תצוה תשפ״ו

00:03 Speaker 1 A good day for you. Welcome to today's Shiur. Baruch Hashem for the Besuras Tovos, which we heard from the, uh, Middle East. I think so... I mean, if you can join me though in saying a capital Tehillim for the welfare and safety of Chadas Israel, both in Eretz Israel and for that matter, the Jewish community in Iran too, should we all be protected and be safe. So if you can join me, I'd like to say, um, Kapitel Kuf Kuf Aleph in Tehillim. So, Shir LaMa'alas L'David. Sorry. Shir LaMa'alas Eso Einai El HaHarim Mei'ayen Yo'o Ezri. Ezri Me'im Adonai Yosey Shamayim V'aretz. Al Yiten Lamer Chaglecho Al Yom Shemrecho. Hineh Lo Yom Velo Yishon Shomer Israel. Adonai Shemrecho Ad Yadin Echo. Yom Mum Hashemesh Lo Yachecho Yareach Ba'alo. Adonai Yishmorcho Mikol Ro Yishmeras Nafshecho. Adonai Yishmor Tzescho Vayecho Mei Atah Ve'ad Olam. Just was reading today, there's a publication called Key Korach, and they had there an interview with a current Shliah in the, the, um, principality of Andorra, Rabbi Kostial Kalmanson. And he tells the following, that he-- before this, he was a Shliah in a c- in a, a city in China. Don't ask me to pronounce the name of the place. And he, uh, was always worried that they won't let him back into the country. So he stayed, uh, as long as he could, and then he, he would... meanwhile, he would write to the Rebbe regularly. Whenever he had a challenge, whether it was a health challenge or anything, fundraising or

02:13 Speaker 1 whatever it may be, he would write to the Rebbe, and he would send off the letters right away, but he kept copies. And then periodically when he traveled to New York, he would take all of those setlach, all his letters, and read them at the Ohel. And so he had now, after a prolonged stay in China, he comes to the Rebbe with a whole pack, about six months, a month, a year's worth of, of papers and of, of, uh, letters he'd written to the Rebbe. And he's standing by the Ohel reading them one by one, and how he described this challenge, this challenge, and how then he starts realizing each one by one, each of those challenges were resolved in a, uh, l'maaleh, in an, an amazing way, unexpected ways. And he saw poshut systematically, one after the other, all of his... And when he realized that, he said, "I, I broke down crying, uh, to realize how, how everything has been... all the berachahs which I asked for have been fulfilled." I just say this story in connection with my recollection from the Gulf War, which is ninety, was it ninety-one, I think. And then the, the chaplain, Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein, had, uh, asked the Rebbe something about taking a Megillah or something, whatever it was. And the Rebbe had said somewhere a few weeks earlier that by Purim it will be over. I used to have a farbrengen every Purim night in my house. And I remember three o'clock in the morning as

03:49 Speaker 1 I'm... four o'clock in the morning, whatever, as I'm cleaning up after everyone has finally left, and I turned on the, uh, the radio to hear that Saddam Hussein has been, uh, has been, uh, finished off or whatever it was, but he was captured. I don't even remember the detail. Or that they had surrendered. It was that they had surrendered. So the, the war was over on Purim. And so, uh, ken yehi rつtson melahe ve'echad, and we should see just ach tevil chesed be'yiden, and, uh, should we see geulah shleimah moshiaitzit kenu b'karov. Let's go to our, uh, questions. So here's something very interesting. Last week, somehow, we spoke about Matzas Ashekel. And someone brought to my, my attention, actually it's my son-in-law in Australia. He brought to my attention that there's a sicha of the Rebbe which I, I was, I was unaware of, about Matzas Ashekel to, uh, to encourage to the parents. This is from, this is from Taf Daled Adar Rishon, Taf Shin Bet. This is three, four days before the struggle before Eretz Israel. Uh, Lo Yoleinu. This-- Sometimes you have Lamed Ayin, Lamed Ayin, and it stands for Lo Yoleinu and Lo Yato. Netan Kedacht and, yeah, and Lo Kedacht. Anyway, so the Rebbe says the following. This is towards the end of the sicha. It was a sicha on a, on a Thursday night. "HaMatov and HaIm Ha..." appropriate would be if the children-- would be machanich the children to give also, like three Matzas Ashekel from

05:33 Speaker 1 their own money. But often in a way that the parents will help them, that the children should be able to give their Matzas Ashekel in a way of mechahavah, in a, in a way of feeling comfortable about this, affluent way. And they should have enough m-money left over for their own personal needs, so then they don't feel that lack in get- in, in anything. That's the, the Rebbe's, uh, message. So again, uh, it's Heiro Lemeesah, yeah For years, I used to give Maaser Shekel for my children. Now my, my daughter, uh, asked me, "Do I have to do it? Or should I... Does she have to do it herself?" So I answered three letters, DIY. Um, she's old enough to do it herself. But, uh, so long as I would do it, I would do it. And sure, we hear the Rebbe's giving a that parents should give the children the money, and the children should give the Maaser Shekel themselves. But then here's another, another ad-ad-addition. To give them more money so that they should feel when they're giving the money, they shouldn't feel that they're going to be missing out on their needs. Now, I want to go through, into this a little bit more, 'cause I think there's a very interesting here. Here's the... You can see on the Mish- on the top here. Now, there... This is from the Mishnah in Shekalim. Earlier on, it has in the Mishnah about a father, if he started giving Chety Shekel for his son,

