אמור תשפ״ו

00:03 Speaker 1 Good evening. Welcome to tonight's shiur. We are Thursday of Parshas Emor. And so we'll go right into our questions. The first one is about candlesticks. And we have described the situation. You have your candlesticks at your table from the beginning of Shabbos, and you also have the challahs at the table. Now, generally, we have the idea of what's called bosses ledover ha'osur. If a surface is dedicated only for a muksa item, that makes the surface muksa. So if you've got a little table where you have a telephone, so not only is the telephone muksa, but the table is also muksa. And if even after the telephone, let's say, has come off the table, that table remains muksa for the rest of Shabbos, that's the concept of bosses ledover ha'osur. But then we have what's called bosses ledover ha'osur umuksa, where the surface is holding muksa and non-muksa items. And so the presence of the dover ha'mutar kind of balances out, and now the table doesn't become muksa. Very well. Okay. So then there is a caveat to that, that the counterbalance to un-muksify the table has to be of greater value or greater importance than the muksa. So again, you have a table, and it's got a muksa item, and you want to prevent the table from becoming muksa, so you put a non-muksa item. That other item has to be of similar and, I think, slightly greater value. So traditionally, you had your challahs at the table, and you have your candles at the

02:16 Speaker 1 table, your candlesticks, oil lamp. Oil lamp, how much did it cost already? And then what would you have now to have to balance? Okay, so there's the lamps, which provide light, and then you've got the challahs, which provide food. And you ask a simple question. What would you prefer? To sit in light and be hungry or to sit in the dark and have a sandwich? So most of us would say, give me the sandwich. I'll cope with the dark. I'll eat. I'll prefer to eat in the dark than to be hungry in the light. I can understand. So the challahs are more important than the candles. Therefore, the challahs outweigh the candles and candlesticks. Now, there's just one more detail in this. If you know, in Hirch's Muksa, there's different levels of muksa. There's called muksa gomer, muksa she'eina gomer. And muksa she'eina gomer is the kind of article which you are allowed to move if you needed the space or if you wanted to improvise with it. So a hammer is a tool. And if you wanted to use the hammer to open it, you could keep a door open as a weight. You are allowed to. It's called le'tzor gopher m'chayim. And so on. So that's not a muksa gomer. What is a muksa gomer? An article which is, let's say, paint, sand, stones. They are not keilim. They're not equipment. They are materials which cannot be processed on Shabbos. So sand cannot be processed on Shabbos. So that's called muksa machmas gopher,

04:00 Speaker 1 and that's the stronger muksa. But you're not allowed to move le'tzor gopher m'chayim. I could just do one short illustration. If you open my larder, you may see a can, a jar of beans. Now, those beans are hard, and they are inedible. They can only be processed by cooking, which is not allowed on Shabbos. So that jar of beans is muksa machmas gopher. Behind the jar of beans, there is a box of chocolate. I'm not allowed to move the jar of beans to get to the chocolate behind it because the jar of beans is muksa gomer. Muksa machmas gopher, muksa gomer. I'm not allowed to move it, even le'tzor gopher m'chayim. So coming now, but keilim, yes. Keilim shomlach talisa, melach to move le'tzor gopher m'chayim. So now, going back to the candlesticks. Regular candlesticks, cheap candlesticks. Would you use them for anything else? Possibly. You know, you've got these glass, short, stubby candlesticks. Some people use them for a salt cellar. So in earlier times, perhaps they used those kind of candlesticks to store some coins. Yet such a candlestick you'd use for other stuff. So it's a kli shemalachtalisa. Therefore, it's not such a strong muksa. You didn't need to even counterbalance. Possibly, you didn't even need to have a counterbalance to that. Only to the flame. What we have now, though, is a situation. We've got these silver candlesticks. Most, many, you know, kaminu hanagidim hamafros adnim. And they cost $1,000, whatever. And so you would never use them for anything else.

05:38 Speaker 1 So the argument is then, and then I offer to my class in the Babich Girls School. What would you prefer? To have your sandwich, to have, I offer you, I can give you a sandwich, or if I give you $1,000, you go hungry for an evening. So I would say, I'll go hungry for an evening. I'll miss an evening supper for $1,000. So therefore, what's more important, the candlesticks or, or the, or the challahs? Can you say that the ch-- the, uh, the challahs are more important than a thousand dollars? For most of us, that's, that's not necessarily the case. So this is the... here's the problem. Uh, does, does the-- do the challahs outbalance the value of the candle, these silver candlesticks? All right. So here, this question was addressed by the, uh, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. We have it in the Shemiras Shabbos KeHilchoso. He talks about the candlesticks at the table, uh, that if it's just the candlesticks, then the table becomes muktzeh. But if, uh, there was a ch-ch-challah at the table, it is not muktzeh. Now, then he says in his note, "It makes sense to me that this-- that the challahs outweigh the candlesticks." That's only with simple candlesticks, and they are bottled to the flame. But if you've got these silver candlesticks as is common today, and people, they say, "Dov HaChoshev," and people don't just leave them lying around. They put them in a special place. So he co- considers them muktzeh makmot kesonim. Muktzeh because of

