Therefore, you can say, , it was consecrated, and this was allowed. But it was never, uh, consecrated... Well, well, people could put their hats on the Bima. Sorry. It was never... It's ac-it's actually quite disrespectful in, in,

29:42 Speaker 1 in besides. But it wasn't consecrated as for this, in, in with this allowance. Therefore, it remains, uh, no, it's not allowed to put a hat on, on a, uh, on a, on a Bima which is designated for the Sefer Torah and with the allowances for the more common usages. Okay. Let's move on. Um, what do we have now? So here is a story that, as I said, for, for those who came late, today is, uh, Yud Kislev, uh, and really you should feel Fabrenging. And therefore, I said, if I go a little bit out of line, you'll have to forgive me in the context of a Fabrenging. I did not say l'chaim tonight because, uh, that's already going a bit too far to give Hashem a locha after having l'chaim. So forgive me on that also. So . So, okay. So now we have... the question was the following. A fellow went to a Sheva Brachos. It's not in this... not in England, another country. And it was a family Sheva Brachos, and he was dismayed that there was no mechitza. He was upset, but, uh, he didn't say anything. He said... But they came to benching. They offered him to bench. They offered him to, to, to, uh, to do one of the Sheva Brachos, and he declined So then, uh, just last week, there's a, there's a weekly... one of these shul leaflets called HaLev HaNitzrufa. Not sure which crowd it is. I think it's BeBels or something. At any rate, they have

31:19 Speaker 1 there a column about Halakha stuff, and it talks there about declining, declining Sheva Berachot. So here you have a Din Siman Reish Aleph, which says the following. Yeah, this is from the Alter Rebbe Shulchan Aruch. There are no Chidushim there. An Oных who's been given the honor of benching, and he declines. That is Mikatz Yom of his shortening his days because he has, uh, declined to g-give the Berakha to the Baal Habayis. And Baal Habayis is, is, is the offspring of Avraham. And it says, "Vavorkham Avorchecha." So if you bless the, the, the offspring of Avraham, so you also get a blessing. And from the po-positive, you get the negative. So if you decline to give a Berakha to the Baal Habayis, so, uh, you're, you're missing out in, in Berakha. Put it that, that way. So then-- So that's about benching. And benching, there's a Birkat Baal Habayis. What about Sheva Berachot? It's not a Berakha to the Baal Habayis, but it's a Berakha to, to other Yidden within part of the Sheva Berachot. It's a Berakha to the Ben Mesubim, et cetera. So by declining-- So is it, is it, is it wrong to decline? So there may be something they say that it's-- They, they, they take the view it's the same thing. Whatever Berakha you... If you decline giving a Berakha to Yidden, it is an i-iss-issue. But I want to look more at the other side, yeah. I want to look at this issue when he had a, a discomfort

32:47 Speaker 1 because of the lack of a mechitza. So let's take a look. This is from the Levush. Now, this is not in the Shulchan Aruch pro-- In the se- This Levush is Alside Shulchan Aruch, but the end of the volume of Aruch HaChaim, he's got Likutim. And this is where it is. So that's where you can find it. The end of Aruch HaChaim in the Levush, in Lik- I mean, Li-Likutim, Minhogim, whatever he calls it. Um, but he says here that Sheva Berachot, you have to have at least ten people, ten men, as we have the story with Boaz, "VaYikcha Hasor Anoshem Anoshem Miziknah Ir," and it was for Birkat Chasan. Then he quotes from the Sefer HaChassidim. Wherever there's men and women seeing o- one another, like at a Sudat Nisuin, at a marriage, uh, meal, wedding meal, one should not say She-HaSimcha B'Meono, that there's, that there's, uh, joy in his abode, referring to Hashem. Because She-Ein Simcha Lefnei HaKodesh Baruch Hu, SheYesh Bah Hirhurei Aveira. There is no g-joy before Hashem when there are thoughts of Aveira, when there are inappropriate thoughts. Ad Kan. So this is what he's quoting from Sefer HaChassidim. Now, one, one cannot say, and this is p- It's a well-known thing. You c- You can't say She-HaSimcha B'Meono. We'll come to this more in detail later. The Levush then says, "VeEin Hazeh Oren Achshav V'Ze." Nowadays, this is four hundred years ago, a bit more, that people are not particular about that. "VeEfsh Er Mishum DeAchshav Mergoles Hanoshim