07:02 Speaker 1 he should not stop. And that was what we meant to discuss last week. The in Kitzur Shulchan Aruch was ad le'olam. And, uh, whereas the Rambam adds, ad sheyagdil. And so this is a little bit further in the same Perek, in Pere- Perek Alef of Shekalim, that although women and Avodim Ukatanim, ein memashkinim, we would not take. If they haven't given their Maaser Shekel, we wouldn't take a deposit, a security from them. That's on the other... on the one side. Im shoklu, however, if they did offer, mekabel miyadam. The Shekalim are accepted from them. Now, here's a very interesting question. These... There's a Chiyuv of Maaser Shekel on every male adult, and you can't give more, and you can't give less. Ashur lo yarbeh ve'adal lo yamit. It's a half shekel. So voluntary, so today I feel in a good mood, I'm gonna give a double. No, it's just a Maaser Shekel. So how did it come into this that there are voluntary Maaser Shekels? That's, that's, that was bo- was bothering me. How could there be voluntary Maaser Shekel? Now, going back earlier in the Mishnah, there's a debate, a Machloket Tana'im, whether the Kohanim are o-obliged to give Maaser Shekel or not. So one, Ben Buchri, he says, "The Kohanim don't have to give Maaser Shekel." They're providing services, yeah. But if they did, mekabel mehen. The other one says, "No, on the contrary. The, the Kohanim do have to give Maaser Shekel." But, uh, because they provide services, therefore they didn't take

08:43 Speaker 1 a mashkin, didn't take a security if they didn't give it. Either way, but according to the one who says that Kohanim don't have to give Maaser Shekel, so then the question is, so then if they give a contribution, it's like, uh, Korban Yochid kind of. It's not their per... It's not, uh, it doesn't become part of the, the, the, uh, pool of the Maaser Shekel money because it's voluntary money. So the Gemara answers that they give it, the Kohanim give it, moiser l'tsibor yofe yafe. So, so now, so moiser l'tsibor yofe yafe. That the Kohen, although he thinks it's voluntary, fine. But when he gives it, he gives it wholeheartedly, and so he relinquishes any personal ownership. It's not a Korban Yochid, but it becomes part of the tzid. So therefore, it follows that the same thing when it comes to when Nashim, Avodim Ukatanim, when they give their half shekel, they also have to give it yofe yafe. They have to, uh... Because otherwise, you have this problem. It's pers- it's private money mixed in with the communal ch- um, chest. No. So here you have Rabukiya Eger on the Mishnah. The, on the margins of the Mishnah, of the b- the big Mishnayis, you have the comment of Rabukiya Eger. But actually, this comment is quoting from the Kesos HaGdoshan. So it said until, uh, if they're giving under the age of thirteen, yeah. When it says that if they do offer, mekabel miyadam, now a child is not... Min Hatorah, a child

10:20 Speaker 1 is not eligible to give a gift. So if so, male or the m- the, the, the women who give moiser l'tsibor yofe yafe, but a child is not recognized as being able to give a gift. So he answers, since there is something called Pe'utas, which means that from the age of about six, depending on their capability, a child's gift is can, is recognized Mid'Rabonon. That the child can, can sell things, and that's... They would sell it Mid'Rabonon, the sale is co- is counted. Therefore, Havi Momen Gomer now is leapfrogging. From a, a Rabonon ability to give a gift, it becomes a Momen Gomer even for Din De'Raisa. So here's a very interesting leap, that having recognized that the child is able to give a gift Mid-Mid'Rabonon, now we're saying his gift is going to have a validity even for Din De'Raisa, and therefore it can become part of the Maaser Shekel fund to fund the Shekal. He brings here a parallel. There is a, a, a, uh, if a person owes... There's a, there's a concept. If Reuven owes Shimon and Shimon owes Levi, so Levi can go to Reuven and collect the debt, and that's called Shibud De'Reivnos. Now, if s- that's a Din De'Rabonon, that, uh, that it, the A owes B and B owes C, so C can go to A and take the money. If somehow this was utilized for Kidushin, the Kidushin is valid. Even though it wasn't given directly, and I mean, our Torah is not considered give, uh,

12:06 Speaker 1 being g-given, but Midrash Rabbonon it is. And so you have here a very interesting phenomenon that a gift which is recognized Midrash Rabbonon achieves Kidushin, which is a din min hatorah. So the same thing he wants to use here, that the children give a gift, and it's recognized Midrash Rabbonon, and it's therefore it's also recognized min hatorah, which is a very interesting... It's a very exceptional, um, development. Meanwhile, thinking why is it that, uh, why is it that a child cannot give a gift? A child doesn't have the, the, uh, finality and he doesn't understand finality. He, she, doesn't matter. They don't understand I've given it away and tomorrow... If you give away your toy, tomorrow it's not yours. You can't ask for it back. The child doesn't see that. They see, I give it and z- I can still get it back. So possibly, this is my, now my hypothesis. The Rebbe is saying here, you want to give-- I want to encourage the children to give maaser sas shekal. But if the child gives it with, uh, perhaps with misgiving, that he, he thinks, "I'm giving it away, I won't be able to buy candies." So he hasn't given it away wholeheartedly. Now, I'm not talking here lahalacha because we're talking not... We're talk about the Minchag maaser sas shekal. We're not talking about maaser sas shekal, which is a din in the, in the g- in the Mishnah. So there, it's a much, obviously a much stricter halacha. Now, you might say

13:34 Speaker 1 it's only puutot from the age of six. Here, the Rebbe is talking about younger children also. But here the Rebbe is saying, make sure that the child should not feel begrudging to give away the money. In the way-- This way, his gift is, is, is recognized as a, as a, uh, a, as a, it can be a valid gift. It's, it's given away wholeheartedly, and therefore it's, it's, it's, it's valid. Okay. So that's my speculation in not, not only the, how do you say, the compassionate Zedi attitude. Give the child a little bit more, but actually an element lahalacha. If you give a child something, and you want them to give tzedakah, but give them a bit more than, then they should feel comfortable about giving away the tzedakah. Meanwhile, I was... As you can see, I was, uh, intrigued about this concept of children being able to give maaser sas shekal. So I wanted to trace a little bit more on the validity of this. If you remember last week, I, I was medayek in the Rambam, the Halachah that it's a, a mitzvah which is voluntary, but it becomes a, a... You enter into that room, it's as if you've entered a mitzvah min hatorah. That was my idea of Halachah Rambam. At any rate, so I was looking around. So I took out ma- the, um, Cyclopedia Talmudis under maaser sas shekal, and it says, "Ein ois kolim." So, uh, sh- m- for your information, for Cyclopedia Talmudis, I've got about over,

