נשא תשפ״ו

00:03 Speaker 1 Good evening. Welcome to tonight's Shiur. and today's Shiur to be sponsored by Mrs. Rachel Isaac Saul in memory of her brother, late Shlomo Ben Moshe. His yahrzeit was this past week. Okay, let's go into our list of questions. So the first one, which is obviously from before Shavuos. So there's a, uh, a shliach somewhere the f- somewhere in Asia, and he is-- was planning to host some-- a group of non-Jewish people on the second day of Shavuos, which was Shabbos. And his question was about, well, are you allowed to host them? Now, you're allowed to host a Goy on Shabbos on, on, on Yom Tov per se. It's not okay because you might come to cook for them, but on Shabbos, you're not gonna cook anything in any case, so you are allowed to. But here it was his-- this wasn't his question whether allowed to host them on Shabbos. He's asking whether his non-Jewish chef is allowed to do cooking. On the Friday, by virtue of the eiruv tafshilin, they should be able to cook on the Friday to host these non-Jewish guests on Shabbos. To which I answered, "No, that's not okay." And the simple cheshbon is that we are allowed to cook on Yom Tov for Yom Tov. For outside Yom Tov, we're not allowed to cook. And just like everyone would understand that if you wanted to cook on something on Yom Tov for Isru Chag. You're making op shalom from Isru Chag. Well, let's cook something today. We'll enjoy it

02:01 Speaker 1 the day after. Of course not. Because the hetter to cook on Yom Tov is only for , um it's only for the same day. Similarly, for a non-Jew is not part of Yom Tov, and therefore we're not allowed to cook for a non-Jew. And therefore, to ask a Goy to cook for the Goy is also not okay. He's doing the work. You're asking the Goy to do something for you, uh, for to host your guests. That's not okay. You have food which is ready-made, you can serve it to them, but not to go and start cooking for your non-Jewish guests, um, on Friday for Shabbos, even through a Goy. Let's move on to the next question. So here's a question that someone is here in Europe. He owns a property in Eretz HaKodesh, and he rents it out, and he gets a call from the tenant that he had gone out of the house for a little while, and he left some children at home. The oldest was ten years old. And, uh, the children had... The ten-year-old decided to cook something. And then apparently had forgotten to turn off the fire, and then smoke was coming out of the house. The fire brigade were called. They smashed the door down. And Baruch Hashem, everyone's okay besides the door. Question is, who is liable for the door? So-- And the, the tenant is saying, "I'm not... You know, I'm, I'm, I'm open. If whatever the Halacha says I have to do, if I have to

03:43 Speaker 1 pay Halacha, then I'll have-- I'll pay. If not, not." Now, so let's take this question. First of all, if you call Hatzalah, when you call an emergency brigade, and they're called not necessarily even for the benefit of the, of the hou-- person who owns the house, but they, they cause damage in the process of saving a life, or hopefully saving a life. Is there a-- Do they have to pay for the damage? I can assure you, if they would have to pay for the damage, you can, uh, close down a lot of these emergency s-services. They're doing a favor to come and save a life. You're going to start charging them? Of course not. So let's not call that Halacha. We can call it a Takanas HaTzibur. But for sure, the emergency services are not liable for the broken down door. So then we go to, is the father who left the children unattended, will he be liable? Well, we know that children are not liable for damage which they do. The, the father did-- Was he, was he reckless when he went out of the house and left a ten-year-old boy at home? Would you say he was reckless in the sense that he, uh, uh, that the, the damage caused-- was caused through his recklessness? Even if you do say that, he still does not have to pay, and that is because there's a shomer. If someone takes something, uh, from someone else to look after on trust, a shomer, even if he's

05:24 Speaker 1 a shomer chinam, which means he's not paid for being a-- looking after the article, he is liable in the case of recklessness, in the case of pshea. Curiously, the din of shomerim applies to portable items. It does not apply to land. So the tenant is not a shomer of the property. Consequently, even if you're gonna say he is g-guilty of recklessness, of pshea, still not liable for the damage, certainly the damage caused here by a third party, by the, by the emergency services. Therefore, it remains unfortunately that the landlord will have to pick up the tab. It doesn't have to tell. He asked me, "Do I have to give a new door?" I said, "No, it doesn't have to be a new door. It can be an old door." It's, it's, it's his property. Unless, unless there is an agreement in the contract of the rental that the tenant has to give back the property in g- the same condition as it w- they received it. If they... If that was a clause, if that was spelt out, so then, then automatically the tenant is liable to restore the damaged door because of their commitment. Well, that might be a good idea to do so, yeah. Okay, let's move on to the third shailah, and that is that someone, it was a Sh- perhaps it was a Shabbos or Friday evening, the point they had davened Ma'ariv with an early minyan. And then the oops falls and comes in, "Oops, I haven't davened Mincha." So