34:19 Speaker 1 Harbeh Bein Hanoshim." It could be because nowadays women tend to be amongst men much more than they used to be. "VeEin Kan Hirhurei Aveira Kol Kach," and therefore the inappropriate thoughts are not so much there. Then he says, "DeDam Yon Alon Kaka Kichivri." Now, there's a story in the Gemara, I think, with the Gehonen, and they said he, he picked up the color, and he said, "How you could do that?" He says, "To me, it's like a, a white goose." Um, that's the Kaka Kichivri. Then he has no lewd thoughts. To- So then he says that possibly the fact that because the social, uh, interactions have changed, the style has changed, therefore there's not so much Hirhur as there used to be. "Mitek Rov Hergelon Beinainu." Because the lifestyle has changed, there's much more mingling, uh, than there used to be. The Kevan DeDoshu Doshu wants this to become, uh, s- people have trampled on it. In other words, it's become used to it. So the, he, the, the Levush actually, whilst he's quoting the Sefer HaChassidim, but he himself is, uh, a little bit forgiving. Yeah. Right. So why did I, why did I share that with everyone? Okay. But let's, let's move on. Now, we have here two other quotes. One is the, from the Rebbe, and the one above on the top is from the Chofetz Chaim. So we'll co- We'll go first to Chofetz Chaim, but just to flash back, we know that the Rebbe had a major Milchamah in a,

35:52 Speaker 1 a major campaign to insist on having Mechitzas BeChasdas. Came to America, and the mantra of America is Andish, and so they didn't have Mechitzas. And the Rebbe pushed very hard, and sometimes it's very difficult because you're talking about families from, from not, you know, Ba'al Teshuva, et cetera. And there was, there's been a lot of, uh, struggles for people to have a Chasuna with a Mechitza, and people have, have, uh, pushed to, to, to keep to that standard. And, uh, okay. Um, so let's take a look here. First of all, here from the Chofetz Chaim. This is, uh, Chofetz Chaim has got a Sefer called Ahavat Chesed, and he writes here that it refers to the Bach. The earlier part was about mixed dancing, where he's really lashing out heavy. And then he goes and he quotes the Bach in Even HaEzzer, quoting from Minhogim. When there's a VeChupat men and women in the same room, one should not say HaSimcha B'Meono because there's no Simcha when the Yetzer Hara is, is governing. And then he quotes also Beit Shmuel and Birkei Yosef. Says that, that it's already written in the, in the Sefer HaChassidim and what we just saw. Uh, and then he quotes Sefer HaChassidim in another place. Don't, um, uh, when it says, "Al Tismach Mesudah B'Mohor" on her own. Okay. So this is the Chofetz Chaim quoting from the Bach. Of the importance of not having men and women together in the same room because then you can't say Shas Simcha

37:21 Speaker 1 Bemayim. Now, in Shulchan Menachem, which is a safer which is, um, put together all-- most of the Rebbe's letters on Halakha and Minhag. So now there's three letters about this topic. One is a longer letter, but I'm just, um, gonna read this shorter one. You've written that you've been told, this is someone written- that has written to the Rebbe. You've been told that in the reference to the mingling of men and women by a Chasid, uh, Al Pi Halakha, it's only, uh, an issue about saying She-Asimcha Bemayim. But other than that, it's not a problem. And those who make a fuss about the Machmir, the main thing of, of the mingling, uh, so then it's only Al Pi Chassidus, and you shouldn't be imposing this on everyone. So this is the person's, uh, challenge to the, uh, need for a mechitza, et cetera. The Rebbe writes, Muvanes, um, um, I, I, under-- You have to under-- It's obvious. I'm so surprised what you're saying. How can you say such a thing? Because the reason why don't you say Simcha Bemayim, that is because the Rebbe does not, not have a Simcha when there's a Yetzer Hara is, is, is, uh, is, uh, governing. And the, and the governing of the Yetzer Hara is something, is, is any Yid is allowed to do. And we say it's only very far from to people it's a problem for, but other people it's okay. But, you know, is there a heter for other people to, to, you know,

