ויקהל–פקודי תשפ״ו

00:04 Good Erev Shabbos, and, uh, by the time you will be listening to this, it probably Motzei Shabbos. Welcome to today's Shiur, and this is Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei, which then is therefore Chazak. It's also Parashat HaChodesh, which is also Parashat-- is Shabbos Mevorchim of Chodesh Nissan. As we mentioned last week, this week is also the, uh, sponsorship of Beis HaRoih Chabad, which offers a Shailah answering service, especially for, for those living in remote places. And they are open from ten AM to ten PM. Their telephone number in America is, uh, plus one, then three four seven six eight eight seven nine one seven. And the, uh, feedback which we've been receiving has been very, uh, encouraging. So feel free to use their service and, uh, if you have any feedback, you're welcome to come back to me about it. Okay. So the first thing I want to deal with is about last week, we were talking about separating challah. I shared the that was written in, in contemporary Seferim, that if you, you receive several amounts of shlachmanos from different people, and then you put them all into one large bag or large ba-basket, then you may be, uh, invoking, incurring a chiruch challah. To which I responded that various mitigating factors. There's a Mahzed who says that on a sweet cake, it's not a-- there's no chiruch challah. Uh, and also the fact that all-- that the, the, uh, sh- let's say your shlachmanos typically will be the sh- the pieces of, of pastry will be

02:22 inside a plastic bag. So whereas there is a concept of sirufsal, that one basket makes all its contents as a single unit. But then there may be... If each of the, uh, small quantities is in a separate plastic bag, so the smaller salim, the smaller baskets, kalim, should serve to, uh, obstruct the becoming of one unit through the larger basket. So, so again, so this, there is a concept of sirufsal. When you've got little kalim inside the sal, and those kalim are closed, then they'd, they would, uh, uh, wouldn't allow the development of a sirufsal to become, as say, a single unit. Therefore, because they don't become a single unit, therefore, there's no chiruch challah. Then we had a discussion about stuff in the freezer. But meanwhile, one of our listeners, Rav Reme Keveman, pointed out to me that, uh, we saw... He sent me a link, a video of the Rebbe taking chala- um, being mafrish challah. And this is the days leading to Pesach. The Rebbe would distribute shur matzah to Hasidim, and he would send also to not only... But that, that who are local was given out on Erev Pesach Mamash. And then for further afield, people would come a few days before Pesach. There would be a, a session where, particularly bochurim going home to their parents for Pesach, would bring home to various communities. Apparently, before doing so, the Rebbe takes challah from the matzahs. So it's once a year the Rebbe had a opportunity to be mafrish challah.

04:10 And so there, the matzah is all in separate boxes. So, and how does that fit with what I've, I've said here that s- that separate kalim prevent sirufsal happening. So I want to, um, my initial re-- I'm gonna share with you my ini-initial response, although it's a little bit more complex than, than I thought it was, having spent time looking through. Now, there's two separate dinim here. One is to create a chiruch challah, and the other one is when you are mafrish challah, it is recommended, what's called min hamukuf, that the various, uh, foods which you are including, whether it's in terumah or maaser or, uh, or challah, that they should be n-close by. So that when you are taking challah or taking terumah, it should be for the, for, I mean, the, the, it should be the stuff, stuff being inc-included with this mitzvah should be local. So it's not to create a new unit, but rather it is to take, to, to take challah on that which is present. Now, what you can see here on the screen is from the Nittei Gavriel on Chutz Pesach. And the second quote, "Hamatzos shelonu shemanuchim betech kuvsa." He writes that matzahs which are in a box, as they are wrapped in a, uh, thin paper, it's not necessary to tear the paper. It's enough that the box should be open. And, uh, he, in the, in the footnote, yutras, which I have on the screen, he wr- he brings here from Mikraei Kodesh, which was

06:07 Rav Pesach Frank, the Rav of Shalom, that the, he, he doesn't see the paper wrapping around the matzahs as a kali. And then- It brings another , another from Shas King Ontario, the Rav of Strasbourg, which says you don't have to even open the carton because it's... Opening the carton is just a wrapper, but it's not a . Okay. Be that as it may. So, first of all here, I, I looked at the video, and you have, let's say, twenty boxes. And those boxes were open. And inside, the matzahs were not in separate boxes. The matzahs were in, in packages, round packages of brown paper. I don't know how many matzahs per pack. And, and then before the rabbi takes challah from the whole lot, there's a large sheet of brown paper which is covering the whole lot. And that's, uh, as an alternative to tziruf sal, an alternative to putting everything into one basket. There's another, uh, way of covering them all with one cloth, and that brings them all to one unit. As I said here, it's not a tziruf sal which is necessary for, uh, to create a unit. It's rather to create a situation of, of l'mahafsh min hamukaf. Okay. Now, now, I look at it. This is actually discussed quite in detail in Halachot Shulchan Aruch, in Hirchas Pesach, Siman Taf Nun Zayin. So there is a difference between challas etz Israel and challas chutz la'aretz. Challas chutz la'aretz, the concept of min hamukaf is not required. And there is