07:08 Speaker 1 can you daven Mincha after you've davened an early Ma'ariv? It's still, it's still light outside, so can you daven Mincha after you've davened Ma'ariv? So actually, this is addressed clearly in Shulchan Aruch, uh, in Siman Kuf Ches, in Hilchot Tefillah. So we can read here f- this, the Alter Rebbe is quoting the Magen Avraham, "Mi Shebo L'beit Haknesses Somach L'Arvit." Someone came to shul towards the evening, "VeYorad Lifnei Hateivah," and he served as chazan. "VeHispallel Arvit Mibe'ed Yom," and he davened Ma'ariv whilst it was still day. "Vadah In Lo Hispalel Mincha," and he hasn't davened Mincha yet. "Ein L'damois El Hyizik V'lo Hispalel." Don't compare that it's a case-- You can only daven an extra Shemoneh Esreh to pick up if you missed out, only if it was B'shogeg, only by an error. But if it was willfully that you skipped a, a tefillah, you cannot make it up afterwards. So he says, "Don't compare this to Hyizik V'lo Hispalel because it's actually still time for Mincha. And therefore, he should daven Mincha after he's davened Ma'ariv. Even if you're gonna say, "Well, once you davened Ma'ariv, it's too late to daven Mincha," okay, so call it the second Shemoneh Esreh. Now, at first I looked at this halacha and I was wondering why does it illustrate this question by him going to the omit. And now, as I'm reading it now, I'm seeing the following. He came to shul. He hasn't davened Mincha, and they ask, "Can you lead the, can you lead Ma'ariv?"

08:56 Speaker 1 So he did them a favor. He becomes the chazan for Ma'ariv. He thought he did so knowingly. He knew that he's not the-- hasn't davened Mincha. It wasn't a mistake. It-- And therefore, that was the question. Well, he d- he knowingly skipped Mincha, so he has, first of all, it may be that he hasn't, um, forfeited Mincha because it's still day. Even if you're going to say that it is, well, we'll then consider it, I guess, like a Shogeg, and therefore he could make up a, a second Shemoneh Esreh. And therefore, if he davens a second Shemoneh Esreh, that's going to be a Shabbos, if it was Friday evening, the second Shemoneh Esreh will be a, a Shabbos dinner. And if it's going into Rosh Chodesh, so then he would say, "Yaale VeYavo" in the earlier one and in the second one because it's now accepted Rosh Chodesh. Now, actually, somehow during the past week, I saw a discussion whether there's such a thing as taking on Rosh Chodesh early. You can start Shabbos early 'cause you have Asse HaMelachah. What does it mean to Mekabel Rosh Chodesh early? But I, um... Actually, I remember now. It is Rebbe, Rebbe Galitzky. So I was saying is that Rebbe Avraham Galitzky wrote about this in the Oras HaHayyim. So I sent in a comment that from here it seems to be very clear that the-- if we daven Ma'ariv Mibe'ed Yom on Erev Rosh Chodesh, it's clear that you say Yaale VeYavo. And the Chiddush is

10:30 Speaker 1 that even the second one, you also say Yaale VeYavo because it's seen as a HaShlomoh, uh, and therefore you have to say, uh, Yaale VeYavo. Let's move on to our next question. So here is an eng- a, a story which a Shliach asked me relevant, relevant to himself, and there's a story like this. Remember, Sender Nemtsov is a-- was the father-in-law of Dr. Mindell, who was a secretary of the Rebbe, uh, really from Chaver of the Friediker Rebbe. He was Mekubal in the Chinuch Etzetl. Rav Sender Nemtsov is what? The one famous for saying Shehecheyanu at the first Farbrengen on Yud Ad-- on Yud Shevat, five hundred and seventy-one. So that just gives you the picture. He's an elder person. He lives in Long Beach. For those who don't know where Long Beach is, this is not the California Long Beach. This is, I looked it up on Google Maps, it's a... It's south of Brooklyn and Queens, and it's a thin island, so it's not mamash mainland at all. And it's full of, from Google Earth, it looked like full of apartment buildings. This fact that it's an island is significant, you'll see in a moment. And it's home to many Balabat, elderly Balabata Shien. And as is very common, in the summer, people will daven Ma'ariv on Friday evening. In fact, they would become all Shabbos early. The Rebbe asked Rav Sender if he could arrange a Minyan Bizmanom. Each Friday evening. So he d-- he tried and, and he found it very,

12:25 Speaker 1 very difficult to get, uh, a minyan. And the following year, he asked the Rebbe whether it's necessary to continue, especially since it doesn't seem to be very popular. And here you can read how they've reported what the Rebbe answers. There's very important purpose to have this minyan. Because if all the city shuls accept Shabbos early, Shabbos be- begins for the whole, whole locale, the whole community. Be-belonging which is full of Yidden who are not necessarily Shomrei Mitzvos. If Shabbos begins early, then it adds to the amount of time of Chilul Shabbos. By having one minyan at bizmanon, then you've solved the problem. And why should, why should they be Mechalel Shabbos for twenty-seven hours when it could be only for twenty-six hours? Ad kan, the quote from the- Der Heer magazine, mm, about Rabbi Satenstein's answer. Now, I'm looking at this very interesting, uh, um, advice, guidance of the Rebbe. By having one single minyan at Seud, then you've solved the problem. And I want to look at the Halacha, how it says in Shulchan Aruch. So there is the concept of a communal acceptance of, of Shabbos early, and in Sif Yud Zayin it says that the minority who don't want to be Mekabel Shabbos are bound by the Kabbalah Shabbos of the majority. Uh, even if they didn't answer Boruch that went in Shul, it's, it's in, in, in, in the Me- Mekabel Shabbos of the majority is imposed upon the minority. But here in Sif Yud Tes, the Alter Rebbe has three