38:46 Speaker 1 engage with Yetzer Hara freely? Ve'ein lacharech bedavar posheah. The Rebbe also in the, in the long letter talks about, uh, he writes to parents who they were insisting not to have a mechitza. He says you, y-y-- the mechitza is brings Simcha Bemayim, and then that Simcha bring, brings Simcha to the Choson Kallah. And for the rest of their life, for the next few decades, they'll be married, Be'ezras Hashem, so they will have a greater measure of Simcha. And you want to sacrifice that Simcha for all the rest of their lives. For what? For an indulgence for which is not gonna last for a few hours, um, and because of pressure from neighbors, et cetera. Kol ponim, so this-- So, and, and I just want to also address some-- You hear sometimes people say, "You know what? We'll put up the mechitza just for the Sheva Berachos." And that's a bit of a, a bit of a nonsense. I-It's, i-is it a Simcha Bemayim or not? If you realize that it's not appropriate, it's not appropriate for the whole meal, not just you become Frum when it comes to, to benching. Um, so coming back to the question. Yes. So w-- is there an issue of declining to, declining to say Sheva Berachos? There may be something, yes. There may be something negative about this. But on the other hand, if he felt so uncomfortable, um, because there's no mechitza, I think it's, uh, he was justified in, in, in declining. That's, that's I think, I

40:06 Speaker 1 think is right. Right. There's an expression in Yiddish, zak dish nor in meidish vigger. You're talking to one person, you mean someone else. So you-- W-we're discussing this, and there are people out there who some will listen and Be'ezras Hashem will take, uh, take it to heart and be more ca-careful about it. Right. Now, someone asked me the following question. This is point number six, and he-- If someone had missed Mussaf. So it says you cannot-- If you missed, you know, if you missed Mincha, you'd have to daven twice Ma'ariv. If, if you missed Mussaf. They say you can't make it up later. Why? Because it's cor-corresponding to Korbanos. He asked, "Well, all-- aren't all the Shacharis, Mincha, Ma'ariv all corresponding to Korbanos? So why is Mussaf different?" So he had, he had read it in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, and I looked up in the Ateret Shulchan Aruch is a little bit more, uh, explained. So let's read here. You can see it on the screen. And that is from Siman Kuf Ches. Says here the following. Now, you know that Mussaf, l'chatchilah, you should daven before one hour after Chatzos. But bedieved, you could daven Mussaf a whole day. And if you daven Mincha, you can still daven Mussaf, yeah. But then he says if the whole day has passed and you didn't daven Mussaf, you cannot make up for it per se because when you're gonna read the Mussaf with the Korbanos. But if the Mo-- Korbanos, you have the idea, ovas

41:25 Speaker 1 mana b'to Korban. Once the time has passed, you cannot compensate for the missed Korbanos. And the Korbanos of the Mussaf, the seven Berachos of Mussaf is Mishal Maparnes Leseino to offer our, our, through our lips instead of our, yeah, instead of the bulls, we're gonna offer with our lips. And in this respect is, is ovas mana b'to Korban. But other tefillahs, they are not just to make up for the missing Korban. Other tefillahs is Bakoshos Rachamim. And Bakoshos Rachamim can be any time. Al vais iz pal al odin kol hayom. So the other, other tefillahs, other prayers can be done any time of the day, and therefore you missed one, you can make up for it later. Whereas Mussaf is very much related just for the Korbanos rather than Rachamim, and therefore, if you missed the slot, unfortunately, then you cannot make it up later. Okay. So now I'm gonna go on to the next question, and that is someone was at the Kinus, and he put down his hat somewhere, and he came back, he found a different hat. Uh and so now it looked very similar to his. So is he allowed to wear someone else's hat instead of who we're guessing is wearing his hat? So the way you read it in Shulchan Aruch is simply that's not okay, yeah. So it has here, Mishan Ischalful, you went to Beis Av or Beis Hamikdash, and you took off your garment, and you left it, and you hanged it up. And then you,

