קידוש בין שש לשבע (חלק 1)

00:00 This is Iggers. Today, we are doing a special episode. The real reason why, why we're doing a special episode is because last time we talked-- the last time we did Iggers together, we discussed what to do when a spouse disagrees with you about Halakha, or when there's a disagreement about, uh, about whether to keep Jewish law in the home. And the answer is obviously, Halakha takes precedence. Uh, you have to keep Shulchan Aruch. If it comes down to a straight din, there is no room for it because of Shalom Bayis, we're not going to-- w-we're gonna violate a darai, so we're not gonna do a -- we're not gonna keep Shabbos for Shalom Bayis. That's not even on the table. However, we did see a letter from the Rebbe where he seemed very surprised that a couple was arguing over Minhagi Chabad, as if, uh, that's not something worth arguing over. The Rebbe didn't say that explicitly in the letter, but that was definitely the implication that at the very least, this, uh, this couple that we read about in this letter appeared to be invested possibly for a divorce over a Minag Chabad, and we, uh, we-- and the Rebbe was shocked by this. So we sort of pulled from this a general principle, which is that when there's a black and white Halakha, uh, we're quite stuck, and Shalom Bayis doesn't really pay-- play too much of a role. When it comes to anything less than that, there's sometimes some wiggle room, and

00:56 it really is something that needs to be discussed on a case-by-case basis with the Mashpia and with the Rav. Uh, pursuant to that, we talked about the fact that among Anash, the number one probably non-Shulchan Aruch, Minag-based Shalom Bayis issue this time of year, and maybe in all times of year, is what time to make Kiddish on Shabbos. This one comes up a lot. Um, I cannot tell you how many times I've been told by other people in our community and people in other communities that they either do or do not because of Shalom Bayis or despite the lack of Shalom Bayis, but it really is. This is, uh, if you ask a Lubavitcher what Chabad Minag gets most in the way of your Shalom Bayis, I think a lot of them would say, uh, not making Kiddish between six and seven because that's exactly when dinnertime is supposed to be this time of year. Okay. So because of that, we're now going to do a deep dive into the Rebbe's take on, on, uh, on when to make Kiddish on Shabbos, uh, whether we can make Kiddish between six and seven. We're gonna do a lot of background Halakha to really understand where the dinam come from. And, uh, I don't think this needs to be complicated. I also don't think this needs to be long. There are much longer versions of this that exist. Um, essays have been written many, many times over. I really do think that this is something that we

01:56 could do in, uh, in about thirty minutes. So we might run over a little bit since we started a little late, but, uh, I don't think this has to be an enormous inyan. I also don't think this has to be a contentious inyan. Um, there's, uh, there's what to say on all sides of the discussion, and I think we'll get some clarity. Okay. So I wanna start off with, uh, with why we don't make Kiddish between six and seven on Shabbos. I used to tell my students when I was on Shlichus, we don't make Kiddish between six and seven on Shabbos, and they would say back to me, "Why?" And I would say, "Because it makes Mars angry." This was my flippant response. It makes the planet Mars angry. Now, i-it was not that flippant, as a matter of fact, because, uh, that is, that is more or less the reason given in the Gemara and more or less the reason given in Halakha. So let's take a look at some of the primary sources. We have a Gemara here. It's Masechet Shabbos kuf kuf tes amud beis. Tania Rabbi Yosi bar Yehuda ehemeir, he says, "Shnei malachei shor es milavin l'adam b'Erev Shabbos." There are two malachim. Uh, you probably heard this one when you were kids. Did you know it was a Gemara? The Daf Yomi people knew it was a Gemara. Did anybody else know it was a Gemara? There are two malachim that escort a person home on Erev Shabbos from

