פינחס תשפ״ו

00:02 Speaker 1 Good evening. Welcome to-- Thank you for joining us here this evening. Tonight is the, uh, well, uh, towards the end of the fast of Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, and I'm going to start off with... I'm gonna start off with a sermon that's very interesting that every year we've been-- we-- the Rabbi encouraged that we should learn about the Beis Hamikdash during this time. And in the three Perakim series, um, uh, schedule of learning Rambam, we just today finished learning Hilchos Beis Habechirah. And so I want to just read a-a little bit from Hilchos Beis Habechirah. So towards the end, we talk-- he talks about the Shmirah. "Ashachar kodem sheya al ha'shachar," before daybreak, before dawn, "yavo hamemuna shel mikdash." So there's a sheriff of some sort. "VeYitpok al, Yitpok al hakohanim shebbeis hamikdash." He knocks on the door for the Kohanim who are in the Beis Hamikdash. I don't remember whether this Memunah is a Levi or a Kohen. Anyway, he knocks on the door of the Beis Hamikdash. "Veheim poskim lo," and they open the door. That's the door to the outside. "Notel zamafteach," and now he takes from... They had a key to go to the inner, uh, to the Azarah. "Notel zamafteach," which was mentioned before. They, they were looking after the key. He takes the key. "Posach az ashahar hakatón," he opens the small doorway, "shebein beis hamikdash," between the Beis Hamikdash, "uvein ha-Azarah," and the main courtyard. "Venichnas mibeis hamikdash la'azarah," and he enters from Beis Hamikdash la'azarah. "Venichnasu acharav hakohanim,"

02:09 Speaker 1 and the Kohanim follow after him. "Ushtei havrachos shel eer beyadam," that they have two torches, two burning torches. "Venechelchu lishtei kitos." And the, this-- the Kohanim now divide into two groups. "Katzy leches lemizrach vekatzy leches lema'arav." One goes to the west, which means towards the rear. Oh, sorry. So first, one goes to the east, which is towards the front, to the main entrance, "shanikanu." And the other one goes to the, to the west, which is to the rear of the Azarah. "Vehoyu boidkin veyochin es kol ha'azar," and they would scrutinize to see that everything's in place. "Ad shi'agiu shtei hakitos," until both of these groups who have gone to scout out the area, they meet up, "l'makom beis osi chavitin." They come to the area of where the chavitin were made. That's where the, the... That's just on the, I think, on the left side of Shanikanu. It was a-- some bakery where they had made the, the, the, the daily bread offering of the Kohen Gadol. "Ki giyu eilu ve'eilu," both of them meet up with one another at the, at this, uh, point, this station. "Ovim rim sholom hakol sholom," that they acknowledge that everything is in order. "Ve'amidu osi chavitin la'asos chavitin." And immediately then, the chavitin bakers start making the chavitin. I'm intrigued. What's the connection with chavitin and with the... As I said, this is a Mincha brought by the Kohen Gadol every day. What is the deeper connection between the chavitin and the fact that everything is in order?

04:04 Speaker 1 Bear in mind that this is before... He says, "Kodem sheya al ha'shachar." So the fact that the cha- missed-- the chavitin makers didn't do it earlier and only then seems to be very much connected with, with the fact that everything was found in place. And as they say, I don't have an explanation. Okay? Fine. "Keseder az hu nuchon layla v'layla," the whole guarding, et cetera, was done every night. "Chutz m'ele," and the, and the, uh, scouting out with... In the morning, just before morning to see that everything's in place. "Chutz min hayom Shabbos she'ein beyadam oir," but the nights of Shabbos, they do not have the burning torches. "Ele boidkin b'neirois halukin shomer of Shabbos." Instead, they would check with, uh, lamps which were burning from before Shabbos, and I guess they were placed around, and so they would be able to see what they had to see without having to carry a torch. "Tlichu l'horichas Beis Habechirah." Right. Okay, this is the last Halachos. Interesting that we're talking about the building of Beis Hamikdash, and now we're talking about kind of the, the functioning, checking it out for the functioning. Now, the next section of Halacha is "klei hamikdash veha'ovdin bo." It's all about the daily functions of Beis Hamikdash. So this is an interesting, uh, why this is part of Hilchos Beis Habechirah. Now, on the screen we have from the Kuntress Sichos, Volume Chaf Alef. It's a Sicha of Parshas Vayakhel, and it has an asterisk by the title Vayakhel, and it

05:42 Speaker 1 says it's a Siyum Hilchos Beis Habechirah of the Rambam. So the Ram- the Rebbe made this Siyum on the, as we-we've just done, and then he makes a couple of observations. "Perak of shemona," that there are eight chapters in Hilchos Beis Habechirah. So what's the significance about number eight? So he doesn't tell you exactly. He says, there are a braiso maisa Torah oisches. There's a braiso, which is known as maisa Torah. Also, I think oisches Rebbe is another name for it. Uh, I didn't, didn't look it up today. But anyway, it goes through all the letters of the alphabets and numbers and tells you every number, every letter, what it stands for. So you have there for oisches, there could be a whole range of things which the letter ches or the number ches stands for. And the Rebbe says, go along there. You want to know why eight, why the eight Fine. I did not do that. Um, I, I should have. I apologize. The Hilchos of Kuf Lamed Zayin. Now, the Rambam is divided into chapters and into individual Halachas. So the Rebbe says he... There's a hundred and thirty-seven Halachas. Now, the Alderech, the Shein HaRambam, Hilchas Chanukah Perikim HaRambam, Sefer Halachot Y et Beis. In the Rambam, in Hilchas Chanukah, he talks about Hallel, and talks about the style of Hallel being recited verse by verse, and the Chazan would say a verse, and the Tzibur would say Hallelukah, or they say, Pesaish Astomi Metzroim, or they say, Heiv Hashem Ki

