קרח תשפ״ו

00:02 So welcome to you all for joining me today. Today is a very special day, as you know, it's Yom Tammuz. I happen to be now at JFK Airport on my way back to, uh, to England. And I want to, first of all, thank our sponsor for tonight, Reb Pinchas and Mrs. Sarah Rabin, in honor of a newborn great-grandson born yesterday. That's born to Mendel and Shayna Rosenblum, who are in Cincinnati. And the grandparents are Rabbi Srul David and Chava Shira Rosenblum, in Livingston, New Jersey. Right. So now we're going to go Al Haseder, so what's what, whatever we can do. And so the first question I have is, well, something slightly, uh- This is a final boarding call for American Flight four-seven-six-seven to Columbus through gate twenty-four. Once again- So here's the story the following. Someone... I was now in Los Angeles, and someone is-- he speaks, uh, Hebrew, um, uh, Havara, uh, and he's looking at the word Kol Hatzmo'i L'Temarno. And he says there's actually something very interesting, that usually if you speak an Sephardi accent, you pronounce the word Kol as in Komatz. So although Sephardim tend to take the, the Komatz and pronounce it a Patakh, but in Komatz, there's two forms of Komatz. There's a Komatz Gadol and a Komatz Katan. Komatz Gadol is, uh, the, well, the more prominent one, and that's the one the Sephardim pronounce as a Patakh. Komatz Katan is diminutive from, from Cholam. So the word Chol, when it's less stressed, is gonna be brought

02:02 down to Kol. And so Kol Davar. So Sephardi would say Kol Davar because the, the word Chol is reduced to Kol. And that's a Komatz Katan, therefore it's pronounced, even by the Sephardim, it's pronounced O rather than Ah. Now, so in the words Kol Hatzmo'i L'Temarno, this is an exception to that rule, and it's written Kol with a Komatz, and yet it's pronounced Kal as a Komatz Gadol. There's another little rule about this. The... Like Eis and Es. How does the balkoider know when to pronounce Eis and when to pronounce Es? So the rule is, if it has its own drop, it's Eis. If it hasn't got its own drop- Seven- -and it's, uh, joined to in the following word, then it's Es. And the joiner to the next word is called a Makaf in Hebrew. And the same thing with Chol and Kol. If it would have a Makaf, which means it connects it to the following word, it's Kol. If it doesn't, then it should be Chol. And therefore, that's, for us, the Ashkenazim, well, well, it's Chol and Kol. But the Sephardim, um, they would pronounce it, as I said, Kol Davar. Here, as I said, here's an exception, which he pointed out to me, was news to me. I'd never... wasn't aware of this. And on the bottom of the screen, you have here from the Minchas Shai, who, um, researches the, all through the Tanakh, these Diyukie Haloshen. And he picks up on this, and he says, "Kol Hatzmo'i," two

03:45 Komatzin. There's two Komatz in Tanakh, Bita'am Bikrio. So we've got twice this phenomenon that it's spelled, it's, it's, uh, has a Ta'am, and still it's pronounced Komatz and not Chol. It brings a pasuk from Mishlei and the pasuk over here, Kol Hatzmo'i. So what's interesting is that in the Toru Ha'Arisidda, um, in the Toru Ha'Arisidda, he has here put in a Makaf. As you can see where I'm pointing to on the screen, Kol Hatzmo'i. And possibly that was just because he's not familiar with a, a, a Kol without a Makaf. But that's inaccurate. As you should see, the original Ateret Ezzidda is pr-printed, it's written Kol Hatzmo'i without the Makaf. And also in the, in the Tilsa Shemsid, as you can see, it's written without a Makaf. And that's, um, as I say, this is quite unique. There should be the word Kol rather than Chol, and it, uh, does not have a Makaf to the following word. Um, if... You know what I'm going to do? I'm, I'm... I think I'm gonna go into a lounge here and instead of having all of these announcements, because it's, uh, very disturbing. So give me three minutes, and I'll be back with you. Okay? Thank you. Layla Parker, Tiffany Parker. All right. That didn't work. I'm just going to continue. Um, sorry about all of this. Okay. So it looks like recording's working. Okay, I'm gonna move on. So the second question is whether someone who's traveling... Oh, so here, here how the question came my