14:17 Speaker 1 dinim, which we're going to look at carefully. First of all, he says, "Im ro-ev ha-kohol were not in shul." If the majority of the community were not present in shul, then they are not dictated by the minority. So now I'm asking the question: Let's say there's ten thousand Jewish, uh, elderly people in Long Beach. Let's say one thousand go to shul, the various shuls, and there's nine thousand who are staying home. So it says here, "Lo yvo ro-ev ha-kohol lo yoyo be-kinesis," so they're not, they are not dictated by the minority. So what's the problem in the first place? Elamma, you're going to say, possibly, that people who don't keep, not Mekabel Shabbos at all, they don't really go into the equation. And therefore, it is plausible that if there's ten thousand families, and let's say there's fifteen hundred who are Shomer Shabbos, and a thousand of those do go to shul, and five hundred don't go to shul, so then it's Kabbalah Shabbos for those five hundred, and by extension for any Yidden in the area, even though they're not Shomer Shabbos at all, but it is Kabbalah Shabbos of the ro-ev of Mekabel Shabbos. Okay, and hence possibly the problem. Then we have the next thing. When we have several shuls in one area, then you have an independence that the kohal of one shul are not bound by the Kabbalah Shabbos of other shuls. Therefore, let's say the late shuls are a minority, and the major-- the early shuls are the majority.

16:17 Speaker 1 The minority shuls have got the rights to assert that they're not bound by Kabbalah Shabbos of the majority. Okay. So far, you've got, so you've got separate shuls. So now you have, going to Long Beach, we have one late minyan. So those ten people, eleven people who come to the late minyan, they're not bound. What about all the people that don't come to shul? So now, it says the Alter Rebbe says further, "Ve-yochid shelo yoyo b'bet ha-kinesis." If an individual didn't go to shul, even though he's a rogel, he's palel, he's used to davening in a shul which davened early. But if he is-- didn't go to shul and the majority of town were not Mekabel Shabbos yet, so efshar la'atid bimloch. What the Alter Rebbe is saying effectively is who do- someone who doesn't go to shul is dictated by the majority of town, not by their regular shul where they are affiliated to. Now, again, how does that help us over here? By having another minyan, which davening bizmanon, these people are not affiliated to that earlier min-- later minyan. So why are they... And, a-a-and even if they are affiliated, it doesn't help because they're staying home. So this is the Alter Rebbe's, um, view, that someone who stays home is, his Kabbalah Shabbos is dictated by the majority of the community. Lo here he's spelling, saying it's easy, making it easier for the one who's staying home. He's not bind- bound by his regular shul, but it should work the other

18:18 Speaker 1 way around. If the majority of the shuls are Mekabel Shabbos early, then you should be bound by that. Having said that, we have an alternative opinion. That is that you can see the Machkas HaShekel was a commentary on the Magen Avraham, and he says differently to the Alter Rebbe. He says, "People who don't go..." Who... Sorry, "People who are regular shulgoers, so they should be bound by their regular shul." So you, you are, if you are-- So the Alter Rebbe says, "If you stay home, you're dictated by the rov ha'ir," whereas the Machkas HaShekel says it goes according to, uh, the shul that you are affiliated. So I'm coming up with a svara that the Rebbe is saying, "Listen, we've got those, all of these people who are in, in Long Beach, and, uh, I'm trying to save them from Hilul Shabbos. I'm gonna have one shul which is gonna have daven Ma'ariv late. And all those people who don't go to shul, we're gonna say that they are affiliated accord- that is according to the... Not according to the Alter Rebbe," which is in, in brackets. "According to Machkas HaShekel, because they are affiliated to that late shul, therefore they haven't been Mekabel Shabbos, so we've saved them an hour of Hilul Shabbos." So by having a Chabad minyan later on... And so who cares about all of those n-nine thousand people who don't go to shul? It's the Chabad shul. So by having a Chabad minyan late, that's been a hatsala for all

20:00 Speaker 1 the non-Shomer Shabbos in the area by, uh, being affiliated, so to speak. This is their shul, even if they don't go there. Um, and therefore, the late Kabbalat Shabbos will, will be a, a hatsala for them. Um, now, I mentioned before that Long Beach is an island. If it were a suburb of Brooklyn, I'd be a bit hard-pressed to de-de-to, to define how far... Where do you draw the line? Do you say the majority of shuls in the area, et cetera? How far can you take that? But because it's an island, so then it's rather, rather defined. Now, one last point about this. Here, the Alter Rebbe is saying that the Yachid who doesn't go to shul is dictated by the majority of shuls. Now, even in the square mile of kedusha of Stamford Hill, um, the majority of shuls, I believe, majority of minyanim do daven Ma'ariv early on Friday night. Certainly, a few diehards, Chabad and, uh, Satmar and another few, uh, who daven bizmaniu. But the majority are davening early. It's very late here. I'm sure in other places it's also like this. So what about people who don't go to shul? Could be men, certainly women. If a woman is, is a widow and she's staying home, um, and so is she bound by the majority of the, of the, of the community to Kabbalat Shabbos early? So here's a, there's a famous tshuva of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. It talks about a woman being bound by her husband who's Mekabel Shabbos

21:49 Speaker 1 early. And this idea that the woman is... The wife is dictated by the husband's Kabbalat Shabbos is not terribly well-documented. But be that as it may, Rabbi Moshe says she is bound by his Kabbalat Shabbos. If he does so, the Shem Shmayim, because of mitzvah of, of, you know, in-increasing kedushah of Shabbos. But if he's doing so because he wants to have supper at a reasonable time, that's his nefesh habamis. She is not bound by his, by his indulgence to daven early. That's, that's your... That's for yourself. We're not mechuyav. Not chantsen. Similarly, he talks about a community. That if a community Kabbalat Shabbos early, but for convenience, not for hiddur mitzvah, then it's not binding on the minority. Now, this is a big limud zchus where you have... Often people have a, a guest who comes very late, comes after the zaman who... Of Kabbalat Shabbos of the community. Let's say community do Borchu, whatever, at quarter to eight, and someone comes eight o'clock. Can they still bentch licht? So according to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, they can, because that's the s-reality, that majority of people Kabbalat Shabbos early is for convenience rather than for, for, uh, piety. Now, that, the position of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein is not, uh, accepted by many other contemporary poskim. But therefore, the general view is you come to a place that Kabbalat Shabbos early, you are bound by that. But b'diyeved, in b'shaas hadchak, there is something to fall back on. And hence, uh, no one has come out