07:26 Speaker 1 the value, muktzeh of something which you'd never improvise with. You'd never use your silver candlesticks even as a sheitel head, even as a hat stand. Those are the candlesticks, yeah. So then that's muktzeh makmot kesonim kis. Muktzeh, a valuable thing which you wouldn't improvise is on the level of muktzeh gomur or muktzeh makmot guf. You're not allowed to move it, let's say, to go from a koma. Well, that makes it... Then you have to outbalance the value of those candlesticks, which is a big deal. And therefore, yeah. So now that this is, this is his initial approach. However, he says, "I heard from Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zatzal that the candlesticks are an ornament to the house." And so he, Rav Shlomo Zalman says, "Candlesticks, they make the house beautiful." So it's not like a, a knife of a shochet, which you wouldn't use it for anything else, and therefore it's muktzeh gomur or muktzeh makmot kesonim kis. A piece of, uh, musical, a, a violin, muktzeh makmot kesonim kis. You wouldn't use it for anything else. But the candlesticks, he says they are, they are ornaments, and therefore they're not, they're, they're, they're not really muktzeh. And as a result, since the candlesticks are not muktzeh, he sees them like, like flowers or something, like a, a decoration for the house. Therefore, they're not real muktzeh, and as a result, you don't have to outbalance them. You only have to outbalance the, the, the, the flame. And so the challahs work for that. Amazing

09:03 Speaker 1 Chiddush. Um, I'm, I'm not going to, you know... He sa- he takes that view. And, uh, so this is not-- this is only negeia if you want to move the table. To use the table, that's not a problem, but if you want to move the table, so Shlomo Zalman comes up with this interesting Chiddush. Now, most of us probably do not move our Shabbos table on Shabbos. It just stays, and so you re- the question not so relevant. When it becomes more relevant is when it comes Hanukkah, and you put your menorah on a little table, on a chair in the doorway. And Hanukkah, in this part of the world, happens in wintertime, and you want to the... Once the menorah is out, you want to close the door, uh, so that it shouldn't be drafty. You want to perhaps push the menorah to, uh, out of reach of toddlers. They shouldn't... Menorah is expensive. So when you put something on the... So you want to demucify the table which has the menorah. So just putting down a milchamaiv or a candy, that kind of thing doesn't really work because it's the menorah, if it's an expensive menorah, it's not out of balance. Milchamaiv has got very holy words, but I have about, I have about two hundred Milchamaivs or whatever, benches in my house. So it's not really a very valuable item. Therefore, it has to be something of, of, of similar value. So if you wanted to be able to move the menorah,

10:24 Speaker 1 some say that you should put down, uh, a piece of jewelry which is of similar value, if you have s- such a jewelry. Uh, s- even that, not everyone agrees, but fine. That's, that's where we're coming from. I want to address this. So you have a heter. Shlomo Zalman has a heter with the, uh, with the candlesticks. Possibly he would say the same thing with a, with a, a silver menorah. It's a decoration, and therefore you didn't have-- wouldn't have to outbalance the value of the menorah, just the value of the flames, which is not a big deal. Uh, it can be something small also. Okay, let's move on to the next- Would this, would this be the same thing, the same issue with, with changing tablecloth? It would be like a moving a table. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes also people want to put on a tray. They won't be able to lift the tray. Same con- same, same problem. Yeah. Let's move on. Okay. So someone asked me about a room in your house which is rented out to a goy. So there's a difference when... This the poskim talk about if you've got a, a goyishe worker, a carer that's living in your house or pair, whatever. So then that r- door has to have a mezuzah. You have children in your house. They're under bar mitzvah. Does that door need to have a mezuzah? Yes, because it's part of your dwelling. So they, the children who are under bar mitzvah,

11:54 Speaker 1 but their, their dwelling is part of your dwelling, therefore has to have a mezuzah. You have a larder. It's part of your dwelling. Say, if you have a servant who's a part of the functioning of the house, that, that room would need to have a mezuzah. Very interesting. But if you rent out a room to a goy Then this is the Sefer or Mezuzah Smelochim quoted in latest for him. He says that it does not need to have a Mezuzah. And brings from the Das Kleysham from the Bachacha, who's not so sure about this. But generally, we take the view, it says in the Gemara, Mezuzah Chovas HaDorhi. Mezuzah is the duty of the one who dwells there. And therefore, if it's, there's a, the Goy is living there, there's a contract, whether it's written or not, doesn't matter, but there's an agreement, he's a tenant there, then, uh, it does not need to have a Mezuzah. Right. I'm going to go on to a question. Now, the Rebbe talks about this in the Sichas, um, in the words of our Chazal, very strong words about people who have faulty measures. So this Ishot Tzidkonis went home and took her weights. They have this at home. This, this is not for business. This is just for if they're making cooking stuff. So they have these weights, and she measured, and you could see. So the three smaller ones, they were accurate. The tall, the, the upper ones, the four upper ones, were all a few