08:09 this concept of, of challas chutz la'aretz. Ochel v'hoilech v'acharchach mafresh. So if you come, let's say it comes a Friday, and for some reason, Friday night, you realize, oops, we didn't take cha-challah. We won't mafresh challah from the Shabbos challahs. Are we allowed to eat the challahs? And the answer is yes, provided you put aside one roll, whatever. You put it aside, and you're gonna take challah from that after Shabbos. So again, challas chutz la'aretz, ochel v'hoilech. You're allowed to eat from the un-challah-ed, so should we say, dough, b-b-remembered, provided acharchach mafresh. You'll be mafresh late. Now, you can do... Now, obviously, the, if on Motzei Shabbos, I'm going to take challah from that one roll. Well, the rest of that, that batch is not only not here, it's already been digested. So challas chutz la'aretz, the concept of ochel v'hoilech v'acharchach mafresh is not imperative. Sorry, the, the, the concept of, um, min, min hamukef is not imperative. The challah says, this is all it is. L'chatchilah, at least. Yeah. Then, but then there's a little bit more. This is where I was a little bit, um... It was news to me. When you have one batch of dough made into separate loaves, and now some of them are here, some of them are not here, and you took challah from what you... What is here, and some of the stuff is in, is in a, is in a different place or even digested. That's okay. It's, it's, it does cover. But if it's

09:57 from two batches. So let's say I made on Friday, I made two batches of challah on Thursday, and I forgot to take challah from either of them. And now comes on, on Shabbos. Well, let's say I put aside one, one roll. Can this roll, can this hafrashah from this one challah cover for both batches? I don't know how you say the word mechuten in English. How does this roll... As you've got batch A and batch B, and I put aside one roll from batch B, and I mafresh challah from that, from that roll from batch B. How does, how does that ha-hafrashat challah have anything to do with batch A? It has nothing to do with it. Ah, so because of this, in case when you got not just one batch but several batches, it is imperative that they should be close by. And so typically, the case with the Rebbe or with the matzahs, you, uh, there's a batch of dough made for, uh, what's called, they call it in Yiddish, a meire. And that's typically made less than a shir challah. Whatever it may be. And then you've got several batches. And so to be able to be mafresh challah from one ma-- from... Take one piece of matzah for all the rest of the matzah. If there wouldn't be some similar thing to tziruf sal, so then how could a taking a piece of matzah from, from batch A cover for batch B, and so on? Therefore, yes, indeed, in such a

11:32 situation, there is, it is imperative to, to combine them. And that's what they were doing there, covering the, uh, boxes of, of, uh, challah. Sorry, the boxes of matzah with a large sheet of brown paper, the equivalent of a tablecloth, to make them all into one unit. Okay. Uh, I know it's a little bit complex. I think we'll leave it with that, and we'll go on to the next thing. It's yishmak to learn new things to... Right. So the next thing which I want to relate to is this past week, you know, like, uh, Darshan Smuchim already talking about, about hafrashat challah. I got a que-a question from someone, a shlucha, who had prepared a, uh, a batch of nine- Cups of flour. Now she's American, so she, she works with cups. Uh, I haven't learned how to translate from cups into, into grams, into ounces, et cetera. But she tells me that is, on the margin, let's say it is a shirhal. It's a specific shirhal. But what was, what was significant is that she, she had made two batches. What, what was significant is that she made the dough for a bit, for cookies with oil and egg. No water, no, uh, yes, no other... Perhaps if you use a fruit juice which is made from concentrate. It's just oil and, um, oil as in not olive oil. Vegetable oil. So she's asking about separating challah and with a bracha. So I want to address this, and that is that there is a

13:16 specific shul in Poskim whether a dough made, a batch of dough made with liquids other than the shiva mashkin. As you know, the seven mashkin are yad, shecha, dam, yayin, dvash, which is dvash, uh, dvorim, yayin, dvash, um, shemen, which is shemen zayis. Che stands for cholov. Che stands for tal, dam, and mayim. So don't worry about the dam for the moment. That's talking about tumas ket- tuma of, uh, tumas betarah. Doesn't matter. You have a list of seven liquids which are recognized as mashkin, as liquids in Torah, and they will serve to combine a, a quantity of flour to become a single batch. If it were made of, with, with... If this batch of flour were the right quantity of flour, but it was ma-mixed just with fruit juice and not with one of the seven mashkim, eggs counts of fruit juice, then there is a specific whether it becomes a batch. Whether it's chayim vechai, mechaleques derosh, et cetera. And so I'm just, to make life simple, I've got here on the screen from Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. Let's read it carefully. If a dough was made with, with, kneaded with eggs or other fruit juice, there are several sekha, several doubts whether it's chayim vechai or, and, uh, when... Then, then also if it doesn't become tamei, then you can't burn it, et cetera. V'lo chet. Therefore, when you are making such a dough, such, uh, pastries with, with margarine, et cetera, you should mix in ktsas mayim, a little bit of water

15:04 or a little bit of milk or a little bit of honey, bee's honey, or a little bit of wine or a little bit of olive oil. Once there's even a, a very small amount of any of those liquids, then it, this, then mafrishin challah m'meino challah b'bracha. Then you could be mafrish challah with a bracha. If not, you wouldn't be able to because, as I said, there's a specific whether meperis serves to constitute a dough which is chayim vechalla. On the other hand, uh, to not take challah, perhaps it is chayim vechalla. So because of that, we try to avoid that situation. Right. Let's move on, and that is a young lady whose birthday happens to be in the month of Adar, was given a gift of a necklace which has a pendant in the, uh, form of Pisces, which is, uh, uh, fish, which is a mazel of... In the zodiac, is the mazel of, of Chodesh Adar. The con- the mazel, the concept of the constellations of stars is mentioned also in Rambam, uh, as a very early, uh, early, uh, recognition of, of the... I, I call it the wallpaper of the heavens, and they kind of move around. So the wallpaper at a given time of the year, at the time of the beginning of the day, is gonna be different wallpaper, and that rotates in a approximately three hundred and sixty-five days, it, it, it comes back again. It's very slightly, slight- slightl- less, less than the annual cycle, and