23:36 Speaker 1 with a whole tumul saying that women, or men for that matter, who stay home have to be Mekabel Shabbos early because the majority of the town. That, that hasn't been done because of the... You can fall back on the, uh, shitah of the Igrut Moshe. Okay. Let's go on. So this, this, as I say- Can we please- Sorry, can we ask questions? No. Um, put it later, yeah? You can, you can send in the chat if you want, but not, not, not, not for discussion now. Let's move on. Um, so now we have a question. Tefillah bizmanu or tefillah betzibur. So someone asked me, he'd heard that there's something from the Semak Sadek, and indeed, this is from the Chiddushei HaShas from Semak Sadek, which is interesting that the Sha- the Chiddushei HaShas, it says in the front page, Chiddushei HaShas Al, Al, Al Libe Dehilchasa. So it's not just Chiddushim as sometimes people write Chiddushim, um, theoretical stuff. It's something which it was conscious of it being halacha. Um, I don't know exactly how this worked because the Semak Sadek's tshuvus were pub-published posthumously. So who decided what goes where, et cetera? Uh, I've heard a name of who it was who worked on the editing, on the layout of Semak Sadek. Uh, of course, a great talmid chacham. So why this is in Chiddushei HaShas, why is it not in Shaar HaTshuvos, I don't know. But meanwhile, this is on the right, the first entry, the beginning of Brachos. Obviously, it talks about

25:18 Speaker 1 Shema. And let's read the Tzemach Tzedek's Kitzur, which I'm pretty sure this is his, his own, um, his own writing. "Vemedina," in a, in a region where they're davening Ma'ariv and Nachshme before Tzeit Hakochavim. So one who is accustomed... Now, let's-- before we go further, you have two opinions whether Mincha is till sunset and Ma'ariv is thereafter, by Tzeit Hakochavim, or Mincha is until Plag Mincha, and thereafter there's time for Ma'ariv. And we have the famous line, "D'ovid," that's Rav Yehuda who says it's Plag Mincha, is the cutoff time for Mincha. D'ovid K'Rav Yehuda ovid, d'ovid K'Rav Banon ovid. But can you pick and choose one day like this, one day like that? That is highly questionable. So this is what the Tzemach Tzedek is obviously relating to. This is a Kitzur of a longer article there. He says, "Someone who's accustomed that normally he davens Ma'ariv b'zman and he doesn't usually daven Ma'ariv from Plag Mincha. He waits until nightfall. Even if he comes now to a shul where they are davening Ma'ariv after Plag Mincha, he's not bound to daven with them. He'll say Shema, um, or tfilat bezmanano, um, ach sh'yitpalel b'yochid." So davening, if you are following Chachomim usually rather than Rav Yehuda, even if there's a minyan, you still keep to that. But if you are generally following Rav Yehuda, namely that you make a point of davening Mincha early, before Plag Mincha, and after Plag Mincha, you sometimes do daven Ma'ariv early, then you would be bound to daven

27:06 Speaker 1 with the minyan. I, what you do about Nachshme, you're not yotzei Nachshme until tzeit. Then you again, you'll be yotzei Nachshme with Nachshme alam itto. So that therefore, basically, this tells us that a Chabadnik, well, first of all, is not machpil to daven Mincha before Plag Mincha. More importantly, is generally particular to daven Ma'ariv b'zmanano. So this, that would be overriding to daven, um, Ma'ariv b'zmanano rather than Ma'ariv b'tzibbur. That's the Tzemach Tzedek here. Now, th-does that have a bearing on other situations? Let's say we have a dilemma to daven Shacharit with a minyan before net or to daven b'yochid after net. Uh, that's a different question. I think it's a kal v'chomer that if you can daven b'zmanano, that's the better option. Um, because here you have the ovid k'Rav Yehuda ovid. Um, right. That's, that's another discussion. Uh, um, just one more point, though. It's all very well to talk about davening b'yochid. No question that where you are needed to make up the tzibbur, make sure you are in shul to support the minyan. So you daven later, but make sure you support the minyan by being there. Um, let's move on. So someone asked me, when using boiled eggs to make a salad, do you have to be boidek the eggs? So we all know that, uh, from a Yid, before you make an omelet, so you crack the eggs, and you check the eggs for blood. The famous story, I think, with the Rebbe Elazar of Ashmyan that there was

28:59 Speaker 1 accusation, you know, the blood libels. And he said, uh, kind of in, uh, to prove how it's, how, how, uh, what a fallacy it is, he told, where it was a judge, "Stop any Jewish Yidden, uh, in the street and ask them how to make a, to make an om-omelet." And they did do this experiment, and just at random to pull the woman off the street from a Jewish woman, and she cracks open the eggs and looks back and forth, and then she makes the omelet. And they ask, they... "Why did..." So Rebbe Elazar says, "Why did you, uh, do that? Why didn't you just..." So she said, "What do you mean? I have to check for blood." So he say-- his argument was, "You see that even, uh, every single Yiddish, uh, woman knows that before you make an omelet, you check for a drop of blood. So you're gonna tell us that they're putting blood in the matzahs?" BeKitzur, uh, coming back. So this is in Siman Samech Váav. Now, be, be careful. If you're looking this up in Shulchan Aruch, there's one siman which is Hilchos Beitzim. Another siman is in Hilchos Dam. This is in Hilchos Dam 'cause it's not a question about eggs wh-from which type of, you know, bird is kosher. It's talking about dam. So here you have in Siman Samech Váav, you are allowed to eat roasted eggs, which means whole, even though you can't check them. Then he says, "You can rely," the Shulchan says, "You