13:27 Speaker 1 grams out. So now becomes the question, are, it says very strong words, that you're not allowed to keep faulty weights. And it says you mustn't, let's say you've got a faulty measure, a bucket, which says a measure, and it's a faulty, faulty measure. So you mustn't even use it as a, as a chamber pot. So what, what do I do with these weights in my house? Can I, may I, may I keep them? They're not for trade. They are for when you make a recipe to, to work out the weights. So very interesting. So now this is from the Sefer Piske Choshen, but it's a well-known halacha. You're not allowed to keep in your posses- in possession a faulty measure, even if you're not using it for measures. And it says if you have such thing in your house or in your shop, the violation of a law, of a negative commandment, and even to use it as a chamber pot is also, also... So it's quite strong, strong words. This, uh, uh, this woman had been learning a Sicha of the Rebbe where the Rebbe talks about it, very strong words about the, the issue of faulty measures. So that, that was, that's the background to the question. So now Piske Choshen brings from the Kesef HaKadosh also from Bachacha Rov. He says, "If it is used at home just for measuring spices, for cooking, whatever." So he says, "Efsher sheaf bemidas chasidus ein bo zer." So the whole thing there is when you've

14:59 Speaker 1 got the measurements for trade, even though you're not using them, but it's issur to have them in your possession. But if they're not for the purpose of trade altogether, just for cooking at home, efsher, there's no issur, not even midas chasidus, because it's not used for trade. You're not gonna be cheating anyone. Therefore, that's okay. And he just leave, leaves it with a tzorchiun. It's not, it's not s- so confident. So I said to the lady, I said, "It is okay, but I would recommend that you take, let's say, with some sticky tape and stick on, I don't know, a penny or something. Stick on something to even out the weight that it should actually match the, the weight which is written on the, on the, uh, on, on that piece of weight." Someone's put here a question. If the weight is only off by a few grams, how would one know which is off? The weight just bought, the one you're measuring. Well, you've got a weighing scale, and hopefully that is accurate. Um, yeah. I guess that's the way. That's a good question, though. And, yeah. And also, I said add something, and it's gonna be slightly, uh, half a gram out also. How, how far do you have to go? Those are good questions. I, I don't know. Right. Let's move on. So now, this I have no reference for, but a question. Can you say a Mishebeirach for a non-Jew by the Torah? What I've seen of late is you have,

16:39 Speaker 1 uh, something in Botekhabad where it comes by the Mishebeirachs, and everyone has a chance to say their, the names of their, their dear ones, which is a beautiful way of involving people. And in a particular place, Chabad, I was, uh, recently, and each time some were saying a Goyische name. I didn't, I didn't... I thought perhaps it's a Jew, didn't have a Jew, um, didn't have a Jewish name. But possibly it's Tacha non-Jew. Is it, so is it okay to do a Mishebeirach for a non-Jew at the Torah? I'll come back in a moment. I would like to say, since I'm talking about this, the time for the Mishebeirachs should be before Maftir. And what I've seen in several places, they do it after Maftir, and I can see the natural thing. You've finished Krias HaTorah. You've done Hagb'ah. Oh, now, now the time to do your Mishebeirachs. That's the, in the Gabber's mind. But in my mind, uh, the, between Krias HaTorah, between the Maftir and the Haftorah, one should actually avoid Hefsik as much as possible because they, they are kind of a follow-on. The Maftir is a follow-on from the Maftir. And there's a whole discussion of the Rebbe when the whole story when the Rebbe came out about saying Birchas HaGoymel, uh, between, before Kaddish, the obj- objection to that. And the Rebbe talks about in Tofre HPS I in nineteen twenty-seven, when the Frederick Rebbe came out of, uh, prison. Um, so then there's a whole discussion, when should the