09:39 way. A shliach somewhere in Europe, he has a group of students who are, uh, Israeli, and it came Shavuos, they decided they're going to keep s- uh, one day. So that's not, you know, that's not the, the discussion. Because they kept one day Shavuos, therefore on Shabbos they read Parshas Naso, and therefore they are like Eretz Israel, one day ahead. So it came last Shabbos or last Friday, he asked me, can he have an Aliyah in their Minyan? Now, he's, you know, doing Chutz La'aretz, but he has-- doesn't have another Minyan other than this Israeli Minyan, um, which is one Parshah ahead. They're doing Parshas Korach and he's on Beshalach. So, the-- So we look over here, this is on the Sefer Yom Tov Sheni, and he says, on these Shabboses where there are differences between Eretz Israel and Chutz La'aretz, an Eretz Yisrael can have an Aliyah in Chutz La'aretz, a Chutz La'aretz can have an Aliyah in Eretz Israel, whether it's Shacharis or Mincha. And, and also Eretz Yisrael could be the balkiure for Chutz La'aretz, a Chutz La'aretz can be a balkiure for Eretz Israel. Now, he's not talking about our situation. He's talking about a Chutz Likkut goes to Eretz Israel or Eretz Yisrael comes to Chutz La'aretz. But I think the, the svara would be the same because you see what the, his proof is. He quotes here from contemporary Sefer Kinyan Torah. It says the following: We see that if for whatever reason, a one Shabbos Kriyas HaTorah was

11:12 omitted, so then you can do Kriyas HaTorah the next week. You can make up for last week's Torah. You may remember in post-COVID, a lot of people were doing this kind of thing. And so you may... You read last Shabbos' Kriya. Now, there are those who say you do the whole, uh, Kriya in one with Kohen, and others say, "No, you actually do like a double sedra." And the point which he says-- he's saying is, since you see that you can read last week's sedra this week, if so, ain l'parshios zoi shayecha, shayecha zdafka l'Shabbos zoi. So then we shouldn't see that the parshas have got such a strong, um, connection to this week's, uh, dafka to this week. It's, th-we're flexible on that. That's the, that's the point which he's making. Um, and therefore, that's the-- the same thing would apply in our instance, that the-- it's not such a rigid relationship. And therefore it's okay for, uh, this ingeman. He wanted especially a Shabbos before Shevi'it G'mol Tamuz. He wanted to have an Aliyah. So I got back to him and said it's okay. All right, here's another Shliach shailah, shlichus shailah, and that's the following. He, he's somewhere in Eastern Europe, and the, the situation there is if they use the water supply to fill up the mikvah, um, in an efficient way, well, it cuts off the water supply for the rest of the house, the rest of the building. They're in an apartment building, and if they're going to just

12:41 start gushing water, the neighbors are gonna start complaining. So he's asking, could he turn on the tap to fill the mikvah for someone who needs the mikvah, I think, on the Shabbos or Sunday, I'm not sure, but it, it'll take time. Could he turn on the tap on Shabbos? So there's two questions here. One is about heating the mikvah, and the other one was about fi- um, filling it with water. So the heating, he said he can... It's easy for him to set the mikvah that the, the heater that is not gonna get yad soledet zera. So the water's not gonna get hot. It'll be warm, and that's not a problem to... If it's definitely not gonna get more than warm, that's not a problem on Shabbos. What do you have then the problem of are you allowed to open the tap to fill the mikvah? So here we all understand that mikvah is a tzorech mitzvah. Does that-- does tzorech mitzvah justify doing a non-melacha, just doing a hachanah? And here you have on the screen, you have from the Alter Rebe's Shulchan Aruch, sin and kuf and gimel, if I'm not mistaken, in Hilchos Yom Tov. And it says that you're not allowed to do melacha that's from Yom Tov Rishon to Yom Tov Sheni, uh, and certainly from Yom Tov or Shabbos to chol. Yeah. You wouldn't be allowed to do preparations. And he gives an example of rolling the Sefer Torah. That it's important to roll the Sefer Torah in advance