02:50 shul when they come back home. So after you finish davening on Shabbos, there are two malachim, two angels, that come back home with you. Echa teveh ve'echa rah. One of them is a good malach, one of them is a bad malach. Because b'halaveseh, when you come into your house, im atza ner daluk v'shulchan arech mitas u'mutzas, when you come to the house and you find that there's a candle burning and the table set and the beds are made, malach teveh amir, "Yehi ratzon m'sheh shabbos acheres kach." The good angel says, "May it be God's will that it will always be the next Shabbos will be like this one, too." And the malach rah ein, "Amen ba'al karchen." The, uh, the evil angel is forced to answer amen to the blessing of the good angel. That is one Gemara to keep in the back of your heads, is that we have a positive angel and a negative angel. Why am I telling you this Gemara now? We're gonna see a little bit lower that the Erev Shabbos is going to say that each of these malachim is associated with a constellation, and that the reason why we don't wanna make Kiddish during six and seven is because at that moment, the evil angel has precedence. But we'll see that in a second. Keep that thought in the back of your head. We have a second Gemara that we need to know. It's Masechet Shabbos kuf chaf tes amud beis, and this is Mar saying that you

03:44 shouldn't, uh, b'makeh dam, you shouldn't bloodlet on certain times, specifically when Mazal Madim is in charge. When the, when the Mazal, when the constellation of Mars, we're gonna talk about what that means exactly, what is a constellation of Mars. Just hold that for now. When Mars is dominant, when the astrological sign of Mars, when the constellation of Mars is dominant, don't bloodlet because all sorts of negative things happen when a person bloodlets under Mars. And, uh, as for people who do this, shalom pasai Hashem, some people do it anyway, but fortunately, fools are protected by Hashem. Simple people are protected, so we don't always worry about Mazal Madim. But as a general rule, it'd be a good idea not to get involved with Mars. Now, what we really need is this Rashi. There's a Rashi on this Gemara Masechet Shabbos on kuf chaf tev, tes amud beis, that first of all explains the problem with Mars, and second of all explains how Mars can ascend, be part of a constellation, what exactly that means. I'm sure this is something most of us have wondered, is, uh, is Mars is a planet. It's in the sky or it's not in the sky. How it moves across the sky is not terribly predictable. Um, what exactly it means that Mars is in charge between six and seven on Fridays, why this isn't a problem on a Wednesday. Um, Rashi does explain this right here, and the Rebbe's been tying to this Rashi in many letters. So first

04:45 Rashi says, "V'Mazal Madim m'shamesh b'shas zugos. V'Mazal Madim munah al cherev." Mazal Madim is the part I want you to see. Mazal Madim, the constellation of Mars, the planet Mars, is in charge of sword and in charge of pestilence and in charge of punishment. And, uh, zugos u'kashrin. In general, it appears on even hours. Um, that's a different discussion we're not gonna get into today, but it's a time that sheidim are able to take charge, and Perones is ready. So Mars is a very negative thing. Now here, Rashi explains why Mars is ascendant and how exactly that happens. So this, uh, this abbreviation is the order of the Mazalot as they listed in Rambam and many other places. Uh, that is, I'm gonna get them all wrong. That's Shabti, that's Tzedek, so that's Saturn, that's Jupiter, that's Mars. The Ches is Chamah, that's Sun, I think, right? Yeah. I think so. And then that is, um, Negeh would be Venus, and then Kehov is, I can't remember, and Lamed is Levana. Okay, in any event, we have, uh, we have the constellation. So Rashi says, "Seida shais ki shinisnu m'ma'eres m'mazalot sha'ar Rishonish al dalet b'Shabbos shima shabati first." Okay, so listen to this. Uh, what day did the stars get created? Day four, right? So prior to day four, we don't have stars in the sky. When God put the stars in the sky, he put them in, uh, by the hour, it sounds like according to Rashi, is the first star that was

05:55 put in the sky on the fourth day was Saturn, and then after that came Jupiter, and then after that came, uh, Mars, and then after that came the Sun, and after that came Venus, and after that came whatever Kehov is. I cannot remember for some reason. And after that came the Moon, and, uh, each of these seven Mazalot w-took up one of the seven hours of that first day. The problem is that there are more than seven hours in a day, right? So since there is a seven-hour cycle of each of these things going in that order, imagine that order going from I really should have written in English, it'd be easier to remember. But going from Saturn to Jupiter to Mars to Sun to Nega, to Kehav, to Levana is going to repeat itself over and over again, starting on the first hour of Wednesday. That is the hour between midnight and one AM. That's gonna be when, uh, that's the first time we see any star, and that seven cycle is gonna repeat over and over again. If you do the math, and I did do the math, and it does work out. I was on the bus with like a, with like a pen trying to scribble this. It does work out then that from six to seven PM on Friday, since it keeps on cycling through those seven all the way to Friday, you will arrive at Madim. You're gonna arrive at Mars on S-- from six to seven PM on