18:15 Speaker 1 Rebbe bench Goymel? Because the Rebbe is oiler for Maftir. And then to say HaGoymel between Maftir and Haft- and, and Haftorah is questionable. To say it earlier, there's, uh... The Rebbe gives three options. He doesn't say what they did. But so therefore coming back to our point that the time for the Mishaberachs, and therefore what I'm saying, the, the natural gap in the Kriyat Shas should be actually before Maftir rather than after Maftir. But let's come back. So, um, when Rabbi Telsner was the Rav in Finchley, one of his congregants, who was a fan of Chelsea, wanted to make a Mishaberach that Chelsea should win the, win the match that afternoon. And so for those who, who are overseas, Chelsea is the name of one of the, uh, football teams. Is it top? I don't know. Um, so Rabbi Telsner said that it's a Mishaberach by the Torah. Since you have Here is talking about a community which have, let's say, a minyan, but they don't have a Sefer Torah. So you can read from the Chumash without a berachah, and he adds, "Shelo tishtachach Torah's Kriyah." That this community should not fade away from them the idea that this Kriyas HaTorah, they don't have a Sefer Torah, but do a, um, a, a substitute for Kriyas HaTorah, shelo tishtachach. Now, Magen Avraham adds, The impression is that from the Tanya Rabbi see is that the Kriyas HaTorah from the Chumash without berachahs is done in a way that the balkeri is reading aloud like

22:36 Speaker 1 a regular Kriyas HaTorah, but it's without the berachahs. That is unlike what the Moka Chaim, which you have on the bottom of the screen. Moka Chaim is otherwise known as the Chavas Yoyir, and he talks about yo- kol yochid kore. That each one individual is reading. Now, he was a contemporary of the Magen Avraham. Magen Avraham had actually the mazel that his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch were became standard commentary in all Shulchan Aruchs. Whereas the Chavas Yoyir was la-remained in manuscript till about fifty years ago. At any rate, the Magen Avraham is saying the impression is that you do, do a public reading, public as in limited in, in... Yeah, it's a public reading, but it's a form of Chumash. On this, the Pri Megadim adds, or the, a different scenario. There it's talking about you don't have... The, the impediment is you don't have a Sefer Torah. What about if the impediment is you don't have a minyan? Possibly it's good to read without a berachah. Again, that the concept of Kriyas HaTorah shouldn't be forgotten. So now we have a recommendation, efshar tov li kris beleberakhah. Right. So now coming back to our question. You don't have a minyan for your Shabbat services. Is it advisable to take out a Sefer Torah and read the week's sadra? So this is... Now, the Pri Megadim doesn't necessarily talk about with the Chumash or the Sefer Torah. I personally don't see any difference. You're allowed to take out a Sefer Torah, um, even without

24:14 Speaker 1 a minyan. The Arizal used to do Ma'avet Sadra. On Friday, he used to take out a Sefer Torah and do, um, and do, do it with a, with a Sefer Torah. It's not a problem. Um, and so, yes, you can take out a Sefer Torah and do that reading. But just bear in mind, it's tov li kris. It's, it's, it's a recommendation. And m-many shluchim who are in a similar position will say when they don't have a minyan, what they will do is they'll sit around the table with those who are present, and they'll take... They'll review the Parshah around the table rather than with a formal Kriyas HaTorah. Which may, in my mind, be a, be a, may be a more suited fulfillment shelo tishtachach Torah's Kriyah because if those people are not capable of following a Chumash and hearing the whole Kriyas HaTorah read in Hebrew, then shelo tishtachach Torah's Kriyah may be done better by sitting around and discussing the Parshah. It depends on who your people are. If they are people who are fluent in Hebrew and can follow a Kriyat HaTorah, then reading from the Sifrei Torah, the whole lot may be a better way of doing so. But if it's people who struggle with that, so talking about sitting around, going through the Parsha, not the whole Parsha, but as much as you can, a reasonable amount, Shalosh Teshachach, then that's you're fulfilling the Teshachach that way. So, um, actually, I was, I was, uh, at my-- at the

25:43 Speaker 1 house of my son in, in Wyoming when he had made a Bar Mitzvah. It was a Shabbos, uh, Shabbos Mevorchim Nisan. We did not have a minyan. So I did the whole... It was a double Sidra. I, I did a Kriyat HaTorah of the whole double Sidra, pas Parshat HaChodesh. Um, well, myself, my mechutan was there, the mohel was there. There were a few Yidden who would appreciate at least a substitute for Kriyat HaTorah. People who are less fluent with, uh, Lot HaChodesh, et cetera, perhaps they would get more from a, a, an oral review or a discussion about the Parsha. So that's really... It's important to note. Efshar toivel ikaris. It's, it's a recommendation, and you are allowed to modify, in my mind, accordingly. Now, the same group of interest are those small Botekhabad without minyanim. And, you know, they, they could get minyanim, you know. If they would ignore the fact that people are gonna come by car, then it would be easy to get a minyan or relatively easy. But, you know, that's... They're there to promote Yiddishkeit, and you don't build Yiddishkeit by encouraging people to drive to your shul. So now, the, the next question is, if I do take out a Sefer Torah, and this is also particularly relevant when coming up to Shavuot, and there's the, there's the specifics and emphasis of doing Aseret HaDibrot. So if you're gonna not have a minyan, you'll do Aseret HaDibrot. Do you do Vehibinaya Aren and B'rich Shmei? And I said,