30:23 Speaker 1 can rely on roov eggs," which that, which don't have blood. Bekomerkah lagu lahachmir. That when you make a f-- there's a minhag to be machmir. If you make a, a maichel, make a food with eggs during daytime, and you can see. So you make sure you check that there's, that there's no blood there. So that's, that's the extent of... comes very, very standard. The minhag is that before we make an omelet, make a cake, we crack open the egg, we check for blood spot. Now, here's back to our question. It's a boiled egg, and you're gonna use the boiled eggs and gonna make them into a, a, an egg salad. So you're gonna open the eggs. So do you have to check them or not? And so the answer is you do have to. Now, you may have heard that the Rebbe, by the Seder night, he says-- first of all, he says the Ari Z"L would eat a boiled egg whole. That's what it passed. Now, Rebbe, on the night of the Seder, would come to the beginning of Shulchan Aruch, would peel egg and dip it in the saltwater and eat it whole, bite into it whole. I was never there, so I can't tell you any more detail. But this... Those who write every detail tell you whether they never dipped the narrow end of the egg or the rounder egg, end of the egg into the water. You could take a look in Otzar Minhagei Chabad, it'll tell you those details.

31:47 Speaker 1 But meanwhile, he ate the egg whole. And the reason is befashtez. The reason-- One of the reasons we're having an egg, for eating... There's a reason to have egg on the Kehilah, zecher l'korban chagigah. But why e- a minute ago, eating an egg? That's the zecher of, of, of avodas. The fact that we don't have the, the Korban... We don't have the Mizbeach. We don't have the Beis Hamikdash. We now don't have Korban Pesach. So it's a, it's a, a food of mourning. A round food is a food of mourning. So Rashi mentions the story with, uh, Yaakov and Esau with the, with the lentils. So it's-- that's, that's the reason for having a, a, an, an, an egg. So that which should be whole. Fine. Then here you have from the Sefer HaKasheles, that you want to eat an egg whole, then yeah, you don't have to be, to be, to be motzik. But if you are opening it up, then you should be motzik. If you are making a, an egg salad, and you are opening the eggs anyways to make them and to put them into the egg salad, then you should be checking. I believe that you should be checking more on the, on the white rather than on the yellow. That's because the blood will be on the surface, and it will be... It will, uh... If there is blood, it will be, uh, in white. And so, yeah. So that's, uh, that's the way I was brought up. Just

33:03 Speaker 1 want to share with you. Right. Let's move on to our next question. So we've just gone past Shavuos, Baruch Hashem, and we have this idea we don't daven Ma'ariv the night of Shavuos. The in-- Uh, the incoming of Shavuos. We don't have Ma'ariv early. We don't do Kiddush early. That is brought here that you can see in the Ateret Zekenim siman taf tzadik daled from the Ma'asas Binyamin who was a contemporary of the Ramah. That he introduced this chumrah that you shouldn't daven Ma'ariv early, you shouldn't do Kiddush early on the first night of Shavuos because you are going to effectively be cutting short the forty-nine days of Sefirah. And it does say Tumimos. Tumimos DeYan. It's a big Kiddush. Bechal it's a big Kiddush whether we have the, whether we have the authority as achronim, do we have the authority to make a drush from a pasuk? So there, the Ma'asas Binyamin takes a pasuk, Tumimos DeYano, and he says, "Ah, therefore you mustn't make Kiddush early." It's an entire Kiddush. Not everyone agrees with him, and therefore there are shuls where they have... I'm sure this past Shavuos there were shuls who did an early, um, early Ma'ariv night of Shavuos. I must say, actually, I once spent Shavuos in, in Leeds, which is much more extreme than London as far as time goes, and there was a davar poshet by these po- these Eden that Shavuos, you have to daven with Mizrachim. Right. So what about bentching licht? And there's a Gemara

34:42 Speaker 1 in Eruvin which says, "Why don't we make Kiddush l'kavod Yom Kippur?" Kiddush and a cup of wine l'kavod Yom Kippur. No, no, no, not after the Zman. Not when you get home from Kol Nidre. Make Kiddush, you know, before sunset. Make Kiddush on l'kavod Yom Kippur. So Gemara answers, since you say by Kiddush, you say, Shehecheyanu mis'mana hazeh. Once you say Shehecheyanu mis'mana hazeh, it's become Yom Kippur. You can't drink the wine. So saying Shehecheyanu is, is become, become, becomes the day. So if you bench licht early, so it's be- you made Shavuos early. So this is the time now should you be benching licht early on Erev Shavuos. Now, I forgot now, can Shavuos, can first day of Shavuos be Shabbos? And we're told no. Okay. But the point is that different communities, the Polish communities are not particular to light candles on-- for Yom Tov, Erev HaYom. That, that lichtzin in time, they'll light later closer to the meal. But our minhag is that we light, uh, uh, um, at, you know, at sun- before sunset, and we do the same for Yom Tov and for Shabbos. And my simple distinction is, you've said Shehecheyanu, you've accepted Yom Tov, but you haven't said that now is Shavuos. By Ma'ariv and by Kiddush, you say, "B'yom chag haShavuos." By saying it's Shavuos, so it's no longer Yemei HaSefirah. But when you , "But you haven't said now is Shavuos." And therefore, it's not a contradiction to the Tumimos. Um, here I have a note