16:49 therefore it's slightly off the way it was six, three thousand, four, five thousand years ago. But fine. But meanwhile, we have these mazalots. And now it does say in Shulchan Aruch that we're not allowed to make images of the bodies in heaven. Now, we also know that we're not meant to make images of human. The sculpture of a human person, of a human being, you're allowed to make a two, two-dimension, uh, uh, image. Like in other words, to paint on a canvas, that's okay, or to embroider, uh, on a canvas, that's okay. That's considered two-dimensional. But to sculpt out of, whether it's of stone or, or of metal, to create, uh, wood, to create a, a sculpture of a human being, we're not allowed to. Fine. That's called three-dimension. We are also not allowed to make an image of the Shemesh and the Re'ach and the Kochavim, um, of the, and the mazalots. This is also, you can see in Shulchan Aruch, you can see in Kuf Mem Alef. We're not allowed to make images of the mazalots. So when you draw, let's say, a, a picture of the sun, so we'd t-typically make a half a sun. Not, not to avoid the shailah of drawing an image of the sun. So without going into that whole discussion, meanwhile, here's a question. That this, this is an image of one of the mazalas, the constellation of Pisces, the constellation of Dogim, and is it permitted to have such an image? So just to finish off

18:38 that point about the two-dimension, three-dimension. Whereas a human, uh, an image of a human in two-dimension is permitted, a two-dimension image of the sun and the moon is not permitted. The reason being that when we look at humans, we normally see them in three dimension. Therefore, two-dimension, uh, image is not a realistic image. By contrast, when we look at the heavenly bodies, because of the distance, we're not seeing depth, and it's as if we're look- just looking at a canvas. So we see them in two-dimension. Therefore, to make a two-dimension, uh, drawing is forbidden. Okay. So meanwhile, so we have here in Shechinat Or that says, it said you're not allowed to make a sculpture of a human being, but Suras Behemoth Zachais, but images of animals we are permitted to make. And someone pointed out to me on Wednesday, we have this story about the throne of Shlomé HaMelech, which had images of lions, et cetera, on the steps as you would, would, uh, ascend the throne. Uh, I believe it's in actually, uh, described in Targum Cheney to Megillah. So I remember a few years ago. So because the throne of Shlomé HaMelech arrived in, in, uh, in Persia through Nebuchadnezzar, et cetera. Let's come back. So now it does say Shechinat Or, whereas hu- images of humans, you are not allowed to make. Images of, images of, uh, images of animals, we're not allowed to make. Sorry, yeah, we are allowed to make, yeah. We are allowed to make images of animals.

20:49 Right. So sorry about that delay. So it says you're allowed to make images of animals. Says the Shah, Mashma, that even an, a image of a lion is permitted. And so writes the Rashba in a two verse in Kov Samozayin. However, the, the Bach, Yigal Circus, in his commentary on the tour, in Contras Achron, he says, "No, he's not allowed to, because we're not allowed to make images of the celestial bodies." He calls them the Modher Hatacht, the lower, the lower level, the lower dwelling. Because we've got, uh, the Modher HaElion would be where the higher abode would be, they, where there's a presence of Malachim. And the lower abode would be where there's a presence of the, what we call the celestial bodies, the sun, moon, stars, et cetera. So we're not allowed to make images of the mazalas in the, in the heaven. And Mazal Ari, and it comes the month of Av. So the Leo has that standing in the heaven. And you have, uh, the ox, Taurus, in Chodesh Iyar. So we're not allowed to make images of a lion or, nor of an ox because they are of the, of the mazalas. Says the, uh, the, that's the Bach. So the, the Tal-- the Shah responds. He says, "According to you, you wouldn't be allowed to make any of the twelve mazalas even as individually." We never heard anyone who is particular about that. And therefore, he concludes that that which we're not allowed to create images of the mazalas,

22:27 that's only if you make all of them together. If you make a compendium of the whole zodiac together in image form, or actually possibly, I don't know, I haven't thought about it, possibly even in, in, uh, two-dimensional, we wouldn't be okay. And he says similarly to the Arbo Aponim LeHadodi on the heavenly throne as described in Novi, it's got To make those four images together, that's forbidden. But one on its, one on, on its own is okay. So therefore, the conclusion here is that you are allowed to, um, have this, this necklace pendant of Pisces is permitted because it's just one mazal of the lot. Okay. If I just may just throw in a light-hearted, um, comment and discussion in a, in a, in a class about if you have a picture of a fish on the, let's say, pressed into a cookie, are they allowed to eat the cookie on Shabbos, erasing the, the image? Then let's go the next step. What happens if you have a, a, a cookie made in the pa-pa-- shape of a fish? Are you allowed to eat it? Then I go, what about a fish which is in the shape of a fish? Are you allowed to eat the fish? So obviously, you're allowed to eat fish on Shabbos even though you're demolishing the seer. So, uh, a cookie made in the shape of a fish shouldn't be more homer than eating a fish. Right. Let's move on. Now, I'm going on to Shaila number f- four. There's

