Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Okay, welcome back, everybody, to another week of Answering Your Shailas. And again, as always, it should be Luz Chus, Rufu Shalema, for Yehonatan Eitan Ben Bat Sheva Bracha, our dear friend Rabbi Jonathan Cohn, Joko, he should have Rufu Shalema, he should feel good, he should have all of his strength.
and continue doing the great things that he does for the Jewish people, for all of the Talmidim of our Yeshiva in particular. Okay, let's get to the questions. Question number one. What are the customs regarding fasting for children before Bar or Bas Mitzvah? Does this differ between minor and major fasts and between boys and girls? Okay, so this is one of the larger misconceptions in Judaism.
Rav Schechter always loves to quote from Rav Shlomo Salman Auerbach that there are three dinim that relate to three and none of them are true. And they are. Three fasts before the bar mitzvah is a myth. There is no chinuch anaveilus. So there is no din that you're supposed to fast three fasts before the bar mitzvah.
and that is something that seems to be a prevalent custom that people have, or an understanding that people are supposed to do that. No such thing. There is a din in Shulchan Aruch that if a person is healthy, if a child is healthy, he's supposed to fast two Yom Kippurs before the bar or girl before the Bas Mitzvah. Two Yom Kippurs, so that sometimes the child is quite young.
It could be that it was just their 11th birthday, and... and they have to fast Yom Kippur already, but none of the minor fasts at all, not tishbav, nothing for a katan.
The other two, by the way, are that if you take the other two threes that are part of the three misconceptions that Rav Shlomo Zalman Orbach used to say, is that if you take Torah to a base Avel, you take a Sefer Torah to a base Avel, you need to lean from it three times. That's not true. You just need to bring an Aron Kodesh with it so that it's not just out there.
So that's why most Chavar Kadishos have an Oron Kodesh that they'll give you, or now Misaskim will give you an Oron Kodesh together with the Sefer Torah. And the third thing that people, that's a misconception, is that after the bathroom they have to wash three times.
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Chapter 2: What are the customs regarding fasting for children before Bar or Bat Mitzvah?
There's no such thing after the bathroom. You just have to wash until you're clean. So all three of those things are misconceptions about the number three. So what should a child do when it comes to Yom Norayim, let's say? So Rav Shechter often points out that they should listen to the easy things.
Chapter 3: Does the requirement for fasting differ between major and minor fasts?
Young kids often like to fast. Even younger kids, if he's healthy, which Rav Shechter said, we all are in America. The national disease is obesity. Everyone has plenty of food and is very well nourished. So you should fast two years before the bar mitzvah. And the preceding two years before that, you should fast half a day. But before that, no fasting at all.
And on the minor fast, there's no need to fast whatsoever. Okay, and that's what my kids did. They always fasted two Yom Kippur before the bar mitzvah. So in some ways, they had it easier than their friends who had to fast three fasts before the bar mitzvah. In some ways, harder because they had to fast that much. that second Yom Kippur. Okay, question number two.
Is it permitted to play games of chance for money purely for recreation without a livelihood motive? Okay, we don't have to go through the whole sugya of Asmachta that appears in Mesecha Sanhedrin. We know that Mesechik Pekuvya and Mafri Chayonim are Pasol Eidos because a gambler is Pasol Eidos. So the Gemara has two opinions, whether only someone who gambles
exclusively is pasol edus even just an occasional gambler is pasol edus and those two opinions are whether gambling is a form of gezal midirabanan a form of asmachta in which case it would pasol edus even if you do it only occasionally because you're not allowed to steal even just on weekends even just in a casino every now and then you're not allowed to steal and that would pasol edus
But if it's about Eno Osik B'Yishuv Shalom, that a person is not involved in productive activity and doing things that are useful to society and are beneficial to society, so then if he is involved normally in things that are useful and beneficial to society, but...
but he is involved normally in things that are useful and beneficial to society, but every once in a while he does things that are not beneficial to society. He watches a sports game, he gambles a little bit, so then it would not passul him le'edos. It should be pointed out that the Rambam writes that a person should only be osek kol yamav, in things that are beneficial to society.
And, you know, one would imagine that if doing something enough times would make you Pasula Edus, then you probably shouldn't even do it a little, especially if it's the kind of thing that is known to be a very addictive kind of behavior, because doing it a little is likely going to lead you to doing it a lot.
And especially when it comes to gambling, where we know, unfortunately, from experience, that very, very often, more often than we would care to admit, it becomes so addictive that it ruins people's lives and people's families. And we're not always able to identify who has an addict's addiction.
you know, brain makeup, and who doesn't, you know, who's going to become addicted, who's not going to become addicted. It's important to read the room a little bit over here, you know, look around at society, look around at the Jewish people. You wouldn't invite an alcoholic for drinks and tell him, don't worry, it'll just be one glass of wine, just drink with us.
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Chapter 4: Is gambling for money permitted if it's just for fun?
In Siv Zayin, the Shulchan Aruch says, based on the Gemara, that removing a stain or mud by scrubbing the fabric against itself is aser because scrubbing is an act of kibus and is similar to melabe. So Shulchan Aruch explains that the iser applies when you try to remove the mud by folding the garment so that the stain is in between the two folds and then you scrub one side against the other.
So Mishmur explains that that's asr because the garment is made more beautiful in such a way, and that's similar to kibbutz. So Yaqub Yosef points out that even though shaking off dust from a baguette is mutzah, because no water is used, scrubbing a stain, even without water, is going to be asr.
So according to the Mechaber, who says that dusting off is mutter, you're allowed to peel away a stain with your fingernail, even if the stain is not going to be visible, because that's similar to removing dust. But you're not allowed to forcefully scrub the fabric against itself, because that's an act of kibbutz.
the one caveat to the Pesach of the Shulchan Aruch is this forcibly scrubbing the garment is to remove the dust that's the big thing but how does the Ramah reconcile these two Halachos so the Ramah in Sif Aleph that shaking off dust that settles on a baguette is asr, but he seems to agree that removing a stain by folding the garment and slowly peeling away the stain is mutter.
So how do we deal with that? So the Sharetzion discusses this. And he refers to Rabbi Kik Weiger. Again, I'm just not sure how much we should get into it. What emerges is that there are two situations where you're allowed to remove a stain from your baguette. Let's say you're wearing a jacket and you have a stain.
Number one is if after removing the thickness of the stain, it's still visible in your jacket, so you haven't really beautified the baguette. And the other situation is if it's a type of stain that doesn't bother you at all, and you'd walk out of the house with that stain on your baguette.
So in that situation, you're even allowed to completely remove the stain with your fingernail, just like you're allowed to brush off dust from a baguette if the dust doesn't bother you. However, the Bir Halacha says that an actual stain that's not just dust, If you have an actual stain, it's not really so common that you'll be able to do that.
Meaning if let's say you have a dried piece of barley from the chalant that goes on your jacket, you could take that kernel off because it's like a feather falling on your baguette. But using your fingernail to clean away a chalant stain that's on your jacket is usser unless it's so inconspicuous that it wouldn't bother you and you would leave your house with that stain during the week.
So, what's the best Eitzoh to remove the stain? It's to take off the jacket and change clothing and then wear a different one, you know, and send it to the cleaners. Honestly, that's probably the best Eitzoh. Once you're using water, it's for sure going to be Yasser, and it's a very complicated set of halachos when it comes to cleaning off the stain.
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