06:55 Friday. So that's what it means that Mars is ascendant. It doesn't necessarily even mean that Mars is in the sky at that time, or that Mars is an end-- an identifiable constellation in any particular place. It has nothing to do with that. It's that when God made the world, he initially put the stars in order one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and every hour they repeat which one is in charge, and Mazal Madim happens to fall out. Uh, it falls out several times. It falls out throughout the week over and over again. Every seven hours it falls out, right? But one of those seven hours that it falls out on is on Friday nights from six to seven PM, right around the time you would wanna say Kiddush, and we do not wanna say Kiddush at that time. Why not? There's Sefer Shabbos. Sefer Shabbos is not a new book. Um, it's, uh, it's about as old as the Shulchan Aruch. I think he lived in like sixteen fifty. So it's a, uh, so maybe a little later. But, uh, it's quoted by the Magen Avraham. It's a pretty old Sefer. The Sefer Shabbos says the following: «kisvei achrenim», they wrote, «mikadesh k'neged she nichnas mazal», I think that's supposed to be Mazal Madim «l'tchilas leil shabbos», that you should make Kiddush before Madim arises on, on the beginning of El-- of Leil Shabbos. Don't make Kiddush while Mars is in charge. Why? «B'tchilas leil shabbos m'shabbos mazal madim» because at the beginning of

07:53 Shabbos, Madim, that's Mars, is in charge, «v'samech mem meshalalav, and the samech mem, that's Saturn, that's the Yetzer Hara, is in charge of that particular constellation. «U'v'shach achrenim shel leil shabbos m'shabbos mazal tzedek». But the last, the hour right before that, remember the order. The order is Saturn, then Jupiter, then Mars. So since Jupiter, which is Tzedek, is right before that, Tzedek is actually has a great Malach associated with it. That's Malach Tzadkiel. Tzadkiel is the name of a Malach, I guess. And that Malach, Tzadkiel, is in charge of that Mazal. «Hem shnei malachim sh'amru chazal ach atei v'ech adra». Now, in our Gemara in Masechet Shabbos, we said two Malachim escort you home on Erev Shabbos, says the Sefer Shabbos. Why? Because that also means that Jupiter and Mars are escorting you home on Erev Shabbos. That is that we have the planet of Jupiter near the beginning of Erev Shabbos. We have the planet of Mars right when Shabbos starts. They have two Malachim, therefore, the Malach that doesn't like us very much, the Samech Mem, and the Malach that does like us, Tzadkiel, and these two Malachim are both walking us home on Erev Shabbos, one good and one evil. «Di n'et echshli kapets shabbes b'kiddush m'shemes tzidra». You don't wanna make Kiddush at the moment that Mars is in charge, «rachmi m'shemes tzidra». You wanna make Kiddush at the time that Tzedek is in charge. «V'rabak karchia na amen» because the whole point of our Gemara was that he's going to

09:00 see the table set, and then one Malach, whichever one is dominant, is gonna make a bracha, and the Malach that is, uh, that is «baal karcha», that is forced to answer, is gonna answer, "Amen." The idea in the Sefer Shabbos is that if you were to make Kiddush at the time when Mars is in charge, you'd be making Kiddush at the time that the bad Malach's in charge, and that means the bad Malach will be able to say, God forbid, that every Shabbos should be horrible, and Tzedek would be forced to answer, Tzadkiel would be forced to answer, "Amen." So we wanna u-- we wanna do Kiddush at a time when Mars is not dominant, not necessarily for the reasons that I would have thought that come from our Gemara in Shabbos kuf kuf tes, that Mars is a time of evil and a time of ‹foreign› to damage us, but very specifically because we're trying to get the right Malach to be in charge at that moment, and making Kiddush under Mars would give the Malach that wants us to have bad Shabboses for coming weeks, uh, a certain primacy. And then the second Malach would, uh, the second Malach, Tzadkiel, would have to say amen to his bracha. Is, uh, I know we did this quickly. Is this part clear? People are okay? Let's keep on going then. So that's the basis of Mazal Madim. That's what it really means to not make Kiddush under Mars, and I found that very helpful when

