ערב סוכות תשפ״ז

00:03 Good evening. Welcome to tonight's shiur. It's the night before Succos. And, uh, I don't think we'll have a shiur next week because it's the night of Rosh Chodesh and it's time for saying, um, Zeh Ferorim, et cetera. So you have to work on it already, uh, for after, after Yom Terum. Right. So we have here a few questions which came up over Yom Terum, and so I'm gonna share them with you. So the first one was, I was asked by a young man, "Why don't we say Borchi Nafshi on Rosh Hashanah?" Because, uh, to whether with Shir SheYoyah as we normally do. And the answer to that is that generally the concept of Rosh Chodesh is kept rather quiet on Rosh Hashanah. And this, here the Alter Rebbe in Torat Havdalah gives two reasons. One is because Rosh Chodesh, so the, mm, the Alef Rosh Chodesh is usu- is the second day of Rosh Chodesh. With Rosh Hashanah, it's the, the first day is Alef Tishri. That would be confusing. And so therefore not em- not to emphasize the Rosh Chodesh side of it. Another reason is the Arvei Hasatan SheLo Yoveh Vikatrei, not to confu- to confuse the Satan that he shouldn't start causing trouble. And therefore we don't, in Musaf we do not say the psukim of the Karbanot of Rosh Chodesh, and it follows that the same thing is why we would not say Borchi Nafshi not to celebrate Rosh Chodesh. There is a sicha of the Rebbe which Re- referred to

01:57 in the Kuntzeich HaChiddush Chelek Chaf Dalet, a whole beautiful explanation, the whole concept of the Arvei Hasatan. Not that Co- Satan is so, uh, gullible, doesn't know the dates, but it is a show of confidence. That is ba- I mean, the gist of the Rebbe sicha. That Lchayveh, we should have been mustering every last zechus on, uh, before Rosh Hashanah to, to, to pass, you know, to, to, to, to have a ketivah v'chatimah tovah. The fact that there are opportunities of zechus and we don't use them, that is a show of confidence that we have the c- that Hashem is gonna give us a ketivah v'chatimah tovah. And that confidence itself is what is, um, putting the Satan, uh, getting confused. Asher Taka, Asher Devar Taka. Indeed, they are, um, they did not have, have so many zechuyot that they are, have reason to be confident. Going to the next, uh, rather simple thing is in... So Chamol Al Maasecha. So here we have the same piyut comes after Kedusha, after Ata Chartanu, before Ovoteinu Avotayinu. So here are sometimes it's first Beainei Meles Yoisha, then Odi Et Kolonu. And sometimes Odi Et Kolonu, then Beainei Meles Yoisha. So a simple question, why is there a change around of sequence? And this is a simple, um, s- style. It's a simple style that you try to have the, the ending of the previous paragraph similar to the beginning of the next paragraph. So since by Musaf, in Musaf we have the piyut, which we know

04:09 as Lechol Minim. It starts with HaOches Biad Midat Mishpat. By the way, in Siddur HaAriza"l he says, "Be very careful not to tamper with this. It's a very sacred, um, piyut." So because it starts HaOches Biad Midat Mishpat, therefore the s- the sequence of the previous piece is, um, worked out. VeTzadkenu BaMishpat Hamelech HaMishpat. HaOches Biad Midat Mishpat. In the other tefillahs, when we say Chamol Al Maasecha, we don't have that piyut, and indeed it follows on, at least in Nusach Sefard and Nusach Ari, V'Chen Yesh Kadesh. So we finish off Ki Kodesh Hayom L'Adoneinu V'Chen Yesh Kadesh. So that's the simple explanation of the sequence. All right. So now we come to question number three. Why don't we bow at, uh, when it's, when we, when the... With this, it says in the Gemara Bechan Ein Tzorich LeChareah. So that's referring, that piece over there is when the Kohen Gadol picks up the Goy Rolles, and he puts one on, on the... There's two goats, and one Goy Rolles he places on the goat which is Hashem, and the other Goy Rolles on the goat which is La'azazel. And he, it say- describes how he picks it up, and he says, "Hashem." And people hear him saying, "Hashem Hamafod," and they bow down. And yet it says that we don't bow down. So this is from my, uh, notes on the siddur. So we've got four reasons. Now, just to clarify that in the Avodah there are two formats. One c- which is Amitz