14:04 of Krias HaTorah, but you wouldn't be allowed to roll the Sefer Torah on Yom Tov Rishon for Yom Tov Sheni or even on Friday for Shabbos, even with nehdraf sh'eilin. And so you have here very clear that tzorech mitzvah does not override the issue of hachanah mikodesh lechol. The-- One of the master sources of this, you could say, is the, uh, Ramah in Hilchos, uh, Simchas Torah, where he says you're not allowed to prepare the Simchas Torah kiddish in the afternoon of Shemini Atzeres. So even if there may be it's a mitzvah, and still you don't have a heter, uh, so to, to, uh, do a, an effort to, to do an effort on Yom Tov or Shabbos, for after Shabbos or Yom Tov, that's not okay. So, uh, and what I did suggest to him instead, put-- If you open the app-- the tap before Shabbos on a very low flow, then if so-- when it's so little, uh, flow, it likely will not affect the neighbors. And by the time the end of Shabbos arrives, you'll have a substantial amount of water in your mikvah. I'm going on to the next question, and that's about AI, and that's becoming more and more common. And here's the question. Yeah, I'm sure many of you had experience contacting a company, and there's a answered phone, starts asking you questions. This, that, the whole, whole alichas. And obviously, there's not a human being there, uh, but, uh, they, they ask you all these questions, and eventually

15:32 they give you some kind of guidance perhaps or not. But this-- So you've got companies which provide this AI secretarial service. And are you allowed to use such a company on Shabbos? Which means that your-- if your-- someone calls your company's telephone number or a website, there will be a machine answering. It won't be a, a human. Now, if it's be a human, you have a problem of amira l'nochri. Is it okay for a machine to do the answering? So we have a kind of precedent, which is from the, you mentioned it many times perhaps, the Shimon Greenfeld, who was a rabbi in Hungary pre-war, shalas haShulchan Aruch MaHarShaG, and he talks about a vending machine which se- sells chocolates or candies, and it's in the se-- in train stations, and people can buy, um, supplies of these things. Is it imperative to close them down for Shabbos? Could they stay open? And he says a principle that as far as you're concerned, it doesn't matter to you whether they buy it on Friday or on Shabbos or Motzaei Shabbos. You're selling goods, and those goods, they can-- the customers can take it at any time. And therefore, he does not see that as charshabbos because the time is not of essence. The time of purchase doesn't matter. So I just see a, a, a parallel in our situation that Shabbos brings this, this source. I see this as you've got customers, whether they would call up your-- for this advice service before Shabbos, on

17:15 Shabbos, after Shabbos. It's not no different. So I don't see it any different to something like chocolate in the vending machine, and therefore, I think it is okay. Then one thing leads to another. What about is a Yid allowed to be providing this service? And the way this service works is that for every-- If I provide this service and you are my-- you are-- you've got a, uh, business, and you, uh, hire my, my services. And any customer of yours calls up. So I've provided the secretarial services for two minutes, for five minutes, whatever it may be. Uh, y- I will charge you per minute for your customers using this service. So that effectively, then now I am making money on Shabbos because I'm charging you for the time your customers use my service on Shabbos, and that's the very problem of charshabbos. But having gone through the dinim of Shabbos, as you remember, a couple of weeks ago, we came up with this very interesting, um, chidush in Shabbos. The havlah can mean even if you charge for the Shabbos hours specifically, but if the contract is broader. If you remember, there was someone who was doing research and producing articles, and he, he, he includes Shabbos hours, but the havlah is he can't just charge you for those minutes. It, um, it, it's-- he's providing... In this case, he's providing a secretarial service which works seven days a week, let's say. And so the fact that some of that time happens to be