07:28 Speaker 1 Toiv. The Tzibur would respond. And the Rambam says in all that Hallel is divided into one hundred and twenty-three verses. Siman Lahem Shnosov Shel Aaron. That's the Rambam's Lashon Hilchas Chanukah. So the Rebbe is taking the same, uh, same license to do, uh, to count. There is about how, as I said, how many verses there are in Hallel. The Rebbe says, he identifies that there are a hundred and thirty-seven, uh, paragraphs, Halachas in Hilchas Beis Habechira. Siman Lahem Shnosov Shel Levi. So what's the number for a hundred and thirty-seven? Of all the Shvatim, the one who lived the, they say twelve sons of Yaakov. The one who lived the least is Yosef, a hundred to a hundred and ten. That's, it says, the end of Bereishis. And I think that Morris says, Lashon Rabbonus, Mecheres Is Baaleho, that being in a governing position is, uh, causes a person to, his life to be shortened. And he, uh, and the one who lived the longest of all the Shva- of the sons of Yaakov was Levi. He outlived all his brothers, and he lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. What's the connection of a hundred and thirty-seven to Hilchas Beis Habechira? Shenivchar L'shores BeBeis Habechira. Because the, the, the Shevet Levi was chosen to serve in the Beis Habechira. And therefore, the Rambam, uh, divided into a hundred and thirty-seven Halachas. Ve'er Ei Mechilta Ve'tchilaso. Ach Shenivcha Aaron Kulu. Check up the Mechilta, which we'll come back in a moment. Ve'ir Shagi Si Hashem Yechaper. If

09:19 Speaker 1 I made a mistake, if I made a mistake, may Hashem atone. So I was, uh, duly curious, and I counted. I made a total of how many Halachas there are in our print. It's actually a hundred and thirty-six. So the Rebbe says a hundred and thirty-seven, and he says, Im Shagi Si Hashem Yechaper. Uh, I'll confess I used the Vilna print. I did not use the Varsha print, or perhaps they've had another print. I don't know. So that's first of all. So all right. Nizikei Feila. Uh, when it comes to Gematrias, we're always flexible with one. Plus, we have the introduction of the Rambam, where he has the Minyan Mitzvahs that can also count as number hundred and thirty-seven or number one and, uh, et cetera. All right. But then, the Rebbe refers to Mechilta. Now, I've s- I'm sure I've told you this before. I heard from the Rebbe once by Farbrengen that when the Temach Tzedek says, "I in Shom," he doesn't mean that you should rely that the Temach Tzedek knows what's written over there. He wants you to look it up. So the Rebbe gives a, gives a reference to Mechilta. So here you have the Mechilta on the left of the screen. Ad SheNivcha Beis Elomim, until the, uh, Yerushalayim, until the Beis Hamikdash was chosen. Ois Yerushalayim Meruy Al Hashchinah. Um, the Yerush- Yerushalayim was fit, fit for the, the, the Shinah to reside there. Mishanivcha Beis Elomim Yotzu Yerushalayim. She'ne'emar, it becomes singular. Zech NuChosi Ad Ad Ai

10:51 Speaker 1 Ad. Okay. That's not what the reference is to. The reference is the following. Ad SheLo Nivchar Aaron. Until Aaron was chosen. Oho Yo Kol Yisroel Recasher Lakun. Every Yid would be eligible to be a Kohen. Misha Nivcha Aaron Yotzu Kol Yisroel. Then, from then, all the other Yidden are excluded. She'ne'emar, I think I misunderstood the first phrase. I think we said before the Beis Elom was chosen, the whole of Yerushalayim was fit. After it was chosen, then Yerushalayim at large is excluded, and only Har Tzion is, is, uh, is permitted. And similarly, until Aaron is chosen, all Yidden are eli-eligible. Once Aaron is chosen, all other Yidden are excluded. She'ne'emar Bris Melech Olam Hi Lifnei Hashem. It's like a covenant made with salt, which is, which lasts. Um, Ve'oimei Be'oho SheLo Yo Lazare Acharo, which is last week's Parshah. So what's the Rebbe referring to? Here we're talking about what's happened over here. We're talking about the Milo of Levi, and the Rebbe is saying, "Shenivchar the short..." Why does the Rambam have a hundred and thirty-seven halachas? Because that's the remez to the life of Levi, and he was chosen to serve in the Beis Hamikdash. But actually, the proof for the Mechiltah is to the contrary because he says, "Ashar nivchar Aharon" is referring to the Kohanim and not, not to the Leviim. And so now, is-- are Leviim bech-- are they nivchar? Are they, uh, have they been chosen? It seems to be so strange that he's, he's q-- he's saying a

12:47 Speaker 1 statement that Levi is chosen the Shahres Beis Hamikdah. Unless you're gonna say it's Aaron from amongst Shevet Levi. It's strange. So room, room for further, uh, further understanding of this. One more thing, and that is that in this sikha... In this sikha, the Rebbe talks about the fact that they did not carry the torches on Shabbos. And he asks, since we have a general rule that ein shvuz b'mikdash, that they didn't have to worry about an issur d'Rabonon in the Beis Hamikdash, so why could they not carry torches, burning torches on Shabbos too? And the license would be, although it's also mid'Rabonon, ve'ein shvuz b'mikdash. So I was bothered by this because is indeed carrying a live flame with oil, would that be an isur d'Rabonon or a isur min haTorah? So let's take a look. So here we're taking a look at Siman, um, Resh Ayin Zayin in Shulchan Aruch. It talks about a burning lamp which is fitted to the door, which means when you open the door, you close the door, the lamp is swinging with it. So let's read this carefully. If the lamp is fixed to the door itself, if it's a wax candle, less of a problem. But if it's an oil lamp, so then you're not allowed to open and close the door. When you're gonna open and close the door, a bit of the oil will jump up closer to the wick. And that bit of oil will burn. So you're creating a more of a fire.