05:50 Koyach and one is Ata Chayinan Ta. Nusach Ashkenaz is Amitz Koyach, more poetic and- Switch this thing off. You wanna take my phone in case the person calls? You'll be able to answer the phone. Sorry. So, so the first reason given is, as I was saying, amids „koach“ and „ata chonata." And the nusach, the, the details are different. And so one reason given is that the people would only prostrate themselves when the Kohen Gadol is saying a vidui. So there's a vidui here for him, for him and for his... And then for the Abnei Nehar and then on the goat is for, for Klal Yisroel. But he is not saying a vidui. So it says they wouldn't bow down then. Another safer, Beis Avrohom says, um, that in Birchas Kohanim, by, by... Well, when, where was Birchas Kohanim also they said Hashem homay m'foresh. And yet there wasn't this whole reaction of koheim mishtachavim. The same thing here. Unless it's the vidui, they don't bow, bow down. The problem is that both of these are ignoring the fact that it says in the siddur at that piece, as the Kohen Gadol is putting on the goral and he says, "Hashem homay m'foresh," and everybody's koheim mishtachavim. So they-- their explanation is good for nusach of amids koach, but not for the nusach of ata chonata, which does say clearly that the people did bow down at that point. Shlomo Kluger, on the margin, on the margin of Shulchan Aruch, he says-- Well, he's focusing on

08:30 Nusach Ashkenaz, but they would bow down four times in the Beis Hamikdash according to what he says, corresponding four instances of Shema koleinu. Now, we do have an extra bow down, bowing in Oleinu. Because we bow down in Oleinu, therefore, we don't bow down a, a, a fourth time or fifth time e-effectively in the Avodah. It's actually quite curious why is Oleinu coming into the tefillah of, on Yom Kippur. Oleinu is, uh, the beginning of the Malchiyos on Rosh Hashanah. But why is it there on Yom Kippur is worth another discussion. Finally, a very contemporary safer. It's called Seder Yoimo. Very, very good safer. Uh, the evidence it's a good safer is it's been pub-- reprinted about five times, and it's very popular. It's, uh, uh, going through the whole Seder of Avodah. He says the following, that in the Beis Hamikdash, actually, they bow down ten times. Every time the sh- the Kohen Gadol says, "Hashem homay m'foresh." And each time when it's the b- the vidui, he says it three times, actually. And yet, we only bow down once for each of the viduyim in, uh, near the word tit'haru. And therefore, since at the Gorals, the word tit'haru isn't said, therefore, there is no bowing down at that point. So we've got here four explanations. Um, two will help us, two don't really help our nusach. Um, okay. Now we're going on to a question. Uh, someone asked me at Ma'ariv, it's our custom to, to put it, uh, to lower the

10:12 talus onto the shoulders, off the head onto the shoulders, and t-to daven with a, just with a hat, not just with a yamulka. Actually, apparently, I didn't remember, remember this, the Rebbe would come into shul for Mincha, followed by Neilah, wearing his hat. And in the Rebbe's shtender, there was a little, little cupboard with two little doors, and the hat would be there for Mincha and Neilah. After which, uh, for Ma'ariv, the Rebbe would take out the hat and put on his hat. And so that's, that's our minhag. So the question is, what's the significance of taking the talus off the head and on your shoulders? So if you're... But we're wearing tzitzit anyways, and you're wearing the talus anyways. I mean, why the, uh... So here's-- This is in his Hasagos to Sefer Minhagim. And then we have here a note in Sefer Minhagim. We have the Shaar HaKavonos writes the following. "Im hoyo roeh," if the Rebbe, the Ari Z"L, would n- see, "she-vakhar shok hachamah," that the sun has set. "Hoyo moed et hatalus bein kseifav." He would lower the talus from his, his head to his shoulders. "Mishen halailah lo zman tzitzis," because nighttime is not the time for mitzvah tzitzis. "U'cheshu bein kseifav, ein chashash im halaila." If it's worn just on the shoulders, that's not a problem. Um, and then he gives a reference. The Rebbe gives a reference here to the commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch, Siman Yod Ches, or Chaim Siman Yod Ches. So just to make