15:00 Speaker 1 about fifty volumes, and they're still up for halfway through. They're in the middle of Ois Men. So Shekalim is another thirty volumes ahead, which hasn't been published yet. But I did find in the back of the Rambam, in Frenkel's Rambam, uh, so he has the maftech of Sforim which talk about the Rambam, and they brought me to this Roey Keich. So the Roey Keich is from the period of the Baalei HaTosfot. Uh, and he writes the following. This is about the mitzvah of Shekalim, not about the maaser sas shekal, which we do nowadays, not about the Minchag maaser sas shekal. He brings here, "Kotan shechiskil oviv lishkol al yodai einai posei." This is the Mishnah, which says, "The father had started. He continues next year also. Vishel v'chanchoi b'mitzvot. Halotov oker shehevi beisyrus." The fact that the father continues year after year until the child becomes of age is l'chanchoi, which is an interesting concept here. Because the mefoir- other mefoirim struggle. Because the father gave maaser sas shekal last year, who says he has to give this year? So they say, well, they say, he says, "Mitzvat chinuch." Others say it's a form of neder, similar to an o- another type of practice. We know that if you started doing a Minchag Tov and with, uh, with intention to continue doing so, it becomes a neder. And here he brings in a concept of, of l'chanchoi, which I find interesting because the father is giving the maaser sas shekal. Where's the chinuch? Where's the

16:31 Speaker 1 child involved? It m- it looks like what the Rebbe is suggesting, you want to be mechan of the child, well, bring the child along. Whether you give the child the money in his hand, or you, you make the child aware, Tatala, uh, I'm giving this on your behalf. The child should be involved in the, uh, the giving of the maaser sas shekal, not that he's t-totally unaware about it. So that's a support in a sense to what, what the Rebbe is saying to the l'chanchoi. L'chanachat tanim. The m-man, the, the Roey Keich says already that this father giving is l'chanchoi b'mitzvot. In fact, the other poskim say it's got to do with neder nishkun stira. The motive here is l'chanchoi b'mitzvot. And then once you've done it, then it becomes a, a chiyuv to continue doing so in subsequent years. Okay, let's go on. That was about maaser sas shekal. Now, about ma- mashab zocher, Parshah Zocher. And so the question is, does... Should one be trying to get your own pronunciation, or is it okay? I actually got a call on Friday. I was sitting in the Beis HaRoeh. Bochur from a Chassidishe background. If he hears a Litvishe reading, is he yoitzer? So I said, "You are yoitzer, but there is a preference to go to your own, to your own havara." So here you have from Nite Gavriel. L'chatchilah one should be mach mid Ashkenazi Should be yoetz. Should, should avoid being yoetz from a Sefardishe pronunciation, on Sefardishe from Ashkenazishe. But

18:07 Speaker 1 min ha'din, they're yo-yoetz anyways, because elu v'elu divrei Elokim chayim. All the forms of pronunciation are valid, so there's a preference to keep to your minhag, but it is not, uh, not m-me'akiv. Someone asked me on f-the last week to, to hear... Nearby, he has a Sefardishe shul. To hear Ashkenazishe shul, uh, he'd have to walk half an hour or more. I don't know whether you're mechuyav to go such a long distance, but, uh, there is a, there's a echad kila preference. Okay. Let's move on. So someone sent me, as you can see on the screen, sent me this picture of a mezuzah holder. And the... For those who are not following, um, with the screen, it's got a wooden ho-- a wooden kind of bracket on top and wooden bracket on the bottom, uh, which have holes probably halfway through. And then there's a test, a test tube where the mezuzah is placed in the test tube that's protects it from, from the elements, and it's then held in the, in place by this bracket on top and the bottom. But between the mezuzah and the wall, there's... I can see here probably about, uh, half an inch or more. So here's the shailah. Does... Is that, does... Is that, is that valid? So this is not such a new thing. Uh, and it is discussed in various, um... Yeah, you have on the screen from the Sefer She'el Tov. He brings, some say it is okay because it's, it is, it is fixed

19:44 Speaker 1 there. There is another variation on this. If... What, what would happen if you have a tube which is fixed to the wall, but it's got a open at the top? And you could just put your finger in or the, uh, the, uh, t-twizzlers, and you could pick up, p-pull the mezuzah out. So the s-mezuzah is sitting safe. It's not falling down, but it's, it's not f-- not t-tight. Not... You don't need any tools. Even that, some of them say that is okay. Um, but others are not so happy about it. This, uh, the m- I'm talking back, back to the where there is a gap. So some say that's, it's not mamash on the, on the door post. It should be a m-- It should be fixed on the mazoz-- door posts. That there, there are those who say because of the gap of, of, of air, of space in between, it's not called kavua on the, on the doorframe. Now, what you see here on the picture is quite exaggerated. For years, I had the other type, which is, we can see in the small diagram. Also the same idea, but the very, very little space between the te-test tube and the, and the wood. But, uh, once I saw this issue, I just... I, I phased those out, um, because there is a concern of, of, uh, the gap. I actually once had a visitor, Rabbi Zion Lipskier, alav ha-shalom, from Arad. He came to London fundraising, whatever. He saw these mezuzahs. He