27:16 Speaker 1 "Yes, no problem. No problem. There's no Bracha l'vatala. No problem there." What about Hashem, Hashem on Yom Tov? So when we take out the Sefer Torah, somehow that's... at some stage, the Ashkenazic leadership, um, deemed it fit to say Yigdel mitzrachamim, which is normally said in Selichot to be said on Yom Tov. By the Sefardim, that doesn't exist, and the Sefardim are, you know, they're critical of it. But that's our minhag, and it's in the Al Treibet Siddur also. So it's an invocation of the Yigdel mitzrachamim, and you finish off, you say, um, "Anisi v'alosi l'cha Hashem ezrotzen." It should be ezrotzen, et cetera. Does that make sense to do so if you don't have a minyan? So I said no because Yigdel mitzrachamim is meant to be said only with a minyan. That's how it says in Hilchot Hanot. What about saying it... It says in Hilchot Hanot, same place, it says, "But you can say it k'koreh b'torah. You can say it with a, with a drop k'koreh b'torah." So if you're saying Tachnan and you wanted to say Yigdel mitzrachamim because that's the flow, k'koreh b'torah, that's okay. You're saying Selichot. If you don't say the... If you wanna say Yigdel mitzrachamim k'koreh b'torah, fine. Here, I, I felt it's less in place because here the whole exercise of saying Yigdel mitzrachamim is because of Rakach's Rachamim. It's... I know it's always that's the purpose, but there it's within a framework of other tefillahs. Here it's, it's a dedicated moment. We're gonna

28:54 Speaker 1 say Yigdel mitzrachamim. I mean, earlier this, this Yigdel mitzrachamim. If it's k'koreh b'torah, so then what's the point of doing it? Um, fine. That-- Those were my, my thoughts about this. Now, following on from that, what about Birkat Kohanim? Can you do Birkat Kohanim without a minyan? Without a bracha. Can the Kohanim stand up there and give Birkat Kohanim? Okay, so here we have a Mishnah where it says, "Parashat Shma which means Borchu, and Oyvum Ve'atei which means Chelek Kedusha. Ve'ein zot asher karbeim," that's Birkat Kohanim. "Ve'ein koreim Kriyat HaTorah, Haftorah." And all of these, you cannot do it befoch hasme'at sag. You cannot fulfill these in yoni without ten people. And therefore, to do Birkat Kohanim without ten people is, uh, it says in the Mishnah you can't do it. So what are we gonna do? Do a Shalosh Teshachach? It's interesting. Can we do a Shalosh Teshachach Torah's Birkat Kohanim? Don't know. It would be-- It's a big Chiddush, yeah? Because... Why is it a big Chiddush? Possibly it's doing Birkat Kohanim as, as a mitzvah without a, without a, without a Birkat HaMitzvot. I don't know. It feels... And, and also in what context? How are you gonna do Birkat Kohanim without, without Chazarat HaShatz? Because I'm sure Birkat Kohanim was parked by Chazal, gonna be part of Chazarat HaShatz. If you don't have a minyan, you don't do Chazarat HaShatz, so what, just, just do Birkat Kohanim on its own? Uh, the Kohen wants to stand up and give berachot without,

30:37 Speaker 1 you know, guess say the Yoreh Deah, you can do so. But the whole performance of, of as we have with, uh, under the tallit and all that kind of stuff with the Ribono Shel Olam, I feel that's without, without a, without a minyan, I don't think that's appropriate. Right. Let's move on. And so the next question, which I have number eight- It's also from this same group of people, of shluchim. They-- Friday night, Friday evening, sorry, making a Kabbalat Shabbos service on Zoom and, um, and before the Hadlakat Neris. I said, "Don't call it Friday night service. Call it perhaps Welcoming of Shabbos." Now, in the days of COVID, a lot of shluchim were doing this, having an online Kabbalah s-- a, a, a pre-Kabbalat Shabbos thing. At first, I th-- my first response was actually that the Ka-- the Arizal, when he went out to the fields, it was also not a Kabbalat Shabbos as such, but I, I ch-checked it up again yesterday, and I was slightly, uh... It does say he would go out to the fields and do his, uh, Kabbalat Shabbos looking to the west, looking where the, uh, the sun is setting. That's where it comes back, where, where, I mean, looking to the back of the shul, which is usually the west. And then he came back, and then he put on his tallis, so his Ɣofor shkiya, and then he went and looked at the table where the candles are lit, and he went around the table,