11:52 things simple, that, uh, th-there is something about although we do wear tzitzis by night, and according to Tosfos and Bava Kamma, "Yesh chayav tzitzis ba-layla," but the primary time for mitzvah tzitzis is by day, not by night. And therefore, the Ha- the Arizal wants to show he's not wearing the tzitzit, he's not wearing the tallit now for Mitzvah tzitzit. So he lowers it down onto his shoulders. It could be that other communities, it's not so standard that the tallit is worn over the head only for the Rabanim, et cetera. And therefore, there's... putting it down on your shoulder doesn't say anything here. But the Rebbe tells us, look, look up the commentaries of the Shulchan Aruch. So we're gonna look up two commentaries. One is the Magen Avraham, and then the other one is the Bach. So here we have on the left of the screen that he's quoting this thing, that if, if you're wearing a tallit, it's come to this in Siman Yod Ches. When you... A-and when it comes, when it comes to Borchu, you should remove the tallit. 'Cause now we only wear a tallit for Mitzvah tzitzit. And if you continue wearing the tallit, it looks like you're holding that lilot mount tzitzit. See, here, the Magen Avraham is taking off the tallit completely. And similar, we have in the Bach, where the Magen Avraham is quoting the Bach. He says, uh, a tallit tzir, that at Mincha, someone's wearing a tallit, comes to Borchu should take the tallit off

13:25 because we don't wear tzitzit by night. Because we don't, we don't wear a tallit only. It's not like the tzitzit, the tallit kot you're wearing all day long. But, uh, the tallit, we're only wearing for the Mitzvah tzitzit. And so it would be confusing if you continue wearing the tallit after nightfall, with the exception of the eve of Yom Kippur, um, where we wear it also at night because we're compared to Malachim. One more comment on that, um, about that there is also... But not wearing a tallit by night becomes a question, what about Friday night? So I think Chabad are one of the very few communities who do not wear a ta-- The Hazan doesn't wear a tallit Friday, uh, for Kabbalat Shabbos. And that's actually the first entry in the Hayom Yom that tallit, that tallit for Ma'ariv, not on Shabbos and not in Yom Tov and Yom Kippur, et cetera. Uh, not... Sorry, not Yom Kippur. Um, yeah. So they would... The Hazan doesn't wear a tallit. But, and that's because of this by... The thing that the Arizal was particular not to wear a tallit, uh, at night. But it... There is a problem because there's a Gemara. It talks about Rabbi, um, who-whoever it was, and he would put on a tallit and, and greet Shabbos. This is where the struggle is. There's a Gemara which says, "Mi ataf bekhol apanya de," uh, "ma'ala Shabbat," as quoted in the Ma'amar Chadodi, which Chazal say by the Hazan. So he says,

14:48 "Mi ataf," he would be Me'ataf. That's why they say on Friday night is an exception. But we, we don't follow that for whatever reason. So then what happens if you are a, a, a Hazan in a shul where they insist you wear a tallit for, for Kabbalat Shabbos? So then there's a Pshat, a compromise to wear it on your shoulders. 'Cause that's not fully wearing the tallit. That's in the Rebbe's letters about that. Okay. So that's, that's the Cheshbon. It's the idea of putting the tallit, taking the tallit off is to demonstrate that we're not wearing the tallit for Shemitzah, um, Mitzvah tzitzit at this point. Why don't you take it off completely? Well, it's also a question of, uh, of first of all, of convenience. And separately, there is something about making Havdalah. We are-- We're still wearing the tallit and the kittel. So obviously, that's on a much lesser level, but there is something about it. So we keep the tallit on until after Havdalah. Right. Let's go on to the next thing. So here we have now finally come to Sukkos. So, uh, in Germany, find a young, a young man, he's in a community, and he's preparing had-- um, sets of lulav, lulav for, for clients. And so people here in Chabad, you know, the idea of having more hadasim. So he says, uh, so all right, so I said, "You know, the, you know, they come in packets of three. Make-- Let's make it three packets. Make it nine." No,

16:11 no, no, you can... No, do nine. Say, "Why not? Why don't you do nine?" I don't know. Say, all right. So he's saying, he asks me, "What's the Cheshbon of not doing nine?" So it's slightly inaccurate. And now, when did the Rebbe come out with the idea of having, uh, at least six hadasim? Was it Nun Beis, Nun Alef? Somewhere around there. But before then, we have in the Sefer Minhagim, it says the following. This is the Rebbe's w-words: "I heard Halachas, instructions to various people to have four hadasim, twelve hadasim, thirteen hadasim, twenty-six hadasim. But I haven't heard to take nine hadasim nor sixty-eight or sixty-nine." So sixty-eight is Gematria lulav, sixty-nine is Gematria hadas. And it says, although the, the Kol Bo does bring such a minhag, but that is not something which he has heard of, as in a practical Halacha. What's the nine? So he refers this to Siddur Yaakov Koppel. So I'm gonna share that with you. So Yaakov Koppel, this is of the four versions of the Siddur Arizal, um, for main and most popular versions. So it, it says like this, "Prepare the, the lulav and take three hadasim, and each of the three hadasim should have three badin." So that is understood. That means the lulav of three twigs. Where, where you may have three hadasim, each of those positions will have three twigs. And put one to the r-right and one to the left and one to the middle. So I think that's where the Rebbe