21:22 Speaker 1 was moire that there's a shailah. Eventually, I, I, I changed them. But there's a, there's a, is a shailah of this, the aveir being a, being a hefsek. Meanwhile, someone asked me on Friday, what about when you have a mezuzah case? And he says that his, his sofer, uh, wrapped the mezuzahs very tight, and so they sit inside the mezuzah case very comfortably. There's, there's like more space than necessary. Is that a problem? Is there any need for the mezuzah to be stiffly fitting in the mezuzah case, or could it be, uh, lots of room inside? So according to what I'm seeing here, it is okay. There's no need to start putting stuffing or something. If it's safe and y-it's a screw on top, a screw at the bottom, or nail at the top, nail at the bottom, you won't be able to take the mezuzah out without, uh, tools, then I don't see any shailah. I don't... From what I'm seeing over here. That, that would be s- That would be a, a, a valid kavi'as. It's called, called kavua. The fact that you need tools to remove it, that means that it's, uh, the way it is, it is kavua, and that's the mitzvah. And that's the Silpazal. They instituted the berakhah le-kabo'a mezuzah to indicate that, that the mezuzah should be in a way that it's kavua. Right. Let's move on. So here's an interesting question. These... This is on the screen, is a... Perhaps, I don't know what it's called. It's

22:56 Speaker 1 for... It's a, like a brush, a dental... I-interdental brush. So you have a plastic stick, which is, let's say, three inches long, and at the top, there's a wire sticking out, and the bru-- the wire is surrounded with bristles, and it's made to be able to put between your teeth to clear out any particles of, of, uh, food, et cetera. The wire brush, the wire tends to bend itself if it's... And the question that he was asking is, are you allowed to straighten this brush on Shabbos? Is that called fixing or not? Now, it does say clearly in Shulchan Aruch, in Siman Shin Mem. Siman Shin Mem is a, I would pro-perhaps call miscellanea, all bits and pieces of various melakhahs. And one of them is, it says there, if a, a needle is bent out of shape and you straighten it, then you are m-in violation of, of tikkun keili of makeh b'patish. Similarly, if you had left a pair of glasses on a, a couch and someone sat down on them, and then they're bent out of shape, and you straighten the frame that you should be able to wear them, that would definitely be also the same thing as tikkun keili, which would, could, could well, well be in hishtam'nut omer. So here's the question. Straightening such a brush, is that included in, uh... Is that permitted or not? So what you have on the screen is from Piskei Teshuvas, from Siman Shin Mem, and we'll read it carefully. From the above

24:30 Speaker 1 discussion, we ought conclude about a pair of glasses, and it goes into whether it's the handles, or whether the frame, or the, or the, um, no- the aponim. Uh, for those who don't know, I once discovered aponim is the, the things which f-fit on the, the no-the nose. The little, um, bits. I don't know what they're called in English. These, uh, things which... The cushions on your... of the glasses onto the nose. Uh, if they get... Now, then it goes on, if it's a n-knife or a spoon or a fork, a pin, safety pin, uh, keys, if they have become, become, uh, bent out of shape, even if they are still usable, you should not be straightening them to make them back the way they should be. But then he says the following. If it is motzi, if it's common that this thing bends out of shape, and they are straightened without... easily, without any effort, and therefore, for example, a plastic cup, if it's bent out of shape, to make it straight again, then it is not a problem. For example, if your hat got out of shape, someone bashed your hat, and you make it back again. So he says that's not a problem because it's, uh, it's... he says it's no tircha. No, no, it's, it's straightened out easily without effort, and possibly also the fact that it's common that it's gets, uh, bent out of shape that, it adds to it. So I think both or all of those criteria will

26:13 Speaker 1 apply to this, uh, interdental brush. It's motzi. It does get be-bent out of shape. That's definitely the case. It's very common that it gets be-bent out of shape. And to straighten it is really, is very simple. Just with your, your... between your fingers, it gets straightened it. So then it would be okay. Right. Let's move on. We have now question number five, and that's inter-- the, does putting dashes in middle of Hashem's name, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, for example, does that resolve that's not a problem of Kedushas Hashem as far as Shemus is concerned, et cetera? So let's read the... This is from a Sefer called Kinzei Hachodesh. HaMafrid bein osios Shem Havayah, one who pu-puts, di-divides the letters with a, a hyphen, that does not exempt it from Genizah, from Shemus. Others say that it does. Uh, by the way, it's relevant to today's Shiurim. Shiurim from Mikbil Prachim talks about the Birchas Kohanim, about the Kohanim in the Beis Hamikdash would pronounce the Shem Hamafiros, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, the way it's written. There is the Lashon hahoige et Hashem beosiyoso, one who utters the Hashem's name with the letters. And this is understood, Tosfos understands this, that even if you don't pronounce E-I-O, but you just say Yud and then a Heh and then a Vav and then a Heh, that is also considered a violation of, of uttering Hashem's name, which is indeed when we, in... when we say the Shem Yichud. Before Borchu Omar, the Achdashem, Eh-Esios, uh, Achdashem Yud-Keh be-Vav-Keh. So I was taught as

28:03 Speaker 1 a child, and I believe that's the general minag. We don't say Yud and then Heh. We say Yud-Keh be-Vav-Keh. Um, and that is because saying the Yud-Keh Vav-Keh, even just the letters, is by name, is also considered uttering Hashem's name, Yud-Keh Vav-Keh, which we don't have permission to do so. So therefore, the four letters. The first... So we have here then, well, we have two opinions about whether hyphenating Hashem's name will absolve it from having Kedushas Hashem. The first approach is Machmir. Uh, the second approach is Mekil. It's, it's more li- it does allow it, especially when it comes to if it's written in a different language. So we're all familiar that we, when it... instead of G-O-D, we write G dash D, and that's to avoid the paper having Kedushas Hashem. And so it seems to be that I believe the general Minchag, um, no, I believe that is a fact. The widespread Minchag is to write, uh, Aleph-Lamed with a, with a, with a hyphen, and let's say in invitations. Chabad invitation, the fourth paragraph starts off with Hakeil Hatov. I know in the Rebbe's invitation, it was written without the hyphen. That's another discussion. But generally, when people send out invitations, so the Aleph-Lamed should have a hyphen, because otherwise, it's gonna be, uh, put, be, be, you know, the invitation's gonna be thrown in the, in the bin afterwards. So it's, to avoid the Kedushas Hashem, this is certainly the common Minchag, to put out, put hyphens to absolve the, uh,