14:59 Speaker 1 Or as liquid does, it goes, it goes... bobs up and down. So then some of the oil will go further away. And that will cause extinguishing. Um, I could learn it the other way around also, but that's the way the Alter Rebbe says it here. Perhaps, um, because what I mean by that is when you-- when the, uh, oil goes down, then there's more space on the wick for the fire to, to catch on. But all right, that's how the Alter Rebbe learns. Anyways, the Alter Rebbe is saying that swinging a, a burning oil lamp is a q-- issue of. So why does the Rebbe say it's only isur d'Rabonon? It's isur DeRabbisan. But the answer could be in the following last line. If you open the door very softly, and you close the door softly in a way that it's not inevitable that there will be the, the, um, movement of the oil. It's not inevitable. Then it's not also min haTorah, and actually you're allowed to do this, which is also, I mean, re-- can be relevant. Sometimes people want to move a table which has candles burning. So you're allowed to move it. And of course, we would, we solve the problem of muktzeh by having chalice, et cetera. So then you're allowed to move a table very slowly in a way that it's not... So with, with candles, as I said, it's not such a problem because the flickering of the, of the, of the li-- this liquid. There's no liquid

16:38 Speaker 1 there to go up and down. Not much to talk about anyway. Um, but if it were oil candles, so menorah. So you are allowed to move it very slowly. Very, uh, very carefully. Okay, so that's the Rambam, which we had, as we said. That sikha makes a and he asks, why do they, um, why did they not move the, um, carry the torches? And here, also this here is the answer. If you remember, I asked the question. This is the first question the Rebbe asks. Why is this part of ? Why is it not part of the daily function, which is the next section, ? And the answer is that going every morning to check that everything is in place could be seen as part of the structure. Like the, the is part of the structure. So also the, uh, checking that everything is in place is part of the structure. And therefore, says the Rebbe, although we have a rule of , that could be for the daily functions. When it comes to do the very, the avodas. So then there's a general principle of . But when it comes to the building, so... Then we know that right at the beginning, the first page, the Rabbi says, "You're not allowed to build a Beis Hamikdash on Shabbos." So therefore, it follows that even a isur d'Rabonon- Also wouldn't be allowed when it's got to do with structure. Uh, and therefore, since the Rebbe is saying that this is part... That this, this is

18:15 Speaker 1 also the beginning and the end of the- of Herzog's connected, talking about structure, and that you don't have the license of English. Let's move on to our next shailer, and okay. So, a friend of mine writes to me that earlier this week, he was-- he had taken off his Rashi's tefillin, and he was about to put on his Rabbeinu Tam's, and somehow his tallis fell off. Fell off his shoulders totally, and now he's asking, uh, he's asking i-in the future, if this happens, should he put on the tallis again? And then if he does, does he have to make a bracha? So it's really in a very unclear story here because... And this, this quote which you have over here on the top of the page is from my work on The Siddur, where the Alter Rebbe has a kiddush in The Siddur. Let's say, I'm sure you know someone who happened to, you don't have to confess, was on Rosh Chodesh, and you are sure you're rushing to get to work, and you f- you took off your tallis and there's, "Oops, I still haven't davened Mussaf." So you wanna put back your tallis, obviously, to daven Mussaf. Do you make a bracha? So the Alter Rebbe says that so long as you are wearing a tallis cotton, then you do not make a bracha on the tallis gadol when you put it back. Because when you took off your tallis gadol, you weren't distracting yourself totally from the mitzvah of tzitzit. You were

19:57 Speaker 1 distracting yourself from this garment. Uh, he's... Are you on the phone? What's the problem? You forgot to unmute. Oh, sorry. Nothing wrong. He's giving a shiur. So the Alter Rebbe says that so long as... In, in The Shukhan Aruch it doesn't say this, but in The Siddur is Mekadesh that if you're wearing your tallis cotton, a tallis cotton, and you took off your tallis knowingly that you're, uh, w-bearing in mind you're not gonna put it back on again. That was your mindset. And then later you realize, "Oops, I still haven't, uh, have to daven, uh, Mussaf." Uh, so now is it plausible that if your tallis fell off and you're wearing tallis cotton, should that be worse than when you took off your tallis gadol consciously, um, with no intention to wear it till tomorrow? If the tallis cotton bridges the gap, even when you took off the tallis coto- tallis gadol with no intention to put it back, how much more so it should bridge the gap when it fell off? However, it's not so clear, and there's a story to say that when you took it off consciously, there's a consciousness about the tallis gadol and the consciousness about tallis cotton, and therefore, there's no dis-total distraction of the mitzvah of tzitzit. But when the tallis fell off, you didn't have... You weren't thinking about it. And then perhaps that is considered a hesed hadas, and you have to make a new bracha. So I've written about this in The Siddur, in the