18:52 on Shabbos is chargeable to Shabbos, but it's not that you're charging just for those minutes on Shabbos. It's part of an overall service. Uh, and therefore, I think it does qualify as havlah, and it should be permitted to, um, provide the service and, and charge accordingly. Let's go on to our next question. So a fine young fellow who-- well, he's probably in his fifties actually by now, and his parents. Father's post ninety. Mother is, uh, probably not too much younger, and unfortunately is not really managing to care for himself, and so needs to have a carer. So the son asks me, "Is it okay for him..." He's pla-- actually planning to sell. He owns a home in one place. He planned to sell it, and yeah, I guess he's expected to have a profit on that. He didn't, he didn't ask me on the advice how to calculate profits when you buy and when you sell a house. I think it's very complicated heshbon to do because of... But that's, that's not the question here. He's asking, "Can I use my money to, to provide care for my parents?" Now, there is a halacha which we learned long ago in Gemara Kidushin that, "Tovo me'iro lemishomach oviv v'imo maaseh sheini-- maaseh oni." So we have an idea. The Torah has given us a mitzvah of maaseh oni, and once in three years, a tenth of the harvest is going to be dedicated for the poor. And if you want to give, you're gonna give your

20:22 parents, you're gonna free them from the-- your, your, your money for, for, for the poor. So that in a way is quite disgraceful that you, you, you are pro-- your, uh, your care for your parents. Oh, they're like shnorrez, and I'm gonna give them from, from my, uh, maaser money. From my maaser. So despite that, you can see here on the screen, contemporary Sefer Tzidkat Hamishpacha of Rav Yitzchak Yaakov Bloi, and he says that it's, it is included in Tzedakah. Providing for parents who are poor and you're providing them, that justifies it's Tzedakah. They take precedence over other poor. Then he has here on-- in the notes, he quotes here from Rav, Rav Wosner that when it says tovo me'iro, that's talking about... But the curse, that's when you have mamash maaser ani. A tenth of the grain, which is mamash, that, that's, that's, uh, maaser ani. To use that is considered disgraceful and, uh, disrespectful to his parents. But if it's money-- maaser kesafim, so he says, "Tovo yoleh bracha." He doesn't see the issue of disgrace, uh, so much or at all perhaps. So I, I did say to this young fellow, um, "Yes, wonder-wonderful that you're ready to take that responsibility," and it should be l'olech yamim noraim tovaim to look after his parents with his maaser money and, uh... Right. Let's now go on to our next question, and that is about a woman who comes to Shul on Shabbos. And she did not come on time. She came late, and

21:56 so the minyan are on for Mussaf. But she hasn't davened Shacharis. Should she daven Mussaf with the minyan, or should she do Shacharis? Now, what you have on the screen, as you can see, it's a contemporary Sefer called Halichos Beisah, um, by someone called Rav David Oovah. And it's a, a Sefer dedicated to mitzvos, uh, hilma mitzvos, halachas for women. And it says the following, that whether a woman has a chiyuv to daven Mussaf is, is, is debatable. Now, the, the, the... What's the ba-- the background? When there's a discussion about whether women have a chiyuv to daven b'klal. So the Gemara says, "Gavri, tefillah rachmi. Um, noshei-- gavri boech chai, noshei lo boech chai." Tefillah is asking for Hashem's compassion. And men need to have Hashem's compassion. Women don't need to have Shem compassion. That's how the Gemara dismisses the, um, notion that women shouldn't have a chiyuv to daven. So women do have a chiyuv to daven. The way it's presented in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, primarily that a woman has a chiyuv to daven Shacharis and Mincha. Then he says, but there's also, as we know, Mincha Olam, that women just say, um, birkas if they're very pressured. Their family, looking after family, they say, they say Birkat Hashachar, Shema, et cetera. He doesn't mention about Shema, but that's the, that's the Mincha Olam. Right. But W-with Mussaf is not bakas rachamim. Mussaf is about bringing korbonos, extra korbonos for the Yom Tov or for the Shabbos or Hachodesh. So it's,