29:50 Speaker 1 uh, to avoid it having Kedushas Hashem. It's, as you see, it's not unanimous. Okay. Okay, this next one is very interesting. Purim Shailo. So you have here Gemara in Megillah, Zain Amud Beis, and there's two Hakham in one sent Shelach Manos, one to the other. And one sent, like, nice chunks of meat, uh, flank and whatever it was. And the other one sends back Moleh Taska de Zangvila, a tub full of ginger, or Moleh Kosot de Pial Palta Aricha, and a full cup of long peppers. And so, okay, so he sent Shelach Manos. He sent ginger and pepper. So you have here a Sefer called Re-er Dudaim, which I wasn't aware of. The, there's a famous Bnei Yesoscha. He was a great nephew of Rebbe Elach Mi Lezhansk, and he's called Zvi Elimelech of Din-Din-Dinovo. And- It's, as I say, his most famous name, his sefer is Bnei Yisosha, but he has a sefer on Maseches Brachos, and he has a sefer on Megillah, Maseches Megillah, called Reyach Dudaim. So this I saw, he writes the following, "Nishma." From here would come this story with the ginger and the pilp and the, um, p- and the pepper, yayot se shlach manes, with even things, foods which are not edible on their own. Only it's u-used to, to enhance another food. You have, let's say, a chrain, a tub of chrain. You don't normally eat chrain by the, by the spoonful. You have fish, you have a chrain or mustard, et cetera. You might have thought

31:42 Speaker 1 manes means it has to be edible on its own. And so you see here that he sent a tub of zangal, of ginger. And this was his shlach manes. Well, he sent two foods, yes, ginger and pepper. So here's, let's say, this becomes very interesting, the yayot se shlach manes also with, uh, with a, uh, with a seasoning or something, yeah. So how much? So here the Primal God actually says, "Mamashel lift on kechoimetz shashiu kefi suda beninis heitiv," the amount which you'd have for one meal. So I put on the, uh, list of questions just to be, uh, current, a, a p-piece of sushi and, uh, a ti- wasabi. Or it could be the same thing. I w- um, um, uh, chips, which American call French fries, and a sachet of, of, uh, no, ketchup. So then it would, it would be a lifter. It, so then i-it's considered two foods. Very... I was very surprised. More common, a tub of hummus. Also, hummus people don't eat a, a hummus by the spoon. You have it with other foods. So a, a tub of hummus together with challah, let's say, would be a yayot se shlach manes. Now, this time I w- I was intrigued b- about this idea that even a very small amount should be enough. So I'm looking in the parallel in Halacha in Eiruv Tavshilin. Eiruv Tavshilin, you have to use, uh, a cooked food. It could be also. So now we have in Tav Tav Zayin. It says, um,

33:33 Speaker 1 "Vecheinim einu yeshum tavshil." If you have, um, if you have just the fat which is stuck to the, to the knife. So you have a knife which was used for cutting meat, and now there's n- there's fat stuck to the knife. So then you scrape it off the knife, um, arev bo, and you can use it for an e- Eiruv Tavshilin. But then he adds im yesh bo kazayis. So it looks like, I mean, no one eats fat by the spoonful. So fat would be used together with other foods. And still, for Eiruv Tavshilin, as in, the insistence is there has to be a kazayis. And therefore, coming back to, coming back to shlach manes, I find it interesting why the Primal God is satisfied with a quantity which is enough for one meal serving, even though it's obviously less than a kazayis. So all right. Listen, this is all a nice theory. Lepoel, I think the Olam gives much more generous shlach manesim, and therefore it's just, uh, a pilpul abi almo. Uh, but what is very important to know that cellophane is not ma'akiv. The yayot se, even without cellophane, um, I think actually cellophane's become out, outmoded business. Now, there's new fashions. Fine. Right. Um, okay. Someone brought this to my attention the following. This is from the Rambam from this past week. We're at the end of Aleinu. We say three, four pesukim, Altira, Utzu Eitzos, and then, uh, Va'azikno, and then Altira. So Altira in our siddur, you take a

35:20 Speaker 1 look, it says it's, th- it was introduced by the Rashal, the, the, uh, Chazal Rashal, Shlomo Luria. But the pesukim Altira, where do, where does it come, this meaning of saying those pesukim of Altira? So this is from my siddur, quoting from the Shaar HaKollel, quoting from Reb Shlomo Alkabetz in his Sefer Manes HaLevi. So this is, uh, a contemporary of Rab- Rab- it is the Baal Chodoidi. He has a commentary on the, on, uh, the Megillah, Megillas Esther, and he quotes from Reb Yehuda Ibn Sasun, "Shekeinu agu anche Provansia." The, the people of Provence would say every day at the end of the davening. So it's a very Purim Tikun relevan- it's very, very relevant to Purim because the story with Mordechai, and he finds three children, and one says Altira, the other one says Utzu Eitzos, the third one says Va'azikno. Okay, so fine. So he's saying that this is what we have, that, uh, it's attributed to the Anche Provansia to say those pesukim. Now, what we have, uh, here on the screen is from the Sefer HaMinucha. Now, this is also in the, in the newer Rambams. In the Frankel Rambam, you have a commentary called Rabbeinu Manoach. It's the same Sefer. So it's... I've got it here from, uh, an earlier publication called Sefer HaMinucha, but it's there in the Rambam in Perek, uh, Pe- the beginning of Perek Beis of, of Birkat HaTefilah, which we learned this past week. And it says there, it's talking about the institution of