36:26 Speaker 1 in Mesoret Yesde HaShleches, a reference to where Rabbi Gershon Steinmetz, the Rav of Chabad in Detroit, he had written extensively about this in Or Sameach, that's number taf shin tzadik tes. So you can look it up there if you wish. We're going to go on to our next question. Oh, so here, apparently, there's a certain wine manufacturer who's been offering an incentive to Chabad, et cetera. If they could pr- promote their wines. So here's the question. I've got, I've got non-frum, but non-shomer Shabbos, um, kulovim- Is it okay for me to promote, to sell the, to sell them that they should buy from me k-kosher wine? Nish mevushal. Now, very briefly, there's a story when the Sadiger Rebbe came to the A rebbe, and the rebbe was talking about Yiddishkeit in Russia, and the rebbe told him how he has a, a, he had a shailer from Russia. Talking about the struggles, this is around, um... When was this? This was mem-mem-alef, possibly. At any rate, the rebbe says to him, "I got a letter from a Yid in Russia," and he says that he unfortunately has to go to his place of work on Shabbos. But when he's there, he doesn't do any melacha. He manages to dodge. But b'farhesia, in public, he is mechal Shabbos. So he's, he's not mechal Shabbos, but he's mechal Shabbos b'farhesia, so to speak, yeah? So he asked the rebbe, can he make kiddush on wine? Is he called mechal Shabbos b'farhesia because the public perception is that

38:11 Speaker 1 he's not keeping Shabbos. Sadiger Rebbe says to the rebbe, uh, and what did the rebbe answer? So the rebbe said that wasn't the point why I told... The rebbe didn't get told about the answers. And he said that wasn't the point why I brought up the story. And to, uh, I think the rebbe said then that with Mesirus Nefesh, it's known you can jump off a roof. But to jump onto a roof, even Mesirus Nefesh, you can't. And Yiddishkeit in Russia has, um, had a Mesirus Nefesh of jumping onto a roof for the last seventy years. That was one of the ver-ver-that, that, that conversation. Okay. Let's come back. So this question of selling non-mehushal wine to a mechal Shabbos. So you have a conversation between the, uh, Leizer Waldenberg, the author of Tzitz Eliezer, and Solange Yor, the, um, Rab Mosha Sternbuch. And Rab Mosha Sternbuch had met the Rab Waldenberg going back fifty years ago for sure, and they had a discussion. You're not meant to cook... You're not allowed to cook for a goy on Yom Tov, as we discussed earlier. What about a mechal Shabbos? Are you allowed to cook for mechal Shabbos on Yom Tov? He comes to your house, you have a hotel, and you have a person that is mechal Shabbos, are you allowed to host them? So this is the beginning of their conversation. Meanwhile, it also spills over into mechal Shabbos in relation to wine. And he brings here from the Mirchas Chayim, Rabbi Arik, who

39:48 Speaker 1 says to give them a non, as I said, mechal Shabbos, give him wine. He's not lifni iver because he can get wine elsewhere. He can get-- he can go to a local goyishe shop and buy goyishe wine. But he says there's no din of, of misaya b'deaveira when they can get the... By, by assisting them, you're not in iver because they, they've dropped Yiddishkeit altogether. See, that's quite, I, I call that chessed sheb'gvurah. He's saying, a mumar is out of the picture. Don't have to worry about misaya. But then later, the conversation goes on, and he brings the, the... Rab Waldenberg brings from a chasam sofer which was printed in London. This is around תשח. The family of Chasam Sofer had manuscripts, and they published them in London about, about, as I said, about תשח. And the Chasam Sofer says the following, that although Rab Yonah apparently talks about mechal Shabbos b'farhesia, if he touches wine, he's made it, uh, ossur, like mechal, like, like, um, a, a goy. But he's-- the Chasam Sofer says that would be true for other areas. Let's say if he writes tefillin or he, et cetera, if he's a shochet. So that would not be, that would not be valid. But as far as yayin nesech, if a goy touches wine, what's the concern? That he might have had a thought of avodah zarah. But this person has got no interest in avodah zarah, obviously. So there's no reason to see the wine which he touches as, as ossur.

41:29 Speaker 1 Now, generally, we don't follow this. Generally, we follow that a mechal Shabbos touches wine, we wouldn't use the wine, uh, as if it were a goy. But here we're talking about selling to the person. Now, I have another angle to it. This person is buying wine anyways. They enjoy wine with their dinner. If they don't buy Jewish wine, they'll buy goyishe wine. So far from saying that you are selling them kosher wine, you are being machshil. Actually, in a way, you're being matzil. You're saving them from... Yeah, and certainly once we've got this Chasam Sofer word, it's not really, uh, ossur wine. So on the contrary, let him buy kosher wine and, um, b'ezrat Hashem, hopefully he'll keep more kosher and more, more Shabbos, et cetera. Just before we go away from this topic, we do have a, a letter of the Rebbe where he takes the view of that mechal Shabbos does violate the wine, so to speak. And that is s- the, uh, letter when someone was boasting to the Rebbe that he traveled on the Israeli ship, Sim. And Friday night, the captain came to the Shabbos room and they, they made kiddush. And the Rebbe says to him, "Do you realize what you did? That the captain's a mechal Shabbos. Therefore, when you touched the wine, the wine became, uh, ossur. And therefore, you made a bracha. The bracha is a bracha levatala. And because the wine wasn't kosher, you weren't yotzei kiddush." The Rebbe makes a whole string of violations