24:31 a man who lives alone, and therefore he lights Shabbos candles each Friday. And it happened one Friday that he forgot, and he didn't light. So the question is, does he have to henceforth light an, a ca-candle, an extra candle every Friday? Now, uh, because there is this meaning which brought down in the, uh, Ramo, Minik Ashkenaz. I don't know whether it's by Sfarad also. I don't know. I haven't explored that. That if a woman misses Leha'dik Ner Shabbos, so she, uh, from hence, from then onwards, she would add an extra candle every, uh, every hour of Shabbos. Generally, the attitude is we try to find kulas because women do find it, uh, upsetting to have to add another candle, perhaps embarrassing. I think we discussed this once a coup- a year ago, how not to feel bad about it. It's, it's not as if there's a, a kinnas, a punishment to leave a candle, uh, present unlit. That would be embarrassing. Here it's, you know, on the contrary, when you do teshuvah, you add light into the world. So it's a negative has become a positive. So there-- But there are ways of looking at it in a positive way, but still we try to, wherever, uh, if it's possible, to be make or it, not to have to bring on this, this kinnas. So here the question is, does it apply to a man too? There is a Sefer, a, a, a short, small paperback, Sefer Neret Shabbat KeHalakha, written by, by a, uh,

26:13 Chassidish Rav in, uh, called Rabbi Dalia Oberlander, used to be in Monsey now, leading a very, uh, sizable community in Kingston, Penn- Pennsylvania. And in his, this volume on Neret Shabbos, he had taken the view that it applies to men equally. And after all, the chiyuv of Neret Shabbos applies to the man. He's the balabais, so he's meant to provide the resources to run the home. Therefore, it's, it's his, it's his achrayus. Now, of course, he allows the woman, he, he gives her the shlichus. But then why should a man be less, uh, responsible than a woman when it comes to this? So the history of this, uh, is a min hakeshano gohanoshim, this idea of having to add an extra candle, is a min hakeshano gohanoshim. And wh-wh-wh-- and this is very interesting. I haven't heard that if you-- someone overslept, missed Kirshum, he should henceforth say Kirshum twice every day. Or to say, uh, or whatever. If you-- a person missed a mitzvah. Where else do you see that if you missed out on a mitzvah, henceforth you have to add? But so here's something unique. Now, everyone is familiar, the Mishnah, that here's a Mishnah Shabbos, it's the 41, I think. Al shlo shavar is says, for three sins, women, um, uh, succumb, hamon leezlan, in childbirth. Uh, and that is for neglect in the three mitzvahs of nidah, challah, and halachas hane'er. And then what you have below is from the Yerushalmi. I'm sure you've heard this before, but, uh, it's

28:05 also in, in, in, in Midrashim. It says th-these three mitzvahs which are entrusted to Nashim, nidah, challah, and halachas hane'er. So it says, Adam Harishon, domo shel olam. He was like the b- the blood of the world. Because that... What's the-- What does it mean? It means the, the life fluid. Because when Adam was bo- until Adam was created, there was no, no, no rain happening. And when Adam was born, then ve'adi alam min ha'aretz. Then a vapor rises from the earth, and then it becomes rain, and it, it, it, uh, irrigates the earth, and that caused growth. Chava through, uh, the etz hadaat, encouraging him to eat from the etz hadaat, caused death to Adam, and he's the blood of the world. Therefore, she has the mitzvah of nidah, which has got to do with blood. Then challah. Adam Harishon is the ch- the challah tehorir lo. He was Hashem's challah. What does that mean? Well, Adam Harishon is taken. Hashem takes the dust of the earth and mix it, mixes it with water. And as the Rambam says, the Adam Mimo Chen Kaparos Venivra, that the earth for the formation of Adam is from the pl-- site of the Mizbeach and Har HaMoria, the site of the Mizbeach and Beis Hamikdash. And what I didn't know, one of the forshes says that the water, as you're familiar, there's a constant whole story of the Mei Tehom, the water, the depth beneath which, uh, the, the deep down beneath the, uh, Mizbeach. The whole

29:49 story of David HaMelech when he's digging for, uh, to, uh, to, to create the Mizbeach, uh, to build the Mizbeach in advance. The whole story where you dug and then the water starts kind of flooding and the whole... That's where the Shechem Al is. The whole story, a story with, uh, uh, about the Achitofel. So you got the Mei Tehom. So one of the forshes says that this Mei Tehom was also involved in the, uh, in, in the formation of Adam. So it's offer and water. This water was the Mei Tehom. And anyone who's learned a bit of Siddurs, Mayim, Nach tach toynim, uh, tsoyachim, and non va'inul mevich hamim malcho. So this Mei Tehom signifies the water below when Hashem has separated the lower and the upper waters, and the lower water yearning to be connecting with Hashem. And so Adam HaCh is created as a Hashem's challah. Earth and, and water. And he quotes, uh, that once, once you've really mixed, you add a bit of water into your dough, so then you can bring mafrish challah. So Adam Harishon is Hashem's challah. Created this formation of, of clay to create a human being. And Chava, through Gate Hadass, caused his, uh, death, and therefore she has the mitzvah of challah to be metaking, that there was a HaShem's challah was, was, was, uh, was, uh, caused to, uh, pass away. So she brings a challah. Thirdly, Adam HaRishon is called, um, HaShem's light, Ner Shel Olam. Sheneemar ner elokim nishmas Adam. The