10:00 I was learning this because I was never completely clear on what it meant to not make Kiddush under Mars. So now I think we understand that. Let's go on to the Halakha itself. Is it clear-cut that we don't make Kiddush under Mars? Well, it's not in Shulchan Aruch. Uh, the Mechaber doesn't bring it, the Rama doesn't bring it. So the first thing you need to know is that, uh, this is not a Halakha, it's not a Din, it's definitely in the area of Minhag. However, it is a fairly strong Minhag. It goes all the way back to the Magen Avraham in one form or another. So we have here, ‹foreign language›. This is important because the people who don't-- the people who say that you should not, uh, you should not wait until seven o'clock to make Kiddush are Midayek in this Magen Avraham and also Midayek in the Shulchan Aruch that might be usher to wait. Uh, the Shulchan Aruch does bring the Halakha that the moment you come home, you have to make Kiddush. Uh, you have to make Kiddush immediately. ‹foreign language›, what does that mean? Says the Magen Avraham, ‹foreign language›. There's a mitzvah derabanan to mention Shabbos when it enters. The ‹foreign language› was that it would be over Kiddush or that it would be over wine, but, uh, the idea of mentioning Shabbos when it enters is a mitzvah derabanan according to most sources. Since we understand it generally to be a mitzvah derabanan, that would mean the moment

10:56 that you can make Kiddush, you have to make Kiddush, and you're not allowed to wait. So, uh, this seems to be a Din. The Magen Avraham paskens this way. It's in the Shulchan Aruch, that we're not allowed to wait. Waiting an hour, sitting home and waiting an hour for Kiddush might be a real halakhic problem. Now, the Magen Avraham goes on to say something else, though. ‹Foreign language›. That's from the Arizal. The Arizal says, ‹foreign language›. I missed a word. ‹Foreign language›, that a person should make Kiddush before nightfall. It's better to make Kiddush before nightfall. There's no reason, by the way, Al Pi Halakha, to wait until 10:00 for Kiddush. There's a reason to wait until 10:00 for Maariv, but, uh, but not for Kiddush. ‹Foreign language› because the beginning of Shabbos is Mazal Madim. That's when Mars is ascendant. ‹Foreign language› and the end of the day before is going to be Mazal Tzedek. ‹Foreign language›. So the Magen Avraham wants us to make Kiddush in Tzedek. Now, notice this. We also kind of have this from the Sefer Shabbos. Is the idea here to make Kiddush not between six and seven or to make Kiddush at six? There are many achron who wanna say that, uh, that the, that, that the minhag is to make kiddush in the sixth at, at, at between five and six, to make kiddush while Tzedek is in charge because we want the malach Tatkil to be able to make the bracha for us, and it's not

11:58 so much about avoiding Madim as much as it is as getting Tzedek. So that would mean that according to the way that I'm reading the Magen Avraham right now, and I'm not the only one who reads him this way, it sounds like what the Magen Avraham is saying is that we really don't care about not making kiddush, uh, between sev-- six and seven. We also don't really care about m-making kiddush, uh, we're not trying... W-we wouldn't make kiddush at eight. Uh, the idea here is to make kiddush between five and six. So it's more... And this actually, this reading of the Magen Avraham works better with this first sentence, 'cause there is a din that you're supposed to make kiddush immediately. It's hard to imagine that the Magen Avraham would say, "Make kiddush immediately," but also push it off an hour if Mars is in the way. So the way a lot of people read this Magen Avraham is very straightforward. Make kiddush as soon as possible. If you have a choice of making kiddush at five fifty or at, uh, or at seven o'clock, obviously choose five fifty. Go earlier rather than later because earlier will put you in Tzedek, but certainly make kiddush as soon as you get home. That's the way a lot of people read the Magen Avraham. It's no worry, that's not how the Alter Rebbe is going to read it. The Alter Rebbe reads the Magen Avraham as saying that, uh, that you should make kiddush immediately as long