43:02 Speaker 1 you've come back, and someone else has taken yours, and you're-- and they've left theirs. Arei ze lo yishtamish bahem. You should not use the, the, the, the exchange, even if the other one is using yours because you're a gazlan. And even he, even he's a gazlan, but you're a gazlan min ha-gazlan. So that's, that's the way it's described in the Shechinach. Having said that, contemporary sforim are more lenient on this, and they say a couple of arguments. He says, "Nowadays, things are different in the respect that clothes are the kind of thing which you can buy them very easily. It's not like in times bygone, people made their own clothes, or they went... They, they, um, they had them made-- ta-tailor-made. And so it's my garment is, is not the same as your garment, yeah? And there's much-- it's much more personalized. Nowadays, I think they, they mu-- easy to replace, and there's not much difference between my shirt and your shirt, so to speak." And on that, that's one basis to say that nowadays you would be allowed to. And he has a second, second thing he says that, that they are done-- That the, that the, the assumption is that the one who s-- made the switch will not be makpid if you wear his garments. So if someone-- If, if someone took your tallis, he wouldn't be makpid if you wore his tallis. So these two arguments come together, and, uh, so the answer would be given nowadays that you are allowed

44:37 Speaker 1 to wear that hat, and if time comes and the person, uh, claims his hat, so then you'll, you know, sort it out. By the way, it does help to put a, uh, a sticker with your name and telephone number or email and stick it inside your hat and, uh, avoid this kind of problem. Right. There's something also called a tracker and then-- But then can you wear a tracker on Shabbos? That we discussed at a shiur about three years ago. Okay, let's move on. What's number seven? No, number seven. Why it says number six when it's number seven? Okay. So here's a question. Um, I was preparing a kasuba, and I realized I'd spent-- I spelt the word Shmoynim with a vav, but I see that it should be spelt without a vav. So I was just intrigued. Why is-- What's the point of spelling it one way or the other? So this is from the Pischei Teshuva. So where would you find the details of how to write names of places and names of, uh, on the dates, et cetera? So you have in the Shechinach, Ichaz Gitin. So in Avodah Zarah, siman kuf chaf vav. So we have here in the Pischei Teshuva, he brings from the Ponim Me'ir that the teva, the word Shmoynim should be writtenchos, should be written without a vav because in the Mesora, you can see that the majority of the word-- the times the word Shmoynim comes up in Tanakh, it's written without a vav. And there

46:11 Speaker 1 are more writes in siman kuf chaf tes that something which is in the-- written in the Torah, uh, Tanakh, sometimes it's with a vav or without a vav, with a yud, without a yud. So you go according to the Raav. So the same thing could be like how you'd spell Pinchas, et cetera. So this would be the, the, uh, rule of thumb, as we'd say, would go according to the majority of the way it's written in the Torah. Now, this is interesting because the Tanakh is written as if someone is whispering behind your ear, you know, but... And, and telling you what the vowels are. Very many words without vowels, you wouldn't read them correctly. And yet that's the way they're written in Tanakh, with the assumption that there's a companion, a Tosha Bal Peah, or Melamed has taught you how to... All right. But that's, that-that's the way it's written. I'm just thinking perhaps also the word without a vav, She-She-Shme-Shmeynim is fat, Geshmak, you know. Could be there's something, something in that also. You know, Der HaRemiz. Okay. How are we doing for time? Okay. What else do we have here? So someone asked me on the end of the week that in recordings, we hear the Rebbe saying, putting the dot before Bechemlo. So that's in Modeh Ani. Modeh ani lefanecha, melech chai vekayam, shehechezarta bi nishmati bechemlo raba emunatecha. So we all know about the dot after Bechemlo, that there's a whole story of the Rebbe Rashab and his brother, and