36:59 Speaker 1 the Brocha V'lamal Shinim, the Birkat HaMinim. And it has that they came at a time that they were suffering so much from these Heretics, it's Siduchim, Bais Tushim, et cetera. So they instituted a tefillah, another bracha to... That they should be, um, that they should be, um, whatever. They should, they should no longer be able to, uh, cause harm. The Im Toimer, so the questions then asks, "Why do you pray for them to be, to be weakened? Why don't you pray that they should do teshuva?" As we have the story of Beruriah, the wife of Rav Meir. And in the case of Rav Meir, there were those, um, those, uh, louts, the Beruriani, who were harassing him, and he was going to say a prayer to, to punish them. And she said, "You should pray that they should do teshuva," uh, because it says, "Yitamu chatoim v'lo yechotem," and it says, "Ga'onish l'tzadik lo yitav." It doesn't, uh, it's not becoming for a tzadik to mete out punishment. The Yeshloima, he says the kavanas habracha is if at the moment when they are poised to cause damage to Yidden, harm Yidden, that's when they should be punished. They should be eliminated. Ubeshir mizmor nami, amrinu yiboshu vibaloo adeid ad. Vachatzikinu acharei posuk utzu eitz havsufer. Now, this is, uh, this is alluding to a Sefardic Shemoneh in some communities back then that they would... After davening, they would say chapter Peh Gimel of Tehillim, which is all about the enemies ri-rising and c- and, and

38:47 Speaker 1 poised to, to, uh, to harm, and it finishes off the, uh, the yiboshu vibaloo adeid ad. They should be, uh, embarrassed, and they should be shocked and very, very appropriate for current t-time. And then after that, they would say, "Utzu eitz havsufer." So we have an old Sefardic Shemoneh of saying after davening chapter f-eighty-three of Tehillim, and following which to say the cha- the posuk, eitz, Utzu eitz havsufer, which is from a different place altogether, a different Sefer Michla. So we have here an early source of saying Utzu eitz havsufer after davening. Interesting. Rabbeinu Manoach lived in Narbonne. As you can see here, Manoach Ben Jacob in Narbonne. Narbonne, technically today, is not part of Provence, but it's, it's, uh... I checked on Google. It's not that far and is know no-- as, is known as Michachmi Provencia. So here we, we're seeing something which is from the time of the Arizal, quoting Rabbeinu Ben Sason, that it's a minhag of Ancient Provence. And now we're finding Rabbeinu Manoach, who was probably a couple of centuries earlier, where he, he does, does say there's this minhag of saying just Utzu eitz havsufer. We don't have the other two pesukim, but interesting to, to note that. Fine. Um, what's the next thing? Yeah. What's, uh, what's number s-seven? Number eight. Um. Right. So let's see what I have, um, um, sources for this. In Parsha Zochor, I got a call on Friday, um, about a sh- a very sweet shliach somewhere near Tsrael, and he, uh,

40:47 Speaker 1 he's a shliach in a moshav. Doesn't, uh, he doesn't expect to get a minyan Shabbos morning. So he's asking could he do, could he do a, um, Sha- a Kriyas Parsha Zochor in the afternoon, he'll pos- probably be able to get a minyan. Could he do Parsha Zochor in the afternoon? So I looked around. At first, I was going to say no, but then before pressing the No button, I s-decided to look around, and actually I was sur-pleasantly surprised to see that several poskim say it is okay. The Tzemach Gadyal says it's okay. Um, let's say if you had a community, they had forgotten that it's Shabbos Zochor, so they just did Parsha HaChodesh. Then afterwards, they realized, "Oh, it's Parsha Zochor." So, so they say that you can take out a Sefer Torah and read Parsha Zochor. Um, and even with a bracha, which that was... I was very surprised. Uh, so the, the Piskei Teshuvas brings from the Tzemach Zahav that it is okay. But then he brings from Rav Vosner in Shevet Halevi it's not okay. But it's good to look up these things because you, you see in, in the Shevet Halevi, he says, "Who are these people? Where, where... They, they didn't come in the morning for Kri- for Kriyas HaTorah. There's Zocher Chevre. Let them wait for, uh, for Purim. For... Let them wait for Parshas Ki Tetze." Or Michla, you know, he, he kind of lashes out. And, um, obviously, if that's the reason, it's more an attitude

42:27 Speaker 1 issue. And therefore, I wrote back to the guy, "Yes, you can do it with that." Now, what bothered me... Well, f- if you remember, we had a, a discussion a few weeks ago about Kriyas HaTorah of Shabbos morning. It can be done a whole day long. Yeah. There was Noide B'Yehuda, Dagol Merivavah, that he said that the Kriyas HaTorah of Shabbos morning is kol hayom zman. So Shabbos Zochor is all the way till the, till the... It's, it's still Shabbos Zochor. What bothered me was, where do you find that you do a Kriyas HaTorah with one single aliyah? To, to... I know that places they do a Kriyas HaTorah in the afternoon for women. I'm sure they just do it with a Sefer Torah without a bracha. But with a bracha, I didn't... And so then I saw that Tzemach Zahav, he says yes You see on Yom Kippur, the me-- the Kohen Gadol is the, uh, is the only one who has an Aliyah, and he lays from the Torah with Berakhah before and after. And similarly on Hakhel, the, the Melech says the Berakhah before and after. So you see here pr- two precedents for a Kriyat HaTorah of a Yo哲hd, of one person. A good, uh, a prominent Yo哲hd. But the idea of having a Kriyat HaTorah with Berakhah before and after, uh, of just one, one, uh, Aliyah does exist before. And the Poiel therefore we have a basis to allow a Kriyat HaTorah of Pa- just