12:52 as it's not while Mars is in the way, but that is not the only way to read it. It's obviously our way. We're partial to the Alter Rebbe, but it's, it's not the only one out there. There is an Aruch HaShulchan you should be aware of that says that this whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. He says that, uh, I've seen somebody, and he's quoting the Magen Avraham as if he's just somebody. He says, "I've seen somebody out there who says that you should make kiddush specifically before nighttime." Because that would be a problem of, uh, 'cause otherwise you'll intersect with Mars. I think this is very surprising, says the Aruch HaShulchan. Who says that a mazal can control us? A constellation can't control me. I saw in Kadmonim, I don't know what the source is that he's quoting, but he says there's an old source that says that the nations used to sit around on Shabbos in the darkness, and they would cry because the mazalhs were negative on Shabbos, and they were worried they were gonna get hurt. And when HaKadosh Baruch Hu told us, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us Shabbos, he commanded us to do the opposite, to light a whole bunch of candles and to celebrate Shabbos specifically to show that we're not scared of the mazalhs, that we're not scared of constellations. Hashem took us to remove us from the control of the heavens. How can you possibly say that we should adjust our kiddush because of a concern of

14:04 a constellation? We're not worried about constellations. Somebody who trusts in Hashem, Chesed will surround him at all times. The Aruch HaShulchan says this is utterly ridiculous. However, we have nothing but our Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe says in Shulchan Aruch Harav, Siman Reish, Ayin Aleph, this is how he reads the Magen Avraham, I believe, and this is certainly how he reads the din. Here, let's read him inside. Note, the Alter Rebbe does not say you must. The Alter Rebbe says, to make kiddush as soon as you get home, and then says, So the Alter Rebbe is not bringing this to the halakha, he's bringing this to the minhag. He's saying, they're those who are careful. As a minhag, they're those who are careful not to make kiddush in the first hour of the night. which is seven hours counting from chatzos hayom. Uh, and when he tells you to look in Taf Chaf Ches, I am sorry to report it doesn't exist. We don't have that section of his Shulchan Aruch. That means either do it early, like the Magen Avraham says, or or to do it an hour later. Now, that is how he's understanding the Magen Avraham, and as I told you, the Alter Rebbe is, uh, is that's one understanding of the Magen Avraham. The other way to understand the Magen Avraham is to do it earlier. The Alter Rebbe is reading into Magen Avraham, that he's saying seven to, six to seven is off-limits, so either do it early or do it

15:10 late, but not in that hour. 'cause that's when Mars is in charge. That's straight out of the, uh, las K- uh, uh, las Shabbos. And then the Alter Rebbe says, as if trying to knock this idea a little bit, we've already explained you have to make kiddush the moment you come home from schul. So I don't-- nobody knows exactly what to do with that sentence. One thing that you might wanna do with that sentence is that that means definitely make kiddush early, not late. Don't sit around waiting for an hour. Another way to read that sentence is that the is a minhag, and the halakha, the most important thing is to make kiddush as quickly as possible. There are a couple different ways to read this. But in any event, what I want us to take away from all of this is from the top, we understood that mazal Madim is from halakha. We're seeing that's the Magen Avraham, and there's not everybody takes the Magen Avraham all that seriously, and some people put the Magen Avraham, the Aruch HaShulchan says he's wrong. And, uh, other opinions wanna take the Magen Avraham to mean specifically make ki- kiddush early. The Alter Rebbe is very clear what he thinks. The Alter Rebbe says any time is fine for kiddush, early or late, whatever, but definitely not in the middle, and that definitely not comes with a couple footnotes. First of all, it says , that a person should make kiddush exactly when they come home, which

16:15 might be that, uh, which might knock the six to seven rule a little bit. Also, the Alter Rebbe's using the , which means that we're dealing with a minhag, not a halakha. So it is a minhag to be careful between six and seven. Now, what time is that exactly? Is that really between six and seven? Is a, uh, is a classic question. It's one that the Rebbe addresses in many, many letters. Uh, people are very confused about what time exactly not to make kiddush. I'm sure you've heard multiple opinions. I'm gonna tell you the bottom line. Um, the bottom line is, uh, from basically all Rabbinic Chabad at this point. Uh, Rav Rein wrote this on his website. Uh, Rav, uh, Rav Raskin, uh, made a website to help. He was the person who helped make the website to help figure out the times exactly. Uh, I wanna tell you the bottom line because we should at least know the practical din. I, I don't know of any Lubavitcher Rav, any, any major Lubavitcher Rav who, uh, who disagrees with the bottom line. The bottom line is that this is actually five fifty-six to six fifty-six where we live and not, uh, and not, uh, and not, uh, um, and not six to seven PM exactly. It's four minutes off. And I'm gonna explain to you why it's four minutes off. It's not because you have to adjust the time every week. It's always four minutes off. Every single week it is the exact same