23:44 it's not... That's the, that's the argument, that it's-- that Mussaf is... Since it's not begeida rachmi, it's praise and, and talking about korbonos, therefore women should not be chayav to daven Mussaf. Others disagree, and they, uh, they, they, they take the view that they, that they, that they are-- that the women are equally, um, chayav to daven Mussaf like, like Shacharis. No difference. So we have here a machloket of Achronim, and we have a kolal in Halacha, bor ve'shemmo. You have something which is for sure and something which is a doubt. So the one which is for sure takes precedence. And therefore, the fact that she hasn't davened Shacharis, well, daven Shacharis. Uh, that's, that's, uh, that's for sure you have a chiyuv to daven. Uh, I, I suspect that if she's going to daven Mussaf, she may not necessarily find the time to daven Shacharis later. It also becomes confusing to say it's Mussaf before Shacharis, but I wasn't looking from that angle. Just that to say that the chiyuv of davening Shacharis is a greater, clearer chiyuv than to daven Mussaf, than daven Mussaf, therefore do Mussaf first. Uh, do... Sorry, do Shacharis, do Shacharis first. Okay, um, another couple of things. So we have a, um, a question. So a woman is asking me that if she needs to go to the bathroom in middle of Shemoneh Esreh and she comes back, does she go back to the beginning of Shemoneh Esreh or just start where you left off, and so on.

25:15 So actually, this is quite a complicated, uh, Halakha. And in Siman kuf daled, sif daled, the Alter Rebbe has quite an harichas about this. Um, but I-- what I wanted to say is the following, that there's a chiddush of the Alter Rebbe in the siddur, and that is about person needing to use the bathroom and davening. So there is a strong, uh, emphasis that when you, when you're davening, you shouldn't have those-- the, the pressure of nature's call on your body. In a sense, it makes the body inappropriate out-- it's out of order. And at kad kak, some poskim want to say if a person was davening and was at the same time, uh, struggling c-to control themselves, their, their, uh, their, their personal needs, then possibly their, their davening is, is a disgrace, so they'd have to daven again. That's how Chomer it is according to some poskim. So here, the Alter Rebbe has got su-surprisingly lenient position in this. So we're going to read this inside. So again, this is not from the Shulchan Aruch, it's from the siddur. And in the siddur, the Alter Rebbe's got first, uh, Heichalos Hashkemah Haboker. Then he's got Heichalos Chitzis, Heichalos Tefillin. This is from the Heichalos Hashkemah Haboker towards the end. So, v'lo Yashcheh nikovov. A person should not re-- delay relieving themselves when they need. Shelo ya-- la vo'al bal teshak tzu midivrei soferim. Not to cause yourself to be in this d-state of disgrace, and that's eysod rabonim. V'hu sheyirgish kevar b'nikovov. That's

27:00 if he's already feeling the need to relieve. U'ma'amid atzmo, and he's consciously restraining himself. That's when that state of restraint would be a, uh, a kind of disgrace for the person, and therefore is in a state of midrabonon of bal teshak tzu. Bal teshak tzu is the pashtus, the derech is about, is about sheroztzim, eating, eating insects. But bal teshak tzu midivrei soferim includes being in a dis-- yourself in a despicable state. Where he says, if you already felt the need to relieve and you're restraining yourself, you're over bal teshak tzu. Ach lo yemidu divreiem b'mokom kavod habriyus. Um, but if having to relieve yourself would be compromising your, uh, self-respect, so then you can-- you're allowed to restrain yourself until you find a achiyim tzemochim tzanua. You're allowed to restrain yourself until you find a discreet place. So that's generally that none to do with davening. V'chein b'mokim hefsek b'tefillah. Even when it comes to davening, to have to interrupt your davening to go and relieve yourself, afilu b'birchas kriesma, even if you are in the middle of Shema, you don't have to re-relie-- uh, stop to relieve yourself. He goes more than that. V'be'em tzur psukah d'zimra v'borch sho'omer v'eila. So from borch shomar, where we're not allowed to be mafsik, where the Ashkenaz is found makes no difference. In borch shomar is the beginning of psukah d'zimra, you can't interrupt. So he says, ein la hafsek k'sheyoche l'hamid atzme acheri yisaei matbila. If you are able to control yourself, that the fifteen