32:11 Speaker 1 some kind of hakafah. But it doesn't say he did m'lorcha, so it wasn't, uh, totally accurate on that. So, uh, I-I i-i-if it's clear both in, during the session and the way it's advertised that it's not a Kabbalat Shabbos, it's a w-- it's a pre-Shabbos service, then it might be a nice thing that people are, are, uh, clicking, are joining in and, uh, they are encouraged perhaps. It will encourage them more to light candles as they should in the right time, et cetera. It could be a nice thing, but that's... have to, uh, assess it carefully. Right. Let's go on to point number eight. So someone sent me a, uh, the cover of, uh, a, a, a box of crackers with a good hechsher, and if you can see where the arrows point to, vechos ze mezonot kemach yoson. That the berachah on these crackers is mezonot. And you look on the ingredients, they are just made of flour and water. So why are these crackers mezonot? This is, this is the question. And so you've got these small matzahs, the crackers. Are they mezonot or hamotzi? So we look in Shulchan Aruch. This is the Alter Rebbe, and before. We have a term. We've got three types of mezonot, and one of the three categories mentioned in the Gemara is pas haba bekisnin. And the term pas haba bekisnin has got three pirushim. Written in Shulchan Aruch, and the Alter Rebbe, too, in Siman kuf samech ches. One is pas haba bekisnin, lashon of

33:54 Speaker 1 nibbling. It's a bread which is nibbled because it's flavored. Flavored with fruit juice. It's flavored with eggs. It's something which is not a regular bread. It's a flavored bread, and that makes it mezonot. A, A, uh... I was talking in class today. What's the difference between a snack and a meal? Talking about mezonot bread, et cetera. A snack is typically highly flavored, and it's meant to give you a boost of energy for the sh-- and it works for the short term, for the next half hour. A meal is davka. You don't have highly flavored food, bread. The, the carbs are gonna be less strongly flavored, and you'll be able to have therefore more of them, more of the carbs, and it will last you not just a half an hour. It'll last you three, four hours, give you your fill, uh, for the next few hours. That's a meal. So this is the first opinion, pas haba bekisnin, a flavored pastry. Because of its flavoring, it is... people nibble small amounts of it at a time, therefore it's mezonot. The second opinion is pas haba bekisnin. Lashon kis is a pouch. It's a pouch filled with sweet stuff. So it's a... with, it's like a strudel or whatever, which is filled with raisins or with apples or with, uh, uh, whatever it may be. A sweet stuff. Now, the Alter Rebbe does take issue that if it's filled with things like meat or cheese or fish, that's not enough to make it mezonot. Now, don't

35:30 Speaker 1 get carried away with things like knishes, et cetera. Usually, the pastry there is made with shortening, with margarine, and that's why it's mezonot, the m-pastry itself. But if it were just a flour and water pastry and filled with meat or filled with ch-- uh, minced meat or with, uh... and, and, and baked that way, according to the Alter Rebbe, it's still hamotzi because it's normal to have meat with your bread, therefore it doesn't take it away from a meal thing. But, but if it's filled with sweet stuff, again, it's something which you would only have as a snack. Then the main thing which is relevant to our discussion is the third opinion, which is Rav Hai Gaon. Vyesh beforashim that pas haba bekisnin is actually made with water, and it's not flavored, and it's not filled, but it is, uh, ugoi shveshos. They're, they are dry, and he calls them kichlach, and the, the Arabi-- the Arabic word was khachin. Khachin dakin. That's the lashon of Rav Hai Gaon. Khachin, thin crackers. Thin crackers are mezonot according to Rav Hai Gaon. Now, the thing is that you look in the Alter Rebbe's Sefer HaMitzvot, and he doesn't mention this third opinion, and so therefore some had come to the conclusion, ah, the Alter Rebbe doesn't pass through like a Rav Hai Gaon, which I find very difficult to accept. If it... Everyone accepts Rav Hai Gaon. In other words, that all three interpretations of pas haba bekisnin are legitimate, and you can rely on each

37:07 Speaker 1 one of them. So why does the Alter Rebbe not bring Rav Hai Gaon in the ? Very simple. It comes Pesach, and the very thing which Rav Hai Gaon says is, is it's, uh, kind of, the, and, uh, the thin, these thin crackers. That's what we eat on Pesach. According to Rav Hai Gaon, that's mezonos. So the Sephardim indeed differentiate on a sh- on a whole year round. The matzah is mezonos. It comes to Pesach, it becomes hamotzi. The Ashkenazim don't follow that solution. So the matzah is, is, is... You, you have it for a meal. On Pesach, it's, it's the meal. How can you say it's, uh, just a snack food? Since if it's Pesach a meal, it's a whole year a meal. Therefore, the Alter Rebbe s- doesn't bring Rav Hai Gaon because of the change of our lifestyle of, with what we have on Pesach, and therefore he had to be quiet on, on Rav Hai Gaon. But what would happen if something like pretzels? I'm talking about hard pretzels. Flour and water. But no one is on pretzels. If you're... It's, it's, it's a snack food. Um, not reminded even with salty, not salty. It's the thing which is, it's, it's clearly not a, a meal. It's clearly a snack. Then you could say mezonos because they rely on Rav Hai Gaon. It's made flour and water, but it's a snack food. And therefore, coming back to these crackers. Now, this is where this hescher is giving. He's, he's saying, "Because