17:46 is taking from the idea of having, um, nine hadasim. Maybe that's not what he's trying to say, but it could be three badin should have leaves. But by pashut is three badin means three, three twigs. Uh, I did not look up this Shulchan Aruch. So maybe something more explicit over there. So this person's, uh, say... We don't really have an instruction. No, you can't have nine. It's more that they haven't... There wasn't... There were-- There was never an instruction to have nine. That doesn't, doesn't mean that it's anything harmful. Meanwhile, he asked me, "What's the signifi-what's the significance of not having nine?" So, so I told him, Zvara, that the number nine relates to the Midas Emes. Um, Emes is Aleph-Bet-Tav is one-four-four, f-which equals Nisbakot is nine. And here you have from the Ibn Ezra in Parsha Shemos, the whole thing about the number nine relating to the Inyan of Emes and relating to Hashem's name. Okay. But n-number nine relates to Emes. And my, uh, suggestion is that the Hadass, the Chabad with its Inyan emphasis on Inyan of Chas and Chesed on Inyan of, of Chesed. And just... Here's the letter, famous letter of the Alter Rebbe which he wrote very shortly before he passed away in Chovdal Hacheves in Pukfar Piina. Per- could have been a couple of days before, I don't know. But he writes this letter. It's basically a letter for fundraising, uh, after the ravages of the, uh, war, fleeing from Napoleon. And he says that the-- It

19:30 would-- You're gonna have to work with... Y-Although there are principles in Torah, in Halakha, how you can impose upon how much each person has to g- contribute, that's the-- Don't do that. You work with the way of Chesed rather than Emes. And he says the following. That nowadays, he says, it has to be in, um, there's Emes and there's Chesed. In Emes, the Torah, and the Torah has got these guidelines. But when it came to creation, Emes Omar Al Yivro. Emes said, the Midas Emes said, "No, don't, don't create the world." The world is, he says, "Mul kol mol eshkolim." The world is full of falsehood. Chesed Omar Yivro. And Chesed said, "Yes, the wor-- Hashem should create the world because this world is mol eshchasdim, full of people doing good things for other people. And quoting a passage, I believe, "Vatishlach Emes artzo," and Emes was cast to the ground. "Ve'olam b'chesed she'eino shel Emes yibone," and the world is to be built with kindness, which is not Emes. And so we've got... If we have a conflict between Emes and Chesed, so we go for Midas Eme-Midas Chesed rather than Midas Emes. Just to mention a story of, um, with a kaf-- with a, um, with a Beni Shai, that there was a... He described how a young man pleaded to Hashem that he should be given Midas Emes, and he should always say just the truth. And so this, his wish was granted, and he wakes up one morning, and he feels

21:15 very, very, very Emestic. And he gets dressed, he goes out in the courtyard, and there's this old lady who's sweeping up the floor. And she said, "Oh, so nice to see you this morning." And he says, "I'm so fed up of seeing you, you old, ugly old woman." Uh, and, and he realized what he said, but he said the Emes. And then the rest, the rest of the day, every, every interaction, he says the Emes instead of, instead of, uh, being, being nice to people. Uh, and so at the end of the day, he realized how Midas Emes is actually, is not something which you could live with on a, on a day-to-day basis. Uh, be ha-be happy that there's Olam of Chesed She'eino shel Emes. Be ha-be happy with that. Okay. So just suggesting that might be a, a reason to, not to emphasize the number nine, but as I say, it doesn't say not to take nine. It says that there wasn't... Although there is a Sefer which mentions nine, but in Chabad, we don't have such Sohero. That's all. Someone asked me today, "What about eight?" Someone said, "Oh, eight." So I said, "The Rebbe says six." I don't think the Rebbe says six. I don't remember him saying. He just said Esopher, so all right, so go double. We didn't say that, that Dafke six and not seven, not eight. It's, uh, and there's-- So I don't see any harm in having more. It is mentioned that, I think Rabbi Monsheim