43:49 Speaker 1 Parashat Zachor, um, on the Shabbos afternoon. Okay. So I'm going on a little bit of feedback. I did sh- discuss last week about a mezuzah with a walk-in fridge, and, um, I mentioned the Sefer Chamudot U-Niel. So someone sent me a few comments about this, that this idea that, that a mezuzah on a walk-in, uh, closet is required for walk-in closet. This Chamudot U-Niel, the- there is in the, in the back of the Torah Or siddur, there is the Derech Ha-Chayim. And on the Derech Ha-Chayim, there's a commentary, um, of the Re- of the Rav Avraham Dovid Labud, the Rebbe Zeide's zeide. The, the one who wrote the Sha'arei Kohal. So there he also brings the Chamudot U-Niel. But meanwhile, he shows me a very interesting thing about the connection between the Shem Shin Daled Yud and the Heket Zir. The zir is the hinge, which is very important for the mitzvah of mezuzah, and we use the Heket Zir. So what you have here on the left, it's from a Sefer called Sha'arai Ha-Kadomahs. It's one of the series of the Gesher Ari Z"L. Just let me fill you in. The, the, the, um, primary, the Talmud Muvhak of the Ari Z"L is Rav Chaim Vital. His son is Rav Shmuel Vital. So Omar Shmuel Vital Ha-Ma'atik. Shema'ati Chiddush Noiyah. We have a pasuk, "Ve'hoyo Shin Daled Yud Be-tzorecha," which, which is a pasuk in Iyov. And this could be... There's different ways of learning the translation of it, but it could be that

45:35 Speaker 1 Hashem should be with you to protect you from your, uh, oppressors. But then he says, you take the word zir, and you have-- you can find the word Shin Daled Yud in the word zir. Because take the word, uh, zir, Tsade, Yud, Reish. So the last letter of Tzadi is Yud. The last letter of Yud, of zir, is Daled. And the last letter of, um... What was it again? Of Reish is a Shin. So the last letters of the three, of the Milui, of the three letters of zir is the Shem Shin Yud Daled. Shin Daled Yud, sorry. And so there we have Shem Shin Daled Yud is in the Sofer Tabris of the word zir. "Ve'hoyo Shin Daled Yud Be-tzorecha," that you'll have the mi- the, the zir by the hinge of the door where the mezuzah is, there you'll have Shin Daled Yud and protect you from your enemies. And that's the Remez for the fact that we have the name Shin Daled Yud written on the outside of the mezuzah, and that's also related to, "Ve'hoyo Shin Daled Yud Be-tzorecha," because the way the mezuzah is written, you have first Shema and then Ve'hoyo Shemaya. The Ve'hoyo Shemaya is inset. So the word Ve'hoyo is inset, and it's on the other side of the parchment by that piece, by that gap. That's where the Shem Shin Daled Yud is to be written. So you have Ve'hoyo and Shin Daled Yud. You've got the connection between the Ve'hoyo on the inside of the

47:16 Speaker 1 mezuzah and the Shin Daled Yud on the outside with, um, of the mezuzah. Ve'hoyo Shin Daled Yud Be-tzorecha, this should pr- it's at your hinge, and it should also protect you for enemies. Um, beautiful stuff. Um, it doesn't, doesn't change the Halakha. I mean, we had this debate. This is an ongoing debate whether a, an entrance... So we have the Minichabad that we follow Heket Zir un- un- as the criterion, unless it's the main entrance from the street. What about... And the, and when the Rabbe were asked, so they said, "Well, how do you get into this room? If y- you're putting the mezuzah at the door, it goes out. You make it... How did you get into the room?" He said, "We came from fence still, go in through the window," and so on. So there were these... And so what about a room which has no window? So typically a fridge. A walk-in fridge will not have a window. And same thing with a, I guess, a air raid shelter, et cetera. You have these rooms which have a door opening outwards, and there's no, there's no window to go in. So do you go into a Heket Zir or not? So this is a, a debate between Chabad Rabbonim. And in one of my Seforim, I wrote that I was-- I'd been... I'd visited the late Rav Moshe, um, Landau in his father's apa- apartment in Rechov Yeshcal, and I put this question to him. And he showed me a door underneath

48:45 Speaker 1 the stairs. There was a gap under the storage under the stairs, and the door opened outwards. And the mezuzah was on the left as you'd go in, as if you're going out from the cupboard into the house. Despite that, um, the- there are other Chabad Rabbonim who say that, that i- if there's, uh, there's no wind... The Rebbe, the Rebbe said, "Go for the window." If there's no window, then you have to put on the right as you enter 'cause there's no Sofek. When there's a window, there's a Sofek which way, uh, element of Sofek. My, my policy about this is that I'm not sure about Minichabad, and I do know that the Veltshe Minich is to take the view to put it on the right as you enter. Therefore, that's my in- inclination. But as I say, this is an ongoing debate amongst Chabad Rabbonim. So when I'd said to put on the right as you enter the fridge, there are those who say you'd put it on the left because, uh, according to Heket. Uh, just to clarify, it makes no difference whether the hinges are on the right or the left. The criterion is whether it opens inwards or outwards, yeah. Let's move on. Um, right. About the... I mentioned about the minimum amount for Matanos L'evyonim. We had a discussion about the size of a prutah. If you remember, we had a discussion about the price of silver having shot up, and therefore... just someone asked me this past week, what