47:39 Speaker 1 one asked the other, "Why is there a dot before, uh, raba emunatecha?" The Razah asked his younger brother, the Rebbe Rashab, who was about five years old. And the younger brother said, "Because we have to take the emunatecha, the dot, and we have to spread it through the whole day." Something o-on those lines. Okay. Um, but the simple thing is that if not for that dot, you would-- the word raba could be mean chemlo raba in great compassion, or raba emunatecha, that your, the-- your, your trustworthiness is great. So in order to clarify that the raba belongs to, is describing emunatecha, therefore, there's a dot before the word raba. But he's asking that the Rebbe would say, Shehechezarta bi nishmati bechemlo. Shehechezarta bi nishmati bechemlo, as if there's a comma before the word Bechemlo. So the answers are very simple. The Bechemlo is not referring to the nishmati Bechemlo. It's referring to Shehechezarta. You have re-- You've restored my neshama with compassion. So Shehechezarti bi Bechemlo. What did you return? My neshama. So-- But it's as if there ought to be a comma after Shehechezarta bi nishmati. How so? It's describing that verb of Shehechezarta bi nishmati is Bechemlo. So simple. That's just the way the trop should be. Now, the final thing which we have on our list is I go into a whole minefield because I was talking about the berakha on rice. And then, yeah, I told a story last week, Rabbi Shmotkin, Rabbi Kadikov, if you remember. And then I rambled

49:17 Speaker 1 on into the berakha on rice cakes. I said the berakha on rice cakes is hardomo, and then rambled further and said, "What about the berakha on Rice Krispies?" And I shared with you this from this Sefer, uh, called Shaarei Berakha. And he says that Rice Krispies are, well, according to Mishnah Berurah, is mezonos, and according to the Raavad, it would be, um, shehakol. Why? Because it goes through a stage of cooking in between. So he differentiates between rice cakes, which are just popped rice, and Rice Krispies, which go through a stage of cooking in between. And then something, uh, that light bulb moment, if you want to call it. Uh, then if that's the case, then we have a problem, Bishul Akum. And I mentioned about Pringles. So here we are. So this is from a Sefer called Bishul Yisrael. Con- very contemporary Sefer, and he talks about Pringles, and he says it's a snack made from potatoes. He says, "L'choireh, if it is made from potato powder, which is made by Goyim, and then the Pringles are made by Goyim, it should be Machmir even if though you make on potato chips. Because once they're cooked, then becomes, uh, maybe be- once the potatoes are cooked, so the mashed potato is, is edible as it is, so therefore it's already been Bishul Akum. And so then the fact that you then made it into Pringles, what happened to the Yishuv?" So this is what I shared with you last week. I shared it from

50:52 Speaker 1 memory. I didn't see. I'd heard about this, and that Pringles need to be Bishul Yisrael. So now if that's the case, then now I have a problem, the same problem with Rice Krispies. So this very same Sefer, Bishul Yisrael, he writes the following. He writes, Rabbi Shmuel Felder said, uh, tells him that the way the rice is made, Rice Krispies, they don't cook the rice. They just soak it in water, and then they throw them into a hot chamber. And, you know, of course, in that form, it's not Olot Shel Chameleach. It's not a Cha- Hashgacha food. So he says it's not cooked. So now we have a Machloket between Rabbi Felder and Lahav Dil Rabbi Google, uh, Rabbi, uh, Wikipedia, who says that the milled rice is then cooked in large and industrial cookers with water and a lightly sweetened malt flavoring. This cooking softens the rice, making it easier to puff later on. So, uh, so now it's a Mach- I mean, it's Machloket BeMetziut. What exactly happens? Does the rice get cooked in the mo- in the process? Now, let's step back a bit. We have the Soif Maaseh B'Machshavat Chilla. I have a long process, and the end of the process will be a food which is gonna be a, a breakfast cereal. It's not gonna be Olot Shel Chameleach. But in the middle, there's gonna be a stage which is gonna be Olot Shel Chameleach. So do we look at the full picture, or do we say, "No. Well, at