22:41 mentions in the Olam HaChabad that historically, one of the kindness the Mishnaglim had against the Chassidim was the fact that they are Marbim B'Hadassum, they're putting up so many Hadassum. Okay, let's move on. Now, this question I got from a really, really precious younger man who I know from, from Moscow from forty years ago, and he's in Ukraine, and he's distributing food to poor families, traveling around the country, and wherever the Jewish families or small Jewish communities, he supports them. This is his shichas. And so he's got, uh, several boxes of eggs, and he wants to repack the eggs. He lives, he lives upstairs. This is on... He has a shul on the downstairs. And he wants to repack these boxes of eggs into trays for, for each family. And so he's in-- He feels it's too much of a shlep to take everything upstairs and downstairs. He's asking, could he do it downstairs, do the repacking in the shul on the, uh, use the bimah, which is just the, just the right height for doing this, uh, work which he's trying to do. So this was, I think, Erev Yom Tov. It was a bit of a rush. I told him, "You can do it. You could take off the bimah cover, and you can use the actual bimah to do this." And so this I want to just share with you the background to this answer, that you can use the bimah, not the, but without the cover. So here you have from

24:10 the Sefer Piskei Teshuvas, the Siman kuf, nun, daled, Dinim Beis Haknesses. And we talk about Tashmishe Kodoshah, Tashmishe Kodoshah Shmishah Kodoshah. If you remember the famous, uh, story about using tzitzits to tickle someone, and that's not being okay. That's using a mitzvah article, which is not okay to use for a mundane activity. And then we've got Tashmishe Kodoshah. So mitzvah means something which is like tzitzits or tzitzit, nayrah. Then we've got Tashmishe Kodoshah, relates to, uh, stuff which has got Hashem's name written, like a Sefer Torah, tefillin, and mezuzah. So now they've got the actual Kodoshah would be the mezuzah itself, then Tashmishe Kodoshah, things which are serving. So he mentions one example is the Aron Kodesh, the map or the cloth which is on the bimah. Then Tashmishe de- Tashmishe Kodoshah, a pertinence, other pertinence of Kodoshah, he gives an example, the bimah. So because the Sefer Torah is not put directly on the, the wood of the table, it's put in with a, a cloth in between, so the is seen as two steps would have been moved, and then he passes the verdict over here. He says, "Tashmisht HaTashmisht HaKedushah," then you would be allowed to use it for mundane stuff, so long as it's not a disgraceful activity. So if it... I would say, if it... No, no one's ever gonna ask this. But if a woman asks can she change a baby's nappy, uh, on a bimah without the cover, the answer would be no. That would be a-- That

25:43 would be Tashmisht Mevozeh. But, uh, but packing eggs is not... It's, it's mundane, but it's not, not, not a disgrace, and therefore that's okay. Then the in-Ingerman tells me that actually he's never used that, that bimah for laining. I guess where he lives, he never got a minyan together. So if that's the case, then for sure it never has... There's a concept of hazmona, which means preparing something for a function, and something becomes sacred only when it was used. Hazmona lo ami'ul tzohe is a psak halacha of the Gemara, which means merely preparing something for a role does not make it sacred. So in this case, if you have never used the bimah for Kriyat HaTorah, then for sure it would be okay. The-- Whilst the bimah cover seems to me, to me quite ancient, and so that, that would have kedushah. You wouldn't be able to-- You shouldn't do nothing directly as it is in picture. Okay, let's move on to a story that a woman received a bottle of champagne from her, her employer. It was all written in Hebrew, labels, whatever. And so she came home, and she put up a pot roast, uh, or in a crock pot. And I don't know the recipe. All I know is that wine helps cooking meat better somehow. It keeps it softer. So she took half a glass of the-- half a glass of this champagne, and she poured it in together into the roas-- into the, uh, pot, into the, uh, crock pot.

27:23 Then to her horror, she looks at the bottle, and it says on it, "Lo kosher." So if you know of... Very often you have a hechsher. Here, possibly for, for, uh, rules in Israel, maybe that they... If it's not kosher, they have to write on it, "Not kosher." At any rate, it says on the bottle, "Not kosher." So now asking what's, what's the din of the meat, and what's the din of the pot? Now, the pot is made of earthenware. It's, uh... And therefore, it cannot be kashered. So it's a significant loss. I don't know, you know, the bracket of the people who will ask the question, but it is a, uh, significant loss. So asking both of the meat... And so the meat is... I was, I was inclined to say, "Don't use the meat." But looking for a heter not to have to throw away the crock pot. So after looking around, I came across one of the, one of the Fosshum, one of the commentaries. It says the following. Normally, we talk about Bitul B'shishim, that a non-kosher food gets dissolved in si- in sixty parts to one. Comes to wine, to wine, a goyische wine, so is Botul B'shisha. Come on, you have it. You have Mishnah in Yadayim, in the dinim of, uh, yayin nesech. If there's, if there's water, if there's six times water to the amount of, of wine there is, then that blend is no longer called wine. You're allowed to drink it. The thing is that