21:41 Speaker 1 Yemi Liuim at length, and I quote here from Rav, um, Rav Levin, that he writes that if you were aware that the tallis is, is falling off, so then... But you didn't manage to stop it, then don't make a bracha again. To summarize, to put... If your tallis fell off and you wanna put it back on again, it's like you're entering into a bit of a sophic area whether you should make a bracha or not. Normally, the Minchas Elom, and I believe there's also people who say they saw the Rebbe when it, when it happened by the Rebbe. Minchas Elom to put it back on without making a bracha. But this friend of mine, he's asking about Rabbeinu Tam's. And it's not so important in my mind to have to wear a tallis for Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin. Therefore, my advice was, "Don't put the tallis back on. Just put on Rabbeinu Tam's, just, you know, put your hat and jacket without putting, without putting back the tallis on, not to, to enter into a sophic of doing a mitzvah without the appropriate bracha." Having said that, Vahashgocha Protis, we had the Kinus Hashluchim, uh, of the UK earlier this week, and every, uh, Chias we have that this, the morning of the Kinus, Rabbeinu Tam's in Golom, Shliach in Sheffield, he teaches a maimer. He chooses a maimer, and he teaches the maimer. And, uh, in this maimer, it's in the Melukit, Mamorim Melukit, Chelek Dalet. It's a maimer from this time of the year,

23:21 Speaker 1 and it talks about the Allu, uh, um, Allu, uh, the, the, the second last chapter of Tehillim, where it's mentioned of weapons there. And it talks about , and about the five weapons, a sword and a spear and a, and a, a bow and a, and, and, uh, and a sh-sh... One, one of these, a... And a, and a club and a shield. And it goes in through... It goes through all of those, explains each one Be'aveida. That there's a maimer of a sword, you can, you can, uh, neutralize an enemy who's, uh, near. An arrow, a bow and arrow, you pull it further away, pull it further to yourself, and then you can also, uh-um, kill an enemy who's far away and even might be hiding from you. But you're able possibly to reach them through a bow and arrow. And the m-message there is, the more you're more beetle, the more you pull towards yourself, the more introspection there is, then the greater effect of, of, of beetle achitz, of, of the challenges from afar. Having said all that, then he have the, the... towards the end of the maimer, what is the Inyan of Triss? What is the Be'aveida meaning of a, of a shield? A shield is to protect from arrows and other missiles. What is that? Donning the tallis and tefillin before davening and during davening. Because at the time of davening, the Leumaze, the other side, the other element is, is scabrous, is, is, is preve- trying to prevail.

25:15 Speaker 1 midose. To disturb the person. You know, everyone knows, when you daven, all of a sudden everything, all cheshbonis come to your mind, and after davening, you forget about them, yeah. As it says in Tanya, moshel, moshel oral ho'eimid le'negd'oi, that there's a goy standing in front of you. The val ve'levav midose is speaking darko to disrupt your day, your concentration. So that's what is happening. That is the, that is the dynamic of davening. There is going to be challenges. Val zou inyan levush ha'tallit tefillin. For this purpose, we have the tallit and tefillin. She'nasim levush la'nefesh la'hogen ba'dachitzim. So the tallit and tefillin become like a garment, like this shield to protect from the arrows of the enemy. So it's very interesting because I-we just talked about the shailah, about, um, as they say, about, uh, wearing a tallit and not wearing a tallit. Still, this is not for davening, talking about wearing tallits. But the idea of wearing a tallit and tefillin is a protection from the mashavis, et cetera, which, which are gonna challenge you. And I don't think he means it's a physical... I think he's saying that the mitzvah of wearing a tallit and tefillin becomes a protection. And this also becomes very, also bashgucha protis. A, a shliach called me, uh, asked me, uh, last week. He's traveling. It was after Gimmel Tammuz. He was traveling back to Europe, and he feels uncomfortable to put on tallit and tefillin in the plane. So he, uh... And by the time he

26:59 Speaker 1 gets home, it's going to be, uh, two o'clock in the afternoon or something. Is there a justification for him to daven Shacharit without his tallit and tefillin? And then later, he'll come home, he'll put on his tallit and tefillin and say, and, and say Shema. So whatever I answered, I answered. But here, you're seeing here that, uh, that's not a reason. That on the contrary, that, uh, one should be davka trying to daven with a tallit and tefillin. And I say it was a shliach, and I'm, I was-- I wrote to him after I read the Maimah. I'm surprised a bit because, uh, we would expect a Yid on the street to put on tefillin, yeah. You stop a Yid on the street, and he hasn't put on tefillin. You expe-you expect him... I don't know how you say it in English, fife-fife in a half a world. You want to... You expect from him. So we should have less, uh, mettl in ourselves to... So what? You put on tallit and tefillin and take it. You put on tallit and tefillin, and you just sit in your place, and you daven, and, uh, who cares about everything else? Just make sure you don't miss your flight if you-- if it's before the flight. Yeah. Okay, let's go on to the next thing. So here, I did not research this adequately, but here's the, here's the question. You have here this tefillin. Something seems to be a bit oversized in comparison as to this head.