17:14 time. There are three shitas in how to understand the Alter Rebbe and how to understand what the hour of six to seven is. Uh, one way to understand it is that it's just the first hour of Shabbos, no matter what time it is. As Shabbos changes, it's the first hour. Sometimes it's four to five, sometimes it's five to six. That is possible to read into the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe does say, the first hour of the night. And all you have to do is adjust chatzos to make that fit. It's hard to fit that into the parenthesis, but that is one reading. As far as I know, nobody reads it that way. Um, but one reading of the Alter Rebbe is that this just means the first hour of Shabbos. I don't know anybody who has that opinion. Then there are two opinions that did exist in Lubavitcher sources, and they wrote to the Rebbe multiple times trying to get the Rebbe to clarify this, and ultimately, the Rebbe clarified it, I think, very clearly, uh, and I think everybody else does too at this point. It took a while for this to develop and for us to have a solid take on exactly what the Rebbe thinks. Uh, you'll see in our letters that the Rebbe keeps on clarifying and clarifying. So two possible opinions is: what does it mean six hour after Chatzos? Does that mean that... Oh, seventh hour after Chatzos. Um, I should write seventh here. Seventh hour after Chatzos.

18:12 Uh, is that literal Chatzos or is that a average Chatzos? There's such a thing as Chatzos Amiti and Chatzos Amtsi. Uh, Chatzos Amiti is real Chatzos. As you know, Chatzos shifts a little bit every single week. It's not the same thing every day. Uh, today's Chatzos will not be the same as tomorrow's Chatzos. It's off by a couple of minutes. But if you were to take an average, you would find that if you are exactly in a-- If, if the average Chatzos should be twelve. It should always be twelve. Uh, not necessarily where you live. I'll explain that in a second. But the average Chatzos should be twelve, and it moves around that average, twelve O one, twelve O two, twelve twenty, eleven forty, uh, the eleven forty-five, but there's an average in the middle. So the question is, are we counting seven hours from average Chatzos, or are we counting seven hours from technical Chatzos? We have many letters from the Rebbe about this. They're all printed in Shulchan Aruch. I'm gonna bring you, uh, two letters here, plus a smidgen of Likutei Sichos in order to explain exactly what we hold. This is from Igros Kodesh. This is from Chelek Yod Beis. The page is Reish Chaf Vav, and the Rebbe writes, says, the Kiddush of the Kadesh Mishah, six to seven bed of Shabbos. That which you write about being careful not to make Kiddush between six to seven on Friday. First of all, we mean sixty min-- sixty second, uh, sixty,

19:18 excuse me, sixty minutes hours. That is normal hours, not Shaas Manios. This is not the special hours, the change in length. You can use a normal clock. So first of all, this does not have to be complicated. It's not gonna be weird times. It's just gonna be one weird time because the minutes at least are gonna line up. Because the way Mazalos, the way the constellations travel in the sky, according to Rambam, does not actually change between the summer and the winter. When it comes to midnight or midday, that actually doesn't change in a longitud-- in a latitudinal way. When you go higher up to near the North Pole, when you go all the way to the South Pole, no matter where you are, north to south, midnight doesn't change. Midnight changes when you go east to west a little bit, but that's just because of time zones. The actual time of midnight doesn't change in the top and the bottom of the globe. Therefore, we mean six whole hours, that is, count six-- sixty minutes six times after Chatzos. The Rebbe does need to clarify this because we could have gotten stuck on some real sticky Shaas Manios business where we had to figure out exactly how many, what exactly an hour is, what exactly a minute is. The Rebbe says, forget that. When we're trying to make this calculation, step one, make sure you are counting six full hours of sixty minutes from mid, from midday. The question is when, when, when midday