31:35 human soul is like a godly light, which gives a sense of direction to the world. And because Chava was instrumental in his, uh, passing, therefore she has the mitzvah of ner. So these are three... This is the background why these three mitzvahs are so important for, uh, an Ishah. And we've got the Mishnah which doesn't tell you to say very good things about the neglect of those mitzvahs. So it makes sense that if a woman, uh, realized that she had neglected one of those mitzvahs, as in, uh, as in Hadlakas Haner, she wants to do something to rectify the omission. And so there's the resolve, "You know what? From now on, I'm going to add another candle." And that's a way of her, uh, doing what she can to increase in the, in, in, her zchus of Hadlakas Haner. As having said all that, I, I'd like to contend that it doesn't apply to, uh, men. This minag, it's a minag Anashim, and it's clearly davka because it's kind of a tikkun for neg- for neglect of something which is a, a special, um, uh, mitzvah given to, to Nashim. Rather than to ne-- to rectify the omission of a mitzvah. As I said, other mitzvahs, if you have em-omitted, we don't see there's a special takanah of, uh, henceforth. That's true, yes. Right. Let's move on. So may a, so may a husband buy his wife a gift for Yom Tov, but she is in the year of avelus? That was the question. So

33:29 this you have on the, on the screen. It's from Niteı Gabriel. He says it is permitted, but I'd like to go through the reasons why he says. One is, he says it's, it's a, it's a prias choyv. It's to pay a debt. He owes it to her to give her this gift. From time to time, there's a husband owes, owes it. That's really why I'm going into this. Um, I don't know who's listening, the me-men or the, the wives or the husbands. There is a... On Simchas Yom Tov, a husband has a duty to be m'sameach his wife. So it's a prias choyv. And he refers to the Divrei Malkiel in Chelek Heh, similar to Lehem Al Zain, which I've t- I've mentioned recently be-- um, this Divrei Malkiel, the Rav in Lomza. And the comment there is about shlach manas to a Rov in the year of avelus. The Rebbe once sent shlach manas to one of the Rebbes in, in, in, in, in New York who was in the year of avelus. And the Rebbe said to the Shliach, "If he asks about he's in the year of avelus, the Divrei Malkiel says it is okay." Um, and the reason which Divrei Malkiel gives is it's an opportunity for, uh, comes Purim, people benefit from the, uh, input of a Rov in their lives, and they want to, uh, an opportunity to show appreciation, to repay some kind of debt of appreciation. And therefore, comes Purim and they send a shlach manas. That's

34:59 the way of their, their, their sending their, their show of appreciation. And he calls that a prias choyv. It's not like just reus, uh, for friendship, but it's also a form of a debt. So he says also a husband to his wife has a duty as a debt to give her gifts Mizman Mizman. Then he also brings that comes Yom Tov Echad, there's a mitzvah to be m'sameach his wife with, uh, colorful clothing, et cetera. And then he brings a third reason that, uh, brings here from, say, from somehow saying that since the husband and wife are together the whole time, therefore, he has a duty to provide her needs. So somehow it's not included, included as giving him maasros, which I'm not sure how that works. And especially he says if it's L'kavod Yom Tov, Yom Tov there's no avelus, and therefore it's okay to buy her the gift. Okay, let's move on. I know I, I... Going to... Let's move on. So here's a next question, something which was also new stuff to me. So here's the, here's a shaila. A... There's a man who's, for health reasons, somehow his, his happens to make his tallis cotton. It gets soiled. It could be when he's eating, it, it drips, whatever it may be. And so one after the other, uh, his, his, uh, tallis, tallis cotton, tallisim katanim are getting very soiled in the front. And these wool tallisim katanim are not easy to, uh, wash effectively. And so we have here a

37:01 bunch of tallisim katanim. Which are the front is not wearable, and the back is. So his good lady is asking whether she would be able to cut the tallisim katanim at the shoulders and then combine two backs into one. And so she'll from, let's say, six unusable tallisim katanim, she'll be able to now generate three kosher tallisim katanim. By taking the backs and the, the, the fronts, she'll, uh, discard in a respectful way, but they, they she'll be able to salvage to use these instead of buying new ones again and again. So I'll tell you on, on, at, uh, Bashkoff Reshoin, I said it's okay. And then I looked into it more carefully and I got b-- and I then said, sent her a message that it's not okay. And I'm going to go through this carefully. Why I did say it's okay and why I'm retracting from that. So here you have on the screen in Simon Tez, the Alter Rebbe Shulchan Aruch, where I'm sure everyone's familiar. Let's say you have a s-- a, a tzitzit snapped off the corner of a garment, corner of a talis koton. To take that tzitzit and sew it back with thread, that's not okay. The term in Halakha is tase veloyomin haosru gibsu. For that matter, if you cut off a corner from a talis koton or a talis, and you sew it onto another talis. So the Halakha says that's not okay. On this says the Alter Rebbe, by medvorim mamurim, that which you cannot