28:23 Speaker 1 But the question is, the tefillin are meant to be above the hairline. And this we learn from Sukkim because it says tefillin are meant to be bein eineicha, between your eyes. And they might-- You might read that literally. They're meant to be the tefillin between your eyes or on your forehead. But then it says, That they shouldn't rip out... One shouldn't rip out hair in grief. Bein eineicha. You don't have hair bein eineicha. Most people don't have hair between their eyes literally. So bein eineicha means there above. It means above the hairline. So this the Gemara learns that also the tefillin should have to be bein, uh, the, the bein eineicha means above the hairline. But here's the question: How, how rigid is that? So first of all, the bayis contains the tefillin. But then around the bayis, there's a, should we say, a bridge of sorts extending. That's called the teturah. Does the teturah have to be also above the hairline? That's one question. Another q-question which we have, which we're dealing with here is this, this, the shape of the hairline. And, uh, somehow it's got a name in English, widow's peak, which is something to do with the widows used to wear in England a certain type of cap, and it would be a, like a, a beak, uh, come, coming in the middle. So this is, this is from Google. This, this fellow's got the hairline where the middle is lower and the sides go a little bit higher. Sometimes it's

30:03 Speaker 1 much more pronounced. And the question is, when the tefillin are meant to be no lower than the hairline, does that mean the middle hairline, or does the entire tefillin have to be above the hairline? In addition, what about the teturah? Even if you say that the teturah should be above the hairline, but does the entire teturah, or does it mean just the middle, um, has to be above the hairline? So there, there's various opinions about this. So now let's see. Here we have a samech chof zain. This one Piskei Teshuves, where the tefillin should be above where the hairline begins. Some of the t'chilas mikas tzarares shouldn't go lower down. And then he says you should be careful about the edges of the teturah. Now, they should also be above the hairline. Im ki yesh ha'mekhilim bein ha'k'tsoves ha'teturah. So this is mamash our question. Some want to say that although the tefillin should be above the hairline, but if the- Edges of the titura are extending out of the hairline because of a widow's peak. Some say that is permissible. Then there are those who are bi klal more lenient and allow even the titura per se to be lower down. They say that the o- the issue of being above the hairline is only the tefillin proper, not the, not the, um, the titura, the extending, uh, edge. Um, I learned three years in Brunoy yeshiva, and there was then a, at the time, someone called Reb Sho- Sholbert, uh, Reb, um, Nemonov.

31:51 Speaker 1 He was, uh, I mean, at the time, he was very ill, but he had asked the Rebbe apparently about hidurim in tefillin. He was extreme Mahadar Mitzvos, and the way I... This is what I heard at the time, that there was a hi-- One of the hidurim in tefillin is to have a very narrow titura. So whereas, whereas normally the titura by, and I haven't measured it, but let's say it's about six millimeters. By him, the titura was, was two millimeters. A very, very narrow titura, and the s- of course, the stitching went through. The soferim, or they will tell you that that's risky, uh, for the lasting of that tefillin, but that's, that's, that's what it was, what it was. So possibly that's also to... the making it a narrower titura is less worry of it going out, uh, over, overboard. Let's just read about this, this debate. Does the entire titura have to be above the hair- the, the, uh, hairline? So we have here in the Piskei Teshuvos, he gives us a reference to a sefer called Shulchan Shlomo. Um, uh, so that wasn't who's machmir. Then the Chacham Yitzchak is the one who's, who's mekabel on this. Um, that was one of the Spinka Rebbes. And the wh- he brings a whole de-debate about this. Then about the next thing, about whether the entire tefillin have to be above the hairline or the titura can be below the hairline, he gives us a reference to the Das Kedoshim, the Beth Yitzchok.

33:41 Speaker 1 Now, I just wanna tell you a story which I heard from Reb Aaron Tiefenbrun, Besheim Reb Henoch Padva. So Reb Henoch Padva was the Rav here for many, many years in London. He was the, uh, vest and et cetera. I had the zechus to learn with him, uh, Talmud. At any rate, and he, he lived in Eretz Yisrael. He, he met the Friediker Rebbe in Vienna, and he spent some time in Vienna. But then after the war, perhaps be-- I don't know at what stage, he managed to get to Eretz Yisrael. Uh, he was a Talmud of the Tepliker Rav, Shamshon Polonsky. At any rate, he was also mekarev to the Belzer Rav, Reb Aaron. So that Reb Aaron came to Eretz Yisrael in the middle of the war. Friediker Rebbe was involved in his rescue. He had a sipur. Reb Aaron, uh, and Reb Aaron sees Reb Henoch, and he says, "Do me a favor. Adjust my tefillin. They're too tight for me." So he adjust the tefillin, makes it a little bit wider. The girth should be a bit wider. Now, he puts them on. "No, no, mach a bissel mehr. Make it a bit wider." Yeah. And it was really overstepping, overstepping the hairline. And, "No, no, noch a bissel. Make it a bit more bigger." And so he made it, and he, and by then it was... The titura was well below the hairline. Ah, ah, ja. Ich hab gewiss, dass du weißt, wie zu machen a kashrut from this tefillin.

35:10 Speaker 1 He says to him, "I knew, I knew that you know how to make the kashrut tefillin properly." So you can see here that although the general position of the Poskim is that the, even the titura has to be above the hairline, but there are, there were and there are mechilim to allow that the titura, at least, should be below the hairline. And looks like the Belzer Rav relied on that. Uh, in my Seder work, I have a quote of a letter of the Rebbe. This is to Reb Dov Lent, who asked the Rebbe about the Rebbe's tefillin being lower than the hairline. And he ha- receives, uh, an answer from the Rebbe without a heading. Without the... It was not on headed paper. That which you're asking about, Fleini, who has his tefillin lower than the hairline, it could be he didn't reali-- First, it could be that he had, when he was younger, a lower hairline. Also, it could be, uh, he didn't realize that it slipped down a bit. Something on those lines. The Rebbe did not mention that there's a smara that the titura can be lower than the hairline. Ad kan our discussion about this. So, um, l'chatchila, we are mishtadel that everything should be above the hairline. Let's move on. Um, what's the next point? So here in our, uh, at the Kinus Hashalchim. So I gave a shiur there, and someone asks a question at the shiur. We were talking about security. Unfortunately, that's, uh, very topical now. Uh,