28:48 minutes, whatever, will take you till you finish Shemoneh Esreh, you could restrain yourself. So yes, it's going to be an effort, uh, and you, you've got a internal pressure to relieve, and still you are, uh, advised, you're advised to wait till the end of davening. So again, we've said here to restrain yourself goes under bal teshak tzu midivrei soferim. And yet, if that's going to be causing a hefsek b'tefillah in-- even from borch shomar onwards. So then the advice is to, to wait it out until after Shemoneh Esreh. Um, so certainly if you are middle of Shemoneh Esreh, if you could wait another couple of minutes until you're finished Shemoneh Esreh, then you should. If you, if you, however, if mamash, it's-- that's not possible and the person had to. So there's one opinion which says that you-- if, uh, sho hakel el ligmurius kullo. If the interval was as long as you could daven a whole Shemoneh Esreh, then you go back to the beginning, et cetera. I, I actually, I saw his three opinions. I was-- So it's a bit challenging to, to summarize. So therefore, I'm giving you the address. Baruch Hashem now you've got the Shulchan Aruch also in English translation. So that's in chapter Siman one zero four at its paragraph in sif daled. In chapter four-- in paragraph number four, you have a detailed discussion. Um, now perhaps I'm-- I want-- I would like to, uh, revisit the discussion we had last week and also was in an airport,

30:30 but I hopefully this is a little bit better today. Uh, that about the package which arrives at your doorstep, and to explain it perhaps a little clearer. So we have here a issur to carry from reshus hayachid to reshus hayachid, unless there's an eidev combining those two reshus. By contrast, when it comes to the open air to carry from one chatzer to another chatzer, you don't need to have an eidev to carry from one chatzer to the other. Now- So let's read the-- from halfway down the page here. This is Sin-- Shin Ayin Beis, Sif Alef. If you have... We've said that there's a versatility that you can carry from Reshus, uh, from, uh, Chotzer to a rooftop to a, et cetera. That versatility is from Chotzer to Chotzer, yes. So the example I had last week, I have a garden chair in my back garden. I want to pass it over the fence to my neighbor, my ba-back to back. I don't have an area with. That is legitimate because in the open air or to pass a ball from my garden to their garden, that's legitimate. But then to take that garden chair into their house and to take that, that ball into their house, that's not allowed because the compatibility of Chotzer to Chotzer is only for Chotzer. But Chotzer to Bayis, that's no longer-- It's not no longer compatible. That, that's this, this Halakha. So that's very, very interesting that you have... You're, you're-- Y-you-- I, I passed the ball over

32:25 the fence into your garden and be-between your house and your garden, you never think of there's any objection of, uh, any, any restrictions. And this is telling you, yes, between your house and your garden, there is a, a-- there is an objection for something which wasn't in this area. So now let's read this further. Let's say you were wearing a garment and you brought it to a open air area, which is part of the aid of with the house. So I'm wearing a jacket and you bring, bring it to your Reshus HaMoireves. You've got your, your garden, and you're allowed to carry freely from your house to your garden. But this jacket would not be allowed to be carried. You wouldn't be allowed to carry the jacket from the garden into the house. Because as far as the house is concerned, this is coming from beyond the Eruv and beyond the-- its Eruv, and therefore, that's not okay. Let's read further. Say it was in this Reshus, and now it was taken to a different Reshus. Um, say it was in my front garden, taken to your front garden. Unless... Okay. Um, right. So that's, that's this Halakha. Um, someone asked me when the, the usage of the Alter Rebe's Lashon, he says, Is there a difference between Mamash, a private Chotzer or a Chotzer Moireves where there's several neighbors sharing one Chotzer? My impression is there's, there's no difference, but I could be, uh, wrong on that, and that we'll have to leave for

34:22 another time. Meanwhile, um, thank you for joining us. I know it's Yom Tammuz, and many people are going to Farbrengens. We-- I joined in a Farbrengen last night, Baruch Hashem. Um, if I could just share, the, the line today is like, it's Mamash like a conveyor belt. You, you, you don't have time to stop. You have to... And you have just like thir-- sixty seconds by the oil. The, the Far-- The Mashpia Farbrengen last night, he says, "This is a different thing. You can go to the, to the oil the day before or you can go the day after, but that's not the same as going Vayivim, the special thing about the Yortzeit being, uh, the special... My love of Yortzeit." He said another very beautiful idea, how go to other Kivrei Tzadikim. But here, this is the Rebbe. He's waiting for us. He's, he's, he's got a rachamim for us, and he's looking, you know, he's welcoming that we should, we should come there and, um, and, and give us the, uh, the brachos on this very special day. So, um, yeah. We should be and, uh, wish you all also a Guten Shabbos and we should see