43:04 Speaker 1 because of, uh... So one of them is about the mechal Shabbos touched the wine. So yes, there is, there is a tzad hakumra, but there are, there is mokim hakukla. And they say, having, having- Yiddish people buying kosher products. A cholent must be a good thing rather than, than a negative thing. Let's move on to our next point, and that is someone asked about s- a- writing a ketubah on the father of a man or woman. Chosson or kallah is not Jewish. So what do you write in the ketubah? And this triggered my memory. I'd written in the So now I was looking up about this question, and this is from a sefer called Ketubah Kilchos Rab Shtei from Lublin. And he says if you don't have a father's name for the chosson or the kallah, some say just write his name without a, without a father. Some say to put the mother's name, and some say you should write the maternal grandfather. And he writes, "Moshe ben avi imo Yaakov." Ben avi imo, his mother, father of his mother's Yaakov. Now, what I would like to just say is that it's all very well to do that in a ketubah. Ketubah is written by a rov usually, and hopefully he knows what he's doing. Therefore, if he writes ben avi imo, that will-- that, that can pass. Uh, um, gabboim are not necessarily as qualified and to start telling a gabbi, "Call him up, ben avi imo," it's gonna be quite confusing. And therefore,

45:28 Speaker 1 by Aliyah la Torah, we just call him with a maternal grandfather's name. We have yesodist for that. Um, but in the case of a ketubah, so we do have this option of writing the maternal grandfather's name, but clarifying. And don't forget a ketubah is a document of yiches, and therefore, perhaps it's more important there that it should be documented that this is not his father, but this is his maternal grandfather. Let's move on. And that is a situation of a-- there's a shliach somewhere here in England, there's a rabbi in a shul, and he's got two kohenim, but one of them is married to a divorced woman, and he knows that he can't duchen because, yeah. But then happened this last Yom Tov that he was number ten. So if he-- So normally, he's been leaving the room when it comes to the time when the kohenim start moving to wash their hands, et cetera. And he comes for retze, he leaves the room. Well, they need him for a minyan. So here's, here's the question, what do you mean to do? So now, just to make clear, a man who's a kohen who's married to a grusha is still a kohen. If his mother was a grusha, married to his father, then he is a chalal and is forfeited as a result. He's got-- He does not have the, uh, qualities of a kohen. He's not Okay. So he goes out of the shul. Otherwise, people will say there's something essentially pogam in him.

47:50 Speaker 1 But I don't think that applies over here because he does have a pogam. Everyone knows that he's married to so and so, and he does have a pogam. Therefore, he should, yeah, he should go out of the shul, and there's no secret that there's a pogam. Um, actually here, Mishneh Berurah, he says, if- if- if pasul mid'Rabonon... Now, this is a case of pasul d'Rabonon. A kohen is married to a grusha. His psul is a pasul d'Rabonon because he's still a kohen. So he says they don't have to leave the room. And when the chazan calls kohen him, he doesn't mean calling this, this, this, this fellow who's a pasul. What's the bottom line with this? I think it is better that he leaves the room, but if they need him for a minyan, so then I think he can stay in the room and just not move. There's a, there's a rule. If a kohen didn't move his feet by avoidah, by retze, then he can no longer duchen. So if he just stays mamash glued to the spot, so then he's, then he, he's not, not obliged to be ohel hadeduchen and he's still mash in the minyan. I can understand why he does leave the room. It's, uh, okay. And I have my one last thing to share with you this evening, and I'll tell you a little bit of the history. There is a halacha in the Gemara in Menachos about tzitzit, that tzitzit should be makeh al hakereit. That means

49:20 Speaker 1 that the tzitzit should be hanging down, and they should be touching the corner of the, of the, of the tallit. And the Alter Rebbe is so concerned about this in the siddur. He's worried that with the tallit katan, so the g'dil, that's the braided part of the tzitzit. So the-- Because the tallit katan is hanging from two holes, and so the tzitzit start right away from the two holes. Start-- So that's really touching the corner. But with the tallit gadol, because they are hanging from one hole... So where does the tzitzit actually start from? So the tzitzit starts from the braid. Now, the braid is by the edge already. It's not that the braid isn't necessarily touching the body of the tallit. It's already hanging away. And so the Alter Rebbe is concerned about this, and he goes into a richas g'dil omeroid. way do you wear your tallis, which way are the tzitzit going to hang? And, uh, therefore, which side the, the, the tzitzit should be made. And then the Alter Rebbe introduces a revolutionary thing, a-a chiddush, that the... After you've tied the first double knot, you should make a little hole. You have a little hole in the tallis by the side, and put the shamas through, and then you continue doing your circuits. In this way, to ensure that the tzitzit are... remain maka al hakere. There is a, there's a chiddush. Others say it's not necessary, and the Alter Rebbe is extremely concerned about it. So the question, the