36:40 Speaker 1 talking about what can be done, can't be done. And so he's asking about having a CCTV camera, which is now standard. Uh, but here the question is a different, um, take. That you have a shul, it has a CCTV, and then people come to shul. How can they get into the building? So the simple thing is you can have some kind of number lock. But instead of having a number lock, could you have that people can see on the CCTV, ah, Reb Yankel has come. Someone goes and opens the door for him. And a Boruch comes, someone goes to open the door for him. So then when Rav Yanko and Rav Boruch are coming up the path towards the shul, towards the, uh, building of the shul, they are in-- They have in every, every intention of being filmed so that the people inside should know to kind of come to the door and let them in. So that's, that's, that's really the question. I was not keen about it. So here we have from a couple of, should we say, contemporary poskim. This one is from Reb, um, R' Moshe Steinbuch in Chofetz Bahanhaggos. And he's talking about the television screen, uh, the short-- this closed-circuit TV. And he says that the fact that you're walking past it is really not so significant. It's not kind of ma'aseh melah-me-not called a ma'aseh melacha. And... All right. So he's not so ke-keen about it. The, the general, the general approach is that you're not getting

38:26 Speaker 1 any benefit from it. The reason why you have a security camera is for... to keep out the criminals. Let them be photographed, but for the Yidden who are coming past it, when you're coming to your own house or to the shul, and you're picked up on the, on, on the screen, uh, on the, on the CCTV, but you have no interest in it. That's why this question threw me a bit because you do have an interest. So the-- in Pisqueturism, it makes a difference whether it is registered. Most CCTV could-- retains footage in case they have to go back. It retai- So it's filming. It's not just, uh, live, and the next minute it's gone. They retain footage. And therefore, they want to say that it's considered like writing. You are registering an image. I'm not so convinced about that because, um, let's say you're allowed to carry your phone into a Beis Hakese, even though it has the siddur in it because it's not there. It's just-- It's-- You can-- It's re-- digital, uh, storage. It's not this-- There, there's no writing there. You can develop from it, but it's not actual writing. If you have a, a siddur on a, on the screen, you'd give ovkei, and you close the thing. You're not erasing Hashem's name. It's, uh, because it's not a Matias. So therefore, I don't see so strongly that argument that it-- that because it's being recorded, therefore you're writing. But be that it may, let's come back to our question.

39:53 Speaker 1 Um, walking in front of a screen, and you do want to be seen with that screen. That's the-- that's our question over here. So this we have here from the Bezalel Hochmer, who's, um, Rebbetzal Stern. So he's a brother of the Debretsiner Rav. He was known as the Hermanstedter Rav, and he me-spent many years as a Rav in Melbourne. His-- One of his particular forte is the, um, Union of Zmanim, of travel, et cetera. And actually, I have a Sefer which a grandson of his put out called A Halach Ba'amitecha, all about travel. Living in I-in Australia, so travel was perhaps a more relevant thing than, you know... Travel is about travel, Dateline, all that, were relevant, um, more than elsewhere. But he also-- he is addressing the sa-same question. So to stand... Let's see. To stand at the front door, and your, your image is going to be recorded on the screen. And so the, the, the, the, uh, guard inside will know to come and open the door for you. He's not really concerned about it. Even though making a picture on Shabbos is, is, is a avereh. He says, so if you're making a... And even to make a temporary picture is also, also midrabbonan. Like writing, temporary writing. So making, making-- To make an, a temporary picture is also not okay. He says that's not even a temporary. He says it's like looking in a mirror. Yeah, you look in the mirror, so you're very-- you've, you've created an image. You're

41:30 Speaker 1 not to look in a mirror. You're given some limitations, but you're not to look in a mirror on Shabbos. So the same thing, he sees that looking, being, um, being seen on the screen is like, uh, like just l-looking in a mirror. And that he's not worried. He's not worried about the electronic side about it, apparently. Uh, the, the, the changes, because the changes are really minimal. Uh, there's not more or less electricity. Uh, so he's not ha-- He's not, um, he's not objecting. So on that basis, on, on basis of the Debretsiner's... Oh, sorry, of the, uh, Bezalel Hochmer, perhaps one could allow this, um, idea of being, uh, on the closed-circuit TV to allow a person to come in. And, um, well, as you see, the previous one w-wasn't very happy about it. I'm not so, I'm not so sure, uh, whether that would be okay. And as I say, a number lock would solve the problem. You don't have to go into this kulah. All right. But having seen now that there is an opinion that being, um, being seen on a CCTV is not a problem, even if you want that, yeah? Because if you don't want that, then we have the klal of, um, psik reisha de'lo nichole. When you walk from my street, from my house to, to Beis Lovavitch, I've been photographed fifty times on different shops and the streets and so whatever. But that I have no interest. But here, the person does have an interest. That's

43:02 Speaker 1 why I'm, I'm con-I'm con-concerned. But let's say there is room to be make on. So here, Baruch Gocha Protes, one of our faithful listeners, uh, is joining us today also, asked, uh... He asked a question. He was asked a question about voice-to-text. So the person who's deaf- And they have a, a, uh, kind of contraption, probably just looks like a phone, and whoever speaks. So the, the, uh, has a, a facility changes your words from 토요샤 발페 to 토요샤 빅사. So are you allowed to use that on Shabbos? Are you allowed to speak to such a person on Shabbos? And I'm gonna go into this in m-more detail. My, my, uh, Hashkafa Rishono, I don't see a huge difference between standing in front of a CCTV camera, and my image is now on the screen in the other room, and standing in front of and speaking in front of an app, and my words are now coming up on the screen. Again, those, those words are not gonna just... They're not recorded there. Or I don't know, but it doesn't have to be recorded. So I'm not so sure that it's also. Um, so before we deal with that, let's... This is from Shmiras Shabbos K'Halacha about speaking to someone who's wearing a hearing aid. Generally, it's accepted that you are allowed to speak to someone who's wearing a hearing aid on Shabbos. Here we have Shlomo Zalman. It says you're allowed to speak to a person who's working-- wearing a sh- hearing aid because