52:27 Speaker 1 a given moment halfway through the process, it was Olot Shel Chameleach," although no one had intended to do that. So I, I gave this over last night, actually. We have on Friday night after the-- after Ma'ariv, I share a few, these points from the Shiur. So someone said to me, Rav Padver has an interesting, uh, proof to be Makeil. There is a Halacha in Shechinat HaRetz, um, uh, about butter, about Goish butter. Now, Goish butter, ein le'eset loshon ve'shemachaber. It's ein limchas biyam ha'kelim. Goish butter, I'm not talking about nowadays be-because nowadays they've got ad-additives. But back in the day, so Goish butter was just, you know, it... Since it cannot be made from any other milk other than cow's milk, therefore its, uh, Goish butter was considered okay. Practice of the child, uh, the Goish butter was referred from milk. When it was milk, it became Bachal Vakum. So then, then they made the milk into butter. So what? By the time when it was milk and at the same time now, which you had before, uh, where was it? Uh, Isrush Lecha Shebo Lechech Halach. Apparently, that's not s- not so, so obvious since there's, uh, a plan to make it into butter. Therefore, the interim stage doesn't seem to be such an issue. See, if so, you could use the same argument here by the-- with the Bishul Akum story and say since the, the, uh, cooking of the rice is only an interim stage and then the intention of the whole

53:50 Speaker 1 process is to, to end up with a breakfast cereal which is not a Hashgacha food, and therefore not Bishul Akum, so the cooking in the middle doesn't matter. All right, I'm ready to, to, to give you that. But now I'm gonna ask you like this. When it comes to Bishul Akum, you've said you'd ignored the middle stage. When it came to Birkat... To the Beracha, you've, you've, you said, "Ah, no, it's, it's, it's not Hardomo. It's, it's, uh, Soif Maaseh B'Machshavat..." No. So you've... There you've said that the, the Rice Krispies is not the same Be- Beracha as the... Let, let's go through this again. Why, why, uh, is the rice cakes, why are they Hardomo? We say like this. The Gemara says that rice is Beracha Mezzeit... As rice is the Beracha Mezzeit. Why is that? Because the entire populations, this is their staple food. Rice is their staple food. But in the rice cake form, in popped rice, that's not the way, the norm of these populations, and therefore it remains Hardomo like popcorn. That's why I said last week. So now the same thing can be said with Rice Krispies, that it's not the normal... It's not a normal food, uh, as, as a, uh, not a staple food. I'm not talking about breakfast. I'm talking about, well, yeah, as, as a proper meal then. So now versus the Zogen, it went through an interim stage of cooking. But for Bishul Akum, you ignore the interim stage, and you said you're allowed

55:15 Speaker 1 to eat it. So why when it comes to the Beracha, you, you're saying the mid- interim stage changes its Beracha? Yeah. This is, this is my, my, uh, contention that the, uh, the solution which, which or whatever, the, the position which this Rasharia Beracha is saying why he says it's Mezzeit or according to Chabad it would be Shehakol, that doesn't fl- fit with the Hetter which is given as far as, um, having, have- having to have Bishul Yisrael. That's my, uh, headache for the moment, and thank you for, uh, um, share-- allowing me to share it with you. I'm gonna stop here. Wish you all Gutovoch and a Chag Geula and a Svaduas Pi'ilos, sorry. And, uh, we just go from, from this Geula to the Geula Shleima, to Moshiach Tzidkeinu, and Eliyahu should already be in the Beit Midrash at the Geula, uh, here of Yamimu. Amen.

56:08 Speaker 2 All right. Yeah.

56:09 Speaker 3 Count.

56:11 Speaker 2 Wow.

56:12 Speaker 3 Not news. Gutov.

56:14 Speaker 1 Gutovach.