38:47 br-bring a patch with a tzitzit hanging and, and, and sew it into the garment. That's only when the imported patch, um, she'ein bechati chaha'hi, when that imported patch does not have a shir talis shechayaves betzitzis. If that imported patch doesn't have a shir of a talis. Ah, walmye sh'ba shir talis shechayaves betzitzis. But if the patch which you want to now connect to the existing talis does have a shir of talis, then you do not have to separate, undo the tzitzis on it, and w-when you can sew it together. So let's say, because she yes beren she say, let's say you have a garment which has got three tzitzis, and now you bring over a patch which has got one tzitzit, and that is, that is valid. Why? Because the patch is not, uh... I-i-is the, the patch which you're bringing has also got a shir talis. So theoretically, if you had talis, two tallisim g-- if you had a talis gadol or two tallisim gedolim, and they're ripped down the middle, you could take, or let's say one of them is, is a pa-part is not usable. You could take the two halves or half of A and half of B and join them together. That would be okay because each half, each section has a shir talis. Now, what is the minimum size of a talis koton? So the way we have in the Alter Rebbe, we know. We... Now, in Shulchan Aruch, this is discussed indeed in Siman tes zayin. It doesn't

40:31 say clear measurements. It talks about if it is enough for to cover rosh ve'rubah shel koton ben tesha shanim, enough to cover the majority of the body of a nine-year-old, and a gadol and an adult would, uh, be okay to go out in the street with such a garment, derech arai, in a, for a short, just for, uh... It wouldn't work. It's a bit too small. Now, the Alter Rebbe indeed does talk about ama al ama, and then he says ama al ama milfanav, ama al ama mil'acharav. So effectively, our tallisim katanim are two amas long, plus the area of the neck and one ama wide. That's what the Alter Rebbe says. He says the Alter Rebbe is quite, um, very bold today. He says, "If it's one you want to do so, lo tzisli derech halade'es," because there are those who say it's much less than that. And so there are those who say, and Kitzur Shulchan Aruch brings such an opinion, that it's a half an ama wide and three-quarters of an ama long. On that basis, okay, so I was saying to myself, an ama al ama is called a shir talis. All right, so there is a chumra. The Alter Rebbe says ama al ama milfanav, ama al ama mil'acharav. While there are those who say that even it's, uh, half an ama wide and three-quarters of an ama long, that's also big enough. Then I saw something which, which, which I'd... Was, was news to me. Uh, sorry. And that

42:12 is in Piskei Teshuvas. He's wr-writes here that this, this shir of three-quarters of an ama length and one half ama wi-width, that's mikol sad. So he's talking about... He's quoting, uh, that this, this length of, of, of three by, by, um, three-quarters by a half in the front of the body and in the front of... In the back of the body. If that's the case, an ama al ama, no way does it have a shir. Well, it doesn't have a shir atifa. So I was... So now I'm learning something new. Until now, I knew that there's a shir, the way it's written in Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, half an ama wide, three-quarters of an ama long, and you look around, you know, you see these small tzitzis which look about the size of the Choshin Mishpat, zeres al zeres. Well, in the front is zeres al zeres in the back. And I've seen even, uh, adults wearing such small tzitzits. Well, they're relying on this sheer of three-quarters of an amor being the need of the overall length of the tzitzits. And now they say, "No, you have to have three-quarters of the front, three-quarters of the back." I don't think that's the meaning of Ɣōlām. Um, fine, but that's not really my, my concern is not so much that. Now we're talking about amor al amor. And the Alter Rebbe does bring in Shekhuna, in the Siddur, that for ktanim, you can make a begeg on amor al amor. Which means amor m- Which means

43:44 half an amor the front, half an amor the back. Uh, no one does this now, though, by, by the way, because actually, there was one manufacturer who tried to do it, but for a child, a five-year-old, a six-year-old, to have a begeg which is an amor wide is just very, very difficult for them to wear. So I'm, I'm not dealing with that now. Coming back, so, uh, there... Is, is there any basis to say that an amor al amor is a sheer, a sheer begeg? So here you have the Gemara Menachos . If a talis got, uh, g- got, um, torn be- um, outside three, uh, atbas, I think, from the edge, you can sew it. If it's within the three atbas from the edge, you're not allowed to sew it. That's got to do with the worry that the, the... You use some thread to sew it, and then that thread might get mixed up with the thread of the actual tzitzit. Okay. Meanwhile, . You cannot bring a patch which is an amor and amor square and connect it to a garment because of what we said. This idea is it's too s- it's, it's, uh, of a class of . So here you have a halacha in Gemara Meforeshes that amor al amor is not enough to be co-considered a, a sheer begeg, and if you attach it to another garment, it's not gonna be kosher. Now, as I said, the, the Alter Rebbe mentions a sheer of amor al amor, and

45:36 this comes from a Shaales. There's a Shaales Shuvus called Pri Ha'aretz. This is going back probably three hundred years ago or something. And I looked it up, and I, I, I read it, and he brings from this Gemara itself, he wants to bring a raya that amor al amor is enough. Why does Gemara mention amor al amor? M-my understanding is on the contrary. This is... That it's saying here that it's not a sheer, uh, uh, tzitzit, not a sheer, um, begeg, and that's why if a mechaber one to the other. So really I spent time going through this, and I had to come to the conclusion that, that amor al amor is not a sheer talis chayav is but tzitzit. And therefore, if you take two backs of tzitzit, each one amor al amor, but they're not big enough to be called a talis. And therefore, this, which is said here that you're allowed to b- combine two halves, may be true for a large talis. But to do what this, uh, Ish atzitz Konis was, uh, proposing, to take two backs and join them together, fortunately, I think that is not okay. What else, what else do we have here? Okay. So, uh, Bocher asks a question that he has a mouse, a mouse in, in his bedroom. And it got caught in a trap. So what, what can he do about it? So I did see. Here it says here, "Are you allowed to feed the mouse?" Because here, and this is from