44:43 Speaker 1 the sounds going through the piece of equipment, although they are, uh, doing some effect on some of the equipment, but those, those changes in the transmitter, et cetera, are so short that they are less than a moment, רגע כמאמרה. And therefore, even Chazal says electricity is בואנה סויסר, but this is so, so short, so, um, millisecond, whatever it may be, so that does not... You can't call it בואנה. Now, I don't understand his next sentence. I, I don't know whether it's because I don't understand Hebrew enough or I don't understand el- el- electronics. The מחשב כזאת, if it's such a piece of equipment that the sh-- that the changes are in the wire, which is, um, bringing the current, and חזניש לא יבורלי. So I don't know what he means by this, um, but meanwhile, we're seeing here that he is מתיר to speak to someone who's wearing a hearing aid because the... It's such a minimal change. And therefore, perhaps, perhaps, uh, he-- But coming back to the, the voice to text, perhaps he wi- he wouldn't be so lenient. But he says here it's פחות מהרגע כמאמרה. The changes are really minimal. But in the case of the voice to text, of course, it's, it's not so short. It's-- Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to read it. It's going to last for a few seconds. Perhaps then he would, he would be מחמיר. Well, I looked around. I couldn't find this in Seforim. I looked around on social media, et cetera, and saw

46:28 Speaker 1 that they re- it's reported that the Rabbonim are not מת to such a thing, so I'm not going to be the one who says it is okay. Um, all right. So that's a discussion about the voice-to-text app on Shabbos, and the bottom line is I wasn't ready to say it's okay. Okay. So here, s-s-totally different question. Someone has a Sefer Torah, and he wants to bring it from here to somewhere in California, and it's not so convenient for him to carry it with him. Is he able to put it in the luggage or send it with a, uh, courier service? So we have here, this is in the דינים of Sefer Torah, סמריש פיי bas. If you are traveling from one place to another with a Sefer Torah, do not put it in a bag and put it on the donkey, and then you'll sit on top of it. But rather you should hold it in your bosom next to your heart. And that's... And you hold it in the... You ca- You carry it on the donkey like that. If, however, you're fearful of ganovim, that if you're gonna carry it in a more respectful way, it might get stolen, then you are allowed to put it in the luggage and sit on top of it. That's because you're doing so to protect the Sefer Torah. Now, our case is neither here nor there. It's not, um, in... Talking about sitting on it or anything like that. But there is a concern that usually

47:59 Speaker 1 in luggage, things are thrown around, certainly in, in, uh, they're sent in post from country to country. So is that going to be a compromise in the covet which we should be giving to a Sefer Torah? So there is a letter of the Sefer-- of the Rebbe in Shulchan Menachem about someone who worked in the post, and he threw a package which came to, to deliveries, and he threw it one... And then he, afterwards, he realized there's a Sefer Torah in there, and he felt very bad that he'd done this. And he writes to the Rebbe about this. The Rebbe gives him, uh, fasting, et cetera, and it mitigates it because it was wrapped up. But meanwhile, that, that reference gave me a reference to the... There's a volume from Nitte Gavriel all about dedication of a Sefer Torah. So he has a chapter about, um, transfer of a Sefer Torah from one country to the other. So he says, first of all, if you're traveling by boat and you want to put your Sefer Torah amongst the, uh, luggage, you should put the Sefer Torah one box inside another. The idea being that you have an inner box and outer box, and also you put stuffing in the inner box. It shouldn't be shifting around, uh, freely. But if some- someone sits on the outer case, they would not be weighing down onto the Sefer Torah, which is in the inner case, because there is a box inside a box. That's the basic, uh,

49:27 Speaker 1 guidance which I, uh, answered, to put it inside a hard, a hard, um, cover, a suitcase inside another one, and that way, uh, it's protected. He-- Then he goes on more details. He mentions if you're traveling by plane, you should put the Sefer Torah with the hand luggage. Um, and if you do that, then you don't, don't need to do it, put it in a, in a, uh, double box. What he does say is, um, that you... If you needed to, Sefer Torah is actually... With the handles, it's very big. Without the handles, it's that much smaller, shorter. So a Sefer Torah without the handles could probably fit in a large sports bag. Uh, once it's got on, it's quite, uh... So he says you are allowed to have the stitches removed at the beginning and end of the Sefer Torah. And so then it's just the parchment that's gonna be much more manageable for transport. And so he says you are allowed to do that, and then you'll send the Atzchayim separately, put it in, in, in, um, in luggage, et cetera. Right. Um, someone has identified who the picture of the, um, of that, um, peak, uh, widow's peak is. I actually, davka, cut away the rest of the face that you shouldn't see who it is. So, didn't think it was Nehemia to the Shir who it was. Yeah. But amazing recollection. Okay. What if one can't remember where his original hair, hairline was? Good question. Um, perhaps you go back to