29:01 here, the wine hadn't been mixed with water, um, before pouring in. So it's not so poshut to be matir on that. But I did say that if there were six parts of water added to this, uh, to this crock pot, uh, and so six parts to the one part of, of champagne, then we could rely on Pshat Satrach or whatever. We could rely B'di'eved on saying that we'll look at the wine mixed with the water, and therefore it's gonna be Botul B'shisha, and therefore it doesn't make the meat treif. That's-- So I saw the Sefer Beit Nishtrol, the Nochri quotes this. Uh, um, I didn't manage to find it in the sources which he gives. He mentions this from the Sefer Levush Ishrod. Um, but then one other point, and that is that there's a general question here that for a goyische wine to become ossur, it's when the goy swishes his finger in the wine. He puts-- He dips his finger in the wine, swishes it around. With this is an act of him consecrating it for Avodah Zarah. In the commercially produced wines, the likelihood is it was never touched by a human finger because it's... Everything is mechanized. It's, it's squeezed, you know, crushed, whatever, in the machinery. Goes into vats, you know, into pipes, into bottling. It's... The likelihood is it's never touched, never been touched by a human hand. So ar- arguably, it's not... It was never become, never become yayin nesech, never become, uh, ossur. And that's another, uh,

30:47 support to say that we do not have to, to, uh, throw away or discontinue the use of that crock pot. Right. What else do we have here? So what's been... I've been asked so many times the last few days about tying down tzara'ah with string. So the, um, first of all, people say we can do a natural string, et cetera. Can you use string for schach? So here we have a Shekanah, I think it's Tafresh, uh, where is it? Tafresh Chof Tes. To use string for schach, if it's shel gem, if it's shel siv, it's, it's just very f- quite fibrous. Like, uh, you can still recognize that it's from, uh, bark or something like that, then that would be okay for using for schach. But if it's linen or cannabis hemp... They asked me about jute. I don't know enough about what jute l- l-... It didn't look like. It looked like it was quite processed. And once it's really quite processed, it says, "Nishtana tzurato," then you cannot use it for schach. It's as if it doesn't grow from the ground. So processed, um, fibers, even if it's bidud hakarah, is no, no good for schach. Then we have the next thing, the, the concept of dover hamaymid. That the thing which supports the schach should also be from material which is fit for schach. So we use timbers, 'cause timbers technically could be used, strictly speaking, could be used for schach. So we use timbers to support the schach. That's fine. Um,

32:27 now it is im- good to emphasize that this whole discussion is not a... So it doesn't make the sukkah passul anyways. The idea of not using it, a dover hamaymid, is a lechatchilah. Now let's read these last words here on Sifryet Gimel. "V'di eved shekra he midat hasach mutar be dover mayim kavel tumah mutar leivol lechatchilah." Once the s- sukkah is standing, you're allowed to use and you can make a bracha on it. It's not a-- no hesitation. It's just lechatchilah, we try to avoid, um, supporting the schach with a, with metal or for other things which are mekubal tumah. Now, in the case of a windy area where without securing it, the schach will likely fly away. And by the way, it's these mats which are much more prone to become airborne because they be-- they, they can catch the air. Whereas if it were loose pieces, they would-- you wouldn't have this problem so much. At any rate, so, so you, you want to secure these mats from flying up. So to tie it down with, with, uh, ties, whatever, with string would be a lechatchilah problem. What I've told many people is, I have a etza. Take a, another beam, put it on top of the mat, and then you can screw or tie the upper beam to the lower beam and the, and the mat remains sandwiched safely in between. That generally should, should work. Um, I got actually a, a call from, today from someone who's in China for, uh,