20:24 is. We need this next letter. When is midday? Igros Kodesh Chelek Yod Gimel, page Chaf. Kuf. Chaf, excuse me. Those who are careful notice the Rebbe's Lashon. Once again, the Rebbe recognizes this is a Minhag, not a Halacha. Uh, Minhag, um, Minhagam are important, but it's also important to know the difference. those who are careful based on the Alter Rebbe not to be make Kiddush. They ask how to make the calculation. They don't understand my answer. says the Rebbe. I don't know why they, I don't know why they don't understand my answer. Every Mazal has a sixty-minute supremacy. This is the thing that we saw all the way back in the Gemara, all the way back in Rashi. The Rashi said that when Hashem first made the world, he gave every Mazal an hour. That's not Shaas Manios, that's a literal hour. Every Mazal gets an hour. Rashi and Shabbos, the, the Rebbe is Matayim to that Rashi that we read. Rashi explains exactly how that order works. So therefore, it would be, excuse me, therefore, everything will happen in the seventh hour, that is six to seven PM, using regular hours. after mid, after midday. as the Alter Rebbe himself says. And how do you find Chatzos? You look exactly between Neitz and Shkiah. Now, that is problematic. If Sh-- if Chatzos is exactly between Neitz and Shkiah, you know Neitz, which is sunrise, and Shkiah, which is sunset, you know they change. Since they change, that would mean this, this letter sounds like

21:43 what the Rebbe is saying is to do option number two, to take the seventh hour after technical Chatzos, which would mean that every week we would, we would, we would have a slightly different time that we can't make Kiddush. However, in Likutei Sichos, which of course is edited by the Rebbe, the Rebbe does clarify that that's not what he means. I brought you a very small piece of it. The whole Sicha can be found in Chelek Tes Zayin, page five seventy-six, where the Rebbe says People would have thought you have to choose, you have to find real Chatzos, which is gonna change every single day, and you're going to calculate six hours after that. That's easy to understand when the Chama is first. But the Kavana, based on what I have seen them Minhag be, says the Rebbe. I don't mean the Minhag, the Minhag is what people do. The, the Rebbe is really not saying what's right and wrong here. The Rebbe is saying you would have thought from the Lashon that we would have to change the time every week, but that's simply not what is done. So the Kavana, based on what I've seen people do, and this is the Rebbe bringing this in an edited Sicha, is to use average midday. So that would mean that average midday is twelve o'clock, and that would mean six to seven PM. Now, why am I telling you, given that we just said that the Rebbe's final bottom line is that this is seven

22:49 hours or six hours, however you wanna use that number, after, uh, average, after the average of Chatzos, which is twelve o'clock, why am I telling you that all Chabad Rabbonim pretty much will tell you that it's between five fifty-six and six fifty-six in New York and not from six to seven PM? And the answer is actually a secular answer. It requires some secular knowledge. Um, it is exactly twelve o'clock in Philadelphia, but it's not exactly twelve o'clock in New York, and that's not because we are in a different place. It's because of a law that was passed in 1883. So I wrote this all in English here, uh, so you can read it yourselves. What it says here, uh, in summary is that, uh, before 1883, we used to have a time zone in every city. And so New York would be, it would be twelve o'four in New York when it was twelve o'clock in Philadelphia, and it would be, uh, eleven fifty-four in Baltimore. It would be twelve sixteen in Boston, uh, whenever it was twelve in Philadelphia, based on the granular differences in their latitudinal line, how far away they were from i-- from, from the main lines, from, from the fifteenth of every one of the latitudinal lines. Um, that was a nightmare when trains and planes started hitting the scene. I guess trains were the real problem in 1883. You would have had, uh, you would have had accidents happening. I mean, you needed things to run on time. So

23:50 they made a rule that they were going to draw. America decided to draw lines through specific cities and say, this city is now the actual time, and everybody else has to change their clocks to line up with that time to make an Eastern Time zone. So everything in the Eastern Time zone ended up giving into Philadelphia. So Philadelphia became-- Philadelphia's twelve o'clock stuck, and New York took away four minutes from its actual time. So New York set their clocks back four minutes. Um, that means that right now we are actually living the clock. When you look at the clock right now and it says one:02 PM, that's actually off by four minutes from reality. Reality is that New York has set its clocks back four minutes in order to conform to the rest of the Eastern Time zone. Because of that, the real twelve o'clock is actually four minutes off. So that's why it's not that we're using Shaas Manios. It's not that you have to adjust the time every week. It's just that based on where we are, had 1883 never happened and had we never passed these laws, uh, it would have been six to seven. But since we passed these laws, our clocks are all off by four minutes, technically. Every clock in New York is off by four minutes relative to the Eastern Time zone, and therefore, our time that we don't make Kiddush is actually five fifty-six to six fifty-six because we changed our clocks. But it's only because we