50:52 Speaker 1 shayla... So the question is, what about people who wear the tallit katan, and they wear the tzitzit hanging out? Now, normally, I would imagine if you tuck your tallit katan, so the tzitzit are now going to be going up, and the tallit katan is g-going down, so they're no longer maka. The braid of the tzitzit is no longer maka al hakere. So I... Years ago, I wr-I, I wrote in the Ohr Hasiryon, "Please, someone enlighten me. How do I... How are you mekayem mitzvah tzitzit with the tzitzit, uh, when... If you tuck your... If you have your beg and you, you're, and you're tucking your trousers, and the tzitzit are going up rather than down." So, so, so I was, I was, uh, heckled, shall we say. Um, "What do you... What do, what do you mean? It, it has to be the whole time. The tzitzit have to be hanging down. What about when it comes to, to ?" So you take your tzitzit from the four corners and, and so they're not hanging down. So this is, this is the conversation. This is the history. Just before I go further, the Rebbe, the... It was, uh, his, his tzitzit were inside. If you were very simple, the Rebbe wore, uh, braces or in America called suspenders. And you cannot have your tzitzit, uh, sticking out if you're wearing a tall-- your tall-- your shirt tucked in with suspenders. Just doesn't work. Kapo him. Um, but min hagoylem iz to have, you know, from

52:24 Speaker 1 a minhag is to have your tzitzit out, yeah. So this, this was the conversation years ago. And then one more thing. We have here as a sicha of the Rebbe published in Kuntzes Sichos Chelek Lamed Vav... Sorry, Lamed Gimel on Parshas Shelach all about tzitzit. Should the tzitzit be sticking out or not? And at the end of the sicha, you can see on the screen, the Rebbe says, "By us being careful about mitzvah tzitzit, may this hasten Hashem fulfilling the mitzvah of tzitzit." How does Hashem fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzit? Oh, gathering in the Galus from the four corners of the earth to our land. Now, I, I look at this piece, and for years I've been struggling with it. Is the mitzvah of tzitzit to have them hanging in the four corners, or is the mitzvah of tzitzit to hold them together at shma? My understanding is, was, is to have... The mitzvah of tzitzit is you have a four-corner garment, and if you have tzitzit hanging from the four corners. So aish does mekayem mitzvah tzitzit how? By bringing the, the ibun together. As if the holding the tzitzit together, that is the key of mitzvah tzitzit. Now, the bringing the tzitzit together is so significant that in Hilchas Tzitzit, at what age is a child mature enough that the father has to buy him tzitzit? So it says when he knows how to be mesatf, and then there are more adds quoted from Yerushalmi, where he knows to hold the tzitzit together

54:04 Speaker 1 for Kirshman. So this holding the tzitzit for Kirshman becomes hugely significant. And I'm wondering, what's the pshat? So now what you have on the screen is from a not well-known Midrash, but it, it does say the following. I'm gonna go through the Midrash with you on the screen. We have it says you should do put tzitzit "al arba kanfot kasuscha." Um, forgive me, but in Vayomer does it say the four corners? "Al kanfet bigdechem." It doesn't say four, as far as I remember. So the fact that you have four corners, that's the pasuk in Parshas Ki Seitzeah. "K'dillin tasah lecha al arba kanfot kasuscha." Says the Midrash, "Yidden are cherished by Hashem, that He's promoted them beyond the Malachim. Although the Malachim have got six wings, but actually they only have two, uh, at their disposal." Because as it's described in Yechezkel, " Veshtayim echas afono" two of the wings he uses to cover his w-face, not to see the Shekhinah. "Veshtayim echas eraglo" two of the wings are used to cover his feet. They shouldn't get scalded with the hard Nur. So there is left with only two hands available. Oh, but Yidden, yesh lahem arba kanfot. Doesn't say arba karnot, yeah. It's key, interesting. It uses the word kanfot, wings. So you have mitzvah to put tzitzit on the four kanfot, the four wings of your garment. Arba kanfot kasuscha. So where we... Where the Malachim have two ka-ka-knofaim, we have arba knofaim. "Af bo yechal beloshim Hakadosh Baruch Hu mitzvah kaptzam" with

55:49 Speaker 1 the same expression of arba kanfot. When it comes to kibbutz galuyot, it says in the fut, says Yehudam yakabet, "m'arba kanfot ha'aretz." Hashem will gather in the scattered of Yehuda from the four corners of the earth. Now, listen to the... what I want to suggest. What are the Aish's tzitzit? The Aish's tzitzit are the Beloshim tzitzit. It means looking, peeping. So all around the world, arba kanfot ha'aretz, there are Yidden who are looking towards Hashem, looking for a geulah, and they are the tzitzit. Now, when Hashem, when Hashem gathers the tzitzit, so there's no longer ka- there's no longer Yidden by arba kanfot ha'aretz. Once it's done, the g-in-gathering, the mitz- By gathering the four tzitzit by arba kanfot ha'aretz, then the tzitzit are no longer on the, on the corners, yeah. The mitzvah has become obsolete, so to speak. Does that make sense? So I wanna say the same thing. The main mitzvah of tzitzit is aka arba kanfot. When we pick the tzitzit together and we say, "Ribono shel olam, we are gathering the tzitzit." This is not the way tzitzit is meant to be done. Tzitzit mitzvah, they're all four corners. But the ultimate is that it, that the, that the four corners should become obsolete. They should be gathered together. And so we're bringing the tzitzit together. That's not the way the design of mitzvah tzitzit. The mitzvah of tzitzit is, as I said, to be suspended in the corners. But now we're bringing them together. You also bring them together

57:23 Speaker 1 and do away with the, the scattering to the arba kanfot ha'aretz, and bring us to Arteinu with Mashiach tzidkeinu bimheira b'yameinu, Ameyn. So that's my suggestion. Zeit aligezunt, and I wish you a guten Shabbos and-

57:38 Speaker 2 Thanks, Jeff