38:35 Speaker 1 the mezonos, because it's a cracker, like a, like a Rav Hai Gaon." What, where, then where I have the dilemma is, where do I draw the line? So a five-inch square matzah is hamotzi. What if it's a three, three-inch square or two-inch square? How, where do I draw the line? When is this a hamotzi, uh, matzah? When is it becoming a snack food and therefore is mezonos? That I don't have an answer. Um, but if, if it's clearly a snack food, then it is legitimate to say that is mezonos. Let's move on. Um, so last, I don't know, a few weeks ago, I was speaking about potato kugel, and I'd said how Rabbi, Rabbi Zalman Schimel once showed me in the Siddur of Yaakov Emden, where he says that the berachah on grated potato kugel is shehakol because it's, I guess, because it's changed in its form. Just to remind you what I'd said at the time, that, that, that list of foods in an alphabetical order is not from Rabbi Yaakov Emden himself. Uh, it's not in the original siddur which he printed in his lifetime, in Taf Kfar Hei. It was added by a later printer. But all right, it's someone of some degree of authority put that list together. So this f- fellow writes to me that when he was, uh, in Kollel in 1973, he, Rav Dworkin was... He used to actually sit in the Kollel every day, and he differentiated how you made the, the potato kugel. If you use

40:16 Speaker 1 a grater or if you used a blender. If you'd used a blender, then he'd say, "Yes, that's what they're talking about. It becomes shehakol." But if it's a grater was used, then it retains the berach, berach of HaAdam, which is useful. Uh, you see the, can still see the degree of form of, of the original potato in, in, in shreds. So that's useful to know. Um- Who is this? Again, someone by the name of Dovid Waxer, who lives in, in Frankfurt, who listens to the Shiur, I guess, to the recording. He wrote to me that when he was in Kollel in 1973, so in '70, uh, Kollel, so he... Rav Dworkin told him that the question of whether a k- a potato kugel is, is, is HaAdam or shehakol depends on how it was prepared. If the potatoes went through a blender, which means that we're more like pureed, then it would be shehakol. If they went through a grater, which means that the shreds are more recognizable, then it remains HaAdam. Okay, good to know. So now, almost finished our list for today. And someone asked me yesterday about softening hardened honey. So if you take honey, which is runny to a degree, if you want to ruin it, put it in the fridge. Yeah, then it becomes hard, and then it's a whole headache to get it soft again. He's asking whether you can add hot water, uh, to the honey on Shabbos, and that way it becomes more usable. So at first

41:57 Speaker 1 I said to take a, a chunk of honey and put it into a cup of tea. We do that with sugar. That's okay. So... But then he says, no, he wants to pour the wa- the hot water into the honey. And for that matter, it would be the similar question. How about taking that jar of honey and put it into a tub which has got hot water? You take it from the blech, and you put in, uh, into a klishaini, into a klishlishi. You've got a, a tub with hot water, and you want to put the jar of honey into the hot water, and it should then ease the, uh, hardening and should be able to be usable, and you'd have to do that on Shabbos. So that I was already, uh, not so keen, and I was actually correct in my, uh, hesitation because there is a din of moil it. We're not allowed to take a solid and make it into a liquid on Shabbos. Um, so this is from Piskei Teshuvas in the end, towards the end of Siman Shenot Chas, which is the dinim of cooking, where it talks about not- nothing to do with bishul. Not be- not, not because of heat. It can be in klishaini, klishlishi, but to take, to take a, a solid And make it into a liquid, that's a problem on Shabbos of molid, of creating a new thing. There's a... Now, interesting that he has here, particularly he's, he mentions dvash, uh, specifically, uh,

43:28 Speaker 1 amongst other, uh, other foods. Let's say to melt chocolate without boiling hot, just to melt it, uh, et cetera. So these would all come into the same thing of taking a solid and making it into a liquid is not okay. Now, um, I had thoughts that Rav Shlomo Zalman has got a certain heter, and he says, "If it doesn't change its... It doesn't change its..." He says like this, "When it was water..." So when it was ice and you make water, it's a different materias. But when it was milk, and when it was frozen, it was milk, and when it's defrosted, it's milk. So you haven't changed its status. It was, it's still got the same name. So Shlomo Zalman is ную to leha-lehachil on that. Uh, so helpfully, the Piskei Teshuvas is a m-contemporary. He gives a reference to Rav, Rav, uh, Farkash's Sefer Shabbos Halacha, who really is not happy with the psak of Rav Shlomo Zalman on this. And he brings some degree of proofs to say that even though it's something which it not change i-its title, still to make it di-dissolve, uh, or to melt, to become from a solid into a liquid, still remains a beracha. So it still remains a problem to do so on Shabbos. So my answer to this question about softening hardened honey by, uh, uh, by heat or, like, uh, et cetera, that would not be okay because of molid and m-et cetera. He gives another couple of definitions over there. All right. Um,