24:52 changed our clocks. It's not because of any-- an-anything that's difficult to understand in Halacha. Al pi Halacha, the din is it should be six to seven. The problem is our clocks are intentionally turned four minutes off as of the year 1883. So, uh- Is that something, is that something the Rebbe clarified, or is that something the Rabbonim that today- The Rabbonim clar-- The, no, the, the Rabbonim. The Rebbe didn't clarify this. The Rebbe clarifies that it should be six to seven straight. However, as many Rabbonim have now clarified, a seven straight only applies in Philadelphia. In New York, six to seven straight is actually off by four minutes. Because of u-- because of-- Look, if I change-- if, if we all decide in Pomona we're all gonna set our clocks ahead by a minute, we know that al pi halakha we're not gonna be able to keep Shabbos at that time. We're gonna have to change when we pre-- when we keep Shabbos. The fact is that America moved the clocks. Um, that, that's, that's artificial. Uh, the truth is that average midday is twelve, and that means that the avera-- that the problem time for Ma'ariv is six to seven. And the fact that we changed our clocks by four minutes means that now we have to keep that in mind in the backs of our heads. But, uh, that's, that's ac-- it's poshit. It's poshit that that's the din, um, because, because our clocks have been turned. It's not the truth of the

25:52 time. Uh, you can actually figure out exactly how much you have to change all by yourself if you count longitudinal lines. Um, longitudinal lines, the vertical ones. If you count them, you can figure out exactly where the real twelve o'clock is on your clocks. There's actually another way to do it, too. There's, like, three dates in the calendar where real, uh, where, where real chatzos will correspond exactly with, um, with average chatzos, and you can pull the date from there. But in any event, um, this, uh, there's a website that did this, uh, under Rabbi Raskin, where you can go to, like, uh, I forget what they call it. There's some website, it's easy to find, where you can calculate where you live, exactly what your twelve o'clock is. It doesn't change from week to week. The only time it will change is by daylight savings time, because when you put the clocks forward and put the clocks backward, you can change it by a whole hour. And the reason why is 'cause, once again, this is artificial. This isn't because of the truth of what midday is. It's because somebody legally somewhere decided to change the time. I think in, like, Tennessee, they don't change the clocks. They won't have to change their time. So right now, it is from five fifty-six to six fifty-six, and when the clocks change, it will change by exactly an hour. But we'll always be exactly four minutes off from the actual six to seven just because we're

26:52 in New York, and that's a change that New York made. Um, we have five minutes left. I'd like to spend those last five minutes on some of the problems that come up, um, because I think literally the Zoom is gonna shut out on us. Uh, um, honestly, m- it might make more sense to break, to break this into two shiurim and do it next time. Um, yeah, let's break into two shiurim and do it next time. The thing that we wanna cover also is, uh, what we do when this runs up against our, uh, our priorities and the things that matter to us and the people who matter to us. Uh, the Rebbe has a letter about what to do when there are guests in your house. Should you be strict about this, or should you be more lenient when there are guests around? What about the Shalom Bayis problem that kicked off the entire shiur? Should we fight with our wives about this? How much should you fight your, with your wife about this? Um, obviously, never fight with your wife, but, uh, you know what I mean. Uh, what to do with small children. Should small children wait? Should small children be fed early? Uh, should they be taught to keep midagan? These are things that are addressed in various letters from the Rebbe and from various Rabbonim, and, uh, I think we're gonna do it next time. So this is part one then. Part one, we did the halakhic basis, we clarified

27:45 the times, and, uh, we talked about the fact that we're dealing with a minhag. And with-- within this minhag, the minhag as it's finally understood through looking at the Rebbe's letters and seforim, I think it's very clear and at this point essentially universal that we're dealing with the seventh hour after average chatzos, and that average chatzos where we live is four minutes off from Philadelphia. So, uh, we're, we're, we- we're going to be careful between five fifty-six and six fifty-six. Okay. Thank you all very much.