47:14 a Piske Shuvus, um, in Simash Zayin. He writes here from Kol Bas MeBeis Levi that you're allowed to feed... Well, really, you're not allowed to feed animals which, on Shabbos, which are not your responsibility. But if it's been trapped, then that's your responsibility to feed it. Interesting. Uh, but then he says something which was my reaction. Uh, the following. If you've got this mouse in the corner of your room trapped in a, uh, in a, some kind of a glue trap or something, and it's, it's, uh, making little noises the whole time. Now, that's, uh, for most people would be a, an absolute, uh, I don't know, i-it really, it really be bothering the person. And because of that, we have a din of garaf shere. So a mouse, alive or dead, is muksah. But there is a halacha that ga-garaf shere, if you have a quantity of feces or anything which is objectionable, so then there's a concept that that you are allowed to violate the sidra bonon, in this case muksah, in order to protect the, the, the respect for human life. Therefore, you'd be allowed to take the whole trap with the mouse and put it outside in the garden. And not, not Hashem, not to Rish Masrabi, but to put it out in the, in the garden. Uh, and you wanted to release it there, that's up to you. But, um, but you would be allowed to lift it up if its, if its presence is so offensive to you. So

49:01 then you would be allowed to pick it up and take it away. If you are happy to l-leave it there and, uh, enjoy the entertainment, well, then, then you could leave it there and you want to feed it. That's... You're allowed to feed it. Yeah, that's very, very helpful to know. Right. The, the last thing which we have, and this has been in the, uh, Halachas, uh, in the Rambam, which we just started. In Halachas, uh, Halachas Shabbos. So the beginning of Perek Beis, which was yesterday's Halachas, um, uh, Shira Rambam. You're allowed to begin a job on Friday, begin a work on Friday, even though Shabbos. Even though it's going to continue, uh, and it will finish off the job on Shabbos. Because w- it's only also for us to do . We're not allowed to do Melacha on this day. If it happens by itself on Shabbos, we're allowed to, allowed to have benefit from it. It happened by itself. Now, it's very interesting how the Ramah starts off with that you're allowed to start, and it continues. And then he finishes off, it-- the heter is because it happened by itself. Now, we have actually a situation which I'm, I'm bringing up. Let's say you have these vacuum cleaners which sit in the corner of the living room, and they are, uh, like robots. You know, it's a round thing, and it's when at, at twelve clock at night, whatever, whenever you... Whatever time you set it, it gets out of the

50:55 corner and starts rotating, going around the room. And wherever it can, it's, uh, nothing blocking it, it's going to, um, vacuum the floor. And then once it's finished, it goes back to, it goes back to its corner. It goes back to sleep. So now it starts the melacha at, at twelve o'clock at night. So it's maskil b'melacha. On the other hand, it's nasa m'eilav. It's happening by itself. And I did see when it talks about, uh, why you're allowed to leave a lamp to burn on Shabbos, isn't the oil, there's fresh oil coming into the flame, into the, into... Which is being burnt. So the, there's the Ish Shom says a sura that that when you light it, all the, all the oil in the lamp is kind of in motion to move towards the, the flame. So it's all started on Friday. So the Ish Shom seems to be clear that something which starts on Shabbos is not okay, and the Rambam seems to be s- well, the dyuk of the Reisha is if it starts on, on Erev Shabbos... Sorry, if it s- if it starts on Shabbos, that would not be okay. It's not so poshit. Um, there's a separate halacha if stuff was made on Shabbos, whether you're allowed to have benefit from it. Namely, if, let's say, if a goyishe baker baked bread on Shabbos. He took flour and made bread. And let's say it's not a problem of a pas akum, whatever it may be, and there's an Eruv.

52:37 Are you allowed to buy and enjoy that bread? And this is the Siman Shin Chof Heh. The Alter Rebbe brings the Shitah of the Maharshal. Now, would you allow to have benefit is only if it started on, on, on Friday and finished on Shabbos. So if you had raw food and with precautions in-in-in-included, and it was cooking from Erev Shabbos into Shabbos. On Shabbos, you'll not have benefit because it started on Shabbos, um, on, uh, before Shabbos. In the case of the bread baked by the goy, it started on Shabbos, and therefore, you're not allowed to u-use that bread according to the Maharshal. So that's, that's... He's talking about using the bread. Here, we're talking about whether you're allowed to... Whether I'm allowed to set in motion, uh, a, a setting that you'll start w-well, a melacha on Shabbos. So now what you have here is also from the Piske Teshuvas, and this is in the beginning of Siman Reish Ayin Beis, where we have this psak of Rav Moshe Feinstein that the heter, which is certainly widely accepted to use a Shabbos clock, is only for things which are tzorich shabbos and kovod and oneg of Shabbos. Namely lighting, heating or cooling, et cetera. So those things are accepted. We use, um, like, uh, we use, uh, time switches for, for them to, to activate them on Shabbos. But, but as to use a time switch to activate another melacha happening, so then he... They're saying it's not okay. The story is told that