45:10 Speaker 1 I'm gonna finish off with the Siyum HaRambam because we're just today finishing Sefer Nashim and beginning Sefer Kedushah. And so I'm gonna read the last halacha. It's very interesting that we're learning Gemara Sota because it's Sefirah Ha'Omer. And then we're also learning the end of Hilchas, um, of Sefer Nashim. In Rambam, as Hilchas Sota, it talks about the union of kinui, where man would tell his wife, "I don't want you to... I don't wanna see you alone with so and so and so." And the Rambam finishes off about not to rush into this kind of kinui in the presence of Adam, rather to speak in a c-calm way, in a way of, uh, concern and to guide your family in, in the right way and not to get into trouble. And he says that one who doesn't take steps to look after his family and to keep them to the straight and narrow, so to speak, so then that's sinful. As it says, ［Hebrew 1] You should be aware that your tent is at peace. [Hebrew 2] You should remember your house [Hebrew 3] and you shouldn't sin. And you... That's the end of the [Hebrew 4]. So I picked up, when I was in New York, I picked up this Sefer two-volume set called Otzar HaMelech, and this is ba- all the Biurim of the Rebbe on Rambam. So there has been an earlier work called Ein Malchus. Ein Malchus was from the several years after the launch of Limud HaRambam, so there's those Sichas. But there

46:54 Speaker 1 are many, many more Biurim of the Rebbe beyond the Ein Malchus. Uh, and th-that's what will be done here by Rabbi Lipska of Sherman Oaks, I'm sure other people helped him, to collate all the comments of the Rebbe on, on, on the Rambam, uh, Mishneh Torah. And so here I'm just to pick up on one word of the Rebbe. Now, very interesting that the Rebbe was particularly concerned on Mesayim B'Toiv. It was one of the things which the Rebbe was, um, I mean, well known when the Rebbe's Haggadah, when the relaunch of the Haggadah overhaul in Taf Shin Lamed Gimel. So the Rebbe's Haggadah had been printed four times before then, or five times perhaps. And here they've put together a new layout and with the Sichas at the back, and the last Sicha finished off on a negative point. And when the Rebbe saw the Sefer, he, of course, he was happy with the Sefer. He was not happy with the fact that, um, it finished off on a negative note. And he gave an instruction they should get a rubber stamp and the-- of Lashon Hababli Yerushalayim, I believe. And so, uh, a few stamps were made, rubber stamps, and Bochurim were standing there in seven seventy stamping thousands for him or more with the, those three words of Lashon Hababli Yerushalayim. So this is something which the Rebbe was in particular about. Also, when it came the, uh, when it came the Siyum HaShas Yrushalmi, and the Rebbe Pinchas Menachem, the, who

48:32 Speaker 1 later became Gerer Rebbe, he had been by the Rebbe, and the Rebbe recommended how to fin-- the end of Gemara Nida in Yerushalmi apparently is not on a positive note, and the Rebbe recommended that they should re-- also include in the shiur of the Shas Talmud. Yerushalmi, also the Mishnayos or the subse- or the last Prakim. In that way, it also finish off with Dava Tov. And there's a whole story about that. So the Rebbe is very concerned about the same Dava Tov. So now, how do we deal with this end of the Rambam in the, in with these words? So the Rebbe is, makes the following comment. When we say Mesayim B'Metov, it can mean the last, the, the last word is good or the content is good. And therefore, the Sefer Nashim, although it finishes off with the word Techah, but it actually says, V'lo Techah. In other words, it's saying take precautions, and in that way, V'lo Techah, there won't be sin. So that is considered a Siyum B'Dava Tov. That's considered completing on a good note. Now, I'm gonna just finish off and say that we finish Rambam, Sefer Kedushah. We start Se- um, sorry, Sefer Nashim. We start Sefer Kedushah. The Rambam has every Sefer starts with a Pasuk. And I'm not gonna go into this now, but I have noticed between different editions of the Rambam, not always do they have the same Pasuk as the opener for the Sifrei HaRambam, and we'll leave that for another occasion. Meanwhile,

50:11 Speaker 1 I wish you all a good, good night and a good Shabbos, and we should hear Besuras Toves, Besuras HaGeulah, Shechezkenu Eineinu Beshuvcha L'tsion Berachamim Umalcheinu Berashenu. All too. Great. Thank you.

50:28 Speaker 2 Shalom.