34:06 shlichas for sukkahs, and they're building a sukkah on top of a building on the eleventh floor. Good luck for them, for all their working. Although... But, um, it's, it's quite windy up there sometimes. He's asking about tying it down. I said, "Sure, you should tie it down." And, um, I told him this, this etza, but there's no chochma of, of... Because it's at, at such a height and it does sometimes does get quite windy, then they g- otherwise be left without a sukkah. So they shouldn't, shouldn't be too, uh, machmir on this inyan to make sure they have a sukkah. Right. Um, okay. We've almost finished our list, and so we've got two more items. Koragil. We finished a little early, but that's okay. It's Erev Yom Tov. Now, this is something which came as a... This came as a surprise to me. So many shluchos, shluchim, shluchos running children's activities and asking is there a way they, they want to give kids prizes, to little tatzkas to, to, to give them, uh, to, to, that they should go away with something. So my general understanding hitherto was you cannot give prizes on, on Shabbos and Yom Tov. Um, let's take a look here from Siman Shin Waw, Sifryet Zayin. The Alter Rebbe talks about the esrogim. He says, in fact, that the people do... They are, let's say, they're selling mitzvahs in the shul. They-- That's... They're selling mitzvahs. You sell hagbah, you sell psicha. You're not selling a tangible object. That's why it's

35:59 okay. Then what about the esrog? So even the esrog, you're only selling the mitzvah. But, um, and even the first day, since it's a k- amenas, uh, um, amenas lehachzir, so you're not-- you're only calling them by mitzvah. But to actually be koain of the esrog, the shofar on Yom Tov, that would not be okay. So let, let's... I'm gonna digress for a moment. One shliach this year, he asked me, he, he, um, he's got, let's say, fifteen people will turn up on the Yom Tov morning, and he prepares fifteen sets, and each person comes in shul, takes that lulav and esrog, and that is their lulav and esrog. So he buys it for them, they probably pay him for it afterwards. So is that okay? Well, let's rephrase. Let's say my hadasim have become, have become, uh, spoiled. Can I go to the one who sells hadasim and say, "Can you give me another, um, fresh hadasim?" So is that okay to be, to be koain there? So here he says, to be koain of the esrog on Yom Tov, that becomes a problem. Now, so to give someone a esrog, matan masneh achas, that's okay. But also liknes legamias esrog because of kinyan. So if it's gonna be kind of become freehold for those people, then I said that is... I think that is a problem, and what I suggested to him is that Erev Yom Tov, we're still talking about the shliach with the fifteen people. I told him, "Erev Yom Tov,

37:38 give someone to be kohen each box, each, each, um, set of lulav and esrog. This is, uh... And to be kohen on behalf of the, the members which will come tomorrow." And even if you don't spell out the names, you can rely on breier. But to make a kinyan on their behalf the day before to avoid this kinyan happening on Shabbos or, well, in this case, on Yom Tov. Okay. Now, then we, we're learning Hilchos Yom Tov. In the evening instead of learning Gemara, we learn... Before Yom Tov, we s- this year we learned Hilchos Yom Tov. And we have a very interesting din. It says you, as a Mishnah in, in Peh-- Beah Daf Yod Daled. Mutar lesh lo yachil, to send a gift to another per- to your friend on, on, on Yom Tov. You sh- Through the street. Uh, you can send food and drink, which are edible. Um, then he said the following: Even if it's a gift which are not fit for use that day, but if it's already fit for use bechoil, it don't need to be modified. It's already a f-a finished product. You're allowed to send it as a gift. So you're allowed to send tefillin. You're allowed to send tefillin as a gift on Yom Tov. So Reuven is sending a pair of tefillin to Shimon on Yom Tov, and it's going through the shliach. How's he sending it? Perhaps he's got a, a messenger. Whatever. Uh, you're not allowed to carry stuff on Yom Tov

39:07 u-u-u-unless it's needed for the same day. And here, it's being carried for t- for, for, uh, later on. Kol makayim kim shehu nehen ve'sameach b'ma shemeshalach derabanus lechaverei. Because I have a simcha by delivering gifts, so therefore, for me it's simchas Yom Tov. So you have simchas Yom Tov. So here we see something very surprising, that you are allowed to give on Yom Tov a gift which is going to give simchas Yom Tov. So there's t-two issues here if you look at it carefully. There's this issue of carrying, and there's the issue of giving a gift. And it says you're allowed to. And anyway, the bottom line is you are allowed to give a gift on Yom Tov. Now, elsewhere, we know that if you, let's say, you want to give a chassan a gift, uh, a beher or something, the issue, it's a problem of, of, uh, kinyan on, on, on... To do a kinyan on Sh-Shabbos, et cetera, on Yom Tov. You do a whole shtick. You do a, you do a kinyan before. And here, all of a sudden, you see that you're allowed to do a kinyan. You're allowed to give a gift on Yom Tov. So very, very surprising. Okay. So now let's go back. And this is all Mishnah in Beah. As I said, this is the Mishnah in Beah. Meshach and kelim. You can send, um, kelim. It can be, uh, clothes, whether s-sewn up or not even sewn up, even if it got sharpness. Uh, kol she'one