50:17 Speaker 1 would be the minimum amount for Matanos L'evyonim? They're having an event, and, uh, to-- they want to give out coins for people to do Matanos L'evyonim. So I told them, if you give five pence, two, two, five penny-- five, five pence coins, that would be enough. Um, five, uh, uh, a nickel would actually be not be, not, not be enough according to current prices because, um, yeah. So now, so, um, I did mention that not everyone agrees that Matanos L'evyonim is enough to give a prutah. Some say it has to be mo-something more substantial. They said that the Rebbe always said about a prutah. So now take a look here from a Sicha. If you see it from Tof Shenam Elvo. Af al pi, there's a discussion in Achronim about the shir of Ma'anos Ish Lere'ehu and of Ma-Matanos L'evyonim. This is when they just launched giving out, um, Purim kits. And they had given... They, I mentioned, I think, last week, they made ten thousand kits or something, and they put in two raisins and, uh, one biscuit, and the Rebbe was not very happy about them being so, so, such tiny amounts. There should be a kazais or something. So the Rebbe in that, in that Sicha, he says, although there is a debate and discussion in Achronim, how much is the minimum for Ma-Ma-Ma'anos and for Matanos L'evyonim? So Matanos L'evyonim, but I'm, d'chade lo chered k'das Reuven Achronim. It should be a prutah. So that's, he's, he's, he's acknowledging that there's

51:44 Speaker 1 a discussion, which I'd mentioned. But yeah, all right. So the, the, the major-- the m-m-majority consensus is that a prutah is enough. Because I mean, when it comes to Torah, to, to, um, to Nesina, giving, a prutah is considered giving. Ve'ein kana bakim l'hareach. So they, they are... It's just for Balabat, I mean, I think it is important to say, to share that, uh, yes, there, y-there are those, and m-many Poskers say a prutah is enough. But you're allowed to give more also, of course. Um, ish efri nidvas libo, et cetera. Right. Um, then... What's going on here? About the kesher of the sheliya'ad. And we have also about the reading of the Maftir. So here you have, um, uh, in, on the thing which I l-sent out, I had mentioned about the reading of the Maftir. Someone told me that when it came to Simchas Torah, the, uh, someone else had the Aliyah for Maftir, and the Rebbe didn't say the Maftir qui-- the half Torah with him. And he says he finds it very difficult to believe because if you see, if you, you visualize the distance from the Bima to where the Rebbe is standing, and, uh, to say that the Rebbe could hear from, from such a distance is, uh, difficult to believe. And, um, okay, so they're questioning, and he has... He, he... Okay. He had... The-- Who had the Aliyah on, on, I said Rabbi Khadikov, that was Yom Kip-that was Yom Kippur morning. Simchas Torah was Rabbi Kharzanovsky.

53:28 Speaker 1 Neither of them in their older years for sure would project their voice terribly well. And so he finds it difficult to believe the Rebbe just was relying on listening. Uh, about the back-to-front Kesher of the Sheliya'ad. So, yeah. So we had this discussion last week, whether you do it a mirror image or an upside-down Yud, but a kosher Yud, a proper Yud. So this same gentleman sends me that, looks like he's a Sofer. He says that, uh, there was a Sofer called Rabbi Zilberman. So he held both ways are kosher, and so was the opinion of Rabbi Zalman Schimin. Whereas Rabbi Zirkind would do it, um, as like the, not the mirror image, but a proper Yud, although it's upside down. And, um, Rabbi Matlin, who was a Sofer also in Crown Heights, who would check the Mashiah's Efete regularly. So he would make a mirror image. So there's, it, it looks like it's not a clear picture. But, um, one, I did correspond about this with Rabbi Nachman's son. Rabbi Le-Yoel Nachman's son lives in the Eretz Yisrael, I think in Rehovot, and he's a publisher Sofer called Vine Itiv. So he's a specialist all about lefties, and I asked him about this. Um, and he said a very interesting thing. It comes to the, the letter Tzadik. Now, the letter Tzadik is, you've got a Nun and a Yud riding on top of it. But you ask Sofer, and they'll tell you there's a Nun and a Tzadik, a, a, it's a Nun

55:01 Speaker 1 and a Tzadik sitting on it. Now, the Minig of Pi Ha'arizal is the, the Yud on the back of the, um, of the Nun, which is the, I think the right Yud of the, of the letter Tzadik. The n-that Yud is a back-to-front. It's an image, a mirror image of a Yud. So he's, he's showing me, whereas I've been challenging that a back-to-front Yud is not a kosher letter, but you see that in the, in the formation of the letter Tzadik, that Yud is recognized as a Yud, a mirror image. And he suspects that the, those who are, that there were Misnaglisha Poskim who were quite upset about the back-to-front Yud and they pushed, pushed a-against it. Possibly they, they are, they are equally the ones who are concerned about the back-to-front Yud in the left Yid filling. No, it's, it's interesting, uh, thing. Um, there is actually, just to finish off with this, someone put out a whole Sofer to, to, um, defend the back-to-front Yud, and the Sofer is called Tzidkas HaTzadik. Uh, I, I've not s-seen the Sofer, but I have read it. I mean, I've read about it, sorry. Uh, okay, so that's what we have for tonight. Someone asked me, which I haven't answered, why is it, uh, today we had Zecher Zecher, and on Purim it's Zecher Zecher. Why is it, it's order switched around? And so if anyone tells me the answer, I'll be happy to share that with you next week. Possibly next week we'll do the

56:46 Speaker 1 Shir a little bit later. Perhaps another fifteen minutes later, as Moshiach Shabbos is creeping later and later. Meanwhile, I wish you a Gut Tovoch, and we should hear Besuras Tovos, a Felich Purim, and, uh, Al HaSonims of Hamapah LeGemurah, and we should have a Gut Shabbos Shleima.

57:04 Speaker 2 Uh, Gut Shabbot. Gut, Gut Tovoch.

57:06 Speaker 3 Yes, Gut Tovoch.

57:11 Speaker 1 Someone's asking, is three times fifty pence the usual shir for Maftir HaShefel? So I think in London that's, yeah, in England I think that's valid, yeah. Don't have to start using, uh, foreign currencies. This is the local currency. That's good. Gut Tov.