54:13 this was particularly... This was, uh, Rav Moshe Feinstein's reaction when he heard that, uh, the shail that someone wanted... They were a fan of the Yankees or the Dodgers, whatever. They were desperate. They couldn't, uh, handle not seeing them, uh, the match. Wanted to know whether they can set a time s- time switch so that the... What we were told in, in, uh, in school, the tumor box. Be able to see the tumor box on Shabbos afternoon. And says Rav Moshe, Moshe lashes out. He says... Actually, now with, uh, with all these, uh, ro-robots which are becoming more and more common. He says, uh, it's the same thing as... It's if... The same thing as Amiruleh Nochri. The reason why Chachomim forbade us, uh, having a goy do work for us is be- is Zilzel Shabbos. You can have a whole business running. And so the Alter Rebbe does say the word of Shlichus. Now, I th- I think that's the halacha profile. But the reason, the motive for the issue of Amiruleh Nochri is because of Zilzel Shabbos. You could have a whole, a whole business running. Uh, business as usual and have goyishe workers. And so that would be a Zilzel Shabbos, a total distraction from Shabbos. So the, um... So Rav Moshe takes the view that using a time switch for anything else would be, is, is also fine. So that's generally what's generally followed. So I would, I would say according to this, not to use this v-vacuum bot, whatever it's

55:45 called, on Shabbos. Now, someone said... Actually, Rabbi Broin recently gave a shiur where he spoke about the using, uh, these robots on Shabbos. And, um, and also this discussion which I raised Are you allowed to start a melacha-- Are you, sorry, are you allowed to set a, make a setting that a melacha should start on, on Shabbos? As I pointed out, the dyukim of the Rambam here are contradictory. Where in the beginning he says, "Mutar lehatzil bemelacha me'er Shabbos," and at the end he says, "V'ma she'nasah me'eilav Shabbos." So if it's nasa be Shabbos me'eilav, and it started on Shabbos, what's the position there? At any rate, so there, someone sent me a reference to the Encyclopedia Talmudis, uh, under the entry of Hashmal. I didn't have a chance to look it up. I only got it... Um, I'm traveling now, so I didn't have a chance to look it up. Be'ezrat Hashem, I'll follow that up. But I, I mean, I am intrigued how to reconcile the contradictory rimozim in the Lashon HaGramar. Um, but we also discussed this briefly. It came up in the weekday shiur, in the evening, about, um, what's the, talking about websites being open on Shabbos, and what's the difference between having a vending machine open on Shabbos and having a website open on Shabbos. Now, he was actually stumped at the time. Um, so I was happy to see that the Piskei Teshuvas addresses this. Now, the having vending machines, vending machines have been around for a hundred

57:21 years, probably. And Shu"t Maharshaag, who was a Rav in Hungary pre-war, he says you are allowed to have a vending machine open on Shabbos in a Goishe area, in a, in a train station, et cetera. You sell chocolates, et cetera. And he says that you're not doing anything. And the main-- One of the main points is that the chocolates which you sell on Shabbos could equally have been bought on Friday or on Sunday. It makes no difference to you. So that's his, one, one of his strong bases for hater. To have it now an internet site. So here he talks about in the Piskei Teshuvas, if you have a site which is sales, like Amazon kind of stuff, where I'm not going into the whole Parshah of Amazon per se, but let's say it's a site, and people can place an order, and then the order is fulfilled after Shabbos. So that's the same thing as having a post box. You're, you're receiving orders, but you're not open for business. You're not... So you're not delivering. There's, there, that's, there's room to be more lenient. But then we have here, what about if it's you're not selling food or, or clothing, et cetera, on, on, online. You're actually selling information. Let's say he gives... Let's say people want to know the exchange rate of, uh, uh, currency or, um, whatever. It could be information which-- and to get that information, okay, they'll pay for the information. Uh, so that's a different story because then it

58:58 comes into the halakha of Shabbos. That the time on Shabbos when this person, let's say, is, wants to go from A to B and wants to know the best way, traffic, no traffic, he needs to know that, that information now. You can't sell him that information yesterday or tomorrow. He needs it now, and you're selling it now. So that, in a way, is, um, that you're benefiting from being open on Shabbos. That creates a problem of Shabbos, which, which i-is problematic. And how are you going to, um, circumvent that? Then perhaps a way of shutufus with the Goim. I'm not, I'm not sure exactly how you're going to deal with that. Right. That's what I have to share with you. I'm in Wyoming, uh, in, by my son, Yaakov Yosef Tzemach, who is on schlichus here with his wife and now four children. There's a bris on Shabbos, Be'ezrat Hashem. And so I came here to be mishtatef in the simcha. And so I wish you all a good Shabbos and a good Avodah. And we should hear besoros tovos. And we're coming to the month of Nisan, Chodesh Nisan. We should see Nisan benefla'os. And, uh, k'mei tzeis chametz min hase'arim arenu nefla'os b'mushbachets et kenu bimheira b'yameinu amech. And anyahu m'vas ha'geulah sh'neftach alast, hinei, hinei zeh bo. And b'tzach zeh nehenim b'shul chol tzibbur achim. Kol tov.