51:23 Speaker 1 some kiddy pictures, some cute kiddy pictures. You might be able to see where your hairline was. Uh, you can ask now another question, yeah, hemshot to this. What happens which, uh, under bar mitzvah you had a lower hairline, and when you've been bar mitzvah, your hairline was higher? I don't know. All right, let's move on. So someone asked me, Tanis, are nicotine pouches permitted on a fast day? Now, I'm gonna confess, I did not know. I thought a nicotine pouch was something like a patch which you put on your arm. But apparently, it's something which you put in your mouth. And are you allowed to have those, uh, in your mouth on Sha- on, on a fast day? So here we have from Nish DeBrua, it says about not to smoke, um, Titun on the-- of Arbat Zoymos, especially not on Tisha B'Av. And he quotes the Knesset HaGedolah was a very, very machmir. He says a person who smokes on Tisha B'Av is deserving of Nidui, et cetera. Really very heavy. Others are more lenient. And some people, they-- if they're addi- they're addicted smokers, it's very difficult for them to go through a day without, without smoking. And so he has a, he, he says to be make on Tisha B'Av after Chatzoas. Generally, I believe the, uh, it's not, this is not followed, this not to smoke. It's also to understand that Knesset HaGedolah may have been talking about a different type of, uh, not cigarettes, but a different type of, uh,

52:52 Speaker 1 thing. Um, now, in the Piskei Shovas, he brings here about various people who said they needed to smoke to be able to, uh, to have their usual functions. Then he quotes from Zechar Yahosaf, who was actually a very interesting mechaber. Um, I think his name is V-Vice, but he was a, a very interesting writer. He writes that the Knesset HaGedolah, who was so against this to the degree of Nidui, he says because in his time, he was just after the whole story of Shabtai Tzvi. And as you may know the history, that the people in the town of Shabtai Tzvi, they said, "Oh, Tisha B'Av is obsolete because Mashiach is here and we can just celebrate." And because there had been a, such a, you know, um, disgrace of Tisha B'Av, therefore they felt the need to go to the other extreme and to say that even smoking, which is not such an issue, wouldn't be allowed. Now, again, someone asked me about a hookah. I don't know what a hookah... How, what it is. Does it, does it bring moisture into your mouth? That could be a question, yeah. So in the, in the, uh, Knesset HaGedolah, She'orit Knesset HaGedolah, there's two, two sets. There's a series Knesset HaGedolah, and then there's another series, She'orit Knesset HaGedolah. I looked it up. He has a whole, uh, a long discussion of several pages. But here he has the... very interesting. Um, there are people who, they're smoking this, uh, Titun on Yom Tov and on

54:29 Speaker 1 Atanas. He says, "You can't have it both ways." If it's allowed on Yom Tov, you're saying it's like food. If it's food, then you're not allowed to have it on a, on a, on a fast day. If you're saying, and if you're allowed to have it on a fast day, it's not food. If it's not food, then what's the justification to use it to, to make a fire to, for it, to have it on Yom Tov? So he, he challenges them, uh, on, on, on both, um, you know... The two chatevim are con-contradictory. Okay. Um, finally, we have our last thing on our list for today. So someone's asking me, he's got a nine-year-old boy, and these long summer Shabbosim. Well, they're, they're long in winter also, but the, the daytime is longer, yeah. So the kids can't stay up till eleven o'clock for Havdalah, so they go to sleep at a reasonable time. Is there a point of making Havdalah or having the kids make Havdalah on Sunday morning? See, that was his question. So I said to... I challenged him. I says, "Do you remember making Havdalah on Sunday morning? Did your father make you make Havdalah on Sunday morning?" And he confessed that, "No." I'll tell you, my father also never made me make Havdalah on Sunday morning. Uh, so that's the widespread Minag Yisroel. Um, so let's take a look. So here we have Piskei Chovah in Siman Res Tadik Zain. He says that if they didn't hear Havdalah, one should

55:58 Speaker 1 be mechanach them to ma-make Havdalah in the morning. Um, then he says, "Om nom," in a footnote. This is what he says in the opinion. And then he refers to Be'er Sheva Chochmah, which mentioned before, and others. But the Shalosh Omanu, we haven't heard that we should be mechanach katanim to do Tashlumin. You have a mitzvah, and then you have a, an ans- an opportunity to compensate for missing out on the mitzvah. We don't know about such a thing. Seeing that children should be mishanach. "Oh, you missed it then. Oh, now you make up for it another time." We haven't seen that. Uh, and I want to add that, uh, to that. Uh, if your boy did not daven Ma'ariv because it was past his bedtime, have you ever heard of someone telling your boy, "Oh, uh, Shacharit should be done twice for Vanessa. Because you missed Ma'ariv, you have to daven twice for Vanessa for Shacharit." It's unheard of, and basically, this is the approach. Since at the time, um, since at the time they couldn't do the mitzvah, and now you're talking about compensate for missing out an ear- earlier thing, that we don't, we don't make an issue of it. Um, okay. My brother is saying that we regularly made Sha- Havdalah on Shabbos morning, on Sunday morning. Okay. I don't remember that. Okay. Could be, uh, uh, couple years before I was-

57:20 Speaker 2 Yes, we did. We each had our own cup of grape juice.

57:25 Speaker 1 Okay. I, I, I don't remember. It's more than fifty years ago, so I can, uh, plead that I've forgotten. Okay, good. Okay. But akapanim, it's not, it's not a widespread minim. And so, um, okay. Thank you everyone for joining us, and I wish you a Good Shabbos. And these days, Yehoachaz Simcha, Lesoson Moedim Tovim, Simchas Olam Al Rosh, Ula Amitzvah Shlema, Mashiach Tzedekain.