40:35 osim bai b'Yom Tov meshach and oseh, which whatever can be used. And he says... And then in the, in the Ritva he says, "Even tefillin you'll be allowed to be sent." Okay. So on this basis, this Sefer called Orchos Shabbos, I think it's called, con- a very much contemporary Sefer, writes the following: Children who are ch- participating in a Torah event, a tefillin group or similar, you're allowed to give them gifts in order to encourage them to participate. So this is something which I've been looking for years in various other places and didn't see a heter for it, and here he's saying it is okay. And he says in a note, "These matanos is included like the Inyan of sech mitzvah, possibly included in the heter of the Mishnah," which we just read, um, that you're allowed to give gifts, the sech, for mitzvah simchas Yom Tov, et cetera. Now, and what's the business with the chassan, et cetera. So you give a chassan... I said, well, they... He, he tries a, a, a approach. You give a c-chassan a beher, it's not just for now. It's like a, a, a, it, it's, you know, it's a gift for, for a long-term gift, so to speak. So it's not so much the simcha of the moment. Whereas here they talk about giving a gift on Yom Tov, which we've been talking about, sending the tefillin or sending whatever it may be, is the simcha of the moment. That you're creating your, your... There's Inyan of

42:12 simchas Yom Tov at the moment, and that's why it's okay. So, um, about this, about the lulavim, where it says you wouldn't be able to give a lulav, I suspect that there's a difference whether they will pay for it or not. If you're gonna be giving them a lulav and they're gonna be kohen, that's okay, 'cause sech, sech Yom Tov, et cetera. If they're gonna be paying for it, then it's got to do with more with mekach hamakir, and therefore giving them, uh, something which they'll pay for, uh, after Yom Tov. That's where I see, uh, the, the concern. I'm not sure about that. But meanwhile, I'm very, very relieved to see that we do have a contemporary, uh, psak that to give gifts to children who are participating in a Chinuch event on the Shabbos Yom Tov, that's legitimate. So big chidush for me and, uh, right. I'm sure other people will be pleased to hear this also. Finally, is weeping willow valid for Arava Um, before we go into that question, my cousin who is-- lives in Smolensk, a shliach in Smolensk, picked these aravos in Lubavitch this morning. He went to today's the yurt site of the Rebbe Mahrash at Yom HaTishri, and so he went from Smolensk to Lubavitch. It's probably half an hour's drive or something, perhaps more. But he-- and he picked these aravos in Lubavitch. And although on the right of the screen you have the, the, they hadn't turned red, he has from the same plant he's

43:49 planted at home, and they have turned red. It's got to do with exposure to the sun. Okay, but this, the question here is about weeping willow. And someone, I saw, pointed, brought my attention on Chabad.org, there was a statement that the weeping willow is not an arava. It's a different species. It is not kosher. And I asked them, "Where's the source for this?" "Well, that's how they've always been told." I wasn't really satisfied with that. Now, this is from a contemporary Sefer called Kashu Sarboasa Minim by Yechiel Nachalston. So he's, he has here a leaf from weeping willow. So my question is, what's the difference? Whether it's a bush or a tree? Is there still, it's still the same, uh, species broadly. So he, he addresses it. He writes, "Ein rotz," it's not, uh, recommended to use it for aravah. He says, "It grows by water. Its leaves are, well, with, with serrated edges, um, but quite pronounced." Which I'm not, I'm not so convinced they're pr- more pronounced than the ones in the previous picture. And he says, "It's got two simanim of the kosher arava. It's got the l- long leaf. It's got a red reed. But the, it's got this serrated edge which makes it passul." Um, now, as I say, it's a matter of opinion whether those serrated edges are so much more serrated than, than other aravas which people, we, we used to use them. Probably many people do use them because they're very mild serrated, so it's not a

45:32 problem. At any rate, um, I would say very simply that the weeping willow is not so practical to use for arava because they are floppy rather than s- firm, and then they'll be fa- falling over. So they're not, they're not so suitable. But if a person would be stuck for, uh, aravos, certainly when it would come for, um, Hoshanas, where there's no bracha involved, uh, if that's what you have available, I, I would be more inclined to say that it is a kosher arava. Um, yeah. So that's what I wanted to share with you. Um, of course, if someone has information to the contrary, please share it with us, and we'll share it with the world in the future. Meanwhile, I'm going to wish you all a freiliche Chag HaSukkot. And we should be zoche to celebrate Chag HaSukkot. Amen. Amen. Freilichen Sukkot.